Cairns Day 86 - MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

I apollogize for not writing anything in a while. Since today is my birthday (I'm now 24!) I decided it's time to fill you all in on what Ive been up to the last couple of weeks.

I did end up seeing Fantasitc Four and it was a good movie. Not the BEST movie ever made but quite enjoyable. Since then I hd also since Sin City. Now THAT'S a GREAT movie. I loved it and even if you're not a comic book fan (it's totally taken from the pages of Frank Miller's comic books) the effects and just so awesome. I really enjoyed seeing that movie and would definitely concider seeing it again.

I went on that reef trip finally and it turns out it was perfect timing since the weather has been really crappy and rainy since the day after I did the trip. The day I went on it was beautiful. Bright blue sky, no clouds in sight. I biked to the reef fleet center where all the reef boats are docked. Hopped onto the Super Cat boat and sat down with all the other pasengers. Turns out one of my flat mate, Lou, works for the boat company, Down Under Dives, and most of the crew on my boat knew her. I also knew one of the staff when she worked in the hostel I first stayed in when I came to town, Hostel 89. We drove out to sea for about an hour and half. On the long haul out I got friendly with a fellow Canadian! His name was Ryan and he ended up being Jewish from Toronto so we had a lot to talk about. He also ended up being my snorkel partner since the crew suggested you swim in pairs. We soon reached our spot and jumped in the water. I swear snorkling is one of the most relaxing things you an ever do. It is very physical since your'e always swiming around although the fins and wet suit make it a lot easier (the wet suit made me float and the fins make it easier to swim around with less energy). However, once you put your head in the water and see all of this life down there it's just amazing. You cant hear anything except your own breathing and it's like going to a whole new place. We stopped at two spots and I saw so many fish, a giant clam, a giant Mawiras (I keep butchering the pselling btu I have no idea how it's spelt) and this fish is HUGE, and even some kind of manta or sting ray. Now my treat to all of you is that I took pictures! They aren't the best and it's hard to see some of the things but I don't regret the 20$ it cost to get the water proof camera. To see all the wonderful stuff I saw click HERE.

After the long day out I chilled at home and actually went out to meet up with Ryan and his girfriend. It's to bad they were leaving that night to go to another place since they were really nice people and it was a lot of fun hanging out with them that night.

I've been working a lot lately. Two weeks ago the resturant was crazy busy and the other dishewasher hurt himeslf so I worked like 40 hours over 4 days that weekend and we broke our record of most people in the resturant to a whopping 107 bookings. However, since then the weathers been crap and we were day all last weekend.

Work at Peter Pans is going pretty good. I met a cool Canadian guy who works there as well. Im getting along with everyone and it just feels like I"m hanging out rather than working when I'm there.

As I mentioned earlier today is my birthday. Yesturday I went shoppng and treated myself to a few gifts. First I bought a new eye brow piercing (just the ring) since I always felt the ring I had was too big. This new ring looks a hell of a lot better (no longer does it look like I have a fish hook in my face) and it only cost me 15 bucks! After the new ring, I hit up HMV and treated myself to a few CDs. There is SO much music I want to buy tbu CDs out here are really expensive. A new CD can be 25 or 30$, NEW! On older CD is like 40$! I ended up getting The Foo Fighters New one, In Your Honour which was a good buy since it has 2 disks, one that's super rock heavy and one thats accoustic and more chill. I also picked up the new Weezer disc which I like already. It sounds like Weezer and thats all that counts. If you like any of they're old stuff (early or even more recent) you're bound to like this disc. After hearing so much about them I took a chance and bought Bloc Party. No it's not Jaques Parizeau's band but this kick ass independant garage band sounding group from England. I still need to have a listen to the full disc but what I've hear I like, a lot. Since I bought all this rock music, I thought I'd balance it out wiht a chillout compilation and ended up getting the famous Ministry of Sounds Chillout Sessions 7. I don't think we get Ministry of Sound back home so I"m glad to have something unique. It's also a two disc package so although I paid for 4 CDs I technically got 6! That's enough to make any Jew happy, haha.

SO finally, my birthday celebration was a lot different than I had expected. I figured i'd be out at some bar ll alone and have had pizza for dinner or something along those lines. Instead I went out for fancy Thai with my roomates and work mates. We were a total of 10 people at dinner! Food was great and then I ended up going out with most of them to Gilligans, P.J. Obriens and then of course, the Wool Shed. I had a really good time until I came home late at night ~4am. I didn't feel too good anymore and I happened to walk into the house just intime to witness my drunk roomate Adam knock my guitar (which he had used and then placed it against the backyard, railing) down the STAIRS! I was too tired (and sick) to care there and then. I woke up today and remembered the incident and ran to my guitar but except for a few scratches and it being untuned, it's not too bad looking. I am a bit upset but it's not really Adams fault so I"m not mad at him. I'm sure i"ll bang it up myself sometime int he future. I also told him if he ever touches my guitar or goes into my room again I'll accidently drop his laptop down the stairs, haha.
Pictures of my night can be found HERE.

This morning was good since my Parents called me to wish me a happy birthday. The rest of the day I sat watching Resevoir dogs. Thren I came out to the internet cafe where i"ve been here for a couple of hours setting up the photos and typing this entry. I have to jet now since i got a call and was asked to fill in for someone at Peter Pans for just the final hour so I better sign off now before I get there late.

Cairns Day 72

Been working a lot lately and havn't had time to update. So to stop keeping my fans waiting, here's what I've been up to:

Last tuesday I ended up meeting my friend Rachel after all at the Reef Casino. It was really good to see her again. We caught up for about an hour but she had to get up early for her trip back to Sydney. I also spent the same night with my friend Ben and we just had a great time at the Woolshed.

Speaking of Ben, him and his girlfriend Mandy have now left to go onto other parts of Australia before hitting up Thailand. I got to say a proper godbye when they came over to chill in my back yard for an hour or so. They were a lot of fun and it weas sad to see them go.

I worked a lot last week at Vivo. Even though I bought new shoes, they were NOT slip proof and I walked like a hobbit all night when I wore them. The next day my legs KILLED and I vowed never to wear them to work again. I was thinking of returning them but they look used already and I could use a pair of dress shoes anyways. So after 4 more days of wearing garbage bags on my feet, yesturday I went to Payless shoes and got rubber soled black running shoes. They are supposed to be non slip on oil so I'm hoping they'll do the job at work.

I worked at Peter Pan yesturday morning and I'm actually enjoying it now. It's not that bad a job and it's just cool to meet lots of people and see them outside of work as well. After work I met up with Marco from Vivo and we went shoe shopping (he needed new shoes as well, but his old pair was just old, he didn't mysteriously lose them like I did). He also invited me out for a fancy dinner with other work people, so at night i went out for delicious Thai food. I made a night of it and dressed up a bit (wore my tie). While I was waiting for my food at the restaurant I got a message from Nadine! It was AWESOME to hear from her. She wished me a happy birthday even though she was off by a couple of weeks (it's July 26th, hint hint and if anyone needs my address just let me know, haha).

After dinner we hit the bars and by then of the night I met a couple of french girls and remember speaking french for some part of the night and i also spoke to a cool german guy I met earlier that day at Peter Pans. I felt really bad because I weas supposed to work at Peter Pans today but Marco convinced me to get it off because he knew we'd all go out after dinner so I got someone to replace me and then I saw that guy at the bar as well! Well at leat my sudden asking him to work for me didn't ruin his night out.

Today had been good so far since I slept in a bit, woke up feeling fine except my right eye hurt and did not know why unti llater I rememebered last night Marco accidently poked me in the eye somehow... I did my laundry and finally got some great guitar practice in so that made me very happy.

the day seemed like every other day unti labotu an hour ago when I bumped into NILS! It was SO good to see him. Nils is the awesome German guy I was friends with in Melbourne. I was staying at a hostel and he just sat down at my table while I was eating and said "I'm travelling all alone, want to hang out" and since he didnt' seem psycho we ended up hanging out for a feew weeks with Tyler and had a lot of fun together. He's now i ntown for a week and were hoping to hang out a bit and maybe even play some guitart together! He's been playing for several years and he's been in bands and stuff.

Finally, I booked my reef trip and will be on the boat and in the water tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely beautiful eand hopefully it will stay this way tonmorrow. I bought a water proof camera so expect lots of colorful pictures soon.

As for tonight I'm going to see Fantastic Four with my roomate Adam and I'm since I have time to kill I"m going to the mall to buy a new book. I finally finished The Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb and it was good, I'm just not sure what to get next. I'm tempted to try soething non-fantasy, maybe a biography book of some rocker I like a lot or something.

Cairns Day 64

HAPPY 4th OF JULY! Haha well it is July 4th, but seriously, HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!! I didn't get a chance to do anything for Canada since I was working and i was so lazy I didn't even get to walk around sporting my Canada hat. However, at work, when ever I asked for a favor from someone, they kept saying they were pnly doing it for me because it was Canada, so I got a bit of a treatment that day, haha.

I worked like a dog this weekend. Not many hours but it's just been really busy at night at work and i"m still not used to getting up early for my peter pan job. That job is going quite well actually. The manager who I felt like i"d have a problem with is no lnger the manager and the new person is 100 times more friendlier and less fake then the previous one. I stayed behind an extre 2 hours so she even let me go get lunch while getting 'paid' (I dont' make money only trip points I can useon a discout).

I don't know what happened to Rachel but she said she'd be in town on Sunday and it's now Monday night and no contact from her what so ever. I sent her a mobile text message but still no answer. I'm sure evrything is okay and i hope I get to meet up with her in the end.

I dont' know HOW I did it but somehow after work thursday night and before work friday night, I lost my work shoes. I have a theory that I was so tired on the way home i dropped them off my shoulder either in Palm Cove on the way to my workmate's car or on the way home when my workmate dropped me off near my house. Either way they are gone. I tried wearing my running shoes at work but they slip an dslide everywhere so I had ot resort in wearing my sandals with socks and garbage bags on my feet so my socks stayed dry. I kept that up for 3 days but hopefully tomorrow I can get myself a new pair of cheap shoes. And perfect timing, my bag's zipper broke so I may need a new nap-sack as well.

As for excitment, today during work at peter pans this girl comes in asking for assistance. She walked by a staff toilet in the hallway and heard someone call for help. So I came to the rescue to discover someone was locked inside because the handle o nthe inside broke off and the only way in was with a key. She told me to go to this store around then corner and they would have a soare copy. So I did and i got her out of the washroom. Budman to the RESCUE!

Finally, the other day my landlord and manager of the Wool Shed Bar, Tim, had told me that he notice my picture on their website. After wining the dance contest at P.J. O'briens, I entered the one they have every monday at the Wool Shed and Tim told me when he was looking at last weeks photos, he recognized me. I don't understand why it's all squished and warped but you can check it out by clicking HERE