Didn't do much yesterday. Just lazed around in the room. My feet were killing me so i decided to rest a bit. Good thing tho since it was wet and cold out. Finally left the room around 1400hrs. made my way to city center ad walk around a bit. Been trying to find the strand arcade, in it is a shop called Strand Hatters. Want to get me a walk-about hat. Got directions from 3 diff ppl and still couldn't find it. found many other buildings tho. at around 1600hrs, it was time to leave. had to be @ yagoona station @17oohrs. By now the rain had stopped but the wind was still howling. Even in the tunnels it was cold and they have central heating in the city stations. So from Town Hall it was to Yagoona on the Bankstown line. Had another good snooze on the train. Of course, I woke up lost. Didn't know if i had missed the stop or not. Then came to Wiley Park station. Name sounded familiar and I knew I was close. True enuf, bankstown was next. The shoppiong centre looked bigger. Bankstown square it was once called, now Centro Bankstown. Everyone hates the name and still calls it by it's former name. Next was my stop. By now I needed to piss like a race horse. I knew by now that most stations had tioilets and low n behold just as i exited there was one, but LOCKED. Then an old woman assaulted me with her umbrella.
It was JAN!!!!!! violent as usual. She looks the same but older. I think she should be around 58 by now. ok ok so not that old. She took me back to her place, only a 5min walk. I must say, aussie's have a diff definition of 5mins compared to us. She took me the scenic route cos when she got to her town house, she says " I usually take the back way ". I could have done the back way. nevermind. Walking down the driveway, i nearly kill myself by slipping on the metal grating covering the drain. AND slipping on the 'broken ankle' foot, bending it in a way not made possible since the time i broke it. OUCH. She lives now in a lovely 2 bed room town house. Living, dining and kitchen downstairs. 2 rooms upstairs. The blue car she once drives is gone and she drives a tiny red daihatsu. but the one thing taht's not changed is that ROMAN is still alive. she's had that dog for ages i.e. over 10 yrs cos it was still a pup when i left. He's fat now. waddling around.
Lauren's husband Robbie came ot pick us up. he drives this jet black huge mazda. don't know which model. We went back to their place to get Lauren.Why she didn't come with us in the first place i don't know. this family is complicated. They live in apartment style lodgings. Very upmarket. Robbie in the IT line, more about this later. When we finally leave, we're about 30mins late. The dinner is planned at the Outback Steakhouse. Now we have one back in singapore, and there are a couple in the US. But the one here was only opened 2 years back. strange for an establishment that's based on aussie food. The interior looks like the one back home. food menu looks the same too. Of course i had the steak. It was steak almost all round the table. Some had Barrumundi ( that's a bloody big fish). Jan had pasta. Appitisers were of course the Bloomin Onions. 4 pcs. Then the salads n soups. i had the best pumpkin soup so far. Then the mains got here. There were about 10 of us. Let's see if i remember all of them. Of course there was Jan, Lee & Tony, Lauren & Robbie, Theo & Ella (Lee's friends), another Theo & his wife for whom i can't remember her name (Tony's friends) and Jamie. ok that's 10, plus me 11. There were some complains about the mains. Well done was dry, another well done was still bloody. steamed veggies were raw. But myself, no complaints. only the skin of the sweet potato was left. Lauren had baked cupcakes for lee. that was her cake. FUCKING sweet. diabeties in a paper cup.
After dinner we went next door for bowling. it was one of those flourescent, liminous glow in the dark thingies. most of them bowled. I tried but ankle wouldn't bend too much. then i got pissed about it and decided to call it quits. We rounded things up bu about 0100hrs. It had started to rain again. out came the gloves. I inquired on how late the trains ran in the burbs cos i know they run till 0400 in the city. no one knew. Lauren offered her place for the night but was too drunk for me to take it seriouly. Robbie agreed that it would be a bad idea since they have no spare room and offered to drive me back to the Cross. Jan was sent home first but not before finding out that she didn't have the credit card with her. Either the steakhouse didn't return it to her or she dropped it somewhere. tried calling the restaurant but they didn't have it. She tried calling the bank but was on hold for a long time. when i last saw her she was still in hold. On the way to send me back, lauren got sick and threw up in the back seat. Robbie got a wee bit cheesed off and sent her home. We spent about 30mins there so Robbie could make sure she washed up all right and was in bed before sending me home. We had a good conversation about computers, broadband and such on the ride back to the Cross. Found out something intersting. 1 terrabyte drive here only costs about 175AUD. not too bad. Might get one before flying back. Got back to the lodge safe. It was about 0200 by then.
It was a good day seeing Jan, Lee & Lauren. Their other halves and great guys too.
Till tomorrow.
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