New Beginings - 7. NB Chapter 7

When the programme ended, I remembered the message machine, and reluctantly I pressed the play button, “Hi, it’s Kyle here, just wanted to remind you that our programme starts this Sunday, so don’t forget to watch it”, I smiled when I heard this, and made a mental note to call Kyle back shortly.

“Hello Huon, this is Sebastian, what happened on the Southern Explorer today? The Captain informed me that you got very angry and you demanded to be taken off the vessel at the nearest marina. Give me a call when you can, I would like to know what happened” I heard Sebastian say.

I was not happy about this message, and I was getting very frustrated about this, so I grabbed my car keys and drove into town. Parking my car at the rectory, I walked to the side door of the church, that leads to the office, and I found the door closed, so I knocked. “Come in Kyle” I heard Annette say and I smiled, “Try again” I said, as I opened the door” Why hello Huon, did you get to see the programme?” Annette said.

“Yes I did, and it looked great, the media tech guys did a great job with the filming” I replied, “That reminds me, here is a DVD copy of the recordings for you to keep” she said handing me the DVD, “Now what can I do for you?” Annette added. “I need some advise, I am having some issues that I am having troubles dealing with” I said to Annette nervously.

Annette, put her hand for me to stop for a moment, and she picked up the phone and dialled a number, “It’s me, I am in a counselling session, I am not to be disturbed for the next two hours, divert my phone to messagebank, and I will deal with the calls later” I heard Annette say before hanging up. “That’s my personal assistant, he is great with organising my schedule when things change suddenly” Annette said with a smile.

For the next 90 minutes, I told Annette about Sebastian, the link between our fathers, and that the stange ship in Fremantle is owned by Sebastian, which has Norwegian, English and German crew, and that it is in Fremantle for some sort of special contract. I told her about the invitation to spend the weekend on the ship and that we went on a cruise up the coast, which I found lonely, boring and depressing.

I told Annette that to try and overcome the lonelines, I invited myself to the crew dining room, for lunch, which resulted in the crew trying to tell me what to do, and that I returned to my cabin, where some time later a Steward intruded into my cabin, after I told him to go away, and that is when I demanded to be taken back to the mainland, and I caught a train back to Fremantle to collect my car and drive back home.

Annette advised me that I try and forget everything that took place on the weekend and concentrate on the last week of exams, and she also suggested that she contact Sebastian on my behalf, to inform him, that I am travelling overseas for an undetermined period of time. “Ok, so if you tell him that, it won’t stop him from locating the farm, and trying to find me?” I said to Annette.

“You forget one thing young man, remember you told me that your father had set up a university fund, to cover your studies and living costs, plus you have recently leased the majority of your farm, so you have a good amount of income each month for many years to come” Annette said to me, “What are you suggesting Rev?” I asked, “Just pick a remote spot in the world and just go, as soon as you have finished your exams” Annette said to me.

“Wow, I never thought of doing that, but yes I guess I can do that” I replied with a smile, “Just make sure you let your family lawyer and maybe us know where you are, and that you are safe, Kyle and I regard you as family, so we want you to take care of yourself” Annette said to me.

The following day, at school, after finishing my last exam for the day, and with only a few days till my very last exam at school, I went to see my family lawyer in the city, and told him the whole story. “Well I agree with your friends, you definately have the funds to do some travelling, as long as you do it sensibly, and don’t splash out too much, so since you already have a passport, just pick a place and go as soon as you can” the lawyer said to me.

I called into a travel agents on my way back to where I packed my car, and after looking around at the wall of brochures, I decided to select just a few, and that I would look at them tonight and tomorrow, as I headed home. Once there I began to plan for my sudden holiday.

Although I had no idea where I would be going, I was looking forward to another overseas trip. That evening after going through all of the brochures twice, I had narrowed it down from 12 brochures, down to just four, and I went through those four again, to see if I could try and reduce the number of brochures to just one, but I just couldn’t decide.

“Stuff it, I am just going to select one and that is the area I am going” I said to my self as I closed my eyes, and shuffled the brochures around on the table, before placing a single finger onto one brochure. “And the winner is..” I said before opening my eyes, “South America” I said out loud to myself, as I opened up the brochure and looking at the index of locations, I once again closed my eyes and placed my finger on the brochure, and opened my eyes again and looked at where I had selected.

A few moments later I was on the phone, calling the Rectory, “Hi Annette, I went to see my lawyer today and told him the whole story, and he agrees with you, that I just go as soon as the exams are over. I went to a travel agents and picked up twenty brochures, and after reading them twice I couldn’t decide, so I closed my eyes and selected one brochure, which ended up being South America, I then opened that one up and closed my eyes again, and I selected a place, so I know where am going” I said to Annette.

“So are you going to tell me where this place is, that you you have chosen?” Annette asked me, “Well it is in the far southern part of South America” I said with a smile. “Well that breaks it down to two countries, are you going to tell me which one?” Annette asked me, and I chuckled, “Not quite, you have forgotten about the External Territories of the UK” I replied, and there was silence on the line for a few moments.

“Wow, now that is going to the end of the world, if I know where you mean, but lets keep that to ourselves for now, I have decided to wait till you are gone before informing Mr Wagner that you have gone away” Annette said to me, “Ok, I will go to the travel agents in the morning, before my first exam for the day, and I am hoping to be able to leave on or soon after my last exam is completed, I will need to go and do some shopping for cold weather gear, and check on getting visa’s” I announced.

After the phone call, I was feeling alot happier, and I was looking forward to seeing this place that I had heard alot about, especially regarding the war that took place many years ago between the British and the Argentinians. The next day, I made sure that I was up reasonably early, and headed to the city to visit the travel agents, as soon as their doors open at 8.30 am, with my passport in hand, in case it was needed.

When I stepped out of the travel agents 90 mintues after I had entered, I had all of my travel plans pretty much sorted, and the travel agents would be taking care of the Visa application for the two day stop on the way to my destination. I made it back to school, with twenty minutes to spare, to sit for my first exam for the day, and I was pleased that I had completed it with ease, and after a late lunch, and half an hour in the library to just relax, I went to sit for my next exam.

My last exam was set to finish at 3pm on Thursday, and I was scheduled to fly out of Perth at 11.11pm, with a stop in Sydney, arriving there at 6.25am the next morning. With a 5 ½ hour stop over, I had decided that I would do my shopping for cold weather, once I arrive in Sydney, and my flight out was due to leave at 11.55am in the late morning, with a short stop at Auckland, before continuing on to South America.

When Thursday finally arrived, I was both nervous and excited for this trip, and having travelled to school with Annette and Kyle that morning, they were waiting for me as I stepped out of the building with my final exam finally over, and Annette drove us back to Toodyay, arriving just after 5.30pm, and we drove straight to my place, where I had a shower and changed into my travel clothes, which I decided to be a smart suit.

With my one suitcase loaded in the car, we drove into town where Annette treated me to an early farewell dinner, before we set off at 6.00pm, to drive back to Perth and the domestic airport. After a final farewell from both Kyle and Annette, I entered the restricted area of the airport, and began the process of checking in for my flight, and heading to the departure lounge.

When I arrived at the boarding gate, when the flight had been called for passengers to board, I was pleseantly surprised when I was informed that I had been bumped up to Business class for the 4 ½ hour flight to Sydney, and I smiled and nodded my head in thanks. As I reached my new assigned seat, I saw that there was more seat room, and tons more leg room, as I sat down and fastened my seatbelt.

Less than ten minutes after we took off from Perth, I leaned back and fell into a nice sleep, waking up just over two hours later, with stewardess’s handing out breakfast trays, so I brought my seat upright and accepted a tray and a bottle of water. When we arrived in Sydney, I didn’t need to worry about my checked in luggage, as it would be loaded directly onto my next flight, leaving in just over 5 hours time. Catching a taxi into the city, I spent the next two hours searching for and buying cold weather clothing, plus an extra small carry on suitcase, to put it all in.

I also bought some extra socks, underwear, toiletries and and a brand new laptop computer, some computer software and a internet wifi device, suitable for use overseas. I found a hotel that allowed me to check in for a short while, where I showered, changed into fresh clothes, but kept the same tie and suit jacket. By the time I arrived back at the airport, I was exhausted, as I made my way to the international terminal, and I checked in for my flight to Santiago, Chile, which will be a 14 ½ hour long direct flight, via Auckland.

Once I had passed through passport control and customs, I had nearly an hour to wait till the flight left, so I found a seat in the departure lounge and dozed off to sleep, only waking up when I heard the boarding call for my flight. Once again I was surprised to be bumped up to business class for the long South Pacific flight, with not much between Australia, and Chile, apart from the short stop in Auckland to change flights.

I had booked overnight accommodation at Santiago, a few kilometres out from the airport, as I had to be back there at 4 am the following morning. I had slept for about 8 hours during the flight, after we left Auckland, so I wasn’t feeling too tired when we landed in Chile, and I was pleased to see my luggage, when it arrived at baggage collection, since I hadn’t seen it since check in, back in Perth. Customs and Quarintine was uneventful for me, at the Santiago Airport, and I caught a taxi to the hotel, showing the driver the name of the hotel, since I knew absolutely no spanish.

Once I had checked in, where I found some of the hotel staff understood enough English to understand me, I had a shower and changed into some casual clothes, before heading downstairs for some lunch, before setting off to the city to do some exploring, checking out alot of museums, passing by some magnificent old grand buildings, and taking lots of photographs on my phone, which I sent to my email address to save them, and to free up more memory space on my phone.

When I arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon, I asked reception for a 3.30am wake up call in the morning, and after having a early light dinner, I headed to bed to get some sleep, before the last stage of my travels to the small Falkland Islands, which was my main destination. I had arranged to rent a room in a lodge on Ross Road in Stanley, the capital for the remainder of Summer, with all meals included, I thought that maybe three months would be long enough to scare away Sebastian for good.

When I arrive at the Falkland Islands at 2.15pm on the Friday afternoon, I was very happy to have finally arrived, after 22 hours in the air, and time in between flights, it was sunny but rather cool, and I retrieved my jacket to keep out the cold air, as I stepped out of the terminal, and found a man holding a card with “Mr Davenport and Lafone Lodge” written on it.

“That would be you are looking for” I said cheerfully, and the man looked rather shocked, that such a young man like myself was travelling all this way on my own. “So what brings you so far away from home?” the man said as we set off in his minibus, once all my luggage was loaded onboard. “Well I have jsut completed my final exams at school on Thursday, Perth time, and I am lucky enough to have been left funding for extra education of what ever from my late father, so I chose to spend a few month exploring just one area, and my finger landed on the Falkland Islands” I replied, and the man laughed at the last bit that I had said.

“Well that is good luck that you chose a magnificent place like this” the man said, as he slowed down and turned into the driveway of the lodge, which looked well maintained. My name is Eric, I am your host, if you need anything all you have to do is ask” the man said as he climbed out and started to gather my luggage, leaving me to carry the smaller case and laptop computer case.

Once I was shown to my room, which had it’s own bathroom, I was given a tour of the lodge, and introduced to his wife – Mary, before being allowed to settle in. Once I had unpacked everything, I decided to go for a walk around Stanley, where I spotted the magnificent cathederal, and I couldn’t help but be drawn into it. The doors were wide open, and place appeared to be empty, and I walked to the centre of the cathederal and clapped twice to test the acoustics.

I listened for a moment, to see if I could hear anyone, and when all was silent, I turned the recorder on my phone and I began to sing Pie Jesu, which Kyle had taught me and which I really like, even thou it was a difficult piece to sing. When I reached the end of the first verse, an organ in the cathederal began to play, and when I recognised that it was the tune that I was singing, I continued to sing.

I slowly walked towards the front of the cathederal, stopping just before the alter near the end of the second verse, and during the third verse, I slowly made my way back towards the main doors. When I had finished singing, I quickly slipped out of the cathederal and dashed down the street, turning down a couple of streets.