the king of baked potatoes

It all started on sunday night when I was innocently watching Rove Live, waiting for my mum to call me to pick her up from her night out. Rove was interviewing Myf Warhurst from triple j. As with all of the guests on Rove's show, he asks them questions to earn $20 in 20 minutes.

The clock is counting down, and there are about 5 seconds left, when Rove asks Myf, "Is Elvis still alive?"
She answered quite excitedly, "Yes! He lives in Bendigo!"
Rove cries, "wait! wait! stop the clock I want to hear this - What?"
The clock is stopped, and Myf explains that Elvis is indeed alive, and selling baked potatoes in the Mall in Bendigo.

At the time it was pretty funny, and in good Sammy tradition, it still was funny last night.

After telling this to my sister, and to Steff, which I'm sure both found it very amusing, I decided to play a little trick on my friend Trav. You see, Trav replaced his mobile a little while ago now, and with that I decided to play a bit of a "guess who" trick on him. It was fun for a while, but given the circumstances under which I was messaging him (and also I suspect, cheating), he soon worked out it was me (however his first guess was 'are you male?'). I guessed that he'd never think I'd be behind such a trick again. And so far, I think I'm right, as this secret will be revealed to him when he reads this post.

With my mothers phone I decided to send Trav a message: "Hey, you'll never guess what! Elvis is alive and well and selling baked potatoes in the Bendigo Mall".
A while later I got a message back from Trav informing me that he had indeed got a new phone and had lost his numbers so he didn't know who I was.
I was delighted to inform Trav that I was indeed Rove McMannus.

After this I went and packed for the long trip home, and got organised, while my mum went to work. After getting ready, I decided that I'd better see if Trav had anything to say, but I couldn't find the mobile anywhere..

I soon forgot about it, got in my car and went down to say goodbye to my mum. She said to me, "Some Trav guy messaged me, and he said 'Say Hi to your mum for me'" (that is a famous quote Rove says at the end of each of his shows).

back to the future

"The sun is always shining
the beaches like a diamond
you can see for miles
with tons of friendly smiles
the fish are always biting
drivings dynamiting
the footy is to die for
you'll get yourself an eyeful
so do yourself a favour
and come to South Australia!"

Would you believe I actually saw that ad on TV last night! I forgot that all South Australians were like me and payed out Victoria like me. haha. Must be a 'South Australian thing'

Today I am going back to Bendigo. I haven't slept, been really restless, as well as the fact that I had a good ol' Farmers Union Iced Coffee that wasn't so good.

I had a good catch up with my old youth pastor yesterday. She is so inspiring, I'd say she's a lot like me in her theology and beliefs of things. It was also good to talk to her about my anxiety, and actually get a bit more of a pin point onto what it actually probably is that is causing it.

I officially have things up on ebay - clothes and even a mobile phone! Let me know if you're interested ;)

Umm.. I thought I knew what I was going to type in this little white box. It was going to be deep. But I think I've forgotten.

I'm going to miss the quietness and lack of voltage of Pinnaroo. I'm going to miss the fact that I can just go out the back and talk to the animals like Dr. Harry. I'm going to miss having mum around. I'm going to miss feeling safe when I walk down the streets. I'm going to miss the lifestyle on the weekend (that is things like bonfires, heading out the scrub, things like that).

But that said, there are some things I miss about Bendigo. Life is progressing there, life goes on, I have people there I love and miss. Isn't it funny how one bizarre dream can make you miss someone like crazy? I'm going to get some new fish when I get home.

I guess part of me hasn't wanted to grow up, but I need to. I'm 20 and I don't know where the years have gone. And that scares me, because next I know I'll wake up and be 40, but where will I be in my life?

Anyway, time for a bath (don't get them in Bendigo grr), and then the long and winding road back to the 'Go to do some study and catch up on the recent life I have missed.

Those old Pinnaroo days

This week, I looked in the local weekly newspaper (about 5 pages) called The Border Times, to find that a youth group from Aldinga Bay Baptist Church (that's in Adelaide) were coming down to have a camp in Pinnaroo. I used to love church camps, there was that special feeling about them. Anyway, the ad in the paper stated "BBQ - all Youth Welcome".

Two people knew I were coming, all the others were very surprised to see ol' Sammy Smedley turn up! "What are you doing here!!?"

I need to get a t-shirt that states answers to 3 frequently asked questions I keep getting asked:
- I live in Bendigo now, no, NOT Ballarat.. OR Adelaide
- I'm doing Education, yes, this is my 3rd year
- No I won't be a teacher next year, my course goes for four years.
(and just for the record, it's Sammy, not Jess)

So we had a BBQ at the church. I sat with a few people from Aldinga, and we had fun paying out Victoria for their lack of Stobie Poles and Fritz. I haven't sat with so many people who pronounce words such as plant and answer correctly for a very long time.

I also met a girl from Millicent (near Mt Gambier). She was good to talk to.

After tea, we headed out to one of the ladies houses for a bonfire. Ah, I miss the Pinnaroo life so much, where we had bonfires and just talked. It's these kinds of things that you just can't do in the city (imagine a bonfire in my backyard!). I guess I'm just different in the sense that I like these kinds of things, rather than doing city-like things like going to the movies.

This was the second bonfire I've had since I came home. Dad fixed the seats on my car (yay!), and we had one in his back yard.

I went to church this morning - the one I still am officially a member at. I expected to be singing some good old hymns, and I was actually pretty excited about this (someone last night said I get excited easily). But because the youth took the service, it was pretty contemporary (moreso than my current church in Bendigo even!) for Pinnaroo.

I cried in this church service. It takes a lot for me to cry. The reason? I don't want to go back to Bendigo! I like Pinnaroo suddenly. But then in and out of my thinking, I began to think about Bendigo, just a few situations. I know where I'm called to be and I can't run from that. Dang.

(the picture above is of me and my dad at a mallee fowls nest in the scrub. My sister and our dog Basil is in the bottom corner)