Work sent me back
down to Margaret River again for another full week of client meetings on the
road which was unexpected and this time I really was on my own!
I was even more
nervous this time, not sure if the driving down there alone, (at least last
time I had Micky to accompany me), or the pressure to conduct meetings to new
clients, was more daunting.
On the Sunday
afternoon drive down from Bunbury to Margaret River (luckily we’d spent the
weekend in Mandurah so that was a quarter of the route already done), I found
talking to myself helped. Don’t they say that’s a sign of insanity..? Anyway, I
needed to hear noise it was eerily quiet on the road. No iPod connection in our
car for a little musical company and I haven’t owned a cassette tape since the
mid-nineties to play in the cars’ cassette player. The car is Micky’s parents’
old car which they kindly gave to us when Micky arrived. I kept thinking ‘just
don’t run over any kangaroos!’
My week wasn’t as
successful as the first but I did manage to win some premium new clients such
as; Gabriel Chocolates, (a lovely boutique chocolate shop), Arimia Wines, (a
lovely little cellar door winery and restaurant with a lovely owner who came up
with the vineyard name from her two daughters; ‘Ari’ and ‘Mia’), Wise Vineyard
and Restaurant, a winery and restaurant in an amazing setting with gorgeous
scenery nestled in the hills overlooking Eagle Bay and the ocean. I had another
incident with farm animals, this time it was chickens! I visited an artist and
when I met her on her organic farm she led me into her studio which was a five
minute walk out into the field. I’d forgotten to take some magazines from the car
for her so I insisted I walk back to the car to get them – I wish I hadn’t. A
dozen or so chickens start to follow me so fast that I start to walk faster and
then I ran and as I did they scurried along faster behind me, I was a bit
scared. Why are you chasing me chickens? Surely you're not after a copy of
Scoop magazine! By the time I got back to the studio I was so out of
breath from running away from the chickens chasing me that my client said
“did you run back?” “Yes, your chickens were chasing me!" I replied.
"You can tell I’m not from the country can’t you!”.
I gained confidence each day on the road, I honestly surprised myself so much
that I hope I can now maintain this confidence and calm in Perth where the
driving is a bit more challenging on the busier roads. I even kept up to the
speed limits, 110k/hour on some roads. I stayed in the same accommodation
as before and spent my evenings cocooned up in my hotel room as I’d be pretty
exhausted from the day. Must admit I felt relieved to come home at the end of
the week. Whist it’s always good to get away and explore a beautiful region
here in WA, being away on two work trips for two weeks over the last month has
meant that I haven’t managed to do much else socially or even personal things
for myself. I intend to get more settled in Perth now that I’m back at home,
including unpacking the rest of the shipped boxes that arrived from the UK two
months ago…
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| Arimia |
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| Nice setting for a work meeting at Arimia :-) |
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| Brookland Valley winery |
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| Driving along scary roads |
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| My Aussie wheels |
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| View from Wise Winery |
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