WEEK TWENTY-SIX

And at last, after 5 weeks, I had freedom again! OK, it may not seem like that long, but it’s a bloody long festival season, and I was over it! And I had plans to do absolutely nothing. I had a vague plan to go to the zoo, saying that, I’ve had he same vague idea for over a month now, but I had woken up too late for it, and I didn’t want to miss any vital panda-viewing time. I know there are other animals there, but they will all pale in comparison with the pandas. So excited. I may try and steal one. I decided I would go on Tuesday. Definitely. I thought at some point I was going to get a phone call asking me to babysit, but it didn’t come in the morning, so at about 2pm (late I know!) I went down to the café, and had some brunch. I really enjoyed just having the time to sit there and do nothing, without the thought of having to go to work later. It really does wreck the day. I still didn’t get the call, and it didn’t come all afternoon, so I sat on the balcony reading my book. What a lovely relaxed way to spend my first proper day off.

And finally, I had woken up early enough to go to the zoo, and get my moneys worth, so I had a shower and set off. I didn’t realise it was as hot as it actually was, and the rather short walk there seemed to take me forever, but that’s probably also because I had no idea where I was going. As the pandas were obviously going to be my favourite animal there, I forced myself to go and have a look at the other ones first, and this started off with the reptiles – by far the most boring bit of the zoo. I did see a big saltwater croc though, that I could have touched if I had the desire. I didn’t, but I could have. The other highlight, not including the big fluffy black and white vegetarians, was when they fed the tiger. I went up to the cage, and there were already loads of people waiting, which was almost useful, as they pointed out the tiger to me, who was anxiously pacing behind a gate. It wanted the food. And then we saw the little hatch open, and the massive chunk of sheep was put in place. Right next to the glass, and right next to the pool that was in the cage. Perfect. It’s like they’d done it before. And then they let the tiger out, and there was no messing around. It bolted to where the food was and started to dig in. It was amazing, and didn’t move until it had well and truly finished, and had cleaned its paws of the blood. So from one animals I wanted to take home to another, and it was finally time for the pandas. I thought I would mark the occasion, and buy myself a typically Australian ice cream called a ‘Golden Gaytime’ – firstly because I think the name is hilarious, and who wouldn’t. Unless you were trying to be grown up, and secondly, because I was curious. Curiosity killed the cat, and this was enough to put me off these horrible ice creams for life. What the hell are they meant to taste of? Yuk. After a few bites of it, and being fully repulsed by the whole idea of it, I threw it away. Yes, I threw away an ice cream. I couldn’t believe it either! Back to the more important case in point though, the pandas. I found the gate, and headed in, and was greeted by the boring but compulsory information boards that tell you stuff about the animals. This also guided you through the massive bamboo maze, which led to the animals. And then I saw the cage – which was HUGE, and mostly made of glass, and then I searched the cage and couldn’t see anything. Then, curled up in one of the corners was a fluff-ball, and in the opposite corner another. To be honest they did very little whilst I watched them, ,I assume they breathed, but I didn’t see it, so they could be stuffed. Anyway, regardless of their inactivity, I stood there amazed for ages, long enough for a man to come and talk to me about pandas, and told me that although they look fluffy they are wild animals and they can’t be pets. Pah! Wild animals my arse. They were born and raised in China – they info boards had just told me. And, if he gave me a chance, I would prove him wrong about the pets thing too – I doubt he’d let me take one home for the weekend. Greedy panda keeper wanted to keep them all to himself. I bet once they close the gates of the zoo, he just gets in their cage and plays with them, and gives them big hugs. Once this man had crushed my dreams about stealing one, I went for a final look at the tigers (they are a close second) and it was only then that I noticed the penny crushing machine. Amazing! I had to get one. So I paid my $2, and turned that handle! The ones in this country even have something on the side of the machine that lets you put holes in it, once finished, but I chose not to, and put it with the rest of my collection. And then decided it was time for home. I was hungry, and the dodgy café/restaurant looked very unappealing. So, off I went, to IGA to get some bread. Fancy stuff! After I had my sandwich I didn’t really do much for the day. Just pottered about on my own, as everyone else was at work still. Boring! The one savig grace was that at lease I woke up pretty late, so by the time I actually felt like facing the world, I didn’t have too long till people came home. A few hours though. So, I plonked myself in front of the tele and watched the best Adelaide TV had to offer – which was shite! You couldn’t be unemployed in this city for long – you’d go mental after a week of the shit TV! That evening I was going to see Belle & Sebastian, and I was so excited. They are a band I have wanted to see for so long, and finally, randomly I noticed they are playing in Adelaide. How silly, never saw them in Scotland, but I see them here. I was complaining, I was just happy I was going to get to see them! So, stupidly early I started getting ready, and went down to the bottle-o to get some beer. And that was my afternoon, pottering about the house trying on clothes that didn’t contain anything from my ‘Garden’ wardrobe, and drinking beer. Perfect. When I got there, after getting slightly lost, I relaised I had made the same mistake I had seen thousands other make, and turned up when the doors opened not when the band came on stage. So, that’s fine, the support act was OK, even if it was insanely loud, and I could have a couple more drinks. When they finally came on stage I was amazed – firstly at what the main man looked like, and secondly by his Scottish accent – it’s been so long since I heard one! And I loved every minute of it, and just sat there, mesmerized! I clapped, and showed appreciation, but that’s about all. Just sat, in awe. And that was my night taken up, and I loved it. On my home I phoned Liz just for a chat, and to catch up on her gossip, it had been a while since I spoke to her. I still hadn’t got a phone call about babysitting – bit of a waste of time staying in Adelaide. Bugger!

So, I continued my days of doing nothing, until I got a message from Rowan asking if I wanted to go to the beach in the evening. Brilliant idea, it was still so hot during the day that it would be lovely at night, so off we were going. I wasted the rest of the day just pottering about the house, and waiting for my time to be collected. I didn’t even have to negotiate on the buses – Rowan had a car, so I was being driven there. Much nicer. The plan changed a few times, but in the early evening I got picked up and we were off. Apparently I was being taken to the nicer beach, and this wasn’t the one where al the tourists went to. Brilliant. We had our dinner of chips on the beach – the idea of two veggies going for fish and chips on the beach I suppose sounds quite silly, but it was perfectly normal, as I ordered my pineapple fritter. God I love those things – why don’t they have them at home. They’ll fry everything else, but not a pineapple ring?! Anyway, we sat on the beach and enjoyed our bags of fried food, and then went for a walk along the sand. It had been such a nice day I was so tempted to get into the water – it felt so warm on my feet! But I refrained, and after a while we turned back to the car, to slightly realise we hadn’t paid as much attention as we should have to where it was parked. But, we relocated it pretty quickly, and climbed in. It was at thins point I noticed a massive spider on the sun-visor on the drivers side, and I turned really girly, muttered ‘spider’ and got out the car. Rowan did the same, screaming slightly. What a conundrum, we would have to try and get it out of the car, so we looked in the boot for something that might help us and located a badminton racket – not that helpful, but it was all that we had, and even with that we couldn’t successfully get it out. Dammit. So, we did the girly thing. And asked a couple of guys who were walking past. Ha! Mission accomplished, after a few minutes of acting incredibly girly! When I got home our flat was starting to fill up with people who were finishing work, and I assumed Will was still on site – doing whatever he does. It was only then I found out he was in hospital, and had been for a few hours. I was slightly panicky, until I found out it was just his hand – once again. He wasn’t back for ages, and eventually we all finished our drinks, and went to bed. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard the ugly noise of the buzzer, and I ignored it. And then it went again, and as I couldn’t hear anyone else moving, I got up to let him in. just to prove that he had hurt himself he had a massive cast thing over one arm, and was suitably pissed off. Sounds about right. After I found out he did it whilst being stupid, a lot of my sympathy disappeared – it would be fixed soon.

On Thursday I still hadn’t had a phone call about babysitting, which was rather annoying, as I could have spent this week visiting Gina – ah well, I’m sure there’ll be a chance at some point?! In the morning I wen to see one of my friends who worked round the corner in a café, and although it was just meant to be a quick visit I ended up staying there for ages having a chat, and in the end I even gave n, and get myself a coffee. I tried to resist! I did very little for the next couple of hours, and as I had woken up so late I didn’t have long to wait until everyone came home, so I headed to buy some food, so I could make a giant dish of macaroni & cheese. Always a classic, and I was sorely missing it. And then I made it, at about 5 in the afternoon, and people weren’t back for ages – but I was well prepared. When everyone came home they let me know that we were all going out for dinner, to the house of two of our bosses. So, my beautiful macaroni was left on the side, and we all headed out. It was a lovely night, and we just spent many, many hours drinking, chatting and eating. Not a bad combination of activities I’ve always thought! Toni and my boss were due to leave that night, back to Melbourne, and when that time came, both of them were pretty drunk – that’ll be a fun trip!

Finally booked my travel back to Melbourne – and I was going to rent a car, which I got tomorrow, so I went for a final look around Adelaide, so wandered down Rundle St, and went to the tourist information place and got a fantastic map for my trip, and a couple of other leaflets about places, including ‘Cheese World’ – I cant wait already. I also got drawn into a cheap book store, and after I spent ages looking around, I actually found a couple of books I was interested in. Perfect. I also got them both for $12, which was a great bargain, so I headed home to pack, very happy with my purchases. When I got home I started looking at all of the places I could go, and the hostels I could book into it – as always the range of YHA accommodation was varying in quality, but I found the towns that I think I will get to, and phoned them up to see if there was a final time I could show up. They all seemed really nice and helpful, and I was glad I hadn’t picked ones owned by grumps! So I sat at the table, with my map, my computer and a Sharpie, and planned my route. It looks like there is so much stuff – I don’t think 3 days will be enough, but, I’ll see as much as I can! That night three of Will’s friends came over for dinner, and my mac & cheese finally fulfilled it’s destiny, and we had bowls of salad, and lots of real food, and it seemed like such a luxury. I was going to be living off takeaways for the next couple of nights too – hurray! It was a lovely night, and once we’d finished eating, there was a massive fireworks display, so we all stood on the balcony, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset, and tirade of fireworks, that seemed to last for ages. What a lovely way to say goodbye to Adelaide. And then I fell sound asleep, but had to set my alarm so I got up in time to get my car.

I woke up slightly too excited, and packed my bags, and then me and Will continued to pack away the whole of the kitchen into other bags I could also take with me. Will was flying so couldn’t take as much stuff. This took quite a long time, and by the time we finished there seemed to be so many bags, - thank god I don’t need to carry them at all. I also had to go and print out my confirmation letter for my car, and by the time this was done, I had enough time to have a final smoke on the balcony, and then me and Will set off, with my thousands of bags,, and my basil plant. .Madness! It was so humid rainy that day I didn’t take long before I was knackered, and considering dumping half the crap I had, but we made it to the bus stop, and a couple of minutes later my bus arrived to take me to the airport, to get the car. I got the keys without much fuss really, and then set ff to try and find my car. After being rained on quite a lot I had to ask someone, who quickly pointed me in the right direction. It didn’t seem very big, but it was enough for me (and my trolley load of stuff!). And so I tried to get in the car, and the alarm went off I locked it again, and tried again. The alarm went off again. Then, I pressed the button on the key, and the alarm didn’t go off. Success. I was in. With the car fully loaded, and my route planned out on my phone, I set off, in the pissing rain. The part I was most concerned about was getting out of Adelaide - I hate city driving, and having no real idea where I was going kept checking my phone, and only made one panic turn. Even with that it didn’t take me long to get on the right road out of the city, and I was off! This little bit of driving had already taught me that the car was a bit crap, and had no acceleration at all. Could be interesting. And so I drove, and drove, and enjoyed the scenery, and when I got to y first little town by a massive lake (can’t remember the name – could be Alexandria?!) . So Miningie was the name of this little town, which seemed to be home to a launderette, a takeaway, and an IGA. Thankfully I only needed the IGA, and went to get some Farmer’s Union – my trip my rules. I took this chance to call ahead to the hostel I was planning on staying at in Robe, and the lady sounded lovely, and also warned me about driving in the dark – incredibly dangerous, and you can hit a kangaroo, which can absolutely mangle your car. As I had also taken the cheapest insurance, I was going to be super careful. And I kept driving. And driving. The next reason I stopped was because I saw a restaurant with a massive lobster on the front of it, so I decided to take a photo. Sadly my camera was having serious issues with the rapidly fading light, and I couldn’t get a good one. I also went into the petrol station to find out how far I was from Robe, and it was only 15km away – hurray. Although by now it was properly dark, and it had started pissing it down. The rain was so heavy I could hardly see, and my final 15km were made through this weather, and he only radio station I could get was some kind of Christian rubbish which claimed it was the end of the world. Although it sounds silly now, it really did give my little drive a rather sinister mood, and I was grateful when I got to the sign saying I was in Robe. It was at this point I released I had no idea where the hostel was, o kept driving, pretty slowly in case I saw a turn-off. In the end it just appeared in front of me, and I parked up, and went to pay. The lady behind the counter was a little Scottish lady, who had such a smokers cough, her whole body shook, Lovely. Anyway, after a bit of playing about, I finally paid, and she showed me to my dorm. Seemed nice enough. I went outside to get everything I thought I needed, ad as it was still pelting it down, decided to put my basil plant outside, to let it have a drink. And then I went into the kitchen to put my milk in the fridge, and then I saw two people who looked really familiar. After a bit of a stupid ‘I think I know you’ face, it was confirmed that it was the sister and mum of my best friend when I lived in Cambridge. Oh my god it’s a small world! SO that was my evening planned, and we sat down and had a great chat, and a catch-up. I was still amazed when we all finally decided it was bedtime, and I went to sleep on my super creaky mattress. And was freezing. Bugger, I eventually got to sleep though.