mykrocosm

Sometimes it can be a little frustrating when your company has a certain way of doing things…

Me, to Interstate Contractor : You do need those items. I’ll courier them over.

Interstate Contractor : Can you ship it Express Post, I find they deliver here much better than TOLL.

Me : No worries, I’ll send it now. You should get it tomorrow or the day after.

< 2 minutes later >

Me, to Receptionist : We really want to send this Express Post, as TOLL takes too long.

Her : We usually courier with TOLL.

Me : Yes, we’ve sent this stuff before with TOLL and they take ages. But it turns out that Express Post is quicker for these parcels.

Her : Ok. What’s the shipping address I need to give TOLL?

Me : Here it is. But if you could ship Express Post, that’d be great.

Her : Ok, no worries.

Me : Let me know when you’ve sent it via Express Post.

Her : Sure.

< 2 weeks later >

Interstate Contractor : Yay! Finally got the package. I see you sent it through TOLL again.

Hotel Rwanda is an unforgettable must-watch movie, if for no other reason that to open our eyes to a little bit of the suffering in other countries that we tune out during the nightly news. A true story told in an honest yet urgent manner. No gun-toting Hollywood heroes here, just a man with dignity, integrity and ultimately, courage.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. — Ambrose Redmoon

• Camping In Summer

I’ve done my share of camping on the Adelaide Plains over the years, up at Mount Crawford in the north, over at Kuitpo Forest and down on the Coorong. Always between Autumn and Spring though, as everybody loves a bonfire. This particular New Years camp however was smack in the middle of the fire ban season, and on top of that we got a couple of 38 degree days, which meant a Total Fire Ban, ie. not even gas stoves allowed. Not the best situation to be in when you’re faced with eskies full of BBQ meat and rapidly melting ice.

• The Best Places Are Off The Beaten Track

Blowhole Beach, in Deep Creek Conservation Park at the bottom of the Fleurieu Peninsula, is a beautiful little cove where a creek runs through clean white sand into a crystal clear ocean. Amazingly, the uncivilized hordes haven’t descended on this little paradise yet. The reason? There’s only two ways to get there - an arduous 3km trek or a 4WD only track.

• A Mistubishi Mirage is not a Four Wheel Drive

Neither is a Honda Civic. After a lovely couple of hours at this idyllic beach we hopped into our cars. Our attempts to climb back up the steep gravel track were so woefully pitiful I won’t describe the spinning, the sliding and the clouds of dust. Reality set in as we realised we were stranded miles from civilisation under a rapidly setting sun, with a park brochure which stated firmly and clearly that “Park Rangers will not assist people on 4WD tracks”.

However, the Park Ranger wasn’t at all annoyed to receive our phone call. In fact he seemed amused to learn there was not one but two cars full of idiots. He cheerfully arrived half an hour later and towed the cars up the hill with the minimum of fuss, and even more cheerfully divested us of $100 and was soon on his way.

• Fortune Favours The Idiots

We had a park brochure with phone numbers, we had charged mobile phones, we were able to get reception (not from the mainland but from Kangaroo Island!), we had just moments earlier paid our park entry fees at the self-serve station and thus avoided a $600 slapdown fine, we got into trouble at just the right time when the park ranger was available, and we also happened to have the necessary gratuity on us. In addition, the bushfires raging around the peninsula somehow managed to avoid us and our campsite at all times, so all in all we were remarkably fortunate.

• Cut Your Losses

Despite having a wonderfully shady campsite with a lovely breeze off the coast, our food supplies were feeling the heat more than us and so we came back to the city a day early and had a massive cookup above the beach at Seacliff before cheering in the New Year accompanied by the distant Glenelg and Brighton fireworks. It turned out to be an awesome party.