Hmmm

I had a lovely conversation on the phone with TAB last night which generally informed me that he was going to Adelaide with a visiting friend of his from Germany for Enchanted Forest on the 3rd December. So far so good. 'We'll be going a few days early as we're taking it easy down the Great Ocean Road and I thought that seen as we were there I may as well show her Adelaide'' Once again, ok. Then the first bombshell. 'Given that I'm going to be there I might as well stay for my cousin's wedding on the 17th December' Oh. The day AFTER my birthday. Well, fair enough, it was unlikely that I'd see him on my birthday anyway given that I'm up here in Murchison. 'You will be back for Christmas with me won't you?' 'There doesn't seem to be much point if I'm there the week before Christmas so I thought that I'd stay here' Right. I know I'm being selfish but I really wanted to spend my first Christmas away from home with, well, him. He knew that. Abandoning his family for Christmas hasn't bothered him in the slightest for the last 5 years, why he should suddenly develop a conscience now eludes me. 'Am I going to see you before you go to Adelaide?' 'I don't know, I'm quite busy with the job hunting and everything' Once again 'Oh' seemed to be the only coherent response I could formulate. In other news, still no news on the job front either. However I have just noticed that I've upgraded to a 'multicellular micro-organism', woohoo! There are some things to be grateful for in this world after all ;)

Hell

'Hi, is that Murchison backpackers? Great, do you have any vacancies in your hostel and is there work at the moment?' 'Sure, we've got space and there's loads of work, come up when you want' 'Perfect, I'll be up at the end of the week' Friday comes... 'Hi, I rang earlier this week about staying and work?' 'Ah yes, the English girl, we've got space, but there's no work, I'm sure something will come up by next week though' This is Monday. As you can tell, work not happening right at this moment. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Holiday tales

I realise that I didn't exactly elaborate on mum's holiday here, but I just didn't have time during the last post. Brisbane was lovely albeit mainly having torrential thunderstorms that were apparently quite unusual for that time of year. We were treated to some quite spectacular lightning shows though so that's all ok! We were staying at this hostel out of the city centre called Somewhere to stay which was lovely although we both nearly had heartattacks when we noticed the spiders web full of spiders in the car park. It was strung between 2 trees and the spiders were, quite honestly, HUGE! It took all my control and I'm sure quite a lot of mum's too, not to scream :) The people at the hostel were fairly sure that they were harmless ones though :) We spent a couple of days looking round Brisbane city centre and things to do in the city, we went and hugged some koalas, (cool for us, probably scary for them) had a wander round the Botanical Gardens there and generally had a nice relaxing time as I tried to get mum into this time zone as easily as possible. We spent a day driving up to the Glasshouse Mountains as well which I'm sure look wonderful in the sun. I wouldn't know, we couldn't see them because of the rain (and HAIL!!!) most of the time. We had a bit of a drama getting to the airport in Brisbane to fly to Melbourne, we got to the check in desk 5 minutes after it had closed and they grudgingly let us through but I then had to run (and I don't run!) back to the car which we in a moment of madness had parked in the normal carpark rather than taking it back to the car hire place so I had to pay for that then drive all round the sodding terminals to get to the Europcar returns place. Then I had to run (again!) back through security and to my gate where they were waiting for me with mum waving my boarding card at them saying 'She is in the airport and she is coming!'. Fun fun fun. Typically, it was raining when we arrived in Melbourne which, needless to say, did not impress mum that much! She really wanted to go back to the heat of Brisbane :) It continued to rain for the next 4 days. I made her meet TAB which went down well, thankfully! and then we went to Echuca for 2 days where they have steamboats on the river and all sorts of lovely things like that. It was very nice of people to comment, over and over again, that the rain was very very unusual, it never rains in Echuca... Of course, a drive around back country Victoria (a place where you throw a party everytime there's a corner in a road) could not be complete without introducing mum to my second home, Nagambie. It was the State Champs on at the time so was rather a frantic place so we made a rather sensible decision to go back on our way home from Echuca. And no, I did not force my mum to jump from a perfectly good aeroplane, what kind of a daughter do you think I am? :) Anyway, a lovely time was had, definately by me and I certainly hope by mum :) And I'm sure that the koalas will recover soon. Possibly.

Long time no write

Firstly I must say sorry to everyone that it's been so long since my last post, I know that you are all desperately hanging on waiting for my every word :) Secondly, this is going to be a short one seen as I'm sitting outside of a cafe stealing the internet because TAB's got cut off a few weeks back and I'm not sure how long his laptop is going to last. The world has been quite an exciting place (well, as far as I'm concerned anyway) in the last couple of weeks. Firstly my mother visited and it was really lovely to see her. We spent a few days looking round Brisbane and the surrounding area then flew on down here to Melbourne, home sweet home, where she had the pleasure of meeting TAonB. Despite my heart pounding ridiculously much everytime someone opened their mouth (I nearly had a heart attack when mum suggested that Arsenal played at Stamford Bridge not Chelsea...) it went surprisingly well. TAB spent some of the week with us after that which was really nice. Mum said that she likes him but can see what I mean about him being a typical Aussie :) More excitement was to follow on the 3rd November when I became an aunt! I've just seen the pictures of my new little nephew and he looks lovely so congratulations to my brother and sister in law, I'm sure he'll be a wonderful addition to both families. I would offer to babysit but... :) Spring also appears to be in the air (which, while appropriate for me seems a tad odd for those back home...) for a couple of friends of mine who have announced their engagement recently, so my best wishes are also going out to them! Anyway, I must dash, I don't trust the battery on this thing and I'm also getting eaten alive by mozzies. more of an update soon, I promise.