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This update is a little overdue and I’m sorry for this....had plenty to do and very little blogging time.
This week has been one of sorting out work as well as virtually living on public transport. On Monday I had my first of three job inductions at the local leisure centre. When I was told it was an induction I was expecting a few hours of guided tours, paperwork and getting to know the centre; how wrong I was! It started off with a tour of the building but when this was finished we definitely didn’t do paperwork. Instead a 400 metre timed swim was slyly dumped on us, 13 minutes to complete it...Oh dear. Just to put this in context, in England the fitness tests are two 25 metre swims followed by towing a casualty back 20 metres and then 10 metres; 65 seconds for the first and 45 for the second. Incidentally the quickest I have ever swam is 100 metres in about 10 seconds, though this wasn’t officially swimming, it was more a case of losing concentration whilst body boarding and being carried to shore by a rather large wave. Getting back to the topic in hand, I managed to complete the swim in 10 minutes, I was very pleased as well as very f***ed! Straight after this the instructor asked for a volunteer to play act a drowning scene; I’m not sure what he was getting at when he said I would be perfect for it.
Tuesday was spent recovering from the previous day’s antics, when would I ever have to swim 400 metres when lifeguarding a 50 metre pool anyway? Crazy! Moving on, we went into the city again on Wednesday after I had been to my second induction, this one was far more reasonable and contained no swimming whatsoever. The train journey in didn’t quite go to plan as a unexpected bump left me with iced coffee on a white shirt. After a quick glance to make sure that not everyone was laughing at me, I mopped it up and carried on as if nothing had happened. However, the light brown, saturated area on my shirt compromised this somewhat.
As we left the station, I watched a lady trip on the stairs that were alongside my escalator. As she stood back up she demonstrated the same quick glance around to make sure no one had seen her/were laughing at her; I had and I was. But as I peered down at the stain on my own shirt which was now standing out like a sore thumb (I’ve never quite understood that saying) I realised I was in no position to be ridiculing another person’s misfortune. Tragic.
After a very long ten minutes trying to hide it, I gave into temptation and common sense and bought a new shirt from Perth’s equivalent of Primark. Job done, now I could laugh at whoever I wanted.
It didn’t take long for me to notice that Australia advertises Christmas, as early if not earlier than England. Everywhere you looked was Christmas sales, decorations, adverts! Are they off their heads? It’s not even November yet! By all means have a few little signs, maybe some small reminders that Christmas is all of 10 weeks away, but not full blown decorations!
Thursday came and went with only a weekly shop to report and Friday was the day of my dreaded Lifeguard requalification exam; complete with a repeat of my 400 metre drown. It was based in Fremantle, an old fashioned port half hour south of Perth. This meant an hour on the train for me as well as an early start (5.45am). Luckily everything went to plan and I passed it all, yes including the swim which left me feeling very relieved that I chose not to eat my full allocation of sandwiches at lunch time, reappearance could have been messy.
We faced one of the top sides in the league on Saturday in very English conditions; cloudy, windy and with rain in the air. We won the toss and batted first and were 170 all out by 4 o’clock. I was out for only 6, LBW which left me with a trophy bruise on my inner thigh; and yes before you tell me, I know that is what the bat is for. They finished the day on 50-2.
It was 35 degrees and very bright on Sunday, perfect for our day of Whale watching. The only stint of whale watching I had experienced before was completely in voluntary. It was in St. Kitts but came in the form of trying to see past the disgustingly fat, loudmouthed Americans who couldn’t help but draw attention to themselves on what was meant to be a relaxing boat trip. This trip however was different and so it bloody should be for $80. An early wise crack from myself about the whereabouts of the harpoon gun didn’t go down very well and left me dodging a few stares from the surrounding tourists...ooops.
As we approached the end of the first hour we had seen as many whales as we had clouds in the sky, absolutely none. I don’t know what happened after that, but out to play came the Whales and everywhere we looked was greeted with a surfacing or a splash. At one point one of these magnificent mammals’ surfaced 5 metres from the boat, it was amazing to see. The 15 minutes that followed was a relatively dry patch, but soon enough we spotted 3 Humpbacks’ putting on a show a few hundred metres away. They were surrounded by 3 tourist boats and obviously relished the attention. (See Facebook for videos and pictures) We arrived back on dry land satisfied, but very hungry. A trip to the greatest takeaway/restaurant around, Wok In a Box sorted this and so we headed home.
A cooler week is predicted weather wise, so I may be able to leave the house. I may also be able to start work this week which I am looking forward to for some bizarre reason, might have something to do with £12/13 an hour...
This week has been one of sorting out work as well as virtually living on public transport. On Monday I had my first of three job inductions at the local leisure centre. When I was told it was an induction I was expecting a few hours of guided tours, paperwork and getting to know the centre; how wrong I was! It started off with a tour of the building but when this was finished we definitely didn’t do paperwork. Instead a 400 metre timed swim was slyly dumped on us, 13 minutes to complete it...Oh dear. Just to put this in context, in England the fitness tests are two 25 metre swims followed by towing a casualty back 20 metres and then 10 metres; 65 seconds for the first and 45 for the second. Incidentally the quickest I have ever swam is 100 metres in about 10 seconds, though this wasn’t officially swimming, it was more a case of losing concentration whilst body boarding and being carried to shore by a rather large wave. Getting back to the topic in hand, I managed to complete the swim in 10 minutes, I was very pleased as well as very f***ed! Straight after this the instructor asked for a volunteer to play act a drowning scene; I’m not sure what he was getting at when he said I would be perfect for it.
Tuesday was spent recovering from the previous day’s antics, when would I ever have to swim 400 metres when lifeguarding a 50 metre pool anyway? Crazy! Moving on, we went into the city again on Wednesday after I had been to my second induction, this one was far more reasonable and contained no swimming whatsoever. The train journey in didn’t quite go to plan as a unexpected bump left me with iced coffee on a white shirt. After a quick glance to make sure that not everyone was laughing at me, I mopped it up and carried on as if nothing had happened. However, the light brown, saturated area on my shirt compromised this somewhat.
As we left the station, I watched a lady trip on the stairs that were alongside my escalator. As she stood back up she demonstrated the same quick glance around to make sure no one had seen her/were laughing at her; I had and I was. But as I peered down at the stain on my own shirt which was now standing out like a sore thumb (I’ve never quite understood that saying) I realised I was in no position to be ridiculing another person’s misfortune. Tragic.
After a very long ten minutes trying to hide it, I gave into temptation and common sense and bought a new shirt from Perth’s equivalent of Primark. Job done, now I could laugh at whoever I wanted.
It didn’t take long for me to notice that Australia advertises Christmas, as early if not earlier than England. Everywhere you looked was Christmas sales, decorations, adverts! Are they off their heads? It’s not even November yet! By all means have a few little signs, maybe some small reminders that Christmas is all of 10 weeks away, but not full blown decorations!
Thursday came and went with only a weekly shop to report and Friday was the day of my dreaded Lifeguard requalification exam; complete with a repeat of my 400 metre drown. It was based in Fremantle, an old fashioned port half hour south of Perth. This meant an hour on the train for me as well as an early start (5.45am). Luckily everything went to plan and I passed it all, yes including the swim which left me feeling very relieved that I chose not to eat my full allocation of sandwiches at lunch time, reappearance could have been messy.
We faced one of the top sides in the league on Saturday in very English conditions; cloudy, windy and with rain in the air. We won the toss and batted first and were 170 all out by 4 o’clock. I was out for only 6, LBW which left me with a trophy bruise on my inner thigh; and yes before you tell me, I know that is what the bat is for. They finished the day on 50-2.
It was 35 degrees and very bright on Sunday, perfect for our day of Whale watching. The only stint of whale watching I had experienced before was completely in voluntary. It was in St. Kitts but came in the form of trying to see past the disgustingly fat, loudmouthed Americans who couldn’t help but draw attention to themselves on what was meant to be a relaxing boat trip. This trip however was different and so it bloody should be for $80. An early wise crack from myself about the whereabouts of the harpoon gun didn’t go down very well and left me dodging a few stares from the surrounding tourists...ooops.
As we approached the end of the first hour we had seen as many whales as we had clouds in the sky, absolutely none. I don’t know what happened after that, but out to play came the Whales and everywhere we looked was greeted with a surfacing or a splash. At one point one of these magnificent mammals’ surfaced 5 metres from the boat, it was amazing to see. The 15 minutes that followed was a relatively dry patch, but soon enough we spotted 3 Humpbacks’ putting on a show a few hundred metres away. They were surrounded by 3 tourist boats and obviously relished the attention. (See Facebook for videos and pictures) We arrived back on dry land satisfied, but very hungry. A trip to the greatest takeaway/restaurant around, Wok In a Box sorted this and so we headed home.
A cooler week is predicted weather wise, so I may be able to leave the house. I may also be able to start work this week which I am looking forward to for some bizarre reason, might have something to do with £12/13 an hour...
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