Boys and their Toys; Lasses and their Dresses
Brisbane, 3rd February 2002
Even after last night, we still needed to get up early to meet Josh
and the girl he was staying with, Lucy. Lucy had just got back from
a holiday in Thailand and she wanted to give us some tips & advice.
We were supposed to meet them at 10am, but when we got there, only a
slightly hungover Josh was to be seen.
We grabbed a coffee and Josh explained that Lucy was still fast
asleep when he left, so he thought he should leave her. We'd also
been invited, by her parents, to a BBQ at their house, this
afternoon. We'll be able to speak to her then.
Just after midday, we took the 'Alligator' bus (bus lines are
differentiated by animals here, not numbers or colours) to Lucy's
house.
The sun was beating down relentlessly, the temperature was
absolutely scorching. Standing in the sun was unbearable and Josh
started his spiel about the importance of 'Slip-Slap-Slop', the
Australian anti-sun burning campaign. He'd had it drummed into him
by the family he was staying with. He'd coated himself with Factor
30+ and insisted we did the same. But, we've got used to the sun
gradually. We were well tanned so we burned less easily. We also
made good use of the 'standing-in-the-shade' trick.
We spent the rest of the day chatting with Lucy's family about
Australian culture & history. Like we'd done in every country so
far, we also compared education & student life in England &
Australia. After some fantastic food, some ice-cold beer, and lots
of chatting, the sun started to set and most of us headed off to the
bowling alley.
We paid $12 for 3 games, which is really cheap! I don't usually like
bowling, but we had a great time. I got loads of strikes, and before
then, I think I've only ever had 2 in my life! I compensated my
strikes with loads of complete misses, giving me a very average
score.
A bit bored by the end, I took it upon myself to change Josh's name
on the computer to 'Hairy' then to 'Poo Head'. A highly mature joke
that made everyone, except Josh, go into fits of laughter.
After the games, all the guys (Josh, Stinge & I) drove back to
Lucy's house with Troy (Lucy's brother). The girls (Nat, Em & Jess)
all drove back in Lucy's car.
We questioned Troy relentlessly about cars in Australia. They are so
much cheaper than in England. You can get a really nice car for
peanuts here. That explains why are the teenagers here drive classy
cars, while the teens back home all drive old bangers! Troy really
knows his cars, and before long we were lost in a speech of jargon &
techno-babble.
I don't want to support any social stereotypes, but the next few
hours were spent like this: the guys toured the car show rooms,
checking out and drooling over the latest cars and their
ridiculously low prices; and the girls went home and looked at
photos of dresses. Hmmmm. You draw your own conclusions.
When we got back to Lucy's house, we drained Lucy of every last bit
of info she knew about Thailand. She gave us loads of helpful hints
and showed us some of the fantastic things she saw and did. She also
emphasised how cheap Thailand is. All of our bank accounts breathed
a sigh of relief.
By then, it had gone midnight, so we got a lift back to the hostel
in Troy's car. Before long, we were all fast asleep. Sweating in the
heat, but asleep.
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