Cock Up

13/11/11

Last night I had thought everything through pretty well and figured out when I needed to get up and pack so that I would be at the train station at 12:45. I also wanted to do some washing so I allowed time for that too. I got up early and said goodbye to Tristan and Brooke but then went back to sleep. I woke up to my alarm at 10:00 and got up to put my washing on. I really don't know where the 30 mins went while I was waiting for my washing but oh well, I still had about 2 hours before the train. I put the washing in the dryer and started packing. I also made a couple of sandwiches for the journey. Packing seemed to take a lot longer than I anticipated and I went down to get my dry washing at 11:50. I was aiming to leave at about 12:10. I was already starting to get a little stressed about the time at this point. Then, Drama! I locked myself out of the front door of the house due to a number of smaller cockups: 1) the front door usually doesn't close properly and lock, 2) I didn't take my keys because I had just taken the apartment key off the keyring and left the front door key on the table, 3) I'm a muppet (so that's on Mum and Dad for not raising me properly). It was such a horrible feeling standing outside the house with my bag of washing and knowing I only had about 15min to finish packing and leave, less any time it took me to get in the house, if I could at all. I had my cell phone but I hadn't bothered to put Brooke or Tristans number in it and didn't have my computer on me (obviously). Luckily I knew that all of the apartments in the building could get to the front door even though they had external access so I went knocking, no avail. Luckily I heard music from an upstairs window and started yelling like a madman. A girl came to the window and was extremely dubious of my situation but reluctantly came to the front door to let me in. I think the accent might have pushed me across the line! I quickly packed and left at 12:15. Google reckoned it was a 26min walk but I was still worried I might get lost. It was a pretty awful run/walk with my 27kg on my back in the 25 deg C heat but luckily I made it to the station in time and I am now successfully on the train. Phew.

When I got into Oakland Blair and Kylie picked me up and we hit the road to get a few miles towards the redwoods tonight. We drove for a couple of hours on a tiny wee road that was State Highway 1. Apparently the 1 is the senic route and changes dramatically from 6 lanes wide to barely a lane wide. We also had a bit of a chuckle at the signs thats said "Narrow bridge" and all that happened is there was only about a foot from the edge of the road to the lane instead of the normal 3. We considered how Americans would describe a single lane bridge with a railway line down the middle of it. We found a good place to stop at about 11 and stopped for the night.