The Chore of Adventure To Be Had... in Newcastle!

Hi!

Well. Here we are - finally. Sorry for the delay. One excuse can be attributed to sheer laziness, the other is that a small-ish Adventure was had, thus delaying my checking-in! But, we're here now on a lovely and, well, neither warm or cold, just about perfect temperature actually, tho very cloudy with the odd splash of rain now and then. But boy, those birds have been out there chattering away like mad all day. Happy birds with all the rain we've had, must be worms and little bugs everywhere! Anyways, we're here now with the lovely weather, got clean laundry and a clean little apartment, got the nice cool glass of stand-by white wine, life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. They appear to getting one step closer to figuring out what to do with me. Last week my 2 bosses and I had a sit-down where they told me what my future holds... mainly that they've so far managed to decide to transfer me permanently to the F/A-18 Technical Publications team (my foster home since Sept), thus severing my ties with my former home with the Communications team - and would that be ok with me? I said sure. So their next step is to (eventually) write my job description and have HR draw up yet another 12-month contract. They (F/A-18) can't adopt me permanently due to the fact they can't have any more permanent editors, they already have 2 - one has been away on maternity leave, still to decide if she feels like coming back, ever. And the other editor works from a different city altogether and is waiting for a better offer from anywhere. Hence my life continues in contracts. Sigh. But hey, I'm in the happy place, never to go back to, well, where I was. And that's a good thing. And that's as far as things have gotten. Between them they seem to be able to accomplish one thing every few weeks. Rome wasn't built in a day but it certainly didn't have this much paperwork and hand-wringing as this place does. Hmmm...... Otherwise, work is fine. Busy, still learning stuff (always a bonus). Ultimately, {how does it go kids??} always happy to have gainful employment! Hooray!

And then there were the weekends. Last, last weekend was spent in Dullsville, which is why I thought I'd spare you the tedium. I didn't even do the chores - yes, it was that dull. Now aren't you happy you were spared that? But last weekend, now that was where the fun and Adventure were! So my friend Kim decided to go down to Newcastle to visit her friend who's moved over permanently from New Zealand (another Kiwi hops the ditch. It's an inevitable move for most NZers, as you well know). So she thought it'd be fun if I tagged along. So while she was off catching up with her friend, I wandered around and checked the place out on my own. We were only there for three days and two nights, so it was just enough time to get a quick snapshot of the place. Thankfully the weather was glorious, especially after the torrential rain New South Wales had been having, to the point where south-west NSW had some pretty bad floods. Thankfully Newcastle is about two hours north of Sydney, on the sea, so they're far enough away from those cranky river systems.

So Newcastle Adventure Day One saw us arrive later in the afternoon on Saturday with her friend picking us up at the airport (which also shares it's space with the RAAF - Royal Australian Air Force at their Williamtown base) and dropping me at my hotel in town. I got my room from (and this isn't a plug, even if it looks, walks and talks like one) LastMinute.com as one of their "secret" rooms, which, after you pay, you discover what and where it is, and I discovered it was the Crowne Plaza in town, right on the river! It was a niiiiiice room too, more like a one bedroom apartment. And at less than half their regular price. So if I'm plugging LastMinute.com, then so be it, because I've used them a few times now and haven't had a bad "secret" pick yet! I can highly recommend them! Anyways, I dumped my bag and trotted off in search of a late lunch. In my walk along the river I immediately discovered two things about Newcastle, or at least that particular section of Newcastle - they seem to be a capitol for weddings and all associated receptions, and that the locals, or Novacastrians as they're called, breed like bunnies with guns to their long eared skulls. The place was positively infested with small children. And any small child able enough was attached to a scooter (the kind that's basically a skateboard with a steering post/handle). They were everywhere. Both them and folks dressed to the nine's on their way to or from a wedding or a reception. At first when I saw all these folks dressed up in all the restaurants and bars along the river, I thought "boy they sure like to dress up to go out on the town here", until the penny dropped that it seems to be a wedding capitol of the world or at least Australia, apparently. Go figure. So, wanting to avoid a collision with a small child on small wheels or a taffeta'd up and tipsy bridesmaid, I ducked into the first place I saw, Silo, who advertized pizza at happy hour prices. I must say the beer was very good, the pizza was very not. But, happy enough, I continued on my stroll along the river to the end where it meets the sea at Nobbys Beach. The sun was thinking about setting and yet the place was still pretty busy (in the parking lot that is, not necessarily the beach, as you can see....). It's not a big beach, but it's lovely and clean and the sea was really very pretty. Cold too, I discovered as I quickly stuck my hand in. No wonder folks were just standing around looking at it eating ice creams, watching the few hardy young surfers having a go at the waves (some not so hardy were wearing wetsuits). So, back to my hotel I trotted, eager to have a glass of their local Hunter Valley wine and put my feet up - am on Mini-Vacation!

Day Two started with a room service breakfast (!!!!) and was originally planned to be filled with local wine from around the Hunter Valley, but unfortunately, at the last minute, the winery tour was cancelled. Bummer dude (tho I distinctly heard a sigh of relief come from my wallet). So, armed with a couple little maps from the front desk (lovely, helpful folks by the way) I set off on what was to be a very long day of walking. According to my trusty little pedometer, I clocked up over 21,000 steps. That's like almost 12 miles. Oh yeah. But during the day I saw everything you can get to on foot along the seaside (and bits of the city), and it was lovely and sunny and warm, it was a perfect day for going on an Adventure walk! I started out as any good tourist would at the Tourist Information Centre, not far from the hotel, where the guy/volunteer gave me a couple of very colorful brochures, flyers and a couple of very cumbersome map books with the suggestion that I head over to the 'hood of Hamilton, which promised a good market to be had that day (Sunday). So off I headed, walking along Hunter Street (not such a flash part of town). After a while I finally made it to Hamilton only to discover that not only were there no markets but that most of the shops were closed for the day, with the exception of a few cafes trying to be "hip" in that grungy-neighborhood-trying- to-be-hip-and-groovy kinda way. Not happy with that little discovery, I managed to flag down the "free" shuttle bus back to town where it stopped/ended at the city center and I continued on my way along the sea......

This is a good little map that shows where all I walked, you can see it best in the very last bit of the map called "Bathers Way". If you see the bit called "City Centre", I walked from there allllllll the way around the lighthouse ("closed" that day, so I went around, across the sand dunes. Note: sand dunes are a bitch to traverse in Chuck Taylor All Stars) and adjoining Nobbys Beach, and allllll along the seaside to the "end" at Merewether Beach/Baths. And then, because that wasn't enough walking, I walked from there allllll through town back to my hotel. My dogs weren't just barkin'. But it was lovely to see the beaches and the views from atop Fort Scratchley (tee hee) and the Strzelecki Lookout at King Edward Park. Although I must say, the highlight of the "tour" was the Bogey Hole. It's a convict-made swimming hole made expressly for the personal use of the Commandant at the time's use. It's now off-limits, but as you can see a few brave young folks still tackle it... I was envious to say the least as it looked like TONS of fun. Then, at Merewether Beach, I stumbled across the Chiko Pro Junior Surf Competition, where, because of the flooding along the rivers that empty out into the sea, there was a whole tree in the surf, right in the path of the 2 competing surfers. So I stood there for a little bit, catching my breath and resting my feet and watching what this tree (and the surfers) was doing, along with about 100 or so other folks......... It's all just basically a lovely part of Newcastle with lovely, clean and tidy houses (some very niiiiiiiiiice, lovely, clean and tidy houses!) Then, happily back in my room, I had a very nice hot bath, which I swear did wonders for my aching feet and legs. Gosh I sound like an old lady! But it really did work and for that I was eternally grateful. Happily refreshed, I got myself back together and went out along the river to a big seafood restaurant called Scratchleys, that had a little "take away" fish and chip place attached to it. So I got myself some crumbed fish and chips and perched mahself on the sea wall and looked across the river over to the lights of Stockton (will have to take the ferry and have a visit next time). It was a lovely way to end a perfect day. Scorching sunburn, aching feet, and all.

Day Three saw a very late start but still managed to get mahself down to the dining room in time to catch the end of the first wave of hungry tourists. Breakfast was very good and very filling with lovely views out over the river and harbor. Then it was back to my room to pack and await Kim and her friend Roger's arrival. Dropping Kim off, he went off to have a quick job interview while Kim and I stayed to have a drink in the bar. A little while later, job interview complete, Roger picked us up and took us along the river to the Queen's Wharf Brewery, where we had another glass of beer and a view out over the river towards the sea. By now the wind was kicking up and dragging some clouds in with it. So we headed off to his neck of the woods called Shoal Bay/Nelsons Bay, where, by the time we got there, it was well and truly lunchtime. So we had lunch there on the bay at a place attached to a hotel/resort (Shoal Bay Resort and Spa) called Mermaids Bar and Grill. Out on that little spit of land, it seemed impervious to the wind and clouds affecting the city and we were rewarded with a very lovely and sunny afternoon. But soon it was time for us to head to the airport and back to Brisbane..... All in all a great Adventure was had with promises to come back and see more!

And finally, that brings us to this weekend. Well, it simply pales in comparison to last weekend - it's been gray, rainy, and full of domestic duties like laundry, vacuuming and even dusting. But, not every weekend can be an Adventure, for even Jacques Cousteau had to slow down and wash his swimsuit at some point. Not that my little Adventure comes close to anything Mr. Cousteau ever did...... but you get my drift (no pun intended..... really....). Hmm.

So there you have it! Many apologies for the tardiness, but now you know why (usually always a good-ish reason). I hope you're all well up there. Say, now that we're well into March, I guess you know that means the hot humid of summer is past and that you're safe to come on down for a visit.....!? It'll be perfect until December or so........ Just sayin'.................!

BYE!
J!