Where did I leave you on my last blog...AAAh yes the Sth of France. Spent some time with my friends Alain and Hedi and their respective families. Some of you may remember them: The two crazy French guys who came to Australia in 2001.
Alain has since gotten married and had a little girl who is just so cheeky and the spitting image of her father!! Certainly could not deny her!
I also spent time with Hedi and his family - Hedi came to pick me up and I arrived in the middle of the birthday celebration of his youngest son´s birthday. When people asked Florence Hedi´s wife where he´d gone she responded he´d gone to get his mistress - What an introduction!!! Needless to say I had a brilliant time. I was then invited to spend Mother´s Day with Florence´s family - A food experience if ever there was any!!! Not that I was complaining...My waistline however was another matter.
That day these guys also took me to La Moliere at approximately 2000m where we ended up having a snow fight in the middle of summer in a cave whose walls were still covered in ice...Great fun!!
Hedi and Florence offered then to drive me to St Raphael where I spent a couple of days with Nicky a friend of the family from when we lived in Holland. St Raphael is just such a lovely French coastal village. I dragged poor Nicki into almost every shop at which point she would remind me quite wisely that I had no more space in my rucksack....Still had space for a few more rings though - A girl never has enough jewellery!
Then onto Beziers to see my Aunts!!! All was going well until we reached Marseilles....Engine failure approximately 5 minutes out of the station...Not so bad really the train got pushed back into the station and the delay at this point was 45 minutes....Then just as we were about to leave the elderly lady sitting in front of me almost fainted...She was a diabetic had forgotten to take her medicine had not slept in 48 hours because her daughter in law had been murdered....Quite a horrific story. I won´t go into details.
I was amazed at the amount of people who just have no idea and were shouting at her to get off the train if she was not well...Guess who took it upon themselves to shoo them away and have some respect for the elderly...?
Was fun to see my aunts especially in their little village...I´d always been there in the cooler months...It´s one of those places that has a population of 5000 in summer and 5 in winter...So I actually got to see the place with some people in it and shops were open!! My Godmother and I went way out and got tattoos!!!! Well henna ones anyway!Then caught a train to Lyon where I spent a whole 5 hours catching up with Nicole!
Nic for those of you who don´t know her or what she´s up to is a fantastic friend of mine who is teaching English in France...Lunch a couple of glasses of rose and a creme brulee goes by so very fast: I was back on the train before I knew it.Destination: Geneva to see the equivalent of my Mum in Europe!!! Annelise is Mum´s best friend and has known me since before I existed. Was a little interesting staying with them as they have big big dog who is much a protector of the both of them. Did I mention it is a big dog with a very scary bark? I nearly lost my hand when Annelise past the phone to me one day - Thank God for reflex! So I always had to wait till the dog went walking with Giovanni Annelise´s husband to give her hugs!
What was great was seeing their grandson who I last saw when he was 2 months old...He is now two and has a brilliant personality and cheeky smile.
Unfortunately didn´t get to see Patrizia their daughter but hey you can´t do everything!
And from Geneva over to London...Stayed with another Florence and her family. I had last seen Florence in 2000...Was very cool seeing her as a Mum. Was also great catching up and chit chatting as girls do!
While in London I also caught up for dinner with Phil...Very cool evening with many beers consumed. I then had to get myself back to Reading...Got to Paddington station and noticed that my next train was in 40 minutes...Made myself comfortable on one of the platform seats - I must say at this point that no matter how many beers were consumed it does not account for the train just disappearing...Actually not even appearing on the platform..So off I went to check and indeed it had just disappeared...What did appear at that point was Dave.
Dave was heading in the same direction and seeing that the train had disappeared mentioned he needed a drink - A scotch straight up no ice sounded brilliant at that point in time. However the Brits in all their wisdom shut all their pubs at midnight..No chance for a drink.
So instead we bought a couple of bottles of wine a bottle opener and five plastic glasses...Came in handy when we got into the train (this one didn´t disappear) and shared it around with a few randoms...Other than Dave I have no idea the names of the other guys!!! Very interestting bunch let me tell you: We talked cricket world cup music basically everything the world and nothing!
Me and my random friends!
Unfortunately with the disappearing train I didn´t get back to Reading until almost 2am - Almost 3 hours to get back!! Florence was brilliant staying up until I got home! Merci!!!
Quiet day followed packing to head back to Ecuador...Yes you read that right - Ecuador! I fell in love with the place and within my first week in Europe had decided to come back. So I emailed a few people back in Ecuador and the trekking agency I travelled with needed someone to help out over the busy months of mid June to August and did I want the job? Jumped on the opportunity.
Will be easier to find work and the rest of it on the spot rather than trying to do it from overseas.
So my first week at work has been interesting - Firstly getting used to the Sth American way of doing things..."Alex relax take a break you work too fast" - A far cry from Caterair back in Sydney. Am going to be doing a heap of different things from selling the trips both trekking and Galapagos Islands to checking equipment. Scariest part right now is the speaking on the telephone to people in Spanish..Getting over that fear quite quickly.
Yesterday was an interesting day as Ecuador won against Costa Rica (World Cup for those of you who haven´t a clue what I´m on about) so as of about 10 am it was party town (went until very very late at night)...Needless to say many businesses were not open or if they were the owners were out in the street partying with the rest of them...As we were. Doesn´t stop there though England also won their game and most importantly Sweden won...My boss is a Swede...Agency was shut from 12 for the rest of the day with rum and coke being consumed in large quantities!
So here I am planning to stay in Ecuador for as long as I possibly can. I absolutely love this country and the people. I have had nothing but positive reactions from all the Ecuadorians I have told about my plans so am asking all of you to cross your fingers for little old moi!
