So Christmas was pretty lame, as expected. I had to sleep in a Caravan in the cold and the wind. Half way through the night I packed a poo and came inside because it was stupid and noisy out there. Then I basically got shitty so I came home. I didn't eat any Christmassy anything on Christmas day so I had Subway and then pizza, it was great! Next year, I'm simply not going. I'm thinking of becoming buddhist ... only the non Christmas part though, I'm not into giving up my material possessions, if anything, I'll be getting more!

Speaking of getting more, I picked up a bargain yesterday. I got myself a new watch from the surf shop accross the road from work. I have been looking at these watches for a while and figured I wasn't going to get a better price than the "$150 sale shelf" price. So I decided to get it, only to discover that it was actually discounted further to $125. Well I was pretty chuffed with that, but then I saw the normal non-sale price ... $399. Right then I was fuckin stoked. It has tide height, tide range and moon phase dials on it. It also tells the time ... and the date!!

I'll be selling my other watch on eBay, unless someone else wants to give me $20 for it, it's only a month old, still have the box, etc. It arrived with a $130 price tag on it and I saw them for sale at Harbour Town for a price that I didn't look at.

I woke up at about 3 am this morning with hideous cramps in my leg, which I haven't had for a little while. I had cramps in my toes recently when I had my surfing lesson. Speaking of which, I got a voucher for Christmas for a double surfing lesson, which I'm not overly sure I want to take. I guess I'll get in trouble if I don't though.

Tonight is Annie's 21st party which I forget the location and time of. Go me!! I haven't really actually looked at the invitation though, I sort of got it from Adam and was told not to open it in his room because it was full of stars and then put it somewhere ... in my glovebox I think and didn't really look at it. Hopefully it's there, if not I'll have to call Adam and no one likes doing that.

This week is the last week of 2006, it's been a pretty good year. I've travelled interstate a couple of times, I got myself a new and awesome job and I took the plunge and bought a digital SLR. I'll have to read back over my posts from this year soon so I can do the annual recap which is always fun. I think my blog turned 3 this year too, which is exciting. I completely spaced on it though. I think the reason I started this blog was mostly to bitch about the stupid shit happening in high school. I didn't think it would last anywhere near this long because normally I'll start a diary, write a page or two and then just stop. I recall wanting a leatherbound journal to write in, that would have been such a waste ... a cool, cool waste though. I'll just have to get myself a laptop and put some sort of leather print decal on it.

I'm going to be getting a Macbook Pro soon, early in the new year ... this is what it will look like:

.... until I put the leather decal on it!!!

In other news, I will be working 4 - midnight this NYE. I did this so that I can go to the big day out next year for which I purchased my ticket yesterday. I also got tickets for the Mountain Goats next week ... I just hope they play stuff from their last album and not their new one so much because it's kinda slow and boring. Which is a shame, because I really like them. I don't know if I'll post again before the new year .... I might make preparations for the new year though, you know, adding a new month, etc. That's right, things don't happen automatically around here, when a new month rolls around, I actually have to do some work. I like it this way though, it keeps me occupado!!

Funniest video ... despite the fact that that it has Timberlake in it whom I haaaaaaaaaate:

PS. for the less cluey of you out there, I made it home safe and everyone loves their gifts.

Have your say (0)

Good news, I did make it up to Kuranda. I pooped and had some breakfast and I turned up all right. I'll talk about Kuranda later, I know everyone wants to hear about my trip to the reef first.

So the little bus came and picked us up to take us to the dive shop where we signed in, filled out some forms and had a short briefing. Then it was off to the boat!! We were informed that the skipper would ask us to remove our shoes and we wouldn't be wearing them on the live aboard boat either. So we all took off our shoes and jumped on the Sun-Kist ... shit name for a boat, but never mind. About 2 minutes into the trip it started to get fairly choppy, I sent mum an SMS saying "you'd be so seasick right now!" I think the rest of the trip was karma for that message. It was bumping all over the place and at one stage we nearly went under ... yeah, I was scared. After two horrible hours, we made it out to our live aboard boat the Kangaroo Explorer. This boat was I guess a small catamaran, it looked fairly stable and at our first site it was.

We were ushered around the boat, shown where everything was and told where we could not go when we were wet, then we were fed ... it was gross so I wont go into it. Finally, it was time for our first briefing aboard the boat and then our first trip out into the water. Out snorkelling instructor was a lovely lad by the name of reefie ... not too sure where he was from, but he was cute. I managed to get some nice pictures of him from the sun deck when he was on watch at the back of the boat yesterday morning (thank god I got that big zoom lense with my camera). So he took us through the basics of snorkelling and then made us dress is horrible lycra cat suits (they called them stinger suits, but I didn't even see one jelly fish). So there we are, 6 of us looking like retarded super heroes with our find, masks, snorkels and lycra body suits on. Reefie took us on a guided tour of the reef that we were currently at, it was great. He showed us how to duck dive and then found a giant clam for me to touch, it was awesome. It felt like a sea cucumber. We saw several clams actually, so that was really cool. We didn't see any turtles while we were in the water, but there were two swiming around when we were just taking off from that dive site.

Our next site wasn't as nice as far as snorkelling goes, a lot of the reef looked pretty dead which is a pity, but we still saw a lot of fish. Mostly Parrot fish and it was awesome to hear them eat. When you're under the water if you hold your breath for a couple of seconds and the water is calm, all you can hear is this crackling sound all around you, which is the fish eating. By the time we had reached this site, the seas were quite a bit more rough and just the three of us went out this time, Crystel came out as well, but she turned around because she was feeling ill. There were two japanese girls who went out on the first snorkel with us also, but they spent the entire time being sick. Bit of a waste of money really. So Brooks, Frank and myself had a good old look around this piece of reef and we probably went a bit too far actually considering we were level with another boat nearby, haha. We made it back on time though and no one got angry.

That was the last dive time that we were able to participate in, which kinda sucked, but apparently you can't see much from the surface at night anyway. The guys that went on the night dive saw turtles, sharks and lion fish, the three creatures I wanted to see most ... not including giant clams, SO COOL!!! There was a german girl and a welsh guy who were dive partners, brooks, crystel and shamus from ireland who I spoke to mostly. Poor old shamus, he is a certified diver, but doesn't seem to do well with the boat, he was violently ill and yesterday I found him laid out, asleep on the dive deck cushioned on a dive vest or three.

Then came dinner, again, not remarkable, except for the fact that Brooks, Crystel and myself took ours up to the sun deck and ate up there. It was great!! The food was again sub par though. We had roast pork ... or what was supposed to be roast pork anyway. The vegetables were ok, the sweet corn was bitter though. It was about this time that I discovered I was one of onle 3 aussies aboard ... and the only one who didn't work there. That was fine with me though, I met a lot of awesome people. After dinner, we had jelly and ice cream for desert and one of the dive instructors loaded his bowl so high that each time the boat rocked, it looked like he was going to loose half of it. I'll just take a moment now also to talk about one of the other dive instructors, before becoming an instructor, he was part of puppetry of the penis and apparently there are demonstrations on the boat all the time. Anywho, so we had an argument with the canadians about jelly being called jelly and not jello which was fun. We had a few drinks after that, but most of us were completely fucked because of the long day and the strenuous boat ride, so we went to bed ... now this was rather difficult.

I spent about two hours trying to find the best position to sleep in and I found that the only one that actually worked for me was sleeping on my face, which in turn didn't work very well for me because it was somewhat painful, so I could sleep 10 minutes at a time, then have to roll around for half an hour before I could sleep on my face again. Apparently during the night one of the boys fell out of bed which would have been hilarious to see. It was damn rough out there and I'm surprised more people werent sick.

First dive is at 6, so at 5:30 the instructors come around and knock on everyone's door to wake them up. Apparently this is the best dive time because all the night animals are just finishing and all the day animals are just getting up. We snorklers had decided not to take advantage of this dive time, mostly because we're wooses. I woke up feeling like absolute shit (woke up implies I got some sleep, it wasn't very restful sleep though) and Crystel and I decided to sit around on the deck (I totally just typed dick) and warm up for a while. The boat moved again at about 9 and it was so choppy that we had to get off the sun deck because it was too dangerous. 11 am was our last dive time because after that was lunch, then the new people arrived. So we went out and a couple of the scuba crew that were staying on for another day came out with us to have a look. We touched some more clams, saw a whole bunch more parrot fish and still didn't see any sharks, turtles or lion fish, but never mind.

Despite the bumpy ride, these two days have to go down as two of the best days of my life. There really is nothing like being on the barrier reef, particularly at sunset. Brooks and I were watching it on the sun deck and there were so many colours. Pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, they were all there. I was both glad and sad to be leaving. Glad that I wouldn't be constantly rocking any more and sad that it's quite possible I may never experience something like that again.

At one of the dive sites they were feeding fish off the back of the boat, I got some cool pictures of that and there were constantly fish swimming around the bottom of the hull. On my last trip out when we came back to the boat there were some sort of bass, I think someone said they were red bass under the boat, just swimming about and then one of them turned and looked at my and I almost crapped my pants right there, it was the meanest looking fish I had ever seen and big too. He swam up to me, close enough for me to touch ... I didn't though, I like having 10 fingers. The last site that we were at had MASSIVE parrot fish, I would never have imagined that they would grow to be that big.

Before we left the boat, they took us aside to tell us about a shin dig they were putting on at the wool shed, free beer and pizza, who's gonna turn that down. So when I got back on dry land and had a real shower (we were restricted to 3 minutes on the boat, so I didn't bother), I rocked around the corner to the hog's breath to have some real food. I had a steak with prawns on top, it was awesome. I was still feeling quite dizzy though and found myself imagining the world to be rocking, particularly when I went to the toilet, man that's weird on a ship and when I was getting dressed, I braced myself against a wall to wait for the impending rocking, but it never came. So I got some real food in me and headed to the woolshed. James, Brooks, the german girl and myself all arrived at the same time and went and kicked people off our table. Then waited for promised beers and pizza ... and we waited. They did eventually come and the beer was good, but I didn't have any pizza. Okay I did, I had one tiny slice, but it was pretty good.

Brooks and the german girl left pretty early and James and myself were the last ones standing. We're staying at the same hostel, so we walked back together. This was when I discovered my new german room mates. I got changed and then started feeling sick when I layed down and looked at the pattern on the bottom of the mattress. This was about midnight by this time so I took myself down to sit outside for a while. I eventually started feeling better so I went back to the room to discover the germans had turned off the air con because it was too loud ... fuckin whingers.

I woke up this morning before 6 (I had set my alarm for 7:30) feeling very ill, but as I mentioned, I came good and went off on my trip up the sky rail to Kuranda, it was an amazing trip. The first part I had a Dutch couple who were nice, then we got off at the change over point and had a walk around the board walk and joined the end of a tour. The guide pointed out an invisible cricket which was cool and then we lined up to get back on the sky rail and there was a march fly buzzing around. It landed in this girl's hair who I thought was a bit of a snob and the bug looked a bit scary (at this stage I still didn't know what it was), the cute guy next to me called out to her that she had a march fly in her hair and she didn't hear him so I thought to myself oh, it's a fly, that can't hurt me and I flicked it away. I got a bit of a look at it though and noticed it had a big pointy thing on its face. I asked the boy if they bite ... he said they do ... I pissed my pants. I hate bees and things like that.

So three gondolas later, I arrive in Kuranda and find myself having to walk up a honking great hill. This was fine though as I figured it's easier to walk up when you're not all tired. I needed to finish my gift shopping here and I was having some trouble. I haven't actually bought anything for myself, just for my friends. Aren't I nice? So I had a thought that I would give jordan a picture of myself hugging a koala or feeding a bird or something, because that sounds like something he would do. So I took myself into bird world expecting them to have something setup where you have your picture taken feeding a massive parrot. Apparently this isn't the case. So I walked around, looked at the Cassowaries and came upto the feeding deck to take some photos. I got some pretty good ones. Then this parrot comes and lands on my shoulder, it was cool and green. So I took some photos of it on my shoulder, then on my hand, then on my shoulder again and I tried to get it to stand on my hat, but it wouldn't, it kept trying to bite me and it was strangely warm. So I didn't end up getting that for Jordan, but I found something better.

After the birds, I took myself to lunch and had a warm crocodile salad. It was good ... well the crocodile and the avocado was good, I'm just glad I ordered a side of chips also or else I would have been starving. Crocodile sort of tastes like chicken, but it doesn't feel at all like chicken. It was nice though. After lunch I headed down to the river for a boat ride, I figured I've been on boats 3 days in a row, might as well keep the momentum going. I was the only one on the boat and I had a nice old conversation with the driver. He told me all about how the rainforest was cleared to make way for coffee plants, but then there was a big flood, so everyone just went "fuck that, we're not rebuilding, let's just get the fuck out of here, it's too hot anyway" So off they went and the rainforest is regrowing in that part. It was pretty cool actually. Then he took me to see the resident fresh water crocodiles which I had a little bit of trouble spotting, but saw eventually and we fed some fish and a turtle too. It was a nice calm boat ride, like the one at the croc farm, similar boat and all.

By the time the boat got back, it was time to head home on the scenic train. The view was spectacular, if you ever get the chance, it's well worth a look. It goes around the hills and over looks a HUGE gorge and goes past a few waterfalls and through some tunnels. It has information all along the way, tell you the story of how and why the railway was built and all the different things it has been used for. We were cruising along at one stage and I looked out the window to see a mango tree with a whole bunch of green mangoes. I've never seen them on a tree before so that was awesome.

Today has been a long one, but a good one and I'm glad I started feeling better this morning and didn't pike. I've really liked Cairns and I'm a little sad to be leaving. It'll be nice not to be sweating all the time, but not so nice to have to pee again, never mind though, you can't win them all. Tomorrow I get up at 3 to catch the 6am virgin flight to brisbane, then a QANTAS flight to Sydney and then another QANTAS flight from Sydney to Adelaide. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again and not have to either climb a ladder or look up at another mattress. I'll post some pictures on Monday providing I make it home =O).

I got off the boat yesterday afternoon and I have not yet found my land legs, I'm meant to go up to Kuranda today, but I'm not sure if I'll make it.

I'm coming home tomorrow.

Have your say (0)

So I have like 12 minutes in which to blog because that's all I have left of the hour of internet time I purchased earlier. I'm currently doing some washing (DAMN YOU SNADI, YOU SAID i WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS), because tomorrow I am off on a boat for a night and two days during which time I will be snorkelling, swimming, eating seafood, generally having fun and taking photos of the stars, I hear that you haven't seen them till you've seen them on the reef! To say that I am excited is an understatement, my entire life may possibly have been leading up to these two days. I guess more on that when I get back though.

Yesterday I caught up with Anita which was awesome. She just happened to be in Townsville and came up to Cairns to catch up with me and catch some of the sights. We met up at about 2:30 after I had chilled out, sorted out my clothes and determined just how much I would need to wash today and spent some time perving on a fucking god in my hostel. We headed over to gilligans which is the place to be when you are a backpacker looking to get drunk. We bought a jug and drank it between us. Then we needed to pee, the toilets were being cleaned as I left and Anita went in there and said to the cleaner "this is weird, guys and girls washing their hands together" and he directed her toward a window through which you could watch guys piss ... classy place. While on the subject of pissing, Cairns is great, you don't piss, you just sweat.

So we moved on, headed down to a place on the esplenade, played a game of pool, drank another jug, then we walked further and again I needed to piss, so we went into an RSL ... it was creepy. We walked back toward the interesting part of town along the boarded walk way. The ocean here is not like ocean at all, it is like wetlands .... WETLANDS WITH FISH JUMPING IN AND OUT OF THE WATER!!! It was so cool. Anita and I were slightly drunk, so naturally, this was hilarious.

-- I got cut off here, but managed to save the post just in time --

So there we were laughing at fish and walking along when we come accross "The Pier", so we saunter in there, order a vegetarian pizza, get another jug of beer and revel at how lucky we are to be in such a place, in good company, watching the sun set over the monsterous hills. It was quite amazing and a very humbling experience. Then we took off inside this "The Pier" building and insulted some lady about her crocs "don't buy them you dick head, you can get them at target for $2!" to which the lady replied "you'll get blisters from those ones, these are made of rubber." to which I came back with "well I wouldn't buy them anyway, clogs are the bane of my existence" and we then took off in the direction of an english lolly shop where I bought reeces pieces and edinborough rocks. We found our selves looking at the casino, so we wandered in there and then pretty much just wandered out again ... but not before we peed. It was then ice cream time, so we went to baskin robbins. My god, we have to get one of these in adelaide!!! It was the best thing ever. I had mousse ice cream, then a piece of brownie, then cookies and cream, then strawberry topping with real strawberries and whipped cream and nuts. Quite possibly the best ... thing I've ever had from an ice creamery ... not including andersons of course.

So today I went to a tropical zoo and a crocodile farm. I don't think there is much use in me going into details about that one until I have the pictures uploaded, so I'll leave that story for another day. I did how ever get sun burned, which indicates that the weather is improving, which should be awesome for my trip out on the boat!!! If I don't drown or get eaten by a crocodile or a shark then I'll post about that when I get back. I wont be able to get any pictures though, beause I don't have an underwater camera and I sure as shit am not ruining my new beast.

Also today I came home to an empty dorm room, so I moved beds. YAY!!! No more top bunk for me and I moved cabinets also, I'm in the one on its own now so I can lean my bag against it. Hopefully no one will move in tonight, that way I should have a good nights sleep for tomorrow and hopefully I'll have another good one out on the boat. On Saturday I'm going up to Kuranda which should be nice and relaxing, I'll finish shopping for people and take a nice train ride home, THEN GET UP AT 3 IN THE FUCKING MORNING TO GET THE SHUTTLE TO THE AIRPORT. Honestly, I can afford a taxi, but these mini busses are cool and I'm getting my adrenaline rush from the crazy driving.

My washing is most likely finished in the dryer now so I'm going to head back to my room and put some after sun gel on my arms!

So here I am in Cairns Centra YHA, I've already been to the gold coast and the wedding, it was good, I cried like 600 times.

On Friday when I arrived, I went over to Pacific Fair and on the way some home got a pricker in my new shoes and stabbed a hole in my foot and bled all over the damn thing ... ok not all over, but there was a fair blood stain. I had some lunch over there and then headed back to my hotel to decided on what to do that night. I had a look through to book in my hotel room and booked a surfing lesson for the next morning and then went for a walk down the way to some sort of food bazar. It was awesome, I got a seafood mixed grill and got 25% off! Go me. It was good, but I dropped food on my shorts.

Luckily when I got back to my hotel room, I discovered that there was a washing machine, which I used twice. So after my cheap seafood I took myself on a walk over to the Conrad Jupiters casino, where I played for 2 hours on $20 and still came out wth $5 in my pocket. This brought me to about midnight, so I headed back to the hotel room and went to sleep. Next thing I know, I'm awake again in broad daylight. "oh" I think, "it's like 9 am or something, I don't feel very rested." I look at the clock and it's fucking 4:30 in the morning. What business does the sun have being up at that time of the freakin morning?!?!?!?!

So I closed my curtains and slept for a few more hours. Then I got up, had myself some breakfast and headed down the road for my surfing lesson. I did alright I think, Bec and Hamish were down there and they said those waves would have been hard to learn in. I caught a few waves and then got cramp in my toes, so I couldn't go on.

Then the wedding, it was beautiful ... then the photographer farted, I think I may have been the only one to hear it though which is slightly disappointing. The reception was at the Sofitel, the food was pretty good, Auntie Di dropped a spoon in the soup ... as only she would do and then proceeded to warn everyone about it. In my opinion the chances of someone choking on a spoon are worth the risk of not being embarassed. I didn't drink anywhere near enough to even get jolly and when the holy grail came on, that was the end of it. I chucked the shits and went back to my hotel room and had a bath. Did I mention it was hot? The bath in my hotel room was awesome, I could turn the tap off with my foot. So anyway, apparently I hadn't learned my lesson the previous day and I didn't close my curtains properly, so again I was up at the ass crack of dawn. I went back to sleep a couple of times and then got ready to check out.

The olds came and had breakfast with me, then we went and stayed with my god parents over night. I had a nap, then there were children, then we went to bed and then we got up, had lunch and then went to the airport and I hopped my plane to Cairns. I got a bunch of cool photos out the window of random islands in the middle of the ocean, it was a bit too cloudy some of the time though.

Upon arriving in Cairns, I instantly melted and have not stopped sweating since then. I walked the 3 - 4 blocks down to the esplenade to visit the night markets and I almost died from loss of moisture. I had dinner at the coffee club and then slowly made my way back to the hostel, again, trying not to die. I stopped in at a shop and bought two big bottles of water, so I should be good for tonight and tomorrow. Not sure what I'm doing yet, I haven't booked anything. I had better go an organise that now actually.

When I get home I'll post all the pictures I've taken to my Flickr and post a link =O).

Have your say (0)

oh my fucking god:

Also, I finished packing last night when I got home at midnight, go me!

Have your say (0)

So I'm about half way through my second to last shift before I go on leave. I'm so excited I'm about to piss my pants ... or it could be all the water I've had to drink. Who knows, anywho, still excited. I packed a bit more today and when I get home this evening, I should pretty much be able to finish if the washing is dry (it had better be dry at midnight!). I need to remember to pack underwear though, I was feeling so proud of myself for having packed so well so far and then I suddenly realised I had no underwear packed and freaked out. At least I'm not leave it to the last minute ... I'm looking at you Carly! My bag is pretty damn heavy already and I think it's about half full, I just hope I can lift the damn thing once I'm done.

I went and had breakfast with Carly and Eli this morning, it was nice when there was no snot. Although snot is funny. Anyway, me and Carly had a big breafast and Eli had bacon. When I got to the nades, Carly and Eli were visiting Snadi in Maternity Girl showing her Matt's Christmas present. Matt will be getting a lovely large plastic lizard, which we later discovered squeaks. I was attacked by this lizard when I arrived, I thought I was going to die, I saw my life flash before my eyes. Terrified I was.

Have your say (0)

I started packing this morning, am I a holiday nerd? I can't WAIT till Friday morning, I just love flying =OD. I moved some money from my savings account to my ... spendings account. Hopefully I don't run out of the casholas lol.

I'm really looking forward to bed tonight, it just doesn't feel like a Monday today, it feels like Wednesday, which is the day I'm getting rid of my parents. These mid-week weekends are really messing with my head.

YAY QUEENSLAND AT THE END OF THE WEEK!!!

... I'm excited, can you tell?

Have your say (0)

Found a really cool video, definately worth the time to watch:

Awesome site to have a look at:
http://www.atelier-v.ch/01.htm

Anywho, welcome to December kidlets, the month for drinking a lot to make Christmas seem more tolerable and to suppress the guilt of the mammoth amounts of food that is consumed.

Last month's funniest searches:
nikki webster naked (ew ew ew)
show me some naked skin (ummm, try looking at the back of your hand?)
naked women ice skating (brrrr)
sandra sully topless (we'd all watch the news if this was the case)
5000 naked people can`t be wrong (sure they can, more people than that voted for bush!)
year of medusa (every year is the year of medusa!)
naked people having sex while driving (I don't even want to think about how this might work)
how to chat with the naked brothers (whose naked brother?)
no naked (yes naked?)

So this time next week I will probably have just landed in Brisbane and be looking for the man with the gold shirt, holding a board with my name on it. I'm busting out of my skin from excitement at the moment. All I can think about is the things I'm packing, I have my carry on luggage just about ready to do ... although there are some quite expensive things going on in that bag ... I'm thinking about travel insurance ... not sure yet. Any advice?

Have your say (0)