ANZAC Day

April 25th is Anzac Day in Australia.  This is where they celebrate their alliance with New Zealand, but it has turned into celebrating and remembering everyone that has served in the military.  Its just like Veterans Day, but way more intense.  There is a parade all day in Sydney and services everywhere.  Our plan was to wake up for the dawn service.  My alarm rang at 4:30 am and I rolled out of bed.  Outside it was pouring rain.  I bundled up in a bunch of layers, headed for the door, got a text saying no way (Australians are soft), and reversed right back to bed.  I awoke again at 9 and headed to meet up with everyone.  We made a big breakfast and then.....started drinking.  See people here like to remember those who have served while they get hammered and forget their day.  It's a beautiful thing.  By noon everyone was drunk and ready to go.  I neglected to mention the best part about Anzac day.  That is 2-up.  A gambling game that is legal one day of the year.  Off to North Gong Pub we went.  Through the rain and cold we trekked.  Upon arrival hordes of people surrounded a 8' by 8' piece of carpet taped to the ground in the outside portion of the pub.  Everyone was holding up money, shouting, shaking hands, cursing, and drinking.  It was fucking intense.  I wanted in.  The game is simple.  Three coins are placed on a paddle.  Bets are made between two people, one choosing heads and the other tails.  One of them holds the money.  That's some serious trust.  Australia at its finest.  The flipper throws the coins up and the winner is the one who guessed if there would be more heads or tails.  The money is then given to the winner and a hand shake is made (in most cases).  50-50 odds.  Doesn't get much better than that.  I jumped right in.  There is no strategy to the game.  With nothing but luck people were making giant bets.  The highest I heard was $200. Are you kidding?! $200!!!  These people weren't messing around.  I watched for a bit then made my move.  I went up and down for a bit but came out $15 on top.  Solid.  Now I have nothing bad to say about the game.  Some of my friends weren't so lucky.  Take Wado for example.  $75....down.  Ouch.  Solid playing mate.  By the time we left the pub it felt like we had been there for hours.  I got home and was ready for bed...It was 7 p.m.  What a day.

Big Red

 A horrible idea

The five

Big Red - 45 feet or so

Gainer

 It didn't end well

All four!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj-sv19Jo88

Again I must apologize for slacking on my blog.  This week has gone been a blur.

Tuesday.  Tuesday was yet another successful family dinner.  We have had steak, chicken roll-ups, mexican, breakfast, and chicken salad.  This week was pizza.  Delicious.  We had about eight pizzas of different toppings along with pigs in a blanket.  Every one was again stuffed to the brim and happy.  Great for our minds and harsh on our waist lines.

Wednesday.  Oh Wednesday.  The plan: Go to the ABC (Anything But Clothes for the older audiences) held at Ivory.  We dressed up as picnic baskets and did the usual pre-drinking.  Wild Card:  A beer bong was also constructed since we were out getting costumes and drove by the hardware store.  This, in combination of a strong bucket of punch, led to the obliteration of our livers.  One by one beer bongs were done and the bucket o' punch (4 bottles of champagne, bottle of vodka, goon, and juice) soon dwindled down to nothing.  Onto the bus.  First we lost Bee Bee and Connie.  The punch was too much.  Understandable.  We saw them off in a cab and then continued our voyage to Ivory.  Destination reached.  A peek into the window yielded some horrifying news.  The place was dead.  We glanced into each others eyes, shed the costumes ($10 down the drain), and headed to the always reliable Grand.  There the night went on as planned with no need for the purchase of additional drinks.  Anthea can vouch for this comment.  Later on we decided to go to McDonalds.  Gross I know.  However, they have 50 cent ice cream cones.  On the way Izzy cut her foot on some glass (Girls and their heels, they look for any chance to take them off).  What came out of this was probably the longest piggy back ride of all time.  No easy feat when the girl on your back is literally dead weight because she is hammered and not helping out at all.  We made it and the rest of the night was great.

Thursday.  I was hungover and I didn't want to do anything.  This didn't last.  Everyone was forced to go out.  When we got to town my jaw dropped.  Every single bar had about an hour long line out the front.  Apparently everyone in the city of Wollongong decided to go out that night.  We skipped the bars and got kebabs instead, stopped at a house party (where a kid ate the scorpion at the bottom of a tequila bottle), and headed home.  Nothing exciting.

Saturday.  Saturday we again headed to Nowra for a stay with the Jirgens family.  I love that place.  The exact house I want to live in when I'm older with its victorian design and huge garden.  We received the gift of another amazing home made meal, warm bed, and love.

Today I awoke the the best coffee I have had in Australia.  Thanks Margie.  We chilled for a bit then, after some convincing from me, headed to big red.  Its about a 50 foot cliff jump into the big river.  It's about five minutes from their house.  God I want to live there.  The jumps were great.  We did a 27 foot or so jump (little red) and the big red jump.  I over rotated a back flip off the little one and am currently watching the bruise form on my ribs.  I wasn't about to try that off that big one.  I'll post some pictures and a video soon.  It was the perfect end to another good weekend.

Oh wait, I still have two days off (making it a five day weekend).  Didn't I just have a week off?  That's right..... I love Australia.

Ouch

I figured it would be a nice little Sunday.  Most everyone had returned from vacation so the plan was to head to Abbey's Pub for the night.  Everything was going smoothly.  Typical evening: drinking, dancing, spending money.  The usual.  As I headed to the bathroom I witnessed a dude being thrown out of the bar.  Hilarious.  This guy was doing his best to get away but he was in a vice grip consisting of four huge dudes.  Sorry Charlie.  After a quick laugh I continued my voyage to the bathroom.  I stepped through the door and fumes of sweat and piss crawled up my nostrils.  I did what I had come to do and then went to wash my hands.  There I ran into a buddy, Cal, that I hadn't seen in a while.  We chatted for a sec then another buddy, Mitch, stepped into the room.  Now Mitch was a little more intoxicated than the rest of us.  He was unaware of the thin film of dirt and water that covered the tile floor.  All the sudden he was horizontal in the air and face planted onto the tile.  Cal and I looked at each other with a look of astonishment.  Mitch then sprang back up but he was holding his mouth.  A move of his hand revealed a large chip out of his two front teeth.  Holy Shit that had to hurt.  He went on to ask us what he should do.  I told him to quit looking for his teeth, have a fun night, and go see the dentist tomorrow.  I have learned from experience that there is really nothing else you can do.  The night was pretty bland after this.  Well kids what did we learn today?  Alcohol has an effect on your coordination and can often result in falling.  Be careful out there.  

Cairns pronounced "Cans"

Our room in Gilligans

 Heading out to sea

 Bunk on the ship

 Cool grafitti in Cairns

 Hostel

 Cool tree in town

Lagoon

I was sitting on the plane ride back to Sydney, with an old man half in my seat and half in his own, his crossed legs causing a protrusion of his leg into my leg area, and his arm resting on the seat in front of me which went across my face, when I started to reflect on this recent visit to Cairns.  Boy what a trip it was.

The first night started off slow.  After a day of travel we were all tired and ready for some rest.  The ride had gone smoothly and we checked in with no problems.  We ate some food and settled in for bed.  My eyes sprung open at about 3 am.  A rustling noise that sounded like "a grizzly bear getting into the trash" (Sarah) came from across the room.  No big deal, just our German roommate making her bed in the wee hours of the night, completely oblivious to the six other people sleeping in the room.  How quaint.

The next morning we were up and headed for our live aboard at 8am.  We transferred from a huge yacht, to a pontoon, to our ship over the course of a 3 hour ride out to sea.  The ship was large, sleeping maybe 30 people.  It had three decks, kitchen, bar, and a library...Paradise at its best.  After a quick tour, we jumped right into the water.  Our first dive was great.  I was quite rusty as I got used to the snorkel and fins as it had been at least three years since I had done it.  We saw a bunch of giant clams and some clown fish.  Once back at the ship we indulged in a quick snack and were back into the water after an hour break.  Watching all the divers gear up and head under was killing me.  I had to dive.  Luckily, I got the opportunity to do an intro dive.  Shit is unreal.  We went down about three meters to get a feel of it.  After a few tests I gave my guide a thumbs up and we dove on down.  The bubbles tickled my neck as I quickly inhaled and exhaled.  I was scared to death.  I knew I was stuck down there and there was no quick rise to the surface.  As we continued to sink I became elated.  The temperature quickly declined as did the light around us.  We then leveled out.  I was 12 meters underwater, something I had never done before.  Everything was so surreal.  I truly can't explain the feeling.  We didn't see much but just being that deep underwater was enough to convince me....I need to get certified.  We swam around for a bit dipping to 16.9 meters at our max depth.  By the end of the dive the guide allowed me to swim around by myself for a bit.  After about 30 minutes we began our ascent back to the surface.  Back on the ship I learned that though my nickname is fish, I breathe like a 350 pound lineman.  Guess I'll need to work on that for future dives.  The evening continued on with dinner, a night dive for the certified divers, and hanging out on the sun deck.  Then something amazing happened.  With a full stomach, good company, on a boat, in the middle of the ocean, I saw the most beautiful sunset of my life.  The sky was illuminated with every color of the rainbow.  Blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink all flashed across the sky as the sun slowly dipped behind the distant mountains of Cairns.  A picture couldn't do the scene justice, but that sunset I will remember for the rest of my life.  The setting lasted about 20 minutes before the sun finally left the sky.  What a great night.

The second day we received a wonderful 5:30 wake up call.  Kill me.  I have a hard time doing 5:30, but then jumping into some cold water, that's close to torture.  It was totally worth it though.  The fish were everywhere, the sunrise was beautiful, and there is no better way to become instantly awake.  We did another three snorkel dives that day highlighted by spotting a turtle and tons of other cool fish.  The rest of the time was spent laying in the sun, eating food, and living the dream.  As quickly as quickly as the boat trip had begun, we were back on the huge yacht headed for land.  Back at the hotel, we once again were exhausted and had an early night, for tomorrow I had a big day coming.

Awakened with a quirky tune and a smile on my face, I slipped out of bed.  I ate a small breakfast, met up with the crew, and jumped into another van.  We were headed to the forest, not to tour around, but to bungee jump.  Hell yes.  The layout was awesome.  This place had a bar, lagoon, eating area, and, most importantly, a 50 meter high tower constructed specifically for bungee jumping.  This was my kind of store.  Our group of eight checked in and I was immediately chosen to go first.  Flight after flight I made my way to the top of the canopy as everything below me began to miniaturize.  There was no screwing around.  My legs were quickly attached to the cord and my camera taped to my hand.  I was ready to go.  It's a cruel reality how everything becomes way higher when you are looking down versus up.  With my toes hanging over the edge, my heart raced.  This wasn't like skydiving where you are thrust out of the plane by the person attached to your back.  The choice was all on my.  No one else was taking me off the ledge.  I took a deep breath, listened to the countdown, and jumped.  Holy shit.  I'm addicted.  It was crazy.  That's all I have to say.  Fucking Crazy.  One by one the group quickly followed, with the exception of Clare.  That girl may have stood on that ledge for 10 minutes, but in the end she conquered her fears and jumped.  Bravo.  By the time everyone had jumped, I had been waiting at the bottom for a good hour.  This didn't sit well with me.  I had to jump again.  After a quick trip to the front desk, I was once again climbing the steps with four other brave souls (Gabby, Kendall, Isak, and Oie) to do another jump.  This time I decided to do a back dive to mix things up.  The jump was perfect and the slack allowed me to dip to about my shoulders in the lagoon below.  Bungee jumping is amazing.  Can't wait to do it again.

The rest of the day was quite lax in comparison. We strolled around town, laid out at the lagoon, and weaved throughout the Asian markets.  For once we weren't tired and since it was our last night in Cairns, we knew we had to go big.  Quite a night ensued.  

As the lot of us sat in the hostel room drinking goon and juice a man knocked on the door.  He had short shorts, no shirt, and suspenders on.  He informed us that tonight was ladies night and that girls got five free glasses of champagne when they went to the night club.  I disregarded the remark and drank on, as my distain for the opposite sex grew.  However, the man added a little something before he left.  "Oh and guys can get the champagne too if they wear a dress."  Welp, I better get drinking.  I would like to think it takes a lot for me to put on a dress, but I guess it doesn't.  With the promise of free drinks and maybe 7 glasses of goon, I found myself sucking in and having two people slowly wriggle the dress over my shoulders.  Soon enough I was headed to the dance floor in a dress that went half way down my thighs, something everyone wants to see I'm sure.  I proceeded to dance the night away, learning that dancing in a dress without showing your boxers too much is quite a task.  Everyone looked great in their dress including Marcus and Isak.  The free drinks were all enjoyed which resulted in two lost phones among other things.  Luckily everything was found and everyone made it to their beds to my knowledge.    It was a solid last night.

The last day was spent walking around town, enjoying all the local cuisine, and traveling for about seven hours.  The trip was great.  Cairns is a nice little town with tons to do.  I would recommend it to anyone. It has a great aboriginal culture alongside its massive tourism attractions.  Cairns, a quintessential stop for anyone visiting Australia.  

At some point I'll get my videos of the reef and bungee jumping up.

The Dress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKt1bmfZnFY

bungee jumping video

This week

 Yet another Wednesday Night

 Ant at Unibar

 Wado at Unibar

 The duo

 Goon of Fortune!! (Wado's favorite obviously)

Bee Bee's Fortune, Tonald cheers on

Here is the link for the song Forget You performed by Ant and Sam at Unibar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut9bRk69_MU

Here is a link for another song written by Anthea.  Its called Let You In

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2VceTMTAnY

Well I've been slacking with the blog but nothing too crazy has happened.  Wednesday was a successful send off to Bminor.  The highlight was probably being ripped off at the bar.  Now Wado and I couldn't just let that slide.  In spite of the bartender's mistake they are now missing nine glasses.  You try walking out of a bar and not getting caught with five of them in your pants.  It was impressive.  Everyone had their own story though.  Izzy somehow got cut in the face on the dance floor and spent her night in the ER.  Clare spent her night relieving her body of its alcoholic and food content.  And most importantly, Sarah was named "little blueberry" (there is a story but I would get murdered if I posted that).  The night was a success.

Friday night was Wado and Ant's night to perform and boy did they shine.  Despite a solid opener, they lit the place up.  The fear on their faces as the got on that stage was priceless, but by the end of it Ant was actually smiling and playing at a reasonable tempo (in the beginning it looked like her arm was having a seizure).  Wado appeared from behind his music book and he too seemed to be enjoying himself.  Here are a couple of their songs.  The sound quality of my camera doesn't do them justice.  They were amazing.  I'll put videos up when I'm back.


Saturday night was my first Wollongong house party experience.  The night started with the usual pre-drinking shenanigans.  This quickly escalated to drinking heavily.  I quote "It hit me like bricks".  From then on only bits and pieces are memorable.  I took place in a game of beer pong and somehow won (despite stupid Aussie rules), ravaged a bunch of their food, and sucked ass in flip cup.  Then came goon of fortune.  This entailed attaching two goon bags to a rotating drying rack and spinning it.  The two people that the bags stopped on got to attempt to drink as much goon as they good.  This usually resulted in a goon shower, as the bags were fairly high off the ground.  The party slowly merged back inside where we were all greeted with a strobe light.  Apparently, the dancing was a little too intense because it resulted in a visit from the police.  Their words of advice: "turn the music down a bit and party on".  God I love that.  Of course I didn't find out about this until the day after (it was that kind of night).  Soon enough I was in a taxi on my way home.  Everyone then dispersed...I think.  I woke up the next morning fully clothed with the lights on and covered in grass stains.  It was a great night, even been then the horrible hangover the next morning.

Today I am off to the wonderful city of Cairns.  We are spending two days aboard a ship snorkeling and diving, a day bungee jumping, and a day exploring the city.  Its my first hostel experience as well.  I'm hoping its not really like the movie.  Wish me luck.

Family Feast

The largest Crew yet.

Family dinner has quickly grown into a family feast.  It started as a random night where eight people happened to be in the room and wanted some dinner.  Now, it is a weekly event with its own white board that includes a list of people who will be in attendance.  This week, I was the chosen Iron Chef.  I have a new appreciation for cooking shows, dinner parties, and, most importantly, my mother and father.  Cooking for people can really suck.  In theory it should be relaxing and enjoyable.  Maybe even therapeutic.  I imagined sipping a glass of wine as I glide around the clean kitchen floor in my freshly washed apron.  In reality I was shoving people out of the way, barking orders, and trying reduce my heart rate so I didn't have an attack.  There is so much pressure to impress and cook the perfect meal.  Maybe it's not so bad with a small group of friends or family.  However, when you are cooking for 18 people, it becomes fucking madness.  I would like to thank all my helpers now: BB, Laura, Wado, Izzy, Ant, Sarah, Jacob, and bartender B minor.  You all did a wonderful job and I am sorry for all the physical and mental abuse you had to put up with.  In the end, the meal turned out great, especially for my first time cooking the dish (Sheri Fisher's famous caesar salad and bruschetta).  I am happy to have my turn leading family dinner out of the way, as I'm sure everyone else involved is.

The gym

When the vacation effect of being in a new country finally wore off, I realized it was time to get a gym pass.  Sadly, this was not included in the array of fees charged to my wonderful parents. I just went with a university gym pass.  The $180 fee was the cheapest around.  I quickly found out why.  The first problem I had was the lack of benches.  There were only two in the whole place, which is a big problem with the large amount of traffic.  Also, I immediately found out that the weights are in kilograms.  Makes sense considering I am in Australia.  Didn't stop me from looking like an idiot when I tried to do my first set.  People must have thought I was pretty strong as they witnessed a bar collapse straight onto my chest.  One similarity that I found between this gym and the facility at CU is no matter what equipment is available, there will always be bros to fill it.  Here these bros dress up for the event.  I'm talking stylish shoes, button up shirts, and gelled hair.  One of my greatest experiences came when one day the weight room staff reminded me multiple times to put the weights up when I was done and watched me the whole time to make sure I did it.  Thanks guys, I had no idea. All this is nothing compared to my last problem.  I can handle the lack of equipment.  I can handle the weights being in kilograms.  I can handle the fashion show that is the gym.  And I can handle the annoying weight room staff.  However, I can not handle the Justin Beiber blasting throughout the gym.  That is where I draw the line.  Get it together UOW.

Flying through the sky

Disclaimer:  The bastards wouldn't let me use my video camera on the jump.  Despite this, I was not about to buy their video (taken with the same exact camera) for the added price of $125 AUD.  

Safe Landing

Preparation 

I must say skydiving over the beach is superior to skydiving over the plains.  It was the typical start.  We signed paperwork, they tried to sell me a video ($125, yeah I’ll pass), and we had a nice little pre-jump instruction sesh, as if you remember anything they say when you are dropping through the sky at terminal velocity.  After all this is was time to piss off mom and dad and fly through the sky once again.  The plane was packed.  I was sitting smack dab in my certified jumpers crotch and had another instructor all up on me.  Ah, the beauty of skydiving.   The views were beautiful.  The endless blue was dotted with gigantic oil tankers and the coast stretched to the horizon.  As we rose above the clouds, it felt as though we entered a new world.  There is something about being in a plane that you are about to jump out of that makes you notice everything in the sky.  Maybe it’s just so you don’t run into anything on your way down.  As we neared our desired altitude of 14,000 feet I told my instructor to make the ride as fun as possible.  I didn’t want the straight freefall like my first jump experience.  He did a wonderful job.  The door opened and one after another the whoosh of a tandem thrusting out into the open air left a dent in my eardrums.  Each face was priceless.  Sheer terror laced their eyes.  Their open jaws were left vacant of air as there was a loss of all ability to breathe.  I inched closer and closer to the door.  I don’t care if you have jumped 1,000 times, sitting in front of that open door never gets old or less terrifying.  I swung my legs opposite the door, leaned my head back, and tucked my knees.  That’s right, we back-flipped out that motherfucker.  And not one flip, four of them.  It was a blur.  There was no sky or ground; there were only flashes of color.  The world came back to me as we leveled out and I threw my arms to the side.  We were flying and man was I screaming.  My instructor then shifted his arms, taking us into a circular frenzy where g-forces were pushed.  Again, life was a blur and all I could see were mashed colors.  We leveled out again, celebrated a bit, and then pulled the chute.  This gave a feeling like we were shot back into the sky, and is displayed by the bruises on my shoulders.  The rest of the ride entailed a bit of spinning and ended with a light landing in the grass.  This was much better then the high speed slide that almost put a tuft of grass up my ass on my first jump.  It was a jump to remember.  There is something so surreal about freefall that is a wonderful release from all the stresses of life.  I don’t know if it’s the silence, adrenaline, or emotion that comes with the fall, but there is truly nothing like it.  Meditation at its finest.  Can’t wait to jump again and for my next Australian adventure.