14/8/12 - 19/8/12

Today it was all aboard The Overland train again to take me from Melbourne to Adelaide.
I wasn't in the best of moods due to the early start, lugging a lot more stuff this time (80 cds in tow) and just generally being by myself again. I didn't now how I was going to perk myself up for my gig on the train but once I started it was all good.
I launched into "You are my sunshine" and the whole carriage erupted into song so that made my job a lot easier from the get go.
I had a really good set and got a few (financial) tips from the people on board and one woman was nice enough to say she'd been travelling on The Overland for years and this was the first time she was entertained so I was pretty chuffed with that (I should have been playing John Denver and Cat Stevens years ago I think!).
I also met a lovely lady from NZ who is also a singer songwriter and she played a few tunes as well.

Jan from NZ

In the afternoon gig it was only really a group a French Canadian girls in the carriage so the set list was vastly more contemporary with Oasis getting a run as well as Nickelback's "How you remind me".

Only faces like this could force a man to play Nickelback

Did someone say I was livin' the dream?

The next day it was back on The Ghan again - tough life huh?
I enjoyed the trip back a lot better mostly because of the people I met on board.
The first night I was asked to play for the Red section people which was a lot more fun than one of my experiences in the gold/platinum sections on the way down.
There were about 5 couples from WA (all characters), a couple from Adelaide, a couple of women (including country singer Beccy Cole's Aunty), a couple from Mandura in WA, a bloke from NZ and a few others.
I was shouted 3 beers during my one hour set and after not drinking all that much this year, the crownies didn't miss me!
It was all good fun though and a good night was had by all.
The next day the train stopped for a few hours in Alice Springs and it was great to feel the warm sun on my skin as I got off the train to stretch my legs.
That night there were two other performers on the train so one of us did one of the bars in the gold section and the other guys did the other.
The other guys just happened to be Lucy Wise and her partner Mischa whom I had only met at the Wintermoon Festival in May - it's so funny how you run into people again.
They're a a really nice couple and they managed to talk their way into allowing us to eat in the gold class section for dinner so we had a lovely catch up that night over a lovely meal. The guys in the red section gave me a bit of curry saying I had forgotten my roots by defecting to the gold section but I assured them I'd always be a "red boy" through and through.

My peeps from the Red section on The Ghan. The bloke up the back right now has a new nickname and it's "package" after Leslie said he had a "big one" supposedly referring to his bar....of Toblerone 

They were all a great group of people and hopefully we will stay in touch.
I also caught up with German girl Kristina who I met in Adelaide and we have made plans to go to Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks on Monday.
So the next couple of days were spent just getting Freda up scratch (it was good to see the old girl again - thanks to Jack and Sarah for looking after her) and a few domestic duties before hitting the road again.
I never thought I'd say it but getting back in Freda made me realise how much I have missed driving so I'm looking forward to clocking up some more km's on Monday.
Oh! And for those who are wondering what's making news in the top end...

Shit happens...