Day 8 in which we make our way to Canberra

Sunday morning was fun, but a little bit sad because we were leaving our new friends.

It was all so ironic. Previously I thought of Tasmania as a huge scary hassle. I was so worried about it. Now I worried it would be the best part of our trip. What if this was it? What if the best part had already come and gone? What if nothing else was fun? Well, at least we had the hope of Tracey and her family maybe coming to Sydney. I think that made it somewhat easier to leave.

We all hung out in the morning. Jack took photographs.

Tyrone had a newspaper that he was reading. When he was done, I asked if I could see it. The front page had an article about the Victorian fires. I think Tyrone said, if they still lived in Victoria, he'd be fighting the fires.

I didn't realize the significance and severity of the fires. I think I saw bush fires as a normal part of Australia. It's like fires in California, tornadoes in Texas, and blizzards in Wisconsin. They just happen. It's part of life. It wasn't until later that I realized how incredibly horrible these fires actually were.

Tracey drove us to the airport. Originally, she was going to take us while Tara stayed home with Tyrone. But then Tara wanted to go with. I was glad about that.

In the Launceston airport, you can go past security without a boarding pass so Tracey and Tara were able to sit with us at the gate. Before that we had gone to the store. I bought a chocolate bar with honey comb. Australia seems to have more honeycomb candy than we do in the US. Tracey bought me some candy as a gift. It was incredibly sweet of her and totally not necessary. But I definitely loved and appreciated it. Oh! This is when she sang the praises of musk candy. I had heard of this strange phenomena, but had never had the nerve to try it. She told me I should. I kept that in mind. If I was brave enough to try Vegemite, I might be brave enough to try musk candy. Yeah.

Tracey bought Tara some cheese Twisties. Jack wanted some too. Tracey offered us the chance to share, but Jack sometimes has issues with germs and sharing food. We got our own bag because lord knows we all need those extra calories.

We said good-bye. I actually don't remember much of that at all. I guess I blocked most it out of my memory.

I do remember Jack twice saying to them I'll see you in one year, six months, and seven days. I think he said it at two separate points. The exactness and duplicity of his statement made me think perhaps he was making some kind of profound psychic statement.

Well, it could still come true. We did see them again much sooner than that. But who knows, maybe the next time we see them will be in six months. That'll be in August.

I guess we'll see. But if we do end up seeing them, we'd have to argue. Was it a psychic prediction or a self-fulfilling prophesy?

I don't think Jack heard and/or registered the possibility of our Tassie friends coming to Sydney in a few weeks. He must have missed that conversation because he acted very pleasantly surprised when I mentioned it to him later. What he wanted originally was them to come to America. We mentioned that several times. Even though we don't think Texas is all that exciting, we want our friends to visit. We also talked about them coming to Disney World with us one day. We're part of the Disney Vacation club and we go there pretty much every year. It would be great to have friends with us. Jack absolutely loved that idea. He went on and on about it. He started planning when we'd all go and what exactly we'd do each day. We had to explain that the Disney idea was a maybe type thing in the far future.

On the plane, Missy Higgin's Special Two was playing. Well, at least according to my notes it was. I don't really remember. I guess I should trust myself.

I enjoyed hearing Australian songs on the radio in the car. I usually only hear those songs on You-Tube or I-tunes. It was fun hearing them in a more spontaneous setting.

Speaking of the car, Tim did very good driving!

 No, I didn't try driving. I have enough trouble driving on the right side of the road. Actually, it's not the switching sides that scares me. It's the roundabouts. Those things terrify me! I have no idea how Tim figured them out; but he did.

Anyway, I don't praise my husband often because he gets too much praise already. And his head is so swelled it may burst any moment. But I say will I'm incredibly impressed with his driving in Australia. I'm still in total awe.

Google Maps had led me to believe it would take more than three hours to get to our Canberra Carotel Motel and Caravan Park. I was a bit nervous because the office closed at 8:00 on the weekends. Our plane was due into Sydney at around 3:00. I figured it would take about an hour to get off the plane, get our luggage, and rent the car. That would leave us four hours to get there. The thing is last year it took us so long to drive places. I pictured us coming in past nine.

I had written an email to the holiday park telling them we might be late. They were very nice and told us not to worry. The caretaker would check us in. That made me feel a little better.

Fortunately, we didn't end up being that late. Last year we were without a good navigation system. This time we had our beloved TomTom. It was incredibly helpful. We even had a chance to eat a relaxing dinner in Goulburn. I thought we'd be so rushed that we'd have to survive on the snacks from the airplane or grab more junk food from a convenience store.

We ate at Tamnak Thai. The man who worked there was very friendly. He was originally from the UK and joked that we shouldn't worry. The chef was from Laos. I'm not sure if the joke was targeted at British cooking or white people cooking Asian food.

We were the only ones in the restaurant. I tried asking him about why and when he came over to Australia. I was kind of confused about his answers. At one point, it seemed he came over as a young adult. But at another time, it seemed like he came over as a child. Then he said something about coming over because of the restaurant. Maybe he came over as a child to Australia, but then came to Goulburn for the restaurant. It intrigued me that he was in Goulburn. I picture most people moving to Australia and ending up in one of the big cities....at least at first.





At one point, I was talking to Tim about something I might have figured out. For the past year or so, I've seen the word gaol quite often. I thought Australia had a whole different word for what we call jail. But somehow in Australia I had finally figured out the two words were pronounced the same way. The guy who owned the restaurant overheard me and said he did the same thing when he first came over.

After dinner, we drove to the Carotel.

One thing we noticed right away is there were a lot of big ants. Jack was very nervous about that and I was nervous about him being nervous. His fears can be a pain in the ass sometimes. But I shouldn't talk. So, can mine! We both have annoying fears.

Oh! Remember how Jack freaked out about Tracey's house? Well, now it was Tim's turn. He was in a bit of a crabby mood when we got to the Carotel. I'm guessing he was exhausted from driving. It probably takes a lot of brain-power to drive on the side of the road you're not used to.

Anyway, he started bombarding me with questions. I don't think he liked the look of the Carotel. Do we have our own bathroom? Does it have air-conditioning?

I told him yes....well, maybe....on both accounts. It's not that I didn't check those things carefully. It's just I figured there was the chance I might have misread something or I might have made a little mistake.

I lucked out.

We had toilets and air-conditioning.

We had ants on our porch which terrified Jack. And I'm not talking about swarms of ants. I'm talking about one or two. But they were pretty big and menacing looking. I'll give him that.

I can't remember if we unpacked first or went to the grocery store first. I guess it doesn't matter.

At the grocery store, I bought laundry pegs. Tracey and I had talked about the differences in American and Australian laundry. Australia is much more eco-friendly. Americans use dryers. Australians hang their clothes outside on a hills clothes hoist. In America, it's often actually frowned down upon to hang your clothes outside. It's seen as low class. It's seen as making property values go down. Fortunately, I think that's changing somewhat--at least in more progressive communities. But when we came back to the states and were staying in an Hawaiian hotel, I was disappointed to see a notice saying guests were not allowed to let wet clothes dry on the balcony. We were supposed to take it down to the provided dryers. I can imagine it might be a problem hanging clothes from the actual balcony. It could fall on people. But why not allow people to hang them on the chairs. Or why not provide the little drying racks that Australian holiday parks provide? It was a beach hotel so it would be nice if we were allowed to hang our swimming suits and wet towels outside. Well, Tim said screw the rules. He did it anyway. And he pointed out to me that a lot of people did the same thing.

Some rules are meant to be broken. Definitely. And as Jack said as he helped me edit this entry. Did you show them what you were made out of? Did you hang the clothes? Ah, my little rebel.

But back to the grocery store trip. I bought laundry soap to go with the laundry pegs. We bought two types of cereal--Weet-Bix Apricot Bites and Milo Cereal. I think we all ended up preferring the Weet-Bix. I think we just pretty much bought breakfast food and snacks.

We bought licorice bullets. I love those! We bought Shapes which I also really love. And I bought musk sticks.

I tried them. Maybe that night. I thought they tasted very odd, but not too horrible. It kind of reminded me eating Bernie Bott's Jelly Bellies. It's like eating something you've never expected to eat. It's something you're used of smelling, but not actually putting in your mouth. It's weird eating something that tastes like soap or grass, but it's actually not that bad.

Musk Sticks. I could deal with them.

Well, yes....until Tim tasted one and said it tasted like a urinal tablet. I had never heard of a urinal tablet before, but his use of the word urinal succeeded in making me lose any interest in eating musk flavored candy again.

In the room, we relaxed. I think Jack wrote some short stories. He likes writing fan fiction.


Tim watched TV and relaxed.


I don't remember what I did. I probably took notes and photographs. Maybe I read my book. I forgot which book I was reading by this time. It was probably Toad Away by Morris Gleitzman.

15 comments:

  1. Musk sticks. Not sure that they tasted so good in childhood memory.

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  2. Andrew,

    Good or bad....I don't know. It's just kind of weird if you're not used to it.

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  3. The exactness and duplicity of his statement...

    I think you may mean duplication. At least I hope you do. Does Jack have some nefarious plans afoot? :^Þ

    Musk sticks are yummy. nom nom nom. I actually feel like eating a couple now. But I don't have any in the cupboard. :^(

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  4. Also, random fact re:gaol/jail, gaol is the original English spelling, based on the French word gaole. And although jail is the commom spelling in Australia (i.e., newspapers and magazines and most people spell it that way), the offical spelling in government puplications is gaol.

    I prefer gaol to jail. Spelling wise that is, not habitation wise.

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  5. Stephen,

    I just went to look up duplicity in the online dictionary. The first definition is "Deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech."

    BUT...the second definition is "The quality or state of being twofold or double."

    So, I think it would fit. Duplication would probably be better though ; )

    And go get yourself some musk sticks.

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  6. Stephen,

    I guess I should have responded to you in one comment. Oh well!!

    I've never seen the word "jail" in Australia writing. But now that I say that, I'll probably end up seeing it a lot.

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  7. haaahaaa..urinal tablets! I still want to know HOW he knows that :-D

    And they DO NOT taste like them at all for all of your curious lovely readers out there!!! I find it weird that you don't have that type of candy in any form over there.

    I'm so glad that the trip from the airport to Canberra was easy enough and not stressful. I was worried that you would get lost but more so getting out of Sydney and on to the right highway.

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  8. LOL
    What Tracy said - how does Tim know what a urinal cake tastes like?!
    Musk sticks are ok, a little goes a long way ;)
    The drying racks are called "clothes horses" :)

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  9. Oooh YUM Musk sticks!!!! But I'm with Tim. If you're only used to musk being the odor of room deodorisors and urinal tablets (do NOT ask me how I know that one) then the prospect of eating such a pungent sweetie could be pretty yuck.

    Glad you tried them though. Isn't it amazing how quickly our thoughts turn us off things that we otherwise quite like?

    Now, if you're chatting with someone in Goulburn and getting vague answers which seem to contradict themselves.... chances are they have / have had something to do with the gaol or prisoners. I was laughing when I read that bit. Poor guy probably just wanted to say ENJOY THE FOOD! STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS!!! Or else you have prompted him to get a better "cover story"!

    Our body corporate (owners of the flats in our buildings) have a by-law which says that no laundry can be SEEN to be hanging on our balconies (purely for cosmetic purposes). I think it used to be a pretty standard by-law in many body-corporates. It drives me nuts, so I compensate by hanging my washing INSIDE on racks instead of outside. The by-laws' purpose was to not decrease the value of the building by having it look tatty.

    Looking forward to your Canberra adventures tomorrow!! xx

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  10. Tracey: How do YOU know they don't taste like that???? That's what I want to know! It's funny about the food differences. I need to remember to write about our pumpkin conversation when I get to that point.

    Getting out of Sydney was fine. I think? I don't remember having problems. But last year was horrible.

    Jayne: Clothes horses! Cool. I'm going to look that up and see if they're available here....

    They are! I guess we just call them drying racks. I don't think I'd want to give up our dryer completely, but it would be nice to cut down on how much we use it.

    And about the urinal tablets...when Tim makes me angry (which is often) I lock him in the public toilets and that's the only thing available for him to eat.

    Fe: It's also the scent of the baby wipes I bought. LOL about the guy at the restaurant. I never considered that before.

    So, I guess America isn't the only country that puts aesthetics before greenness. I hang up a lot of clothes inside too--mainly because they're not supposed to go in the dryer. I just hang them in the closet with hangers and they dry pretty fast. But often when we're in hotels, stuff takes much longer to dry. I guess it has something to do with the humidity.

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  11. Ooh you finally made it to our nation's capital. I hope after the buildup you stayed more than one night.

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  12. Was that the 8th of Feb per chance? If so, you just missed Kransky Day, the best day in the Canberra calendar...

    http://www.multiculturalfestival.com.au/food_and_dance_spectacular

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  13. abefrellman:

    That sucks! We were one day late. I didn't even know about it! I guess its' better that we missed it because we weren't there yet. I would be SO mad if it happened while we were there and we didn't know. But I think we would have probably found out.

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  14. I've never heard 'duplicity' used in that way before. But the dictionary does indeed suport your usage, Dina. I stand corrected.

    The things you learn reading a blog. :^D

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  15. Stephen,

    I was just shocked and pleased to be right for a change. It was a historical moment for me ; )

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