Perth & Western Australia....
Well, I managed to fight off the wine tour hangover long enough to catch my flight from Adelaide to Perth. It was a ridiculous 6 'amer' ...seriously for once I'd like to catch a cheap domestic flight at a more pillow-friendly hour...
Finding the bus to the airport felt like some mythical quest...First, I couldn't wake up the guy behind the front desk of the hostel and the key drop box was maliciously placed on the other side of the steel barricade. I really did try to wake him up gently, but when the bogan started snoring at me I got even!
I closed one eye, balanced on one foot, and threw my key at his face like it was a dartboard. I scored 40 points and an angry glare when he woke up!
Next, the mission was to find the bus stop. The bus has no number, and mysteriously no timetable. The helpful bogan from the hostel reminded me that it was an airport bus, 'so naturally it will come eventually, hey?' ...Thanks...
The bus was on the corner of an alleyway, opposite the one avenue in Adelaide which for some reason also has no name. It was dark and there were all sorts of unsavory characters on the streets (suspicious looking police women, meter ticket checkers HATE THEM, teenagers doing the walk of shame home, and the mean street sweepers who sweep their machines too close to the curb for the sick enjoyment of spraying innocent pedestrians!)
25 minutes later a bus showed up. Blue bus, no name, no number so I hopped on completely confident that this bus would take me where I needed to go or somewhere more exciting. Luckily, this bus took me to the airport.
The flight I took was on September 11th. I realized this mid-air when the captain came on the microphone asking for the passengers to take a moment of silence in honor of the memory...Really now?! This is what we're doing to passengers flying on the date?! I didn't a sleep a wink the rest of the flight...
4 coffees and a couple time zones later, I landed in Perth. My friend Liz picked me up from the airport and took me to my new home. A guest bedroom, a fully stocked kitchen, a family (Liz lives with her sister Lisa) and two beautiful hounds Bowza and Tonka. I get to stay here for 2 weeks, a much needed travel pause...
We're in an old family home (thankfully Liz won't tell me which room her grandma died in.) There's a gas water heater, gas stove and oven, and a clothes line out the back to hang the washing. (The gas stove is fun to cook with, but note to reader--make sure the gas is on low before you light the flame...I made a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig fire last night by accident!)
Here's the best part, the toilet is 'out the back.' I swear, that's what Liz said to me when I stepped into the shower. You shower in the house, but the toilet is an old outhouse in the backyard. Which means, if you're desperate for a wee in the middle of a cold night, either suck it up or stuff it up!
The first night in it must have been 7 or 8 degrees outside, and I was afraid my cheeks would freeze to the toilet seat like the kid's tongue to the pole in 'A Christmas Story.'
I meant to fly here and find work in the north, the cattle ranch Kimberley region of NW Australia...but that didn't work out, so 2 weeks in Perth instead. Shame because that would have been some incredibly beautiful scenery...
A phone call to the rancher I was supposed to work for made it clear that my day-to-day job was going to make me cry and throw up every night. They are in the process of de-horning their calves. The job was actually taking baby cows and ripping off their little horns. I was warned about the blood and skull bits I would have to clean up each day and I almost fainted right there and then!
So...on to greener pastures, literally! I'm working in a nursery now called Palms Galore. I spend most of my days in a potting shed listening to Triple J Radio Australia for all the strangest and upbeat Aussie music I can get my hands on!
The job is actually 9-5 pm every day, which is a challenge in itself...I haven't worked solid hours like that in years! On the other hand, when 5 pm hits...I get to go home, crawl into a fluffy bathrobe, curl up with a book and hot coffee and not think twice about what happened that day or worry about what tomorrow brings.
There's actually routine in my life again. Wake up at 7.30 am, brekkie of muesli and yogurt, work at the nursery, come home, make coffee, shower, walk the dogs, make dinner, read book, go to bed. Brilliant.
I love it here. The days are perfect: solid sunshine, never any clouds, endless blue sky, and not a skyscraper or traffic jam in sight or hearing range. Only green plants, fresh air, and good people for company. The work's far from stressful and David (the owner) insists I take a coffee break with him every hour. As soon as I walk in to start work he slaps me on the back, pumps my fist, and with a warm smile asks 'Do you have time for a coffee with me?'
How do you say no to that?! I'm officially going at a rate of 7 or 8 cups of coffee a day and I might have to cut back soon or my heart will jump out of this blog!
Typical chores include: potting plants, lining up display pieces, shuffling palms in tractors and bobcats, trimming foliage, weeding and pricing plants. I'm actually getting paid pretty well which is great because I'm enjoying the lack of concentration required in the day to day work....(I say that now, but watch out next week I'll lose a finger to my shearing scissors!)
But weekends are weekends again! Here are some photos we took from our last weekend trip to the desert/outback in the Pinnacles. Amazing, that just a few hours North of Perth will take you to this... barren, remote desert. We camped, we partied at a local pub in a small town called Dongarra, and we enjoyed getting away from everything... This is the picturesque, barren, red earth of the Australian outback I have fallen in love with!
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Enjoy the video below...Tonka the dog can skip rope!
I think I may love Tonka!
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