After our
catch up it was time to be useful and prepare for the BBQ later. As the gas to
the BBQ was empty and needed to be changed, I started to take off the regulator
from the bottle. Despite having spent 4 months regularly packing and unpacking our
gas stove, I had forgotten that the screw on gas bottles is opposite to the
normal “righty tighty, lefty loosey” rule and broke the regulator. Oh how
quickly the wild Bushman Tom was lost to be replaced by a child, a rather slow
child. Adam and I headed for Bunnings to get a replacement, and we also bought materials
to build a target for his new compound bow… brilliant!
Back at
Adam’s we started building the target. I was wearing my Mike Tyson “Thuns out,
Guns out” vest, and looking cool as fuck. We’d both purchased the top online
some time ago, and now seemed like the best time for us both to wear it, so
Adam quickly changed to his… Not weird behaviour for two middle-aged men at
all.
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| "...and then I did a really smelly fart" |
After some
faffing, we finally had the target built and ready for action. I’d never fired
a compound bow before and didn’t realise how much force is required to pull
back the string… the answer is a lot. We started 1m from the target, while I
got the hang of it. I hit it every time! We then moved to 2m, and again I hit
the target every time. By the time we’d moved to 5m, my arm was getting tired,
and it was really hot, and I’d been drinking… so I missed and I hit his shed…
twice. Things may have got even worse, but luckily my arm gave up and I could
no longer draw the bow. Adam had one more go from 10m… and hit his shed. Being
a man-child is GREAT!
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| Responsible adults |
We spent
the rest of the day drinking, had BBQ meat for dinner, and finished the day playing
sonic racer on the PlayStation until Adam nodded off during a race. It was an
awesome day, and I’m guessing Becky and Adam’s girlfriend, Sarah had just as
much fun watching us, but I can’t be sure and there is no photo evidence to say either way.
The next
morning I woke up feeling very rough. After Adam and Sarah returned from a
family breakfast, to celebrate Adam’s birthday on the Monday, Sarah kindly gave
us a lift into town to meet Ric and Lorelle for lunch, and Adam went off to
watch some UFC fight.
We had a
lovely lunch at the Brisbane casino with Ric and Lorelle. I hope they enjoyed
it too, but I think we may have spent most of the time bellyaching about how
hard our road trip had been. You’d think the amazing trip we’d been on was a
punishment for some serious crime the way we were talking about it. However, they
were very kind and tried to help us put a positive spin on it, and I think they
did have a good influence, as afterwards Becky and I both started to feel that
perhaps carrying on with our trip would be a better option than calling it a
day.
After
parting company with R&L, we met Adam for a beer in town, and then headed
back to his playhouse to get pissed. The rest of the afternoon consisted of drinking,
drinking while playing basketball, and drinking while throwing an Aerobic Pro. Aerobes are very
different to Frisbees. I make this distinction, for even though I was
experiencing a drunken child like feeling of joy, I don’t want to be grouped
with the fuck-knuckle students in the great court at UQ, who’s no-consideration
for others Frisbee throwing had been a constant source of frustration to me at
work. Particularly when I had to navigate through their stupid games just to
get some lunch. I always felt that a poorly thrown Frisbee by some cocky
student would be the cause of my going postal some day… it still might be!
After all
that exercise… yes I’m calling it exercise, we cooled down in some dog baths,
as Becky and Sarah looked on perplexed.
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| Stafford Heights plunge pool |
Cooled and
tired after an exhaustive afternoon we settled down to play some FIFA and Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare. After several hours, including a nail-biting female
international game of Sweden v Australia, we realised it was dark and the girls
were no longer sitting with us... The day was finished off with some homemade
lasagne and more beer.
The next
day Adam and Sarah had to go to work, and we had important things to do too. We
had arranged to have a mechanic fix the engine light issue and have a minor
service. Our normal mechanics were booked out, so we tried a new one on Vulture
Street, without thinking that as we were staying in Stafford Heights, this
would mean a Monday morning drive through rush hour traffic to get the car to
him. After a fun reminder of what commuting feels like, we went over what we’d
already told him on the phone, that the engine light issue seemed to be linked the
knock sensor, and we're not too concerned about all the oil dripping underneath,
as the amount of oil was a result of the large number of km we’d done, and we’d
had it degreased twice before and they were unable to find the leak. And with
that we headed by foot to UQ.
At UQ, we
first met up with Steve, who said he hadn’t read the blog for ages, so we went over the big things, like a fire in the engine, that sort of stuff. We had coffee and a nice catch up, before I told Becky to take
a walk while Steve and I finished a manuscript we’d been working on when I
left. It felt good to get the brain working again, but that hour of work tired
me right out and only reiterated how little my desire to return to work actually was.
After that, we caught up with Katrina, who hasn’t been keeping up with the
blog, Nick A, who has, and Adam R, who may have, but all we could gather was
that when he does read it, he really just wants to leave offensive comments but
is too scared to because of my mum. One thing they all had in common, they had
little time for our, we’ve-had-it-tough rhetoric, Nick even gave us the “no
shit” look when we said living in a tent was hard work.
After
seeing those that were there and available, we had lunch and sat by the
lakeside discussing why people aren’t giving us more sympathy. I guess it’s
hard to get sympathy from those who have spent the last 4 months working. But then
they also don’t know what they are talking about, having never been a full-time
holidayier, and it is harder than it looks… I suddenly know how Judith Chalmers must have felt… but they are right, it is better than working for a living. We spent
some time contemplating this while watching the wildlife at UQ.
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| UQ wildlife |
After
waiting until 2pm for the dickwad mechanic to call, we rang him only to be told that
he had confirmed what we’d already told him and the knock sensor was faulty, but
he was having trouble sourcing one. We wandered back to his workshop, where the
dickhead just wanted to tell us how bad our oil leak was. Becky tried to
explain to him that we’d been told this several times, but he just kept saying
this was our biggest issue, and not to worry about the engine light and the
part he couldn’t source… yep, because selling a car with an engine light on is
fucking easy, every fucker wants one. Realising he wasn’t going to be much use
and we’d have been better off going to Kmart, we paid him for the service and
left. I have developed a real hatred of mechanics on this journey.
Back at
Adam’s, we sat about and waited for them to get back from his birthday dinner
with his folks. They returned quite late, and we got to watch Adam open a
mountain of presents from his parents, had some cake then went to bed. As well as
all the surprise gifts we watched him open, Sarah had got him a boxing training
gadget that reads punch speed/power etc and large aqua punch bag… For my
birthday, my wife got me some pringles, sweets and a six-pack of beer that she
drank half of.
The next
day, we got up long after Adam and Sarah had left for work and started trying
to prep the car for the next leg of the journey. We cleaned the fridge, sorted
through all the crap and generally tried to figure out what we could give to
charity, although we aren’t going to talk about that. We also started trying to
make a plan, where we would go and what we would do. It had become clear that
in order to avoid paying extortionate prices for the flight to Europe, we’d
have to leave, either before mid-Dec or after mid-Jan. So if we were going back
on the road we’d have to commit to at least 7 weeks in a fucking tent!
When Adam
and Sarah got home I finally got to do a bit of boxing and try out some of
Adam’s new boxing gear, including his new body protector, which made us look
like a pair of fucking pros!
 |
| A classic combo |
I had to
call the blog photographer down and she wasn’t that interested, and even turned
the live effect off on my go, so I only got motionless pictures. I’m not sure
whether that was a good or bad thing.
 |
| A+ for the look of concentration |
We then
tried out his punch monitor thing. All I can say is I want one, as it combined
punching and stats, two things that are high on my list of fun things to do.
After punching the bag as hard as we could, we called it a night. Adam threw
the hardest punch of the night, but I wasn’t far behind. Overall, I didn’t
think I’d last more than a few minutes, but I did OK and only had a bit of sick
come up in my mouth once…
By
lunchtime the next day I could barely lift my arms over my head, and anything
requiring quick movement hurt. We continued our preparation for the start of
the second leg of the trip; ever questioning whether this was really the
smartest thing to do. After Adam got home from work, I went with him to PCYC,
only as an observer as any movement was painful by this point. It was nice to
see a few of the old faces at training, and we all went for a few drinks after
they’d finished working out. Chatting to people, I realised that my account of
our holiday was starting to sound more positive. I chatted with Ric and
mentioned that we’d decided to carry on, and he seemed relived that we’d finally
ended our pity-party. Back at Adam’s, they again cooked dinner for us and Becky
again moaned that it was a little late in the evening for dinner. They must
love having us as guests!
The next
morning I got out of bed to say good-bye, from both Becky and I, as Becky was
still sleeping, before Adam and Sarah left for work. As with our first
departure, we didn’t leave the house until close to mid-day, and of course we
stopped at Ikea for meatballs and mashed potatoes. Let's hope this is where the similarities end.
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| Bright-eyed and bushy tailed |
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| Haggard and worn |
Laughed like a drain all the way through and all I can say is 'Becky you are a saint. How long is it? 18 years!!!!' LL M xx
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