Will lose. To Lose. Lost.

It has been almost 3 years now, and the only thing that comes to mind that I've lost, is a bandana.

Amazing, eh? However, two nights ago, I lost my passport. Awesomeness. I contacted the pub I was at, but no luck. I've made a police report and contacted the embassy, and they said I have to go there today to apply for a new passport. Waiting time? 3-4 weeks. Happy days. Well, that's not too bad anyway, get to see more of Seattle!

Why don't I get an emergency passport? Because it's more expensive, and I don't have any flights booked yet, so I'm in no rush.

That is all.

Mental Suicide

My time in Australia has finally come to an end. Did it end on a good note you ask? Meh. Yes and no.

I'll explain.

After Bello, I, as you know, made my way to Sydney, where Pablito organized it so I could crash at his parents place. Which was a trip! His parents are some really good people to say the least. They were extremely helpful and accomodating along with being great company. I just hope they saw the same in me :S

Yet again, it felt like being home. I had my own room with a king size bed along with an en suite bathroom, with one of the coolest shower heads I've ever come across. It's basically a huge rectangular block with silicon nozzles sticking out of it, which gave a nice even pressure and great spread. Awsomeness in a shower head.

My first day in Sydney I printed out ads for Voa to be put up in all the hostels around town, which was really fun to do, because I kept on seeing the same cars, and the same day of posting, so I was quite literally following in some ones footsteps on this one. And one thing that really got me was that some hostels wanted charity donations for the ad to be posted on their notice board. First one I posted at, I thought "yeah, okay, why not?" Next one, my suspision rises with the third when they say they take a minimum donation, I knew it was all BS. Anyway, I posted in about 24 different hostels. Mind you though, it was only a few that asked for the donation.

Towards the end of my list of hostels, I go into the Apple Store and see what cool stuff they have, and while there, decide to go see a movie. It basically boiled down to two movies: RED or The Social Network. Both of which were going to be playing at the same time, and decide to decide when I'm standing infront of the cashier. As I'm walking into the cinema, I see something out of place...or better said, something I recognized. It was in the shape of a tall, slim and well built man (funnily enough, I have a hard time using the term man, how old do you have to be to be considered a man?) I yell out a name I had associated to it. No response. I tap him in the back and lo and behold, it is Jose from Rosemere! I had seen this guy for about 2 years and it was in New Zealand, when we lived in the same hostel. We embrace each other and are both equally shocked about standing infront of each other.

We go and watch RED together, and grab a pint afterwards to catch up and exchange stories of adventures past. I bought the round, since he paid for the movie, and without asking the price, I bought a scooner of Ashanti beer, which was pretty good, but bloody dear! 9 bucks! That's more expensive than in Sweden.

On my way back to Manly, I started to think about what the chances were of bumping into him, while on my to, pontentially, watch a movie about the popular webpage Facebook. What I've learned about bumping into people is that there is a small pattern to it all, which is basically you have a greater chance to bump into someone at the touristic spots than the more plain spots, since both are usually out to do some sight seeing. Although...wait...I have bumped into a fair few people in non touristic spots during my time away. Hmm...Anyway, see how I would find it interesting? If not...well, too bad. I can't explain it any further without sounding like a complete wanker.

Once, I got to Manly, I was going to meet the parents of Pablito from up in Bellingen, since he was so cool as to hook me up with a place to stay with them. At first I was a bit concerned that it would be a bit awkward, but it was quite the contrary, they were really fun and interesting to hang around. Both lively and excited about life, something you don't see very often for people in their age.

I was given my own room with a king size bed and an en suite bathroom, which had one of the best shower heads I've ever seen. It was a big rectangular block with silicon nozzles giving a nice even spread and dripping kind of shower. Awesomness!

Next day in Sydney I drive my car to where all the backpackers advertise their car, where I met a hitchhiker I picked up a fews before, a couple from the cherry farm, and a girl from Darwin who is friends with my ex workmates. It seemed pretty cool. Not to long into it, there was a group of us sellers sitting around heckling passersby saying how awesome our cars were. A lot of people looked at my car, but no one was fully interested. Most of the potential buyers were looking for a full sized van of course. N00bs. They don't know style when it's sitting right in front of them :P Well, seriously, as nice as Voa is, it's a pretty crap car if you're two and it's raining. Not a whole lot of space for just chilling around INSIDE of the car. Oh well.

Head back home to Manly, and eat dinner with Pablitos parents and his brother and his brothers flat mate. Which was really nice and chill. Fun too see different family dynamics in action. It always fascinates me.

It's now been almost a week since I started writing this, so I'll do my best to recollect it all.

Ok! Here goes!

Next day, after the dinner, I drive back to Victoria St, where I met some people I worked with in TAS, had breakie with them, and then drove their gear to the airport for them, so they didn't have to take it on the bus with them.

I wasn't to motivated to sell the car that day, which is bad, but meh. By this point in time, I didn't really give a rats ass. After having dropped off their gear, and saying good bye to them once more, I decided to head back home and prepare for the up coming night with Jose. We had decided to eat at a pizzeria which my friends that I just dropped off recommended, and I can vouch for it too! It was Jose, his missus, a friend of theirs, and me, and we smashed about 4 bottles of wine I think, and I didn't feel a thing since we had literally gone balls to the wall on this one. Entre, dinner and dessert! It was delicious!

After which Jose's missus decided to head home and go to bed, and at which point the rest of us headed over to the The Hero of Waterloo, where we only bought one drink, because they were closing up for the night. Since neither of us were very keen to head on home, we decided to keep on moving our bloated asses over to The Löwenbräu Keller where we kept on drinking and partying until it closed, and decided that we were all to drunk to do anything else, other than keep on partying, so we head over to Kings Cross, where we all got the ingenious idea of going to a gentlemen's club, where we had a blast!

Ah yes...it was awesome and quite a night to remember. However, our female partner in crime was crashing in the middle of the club on the benches, so we all decide to go to Jose's place which is only around the corner to get some serious R'n'R.

Jose grabbed the rose some random dude had bought our female comrade, and tried giving it to his sleeping missus who had tried calling several times during the night, and upon giving the rose to her, he was beaten up by it....we all decided to go to sleep at that point. Next thing I remember was that our female comrade was running around the flat swearing grabbing all of her stuff trying to make her way out to the races.

I woke up not too long afterwards with Jose making me a cup of tea, and me preparing to close my bank account and book some tickets to Seattle and all the way home.

Today was also going to be the day that someone had promised me that they would buy my car off of me (at a reduced price too of course), and while I was trying to contact him all day, no go. This however, was all after I had booked my tickets to the States. So at by this point, I was shitting myself, thinking that I wasn't going to have any cash for Aotearoa or the States. Happiness.

I go to the bank to see what the story is about closing it and all that jazz, and when I asked them about my balance, it had over 1000 dollars more than expected, and we began talking about how I could get the money out over seas and other boring things, and it all ended up with me leaving my account open (which I'm now happy about mind you).

Once I was done at the bank, and had trying to call this guy with little success, I go back to Manly and prepare my bags for the airport, and decide that I had to take a risk with my car, since the guy I had offered to give it to for free wasn't going to take for reasons I understand and won't mention, I decided to take my chances with the girl that I had met the night since she said that she had a spare parking space where she was living. Call her up and organise it so she becomes my seller for Oz. Big risk? Bloody oath, but what other choice did I have. To make some money out of it at least. I could of have scrapped it, but then that wouldn't of accomplished anything in the end. And yes, I have thought it through, and the car could already be sold for all I know. But I know someone else on the ground who can help me out, need be – Jose. However, my Spidey senses tell she's a good egg.

End up chilling having a small yarn with her until I had to head back to Manly to get ready for my 03.30 wake up. Great.

My trip to Manly was long. Really long. Not so much in 'physical' time, but more like the mental time. You know what I mean. When you're going to do something big, or important, time slows down so much that it just becomes insane. I start thinking about coming home, about my time in Oz, people I've met, the people I want to meet again, and so much more. Almost depressing actually, and we all know how great I am about that, eh? Hmm....

I stay up the whole night, just slowly packing and taking my time. Before I notice it, it's already 03.00. I cram the rest of my gear into my bag with no real structure and pray for sleep to over take me.

Pablo's father drives me to the airport and I fall asleep in the car while he's talking about something I'm not too sure about. Great man. Very very great man, who had the misfortune of getting brain cancer. So fucking bullshit. It seems like only the good people are set to have the bad luck. Ok, it could have been worse, and he is still alive, which is borderline a miracle I suppose.

I go to the check-in desk, and then the onslaught of terror begins. Proof that I'm leaving NZ, proof that I am a human being, proof that the sky is blue and not purple. Retarrrrrded.

The woman was even skeptical about me getting into NZ, and very doubtful about me getting into the States. Great. Happy days.

I end up having to go to a printer hidden away in some random part of the terminal to get stuff printed out, and then finally check-in.

Make my bloated tired ass to the immigrations, where I warn the lady that my passport is fragile, and she doesn't give to shits about it, and almost breaks it, claiming it wouldn't be her fault.

Here's how I see it: The local council puts up signs not to start a fire, since everything is dry, and something bad could happen. I look at the sign, take it down, take a shit on it, and then set it on fire, and walk away. Well, not my problem.

What. A. Fucking. Bitch.

She made leaving Australia that much better. As awesome as that country is, there are some serious fucktards who don't deserve to be breathing, or at least be removed from the gene pool.

I'm drowsy, and incoherent. I just want to sleep.

I wake up, and I'm in NZ. Move to the immigrations, ready to turn around and give the finger to the world. Instead, they take me to the side, and issue me a months visa on a temporary form of identification which has the same value of a passport.

Get into Auckland and call my BFG (Big Friendly Giant) in the Bay of Islands. He's surprised and happy that I'm coming up.

I don't really want to go into too much detail about my trip up there, but I will say that it was beyond awesome. Awesome is the feeling I had when I woke up the next morning knowing that I was in a place where I truly loved.

Here's what I did there: got drunk, met awesome people, did some work, drove around the islands, ate amazing food, came first place on quiz night, did 3 dives, and did some serious thinking about it all.

Man...leaving there was a really hard thing to do. Seeing the summer roll in made the whole leaving process even harder. However, the hardest part was meeting this cool French dude, who was going to be my BFGs deck hand over the summer. It reminded me so much of myself it's just crazy. He was 23, one year younger than what I was when I was in Paihia first. Living the dream.

Damn.

The actual leaving NZ wasn't easy either, with immigrations that is, since I had that special ID. Yeah. Oh, and this was the...4^th or 5^th consecutive pat down and 'random' search that they did to me. I was just laughing about it.

No big deal, but it still got me nervous about getting into the States.

Flight over was epic and harsh. Had a one hour stop over in Tahiti before doing the final leg to LAX.

Upon getting to LAX, and finally having assembled my story to have any sort of coherent meaning, I step in front of the immigrations officer, and tell him to be careful with my passport, since I had been travelling for such a long time, it had become a tad bit fragile.

He carefully scans my passport, asks how long I'm in the country for, logs my fingerprints, and tells me to enjoy my trip. That's it!

Ok, a bit more security than the other countries I've gone to, but still! How piss easy was that?! And I was worried that I had entered the wrong details for my passport in the visa waiver. Lucky boy I guess.

Grab my bag, and make my way to my next flight, which was 5 hours away. No rush. After having checked in, I start trying to make contact with my friend Kobe here in Seattle, to verify that I was now in the US, and all was well.

I land in Seattle, and Kobe (who has been an awesome host) was there to meet me, which was a bit surreal, but freaking awesome!

What have I done here? Partied (had some amazing cocktails), a lot of beer (not to the point of getting drunk, just to enjoy), great food, a lot of shopping, went to the Swedish Cultural Center (which doesn't have any Swedes working there) and meeting some great people.

I also did 2 dives here which was pretty fun. The vis was clear and I saw a HUGE octopus twice. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Was invited to a brunch at the home of Kobe's friends which they hold every Sunday, and the house was beautiful, and unlike anything I've ever seen! It was an old church which was been modified to be liveable and is a real piece of art. It has so much potential it's not even funny! The only issue is funding.

Ok, I've been trying to piece this blog together for a while now, and as you could tell, the end has just kind of flopped together.

Several things that I've noticed:

Seattle is a great place

I need friends close by

Travelling sucks, because you never want to stop

Growing up is mental suicide

My mind is blown away by the consumerism in the US

I think I'm pretty emotionally dead in certain ways

I also ended it with Amy. Long story short, I'm too shitty of boyfriend to be together with her. I'm still way to selfish and have my own plans which she isn't involved in. She doesn't need to be waiting for something which I'm too afraid to commit to, she doesn't deserve that.

Any who. Ah yes, I've put on some more weight in my last weeks, since I felt that this is the end of very important chapter in my life, and just kind of went bananas, and now feel like a bloated tub of shit. So once I get to Sweden, it's back to the no-carb diet. Looking forward to it.

Ciao!

Apologies.

Sorry for not having written anything. I just don't feel like I had anything to write about.

My birthday was pretty chill, and thanks for those who tried calling or texting. Sadly, Bellingen doesn't have very good, if any, Vodafone coverage. I was swimming in the local swim hole, and ate an amazing dinner with Pablito and his missus.

As for coming back to Bello, it was good. Not as great as the first time, but still good. I was welcomed to Pablo's house, like it was my house. I was given my own room, with a king size bed and en suite bathroom. Awesome.

I tried to do what I did last time when I was there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you know how to ask me. Sadly, it wasn't the season.

It pretty much felt like I was at another home hanging out there, along with his two dogs and five birds.



Truth be told, I'm not too keen on writing anything just now, because it's 02.40, so I'll write some more later.

Toodles my poodles.

no subject

Oz - Darwin to Brisbane

It has come to my attention

What have I done on my trip so far, that's scary?

I have swum with sharks.

I have scaled walls where if I fall, I'll either break something, die, or become a vegetable.

I have consciously walked past the resting place of one of Tasmanias deadliest snakes on a daily basis.

I have driven a 4x4 car in some dodgey areas.

I have hitch hiked, and been picked up by ex-gang members.

I have bungy jumped 135m.

I have walked into dense bush where you can only see about 5 meters a head of you.

I have gotten fully grown cows into the pens with no training.

There's probably some more stuff, but you know what, going back home scares me more than all of those. Funny eh?

I've been trying to figure out why, and I have some ideas.

1) Falling into the same rut that got me travelling in the first place.

2) The winter.

3) The dark that goes with the winter.

4) The inability to talk to strangers while being somber and not be considered strange.

5) The lack of snow.

6) Dead trees.

7) No small adventures.

8) Funny Aussie expressions.

9) Aussie/Kiwi happiness (I tried using it when I got back to my old job, and it was rejected like an unwanted baby).

There's some more I reckon. I just don't think I'm designed for Swedish society.

If I don't get into Uni, I've come up with the following ideas:

a) Move up north

b) Move to Örebro or Uppsala for the paintball scene

c) Go to Canada on a WHV

a and b both involve me studying anything extra to help me get into uni

Damn it. It's all just so fucked up.

Hmm...it's all coming to an end soon. I can't believe it. 3 years feels like 3 weeks. Damn-it.

Gah. I'm going to stop writing now. Later.

Back in it.

I'm in Brisbane now, doing some Couchsurfing, which is really nice.

I'm working again, and can you guess where? That's right! Schweppes!!! Driving a forklift and other work. Same work I did at Carlsberg in Sweden, which also made Schweppes. Random, eh?

Any who, I think I'll be here in Brissy till either Sunday or Monday and then make my way further down south.

Not long left now.

Fuck.

More than just a car

It happened, last week actually, Voa had a break down. It all happened in Mt. Surprise after driving for a fair while, and then having to use a drive-through a weed seed shower (shower heads on both sides and under the car which blast a you with heaps of water). After which Voa decided to have a bit of melt down. It lost a lot of power in the gas pedal, and the rear diff started to make some noise.

A few hundred kilometers down the road, in the town of Atherton, I take a right turn, and the car cuts out. Awesome.

I try very briefly to fix it, but call RACQ (roadside assistance) shortly after. A guy rocks up about 40 minutes later and pokes around the engine and gets running again, but guarantees me that it will occur again, and that I need to take it to a mechanic and what should be fixed.

Rock up to Cairns and park outside my friends share house for the night and try to drive away the next day to do some exploring. Nah. Voa wouldn't have it. Call RACQ again, but the mechanic tells me pretty much the same thing as the previous one and tells me that it would be pointless to get it running this way (which he believed to be quite doubtful in the first place).

Take it to a mechanic the next day and tell them what problems were described to me. He gives me a jolly smile and tells me he'll be in touch. Next day he tells me what his boys found and says that they needed to fix a bunch of gaskets first before they dared to drive it on the road. Tell them to fix it, and once they fixed it, they said that they had it running perfectly fine. Next was the rear diff. It was only a crappy bearing, which got replaced as well. Price of all this, about a third of all the money I put into her in the first place.

You may be thinking that it's a lot of money (which it is), but for me, it's the equivalent of granny with the dinosaur for a dog pumping it full of medicine trying to keep it alive and breaking all the laws of nature and life and death.

Dogs are affectionate and show you love. True.

However, with Voa, I have learned how car enthusiast see cars as being more than cars. Voa has not only been my car, it's my home, my way to meet people, and source of a lot of fun.

I was in a share house here in Cairns, and will be leaving tomorrow or Tuesday.

I'll be stopping off in Brisbane to work for a week (hopefully) to try to get back the money I spent on the car.

Be in Bello for my birthday and then just...yeah, take it from there.

I'm off!

Summary.

Am I a pissy guy? A pessimist? I sometimes think I am.

Anyway, here's the break down on the car and it all: rear diff is stuff, carburetor is stuffed, water pump is leaking, got the stereo working again by ripping it out - looking at it and putting it back. Dropped my laptop, so it now has dent, but still works. Was really pissed off and want to drop a nuke on something or destroy something with my own bare hands. Preferably play a good Xball game (paintball) where I can really channel my built up rage (yes, anger just doesn't cover it anymore).

I really wonder if there's some sort of supreme being that is just testing my limits. It's pretty common that the rule of 3 doesn't count for me, it's more like rule of...5-10. You know, how everything supposedly comes in three, well...yeah. Anyway.

OR I could take the more rational approach. The car is 34 years old, travelled a very long distance in a short period of time, and been through some strenuous environments. Basically, I could compare it to an 150 year old man running a marathon, while being whipped by a slave driver. Yeah, that's a good comparison, or? Oh, and he's carrying a big dude and all his gear.

Not too bad to do over...what, 11,000km? for such an old car. Took a real beating. Hopefully I'll be able to get her fixed for a decent price.

We shall see. Toodles.

Now...

...I met some friends from TAS, and we had a chat, they had to wait a week to see the mechanic. Awesome.

Oh, and when I left McDonalds, my stereo decided to die as well. Sweetness. It's all falling apart. All this crap makes me want to leave Oz. Trying to keep it on semi high note.

Bonus though, I figured out how to connect to the internet with my laptop via my phone. Sweeet.

Bugger.

I finally got off my ass and left Darwin.

I'm now in Cairns, it's raining outside, and dark. Not cool. Here's a run down of my trip down here.

I left Darwin pretty late, well, later than hoped (16.30) and while I was driving out, I saw that my engine was about to explode from overheating. Something that got my attention very quickly. I pull into a servo, and see what's up. Take a rag, pop the hood, and from a safe distance, unscrew the radiator cap. I knew what was going to happen, radiator fluid went everywhere it was fantastic! Like a ghetto water fountain going off in some sort weird celebration.

Quickly fill it up and hit the road (thinking that was the end of it).

I end up going to Litchfield National Park (NP) which was really nice. It had a bunch of pools where I could swim and cool off. Something I had been dying to do for a while while being up in Darwin. I stay there for two nights, and on the day I leave, I meet a Dutch guy who drove his motorbike from Holland, all the way to Australia, quite the accomplishment if you ask me. He was working with pearling in Darwin with someone who I also knew, random.

Next stop, Edith Falls. "Big" lake with a small water fall, filled with fresh water crocs. Swim there, and then leave. Nothing amazing (I think I've seen too much at this point).

I then make my long drive to Katherine, where I check out the Katherine Gorge and do a 19km return hike in 40 degrees heat. I, no joke, almost collapsed. It was really tough. And, really random, when I was walking, my right hand swelled up a little bit. I had trouble closing it, and my finger tips felt harder than my left hand. When I reached the water, and swam around a bit, it went back to normal, but swelled back up when I was back on the track. FUBAR. The gorge was ok, nothing mind blowing, but the water was great! It could of been a little bit cooler, but you can't have everything. There I met a French guy who had been growing up in Tunisia who helped me with getting my camera over the river to get some photos of Aboriginal art, which, sadly, was a bit disappointing.

When I got back to my car, I decide to fill it up with water, and see how much it sucked up. It took up about 4-5L. I was loosing fluids quick. I go to an auto parts store in Katherine and try to get the gasket I'm missing. It was all the way on the East Coast. I had it organised for it to be sent to Cairns where I would pick it up and have it fitted. Oh, it only cost 3.99 AUD, but since it wasn't in Cairns, like a days drive south, the freight would cost me only 20 AUD, about. Sweet.

Leave Katherine, and start on the hardest part of the journey. Just getting to Cairns as quickly as possible. I had found a Finnish girl who was looking for a ride down south to Sydney, and I knew there was nothing between Katherine and Cairns.

On average, I was covering 750km a day. I ended up getting fuel from a small...uh...hmm...station? called Daly Waters, and the Pub there was pretty awesome! It just had a bunch of random things left over from people passing through, and it had a lot of character.

That night, I slept like a dream. It was cool in the car, and I didn't feel like I was turkey in an oven. Splendid! However, I did lose a filling and my right ear somehow got damaged from all the wind hitting it, so now it sounds a bit funny from the right side. Awesome.

Everything between Daly Waters and Normanton is nothing special. Ok, the last 140km to Normanton was pretty neat, because it felt like I was driving in the African Savana. I was hoping to just fly through Normanton, before refueling of course. Sadly, it was all closed. My engine was pretty hot too, so I had to just wait and let her cool down before making my next move. I see another backpacker rock up. A few minutes later, we start talking, and go to the pub where we enjoy a few cold beers, and I chow down a delicious barramundi (fish). He was from Germany, and a cupboard builder. The one occupation I have never encountered before. We have a few laughs, and then find a camping spot together. Oh, almost forgot, on my way up to Normanton, some sick bastard thought it would be funny to place a wild pig/boar on one of the road signs. It was very random, and funny in it's own way, but some how just wrong....yeah.

Next morning, make the last leg of my trip. Fill up the fuel, and radiator coolant (which has started to leak a lot faster).

During most of the driving, I was in a weird limbo zone in my mind, pondering a lot of random things, and just realising that I didn't remember the last 100km of the trip. A bit concerning. Well, this was the worst of all the days of driving. There are a lot of blank spots.

When I reached Atherton, the town reminds me of NZ in a many ways, the green foliage, the light drizzle, and rolling hills covered by clouds. I take a right turn, and Voa dies. OH! Forgot to mention that when entering Mt. Surprise, you have to put your car through a high pressure wash to rid it of any weed seeds (no, not marijuana seeds, just normal weeds), and after that Voa really started to suffer. She lost all of her umph, and the rear differential became even louder. This really bummed me out.

So there I am, sitting in the rain, side of the road, looking like an a$$hole. I call the Road Side Assistance, and see what the deal is. After some tinkering, the conclusion is that my points are out of whack, and need to be fixed. And maybe the water pump is buggered, and not the actual gasket. I thank the mechanic, and drive the last stretch to Cairns through some windy roads which really reminded me of NZ, bit time! It was great, without a doubt.

And so, here I am, sitting in air conditioned room of the Golden Arches writing this blog to you people.

Oh, another point. I try calling this Finnish lass, wanting to tell her there might be a set back, no reply. A minute later I get a text, saying she was sorry for missing my call, and that they were now two people, only wanting to go down to Townsville (3-4hrs drive) for work, and wonders if that's a problem. My reply: "Yes, that is a problem, only have space for one person, and you can hitch hike to Townsville in a day. And my car is broken down 2hrs outside of Cairns"

Her reply: ok tnx and good luck with your reliable car.

Which for me tells me she read my reply as: Congratulations, you can get f$%ked!

Yeah, didn't mean that, and so I sent a message explaining what I meant, and wishing her the best of luck.

I get really tired of people sometimes, really. Ok, fine, I take responsibility for writing that text, maybe wasn't clear enough in the first place. Hmm...

However, makes you wondering how people ask if more people can come when you clearly state in your ad that you can only take/fit ONE more person in your car. Yeeeeaaaah.

So, in conclusion:

I have lost a filling, my right ear is buggered, rear diff is stuffed, and the engine needs some work.

You can guess how I'm feeling (hint: not the greatest).

And, I might not be going to Asia, I might be going to the States instead or Canada to meet some people from my inter rail trip in Europe and maybe some people from Hungary and Mexico and if all goes well, maybe some people from NZ or Oz.

Later.

Photos!

Check it out here!

*sigh*

Hi readers, what's happening? Sorry for not posting anything for a while, but the only thing that has been happening is work. And work. And work.

I did go to Sydney to hang out with Amy during her last days here in Australia. I booked a four star hotel for us on the first night with a view over Darling Harbour, and then took her out to dinner over in Manly Beach, which was pretty nice. It was a king size bed, so I had plenty of space to stretch and sleep comfortably. Oh, and the room was air conditioned which is a real novelty for me, as you could guess.

After leaving Sydney, I didn't really know what to feel, it was as usual, shoved into the back of my mind and just left there to...dwindle.

I had three days off this time around, very long days. First day, I did my standard routine of laundry and then I went to the library to do some stuff on the internet along with playing with Photoshop (oh, bought a Photoshop magazine with a tutorial which I found really interesting, attempts will be posted later).

The next day, I drove out to Mandorah, which is on the other side of the bay of Darwin. Long drive, which was pretty nice. Getting out of Darwin is something I've needed for a while now. I drove over to Berry Springs, a place where you can swim, and some place I've been recommended by several people too. While driving out there, I suffered pretty heavily from Voa's broken exhaust pipe. No joke, I stepped out of the car and it was like coming out of a concert, not cool. Find out while I was driving in that swimming was prohibited due to bacteria having a party in the springs. It was a real let down, especially when I saw the pools. They were beautiful! Sad times.

I then found the local hotel and decided to have some lunch there, after I had just been wandering around on the jetty where the ferry docks (a lot people were fishing there). I had a burger and a beer, and talked to some Ozzies for the first time in a long time. People at work don't count. I only talk to French people, an Irish, an Indian, and a Nepalese. Gets a bit boring. A lot of French too. Bah.

Leave them (they were only talking about things that had happened, past parties, etc, didn't really fit into the converstations), and keep on driving. I try to find a location where there had been a massive party a while ago, and end up driving Voa through the bush to another which, where I had to turn around because she isn't a 4x4. Too bad, it was a great spot. Oh, there were other people there too, so I let them have it to themselves, seeing as how they were the first and all.

I head back into town, almost getting lost in the bush, and decide I need to fix the exhaust pipe. Go and buy some falafels for dinner, and then cook it up. Yummy!

Today (Monday) I got the exhaust pipe fixed, and driving Voa now is a completely different experience. Almost like a dream or like a normal quiet car. It's great now.

Another thing, I don't think I can ever become Australian, I'm just not racist enough.

The racism here is just unbelievable.

Anyway.

I'm going to be leaving Darwin next Sunday for the East Coast. My time in Australia is coming to an end, quickly too. It sucks. I cannot make a permanent life for myself in Sweden I have decided. I'll probably end up going insane if I do.

This is a crappy post, I know. It's just that I'm not really feeling it right now. I think I need to eat something, get my blood sugar back up.

Toodles Poodles.

UPDATE: I hate not having a fridge. It's hard to find single serving portions of food in the super market. There's only tuna, shredded chicken (which doesn't sound very interesting), and...yeah, that's it. And I need to go on a sugar detox. Bad.

I forgot to mention.

I had my first HOT shower a few days ago.

It. Was. AWESOME!!!!

I had only been taking cold showers for the past 6 weeks prior.

That is all. Continue what you were doing.

Oh, here's a good link.

Kerr splat!

Work has been interesting, I don't know if it has reached all the way to Sweden or else where in the world, but where I work, there was a riot. I can't talk about it, due to a NDA I signed. Lame. However, you can read about it here. Good news is that I'm okay, nothing bad happened, I didn't even witness it. Non of the kitchen staff did. And that's all I'm going to write about that.

Oh, I'm making some serious bank with this gig. Already a bit bored of the job, but like I said before, the people make it for me. And so far, I've been getting more and more hours. Example: week 1: 48.5; week 2: 56.5; this week I'll end up having done 60 hours! W00t!

A friend of mine has now left Darwin which was a bit of a bummer, but you know, nothing new about that.

Also, I found out a way to keep myself cool while I'm sleeping. Sleeping with the doors open isn't really an option for me, I had to come up with an alternative.

Here's how I was thinking, use the rear vent on the car as a source of fresh air. What's a good powerful fan, and small? Computer fans! Ok, where do I get one cheap, or free? Internet cafe! I get an old PSU (power supply unit) and strip it, and realize that there's a powere switch inside of it as well! Score! Use the wire sticking out of it too, and then hooked it all up to my second battery. At first, I was using blue tac to keep on the vent, but it made some serious noise by it's vibrations. So, it had to hang, and be loose, and absorb the vibrations. Rubber bands! It's now hanging down, suspended by the rubber bands, sucking in good air for me. It's great! I actually need the covers now, because it cools me down that much. Next upgrade, install a fan speed regulator, so I can make it a bit more quiet and energy efficient.

As some of you may of figured out, there was something going on between Amy and me. And I apologize if I didn't tell you about it, I just didn't want to be bombarded with the usual questions, so I kept a bit hush hush. She left for Brisi on the 25th of August, and it's been a weird period without her around. However, the old skool me has been popping back out and executed the standard mental protocols of ending the emotional tie. I've been asking myself how long do I want to keep this...skill? Talent? Whatever you call it, I know I can do it extremely well, and very quickly. Hmm...

I think I actually wrote something about that before, oh well. I'm pretty tired, sitting at the Golden Arches waiting for the battery of my laptop to finish charging. Ok, laters!

Seclusion

This is getting weird. Or I don't know, maybe just getting annoying.

"Where you from?"

"Germany."

"Oh...how about you?"

"France."

"Ooooh...." He gets back in his car and drives off.

I can walk through the parking lot where I hang out sometimes, and just hear French or German. They clutter together, and just stay that way. Oh, and they complain that there's so many of them.

Funny, eh?

No, don't get me wrong, I like both nations, and the people that come from them, but damn it. Usually, when they try to stick to english, it only lasts about for 5 minutes, and they switch to their native language amongst themselves. And wonder why their english doesn't improve as it could. Food for thought.

Tonight, when I rocked up to my usual showering area, the parking lot was chocka block full of vans and backpackers. I get out, and I was surrounded by Germans. My response. Take a shower, and hauled ass out of there to my Fortress of Solitude (read: picnic area by East Point Reserve).

On a lighter note, the detention centre gig is going well. I'm learning Indonesian as I work, and here's some:

Nashi – rise

Kotta – box

Pirring – plate

Sabi – meet

Iam – chicken

Sousou - milk

Terra makasi – thank you

Tirul (I think) – egg

Kuggi – squid

Ikan – fish

I made a movie which is on YouTube and hope you enjoy it, because it was fun making it. Just too bad I didn't have a enough footage for a really good movie.

Working It

I'm now working at the Berrimah Defence. Which is also a detention center for asylum seekers and people who were being smuggled.

Working as a kitchen hand and I also serve the 'clients' as they're called.

This will be interesting.

Links

Here are some photos and one video.

Changing times

The past few days have been interesting for me.

I was recruited to help out a company by the name of ALPA (Ahrnem Land
Progression Association) by removing some shelving from an old Coles
store which has now been shut down. The shelves will be sent to remote
Aboriginal communities out in the bush for their chain of stores,
which by the way has a great business plan: get the community healthy
by putting a tax on junk food. They've been doing this for the past
10-20 years if I remember correctly. And Australians call Aboriginals
stupid. Anyway, I digress.

The HR manager was the one who I had to work with, and through him
(mind you, he's a white guy) he told me a lot of information. A lot of
things most of Australians never tell you, mainly because they don't
know. Like how there's 100 jobs in a community of about 1500 people.
FUBAR? Oh yes. Anyway, he tells me how great the Aboriginals out there
are awesome, and true to their old way of life. Maybe not to the point
of running around in their old skool clothing, which comprised of
nothing, more so that they focus on keeping the language and culture
alive. Props for that.

You look at the people in the cities, and they're pretty much the
exact thing that you're average Australian thinks and talks about
Aboriginals. Drunkards. Now, not all of them are bad when they get
drunk, but some of them are. As are some white people, but sadly
Aboriginals just don't have the biology to handle booze like the
majority of human population does. Tragic, and something I can't
explain.

Going on, one thing that I do hear from the both sides, is that
Aboriginals don't really control their kids like Westerners do, or
other cultures for that fact. Or maybe it's just a generation thing,
and not so much a cultural specific issue. For example, today, there
for three kids hanging out in McDonalds, just hanging out, listening
to their music on their phones, and just screaming whenever someone
just walked through the door. It was so retarded. This was around
23.30 mind you, on a Friday, and they were not even 15. What. The.
Fuck. Don't they have anything better to do? Do they run away from
home, because all the male members of their family have goes at finger
fucking them or what? Sorry for being blunt, but at this point in
time, I'm over it. If there are problems at home, shouldn't they be
solved? Ok, this topic isn't just a touch'n'go topic, it's a
get-your-swim-shorts-on-because-we're-going-into-the-deep-end kind of
topic.

Oh, and what the hell is all this shit of having ear plugs in your
ears when you're hanging out with your friends? Jesus, I'm getting old
aren't I? Listen to me. However, what's funniest, is when you see a
whole group of kids doing it? What started this trend? Fashion? Well,
I have one thing to tell you fashion: Get fucked. Who on the hell do
you think you are? Why do we let it influence us so much? It's beyond
retarded. No joke. It's like we were all dropped on our heads, and
then we figured it would be fun to drop ourselves off of some ledge
(head first of course) and cause brain damage for ourselves to make
dealing with choice and individuality as simple as possible.

I talked to the manager of McDonalds, asking him if it's a common
thing that Aboriginals hang out and just cause a ruckus. His reply is
yes, it's all the time. They can't ask them to leave because it would
be classified as racist, and as long as they're not destroying
property, they can do pretty much whatever they like. By the way, this
is coming from a non-white person.

We, as a society (ie, the world) are fucked. It seems like we'll latch
onto any sort of previous damage caused to ones race for as long as
possible, and just play that card as often as possible just to get
ones way.

Ok, here's a history lesson that will probably make you shit yourself.
It wasn't until the 1960's that Aboriginals were taken off the fauna
and flora list. Did you get that? Before that time, they weren't even
classified as being human, thereby giving you the right to do whatever
you saw fit with them. You could kill one, and it wouldn't be
classified as murder. How sick and narrow minded are we as species to
let that kind of thing pass us by?

"Well Chris, I was sitting on my ass in Sweden, what the fuck was I
meant to do, even if I did know about it?"

Fine, kind of hard to know what's happening on the other side of the
world with the communications technology available during that time,
but what if you did know. And you told your friends, and the word just
spread. Would you ever do anything about it? What would you do? I
think it would just remain a simple topic over the coffee table for a
week, at best, and then switch over to something more important, like
how many kids Branjelina have now.

Here's a good current example. The punishment system in Sweden, life
is what, 12 years? What about raping a little girl, 3-4 years? Wow.
Why don't you just spank my bottom and call me a bad dog while
instead, it's just as effective. Ok, granted, most prisoners would
love to kill a child rapist, so survival chances aren't all that
great, but let's just say that they did live, survive the whole ordeal
of becoming the communal finger puppet (read: ass raped by everyone –
at the same time).

I'm noticing this is becoming a very dark post. Don't know if I should stop.

Oh, and I have a stronger and stronger feeling to get involved with
the news, but I hate being lied to and I just don't know where to get
straight facts that would allow me to form my own opinions. I was told
about Al-Jazeera, how straight edge they were. "Awesome!" I thought.
Go to their web page, and it's practically only how we're ripping
ourselves apart, and how we're trying to find new and more fun ways of
doing it as well. Maybe it was the wrong day to check out the news, I
don't know. But it gave me a good incentive not to get any off spring
and push some poor child into a world where we don't give two shits
about another person. Yes, the majority of people are good, but how
good are you willing to be to a complete stranger? How much are you
willing to help and how much are willing to risk in exchange of
feeling good and knowing that you changed someones life? Me? Not so
much. Because it feels like no matter what I would do, it wouldn't
solve the problem that the specific person in question has. Maybe
short term, but what about long term. I'm simply not qualified to do
something like that. However, what if we as a society helped one
person. Think of it, not just your three friends giving you support,
but a whole city. Let's scale it down, think if it was just your whole
local community, within a mere 2-3 km radius of your house? Think of
what we would be able to accomplish.

Bah...ok, just going into a never ending ramble which has no end.

Anyway, I went to a rodeo tonight. It was cool to see a bunch of
cowboys. Real cowboys.

I'm off. Laters.

Guess what?

So, this is my first official blog post from my new MacBook Pro 15"!!! Whoop!

It's going to have to be a short post, because I'm a bit busy masturbating over this baby. Sorry guys!

However, now, when I do want to write about something, then I can do it straight away instead of having to wait until I get to a computer. Schweet!

Toodles!

Odd happenings

Yesterday, I helped some Aboriginals break into their car...which turned out not to be their car...awekward when the real owner rocked up.

Just kidding, I did help them break into their car, which was a bit unsucessful, so we had to call in a lock smith to open the door, which was pretty cool to see what tools they use, which was pretty much similar to my tools , but beefier.

Also had a gay Aboriginal prostitute crack onto me, which was really weird, but simply told him he was making me nervous, which made him leave me alone.

What else is new? If I don't score a job by the end of the week, I'm going back west where I hear there's a lot of work at the moment. Hoefully that'll stay true for when I get there, otherwise, I'll just have to head back East or sell all my stuff, and jump over to South East Asia and stay there for an undetermined amount of time.

Oh! And I found out that I could of maybe been a nurse already!!! My brothers wife informed me that when I was put onto the reserve list for the school, I should of been there physically during the roll call, for if any of the accepted people weren't there, they would then jump to the reserves. Intaaarrresting.

Here they are.

Darwin - Hell on Earth

It is hot here. Really hot.

But pretty good, I walk around shirtless more or less all the time, and just hang out. Read, watch some movies, etc. And I don't really eat too much since it's so bloody hot.

Where do I sleep? I don't want to write it here, just in case, but it's ok. I have to play hide'n go seek with the city rangers, which is pretty annoying, because I can't really sleep properly because I'm worried about a 130 dollar fine for illegal camping. Lame.

And it's hot as hell in the car when I'm sleeping, but it all got better after having shaved my head, everything is a bit cooler now.

Semi looking for work, can't be bothered, I just like relaxing and hanging out.

Mindil Beach Markets on tonight, so it's time for some great food tonight.

I'm sorry guys, just not in the mood to write anything....sorry.

I'll update it when I'm more up to the task.

Through the Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass

 

"Should we keep on going or should we try to stay here?"

"Well, we can make it to the national park, around 13-14ish, do the hike, and then find somewhere to camp, how does that sound? Although, we'll have to do a bit of night hike just so you know, I'm okay with that, as long as you are."

"Urgh. I don't know, you're the Driver, you decide, I'm okay with whatever."

"Then let's go and kick some ass on the mountain top!"

 

The two smelly travellers pull out of the Coles parking lot in Tom Price and start making their way out to Karijini National Park. This park is meant to be very special, because of it's gorges. That's pretty much the only thing the park is known for as far as two travellers know. One of them has a look in the information leaflet they picked up in the visitors center, and finds out that Australia's second tallest peak is located in the park, and you can climb it as well. The one, supposed, crazy traveller accepts the challenge that the leaflet has presented to him. His companion is a bit lost, because she never read anywhere in the leaflet a challenge or anything remotely close the her partners manhood being put into question. She asks him why he loves mountains so much, and he replies "I don't know. Mainly the challenge of getting up to the top, and getting some sort of adventure." She responds with a simple okay of I-will-never-understand-him.

 

After putting Voa through her paces one more time, the two companions reach the base of the mountain, Mt. Bruce. And one of them began to think about the name. Mt. Bruce. It didn't really look like a Bruce, just like a mountain. Did someone see the face of Bruce on a cliff face, if so, then poor Bruce is ugly as sin or nature has been pretty active with the weathering of the rock to form a good shape of Bruce's face. We'll never know. Or it was just some dude named Bruce who wanted a mountain named after him.

 

Once they got their gear sorted out, they begin the tramp up. The beginning of the track was the hardest, mainly because both of them hadn't really stretched prior to the hike, and were slowly getting warmed up.

 

After about half an hour into the hike, on the south side of the mountain about 5-6km away, they could see a mine going full speed a head. What kind of mine? Iron Ore! It was an open air mine, and you could see all the earth that they had moved out of the earth to get to this important mineral.

 

They pass one family and two other couples coming down the mountain, and it's pretty clear that the sun is setting, and that on the way down, it will be pretty dark. The track wasn't too technical, but only on some parts, where you had to keep your eye out for the cairns. However, one of the travellers just thought, if you loose track of the cairns, just keep on going up, and you'll find the summit at some point.

 

After a one hour and forty five minute hike, they reach the summit and feel pretty good about themselves. And on this summit, you had a full 360 view of your surrounds, which made the effort they put in that much more worth it.

 

The "photographer" of the two makes his way to the western most point of the summit, trying to find an unobstructed view of the sunset for some photos.

 

He finds one, and starts setting up his camera, trying to find all the right settings. But then realises he hasn't actually enjoyed a sunset for quite some time. And ignores his camera and decides to admire it more than trying to capture it. Which in turn, made the sunset even better for him.

 

Once the sun had set, and all the beautiful colours that follow after sun has disappeared over the horizon, and one of the two hikers begin to feel cold, they start to make their way down. As usual, one of them has a decent torch to light the way, and a spare one for emergencies or for some else to use. Which happened to be his mobile phone. They first use what remaining light there is from the sunset, and then have to turn on their lights to light the path a little bit better. After a while, they lose their way on one of the more technical parts, and the more able of the two goes a bit further off track in to find their way back again. As per usual, the two were only a few meters away from the track, so they just adjusted their course and kept on going. However, it didn't stop there. The two, now tired and bit hungry hikers, had now reached a cliff, something which they didn't really anticipate, nor did they climb up it in the first place. Standard practice for the two was to simply split up and find the route again, which wasn't too far off. They start to head straight down hill now, at more or less at a 30-40 degree decent, which was a bit trippy for the lead hiker, because when he looked straight out, all he saw was darkness, something which he had never experienced before. A feeling of fear and excitement welled up inside of him. For his imagination could sometimes take over him, and bring forth images of horrible creatures, monsters that belong in the depths of hell,  lurking, and waiting for fresh meat. The excitement was there because he didn't know what was going to come next. Or when.

 

They reached the point the part which the more experienced hiker was most concerned about. It was the part of track where something happened, he knew "it would suck if you fell," as he usually said. He wasn't too concerned about him, but more about his less experienced partner in crime, and simply decided to take the track as slowly as possible, to minimise the chances of anything happening. And while he was walking down, he figured that this would be an excellent opportunity to test a photography technique he's been wanting to try out, especially with his brand new flash!

 

He breaks down the plan to his partner, and she thinks it could be a pretty cool idea. So he leaves her where she was, and prepares the camera and flash for some fun photos. He's pretty excited now. He takes some test photos and decides that they can be in the photo now.

 

"Ok, we have 5 seconds to walk across ok, that should be long enough."

"Ok."

 

The flash goes off, the shutter opens, the two walk, and the flash goes off again, but brighter than the first time.

 

"Ok, cool, let's see what we got."

 

The photo wasn't too bad, but not what he had hoped for.

 

"Let's make it 8 seconds."

 

The two walk again, but still not what he was hoping for.

 

"Ok, walk behind the corner over there, and I'll press the button, and then I'll have 20 seconds to get where you are, when it flashes, we come around the corner, and walk towards the camera, yeah?"

 

"Sweet."

 

This was a little bit better, but not what he wanted. It took a few more tries to get what he wanted – more or less. The smaller of the two was getting cold and requested that they head back down the hill. The "photographer" says he just wants to get some night shots of the mine, and then they can go. He gets 2-3 shots, packs his gear, and the two start heading down.

 

"Do you see the lights over there?"

"What about them?"

"They haven't moved, do you think that's our car?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I turned off the lights, and besides, the car is facing the wrong way, it's not our car."

"Ok, but it's kind of weird that it's been there for so long."

"Yup."

 

Not to long afterwards, the get back to the car, seeing that the lights weren't turned off. That wasn't enough proof for one of them. He opens the driver door, and checks the light switch. He left it on for the whole time they were gone – they now had a flat battery, stuck in the middle of no-where. Sweet. This now gave them an excuse to camp there, where they weren't allowed to camp. There was another car parked next to them, containing a German couple which they had passed on the way up. They didn't have a legitimate excuse like having flat battery, and had planned to leave the site early in the morning to avoid confrontation with the ranger. Something all backpackers do.

 

However, the two weren't doomed if no one did show up to help them. To get the car started, all they would have to do is close the relay that is used for recharging second battery, making a solid parallel circuit. The German couple jump out to see what's happening and see if they need some assistance. The McGuyver Boyscout of the four tries to use his pocket knife to close the circuit, but with little success. So they decide to push the car. No luck there either. Now Plan C comes into effect: Disconnect the second battery and connect directly in the primary batteries place. After some fiddling and screaming, the car gets started. McGuyver poser boys partner in crime, who is sitting in the drivers seat is told to give it some revs, and keep the revs going. But by giving some revs, the partner floors it instead, making the man crap his pants, because he saw an explosion in the air filter. Something which just shouldn't happen. He screams at her again, and quickly reconnects the primary battery, and while doing so, breaks a wire. The car keeps on going, and ignores it. The German bystander reckons it's just an earth, and isn't too important. The comment is heard, and quickly dismissed.

 

"This guy doesn't know what the f#ck he's talking about."

 

Now, the one doing all the work with the battery isn't the worlds best mechanic and admits to know squat when it comes to cars. But having dealt with the electronics of his car for a while now, he has learned that the earth is on the negative terminal, and makes a note to fix the wire as soon as  evening comes. He get the battery hooked up, chucks the second battery into the passenger seat well, and the two start heading down the road. The girl decides to put on the head lights to see if they'll work. Voa dies. The young man sighs and thinks "great."

 

He does it all over again, this time the car doesn't want to start. "Awesome," he thinks. The girl tells him she'll walk the three kilometers to the main road and see if she can't get some help.

 

Automatically he thinks about breakfast. However, he before he does that, he figures he should get everything reconnected, so when help does arrive, he's not standing there with his pants down, looking like a complete douche.

 

Once Humpdy-Dumpdy is back together again, he tries one last thing before eating his breakie. He takes some steel wire and connects the positive terminal inside the relay box, just to see what would happens. He figured if his all metal pocket knife didn't work, this definitely wouldn't, but he just had to make sure. With the two connected, and the circuit formed, and he pumps the engine, pulls out the choke, and turns the keys. The steel wire goes bright red from all the heat, and he quickly yanks it off before it does some serious damage.

 

"I. Am. F#cking. Awesome," he thinks. With a big smile on his face, he jumps into the car, and begins honking the horn like crazy, hoping that his partner will be able to hear him from where she's standing.

 

The closer he gets, the bigger the smile becomes. His partner jumps into the car, and they make their way onto their next adventure: Harmesley Gorge.

 

The End

 

Actually, that's far from the end. The end is when I'm dead. So, hopefully, we'll have a lot time to enjoy together before that horrible day.

 

You've endured quite enough pain for one evening, so I'll just quickly break down my time in Karijini.

 

Go.

 

It is an amazing place. Pretty much scenes out of movies, photos, travel ads, etc. The rock formations were insane, and you get a real sense of adventure when walking through the gorges. For the whole national park, they have a class system for rating the difficulties of the different gorges, and in the Hancock and Waeno gorge, you have a class 6 section for both of them, both of which are at the end of the gorge. What does that mean? You either need a lot of  safety gear, or some balls and skills to pull it off. At first I didn't want to go, because if something happened, then we'd be fucked. But, a younger, more ballsier boy than I went before us, and made it look pretty simple, as long as you went slowly, and as usual, I accepted the challenge. After first having scouted ahead, making sure I wouldn't be putting my camera at risk, because I can handle breaking my leg, but I can't handle breaking my camera. FUBAR, I know. Amy had to do it all a bit slower, which was good, because that put my nerves at ease a bit. We both had an amazing time going through there, and you have to check out the photos. We had to wade through water quite a bit, or swim, it varied. Anyway, I could of spend a week in the national park I think, longer if I had more gear and people with some more experience than me when it comes to canyoning. The place was surreal, and quite something. Later on, we made our way to Broome, which took two days, and stopping off in Port Hedland, which in my opinion is a dump. It's a mining town, and definitely booming, but it doesn't look like it at all. If you were to compare it with say Tom Price, another mining town, but smaller, Port Hedland look like the projects you see in American gangster movies, like hardcore ghettos.

 

We left Broome today, with a heavy heart, because Broome is one laid back place man, and a somewhere I could imagine settling down for a while. We checked out the worlds oldest open air cinema and watched "Bran Nue Dae." A locally shot movie, which was pretty entertaining and worth the money. It was sort of like a musical, actually, it probably would be classified as one. Not going to say what it's about, but check it out. I guess I liked it because it was so simple, and had some famous actors in there too. Well, famous-ish. You would recognise them from other movies you've seen before. The day we left, we went to the local market, which was well, by hippies, and for well...whomever. Not all of it was hippy based, but easily the majority of it. It was awesome.

 

Now we're heading up to Darwin, and that's probably when you'll be reading this, when I get there. Hopefully I'll of had uploaded some photos for you guys too, because I have a lot now. Like...heaps. So many photos I had to buy another external hard drive. But that's partly due to the other media I've been collecting along the way.

UPDATED:

In Darwin now, and it is hot and pretty scary to sleep in my car. If I'm not worried about the ranger waking me up, then I'm worried about not waking up at all since it's border line like sleeping in a sauna that has just be turned off. I'm drinking probably the minimum of liquids I need to be doing, so I'm trying to get better at that. And I'm looking for a job now as well.

So here is the current plan: Work for two months, then the three weeks in October drive up to Cairns and down the East Coast to Bellingen, celebrate my birthday there, go to the Blue Mountains out side of Sydney and do some canyoning. And here is the tricky bit, what afterwards? A part of me says go to Canada and spend a season on the ski slopes, become a good snow boarder, and then in the summer just play paintball and do some mountain biking. But then I think about doing the nursing. And then I think about doing a Krav Maga course in Thailand....too many ideas.

Exmouth

Ok, in Exmouth, time is limited on the internet.

I've seen hump back whales, snorkeled with sharks, manta rays, and sea turtles!

Car is running fine, having some issues with the 2nd battery, but will resolve it. Camped at a caravan park for free (because we met some awesome people), was given a massive fish for dinner, and more adventures to come!

Going diving on Thursday, and whaleshark snorkeling on Friday.

What else...hmmm...yeah. I'm exhuasted. Super tired.

Hard to find internet for free, and so that's why I haven't updated lately, and also because I'm trying to rest my wrist.

Talk to you later!

North Bound

Ok, have to make this short since it kills to type with my wrist now.

Left Perth with a heavy heart. I wanted to stay behind and play some more ball, but I knew that it wouldn't be fully worth it. Can't explain it, but yeah. Also, the job I had was pretty good. Good money, good people, and a great boss. Hard to find.

However, this is the...3rd time I give up a good thing for the unknown. I guess it's going to be a habit now.

Rebuilt Voa, so there's a big bed inside of it. It's basically two levels now. Top one is the bed, and the underneath it is storage. However, we use the bed as storage as well, because we have way too much stuff. So, I need to go through my gear and see what I don't need. Not going to be fun.

Weather has been pretty good to us the past few days, but today it was pouring down, and has finally calmed down now towards the arvo.

Been cooking in toilets, around the toilet blocks, and trying to live as cheap as can be while still being as comfortable as possible. It's all good.

Will post some photos later on!

Oh, I bought a circular polarizing filter and a flash for my camera! May the fun begin! And I wanted to buy a 50mm lens for it, and one store wanted 149AUD, another 229AUD! Absurd differences!!!

Ok, going to bounce! Talk to you later!

Perth and Beyond

Pieces Falling Together

Finally, it's all coming together, piece by piece.

I now live in a house not too far away from the city, but still in the suburbs, which is something I prefer. I live with an Aussie guy with his Thai girlfriend who have only lived in the house for a month themselves. The room is big, and the deal isn't too bad either. A lot better than staying at a hostel - I think.

I have a job now, which pays pretty well, but also gives me my daily exercise at the same time. What do I do? I lift tyres all day. No joke. But no bike tyres or anything, only car/truck/forklift tyres, which can vary from one kg all the way up to about 50 kg. Don't worry, I lift everything correctly, and trying desperately not to destroy my back. Also, the company I work for is going to be implementing SAP into their computer systems, which is a perk, since I have some experience with it. And the second I heard that, I started talking to the boss and started to whore myself out, which in turn has given me more or less a permanent position for the next 3-4 months, or as long as I want to stay there. It's awesome.

Popped over to the local paintball field tonight too, and showed my face, and scored a job for the weekend. And the owner or manager seemed pretty interested in me too when I said I played PRO in Sydney and Div 1 in Sweden. I doubt I'll play anything, but who knows. Don't worry Herk, I won't ask you to send my gear over again, too much of a hassle. But I really want to find a team to coach so I can mold a small division of kick ass soliers. It would rule!

I also went paintballing the other weekend with my Belgium friends, which was expensive as hell, but good fun and yet so irritaing. For some retarded reason, they said that head shots don't count, and gun shots too. Gun shots I get, but head shots, come on!!! The amount of head shots I got isn't even funny! Also, I witnessed something that I told my rental groups to do, but they never did, and that is when you get in close, you tell the person to just give up and not shoot them. It's good cause you help make it more fun for beginners, but you also lose out on hurting people up close and personal. Someone did that to me, but I shot them because I didn't know of that rule. I walked off, and he kept on playing. And in one game, I shot someone on their side, and saw the paint break. He was out, I screamed at him to walk off, but he kept on playing. He was hiding behind a bunker with his buddy and there wasn't a lot I could do, so I start taunting them trying to make them show themselves. No go. A team mate runs past me to the right and hides behind a tree, causing a diversion, and making the guys infront of me freak and hide behind their bunker. In my mind, I saw red and a golden oppurtunity to bunker (shoot them close, real close) the shit out them and make them pay for cheating me. I run to the right of the bunker, while still running forward, twist and turn my upper body so I'm shooting them backwards, sort of. And kept of running until I got to their base and shot another person. Three guys with my one move. It felt good. And I pissed the two guys off cause I showed no mercy...*sigh*....revenge is sweet! And for the final match, we had a free for all: everyone vs everyone. A guy starts running away from me, and so I start chasing him, and when we start running parrallel, I unless my fury and start shooting him in the same spot while I'm still running and until I run out of paint. Sadistic? A little bit. If I can punish some douche bag who cheats me, I'll do it, hands down. Lucky for him he was wearing a vest, so it didn't hurt him that much. Yup, I need paintball to control my anger/energy, it's a good release.

Not a whole lot to report.

All is well.

OH!!! Almost totally forgot. This Saturday that was, I went kayaking! It was freaking sweet! I wanted to do a hike with some people from CS, but they did it on a Friday, while I was working, and I replied to the post on CS who lame that was and that I wanted to join them. So the organizer contacted me said he was going to kayak to Rotnest Island off the coast of Fremantle and was wondering if I was interested. How could I say no to that?! I meet up with him an hour later at his house and we drive down to the beach where we would be starting from. Now, I could hardly see the island from the shore, but I could see two cargo ships out there. He said that they would be about half way, and how wrong he was. About the real halfway mark, I ask him how far away the island is, and he said that it's 19.7km from shore. I started laughing! Yeah, an insane distance for my first long distance kayaking trip I thought. And right around the half way point, we could see the bottom of the ocean! Ok, it was maybe max 10meters deep, but non the less, it was pretty awesome! We also saw a turtle breach the water and then dive back down. Only down side was that we were on the island for only an hour before we had to grab the ferry back to land. Forgot to say that it took us just over 3 hours kayak that distance.

Man, I'm tired. Really tired. Ok, I'm off.

_____________

Crumbling of the Cookie

Ok, news update, the cookie has crumbled! RUN LIKE HELL!!!

What's the story you ask. Well, upon arriving out to Burracoppin, I was truly shocked and surprised about the place because it's really out there. Not as remote as it could get, but pretty remote. Or, the most remote I've ever been at least. I waited at the pub for the wife of the farmer to come and pick me up and show me to where I was going to stay and so I could meet "Chris and the Boys". First, we go to the donga, the house which I'm going to be staying at. There was a fridge, with food, and freezer drowning with meat. I would get a plate for dinner which I just had to toss into the microwave and make my own breakie and lunch. Sweet as. My room had a double bed, a heater, a closet, and some drawers. That's it.

Next stop, meet Chris. We drive for a few minutes and then I see the behemouth machine that I was going to be driving in a few days time. Chris is a chubby man, with a round face, and just looking pretty relaxed, but on the ball. He looks like a farmer. When he talks to you he doesn't always look you in the face. Either past yours, at the ground or at something else. A characteristic I find interesting. And one night when he was talking to his brother, hardly any eye contact was made, they were both looking at the ground, I guess it helps them imagine what they were talking about. Anyway, he tells me to jump into the tractor (aka: header) and we would get started.

The wheels are at about eye level, you have to climb up a small ladder to get into the cabin, and there's eight wheels on the tractor! Two on each axle, pretty awesome. One of the other tractors had three wheels on each axle. Behind you is the seed box containing the seed and super (fertalizer) and attached to that is the bar. The bar is the plough and seeder, and how it works is that the tynes plough up the ground, and directly behind the tyne is a tube which shoots out seeds and super in a steady flow. Behind the tynes and tubes are a bunch of wheels, called press wheels which push the seed and super into the ground and make everything ready for germination. Oh, and it's about 40 feet long, so turning one of these things is a real bitch of thing.

Oh, and the header is articulated, which means that when you turn the wheels don't turn, it's the entire body that shifts from the middle, so turning is really something and backing one up with all of these extras behind you is a real skill. Something which I don't have. Will write about that.

That night I met just about the whole crew, minus one, and they were all pretty good people, making me look forward to woking with everyone. My house mate was from Zimbabwae, one of the white farmers that got chased off his land. Not very cool. But he is a pretty cool dude. Althouhg it was pretty interesting to hear him talk about his time growing up on the farm, and days after that. Mainly because when he would talk about some of his workers, he would say that they were black, pretty casually. Now, he never said anything derogortory about them, it was just like "yeah, I had this black fella etc." For me, I would imagine that after a whole life time of living amongst another race, you would simply refer to him/her as a person minus the colour of their skin. I talked to him about this, and he said you say that over there to make things clearer for the person listening, because, well, simply put, the black people work differently from how the white people work in Zimbabwae. We had a big talk about it, which made things a little bit clearer.

Any who, the first day for me was running around with one of the brothers and sorting things out like filling up diesel and preparing spray for the next day of work. And on the 2nd was just some more general running around and driving around. Day 3 I got to drive the air seeder, which was daunting, but I wasn't too nervous since I had some previous experience driving big machines. And from that point on, I was stuck in the tractor, only having a 2 way as communication between me and my collegues. I would maybe see two people in person, maybe 2-3 times a day. It was good.

However, after a few paddocks, and I got to move the machine myself, I kinda screwed up. I ended up hitting a fence, bending a piece of the rear bar (the press wheels) and bending a piece of the fence. Boss wasn't too happy, but yeah, he was willing to except it.

This is more or less when it all started. Long story short, I had 5 fuck ups in 5 days. Some big, some small. But still five for five! That is a new record! And so, when we were done with seeding, I was told there's no more work. However, a few days before when I asked, they said they would find me more work. Ok, now then, here's time for my arguments!

Hands down, I don't blame them for telling me that. I felt like shit fucking up so much! I wanted to pack my own bags and just leave. I've never done so much harm in so many days!!! But, I wish that they had taught me a little bit better and given me clearer instructions as how to use the machinery properly. Oh well. Not a whole lot I can do now.

They were really cool about it, or that's what they were showing on the outside. Typical farmer, if they like you they won't bitch you out, if they don't like you, they'll rip you to pieces. I was spared, which is a good sign, but still a bummer. They paid for my whole night, dinner and beer and all! Even after everything I had done, I just don't get it. They're mentality is just something else and something I truly admire. Patience is what flows through their very veins and soul, it's pretty impressive.

So, I pack my gear, and shortly before I leave, I pop over to the farmers mothers house, because she's the one who's going to pay me. She was sceptical as to only paying 13% tax for me, but I showed her I had only payed 11% at my other job, and then I saw that they had deducted 50 bucks for food. I asked them what the deal is, and they said it was standard, when in actualality they said it was all included. I claim that the agency and Chris had told me that the food was included, but then she says I should be happy that they didn't deduct the damage I did to the equipment. So I said with a big happy smile that I'm sorry for even bringing up the subject and that 50 bucks for 10 days of food is more than fair.

I more or less literally throw my gear into my car and just zoom off, looking forward to seeing Amy again. When I'm making my way to the highway, I was maybe going too fast, and take a corner too fast. Way too fast. I almost lost control of the car and would of ploughed into an on coming car if I were truly unlucky. But, I just had to stop to change my underwear, and make a serious mental note to take it easy around corners. Especially when the car is fully loaded and decreases my braking power and increases my braking distance. Pretty scary.

Haul ass to Kellerberrin and meet Amy around lunch time. She was working the evening shift and wasn't getting off until 10ish, so I grab her netbook and go to some hot spots she told me about. I tried to be ninja about it, but I stick out hardcore in a town like that, especially my car. People were watching me big time. A few days later in the same spot, two of the local women come over and kindly ask us what we were doing and claimed we were hacking peoples networks. Networks which were fully unprotected, and that I was accessing their computers and that she would call the cops. She was a bogan to the core and didn't know what the hell she was talking about, and I knew that no matter what I said, there would be no good coming out of it, so I told them we would leave. Amy was pretty pissed because she had been there before, and not been busted. It just goes to show, I was in a destructive zone at the time...so lame.

Anywho, after being eye balled by the locals, I drive my car back to Amy's house, and just chill outside of it, watching some movies. Once it was dinner time, I popped over to the pub to get some grub and see if I could talk to some of the locals. Got the food, but there were only road workers there, all of whom were really cool. Got talking to one of them, and he ended up buying me a few beers and I educated him on the country with in Australia (Principality of Hutt River - true story).

Amy has to drive me back to her place and we just crash. I was destroyed from the drive and just a long day. Next day we hang out and get caught by the bogans and described previously. Next day I call my boss to tell him I was coming back into Perth and was hoping he could get some work lined up for me. Amy's boss hears that and tells her she's fired and that she should leave to Perth with me. Neither of us were having luck with jobs out there. Her story is different, but it mainly revolves around that she didn't feel at home there, and yeah, I don't know the owners side of the story, sO I don't want to say anything. We throw her gear into the car and come back to the CS host we had previously, and then I start working the next day at another tyre company. My previous wind catches wind that I'm back in town and the next day, I'm back at my old job at the tyre company. People were surprised to see me back. But it felt good to be back. Good money, good hours, and something familiar. I told them only to expect me for one more week there, and the boss was happy enough with that. I worked today doing stock taking and also using some SAP, which was weird, but cool at the same time. This bloody smart ass I had to work with who thought he was hot shit was a bit surprised I knew something about SAP. I guess looking like a fool makes you a fool. Hmm...I love my camoflauge. He also wanted to come to the paintball field to teach me a lesson, and I was more than happy to accept the challenge, but he quickly backed down when he found out I was ranked as PRO here in Oz...ahhh...dumb asses, you can never get enough of them, and you can't ever get away from them. And speaking of judging book by their covers and camo, I wore all the shittiest clothes I could find, and rocked up to the local paintball field, was lent some gear from the owner and lowe and behold, I surprised people there as well. It was awesome. I didn't play as well as I could of, but I didn't do as badly I thought I would of. Hopefully I'll play some tomorrow.

Now what? Finish off this week, and leave Perth by Saturday and head up North towards Darwin, and take about a month doing it. Oh, and try to build a level in my car so I can get a full size bed in there, since Amy is coming along and we don't want to have to find a place to pitch the tent all the time or one of us has to sleep in the passenger seat.

Ah yes, I changed the oil in my car at the farm before I left. Never done it before and it's not hard at all! Well, I had to drive a big screw into the oil filter to remove it, but that's all.

Mmmmkay, that should be enough for now. Sorry for the delay guys!

Photos.

And if you check out my Aussie map on Google, you can see all the paddocks I sowed with the header!