What a funny little town Norseman is. My attempts to solve my own computer problems have led me on a little journey of discovery through the community. My job at the roadhouse is going well, there’s nothing much to say about that, but I’m struggling with my work with my brother’s film as my computer refuses to communicate with my camera, so I can't capture the video onto hard disk. So I took my camera over to the “Telecentre” to try to hook it up to one of their computers. The result was the same, which indicated a problem with either the camera or the cable. I had a chat with a few ladies about where I could possibly find a MiniDV camera in Norseman; they suggested the high school as they’d recently done a video project. Great idea.

One of the ladies, Marion, recognised me from the pub / bottle shop when I'd purchased a bottle of whiskey and asked if I knew how to fix her computer. Incidentally, I did, and I invited her over to my motel room. I kept her laptop overnight to sort her out with partitions and recovery discs and drive images and bells and whistles.

Then James, the assistant head at the high school, called me. I’d left a message for him with the receptionist. He sounded like a cool guy, he understood my problem and invited me over the day after. I told him a little bit about myself, including the fact that I’ve worked as a supply teacher in London.

In the mean time, back at work at the roadhouse, a couple of familiar faces popped up on the other side of the coffee machine. Carolin and Thomas, the German travellers who gave me a lift from the Grampians to Bordertown, had finally caught up with me. We were super-busy at the roadhouse so I quickly instructed them to find a place to park their van for the night and meet me at 9.30pm, after work, at the roundabout with the tin camels. Which they did. Under cover of darkness I brought them back to my room, gave them dinner and tea and offered them a shower and a bed for the night. I’d probably lose my job if they found out that I have guests in my room.

My mattress was already rolled out on the floor. The Germans protested and said they couldn’t let me sleep on the floor. I tried to explain about all the things and favours I’ve received in the last four years of travelling and how it is my duty to share whatever I have. It’s not often I have a room, a bed, a shower and food from the roadhouse to share. It is a privilege to have guests and I sleep just as well on the floor as in the bed. And soon the hippies are going to start passing through Norseman on their way to the rainbow gathering in Western Australia, I suppose... But it wasn’t enough. After a rather cold evening with plenty of whiskey with Marcia the cook, Jodie the receptionist, Rob the Brit and Colin the Canadian at the barbecue area by the pool, the Germans went back to their car but came back in the morning to have a shower.

Leaving the Germans to shower I ran over to the school with bloodshot eyes, looking like a hippie and smelling of whiskey. On the phone I’d suggested to James the assistant head, who happened to have been an actor and filmmaker in Perth, that I could do a kind of motivational talk on my travels to the school kids as a return favour for borrowing their camera. Now face to face, he wondered if instead I’d like to work as a teacher...? James had already talked about me to the headmaster, who was ready to receive me for an informal meeting... Huh?! And suddenly I was offered a job as a woodwork teacher for six hours per week, more if I could do the photography classes as well. Well, “offered” is perhaps stretching the truth, but if I could somehow perform a magical feat of legal slalom to get past all sorts of police check and working-with-children hurdles, not to mention the slight obstacle that I am not a qualified teacher, I could probably have accepted the job there and then. I knew it could work out as a second job next to the roadhouse, the hours are compatible. And what a thing to put on my teaching CV! But I know nothing about woodwork...? No matter, I would have an assistant who is a qualified furniture maker; I would be nothing more than a figurehead with overall responsibility while the assistant would do the actual teaching... Based on what? My bachelor of arts from drama school and my experience as a teacher. However, I believe the supply teacher agency I worked through has closed down, which would make it impossible for me to prove my working experience... So, in the end it seems like it will be impossible, but it’s nevertheless an interesting proposition.

Back in James’ office, I tried to hook up his camera to my laptop. Again, it didn’t work. That’s when it dawned on me – it’s the connection. The laptop doesn’t “see” the camera when I try to connect it four-pin to four-pin firewire. The four –pin connector on the camera has to be connected to a six-pin connector on the laptop. I busted my balls to get a laptop with a firewire port and now I realise that it’s not enough... James was super-cool and even invited me to his house to do the 20 hours (!!) of transfers there but I said that I would try to get hold of a firewire card for my laptop first.

I first tried the post office – they also sell some electronics – to see if they could order something in for me but without luck. Next stop - the “doll museum” and second hand bookshop. I asked the big-hearted lady behind the counter - Tiffy in her 60s, still with hints of an Irish accent even after decades in Australia – where that mysterious place is that can order stuff from the internet. “Oh that’s me!” she joyfully exclaimed. It’s not such a big coincidence; there aren’t that many shops in Norseman. But how amazing - to buy things from the internet when in Norseman, go to the doll museum! Only in Norseman... Tiffy explained how I can find something on eBay, pass on the item number to her, she will then buy it for me and give me a ring when she receives it. Perfect.

So, next up, let’s see if I can find a suitable card and cable on the internet. The internet out here is astronomically expensive; outback Australia is worse than an average developing country. For 100 dollars I can buy a USB stick that gives me wireless internet through mobile phone networks and for another 100 dollars per month I would be given 6 GB of downloads and uploads!! That’s just ridiculous. So I’ve started borrowing Colin’s stick and I’m paying him for my data usage.

I have lots to do on this website but it also occurred to me that I have to do my online TEFL course. I have less than five months left to do it all. If I can’t do it here in Norseman, then where can I do it? When I’m travelling up the east coast of Australia? When I’m at an organic farm without electricity near Byron Bay? No way. I have to start doing it right now.

Colin is working and I’m not so I can borrow his stick for a few hours until I start at 5pm in the motel bar / restaurant...

_____

March 10th

What a day. When I am not too bothered about things I can be the biggest procratinator in the world. When I am really motivated I have an endless supply of energy. Here in Norseman I have so far been extremely productive.

At 9pm last night I was told to cover the "early shift" starting at 5am today! So I slept maybe 4 hours, got up before sunrise and worked from 5am to 1.30pm with a half an hour break. Then I went to my room, wrote a dozen quite important emails and typed up more pages from my New Zealand notebook on my laptop. I then did some exercises on my mat, ran a few kilometres and swam a few hundred metres. After stretching, a shower and a quick dinner, I reported for duty in the motel bar at 6pm and worked until 9pm. Back in my room again I have written more important emails, listened to Learn to Speak Spanish in your Car - Volume 1, created this new page on this website and updated the travelogue map. It's now 1am and I am very ready for bed... That's almost obsessive dedication. I should end up with 44 hours of work this week.

Well, I did make it to the local pub the other day. Jodie the receptionist took me over there after work. You haven't really lived until you've been to the pub in a remote mining-town in outback Australia. I've never come across such a concentration of amazingly weird country-bumpkins in one place before. I suppose I'm seen as very weird too. One of the most memorable characters is nicknamed Hightower (from the Police Academy films) and is the kind of guy you don't want to end up in a brawl with. He works in the local mine for nine days, then he gets drunks for five days, then he's back in the mine for another nine days, and so on.

After the pub I caught up with Colin back at the motel and we decided to finish our whiskey. Colin is an all-round good guy but has the disadvantage of being an economy student by choice. We couldn't be further apart on that particular point. Our whiskeyfied discussion reached a climax when I broadened our perspective to make the point of how insignificant human beings really are, and Colin brilliantly mocked my argument in a Quote of the Day:

- If you consider the geological timeframe of planet earth, your lifetime is not even insignificant. That’s too many syllables.

_____

I can't access the money I'm making at the roadhouse as I refused to pay to have an NAB bank card. So all I have is what's left of the cash I left Melbourne with, which is ok. I've decided not to spend more than that in any case. My budget for the two months or so I am going to spend in Norseman is 100 dollars... though that may increase if I end up with a big internet bill.

I am considering taking a few days off to go to the Western Australia rainbow gathering, it has been decided that it will take place in the far south-western corner of Australia, just south of Margaret River. Perhaps around the full moon. Perhaps if a rainbow brother or sister turns up with a spare seat in their car and the shifts at work just magically work out...

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