A Solo Travellers Mind

My new contract was in a location called Narrandera. A relatively small country town approximately a 2 hours flight inland from Sydney. My flight was an early one, but of course, it went without a hitch. I was picked up at the airport by one of the new housemates, and we headed back. The house was LOVELY. Absolutely huge and right in the middle of the town, the size would prove to have negative effects such as difficulty to heat, which i would discover later on. My room was nice and the kitchen and bathrooms were very modern, it was pretty sweet. I settled in, unpacked my things, completed a food shop so I wouldn’t starve for the next week, and headed out for a little wonder. I discovered I was now living next door to 3 walk/bike trails, which spanned across the nature reserves in the area. The town itself also looks pretty decent, nothing too exciting, but it had the bare bones of what you need to live plus a little more.

My first week of work began the following day, and I’d say I settled in quite well. This facility was a lot smaller than others I had worked in previously in terms of resident capacity, so on the whole, I felt well prepared for the weeks ahead. It is, of course, always difficult learning everyone’s names and trying to figure out the comings and goings of the days tasks, but it doesn’t take long! I then had my first stint of night shifts, my roster was looking to be 2 nights, 3 days per week, which isn’t always but can be pretty tiring if you don’t master the sleep schedule swap. My nights went smoothly, and my day off fast approached. First on my to do list was to get a cervical screen (how exciting), I’d received a letter for the Australian government telling me to book in, so I headed to the local women’s clinic for my screen. It was pretty uncomfortable, but it was over pretty quickly and was soon forgotten about. I was pretty wrecked from my nights, so the rest of the day was spent taking a slow run around the lake and having a chill. Unfortunately, this chill would go a little too far when the gas in our house ran out at 7 pm on a Friday night, which meant we had no hot water or cooking gas for the weekend! The first night we had to stay in the house so I spent about 2 hours attempting to fill a bath with kettle water and subsequently gave up and had a bath in what can only be described as a puddle (at least i was clean and it was kinda warm lol). Luckily, my agency put me in a hotel for the next 2 nights until the gas could be replaced. I was working all weekend, so it would just be a place to have a warm shower at the end of the day! Saturday eve I treated myself to a pizza (which was also then eaten on Sunday as well), and spent the evening have a wee chit chat with another English chap who was also on contract near by. Sunday was a long run day, and ended up being the slowest most unmotivating run of my training yet, in which I discovered long runs should not occur after work and from then on they would solely be for pre night shift or days off. Come Monday, we could also move back into the house, with warm water available, yay! (Also I am all for a cold shower, and living life a little rouge, I’ve had my fair share of bucket showers/sink washes/smelly days while travelling, but while working I’d rather be a clean warm gal lol). I’d say my first week went pretty well, to be honest. The workload was pretty manageable, and the location wasn’t all that bad.

Week 2 in the countryside started strong. A day off at the beginning of the week set me up for a lovely week ahead. I spent the day running around the place (of course, that’ll be a theme of this blog considering my life revolved around my marathon training sessions), doing some art in the park, and watching the sunset. I did end up having to go into work that evening to cover for a few hours, which did technically mean I wouldn’t have a single day off that week, but we move! Pre night shift included waking up and heading out for a 16km run, this was the total distance of 2 out of the 3 trails around me, and it was super nice to get to be out in nature for it and not just stomping around the streets. I must say it got pretty solid beyond the 14km mark, but I pushed through and finished feeling relatively strong, all things considered. I also purchased myself a new book from the charity shop, having just finished my other one (which actually took me 2 months to read, poor show for my target of 12 books this year). My string of nights came and went, and it was soon my rest day, which also happened to be my birthday! Not a lot happened, of course, I went home, slept, and had a very quick training run (i had acquired some damage during the 16km to no surprise) and then cooked myself a marvellous dinner. I was back in work the following day, so I opted for an early night with some Netflix’s and my book.

Turning 25 makes me feel very odd (which I’m aware it’s not), but i feel like at the moment I’m on such a different path to everyone else I am close with. Everyone is in relationships (or breaking up from long-term partners EK), or having kids, or progressing up the professional ladder, and I’m booking flights to Central America? It’s so strange because you see people travelling the world online and everyone aspires to be them, but when you actually are the person travelling the world, a feeling of falling behind does follow. I sat up during my night shift, looking at houses. Why? because I feel like this is something I should be looking into, and yet although i wish to buy a house, no part of me is ready to settle and live in it? It’s strange. Your dreams are yours for a reason, and this is something i must remember. It’s so strange how a group of 18 year olds from the same walk of life will all projectile into multiple different directions… (Anyway reflective quarter life crisis over, which this classes as because I’m actually a quarter way through my life now if I’m lucky).

My third and fourth week in Narrandera kinda went by in a blur. I won’t lie. Week three involved the standard training sessions, a few sunsets watched, and a bit of writing for a friend. Week four was a little less productive, with my legs feeling as if they were about to shatter into a million pieces I made the choice to take some days off running and attempt to re-coup (my legs aren’t as strong as we’d like). So my days mainly involved my shifts, cooking nice food and watching a new season I’d stumbled upon called “The good doctor”. It is pretty marvellous, and I have become overly invested in the fictional characters’ lives! The end of the week came by very quickly, and I headed out on my final run in the countryside! A strong 10km with no injuries, so at least I’ll get halfway through the half marathon! The evening finished with a beautiful sunset before I packed up my belongings to head back to Sydney the following day!

My flight back did not go off without a hitch, unfortunately , with a 3 hour delay. However, one nap later and it was soon time for take off. The flight went pretty well, and we actually flew around the opera house, which made for a pretty cool view!

My job in Narrandera involved a majority of in charge shifts, and doing things for the first time, it’s definitely allowed for some solid leadership growth and has given me a huge boost in knowledge in terms of what to do when in charge of a facility. I am pretty chuffed with how my month here went, and more importantly, so is my bank account 🙂