PART 5: VALERIE

January 2020, Canberra

Holy shit what a fuck around the last few days have been.

Wednesday night I get to the Southern Cross station to get on my bus and none of the girls were there and they hadn’t replied to my messages all day. So, I took this bus trip alone which normally wouldn’t have minded about but I would have liked to know that they were not going to come. I messaged June who was flying in that afternoon to Canberra to tell her what was up. She was going to be staying at the accommodation as well but was starting to think twice about it.

I arrived in Canberra at 6am, freezing cold and nowhere really to go till the afternoon, by myself. It was a ghost town because the fires were getting really close. It was really smokey out and you could hardly see down the street. It was so bizarre. I decided to take an uber to Bunnings to get masks for June and I, and I wish I had called in advance because they were out of stock.

And at this time, you know, after Christmas and lashing out at home, I really didn’t have a that much money to play with for this trip. So yeah, having to spend that money for an Uber kinda put me in a mood. I also hadn’t really slept on the bus which didn’t help. I decided to Uber to a cafe nearby, just to have something to eat and have a coffee so I could get out of this mood.

It was early in the morning and the smoke was covering the whole sky, so it was so eerie and the sun was red so I didn’t want to be walking anywhere by myself. The Café I got to was closed, and so were all of the others that I walked to around that area. I ended up walking all the way to McDonalds, which was the smallest one I’ve ever seen. It was a drive thru one but I think mainly JUST a drive thru, I think there were like 4 seats inside.

So, I spent about 4 hours in there all up, I felt really sus because the only seats that were right by the entrance. So like people could see me facing them as soon as they came into the McDonalds, which was a bit weird. My phone was running low and I had nowhere to charge it. I thought I would’ve been able to charge it at McDonalds, but they couldn’t. I ended up walking to the club and waited across the road for June because her plane would have been arriving soon, and the club was about a 5-minute drive from the airport.

I waited there for a while. I was too scared to go into the club by myself. I checked my phone and June said her plane had been delayed so I walked back to Maccas for safety. Finally, June arrived and she met me at the McDonalds and said her regular had offered to pay for a hotel for us for the weekend which was so amazing. So, we went to the hotel, and it was really nice, there was like a hot tub, a pool, and comfy beds. So, we worked the Thursday and didn’t make any profit, it was so dead.

Last night we worked and made ok money but probably would have made the same in Melbourne to be honest. The fires had really deterred people from coming into town. June was considering leaving early mainly because of the fires and the threat of them cancelling flights, and she didn’t wanna get stuck in Canberra. I was considering it. We ended up leaving and I bought a plane ticket which left me in the negative for the whole trip. Luckily, my boyfriend went halves with me on the flight, to get me home safe which was awesome. We went straight from work to the airport. We slept at the airport for a bit, the flight was super quick. I just got home, I’m going to have a nap, and work tonight and tomorrow in Melbourne to make up for it. Hopefully its good.