Goodbye Ruby Tuesday


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Published: August 18th 2011
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Yes I know, we have been a pair of slack arses when it has come to blogging, but we both agreed that we didn’t have anything to write about, Until a month ago.

It was just another normal Thursday, we parked the truck, Caroline went to her building and I went to mine, I’m sure I have told you that though we both work for the same company, but we do not share the same building.

From what I remember I was having a good day, when my phone rang, at around 11.30 it was Caroline, I think you are just about to be told you are off to Christmas Island. Because, well, you know I can’t tell you that.

Five minutes later, I was off home to pack a case, I was booked at a 4.00pm flight to Sydney, where I will meet a flight that will take me to Perth, then on to Christmas Island.

Home, shower, shave, pack and I was soon on my way back in to Caroline’s office as I was under strict instructions I had to give her a kiss, before I left, and as long as I did then she would take me to the airport.

Caroline dropped me off, I felt a bit guilty as I seemed to be having the fair share of urgent adventure, I knew what lay in store for Caroline In Canberra, I had to do the CI thing, whilst Caroline had to do the Canberra thing.

We kissed an I headed inside the airport, secretly sniggering at the thought, that Canberra was in the minus figures and I was heading out 6000 K’s to a temperature that usually hovers around 28-30 degrees every day.

I landed in Sydney, in a very wet afternoon, the flight I was due on was a charter flight laid on specifically for this mission, my instructions were so vague all I knew was the name of the company who’s aircraft it was, I didn’t even know where they were situated or what time the flight was due to depart.

I have had some experience of this before back in March, so I was used to these scant details, my luggage was collected from the Qantas belt, and I looked for some inspiration.

I went and asked somebody if they knew where I could find this particular aviation company and they didn’t know, I then modified my question, do you know where all the private jets fly from, right at the other end of the airport she said, it’s about a 15 minute’s walk.

It was raining cats and dogs out side, I knew I had to “leave” the airport, but stick close to it, right to virtually the end, but I did not have an address.

I went to the taxi rank and asked about 10 Cab drivers if they knew where the private jets went from, not one of them knew, call yourself a cab driver??

I turned my collar up, grabbed my wheelie case and strode off in to the dark very wet afternoon.
I was cursing, I was soaked through when I finally found the company I was looking for, I walked in side and asked if this is was the flight to Christmas Island, which they confirmed, I asked what time the flight would be leaving and she said that it was scheduled for 8.00pm.

It had been the night before, since I last ate, and I was starving, there was I KFC exactly over the road, so I dumped my bag and said I’m off to get some food.

“You can’t call that food” one of the fella’s said, but it was better than nothing I responded.
I crossed the road and sat and ate, I managed to call Caroline who had just left the office, which was now in full swing.

With food in my belly, I walked back over the road and took my seat in front of the telly, at this charter company, it was like being at home except it was cold, as they kept opening the doors which blew cold air in straight from the runway.

There was no intercom announcement, all our luggage had been taken earlier, somebody just pulled up in a little bus and suggested that we could now get on the aircraft.

I had learnt a lesson from back in March, as there were no ticketed seat number, it was just first on best dressed.
I was first on, straight in to the big seats at the front, I unpacked my book, my I-pod, and settled in to the flight.

We touched down in Perth about 12.30am Canberra time, and all had to get off the plane, walk around the terminal and get back on it was as simple as that, it seemed all very covert, and exciting, and at 1.30 in the morning I was surprised how awake I was.

We got back on the aircraft and back in to “My” seat, the plane took off again and we would be landing on Christmas Island at around 04.30.

My “Sleeping” in places has become a thing of legend, well may be not legend, but I am good at it, but funnily enough, on my many recent flights I have seemed to have lost the knack, of “In travel sleeping”
We touched down at exactly 05.00am, I worked out in my head that the flying time from Canberra was 11 ½ hours.

You do obviously have to go through customs on CI, and my mate Nasher, (Identity Protected) had left a car for me, with the keys in a secret place. (Not to secret though as I knew where they were).
I drove to Nashers place, parked on the drive and padded inside, as quietly as I could, I was gagging for a cup of tea, I clicked the kettle on and opened the pantry door, ah “Tetley tea bags”

There was no point trying to get some sleep, so I switched the TV on, as quietly as I could and watched the news.

It was great to be back, in to the bosom of a great CI family that have a place in my heart, when I say family I mean all my friends and colleagues on the island.

I do appreciate how lucky Caroline and myself have been, been able to visit a place, not many people will ever have the chance of going to. I am not sure I could live there, and certainly not sure Caroline could live there, but for the time I have spent on Christmas Island, about 6 months in total, I have loved every minute.

Though a beautiful little place, and a little rough around the edges, its really the people for me our colleagues are truly amazing.

Nasher made his usual early morning appearance, well I was in his house, morning mate, he said, it was great to be back.

We hugged, ( In a manly way of course) I had a million things to say to him, but all in good time, we both changed in to our worky cloths, as I was still wearing my flight cloths, and headed off to work.

As I have said many times before, I can not tell you about our work, not because it is a secret, but because it could undermine all the hard work our colleagues put in to doing the right thing and just a little bit to much information, could get out and it all turns to sh*t.

I manage to function until 2.00pm when I say to Rob, that I have just got to get some sleep, I have been awake for 30 Hours solid.

Back at Rob and Junes place, I fall in to bed, exhausted,

It was great to be back on Christmas island, In the thick of it on a work wise perspective and also socially, we have loads of friends on CI, the evenings were just a melee of meals out, the little open air cinema, and fun fun, fun.

Rob had said to me that they had organised, a Christmas in July evening and all the acoutrements had been sourced.
With all the usual Guest at the table, Chief Junior and Flo, John and Rosie, and Rob, June and myself, we all had a wonderful evening, I was blown away by the little gifts. even more when I was given a gift from Junior and Flo, and I had not seen them for four or five months, you're so kind and guys I am wearing my T Shirt as I type this.

One thing you get is a very clear night sky with virtually no light pollution, to spoil it, Rob, June and I had been invited out for dinner one Saturday night to the Golden Bosun, by Allan and his wife Linda, we had a great evening. Allan came many years ago, he had retired from Westpac bank for about a year when they phoned him up and asked him if he fancied a 6 week position as a relief manager at the little bank on the Island, he came for 6 weeks and never went back to the mainland and had remained on the island since 2002 I think.

The food at the Bossun, was great, we all had had a great feed, and the evening came to a close, June Rob and I jump in the car and I said to June, hey, why don’t we all drive down to South Point to look at the night sky, which she thought was a great idea.

I don’t want to go, came a sleepy voice from the passenger seat, “I’m tired” which we systematically ignored and drove on.

It was a full moon, and going down such dark tracks, you had to be really careful, to avoid the robber crabs.

As we got closer and closer to South Point, it became darker and darker and more and more robber crabs were out, doing there thing.

I hopped out of the car just to shine my torch on a few of them as they looked quite big and Rob the silly Sod, peeped the horn just as I was in front of the car, “I nearly wet my shorts”

When we finally got to our destination, the night sky was breath taking, the jet black magicians cloak, with pin pricks of silver shining through, and the vast blackness of the endless Indian ocean stretched out in front of us.

The immense silence of the night was only broken by Rob and his incessant snoring from the passenger seat.

We ignored this noisy creature and let it slumber in peace, we were having a great time just looking at the universe and wondering if anyone was looking back at us.

Sitting here typing this blog on Monday 15th August, Its terrible how easily I have forgotton things, but I will soldier on.

June and Rob live/lived in Perth before they came to C.I Rob was a Chef by trade, I think in a Macdonalds restaurant, and he had worked his way up to gaining all five stars and all the toys from the kids meals. (All the above paragraph was made up) it was Hungry Jacks, no I’m lying again.

I need to sit down with him again, as his life is sketchy for me, but I think I am right in saying his mum, was from Tonga, his early Childhood was spent in Naroo, which is one of these exotic places we all dream of going to, like Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the like.

If you met Rob, you can instantly see he is an Islander he is as big as a bear and as gentle as a lamb, always trying to do the right thing and always putting, others needs before his own.

June is/was a pom, possibly a ten pound pom, from East London strangely enough where Robs dad came from.

They are such a lovely couple, so suited to each other and such a joy to know, on our adventure we have been blessed in meeting such great people, with whom we will stay friends forever.

Finally I can not forget to give Spencer a mention, June and Robs son who works on CI for the same Company as we all do.

He is your typical 19 year old, a really nice young fella who is just a great character. Spencer has this great “Mop” of Ginger hair that lives on top of his head,I don’t know if anything else lives in there with him.

One Sunday morning Junior and Flo came over and brought a chicken breakfast, I have written about Junior Before, in the blog “Wanna-be Chief” dated 08/02/2011.

Junior is from Samoa, and this is the guy who carries out his chiefly duties, via, e-mail, mobile phone and other modern methods and is a real chief of his Village.

His village is called Manoonoo and is situated, on Samoa, but I have not been able to find out where it is, on the internet.

I asked him to explained how his village worked and what happened in the daily life in his village.
He explained that there were certain levels of being a chief,

Certain crime was dealt with at Local “Village level” if there had been an autocation between families then this situation would be heard,by the chief and a solution would be handed out to fit the circumstance, what ever that may be.

Apparently the perpetrators would first need to site out side the ”Victims” place of residence and ask for forgiveness, before anything else could move forwards, I think this is a really neat way of making people accountable for their actions and I bet people thought twice about what they did.

From Wikipedia:

Matai System
The word matai means chief, and is an honour that is bestowed upon someone. The role of the matais is very complex and interwoven deep into the fabric of Samoan culture and history. Matais have family, civic, political and prior to the arrival of the European, religious duties to perform.

A matai title can be given to either men or women, although you will find far more men with titles than women. It is usually given to someone in acknowledgment for services that have been rendered. A family might give a title to a relation who has been able to support them through hard times or village might give a title to someone that has done something that has been of benefit to the village as a whole. However currently there appears to be a tendency to give a matai title to someone in order to receive favours in return, be they of a financial or other nature.

Until recently it was only possible for matais to vote in parliamentary elections. It used to be a relatively common practice that prospective parliamentary candidates would ensure that members of their constituency would receive titles to ensure that they could increase their share of the vote. Even today only matais are elegible to seek parliamentary office.

Within each village every family has a matai that is a member of the fono (council) and represents the interests of the family. The fono is responsible for administering justice within the village and can pass down a wide range of judgements upon a miscreant. The leader of the fono is called the ali'i, and is assisted by a pulenu'u. The ali'i was considered to be far too important to be bothered with actually discussing peoples problems and so the position tulafale (talking chief) arose. The tulafale acts on behalf of the ali'i at social occaisions, ceremonies and in discussions with other villages and external bodies. Modified

As I had been dispatched from Canberra to CI, nobody had said when I was to think about coming home, I e-mailed my boss who said well stay there a couple of weeks at least.

There is a farewell BBQ down by the jetty on the Sunday evening, which was nice, lots of people there, Rob, June and Spencer, John and Rosie, Junior and Flo, Anthony, MaryAnn and Ruby and a few others, who’s names I don’t know.

Ruby, is an eight year old girl who told me that, at there school (On the Island) there are 3 girls called Ruby, and as she was born on a Tuesday, they Call her Ruby Tuesday, and if any one is a music buff, (Good Bye Ruby Tuesday) was a B side on a Rolling stones single, let’s spend the night together in 1966.

Our wedding anniversary was looming and Caroline had booked a week on Magnetic Island from Saturday 13August and I did not want to miss that as we both needed some R & R.
So many amazing things happen for me on CI, the people, the wildlife, the fun. Its hard to leave a place like that.

I did say to Rob, that for some reason it felt like this was going to be my last trip to the island and I didn’t know why, this was further amplified when my ticket was booked to return home on the 09th August and it was a year to the day since I first arrived on Christmas Island.

The day you leave is just a run around of things to do, Rob and I were in the office at 05.30 and I worked until 1.00pm.

My case had already been packed and was ready to go, I just like to get in to cloths that I like to travel in for comfort.

I said my goodbyes to may friends and I left to pick up my gear, I was looking forwards to seeing my girl who was only 11 ½ hours away.

(sorry) I have left my CI Photo’s in Canberra and will upload them when I get back from Magnetic Island




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28th August 2011

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Sitting over looking the Indian Ocean, reading your Blog - how blessed we are to meet such wonderful people on their adventure. Nasher snoring in the background - life is as it should be! You are inspiring - look forward to seeing you during our expedition!

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