That’s Hot.

As Melbourne continues to heat up for the sixth day running, I thought it was about time to vent again.

I like the heat. I like summer, sun, warm weather and everything that goes with it, including going inside where it is slightly cooler. Apparently our place isn’t like that, and summer is going to be quite uncomfortable.

This week when it rose to 35 degrees outside, our third (and top) storey apartment also rose to 35 degrees. With the curtains shut, windows open and fans running to try and move the air even a little, we might have got it down to 34 degrees. Even outside there was a slight breeze, but nothing inside. As I said, I enjoy the heat, but when it gets so that you can’t even sit still without sweating, it becomes an issue. Yesterday afternoon it was down to the early 20s by late afternoon, and I had hopes that this would transfer to our house as well. It dropped to around 29 degrees inside. Our place isn’t too old, I think from the 60s or so, but the insulation is non-existent. Of course, because we’re renting, the landlord and real estate agents have little care for our comfort, so it would be up to us to purchase air conditioning. Unfortunately, the portable air conditioning units are expensive to buy and run, and chew up electricity – which leads to a viscious cycle with climate change and emissions.

Obviously the fact that we’re having such a warm period so early in the season raises the questions of climate change and whether we are eternally doomed because of carbon emissions. I believe that yes, there is such a thing as climate change and we are experiencing it. I believe we should be doing a lot more to stop the damage that is occurring and the irreversible changes going on. Just yesterday there was someone from a wilderness charity who stopped me in the street. She asked if I cared about the forests – and the obvious answer is yes, yes I do. However, if we’re going to save the planet, you’re going to have to do a lot more than tell us the forests are dying and can we please have a few dollars a month. Every little bit helps, I believe that, but we’re at the stage now that without major support from the governments, we are in big trouble.

The Fridge

For a while now I’ve been thinking about buying a bar fridge. I have a lot of film for my cameras and we need more room for food in the other fridge. It could also double as a drinks fridge. So, after doing some research, I work out that it’s probably cheaper and easier to buy a fridge from a local shop, where I can speak face-to-face with someone about delivery and confirming costs etc. I ended up buying from Best Buy Electrical, near Barkly Square on Sydney Road, a small Daewoo fridge. They confirmed that they do delivery, and were willing to take it up three flights of stairs, so I paid the extra delivery cost and arranged my day off work.

Wednesday 21st. I have the day off work. I’ve been to the shops, I’m in for the day. Delivery is stated as late afternoon, so I’m home from midday onwards, hoping it means before 6.30pm when I have to go out. I knit, I bake, I watch movies. No word from them. I figure that late afternoon, if they’re running late, could be anywhere up to 7pm, so I leave the house but keep my phone loud and close just in case. Nothing.

Thursday 22nd. I call the store to question where my fridge is. They have no record of it, they were not meant to deliver anything, what fridge? Eventually they find the order and reschedule delivery for Friday evening, after 7pm when I will definitely be home. Frustrating, but keep those fingers crossed.

Friday 23rd. Hoping that the fridge will come, hoping so hard. 6.45pm I get a phone call. Will I be home in 20 minutes to accept the delivery? Yes. Will there be stairs? Yes, I paid extra for delivery for that. Is there someone there to help? Well yes, but I paid extra for delivery…

They arrive and we head downstairs to meet them. She passes the trolley to my friend and off we go, hauling it up the stairs. The 5′3″ lady they sent to take the fridge up three flights of stairs tries to guide it, but essentially is doing nothing to help. Eventually we get it upstairs, shut the door and start the unpacking business.

Monday 26th. I call the store to question why I paid extra for delivery when we had to take it upstairs anyway, why it wasn’t delivered when they originally said and why I haven’t received an apology for any of this. The lady who delivered tries to come up with several excuses, including that they did try to call several times on Wednesday (this is after initially trying to say that there was no record of delivery – if there was no record of it, why would you call?), if we didn’t want to help we shouldn’t have, and I was charged a normal delivery fee, not extra. After going around in circles for a while, with the excuses getting worse and worse, I give up on trying to get an apology/refund and hang up. I’m still debating whether to write an angry letter (they just feel so good) or to contact consumer affairs/similar.

Either way, I would advise against purchasing anything there – they just can’t get their story straight. I just hold out hope that the fridge doesn’t break and I have to contact them again.

It looks like the source of my dizzy spells may have been found. I had a referral to a neurologist about a month ago, and after checking my previous results and doing the usual tests said that it could be a form of migraine. Although this doesn’t really explain the earache, he said it would be worth trying anti-migraine medication and see what happens.

The medication he suggested was propranolol, an anti-hypertensive. After the first couple of weeks with only a very mild (positive) effect, I increased the dose. Since then, the dizziness has been significantly better – no nausea, no nearly falling and I can have more than a few beers and not feel like the world will never be still again! The anti-hypertensive effect has been noticable, particularly on a couple of occasions, but overall it’s fine and just a little low.

Not long after I started taking it, I was feeling a little light-headed so I went down to one of the clinics at my work to have my blood pressure taken. The nurse was quite obliging and it came out as low-normal. However, while she was taking and recording it, she was asking about what investigations I’ve had. As I’ve found with many people since this started, everybody seems to know what it could be.

Once people found out I was seeing an ENT last year, they would ask if he had checked for vertigo and Meniere’s disease. It was only with a lot of self-control that I didn’t give a sarcastic response about an ENT not knowing about any of that! Of course, these were the first things he investigated, being some of the most common causes of dizziness and earache.

Over the last 18 months or so that I’ve had this, I’d had that same response many times. People may have the right intention, but they need more common sense (and perhaps a little less ego).

The nurse took a different approach though, and asked what the problem was, what investigations I had had, and I’d already let her know I was on propranolol for suspected migraines. Being a nurse, I expected her to have a little more common sense than the others I’ve been referring to. However, she took a very strange approach and suggested that I needed to visit a cardiologist, as the low blood pressure could be causing dizziness!

I decided not to explain that I was actually just experiencing light-headedness due to the low blood pressure, caused by the anti-hypertensive. The dizziness was entirely separate and my blood pressure was fine before I started taking anti-hypertensives (surprisingly enough!) I decided to leave her with her delusions of medical knowledge and common sense and have since been taking my blood pressure at home. I only hope that she doesn’t try to give her patients advice.

Anyway, it seems that I might finally have found a cause for the dizziness, if not the earaches. Even after just a few weeks I’ve noticed a great improvement in my quality of life, fingers crossed that it continues to work!

The other day after work, I headed down to Parliament train station where I was expecting a ten minute wait for my train. As the time approached, I started to hear announcements regarding platform two (I was on platform three), about delays and cancellations and what the next train would be. However, as my train should have been arriving, I noticed the screen listing the next train as a Cragieburn one – I was waiting for the Upfield train. Waiting, waiting, more announcements regarding trains on platform two, the time for my train passes, more announcements about platform two and finally, the Upfield train is listed on the screen. The man announcing all the trains on platform two then briefly mentioned the Upfield train (before going back to his other, obviously more important trains). So I did finally get home, even though my train was running 5-10 minutes late. Would it really have been that hard for this guy to check his little screen and make a quick, ‘Apologies for the inconvenience’ announcement? He was doing for every other train that was delayed or cancelled.

This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed inconsistencies with the recorded and manual announcements at Parliament. When I first started taking the train to and from work, I was waiting for my train home when there was a manual announcement that it had been cancelled. Fair enough, it had already been delayed so I decided to sit it out until the next one. Some people left the platform, presumably to find another way home. Another train comes through, then the recorded notice that the next train will for the Upfield line. Of course, this causes some confusion. There is then another manual announcement that another train has been delayed and that the next train will be the Upfield. No mention of the fact that just 1-2 minutes ago, the very same person had announced that it wouldn’t be coming at all. So those people that have gone to get a tram or bus home could have potentially waited and had a quicker journey home.

I can only hope that when the new companies come in to run the trains and trams, we’ll have slightly more reliable information available to us. Even in London they weren’t that bad, although they did experience the wrong kind of snow and leaves on several occasions…

Everyone at the moment seems to be holding out hope that all the problems that Connex have will be ironed out with the new guys, forgetting the fact that they’ll be working with the same government, the same amount of funding, and the same basic infrastructure. It would take a complete overhaul (and some more lederhosen) to make it as prompt and reliable as the German train system, which I’m sure we all know won’t happen.

Heritage

After hearing about the Tesselaar Tulip Festival about a month ago, I found out that this weekend would have a Dutch theme, with food, music, dancing and crafts. Knowing that it could be an improvement on the one I went to at Southbank in April (where high winds and rain buffeted all day and it was all but shut down as soon as it had started).

With a forecast of a chance of showers and moderate winds, we decided to risk it and headed out on a train. The train should have taken us to Lilydale, but instead stopped at Ringwood for a replacement bus service. It was already raining by this point, which we should have taken as an omen. We got to Lilydale station eventually, and the connecting shuttle bus had just left. Another omen. After seeking shelter out the front of an estate agent, we were about to move into Coles for warmth, when what I think was unscheduled bus turned up. Never one to complain, we made a run for it and were on our way, crossing our fingers that the rain would stop soon.

Unfortunately it just varied between heavy and light rain for most of the morning, rendering the grassy areas sodden and the fields of brightly coloured tulips uninviting.

Hoping to find the Grolsch tent that we had seen noted on the website, we went for a short walk and found a small tent serving non-Dutch food, with a fridge containing some bottles of beer and lots of people sheltering from the rain. Braving the weather, we moved around a little bit and I went on a search for some delicious food. First of all I found some Rookwurst (with mustard), which was devoured. After wandering a little more and sheltering in tents with various crafts, we gave up even thinking about taking photos. I had some croquette (with mustard) and bought some siroopwafelen for later.

After one last round, hoping the rain might ease up, we noticed that a previously empty tent was now selling various chilli sauces – Death Sauce, Stupid Hot etc. We had a quick chat with the stall owners while deciding which to buy (I settled on a four-pack, two milder and two hotter Death Sauces).

After this, there seemed little point in hanging around getting wetter, so we headed off to wait for the bus, which came thankfully quickly. It was good to be on our way back to civilisation.

Judging by my recent experiences, I think it’s safe to say that unless the weather forecast is ‘No possible chance of rain, fog or high winds’, I won’t be leaving the house voluntarily soon! I reckon it could have been improved greatly by some rubber matting laid down on areas of grass into/out of the tents, and perhaps an extra tent or shelter or two. As it was, it was unbearable for any extended period of time.

Yesterday was slightly better though. After a bit of research, we headed to the Penny Black on Sydney Road to watch the Grand Final. We had a quick lunch at a place called ‘Empire’, also on Sydney Road (quite good food, fairly standard) beforehand. We had a table reserved, giving a lovely view of the projected game, just next to the bar. It was a shame about the result (it would have been nice to see the Saints win, and more importantly, Geelong lose!) but at least it was a good, close game to finish the year off.

Now however, being a Sunday afternoon, it’s time for warming up, drying off and kicking back until Monday morning arrives.

Chicago

Last night I went to see Chicago at Her Majesty’s theatre, something I’ve been itching for since I heard it was coming to Melbourne. I booked my ticket last week, a seat at the back of the stalls. After mentioning it at work though, someone told me that it’s quite disappointing. She said the outfits and some characters aren’t done very well, and now I know exactly what she meant.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good. It’s a relatively professional stage production of a great musical; it would have been hard to ruin entirely. However there are many criticisms to make – of many different aspects.

First of all, the casting. Caroline O’Connor and Sharon Millerchip (Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart respectively) were definitely not expected; I had been waiting for leggy, young, attractive, confident characters with powerful voices. Instead, two older women, without the bodies (but definitely with voices, don’t get me wrong) were introduced. More importantly, Roxie was being portrayed as a child-like, almost retarded woman, instead of the confused but then reassured character. This was most frustrating, as it added too much humour to it (watching a grown woman act like a handicapped prisoner is funny now?) and distracted from what could have been fantastic songs and acts.

Next up was Gina Riley, who I’m sure many people know as ‘Kim’ from ‘Kath and Kim’. As most people know, she can sing, so that was no surprise. However, it seemed that were relying on that and her fame from television to distract from the fact that she couldn’t really act and had a terrible outfit on. She kept giving the audience little smiles which said, ‘How cool is this, I’m live on stage’, instead of saying, ‘I’m a sexy prison officer who does favours for the in-mates, check out my sex appeal’. Her outfit was a loose-fitting trouser-suit, with a tiny bit of cleavage, and she barely moved around the stage. She should have been strutting around the stage wearing something tight-fitting and/or revealing.

On the other hand, Craig McLachlan and Damien Bermingham (Billy Flynn and Amos Hart respectively) were fantastically cast, their outfits and mannerisms were spot on and did all that was expected of them (by me at least). Damien Bermingham especially did well, with a perfect version of ‘Mr Cellophane’. Of course, the back-up singers/dancers/extras/whatever they are called were all brilliant as well – the bodies, the moves and their voices were great. It’s almost enough to encourage me to take up dancing.

I think the fact that the main character wasn’t portrayed correctly all but ruined it for me. The fantastic singing and flexibility couldn’t make up for the fact that she was playing an entirely different character to what was expected (maybe just from me).

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good performance. A lot of money and effort has gone into it, and it shows. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Trying to make use of my day off, I decided to head into the city to look for a new bag. Knowing that my current bag is ready to drop at any minute, I’ve been looking for pretty much exactly the same bag as before. Which, as we all know, is almost impossible.

As I was walking down from North Melbourne, I went into Melbourne Central and had a look at some of the more likely shops, but found nothing close. Instead of heading down Swanston Street, as I’ve done before, I went into Myer, hoping there might be something reasonably priced in a sale. I managed to find a similar style messenger bag in the Dangerfield section of the basement. They said that their till wasn’t working, so pointed to another one which I headed toward. This one had two women at it, neither of which acknowledged me when I approached. I put forward some pleasantries and indicated I’d like to make a purchase, but one walked off and the other informed me that she works for another company and can’t sell me other goods.

They pointed me over to another till (by which stage I’d lost all sense of direction in the windowless basement filled with school kids), where there was also nobody serving. I stood for a minute, looking around hopefully, but could see nobody willing to help. Eventually I started wandering back in the direction I had come from and found someone wearing a Myer lanyard, and hoped that he might be able to help me. He point out the till I had just come from and said that I could pay there. When I pointed out that there was nobody there and I had been sent from till to till, he let out a big sigh and sauntered over to help me. Just in the nick of time, as I was about to walk out with the bag and point out that if nobody was around to take my money, I couldn’t pay…

This is just one of the many, many reasons I hate shopping.

Thankfully I now have what appears to be a reasonably strong, well-priced bag to replace my other one. Hopefully it’ll be another few years until I have to deal with it again.

Disgusting.

That’s how I would describe the weather of the last weekend. Perhaps I’m just sad that summer seems to have finally gone, my winter coats have come out and I need to wear more than one top when I go out, but I still think the wind and rain was so unnecessary yesterday!

Saturday wasn’t exactly ideal, but at least it was dry for the most part (as said in my previous entry, it only really rained during the comedy show I was at). Sunday morning was horrible though. A lazy start was good, but having planned to go to the KLM Dutch Orange Day, I needed to put on as many pieces of clothing as possible.

The KLM Dutch Orange Day was a bit of a wash-out (hah), with most stalls shutting up early, no music or dance and running between shelter and the croquette tent in high wind wasn’t so fun. On the other hand, I got to eat some croquette for the first time in years and found out there is a Dutch shop in Melbourne. I didn’t take any photos (with my first 120 roll of film!) and left as soon as I’d eaten.

Of course, after that, the sensible thing would have been to go home and stay home. Instead, after going for a proper lunch and heading home to warmth, I then went to the footy with a friend to see Adelaide vs. Melbourne! Thankfully it had stopped raining, but the cold wind increased and didn’t get any warmer as it got darker. I think the only plus side from it was that Adelaide won (in a horrible game) and I came home to two doonas and a good book.

This week doesn’t look too much better, but I have my heater out, I have yarn to knit another scarf and I have Kev’s $900 to spend as I wish. Bring on winter!

Comedy

With the Comedy Festival in full swing, I have attended only two shows – but never fear, there are many more to come!

On Tuesday I was forced to sit through Arj Barker at the Town Hall. As Kat and I are dragging Trav to many shows, we thought it best we do something for him, and unfortunately, Arj was his choice! So a cold Tuesday evening arrived and we all rugged up, grabbed a Thermos of tea (no, really), and went on our way. After a kerfuffle with the trams, we finally arrived at the Town Hall, collected the tickets and made our way to the disgustingly uncomfortable chairs.

Now, I won’t say I didn’t laugh, because the show definitely had it moments – it’s just that the majority of the humour and the way it was delivered isn’t for me. He is very American, Californian to be exact, and even without the grating accent I don’t think I’d like his delivery. The excessive swearing is just that, excessive and unnecessary; the prolonged climate change joke was far too long and did I mention his accent was annoying?!

The show had it’s funny moments though, so I’m not entirely disappointed that I saw it.

So the next show was a last minute decision to see Goth Vs Nerd at Pony. I’d read the description and it sounded quite interesting with a lot of potential. Goths are funny (if they aren’t taking themselves too seriously), and nerds are often pathetically funny – so off we went. Unfortunately, instead of reaching the potential, it fell far too short and was over an hour of talking. About stuff. Which wasn’t very funny.

The nerd part of the show was interesting – although definitely not as nerdy as I had expected. He talked about different belief systems, which could have also been funny, but just wasn’t. It was a let down.

The goth part was definitely funnier, but I’m not sure whether that means it was actually funny, or just funny in comparison. There wasn’t too much discussion about the actual goth side of things, but at least there were over-acted jokes and gimicks, which helped to get a little giggle out of me.

So all in all, it hasn’t been too successful a comedy festival so far. Thankfully this weekend I’m seeing some big names which I know won’t let me down (Dylan Moran and Adam Hills), so I’m guaranteed at least two laughs this festival!

Christchurch

So, Christchurch was slightly colder than Wellington and gave the impression of being smaller (although actually has around 300 more people according to the last census.) The next morning was fresh and clear though, so I decided that it would be a good day for, suprisingly enough, walking around and taking photos!

My first stop was the tourist information centre though, to see if I needed to book anything. I ended up buying a ticket for the International Antarctic Centre, one of the few sights that interested me. I would have liked to do the wildlife centre and traditional Maori cultural experience, but I couldn’t justify the cost or the time. Perhaps next time.

After that, I headed to the Southern Encounter, which is in Cathedral Square and is essentially an aquarium but with the added novelty of having a pair of Kiwi birds. The place itself was relatively small – as could only be expected in its location – but was quite sad to see the small tanks. They have a fair amount of native Kiwi sea and river life, including seahorse, frogs, yabbies and eels. Obviously, the novelty of the place is being able to see the Kiwi so easily. When I went in I was told that they wouldn’t be up until 10.30am and although I tried, I couldn’t waste that much time in there, so I went out to the market in Cathedral Square instead.

It was mostly tourist oriented, with a lot of Maori jewellery and sheepskin slippers. The highlight for me was the knit-wear stall though. I had been trying to find some Kiwi yarn to buy for my housemate, and she seemed like the best person to ask! She marked a place on my map called Knitworld and I decided to go down after I had seen the Kiwi!

I headed back in and one of the birds had just woken up, so it was wondering around at the front of the enclosure (which was a decent size) looking for food. They’re beautiful birds, and much bigger than I had thought. As much as it was made for tourists, it was certainly a beautiful experience.

After that I headed out toward Knitworld – mostly through residential areas. Someone even asked me for directions to a hotel on the way – as if a camera and day pack isn’t enough to put people off! Knitworld was a great shop – full of, surprisingly enough, yarn, from floor to ceiling. It was another beautiful sight!

To take full advantage of the weather, I decided to loop back past the Hagley Park (where the Ellerslie Flower Show was taking over) and stop in the Botanic Gardens for a while before finding some lunch. On the way over though, I went past two fantastic places. The Cupcake Parlour, which was a delightful pink building selling some stunningly decorated cupcakes, and a few doors up, The Cheese Monger, with some of the best smelling cheese I’ve smelt! I left both of these but after a few steps, went back into the Cheese Monger and bought some bread and two cheeses – Paki-paki and a smelly blue one whose name escapes me – before I went on to the Botanic Gardens for a mini picnic.

Given that my legs were struggling at this point, I decided to take it easy and not walk through the Botanic Gardens all afternoon. Instead, after a long break, I headed into the Canterbury Museum, which was interesting enough but I didn’t spend too long there as some of the exhibitions were either too busy, or disinteresting for me!

Instead I continued on and went to the Christchurch Art Gallery which another purpose built modern building, absolutely stunning. I wondered around but found little of interest – some modern art, some architecture and a large collection of traditional work. Most of the contents are by New Zealand artists, not that I want to link the two! One that stood out for me was Gottfried Lindauer, who had several Maori portraits hanging. They were quite striking.

After this I decided I needed a break, so I went back to the hostel for a break. One of the girls had left the room (and thankfully the other two were nowhere to be seen), and a man had been moved in – he seemed bewildered that he was in a female room, but he was only there for one night. I read, relaxed and recharged (no, really, my batteries were lacking), and headed out for dinner as the weather deteriorated. It took me a while to decide where to go, but rain eventually pushed me toward a quiet Japanese grill/bar, rather than overpriced fish and chips from an American-style diner.

Just after I had had my first course however, a big group of raucous ladies came in for their dinner. The waiter moved me to table further away (I had been directly next to them), and the rest of my meal was quite enjoyable. I had a selection of skewers with meat and seafood cooked in various sauces – quite delicious!

It continued to rain, and as the wind was picking up I thought it best to call it a night and not risk my stick-like tripod and an umbrella trying to take long exposures. I was grateful for an early night – considering I spent so much time in my sleep trying not to fall of the best (it was a raised one), or knock my alarm off it, I needed all the sleep I could get. The other two girls weren’t exactly the most considerate when they came in at 4am either!

As I couldn’t sleep the next morning, I headed out early before I caught a shuttle bus to the Antarctic Centre. It was an interesting place, with lots of informative displays and hands-on things. One of the highlights of the trip is meant to be an Antarctic storm – they have a section where it’s -8C, and you can put on a big jacket (and rubber over-shoes to keep the snow clean!) and they turn on the windchill and turn down the lights. It was interesting to say the least, but not quite like Rovaniemi in winter!

The other main highlight is the penguins – which are actually native to NZ and not Antarctica. It’s more of a rescue centre for them – most of them are missing flippers or feet or eyes, and there are very few breeding pairs as most of them are older than any wild ones would live.

Next it was a chance to see the HD movie which turned out to be a pretentious piece of rubbish, panning across different landscapes. Sure it was beautiful, but I’d rather watch Planet Earth any day!

I missed the Hägglunds ride though because my back and legs were already sore – I thought it best I not push myself because I still had most of that day and the next morning to go! I really regretted choosing a YHA over a hotel at that point!

Back in the city it was cold (around 12 degrees) and raining on and off – my lucky stint with the weather could only last so long and I think I did pretty well!

I went on the tourist tram that runs on the one track around the main centre, which was interesting with a commentary from the driver. I got off around New Regent Street because I thought I would stop at the Copenhagen Cafe for lunch, but unfortunately it was packed, so I headed down to Esquires, which was a crap chain – I paid for the pleasure of eating a soggy sandwich and sugary hot milk (apparently hot chocolate). Eventually I headed back to the hostel to pick up the Rough Guide then went out again to the Provincial buildings. There were no maps or information brochures, so I just wondered around until I found things to photography – there were some beautiful rooms with wooden beams and high windows. After that, it had stopped raining again, I headed back to the Arts Centre for a closer look. The arts market was in full swing, and it reminded me of a smaller version of Covent Garden in London.

I bought a beautifully decorated cupcake (similar to those at the Cupcake Parlour) and it started to rain quite heavily, so I thought it best to stay and look at more pretentious art work throughout the Arts Centre. There were some nice pieces, but the prices put me off even thinking about buying anything! After I ran out of that, I headed across to Annie’s Winebar and Restaurant for a rest (as my knees were struggling, despite still being taped) and a couple glasses of NZ’s finest! Of course I forgot to note down what I had, but there was a Marlborough sav blanc and a chardonnay I believe.

After heading back to the hostel for my free drink and more clothes – the temperature was dropping – I went out for dinner. I ended up at a place I had noticed the night before, the Mexican Cafe. The food was reasonable, but jalapeños were disappointingly mild. I had a ‘fire and ice’ margarita though, with chilli infused tequila, which was quite delicious! Definitely something I need to investigate.

With all the walking catching up with me, I decided to have a lazy night and headed to the communal area and watched some TV for the first time there. Chuck and Lost seemed to be the choice, neither of which appealed to me, but kept me awake for long enough until I could head to bed and not think of myself as pathetic!

My last day in Christchurch was slightly warmer and brighter, which was nice. I checked out early, put my bag in the lockers which were now working, and went for my last look at Christchurch. I took the tram run again, this time in an open part of it to take photos, and took it all the way around. After that I walked a little more, taking my last photos, getting the last souvenirs, and had a snack before getting my bag and heading off for the shuttle bus.

At this point I was excited to be going home and wondered what could possibly go wrong. Unfortunately, it was then that three ditzy English girls/backpackers arrived at the bus. They all spoke as though they were slightly stoned and a little brain damaged. Little did I know…they followed me through check in, through security, sat next to me at the cafe and were then diagonally opposite and behind me on the flight. Oh, and they waited for their luggage next to me. Thankfully they were on the other end of the Skybus and I could finally get home in peace!

All in all it was an uneventful trip home, minor delays with luggage, some good duty-free shopping and a thankfully empty tram so that I could travel with my backpack without struggling too much. Knowing that I didn’t have work the next day just added to the tranquility of my house.