Crisp

Moving On

Fri Jun 24th 02:07:01 2005

Well I've been in Darwin for three months or so now I think, and it's time to get out of here. As you know I had to stop to work, and got a great job in an internet cafe. If this was back home, I'd be happy doing this job full time before university, but as I'm on a trip, all good things must come to an end. So, I handed in my notice last week, had my last pay day today (along with a bottle of wine from the boss) and trained the girl who is taking my place for a couple of hours this morning (who I think is going to struggle, but that's not really my problem). I didn't save as much as I'd have liked by any stretch of the imagination, but c'est la vie. You have to live too, or what's the point?

So this weekend is going to be one of getting last bits and pieces together before we head off. I am one of three lads and a gal who originally came out here together, we know each other from back home. Plans have changed though, and so the girl is now travelling in the opposite direction to us. That means that this weekend we'll have one last meal together and say our goodbyes too, and of course the obligitary night of drinking. The three lads (me one of them) will be driving west to Broome, which will mean another time zone change, to meet up with some of the girls we've been with since February in Melbourne, who went to Broome a few weeks ago. The 7 of us are then going to road trip down the west coast to Perth - which is currently shitty weather compared to the days of 31C+ we're getting up here - and see the sights along the way. Us lads are bringing an ounce of weed and a 176mm telescope too, the night skies in outback Australia are amazing. The west coast could well be more sparsely populated than the desert in the middle was when we travelled up here originally, so that should be interesting.

Our car has been fixed up a little; new tyres, new oil and filters, it's been washed and cleaned inside and out, and looks respectable once more. We'll be really glad of the room too, what with the girl we were with's backpack taking uo half the boot. It also means whoever is in the back seat gets to stretch out too. As one of two drivers, that hasn't been an issue for me really so far - if I'm not driving I'm still in the passenger seat, but I know my mate who doesnt drive will be glad of the extra room. It should easily out run the girls camper van anyway, but then there was never really any contest there.

As this is my last day of work, it's the last day I'll have internet access for quite a while again now. So, you can expect me to go back into hiding as it were, I'll pop in and out when I can at internet cafe's though. Back to a world of being secluded from the latest technology news (I still have my phone for brief bits of news though! The only drawback is signal is going to be non existent out of major cities) I can't really complain though.

Much to ReLik's annoyance, I'm actually considering staying out here for the full year now, until next February. Problems that would present are that I wont be going to uni with Rel if I do that, which would be shit, and I'd have deferred for two year in a row by the time I got to uni. However, if I did decide to defer again, I'd have 6 months to work of debt and get some cash in my pocket for university by the time term started rather than going in the debt that I'll otherwise be going with before I even start. Obviously I'd also get to see the rest of Australia too, but I know I'd have a good time at uni too, so that point is moot. My cousin is coming over to Australia too soon, so it would be cool to travel with him. As it is, I'm waiting to see what the university say about fee's next year (I might have to pay extra if I go in 2006) and am generally juggling it around in my head. I've gone from 'going back home' to 'probably staying' to 'definitely staying' to 'maybe staying again' to 'oh fuck I don't know what to do'. What I might end up doing is pushing the trip until mid-late September instead of the planned early August return, because the course me and Rel are enrolled on starts late in the year, early October I believe. Uni with Rel may just be too much to pass up.

Hopefully I'll have enough money going down the west coast, I'd rather not have to worry about that too much until a couple of weeks into Perth, but we'll see. I still have to buy the girl who is leaving us out of the car, she owns 1/4 of it, but that's very much doable because the buy out will be divided by three (the rest of us) so that will soften the blow. I'll update you on my plans when I know exactly what I'm doing and have found somewhere with an internet connection.

Current Location:
England

Robbed from Snags ;)