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| Here is a toilet |
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| I will clean it |
It is Muffin baking and Toilet cleaning most of the time now. It works
out really well, as I start bkaing at 5 in the am and usually finish by 12 or 1, then hop on my bike (or walk now that it
has been nicked), have a quick bite to eat for lunch (and spend 3 hours chatting to Aisling, Kirsty and Sara at reception
- Cooooeel!) then set to scrubbing the dunnys! What a day!
Had a few small excursions, mostly to the Threshermans Bakehouse, our new
favourite haunt, with cheap cakes and bread - or to Pugg Mahones, the Irish Pub at the end of our street, where I have had
the pleasure of being asked to participate in a genuine scientific experiment....to judge who, between Aisling
and Nadine, had the larger breasts. I took my task very seroiusly, and very thoroughly, making several measurements, before
declaring it a draw. (I had to triple check, just to make sure)
I went with Acacia Stu and Melbourne friends Sylvia and Meshegs on
a trip on Puffing Billy, an old steam train, through the Dandenongs - a eucalypt forested area near Mellie, which was fun.
NZ Dan and I dicovered the "Loo with a View" on the 53rd level of
a hotel. I enjoyed it so much I went back with Sylvia!
And a few others (including a BBQ by the Yarra river, where some numpty
threw my Aerobie in the river..grrrr)
| Do you know..the Muffin Man? |
|
| Is there anything in the oven? Nha......muffin. |
But work is the main event, baking mostly, but Peter, the guy I was replacing,
is no longer leaving so I feel a tad reduntant. I just do the early mornings for him, which have been changed
from 5am to 6am, so I have even less time to create my muffins - I am a bit slow! However I occasionally get shifts at the
end of the day - and the end of the day means ....excess muffins!! I get to take as many muffins back to the hostel as I want!
One day, (on the lovely Jodi's birthday, one of the Muffin Maids with whom I was closing the shop) some of the cakes had reached
their throw out date, I took it all home, I had LOADS, 3 boxes of cakes and two carrier bags FULL of muffins. I walked back
to the hostel - I have never had my arms aching from carrying cake before!! The hostelgoers were overjoyed as always - The
Muffin Man strikes again!!
| We're on top of the woorrrrlllld! |
|
| ..well ...Carlton College |
| The Last Carlton Pannekoeken Night |
|
| Lekker!! |
The hostel is great fun, with immaculate toilets, but all good things must
come to an end. Carlton College Backpackers is closing down at the end of April. Time to look for somewhere else to live.
I hadnt started thinking about it (surprise surprise) when Nadine said she had found a house with space for 5 people. She,
Sylvia, Paul, Robin and I were all keen to move in together, so we all went to have a look at 307 Punt road - and loved it.
Sylvia, Nadine and Paul decided to move in asap. It was quite a sad day watching them move out of the hostel.
Robin and I both wanted to make use of our cleaning-earned free accomodation,
so we stayed at Carlton til the bitter end. And for such an End, a fitting farewell was required. Steve on Reception had great
notions of a closing down party, and enlisted me to help organise (errrrm, me organise??) So we set to it. Well, sort of.
The last day of the hosel was on Friday 30th April, with the last night on Thurs. We decided to come up with a plan on tueday
and wednesday, but failed to meet both times. Steve in the meantime was cheerfully telling everyone to "be in the TV room
at 7pm on Thurs - Its gonna be Huge!!"
What exactly was going to be huge, we had no idea. We decided to meet up
on Thurs after my baking at 1pm. I returned on time, but no sign of Steve. He didn't appear til 4pm, we had nothing, the only
notion we had had was crappy party games. We quickly Brain stromed and I came up with saying farewell to all the balconies
outside each room - we could play a game on each balcony - and have balloons - and Steve can make his famous punch. RIGHT,
we had a plan, and 2 hours to make it happen.
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| I feeeel Happyyyyyyy !! |
We flew down to the Reject Shop and purchased prizes for the games, including sweets, water pistols
and a tin of tuna. The games we had decided on were pass the parcel, musical chairs, bobbing for apples, and the "carry the
coin between your bum cheeks game".
On to Safeway for drinks and Nibbles (and apples). Straight back to the hostel to inflate ballons,
wrap presents, prepare nibbles (I even made cheese and apple on sticks!) prepare all the games - including constructing a
maze in one of the empty rooms with all the matresses to get to the balcony, and make the punch. I was amazed we got it done
by 7 o'clock (well, nearly) Then it struck me - we were about to ask a hostel full of expectent backpackers to play childrens
party games.... They LOVED it !! Steves punch Kicked of the night well, and everyone merrily followed Big boss Stevo
from Balcony to balcony, and played all the games. Highly entertaining!
Before it all kicked off Sue, the owner, gave a nice little speech about how we were the last gasp
after 20 years of the hostel. Then Steve noted that it was April the 29th, the twenty eighth anniversay of
my Birth!! And duely made a fool out of me, along with Aisling whose B'day was tomorrow! A fun night.
| 29th April |
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| Rent-a-friend did me proud |
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| What a bunch of weirdos |
The following day was very strange as everyone (well, the remaining few)
checked out for the final time, the hostel being stripped bare around us. but onwards we must go, and to 307 Punt Road I went,
and moved in with Sylvia, Nadine and Paul. Robin joined us after a week of cleaning out the hostel, and we had our own little
bungalow. Actually it wasn't our own, we shared it with Martin, an Irish guy who had lived there for a year or something,
and was totally incomprehensible. He kept himself to himself.
| Rubi told a joke |
|
| It was funny |
We had a great time, having Pancake Nights and Taco evenings, inviting Ivan, Aisling, Kirsty, Steve and
other hostel survivors round.
But then it happened again, people started to leave. We were all coming to the end of our times in
Melbourne, but all left one by one. We had a goodbye night about once a week. Pizza night for Paul, we took Sylvia to a Chocolate
Bar (Lekker!) and on to her favourite, the Bakehouse (Ik zal je missen), Caroline (who arrived when Sylvia left) had a Pizza
and wine night, which involved a slight miscalculation, with 10 pizzas for 5 people, we were eating them for 3 days!!
And soon enough it was the end of my three months work at Muffin Break, I had had a fun time, Jodi
and Natalie watching my progression to Master Baker, from batter splatting moron!
Now, with work over I slowly started putting my mind into the direction of leaving Melbourne, but
I realised there was still alot to do in and around Mel, and people to see. I saw Acacia Stu and Christy a couple more times,
one time together at my house, when Christie got a phone call, from Sammy sam!! Sadly her Grand Dad had died, but that meant
she was coming back from Canada to Mellie. I saw her the following week!!
Nadine and I were Keen to see the Great Ocean road with the Twelve apposles, a coastal rockstack formation.
We started planning for next week and inquired about hiring a car. With all the info, we realised we had nothing to do for
the rest of the day, so we hired the car and left there and then. we had a great couple of days. Not the best weather, but
dark brooding skies made the coast even more atmospheric. We drove our 'little red devil' out to Torquay - home of 'Ripcurl'
surfwear, and visited, what I recently discovered, the world famous surf beach Belles Beach. The next day we drove to lighthouses
and jetties, walked inland to waterfalls and out to beaches, and visited the Otway Fly, a tree top walkway 40 meteres
up. Bizarrly we discovered we were about 60km behind Sylvia who was also doing the G.O.R, but did not manage to meet up. We
finally arrived at the focal point of the area, the Twelve Aposltles, twelve huge rock stacks, standing off the coast like
vast sentinels, against the cruel angry sea (I made that up myself!). We stopped at a small point of interest before
we saw them, Gibsons steps. Not knowing what Gisbons steps were we asked a couple emerging from the path. "well, I dont know
what we were supposed to be looking at???" said the guy. Nadine and I decided to check it out anyway. There were some steps
carved out of the cliff, leading down to the beach, that threw us out at the bottom on to the beach. We looked up to be faced
with an Apostle!! Huge with the sea crashing against it. I dont know what the hell that fella was looking at, he must have
been looking with his eyes shut or something!
We continued to the main Apostle lookout, but it was a bit busy and touristy, but impressive none
the less. Could not count all 12 but it is a good line up. We continued to the area of Loch Ard Gorge, where we walked along
the cliff tops looking down to the caves and arches below, including the blowhole and Thunder cave. The sun set behind us
and set the sky a deep purple. A good day, then time to drive the little red devil back to Melba.
|
| Some Apostles |
With such a successful excersion we decided to repeat it the following week, and took Robin and Aisling
towards Lake Mountain. We got as far as Marysville, a bit of a nowhere place, but turned out to have some great
walks among some wet forest. We saw "the Big Tree" (a big tree), a tunnel under the road, and a couple of waterfalls. However
the most memorable part of the day was lunchtime, and not because Nadine had decided to inflict 'Rollmops' on me (gerkin wrapped
in raw herring - blurrgh) but when half way through one of her beloved Rollmops, Nadine Dicovered a small black leathery creature
merrily sucking out her blood. It was leach country!! We spent the next few hours discoveing tiny leaches all over us,
which added a slight skincrawling edge to the walks!! Still, a good day. Until our return to 307 Punt road. We had been burgled.
i was lucky as I had all my valuables with me, the others got off resonably lightly, except Nadine who lost all her savings
from her work. Not good.
| Can you spot me? |
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| I'm on top of a big rock |
The following weekend was one of the other big names on the list - The
Grampians National Park. Steve, Aisling, Ivan and I set off, in a slightly larger car and arrived at Halls Gap (after a fiasco
with the hire car - the oil cap had been left off and oil had splashed everywhere and started smoking!).
We drove up to MacKenzie falls whiole there was still light, then headed the rocky outcrop called
'the Balconies' to watch the sunset. This wasn't facing west, but we walked around the corner and got a vast view over the
treecovered basin below us, and a great sunset.
we drove to the nearby campsite and set to tent erecting and fire building, Ivan and Steve very nearly
getting totally lost in the woods while collecting fire wood, it took them nearly an hour to get back. Then a fun
night of Spag Bol and fire writing.
We were up extremely early in the morn in order to get to the Balconies again (if we cant see then
sun set, we will see it rise!) It was very chilly but off we set (Steve struggling a bit) and made it to the balconies
just in time. Very impressive scenery. Back to Camp for Breaky (chocolate porridge and pancakes).
We spent the day walking up the aptly named Mount Difficult. A great walk, navigating some large boulders
and bizarrely wind eroded cliffs. Fantastic, if windy, view from the top.
| Can you spot me? |
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| I'm on top of a big rock, again |
Camped again, with soup and marshmallows and star watching.
I was fist up in the morn and spent a few minutes watching the Kangaroo in the neighbouring site,
aswell as a couple of Kookaburras and being dive bombed by a Crimson Rosella! We drove up Mount William first thing for a
great view over the entire range being blanketed in flowing cloud, very eerie.
Then we walked up to the 'Pinnacle' via the 'Grand Canyon' and 'Silent Street'. Amazing craggy rock
cliff formations, the Pinnacle being a jutting outcrop over looking the Halls Gap valley. I was scrambling and climbing up
and over all the nobbly rocks and slabbed ledges. Lots of fun.
we drove out of the grampians and went insearch of the nearby Aboriginal Cave painting, after driving
for half an hour in a farmers field we turned round and located 'Bunjils Cave' to see a fairly clear painting. Just a shame
it is kept behind a cage to stop Graffiti.
| Ais, Ivana and me |
|
| Ahhh Ledss!! Coooooeeel !! |
Back in Mellie, Man the Dan had returned from Perth to return to New Zealand
and his old job, who am I going to travel the West coast with now?? we had a good few days while he was here, including Nadines
leaving night underwear party, and a Lord of the Rings tripble bill at the Astor cinema, a great old timey type movie house
with really uncomfortable seats!!
One more excursion before I leave Melbaville. On to Ballarat with Steve, home of the Australian Gold
Rush, and Soveraign Hill, a reconstructed goldmining town. It sounded really cheesy, but it was really good, everything was
working and functioning as it would in the olden days, the chandler, blacksmith, ironmonger all using traditional techniques,
even the sweetmaker, pub, bakery and bowling alley! And of course the Gold pouring. And everything was powered by steam.
We went an a tour of the gold mine too, very interesting to see gold in the rock wall, all bright and shiny like in a
cartoon!!
But, alas, leave Mellieton I must, so on Wednesday 16th May
I had my own leaving party and saw nearly everyone for one last time. Well, actually most of them were at Aislings leaving
do a coulpe of days later. Yep, even leaving takes me a while! I have decided to travel most of Australia by train, and have
bought a six month rail pass that covers the south coast and the centre rail lines, the 'Indian-Pacific' and the 'Legendary
Ghan' respectively but my train to Perth did not leave til Saturday.
So on Saturady I boarded the 'Overlander' to Adelaide to connect with the 'Indian Pacific'
and waved farewell to Robin, Ivan and Steve - and Melbourne! |
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