Hiatus

OK I'm not dead, just slack at posting to this thing.  Better get used to it as I am pretty sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later.

So now I am in Perth having finally waved goodbyeeee to Kalgoorlie.  I suppose the easiest way to catch up is by going a day at a time.

Thursday 17th July

Moved into Trav's place.  It's good to have friends that will put you up with no problems and no issues.  Help him tidy up a bit, not that I thought it was that untidy but there you go.  He does seem to be cornering the market in storage boxes and vacuum bags now.  Which I have to say are GREAT, I could pack stuff and vacuum the air out of it all day, seeing how flat you can get it.  It's a bit like Will It Blend? - will it flatten?  Maybe not quite as destructive though.

Friday 18th July

Went to the Fu Wah Chinese Restaurant and Laminate Flooring Emporium for dinner with Ben, Georgia, Paul, Trav and Rochelle.  That is actually what they sell there now.  A slightly strange combination.  Who orders lemon chicken, special fried rice and 4.8 square metres of arctic tundra floor covering?  It was a pleasant evening, food was, well it was, it was..actually it was OK in a country Chinese restaurant kind of way.  We had deep fried ice cream for desert.  I have to say not as spectacular as I had been led to believe.  Basically it was ice cream in bread-crumbs and fried.  I thought only the English had an obsession with deep frying incongruous items, mind you the deep fried Mars bar is one of the wonders of the world, as long as you have somewhere to have a nice lie down after you eaten one to prevent the fat and cholesterol shooting straight to your coronary arteries.  Deep fried cardiac arrest may be a better name. 

Saturday 19th July

Had my last Barista coffee in the morning.  That's the end of an era.  I used to go down at 8 every Saturday, order a complicated coffee and then sit out the front on Hannan St reading the Miner.  Have to find a new predictable thing to do now.  And have to track down somewhere to buy the Miner in Perth.  I have to get my fix of local news and fat people at parties at least once a week.   It was however absolutely freezing sitting out the front.  I couldn't actually feel my hands after a while and my legs were so cold I was having flash backs to high school PE lessons; standing in the snow, in shorts, playing Rugby while being watched by the PE teacher dressed in an outfit you could trek to the north pole in.  And they wonder why the English are so bad at sport.  It's because we spent our formative years trying to get out of it because of the bloody weather.

We went to the Broad Arrow Tavern for lunch.  For those that don't know it's a pub in the middle of nowhere where you can write on the walls.  Actually I suppose you can write on the walls wherever you go to the pub but at the Broady you are actually allowed to.  As long as you take a pen that works.  Which I forgot to.  So I'm afraid I was not recorded for posterity among the graffiti.  In the evening the Rep Club Committee kindly arranged a bit of a party at the Club to see me off. Apparently that's a life member perk that I didn't know about.  Only available once when you leave town though apparently but a bargain all the same.  It was a very pleasant evening, saw lots of the cool people I have grown to love in my time in Kal and managed not to get totally bladdered, which is a challenge in a place where the beer is $2 a bottle.  The "gang" as I shall henceforth be calling them gave me a fantastic picture and a signed Hi-Viz vest to hang on the wall.  Finally, after spending 9 years of my life in a mining town, I have an article of reflective clothing.

Sunday 20th July

Final day in a place that has really become home.  A bit sad all round but had a nice time having a few drinks at the Tower with the girls from work and the gang.  Even though everyone did arrive in shifts for some reason: 1:30 to 2:30 - Pauline and Tony 2:30 - 3:30 Carita and Truc 3:30 to 5:00 Ton, Cath, Lee, and Sharyn then 5:00 to 6:00 Trav, Tim, Aca, Ben and Andy.  It's all that Fly-in Fly-out affecting everyone's brains.  

Later on Paul and Georgia and Stitch came round and we drank champagne and danced all night under the electric candle light...(sorry channelling the Kinks there for a moment).  We did actually drink Champagne though.  I'd forgotten how nice and delicate real French bubbly wine is, we're so used to drinking Yello for special occasions that it comes as a shock to drink a $100 bottle of fizz.  Better not get used to it though, the less money we give to those frenchies the better.

Monday 21st July

Said farewell to Trav and I'm not ashamed to say I was feeling a little choked up to be going.  After all the months of planning and saying "Oh yeah I'm off to Perth but not for ages yet" the yet finally arrived.

Luckily I managed to get my suitcase and all my stuff in the car and drove to Perth.  The last time for quite a while I'll be doing that trip which bitter sweet.  Actually just sweet as it is just a bit too far.  I decided I'd stop at all the places I'd never stopped at before on the journey and realised why I had never stopped at all the places on the journey that I had never stopped at before.  There's just nothing there.  Southern Cross is moderately pretty but the rest of the towns...blink and you'll miss them.  Mind you if you need to buy a combine harvester then they are the places to go.

So here I am in Perth, staying in Willetton and waiting to go on holiday.  The world awaits.