Ian got up and went to move the car to prevent us from receiving a parking ticket or indeed having to pay metered parking. We then decided we didn't particularly want to stay in Newcastle another night so packed up, retrieved the AUD 58 we had paid for the second night and Ian fetched the car back again while I guarded the luggage from millions of mini ants and made a telephone call to my first boss of my last employment, who had texted us minutes before, having read our e-mail saying we were leaving Sydney yesterday.
Ian and I were keen to make progress north towards Queensland, conscious that at the moment, unless we extend our time in Australia, we only have three weeks left. Anyway, we also quite like the idea of meeting up with our mate in Sydney so we booked ourselves into a hostel in Forster having left instructions with Rob, my former boss, to call back this afternoon when he had finished running around Sydney to find out what we were doing.
We reached Forster in a couple of hours, checked into the hostel, changed our clothes, did some quick handwashing and left for Sydney. Rob had called just moments before and we told him we expected to be in North Sydney by 16:00. At 14:00 we had reached a Burger King north of Newcastle and ate quickly while being entertained by the interview technique for recruiting young hopefuls to the world of fast food catering. Two girls had turned up for an interview, one made an effort to look presentable, the other did not. The latter went first, greeted by the secretly proud to be assistant floor manager, who acknowledged her presence only by saying 'how's it going?' without looking for an answer and led her into another section of the restaurant, that wasn't open to the public, in which he had to take two chairs off a table for them to sit on. So much for preparation. Less than 10 minutes later they emerged and she left straight away. Then it was the other girls chance, who I pinned my hopes on, she looked nice, she was visibly nervous and she was smiling, that's always a good sign that the applicant might be quite keen. Well, I was surprised when the assistant floor manager greeted her in the same way, not extending his hand to her at all and led her into the closed restaurant area. I remarked to Ian how strange that was, 'it's all in the handshake' I remember learning at school, first impressions... The handshake is a clincher in making a first impression and this idiot may need a bit of tuition learning about interview techniques. I recall my first interview for a part time job at a food court when I was just fifteen years old and remember the manner by which that interview was conducted. It was professional, even 'though it was a self serve restaurant and even 'though I was fifteen years old. There were two managers present, conducting the interview together. I don't see why this young girl should not be given the opportunity to shake this guys hand! Anyway, she was in and out in 5 minutes which must be a record. None of my interviews, including my first at the food court, have been for less than 30 minutes! Amazing. Perhaps recruiting young hopefuls in the fast food industry is a real chore as the staff turnover is high.
We detoured on the way back to Sydney, to Newcastle again, so Ian could get a GPS reading and a photograph of the hostel that he forgot to obtain this morning. I think the traffic warden distracted him.
Our expected time of arrival in Sydney at 16:00 was wildly inaccurate. We arrived at 18:30 and after a brief 'this map must be wrong' followed by a short Anneka Rice's Treasure Hunt featuring mobile telephones whereby Rob was the nugget of gold, we located him wandering down the road toward Sydney Harbour Bridge which we had driven under just moments before.
We parked the car and made our way to the station to meet an unsuspecting Fiona, who had just finished her sixth day at work and had today received a promotion!
Kirribilli, the northern suburb of Sydney where Prime Minister John Howard resides, overlooks Port Jackson, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge and was our destination for this evening. We had a drink in a local pub which gave us a chance to quickly catch up and relay diving stories to each other, then took a bottle of Wolf Blass to a local Thai restaurant which served us some good meals for a good price. A couple of hours later, with many words spoken, we had to make our return journey to Forster, 300 kilometres away. I had volunteered to drive so Ian could enjoy a drink or two and following a couple of photographs we made our farewells and began the drive home.
It was wonderful to see Rob and Fiona, and have an evening of laughs and different stories. For me it was important as they are the first people who are familiar to me that I have seen in four months. Things fell back into place for the duration of their company and encouraged me in the decisions I will shortly have to make.
3 hours 45 minutes later we arrived back in Forster. It was a long drive home and I started to have irrational thoughts for the last 50 kilometres. There weren't any kangaroos, wombats or koalas roaming the roads at night, fortunately, but I did see a couple of wallabies in the last 20 kilometre stretch along the Lakes Highway, transfixed by the main beam of the headlights but nevertheless out of the road. I brought the car to a halt at 01:45.
Having felt rough for the entire journey home, bringing the car to rest at the hostel I found that the constant motion of the car had kept my stomach at bay. On emerging from the car I could no longer resist the retching within and was momentarily ill in the car park.
Our journey from Newcastle to Forster, to Newcastle to Sydney, and back to Forster covered 799 kilometres.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.