Friends are Optional Because People Suck

My second to last Saturday in Oz was a mixed bag of a shit load of traveling, last minute planning and dealing with hillbillies at the internet café in Gosford. I had plans all set out but those were dashed when Richard decided to fuck off and leave me in a lurch. So I had to quickly revaluate the day and decided that just because he wanted to be a wanker didn’t mean that I couldn’t go do what we planned on my own.

My first stop was at the internet café here in Gosford. Now, there are two that I have seen since we moved here. The first one that I went to on Friday night was so dodgy and the computers were mega slow and they charged double what anyone else does. So I thought the one by the train station would be better. Wrong! I should have guessed that it would be slightly awful when I called to find out their hours of operation and the woman said, “We are open 24 hours on Fridays and we open at 10am on Saturdays.” Reread that quote and see if YOU can make sense of that. Anyways my intention of Saturday morning was to upload my blog and pictures to the web as well as Skype with Andrea. The only thing I was successfully able to do at this particular internet café was Skype with Andrea. That was great but it still left the dilemma of the pictures and blog to upload. I was pissed that I couldn’t do this because the place was run by a bunch of red necked hillbillies and I am pretty sure the only reason they had the stupid café was so their friends and derelict family members could play WOW with each other. So after a great Skype date with Andrea I headed out on the train, making my way to the city.

I decided to make a quick stop in Hornsby to the very large shopping centre that I had taken the kids to the other day. I had a quick look around and couldn’t find what I was looking for and was going to head out to the city; however I noticed an internet café right before the train station. I popped in there to upload all my photos and blog and stuff. I thought I could do it in 30mins but ended up spending an hour there uploading and junk. This slightly set me back a bit because I was meeting Shane in the late afternoon to hang out, and I still wanted to go into the city. After uploading both my picture and my blog I hurried out of the café and hopped on a train. Well I just sat down on the train and I reached in my pocket. It was at that moment that I had left the key to my life at the internet café. I forgot my USB in the computer at the café!! Can you imagine what my reaction was? I mean anyone that knows me knows how much pictures mean to me, so knowing that almost all the pictures I have taken in Oz are on that stick sitting in the back of that computer was almost enough to send me into cardiac arrest. I flew off the train and ran as fast as I could, up the stairs and to the gates where I frantically shouted something at the commissionaire attending the disabled gate, which caused him to open it for me. I ran down the ramp and to the internet café. I barged in like I was running from the po-lice and scared the shit out the ol feller that had since been assigned the computer I was using. Thank ah-la that it was still there, so I snatched it out of the computer and ran just as fast back toward that train. I reached the locked gate again, and unwilling to buy two tickets to the city I simply snuck through the disabled gate behind, quite possibly the fattest women I have ever seen in real life. Would you believe that I made it back to the train that I was originally sitting on when I realized my err?

After being thrown into mild cardiac arrest then sprinting, like an Olympian going for gold, to and from the train station I sat back and let my transit narcolepsy kick in as I headed into the city. Originally Richard and I were going to meet in the city, walk to The Rocks (an old historic and lovely part of Sydney), and then use the passes Charli and I got at the bridge climb to go to the top of one of the bridge pylons. We had arranged this because Richard is moving up North to do farm work on Wednesday and I am moving home the following Wednesday. Anyhow, after plans being set out, Richard gave me ½ an hour’s notice that he got too drunk the night before and wasn’t coming. I was better off without him and after my stop in Hornsby I got the train into the CBD and was going to go to the pylon myself. On the train I turned on my radio on my mp3 player, and it was all a buzz with the arrival of Jessica Watson to Sydney Harbour. I don’t know if you guys heard about her in Canada but she is the 16 yr old Aussie girl who sailed around the world on her own. This day was her home coming after her 7 month journey. I was lucky to miss the majority of the crowds but when my train went across the bridge it was lined with people shoulder to shoulder. By the time I got to the bridge after working my way through the markets the crowds were virtually nonexistent.

I went to the pylon to do the lookout for one reason. Originally I wasn’t going to use the pass they gave us because I had already been to the tippy top of the bridge, and it is not like the top of the pylon was going to offer a better view of the harbor. Then I remembered that you were allowed to take your camera up to the top of the pylon, where was you are not allowed to take it to the top of the bridge, and I came home an amputee after paying for the photos they took. I figured the 200 stairs to the top of the pylon would be worth the shot of the Opera House I would get on this beautiful day. It was. I went and walked across the bridge to the pylon, and then climbed the 200 stairs to the top. The view of the Opera House was pretty good (obviously not the same as from the top of the bridge, but still nice) and I took a bunch of pictures. I didn’t stay very long because I had to meet Shane and my venture to the top of the pylon was utilitarian, I was there to take pictures. So after a few snaps I walked back across the bridge and had to catch the train to meet Shane in a place called Lidcome.

Lidcome wouldn’t normally be that far of a train ride from Circular Quay, but not on this day. This day they were doing tons and tons of track works on the train tracks. When they do this they replace the trains with buses that go to each station. So I had to get off the train at Strathfield, which is two stops before Lidcome on the train, and catch a track works bus. Track works buses are the bane of my friggin existence! A trip that would have taken a maximum of 10 minutes on the train took an eternity on this stupid bus. With trains there is no traffic or red lights, just track. Not the case with these stupid buses. I ended up sitting in bumper to bumper, curb to curb traffic for way to long behind a ghetto/hillbilly couple whom, if I were on the bus any longer, would have been coming off the bus in a double wide body bag. I don’t think that I need to tell you that when I finally met up with Shane, he may have wished he hadn’t made plans to hang out on the weekend. However after I had some me time and got some food into me I was in a much better mood. Shane and I just hung out at his house and called it an early night because we were going to the mountains the next day and doing an awesome bush walk.