Chapter 13 – Up Hill Both Ways

In which our hero has another go at riding to the station, and very nearly thinks she's going to encounter almost certain death ...

There was nothing on the O-Week schedule this morning that really grabbed my attention, so I decided to sleep in a bit. The sun was finally shining again, so I decided it was safe to leave the umbrella at home and ride down to the station. But first, though, I loaded on the sunscreen.

As I went turned from the driveway onto the road, it started to drizzle a bit. Only very lightly. Luckily, it didn't turn into anything. Then I started going down the hill. Good fun, as always. Then up the hill a bit. Ugh. Then down a steeper hill, which ended in a T-junction with another road. I felt like I was going too fast to safely navigate the turn at the bottom, so I squeezed on the breaks. And didn't really slow down. So I squeezed harder, until the break handles were all the way to the handle bars. Rather unnervingly I was still moving. Albeit at a more comfortable speed, but still. That's just not right.

Since I was essentially early for the bus, which would get me to school early, I decided to finally take the chance to take the bike in to the local bike shop. I chatted with the fix-it man, and told him I needed new brake pads, tighten the breaks, and both tighten and loosen the gears, as they kind of slipped when going up hill, and also the front ones didn't move at all. He said likely the cable was seized from disuse. They'd take a look at it, and call me with a quote. Good. Awesome. Excellent. Hopefully shan't have to think I'm gonna die ever again while riding down hill.

So off I go to school. The first thing I did was try to sign up for the trip to Lamington Park on Sunday, but it was full. This was doubly disappointing because I really wanted to go, and because I had a blog entry all prepared in my head about how our hero has her whole worldview shattered because she discovered that Lamington Park is not in fact a magical place where Lamingtons grow on trees. Lamingtons are sort of chocolate covered cakes, with a layer of either jam or cream in the middle, and with coconut on the outside, for those who don't know. How awesome would that be, though? It would be like Willy Wonka Land.

Anyway. I signed up for a beach walk instead, which I'd love to go to, but I'll have to see how I feel after the big day on Saturday. I might be too beat, and prefer to sleep in.

Then I texted my new engineering friends, and asked if they wanted to do the scavenger hunt. Two were busy, but the other one came along. So it was the two of us, another girl, who it turned out was also in engineering, and the tour guide. It was interesting, but most of the stuff and locations we'd already discovered for ourselves. Still, though, it was fun, and there was a chance to win prizes. If you signed up at the beginning, and there was an asterisk by your name, you won a prize. Turns out my new friend had an asterisk by his name, but he didn't want his prize, so he gave it to me. It was a Griffith University backpack! Woohoo!

We then milled around a bit, and had our lunches, and hung out at the library, checking emails and so on. Then we headed to the event called Welcome to Australia, which was basically what it sounds like – an introduction to and tips on living in Australia. It goes like this. Don't go in the water if you can't swim. If you want to be absolutely safe 100% from shark attacks, swim in a pool. Watch out for crocs up north near beaches and rivers, especially during the summer when they're most active. Don't go swimming in the summer because there's stingers, which are wee little jelly fish that you can't see but they can kill you. Even if there's stinger nets on the beaches, apparently the crocs like to climb up on the floaty boom bits and wait for human snacks to approach. The only way to completely avoid getting killed by a stinger is to not go in the water, or wear a full body protective stinger suit. The snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them, but all the same don't go tramping about in the bush. They'll leave you alone if you leave them alone. Don't try to find out what's in a hole by sticking your hand in it. Same goes for spiders. Don't go out at night without a torch. Don't go in the ocean in the dark, or after you've been drinking, or alone. Same rules apply to hitchhiking. Most importantly, swim between the flags, and watch out for rips, as they'll drag you out to sea. And yes, Wolf Creek was based on a true story.

Besides that, though, it's a great place. Hot, dry, full of easy going, friendly, laid back people. Home of the oldest continuous aboriginal culture in the world. Long history of dodgy dealings with the natives, but they're slowly trying to fix it. We should really learn as much as possible about the aboriginal culture because it's really very interesting.

Oh, also, I forgot to mention, Queensland has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, so wear sunscreen EVERYDAY.

Our new Danish friend was there as well, and she was very jealous of my new backpack. Afterword she and I went and sat and talked for a bit, just about high school, or gymnasium for her, and how we picked engineering, and that she did her final project for her bachelor's degree in a chocolate lab (as in the tasty kind, not the dog) messing about with lipids to change the properties of the chocolate. She's in bio technical engineering, which is like building things with cells, instead of with metal or electronic components, like other engineers do. Very interesting stuff.

Then off I went home. It was 5:15 by the time I got on the bus, so I knew I wouldn't make it back before the bike shop closed at 5:30. By the time I got off the bus I went straight there, just in case there was someone still packing up. By then it was 5:45, but the fix-it man was still inside. He opened the door, and brought out my bike. The bill came to $46. That's a total of $101 I've spent on it now. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have just bought a new one, or closer to new than this one. I may yet. Until then, though, this one is no longer a death trap, which is good.

I then proceeded to K Mart to get some notebooks, as I didn't have anything to write my class notes on. I was going to go for binders at first, but they've all got only two rings, which is a bit weird. I'm sure notebooks will be fine. I don't really expect there to be handouts the way there was in college, or other random papers to stick in. I also got some magnets for my magnet board, and some Blu Tack to stick things on the wall.

Then home. Once again, and as usual, I've created a very long-winded set-up for a very short point to the whole story. Here it is. I actually rode up the whole hill to the house. I stopped to take a breath a few times, but never got off the bike, and certainly never walked. Just stayed in the lowest possible gear, and kept at it slowly. It was very satisfying, but I was quite tired by the top.

Then I made my dinner, and ate it while watching The Block (awesome home reno competition show, that seems to be on every night). Then I basically went to bed.

I apologize for not having any appropriately related visual aids this time 'round. I do have a picture of the rocks on the side of Heslop Rd., though, so you can look at that.

Look Annie. Rocks.