Week 14 ' Meeting the Relatives'

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Dear Blog,

Today is my last day in Oz, and I have another cold. Great. Was woken up several times by a very drunk friend in England who now says she loves me (and this coming from the girl who said I was an animal loving loser!) Think she will have a hangover to be proud of tomorrow.

Anyway, to continue, after my succession of trips I was fairly knackered and feeling totally run down, so after a day in Alice just hanging around, I caught a flight to Adelaide which felt like a total luxury after bussing it for the last week or so. Met a cool Czech guy called Martin at the ariport who joined me for a coffee (while he had a glass of wine- at 10.30 in the morning!).

Adelaide was really nice, reminded me of England quite a lot especially as it was cold and windy. In fact I was so reminded of home I felt a bit disorientated. Spent the morning walking around the botanical gardens and shops and having coffee on a regular basis. In the afternoon I caught the tram to the beach, went to sleep for 45 mins and then caught the tram back. Very worthwhile. But I had to meet Margaret, my mums cousin and Allan her husband who were putting me up for the night. They live up in the Adelaide Hills in a massive house in the woods. I didn't know but they have 7 kids, so I have 7 second cousins which is pretty cool because my immediate family is pretty small. It was really strange meeting them because even though they were complete strangers (I had never even seen pictures of them) they seemed really familiar to me. Their hourse even smelled the same as my maternal grandparents. They also have loads of grandkids so it was great to meet them too. And it was so lovely to feel looked after, margaret really took me under her wing, fed me loads of veggies and bought me some vitamin C tablets. Bless, and kept making cakes (I think she was trying to fatten me up). So what turned into just an overnight stop lasted four days, which was just what I needed.

During my stay we went on a (very brisk) walk during which I saw my first Koala, vistited a couple of winery's, visited their children's for tea, sat in their hot tub, read, listened to music and basically chilled out. Their little village definately has a 'community' feel though, as when I went for a walk, I got chatting to a little old lady in a cafe and after a minute or two I explained where I was staying and she said " Oh I've heard all about you, are you feeling better, how are the glands?" I was pretty dumbstruck, and could only attribute this insight to an innocent comment I had made to Margaret earlier about how the glands in my neck were hurting as I was feeling run down. It appears that the rest of the village was also concerned about the state of my glands too which was slightly embarressing.

After I had said my farewells, I began my road trip to Melbourne along the ocean road. It was fairly uneventful, apart from the roo incident, and the weather was pretty bad, quite windy with frequent rain showers, so it didn't look how it did on 'wish you were here' all those years ago. But still it was good to see the twelve apostles and all the rock formations along the coast, and it was quite Wuthering Heights. On my last night I stayed in Geelong above a pub, and kept having flashbacks to Roma, although this place was spotless, due to the old guy Jack who lived there and cleaned for his rent. As I was the only person staying there (along with a few ghosts I think) I spent the evening talking to Jack or rather being talked at by Jack which was quite comical as he had long white hair and a beard and wore a cowboy hat, and made up poems on the spot. Quite a character. Finally managed to make my excuses and go to bed, but didn't get much sleep as the music didnt stop til half two in the morning and I had to be up at four to catch my plane to sydney.

Arrived in Sydney to bright blue sky, checked into to my hostel and spent the day getting my hair cut, and window shopping on oxford street. Hair has gone back to normal now, but liked the straight look so much am going to invest in a good brush and a hairdryer when I get back. No more bad hair days for me.

So, will say goodbye from Australia and will be in touch when I get into Bangkok, in approx 14 hours.

Love Fogg x

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Comments

[Catrina]

Farewell to Oz
Yes the hang over was bad and I deny everything!