Buy on line with confidence, in
|
|
Sydney is great. It far surpasses London or any other cities I have spent Anyway enough about that. The best weekend out I have had as yet is most definitely We only spent one day here, but that was enough really. There was plenty to Melbourne 14th March - 31st May So what's Melbourne like? Well it's certainly much prettier than Sydney, although the beaches are further out and not as good. The is a lot more greenery around and the architecture is more interesting and diverse. Melbourne has trams which are very cool - although they are a little slow! We are staying at the Exford Hotel. It is right above a pub, and with each weekly payment of rent you get a free jug of beer. I like it there!! We ended up spending nearly three months in this hostel having a wicked time. It is definitely the friendliest I have stayed in. And there is always much time spent in the bar downstairs. Go there, its wicked. Clare and I met millions of cool people, Paul shared our room (room 109 rocks) for a long time and the three of us ended up hooking up with three others to go and have adventures in a camper van. THE CATWEASEL TOR 2000 (Click on the link to read about the tor, there is soo much stuff that it deserved a page all to it self)
After a very very sad parting from the rest of the CatWeasel Posse (tears were shed!) Clare and I boarded the Greyhound for an extremely long and tedious 44 hour journey from Alice Springs to Hervey Bay, where we were to have a 4-wheel drive Adventure!!!
Fraser Island 3 day self drive tour Fri 16th – Sun 18th June We arrived in Hervey bay Thursday lunchtime, really quite zombified after watching about 10 movies during the course of our long long long journey. So we had a bit of a nap before we had to go to the meeting about the tour on which we were about to embark. They basically put us into groups and left us to decide what food to buy for the three days, and how much beer was needed!! This took a surprising amount of time. Bizarrely Clare and I were put into a group with Potato Masher Rob. A guy we had met in Melbourne (so called because he carries a potato masher around with him!!), and his mates. Which made for a good start. After the important stuff had been decided we settled down for a couple of beers and some dinner in the bar, and started to get to know the rest of the guys in our car. What delighted me most I think was the fact that only three of us were legally eligible to drive. Excellent, lots of driving for me!
To cut a rambling story short we got up at some ungodly hour the next morning to pack up our 4-wheel drives and head for the Island. The three days were a lot of fun. The lakes were beautiful – especially Lake McKenzie, although a little chilly to swim in, but it has to be done! We saw Dingos and giant lizards and a Kookaburra. We drank a lot around campfires where we also cooked massive quantities of meat. It was a brilliant 3 days, and a definite must along the East Coast.
They threw a party in the hostel bar when we arrived back on Sunday, which was pretty wild. All I have to say about that we got to the semis in the drinking contest. And there was Tequila involved. Nuff Said!!
Before the party though, we saw the Olympic Torch Relay come past. That was pretty exciting, and about as close to the Olympics as I managed to get.
BRISBANE Monday 19th June to Monday 3rd July
Yes, we were destined to spend Clare’s last 2 weeks in the country in Brizzie. Nice enough city, but I didn’t fall in love with it, not like Melbourne. This may have had something to do with the fact that I was completely broke and was forced into telemarketing for the 2 weeks!! Not as bad as the door to door selling, but not much money in it and almost as demoralizing. Enough about that though.
We spent the middle weekend in Noosa. Noosa is beautiful, and the beach has squeaky sand. A new phenomenon to me, one which I loved. We basically just sunbathed, hung out and drank beer. No change there then.
After a very drunk night on Friday, and a packing nightmare for Clare Saturday morning we made our way to the airport. All I can say IS IT WAS EMOTIONAL. (miss you chick)
BUNDABERG July 3rd to August 7th
My birth into the wonderful world of fruit picking. I got lucky. I met this cool chick when I checked in. Ahhhh, what was her name again?? That is, Karen. Fortuitously we ended up on the same farm the next day, and were fast to become best buddies and travel together for a long long time (where would I be without you hun??).
So – the picking. We got lucky there too. It was definitely the best farm going. We were picking Snow Peas. (like Mange Tout, for those who don’t know) The bad part was having to get up @ 430am every morning, to get on the bus for 5am. Nice. Then a 45 minute minibus journey to the farm, on which I was always asleep again. We’d start work @ 630, have smoko @ 9. Lunch @ 1230, then finish @ 3. Back on the bus for a sleep. Shower, another nap, then either the pub, supermarket or e-mail b4 bed. Not forgetting to make sandwiches the night before. That is such a chore. One I’m glad I’ll never have to experience again. Hurrah. Lucky break number three. After 2 weeks I got "promoted" to packing (fanfare of trumpets!!). This meant spending the first half of the day (if carefully managed, it can last up until lunchtime) in the shed putting the peas into bags and boxes etc. The bonus part is you have a radio, a flushing toilet, and it’s not quite so boring. That was good.
Mustn’t forget to mention the Dogs. Cherry and Jeb. They were a pleasure to share my sarnies with!! And if you think you can get away without sharing, think again. Their drool tactic is most effective!!! However, we did get to a stage where they learned to sit and offer a paw without being asked first. It took a while, but no paw, no sandwich!!!!!
OK, enough about the picking. The social calendar: Tuesdays was Domino’s pizza night. Three LARGE pizzas for $20 (that’s eight pounds to you). NICE.
Thursdays was Central Hotel. The "Backpackers Party Night". This involved a free Keg of beer from 7 ‘till it ran out. Usually managed to get 4 or 5 schooners in. In about 45 minutes. Also Karaoke, (Fiona you’re a star!). By the end of my time there I was even singing. Those of you who have known me for a while will appreciate what a miracle that is!! Must be something to do with the free beer. And as if that wasn’t enough there was the Nutbush and Macarenna (??) dancing contests – also for free beer. Thanks Tamara for teaching us the Nutbush, it will always stick with me I think. (You’ll laugh to hear that Karen and I heard it in the supermarket the other day and started dancing it in the aisles, much to the embarrassment of James!!!)
Fridays was Queenslander night. This pub is definitely one of my all time favorites. It most certainly has the best beer garden I’ve ever seen. Fridays they also gave away free alcohol. But not just beer – oh no. Spirits as well. 300 @ 8pm, and then 300 @ 10pm. Always a good night that one. But then Fridays always are, wherever you may be.
Please bear in mind that we only had three days off working on that farm the whole 5 weeks we were there. SO, all this drinking was occurring DESPITE the 430am wake up calls. Man, don’t know how we did it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs.
On one of our days off we went to the Bundaberg Rum distillery, for an educational tour discovering how they make my favorite drink. To be honest, it was a bit dull. BUT, we did get our photo taken by a giant rum bottle. And sampled a free drink of our choice. By far the best concoction was FANTASY. Mix the Chocolate rum liqueur with single cream and fanta. Pure heaven. I can highly recommend it to all. So, we got a bottle of liqueur between the 4 of us (Carla, Matt, Karen and me) and made our own cocktails for the evening. Nice.
Friday 4th August 2000 THE MAIN EVENT: MY BIRTHDAY IN BUNDABERG Birthday away from home was always going to be strange. But the guys spoiled me rotten and made sure I had a great time. Big THANK YOUS going out to: Karen and Tamara, for my purple paper mashae pig. Gary, for making me a scrummy chocolate cake. Chris, for my cake at the pub, and for getting me drunk!! Matt, for my Rum, and the Dancin!!! Mum, Dad and Vic, for my cool parcel. John, for my flowers & choccies. Everyone else, for being there with me and having a cracking night.
The short version is we had Chinese take away. Big Chocolate Birthday Cake. Went to the Queenslander, then to Gossips - very cheesy local night club. Got outrageously drunk, and stumbled home in the early hours. Wicked-cha!
One more thing. Lynn and Rick. Thanks, it was a pleasure to work on your farm.
Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday’s August 7th to 13th
This few days was to be a big blowout after all that picking. Airlie is definitely a big party place and money drain – remember that b4 you go. At this point I was traveling with Karen and Dave. And we met up with Tamara at Koalas. There was a whole load of people from Bundy there. It’s pretty much the next stop up the coast. We didn’t have enough cash to go on one of the three-day sailing tours around the Whitsunday Islands. So the three of us did a couple of day trips using the public ferries instead. One day we went to South Molle in the morning. Where we hired surfskis and snorkeled when they were feeding the fish. That was kinda cool. We then did a bit of a hike up Mt Jeffories, spectacular views of the islands from there for sure. In the afternoon we went to Daydream Island. There we did much snorkeling. There were literally thousands of fish though, within wading about 1/2m into the sea. It was a bit freaky. But very cool. A couple of days later we went to Hamilton Island for the morning, hired a buggy and hared about like mad things. Then had a very spectacular buffet lunch on the ferry, where we saw a whale playing, on our way to Whitehaven beach. Absolutely gorgeous. Pure white sands. Clear blue sea. Heaven. Karen and I spent most of the day working on our tan, while Dave tried his hand at volleyball. Good day.
Apart from visiting the islands we basically did a lot of drinking. But you will have noticed this theme already, I’m sure.
BOWEN and MORE BLOODY PICKING!! August 14th to 30th
Yes, funds had depleted enough in our short time in Airlie that we had to do a couple more weeks of picking to get us all the way to Cape Trib. Now there were 4. Myself, Karen, Tamara and Dave. All on the same path from Bundy. The hostel here was a bit of a dive, but very cheap, plenty of work, and a great bunch of people. You definitely meet the best people in picking places. This time I was picking EggPlant (Aubergine) and Squash (horrible little yellow things). And it was HELL, let me tell you. Not only is it mind numbing, just like Snow Peas, but it HURTS!! You are bent double all day. The squash plants are right next to the ground and have trillions of little spikes on them, so you come away with a gazillion scratches all up your arms. And oh boy do they itch. So we picked those for the first half of the day. Then, joy of all joys, we would move on to the egg plant field. I can’t honestly tell you which is worse. The egg plants aren’t as scratchy, but they do have spikes, and the farmers are so particular about what size you have to cut them it’s not true. AND I’m not a hayfever sufferer, But the pollen and pesticide from these little buggers is so bad that you are sniffing, sneezing and coughing constantly. Not pleasant. So why did I do it, I hear you ask, well. It’s the kind of job you can just pick up for a couple of weeks when you need to. Picking hostels are always a good laugh. And why not I guess. It becomes a bit of a personal challenge. You are determined not to let it beat you and stuff. It’s a good feeling to know you have survived, when there are a lot of people who don’t last a day.
But apart from the picking Bowen was good fun. There was a backpacker party one night over the road. And the beaches were beautiful. On our day off (pls note that is a singular day off!) we built the best sandcastle ever, and sadly watched is disappear into the sea. And, for entertainment, I shaved my head. Yes that’s right folks – completely bald!! Well, I have always wanted to see what it looks like on me, quite frankly I liked it. Perhaps I’ll do it again soon – watch this space!!
Townsville and Magnetic Island Thursday 31st August - Monday 4th Sept
After sooooo much picking what we desperately needed was a holiday. So the three of us (Karen, Tamara and I) went for a few days RnR on Magnetic Island. We traveled up to Townsville with Dave, spent a day checking it out, and then left him to it while we embarked on our girlie adventure!!!
We stayed at Geoffs Place in Horseshoe Bay, and we had a hut to ourselves. It was wicked. Much time was spent sunbathing, meeting possums and mad birds, swimming in the pool and drinking in the bar. Friday night we got all dressed up and won ourselves free jugs in the "party games" Nice!! Saturday watched the Footy final with a hangover. But Essendon kicked arse (ha ha Tamara!) which was great to see.
Mission Beach Monday 4th September – Monday 11th September
Although we certainly had a good time on Maggi Island we weren’t done recovering from fruit picking yet, so we went onto Mission Beach for a few days. This time camping. It was wicked fun. Met up with Dave again, and Paul from Bowen came to join us. Also bumped into Mark and Mel from Bundy, which was nice. I learned how to, and opened, my first coconut. We spent hours in the pool, and longer in the sea. The girls got brave and when we had a private afternoon made our topless sunbathing debut!! We met up with a good bunch from the campsite, Pippa & Nigel and Steve & Gina. We had late night fires on the beach with wine, these inevitably ended up in midnight swimming for those brave enough. And we walked 7k’s to the nearest pub on Friday night. On Saturday we had a wicked adventure. A trip White water rafting on the Tully. Wicked fun. We all got very wet (surprisingly, I fell in the most!). Our instructor, Chais, was a right laugh. Luckily he had as bad a hangover as us, so we were all in tune with each other’s pain. A dip into a chilly river is just the thing for a hangover, let me tell you. The water level wasn’t extremely high, so it wasn’t very fast. But it was a lot of fun, and I want to do it again, and again, and again!!!! On the beach, Nigel invented FROND HOCKEY, involving dead palm fronds as sticks, and a coconut as a ball. We played this for a while, and more than one of us suffered a battle scar or two. Around the kitchen there were legions of green ants. There was a popular myth going around that if you pull their heads off and eat the green body they taste like lime. Unfortunately no one was game enough to give it a try. I should also mention the Gecko’s. They are little lizards who have sucker feet, hang upside down and eat moths. I love ‘em. The make the koolest noises too. All in all it was a fantastic weeks holiday Mission Beach is beautiful, and definitely my favorite beach so far.
Cairns Monday 11th Sept – Thursday 14th Sept
Alas holiday time was over. Forlornly we climbed on a bus and headed for Cairns where the dreaded job hunting awaited us. We were to stay at Hideaway, nice quiet little place in the city. With free dinner @ The Woolshed every night. Word to the wise – buy the upgrade! The Woolshed has quite a reputation, as the majority of people reading this will know. Guys – its all true, and its not pretty.
Karen, Dave and Paul went on a day trip to the reef. I was running low on Dolla so Tamara and I spent the day job hunting, to no avail. So we sacked it off and went on a three day trip to Cape Tribulation. So we waved goodbye to Dave for the last time, and to Paul, and got on our "Jungle Bus".
Cape Tribulation Thursday 14th Sept – Sunday 17th Sept
Wow, another beauty. The rainforest is magnificent. The beaches lovely, although you do have to be aware of crocs. Not that we saw any, mind. Helpful tip – if you are being chased by a croc, run away sideways, because they can’t turn very quickly Otherwise you are toast ‘cause boy can they move!! Karen and Tamara went on a horseriding afternoon. In the meantime I learned meditation. With good intentions to use it. Needless to say I haven’t. Ah well!! We went on a bit of a walk around the rainforest, its got some flippin huge spiders, ugh!!. And needless to say went to the bar. This was where we were to see the Olympics opening ceremony. We also ended up by fires on the beach here late at night Perfect.
Then it was back to Cairns for a day b4 going to Atherton to try our hands at picking potatoes. Although Karen and myself left Tamara in Cairns. She was determined to find a job there.
Atherton Monday September 18th – Thursday 21st September
This was definitely the strangest hostel I have stayed in. It was very clean and well equipped, probably better than my kitchen at home I reckon. And you get free potatoes. However, it didn’t feel right somehow. And you HAD to be in bed by 11pm EVERY NIGHT with the light off, sleeping!!!!! Or you’d be in trouble!! We had a laugh though. We met up with Paul again, and Pippa and Nigel from Mission Beach. Which was nice. We helped Nigel celebrate his birthday with Taco’s and Cake. Yum Yum. But alas, there wasn’t enough work to go round, so after 5 days there with only ½ a day work we left, back to Cairns. It has to be said though, that this was definitely the easiest picking job I have had. You are standing in the shade on top of a harvester picking out lumps of mud from the potatoes. Easy As. We had a final night out with Tamara before splitting off in three different directions. It was Emotional.
Karen was flying to Darwin, for sightseeing. Tamara to Brisbane, for work. And meself back to Bowen. Yep, more fruit picking. I had no choice. I was literally living on 2 minute noodle sandwiches. (I know some of you can relate to that one!!)
Bowen Friday 22nd September – Friday 6th Oct
After a 9hr coach trip I arrived back at 530 am. And was on a minibus out to the worst farm available at 630. Perfect. I was to be picking Capsicums at Colliers for 2 weeks. I can safely say I never want to eat another one again. EVER!!!
Maroochydore Saturday 7th Oct – Thursday 12th Oct
A few days by the beach to meet up with my old mate from Uni. Richard. That was cool. Its been a couple of years since we’ve seen each other I reckon, so we went out for a few beers and caught up. Nice.
Maroochydore also has a beautiful beach. Squeaky sand again, which always pleases me! And surf beaches.
Brisbane Thursday 12th Oct – Friday 13th Oct
Passing through Brizzie on my way flying back to Melbourne (Hurrah for Virgin Blue) for my nice cushty office job. It would have been rude not to stay for a night and catch up with me old mates Tamara (of the TO club) and SickBoy Dave (of room 109). We had a wicked night drinking, talking and dancing. A lot of fun for sure.
Back in The Exford Saturday 14th Oct.
It was strange walking back into the Exford without Clare and Crocodile Paul at my side. It was even stranger to find that almost all the old staff had gone, and they had turned the bar PINK!!! (I’m still not totally recovered from that one!). And I was always half expecting one of them to walk into the room either waving a free beer voucher or a cask of wine. But still, true to form the old place is still a wicked laugh, and filled with wicked people.
I had a lot of wicked times back in the Exford again. It is just definitely that kind of place. I met back up with Karen, and we were in the best room in the hostel, 211. A big hello goes out to all who stayed in there with us.
I got a job temping as a receptionist. That lasted for 6 weeks, nice. Then I was back to dish-washing for Gala Party Hire over Christmas and up to New Year.
We had a lot of drunken nights, including Halloween when everyone made a real effort to look suitably stupid. Every Tuesday was pretty drunken, what with the Pool Competition and Toss the Boss. Alas Karen or myself never won the Pool Comp while we were there. Although it was definitely something we really wanted to do an got pretty close to. Ah well. And the weekends were always a right laugh. When we got kicked out of the bar at 4am we invariably ended up down in the TV room for another hour or so with take out. Mad Times. You never needed a reason, the reason was that it was the weekend, even then it was not necessarily the weekend!
A big thank you goes out to the following people for making my time there very special.
Karenatu, Nicopata, Juleru, Aissa, Lenny, Scott, Neil, Gaz, Mikey, Simon and Lorraine, Kevin, Anne Marie, Mark, Kathryn, James and many many more too numerous to mention.
We all know that the Exford is the best hostel in Auz. If you go to Melbourne, Go there.
Christmas Eve was a very drunken affair, with much dancing around the bar and people jumping on top of one another for group photos. Every one was on top form and we had a right laugh, as usual!
After getting to bed at about 4am, we still managed to get up at about 1030 and drink lots of tea whilst opening our secret Santa presents around the cardboard tree. Good giggle. Then we were in the bar for midday for beer for breakfast, lurrrrrvely. The bar was shut to the public for the day, so it was just us backpackers, we had a free BBQ – cheers to Michelle, Aissa and Lenny – and free pool all day. Perfict. So we ate our food, got suitably tiddled and then went down the beach for a swim. Nice. It was a bit chilly, but absolutely had to be done. Then back to the bar before heading off to Jarrods for another BBQ in the evening – cheers Mikey. And of course back to the bar b4 being booted out at 3am once again. All in all a cracking day. A bit different from other years, but a good time was definitely had by all.
This year we went to a music festival along the Great Ocean Road. ‘The Falls Festival’. It was a wicked laugh. Camping, beer and some good music. Most of the bands I have never heard of, being Australian, but we discovered some new music. The Superjesus being the main one. Reef played just after midnight New Years Eve and were fantastic. Groove Terminator were also wicked. New Years Day was good, it was about 30 degrees and we went for a swim in the sea. A great way to see the new year in.
Echuca Weds 3rd January to Weds 10th January
After New Year we (Karen, Paul and Myself) returned to Melbourne for a couple of days. And then headed off to Echuca for some more fruit picking. We were going to stay for a few weeks, but it didn’t quite work out that way. We were picking Apricots. Which isn’t particularly hard work, being that the fruit is picked off of trees. But they pay you by what you pick, not by the hour. And that makes it very difficult to make any reasonable amount of money. Over the 6 days we picked for we made an average of $40 a day each (£17ish). For 8 hours work. Not good. But the town itself is nice. Its good to go swimming in the river at the end of the day. And there is enough to keep you occupied when you are not working. Unfortunately the vast majority of the work is contract. Not easy to make much cash that way.
So Karen and I headed back to Melbourne for one final Pool Competition (failed to win, Again!) and headed to Sydney to try our luck looking for a job there.
Alas I had no luck so I had to make the decision to come home 2 weeks early because I completely ran out of cash. Ah well, 2 weeks early aint so bad. Karen now has a job and is having a great time there. Miss you babe.
I have to send out a big thank you to Richard and Gemma for putting me and Karen up in their flat for the last few days I was in Sydney. Quite possibly saved my life. Cheers guys.
On my last night we went to Scubar and got very drunk. Monday night $6.50 jugs. Lurrvely. Always does the job, well worth a visit! DOOR TO DOOR SALESWOMAN! Tuesday 27th March - Wednesday 5th April Oh my god, what a complete nightmare. Desperation at the lack of work in Melbourne led me to this. I replied to an ad in the hostel for people to do 'Customer Service/Sales' work. So i went for the interview - there were many many people there, and the information was sufficiently ambiguous as to bring me back the next day. It made it sound like we were going to be repping to businesses. So, the next day I followed around a girl called Judy. Nice girl, full of enthusiasm. That's when the nature of the beast hit me. We were going into businesses offering them calculators and key rings, along streets I suppose a bit like Oxford Road in Reading, or industrial areas. Any money you made was strictly on a commission basis. Each product was 4 bucks, and you earned 2 for every item sold. It was ok at first, but there are so many rude people out there. A simple no thank you is sufficient (please don't be nasty to these people, they are just trying to earn a living!). I was doing 13 hour days, because of the moral boosting pep talks we had to endure in the mornings! And on average I was earning about 60 bucks a day. (that's about 24 quid!). It amazes me that anyone bought anything at all. But there you go. In the end it just made me sooooooo tired and miserable I gave it up. Not a very satisfying feeling I can tell you. I have utmost respect for the guys who do it all the time working 6 days a week (Saturdays are optional - mad people!!) EXAM INVIGILATOR 26 - 29 April 2000 Strange stuff being on the other side of the desks I can tell you. And a little nerve wracking, especially when making that stupid speech at the beginning about academic misconduct etc etc. Still - pretty much easy money!
|
| |
Click here to Email Margaret