March 7, 2006 – 10:27 pm

A long week. A tan, a lack of sleep and money, a new way to live. I got new work boots and some corns to match. I got a helluva lot of pictures to share, once I get to upload them. I got a lot of things to think about and a lot of things to work on. And I’ve worked a lot.

Monday morning you could’ve seen me taking the 8:15 Glen Waverly train to East Richmond lugging my life’s luggage behing me. Never before and never again, will I commute with an extra 70 pounds. Was exhausted before 9 that morning. The team and I drove through the wistful browns of Australian countryside stopping occasionally for petrol or beef-and-toh-mah-toh pies. In three hours we were in Echuca. Echuca! Gezundheit. Echuca is a not-terribly-large town on the Murray River, just crost the border from New South Wales. Our hotel was a not-terribly-large shack where I’m not entirely convinced we weren’t squatting. We were in the field before one o’clock.

Enter the tan. For a week I’ve been outside every day. And it’s summer here. On wednesday I got burned real good, in particular an even line across my forearm which some found quite humorous. I was lucky: used a chunk of aloe plant from the matron of the local fish ‘n’ chips shop. Bought sunscreen as a reward the next day, for selling one home over to green. That was my pattern for the week—one sale a day, one tiny reward a day. Licorice for breakfast. A peach for lunch. Some fish ‘n’ chips later. New boots to replace the shoes that fell apart in the rainstorm last saturday. And herein lies the problem: $1000 will only take you so far. That’s how much I brought over, and that’s how far it took me. I’m outta money. I was outta money on friday.

Well, not really. I do have $3.12 left. Naturally this presents a problem, however, when trying to buy food or lodging. So when the road trip was over (just a bit worse for wear), I had to crash at my manager’s hostel. And while I’d love to think it’s out of the goodness of his heart, it’s because our employer’s… fudged a bit, and not paid me yet. So it’s been an interesting time. I’ve been living off mooched food for the past few days, and was quite worried that I’d lost a lot of weight until I realized that my pants were stretched out from carrying a camera all day. Yes, go ahead and laugh. I’ve got reserves on the way—$3000 AUD worth.

Soon, hope ‘n’ pray, I’ll have enough to afford the very next apartment that comes along. And you better believe I’m gonna take it.