Ozzie Diary... January 2003!

Date: 3^rd January
Text by: Carlos

We made it! We got to Sydney with a day to spare, found somewhere to camp (only 23km from the city) and hit the centre of Sydney for New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve and the celebrations began in Hyde Park around noon with a few bottles of beer, whilst we listened to Conches being blown by a band from the Cook islands. After Emma and Cat had completed their spot of shopping, we all headed over to Mrs. Maquaries point to get ourselves a good spot for the later viewing of the fireworks. Picture of the girls in front of the harbour bridge.

It was there that Carl met up with 2 old friends, Dave and Caroline, who he'd met in the jungles of Bolivia 10 months previously!
The late afternoon heat was excrutiating for us all so we lay in silence rehydrating with coke and water and waited for the sun to drop. All around us the park was filling with more and more Brits screaming Barmy army chants from the cricket and generally making us feel right at home!
But once the weather had cooled we slowly began to enjoy the event and were looking forward to the 9pm (kiddies show!) display of fireworks from our great vantage point of the harbour bridge and the opera house. We waited and waited and waited and by 9.30pm they still hadn't happened. We were still looking for them at 10pm until we finally found out that they had been cancelled due to wind.

The crowds returned to their drinks and seats on the floor and waited for two more hours in the hope that they would never be so mean as to cancel the midnight affair. Our wait of seven hours though was worth it (even with all the evil pommies shouting football and cricket songs) and we were rewarded with a spectacular show at midnight which illuminated the bridge and the opera house in a mesmerising display. It was a dream come true for all of us.

By 1am the crowd was beginning to thin out and Cat and Emma finally met up with their friends who had come all the way from Melbourne for this and due to some very unfortunate unforseen circumstances hadn't made it into town until after 11pm without a drop of alcohol in their systems! They remained completely dry for the rest of the night as trying to get a drink anywhere was prooving impossible. But, exhausted by the days events Carl, Barney
, Claire, Jo and I headed back to the campsite. However, the night had not yet finished with us...

On the train back we were sat happily discussing new year's resolutions, when 2 semi-naked "Sidneysiders" joined in with us. Very friendly it was too.
Suddenly, this beast of a German man jumps up from his seat and demands the 2 guys

"Leave those poor tourists alone. Stop Hassling them!!!!"

All very well we thought, but tried to assure the German it was all ok, we were just chatting.
He doesn;t take kindly to this and just as suddenly shouts

"Ok then. If you won;t leave them alone you'll have to talk through ME!"

and promptly sits directly in front of the poor Ozzie guys and behind us, blocking any future converstaion.

Then the fun started.

At first, we thought the German was going to rip these 2 guys apart, but it proved otherwise. After some small talk about the whereabouts of their shirts, they began to rip him to bits with some of THE sharpest wit I've ever seen. And the more rude he became the more attacking they were. It was the funniest converstaion I think either me or Barney had ever heard, and in the face of this huge, rude and very scary German.
After being barraged with insults for a good ten minutes (they had called him rude, obnoxious etc etc to which he agreed and said his friedns had told him as much) he quickly changed topics and asked them about the necklaces they wore.
One guy had a bullet with his name on it... for obvious reasons. The other some cheap trinket. The German had a huge, thick gold necklace, which belonged more to a Ghetto gangsta rap star, than a German in Sydney.

"My wife gave it to me!" he shouted at them.

"It cost around 2000 dollars, but I don't like it. Here, you, take it."

The Ozzies didn't know what to do as he unhooked the expensive chain and handed it over. In fact one of them in a fit of honesty said

"Don't give it to me, man, because I WILL take it!"

But the German would have nne of it and handed it over, calling his wife a few names first and then after.

Feeking guilty the Ozzie decides to hand over his 50cent trinket in exchange and the 2 quickly become "New Year's Eve Buddies!"
Unbelievable.

We arrived at the station and alighted the train, with the Geramn and Ozzies just in front of us so we could carry on listening. As they climbed the stairs we saw him remove the matching bracelet from his wrsit and hand that over to, reminding the guys...

"If I ever see you on the streets and I'm with my wife, I'll have to beat you both to a bloody pulp for this theft!"

And then they parted company, the Ozzies roughly 3000 dollars the better off and with us shouting,

"Go for the watch!! It's worth a mint!"

We finally made it back to the campsite and were able to stagger into bed before the birds started singing!

On 1st January 2003 it rained!!
The arrival of Cat and Emma's friends meant our party had extended to 14 and together we all huddled under the tarp and in the van drinking endless cups of tea and eating biscuits. Only Jo was mad enough to want to play frisbee, and so we took it in turns to entertain her until she was far too wet to continue!

Date: 8^th January
Text by: Carlos

After a busy Xmas and New Year, those tired and weary travellers (basically not Cat and Emma!) decided on some nice food and a trip the cinema. Having seen "Lord of The Rings", it was time for "The Ring", a film described only by the poster....

"Before you die, you see the Ring".

A scary film then, eh?! After a tasty Texan dinner we descended into the darkness and watched the film. 5 minutes in and Anna suddenly shouts out,

"Oh, I've seen the original Japanese version last year!"

And so we all think "as she not scared to see it again, it will be ok".

2 hours later and we disagreed! It was the scariest film any of us had seen in years! Fantastic! So scary in fact that I almost cut the blood off form Anna's fingers whilst squeezing the beejeezuz out of her hand in the most tense scenes. You gotta go see it.

The next day we left "Pikeyville" and headed to a nearer campsite whilst the others went to Kings Cross and Hostel beds. They'll never make outback campers!!

"When Anna and I were in the Outback..."

So, we were happily staying on a tiny campsite just outside Sydney and the van engine started making funny noises. As we wanted to keep the van to go working in the fruitfields, we decided to get it checked out and fixed at a local mechanics.

Apparently the points were stuck, so after a small adjustment we drove out the front, to an almighty clattering from the engine. We drove directly back in again.

Another hour passed and the mechanic finally ridded us of the rattly noises by playing with the tuning and distributor, but warned us

"I think it could be terminal". Gulp!

Without further ado, we drove back to the campsite and agreed it was definately time to sell the van, we didn't want to break down 300kms from Sydney and have to replace ANOTHER engine.

100 yards from the campsite and I pulled out into the intersection. Halfway across I noted the speeding cars flying over the crest of the hill and advancing at us at a rate of many knots, so decided to chicken out and reverse back into the junction... totally forgetting this was Sydney and there are OTHER CARS on the road.

Oh Dear.

I reversed straight into a 4WD drive and not only crumpled the boot, but put a huge hole in it too. After several angry seconds swearing, I pulled across the road and the other driver drive away. His bull bar and winch had stopped any damage occuring to his vehicle.

Back at the campsite we judged the damage to be "Very nasty indeed"

and on the eve of wanting to sell too.

The next day I WALKED to Supercheap Autos and bought 2 tubs of car filler and 3 tins of spray paint, (We also had a bit of rust to fix and a small hole where one of the blown tyres ripped open the bopdy work.) and set to work on the van.

2 days later and it was unbelieveably sorted!! The holes were gone, the colour matched and no-one was the wiser. even the old dude living on the campsite came over and congratulated me on the "fine job".
We then had to get the NSW safety check. Now you don't need to pass this to sell your vehicle, but it is necessary so that the new owner knows what needs fixing and the price can be "fairly" bargained.

We drove around the whole of Sydney looking for a garage willing to do the safety, finally settling on an upmarket looking place (called UltraTune) that looked reasonably busy. It was also the only one that could fit us in.

15 minutes later we emerged relieved, happy and with smiles that reached around from somewhere at the back of our heads. We'd passed the lot with flying colours!

We got to the car market at 4pm that afternoon and caught the last hour of trade. NO buyers.

The next day we started at 9 am. The market was absolutely packed, but with sellers and vans of younger ages and better sounding engines. BUT we had PASSED the safety (unlike most others vans) and our van was kitted out with everything you might possibly need in the outback. And of course, being a "classic" it looks really 70's retro chic! But still no-one was looking.

4 hours later and I was depressed and stressed. I don't know why as other people had been there for 6 or more days already. Anna was doing crosswords. Suddenly, 2 English guys appeared from nowhere and looked around the van. They wanted it now and had the cash. Within 10 minutes we'd driven around Kings Cross, agreed on 5 grand (!!!), (that's $1500 more than we paid) and the money was in my account! UNbelieveable! The trauma was over, and they didn't even mention the boot!! I think I might have a new trade when I get home.

So, here we are 5 THOUSAND dollars to the better, no job and I have to get home for April. What should be do?? Have you guessed yet?

Within 3 hours of selling the van, we'd booked oursleves plane tickets to Singapore to fly in 5 days time and consigned ourselves to another 2 months of doing no work in a different county and culture. Work-shy you say?? Maybe, but I don't think we could be happier!!

So... heres a toast to all things good and to our fantastic luck in the last few days when all looked so bleak. Just remember, remain calm and something always turns up.

Speak soon!

Date: 12^th January
Text by: Carlos

Well, here it is. The final entry for Australia.

The last few days have been pretty relaxing. We've even managed to do some proper touristy stuff! But first...

You may know that we'd paid to share a Dutch guy's room in Kings Cross. At $60 each for the week, it was a bargain. I mean, it was a tiny room that the 3 of us all shared and we used bunk beds, but we had access to lots of TV and films and the guy seemed ok, if not a little short of cash.

We came back reasonably late in the evening and left in mid-morning, leaving this guy to his own company and he was happy with the deal. We even shared a few beers and laughs together.

Then on the 4th day, whilst I was in the shower he began asking for more cash from Anna. Apparently "we owed him a bond of $120". Just to cover him in case we stole his computer/videos/dvd's etc. We found it rather strange this bond hadn't been mentioned earlier and it was mentioned when we knew he and NO cash AND his pension wasn't due for another 3 days. Funny that. Of course, it was just a deposit, which would be refunded immediately when we left on monday morning, but the trust had gone, we hastily packed the bags, told him to "stuff the deposit" and left.

So now we're staying in a hostel, with the girls! (The girls who had mysteriously re-appeared from the Blue Mountains the day before and found us in an internet cafe.)

We (Anna, me and the girls) had a wander around the Art gallery, saw some wicked installations and paintings and then went onto the Ozzie museum, which had a great "BBC nature photographer of the Year" show on. Those photos are AMAZING! Well done to everyone. We spent a good 90 minutes staring at these images from all over the world, Britain to Alaska.

The weather recently hads been very changeable, so most outdoor stuff has been postponed, although we've seen most of the parks, the opera house (in a full-on storm!) and the bridge. We took a trip to Manly beach when the sun was out, which is a bit like "Blackpool, with sunshine and no fairground", and yesterday we finally saw the girls leave us for new pastures in New Zealand (after a few drinks on Friday night of course!).

Last night we met some old friends, ex-pats, who now reside in Coogee. So cheers to Dette, Phil and the kids (Joseph and Jonty) and to Paul and Suzi (anyone remember the Millners??! They will be visiting sunny Mnachester in Feb!). A few pints at the Coogee Bay Hotel and a uhge dinner went donw very nicely.

But now, it's time to leave you. We'll write again once we hit the internet cafes in Asia, and let you know about our new adventures in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia... Take Care All!!

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