heisei 18 delayed!

there is a leap second tonight!

microbrew

oh, i went to the microbrewery pub and asked what they had that they brewed. "nothing" was the reply :-(

so I had a pint of Tooheys New, just like I do almost everywhere else when there is no VB to be found.

happy heisei 18

2h from now its new years in melbourne and 24h period of drunk SMS arrivals will start. i have no money left inside of my telephone so no one will get any from me unless I happen to find a 7-11.

happy heisei 18!!!

jizz

arrived in perth after 36h on the bus that seemed surprisingly short. various people to talk to and look at on the way (an australian whose never been outside of WA - not even as far as Adelaide; an Australian who had never been on Greyhound bus before).
Arriving in Perth I found a white viscuous fluid had become sprayed across my bag; given the previous fluid contact that my bag has received over the months, I was immediately inclined to imagine that some stowaway in the baggage compartment had unloaded his balls whilst having nothing else to do down there. However, a quick taste revealed it to be no more than someone's hair shampoo leaking out.
In the lobby of the hostel I found a European girl who I once ate kangaroo and camel with, many thousands of km away. Australia is so small for a country so big. I've been in the same hostel as some japanese dude for the past three hostels too - I won't be surprised if he turns up here in a few days.
I'm bang in the city centre, by the railway and bus stations and near to pubs! There's a microbrewery only a block or so away too! (hostel-finding radar also detects microbrews. there was a nice one (but expensive) in melbourne too).
Only one night to prepare for new years eve.

broome again

still in Broome. Yesterday did fuck all except sleep and drink a beer and not much else. Today was up at 0655 and out on the beach by 0720 walking round before it got too hot. There are a few bars down there - might head out for a beer if I feel like it later on. Tomorrow must get a bus at 0900 to head for perth. For breakfast today, poached eggs on toast with a lot of tabasco, from a cafe (I haven't eaten out for quite a few towns recently). I cannot find anywhere to attach my laptop, but there is an 'Internet Outpost' that has reasonable machines to use and does not need fiddly change. Pricey though. Oh well.
My train ticket has been issued for Perth->Adelaide so I now have tickets all the way from here to Sydney (where my flight to NZ will depart from - I still need to diddle the date on that - at the moment it is set for 01FEB2005)

tomorrow (29th) -> perth (takes 36h)
8th jan -> adelaide (takes a couple of nights)
12th jan -> melbourne (arrive morning of Friday 13th)
monday 16th 9am -> Sydney

Broome

25.5h on the bus (I thought only 24h, but there was a 1.5h timezone change too). There was some chinese chick who did not know where to go and was reading a chinese guidebook. we dumped here into the travel centre at Katherine (which I had been to last week on the way through on the train). Its still a public holiday here so everything seems to be closed, but thats OK because its a little bit too hot to go out anyway. My room has aircon, at least, but only at night time so its no good to retreat there in the peak of the day's heat - four of us just did that and then after a few hours emergered into the coolness of the day's heat. This place is $1 for 10 minutes of internet, and needs dollar coins so only $1 worth of net for me today. I managed to do some laundry before I'd run out of clothes! I am impressed with myself. On the bus, I ate some crackers with seaweed on, and chips at every roadhouse. mmm.

living on a bus

the christmas season brings plans of days and days on a bus - from Darwin where I am now to to get to Perth for New Years, I must spend 24h on a bus to get to Broome, then after a rest of a few days 36h on a bus from Broome to Perth.

After that I need to get across to Sydney - the nullarbour looks like another 2 or 3 day journey with nothing much of interest in between (apart from a big dead desert). frrr.

coin-op

spent several minutes trying to make the screen turn on on the computer here before I realised it was a japanese-style coin-op-turns-on-the-screen system. better make sure I log everything out before it times outs, otherwise any old monkey will be able to post to this blog.

Katherine

In Katerine, in the middle of the northern territories. Even when I'm travelling by train it seems I end up in the BP Roadhouse eating a plate of chips... the train is stopped here for 4h so I'm having a look round the town, but even at 8am Katherine is moist and hot so I will not last long.

Some lucky recipients will be getting postcards from around the world postmarked here (assuming the postoffice opens soon) (note to Laura: the reason you have not been getting my postcards is that they seem to have accumulated in my bag rather than going out with all the others...)

Should reach Darwin late this afternoon - hopefully there will be some hostels plying for trade at the railway station, else I'm fscked.

hangover

went to "the melanka party bar", apparently one of only two or three bars in alice springs, it seems, until 4am or so. before that, played drinking games with a couple of litres of vodka and 4l of coca-cola® which was a laugh despite my general dislike of drinking games.

Alice Springs

In alice springs. found a laptop cafe. This town is small - there do not seem to be any chain shops here apart from KFC - like St. George was but ~6 times bigger.

slept poorly on the train due to the presence of a sqwalking 3y-old in the row behind me all night. Tonight I have a dorm bed (there was a row of backpacker buses waiting outside the station to suck up all the detraining passengers).

Train journey was quite nice - reminded me more of The Coast Starlight from LA to San Francisco, rather than the transiberian/china/india/vietnam trains that I've taken.

Tomorrow to Ayer's Rock so only one night in this hostel here in Alice Springs this time (though when I come back in three days, I'll stay there again until I get the train to Darwin on Monday).

プリクラ

Finally found my printclub stickers that I'd had made of myself when I was in Tōkyō last time - every time I've wanted to dish them out, I've been unable to find (they're in a secret pocket in my rucksack that is so secret I keep forgetting it even exists). So dished out three (two to oriental chicks who though it was hilarious that I had them, as I was not a 15y old girl).

only two

only two girlies came to say goodbye to me at the bus stop :-(

I tried to lure a third along by giving her extremely-soft-core Japanese porn collector cards but it did not work :-(

adelaide

I'm in Adelaide having failed to miss the bus for a second time. Wandered around the empty sunday morning streets until I found a little section of road with a bunch of cafes all open for breakfast. I wandered into one, 'un caffe bar, exclusively illy' which sold me a long black and a cheese,tomato,ham croissant. There's slow,free,web-only internet access here and a place for me to charge my laptop. Later today I have a train booked to Alice Springs. Slept badly on the bus here (I usually end up reasonably well rested but not today) so maybe I'll find a park or something to have a lie-down in.

more stupid rules

According to the sign on my door, the Victorian "innkeepers' liability act" means that my hotel is not liable for damage to horses left in my hotel room.

missed the bus

missed the bus in melbourne due to drunken fuckery. decided to stay a few more days (though I have a train in Adelaide to catch on Sunday so I need to move before than - I've booked a bus overnight Saturday which leaves minimal chance of getting the train if I miss it again).

also that night had no where to sleep booked and could not be bothered to go hostel searching so I slept in the park - was warm and not raining and the grass was soft. that's only the second night so far that I've had no bed this year.

splash!

a disposable camera (that I remembered to get developed before I threw it away) gave me:

wireless

turns out this hostel in melbourne gives everyone staying here half an hour of free wireless access per day in their little bar downstairs. did not realise that until today though so three days worth wasted :-(