There has been drama of different sorts for our three netjetters this week. Our trio set off at the beginning of December on their own routes around the world, organised by Bridge the World. Hundreds of people have e-mailed Milly, an 18-year-old gap student, Sam, a fed-up 28-year-old civil servant and Sue, a 51-year-old divorced mother of three, with advice and are keeping in touch with their whereabouts on www.theguardian.com/netjetters each week.
Milly has settled in Coogee for several weeks. She finally has a room of her own, and is looking for temporary work while enjoying the sun, sea and sand off the Australian coast after a scare. "One afternoon, I was having a short amount of sun and sea before my evening's employment (a trial shift as a waitress). I was in the water when I felt a hot pain across my legs, and looked down to see what looked like a blue string of seaweed with bobbles attached to my leg.
"I recognised this as one of the tentacles of a bluebottle jellyfish, one of the many Australian creatures that will happily cause you pain. Leaving the water, I rushed to the first-aid stand, set up specifically for those who get stung (and who are careless enough to have not kept a closer eye on the water), to rub ice into my bright red leg. The attendant happily informed me that a girl had once swallowed one, so my sting was nothing. He was right too. Though it hurt, by the evening it had totally subsided."
She has also been to hear Sydney Symphony Orchestra at an outdoor concert, attended a Learn to Meringue class, and she's experimenting with going teetotal for a week.
Sam, meanwhile, is travel ling round New Zealand with a tour company called Magic Bus. A three-day sea kayaking and hiking trip gives him time for reflection: "I also finally began to think about what I'm going to do when I get back to England. 'Why - you have four months yet?' I hear you say. Well for me this trip is as much about the travelling as finding the time and space to figure out where my life is heading. Like many people my age, all I'm left with is a feeling of 'is this it?'"
But Sam is doing more than reflecting and is taking advantage of New Zealand's position as tops for adrenalin holidays - he's just done a bungee jump.
Sue spent the night in the Malaysian rainforest and witnessed the extraordinary events at a Chinese trance festival: "The man entered the trance. He began shaking and then making elephant noises . . . He then slowly forced a large steel hook right through his cheek and out of his mouth, which he left there for about 20 minutes. When the spirit finally left, he collapsed and they had to try to revive him and find out which god had entered him. On finding out, they dressed him in the appropriate robes and he sat on a chair of sharp nails with his feet resting on blades.
"He now blessed amulets, and people ask him for help with problems. I really don't know what to make of it all. I saw the hook go in and come out without a mark."
