Last year I decided that I needed a break from work not long after the Christmas, or as I like to call it The Shoppergeddon rush especially as I became unwell in the first week after New Years. Working retail in the middle of summer and with the lead up to Christmas is pretty hardcore. People want this or that food item and then there are always the shortages like this time it was the frozen Turkey that was gone within a week of Christmas. There is also the frozen chip and vege shortage due to the floods in other parts of the country. Potatoes cant swim when people ask why there is none. I seen the impact of the floods first hand within my area at the beginning of 2022 and that wasn’t what I want to experience again on the checkouts, but it will happen.
The journey is one that I decided would be pretty fun as I plan to catch the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Adelaide as I have never been to either location. I booked it far enough in advance that I knew I would get myself a cabin for when I wanted. Pretty good when this trip away is basically in the last couple of weeks around the end of school holidays. I even got in before anyone else had thought about putting in for holidays at work. I decided to stay a week either side of the train journey in Perth and Adelaide. Adelaide has the bonus being Australia Day, so that will be interesting to see the cultural events.
The train itself provides cabins of various rates like Gold and Platinum, food and drinks are inclusive. Three course dinners with two course lunch and a big breakfast. There are tours which include the super pit in Kalgoorlie a mining town in Western Australia. Also a sunrise breakfast along with later in the day a stop at the ghost town of Cook. Arrival in Adelaide is early in the morning and I am hoping well before the heat of the day. So far neither place is in a heatwave.
I have already planned to see some locations like Bon Scott’s memorial, Fremantle prison and the shipwreck museum especially when they contain artefacts from the Batavia a well known shipwreck from that side of the country. There is also a computer game museum in Perth, where you have to actually book a time to visit. Both Adelaide and Perth have cemeteries, so I will be historied out when I visit both, and maybe a little sunburnt. Adelaide does have a vessel named after it that is around the dock area, where there is also a train museum. I might not have enough time to see everything, but with different time zones then it might prove interesting. The flight from the Gold Coast to Perth is an all day affair with a stop in Melbourne. I get to my final destination late at night on the East Coast.
To the annoyance and amusement of my boss I have other trips planned like a week in Melbourne where I booked a ticket to see a band called Heilung, who I found fascinating pre pandemic and I wanted to see them as they are in Australia. I got to see another band, Sabaton recently at a music festival in Brisbane. The Melbourne trip includes the International Airshow, so I wanted to see it as its on in the same week as I never seen one. I will also be seeing Weird Al in the same month and to the amusement of my boss, which is where the amusement and annoyance comes into play at the same time, the Slipknot festival that includes Parkway Drive a local band if you call the Byron area local. I became interested in them after listening to Glitch on a bad day after work and their story on Australian Story that showed on ABC.
Now to figure out what I want to do for my 42nd birthday, since that will involve Vogan poetry and a towel. If I visit dolphins they might thank me for the fish. I am 42 and that is a Douglas Adams magic number. There is a challenge going around where you get the amount of books to do with your age. Though I have thought about a hot airballoon trip.
Bradseyeview 