My last blog entry a few weeks ago was less than inspiring, but this time I am coming off the back of two brilliant weeks in Australia. That in itself was an uplifting experience, but even as I sit here looking at the rain falling in Bovey Tracey and struggling to keep warm enough I still have a stupid inane grin on my face thinking about all the things that happened in those two weeks.
Before I left I met with a few school friends for a drink up in the Cromwell Arms in Bovey; Garry Styles, Chris Towell, Liam Berry and Fiona Squire. It was good to catch up and at one point Garry told me I could use his video camera and make a video diary, the only requirement being that I left some adult material on there for him when I gave it back... I'm afraid I've let him down on that score. But I do still have the Wagon Wheel that he gave me! And I decided that a video diary might be quite fun too.
Me with Concorde G-BBDG again!
The journey to Heathrow with Chris and his girlfriend Krysy was filled with talking rubbish (as we usually do) and Burger King. Krysy wanted to see big planes, which was the reason they were taking me in the first place. So we briefly dropped around to Brooklands so I could show them Concorde G-BBDG, which I had helped volunteer on a few times in 2006. Given it was so close to closing time, they allowed us in for half-price and I asked if a few of the Brooklands crew were around and we were told to go to Concorde and see if they were on or around her. We saw some people scaling the steps at the rear and decided to follow, only to be stopped at the top of the steps and told there was a tour taking place. After apologising and asking if the same crew members were around, I was asked how I knew them and explained my brief volunteering role, and all 3 of us were beckoned on board to join the tour! We weren't trying to blag anything, but somehow we had done just that in the space of ten minutes! A massive thank you to all of the Brooklands crew that over the years I have met, and that have allowed me access to Concorde.
Concorde G-BBDG with an A380 flying out from LHR overhead
On to Heathrow and of course our progress was hampered by the M25, but we got there eventually! Bags checked-in, no problems there. Up to the bar, no problems there! Then Chris and Krysy left and I went through security and took my flight. Not that a 23 hour journey can ever go quickly, but this one seemed to and before I knew it I could see Jess and that moment of sheer joy washed away all the troubles that had come a few weeks before. No anxiety, no stress, just a warm Australian welcome. By Aussie standards it wasn't that warm, but 18C upon arrival? Already better than the English summer! We got to Jess's house and her parents were running down the steps before I'd even got out of the car! With a welcome like that, you have to love Australia. It's a magical place to me.
Obviously, the first thing that happened was the barbeque was fired up. I'm pretty sure the first beer wasn't long after that either! Then the phone starts ringing and it's members of Jess's family calling to welcome me back to Australia. Fantastic... it really doesn't get better! The jet-lag was almost non-existant, I managed to time my sleeps on the plane fairly well and so that first day was a belter. When the sun came out on day 2 and it was 30 degrees, with Jess and Janice at work, Craig and I worked on things around the house. First things first, I cleaned the pool. Rule number 1 of the house: If you clean the pool, you must then swim in it. I wasn't informed of Rule number 3, which was You don't have to do anything if you don't want to. The pool isn't heated, and so it's quite refreshing on a hot day, but even in 30C heat, the swim didn't last long at all and I got out into the heat quickly! I did have a second dip later after bowing to peer pressure from Craig, but it wasn't until later on that I realised that I still don't know what Rule number 2 is.
Sat on Pole Position at Mount Panorama, Bathurst
Dinners with friends and family, meeting with the MUCC cricket guys, beers and sunshine... the first week was going quickly. Then on the Thursday, a trip up into the Mountains and an activity that made a LOT of my motorsport loving friends jealous! We went to the Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst, where the weekend before the Australian V8's had competed in the Bathurst 1000! Before we went, I had very little knowledge of the sport, the circuit and had no idea of the layout. After being a passenger for a few laps, I got to take the wheel and my hunger was fuelled! It's very tempting to break the 60kmh speed limit but the Aussie's are very hot on speeding, so we had to make do. Craig and I have done the F1 at Albert Park in Melbourne before, next on the list is the Bathurst 1000. Simply amazing. Here's my video of the experience.
Whole Group at the Wedding
The real reason behind the visit was of course, Sarah and Garth's wedding. The whole experience was fantastic for me so I can't begin to think what it was like for them. I was nervous about meeting other members of Jess's family that I hadn't yet met, but they were all fantastic and every single person made me feel welcome, as well as the customary Pommy-bashing! As always with Australians, I gave as good as I got and so I think there was a mutual respect there, and there is a case of beer already riding on the outcome of next year's Ashes series with one of Jess's cousins! Of course, this means I'll be a case up come September!
Family Picture
The night before the wedding I was invited out for some beers with Garth, his brother Jason and his best man John. John is hilarious, and your typical Australian fun-loving bloke. We went into Windsor for a steak and a few beers (Fat Yak is awful... but I drunk it) and we all put in some money to waste (sorry, to bet) on the horses, dogs and anything else that was on the TV's in the betting section. Pretty much every pub over there has them, and as someone who very rarely makes a bet, I have to admit it was quite fun. I picked the only winner, John won a bet for coming second, but apart from that we didn't win a thing! Betting is nearly always a waste of money, but it was a great night, hilarious, we all had fun, great guys and you can't really put a price on that.
With the Happy Couple
The wedding itself was beautiful. Sarah looked beautiful in her dress, Jess looked stunning in her bridesmaid's dress and the love between Sarah and Garth was clear. And once again, the sun was out and the sky was cloudless, surely symbolic of how bright the future is for them. The 30 degree heat was affecting a few out there, and I'm not going to lie I was quite hot wearing that suit but it was definitely bearable. The biggest difficulty I had was not over-exposing the photographs I was taking, it was just that bright! Obviously the day was about Sarah and Garth but I couldn't help thinking that one day that would be Jess and I, with a lot of the same people in attendance.
With my beautiful bride-to-be
The reception was brilliant, the speeches from the fathers and the Groom were emotional, the Best Man's speech was hilarious and the stories about Garth's early adult life and how he met Sarah were just as funny. Even funnier were the pauses that John put in his speech as he leant back and giggled to himself, already aware of the next line! Everybody had fun at the reception, the music was great and there was even a little Michael Jackson medley put in on my behalf by Sarah! Thank you! I told Jess's cousin Nick that I didn't dance much but I couldn't help but moonwalk across the floor when MJ was on! Nick told me that it was Bad. No pun intended.
Before we knew it, the weekend was over. Janice's friends, Donna and Al, stayed with us for a night at Jess's house. Al is originally from New Zealand and has a very quick wit, he is brilliant. He gives people nicknames that seemingly make no sense until you dig a bit deeper. He calls Craig "Wilbur" after Wilbur Wilde, the saxophonist (Craig used to play the sax). He calls Jess and Sarah "Little Wilburs". The first time he met me in 2011, he said the first English person that came to mind when Jess said she was with a "Pommy" was Margaret Thatcher. Therefore, I am now forever known to him as Margaret. I was told it was a one-way street, and that he doesn't accept nicknames, but with his big handle-bar moustache, I couldn't help but call him Merv, and he accepts that! Donna and Al are a massive part of Janice and Craig's life, and they are effectively family. They accepted me too, and have always made me feel welcome, I can't wait to visit them in Queensland and hopefully will see the snakes that Merv has told me so much about.
VH-OJJ arriving in Sydney
with the rainbow backdrop
So one week was done, just one to go. I still found time to have a morning to take photographs at Sydney Airport with a good friend, Lee Gatland. I had previously met Lee at SYD and we got on well then, this time we got on even better and Lee even let me use his lens on my camera, and the results were spectacular. The rainbow that came out to greet us made it even more special. I have literally hundreds of photo's to edit and put up at some point. I will definitely be meeting up with Lee for more photography in future, and I owe him more than a few beers so I'm sure the cameras will get put down at some point too.
Jess holding a
Woma Python
Garth and Sarah went away on honeymoon to Noosa, Jess and I went to the cinema to see Taken 2 in Gold Class. Very posh. Then we caught the Rivercat and went to stay in Darling Harbour for a couple of nights. The Four Points Hotel is beautiful, our view over Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay was gorgeous and we got a great view of the sunset. For the next two days we did another go on the Jet-boat, this time wearing waterproofing, went to a few bars, walked around the Harbour, had more than a few drinks and just enjoyed being in each other's company. We also went into Wildlife Sydney and I told Jess that I would pay for her to hold a snake! She had said before that she would hold my cousin's pet Brazilian Rainbow Boa while she was in England, but it never happened. This time there was no way out, and to her absolute credit she did it! She held a Woma Python and I'm very proud of her.
With Jess in Darling Harbour
Incredibly my time in Australia was over again! My bags coming back were so light, the baggage handlers must have loved me! I hate saying goodbye to people that mean a lot to me, and I managed to fight off the tears as I said goodbye to Jess's parents but when it came to saying goodbye to Jess at the airport... Nothing could stop it, as hard as I tried. It was gut-wrenching to think I wouldn't see her again for 6 months and as a consequence the flight home was a very very long affair. The one bright spot of the journey came in Singapore. At the gate, with all passengers still on board the PA system announced:
"Would passenger by the name of Charles Carter please make himself known to the ground staff when disembarking the plane. Charles Carter. Thank you."
A mild panic set in... What was that about? Being one of the first off I went straight to the ground staff who then smiled politely and said:
"Mr Carter, you have been invited to the Qantas First Class Lounge.
Please make your way up there and have a good day!"
WOW!! Thank you very much. And I knew immediately that Lee had something to do with it, so again massive thank you to Lee! This is why I owe him more than a few beers!
I got to the Lounge and my word, it looked amazing. I sat down at the complimentary Apple Mac computers and immediately logged onto Facebook, as you do. After a quick status update and making sure I logged out, I was just making my way to a seat for a drink when the tannoy gladly announced:
"Would all remaining passengers for Qantas flight 1 to London please make your way to the gate where your flight is now ready for boarding and an immediate departure."
D'oh! So I make way for gate C23, get through security again and sit by the gantry waiting to board. And I sat there for at least an hour. D'OH! Could have stayed in the beautiful Qantas lounge! When we finally got on the plane, I sat in my seat and thought about how long this flight to London would be. Big mistake! While sat at the gate the Captain announced that we had missed our slot time for flight over Afghanistan and we'd have to wait almost an hour before leaving. Lightning DOES strike twice... this exact same reason saw my flight delayed leaving Singapore back in April 2010! In the end, no dramas, just a late departure and a loooooong flight to London.
Unusually for me, I didn't stick around to get some photographs of the aircraft's flight deck and being sat at the front of Economy, I was one of the first ones off the plane because I knew if I wasn't I'd have to queue at Customs, and the plan worked... Straight through. Then it was just a case of waiting for the bags... 30 mins. Might as well have queued! It was a struggle to get the bags down to the trains but I did it! And got the Heathrow Express into Paddington. Looking at the clock, it was 7am! We had only landed at 6am so I hadn't done badly at all, but now it was a waiting game. My train wasn't until 10:55am! I hung around for breakfast and then convinced the train manager of the first available train to let me on. The train journey was slow... the train was late out of the depot. How can the FIRST train of the day be late?! Then we got stuck behind a stopping service on the same line, so averaged 30mph to Reading. Finally we got some speed up, then had to slow down for other trains. Then we had to slow for leaves on the line. It's not a great advert for First Great Western but they have no affiliation with Beardy Branson so I'm quite content with them.
I arrived at Newton Abbot station about an hour late but still way before my scheduled train would have arrived, and after a 20 minute power nap in the late afternoon I went to the pub for a couple of pints with my mate Garry (Not Styles!). Now it's Tuesday morning and I'm back to work. It's still dark but it is cloudless here at least for now. That of course means it will be cold, and a stark contrast to the land Down Under right now but it's a brief glimpse of brightness when the days now cease at around 4:30pm. But really, what a difference the sun makes.
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