[fintstone]

Well Gavin, I suspected it to be a bit overblown. generally Aussies are pretty mellow....but tough customers when necessary...Now you see what I mean by the media though.

The last time I was in Sydney, I was down by the harbor around midnight talking to three (very large) drunken yanks and taking night photos of the opera house when 3 young Arabs (I believe) passed by and stared a bit. One of the Americans said something like "what are you looking at?" The Arabs passed on by (discretion before valor), but one was clearly very angry. I talked the Americans into going home and sleeping it off. About 20 minutes later the 3 guys came back and wanted to rough me up a bit in retaliation (and possibly rob me, I'm not sure).