Paul, Stewart; The Australian connection : Summary ?

Chapter one: The trip of a lifetime


-Alex passes his exam and he has a deal with his mother that he can travel wherever he wants to go if he passes his exam
-He want to travel to Australia because his father lives there and he wants to meet him
-Before he must work in a factory to collect money for his trip


Chapter two: Hello Australia


-Alex has worked in the factory a few month and has collected enough to fly to Australia
-He flies 38 hours
-Arrives in Australia at the airport and meets his father’s family where Alex lives the next months
-Meets his wife Mary and his two sons Dominic (6 years old) and Luke (3 years old)
-Tom Connell (his father) is on a business trip in London
-The next day Alex, Mary, Luke and Dominic go to Bondi Beach
-At home Alex meets Dani, she lives next door
-Dani tells him that she plays in a band (“The Beat Crew”) and they search for a bass guitarist
-Alex can play the bass well and so he is a member in “The Beat Crew” now


Chapter three: The island and the mountain


-Tom can’t arrive before the 17th January
-So Alex does not wait on Tom and spends the next week in Adelaide with Mary’s brother
-Mary’s brother’s son is 18 like Alex and he has 3 younger sisters
-As he drives to this brother he looks all the time out of the window and admires the wonderful country
-Next day he travels with Kevin to Kangaroo Island
-when they arrive they see a lot wild animals there, it is very exiting for Alex
-The next days they look at many sights there for example underground caves and they snorkel for sunken shipwrecks
-They lie in the sun to chill in the Blue Lagoon
-After some wonderful days they drive back home and the same day they go with the Williams (Kevin’s family) in the amphitheatre in Flinders Rangers
-It’s in the Outback and so they must drive a long distance
-So Alex sees very much of the Outback there
-Then next day, Kevin and Alex climb on St.
Mary’s Peak(big mountain) which is 1190 meters high
-After a wonderful week with the Williams family Alex returns to Sydney to the Connells ( his father’s family)



Chapter four: The big decision


-As Alex arrives at Sydney his father is not at home
-He must travel to Singapore
-So Alex plays with the band one week and he sees a lot of the country because they play all over the land
-There first concert is in Melbourne, they play in a club named “Angelos”
-The members of the band are Pete, Joe, Dani, Alex and Terry
-“The Beat Crew” have many engagements, mostly in discos and clubs where they play only some gigs, around the Phillip Islands
-Alex fallen in love with Dani and so he kisses Dani, now they are a couple
-The band must drive to the other side of the island, to Summerland Beach (they have more engagements there)
-Alex and Dani want to meet at Byron Bay but they haven’t got any free time because the band job is hard and there is always hectic
-They must always play gigs and learn new songs
-Alex is very angry about his father because he isn’t it Australia when Alex wants to see him


Chapter five: The face in the crowd


-the Beat Crew travels back to Sydney but the problem is a puncture (in the tyre)
-the spare tyre is also flat and they haven’t got a foot pump
-And so Terry walks back to a garage which they saw an hour ago
-The jack is broken, too
-Their fortune is that another car driver stops and helps them but a bit later they hit a cow and something is destroyed at the car
-But a trucker meets them and helps them but he wants 200 dollar for his help
-The band hasn’t got any choice, they pay it and drive to Sydney where they must give gigs in Sabrina’s Bar
-After these gigs all the spectators scream, it is a very good entrance and Alex meets his father in this club, too


Chapter six: Into the rain forest


-Alex talks with his father Tom a long time in the club
-Tom is sorry that he hasn’t got any contact with Alex all the time
-He wants to have a trip to Queensland with Alex only
-But Alex plans a trip to Bayron Bay with Dani, too
-But he drives with his father to Queensland where Alex looks all time out of the window and admires the country
-When they arrive there, they look sights and go for a walk in the rain forest
-The walk on top of Mount Sorrow and take a stop at the Great Barrier Rief



Chapter seven: Father and son


-They stay the night in Cairns in a hotel and next day they go by boat to Grafton Passage
-Alex snorkel to the corals there, it is wonderful for him
-He see many different kinds of fish but one basker
-Alex thinks a basker is a shark and so he is very frightened and scream for held to his father
-But his father laughs and explains him that baskers only eat plants
-After this they go swimming together
-At the evening, it is in Whitsunday Island, Alex and Tom just eat, there starts a big shower and all there things get wet, this shower is like a big storm
-All their things were washed away
-Now they must survive without anything but so they come closer and closer together


Chapter eight: Up to the top


-after some nice days they drive home to Sydney, where Alex must play for the Beat Crew on TV at Channel 9
-They are in the Chart Show
-Now they are stars, they have lots of concerts and only hectic
-Parties, girls and all first class
-It originated posters and T-shirts from the Beat Crew
-Alex is at cloud 9
-And after some concerts they have one afternoon free
-So Dani and Alex go to Byron Bay, what they have wanted do for some months
-They have fun with dolphins there and have a wonderful time
-Dani says that the dolphins are free, they can go where they want and we cannot


Chapter nine: And down to earth


-Joe and Pete drink to much, they think they are stars and must be cool
-The Beat Crew write a lot songs but no such good ones like the first
-This song is a one hit wonder
-Joe and Pete are bitter and angry because of the hectic
-Joe become a skinhead and has a White Power tattoo on his arm
-All the success is past
-No money and no famous and no more interviews, they play in small bars again
-Joe hits a can of beer from a guest, he says that they hate racists and don’t want to see them play
-So a fight begins, Joe and Pete fight with foreigners and the police come
-Joe and Pete are arrested and the other 3 members of The Beat Crew drive away
-At home Alex and Dani get in trouble with each other because of the band
-The Beat Crew is Dani’s life (the music) and now it is destroyed and she is very angry
-Alex stays another 6 months in Australia because he can’t leave Dani now

Chapter ten: New Year’s Eve


-Alex must choose between Dani and Australia or his mum and England
-So he asks Dani to come with him to England
-Dani says “yes” and they go to England
-Alex and Dani start a band name it “The dolphins” and they play together with other members
-Alex thinks that he win a new friend (his father Tom Connell)
-But now he knows that his father names Peter Reid