What makes the desert beautiful, is that somewhere, it hides a well

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G'day everyone!

Firstly, apologies for not being online on Christmas Day. The internet decided it didn't want to work at the house we were staying at in Alice Springs. Even as a back up we borrowed Daphne's dongle but the passcode she gave us was wrong and thus the SIM card then got blocked. Nightmare.

I don't know how disappointed you lot were but I was looking forward to seeing you on webcams, chatting in (almost) real time for a good old chin wag for Christmas day. Ach well...

Work at The Winery is going extremely well, even through the hectic Christmas period, especially since the venue has only been open about 2 months and is now Sydney's top bar in most publications.

I already told you how funny the interview process was for the job, the bar manager Toby informed me he'll probably hire me as his supervisor. I failed to tell you that the night before my trial we'd met my old friend Pete at his bar; The Lincoln. A chap called Ty was working that night in The Lincoln for some extra cash. While I'm waiting for Toby to take me round the Winery for my trial, this same chap Ty approached me and says “Hello stranger!”. Me, not having a clue who this guy was, needed reminded as to his identity. Turns out he is starting full time the same week I am, provided the trial goes okay. Needless to say, we both got the job and after only two weeks of being there, we are now Toby's bar supervisors as well as a nice ginger-haired aussie lad called Noodles. Result!

Toby, being Bar Manager is too busy running around the venue to actually oversee the day to day runnings of the bar and maintain standards. That's where the 3 of us come in. And the decision was understandably not taken lightly by some of the staff that had been there since day dot. So much so one member of staff quit. Truth of the matter is, should we have been introduced from the off as supervisors, we'd essentially be asking staff below us how to do our job! The two weeks were merely a breaking in stage I guess. So as a result, more money, more share of tips, staff perks (had dinner with all the other “keystaff” at the beginning of December). Finally, it's just enough responsibility for me at this stage. The moment i'd move into management (and the rumour mill is leaning that way...), I'll be working all the bloody time, exactly the same as in Edinburgh. I'd not be seeing much of Oz if that was to happen. Another wee plus point is that we are rotating day shifts between the three of us. So every three weeks, I get a week of only daytime shifts! Not a luxury seen in hospitality in the UK that often, if at all!

Reviews of The Winery by Gazebo:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/bar-reviews/the-winery-by-gazebo/2009/12/15/1260639187550.html

http://www.twothousand.com.au/eat-drink/the-winery-by-gazebo/

12th December - My Birthday!!

The week of my birthday worked out well. Desperate to be earning money and not spending, I didn't request any time off (much to Victoria's disgust!). However, it was my turn for day shifts that week, result! Not only could I do something (if a little last minute) for my birthday, I could spend each evening with Vicky... a rarity proving to be quite the stress on things back then.

Vicky took me out to a nice little place called The Bentley, just down Crown St round the corner from The Winery so she could pick me up once finished. A quick freshen up in Winery's Gents (!!), a change of shirt and we're off down the road. Walking into the restaurant I honestly thought we were in for a very average meal, especially since booking that morning on the grounds of a restaurant review site. On the contrary it was a dream. Shared tapas-style dishes of local produce cooked to perfection, reasonably priced wine, I treated myself to a fillet steak as a main, which was up there with the best I've had anywhere. The awesome meal topped off with one of my favourite whiskies, Highland Park 18yr old hand poured by what turned out to be the owner of the restaurant at my table. All this and impeccable service (best I've experienced in Aus yet without question), for $180 (£90). A good meal in Edinburgh would set you back less than this, but considering malt whisky is three times the price here, and hard to find a decent one, properly worth it.

We left The Bentley, went to a bar down the street where Vicky had organised a nice surprise, Brendan had come out to wish me a happy birthday too! Good times. A relatively early night was had, as I was back to work at 10.30am the following morning.

With my birthday out the way, it's clearly a sign that Christmas is fast approaching. It took until Christmas Eve to feel remotely festive. Working too much, the odd Christmas tree up here and there, festive window dressings in the shops, but still the sun always blinding! I've attached a photo of a massive tree put up down in Darling Harbour. They were even planning Christmas carols around the tree which I'd have loved to attend just for the surreality of it! I even loaded a load of shitty christmas records onto my Ipod for me to listen to (in private ah-hem!) to try and make me feel festive. Nae luck!

Wednesday 23rd December - Off to Alice Springs for Christmas.

So we made our way up to Alice Springs (or “The Alice” as most aussies refer) which was a very welcome break from the hustle and bustle of Sydney life and of course, WORK!

Didn't really know anything about Alice Springs other than that Vicky's half sister Catherine is from there (remember she recently moved to Sydney to work for Aboriginal TV, whose kids I babysat now and again). The idea, from what I can gather, is that Vicky's dad, the infamous Clive Turner had rounded up damn near all of the Turner family (From all over Oz) to meet right slap bang in the middle of the country, Alice Springs!

Catherine, however, cancelled mid December much to everyone's disappointment. The result being that we were all staying in her house and none of her family was there!

Bit nerve racking, not only meeting Clive Turner for the first time (and hearing SOOOO many stories from Daphne and the girls), but throw in a whole handful of other relatives to meet at the same time, not to mention nieces and nephews, some of which Vicky had never met! It had been 5 ½ years since she met her dad.

It's a 3 ½ hour flight from Sydney to Alice Springs, I got the window seat (naturally) and have attached photos taken at different intervals throughout the flight, it's a lot of staring at nothing but desert. They call Central Australia 'the red centre', and it's seriously red, and dry, very very dry!!

So before I tell you all who picked us up and who's who in Vicky's family I think I should tell you a little about the legacy of Clive Turner. And I would like you all to read this without judgement, or afterthought, marriage and the like is a little different in Australia than what we're used to. So much so, that the majority of couples, having spent their lives together, raising families and all the rest don't even bother getting married anymore. Clive's absence during most of his children's upbringing is the subject of many a joke within the family these days (most of which are very very funny, like most of the tongue in cheek Aussie sense of humour I adore since first working with Ewan Cameron at the Hilton Craigendarroch Hotel back in the day). A recurring example was from Clive's mouth - “You see what wonderful children I brought up Gary?” in a kind of regretful manner but still raising a smile from his now adult extended family. In order not to offend, I've just read this to Vicky and she summed the whole situation up accurately in saying “it's not like we don't like our dad, he's our dad, we love him to bits, we accept him for who he is, a useless father!”. Australian attitude in a nutshell.

Clive Turner, one of the funniest men I've met, that same Ricky Gervais style dryness that is catching on the world over. Clive (ex hollywood movie producer, see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2427173/) has married three women over the years. Firstly Robin, who gave birth to Scott and Shaun. Secondly, an aboriginal woman called Lorraine, who gave birth to Eveanne and Catherine (the TV presenter I've spoken of plenty). And finally, he married Daphne, mother of Victoria and Chloe. You get me? I told you it's a little complicated (and I had to get me head round this when meeting most of them on this trip!)

So Vicky's brother Scott is first on the scene, picking us up from the airport. The first of the Clive legacy to crack the “so what do you think of the weather Gary?” sort of chat, but at the same time taking a genuine interest in the UK and the Edinburgh lifestyle etc. He drops us of at Catherine's home and I meet some more of the clan I'll be spending Christmas with. His partner (note... not wife), Melindie was very forthcoming in that typically Aussie hospitable way, unlike their children Riley (3) and Caylem (18 months), but hey, they're kids! I met Eveanne and her husband Jamie from Darwin (i'm hoping to stay with them for a bit in the “winter”). Their daughters Talia, Grace and Lili (2 month old twins). Both really nice people, especially Jamie who every night pretty, once the kids were off to bed, entertained me not only with his Nintendo Wii, but with a lot of stories of outback and what have you. Eveanne was heavily involved in introducing mobile healthcare to the outback for aboriginals, as they very rarely visit doctors and have developed many of the “whites” bad habits. Namely drinking, smoking, substance abuse (glue, petrol, paint sniffing), drug abuse which has inevitably led to domestic abuse, HIV, aids, meningitis, tuberculosis and more.

I met Eveanne's and Catherine's mother, Lorraine who was a pretty amazing woman. Telling me about life in Alice Springs, both Aboriginal and white settled. She had an interest in foreign culture and was keen to hear about Edinburgh and Aboyne. We got along pretty well (I think the crunch point for most was when I offered to do all the washing up after Christmas lunch!).

So, really between Jamie, Eveanne, Clive's aboriginal ex-wife Lorraine, I had a pretty good introduction to the Aboriginal history and society, brilliant!

Everyday pretty much consisted of entertaining the kids and then once they were off to bed the adults would open the wine and start chatting (or playing Nintendo Wii). I persuaded Vicky to come out for a walk up to the old Telegraph Station that I'd read about in a book. About a 5km round trip so not too long, but long enough in 35 degrees (and having Vicky reminding me of the temperature every 5 minutes).

Red sand, Bull Ants, flies, more flies pretty much sums up the hot walk to the Telegraph Station, being overtaken by those cycling... jealous. The Telegraph Station played a key role in the development of Australia. It connected a telephone line from Darwin (North) to Adelaide (South) and suddenly reduced the isolation of many Australians from the rest of the world when opened in 1872. The exchange of business and personal messages now only took hours instead of the months it previously took by sea. Remember, “Stuart”, the original name of Alice Springs, did not exist before this was completed. By 1900, this very isolated station was home to a cook, a blacksmith-stockman, a governess, four linesmen-telegraph operators plus the Station Master and his family. It kind of looks like the village in the TV Series “Lost”, the one where “The Others” live ;-)

Pretty interesting stuff (I thought, Vicky disagreed) and my day was made complete by seeing 4-5 kangaroos. Very happy my first sighting of the famous creatures were wild, and not in a zoo. Managed to get some pretty good photos, you'll notice one with a Joey in it's pouch, they were both eating the grass together, pretty incredible, and they're pretty quick too! More native birds surround the area too, but I've seen all them at Daphne's house. Visited the original Alice Spring, from which the town's name was changed to save confusion. Not that impressive, it's a spring!

Christmas lunch was pretty good. In that I knew I was celebrating without family or friends, in fact pretty much a room full of new acquaintance! The agreement was that Christmas was for the kids so the adults would concentrate on cooking good food and well errr, drinking really! No turkey in sight (bit hot for filling food like that), the aussies lay up a VERY admirable spread of seafood (prawns the size of your hands), curry, lots of salads, a tremendous Thai fish dish that Eveanne and Jamie knocked up and who's recipe I've nicked! Typically Christmas but in 35 degrees, 4 hours in the kitchen for a 20 minute feed. At least we have that in common...

Boxing Day.

The Turner Clan and I pack up 3 carloads and hit the outback. We headed West through the Macdonnell ranges toward Ellery Creek, a freshwater spring that locals like to swim in especially on holidays (this was Boxing day!). I had the pleasure of being in the wee hatchback captained by Lorraine. She told me lots of aboriginal 'dreamtime' stories (

for an idea, it's pretty cool stuff, proper tribal storytelling type). As well as informing us of more stories and problems surrounding the area and the community.

We veer off Larapinta Drive and onto some bumpy rocky track to a collection of derelict houses called Jay Creek. This, I was told was recently used as a film set for an aussie film called Samson and Delilah. It went on to win tons of awards the world over, including the revered “Camera D'or” at the Cannes Film Festival. In fact the first thing I did on return to Sydney was rent this movie and it is particularly brilliant. Not one for you Dad as it's a little long and quite subsumed (sp?). It describes far better the standard of living that Aboriginals are having to put up with these days than I ever could write to you, but at the same time is a very touching “Gavin and Stacey” sort of relationship, true soul mates working their way through life's problems. Go and see this movie for a major education. Not sure when it's on release over your side of the world, I'd imagine places like Edinburgh will have special screenings but not sure about elsewhere... check here:
http://samsonanddelilah.com.au/screens.php/

The photo's i'll attach to this email will feature this community and note the Aboriginal Flag painted on the basketball net. Also, a very basic, tin shack with a white cross on top, the local church :-). No-one had inhabited this area for years.

Back on the road we make our way toward Ellery Creek for a good swim! Lorraine made a couple more stops just to show us the unforgiving desert. Stepping out of an air conditioned hatchback with tinted windows into 40 degrees of high australian sunshine cannot be described. Think Robin Williams' in Good Morning Vietnam... “It's hot, were you born on the sun? Damn hot!”

We get to Ellery Creek, have a bit of packed lunch, a couple of beers, and then walk down the track to the waterhole. Not the cleanest of water, not the warmest either. But a beautiful spot in the sun, kids jumping off rocks into the water. Saw a MASSIVE lizard walk the path in front of me, far too quick for me to whip my camera out and get a snap, excuse the pun.

After lounging around the creek for an hour or so, the kids are hot and bothered and touchy so we pack up the camp and the other two cars head back to The Alice. We however decide while there's still petrol in the car and a spare tyre in the back we'd carry on west. More desert, more hills, more desert... you get it...

A couple of hundred kilometres from Alice Springs we stop at the Ochre Pits. Ochre is what the aboriginal community paint with and it comes from these pits, not too interesting to be honest. But a bit mad considering it's clearly the middle of nowhere. We continue onto another couple of waterholes, Glen Helen gorge, and Ormiston Gorge. Then back to Alice Springs, I sleep the whole way home, just enough time for Chloe to take a stupid photo of me fast asleep in the back.

Scott and Melindie had been shopping (more wine) and had found me medication for my chlorine allergy. Now, please bare in mind, being allergic to chlorine is not a big issue at all in Scotland, unless I clean the bathroom or something. Here, there is nothing I generally want more than to dive in to an ice cold pool when it's so hot during the day! Sadly this has been limited due to me forgetting, or not finding, my pills. 2 pills down my throat however that night and I'm doing lengths in the back garden's pool. More table tennis, more wine, more barbecue, more Nintendo Wii haha. Evenings in Alice Springs are good fun.

I really enjoyed my time in Alice Springs. Most people are surprised to hear that, especially those that said “Alice Springs? Why on earth would you want to go there?”. Truth is, it would have been a very different experience had I not got on with Vicky's family. Imagine that, it could have been a very awkward experience!

So not really much to tell you since Alice Springs. It was a pretty expensive trip, and with no hours worked for 10 days I knew it would be a couple of weeks of quiet living until I get financially comfortable again. I spoke to Dave Wilson, my old boss from Edinburgh who's now in Melbourne. He'll be visiting Timo and myself in Sydney in February at some point. Need to confirm dates and get the time off to go out with the boys like we used to in Edinburgh. I'm having Sunday Lunch with Brendan and Amy this coming weekend, and then Vicky and I are getting our Sunday best on to visit the theatre for a show called “Wicked” that she wanted to see. Not a bad christmas pressie from Gary ;-)

I've only really been working lots of hours the last two weeks or so to get money up so no stories really. It's also Sydney festival time at the moment. I looked through the programs and it's not really much of a festival (at least compared to Edinburgh!). Al Green played a show last week, missed that. There's a couple of good Djs playing that I might check out but other than that, it's all arty plays and art exhibitions. Not really interested in that at all!

I've been looking at flights to different parts of Australia, and booked far enough ahead I can get about fairly cheap, so I'll decide on a trip soon enough and I'll hopefully have some more stories to write to you all about.

To round up, life in Australia is good. I am enjoying it. Wish I had a few more friends to hang out with, and even if I go out after work for a few beers with colleagues I get a row from Vicky because I've stayed up all night so that's a no-win situation too! Hopefully, and I mean it when I say this, moving closer to the city is the answer. As sitting about in a suburban house watching dvds isn't really what I or anyone would expect from Australia. If I move into town, it won't take me so long to get home, I could maybe get friends over for dinner, generally get and maintain more of a social life. I miss the Scottish social element.

Until next time, and I hope you've made it to this point without falling asleep. I see I'm upto six pages! I started writing this just before New Year haha.

Enjoy the photos, and all that snow you're having, Aboyne looks amazing on the internet, as does Edinburgh, jealous of the winter, too bloody hot here...

Gary xxxx
Down Under

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Photos

The Winery
Upstairs at work

Ty and me
Work night out

Jacob and me
English lad from Winchester, nice fella, and avid "Adam and Joe" listener

My Birthday
...card from Helen, tryin to recreate pose!

Henry
My new pet Cockatoo, and he's a baby, but massive

Sydney Tower
Walking home from work, took this nice photo in the moonlight

13 30pm
Flying Doctors!!

Welcome to...
..Alice Springs

Vicky
Hopefully not getting ideas

Wii!!!
Vicky and Clive do their thing

Xmas Food Shopping!
$500 later...

Christmas Lunch
Aus Style

Christmas Lunch
Aus Style