Saying goodbye to my friend

Pam's funeral was held at 11.30am GMT on Tuesday 29th September 2009. At 8.30pm AEST I headed to the beach to join Pam's family and friends in spirit to say goodbye to someone we loved very much.

I lit some candles (it was pitch black on the beach) and sat quietly listening to the waves lapping on the shore. I poured myself a large glass of red wine, rolled a cigarette and toasted the life of my friend, Pam. To everyone who knew Pam, this unconventional ritual will seem a very fitting tribute. It made me feel very close to her somehow and I chatted with her and reminisced about all the fun and happy times, the sad times and the utterly ridiculous times we have shared over the past ten years.

As I wished her a final goodbye I tossed a sprig of purple flowers into the sea (purple was her favourite colour). The flowers were picked from Donna's garden and have a beautiful, intoxicating scent.

On my way home, a huge great bat swooped down right next to my ear. It felt to me as if Pam had sent it to say goodbye to me - trust Pam to choose a bat to send her messages!

Although Pam is gone she will be with me always, in my memories and in my heart.

Some sad news

This morning I got a phone call from my friend Kay back in England. She had some sad news to tell me. Unfortunately my wonderful and lovely friend Pam passed way last night. She was only 49.

Needless to say I am quite devastated by this news. It still hasn't really sunk in properly yet. It has come completely out of the blue, because Pam has not been suffering from any serious illness prior to her death. It was very sudden. She was due to fly out to Australia to see me in a few weeks time, something we have both been looking forward to for months, so it makes it all the more distressing that I won’t now get to see her and show her the life I have been living here in Mackay. I so wanted to share this experience with her.

Pam has been a close friend of mine for about ten years ever since we met while working together at Park Lane College. She is also like a second parent to my cat, Smokey, who she has been looking after while I am here in Australia. I am sure that Smokey is going to be as bereft as I am, because he loves her very much and always loved going to stay at Auntie Pam’s house because she was a soft touch and always gave him extra food; although I’m not sure he fully appreciated it when Pam sang showtunes to him! Pam has also left her own two cats, Pasht and Amun, without a mum. They were her pride and joy and they will miss her terribly.

Pam and her next-door-neighbour and best friend Kay have been great friends of mine since I moved to Leeds and we have shared some really fun times together. Pam’s annual Big Brother parties on the final eviction night were legendary as many of our friends will attest and they were some of the funniest nights of my life. Pam always knew how to throw a good party and always welcomed people into her home. She’s also befriended Donna and Letitia since they have been in England, taking them out to one of her favourite nightspots – The Wendy House – which was certainly an experience for the Aussie girls! There will be a big Pam-sized hole in lots of people’s lives. I have also spent two very special Christmases with Pam and Kay, and Kay’s children Jake and Leila. Pam, never exactly a dab-hand in the kitchen, always liked to be in charge of cooking the roast potatoes at Christmas, with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other! That’s probably how I will always remember her.

Pam has been a marvellous and kind friend to me over the years. She was always there to talk to if I had a problem, despite her own ongoing battles with bipolar disorder, and you could be sure she would offer you sage advice. When I had the complications with my tonsillectomy, Pam was wonderful, not just with me, but also with my parents, who were worried sick about me. They and I were very thankful for everything she did.


I didn't know whether I should put anything on this blog about what has happened but on the other hand I can't pretend that it hasn't happened either, and undoubtedly this event will have a lasting impact on my life from now onwards.

I am going to miss Pam terribly. I can’t believe I’m never going to see her again. She was a wonderful lady.


R.I.P. Pam Howard 21/06/1960 – 18/09/2009

Sizzling Sarina

Last weekend, Michele One L and I took a trip out to the nearby town of Sarina for a little day trip. The Sarina Sugar Shed is a sugar mill that has been turned into a tourist attraction, and neither of us had ever been before, and it was supposed to be really good, so we decided to make a day of it. We arrived in Sarina and met up with our friend Troy, who works at the library there. Over the last few weeks the library has undergone a transformation, and for a couple of days a group of us had been there putting up the new shelving, taking down the old stuff, and moving all the books around – exhausting but rewarding work, and the refurbished library looks great! We popped in, after Troy had closed up for the day to have a look at the new library, and then we three wandered down the road to the Tandara pub, one of our favourite watering holes, for a spot of lunch.

After lunch, Michele and I drove to the Sugar Shed. As had already been on a tour of a sugar mill we decided against doing it again, but there is also a wonderful gift shop selling all sorts of sugar themed goods that they make on-site. They had all sorts of sweet liqueurs, sweets and fudge, and some delicious-looking bottled sauces, chutneys and jams. Michele was most pleased with her purchase of a giant Sarina pencil for her to write the minutes of the next branch meeting :-) I bought a very funky blue Sarina T-shirt and a calendar featuring ‘Sarina’s Sizzling Sons’, local guys with their shirts off – mainly quite disturbing, especially the one of the old man dressed as Tarzan *shudder*.

Unfortunately the art gallery was closed, but we did pop into the arts and crafts shop to look at all the hand-knitted baby clothes and patchwork quilts and suchlike before heading off to have our photos taken with the famous Sarina Cane Toad, which has been inexplicably christened ‘Buffy’. On our way home we slipped off the highway to a place called Homebush and had a beer at the general Gordon pub, a real ‘local’ Australian country pub. It was a lovely, amusing and fun day out!

Catching up

OK, OK, I know I am about six weeks behind with my blog. The longer I leave it, the more there is to tell you, so I am going to rattle through what’s been happening over the last month or so since I got back from my trip to Cairns.

The weekend after Cairns we had our next book group. Susan chose ‘Hamlet’ by John Marsden, an Australian author whom we had all met earlier at an event during the Arts Festival. The novel is a retelling of the famous Shakespeare play. I was apprehensive about reading the book, because I had studied Hamlet at A Level and knew the play very well and wasn’t sure whether I would approve of a retelling. Unfortunately I was proved right. The group was unanimous in not really enjoying the book and its flimsy characterisation and lack of depth. One of the major problems with this novel is that John Marsden does not seem to have decided whether it is set in modern times or contemporary with Shakespeare. This leads to jarring inconsistencies, such as he mentions that Hamlet is wearing jeans, and the characters often speak in modern day ‘teenage’ English, but on the other hand they are living in a castle and reading by candlelight. Hamlet seems to have been redrawn as a sex-crazed teenager who watches the cook masturbating, and all the deep inner turmoil of Hamlet prevaricating about whether and how to avenge his father’s murder that is so central to the play is virtually absent. I was really disappointed and wouldn’t recommend this book.

A few days later Helen, Susan and I went to a health and well-being expo to watch Lorel’s debut performance in her belly dancing troupe. Lorel looked wonderful in her outfit, complete with gold jangly bits and toe jewellery! It was really fun to watch and Lorel obviously enjoys this alternative was of keeping fit.

The following weekend I accompanied Kathleen, Barwon, Naten and Tia to the Ocean International Hotel to watch a performance of ‘Nunsense’. Kathleen’s mum works at the hotel as the restaurant manager, so before the play we had a delicious meal with five star service! The play itself starred Kathleen’s sister, Tara and was a musical about a group of nuns who were trying to raise money to bury their sisters who had been accidentally poisoned. It was absolutely hilarious and I laughed so hard I nearly cried. It was a really good night, and the amateur cast were very professional and very funny indeed.

The last week in August was Book Week, and on the Friday I went to one of our smaller library branches out in Walkerston to help out at the Walkerston Book Week Parade. The parade has become an annual event and all the kids from the local schools join in, and parade down the main street dressed as their favourite book character. There were hundreds of kids there and some of the costumes were just excellent. Of course, all the library staff have to join in too, so I decided to go as Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter books. As my friends back home will know, whenever fancy dress is required I like to do things properly, so *snip* off came the curly locks, and on went the bleach to make my hair as Draco-like as possible. I found a tremendous Slytherin T-shirt in one of the op-shops, hired a wizard’s cape, and even sprayed Donna’s sweeping broom gold and turned it into a Nimbus 2001! Helen joined in this theme and came as Professor McGonagall, and Kath was Luna Lovegood! Some of the kids had obviously chosen Harry Potter as their inspiration and we found a totally marvellous Professor Dumbledore, and a group of girls had even come dressed as the Hogwarts Express! There were loads of other great costumes, and all the kids (and grown-ups) had a fantastic time.

I was invited by my boss, Aggie, to a party at her house to celebrate her husband Mike’s 50th birthday, and also a belated celebration for her own 50th earlier in the year. Aggie and Mike live in a lovely big house in Andergrove with a big back garden perfect for parties. Their son Tom manned the ubiquitous barbecue, and there was a huge cake, and obviously lots of champagne and gin and tonics! A bunch of my friends from the library also came including Jan, the manager of the library service, who turned up dressed as a St Trinian after having been to another party, a fancy dress 21st party, which explains her ridiculous outfit! I even did a solo rendition of the dance routine for the Time Warp, to much hilarity (why wouldn’t anyone join in – is it because I was just too good??)! Of course true to form, Susan and I were two of the last to leave, at about 1.30am! Thankfully no golden bucket award for me that night, Donna, although I have to confess I was pretty close :-)

Conservation, coffee and craters

The day after my trip to the reef I was a little bit exhausted so I had a long lie in. Not one to sit around for long, though, I soon hopped on a bus for a trip to the little town of Port Douglas, a few miles up the coast from Cairns. It was whilst on the bus that I saw my first crocodile, sunning itself on the banks of the river, as we crossed a bridge! I spent a pleasant day wandering round the shops there, having coffee and reading my book, watching the world go by. I also climbed up to the lookout, high up on the promontory, to get a great view of the town. My saunter to the beach wasn’t so successful, because just as I sat down on the sand, it began to rain. Nevertheless it was a nice little trip, and not too strenuous.

The following day I met up with a guy called Pete, who had agreed to drive me up to the Atherton Tableland, which is inland from Cairns, up through the range past Kuranda, on a high plateau. Our first port of call was the Mareeba wetlands, a bird sanctuary and conservation area which has been kept in its natural state, and is an important habitat for many birds and other animals. Pete and I took a walk around one of the lakes, around the edge of which are dotted hundreds of termite mounds. They are really quite big, many the height of a person, all made out of mud or some form of organic matter. There were also these huge dragonflies, as big as a small bird, and bright red. Pete has got a really good digital camera so he managed to get some really good shots and then burned them to a CD for me, which was really kind of him.

The Atherton Tableland is a very fertile part of Australia and there are lots of farms and plantations in the area growing everything from mangoes to strawberries; it is also renowned for its dairy farms nd cheese making. There are also several coffee plantations and one of these, called Skybury, was our next stop. The plantation is set in a beautiful location, and the main building has a shop selling their coffee, and also a restaurant where we had a delicious lunch. Unfortunately we had missed the tour and coffee tasting, so after lunch we headed to the town of Mareeba to another coffee place to do some serious coffee tasting. This other place was much bigger, and it even had a coffee and tea museum, with a huge collection of coffee pots and tea pots, grinders, samovas, teasmaids and all sorts of coffee memorabilia from all over the world, and from all periods of history. There were thousands of artefacts and it was really very impressive and informative. Then we went to the coffee tasting room and sampled all the coffees they grew on their plantation, and also other coffees from around the world. They also have a chocolate factory on site and there was as much free chocolate as you could eat! We finished our visit with a nice cup of coffee (what else?!) and a slice of chocolate cake. Yum!

Totally wired from our caffeine injection, Pete then drove us to the nearby Malanda Falls and had a little walk along the river to a place where platypuses live. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see any this time but it was a lovely, quiet tranquil spot. Finally, just as it was getting dark we stopped off at Lake Eacham, one of the region’s crater lakes. These are lakes that have been formed by volcanic eruptions and then water has filled the crater. Thanks to Pete I had a really nice excursion around a lovely part of Australia and it was a great end to a great week in Cairns.

The following day I hopped on the Tilt Train for my journey back to Mackay. This train was far superior to the Sunlander, much faster but also a bit more expensive. You can only travel business class on the Tilt Train, but this means you get a built-in video screen, which helps the long journey pass that little bit more easily. 11 hours later, I arrived back home and went straight to bed :-)

The magical kingdom

I am not a very confident swimmer in the sea and I don’t really like being out of my depth. Swimming pools are fine, but the sea freaks me out a little. However I was desperate to see the Great Barrier Reef – how can you come to Cairns and NOT see it? So I suppressed my fears and booked a trip on a boat to go snorkelling on the reef. It was an early start, and a good 2 hour boat journey from the harbour out to the particular part of the reef we were visiting. The weather was breezy and grey, with a few spots of drizzle and the crossing was somewhat rough. Quite a few people got seasick but thankfully I managed to keep my breakfast down, although I felt a little bit wobbly. This all evaporated though when we arrived at Paradise Reef, which is a submerged reef. We all got wetsuits and snorkels provided, and I also hired an underwater camera so I could take some photos for you all to see. It was my first time ever snorkelling and I was a bit apprehensive, especially just jumping off the end of the boat into the sea, with no sight of any land in any direction, but jump I did, and from the second I put my face underwater and saw the reef I was utterly mesmerised by what I saw.

I really can’t put into words the beauty of this underwater kingdom. It was amazing! The coral is of all different shapes and sizes, some like giant brains, some like delicate lacy fans, some with tentacles, some like sponges, little tiny fuzzy ones and ginormous fungus-like ones, and every colour of the rainbow, and some were multicoloured. The photos really don’t do it justice at all – the colours are so vivid, almost cartoonish they are so bright.

And then there are the fish. I am no ichthyologist, so I don’t know what they were all called, but there were hundreds of them. Of the ones I do know, I saw angel fish, damsel fish, butterfly fish, clown fish, parrot fish. Some were tiny and some were quite big, some seemed to be solitary and others swam about in big shoals. A whole shoal of little silver fish swam all around me at one point, which was like being showered in magic fish snow! The fish don’t seem to be fazed at all by the humans flapping about in their dominion and thankfully we didn’t encounter any sharks! I also saw sea anemones, starfish and all sorts of other things. We spent about an hour or so snorkelling at Paradise Reef before clambering back onto the boat and having a delicious lunch that was provided for us with plenty of vegetarian things for me to eat. Then we headed off to our second spot, which was called Michaelmas Cay.

A cay is like a sandbar that just pops its head above the water level. This particular one is a bird sanctuary and turtle breeding ground so humans are only allowed on a very small area of the beach. This time we could wade into the sea and snorkel through the shallow water and out into deeper water if we wanted to. This is where I saw the giant blue wrasse. It was huge, about half the size of me, with a big blue mouth. Unfortunately my camera malfunctioned at this point so I couldn’t get any pictures of it, but it was amazing to swim next to this marvellous fish. There was also a group of huge black, white and yellow angel fish which were each the size of a dustbin lid.

After another hour of snorkelling at the cay it was time to get back on the boat and head home to Cairns. My trip to the Great Barrier Reef is definitely the highlight of my trip to Australia so far, and is also one of the highlight of my entire life. It was the most amazing, magical spectacle I have ever seen and I am so glad I managed to conquer my fears and do it, because it was just wondrous. It’s something everyone should aim to do in their lifetime and if I ever get the chance to do anything like this again I won’t hesitate.

Mountain retreat

Kuranda is a village nestled in the rainforested mountains behind Cairns and is a popular destination for people who want to see original arts and crafts in the old-fashioned markets, and experience its laid-back hippyish culture. Sometimes not being able to drive leads me to transport solutions that really make the journey as exciting as the destination itself, and this was one such occasion. The Kuranda Scenic Railway was originally built to link the inland mines with the docks at Cairns but is now a stunning tourist attraction. Being a lapsed trainspotting geek, I just had to take the opportunity to have a ride on this lovingly restored train, complete with the original carriages, and stations that have been preserved as close as possible to how they would have been in the railway’s heyday. The locomotive winds its way along a precarious track route up into the mountains, past gorgeous gorges and across cosmic chasms. There are 15 tunnels (some of them even have several curves in them!) and lots of bridges, the most picturesque of which is a beautiful curved bridge which spans the Stoney Creek Falls. Once up into the mountains the cliffs fall away on one side and there are amazing views of the whole of Cairns, right out to sea. Further up, the Barron Falls plunge down into a deep ravine to dramatic effect and the train stopped here for a few minutes to allow the passengers to get out and take photos. An hour and forty-five minutes after setting off I arrived at Kuranda station having had a really exhilarating journey.

I traipsed off to find my hostel, just around the corner from the station as it happens, and was led to my room by a friendly hippy. Actually the room was more like a cell, and freezing cold! The hostel was this massive rambling old ramshackle building that had at some point been a church. Not exactly the most salubrious establishment I have stayed in, but it had a peculiar charm about it, despite its tumbledown nature.

I wandered into the village and visited the various markets (there are several) selling all sorts of things: hand-made sweets, Indigenous artwork, kangaroo and crocodile skin goods, ethnic jewellery and also some of the local mango wine (a bit sickly actually). There was loads to see and I even managed to stumble upon the local public library (I am such a library geek!). Later in the afternoon I went for a walk along one of the rainforest trails deep into the jungle, with barely a soul in sight – wonderful! I then headed back to the village to find somewhere for dinner Unfortunately, after the tourists leave with the last train back to Cairns at 4.30 the whole village just kind of evaporates. Pretty much everything shut up shop at this time and I found it a struggle to find anywhere to have dinner. The only place that was open was a pizzeria and I was the only customer there for the entire evening (the pizza was nice though).

The next day (after a rather chilly night in my cell) I followed the instructions of the friendly hippy and set off on a walk into the rainforest towards the Barron Falls to find a secret water hole unknown to most tourists. My walk took me for part of the way along the railway track, and past the hydroelectric dam across the Barron River, which provides Cairns with its electricity. After a little scramble across some rocks I eventually came upon a beautiful, secluded lake crisscrossed with deep channels in the rocks around the edge and surrounded by rainforest trees with little tiny sandy beaches dotted here and there at the waters edge. The lake is above the huge Barron Falls but it is hidden away from the tourists by huge craggy rocks and dense forest, and because it is above the falls it is croc-free and therefore safe for swimming. I could hardly wait to dive in to the clear, cool water; it was deliciously refreshing! After a little swim I found a little sandy cove and sat down to eat my lunch and read for a few hours in the dappled shade. A bit later in the afternoon I did some more scrambling over the rocks to the head of the waterfall so I could look down as the river tumbled over the edge into the deep chasm below. What an amazing sight, and much more dramatic seeing it from this angle!

To get back to Cairns from Kuranda I took the Skyrail, which is a cable car that swoops you down the range above the rainforest so you can get a fantastic birds’ eye view of the trees, mountains, river, canyon and waterfalls. You can also see the railway snaking its way along the edge of the range. In my cable car I befriended a Chinese family who were also here on holiday and when we got to the cable car station at the bottom of the mountains they very kindly bought me a photo of us that was taken just as the car swooped into the station!