Up until meow, it's been mostly blasé....working to save moola and prepping for our trip. As they say "life is a journey, not a destination" so I suppose I should give you an overview with the highlights and lowlights.
-In January, Trav and I bought a 1994 Toyota Hiace Commuter van in Sydney (Jorge/Vincent van Slow) and turned it into a camper van. En route to Rainbow Serpent Music Festival (the Shambhala of Australia) near Melbourne, the engine seized and left us stranded in Sale, Victoria (on day 13) in 46 degree heat. This prompted me to rename the van 'Hot Carl' (Urban Dictionary that). It was so hot my iPad shut off and our sandals melted to the ground. Ironically, Trav was wearing a 'Keep Calm and Chive On' t-shirt, which is exactly what he did. He was great about it, where as I was .3 away from having a girl melt down. Luckily, we had just got NRMA (Aus version of BCAA) the day prior so they put us up in accommodation, towed the van and gave us a rental car. $5000 later, our van was fixed and we made it to the festival.
-Rainbow Serpent was amazing. Not quite as good as Sham, but good. It was hot, dusty and full of hippies hopped up on drugs, life and patchouli. The highlight for me there was finding a roller rink AND retro skates at 3am on the last night...my head literally almost exploded. I'm not sure how I stayed vertical given my sobriety but my coordination prevailed and my derby training paid off and and I had an absolute blast.
-We spent our time in Melbourne squatting in a store. Literally. It was cheaper than camping so we rented a store and turned it into a funky living space. The only downfall Is that there we no bathing facilities. None. Instead, we had a Jetts gym membership down the road so we just worked out daily (or close to) and showered there. I must admit, we had the odd occasion where we went a just showered in the morning and the gym manager Dale got a pretty good chuckle followed by a cheeky "good session guys" remark.
Tracie and Brian originally slept on a shotty pull-out couch, and I made the mistake of joking about sleeping on a trampoline, and the next day I came home to a tramp in our make shift living room.
-Our jobs were very backpacker but it did allow us to save some money and recoup the money lost from the engine granadeing in January. In a nut shell, we sold power door-to-door. Surprisingly I did quite well. Most people to us where to go and how to get there (fuck off) but for some unknown reason, people liked me and I was usually in the top 5 employees in our company. On difficult days I wore my roller skates or faked the worst southern belle 'Merican accent - which oddly enough, people loved. Australia has a very d2d culture and people are sick of it, but our company Simply Energy was definitely one of the better ones. The job itself sucked, but we meet tones of other backpackers, made good money and got to travel. I was a team leader and I figure that I can be good at d2d sales, I can pretty much do anything.
Oh and one time, we hit a kangaroo in a work van and got stranded in Horsham. When the boss asked who pulled the roo out of the rad, he knew if would have been a Canadian.
-Steak night. Our coworker and friend Avi introduced us to La Roche in St. Kilda. $15 got you delicious steak, mashed potatoes with mush gravy and salad with a beer or wine. We always rocked in on Thursday nights with 10+ people for dinner after work. It quickly became tradition and it was nice to have some familiarity in the big city.
-Roller Derby was another highlight. I joined the Melbourne Northside Rollers and was drafted to the Sister of Anarchy home team, then the Death Stars A team. I learned so incredibly much and met some amazing women. Suzz, Sin, Strife, Tash, Lee, Gorejess, Chopper, Corker, Sunny, Dina, Bella, Bio, Spink, Kim, Akka, Bliss, Zomb...everyone. I loved you all. I had the pleasure of representing the Death Stars at The Great Southern Slam in Adelaide. <ENTER TRACIE AND BRIAN> We literally picked up Tracie and Brian from the airport, iced them, and left for TGSS...
Our team placed 7th of 21 in div 1 which to us was a huge deal considering this tournament was the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. I played some of my personal best games, and was able to play in all bouts but had to sit out the last 5ish jams of the final bout against Sun State due to injury. I never got x-rays but I'm sure I broke something in my hand.
-JOY FM. Trav and I were invited to guest on 'The Lady and the Camp' radio show with our friend Ali (the American strife). We had the worst colds and I had my smells cat voice on, but had an awesome time. I was so nervous but by the time we were done I was hooked. I'd love to explore radio more.
-Of course I couldn't leave a city where I've lived for 7 months without getting a tattoo. Miri, my good friend from Germany and I both got tattoos from Kat Scarlett representing our time here.
P.S. Miriam, I miss the crap outta you.
Anywho, that's the last few months in a nutshell....
8 days ago, Tracie, Brian, Emma, Trav and I packed up the van and left Melbourne headed up the East Coast. Tracie and I are going to TRY and blog regularly so stay tuned...
~F
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