Thursday #80 – this Thursday kicked
off with a bunch of oldies testing my patience. I was fully booked
up until lunch and somehow, despite a lot of these older patients
being booked in for long appointments anyway, I managed to go over
time and cut my lunch down to just 25 minutes. I was not a happy
camper.
The afternoon, as it often is on a
Thursday, was decidedly more cruisy. I made up for my short lunch
with an hour break at 2.30 and another hour of nothing at 4.00.
These breaks are proving handy for writing this blog – the only
problem is remembering what I did a week later.
After work I briefly popped home, said
hi to DTM then made my way to West Ryde for dinner with my old
contiki pals. I know what you're thinking – I went somewhere that
started with the word “west” and believe me I was hesitant too.
Apparently West Ryde was a good midpoint as we travelled from
Forestville, Glebe, Parramatta and somewhere near The Blue Mountains
to get there. I'm not so sure, I spent almost an hour in the car
which was significantly longer than the Parramatta crew. I had my
trusty google maps directing me and made it there about 5 minutes
early. I had allowed extra time for traffic but was starting to
think my estimates may be off when the map refused to update its time
as I sat in traffic and it said I was 38 minutes away for over 10
minutes of sitting on the pacific highway. Managed to find a park
not too far away from the West Ryde Hotel and applauded myself on an
excellent reverse park. It wouldn't be until hours later when we
returned to our cars that I realised I was parked in front of a
driveway. Luckily I got away with it, except of course for the
ridicule from my old contiki pals and jokes about the optometrist not
being able to see – hilarious.
I was the first one to arrive and
busied myself at the ATM while I waited for the others. I had agreed
to the night as I really had no legitimate reason not to but I was
not super psyched for this reunion. The first four days of my
contiki tour in 2005 were awesome, I was having the time of my life
(and yes I did just quote our day song which blared on the bus every
morning for 28 days) and had already made a tight little group of
friends with The Oh-You-Won't-To-Talk-To-Us Westie Sister With A
Complex, The Other Westie Sister and The J'ai Perdu Mon Sac Girl.
Everything changed that fateful night in Barcelona on the 22nd
of September.
To recap briefly: after a few too many
sangrias on the beach, my bag (complete with passport, license,
credit card, cash and camera) was yanked off my arm by a sneaky
Spaniard as we waited for a taxi back to the hotel. I set off in
pursuit but didn't get too far before falling over (as evidenced by
the bruises on my arms and grass stains on my jeans). In tears, I
made my way back to the club where everyone else was drinking,
accompanied by The J'ai Perdu Mon Sac Girl. I finally made my way
back to the hotel and eventually into bed. The next morning, despite
being stupidly drunk and losing her bag the first night in Paris and
relying on me to help her get home safe, The J'ai Perdu Mon Sac Girl
stopped by my room to tell my roomies what had happened and
essentially pass on the message that I was too much trouble and she
did not plan to help with my exciting day of filling out police
reports. This was when The Fake Vegetarian, The Professional Actor
and The Melbourne Nurse all stepped up and became my new crew.
I was pretty unimpressed that my
seemingly tightnit group had fallen apart after one drunken night
and a robbery that was not really my fault. They didn't seem to
appreciate that I was in fact the victim in this scenario. Needless
to say, after the events in Barcelona, I felt a little bit weird and
out of place with the two Westie Sisters and The J'ai Perdu Mon Sac
Girl who had effectively kicked me out of the group with 3.5 weeks
still remaining on tour. I occasionally hung out with some other
people – The LA Sisters, The Primary School Teacher, The Kiwi
Translating Husband & Wife Team, and others, but mostly spent my
days with The Fake Vegetarian, who was a lovely person but not always
the most fun and had a tendency to eat my chocolate – always
willing to trade but knowing I don't like the dark crap she buys.
So back to Thursday, after getting my
cash out, I nervously waited for the others to arrive, well aware
that I was going to struggle through awkward conversation for most of
the night. The Oh-You-Won't-To-Talk-To-Us Westie Sister With A
Complex and her fiancé
were the first to arrive and we managed to get through some small
talk without too much awkwardness before the next person, The Very
Proud Bulldogs WAG, arrived. We found ourselves a table and got
through the basics – new jobs, new men, new houses, new nieces
while we waited for The Primary School Teacher and The Kiwi
Translating Husband & Wife Team to arrive.
I was very relieved when they did
arrive as having never been part of their group, I felt less awkward
around them as they also hadn't ditched me 4 days in. I realise it
has been almost 8 years but to a young 18 year old that stuff hurt.
I spent a big part of my night catching up with The Kiwi Translating
Husband who had mistakenly believed I was some sort of journalist in
my contiki days. We had realised about halfway into the tour that a
newsagency was not in fact called that in New Zealand and I had led
these Kiwis to believe I worked at a newspaper rather than at a Dairy
(as I'm told it's called in NZ). Halfway through the night, The Kiwi
Translating Husband switched seats with his wife and I got to catch
up with her – the night was going much better than I had
anticipated.
We stayed until they kicked
us out, reminiscing and laughing at the crazy shenanigans from our
European Panorama. Toga parties, skinny dipping, parties with the
Swiss army, allegations of meat poisoning and dancing on tables were
all discussed and it became increasingly obvious that I was the only
one aware of my perceived outcast status.
I drove home in about half the time it
took me to get there and was happy to report to DTM that it really
hadn't been as bad as I was expecting. It's not every Thursday you
catch up with people you haven't seen since your teens.
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