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Published: November 12th 2006
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Neighbours van
felt wa-aaa-y cool dandering about in this contraption. Tis great for the street cred! Friends arrived!!! We are not alone. Chuffing late though. Angela arrived without bag and sleepy. We let her sleep for a few hours before whisking her off for many fun activities in the big city. These involved shopping...Yey! Markets called to us where I ended up buying another watch - now this is becoming the beginning of a problem as I've bought 4 this holiday. That's above average I believe. After this oh so cultural experience, we went to James Cooks cottage, which was re-created from the original in Yorkshire. Classic! It had some super fox gloves in the garden and traditional British thingumies like that. Being an old cottage it was about 2m squared so didn't take too long to look round. Thankfully it was positioned in the centre of Fitzroy Gardens which had a fairy tree and mini tudor village donated by the Brits after Oz helped out with rations post WWII. Terribly exciting!
After such an adventurous day we'd saved the golden neighbours tour in honour of Angela's arrival. It was rubbish! Total pants. Never mind, you win some... It did however put a downer on the day which was also Melbourne cup day so there were
Washing and cleaning a rub a dub dub
Helen Daniels/Lynneeeee... eat your heart out! loads of really posh, drunk people floating about (well, not so much floating by afternoon time, but staggering and pausing for the intermittent spew sessions). We were meeting Angela's old boss lady in the midsts of this, as she has re-located to Oz recently. We managed to dodge the stilletto heels dangling from the 'ladies' hands as they walked, barefoot, homewards or onto more bars.
Melbourne museum the next morning, would be our last activity in Oz! The museum itself is quite controversial due to it's location in the city, together with its high-tech approach to exhibits and the nakee people in the 'human' section. They really were nakeeeee!!! I dared Angela to strip off and stand with them to see if anyone blinked an eye. She declined the dare - I'm therefore 1 up. We had to leg it round though so that we could get to the airport which was a shame as they had a really good section explaining the plights of their indigenous people. Next time.
We said goodbye to Oliver (the Church dude) hailed a taxi and zoomed to Melbourne international. the flight was delayed...Significantly. Now, for those of you considering purchasing a
flight with Qantas, don't! 100% of ours and Angela's flights have been delayed, they've lost her bag, they poison you with their brekkie dim sum AND you can't see their films very easily. I might write them a letter! Anyhow, Christchurch at 2am.
At 2 am it's dark and we were very sleepy. Were allowed into the hostel, which makes a nice change and settled down for the night. In the morning...ta da...Louise walks in. 2 friends! Bright eyed and bushy tailed after 2 nights in a 4 star hotel, she could show us around town. Groovy. I didn't even look at a map for the 1st day. It rained though. A lot.
The next couple of days involved trying to find somewhere more permanent to stay. Angela had made a contact on the internet. We went for a look and it was all right. Unfurnished, but we struck a deal where our way dodge landlord (from here on in named Scottie), where he would give us 'basic furnishings' for more rent. Keeping our options open, we splint into 2 groups; 1 to look round other flats, t'other to sort out ali's visa (as she'd been given the
home
us settling down for the 1st night without electricity wrong one upon entry and couldn't work - wa haha). She got it sorted. Louise and myself saw 2 granny flats...we settled for dodgy Scottie's property though.
We called to accept at 5pm. At 7:30 we were collecting 2nd hand furniture from his very convienient (if not also dodgy) business around the corner. We were the removal gals. There was a considerable amount of huffing and puffing as we pushed 4 beds, tables, chairs etc into the removal van. We didn't smash anything, so are possibly the best removal people you could hire! If interested we collect and deliver. Just give us a call on 339 24........ mates rates.
Next day we moved in. Didn't have electricity or furniture, but we didn't care. Until about 2 am when we were freezing our little socks off, had Alison lying on top of me because she was cold and 'snuggling' and I could see Louise's breath in little clouds next to me. We were getting the 1st week free because the bungalow's a mess and on top of our removal skills, we make darned good cleaners. We scrubbed. It warmed us up a little bit. We scrubbed more and assembled
the neighbourhood
some poor sprog has lost his/hers shoes. nasty punks...I'll show 'em! furniture (except Angela's bed which didn't come with the necessary screws for assemblage). I washed clothes for the 1st time since Brisbane - oh sweet sweet relief - the smell of washing powder has never sent a tingle up my spine before!
The bungalow is now in fine working order. We're looking into buying a car (off of a man who was stoned and drunk when we went to have a look at it - his rotweiller however, was very alert to compensate). We went to my 1st ever auction to try and purchase a bike (got outbid) and have tested the local pub where Ali got a job. Very good. I have a job. Got offered 2, but chose one in - yep, you guessed it - a coffee shop. T'was my 1st day today. Tis no JL! They said I did very well, and I didn't set anything on fire or drop any tea pots or anything.
So that's it. I have 3 days off this week (hmmm, maybe I didn't do as well as I thought!) so am hoping to actually do some fun things in Christchurch (forever to be written as Ch.Ch as it's
idyllic Christchurch
So far I have seen brass bands. moody country singers and an accordian. Maybe next will be me on the tambourine shorter). So toodles for now. Hope you are all well.
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Daphne
non-member comment
wow
So good to hear your adventure is going well (apart from drunk people and spikey heels!!!!) I gather Ch.Ch is still fairly cold. Maybe that is their summer??? Perhaps your Landlord also has a second-hand shop for warm clothes....... Thankyou so much for the interestin parcel, I will be e.mailing you soon, Love, Daphne xx