Getting Started

Last night I went to a life model drawing workshop at McGill. I'm not even a student anymore but I went to this workshop. Three guys and 12 chicks. It cost 6$, all th esupplies included. We all sat around the center where a model stood in various poses. When I showed up, the model was sitting down and fully dressed. Then I bend down for a second and as I look up I see she's stark naked and her ass is facing me. Anyways, the workshop was fun. The model, probably in her 30's, started with 5 minute poses, then moved to 10 minute poses and finally 15 min poses. My stuff came out ok. I wish I could post it on here but I don't have easy access to a scanner.

In the meantime, I thought I'd start with posting some pictures of the various street art I did while I lived in Melbourne. It' snothing crazy, and I wish I would have had time to do more but, I had fun doing them none-the-less.

So here goes:


I decided to start simple and drew the letters B U D. I hadn't yet come up with an idea on how to outline the letters in black (it was a law that I needed to use materials that washed away and there was no black colored chalk in the bucket), so it is kind of hard to see.


For my second try I thought I'd do something most people would recognize. Charlie Brown and Snoopy seemed like a good choice. The only problem was, again since i had no black, I used brown as the outline color, so I ended up changing all the colors. Charlie Brown's skin had to be yellow (closest I had to skin color), so then his yellow shirt became purple and his brown pants, green. I guess it came out more RETRO.





For my third try, I went back to grafitti. I had planned to draw while my friend Nils would play guitar but it never happened. Anyways, I came up with a crazy and wacky font for the word MELBOURNE. I actually made some money off this one but before I could count it, my hat got stolen by some bum. It didn't slow me down, though, and I finished the whole thing. Here I used washable black poster paint as a means for outlining the letters. It really made a difference.

After having my favorite hat with money in it stolen from me while I was distracted drawing, I decided to move to a less busier area. So I switeched frmo the busy street of Swanston to the Southbank walkway along the St. Kilda River. There were less people but the surface was actually a bit better to spread the chalk, making the drawing stand out more.





My first drawing at this location was BARTMAN! I thought I'd do something everyone would recognize and a few people actually appreciated it. A lot of 15 year old high school girls hit on me because it was "SO COOL!!" (Don't tell my mom...)







For the final picture I had time to do while i lived in Melbourne, I thought I'd go crazy. I had orginally copied this picture on paper in my sketch book (it's not an original, I found the picture on the net). I liked it so much, I thought I'd produce it on the pavement. It took me about 9 hours over 2 days (3 the first, 6 the second). I was really happy with it although my proportions were a tad off. Passerby-people really liked it because I made 9$! That money went to great use. Being a tuesday, I spend 5$ on a movie and then 4$ on a pint of Guiness at kareoke night at an irish pub.

Settling In

I've now been home since tuesday and so much has happened already. It feels like it's all going by so fast and feels weird, like a dream I can't wake up from. Could probably be from the jet lag and the feeling of disorientation from being away for so long. You'd think not that much would change but so many little things have! Things look different, stores have opened/closed/moved, etc. Friends have broken up, gotten together with other friends, are now single, are now getting married or ARE married. My house has even evolved but thankfully my mom left the renovations of our bathrooms until after my return so atleast the house is pretty much the same as I remembered it.

Wednesday morning i woke up at 6am and weas wide awake. I made myself breakfast, first time in that house that I ever cooked eggs! I spent the whole day watching movies and unpacking my bags, doing laundry, etc. My brother Lorne came by and we went bike riding through the local woods. It felt good since I hadn't been there for years (ever since I was a kid) and I got to catch up with him.

That night I had my first meal with my parents in over 11 months. Oh how much I missed home cooked food.

Thursday morning I got up felling a bit better but still pretty tired. Went for breaky with my mom to our usual hangout, Chez Cora. The owner, Tony, was happy to see me and had been asking about me everytime my mom went here to eat.

After breakfast it was time to announce my return. I hadn't put it up on my blog because I didn't feel like making such a big deal about me being back so I just wanted to suprise everyone instead. I headed down to my old stomping grounds, McGill, accompagnied by my blue guitar. I was hoping to crash 3:30pm tea time and since I got there so early, I jammed on a bench on campus for about an hour. It helped me relax and then I headed over to the pulp and paper building. There, I got to see Dr. Gray, my old supervisor, and a bunch of people from him lab group whom I used to work with, including Emily. Tiff, a good friend, wasn't there so I was disappointed until Emily told me that Tiff and some others were supposed to go skating in the indoor rink (for thosae who are not Canadian, no it's not THAT cold all year round that we can go skating outdoors in september). That was perfect and i rushed down to the rink. I was wearing a baseball cap and had a hood on hopping i wouldn't be spotted. I wanted to wait until All my friends were on the ice and then get some skates and join them. As I checked the rink to see if I recognized anyone, my friend Patricia was walking towards me and when I realized she was looking right at me I pulled a 180 and bolted the other way. I stayed hidden for about 30 minutes and then when I saw her and Tiff on the ice it was time to make my move. I rented a pairof skates and hopped on the ice behind them. They were talking to each other and my plan was to pinch Tiff's butt and skate off but when I tried to grab her, I almost fell and in the mist of trying ot keep my balance, the girls looked up and were excited to see it was me. We hung out for a bit and it was fun.

once skating was over, I headed over to the Shatner building in time for activities night. McGill Improv had a table and I wanted to see eveyone. Most of the old gang was there and they were also excited to see that I had returned. I got to hang out withthem for a while and it was fun. I even signed up for a club even though I don't go to that school anymore. I hope to attend a live model drawing workshop on mondays to help practice my drawing. After activities night ended, Ken, Chris, Maryam and myself headed over to Wendy's for ice cream. Adrienne showed up and we all chatted for a while. When I got home i was exhausted and the day felt so jam packed and long.

Friday I returned to McGill for a more proper tea time and got to see all the people I missed on thursday including Sam. It was great to see that guy again and he just loved my long bushy hair. His seems to be getting pretty wild as well. I also got to see Norm. He was hapy to see me and we chatted for a coupe of hours. he was laughing at my stories so much he was on the ground in the middle of the hallway gasping for air.

After seeing everyone at McGill I headed over to my good friend Nadine's. It was SO good to see her again. We chatted for a bit and then found out that she used to play guitar and had one there! I got to play it and jammed with her for a while while she sang to some tunes. It was SO much fun!

Saturday morning I got up early because I promised my dad I'd go to Synogogue with him. My bar mitzvah anniversary was coming up and I didn't want to insult my dad by skipping out, so I went with him which I rarely do. The rabbi even welcomed me back in front of the whole congregation, so that was really cool. There was even a guest speaker there representing Jews for Judiasm, a group formed to counter missionaries such as Jews for Jesus which are targetting Jews to change religions. His speech was quite interesting, saying that those groups are usually fundamentalist protastans that have donned themselves as mesianic jews where they take the jewish faith and change certain symbolisms to represent Jesus. He said they have passover ceders that our warm and full of food and music and are so welcomed, good enough to pull anyone in. But then when they explain the purpose of the items on the table (which is the whole point of holiday, retelling of the story), they changed some meaning such as the breaking of the matzah represents the death of Jesus and when you put the half back in the matzah bag, it's his brial. Then later when the other half s found it's his second coming. The holes in the matzah represnt the holes made in him to crucify him, etc., totally changing everything to make it more christian. THAT"S CRAZY! Funny thing was there was a Jews for Jesus group in Melbourne and i was given a flyer a few times.

After synogogue I went to CAA and got my new drivers liscence. No longer amd I a probationary driver! I then drove home but found out afterwards by my mom that I was not covered by insurance yet. Oops...

That afternoon I went with my mom and my Aunt Ellen to see the Constant Gardner with Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes. It's a good movie but WARNING: it's EXTREMELY SLOW!And it feels even slower when you're still coming off of jet lag. During the last 20 minutes i had to struggle so hard to keep my eyes open. I finally fell asleep at the last minute intime for mom and aunt to get up and see me fast asleep.

The movie was just the beginnign of a crazy day. My aunt was kind enough to drive me downtown where I was meeting up with Norm and others I knew for a SUMS (math club) reunion. I wasn't even IN math but I became friends with all those guys so it was god to see them all again. We ate chinese and it was delish. I even met Norm's girlfriend who is a wrestler. WAY TO GO NORM! Her arms are so big, I feel pain just looking at them.

After dinner, I went over to Nads house and we headed together to a party at Andrew and Adrienne's. The party rocked because i got to see everyone else from Improv who I didn't get to see at activities night. I was really glad to see that Nadine was having a good time even though she didn't really know anyone. I stayed out until 2am and then I cabbed home.

So a lot of people have been asking me now that I'm home, what is the plan? Well, thankfully I have come up with one while I was away. After 11 months of thinking, I have decided I do not enjoy science as a profession and would rather do arts. I have decided I'd like to go back to school and study graphic design. I need to look into a few schools and start applying for either Jan 06 or Sept 06. I dont' want to go to a university but rather either a tech school that has some sort of intensive 1 or 2 year program, or try to get into the 3 year program at Dawson. In the meantime I need to start drawing again and build up a portfolio since most schools want to make sure you are artistic in some sort of way. That drawing workshop is a start and I hope to get copies of certain programs and start playing around with them. I still want to keep this blog going and since I won't have as many exciting things to discuss as wehn I was travelling I'm hoping to use it as a means to post my art, and criticism will definitely be welcomed. Once I figure out when I'll go to school, then I'll look for some sort of job to help me save some money for school.

It's going to be a few days still until I start the ball rolling since I'm still settling in and have a bunch of small things to get out of the way. One not so big thing is my photo album. I still havn't had a chance to even look at my photos. I have about 19 CDs with probably 2000 pictures. Once I set up some sort of slide show, I promise to host some sort of photo night, so those in Montreal, keep posted.

The Voyage Home

It's finally happened. I'm home. I couldn't write about my trip home on the plane so here is what I wrote in my journal on my last day in Australia:

It's my last day in AUSTRALIA! I got up pretty early in the morning, gathered all my stuff and headed for the front desk. Craig was working so it was good to say a final goodbye since this time i"m not going back to Footprints (well not for a long time). I really enjoyed it there with the staff, people, rooms, toga parties and of course the halloween boat cruise (my costume ROCKED!).

The bus was waiting outside and as I exited, I looked back at Footprints for one last time. Got in the shuttle bus and headed to the airport. About one hour later, I was checking my bags and heading to security. I had a couple of hours to wait for the plane and took the sudafed i needed for my ears and hoped they wouldn't be problem for the really long flight to come since they bothered me so much from the flight from Alice.

As I sat and waited, I reflected on what everyone has been asking me these past few days: "Are you ready to go home? Excited? Afraid?". The answer to all those questions is yes. I loved it out there in Australia. It was definitely a life changing experience but the way of living can't go on forever. I was afraid to go home and see that everything was different and changed but on the other hand hoping for a change since I didn't want to go back to the same thing as when I left.

For the past few months all I thought about was home. Then as the time to go home was nearing, all I thought about was the stuff i did in Australia. Now that I was in the airport, I couldn't think of anything. I felt brain dead, like my brain is turned off.

If I have changed in anyway, I think it's that I have become more relaxed. jess from IEP pointed out that I seemed a hell of alot more relaxed when I saw her on wednesday then when she kne wme back from back in October to January. I believe her since I havn't had a headache in over 9 months (except from hangovers which doesn't count. And about hangovers, I think I'm losing my immunity, since before I would never wake up with hangovers, and now I wake up still drunk, haha).

While I was still waiting for the plane, I got an extremely suprising call form my buddy Blair. I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to saw a final goodbye but we chatted for a few munites and really had a heart to heart until he said "Dude I really need to go to the toilet so I';m going ot have ot say goodbye", haha.

Finally got called for the plane. Once I was on the plane and heard the french welcome message it really started ot hit me that i was coming home. For once I got lucky and actually had an aisle seat! Plus the plane was so empty, no one was siting in my row, so I was able to lie accross three seats to sleep.

Once we took off i was a little worried about my ears but they turned out fine for the ascent. Then I put on the headset and the first thing I hear is "C is for Cookie
by the Cookie Monster, haha. Then the movie started and it was The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy which was quite funny and I recommend it. Afterwards was Mr. and Mrs. Smith which I always wanted to see and I forced myself to stay awake to watch it even though I was exhausted.

For the plane I had bought a Ralph Magazine which is basically an Aussie version of Maxime and on the cover was Jessica Alba. Coincidently when I started reading it I had the sudden urge to hit the toilet. I was happy I got a chance to listen to all my music. I was listening to Grinspoon and realized they are like the equivalent to Moinst or Our Lady Peace in Australia although their music is slightly different, more rocky and less poppy. I got into Grinspoon back when I lived in Cairns and my roomate left it out open in the living room.

I finally fell asleep but only for about 20 minutes. It was only 6pm OZ time but the sudafed pills for my ears are supposed to make you restless. I then listened to more new music which included the new White Stripes album and the John Butler Trio. The latter group is very cool. They sound like a cross between Big Wreck and Jack Johnson. Very rootsy blues.

Dinner was fettuchini, bread, fruit and chocolate. Not too bad for a plane. We then landed in Honolulu at 11:30pm (7:30pm OZ time). WhenI passed through security, they made us take our shoes off... weird. I had to wait around for about an hour and a half before heading back up in the air. While I was waiting I got friendly with a couple in their 40s from Halifx who was in Australia for just a month and they loved it (as they should have!).

At 1:02am we get back on the plane and the captain announces "some of you may have noticed that the left engine was being taken apart. Don't worry, one of the monitors that checks the oil levels was erronous and all is now fixed". I had no idea the wing was even tampered with and wished the pilot had kept his mouth shut! The captain also announced the flight was to be 5 and a half hours. Breakfast was then served (pancakes).

Five and a half hours later we landed in Vancouver. Along the way we encountered an electrical spcae/time dust storm which threw us back in the past, or at least it felt like we did, since I left Sydney on September 13th at 10am and landed in Vancouver on September 13 at 9:50am. Time travel DOES exist!

I found out that when I had called way back July to change my plane ticket, the woman told me i"d be on one flight from vancouver but the tickts in my hand were for a different flight. Therefore, instead leaving at 11 something I had to stay until 3pm. I had to go get my luggage and the re-check it in for the other plane but I ended uphaving ot wait about 40 minutes for my guitar to show up since it was stored as FRAGILE.

At 3pm, boarded my lst flight of the day, THANK GOD! Once in the air, I still couldn't really sleep, been restless for hours. The movie they showed was the Longest Yard with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds. It was actually a pretty decsent movie, I quite enjoyed it. Then we experienced about 30 minutes of turbulence just as I REALLY had to get up from my seat to go to the toilet so I had to hold it in for AGES!

We reached montreal at 10pm. THE HOLIDAY IS OVER! I was really confused on what to expect now that I'm back. I went through customs and security, got to the luggage depot and my parents, brother and sister in law rush up to me. Apperently they crossed the security line and had to go back, so they ended up watching me for about 20 minutes waiting for my bags before they could actually talk to me. My suster in law draw a poster of a kangaroo with my head sticking out of the pouch and the words "WELCOME HOME CROCODILE BUDD!!!" and "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OY OY OY!". It was so great I put it up on my wall in my room.

On the ride home, I was asked so many questions already and already my mom was nagging me so I told her we'd have to discuss the new terms and conditions now that I've returned home.

That night, once i got home, threw all my stuff on the ground, showed my parents I could play guitar and passed out in my bed. I slept under a giant flag of Australia that I bought right before leaving OZ.

It's good to be home.

Sydney - The FINAL Days

I arrived in Sydney on Thursday. The flight was quite fun since I took the plane with Saturno, from the Wayward Bus tour I did from Darwin to Alice. There is aonly one plane that flies to Sydney per day so it wasn't that huge a coincidence we were on the same flight. I got to watch Monster-in-law which wasn't too bad for a Jennifer Lopez movie, it was quite watchable. After the movie we made it to Sydney, the whole flight being about two and a half hours. My ears went pretty haywire coming down and ended up being blocked for almost 4 days, but they're better now.

After landing, Saturno and I headed over to Footprints. I stayed there twice before and now it's been renovated (a.k.a painted) but none-the-less looks a lot cleaner and newer. I got to see crazy Craig who works there and remembered me from "my awesome costume on halloween" as he puts it.

Immediately after checking in, Saturno followed me around as I went to Jordons and Cohi Bar to say hi to everyone. I got to see George and even Roy one last time so that was great.

The following day, I spent the whole day with Saturno since it was his last day before going back home to Italy. We spent most the day shopping at Pady's market for souvenirs and stuff.

I then went to IEP to say hi to everyone and it was great.

My night went from a quiet one with Saturno to a pretty crazy night. I went out with Saturno for a beer at Side Bar but once there I bumped into Craig. He was really drunk and introduced me to his friend Jack. Jack was in charge of this pub craewl and invited me to join them to the last bar of the night. Being one who can't say no to randomness, next thing you know it, I'm on a bus full of hot German, Swedish and Dutch girls on the way to World Bar in Kings Cross. I ended up meeting three jewish grils from New York who Craig new and we hung out most of the night. Tons of fun, those girls were crazy party animals. In fact, so crazy I ditched them to go to sleep when it became 2am.

Next morning said goodbye to Saturno and went over to Jenny and Micheal's place. I expected a short visit and some dinner before saying my goodbye's. I was totally wrong, instead I ended up an hour and half away at Lily's (Jenny's sister) cottage and spent the night listening to them talk russian and watched Rugby League Football which is actually quite entertaining, more so than football (or grid iron as they call it here) since they don't even use paddings or helmets.

After sleeping over in Morriset, We took a drive to Toronto! There I got to see my brother Mark and Connie and Charles and.... No not THAT Toronto. Seriously though, the next comunity over was known as Toronto. The sisters went shopping and we drove all the way back to Bondi beach for a BBQ lunch at Natasha's, Jenny's duaghter. The WHOLE family was there and I got to say my final goodbyes to everyone so it was quite sad.

I returned to Footprints and then ended up going back to Jordans to see more people and say goodbye. I ended up at Cohi having a few beers bought by some old coworkers and met a german and Canadian girl. We all ended up at three wise monkeys and I was up until 3 am but it was a fun final party night in Sydney.

Today I've just been doing errands and trying ot keep my head clear. I went to IEP and said even more goodbyes. The whole time in Sydney has basically been sad with goodbyes! But i am anxious to go home, so those of you at home: I will be SUPER happy to see you ALL! At IEP it was great because I got to see Evan, Laura and Jess and foudn out that Joanna (the big boss) was really preagnant and even though Tim quit, he happened to be there for a visit so that was convinient and I got to see him one last time. He's moving to Canada so I may get to see him sometime in teh fututre.
The rest of the day I spent buying music. I really wanted some Australian stuff. I bought:
Xavier Rudd - To Let
Cat Empire
John Butler Trio
Grinspoon
Evermore
Midnight Oil
and at the 10$ shop, Jack Johnson and the new White Stripes disc.

Right now I'm listening to Xavier Rudd which is very much like Jack Johnson and really helpng me relax.

Alice Springs Day 2

After an amazing trip with outback safari.com I returned to Alice Springs. We finished the trip up with a free meal at Melankas which was the hostel I was staying in so that was convenient. All in all it was a good night. I got to hangout with everyone from the trip and we had a pretty good time together but all planned to meet one last time the following day. So I called it a night and took it easy most the day. Did a whole bunch of errands and ended up meeting up with everyone at Bogangles, this bar very close to my hostel. Now if I thought i had fun at Melankas, that was NOTHING. Bogangles was a REALLY fun bar with a lot of locals as well as backpackers. We danced all night long! The really cool thing about the bar was they had a web cam and an address which I sent to my friends Rachel and Glen. So, all the way in Halifax, Glen got to see me bust a move on the dace florr, 8am at his job. It was great texting him and finding out he actually saw me on his computer. I ended up staying up pretty late and then called it a night.

Tomorrow I fly out to Sydney, which means the trip is coming to an end!

Red Center Day 4

Got up SUPER early but for a great reason. Angus wanted to try and reach Kata Tuta for sunrise. This time, however, rather than seeing them from a distance we walked right into them. As we marched between the giant rocks we saw two kangaroos up ahead. Being so dark, all I saw were silhouettes but it was awesome. We moved on and got to see the sun rise change the color of the rocks just like they did at Uluru but this time we were completely surrounded and the color just got so bright. After sunrise, we did this huge walk through Kata Tjuta called the Valley of the Winds.

Once we were done with Kata Tjuta, we went back to camp to pack up and finish off all the food from the trip for lunch. We then hit the road back towards Alice Springs. The long drive was fun since we got to listen to funny music and stuff. Over the whole trip we listened to funny stuff including an 'all aussie' Cd of joke songs and Australian bands. Angus also had the soundtrack to Team America which we listened to the title track ("Team America - Fuck Yeah") which became the soundtrack of the trip so it was fun to listen to it one more time.

We stopped at mt. Ebinezer again and then a new spot, Stuarts Well where we got to talk to a guy who is starting up a baby kangaroo rescue center. He had with him 2 baby kangaroos and was feeding one beer, so it was hilarious and cute.

Also in the car, filled out a sdurvey and Angus asked us to draw a picture describign our trip and the best one gets a free beer tonight at the pub. I drew a funny picture and he liked mine the best.

Got into Alice Springs and then after a quick shower ate dinner with everyoe at Melankas and partied hard.

All in all was such a GREAT trip by far my favorite one!

Red Center Day 3

Dressing for the ice age paid off, for it got chilly at night and I felt warm the whole time and slept great.

We got up super early to go catch the sunrise at Uluru. On the way, angus was pumping the radio with Midnight Oil. The sunset was something to see but the sunrise was ten times better with the whole rock turning from a dull brown color to a bright red/orange color instantly as the sun was completley up. Incredible.

We then drove closer to the rock and did a 10km walk around the rock. Some chose to climb the rock instead. There is a very hard path to climb up the path if one choses so but the Aboriginals ask that you don't climb the rock since they believe parts of it are sacred. When I asked Angus why they just don't close the path off he said the two reasons are: 1. The aboriginals don't want to force you not to climb it, they just are afraid of your well being since people have hurt themselves and died trying to climb up, as well as people may not want to learn the cultural aspect if they can't come and climb it. 2. The organization that runs the national park threatened to sue the Aboriginals if they close it off. Originally the park was Aboriginal land and finally several years ago the Australians gave it back to them as long as they are allowed to lease it from the aboriginals for 99 years. That number was totally pulled out of someones ass but hopefully by then , they wil have full control of their own land.

As I walked around the rock, I was talking to the two french girls from Lyon who were both on vacation fro working as nurses back home. The best thing was I got ot practice my french sicne they didn;t understand a lot when Angus explained things. After the walk we drove to the Aboriginal Center where they expalained a lot of the culture and stories linked with the rock. I even bought a sticker that said 'I didn't climb Uluru'.

Went back to camp for hamburger lunch and then a swim in the public pool since it was getting hot.

We headed back to the rock and did a part of the base walk we missed earlier that was filled with all the stuff that the Aboriginal stories are related to. All sorts of things with the rock have a story to it and the aboriginals use these stories as lessons. Angus gave us a tour and told us a bunch of these stories. The french girls were totally lost so I kept translating as best I could to help them out and thanked me gratefuly. Angus told us that the name Kangaroo came from the fact that when Captain Cook came to Australia and saw the animals, he went up to an Aboriginal man and asked "What are those animals called?" assumig everyone knew english, to which the Aboriginal man replied "Kan ga roo" which means "I don't understand".

Also, Angus told us how the rock was formed scientifically. Way back in the past, South America and Africa were pushing towards each other with Australia in the middle, this caused a line of mountains to form in the middle of the continent. Over time the mountains eroded and turns into dust particles which got compacted into the ground. Later on in time, Australia moved north and this caused a whole bunch of mountain ranges to form horizontally and in the process, cracked the underground rock which uprooted to give us Uluru. The smae thing happend to form Kata Tjuta but they were more like splinters so their axis are at 12 degree while Uluru is at 90. The Aboriginal story for the creation is that two chirldren were making a mud pie and it kept getting bigger and bigger, so big the were on top of it and to get down, they had to slide down on their stomaches andwhile reaching out, their fingers caused these vertical lines (which are actually caused by water coming off the sides when it rains.

For sunset went to an area nick named the cattle grid to watch the sunset at Kata Tjuta. Not as impressive as the sunset at Uluru but still amazing.

Dinner was a HUGE BBQ meal cooked parially by yours truley. We ate sausages, marinated steaks, potaotes and onions, and fried rice. Didn't get a chance to play guitar since getting up at 4:45am tomorrow!

Red Center Day 2

Got woken up at 6am by "Welcome to the Jungle" by GnR. Angus told me he did that for me since i brought up the song the day before.

We left camp and headed over to Kings Canyon where we did a walk along the top edge of the canyon. To get up there we walked up a hill also knowna s Heart Attack Hill. Along the walk, we hit a part where the rocks formed a V shape we had to go through. This V shape apperently is important since it is where the three drag queens in the movie Priscila Queen of the Desert (starring Guy Pierce) pass through. We also passed through a part with water that was a bit inside the canyon and is known as the Garden of Eden. As we continued around the canyon, Angus stopped us to talk about several plants that we located up there.

We drove to a spot to have lunch which was just cold meat sandwiches and pasta salad. After lunch we did two more hours of driving until we stopped for photos of this really kool looking moutain called Mt. Conner. Int eh opposite direction of Mt. Conner was a giant salt lake that looked very foamy from our lookout. more driving brought us to Curtain Springs which is a cattle station the same size as Northern Ireland!

With one more hour of driving, we finally made it to Yulara, which was our camp site we stayed at that was not too far from all the sites in the area, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Angus joked that if you lok at Kata Tjuta, it looks a lot like Homer Simpson lying on his back and that Matt Groening was out here doing sketches and that's how he came up with homer, haha. That's as true as much as I am obese.

After setting up camp we drove down to Uluru to watch the sunset from the official sunset viewing spot. For those who don't know, Uluru is the LARGEST rock in the world at 348 meters above the ground (with more under ground) and has a circumference of 10 Km. As the sun set, the rock just started to change colors whch was really cool.

Back at camp, we ate chicken stir fry with potatoes, all of it cooked on the barbecue. I also got to play more guitar and then got ready for bed. I decided since I had bought this winter jacket and have been shleping it around have the country it was about time i used it and didnt' care if I looked like I was dressed for another ice storm with the jacket and my beanie (touque).

Red Center Day 1

After my last post, I walked out onto the street just in time to watch this crazy parade going on for some music festival hapening during ht enext few days. There were lotsof crazy costumes and drumming music and all sorts of visual stuff. Tres Cool. Afterwards, I went back to the hostel and ate dinner with 2 Israelis I met, Liat and Yuval. After dinner we all walked over to the music festival and Saturno joined us. We ended up watching the last act called the Super Railene Brothers. I t was quite and interesting pair of guys playing folk music with one playing a violina nd the other a guitar and a stomp drum. Everyone there just went wild and started dancing. I liked it since all the songs were about Alice Springs and Australia.

Now to the juisy stuff:
This morning I got to sleep in since the bus ony came to pick us up at 11:30am. The tour guide was Angus and right away I could tell he was going to be a cool guy.

Our first stop was a very important stop at, wait for it... LIQUORLAND! Every loaded up on booze for the trip since its cheaper in Alice then out in the outback. We then made our way to the airport to pick up two more passengers.

Our first official stop was in Erldunda where I bought my first sticker for this trip. Once we were on the road again, while looking out the window, instead of seeing ht ecommon cow, we started seeing wild camels. Yes, there ARE camels in Australia. They were brought over as work horses and some how got loose. Now there are approximately over a million camels in Australia.

The rest of the day was all driving except for a quick stop at Mt. Ebiniezer truck stop and then another stop for firewood.

On the bus, angus made us go on the microphone and introduce ourselves. This group consisted of:
Myself
Peter, a tour guise in training
Chris and Kat, two german girls travelling together
Janina, a geran girl who had a terrible sounding cough
Charly, an older (47) german guy
Ben and Yuki, a british and japanese girl traveling together
Darren, an english bloke
Francois and her friend from France
Russell and Katie - a couple form England
Noriko, another japanses girl who happened to go to the same uni as Yuki
3 more japanese whose names I never got (one was named Tucker I think)

Eventually, by the end of the day, we made it to the Kings Canyon Resort where we set up camp. we made a huge camp fire and ate spaghetti with meat sauce and mashed potatoes for dinner. I got to play some guitar by the camp fire and made an effort to try out some new stuff I printed off before the trip.

Drank some wine and then headed for bed which was my sleeping bag inside a swag to help keep out the cold air while asleep.

Alice Springs Day 1

Been walking arond all day in Alice Springs. Met up with Saturno and went to eh very cool and interesting Reptile Center where I saw all kinds of kool things.

Getting booted off the computer but i hope everyone enjoys the last few posts of my journey and keep posted for tomorrow mornign I'm heading to the RED CENTER which consists of Ayers Rock and other great sites.

I'l try to update again when I return or when i"m in Sydney!
Sorry but you'll have to see the photos when I return home!

Darwin to Alice Springs Day 4

AUGH IT'S ALREADY SEPTEMBER! I MISSED OAP AND FROSH! I guess I need to realized i'm not longer a McGill student, haha.

The mornign was freezing. the freaky thing was I slept with my beannie on and when I woke up, I took it off in front of the mirror and noticed I had red dotsd all over my face. I looked like I had just reached puberty. I'm guessing (hoping) it was just some sort of bite but they were not itchy. I was lucky for two girls woke up with swollen eyes from some sort of bite to the eyelid.

After breakfast, stopped for fuel at Wyciffe Well which is apperently the capital of UFO sitings in Australia. The servo (gas station) was painted with grafitti of aliens and UFOs. Inside were paper clippings of all sort of findings and sightings and in the front were alien figures and a space ship.

We then stopped at Ti Tree for a quick break and then crossed the Tropic of Cancer border (which is cool if you think about it) and reached Alice Springs by 11:30am!

I got a little worried because as we were being dropped off at our hostels I asked Nathan about he place i was booked in, Melankas, and he told me the nick name around Alice for it is Skanky's. When I checked in though, it wasn't too bad so I don't understand why it has a bad reputation.

ended up walking around town and within 20 minutes bumped into a few people from the tour. Ended up having lunch with Leena and Gwenda and then chilled at the hostel playing guitar and doing Laundry.

Forgot to mention but I finally got to read the new book I bought while in Cairns. After finishing Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Anthony Keidis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I went and bought another fantasy book, the Magician by Raymond E. Feist. I've been meaning to get into it but actually got through a few chapters in the last few days and the book is great! I totally recommend it and i'm only on chapter 9.

For dinner, met up with the others from the tour at Toddy's for an all you can eat dinner.

Turns out Saturno is leaving the exact same day as I to head to Sydney and we're on the same flight! So I got a travel buddy!

Darwin to Alice Springs Day 3

I woke up feeling great after having a much needed good night of sleep. Not much went on during the day since we had a LONG day of just driving.

First stop was at Daly Waters Pub which was that funky pub I was at previously with Desert Venturer. I looked on a map and saw that when I left Cairns, we drove down to Daly Waters and turned right towards Darwin. Now we came back the same way but continued further south passed Daly Waters towards Alice Springs. At the pub, everyone leaves behind some kind of souvenire - money, ID cards, flags, clothing, etc. I left behind one of my Canadian tags with my Name and Montreal QC written next to it. So if you're ever in Daly Water, NT, Australia, as you walk inside the pub, turn right and lok at the wall facing the road. It's located on one of the woden posts, haha. The funny thing was after looking around I recognized to ID cards of two seperate people I met in Melbourne, Nick from England whom I met through IEP, and Stu whom I met from Peter Pans.

We then stopped along the highway at Durmurra, Elliot and finally Renner Springs for lunch. My sticker collection is really growing with at least 18 stickers!

Lunch was sandwiches again and if you guys think I'm a picky eater, you should meet Violaine. This girl was skinney like me but refuses to eat ANY vegetables. If you tell her it's a vegetables she wont' even look at it. She refuses to even eat onions or lettuce. She eats everything plain but will eat potaotes. Plus, I also saw her eating chocolate wrapped in bread! Weird...

After lunch, everything was going smoothely until we pulled over abruptly in the middle of NOWHERE and Nathan says "I need a break, wake me up in 20 minutes and pulls his seat back and his hat down on his head! We all got out of th ebus and lounged around with no one else in site. Finally Nathan woke up and asked us to collect fire wood.

Finally made it to Devil's Marbles which was just a collection of huge brown boulders which looked like a pile of marbles lying around. The story goes that in the past, a man and his cattle stopped in the area and in the morning all the cattle were dead. This happened a second time ot a second man and the name Devil's Marbles was used. Turns out there is a kind of grass that is poisonous to cows and that's why they died. however, it's sacred to the Aboriginals and apperently a few Aboriginal boys were known to disappear from the area and never be found again.
We climbed ot the top and got to watch the sunset which was awesome. One it was over we headed back to the bus where Nathan had made us buritos.

Our campsite was just down the road at Wauchope/ Built another fire, played even more guitar and fell asleep after a couple of beers.

Darwin to Alice Springs Day 2

I sleep decently. I actually had this dream I was somewhere (like OAP), just hanging out with my friends from back home. Then it just got all weird and just went downhill from there. See guys! Can't say I don't think about you!

First stop of the day was at Edith Falls for a quick wake up swim. The water was refreshing and got a bit of a workout swimming accross to the waterfall and back.

Stopped in Katherine for groceries and then made or way to Katherine Gorge. At the Gorge, we had a BBQ lunch and then for 20$ went canoeing to the actual gorge. I was pairedup with Saturno and we called ourselves the Italian/Canadian Team. At the gorge we had another swim and headed back to the bus.

We left Katherine Gorge and drove down to Mataranka where I had previously been with the Desert Venturer tour. The thermal pools were so nice to go into at the end of the day. It felt just like a shower.

We camped in Mataranka and had more BBQ food for dinner (what can I say, Aussies love their barbies, as they call it). At the same campsite was another Wayward bus heading North and on it was this Canadian from Toronto, Steph who I had met in Cairns, so that was pretty cool to bump into her in the middle of nowhere.

After dinner, a bunch of us went to the bar where outside was this woman singing with a jukebox of some sort, all sorts of songs. She kept begging everyone to come and dance and i finally broke th eice on her last song which was Rolling Down the River, the CCR version. I was just jumping around and this drunk guy happen to be doing the same. It looked like he wanted to "fake" mosh around so I just started jumping about but it soon turned into a mock boxing match and apperently the guy was pulling swings at me when I hadnt noticed. Good thing he was drunk and was keeping my distance! Apperently it was a funny site because everyone was cracking up.

Darwin to Alice Springs Day 1

Things just kept getting better! I woke up to find that my whole battery charger and 4 batteries were stolen. It was my fault though since the only place to plug them into was in the kitchen. I know I was asking to get it stolen but everyone else was charging their phones and stuff and nothign went missing. I also forgot to get a Darwin sticker! Then, after getting picked up by the Wayward Bus, my bus driver, Nathan, got lost and started freaking out behind the wheel. Once he colmed down, since I was in the front seat, I got to talk to him for a bit and turned out he was a great guy.

We made our way to Litchfield National Park. For some reason, Australians like water and since Kakadu was a lot trees and what not, the nickname is Kakadon't and Litchfieldo. I enjoyed Kakadu a lot, but the locals were right, Litchfield had a lto of beautiful water spots!

Our frist stop was an area with HUGE termite mounds. Got to see two kinds, these flat, almost vertical plane, chaped mounds created by magnetic termites, and ther talled wider mounds created by cathedral termites. Even got to get a picture by a 6 meter high cathedral mound!

Afterwards, we went for a dip at Florence falls, which were absolutely beautiful. This was followed by a 30 minute walk to a small series of pools ina starcase type fashion, known as the Buley Rockhole.

We then had lunch at Wanji Falls, which was just sandwiches. Then we had a final swim in the water and left Litchfield Park.

We stoped quickely at Adelaide River and stopped for the night at Hayes Creek. Dinner was Baramundi fish and chips at the pub.

Started to get to know the new group of people which consisted of Violaine and Pierre, siblings from France, Yonai from Israel, Saturno from Italy, Fiona and Geraldine, 2 sisters from Ireland, Barry from Ireland and a bunch of germans including a 19 year old, Leena, an older woman with grey hair, Helga, two girls from the Dersert Venturer trip, and two others whose names I didn't get.

After dinner got to play pool with Nathan against the driver from teh Wayward Bus tour heading north and one of her passengers. We one the first game but then got killed on the next 2 games, not because they were so good but because we were just playing so crappy!

After lounging at the pub, we made our wayt to the campsite and built a fire. Played AMAZING guitar (hardly any mistakes) but most peopel were asleep or not paying attention. This time we slept just on roll mats in our sleeping bags, once again, under the stars.

Kakadu Unleashed Day 3

The final day of the trip began with an early rise and heading down to Majuk, also known as, Baramundi Gorge. We did a long walk to a great swimming area. It had a few small cliffs to jump off into the water. There was even a whole in the rocks with a pool inside and the only way out was to swim underwater to an opening that led to the rest of the water. i was too afraid to jump down there but I did jump off a 7-8 meter cliff a few times (So there Mark! I DO have a sense of adventure!). Mel, the british girl, wanted to jump off the cliff but got scared and pondered about it the whle hour we were there swimming. She didn't do anything else except look down and almost jump, each time changing her mind. Her boyfriend was even trying to help her but she still wasn't doing it. Finally Clancy walks up and says we're leaving and Mel turns to her boyfriend, Tom and says "We're leaving?!?" and instantly jumped off as not to miss her chance! It was hilarious.

The time had come to do the boat cruise that we missed out on the first day of the trip. Apperently, the boat driver that was injured had done something to upset the Aboriginals and got speared in the leg! He was stable now but the spear was apperently HUGE!

The cruise was awesome. Got to see a few crocodiles and a load of interesting birds including one called a Jesus bird because it has such big feet it could walk on the water (or something). The only thing that sucked was the fact that I was exhausted and kept nodding off during the cruise! It was like being in class all over again.

We left Kakadu and headed back to Darwin. Then things started to go downhill. When I got dropped off at my hostel, I realized I left all my bathroom stuff on the bus and couldn't get it back since I was leaving the next morning for Alice Springs. I had to go by all sorts of stuff (tooth brush, toothpaste, soap, etc.) I then check into my room and when I got my luggage from the storage room, a rat or some animal had eaten it's way through my bag full of dry goods. On top of that, all the food I had left in the fridge before I left had gone bad.

This didn't stop me from having a good attitude and ended up going to The Vic for dinner with people from my group and got to see Rich one last time. Unfortunately I didn't get to say a proper goodbye since i left for a few minutes to burn all my photos on a CD and when I returned he was gone. Also at the dinner, Felice gave me her business card. Turns out she's a professor at UCLA and she told me she wanted to stay in touch so I can tell her what I do with my life since she was so interested in me. Also, there was this game of musical chairs going on and Tom had entered it. The trick was if you didnt' get a chair, rather then exiting the game you had the option to remove a piece of clothing. Unlike the Woolshed where the max you can go is down to your panties or boxers, here a girlk adn several guys including Tom got COMPELTELY NAKED. They were all walking around with their hands on theirs privates and when one of the guys had to "remove one more piece of clothing", the were given the option to walk around with out covering themselves. No guy resorted to that (THANK GOD!) and the naked girl ended up winning some expensive trip somewhere.

Called it an early night and got everythiung ready for my trip the next morning to Alice Springs.

Kakadu Unleashed Day 2

Got up, had breaky and headed through more rough terrain while listening to 90's dance music. It was AWESOME, haha!

We made it to Twin Falls where we did a 15 minute boat ride to the base of the falls. Bing the dry season , teh falls were very small, more like trails of water just leaking down the rock cliff, but a wonderful sight, none-the-less.We then returned to the beginning and started walking upward toward the top of the falls. To get there we had to do a lot of hoping accross tones of giant rocks and boulders. Once at the top, we were sweating and got to jump into the water for a swim.

once we were done with the Twin Falls, we made our way to Jim Jim Falls. Again, we did a long walk, hoping above rocks and boulders to the falls. Again, due to the dry season, there was no actual falls, so it was more like Jim Jim Rock Face, but at the bottom was still a 53m pool. Due to it's location, the sun didn't really touch it so the water was icy cold and SO refreshing like when you go swimming in a lake early in the morning back home in Montreal.

As it started getting dark, found a nice spot nearby to set up camp. Had some beer and played more guitar by the fire where I managed to teach myself Come As You Are by Nirvana. We had delicious chicken stir fry made completely by Clancy herself.

After telling jokes at the campfire (One Aussie told this one: A girl realy wanted a new dress for her school party (prom) and the father kept saying only if she gave him a blow job. She was disgusted and kept refusing. Finally one day she really wanted that new dress and didn't care and gave her dad a blow job, when she was done she screamed out "AUGH! That tasted like SHIT!". To which the father replied "Yeah, you're brother had asked to borrow the car." - Crazy Aussie humor!) I hit the swag again and fell asleep staring at the stars.

Kakadu Unleashed Day 1

After a nice relaxing walk through the Mindil Markets, which Darwin is famous for, I packed all my stuff and went to bed. I woke up at 5am and met up with Lee who was on the same tour as myself. In front of the Cavenaugh appeared this medium sized 4WD car where we loaded our bags in to the back and then jumped on board. Our tour guide was an Aussie sheila named Clancy. Right off the bat, she seemed really cool and laid back. Meanwhile, Greg, the bus driver from the Desert Venturer (my last trip) was picking up people to head back to Cairns, so Lee and I were happy to say goodbye to him one last time.

Our first stop was the Adventure Tours office where I had to pay a 75$ meal kitty. At the office I got to see Luke, another tour guide whom I had as my guide when I travelled from Melbourne to Sydney way back in April. He totally remembered who I was and even asked if I still had that giant blue hat I wore back then!

Finally we were off to Kakadu national park where we stopped quickly at a truck stop and then headed to the Mary River. On the way we stopped to gather some firewood. While we were doing this, however, someone came by and informed clancy that the boat driver for our boat tour on the Mary River got into a serious accident and no details were known but except that he was in critical condition. Since our boat trip was cancelled, we had to move thigs around and just try a whole bunch of stuff. The itinerary was really flexible so Clancy brought us to a bunch of stuff she hadn't seen in a while.

We got to the entrance of Kakadu and took some photos. The park itself is 200 square kilometers which is apperently the same size as Switzerland!

For lunch, we drove down to East Alligator river and ate pita and cold meats. The river is totally misnamed since there are NO alligators in Australia, only crocodiles which I didn't get to see but i got to see a few Flying Fox bats in the trees.

Following lunch we reached Ubirr where we walked around and saw several rocks with Aboriginal art. We then headed up a small hill to Nadab lookout where I was able to see all of Kakadu. In one direction was a lake in the other trees, and in another just grass plains. The whole park was very diverse.

We passed through Jabiru to another spot to view even more Aboriginal art and then went accross to Anabangbang ("And he shot me down... Ana bang bang") Billabong.

The day closed down with a very rugged drive to Jim Jim Jumpup for a BBQ dinner which we cooked straight from our campfire.

By now I got to meet the rest of the group which consisted of Lee, 2 german sisters who I met on the same tour as Lee, Dirk and Fulker also from Germany, a Japanese girl, a British couple who were friends with Angus from my last trip, 3 pure bred Aussie blokes and Felice and Joe Kurtzman, an older jewish married couple (probably late 40 or early 50s) from LA.

After dinner, chilled at the campfire and played some guitar. I even had a few shots of tequilla with the Aussies who were really dwelving into our supply of beer.

Finally caled it a night and slept outside under the stars in swag (a canvas bag which you put your sleeping back inside).

Darwin Day 2

Today I got woken up at 6am and was informed there was in fact room on that trip I wanted to go to. An hour later I was on the bus to the Wildlife Park. It was quite interesting but not really worth 60$, in my mind. I was ther only backpacker. Everyone else there were in their 50s or 60s except one guy who must have been 30 something and this woman with her 3 kids. I saw a bunch of birds, reptiles, dingos, etc. Did a few small walks and there was even a small aquarium with a tunnel where the fish swam above you.

The highlight had to have been this show called Birds of Prey (No it wasn't an Australian cover band of my brother Lorne's band, The Birds of Prey). They brought out this white owl and then a bird that looks like an eagle called a Kite. The last bird, who'se name I can't remember, wa the coolest bird I have ever seen. It looked like a cross between an eagle and a phoenix. It flew around but also waddle around and had thick furry legs. Then the trainer through out a green plastic egg that looked like an emu egg and said that it's one of the birds treats. Rather then grab for it, the bird waddles around to this bush where I immediately though the bird was stupid and didn't care about what it was given. I was soon proven completely wrong when the bird waddled back to the egg with a rock in its mouth. It then threw the rock at the egg several times until it cracked it open! After it ate what was inside, the trainer said that they trained it to pick up the pieces and for every piece returned to the owner, they got a piece of food, so the bird cleanedup it's mess! That was truley something to witness.

After the morning trip, I got dropped off at 1:30 in the city, just in time to bump in Angus. Angus, Lee, Rich, myself and whole bunch of others fro the trip are to meet tonight at the famous Mindel Markets by the beach which happens on thursdays and sundays so I'm lucky to have a chance to check it out.

Tomorrow mornign I get up at 5:00am to head onto my Kakadu trip. I'm still tired from my last trip! I'm sure it will be alot of fun though.
Since I leave for Alice Springs the next after returning from Kakadu I don't think I'll be able to update for a while but keep posted and you're find going to a whole new set of stories to read!

Darwin Day 1

I finally had an AMAZING sleep from the night before and woke up feeling great. I ended up finding out taht the guy in the bed underneath mine was friends with James when he livedout in Darwin - small world. I also got friendly with the guy at reception who married a french canadian and loved that I was from Montreal. He gave me 2 free meal tickets for dinner at The Vic, didn't ask for a deposit on the cutlery I needed and offered to let me have a bicycle for the afternoon free of charge. After lunch with Lee in the hostel I hung out with Rich and played more guitar. He showed me how to play a bit of Come As You Are by Nirvana and a bit of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. Then Lee joined us and we went walking around Darwin.

After dinner we headed over to the Vic and this girl from Rich's room joined us. The 4 of us were SO tired we hardly wanted to drink and didt stay out too long. I just wanted to go because it turned out that to get to the cruise I won, I needed my own car so I wanted to see if I could exchange it. It turns out the regular MC wasn't working the night I won it and tonight he returned. His name was Wade and he was from Canada. Turns out he's form Dunville, Ontario which is where my friend Tyler is from and Wade told me he's really good friends with Tyler's brother - Small World. Wade loves Canadians and wa so happy to hear I was Canadian he gave me a voucher for a 60$ tour to the Territory Wildlife Park and even let me keep the old voucher! I then bumped into this girl Louise whom I knew from Cairns and she was ranting about the jumping crocodile tour and how she was interested in going so then I told her I happen to have a free voucher for it and made her day by giving it to her. I also ended up wining us 2 jugs of beer by playing this "throw the ball in the bucket" game and Wade let me have 4 tries for being Canadian. After i got it in once, I thought that was it but he insisted I try all 4 times and I got a second jug. After i was done, he then removed weights from the bucket that kept it from moving and pushed it back about 2 feet to make it hard for everyone else!

By 11pm I called it a night since I had to get up early for the trip.

Cairns to Darwin Day 4

On our final day on our voyage to Darwin, I awoke again feeling really tired since i didn't slept well yet again.

Slet on the bus until we got to the Daly Waters Pub. Inside and around the back they had all sorts of stuff collected by travellers. Inside was money from all over the world. I was looking an old 2$ canadian bill but couldn't find one, but I did see a 20$ bill so that was cool. Around the back were liscence plates from all over but no Montreal plates, however, there was a vancouver one.

We then watched Anger Management on the TV Screens before heading to Mataranka which is the home of the Thermal Pools. These pools are naturally 35 degrees celsius! the water was great!

We then stopped in at Ketherine for about 30 mnutes. Not much going on , just a small little town.

After Katherine watched Constantine (I LOVE that movie!) and made or way to the Adelaide River Inn. Inside was Charlie the Buffalo - a giant stuffed Buffalo that Greg joked about it being THE buffalo from the Crocodile Dundee movies.

One more hour on the bus and we made it to DARWIN!!! Actually most of Darwin was destroye din 1974 b a terrible cyclone, Cyclone Tracy, that hit hard on Chrismas Eve. There's a story that one guy had to bring his injured neighbour to the hospital and on the way, with all the rain and wind didn't see that a house had rolled into the the street and drove right into it. He eventually backed out of it and drove to the hospital. On the way back, the house had moved again and the road was clear.

I got dropped off at the Cavenaugh. My friend James told me it's a great place to stay. I'm staying in a room with 15 other people but it's not that bad. There are loads of fans and dividers between every 2 bunk beds.

For dinner we were all invited to The Vic, Darwin's version of the Woolshed/Cheeky Monkeys. We had lasagna for dinner and then the fun began. Apperently the more rowdy everyone gets, the more drinks everyone gets. At the beginnign they wanted peopel for a contest so, of course, I ended up on stage. We had to take this vaccuum tube and blow it like a didjeridoo. Then the winner was decided by the amount of cheers he/she got. I couldn't have been any luckier since right before I left Cairns, my roomate Adam had bought a real didjeridoo and taught me how to play it. Since my group really cheered me on I ended up winning. My prize was a 30$ voucher to a cruise along the Adelaide river where they have 'jumping crocodiles'. The rest of the night was crazy. just a big party. Angus entered this game called scavenger hunt where 8 people started on stage and had to obtain items from the crowd. The last back on stage was disqualified. At first is was easy stuff but then it got really hard. Towards the end, they needed men's underwear and after a quick run to the bathroom, Angus was back on stage wearing my blue undies over his pants and I was commando. He ended up winning and recieved a 3 day 2 night Ayers Rock tour.

Cairns to Darwin Day 3

I couldn't slep at ALL last night. The best was super UNcomfortable. We had little cots in permanent tents, I was uncomfortable and it got really cold during the night.
As we drove through Lawn Hill again, I just slept on the bus. When I awoke, we had reached the Gulf Roas (Highway 1) and passed through the aboriginal community of Dumanji. Was told that white people are allowed to drive through the community and use the truck stop but not allowed into the community itself. It's only for aboriginals and is completely alcohol free (a lot fo Aboriginals in the major cities end up as drunks because genetically, they have a very low tolerance for alcohol).

Greg stoped for a few minutes and brought on the bus this leaf from a tree known as the bohemia (butterfly) tree. Aboriginals call it the mother-in-law leaf becasue the leaf is shaped that the two haves sort of align themselves next to each other and in the aboriginal culture, the son in law is not allowed ot look at the mother in law and if they run into each other in the street they cover their eyes until no longer in sight. Also, was told we can't take photos of the aboriginals because they believe that the camera takes away their soul. One third of the North Territory is occupied by aboriginals but it is belived they are areas that they live in that have not been recorded.

We stopped at the Hell's Gate Shop. The area got it's name from the fact that way in the past, the pioneers would get accompagnied up to this point and then would be left to fend themselves against a really fierce aboriginal tribe that lived there.

North Territory is the home of the Morning Glory, which is a circular cloud formation that looks like something out of star trek. They had photos of it in the shop and it looks incredible.

At 11:50am we reached the NT/Queensland border and had to change our clocks back 30 minutes.

For lunch we stopped at Celvart River and ate more sandwiches. It was a river but there was no water. In the winter months everything is dried up, in the summer months, water EVERYWHERE!

After lunch we ended up at the Carabirini rock formation. Got to walk around these giant pillarsof sand stone, like out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Our final destination was at the Heartbreak Hotel. And who was there again? You got it Kimbo and Graham. Now for sure they must be following us! We all hung out and I got to play more guitar with Rich. He taught me Good Riddence by Green Day and I showed hime some stuff as well.

Cairns to Darwin Day 2

We all got up at 5:30am and were out of Croydon by 6:30am. Today I ended up sitting next to Rich. Turns out he also had a guitar onthe bus and has been playing for a couple of years, so we had a lot of things to talk about. His birthday also happens to be July 28th (mine is July 26th). I'm hoping to Jam sometime with him over the trip.

After 3 hours finally stopped at the Burke and Wills truck Stop. This is where I remembered I had wanted to start collecting stickers of all the places I visited on my trips before I return to Montreal. Evry sticker I collected I put on my guitar case. While at the truck stop I walked across to this Camp Draft which is this kind of cattle competition where the Cowboys (I think they're called Wranglers out here) ride a horse and try to lead the cattle around certain post in a certain amount of time. I was lucky enough to witness a cow run STRAIGHT into the wall, hit with a good amount of force and fall back over onto it's side. It was SO FUNNY! The cow was out cold for a good 5 seconds, got up and ran to the gate.

For lunch we stoppeed at Gregory creek which was loads of fun. We had BBQ food and afterwards I jumped into the creek which had a bit of current so it was almost like a water slide. Started at one end and it pushed you to the other end. The weather was beautiful, not a clousd in the sky and even got to play some frisbee with Angus.

After lunch we ended up at a national park where we did canoeing and saw these tiny little falls, did some swimming and I walked up this mountian area called the stacksa dn got a great view of everything including the river were we canoed. At the top I saw this little old lady (not from Pasedina) who walked with a CANE! I was tired from the climb and this old lady made it up (must have been at least 70!) As I walked down she started to as well but at her rate it would have taken her about an hour (took me 5 minutes).

We drove for one hour through Lawen Hill Cattle Stattion to Adel's Grove where we stayed the night. Dinner looked tasty but after I pilled the food on my plate, I found out it was pork and not chicken! The staff there was too kind though and someone brought me a steak pie. I t was fine enough for me but another staff member saw what I was eating and was like "THAT'S what they gave you for dinner, no no no! Do you want some chicken snitzel?" so I got 2 meals.

During dinner who walks in? Kimbo and Graham, the two cowboys. They looked drunk again and Graham was pretending to be blind. Tuirns out they were going to scam the place but when they saw us, thought we'd recognize them so they dropped the act. What a bunch of characters!

After dinner, got to jam with Rich. He showed me how to play the riff from Zombie by The Cranberries and I taught him About a Girl by Nirvana. It was a lot of fun to play and talk to someone else about the guitar.

The rest of the night was playing cars with the others and then hitting the bed for some sleep.

Cairns to Darwin Day 1

After 3 months in the wonderful city of Cairns, it's time to say goodbye! During my last week in town, I finished up with my job (my boss Ivo wanted me to stay SO badly he was trying everything to stop me from quitting), said goodbye to all my friends, and cleared out my room.

During my last night in Cairns, instead of going to bed, went out. My roomate, Eri, saw me get off the couch at 10pm and said "So you're off to bed?" "No, I'm off to the Woolshed!" Was supposed to only go out for an hour but ended up staying up until 2:30am. I got hardly any sleep and finally got up at 5:30am. I called a cab and ended up at the pickup point. Shortly after this huge red coach with the words, Desert Venturer on it's sides pulled up.

Once on the bus, totally passed out. I woke up later on to meet this English guy named Lee sitting next to me. Turns out he's going to be in the same hostel as myself and doing the same tour to Kakadu. We chated it up a bit and listened to each others music, he has a load of CDs that I wanted to listen to.

Our bus driver was this amazing guy named Greg. Turns out he knew Tim and Micheline (owners of the house I lived in Cairns) really well. He totally knew his stuff for the whole duration of the trip. Our first stop was at Ravenshoe for a toilet break and then headed to Millstream Falls. The falls were great. The duration of the day took s west through the Atherton Tablelands and then finally leaving behind the rainforest for a more dryer climate. All along the road were thousands of termite mounds. A great site to see.

We had lunch at the Kalkani Volcano Crater. After a couple of sandwiches, went for a walk with Lee and Chiaki, a nice little Japanese girl, up the mountain side and around the crater. Although it's a volcano, it was completely covered with trees. By then I started to meet a few more people on my bus. The group was mostly Germans and British people. There was Angus, James, Amanda, Jonothan, Rich, and Josh James Jonothan (his first name is Jonothan but was always called Josh and his middle name is James) from England, Aylish from Ireland, Kirsty and Nancy from Germany. there were also two older women (~60 something) travelling with us and they totally had that motherly appeal on everyone (See mom you're not too old to travel!). Also there were a couple of dutch girls and a Japanese guy and a Korean guy among some other peopel I didn't really talk to that much. All in all the group was a great group.

After driving through Mt. Surprise we stopped for the night in Croydon and stayed at the Club Hotel that originated in 1895! After checking in, we headed over to Lake Bellsmore for a swim and to watch the sunset which was beautiful.

After dinner, which was chicken curry, busted out the guitar and practiced for a while until someone got me and said that these two cowboy guys (Kimbo and Graham) were drinking with part of the group and oen of them wanted to play a song on my guitar. I let him use it and he was serenating one of the girls. He told us that he's been playing ina band for 20 years (these guys must have been in their 50s). They were pretty funny guys but obviously drunk. They kept calling me Elvis and putting me on the spot to play something but I got too tense and find it hard to sing a ndplay at the same time anyways, so I didn't get to far. I tyhen called it an early night but was lucky to have claimed the double bed in my room which I shared with Lee (the room, not the bed!)

Cairns Day 112

First off I just wanted to rant about spam. I noticed I got 4 new comments to my last post and they are all SPAM! I can't believe that now spam is getting onto blogs! I've has this website for over a year and I nevr got any spam and now i got FOUR spam comments. They just say stuff like "Awesome blog, check mine out!" and it's probably a computer program and searches through a list and pops the message and link. AUGH!

In another note, IT"S MY LAS DAY IN CAIRNS!

I'm really going to miss this place. I guess I'm just sad because I know my WHOLE trip is coming to an end and also this is going to be the third time I pack up my stuff and leave behind a great place, with friends and memories.

Monday night I went out to the Woolshed and had a great time with my work friends. bought funny plastic hats and gave one to evryone. They were black, orange, green and hot pink. the funny thing is others liked them so much, by the end of the night, the hats were all over the place. People were jus tplucking them from others and then wearing them for a while until somoene else came along. I fought off people though for mine. No ones's going to steal MY HAT MOTHER F@CKER! Haha.

Tuesday I took it really easy and got some last minute errands done. I bought a new guitar case. It's a hard case suitable for the bus and plane. Otherwise my guitar playing days would have come up short if a giant backpack were to topple over it and crushing it while under the bus on the way to Darwin. Someone gave me the idea of putting on stickers from all the places I visit. I already have 3 stickers and hope to get more before I go home. If I had started at the beginning of my trip I'd probably have like 50 stickers.

Wednesday I travelled up to Cape Tribulation. It's the beach area in the Daintree Rainforest. I got picked up near my house and went on a 2 hour drive up north. we stopped for a light breakfast at some small cafe on the road and then headed up to the Daintree River. There, we had a small boat tour and got to see 2 live crocodiles and a baby one. They were just lying on the edge of the river, with not much movement so it wasn't scary or anything. After the boat tour we stopped for a walk through the Daintree in the Cape Tribulation section. It was really nice with lots of tree and ferns. Our bus driver, Junior, gave us the small tour and was showin us a fern that grew a thin long spikey branch nick names 'Wait-a-while' and explained the reason for it is if you get caught on it, the more you tug, the more you get stuck, so you need to 'wait a while' and then push backwards to unhook yourself. I got to test the theory with my baseball cap.

By the afternoon, I got dropped off at the hostel I was staying for the night, The Ferntree. It was a really nice looking place with tiny shacks for rooms. I ended up sharing my room with 3 English girls, Jo, Emily and Frankie. Frankie wanted to climb this nearby mountain, Mount Sorrow, and I was up for it so I recruited 2 peopel I met on the bus ride up, Regine from Germany and Arnaud from France and the 4 of us went up the mountain. The return trip to the top and back would have taken 6 hours and we were already cutting it close to make it back before sun set. On the way to the mountain track we actually got lost and that lost us another hour, haha. We dicided to see how far up we could go, hoping we'd get a nice view halfway. Unfortunatly the whole mountain was covvered with really tall trees and after walking for about an hour and a half it looked like rain so we headed back down. The weather over the two days was pretty crappy. After the walk, I took a nap and at night ended up at PK's, the hostel were everyone goes for a drink and music. I bumped into a dutch girl from my bus trip and she was playing cards with 3 other girls. I ended up teaching them how to play the game 'Asshole' and we played for a couple dof hours before I called it quits.

One of the girls, Gabriel from Slovakia, wanted to do some short walks in the morning before she returned to Cairns so I ended up getting up at 7:30am and going for some walks. We hit Myall Beach but it started to down pour. After getting soaking wet we made our way to Mason's Swimming Hole. I quite liked it because it was this little path in the woods and yo uhad to push branches out of the way and climb over falen trees to reach this little stream. it was an amazing site adn probably my favorite part of my visit up to cape trib. Afterwards, we went on this boardwalk throught The rainforest and saw more trees and ferns.

By 1:30 I got back on the bus and on the way back to Cairns, we stopped at Mossman Gorge, had a quick stop in Port Douglas and reached Cairns by 6pm.

Today I just have a few more things to do before tomorrow. I just came back from buying a new CD player since my old one stopped working. I had a really super duper player with all features but it just won't turn on anymore. I looked around for days and there are no real good selections out here (Cairns is so small, there is 1 mall, 1 electronic shop, etc.) I ended up settling on a real cheap one that was on sale and only cost 60$. I'm hoping it'll last until I get back home and can save u adn by a better on in the future. I also need to do my laundry and pack my bag. then finally tonight I might go to the woolshed for one last beer. I am just really pissed because I found out yesturday I lost my VIP card! I don't know what happened to it. I don't need it anymore but I wanted it as a souvenier. I'm hoping maybe I can get another one made today so I can have it when I return home.

I'm going to try my hardest to update while on the road but do not know how easy/hard it will be. I'm going to do what I did before which is write in my journal by hand and copy my thoughts onto my blog when I get the chance. So keep posted!

Cairns Day 107

man it's starting to get really sad now a days!

Last night was my final shift at Vivo's. I got the rest of the week off so I can get everything sorted out before I leave.

To think, after 3 weeks of not finding a job and very close from just moving away to do banana picking (which is very hard work), I forced myself one afternoon (after a very hard night of drinking th enight before) and with my hungover head, randomly waltzed into Vivo's in Palm Cove, where I met Ivo. Out of luck, he just happened to need a kitchenhand really badly and I got hired that very same day while my friends (who I was jump hunting with) were to lazy and slept at the lagoon all day. I ended up with a great job and house and they ended up moving to some remote area to work in a seafood factory.I had a great time working at Vivo's. The staff was great and supportive, the work was fun and easy. it was also in a great area that was different from where I lived and although the bus trip was 40 minutes a day, I didn't mind the scenary. I also enjoyed the many free lifts home that I recieved from Marco. THANKS MARCO! If any of the Vivo staff is reading this, thanks for a great 3 months in Cairns, you made my work fun rather than a boring job.

Also, Ivo wants to come back to Canada to do some skiing so I tried convincing him to come hit the slopes in Quebec. It's be awesome to see him and his wife Kylie in my climate - FREAKING FREEZING!

I got a shit load of stuff to get done today and i even bailed on spending the whole day having fun with my two great roomates Adam and Carl. They had planed to go wake boarding and then go to a golf range but I just have too much to do! It's going to take ma ll day to get my errands done. At least we're all going out tonight for my last night and then the plan is to hang out tomorrow and just wathc movies and eat pizza. Should be fun! Expect a more sentimental post on friday when it'll REALLY hit me that I'm leaving Cairns (or even if I came in the future, the Cairns that I know) forever.

Cairns Day 103

I just finished paying for all my trips! I'm totally excited! Things are mving fast now. I have 1 more week in Cairns and then I'm on the move This morning I sold my bicycle for 50$ which wasn't a bad deal since it's really falling apart but the guy llked ot fix up bikes as a hobbie so he was okay buying it knowing he'd have to put some money into it. At least he's going to save money doing it himself.

As for my trips, here's my plan:
Next wednesday I'm going on a 2 day/1 night trip to Cape Tribulation, the rain forest north of Cairns. When I return, I'm giving myslef 1 day to pack and then going to on a 3 and a half day bus trip from Cairns to Darwin.
I spend 1 day in Darwin and then hopping onto a bus for a 3 day trip to Kakadu national park.
I then return to Darwin, spend 1 more night in Darwin and then head over to Alice Springs (in the center of Autralia) over 3 days on a bus.
Finally, I'll do a 3 and a half day tour around the red center and once I'm back at Alice, it's a flight to Sydney.
I'm going to be in Sydney for a few days and then I'm on my way home to sweet sweet (and cold!) Canada!

I have a so much to do before I leave - buy a jacket and hat, get a new guitar case, mail things home, etc.- so I decided to quit my job this sunday. I hope it's not a problem since i havn't really told my boss but he knows i"m leaving next saturday so I can't see 2 more days being a problem.

It's cloudy today but it's not going to stop me from playing some guitar so I'm off!

Cairns Day 99

I havn't had the tie to update for a while since i"ve ben both working hard and playing hard.

Let's see what I've been up to:
Since my last post, when I was working that one hour at Peter Pans, I met a guy from canada who went to McGill the same time i did. His anme was Tim and he studied Art (he actually was good friends with this guy I know named Josh a.k.a JV). He seemed like a cool guy so we went out that night and had a few beers.

Wednesday morning started my week of being sick. I wasn't the first person at work to be sick either. EVERYONE at work has been sick in the past two weeks it's nuts! Luckily I bought some meds and within a day the 'burning chest is on fire' pain went away and then it turned into a cold but I was still able to work the whole weekend without slowing down.

Once the weekend ended, Tuesday night i went out with Mark who I had met when I lived in Sydney! Then on Wednesday, James had arrived in town as well! So I went two nights in a row with a bunch of grerat people aqnd had a blast! Wednesday night, a friend of James, Ronin, just arrived in town and was homeless for the night so I let him crash at my place. He's Israeli so I had to be nice to a fellow Jew.

Then the weekend came around again and I ended up working a lot. Saturday, I had the mornign off an dthe weather was nice so I went down to Palm cove a few hours early and played some guitar! I'm getting the hang of it now and I'm learning Everybody Hurts by R.E.M, Wonderwall by Oasis and About the Girl by Nirvana.

I just finished reading Scar Tissue, the autobiographyof Anthony Keidis, the lead singer from The Ret Hot Chili Peppers. I never read that much but after my roomate Carl lent it to me, I finished it in a 2 weeks! it was a GREAT read, 95% of it just talking about drugs. Let me just say he leads a very interesting life. At the age of 12 he lost his virginity to his dad's girlfriend.

Things are coming to a close here in Cairns. On Augst 20th, I will be on my way to Darwint o start the last little trip I'm doing before i return home to Canada. I am quiting Peter Pan tomorrow so I have my last week off with time to do things like file for tax return and sell my bike (if I can because I found out today the brakes are completely shot and my back wheel looks fu#ked up!). Then I need to figure out when I quit Vivo. My boss, Ivo likes me so much he's begging me to stay an extra month. I told him he'll have to call home and ask my mom for permission, haha. Then when I try to tell him I'm leaving on the 20th he seems to be taking it too loosely replying "I know, I know, we'll talk about it later" like he doesn't realize I'm LEAVING and can't just extend my stay.

I'm going to miss Cairns so Im trying ot soak it in as much as possible. I stil havn't seen Cape Tribulation so I may go on a 1 or 2 day trip up there. My peter pan job payed off because my total trip is going ot cost me about 1500$ and I made about 500$ so at least I'm saving something!

ON to comething completely different, today, August 8, is my Father's 71st BIRTHDAY so:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP!

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

Cairns Day 59

Havn't had a chance to update for a few days because i've just been working quite a bit. At Vivo, I worked all weekend (friday night, all day saturday and sunday morning) and then on Monday and Tuesday i started work at Peter Pans. It's a REALLY easy job but I don't really like the work atmosphere. However, I'm only in it for the money I save on my future trips so ti balances out. It was a bit tough working since I don't know any info on travel stuff and a lot of people come in and start asking me questions and i was told to jus t"Sorry I'm just the INTERNET GUY! I know nothing. If you want to talk to one of our travel agents I can put your name on the list and you can have a seat o none of our nice couches or feel free to use the interent until I call your name. I know after a few shifts the work will seem like a piece of cake and I won't feel so overwelmed.

Aside from that, last night i got a suprise call from my friend Rachel, who I knew from my McGill days in Chemistry. She's going to be in town on Sunday and wanted to let me know so we can hang out and catch up, etc. so I'm looking forward to next week since I havn't seen her in a long time. Then, today I got an e-mail from my friend Nils who I met in Melbourne. he's also going to be in Cairns sometime in July so I'm really excited about that as well. I'm starting a collection of visitors it seems!

Last night I rented 3 films:
Identity - starring John Cusack, Ray Liota, Amanda Peet, Jake Busey and others.
GREAT film! Really out there but I loved it! Totally recommendf it for those who want a weird psycho thriller with a twist!

Subject Zero - I remember it bombing when it came out in Montreal and my friend Norm said he walked out of it after the first 15 minutes or something but decided to rent it anyways. I wasn't really watching it, my house mate was, but from what I did see it just seemed really weird and stupid and dont really care about findingout how it ends.

Garden State - Starring Zack Braff and natalie Portman. Have not had a chance to watch it yet but will get on to it when I return home from here (intenet cafe). I have heard great things about it and I like Zack Braff.

stil playing guitar almost everyday and still loving it! I think I still need a LOT of practice btu a lot of people keep telling me I"m getting better or that i'm learning pretty quickly for someone who's been playing for only a month. I really hope I can keep it up in Montreal!