Dirty tricks

Walking between busts and statues in leafy Palermo after lunch, a guy was suddenly very close behind me and his female partner informed us that we had something "dirty" on us. Jun confirmed I had stuff all up the back of my T-shirt after I saw she had some sort of liquid on her backpack. The guy tried to usher me off the road as he produced a tissue but having previously read about this sort of ruse for light-fingered theft, we moved away from them before having to clean ourselves.

It may be one of the older tricks in the book (Lonely Planet), but I guess it still works sometimes otherwise people like these thirty-forty year olds wouldn`t still be trying it. This incident stands with the "pregnant" woman who undid Jun`s backpack in the street on our second day in the city (Jun felt something and told me to check), as the closest we`ve come to hassle. Though I was thorougly pissed off with having to walk around with what Jun rekons is foundation cream on my clothes for the rest of this afternoon, at least I wasn`t fooled this time...

Fool me once...

At two o’clock on Thursday 22nd January, I managed the feat of being in two places at once: I was both at the house where Jun’s friends live in Auckland (on the net) and also in Santiago, Chile (on the bus). Where did the eleven hours I spent travelling between the places go?
Three cheers for the inauguration of President Obama (first act: suspend trials at Guantanamo) and especially to see the back of Bush. Unfortunately I find myself reminded of one his more renowned miscommunications in the events of today. We decided to catch a taxi from the bus terminal to the centre of Santiago.
When we arrived at our destination, the meter read $3400 so I gave the guy a $5000 note which he returned to me saying “banca” because the corner was torn. I think I apologised. I gave him another note, which he returned saying “una mil” – one thousand, I thought I’d given him ten – and finally he shortchanged me from the 10,000 I gave him, apologising when I pointed out the mistake.
Counting the cash in the hotel, I realised I was down $9000 (the swapping of bills happened to me once before, in Honduras, and I didn’t realise then for days) and I also have a note I have to take to the bank now. How did Bush try to put it?
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002