It was a warm tropical night in 1995 and Fidel Castro was playing the waiting game with Gareth Evans. The then Australian Foreign Minister wanted to meet Castro and had come to Havana for 24 hours on a wing and a prayer. I was the diplomat organising his visit but the Cubans officials had been coy about when, where or even if the not-so-great dictator would deign to meet the democratically elected representative of the Australian people.