from this place named armidale. it is actually part of new england australia. they call it new england because of the leaves that turn red during autumn as it slowly heads into winter. I went there to stay with a friend of mine, as she has her placements there. The trip was already planned for a significant amount of time, but to unforseen circumstances was actually cancelled. However, as I have come to learn greatly this past few days, God has apparently other plans for us. LOL.
So there I was on wednesday, getting a call from Rekha, telling me if I wanted to come, then I should just come over. Without hesitant, I placed the stalled plans in motion. Booked my tickets from countrylink and paid it through by debit mastercard. And the next day, I was already there. Since its "winter" the sun sets really early and when I reached there at 6.15pm (the train got there early...so Rekha was late), darkness had taken over the place. I tried to look around the station platform and snapped some photos off the platform since nothing else could be seen. It was freezing. I was suddenly missing Newcastle's cold weather, since Armidale seem way colder. Rekha came with her group mate Pin, a chinese malaysian girl and we went back to her place. The night was calm and windy and it made my bone chill. I was honestly tired from the long train ride in which I couldnt sleep nor could I really move even though the seats were comfortable. This was due to some passengers and their crying babies. Urgh!
anyway, lets just move on to the next day. I woke up at 8am and had a long hot shower (which is apparently not long enough..as compared to miss balan). We headed to the main street over at Armidale, and went through the various antique, toy shops and other possible clothes store there was on that street. After about 2 hours of walking, we ended up in a Thai restaurant, or it is called, a Takeaway. Rekha had chicken basil with rice while i had egg and rice. After that we went on to Centro, towards Woolies. At this moment of time, we had both started talking about almost everything. From love to life to friends, new and old and everything in between. We analysed and commented on each other thoughts and feelings. While cooking dinner, I felt a sense of familiarity as it brought back memories to the point of time when we were staying together in Kimian Avenue back in Newcastle. Those memories felt as strong as they were, as the time we were experiencing them. However, we realised things have significantly change and there were nothing else that we can do but to embrace it and accept it. Our ups and downs in life have made us who we are and friendship either were lost or strengthen in that transition.
Anyway, the following day, I went out by myself to explore Armidale further. I was given the opportunity to take a bicycle to explore Armidale. Initially, it was a great idea, but then the seat was too high and i found myself not sitting down throughout the cycling adventure as i past by churches from the early 19th century, stretches of road filled with autumn trees, beautiful serene parks which could have possibly played a role in an old western film and the sheer freshness of the air was breathtaking. After placing the bike back into the shed, I continued walking down the familiar path towards the Armidale arcade to grab something important (oh well its a thank u card) and then down again to the thai restaurant to grab lunch. After two hours of non stop exploring, I came back to rusden place only to find that Rekha had just finished showering. I had thought that all this time that she had spend some time doing her work, which she had wanted to do (should have dissapeared for 3 hours instead). LOL. Anyway, we had lunch and continued talking regarding the topics that we normally discuss, just between the both of us, before we were interrupted by one of the people staying at Rusden. Oh well, after some time we went on to dinner accompanied by the guy that had earlier interrupted our "deep" conversation, at an italian pizzeria, where I ordered a large seafood pizza, which I completely finished. I was astounded by that success of completing 12 slices of pizza. There was this hot chilli paste that was made in Australia which I could honestly say rank as highly as other chilli dishes that I had tasted. After dinner, Rekha wanted dessert, and so we headed to McCafe and i bought walnut carrot cake and hot chocolate to keep warm while she had mango cheesecake. The three of us slowly walked back to the lodging house after passing some nice parks and churches and enjoying each other company. The day ended with both of us dozing to sleep since I had an early train to catch.
Oh well just a bit of my trip to Armidale. Let me show you now some pictures of the place
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