No More Buses

And then up came Sydney. It was rather a strange transition, happening from one moment to the next as if time had decided it wasn't going to change for me. How thoughtless of it! I left many new friends in Melbourne, hard though it was, to seek new adventures and maybe even some greener pastures that had maybe been grazed on by a different breed of cow. This is Australia after all and there are new and bizarre beasts appearing on the horizon everyday. The other day I was paralized by the sight of a spider, easily the size of the palm of my hand, orange in colour and about as hairy as a mamoth that had forgotten to shave. I was just about to do what needs to be done in a campsites toilets when a man, who had already negotiated the little terror, warned me of its presence. I toyed with the idea that maybe he didn't want me to come and pee next to him and that that was his pet spider that he used for such occasions but then quickly thought better of my insane thought patterns. I went to a cubical instead. But the trip away from Melbourne was certainly an emotional one. Thank you to everyone at All Nations Motel in St. Kilda for all your support and kindness. I shall forever remember Martina and Anthony for their continual patience which seems to be measured on the longest string ever! I know my voice can carry sometimes and they didn't have to put up with as much as they did! Thanks to Marc and Phil, Jenna and Linda, Lucy, Sam and Roy who I shared a room with for so long. To Jason and Nathan, Matt, the 2 beckys and Amy, Jenny Bunny, Alex, Virginie, Shannon, Suzie and Katherine, Kotten and Maja, Stefan, Ruben, Wouter, Mario, Maik and Guss. Special thanks to Ben for all your help at work and for your wicked sense of humour. You are bad. You know that! Thanks to Dave, Luke and Andy. I'm sorry I couldn't come with you to Adelaide but I'm sure we'll meet up again sometime! And a special thanx to Emma for making me laff ;-) Sorry if I've missed anyone. Email me in protest and I'll write a special blog specially for you ;-) ! I also met another lovely Emma who I decided to travel up to Sydney together with. I can't believe you accepted the challenge of travelling with me down the Great Ocean Road and then all the way up the coast. The bus trip was actually just a bizarre one. A 12 hour trip that forever felt like it was in and out of a bad dream. At 8 at night the bus left Melbourne South Station and headed out to the sticks. The first hour was finely filled with Sudoku's and chats but then the sun went down and the erratic sleeping commenced. At midnight we stopped for our first pit-stop and rather stupidly, I decided that a vegetable spring roll was in order. I headed out the bus, feeling mostly asleep still and seeing only the blurry lights of the toilets and the café. I don't even remember what the girl behind the counter looked like. Just that she looked like she'd rather be somewhere else. The vegetable spring roll was lying under an intensly fabricated heat, next to a couple of steak pies and sausage rolls and I, rather zomie like at this time, pointed at it and think that I communicated with the girl about my wanting the darned thing. I must have said something right cus it was in my hands seconds later. I went outside and sat on a park bench, placing it down and recomposing. My first bite of the roll was not right. Something felt strange. This wasn't what I remembered a spring roll to taste like! I spat it out! But, knowing that I'd just paid 3 dollars for this thing, I decided to brave it. I took another bite and sloshed it around inside of my mouth for a few seconds before I swallowed it... without really chewing on it properly. I took one more mouthful but this time just couldn't take it and spat that bit out too. When I looked at it, it was like it was vegetable spring milk on the inside. And then it dawned on me that this thing might well have been there for a few days now, waiting for that unsuspecting tourist to come rushing in and grabbing the poor little blighter! Anyway, back onto the bus and on to Canberra where we arrived at 4 a.m. I didn't see much of it but apparently, according to the general concencus of the place, I didn't miss much either. We arrived at 8 in the morning in Sydney and after hauling our stuff out of the bus, we headed to the nearest café to devour two cappucinos each! The weather was ok and a cool girl called Susana, who was one of my mothers students back in Lisbon last year, picked me up and took me back to hers and her mums place for a barbie. The next day I ventured into he city with her and she showed me the ropes and some sites too. Problem was, I got accused of brining the storms of Melbourne up with me. I woke to the oh-so-familiar titter-tatter of rain drops falling on my window sill and thought I was back in London. Where am I? I got more jetlag from this trip then I did from any flight I've had so far... and I think I'm still suffering from it! Is this Australia?

A Day At The Opera

Amy's work as production coordinator has taken her to new levels. By organising one of the most beautiful events I've ever experienced, she helped put on a free concert for over 1500 dazzeled spectators at Melbourne Town hall in aid of the Australian Red Cross. They're working overtime to aid the people and their homes as the immense bushfires sweeping these parts of the country continue. I thought Portugal and Spain were bad last year, but this year here has apparently been one of the worse ever recorded. It's not being helped by the swirling winds and the one and a half year draught that's being experienced right now. But goosebumps were the order of the day as the maestro conducted a fantastic concert with excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and from Bizet’s Carmen Suite. It's left me drooling for more and I've managed to wrangle tickets off Amy for a performance on saturday night! I can't wait! If you'd like to see any information on it all, just follow the link :-) http://www.stateorchestra.com.au/ WELL DONE AMY!!!

Construction Time

Building things is cool! I'd never worked on a construction site before but I managed to blag on into a nutty job out here. I only had it for a week and it was hard graft but really rather rewarding. Cash in hand is a tonic out her with a bit of lime. If you can get it, you take it. I painted about 300 slats of wood for the outside of an extention for a house and then proudly made cement for the first time. It was some experience I tell thee! Unfortunately, when I informed the foreman that I'd need someone to show me how... he kinda said "I thought you'd worked on building site before... and you know don't know how to make cement". Woops. Caught. Still, I made it to the end of the week with only a few nail marks in my legs, enought splinters in my hands to create my very own
tree and a back that didn't forgive me for the next week afterward. Tomorrow I'm hoping to work for a guy that needs people to mantle and dismantle Marquees. Hopefully this'll give me enough cash to up and shoot off to Sydney in search of warmer weather. All this 38 degree malarky is just not cutting it ;-)