In which I go to the Bush

Wednesday marked the start of yet another new Australian experience. 
The day started out with me packing up my things once more. I only spent a single night back at Wendy's place, as I was to head out to the bush to spend time with my other relatives, Rosie and Steve.
Wendy picked me up on her lunch at 10am, and drove me to Upper Ferntree Gully where I go on a train and headed to Rollingwood. I would meet my rellies later at a pub, and Rob would bring Winnie down for a bit of a lunch. 
I mooched around a shopping centre for a while, grabbed a coffee, flirted with a charity seller, and then managed to get lost around five times trying to find this darned restaurant. Asked quite a few people for directions, and eventually I managed to get there, in thirty-plus degree heat so I was incredibly relieved to get inside.
But the thing is, that Rob and Win hadn't arrived yet, and because I'd never met them I had no idea what Rosie looked like, nor would she recognise me for the same reason. I asked the reception-staff if there was a booking under Jordan, but there were no bookings for Wednesday. So I explained to them that I had no idea what my family looked like, and I kept taking desperate looks around the seating area, why I don't know, because it's not like I'd have recognised them even if I saw them.


Thankfully a woman noticed I looked like a tourist (still don't know whether or not to be offended by that) and came up to me and said 'Are you Kathryn?' to which I relievedly said 'Yes! Are you Rosie?' 
Turns out it was her daughter Lucy, but close enough for me.


I got myself a drink, and then Rob and Winnie turned up and we ordered food. It was a decent meal, and it was nice to hear about Lucy and Lochy, Rosie's son. He was having a hard time of it at the moment with dental issues, and had recently come out of a dental-hospital after an operation-type-thing. Didn't sound like much fun, and I'm sure it wasn't for him.


At two-ish, we parted ways. Rosie dropped Lucy off at her new home in Preston, and we visited Lochy as well to see how he was doing. He'd only come out of the hospital either that day or the day before, so was still a bit groggy I think. We didn't stay long, and I didn't say much because 1) I didn't know the guy. 2) He'd recently had an operation. 3) His friend was over called Merlin.


Seriously, that was his name. His real name was Merlin. How cool is that? I wish I'd been blessed with such fortune. I'd never met another Merlin before, so I was quite happy about that.


After Rosie and Lochy caught up, we headed to Rosie's place, a two hour drive from the city. It's very strange how quickly the scenery can change in the space of two hours - everything went from green to brown, from lush to dust, from... I can't think of any more analogies. But you get the picture.


The bush is so different to the city. Well I mean, of course it is, but you don't quite comprehend it until you see it for yourself. Everything is spaced out so much - you have to travel a way to get anywhere. It's also so barren. There are just fields and fields of brown - mostly wheat and barley - so everything looks sort of the same. It's what people typically see when they think about Australia, just minus the desert. We weren't far in enough to see the desert. That is to be saved for another time.
The area of land I was in was actually one of the largest sites of gold mining ever in the world. Melbourne was built off of the profits of gold in this area; loads of Chinese people emigrated for the biggest Gold Rush in the world. However, if you didn't know that, you wouldn't figure it out from the landscape. There's nothing there really to tell you about it, other than a tourist miner's trail, and a museum dedicated to the Chinese workers.


Well I just potted about on Wednesday. Found roos in the yard, which was rather exciting. 
Oh, I'm not sure if anyone has seen the original Clash of the Titans, but if you have, you may be interested in this. The mechanical bird given to Perseus as a guide makes a mechanical-sounding trill. I have discovered that the origin of that bird-call is the Australian magpie. Being so nerdy, I was quite excited to find that out.


Thursday was hot. I'd slept on the couch the night before because there were a tonne of bugs in the room, and that didn't sit well with me. So I took my blanket and kipped on the couch. As such, I was awake incredibly early - like, six AM. I didn't want to go back to my bug-filled bedroom, and seeing as it was still dark outside it didn't leave me much to do except play on my netbook.
Eventually though, light did come. And I'm pleased to say that when sunrise happened, I was outside the house, ready and waiting for it. It was spectacular; such a breath-taking moment.  The sky turned orange and red and pink, shading the clouds over the trees, and it was just so magical.
Coupled with the fact that there were still kangaroos in the yard, I thought that was a pretty decent start to my bush-stay. 


After Rosie woke, we wracked our brains for things to do, and eventually decided upon visiting a mineral spa half an hour away. Only thing is, with my still-healing tattoo, I wasn't meant to submerge it in water for two weeks, and it hadn't yet been that long. I assured Rosie that I could wrap it up in cling film though, and it sure did look funny. As I swam in this mineral water I kept nervously checking to see that it was alright, which of course it was. On one of the layers of cling (I wrapped it about six times over) some air had gotten trapped, and there was a little pocket of oxygen in the water, which looked very amusing. I'm not too sure what onlookers thought of it, but I'm increasingly finding that I don't give a stuff what strangers think anymore, which is great. I can proudly go somewhere by myself and not worry about whether I look like a loner or not. which is an excellent feeling.


We swam lengths of the pool, and sat in the mineral-jacuzzi, for quite a while. It was a lovely relaxing experience, helped along by some soothing meditational music that reminded me of my home back in England, and all the amateur meditation I'd do in my bedroom. which was kind of bittersweet.


After the spa, we had a little snack in a nearby cafe. I had chips, and Rosie had dorito-things with some kind of salady stuff. Whilst we were eating, the skies decided to open, and it rained. By God, did it rain. It chucked it down with such ferocity that even Rosie was in awe. Apparently it doens't happen like that often in the bush, but it would be my luck for it to happen whilst I was there. I do so love the rain.
And I hope you detected my sarcasm in that last sentence.


Well, the rain didn't stop me from buying an ice cream. Wild dingoes wouldn't have stopped me from buying my ice cream. A gorgeous Magnum of vanilla and honeycomb encased in milk chocolate. It was delicious, and I was much carefuler with this magnum, considering the last one I had ended up as a white splodge on the pavement of King Street back in CBD.


We eventually made it home, stopping a few times alongside the road to wait until a heavy dose of rain passed. Again, there is not much to do at Rosie and Steve's place, and since it was raining we were confined to the house anyway. So again, I ended up playing on my netbook, which translates into watching past My Little Pony episodes.


Friday was another slow day. but had an exciting start - Wendy had agreed to go and see Lady Gaga with me, and tickets went on sale that day! Needless to say I set my alarm and had the internet ready to go. We'd agreed on what tickets we wanted, and that we'd see her in Brisbane. That would mean a flight to Queensland by Wendy, but she's assured me it wont be a problem so I'm trying not to feel so bad about it.
Anyway, I managed to snag us two tickets ;) We are totally going Gaga on June 14th! Although, this does mean that I'll have to extend my stay. Not that this is a bad thing - this is a very very good thing. I'm just not sure how long I'll be extending it for yet. Watch this space.
Turns out that Wendy also got us two tickets... We are both just so efficient that we took charge and both got tickets. Ergo, there will be some Gaga tickets going on sale soon. Hopefully we'll be abe to make a bit of profit from them ;)


Anyway, Rosie and Steve had a guy over that day, filling in their dirt-drive way which had lots of dips in it due to heavy rainfall over the years, so going for a drive was out of the question for the moment. There was nothing wrong with a walk, however. So I trekked down the drive and out of their land, turned left and walked. I walked for a fair distance, observing the same brown fields and the same brown verges that lined each property. It wasn't much to do, but it was a walk. And as I said, the bush has a sort of rustic charm to it, so it wasn't so bad.


After the drive-man had gone away (after a break over a cup of tea, and telling us about an operation he'd had on his private parts in quite intimate detail), Steve said he was headed for a meeting in Castlemain, and would I like to be dropped off? So yes please, I would.


Castlemain is a small town with a quaint feel to it, about ten-fifteen minutes drive from their place. There are tonnes of independent shops, which I'm a great fan of, and lots of little cafes. I grabbed a mocha and a cheese toastie in one of them, and was served by a lovely young man, whom I think was rather surprised when I took my plate and mug back inside after I'd finished with them; most people tend to leave it on the table, but I don't like to make people clear up after me, even if they are paid to do it. I think it just encourages the customers to leave their clutter, and I think that's rude.


Anyway, I headed off to discover more of Castlemain. There were two parks nearby - one with a playground on it, and a larger one with a skatepark. There were little antique shops that weren't so little once you got inside - it was like the TARDIS effect where the front doesn't tell the whole truth about the inside. There were awesome things in that shop - everything from brass doorknobs to old toy cars, from old records to art-deco lampshades. 
I even saw a lamp in the shape of a Greek goddess, which completely made my day. The thing is, it could have been either Athena, since it had the war helmet which is one of Athena's symbols, seeing how she was born from Zeus' mind fully decked out in armour; or it could have been Aphrodite, since it was holding a clam shell, and Aphrodite was born of the sea foam which that could have resembled. I shall never know which one it was, but I do know that when I have my own property I want something like that in it.


Anyway, I dove into a little book shop and bought another John Marsden book, the author of the Tomorrow When the War Began series. Just a little one, small enough to fit in my pack. I then went to another cafe, got another coffee and started reading. After I'd finished my drink, I made my way over to the large park and settled down in the shade and carried on. It was a very nice way to spend the afternoon, and I've found that I really don't mind my own company, which is lovely.


That evening, Rosie and Steve had their weekly meetup with their friends at the pup in Newstead village. They reserve a table every Friday, and up to eight people turn up for a meal and a natter. It was interesting meeting some 'local' Aussie people, but in truth the only real Australian was Gary. He was a fun-loving guy with a twinkle in his eyes, and liked to laugh a lot. I liked him, he was funny. 
The two non-Aussies were from Scotland and Wales. Seriously, the amount of British people I've met whilst being here is crazy. Seems like Oz really is the place to be. Anyway, the Scottish guy had a beard down to his collar bone, and you could hardly see his mouth for all the facial hair surrounding it.
I don't reckon the Welsh guy counts himself as Welsh, seeing as he moved to Oz when he was about two, but he still sounded quite British to me. He must have picked it up from his parents or something.


I had my first parmagiana that night. It's origin is probably Italian, judging by the name, but it's the most common pub dish in Australia. And darned tasty, too. It's chicken fillet in breadcrumbs, with a tomato puree on top, and then that's topped with melted cheese. Served with chips (I politely declined the salad), it's quite easily one of the best meals I've had in Australia thus far. I'm going to make parma a big thing in England when I get back - it's too good not to have on our menus.


Saturday Rosie drove me to the train station in Castlemain, and I went to Bendigo, a town a fair big bigger than Colchester. Bought a sleeping-bag compressor which I'm going to put my clothes in to make room in my pack. You basically shove (ahem, fold) all of your clothes in, do the cord up, then pull the straps down as far as you can, and the air gets expelled from the sack and everything becomes compressed. Neat, eh? 


I wondered around, but I wasn't as impressed with Bendigo as I had been with Castlemain. There just wasn't the atmosphere about the place, as is the way with all moderately sized towns and cities. It was all very mainstream, with chain-shops and not much else.
I did visit a cathedral whilst I was there though. The Sacred Heart Cathedral, and it was just like the ones back in England, except newer. I lit an electric candle (that brought a wry smile to my face) and put a dollar in the donation box.


Eventually I got back to the house, and Rosie and Steve were preparing for a small party-of-sorts. The group from the pub the night before, plus a few more, were coming over for a get-together that happens once a month at Rosie and Steve's place. Everyone brings some food and/or drink that they've prepared, and again just have a good catch-up. It was quite a nice atmosphere, as it usually is between friends. And I found that I have something in common with the Welsh guy and another woman - we were all connected by Boxted.


I'm not even kidding. When Welshie visited Britain on a sort of working holiday, he harvested apples near the area. The woman's ancestors lived in Boxted before emigrating to Australia in the 1800s, and I have a good friend there. The woman was rapt - she wanted to know everything about it, which was a bit difficult for me seeing as I've only been a few times. She wanted to know about the church there, the pubs, about everything. She's never been there, and only recently found out her ancestors lived there.
I said that it was a small village, with mostly elder people in it. The sort of place where everyone knows everyone else, and the sort of place where kids don't really want to be.
She gave this sort of satisfied nod as if I was confirming what she's researched or something, which gave me another wry smile. I've been getting a few of those lately.


Anyway, we had dinner, which comprised of Steve's home-made chips, which were delicious, chicken, Gary's sausage rolls, Barbara's tropical fruit juice (I avoided due to large lumps of fruit in it) and Barry's erm... something. After that it was dessert, and someone had made cheesecake. I found some ice cream in the freezer, and Rosie found some chocolate sauce, you know the cool stuff that solidifies when it touches the coldness of the ice cream, and happily nommed away two bowls... small ones, of course.
I kept myself to myself, and thought about things like arranging with Wendy when I'd be getting picked up on the next day. It was the end of my stay in the bush, as tomorrow I was headed back to Wendy's place in Melbourne.
True enough, Wendy rang me later, and I smirked to myself as MY LITTLE PONYYYYY!! rang out across the living room, and the adults were like 'What on Earth?'. I casually sauntered over to my mobey and was like 'Sup', playing it cool whilst sniggering internally at the confused adults.
It's little things like that that keep me happy in a place where I don't know too many people.


Anyway, it was decided that I would get the twelve train from Castlemain to Melbourne, which was an hour and a half journey. I was going to entertain myself by writing my blog, and watching Pony videos. Unfortunately I did more pony-watching than blog-writing, which explains to you all why this is so late. My apologies again.


I have to say though, that nights in the bush are incredible to witness. Because there's no light pollution, you can just see stars and stars and stars. It was absolutely beautiful, and makes me rue the cities with their lights, where no one can appreciate the night sky.


So on Sunday, which turned out to be Rosie's birthday but no one told me because they hadn't wanted me to fuss about a gift and whatnot, I was driven to Castlemain and got a teensy bit emotional as I hugged my newly-met cousin goodbye. I don't think she noticed though, which was fine by me. Found a seat next to a nice Australian woman, and we made small talk until I went antisocial and plugged my headphones in.


I arrived at Southern Cross station at twenty to two, and my main objective was to get to Fitzroy to pick up that jumper I had ordered, which was ready to collect. So, I hopped on the 96 tram, remembering it from when Nic and I went there, and looked to get off at Brunswick Street.


Apparently, there's a section of Melbourne called Brunswick, which just next to Fitzroy. And Brunswick is not the same as Brunswick Street. So I had quite a walk back the way the tram had come in order to get to Fitzroy, which was not tremendously enjoyable with a rucksack on my back filled to the brim with clothes and wash-stuff and whatnot, not to mention that it was an incredibly hot day. Again, it's one of those things which only I am dumb enough to do.


Eventually I managed to get myself back to Fitzroy, and onto Brunswick Street. Found the Ministry of Style again, and picked up my awesome cyber-goth jacket, which looks amazing, if I do say so myself. It's black, with sleeves that flair out at the cuffs. There are shoulder-pads with three neon-blue plastic strips travelling their berth, and two strips on  the elbow pads. There are two plastic clasps going over the zip, between my chest and my belly button, and neon strips outlining them. It is just 20% cooler than anything I own.
I went and found a pizza bar after that, and chowed down on a margherita whilst watching the Iron Woman competition on a tv there. Gosh, the stamina that these girls have is incredible! First they swam out to sea, did a loop round a buoy, and swam back. Then they got a kneel-board and did the same, and then they got a paddle-board and did the same! It was awe-inspiring, but I know I shall never be that athletic.


I went and sat in the park for a while, the same one Nic and I sat with my new ukulele, and then went for a walk around the Royal Exhibition Hall next to the Melbourne Museum, where they had a backpackers expo going on. This meant that there were tonnes of stalls advertising tours, flights, hostels, camping gear... I picked up quite a few leaflets and phone numbers which will definitely come in useful during my trip.


Well, Wendy picked me up at about five-thirty from there. She and her friend Linda were just on their way back from a Roxette concert in Sydney, and picked me up on their way back from the airport. Roxette is an old-school band from the 80's, for those of you who don't know.


After dropping Linda off it was a forty-minute drive back to Wendy's place. And as much as I'd enjoyed my time in the bush, I was glad to be back where it was lush and green and tree-y. Thankfully the puppies were more excited to see their mummy than me, so Wendy got the brunt of that.


It was just a chilled evening, and we were all in bed by half nine. I seem to be going to bed at around then each night now, and feeling that it's late if it gets to ten-fifteen. I swear, I swear that I shall not become an early-bedder-early-riser. I shall not. It's not how I roll - not now, not even. Period.


Monday I set about finding a job. Had a look at the local online jobsites, and phoned the Harvest Trail Hotline. They said it would be hard to me to get a farming job if I didn't have a car, which I don't. And thinking about it, it will be hard for me to go to any job if I don't have a car, so that's something I need to think about. Buy a car, get a job, get my funds back up, and carry on with my trip.
I also booked myself in for a few courses in Melbourne. The first is called RSA, which stand for the Responsible Service of Alcohol, and is a certificate you need in order to work in any bars or pubs in Australia. It's a four-hour course, which I'll be doing on the 2nd of March. I'm rather excited about it, too. It'll be good fun, I reckon. I'm particularly looking forward in the practical training of how to make cocktails ;)
The other course is on the 8th of March, and is three hours long. That's the Coffee for Beginners course, which will also be rather fun. Proper coffee-making equipment! I'll finally know Starbuck's secret to their marvelous mochas! Rather keen for it, as, you all know, mocha is the only coffee worth drinking.


I made about twenty copies of my CV, and the next day went to a place called Knox, which is where Wendy and I went to the cinema, and handed a few out. It was mostly to cafes and small restaurants (I'm hoping one called Secret Recipe will take me on, ethat's my number one), and I was able to tell them that I'd be doing these courses soon, which would hopefully make me a whole lot employable.
I also did a cheeky one for Toys R Us, but that wasn't a serious one, and I don't expect anything to come of it. At least I can say I tried, though.


But, how did you get to Knox? I hear you cry. Well, I drove. Wendy walked to work and left me her car for the day. I gotta tell you, I'm so thankful for the sat-nav. Obviously I had looked up my route on Google Maps first, but because I had the sat-nav I could relax a bit more and concentrate on driving rather than always looking for sign-posts.
It was also the first time I've ever drove an automatic. They're the most popular car out here, automatics. A couple of times I went to put the clutch down and then realised it wasn't there when I met the floor. And also, I was thankful that everyone does the speed limit and not go over. They're incredibly tight on speeding in Australia, so everyone does the same speed. This meant I didn't have to worry about the guy behind me getting impatient, and we just moved in a steady convoy to Knox, which was a twenty minute drive, I'd reckon. I was flipping glad to have arrived, I can tell you.
I mean, I'm perfectly qualified to drive because I have my license. But it's very different when it's someone else's car, in a place you don't know, and especially when it's not a manual and is a bit bigger. But I got there and back without injury, so all was well.


Well, that's my Wednesday to Tuesday blog. Again, sorry it was late. I'll try to get on top of that for next time. Also, I hope things seem a little clearer with the extra added details I've put in. All this John Marsden is rubbing off on me!