Life of Steve Pearson

home

2008-12-28T23:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I lied to my friends and family for months about going to New Zealand for Christmas. I never intended of actually going to NZ. All along my plan was to come home for Christmas and surprise everyone, most importantly my family. Details of my return never made it to Canada, which made the surprise just as I had invisioned it to be.

I had the surprise recorded, which can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H_REhL4DD0

From the time my alarm went off, to the time I rolled into Drew's driveway,(where I hid out for the first night) I had been travelling for about 38 hours. It involved lots of naps, hanging out in Hong Kong, a bump up to business class, and a sigh of relief when the plane landed in Vancouver.

I had a terrific time on my travels, but home is just about the next best thing. I met some awesome people, some of whom I will be friends with for life. I will keep these memories with me forever.

Thank you for reading.

my new hat

2008-12-21T22:42:00.000-08:00

On the last night in Byron Bay, I acquired a hat from one of the aussie guy's that was staying at the hostel. My intention, was to try to buy it off him before I left, but he was no where to be found before I left. So, I got a new hat. I've been wearing it out in Sydney, and the girls just can't seem to keep there hands off it. My new friend Cristian, calls it a 'magic' hat.

Cristian is half Italian, and half German, but lives in Germany. Although, if you met him, you would thinks he was 100% Italian. He's pretty much the only person I've hung out with the last three days. We both checked into the room at the same time, and I later found out that it was his very first day in Australia, and his very first day outside Europe. He's 27, but you wouldn't know it. He's here for 3 weeks before flying to America, and South America.

Today, we were out shopping because he forgot to bring a beach towel from home. I was walking in front, and I guess at some point he had stopped. "Steve!" he yelled. I turned around, as did many other people in the mall, and I walked over to where he was. Well. He was squatting down, looking at speedo's. Now, I have never been speedo shopping, nor have I been around when someone else is speedo shopping. I stood next to him for about 20 seconds. Then I got quite uncomfortable. There he is, picking up different speedo's and inspecting them all over, and I have no idea what to do. I finally decided I'd have to let him go, and I went off and looked at other things.

Tonight I have a set at O'Malley's Hotel. It's the Irish pub in which I first played in Oz. The same guy is still there, and when I asked him about playing he said he remembered me. I'm pretty sure I've improved quite a bit since I last played there, and having a 'magic' hat while I'm up there shouldn't hurt either.

Tomorrow, my adventure takes another turn. I'm off to the land of lambs. I will be flying to New Zealand to catch up with all the awesome kiwi's I've met on my adventure over here, for Christmas, New Years and beyond. Some of them are still kicking around Oz, but most of them are back home for the holidays. I really hope they have comfortable couches.

niiiiice.

the nimbin bob marley

2008-12-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

I guess we met a celebrity?

Liz, Amy, Lucy and I rented a car in Byron Bay, and drove to Nimbin.Nimbin is classed as the Amsterdam of Australia. Hippieville. When we got out of the car, I looked across the street where there was an outdoor cafe. I have never seen so many dread-locks in one place before. Almost everyone in there had dreads. Old ladies, young men. When we walked passed, there was a guy playing guitar. Liz asked if he could take a picture of him. He said okay. We saw him again later on, and I snapped this picture of him. He then told us that he was the 'Nimbin Bob Marley', and that we could look him up on the Internet if we wanted to. Maybe later.

The city itself is tiny, so we just walked down the main street. Apparently everyone in Nimbin sells drugs. Half the people we walked by tried to sell us this or that. We went to the museum, which wasn't really a museum at all. It was more like a 'Legalize Pot' convention. Most of the stuff in the 'museum' had to do with Marijuana. There were documentaries on the tv's explaining the benefits of pot, pieces of VW vans, neon lights, and more marijuana paraphernalia. When we walked out of the back of the museum, that's where the magic happens. Drug deals going down all over the place. Old ladies selling there 'special' cookies, and old men insisting that they are the best around.

I purchased a hemp bracelet, it seemed like the right place to get one, but I somehow managed to rip it last night, so I don't know how long it's going to hold together. Liz, Amy and I jump back on the bus tonight to take an all night bus trip to Sydney. Byron Bay was fun, but I was sick for about 3 days, and my sinus was blocked so I had a killer headache all the time. It did keep me in at night so I didn't spend to much money here. high people are honest people.

Surfers Paradise

2008-12-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

This hostel in Surfers Paradise is one of the best yet. Good people, good atmosphere. At one point there must have been about 15 other Canadians here. We won the international drinking contest a few nights ago. I put my Halloween costume on for the festivities.

The beach here is really nice, I've been playing in the waves almost every day, but it also has rained everyday since I have been here. The rain has even kept us in at night, because no one wants to walk into town when its pouring down.

There's a pub crawl tonight, which I think I may have to sign up for. It will be my last night in Surfers, I'm heading to Byron Bay tomorrow to rejoin the 'Mental Express'. Go team.

(this is usually where there would be a stupid photo. I can't upload any photos. So just imagine me dressed as Levi Jeans, and a few other guys in a swimming pool cheering, one of which whom is wearing a Canadian flag.)

no doot aboot it.

good news, bad news.

2008-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

I'll start with the bad news.

James and Gavin didn't return with James's car. It needed a new transmission, which obviously couldn't be afforded, so it took a trip to the car wrecker. The next day, Seb's car got stolen from outside the hostel. Fortunately, 2 days later he did get it back, but they had got in an accident with it, the steering is all messed up, and his Nintendo DS is gone as well. He left a few days ago with Frankie, and his friend Kon, to go to Byron Bay.

Gavin, Amy, and Natalie left for Noosa to try to find work, but are having trouble. Clint went up to Coolum to visit a friend and when he gets back he is giving me a ride to Surfers.

Amy #2, Lucy, Camilla, JoJo, James and myself are still here in Brisbane. They are trying to find jobs, I am relaxing.

The good news....

Back in June, I filed a tax return. When I filled it out, I made a mistake, and to make a long story short, the ordeal ended with me having a sore hand, and the locker in my room having a dent. I was told there was nothing I could do, and that my return was going to be $47.19. Afterwards, I decided to file another one with a professional, even though filing 2 would make them both void. I had to take the chance. I'd rather take the chance and end up with nothing rather than having $47.19 and never knowing.

Anyway, I hadn't heard anything for months and figured I was never going to get my money, then I got an email. An email stating that maybe I was getting my money after all. Well, to make another long story short, today, the money has finally arrived in my account. How Much? I'll tell you how much, Twenty-Three Hundred FREAKIN BUCKS! So, it's safe to say I'll be going out with my friend bourbon tonight.

If that doesn't make me smile, nothing will.

Anyway. A few more nights here in BrisVegas. Nic, my kiwi mate from Perth arrives here tomorrow, so we will have at least one big night before I head to Surfers. Other than that, I'll catch ya on the flipside.

i make up my own dance moves.

Whitsunday's and Fraser Island.

2008-11-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

Whitsunday's was a blast!
We boarded our sailboat 'Habibi' and I was keeping my fingers crossed that I wouldn't get sick. About an hour into the trip, I realized that my body was alright, and that I would be fine for the rest of the sail. We sailed for a few hours the first day, and anchored in Hook Bay for the night. There was a cook on the crew, so all the meals were provided. We had a bbq the first night. We also had quite a few drinks. Amazingly, no one fell overboard.

The next morning, we sailed to Whitsunday island, and chilled out in the sun on the beach. Since it's stinger season out there, we had to wear stinger suits, which I thought were just fantastic. After a few hours on the beach, we sailed further on, and stopped at the reef for some snorkeling. The captain was really counting on turtles being there, but unfortunately we saw none.

The second night was much like the first, only everyone knew eachother better. We rocked out on my guitar, had some drinks, and were having a good time, then the captain said he wanted to show us something. What was it? A mask and snorkel, only the snorkel had been turned into a beer bong. Uh oh. Everyone was drinking goon that night, except for me. Lots of goon was poured down that snorkel.
Once we returned to Airlie Beach, we grabbed some supplies, and headed back out on the road. That night we stopped at a free camping spot on the outskirts of Mackay. Once we set up camp, most people went to bed. But a few of us decided to go check out the local pub. The Eton Hotel. We walked in, and we could tell this was a very local pub, that probably never saw backpackers before. Frankie, Gavin, Jon, Seb, and myself ordered some beers, and before we had even finished half of them, one of the locals ordered us another round. Before we had even got to those beers, the same man ordered us a jug. He came down and started talking to us, and we purchased him a jug this time. Meanwhile, the bartender just stood at the side of the bar where we were sitting and chatted to us about things from James Bond, to Rugby, to Bundaberg Rum. He asked us if we knew how to drink Bundaberg(which is Australian Rum, and is horrible). We said we didn't. "Well, I'll show you." He gave us some free shots and told us after you get it in your mouth you have to swish it all over to get the flavour out. I'm sure I got the flavour out. It was terrible. I think Bundaberg is gross even when it's mixed with coke. Nonetheless, it was free and we were grateful.

The next day we set out for Hervey Bay. We camped outside of the town. In the morning, we went into the town, shopped around a bit, and then James's car broke down again. We tried to press on, but it broke down yet again. In the end, we had to leave it outside a ranch, because we didn't have time to get it fixed as we had to be in Rainbow Bay by 3:30pm to check in for our 2-night,4x4 trip to Fraser Island the next day. We made it in time, had our orientation, then hit the sack.

Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world. There was a lot of sand. We didn't get there to till the afternoon, so we set up camp and started the festivities. There were 3 4x4's, and 11 people in each. A pretty good amount of people to start a party. No one was awake passed midnight. In the morning we packed up, and set out for Lake Mckenzie. It had been so long since I swam in fresh water. It was gorgeous. After that, we drove to Lake Wobby. A few times it felt like the truck was going to flip because the roads were so treacherous. Once we left there, it was time to go back and set up camp again and make dinner. Night two was much like the first.On the third day, we started the day with a drive to an old shipwreck, followed by a drive along the beach to Indian head. We had to be at the ferry before 3:30p. We left at 1pm, which we thought would be plenty of time. Once we realized we might not make it in time, we flew along the beach. Fortunately, all three trucks made it just in time, even though we had been separated that day.Today, Gavin and James headed back to get his car(hopefully), and Seb took a car load down to Brisbane. The rest of us are staying in Rainbow beach tonight, and heading for Brisbane tomorrow.if i were a superhero, i'd wear that stinger suit.

the mental express

2008-11-17T20:46:00.001-08:00

"So Steve, what did you do for your birthday?"

"Well, I rode on a ferry, had some chicken, then sat in a car for about four hours!"

If that was it, it wouldn't have been a very good birthday. Eventually, after James's car broke down the second time, we got to a Liquor store in Airlie Beach. I purchased a bottle of Slate Bourbon, which after drinking goon for the last few weeks, was a real treat. After I bought it, I noticed they had a Slate promotion going on. I asked the guy behind the counter if I could have a shirt, seeing as it was my birthday, and I bought some bourbon. Unfortunately, you have to buy the pre-mix to get the gear. But, after a puppy dog look on my part, he said, "I can give you a hat?" "SURE!" Well, when he was grabbing the hat he looked up at me again and said, "Medium or extra large?" SCORE. Hat and a shirt. Birthday's rule. Afterwards, we headed to a camp site, and had some drinks. Yadda yadda yadda....

Now, for the adventure thus far....

We left Cairns, and our first stop was Mission Beach for a night. On the way, we went to Josephine Falls, which was absolutely beautiful. Then it was off to Mission Beach. Guitar, goon, laughs, camping, self explanatory.

From Mission Beach, we headed south, and stayed in Saunders Creek, at a 24/hr rest stop. Nothing exiting to report, sorry.

The following day, we set out for Magnetic Island. Took a ferry out, and tried to book into a camp site. They were both full. The girl behind the desk said, "If you can't find a place, you guys could stay in my back yard?" And so it was set. She gave us directions, and we drove to her house, and set up our junk in the backyard. It was a fun night. Since everyone on the 'Mental Express' has heard me play guitar before, most of them already sing along with some of the songs I've written. We partied it up with goon, then retired to our tents.

The next day we checked into a campsite, and celebrated Clint's 26th birthday. Unfortunately we were all pretty tired from the previous day's, so we didn't tie it on very tight.

In the morning, which was my birthday, we packed up and headed for the ferry. (see opening paragraph)

Tomorrow, we begin a 2 day, 2 night sailing trip through the Whitsunday's, which I've heard is quite the little party, and you can better believe with the 'Mental Express' crew on board, there's bound to be a few people leaning over the edge.

frankie loves birthday's.

cape tribulation

2008-11-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

The free Internet at the hostel has been down for about a week, so I was unable to get on here.

During that week, we headed up to Cape Tribulation. We took Frankie and Liza along with us as well. It was awesome. Slept in a tent in the rain forest. That's a first for me. The beach was spectacular. We sat down in chest deep water and drank champagne, then we headed into the shade where I rocked on the guitar for awhile. It was 2 days of relaxing, and 2 nights of goon for everyone but me. I decided I'd take a night off, because I know what is in store for me down the coast.

On the way back, we went to a lookout that looks out over the Daintree Rainforest. Again, a spectacular view to say the least.

Afterwards, we drove to the crocodile boat tours. Wow, again. When we were at the farm in Broome, we were protected with a fence. Now, we are in a boat that the Croc's could easily flip over if they wanted to. Luckily for us, we got to see the biggest croc that lives in the river. 5.5 meters long, and about as wide as they get. Our tour guide said he saw 'Fat Albert' take a full sized bull down, and swam with the bull on his back after he had drowned it. He warned us that we couldn't get too close because if he got agitated, he would come at the boat quicker than we would be able to get away. We started floating closer, and then the croc dropped under. Everybody's heart stopped. We all survived.

The drive was also quite amazing. We drove right along the beach with the ocean only a stones throw away.

What's next?

The 'Mental Express'. 'Cairns - ?'

12 of us from the hostel have teamed up, and are going to do the East Coast as a group.

We just booked our trips to Fraser Island, Whitsunday's and the Noosa Everglades. If these few weeks in Cairns were a sign of things to come, this trip is going to be a bloodbath.

such a tourist.

life's a garden, dig it.

2008-11-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

Halloween is one of my favourite day's of the year. Mainly because it's an excuse to dress up and act like a jerk. This Halloween was no different.

We started of the festivities at the hostel, with an all you can eat, $4 bbq. It was good to get a good solid meal in, because I knew it was going to be a big night.

Clint dressed up as 'Nanna Jo', Amy dressed up as a mermaid, Gavin as a Chippendale, and me, I was 'Levi Jeans'. I have never stayed in character for so long before. From the time I left my room, to the time I returned to my room at the end of the night, I only broke character a few times. The best part of being a redneck/trucker ect, was it gave me a good excuse to shotgun a whole bunch of beers.

From the hostel, a bus came and picked us up and took us to 'The Woolshed'. Obviously, in Australia they don't take Halloween as serious as we do. I'd say only 60-70% of the people in there were actually dressed up. But, all that mattered was that I was dressed up, and I was having a good time.

Today, is Mad Monday here at the Asylum. I haven't participated in a Mad Monday since Drew, Matt and myself were last here at the beginning of March, so this should be a good time.

Until then, keep on keepin on.

Good ole' Nanna Jo.

back in cairns

2008-10-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we drove a lot.
The drive here was pretty fun, but it took 6 days. I ate a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches.

The highlight was the 'Daly Waters Pub'. It's one of the oldest pubs in the country. The walls are covered in crap. Bra's, money, jersey's, photos, and pretty much anything that can be fastened to a wall. When people go there, the point is to leave something behind on the wall. Gavin stapled his old youth card up, and I stapled up my treasured 'Point Pub' card. We found a great spot right as you walk in. Clint also donated his ram's skull he got on the farm he worked at. We all signed it, but left it in the hands of the manager to put up. Hopefully she puts it up.Out in the back, there's even more junk. On a wall of licence plates, we found a British Columbia plate. Sweet as.

We began constructing our Halloween costumes yesterday, and hopefully I'll find the missing pieces today so I can 'Giv'r' this weekend.just an average morning on the road.

make party

2008-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Darwin yesterday. Camped for free all the way up. We didn't do very much sight seeing or exploring though. The only nature stop we took was to go see the 'Geike Gorge'. Other than that it was business as usual. Drove as much as we could so we could get here. We saw heaps of dead cows and kangaroos on the way. The smell was rancid, even when driving past them at 100km's. The reason for all the roadkill is road trains. Imagine an 18 wheeler at home, and add two more trailers on the back. They can be as long as 52.5 meters long, so you can imagine that they don't stop for nothing, and even a full size bull doesn't even faze them.

We could have made it a bit quicker, but we got off to a slow start on Saturday, and then we had a little bit of car trouble on the way, but we made it nonetheless. We checked into a hostel and I got to sleep in a real bed for the first time in months. And, best of all, the room is air-conditioned.

Tomorrow we exit Darwin as quick as we arrived, and have about a week of driving until we arrive in Cairns. We are hoping to be there in time for Halloween, so we can hit up the Woolshed.
numero uno.

its like a party, but its better than a party

2008-10-12T00:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we celebrated birthday's, even though no one in camp was having a birthday. But, back home in Canada, three of me and Drew's comrades were. My brother Colin, Nate Byron, and Matt Junker all share October 10th as the candle and cakes day.

I picked up some sparklers, we got some beers, and we pretended we were at a birthday party, although, we sort of were.

We are leaving Broome on Saturday morning. Gavin bought a Nissan Patrol, that we can easily fit all our stuff in. Him and Amy will ride in that, and I will roll with Clint in his Ford Laser. We will have room for two more people to ride with us, so I'm going to put up a sign on a few message boards around town. Drew is heading back to Perth, then flying home for a short vacation to Canada.

I think my last day of work will be Wednesday night. Definitely going to miss working at that place. I'll especially miss the guys in the kitchen. We had a lot of great laughs. And, I'm not sure I'd ever have the opportunity to tell anyone I've worked as a sandwich maker.

Yap.

crocadilly

2008-09-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Drew Dow arrived last Wednesday.
On Sunday we went to the Crocodile Farm.

It was quite a nice little day. Clint drove Gav, Amy, Drew and myself 18km's out of Broome to the Farm. We walked through a giant croc's mouth and into the lobby. Just outside the lobby was one of the lakes, which is home to seventy salt water crocodile's. We had an hour to burn before the tour started, so we walked around and looked at the other animals. Dingos, roos, peacocks, snakes, emus, owls, bats, wallabies ect. There were a ton of different kinds of animals. The tour started at the big lake, where he started throwing big fish onto the beach. Then it really started. The croc's came flying out of the water for a feed. Crawling over each other, snapping at each other, kind of like the scene in 'Indiana Jones'.

The next few stops were at specific croc's pens. Croc's from movies, croc's captured for murder and so on. One of the croc's was 5.5 metres in length. It was a giant. All in all it was an awesome day, and I made it to work afterward just in time.

We moved out of the M.C.G yesterday because they close it for the wet season. We moved outside the fence, where we are no longer safe from the sun in the morning. But there is a plus side. Adam, a buddy from camp checked into a hostel and hooked me up with some goodies. A giant 6 man tent, which I can stand up in, and a double size air mattress. I slept great last night, but the sun was pretty terrible at around 8:30 this morning.

October 15th is the target date for leaving Broome and heading to Darwin. Hopefully I can save up a nice amount of cash before then.

you could be next.

"Why are you guys dressed like pirates?"

2008-09-23T00:30:00.001-07:00

"BECAUSE WE AHHRRRRRRRR!!!"

Pirate night was awesome.

When I showed up for work on Saturday night, I was already wearing tattoo's underneath my uniform. I told Brian about my predicament and asked if I could go as early as possible. He said he would see what he could do. Things were looking up when he got me to show one of the girls what they should do if i go, then he sent her home early. I was a little bummed, then he sent another one of the girls to me. This time, after I showed her some stuff, I was allowed to go. I peddled home so fast.

We didn't play Centurion, but we did slam some beers and yarr'd a lot.

We first went to 'The Oasis', one of the nightclubs here in Broome. When we got there, I asked one of the bouncers if he knew if we would get into 'The Bungalow' after, still dressed as pirates. He assured me that we would not get in.We partied like pirates, or at least what we thought pirates might party like. We got quite a few strange looks, but I just looked back at people as if they were the ones dressed as pirates, and I was the normal one. Like most events, we took lots of pictures, and drank drinks until it closed. Most people were tired, drunk and sleepy, but since I had been working so much, and didn't have to work the next morning, I insisted in trying to get into 'The Bungalow'. I walked over with Liam, who looks like he's a pirate even if he's not dressed as one. We waited in line for awhile, then when we got to the door, we were let straight in. YARR! Bungalow is pretty hazy, and since me nor Liam had a camera, we aren't really sure what went on. When we got back to camp, after a stop to Mcdonald's it had to be near 5am. There were still people in the camp up carrying on from the night before. We tried for what felt like an hour, to levitate this guy sitting in a chair. One guy thought he knew what he was doing, and was coaching us, but everyone was confused, and doubtful when it didn't work the fifth time.

I eventually decided to go to bed at an unknown time. At 10am, my phone rang. "Steve, its Brian, do you think you can fill in a shift at 11am?" I scrubbed off my makeup and tattoo's in a hazy shower. Luckily, the girls' at work took care of me and forced lots of coffee and liquids into me so I would feel better.

I am now 'The' bartender at Lustre. The other 2 guys are gone, which makes me numero uno. Last night I trained a new girl behind the bar, and this morning, I trained a new guy to sandwich build. This week I put in 52 hours, would have been much more, but we closed pretty early a few nights. Tonight I have the night off, and tomorrow morning off, so I am going to enjoy myself. Today marks my 18th day in a row without a day off. The new schedule is out for next week, and I work every day. Two Sandwich shifts, and six bar shifts. Cha-Ching. I really don't mind working that much, it's pretty fun work, and I know by sacrificing a little bit now, means a little more fun when we get to the east coast.
Yarr.

gettin' the hours.

2008-09-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

W.A, stands for Western Australia.

For me, it means Workaholics Anonymous.

This week, I have 10 shifts.

The sandwich making was going great. Then Brian, the manager, asked me if I'd like to do a shift behind the bar. I said "Sure!". I had already worked from 7am until 2:30pm. My bar shift started at 5:30pm. I ripped home, ate, showered relaxed then headed back into town. I worked until 9:30, giving me a nice 11.5 hours for the day. The next day, Jaz came up and asked if I wanted to move behind the bar full-time. "But what about my sandwiches?"

For the moment, I'm doing both. I'll probably do about 60 hours this week. Starting next week, I'll be full time bar, and filling in on sandwiches when the new sandwich maker has his days off.

The bar is awesome. I've done 2 shifts so far. It's a pretty classy place, so I'm blending together lots of new cocktails, and daiquiri's. It's also a lot more chilled out then The Shed. Most of the drinks I make are for the waitress's tables, so I don't have a line up of people waiting for me.

A major investment I made was buying a bike. One of the girls at the M.C.G. was leaving and was asking $30. I haven't seen a bike go for less than $50 yet so I think I got a pretty sweet deal.It takes about 15 minutes to bike into town so it's pretty essential as walking takes about 40.

Pirates night didn't happen because Lee was still on a pearling boat, and we weren't really ready for the extravaganza. Supposedly we are doing it tomorrow, but I work until about 10pm, so I'm hoping it gets put off again.
that's how i roll.

Steve Pearson, Sandwich Maker.

2008-09-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

At the moment, I have 2 jobs.

Kitchen hand at the Black Pearl Restaurant, and a 'Sandwich maker' at Lustre's. The job at Black Pearl is pretty much being a dishwasher, but I needed a job so i took it. Fortunately, Lustre's called after 2 shifts at the BP and offered me a job. I have 2 shifts left at the BP, then I'm leaving, although, if I don't get to wrecked working at both places on Friday, I'll ask if I can just work on Monday nights.

The job at Lustre's is wicked. I start at 7am, 6 days a week(7 if I wanted). First task is to make toasted breakfast sandwiches. Next is to make approximately 30 various sandwiches. After that I make 6 bagelwiches, 6 Turkish bunwiches, and lastly 10 rollwiches. Once I've completed that, I help the kitchen out with whatever they need done. Usually it involves rolling out pizza doughs, but today they had me preparing garlic bread, and peeling vegetables. Since I'm busy the whole time, the shifts have been flying by.

Every Tuesday night, Murphy's, an Irish bar, goes off. It's open mic night. I've got up the last 3 Tuesday and rocked out. The last 2 times I've played some of my own songs. While I was in the washroom someone walked in singing my song 'Leah Tequila'. It was a moment of triumph. Every time I get offstage I get bombarded with people telling me they really liked it. Next Tuesday though, I may not be getting on stage. Our family at the M.C.G. has something planned for Tuesday;

Step 1: Dress up like pirates.
Step 2: Play Centurion. (100 shots of beer, in 100 minutes)

Step 3: Drink Pirate drinks like Captain Morgans.

Step 4: Go to Murphy's.

Step 5: "Yarrr" until we can't "Yarrr!" no more.

After all that, I don't think I'll be able to put on a show without embarrassing myself.

English Rob bar tends at Oasis. We go there on Thursday, and sometimes Saturday nights. Those nights usually get a little crazy. We take turns buying rounds. Many rounds get bought. Last Thursday, Ben, Lee, Joe and myself ventured down. Rob was hooking us up with 10 middies for the price of one. We were getting the equivalent of 5 pints for $4.50. It works like that every week. No wonder we get crazy.

Tonight is an important night for me. I haven't eaten fast food in a whole month. The last time was the day I left Perth, when we took a stop at Hungry Jacks. Tonight at 6pm, my 1 month is complete. I'm going to Mcdonalds for dinner. Big Mac meal. I've never had so much control. On numerous occasions, we've all been walking back from the bar, and passed by Mcdonalds. We walk through the drivethru. Everyone orders but me. They offer bites, fries, and tastes, but I haven't cracked once. Dodey figures I'm going to feel sick after eating tonight because my body won't be used to it, but I will worry about that after I consume the tasty goodness.

I pinned up some pictures of Al in our camp at the M.C.G. I see him everyday looking at me from the tree. I still miss him, but I'm not depressed like I was before. I have some great friends here that helped me get through it and made me laugh so I would forget I was sad at all. That's the thing about travel friends. You get to know them so fast. For instance, I see some of my best friends at home for about 10 hours a week, most likely, Friday and Saturday night. Here, I see the same people for 10 hours a day. So in the last few weeks, I've hung out with friends here that at home would add up to 3 months or so.

The world must be a really small place. Not only is Gavin from Burnaby, but while I was on the phone with my mom a few days ago, we discovered that Gavin's dad graduated a year before my mom did at Burnaby North. But, it gets smaller. I met Marc at Murphy's last week, hes from New West and he is staying at the M.C.G. We discovered our dads both play oldtimers hockey for Port Moody. When I emailed his name home to my dad to see if he knew him, my dad said he knew him and had actually phoned him to see if he wanted to go golfing the last week. How weird is that. Freakin weird.

Other than that, life in Broome is good. Word on the street is Drew is flying up here in about a week and a half, yet another Canadian to join the family.

yep. only $4.50.

Al.

2008-09-05T20:43:00.003-07:00

Today I received the news that I had been expecting for the last few days.

Al, who was more of a brother than a cat, passed away. He had been really sick the last few days, which had been diagnosed as a tumor on his kidney. He was one month shy of his thirteenth birthday.

The last few days have been rough on me, and I expect the next few to be much of the same.

I woke up at 8:13am this morning, and wondered if I should call home to see how he was, or should I wait a few hours until the time I designated my mother to call if something had happened. I went back to sleep for awhile longer. When I woke up the second time, I wanted to get it over with so I could stop thinking about it. I called home and was informed that he had passed away. My parents were by his side. They said he went peacefully at 5:15pm, Vancouver time. After sometime, I thought about the time zone difference. 8:13am(Australian), is the same time as 5:13pm at home. Now, I know some people say that when they lose a loved one, they feel it whether or not they are there. I wonder if it was a sign?

I'd like to think he woke me up to say "bye".

October 12th 1995 - September 5th 2008.

M.C.G

2008-09-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's funny how plans can change so quickly.

I'm not going to Darwin any time soon. In fact, I'm on a job hunt, that isn't going to well at the moment, but I'm not in desperation mode yet.

The M.C.G stands for the Mango Campground, located in the Roe Buck Caravan Park. It's the backpacker part of the park. It's home, and I love it. Gavin, who happens to be from Burnaby, hooked me up with a tent. It needs repairs every few days, but it's all good.In the campground, there's different groups of people, that hang out in different circles. There's little France, Little Britain, ect ect. Our group consists of Gavin and his English girlfriend Amy, Dodey from Halifax and her English boyfriend Rob, Lee and Joe from England, Clint from South Carolina and myself. There's a few others that are around at times, but that's the back bone. It's like a never-ending camping trip. Wake up in a tent every morning, then go sit in the circle of chairs. We're like a family.Gavin's gonna drive me to Darwin then to Cairns as soon as he saves up enough money to buy a new ride. Hopefully I can find a job in that time so I can have some more cash to fuel the adventure. I think we will be here for then next 6-8 weeks or so, but who really knows.
Me, Lee, Gav, and Joe. Look out.

got crabs?

2008-08-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

The crab races were a ton of fun.
The deal is, you buy raffle tickets before each race, 3 for $5. If your ticket gets drawn, you get to go up and pick a crab. Eight crabs per race. If your crab wins, you win a percentage of the pot, and second place gets a smaller amount. The first race, I had no crabs. The second race, I had a crab. I cheered on that little bugger with all my heart, but he couldn't pull it off. I suspect some of the other crabs were using steroids. In the third race, I totally fluked out, and had 2 crabs in the race, a quarter of all the crabs in the race. Still, the crabs I had chosen let me down. It was all in good fun though. Fred won the second race and took home $80.

I tried numerous times to upload a video of the races, but it doesn't seem to be working.

It's way too hot here. It's a terrible thing to say, but I can't function when the sun is out. If your able to sleep past 8:30am, your very lucky. Lots of lounging in the shade.

Yesterday, Stef sold our van. But it's a good thing. We are ready to go our separate ways. Fabian found a ride to Darwin leaving tomorrow, Stef is going to hitchhike, Romain has a trial shift at a restaurant today, and me, well, I think I'll hang out until after the weekend, then try to find a ride.

"hey crabman!" "hey earl."

getting warmer.

2008-08-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Day 5 cont'd.

We met a group of 3 French guys in the parking lot at Woolworths, and invited them to come camping with us on the way to Coral Bay. We drove to a place we had heard about near the 'blowholes'. It was a great spot, right on the ocean. The French guys had an acoustic guitar and a full size keyboard as well, so we had a big jam session at night. It was pretty gnarly.
Day 6.

In the morning, we drove to see the blowholes, they were definitely pretty cool. The water gets pushed under the rocks and forced through holes that come though the ground, which in turn, shoots the water into the air.We drove to Coral Bay afterward, but when we arrived it was dark, so we just snuck into a campsite and went to sleep.

Day 7.

We hung out at Coral Bay all day. After snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef while I was in Cairns, Coral Bay didn't even phase me. It looked dead, and no where near as many fish and colours.

In the afternoon, we drove to Exmouth, and snuck into yet another campsite.

Day 8.

We spent the day at Turquoise Bay, in the Ningaloo National Park. The water was so beautiful. It was so clear. The coral here was much better than in Coral Bay. More fish and colours. When darkness came, we drove just outside the park and camped in a parking lot right near the beach.

Day 9.

In the morning we checked out the view from the lighthouse. We could see whales out in the water off the coast. Afterward, we went to the Mundu Mundu Gorge. We hiked around the trail, and saw some pretty nice scenery. We headed back to Turquoise Bay to cool off in the water. That night we spent at a truck stop just outside of Exmouth.

Day 10.

We drove all day to the Kirijini National Park. Camped in a no camping zone for free, keeping our clear record of not paying for accommodation.

Day 11.

We checked out some gorges, and then went to the Fern Pool. It was like something out of a movie. In the middle of the forest, a fresh water pool, with waterfalls spilling warm water into it. Absolutely beautiful. After lunch, I finished the book I was reading. "The Dirt" by Motley Crue. We attempted to drive to see some more gorges, but then we ran into our first episode of car trouble. Flat tire. All was well though, we changed it and decided to go back and not risk another flat until we had a new spare. We spent the night at the same spot we had the previous night.

Day 12.

After seeing enough gorges the previous few days, I decided to kick it in the van and begin my next book. "Into the Wild". If you still haven't seen the movie yet, I urge you to rent it. After a long period of time, and fuzzy eyes, I finished the whole book in one day. What an accomplishment. At about 5:30pm, we began our trek to Broome. As darkness arrived, we drove into a rest stop, which had a very nice campsite. We joined a fire with some senior aussie couples, and just hung out.

Day 13.

We were on the road at 6:30am, in hopes of making it to Broome so we could hit the town on a Saturday night. 12 hours later we pulled in. During the drive, I read 'The Alchemist'. That's 2 full books in 2 days. What a loser. We found a nice campsite and like always, snuck in. Our neighbours name was Fred. He's 62 years young. He was up on a solo fishing trip. We invited him out with us, and he kept up with us every step of the way.Day 14.

I woke up hungover, in a very hot tent. Tonight we are going with Fred to watch the 'Crab Races'. Yes, people will be betting on racing crabs.if you think you're cooler than me, you're wrong.

mumma mia

2008-08-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

Day 4 cont'd.

We didn't make it all the way to Monkey Mia, but we did well. We spent the night behind the overlander truck stop, in a empty lot we heard about from someone at a previous stop. That morning when we went to the truck stop we discovered something in the washroom. A shower. We all had our first shower of the trip. Very nice.Our first stop of the day was to go see the Stromatolites. They were the first living organisms on earth, it was pretty interesting. But I don't want to bore you.

The next stop was shell beach. The whole beach, which was huge, was made of small shells rather than sand. Probably how it received it's name. We hung out in the sun there and ate some lunch.

The next stop on the trek was at the Francois Peron National Park. We had heard that they had some sort of hot tub there... Well, there was a hot tub, not really what I expected. I wanted to see something more along the lines of hot springs or something. It was just a regular hot tub, a bit bigger than most. I decided that before I got in, I would go for a run. I ran hard, and did some pushups and situps on the way. Afterwards, I soaked in the tub, and get this, had my SECOND shower of the day.

Once we dried off we toured around the park. It used to be an old sheep shearing farm. They still had all the buildings, machines, and other devices around. We took some cool pictures around it as the sun set, then made dinner.When we finished dinner it was pitch black. We decided we would find a place to sleep closer to Monkey Mia. After a few failed attempts, we found a place on a dirt road that turned off from the highway. It was pretty frightening. No one wanted to sleep in the tent, but me and Romain lost, and had to suck it up.

Day 5.
We got up at 6:30am, and headed to Monkey Mia as quick as possible. We got there before the gate opened, so we avoided yet another fee. It was absolutely amazing. The dolphins were so close to the beach I could have jumped on them if I wanted to. There were about a dozen or so. They hung out for about 30min before they were fed, and once fed, like a teenager at the dinner table, they took off back into the ocean.

Once we left Monkey Mia, we took a pit stop at Eagle Bluffs. A view of the ocean from above. In the summer you can see the sharks, rays, and turtles, but we're in the wrong season.From there, drove to Carnarvon, where we are now. We went to Woolworths to get more food. I just consumed the ultimate backpacker meal. I bought some clearance packaged chicken for $1.99, and 2 clearance yogurts at 0.80 a piece. So for lunch I had chicken and yogurt.

Our next stop is Coral Bay, but we won't be reaching there until tomorrow.shear this.

Day 3 - 1:30pm.

2008-08-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

Day 1.

We got off to a bit of a slow start.

We met at the train station at 2:30pm. I met my fellow travellers, Romain from France, Fabian from Belgium, and Stef from Germany. We got on the train and headed for South Perth where the van was. To make a long story short, there was a lot of walking involved, and we all had very heavy packs. We almost lost Fabian. When I saw the van, I started laughing. It's 27 years old, and pink.

When we were ready to go, we took off heading North, and stopped outside Perth to stock up on a few days worth of food and supplies. Afterwards, we just tried to get as far as we could before it was to dark to drive. Nightfall came pretty quickly, and since we barely got any driving done, we only made it to Walyunga National Park.

We were looking for a place to sleep, but the park was closed. The only thing around was a few farms. Well, why don't we just ask them if we can stay in their yard? That's what we did. We slept in the front yard of a cattle farm. There's room for 2 in the van, and 2 in the tent. Since it's Stef's van, she already claims one of the spots. Me and the other 2 played odds and evens to get the other spot. Romain won. The tent was less than 6' at the longest point which made sleeping difficult, and since it's winter, it was also freezing.

Day 2.

In the morning we went for a run, packed up, and continued along the way.

Next stop : Pinnacles.

It was amazing. It was something off of National Geographic. A desert, filled with vertical lime stones sticking out of the sand. We drove around the 4km route which goes through the middle, and took lots of pictures. We got back in the van, and decided we would stay in Jurien Bay. We drove awhile longer, and got there just before it was pitch black. We asked at a gas station where we could find free camping and were directed just outside of Jurien Bay, but they weren't sure if we could get in. We drove down this dark dirt road for about 30min before we saw lights coming from a camped trailer. We drove in and discovered that it was a campsite that charged for nights. We drove in anyway and set up. No one came for money. On this night, I was lucky. I won the spot in the van.

Day 3.

This morning we packed up our stuff once more and hit the road again. We just arrived in Geraldton to stock up on food, and take a little break. Once we are ready to go, we are going to get to close as Monkey Mia as possible before dark.

i'd like to see tiger avoid that one.

today is the day

2008-08-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I hugged a lot of people.

It was a lot like when I left Port Moody. Perth is home.

Today a new adventure begins, and I'm ready for it.

I have to say goodbye to some amazing people.

On Friday, Brendan otherwise known as "Ralphsie" took me up to King's Park. We took some photos of the view and walked around. The important part of this story is not King's Park though, it's Brendan. Trying to describe him to someone that hasn't met him won't really cut it. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He's 34, from New Zealand, and has been staying at the Barracks almost as long as me. I can't really think of the right words to describe him so I'll leave it at that.

Last night, we had a bit of a gift exchange. Brendan and Nic chipped in and got me one of the best presents of all time. A picture of Brendan himself, framed and all. I took it out with me last night. Then it was my turn to do the giving. Nic has been eyeing my Molson Canadian shirt for quite some time now, so I figured it had to be done. Just a warning, if your not a fan of curse words, this may not be the video for you.

After the Barracks bar shut at 10pm, we all rolled down to the Shed. I got to say goodbye to everyone again. It was pretty sweet because I saw lots of people who I wanted to say bye to aswell. The Shed regulars, Wednesday night folk, and others I've met around the city.

Thankfully, Nic's at work right now, so when I leave, we won't have to do that awkward emotional goodbye.

yeesh.

counting down

2008-08-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

Without a job, Perth is pretty boring.

So boring that I was forced into an 8 night binge drinking streak which I finally put to an end on Monday. I went out for drinks last night(Tuesday), as sort of a casual "Going Away Party", but I managed to take it easy and spent little money. Tonight will be the big one with all my Wednesday Night Party Friends.

Since I'm leaving Monday, I started tieing up loose ends early so I'm not too busy at the end. Yesterday, I started a filling another box of stuff to send home, and getting rid of all the junk in my locker that I won't be needing anymore. Today, I'm burning my pictures to cd's so I will have tons of space on my memory cards to take pictures. After this, I'll be heading to the store to buy some supplies I will need for the trip. Bug spray, body wash, Q-tips, and sunscreen. I haven't needed sunscreen in months, but pretty soon I'll be back in the heat, and I'm looking forward to it.

Stef found a French guy that is travelling with an acoustic bass guitar to join us on the road trip. He came by my hostel with her on Sunday to watch me play. He seems like a pretty cool guy, and I'm sure we will have some good jams along the way.

Drew Dow is taking Saturday night off work so we can have one more night out. The forecast is calling for a bloodbath. From what our plans look like at the moment (which always seem to change), we won't be seeing each other again until December, when we reconvene in Sydney.one more time.

lets party like we have no jobs

2008-07-28T22:39:00.001-07:00

I'm Free!

Sunday's shift came and went. And now, I have a clean schedule.

Bazz, Kierin and Mick, all finished on Sunday as well, so I have a feeling we may be going to the bar a few times this week.

I really enjoyed my time at 'The Shed'. I learned a lot from working on the other side of the bar, and met some amazing people. It was an experience I may not have ever went for at home, and I now have a different respect for it. I spent four months working there, but I'm glad I did it.

What's next?

Well, on the 11th of August I am going to climb into a van. I met Stef in person for the first time last week and it looks like we will be able to get along. We are going to take a 3 week road trip up the coast from Perth to Darwin. I believe she has found a French guy to join the expedition as well. I'm exited to get out of Perth and see some of the country. It should be very relaxing, and the weather on the way is supposed to be very nice. But, until then, I'm going to get my Perth Party on.

what can i gettya?

Margaret River

2008-07-25T02:19:00.000-07:00

The trip was a success.

They picked me up at the hostel at around 12:30pm.

I loaded my stuff in the van, and hopped in the back seat next to Bazz.

"You want a beer?"

Apparently, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia, have no laws about open bottles in vehicles. You can drink as much as you want in a vehicle as long as your not the driver. If you get caught, all they do is breathalyze the driver to make sure he wasn't consuming anything, and then you are free to go.

The first part of the drive was good times. We were all giddy to get there and party.

We had to take quite a few stops on the way because we were drinking the beers like it was a Friday night. The first stop was to pick up more drinks, and camping supplies. Mostly drinks.

We stopped in Brumbley to watch the sunset. It was beautiful. We took some pictures, then hopped back in the van and continued on.When we got into the area of Margaret River all we needed to do was find a beach to camp on. We went into a gas station and asked them where the nearest beach was, and bingo, 10 minutes later we were on our way down some stairs to a beach. By this time it was already pitch black, and Bazz had fallen down twice, the second of which split open his knee.

We began collecting fire wood, and Bazz climbed in the van for bed.

We had ourselves a nice little fire, in the sand, 10 meters from the ocean. We drank, and chilled, and for the first time since I've been in Oz, I saw the Southern Cross. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's the group of stars that are located on the Australian flag. Once we began getting a little sleepy, we decided we best climb into the van, because we were getting picked up for the wine tour at 10:30am. We turned on Kierin's laptop and began watching 'Snatch'. After the battery died, we got in our sleeping bags and tried to sleep.

Well, the van was not big enough for all of us. Emma and Mick had the front seats, Bazz had the back seat, Kierin had the back floor, and me and Jen tried to sleep on the middle seat. We all swapped spots, switched around, but still I couldn't find a place where my legs could fit. After 2 leg cramps, I had had it. Me and Mick grabbed the tent and began setting it up in the cold ocean wind. It was freezing out. Not Australia freezing, like Canada freezing.

We got it up pretty fast, and climbed in. One of the worst sleeps ever. It was so cold.

We packed up in the morning and found a camp site for $5 a person. We set up our stuff, then waited for the bus to pick us up. We hopped on and met Salvino, the driver, and tour guide.

There was 14 of us on the tour. First stop, WaterGate Winery.

We were taught how to drink wine.

We tried 3 whites, and 3 reds. After the tasting, we went out back and saw the orchards, and landscape. I saw my first real life kangaroo. They're were four of them hanging out in the orchard.

We visited five winery's in all, and tasted 40 different wines. We also went cheese tasting, to a chocolate factory, and a brewery. One of the winery's was home to the second largest flag in the southern hemisphere. As you would guess, it was pretty damn big.One of the highlights was during lunchtime. When we were almost done our meal Salvano brought out 'his friend Henry'. Henry was a grub. A big grub. He needed 2 volunteers. Immediately my hand rose. He cut little Henry in half, and handed the upper body to me, and the other half to one of the girls.

Tasted sort of nutty, like really light peanut butter. The texture wasn't the coolest though, and his head was very crunchy. But, it was something I may not get to experience again, so I was very happy I did it.

When we got back from the tour, we grabbed some subs, 2 bottles of Canadian Club, and headed back to the campsite to start it up. We still had about 7 litres of goon, half a bottle of CC and 16 beers left as well. While we were out picking up the drinks, I had also purchased some ping pong balls, and some plastic cups. So we just sat in a circle with out cups in our laps, and played a game very similar to beer pong. We started to deteriorate fast. We had many laughs, and shared what might be one of our last big parties together.

In the morning we woke up to pouring rain. We quickly packed up the van and headed back Perth. When we got back we hung out at Emma's for a few hours then got a ride back into the city at around 4pm. I was at Mustang's, jug in hand, at around 8pm.

life is good.

hittin' the road

2008-07-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

I handed in my 2 weeks notice at work.My last shift is next Sunday, the 27th. After that, my plan is to find someone to drive me up the west coast for a few weeks, before returning back to Perth, and most likely, my old job. I'm not sure how soon I'll leave, but I certainly wouldn't mind a weekend in Perth before the trip because I haven't been able to go out on a Friday or Saturday night in almost 4 months. Imagine that. Are you even able to?

This Monday morning, me and my posse are renting a ten person transport van, and driving down to Margaret River for a few nights. The current posse is as follows;

Bazz Lightening, Kieran, Mick Jager, and Paul. (Bazz, Kieran, and Mick all handed in their 2 weeks notice as well, so we all finish on the 27th.)

It's Paul's second week, but he's already found a warm spot with us. Emma and Sam are also coming along, and we have room for more if others decide to.

The day we arrive, we start a wine tour at 11:30am. I'm not sure what it's all about, but I know we get to try 43 different wines. Uh Oh.

We plan to camp, but we have no time to set up tents before the tour, and I'm not sure if we will be able to set up tents after 6 hours of wine touring. I guess we will just have to wait and see. The next day will be all about sight seeing and so on, followed by what some people might call a bloodbath.

Unfortunately, while this trip is going on, a few very close friends of mine will be departing. On Wednesday, Matt flies to Cairns, so I will not be seeing him again until I return home.

On Monday, Nelson flies to Sydney, then back to South America. Once he's gone, I'm the longest serving back-packer at The Shed. We've had some good times during these 4 months of work. Lots of high-fives, and "Como Esta?" upon every sighting.

Finally, Liam, whom I shared many great times with when he was a manager at The Shed, is flying to Sydney, and then back home to Ireland.they sure will be.

Nocturnal Bawl

2008-07-10T02:20:00.001-07:00

Matching outfits : $160 each.

Ticket to the ball : $50 each.

Money for drinks: $100 each.

Having one of the best nights your life, and looking damn good in the process;

Well, I guess $310......

The ball was amazing, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
Our barbershop trio was called "The Frankies." Which consisted of; Mike Frankie, Drew Frankie, and Steve Frankie. We would have been a quartet, but Matt had to work in the morning. First we went to Rosie O'Gradys to meet up with some people from my work. Afterwards, we left them, and went to Mustang to meet up with people from Drew's work.Everything went great. The live shows they had on stage were absolutely amazing. Some of the best dancers I've ever seen in person. One of the shows featured a dozen of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen in one place at the same time. By the end of the routine, they had nothing but high heels on. Deadly. The venue itself was like nothing I've ever seen before, I think there was about four stories, each one looking over the stage.

The only complaints were that there was some sort of fire alarm or something which forced the thousands of us to evacuate MetroCity for about 45 minutes. The other, it was supposed to end at 6am, but it got shut down at 5am instead.

Drew had to start work at 9am. Ouch.

The Frankies.

sunday sesh

2008-07-06T22:40:00.001-07:00

I got off work on Sunday, and went back to the hostel. Jim, the manager, had been waiting. I ran up stairs and grabbed my guitar. We had agreed that he would give me one nights accommodation. I had told him on Tuesday, that the sound equipment they had was pretty bad, so he went out and bought new sound gear. Two P.A speakers, and 2 mics. I played, and played and played. I even threw one of my own songs in the mix. I played for 2 hours. Didn't repeat any songs, and my longest stoppage in play was for about 20 seconds.

When I finished Jim came up and said, "You definitely earned 2 nights can i get you a Canadian Club?" Drew scored a free drink as well, even though it was Junker who had been contacting me when I was at work.

Anyway, tonight is the 'Nocturnal Ball'. A huge party for everyone in the bar industry. Costed us a mean $50 for a ticket. We are dragging Mickey the Rat along with us as well. The theme is 'Yesteryear'. I had initially found some clothes in the garbage that were old lost and found stuff. A yellow sport coat, and white collared shirt with blue and red stripes, and a dope hat. While I was at work yesterday, Drew and Mike went out and bought matching outfits, so I changed my mind and we are going out to get me the same stuff, and put the final touches on them. Party On!

Oh Canada

2008-07-02T02:45:00.000-07:00

I was ejected from the "Old Swan Barracks Bar" before 10pm.

Lets backtrack.

We started drinking a bottle of Canadian Club at 5pm. Me, Drew, Junker, Nic, and Mickey the Rat had a few drinks, and dressed up Nic and Mike, who are both Kiwi's in Canadian gear. The plan was to be waiting outside the bar downstairs at 6pm for it to open, but we were a few minutes late. I talked the manager into giving me a $20 bar tab, in exchange I would play an hour set at the bar. At around 7pm, we had quite a nice crew out. Most of my friends from work, two of which are Canadian, a Canadian guy I met at work, and invited out to make the numbers bigger, and other friends from the hostel. Most people wore whatever red stuff they had, even if they weren't Canadian.

At 7:30, they shut off the jukebox, and I pulled out the guitar. I had quite a few drinks under my belt, which helps me go for the high notes, rather than backing off. I think I did pretty good. (I've been invited to play on Sunday nights, during the 'Sunday Session' they have at the hostel now.) At 8:30pm, 'Quiz Night' began. Make a team of five people. Hmmm, Team Canada? Me, Drew, Matt, Jen, and Corey. I had already been told to stop singing the Canadian Anthem by the Barman. He was being a real jerk about it too. The questions were hard. One of the questions was about some polish dude, so I answered it with 'Alex Zaleski'. Wrong. We participated for about an hour and half when we figured it was about time to leave. Before we left, I thought it would be a good idea to belt out the anthem one more time.

As they were removing me from the premises, I didn't miss a beat. I kept belting out the tune, and finished just as I exited the doors.

Next stop was 'Mustang'. Lots of pictures, and more jugs of beer. More Canadians as well which was nice. Everyone was having a great time, and I was enjoying one of the best nights out I've had in a long time, and all of my best friends around were out. Matt had got the following day off work, so we got a rare night of drinks. It was salsa night at Mustang, and I've always wanted to get on the floor, but always back down because most of the people that do it have been doing it for a long time, and take lessons. Last night didn't even phase me. I was spinning, and twisting pretending I knew what I was doing.

When Mustang closed, we hopped in some cabs and ripped out to Hip-E Club. $5 Jim Beam and cokes. I spent 95% of my time there on the dance floor waving my flag around. There was even more Canadians here. We all just jumped around the dance floor, and swayed arm in arm. We didn't even know each other, but we knew we were all Canadian, and on the other side of the world. I probably posed for more than 100 photos. Hip-E Club closed at around 3:45am. Me, Paddy(Irish guy in our room), Jen, and Emma(both from work), jumped in a cab in search of food. The only thing I had eaten all day was a few hand fulls of corn flakes, and some crisps. The only place open was "Fast Eddy's". The burger costed me $17.95.

This morning, Me, Nic, Matt, Drew and Mike layed in the room for hours. Hungover laughing is one of my favourite activities because you've still have a bit of juice in the tank from the night before. It's 6:10pm, and Mike is still in bed.

It was one of the funnest Canada Day's I've ever had. It meant a lot more being somewhere outside of the country. Rather than partying where everyone is Canadian, you go find the Canadians, and your instantly family. I don't remember anyones names, but we had some great times, and the pictures prove it.

Bargained for the tie at Savation Army. $2 off. BooYaa!

Totally Un-Cut

2008-06-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

The chaos was pure. 100% totally un-cut.

After the meeting, we drank the stock that we were no longer selling, or had got for a promotion and had no intention of selling. Jim Beam with Sugar Free Cola, Canadian Club with Ginger Beer, vodka energy drinks, bourbon energy drinks, Southern Comfort and Cola in a Can, Barefoot Radler beer, Caramel Bailey's, ect.

After about an hour of that, we all piled in cabs and went out to Leederville to go to the 'Niche Club". This was a very nice place, the type of place people with lots of money go, not backpackers. So nice in fact, that they didn't even serve pints, only bottled beers. There was a tab set up which meant we could drink all wines, champagnes, bottle beers, and bottom shelf spirits. I started with a ted, then a Jacks and Lemonade, then a few Beam and cokes, then I found my drink for the rest of the night. Double Vodka waters. I have no idea how many I consumed. But it was enough to make the night real hazy. We took lots of pictures, and drank there until around midnight. Most management and office staff went home, tab was closed, so the remainder, not sure how many, went a few doors down to "Hip-E Club". I barely remember being there.

Sometime after that, a group of about six or so, whoever was left standing, cabbed back into Northbridge and rocked out at Black Bettys. The only part I remember is Wayne putting on a show of outrageous Irish dance moves. I also remember I was drinking water. After drinking for free all night, it didn't seem right spending more money.

I got home at 5am, just as Matt was leaving for work.

definitely sucking it in.

staffies

2008-06-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Message from : +61424727130

Time:9:32PM

"Stevo its mick jager..where art thou? Xxx"

Tomorrow we have a staff party. It starts back at work for a meeting, then I'm pretty sure we are going to try to drink up all the stock that we haven't been selling. The rest of the night is a surprise, but I've caught wind of a possible stop to a karaoke bar at the end of the night. In June, we collected the caps to 'Canadian Club' pre mixed bottles, and for every cap collected, CC was giving us $0.50. We collected a sheetload, and there was a rumor Bridget(owner and manager of The Shed) was going to match whatever they paid us. I think my wallet will be staying put in my back pocket.

Kierin just invited me over to "build up tolerance" for tomorrow.

I'm almost positive that there will be pictures taken that family and friends will be proud of. Hopefully they aren't taken untill after managment has left.

I really hope I can title my next entry "Pure Chaos"

have mercy.

the shed drinking team

2008-06-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

Since I've worked at The Shed, I only really go out with other people from The Shed. In the last two weeks, pretty much the whole staff has changed, mainly because they hire mostly backpackers. I'm second in length of stay, next to Nelson as far as backpackers go. With new employees, means new drinking mates. We've got a great little foursome happening at the moment, other than the large groups that sometimes make it out. This new group consists of Kieirn and Bazz, the kiwi brothers I mentioned a few weeks ago, and Mick Jagermeister. We went out Wednesday with a group of about 8 employees, and the pictures I found on the Internet are fabulous.
Unfortunately this ones a little out of focus, but thats Kierin in the stripes, Wayne up front, and Bazz poking Mick Jager in the face.

I put an ad on the Internet looking for someone with a car to drive me up the coast, and got a reply from some German girl. It looks as if we are going to leave in July sometime, which means my days at The Shed are wearing down. But my plan is to take off for a month, see this side of the country, come back to Perth, work for another few weeks, then fly back to the East coast with Drew to write that chapter. But as I've learned many times so far, it's very hard to plan out how long things take, and where they are going to take you.

the shirt says it all.

2008-06-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

you taught me how to ice skate, even though i wasn't great,
i never walk into our yard, without closing the gate,

you sang about a girl named 'Bonnie', when it was time to say g'night,
you taught me how to defend myself, if i got in a fight,

you taught me how to ride a bike, and how to follow rules
but the chore i hate the most was when i had to clean the pool,

its because of you that i am tall, and its because of you im slim,
but when i see you without a shirt, it makes me want to hit the gym,

thanks for all the fun i had, when i was still a child,
from disneyland, to shuswap lake, and anytime i smiled,

you know i love you with all my heart, and that i am okay,
so heres to you, from far away, have a happy fathers day.

#1 Dad.

willis

2008-06-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

It's hard to think of interesting things to blog about, because most weeks are the same. I've decided Monday's are now going to be all about mind, body, and soul. Reading, Exercise, and Music. I'm halfway through Anthony Keidis' (lead singer of red hot chili peppers) book, 'Scar Tissue'. It's all about his life, the making of the band, and his problems with drugs. I'm hooked. Any spare time I have I try to get into bed and read.

Last night, for the first time in months, I worked out in the gym downstairs, and capped that off with a run. Clothed I don't look like I'm out of shape, but when I take my shirt off I definitely can notice the definition I once had in my chest has withered away. As far as the belly goes, I'd say it's around the same as it was when I left. I don't really care about my beer belly though, all I really care about is my chest. I want a body that screams, "Yeah I drink a lot of beer, and I can kick your ass too!"

I've got quite a few songs on the go, a few of them I've finished completely(for now), I just need to sit down and really think about how to finish the rest of them. I also went out today and bought another busking licence. I couldn't get the one month probationary one I had before, so I was forced to get the three month one that costs $66. Now I'll really have to force myself out there to earn that money back.

I eat more than my height in Subway every week. At least a foot a day. Today I was eating it at the Murry St. Mall when a new friend decided to join me. His name was Willis, and he only has one leg. He doesn't talk much so I did all the talking. I told him I was Canadian, and travelling, but working here in Perth for awhile. I didn't ask him about his leg, as I think that may have been a touchy subject. When I finished eating, I said good-bye, he acknowledged. As soon as I got up to leave he dove right into the crumbs and scraps I had left on the ground.

I've began a manhunt for Canadians' in Perth. Canada Day is only a few weeks away, and so far we only have about four or five Canadians' we know from the area we can call out to celebrate with. Me and Drew ordered some Canadian flags from a flag shop in the city, and it would be a shame to not make this a very memorable Canada Day, outside of Canada.

"Oh, haha, he was talking about a bird!"

Nic Tremewan

2008-06-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

We just hired two kiwi brothers down at the ole shed. I told them a few story's that Nic has blessed us with. Now, I will share with you.

When we first checked into 'Billabong Backpackers' back in March, we met a 'kiwi' named Nic. He only spent one night in the room with us and was forced to leave because he didn't book his room in time. That night he planned to get really drunk, and sleep in a construction site. The next morning he came back the hostel and looked very rough. He did sleep in a construction site, and his bed in our room, remained empty all night. Choked.

He bought a van about a week after that, 'Vangina', and has slept in it every night, except for 3 when he has slept in a hostel. Hostel costs about $150 a week, he bought the van for $600. Defiantly paid itself off a long time ago.

He has to be the most unphotogenic person I have ever met. Almost every picture he takes, he has his head cranked back, squinted eyes, and a stupid smirk.

The amount of sour cream he eats would sicken most. More sour cream than there are potato wedges. When he went camping with Matt and Drew, he apparently lost it in a small convenient store because they only had low fat sour cream. We made nachos today, and Matt knocked the empty sour cream container onto Nic, and some spilt on his lap. He sucked it off his shorts.

My favourite story goes as follows;

He came back one day at dinner time and told us that he met a girl and was going camping with her that weekend. We immediately requested details. Well, he was leaving I.G.A with groceries, when he saw a stand set up out front. Green Peace. He walked by and one of the girls started asking him a few questions. We're not really sure what he said to her, but in the end, she had agreed to go on a trip with him in the vangina. The weekend came, and he left. For three days we pondered what was going on. What kind of stories will he return with? The day came and he arrived back. She was a vegetarian. Nic eats a lot of meat, gets 'meat sweats'. He once told me he can't have a meal if it doesn't involve meat. He said on one of the nights the weather was bad and was pouring rain. He was in the back of the van cooking up 'huge slabs' of bacon, while she was in the front seat cowering. Pure gold.

ah true!

chistoffer sorling has left the building

2008-05-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

Watching his airport shuttle turn the corner was the hardest thing I've had to do so far this trip.

He's flying to Sydney, then off to Thailand for two months before returning home to Sweden. He's been like a brother on this trip, a best friend, maybe even more so than Matt and Drew. We had some great times. From B-boy battling at Soho, to Goon Pong in Cairns. From yelling "BOOOT!" on Mad Mondays, to just kickin it at the hostel repeating "You got to learn to take a 'yoke'".

If he lived in Port Moody, he'd be right up there with Day, and Finlay.

Wednesday night we had his going away. I cried at Mustang for about fifteen minutes. We took a whole bunch of pictures, lotsa hugs, smiles, laughs and a couple 'yugs' of beer.

He's trying to sign up for school in Sweden to become an electrician. It takes 2 years, but says when he graduates he is going to come visit us in Canada.

In the future, any picture I see of him where he is pointing at the camera, I'll defiantly feel a little bit responsible.
He'd been teaching me Swedish the whole time. I'm able to have flawless conversations to the extent of: Hi, How are you? I am good. My name is Steve, What is your name? You are cute. I want to get drunk.

On Wednesday he taught me how to say goodbye. Hej då.

Harrison

2008-05-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning... which usually happens, and jumped on the old computer. I went on facebook and saw that the pictures from the "Harrison May Long Camping Trip" had been posted. I'm so jealous right now. The hardest part of being away is going to be missing the camping trips. When we were booking our flight home I was going to plan it around camping so I'd get at least one trip in, but that's not happening anymore. Cody just started the 'event' group for 'Tulumeen Days' as well. That is the one trip I want to be on, more so than any of the rest. I was watching the video's from last year, and looking at the pictures posted. Man, oh man.

But back to this years 'may long'. Not only did I miss spending some quality time with my brother, but Matt Day, Cody Flesher, and Nick 'The Sasquatch' Finlay all were there as well. The four people I miss the most, with the one thing I miss the most. Depression is setting in.

I already know what happened even without asking. People got drunk, fell down, someone got thrown in the lake, songs were sung, good times were had. It's not the getting drunk part I miss, it's the times that are talked about after that I miss. Until next years trip, when this year is talked about all I can do is sit on the sideline and nod.

next year.

Paddy Mooney

2008-05-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Growing up, one of my favourite movies was "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory". Now, being a bit older, I no longer dream about being in a factory, surrounded with free candy. So what could possibly be better than candy? Alcoholic beverages.

Yesterday was the hotel expo at the casino where company's show off new products, from hand dryers, to potato chips. The Shed got a certain amount of invitations, for managers and bartenders, but one for me didn't arrive, because I have only been working behind the bar a short time. Wait. Paddy's last day was Friday. He got an invitation. Say hello to the new Paddy Mooney.

"Hello, and your surname was?"

"Umm, I think it might be on there under Mooney."

"Paddy?"

"Yes Sir!"

Me and Ashling didn't show up until about 4:45, and the expo ends at 6pm. An hour and fifteen minutes to consume as much free stuff as we can. Shots of new 'Wild Turkey Honey', Aruma, Baileys Caramel, Canadian Club and ginger beer, the new 'Miller Chill', 7 kinds of daiquiri's, Wines, Jack Daniels, Smirnoff, Skyy Vodka with Peach ice tea, no sugar Cruiser's, the list goes on.

We kept getting in trouble from security because we were holding to many drinks at a time.

Now on a less up lifting note...

"The boons are depleting" - Nic Tremewan.

Sebastian flew to Fiji on Tuesday. The group is slowly falling apart. First Matt, now Sebe, and next week Chris is leaving. We sure will miss Sebe's checkered slip on's floating around the dance floor. He, like most people we meet, plans to come to Canada on his next trip, and then you too will fall in awe of his foot apparel.

fizzy lifting drinks & vodka.

2008-05-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

"Happy Mother's Day"

"Happy Mother's Day" means more
Than have a happy day.
Within those words lie lots of things
We never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I honor you.

But most of all, I guess it means
That I am thinking of
Your happiness on this, your day,
With pleasure and with love.

love you.

the busker

2008-05-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

I started another 'job' on Wednesday.
I am now a street performer. Legally.
I went down the the city hall and got my busking licence on Monday, which means I can legally play on the street for money without getting shut down. It costed $22 and it lasts for a month. It was nice on Wednesday so Drew, Nic, and I walked down to the city, to see if theres money to be made. I found a nice place and set up shop.

Sitting on a cooler, open guitar case in front, sun glasses on face, guitar in hand.

It started off a little slow. I think it took about 2 or 3 songs before anyone dropped anything in. First drop, a $5 bill. Now things are going better. Nic and Drew hung out around the city, and hung out around me, and scored some free hot dogs. I played for almost two and a half hours. Some songs I played 2 or 3 times. When we were packing up to head home we figured I had made about $30, which would have been awesome, but I waited until I got back to the room before I counted it. I emptied my pockets on the floor and began sorting. When I was at $25 I turned to Drew and said, I think were going to have more than expected here. In all i pulled home $68 bucks. I bought shots for Nic and Drew last night for their support of sticking it out with me. A few times Nic has just walked up and muttered "Sixty-eight bucks, you boon." We were going to head back out there today but it's raining a bit so I guess I will have to wait until next week.
Respect.

matt's day, fat day, phat day

2008-05-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Matt's day.

Matt flew to Sydney on Wednesday morning. We went out Tuesday night and had some drinks, then we got up for brekky at 9am the following morning. Not sure if I'll see him again this trip, but hopefully we cross paths on the east coast.

Fat day.

After three weeks of trying. Rob and I finally got to have our 'entourage marathon' He called me on Thursday morning and informed me he had bought Season 3 part 1, to go with his season 3 part 2. We met up with Liam at the pub at around 4pm then headed to the bottle shop, and then the corner store to pick up some 'guys night' snacks. I had been wanting to really treat myself by sitting down and eating a whole bag of Doritos, what a day to do it. We bought meat pies, chips, and some wobbly pops. We watched the entire season. 20 episodes. So satisfied.

Phat day.

Truth is, I couldn't really think of a better rhyme. But it was a 'phat' day. Drew had informed me that he had heard at work that 5500 members of the american marines and navy would be docking in Perth. From what I had heard at work a few weeks ago, when they come in its awesome because they tip. My first shift on Friday was 3-6. It was pretty dead in there till about 4pm when the first few small groups started showing up. When I was done at 6pm I had $27.50 in tips in my pocket. I had 2 hours off before I came back at 8pm. I was exited to get back to work because I wanted to see some more change coming back my way. I was working at the dance floor bar, which isn't as busy. I was sent home at 12pm because I had to start again at 11am this morning, but I still managed to bring home another $60. Jackie, the Canadian girl at work, who worked at the busy bar last night, took home over $200. I start again tonight at 8pm, so I'm hoping for some more 'skrillah'.
we'll all miss yah.

anzac day

2008-04-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Anzac day is like Remembrance Day, but for Australian's and New Zealander's. It's also the busiest day of the year for The Shed. Sounds like a great night for me to have my first crack at bartending.

Long before we had booked our trip, Drew and I had both hoped to one day bartend down under. For me, it actually became reality.

When I showed up at 4pm on Friday, the place was already packed. All the navy, army, ecetra ecetra in the area had come out to The Shed, all in uniform. By 7pm the army and the navy had already almost came to blows. We had a lot of security on so every close call was defused pretty quickly. I had to train Rob, who would be taking my place as SuperGlassie. He hadn't worked a shift yet, so this was his first, on the busiest day of the year. I was running around everywhere, trying to set up for the horse show, training Rob, and taking care of my regular tasks. Bus loads of people began showing up at the door.

The Shed's capacity is 890 people, 890 people wanting drinks. My turn to get behind the bar. They stuck me down at 'shindig' which is the bar next to the dance floor and band. Other than being shown how to use the till on Thursday, I hadn't been shown anything else. I think I picked it up pretty quick and began spitting out drinks as if i knew what I was doing. Served a ton of vodka redbull's, and a lot of water to thirsty dancers. I was only behind the bar for about two and a half hours, but i manged to take home $27 in tips, and I found an extra $5 on the floor while cleaning up. I probably could have got more but I wasn't behind the bar from 1-2am where most of the tips start happening.

That night, Chris and Sebastian were supposed to come down and see me working my magic but they never showed. I talked to the swede the next morning. They went to 'Black Bettys' first to have a few jugs. Chris went out for a smoke, but they said if he wanted to go back in he had to wait in the line again. The line was big so he tried to get ahold of Sebastian but couldn't, so he just went back to the hostel. We were watching tv on Saturday morning, and one of the girls here said Sebastian had gotten beaton up when he was leaving the BB's later on. We didn't see him all day, but saw him on Sunday morning. He remembers walking out of BB's then waking up on the ground with people standing all around him.

He's alright, no broken bones, but needed a few stitches. He thinks he was attacked from behind, and I'm pretty sure he didn't provoke this.

There's an older man that stays here, I'd guess that he's between 70-80. He's Australian, but rocks a 'Canada' hat. I was walking down the stairs with him the other day and I said, "That's a mighty fine hat you got there." I was about to increase my speed when he replied, "You want to know how I got it?" I said, "Sure." Well, he had been driving his boat while his hat had flown off, He was going to turn back to get it but decided against it. Not two minutes later he saw something red floating up ahead, he slowed down and got a pole. Bam. New hat.

I would like to post more on here, but from Friday morning, to Monday morning all my time and energy is tied up with work, I sleep then eat between shifts with not much time for anything else. This week especially was crazy. 50 hours at work and a very tired body.

Matt, Drew and Nic get back tomorrow. I can already taste Drew's jealousy that I'm behind the bar. Unfortunately for him, 'Mustang' only hires female bar tenders, which can't be that bad.

Mmmmmm. Let me soak in your envy.

what goes around, comes around

2008-04-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big believer in karma.
Yesterday on the way home from work, I stumbled across a cell phone, lip gloss and and some sort of inhaler. Instead of just walking by it I picked them up and tried to find out how I would get ahold of the owner at 2am. 1 new message. It was from the owner saying that they lost the phone and they didn't care about the phone they just wanted the sim card back. I called the phone and got no answer. When I got back to the hostel I was about to jump on the computer when I noticed something sticking out of the chair. I lifted up the cushion and found $3. A dollar for each item i found. They called back seconds later and are coming to pick up the phone today.

I'm moving up in the work world once again. I start my bar tending training on Thursday. I just have to train a person to take over my job on Friday, then its, "Hey, what can I get for yah" for me.

Nelson is one of the glassies. He's about 6'4, and I'm guessing about 250lbs. He's from Brazil so I try to speak spanish with him. He helps me with it, and I help him with english, and the names of the songs that are playing so he can download them after work. Here's a short dialogue we had last night.

N: "Como esta?"
S: "Bueno"
N: "Cansado or aburrido"
S: "Cansado"
S: "What does cansado mean?"
N: "Tired"
S: "Oh, and aburrido?"
N: "Aburrido is boring"
S: "Oh... It's also one of my favourite foods!"

He didn't laugh.

I have 5 shifts this week which means I'll be getting about 50 hours. Going to be cansado, but I'm very exited to bar tend for the first time. It will also be good for my bank account. Not only will I be making money, but I'll have no time to spend any either.

Today I'm going to Rob's, who's a bartender at The Shed, to watch countless episodes of 'Entourage' in which he has on dvd. I haven't seen an episode in quite sometime. It's only on on Sunday's, and I work every Sunday. The plan is to buy bacon, eggs, HP sauce, and english muffins to snack on. "I am exite."

Matt and Drew went for a camping trip up the coast with Nic for the week. Me and the Swede got 2 new roommates last night. One of them snores. It's different when Drew or Chris snores because I can yell at them to make them to shut it. But I think if I yell at the little asain guy, he may be afraid to fall back asleep.

i miss al.

Cuervo Cup 2008

2008-04-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start off this post by saying that yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had so far on this trip.

A few shifts ago after work, Derek, my manager at The Shed informed us that the managers would be competing in a dodge ball tournament the following week. They had never played dodge ball before and asked if I would coach the team. Obviously it was a bit of a joke to make me coach, but it was humorous.

Yesterday, the day of the big tournament I woke up at 9pm, and walked down to The Shed where Andy, another one of the managers, was waiting to pick me up. We kicked around for awhile before meeting up with the rest of the team back at The Shed.

Uniform unavailing. Wow. They looked so ridiculous it was awesome. We headed to the pub for a pre-tourney pint, then headed off to City Beach.

No one really knew what to expect. When we arrived we were informed that only 2 of our 4 man team was going to able to compete. Derek chose Karl and Andy to represent. The other teams showed up in other extravagant apparel as well. They slapped wrist bands on us which had numbers 1 through 8. These bands were good for 8 free tequila drinks. Ouch. We had a few drinks before the first match was to be held. The way they did it was to have it 4 on 4. So 2 bars were on the same team. But, to move on, you had to score more points than the other 3 teams in the ring to win. So it was all about greed, and getting the ball first. 1 point for a hit, and 1 point for a catch.

We started off with a pre-game stretch. I believe I had them doing the praying mantis when this picture was taken. (note the sunset in the backround)

Round 1. Win. Karl went mental and annihilated the opposition.

Round 2. Much of the same, but it was pretty close.

Round 3. 1 person from the shed, 1 from black bettys, and 1 from the lucky shag per side. So everyone pretty much let their own team hit them to score points. It was very close, but in the end The Shed prevailed. We are headed to the finals.

There was about an hour and a half break for more drinks and what not. All day servers were catering around various finger foods to hold the tequila from coming back out. By this point there were quite a few loopy people walking around.

Pre game pep talk ft. Tequila.

In the finals it came down to The Shed vs. Tiger Lils.

Two on Two. 5 minute round. Winner take all.

I was trying to count points out loud as the game went on, but it was pretty hard to keep up with the fury. After the final whistle, both teams raised their arms in victory and waited for the official score to be added up.

Tie. 20- 20.

Tie Breaker. First team to hit the other team 3 times.

We lost the coin toss so the other team got to start out with the ball and had a huge upper hand. They hit Karl first shot. He threw back and hit the opponent. The ball bounced back to our side and Karl threw again and hit him. Again the ball bounced back to him and he pelted one last throw and ended the game. The Shed Wins.

We jumped and screamed as if we had just won the lottery. Smiles from ear to ear.

We won 2 trophies, 2 bottles of jose cuervo, a bottle of 1800 tequila and a jose cuervo prize pack. I'm not sure what was in the prize pack because the bottle of 1800 broke inside of the bag, but they are going to replace it. We also took home 3rd place in the uniform contest which also came with a bottle of tequila.

After we settled down me and the team had a drink of tequila out of the trophy. I came very very close to ejecting my contents back into the trophy, but i held it off with a sip of a midori margarita.

Afterward we went out for victory drinks.

the 'lucky shag pub' girls had pretty nice uniforms. liam would agree.

quiet as a mouse

2008-04-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

Last night a large group of us shed folk went out on the town.I met them at Rosie O'Gradys at about 8:30pm. From there we went to The Mustang Bar, where Drew was working. I probably heckled him a good bit to damage his feelings. It was here where I put on the green jumper for the first time. After Mustang, we then proceeded to Black Bettys for more. Lots of staff bonding. This morning, the other Canadian in my room informed me I came in very quietly, nicely made my bed, and climbed in. He then said i proceeded to turn on my camera and start looking through the pictures. Apparently I was impressed with the pictures because he said he could hear me talking. "Yea, those are some good pictures." and so on. The night is pretty vivid. I vaguely remember someone buying me a shot, which at 3am is really unnecessary.Tomorrow morning I'm getting up at 8am. NHL Playoffs will be on, and I'm taking over the television. On the net is says it's going to be Calgary and San Jose Game 1. Hopefully it's a misprint, and really is Game 2. On wednesday Game 3 of the capitals and flyers are on. I'll have to stay away from the computer so I won't know the final outcome. I'm rooting for the caps, pens, and canadians. Hopefully one of them can win it all.

I have frozen fish sticks in the freezer. I hear them calling my name. Adios.

I've got the skills that pay the bills.

cake eater

2008-04-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Last night at work, we had crew incentive for the glassies and bar backs. Whoever works the hardest in the eyes of the manager, wins a $100 gift certificate which can be used at a number of stores including clothing, groceries, and liquor. I knew I had it in the bag before the shift even started because I've really been busting my arse. Once we closed down, cleaned, and stocked, we all were enjoying the free drink we get after every shift, the winner was announced. I'll be going on a shopping spree this week. I hate to always be tooting my own horn, but i can't help it that I'm absolutely phenomenal at everything. Not to mention the major in the brass band.

I've grown a strong hatred for drunk people. Not so much girls, but guys. Some of them are quite helpful, and add lots of comic relief during tough moments, but most, not so much. I'm not sure if it's drunk people in general, or just drunk aussies, but i must say they are very very ignorant. I usually start shifts asking to get by nicely, but after a handfull of people see you, but continue to just stand there, i begin the snowplow. Usually the snowplow also comes along with a smartass remark to whoever is in the way. That usually gets them. Now I'm not in the wrong. My manager has told me to just bowl through people if they aren't doing what i ask. If i ever knock anyone down, I'll just resight the scene from 'The Mighty Ducks' where the badboy on the hawks takes out Banks. "What did you do?" "My job!". Then I'll give them a cold stare.
Working at a bar, i hear the same songs over and over again. I haven't started to really despise any of them, but i have taken a liking to a few, and get exited when they come on.

In advance I'd like to apologize to my friends, family, and myself.

Britney Spears - Piece of Me,
Pink - U + Ur Hand,
Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Fall in Love.(so sorry bro)

The other two, I don't apologize for because they actually are good.
The Potbelleez - Don't Hold Back.
The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger.

The other night i found myself mouthing along with the song "Don't Cha". The problem with that is that the song goes "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me". I stopped and looked around. There were more guys singing along then girls. Odd?EMMMMIIILLLLIIIIOOOO.

april fools

2008-04-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

The four of us were sitting in the room and Chris asked me if i knew what day it was tomorrow. I said I didn't know. He said tomorrow is april. I quickly shushed him so Drew and Matt wouldn't hear. Then it became time to think of the perfect plan. I hadn't performed on april fools since probably middle school, so it was long overdue.

The only feasible plan we could come up with was changing Matt's alarm clock for work, but which direction would we go? Making him late for work was not an option, so there was either, change his clock so when he wakes up it says 7am instead of 5am, so he thinks he's late, or make his clock an hour earlier so he gets up an hour early. We went with the latter.

We were hanging out on the gym equipment, pretending we were working out, Matt got up and left. We let Nic, Sebe, and Drew know about the plan. They were in. Since Chris and I had already done enough, we got Drew to do the actual clock changing. In the morning, Matt's alarm went off as usual. Drew leaned over the bunk bed and woke him up. I looked out of my cocoon and saw Matt getting ready. I felt guilty, but you only get one day a year, so I had to let it go. About 45min later, Chris's phone rang. He didn't answer. My phone rang 4 times in a row. I didn't answer. Chris's phone rang again. No answer. Finally Drew's phone rang. He answered. "April Fools!" From what Drew repeated back to us, Matt was not happy. The trains didn't start running for another hour, so instead of coming back to the hostel, he waited at the station. Score one for the bad guys.

Last night some of the guys were watching a rugby game on the tv. I got up to go on the Internet then i thought I heard someone on the tv say 'Colorado Avalanche'. I quickly logged off and ran over to the television. Vancouver vs Colorado. I informed everyone watching that the channel was not going to be changed. I already knew what the outcome would be, but I watched most of the game anyway. Chris, who loves Peter Forsberg, informed me that he would be scoring on a breakaway later on in the game. But I already knew that as well. Drew found out at work that the 'Mustang' where he works, will be playing the playoffs there. I'm all in. Right now the two teams I'm rooting for are on the ropes. The Nucks, and Ovechkin and the Caps. Fingers crossed.

Later on last night, WWE came on. I used to be a huge fan so i was exited to see what was going on the world of wrestling. After 15min, i could easily get back into it. Corny, yes. But it's a show, its entertainment. The night before was 'Wrestlemania' and Ric Flair had to beat my all time favourite, Shawn Micheals, or he would have to retire. He lost, so on this episode it was his last address to the fans. After he spoke he was getting ready to leave, Triple H came down. I don't think Flair was expecting this. Triple H began introducing wrestlers who wanted to say thank you to Flair. So many old old wrestlers were there. I could see Hacksaw Jim Duggin, Sgt. Slaughter, George 'The Hammer' Valentine and more. Flair was emotionally shook, tears flowing. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this but it was fun to see, and a little sad at the same time to see a great like him retire. I'll try to tune in again next time. "Woooooo!"

We're very lucky he didn't try to hurt us.

there's cody

2008-03-28T23:39:00.001-07:00

Last night at work, i saw Flesher.

It's hard to explain the feeling. I saw him, it wasn't a big deal, I see him all the time. Then it hit. I'm on the other side of the world, thats just someone who looks like Cody. This all took place in about a half second, and actually gave me a wierd feeling in my stomach. I saw the same guy later on in the night, and almost started laughing. Not because I thought it was funny I could mistake this guy for him, but because it made me happy to think of home. It made me think of the good times we'd had, and the times we will have when i get back.

When I woke up this morning I jumped on facebook and started looking at old pictures, and came across these beauties of Nick "the sasquatch" Finlay.

How can't you miss a guy like that?

Now moving on to another Nic, Nic 'Kiwi' Tremewan's birthday was good times. Hit up 'The Deen' and tore a few holes in the dance floor. He actually made it to work the next day, he was an hour late, but the guys at work didn't really expect him at all.

Since i'll be working every friday and saturday, and thursday and/or sunday, my weekends are now during the week, which makes things a little different. I work when Matt, Nic, Sebastian, Chris are out partying, and Me and Drew go out when the others have to get up the next morning. Last night the boys came to 'The Shed' to pay me a visit, and enjoy the night. Luckily I didn't have to get security to remove them, although Nic kept calling me a slacker, and Matt kept trying to pull my earpiece out, but it was good times.

I work again tonight, apparently Saturday is the busy night, so I should be in for some fun. I slept like a baby last night, so after two in a row I'll probably sleep like the guy from the 'NyQuil' commercial.

that looks like some damn good orange drink.

the shed

2008-03-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Matt Junker - Employed.

Nic Tremewan - Employed.

Sebastian Koenig - Employed.
Chris Sorling - Emloyed.

Drew Dow - Employed.

Steve Pearson - Employed.

We're all workin' men now. I had my first shift at 'The Shed' last night. I didn't know what to expect because i've never worked in a bar before. 10.25 hours without a break. My legs were weak on the walk home. It was my first shift and i was already promoted to 'super glassie'. That meant i was wearing the headset which gets the orders for the other glassies. It was a blast. Moving around a bar all night clearing glasses, moving clean glasses, and checkups on the womens washroom. I've never been hit on so much in one night before. Either it comes with the job, or i looked damm good.

Chris and Matt are working as labourers for a construction company, Sebastian, who we met and billabong, and have been spending a lot of time with, works for Budget vacuuming the rental cars. Nic, has been working as a shop welder, and Drew started at 'The Mustang Bar' last night.

Nic.Tonight is Nic's birthday so i guess we're going to go out tonight, minus Matt and Chris, because they have to get up for work tomorrow. We got our liquor from a drive through bottle shop. We didn't even have to get out of the van. Me and Sebastian were in the back, so we just slide over the sliding window to place our order. Fun.

happy easter.

meet chris

2008-03-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

Most of you have read posts with me mentioning 'Chris' or '#2'.
Well here he is, in full HD.

We spent the whole day at the beach. Body surfing, swimming, laying in the sun and so on. Living so close to paradise is a great thing. Knowing I can wake up and go lay in 35 degree sun on a beach located on the indian ocean makes me smile. So far I don't see any signs of a sun burn, but they always seem to sneak up on me. Ir's dinner time.he works as a coffee machine repairman at home.

St. Patty's Day

2008-03-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

The plan was to be on the pool deck with beer at 10am. But, since most of the irishmen stayed up drinking till 6am, it got pushed back a bit. Luckily for me, i had to check out at 10, and go to the new hostel and check in. Our room wasn't ready, so we had to wait. When i walked back down to Billabong at about 3pm, they were already on their way. At around 6pm, we ventured to 'Rosie O'Gradys', an irish pub. When we got their the street had been closed, and they had a beer garden going on outside. We all ventured in and continued. Green everywhere.The day turned to night, and the green paint on people's faces began to smudge. But still, there was no slowing down. I usually try to budget my night out to one or two drinks, but i went a little over that. Many group pictures went down, many arm around conversations, and enough guiness to drown a donkey. All in all it was a great night, and i got to spend it with real irish people. I'm sure they spent upwards of $200 per person, but when thats their day to party, they've got to do it.

Time to go get a job.

if i could, i would.

ou est charlie?

2008-03-14T23:48:00.000-07:00

Eminem once said, "People they come, they go."

Now i've seen first hand the intellectual level that eminem possesses with lines like that. I've met so many people its as if ive been standing infront of the revolving door at the revolving restaurant.

The latest to walk out the door was the most adorable girl i have ever met. Caroline, from Montreal. She had been learning english at the english school which shares the parking lot with the hostel, and staying at the hostel. Her english is pretty good, but her french-canadian accent is breath taking. She plans to come to Vancouver in the next year, so until then...

Since Matt and Drew are at a different hostel, I've been spending a lot of time with the plethora of irish people that are staying at the hostel. Listening to them talk to eachother is like watching ping pong. Not only is the accent hard to read, but they speak at mach 1 levels. The one thing that makes me jealous of them, is the irish drinking songs. Every night when they get 'pissed up' they break into these songs, all the irish which is about ten or so, belt out these drinking ballads. It would be so fun to have these at a bar, or any social gathering to get the fire in everyones belly. Monday is St.Patricks day. Have Mercy.

My job search has officially begun. I applied at a few places yesterday, one of which looks promising. A nice little pub called 'Queens'. They got me to fill out an application, and said they'd forward it to the manager, because they didnt have a manager on at the time. Fingers crossed.

you would.

the deal

2008-03-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Last night, could be described as follows:
You're at a really fun party, then the cops come, shut it down, and tell you to go home. Now the cops never came, but a party did get shut down. Kyle, whom I've become really good friends with has left us. Party killer. He's off to Thailand. But, this isn't where the story ends. We made a deal that whoever wins the Stanley Cup first, Flames, or Canucks, the person of the losing city has to go to the winners city, where he must take the winner out and pay for the drinks on the first night. Now this may not happen for twenty years, but I'm hoping the Canucks can pull it off in the next three years.see ya later alligator.

keen

2008-03-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

I've really been slackin off.
Been meaning to type in some details of whats gone on but found myself being pretty lazy.

After sleeping in the park the first night, we said we would really get on top of things and book long ahead of time. After 5 days at billabong we went to the front desk to book another week. Well, they had already sold our beds, so we had 2 days to find another place to sleep. We called about thirty places trying to find something. Finally, the morning we had checked out of the Billabong, we found a place. Three beds, all in the same room. "VICTORY!"-Johnny Drama.

For the following nights, Matt and Drew had found a place with two beds vacant, and i got one at the Billabong again for a week. After that week is up, Matt, Drew, Chris and I, have a room for four at the Old Swan Barracks. We can stay as long as we want so that will probably be our home for the next while.

Tomorrow morning, Drew and I take our RSA, which means we can serve alcohal. Hopefully we can get a job in a bar or restraunt near by. Matt got his Blue Card which means he can work in construction. He went to work with Chris today.

Our newest best buds are Kyle, a Calgarian who must be a relative of Nick Buono, and Nick, a Kiwi. Kyle seems to have extra travel funds because the first night we went out with him, he bought 2 rounds of 8 jagerbombs. Nick on the other hand, has been sleeping in his van in the Billabong parking lot ever since he checked out of our room. He lasted 5 days, walking in like he lived here, using the kitchen, and hopping in freinds showers. Yesterday they caught him so he bought a night in. He's parked his van down the street now, but still comes by once the lady that caught him is off work.

We've been picking up on Nick's kiwi slang with words like 'jandels' which are thongs. He also uses the word keen more than anyone ive ever met. "You guys keen with gettin on the piss tonight?" Which would translate to: "Are you guys down with getting drunk tonight?" Other words, "true," "yee," and the ever so popular "sweet as."

(if i could post pictures on this computer, there would probably be some sort of stupid picture of Kyle and/or Nick, but i am unable to.)

fergalicious.

concrete camping

2008-03-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

I'll get straight to it.
Had one of the worst nights ever, but i guess if youre traveling you have to do it at least once.

We arrived in Perth at 2:05am on friday night. We didn't have accomodation, all we knew was we wanted to go to 'Billabong Backpackers Resort' because that's where Chris was staying. In the airport we found the hostel/hotel board, and proceeded to dail the Billabong. Oblivious to the fact that they may not even have vacancy my first question when they answered was if they have a shuttle that picks up from the airport. No. Then i asked if they had vacancy for three. No. Uh oh. Mabye we should have booked it before we left. We decided we'd just spend the night at another hostel and try again the next morning. We called every hostel on the board, even some hotels. No vacancy anywhere. We agreed that we'd get a cab to take us to the part of the city where most of the hostels are. We drove around for awhile, jumping out at different hostels to see if anywhere had room for us. No dice.

We found a nice quiet alley just off Lake Street. We layed down our things, and tried to get as comfortable as possible. After about an hour we decided this was not the place we wanted to stay. Drew got out the map book and found a near by park. Bingo. Again, we set up camp. I climbed on the slide, and the other two layed against their bags.I woke up to some guy saying, "Wow, theres like fifty of them." Half asleep and confused, i watched him walk off and i closed my eyes again. Aparently he was drunk and looking for someone. When morning arrived, Drew again opened the book to find out how close we were to Billabong. It was about fifty steps away, across the street, two buildings down. He went and looked to see if they had any spots open. When he returned he informed us they had 2 spots available, and that if we came back at 10, they would see if anyone else was checking out.

Drew and I played football, practicing field goal kicks over the soccer net. Matt slept on the grass. Finally 10 o'clock hit and they walked over to see if any spots had opened up. Victory. Not only had another bed opened up, but the three of us would all be in the same room.

Best Nap Ever.

The weather here is fantastic. The sun is much hotter here than in Cairns, but there's no humidity, in the shade its actually cool, when you get out of the shower, youre not automatically sticky again. Its great. At night, as we had found out the first night, it cools down quite nicely.

I went out that night with a kiwi we had met at the hostel. It reminded me exactly of downtown Vancouver, without the homeless. Lineups, intoxicated people, and clubs everywhere. Even the streets in Perth remind me of Vancouver. Small shops, restraunts, and large sidewalks.

Chris is working 12hrs a day as a labourer, he has wednesday and friday off, so we'll go out on tuesday and thursday with him. Since he's a working man, he offered to pay for the goon tomorrow night. What a guy.

I'm glad to be out of Cairns, but i will miss one friend we met. The last few days we were there, we had a visitor come into our room quite often. A small bird, just small enough to squeeze under our door. A very brave little guy, would walk around the room like he owned it, hopping on beds and bags. He also spent lots of time in the kitchen waiting for crumbs to drop. What does the cow say? Thats right! Meep, Meep.

rain jacket and flip-flops

2008-02-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

We couldn't be more ready to leave. It's rained for the last few days, leaving us stranded at the hostel. The weather in Perth in blistering, but apparently not as humid as here in Cairns.

Cam, a friend from home asked about the toilet flushing direction here, if 'The Simpsons' episode is true, that it flows in a different direction than home. So far my studies have concluded that the flush here goes neither clockwise nor counter-clockwise. It's just like a big flurry of water, then it all goes straight down. I am going to keep my eyes peeled to see if i can find a toilet that spins.

for the moms.

ticket to ride

2008-02-26T02:35:00.001-08:00

On Friday we are flying to Perth.

Going to meet back up with #2(chris) when we get there. Hopefully he's found us a nice place to stay. Other than that there's not too much to report. It's Bad Tuesday, and we had a big football game planned, but the rain had other ideas.

anyone guess what he's yelling? (click comments below)

sports days

2008-02-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

North America 10 - Europe 9.

The last few days have been full of sports.

Three days ago, we played soccer, or 'football'.

At the end, we challenged Europe. Drew, Josh from US, and me versus Matt and Dave from England, and Martin from Germany. They laughed at the challenge. We busted out to an early 4-1 lead. We held it together pretty well and took it home 10-9. We beat them at their own game. We had the heart. Later on we went to the ping pong stadium, and played some ping pong. Some of the people there definalty play for keeps.

The last two days we've been playing american football. Great workout. I'm definatly in good physical shape, i can run like i used to when i was a glenayre track star. But visually, I notice a little buddha coming in. I'm going to try to stay away from pasta for a little while. Lots of fruits and veggies.

Last night the sports continued. The game? Goon Pong.

I had taken one of the balls from the ping pong arena, and purchased some cups from 'Crazy Clarks'. All we needed was a few boxes of goon. Done. My partner was #2 (swedish chris), we went undefeated. He's flying to Perth tomorrow. I think we are meeting him there in a week.

probably not gonna go in.

Mad Monday Part 4

2008-02-19T19:54:00.001-08:00

I'm really starting to see a trend with this;
Mad Monday = Bad Tuesday.

This monday was no different.

The fine workers of the asylum gently force-fed goon into our systems, then proceeded to delicatly toss our bodies into the bus.

First stop: Rhinobar.

After the goon kicks in, its time to meet the new inmates, and start writing obsene messages on their shirts. I tried to keep in PG-13, failed. We got a free drink, free meal, and then started on the 8 buck pitchers. I was standing on the patio when Dave, a worker of the asylum said, "You're getting on stage." After seeing what happened last monday, when a girl poured a beer all over herself in the game they played, i was a bit hesitant to find out what game we would be playing.

Five inmate girls, five inmate guys. "Niiiiiice" - borat.

The game: Knights and Cavaliers.

The MC says Knights, the girl sits on your knee, Cavaliers, you pick them up in your arms, and Vikings, they jump on your back. Drew, Junker and myself all were in the game. When we got to the final two teams, the game went downhill. Going from Knights to cavaliers, was the biggest workout i've had in months. Being on one knee, and dead-lifting my partner into my arms in one motion. Over and over, purposly. I cursed on every lift.

I'll try to keep this next portion as clean as i can, as i know parents are reading this.
The game proceeds, and they start throwing in new positions.

Dirty positions.

If you screw up, you have to lose a piece of clothing. I won't get into too much detail, but in the end I vikinged, while by partner verticaled, and we were eliminated, as i was wearing only boxers, and my partner couldn't remove anything without becoming naked, which she did think about. The winners took home a sixty dollar bar tab, and I, took home the worst feeling legs ever. I can barely walk down stairs.

Next stop: Casa de Maze.

Two more free drinks. More obsene messages started apearing on everyones shirts.

I've worn the same inmate shirt the last four mondays, so theres some pretty interesting things written on it, and not too much room for more. I had chatted with the bartender the previous monday, where he gave me a drink on the house. This monday, he hooked up a free hat. It was straw, sort of like a cowboy hat, but better. The hat probably sat atop thirty different heads throughout the night. Very popular attire.

Final stop: Woolshed.

Same old story. Two free drinks, and a free slice of pizza.

A lot of air guitar was played.

Another fantastic Mad Monday.

Rewind.

As i couldn't really go into detail about the great barrier reef, i can go back now.

We had to set the alarm for 6:30am. Ouch.

We got a ride to the marina, and boarded the 'Osprey X'.

Ventured about an hour into the ocean, and had our first stop.

We snorkled there for about two hours or so. Got real pruney.

The colours, reef, fish and other marine life were a sight to see.

Back on the boat for buffet lunch, and a trip to the next destination.

North Hastings reef.

This time, one of the staff took us on a snorkle tour around the reef.

We found Nemo, held a sea slug, touched a giant clam, and saw some schools of fish.

When we applied our sunscreen, no one really thought that "Hey, maybe putting sunscreen on the back of our legs will be a good idea, because they will be right near the surface the whole time."

No Dice.

Me and Drew got the worst of it, as we were in the water longer then anyone else. Also burnt the middle of my back because i only re-applied to my shoulders after the first location. That didn't help during the game when someone is repeatadly jumping on your back.

Last night Chris picked me up a Kangaroo steak. Another thing i can cross off the list. It tasted pretty simular to beef, but was very lean, no fat, as kangaroos are in better shape than cattle. Moo.

Chris and Chelsea have now left for the airport, we went out last night for their last night in aussieland. They woke us up this morning for hugs. I think Chris is coming to Vancouver for the Olympics so I'm sure we'll see eachother if he comes.

Well, i think i've pretty much said it all. G'Day.

im gonna get right on those sit-ups.

seventh wonder of the world

2008-02-18T00:33:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the great barrier reef for snorkling.
Absolutly amazing. Beautiful.
I was the only one of us to see a shark.
Luckily when i found the turtle, Chelsea was near, so she was the only other person who saw it.
I wish i could say more but 'Mad Monday' is about to begin and I'm being kicked off.

Mad Monday = The Tenth Wonder of the World. Goon.

B-Boy Battle Goes Down At Soho

2008-02-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Last night = fun.
Chris, whom we met in Sydney got here yesterday. We started out by playing a whole lot of big 2, with the loser of each round having to slam a tea cup of goon. It wasn't my night. I lost about ten times. After big 2, we began to play some drinking games. We checked the time, it was about nine-thirty. At this point we're all pretty smiley. Drew, Junker, Chris, Chelsea, #2, and I.

Eleven o'clock came and we decided we should go out before we proceed further. We were given free entrance to a club called 'Soho' from our hostel. It was close to our destination of 'Woolshed', so we figured we'd check it out. It was dead. A few people were sitting in the booths, and there was the bar staff.

We did the only thing logical thinking people would do. dance off.

Drew and I cleared out the empty dance floor so we could bust our high flying, highly technical dance moves. We all took turns jumping in and bustin a groove, from breakdance to disco. In the end i took the title as i still remembered some breakdancing moves I had learned in grade seven.During the battle, the DJ turned the smoke on, I'm not sure if he was adding to the battle atmosphere, or mabye he was trying to smoke us out?

After the dance battle we got out of there as quick as we could, no drinks purchased. On the way out we heard the security guards talking on their walkie-talkies. They were describing our outfits. "Blue jeans, Black shirt. Black shorts, black shirt....". I guess they had plans to ruin our battle.

On the way to 'Woolshed' we got Chelsea to take a picture, just in case we ever put out a dance video.

The 'Woolshed' was great as well, but after a story about a dance off, it just can't compete.

the calcium kid

2008-02-15T00:09:00.000-08:00

We saw it in the video store. We had to have it.On the back of the movie it says it's about a milkman who knocks out the big shot at the gym, and is given a boxing career. Apparently he drinks a lot of milk. "It Takes a Lotta Bottle to be the Champ."

On the topic of movies, on the plane from Hong Kong to Sydney, i watched the movie "Into the Wild." I didn't really know too much about it, but i did know i was tired of hearing that damn Eddie Vedder song every thirty minutes on the radio. Anyway, I highly recommend renting it as it was one of the best movies I have seen recently, but, I'm expectiong 'The Calcium Kid' to be a knockout.

Pun intended.

Yesterday we bought four litres of wine for eight bucks. After we finished drinking that, a group of New Zealander's started teaching us some new drinking games, they fed us rum, bourbon, and got us to take slam's of their sambuka, which I refused. After we had a few drinks we went out on the town. I went to rhinobar by myself before the rest got there. I bought myself a drink and started talking to people. I guess I'm a pretty nice guy because I scored about four free drinks from four different people. Usually I wouldn't let someone by me a drink if i don't intend to buy them one back in return, so I let them know before hand that there would be no drink coming there way. Nobody seemed to have a problem. I guess you can do that sort of thing when you have a job.

Tonight is all you can eat pizza for three bucks. Call the zoo.

drew.

ping pong hero

2008-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

The bats here are like flying cats, there huge. When me and Drew were in the pool, one flew into the tree right next to the pool. Oh yea, i've changed Andrew's name, his name is Drew now. Anyway, we watched it for about ten minutes. Climbing around like a monkey, claws on the end of its wings. It made it's way down the branches to the berries at the bottem. I tried to get some pictures of them flying over head but i couldnt get a clear shot. They fly around like crows, rather then the speeding missiles we see at home.

We haven't got much accomplished due to the rain. It's the craziest rain i've ever witnessed. You can get drenched in seconds. Luckily, it's a warm rain, and with no hair to get ruined its a bit refreshing. A few blocks from our hostel is where the lagoon is. It's giant pool right on the edge of the oceean. Swimming in the ocean in Cairns isn't allowed, so everyone hits up the lagoon.

The ping pong table here in under cover, we've played a lot. I'm trying to follow in the footsteps of my hero, Forrest Gump. I've lost one game, i'd guess im about 60-1. My excuse for the loss? Well, Drew and Matt were seeing who could win ten games first, so they had just played eighteen games in a row, and i came in cold. The rest is history. It hurt, but i've been mopping the floor with them since.

Last night was Mad Monday again. Many free drinks. We hadn't gone out in five nights so it was a pretty fun time. Probably stay in for a few more again. Chris and Chelsea, who we met in Sydney will be here on Friday, so i'd imagine we'll be going out more when they get here. We got a membership at the local video store so that's been occupying our nights in.

The plan at the moment is to get jobs for a month until the rainy season ends, but we'll see what happens.

happy belated birthday flesh.

who's that guy?

2008-02-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

As I said in the prior post, the morning after the vodka redbull night, we we're looking at everyones pictures trying to piece together parts of the night, this picture brought up a lot of questions:We got this picture off of David's camera. He's the one holding the girl. When we uploaded this picture everyone was like, "Who's that girl?" He had no idea, yet she was in about four pictures with us. The next question we asked, "Who is that guy?" We immediatly started howling. Who is that guy? What is he doing? The reason i bring it up, last night on the way to the airport we saw him walking across the street. Barefoot. What a way to end the trip to Sydney. We saw him. Twice.

Our flight to Cairns was delayed two hours. Thunder and lightening storms. Our last few days in Sydney the weather wasn't that great. Rain and clouds, means no trips to the beach. We're staying at The Asylum here in Carins as well. Hopefully we meet as many great people as last time.

When we were asking one of the guys who works here where the closest beer store is, he told us that they have some Canadian beer at the store. He couldn't remember the name, but he remember blue mountains. Kokenee. How much was this great canadian import? Twenty-two dollars for a sixpack. Wow. Not going to happen.

Adios Sydney.

half hour of power

2008-02-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

Last night I witnessed something you will never see in Vancouver. A mob of about twenty of us went to "The Empire" to party it up. Well, what makes this place so special, is that they have a half an hour period where vodka redbulls are FREE! No foolies. They don't tell you when its going to happen, all you do is wait for a red sirun to go off, then it's on. We set up camp right near the bar so we could get there as fast as possible when the time came. I managed to get four of them, I'd get to the front, get my drink, walk to the back, slam it, and get back in line.

Vodka Redbulls were also on special for five bucks a piece. Everyone woke up shaking, and we've all been jittery all day. We've been asking a lot of questions to each other trying to figure out exactly what happened, pictures have helped. Every conversation I had this morning started out along the lines of "Last night, wow." We must have had about ten VRB's each, no one should ever have that much redbull. One of the Calgarian's that left this morning urinated all over one of the couches in the living room. I blame the fourty of crown royal I saw him drinking before we left.A few nights ago i awoke to a cockroach the size of my big toe wandering around on my foot. I flipped out and kicked it off, and got Andrew to take care of it. Not that I was afraid, it's just that I sleep on the top bunk, and he's on the bottom. I found myself thinking, what would have happened if Matt Day was in my position? Out of all the people i know, girls included, I don't know anyone more scared of spiders/mice ect. I can imagine the room being destroyed, and girlish screams echoing through the hostel. Police would probably be called.

There's some really awesome people staying at our hostel, it's like we've been friends for years. Swede's, Dutch, English, Canadian's, a lone American. All it takes is one person to say, "I feel like going out tonight." No one wants to miss the adventure, so everyone is obligated to go and put on there party boots. Even after last nights debacle, we're going out again tonight, probably try to take it a lot easier though.That 'C' stands for captain. I call it my 'chedda'.Who's that goof that got second?

greetings from down under

2008-01-28T23:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite awhile since i was on here so i guess i'll get straight to it.
The hostel we are staying at is called the asylum. Monday nights they host a hostel party called 'Mad Monday'. They give you an inmate shirt, and you play drinking games in the basement with 'Goon Bags'. Goon bags are the bags you find in wine boxes, so it's not the greatest stuff ever. After you slam a couple cups they pass around pens and everyone writes dirty things on other peoples shirts, and then we head to the bar next door.

When we arrived it was the finals for "Backpacker Idol". We had a few more drinks then i heard them say over the p.a that two of the competitors had not shown up. I rushed the stage and asked if I could fill one of the spots. After a few questions the MC said "Alright Steve, you're on fourth." I walked back to the group of other 'inmates', and immediatly started the fist pumps. I had little time to decide which song to showcase, as each person only gets one song. After looking at the crowd I figured 'otherside' by red hot chili peppers was the song to play.

"Next up, Steve from Vancouver Canada." I walked on stage and grabbed the guitar. Gave a quick shout out to the inmates and then it was on. I was in the zone, chief. I nailed it. I don't think i've ever played so good, maybe it was the fact i had a microphone and the guitar was mic'd. Either way i was very happy and the crowd erupted. I now had to wait and see what the judges thought. "9, 8.5, 9.5". I'm in first place. Now i had to wait so see if I had qualified for a prize.

After the rest of the competitors performed they called us all to the front of the stage for crowd voting. I was tied for second with the judges scores, now it was in the hands of the crowd. After they sat down the bottem half, it was down to four. I was just happy i got to play. The guy that i was tied for second with gets sat down. Down to me and two girls. One of the girls is sat down, its down to two. The girl next to me had got higher in judges voting and her cheers were quite louder than mine up to this point.

In the end i walked out with second place, a hat with a built in bottle opener and a 12 case of cider bottles the size of wine bottles. I'll be drinking for free for a couple of nights. Some people got some picutres that i'll have to get on here as soon as i get them. All in all it was an amazing experience. I got a lot of free drinks from people, and i got an open invite to play some more tunes there next monday which i'll probably have to do.
"What's propane doin?"

goodbye

2008-01-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Today we left a great waiter, and an even better friend.
Ang, and his wife Nam, were our main servers at our resort.
Ang took us to the car bar, he told us about Lotus, he brought us a lot of chang beers.
Last night when they got off work we treated them to a few hours of free drinks, free food, and free billiards. I'll genuinly miss them, and always remember their smiling faces as they say "three changs?" everytime we walked into the restraunt. Luckily they have an email address so I can email them in the future and see how they are doing.

We arrived in Koh Samui a few hours ago and are getting ready to hit the streets, tomorrow we fly back to Bangkok for two nights, where we will once again rock Khao San Road.

Junker tried to cheers the girl on the right with his whiskey bucket. The rest writes itself.

and hes's down

2008-01-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

The muay thai boxing was awesome.

A few knockout's, some big combo's, very entertaining.

The highlight was a flurry of punches followed by a huge kick to the side of the head that dropped the opponent to the floor, where he lay not moving.

I think there were about eight matches in all.

It was definatly worth going to see,

and I can tick off the list that I've seen muy thai in Thailand.

i shower using chang beer

2008-01-17T04:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went and got Thai massages.
Costed about twelvle dollars Canadian.
They worked us for an hour.
I'd never got a massage before so this was a nice new experience.
When they were done I didn't want to move, i wanted to lay there for another hour and keep that relaxation going.

Last night we hit 'Lotus' again.
Got a few more whiskey buckets, same result.
We've been drinking a lot of chang beer here.
6.4% and costs about a buck fitty.
Although being higher in percentage, i'd compare it to molson on tap.

Tonight we're going to a muay thai boxing event.
Should be fun to see some people kick eachother in the face.

What's the weather like at home?

my new haircut

2008-01-15T03:59:00.000-08:00

The barber went great.
Cleaned up the mess real good.
Last night we went to Sairee Beach,
which is the party district of Koh Tao.
Our waiter recomended to go to 'Lotus'.
It was about a twenty minute walk, Junker barely made it.
The place was full of travelers, didn't find any Canadians though,
but lots of really friendly europeons.
The bar was right on the beach, and outside,
so we were right on the beach.
The fire show here was amazing,
moved fast and made some big throws.
There was also a whiskey bucket booth. Oh no.
We split three, I woke up disoreanted.

When we were all loopy last night we decided we'd get some piercings today.
So after lunch we ventured back to Sairee beach and found a shop.
Junker left with pierced lobe, Dow a pierced eyebrow, and I got the top of my ear done.
Don't worry moms, they look good.

We're gonna take it easy tonight, and rest up for Sairee beach again tomorrow night.

roar.

car bar

2008-01-13T02:40:00.000-08:00

Koh Tao has got to be one of the nicest places on earth.

The water is beautiful, weather is gorgeous, and its home to car bar.

What is the car bar?

Its an old VW van, turned into a bar.
A waiter and one of the waitress's from the restraunt here took us.

Four stools at the side, and two small tables that fit five each.

Cosmic lights, cheap drinks and reggae jammin all night.

Aside from the bartender putting on fire shows,

I was rockin the coconut drums they had set up.

Today we went snorkling.

Saw many brightly colored fish, coral and an old shipwreck.

We swam into a school of fish of about five thousand.

You couldnt see the coral at the bottem, just fish.

This wasn't even a guided snorkle trip, it was just in the water infront of our beach.

This afternoon it was haircut time. I cut Dow's and Junker's. Then while Dow was cutting mine, the hairclippers ran out of power, and the charger doesnt work. Now i have a wicked patch missing.

Tomorrow morning i've got a date with the barber.

the pearson boys guitars

2008-01-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

This past christmas, my parents took me and my bro to mexico.
Upon arrival, Colin's guitar never came down the conveyer belt. I'm not sure if he has got it back yet to this day. The reason i bring that up, when we arrived in Koh Samui yesterday, we grabbed our stuff, caught the shuttle to our place, and checked into our room. When i put my guitar down on the bed, i heard a noise as if something was loose. I opened the case. What I discovered was not a happy site. My guitar was snapped at the end of the neck. After a few choice words, I went to the desk and got them to call the airport. They told me to bring the guitar to the baggage desk and they would assess the damage.To make a long story short, they were very understanding, and are going to replace my guitar when i return from Koh Tao. To make things a little better, one of the guys at the desk lent me a travel guitar to take with me untill i return to get the new one. I'm not sure if it was actually his or it had just been in the lost and found for a long time, nonetheless, it was a nice gesture.

We're getting on a boat in an hour to go to Koh Tao for a little more than a week.
I've heard there isnt internet over there, but i'll try to find some.
If i can't blog from over there, good morning, good evenening, and goodnight.

three whiskey buckets please

2008-01-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Well, we've left Hong Kong, and are in the Thailand airport.

We got here yesterday, and spent the night down on khao san road.

What an amazing place. Its just one street, but very fun.

The best part..... the whiskey buckets.

A beach bucket filled with red bull, coke, and whiskey.

After we ordered them, we took a look around and noticed, that all the other whiskey buckets we saw, had four or five straws coming out of them. Everyone else was sharing them, and here we are with a bucket each on the way. One straw. I was a little worrysome and first not really knowing what to expect from this most likely high class thai whiskey.

But upon taking my first sip, i realized it was actually a pretty good 'little' drink.

There were two guys sitting at the fisher price table next to us, and upon starting some small talk, found out that they were from Toronto. I vented out a little Canucks pride, which they didn't even try to compete with, knowing that their Maple Leafs are sub-par at best.

Ali and John, had just spent four months in Australia, so we got them to right down 'heaps' of information in our book. Places to go, places to see, and some do's and don'ts.

After Dow and I shared another whiskey bucket, we hit the road for some late night eats, then ventured into our rooms, and layed down in our beds, which was equal to sleeping on a linoleum floor with a few sheets of cardboard layed down on it.

So that bring us up to speed.

We're waiting for our flight to Koh Samui.

I'll send pics and stories if i can find some internet over there.

I wonder what Lewis is up to?

192 steps

2008-01-09T04:46:00.000-08:00

Me and Dow have stopped using the elevator from our room to the ground floor.
Twelve floors up, sixteen stairs per floor.
Today we've went up and down the stairs about 6 times each, and the night is not over.
I think Junker walked up the stairs with us once, he didn't have a good time.
We've been drinking 7-11 beer in our room to save money, and since it's warm, we only buy one beer at a time, so we're gonna be getting a lot of exersize tonight going on beer runs.

Last night we met a guy from Amsterdam named Lewis. He's 34 and on his last "hurrah" before his child is born a few months from now. We drank tallboys on the street with him for quite awhile before we had to hit the hay. This morning we met up with him at 7-11 to hang out, we ripped it at the arcade, then hit mcdonalds for lunch. Mcdees, is cheap here, and you can get cups of corn with your meal. I didn't see anyone eating corn.

Lewis is flying to Bali tomorrow to meet up with another one of his buddies.
After we parted ways, we went to the Hong Kong space museum.
Now we can say we went to a museum.
There's not all that much to report on about the museum,
it had some stuff in it. Stuff that you'd see at a space museum.

Tomorrow we fly to Thailand, so that will be another adventure on its own.
I'll find some internet there and report back.
As for now, I've got a game of Big Two to win. Adios.

Live from Hong Kong

2008-01-08T02:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we've been here for 2 days so far, but it hasnt really kicked in that we're gone yet.
The flight was thirteen HOURS, but we all managed to get some sleep so it made it alright.
Junker left a massive drool stain on the pillow which the airline supplied him.
We had little TV's on the seats in front of us which we could control.
I watched Superbad 3 times on the seat that was reclined to the max by the person in front of me, making the flight that much more uncomfortable.
But Superbad on repeat, come on, hard to complain.

We're staying in the "Cosmic House", and theres nothing "cosmic" about it.
Imagine three dudes sleeping in a small washroom.
I tried to upload some pictures but this computer won't let me.

We've been to the arcade twice which was pretty fun. I think im about 10-0 in the basketball free throw game, they can't contain me. We've done quite a lot of walking in the last few days,
wandering around trying to find an open area to throw the football, which we did find but were told to stop by secuirity. Our place is very close to the water, so we can look across to the main island and see all the building infront of the mountains. Some of the architecture here is unreal, but who wants to read about archetecture? Sorry Dad.

Last night we had dinner at Fat Angelo's. Today we've eatin every meal out of 7-11.
You could live out of that place.
Very cheap food, entertainment, and very cheap beer.
Dow's been hittin the 70 cent pabst blue ribbon,
where as i splerged for the 1.70 asahi tallboys. (prices in canadian)

Not too sure what's in store for tonight. Going to eat some dinner then i think we might take it easy and drink in the room, play some cards, then wander around in the streets after a good buzz.

Catch ya later.