Sell out

Oh, I sold out and put this ad thing on Google so Id get some more money. So yes, when all these links pop up, if you see something you like, click it (or just click it and have a look anyways!)). I get money, and you get something you really dont want / need! :P EVERYONES happy, and Lord knows I need all the money I can get at the moment!

Living the dream, Living the dream!

Its been quite an eventful few days! My room was booked last saturday, so i had to spend the night on the sofa for $10, which worked out really really well, because it meant I (A) had enough spare money to get some food / toothpaste etc, I also saw a job add before anyone else, and managed to get a few days work which is pretty cool!

Ive been helping this bloke renovate his house, doing a bit of plastering, sanding, etc. Tommorrow im sanding the floor, and doing a bit of painting! Ive also kept up at the busking, and made a whole $55 in one day the other day. Ive discovered that if you put only gold coins in the hat (well, guitar case!) people keep throwing them in, so i had loads of people walk past and chuck in $2 a go. Freakin' Awesome!

I also managed to get a free ticket to see Lior and Neil Finn from Crowded house play over here in Perth, although it went tits up, because I had to work a bit later, so i didnt make it to the pub in time for the shuttle bus to leave. In turn this meant I had to use Public Transport, on a public holiday that seems to be going on forever (Thu-Tue!). So i eventually find a bloke whos actually working, and he says that its going to take me over two hours, IF i can get a connecting bus. BASICALLY, i would have had to go to the end of the trainline. Then get a bus, THEN walk to the suburb.

It wasnt going to happen, although i was massively gutted about it. When I got back, Micheal, one of my mates from the hostel offered me his car, but id been wondering around perth exploring for too long, so id missed my chance. Which was a shame.

Still, I switched to plan B, which was play the open mic (well, okay, i was coerced into it, but it was pretty good fun in the end!) and get horrendously drunk. People kept buying me free alcahol etc, and it went down really well. So that was good!

Now today, a couple of guys from the hostel caught a Stingray, which Micheal, the Legend Chef, is currently cooking! Ive never had stingray before, which is pretty damn awesome. Im all up for trying new things to increase my waist size! :P

So yes, I can hand on heart say that im doing things that Steve Irwin only dreamed of! :P

So yes, things are looking up. I really like Freo...Its an amazing place. Im having such a good time, which is what i needed after 3 months working on farms in the hell hole that is Red Cliffs, Victoria!

Perth

Not alot to update really, but theres free internet here, so I thought that I would do it anyways. Ive been doing much of the same recently. I went round and handed in a load of CVs the other day, which hopefully will get me something back.

Ive also made a sign for my guitar, that says 'IF YOU'RE FED UP OF ME PLAYING THE SAME SIX DEPRESSING SONGS, OVER AND OVER, THEN IM AFTER WORK. CALL ME!' which hopefully will work! Its been the easter weekend, so things have been a bit slow.

Yesterday there was a street performer festival thing, which was pretty cool. Lots of cool acts, although it meant that I couldnt busk because there was too much amplified music. Well, I did find one spot which was pretty good, but then this complete arse with an amplified guitar and a drumkit set up about 2m from me, and drowned me out. After me telling him that this was my spot, and him basically telling me to p*** off, its a free festival, I walked away before I hit the bloke, and went back to the hostel for a swim and played a bit of makeshift volley ball. Well, I was absymal at it, but its the thought that counts!

Other than that ive (like I said) been busking for my rent / food etc each day. I may even have enough by the end of today for some cheap Goon as well, we'll see. Seems a shame to waste the money on alcohol though, so i probably wont. Oh, and I did an open mic night at this pub around the corner called the orient. They do free food on a Thursday, then have an open mic night, so i was well happy!

Dont know what Im up to today yet. Busking obviously, then who knows? Ill keep you posted!

A Stottys tale - There and back again

So whats been happening the last few weeks?

Well, one or two things. Red Cliffs was pretty uneventful, (for a change!). A new couple turned up, who were pretty cool, erm. That was about it really. We all went bowling, which was pretty good fun.

I was beggining to think that I was never going to get out of there though, but then a Knight came to rescue me on a Silver Steed. The Knight being my mate Jordan, and the Silver Steed being a Apollo Camper relocation deal. Basically, I got a text one boring tuesday, because all the work had dried up going 'Do you want to go to perth?'. I asked how much it would cost, because I was terminally skint, and he said $50 bucks.

Now, I couldnt turn down the chance of a $50 road trip to perth could i?! So yes, I jumped at the opportunity, and here I am. I had written all this out in my diary, to copy out, but thats up two flights of stairs, so Ill do it by memory I think!

So here we go, DAY 1 - At last, Ive escaped!

We left well late on this day, due to a couple of the guys working. It was also bloody cramped, because we had 4 people in a 3 person camper, which wasnt incredibly comfortable.

Apart from a frizbee stop at the South Australia border crossing (where they stop you and check / conviscate all fruit and veg), it was a pretty uneventful journey. We saw a few kangaroos, that was about it! Oh, and i also inadvertantly smuggled an onion over the border

We drove to this place called Renmark, about 3-400ks away, and stopped on top of this scenic lookout that looked over the Murray river. That place was awesome...It had a view that looked out over unbroken hills to the north, east, and west, and on the south there was the tree lined murray river. Beautiful. We then cracked out the goon, and had a bit of a party, celebrating our escape from 'the cliffs!'

It was a bit of a nightmare sleeping wise. There were 4 of us in a 3 person camper, so basically It was well cramped if you drove with the seats up, and sleeping. Well, this night I tried sleeping across the front bench seat, which didnt work. The only way i could slightly do it was if i put my head on the Door handle thing, and slept with my legs bent, which was pretty damn hard, even for a seasoned sleep veteran such as myself (ive slept in an airing cupboard at a party once.. :P). But as a result, I was up well early, to get on with:

DAY 2 -

This started with me driving, and everyone else staying in the back sleeping, which was the formula for the next few days. We were aiming for this place called Bulla (i think). We finally got there after me driving for 6 hours solidly. Lol, its a good job we didnt press on the night before! It was quite a nice little town. We had some lunch there, and I grabbed a pot in the local before 'using the facilities' for a shave and a wash etc..

Then after that, It was just more driving really. The thing about this journey is the distances. You have hundreds of miles of exactly the same, but at the same time, its also pretty awe inspiring..Hence there not being many pictures up on my facebook. We stopped off for an obligitary photo shoot at this place that was half way across australia, in South Australia, then drove on a little further, again stopping to play frizbee at this truck stop place. We also drove passed a few really cool looking rock formations, that were basically the same phenomenon as Ayers rock (are they called Ghees or something? I dont know..) where you have a massive mountain just rising up out of the desert..in fact, I think the biggest one was actually 2nd in size to Ayers rock!

Then we stopped off at this free truck stop / campsite in a tiny village. It was pretty cool, and Sam'll be glad to know his fire stick and paraffin squares, as well as his fire training helped bring around a stunning example of a fire! It was awesome, I played a bit of guitar in front of it, and as a testimony to earning manpoints for starting a fire from scratch, got pretty damn drunk again.

The tent that we were supposed to use as well as the camper was knackered though, so i had to sleep in a tiny bed crammed in between two blokes (top and toeing meant i was the lucky bastard who got the feet this night. Not the most amazing set up, and not one id probably ever do again, unless I was travelling with two girls, in which id probably grin and bare it! :P

DAY 3

This day we got up early again (well, i didnt, Jordan did. I slept in the back) and stopped off for breakfast in this place called Cerebin ( i think!) IT was basically the last big town I got to for the next million miles. By big town i meant it had 10 shops and a cafe.. :P

So yes, had a breakfast there, and then hit the Nullanboor plane. We stopped off at this Whale viewing station, and although it was out of season for the whales, the scenary there was absolutely stunning. Second only to some of the amazing coastlines down the Ocean road. They had a beach there with sand dunes that had been pushed back to the size of cliffs, which was insane to look at! They charged us $5 to get in, but it was so worth it!

Then we drove on, stopping for dinner at this amazing lookout on the South Australia / Western Australia border, and carried on into the sunset. The scenary remained pretty much unchanged, but that was the beauty of it.

We ended up stopping off at this pretty nice free campsite, and tried making another fire. But that was an epic fail, so we all went to bed instead!

DAY 4

Basically here it was just drive drive drive. We saw a few really cool signs, filled up with more $2 petrol (eek!!), and drove down the longest stretch of straight road in Oz. It was 90 miles (130k) long. Bloody long way to go to just drive straight, with nothing in front or behind you! We saw some camels on this trip though, which was pretty cool. The pictures i took are really blurry, but they were clear enough in real life!

Then we stopped about 100ks outside of perth on this lookout on top of a mountain. The town was called norton i think. The lookout was incredible though. It looked out over this small town, which looked like it was in some sort of crater from maybe an old asteroid or something, and at night with all the lights on, White ones glittering above the yellow streetlamps like falling snow, was bloody amazing.

We played a few drinking games, then went to bed.

Now im in perth, in a really cool hostel called Sundancer hostel. Its got free internet, a pool, a ping pong table. Its down in Fremantle as well, which is an amazing town. Full of the hottest women ever, with stunning beaches nearby, a strong thriving music scene, with some really old buildings (for Australia) and...well, just a nice vibe!

I arrived with 6c to my name, after buying a few days at the hostel, so have been heavily busking again. Ive pretty much got tommorrows rent now, and then only have to get 25 bucks for the day after...

Also, met this pretty amazing girl called Carla last night. She was a properly nice person, and pretty damn good looking too! Went back to hers, but made too much noise and woke up one of the flatmates who came onto the front porch where we were, spitting fire!

Bit of an arse, because she was like 'well, normally id ask you to stay, but i think in the circumstances, you better not..'

Im thinking of a word here that rhymes with Boar locks.. :P

Today after busking I went down to the south beach with a group of mates after busking, and had a few beers and watched the sun go down. That was pretty good...ill put the photos up soon.

Who knows what the future has in store, or if ill get the visa. I dont know. Despite everything stacking a bit against me moneywise at the moment, Ive got a good feeling about this place. And even if i dont get the visa and HAVE to leave, then at least ive been here and done it!

Theyre really into thier homebrew which is probably what really endears me to this town on top of everything else. When I do (and when i can afford) a proper beer, it'll be coming out of my ears! :P Also, its warm. YES!

Another year over! (I cant bloody belive it!)

Wow....2 more days until my visa offically expires!

Ive been working pretty hard the last few weeks too....Went back to helping the guy with his fence, and a bit of digging around the house again, which was cool. Kept me occupied!

Then I went onto a Sultana Harvest for a few days, where I was on the trailer behind the harvester, pulling all the big branches out of the bins etc. It was a little bit monotomous, but it'll be pretty good money when the farmer finally gets a bit of time off to come and pay me! I also had my 1st near death experience! :) Well, it wasnt that bad, but one of the tractors had a really vicious clutch, and most of the time i remembered to have a hold onto the back of the trailor so i didnt fall over.

This time id gotten too involved in pulling out twigs etc, so when the tractor started, I fell off, scraped my entire side down the bin, nearly had my ankle go under the wheels, but held myself up. The farmer didnt bloody stop for me! Then as I dragged myself up, cursing and swearing, a bloody vine came along and nearly launched my glasses into the vines! Suffice to say, the air turned a bit blue!

Then after that ive done a few days sultana picking, which was alright. An extra bit of pocket money. Now ive applied for my visa, which is pretty cool. We'll have to see how it goes. I cant get hold of a few of the farmers ive done work for, so I couldnt put down all my days, but never mind! Whats there should do the trick! Theres enough anyhows...

Other than that a new couple of people have come into the hostel, who seem pretty cool! One of them is almost as music mad as i am, which is pretty good! Although she has gone around all of the locals trying to set me up writing music, and playing. Well, im supposed to do a christening on sunday. 2 hours, happy / oldish music. I dont really have time, well. not until I know whats happening about my visa...

It should be fine, but id rather have it in writing! Then I can concentrate on my music again. Also, If a farm job comes up, I cant really skip in and out of it for all these gigs. But we'll see. If one doesnt I suppose ive got a few extra dollars and a bit of beer on the sunday!

So yes. Thats the Red Cliffs update!