You Never Have a Camera When you Need One

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DAY 311


Today is going to be a good day, why? Well, for the first time in a long time I am going shopping, while I leave Andy to have a relaxing few hours while I too have a few hours of freedom.

The normal start to the day, Andy brings me a cup of tea, neither of us feel any effects from our walk yesterday, we must be getting fitter. However after a shower and some breakfast, I grab the truck keys and bid Andy goodbye as I head to the DFO.

The DFO, which we have come across in a few towns and cities in Australia, is basically Direct Factory Outlet, where your designer and popular brand names are on sale at a reduced price, although sometimes you don’t really see the discount at all, with a miniscule percentage off the original price.

The DFO in Cairns is on Mulgrave Road and so is easy to find, plenty of parking, including undercover parking. Parking was easy and then I find myself suddenly in a vast air-conditioned environment and where to start?

It is a long while since I have had a decent shopping trip. In England shopping is easy because I am so familiar with the shops and what they sell and where the things I like are likely to be. So I suddenly find myself going into every shop, which is not a wise move as it will take me ages.

I am not particularly looking for anything specific although I have two pairs of shorts that are wearing out, they are going at the seams and as these two pairs are the ones that I have been wearing the most in the last 10 months the fabric is wearing so thin that one day I will put them on and they will disintegrate.

So I look high and low for shorts, but I am fussy and it takes me ages to find any, but the good news is that I seem to have lost some weight since being in Australia (all that exercise!) so I have gone back down a dress size.

I have on my mind that I will be needing clothes for interviews when the time comes, but amazingly in a large store I find a white shirt that I like, now that is not so amazing I know, but the amazing bit is that this lovely white shirt is exactly the same as one that I bought In Marks and Spencer, from their Autograph collection last year (Keeley you will know the one as you have the same white shirt!) The best bit is that I pick it up for $15.00 that is a price about 5 times cheaper than I got it for in the UK, well ok the real best bit is that it is also a size smaller!

I do a lot of browsing, just to see what is about and what the shops are like, but eventually I succumb to a latte and a piece of cinnamon toast (I know, it won’t help keep the pounds off!).

On the way back I pop into Stocklands Earlville, which is the more local shopping centre to Bayview Heights where we are staying, I need to pop into the Post Office to collect a package, also opportunity to browse some of the shops there too! Andy would have just hated being with me today.

As it is Monday it is not too busy so again I find it easy to park, I park in the underground car park to keep the truck cool away from the now hot sun.

In the Post Office I await my turn and on cue I give the lady behind the counter the little card that was left for me and show her my driving licence. However there is a slight problem, she wants to match up the address, but she cannot because my driving licence has a different Queensland address on it. I even show her my Passport for proof of ID, but she is not certain that is enough. Amazing really, my name is on the card, I am in possession of the card and the only thing they want is my signature and I cannot match up the address because we are only here temporarily.

I explained my temporary status to the Lady in the Post Office in Cairns, but she still asks me for an electricity bill to prove that I live at that address. Amazing really, this country is full of people who are moving around and have post sent all over the place to catch them up, so I cannot be the only person not to be able to match up an address.

Eventually she asks me if I know where the package comes from so I tell her where it is from and she agrees to let me have the package. Finally I now have the two faceted pieces of Topaz from the fossicking day in Mount Surprise with the Wallaby Wanderers.

I scope out the shopping centre, there are lots of lovely clothes in the shops, but I must not be tempted, they won’t all fit in my suitcase. In Big W I look around for a book, they are much cheaper in Big W, especially for Authors outside of Australia. Instead of looking for my usual authors I check out Nora Roberts, you may recall that I read one of her books recently and enjoyed it that much I thought that I should read more of her books, I had further recommendation from Jodie of the Travelin Trueys.

So a short while later I bought Serendipity, there are two books in one all for the cheap price of $11.00. I am not sure if I will start reading it while we are here in Cairns, we have the time and believe me there is nothing nicer than grabbing a couple of hours in the hammock on the shady veranda on a hot afternoon with a good book and a cup of tea.

However we expect to go to Cape York when we leave here so I am pretty sure that I will get some time to read when we are back out on the road. Except now that I remember how busy we get when we are travelling, blogging, route planning, navigating, sight seeing, chatting to the great people we meet and then of course we have to find time to cook and eat.

I arrive back to find Andy outstretched relaxing on the sofa, he has been having a great time without me, typing the blog, played Mahjong, amongst a few other chores. I think he has enjoyed a few hours without me around.

I think it does us both good to have a bit of space, we are together 24/7 and have been for 10 months now.

After a refreshing cup of tea we popped out to get some groceries, nothing special in that but we were both highly amused by a Ute that has a fibreglass model of a Sheep and a Pig standing up with their front legs on the front cab looking over the roof. There was also a dog sat in the back wearing flying goggles, we both laughed. The worst thing is that for a change neither of us had a camera on us, missing out on a great photo opportunity.

On the news that evening was a story about a woman who had been served with a fine from Cairns Council for having two dogs that were not licensed, however the woman explains and we can see that the two dogs are in fact life size models of dogs. It would appear that whoever was dishing out the fines could see two dogs through the front window and thought that they were real.

Andy and I could not believe our eyes one of the dogs was in fact the same dog that we saw in the back of the Ute earlier today, it was still wearing its flying goggles! I expect someone at the council will be slightly embarrassed by the mistaken identity, but they do look very lifelike.

The rest of the evening went without any drama, we settled down to watch some TV (going to have to get out of that habit otherwise we may miss it when we get back on the road), but we sit down to watch the Australian version of “The Farmer Wants a Wife”, amazingly Andy is watching reality TV which he so readily hates with a passion, but really quite enjoyed this.

We watch an episode of Boston Legal, but it is soon time for bed, we cannot have a late night tonight otherwise it will impact on our walk tomorrow, if we are too tired then we may not have the energy to walk.

So until tomorrow.

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