Time to get serious if I don’t want to spend forever in St.
Kilda, not that it’s a bad place, but I’ve only been to three states in nearly
a year and money has once again become the stumbling block.
Saving won’t be easy as hours are still part time, but I’m
sure if I don’t do anything at all for a few weeks I will have enough money
saved in my new bank account (because my original Aussie bank, St. George, don’t
have branches outside NSW).
In other news, my camera is gone (probably stolen, but the
police said I can’t prove that it has actually been nicked so I have to report
it as ‘lost’ instead #PoliceLogic) and I’m skint-ish, my UK accounts are
running low so I need to start sending some money back to England if I want to
keep my kneecaps. But that means I need to boost my income...
So suddenly my ‘awesome’ adventure is less fun and games and
is leaning more towards the ‘scraping by trying to make minimum payments whilst
abroad and not earning much’ adventure. But it could be worse, I could not be
earning anything, or heading out to find fruit picking work only to find it has
all been taken by backpackers that got there first (which has happened to a
few guys from the hostel that left recently). I’m going to think up a get
rich quick scheme to keep my UK accounts afloat and try and save some money for
my Aussie Adventure to continue as it was about a month ago. So don't expect too many wacky tales of me doing cool stuff and taking pictures of sunsets and wallabies for a while yet, especially that last part seeing as I no longer have a decent camera.
Today was my last day packing spuds at Gregory’s, although I
only spent half the day packing spuds, the other half was spent shovelling wet
mud and rotten potatoes from the floor around the old washer to make way for
the new washer. The smell was strong and the mud was in great quantity so after
4 hours of that I was more than ready to say goodbye and get back to Poverty
Peak for the last ride on my bike.
Not to be confused with the wrestling move, which doesn’t feature a bike.
It wasn’t a bad job, packing spuds. Yes it got kind of
boring sometimes but work is work and wages are wages and now I have a small
buffer to keep me going when I get back to Melbourne after Tassie and possibly
look for a job or look into moving west. But I’m not one to look too far into
the future as doing so means one will always miss the present, which all too
soon will become the past. My trip to Tassie is something I fully intend on relishing.
All the campsites are booked, the camper van and Spirit of Tasmania were booked
weeks ago and on Monday evening I shall be floating across the Bass Straight to
Tasmania, which I am looking forward to immensely now I know there is an arcade
on board,
Something that the Titanic was lacking, hence why all the young
men were drawing naked pictures of Kate Winslet.
BUT THAT'S THE ONLY PART WORTH MAKING 3D!
That’s all the ‘news’ for today. Thursday I had the day off
which meant a chance to spend the whole day in Ballarat, which I did. Here’s a
bunch of photos of the various things I saw around Lake Wendouree as I whiled
away the hours by the water side. I also had an ice cream.
I told you I had ice cream.
All very nice and I’m kind of pleased I’ve been to the town
that effectively brought democracy to Victoria, but I won’t write all that here
so here’s a link about the Eureka Stockade if you are interested in the tale of
a bunch of miners sticking it to ‘the man’.
PS. I learned an AFL rule. If the ball hits the post it only
counts as a ‘behind’ (1 point) even if it ricochets in for a goal (which would
be 6 points, but it doesn’t count because it hit the post), I think?
PPS. Melbourne Demons are a crap team, at least judging by
the game against Richmond that is on at the moment. Final score, Richmond 133 –
74 Melbourne... Ouch.
PPPS. Last night I watched an entire episode of Snog Marry Avoid,
a show I would usually mark as ‘trash’ but when 10,000 miles away from the
country it is set in I can’t help but feel a little nostalgia towards the
regional accents.
So it's Easter, which means a few days off and maybe some chocolate. I was once happy to receive these gifts but at the moment I really want to save as much money as possible and having two days off has cost me $200, plus I've lost a bit of weight with all the cycling and that, so chocolate is something that isn't as important as I once thought.
Thursday I went to the market at Footscray because there was a problem with the date tags on the Aldi bags. Ati, Alan and I cruised down the road and in no time we were in the suburb of Footscray. A multicultural hub that was also known for having a problem with drugs and general unpleasant doings, not a place that is mentioned on the tourist maps.
To the wholesale market, just in time to see everybody packing up as we re-tagged the Aldi bags before picking up a free watermelon and flying back up the free-way to Millbrook. A nice break from the norm and a good deal of time spent doing nothing, which is what I would be doing for the rest of the Easter weekend.
Putting the loss of earnings aside I decided to spend my Good Friday killing time by riding my bike to a nearby body of water of which I know not the name, but it is by a pine forest, if that helps.
I turned off the road and down the bank to head under the train tracks, past the graffiti and dirty water to look upon an area of outstanding tranquillity.
Trains...
Profanes...
And garbage. (Couldn't think of a third rhyme)
Suddenly, none of the above.
I ditched the bike in some bushes and walked for a bit to found a distinct lack of anything. Normally I would assume there would be loads of things to photograph in a forest, but aside from the odd small bird and toadstool there was very little that caught my eye. The floor was a blanket of needles covering every inch of the ground and with it removing the chance for anything else to grow.
Except this guy.
I continued to follow the river downstream where it began to open out into more of a lake and now away from the road and train tracks there was barely a sound. The trees cracked as the wind tilted their heads and the water's movement was like a blanket of silk rippling in one direction. Two swans made their decent to glide past my vantage point and head upstream and it wasn't long before I headed in the same direction.
Not before a quick photo though
And another.
Back upstream I happened upon this little fellow warming in the sun
And with that I lifted my bike from the bushes and rode back to Poverty Peak. The wind had picked up now and was against me and had invited a cloud of rain to follow me. Fortunately the rain was polite enough to wait until I was inside the house before falling towards me. And that was that, so before ending this blog post here's a picture of a pony, I call her Dumpy, because she looks a bit, well, dumpy.
HURR DURR!
She'd probably make a good sidekick in a family adventure, so here you go Hollywood, my idea for a family adventure in which an Englishman and a pony have to stop a drug cartel from transporting drugs in kangaroo pouches...
Pony and the Pom (This is the scene when the duo reunite to take down the bad guys after they reconcile their differences. It happens about 20 minutes near the end)
I'm going to admit I'm already getting a little excited about going to Tasmania in just over two weeks, it's like a proper little holiday in that it will only last a week, will cost me lots of money and will no doubt be a whirlwind of tours and information and adventure!
Just like your holiday last summer.
My Spirit of Tasmania ticket is booked and I have secured a camper van for the moment I step off the boat so I don't have to worry about pesky hostels. I know some may say something about the cost but I'd rather pay $400 and go anywhere whenever I want than pay $200 and then have to spend a day waiting for buses to go to places I could have already woken up at! Yes, petrol is also a factor, but Tasmania is relatively small compared to the mainland states and it only takes about 4 hours to go from the top to the bottom, which is no longer than it would take me to drive to my family in York from my home in Essex.
Unless it's a bank holiday, in which case add 7 hours.
In preparation for my Tassie Tour I have taken to looking at a few websites today to weigh up what I want to see (and what I can see, as many parts are not accessible by car). So far I have noted to have a look around Hobart, Bruny Island, Wineglass Bay, Port Arthur, the north west coast (with its cleanest air in the world) and visit at least one Tasmanian Devil sanctuary.
What? He looks nothing like the cartoon character? I might not bother then.
Back to the present and I have also been trying to get into watching the AFL on TV, but the rules still escape me somewhat. It's still good to watch a bunch of guys clattering into each other as they chase a yellow egg around a cricket pitch.
Ooh! It's mine, MINE!
As the season has just started I wouldn't mind going to see a match at some point, of course like with most sports it's best to just follow a team to help get into it a bit more. So for the purposes of following the AFL for a season I shall adopt The Hawks as my team I am following, not supporting you understand, just following.
Plus their shirts seem to be of a poor quality.
I'm still packing spuds in the mean time and trying my best to keep my money in my own hands before going to Tasmania, then to South Australia where I will no doubt have to find a job as soon as possible. But that's like, three whole weeks away so I don't need to worry about that.
The cold weather is making some strong appearances here in
central Victoria, which oddly enough is something I now realise I’ve missed.
Riding to work in the morning with the stars as company and only the Moon
giving evidence that the Sun still exists is something that will always remind
me of the colder months back home, but the stars are quite different over here
as is the crescent of the moon and no doubt the winter will not be the same
either.
As somebody who is over 25% Scottish, 100% desirable and was
born in October, I am more comfortable in a jumper and thick socks than sitting
in ball soup. The colder weather is a great time to layer up with the old
pleather jacket and hoodie combo (a Turbowolf t-shirt also helps) and go out to
rule Ballarat for a day, which is what I did today by buying a new hoodie, some
gloves and visiting the art gallery!
Yeah, I rule!
There was an exhibition for our dear old Queen with some of
the best photos taken by former royal photographer, Cecil Beaton, I guess it's to mark
the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth Regina’s time on the throne, which is a
British event I will be in Australia for, like the Olympics in London and my
secondary school reunion... oh and Download Festival. I’d better do some
awesome stuff to make up for it and to tell back home when everybody else is
talking about how brilliant the jubilee was.
Or when they reminisce over another riot
So, yeah, photos of her majesty. All very nice but many of
them had her looking quite sombre.
Cheer up, love. You’re on all the coins now!
I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve licked the back of her head. In Australia I have to do with licking the back of a baby dingo.
The rest of the gallery was quite good, although I was
expecting it to be one room full of ‘local artist’ stuff that wasn’t very good.
But there were some nice works and a lot of rooms to drift through. There were
a fair few British pieces depicting green hills and sleepy villages like those
seen on boxes of biscuits in the pound shop.
Not pictured: England’s green and pleasant land.
The small section of ‘contemporary’ art was there to show
how many straight lines some guy could paint but next to that was the
Australian art bit. A collection of Aboriginal and Australian born artists’
work which displayed stuff like this,
This was elsewhere, but still Australian (hence the Eureka uprising thing going on)
But I especially liked this,
So much so that I think it could be my band’s next album
cover... A quick Photoshop later and...
All very good, but now I had 4 hours to kill before I could
get back to Gordon as Simon was working until 6.
So, I bought a t-shirt that was in the clearance bit of Target
I later looked around one of those punky alternative clothes
shops that also sells bongs, I didn’t want anything, I was just killing time. However,
the shop keeper asked me about my t-shirt and before I could answer she said ‘Turbowolf?’
at which point I readied myself for the usual ‘What’s that?’ but instead she
said ‘I saw them supporting Monster Magnet a little while ago’. And for that I
bought an AC/DC sticker as anybody who has heard of/seen Turbowolf deserves to
sell me something of around $3 in value.
Went to Coles, got bananas, milk, toothpaste, apples and cereal.
Exciting stuff.
Finally 6 O’clock came around and Simon was there to pick
Ati and me up (I forgot to mention Ati was in Ballarat too, but she went to the
library for the free internet)
Then I updated this blog.
A good day off, but I’ll be back to packing them ‘taters
tomorrow and thinking about booking my travel/accommodation to/in Tasmania. Don’t
expect too many exciting tales like the one you just read between now and then,
but do expect some after then. In the meantime here’s an old ShitBad track, it’s
an unreleased rare demo from the unreleased ‘Sausages’ EP that was
never released because the song was a gift to Arran’s dog and releasing
something you’ve gifted a dog is illegal in the UK.
Working everyday has lead to my days falling into monotony.
Work – eat – sleep – work – eat – sleep –rinse – repeat. To add a bit of
difference to my day today I rode into Gordon on the way back from work for a bite
to eat at ‘While the Billy Boils’. Chorizo and scrambled egg washed down with
some good ol’ sarsaparilla (which was cool because there was some old 1950's style jazz
music playing in the background)
Thankfully they didn’t play ‘Johnny Guitar’ once every 10 minutes like a certain video game.
Actually, music is something this cafe likes and tomorrow
there will be some music in the form of ‘live’ (along with a deal on pizza) so
I may have to treat myself again tomorrow!
In further ‘news’, Simon and Ati are at it (not right now,
thankfully. More on that later). I knew there was something going on but now I
know fo shizzle. I doesn’t take a Colombo to realise with the array of clues
being shown.
Just one more thing... Keep the noise down.
The odd thing is they are either ashamed or worried I’ll be
annoyed as they don’t seem to show any signs of affection when I'm around. Only
when I have got up and left the room, then come back in because I forgot my
iPod do they even cuddle on the sofa and only once I have been
asleep for a couple of hours do they have ugly sounding sex in the next room.
Honestly, it’s like a fat asthmatic lifting a heavy box as Minnie Mouse is
repeatedly surprised. Justin Timberlake may well have brought sexy back, but
it appears my house mates have just thrown it out again.
Justin doesn't seem too bothered.
I have only been awoken by their... um... ‘intimacy’ once,
so maybe they have put each other off. I certainly wouldn't be too keen on
getting back on a girl that squeaked more than the bed. There, now there's some gossip about two people you will never meet that you can share with all your friends (or just share the Timberlake picture, whatever)
Too many bananas to eat raw and in non-cake form in the house at the moment, so I have been practising making ordinary bananananas into muffins and cakes and ting!
Mashed banana mess, digivolve to...
Delicious banana cake!
As promised from yesterday's post, here are a couple of recipes I used to create some lovely banana based cakes (the second one even has Mars Bars in it!)
Have fun spending your money on two types of flour and two types of sugar along with all the other ingredients and the muffin pans and loaf tins you haven't got!
