Melbourne trip

We are up in the Wild Dog Valley, far far from cellphone reception or internet, so I am writing this in my iPad notes as I just must do something electronic or the shakes could start.  I slept pretty well last night after tossing and turning for a couple of hours worrying about the job situation.  Every day there seems to be some new piece of information that seems to push me over the edge of emotion.  

We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday night rather than Monday morning, as having checked the flights for Monday, and seeing they were overbooked, decided it would be better just to start our trip early.  We booked a triple room at the Ibis Budget, as a cheap way to spend Sunday night, and that proved interesting, to say the least.  The room was barely larger than two single beds, with the third bed being a bunk hovering over the lower two.  There was a small sink in the corner, a tiny TV hung high in the second corner, the third corner was the door and the fourth corner was a tiny camper-van style toilet & shower.  It needed a sign on the door saying "many go down to the underworld but few return to the sunlit lands."   Add to that the fact that they didn't even bother to make the bed on my high up foam contraption, and the pillow was filthy... it was a very interesting experience.

Monday morning we exited the Ibis as quickly as we good, picked up the car and headed down the Great Ocean Road, first stop Torquay, which was incredibly beautiful.  We stopped briefly many times on the way to Apollo Bay, although our hopes of fish and chips in Lorne were dashed by the fish and chip shop owners going on holiday.  We had to settle for ice cream instead and got f&c on arrival in Apollo Bay.

Monday night we booked an Air B&B high in the Wild Dog Valley which is breathtakingly beautiful with crazily giant ferns, parrots everywhere and of course a goat farm.  I don't think I could handle living anywhere with completely no phone reception however.  It is very isolating to a child of technology like me.  

Today we drive to Port Fairy which is our last night stop before going back to Melbourne.  It is a less coastal route but we still have the 12 Apostles to look forward to.  

This last bit of this post is written from Port Fairy.  We had a very lazy start to the day, not leaving Apollo Bay until after 10, although I did get to make friends with some goats and see some deer and parrots.  

There was less to see on the way to Port Fairy but we did stop by the 12 Apostles, "London Bridge" and see plenty of pretty extreme landscape - both mountainous and cliffs.  Photos are to follow!

the AirB&B in Port Fairy is actually right on the beach which is pretty spectacular.  Tomorrow we go inland back to Melbourne for our last night here.

 

Torquay surf beach

 

A beach near Lorne

 

Beach of stacks: mine is second left, and dad's fell over

 

The harbour in Apollo Bay, where we had fish and chips 

 

Making friends with the local goats

 

Inland from Apollo Bay

 

The 12 Apostles

 

An apostolic dog fox 

 

Also near the 12 Apostles - maybe these are two?

 

"London Bridge"

 

"Our" beach at Port Fairy

Visit of the parents

They arrived!  In fact, they were so fast through security that I was late, and they were already outside by the time I arrived at the terminal.

We had a nice quiet evening on Sunday night and planned to go to the beach on Monday.  However, plans changed and we ended up doing some shopping - Mum managed to practice great restraint in the first shop...  We then cut shopping short so that they could meet Shawnee and Amanda - and little Asher, who was incredibly cute playing tug of war with Lily.  She was growling as ferociously as she could, and still no fear from the little guy!

 

We had an awesome dinner of duck, or at least three of the four of us did (C was home), and we sent Dad out to Beefy's to buy himself a pie.  This proved to be a terrible mistake, as he has now decided that he really should be allowed a meat pie for dinner every night instead of whatever we're eating. 

 
Mum loves her grand-daughter...

Today, Dad and I went for a 5k run (just over 3 miles) with Lily, after which we headed up the coast to Bribie Island dog beach.  It was lovely weather, around 25C, blue skies and the water was still relatively warm.  Dad and I went for a swim, and then for a walk along the beach to warm up again, and I collected lots of pieces of coral for Mum.  Since the cyclone, coral has been washing up broken off the reef, and there were some pretty cool specimens.  We walked back to find the mother gone!  Lo and behold, she was in the water.

 
Pre-water mother

Having never seen my mother in the sea before, I was incredibly excited, so I didn't mind getting wet again.  I splashed out to her and called out to her "LOOK OUT!" too late.  A massive wave smashed over her head.  She came up coughing and spluttering and it was the funniest thing ever.  Well, maybe not quite the funniest because the next two waves became even funnier, leaving her lying in the shallows in the white water, spluttering.  She claims that she loves waves and didn't mind in the least - her face showed a little consternation, in my opinion!

 

We had a picnic lunch at Redcliffe - ham sandwiches, as I made bread yesterday as Mum can't eat palm oil - and we managed to keep Mum out of any dangerous shops for another day.  Phew.

Tomorrow, we may head up to Somerset Dam.

ROC

Pretty excited about ROC Race this morning

 

Don't Worry

Don't worry, about a thing.  'Cause every little thing's gonna be all right...

It doesn't work for me.  Something completely and utterly outside my control, like waiting for the bid import results, drives me into a crazy mess of emotion.  They're now saying 15 May... but I am not holding my breath.

In other news, apparently I am confrontational and too assertive?  I have to say, this almost makes me relieved, as I feel like I'm constantly pretending, constantly facing the world through a confident facade while inside I want to curl up in a dark corner under a table and suck my thumb.  This is apparently feedback from my assessment day which I was unofficially told, and apparently someone was supposed to call me but they didn't.  I'm not sure how I came across this way in the sim brief, as I recollect nothing other than feeling sick with nerves and clammy hands.  In the interview, I get why they might think that as I found a couple of their questions patronising and answered them as such: tongue in cheek and more than a little defensive!  However, I still passed, so... hmm.  It will be interesting to see if I actually do get a phone call.

I'm sitting here in the crew room second guessing myself - because confrontational?  There's nothing I like less than confrontation.  Avoidance, more like, as I avoid confrontation at all costs - I even send my housemates text messages instead of talking to them if there's an issue, even if they're in the next room! 

As I like to be perfect - perfectionist much - I don't like anyone having a remotely negative opinion of me so I must battle that out in my own mind!  Once again, Things Outside of My Control.  

I also held another cheese night last night and it was more than awesome.  Cheese, wine, champagne, baked cheesecake, a fire pit and great friends.