Hmmm....so my last blog ended with a promise to not leave it
so long until my next update...oopsie my bad!!! But again it was mostly because
of the routine of work, home, dinner, bed that was my life up until the end of
April. Again this blog isn’t in any particular order....it’s a mish mash of
stories and things!
Some quite fun things did happen tough. The first big event
after New Years was Australia Day. This is celebrated on the 26th of
January each year. We decided to head out and see what we could find...we
didn’t have to go far. There was a big fair set up in Hyde Park and lots going
on up at the Rocks too. There was a boat display in the harbour too and street
performers everywhere. When we had walked for hours and taken in a lot of stuff
we decided to head home...and stumbled across what I can only describe as the world’s
biggest classic car display!!! We walked though it for about an hour and a
half...and at this point I had reached my limit for looking at classic cars! At
first I was looking at them all and then after awhile I would look as I kept
walking. After the 1.5 hour point I was waiting for Joe to take a picture and a
guy walked past saying “ok I think I’ve reached saturation point” which worried
me slightly as I thought we were coming to the end of it!! About another hour
later going at a much quicker pace we did actually reach the end of the
display! There must have been thousands of cars there, and all of them were in
perfect condition too!
Chinese New Year was
really cool also. There were loads of different events on, culminating in the
Twilight parade on the Sunday evening. The parade didn’t start till 8 when it
had started to get dark so everyone in the parade had little fairy lights all
over them. It was really nice and there was people dancing and playing music
and all kinds of things. Crowds starting
gathering quite early so they had different types of entertainment on like a
BMX bike display and graffiti artists and break dancers...totally random things
but something to look at while we waited!!
The next big event was Paddy’s Day! Luckily Paddy’s Day fell
on a Saturday so I knew I wouldn’t be working. But for some odd reason Sydney
always has the parade on the Sunday before or after Paddy’s Day...thought this
was slightly odd but I was just glad that they did do something!! It was
tradition in work to have drinks on a Friday evening for the last hour of
work...this normally consisted of beer or wine but on this particular Friday
they had ordered in cans of Guinness too. Geoff (the boss) was going around
with the cans offering them to everyone...funnily enough very few Irish people
actually accepted one...when we were asked why the response was that “Guinness
is disgusting”!! No one believed us and still took a can and after about 3 sips
went back to their usual tipple!! On the Saturday then myself and Joe got
ourselves up to go and see what fun we could find in the city. Courtesy of a
Christmas pressie of the Irish jersey and Triona’s Paddy’s Day survival post
with flashing badges and earrings in it (for me, not for Joe) we were well identifiable as Paddy’s Day
revellers!!! So we left the apartment and started walking towards town. I
started to get really worried as for the first 10 minutes we didn’t see an iota
of green anywhere and I was starting to think we’d be celebrating on our own.
But then we hit George Street...and walked into leprechaun land!!! There were
people everywhere in green hats and big tall Guinness hats, Irish flags draped
over everyone and everything and hundreds of people dressed as leprechauns!!
And so I was happy! We stopped in one pub on George Street and had our first
drink taking it all in. Then we decided to head towards Darling Harbour. The
Harbour was actually pretty dead but it looked like they were building up to a
night time party as all the staff in all the bars were wearing green so I think
we just arrived a bit too early. So after a drink there we left and headed
towards PJ O’Brien’s...and Irish bar. I have been here a few times as it is
where me and the girls from work used to head for our Friday pub lunch. So we
decided if we could find a party it would be there....and we weren’t wrong.
However when we went to walk in the normal door the bouncer said that was the
“out” door and to go down to the next door...a peek in the door told us the
placed was rammed...and then we looked at the “in” door...and there was
actually a queue of 100+ people waiting to get in!! I immediately refused to
queue to get into a pub on Paddy’s Day so we looked around and across the road
was another put...there was a good crowd in there and it looked like it was
full of people who like us said “screw that” and looked for the nearest
hostillery!! So we popped into that bar and had a couple of drinks there before
deciding to head back towards home. As we walked towards home we bumped into a
group of about 8 lads who all had the tall Guinness hats on them. I had been
wanting one all day but refused to buy a Guinness just to get a hat! These lads
though saw me coming in my green get up and started cheering saying “Yay Paddy’s
Day”. Of course then they copped my Irish accent and got very excited that they
had actually met and Irish person on Paddy’s Day (though one of them did get
slightly confused and when I said I was from Dublin, though I said Canada...to
which all his mates gave him a few digs!) Anyway one of them had their Guinness
hat and decided he wanted to give it to the Irish person on Paddy’s Day. I told
him if he put it on my head he wouldn’t get it back and he said he didn’t care...so
I acquired myself a Guinness hat!! Further down the road we stopped to look at
something in the window of a shop and these two Irish lads stopped to talk to
us. They were heading off to another bar but wanted to get rid of the stuff
they had acquired such as a sparkly green bowler hat and a green Guinness t-shirt.
So they offloaded their stuff onto us and went on their merry little way!! So
just as at home it was a totally random day, meeting strange people and feeling
like you’ve known them forever!! We decided then to stop in the Darlo (our
local) for one last drink before going home to cook dinner. So in we popped and
spread some Irish cheer! They were promoting a new drink (Bulmer’s
Blackcurrant...yum!!!) and were giving free samples. Of course as an Irish
person on our national day it would have been rude of me to refuse a free drink
so I had one. Then they had 2 glasses left over after going to the rest of the
pub (it's not that busy of a watering hole!!!) so they came back over and gave
them to us!! After finishing our free drinks (and the ones we paid for too!!)
we decided it was time to call it quits...BUT decided we needed a drink for
dinner. so we went into the bottle shop to get ourselves some Bulmer’s Blackcurrant
(their promotion worked!!!) and got a couple bottles of that and also
discovered what was to become my new regular drink....Dirty Granny (a very
yummy cider!!) so off we headed home had a Dirty Granny and some food and that
was my first Paddy’s Day away from home!!
We got up the next day and got ourselves organised to head
to the parade. The website said it was
the 2nd biggest Paddy’s day parade in the world...hmmm. It said it
started at 12 so we left the apartment at 12 to make the 10 minute walk to
where we were going to watch it (at the end of the parade)...and arrived as the
first float was coming around the corner!! So it was quite the small parade
really! Mostly it was made up of local GAA teams that had been set up by the
Irish who are over here with a couple of other floats for the Irish bars and
Irish Dancing clubs in between, and of course the customary bag pipe bands and
marching bands. My favourite I think was the Mr Tayto part where people were
campaigning for him to be Taoiseach I think!! When the parade was over there
was then a festival in the park so we wandered into that and my little heart
skipped a beat!! Over on the other side of the park I spotted...THE TAYTO
TENT!!! I grabbed Joe and darted across before the crowds grew...and got myself
a delicious bag of Tayto!!! I tell ya they truly are the best crisps in the
world!! So once I had a little taste of home we wandered around the park and
found a stage with this music on it, dancers all over the place and a tent or
two with real Irish sausages being cooked in them!!! After a couple of hours of
soaking up the sun and people watching we decided to head home after a busy
weekend...but not before a stop off again at the Tayto Tent for a couple bags
for a rainy day and also some Club Orange!! So all in all Paddy’s Day was a
success! At first I thought it was going to be a big disappointment but as
always Sydney delivered...though I did have a couple of moments where a tear
came to my eye because I was missing home! But I will be back next year to make
up for lost time...so that’s a head up to whoever I am with next Paddy’s Day!!!
Had a lovely day out then a couple weeks after Paddy’s Day
with Sarah and Steph, two girls from work. We headed down to the Rocks for a
few drinks in the sun. It was our first time properly down at the Rocks...and
we wondered why we had waited so long to get down there!!! It’s a gorgeous part
of Sydney. It’s been well preserved and there is no high rises in it or
anything, just quaint old buildings and a big street market at the weekend. Sarah’s
2 friends Darren and Donna were there and Steph brought her friend Craig. The 7
of us had a great day. We started off in the Australian...and after me and Joe
introduced everyone to Bulmer’s Blackcurrant, managed to drink the bar out of
their supply of it!!! After a few hours there...and when the heat of the sun
got too much even with some sunscreen that Darren went on the hunt for we
headed off to the Orient. In the Orient we ended up in a really nice beer
garden/courtyard and we spent the rest of the day in the lovely shade. It was
great to be out and about and discovering somewhere new.
The weekend after that we went up to Newcastle to visit Kay.
This is the lady that we had met when Joe’s parents were over. After a
stressful couple of weeks in February for Joe she invited us up to get out of
the city....and it was great!! We got the train up and Kay and her son Paul
picked us up at the train station. Then we drove a little further north to Port
Stephens...and we fell in love with it!! Kay has a holiday apartment up there
and it is a 30 second walk from the apartment to the beach of Dutchman’s Bay.
We went and dropped our stuff off in the apartment and then Paul and Kay took
us on a little tour of Port Stephens. Paul put the top down on the convertible
and we saw it in style! The weather was amazing and the whole area of Port Stephens
is stunning. There are white beaches the whole was around the bay and some
gorgeous lookouts with breathtaking views. After exploring a bit we went and
got takeaway fish and chips and headed back to the apartment. We sat and
chatted for awhile and then Kay and Paul headed home. Me and Joe went for a
walk down on the beach then at sunset and it was gorgeous. The colours in the
sky and the beach were fab; totally fell in love with the place. The next
morning Kay and John (her husband) came out to the apartment and we had a nice
Aussie BBQ by the beach and then went to explore the bay a little further. It
was a really great weekend and so good to get out of the city. On our first day
there when we were driving from Newcastle to Port Stephens we were driving by
green fields with cattle in them and I got so excited! Didn’t realise how much
I missed driving in the country!!!
The weekend after that was Easter so I had a nice long
weekend with Good Friday and Easter Monday off. So on the Friday we got the
ferry out to Watsons Bay and yet again we discovered another stunning part of
Sydney!!!! Watsons Bay is the southern tip to the entrance to the whole of
Sydney Harbour. The ferry was eye opening as it was quick to see where millionaires’
row is!! All the houses looked out over the bay with the whole side of the
house made of glass and had little boats moored outside them! Though one
friendly ferry passenger told me and Joe and the boats are pretty much there
for show and the only time they are moved is on New Year’s Eve where they go
into the middle of the Harbour for the fireworks!! When we got to Watsons Bay
we went for a walk up to a lookout point called the Gap. The force of the waves
of the Pacific was unreal, crashing against the cliff walls. We then went and
got ourselves some fish and chips and sat in a park by the sea while we tucked
in before going for another walk up to Macquarie’s Lighthouse which apparently
is the oldest lighthouse in Sydney. It was really white and looked lovely
against a completely blue sky that didn’t even have a cloud in it! After
spending most of the day discovering Watsons Bay we decided to head home and by
pure fluke we perfectly timed a ferry to be going back towards the Sydney
Harbour Bridge as the sun was setting behind it and a huge full moon was rising
behind us. It was breathtakingly beautiful and made me realise once again just how
lucky I am to be experiencing all of this!!!
The next day we headed to Darling Harbour for the Sydney
Hoopla Festival which was a street performance festival. There were loads of
free street shows and then we could buy tickets to some other shows. The
tickets cost all of $5 so we got tickets to 2 different shows, one called The
League of Sideshow Superstars and the other called Ring of Fire. Both shows
were brilliant. We saw lots of hoola hooping and straight jacket escaping as
well as a guy who picked up a car battery by attaching chains to his nipple
rings, while being electrocuted!!!! That one was kinda squirmy to watch!! Then
in the second show there was a bit of audience participation. One girl had her
act based around Barbie and she picked a guy in his 20s who did actually look
like Ken to come and help her. Oh my God I have never seen someone look so
awkward in my whole life!! He wanted to be anywhere else rather than standing
in front of about 100 people doing the hoola hoop! I think his awkwardness made
the whole thing a bit funnier though, but my heart did go out to him! It was a
really cool day though and something totally different. In Sydney there are
always street performers of some sort at different spots around the city, some
of them really good and some of them not so good but it was nice to see the
best of the best from all over the world and to really enjoy it.
On Easter Sunday we took it easy as the weather wasn’t the
best so we had a lazy day and cooked ourselves a nice Easter Sunday dinner,
complete with roast potatoes, stuffed rashers and gravy!! Amazing the things
you can pull together in the world’s tiniest oven!!! So after a day off from
our adventures we jumped straight back in and on Easter Monday we went to the
Royal Easter Show. The show is held every year and it is basically a big
country fair. They have competitions for the best cow, goose, pigeon, chicken,
dog...every kind of animal that you would possibly find on a farm...and every
species too!! Then there was a petting farm where we could get up close to all
kinds of baby animals like lambs and kids and little puppies too!! There was
far too much cuteness in that room!!! There were also plenty of wood chopping
competitions, which were pretty cool to watch as I’d never seen it before. These
guys had to chop little steps into a 20 foot pole and get themselves up to the
top of it and then chop the top 2 foot of it off while the stood on a little
pole sticking out of the side of it!! Not sure the quite describes it but if you’ve
seen my FB pics you get the idea!! Then we headed to the big stadium where we
arrived just on time to see a competition between lots of old fashioned horse
drawn carriages and then there was a rodeo! Now me and Joe have become big fans
of bull riding as it is on the TV every Sunday morning (before Doctor Quinn
Medicine Woman and 7th Heaven.....don’t tell me you don’t remember
what I’m talking about people!!!) So when we heard there was a rodeo we weren’t
sure that it would actually be bull riding...but it was!!! And not only that
but it was kids between 12 and 18 doing it!!! They were wrangling cattle and
all kinds of crazy stuff! But it was really good fun to watch and no one got
injured so I didn’t have to feel guilty that I enjoyed it!!! We had another
little wood chopping display then followed by the Stockman’s Horseshow. This
was pretty impressive as it was 40 or 50 horses and the riders all doing a kind
of choreographed type thing. There were a couple of moments where I was waiting
for some of them to crash but it was all perfectly timed and very impressive!
Then there was a BMX display which was all going great until one guy stuffed a
landing and he went off fierce quick and we didn’t see him for the rest of the
show...though they assured us that he was fine! And it was all finished off by
fireworks! It was a really good show to go to and we were so glad we went
across to it...and even gladder that we waited till the Monday as there wasn’t
a cloud in the sky for the whole day! So all in all it was a pretty good
Easter. Again not the most conventional of yearly events going by my past
experience but it was jam packed and fun filled...and an Easter parcel from home
supplied some chocolate too!!!
The next event after that was Anzac Day, which meant another
day off work...yay!!! Last year I spent Anzac day freezing my ass off for a
night camping out in Gallipoli which is where the battle took place that Anzac
remembers each year. This year I spent the night before Anzac Day toasty in my
bed!! But somehow I managed to end up out of bed at 4am to keep Joe company
while he cheered on Chelsea in one of the Champions League semis!! We watched
the parade then later in the day but all in all it was a quiet day and far less
eventful than last year’s Gallipoli adventures!!!
After that then it was a countdown to my last day in work
and the arrival of Mam and Dad the following day!! I was really looking forward
to finishing up work and being officially unemployed again. When people in work
asked me if I was sad to leave my answer was always no purely because the
parents were arriving the next day. Part of me wonders if Mam and Dad weren’t
coming the next day if I would have felt any different or more upset to be
leaving somewhere where I had just spent 6 months and the honest answer is I
don’t think so! I will miss some of the people I worked with but having
arguments with people day in day out over the same stupid stuff definitely gets
old after awhile! Though I always loved it when I won an argument with someone
who was being unnecessarily rude or who thinks they are more important. I had
one very rude woman one day tell me her husband was a director of a worldwide
bank and that he wasn’t a stupid man and if he was told something on the phone
he would have remembered it...thanks to the wonders of call tracing I was able
to provide her with proof that her husband obviously wasn’t nearly as smart as
she thought because he had been told on 3 occasions in the phone call!!! Loved
ringing her back and telling her and I could hear her deflate as I told her!
Little victories like that made it possible to stick out most of the rude
people on the phone, they all seem to think that it was me personally who had
done something to them...though one day a lady said she didn’t want to get
annoyed at me as I was obviously working while on my holidays to help me with
my travels and she wasn’t going to take her frustrations out on me and wanted
to speak with a manager who works with the company full time....I liked that
lady!!! Anyway as you can see there definitely weren’t tears when I left and it
was with a very jovial heart that I walked out of there on my final day!!!
And then the next day arrived! Mam and Dad were due in at
8.30 on the Saturday morning so it was bright and early that we headed to the
airport. Of course when they appeared around the corner there were tears and
very squeezy hugs and then lots of chatter as I was filled in on all the news
back home! We took it fairly easy on the first day, but we did make it to
Darling Harbour that evening for
some fireworks which was a nice welcome for Dad and Mam. On Sunday we brought
them down to Circular Key to get their first look at the Harbour Bridge and the
Opera House...I think they found it just as stunning as everyone else who sees
it...and it was on that day that me and Mam decided we were going to do the
Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb!!! After we had explored a little we headed back to
our local, the Darlo and decided to show Mam and Dad where we hang out for a
quite drink. We arrived there at about 5 for “A” quite drink...and left at
midnight!!! Joe and Dad started playing pool and Joe seemed to think my pool
skills were a reflection of Dads...he was wrong! Dad proved himself to be quite
the pool player and of course nothing would satisfy Joe but to stay there until
he beat Dad at least once....it did eventually happen but took quite a few
games...and a number of jugs of beer, which suited them both down to the
ground! While all this was going on me and Mam sat and chatted and I introduced
Mam to Dirty Granny!!
During their first week here we went out to Bondi and walked
down to Bronte Beach...we were trying to make it to Coogee but Bronte was as
far as we made it before deciding to head back and we cooked a nice dinner in
our apartment that night. I spent the next day with Mam and Dad over in Manly.
Manly is on the Northern Shores and is beautiful. We went for a lovely walk
along the sea front and had a nice lunch before perfectly timing a return for
sunset over the harbour. Me and Mam also did our Bridge Climb and it was
amazing. In total we were there for three and a half hours. This included an
hour of getting kitted out in very sexy onesies and tying down everything to
us!!! I took the phrase “speccy four eyes” to a whole new level by asking for
two glasses strings so that I could bring both my sun glasses and my glasses
glasses! Then we had to have a practice of climbing up and down the ladders we
were going to be climbing before we finally got to step out on the bridge. It
was amazing!! We walked along the gangplank underneath for awhile. Rhys, our
guide, explained to us that they were repainting the bridge. They do this every
few years but there was a new type of paint they were using that meant they had
to strip back all the other paint to properly protect the bridge. While doing
this though they discovered that the first few layers of paint were lead based
which meant they had to use a special treatment and basically sandblast every
inch of the bridge to get back to the original metal for the new paint to work!
They estimated the whole job to take a certain amount of time (can't remember
exactly what it was now) but because of the problem they encountered it took
the estimated time to do only about 100feet of it! So it’ll take a long time to
do it but will totally be worth it because we got to see the before and after
and it looks like a completely new bridge! Once we walked along the flat for a
little we then got to climb the first set of ladders and start walking up the
arch of the bridge. It was stunning to be up there and to see the whole
Harbour. Its stretches so far and has the bluest water with all these little
inlets. Rhys told us lots of facts about the different things we could see,
including pointing out the Prime Minister residence for when she is in Sydney
and lots of other very expensive (and stunning) properties along the water
front. As we reached the top of the bridge I just couldn’t stop looking around
me. No matter which way I looked it was breath taking. We spent a good half
hour or so standing at the summit, having our pictures taken and chatting with
the other climbers in our group. There was no rushing, it didn’t feel like we
were being marched to the top and back down again, we got plenty of time to
take it all in and truly appreciate what we were seeing. I loved every minute
of it and will always remember it as being one of the biggest highlights of my
whole trip.
I also got a lovely surprise from Mam. I had asked her to
bring me a few things from home and when I went to the hotel with her to
collect them she also handed me my pretty bag that I used for going out at
home, then from another drawer she produced a pair of my heels, another press
had accessories and tan in it and then from the wardrobe came one of my
favourite dresses!! I was so excited and gave Mam the biggest hug! So we
planned then to have a fancy night out on the Friday and go to the Hard Rock
Cafe and have a nice dinner and some drinks. And with everything Mam brought me
and part of Triona’s Christmas pressie (a beauty bag with pretty make up,
eyelashes and nails) I was all ready to go...all I had to do was remember how I
used to do it all!! We had a great night and a lovely meal, and I was very
impressed that it only took me about an hour or so to put it all together and
look semi respectable!!! The day after our lovely meal was the day we were
leaving Sydney on our road trip. It was a very odd morning as it was the day me
and Joe were moving out of our apartment. I knew it would be odd as I had the
same feelings when I left Berlin, I was excited about what was next but pretty
upset to be leaving somewhere that I called home. Mam and Dad picked up the
rental car and came to the flat to put all our stuff in it....we had a lot more
crap than we thought and everything just got bundled in! There was a teary
moment or two while we said bye to our little flat but then we shook that off
and got excited about what was next.
It took us awhile to find our way out of Sydney and get on
the open road, but we eventually left the city behind and were on the road to
Melbourne. Melbourne is about a 12-15 hour drive from Sydney if you take the
highway...we were taking the coast road so it took us 5 days to get there! It
was so much fun; we stayed somewhere different every night. Our first night was
nearly a disaster when we picked a place to stay only to finally arrive there
after a very long day of driving and to discover that there was nothing there!!
So we had to backtrack slightly and find our way back to Huskinssons for the
night. We arrived in the dark so weren’t quite sure what it was like but me and
Mam went for a walk in the morning and discovered that it was a beautiful
little town. After some breakfast we hit the road again and decided that rather
than a repeat of the night before we were going to drive until about 3 each day
and stop wherever we were at that time , find somewhere to stay and have some
time to relax and explore each place.
That plan ended up working pretty well for us. We were able
to plan where we wanted to get to, fit in a coffee break and some sightseeing
stops along the way and still have time to chill out in the evenings. We became
quite the fans of Keno (a Rapido type game for those of you in the betting
business back home!!) and would give it a go every evening. It was a bit of fun
but we never had a real lot of luck on it!! We managed to have accommodation sorted
in most places by the time we arrived with the help of our mobile
internet...and Mam and Dad even gave a backpacker’s hostel a go! Ok so it
wasn’t dorm rooms and it wasn’t packed to the rafters but they were quite proud
the next day to say they ate their breakfast in the hostel common room!
When we stayed in Wagga Wagga one night on our way back to
Sydney we found a restaurant called “Hog’s Breath Cafe” which I though looked
like fun so in we went. The food was pretty good but the best part was dessert.
Me and Joe decided to share a Rocky Road...I have a picture of it on Facebook, I’m
sure most of you have seen it by now....we didn’t fully finish it but we sure
as hell gave it a good go!!
We also managed to find an island full of koalas too!! When
we got to the island we drove around a bit and then stopped off in a woodland
area to have a look. The four of us wandered around for ages with our noses
stuck in the air trying to spot one to no avail. Eventually Dad caught sight of
one and there was great excitement. Of course once we had seen one and knew
what to look for we suddenly saw they all over the place! It was nice to see
them in their natural habitat...but the ones in the wild don’t look as cute as
some of the ones you see in pictures!!
While on our road trip I also got to try my hand at driving
for the first time since I left home! The car we rented was automatic so that
was a bit odd but after a couple of days Dad said it was my turn. We were on a fairly
quiet stretch of road so I popped in the driver’s seat, buckled myself in and
set off. About 1km down the road there was a sharp turn in the road and when I
turned around it, it was to discover that I was about to drive up a very steep,
very corkscrew-y road!!! I was not happy and a profanity or two may have been
uttered while everyone else tried not to laugh at my bad luck! Thankfully I
survived that ordeal and it certainly reminded me of how to drive!! Driving
again was great! I forgot how much I enjoyed it and how nice it was to just be
able to go where I want! I didn’t do a whole lot of driving as Mam and Dad did
most of it while me and Joe navigated and booked hotel rooms for the night
ahead. It was quite the organised random road trip in the end!!
One of my favourite places we stopped in for a couple of
hours was a placed called TIlba Tilba. I felt like I suddenly drove into Little
House on the Prairie!! The houses and buildings were so quaint and old
fashioned...and my favourite part about it was the old fashioned sweet shop we
found! It also had a little hippie shop in it where we spent a while poking
around. The funniest thing about this was as we walked in the lady who was
working there said she had to pop out to the Post Office but would be back in a
few minutes and to have a look around. So while we stood there slightly shocked
that this lady walked out of her shop with 4 people standing in it and didn’t
bat an eyelid she, popped off, did her Post Office business, came back and had
a nice little chat with us!
Another random thing on our road trip was Dad getting
breathalysed! We were driving in the middle of a very empty road (like most of
them!!) where we had barely encountered another vehicle when we rounded a
corner and there was a massive police road block! There was about 30 police, 5
or 6 cars and a Random Breath Testing truck. We pulled up and Dad wound down
the window. He said hi to the officer (nearly calling him “Guard”!!) and the policeman
explained what was going on. He asked to see Dads licence and then obviously
copped the accent, realised it wasn’t Aussie and asked if Dads license was
Australian. When Dad said no the officer just smiled and said don’t worry about
it. He then got Dad to blow in the little tube checked the reading and we were
sent on our way! We all laughed about it because as Dad said he was all the way
on the other side of the world, and got breath tested for the first time!!
We arrived in Melbourne after our 5 days on the road and
then had to find our way into another city! Melbourne has a lot of bloody one
way streets and a lot of VERY narrow alleys that cars and trucks are supposed
to go down. Our hotel was on one such street and once we found it me and Joe jumped
out while the car was still in a slight bit of motion to find out as quickly as
we could where we were supposed to park without losing Mam and Dad to more one
way streets trying to find their way back to us!! Luckily Mam was able to pull
in just up the road and we were all able to get back in the car, go to the car
park and then come back to the hotel. I actually really liked Melbourne even
though we didn’t spend long there. We found a lovely pedestrianized area with
lots of cafes and restaurants with narrow alleys to explore. That evening we were meeting Niamh a friend
of Mam’s who used to work in Otis but had moved to Australia a couple of months
before. Once we met her we of course all headed to the pub for a drink or
two....and about 6 hours later we finally all left when Niamh had to catch her
last tram home! We had a great night with lots of laughs and stories. On the
way home we all realised we hadn’t had dinner and being after midnight there
wasn’t a lot of choice of where to eat....so we turned to trusty Micky D’s!!
Once we got our food we went back to the hotel and found the laundry room which
had a microwave in it to heat up the food as it was a longer walk than any of
us remembered getting back home! It was at this stage that I realised I really
needed to pee and ended up dancing around the laundry room to try and distract
myself...and it worked cause Dad joined in with me and we jumped around like a
pair of eejits till the microwave pinged!!
From Melbourne we took the quick road back towards Sydney
and headed to the Blue Mountains. After all the early mornings and packing
every day we decided to find somewhere to go and stay for a few days and have a
bit of relaxation time. We picked the Blue Mountains because it was close to
Sydney so when it was time to head back to the city we wouldn’t have too long
of a drive. It was my third time up in the Blue Mountains but it was nice to
actually stay for a few days and explore. We stayed in Katoomba which is where
Echo Point is with the famous Three Sisters formation. This was the first time
that I actually walked to them rather than just looking at them from the
viewpoint. It was pretty cool to actually stand on them but it was steep steps
up and down to them!! After that we paid a little visit to Scenic World where
we took a cable car across the valley. Then we took the Vernacular Railway
which was not what any of us expected. It had very odd seats as when we sat in
it, we were nearly lying down. The next thing we took off as Indiana Jones
music played and went on a near vertical drop down a dark hole!! Everyone got a
bit of a shock but we all loved it! When we got to the bottom of the railway we
had a little walk through the rain forest and then got the cable car back to
the top before the Sky Cable car back to the other side of the valley and a
long uphill walk home in the cold!!! We stopped somewhere for some nice warm
food and relaxed for the rest of the day.
The next day myself, Dad and Mam went for a visit to the
Jenolan Caves. It was a couple hours drive to the caves on a very hairy road.
Poor Mam was having a fit in the passenger seat cause when she looked out the
window she was looking down a on a very vertical drop!! Was funny to me and Dad
until the mountain twisted and turned and suddenly the vertical drop was on our
side!! When we arrived at the cave they had a very grand entrance...we
literally drove through a cave...how a bus makes it through the gap every day I
have no idea!! Once we parked and explored a little we picked the tour we
wanted to go on and off we went. The caves were fabulous. The rocks all had an orangey
tint to them and spectacular crystals all over the place. The tour lasted just
over an hour and then we wandered a little more to some of the other caves
before hopping back in the car. We had fluky perfect timing again and saw a
beautiful sunset across the mountains as we drove back to Katoomba. We had a nice relaxing night with a tasty
dinner and low and behold we found a pub that stayed open past 9pm that
evening...and of course it was an Irish pub!! We had an entertaining evening as
the toilets flooded so we then had to start running around the corner to their
sister pub to use the loo. That closed at 9...so the bar staff then opened the
club upstairs and we started using that! It was like our very own VIP club!! So we had a lovely evening to round off a
great road trip that allowed us to take in a chunk of Australia.
We headed back to Sydney the next day. Mam and Dad went back
to their hotel and myself and Joe moved into a hostel. It was so weird being
back in Sydney and not having our little apartment to go to. It was a fairly
relaxed last couple of days with Mam and Dad. There was a bit more wandering around
the city and having dinner and drinks and then the day of their flight home
came. Of course there were tears and that horrible feeling of having to say bye
for God knows how long again. Mam and Dad got home without any big dramas,
although their luggage did arrive a couple of days after they did!
The next challenge for me and Joe was to figure out what to
do next! We wanted to get working again but out of the city so we started
looking for jobs in out of the way places. We searched for about a week and
applied for many, many jobs but the Gods of luck were not on our side. Then at
the end of a week of searching we got ourselves a job in Mildura, Victoria
orange picking. So we got ourselves all packed up and flew to Melbourne and
then up to Mildura. We got off the plane in Mildura and were greeted by actual
tumbleweed!! We stood there in a bit of shock before someone walked up and
asked if we were Orla and Joe...a plane full of people and this fella couple
pick out the backpackers at a quick glance!! He brought us to our hostel which
was to be our new home. First impressions...all I thought was that the job had
better be worth it! The hostel had a decent kitchen and a TV room but the dorm
room was a bit on the dingy side. We were sharing our room with 2 English
girls. We arrived on the Friday and were due to start work on the Tuesday but
Kate and Amy, our roommates, filled us in on how things worked at the hostel!
They had been there for almost a month and had about 7 days work in total.
Quickly me and Joe became a bit suspicious about the whole situation....and our
suspicions were right when Monday came around and we were told the work
wouldn’t start Tuesday, that it might be the end of the week. We weren’t happy campers but had no option
but to wait it out and see what happened. Living in the hostel was a bit of a
nightmare too. There was about 100 backpackers there all waiting to start work
and with nothing to do all most people did was drink from one end of the day to
the next, which got old very quickly when there is people banging on the dorm
room window at 7am after a night out. We grew sick of it very quickly and with
work constantly starting in the next few days me and Joe hit the internet once
again to see if we could get ourselves out of the situation we were in. After a
couple of days of looking I stumbled upon an advertisement for roadhouse staff
in Wauchope, Northern Territory. The ad was brief and to the point “1 or 2 bar
staff needed to start immediately, Call Bruce”. So I gave Bruce a call!! We
chatted for awhile and then he said he’d give me a call back shortly....longest
20 minutes of my life! But when he did call he said they would love for us to
come down. In the dorm room I was on the top bunk...I nearly threw myself off
it in excitement!!! Me and Joe literally jumped around the room before
composing ourselves and starting to figure out how to get to Wauchope and how
soon we could get there. We got the job on Saturday and were there on Monday!
We packed our bags on the Saturday and left the dismal hostel and stayed in a
nice hotel for our last night in civilisation! We flew out of Mildura, found
ourselves in Melbourne airport once again and then had another flight up to
Alice Springs. Then it was a 7 hour wait in Alice before we got our 5 hour bus
to Wauchope which is 400km north of Alice Springs. When the bus dropped us off
just after midnight we were greeted by Nathan, an Australian who worked at the
hotel. We were then introduced to Marco the Peruvian chef, Riki a Finnish
backpacker and Jean, another Australian. And then Nathan said words that I will
never forget “Congratulations, you have just brought the official population of
Wauchope to 8”!! We dumped our bags in our new room and had a drink at the bar.
After an hour in Wauchope I had a much better feeling about it than I got in
over a week in Mildura!
We were straight into work the next day with me starting off
in the kitchen and Joe starting a week in the bar. Working in the kitchen
reminded me a lot of when I worked in Peamount as the kitchen had the same set
up so that put my nerves at ease. Before I knew it the first week was over and
I was having great fun. Wauchope literally consists of the hotel property.
There is the pub/dining room/beer garden area. Then we have the caravan park
out the back where the rooms also are and then there is the backyard which is
where the staff quarters are. Being in the middle of nowhere is kinda fun
though, there is always people passing through. Also 40km down the road is a
place called Ali Curung which is an aborigine community. There are always
government workers out at the community and building contractors for fixing up
the houses in the community so we have a lot of regular customers who are with
us for a couple of nights every week. Then there are the caravaners to keep us
busy too. We are 10km from the Devils Marbles which is a big tourist attraction
in the Northern Territory. Because we are so close many people stay with us and
travel to them rather than staying at the Marbles as there is always a huge
amount of caravans camped out there. Our other main customer groups are people
coming in for petrol or some food while they are on the road and also
aborigines. Ali Curung is a dry community and the Elders of the community have
given the roadhouse guidelines to sell alcohol by so that they can try limit
the effects of drink on the community. At first I found it a bit weird but
after a few weeks here and seeing exactly how much they drink I can understand
why the Elders have limitations. The
other thing that took some getting used to is the Banned Drinking Register! No
matter who you are, what you do, or how old you are if you want to buy takeaway
alcohol in the Northern Territory, you must provide an ID that gets scanned
through a computer. The computer than either flashes a green screen to say yes
you can sell this person alcohol, or a big red no sale. In the time that I have
been here I have only seen the no sale screen three times, which is pretty
good. I always try to figure out how a system like that would go down at home
and somehow I just don’t think it would work!! But it’s the way they do things
here, most people are used to it but you get the odd group of tourists who get
slightly offended when you ask for ID until you explain why you need it.
Considering we are so isolated here time goes by pretty
quick. Working every day has its advantages I guess because I am always busy
and have something to do. And even if one or the other of us is off if it gets
busy in the bar, or you just walk through we always generally end up helping
out and serving the odd customer or two. Since myself and Joe have been here
there has been a good few new staff pass through. The first people that arrived
after Jean left lasted all of 3 days before being told to pack their bags. Then
we had an English girl who lasted 3 weeks....there is more to that story for a
private conversation rather than a blog entry!!! But after all the comings and
goings we got Kris, a German girl who fit in really well and has lasted a whole
month so far!!! While getting to know Kris we discovered that she actually
lived in the same building as Joe and I in Sydney at the same time we lived
there!! Very odd...but just goes to prove that it’s hard to get to know
neighbours when living in an apartment building!!!
One of the not so fun things that happens in Wauchope and
surrounds is car crashes. Wauchope is surrounded by Singleton the closest
station to the hotel. I never knew how big the station was until one evening we
were talking to Will (the son of the guy who owns the station) and Luke (an
English backpacker who was working on the station to get his 2nd
year visa). They had been putting out bushfires on the station for most of the
day and I asked how much land was affected by the fire. Will replied that there
was about 100,000 acres affected (no that is not a typo). Naturally this led me
to ask how big the station was and the reply to that was that it was 900,000
acres!! Obviously with a station this size it is hard to contain all the
animals and when the locals cut holes through the fences so they can drive on
“bush highways” rather than go on the roads and get pulled over it makes it all
the more difficult. Add to that the fact that it is pitch black here at night
and the cattle roam and yes, you have a recipe for disaster. Of course it
doesn’t help that some people are stupid enough to drive at night. Pretty much
everyone says don’t drive after sundown but there is a few very special people
who think they are invincible and unfortunately they find the opposite when
their car slams into a large animal and loses the battle. Since my time in
Wauchope has begun the only casualties of these accidents have been the animals
and luckily no person has been severely injured. There was a fatality one night
soon after we arrived though. Two brothers had been driving most of the day and
taking turns driving and sleeping so that they could get where they were going.
Not long before they passed by us they switched drivers but the guy who took
over hadn’t quite woken up yet and started falling asleep, swerved off the road
and while trying to correct himself overcorrected and flipped the car. The only
reason the two of them didn’t pass away was because the passenger wasn’t
wearing his seat belt and got thrown from the car. It was pretty sad to hear it
and because I had only just arrived at Wauchope made me determined that I would
not drive on Northern Territory roads at night....which didn’t quite happen
(more on that later)!! I think the stupidest thing about all this though is that
people don’t listen. We had two English guys rock in one night at about 10.30
and ask for coffee. While they waited we all started chatting. They told us
they had already driven 1,000km that day and had another 600 or so to go until
they got to where they were going. We all started telling them to be very
careful and basically told them it was a stupid idea and they should stop until
the sun came up again and get some sleep. We told them our stories about cattle
wandering on the roads, people falling asleep and still they were determined to
keep on going. And to top it all off the last thing they did before they left
was buy some cigarettes cause they guy who was driving had “started to doze
off” just before they stopped in Wauchope. We didn’t hear any stories in the
following days so I can only presume they were lucky enough to not encounter
any cattle along the way but I still thought it was pretty stupid to have 5
people talking about all these accidents and say we would never drive in the
dark and they hopped back in the car not a bother on them!! But I guess these
roads are down to luck and they had it that night.
And so to my story of driving at night! As I said I had
always said there was no way I would drive at night, it’s too dark and too
dangerous and I just wasn’t comfortable with it. But getting over my fears
started when Joe got ill. One day he wasn’t feeling great and asked Bruce if he
could take the day off. This was fine and later that evening he had started to
feel a bit better. But then that night he spent the whole night being very sick
and as soon as the pub was open I went in and asked Bruce and Kerstin where the
nearest hospital was. Tennant Creek was the nearest which is 113km north of
Wauchope. So I hurriedly packed Joe a little bag and hopped in the car. When we
arrived at the hospital they put Joe on a drip, gave him some medicine and a
few hours later told him he had gastroenteritis and that he would be ok in the
next day or two and sent him home. After the medicine and fluids Joe was
feeling better so we hopped back in the car and came home. The rest of the day
he did fine and I went and did my closing shift. When I came back to the room
at midnight I found Joe once again really ill so had no choice but to get back
in the car and drive at night to get him to the hospital. The car is fitted
with a kangaroo/bull bar whichever you prefer to call it and has extra
spotlights on it which lit up a whole lot more than normal heads! All of this
helped with my nerves but certainly didn’t get rid of them! Thankfully all the
cattle were wandering elsewhere that night and we made it back up to Tennant
Creek without incident. I won’t go into too much detail about Joe’s hospital
experience over the next two to three weeks; all I will say is that if you ever
find yourself sick in the Australian Northern Territory the best thing you can
do for your health is to get to anywhere else in Australia. There is a saying
in the NT “If in pain, get a plane”...never a truer word has been spoken after
my experience with the health “professionals” I encountered over the three week
period. In the end the doctors had to admit it wasn’t gastro, as much as they
insisted on it for the first week and a bit. They seemed determined for me to
fall ill as they would constantly ask me “how are you feeling, do you have any
symptoms”. To which my reply in my head) was always “ I am fine, the other 5
people we live with are all fine, stop calling it a contagious disease and get
it into your thick heads that what he has is not gastro!!!” They never did find
out what it was in the end, it seemed to work its own way out of his system and
thankfully he is back to normal...just a slight bit skinnier than he was before
hand!!
When Joe was well again I took a couple of days off work and
went down to Alice Springs. It was a bit of an odd experience due to that fact
that there was always a large number of people, cars and shops around!!! Living
in Wauchope is kind of like being institutionalised and I kind of forget that
there is still a whole world of cities and large populations out there!! As I
got closer to Alice the day I drove down I felt slightly panicked when I
encountered my first set of traffic lights and had to remind myself what all
the pretty colours meant!! The first thing I did when I got to Alice was buy a
fresh bread roll, ham, cheese and coleslaw, make my way to my hotel and enjoyed
a very yummy roll that I didn’t realise I missed until I had it again!! I
stayed in Lassiters Hotel and Casino, which was a beautiful hotel but I had to
be given a map to find my way to my room. When I did make it there, it was only
to discover that my key didn’t work. So I walked all the way back to reception
where I was informed with much apology that the receptionist had written down
the wrong room number. So she sent me on my merry way again. Once again I was
back outside my room again (this time the right door with the right room
number) but alas...they key did not work!!! So once again I plodded my way back
to reception with my hotel buzz very rapidly wearing away. The receptionist
once again check they key, couldn’t see why it was working until another girl
looked over her shoulder and pointed out that the right room number had been
written down but the wrong room number programmed into my key!! She handed me
back my key cards with a big smile, a bigger apology...and a little stack of
complementary drinks vouchers! Thankfully it was third time lucky and I
eventually made it into my room! I unpacked, made my yummy roll and sat back
and relaxed fully for the first time in two months!! That evening I did nothing
more than found myself a Chinese takeaway, a bottle of wine and a movie on TV
and I was very content!! The next day I got up after a nice lie in and went and
got my hair prettified with a much needed hair cut. Then it was time to do some
shopping and then back to the hotel for another yummy roll. Then at 5 o’clock
Jean picked me up to bring me to feed tiny wallabies!! Now I have seen a few
wallabies since I have been in Australia but these ones were ity bitty and so
cute!! And two of them had little joeys poking their heads out which made them
even cuter!! Once we had fulfilled our cuteness factor we headed to Jeans to
dig into some pizza, wine and get ourselves ready to go out. I put on makeup
for the first time in months and Jean gave me some pretty heels to wear for the
night....which I surprisingly survived in!! Then we headed out and started off
the night with a bottle of wine and tequila shots!! Alysha and Leish (two
teachers from Ali Curung) then joined us. More shots followed as well as more
drinks and then a need to go dancing! So we left Monty’s and headed to the
Casino, which was a nice happy coincidence for me as it meant I was home
already!!! We drank some more, danced a lot...and I fell over!!! In my head it
was quite a dignified fall but when I think about it I think it may have been
more along the lines of Bambi trying to learn how to walk and failing miserably
and falling to the ground! It made it abundantly clear to me though why Irish
bouncers never allow a drink on a dance floor and why as soon as a drink is
spilled someone appears out of nowhere with a mop! The floor was bloody slippy
and with every flourish of an arm or shake of an ass somewhere on the dance
floor, someone’s drink was being seriously depleted without a drop of it being consumed!!
The next day through the powers of Facebook, all four of us
knew we all felt as bad as each other so we had sympathy in our hangovers! I
ventured out to go to the Botanical Gardens (which didn’t last long as there
was some hippy festival on) and then went to do everyone’s shopping. I had a
rather long list by the time I left Wauchope for what everyone wanted there,
the list ranging from painting canvases and 10 packets of corn chips, to
tobacco and hair mousse! Once I had ticked everything off it was McDonald’s
time and it was so nice to get McDonalds on a hangover day!! I brought it back
to the hotel, curled up and tucked in and then had myself a lovely nap before
me and Jean went to Anzac Hill to watch sunset. Then it was an early night for
both of us!! On the last day of my mini holiday I went in to panic mode that I
was going back to the Outback and decided a few more purchases wouldn’t
hurt....just as well I had a big car with plenty of boot space!! Then it was
time to hit the road once more and go back to reality for another couple of
months!! It was really great to get the break even if it was only for a couple
of days. Despite the fact that we are in
a very wide open space it was kinda like cabin fever was setting in so it was
nice to be reminded that there is life outside of Wauchope!
Since I have been back from my little trip it is back to
working and planning what comes next. We only have about a month left here
before we pack our trusty bags again and head off to see what New Zealand has
to offer us, then it will be back to Australia for a couple of weeks to
experience the east coast before completing the round the world journey by
travelling back though America. It may have taken ever so slightly longer than
80 days but at least I can tick “travel around the world” off my bucket list!!!
And so it is the end of another blog for awhile! Since I
have been in Australia I have only managed to do two blogs which is in stark
contrast to the many, many blogs I did while I was travelling. But stationary
life is a little less exciting than entering a new country every week or so, so
I guess that’s part of the reason! Hopefully once I am back on the road and
experiencing new places once again I will get my arse in gear and get back to
regular blogs! My travels will start once again around mid to late
September...so a date for my return should be confirmed in the not too distant
future...YAY!!!
