Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

Australian Journey X

Let´s go back to 1995... We were close(r) to the end of one wonderful journey, arriving in Hervey Bay.

Did I ever mention that back-then 5-star-tidy-town Albany has icy-cold (free) public showers?

(Albany near the public showers at the sea:)


Well, forget about that. Hervey Bay tops it all. The starting point to Fraser Island.
There were two Teenage Girls in the little building by the beach, putting on their inliners. They whisperd, "hey... she´s not going to take a shower now??? Must be freeeezing cold!", followed by some rather mean giggles.
And, sure as anything, they stayed.

Was so darn cold, I couldn´t oppress some EEEKs. My fingers, again, turned yellow and numb from the cold - long hair can be a pain at times!

Well, but back to Fraser Island... our Holden Commodore Station Wagon surely wasn´t suitable for that island. We left our fellow home near the Bay, bought tickets and set over with the ferry.

And went along as Hitch Hikers!
Which didn´t work too well. So, after the first ride we waited forever cause everyone was just packed, we decided to take the shorter route where cars cannot go.


This... um... plant ... parasite? reminded me of long missed iceberg-salad btw.

I had broken my arm just a year earlier and the wounds from that rather complicated operation also at my shoulder were still fresh. Plus, we were using no good backpacks but those duffel bags you get at the German "Bundeswehr". I had some 11-12 kg.
Fraser Island. Sandy paths and thick vegetation beneath.

And there it lay. All over the way, a yellow snake. An arm-thick snake, wounded.
Ingo took a stick to see if it´s still alive, which was the case.

He repeated this until the snake was tired, ran and jumped!

By golly! I was that frightened I thought, oh, great. Now it knows what happens when I jump and bite me!
Took all my courage to jump anyways and certainly nothing happend.

Seldom I had more adrenaline helping to being that sportive.

Enough for now, more on that island is to follow...

Not funny: I lost my little Taggy-Frog from my cellphone.

Luckily they still have him at Pigmento.de!

Always love to get a parcel from them/her - she always writes "have fun" on the parcel and paints a little flower, too:


Yep, a pic with the focus on Ingo would be nice, too, huh? (where are my manners?!)


This dude, btw, will have his last day at work tomorrow - and that´s it, then!
Bye-bye!

Bye-bye to modern slavery, that is, hello real job!
(same place, same job, more money and: (a bit more) safety, yay!)


The girl from Pigmento.de also always adds some give-away, this time it was:


Guess?


Mini-matches!
So, if you need a mini-bbq lighted or such, call me! :-)

Isn´t that too cute?
And just for the records... I ordered two frogs, just in case. And two very, very cute luggage tags. There will be a time little Niece will go on vacation by herself, no? Yes. I know. I´m waaaay ahead in planning.

With many a bad thing a fun thing comes back, no? Love the matches, late Froggy, wherever you are (I know he cannot read this).

Yep, mine has style, it even wears an apron:


Isn´t it too cute? From behind:


And with her guy:


I´m lovin' it! :-)

Finally! The good side of life comes back, here are some pics from our Sunday afternoon walk :-)


I´m having the day off (and all I did so far was doing the washing up, cleaning the kitchen and editing pics, duh!)


We even saw such a Gumball machine, eek, can you believe that? As a kid I really did use those. Eww....


... and I´m still around ;-)

House in the neighbourhood:


"Ein deutsches Haus in deutshenland", huh?!



Winter is gone, finally! :-) Life is back!

Australian Journey IX

As mentioned in the last part of the "series", I have yet another memory with Sun Pictures involved... And again those chairs:


Dang, if digital cameras were available back then I wouldn´t have to bore you with the same pic over and over again!

These chairs, they really gave me a back!

As we drove on my kidneys started hurting! Like real bad. Actually I had had enough to drink, so what could be the problem?
Some 1000 km further to the north we looked for the hospital, in Wyndham.


The Lonely Planet suggested that just for seeing a doc you pay at least 35 $, oh, great!

I saw the doc. The nurse tested my urine. I already saw the dollars run like crazy!

The doc asked how we traveled. Since when and from where. Ah, you guys are from Germany? Oh, have you seen this? And make sure you don´t miss out on that!!!!, he told me whilst he twisted and wringed my back and made the pain go away!


He then had a look at the test, announced my kidneys are in perfect health and that I should buy a pillow to sit on, so my back is straight when driving over bumpy roads. Very likely those seats in Sun Pictures gave me the rest - and led me to that nice man!

I thanked him and asked how much it is.
What?
How much money?


Money? Aw, none. I didn´t do anything, did I? Have a great journey!, he said.

Boy-oh-boy, no?!
Having travelers from overseas might be a nice change :-)
For both sides in this case!

That way, small as Wynham is, it always has a place in my heart. The doc is for free and you get heaps of tipps where to go!

Polar bear Knut has died.
Rather strange: People lay down flowers and light candles for him.
They cry!
What do you think is that normal? After all he was a wild animal...

But a cute one: Knut: A Retrospective

Australian Journey VIII


As mentioned in the last part of the "series" I have another memory about Sun Pictures, this time from 1995...

We started the journey in Sydney back then, in an old Holden Commodore with really worn-out, wobbly seats. You get used to that, though.
We didn´t go straight to Broome, but visited Coober Pedy, had a look at the Wolfe Creek Crater (and made longer stays in Perth and Carnarvon).

Then we found Sun Pictures in Broome (where we stayed quite a while, too). We found it near to the time we had to leave (flight back was booked in advance, due to me returning back to studying).
We streched out in those fantastic seats in the cinema and enjoyed a movie I actually didn´t like - cause I thought that sky was just a fake that hurt my eyes!




Yes, the scene that annoyed me most was when Forrest Gump came out on the verandah and looked in that superclear sky with all those stars.

Yep! Guess what?! There we sat.
In rather remote Broome, in that open-air cinema. And Forrest´s movie-sky just slipped into the night sky of WA - for real!!!

This is one great memory.
But not the one I was about to mention. I´ll come to that later :-)

And advise anybody to just do it when you somehow can afford it.
You lost your job?
See the good side - go on a journey before looking for the next one - if you have a bit of money and a car.
And are not afraid of living the simple life.

Especially in Australia, and there especially in the more remote areas you can travel safely. You can sleep in your car anywhere.
You get free showers - even inlands! And there you can be lucky and they´re even warm!
Get an Esky and buy at Coles or Woolworths. Cook yourself (and allow a Pizza from Pizza Hut from time to time).

It did cost next to nothing - my parents looked at me with wide eyes when I gave them back so much money and said, nope, didn´t need it!

And the memories fill my heart forever.

The best thing Ingo ever made me do (by not telling me of all the yucky insects)!

If only life was that good always...

So. Tonight I´ll see the supermoon.
Apparently the last time it was on January 19, 1992, on my birthday. And I never knew.
Actually I´m dumb like that: I didn´t know anything about a supermoon until Ingo mentioned yesterday? Today?

Sadly this will not be a romantic event for me. I´ll have a look, alone. Sadly, frustrations are high here.
I´ll watch Gilmore Girls at the PC. I´m deeply in love with Luke, ya know? ;-)
And have a look at the supermoon here and there. That´s life.

Addendum: Forget about it. It´s super-cloudy.
Yesterday night was clear. Isn´t that just typical?!

But maybe this occurs more often? The wooorld wide web has so many people giving in their opinions and knowledge (which may be "knowledge").

LA here (gotta scroll down) suggests we had a supermoon on these dates, which is rather frequent:

# November 10, 1954
# November 20, 1972
# January 8, 1974
# February 26, 1975
# December 2, 1990
# January 19, 1992
# March 8, 1993
# January 10, 2005
# December 12, 2008
# January 30, 2010
# March 19, 2011

I´m too disappointed of it all to check further, though....

To my real shame I have to admit, this:


is my parent´s house - well, now Bro´s house.
Yes. This is a little observatory. My Dad was very interested in the stuff. Alas, obviously I wasn´t. And I can´t call him to ask which is true... Cancer, I hate you to pieces.

From inside - see, Dad was serious:


One of the very rare pics of us together. Guess I can count em on one hand :-(


Was Easter some time like 1976?

Carnival:


Yep, a cigar. I think I blow rather, here, though?

...
just why do you say heartburn for Gastroesophageal reflux disease? My heart burns like hell but my throat is all fine.
I just don´t understand. How frustration, forgiveness or the lack of it works.
Dang. Dear Moon.

Addendum II: I think no one reads this anyways, so I feel free to just put this on here to make it leave my hurt heart.
Things are a little tough here atm.
Health-wise on my side (not only the eyes) and work-wise on his side, which also became health-wise, hence.
I was awake early but could need a sleep in, too, and put the alarm to later. And later.
Was still too early? He was grumpy. I asked for a kiss (hurts enough) and he refused, saying "whan all ELSE is done". Yep. Me last in row. Hurt.
Needed to get his car from the garage.
Said, you drive (my car).
No.
Since the car-accident I hate... HATE driving with people on board. I hate driving alone. But I´m afraid to drive with having the responsibility for another person in my car (just refused to take a colleague to the company-meeting since there was another choice).
He said, "I don´t feel like it."
Hurt, again.
Knew I had no choice. And foloowed outside. Went on the driver´s seat.

Hurt, hurt, hurt. I was frustrated!!!!

And I SLAMMED the door real hard.

Like... ya know?! I hurt the door/car, not a person!

He got out, telling me he can do it all alone.

More hurt.
Drove to him, asking him to just get in. Three times. Got outta the car, said I´m sorry (just why???) and he pushed me away HARD.
I let go.

Went home/to the gym.
Came back, TV in kitchen was running, he wasn´t there but had brought me food from the bakery. (hope all is getting to be good? Such a springy-day!)
Ate. Went over to ask if he wants my parking lot (he´s got the winter-tyres in his and I stood IN FRONT DA DOOR!).
GET OUT!!!, he told me.

I was getting buttermilk from the fridge when he came to the kitchen telling me (talking to me!!!!) there had been mould in the freezer we used as storage.
MY CHANCE, huh? I was supposed to say:

"WHAT?! Oh, good thing you saw and got rid of this, so what do we do with that freezer, rip it out?"

But I was so hurt, I went past him, saying nothing.
He made dinner for himself,as did I.
Cried a lot since.

You cannot talk to your partner? Sad.
OH! Yep! Before running to the gym I wrote him a letter bout my feelings/pov. He took it but never lost a word about it. (More hurt)

He´s allowed to use me for his frustration. And I´m supposed to eat mine up and be the sunshine in itself?
Here I sit, in self-pity, cryin´ and being confused.

I´d SO LOVE to sit down in the kitchen, talking this through.
maybe I did hurt him by SLAMMING that door - just why, how? It´s just a thing that had to endure my deep frustration!
Not a human being (me!), he choose!

Is it all my fault? Forget this. No one reads through here, anyways, is just my diary. Will someday maybe understand what - WHY... aw, well.
Weekends... weekend lost.
I will never be small for peace.
That´s what ... gack. not me.
Typing on tears on the keybord.

The hype lies in detail - I finally got the lamp from my parent´bedroom:


I soooo love it, isn´t it just adorable?:


No idea why, I don´t get sick of 70´s style... Certainly our old family-phone and Ingo´s 70´s "tin" have again a major place in the living room:


Happy days waaay back then - and after some not so nice years very happy again. Maybe that´s why I´m still not tired of it all :-)

And Ingo at least doesn´t say no to it all!

Yep. Me for a change. As long as I don´t look in the cam, pics can be ok :-)

So, yesterday we went out again.

With exclusive dinner Junk Food from the big M, aw, well :-)


I liked this pic - Ingo prefered this one:


Seven-headed-caterpillar comes to mind, no? ;-)

Anyhows... school starts soon and, heck, don´t ask me...


Why do you "go cool to school" in Germany?!
(Why I do blog in English I explained over here)

Pic galore, here we go, isn´t this kiddo-bike too cute? Must be older, the Police goes back to Blue, Green is old...


You wanna see my town´s heart? Go look up at Henry (I did this for you):



This is the Castle Dankwarderode:


A second hand book-shop for old books:


And isn´t this door-knop too cute?


Why is this woman so in despair???


Anyhows. Here we go - the Dome:


YES - we got in:


There was a Teenage-Boy. And apart from that we were the youngest, I guess.
Hello... there was no 60 seconds without anybody coughing. Hello?!!! There are artists performing, show some respect, guys!!!!

Oh, btw, artists...

They really did also perform their version of The Sounds Of Silence:



Simon and Garfunkel, BOTH of them, Ingo :-)

We got good seats... and then guys who ordered them in advance made us leave.
I was angry.
Just for a minute, though - we got seats right behind Henry and his wife, Mathilda:


Pics all taken with my small cam, no flash (very good results for that, no?!)

Henry holds the Dome in his hands here:


Heinrich:


His Wife Mathilde:


Here´s another short one - see that "monk" to the left? He seems to be the conductor:



Was great, really. Amazing. Worth the money.

Pic from today... just come over here, you´ll never end up thirsty:


Some bloke was turning 30 and they were partying. No one took care of these drinks - and no one took anything - but a pic (obv me).
Love this town :-) For a reason, no?

Eyes: Deep-red since lunch-time. Doc gave me another receipe. Can take meds tomorrow (weren´t available) - heck. She even knows my name by heart already :-(