Dreamweaver (Part 3)

All throughout the day Lucy had a great big grin on her face. She was still very happy from meeting Rupert Yellowstone and the Professor and getting to play with sheep. The day passed very slowly for Lucy and she could not pay attention in her classes at school, even her favorite English class.  She could only doodle sheep on her notebook. Lucy was also quite the doodler, her drawing of sheep on a farm was given a gold star at school just last week.

After the last school bell, Lucy rushed home and told her mother she would like to take her bath early. As nice a girl as Lucy was, she did not particularly enjoy baths. So Mrs. Adwater was surprised Lucy would ask to take a bath. After her bath, Lucy quickly finished all her homework and set up the table for dinner. Mr. Adwater arrived home at 6 pm as usual and they had their dinner together. Tonight was spaghetti night and Lucy loved pretty much everything her mother cooked, but especially spaghetti, that was her favorite. That evening though, Lucy ate her dinner quickly, but still making sure to chew her food properly. She just chewed and swallowed a bit faster than usual.

After she had eaten everything on her plate, Lucy asked to be excused so she can go to bed. She said she was very tired.  Her parents were surprised because  Lucy would usually ask to play with her farm animal set and read her favorite book 'Farmer Bill's Guide to All Types of Sheep'. But they did not see anything wrong with Lucy sleeping early and asked her to brush her teeth before going to bed. Lucy agreed and ran up the stairs, brushed her teeth and went straight to her room. A moment later Mr. and Mrs. Adwater came in to tuck Lucy and and kiss her on her head good night. Lucy said good night back and smiled.

Her parents shut the door and Lucy sprang up from her bed. She was very excited of going back to meet Rupert and the Professor and perhaps, just perhaps, playing with the sheep in the field again! All the excitement and joy came bubbling up in Lucy as she thought about this. So she lay down again to get to sleep.

Then it dawned on her, what she had wanted to ask Rupert last night before he pushed her through the door. A deep set horror filled her. She had forgotten what exactly she did last night to get to the starry field! She feared doing the wrong thing and she could never return to that place.

After thinking long and hard she decided to give it a try anyways. What had she got to lose. She counted a thousand sheep. She stood on her head and jumped several times. She turned around and laid on the opposite end of the bed and flipped right and left. She did all this and did it again to make sure. She had done everything. Lucy thought she must have done something wrong. She still could not sleep. Finally, she gave up and laid there exhausted. Then she fell asleep.

Lucy opened her eyes and found darkness, all around her. She felt a strange sensation. A sort of weightlessness. But great gusts of winds was blowing on her face and on her whole body. She looked around and her vision started to come into better focus. Lucy started spotting bright objects far away all around but they were moving very fast past her. In front of her a small green dot was growing bigger at an alarming rate. Then it came to her. She was in the sky and falling fast!

Lucy shut her eyes and let out a loud scream and held it for a long time. When she was out of breath, she looked down and saw the green dot which now turned into a cube. But she was still not there yet. So she shut her eyes again, took another deep breath and continued screaming.

All of a sudden the wind stopped and Lucy was hanging in mid air. Then Lucy looked down and saw she had stopped several inches from the green grassy ground. Her mouth not realizing this, had screamed on for a few seconds longer. She turned behind and saw Rupert holding the neck of her pyjamas. Lucy gave Rupert a nervous smile. He in turn rolled his eyes and frowned. Lucy had a feeling that tonight, she might not be playing with any sheep.

Easter 4

4. Easter Monday

The last of Easter. Geez. Went for bushwalk at John Forrest National Park. Went for the eagle walk which was the longest one there, 15 km. So here we go. We did counterclockwise walk. At first, being the great explorers ourselves we went on ahead, head held high, all the confidence and adventure-filled hearts we had. Then 20 minutes in, where there were supposed to be the yellow eagle arrows throughout the path, the eagle abandoned us. We had very cleverly (dumbly) gone on to some other trail and had to make one big round back to eagle trail. What great start!

So we pushed on forward confident we were now adept navigators and could brave any mountain, creek or gorge. Opened up our brochure maps and made clever observations about the rocks and trees and landmarks we saw. Awesome. We trudged on, still greatly excited with all we saw. We walked through wide flat roads, narrow paths, steep rises, slow descents. There were wonderful views of the open bush. We saw a waterfall with no water (not enough rain for there to be any water. seriously). Lots of trees and greens all around, really nice air. So that was all nice and dandy.

So now, fast forward 2 hours. Bloody hell. bush, tree, hill, slope, red rock, black rock, sand. I don't give a shit anymore! It all looks the same! So we trudge along and up and down. Then there was a half hour of really narrow path, which wonderfully (would you have guess), the leaves of the plants were all pointy and prickly. So yes, for 30 minutes, we were dodging left right center, and going with constant 'ooh's and 'aah's, not from the pretty plants but getting poked by them.

Then we climbed up one bit and lo behold, finally hit another wonderful view. Could see Perth city surrounded by clouds. It really looked like a castle in the sky. Real beautiful. Then we some more big rocks and went to climb those. And again in front more big rocks. So we so had to climb those too. How often does one get distracted by big rocks that you just have to climb them? Very much always I would imagine. Rock = Climb.

Note: Rock facades may seem steeper in photograph than actually is.

Anyways, we got on this a bit, and at the end walked a long without thinking and yeah, we got kind of lost again. I saw some building in front on the next hill that sort of looked like where we started. But there was no path there. So me being all forest-smart and all, suggested, we should brave it and trudge through the bush to that building (which to be fair looked sort of near (now thinking back looks few km away)). So luckily, no one listened to me. And we did the smart (boring) thing and went back the route and found the previous yellow eagle and headed for the correct path. Then some more plodding along in the endless path. The last 2 km was tough, lots of rocky paths and tight bush ways. But finally we made it to the end! Took us about 4+ hours. I reckon we could have gotten on quicker had we been more vigilant with the map. But oh well, adventure's still and adventure, even more so when u get lost late in the evening and get a bit panicky.

So great. we all got out good and proper, tired as hell. So what do we do next? Get something to eat of course. Went to Hungry Jacks and got whoppers. So what next? Go home and rest? Oh nooooo. We went rock climbing. Because we are geniuses, we can do anything (not really). So headed for the Hangout. Obviously we weren't the only geniuses in the room. There were 2 other guys there climbing too. So yes, I could only do 4 walls before my arms gave out, to the point I lifted them up 90 degrees and they were shaking. So we stayed for a bit longer for a few more walls and headed home. Add 24 hours later and my arms still barely working properly.

Well, overall, awesome Easter. Gotten over the chocolate overdose and now actually drooling when I think of it already. Go kart not so much, maybe later when my arms don't hurt as much. Paintball was great, would absolutely go again. And bush walk, yes, probably going for another one next month. My sister suggested a 900+km walk which would take 6-8 weeks. Yes, I want a bit of adventure but no, I'm not looking to become Buddha, so I'm going to pass on that. And so, add horseback riding too. I so want to do that. Go kart, found another circuit, so probably try that one too.

Alright, back to work now. Bring on the pain, the cranial variety now...

Easter 3

3. Easter Sunday

This was a bit of a rest day, in the sense there was not much physical activity. Well, first we went to Elmar's for lunch. Huge big pork shank, which we struggled to finish, and pork ribs. Was thinking about a stein to go with it, but nooo, I need to be standing straight for the rest of the day. So decided against that.

Okay, after that we went to Margaret River Chocolate Factory. I love my choc, but I don't like dark choc (you purists can just shut up right about now, I don't care what you say. I like milk and white choc). So here, there's free samples of choc, so I just stuffed my face full of choc, lots. It was great. Then we went to get some honey from 1 farm near there. And on the way out we saw an awesome-looking cow. So took a picture of Mr. Cow.

Then we went to Freo for the Street Arts Festival. First we stopped off for some gelato. I got lemon and tropical. Real nice. Then went to a secondhand bookshop to have a look around. There wasn't any books I really wanted so didn't get anything. Then went to see some street performances. Some were pretty good, some were kinda lame. There was a mime, the guy in the picture was pretty good and a lady in pink, can't remember her name either. Then we got some crepes. By this point I was quite full already. So what happened next was pretty suicidal.

We went for more choc!!! San Churro. If you don't know what death by chocolate means, you'll know it after going to this place. We got chocolate fondue, chocolate churros, and chocolate drinks. I ordered something called Azteca. That's chocolate drink with chili and cinnamon in it. Those drinks actually came with warnings saying this is seriously thick chocolate, so be warned. We were thinking, yeah right, bring it on. And it was brought on. And I don't believe I'd say this, but I nearly puked chocolate. But was really nice, everything tasted great. Was a bit greedy and ordered too many things is all. Ah, choc heaven. Wonderful...