The monsters and the critics
Slept OK until some morons decided to have a monster party in the monster corridor at about 3:00am: "Lock Out" time.
Couldn't get back to sleep when I realised I could very clearly hear the famous Post Office strike every quarter, half, three-quarters and full hour -- the latter with the hour count, just in case I wasn't sure whether I was missing sleep at 4:00am or 5:00am.
"Woke" (as in, decided to get out of bed) to the soothing sound of mini-monster trucks emptying mini-monster garbage skips in the charming brick and fibro alleys behind No. 62.
Hadn't won the "Wake up in a Palace" competition after all -- see entry for 27th November.
Just the "Stay awake in The Palace" second prize.
What to do with a spare day in Kal?, thought I.
Being the bloke I am, I decided to take the ute for a spin down some old mining roads to the famous watering holes at Broad Arrow and Ora Banda -- places, it turned out, that make Minjup look like Los Angeles.
Ora Banda first.
The most interesting thing about Ora Banda (apart from the fact that, as the gravel road begins, there's a sign reading "Slippery When Wet" to which the local wit has added "And Then She Comes") is its easily overlooked miners' cemetery.
This gives some idea of how terrible early life out here must have been.
The pub is now on its third renovation having survived a couple of fire bombings.
Looks like Lazarus with a triple bypass:
Broad Arrow, which I visited on the way there and the way back, was more interesting.
Seems they let the clientele write whatever they like on the walls.
"It's not a bug, it's a feature":
On my second visit, it was open and having noticed this sign:
decided the only right thing to do was to get a beer.Photographer's awful professional obligation, but there you have it.
Sitting outside, drinking said (one!) beer, guess what I saw written right next to me on the wall of the pub?
Can't get away from them monsters in this place.
Consolation was, on the way back to Kal, finding the original Two Up shed -- the place where the game was invented.
Place more full of ghosts than the Ora Banda Cemetery.
Looked like a game had just finished and everyone had gone back into town for a drink.
But not on a Sunday arvo.
Seems the Broad Arrow Tav (BAT) and the Ora Banda Pub have special licenses for that.
And I thought WA had new licensing laws that allowed "liquor" outlets to open on Sunday mornings and arvos.
Apparently Kal has seceded from the rest of the state.
No good looking for a beer around here; not even a take home.
Ran into the Prof on my way back through town, both of us interested in that libation which was not to be had.
He told me his paper -- "The Self-Reflexive Über-Hegemony of Gramscian Epistemology" -- had gone down well.
At a conference on "Regional Futures"??
I told him that, while he was talking that one through with his JAFA mates, I was out actually studying actual culture.
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Checked on a couple of matters with the reception gal who was, I might add, quite receptive.
She said there was an outlet for me in a place called Boulder, called The Shamrock, that would have a beer to take out.
This defeated (a) her directions, (b) me, (c) the ute.
Even the derros on the streets were drinking bottled water.
She also said that if there was another corridor party, I should call the police.
No one responsible for accommodation at The Palace is responsible for it after 6:30pm.
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The pubs finally opened for the evening session, so we found a place to eat a bit out of town.
Called "The Tower".
I ordered something that promised to be duck with salad and noodles.
((Loyal readers will know of my fondness for ducks.))
When it arrived, there were half a dozen tiny bites of dried-up duck (was it?) and something in the middle of the "dish" that looked like someone had eaten salad and noodles then puked on the plate.
I chewed on the supposed duck and couldn't bring myself to touch the rest.
Don't eat there if you can possibly avoid it.
Pleasant night's sleep compared with the previous night, but.
Sledge
