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!

Cairns Day 53

Today has been pretty BLAH!

I woke up kind of early from the phone ringing non-stop for what felt like 30 minutes. I decided to take advantage of getting up early and phoned my brother in Toronto. His wonderful wife picked up and although he was out I did get to have a great chat with her. Turns out my little nephew can roll over! I can't wait to see him when I'm back in Canada. After the phone call I went back home (I use the pay phone around the corner for long distance calls0 and rather than doing anything productive I ended up watching Fight Club. I've seen it before but it's one of those movies you need to watch a few times to understand it fully and now I can say I am on eof the few people that DO understand it FULLY. I also discovered there is a slow motion button on the DVD remote so that was....

WOW! Sorry to break from a really EXCITING (read boring) description of my DVD remote but this guy just interrupted me and turns out he's Graham. I met him in Melbourne many moons ago. We were in the same room and went out to Dallas the week I was leaving to go to Sydney. He remembered my name and everything. Tres cool. It turns out he's leaving to go back to Canada on Monday and with my work schedule it looks like i won't be able ot catch up with im but we may be able to hang out for a quiet one on sunday night. Wow! it's just great to still be bumping into people i"ve met throughout my travels. Even if I didn't know them well, it's just a great feeling knowing that someone knows you, you know? (haha).

My plan the afternoon has been to go into town and get the next set of guitar notes. I don't htink I'll get a chance to practice a lot today but I have been playing everyday and for at least an hour. Yesturday I tried to get that Nirvana song going and I'm hoping int he next few weeks I;ll be a pro at playing Smells LIke Teen Spirit. I still need a lot of work on almost ALL the songs I'm learning but iA figure rather then sticking only to them and trying over and over unti they are perfect, I'd rather continue on with my lessons and learn new things. I have been good thoug, and i still go back to the all the songs I'm learning and pay thenm a few times if I can rather than neglect them and only play new stuff. I have yet to read the notes in detai lbut this weeks lesson includes:
a barre chord
a blues shuffle
the b flat chord
and a few songs:
Hote California - The Eagles
Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (I'm starting to learn that almost EVERY SONG that Bob Dylan has made has been RE-MADE by someone else and as far as I can tell the remakes are ALWAYS better...)
Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers

The only problem with trying ot play any of the songs I"m learning is I don't have the audio tracks of many of them and the tablature notes I'm using don't give tempo or strumming patterns so I'm kind of winging some of it and it's tough trying ot play something when you're not sure it's right or not. I'm hoping when I get back to Canada I'll go back to most of the songs and try hard to get them perfect so I can play them at parties and stuff.

My plan for the rest of the afternoon is to just go back home and eat dinner before work and amybe squeeze in a bit of quitar playing. In promotion with Batman Begins, KFC has this special combo deal called the Bat Box. I have food at home but i"m SO tempted to try it while they have it ( it's probably a very short term thing) so I'm going ot buy it on the way home. That being said, I still have some time to kill so I decided I would just share some random thoughts:

They have this thing in Australia called Vegamite. For those who don't know what it is, it's basicalled a yeast extract (thats what the bottle says). It's this really salty, black spread that you put on toast or other things. I hated it at first but one day I just acquired a taste for it and last week I bought a bottle and now I eat it on my toast all the time. It's quite tasty in small quantities. I'll try and bring a bottle home if I can.

Another weird thing I noticed in Australia is that they don't have three holes in their papers, only two. I bought a binder and a hole punch for my guitar notes and was suprised when I only found 2 holed items. I had to ask a store worker for assistance and she told me thats how it is here.

The other night I went to the Wool Shed and had the weirdest feeling. I saw this girl throughout the night who reminded me SO MUCH of my friend Nadine from back home. She didn't really look like her facial wise all the way but she was the same size and height and just had her hair up in a similar way and had the same type of clothes I coud see Nadine wear. The freaky thing on my end was I just kept staring at her throughout the night and I'm almost certain that girl thought I was some freak.

Finally, the last thing on my mind lately is this WEIRD dream I had the other day. It's not really WHAT the dream was about but what happened DURING the dream. In the middle of the dream I realized something was odd and that the onl yanswer to it was that I was dreaming. Once I was aware I was in a dream I called out to wae myself up. Then I woke up abruptly in my bed. I've NEVER done that before. It was like out of the twilight zone or something. And the weird thing is the dream wasn't about me in danger or anything, it was just me at home in Canada telling someoen about my trip as if I was there right now but then I realized I didnt travel to the places I intend on going to after Cairns and that made me realize something was awry. TWO WORDS: WEI RD

Wow I"m getting hungry now! To the BUD MOBILE! (which is my bicycle)
NA NA NANA NA NA NANA KFC!

Cairns Day 51

Today was a sad day. I had to say goodbye to my friend Sophie. She is flying back to brisbane for a few days and then flying home to Quebec! We promised erach other to meet up again in Montreal for she is moving there to be able to go to Concoridia and study Media and Design. Her, her friends and I had a barbecue righ tbefore she left and it was a lot of fun. I cooked a whole bunch of beef sausages. MM MMMMMM!

Yesturday I spent the day by the lagoon jamming away on my guitar. I'm still loving ita dn learning so much. I still need to work on a lot of my songs but rather than slow myself down and repeat the same songs over and over I'm still readuing and learning new things about guitar playing everyweek. Probably tomorrow I'll pick up lesson 5!

I couple of weeks ago when my hours got cut from Vivo I decided to apply and work at Peter Pans again. I figured if i work for them I'll be able to get a discount on the trips I want to do in the future. They said they'd get back to me and this girl , Kat, who works at Peter Pans and happens to be the girlfriend of a guy who works with my roomate Carl, told me on Monday she was quitting to move on and then yesturday I got a call to com ein for a trial for today. I got up early and made it over to the place and had to work for an hour. It's really easy work, al I have to do is:
Ensure everyone who walks in the door cvomes to the from desk
Find out if they want ot use the internet, talk to someone about a trip or both
Find out where they are heading to after Cairns and if they need to talk to anyone
Burn a photo CD for them if asked
Work the cash for all the money recieved form the internet use
Clean up the place when I have time

It's not really that bad a job, and hope i can stand it for 8 weeks.

Also, last night I saw Batman Begins. It was great. Not he best movie I've ever seen but aside from Batman 1 being a cult classic, this one was the best batman movie I've seen. It was quite cool although I wasn't such a huge fan of th eplot involving the back guy adn his intentions to do evil. If you're into comic book movies and enjoy Chris Nolan (Director of Momento) you'll enjoy this flick, a lot.

Cairns Day 49

I havn't been up to much lately except work and playing guitar. Work is going okay but I have 4 days off in a row (from sunday until wednesday). It's not bad having so many days oof except that:
a)there isn't too much to do that isn't free
b)I'm trying to save my money
c)By not working i"m making less money

So money is the key here. That being said, if anyone whould like to make donations to the "Give Budman Money" fund feel free to donate anything from 1$ to 1000$.

Guitar playing is getting really fun. I picked up a new lesson last thursday. Iotal, I am now know and/or still learning:
The basic chords - A,Am,C,D,Dm,E,Em,G,F
Power chords - For the sixth and fifth strings
The Chromatic Scale
The E Phygarian scale
The A Blues Scale
And I'm learning a handful of simple songs (mostly just the back ground chords, no melodies):
Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver/Chantel Kraviazuk
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrisson
Take it Easy - The Eagles
Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
American Pie - Don McLean
Kiss Me _ Sixspence None The Richer
Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Have you Ever Seen the Rain - CCR
Still havn't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows

I can only plauy a few of them semi well and need work on the rest but for someone who's only played over 3 weeks, I'm doing OK. I'm really loving the guita playing and just spent the last 2 hours sitting under the shade by the lagoon and jamming. I think thats my new favorite thing to do when not working, hanging by the lagoon on a beautiful sunny, cloud-free day and just strumming away for a couple of hours. I stopped because I got hungry and my hand started to hurt.

Tomorrow i"m hoping to go see Batman Begins and maybe rent some movies with my friends Ben and Mandy. I'll write about any movies I see, so keep checking for updates.

Cairns Day 44

First off I realize the pics are TOO big and I will try to fix it sometime soon (or never) depending on time and money.

As for this weeks MOVIE REVIEWS, tuesday I rented Sideways, Pulp Fiction and The Jewish Hammer.

Sideways - stars Paul Giamatti and Christian Hayden Church (think thats his name). It was quite good. I love Paul Giamatti. He played in Confidence and American Splendor. I definitely recommend it for those that like more independent type movies. It's a comedy/drama about a depressed guy who takes his best friend on a wine tasting getaway week before his buddy gets married and certain things happen on the way (but not CRAZY things for that rent Harold and Kumar go to white castle).

Pulp Fiction - I'm probably the only person who never saw this movie. I REALy wanted to finally watch it and loved it. I'm sure everyone has seen this but if not it's with agreat cast including John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Quentin Tarentino (Kill Bill, Resevoir Dogs, Jackie Brown) it's just one of these gangster movies with weird plot twists and lots of shooting. Cult indeed.

Jewish Hammer - By far one of the FUNNIEST movies I've seen in a VERY VERY long time. You may not understand the jokes that much if you're not jewish but there non jewish jokes are all hilarious. This movie just takes the piss out of jews and christians. The premise is that Santa Clause Jr. (Andy Dick) kills santa Clause Sr. for his plot to erradicate Chanukah (the jewish holiday that happens around christmas time) so the Jewish Justice League calls in help from The JEWISH HAMMER (Adam Goldberg)! Totally taking the same format as Shaft, this movie is just great with one liners and crazy jokes. Favorite lines the Hammer are by far "Remember... Stay Jewish!" and "Shabbot Shalom MOTHER FUCKER!"

I also saw a B-rated movie called the circuit (Adam, roomate rented it) and it was also very funny but it's an action movie and isn't supposed to be funny at all. Not worth even mentioning the plot because it was just SO BAD.

Cairns Day 43

Here's a little run down of what I've been up to since moving to Cairns but this time with PICTURES!

As always, I've been going out and having fun at the bars. My newest hang out is the Woolshed where as I've mentioned before, I have a VIP card and I get cheap drinks!
Don't worry I'm not going overboard or anything...




Here are photos of my lovely room that I have to myself in the most awesome house I've lived in so far in Australia.
I got a double bed to myself and I already decorated the room slightly.



This is my "closet" which is basically a wire hanging from the ceiling in the corner of my room.



This is my favorite part of the room. What LOOKS like a REAL closet is actually just
doors drilled into the walls of the room to give the illusion there is closet space,
but there isn't.



I'm still working at that Italian restaurant Vivo:



The Kitchen:



My space in the kitchen:



The view you get from the kitchen, there's a beautiful beach right outside:



And the man himself, Ivo, the owner of the restaurant and my boss:




My friend Sophie is in town so we went out for dinner the other night.



She wanted Indian food but it was like 20$ a dish so we opted out for this food court where they have about 4 resturant competing, each offering a buffet style of food where you pay for the size of your dish. I was starving and took total advantange by shoving as much as I could on the plate.



I get hungry everytime I look at that pic.


Today was another beautiful day so I went by the Lagoon.



Basically it's just a fancy public swimming pool for everyone to use since the real beach in Cairns looks like this:



and the funny thing is they are right next to each other so if you face one way it looks like a resort and then behind you it's like Swamp Thing's home land.

Being such a nice day as it was, I sat under a tree in the shade and played guitar for about an hour and half until I broke one of the strings.



Thankfully, the guitar shop was nearby and I got it fixed right away and was told some tips to avoid it in the future.

Sophie just invited me to a BBQ which is perfect timing since I was going to buy groceries anyways today, so I'm off to the supermarket so by some BBQ food and cook up a storm.

Cairns Day 38

My work hours were cut recently and now I have 3 days off instead of 2. that being said, Wednesday night I went out to the Wool Shed to meet up with two irish girls I met the other day, Yvonne and Grace. Very nice people and we had a good time together. My relationship with the Wool Shed is improving though. The landlord of the house I live in, manages the bar, my roomate Karl, works in the bar, someone I met in noosa now works at the bar as a bartendress, and I also foudn out the same night that someone I know from Peter Pan travel (where I use the internet) is going out with a guy who works with Karl. Plus, I have a VIP card that gets me cheap drinks and free entry.

So I get to the bar on tuesday and Karl happened to be there for a heavy night of drinking and told the bouncer I'm coola dn that I live with him so I got to skip the line and got in for free. Then I couldn't find the girls but bumped into this guy, Stephen who I met the week before and we hung out. Karl came up to me and introduced me to his work buddies and I got a free drink from him and finally I met up the girls. We hung out until 2am but then I called it quits since I had to work the next day and even though I only started work at 5pm I like feeling good on a work day.

ON a completely different note it's about time I put this out in the open. I havn't been very honest with everyone and I've had a secret that I think I should now throw on the table since my mom found out about it recently... I AM GAY!!!!

JUST KIDDING!

No I'm NOT gay... BUT I WAS hiding something from everyone. Three weeks ago I bought a GUITAR. It's a Sanchez Steel String SK-17 Accoustic Guitar and it's bright blue! I kept walking by a guitar shop on the way to the city when I first moved into my new house and it kept tempeting me to pop in and look around. I gave it a lot of thought and figured if I work from 5pm to 12am and get up at 10am every morning it doesn't really leave me much time to go to the city and there itsn't much to do except watch TV or rent a DVD now and again. So I decided if I were to buy a guitar, I could teach myself daily and have something fun to do besides sit at home until work. I walked into the store, spoke to the guy and he told me that had a special going on. For 200$ I got the guitar, carrying case, a strap to hold the guitar on my holder, an electric tuner AND a DVD on how to play guitar. Howvere, I had a feeling even before buying the kit that the DVD would probably be crap (it's not very good), I looked online and found an EXCELLENT webside designed JUST for beginners. It written by a quitar instructor and basically he just put on the interenet the lessons he would teach to his students inreal life. Each lesson is designed for 1 week. There are a total fo 12 lessons and so far I am on lesson 3. After 3 weeks of plying I now know the 9 basic chords, 3 scales, 3 struming patterns and a I'm trying ot learn a handful of songs. I can't play the songs properly yet but the whole point of them, the instructor states, is just to practice changing chords. I didn't buy the quitar with any intentions of becoming a rock god but only a means to kill time and learn something new. I'm enjoying it quite a lot and I hope by the time I move back home I'll be able to play a few simple songs. I wanted to keep the news to myself but I forgot my mom pays my VISA bills and was wondering what I spent for 200$ in a music store.

Well now that it's out in the open, I now have other things to talk about on this blog.

Different story all together, the other night I got a suprise call from my Russian Relatives in Bondi Beach, Syndey. They are such nice people! Jenny, called just to see how I was doing and wanted to make sure eveythign was ok. She asked me all the typical questions - ae you ok? Are you working? How are the folks? Have you gained weight? I was nice talking to her about all that stuff and I hope to meet up with them one more time before I go back to Canada which is looking to be sometime in September.

So for the latest news on my adventures, DVD reviews and guitar lesson updates keep checking this website!

Cairns Day 36

Well as of Monday ngiht I am now a VIP member of the Wool Shed. I am now entitled free entry and cheap drinks (and possibly even meals) at the most popular backpacker barin Cairns. The card even has a photo of me. It's the coolest thing I aquired in Cairns next to my movie store membership card.

Speaking of movies, yesturday I ended up renting The Village, The Forgotten, Walking Tall, Shown of the Dead and I picked up Alien VS Predator for my roomate, Adam - he wanted something horror-ish. I had already seen Shawn of the Dead but it's a great movie although, even though it's supposed to be a comedy it's REALLY graphic in the blood department but it's not scary. The Forgotten was OK, I liked th eeffects but the story does go downthe drain near the end. The village was quite good. I remember the reviews not being so great but it was worth the watch. I quite like M Knight Shamalayan (or how ever you spell his name) movies and this one was as good as his others. Finally Walking Tallw as a great brain cell killer. Got to love the Rock. After spending most the day inside watching movies I decided I should get out of the house, so I left my home ot meet up with Ben, this guy I met on my Whitsundays trip, and we went to go see Star Wars 3. I actually liked it! it's probably the best out of the 3 new ones. The only thing is I always get lost when they talk politics and I find there are just so many special effectsd and things moving all the time it's hard to actually focuson some of the sceneries. Like in a normal movie you have the camera start to focu on a building and maybe you see a cloud move or a bird fly by but thats about it! In Star Wars (1-3) you have space ships and aliens and robots and Storm Troopers and jedi And wookies and all sorts of things moving about in 1000 directions just while the camera focuses on ONE SIMPLE BUILDING! It's like that one scene could have taken weeks and cost thousands of dollars just to make up.

Today I just took it easy and have been in the city for a while. I have a few errands and then it's back to the house.

Cairns Day 34

Sorry I havn't posted anything in a while but the reasons are:

a) I was home sick with a really bad case of the stomach flu

b) I don't really have much to say anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I could type lines and lines about my bowel movement but I doubt anyone wants to read about it (and if you do you're just a very SICK person!).

Aside from that I'm not really up to anything that really exciting to write about. Since I'm stationary now in Cairns, I havn't really done any sight seeing. Cairns is VERY small. The main part basically has a giant pool/lagoon area, there are a bunch of shops, resturants, convinience stores and a supermarket. In the back of the city centre is a giant mall. Thats Cairns for you. Most people go off on trips to the reef or Cape Tribulation. I havn't looked into any trips yet but I still have that voucher for the day trip on the reef that I won last week.

Last night I was working and was now told that my hours will be cut because they want to share the hours witht he new guy they just hired. So, now I'm going from 35-40 hours/week to 25-30 hours/week, It's not too bad now though since I won;t be as stressed at work but now I got to figure out what to do with 3 days off in a row. All there is to do is watch movies, or go to the city and check my e-mail. I'll see if I can find something on the side to keep me busy (maybe sell drugs or even better my body).

Well at least tomorrow I plan on going to see Star Wars 3, I hear it's great so I'm looking forward to see it.

As for something semi-exciting to write about, last night I went out with 5 guys from work, Marco, Charles, Aaron, Hamish and Marco. We started at P.J. Obriens and made our way to The Woolshed. Good times had by all. I even bumped into 2 girls I met in Melbourne. They said they remebered me but I think they were so drunk they would have believed what anyone would have told them. All in al, though, it was a good ngith and i got to bed at like 4am. now I know it only casts 7$ to cab home!