Yes I'm here again!

As you may have deduced I am once again in the land of New Zealand and equally once again I'm working as a housekeeper in Discovery lodge, a job that I secured once more just 10 minutes after arriving in town! I realise now that I had been very spoiled by the luxury of the places I stayed with mum and dad as I'm shocked at the squalor of the dorm room even though I know that's it's in a better condition than it was when I left! Now that I write this I am reminded of the place that we were supposed to stay in Sydney where dad spent a sleepless night due to the utter filth of the apartment, which appeared to the untrained eye to have been last decorated (and probably last cleaned) at some point in the mid-1940's. The tumble-drier mounted on the bathroom wall was in fact a shining testament to post-war technology. I think I'm correct in reporting that the final event responsible for our decision to leave was mum's shower experience. The events were as follows...

As I left the bathroom, where I had just had an unfortunate incident of my own involving a collapsing shower head, I heard distant cries of 'somebody help!' I entered the ensuite bathroom only to discover the door to the shower cubicle fixed in a skewed position with mum trapped within its confines. It took the efforts of both me and dad to free her and at one point we thought there may have to be fire brigade intervention! Needless to say we left as fast as we could only to find that all the other accommodation in Sydney was inexplicably booked up.

As the parents dealt with this unfortunate turn of events I was having a visa related disaster of my own and all in all that day was probably the worst ever up until mid-afternoon when we finally found somewhere to stay that was much nicer than the place now christened 'the s***hole' (waldorf apartments on liverpool st if anyone would like to avoid it at all costs). The final event of that day involved dad's near death experience in the royal botanic gardens. As we walked along my dear father's life was almost cut tragically short when he was narrowly missed by a strange cross between a melon and a horse chestnut that fell from a great height! Thankfully our senses of humour had been restored by this point and the event was hilariously funny rather than disastrous!

Things did improve after this and we enjoyed the last few days of our time until the tearful parting at the bus stop. I now feel ready to come home and can't wait for this, seeing mum and dad has made me realise how much I miss everyone else back in blighty (I can't believe it's been over 6 months since I last saw you all).

Well I still have to try and work out my visas for India and Nepal so I'll use my remaining time to do that.

bye for now

Miss you all

Love

Katie

--x--