Tour of Booty: Go West

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Also getting on in Kalgoorlie was an Irish backpacker and I didn’t like my chances of being able to sleep upright tonight. I didn’t have the space I needed firstly and secondly all of Monday (to Kalgoorlie) I slept a lot as well! Anyhow, the hours are rolling by, the K’s are too and as I walk through the train, there are a few hardy types that just can’t make their eyes close either! One of them is Simon, a guy who used to live in Perth nearly 25 years ago and chased his dream of being a musician up and down the East Coast, trying to start up gigs where everyone would come down with an instrument and jam. He’d been trying as recently as in Byron, but without patronage there was no money, with no money he was down on luck and he decided to see if he could hook up with some old friends in Perth. But in our tiredness, we spoke about music, life, backpacking, Hungry Jacks, sport, Perth, Sydney, Byron, travelling in general, girls, lack of sleep and other assorted topics.

Around 7am, I went back to my regular seat and greeted my friends good morning. I think they were pretty damn bemused to find out that I didn’t choose to sleep last night, but loaded on caffeine and having slept the day before answered all queries. Everyone can’t wait to get into Perth though. It’s a bit slow through the Darling Rangers before we get into Perth metro. Vodafone only seems to work after the rangers. There’s also another Quarantine check to be done. I had one in Pinnaroo (SA), one in Kalgoorlie and now one at Midlands. But this time, no chocolate, honey, nuts or flowers…

In all the calamity of the Quarantine check, the on-board announcer is telling us that it’s only 15 mins before we get into Perth. I relay the news onto Viv and Bill, although 25 mins later, we’re told that we’ll be another 20 minutes. To add to all the confusion, there is actually a ‘Perth’ station, and while the PA is telling us how long it will be before we get to Perth, we’re actually arriving at “East Perth”. Viv wasn’t too chuffed about that!

Once I’m picked up, etc etc, I can only think of one sleepy thing and that is sleep. While it may be 1pm, my body clock says 9.40pm. 20 mins left till bedtime, no wait, it’s now…

I’m awoken about 3 hours later and I’ll take another two hours before I’m even functioning properly. Viv keeps on asking me if I’d rather sleep (the answer is YES!!!!) but I committed to having dinner out on the town tonight. We’re off to Carnegie’s, where Viv has booked a table for the three of us. The pizza is great, Viv’s Caesar salad is one of the best salads I’ve ever had, but our performance in the trivia is abysmal, coming dead last! It’s been a while since I’ve played trivia and I’d love to admit it’s been more than a year since I did play trivia, but damn even a group of English Girls beat us! We got a free Beck’s out of it but nevertheless I was ashamed by our performance…

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