I ate well on the flight over. As Qantas isn’t a budget airline, pretty much all flights have a free meal and i was actually given two as they had spare on board. Only a chicken salad sandwich, but they were good enough. I spent the flight reading and doing the crossword in the in-flight magazine.
Talia, her boyfriend and one of their friends met me at the dinky airport in Mount Isa. Like Launceston and Kathmandu, the luggage was just dragged on trollies into a free-for-all area. No fancy-dan conveyor belts here!
Our first stop was, of course, a bar. Tonight was the regular trivia competition which we managed to not come last in. We were joined by a couple of other people, had a laugh then moved on to the Irish bar where we played pool for a dollar a game until they kicked us out at midnight.
The only place left open was “The Club”, actually a strip joint. We had no other choice if we wanted to continue drinking so I ponied up the $15 entry (ow – it’s only $5 if you’re a nurse!) and paid over the odds for bottles of fizzy water.
Now, I’d not booked anywhere to stay. My original plans had been to crash with Talia, but as she got herself all boyfriended-up this became a bit awkward. There is one hostel in town and I’d not been able to sort anything out with it so decided to wing it. And I’m glad I did.
One of Talia’s friends had a key for a spare dorm in the accommodation near where she lives. I’m not saying exactly where in case someone gets in trouble! Essentially, someone moved out recently and there’s nobody to replace them for some time. So – free room!
Happily boozed up, I passed out in my cheap bed.