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Published: February 1st 2008
Mainly by Sarah with bits from Rosie
Bad luck is meant to come in 3s or 7s isn't it? Yesterday was horrible. I don't even want to talk about it, but I feel I should just because it is a reasonably important update and we are flying to the Whitsunday coast in a few hours..
Well. We decided to go to a shopping place called Carindale yesterday morning before our dentist and physio appointments in the afternoon (mine was back in Wynnum at 3pm and Rosie's was in Carindale at 2.40). We went on the bus and that was fine, I looked at some of my photos on the way and refined them even more (I had been cutting them down so only the really amazingly good ones were left, but there were still 700 or something, all the ones from Laos), and we got off at the shopping centre and looked around a bit, and it was quite nice. There were lots of lovely shops, and we bought some things.
However things started to go wrong when Rosie noticed her mosquito bites had swelled massively, and were really hard and radiating heat. Then when I tried to get money out of a cash machine it didn't work, and said my card had been cancelled, and I went round to every single ATM and none of them worked, which was really worrying, so Rosie got out some more from hers and lent me some (but hers was later maxed out because she had a horrific dental bill). And then after lunch the worst thing happened.. We were in a shop and we saw the most amazing selection of Cadbury's chocolate (I mentioned they have loads of varieties? This one had BILLIONS) and I thought that it was definitely worthy of a picture, so I went into my bag to get my camera out.. And it wasn't there. The one thing I was most paranoid about losing, and kept checking every 5 minutes has gone. I'd rather have been held hostage for a few hours or been beaten up than have that stolen/lost. The worst thing is the memory card though, it would be 80% less horrible if it didn't have all of my pictures from Laos on it, that I hadn't backed up anywhere.. That memory card only needed 5 more photos before I would have changed it.
GOD the most amazing place I have ever been to and I have no photos of it.. Apart from the 40-odd small ones I put on Facebook, and a couple that I copied to the computer, but only about 20. There were millions. And I know Rosie has similar ones and it is some compensation, but they are not mine, not what I saw. Crikey it makes me cry thinking about it.
And I don't understand where my camera is, because I took it out on the bus into Carindale but I swear I put it back again, and checked the seats when we got off. I only had my bag unzipped for about 2 minutes in the shopping centre when I was wondering from ATM to ATM to see whether any of them would let me get money out, so I guess someone could have put their hand in then, but I don't think it would hang out obviously.. I don't know. I've left Chris and Pete's number with the bus station and shopping centre so maybe they will ring back if it gets handed in, but I wouldn't bank on it.
And now I have nothing to take new photos with either. I keep thinking about every 2 minutes 'Oh wow! That's nice, I'll just take a phot-uurghhhh'. And I keep thinking who has got it as well, and whether they have even looked at the pictures or just gone to 'Erase All'. Or whether it is lying somewhere in the dark and cold, like an abandoned baby that can't cry out for help..
Hmm. You are probably sick of hearing about my camera, but tough titties, that is all that is happening in my brain right now so that's what you're getting. Actually I will go back to the story, because it got slightly more interesting..
I was going to get a bus at 5 past 2 so I could be back in time for the appointment, and leave Rosie in Carindale, because her appointment was there. But when we got to the bus stop we realised it had been set out stupidly and that bus didn't actually go to Wynnum, and the next available one wouldn't get me back in time. Rosie rang Pete and he couldn't pick us up, so he said to get the next one anyway and he'd ring the physiotherapist to say I would be late. So we carried on looking round inside for half an hour, and bought a sleeping bag for our camping trip (this is when the camera loss was discovered) and then Rosie went away to be filling-ed, and I got on the bus to Wynnum. But it turned out it wasn't a bus to Wynnum, and about an hour later I realised I was somewhere very wrong, and it was 3.30. I had been quite distraught on that bus so wasn't concentrating properly on what was happening outside, but I was quite sure we didn't go anywhere near Wynnum, so I decided to get off fairly soon, and then the bus stopped at what I thought was a train station because there was a picture of a train, so I got off there and thought I could make my way back on a train, because that was easy. But the picture of a train was in fact a really really rubbish picture of a bus that looked like a train, and I was in a deserted bus station in Woolangabba, wherever that is. By myself, with a phone that wouldn't turn on, a non-working bank card, and no map (Rosie always has the maps). Mmm.
I went out of the bus station to see if there was anything around, but it was mainly a motorway and some huge buildings, so I went back to the bus station and found a timetable of buses and there was one that went to Wynnum Road that arrived in 10 minutes, so I thought that was pretty excellent, and when it arrived I got on it (this was after tripping up to run after it, dropping the sleeping bag on the floor and then exposing myself to the whole of the bus which was full) and I asked for a single to Wynnum but he said he didn't go there and drove off, without telling me anything useful. At that point I thought I should go into Brisbane, because the motorway had lots of signs pointing towards it so it must have been quite close, and then a bus came and I noticed it was going to South Bank (where I vaguely remembered we went to see the fireworks on our first night) so I got on that. After a while we stopped and there was a big pole coming out of the ground that said 'South Bank' so I said HOORAY (quietly) and got off, but then I realised that was a deceiving pole, and I wasn't in South Bank, but the Cultural Centre (that sounds like it would be obvious, but seriously it looked like a sign post saying 'You are Here now'). So I wasn't anywhere near South Bank train station, which is where I wanted, but I walked around for a bit and saw a sign for another train station, so I followed them, and got to South Brisbane railway. After that it was fairly simple getting a train to Cleveland that stopped in Wynnum, and I even managed to find my way to the house after getting off the train (everywhere looks very similar, it is a lot like Neighbours). But that journey took 3 hours more than it should have, and cost $11.
Meanwhile, Rosie was being drilled for over an hour at $470 and had realised that there were no buses from Clarindale to Wynnum after 3pm, so when she came out at about 4 had to get a bus to Morningside after vaguely recognising the name (Pete was on the phone telling her to GO TO MANLY and saying that I was missing) and then she got a train from that town, and it proved quite difficult to find the train station, but with some help from the bus driver (and a mad lady who said spookily 'ALL trains go to Wynnum...') she made it back at about 6, after paying 2 bus fares and a train ticket, a massive dental bill, and numb mouth and 2 very nice fillings.
But I missed my physiotherapy thing, so here we are with a stupid un-fixed numb leg, no photos, and no camera, a huge dental bill and a booking for 2 hostels on the same night (lets not even go there) But at least my bank card works now (with a lot of thanks to my mum). And we are going on a sailing adventure now, which is going to be amazing, and then a 3-day safari on Fraser. Which will be fun.
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aimee
non-member comment
oh dear
reading that made me cry sarah especially the camera 'erase all' and the lying in the cold and dark ahhh please no my heart goes horrible and sad thinkking of that =/ maybe its at the bottom of your bag? or a side pocket or another bag? rosie's bag maybe? rosie's shoe i dont know sarah i wish i could help and go to australia and look for it oh deary me i hope you enjoyed the conversation i gave you with squeak her voice has now been to germany and portugal and australia and yeoford and possibly others. how exciting for her! good luck with everythinh, my firend had a leg thing likes yous and it went to the other leg then went away, i dont know what it means but hopefully its going to be one of those things that runs away in time oh dear do they not have nhs in aussy?? well obviously not what a stupid queastion its not britain hmm well goodbye for now, good luck with everything sister im sure it will be fine. ha i actually miss you which is a weird sensation... Jeremy Beadle has died! watch out cos beadles about guy that used to do you've been framed! oh everyone is just dropping dead it is not nice... atleast you are still alive and i hope you are having a nice time also rosie!