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Published: October 15th 2007
Hello once again! To those who have been reading my blog apologies for the 7 weeks gap but i have been working, yip you read it correctly i have been working!!!! Ill go back to the start and tell if from there!
Me and Laura were in Perth and realised our bank balances were no longer looking healthly and so we decided we needed some jobs to get them looking slightly better so we headed for a jobs agency to inquire. A girl called Danielle helped us out and after some investigating got us 2 jobs in a little town called Wickepin. Now i say little town, to be exact is has around about 260 residents currently living there so you can imagine how 'little' i mean. At first we thought we would not like to be in a town so small but decided to give it a try so on the following Tuesday morning we headed down on the TransWA bus. We could not get the bus to Wickepin so we stopped off 2 towns away at a little place called Williams, this is even smaller that Wickepin believe it or not! A lady called Dixie (who turned out to
Laura Lou
having some fun with....sweets!!!be my boss) came to meet us there in her bright yellow car to take us to our home for the next four weeks, or so we thought. Wickepin, known as Wicky to the locals (which we were soon considered) turned out to be a extremely clean country town filled with the most loveliest people you could ever hope to meet. As we drove to Wicky we noticed how stunning the countryside was, fields everywhere growing the bright yellow wild flower called Cannola,(Western Australians are huge wild flower fanatics) and farms all over with sheep grazing, it was certainly farmers heaven! On the way to Wicky we had to decide who was working where-there was 2 jobs, one at the pub and one at the newsagents/cafe, as we discovered me and Laura are the 2 most undecisive people in the world so after listening to me and Laura each say to each other 'you decided, no you decided' Dixie eventually stepped in and suggested we toss a coin, so thats what we done and the coin decided i was to work in the Newsagents/cafe and Laura was to work in the pub-they were next door to each other so at
least we never had to walk far to see one another, literally about 20 footsteps apart!! Wickepin also got called 'Albert facey country', this is because of a man called Albert facey who wrote a book which included Wickepin in it, his house was there and was moved across the road from the newsagents, people came from all over to visit it and see where he lived, it was very popular. The book was called ' A Fortunate life', me and Laura both read it and it was really good.
Once we arrived in Wicky Dixie showed me my accomodation as we went there on the deal that we got our accomodation and food paid for aswell as a smaller wage-superb deal so i was shown to 'my little apartment' as Dixie called it, it was a flat at the back of the shop and man did i get a good toss of the coin! I actually had a flat to myself - clean, comfortable and cosy-yey!!!! Once i dumped my backpack we headed to the pub for Laura to meet her bosses and see her accomodation, we were greeted by Victor (Vic) one of the managers, the other being
his sister called Angela (Ang) who we met later on. Vic gave us a quick tour of the pub and showed Laura to her large room, it was a big room with bed, wardrobe, tv etc-not the cleanest but Laura got to work on it with some Flash and it spruced up rather nicely! So we had now met our bosses and seen our accomodation, what was next-oh yeah, to start working!!! So the next day i began, my shifts would be a Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 2.30pm working with Dixie, a Friday from 9 to 4.30pm working with Marg, and Saturday and Sunday i would be opening up at 7.15 and closing up at 6pm myself with Monday and Wednesday off-yey! 😊
So i started on the Wednesday seeing as i never worked the Tuesday and that would mean i would be working a full week, my duties would be to serve the customers, make up light lunches, serve food, waitress, clean blah blah blah...basically what i used to do when i worked for the good old Bluebird cafe in Gourock! My customers-well they were superb, i got to know all the locals extremely well as they
would all come in for their papers, sweets, etc....they were the best customers i have ever had, all so friendly, kind, sweet, warming and they didnt even mind telling me their surnames for the 500th time so i could get their paper for them, soon though i got to know most of their names off by heart and had no problem remembering them, but there was always one or two i just couldnt remember until of course my last shift which ended up being 7 weeks later, yip the original plan of 4 weeks soon went out the window once we had been there a week as we fell in love with Wicky!
My days in the newsagents were fantastic, i got a good old chat with all the people, i came as a backpacker and left as their friend, my customers became my friends and i loved them all! My special customers were Vera Black, a lovely older woman who talked super quick, and was very hard to understand but she was a lovely woman, she always said 'i dont mind paying as long as i get something back' and when she got her change she would shout 'woohoo'
even if it was only 5 cents, what a lovely old dear!!!! Then there was Phil Brown who talked for ages each time he came, a older guy with curly hair, told me all about his daughters and were they lived blah blah, Bruce who came in for his 'burners' (cigarettes) or 'drugs' as another one of my favourite customers used to call them. One lady who i will never forget was Mrs Davey, i had a extreme hangover one Saurday morning, it of course was not my fault i was insanely drunk the previous night, it was Lauras for serving me a mix of drinks, fair enough i asked for them but it was still her fault! 'Chase The Ace' had been won, a game played every Friday night as the pub were a ticket would be drawn and you would need to cut the deck and if it was the ace you would win the pot which turned out to be almost 2000 dollers thats night, Micheal (Ang etc's dad) having won it put 200 dellers beind the bar which didnt help as it meant i drank more Vodka Cruisers and me and Rodney done some shots, followed
by me, Aspro and Birdy-not a good idea when you are opening up a shop yourself the next day! However it was done, as i was still quite drunken when i opened up, infact i was still being sick too (all through the night and still at opening time) which meant i had to run to be sick into a bin in the back office when i felt the urge, smelt the pies i was making and had no customers, anyway Mrs Davey was my first customer and thankfully my only customer for a half hour, well did she not laugh at me! But god bless her she also seemed to feel really bad for me and rubbed my back for me-literally!!! Nways she was a godsend that day so she will always be remembered! When popping in on Saturday morning to see how things were Dixie too also had a good laugh at me, she was also a gem as she let me run to my loo to be sick a few times and always showed up at the right times as i needed to run-thank god! Anyway, by 1 o clock that afternoon i felt superb and thank
god for that, i thought i was gona die!!!! true!!!
My time at Wicky was spent working, being in the pub, going for wee walks (about 10 times out the whole 7 weeks-shocking behaviour!), watching the free dvds which i got from the shop as we done rentals but i didnt need to pay for them, and spending time with Laura. On Mondays we were both off so we got to go places, what was handy for us was that Gaz (Ang's fiance) had been banned from driving for 3 months so we got to use his car (our bad girl laser!!) - yeeha! So it meant we could drive to some wee towns nearby. We got to go to 'Wave Rock', a huge rock which is in shape of, yes you guessed it, a wave! It is in a place called Hyden so we drove the 2 and a half hours there to see it, on the way you pass through a road called 'Tin Horse Highway', you can guess why but just to be sure ill tell ya-by the side of the road is all these 'horses' in comical positions etc made from tins, it was so funny
The bad girl laser
it was actually named that! to drive passed, and being Yoko (my nickname because i take so many photographs i am like a Japanese tourist-named by laura) it took us a while to pass through as i wanted a photo of each one! It was a lovely drive, passed by all the fields filled with canolla, farms, through little towns, roads which looked just like the pictures you see in magazines of 'the outback' when we looked behind us the air was filled with red dust, whilst laura was driving on one of them all i heard was her shriek and take her hands of the wheel, after almost having a heart attack i asked what was wrong-there were lizards scattering about the roads, huge big dark lizards, it was so cool!! Once we arrived at Wave Rock we were quite shocked by how huge it actually was-really massive, we had a wander around it then climbed to the top to see the amazing views. After this we went to the wildlife park beside it, it had kangaroo's, possums, birds, koala's and lots more! It was really good and we got lots of pics!!! 😊 Another one of our days of was spent going to
Lake Yealering, and Pingelly, another 2 small towns-although both bigger than Wicky lol! All the wee towns are so cute, at Yealering the petrol station was massive-take a look at the pic i have attached!!!! We also went sheep shearing, now that was a experience! One of the most loveliest guys i have ever met called Bruce manages a farm for a guy called Ray Lewis (farm was called Lewis Dale), and he said we could come up one morning to have a shot of shearing so we thought why not although i was secretly scared! On the way we as usual got a little lost (although not our fault, as per normal-its the roads that are named wrong!!) and so we ended up having to drive through one of the fields, we ended up getting flowers and everything stuck up the engine but sshhhh, dont tell Gaz!! Once there we seen hundreds and hundreds of sheep all waiting to be sheared, we had a shot of shearing one and left the rest to the experts! it was so cool though, we had to lean with one leg very lightly on the sheep as it lay on the ground to
stop it from moving, once hand on its face kind of thing and your other hand had the razor in it, the razor was really heavy and vibrated like nothing ive ever seen before, after only 5 minutes my hand was aching and felt all tingly for about a half hour afterwards! You had to shear somne of it while it was on the ground then move the sheep so it was in between you legs to shear the rest (not the most graceful of positions especially doing it with 6 pairs of male farmers eyes on you laughing) It was wicked to have had a shot though, and Jeremy, the guy who showed us how to do it, was fab-really nice and we had a brilliant laugh! Another day, it was a right gorgeous day so me and laura Lou decided to have a chilled one, so she came over to mines and we got out chairs out the back in the garden right in front of the sun, got our sun tops on, bought a bottle of vino and chilled, catching up on all our goss-it was fab! Of course, we had to get a little merry and
Wickepin!!!
it rocks!!! decide we should have a water balloon fight as i had bought some one day, so off we ran to fill them up, what a couple of muppets we must have looked, running about the streets of Wickepin at aged 22 and 23 having a water balloon fight, screaming like a pair of banshees-but hey, what a laugh we had-so much fun! We even tried to get Vic but he was having none of it! We then proceeded to buy a bottle of baileys and a bag of ice, we sat in the sun for hours just having a nice chilled out relaxing day followed by some girly chick flicks-it was great!
Whilst we were there it was Katarina's 30th birthday (she is Ang and Vic's sister who works at the pub cooking all the meals-good cook!!) so we bought her a wee gift and i made a lemon cake, i think my career should be a professional cake maker-it was yummy haha! It was also one of her wee girls birthdays whilst we were there too, her girls are Careese and Jaelyn, it was Jaelyns birthday so we went to her wee party-it was great, me and laura played
Laura is there somewhere
it was a cold day and Laura would not get out of bed, so i chucked all the covers on her, you can imagine how funny it was watching her trying to get out!!! Whats the time mister wolf, musical statues etc with a group of 6 year olds-it honestly was brilliant!
Dixie also had a girl up visiting her for a weekend, her name was Yoshi, a Japanese girl who used to work for her about a year ago for 3 weeks, she was lovely! On a Friday once i finished work, about 4.30 Dixie would say ' Right its Bourbon time' and she would go and get us a few drinks (she always had a good supply of booze out back) and we would sit out the back with a few drinks just chilling out and having a good goss, it was great! Yoshi arrived on a friday so we all sat out back, Yoshi, Dixie, me and leanne, Dixies sister-we had a great laugh, Yoshi was lovely and had me in stitches laughing-at one point she was looking at flowers, then went to get her bag, then pulled out her camera, pointed to it and said 'im Japanese eh' haha it was so funny, especially with Laura calling me Yoko (but i never told Yoshi that one haha)!
Any way, as you can see from what i have written i
Tin Horse Highway
Check out what he's reading-Playhorse Magazine!! had the best time ever in Wickepin, it was fantastic! The people so friendly and lovely, Dixie welcomed me with open arms in to her wee shop and gave me a lovely home to stay in, she was like a mother telling me when i drove in the rain to take my time and keep my speed down, the scenery so stunning and everything just so lovely. As i said before i went as a backpacker knowing no one and left with a phone filled with numbers and a notebook full of addresses of friends, Wickepin sure is a asset to Aussie! When i was leaving Dixie got my replacement in (although there will never be another Claire lol) her name was Sam and she was lovely, She was English so everyone was telling us to fight when she was working with me on my last Sunday there, it was really funny. The day she arrived it was her birthday so of course we had to head to the pub for celebratory drinks, we had a few but decided to keep it a wee one since we were both working on the Sunday so we would have a proper drink
the following night-we could celeberate her birthday then and also it being my last day of work! So on the Sunday we closed at 6.15 and we in the pub for 6.30, it was a brilliant night, some people came over to have a drink with me so we all had a great laugh, and i got lots of photos as usual! Everyone was so lovely and keep my drink filled throughout the night-man ill miss that place haha! Me, Sam and Laura then got some take aways and headed to mines once the pub closed to carry on the night and have a wee boogie with my ipod on, it was what a laugh! Of course i decided to call home and leave a lovely voicemail for my mum, we all sang Blondies 'Call me', we of course forgot about this but were reminded the next day when mum called to call me a drunken bum haha! It was worth the hangover the next day though as we had a terrific night. The following day we headed in to narrogin, the town beside us to meet up with Kat, the girls and Ang for some lunch, it was lovely
to meet up with them outside the pub, ang they are both hysterical so it was a good day although it was sad to know it was a goodbye lunch but it had to be done! Us 3 then headed to the shop and had a ball trying on gigantic sunglasses and Laura tried on some bright red lipstick, she is a nut case! Nways, after a good day we headed back and had some dinner whilst enjoying our last few days of having free dvd's! On the Wednesday i then headed for my bus to Albany. Laura decided to stay on in Wickepin as she didnt really fancy seeing the rest of Western Australia which i really wanted to do, so we decided to go our own ways for 4 weeks, me heading to Albany and her staying in Wicky. So i caught the 3 o clock bus to Albany, it was weird not having Laura by my side but also exciting in a way as i have never travelled anywhere myself before so i was also looking forward to it in a strange way. It was really sad saying bye to Laura though as we have had each
other by our sides for almost 6 months, in constant contact with each other but i suppose in a way it will be good to be apart as we will have even more to talk about when we meet up again! The plan is to meet up in Melbourne around about the 6th of Novemeber, so we have 4 weeks apart. In that time i hope to see as much as WA as i can, starting with Albany. If i have half a good a time there as i have in Wickepin ill be a very lucky girl, so here's hoping! Catch up with you after that then folks. All take care, and ill be in touch soon with all my antics an escapades from there! xx
p.s The photos are over a couple of pages so keep going lol! xx
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Laura
non-member comment
Wahey
hey babe, had a quick gander at ur blog, will read more thouroghly in perth. jst online to check mail and steal some of ur pics!lol. see u sn xxx