Happy New Year!!! 2004
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Happy New Year!!! 2004 |
Christmas in Melbourne : 24 December 2003
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We've been in Melbourne for the last few days, and have a few more to go. This driving around the country thing isn't that bad when you have a nice hotel and don't actually drive anywhere.... OK, so it hasn't been all fun and games. We did actually drive the "ute" from Canberra to Melbourne. And it wasn't really that bad at all. We both had a pretty easy time picking up driving a stick shift with the wrong hand pretty easily. It actually helps to figure out which side the turn signals are on. We took our time driving to Melbourne, but that wasn't entirely on purpose. First, we headed out to the coast, and stayed at a little villiage called Eden. The next day, we were driving down the highway, and we'd see these little dirt tracks going off the road. Feeling adventurous and having such a cool vehicle, we decided to explore a little. That's the point of this trip, right? So we're driving down these dirt roads, seeing all sorts of killer wildlife. Kangaroos everywhere. At one point we're winding through this bumpy track, barely distinguishable from the surrounding brush, bumping over small trees and through gaps we barely cleared to find this little picnic area. If we'd had any food to eat and hadn't been beseiged by flies it would have been better. On the way back from that area we passed this cow farm and then this great one lane bridge. We got out to say hi to the cows and take some pictures. Unfortunately, Andrea stubbed her toe on some splintered wood on the bridge, so we hurried back to the ute for some first aid. Nothing major, fortunately, and she was able to continue driving us out of the bush. After an adventure just finding a place to eat lunch, we were cruising comfortably on our way towards Melbourne. A good 3 hours later, probably about 125 km down the highway, we pass this car. He makes the international "roll down the window" sign, so I do. "You're back is untied" he shouts across to me. Oops. We'd better... Oh crap... Did I forget my... "Pull over!" I shout. Andrea handles it well (there's no where to pull over), but finally we see a turn out. I go around back... OH NO!!! My camera bag is not there. I left it sitting on the ground behind the ute back at the bridge. It's about 6:00 in the evening, and we have to backtrack those 125 km. Mind you..the big thing in this country is..you do not drive at dusk or dawn. Perfect timing. Amazing how you can feel much more comfortable going fast when there's a reason. [I Disagree, I personally preffered to get there alive...no biggie..go on.] And we're approaching evening, the worst time to be on the road in Australia, when all the nocturnal animals come out (which is just about everything). About an hour and a half, and we make it to the turn off for the dirt road to the bridge. Almost there! I hope it's still there.... We finally get to the point where we stopped and... NO BAG!!! Now what? We go up to the little farm house, where the cows are mooing at us incessantly, the dog is jumping on us, and the peacocks are crowing up a storm. We wont even go onto the fly bit. Finally the slighltly odd but nice lady that lives there comes out, covered in flies. No, no one has seen the bag or dropped it by. Next, a quick drive to this little campground just down the road. The guy there, also inceredibly weird but incredibly nice and who seemed to be hard up for conversation, hasn't seen the bag, and no one has dropped it by. Not much traffic on this road, he says, but this one guy, Bain, has been by in his white Mistubishi ute, and went down to the hotel in the little town on the road (one of the three buildings in that town). Apparently one knows when a car passes, that's how often it happens. We're driving back down the dirt road towards the town when a white Mistubishi ute comes up towards us from the other direction. I flash the lights to get him to stop, and he pulls over. "Have you seen a green bag?" and he smiles and gives me a thumbs up. Then he reaches down and pulls up my bag! He says "I figured it was important when I started reading this diary, and it said something about a year of travelling." [I think he read more and probably got scared - ha ha] As if the 30 pounds of camera gear wasn't enough? But who am I to say anything. We're both so glad it all worked out, and it is amazing how nice the people here are! Bag recovered, we drove as far as we could, which was to a little place called Lakes Enterance, a little resort town on the beach. Even though we drove through the sunset, we managed not to hit any kangaroos. We didn't even see one, actually, though they are pretty dark in that part of the country. The next day we made it all the way to Melbourne for another adventure: driving this giant 4WD ute through the crowded city streets of Melbourne's central shopping district a few days before Christmas. So far, in General, Melbourne is an awesome city. We made it to Gareth's 21st Bday party... wow, what a shindig. Good Job Angie. I can't believe that Kath, Steve and Dana where there and we never saw you guys. We did, however, have to catch the last train out of there wich was only 2 hours after we got there. Sunday we went to St. Kilda for the market day. I love that little town. I think we could definately live there. It was a combination of Venice Beach and Oregon but with a hip urban vibe...NICE! We have been pretty much just bumming around, enjoying our short stint of time without major insects and snakes to worry about. Today is Christmas...Merry Christmas to All! And Happy Hanukka for the rest of us! Not much is open today around here. We are doing...hhhmmmm, oh yea, nothing. We hear there is a fascinating Chevy Chase movie on tonight...whhooppieee! It's great! We are here in Melbourne until Sunday morning...we really like it here. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to sit in at the Parliament house, see the Melbourne Museum, buy new shoes..you know..the important stuff. So far the hours everywhere have been wierd due to the holidays. We did, however, get to the ScienceWorks Museum yesturday..that was cool, very interactive. Hey Phil...don't get us wrong about the "Short temper" thing...you were awesome. I mean, English is the native language here in OZ right??? (Well, sort of, anyway, but we won't go into the Aboriginal politics here...) I mean, who else would have dealt with the utterly embarrassing and stupid "Tongue Ring" episode. Yes, Andrea's tongue ring broke [sorry mom and dad!], split in two in the middle of the outback. Obvisouly we weren't going to be able to find a place to replace it out there, though we asked anyway, much to Phil's amusement. Maybe some superglue? The little shop at the King's Canyon camground was our best bet. We walked in and asked if he had any superglue. Not for sale, but he's got some we can use, he says. What do we need glued? Andrea sticks out her tongue. "I'm not touching that!" he says. He hands me the superglue, and I take the three pieces and attempt to reassemble them. Of course, the stupid things end up sticking more to my fingers than each other. It's a classic moment, with one little plastic hemisphere on each finger, and andrea holding the little metal post, the shop guy watching with a smile, trying to get all this done before Phil finished filling the gas tanks on our truck and we had to get going again. Amazingly, it finally worked! The two halves of the ball stuck together and separated from my fingers, and the post was fixed in place between them. With lightning speed, Andrea was in and out of the bathroom, tongue ring kluged together in her mouth! Never mind that we had nothing to clean it with, and could barely clean our hands. Even more amazing, the superglue held for the next three days until we made it back to Alice, where we had very cleverly left the spare locked in the storage room with the rest of our bags. Lesson learned: carry spare jewelry at all times! And Andrea's tongue survived the incident with only a little soreness after the three days. I'm sure the makers of Superglue would love to hear about this new use for their product.... The night we finally switched out the glued ring was another intersting one. Shona and I had already been finding solace in the trees after a fun night at the pub. There was Andrea, tongue sore from this hack we had done a few days before, but unable to actually get the new ball onto the new base. Here comes Sean to the rescue. Sean is a diesel mechanic and has perpetually dirty fingers, so there's Andrea yelling at him to wash his hands as he reaches into her mouth. Luckily, it took him only a single try to get it all tightened down, and he had a good supply of Listerine (it is an antiseptic, you know). Now, once again, all is well with Andrea's tongue. (Well, in our slightly deranged minds anyway!) |
Replies: 5 comments
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Dear Andrea, Just opened your homepage and wanted to wish you and your husband a Merry Christmas. (This is Carole from Tunde's class at Crunch). I just passed the lighthouse that you have your picture taken from at your wedding. My parents live in P.V. Where were you married - at the glass church or ? Anyway, how does one email responses to AR when I am not a member of grey matter? Didn't know so I had to post this... Thanks for posting all your pictures!!!! Looks exactly like I thought - you are having the time of your life! I am so happy for you you both. Merry Christmas from rainy L.A. Haven't been to the gym in two weeks! Argh. New Years resolution.
Take care, Posted by carole from crunch @ 12/25/2003 03:34 PM PST |
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what if you had glued Andrea's talk to you soon. Love the spider pics. michelle Posted by michelle @ 12/27/2003 11:07 AM PST |
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Yea..whatever michelle...Robin wishes. But, you know I would have found a way to say something. Posted by michelle @ 01/01/2004 03:43 AM PST |
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Thanks! No need to click on AR, just click on either Robiin or Andrea, that should do it. Andrea Posted by Carole @ 01/01/2004 03:47 AM PST |
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