EZ N UP: THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY............................

Hiya all......

You know, there are so many faces to Coober Pedy. Just little things you notice when you are here a while.....
There is the usual routine and its funny to see how the aborigines cope with their day to day routine - drunk in the morning and then drunk in the arvo/evening. They have the best behaved dogs, they are not on leads and cross the road in between the cars. I find it amazing there is not more dog deaths....

The GOOD part of Coober Pedy is the whole nature of the place, and even though half the town does not talk to the other half there is still a sense of community network and people are friendly in their own way - cautious not to over do it as they would let their guard down. Its a place that everyone should visit at least once. There are a lot of passers through - which is a shame - arriving in late arvo and off again early the next day.

The BAD part of Coober Pedy is the loss of our jobs with no reason. But that is Martin Smith for you the Manager of Radeka Downunder!!!! What has upset us the most is that we had planned and were keen to stay until the end of October if not longer and it has all fallen in a heap again!!! WTF!!!!!!!!
As you know we were sharing the roles with another caravan couple Roger and Bev. He is an ex police sargeant and DAMN LAZY!!!!!! And Bev is a kiniving shit stirrer!!!!
I guess what is leaving a bitter taste in our mouths is that Martin was constantly saying we were the "best" and know what the others were like and anyway, it came to a head one day when Roger had yet another Sookie LA LA moment and was winging to Bev. Of course its always someones elses fault so poor Melda was copping it that day. Well I had been biting my tongue and just doing my thing thinking of the money as Claire had said to do but then exploded and told Roger that he needed to suck it up we were all here to share and work as a team and leave if he wanted to. So we headed to Martin angry and upset, and as you all know I hate confrontations - so after talking to Martin and then he listening to their side, he wanted us to wait 4 hours till he made a decision. So I said we would move up the road to the van park and that he could call when he made his decision! He called that night and said no losers and winners so he told us not to come back and that Rand B were leaving Saturday (which is now today). He is getting two new vanner couples in to take our places - THATS IT!! So we have been struggling this week - I got waitressing at Pizza place and Tone has had nothing!! R and B are still there today.................

The UGLY side is that Martin Smith has done this to other van couples - gone through 9 in 6 months and he keeps getting away with it! Well we are trying to think of ways of dealing with it - we saw the owner and their hands are tied??!!

We had an opportunity to manage an accommodation/tour/opal shop complex but the money was not quite enough for being on site etc etc.... so we are on the move tomorrow sunday 3rd July to Curtin Springs Station 85 kms from ayers rock where we will be doing what we were doing at Radekas, power to the van, meals cooked and so it is with sadness we leave here as we were not ready, but its a small place and hard to go by Radekas without feeling like going in there, He is a drunk and a very nasty person - who even tells customers to Fuck Off! He is paranoid about being ripped off so all day he sits in front of the motel chain smoking watching every car that comes in and the security cameras.

He will get his just oats I hope as he deserves it!

Glad to get that off our chest, but don't feel much better as we had not even recouped the cost of getting here early for him - oh well - we have to let it go as best we can and look forward!!

We have met some good people here and will stay in contact with Kerry and Clair (NZrs) as they are doing the same as us........

Will catch up soon with updates on our journey north and pics etc........

Love and miss you all