Uninvited Guest

This morning when Diva was out for a surf and Kate and I were lazily having breakfast downstairs, Kate noticed that we had an uninvited guest on our back deck... after taking a few pictures and videos and then a brief moment of hysteria and intentions of calling animal control to remove our visitor we came to our senses, hopped on the internet and learned that he or she was a Coastal Carpet Python, indigenous to these parts of Australia, and pretty much harmless unless you are a rodent or small pet.



I thought it would be okay if we touched it, like just the tail, and told Kate this and then proceed to lightly touch its tail end only to have its head jerk up and me to scream bloody murder and then both us sprint into the house. After that it continued its journey from one end of the deck to the other and then went through a small hole in the fence into the neighbors yard or under their deck. Kate went over and told them that the python had entered their property and that it was not poisonous. The neighbor said they had rats in their backyard, so maybe the snake will eat the rats? Interesting morning to say the least.

It's another beautiful day here in Byron Shire after a wicked thunder and lightning storm last night that we witnessed from the Beachie. The light show was incredible, some of it looked like fireworks, and we watched the black storm cloud engulf us from across the bay. It was really quite something. Once the storm had settled down we found a table and waited for the band to start. There was a guy and some girls at the table next to ours. It looked like the guy had bought these girls beers as a means to pick them up. The girls were not impressed, left the half-full beers on the table and then walked off. The guy stood there looking confused for a while and then put his beer down and walked away too. Then some other people came over and took his table and then one of the bouncers came over to take away the beers but we told him not to as we thought this guy might come back. We moved the beers over to our table and then he came back and we explained what happened/why his beers had been moved. He looked kinda pissed and I sort of thought he might want to fight the guy who was sitting at what used to be his table. He just took one of the beers and walked off again though. After a few more minutes we poured all his abandoned beer into our cups and then hid the empty cups under the table. He returned a bit later, but was looking for his friend, not his beers. So free beer for us! hahaha

Post-Christmas

Our tree!

Well what a weird Christmas! I decided early on on Christmas morning that it really wasn’t Christmas, it was actually just a random day in the middle of June that we decided to have a summer Christmas party on.
On Christmas Eve we all got up early to go down to the special Xmas Eve Farmers Market. Diva picked up supplies for Christmas Day Brunch (We split the Christmas food: I did all the baking, Diva did brunch, and then Laurie did Christmas Dinner in the form of appetizers) and we wondered around for a while. The market was pretty busy, but not as crazy as others had warned us. After that we split up to get other last minute things done- like groceries, liquor, and last minute gifts! I swam and then went home and made the Christmas morning coffee cake, while Diva and Laurie went for a surf. It was pretty busy in town. A ton of last minute shopping. I swear people here woke up on Monday morning and thought to themselves: “Gawdammit, Christmas is on Thursday, isn’t it? I guess I should maybe do something about that.” I’m pretty sure the majority of this town’s 9,000 residents were out and about getting their Christmas shopping done.
Later we created a makeshift Christmess Tree out of a branch I'd pull off a pine type tree the night before. Then I had a Christmas Eve (Eggnog and Kahlua- the eggnog here is not surprisingly not the same. It tastes the same but the consistency is a lot thinner, like milk), Diva and Laurie had Coronas, as decorated our stockins and then proceeded to chop and cook vegetables for Christmas Dinner at the trailer park! A few of Laurie’s friends from home are living in Byron as well, and one couple live and work in one of the trailer parks. They invited us all to have turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and we were to bring the veggies. We made roast potatoes, parsnips, yams, carrots, and onions. Yummy. We also brought dessert in the form of Christmas Tim Tams. We were a little disappointed upon our arrival to the TP to learn that the turkey hadn’t been stuffed (no stuffing) and the gravy was out of a can. Sad day for Sally. Anyways, when we first got there it had just started pouring rain and the thunder and lightning was intense! Once the storm passed the snow shone briefly and we saw a rainbow! Dinner was very good and the turkey was excellent too, especially for first time turkey cooker Justin, and in what looked like a large toaster oven! The turkey was actually, mistakenly, cooked upside down, but in the end I think this really helped make the breast meat moist and was somewhat appropriate as we are Down Undah. So after dinner and several mojitos, a bottle of white wine, and a few beers hilarity ensued when a few glowing snowmen sent from Canada were violated.
We got home pretty late, around 1am, pretty drunk. Forgot to read ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ and neglected to put out cookies for Santa since we knew the cockroaches would definitely get to them before Santa arrived anyway.

On Christmas morning I woke up around 6:30am to the neighboring kids screams of Christmas joy and a brutal hangover. Later Koral and Pablo were up and being loud as usual around 8, so I was out of bed by 9:30am, first time before 10am in probably a good 6 or 7 years.
We started the day with coffee and presents. We decided a few weeks ago that we would stuff each others stocking with a limit of around $10 for each person. After presents Diva made brunch, which consisted of a fruit plate and an excellent giant omelet/frittata, and mimosas, and the coffee cake I’d made the day before. It was so good. I was hoping the mimosa would act as the hair of the dog or whatever that expression is, but I think it only made me feel worse. And then I brought out the candy tray and that only added to the hung feeling.

The aftermath

By this point the overcast sky had started showing some blue, so we headed down to the beach. Christmas on the beach only added to the feeling that it was decided by the town that Christmas was taking place on a random day in June. A lot of people wore Santa hats and a few had little Christmas trees sticking out of the sand. There was also a Borat surfing in a one-piece thong bathing suit, and some guy dancing with the Hazardous Surf sign. We spent about 4 hours on the beach and all got a tad burnt, but that’s only because it was so humid and hot out that we kept sweating off the sunscreen that we’d applied multiple times.

Borat posing with the life guards

We came home and Laurie prepared a spread of cheeses and crackers, veggies and dips, and other appetizer type foods. Along with the candy tray and a cookie tray we were pretty stuffed quite quickly. We ended the night by watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while enjoying the Frozen Christmas Pudding that I'd made earlier in the week. It was basically just candy cane ice cream, but a pretty appropriate end to the day of Christmas on the beach!
I guess what learned- well learned isn’t the right word because I’m pretty sure that I’ve known this now for a few years, so it is more like a previous notion being reinforced- is that Christmas isn’t about presents, it’s about getting together with the people you love and eating good food. It’s about spending time with your family and doing all those little traditions you’ve established together over the years. And without those little things it just doesn’t seem right, hence it seeming like, to me, that today is a random couple days in June that we decided to have a Christmas themed 48 hours.

Now today is Boxing Day and I was hoping for big sales at all the cute little boutiques in town. I ended up only doing about half of town and there weren’t many sales but I still managed to buy two dresses that I sort of had had my eye on before and one was even $5 off the regular price, woooooooooo. Today has been pretty low key though, got up and went straight for the coffee cake and candy tray… probably not the best idea as I felt sick for a few hours after that. Got to webcam chat with the fam for a little this afternoon and that made me feel much better. I think I was having a bit of the post-Christmas-abroad-blues earlier. Now I think it’s time to hit the Bacardi and use up the rest of the mint for some mid-summer mojitos! Holla!

P.S. My back got a little sun burnt yesterday so my clever Merry Christmas is now semi-permanent. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

With Love From Byron Bay, Australia!

Pre-Christmas

I would like to take some time to talk about Christmas. The first thing I'd like to do is comment on how different the culture here handles my favorite holiday. There's a big tree in town and some stores play Christmas music and force their employees to wear Santa hats, there are commericials and flyers in the paper about buying that perfect Christmas gift. But not many houses put up lights, there aren't big elaborate displays in the stores. Today was the first day that I noticed people doing holiday preparation type things. The post shop (not an office, a shop) was full of people buying gifts and sending things. But that was about it. No one seems stressed out about getting their Christmas shopping done, or rushing home to start the baking, or making big plans for the big day. It seems almost like a burden. Maybe it's just the situation I'm in. I live with a stripper who I'm pretty sure hasn't started buying for her son yet and doesn't know what she's doing on Christmas day yet. I'm in a town where people come to holiday and have things done for them while they're here. Maybe the rest of Australia isn't like Byron Bay. So needless to say, while you folks back in Ontario will be having a white Christmas, I'll be having a weird one! Anyways, the anti-climax-ness of the holiday season is making it easier to cope with, and the weather still has me convinced it's June 22nd, not Decemeber 22nd! I've still done a ton of Christmas baking though. Shortbread, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, and I still need to do haystacks, my Mom's coffee cake (for Christmas morning), and the frozen Christmas pudding! We decorated the sugar cookies on Saturday. Thanks to Kate and Diva for documenting the event. Must say that it was my first time decorating Christmas cookies with a sweet tan and in a bikini.

Look how red our red was, amazing! The benefits of Australian food coloring...

Diva's punk snowman

I've watched Home Alone twice now and might watch it once more. We also rented The Family Stone, Polar Express, Elf, Love Actually, and Edward Scissorhands to help with the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, I forgot to put ALL my Christmas music on this computer before I left as well as the original Grinch that I had saved on a CD.

In other news... Diva got back from WA early last week and yesterday Kate went to Canberra for Christmas at her Uncle's. On Saturday we had dessert for dinner in the form of Ice Cream Sundae's. I almost puked. We also got the internet back today and I found out why it had been disconnected in the first place... outstanding bills! I think the girl we are renting from might be very bad with money or conning a bunch of people. She gets free bread (day olds) delivered from a local bakery on Thursdays and a few local charities have come by to drop off Christmas care packages for her, like non-perishable food items, and she's not even here to receive them. Today's was a big laundry basket full of stuff from Christians Against Poverty. I don't get it.

That Two Month Hiatus was a Bad Idea

Yesterday I bought a season pass to the newly renovated 50m Byron Bay War Memorial Swimming Pool. It cost $63 and gives me unlimited swimming until May 2009. Even though I'll only be in Byron until early February, it still the best deal (15 ticket booklet is $37, 25 visits $55, and one visit $2.80), and I will go almost everyday to try to "get my money's worth." hahaha
Anyway, it was almost 2 months since I'd been in a pool until yesterday afternoon, and boy oh boy do I hurt today! I already went in this morning for a 3k and it was a little painful, not gonna lie! But the familiarity being back in a pool brings is worth it. Definately makes me feel more at home, more comfortable, something like that.
In other news I'm finally getting my own bicycletee today!

This Week in Byron...

Tallow Beach

Earlier this week Kate and I (Diva is still in WA) ventured to a beach we hadn’t been to yet- Tallow Beach. It is on the other side of the Lighthouse hill from town, technically not on the bay. Tallow Beach stretches 7 miles south down to Broken Head, past Suffolk Park and Baywood Chase. It is probably my favorite beach in Byron mainly because there weren’t many people on it. The surf was a little crazy though, just pounding. We didn’t go in.
The next day we took the bus to Mullumbimby, a little town about 20mins inland. It was a hot day, really humid and no breeze that far from the ocean, we were both dehydrated zombies by the end. BUT when we first got there we went to a little café for a snack and I had the BEST MUFFIN OF MY LIFE. It was mixed berry and crumbled when you touched it, it was so delicate but a little crunchy on the outside too! Heaven.

The Best Muffin of my LIFE!

Then we wandered around town, all 2 blocks of it, and then went to another café for lunch. The vibe here was really chill, it was open air and we had a significant sized lizard waddle over to our table at one point. We finished our Mullum adventure at the Chocolate shop, that turned out to be like any old Candy store. We were both a little disappointed but still had a super sugar binge, weeeeeeeeeee!

Our lunch date

On Thursday the shit hit the fan. The internet stopped working. We called the girl we are renting from, AMY, and asked if maybe she had forgotten to pay the bill or something, but she said she had it set up to automatically withdraw from her bank account when payments were due. So I said weird and she said she would look into it. I also asked her why some guy who claimed to be her daughter's father keeps calling the landline asking for her, when he has her mobile number? She said, oh he’s just an alcoholic and mentally unstable, so just ignore him. Mmmmmmkay. So the next day we text her asking if shes made any progress with the internet. She says the account has been “shut down” and one of us could try setting up an account in our name b/c it “mite be easier.” Rage. One of the reasons we moved in to this hellhole was because it included wireless internet! I looked into setting up a new account and the guy told me we wouldn’t have to pay the start-up fee or anything, but we would only want it for not even 2 months and we are paying Amy for bills already so she should be fixing this for us! This internet thing is turning into the straw that broke the camels back. There’s no internet, there are still roaches and it’s still filthy despite our hardcore cleaning efforts, AND there is still a stripper and her 4yr old son. Other then being a roof over our heads it’s not much else. We are going to look into moving in the new year into one of the caravan park’s self-contained cabins. Rent wouldn’t be much more, but it would be cleaner and have wireless. Yes, that’s right: We’d be going from living with a stripper to living in a trailer park. Trying to get the full Aussie experience here in Byron Bay. Did I mention the trailer park has plenty of hippies? And bearded dragons!

On to better news- yesterday was an awesome day!
First Laurie (Kate and Diva’s friend from Toronto who got here about a week ago and is planning to stay in Byron for about 6 months) and I went to brunch in town. It was excellent! Then we sat on the beach for a few hours. The sky was blue and the breeze was lovely! Finally, in late afternoon we met up with some of Laurie’s other friends from Canada (Go Team Canada!) at the Beachie to see Lisa Hunt perform. She did all covers from Motown to 70s disco. It was fucking wild! I'll post the videos I took soon, it's not working right now.

After dancing for about 2hours and a few beers we went to Legendz for pizza, had ice cream, and then called it a night. Good times.

LOST?

Do they look the same or am I going crazy...?

I guess they're not as similar when put side by side.
Anyway, HomeBrand is the 'no-name' brand of Woolworth's here in Oz and seeing all the HomeBrand boxes linging the shelves in Wooly's reminds me of the pantry in the hatch.

Ce Weekend

Well it has been an eventful weekend!
On Friday we had steak.
Saturday was humid as sh*t. I was going to get up early to do laundry and some errands, but since it was overcast and rain was a possible threat I ended up sitting around and not leaving the house until noon. I checked out a few warehouse/outlet type stores in the arts and industrial estate, which is basically our neighborhood. There was a store with running shoes for a decent price so if my Hawaiian ankle injury ever heals enough to allow me to run again I may just buy a pair. I also finally went to the Byron Bay Cookie Co. store and got a few bags of bakehouse seconds. Have yet to try them. Later that day Kate and I went to The Pass for a fellow Canadian's birthday BBQ, Heather, whom we met through Diva (they worked together for a short time here). Unfortunately we were unfashionably late as we arrived in the middle of the singing of Happy Birthday. Whoops. haha. We still had cake... and chicken kebabs. The cake was really good, glutten free but tasted REAL. However, she didn't open the bag of cookies we gave her. We though she was highly likely to share them with all.
After capturing some beautiful pics of the sunset, we biked back into town, downed our last 2 Stella's and then headed over to Kate's work- the Aquarius backpacker (aka hostel. She works in its cafe. It also has a bar.) for some sweet staff discount drinks. We had a few drinks there and met up with Kate's friend Laurie from Toronto, who was with a few of her friends from Canada and we all went down to Main Beach to drink some more gin. We ended up talking to a few schoolies. Cute little 17 year old boys, who told us they were taught in school that Toronto is the capital of Canada. tsk tsk Aussie educators. Then three guys came by asking if they could have one of our plastic cups. They ended up joining us, well Kate anyway, as they were from Chile, Columbia, and Switzerland, and Kate got to speak to them in 4 languages. She was very! excited about it. She didn't get any of their contact info though because the po-po showed up to bust people drinking in public aka almost everyone out on the beach (there were atleast 100). So Kate's foreign trio fled with their booze and the cop eventually came over but our gin was empty so we were fine. But one of Laurie's friends had to "tip out" his beer and the cop wanted this other guy to tip out half a mickey of JD that he had in his bag! Somehow that tragedy was avoided and it was time to go home. Kate was still pretty pumped about her multi-lingual experience on the drunk and helmetted bike ride home... so excited that when we got home and Koral- our housemate, who lives in the garage with her son, and who is an exotic dancer- was still up with her boyfriend and brother drinking, she had a few too many glasses of red wine and ended up on the vomit train. Just a short trip. We learned a lot about Koral though. The life story basically. She's a very sweet girl though and I feel bad about divulging in the details she revealed to us last night on such a public forum. So if you'd like to know more I will happily tell you in a more private manner :)

Today was the first Sunday of the month and that means the Byron Bay Market was on. The market is in a different town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales every Sunday and Byron gets the 1st one. It rained for most of the morning so I didn't get to the market until probably 2 or 3pm. I regretted not going earlier almost as soon as I got there. It was so cool. So Byron Bay. From a few blocks away you could hear the beating of drums. There was a small drum circle with dancers in the middle, huddled under some trees near the entrance. I guess that this drum circle is usually larger and in the middle of the market field and sometimes has other entertainers like fire breathers, but the rain prevented that from happening today. Anyway, the first thing you see when you enter the market field is a row of food vendors and the smells are amazing and it all looks so good! I was mad with myself for having eaten before leaving the house and therefore not hungry. There was all kinds of other stalls set up- produce, jewelery, clothing, soap and bath products, bedding, massage, tarot reading, healing vibrations, etc etc. A truely Byron experience! I am already looking forward to it when it comes back in January! But I will hopefully go to one of the other towns next weekend.
After the market I walked back from town along the beach for the first time and two interesting things happened. 1. I saw a naked man walking along the beach. I was unware (but was told later) that the section of beach I was on allowed nudity. and 2. I almost stepped on a stingray.

The New Place

Well. We’re all moved in, we actually were a few days ago, since we really don’t have that much stuff accumulated. So by the end of Sunday we were done. About the new place… I’m going to be honest. I’ll start with the good news! YAY! The location is much better. It takes 10mins bike and 30mins walk to get to town and the beach is even closer! The IGA and bottle shop (booooze) is about 3mins bike, maybe 10mins walk. And we bought lights for our bikes so going to town after dark is possible and Kate and I have already completed the late night drunk bike ride home (Don’t worry parents, we wore our helmets)! Another positive about the place is that there is no road noise like the previous place, as we are now in a quiet burb and away from even our street since we’re Apt 3 in a row of 6 townhouse type units. The final good news is that the back deck is quite nice and relaxing. Oh! And in general there are almost NO mozzies here!
Ready for the bad news? Because there’s lots. The first being that there is a girl, Coral, probably early 20s, living in the converted garage with her son, who is about 4 years old and is loud like any 4 year should be. But we were not informed at any point in time previous to our arrival that this would be the case. If it had, we would probably have found another place. Second, the place is a total sty. At first we though Coral had just trashed the place in the first week she had lived here (she moved in a week prior to us). When we showed up to move in she said she had had a party the night before and hadn’t cleaned up yet. Little did we know that her party mess was the least of our problems. In general the place is a little dirty. Kids hand prints and general muck on the walls, carpets that have seen better days. But it’s the kitchen that is total sty and absolutely filthy. The counters and cupboards are covered in a layer of grime, most of the dishes, utensils, and other cookware look to have been put away without being cleaned. The floor is sticky. The fridge has an odor. The walls are DIRTY. Also, you should know that I have an innate disgust of cockroaches and as much as I’d like to say there is a “bit” of a roach problem, that would be a blatant lie. There is a cockroach problem, flat out. How Amy, the owner, lived in such a mess is a mystery to me. For the first few days I probably killed 6-12 roaches during my time in the kitchen per day, while cooking no less. We have gotten into the habit of rinsing and a lot of the time washing the dishes and cookware before we even use it. So far I have cleaned the cupboard doors and handles of about half the kitchen and the countertops and backsplash. Kate took on the big task (she got the rubber gloves) of cleaning out under the sink. We also put a little bowl of baking soda in the fridge and the smell in there seems to have improved. Coral bought roach traps and spray, so we placed the traps around the kitchen and I sprayed in all the cracks and cervices. I would like to think/hope that the problem is decreasing. I have seen a few bigger roaches, like 2cm-ish, what I classify as medium-small, come staggering out into the open looking like a drunk roach, obviously having drank the roach bait kool-aid. This morning I saw one flip on to its back and cease movement. I crushed it just to be sure. One place we didn’t spray was around the oven and stove top (the spray was highly flammable). They seem to be living in the cracks around the two appliances and are often seen crawling in and out of the burners (electric stove, woof. And no drip pans either, super woof) and there are some chard bodies down there too. I’ve gotten rid of roaches in Texas so I don’t see why I can’t get rid of them here. Well I can see actually. Coral is a single mother who seems to have a lot on her plate, and not cleaning up after herself in the kitchen could lead to never getting rid of the fuckers. Ridding of roaches takes total commitment: always wiping up your mess; doing your dishes, or at least rinsing them right away; taking out the garbage regularly; and not leaving puddles on the counter! Ugh. Okay, I don’t want to talk about roaches anymore or the bad smell in that room that has yet to go away :(

In other news:
-We had an excess of zucchini in the fridge (Diva took them from the old house cuz no one wanted them) so yesterday I made zucchini bread. So good!
-Diva is in Perth visiting Elliot until the 17th. His sister is getting married and Diva is Elliot’s date.
- We booked our trip to Tasmania in January! We will meet up with Chelsie and spend a week there!
-Christmas is less than 3 weeks away, but it feels like May in Texas to me here, so I might just skip it this year? Maybe I won’t be sad that I’m missing it at home if I just pretend it’s not happening?
-Yesterday I went on the Lighthouse walk. The lighthouse is up on a hill at the tip of the bay. I also stood on the most easterly point of mainland Australia on the way to the Lighthouse. Very beautiful views on the walk, pictures coming soon!
-On Saturday night Kate’s cousin was in town and we all went to see “Australia” the movie. I thought it was very good, although Nicole Kidman added nothing to the film. It made me want to visit Darwin... so I probably will in a few months!
-An odd thing about the new place that I forgot to mention above is that in a neighboring unit there is a piano or keyboard and every morning at 8am someone starts playing this piano. Every morning at almost the same time, always wakes me up since our window is open. Weird.
-I've got to start posting more often, these are getting way too long!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving American styles (Yesterday for me already)!

Yesterday, I made a sweet potato pie in celebration of this Yankee Thanksgiving and also in anticipation of what is to come… for me ATG has always been the last corner to turn before Christmas, yay! Less than 4 weeks! The pie turned out well, very sweet, just the way an American would like it. I didn’t pre-read the recipe very well and it ended up taking much longer then expected, but was worth the wait!
Since I last wrote a few things have happened. The first being that we had about 6 sunny days in a row! It was great! On Friday we spent most of the day at the beach. I surfed for a short while (the pre-surf Strongbow made me feel a little seasick, haha) and then we came home and Diva and I created a masterpiece veggie lasagna from the stuff we bought at the market the previous day. It was sooooo good and something we will def make again here and elsewhere. Friday night a couple of Elliot’s friends drove down from the Gold Coast and we had a few drinks here and then headed into town to check out a band that Kate and my Israeli Friends told us about (Our Israeli Friends are these 2 guys that we ended up getting a hitch home from two days in a row at around the same place and same time. Byron is a small town!). The band was Wild Marmalade, check out their Myspace, and they played at the Beachie. They were fucking awesome.
Saturday was pretty chill, the highlight being the joint purchase of a 1 litre vat of 30+ SPF sunscreen. I took note of when we started it in my datebook so that we can see how long it lasts.

On Sunday we headed up to the Gold Coast for the night. I drove and although it was a little nerve racking at first, the whole wrong side of the road and shifting gears was quickly no sweat. During the drive up the coast I became even more appreciative of being able to drive stick, it is a life skill I am very pleased to have obtained. Anyway, we stopped a few times to take some pictures of the ocean at different points as we took the coast roads instead of the Pacific Coast Motorway. When we arrived we started by walking along the beach in Surfer’s Paradise. Unfortunately it is Schoolies season (Grade 12 kids are done high school and flock to the coast in droves to party, party, party, and party some more. Never have I seen so many drunk 18 year olds. 17 year olds too) and the place was crawling with drunk kids. We then met up with Elliot’s friends again and they took us down to Burleigh Heads Beach for a little Sunday night drum circle and fire twirling. It was sweet. We had burgers, drank gin and tonic, and took in the beats and flames. Then we went back to their place and played Scategories! Haha

Surfer's Paradise

The next morning we got up early and headed back to Surfers to have breakfast at Pancakes in Paradise. They were pretty good, a little pricey, and Kerby is still the best, but really hit the spot. Then we hit Starbucks. I was thinking I might get a Eggnog latte to get into the holiday spirit a little early but they didn't have them! So I just got a regular coffee (I forgot what drip coffee tasted like and how freaking good it is!) and we found eggnog in the IGA here last week too so it's all good.

Yum.

Then we went to the mall! The giant mall- Pacific Fair. I finally got a cell phone, or a mobile phone I should say, and all is now right in the world. Although I still can’t get my international texts to send. After that is was back to the beach to drop off Diva (she and Elliot stayed an extra night) and Kate and I drove back to have the car back for our roommate (it was his car).

Fooling around in the mall... Photobucket censored this picture because of the nakedness.

That night, back in Byron, Kate and I finished off the bottle of gin and our kind of odd, computer science Phd roommate, Sean (the one whose car we borrow) came out and is like, 'oh, do you want some more?' and gives us his bottle of Bombay gin (we were drinking Gordon's, not as nice and only 37% vs 47%) and says just don’t drink it all. Very generous of him and we did not drink it all.
The rest of this week went by really fast. It rained for most of Wednesday but we had Sean’s car again and went into town to buy some craft supplies. We made dream catchers. Mine isn’t done yet because I ran out of string.
Today I biked into town and met up with Kate and we met up with Steve the Security Guard who gave us the keys to our new place. He is basically our landlord, will be collecting rent etc. We walked from town to survey the new place once more before the move and were surprised to find that the woman who lives in the converted garage owns a small child. We’re not sure if this small boy lives in the garage with her, as it was not aforementioned to us, or if he just visits her on weekends or just visits sometimes and lives somewhere else. It was confusing to say the least. But I guess we’ll see how it pans out. We’ll be moving in tomorrow and Sunday and are all very excited to explore the area. There are abandon train tracks that run near the street and we think they might be the fastest way to get to the beach and into town. An adventure is definitely on the horizon. The freedom to be able to bike into town on a bike path and not having to hitch is also something we’ve been looking forward to. There’s a public bus stop right next to our place too and even the walk to town isn’t too bad, around 3km, that’s hardly anything at 3am after a night out on the town ;)

PS You may have noticed a few format changes I’ve made to the old blog recently. The links to the pictures are all along the side now and will be updated regularly. Again, you’ll have to ask me for the passwords :)

And if you'd like to call me or send me mail I can give you my number and address upon your request if I like you. haha

All Rained Out

Last night we had a large-ish storm, (medium by Texas standards) and by morning the clouds were all rained out... finally! Today has been the most beautiful day in Byron for me yet, this may be because it had rained for 4 days straight with no end in sight and any sunlight is a welcome change.
Diva, Elliot (Diva's b/f who got here yesterday) and I got up early-ish and hitched into town for some Thursday morning market action and a big breakfast. The market is every Thursday from 8-11am and is a collection of local farmers and merchants selling everything from fruits and vegetables to fresh meat and eggs, coffee, baked goods, and awareness.
After we had picked up what we needed for a potentially epic veggie lasagna (tomorrow's project) we headed to a restaurant called Why Not!, which is owned by the same people that own the place where Diva works- The Figtree. They sure know how to make breakfast in this town.
The next few hours were spent getting some much needed beach time. It felt so good after all the rain we've had. Then I had a milkshake because I told myself it would be my prize after we found a new place to live. That's right, we have a new house, starting Nov 30th, that is closer to town (on the bike path!) and very close to one of the beaches. And it is shockingly, yes SHOCKINGLY, cheap.
This Sunday we plan to take a little roadie up to the Gold Coast- Surfer's Paradise and all that jazz- and I will finally get a phone and you all can call me whenever because apparently all incoming calls are free in this country!

Since the last blog entry I have had some Byron Bay Cookie Co cookies and they are magnificent!

Hello from the FUTURE

I put up my pictures from Australia so far. Just Byron Bay really, since it's the only place I've taken any pictures while here. Again, you'll have to ask me for the password... if you know the other passwords and are clever, you might be able to guess this one, hahaha.

Today Kate and I went to OzyMex, owned by The Byron Bay Chilli co. It was actually decent. They make their own salsas and hot sauces which are very good. I might not miss the Austin Tex-Mex as much as anticipated; although, I did have what they said was their hottest sauce and it was what I would classify as 'Nice Heat" in the Breakfast Taco Tour realm. So not really that hot, but an enjoyable heat.

Also, check this out- Byron Bay Cookie Company. It's between where I am now, in Ewingsdale, and town. I pass it everyday and have yet to go in. How's that for willpower? And Diva says they even have cheap factory seconds in there! If my ankel is well enough to run on this week maybe that will be my "back to running" reward. That or a milkshake. Extra thick.

P.S. Today I had red meat for the first time in over a week. Diva is turning me veggie. haha. And at the local BP (gas station) you can get a bag of 10 avocados for $6. Magical. MAGICAL.

Welcome to Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia!

So I’ve been in Byron a full week now, living in a share house with Kate and Diva and 3 others. We are actually in Ewingsdale, about 10mins drive from the town of Byron Bay. The lease for the place ends at the end of this month, so everyone will be moving out. The three of us have been looking for a new place, but haven’t had much luck. We would like to find a place in town or at least on the bike path (would make for a shorter and safer bike then now), as right now we do not have a car and hitch hiking has become our main form of transportation. It’s been okay so far, have met a few interesting people (like today a chicken and turkey farmer who also runs a social work type program for the people of Western Papua New Guinea), and I’m always fascinated at the variety of types of people who will pick us up. There have been a few somewhat troublesome rides- mainly the ones whose car floors are covered in beer cans and bottles and the ones who are actually drinking a beer as they drive… just have it in their cup holder like it's a dang diet coke or something. The main reason I don’t like the hitch hiking is that I don’t like having to rely on others to get places (public transportation excluded as an “other”), ideally I could walk or bike everywhere. It's also a little inconvenient as we some times have to wait upwards of 10mins and the ones who pullover aren’t always going all the way into town. Plus the thought of being picked up by an serial axe-murderer has more than once crossed my mind.

Hitchhiking to town

Back to the housing issue… sorta. Here’s a good story: We rented a car yesterday and today, for 24hours, to go see this concert down the coast in a town called Ballina (More on that below). But when we got the car yesterday afternoon, before the concert, Diva went for a surf and I went with her. We stopped at this one beach parking lot to check out the waves, and the guy in the car next to us starts chatting up Diva and since we're looking for a new home, with almost every stranger we meet the conversation leads to living situations, hoping that we might get a lead on a place or a suggestion on where to look. So this guy, Mark, probably mid-late 40s, long curly dark gray hair in a wild fro-ish style, tells us he just moved out of a place in Suffolk Park (a neighborhood here) and we are both thinking maybe he’s going to tell us that the place he just moved out of is now available! But no, Creepy Mark is also looking for a place now and maybe if either of us found a 4bedroom we could all go in together. That is when I go get back in the car because I was creeped the fuck out. He proceeds to give Diva his card and she’s too nice to say no so gave her his number too, hoping that she told him the wrong number as she hasn’t got it memorized just yet. Or maybe she does now. Turns out Creepy mark is a holistic chiropractor and he called Diva today! Yuck! Super Yuck! Diva is going to save his number as “Creepy do not answer” so that she never “hears” from him again.

Looking for a home/Practicing living on the streets

Yeah, so haven’t really been up to much. I’ve been surfing here twice now, the waves here are nothing like Waikiki. They are big and powerful and a little scary for the beginner that is me. I did see a shark today while surfing though, or at least I’m pretty sure I did, haha. There was a cross current at the main beach where we were surfing today, and I ended up drifting a good distance across the bay because of it. I was waiting to catch one more wave and then head in and walk back over to where I’d started originally. As I looked down I saw a shadow and it might have been just that, a shadow, but it could have been a rock or seaweed too, but it looked like a shark and I’m pretty sure it was moving faster than I was. At this point I suddenly recalled that the scab on my foot had fallen off like 30mins earlier and could be bleeding and maybe this shark was attracted by the blood, and ohmygawd I was going to be attacked my a shark! I kept my feet out of the water and headed for shore deciding to call it day because of the possible shark sighting and my discouraging progress in the big waves of Byron Bay on the smaller board I was overly ambitious about renting (7’9”).But I’ll keep trying. It would also be nice if a big board would fall out of the sky so I don’t have to keep renting. It would also be nice if the new place we move into has a hot tub, an avocado tree, and a live in chef. And free rent. Hahaha.
I’ve also been getting to know the town little by little. It’s reminding me of Austin a lot. There are many little cafes with awesome looking/sounding/smelling food and I want to try every one! I've already had some good eats- ice cream, falafel, organic doughnuts, aka A little piece of heaven! We went out on Sunday night to this place called ‘La La Land,’ they have $2 champagne flutes all night. First we went to “the bottle shop” for some wine, and split a bottle on the beach, where I got bitten by an ant and thought I was going to have to amputate it hurt so bad. Diva to the rescue with vinegar from the beachfront fish and chip joint to ease the pain and perhaps also prevent swelling. Then we had a drink at this cool place called Balcony. The place really is a big balcony along one of the main streets in town. Then we went to La La Land, where is smelt bad (think any dept store in Austin, that moldy, water damage smell), but the scene was pretty cool, and the price was right even after 6 rounds!! And then of course no night is complete without a visit to the 23hour bakery. I was dared to ask them what hour they were closed and they told me that they never close, it's just a trick to say they're open 23 hours. HA. HA. HA. We’re thinking of making Sunday night champagne and baked goods a weekly tradition.

Wine on the beach.. Diva is happy, haha

Last night we went to Ballina, about 30mins south along the coast from here, to see an Xavier Rudd concert. It was Diva’s 10th XR show, Kate’s 4th, and my first. Although Xavier was fucking awesome (he plays an intense percussion set-up and several didgeridoos), it was unfortunately a bad first impression of concerts in Australia. It was in a large multi-purpose room, with a cash bar in the back that the crowd took full advantage of, even after paying $50 for the concert. The crowd was almost louder than the music, you could hear chatter, LOUD ASS CHATTER, during the first half of the show. At one point, in the middle of a slower, quieter song, Xavier actually started shushing into the mic, but people in the back just kept on yakking. He looked pissed. I thought he was going to just walk off the stage. No respect! Another thing was the lack of personal space in the audience. It was a standing, dancing crowd, and apparently falling all over your neighbor is just fine and dandy here. Not pleasant. Diva encountered one woman that disgusted her so badly that she actually backed away from the stage she had been working so hard to get near the whole show. Then there were some older ladies, probably 40s, who worked their way to the front hoping to tell Xavier that his performance so far was not as good as they’d seen before or wasn’t what they had expected. These ladies were faaawked, like on drugs or drunk or most likely both. Kate told them to back off and they listened, but then the one lady grabbed on to this younger guy dressed like the Love Guru next to us and held on to him as he proceeded to spill redbull on our feet. We were told by many that the people of Ballina are not the highest class humans we will encounter in Australia. We had also planned to see the Big Prawn in Ballina, but Google gave us the wrong directions so that will have to wait for another day. Ballina is not the greatest place on earth.

In other news, I made an excellent purchase the other day: zinc, in three different colors… green, blue, and yellow. Today I wore green.
I also finished Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father.” It was very good. Be sure to read the forward. I am currently reading ‘The Beach.’ Yes, the one they based a Leo Dicrapio movie on. It’s really good so far though and making a possible trip up to Thailand in February or March that much more appealing!

Robot Devil birds on the Main Beach.

P.S. About the coffee in this country- it’s an espresso culture. No one serves drip coffee. Diva and I bought a camping style espresso perculator to make our own espresso that we mix with milk, which roughly works out to be like a coffee. We bought a locally grown blend and it sure beats buying flat whites or cappuccinos or long blacks at $3 a pop. Bam.

Hostel Folk

Where the magic happens

I’ve been in Australia for over a week and no one I met at the hostel in Hawaii has tried to contact me on Facebook so I figure it is safe to tell you about some of the people… and they'll never suspect a thing, muhahaha.
The first guy was from Chicago, Abe, 26, never learned what he did for work. He considered himself somewhat of a beer connoisseur in that he was always looking for new beers to try. This was good for me because he introduced me to the Chocolate Beer. We got to talking about relationships somehow, and he told me that he has only seen his girlfriend once in the past 4 months (he also considered the 30min drive to where she is long distance). He ended up revealing that his g/f was actually his high school English teacher and that they’d gotten together when he was done HS and were once engaged for a time, but her father would have none of it. She is 14 years older (40!). I was drinking when he told me this and I might’ve stared at him, mouth hanging open for a few minutes, can’t remember.
There was another guy, Ramon, from Salt Lake City, Utah. He was older, probably mid-late 30s, and worked as a mechanic for Delta, so he gets free flights anywhere. He also works nights, 4 on, 3 off. He was in Hawaii for his 3 off, flight freeeeee. He was a really nice guy and told me all about birds flying into plane engines and how it totally ruins them, both the bird and the engine. He said it usually happens during take-off and that domestic flights will turn around and get it taken care of, but international flights that can not afford that type of delay will just keep going. I guess it is possible to get from SLC to Heathrow with just one working engine. Fascinating.
I met another guy, from Switzerland, I never learned his name, but he was a pirate for Halloween (i.e. wore a pirate hat) so I just called him The Pirate. He was pretty funny, and like the German and Scandinavian hostel guests very intense.
There was a pair of girls from Iceland. They were underage but somehow got alcohol. The one girl liked talking about American politics when she drank.
I guess I found the whole hostel thing pretty interesting. Encountering the different types of travelers and watching them in their natural habitat. I liked to watch the people who were traveling alone. I would say, with my limited hostel and traveling experience (swim travel is NOT the same and therefore does not count), that there are 3 types of travelers, and this may just be at hostels or maybe just this particular hostel. There are travelers like myself, who prefer to go off on their own during the day and then come back at night and be social. There are the type that don’t ever want to be alone and want a companion to do things with during the day. But then there are the type who are sort of in-between: they are happy to do their own thing, but can also be talked into joining the needy type for the day. I guess there would be a fourth type too: The travelers who just want to experience the nightlife and go balls to the wall out every night, then sleep most of the day in bed or on the beach in preparation for the next night. I found these traveler-dynamics pretty interesting, new angle on people watching I suppose.

Hawaii Pics

I finally put up the rest of my Hawaii pictures.

This should be all of them... enjoy!

Flat White

So last night at the hostel I stayed in the girl at the front desk told me that this coffee shop, the very one I sit in right now and just spent $7.75 on a coffee- a “flat white” whatever the hell that is- and a muffin, has free wireless… But I just saw a sign that said internet access $4! There’s a computer over by the sign that says this business about $4 so I’m wondering if that means to use that computer it’s $4 and the wireless is still free? I’ll go ask once the line dies down. The muffin and coffee were pretty good though. Ugh. $2 an hour. That fucking hostel, I swear. I was wrong about it being clean… well it was for the most part. Each room has its own ‘ensuite’ bathroom. The toilet and sink were behind one door and the shower was behind another. When I was getting in the shower what do I see? Oh, a cockroach. Yay. Not big, but where theres one… so then when I go to brush my teeth there are bunch of baby roaches hanging out around the sink… not so clean in my eyes.
Anyway, I caved and bought the $2 internet. That’s only like $1.75 Canadian right? Haha I’ll hang out here for an hour and then head over to the train station to get over to the central transit center where I’ll then catch my bus to Byron! YAY!


P.S. I looked up what a ‘flat white’ was… I am buzzing from this shit, weeeeeeeee!

Aloha and Mahalo Hawaii... G'Day Australia!

I made it to Brisbane (Brissy) in almost one piece. In Sydney they took one my Hawaii scores at customs/quarantine, jerks! It was a kukui nut lei and that had honu painted on it... And I was really upset about it until I got on my flight to here and watched the inflight news and learned who won the US election! YAY Obama! And I just finished his book today too. Proud to be American today, or yesterday, haha.
Anyway, my day started this morning at like 4:30am Hawaii time. My Mom was right when she said I wouldn't be able to sleep if I worried about my alarm not going off, I was up every hour checking the time. I didn't need to get up til 5, but the worry of not getting to the airport with enough time etc woke me up. So I've been up for about 21hours, not too bad, I've done worse/better? And of course there were naps scattered throughout the 10.5 hour flight from Honolulu (strong head winds apparently).
I am also very sore from yesterdays surfing outting. I feel like I used to after our weightlifting program would change or get heavier, or after the days when we would test in the weightroom (max out). Feels good to know that I can still make myself sore!
So now I am at this hostel called BUNK, it's giant, can sleep like 285 or something sick like that? It's clean at least and cheap. They don't have wireless so I paid the $4 for an hour in their internet lounge.
I think I should shower and go to bed... I think I need to buy a real towel since all I have is the blood stained one from when I took the spill on the rocks and then trespassed a bunch. Good times, hahaha.

I Might Be a Natural

Day was/is my last full day in Hawaii. I fly out tomorrow at 8am and am getting up at 5am, yuck! So today was a day of last minute things. First I did a bunch of shopping and then mailed a little something something home and sent a few postcards. Then I had a plate lunch, which I guess is popular here. The basic plate lunch consists of a meat, two scoops boiled rice, and one scoop macaroni salad. I got mine with Teriyaki Pork and in the mini size (one scoop of rice, less meat). The mac salad is basically macaroni and mayo. It was just okay. Then I did something that I should of done a week ago... I rented a surfboard and went surfing on Waikiki! Why I didn't do this earlier I do now know. I was expecting it to be really difficult but it totally wasn't... I think I might be a natural?? I was standing up on the board in no time and by the end of the few hours I was out there my balance had improved and I was able to actually stear the board a little. The swimming background is a definate asset, paddling was the easiest part for me, while I noticed my fellow novice surfers barely went anywhere when they tried to paddle and catch a wave. My wakeboard experience didn't hurt either, as it helped me know how to stear the board when I was up. I had a little trouble judging whether an approaching wave was going to break or not and worth catching, but quickly caught on to that too. I think I was lucky to learn/teach myself/begin at Waikiki since the break isn't very big (I would guess they were 2-4ft from the front), there was no riptide or other ocean currenty things to deal with, and the bottom was all soft sand and deep enough that should you fall off (I definately did in the beginning) you don't hit bottom or anything. The only problem was that it was crowded. I collided with a paddle boarder at one point and thank gawd for the leash, otherwise I would've got a board in the face! haha

Well tonight is my last night. I still have to pack and do some other last minute things like drink the last of my two beer in the fridge. It is this awesome beer a fellow hostel guest discovered and shared. It's called "Pipeline Porter," has coffee in it and tastes like CHOCOLATE! Could there anything better than chocolate beer? Probably not! It's made by The Kona Brewing Company, let me know if they import to Canada!

Next time you hear from me I'll be Down Under!

Aloha!

No Coffee = No Good

I’m blaming today’s mess on the fact that the hostel ran out of coffee so I didn’t have any with my breakfast. I went to the North Shore again. I had all these plans on where I would go and what I would see. I was going to start out with trying to see some sea turtles. I ended up getting off the Bus at this place called Turtle Bay Resort. I wasn’t sure if it where I wanted to be but got off anyway. I followed the signs that said “Shoreline Public Access” and found the beach. It was roughly a bay but it was really rough, the biggest waves I would see all day. I began to walk down the beach with thoughts of going around the resort (which included a gold course) and back to the road to catch the bus again and go somewhere else. Meanwhile it was sort of raining a misty rain, on and off since halfway into the bus ride. So I was going down the beach, taking my time, stopping to take pictures and look into tide pools. I came to a patch of rock in my path and instead of going around in went over it. It was flat but had sea weed growing on. As soon as I stepped on this rock I was in the air and then on my ass. It was fucking slippery! On the way down in my fall I rolled, twisted or did something to my ankle, scrapped my knee real bad and also got a few nicks on my foot. My first thought after this was “Shit! I broke my ankle!” I scrambled to my feet and realized I could walk, nothing was broken, and my skinned knee was what hurt most. The cuts were not deep, really cutting through the skin enough to make it bleed pretty good. I sat down and cleaned my cuts out the best I could with drinking water and then got up wanting to find the road or a nice place on the beach where I could let my wounds dry out a little and possibly elevate my foot. Then it started to rain for real. I was miserable. I wanted to go home L I ended up heading into the jungle and following this path that I realized it was a horse trail (I saw hoof tracks and poop) and most likely property of the resort. Trespass offence #1. The trail opened up onto the beach again and I was now facing a quiet bay. It was beautiful. I also saw houses on the other side of the bay and figured I could get back to the road somewhere over there. I was wrong. I ended up going through someone’s yard, Trespass #2, and then finally found asphalt. Then I saw a woman in the street, she smiled, I smiled back. Then I went this street and realized I was in a gated community! And was locked in! and I turned around and saw the sign that said “No Trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted.” Trespass #3! I went down another street in this community that ran parallel to the main road. But there was an effing 6-foot chain link fence all the way down and around this place! Panic. I snuck behind some nears by the fence and decided I would have to climb. The only other choice was waiting for a car to come in or out of the gates and risk being caught or worse—arrested in Hawaii! AHHH! So I found a spot along the fence that had the chain at the top folded over, through my towel over (which I had been carrying to soak up running blood from my knee), stuck a foot in the chain link and then swung myself over. My shirt got caught at the top and I ended up losing my balance on the landing and then again falling on my ass. There’s a hole in my shirt now but no one saw me.
I found a bus spot right by the front gates of the stupid place and it came eventually and took me away.
I ended up spending the rest of the day in Hale’iwa (the town on the North Shore). My knee has scabbed over well already but my ankle is pretty messed up. It’s fine when I walk but if I don’t move it for a while it gets stiff and takes a while to warm up. Hopefully it will be okay to surf on tomorrow, my last full day here. Sad.
I’ll add some knee pics tomorrow if I have time.

Halloween Waikiki Style

Happy belated Halloween!

When I was booking my flights and such at the beginning of September I was really struggling with what to do about Halloween. It has been my 2nd favorite holiday (Christmas is #1) for a number of years now and the thought of not being able to go all out was kind of, no, it was very upsetting. It came down to 3 basic options: 1) Don't leave Canada until November, 2) Fly out of Hawaii on the morning of the 31st and totally skip Halloween, and 3) Spend the "holiday" in Hawaii and risk being disappointed. Option 1 was quickly out, as I knew too long in the Great White North might kill me and I also didn't have a fail-safe Halloween party/outing like Boo Bash to go to. So after much deliberation and the fact that the Nov 4th departure was in the neighborhood of $100 cheaper, I ended up going with option 3 and crossed my fingers.

Well let me tell you, I made the RIGHT decision. The evening began pretty early. The hostel was throwing a BBQ for a small fee that started at 7:30 but most people started drinking well before then. I tried to not start until 8, but I think it was more like 7:45 or so. After two drinks I decided I should paint on my costume before I would be unable to do so. I was a cat. Really boring and lame, but I didn't have much to work with as I was not into buying something here and did not want to pack a costume either. I did pack black lipstick and black liquid eyeliner (reminants of the Goth costume in 2006). I also made my 'ears' out of a museum postcard, some masking tape, and a piece of pre-wrap. Compromises.

Meow.

As more alcohol was consumed everyone started to loosen up, drinking games ensued at a few different tables, Ghostbusters was playing on the TV! and people were getting to know each other (as well as you can when you're a couple sheets to the wind. I don't remember most of the names I learned last night, oops). At around 10:30pm our guide (one of the hostel staff) told us it was time to go. We could hear that there was a fair number of people out in the streets but little did we know what awaited us beyond the walls of the courtyard.

The squid. Probably the most innovative costume at our hostel, he's Canadian obviously.

There were hundreds, if not thousands of people walking up and down the main drag of Waikiki, and a vast majority of them were dressed up!!! Heaven! There were lots of lame get-ups, but some of them were quite impressive as well, and the ones that really played the part of their costumes were the best, as always. I'm trying to remember some of the good costumes, but can't right now. The road was not closed to traffic so all these people were milling about and trying to get places on the sidewalks. It took us what felt like a long time to get to the club/bar we were heading to and at one point this Danish guy went into an ABC Store (there is one every block, not exaggerating) and got a sixer of Bud that we all shared (and tried not to get caught, there were lots of cops around). Needless to say, I was not so drunk anymore by the time we got to "The Red Lion," but drunk enough to shell out $10 cover! Luckily the drinks were reasonable. The rest of the night was spent dancing the night away with the Germans and the Danish guy showed me how they dance in Denmark, basically with reckless abandon ("You don't know these people; They'll never see you again." Great advice). By 2am I was done and me and buddy from Pheonix (Jason?) walked back to the hostel. He just could not get over the number of people still out at 2am and went on and on about it (Bars serve liquor until 4am here). I guess Pheonix is boring?

Insanity

He's wearing a real diaper... is the gun also real? I do not know.

Japanese Bananas!!

Anyways, the scene last night did not even compare and put to shame the most crowded nights that I've seen on 6th Street, and I was down there during ROT Rally this year! hahaha

This morning I slept kind of late and decided it wasn't worth going to the North Shore for only a few hours (the bus ride alone is close to 4hours), so I just wandered around Waikiki, sat on the beach for a few hours, and had a giant Hawaiin Shaved Ice aka a snow cone. It made me feel sick :)

I'll post the rest of the Halloween pictures tomorrow, the internet here is being hella slow right now.

Hanauma Bay

Today I went to Hanauma Bay Nature Reserve. Again 'The Bus' was full to the brim, but the ride was much shorter... And again I was blown away by it. Since I planned to snorkel and just leave my stuff on the beach I didn't bring my camera, but damn I wish I did cuz was real pretty!
My hostel has snorkels available to borrow, so I took one those and a pair of my own goggles. The Reserve was $5 to get in but I thought the experience was worth much more. When you got there they made you file into a theater and watch a 9min video about the history of the bay (it's an old volcano carter that got filled in with ocean) and certain "rules" to follow while enjoying the bay.
I'll just cut to the chase- I saw a sea turtle, was within a foot of it, could've touched it but obeyed the park rule of no touchie. I also saw a ton of other fish including a few types of parrotfish, various types of tangs, a few kinds of surgeonfish (the orangespine ones were the prettiest), various butterfly fish, christmas wrasse (beautiful!), spotted blowfish, and a bunch of others. And then a bunch of coral and sea urchins and snails.
Shortly after I arrived it started to rain. I covered my stuff and went in the water anyway, but soon my goggles nosepiece broke so I had to get out and fix it. Then it started to pour! I hung around the restrooms building until it stopped and then put my stuff under a bench and went in again. The wind started to pick up and the rain was continuing on and off. I started getting cold (in the water!) and decided at the next sunny break I would get out, lay on the beach to dry out and then maybe go. Well as soon as I got out the sun went back behind the clouds and it rained some more. So I got the bus and came back here. And then I saw a rainbow! But I'm still cold, even after a hot shower... I guess maybe I should put socks and shoes on? haha Anyway, I highly recommend Hanauma Bay!

I've put up my pics from the rest of my time at home here... ask me for the password.
AND my Hawaii pics so far are available here!

The North Shore

I decided shortly into my stay here in Waikiki that it lands in the same category as Orlando, FL for me, aka I strongly dislike it because it's a dirty tourist trap. There are too many people, the food isn't that good, prices are jacked up (but everything seems to be more expensive on this island, especially groceries... this could be because it's an island...), it's mainly the people that does it for me, man do I hate people. So I decided last night that my sunburnt ass would be better in the morning and be ready to face another day on the beach and thus I decided it was time leave the city and to go to the North Shore.

I took "The Bus," which is Oahu's public transit system and goes alllll over the island and is always only two dolla! Let's just say the price somehow outweighs the many downsides to taking The Bus. Well first I had to take a bus- cuz I didn't want to walk- to the giant mall that I checked out yesterday (yesterday was overcast and yuck) -the Ala Moana Center. It is quite large. They have EVERYTHING. Anyways, from there I transferred onto the Wahiawa Circle Isle Bus, knowing it was going to be an almost 2 hour ride. It started off well, the bus wasn't full, but as we drove through Honolulu more and more people got on. In short, the ride was very unpleasant, nearly 2 hours on a crowded city bus, the windows were dirty and it was difficult to see any of the passing country side, and some big Hawaiian guy kept falling asleep and leaning on me. Very uncomfortable. The whole ride I was thinking this North Shore business better be fucking worth it.

Well.

After about 30seconds of beholding Sunset Beach and also realizing there was a freaking surf competition happening I decided it was- even with the Hawaiian guy falling asleep on me.

After listening to the commentators for a while (there were loudspeakers) I learned that the comp was the 25th Annual Xcel Pro Championship and it was being webcast at surfinglive.com.

Anyway, the waves here were fucking huge! (The annoucer said the swells were coming in at 4-6ft earlier but were now 3-5ft only. They looked much bigger than that, haha.) There are signs posted every 100ms or so along the beach with red flags that say 'No Swimming' Two little boys, surf pros in the making no doubt, long almost naturally dreaded and sun bleached blonde hair, decided to ignore the signs and fooled around in the surf that was breaking closest to the shore. They were basically being tossed on shore by the break. They were trying to body surf but were quite unsuccessful as you could see them be swept into the wave and then pounded into the beach. My questions were they looked to be 7 or 8 -Why weren't these kids in school and how did they not drown? haha

After a few hours of watching the pros I headed down the beach towards Banzai Pipeline. It seemed like the waves were getting bigger the further I walked... and it was magnificent. The beach was virtually deserted. It was sunny. There was a nice breeze. This was the Hawaii I was looking for! I alternated walking along the beach and the bike path in the places the beach was steep and narrow for the next few hours and then stopped at Shark's Cove around 4pm. There I sat and read and enjoyed the sunset. Golly. T'was a beaut! Then I grabbed some dinner at the grocery store that happened to be across the street/hwy and then took 'The Bus' back. It was much better this time, haha. There was a Japanese couple trying to get to Waikiki. At one point the man said to the driver "No english. Speak Japanese please!" I almost laughed out loud, haha.

I will definately be going back to the North Shore at least once more before I leave Oahu!

Aloha!

PS Will post my pics tomorrow!

Aloha

Right now I am sitting in the courtyard area of my Hostel in Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. Earlier a big gecko type lizard (15cm long!) ran up the wall that I'm sitting by (need to be plugged in) and then again a few minutes ago it reappeared and chirped at me. Bastard.

So let me bring y'alls up to speed. The flight from Vancouver last night felt long and I was in and out of sleep for most of it. When I arrived it was dark and even though it was only like 8pm it felt more like 2am so when I finally got to the hostel all I wanted was horizontal sleep. I am in the lower bunk in a room of 3 bunks, so thats 6 people. The guy above me last night was a restless sleeper and tossed and turned all night and I thought I was going to die should he toss too hard and come crashing through. He left this morning though, so now there are just 3 of us in the dorm room. The place is clean (the bathroom smelt of bleach this afternoon, a good sign in my opinion), just a little old and rundown. There is free continental breakfast of coffee, tea, toast and jam/PB, and for 35cents you can have oatmeal, weeeeeeeee! and free wireless and free locker use and a bunch of other shit that you can borrow for free (like boogie boards, snorkels, beach mats, etc). Anyways, a lot of the people staying here appear to be in couples or groups and many are ESL. I'm still feeling a little jetlagged and thus have not put in much of an effort to make friends, but my time will come. I've also overheard the staff commenting on how quiet it is around here (the hostel), I guess it's usually hopping? Maybe this will change this weekend, Halloween is supposed to wicked fun here.

Today I spent most of the day wandering around Waikiki and a couple hours on the beach. My SPF8 sunscreen did a wonderful job, however the spots I missed are feeling mighty warm right about now, haha. I wouldn't say the beach was crowded today but I was somewhat surprised by the number of tourists. Well I guess they're all tourists... and this is Waikiki, mega tourist hot spot. I think I was picturing a more quaint version of Hawaii. I'm going to see if that exists on the North Shore later in the week. But the shopping around here is pretty sweet. I wish I had a bigger bag, haha. There is an area a few blocks from here called 'International Market Place' which is an open air mall filled with little kiosks full of cheap souvenirs. There is also a Lesportsac store; I might be getting myself an early Christmas present there later!

Anyways, I had some bad news today, it turns out that my timing is not as perfect as I thought, as Diamond Head Trail is in the middle of being closed for a month for repairs and that was one of the top things to do on my list. I'll have to see if there is a smaller dormant volcano to climb on this island.

In other news, I was wandering around a few hours ago trying to decide what I wanted for dinner. I wanted something warm as I was experiencing somewhat of a chill from too much sun. I was about to cross the street when a random girl asked me if I was from here and knew of any good places to eat, as she was by herself. I told her I wasn't from here and that I was also looking for a place to eat and was also on my oddy knocky. In truely awkward fashion we somehow decided to eat dinner together and ended up going to the great American eatery known as Chili's. It turned out that she was from Vancouver and was in Hawaii for the third time in a year and wants to move here, but is trying to figure out the whole working situation with Visas and all that shit. It was... err... an interesting meal and although the company wasn't really my scene, the food really hit the spot.

Well it is almost 10pm and I am fading fast. I'll try to stay up another hour but it will be tough! I finished 'Angela's Ashes' today and am now on to the Barack Obama memoir- "Dreams From My Father." I will be reading it in Obama's home state (thanks Aunt Cathie), so maybe he will have suggestions on things to do and places to eat ;)

Vancouver

Well leg one of today’s journey is over. I am currently sitting in YVR killing time before my 4:45pm departure to Honolulu. I, of course, couldn’t turn down one last party night in Canada last night and was thus up late and am now fighting a mean headache… it could just be from lack of sleep though (haha) since I had to get up at 7am to shower and make final preparations. I felt kind pukey and didn’t even want to think about food and needless to say did not pack a snack, which would be awesome right now. There is a Tim Horton’s a few gates down so I should probably hit that shit up before take-off.
So I land tonight at 8pm local time and then will have to figure out how to get the bus with my giant backpack to the hostel I booked. Then I think I will spend all of Monday wondering aimlessly through Waikiki. Tough life.
Anyway, this is the beginning and I’m finding it hard to believe that I’m actually doing it, finally! I would say right now I’m a little nervous because I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I’m trying to stay positive and turn that nervousness into excitement. Hopefully the beauty of Hawaii will blow all these mixed emotions away and it’ll be smoooooooth sailin’. Holla!

Time keeps on tickin, tickin, tickin, into the future...

It recently occurred to me that my concept of time has changed… dramatically! “Concept of Time” might not be the best way to describe what I’m getting at here; it’s more like “Concept of Future.” When I swam my life revolved around it: the practices: the meets: the daily schedule even (eating at a certain time, sleeping at a certain time, everything at a certain time!). And now I guess you could say I’m free of all this- my daily schedule is my oyster and I’m slowly getting used to what I should be doing with it- but it’s my ‘concept of future’ that has just now caught my attention. Swim meets used to be what I looked forward too in the not so far future (not so far being 1-2 months) they were the light at the end of the hard training tunnel. But now, as I am about to embark on this trip/journey/travels/move?/whatever, I’m kind of thinking- once I get there and get settled- then what?

I think this could be where I have the biggest post swimming trouble/problems: the loss of the cycle, the hard work rewarded by results (at a meet) in the form of performance cycle. Even though the results weren’t always positive they were always a learning experience and a stepping stone on the path to swimming faster which was the direction I was trying to follow.
What direction does the real world want me to follow? I guess I better take some time to write down some Aussieland related goals… maybe on the beach in Hawaii? In mean time any suggestions would be great!

Oh Yeah...

OU SUCKS!

Texas beat OU at the Annual Red River Shoot Out at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Saturday. Texas is now #1.

It's 9:17pm and OU still sucks.

Hook 'em!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving one day late! I hope you all reading this had a lovely weekend with family and/or friends and some turkey and potatoes!

I had both an awesome and horrible weekend... it started Thursday night at Bar None seeing the Vancouver band 'Mother Mother.' Doors were at 8pm and we got there around 9 I think, thinking they would be on pretty soon. We didn't know there would be two opening bands... two bad opening bands. The first group sounded like they had maybe practiced once maybe twice before. Pretty awful. But at least they're sweet tie dyed outfits matched! haha The next band was better, had definately played a gig or two before, but they were still quite poor. The two openers made Mother Mother seem like gods: Polished and professional. But they really were fucking awesome! They are touring around Ontario right now and I highly recommend checking them out, plus they are cheap!

So on Friday I went down to My Bar for import night Stellas and made plans for Saturday night. These plans made my Saturday night house party morph into an all out dance party. I had a big list of songs to download for dancing purposes and even different chapters of music/dance styles to follow in order to rock out to the max. INTENSE. Saturday had high expectations.

Well Saturday came and I prepped during the day and then started drinking early, around 7, before my guests arrived. That was probably my biggest mistake of the weekend. I proceeded to drink more when party goers got here and thats about all I remember. I was told later that I had a great time and danced my heart out. I'm still a little upset about having little memory of it though, it's like I wasn't even there :( A lot of pictures were taken and the next morning when I looked at them I was pretty shocked since I could not recall some of the events. Anyways and needless to say, my blackout party ended up in vomit and then next day was spent deep in a gravol induced sleep because I was determined to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner! By 4pm I was up and the party mess from the night before was cleaned up and I had taken a dunk in the lake and felt a lot better. Lucky for me TG dinner wasn't until 7pm and despite feeling dopey from the gravol it was delicious. My first Canadian Thanksgiving in 6 years! Crazy!

On Monday my sister went wakeboarding. She's nuts!

So that was my Thanksgiving Weekend and with that out of the way, the countdown begins... only 12 more sleeps in Canada left!

P.S. You'll need a password to see those pics, so maybe if you ask me nicely...