Return of the Backpacker

On my return from my final dive reality started to reassert itself. My evening was spent packing up the last of my bit and pieces so I could leave the staff flat the next morning. I had not long finished that task when one of my flatmates appeared and invited me for a drink with her friends. The three of them were Jananese and had varying degrees of English and my Japanese is non-existent but between us with various hand gestures and wine we had fun and it was a good end to my time as staff. It also cheered my up as packing up knowing I wasn’t working the next day meant that the reality if being unemployed and done at yet another job was sinking in. What on earth would I do with myself for the next two days??

In the end my last two days passed quickly though they were quiet. When I was ready to leave the flat on the Tuesday the room I was moving to in the hostel was ready so I could move my stuff straight away. I was once more a proper backpacker. Having claimed my bed I headed to the shopping centre for some last minute shopping and a sushi lunch with a friend. Not long after my return my two roommates appeared. One was a lovely American girl who loved to talk. Despite being jetlagged and having an early start she agreed to come to the Green Ant Cantina with me. I was happy to go on my own but it was nice to have company on my last visit to a place that had become a favourite retreat of mine. We lost our other roommate but he appeared as we were finishing and joined us. After a couple of drinks and some excellent food it was back to the hostel to watch the end of the Tuesday night film. Since alcohol always goes straight to my head i knew after the film I should sleep but since out American friend was sleeping by this point I decided to go online on my iPod outside of the room and ended up having a random chat with out of our long term guests who stopped by to say hello.

Though I headed to bed soon after the night wasn’t over. At 1am we had the excitement of the fire alarms going off. Fortunately it wasn’t a fire but an over enthusiastic alarm which was soon silenced. Of course Since i was living in a dorm the next morning the early departure of our American friend to her boat meant the early arrival of housekeeping. My much anticipated long lie bit the dust pretty quickly after that I had forgotten how much background noise there is in hostels with people coming and going all the time. Since it was my last day and I wanted to save money and not have to unpacked I had a very lazy day. I downloaded and started to watch the tv series Once Upon a Time which I had enjoyed watching before I left the UK . I managed to squeeze in one last lunch out but mainly enjoyed the air conditioning and watching TV in between finalising my plans for my time in Sydney.

Finally I was all packed up and ready to go. I put a small bag into storage and then headed out to the cinema fir the last time with my friend/manager. We hadn’t had much luck with films previously but fortunately we got it right this time. We saw the Croods and it didn’t disappoint. Whilst waiting I saw my friends photos from her day out at a local spot and we chatted as usual. It all felt very normal until it was time to say goodbye and it was all, oh enjoy such and such and let me know how this and that goes.  Back in the room I babbled excitedly at my roommate before my other friend dropped bye to say goodbye again. By then it was after 11pm and I had a 5am bus to catch but I was far too excited to sleep. Finally I managed it and I might have slept in except for the obliging smoke alarm which went off at 4:30 and was much louder than my own alarm. I silenced it once more before rushing to get dresses and strip my bed before the bus arrived. I was quick but not quick enough as the driver phoned me to find out where I was, of course then I had to find my phone to call him back to let him know I was on my way. He was a little annoyed but not rude and was very understanding once I explained that I had been slightly delayed by fixing the alarm. After all it’s not like I could walk out of the hostel with it still going off when I knew how to stop it. I was an unplanned and unexpected end to my stay in Cairns and therefore rather fitting.