If you think I am done blogging, you are flat wrong. Here is why, I still have several posts to get up, and the reason these posts are late is
a) I have been really busy
b) I have been getting out more
c) I haven't had internet for a while, several weeks actually
but I do have several important blogs comming up, and I am hoping to have it up soon. No promises though, i would probably break it anyway. Well me go bed now, 2:30 in morning trying to get these suckers up.
night
Adam
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Canadian Ground
April 28
I struck the Vancouver airport with the energy of a tired dog who saw a big stick and wanted to play with it, but didn't have the energy to do more than feel happy. I hung around the airport for three hours after clearing security as well as customs and waited for the flight to Edmonton. I got chatting with a guy from Montreal for a couple of hours before going and sitting by my plane. It was here that looking out my window at my last flying chariot home that I noticed something that looked oddly familiar. It was then that I realised I was watching my surf board was rolling up the ramp into the cargo hold, the same surf board I sent home 4 days earlier via air Canada freight. Small world hu? Well I caught my plane and on decent into Edmonton I started to notice the familiar landmarks and I could feel the combination of success and exhaustion. I had been up for 25 hours and I had a long time to go before I could hit the sack. I touched ground and got off the flight aiming my weary body towards the arrival gate where I found my excited mother hovering inches above the floor. I spotted her before she spotted me and this allowed me to hug the wall and only pop out mearly feet from her and watched the surprise and joy spread across her face. This joy pushed my exhaustion away for a moment as I received 6 months worth of hugs from an excited mother. My sister joined in the hug for a short moment and then the tank got a hold of me. The tank is my little brother, who weighs about 115kg (30kg more than me), stands a head taller than me, and is built like a Clydesdale horse, grabs me in a bear hug and lifts me like a rag doll into the air backpack and all before putting me back down. He did this to remind me that during my 6 month absence he hadn't gotten any weaker, or smaller. Dad sat and waited for everyone to finish fussing over me, or manhandling in my brothers case before giving me a hug. I picked up my gear from the luggage conveyor (giving the heaviest bag to my brother) and headed towards the car. We dropped by to see my grandmother but exhaustion was rolling over me in waves and I eventually called an end to the day and we headed home. I only made one stop, at the graveyard to see where my Aunt Mae who died just after Christmas now lay. It was hard, to stand there knowing that she is gone and I had missed her funeral. My mother gave me another hug as she knew what was going through my head, even if I couldn't say so out loud. Leaving town heading towards the farm I felt relief at seeing the familiar sights that guard the return home like the gateposts to an estate. I slept for about an hour before supper and then had a very good meal courtesy of my dad. I haven't done a whole lot the last couple of days since I have been home, mostly going through my mail, making some phone calls, and getting my car re-insured so that I can drive again and regain some independence. It is weird being home again, some of the old habits I thought I lost seemed to start to re-emerge. I am not sure what it means, and I am not sure if I think they are bad. I cannot say that I am surprised that I have reverted a bit to my old ways, you are partially a creature of your surroundings. I think that is all for now, more still to come, as there is more to say, will try to spread it out.
Adam
I struck the Vancouver airport with the energy of a tired dog who saw a big stick and wanted to play with it, but didn't have the energy to do more than feel happy. I hung around the airport for three hours after clearing security as well as customs and waited for the flight to Edmonton. I got chatting with a guy from Montreal for a couple of hours before going and sitting by my plane. It was here that looking out my window at my last flying chariot home that I noticed something that looked oddly familiar. It was then that I realised I was watching my surf board was rolling up the ramp into the cargo hold, the same surf board I sent home 4 days earlier via air Canada freight. Small world hu? Well I caught my plane and on decent into Edmonton I started to notice the familiar landmarks and I could feel the combination of success and exhaustion. I had been up for 25 hours and I had a long time to go before I could hit the sack. I touched ground and got off the flight aiming my weary body towards the arrival gate where I found my excited mother hovering inches above the floor. I spotted her before she spotted me and this allowed me to hug the wall and only pop out mearly feet from her and watched the surprise and joy spread across her face. This joy pushed my exhaustion away for a moment as I received 6 months worth of hugs from an excited mother. My sister joined in the hug for a short moment and then the tank got a hold of me. The tank is my little brother, who weighs about 115kg (30kg more than me), stands a head taller than me, and is built like a Clydesdale horse, grabs me in a bear hug and lifts me like a rag doll into the air backpack and all before putting me back down. He did this to remind me that during my 6 month absence he hadn't gotten any weaker, or smaller. Dad sat and waited for everyone to finish fussing over me, or manhandling in my brothers case before giving me a hug. I picked up my gear from the luggage conveyor (giving the heaviest bag to my brother) and headed towards the car. We dropped by to see my grandmother but exhaustion was rolling over me in waves and I eventually called an end to the day and we headed home. I only made one stop, at the graveyard to see where my Aunt Mae who died just after Christmas now lay. It was hard, to stand there knowing that she is gone and I had missed her funeral. My mother gave me another hug as she knew what was going through my head, even if I couldn't say so out loud. Leaving town heading towards the farm I felt relief at seeing the familiar sights that guard the return home like the gateposts to an estate. I slept for about an hour before supper and then had a very good meal courtesy of my dad. I haven't done a whole lot the last couple of days since I have been home, mostly going through my mail, making some phone calls, and getting my car re-insured so that I can drive again and regain some independence. It is weird being home again, some of the old habits I thought I lost seemed to start to re-emerge. I am not sure what it means, and I am not sure if I think they are bad. I cannot say that I am surprised that I have reverted a bit to my old ways, you are partially a creature of your surroundings. I think that is all for now, more still to come, as there is more to say, will try to spread it out.
Adam
Top and not so top places
April 27
Well I am now on the plane, a plane packed full of old ladies about to go on a 1 month tour of BC. I caught the 7:00 shuttle to the airport (No easy task) checked in, got through security, and then spent the next 2 hours twiddling my thumbs. It feels good to be leaving Sydney, I am ready to go home. I thought it would be weird to leave Australia only 2 months ago, now it feels right. I came to Australia and the best thing to do now would be go through the list and hit my favorit spots, and my not so favorite spots.
Favorite natural features
-ninggaloo reef
-Karinjini
-sunsets on the Nulabour
-The stars in
Top Cultural features
-Boyup Brook (but you don't know about that one do you, but it is comming)
-Wood statues in Tasmania
-ANZAC day
-Didgeree doo shops in darwin and Cairns
-Hutt River
Favorite moments
-time spent with everyone in Margret River
-Dancing in Cairns
-Pulling into Jane and Gerards Driveway
-Christmas in Adelaide
-Playing my didge with Mark and Nico out on the road
-Beach Volleyball in the Prongrup
-breaking down the barriers I had built over the last several years
Places I would rather get hit in the head in Broome again than go here again
-Tasmania
-Areys Rock
-Chris's empty bank account
Top Surprises
-Boyup Brook
-Ninggalo
-Chainsaw wood Carvings
-Jane and Gerards house
-Ninggaloo (yes I know this is on twice)
-Karinjini
Well I know there is more, but I am tired now, will edit and add stuff later, maybe
Well I am now on the plane, a plane packed full of old ladies about to go on a 1 month tour of BC. I caught the 7:00 shuttle to the airport (No easy task) checked in, got through security, and then spent the next 2 hours twiddling my thumbs. It feels good to be leaving Sydney, I am ready to go home. I thought it would be weird to leave Australia only 2 months ago, now it feels right. I came to Australia and the best thing to do now would be go through the list and hit my favorit spots, and my not so favorite spots.
Favorite natural features
-ninggaloo reef
-Karinjini
-sunsets on the Nulabour
-The stars in
Top Cultural features
-Boyup Brook (but you don't know about that one do you, but it is comming)
-Wood statues in Tasmania
-ANZAC day
-Didgeree doo shops in darwin and Cairns
-Hutt River
Favorite moments
-time spent with everyone in Margret River
-Dancing in Cairns
-Pulling into Jane and Gerards Driveway
-Christmas in Adelaide
-Playing my didge with Mark and Nico out on the road
-Beach Volleyball in the Prongrup
-breaking down the barriers I had built over the last several years
Places I would rather get hit in the head in Broome again than go here again
-Tasmania
-Areys Rock
-Chris's empty bank account
Top Surprises
-Boyup Brook
-Ninggalo
-Chainsaw wood Carvings
-Jane and Gerards house
-Ninggaloo (yes I know this is on twice)
-Karinjini
Well I know there is more, but I am tired now, will edit and add stuff later, maybe
Packing
April 26
Well I just finished the act that signals the end of the journey. I packed, something that is incredibly difficult to do at the end as you suddenly realize how much junk I have collected over the last 6 months. Then it comes time to separate the junk that goes and the junk that goes home, which sounds way harder than you think. This is about the same time you realize your bag is way too small. So you realize that your initial pile of stuff to go home has to be sorted through again until it fits in the bag. Or in my case pull out a second bag and fill it, or to be more precise I shrunk my air mattress down to as small as it goes and then shoved the rest of my leftover stuff into it. I love being resourceful. Thus I finished packing and sat stunned realizing that in 15 hours I am going home, and in a bit over 35 I will be home. I hung around the hostel, checked my flight as I hadn't looked to see if it was still flying since I got my ticket over 6 months ago. I sat down and chatted with a couple other people in the hostel finishing off the last of my beer as it would go bad if I left it here anyway, and I wasn't going to bring that home. I stayed up until 1:30 chatting with Steve before I packed it in, and that is the end of my last day in Australia. I have to be up in 5 hours, so that is all from Bondi, next blog will probably be up in the air. I just checked the last time I put up a blog and went WHOOPS. I am kind of embarrassed that I am over a month behind on my blogs, which means I will be home a long time before I get my final blogs up. When I do finally get them up it is like going back in time. My last blog from OZ feels kind of weak, but I will probably have a better blog on the plane.
That’s all
Adam
Well I just finished the act that signals the end of the journey. I packed, something that is incredibly difficult to do at the end as you suddenly realize how much junk I have collected over the last 6 months. Then it comes time to separate the junk that goes and the junk that goes home, which sounds way harder than you think. This is about the same time you realize your bag is way too small. So you realize that your initial pile of stuff to go home has to be sorted through again until it fits in the bag. Or in my case pull out a second bag and fill it, or to be more precise I shrunk my air mattress down to as small as it goes and then shoved the rest of my leftover stuff into it. I love being resourceful. Thus I finished packing and sat stunned realizing that in 15 hours I am going home, and in a bit over 35 I will be home. I hung around the hostel, checked my flight as I hadn't looked to see if it was still flying since I got my ticket over 6 months ago. I sat down and chatted with a couple other people in the hostel finishing off the last of my beer as it would go bad if I left it here anyway, and I wasn't going to bring that home. I stayed up until 1:30 chatting with Steve before I packed it in, and that is the end of my last day in Australia. I have to be up in 5 hours, so that is all from Bondi, next blog will probably be up in the air. I just checked the last time I put up a blog and went WHOOPS. I am kind of embarrassed that I am over a month behind on my blogs, which means I will be home a long time before I get my final blogs up. When I do finally get them up it is like going back in time. My last blog from OZ feels kind of weak, but I will probably have a better blog on the plane.
That’s all
Adam
Footy in Sydney
April 25
Well yesterday Steve, Olivia Chris and myself went to go see one of the truly Australian games Aussie Rules Football, or just "Footy" as the Australians call it. It is a cross between Rugby, football, and ultimate fighting all played on a cricket field.
This has led to a very strange combination of rules for the game. The rules are as follows, there are no real rules. The only one I found was that head tackling was not considered proper and often a guy in a yellow jersey would stop play momentarily to allow the guy to get back up again. The goal was to kick the ball in between the 2 center posts for 6 points and if you missed and still got it between the 2 outside posts you got a point for trying (how considerate of them). Well there is one thing I have to admit this game is fast, the whistle never stops, and subs come and go on the fly. Even injured players get hauled off while game play continues, and water is run out to players at appropriate times when play is well away from that part of the field. The body contact is intense as well, but they take the hit and keep on pushing, there is none of this stupid diving that has become prominent in soccer. The game was a riot to watch and the special as it was the day before ANZAC day, the Australian national holiday celebrating the armed forces, the wins, the losses and the most importantly one of the biggest blunders of the fist world war, Gallipoli. Anzac day marks the day the Australians landed at Gallipoli in WW1 and got slaughtered because of British stupidity. It became know as the battle where "It was commonwealth men that landed at Gallipoli, but Australian blood that stained the sand". The game was special for another reason though it commemorates the loss of the battleship HMAS Sydney in WW2, it was sunk off the West Coast of Australia by a German torpedo boat, and all men were lost. So every year the Sydney Swans play the West coast Eagles for the Sydney memorial cup around ANZAC day. The game represents the meeting of east and west as the ship belonged to Sydney, but it was sunk off the west coast near Geraldton (We went to the memorial there). The trophy was delivered by the Navy helicopter from one of the ships sitting in harbor, and as it left it flew low over the stadium (something that was really cool) before heading off back towards the harbor. The game was as I mentioned before, and I wonder why other games aren't as fast as I was never bored, even though I didn't understand the rules. After the game we hung around and did jump shots, which when we looked at later look absolutely hilarious. This morning we ran downtown to watch the ANZAC day parade in the rain, but had to meet up with Steve and Olivia later as they had both slept in. The parade was cool, but I was disappointed that they never had any air force fly by's as it was after all a parade to honor past war veterans and the current arms forces. I do like though that they didn't pull out the tanks, or any equipment, they only had the men marching by, as indeed it was all about the men and women, not the equipment. After the parade we headed over to kings Cross where we had lunch and then hit the boomerang shop, which was unfortunately closed before heading over to the market and getting supper. We mostly just hung around for the day and had a good time. At one point we walked into Hyde Park and found some soldiers doing whip cracking and that was a riot as we spent the next hour trying to get them to crack. It was really fun, 
but even funner to watch as Steve kept hitting himself with the end of the whip. The key to making the whip snap is to make it change direction very fast, because when you do that the end of the whip actually breaks the speed barrier, making the crack sound. This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to whip that thing around as it scares the crap out of you. That and kept on getting pictures of Steve hopping around on one leg as you saw the whip leave a small welt on his legs. We all had fun and at the end sat in their old army jeep wearing ANZAC hats, really fun. 
We got back to the hostel and started celebrating ANZAC day and watching the Australians playing 2 up, which is a cool ANZAC tradition in which you gamble in the bars. This is how it works I call heads, and put 5 bucks down on the table, another guy across the room calls tales and puts his 5 bucks down. A third party flips a coin and winner gets the cash. I don't know the history behind this tradition, and nobody could tell me it's history, but it is the only time that you are allowed to gamble in the bar. We cooked supper to celebrate Olivia's last day here as she is leaving tomorrow morning and we had Kangaroo as kind of a joke to remember the last time she cooked. 
Anyway we are starting a drinking fest now, so I need to go now. Talk later.
Days left in Australia 1.5
Days tell I get home 2.5
Well yesterday Steve, Olivia Chris and myself went to go see one of the truly Australian games Aussie Rules Football, or just "Footy" as the Australians call it. It is a cross between Rugby, football, and ultimate fighting all played on a cricket field.
This has led to a very strange combination of rules for the game. The rules are as follows, there are no real rules. The only one I found was that head tackling was not considered proper and often a guy in a yellow jersey would stop play momentarily to allow the guy to get back up again. The goal was to kick the ball in between the 2 center posts for 6 points and if you missed and still got it between the 2 outside posts you got a point for trying (how considerate of them). Well there is one thing I have to admit this game is fast, the whistle never stops, and subs come and go on the fly. Even injured players get hauled off while game play continues, and water is run out to players at appropriate times when play is well away from that part of the field. The body contact is intense as well, but they take the hit and keep on pushing, there is none of this stupid diving that has become prominent in soccer. The game was a riot to watch and the special as it was the day before ANZAC day, the Australian national holiday celebrating the armed forces, the wins, the losses and the most importantly one of the biggest blunders of the fist world war, Gallipoli. Anzac day marks the day the Australians landed at Gallipoli in WW1 and got slaughtered because of British stupidity. It became know as the battle where "It was commonwealth men that landed at Gallipoli, but Australian blood that stained the sand". The game was special for another reason though it commemorates the loss of the battleship HMAS Sydney in WW2, it was sunk off the West Coast of Australia by a German torpedo boat, and all men were lost. So every year the Sydney Swans play the West coast Eagles for the Sydney memorial cup around ANZAC day. The game represents the meeting of east and west as the ship belonged to Sydney, but it was sunk off the west coast near Geraldton (We went to the memorial there). The trophy was delivered by the Navy helicopter from one of the ships sitting in harbor, and as it left it flew low over the stadium (something that was really cool) before heading off back towards the harbor. The game was as I mentioned before, and I wonder why other games aren't as fast as I was never bored, even though I didn't understand the rules. After the game we hung around and did jump shots, which when we looked at later look absolutely hilarious. This morning we ran downtown to watch the ANZAC day parade in the rain, but had to meet up with Steve and Olivia later as they had both slept in. The parade was cool, but I was disappointed that they never had any air force fly by's as it was after all a parade to honor past war veterans and the current arms forces. I do like though that they didn't pull out the tanks, or any equipment, they only had the men marching by, as indeed it was all about the men and women, not the equipment. After the parade we headed over to kings Cross where we had lunch and then hit the boomerang shop, which was unfortunately closed before heading over to the market and getting supper. We mostly just hung around for the day and had a good time. At one point we walked into Hyde Park and found some soldiers doing whip cracking and that was a riot as we spent the next hour trying to get them to crack. It was really fun, 
but even funner to watch as Steve kept hitting himself with the end of the whip. The key to making the whip snap is to make it change direction very fast, because when you do that the end of the whip actually breaks the speed barrier, making the crack sound. This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to whip that thing around as it scares the crap out of you. That and kept on getting pictures of Steve hopping around on one leg as you saw the whip leave a small welt on his legs. We all had fun and at the end sat in their old army jeep wearing ANZAC hats, really fun. 
We got back to the hostel and started celebrating ANZAC day and watching the Australians playing 2 up, which is a cool ANZAC tradition in which you gamble in the bars. This is how it works I call heads, and put 5 bucks down on the table, another guy across the room calls tales and puts his 5 bucks down. A third party flips a coin and winner gets the cash. I don't know the history behind this tradition, and nobody could tell me it's history, but it is the only time that you are allowed to gamble in the bar. We cooked supper to celebrate Olivia's last day here as she is leaving tomorrow morning and we had Kangaroo as kind of a joke to remember the last time she cooked. 
Anyway we are starting a drinking fest now, so I need to go now. Talk later.Days left in Australia 1.5
Days tell I get home 2.5
Car Sold and Vomiting iin Sydney
April 24 2010
Sydney
Returning to Sydney is a really weird feeling. It is the place the journey started and it will now be the place the journey ends, well sort of. Today I sold my car, for a thousand dollars, a monumental 5500 dollar loss as the backpackers just stopped coming. I sold it to a local who was a kind of hard ass, so I decided not to tell him about the fact that the drop down motor is just about shot, and the way I was bypassing it was to use the choke while driving in town, and that there are several short circuits appearing suddenly, and that it used to have power locks, but I decided since he was screwing me on the deal I wouldn't tell him about those facts. He also said he didn't want to pay for any of the camp gear so I gave it away to some people in the hostel. When I showed up without it he looked really surprised as he expected he would still get it for free. I also gave away the spare belts, and sent everything that would fit on my surf board back to Canada via Air Canada freight. The main issue it turns out is that there is a bit of rust around the windshield that when I saw it I didn't really care about as the engine was my main concern. Apparently the mechanic will not give it a "Pink Slip" (roadworthy ticket for registration that has to be done every year in NSW) because of this rust and it has to be cut out and new metal welded in to fix it. The mechanic said everything else was fine, but that had to be fixed in order to renew the registration. This really annoyed me as that there should have been no way that the vehicle should have gotten registered last year if this rust was there 2 months before we bought it (Which it most definitely was) and second the mechanic never even fired up the engine when he said this. The engine could have had a blown piston, and leaked gallons of oil, but they don't care about that, they only care if it looks good. What a load of Australian Bullshit. This has actually been a really frustrating week with not being able to sell the car for a decent price, which is really unfortunate that this has overshadowed the fact that I am having an otherwise really nice time in Bondi. Anyway, it is sold and gone, so I can muse about the huge loss on the car later. I went surfing a couple of times as well as sea kayaking again with Steve (a computer networked from England) and Olivia (A Calgarian).
The kayaking was really nice as we were in a quiet part of the city in a small harbor. Anyway I went roaring around just having fun when Olive started feeling sick. I didn't hear this and decided to race the personal trainer (Rob) to the beach to see how good my kayaking skills were. So we went roaring off towards the beach leaving Steve, Olive and our intrepid guide to follow in our spray of high speed departure. Well the race was close, very close, until I ran a tight shortcut of sharp rocks and shallow water emerging ahead of my rival who took the safe route. I stuck the sand first and looked out over the harbor with pride which is when I noticed that the three stragglers were not moving. We waited several minutes before they finally arrived when I noticed something very strange, Olive wasn't paddling and the guide was towing her. Which was strange as we didn't bring any rope with us. That is when I noticed the rope was actually a bikini top, and the Guide was actually wearing a shirt suddenly. The guide was using her bikini top to tow the sick Olive back to shore. It wasn't until later I got the full story from Steve of what transpired in the stands during my epic race for the beach. Olive was feeling sea sick and she was able to hold it in until a big boat went by and sent her projectile vomiting up breakfast. I can only imagine the spray of toast, orange juice and half digested kangaroo meat arcing high in the air mimicking the harbor bridge that sat in the background. The second spray erupted out in the direction of the opera house, and the third and final eruption of mount Olivia covered the harbor mouth. 
Fish as far away as 40 yards flocked to this free feast and none went away hungry. It was described as "Gag able" and the guide said it would have made excellent photos had she pulled out her camera instead of concentrating on dodging the acidic spray that was raining down around her. It was then that the guide pulled the bikini off and tossed on a shirt so she could tow mount Olive to the beach. After a few minutes on land Olive was feeling better and we started doing jump shots (taking pictures of you jumping in the air) with Sydney's landmarks in the background. I got a couple of good ones, and it is rather fun looking at the different poses you can do in mid air.
We returned to the beach and I stumbled upon a gold mine. There were all these really old bottles piled on the beach that these people had just pulled out of the water. They had been coming here for years, but this is the first time they have ever found them here. Some of them looked really old; some even had dates on them that said 1945, the year the war ended. They said if I wanted any I could have them, so I rinsed them off and took the ones I thought were special, 
and wrapped some of them with the surf board, putting the rest in my bag. Soon a rescue boat arrived to take Olivia back to the docks, Kayak and all and we followed in our little boats. I have been hanging around a lot lately with Steve and Olivia, they are really cool people we have even been cooking together lately and the meals are greatly improved with the aid of better food. We have been spending a lot of time on the beach, and then watching Olivia eat (I should mention this girl eats more than me, she has like 5 meals a day, and steak for breakfast); we actually bug her a lot about how she is always eating. She in turn gave me a new nickname FB (farm boy). It is nice to have some people to spend some time with. Steve was actually supposed to leave 3 days ago, but his flight got cancelled due to that volcano in Iceland, so he stayed here instead. A couple days ago I hit the boomerang shop in Kings Cross and found another one of those cool shop keepers that I run into when you go looking for cool stuff. I chatted with her for a long while before buying a really cool boomerang that is rarer than finding an American backpacker in the outback. It is really weird walking around downtown Sydney when I venture down there. I recognize so many places and get that strange feeling of coming back to a familiar place after a long time, but I can't say I am happy to be back here. I didn't really enjoy the center of Sydney when I stayed there, and I didn't really enjoy walking around there the other day, but it felt familiar, and therefore almost comforting. Maybe because I knew that I was coming to the end of my trip and I knew that I was ready to go home, this familiarity signaled the return to home, the return to the pace of life I left 6 months ago. It also signaled a sudden remembrance that I am about to go home and I hadn't bought gifts for several members in my family and I missed Christmas, my mothers birthday, and my brothers graduation of University, and that if I don't get them something special I will be so screwed. Luckily I have ideas for them and am implementing a plan to purchase such gifts as soon as possible. I just realized that I bought some boomerangs, and they are made of wood, and that they resemble sticks, sticks that my dog loves to retrieve and chew.................this could be a problem.
Going home in 3 days,
Adam
Sydney
Returning to Sydney is a really weird feeling. It is the place the journey started and it will now be the place the journey ends, well sort of. Today I sold my car, for a thousand dollars, a monumental 5500 dollar loss as the backpackers just stopped coming. I sold it to a local who was a kind of hard ass, so I decided not to tell him about the fact that the drop down motor is just about shot, and the way I was bypassing it was to use the choke while driving in town, and that there are several short circuits appearing suddenly, and that it used to have power locks, but I decided since he was screwing me on the deal I wouldn't tell him about those facts. He also said he didn't want to pay for any of the camp gear so I gave it away to some people in the hostel. When I showed up without it he looked really surprised as he expected he would still get it for free. I also gave away the spare belts, and sent everything that would fit on my surf board back to Canada via Air Canada freight. The main issue it turns out is that there is a bit of rust around the windshield that when I saw it I didn't really care about as the engine was my main concern. Apparently the mechanic will not give it a "Pink Slip" (roadworthy ticket for registration that has to be done every year in NSW) because of this rust and it has to be cut out and new metal welded in to fix it. The mechanic said everything else was fine, but that had to be fixed in order to renew the registration. This really annoyed me as that there should have been no way that the vehicle should have gotten registered last year if this rust was there 2 months before we bought it (Which it most definitely was) and second the mechanic never even fired up the engine when he said this. The engine could have had a blown piston, and leaked gallons of oil, but they don't care about that, they only care if it looks good. What a load of Australian Bullshit. This has actually been a really frustrating week with not being able to sell the car for a decent price, which is really unfortunate that this has overshadowed the fact that I am having an otherwise really nice time in Bondi. Anyway, it is sold and gone, so I can muse about the huge loss on the car later. I went surfing a couple of times as well as sea kayaking again with Steve (a computer networked from England) and Olivia (A Calgarian).
The kayaking was really nice as we were in a quiet part of the city in a small harbor. Anyway I went roaring around just having fun when Olive started feeling sick. I didn't hear this and decided to race the personal trainer (Rob) to the beach to see how good my kayaking skills were. So we went roaring off towards the beach leaving Steve, Olive and our intrepid guide to follow in our spray of high speed departure. Well the race was close, very close, until I ran a tight shortcut of sharp rocks and shallow water emerging ahead of my rival who took the safe route. I stuck the sand first and looked out over the harbor with pride which is when I noticed that the three stragglers were not moving. We waited several minutes before they finally arrived when I noticed something very strange, Olive wasn't paddling and the guide was towing her. Which was strange as we didn't bring any rope with us. That is when I noticed the rope was actually a bikini top, and the Guide was actually wearing a shirt suddenly. The guide was using her bikini top to tow the sick Olive back to shore. It wasn't until later I got the full story from Steve of what transpired in the stands during my epic race for the beach. Olive was feeling sea sick and she was able to hold it in until a big boat went by and sent her projectile vomiting up breakfast. I can only imagine the spray of toast, orange juice and half digested kangaroo meat arcing high in the air mimicking the harbor bridge that sat in the background. The second spray erupted out in the direction of the opera house, and the third and final eruption of mount Olivia covered the harbor mouth. 
Fish as far away as 40 yards flocked to this free feast and none went away hungry. It was described as "Gag able" and the guide said it would have made excellent photos had she pulled out her camera instead of concentrating on dodging the acidic spray that was raining down around her. It was then that the guide pulled the bikini off and tossed on a shirt so she could tow mount Olive to the beach. After a few minutes on land Olive was feeling better and we started doing jump shots (taking pictures of you jumping in the air) with Sydney's landmarks in the background. I got a couple of good ones, and it is rather fun looking at the different poses you can do in mid air.
We returned to the beach and I stumbled upon a gold mine. There were all these really old bottles piled on the beach that these people had just pulled out of the water. They had been coming here for years, but this is the first time they have ever found them here. Some of them looked really old; some even had dates on them that said 1945, the year the war ended. They said if I wanted any I could have them, so I rinsed them off and took the ones I thought were special, 
and wrapped some of them with the surf board, putting the rest in my bag. Soon a rescue boat arrived to take Olivia back to the docks, Kayak and all and we followed in our little boats. I have been hanging around a lot lately with Steve and Olivia, they are really cool people we have even been cooking together lately and the meals are greatly improved with the aid of better food. We have been spending a lot of time on the beach, and then watching Olivia eat (I should mention this girl eats more than me, she has like 5 meals a day, and steak for breakfast); we actually bug her a lot about how she is always eating. She in turn gave me a new nickname FB (farm boy). It is nice to have some people to spend some time with. Steve was actually supposed to leave 3 days ago, but his flight got cancelled due to that volcano in Iceland, so he stayed here instead. A couple days ago I hit the boomerang shop in Kings Cross and found another one of those cool shop keepers that I run into when you go looking for cool stuff. I chatted with her for a long while before buying a really cool boomerang that is rarer than finding an American backpacker in the outback. It is really weird walking around downtown Sydney when I venture down there. I recognize so many places and get that strange feeling of coming back to a familiar place after a long time, but I can't say I am happy to be back here. I didn't really enjoy the center of Sydney when I stayed there, and I didn't really enjoy walking around there the other day, but it felt familiar, and therefore almost comforting. Maybe because I knew that I was coming to the end of my trip and I knew that I was ready to go home, this familiarity signaled the return to home, the return to the pace of life I left 6 months ago. It also signaled a sudden remembrance that I am about to go home and I hadn't bought gifts for several members in my family and I missed Christmas, my mothers birthday, and my brothers graduation of University, and that if I don't get them something special I will be so screwed. Luckily I have ideas for them and am implementing a plan to purchase such gifts as soon as possible. I just realized that I bought some boomerangs, and they are made of wood, and that they resemble sticks, sticks that my dog loves to retrieve and chew.................this could be a problem.Going home in 3 days,
Adam
Sunday, May 9, 2010
For Jane
I wrote this on the way up to see Gerard and Jane the second time before we headed North.
Back-story
I had bought Gerard these nice bottles of wine as I know he loves them, but I couldn't think of anything to find for Jane. So I started writing this note to leave with the wine for her as they weren't going to be there when we dropped by on our way North originally. But due to circumstances we stopped in Perth that night and then dropped by their house the next morning when they were indeed home. So I never gave them the letter, but after reading it almost a month later I couldn't help myself from putting this up. So here we go.
The Note
Even though I rang the bell and could just tell you hiding behind the door hoping we would not stay like before. So in the absence of your presence I leave for you these 2 bottles of wine, for I hear they are quite fine. And when you click your heals as you see our rear view mirror pass you by, toast to the health of the Canadian boys who are heading to Broome and won't see you soon.
For Jane I did rack my brain against many a road train in hopes to find a gift to give you an emotional lift, but I could think of none to redeem the sum of my fun. So in appreciation of our deviation to your allocation I write for you this poem in a last minute ditch to catch the hitch and pull you along to show you our appreciation from your salutation. I wish you well in hopes you'll tell us why you stole our trunks from our bunks, for if you wanted the boys to show off their toys I would have booked an appointment for an ointment as I hear you are an expert of such things. Well I am running out of time and rhyme so I must bring a close to this hose. I hope you had fun on this run and got a laugh from my gaff. But take me seriously when I say thank you for our stay the other day.
Well that is all from this blast I hope you enjoyed it Jane, and thanks again for everything you did for us backpackers, especially eat our bad cooking, but I would like to announce that we are getting better.
Back-story
I had bought Gerard these nice bottles of wine as I know he loves them, but I couldn't think of anything to find for Jane. So I started writing this note to leave with the wine for her as they weren't going to be there when we dropped by on our way North originally. But due to circumstances we stopped in Perth that night and then dropped by their house the next morning when they were indeed home. So I never gave them the letter, but after reading it almost a month later I couldn't help myself from putting this up. So here we go.
The Note
Even though I rang the bell and could just tell you hiding behind the door hoping we would not stay like before. So in the absence of your presence I leave for you these 2 bottles of wine, for I hear they are quite fine. And when you click your heals as you see our rear view mirror pass you by, toast to the health of the Canadian boys who are heading to Broome and won't see you soon.
For Jane I did rack my brain against many a road train in hopes to find a gift to give you an emotional lift, but I could think of none to redeem the sum of my fun. So in appreciation of our deviation to your allocation I write for you this poem in a last minute ditch to catch the hitch and pull you along to show you our appreciation from your salutation. I wish you well in hopes you'll tell us why you stole our trunks from our bunks, for if you wanted the boys to show off their toys I would have booked an appointment for an ointment as I hear you are an expert of such things. Well I am running out of time and rhyme so I must bring a close to this hose. I hope you had fun on this run and got a laugh from my gaff. But take me seriously when I say thank you for our stay the other day.
Well that is all from this blast I hope you enjoyed it Jane, and thanks again for everything you did for us backpackers, especially eat our bad cooking, but I would like to announce that we are getting better.
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