As I stood on the station waiting for the train to arrive, I felt not
exactly depressed, but bothered and disoriented. It had been an
oppressively hot day, and it had not been a happy one. I had started the
long drive from Melbourne to Sydney early that morning, only to get to
Melbourne’s northern limits when my car began behaving oddly. Five
kilometres later, it simply stopped. Phone calls, tow trucks, irritable
car repairers and frustration followed, as did a dash to Spencer Street
Railway Station to see if I could get a sleeping compartment on the
overnight train …