The journey from the airport to camp lasted slightly more
than an hour.
Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor was screened in an effort
to keep us entertained when all we wanted to do was sleep. I got double the
damage because the speaker was directly above where I was seated. I spent half
the time watching an oversized Eddie Murphy and the other half staring out of
the window. Oh yeah, and out of the window was just pitch black since the roads
there were deserted. There was hardly any building, light or vehicle during the
journey.
I wondered how the driver managed to navigate his way in
such dark surroundings, maybe they are used to it already. It was almost
midnight when we reached camp. Lights in tentages were already off. There was
hardly anyone around except for the few who were there to arrive us.
It was my first time experiencing such cold temperatures. I
vividly remember myself dragging (as it was still sealed up in a plastic bag)
my luggage and bearing the hardship of getting froze while walking towards the
place that I am supposed to meet my superior.
The night snack for my very first night there was red bean
soup and lamington, a kind of cake coated in chocolate and coconut. Eating both
sort of calmed me down in the chilly weather. The moment I tasted lamington for
the first time, I was sure that it's going to be one of my favourite Aussie
food.
It was close to one in the morning when I finally settled
down and unpacked my stuff. Slept for five hours before the blazing sunlight
pierced through the tentage and my eyelids to wake me up. It doesn't matter if
you don't have an alarm clock in Australia because dawn breaks at 5am. Yes, and
the sun sets earlier as well, approximately 6:30pm.
I remember writing in a previous post that I couldn't
tolerate the hot water flowing out of the taps during the first few days and
especially the first night. Thinking back, I realized that hot water was
actually quite my liking. Now, I feel bored when I wash my hands in Singapore.
No excitement.
Random picture here so that this post is not an all-word entry. Can you tell what is what?
Due to the fact that the army's intelligence unit might come
across my blog and scrutinize every detail of it to see if I disclosed any bit
of information (they call it secrets) about the military, I will not mention
anything which is directly or indirectly linked to my job at Exercise Wallaby.
However, there are still things which are worth mentioning
when I was outfield. One of them was the wildlife. When I say wildlife, I mean
the animals plus insects. How can I not talk about the insects when they are
always bothering (entertaining) me every day?
Unlike the usual black, red and occasional termites you see
here, Aussie ants come in a variety. For me, there was all-black, black-white,
red, golden and purple. Once when I had spare time, I placed an ant from each
of the five types into a plastic cup, sealed it up with plastic and watched the
show take place.
I was certain that the purple ant would emerge victorious as
this type of ant could swim in water. It was proven to me when I accidentally
splashed water onto an area of purple ants. However, the plump-looking
black-white ant entered aggressive mode and started fighting with the purple
one when I was placed it in. The other three were busy trying to escape (to no
avail).
I got bored of seeing the same thing happening in front of
my eyes for fifteen minutes and decided to do something else. I left the cup
aside and went back to take a look after a couple of hours only to realize that
the purple ant had miraculously escaped and the black-white ant was fighting
someone else.
All the ants were missing when I checked the cup the next
day. I realized that the cup was not sealed tight enough.
Animals such as kangaroos, cows, rats and possums made my
stay in Australia an interesting one. Possums will come ransacking our food in
the middle of the night, disturbing your sleep in the process. I got so fed up
one night that I attached my swiss knife to a rolled-up cardboard to throw it
like a javelin.
Fortunately for that possum, it fled away at the nick of
time before I flicked my wrist. The thing about them which boiled my anger was
not causing disturbance to my sleep but it simply couldn't be bothered even
when we switched on the lights and stared at it. The possum would just continue
eating as if the humans around it were invisible.
Kangaroos were also a nuisance there, at least for those who
drive. They would pop up from nowhere and hop across the road even when a
vehicle is fast approaching them. The worst part is that they hop at a
monotonous speed in a repetitive manner, something similar to a Chinese zombie.
This post is getting too monotonous (due to a lack of
pictures and chunks of text) like a kangaroo hopping so I shall stop here. Look
forward to part three tomorrow.
