Sunday saw the arrival of an unexpected frost and the hikers rising early. The confusion of daylight savings starting was not solved until later that night, so we spent the day an hour behind everyone else!

We had put Sunday down as a nature day - seeing the lookouts, the waterfalls and just exploring the hills. Of course, on crutches, we were quite limited, but did our best. First of all was the Boroka lookout, which gave stunning views down over Hall’s Gap. While there, some hikers from our hostel emerged from the bush at the end of their first hike. It had taken them 4-5 hours to walk from the hostel up to the lookout - which we drove in about half an hour. I was impressed to say the least! After standing in awe for a while and taking photos, we used the eco-friendly toilets and were on our way. On emerging from the bush, we saw a red stop sign. But it wasn’t a normal stop sign, as you can see below.

We were still laughing a while later when we arrived at the waterfalls. Although we knew we were unable to reach the bottom of McKenzie falls (290+ steps), we were able to reach the appropriately named Broken Falls without too much trouble. Surprisingly, there was a fair bit of water in both, and stood in the beautiful sunshine watching it all for a while. We stopped to have an ice-cream and encountered one of our first friendly locals, who advised a spot just 5 minutes away on the other side of the hill where you could stop and look at the falls. After a quick lunch we headed off on his advice and had a look - you could certainly see, but not very well. We will definitely have to go back and walk those stairs to see the McKenzie falls.

Next we decided to go back to a lake which we’d seen a sign for and have a quick look, but there was little to see and we were getting tired. On the way back, we stopped at the Wonderland lookout, which we’d seen the day before. Kat and Trav decided to have a nap but I wanted to explore so took the opportunity to walk up the Grand Canyon on my own. In the heat of the afternoon, it was hard work up a steep slope and I was glad for my hiking boots. Unfortunately I didn’t make it up to the Pinnacle (a lookout point featured on most tourist information of the area) as I had to get back to the car when I said I’d be (the lack of mobile signal was frustrating) and my knees were struggling. The views I did see were beautiful though.

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, just playing some Trivial Pursuit and table tennis back at the hostel. We also had to leave town to get money from an ATM - the only one in Hall’s Gap had run out of money!

That evening, we had made a reservation for dinner at a restaurant, but due to immense confusion and lack of exposure to helpful people, we hadn’t realised the clocks had changed the night before. We missed our reservation, but managed to find a place which was still open after 8pm and had some delicious, if a little late, dinner. My nose was running and my throat was sore; the cold was there to stay.

Three

Monday dawned cloudy and raining, but a little warmer than the day before which was appreciated. After a quick and quiet breakfast, being the only guests left, we packed up the car and headed off on our way. Before we left Hall’s Gap though, we had to visit the bakery and pick up some vanilla slices, which Kat had been told by a colleague we delicious. They won a prize in 1998, but I think we can safely say they aren’t as good as they were then. We also had a quick look at a craft fair before getting back on the main road.

On the way in, we’d seen signs for olive farms, glass blowing, lavender farms and wineries. So we had decided to stop on the way out and see all of these. Unfortunately, for some of them, the only signs were at the end of their driveways, and when doing 100km/h, it’s hard to brake and turn in time with that much warning. In the end we visited the lavender farm (plus highland cattle) and just one winery (which wasn’t too bad, but only worth 1 bottle).

It continued to rain on and off all the way back to Melbourne. In Ararat we stopped at McDonalds (reasoning they couldn’t over-charge us for anything) before again, getting out as fast as we could. Next stop was Ballarat, where we had some lunch at the Pancake Kitchen and left before a calisthenics group came in - 4-year-olds wearing false eyelashes, full makeup and leotards just isn’t right. The rest of the drive was uneventful, as we were all tired and sick and just wanted our own beds again, but we’re definitely going back to do some walking at some point.

There will be many photos to come.

As most of my friends will know, I am quite partial to the band The Living End. Although I was excited to be seeing them on their new tour, their new album had not lived up to my expectations. Nevertheless, I attended (minus Kat and Trav) to see their full set. I arrived to see the last of the support band (which failed to impress) and readied myself for everybody to lose their shit. Standing at the back, there was less shit-losing, but enough to enjoy myself and sing along without looking crazy! Their setlist was pretty much as expected, with a few of their older classics (including Prisoner) and most of their new stuff. The venue wasn’t too bad either. I must be growing up though because I just didn’t enjoy standing around sweaty fighting drunks as much as I used to. Afterward I didn’t hang around, because I knew that the next day would be a long one..

Rising at 5am to start preparing for our trip to the Grampians wasn’t as hard as I expected! The neighbours had kept me awake most of the night anyway so it wasn’t a challenge to stay awake and not have my alarm go off. After a quick shower and the last bits of packing, I started loading up the car while Kat organised her driving shoe.

Let me explain - Kat has a stress fracture in her heel. Now while it probably isn’t advisable to be driving long distances, let alone going somewhere the main attraction is walking, we wanted to go. So we did.

So, once Trav and I had loaded everything up, put our road-trip CDs in the car and organised the lollies, we were on our way. We decided to wait until the West Gate to put the CDs on, and when we finally did, they didn’t work. I died a little inside, as I had spent a fair while making them, but thankfully Trav had brought plan B - 2 iPods and a radio transmitter dealie. Surely a tape connector dealie would have been easier I hear you shout. Yes, yes it would have. By the time we got it working, we were well and truly out of Melbourne and just kicked back until we hit Ballarat and breakfast (no. 2).

A delightful breakfast at Beechworth bakery and we continued onto Ararat where we had the first hint that we weren’t liked. Kat and I went into a small cafe to buy a drink and use their toilets. I asked for two bottles of juice, and the girl asked her manager, “These are $2.50 aren’t they?”. The manager, with her mouth forming a ‘yes’ shape, looked at us and quickly changed and said, “No, they’re $3″. With a smile on my face I grit my teeth, paid, used their toilets (I wish I had left a mess) and we got out of Ararat as fast as we could.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and we arrived in Hall’s Gap with no more problems. Weather was beautiful and our room was small (cosy?) and clean. After getting the grand tour and putting some bits away, we headed to the information kiosk to see what it would be possible to do on crutches. We were told not very much. Not to be defeated, we picked up some brochures and headed over to the mini-golf course, where we didn’t cheat at all. The course was really hard too. Oh, and I won, by 1 point (with Kat second and Trav last. By lots).

After this, we experienced our first bit of country driving. Having put in the address of a craft shop/cafe into the GPS, we headed off into the great unknown. It was beautiful, and we kept getting distracted by the stunning views. Eventually though, the GPS lost us and we were driving into nothing. Undeterred, we kept going and decided to turn around at the next driveway to get back for dinner. The next driveway just happened to be the craft shop we were after, so we had a quick look and a chat to the locals (ex-Melbournians) before heading off with warnings of kangaroos. As if on cue, as we leave the driveway, some ‘roos come out of the scrub and hop alongside the road for a while.

The night was uneventful, a delightful dinner at the Quarry before back to the room for a relatively early night. At this point I came to the conclusion I would get sick. Sharing a room and car with Trav who was just getting over a cold, and Kat who had the cold - I was bound to get it. Thankfully it wouldn’t emerge until Sunday evening.

Sunday and Monday to come..

So in the current state of the world, normal is difficult to define, but I’m sure everybody has those moments when they wonder if everyone else has gone crazy. When I got on the tram yesterday, it was one of those moments.

First of all, there was the difficulty of getting onto it. Everybody congregated at the doors, but plenty of room down inside the carriage. Coming from the Tube in the London, this is still alien to me. It’s normal for me to get on and go straight down to the middle - regardless of whether it’s busy. But anyway, I managed to squeeze myself in and off we went. Then I notice the phones. There were 2 mobiles which kept receiving text messages - at least 10 each in the short trip I was on there for. Instead of turning their phones to silent as some do when they are having a text conversation, they let the phones beep the whole jingle before reading the message. Every time.

The next noise I noticed was a small child, perhaps 14-18 months old, on her mother’s lap, whinging away. Now, I dislike whinging kids at the best of times, but this one was worse. The mother was against a window and the kid kept looking out the window. Then when the tram started or stopped, she’d bang her head on the window or wall, making her cry more. But the mother, instead of sitting her down properly so she wouldn’t do it the next time, just left it. So there was a constant noise of ‘bang WAAAAHHH’ for the journey.

So while I considering which to throw out the window first, the phones or the mother, I realised there was more stupidity to be seen. At a tram stop I noticed a group of people waiting to get onto the tram, and standing in the middle of the carriage on my own, I wondered why they could not get on. Then I noticed 2 girls standing near the door, who had probably straightened their hair so much they’ve lost their last brain cells, chatting away oblivious to their discourteous behaviour. Not only were they in the way, but they had those fashionable Country Road bags slung over their shoulder, blocking anyone who wanted to get on or off. When I left the tram, I said excuse me as I usually do but to no avail - so I simply pushed passed and judging by the exclamations behind me, I think her hair was caught in the zip as the bag was pulled off her shoulder by my trying to get through.

The subsequent swim and trip home was uneventful, but for that brief 15 minutes or so of my day yesterday, I thought I was the only sane person aboard that tram. I was reading and had earphones in, but was attentive enough to see if somebody had to get through, and my bag was out of the way at my feet.

Speaking of swimming and fitness, I seem to have finally got the hang of this swimming thing. I’m more consistent in how I feel when I swim, which is generally better. I actually feel relatively fit in myself, and have even started overtaking some people in the slow lane! My physio isn’t as exciting or successful, but I am definitely in less pain that I was. I can walk distances without being in agony, and I’ve all but stopped limping. My conditioning exercises are doing well too, but having only started them 2 weeks ago, I still have a while before I’ll see or feel results.

Now, with a quite recently renewed love for Top Gear, I felt the compulsion to also read Jeremy Clarkson’s work. Thankfully, while at Dirt Cheap Books the other week, I picked up this for a bargain!

Written in a familiar style to his spoken word and following the TV series of his (which I am yet to see), this book was quick and interesting. The chapters are relatively short, just a quick anecdote or two about the country, but there is so much to get out of this. It is not just a car book, as I have had people comment to me, but a series of social observations on how people interact and treat their vehicles - it combines my love of people watching with my not-so-secret desire to own and drive a great many cars and bikes, old and new.

Highlights include Vietnam (I had visions of mopeds multiplying) and Iceland (the sheer emptyness and subsequent freedom for the 4×4s). As well as feeding my car-love, I also feel the need to travel a whole lot more.

This is something that I noticed the other day on the way home from work, and it was one of those moments where people don’t seem so bad, and you have faith that maybe we aren’t doomed after all.

On the way from work to the tram stop, I reach a main T-junction of a road going into and out of the city, and a side road crossing to another main road. Obviously at 5.30pm it’s quite busy with everybody leaving work, and as I approach the junction, I notice that all the traffic lights are out.

If I had been asked what I thought would happen if the traffic lights were out, I would have responded with something along the lines of ‘utter chaos’. Much to my surprise though, everything was under control. Cars were slowing down appropriately, stopping out of simple courtesy to let the other lanes go and even trams were taking their turns. Cars stuck over the tram tracks were given time to cross when a tram arrived, pedestrians could even cross! I was in shock. No one was driving dangerously, honking or being aggressive. For just a small moment, I felt that people are essentially good.

Then I got on the tram and there was a guy on crutches struggling to stand because no one had offered a seat. Jerks for not offering, an idiot for not asking…

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, and also since I’ve heard that song (by Staind). I rediscovered it the other night thanks to a link on a forum, and it rekindled my love for them, but enough of that drivel.

The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time going through my old photos and editing them again. Found some good ones.

..and many others on my Flickr site, and more to come. I’ve also had some inspiration again to be taking photos, so perhaps I’ll get out this weekend to take some.

I’ve also started a medical terminology short course for my job, which is interesting in itself. The majority of the terms I know, but many of the suffixes and prefixes are new to me. Studying this has also motivated me to look into more correspondence study, either for photography or a science-based subject. A sports medicine course would be interesting, but seem few and far between. Open University offer a Bio-Science degree, including a week of laboratory classes for the hands-on parts. It’s tempting, but perhaps not in the too near future.

With Kat having recently achieved her Ps, and loan of her sister’s car, we’ve decided that it’s the time for a weekend away. The first weekend in October will see us leaving Melbourne and going to the Grampians for 2 nights. We’ll check out the waterfalls and look-out points, I’ll (hopefully) take heaps of photos, and Trav will hopefully stay awake! I’m looking forward to my second trip into regional Victoria (the first being to Mt Donna Buang).

I’m doing well with my physio, I can feel my legs getting stronger. Swimming is back on track (I was little slack after I had a cold), but I’m feeling good again. The Olympics definitely motivated me to take up hockey again (and made me feel quite pathetic with my swimming times), but I don’t feel my knees or ankles could handle the impact just yet. Despite the muscles being stronger, I’m still aching a fair amount of the time, particularly when I sit at a desk for a long time. Just a matter of time before I’m back to my sprightly self.

This weekend doesn’t hold very much excitement, again just catching up with everything (including the American presidential race - I haven’t had a chance recently, but I hope Obama is still going strong) - and catching up on sleep!

Given the variety of books I have read and been exposed to, I wouldn’t have thought I could be shocked very much anymore - I’ve read a number of WW2 accounts, a variety of fiction, including one book which a friend recommend I stop reading to protect my mental health - but once I got into this book, I found it very intense.

Although the whole ’story’ is set overnight, it lasts for most of the book. The details and views of it, mostly thanks to the interviews Bowden conducted in the years following, provide an almost complete account, at least of the American side. The details are all the more horrifying for the fact that it all happened relatively recently.

I’m yet to see the movie, but I found the book an amazing piece of text, well written but in an informative way - considering Bowden is a reporter, this is not unexpected. More than once, I had shivers running down my back. It’s very simple, but in it’s simplicity, so accessible. I found it hard to put down. It certainly raises many questions of whether America is doing the right thing by stepping into places in order to ‘help’ people. But as a constant in this book, these men were doing their jobs, and for the most part, enjoyed it - the exhilaration, the comradeship and working alongside their best friends, who were virtually family while away from their actual families. The questions all have to be directed at the commanders and politicians directing the actions - and it’s clear from this book, that they are by no means easy jobs and positions to be in. There is no doubt that a wrong direction from one man can lead to loss of life.

A re-read of a classic, but I’ll give my opinion anyway. I love it. This book is fantastic, as are the radio series and the movie. The book is easy to read, but quirky in so many ways that it keeps you interested and bemused; sometimes it even makes me laugh out loud.

To my own disappointment, I still haven’t had a chance to access any of the others, but I guess I’ll get around to it on my next Booktopia bundle (or borrowed from a friend..hint hint?) The only problem with the version I have is that it has a film tie-in at the end, and pictures in the middle. In this way, it’s hard to get the movie out of my mind and create my own world in my head. On the other hand, the movie was so loyal and creative that my imagination can’t match it.

This book was banned for a number of years as it was thought it could corrupt and influence society to act negatively, but compared to a number of books that were written more recently, it just isn’t that shocking.

Sure, there’s violence and sex acts, a majority of which are homosexual, but perhaps I’ve just been desensitised by reading Palahniuk or ‘A Million Little Pieces’. The story is slow to start but settles in on one character, Harry, before jumping around to others with varying lifestyles and opinions of themselves.

It’s written in an unconventional style, with little punctuation - most distinctly, none for speech. In the introduction it is explained that Selby Jr wanted to develop characters so well that we could distinguish which was speaking without the punctuation - and it’s not a problem. Considering the setting and characters (mostly working class), the language matches them in it’s simplicity and clarity. In this way, it’s quite quick to read.

I definitely liked this book, but I believe had it been released in the last 5-10 years, then it would not have been banned. Compared to current fiction, and non-fiction, there is not much to be shocked by (although I guess it depends which circles you mix in, which books you read..)

This book has been a long time in the reading, but I finally finished it just the other day.

It’s written in very complex language, so obviously requires time be taken over it, but the chapters are relatively short (having been written as such for a newspaper if I remember rightly), which makes it seem to go quicker. All in all, I’ll be honest though, it’s taken me at least 2 months or more to finish this.

It gives a whole new light to Ghandi, and not one I wholly agree with. There are some points I feel that he is actually unkind and ignorant - although this is not obviously so given the majority of the rest of his education and accomplishments. It’s just little things, although I’m amazed that he wrote these things even though they do not show him in a positive light - often an autobiography is simply a chance for a person to blow their own horn.

This book is certainly an eye-opener, and I’m glad I persisted until the end.