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Chapter 6: Starbucks With A View

Katie-Lou arrived promptly at 9am on Saturday to the surprise of Andrew, he hadn't really thought she'd arrive so early.

"Are you ready?" she said inviting herself into his place.

"WOW! What a view" she exclaimed walking out to his living room, "I didn't get to see this the other night."

"Oh that" he said looking out toward the balcony.

"Oh that" she said mocking him "I'm putting that down as one of the best views in the Tamar" she said making her way into the kitchen, pausing at the kitchen bench.

"So," she said pausing for dramatics, "we have a lot to get today, but I have a surprise for you that will make it all worth while" she said grinning.

Finally Andrew said "Well?"

Digging into her handbag satchel Katie-Lou pulled out a pack of coffee beans, "STARBUCKS!" she declared proud of her self.

"HAHA, just because I'm American you assume I like Starbucks?" Andrew retorted.

"Of course you do!" she proclaimed as if she'd known him for many years.

"Where did you get these?" He asked picking up the pack, "I haven't been able to find a Starbucks anywhere."

"Yeah, unfortunately Tasmania is lacking a Starbucks, we used to have one in Hobart, but that closed back in 2008 when the GFC hit, but that's OK cause I know a Man"

"HAHA, there's a black market for Starbucks coffee in Tasmania?" laughed Andrew.

"Let's just say I know a Man" she said cutting the conversation short.

"So," Katie-Lou began changing the subject... "I thought we'd start at Fantastic Furniture, they're like our version of IKEA, of course Australia does have IKEA, but it hasn't flowed down to Tassie yet, but having said that, Fantastic Furniture does offer a higher end selection as well as the el cheapo flat pack"

"Flat pack?" Andrew questioned looking at her like she'd been speaking a foreign language, "as in, build it yourself? I've never done that"

Katie-Lou starred at him for a moment, it seemed odd that someone in their late 30's had never used a flat pack before, most people she knew had at least a coffee table even if said coffee table had been thrown out years later.

"Hmmm, well, we'll have to find you something in the flat pack range to build, but be prepared for frustration and anger" she laughed.

Chapter 5: A Wine Glass Free Vineyard

Half an hour after hanging up on Andrew, Katie-Lou arrived at Kanamaluka Vineyard.

Andrew waiting in the door way holding a bucket, looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Where is it?" She said grabbing the bucket.

Following Andrew through to the living room area, to where the spider had set up camp.

"Hey little dude," she said as she gently put the bucket over the area where the spider was, a second later, she gently tapped the bucket and the spider fell into the bucket, slowly she pulled the bucket away and looked down on the scared spider as she walked outside.

Moments later she returned with an empty bucket to Andrew sitting on the floor paler than when she had arrived.

"It sucks, doesn't it" she said placing the bucket on the kitchen bench.

"What? Not being able to deal with a spider?" He asked looking up.

"No, I mean the anxiety" 

"What?... How?... How do you know?" He said looking confused.

"How did I know about your anxiety?" she responded, opening up a cupboard looking for a wine glass.

"I know, because, you look just like me, it sucks, being in an everyday situation, yet it makes you hyperventilate" she said opening a second cupboard "OK, where are your wine glasses?" she said distracting Andrew from his current anxiety attack.

"What? Wine glasses, I don't have any" he responded, the colour slowing coming back to his face.

"What? You live on a vineyard and you don't have any wine glasses?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, I haven't really been that organised yet."

"Coffee mug?" 

"No, I have bottled water in the fridge!" he responded.

"Bottled water?" she said stopping mid step to the fridge.

" Yeah, I heard the tap water here isn't very good so I've been using bottled water" he said fully recovered from the attack.

"OK, he need to get you organised" she said grabbing around a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge and looking around the empty house "Do you have a budget for furnishing?"

"Huh? Oh that's not an issue, it's just I haven't got around to it... how did you do that?" he asked flipping the conversation back to the spider.

"Oh that" she paused for a moment while she handed him a bottle of water, "to tell you the truth, I hate spiders"

"But, you were so calm" he said reliving what he'd just seen.

"Oh that," she said, pausing again "Are you religious? I know it sounds off topic, but I promise it's not"

"I grew up Catholic, so I guess yes"

"I'm not really, I mean, I believe there's something out there, but do I believe in the rest of it all, not really. But what I do believe in is Yin and Yang which is all about opposites, male and female, hot and cold, hate and love. So when someone is panicked in a situation that warrants it, like the spider, I am as cool as a cucumber, when no one is panicked, I panic"

"So are you saying, if I wasn't panicked about the spider, you would have?" he asked looking up at her.

"I know it sounds weird, but yes... I am usually jumping around the room, freaking out, but unfortunately that doesn't solve the situation."

He sat starring at her for a moment before saying "I just can't believe you have anxiety".

"Why?" She asked.

"Because, you always look so happy, you're always smiling and you handled that situation so calmly" 

"Andrew, sometimes the happiest people are the most depressed" she paused before continuing "after many years of living with it, I have become very good at hiding it"

"ha" he gave a small laugh as if to say I know that feeling.

"Now! Let's start making a list, we're going to get you organised!"

Chapter 4: Will this kill me?

It was 9:05pm when Katie-Lou's phone rang.

She picked it up off her coffee table and looked at the name, "who's calling me from America?" she asked herself, for a brief moment she thought about not answering, but for some reason she did.

"Hello," she said cautiously almost as if she had never answered a phone before.

"Hi, is this Katie-Lou?" The voice on the other end asked in a distinct American accent.

"Yes," she answered as briefly as possible.

"Hi, Katie, it's Andrew, so sorry to call you so late, I wasn't sure who else to call"

"No problem" she said relieved it wasn't a call centre.

"Do you have FaceTime? I have something to show you"

"OK" she reluctantly replied.

Andrew promptly hung up and recalled using FaceTime.

"Hi what's up?" She asked looking at a panicked Andrew.

"ummmm, can you tell what this and will it kill me?" he said as he turned the camera around facing toward the wall.

"HAHA that's a huntsman! No it won't kill you!" she said as she tried to stop laughing.

"Ummm.... so what do I do?" He said flipping the camera back to himself.

"Do you have a bucket?" she said.

"Ummm, maybe?" Andrew responded.

"Do you want me to come round and get rid of it?" she asked.

"No, no, it's late, I'll be fine," he said looking over at the spider.

"I'll be right there"

Chapter 3: Coffee at Noon

Finally it was mid-day, the morning at dragged on for what felt like 40 hours at least.

Katie-Lou picked up her handbag digging her phone out of the abyss as she left the office, opening the door, she entered outside into the fresh air the sun shining on her face as she starred up at the blue sky.

"My mother was right," she said out loud to herself, "we may have cold winters, but they are beautiful days"

Suddenly her phone beeped with an incoming email.

Dear Katie-Lou

I hope I'm not too late to reply, I can meet you at Samuel Pepys at noon

Andrew

Katie-Lou starred at her phone for a moment, and had a sudden dreadful thought, it was all well and good being friendly and offering to help someone, but how on earth was she going to recognise this Andrew?

"Oh well", she said, typing a quick response, "I suppose he's been on my website, I guess he knows what I look like"

A hop, skip and a jump later and she would arrive in Yorktown Square and as she came around the corner, she noticed an attractive man in his late 30's standing outside nervously looking at his phone, she paused for a moment, wondering if it was Andrew when all of a sudden he looked up.

"Katie-Lou, so nice to meet you, I'm Andrew!" he said in a thick Californian accent.

"Hi Andrew, I hope you don't find me rude, but I am dying for a coffee, shall we go in?" she said leading the way.

Moment later, they had ordered the coffees and been up-sold to a piece of cake by the charming barista behind the counter.

"OK, so I have to ask the obvious question" Katie-Lou said sitting down at a near by table, "Why Launceston, Tasmania?"

"Haha, well... it's a long story" Andrew replied.

"I have an hour... go" she said giving Andrew a cheeky grin.

"Well, I guess it started with an article I read online one night about Steve Wozniak wanting to move to Tasmania and I was like where's that? So I looked it up thought, that seems like a mellow sort of place... anyway, a few months later, I was feeling pretty burnt out at work and I thought, I wonder if I could move to get away from it all and so I researched some properties, in Tasmania, came across a small vineyard in the Tam-ar Valley and here I am" he finished just in time for the coffee to arrive.

"WOW, just like that?" she said starring in disbelief.

"Just like that" he responded taking a sip of coffee.

"And you know no one here?" she said still dumbstruck.

"Well, if Steve moves here I will, I meet him once at an Apple party, but I doubt he'd remember me" Andrew responded in a half joking manner.

Chapter 2: It really started with Google

Andrew sighed as he looked out on the bleak Tasmanian Landscape, he thought back to the pictures he had seen online when he'd purchased the vineyard and couldn't help that think he'd been cheated somehow. It probably didn't help that it was winter, winter was never a nice season regardless of the location.

He turn looked at the empty kitchen and thought, I could really do with a coffee right now, if only I had a coffee machine... and milk... and coffee for that matter.

He'd been in Launceston for a month and in that time not really accomplished anything, he'd bought a bed and that was about it, luckily the how had come complete with white goods, but besides that the place was empty.

He sighed again thinking about all the things that he needed to do, but just couldn't get round to organising, maybe it was his depression kicking in again, he hadn't been able to renew his prescription because well... he wasn't sure how to.

He opened up his computer, hoping there might be an email from home to cheer him up, his sister was due to have her baby any day now, maybe that had happened while he was asleep.

Dear Andrew

Thank you for your email, I'm sorry to hear you are struggling to meet new people.

I'd be happy to meet you for coffee if you're interested, how well do you know Launceston now? There's a coffee place in Yorktown Square that does nice coffee, it's called Samuel Pepys.

Let me know if you're free tomorrow.

Kind Regards

Katie-Lou

Andrew starred at the computer for a moment, reading over the email, he sent the original email after a long night of googling Launceston, he hadn't really thought she'd replied let alone offer to meet up, but she was asking to meet today!

Hitting the reply button, he quickly responded, grabbed his car keys and ran out the door.

Chapter 1: It started with an email

It started with an email, not the way every adventure started in Katie-Lou's life, but it was the way this one had chosen to start.

Hello Katie-Lou

I'm new to Launceston, and was googling Launceston, when I came across your blog "Two Long Years" I couldn't help but relate, I have just moved here from the States and your blog hit the nail on the head, it's hard being a new person here, how do you meet people when you know no-one?

Kind Regards
Andrew

Katie-Lou ponded over the email for a while, she'd been writing her blog on Tasmanian travel for a few months now, but had never really had anyone reach out to her like that.

She paused for a moment hands poised on the keyboard preparing her answer, thinking back to all the times she had started over, that time she moved to Shijiazhuang, or moved to Sydney... then of course, she started all over again when she moved to Shanghai, but China was different, all you really had to do in China was find a foreigner to befriend, finding a foreigner, even if they weren't from Australia always meant you had something in common, you well... foreign.

Dear Andrew

I was delighted and surprise

No that wasn't going to work she thought to herself.

Dear Andrew

The curse blinked at her waiting for her to type her next word, why was this so hard? She thought staring at the screen.

Dear Andrew

Thank you for your email, I'm sorry to hear you are struggling to meet new people.

I'd be happy to meet you for coffee if you're interested, how well do you know Launceston now? There's a coffee place in Yorktown Square that does nice coffee, it's called Samuel Pepys.

Let me know if you're free tomorrow.

Kind Regards

Katie-Lou

"There!" she thought to herself, hitting the send button, "pay it forward".