On Friday I got my very first guest here! Dear Eepi who had been in Sydney for a week and thought this is a great opportunity to stay a bit longer in .au and visit me. Yay! The moment of reunion was a bit hilarious, at the other end of the world “welcome to my crib”, can’t believe we both are here. I had of course the traditional Ansku B&B welcoming sparkling and strawberries in place and had booked Gunshop coffee nearby for dinner. In my opinion one needs to have a proper dinner on the night of arrival. Gunshop was nice, not wow, but worth visiting and our waiter was wearing way too small stretch jeans and pursued us to change our selection of NZ Sauvignon Blanc to Aussie Riesling which turned out to be very mediocre one. In my humble opinion stretch jeans are a bit questionable male garment and 2 size too small stretch jeans a definite no-go. Well, tells a lot about the Gunshot that the thing on top of our forehead when thinking about the place is the waiter with the jeans J Anyways it felt so good to have a deep conversation with a dear friend who knows me well, Eepi and I have always had it. Talk with big heart.
Saturday was booked for a day in Moreton Island which is the 3rd largest sand island in the world of which 98% is protected National Park. Our guide Megan and her huge 4WD minibus Mathilda picked us up from West End 6.50am, got some 8 more people on the way and headed to Brisbane port and took a ferry to Moreton. Around 10 am we arrived to the South Side of the island where the ship wrecks are …only 2 hours away from Brisbane city and realized we had landed on a paradise! Beautiful. The car was more steady on the extremely bumpy sand “roads” than in the highway earlier and it took a lot of skill to manage a huge 4WD on the narrow paths with extremely soft sand underneath. Our guide Megan was a superwoman really, small girl but with more guts than 2 average guys. She was funny too. First stop was at The Desert, a huge sand area with high sand dunes. The sand was so fine it seemed unreal, like snow. We each got this light board, climbed on top of the dunes (very heavy and excellent exercise) and got a 2 minute instruction how to actually ride down safely: On your belly to the board, elbows up (to keep the front part of the board bent up), ballerina toes and GO! Scary but fun. Another important lesson is to keep your mouth shut…I didn’t and ended up having lots of sand in my mouth. Second time was better but still very difficult if one has a tendency to scream whenever things get very exciting. That was my first experience about sandboarding, very cool and definitely very exotic for a Finn.
Calfs sore we packed our group to the minibus again and a small sand dune as a side delivery. No more sleepy eyes and teeth crunching we headed to our next stop of refreshing dip @ Blue Lagoon “because I don’t want you guys stinking in here”. Blue Lagoon is a sweet water lake that has lots of tea tree in the water. A natural day spa! Our dear Mathilda didn’t make it to a very mild uphill because of extremely soft sand (tried several times to do a track to make it to the top, with loud cheering, but no luck) so got an unexpected break by the Pacific Ocean. We had approximately 14km of pure white sand beach to both directions, beautiful waves forming with hypnotizing sound and endless horizon in front of us. All smile again. I have never seen anything so beautiful. Never. Eepi and I went wet our feet, took pictures and were extremely excited…we both have a soft spot with places like this. Then walked to the Blue Lagoon, a bit surreal lake in the middle of sub-tropical forest, by the look the place could’ve been in Finland. The water was extremely cold, but I WENT SWIMMING. The lovely summer weekend at Kurrela has definitely raised my fear factor scale with cold water, can do. After the refreshing dip we headed back to our minibus that had in the meanwhile turned into a fast food restaurant. Never mind the cheap wraps served from a back of 4WD Minibus but if the view is the magnificent Pacific Ocean the lunch got 10 points and a sigh. *sigh* I think the lunch was the happiest moment so far here in Australia. I almost cried…and also said to Eepi that “think about it, this is 2 hours away from my home city and I can come here almost whenever I like”. Took a picture although I think I can remember the feeling for the rest of my life by simply closing my eyes. Another Australia upside.
After lunch we headed to the light house to see the Island end to end. The view was breathtaking again, total 38 km of beach ahead, Mount Tempest the highest coastal sand dune in the world, turtles coming to surface for air and two whales (!!) spraying water (no jumps). Breathtaking again. This is something merely impossible to capture by pictures or describing how it looked, you gotta see it yourself. So my dear friends, if you are visiting me and Brisbane, Moreton Island should be of priority in your places to see list. I fell in love with the place, will most likely visit it plenty of times and hopefully for overnight too (Mum, please send my sleeping bag over as I don’t want to sleep in a rented sleeping bag. Thanks). Tired but happy we headed back to our ferry, took few pics out of the ship wrecks, learned that they are not really ship wrecks but sunk in there on purpose to provide shelter for boats staying on the island and now providing home for over 150 species of fish. Also learned a cool fact about a bird called the Pied oystercatcher (very common in the island). If you see them in pairs it means they are a couple, love for life (like swans do) and the males are exceptionally romantic as if the female dies the male is so heartbroken it stops eating and eventually dies but if the male dies the female gets a new younger husband. Cruel isn’t it? We left overwhelmed, so much beauty is difficult to digest at once. Tired but happy returned back home around 6pm, well done girls.
Otherwise our weekend was all about wine-dining. Our guiding light has been The Good Guide, a brilliant little booklet of Brisbane “where to go’s” in terms of fashion, art, design, insider trading, life and laughs. And meaning the local insight to explore the city, not the touristy and mainstream one. Each main city area has their own booklet, which makes it very convenient to use. Hungry and thirsty after long day at Moreton we went to eat to The Jamjar at Boundary Street, a place recommended by the waiter with too tight jeans and our TGG. The restaurant has only bar facing to Boundary street and all the tables are in a cozy inner court. The decoration was a bit weird (skulls were the main theme), the staff was very friendly, the owner a cute super trouper hipster in his fourties with cap and converse sneakers that had seen a lot of life and simply fabulous drinks and food. I think I had found my “Kantis”. How convenient that Jamjar is the favorite restaurant of a girl who loves making jams J Thank you waiter with too small jeans. Thank you TGG. Thank you West End.
Sunday was again hangoverish (has been throughout my stay here, worrying isn’t it?). We ate our breakfast at a small coffee house at Boundary, then went to see the young designers market in South Bank which turned out to be big disappointment, we summarized the experience as “työväenopiston huovutuksen alkeet –kurssin kevätmyyjäiset”…not that bad really, but not something a Finn would call Design, decided to go and see Jameson Street and ended up to Cru wine bar for much needed pick-me-up glass of champagne. Instead of champagne our Jamie Oliver looking waiter recommended excellent sparkling wine called Pelorus from New Zealand, Marlborough. Well done Jamie. The afternoon was super slow. Had our sparkling, bought cheese and bit of groceries from the market place, walked down James street and went back home for a nap. Later in the evening we had dinner at The Little Creek (at Boundary again, lots of good restaurants there), a small restaurant always full of people and a place that always comes up if you are asking for restaurant recommendations. Funny thing about LC is that you can bring your own wine (this is actually quite common in Australia but very new to me). Once again we had a delicious dinner and salty lamb chops were a match made in heaven with our hangover. What a weekend! In overnight I needed to turn from tourist to a guide and I think I did pretty good job. Lots new places and definitely exceeding expectations on the “one new place a week” target.
So Monday was my first day at project. Again dressed up to my lucky purple Tara Jarmon skirt, Ted Baker blouse and high heels I was all perky and excited to finally have a purpose of life. First task was to attend to a general introduction session where this driest of the dry lady went through bunch of rules and regulations in the company with a heavy emphasis on safety. I learned that I should be very careful in cross roads as sometimes busses might touch the sidewalk when turning, there are no heating equipment in the coffee area as heating food might bring up strong odors which are not pleasant, you cannot eat anything on your work desk (drinking is allowed, pheew), evacuation preparation sound is ‘beep beep’ and evacuation signal is ‘whoop whoop’ (these were demonstrated too) and the evacuation point is some 10 blocks away so if you are wearing high heels it might be a good idea to walk bare foot and if an officer comes to my desk asking me to pick a marble from a bag and the marble is red I need to go to a drug/alcohol test. Anyways the session lasted for 45 minutes and the lady went through lots of info without smiling once. That’s an achievement I think.
After the introduction I got my laptop, my Accenture project manager introduced me to bunch of key people and I was told that “ah, you’re Anna-Maria, you are by the way flying off to site next week to facilitate training from Monday to Friday”. Ooookay, this is called a kick-start. My PM came to ask if I have an Aussie drivers license? Ansku: No. PM: Have you done the defensive driving course? Ansku: No. PM: Have you ever driven a car in Australia. Ansku: No. PM: Ok, gotta get you to a defensive driving course then as next week you need to rent a car to get to the site and back, cool with that? Ansku: No as I have never driven on the left side traffic. PM: Hey, that’s peanuts, where’s your adventure spirit girl? Ansku: *fake smile* I have just moved from Helsinki to Brisbane all by myself so I guess I don’t deserve a comment about lack of adventure spirit *fake smile*. Anyways about 45 minutes later I received a confirmation that I am flying out next Sunday (losing my Sunday, epic mur), I need to rent a car to get to my hotel and drive daily approx 1h to the site and I am not getting a GPS as the only renting company around does not have one. Jesuschristmotherofall, am I in a candid camera? This is a safety first company that tells me to dry my hands well before touching any electric devices to avoid electric shocks and they are sending me in the middle of nowhere with a car and without a GPS? WTF! I sat down to my desk and panicked. Must admit I panicked. This was the moment that my Anne was warning me about a bit over a month ago. When we had our last session she said “remember, most likely there will be the moment when you feel too much is too much and are being faced with obstacles seeming impossible to overcome and you’re heart starts racing and you feel you are losing it. Then just take a break. Go out, take a walk, take your time and remember to breathe and say to yourself that all will be good. Your mind is stronger than you believe and it can take over the panic”. I did exactly as she told me. I left the office, went for a coffee by the riverside, focused on breathing slowly but steadily and said I can do this, I have to do this and all will be good. This is cold water and I need to swim” *breathe* I left the office around 5pm, head spinning and not focusing I bumped into stupid glass doors and started to cry as it was just-too-much-what-next-slip-into-a-banana-and-brake-my-head-aaaarrrgh. I was very happy I didn’t need to spend the evening alone. Eepi was waiting for me, I had already given her a heads-up about the news and she knew what to expect. She gave me a hug and said I can do this. I didn’t believe her (and still don’t) but it helps someone else believes in you. Suck it up girl and swim, that’s what I am getting paid for.
So at the moment moving at the other end of the world and finding the means to establish your life feels like peanuts. In few days I am off to Australia outback, need to stretch my brain with the left side traffic and be very aware of the kangaroos especially in dawn and dusk time, professionally facilitate training after 4 days of on-boarding, show what I am made of and make the most out of it. Somehow I think my life has lots of reality TV potential! Anyhow I hope you keep your fingers x:ed for me that all goes well. Tomorrow is a big day as I am attending a defensive driving course…no idea what it means, hope I learn to drive on the left side of the road and sit on the right side of the car. Exciting blog posts ahead I guess J
Night night my friends,
//Ansku
PS: People have been asking for pics (for a reason) so there is a link to my picasa Aussie album at the bottom of the page! Yippeeeee! Maybe I have 5 technical brain cells afterall :) Also, for some reason I don't want to place the pics in the text, it looks "messy" to me
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