hey guys, i'll share my impressions of my one week getaway.... fresh after returning back to Sydney.... so straight off the bat, the strategy was to sleep in as much as possible Saturday morning after finishing up at the bus depot for a couple of weeks holiday - as of end of shift Friday night, plus a little uber food delivery then off to sleep -- couldn't sleep in a lot really, on Saturday morning as my body lacks the exhaustion of the days of 12 hour taxi shifts..... but actually my back was in extremely excruciating pain, which now, thankfully, after not having driven a bus for a week, has disappeared... i'm hoping another week off my back will recover enough to see me through a few months of driving until the next holiday around maybe February, but truth be told, the pain was just excruciating..... imagine listening to a baby crying all day long non stop, how annoying would that be? with this pain, even that isn't annoying because all you can feel is excruciating pain of your disc or something in your back just feeling crippled and painful....
anyway so 1040pm Saturday night off we go............ I got as far as a little before 5am and about an hour short of the new south wales / Victoria border and had to nap for a couple of hours then off again, then my girlfriend drove for a while - like an hour or so.............. finally, around midday, I found my buddies house in suburban Melbourne.... I know it seems like a non-sequitur: Ben and buddies -- like an oxymoron.... mmmm moron..... but there it is, it seems I have buddies.... anyway my buddies are living the suburban dream, you can still get a block of land and a house there in the suburbs, half an hour by public transport to downtown Melbourne, for 500 thousand Australian dollars, or rent at $350 a week while you buy someplace else or whatever..... anyway it was a real relaxing couple of days with my buddy, her hubby - also a buddy although mostly through his mrs --- his mom, their kids, their buddies etc --- plus my three kids and girlfriend --- a busy house so we were only around two days then we headed to downtown Melbourne and stayed someplace there, hopefully the stupid Koreans or commie chinese there aren't going to jack me -- they still haven't returned my deposit on bank hold and their bed was dopey having weak slats half-arsed repaired with sticky tape - so annoying -- great view though on level 31......
then yesterday it was time to leave Melbourne and we drove towards the border with new south wales again towards beechworth --- wow, what a revelation --- beechworth is the greatest Australian town or place I have ever seen...... I have not seen better Australians anywhere in Australia -- that's of course just a subjective thing to taste, and if you don't like Australians you wouldn't like beechworth --- when I refer to Australians I refer to anyone living in Australia long term, regardless of race or nationality.......... having seen all kinds of places in Australia, let me tell you, if you've never been to Australia before, just consider just checking out country Victoria up in the northeast, to the alpine mountains --- looks like a winner -- i'd like to go live there............. but i'd also like to have a non painful back but still choose a profession that makes it ache insufferably so go figure
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first place in beechworth we went to a winery in town (which is really just a little hamlet) and some lady on the winery is selling wine in bottles with the above-mentioned bush-ism plastered on the bottle -- which she thought was ludicrous but still wanted it there, obviously -- her husband is like a fourth or fifth generation grape grower wine maker -- it's good seeing established families doing that stuff across generations..... for example in Australia there are families that are breeding merino sheep like over 100 years, multi-generational, so their technique for feeding the sheep is downpat, like there's a lot of artistry to it - you mix alfalfa with the grass or whatever to get a better type of wool, I like all that stuff............
anyway, going back a few days, when we arrived in Melbourne city after a couple of days in the suburbs, which were very nice suburbs, I must say, I headed for one of my favorite streets there, smith street in Collingwood.... I enjoy the walk from smith street to the city via Fitzroy and carlton.... although we ended up catching a bus due to three little kids in tow.... but it was kind of a Seinfeld moment on smith street, I asked some random old looking lady for directions to a museum and she is very surly and grumpy and loud in a funny way, Australians are probably the worst people in the world when it comes to interfering in conversations between two parties as though one comment from one party were meant for some random person listening in.... so of course before the lady could answer, two random comers in comical fashion tried interfering and it was quite amusing listening to the loud woman shut them down.............. earlier today I had a funny moment in Wodonga, just before the new south wales border (the murray river), I was trying to win some free handouts from a radio dj from 104.9 live - some channel in Wodonga on fm..... then some American guy pops out of nowhere and is trying to push in front of me, so I say, 'I was here first! and I came here from a better part of America than you did!' which I thought was very amusing in a childish way --- he took the hint and ended up winning a giant connect four game that I started and then got bored of due to time contraints... I don't want any free handouts from any 104.9 fm radio stations anyway... I know the American guy won the game I started because he did a two handed fist pump in the air so good for him.... what a long drive home
anyway, beechworth -- amazing -- what a great part of Australia that whole area must be -- I really want to check it out again, possibly next holidays -- long drive though -- will post up some pictures here later
tomorrow will be busy, I've promised to drive the bus for some dopey church camp day around near mona vale and I have to shlepp all the way to the bus depot with alex and scarlet (they really want to come), get the bus, with kids in tow... drive it to auburn where the church is at - then one hour drive up to the camp day and hang out there all day then back again, super late.... hopefully the bus driving won't destroy my back, it's not looking pretty -- one of the old buses, very bad on the back --- kind of worrying.....
ok some pop up is telling me video editor is installed, I've been meaning to continue working on my film but haven't done anything on it for like two years and then lost the computer that had adobe premier editing software so have just downloaded some new program, I know how I want to continue my movie from the 'purple ribbon all-stars' song..... so maybe i'll get that done by year's end, we'll see....
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