Rainy Island afternoon

Prepare for a long one. Written in a quiet solo 5 hour gap on Sarah Island, Sunday 12 Nov, waiting for an afternoon cruise...

I'm sittig out the back of the little hut we have here on Sarah's Island, reflecting on my last week. I'm feeling particularly lethargic today; I'm not sure why. I was half-thinking of exploring more of the back half o fthe island in the 5 hour gap I have between morning and afternoon tours; and maybe even finding the tunnel John's children were talking of (they enjoyed the camp-out here for the Discovery very much it seems!) but it's been drizzling non-stop all afternoon, so have elected to sit here and listen to the patter on the tin roofing, and catch up on some reading. I'm still battling through the "Sarah Island Conspiracies" - a good read, but complex! - and have yet to go up to Richard's and watch "The Strahan Kid". I aim to learn as much as I can about hte history of this place, as I do find it both fascinating and useful; but in practicality this job is a lot more draining than it would seem, and now that I've moved in to Nigel's and inherited a little TV, it's all too tempting to just sit in front of it and switch off in the evenings.

The second tour today was a particularly draining one - I had both Italians and non-english-speaking Lithuanians in my group, and several translators speaking under me, which made it hard for both me and them! Nevertheless, the group did seem to enjoy the tour as always, and the Italians do tend to be much more expressive of this - I got lots of handshakes out of it, and a very merry little gentleman who decided he would escort me to the boat, and seemed disappointed when I told him I was staying! One lady commented, "That was a lovely speech you made!" - although I do wonder from these comments how much of it they actaully retain and learn from, as we do give them a lot of information; but at least Richard encourages us to be entertaining with it, and it's certainly good training for me (a very 'seriou' actor and a shy girl who hated being laughed at!) to get the tourists laughing, and to have a joke or two with them... I'm getting decidedly better, I think, at incorporating or acknowledging visitors' comments, and still getting on with the story - although I have to continually work on being open to comments and participation, and balancing this with time management. I don't want to keep giving the same tour over and over; I do want to discover how to keep the quality consistent and still keep it fresh and lively...

I have also found a refreshed zeal for getting other things done while I'm here; assisted by my very exciting purchase of a guitar while Dav was visiting. I'ts just a beginner's guitar, but it is bright purple! And Dav has shown me how to tune it, and also 3 chords to practice. I think I picked them up quite quickly, but will plod more doggecly through the beginer's book I bought at the same time. I've always wanted to be able to play; and feel more of an affinity for the guitar than the piano, despite having relished in playing it during highschool years. In fact, when Dav was showing me chords, I remembered that I'd started learning guitar at the same time as my brother; but dad had to ask me to leave it for a while as I was picking it up quicker at first than he, and guitar was to be his instrument. Between then and now my only other encounter with guitar was to accidentally sit on Justin's Matin, left on the loungeroom couch - ouch! I'm hoping that getting back to a musical instrument will also get me back to practicing a little singing; as so much work seems to require some basic singing at the least.

But I am neglecting to describe the best bits of the last week; having Dav here with me!

He arrived, not a minute too soon (although many a minute waited for!) on Monday arvo; and I had him (mostly) to myself until Saturday morning. We had an almost perfect holiday week together; starting with a whirlwind tour of the town and then dinner at the Mac Inn (something you don't do often as a local here, as it's genearlly tourist province; but the food was nice, the view was lovely, and the company was, of course, D-divine!). I even adventurously tried oysters, scallops, prawns and calamari for the first time; although I couldn't bring myself to try the baby octopus that Dav delighted in eating whole. Being new to the whole fish thing, I can't quite face something that looks like it could still swim away, if it hadn't been boiled alive that is... yes, still new to piscatarianism - but the fish is lovely here,and (I tell myself) good for me as well. Haveing turned vego for largely health and animal rights reasons, I've never been terribly militant, and have always said that I'd eat meat again if I needed to. I have to admit that I'm enjoying trout every now and then (especially in the delicious way that Dav cooks it!). Can't say I'll eat calamari rings every chance I get; but it was worth a try and I try to keep an open mind to trying most things at least once! Of course, the most evil thing on the menu was the caramel brownie for desert...

There started a week of binging, admittedly. I've somehow managed to put on 2 of the 4 kilos I lost since being here, in a week. But I had such a good time doing it.... Dav had the hire-car, so we headed up the coast on Tuesday morning, and it was just fantastic to get out of Strahan for a couple of days! It was a bit rainy on the Tuesday, so we didn't manage to do the Montezuma Falls walk as we were hoping; but we did tour up to Stanley, in the north; and we were there (with plenty of stops) in time to check in to a very cute B&B and then climb the Nut before sunset. I was amazed at a tourists claim from the previous week - that his motorised wheelchair had got him up the Nut - as the climb was very steep, and I can see why the chairlift would be necessary! It was a gorgeous (if windy) walk aroudn the top, with amazing views - you almost felt you should be able to see St Kilda when looking out over that ocean! The seaside village, and the Scottish thistle, all made me feel as if I were somewhere in the UK; and Dav tells me that Edinburgh is built below a similar steep cliff or outcrop. Am very much looking forward to discovering that one myself! Next year...

We found a picnic ground on the lee side of the Nut, and fished out the pistachios we'd bought in Wynyard - where we'd stopped for lunch, and I'd treated the local Woolworths with all the glee of a kid at Christmas - 2 nuts, eating nuts, on the Nut :)

By the time we climbed down and headed to the local for a pub meal, it was twilight - but we'd forgotten that a) twilight in Tassie is already around 8.30pm and b) Stanley is a small town - and we just managed to convince the staff to serve us dinner, the last two there. As we were leaving, the barman asked us if we were going to hunt the Fairy Penguins - oooh, penguins?? Trust the barman to know what's going on. So, following his advice, we braved the now chill wind coming in round the Nut and strolled down to the wharf with a couple of 'travellers' to keep us warm. It was so dark that we didn't end up seeing anything (I am rediscovering my love of the stars, now that I'm living in a small town again!) but we sure heard them. They make a sound like a ghost snoring - it felt quite spooky at first, like they were going to jump out at us - Attack of the Killer Penguins! No such luck, so we headed back to the B&B, Sealer's Cove - which was everything you'd want out of a quaint little seaside B&B, complete with retiree owners Collen, with her helmet of hair and lavender jacket, and Barry, who ovviously enjoyed the varied company. They were lovely, if very attentive, hosts - but it was much more fun and felt much more romantic than staying in a '5 star apartment' down the road. The house itself was built in the 1800s, done up beautifully; and we were the only guests at the time...

After a drive around the town in the morning, and a visit to the Artworks gallery (which has some beautiful timber work for sale - one day I'd like to furnish my house in native timbers!) and to Highfield House (we thought we'd forgo the $7 entry fee and just take pictures outside!) we headed out again; stopping at Crayfish Creek to soak up some sunshine and explore the rockpool we'd seen on the way in - amazig carved mountains in miniature of rocks, beaten into shape by the wind and the sea - and then again at Burnie for more supplies (including my new guitar!); and finally at Henty Dunes to have a look before getting back to Strahan in time to have a drink with Timmy and Cassie at the pub (and introduce Dav to Hamers, the local gathering place). Henty Dunes is definitely worth a visit; I'd love to go back there with a cardboard box or two! Up the steep sand climb, it's a wasteland of sand dotted with green oases, stretching out to the distant Ocean beach. The sand blowing over the dunes in sheets, and the golden light of twilight, combined to make me feel I was somewhere in Arabia...

This was not quite the end of our adventures though; on Thursday we followed a lead from Franz and introduced ourselves to Kathy and Gary, who live by the Magic Cottage and who kindly let us borrow their 2-person sea-kayak! Kayaking was a first for me - and lots of fun, if tiring! Good exercise, considering I didn't run all week... we paddled aroudn the bay for a couple of hours; it was fairly smooth, so we didn't even encounter a threat of a spill. Then we thought we'd better get Gary and Kathy a thank-you gift; so headed to the local fudge shop for a box... emerging with far more than we'd intended (and not all to give away, of course! Home-made fudge is dangerously attractive!), we went from there to Frankiln's Manor for some very civil (and lovely) Devonshire Tea - ok, scones and wine, even better! The weather was absolutely gorgeous (how I long for it now as I sit here typing this, freezing today!!), which made preparing for the show particularly hard; but I managed to pull off a decent Porter (I'm slowly starting to relax into the role; but have to admit I enjoy Shires with Richard more, or at least am more comfortable with it as Dav remarked. Am still tending to enjoy the tours more than the play; and still have yet to do analytical work which may help my play work...)

Thursday night we spent moving me to Nigel's and cooking trout (mmm, love a man who can cook ;) - we certainly ate well this week! And Friday we were out on the boats. Friday evening after the show, Richard took us out to dinner at Risby Cove, which is where the locals go to eat out. It's really refreshing to talk to Richard in a social context; and he gave us an abridged versio of the Piners' Festival and characters of the town; including the origins of the feud between the boat companies. Slowly the picture builds up for me here. He also gave Dav the 'fatherly stamp of approval' as Dav said, and told him that he'd be welcome to come and work here whenever he finishes in Melbourne. So Dav may even be here earlier than I'd hoped, in January! I'd love love LOVE to speand New Year with him; but this may be hoing too much of course, as Prison break doesn't actually finish until the end of January, if he chooses to stay with it. It is a big move, way from the convenience and industry of Melbourne too; and I'm feeling it as well. But it is a lovely town, and a beautiful place to work.... and I can imagine staying here for longer than I'd planned - but will of course have to see... O/S does call next year... and I am definitely looking forward to my visit back to Melbourne in two weeks time!!

Dav left Saturday morning, after helping me to settle in to the new house. I miss him already. I also miss my wallet that he accidentally took with him! Oops! I wonder too what it will be like to live with him; and I know it will have to be more disciplined than this lovely holiday week - but I do look forward very much to sharing the day-to-day experiences of this little town with him... and hopefully learning from him too. We started our singing lessons in the car on the way up to Stanley... and my challenge (given while he was teaching me to Kayak) was to find something I can do and HE can't, that I can teach him!! Gotta think about that one...

For now, I've just written a veritable essay - which has whiled away an hour of the wait for the afternoon boat quite nicely. but it's also stopped raining, so might go and see if I can find that tunnel Faith and Naomi were talking about...