THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (DA-DA DAH DAH)

It's been almost exactly a week since I packed my Sydney life into a 10 cubic metre storage unit and set off into the wild blue yonder. The wild blue yonder I'm referring to being my little blue Daihatsu Charade. The actually journey was along the Bruce Highway which isn't particularly wild. Or blue.

Anyway, my mum flew into Sydney last Wednesday and we drove up to Port Macquarie, via an essential detour to my storage container to collect some things that were accidentally packed by my dehydrated and stressed brain the day before. It was a really nice drive, and we passed through this gorgeous little place called Lake Cathie which I wouldn't mind having a look at next time I've driving around the north coast of NSW. Mum and I decided to be very classy and eat takeaway chinese in our hotel room, and the meal became even more civilised when we realised they hadn't given us any utensils to eat with. Picture me trying to use two reversed teaspoons as chopsticks. Classy.

The next day we drove up to the Sunshine Coast to my sister's house and I ended up staying there for just over a week. It was very chilled and relaxing. In fact, I don't know how I dragged myself away to complete the final leg of my interstate road trip up to Rockhampton. And here my rant begins: I really don't like this place. It's stinking hot, full of teenage mothers, country hicks, and bored kids wandering the streets looking for something to distract them from the fact that it's the 21st century and they live in a town where everything is closed on a Sunday. Not that there's anything much to do the other six days of the week either.

Rocky has wide streets with no cars on them, empty shopfronts and overflowing pubs, all wrapped up in a cloak of oppressive heat and humidity which saps the will to live. Granted there are some odd quirks to the place that some people may find attractive, like friendly people smiling at you in the street and starting up conversations in shops. As a former Sydney-sider, conversational strangers just freak me out. My sisters and I have tried for years to convince our remaining family members living here to move onto to greener pastures to no avail.

So I'm here in tropical Central Queensland, in the Beef Capital of Australia no less, undertaking my last minute trip planning via my parents' dial up (!!) internet connection and trying to appreciate the time I'm getting to spend with my family in spite of the less than motivating location. On the positive side, the exhausting heat and resultant lethargy is making me look forward to moving over the other side of the world even though I'll be arriving towards the end of a London winter (destined to be words that will haunt me in the near future I'm sure...).