Charlotte

Monday, May 3, 2010

My flight was back to Melbourne and there I went, to discover that I suddenly had an almost empty bank account. Now when I say almost empty I mean I got there at the start of April, and I had $1.33 in my account. Which after printing out 2 statements just to check if that could possibly be correct ended up as just $0.33, unfortunately not enough to buy dinner with. The reason I mention it being the start of April is that happened to be the long Easter weekend where nothing is open, it was Friday, nothing opened till Tuesday, meaning the bank wouldn’t talk to me about why my account was empty. It was by far my worst Easter, I got no chocolate, I had no family to hang out with, I had no money to spend on nonsense or food and everywhere were annoying people saying the apocalypse is coming trust Jesus. I got by through raiding the free food section and using my accommodation vouchers, and eventually on Tuesday I could access some western union money my dad sent over for me.

Now at this point my luck changed direction, I had held my faith that everything would be cool and I got a call from the brother of a friend in Tassie, who gave me directions to his place and said he might have some work if I wanted it. Now there wasn’t much I wanted more than to have some work considering my financial situation, the only thing I wanted more was a girlfriend. So I hung out with Kent and Jo at their house in the suburbs west of Melbourne, Kent got me a job working for a furniture shop in Fitzroy that used recycled wood, I worked with a guy who handled the de-nailing of the wood before it was sent to the factory to be turned into beds and tables and things. The work was pretty tough but it was cash in my hand and just what I needed at the time.

The other great thing that happened occurred at a Pirate Party on a boat, Kent had a friend who was doing the PA and so we went along to help out and get a free ticket that way, so on went the big shirt and eye patch, along with the fake earring and the silly hat and off we went. As soon as the party got going my eye caught that of a pretty girl wearing the same hat as me, so naturally that acted as an opening for conversation and me spending the entire night talking to her. We both agreed that we couldn’t wait to see each other again and so I got her no and 2 days later I rocked up at her place. I got to see her for about 3 weeks, and in 3 weeks I fell totally in love with her. Charlotte has a mad passion for baking, and we spent most of our time together eating different things and watching films, occasionally we agreed on something but that was rare, one night we actually managed to go out and eat the same thing at a Japanese restaurant which was a miracle but despite all the blatant incompatibility I really didn’t care. My last few weeks in Melbourne were ones of complete bliss and a memory that will stick with me for a bloody long time.

On our last day we did the great ocean road, I thought it would be a nice change if we went out for the day instead of sleeping in late and doing nothing all day long. After the day of fun it was back to hers to pack up my stuff and head back to the suburbs to get ready for my flight the next morning. I have said many times I didn’t want to leave places, and I had my reasons, sometimes I thought there was more to do or I just liked being there but I knew I had to move on, this is the only time I had to convince myself it was time to go, and even then I still wasn’t convinced. I came very close to saying screw England, this is my home and I’m not leaving, however somehow I let the momentum take me and the flight got booked, I did my best not to feel utterly lost when I left Charlotte, all the way wondering what was leading me.

Family Life

Ok here’s a summary of what happened next, as I don’t have time to tell it all. We went up Mount Wellington intending to do some walks then watch sunset and sunrise, we went up saw it and got bored, so we called Ryan and asked if he wanted to go to the beach, he invited us to lunch. At lunch we met the rest of the tribe and including Maria Jessie’s mum who invited us to stay with her in a woofing style deal. So Rosanna, Molly and I end up down in Cygnet staying in a house by the beach and becoming part of this massive family that seems to have conquered the town. I stayed there for a month, with the girls doing such jobs as cooking and cleaning and I taking on the more appropriate jobs of cleaning the gutters and pruning trees. All the while I felt more a part of the family and would end up doing all sorts of random stuff with them, we spent St. Patrick’s day in Hobart, Jess came out with us and we met friends of hers and ran around the town in green nonsense and ridiculous hats, fantastically fun. One day we took out the boat, the boat is a 2 person affair, so naturally when 5 of us climbed in and tried to row to the island nearby it failed rather spectacularly, in fact it was only moving when someone jumped out and pulled it along. The rest of the stay was similar such nonsensical things coupled with plenty of fun and I was very sad to leave in the end, but end it must and so it did.

Gig Night

Monday, April 26, 2010

A couple of days later, Ryan was playing at an open mic night and the girls had said they would come along, so naturally I jumped in the van too and off we went. Turned out we had the name of the town that the gig was at, but not the name of the building. Great I thought, a night of driving around lost and confused, luckily not to be as we did actually find the place in the end without too much trouble. We sat down and ate, had a drink and waited for someone else to appear. Our luck held out when Ryan and his partner in crime Jack strolled in complete with guitar cases confirming that we had in fact found the right place. The evening progressed with some very skilled musicians playing and Ryan and Jack getting more and more worried, the went into an unused room to practice and simply ended up messing about. When it was their turn they weren’t looking forward to it, and I soon figured out why when I discovered they weren’t lying about not having practiced for weeks, however as unpolished as they were they ended up playing more songs just because we liked them so much, after the gig we all congratulated the pair or the Flatstacks as their band is named and our compliments were genuine. That night we got to see Annie again and meet Des and Tanya Ryan’s parents, the family gets bigger!

Snorers!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

I spent last night drowning out the snoring from across the room with my iPod.

For all those people who snore loudly, don't bloody stay in a shared room, it's annoying and I need my sleep!

Meeting Cygnet's Ruling Family

Several days of sitting on my arse, waiting for something to happen, wondering what I was going to spend the next 2 months doing and then a pair of English backpackers arrived, Molly and Rosanna. Still wondering what I was going to do the girls planned to go down for a little day trip with Bobby, a Chinese born Aussie I had been talking to at the hostel, down in the region of Cygnet, a small, sparsely populated place in the south west of Tasmania. Bobby had a friend called Annie from Sydney, who was visiting her friends down in cygnet, and when Bobby called to ask if she was busy we got invited to lunch. Alan and Kay welcomed us into their home and fed us a delicious lunch that even I being one of the fussiest people on earth enjoyed thoroughly. We met their granddaughter Jessica, the 2 resident dogs and then Jessica’s sisters Mary and Adele, I did some reiki on Annie’s shoulder which had been destroyed in a skiing accident, (or perhaps several skiing accidents one after the other) and then we all went to the beach. On the way to the beach we stopped off where Annie was actually staying and picked up swimmers and Ryan (Jessica’s Cousin) and had a tour of the house and garden before heading off to the beach and getting lost on the way!

The water in Tasmania is cold, and I say that having swum in England, Wales and even Scotland. Even Annie went in as well although she didn’t swim, the rest of us swum out to a boat which Bobby proceeded to climb and jump off and I proceeded to be defeated by but that was only because I was so damn cold at that point my fingers were going numb and weren’t much use for gripping. The only person to really squeal and take forever getting into the water was Ryan, sissy! After the swim we went hunting for a certain beach, to hunt for mussels, which resulted in us getting lost and confused again which I discovered was due to cousins trying to direct each other, eventually we found the right beach though. So off we went clambering over rocks and cutting our feet on oysters all to get a bag full of mussels and I don’t even like seafood! I must admit collecting the mussels was fun though, someone even ate raw oyster, that made me feel a little queasy. The last stop was the chippy to complete the meal at which Annie treated us all to fish and chips so we returned to Alan and Kay’s for an evening feast before finally departing and heading back to Hobart.

Cradle Mountain

Friday, April 23, 2010

The last thing I really wanted to do in Tassie was to see Cradle Mountain, only I had no money, whilst I was waiting out this conundrum I was back in Hobart with Mick and a bunch of others including a cute French girl Emmanuelle who took Mandy’s place as my travel buddy. Then one day I was on Skype and chatting to an old friend of mine back in England who after hearing of my deteriorating money situation offered to help, his offer of 150 squid was exactly what I needed to keep me going although I felt quite bad not being sure when I would be able to pay him back, he insisted saying I should accept it as sponsorship, so I did. The Money from Ant meant I could go up to Launceston and see Cradle Mountain and still be ok when I came back down and was hunting for a job again.

We went for a walk when we got to Launceston and this revealed the beautiful Cataract Gorge where I climbed rocks, stuck my feet in the water and was instructed not to climb over the edge of the cliff and kill myself by Manu. The walk back was a killer, so much so that when we reached a service station I bought a spirulina smoothie! Later at the hostel we curled up and watched Enduring Love, which we borrowed from the hostel. The next day was Cradle Mountain day where we had apparently the clearest day possible, our guide informed us that the weather there was so changeable they often have anything from snow to rain or mist and its very rare to be able to spot the peak of Cradle Mountain, so for us to be able to see it clearly and have a clear sky with only a hint of cloud made us pretty lucky. What didn’t make us lucky was that the route had been shut whilst they did repairs meaning we got to walk around the lake and almost got to the route leading up the mountainside. On the way back we made up for the lack of adventure by stopping at a chocolate factory!

A bit of tassie bush

Saturday, April 17, 2010

I left the farm to explore the wider world of Van Diemen’s Land starting in Hobart, yes I had already explored it but never mind. Now I thought being in Tasmania would automatically render me friendless, seeing as no other backpackers seemed to be going there, and for the first few days in Hobart this was pretty much so. However little Mandy from the scandal back in Adelaide was about to visit, so after being in Hobart alone for a couple of days I had a friend.

Mandy, a Dutch girl named Analise, a Belgian guy called Michael and I set off on a 2-day trip of Mount Field and the Southwest national parks, we plugged in the iPod and took it in turns to complain about each other’s music choice and soon we were into the hills leaving the city behind. Our first aim to find the hostel proved a little confusing but when we did find it we felt a little silly as it was ‘bleedin obvious’ as the building with the blue roof that we were told to look out for, in hindsight we over thought it a bit. Anyway we got in and found it to be a delightful little house, which actually was the owner’s house, his kitchen etc. and he slept in the shed up the top but used the house in the daytime. After getting ourselves sorted and dumping stuff and eating lunch we finally went out and took a hike up at Mount Field.

The next day was to be our Southwest national park day; although Mount Field has infinitely more to explore the Southwest was where we planned to do a big hike. Today was not one of my best days, the day before at mount field was beautiful, we climbed waterfalls and took funny photos and generally messed about, then at night we had a Barbie at the hostel and the owner sat with us as well, we cooked up a delicious feast and chatted about karma and the point of being vegetarian, stayed up late listening to music and feeling very peaceful. So today I wasn’t feeling too energetic, my legs had half calcified and were refusing to move properly and I was pissed off at Mandy. It turned out I must have got the wrong end of the stick; I thought she was leaving her boyfriend in Germany, but 2 months later and she still hadn’t informed him of this. So halfway up the hill at the end of the day I voiced my complaints and then we didn’t talk much, we almost made it to the summit and then we staggered down, I got some lovely photos from the day and the morning was good but the end feeling wasn’t too good, and that night when we returned to Hobart Mandy and I went separate ways.

Van Diemen's Land

Thursday, April 15, 2010

My grandparents have a friend who is related to someone who lives in Australia, and they gave me her no, she in turn gave me the no of her daughter in Tasmania and when I called up Kelly not quite sure what to expect she offered me a bed straight away. So off I went to Tassie early one morning to be picked up by Kelly and taken off to the farm to meet Leigh and the Kids, told to help myself to anything and given a room with a huge bed, Wahay the luck still stands! So for the next 2 weeks I walked around a field carrying big irrigation pipes, chased sheep, went fishing for flathead and caught a mountain of them, got fed more food than even I could cram into my black hole of a belly and got several guided tours of the surroundings courtesy of Kelly and Leigh.

I got to see a bit of Hobart, which is a small town even though it is the capital in a space almost as big as England. Hobart is quiet and pretty, the harbour is lovely with plenty of cool looking fishing vessels as well as the large sailing ships now used for making money from tourists and often there is even a massive cruise ship sitting there looking as if it could easily accommodate everyone in Hobart. The state library is about the size of most YHA hostels and there is a massive chess set in Franklin Square, the museum is filled with random stuffed animals and odd paintings and then at the back there is a whole section on Antarctica that told me all about the expeditions that I never knew set off from Tasmania, but of course that’s obvious that they would. My first impression of Hobart was of an odd little fun city and I loved it, even some of the old Georgian buildings still remain, all in all it is a lovely little place.

Richmond also still has most of its Georgian buildings and is extremely proud of its history, being very old (only by Australian standards obviously) it boasts the oldest Gaol in Australia (yes they spelled Jail like that back then) the oldest Bridge in Australia and the oldest church in Australia. It’s amusing that there are three pubs in Sydney that all claim to be the oldest, so who knows how accurate Richmond’s claims are, I certainly don’t plan to argue with them. What’s even funnier is how Australia always likes to tell everyone how old their buildings are even though they are all recent history and none of them actually count as old, Europe has towns and buildings 100 times the age of the oldest Aussie settlements. That aside Richmond is very pretty and very English for that matter, it looks just like most English country villages.

Melbourne, the Rival

Sunday, April 4, 2010

My aunt and uncle had a couple of friends who played the music for their wedding, and then moved to Australia, Nicky and Stuart were still living there when I arrived and had offered me a bed for when I got to Melbourne. When I turned up it turned out to be a double bed in a lovely house and food as well, it seemed my luck was still working. So with so much time on my hands I went ahead and discovered only a very small amount of Melbourne, as always seems to be the way; if you have a time schedule to keep to you get things done and when you have all the time in the world you somehow never get round to doing anything. Not to say that I wasted my time in Melbourne though, I enjoyed watching Andy Murray power his way through to the finals of the Australian Open, I enjoyed watching Federa smite him like a bug, I had Australia day in Melbourne and I ended up at the party next door and didn’t return till the next morning. Jesse (that I met in Sydney) was here also so I hung out with him in my spare time (not that I had anything but spare time) and we visited the zoo together seeing all kinds of odd things such as signs that said Hati-Hati, a room with a billion butterflies and giraffes, naturally Melbourne zoo had some Australian wildlife but most of it seemed to have been shipped in from the rest of the world such as the bears, lions and hyena which are clearly not native animals.

Something strange happened, I met Nora again, I was hanging out with Jesse at the YHA Metro and as I was leaving I saw Nora by the door, I arranged to meet her the next day and off I went back home to sleep. So the next day I wandered into town and we met up to go for lunch at a local Indian, meanwhile talking about this and that but for some reason the conversation just didn’t seem to work, everything we talked about ended up as an argument. I had noticed the night before that Nora seemed a little wary of me as if she didn’t like me as soon as she set eyes on me, but I figured I was just imagining things and ignored it. Now for some reason we just couldn’t get on, we got onto the subject of politics and then it resulted in an argument, even though I’m sure we had pretty similar views, like two people yelling at each other and when you listen they’re both saying exactly the same thing but they aren’t listening to each other so they don’t notice. Eventually she informed me I had changed and was clearly not the person she thought I was, I had become much harsher and seemed as if I was really tired and grumpy and if this had happened when we first met she would have just walked away and not bothered with me. To be honest I still haven’t a clue what happened and what I said wrong, how I met up with a friend and suddenly we became enemies, it was confusing and a little hurtful and I’m sure totally unnecessary, perhaps I just shouldn’t talk politics with anyone.

Canberra, a capital with a difference

Thursday, April 1, 2010

After all this time travelling around Australia I still hadn’t seen the capital. Now in somewhere such as Italy that would be a heinous crime, however in Oz the situation is slightly different; the capital city is boring. This is not just me being rude, everyone on the planet who has travelled Australia or lives there will agree with me. Canberra was built because Sydney and Melbourne fought for ages like spoilt children over who got to be the capital city, and eventually some genius had enough and built a city between them to settle the dispute. The only problem with this new city Canberra, is that it had been built purely for the purpose of ruling, which meant that it was boring and totally un-distracting to office workers, except if you count the confusing circles everywhere or the porn industry; the ACT is a territory and not a state meaning that while pornography is illegal to sell in all Australian states, their capital isn’t in a state and so the administrative capital is also the porn capital, another gold star for Australia!

I only stayed for 1 day in Canberra, which was enough, however that does not mean I was bored. I have a habit of wandering into the right place at the right time, this habit led me to walk to the National Portrait Gallery and open the door for a lady who immediately afterwards exclaimed at my chivalry and offered me a ticket to the French masters that was currently showing there (her daughter couldn’t make it) this then lead to me having someone to talk to about the paintings which is always nice, and then to being able to see a game of Footsall, which is indoor football with an Australian name at the local stadium just outside the city. Maree also drove me to the new parliament house to show me the line up with the memorial, Canberra was a totally planned city so the layout allows one to stand on the steps of Parliament house and look over Old Parliament house to see the War Memorial which is a cool idea, but overshadowed by a mountain right behind it. In the evening I met some amusing friends, which explain some of the odder pictures from Canberra.