Last week in Freo

Four days of digging, a day off, another day of digging, two days off, gardening today and working on the docks tomorrow...all cash in hand. This is how I've been surviving without using my bank account. I would normally be using it, but there's nothing in there in withdraw. Odd.....I could have sworn that I transfered ALL my money from my Chong Hing account to my Canadian account over two weeks ago. Wait! I did!
I hate Chong Hing. The last two times I've transfered money from my Chinese bank to my Canadian bank there's been some mysterious cause which delays the movement of cash. When this happened before I still had money in my pocket. But, this time I took everything out and wire transfered it to CIBC. Somehow it's still not there yet.

So, I'm still in Fremantle, an area of Perth which everyone calls Freo. There seem to be a lot of short names for things here, many of them ending in 'o's'. The music scene here is amazing. I've seen some great bands, the best I've seen in ages. The best so far has been, Felicity Groom and the Black Black Smoke. Great stuff. For anyone planning on passing through Perth anytime in the future, just give the city a couple of days, then stay in Freo and head to Mojo's in north freo. Last night I went to their open mic night and didn't play. I showed up around half eight with my guitar but the night's list was already packed. There were some great acts and really talented musicians. It's been so easy to settle in here in Freo.

I called a fella who placed an ad for a riding companion to Melbourne a couple of days ago, and now happily have a lift all the way along Australia's east coast all the way to Melbourne, nearly 4000km away. The fella driving is a German named Daniel. He has a station wagon in good condition and wants to camp pretty much the whole way to Mel. Gas and any camping expenses will be split between the three of us, Daniel, myself and some other German gal. Another guy at the hostil traveled with Daniel before and said he can be a bit of a pain, being very regiment in his plans. So, if he's too annoying, I'll hop out and hitch the rest of the way. With all the places we plan on visiting it should take about three weeks give or take.

Right then. So far I've met some very friendly people, picked oranges and lemons, done a load of gardening, seen some great bands and have been shedding away the layers of Hong Kong's air (big breath in...ahhhhh...).
Awesome.
My friend's in HK, James and Elodie have given me the number of a friend of their's living in Perth. I think I'll give her a ring soon.
ho yeah!

tartar
brendan