Man's best Friend (14 − 17 August)
Trip Start
Apr 17, 2011
1
49
87
Trip End
May 10, 2012
Darling Downs, Western Australia, Australia
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
So here I am finally got to Perth after one of the best plane journeys ever, with very quick security clearances, getting the bags quickly and even divvying up the taxi ride to the city was a bonus not to mention that I had one of the best sleeps after a night out that same morning.
I had a text from my new Perth family saying that they could pick me up early instead of spending a day with my bags in town which I took the offer as I look like a pillock with the bags I do have. Having got to Perth station and after giving up with the EFTPOS machine to get my train ticket I found my platform and was on my way to Armadale station where I was being picked up. This was good as it was the last station on the line so no need to worry about where to get off.
I was straight off to a basketball game to watch the children play basketball which brought flashbacks of my high school days and playing for Harrow even more so as the children play at state level for their suburbs as I did. It was quite funny to watch the pushy mum's barking orders at their kids and I was very surprised at their knowledge of the game...it was very clear this was a very big thing for them.
Having been introduced to several people at the courts, I had to say I was quite happy when it was home time despite watching some very good games and there I was greeted by who was to become my two new best mates - Sheba and Bella. Sheba is queen of the house so took a couple of days to win her over but Bella straight away was my bestie.
Now, I have to say animals are ok but usually at a distance. I have issues when they touch me but in this case and living on a farm I knew I was going to have to pretend I like animals at least a little bit.
We had a lovely roast dinner which was quite a change from the Thai/Chinese I became used to in Sydney but as it hit 9pm and I was still running on a time zone 2 hours ahead with only plane sleep...needless to say I was tired and therefore after making polite conversation headed off to bed.
My life as a farmer pretty much kicked in straight away as I was shown how to maintain the horses stables on a daily basis and collecting eggs from the chickens and ducks. Now initally I had no bloody clue on how to actually get the eggs from the chickens - for me it was a bloody good day when they were just there to take but otherwise a poking stick and shuffling the trays they were laying on were a good way to get them to shift their butts.
I also told the farmers that this will be a good time for me to catch up on books I have been meaning to read (mainly Shantaram as its been nearly a year since I started it) however the farmer lady gave me a book from a book club she used to go to called Tara Road by Maeve Binchy and I have to say it was quite a good read in the end.
In this first week one of the boys was with me as he'd been sick and took the whole week off school where he took full advantage of smashing my high scores on games on my phone and beat me at table tennis many a number of times...more than I care to think off.
