What an interesting day! Slash boring for those who don't like staring at architechture..
It started off with a brief visit to a recruitment agency who greeted me with "hello, thanks for signing up. We have no jobs that meet your skills set at the moment. Thanks for coming though we will bear you in mind"... Super. Great. Thanks. So slightly disheartened and already in the city I figured I would actually go and see these bloody cathedrals I had promised myself over the last 2 weeks I would go see.
And I tell you what.. SMALL frigging world AGAIN happened. The first one I went to was St Pauls. I was met in the doorway by a lovely volunteer pensioner who asked where I was from -turns out her son in law is from Chester and they now live just up the road from my mum in Sheffield!! She then turns around and says to this other pensioner man, "Victor dear this lovely lady is from Chester in England". "Ooh!" he says, "I bought this jacket in Chester! Isn't that cathedral lovely" - weirdamundo!
St Paul's was very nice and it was weirdly placed in the middle of the CBD so it was surrounded by skyscrapers and state of the art museums. I then went off to St Patricks which was equally as stunning. I did however accidentally stumble into a "saced ceremony".. woopsie.. I left pretty sharpish and kept my eye out for the mid day prayer team to evacuate the building. But whilst the place was gorgeous inside with its orange stained glass windows, it was pretty boring. Also I was shouted at by an ugly grumpy old man when I accidentally walked up onto the priest vicary persons only bit.
Because I was shouted at I left in a huff lol but was stopped for a bit of a talk by this other old pensioner dude who was simply a weird legend! He had very thin white hair that had been shaved, liver spots all over his face, hands and arms, a snotty hanky as is standard with anyone over 67, a crooked back and a walking stick. In a very Australian accent he says "don't pay any attention to that miserable ol' bastard!" - he immediately had my respect and attention from that moment on!!
He showed me a statue of a priesty vicary person (whatever you are when you are catholic) who he advised had baptised and married him, and buried his parents. He told me which schools he went to and where his kids husbands and wives were from. He told a couple semi racist jokes which were hilarious!! as politically incorrect as that is.. but who gives a crap if it is genuinely funny. He asked where I was from and where I was going. I confirmed St James' cathedral was next and he gave me some directions. He was a proper lovely old gent!.... And then he asked if I wanted to get in his car.
Cue awkward moment!! I was like "erm.. no that's ok thanks though!" he explained he was going to Victoria market for some fish so it was quite alright to just get in his car and have him drop me off. I again said no that's fine thanks I will get the city circle tram it's fine.... then FROM NO WHERE he said "oh right no problem. My sister in law died this morning". Shock and horror arrives on face!! I didn't know what to say other than "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!!" And like it was completely reasonable he declares "ah well, nothing a bit of fish won't sort. See ya now, enjoy ya stay!" - and off he went!!!
Old people proper rock. They have the best stories!! I hope I get to be old enough to tell stories and not be phased by the death of family members because there is a tikka masala near by.
I am coming up with a plan guys... I am thinking when my visa runs out here in Australia (12th August 2012), I am going to fly over to Vietnam, then take a flight over to Dehli to meet Tracy and Steph (who WILL be there.... you will) in September. I want to do a 4 week tour of India offered by Real Gap and then after that, take a train over to Nepal and climb the Himalayas! Figure that will take 2-3 weeks, then head back to England for a month before shipping back out just in time to spend a week in Sydney for the New Year (gotta see them fireworks), then hop over to NZ to do some more working.
Of course the plans will change by that time but you never know!! Years go by so quickly these days. I am feeling very very old at the moment. I need to get working very badly.
We will see :-) ciao bella x
