I don´t want your money, honey, I want your...

...food, drink and board.

Friends, the time has come for me to make a startling revelation. It may not be popular. It may not be pretty. Goddamnit, it may not even be factually correct. But a line must be drawn. So, once and for all, I stand before you today to say...

I think that banks get a bad rap in our society.

Yes, maybe they are diabolic creations leeching the lifeblood from the little battlers of the Australian community. It´s possible that they may be corrupting our youth with brightly coloured pencil cases and monetarily themed extraterrestrials. True, it can´t be denied that they charge fees that would make a private school music teacher blush.

But when it comes down to it one has to only consider the fact that a bank has covered all my expenses for the past 5 days and one begins to understand why I may be looking at them a bit more favourably just at the moment. My holiday has been sponsored by the good people of the State Bank of Chile. Ohh, that felt good - I want to say it again...

The good ole´ Banco de Estado de Chile paid for my beers. Ohh... I still shivered.

So the fine print is this: the venerable BEC has a cultural institute which funds various artistic groups to go on tour in regional areas of Chile that would otherwise not have exposure to such influences. The shows are put on in the Banks of those towns. This, truth be told, It think is a fairly reasonable initiative. So for the past week I have been wearing black, moving tables, taking bows and garnering applause in the regional banks of this skinny little nation. And having the odd Pisco Sour to toast our achievements.

Rock and Roll.

Paddy.