I’m now ensconced in my new home for the next week-and-a-bit. I’m crashing in Mel’s spare room with wonderful free wireless, three dogs (including a spanky new golden labrador) and three cats. Once more I’m doing my “Dr Dolittle”. One of the cats is very much not a people person. I’m the only one it’ll come near.
There are a few plans over the upcoming few days so I should have something to waffle about on here!
Plans are now afoot for the next stage of the Oz tour, and I’ve made contact with a huge bunch of people to bump into in the next few weeks. Much as I like Perth, I’m really looking forward to moving on to see them all!
Tasmania’s pretty much planned out as it’s 99% organised tour. I should be meeting at least one; hopefully two online chummies in Canberra as well as seeing the sites; Sydney will play host for one evening before I head to Wollongong to stay with Dion’s parents (I met her in Sri Lanka).
After this, I’ll kill a little time around the NSW area with trips round the Blue Mountains, to Bondi Beach and up to Newcastle (just to get some pics of the roadsigns!) before returning to Sydney on March 12th to finally see Weird Al Yankovic in concert. I’ve been a fan for years, but he’s never played the UK to the best of my knowledge. I’m way back in row “S” but at least I can say I’ve seen him at last! With any luck I’ll also see Anni from home who’s visiting another friend over here.
Next up will be Brisbane once more. As well as the usual bunch of misfits up there, my aunt Babs is visiting from the UK. It’ll be great to see another one of the clan!
So. Perth. I really wish I’d “scored” here, preferably multiple times. OK, so this isn’t exactly abnormal thinking for me, but I really wanted to use the title Perth Girls Are Easy for a post and now I can’t. Ah well.
Of all the major cities I’ve been to in Oz, Perth seems to have settled best with me. It’s just the right size, the weather’s just about right and the people are as great as they are anywhere else. On the downside, it’s blooming miles from anywhere else which makes trips expensive. Also, it’s a fast-developing city so land and house prices are pretty high.
Yesterday I spent an hour or so wandering through the Museum of Western Australia (entry fee a paltry $2 donation) which is a very pleasant place indeed. I concentrated most on the natural history as ever, and they’ve got some great displays. Clean, brightly-lit, well-presented – it all looks very new indeed.
I spent most of the evening sat in the staff room of a KFC outside the city with Mel, who I met at the karaoke. She’s manageress there and had the world’s worst hangover. In return for delivering energy drinks I got free fried chicken. Whoop!
There’s still a bit to do here – the zoo and the public park being just two – so I think I may be back. And not forgetting the people – I’ve made some friends here as well, which wasn’t hard. If I can’t get a room in the Witch’s Hat then Jacqui has kindly offered me use of a spare bed in their house – thanks!
So, byebye to Perth for a while. Next stop, Launceston (via Melbourne airport and a 4-hour layover – great).
Well, my Tasmania trip is now booked and paid for thanks to my flexible friend. I’ve sorted a 6-day whistle-stop trek with Adventure Tours, the same company I did the Red Centre with. Tuesday onwards are going to be rather hectic!
I check out of here in the morning and fly to Launcestone on Tasmania in the afternoon, getting there around 10pm. I have a brief overnight in a hostel, then jump on a local bus down to Hobart. I should be there by lunchtime which doesn’t give me very long to see the place, unfortunately. Then the next morning, I get collected and spend six days circling the island and seeing the sights.
Back to Hobart on the 27th in time to get some dinner, sort out my luggage and get to the airport as I have a 6am flight to Canberra.
Grand total including my flights, bus fare, accommodation, food and the trip is around £500. I really wish this silly country would let me work! Stupid flipping rule about having to be under thirty.
As an aside, if you’re over here doing shopping then I recommend Coles for your fresh fruit and veg, not Woolworths. Woolies’ stuff is invariably over-ripe and doesn’t keep more than a day. Heck, there wasn’t even any point in buying the kiwi fruit they had for sale yesterday – they were just waiting to explode!
Back to the main story after that word from our sponsors… I got a call from Jacqui and Steve, two friends I know online, and they invited me over to their local for a few beers. And karaoke. In honesty, I wasn’t in a “going out” mood by that time as I was a little tired, but this was to be my last Saturday in Perth (unless I return) so I decided to make the effort.
Damn glad I did. As ever, the best nights out are the unplanned, un-looked-forward-to ones. A quick, pleasant train ride to Carlisle (yes, Carlisle!) and I found them in the Carlisle Hotel. Beer in hand, I sat down, we got chatting and we watched and listened to a varied mix of karaoke talent (and lack of it).
At no point did I sing. Honest. Don’t believe anyone who says any different. They’re all liars. Or they were drunk and their memories faded.
So thanks to Jacqui and Steve for the invite, as well as Mel (their daughter) and her friend who’s name escapes me, for making me feel so welcome. I had a cracking night and even got a lift home at the end of it!
I’m now in my fourth room at the Witch’s Hat, as I’ve been shifted again. My own fault for only booking a couple of days at a time! At least I’ve been lucky enough to get a room – I know people who’ve had to shift hostels for a day or two.
Other than that, it’s been a fairly quite day. I’ve done a little more plotting for the 1000 Mile Walk down at the library. I have to say, the State Library here’s pretty darn neat. Loads of lovely reference books including some road atlases of Europe. I now know how far 1000 miles is in relation to Europe. And I’m panicking. Argh.
I treated myself to a decent dinner for getting all that work done. Mince, spuds, carrots, peas and HP sauce (which I finally obtained from the Vietnamese grocery over the road). All mushed up and piping hot. Lovely.
Also, I’ve worked out when I’m leaving. Flights are booked from here to Launceston (Tasmania) on Tuesday, then Hobart to Canberra on Feb 28th. I get a whole day and one overnight there before getting the 18:00 Greyhound to Sydney! With any luck, Emma can meet me for a drink on her birthday. I owe her as she’s been a great help sorting out my hostel, bus and itinerary for my short visit.
I ended up in another new room when I got back to the Witch’s Hat, this time sharing with an Irish and an English girl. They went out about the same time I went to bed, but I slept rather soundly and only heard one of them doing her best to be quiet when she crept in at I don’t know what time.
Fortunately, I don’t think she realised I’d stirred as she undressed for bed. Nice bum! I hasten to add that it was pretty much near-darkness and I didn’t realise what I was seeing until it was too late to get my camera close my eyes.
At 6am, the same girl was crawling back out of bed as she had a flight to catch back home, poor sod. She was, again, as quiet as could be but it didn’t matter as the bin lorry arrived as she was packing. Ever heard three lowly paid council workers emptying several wheelie bins full of glass bottles? It’s loud. Even I couldn’t sleep through it.
After breakfast, I got talking to Margaret the Irish girl in the room. We decided to wander down to the Mint in town which I’d been planning for about 6 days. It’s definitely worth the visit if you’re in Perth. It’s the oldest currently functioning mint in Australia, though it produces bullion bars and coins rather than general currency. All that is now made at the new mint near the airport.
If you do go, check any kind of discount card you may have. They take a lot, including YHA/VIP and it gets you 10% off or thereabouts. I also found a voucher in one of the tour guide books which got me a "free silver coin" – an old 1960’s three penny bit! It’s only tiny, but a nice souvenir.
There’s not a huge amount to see at the Mint, but what’s there is fascinating. Every hour there’s a gold-pouring demonstration where a staff member melts around $160,000 worth of gold them pours it into an ingot. The whole procedure is described and some history of the building is gone into. When they decomissioned it from full-time gold production, even the soot on the ceiling was refined – and $20,000-worth of gold retrieved from it!
In a sealed perspex box there is a gold bar you can try and lift up. It’s darn heavy. Also, a set of scales linked to the current exchange rate will tell you your value in dollars if you were made of gold.
All in all, really only an hour or so’s wandering but enjoyable enough for our $8.80.
I picked up two tickets for Ghostrider tonight at the Piccadilly. Toni has checked out of the hostel, but as I type the person who was supposed to collect her and put her up for a few nights hasn’t appeared. Oh dear. And the hostel’s fully booked now. Oh dear, oh dear. Well, we’ll kill some time with the film tonight and see what transpires!
Later…
Toni is now checked back into the hostel in the same room I was moved to. The guy who was supposed to be putting her up has gone utterly AWOL. As for Ghostrider… if it were any cheesier, it’d be for sale in the delicatessen at Asda. Superb special effects, plot-by-numbers, painful dialogue.
As I’m typing this up, I’m enduring Walk the Line and forcing large qantities of free date/walnut pudding and caramel sauce down my neck. I wonder which will be the first to make me ill.