Been a while since I could get internet access, so settle in for a long(ish) one!
And just so everyone knows who's been asking my parents, I am absolutely safe and unaffected by the floods in Australia, except that they have changed my plans a bit, but otherwise I'm fine. Thank you for your concern though.
So, turns out we were too young to hire a car on Maggie, so I spent the day by the pool chatting to people from my room and the 2 Aussies I was telling you about earlier. Also ended up helping an English guy (who works at the dive centre) with his stress and rescue dive training in the pool, which was good fun, pretending I was drowning, getting saved, and also getting to bash him around a bit to make it realistic!! Only drawbacks were that I got a rash from the dive gear (hadn't used a stinger suit this time as it was only the pool) and I spent 2 hours in there with no suncream on, got out and lounged around in the sun for another hour or so, still no suncream, and got severely burnt shoulders and chest. I'm still peeling now, and its nowhere near finished!! It was absolutely stupid, and I've learnt my lesson, but it just hadn't occurred to me. Stayed out of the sun the next few days, with t-shirt and shade coming into play. I will NOT be doing that again!
The next day, we went for our fun dives out on the reef, and it was pretty cool (except putting the gear onto my very burnt shoulders - SO PAINFUL). Ears weren't too bad this time. All the others managed to see a turtle, twice! But I managed to miss it both times, just my luck, eh! That night, it was boozy bingo night at the bar, which was actually the best night there. Had a table of the people in my room, and we definitely managed to clean up on the free drinks prizes! Was a great night, with many a funny story attached, but it won't be the same unless I tell them in person, so I'll save it. I will tell you that for certain reasons, I did end up dancing with my shorts round my ankles for about 30 seconds, and it was well documented with photos. Enjoy that image!
Wednesday consisted of going for a dive medical, despite already having done the dive course, but in order to be certified, I had to get it done. There was a lot of waiting around, but eventually it got done! Headed back to the hostel, but got soooo bored! They have nothing to do there, no TV room or anything, and due to my burn, I had to stay in the shade. Ended up playing quite a few rounds of pool with the dive crew, who could get the key to the tables and play for free, so that passed some time. There was nothing special on that evening, just sat drinking and chatting with some room mates, and then went to bed.
Was up early next morning, had to get my stuff together, check out and go get the ferry in order to get my bus down to Airlie Beach. Slept a bit on the trip, and was reunited with an Ozintro friend, and then got into Airlie. This is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, where all the sailing tours go from. I didn't do one, but I will do when I come back up to Airlie in a few months. As part of the bus we were on, there was free beer that night at one of the bars, got 4 jugs between 5 of us, which was unexpected! But had a good time with the people from the bus. The problem with Airlie is that there isn't much to do if you're not doing a sailing tour, and the only reason I was there was to kill time before my flight in 3 days time. So I got pretty bored. Mostly spent my time reading really. Just as well I have a 1100 page book.
On the third night though, I went out with a few people from my room, and the German girls from Maggie that I'd run into. It's weird how you keep running into people, we also saw the 2 Aussie girls from Mission Beach later that night, and the Irish couple I'd met on Maggie. It was a good night, and ended at 3 in the morning.
Next morning though, had to wake up to check out and get the bus down to Mackay airport to fly to Melbourne. Guess who was there? The Aussie girls, and the Canadian girls from the bus to Mission Beach! So we all went down on the greyhound, to get to the airport 5 hours early for our flights (only bus time available). So we'd been at the airport for about 2 hours, chatting away, passing the time, talking to some firemen from Brisbane who had been up helping witht he floods and were no going back down to help out their own area, when all of a sudden, a tannoy came over saying that the plane we were supposed to be getting down to Melbourne had been delayed - BY 7 HOURS. Great. So while the Aussies flew to Brisbane in a few hours, I would still be stuck here for another 7 hours. Once the Aussies had gone, I was sitting with the Canadians, also going to Melbourne, and ended up taking out my sleeping bag and kipping down on the floor of the airport for 2 hours. Not the most comfortable, but I've slept in worse places - mainly toilet floors.
Eventually though, we got down to Melbourne, and from there I went to Caroline's (mums friend) work to pick up her house keys. She's kindly agreed to put me up for a week or 2. Got the tram down to Port Melbourne, and walked the 5 minutes to her flat. Turned the corner and had to double check I had the right address. She lives in such an awesome building, it is so nice from the outside. And even nicer on the inside. I walked into her flat and just went "wow". It is so clean and well furnished in there, it makes such a nice change to hostel life. Had a shower and tried putting a DVD on, but felt myself falling asleep, having had only 2 hours the previous night, so took myself off to bed.
After buying and cooking my dinner, I settled down to the TV, until Caroline came back from being out to dinner, and I went to bed again. Slept for a full 10 hours as well, which is unheard of for me!
Had a very lazy day yesterday, just watched TV all day, and had another good sleep last night. I'm being a bit more productive today and have come into the city to do this and sort out trains and stuff, as I will be heading out to visit cousins in the next 2 weeks (Mum and Dad - heading to Koo Wee Rup tomorrow, coming back Saturday with Brooke and family to go to the MCG to see one of the T20 games hopefully! Will sort out going to Norma and Frank today, and Karen too).
So that's me for now, sorry it's been a while. Let me know what you are all up to back home, please! xxxxxx
Allan - I had England painted on my face, I've ended up just telling people I'm English when I first meet them, it matches my accent. There wasn't much banter, the night was actually pretty awful, they didn't organise it properly. I am offically a certified Open Water Diver, and as a result I'm allowed to dive to 18m. I did get a proper card and stuff, but the photo is TERRIBLE. Athens 04 is a good game too, it's a suitable replacement! Hahaha, really? How do you know? Or was it just how he sounded? The germans spoke very good English actually, and yeah, it's incredible how many places I've been offered to visit and stay with people, eg. Canada, Germany, Western Australia, Holland, all sorts! Cheers for the comments mate, I wish more people would do the same :) hope alls good with you, and yes, I am still loving it! ;) xx
