Melbourne.- Return of the Jedi

Hey. Heres where the blogs are probably going to get a little dull for a while, on account of selling a large chunk of my soul to Obriens Glass to get a bit of money together. Hence the random titles. Im trying to keep you all entertained! :)

Last sunday, I just went down to St Kilda on the tram, and as the weather was nice, I took a walk along the beach to Albert Park, then went back, and found the hostel im staying in at the moment...

Stayed at the hostel. Ive been completely demolished from the 6am starts, so after getting home from work around 5ish, im into full zombie mode..I just sort of collapse in front of the TV, and thats it really. Saying that, im getting slightly better. Perhaps after 6 months, i might even be used to it! :)

Then this weekend, I went out with a few blokes from the hostel on the friday night. One of them fed me copious amounts of southern comfort, as id given him 2 bottles of beer, which i think is a fair swap! :P Went over to a place called Cookies, which was pretty good. There was a whole jazz theme going on, and some ver' nice looking leh-diys! Then went to a jazz club. Then went home, and woke up yesterday with the world still spinning.

So that was a fairly quiet day. I just took a walk around town, went around federation square. Watched some bloke trying to do juggling on a unicycle he'd only just bought, and couldnt use. Which was pretty damn funny 'AND NOW! IM GOING TO RIDE OVER TO xxxxx AND JUGGLE THE KNIVES!' 'oooooh' '.......long pause, and then: 'Erm. Maybe its better if you could come over to me please'.

Then in the evening, I met up with my mate from school, Paul Welland. We grabbed a few beers, and then went over to see an AFL (Aussie Rules Football match), over at the Etihad stadium, which was pretty good. After being well annoying for the 1st 3/4 of the game (so whats he doing there? Why are they doing that? How is that a goal? Whos he? etc etc) , I finally got the hang of it, and was getting into it!

It was really good to see paul again too, so all in all, a very good evening! Lol. He also came up with the best idea ever. Him and his mates are doing thier own 'Come Dine With Me' amongst themselves, with prize money, and everything. Which actually sounds like a good idea!

So that was good. Today im going to try and find another hostel. This ones alright, but a bit soul-less. Im also going to take a walk around victoria market. And thats about it really. Oh, and im going to put myself into the draw to get tickets to the Ashes, which is pretty cool! Hopefully ill get them, because to join the barmy army at the MCG would be immense!

Anyways, thats it for the time being. See ya all later!

Melbourne

Woohoo! (ish) Finally made it to melbourne...I spent my last few days in Cairns relaxing. I didnt really have the money to do the reef after the nazi car company stealing all of my money. I DID however meet up with a friend from Sydney, which was pretty cool. Lol, it turned out that one of her friends was in the same hostel as me, and she knew pretty much everyone I Did, which was quite weird..Almost as weird as their digeridoo competition!

There was an awesome band playing on the friday too in the town centre, just randomly. And fire jugglers, and random line-dancing groups. LOADS of stuff...It was quite cool to see!

...im also going to stop at this point, and say that the reason my sentances are less structured thajn a drunk hippo's first turd of the day are because ive just finished my 1st day at work. As such I am dead. As such I am exempt from such paltry things as punctuation, and sense.. :P It was cold and raining, and i was stuck in the branch, It was almost like I was back home again in england! :P

AAaanyways, I caught the flight down to melbourne on Saturday. Stayed at this fairly shit hostel, where the showers didnt work properly, and my room was 1/4 filled with psychotic Japanese. I rolled in at 130am to go to bed. The bloke woke up, so i was like 'sorry dude, hows it going? Im chris', where he leaps out of bed, pushes me in the chest and goes 'NO!'

So i was like 'erm. yes.
CRAZY JAP: ' 'NO! WRONG ROOM!'
'ME: no. Right room. Theres my stuff' mate'
CRAZY JAP: *pushes me again* 'NO!! WRONG ROOM! FOR ME! THERES 3 OF US HERE!'

Now at this point im getting quite annoyed, because im tired, ive been flying for 4-5 hours, and i just want to sleep. But at the same time I didnt quite know how to handle the situation. I mean, I cant hit the bloke after only having spoke 10 words to him. Tempting though. In the end i settled for:

ME: 'Yeah. And four beds. That bed *points* is mine. Like THAT stuff *points* is mine. Now im going to bed..,'
C J: 'I said 3 people per room!! Why they no' Listen! 3 people!'

* get changed. Get into bed* THEN the bloke was like 'aaahhh. Sorry Sorry sorry! Not your fault. Sorry sorry! And then tries to chat to me..

Safe to say I got out of that hostel pretty sharpish! Im in another one now, right next to flinders street station for ease of getting to work, but Ill probably move on fairly sharpish. Its fairly soul-less here...I really want to move to St Kilda, but its really the wrong side of the city for work.

Im meeting up with Paul (Welland) on the weekend too..We're getting a few beers in, and then going to watch an Aussie Rules football match at the msg. Sounds pretty cool...Lol, sods law I come to visit him, and its the only week hes been sent away for a week! :P Ph well!

Other than that, ive got a few more 6am starts this week., Then im free for a few days. I bloody hate working! :P

Brisbane to Cairns. To bodly go where no. Erm. Possum? Has gone before...

Just a quick one, because far too many days have gone by without me writing this down, so im in danger of getting this forgotton about..

Started off in Brisbane, got the car sorted. Went to pick it up, QUITE hungover, but never mind! Grabbed the car, and they needed $2k for a bond. Which bloody cleared me out. So the trip was off to a bad start anyways! :P

So I drove from Brisbane to Rainbow beach. That was a nice place, met a few other travellers in the carpark, chatted with them, had dinner, chatted some more. Then after they went off to sleep in a side street, I wondered down to the beach, and was out there, lying on the beach, looking up at the most incredible star-scape (is that even a word??), playing a bit of guitar. It was absolutely magical...

Then after that, I went up to Inskip point, and set up camp on the beach on this free campsite, and slept there. That was tres cool..

The day after I did a 10 hour mission up to Emu Point / Yeppon, where I got lost half way through, and ended up on 20ks worth of dirt track, then booked myself into a hostel which was bloody welcome! I was so tired, i couldnt even remember my bloody name. It was well comfy though, and Emu Park had an incredible beach on too...

Unfortunately I missed out on the whitsundays, and Fraiser because of the robbing bastards at Travellers Autobahn, but never mind! Went to Airlie beach the next stop, then went up to a waterfall, which is the biggest in Queensland. It promised to be amazing, before it p******d down all night, and all the next day, so all I saw was a bloody load of cloud. GAY!!

Then I went from there up to Cairns, and found this real nice hostel. On the monday night I wont some free beer, and a Bunjee Swing thing, which was pretty cool. I took the free beers, and ended up giving away the bunjee swing today to a bloke call neals' gf, who wanted to do the jump that he'd won the previous week in a competition with him, but couldnt afford it..So I thought sod it, id give it away. Made thier day anyways, which is what matters, as i would have probably hated it.

Then today Ive just done a power tour around the Atherton Tablelands, walked around a bit, saw a few water falls, swam. Not bad, but the weather is a bit so so again today. Bloody place...

Then in the next few days ill probably just snorkel on the reef, because Id like to while im here...

Woohoo! Stotty goes South. Eventually.

Just an update again...Ive been in Brisbane now for a few days. Its a really nice city here...I went on the ferry the other day up and down the river. Went for a walk along the river, grabbed a beer, then got the ferry back. That was quite nice...cheap too, which is always good! Apart from that ive just been mainly walking around. I went out in the valley, where all the clubs are for a night out with a few people who were driving down from cairns, who id met in the last hostel in Sydney on the friday night. And other than that ive been chillaxin' and relaxin' all cool! :)

Other than that Ive just been getting jobs. I had my interview on monday, which (obviously) I flew through, the lady seemed very impressed, and I noticed she kept putting '4's down on the paperwork, which is probably quite encouraging. I also had my medical today (lol. It was everything. A fitness test, An Alcahol test, A drugs test. Lung capacity. You'd think they were sending me into bloody space!). Passed that (ha, apparantly im fit an healthy..ill take thier word for it! ). So thats been good.

Now ive just hired a cheap stationwagon car (with a mattress in the back, and camping gear, as the camper relocation deals were taken up unfortunately) but I wanted to see the east coast anyways. so i thought 'sod it. im up here. Its going to be a pain to come back up here again. I might as well leave myself free for the south / west coast in the summer time [thats november / winter for you all you unlucky peeps in england!). Then Saturday im flying down from Cairns to Melbourne. Then ill have sunday to try and get my bearings, and then into work on the monday.. :( Damn not having limitless amounts of cash! :P

So yes. Its all good so far! Maybe in melbourne ill get myself a notepad computer and get these bloody photos uploaded properly, but we shall see!

East Side Mo-fo!

Hey, ive got to rush through this, as im on a library computer, and only have 20mins (well, 10 now) to do all my rambling...

Basically, Ive spent the last week or so travelling up from Sydney to Brisbane in a hire car. We decided to miss out on Coffs harbour in the end, and drove straight up to Byron Bay. The plan was we were going to stay there for a few days, spend a day in nimbin, and then go to brisbane.

Unfortunately, we got to Byron Bay at 10pm, after driving 500ks, and it was absolutely chucking it down, and didnt stop. So the next morning, we set out for a daytrip to Nimbin (this hippy comune place nearby) and had a bit of a drive around. Then stumbled across this Youth Hostel place, and fell in love.

This place had views right across the Nimbin Rocks themselves, and was set in the rainforest. It was absolutely magical. We ended up staying for 2 days in the end. There was plenty of walking to do, and also the stars at night...Ill show you some pictures eventually when i get them off my camera properly..

then after that We went straight into Brisbane...Its quite cool here. Ive been in a nice hostel near the Southbank of the river. I havent done a huge amount so far. I walked around a bit yesterday, and BROUGHT A NEW PAIR OF SHOES (That'll have a few of you in a dead faint! :)) and another pair of shorts.

I also finally got hold of the lady from Obriens, and im going for an interview on Monday, just so she knows I am who I say i am, and havent been Bull-s*****ing them, then im going down to Melbourne to work (apparantly they dont need me in brisbane anymore) Which is pretty damn cool.

Wrong side of the sodding country though..but yes. Thats good news, cos my money was starting to get a bit thin. So Yes. All good in the hood.

Anyweays, best log off. Ive got 2mins left!

Stotty does camping! (and NEARLY fails :P)

Woohoo! The first step of my trip up the coast is done!

Left Sydney. It was f***ing chucking it down. Still, We were all bailing so it wasnt too bad. We got the pimp mobile...a Suzuki Swift (3/4 packpackers worth of stuff in the back of one of them...you can probably imagine how fun that was! :P). Saying that though, its not a bad little car. Its certainly done the trick so far..

AAAANYWAYS, so we left up the coast to Newcastle, which was a bit so-so. Mainly because it was still raining, so we wondered around a bit, then left to go to this place called Melalewka's.

We arrived about 6ish, with the tent already set up by my mate Erline, who got there first. It was an arse of a journey, through terrential downpours etc, but we got there. And it was awesome. Erline, Floran (?), and a really nice australian couple, pete and possibly sharon had done us a BBQ, so we rocked up to free food, and a nice glass of win. Sorry. Goon. Get in! That was really good, and this couple were real nice and friendly too.

This park. Well. Ill fill you in on it a bit. Its a campsite, AND a hostel. (we were camping). its ALSO a nature reserve where wounded animals are nursed back to health, and let out in the wild. So i saw and got personal with a Koala, and also theres a pet Kangaroo that lives in the place, that you can go up and pet..it was fecking awesome!

But id got there in the dark. So after the BBQ we all went to bed, got in the tent. Where it promptly started to p*** it down. And continued to ALL night. By 430am EVERYTHING was soaked because the tent wasnt waterproofed properly, so the two girls Louisa and Stacey had enough and went to sleep in the Car. By 5am, and after 30mins of a constant drip on my forehead, i also left the tent. My Phone was in a puddle (and is still screwed), my IPOD and camera were ALSO in a puddle, but ive got them dried out. By Rucksack had been kicked against the side of the tent, so that, and everything in it was also soaked. Id forgotton my sleeping bag at the last hostel. And i was also sleeping in what was quickly becoming a stotty sized paddling pool, so everything I was wearing was soaked.

Went to the car, but there was NO room left in there (i know, amazing eh in a swift..), so went into the lounge area, found a sofa that was free for a whole 6seconds. Made a tea, found a heater, tried drying out a few clothes / phones / stottys. Failed. Went to sleep INCREDIBLY grumpy. Not helped because it was the new south wales Triathalon finals held in this place. And all the people kept coming in at 6am for breakfast, and leaving the fecking doors open. letting out all the head. Bloody people...Got a bit of a sleep. Then carried on. Luckily it brigtened up right at the end of the day, and has been great ever since. Where I saw the Koala, Kangaroo, Possom, and loads of other stuff..

Then in the evening, i gorged myself on free pizzas (the Triathaletes had ordered 100 pizzas, and were giving them away, theyd cooked a bbq, which they were giving away, and they were also giving away free beer. So i was WELL happy. And drunk. Drew the short straw though, because the bloke Erline from the last hostel was stayiung with had moved on, so she got the tent, and I had to sleep in the car. Which wasnt as bad as it sounded (i had a solid 8 hours of sleep due to my patented 'get drunk of as much free beer as possible' approach).

Then today we drove up to Port Maquarie, where Ive just arrived. The hostel seems pretty cool so far, although ive just arrived...and we found some really really nice places on the way, beaches etc. Tres good!

Tommorrow onto Coff Harbour..Ill keep you posted!