Weekends

I live for my weekends. Unlike my sister, although she's recently changed her mind a bit, I really can't stand cities. I will live in them when I have to but really I feel claustrophobic if I can't get out of them regularly. Thankfully, here in Melbourne I have the perfect escape. Every weekend I wave goodbye to the city, the trams and the traffic, the people and the stress (cos there's lots, I recently did a personality trait test for an employment agency and came out as mildly stressed and I don't even do anything!) and I head up the Hume Highway for an hour and a half to a little place called Nagambie, more specifically the Drop Zone just outside of Nagambie where I can spend a heavenly weekend throwing myself out of perfectly good planes for fun. There's not much there, a big hanger with a packing mat and bar in it, a hamburger van, a bunkhouse and some caravans. Oh, and a plane, the lovely XL750 specifically designed for skydiving. There's nothing like being up in the air at 14,000ft for curing claustrophobia! Out the front of the hanger is an open grassed area which leads out to the runway. There's a couple of picnic tables out there which are great to lie on and watch the parachutes come down and a hamburger stand called Greasy Gregs which does lovely chicken wraps (and the best hangover breakfasts...). Everyone comes out when you can hear the plane on the jump run and watches the exits from the plane (you can't see really solo jumpers but you can see formations which look fantastic, especially at the end of the freefall when they track away from each other). I love the noise that the 'chutes make when they open, it's a really loud 'whopwhopwhop' even though they're 2000ft away. When you're set up in the plane, it's a fantastic feeling when the red light comes on to say that there's 3 minutes left before the door opens, everyone gets up onto their knees and checks everyone else's pins on their chutes. It's handshakes all round and then the green light comes on and the door opens. One of my favourite moments is the smell of the air that high and the fuel from the plane when the door opens, it's kind of light if that makes any sense at all. Then you set up in the door, it's 'OK? Up! Down! Go!' and you're out and flying and it is flying, make no mistake, there's no falling sensation, it's fantastic! You're in the air and free. There's always a slight heart attack moment after you pull the ripcord and you're counting '1 thousand, 2 thousand, 3 thousand...' sometimes it's quite quick and you barely count to one but sometimes there's quite a delay and you're still falling, counting, thinking 'oh my god, oh my god' and then you get opening shock, do your canopy checks and it's all ok. Find the landing area and head for it, looking out for the others from the load. Once you're down on the ground, your heart is still going like a rocket and you're grinning like a loon (even if you've planted your face in the ground...) and that feeling lasts for ages! All that there's left to do is pack your canopy and head up again until operations stop and it's to the bar for everyone for a great evening. Weekends, in my opinion, pass far too quickly.

New place

Things are looking up! I am no longer a homeless vagabond moving from room to room in a hostel :) I was in my customary position propping up the reception at the backpackers I had to move back into after the whole leaving TAB episode when someone came in with an advert for a flatshare in his hand, he wasn't going to put it up in the hostel but let me see it and it was perfect! The rent was practically what I'm paying for the joy of sharing a 6 bed dorm and a kitchen with a lot of backpackers who don't wash up so I jumped at it. The flat is LOVELY. Its got wooden floors, and a nice living space with a balcony. A tv, video AND dvd player. I'm sharing a room with an Italian guy (D) whose English is not that good so the other 2 girls and I are basically teachers, which is cool, if it helps him learn then she's all good :)

Young, free and single...

Well, after the events of the weekend I'm now jobless, moneyless, homeless and boyfriendless, oh yay me. On the bright side, I've found a couple of new friends, I'm rid of yet another useless lying bastard and well, I'm in Australia so I may as well live by their rules so NO WORRIES! I tried to get to jump this weekend to cheer myself up, unfortunately rain is a big problem in a weather dependent sport. I woke up this morning to the lovely sound of quite a bit of rain on the caravan roof. Ah well, at least I didn't spend the money! I think I'll stop there, my brain has ceased to function. And the finale of Everyone Loves Raymond is on...

Men!

Ha. Just when I know you were all dying to get to know Typical Aussie Boyfriend, I have the bad taste to go and walk out on him. I know, I know, I am very sorry for the inconvenience that this is going to cause you all but it has to be done in the name of good sense, taste and moral decency. Basically things went REALLY badly last night, for some reason after introducing me to an ex-fling (oh no Ellie, things between K and I never got going) he really thought that we wouldn't talk and find out a few things like 1. I'm most definatley not his girlfriend, just happen to be living with him while I find a job so can K please visit him whilst I'm away for the weekend? 2. 2 years is a very long time for a 'never got going' especially when he's recently (and I mean VERY recently) told her she's the love of his life 3. I'm free and single, obviously, so why doesn't her friend go for it with me? And that's just the bare bones of it. If he annoys me any more however I may just cut off that ponytail of his...

Avoidance Tactics

I recently received Big Sister's blog address and spent an interesting couple of hours alternately giggling and crying, much to the horror of the Typical Aussie Boyfriend sitting next to me who was trying to concentrate on blowing things up in Grand Theft Auto. This got me thinking (a rare occurance). Why don't I write my own blog? I'm travelling the world and gosh darn it I should have at least a few interesting things to say. Possibly. The first thing that occured to me was the lengths that people go to to avoid doing something, not even something particularly difficult, or really time consuming. I am, at present, a classic case in point. I should be job hunting. I should have been job hunting for the past few days. Have I? No. In fact, I have only left the house in order to go and get food (a necessity given that Typical Aussie Boyfriend has NO food in the house, ever) and alcohol, of course. Once, I ventured into town, braving the tram ticket inspectors that appear like a particularly stubborn spot when you're least expecting it and right when you REALLY don't want one and managed to get 1 thing done, yay for me! The rest of the week has been spent sitting, as I am at present, on the sofa in TAB's flat, surfing the net on his Mac. Yesterday, I managed to spend 5 hours in conversation with a friend on messenger. Quite obviously he is avoiding something too. Finding avoidance tactics used to be so much harder before the internet, washing up, laundry, all things that despite having sat in piles in the sink/on the floor for the past week, are now vitally important to get done before you venture out of the house. After cleaning the flat for the nth time options are running low. The net however has changed all that! Hours can be whiled away searching for rigs to buy (a current favourite) or, my brand new tactic, writing blogs... Anyway, I really should go out and job hunt, right after I do that washing up...