We have been staying in Margaret River for about a week now, and it is SPECTACULAR! There is so much to do! I thought it was just be a river, and lots of grapes... but no! There is whole lot more! There is a multitude of touristy things here! And it is also a famous surfing area (who knew!). I looked into learning to surf, but the lessons cost just too much. However, despite the crushing disappointment of not being able to surf, we have been out and about and doing HEAPS of things over here!
One of the first things we did was to explore the caves in the area. There are many caves here, so we just picked three of the biggies. We saw Jewel Cave (Kristy’s favourite), Lake Cave (Megan’s fav) and Mammoth cave (my fav). We climbed up and down over 1,500 stairs (it felt like 15,000!) on Cave Day and my calf muscles were screaming the next day (and the day after, and the day after)! And... I received a cave injury – my arm scrapped on a stalactite! And in case you are wondering, yes, I have recovered. Question: does my stalactite injury beat Kristy’s previous tuna injury? I say YES! Vote 1 for Linda! On the same day as I was almost mortally wounded by a stalactite, Megan suffered a fern injury whilst she walked through the forest. I think she was being wimpy even mentioning it – as if that is on par with a stalactite injury – but I will let you all be the judge of the most exciting injury.
We also visited the BushShack brewery, where for $12 we could sample six different beers. The Passionfruit beer was YUM, as was the Mango beer and the strawberry one. The Chilli beer was undrinkable (and I like Chilli!), and they had ran out of the Chocolate Beer (unthinkable!). It was such fun, sitting in the sun, drinking our sample beers and kicking back. This was also the day that, as we were getting ourselves ready in the morning, I took my clothes to the shower block to get changed into, and Kristy changed her clothes in the tent, and when I came back, we were dressed in almost identical outfits! We had on black shorts, and black and white striped t-shirts! Megan couldn’t stop laughing. We took a photo (it’s on FaceBook) and when Kristy saw how she looked in the photo, she changed immediately – because she looked like she was 20 kilo’s heavier than she actually is! It is one of my fav pics of her – because it soooo doesn’t look like her body! It looks like Kristy’s head has been put on a pregnant woman’s torso! Yes Mel, you have told us never to buy horizontal stripes, and I don’t think Kristy will be buying them again.
After the BeerShack Brewery, we headed over to see a Sheep Shearing display. It was actually quite good, and interesting for me who has had limited exposure to the intricacies of sheep and the shearing of aforementioned animal. The guy who was heading up the display was a real aussie larrikin, and he liked to pick people from the audience to come on up and help him. As myself, Megan and Kristy were pretty much the only ones who were under 80 years of age, we got picked on a bit. Megan and I were CRINGING, and we tried to hide at the back everytime he wanted a ‘volunteer’. Kristy was loving it, and she wanted to be picked all the time, so she would push her way to the front. I was the first person to be picked, and he picked me to be his Roustabout – someone who sweeps up the left over sheep wool after the shearing has occurred. Despite being a Leo, I do not like being in the limelight. I think that the guy who was running the shearing display liked Megan – he kept looking at her. When I told her this, she said, “He’s only human.”
Kristy and Megan also got chosen to go up the front and feed the baby lambs. Megan’s stonewall face reflected her exact feelings of being up the front. I took a photo of that stonewall face, before she had remembered to put on her ‘audience’ face. Then a boy lamb was handed to Kristy and then shearer showed everyone it’s ‘maleness’, and even got the old ladies to tweek the doodle! They were shocked... and they loved it! Poor Megan, though, she didn’t get a chance to tweek the doodle.
Kristy and I took ourselves off to the Eagle Farm (Megan wanted some well earned ‘alone’ time). We arrived at the Eagle Farm (a self-funded place for injury eagles) in plenty of time because we wanted the opportunity to have a raptor sit on our arm (as advertised). And as it turns out, we were the ONLY ones there, watching the flying display! The whole display was done just for Kristy and I! And it was so exciting having an eagle sit on my arm (big glove on the arm first, of course). I know you have heard the term ‘eagle-eyed, and now I will tell you why that term is used: If a wedge tailed eagle could read, it could read the head-lines of a newspaper over 1 kilometre away. There you are – a bit of trivia for you. You can thank me later for that.
I think it was the night after the eagle farm, when we were all sitting in the tent, having a few drinks (Nicole had just left and gone to Perth– she ran out of money) when Kristy looked over at me and said that the little creases in my forehead looked like ‘in-built’ devil horns. Megan and I laughed and said, “I think you mean ‘built-in’, not in-built”. Then Kristy said to us (in her Sponge-Bob-Cranky-Pants voice), “It’s not my fault I say things wrong, I have HDD!” Who knew that HDD was the new ADD????!!!! Ahhh, Kristy, you bring me so many smiles.
There appears to be less mosquito’s here in Margaret River than in Esperance, however that hasn’t stopped Kristy from spraying fly spray around like it was a cheap perfume. It is a brave mozzie that dares to enter our tent! However, I wish Kristy would wait until Megan and I had LEFT the tent before she started spraying, as we are ambush fumigated when we least expect it. In any event, I suppose we should be grateful because, despite our burning throats and stinging eyes, we are free of mosquito bites!
We looked in an Antique shop yesterday. It had a great sign behind the counter that said: “That was lovely, but I need to scream now”.
Oh, oh, oh, and we went to the Chocolate Factory, the Fudge Factory, the Nougat Factory, the Cheese Factory and Muesli Factory (thought we better add some healthy in there). And they all had FREE tastings. You should have seen Kristy and Megan at the Chocolate Factory. They took HANDFULS of the free samples. And I mean BIG HANDFULS! And over and over again BIG HANDFULS! I think that Kristy believes that because the samples are free it doesn’t count on the diet. I think I would also like to believe that. Over the last 2 days we have eaten quite a lot of free cheese, chocolate, muesli, fudge, nuts, biscuits, nougat, jams and lollies (OMG, the Candy Cow!!!!). Not to mention the wine tastings!
Ahhh, Margaret River, we have also liked swimming at your beaches. The other night we went to the beach to watch the sunset – beautiful. Kristy knows that Ronnie is gonna love another sunset photo to add to her collection. T
Last night we headed out to the much acclaimed Margaret River Fiesta, but unfortunately for us, it was more like a siesta than a fiesta. And is there something in the water here at Margaret River? It appears that every second person is either pregnant or pushing a pram! That means the Fiesta was quite family orientated. We saw everything once, ate some of those dutch pancakes (ummmm – delicious!) and left to go back to the tent and drink the wine we had purchased earlier – Howling Wolf – very good!
We came back to our site to discover that we were now camped next to a Muppet. But it is a naughty Muppet – she is a beer drinking, Windfield smoking Muppet, and is here having a dirty weekend with her boyfriend! She has a VERY high-pitched voice, and when we were sitting in our tent all we could hear was her Muppet voice (mixed in with the music they were playing – The Cat’s in the Cradle – WTF?). Having said that, this is and example of what they heard coming from our tent:
Kristy to Linda: Babe, can you rub it? Go harder, go harder. It’s getting bigger I think. Push in harder. Yeahhhhhh, that’s gooood. (This was when I was massaging a knot out of Kristy’s back).
Megan to Kristy: You need more drugs, the other drugs aren’t working for you. Here, sniff this. (Kristy has sinus issues).
And... guess what...? For me and Megan, the Dukan diet is O.V.E.R!!!
Yes, it is true, after almost six weeks of being on the Dukan diet, I have left it for greener (and yummier) pastures. I have moved on from eating primarily only 2 food groups – meat (low-fat) and dairy (no-fat), and have now added the following food groups to my diet – vegetables, fruit, chocolate and fudge. Megan is with me on this. Only Kristy is resisting the call of sugar, unless, of course, it is a free sample (although I am sure I saw her earlier, hiding behind the van, scoffing down a coconut ice fudge).
Kristy is the skinniest of our little camping trio (Nicole has left us), and the Dukan diet really worked for her. But me, no, I lost hardly anything, so I figure, why bother? This morning I had a toasted fruit muffin with banana and strawberries and I think my mouth thought it had died and gone to heaven (It’s been a while since I have eaten fruit).
Anyway, it’s all good, because now I’m on the Vodka diet, and I have already lost two days.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Crossed the Nullarbor - TICK
We have crossed the Nullarbor! We drove 9 and ½ hours on the 1st day and about 5 hours on the 2nd day. The first section of the Nullarbor is so awesome – looking over the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, the ocean looked magnificent! The music as we crossed the Nullarbor? Mostly the Glee Soundtrack! Kristy has an obsession with Glee at the moment – and she purchased all 6 discs of the first season of Glee! Although, at one stage I did manage to slide Counting Crows into the disc player, and when I was singing to “Round Here” at the top of my voice (as you do, and you know you do!) the car became so hot (or was it my singing?), that the empty jelly cup that Kristy had on the dashboard blew it’s lid with the loudest POP!
We stopped at a little place called Cocklebiddy to sleep the first night of the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy is a trucker’s stop along the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy has a population of 8 people (a sign also informed us that there is also 25 budgies, 7 quails, 1 dog and 1,234,567 kangaroos in Cocklebiddy). It was blowing a gale when we got there (apparently it was the tail end of the recent cyclone) and we were all tired, hungry and pretty much over all the driving. We set up Megan’s tent, and it was pretty tricky, considering the canvas became like a parachute (and boy, did that help our moods!!!!) In addition, the ground at Cocklebiddy was so hard that the tent pegs would not hammer in (another mood enhancer – ground too hard for tent pegs!), so in the end, Megan’s tent was set up over a dried up puddle, because it was the only place where the ground was soft enough (and we prayed in would not rain that night, because then Megan would be sleeping in a actual puddle). Nicole decided that she was not going to struggle with the setting up of her tent, so she slept in her car that night. Kristy and I had the van to sleep in, but because we have accumulated so much STUFF since we began travelling, we have to shift that stuff to the front seats or the ground outside, just so we can sleep. I think that I am getting good, strong arm muscles since we have started travelling, moving that stuff back and forth. It is surprising that we have so much STUFF though, because, believe me, we cull a lot of things along the way– I don’t know how it happens, that stuff just grows! Like some strange osmosis process!! It is just another one of those mysteries of life. Although, I did just purchase a printer, and one does have to ask oneself, was that completely necessary?
After the 2nd day of Nullarbor, after driving on the longest (146.6 kms) straight road in Australia (we were told it would be “Nullaboring”, but it wasn’t so bad. I mean, really, we have driven up and down the middle of Australia and through a number of deserts), we ended up in Esperance, W.A. Oh... My... God... Esperance, the beaches, STUNNING!!! I have never seen anything like the coastline in Esperance, it was better than the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. And the beaches! They are beyond description! The water is crystal clear, the sand so soft, everything is so clean, the view is perfect, it was just THE BEST!!! We swam at Twilight Cove and took 1 billion pictures. I am not even that much of a beach person, but I couldn’t wait to get my chubby, little body into that water. And then... just when I thought I would never see a better beach... we drove into the National Park and went to Lucky Bay. It is famous for its white sand. And that beach was even better! Four wheel drives are allowed to drive right up on the beach, so we did, and set up the van’s awning, and had a day of swimming in the most perfect water, sitting on soft, white sand, walking along the beach to a lookout, and eating a protein lunch (yes still on the Dukan diet), as we watched the waves roll in and looked at the most amazing scenery. You can actually camp at Lucky Bay, it is very much a bush setting (no shops close by), and I wish we had of organised it. Next time. Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend Esperance as a holiday destination, even if you don’t currently love beaches, you will after seeing the beaches of Esperance! P.S. Kristy purchased new bathers, which is lucky for all of us really, considering her old blue ones were see-through. Definitely too much on view for the others Kristy (Megan is gonna need therapy for the amount of time that she has seen Kristy’s bum crack anyway, she doesn’t need anything else to be traumatised about!)
We have stayed in Esperance for a number of nights, and each evening, Kristy, Megan and myself take our daily exercise (part of the Dukan law to losing weight) and we walk from our camp to the local pier and back (about an hours walk). Under the pier lived Fatty the Seal, and each night we would say hello to him. One night he was snoring on the sand and Kristy got close up and personal with him (and Megan has the photo to prove it!). Fortunately he didn’t wake up, because knowing Kristy, there definitely would then have been a seal injury happening if he had seen her. However, our Kristy did get another injury, a thong injury! She had her thong in her hand and a March Fly was buzzing around her, and so she started slapping at the fly with her thong, and ended up slapping herself about four times! You think she would have stopped hitting herself after the first slap! And, lol, Megan managed to snap a pic of this event! Well, these thong slap marks added to her look, because Kristy was sporting a cold sore the size of a small planet for most of Esperance!
The caravan park that we stayed in was great, except that our camp site backed onto a railway line and a main road. We eventually got used to tuning out the sounds of trains (and huge ones at that) and horns blasting. Oh, and those damn church bells that rang out every half hour – I won’t ever forget them! And we were not camped under a tree, so we had no shade whatsoever and WOW that sun can get hot in the afternoon! Oh, and the March flies would congregate where we camped (they are following Kristy), but apart from the trains, the traffic, the church bells, the flies bitting us and the heat... the caravan park was great!
At Esperance, we went on a tour of the Port, and that is one hour of my life that I will never get back again (lucky it only cost $5.00, however it was my first proof that you really do get what you pay for!) Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on the tour in the first place, because I am not really into the statistics of big sheds, shipping, etc. And so I was very, very bored. I am sure if you like hearing about the amount of barley being carted around and sent overseas, or how much iron ore can fit in a shed, then it would be fascinating, but for me... no. So I did what any sensible, rational adult woman would do, and that is, I started texting Kristy and Megan to see if I could make them laugh. We were on a very little bus, (which, btw, was about 50 years old, and smelt like it! The usual minibus was in getting fixed, sigh) and it was very intimate tour (all of us up close) and therefore it was obvious if anyone wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide. But, my evil plan backfired, and the girls ended up making ME laugh, as they replied with wicked comments. So I couldn’t hold the laughter in anymore but I did manage to pretend I was coughing, because I didn’t want the tour guide to think I was laughing at him. E.g’s of our texting include, “I think my ears are bleeding”, and “I now understand the concept of dying of boredom” and “I heard him say exit and I got excited” and “let’s have a drink when we get back, I can’t be sober any longer”). Kristy and Megan took some photo’s on this tour (why????) but I wish we had taken a photo of Megan’s face when we drove into one shed that was filled with a salt-like substance, and he told us it was sulphur, and sulphur is the only thing in the world that Megan is allergic to!!! Poor Meg-a-sarus!
Oh, and on a completely different note – why does W.A have no pokies???!!! Megan and Kristy were SHOCKED, little gamblers that they are! And I do mean little, because the Dukan diet is working for some of us (regrettably, I am not ‘some of us’, yet I still persist! What am I doing????).
And on another completely different note – WHY is the supermarket at Esperance so cold? We needed thermal jackets just to shop!
Here are some examples of things I hear/see/experience when we are camping:
• Megan speaking to Kristy: She MEANT to say, “I am rubbing OFF on you.” What she ACTUALLY said, “I am rubbing UP on you.” Oh yes Megan, a completely different meaning with the exchange of that one little word!
• Kristy speaking to Megan about sharing the rotisserie roast chicken that they had purchased: If I can chew on your leg, you can have my breast.
• Kristy telling us about the bowel movement that she had that afternoon, as Megan is eating her chocolate pudding (99% fat free of course!).
• Kristy telling us the graphic story of how her eye was bleeding once because she had a leach in it, as the rest of us tried to eat our breakfast.
• Nicole yelling in her sleep, or frantically unzipping and zipping her tent up (she not only sleep talks, and sleep walks, she also sleep zips!)
• Megan saying this to Kristy when Kristy was grumpy to her: “Don’t hate me coz I’m beautiful.”
• Kristy telling us, “Look there’s a seat, to sit on.” Ahhh, yes, thank you for pointing that out, because I thought that seat was for standing on.
• Megan needing a new light-bulb for her lamp, and then putting the new globe in, and that didn’t work, and she was worried until she realised that she hadn’t plugged lamp in to the electricity.
• Megan searching for the hole in her air mattress, because it kept going down, and then noticing that she hadn’t put the stopper in.
We are all getting so, so brown. Oh and Megan got her hair cut! It not only looks great, but she did lose 2 kilo’s in the process (she has VERY thick hair).
Margaret River... HERE WE COME!!!!!
We stopped at a little place called Cocklebiddy to sleep the first night of the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy is a trucker’s stop along the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy has a population of 8 people (a sign also informed us that there is also 25 budgies, 7 quails, 1 dog and 1,234,567 kangaroos in Cocklebiddy). It was blowing a gale when we got there (apparently it was the tail end of the recent cyclone) and we were all tired, hungry and pretty much over all the driving. We set up Megan’s tent, and it was pretty tricky, considering the canvas became like a parachute (and boy, did that help our moods!!!!) In addition, the ground at Cocklebiddy was so hard that the tent pegs would not hammer in (another mood enhancer – ground too hard for tent pegs!), so in the end, Megan’s tent was set up over a dried up puddle, because it was the only place where the ground was soft enough (and we prayed in would not rain that night, because then Megan would be sleeping in a actual puddle). Nicole decided that she was not going to struggle with the setting up of her tent, so she slept in her car that night. Kristy and I had the van to sleep in, but because we have accumulated so much STUFF since we began travelling, we have to shift that stuff to the front seats or the ground outside, just so we can sleep. I think that I am getting good, strong arm muscles since we have started travelling, moving that stuff back and forth. It is surprising that we have so much STUFF though, because, believe me, we cull a lot of things along the way– I don’t know how it happens, that stuff just grows! Like some strange osmosis process!! It is just another one of those mysteries of life. Although, I did just purchase a printer, and one does have to ask oneself, was that completely necessary?
After the 2nd day of Nullarbor, after driving on the longest (146.6 kms) straight road in Australia (we were told it would be “Nullaboring”, but it wasn’t so bad. I mean, really, we have driven up and down the middle of Australia and through a number of deserts), we ended up in Esperance, W.A. Oh... My... God... Esperance, the beaches, STUNNING!!! I have never seen anything like the coastline in Esperance, it was better than the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. And the beaches! They are beyond description! The water is crystal clear, the sand so soft, everything is so clean, the view is perfect, it was just THE BEST!!! We swam at Twilight Cove and took 1 billion pictures. I am not even that much of a beach person, but I couldn’t wait to get my chubby, little body into that water. And then... just when I thought I would never see a better beach... we drove into the National Park and went to Lucky Bay. It is famous for its white sand. And that beach was even better! Four wheel drives are allowed to drive right up on the beach, so we did, and set up the van’s awning, and had a day of swimming in the most perfect water, sitting on soft, white sand, walking along the beach to a lookout, and eating a protein lunch (yes still on the Dukan diet), as we watched the waves roll in and looked at the most amazing scenery. You can actually camp at Lucky Bay, it is very much a bush setting (no shops close by), and I wish we had of organised it. Next time. Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend Esperance as a holiday destination, even if you don’t currently love beaches, you will after seeing the beaches of Esperance! P.S. Kristy purchased new bathers, which is lucky for all of us really, considering her old blue ones were see-through. Definitely too much on view for the others Kristy (Megan is gonna need therapy for the amount of time that she has seen Kristy’s bum crack anyway, she doesn’t need anything else to be traumatised about!)
We have stayed in Esperance for a number of nights, and each evening, Kristy, Megan and myself take our daily exercise (part of the Dukan law to losing weight) and we walk from our camp to the local pier and back (about an hours walk). Under the pier lived Fatty the Seal, and each night we would say hello to him. One night he was snoring on the sand and Kristy got close up and personal with him (and Megan has the photo to prove it!). Fortunately he didn’t wake up, because knowing Kristy, there definitely would then have been a seal injury happening if he had seen her. However, our Kristy did get another injury, a thong injury! She had her thong in her hand and a March Fly was buzzing around her, and so she started slapping at the fly with her thong, and ended up slapping herself about four times! You think she would have stopped hitting herself after the first slap! And, lol, Megan managed to snap a pic of this event! Well, these thong slap marks added to her look, because Kristy was sporting a cold sore the size of a small planet for most of Esperance!
The caravan park that we stayed in was great, except that our camp site backed onto a railway line and a main road. We eventually got used to tuning out the sounds of trains (and huge ones at that) and horns blasting. Oh, and those damn church bells that rang out every half hour – I won’t ever forget them! And we were not camped under a tree, so we had no shade whatsoever and WOW that sun can get hot in the afternoon! Oh, and the March flies would congregate where we camped (they are following Kristy), but apart from the trains, the traffic, the church bells, the flies bitting us and the heat... the caravan park was great!
At Esperance, we went on a tour of the Port, and that is one hour of my life that I will never get back again (lucky it only cost $5.00, however it was my first proof that you really do get what you pay for!) Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on the tour in the first place, because I am not really into the statistics of big sheds, shipping, etc. And so I was very, very bored. I am sure if you like hearing about the amount of barley being carted around and sent overseas, or how much iron ore can fit in a shed, then it would be fascinating, but for me... no. So I did what any sensible, rational adult woman would do, and that is, I started texting Kristy and Megan to see if I could make them laugh. We were on a very little bus, (which, btw, was about 50 years old, and smelt like it! The usual minibus was in getting fixed, sigh) and it was very intimate tour (all of us up close) and therefore it was obvious if anyone wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide. But, my evil plan backfired, and the girls ended up making ME laugh, as they replied with wicked comments. So I couldn’t hold the laughter in anymore but I did manage to pretend I was coughing, because I didn’t want the tour guide to think I was laughing at him. E.g’s of our texting include, “I think my ears are bleeding”, and “I now understand the concept of dying of boredom” and “I heard him say exit and I got excited” and “let’s have a drink when we get back, I can’t be sober any longer”). Kristy and Megan took some photo’s on this tour (why????) but I wish we had taken a photo of Megan’s face when we drove into one shed that was filled with a salt-like substance, and he told us it was sulphur, and sulphur is the only thing in the world that Megan is allergic to!!! Poor Meg-a-sarus!
Oh, and on a completely different note – why does W.A have no pokies???!!! Megan and Kristy were SHOCKED, little gamblers that they are! And I do mean little, because the Dukan diet is working for some of us (regrettably, I am not ‘some of us’, yet I still persist! What am I doing????).
And on another completely different note – WHY is the supermarket at Esperance so cold? We needed thermal jackets just to shop!
Here are some examples of things I hear/see/experience when we are camping:
• Megan speaking to Kristy: She MEANT to say, “I am rubbing OFF on you.” What she ACTUALLY said, “I am rubbing UP on you.” Oh yes Megan, a completely different meaning with the exchange of that one little word!
• Kristy speaking to Megan about sharing the rotisserie roast chicken that they had purchased: If I can chew on your leg, you can have my breast.
• Kristy telling us about the bowel movement that she had that afternoon, as Megan is eating her chocolate pudding (99% fat free of course!).
• Kristy telling us the graphic story of how her eye was bleeding once because she had a leach in it, as the rest of us tried to eat our breakfast.
• Nicole yelling in her sleep, or frantically unzipping and zipping her tent up (she not only sleep talks, and sleep walks, she also sleep zips!)
• Megan saying this to Kristy when Kristy was grumpy to her: “Don’t hate me coz I’m beautiful.”
• Kristy telling us, “Look there’s a seat, to sit on.” Ahhh, yes, thank you for pointing that out, because I thought that seat was for standing on.
• Megan needing a new light-bulb for her lamp, and then putting the new globe in, and that didn’t work, and she was worried until she realised that she hadn’t plugged lamp in to the electricity.
• Megan searching for the hole in her air mattress, because it kept going down, and then noticing that she hadn’t put the stopper in.
We are all getting so, so brown. Oh and Megan got her hair cut! It not only looks great, but she did lose 2 kilo’s in the process (she has VERY thick hair).
Margaret River... HERE WE COME!!!!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Adelaide -- Port Lincoln -- Streaky Bay
Last night I had a dream that I was holding a chubby baby, and when I woke up, I realised that I had moved lower down in the bed and I was snuggled into Kristy’s bum! This is a true story! Honestly, if I had of been conscious, there is no way I would be close to that bum (since the diet, her “wind” is a bit lethal, and OMG, I cant even talk about the breath!).
Well, we have left Melbourne, been to Adelaide, left Adelaide (we wish we could have taken Elle with us!) and are now headed to the Western Australia border. Along with us are two buddies from Yulara, Megan and Nicole.
Our first stop was five days in Port Lincoln. We were camping on the banks of Boston Bay and, God, it was beautiful. Once I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (yes, again I have to get used to freezing my ass off to run from the van to the toilet block) and saw the moon reflected in the sea - stunning. The sunrise would happen right in front of us, and Kristy and I would look at it through the curtains of the van as we woke up each morning to see it. Of course we went straight back to sleep after that, because, no matter how beautiful, who gets up at 7.00am when they are on holidays?
Whilst at Port Lincoln, Kristy, Megan and myself went on a fishing charter. OMG! We caught a lot of fish, and also saw dolphins and seals playing. And when we fished! Almost every time we threw a line in, we caught one. We ate fish for days after that fishing charter – well worth the money. AND... we were the only ones on the boat! Yay! So it was like a private charter just for us. First we went squidding. Kristy caught the first squid, and she did not know that they squirt ink! So, after she proudly brought the squid over the rails of the boat, it squirted black ink all over the front of her favourite shorts – basically got her right in the crotch! (I have since tried to wash the ink out (once she took off the shorts people!), but to no avail. I have heard it will fade out, but I kinda like the squid memory on her shorts, so I hope it doesn’t). We then went trawling and caught 2 snooks (Megan and I did). I have never even heard of a snook before, let alone seen one. It is a very long and skinny fish! But then the real fishing began – whiting (huge and we kept them), sea bass (threw them back), rock fish (threw them back too), flathead (too small, back they went), leather-jackets (as if we kept them), mullet (as if we kept them either!), and reef cod (think we threw them back). Hmmmm, just read over what I wrote, so ok... we only kept the whiting, threw the rest back! Kristy nearly sprained her wrist as she was bringing in her big whiting, however this is no reflection on the size of the fish, as she does have weak little wrists (poor fragile Kristy).
The following day we went swimming with the Tuna far out in the bay. I have not really seen tuna outside of a can (I’m such a city gal!). Well, the tuna that we swam with were just adolescents, however they all weighed between 40kg and 70kg – and they looked like mini sharks! Kristy was the first one in the ocean with the tuna – she is the bravest one of us. Megan went in next and I followed Megan. The ocean was so cold that I honestly think my heart stopped beating for 10 seconds when I hit that water – Bloody hell! I followed Megan, who had followed Kristy, which was to a rope we could hang on to. Nicole was behind me (and once Nicole had grabbed that rope, she did not let go of it for the whole time!).
With my head above the water, it all looked mostly peaceful (occasionally a fin broke the surface), but the second I put my snorkel under the water, I saw all these huge tuna swimming around, in touching distance! Hairy scary! They have sharp looking teeth and fins! And did I mention that they were big!! Eventually I was snorkelling around and looking at the tuna swimming, and it was actually quite peaceful and really a really amazing experience. I only got touched by one tuna, and it just brushed against my leg.
Then the Charter Tour owner started throwing pilchards! The tuna loved them and they went into a feeding frenzy all around us! Unreal! Sometimes he would throw the pilchards really close to our heads and the tuna would dive and swim and churn up the water all around us, and snap up the pilchard right in front of our noses! We even hand fed the tuna with pilchards, but we had to be careful, because their teeth are very sharp. Only one person on the charter tour got a tuna injury, and of course that was.....Kristy (who is surprised by this?). One of the tuna grazed her hand as she was feeding it. I think it is fun to have a tuna injury – how many people can say that? (She has since added to the injury on that hand by trying to pull out my stay-sharp knife that she had put upside down in the holder!)
Megan, Kristy and I are all on the Dukan diet. Megan and Kristy are losing a good amount of weight, but I have only lost 2 kg. TWO KILOGRAMS!!!! FOR WEEKS OF DIETING!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO UNIMPRESSED!!!!!! Kristy has lost the most weight, and considering that before she left Adelaide, she had the following conversation with my daughter:
(Mel is making up a potato salad, she is in the last stages – stirring it all up)
Kristy: That looks good.
Mel: Thanks, I am making it to have with our dinner.
Kristy: Can I have a taste?
(Mel reaches for a teaspoon to give Kristy a taste)
Kristy (before Mel dips the teaspoon in): Can I have a small bowl?
But now that Kristy is on the diet – Kristy has not cheated at all, not once. I am very proud of her, and she is truly becoming a skinny mini (fortunately I CAN be totally jealous AND totally supportive at the same time – for how much longer, I do not know!). Megan, Kristy and I all now have a mantra which we regularly chant ---- “Bring on Vegie Day” --- because with the Dukan diet, every 2nd day we can have vegies with our protein. We do get a little sick of meat and non-fat dairy, day in day out. PS - Have to say that Megan’s hair is growing out of control and I think if she trimmed her hair, she would lose 5 kilo’s doing that alone!
Oh and I did promise Kristy that I would not mention her difficulty with bowel movements, but considering that we all hear about it a number of times a day (true!!!!), I do think it bears a mention here. Megan is shocked that Kristy mentions it so much! (Megan, I can hear you laughing!)
Since we have been away, the four of us have had killer games of UNO. Megan can’t shuffle, so Kristy and I do it for her (hence her card nickname “shuffle-uff-i-gus). Megan has extremely long fingernails, talons really, which look great, but do not allow for effective card shuffling. Nicole is a gun at UNO, however, she is yet to win (yes it is possible to be a gun, yet still not win!). I haven’t won a game yet either, which is causing me difficulty, and I will amend this state of affairs soon!
I have been doing lots of puzzles, and sometimes the four of us answers the trivia quiz’s or crosswords together. Oh, that reminds me, as Kristy and I were driving to Streaky Bay, I had a brain lapse on the question, “What is the symbol for the star sign Taurus?” I just couldn’t remember what it was (Me! Of all people!). Anyway, Kristy, in her helpfulness, said, “Isn’t it that man with the fork?” A man with a fork!!!! I laughed so hard, to imagine that the sign for Taurus is a guy grilling sausages??!! (Btw, for those of you who are not astrologically inclined, the sign for Taurus is a Bull).
Oh, and another thing Kristy said (gotta love the Kristy-isms), when she saw seagulls in Port Lincoln, she said, “I wonder why I didn’t see any seagulls at Ayers Rock?” Hmmmm. One of those questions that will follow us all to our graves.
I have been unwell, which has not been fun, yet I still managed to do the couple of tour charters. Just had a head cold sort of thing, but I am glad it is almost over. My brain was a bit fuzzy for a while there. Once I lost my sunglasses, and considering that they are Ray Banns, I was a bit devo about losing them. However, I eventually did find them! Kristy pointed out to me that I was wearing them! Duhhhh!
I may have a job when I get to Perth!!!! I applied for a number of jobs in Perth, and the main one I am interested in has already telephone interviewed me, and I have moved to the next stage for a second interview! It is between myself and another candidate. They are going to fly me to Perth for a morning for the interview in the next couple of days so everyone cross your fingers for me!
I am in a bit of a crazy place at the moment because I have no telephone reception. Kristy does, but I don’t – so not ok!!! Come on Optus!! I love my telephone, is hard to be without it! So if you need to contact me, please email – it is the best way to reach me.
Tomorrow we cross the Nullarbor! Excitement is reigning supreme! I am really looking forward to reaching W.A.! Bring on the Nullarbor! I am prepared and ready (sorry mum, I forgot the Mars Bars, but do I have plenty of water).
I miss my family! I miss my mum, Mel, Elle and Logan!!! Love all of you.
Our thoughts are with Annie and with Leanne. Lots of love and healing are being sent your way.
Well, we have left Melbourne, been to Adelaide, left Adelaide (we wish we could have taken Elle with us!) and are now headed to the Western Australia border. Along with us are two buddies from Yulara, Megan and Nicole.
Our first stop was five days in Port Lincoln. We were camping on the banks of Boston Bay and, God, it was beautiful. Once I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (yes, again I have to get used to freezing my ass off to run from the van to the toilet block) and saw the moon reflected in the sea - stunning. The sunrise would happen right in front of us, and Kristy and I would look at it through the curtains of the van as we woke up each morning to see it. Of course we went straight back to sleep after that, because, no matter how beautiful, who gets up at 7.00am when they are on holidays?
Whilst at Port Lincoln, Kristy, Megan and myself went on a fishing charter. OMG! We caught a lot of fish, and also saw dolphins and seals playing. And when we fished! Almost every time we threw a line in, we caught one. We ate fish for days after that fishing charter – well worth the money. AND... we were the only ones on the boat! Yay! So it was like a private charter just for us. First we went squidding. Kristy caught the first squid, and she did not know that they squirt ink! So, after she proudly brought the squid over the rails of the boat, it squirted black ink all over the front of her favourite shorts – basically got her right in the crotch! (I have since tried to wash the ink out (once she took off the shorts people!), but to no avail. I have heard it will fade out, but I kinda like the squid memory on her shorts, so I hope it doesn’t). We then went trawling and caught 2 snooks (Megan and I did). I have never even heard of a snook before, let alone seen one. It is a very long and skinny fish! But then the real fishing began – whiting (huge and we kept them), sea bass (threw them back), rock fish (threw them back too), flathead (too small, back they went), leather-jackets (as if we kept them), mullet (as if we kept them either!), and reef cod (think we threw them back). Hmmmm, just read over what I wrote, so ok... we only kept the whiting, threw the rest back! Kristy nearly sprained her wrist as she was bringing in her big whiting, however this is no reflection on the size of the fish, as she does have weak little wrists (poor fragile Kristy).
The following day we went swimming with the Tuna far out in the bay. I have not really seen tuna outside of a can (I’m such a city gal!). Well, the tuna that we swam with were just adolescents, however they all weighed between 40kg and 70kg – and they looked like mini sharks! Kristy was the first one in the ocean with the tuna – she is the bravest one of us. Megan went in next and I followed Megan. The ocean was so cold that I honestly think my heart stopped beating for 10 seconds when I hit that water – Bloody hell! I followed Megan, who had followed Kristy, which was to a rope we could hang on to. Nicole was behind me (and once Nicole had grabbed that rope, she did not let go of it for the whole time!).
With my head above the water, it all looked mostly peaceful (occasionally a fin broke the surface), but the second I put my snorkel under the water, I saw all these huge tuna swimming around, in touching distance! Hairy scary! They have sharp looking teeth and fins! And did I mention that they were big!! Eventually I was snorkelling around and looking at the tuna swimming, and it was actually quite peaceful and really a really amazing experience. I only got touched by one tuna, and it just brushed against my leg.
Then the Charter Tour owner started throwing pilchards! The tuna loved them and they went into a feeding frenzy all around us! Unreal! Sometimes he would throw the pilchards really close to our heads and the tuna would dive and swim and churn up the water all around us, and snap up the pilchard right in front of our noses! We even hand fed the tuna with pilchards, but we had to be careful, because their teeth are very sharp. Only one person on the charter tour got a tuna injury, and of course that was.....Kristy (who is surprised by this?). One of the tuna grazed her hand as she was feeding it. I think it is fun to have a tuna injury – how many people can say that? (She has since added to the injury on that hand by trying to pull out my stay-sharp knife that she had put upside down in the holder!)
Megan, Kristy and I are all on the Dukan diet. Megan and Kristy are losing a good amount of weight, but I have only lost 2 kg. TWO KILOGRAMS!!!! FOR WEEKS OF DIETING!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO UNIMPRESSED!!!!!! Kristy has lost the most weight, and considering that before she left Adelaide, she had the following conversation with my daughter:
(Mel is making up a potato salad, she is in the last stages – stirring it all up)
Kristy: That looks good.
Mel: Thanks, I am making it to have with our dinner.
Kristy: Can I have a taste?
(Mel reaches for a teaspoon to give Kristy a taste)
Kristy (before Mel dips the teaspoon in): Can I have a small bowl?
But now that Kristy is on the diet – Kristy has not cheated at all, not once. I am very proud of her, and she is truly becoming a skinny mini (fortunately I CAN be totally jealous AND totally supportive at the same time – for how much longer, I do not know!). Megan, Kristy and I all now have a mantra which we regularly chant ---- “Bring on Vegie Day” --- because with the Dukan diet, every 2nd day we can have vegies with our protein. We do get a little sick of meat and non-fat dairy, day in day out. PS - Have to say that Megan’s hair is growing out of control and I think if she trimmed her hair, she would lose 5 kilo’s doing that alone!
Oh and I did promise Kristy that I would not mention her difficulty with bowel movements, but considering that we all hear about it a number of times a day (true!!!!), I do think it bears a mention here. Megan is shocked that Kristy mentions it so much! (Megan, I can hear you laughing!)
Since we have been away, the four of us have had killer games of UNO. Megan can’t shuffle, so Kristy and I do it for her (hence her card nickname “shuffle-uff-i-gus). Megan has extremely long fingernails, talons really, which look great, but do not allow for effective card shuffling. Nicole is a gun at UNO, however, she is yet to win (yes it is possible to be a gun, yet still not win!). I haven’t won a game yet either, which is causing me difficulty, and I will amend this state of affairs soon!
I have been doing lots of puzzles, and sometimes the four of us answers the trivia quiz’s or crosswords together. Oh, that reminds me, as Kristy and I were driving to Streaky Bay, I had a brain lapse on the question, “What is the symbol for the star sign Taurus?” I just couldn’t remember what it was (Me! Of all people!). Anyway, Kristy, in her helpfulness, said, “Isn’t it that man with the fork?” A man with a fork!!!! I laughed so hard, to imagine that the sign for Taurus is a guy grilling sausages??!! (Btw, for those of you who are not astrologically inclined, the sign for Taurus is a Bull).
Oh, and another thing Kristy said (gotta love the Kristy-isms), when she saw seagulls in Port Lincoln, she said, “I wonder why I didn’t see any seagulls at Ayers Rock?” Hmmmm. One of those questions that will follow us all to our graves.
I have been unwell, which has not been fun, yet I still managed to do the couple of tour charters. Just had a head cold sort of thing, but I am glad it is almost over. My brain was a bit fuzzy for a while there. Once I lost my sunglasses, and considering that they are Ray Banns, I was a bit devo about losing them. However, I eventually did find them! Kristy pointed out to me that I was wearing them! Duhhhh!
I may have a job when I get to Perth!!!! I applied for a number of jobs in Perth, and the main one I am interested in has already telephone interviewed me, and I have moved to the next stage for a second interview! It is between myself and another candidate. They are going to fly me to Perth for a morning for the interview in the next couple of days so everyone cross your fingers for me!
I am in a bit of a crazy place at the moment because I have no telephone reception. Kristy does, but I don’t – so not ok!!! Come on Optus!! I love my telephone, is hard to be without it! So if you need to contact me, please email – it is the best way to reach me.
Tomorrow we cross the Nullarbor! Excitement is reigning supreme! I am really looking forward to reaching W.A.! Bring on the Nullarbor! I am prepared and ready (sorry mum, I forgot the Mars Bars, but do I have plenty of water).
I miss my family! I miss my mum, Mel, Elle and Logan!!! Love all of you.
Our thoughts are with Annie and with Leanne. Lots of love and healing are being sent your way.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Back in Melb for a short time only
Kristy Ann Baeffel had her 33rd birthday on the 9th Feb!!! Yay Kristy Baeffel!!!! Happy Birthday! Best wishes! Yay!! (She received LOTS of lotto tickets – and these are such a good present for her, cos she luvs to gamble every now and then, however, she is determined NOT to check them until the 15-2-11... I guess she likes to keep us all waiting, although I think she likes the thought that she is maybe a millionaire but she doesn’t know it yet!).
Kristy (now 33 years old) and I (age no longer to be stated in public forums) did the road trip from Ayers Rock to Adelaide. The Van, (God bless its little soul) made it to Mel’s place, with much fun times for all! It is interesting indeed, to have a van that refuses to move into reverse gear, and when it would go into 5th gear we would celebrate and pop champagne corks. I have to say, that while I did my share of the driving, Kristy did more than her share (which i guess means that I really didn’t do my share!). I found it very tricky and challenging (and not in a good way) to drive a van with no reverse gear, and with 5th gear being pretty much impossible for me (Kristy would put it into 5th for me from the passenger seat) AND I couldn’t really get 1st or 2nd gear, so I would start driving in THIRD gear – strangely enough it is possible (especially if on a slight hill) – and move to fourth, then Kristy would move it into 5th for me. Ahhh, the joys of a temperamental car. Just made it all the more fun for me, although... I did get a bit tired of pushing the van when we needed to reverse (bullbars get hot in Coober Pedy!!).
We were in Coober Pedy for only one night on the way back (only one night because we were in a hurry to get back – worried about the Van actually making it) and it was interesting, in a “wet” kind of way. We arrived and parked up and went into the motel. Kristy had seen that there were pokies in the lounge of this place we were staying at (see, further proof of her enjoyment of gambling!) so we got ourselves changed out of the road clothes, and into something better and stepped out the door of the motel. Kristy went first (fortunately for me) because suddenly, the guy on the balcony above our room, decided (for some unknown reason, other than that he is – oh yes - a wanker) to throw a bucket of water from the top of the balcony (we are determined to say it was water... please, make it have been water) and it landed square all over Kristy. I got the over-spray, but I was nowhere near as saturated as she was. So, after giving the wanker some dirty looks, we went back in our motel room, slamming the door very loudly and re-changed our clothes AGAIN! Now of course the bad looks we gave him, and the door slamming, really hurt his feelings and made him feel guilty, so naturally he came over and said sorry, and then he paid for our motel room and new clothes. Opps, I started dreaming... forgive me... for a moment there I went into a fantasy world where the wanker had a conscience. Nope. Reality is, he just laughed a lot and said to his mate, “Ha ha, bad timing!”
Still, we pulled ourselves together, got ourselves changed into fresh, dry clothes, and we went into those pokies, with our head held high... where we then proceeded to lose our money and eat a crap meal. So you see, clearly, our dignity was maintained all the way (please note the sarcasm). Yep,right up to the next morning when I pushed the van out of the car spot while Kristy steered it (I am ALWAYS the one pushing!!!!) we held our dignity. Sigh. Goodbye Coober Pedy.
Next stop was Port Augusta. There we ate chinese food (very good) and made ourselves home-made Midori Splice cocktails (we needed something strong after Coober Pedy). These cocktails consist of Midori, Malibu, pineapple juice, low fat cream, ice and lemonade. Just a tip – don’t include the lemonade in the shaker with the rest of the ingredients as it has a tendency to explode all over the person shaking the cocktail (that was me – it got me right in the eye!). Kristy loves these cocktails (I think she would marry a Midori Splice cocktail if she could!) and so she drank down 6 cocktails in succession. Do I here you asking, “Was she drunk?” There is a big Y.E.S in response to that question! Despite the intake of cocktails, we hit the road fairly early the next day (not as early as the first morning, which was 3.00am – I have told Kristy that NEVER AGAIN are we to awaken that early to get on the road. My God, sometimes I am not even getting to bed until 3.00am!!)
We did love being on the road again, driving through the (oddly) green desert, listening to music, chatting with each other, hitting wildlife, or sitting in silence (yes, for those who know Kristy, she did actually go silent for long stretches of time – shocking I know!!). Kristy and I ate steak sandwiches all the way across the desert, buying them at every petrol stop along the way. We also passed a Gnome Farm. I wish we had stopped to see it.
The drive was very hot, hot enough that it melted the green lizard that has been sitting on our dashboard since we got the van! Every time Kristy or I went to adjust the NavMan, our forearm would stick to the lizard and we would have to peel it off, leaving behind green residue on ourselves. We arrived in Adelaide with green arms and a sticky mess on the dashboard.
The Van limped into Adelaide, and we arrived at Mel’s, and that little Elle (my granddaughter) recognised us both – Woot Woot (I was so worried she had forgotten us!). She is still the most stunning child ever – she looks so much like Shiloh (Brad and Angelina’s child). On that topic, the other day, Kristy said to me that Shiloh (the real one) looked like she was a total tomboy. I said, yes, she did seem like a cute little tomboy. Kristy then said (in all seriousness) “Yes, Shiloh will probably have a sex change when she is older.” Ummmmm... OKAY! Because of course, every tomboy girl grows up to have a sex change!!! You know, even after all this time, I still don’t understand many of the neuro-pathways of Kristy Baeffel’s brain. Not sure that anyone could!!
So there we were in Adelaide. Mel had made sure there was diet coke for us, and wine for me, and she had our bed made up, with the good towels on it, and we got to play with Elle, and it was good. We introduce Mel to Midori Spice cocktails, and now we had found someone who liked them better than Kristy! Oh yes, Mel likes to guzzle them.
Then... (insert music from a horror movie theme)... we went to Tea Tree Plaza!!!!!!!!! Now, a mall is a big thing for Kristy and I. We have been living in at Ayers Rock, where the supermarket has 5 aisles, and everyone knows everyone and we all chat as we shop and it’s all lovely and gorgeous. So now we are in a busy mall, 3 stories high, shop after shop after shop. And so many people, pushing and shoving, and not caring about each other. And certainly not talking to each other. It was a little overwhelming.
Mel took me into a bookstore, because she wanted to buy me a CD on how to learn Japanese (yes, I want to learn more!). Kristy disappears, (I later learn she has skipped off to look in the pet shop at the puppies), so as Mel and I are in the bookstore, I look around for Kristy. Just outside the bookstore is this short-ish, bald-ish, old-ish tosser. I say “tosser” because he was being a D.H. to his wife and 3 year old child – you know the sort, throwing his weight around, yelling at them loud enough so everyone around him could hear that he was a hero for being nasty to his wife and child. So, as Im looking for Kristy, I catch this guys eye. I turn away, (as if I want to look at someone like him) and then he says, loudly, “Don’t look at me you f%#@ing bitch!”
I have one of those moments in time where I must decide if I ignore it, or I respond to it.
I decide to respond. Uh oh!
With absolutely NO calmness whatsoever, I swing around to him and yell, “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!”
Him and I are then embroiled in a screaming match across the bookshop. He, of course, is on the outside of the bookshop (as if he is someone that would actually BE in a bookshop) and I am in the centre of the bookshop. Everyone around us ducks out of our way (the people near us were not brave and they certainly didn’t want to get involved).
Short, fat bald man and I are yelling and yelling. I am yelling out that he should not speak to people that way, that he doesn’t know what is going on in my life, that I wasn’t looking at him so he should shut up, etc, etc. He is yelling at me that I am a f%#@ing bitch (he did seem very stuck on that phrase) and that I should f%#@ off (clearly a limited vocabulary, perhaps if he had ever been INSIDE a bookshop and actually purchased a book he might have expanded his language beyond the word "f%#@").
Kristy, as she is patting a puppy, hears a commotion, so comes on over to the bookshop. I see her walking in, with eyes like saucers because there is a lot of screaming. She then realizes that it is ME who is the big argument with short, fat, bald guy. Kristy turns to short, fat, bald guy and says to him, “There’s no need to use that f%#@ing language!” He then tells her to f%#@ off (actually he said more than that to her, but I wont include it here because it is too insulting). Suffice to say, short, fat, bald guy is an asshole.
I then went and had a massage, which helped calm me down a little. High point of that shopping expedition – we purchased a new Coleman 6 man tent for the unbelievable price of $165.00!!!!! We went back to Mel’s and had some well deserved cocktails (they are always well deserved).
We are now in Melbourne. We have been staying at my mumma’s place and at Kristy’s parents place. Anita put on a little party for Kristy’s birthday, which included a spit lamb roast, yummo! Of course the night also included Midori Splice cocktails. This is now getting a tad expensive. I may have to cut Kristy off from the cocktails. An intervention may be required.
Kristy and I made it to the 2011 Pride March. Sharon drove us in (we luv her!) and Lainy came too (she’s too cute!) and Karen (crazy girl) and Ryan (keeping his mum, Karen, in line. PS Goodluck with that Ryan!) and Jodi (hugs and hugs!) and Dustey and Ra (so good to see you guys) and Chelsea and Brian (who we just met that day). We also caught up with Lisa (OMG, has lost soooo much weight and is looking unbelievable!), and Fee and Caroline (about to get married – wooo hooo!). I got a little too smashed at Pride, so my fun time did not include very much personal pride. But it was a great day, and it was really nice to be out and about in Melbourne – it’s been too long!
Soon, we head back to Adelaide, for some extra Elle time, and then we are off to Perth. We will be travelling to Perth with a few others --- fun road trip! Yay!!!
PS. We are about to start another diet. I think we may become the fad diet queens who travel Australia (remember the blood group diet that we were on when we started this trip?) However, having said that, I have a lot of hope in this diet. I mean, the New Idea told me that Kate Middleton is on this diet, so it must be good, right!!??. Soon Kristy and I will begin the Dukan Diet. For a short time on this diet (5 to 7 days), we eat only protein. An ex vegetarian eating only meat. Interesting. We start on Sunday. Fingers crossed.
Kristy (now 33 years old) and I (age no longer to be stated in public forums) did the road trip from Ayers Rock to Adelaide. The Van, (God bless its little soul) made it to Mel’s place, with much fun times for all! It is interesting indeed, to have a van that refuses to move into reverse gear, and when it would go into 5th gear we would celebrate and pop champagne corks. I have to say, that while I did my share of the driving, Kristy did more than her share (which i guess means that I really didn’t do my share!). I found it very tricky and challenging (and not in a good way) to drive a van with no reverse gear, and with 5th gear being pretty much impossible for me (Kristy would put it into 5th for me from the passenger seat) AND I couldn’t really get 1st or 2nd gear, so I would start driving in THIRD gear – strangely enough it is possible (especially if on a slight hill) – and move to fourth, then Kristy would move it into 5th for me. Ahhh, the joys of a temperamental car. Just made it all the more fun for me, although... I did get a bit tired of pushing the van when we needed to reverse (bullbars get hot in Coober Pedy!!).
We were in Coober Pedy for only one night on the way back (only one night because we were in a hurry to get back – worried about the Van actually making it) and it was interesting, in a “wet” kind of way. We arrived and parked up and went into the motel. Kristy had seen that there were pokies in the lounge of this place we were staying at (see, further proof of her enjoyment of gambling!) so we got ourselves changed out of the road clothes, and into something better and stepped out the door of the motel. Kristy went first (fortunately for me) because suddenly, the guy on the balcony above our room, decided (for some unknown reason, other than that he is – oh yes - a wanker) to throw a bucket of water from the top of the balcony (we are determined to say it was water... please, make it have been water) and it landed square all over Kristy. I got the over-spray, but I was nowhere near as saturated as she was. So, after giving the wanker some dirty looks, we went back in our motel room, slamming the door very loudly and re-changed our clothes AGAIN! Now of course the bad looks we gave him, and the door slamming, really hurt his feelings and made him feel guilty, so naturally he came over and said sorry, and then he paid for our motel room and new clothes. Opps, I started dreaming... forgive me... for a moment there I went into a fantasy world where the wanker had a conscience. Nope. Reality is, he just laughed a lot and said to his mate, “Ha ha, bad timing!”
Still, we pulled ourselves together, got ourselves changed into fresh, dry clothes, and we went into those pokies, with our head held high... where we then proceeded to lose our money and eat a crap meal. So you see, clearly, our dignity was maintained all the way (please note the sarcasm). Yep,right up to the next morning when I pushed the van out of the car spot while Kristy steered it (I am ALWAYS the one pushing!!!!) we held our dignity. Sigh. Goodbye Coober Pedy.
Next stop was Port Augusta. There we ate chinese food (very good) and made ourselves home-made Midori Splice cocktails (we needed something strong after Coober Pedy). These cocktails consist of Midori, Malibu, pineapple juice, low fat cream, ice and lemonade. Just a tip – don’t include the lemonade in the shaker with the rest of the ingredients as it has a tendency to explode all over the person shaking the cocktail (that was me – it got me right in the eye!). Kristy loves these cocktails (I think she would marry a Midori Splice cocktail if she could!) and so she drank down 6 cocktails in succession. Do I here you asking, “Was she drunk?” There is a big Y.E.S in response to that question! Despite the intake of cocktails, we hit the road fairly early the next day (not as early as the first morning, which was 3.00am – I have told Kristy that NEVER AGAIN are we to awaken that early to get on the road. My God, sometimes I am not even getting to bed until 3.00am!!)
We did love being on the road again, driving through the (oddly) green desert, listening to music, chatting with each other, hitting wildlife, or sitting in silence (yes, for those who know Kristy, she did actually go silent for long stretches of time – shocking I know!!). Kristy and I ate steak sandwiches all the way across the desert, buying them at every petrol stop along the way. We also passed a Gnome Farm. I wish we had stopped to see it.
The drive was very hot, hot enough that it melted the green lizard that has been sitting on our dashboard since we got the van! Every time Kristy or I went to adjust the NavMan, our forearm would stick to the lizard and we would have to peel it off, leaving behind green residue on ourselves. We arrived in Adelaide with green arms and a sticky mess on the dashboard.
The Van limped into Adelaide, and we arrived at Mel’s, and that little Elle (my granddaughter) recognised us both – Woot Woot (I was so worried she had forgotten us!). She is still the most stunning child ever – she looks so much like Shiloh (Brad and Angelina’s child). On that topic, the other day, Kristy said to me that Shiloh (the real one) looked like she was a total tomboy. I said, yes, she did seem like a cute little tomboy. Kristy then said (in all seriousness) “Yes, Shiloh will probably have a sex change when she is older.” Ummmmm... OKAY! Because of course, every tomboy girl grows up to have a sex change!!! You know, even after all this time, I still don’t understand many of the neuro-pathways of Kristy Baeffel’s brain. Not sure that anyone could!!
So there we were in Adelaide. Mel had made sure there was diet coke for us, and wine for me, and she had our bed made up, with the good towels on it, and we got to play with Elle, and it was good. We introduce Mel to Midori Spice cocktails, and now we had found someone who liked them better than Kristy! Oh yes, Mel likes to guzzle them.
Then... (insert music from a horror movie theme)... we went to Tea Tree Plaza!!!!!!!!! Now, a mall is a big thing for Kristy and I. We have been living in at Ayers Rock, where the supermarket has 5 aisles, and everyone knows everyone and we all chat as we shop and it’s all lovely and gorgeous. So now we are in a busy mall, 3 stories high, shop after shop after shop. And so many people, pushing and shoving, and not caring about each other. And certainly not talking to each other. It was a little overwhelming.
Mel took me into a bookstore, because she wanted to buy me a CD on how to learn Japanese (yes, I want to learn more!). Kristy disappears, (I later learn she has skipped off to look in the pet shop at the puppies), so as Mel and I are in the bookstore, I look around for Kristy. Just outside the bookstore is this short-ish, bald-ish, old-ish tosser. I say “tosser” because he was being a D.H. to his wife and 3 year old child – you know the sort, throwing his weight around, yelling at them loud enough so everyone around him could hear that he was a hero for being nasty to his wife and child. So, as Im looking for Kristy, I catch this guys eye. I turn away, (as if I want to look at someone like him) and then he says, loudly, “Don’t look at me you f%#@ing bitch!”
I have one of those moments in time where I must decide if I ignore it, or I respond to it.
I decide to respond. Uh oh!
With absolutely NO calmness whatsoever, I swing around to him and yell, “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!”
Him and I are then embroiled in a screaming match across the bookshop. He, of course, is on the outside of the bookshop (as if he is someone that would actually BE in a bookshop) and I am in the centre of the bookshop. Everyone around us ducks out of our way (the people near us were not brave and they certainly didn’t want to get involved).
Short, fat bald man and I are yelling and yelling. I am yelling out that he should not speak to people that way, that he doesn’t know what is going on in my life, that I wasn’t looking at him so he should shut up, etc, etc. He is yelling at me that I am a f%#@ing bitch (he did seem very stuck on that phrase) and that I should f%#@ off (clearly a limited vocabulary, perhaps if he had ever been INSIDE a bookshop and actually purchased a book he might have expanded his language beyond the word "f%#@").
Kristy, as she is patting a puppy, hears a commotion, so comes on over to the bookshop. I see her walking in, with eyes like saucers because there is a lot of screaming. She then realizes that it is ME who is the big argument with short, fat, bald guy. Kristy turns to short, fat, bald guy and says to him, “There’s no need to use that f%#@ing language!” He then tells her to f%#@ off (actually he said more than that to her, but I wont include it here because it is too insulting). Suffice to say, short, fat, bald guy is an asshole.
I then went and had a massage, which helped calm me down a little. High point of that shopping expedition – we purchased a new Coleman 6 man tent for the unbelievable price of $165.00!!!!! We went back to Mel’s and had some well deserved cocktails (they are always well deserved).
We are now in Melbourne. We have been staying at my mumma’s place and at Kristy’s parents place. Anita put on a little party for Kristy’s birthday, which included a spit lamb roast, yummo! Of course the night also included Midori Splice cocktails. This is now getting a tad expensive. I may have to cut Kristy off from the cocktails. An intervention may be required.
Kristy and I made it to the 2011 Pride March. Sharon drove us in (we luv her!) and Lainy came too (she’s too cute!) and Karen (crazy girl) and Ryan (keeping his mum, Karen, in line. PS Goodluck with that Ryan!) and Jodi (hugs and hugs!) and Dustey and Ra (so good to see you guys) and Chelsea and Brian (who we just met that day). We also caught up with Lisa (OMG, has lost soooo much weight and is looking unbelievable!), and Fee and Caroline (about to get married – wooo hooo!). I got a little too smashed at Pride, so my fun time did not include very much personal pride. But it was a great day, and it was really nice to be out and about in Melbourne – it’s been too long!
Soon, we head back to Adelaide, for some extra Elle time, and then we are off to Perth. We will be travelling to Perth with a few others --- fun road trip! Yay!!!
PS. We are about to start another diet. I think we may become the fad diet queens who travel Australia (remember the blood group diet that we were on when we started this trip?) However, having said that, I have a lot of hope in this diet. I mean, the New Idea told me that Kate Middleton is on this diet, so it must be good, right!!??. Soon Kristy and I will begin the Dukan Diet. For a short time on this diet (5 to 7 days), we eat only protein. An ex vegetarian eating only meat. Interesting. We start on Sunday. Fingers crossed.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
1st Kristy, then me!
Yulara, where the population of rabbits exceeds the population of people!! By Kristy Baeffel (aka Baeffy)
Well hello there fellow blog readers!
Thought it was time for me to have a crack at doing some writing for the blog, I know my grammar isn't all that good but i will have a crack. And you can have a crack at me later i'm sure LOL.
For those of you who don't know, Linda and I have decided to Leave Yulara and continue on with our travels. How exciting for us. We have enjoyed our stay in Yulara, Not many people could say that they have lived and breathed The Beautiful Ayers Rock. I have become quite popular with the small population here, purely from driving the night shuttle bus (Aka the party bus as the young ones tell me). It also becomes quite obvious when walking in the 5 aisle supermarket, everybody says hello, ah small population towns when your business is everyones business! I thought being popular, or one of the cool kids would be fun, but i'm soon realising it's not all its cracked up to be LOL.
Driving the party bus at night has been a lot of fun. I have seen many wild and native Animals and also People LOL. Just the other night I saw an Echidna, Yes it was an Echidna and not just a small bush on the side of the road. I had Four Tourist passengers on, it was 11pm at night and I Reversed the bus back to double check, just to be sure, to be sure. Nobody I know has witnessed seeing an Echidna here so I'm thinking I'm pretty damn lucky.
One of the most popular animals out in Yulara would be the Rabbit. Every night as I'm driving around they run across the road, and now there are babies that run across the road, the babies are really fast, faster then the parents LOL. I haven't yet hit one, although I have seen many Deceased, Flattened, Run over ones on the road. I don't like to run any animal over if i can help it.
Many other animals I have seen Late at Night are Brown Snakes, Baby Brown Snakes, Sand Goanna's, Blue Tongue Lizards, Ghost Bats, Dingoe's ( and no a Dingoe didn't steal my baby ), Gecko's, Desert Mice, Flying Crickets, Bugs unsure what type. Plenty more that I can't think of right now.
Ok, so moving on, Linda and I are in Preparation Time to move on Mode at the moment. Starting to re-pack the van. I have been busy making sure the Van can now Reverse and Yes we have 5th Gear again Lol. Thanks to our wonderful Mechanic Pete from my Work aka AATKings, we spent three hours putting two little parts back on the gear shaft all for the cost of a 30Pk of XXXX beer. Linda and I are very grateful.
Funny thing happened, i dropped the beer off to pete on Friday, went to the shops, drove back to our carpark of where we live, opened the sliding door only to realise we had a minnie melt down, smoke, fire coming from out of the dual battery. Our dual battery is in a protective case, which I had to rip open. Smoke filled the van up. I was on the phone to my dad ( Mark the spark ), dad said something must of shorted out the wire that had burnt and melted. So here I was thinking great, just fixed one thing and another one appears Ahhhhh. Anyways, so off I was to see pete again as the dual battery was inactive, therefore Linda and I would not have any cold food or drinks when we hit the road again next week. Thankfully Pete made us up another cable to reconnect the circuit on the battery again and now we can have cold food and drink when we leave. P.s the battery had shorted from the outside terminals on the battery casing hitting the steel post on our bed, so pete has put some rubber around the leg of the bed to stop this occurring again.
Later Bloggers
Kristy aka Baeffy
LINDA'S TURN NOW....
Yes, it is true, Kristy and I are finally leaving Yulara. I am happy about this, especially as Megan and Nicole may be road tripping with us to Perth!! Yay!!! Come on girls - it will be fun!!!
The heat is outrageous here at Uluru -- over 40 degrees Celsius every day. Even the air conditioners have a hard time battling that kind of heat (yet they persist, plucky little buggers). After work at the Spa today, Logan and Darren came with me to the pool, to cool down a little. Also, one of my aims in life has been to do a water bomb (jump) in the pool, and I thought that I could do one at Yulra before I left. So, Logan was teaching me how to do it (Kristy tried to teach me, but her teaching involved a lot of "Come on you chicken shit, just jump..." which, needless to say, did not help me one iota!). So with Logan's tuition, I have learnt to ALMOST bomb. Thus far, I can jump in the pool from the edge and enough that my head is submerged for 2 milli-seconds. All I have to do is learn to hold my legs, and hit the water on my ass, and I will have done it! One of the things that stopped the water bomb education, aside from the night descending, was the appearance of two baby ghost bats. They fully swooped us in the pool! I screamed like a girl (cos I am one) and Darren ducked and cringed like a gay boy (cos he is one) and Logan sat there trying to look unfazed (which I think was a show, but with Darren and I being two sookie la la's, someone needed to act tough). In the end, I couldn't stand it, and my throat had become dry from the screaming (they really were swooping us, the little varmits!) so we left the pool (and the bombing) and went home to food and air conditioners.
I have sprained my thumb. It hurts, and now pain is radiating up my arm. I think what made it worse was that I massaged a guy today who wanted a really, really firm massage, so I dug my thumbs, fingers and elbows into him a lot, which helped him, but aggravated my injury. To be fair, it was sore before then anyway, it wasn't just because of the massage. In the end the thumb was so sore, that Sohee (another massage therapist) had to take on my last client, because my thumb was too inflamed. Dustey said that now I would not be able to twiddle, and that is true. Sigh. Not that I was ever a twiddler, but one does like to have the option!
At the pub the other night, someone asked how much a one hour massage cost at the Day Spa. I told them it was $125.00, and they had a shocked look on their face, and said, "For that price, it would want to include sex!" I said, "Not on my shift." Although, I must say, although I am totally worth it, and am a good massage therapist, $125.00 is pretty steep.
There are so many things are breaking down here for us, the car being a prime example (OMG, can you believe we had a fire on the dual battery!!!!). Aside from the car, our TV no longer plays DVD's (I think that was my fault), and then the DVD/CD player in Kristy's laptop broke, so we couldn't use that. So....we had to pull out my laptop, which was still un-recovered from Kristy knocking a can of coke over the keyboard, and the DVD player in that worked, however, the keyboard won't work, so it is totally mouse or nothing! And even then, it won't rewind, pause or fast forward. Sigh, and and were up the last season of Sex and the City (Wow! Are we loving that series!!!). Anyway, we are muddling through - NOTHING will stop us with our Sex and the City!!
Oh, funny thing I heard, a couple from Denmark were chatting to me the other day, and she was telling me about something that was due to happen in 2 days time, so she said... "Not tomorrow, but the next morrow". I just loved it, because while it was something that we would never say, it still made perfect sense!
My friend, Jake, and I had a question in regards to cows - yes, a cow question... She said that she had always wanted a cow, but the one things that stopped her was that she couldn't handle the constant milking. I said that I was sure that cows only needing milking if they had a calf (like most animals - right???). She believed that cows always gave milk. Anyhoo, to cut a long (and probably boring story to anyone else except Jake and me) story short, Jake checked with Yvette, her vet (yes, you read that right, Yvette the vet) and Yvette confirmed that cows only give milk when they are feeding a baby cow. Woo hoo - Jake can now get a cow and not worry about milking. She has already decided that the cow's name shall be Lola (obviously, because she had yellow feathers in hair, and a dress cut down to there...).
Which reminds me, I had a nudge to my (Mature - not old) age yesterday. I was randomly singing the words to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree," and Kristy did not recognize the song, in fact she had never heard it, EVER!!!!! Isn't it a classic? Doesn't everyone know it????? Come on people... Barry Manilow!! Google it!
Karen and Nardie arrive here soon, in a couple of days - YAY!!! Will be good to see other friendly faces from Melbourne!
Kristy and I will be back in Melbourne soon. We are going to Pride march on the 6th, so if anyone is interested in meeting us there, then email me on lindawilson333@hotmail.com and we can arrange a meet up time and place.
Think of us on Friday, it is scheduled to be 46 degrees Celsius. I am sweating profusely at the thought of it. Wait a minute, ladies don't sweat, they perspire. Hang on, wait another minute... ladies don't perspire, they glow! I think, though, even though I am a lady (mostly), at 46 degrees, I am entitled to sweat a little.
Well hello there fellow blog readers!
Thought it was time for me to have a crack at doing some writing for the blog, I know my grammar isn't all that good but i will have a crack. And you can have a crack at me later i'm sure LOL.
For those of you who don't know, Linda and I have decided to Leave Yulara and continue on with our travels. How exciting for us. We have enjoyed our stay in Yulara, Not many people could say that they have lived and breathed The Beautiful Ayers Rock. I have become quite popular with the small population here, purely from driving the night shuttle bus (Aka the party bus as the young ones tell me). It also becomes quite obvious when walking in the 5 aisle supermarket, everybody says hello, ah small population towns when your business is everyones business! I thought being popular, or one of the cool kids would be fun, but i'm soon realising it's not all its cracked up to be LOL.
Driving the party bus at night has been a lot of fun. I have seen many wild and native Animals and also People LOL. Just the other night I saw an Echidna, Yes it was an Echidna and not just a small bush on the side of the road. I had Four Tourist passengers on, it was 11pm at night and I Reversed the bus back to double check, just to be sure, to be sure. Nobody I know has witnessed seeing an Echidna here so I'm thinking I'm pretty damn lucky.
One of the most popular animals out in Yulara would be the Rabbit. Every night as I'm driving around they run across the road, and now there are babies that run across the road, the babies are really fast, faster then the parents LOL. I haven't yet hit one, although I have seen many Deceased, Flattened, Run over ones on the road. I don't like to run any animal over if i can help it.
Many other animals I have seen Late at Night are Brown Snakes, Baby Brown Snakes, Sand Goanna's, Blue Tongue Lizards, Ghost Bats, Dingoe's ( and no a Dingoe didn't steal my baby ), Gecko's, Desert Mice, Flying Crickets, Bugs unsure what type. Plenty more that I can't think of right now.
Ok, so moving on, Linda and I are in Preparation Time to move on Mode at the moment. Starting to re-pack the van. I have been busy making sure the Van can now Reverse and Yes we have 5th Gear again Lol. Thanks to our wonderful Mechanic Pete from my Work aka AATKings, we spent three hours putting two little parts back on the gear shaft all for the cost of a 30Pk of XXXX beer. Linda and I are very grateful.
Funny thing happened, i dropped the beer off to pete on Friday, went to the shops, drove back to our carpark of where we live, opened the sliding door only to realise we had a minnie melt down, smoke, fire coming from out of the dual battery. Our dual battery is in a protective case, which I had to rip open. Smoke filled the van up. I was on the phone to my dad ( Mark the spark ), dad said something must of shorted out the wire that had burnt and melted. So here I was thinking great, just fixed one thing and another one appears Ahhhhh. Anyways, so off I was to see pete again as the dual battery was inactive, therefore Linda and I would not have any cold food or drinks when we hit the road again next week. Thankfully Pete made us up another cable to reconnect the circuit on the battery again and now we can have cold food and drink when we leave. P.s the battery had shorted from the outside terminals on the battery casing hitting the steel post on our bed, so pete has put some rubber around the leg of the bed to stop this occurring again.
Later Bloggers
Kristy aka Baeffy
LINDA'S TURN NOW....
Yes, it is true, Kristy and I are finally leaving Yulara. I am happy about this, especially as Megan and Nicole may be road tripping with us to Perth!! Yay!!! Come on girls - it will be fun!!!
The heat is outrageous here at Uluru -- over 40 degrees Celsius every day. Even the air conditioners have a hard time battling that kind of heat (yet they persist, plucky little buggers). After work at the Spa today, Logan and Darren came with me to the pool, to cool down a little. Also, one of my aims in life has been to do a water bomb (jump) in the pool, and I thought that I could do one at Yulra before I left. So, Logan was teaching me how to do it (Kristy tried to teach me, but her teaching involved a lot of "Come on you chicken shit, just jump..." which, needless to say, did not help me one iota!). So with Logan's tuition, I have learnt to ALMOST bomb. Thus far, I can jump in the pool from the edge and enough that my head is submerged for 2 milli-seconds. All I have to do is learn to hold my legs, and hit the water on my ass, and I will have done it! One of the things that stopped the water bomb education, aside from the night descending, was the appearance of two baby ghost bats. They fully swooped us in the pool! I screamed like a girl (cos I am one) and Darren ducked and cringed like a gay boy (cos he is one) and Logan sat there trying to look unfazed (which I think was a show, but with Darren and I being two sookie la la's, someone needed to act tough). In the end, I couldn't stand it, and my throat had become dry from the screaming (they really were swooping us, the little varmits!) so we left the pool (and the bombing) and went home to food and air conditioners.
I have sprained my thumb. It hurts, and now pain is radiating up my arm. I think what made it worse was that I massaged a guy today who wanted a really, really firm massage, so I dug my thumbs, fingers and elbows into him a lot, which helped him, but aggravated my injury. To be fair, it was sore before then anyway, it wasn't just because of the massage. In the end the thumb was so sore, that Sohee (another massage therapist) had to take on my last client, because my thumb was too inflamed. Dustey said that now I would not be able to twiddle, and that is true. Sigh. Not that I was ever a twiddler, but one does like to have the option!
At the pub the other night, someone asked how much a one hour massage cost at the Day Spa. I told them it was $125.00, and they had a shocked look on their face, and said, "For that price, it would want to include sex!" I said, "Not on my shift." Although, I must say, although I am totally worth it, and am a good massage therapist, $125.00 is pretty steep.
There are so many things are breaking down here for us, the car being a prime example (OMG, can you believe we had a fire on the dual battery!!!!). Aside from the car, our TV no longer plays DVD's (I think that was my fault), and then the DVD/CD player in Kristy's laptop broke, so we couldn't use that. So....we had to pull out my laptop, which was still un-recovered from Kristy knocking a can of coke over the keyboard, and the DVD player in that worked, however, the keyboard won't work, so it is totally mouse or nothing! And even then, it won't rewind, pause or fast forward. Sigh, and and were up the last season of Sex and the City (Wow! Are we loving that series!!!). Anyway, we are muddling through - NOTHING will stop us with our Sex and the City!!
Oh, funny thing I heard, a couple from Denmark were chatting to me the other day, and she was telling me about something that was due to happen in 2 days time, so she said... "Not tomorrow, but the next morrow". I just loved it, because while it was something that we would never say, it still made perfect sense!
My friend, Jake, and I had a question in regards to cows - yes, a cow question... She said that she had always wanted a cow, but the one things that stopped her was that she couldn't handle the constant milking. I said that I was sure that cows only needing milking if they had a calf (like most animals - right???). She believed that cows always gave milk. Anyhoo, to cut a long (and probably boring story to anyone else except Jake and me) story short, Jake checked with Yvette, her vet (yes, you read that right, Yvette the vet) and Yvette confirmed that cows only give milk when they are feeding a baby cow. Woo hoo - Jake can now get a cow and not worry about milking. She has already decided that the cow's name shall be Lola (obviously, because she had yellow feathers in hair, and a dress cut down to there...).
Which reminds me, I had a nudge to my (Mature - not old) age yesterday. I was randomly singing the words to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree," and Kristy did not recognize the song, in fact she had never heard it, EVER!!!!! Isn't it a classic? Doesn't everyone know it????? Come on people... Barry Manilow!! Google it!
Karen and Nardie arrive here soon, in a couple of days - YAY!!! Will be good to see other friendly faces from Melbourne!
Kristy and I will be back in Melbourne soon. We are going to Pride march on the 6th, so if anyone is interested in meeting us there, then email me on lindawilson333@hotmail.com and we can arrange a meet up time and place.
Think of us on Friday, it is scheduled to be 46 degrees Celsius. I am sweating profusely at the thought of it. Wait a minute, ladies don't sweat, they perspire. Hang on, wait another minute... ladies don't perspire, they glow! I think, though, even though I am a lady (mostly), at 46 degrees, I am entitled to sweat a little.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year!
2011 is here! Yay! Hurray! Woot!
On NYE Kristy, Logan (son) and I celebrated at the Outback Pioneer Hotel (the Outie). It was sooo good, the music was great and there wasn’t a mega wait at the bar. Unfortunately, as we were walking to the Outie, a bug flew into Kristy’s eye and then, just for the fun of it, decided to sting her on the eyeball (because clearly it had to do something while it was there buzzing in her eye), so poor Kristy spent much of the night rubbing her eye and then pulling down the lower lid saying, “Is it still in there? Can you see it?”
Talking of strange injuries, I worked with Beck the other night (on the 2nd job) and she told me that her sister recently had a 3rd degree meatball burn. Yes, you heard (read) it right, it does say a “meatball” burn. Apparently Beck’s sister works at Subway and she accidently dropped a tray of meatballs down her leg. Ouch! But on the bright side, what a fun story to tell when people ask about the scar!
The night I worked with Beck was New Years Day. We arrive at the sunset viewing area at about 5.45pm and it was fully hot hot hot. I don’t mean just the usual Rock hot, I mean it was a stinker, and there was only the faintest whisper of a breeze. I set up as much as I could, which means I put up tables, cover them with heavy white table clothes, arrange the champagne flutes and the orange juice glasses in a nice way (which changes depending on the number of people I will be serving). I don’t pour the sparkling wine or OJ until I get the call that the bus is on it’s way (which, by the way, is via radio as we have no phone reception out there, and yes, I do get to say “Copy that.”). The group arrived just after 7pm, and it was still stifling hot, and I had been out in the full sun from 5.45 by that time). About 10 minutes into the guests eating the canapés and drinking the sparkling wine, a thunder storm sweeps in and soaks us all to the skin! Some of the tourists got back on the coach, but most of them stayed in the rain, continued to eat and I continued to pour them beers and sparkling wine, all, of course, with a smile! I was saturated, and I wish I had worn a better bra because my shirt was very wet and sticking to me and you could see the outline of my crappo bra through it. It could have been worse I suppose. At least I was wearing a bra.
Do any of you remember the recipe for Beer Bread that I posted on one of the blogs? Well... my friend Rachel actually made it! And she said it is the best and easiest bread to make! She said that her husband, Wazza, said that now they have no need to buy bread anymore, because this Beer Bread is so easy, and so cheap! So you must give it a try!
Rachel is at the Rock at the moment, with her two chitlens – Oscar and Lily (she is taking advantage of the discount on accommodation!). She came swimming with us today (kids stayed in hotel room and watched TV – ahhh, teenagers!) Then we all went to the Residents Club for the $10 roast meal (which was roast turkey – apparently there is an over abundance of turkey in Yulara at the moment due to over-ordering at Christmas). It is so nice to have a friend from Melbourne here, and it’s fun to show her and the kids around.
I sent an email to my friend Mandy a few days ago. She sent us a Christmas present (which we LOVE you for Mandy – you’re the best!). I sent Mandy the text to say thankyou, and so the text was MEANT to go something like,
“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx oooo”
However, predictive text on my phone jumped in just as I hit the ‘send’ button, so the text arrived to Mandy saying,
“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx Poop”
POOP!!!!! How does my phone even know the word POOP??????
On a completely different subject to poop (or is it?????) I am back at the Spa this week. I have had some time off from the Spa recently but I am very much looking forward to going back there and working with the girls again. I wish Erin was still working with us, but I am sure to see her again (when we travel to QLD). PS: Hi Erin and welcome to my blog!
Logan is having a good time here in Yulara. He really enjoys his handyman job at Sails in the Desert, and is apparently quite good at it. Everyday Logan tells me what he had for lunch. When you work here, you are provided with one meal a day when you are working. Logan totally LOVES his free daily free meal. One day he had a plate of Oysters Kilpatrick and Hotdogs with onion (on the same plate). Weird combo, but as there is no Macca’s or KFC I guess that we adjust.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Van. Kristy backed our van into a tree and shattered the back window. Yes, she really does have her H endorsement licence. The tree didn’t completely smash the window as the window had been tinted (cost us about $80 before we left Melbourne to tint that window, sigh), but the tint kinda held the shattered glass in place. Anyhoo, we had to get this fixed, because it was only a matter of time before the glass did smash. So, we needed to go to Alice Springs to get this fixed. We decided to stay a couple of days in Alice, to also do some shopping. The petrol to Alice and back cost us about $180. The accommodation (cheapest I could find) was $100 for the 2 nights. The back window, with new tinting, cost us $495. So really, all up, smashing that back window ended up totalling about $775. Sheesh!! However, it was good to get a load of shopping done (mainly alcohol, because the booze is way too expensive in Yulara). We also got to eat Thai food, and Chinese food, which tasted fabulous, but unfortunately our bodies are no longer accustom to this food and we both had a bit of a Bali belly for a day or so. Even so, despite the $775 and the sore tummies, we drove back to Yulara feeling like we had achieved something good (except that Kristy’s road kill probably did not feel good about us being on the road – Kristy managed to hit 1 goanna, 1 lizard, 3 small birds, a wasp and a butterfly).
We pulled into Yulara at about 4.30pm on 24th December, after being away for two nights, and discovered that the van no longer has reverse gear or 5th gear. I am serious, we do not have these gears. And it was now Christmas. And everything was going to be shut for the xmas, new year period. We can live without 5th gear for a while (top speed here is 40kms), however having no reverse gear is proving very interesting. Often I have to get out and PUSH the van (and sometimes that bullbar is damn hot!), if Kristy has stopped somewhere and she needs to back up. I am feeling very “Little Miss Sunshine” (remember how they couldn’t get 1st or 2nd gear and they had to always push their van and then run to get into it). Kristy always tries to stop or park where no reverse is needed, but this is not always possible. So, we are now back from having the van fixed, and it needs more fixing. And I think the Air Conditioning also needs re-gassing. It doesn't matter, we love our van and it is serving us well, all cars (like people) have their mini meltdowns at some time or another.
For my metaphysical friends – I think that the Universe is using the van to materialise to me that there is no going back, that I can't go backwards at the moment, and that I also need to go forward in a slow manner.
Christmas is over for another year and I was very spoilt by Kristy. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards and Christmas presents. It can be a bit lonely being so far away from everyone, so receiving word from home is always so lovely. Kristy and I are always very excited when we go to the Post Office and they say we have mail. Hugs to everyone who sent us Christmas cards, we put them all up in our little unit. And special thanks to my Mumma, Mel and Mick, Anita and Mark, Sarah and Mick, Sharon and Shadow, Mandy and Helen who sent Chrissy presents all the way to the Red Centre. xxxx Poop.
Some of you know that the end of 2010 has been a bit of a tough one for me, so I am very excited to be starting up a fresh, new year (Jake, thank you for your support and for always checking on me).
Tanoshindene! (enjoy/have fun).
PS: The big meteorite shower that I mentioned in the last blog was a bust. A group of us walked 15 minutes into the desert to find a sand dune with minimal light pollution. It was a cloudy night, however I was SURE the clouds were going to clear. We set ourselves up at 1.30am, laying on towels, esky close by,looking up at the sky. The clouds didn't clear, but the rain did come. A lot of rain. We packed up and went home, quite bedraggled and feeling a bit sad that all the meteorite action happened but we were unable to see it. We can do lots of things in this world, even fly to the moon, yet we are still at the mercy of mother nature. Well... not that I can actually fly to the moon, although I have heard you can feel like you are going to the moon when ingesting certain fungi or cactus-type plants!
On NYE Kristy, Logan (son) and I celebrated at the Outback Pioneer Hotel (the Outie). It was sooo good, the music was great and there wasn’t a mega wait at the bar. Unfortunately, as we were walking to the Outie, a bug flew into Kristy’s eye and then, just for the fun of it, decided to sting her on the eyeball (because clearly it had to do something while it was there buzzing in her eye), so poor Kristy spent much of the night rubbing her eye and then pulling down the lower lid saying, “Is it still in there? Can you see it?”
Talking of strange injuries, I worked with Beck the other night (on the 2nd job) and she told me that her sister recently had a 3rd degree meatball burn. Yes, you heard (read) it right, it does say a “meatball” burn. Apparently Beck’s sister works at Subway and she accidently dropped a tray of meatballs down her leg. Ouch! But on the bright side, what a fun story to tell when people ask about the scar!
The night I worked with Beck was New Years Day. We arrive at the sunset viewing area at about 5.45pm and it was fully hot hot hot. I don’t mean just the usual Rock hot, I mean it was a stinker, and there was only the faintest whisper of a breeze. I set up as much as I could, which means I put up tables, cover them with heavy white table clothes, arrange the champagne flutes and the orange juice glasses in a nice way (which changes depending on the number of people I will be serving). I don’t pour the sparkling wine or OJ until I get the call that the bus is on it’s way (which, by the way, is via radio as we have no phone reception out there, and yes, I do get to say “Copy that.”). The group arrived just after 7pm, and it was still stifling hot, and I had been out in the full sun from 5.45 by that time). About 10 minutes into the guests eating the canapés and drinking the sparkling wine, a thunder storm sweeps in and soaks us all to the skin! Some of the tourists got back on the coach, but most of them stayed in the rain, continued to eat and I continued to pour them beers and sparkling wine, all, of course, with a smile! I was saturated, and I wish I had worn a better bra because my shirt was very wet and sticking to me and you could see the outline of my crappo bra through it. It could have been worse I suppose. At least I was wearing a bra.
Do any of you remember the recipe for Beer Bread that I posted on one of the blogs? Well... my friend Rachel actually made it! And she said it is the best and easiest bread to make! She said that her husband, Wazza, said that now they have no need to buy bread anymore, because this Beer Bread is so easy, and so cheap! So you must give it a try!
Rachel is at the Rock at the moment, with her two chitlens – Oscar and Lily (she is taking advantage of the discount on accommodation!). She came swimming with us today (kids stayed in hotel room and watched TV – ahhh, teenagers!) Then we all went to the Residents Club for the $10 roast meal (which was roast turkey – apparently there is an over abundance of turkey in Yulara at the moment due to over-ordering at Christmas). It is so nice to have a friend from Melbourne here, and it’s fun to show her and the kids around.
I sent an email to my friend Mandy a few days ago. She sent us a Christmas present (which we LOVE you for Mandy – you’re the best!). I sent Mandy the text to say thankyou, and so the text was MEANT to go something like,
“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx oooo”
However, predictive text on my phone jumped in just as I hit the ‘send’ button, so the text arrived to Mandy saying,
“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx Poop”
POOP!!!!! How does my phone even know the word POOP??????
On a completely different subject to poop (or is it?????) I am back at the Spa this week. I have had some time off from the Spa recently but I am very much looking forward to going back there and working with the girls again. I wish Erin was still working with us, but I am sure to see her again (when we travel to QLD). PS: Hi Erin and welcome to my blog!
Logan is having a good time here in Yulara. He really enjoys his handyman job at Sails in the Desert, and is apparently quite good at it. Everyday Logan tells me what he had for lunch. When you work here, you are provided with one meal a day when you are working. Logan totally LOVES his free daily free meal. One day he had a plate of Oysters Kilpatrick and Hotdogs with onion (on the same plate). Weird combo, but as there is no Macca’s or KFC I guess that we adjust.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Van. Kristy backed our van into a tree and shattered the back window. Yes, she really does have her H endorsement licence. The tree didn’t completely smash the window as the window had been tinted (cost us about $80 before we left Melbourne to tint that window, sigh), but the tint kinda held the shattered glass in place. Anyhoo, we had to get this fixed, because it was only a matter of time before the glass did smash. So, we needed to go to Alice Springs to get this fixed. We decided to stay a couple of days in Alice, to also do some shopping. The petrol to Alice and back cost us about $180. The accommodation (cheapest I could find) was $100 for the 2 nights. The back window, with new tinting, cost us $495. So really, all up, smashing that back window ended up totalling about $775. Sheesh!! However, it was good to get a load of shopping done (mainly alcohol, because the booze is way too expensive in Yulara). We also got to eat Thai food, and Chinese food, which tasted fabulous, but unfortunately our bodies are no longer accustom to this food and we both had a bit of a Bali belly for a day or so. Even so, despite the $775 and the sore tummies, we drove back to Yulara feeling like we had achieved something good (except that Kristy’s road kill probably did not feel good about us being on the road – Kristy managed to hit 1 goanna, 1 lizard, 3 small birds, a wasp and a butterfly).
We pulled into Yulara at about 4.30pm on 24th December, after being away for two nights, and discovered that the van no longer has reverse gear or 5th gear. I am serious, we do not have these gears. And it was now Christmas. And everything was going to be shut for the xmas, new year period. We can live without 5th gear for a while (top speed here is 40kms), however having no reverse gear is proving very interesting. Often I have to get out and PUSH the van (and sometimes that bullbar is damn hot!), if Kristy has stopped somewhere and she needs to back up. I am feeling very “Little Miss Sunshine” (remember how they couldn’t get 1st or 2nd gear and they had to always push their van and then run to get into it). Kristy always tries to stop or park where no reverse is needed, but this is not always possible. So, we are now back from having the van fixed, and it needs more fixing. And I think the Air Conditioning also needs re-gassing. It doesn't matter, we love our van and it is serving us well, all cars (like people) have their mini meltdowns at some time or another.
For my metaphysical friends – I think that the Universe is using the van to materialise to me that there is no going back, that I can't go backwards at the moment, and that I also need to go forward in a slow manner.
Christmas is over for another year and I was very spoilt by Kristy. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards and Christmas presents. It can be a bit lonely being so far away from everyone, so receiving word from home is always so lovely. Kristy and I are always very excited when we go to the Post Office and they say we have mail. Hugs to everyone who sent us Christmas cards, we put them all up in our little unit. And special thanks to my Mumma, Mel and Mick, Anita and Mark, Sarah and Mick, Sharon and Shadow, Mandy and Helen who sent Chrissy presents all the way to the Red Centre. xxxx Poop.
Some of you know that the end of 2010 has been a bit of a tough one for me, so I am very excited to be starting up a fresh, new year (Jake, thank you for your support and for always checking on me).
Tanoshindene! (enjoy/have fun).
PS: The big meteorite shower that I mentioned in the last blog was a bust. A group of us walked 15 minutes into the desert to find a sand dune with minimal light pollution. It was a cloudy night, however I was SURE the clouds were going to clear. We set ourselves up at 1.30am, laying on towels, esky close by,looking up at the sky. The clouds didn't clear, but the rain did come. A lot of rain. We packed up and went home, quite bedraggled and feeling a bit sad that all the meteorite action happened but we were unable to see it. We can do lots of things in this world, even fly to the moon, yet we are still at the mercy of mother nature. Well... not that I can actually fly to the moon, although I have heard you can feel like you are going to the moon when ingesting certain fungi or cactus-type plants!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Logan lives in Yulara
I have been told that there are about 700 people living in Yulara at the moment, and now Logan can be counted among us. Woot Woot! Loges arrived last Sunday, had a job confirmed on Friday and he starts on this coming Wednesday. Logan will be one of the new handymen at the “Sails in the Desert” hotel (the 5 star hotel here). We are all very excited for Logan, and very proud of him for getting a job so quickly.
Logan has made lots of friends already, his newest best friend being Darren. Logan has been going to the pool, the pub, socializing at different people’s houses (lots of house parties up here), playing cards, etc. The young women in Yulara are clearly quite interested in him, and of course Logan is loving that.
Kristy and I are taking Logan to the Residents Club tomorrow night for dinner because it is FIVE DOLLAR BURGER NIGHT! Kristy usually works on Monday nights, so she doesn’t get to experience this cheap burger-in-a-bun event, but tomorrow she has taken the night off because... we have the BIG METEORITE SHOWER OF DECEMBER 2010 tomorrow night.
If you are anywhere in Australia you should be able to see this meteorite shower. If you go out and look at the sky around midnight or so, chances are that you will see a meteorite. They are predicting about 50 meteorites an hour! We are all going to a big hill in the desert to watch the meteorite shower – it should be amazing. With the stars being totally unreal here every night, the meteorite shower will be wow!
Last Wednesday was the Resorts big Christmas party. It cost $25 pp to attend, and each person got a stubby holder (I gave mine away), a t-shirt (someone will be getting this sent to them for Christmas), food all night (hamburgers, cinnamon donuts, fairy floss, and something called dagwood dogs – uggg) and alcohol all night. Logan had a very good time with the free alcohol. Oh there was also rides! Dodgem Cars and some other scary whirly thing. I am not a ‘carnival-ride’ person, but Logan was on the Dodgem Cars until they closed them at 10pm (re-living his childhood?). Logan and I also had lots of dances on the VERY sticky, booze-soaked dance floor. And tell me this... why... after a number of drinks, does John Farnham’s “Your the Voice” feel sooooo good to dance to? Surely alcohol does not distort the senses THAT much!!!??!!
I won a prize in one of the competitions I have been entering! It was Take 5, or That’s Life (the prize and accompanying letter was sent to my mumma’s house so I am not sure exactly which magazine it was from). The prize is only a small one – a makeup set, but it is a beginning! Bring on the rest!! I was so excited!
Speaking of winning, I won the retail again this month at the Spa. Unfortunately (and unexpectedly, and unexcitingly) I was not given the dinner as the prize (as per last month). I must say, I was pretty disappointed, as I was truly under the impression that the dinner voucher was again the prize for selling the most Spa products. Oh well. So much for regular incentives.
Oh, and I have just finished watching the first season of Underbelly, on DVD. I know, I know, everyone else in Australia has already seen it years ago, but I hadn’t until now. It was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Latest Japanese word/phrase: “Garusu Irrimaska”, which translates to “Do you want a glass?” Also, “Me Tay”, which means “Look”. Oh, and also “Rakuda” which means “camel” (this is a good one to know in the desert, but not sure it will help me in any other place – I mean how often will I need to say “Rakuda Me Tay” when I am away from here?). Interestingly, I have have been speaking my Japanese with an Italian accent – not sure why this weird phenomena is occurring, but I’m putting it down to a past life thing (of course I am). Although, in spite of this, many of the Japanese tourist tell me that I do speak my small amount of Japanese very well and that I am very understandable.
Karen and Nardie – welcome back from your Europe Invasion – Yay you are both back safe and sound!
Happy birthday for yesterday Gayle!
Kristy and I are sending our thoughts and love to Annie. xxx
Arigato (thank you) for reading the blog.
Logan has made lots of friends already, his newest best friend being Darren. Logan has been going to the pool, the pub, socializing at different people’s houses (lots of house parties up here), playing cards, etc. The young women in Yulara are clearly quite interested in him, and of course Logan is loving that.
Kristy and I are taking Logan to the Residents Club tomorrow night for dinner because it is FIVE DOLLAR BURGER NIGHT! Kristy usually works on Monday nights, so she doesn’t get to experience this cheap burger-in-a-bun event, but tomorrow she has taken the night off because... we have the BIG METEORITE SHOWER OF DECEMBER 2010 tomorrow night.
If you are anywhere in Australia you should be able to see this meteorite shower. If you go out and look at the sky around midnight or so, chances are that you will see a meteorite. They are predicting about 50 meteorites an hour! We are all going to a big hill in the desert to watch the meteorite shower – it should be amazing. With the stars being totally unreal here every night, the meteorite shower will be wow!
Last Wednesday was the Resorts big Christmas party. It cost $25 pp to attend, and each person got a stubby holder (I gave mine away), a t-shirt (someone will be getting this sent to them for Christmas), food all night (hamburgers, cinnamon donuts, fairy floss, and something called dagwood dogs – uggg) and alcohol all night. Logan had a very good time with the free alcohol. Oh there was also rides! Dodgem Cars and some other scary whirly thing. I am not a ‘carnival-ride’ person, but Logan was on the Dodgem Cars until they closed them at 10pm (re-living his childhood?). Logan and I also had lots of dances on the VERY sticky, booze-soaked dance floor. And tell me this... why... after a number of drinks, does John Farnham’s “Your the Voice” feel sooooo good to dance to? Surely alcohol does not distort the senses THAT much!!!??!!
I won a prize in one of the competitions I have been entering! It was Take 5, or That’s Life (the prize and accompanying letter was sent to my mumma’s house so I am not sure exactly which magazine it was from). The prize is only a small one – a makeup set, but it is a beginning! Bring on the rest!! I was so excited!
Speaking of winning, I won the retail again this month at the Spa. Unfortunately (and unexpectedly, and unexcitingly) I was not given the dinner as the prize (as per last month). I must say, I was pretty disappointed, as I was truly under the impression that the dinner voucher was again the prize for selling the most Spa products. Oh well. So much for regular incentives.
Oh, and I have just finished watching the first season of Underbelly, on DVD. I know, I know, everyone else in Australia has already seen it years ago, but I hadn’t until now. It was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Latest Japanese word/phrase: “Garusu Irrimaska”, which translates to “Do you want a glass?” Also, “Me Tay”, which means “Look”. Oh, and also “Rakuda” which means “camel” (this is a good one to know in the desert, but not sure it will help me in any other place – I mean how often will I need to say “Rakuda Me Tay” when I am away from here?). Interestingly, I have have been speaking my Japanese with an Italian accent – not sure why this weird phenomena is occurring, but I’m putting it down to a past life thing (of course I am). Although, in spite of this, many of the Japanese tourist tell me that I do speak my small amount of Japanese very well and that I am very understandable.
Karen and Nardie – welcome back from your Europe Invasion – Yay you are both back safe and sound!
Happy birthday for yesterday Gayle!
Kristy and I are sending our thoughts and love to Annie. xxx
Arigato (thank you) for reading the blog.
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