Summer Diary 2013 – Week Four.
Friday July 19th.
Esperance is Australia, still in the immediate post World War 2 period.
There are bits which are so old fashioned it makes you smile. It boasts the
oldest theatre in Western Australia but it is still only from the 1890s. It
makes you realise what a new country this is, even more so than the USA, for
example. There is a heritage row of houses from the turn of the 20th
century which are revered as much as a mediaeval castle is back in England!
The Woody Island morning was a great success, lots of seals and lots of
other wildlife. We saw some dolphins from the boat across the Bay of Isles but
no whales. It is quite a tiny island really but has ecologically-friendly
holiday lets and a wonderful café which overlooks the landing stages / jetty. I
am afraid we had a second breakfast there, this was included in the tour price
– which makes a change, normally you’d be paying extra. We explored some of the
island and a coastal cave in Shearwater Bay. We would have gone on the trail to
Skinny Dip Bay but ran out of time before the return crossing back to
Esperance. We looked for some of the birds that are supposed to be in the woods
but they must have gone on their holidays!
We had the morning tour only so were back in “the past in the present”
that is Esperance by 1pm. We did the usual thing and tried out the retail
therapy centre. To be honest they are all much of a muchness in Australia
anyway, so the Esperance mall was no different to Rockingham or Mandurah or etc
etc.
We went to the cinema in the afternoon [how decadent?] to see Despicable
Me 2. I would have quite liked to have seen The Heat but I was out-voted and
The Heat was a 15 anyway, so we may have had trouble sneaking little Bella in!
D2 was OK, I guess, it wouldn’t be one I’d bother to watch again. After a huge
tea of filled wraps with seafood and salad we decided to drive up to Kalgoorlie
rather than prolong our stay in E. I could have spent ages there but I don’t
think the girls had the same feeling for the past as their historian Aunt!
The plan was to either drive until we stopped or hit Kalgoorlie.
Whichever came first. I was surprised when we hit Kalgoorlie at about 9pm. It
was pretty in the street lighting, looking even more like a relic from a bygone
age than Esperance, to be honest. Tourist info was closed, obviously, but the
trusty internet found us a campsite. The Kalgoorlie Caravan Park, which was the
most basic so far, but still had very a clean toilet and shower block, which
was all we wanted. Three people through a camper van’s shower just uses up all
your water in no time!
Unfortunately, on our drive round the town we went past The Red House
[the brothel] so I was ordered to turn round and go back so they could have a
better look. I pulled up on the opposite side of the road for a few minutes and
in that time we actually watched a guy approach the place and go in. [At this
time of night it was no longer open to the public as a museum and was back to being
a working knocking shop.] Annabelle was appalled that in a few minutes time
that very man was going to have sex with one of the women inside, for money.
Jill was a little more pragmatic, saying she couldn’t do it herself but
understood how if you were desperate it was a way to get some money. Annabelle
would rather die first.
I held back a smile. It is hard to explain to a youngster just how
enjoyable having sex actually is. I found it so after Ian and I first had sex
when we were fifteen. I suppose you are like a kid in a sweet shop with sex.
But unlike kids in sweet shops who have their fill and then get fed up, you are
like that with every new partner too. That feeling never goes away. [At least I
hope it doesn’t. At 26 I don’t expect to discover this anytime soon.] It is the
influx of Oxytocin to the brain which does it of course, it is a chemical
stimulus that makes you want more and more. I suppose if I had explained how
the chemical released during sex makes you want more sex they might have
understood it a bit more but I decided against as I was stepping onto dodgy
ground. Especially if they asked about my own experiences!
You can guess their question: Would I ever do it for money? I told them
I was like Jill. If I was absolutely at the point of desperation I might, but I
would have exhausted every other possibility first. This lead on to, do the
girls actually enjoy what they’re doing or do they just pretend? I told them I
couldn’t answer that. I think it’s difficult to describe how you reach a point
where once you are actually busy with a guy inside you would continue anyway
because you know what the outcome is going to feel like to someone who is still
a virgin [I know some women never have orgasms through sex, which must be
awful.]
Annabelle then came out with, “Is oral sex a blowjob?” I was shocked.
Jill collapsed into a fit of giggles. I must have said, “What?” in the same
tone that Lady Bracknell says “A Handbag?” She then went on to say that one of
the boys at school was notorious among the girls for asking them if they’d give
him a blow job. I told her I wasn’t going to talk about sex and stuff like that
with them because if their Mum found out she’d probably kill me! Then kill them!
I did ask her if her phone had a voice recorder on it. She asked why? I told
her that if this creep asked again she ought to try and record him asking and
then she would have proof of sexual harassment. This lead on to a whole
conversation about sexual harassment and what it was and what you should do
about it.
As we hit the charp a few hours later I reflected on the fact I
hope Suze has talked about sex with the girls, especially Jill, as she is bound
to be on some guy at school’s radar as a likely target for his penis! I think I
may actually have a discrete word with her sometime, just to put my own mind at
rest. I am so glad I am not a parent. The worry must be awful, if the feeling
is anything like I feel about these two.
Saturday 20th July.
Well, Kalgoorlie is a mess. Unplanned and sprawling and simply, well, a mess. The mines have dominated the place and development seems to have been dictated by where the gold seams are and the claims made.
I suppose it gives a realistic picture of what mining towns were like in
days of the gold rush in WA. There is one huge mine now, called Super Pit. It
is, as its name suggests, a bloody great hole in the ground. It has
incorporated all the other older mines that used to be here and is now a
400metre deep hole in the ground. The WA Government has extended its operations
until at least 2021, if the value of gold remains high. If they ever stop mining
here it would make a marvellous lake. Assuming you could keep the water from
evaporating away, that is.
I, that is we, have come to the conclusion that Kalgoorlie is a dump. We
have been and looked and seen the sights and are unimpressed on a big scale. So
much so we drove away from Kal to Coolgardie. To be honest this is not much
better. It is more of a one horse town than Kal was, but it is still nothing to
write home about. It had an interesting looking Museum but I could see the
girls’ eyes glazing over when I suggested we went for a look round. Youth, eh?
We stopped for another rest at Merredin. The Merredin Tourist Park is
right on the highway and doesn’t amount to much really, in which respect it
resembles the town of Merredin itself. We thought it was a pity that a town
which had such a pretty name could be so naff. We decided to not to stay there
though but to keep going as it was not too late in the afternoon. I thought we
might as well head for Northam instead, which is a much nicer place than
Merredin seemed to be, plus it wasn’t all that much further down the Highway
and had the Swan River going through it. In my memory I seemed to recall it was
a rather pretty place. I hadn’t been since I was a child as Dad’s folks bought
some land on Toodyay and we’d gone to clear the plots of scrub vegetation. That
is something you have to do at least twice a year if you have bought a plot and
not built on it.
This was almost a mistake, although it isn’t much further on than
Merredin to be honest the road is so straight and boring, with eucalyptus scrub
and sand on either side of the route, I started to nod off. Not good!
Fortunately, the builders of the long distance roads in Australia
appreciate this is a problem and so the berms of the roads are covered in fine
red gravel that sounds like a machine gun is raking your vehicle, should you
accidentally drive onto it. Once was enough, to make me realise I had driven
too far after a busy day. So we turned the air onto full blast and had a
singalong all the way into to Northam.
The site was beautiful, set in the Upper Swan Valley and a spit from the
Mortlock River. It had gone dark by the time we were settled but that didn’t stop
us wandering off to the river for a while. We are also right next to the
Northam Race Course, which luckily [or unluckily depending on your point of
view] didn’t have a Race Evening that night. The real noise overnight was
the railway line which ran alongside the caravan park, marking one of its
boundaries – the river was another – the trains which passed along it seemed to
be never ending.
We had a panicked phone call from Suze at about 8.30pm asking us where
we were! She had thought we’d be back today. I explained what had happened and
told her she needed to read her e-mails more carefully. We are scheduled to hit
Chaos Castle at just after lunch time tomorrow.
I think I may need a holiday to recover from this one. Although isn’t
likely to happen as Mother is flying out next Thursday! Still, I will have
a week at Suze’s with the kids at school and S& P at work during the day; I will be able to chill out at their house alone and do some relaxing,
therapeutic cooking.
Sunday 21st July.
When I woke up this morning I was being held in a firm hug by one of the
girls. It was Annabelle. Half out of her sleeping bag she had grabbed hold of
me like I was her teddy bear or something. My first reaction was to think
“What’s Laura doing here?” Then I realised it was Annabelle. I gently removed
her arm from around me and she murmured, “Mmm, Robbie….” This was a
surprise, to say the least. I will have to tease her about it when I get the
chance – but not in front of the others, that would be too mean. One thing I
did consider afterwards was how, although I felt love for my niece, which I
have since she was born, there was nothing at all sexual in my feelings – once
I realised she wasn’t Laura. I don’t know what this proves, but it must prove
something, mustn’t it? Armchair psychology was my second subject at Uni! Lol
We are now safely back in Warnbro. Yaay!
The drive back was less eventful and not as long, about 200k I think. I
knew where we were though, so it was just like a normal ride to the shops or
something. The area we were driving through counts as the Metropolitan Area.
This is a pretty huge sprawl of housing really, if you started in Fremantle, on
the coast, it’s about 120 km to Northam [the eastern edge]. This radius extends
north up the coast to Lancelin and south down the coast to Mandurah, making a
huge metropolitan area.
One good thing about it though is, despite its huge size, the population
density is far lower than the European average would be for such an area. This
vast housing sprawl has the population of Leeds! I think that is quite
unbelievable.
The roads aren’t any less busy though, it took us nearly three hours to
get from Northam back home to Chaos Castle. The trip counter told us we had
done 2153 km since Monday morning. Not bad going for just a small corner of a
vast continent. I had to fill the camper up seven times which isn’t too bad
fuel economy really. I have now almost spent up my July allocation of spending
money though which means I will have to be more circumspect with my cash until
August. When Mum arrives I will freeload off her, she’s always flush with dosh.
I spent the afternoon chilling with Big Sis and Pete while the girls did
their thing in their rooms.
It is really nice being away but getting back to normal size living
spaces is wonderful. I remember on my tour in 2010 I would check into a motel
for a couple of nights just to avoid cabin fever brought on by the confines of
the camper.
Jeff has been playing AFL rules all week, apparently, at an organised
training week set up by the Dockers’ School's Outreach programme. He was really
pleased by his week of training and his black eye which happened in one of the
proper matches they organised at the end of each day. He did kick eight goals
during the week too, which he was very proud to tell me. He is only 11 but
seems to be far more keen on sports than either of the girls. Jill has the
typical teenagers’ antipathy towards unnecessary physical exercise and
Annabelle is such a waif like creature she may find some sports too demanding.
She is seriously petite. [She takes after her Mum who is proud to be in the 4’
11 club!]
Monday July 22nd.
Another early morning swim in Warnbro pool. It’s like we’ve never been
away. I drove the kids to school for a change and then took myself off to Freo.
Heidi [ex-colleague from Myers] has a day off today, and yesterday evening I arranged
to go and see her. We met up in town and had lunch at the Esplanade hotel – so
much for being frugal until August. It was nice food but nothing special. I had
the prawn risotto, which was OK, but mine is better! We then had a stroll
through town, window shopping and real shopping and we caught up with the rest
of the gossip we hadn’t got round to during lunch. There was nothing much to
tell there either really, well no juicy, scandalous bits anyway. She is being
moved to the Perth branch of Myers as a promotion. Which sounds good.
She was really pleased to hear about my RA job starting in September but
disappointed there was no man on the horizon. I debated, mentally, whether to
tell her about Laura. I am not sure what her reaction will be. She is keen to
meet my Mother though. God knows why? So I have arranged another lunch a
fortnight on Monday [Mum and I are on Rotto from next Monday for four nights],
we will go to the food court next to the market for our lunch. It is one thing
Mum has been talking about wanting to do since she decided to come back out;
eat at the Freo Food Court. Although her school has two teacher training days
today and tomorrow, because Mum retired at the end of term, she doesn’t have to
attend them – I should bloody well think not, to be honest. She is flying out
on Wednesday from Manchester, so she’ll be here pretty soon.
She has told me all the things she wants to do when she’s here. They
include the stay on Rottnest Island; a visit to Geraldton; she wants a Swan
River cruise and to go wine tasting in Margaret River. Those are the starters.
She’s only here for a month, she’ll never fit it all in. She has asked me if
I’d like to come with her on these trips, naturally I have agreed. We could
have a good time [perhaps] especially as she is now retired and not burdened
with the worry of returning to be Assistant Head Teacher in September. She’s
actually booked accommodation on Rotto for four nights, via the internet. She’s
also found a good spot to stay in Margaret River for the wine tasting, again
via the internet. Sometimes she can still surprise me.
I gave my room a good clean when I got back and then did the same to the
study. Mum is going to have the room I’m in when she gets here and I am
decamping into the study. This has a daybed in it [a bit like mine – it’s where
they got the idea from] and as each of the kids has a tablet, they don’t tend
to use the study and its desktop computer all that much. In fact in the time I
have been here – I think this is the fourth week – they have hardly been in
there at all.
I then cooked tea for them all, it was a chicken fricassee, which went
down a storm, especially with vegetable rice I had made to go with it. We had
homemade chocolate pineapple upside down cake as dessert [I had been a busy
girl], which the kids had never had before. How sad is that?
We then watched in varying degrees of agony [or joy] England win the
second Ashes Test at Lord’s on TV. Peter, being a true blue, red blooded Okker
is obviously an Australia fan through and through. The kids aren’t too sure
which side of the fence to sit. Their Aunt made it perfectly clear which side
she was on. They were a bit surprised at my knowledge of the game and how I was
able to say whether an LBW appeal was out or not with almost 100% accuracy.
They didn’t know I had been part of the school team for cricket, as well as
lacrosse and hockey. I used to be wicket keeper because I am a very good
catcher of the ball. My batting average was 48, which is pretty good too.
[Modest aren’t I].
I didn’t really like lacrosse or hockey but I loved cricket. I used to
be assistant scorer for Dad’s University’s Cricket team and then did the same
role while I was at University. I tried to get in on the act in Sheffield but
they were a bit more chauvinistic about it. I did score for them a couple of
times and my pages in the score book look like a work of art compared to all
the ones which have gone before. That may have been a reason why they weren’t
keen on a female scorer. Plus I wouldn’t let the official scorer into my
knickers, which may have gone against me too. [He was a bit of a pervert
really, with desert disease – wandering palms!] Naturally I didn’t tell the
kids all this.
I must say I could get quite perverted about Joe Root. He’s lovely. I
loved the way he and his brother hugged in the middle of the pitch after he
scored his century. I wonder if he is looking for a girlfriend?
Tuesday July 22nd
I can’t believe it! I called Dad last night [about 11.30 Aus time] he
had just been swimming in Crummockwater. It was 27 degrees! 27! That never
happens in Cumbria. Rats, rats and rats! I am here in a place where even the
winter is supposed to be warm and it’s bloody freezing and Dad goes swimming in
my favourite lake.
I am jealousy on legs! I am the greenest green-eyed idol from the north
of Kathmandu! [I know it’s a yellow idol really but it doesn’t fit my
metaphor.] Why does the weather have to be so gorgeous when I am thousands of
miles away? It’s Karma. That’s what it is.
I’d be a lot calmer if he hadn’t told me that, this much is certain!
I spent another lazy day after swimming and taking the kids to school. I
spent a lot of the morning cleaning the house. I know I shouldn’t interfere
with other people’s property but it was quite dusty and there was lurking dirt.
I haven’t done any of the bedrooms except mine and the study bedroom [they are
off my limits] but all the shared rooms are now as clean as mine are at home.
Is that silly?
Wednesday 23rd July
I can’t believe this weather. We have just had rain so heavy I ran
outside to bring in the washing from the whirly-gig and was drenched in
seconds. It was as though I had fallen in the pool. I was just saturated. Then
the bloody sun came out as if to mock me.
The kids told me it would rain today when I dropped them off at school
this morning. Apparently their geography teacher had told them to warn their
parents not to hang out their washing today. Being the smart arsed little cow
that I am I didn’t believe them at all.
Good job I hadn’t done my next task on Maia’s Invisible To Do list –
wash the camper. Suze and Pete are going to use it this Saturday taking the
kids and themselves to the birthday party of one of Pete’s cousins. He lives
way up north of Perth on the way to Geraldton so they have decided to take the
camper and a tent for the kids so they can imbibe radically and have a flop for
the night. I have been invited but I’ve declined. This particular cousin and I
have a history. We do not get on at all. Probably because he once groped me at
another party, years ago, so I grabbed his bollox and squeezed them so hard he
screamed! When asked what I had done I explained I was teaching the sexist
drongo some manners. Needless to say this did not go down too well the rest of
the male rellies and even some of the women were critical of what I had done.
They were even less enamoured of me when I said that if they weren’t
happy with having me deal with him, the next time I would simply call the
police and have him arrested for sexual assault. I was only 18 at the time and
on my Gap Year but I knew what to do to deal with a pervert. He’s never done
anything like that again and I have always refused any invitations to any of
the family’s social functions where he and his folks are present.
Annabelle has just asked her Mum “Do I have to go to the party? Can’t I
stay here? Vicki will be here to see that I’m all right. And Gran….”
The cheeky madam. She wasn’t being cheeky at all, in fact. I have told S
& P that I will look after Annabelle if she is allowed to stay here in
Warnbro. It is not as though it is a seriously long time, they are leaving at
about 12pm on Saturday and are expected back about 1 or 2pm on Sunday. Plus Mum
will be here too, so a case of many hands make light work, may be in order. I
hadn’t really got anything planned and the Other Aged Parent might have made
other plans for the weekend if she gets over her jet lag. She always used to be
a very good traveller from what I can remember. It is quite a while since we
actually did any travelling as a family, though.
Thursday July 24th
Well more British weather for the arrival of another Pom. It has been
cloudy and quite chilly – for Australia. Today’s high was 19 degrees, which in
the UK would be an average summer temperature over here the locals are wrapped
up like bloody Eskimos! There was some beautiful early morning sun on the way
to the pool this morning but it had been replaced by cloud in almost no time at
all.
I drove the kids to school again and was stopped by Jill’s form tutor
who asked me if I had a few minutes to spare as the Principal wanted to ask me
a question. I parked up in the visitor car park, was signed in and given a
badge at the office and then directed to the Principal’s office.
Ms Chipchase [Kerry] was quite apologetic and endearing. She told me,
after some pleasant small talk pre-amble, how she had been hearing about me
from Jill and was wondering if I could address some of the Upper Senior
Students [Year 12] about life at University and at Cambridge University in
particular. It seems I could be considered a valuable resource to bolster the
aspirations of some of the girl students here. Plus she had heard that I was
“almost a local” as my Dad was from just up the road a piece in Freo.
Apparently Jill has been bragging about her Mum’s supersmart kid sister
who went to the top University in England and is as cool as anything. Jeez,
Jill, it would have been really nice to have known that was what you felt about
me. I had thought you weren’t all that bothered about my life and career. It
seems I was wrong. I know Annabelle is so keen to do what I did, but I guess it
wouldn’t be cool for Jill to look like she wants something similar too, as it
might not have much kudos with her mates!
What Kerry [see how I’m on first names terms, already!] had in mind
was a potted biography; why I chose to go to University; how I got into
Cambridge; Life as a “Tab” ; my future academic aspirations; what going to Uni
could mean for the students of RSHS and then a Q & A. I must have “MUG”
tattooed across my forehead because I have agreed! I can’t believe I have been
conned into doing this. Still, I suppose it won’t hurt and if it makes one
student consider life at Uni who otherwise wouldn’t then I’ll feel
justified. In a way drumming up students to attend University has to be a
good thing, doesn’t it? So long as they aren’t doing Beauty Therapy or Nail
Technician [I kid you not, some Universities in the UK offer degree courses
with those titles!]
I went back to Chaos Castle and removed all traces of my occupation from
the spare room, shifting my gear into the study. I left the long stuff, dresses
etc in the wardrobe in the spare room so they wouldn’t get creased and
crumpled. At about lunchtime I drove to Perth International in a state of
excitement really. I was excited to be seeing Mum and also at the
thought of the chat with students. I will be addressing some of Year 12, just a
small number who have expressed an interest in going to University when they finish school, on Tuesday 6th of August in the morning at 9.30. I have been
given about an hour but I can over-run or cut it short depending on my
reception.
Mum’s flight was on time and I met her without a fuss. She had a slight
wait at immigration as she only has a British passport. [How passé.] The
darling Aged Parent had seen a huge bottle of Kummel at the duty free in Manchester
airport and bought it for me, stuffed into her cabin luggage. Good on ya, Ma.
I took her the long way back, through Fremantle so she could see some of
the sights she would have remembered from her and Dad’s stays out here. She was
gobsmacked by how much had changed from how she remembered it. The new train
system was what astounded her the most. But all the way to Rockingham she kept
saying, “It wasn’t like that before…” or “My god, look what they’ve done to
…..”. I had quite forgotten how like an excited schoolgirl she can sound when
she is enthusiastic about something.
She asked about S & P and the kids. She wanted to know all about my
trip to Albany. She was really looking forward to being on Rotto again. She
hasn’t been for over 12 years. One thing she did ask in all seriousness was,
“Do the Kids know about you and Laura?” I was pleased she brought it up first.
I didn’t really know what to say to her. “Er… Mum… Could you not mention that
Laura and I are lovers – in front of the kids, please? I’d rather they didn’t
know just yet.”
Her jumping in with her size threes sort of solved the problem for me to
some extent. “They are going to have to know sometime, Vicki! You can’t keep
pretending for ever, you know….”
I explained that I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t hate me, or fear me
or ostracise me if I came out to them. Would it mean Annabelle and Jill and I
wouldn’t even be able to hug and cuddle with me anymore, in case that ‘evil dyke’
tried to do something pervy with them – in their minds? I was really, really
scared that Annabelle would go from “I wish you were my Mummy” to “I wish you
weren’t my auntie”. I was / am terrified if she finds out in some way except
from me sitting her down and explaining it to her I will lose her for ever.
That would be almost as heart breaking as when I lost Richard.
I told her that only Suze and Pete knew and they had promised to let me
be the one to tell everyone in my own good time. Fortunately Mum is a canny
Scot and she could see the wisdom in what I had wanted. She agreed not to even
allude to anything that might give the secret away. Good old Mum.
Suze and her [and me] had a good old cry when they met this evening. I
had made meat and potato pie for our meal [well three of them actually] and a
dessert with raspberries, yogurt and cream. The kids couldn’t really remember
their grandmother, I think. They were either toddlers or babes in arms when she
last saw them.
They were a bit wary at first. She can sound quite intimidating, but I
think they warmed to her. She has promised to come swimming tomorrow morning.
Should be amusing!
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