Meet the locals

We are gradually settling in to living here in Mingenew, probably the smallest 'town' in Australian history! It's weird how you get used to living in a place like this, with pretty much nothing to do, but I think we're beginning to understand how these people enjoy living here, as if this is what you're used to, then it's a nice place to live. I guess that was what we couldn't quite get our heads round given that we're used to 24 hour tescos, drive thru McDonalds and not being so far from your next door neighbours that you can't see them! It has given us an opportunity to get to know the real Australia, that I'm sure most backpackers don't even touch on, which is pretty cool. It doesn't get much realer than this, most of our regulars have just come in from a day shearing sheep, and one guy I met said he worked for 8 years out in the bush, hunting kangaroo, going for weeks without seeing another human being! There are so many locals that we are living with and each one is interesting...in their own way! First of all there is Lyn, the Landlady. She makes Pat Butcher look attractive and I certainly wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley. She's pretty scary and we're always on tiptoes around her making sure we don't do anything wrong, although one of the German backpackers said she always picks one worker to be mean to...we are yet to see whether it's myself or Nicola! On the contrary, her Husband Greg, the Landlord is so laid back he's practically horizontal and is pretty much your stereotypical Aussie. He's got a beard, an earring, sports a vest and shorts, and can be seen sipping on his favourite tipple as early as 10 every morning. The 'head' chef is Zane, when you see him you can't really imagine he's a chef given that the size of his gut prevents him from being able to get close enough to the stove to cook anything decent. He's actually quite young, although he's minus at least 4 of his front teeth and chooses an alternative kind of chef whites, in the form of hiking boots, shorts and an 'amusing' t-shirt emblazoned with things like 'so many fish, so few sickies'. He's a bit weird to talk to, the other night we were chatting at the bar and he randomly just started having a nose bleed, didn't seem too bothered and simply said 'oh not again', and on a separate occasion, he just started drooling. No lie. There are a few other characters but I will save them for another day, oh and just so I keep you up to date, in her usual run of form, Nic has managed to attract a lad that lives at the caravan park. She insists he's not interested but I can see the look of love in his eyes! Ha ha!