Beaches, Ice cream and Dilemmas.

No pictures in this post guys, not until I am less lethargic and update it. [I've finally added photos - as you can see(14/02/15)]

In the last few days I have been body boarding at Prevelley beach with Ivo, my German friend and Pei, my Taiwanese friend. We also had a drink in the town (Margaret River) and played some cards, chase the ace and rummy. I also went to a place called Simmos that sells all different flavoured ice-cream with two girls from "dawn sawff" (Surrey) and a German guy who teaches English and History in Germany. At Simmo's there is two Emu's that eat Ice-cream so Simon was flicking what we couldn't eat as close as he dared to the gobbling Emu's. There was also lots of drinking done this week... as every week - hostel life style, but I drink copious amounts of water and tea too. 

I finally made it to the beach down the bottom of the hostel... maybe pictures would help this make sense... soz. I went for a dip with Rusty from NZ and Emily from Canada, they got out early then Will the Londoner joined me, proper Brits enjoying the beautiful sea. Will and I swam out to the sand bank and watched the sting ray swim past, they are really big in the sea around Dunsborough. Since breaking my beach virginity I have been another time, yesterday in fact, with Marco the Italian, and AJ from Coventry (of all places!), the three of us were trying to simultaneously stand up on a board, I never even managed more than sitting for laughter. AJ and Marco managed it momentarily before going backwards in to the water, and AJ held on for dear life with his legs, that boy was determined not to fail. All it made me realise was the Rose is one selfish cow, Jack never had to die! (Titanic reference if it needs explaining.) Only problem swimming at the beach yesterday was that both Marco and I managed to get stung by jellyfish, little squidgy beggars! Marco peeled a tentacle off his arm and got a swollen lump, mine turned in to spots up my arm. Luckily I had germoline to sooth my sting, problem with that is I'm running low and it doesn't exist over here - send supplies!  

One evening I also had an overwhelming urge to make nachos, so Tuesday the people who were around got to munch on Nachos. And boy did they get munched, never seen something get inhaled so fast! I have also become addicted to chocolate whilst being over here, I keep going shopping and thinking, no! NO BECCA! don't buy chocolate, you'll munch it all. Only problem with that is I come back desperate for chocolate and I can smell it coming, like a crazed meerkat when a wrapper goes, "chocolate?!" Again, on the topic of food, Luca, an Italian, works at a place where he makes pizza and often comes back with some of the most delicious pizzas I've ever eaten and I keep having a slice or two - I will soon start to look like a pizza slice, I'm already red for the base. 

Yesterday was Mat's birthday, he's French, so he, Jeremy (he's also French) and I, went to Simmo's for an ice cream, the Emu's didn't get fed this time. Then I went fishing with Rusty, we caught all of one fish, and when I say we, I mean Rusty, as I had gone for a wee when all the action happened. It got particularly windy last night and I got a free sand exfoliation. After fishing we went off track in his 4x4 to see the lighthouse which was fun. Then I came back and with Matt and Jeremy, went out for dinner at Meat People, the food was delicious and I think the three of us could have eaten twice as much. Once we got back, it was party hats, drinks and chocolate brownie I had made, luckily it was a ready mix so not much could go wrong with it, apart from the too large a tin meaning the outer parts turned out to be more of a biscuit.

I also went to work today, and my goodness it is far too hot! I've chosen to lie on the bed with the fan on my because it's melting weather. A customer at work said "Oh wait until summer does hit"... I'm going to burn. You'll catch me skimming along the walls for shade! It's that hot I'm too exhausted to reach less than two feet to the bottom of the bed to reach my cup of tea that has been sat there for about 30 minutes and I bet it's not even cooled down one iota! 

What about the dilemma I hear you cry?! Well.. my choices are, stick around here and get all my seasonal work out of the way and spend a heap of money on a car for getting to the vineyards, or go with a guy towards Port Augusta SA and see lots of beaches and national parks along the way... I have to do 3 months of regional work, and the travel crew are leaving around the 6th of February so I haven't got long to make a decision on what to do there. Your answers on a postcard, or comment, or WhatsApp... hell, just give me your opinion! I need some help in making my decision... 

A Week, A Month… A Year?!

I was due to stay in Dunsborough for a week then move on somewhere else, but you start to watch your money depleting and WA is so expensive! I mean, $1.40 for a Crème Egg, sort it out! (I’m still buying them). Little did I know this is a ‘working’ hostel, meaning everyone here is fairly long term and they all work, so I started thinking maybe I should contemplate a job, it can do no harm to earn a bit of cash, after a couple of days I handed my CV around and boom! Got a job in a bar, started the 11^th. Winner… Immediately I got that dreaded work feeling but it will be nice to earn some money (when I get paid).

So I paid to stay here for a month, the hours haven’t really been coming in so I went today and asked for more, the boss said see you at 5, so I’ll be going in to work later. Have to say, my feet do not like my shoes! My shoes I’ve had NO issues with the whole time I’ve had them, now I have blisters and my toes feel trapped. Used to being bare foot or in thongs all the time. I need to buy more socks too… sigh.

In between that I’ve made some friends, here there are Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian’s, German’s, an Estonian, a Kiwi, various Aussie’s in and out, one other British guy, there’s been two Canadian’s and a handful of American’s. It’s crackers. Everyone speaks English to each other unless communicating with someone of your native tongue. A couple of guys can speak about 3 languages so have no problems.

pizza production line

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I went on a trip with two German’s to a place called Eagle Bay, we did a LOT of walking, over rocks and through bush to a beautiful beach, when we almost got back to the car a few hours later I had cramp in my bum cheek. Don’t laugh! I couldn’t walk. 

One night the Italian’s cooked pizza, that turned in to a midnight shambles. The night before the French did lasagne which amused me, shoulda been moules and frites with loads of baguettes.

One evening, three German’s, two French and myself were telling political based jokes about our native Countries, the American’s didn’t get it so we laughed more.

Another evening was spent fishing with a Japanese girl, a German and a Italian. I realised I can't fish and sting rays look pretty cool in the dusk. A successful trip if you ask me!

One evening a few of us went to watch the sun set at the beach which was really nice, 4 German’s, 1 Italian, 2 Brits (including me) and 1 Australian.

I love the variety of people and how nice (almost) everyone is. Nobody is nasty, put it that way.

I also hired the car and went to visit my friend in Perth, it made me really miss having a car so I might try and get one… although I think I am too fussy for the hunks of junk lying around WA at the moment. Whilst in Perth I visited Cottesloe, Subiaco, the art gallery, the museum, went for a really nice Greek meal and also went to the cinema to watch the new Hobbit film. I’m glad I had nice company because we made our own amusements in the boring bits… which were often. Zzzzz.

A couple of days ago we went to a beach party booze and bbq, this was after my walk with the French guy when I got badly sunburnt. At the beach party there was 2 Italian’s, 1 American, 2 Canadian’s, a few Japanese, 1 Chinese, 1 Brit, 1 Indian (from the other group), 2 German’s… I’m sure I’m missing some people out.

Yesterday was a trip to Margaret River (BEEN THERE!) we wandered up and down the street, I went in the car with 2 French and an Italian. In the other car was an Italian and a French. Then we bumped into 2 German’s and a Taiwanese from our hostel. So we went to a café and had a hot beverage. The Italian was seething at $3 for an espresso… easy steps on how to piss off an Italian 1. Give him a shit espresso, step 2. Charge him a ridiculous amount, step 3. Sit back and watch him shout profanities in Italian.

The Italian's have very naughtily hosted a couple of beach fires, even though fires are currently prohibited at the moment. At one the Kiwi got extremely drunk and we had to force him back to the hostel before he set his head on fire but we did amuse ourselves for a while beforehand at his expense. 

Today myself, a French girl, a Taiwanese girl and a German guy were going to go on a 20k walk but about 3k in the lovely Taiwanese girl got stung on the foot by a bee so was came back.

So I’ll be staying here for at least a month, I think I will keep pestering the boss for more and more and more and more hours. As much as I don’t WANT to work, the more I can work whilst I do have a job will keep me ok in the times I don’t… at least that is the idea. We’re almost 2 months in to the adventure and I am going to earn as much as I can this month in Dunsborough then after a month see if I have earned enough to move on… I’m already getting itchy feet to move to the next place.

Overdue Post

Given I’ve not posted for a few weeks I’ll try and keep it informative and brief… TRY! I’m making no promises.

Sheesh… over 20 days of “what have I done?”

Ok, so New Year was good, we went to the local park, sorta, and the Margaret River posse were all there with their children and what not. There was plenty of drinking and eating before we went back and Charlotte, Grandma and I stayed up until after midnight to see the New Year in. We watched the fire works on the tv at Sydney, and swayed a little.

Then it was packing time! A week in Dunsborough and a music festival, booya! I was starting to freak out a little. What the hell? Time to go… on my.. OWN? Nooo surely not. But here I was, landed in Dunsborough ready to party hard at the festival.

Saturday was a good day at the festival, had trouble getting in because my ticket was online and I lost all internet connection, luckily, including the delay because of traffic, there was nobody on that I wanted to see before 9pm, but I got in about 13:30ish. Bought my drinks tickets and got a couple of drinks, then coyly went and sat in the tent and listened to a band I didn’t know, I felt slightly awkward at first, but I started talking to people, and with the alcohol got more and more friendly. Sat in the big tent and watched the comedians, they were pretty funny but I couldn’t repeat a joke to you (I tried and failed miserably - always the way). One of the comedians said look after your ginger friends so two people asked me if I needed looking after and suncreamed my back! Woohoo. Then I lost them in the tent as I went to get drinks. Someone also gave me a Captain Morgan’s pirate hat so I pretended I was a pirate for a while.

 

By the time The Presets played (the reason I went) I was moderately squiffy so I wedged my way to the front with a bunch of people I had attached myself to for that period of time. We were second in the row and boy was it squashy, I didn’t care. When The Presets played I danced the whole time in the tiny space and thoroughly enjoyed myself, they were incredible and I would love to watch them again. When they finished it was La Roux and I have to say, her performance was the bizz, very pleased I stuck around. After La Roux I was done so I went and sat on the bus as it was quite chilly and I was ready for sleep.

Sunday was another early start and I was super tired, we got there on time on the Sunday but it was sooooooooo hot. I tried to watch something on the outdoor stage but I was melting so I went in the tent with my drinks and pretty much spent my time sat against the fence in the shade. I didn’t know anyone bar Todd Terje playing on the Sunday and he was last on so chilling there made no difference to me thankfully. Sunday, I have to say, I fell in love… it was love at first spray – there was a guy walking around spraying water mist on everyone to cool them off, I could have kissed him, it was beautiful. It all got a bit much for me so I had a Nanna nap, sunglasses on, head on my bag, lay down on the grass, live music playing, Glass Animals, they’re pretty good to nap through, quite chilled music. After that I was getting squiffy again and started chatting with some guy and having a good laugh, then Blue Juice were on and he said I should come and dance, so he, his friend and I went up to dance. The music was good and the crowd was wild, even wilder as we managed to join ourselves in with the crowd who had all taken some illegal substances and were dancing like crazed monkeys, so we got involved. I have to say, crazed monkey dancing is a hell of a lot of fun. !For the record, there was strictly no drugs consumed by myself! But dancing like a moron whilst drunk, but not drunk enough to lose your feet was hysterical. After Blue Juice I lost those guys and instead danced to Todd Terje on my own, it was enjoyable.

 

Once I got back to the hostel... after only being led by the moonlight and bumping in to a couple of trees, I had completely forgotten how to get on my bunk, I was drunk and there is(was) no ladder to get in. All I needed to do was put my foot one rung higher on the opposite ladder and hop across but I didn’t manage it for about 10 minutes due to a fit of laughter and drunken confusion.

Ok this one is long enough now… NEXT!