Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

My current plans are:

• 13th (this Thursday)
  Train from Central, Sydney to Southern Cross, Victoria
• 14th
  Recover from trip
• 14th-16th
  Stay with Tracey, Scott and the kids
• 17th
  Travel via Train to Ballan and lift to Daylesford
• 17th-21st
  Stay with Carol and Sue at Daylesford 
• 21st
  travel back to Melbourne
• 21st-23rd
  Stay with Tracey, Scott and the kids
• 24th
  Travel on train back to Sydney.
• 25th-26th?
  visit friends in Sydney maybe (want to put me up for a night or two?)

Just got an email from my friend Cathy who went back to New Zealand the other year. Apparently she was involved in a car crash. The car's a write-off but she has only minor injurys (one hopes)! Coming after yesterday this has been a bit of a shock. I  hope to visit Cathy one day (it' less expensive to fly return to NZ than it is to Perth) again.

I do not want more of my friends dying off in a hurry!

...I feel like I've been melting in the heat.

Out of those five days I've been out and about for four of them. Twice I've been down to Sydney and on those trips suffered from dehydration and diarrhoea at the most awkward of times.

Monday I visited Jenny at the nursing home and afterwards it was all I could do to stay awake. I had that all night, feeling sleepy and dizzy.

Tuesday I went down to Newtown (and was constantly dizzy and sleepy on the train) to pick up artwork from the 24 Hour Comic Day event and pass on a comic I'd borrowed. Anyway I won a $50 voucher at Arial's. They had two shops - one at The Rocks and another at Paddington. I went to the latter one and didn't get home until after 8pm. I mean, it was sort of a nice day out, but I also felt a bit like Arthur Stace, tramping around town in the wrong shoes but with not enough energy to write anything in chalk. Cramps and diarrhoea were endemic in the heat involving long sessions in the toilet on the train, and a stop-over at Edgeworth between buses home (where I drank a 2 litre container of orange juice).

Wednesday I stayed home until chaosmanor (Elaine) turned up for a visit. She was touring the East Coast on a research project for one of her books. We went to Warner's Bay for some Thai food. It was good to chat with her again. On the Thursday I went with Elaine down the freeway to Sydney, acting as her navigator while she returned the Wicked hire van she'd been renting.

That part of the trip was fun. Later I trudged off to the rocks to check out the other Arial store but they still didn't have anything i wanted to blow the $50 voucher on. It might have been a mistake to walk all the way down George St to the Rocks. I had to stop numerous times for toilet breaks, despite hovering around in air conditioned comfort inside Dymocks.

For a while I just hovered around at the Museum of Contemporary Art. where they had an interesting exhibition of Yinka Shonibare's stuff. I just loved the fibre-art adaptation of Enlightenment themes in his work. But somehow when I came out it was an hour later than I thought, and I missed the last train-bus connection back home. Rather than panic, I went to Bondi Junction and had dinner there and browse at Borders (also air conditioned). Almosty saw a film but caught the train to Cardiff instead. As it was I didn't get there until 10:30pm and got a taxi home.

Yesterday was blah. Despite efforts all week (well ok, Wednesday and Friday) I've made extremely little progress on my web comics. Every time I get some enthusiasm I sweat all over the artwork. Bleaugh. the highlight of yesterday was doing some washing up at 11pm, while it was cool.

Today, I'm still hot and fucking sweaty and though I still want to do those web comics, so far all I've done is round two of the washing up. Bleagh. I am sick of this weather.

I'm not going to go home for Xmas.

Instead, I'll leave on the 2nd of the December, and be home for mum's birthday on the 3rd. I would have left last day of November in time for my brother's birthday on the 1st, but I have an E.E.G. test that day. I should be able to stay for a week at least.

This solves a lot of hassles, and I hope to see some old friends on this trip, like stephen_dedman and curi_oz_wolf.

I'm not sorry I helped Erica and David move, however it was an absolute pain to do so.

Neither was terribly organised (David maybe more so than Erica) and both bitched and blamed each other for their problems. But, each still had their bedrooms untouched until the day of the hire truck was available, which meant an extra 90 minute delay while they dismantled their beds and took stuff of desks and so on. In addition to all the furniture and stuff in the house, Erica had a double garage filled with a classic mini, and most of the possessions of her dead grandmother. Another friend of Erica's who turned up to help for 1/2 a day told me the following story.

Erica approached him and said that the reason they were being "evicted" from the old house was that 'David never mowed the lawn'. A day later David approached him and said that he'd just discovered that the reason they had to move was because the lawn wasn't mowed. Apparently every time he approached Erica to get the keys to the shed where the lawnmower was kept, Erica would say that she was 'asleep' or that it would rain that afternoon!

Had they sat down and discussed it, they probably could have come to an arrangement (like leaving the shed key somewhere that David could access). As it was, they just didn't communicate. It made me feel like the troubles I'd had with Kevin initially were nothing in comparison!

I helped with minor packing and shifting on the Sunday, and with three out of the four truck loads on the Monday. I probably moved 60-75% of the heavy bulky stuff myself, while Erica and David argued between themselves. I twisted my right ankle Sunday and it got worse and worse all Monday. Erica didn't seem to stop for food though I made a point of stopping regularly for food and drink.

We started about 10am loading the truck and finished about 3am that night. I had actually collapsed with exhaustion and pain in my ankle about 1am and sat down and ate dinner instead. Erica had planned on taking photos of the new place for a record, but left it too late (i.e. after we'd moved stuff in) to do so. She did however spray anti-cockroach surface spray all over the house and in the garage just before we moved stuff in. It stunk like death and made me cough a lot. Erica started having pains in her chest about 2am and they packed the truck and left it for the morning to unpack. After three hours sleep I started unpacking the truck (it had to be returned by 9:30am or they'd charge an extra days rental. It was fortunate that the council was doing roadwork next door as the noise from the tailgate loader blended in.

That was all done well under time and I had a shower and breakfast while they returned the truck. When they got back Erica went straight to sleep and later woke up with a terrible cramp in her leg. David (once again) drove me to the Station. He tanked me for my assistance but not once did Erica. While she was asleep she decided to lend me a doona cover to replace the old one I'd taken down for bedding, but used to protect stuff moved on the trolley.

They are still moving and cleaning, I know, and some hard decisions will have to be made. A third of the stuff stored in the double garage has been left for community pick-up and half of what was transported will probably be sold or given away. the time to do that though should have been before the move. I just hope that after they finish up at the old place, they move Erica's cat Chatty with them (she was watching everything in a curious fashion).

I've moved a number of times in the past myself, and helped others to move as well, but never has any of these moves been as badly planned or executed as this one. Despite all the frustration and fatigue, I enjoyed the stacking of the truck and using the tailgate. But I'll be fucked if I do this again for either of them.

Well, last night was fun - mycosys and I went to the Cambridge, and met _blubloo_ there.

There was stuffing around with the trains in due to track work, but we got in just in time to watch the Arse Clowns. Wasn't sure about their sound at first, but apart from "engineering problems", they were OK. There were two other bands on afterwards,but neither was that good. There was also almost no crowd there either. Mostly, we chatted out in the bar, and afterwards walked from the Cambridge into town looking for food (alas, only the 7/11 was open). Caught the 3:10am train back to Teralba and then went home.  Chatted with Katja this morning before her family picked her up. Kevin's still asleep.

I'm really glad that I went out last night. It wasn't some "grand event", but it was fun, and I haven't had much of the nightclub/going out variety of that lately. Much better than sitting at home on the computer or watching TV.

( What's a Friend ? )