Week 2 Post-QLD Part 2 (Relay for Life) in Days of My Destiny

So now we're up to Saturday - Relay for Life.

Basically this is an event that goes all night. You get a team together (of 10-15 people), and you all relay around a circuit for the whole night. The whole point is to raise funds for cancer research and to remember those who have lost their battle with cancer and also for those who are still fighting it. It's also an honourable thing for cancer survivors, because they get to do the first lap. You can walk, jog or run, whatever you want to do, but people mostly walk. For years I was all about breast cancer research, because breasts are a beautiful thing and such a womanly thing and I think that we should do all we can to preserve our boobies. However I think that slowly I've lost a bit of faith on the whole "cancer research" thing. How is it that there's still no cure? There have been millions and millions of dollars go into it, why is it still such a huge thing? I also know of cases where people have cured their cancers with complete dietary changes. One lady I know had cancer in the throat. She ate raw paw paw for months on end, until she coughed up all her cancer. She coughed up BLACK GUNK for months and months and months. But she was cured of it. So I've become a little sceptical towards the cancer research thing and it's not something I outwardly chase or promote that much anymore. (I wonder how many others out there are a bit like me.) However this was a community event and I sure as hell will back THAT up! :) I didn't formally register because I had also volunteered to help out in the canteen there, and because I'd never participated in anything like this, I didn't know how it worked. I was trying to find out all that week leading up to it if I'd still be able to join a team even if I was helping out in the canteen. In the end, I didn't register, which meant I stood out like a sore thumb at the event because I was the only one NOT wearing a Relay for Life T-shirt, which you get upon registering, lol. But nevermind, I did some laps anyway, hahaha. I helped out in the canteen. I was serving people and making doughnuts. I was meant to be on from 4-6pm and then again from 10pm-midnight. In the meantime, L had been asked to be Miss Relay (a crazy part of the night is where all these men dress up as women for a beauty contest, LMAO.). He'd been sceptical about it at first, but he came around and said yeah why not, lolololololol. So we had no idea what time this was to happen until we were actually there. Turns out the Miss Relay beauty contest was on at 10:30pm, which meant I couldn't do canteen from 10pm until midnight, because I'd have to be with my girls. So I came off that, which was good in the end, because the person that was meant to show up at 6pm after my turn didn't actually show up. In the end I was on canteen from 4pm until 8pm, and in that time, my girls were running around in the rain, (which was fun for them but worrying for me because they had no shoes on and then they were wet for ages afterwards - I could see them through the canteen window but they were too faraway and I was too busy anyway to say anything. Also I hadn't seen them stop for dinner or anything. I couldn't see where L was and I couldn't call him on his phone either because he is phone-less at the moment! So anyhow I carried on. It got quite busy in that time, because it got cold and so lots of people were coming up for doughnuts. They were 40 cents each or you could buy a bag of 6 for $2. Everyone wanted the bags, so they went like hotcakes and the doughnut machine only made 8 at a time, so people even had to wait! Who knew?! Lol.

Finally it was my turn to stop and I went over to L, who was with the girls who were now in dry clothes. We had dinner together and then it was L's turn at canteen for a half hour before going off to get ready for Miss Relay! In that time I put the girls to bed. I was quite cranky because they'd somehow ended up in our tent with all their friends. Little L and her friend Evie had gone through my handbag and eaten my stash of walnuts. They'd also gone through our toiletries bag and eaten toothpaste. They'd also opned my moisturiser that I keep in the toiletries bag (that I never use but still) and spread it around on the tent floor!!!!! OMG!!!!! Lol. Someone had also played with our torch so that there was no battery life left at all!!!! Where on earth was L all this time?!?!? Oh yeah that's right, he was sitting just outside, talking with the guy who was going on about the size of our tent!!!!!! To be fair though, he WAS babysitting my kids as well as their friends, because their friends' mum was helping out in the canteen too and her husband wasn't there due to farm work (though she admitted to me that night that he sometimes uses the farm as an excuse to get out of things....).

Finally the girls were asleep. It was 9pm and here I was, sitting in the tent doing nothing, with no torch and no lights (because right at that time the Relay for Life turned off all their lights and they had a candlelight ceremony in remembrance of loved ones lost to cancer. I didn't know this though, I just thought the generators had stopped working, lololol.) I knew then that Miss Relay was on at 10:30, but laying down in the dark, I wandered if I'd even be awake by then. Next thing I know, I've been woken up by L, who is now dressed as an old woman and wearing a wig (LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!). It's 9:40pm and I had no idea I'd drifted off to sleep! Lol. L said I should come for a walk, so I did. I wanted to get photos of the Miss Relay event and I decided to relax about the girls, since I was only across the oval and could see the tent clearly and I'd be heading back every so often to check on them. I'm glad I did that because they did not wake once, and at the same time I didn't miss out on much of the event at all. My goodness you should've seen some of the other guys!!! They had boobs and everything! One guy had boots, short skirt, big boobs and a long curly-haired wig on, a la Dolly Parton!!! And he fully had the legs of a girl!!!!! He looked quite beautiful!!!! LOL... there was a Maori guy, two older guys and then about 4 guys L's age or younger, lolololololol. There was even a 17 year old dressed as Dame Edna's Sister, HAHAHAHAHAHA. I was surprised that in a town as small as this, in a geographical location such as this... that so many guys were into it!!! Lol. L looked atrocious, lol. The adjudicator even asked him who dressed him up, and when he said Jo, the adjudicator asked Jo to put her hand up. Once she did this, he told her she was practically fired LMAO!!! The guy who won was in his forties or so and was wearing make-up!!! Part of being the winner meant that he got to dance up on the stage in front of everyone, with his friends. Even while he was dancing I was thinking, "he's practised dancing in heels," cos his heels were pretty tall and there's no way you could pull that off without practise! He had the whole LADY LOOK downpat. He kept stretching his arms out in this glamorous show-biz way. It was so funny and you could tell he was really enjoying it! I actually found out later that he is indeed gay, which explains why he was so good at dancing in the heels, hahahaha. Once I knew that, I actually felt happy for him that he got his spot in the limelight.

Straight after that, the guy who won sat on this bike. When you ride the bike, it generates electricity to power up clippers to shear sheep. So there was a sheep shearer, and she started shearing sheep. There was a fair crowd around and then some young guy got in there and decided he wanted his facial hair trimmed, so the sheep shearer (he's known as "Dogsy") shaved this guy's facial hair, lol. Once that was done, L himself decided he wanted in on the action!! (SO like him to do this, hahaha!) So in he went, and here he is getting shorn like a sheep!!! I was clicking madly with my camera, hahahahahaha!!!!! Dogsy was clipping the last of L's facial hair when he decided to just keep on going, over his ear and onto his head!!!! LOLOLOL!!!! Everyone was in stitches and L was surprised but laughing! In the end, Dogsy intentionally did a terrible, TERRIBLE job of a haircut. Someone even said it looked like rats had got into L's hair, hahaha. People kept asking me what I thought of it and if I approved, which of course I did - THE YEARD IS GONE!!!!!!! LMAO!!!!! All through these fun events, teams were still walking around as part of the relay. After the mad craziness that was, L and I did a couple of laps together. We saw that there was another race going on. Two people had to compete. They started at one end where they had to pick up a bale of hay and run with it towards a wheelbarrow which was about 10 metres in front of them (if you've ever had to carry a bale of hay you'll know it's not easy! The hay starts falling all over the place if you're not holding it right, and the hay will stick to your clothes.) Then once at the wheelbarrow they had to throw the bale of hay to a side and start shovelling a pile of sand into the wheelbarrow. Once that was done, they had to grab the wheelbarrow and push it another 10 metres forward as fast they could, where they then had to put a post into the ground. By this point they would of course be completely out of breath, but the winner was actually the one that could munch down a whole Sao biscuit at the end of it all!!! That was fun to watch! I'm glad I know people or at least their names by now, which meant I could chime in with the other onlookers and cheer them on! L and I watched for a bit then decided we'd get back to our tent and have a drink while quietly spinning out at everything that had just happened.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!

So it was about 1am when we went to bed. There still were other events through the night while the relay kept going. There was a Zumba class at 2am, then again at 6am. I have no idea how the Zumba lady did it because she was up all night!!! (Then again, she's like, 19, lol.) The next day the whole thing wrapped up by about 10am with a closing ceremony. It had been a wonderful event and I was so very grateful that I had the opportunity to experience this. Really there are so many wonderful experiences I am living and I know that this place will keep a part of my heart one day when I leave. This place has its own element of magic to it, and I know that there will be times that I will miss it and its people. I'd also been surprised at just how many people that I know here that have actually had cancer!!! So many people!!!!!! Which, when you think about it, isn't actually THAT surprising because the sun is that much harsher out here, along with all the other elements.

Straight after the Relay for Life was over, I hopped into my car, exhausted as I was, and drove to the next town for Charlotte's baby shower. Charlotte is the wife of one of L's friends whom we've known for many years now. He's actually the one that convinced L to look into mining, because he came here about a year before we did and every time he'd visit, he'd tell us how good it was. He met Charlotte down here. It's taken a while for Charlotte and I to warm up to each other - I think we are pretty different and since we are also at different stages in life, it makes it hard to come up with interesting and non-awkward conversation. I have wondered before too if she is a little jealous of me, though I don't know why I get this feeling. Anyway, she invited me to her baby shower and I was grateful for that. I went along and enjoyed listening to her friends talking. Charlotte is an amazing hostess, she's like a grandma spoiling you rotten, that's how good she is!!! Lol.

I came home and we decided we'd watch Mary Poppins, since we hadn't watched a movie for quite a while and it would be something chill to do. I fell asleep in the movie, lol, so I got up and went to bed. I slept soundly for about 2 hours! I could feel my entire body sinking deeply into the bed as every muscle, joint, bone and nerve relaxed and welcomed the rest!!!!!!!!