Pages

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Manjimup the Return


Sadly all good thing must come to an end and my holiday in Perth was over before I knew it. On arriving back at the hostel I was allocated the room I had last inhabited and even ended up in the same bed. Fortunately I didn’t have to stay there too long as not long after my return one of our roommates moved rooms and I was able to claim a bottom bunk.

I arrived back in Manjimup with just over a month left to complete of my mandatory regional work and whilst it had been lovely to be in Perth and hget a break I was happy to be returning to work and to be making money once more. On my return to the hostel I noticed some new faces and a fair few familiar ones. It was nice to see so many familiar faces and good to know that despite my previous reticence and my decision to not join in the drinking most weekends I was still remembered my most of them who stopped to say hello. After dumping my stuff in my room my first job was ti stock up on food. As I was filling my fridge bag on my return from the supermarket it felt like I had never left as I easily slipped back in to hostel life. The next day I was back at work and it was truly like I had never left.

Though I don’t make new years resolutions having long ago learnt that they never stick I did find myself making some changes. In the middle of my second week the temperature soared and as we were well ahead in the orchard where I was working I finished as midday. Everyone else seemed to be quite busy so I opted to walk home. It turns out it’s only a 15-20 minute walk and I quite enjoyed walking along listening to my iPod. From then on I decided I would walk to and from work and so far most days I have done just that. As well as adding a daily walk to my life I have also started to fit in some random exercise in the evenings. Our newest roommate arrived in our room just after I had swapped bunks and despite finding herself in a top bunk due to my manoeuvrings she was very friendly and immediately asked if any of us wanted to go to some classes with her. I was keen and that week we threw ourselves in to different forms of exercise to kick start. We started with a swim followed the next day by a body pump class which, surprisingly, I really enjoyed. For our week finale we ventured to a local park and did an improvised work out using a football and some convenient benches as our gym. By the weekend I was aching all over and was glad of a couple of days rest.

The following week I took it a little easier. My friend and I returned to the park and I enjoyed the amazing swimming pool again but we failed to make it to the body pump class. During the weekend a discussion on cooking and curry had led us to a pact that each of us would cook a meal for the other one night that week. All the meals were lovely and it was great to arrive home one night to fins dinner was just being lifted and put on the table. We did discover though that it was harder to exercises after the meals and decided to give the class a miss and instead went for an evening run, giving our tasty meal plenty of time to digest and allowing the temperature to cool. It was a nice change to eat proper meals but personally I don’t like eating to others peoples schedules and I found it difficult and unpleasant to prepare and cook a proper meal in the hot unfamiliar kitchen without the tools, herbs and spices I was used to having when I’ve attempted to cook in the past. All in all it was pleasant for the week but not something I want to repeat anytime soon.

Since I have returned I have found myself keeping more to my room, not because the people here aren’t lovely, they are, but because our room has air conditioning and it’s been very hot. I also still do not feel inclined to join in the weekend drinking. Our room is very close to the common area so I can hear the festivities quite clearly but I don’t feel the urge to join in. Maybe I’m getting old. At one point in my life I would have been too shy to go out and felt left out and upset, later I would have made sure I had a bottle of Jack and a bottle of coke and thrown myself in to the drinking games and dancing but those days are well behind me. Don’tt get me wrong I still enjoy the occasional night out and there has been more than one night in Perth where I’ve managed to knock back a few bottles of wine but when it comes to sinking spirits with the one and only aim being to get drunk I think I’m just over it. Usually I’ll retire early with my iPod and using the kindle application I’ll read a book. The noise doesn’t usually bother me. I remember when I would have been out there and it makes me smile. I think that round here I have the reputation for being quiet and keeping to myself but as far as I know no-one minds and the ones who know me still stop and say hello and will pass a few minutes in chat of I’m about. It’s nice. It’s good to know that I don’t have to conform or fit in here that I’m accepted for who I am because everyone here has their own story and we’re all living our lives as we want to no-one is going to judge anyone else who’s doing it a little bit differently. 

No comments:

Post a Comment