Alice isn’t quite what I expected it to be. For some reason I thought it would be more metropolitan strange because another girl I talked to thought it woul be more country small town. It’s also suprisingly green, I expected just red dirt but there is lots of vegetation. The lady I sat beside on the airplane (who I also happened to run into in the supermarket later) told me that Alice Springs is built on some kind of water basin or something so they don’t have any water restrictions! Weird because everywhere else I have been there are always restrictions and you would think that it would be worse out in the middle of the Outback.
It’s also aboriginal central, normally you very rarely see any aboriginals (or abbo’s as the locals call them – I know not politically correct) and here they are everywhere. Half the people on the street are abbo. The lady on the plane told me I should hold my breath when I pass one on the street because most of them don’t shower. They also had a bit of a campout in the middle of the dry Todd River bed. Very different from anywhere I’ve been. It’s good but there doesn’t seem to be much going on. I really can’t wait to get out on my Ayer’s Rock/Darwin tour.
Tomorrow I will climb Anzac Hill and see what else there is to be seen. Tonight is for relaxing and trying to get rid of all my excess baggage!!
Today a lady made me empty her pee bag!
I was supposed to be off at 10:00am but the other girl was sick so they asked me to stay longer, I need the money and I’d slept in and had been late so I thought hey why not. I had just finished up my last arrival for the day and was looking forward to going home when I got a call from Service Desk.
“We have a business class wheelchair – can you take it through?”
I really didn’t want to put thought, well I was late so I’ll do this one last thing. She was a medical assist and had her doctor with her. Fine whatever doesn’t worry me I’m just here to push. I’m going to take her through security and she asks for the toilet. Yeah alright.
Bring her over, put her in the wheelchair toilet and I’m not too keen for a front row seat so I ask her are you gonna be alright? Meanwhile her doctor guy is like I’ll be back in a minute. Okay whatever I figure hey I got her in the toilet she can figure this out herself it’s all good. She says she’s gonna need some help so I’m like oh okay thinking she meant with the feet rests and positioning but next thing I know she’s sticking out her leg and hiking up her pant leg to reveal a pee bag!
You have got to be kidding me – I did not sign up for this I’m here to push wheelchairs. I give her an are you crazy kinda glance and say I’d think I’d rather wait until he gets back but she keeps waving her foot in my face. There’s no sign of her medic guy so finally I just think whatever I just want to get out of here I just have to touch that little white thingy.
Next thing I know I’m holding her foot out over the toilet draining a little baggy full of pee. Not something I ever really expected to do. Not something I really enjoyed doing. *Note to self- don’t become a nurse.
Not even a thank you did I receive. I’ll remember that next time some old lady wants me to drain her bag.
Negative.
I don’t know if your car has ever broken down on you while trying to drive somewhere but mine has. Three times. It’s not a fun experience especially if it’s 5 o’clock on a Sunday morning and you are trying to get to an overtime shift at work that you picked up.
For some reason I had it in my mind that Nissans are really great cars because they just keep going and going because The Bluebird did get me pretty far and even after it started doing that funky acceleration thing it still got me from Brisbane up to Cape Tribulation and back. I guess when I decided I wanted a Nissan in Melbourne it just slipped my mind the 6 or 7 hundred dollars I had to spend in repairs or the weekend I was stuck in Maryborough and sitting on the side of the road waiting for RACQ when all I wanted to do was go surfing.
At least in Queensland I had RACQ on the car. I was just outside of Sunbury when my car just stalled out and wouldn’t start again. I pulled off the road and just sat there not sure what to do. At least I had reception so I called work and gave them the bad news. I was devastated thinking about all the things I could have done with the money 8 hours work on a Sunday would get me. Instead I’d probably be spending at least that or more to repair my car.
I sat there in the dark for a good 15-20 minutes thinking what I should do. Trying RACV who will cost me an arm and a leg and trying repeatedly to get that damn motor to turn over to no avail.
Now instead of being happily pushing wheelchairs at work I am sitting at home despairing over not pushing wheelchairs at work. At not being there. I hate the feeling of being completely reliant on a piece of machinery that I have no idea how to operate and diagnose.
Note to self: must learn basic automotive mechanics.
Filed under: Australia
So I did it. All this mulling about on whether I want to go to Asia before going home or just go home has finally come to an end. There are a lot of things I miss about home that I really want to experience and enjoy again and a lot of people I want to see, and I wanted to be there for Aliza’s birthday. I already found a great cheap flight so I just took the plunge and hit purchase.
And I bought my ticket home.
Well to Seattle and home from there. It’s a bit of a shock. The thought of not being here. It’s like how can I not be in Australia? How can I live in Canada? All those thoughts of how I think I want to settle down and just live somewhere in my own house with a job and furniture and all my stuff – well maybe I’m not as ready for all that as I thought I was.
Not that going home was ever really going to be about settling down, but I did think about it. I just want all those great Canadian things that I love like Tim Hortons and New York Fries and Boston Pizza, Molson Canadian Beer seeing my friends and my family, snowboarding (although I honestly don’t know how I’ll survive in Canadian winter [if I even stay that long]), my movie collection… it’s going to be completely different from everything I have experienced this past year. I’m going to miss my car and my job and the Sunshine Coast and the Sunshine and Ice Magic and double time pay on Sundays.
Also I’m stopping in Hawaii for a two week adventure – maybe I’ll get LOST in the bush. So Aloha. I think that means hello and goodbye in Hawaiian if I remember correctly, goodbye Australia and hello Hawaii and the rest of my life. But I still got three months to live the good life and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.
I’m a big fan of going to sporting events, back home I’ll go to Football and Hockey games – even the odd baseball game and go all out and cheer and drink and get a little rowdy. I love it. So when I got an invitation from the gang at work to go to the Essendon (Bombers) vs. Carlton (The Navy Blues) game last night I jumped at the chance.
A sport as Aussie as Crocodile Dundee and Kangaroos, Footy (AFL – Aussie Rules Football) is a sport I really haven’t payed much attention to. Played on a large round field it’s a game of pretty much non-stop action that looks like a free for all where players can pretty much run around and do whatever they please to get the ball into the goal posts at either end of which there are four. The center two posts count as a goal – 6 points if you get the ball in and then there is a post on either side of the center posts and if you get the ball between that and the center post it counts as a point, which is worth 1 point. The players are big stars and most are very good looking and unlike football and hockey they don’t wear any protection. Which is pretty brave considering how aggressive the game can get. I saw one guy dive and grab onto the legs of another guy who was running and just get dragged along, and there was lots of guy on guy action as they tried to steal the ball away from each other.
I tried to just watch and enjoy throwing in a yell here and there but couldn’t help but notice big differences between the sports I love to watch and this one.
- “Was that a goal? They should have a horn or something to let you know.”
- “Why do they have the score on the board twice?”
- “You know what I just realized this game is missing? A commentator – then at least I would know what’s going on.”
- “What?! They only sell mid-strength beer here?!!?” (That was a big one for me)
No credit cards that you get free stuff when you sign up for – I was really hoping to get a free footy scarf if I only signed up for credit at 25% interest. Despite attempts from my fellow game watchers to inform me of the some of the rules and reasons behind what was happening my understanding of the game remains limited to the fact that they need to get the ball into the goals. Sometimes it’s good when the ball goes out of bounds and sometimes it’s not. There is a square in the middle that you aren’t supposed to have more than a certain amount of people in but I don’t know when this really applies because they never really seem to have anything happen in the center. The game never stops, even for penalties or tackles they just get right back in there and keep going. I do know that if you get a goal the other team kicks the ball out. There is a little square in front of the goals that is meant to be good for some reason or another and you’re allowed to bounce, kick, throw and run with the ball. So it gets pretty crazy out there.
All in all I really enjoyed the experience. Before the next one I’ll have to look up a list of things to yell during the game as I’m really not familiar with the terminology at all.
Oh yeah, the Bombers won in the end!
A week ago I packed up my stuff left Candice’s house in the ‘burbs of Melbourne and headed out to Sunbury to spend some time soaking up country life and Candice’s mother-in-law Christine’s house outside of Sunbury. There are sheep, alpacas and horses and a big ravine down the back which is great for hiking up and down during my days off.
It still takes about the same amount of time to get to work at the airport but it’s a little remote which doesn’t really help my plan to get out and do more stuff around Melbourne but is helping me not to spend heaps of money. She has a fireplace and when it’s cold out we light a fire and it heats up the whole house. I might even say it’s better than central heating - maybe.
Filed under: Planning
I’m facing a bit of a dilemma at the moment, the airline I’ve been doing check-in for has pretty much gone under and since it doesn’t seem like I’ll be trained on anything else (which is pretty understandable since I can’t stay any longer than two more months at my job) I’ll probably be doing a lot of arrivals shifts. Fair enough but it might get kind of old. Also I feel like I’m pretty much over Melbourne. I’ve been here a long time. The only reason I’m really still here is because I really like my job also I could use the money.
Part of me thinks I should just stick it out, stay until the end of May optimize on the opportunity and save as much money as I can and get as much airline experience as I can before going home. Part of me feels like I should just pack up and get out of here after my most recent month contract is up and head out to see the Outback and Northern Territory so I can go home. Then there’s a little part of me that thinks maybe I should just bring up the idea of getting sponsored to Vicky so I could go home and come back and stay in Australia longer.
That just gets me started on the whole thing as to what I’m doing after Australia. Go home? Go to Asia and then go home? When I do go home do I want to stay and get a job and get a home? Do I want to go out and continue travelling after a short time? I love the idea of settling down in Vancouver again getting a job at the airport and making some cash but at the same time I know it wouldn’t be permanent and I don’t really want to start building a home for myself there again if I would just be leaving. I think the security of the idea is what really gets me.
I really struggle with the financial aspect of travelling. I want to invest and save money and create some kind of income stream so I no longer have to worry about working and money and it seems like the best way to do that is at home. Probably because I am of the mindset that the best way to do it is to get a crap office job that pays well, save like crazy and invest with dividends and stuff like that. I don’t think that is the way that will make me happy. Maybe for short term but I get antsy. I always hate the office job. An airport job might do the trick because honestly when I left Vancouver for Australia I thought ‘I love my life here, I could just stay and be completely happy and not care that I missed out on Australia’ I went of course but I still think I could settle down and be happy granted I found the right job or way to make money.
I know it’s possible to travel in a financially responsible manner, I just need to figure out what that means for me. Obviously I plan on working or volunteering here and there but going into it with a few thousand dollar credit card bill just doesn’t feel that awesome to me.
Ultimately what I have to think about now is that today it’s really not relevant at all whether I stay or go, settle in Van or keep travelling or how much I will have in the bank. Right now I have to think about being here, maximizing on my time in Melbourne, and having fun without spending too much money. The rest of it will hopefully come to me in the end.
Filed under: Australia
Crazy storms in Melbourne this weekend. Massive hail/thunderstorm on Saturday. Races were canceled. CBD was flooded. Cars were dented. People were bruised. Glad I was cuddled up snug like a bug in a rug at home. Good thing too because Teddy, the dog, was freaking out. He needed me. Then it pretty much rained the rest of the weekend.
I’m pretty much over being sick now. I want some sunshine.
Filed under: Australia
Been sick the past week, blah! It sucks. Eating lots of garlic soup. Went hiking one day up to Mt Macedon and did this 4.2k walk to the Memorial Cross – a giant cross war memorial – it was pretty cool but it really took it out of me. Considering I have a massive chest cold and can hardly breath sometimes I decided to spent the rest of the week sitting around on my butt. Which is boring.
Got to leave work early today too. There’s this hot Custom’s guy – we had a conversation today more than the usual ‘hey how you going?’ The only thing is he really doesn’t seem like my type. Looks really punk rocky and like he’d wear skinny jeans and probably goes to the hair dresser more than I do.. but whatever. It’s fun. 
It’s Labour Day weekend in Australia so Monday is a public holiday! Which is awesome because I’m working so you get double time! Lovin’ it! And there is some big free public Festival going on in Melbourne called Moomba. I think there’s like music venues and fireworks and… ??? Dunno but I think I’ll try and check it out tomorrow after work.
When it’s dry anyways and Castle Rock what a crock!
That about sums up the feature portion of my day. Since I had the whole day off and had to get up early for the inspection I decided I would make the most of it and head down to the Surf Coast and do some hiking and then cool myself down by stopping off at the beach on the way home. I searched the internet for hiking in the area and found this Sheoak Falls Trek that was moderate difficulty and took about 3 hours. Sounds perfect I thought so I got directions and headed off.
It was beautiful down the coast and I stopped off at this cool lighthouse – I think it was split point lighthouse or something – checked it out walked down to the water and splashed myself to cool down. It was a balmy 35 degrees today or something, hot. Then continued on my way to Lorne, the road gets pretty windy so there was lots of gear shifting but it was pretty fun.
Stopped off at the info centre in Lorne to get myself a map of this Sheoak Picnic Area where I was to start the hike. Coming in from Melbourne you turn right at the round-a-bout and then stick to that road until you hit another round-a-bout and then it’s the second exit onto Allanvale Road I think it was. The road starts out find and ends up this windy bumpy narrow gravel number – not really that pleasant to drive on, but finally I was there!
I had my lovely leftover roasted pumpkin and yams from dinner for lunch and then put on my sneakers and set off on the walk. I discovered that the track loops around and you can also stop off at Castle Rock and then come back which sounded better than walking to the falls and back down the same path. It was a lovely walk through green forest, following a little creek which rather brown and disgusting looking. I kept hearing all this rustling in the trees which didn’t really sound like snakes but worried me anyway until I discovered it was just teeny lizards.
The hike to the falls was really nice first through bushland then you follow a cliff edge along the top of a ravine and then down to the falls which I’m sure if there was more water in the creek would be really cool. The rock behind the falls was really nice. Then it’s a long ascent back to the top of the track where there was a sign for Castle Rock 2.5K. Alright, I’m doing it I thought and started up and up and up and up, it was so hot the heat was radiating off the ground and I was so tired. It was rough. It’ll be worth it, this Castle Rock I reckoned and pushed onward. Finally got to the top of the ascent and on one side you could see the ocean through the trees and on the other you could see all these ridges of trees and the deep gully down below, really pretty.
Then I got to the turnoff for Castle Rock and was dismayed to discover that it was downhill! That meant I had to go uphill to get back, but I kept going. When I saw the ocean and the road ahead I was not impressed and I almost decided to go back. Didn’t look like anything cool was down there, but I decided to give it a little bit further. Good thing I did because the end was just around the corner but ‘Castle Rock’ whatever that was, was rather uninspiring. I really didn’t even see much of a rock unless they meant the little bit of cliff face that rose up beside the river. I was even more unimpressed that the view was pretty much just looking down at a caravan park beside the Great Ocean Road.
Ultimately the falls could be nice if the water level was right but there was also a track to Phantom Falls which from the picture on the information board looks pretty nice. I would definitely not recommend doing the Castle Rock. What a load of crap.
Then I stopped off at the beach on the way out of Lorne and ran in for a dip. Cold! But refreshing. All in all I was a great day!
