Return of the Wandering Pom

[Sids Dad]

Well where do I start? I thought of following on from my posts as the Wandering Pom but then I thought maybe the recent couple of years from validating our visas to where we are at now would be more appropriate so here goes.

I still think it’s a cheek to ask immigrants to make an entry within a short few months from the date they had their medicals but Hey Ho we got it and away we went to sunny Byron Bay where the prodigal son has put down his roots. This was in January 08 which we decided was going to be a fact finding mission and a month should do it.

Well if anybody had told me that it would be one of the wettest months in living memory I would have stayed in Newcastle!! Rain like you have never seen ( Nearly every day! Floods everywhere). OK we had to get on with it and I hired a Wrangler jeep to get us out and about, pity I didn’t know that they will pass anything but a petrol station! It cost me nearly $80 every three days in petrol! Anyway onwards and upwards, we stayed with our son and his girlfriend for a couple of weeks in Federal which is a short drive from Byron, Bangalow etc. It was right in the bush/rain forest and wonderfully alive with birds and wild life.

Ermm I did use the words wonderful and alive! Well for two old Geordies whom seeing a cabbage butterfly in the garden was a five minute discussion we were in a state of shock!! We had a resident Huntsman spider the ( I kid you not) size of my outstretched hand living in the corner of the ceiling in our bedroom!! It came to a head when my wife was in the toilet while I was downstairs chatting away, suddenly there was this ear splitting shriek from which seem to come from an alien! We galloped upstairs to see that our friend the Huntsman was eyeball to eyeball with the contorted face of what looked like Marty Feldman!! Of course our sons girlfriend put me right on the spot by declaring “ Come on Al, you will have to deal with this sooner or later, I’ll get a Tupperware for you” and off she went returning with a bowl that being in engineering looked as if it was measured exactly to the diameter of Harry the Huntsman. I then realised that these things can move.....and I mean move....fast.... well faster than me as I held the bowl in a sort of girl holding a cricket ball stance and as I lunged at Harry while all and sundry were yelling and screaming, I got him! Well most of him as he rattled around in the bowl, three of his legs were on the outside of the bowl!! Of course it wasn’t helped by the son’s comments, “he’ll be after you now wait until tonight when he finds his way back in”!!

So as the trip went on we did manage and get used to Koalas making all these horrendous rutting noises in the middle of the night and Possums scratching about on the roof outside. So we scored off the “Living in the Rainforest would be nice”

Next we looked at maybe buying a bit of land so off we went and looked at a beautiful plot at a place called McLean’s Ridges which again is about 20-30 minutes drive to Byron Bay, maybe less to a place called Lennox Heads. We looked and looked and looked, went to pub, came back and looked again. We talked to two friends of ours who had built nearby, they had built this fantastic Queenslander style home and we quizzed them as to cost time and what problems they had. Bottom line for us is that you need lots of energy to navigate your way through all the ins and outs of doing this and on reflection we would have done it if we were at least 20 years younger.

Onwards and upwards, we spent many an hour perusing the estate Agents in and around the Byron shire Area and were struck on the “Pavillion” style home and we saw one in Bangalow. We made and appointment to inspect it and once again we talked ourselves out of plunging in. For anybody who is unaware what this design looks like I would suggest a quick Google of it. Basically it’s very open plan with soaring ceilings, very modern and with an almost Asian feel to it. The place itself was in a great spot and it came with a pool and a creek running at the bottom of the garden. What put us off was the lack of privacy it had to the interior, it even had a steep stairs (Almost ladders) up into the very small roof space where there was a small bedroom and office/PC room. This was incredibly hot and even when speaking quite quietly you could be heard from the open plan lounge etc.

We then decided to give our son and girlfriend some space (Well you need a bit if you’re going to wield an axe)!! We rented a nice town house just up from Byron Bay at Brunswick Heads. Now depending what you want, this place seemed to tick all the boxes. It was modern, quite new, had a great outside eating area and was a short walk to the small town and also across a bridge to the small family beach on one side and the 7 kilometre long beach stretching back along to Byron Bay. Brunswick also boasts a really nice Pub, great atmosphere and great food served either inside or in the large outdoor area underneath a host of beautiful canopy trees. This is a real idyllic setting which is only disturbed when the schoolies are off and the place gets crowded with a host of kids who have just left school and are hell bent on being the centre of attention.

We returned after our month long sortie having grown webbed feet and sporting a sort of rusty suntan! I was destined for a job in Egypt ( Offshore ) where I was lucky to be able to commute between Oz and Cairo for eight months which will be part of my next posting.

[Dawny]

Hi Sids Dad!

Looking forward to your next chapter!

Excellent post!! :jiggy:

[Guest stockies]

Great Post Sids Dad...........

Look forward to the next installment.

Byron Bay is a gorgeous area, had a few days down there in the summer.

Claire. xx

[Sids Dad]

Thanks, but this was proberbly my most boring post, look up sids dad on the search and you will get 4 installments of the wondering Pom!!

[Sids Dad]

Thanks, but this was proberbly my most boring post, look up sids dad on the search and you will get 4 installments of the wondering Pom!!

 

So after a brief spell working in Aberdeen I was assigned to Egypt but ran into trouble almost immediately as I had already organised that I would commute to Australia from my previous job in Algeria. Of course I was never very informative ( So HR said) so I was in the black books before I even started! After much huffing and puffing the firm I work for eventually agreed to allow me to commute and that they would pay for my fare between Cairo and Brisbane albeit that it would be cattle class. A victory so it seemed although putting this into practice was harder than I thought. My itinerary was thus; travel from site ( 4 hours by car driven by a total maniac) to Cairo, stay overnight and then travel to Abu Dhabi the next afternoon, stay overnight and then on to Singapore/Brisbane on the 10am flight, arriving in Brisbane at 08.45am on Saturday morning!!! Now I ask you this was three weeks on and three weeks off so I never really got out of the jetlag mode. Eventually though they saw the light and what they saved on hotels they managed to get me a same day night flight from Cairo-Singapore Brisbane arriving on the Friday’s.

This was the time of the famous incident that I’m sure I told a few of you before but is worth rattling out again as trust me you can dine out on this tale;

We were working at the Oil Terminal preparing the scope of work for the offshore side of things and were unofficially allowed out to play once a trip to a place on the Red Sea called El Gouna. It was about an hour and a half away by mini bus and away we went one Saturday to be booked in overnight so that we may watch the football on the telly and turn into gibbering drunks from about 2.30pm until 1am. Believe me one can dispose of quite a lot of beer and spirits in that time. Anyway all was going great until about midnight when my mate ( We will just call him Stevie) was totally incoherent but as normal would just not give in and we went on again to a pub called the smugglers to hit the shorts. Game over, we all staggered back to our hotel and flopped into bed knowing that we have to be up and ready to go at 06.45am. Well you can imagine it was not a pretty sight as we dragged ourselves into the hotel breakfast area and sipped coffee and maybe a slice of toast.

We boarded the bus and off we went with me at a window and Stevie who looks shocking next to me. “You alright mate” I ask? Just a grunt from Steve, “: Not gonna be sick on me are you? Grunt... we are about 20 minutes into our run which is the main highway through a barren landscape to Cairo when Stevie taps the driver on the shoulder, “stop the van mate” oh good I murmur this is going to be interesting.

Poor Stevie staggers out and slithers down a slight embankment to the desert floor with expectant eyes following to witness what should be a pretty spectacular Technicolor yawn but he just stood there swaying a bit. Just then, arms outstretched he fell straight back onto the rubbled slope. I lept out of the bus and was at his side in seconds......”Stevie”... Stevie I shouted but Stevie was glassy eyed, not moving and staring straight ahead!! “Stevie” I screamed slapping his face as hard as I could....... nothing, by this time the rest of the group were tumbling out of the van with me looking up at them......I think he’s dead I say.. Silence as they all look as shocked as me. Just then a big gasp from Stevie who blinks his eyes and declares “I think I’ve been asleep” !! Asleep? Asleep you useless Ba....d! You gave me the fright of my life I cursed as I got back on the bus. I sat there gathering my thoughts as some of the guys hauled Stevie back to his feet. I look out and OMG Stevie’s bowels have kicked in with the rest of his system and he has well and truly crapped himself! The sight of him standing just off the main highway as wagons thundered by, wiping himself down with his shorts, wedding tackle dangling below his T shirt was not I may add a pretty sight.

Luckily he had a spare pair of shorts in his bag and once prepared we stuck him in the front and opened the windows!! It was at this point that I had the laughs to end all laughs. We were all sitting pretty sombre, contemplating what would have happened if Stevie had indeed croaked, visions of holding him up in his seat waving his pass to a guard at the Terminal gate as we smuggled him back in to be able to find him dead in bed!!

Anyway we are sitting there quiet when one of the lads piped up......Alan... do you think he crapped himself when you told him he was dead!!!!!! I remember us laughing for a solid hour and laughing again every day for the next week.

I received e-mails on correct CPR, Dr Alan jokes etc for weeks. As for poor Stevie well he had the rest of the day off and when asked if he would tell his wife back in Newcastle he replied.. well I might as well as everyone on the Pork shop will know by now!!

Well that’s it, not much there on Oz yet but having spent a few hours banging away in the firms time I better get going as it’s Friday night and I have all of Melbourne’s delights to look forward to ( Yes folks Melbourne but that’s another story.

:biggrin:

[Guest guest30085]

What a wonderful post! Keep them coming

 

You should write a book :yes: