Day 14






Main - Back		Day 14 Leaving day ------------------------------------------------------ 9:45am Its leaving day.... always a depressing day.... we are all packed... and we will check out and make our way to the airport to start the long journey home. Its gonna be another hot weekend here in Adelaide... another 40'c is on the cards.... and to top it all... I'm back on a plane come Monday morning and flying upto Glasgow: Glasgow weather: Adelaide weather: ------------------------------------------------------ 2:00pm I get the window seat again as our Airbus A330-300 speeds its way across the vast island that is Australia. The blog has my full and undivided attention... that is till the meals come along. We took off bang on time... the flight.. pretty empty with most of the middle 4 seats vacant. We flew out over Glenelg, and as we pitched left then right I could look back and see the beach we were sat on not 24hrs ago. There was time at the airport to speak to Steve one last time. He is staying in the hotel we called 'home' during our stay, on friday. I think he knows what to expect from Hindley st. It produced its starkest bunch of weirdo's this morning. Before checking out we wandered up to Gloria Jeans, a coffee house near the top of Hindley St, to get some breakfast... we only wanted some raisen toast and some tea. On exiting the hotel we were dealt the two things most apparent about Adelaide; number 1 was the heat. It was already pushing to be a stinky hot uncomfortable day. Number 2; clubs and bars had obviously called 'kicking out' time, and the drunken filth from one of the bars across the road had obviously caused a slanging match between a bunch of weirdo's and an Abbo, both fireing expleatives at each other at high volume. We shuffled un-noticed up the street and slipped into the coffee house. Good luck Stevo... make sure you pack your stab vest! Quite a few of you will be wandering what happens now. Well... not much has changed. We are still waiting for our visa to come through then we will see what 'eventuates'. In all honesty... I do like South Australia. I'm sure if I lived in London I'd meet just as many weirdo's. There are several questions as well we need to ask about our visa. These will be directed at our Agent, who has been extremely helpful throughout the process. Then we will be looking at employment. Its a small thing really.... we do need jobs! But we won't approach that till we have the piece of paper in our hands that says... you can work in Australia, as we can't apply for anything till we have it. So collectively we have not made up our minds at all.... although, I think if we had the visa and had travelled over I'm not sure I would be coming back in a hurry. I sat in the departure lounge just before boarding and didn't really want to go. The trip has been a big step forward in the process of making a decision on a new life down under. We've spoken to lots of people... real people, and got an idea of what kind of lives they lead. For instance... we got talking to Ryan... a friendly barman at the hotel. He is actually Studying hospitality, i.e. to be a barman. He works at the hotel as part of his course to learn the trade. He makes a good G&T and vodka and coke... making either long or short. The fact that he travels over 90mins to the hotel to work the bar... which sometimes will not close till 5am is testiment to the commitment the Aussies have to hospitality. Working a bar in OZ is a skill... a trade. When I explained that spotty teenagers who can't even add up are given jobs on the bar with little or no experience they were all shocked. The english girl who worked behind the bar said it took her ages to get a job citing that when even going for a cleaning job they asked for references and relevant experience.... This is possibly the next big obstacle for us.... employment! There are jobs there... but its just getting them.... Anyway, our flight route today....we head north, over port lincoln and start to head towards the Northern Territory and north West Australia. Over Bali and into singapore... where this will probably be uploaded to the interweb. We are flying over more barren land... its a different landscape from before. The landscape has a deeper burnt complexion with only rivers and roads etching and winding their way through the land. Small dry waterbeds branch out like weins from the larger water arteries. Life would be hot and hard down on the surface. ------------------------------------------------------ 18:30 Well, we landed at Singapore. We have spurned the chance, for now, to go spend some time in the shops, and instead we made a beeline for the Spa and Lounge on the 3rd floor of the arrivals hall. The first 6.5hrs of flight have not been bad. We both managed to stay awake, which is good... with the idea to spend as much of the second and longer flight in the land of nod... so we are fresh when our taxi picks us up to take us back home. Lee is getting her nails done at the spa... and I am going to get the knots massaged out of my back by a small thai lady (or boy... I can never tell them apart). The lounge is pretty quiet. Its playing movies in one corner, and there is free soft drinks and finger foods. Also there is a mash potato machine.. which I will try out as I am very curious. It looks just like a tea/coffee/hot chocolate machine you would find in any canteen in the UK. 19:00 Curiosity killed the cat.... well... made it very ill... I had to try the mash machine out, and here it is: Instructions were simple... place a bowl under the nozzle and press the button for some mash: Some runny milky substance streams out of the nozzle... it doesn't look appetising at all.... Then it dumps a load of gravy on the top... coz we know northern boys love gravy hmmmmmm yum!