The Skydive!!!

Mere moments before take-off

One view from the plane

And another

We're going sailing around these islands tomorrow

And by now you're probably need to calm down and remember not to be too envious

Yesterday Nick and Myself jumped out of a plane. It was amazing. One of my life's ambitions realised. I don't know why it was one of my ambitions to do something like this, but maybe under this calm exterior pumps the blood of an adrenaline junkie. That's what I'm starting to think anyway.

As with the Fraser Island blog I haven't got much time to type as I'm in an expensive internet place again. Damn. Again, when I get the chance I will fill you in on some more details like how fast we were free falling and for how long. I could quite easily give you those details now but I choose to withhold them and build the suspense.

Fraser Island

The beast we drove around in. Soooo much fun.

The picture probably doesn't do justice to how white the sand was here, Lake Mackenzie I think

Eli Creek

The Maheno Wreck, a ship that ran aground many years ago on a cold, dark night. ARRR.


The Maheno Wreck up close

Jazz hands!

TEAM B HUDDLE! This was our group for roaming around Fraser Island

Another tropical paradise...yawn...

I've just noticed that I didn't get a single bloody picture of any of the wildlife we saw, I guess I must have been too busy pointing at it and saying "look, a Dingo/shark/massive poisonous spider/other deadly animal". I'm probably lucky to be alive really, and that's not even including the drinking games we played...

What can I say about Fraser Island? It's hard to describe without seeing it for yourself so I'll just say it was spectacular. Also I don't have time to write much at the moment so I'll leave you with all the pretty pictures. I'll try and add a video to it at some point too, you lucky people.

Rollercoastering

Canberra. Yep, that's about all there is to see

A double rainbow (second one is a bit blurry)

A card from a museum in Nimbin. Nimbin had a lot of hippies. Leppard would have loved it.

Byron Bay Sunset

I couldn't decide which kind of wallaby I am. I was there for hours thinking that one over

Take your time now and just tell us, where did the clown touch you?

After a fun day out at Dreamworld

Get it? The most easterly point...

More Byron Bay

Scientists reconstruction of how Nick would look as a small dinosaur

I've finally seen some Kangaroos. I was half hoping not to see any before leaving Australia so I could carry on believing they don't exist

You can't beat the comedy value of a rock that looks like an arse.




So we're back on the road again now, having said goodbye to Melbourne in suitable style. Essentially, this just means we went out in St Kilda, got drunk and ended up walking by the 24 hour pie shop for some 24 hour pie in the early hours. Whoever decided that St Kilda needed 24 hour pie was a genius.

On Wednesday 10th, we left Melbourne to head East and up the coast. As I mentioned in the last blog, we headed through Canberra in order to see the nation's capital. Didn't take much seeing to be honest, one night was plenty there, after seeing all of Canberra's sights in a few hours we went to see '300' which was spectacular. I met an Israeli guy a couple of days ago who loved the film so much he would occasionally shout out random quotes such as "FOR SPARTA!"

Above, you'll see a slightly blurred picture of a double rainbow. This happened on the way out of Canberra to Sydney. Not only that but we drove through the end of a rainbow. Seeing as I had always thought this impossible, thinking that rainbows are always a fixed distance away, driving through the end of a rainbow was pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately no pot of gold though, some cheeky leprechaun must have got there before we did

We stayed in Sydney and met up with Sydney-based friends for a few days. Two of these days we stayed in a hostel where the receptionist was so friendly and helpful we decided he had to a born again Christian. We think he would have adopted us if he'd had the chance. One highlight of our trip to Sydney was watching Amy chase Nick round a burger place called O Porto at about 2am with some mashed potato, trying to force him to eat it. That is the difference between not liking a food and fearing it.

We left for Brisbane on Monday 9th, to stay with Ron and Lyn, friends of the family. During the couple of days we spent there, we had a good look around Brisbane and went to a Koala sanctuary. During our look round Brisbane, we went to an art gallery. In this art gallery was an exhibit by a guy called Tim Woodward. He had just bought stuff off ebay, printed out screenshots and ebay receipts and then made an arrangement of the various crap within a space in the gallery. At first this seemed like the biggest load of crap ever until you realise that you have to give the guy some credit for convincing enough people that this was actually a work of merit. He must be a master blagger, having realised 2 weeks from his deadline that he had done absolutely nothing and needed to come up with something fast. Tim Woodward, we salute you.

After Brisbane, we headed to the Gold Coast for 4 days of running around theme parks. After the first day at Wet n Wild, we got a surprise in the form of Rhiannon appearing as if by magic. But it was all a cunning plan by her and Amy after we had said what we thought was goodbye in Sydney. Obviously unable to cope with not seeing me and Nick again for such a long time, after they left us at the airport they hatched a devious plan to have Rhiannon turn up out of the blue on Friday. It worked, me and Nick were just confused at first. Then the realisation set in that we would have to spend another weekend in her company and our hearts sank...

The weekend of roller coasters and water-flumes was good all-American family fun and we were early-to-bed, early-to-rise each day. How wholesome. Movieworld was probably the best of the parks, especially the Scooby Spooky Coaster which none of us expected to turn into a laser-lit rave halfway through. I could try and explain but it's one of those 'needed to be there' kind of things.

I write this from Byron Bay where I have gone to spend a few days exploring and surfing (or trying to). It's a really scenic little town. In fact I'm going to go surfing after I finish writing this. As long as I can find somewhere where there aren't too many other people about because I haven't learned how to steer yet so I need a good clear runway.

Also, I spoke to Mr Waterman yesterday and he is booking a ticket to get to Singapore on the 15th May, the day after we'll arrive there! He will join us on the Asian leg of our trip, and he will hunt food for us and whittle canoes out of twigs and leaves. His beardiness will give Nick something to aim for. I have attempted to grow some rampant facial hair but it just ends up being crap and itchy and I shave it off.

That is all for now.

A short story what I wrote

Below is a link to a short story that I wrote recently, seeing as I some spare time on my hands. Let me know what you think. Unless you don't like it, then you're not my friend anymore.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=59527066&blogID=249076527&MyToken=b385ba8a-6601-4ae2-82ed-b45403e218a1

The rock God that is Dr K

The Australian version of 'Toys R Us'. Who says they're a bit racist?

This is my response to my dad's concern that some of the photos have "been a bit gay"

Just before St Kilda spanked Melbourne at Aussie Rules footie, come on St Kilda!

Spot The Ball

Alan Fletcher aka Karl Kennedy. Or Fletch as we like to call him when we're conversing by email

He's a bit podgier than he looks on Neighbours. Sorry to shatter the dream


Karl Kennedy (and the rest of a band that no-one really cared about. They must know this; if their lead singer wasn't Karl Kennedy they'd be playing to an empty room)

Hello all. As you will see from the video and photos we could hold back no longer on going to see Karl Kennedy's band Waiting Room. It was a defining moment in any Neighbours fan's life. Ok, so I don't watch Neighbours anymore but I used to and so to see Dr K belting out Foo Fighters Best of You followed by The Fratellis Chelsea Dagger is a pretty unique experience. If Beasty had been there I don't think she would have been able to contain herself when the band finished with a Queen medley. Just look at the way he does the classic rock pose of pointing to the crowd in the video. He was on form. We were much more excited about the whole thing than was reasonable.

On Friday night we went to our first AFL game to watch Melbourne vs St Kilda. I'd been watching a little bit of Aussie Rules on TV just so I knew what was going on. It's more or less part football, part rugby and part Gaelic football. If that makes it any clearer for you. Anyway, it was 92-63 to us in the end. Us being St Kilda of course, I've been living here for about 2 months now, they're my local team. Because we were there with Rhiannon's family, Me and Nick were forbidden to begin any traditional English football chants like "You're sh*t and you know you are." What's wrong with that?

Two months is plenty of time to be stopped in one place and so we are moving on this Thursday. On the way to Sydney we will drive through Canberra. It is technically Australia's capital but this is only because nobody could decide whether it should be Sydney or Melbourne about 100 years ago. So they built an administrative centre about halfway between the two. Basically it is a city that houses the government. And, funnily enough, most of Australia's porn industry because there are legal loopholes and tax breaks that make it easier to make porn there. I guess the MPs got a bit bored and decided they needed something to liven things up between parliament sessions.

Damn computers...

Eagles of Death Metal: Sound neither like The Eagles or Death Metal but just put on a damn fine show

My contribution to the an installation in the NGV. Mine's the little square thing with windows in the middle

The explanation behind an art gallery encouraging people like myself to play with lego

A cheeky video of the EoDM as they were so good

Having battled my way through some unique weather to get to this internet cafe, I'd better put on a new blog. Although I have been working quite a bit so it'll be short and sweet. When I say working a lot, it's not like I've been working every day, but just concentrated bursts, such as last weekend when I did over 12 hour shifts on both Saturday and Sunday. By the end of Sunday I think I had lost the plot a little.

The Friday night before that I went to see the Eagles of Death Metal, who put on one of the best gigs I've ever been to, I would say. So good that I sweat right through the t-shirt I was wearing from all the jumping about. This was then discovered by the people who I went to meet in a bar after the gig when they went to hug me/pat on the back, only to recoil in mild horror at the dampness. Hahaha.

Yesterday, with some time to kill before work, I went to the NGV, Melbourne's art gallery, as last time I was there I didn't really look all the way round. And how glad am I that I did go? Very, because they had an installation by a Danish guy, that basically consisted of about 60,000 pieces of white lego. The idea being that the public create a city skyline out of the lego. I would say I spent about a good hour making my masterpiece of architecture. It was funny listening to some of the people around me discussing the relevance of the installation, trying to imbue it with some kind of deeper meaning when my train of thought went something like this: "Ooooo, lego, I haven't played with lego for years!... YAY!"

According to my brother Jason, my dad has noticed that in a good many of the photos on the blog, there is something fairly gay happening. Looking back at some of them, this may be true. However, I feel it is balanced out by such photos as me assembling a chest of drawers, doing some manly DIY. (Although if you look closely enough, the hammer I was using was pink. Damn, so close....)

Finally, I have been told on more than one occasion that I sound like Hugh Grant. Luckily this was not by English people and so they probably do not recognise the difference in accent between me and the one-role wonder that is he.

Up to my kerb crawling ways again

"Oh yes it's ladies night, And the feeling's right, Oh yes it's ladies night, Oh what a night"

Just in case the first picture didn't scare you enough. Notice the red symbol on Nick and Phil's hands. It is the sacred mark of the lady-man which we were all given.

The view at sunset from where I work. Not bad.

Today I have a day off from work. Having not worked a full 5 days in a row for quite a while, (approx 4 months) I feel I have fully earned this next couple of days off. On Saturday I worked this longest shift I've ever worked - 13.25 hours. Who says I'm a work-shy fop? So now, with some money coming in, I am back on track for doing all kinds of stuff up the East coast such as skydiving, scuba, a bit more surfing, seeing some of the islands etc. I would have done all that anyway, but my credit card would have taken a beating along the way.

There aren't many photos this blog because my camera battery has just died but you got the most important ones there, the ladies night. On Monday, having just got back from work of an evening, I went to go sit down in the patio bit of the hostel only to be told by about 10 badly dressed she-males that I had to go get some womens clothes first. Just by our hostel there is a charity shop (called op-shops here) that had a large pile of lady-like garments of varying shapes, sizes and colourful arrangements. Bear in mind I had just been at work and so was going to collect womens clothes from a street pavement, then wear them whilst sober. At least the others had the advantage of being drunk through all this. In the end it was agreed that we all looked pretty damn good.

On Wednesday night I was on my way home at some obscure hour of the morning when a car pulls up beside me. The following conversation ensues:

"Hello, are you from around here" Yes, I am, sort of. (Thinking that they just want directions) "How long have you been living here for?" Oh, about a month and a half I guess. "Can we see some I.D please?" What? Why do you want to see my I.D? "Could we just see it please?" No, why would I give you my I.D, who are you? "Sir, you are walking through a prostitute-prone area late at night, now could we see some I.D?" You think I'm kerb-crawling?!? Hahahaha, I can't wait to tell my parents back home I've been stopped for kerb crawling!

At this point it was apparent to them that I was no longer taking them seriously and they quickly jotted down some details off my driving license and moved on. Hopefully I've been entered into some Aussie database of potential criminals. The police obviously thought I had the look of such man. But to be honest, it is impossible to walk back to my hostel without walking through a prostitute prone area, they're all over the place. Such is the glamorous lifestyle we backpackers lead.

Anyway, while spring begins to kick in back home, it's moving onto Autumn here, meaning we may get a few days in the 20's rather than constantly in the 30's. Boo hoo. But nevertheless, in about a month we are going to chase the sun North up the east coast. A month or so on the east and then we'll be making the jump into south east Asia and from there who knows? There is a half formed idea of trying to make it back home overland but not knowing where I might be a couple of weeks from now makes it more or less pointless trying to plan months ahead. And why would I want to when I can just run around in womens' clothes instead?