Sydney to Melbourne - via thumb

I wake up at 07.30 and go to grab my clothes from the laundromat around the corner. I know I've already missed my intended train because of this. I had meant to pick up the clothes the day before, but jet lag threw me into a small coma which in turn made me miss my dinner plans with some friends - not cool. Watched a movie with them instead and had a small chat, better than nothing, eh?

Pack my bags, have some breakie, and charge out the door with my hostess/friend from Sydney. We say good-bye/see'ya later by her bus stop and I start my small march over to the train station. Destination: Dapto. After two trains, 2 hours and 20 minutes of travel, I finally arrive. Next goal, find the recommended hitch-hiking spot which I found here: Hitchwiki. Zoom in on the map and you can see exactly where they recommended.

After about say 10 minutes, my adventure begins! A professional prawner picks me up and drops me off 10km down the road, where he feels I'll have a better chance of getting picked up. He also recommended I start panning for gold in TAS when I'm on the farm.

From this point on, the longest I have to wait is about 10 minutes. Great day! 5 rides later, I get dropped off at Ulladulla. My last ride was heading all the way to Melbourne, but I was getting some funny vibes from him, so I jumped boat in Ulladulla because i) the funny vibes ii) because two of the other rides recommended it. Walk over to the visitors center and see what information I can get about the area. They said it's a down with great surrounding beauty, and a very quiet in general too. Perfect is what I thought! They let me leave my bags there while I was out exploring the town, which took about 10 minutes (but did it in about 1 hour). It's very small. I then decide to have a beer at the local pub, the Marlin Hotel, where upon I meet an ex-Pro surfer, now professional painter. He bought me a beer and said that I could crash at his place, something I was somewhat expecting from the small town mentality. However, the woman at the info center had recommended a place for me to crash by the beach instead, so I was wondering what to do. So I decided to let things roll and see where it leads me.

After some more beer and talking, it was time for me to go and grab my kit. When I return, I buy the guy a beer and keep on talking and meet some more of the locals. It was awesome man! And something I had never seen before too, they set out 2-3 big plates of small "nibbles" composed of salami, cheeses, hams, crackers, olives, and small onions out for the customers, and once all that was gone, out came the brownies and other yummy delights! It was so great tasting and awesome too see a pub do something like that. Anyway, back to my pub hosts. After some more talking and, I saw this on his friends mainly, that they were all a bunch of piss heads (read: alcoholics) and druggies. I was threatened by one of the older ones when I patted his shoulder.

"Oy! Don't touch me or I'll knock your fucking teeth out!"

Yeah...I said I was sorry and planned on keeping my hands to myself for the remainder of the time. The surf dude disappears and returns with a big smile, saying that he's scored some drugs. Oh, did I forget to mention that this same dude claimed he no longer needed drugs because it almost killed him. Hmm...food for thought I reckon. He then goes home, totally forgetting his invitation he had made before hand, which I was some what relieved by. And something else which was really cool about this pub is that they had a bus to take you home or to the pub! For Free! So no drink drivers with that kind of service! I reckon it should be encourage globally. And yes, I can see problems with it to, but the idea is great non-the-less!

I tell some of the guys left behind that I planned on sleeping on the beach, but non of them were all supportive of the idea (I never mentioned which beach I was thinking). They all felt I should either check into the caravan park or into the pub for a mere 20 bucks. Which is pretty decent, but I wasn't to keen on the idea of paying for accommodation when I had been lugging a bloody tent with me all the way from Sweden. Before it got completely dark, I jump on the bus and before I get to tell it where to take me, some of my new found friends decided to jump on the bus as well because it was time for them to go home. They all insist on me staying at the caravan park, so I get driven there against my will. I tell them all that I'll see them in the morning and pretend to start heading into the park. The second the van disappeared, I leg it to the Bombie. It took maybe 15 minutes to walk there, teetering on tipsy and drunk. And once I get there, it was empty, not a soul to be seen! By the time I get there, I felt pretty sober. So I pitch my tent, and start prepping my dinner. The good old rice, tuna and garlic mix that I was making during my last trip too! Memories came flooding back :D At this point, something scared me half to death! I see some silhouettes coming down the hill from which I came and start walking towards me. They were just some locals teens coming out for a mid night dip. Didn't really say anything to them, they were harmless.

I wake up in the middle of the night and THEN I was drunk. Very drunk, very strange.

Wake up again, this time there's light, a very soft light. The sound of the crashing waves is soothing and the air is salty and cool. I was in heaven.

I crawl out of my tent and then I remembered why I love the nature and travelling. That moment in time is something I can't explain. Actually, it was like coming back home from a long travel. It was a sense of joy and glee, I can compare it to when I saw my friends back in Sweden again.

After eating some dry Weet-bix, going for a dip in the ocean, standing on the edge of the reef, feeling the water pass through my legs at calf height, I was forced to leave in order to catch a ride out of there to my next destination, which would hopefully be Eden.

It was a long day. A lot of waiting compared to the previous day, and a lot of forcing myself to keep on going and not crawling into the bush to setup camp. And boy was it worth it. I met the owner of EchoTree.com.au which was a real trip. A very mellow man, very simple. He invited me to his home for lunch and to show me how to make didgeridoos. I have never seen up close or experienced such a low class of living before, upon seeing that, it was even more reenforcement of me knowing that I have a good life. Stuff was everywhere, trash, food, dishes, everything. The son there, to clean his knife of some weird tasting roast nut loaf, just swopped the knife in the air throwing the loose bits on the floor. And the way he talked to his dad and vice versa was definitely only things I've read in books and seen in movies. Yeah, I felt like I should say something to him privately, but who am I to say anything. After hearing some of his past, I concluded that he never really lived in a real family, so I guess he doesn't know any better.

Apparently, he lived in the bush with Aboriginals in Queensland for like 4 years, hunting everyday, catching his food, and everything. I found it pretty amazing to say the least. Also checked out his workshop and he explained a bit of how to do it all, which was pretty interesting. He also explained how to actually play the didg too, in a way that made perfect sense and I've been trying the technique a bit too and it's a bit tricky, but, obviously, doable.

Once I felt I had out stayed my welcome, I jumped back on the road, and then the most random ride ever came. Long story short: Two alternative Aussie chicks pick me up in an old Land Rover which was seen just about every corner of Australia, and take me to the town where they were going to meet their friends. A few minutes after arriving to the town, their friends invite me to a party out in the bush. I was a bit reluctant, but decided it would be one hell of an adventure, and it would be something I would regret if I turned it down. And I'm guessing you know what I did, right? Of course I said yes!

It was an amazing party, full of great people. I became known as the Hitchhiker, and when I presented myself as a hitchhiker, one person didn't believe me until I convinced them otherwise. It was someone's birthday party, and they had setup a 6 deck turn table bench, and all these lights, a projector, a drum set, and the works man! I've never seen a setup like that for such a small party (we were only about 30 people). And a mock band jumped on stage presenting themselves as the Packages, from, wait for it: Sweden! What are the odds of that, eh? Really! Utter craziness! People were offering me beer all the time, it was great, although I refused to get completely lost cause I still didn't really know the people there, although they seemed pretty harmless. In retrospect, I think I was in shock that I was in that situation in the first place.

The next day I go to the local watering hole which is a small collection of water where the locals went to cool off. And when I got there, I knew I was as far off the beaten track as anyone could get. I knew I was alive.

After a nice dip, and a chat with the people who drove me there, it was time to head back and half way, my original hosts picked me up to drop me off back from where they picked me up. They were awesome, packed all my gear into the car and everything. The warmth of people here is just overwhelming sometimes. Ok, granted, my kit was right next to the car, but the fact that they drove out to the watering hole to pick me up with my kit already in place, made me smile :D

I'm now about 100 meters from where they picked me up from, which, by my standards, is progress :P Slow, but progress non-the-less. After about 10-15minutes, a family picks me up and drives me out to Eden where I check out the local whale museum which had been recommended to me by another ride. It was pretty interesting to read what's happened in that area. For example, how there was a semi symbiotic relationship between the local whalers and killer whales. The killer whales would round up the hump backed whales or other ones, and herd them towards the whalers, where they then killed and collected what they wanted, and in return, left the carcass out at sea for the killer whales to eat (they favour the tongue and lips apparently).

Once it was about 12.20, I felt it was time to start making some more progress, and I was pretty lucky with this ride. It was a group of backpackers heading towards Melbourne with the same time frame as me, score! The group was composed of two Dutch, one English, and one Italian. A very cheery bunch! Oh, by the way, all of them were girls, which was pretty cool. But the English one was probably the more interesting ones, since we had some good deep and meaningfuls. She was 32 years old, studying and practicing alternative medicine like healing stones and what not. She was a very spiritual person and had some interesting things to say and an interesting background. She had some troubles a few years back, but finally got back on track and is kicking some serious ass now compared to before.

After some driving we decide to crash at Paradise Beach, which wasn't too much of a paradise, but it was really nice non-the-less. Once we had setup our tents, we went to talk to our neighbouring backpackers from Belgium, who had started a nice big camp fire to keep us warm and the mossi's away. A great group of 4 people who'll be working on the farm down here in Tassie (yup, gave'em the a tips as to where to call). We'll see what crazy adventures I'll have with them, eh?

In morning, after a great nights sleep, I woke up and took a small stroll along the beach, which, without any big surprise, was just amazing. Took a dip and did some body surfing in the waves which was a blast. Caught one or two really good waves, and then I got some good sun too. Maybe too much. Burned my back a little bit, but not too bad which was a relief.

Once we had packed our gear down, we made our final stretch towards Melbourne, where I was almost pissing myself of fright when we got into town. The Dutch girls were driving pretty bad at that point (not saying it had anything to do with them being girls...or maybe I am :P), mainly because it was such high traffic, they didn't know where they were, and I don't think they had a lot of big city, left-handed driving experience, which added together can cause some issues. I know it did for me, so I can't judge them.

Got dropped off at Franklin St, which is downtown and then had to find my way out to my host's house which was in one of the greater suburbs of Melbourne, and that was a real pain to reach, but I made it.

Next day go for a stroll through Melbourne with another set of eyes. Let me explain.

The first time I was in Melbourne I was with Ms. D to visit my dad, and on my 3rd day in Oz, she dumped my monkey ass, in Melbourne. Seeing as how I couldn't stay in the country, I left back to NZ to lick my wounds. I then came back to Melbourne about 7 months later, and there was still a bitter taste in my mouth. But this time around, I saw what Melbourne really has to offer, other than bad memories, and grew a liking to it. Met some of the local CSer's there and said that all my travelling was due to me being traded as a male prostitute from birth and that my English was as good as it is due to copious amounts of porn. I then told them the truth, and they found it all pretty funny.

My host was pretty fun to talk to, hearing how she saw her travelling and how it affected her children, along with her experiences in countries I had never been to. And talking about her childrens upbringing, and mine, was, well, confusing. I'm reading Third Culture Kid (TCK) at the moment, and it is driving me up the bloody wall. I'm getting more and more confused as to what sort of person I am, or better yet, which category of TCK I fall into, and so far, there doesn't seem to be one. I really don't fit in anywhere it feels like, which I accepted during high school. I thought the book would give me answers, but just brings out frustration and confusion in me. FUBAR.

Anyway! My third day there, I had to fly out at 08.15 , and from where I lived, caused a bit of problem. I had a taxi come and pick me up to drive me to the bus terminal, but the taxi driver was trying to convince me to pay the extra 10-15 dollars and he could take me all the way to the airport. I never said yes, just tried to agree on a fixed price, because it was going to get steep. But, I repeat, I NEVER agreed to him taking me to the airport. All of a sudden I see that we're driving to the airport. I ask him what he was doing and he said he was driving me to the airport. I told him that I never agreed to him driving me, which got him a bit upset, and I was pretty keen on giving him an ear full, but since the meter was a low as it was, relative to where we were, I thought it would be just as expensive to take a taxi all the way. We keep on going. He stops the meter at 80 dollars, yes I think to myself. Doable price. Not the greatest, but doable.

When I pay the fair, and I get the receipt, it was for 94 dollars! Why? 4 bucks for the toll road, and then tax on top of that with the 80 bucks. I wanted to throw the douche nossel over the hand rails to his death. Dirty fucking lying son of whore! I shit you not. First off, he presumes that I wanted him to take me to the airport, and then neglects to tell me the other expenses on top of the fair. Another reason why I can really hate people. And I mean hate. Well, I hope he gets what's coming to him, like getting robbed or flies off the road.

Am I over reacting, most probably, but I seriously can't take it when people "forget" to tell you vital information. Can I blame myself? Sure, because it's super common over the entire globe that you pay more than what it says on the taxi meter, because some ball draining idiot decides not to tell you the extra fees involved. Bah! Yeah, I'm working myself up, and so I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

While we're taxing in the plane, I crash and wake up not too long after take off, seeing Melbourne from the skies above and clear blue sea in front of it. Brought back memories from when I was a kid and saw that same sight of the land going into the see, thinking that every body of land was literally floating in the ocean, like an iceberg, but made of dirt.

And at the airport my Tassie friend is there to pick me up and drive me back to his place, where I am right now, writting this blog for you all. However, before I started writting this, he took me to where he works and got to taste a few very fine whiskeys and gin, and after that I went to my favourite bakery in Hobart, the BakeHouse, open 24/7. Filled with amazing pies and yummy delights.

All that I have left to do now, while I'm here in Hobart is to prep for my hike up in the mountains, which I'm pretty stoked about!

I also noticed someting, I have ALOT of green with me: green sleeping bag, green swim shorts, green serong, green shoes, green t-shirt, green shorts, green socks, green underwear, green dish washing liquid, green shirt, green belt, green jumper, green mug, green bracelet, green bag, and green rain pants. Funny thing is, blue is my favourite colour.

One sad thing happened too, very sad actually. After 10 long years of being in my possession, after some serious abuse, my Oakley's, which had been given to me from my parents for getting good grades, split in two the other day. The were in my backpack, like usual, and then when I leaned on my bag, they snapped. Why wasn't I wearing them, because I have a theory that people wouldn't want to pick up a hitchhiker whose hiding his/her eyes (othe people have confirmed this theory), so instead of always taking them off when a car passes, I just left them in my bag. Hopefully my insurance will cover it, and if not, well, I need some sunnies. The sun is starting to affect my eye sight too I've noticed. Oh well.

Ok, that's all I have to say for now and I leave you now with these links:

My hitchhiking route.
Some photos.
And some videos 1 2 3.

E N J O Y !

Round 2 - FIGHT!

I’m back. Where you ask? Oz. It almost felt like coming back home, but just a different home.

The flight was good, but nothing too special. Just about the exact same movies were on the menu as when I flew back to Sweden, so I got to re-watch a few movies a few more times. Yay. I guess, the best leg of the flight was from Beijing to Sydney, mainly cause I had someone to talk to, which made it all that more bearable. They guy who sat next to me from Stockholm to Sydney didn’t speak a whole lot of English, however he did study in Stockholm.

Now what? Going to leave Sydney on Friday via hitchhiking down to Melbourne, and then jump the Tasman Sea over to Tasmania, and then prep for my hike through the mountains.

Hmmm…I thought I had a few things to say, but I obviously don’t. Currently a bit lost in the whole jet lag thing, so bah.

Until…when…later. Take it easy and I’ll talk to you guys later!

I did it, I can't believe I did it!

For my trip to Oz, I've been doing a bit of reading up, experimenting, research, and watching a few videos on YouTube as to how to decend ropes (absail) and also climbing up the them. Well, last night, I did it!

I went over to Karlberg where there's a cliff face about 11 meters high where I was testing this stuff out. Was this stupid? Oh yes it was! I originally wanted to try some of the things out at an indoor climbing hall, but that didn't work out all too great since I need a green card (climbing license) to setup an anchor up top. I asked if they could set it up for me, but no go, which was really lame. So I decided to teach myself instead - as usual. Taught myself to ride a bike, ski, fix paintball guns, etc. Might as well add climbing up ropes and absailing using different techniques to the list as well.

Anyway, my friend Ruffio came by to be my spotter during my shenanegans, which was quite a relief. I was mainly worried about the ropes up at the top, like someone would think it's a great idea to cut them off while I'm half way, which would suck a lot. I told Ruffio this too, and he felt I had lost a bit of faith in humanity. Well, I lost it a long time ago, even more so apon reading the news of a 17 year old boy killing a 16 year old girl because she said something he didn't like. Oh, and a there was a couple where the defakto (man) thought it would be a great idea to tie his "better half" down and put objects into her private orifices. Did I mention both of these happened here in Sweden? No? They did, within two weeks. So yeah, a fruit cake walking by cutting my ropes wouldn't surprise me at all.

Back to the story. Before I left my flat, I emptied my camera of photos, so Ruffio could record the whole thing. Since I was to hyped and nervous, I forgot my camera at home. Bummer. He used my phone instead, and the results are crap. Whatever.

I setup a 3 point redundent anchor system (ie, the rope was connected at three different locations for maximum safety), and I also had a safety line tied on in case while I was climbing over the rails I slipped, I wouldn't plummet to my death. My first decent I used a climbing harness my uncle gave me which he had won a long time ago and a figure 8 unit as a brake; basically I was using all the "correct" equipment on the first go to see that I still had the technique down. Well, I did!

Okay, so I have repelled before, this wasn't my first time. Maybe my, I don't know, 5th or 6th time doing it. So I know how to go down it, I just wasn't too sure how to setup the anchor and what not.

I get to the bottom, and then it was time to get back up! I used two prussik knots: one as a "step", the other as a dynamic anchor. This is where I learned it: Climbing Tools: Self Rescue: Two Prussiks. And who said YouTube was bad? No one as far as I've heard actually.

Climbing back up went pretty smoothly, but it wore my arm down a bit. But then I got a technique where I don't have to wrap around the rope like I was doing at first. Man, it was pretty awesome! Now that is something I have never done before, but I did it successfully!

I then tried it all again, this time with an imporvised harness and a knot instead of the figure 8 brake piece. And it went just as well.

All in all: it was awesome and pretty happy I took the "risks" I took.

Now I just have to practice rope retrievel.

Here's a Smidgen

My life, at the moment, is so cruisey, it's not even funny.

I get sent to Tallinn and stay at 5 star hotel and teach people how to use a computer system, and meet the awesome locals on my free time. Tallinn for me is a holiday, from my holiday (Sweden), from my holiday (Australia).

My job here at Ericsson is just retarded. I have two other people doing my job for me (something they organized), so I'm more like a just-in-case-something-happens guy. And I get paid a rediculous amount of money (most I've ever gotten paid, ever) on top of that. I read and chill out at work a lot. Not very stimualting, but it's a job, not a career.

Right now, the one thing I've been having some trouble answering is where do I live? Ruffio keeps on telling people I live in Australia. But do I really? It's a similiar question I asked myself if I ever lived in New Zealand, or if I was just there for a very long time? Some say I lived there, others say I was just there for a year. Do need to work somewhere to classify yourself as living there? Or do you need a static homestead?

Here's a definition of the word home, taken from Dictionary.com

home [hohm]
–noun
1. a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household. I don't have one of these, not permanent at least.

2. the place in which one's domestic affections are centered. Semi-Sweden. I called my tent home in NZ, and even hostels, too.

3. an institution for the homeless, sick, etc.: a nursing home. Not applicable, yet. Well, maybe the homeless one at least.

4. the dwelling place or retreat of an animal. When I haven't bathed for a while, applicable. Otherwise, no. Or if I've been drinking very very heavily, which is very rare.

5. the place or region where something is native or most common. The world? An airplane?

6. any place of residence or refuge: a heavenly home. Amongst my friends?

7. a person's native place or own country. Where's that?

8. a principal base of operations or activities: The new stadium will be the home of the local football team. Australia? I'm a team: me, myself, and I. And Ollie.

Food for thought.

Here are some apples, tell me how you like'em

I was at work about 2 weeks ago when my boss gave me an offer I couldn't really refuse: a 70% pay increase for 2 months. I'm now going to be here in Sweden until the 6th of December, then I'm going back down to the land of skippies (aka: kangaroos) to celebrate Christmas along with working on the cherry farm again. Would also like to point out that I've met two friends from Oz so far, both of whom are Swedish. Another mate of mine is coming in tomorrow from Finland who's a true blue Aussie. This is one hell of character to say the least, he's a wicked musician, great personality, and all around great to hang out with. This guy was part of the marching band representing Australia in the Beijing Olympics.

This weekend my friend threw a going away party for me, however, it wasn't really a going away party, because, as you just read, I'm not going anywhere just yet. And so when I told my friends about what had happened, they were mighty happy. Check out some photos here.

Today was my grandmothers 90th birthday too. Yet again, my dad gave terrific speech on his mothers behalf. We had a massive brunch at a nice cosy restaurant where the whole family had gathered and just had a really good time.

However there is something I want to write about: my sailing trip with uncle. We went out into the Swedish archipelago with his sailing boat, just me and him. The first day was amazing. Absolutely amazing. The skies were clear, and the winds were high. We just had to raise the sails and just let the wind move us to where we had to go: Bullerön. A very nice relaxing place. It was great, we cracked open some beers on our way out and just took everything really low and slow. When we got to the island we did a small hike around the place, and just enjoyed the day, along with the night when it came around. We were a small bay were there was no wind, but on the other side, it was blowing like crazy. Quite an experience! The following morning the weather wasn't as good as hoped. It was raining, and no winds. So we just had to cruise along with the motor going. Either which way, it was very nice. Hiding under the cover, talking, cruising, playing around with the auto-pilot. This was a sort of very light warm up for our sailing trip around the world which my uncle and I are keen on doing. However, on that one day, I realized that there is A LOT about sailing that I need to learn before we were to engage Here are some photos.

After my little sailing trip I was sent off to Tallinn for work, which was great fun. Really chill. And now it looks like they want to send me back there! For a total of three weeks! Woohoo!!! Photos from my first visit.

Ok, going to try to get some work done...or something like that...

I've been made a star!!!

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My Name

CHRISTOPHER
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KRIS-ta-fer

From the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ", derived from Χριστος (Christos) combined with φερω (phero) "to bear, to carry". It was used by early Christians as a metaphorical name, expressing that they carried Christ in their hearts. In the Middle Ages, literal interpretations of the name's etymology led to legends about a Saint Christopher who carried the young Jesus across a river. He has come to be regarded as the patron saint of travellers.
___________

That explains a bit now doesn't it. Hahaha!

I got this info from BehindTheName.com

Funny As...

Hey ya guys, today was...good.

I woke up at my friend Ruffio's place in the student ghetto, which wasn't too un-common for me some times on weekends depending on the flow of the whole evening.

Anyway, today I was out swimming at Vinterviken "close" to where I live. By myself mind you, and yet again, it was a good experience. There was a couple there bathing too, but sadly, didn't talk to them. And funnily enough, I'm becoming more Swedish during my time here. Looking more at the ground when I'm walking. Don't greet people while I'm walking along etc. I try to greet people and about...89% of the time i get a response, but the other 11% I don't even get the slightest achknowledgement of my own personal existence.

Welcome to Sweden

Anyway, when I arrived to where I was going to go swimming it was raining, and then when I jumped into the water, it kept on raining, and then after about....5 min? it all stopped, and the skies began to clear. Now then, I wanted to go swimming the second I got back home from Ruffio's place, however, it took some time for me to get out the door (read: I started watching Tropa de Elite). And so, when the weather cleared, and I was up on the cliffs, I began to think (as many of you know I maybe do too much of) and began to analyze the whole scenario.

If you want to do something, and I mean really want to do something (in my case, go swimming), but you keep on letting the oppurtuntity pass you by, then it's you'll feel crap (ie, it'll rain), but once you do it (no matter what the outcome) you'll feel better for doing it (the weather clears and the heat comes back).

Oh! And when I got to the water, I was hoping for the water to go blue again (via the skies reflection), but it wasn't like that when I got there, but then the weather cleared, and the water was yet again, ab-so-f¤%&ing-beautiful!

Tomorrow, hopefully, Herk, Big-E, Troll, and I will be going to Gröna Lund for the day. Let's hope the weather turns like it did today!

Powers

omnipresent [om-nuh-prez-uhnt]: adjective, present everywhere at the same time.

A power I wish I had around this point in time. Because every big event will be happening Sept. 4-6th. Unbelievable.

I hate having too many choices.

Wet'n'Wild

Was out last weekend with my friends to do some wakeboarding/waterskiing out at my parents place, and it was great. To say the least. I'm just bummed out that I didn't think of this before!

The weather was magnificent, and everyone was happy. It took some time to get some of the people into the water, but once they were in, they didn't want to get out. Well, I guess they did actually, but they wanted to be above the water on a wakeboard or a pair waterskiis instead.

Everybody got up (eventually) and were super stoked for getting to try it.

For the occassion I borrowed my moms old Nikkor 70-210mm lens which was amazing! The images came out super clear (when I got it focused, which proved pretty hard when the boat is bumpy as). Check them out here!

Sadly, not all the people I invited came out, but that means I'll just have to do it again and hope for a better outcome! But there's so many things to do before I leave!

Anyway.

I met my Friend That Rocks (FTR) today for the first time since I got back, and it was great to see her again. She's a becoming artist in London, and she's really seems to be going places! She does a lot of PR and also some talent scouting, along with setting up opening bands for the bigger fish. There's just way too much for me to say about her and I don't have the time to either, but she never ceases to amaze me with her stories about the music industry and what she goes through just to make it up to the next wrung of the massive ladder she is climbing. She is a real fighter if I ever met one.

Great friends is what I have.

Things have changed...only slightly though.

Was out with my friend and her cousin today walking around Gamla Stan, and we decided to go and get some ice cream. The really good stuff! The one where they make their own waffles right out side the window.

Here's what I remember: there's always a que, ice cream is really good, family feel, and the cones are really yummy too. A bit dear, but well worth it.

Here's what I found: not that big of que and still making their own cones. However, the ice cream they used previously has been replaced with Ben & Jerry's, and the interior is suited to their chain store idea, which just sucked.

Ice cream was good, but the store didn't look as nice as it used to. Now it just looks like another McDonalds bullshit on stick chain store. Hmm...makes you think.

I found this blog, and found this entry really funny: check it out! And this article too on Lifehacker.com.

Dreams Coming True

Before I arrived to Sweden, there were certain things I wanted to do: go to Vinterviken on a sunny day, go out with the boat early as in the morning, meet all my friends, etc.

The other day me and some friends went to Vinterviken after work, and it was, for the lack of a better word, perfect.

I was pretty reluctant to go at first, because I was just so exhausted from my lack of sleep. However, I knew I would regret it if I didn't go, so I went.

We had some wine, listened to some music, took a small dip in the water, and watched the sunset. And something really beautiful that I haven't really noticed before regarding sunsets, water, and the sky. What is that you ask? It's the reflection of the sky on the water. It made the whole surface of the water blue, sky blue. And then with the sunsetting in front of us, it was all just so magical. I was hardly talking to anyone, just staring out over the water, completely captivated by the sight. Did I have my camera with me? Of course I didn't! Jimmy had his though, but after taking a few shots, I realized that you need some sort of filter for when you shot straight against the sun. I think I know which one to get, but not a 100% sure.

Also, pretty keen on getting a 50mm prime lens. There's a few for sale at the moment for decent prices. Hopefully I'll have one for my trip back, and will also try to get my dad's SB-600 flash to work as a slave flash. Then you'll be able to get some really sweet effects.

Ok, I'm outtie! See'ya guys!

It's all calypso.

A line from one my absolute favourite songs: Ape dos mil by Glassjaw. Context? Unknown.

Been back for about 3 weeks now, and it feels pretty good truth be told. Been hanging out with my friends, and just having fun. Yesterday, a group of us went walking around our neighbourhood were taking photos and just having a good time. Something you can't put a price on.

And although I'm home, I still feel like a backpacker. Sleeping on my friends couch (my old one), still using all of my clothes that I've been using for the past 2 years. Well, sort of the same clothes, they've been switched around during the trip, but nontheless. Same same. I don't have any of my old clothes, because they're in storage. I'm pretty sure I'll make a trip to the storage just to switch something out. Maybe get some photos of me in different clothes this time. Like my grey Hybrid jumper that has been all over the place now. It's my favourtie jumper hands down, but it would be nice to have something new at the same time. You know what I mean. Like the song I just mentioned, great song, but it's always good to mix it all up with new ones every once in a while.

And speaking of new, I found out about a park up north called Abisko National Park. I want to go. Now. And there's a hike that takes about 7 days which I'm keen as mustard to do with my friend from the army. I was talking to him about it, and he's already written down all the plans, has the maps, costs, etc to go, he just has to buy the train ticket. He's been meaning to do with one of his friends, but it just hasn't happened yet. So if he doesn't do it while I'm gone, I'm definitely going to try and do it with him. Or somebody else, I just know I want to go there. Now! Just don't have enough time, or cash for that matter to pull something like that off.

Happy days. Time is really flying, like I'm going at Warp Speed or something.

Okay, going to try to get to work now.

PS. For those of you who don't know, I've extended my stay here in Sweden with another 2 weeks.

Operation: Surprise Bitches

"To my little partner in crime,I have a mission for you if you wish to accept it. It is called, Operation: Surprise Bitches. The wheels have already been set into motion as we speak.

I have told my parents that I am to land in Sweden August 1, 2009; however, I am going to be landing actually on the July 31, 2009. Where do you fall into place in this mischievous little op you ask? Fix transport from the airport to your place and where I'll drop off my stuff and make a super secret ninja manouver over to my parents place later on (read: you can drive me there if you can, please? Sucky sucky?).

I know that it's in about 3 months time before I'll be arriving, but you want to help me out? Can you?

Love,
chris"

"-Mission accepted.-Starting preparation of check point one for the subject´s arrival.-Transportation is prepared.-Standing by for further orders."

This is the email I had sent to my Partner in Crime (Little J) on May 6. His reply came 5 days later.
______________
As some of you may know, I have been lying to you. Big time. Do I feel guilty about it? Nope.
What did I lie about? Well, if you couldn't figure it out from my email, then I'll tell you: It was my arrival date. I actually arrived on the 31st of July and not the 1st of August. Why the lie? So I could surprise you of course!!!

Here's how it went down:
My friend Little J came and picked me up from the airport, where I was given my own surprise! Another friend of mine was there to greet me too! It was DJ CBC (Celibate By Choice) and his new girl and her baby boy. And man, it was a pretty awesome moment. We hung out in the airport until CBC and Co. had to jump on their own flight out of Stockholm to their home down in Denmark. Once they had left, L.J. and I made our way to his flat for me to drop off some of my stuff and pack for the weekend with my parents.

We then made our way out to Bird Bridge to complete Op. And the closer we got, the faster my heart was beating, knowing that my arrival would be completely unexpected. Our first obstacle, which I had completely forgotten, was the bloody gate and it's number pad. I had some vague idea of the number pattern for the code, and so I recommend some for Jimmy to try (since he was the one driving). On the 4th attempt, we were granted access. We pull up in front of my parents house, and I see the lights were on. Excellent, I think to myself. Grab my stuff out of the car, open the porch gate, and then open the front door. I first see my sister with a quizitive look on her face, and then it came: Nääääe! Näääääe!!! My sister runs to me and gives me a big hug, and then my mom sees me and starts screaming. She runs over to give me a hug as well, and then starts screaming for my dad to come down. My dad then confesses when he first heard my mom and sister screaming, he thought that someone was trying to break into the house, but quickly figured something else was up when my mom told him to come downstairs.

Operation: Surprise Bitches was a complete success.


I've now been in Sweden for 6 days, and it's all pretty good. I still have some friends to meet, but that will be happening soon enough.

I'll keep the blog updated a bit while I'm still here, but for those of you who have my email address, you can reach me and get my new phone number. Or via Facebook.

See'ya soon!

Lift Off in 3...2...1...

At Sydney airport right now using and abusing the free internet stations that have become a sort of fashion trend in airports around the world. I.T.'s (see what I did there) sweet!

Anyway, it was pretty good too, because I have 29kg, and maybe 10kg+ on my carry on. Luckily, my friend was also flying out around the same time so she held onto my carry on so it wasn't seen by the check-in girls. If they saw it, I know I would of had some trouble.

And last night had my final drinks in Sydney, and it was nice. Really nice. Got to say good-bye to some friends - or better said, see'ya later.

So, I'll be back home soon enough now. Looking forward to my time in Beijing, see some Chinese culture and also the people that I've contacted via CouchSurfing seem to be pretty cool.

Ok, going to go now, find some cool Duty-Free stuff. Later aligator.

Twisting Someones Arm to get what you want

I've been having some trouble with one of my teeth recently (producing puss and nasty after taste). So I've been going to the husband of one of my family friends who's a dentist. And he spent almost an hour rebuilding my tooth and gave me a course of antibiotics. You know how much he wanted? Nothing. I told him I was willing to pay, but he said it was okay. I didn't like this at all.

After some texting, I finally got him to tell me what he wanted: a bottle of Jim Bean Black.

SOLD!

Although, I think he messed up when he said he only wanted one, I think he meant to write two :P

PS. T-Minus ~53 hours until my flight lifts off of Australian soil. And I have a 30 hour lay over in Beijing! Party!

Tough Times

Well, some of you may know by now that I was kicked out of my old flat (about two weeks ago now). Which was a bit of drag, but yeah, whatever it's only accomodation. If I've learned anything along my travels, finding some where to stay isn't that hard, it always boils down to how much you're willing to pay.

Luckily a friend of mine from CouchSurfing allowed me to stay at his place for a few days for free, and then I had to pay rent (because him and his friends left for a road trip). I ended up paying the same rent as I did at my old place, but this time I had a whole flat to my self. Awesome! Or, not really. I felt really alone. Really really alone. The past 20 months I've been surrounded by people all the time. And living all alone was weird, really weird. Quiet too, I now see how my mom says it got really quiet when my brother and I moved out.

Also, I did something I've never done before. Betrayed someones trust in me. As some of you know, I have some pretty high moral and ethical values. And trust for me is something I don't take lightly. Trust is something that builds up, and shouldn't be toyed with. I feel I am a pretty trust worthy person, as are my close friends. We have a certain trust between as us, as do you, my readers, have a certain trust between your family members and friends. And so I thought I had a certain trust with my ex-flatmate. Who was also just about my best friend here in Australia. This is the same guy that gave me the paintball gun.

When I left the flat, I took everything that I wanted to take, and told him I planned to take the gun with me to Sweden. He thought I should too, it would be stupid not to. However, we left on bad terms, but not "I'll see you in hell" terms. More like, as I felt, I'll see you when I can be bothered to talk to you later. I left the gun at his place, thinking it would be a good way to meet up and then just talk and slowly rebuild our friendship. Nah, bugger that. He refused to give me my gun to me - this is now theft. Saying I didn't deserve it, saying I didn't have the heart of an X-Fighter (paintball team we played for). Fair enough. However, the paintball team has nothing to do with this argument. He gave me the gun under no conditions, no strings attached etc (unless it was in the fine print of speech, which I remember there not being). And now he refused to give me the gun, he had pretty much set this in stone. He sent me this text, "Chris im not stealing anything from you. Our friendship has been over for you the second i dropped you off. The only reason You contacted me was because you wanted the gun"

Yes, I did want the gun, because it was mine. And the fact that he was willing to throw out our friendship like that over this stupid gun, was beyond retarded. I was actually contemplating getting the gun and leaving it all at that, but I also felt that we had been through too much to just be a dick and do that would be beyond stupid. Friendships are always worth more than materialistic things.

However, looking back on what he's said and done, I couldn't take it anymore. So, I took my revenge. I really thought this through, and here was what I thought (I even called a friend in Denmark to talk about this).

a) Sit down and talk to him and try to resolve the situation. Could work, but I couldn't be f&*ked to when he can be so childish.

b) Threaten him with the information I have on him. Could also work, but also would give him prep time to come up with excuses or stories to cover up his tracks.

c) Just tell the truth to the people who probably need to know. I would most likely gain nothing from this, it would be a big gamble as to the final outcome. But the truth would be told, and he would be caught off guard.

I chose c). Why? Because it's the most evil option and something he wouldn't expect.

I told his girlfriend what a great boyfriend he was as to how many times that he's cheated on her, and how many time he plans to cheat on her (even when!). Mind you, he likes to gloat about everything he's done behind her back, so any stranger can find out about it.

Did I do the right thing? I seriously doubt it, but I was tired of his sh*t, and I wanted some pay back for him stealing from me.

She started to shake and cry, and said that she had a gut feeling all along about this whole ordeal. I don't know what happened. He probably sweet talked her into believing his lies, and she probably believed him. I don't know, and I don't care.

Here's the real shit thing though (Did I think about this? Oh yes I did). I work with her at one of my pizza jobs. We'll see how it all plays out.

So, here's a summary of the outcome of my actions:

• I lost a gun, friendship(s), and a job oppurtunity.
• I gained the clear conscienous of telling someone the truth about someone they would walk over hot coals for.

Was it easy telling her, shit no. I have never done this before. Not to hurt someone, not as payback.

Later that night I felt like real sh*t. I felt hollow, I felt like there was nothing worth living for, and pretty close to how when Ms. D had dumped me in Melbourne. I felt like absolute scum.

I get back home and end up falling asleep in front of the TV and feel a bit better. The next day, it was as if nothing had ever happened. What does that say about me? Is that normal to "recover" so quickly over that? Maybe it means I didn't value him as much as I originally thought. I don't know.

One thing I do know though, is that I can't wait to get back home and see my friends and family again. See some people I don't have to think twice about.

I'll see you guys in a bit.

Other highlights are:

• I have reached my economical goal.
• Lost some weight.
• Found 30 dollars on the ground.
• Met my friend from Tasmania.

America, F@#k Yeah!

I got my 2nd year today.

AND found some fucking wicked Photoshop techniques, and can't wait to plow through them back home!

Here I am.

Applied for my second year visa extension. So I should be getting a reply soon on that. Hopefully.

I'll be in Sweden very shortly. Only 2 weeks left.

Almost reached my finacial goal (and hopefully my tax refund will help that some too). So I might be able to afford a paintball tournament while I'm over there!

Had to move out of the flat due to petty indifferences. But some friends came through for me.

All around: I've seen brighter days.

Reality is sneaking up on me

The past few week has been weird. I can't explain why or how. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened to me. I've just been doing my thing, working, meeting friends and potential new ones too.

I've been listening to some more Henry Rollins, who, as some of you may know, is my personal hero. What he says and how he sees things is just, for lack of a better word: amazing. He's just no bullshit, straight forward, and is pretty self aware of his position in the world and what a person is capabale of. Not just any person, but EVERY person. His basic philosophy basically is that if you want to do something, go out and do it. The only person holding you back is usually yourself. The fear of the unknown can stop someone. The uncertantity of a new situation. And I couldn't agree with him more. Just the other day I wished I had moved from Stockholm a lot earlier. Not so much to maybe another country. But to another part of Sweden. Like moving up north, to where the cool Swedes are hanging out (yes, I am more biased to the Norrlänningar). Because as I've said before and as I will continue to say, the people up north have their shit together.

But let's get back on topic.

My brother had send me a link, or better, a copy-paste of someone else's blog which really got to me, for the better, and I'm really grateful for him sending it to me. Here's the original post: Blog Maverick: Success & Motivation.

Right now, I'm without a doubt, in a bit of rut. Nothing too deep, but not the greatest place in the world. Now, don't think that I have been lying to you in my previous posts about everything being honky doory. It still is. However, it isn't the way I...planned it to be. No. Envisioned it. That's what I wanted to say.

What did I envision: get a well paying job (compared to NZ), play paintball every weekend with a Pro team, and be able to save up money at the same time. What's the reality: I have two part time jobs which help me get by (borderline survive and live), the definition of Pro here is not what I expected (it's a low end Division 1 team by European standards), and I don't save up a lot of money here.

Now then, I can definitely take some blame for not getting the job, but my weak excuse is that I thought with my expierence, that I would be able to get a job which I'm qualified for. So, I only looked for jobs which I'm qualified and not for jobs I didn't want to do (pizza maker, cleaner, McDonalds, etc). And, as I probably said before, my stupid visa status isn't the correct one (from an employers point of view). Anyway, to the point, I now take every small money making scheme that comes my way. From stripping off wall paper for a boss (which I did) to resizing photos for my room mate. No matter how tired I am. I keep going for it.

However, today was another story. Since, I do the same thing at both pizzerias, it's a bit monotonous, to say the least. And so, when the it was 19.30, I was contemplating asking the boss if I could go at 20 instead of 21. I started to argue with myself to just hang in there for another hour, at least half an hour. Time is now 20.15. The argueing continues:

Side A: Come on, do it for the money, you'll be able to have more fun in Sweden!

Side B: But I've been doing this all day now!

A: Pussy boy!

B: And?

A: Do you want to stop wingeing about money or not?! It's only a half hour more.

B: But I worked that extra day on Thursday, that covers the hour I'll miss now.

Side B won. And now in retrospect, I regret taking that half hour off. I'm now 7 AUD short for next week. Damn. What did I learn? Suck it up, and keep on going.

My goal is to have enough money to support myself in Sweden while I'm over there, at least to have about 10k SEK. Sounds like a lot, but I know I can do. I KNOW I can. Because I've done it before on such a shitty wage (NZ). It just comes to prioritizing and focusing on the finishing line.

Also, want to try to play one small tournament before I leave. But that's going to be in about three weeks, and should set me back about 300 AUD. But we'll see how much I've saved up by that time. I have a funny feeling that I won't have enough money to both meet my Sweden goal and play the tournament. Priorities. Always in the way. This tournament would be again over in Moama, and only 3 man, which is seperate from XF, so it would be a lot more fun.

On the brighter side, I no longer have any debts. Well, the ones here in Australia at least. The other one isn't worth mentioning. So just that has taken a big chip off my shoulder.

Oh well. That's it boys and girls.

Mental diahria: This Mik Rougnar character that has posted some comments to some of my posts, I know I've heard that name before. I swear it's an alias for some on in my family. It's either for my uncle or cousin. I just can't remember.

The Blue Mountains

I went up to the Blue Mountains today. It was something I really needed.

I found this map on the net, and thought it would be cool to do, so I did. I got lost a definite one time, and then half on not too sure of my bearings. Obviously, I made it out alive. Otherwise I wouldn't be writting this.

I will be going back, but to do a 3 day hike. We'll see what develops.

Just found this one, super keen on it.

Here are the photos: Oz - Azul Montanas

Being a good host(ile).

Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow we're going to get our first Couch Surfer staying with us, which is going to be interesting say nontheless. I've learnt it's fun to see things from the other side of things. I've surfed many a couches relative to what I've hosted surfers. A bit nervous of course, but excited.

Keep ya posted.

Pointless

I was bored, and gave myself a photo assignment: Sit in one spot, and take photos I think are interesting. Here's what I got.

Oz - New Photo Assignment

Sushi - a'la Photoshop

Before:

After:

Tell me what you think.

That's The Bassline

Howdy doody y'all!

Life in the Big Smog (aka Sydney) continues. People are coming and going all the time, and recently three friends have just left, all heading north (although, sadly, not together) to the heat, which is understandable. Right now, at this very second, I'm pretty cold, and at night, it's worse. So much worse. The concept of insulation and double glazed glass eludes every single Australian architect, and most importantly, housing complexes. Maybe the more recent building have it, like 1-2 years old, and if not, the foreman should be shot. And because of a recent stupid descision, I now really feel the cold.

For the summer I was shaving my head for the heat, and now I decided to grow it out for my brothers wedding, and also for the winter. And since I'm trying to save money, I went for the cheapest alternative, and hopefully most interesting. Which it was. I was told of a student salon where the students work (read: practice) on clients. Only for 7 AUD and a small signature on a waiver. The student was doing ok, you could tell he needed some more practice, but when he was all done the front and sides didn't look all that. If I gave it week, it would of been perfect. So, I asked to see the back. Holy sweet me. Take a trimmer, put on the number two guard, and then take off all the hair on the back of your head. That's what he did. I told him to take it all off. I get back home and see that there's a small strand of hair sticking off the top of my head. Typical. I whip out my own trimmers and have a go at it. What do I get? A nice square empty patch on my head. Sah-weet. I had the wrong guard on. So, I take off the rest, down to a number one. And now. I. Am. Freaking. Freezing. At. Night.

To stay warm now, I crawl litterally under my blankets, and make a small hole for my mouth. However, when I got back home from a party, my flatmate had been nice enough to put the heater in my room (and turned on) so my room was nice and toasty when I crawled into bed. Good ending to a great night.

Not to sure if I mentioned this before, but I have a second J.O.B now at another pizzeria just down the road form me. It gives me more money, and we'll leave it at that.

What's happening next, no clue. We'll see. And now you can see the photos I took from the party here.

Colourful randomness during g(r)ay days

Sucked in. That's usually what you say if something has happened opposite to someone's predictions - usually for the worse. How does this relate to me? Meh, not a whole lot, it would be more like sucked-not-quite-in-but-close.

My time here in Sydney isn't bad at all, but I'm not pulling in the money that I thought I would be with my amazing 7 hours a week at the pizza joint I'm working at. I've now got another job at another pizza joint, and an interview at a bar (which my boss really talked me up, saying I know heaps of different cocktails - I'm buggered). So what does this boil down to? I might end up leaving Sydney to hang out with my French Canadian friend from the cherry farm over in WA instead. Why you may ask? Because, at the moment, I am going minus every day/week/month in the same place as I was before. Where I'm at physically isn't a bad place, but it seems like it finacially won't be changing any time soon, which is a real drag. Big time. So, with my move over to WA, it would allow me see and do new things, while looking for a job with a friend of mine who is absolutely amazing at living a cheap life style: sleeping in parks, showering in public showers, etc. Something which I would be more than happy to do, because it would be a shit load better than going to a job which doesn't pay my rent, only partially my food, and I would most likely learn a lot from it. A LOT. He's currently driving down south from Broome at the moment, and will be in Perth sometime this week and he said he'll call me and we'll see what his plans are. What will stop me from going would be is if I can actually start earning some more money, if not. And if I don't make any more $$$, then I'll probably jump over the continent to do some crazy stuff over there and go bankrupt like everyone in this country. Yippee.

Another the greyer side of things, my flatmate has placed the deposit for the store he wants, so all he needs to do now is sign some paper work, lodge and have his his A form approved by the local council (gives him the right to modify the building), start on the interior of the store, and by the start of August, it should be up and running. Fact of the matter is that I'm running on the presumption that the store won't be open for when I return to Australia, and if that is the case, then we'll have to figure something else out. Real quick.

My older brother was here last week, which was an unusual experience. It wasn't so much as a surprise to see him on the otherside of the world with me, it was more of like, why wouldn't he be here. I'm pretty sure I would react like that to pretty much anyone I know from back in Sweden coming over here for what ever reason. I digress. We had dinner with our old family friends from England/USA, and also did some minor site seeing along Darling Harbour, Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and the Botanical Gardens. And Jon was pretty lucky to come to Sydney when he did because some crazy nut got the ingenious idea to light up all of Sydney with amazing colours and designs on all of important building around (Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Art, etc). Quite an amazing sight. I took some photos of it, which you can check out on my Picasa later on. Also got to meet an interesting character too, one of Herk's work companions, we'll call him Cyborg, since I don't really like to use peoples real names. Anyway, Cyborg told us a story of a small trip he did to a Columbian prison while doing his tour in South America. Now, he did NOT get put into the prison, he merely went to visit someone there. Ok, so let's get it clear, Cyborg did NOT get arrested in Columbia...well, that's what he told us anyway....hmmmm...yes. Well, really cool dude nontheless, with an awesome story.

Just starting thinking about when I was in the car with my flatmate (ok, his nickname is now Kraut Fighter or KF for short), and strongly believes that I should drop my ideas of studying nursing, and actually start studying multimedia. Primarily because we so many discussions on the topic. I find mulimedia very interesting, but not passionate about it. I then tried to explain to him that if he were disecting his car engine every day, that I would be standing right next to him, trying to absorb as much information as possible. I've concluded through my time in Sweden (after SSHL: Shit Shoveling Hitler Lovers that is), and especially after the army, I love to learn new things, things that I have interest in, and even in random things, like how to setup an anti-freeze system for cherries, or even how to setup and run a hostel/business. It mainly boils down to making me more useful and functional. I can't really explain it, and also, I've learnt that you can learn at least one thing from every person you meet in your life. Be it completely useless facts to revolutionary ways of how to percieve the world around you. Hmm...yeah. So far, I've only met one person with my same views on a lot of things, and that's this guy who I might go and travel with in WA. It was always fun having conversations with him.

Yeah, and on that note, I'll leave you to it to check out some of my photos: Oz in HDR (two new photos) and Blip'n Blop.

Ciao-ou-ou-ou-ouuuuuu.

HDR magic

Spirit is as high as...uh...hmmm...a flying ostrich?

I had a paintball tournament to play this weekend that just was, and it went bad - real bad. I don't think I've ever played a tournament this badly before. Ever. Why? Because I wasn't focused on the game, and my heart wasn't all there. Was thinking too much of how much I was going to be in debt, although the guy who's paying for everything isn't too stressed as to when I pay him back. And also hearing that there was going to be an alcoholic pill-popper on the team didn't make me feel any more confident, and also made me re-think the whole definition of our "PRO" team. I had an alcoholic play on my team before, and it was just irritating, really fucking irritating. Gah!

Anyway, I talked to a real Pro player from the states what he does when he's just out of it, and not having a great day, and what he had to say was pretty helpful.

Later in the evening I go to a birthday party to an old family friend of mine, and had a great time, just great time. Such a great time I was actually contemplating ignoring going to the Sunday games, which would of a) destroyed my "good" name on the team, b) pissed off my Lebanese captain who's would of de-armed me in the sense of removing my arms, c) but most importantly, let down my flatmate/comrade-in-arms. So, I end up calling a friend who lives close to me and also was out that night to see if they wanted to go home together, and she did. We shared a taxi, and I was in bed sometime between 02.30 and 03.00. Not to sure when I woke up, but I took my pillow with me when we left the flat so I could crash in the car. I didn't give my flatmate the whole run down on what happened the night (except that I had sort wished I was still out partying it up) before because I was too tired and too out of it to even talk. We pick up two more players, one of whom is the deputy captain (DC). I knew that my flatmate would tell them that I had been out, and when I had come home.

I wake up, and we had pulled up at the field, the car was empty except for me and my flatmate. I ask him what the DC thought of what I had done, and he told me he was pretty pissed about it. I smiled and didn't give two shits about it, because I'm not a complete dumb-shit as I can come off as sometimes. I get into the players pit and get changed and we all walk out on the field. The second we start talking tactics the DC tells everyone, extra loudly that I shouldn't play cause I'm, as he said, fucked (aka: pissed, trashed, shit-faced, off-my-tits, drunk, etc.) I laugh out loud and straight at him, because the tone he used, and the was he said it was very similiar to that of a 5 year old. He says I shouldn't give him any attitude and the main captain quickly tells us we should talk about it later in our own time. We then do our thing, and then have another team meeting 15 min later in the parking lot, and the DC THEN asks if I'm good to play. I then tell him that I only drank four beers and one Red Bull during the whole night, and just turn my back to him. He then pulls me aside to have our man to man talk. He doesn't apologize, and tries to blame it all on my flatmate. And says that I was hand-picked for this event. Which I was pretty surprised, because I never went to try out, and didn't know there were people in line to play for the team...but I could be totally out of it right?

He then tells the whole team this, that everyone was hand picked, and blah blah blah. We got a last minute substitute for the tourney, and the DC almost slit his wrist when he heard this, and now he's praising him. Now then, the speach he gave, I must admit, was pretty good. Sadly, I wasn't taking it the same way everyone else was. This guy is an actor and a manipulator, so he usually gets what he wants.

Now then, where did he go wrong? A half brained chimp could tell you straight away that it was when he said I was trashed in front of everyone. He most likely said it before I was even there, when he got to the pit first. He doesn't have the slightest clue of managing people and handling them within a group. Jesus, that pissed me off so much. I pretty much didn't want to play for the rest of the day after he pulled that crap.

Did I mess up? Yes and No, Yes because I didn't get all the rest I needed, No because I thought about the team while I was drinking and decided to keep it to a low. Either which way, the politics of paintball is the one thing that can make me quit playing. Instead I took the hate towards him, and tried to channel it my game, did it help? A bit, along with some good'ole music by Dance Gavin Dance. How did I perform on Sunday? Better than Saturday ten-fold, but not good enough.

Now, then, my flatmate knew that I had work later in the evening, and that I had to get home to prep for it. When we knew we were going to make it to the finals, he tells the DC that we'll be heading out in 10 minutes, the DC tells him he would find his own way home. At this point I don't understand what happened. My flatmate then tells me he wants to watch another game. Long story short, we left about 1.5hrs later, when the DC was ready to go and I had bitched to him. How much did that fuck me off? Quite a bit.

I went to work, and came home calm.

Before I left though, my humour was set to harmful levels of sarcasm. Which means everything I say isn't meant to be funny for anyone except for me, and it has a hundred percent success rate of pissing off people in my closes vacinity. With me pulling this stunt, I upset my flatmate, but he knew pretty well as to why I was like this.

SO, to conclude all of this: I can't be fucked to deal with people like this at all. I was really hoping that the word Pro here would hold some sort of truth, but my guess that paintball was the same as in Sweden was true. Politics will be everywhere, it's human nature...or maybe just human stooPiditeE. Splitting hairs maybe, eh?

And yeah, also, getting a bit bored of Sydney, so I might be leaving and exploring the rest of the country and see if I can fall onto work like I did in TAS.


Bah...I'll keep you guys posted as to what's going to happen.

PS. I let someone take photos with my camera, but they came out all blurry, and I asked them if they even knew how to use my camera, and they claimed "of course, I do". A few days later, I find out they don't have the slightest fucking clue. I hate pride, it can make you look like a tard.

Forever Enduring A Revolution = F.E.A.R

Or something like that.

Well, my worst nightmare almost came true: losing my music on my iPod. My flat mate doesn't want iTunes on his computer for some unknown reason to me, and he wanted me to use another program called Anapod, which seems a bit better when it comes to features. Well, it sounded good at the time. After trying I've bitching about him installing it for the past...month now, I reckon, he finally installed it. We connected my iPod, and it didn't want to Synch up with it, or better said, didn't want to communicate with it. Fair enough, he just rips it out of the computer regardless, and thinks no more of it. Now, I tried this later on as well, and then he rips it out a 2nd time when he needed to connect his microphone for a Skype call. Anyway, I'm not sure where and when it happened, if it was him or the program. Either way, I didn't listen to my iPod for the whole day, and when I was going to bed it gave me a beautiful message of No Music when I tried to play a song. I was about to explode with a huge scream. And some of you know that if I scream, I can scream pretty loud and scary like, so I refraind from doing so. Quickly walk over to my flat mate and ask him if the program ever said anything about synching and overwritting my music "no, it didn't why?" "Because I just lost all of my f***ing music!"

At this point in time, I wanted to throw my iPod as hard as I could against the wall, and I was very close to doing so. But I then quickly calmed down, reminded myself that the iPod uses a normal hard-drive in it, so I would be able to recover something from it - hopefully. I knick my flatmates laptop and start finding every program out there designed to recover music from an iPod. I found one, and I needed to find a crack for it, no such luck. I then read another document which refered to just copying all the music from the iPod to the computer by going into the subdirectories. Me thinking that it had formatted my iPod thought it was doubtful it would work, but had to be tried. Everything must be tried! Low and behold, all my music was there! I copy all of it the laptop, and without telling my flatmate (something I wouldn't do under normal circumstances), I installed iTunes without telling him because I just couldn't be fucked to argue with him about it. Get all my music back, but I lost all the ratings and playlists. Bit of a drag, but much rather those than all of the music.

Also, got my RSA today, which will allow me to serve alcohol her in New South Whales (and in no other state or territory).

As some of you may know by now, I'm part of a community known as CouchSurfing (well worth checking out) and became good friends with someone in NZ via this. Anyway, she has been updating my rating on this webpage, and I found it pretty funny how it has progressed.

"Chris was great fun to hang out with and willing to join in the moment
with anything. Was very clean, did the dishes more than once. And even
left us some stuff he didn't want anymore which is always helpful. Can't
wait for him to come and stay again."

"Chris was great fun to hang out with and willing to join in the moment
with anything. Was very clean, did the dishes more than once. And even
left us some stuff he didn't want anymore which is always helpful. Can't
wait for him to come and stay again.

And huzzah he did come again. And more good times were had. Honestly he is
more a kindred spirit than friend. Someone who relates to my desires to
travel and meet people. One awesome bloke."

" thought I had better go back and give this wonderful man the ref he
deserves (and keep it more up to date).

Chris stayed at my place in Dunedin on several occasions, but it was never
enough. We loved having him around so much we asked him to move in, but
sadly the big smoke drew him away.

Chris is an exceptional person, kind, caring, outgoing and most of all SO
MUCH FUN!! I truly miss his company, and the times we shared in both
Dunedin and when we caught up in Wellington. Our wee day trip to Moeraki
boulders and Trotters gorge was great fun and he is also a wonderful
traveling companion.

He is generous as a surfer and bought milk and beer and best of all
himself. He is tidy and clean. He is reliable and trustworthy.

I cannot say enough good words to describe Chris, you really have to get
to know him when he comes your way, or you will truly miss out on a person
that has become a great friend of mine.

HE IS AWESOME!!!"

ThruYou

All I wanted was to go on a walk...

I decided to go out for a walk down to the beach to get some fresh air, nothing special. However, when I was walking up the street I saw something that was a bit odd, but not too uncommon: crap on the street. It looked like a small pile of clothes and small bag. But something seemed wrong. While I kept on staring at it, I couldn't help noticing some skin color and what seemed like white hair. The pile moved. I start running as fast as I can to the pile, and notice when I got a bit closer that it's an old lady that fell over and was face in the ground. I didn't want to touch her because she could of broken something. And she definitley did break her skin some where, pretty bad because I was seeing quite a bit of blood running down the cracks on the pavement. I asked her she wanted me to lift her up and obviously she said yes. I carefully lifted her up and got her on her own two feet, and while I was doing so I couldn't help notice the blood that started dropping on the ground from her head as I did so. Not cool. I look at her face and there's a fair bit of blood covering her face. I quickly decide to take her to my flat becuase it wasn't that far away (I had left my phone at home). I grabbed all of her stuff and started walking to my flat. Right then a woman from the building right next to the accident walks out and sees what's going on. She asks if she can be of any assistance, I ask her if she has anything to dress the wounds and says she has something even better. Her flatmate is studying to become a doctor. So while she runs up to get her friend, I decide to see how bad the damage was. I caught a quick glance of it, but didn't think too much about it. All I could see was a deep but not too big of gash above her right eye, I grab her hand and push it against her forehead with it until the woman comes back. The doctor to be pops out the door and then quickly reacts to the blood and puts a towel against the womans forehead and applies some pressure, and so bloody calmly asks her friend to call emergency services. The way she said was bloody amazing. The only time I've seen someone react that calmly was when I was in Tutukaka and Big C got decompression sickness. Like a F-ing pro!

I digress. Since I had some blood on my hands and jumper, and the woman was being taken care of I walked back to my flat to get cleaned up and possilby give the walk another attempt.

Got back and noticed that I had blood on my hands and feet (since I was wearing my thongs), and while I was cleaning up I heard the ambulance around the corner. Washed up and headed back out for another attempt and hoping nothing bad would happen this time. While I was walking close to where the accident happened, I saw the two oringinal girls who helped standing by, with two ambulance drivers attending to the old woman. I took a detour and walked down to the beach, which was nice and carefree (without my phone, I just don't learn).

In retrospect I think there were somethings I could of done better: had my phone, used my T-shirt as a rag, checked on the wound sooner, and asked her if she had any other pains in her body before I lifted her up. But besides those, I think it went smoothly. Oh, asked her if she had anything I should be worried about since I had gotten her blood on me....shit.

Oh well. It was an interesting experience no matter how you look at it since that is what I want to be doing. Helping people like that....hmmm.

And I'll be landing in Sweden on the August 1st, 2009, and be leaving the country September 6th. I start working on the 3rd of August and I reckon I'll try to work as much over time as possible, so if you want to meet up while I'm there, well...it'll have to be around the weekends, and/or before or after my shift (I'll be having both evening and morning shifts).

Good night.

PS. I don't have my old Swedish number anymore and I think I'll use my Ericsson phone that I'll 99.9% get off them. So yeah, you'l have to wait to contact me unless it's via email or Facebook.

Pigeons on the dance floor - and an explanation

First off, an explanation for my previous blog.

I spelt olagligt wrong now when I read it, and I actually meant to spell pulled with an ü. What did I try to say about that post? It was about how languages are losing some odd sort of battle to English. And it isn't just Swedish, it's even in German, and several others which I've found out about. As if it's becoming more and more fashionable to use random English words in your everyday speak that are pure and simple words which you are taught in kindergarten. Now then, I do not think that illegal is a word that you're taught in kindergarten (unless it's a fictional lawyer based society - of course). I digress. It's a simple word either which way you cut it, and the swedish contains a pretty good translation of that word for you, right? But, in a very big news agent, they replace a swedish word for an english one? WHY?! What is the purpose? Because English is the modern day business language? Because the writer had been overseas for 1 month, and lost that word out of his vocabulary? Because Swedes don't dub english movies/TV shows? Wrong, you're going to have to try harder than that. A lot harder.

Or maybe it's simply the way we're moving forward. Something I must admit I find worrying. Why? Because, I believe it to be very important to keep one's language pure. Why? Becuase it is the language of your country, and is part of your culture. Keep it. And also, it's not as if the form of communication is taking leaps and bounds every year now is it? Not as if there's not enough words in the respective countries language to articulate what one wants to say.

And now I'm going to contradict myself. There are words in certain languages that cannot be translated, because that words simply doesn't exist. But that doesn't happen very often. In every language there is a substitute word which has a very strong resemblence to the word that is trying to be translated. And then there's swearing. Swearing in Swedish is a joke. Really, it is. I find is so pathetic it's not even funny. Take o djävlar for example. Oh devil is the direct translation of it. Now then, this is not a swear word in my books. Now then, it would boil down to the cultural differences and you would probably have to look back in the countries history and see what how serious it was to be devil back then (I have a funny feeling that no country would actually consider being called a devil a compliment mind you). But you get the general giff of what I'm trying to say in regards to that. And swearing in Swedish is very timid and feminin. Yes, I said feminin. And so when the younger generations say something like the f-word, or something of similar nature, I wouldn't blame them. Because swedish doesn't have an exact translation in that sense. You could say knulla, but that word is used more in the context of would like to f***. I think I've made my point.

And so, to what I said, when I meet say, a Swede, who has been traveling for about 2-3 months, and thei using more English words in their Swedish than what I am, (since English is my mother tongue) I find that pretty mind blowing. I really do.

I guess I get so frustrated over it is because I don't have any one culture/home country to fall back, which is no down side at all. I just believe that no nation should, I almost want to say degrade itself, but that isn't what I want to say.

So, to Sebbe and Mik Rougnar (I know I've heard that name somewhere, just can't remember where), I hope that explains what I was trying to say.
_______________________

And as for the pigeons on the dance floor. I went to a dance club last night (20 AUD entrance!!!) for a girls birthday party, and when we got down to the dance floor, the music was pumping and it was absolutely amazing music. Original beats, great DJ, and just awesome in every possible way (except for the price of drinks, only bought two). Anyway, when you were watching every body bobbing their heads to the beat, they all looked like pigeons walking (I most likely looked exactly the same). It was just hilarious to watch. Yeah. Great times.

That was all I have to say about that night. My knees hurt, a lot. Getting too old for that kind of stuff. And I had a slight case of tinitus this morning which put me off too. Hmmm...yeah.

And on another random topic, just realized something. My up and coming trip to Sweden will most likely be the econmical down fall of my very being. I was totally in the Australian/New Zealand how-often-I'll-get-paid mind set when I applied for my old job at Ericsson. What does that translate to? It means that I was expecting to be getting paid every week starting from the day I start. But no, if I start in August, I won't get paid until September, LATE September. I love you Sweden....fuck.

Here you go.

I'll never understand.

I just read this from a link my friend had posted on his Facebook page.

Pretty cool, but one thing that I find absolutley retarded is in the first paragraph of the article.

"Enligt Ipredlagen kan operatörer bli tvungna att lämna ut användaruppgifter i syfte att spåra illegal fildelning." I totally remember being taught that illegal is a Svensk ord. And that the word ölagligt is just some random word I just made up and pülled out my ass.

I seriously hate it when people do this. Especially people who have been travelling for a mere 2-3 months, they actually forget words of their mother tongue. A language which they have been speaking for over 15 years and then you forget the most simple words.

R*E*T*A*R*D*E*D

A -> B ->F? OMG, WTF BBQ?!

I was browsing the Couch Surfing forum and read about this place where you can build a bike and walk (or bike) without paying a cent. For me, that's awesome! I look on the map, and well, let's say it's not exactly in the safest part of the city. Well, it borders with it at least, which got me doulbe thinking about how much I wanted my life over a cheap as chips bike. As the clock was ticking by, I got more and more restless, contemplating how bored I've been over the past few days. And so, I stopped my arguing with myself and went against my gut instinct. I walked over there, and biked out after about 3 hours work on a bike that was pretty much intact, but not in the condition I wanted it in. So, ended up taking off all of the shifting gear, fixing the handle bars, shortening the chain, cleaning and regreased the bottom bracket.

Now, I didn't get everything done to it I wanted (switch handle bars, brakes, getting the right gears). So what did I end up with? An awesome single speed bike that is more or less a death trap until I get it all fixed up to its greater potential glory.

Photos coming soon.

The Bitches...I mean Beaches!

The title of this entry doesn't relate to anything particular which I'm going to write about, I just thought it would make an interesting title. Anywho!

Both today and yesterday I went snorkeling in the local bay, which was really nice. It was an astounding 21 degrees Celcius in the water and clear skies, so there was actually some stuff to see. However, the bar is still being held by Tutukaka due to the wild life and how you can interact with it. In this bay there's not really a whole lot to see, but it just feels great being back in the water and doing some easy free-diving. At first I was pretty nervous of being out there due to sharks, but yeah, can't let that ruin my day now can I. And so far there's always been people there, so I don't feel as...insecure should I say, if something were to happen to me (sadly the life guard doesn't patrol the area, but meh, whatever). I'm going to have to explore the other side of the bay too, but there's heaps of fisherman there, so it's not as tempting as the one I've been going to, for obvious reasons of me not wanting to be caught on someones hook.

And I've also secured my job at Ericsson for the summer, sweetness, I just have to book my ticket now and get a freakin' job over here. I hate this fucking economic crisis. It's so BS. Stoopids yanks.

Anyway, went to a pretty cool party last night where I had quite a lot of fun considering that I didn't drink anything. Instead I drank two RockStar Energy drinks and boy, they hit me bad, REAL bad. I was up all freaking night! Hey, they did the job, but I didn't expect them to do that good of a job. Met heaps of people there, more longer termers to here in Sydney which is always a good thing, sadly not too many Ozzies. Something which is a bit bothersome, but nothing I'm going to get worked up about. What are you going to do, eh? To be a Sydnian is more a state of mind that actual...ethnicity I guess you could say. Sydney is a very diverse city, without a doubt, and you hear Ozzies talking around you in the ambiant noise, but you never actually meet them.

So guys, that's all I have to say for now, talk to you later, eh?