At 03:00 the fire alarm went off right outside our room and Ian and I, once we recognised the sound was real and not a dream, dressed and left the room. No one had actually left the hostel and the reception guy came up to us and said 'the alarm is going off but I might be able to fix it' so everyone loitered in the corridor. I made sure we were by the fire exit. Minutes later we all moved to the common area outside but still on the second floor of the building to await further instructions. From that position we could the fire service searching the building. When the alarm had stopped sounding and the reception guy gave us the all clear we made our way back to the room for more sleep. It was raining heavily outside which we would find out later was the cause of the alarm sounding.
At 11:00 I got up to let the cleaner woman take our rubbish away. She was under the impression we were checking out today and wanted to clean our room. I corrected her and she said she would inform reception of their mistake.
Showered and part journalled we went out in the rain, confirmed that our SS Yongala wreck dive trip was going ahead tommorrow as planned and walked across town in the continuing rain to the cinema. After grabbing a quick sandwich we sat down to watch Star Trek Nemesis which was action packed and good to watch.
Back at the hostel I completed catching up with my journal despite interruptions from Ian demanding that I cut all of his hair off.
We walked across the Victoria bridge with the intention to eat at one of the well lit harbourside restaurants but as we approached the bingo calling style table service put us off and we ended up at a cheap pasta place. By the time Ian had drunk three bottles of beer the cheap pasta place became quite expensive and we retreated to the YHA in the rain.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.