Annie in Australia

After 2 nice days with Stu in Byron it was time to say good bye
God knows for how long, but I am sure we'll meet again!

So there I was in the shuttle bus to Nimbin where I had to survive 3 hours of waiting. And those of you who know Nimbin also know: There is nothing to do! But apparently I survived.

At 4pm I've been picked up by Sue, my new host. We went home straight away and I've been introduced to her husband John. They live in a beautiful wooden house, all thai style in a lush and green surrounding.

And there I was... in my new home... in the middle of the bush... with nothing around.My own little 2 bedroom cottage with bathroom, kitchen, washing machine, internet, DVD and TV. Nice. Stunning views over the mountains where the clouds were hanging on the tops, some wallabies outside feeding in the grass.... but no one to talk to.

I somehow managed to kinda enjoy the first 3 days, but after that I started to feel lonely.I was just so sure to go crazy and to never be able to stay here till end of February.Being bored the days went by.. slowly... sooo slowly.

Work was not hard and consisted mainly of loads of ironing and housekeeping.And housekeeping here is a little different from what it was in the hostel....

Sue and John, in their B&B, offer so called "Glamping". I had never heard of it before, but it basically is tent accommodation. Just that the tents are furbished, have a little bit of electricity and a proper bed. For those who like it more conventional they offer a pavillion as well, which is built in thai style. Which ever accommodation type you choose: you can be sure of have stunning views and to pay a lot of money for it. This is NOT a hostel. It is a getaway mostly use by couples to chill out from work and city.

To do the housekeeping I gotta drive a small tractor, cause you need to transport all the cleaning stuff and linen down to the tents and bring up all the used linen and the garbage. And I tell you, it is quite fun to ride that little truck

As I mentioned above work was not hard and it kept me busy... But then christmas came and with it the holiday break. Ment for me a few days off. By that time it had already been raining a lot, so really nothing to do for me. I ended up spending the Holy Night alone in my cottage, for this night is nothing to the Aussies as it is nothing to you my crazy british friends... Hey, how can you not celebrate the Holy Night? Have you ever realized that this is the day when Jesus was born?!! But fair enough... So I just watched TV and had a long facebook chat with one of my mates from Switzerland. The rest of christmas Sue and John did their best and invited me over for christmas lunch and dinner. They introduced me to their visiting sons and grandchildren. But still I was homesick. This was no christmas. And to mention it straight away... New Years Eve was not existing at all. I went to bed at 9.30pm and that was it.

As days didn't seem to pass and I felt like slowely loosing my mind, life brought a good thing along my way. It was french with amazing english (especially for a frenchie) and called Annabelle. She was the former Wwoofer of the place and was supposed to help me minding the business while Sue and John went on a short beach holiday for 5 days.

Annabelle and me spent 5 wonderful days together and straight away had a teamwork I had never experienced in my life. Together we got the truck out of the mud, made a nice homemade (haha) dessert for a lovely couple ("The coffee is $3,50 but th dessert comes complimetary!"), we hosted some stupid guests who -as Aussies- did not know what a billy was and looked like (holy shit!) and made up the bed in the villa in the middle of the night, cause some other guests had mice in their tent... The days with Annabelle were just flying by and I didn't like letting her go.

Then swiss Wwoofer Simon came along. A very quiet guy, but nice though. Out of the 10 days he spent with me it took him ages to open up and become more relaxed. But still he was a nice person to share with. One would hardly be aware he was there cause he was so quiet, but still you could have a chat with him every now and then. One day we went to Murwillumbah, another day John took us to a swimminghole. Overall a nice experince with Simon. By the time he left I already knew there would be a new Wwoofer coming in.

So now here I am sharing with Kiwi Joshua... who is the total opposite of Simon. You're ALWAYS aware he is here, but he is much more chatty and indeed interesting to talk to. Yet we are very different. Its the city girl meeting the naturalist * lol *

My time with Saad has been very limited meanwhile. He had been to Dubai to visit his family. After he had returned to Australia he indeed came down here spontanously and surprised me After 2 more weeks I could manage to get 3 days off and so went up to Bris to see him and also to enjoy some city life!

And now time has passed a little. Optimistically I should say it has passed a lot of time! It is basically coming into my last month. Thank god! Cause I slowly get tired of always looking over my shoulder fo cockroaches, rats and leeches. I wanna have shops around the corner and no longer want to have to walk 3 k one way to get a coffee and a slice of cake. As lovely as this place is, I will never be a country girl. And I don't even wanna be. I can't wait to be in th city again, yeah!!! I got such itchy feet mates... But there's not much time left