Best. Christmas. Ever.

The double black Christmas thing didn't exactly go to plan, but the good thing was that it was a powder day (15cm new snow) and we got some pretty damn good runs down.

Last night was a massive Christmas celebration at the apartment building. Many people brought down food and everybody had a massive feast. After dinner, gifts were given out as part of a Secret Santa thing that almost the entire building was part of. Anj dressed up as Santa and gave away gifts from everybody to everybody. I got season 2 of Alf on DVD, which was pretty sweet.

I didn't have too much to drink because our beer supply ran out, which turned out to be a good thing because when I woke up on Christmas morning, Santa had given the second best present I could hope for (next to Alf, naturally) - powder. I turned on the TV when I woke up and lo and behold, there was 15cm of fresh powder to be ridden. It was my first ever white Christmas, and the entire day of riding was just incredible, despite a few times when I got a bit buried in powder.

The day was actually full of incidents. Leigh took out a tree (and didn't damage his board), Ben did a few flips due to a crash, and John and I fell into a crevasse in the middle of a run. We ended up calling it a day at about 2:30 in the afternoon because we were all pretty damn tired.

We came home to find the common room completely covered in food scraps. It was nasty. Apparently there was a food fight last night after I had gone to sleep. Hopefully tonight will be another good night, as I have 4 straight days of work to look forward to, and at least two of those are predicted to be powder days.

Photos will be up as soon as I can be bothered to upload them.

I'm dreaming of a double black Christmas

There's a plan going around that involves doing as much of Taynton Bowl as possible on Christmas Day. Taynton Bowl is an expert area of the mountain filled with powdery (or one would hope) double black diamond runs. Interesting times should be had.

On a slightly tangential note, I did my first ever double black run the other day. I took on Elmo at the Extreme Dream Zone (another double black area). Apart from the time when my board hit an exposed tree stump and received some big scratches, it was a pretty good experience (and at the same time told me that I need to improve on those kind of runs).

The view from the summit

Apart from one or two riding days, the week involved mostly work and a whole lot of not much else. The most interesting point was when the lifties were out for a quiet drink, which eventually turned into 4 guys buying large rounds of Jager Bombs for everybody (I think it cost them $122 Canadian each for those rounds). Good times.

Anyway, as this is probably my last post before Christmas (Canadian time), I would like to wish everybody a happy and safe holidays.

Christmas tree!

View of a thousand peaks

Today, we took the run aptly named 'View of 1000 Peaks'. It was quite a beautiful view, though not as breathtaking as the one I witnessed in Innsbruck. Nothing beats the Austrian alps. The run it linked up with was filled with moguls and took us some time to get through. It wasn't a whole lot of fun, but it did improve my skills on those kind of runs.

Last night was jam night again. It was a great celebration of Andy's birthday. He got well drunk, as did a lot of other people. I stayed fairly sober so that I could get up and sing again (and not screw up). I sang Everlong (with somebody else on guitars), and it was fairly well-received. The whole getting up on stage thing is something I could get used to. I believe the next jam night is on New Year's Day, so I have a couple of weeks to practice something new.

Embrace the sun

The Sun Bowl opened up yesterday. The Sun Bowl is a massive area (a bowl to be specific) in Panorama that's not too steep and can get some insane powder. Alas, I was too busy either teaching Kelly how to ride, or going to Invermere to do some shopping, so I missed out on first tracks there.

The sun was shining brilliantly yesterday

Fortunately, it was still good today, and I had an awesome time riding some pretty sweet powder. The groomed runs were also quite good and I got some huge speed down a few of them. I think today was actually my first full day of boarding since I got here. Good to know I can last a day of hard work. The worst part of the day is a toss-up between when I left my lift pass at the apartment in the morning (and had to walk back and get it) or when I crashed on a traverse (after trying to come back from the powder on the side) and landed on my back, smacking me squarely on the back of the head (I feel fine now, though). Methinks I should invest in a helmet. And some warmer gloves, my hands were freezing today.

A few freshies

Last night was the pirate theme weekend party. A lot of creative costumes were spotted. Gordon (aka Nugget - Sydney-sider) was all decked out in pirate gear (see below), but I think he was topped by the guys (whose names I can't remember right now) who showed up in a cardboard pirate ship. At the party I saw Pete, who runs the jam nights, and he said I should get up again tomorrow night. We'll see.

Swashbuckling Nugget

Powder keg

Today, I woke up early to catch the first lifts up to the summit of the mountain. It was knee-deep powder up there, after a 25cm dump in the past 24 hours. It's pretty crazy that the base at the summit is already at 110cm after only one open week. It was without a doubt the biggest powder I've ever ridden in.

Last night was the staff Christmas party, and it wasn't as wild as it could have been. The good thing was that the food was free (nice and tasty turkey and ham) and you got two free drinks. There was also a prize draw. A beginner (Nat) won a heli-skiing adventure day, and a skier won a snowboard. It was pretty amusing.

Photographic goodness

All the (decent) photos from the trip so far can be found here.

Panorama

That's right, folks... I'm still alive.

The following post covers the past Internetless week or so.

I write this as we make our way to Panorama via the company bus. It's been pretty cool driving through Banff National Park, though we didn't go past Lake Louise. I'll have to check it out some other time in the future.

Yesterday, I had a leisurely stroll over to the comic book store as it was no longer really really cold. It was a nice and comfortable -4 or so. I grabbed Scott Pilgrim vol. 2. It was a shame that they didn't have vol. 3 in because there was a sale for manga and digest-sized graphic novels - buy one, get the second at 25% off.

I took a side-trip over to the mall to get a SIM card for my phone. It must be noted that the prices for mobiles here are crazy. Not so much the price of the actual phone but rather the charges for calls. Here you get charged for airtime, so even receiving calls gets billed. You also have to pay for 'extras' that are stock standard for most networks in Australia, such as text messaging, voice messaging, caller ID, etc. In summary, Australia's awesomeness should not be taken for granted.

Anyway, after that whole phone stuff, I headed back to the hostel and waited for Leigh and Ben to arrive. We hung around a bit then went to the store to buy my snowboard boots. I ended up going with the Burton Hail. Not cheap, but incredibly comfortable, and having comfy boots is one of the most important things when snowboarding.

The train station

After dinner, a fair portion of the people from the hostel went to Cowboy's, where they have 25c beers on Thursday nights. Needless to say, it was packed. Everybody got pretty damn drunk and woke up this morning feeling horrible. Regardless, all the Panorama folk were ready for the bus, which left just about on time.

No net access makes Adrian something something...

On the way to Panorama, the bus driver noticed that the staff bus had been stranded on the side of the road. He dropped us off at central check-in and headed back to pick up the staff, leaving everybody without their luggage for about half an hour. When we finally got to our apartment, everybody was very hungry.

A nice view on the way to Panorama

After a short talk from the staff, mostly everybody headed over to the Crazy Horse for some meals and drinks. Myself, Leigh, and Anj (Melbournian) stayed to play pool and have drinks while the others left. I ended up drinking far too much and felt rather hungover this morning. Leigh and I still somehow managed to give our boards a wax in the early hours of the morning after getting back, which wasn't really too useful since it wasn't a low temperature wax and sucked in these conditions.

Ben, Christel (Canberran), John and Kelly (Kiwis) bought some food supplies for us in Invermere while we slept, so there was finally something to eat around the house. We had a quick feed then headed to the lifts because it was staff skiing day. I finally got to try out my new gear. Pretty damn good. The boots are amazingly comfy.

I had two runs down before they stopped letting staff through (since the hill is primarily used for ski racing training), of which one involved a rather spectacular crash, leaving a big scratch on my chin and a lot of snow in my clothes. Regardless, it was fun to be on the snow again. Afterwards, Christel, Jackie (I actually can't recall where she's from at the moment), and I went to get our staff passes.

On the way back to the apartment, we took a different route, and fearing that we'd get lost, Christel and Jackie backtracked to the way they knew. I kept going knowing that I would eventually find the way home, and quite confident that I wouldn't get lost. I did. I took one wrong turn and ended up at central check-in. I still got home before Christel and Jackie though.

By the way, we have discovered that the free Internet in our rooms does not work as of yet, so this post may end up being pretty large. It's really a bit annoying, but hopefully we'll be in business soon enough.

Tonight is apparently a massive staff party at the Crazy Horse, so it should be pretty fun. I hope the guys get back from town soon because I don't wanna be heading over there by myself.

The good times are killing me

Dinner was great. Ben's a cook, so that's always nice to have in an apartment. About 8 of us from the same floor surrounded the insufficiently-sized bench top for a pasta feed. The staff housing, by the way, is set up rather nicely. It's pretty small but certainly spacious enough. My only gripe is that there is virtually no soundproofing, so you can hear the smallest things.

My room

After dinner, a big group of people from the apartment headed over to the Crazy Horse for the big staff party. There were drinks all around, a cover band (who played some songs badly and some songs pretty well), and lots of mingling. I met a lot of people, most of whose names I have already forgotten. I'm really bad with that kind of thing. It was a lot of fun though.

I was not planning on having a big night because it would have been my third in a row, and I have orientation in the morning. Alas, as the story usually goes, I had a pretty big one. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as the past two nights. My throat still hurts like hell (probably from singing along to Everlong when the band played it), but I can remember most of the night, which is a good sign.

Toby Creek

I'm hoping that orientation doesn't take too long. I need a bit of a rest, and I'd like to get some shopping done down in town (the colloquial term for Invermere). The apartment is in dire need of rice, a rice cooker, soy sauce, and a wok. A little meat would go a long way too. Sadly, I hear that meat here costs a lot, so I might not buy as much as I would hope to get. Still, I do need to use up all that bihon (noodles) that I bought back in Calgary. In hindsight, it seems like it may have been a bad idea to buy so much of it.

The Sunday roast

Half the new people had staff orientation the day after the big party. Most were feeling under the weather during the speeches, but it was a pretty interesting day. It pretty much introduced people to the company and their values, and told us what kind of benefits we'd be getting. After orientation, I headed home and decided I'd have an easy night so I can be fresh for my first day.

The view outside my room

The 2nd floor community decided to roast a turkey, which turned out rather tasty, despite not having any gravy. During the roasting period, the fire alarm went off no less than five times, which led us to believe that it is a rather sensitive alarm. I called it a night early but couldn't find a good run of sleep and woke up for my first day pretty tired.

Work was pretty interesting. We were introduced to the department, how they operate, and were shown around the resort so that we would all know the different buildings. At the end of the day, I pretty much had the layout of the resort down pat.

Last night was fun. We had roast leftovers for dinner, and headed out for John's birthday. We first hit the Jack Pine Pub and soon moved over to the Crazy Horse. Some people left pretty early because they were starting work today, but a few stayed. Fortunately for me, I was one of them, because some random guy was buying rounds of Jager Bombs for everybody. I hear it ended up costing him more than 700 dollars. Ouch.

After the pub, Ian and Gary (Poms), and Kelly and I started to head home. However, I had the grand idea to start throwing snow at people, and it escalated into a snow fight of epic proportions. We all ended up very white from snow and I had a bruised knee. Kelly and I took a short pit stop at the place where the Brits were staying, then headed back to the apartment.

Today, I woke up early and went to Invermere with Vi and Alex (Melbournians) to do some shopping. I ended up getting some useful stuff like soy sauce and a deep frying pan to use as a makeshift wok (since I couldn't find any woks around town). I also bought my costume for the opening week theme, which is The '80s. I got a pink headwarmer and a one-piece ski jumpsuit. Looks very old school.

After grabbing groceries, Vi and Alex realised that they had bought too much. As a result, we ended up having to ring up Mallory (a local) to bring some of the things up for us while we hitchhike up the mountain (which is pretty safe at this time of year because it's only employees that are heading up to Panorama). Becky (another local) drove around and got our stuff then we headed up to the hitchhike point. A nice local named Catrien picked us up in her Golf and we got home before too long.

When I got home I got the Internet working for a brief moment, but it seems to keep dropping out, which is pretty annoying. I really hope they fix that soon.

All the dirty work

When I signed up to be a room attendant, I thought it would be rather cruisy. Not so, it seems. The first few days at work have been pretty hard, and I'm hoping I will soon get the knack of cleaning rooms. Apart from that, it's been pretty much all party. The village has this great atmosphere where everybody has a lot of fun, and I'm glad to be part of it.

This weekend is opening weekend so it's starting to get a lot more lively, with all the people from out of town coming up for the snow. The '80s fashion showoff was really fun. John (from next door) won with his incredible skin-tight fluro purple ski outfit.

That outfit

The net is still not working, which is annoying the hell out of me, but not enough to make my time here a bad one.

Tonight should be a massive party over at Chopper's Landing, carrying on the '80s theme. I'm a bit tired after work and a bit of riding, but I'll tought it out. I got out of work early today, so I decided to hit the slope for a run or two, but the visibility was horrible, so I decided to give up after one run.

Opening weekend

Apparently it was the best opening weekend Panorama has seen in several years. The base was pretty good, but not all the runs were open. That said, for an opening weekend the conditions were pretty damn good. It's about what Thredbo can produce at its peak on the average 'good' season.

Enough about the snow though, and more about the partying. The '80s night at Chopper's Landing was pretty wild. We first hit the Crazy Horse before the big party started. It was pretty busy there already. A few of us hitched a very short ride over to Chopper's landing with a guy more than willing to show us a good set of icy doughnuts in the parking lot. That was a lot of fun. There was an '80s cover band at Chopper's pumping out a lot of tunes, and a lot of people were enjoying themselves despite the slow service on the alcohol.

The day after was not spent recovering, but rather, it was spent snowboarding. I went up 2 lifts and did some pretty steep runs. I started to get my groove back but was also getting rather tired, so I didn't ending up going again too many times. At the end of the day, I was feeling sore, and ended up sleeping at about 8:30.

Nothing like a good view heading up the slopes

The next day at work was pretty relaxed, and it was a good lead-up to the first jam night of the season, which are held every Monday night. I did a fair bit of pre-drinking, and got on stage rather drunkenly. My attempt at singing Good Riddance was impaired by several breaks when I either forgot the lyrics or chords, or both. It was, however, not such a bad experience considering it was my first time on stage in front of a live audience. A lot of the other (also drunken) people were very supportive, so that was cool.

The Internet has finally started to work today, so I'm very happy about that. Apologies for the ultra-long post.

Getting warmer...

Today it was only about -15 and -25 after wind chill. You could feel the difference too. Last night I froze my butt off taking photos at Canada Olympic Park. Didn't even really get a lot of photos taken. It was a nice field trip overall. Manny (my mum's friend's cousin) took me around to the COP and the center (whose name escapes me at this present moment) where people trained for the Winter Olympics. Saw a friendly ice hockey game and some speed skaters training. Love the speed skating. I wanna try it out despite the risk of injury. We also had some Wendy's for dinner. I had the triple burger. It was heart attackingly awesome.

I didn't really get much sleep last night. I attribute it to some minor jet lag and some major snoring in the room. Regardless, I was awake with more than enough time to spare to make my banking appointment. I opened up the bank account without much dramas, and had a bit of a stroll around the block in the nice and warm weather. It was still fairly cold though, so I didn't stay out for too long. I couldn't find any bookstores that stocked Scott Pilgrim, so that was a bit of a bummer. Hopefully I'll get off my lazy ass and check out the comic book store tomorrow when it's even warmer. I think it's meant to be around -4.

Anyway, tonight was fairly eventless. Aggie (my mum's friend) picked me up from the hostel at around 7:45 and we went shopping. I got some food supplies for Panorama and some Reese's. Gotta love peanut butter with chocolate. It confuddles me how Australia gastronomists have not made this simple yet extraordinary correlation between peanut butter, chocolate, and awesome. Anyway, this is the one sweet I love to get anytime I'm in North America, with the possible exception of Mr. Goodbar, but I haven't been able to find that here yet.

When I got back to the hostel, I had a beer with a couple of the guys in my dorm room. Cool Canadian guys here for work. It seems that Calgary has massive demand for jobs and yet an incredible shortage on accommodation. As a result, you see lots of Canadians around in the hostel, and you see a lot of homeless people on the street. Apparently around half the homeless people in Calgary have jobs. Very strange. The guys also tell me of this bar downtown where draft beer is 25c. We're gonna hit it tomorrow night. I'll be drunk before I spend a dollar!

Snowboards and souvlaki

Today, as the previous post touches upon, was rather cold. As a result, I stayed in for most of the day. I did, however, get some money changed, and also do a bit of shopping when I met up with my mum's friend who had access to a car (very useful for this weather). I found the boot I wanted but I didn't buy it straight away because it was at RRP (and quite an expensive RRP at that). The board was another matter. I found a fairly good one at around my size for around CAD 200 after tax, so I decided that was too good to pass up.

Afterwards, we decided to find somewhere to eat. We settled on Opa!, a Greek fast food joint whereupon I discovered quite possibly the best lamb souvlaki ever. It was so good I had to have another. Now my breath stinks like onion. I want more.

The wind chill factor

It's now -25 degrees, but feels like -39 due to the crazy wind chill. I kid you not.

Calgary

I'm sitting here at Honolulu airport, waiting for my flight to board after a brief stopover in Hawaii, a bit annoyed at myself that I didn't bring more things to keep me entertained on the flight. Most of it was spent listening to music and podcasts.

Some random cliff notes on the trip so far...

• Air Canada: Small plane, good leg room, poor entertainment options, standard food.
• Molson Canadian Premium Lager: For a premium brew, it lacks taste, but not too bad overall.
• Scott Pilgrim: Rating: Awesome. You should all get it, lest ye die horrible deaths. I must get more volumes.
• Transiting through the USA: Annoying but painless. The hassle kind of makes me want to avoid going through this way to another country again.
• Unsecured wireless networks in Honolulu airport: None that you don't have to pay for. Lame.

(about half a day and lots of stress later)

Delay-o-rama

Ok, so things didn't quite go to schedule today. It all started when the flight from Sydney left about half an hour later than it was scheduled to. This meant that it arrived somewhat late in Honolulu. The Honolulu flight would have left in time, were it not for two of the passengers being held up at US immigration. So anyway, the flight left late and thus arrived late in Vancouver. This was made worse by the fact that Vancouver was hit with a snowstorm the day before, so it took about 10 minutes to taxi to the terminal.

At this point, I was completely stressing out because I needed to get my working holiday visa from immigration then transfer my bags over to the domestic carousel. I then had to run all the way to the domestic terminal, where it seemed many people were late for their flights. Flights ended up being delayed anyway, due to the snow cover on the tarmac. Our flight was held up about an hour and 45 minutes while runway was being cleared. Understandably, some people on the flight were annoyed that weren't going to be able to make it to wherever by whenever.

So anyway, we finally arrived in Calgary, and it was -20 degrees Celsius. And that's the high for the day. But more on that later, because the delays don't end there. It took a long while to get the baggage from our flight into the carousel in Calgary Airport. They kept changing the carrousel number in which it was supposedly coming out of. With that all done, and me all drained, it was time to make my way to the hostel. Thankfully the airport shuttle people were helpful with my airport transfer to the HI Calgary, where I'll be staying for the next 5 days. But guess what? The shuttle... delayed!

The cold open

I eventually got to the warmth of the hostel, where I promptly embraced the glow of the information superhighway. I then had to get food. In the negative 20s. It was a horrible walk, consisting of two false starts when I got lost and didn't have money, respectively, and finally reaching the only open restaurant in many many blocks - the world-renowned golden arches. The receptionist at the hostel gave me a 2-for-1 Big Mac voucher, so I used that.

It was about as terrible as it is anywhere else in the world, but I forced myself to ignore this fact as I was both incredibly hungry and quite poor, Canadian dollar-wise. I didn't exchange any American dollars at the airport because they were exchanging for 1.05 Canadian dollars for every American, plus a $3 processing fee, where it should be getting at least 1.10. Anyway, the airport didn't have them, and Sunday seemed to be very dead, business-wise, so I was stuck with my CAD 9.36, of which 1 I gave to the nice shuttle bus driver as a tip (as I gotta start getting used to tipping when required).

On the way back from McDonald's, I discovered the wonders of free public transport. I didn't feel like walking the long walk home in the cold snow (which, by the way, hurt my face) so I took the free tram that ran on the avenue that my hostel was situated. It didn't stop right in front but it's still pretty damn useful nonetheless. I have a feeling I'll be using it whenever I decide to step outside into the ridiculous cold snap (which apparently stops on Thursday, where it's back to a warm -2). The way things are going, I'll probably try to stay inside except for when I eat, get money exchanged, or buy snowboard-related goods.

Anyway, that was a pretty long post and it's been a pretty long day. I sneaked in about an hour or two of sleep during the past 24+ hours, so I'll go and quietly retire into my top bunk hostel bed to prepare myself for another day of adventures.

Next year

I'm scared as hell. Not a lot of people seem to consider that. When I tell people that I'm going overseas for a year and going (mostly) by myself, they usually reply by saying that I must be brave to do that. That's not really the case. Only a few people realize that not only am I excited about going, but I'm also pretty damn nervous. This is the longest time I'll be away from home, and the first time that I'll be traveling alone outside of the country, so it's only natural that I'm at least a little scared. Don't get me wrong though, I'm very much looking forward to the challenge and the experience.

Anyway, I think I shall designate this as the first official post of the Canadian edition of this blog. I know I'm not in Canada yet, but this is my last post before I leave for my great adventure, and I'm not 100% sure that I'll get to be on the net any time soon. The hostel I'm staying at is meant to have free Wi-Fi, but you never really know. I leave tomorrow (Sunday) morning and arrive in Canada about 2 hours later... if you ignore time zone difference. The travel time actually adds up to about 20 hours, so I hope I get some sleep on the flight, or at least get to watch some movies. I had a look at the list of movies showing this month, and it's not looking too great. I've either seen them, or they're not very good, or both.

This entire week has been pretty intense. It kicked off last Saturday when I had a going away party at Steve and James' place. It also happened to be Nick N's birthday party. A good time was had by all. The people at pub trivia saw me off on the Tuesday. We didn't win, but it was as fun as always. Thursday was probably the biggest night. I had a farewell dinner with about 13 other people at the Belgian Beer Cafe. Great food and drink. I ended up rather hung over yesterday morning.

Throughout all of this, I've been scrambling around, trying to get my computer files in order, and also double-, triple-, and quadruple-checking things that I need to bring to Canada. I'm actually writing this as I take a break from the crazy last-minute thing that inevitably happens before a big trip. I just know I'll still be at it tomorrow as I watch Australia beat up on England some more on the cricket. This final day shall be interesting indeed.

New layout

I decided to change the layout of the blog. This is mainly due to the fact that I was feeling creative at the time. Due to my rusty web design skills, I didn't try to make it too complicated. Basically, I just switched templates and messed around with the header. You may notice that it already says "Canadian edition". The reason for this is that I am too lazy to come up with 2 new header images, so I decided to just upload the Canadian one in advance. If you think it looks like a load of crap, let me know.

Adrian's thought of the day, vol. 2

Why do people use the term 'meteoric rise'? Meteors fall. Do these people come from some bizarro planet where the laws of physics do not apply, and meteors do in fact rise? Perhaps the term would apply to a rise so abysmal that only a falling object can be used to describe it.

Think about it.

Play that funky music

Last week, I took a little trip to the north-western suburbs of Sydney to record a few vocals for Morgan's band, River of Bass. If you have never heard of them (which is more than likely), they're an electronica duo, and they do really good stuff. Anyway, it was a pretty cool day. It was the first time I had ever recorded stuff with proper equipment, and it gave me a lot of insight on how songs (especially electronica songs with vocals) are constructed. The album that I did vocals for, called Accidents Mistakes Happenstance Fate is coming along really well. I'm very much looking forward to the final product.

Last night, I went to see Pearl Jam. It was an incredible night. They played lots of their old stuff, with the majority of the songs they played coming from their first three albums (Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy). They didn't even play any songs from No Code or Riot Act, and only a single song from Binaural, which is my favourite album, so that was kind of a shame. That didn't take away from the quality of the show though. They started off with Release, which got everybody immediately pumped up. They didn't relent, as they followed that up with Rearviewmirror. Overall, the gig was all about the old school, and I suspect that tonight's show might be more skewed towards their later songs.

Apparently Pearl Jam weren't entertaining enough though, as a few of the people sitting next to me decided to leave at the first encore break. It was their loss, as they missed an amazing sequence of songs that lead to the end of the show, including Black, a perennial fan favourite. The boys eventually finished off with a Neil Young song, Keep on Rockin' in the Free World. It was a fittingly rocking ending to a very rocking show.

Sadly enough, I'm not going to tonight's show, or their third and final Sydney show in a week and a half, as I am saving up money for my trip. Last night was probably my last concert of the year, though I'm hoping to catch some bands over in the USA and Canada, especially those that never tour here.

The final countdown

*cue Europe song of the same title*

Right now it's about 31 days, 8 hours, and 30 minutes away until I leave for Canada. I've even got a Yahoo! Widget telling me how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds I have left until I go on my merry way. If you rewind half a year, I don't think I was even seriously considering this, and now I'm barely over a month away from setting off on a year-long adventure.

Now that I've left work, I have a feeling time's just going to fly past in this next month and before I know it I'll be on that plane, enjoying the free beer and watching movies in 4:3. Leaving work felt good. It feels good to know that I have some time to relax for once, to know that, as much as I loved the people I worked with, I don't have to go back to working there. My last day was pretty interesting - they put me in a department where I hadn't worked before. This effectively meant that on my last day, it felt like my first day. But that's all done and dusted now, and it's time for some celebrations.

However, I couldn't really celebrate my resignation in typical Adrian fashion (that is, by having a few cold ones) because I'm currently on antibiotics that, from what I've been told and have researched on the internet, react quite badly with alcohol. This is a direct result of the fact that my dental health regime sucked during high school and university, and now I'm paying for it with bad gums. So, the dentist (who had quite an attractive assistant, but I digress) prescribed me some antibiotics to reduce the inflammation of my gums. They've worked pretty well so far, but I think all those years have really screwed the gums up and it's going to take some time to 'fix'.

Anyway, the celebrations will probably commence in about three weeks with a couple of events - a farewell party with my friends from Wollongong, and a farewell dinner with my friends from Sydney. The latter is taking place mainly for the fact that the venue - the Belgian Beer Cafe - has some incredible beer.

Also ahead in about three weeks is my final night of trivia at the local pub. That trivia night might also be the next time I'll actually have a chance to go, since my team is going to be AWOL for the next few weeks. One of them had a heart attack, and I sincerely hope he gets better. Another has a few busy Tuesdays coming up. Couple that with the fact that it's Melbourne Cup Day in two Tuesdays (which is, incidentally, when I'll be in Sydney seeing Pearl Jam anyway) and it's looking like I have just one trivia night left. I'm going to miss it. It's a lot of fun with some nice locals.

Exits and endings

Today marked a milestone in my life. It is the first time that I handed in a resignation letter (FYI, I finish in two weeks). Not to say that I have been fired from my previous positions... it's just that this job is the first in which my contract was not for a limited period. Perhaps coincidentally, I also found out that about a week ago, a former co-worker of mine, who had been ill for quite some time, had passed away. It was pretty sad to hear that, especially since, judging from the times we talked, she was not a bad person. That's life I guess. Though I did not know her too well, tonight I shall have a drink in her honour.

Obligatory filler post

I've noted more than a few times that I haven't made a single entry for a couple of weeks. Thus, I shall ramble on for the next paragraph or two about semi-exciting developments.

It's been an interesting week, actually. I was feeling a bit down on Tuesday for reasons unknown, and then was up again as my 4-day weekend started after work on Wednesday. I made my way to Sydney on Thursday for Morgan's birthday dinner and drinks at the Belgian Beer Cafe, shortly followed by more drinks at nearby Jackson's. It was (relatively) a pretty quiet night for me, as I was going to be backing up on Friday for another full day, where I would meet up with Matt for some time geeking out at the comic store, then meet up with Dave and Josh to head over to the Swans game (Swans won, hooray for Sydney).

Somewhere in all that mess, I also managed to finally get my hands on The Illogical Consequence by Planet Funk, which is probably the most expensive album I have ever bought, on account of it being insanely and unreasonably lacking in availability (you have to import from Italy!). I also got an email from Amazon UK that my copy of I Choose Noise by Hybrid had shipped after experiencing a delay. I've heard the album and I can't wait to have the actual CD, although it's a bit annoying that I had pre-ordered it from the UK in an attempt to get it as early as possible, and I got a pretty lengthy delay anyway.

Hot day today. Gonna head over to the beach.

Time perception

Funny things happen to your brain when you're not in your right mind. For example, in a drunken attempt to figure out what that phone call was all about the other night, I decided to make a few calls. I ended up talking to another stranger for what seemed like a few minutes. However, when I looked at my call history, it was actually only about a minute. The same thing happened when I got that first mystery call while I was half asleep.

Right now I'm a bit under the weather, both figuratively and literally. My head is still recovering from last night, and the rain outside doesn't seem to want to go away. If I didn't have to work in less than half an hour I think I would just stay in bed all day.

Late night phone calls

What is it that makes people talk to complete (non-telemarketer) strangers over the phone?

It was about 1 o'clock this morning, and I was fast asleep. All of a sudden, the sound of my phone ringing (or rather, the phone vibrating on the desk) wakes me up, as it so often does. I answer the phone, still half-asleep, and find that it's a girl I don't know on the other side. I try to tell them, as best as I can in my current state, that they must have dialled a wrong number on whoever's phone it was that they were dialling from. I mentioned where I work and then they mentioned a couple of workmates' names, and what I thought about them. It was probably nothing, but my paranoid self tells me that I was being 'scouted', in a manner of speaking. Either that or the late night hotlines are getting really desperate.

It was a very unexpected and unusual phone call.

Bloody Sunday

I'm not quite sure what came over me yesterday. I had intended to, you know, do stuff seeing as I had the entire day off. I was planning to at least go shopping for some new shoes and watch some DVDs. As the day progressed it became clear that going to the beach would be a very good idea due to the unusually warm weather for early spring. Alas, what occurred was a gross misjudgement of the conditions - I slept for a good part of the day's daylight hours. What's more is that this meant I couldn't find any sleep at night, meaning I got about 2 hours sleep before my opening shift this morning.

Bloody Sunday.

Foos. Acoustic. Money.

I was excited to find out that the Foo Fighters were doing 2 acoustic gigs at the Sydney Opera House in about a month's time. Tickets go on sale mid-week, and I started to write a message trying to organise people to go. Unfortunately, it was then that I read that the tickets would cost around $150 each. Seeing as I spent about a total of $380 on Friday, I think I'll have to skip this one, as tempting as it sounds. The rock concert they did last year was cheaper, and that's the one I'd rather see.

Oh right, there's an upside

Amidst all the hooplah that I had to go through today, there was a good point that should be noted. I went over to IEP to sort out some final details of my trip. While the major things such as visas, flights, and employment had been sorted out, I still had the business of some added extras. Firstly, and probably most importantly, I booked some accommodation through IEP to last me until my bus to Panorama. Secondly, I upgraded to a "Fully Loaded" membership, which means IEP's Canadian partner SWAP would help me out with whatever the hell the reason is that I am there in Canada at the time (or so I hope). Lastly, I also ordered a Lonely Planet guide that IEP were offering at a discount price. I decided to go with the USA and Canada on a Shoestring guide, as Alison (from IEP) had suggested that they tend to be good for people on a budget, as I assume I would be.

It's a bit weird to have almost everything organised about 3 months in advance. In fact, all I really need now is a better backpack and a new pair of shoes. Alison noted that I'm very organised. I'm really not. Not usually anyway. It's just that when it comes to travel, I turn into this machine that just needs everything sorted out. 3 months in advance... yep, I should be a travel agent.

When it all falls apart

Ok, so I know I was being very optimistic in yesterday's post. I was planning a grand day of adventures. I had forgotten that I should always expect the worst. I guess it all started this morning when I was being lazy and left home later than planned. As a result, I had to run the final leg of the trip to the train station so I could get there with time to spare.

The second thing to 'go wrong' was the US visa interview. The actual interview was fine. It was a short sub-5-minute chat about why I was applying for the visa. The wait, however, was incredibly long. I should have learned from the visa application process that it wasn't going to be as quick as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I got out after enduring almost two hours sitting quietly in a room full of similarly bored people.

To top it all off, the whole Belgian Beer Cafe meet up I had planned fell to pieces. Matt decided not to come because it was too far away from his work, Jenny had a massive hangover from last night, and Jim seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. I sat there waiting for Josh for about 40 minutes, having a couple of drinks. I eventually left the place at around 2:30 and headed off to buy some CDs and DVDs and go home.

The twist in the tale is that Josh was actually on his way to the Belgian Beer Cafe as I was leaving. My battery had died so I couldn't tell if he was coming or not. When I got home and charged my phone I got a message from him saying he was on his way. Damn technology.

Who would have ever thought spring onions could sting so much?

I figured that chopping spring onions would hurt less than chopping regular onions since they're smaller. How wrong I was. Anyway, it was all part of my pasta sauce experiment, part 2. Today I decided I'd try to get a Venetian style sauce going. I used spring onions instead of regular onions because I like them better, skipped the garlic (added a bit of garlic salt instead), and added parsley and vinegar to the mix. I also added a few more tomatoes. It was totally improvised once it had started cooking. At one point I thought I had added too much vinegar. To my surprise, it tasted quite good. I can't believe it didn't turn out terrible. This makes it two in a row now, which is starting to scare me. However, I'm glad that I finally discovered how to finely chop onions.

Tomorrow, I head off to Sydney to do various stuff. First and foremost is my interview with the US consulate for my B1/B2 visa. I hope it doesn't take too long and goes smoothly. I can't really see why it wouldn't. The rest of the day shall be spent buying CDs and DVDs and whatnot. Hopefully I don't splurge too much. I plan to purchase some of the classics like Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Quadrophenia by The Who. I'll also have a slight intermezzo at the Belgian Beer Cafe during lunchtime, provided I can get some other people to join me. It's looking like the day will end with an early Father's Day dinner.

Adrian's cooking... success?!?!

Ok, so it's not a secret that I'm more than capable of cooking simple meals with relative ease. However, I've never actually made my own pasta sauce from scratch... until now. What is scary is that this was my first try. Does this mark the end of Adrian's cooking disasters?

Argh, headache!

What was meant to be a relatively light night of farewell drinks for Cynthia at one of Wollongong's watering holes turned out to be a binge of beer, Jagermeister, and vodka. I am only now recovering from the gigantic hangover/headache that I woke up with in the morning. It was a good night though, had a nice chat to some various people, conversations in which I became less and less talkative as my drunkenness progressed. It just occurred to me that I didn't even buy Cynthia a farewell drink. That's the third person heading over to Europe in the span of about a month. It seems I'm the only person going overseas who is going anywhere but.

In between seeing friends off to foreign countries, I've been fervently reading comic books. The most notable (since my last post about comics) have been Daredevil and The Ultimates. Daredevil for its great consistency in writing (I still can't believe they actually jailed Matt Murdock) and art (Alex Maleev is awesome), and The Ultimates for the great modernisation of The Avengers, and the fact that the storylines are worthy of a big-budget action movie. It's a shame they take so long to release issues. The final issue for Ultimates 2 is still about a month away.

Adrian's thought of the day

Why do they call a leave of absence a leave of absence? I mean, if you're taking leave, wouldn't that, by definition, already imply that you would be absent? I don't think it's really possible to have a leave of presence. It's kind of like saying flame of fire or bacon and egg sandwich of sandwich.

Think about it.

Déjà vu times two

I can't really say it's been a bad day today. Sure, bad things have happened, but I think I've just been so tired that I've lost the ability to form any emotional response and thus complain. Nevertheless, I'll catalogue some events in an attempted complaint-like fashion.

No sleep for the wicked

I had a 5:30 am opening shift today. This would usually mean that I would be asleep pretty early on the night before. Not so the case last night. I tried to sleep countless times but I just wouldn't lose consciousness. I would tussle around in bed, trying to get comfortable, but to no avail. In between attempts would be sessions of reading comics, making my eyes more and more weary. Still, this has no effect, to the extent that I finally gave up trying to sleep and just rested, waiting for my shift.

Work itself was not so bad. The opening shift is usually a calm one, with little activity compared to the day time. The only thing I could really complain about is the intense cold breeze that seemed to make its way into the store in the last half hour. I fell asleep almost immediately after getting back home. I slept twice during the day, and this kind of sleep pattern is eerily reminding me of my university days, much like the recurring dreams I have, though that story will be saved for another time.

Guess what? It's 10:20 pm at the moment and I've got another opening shift tomorrow.

Vuda je: The feeling that none of this has happened before

After the first stint of sleep I had today, I got a call from some guy asking if my dad was home. I told him he wasn't, and he left me a number to call back. About an hour later, the same guy calls, saying the exact same thing, and leaving the exact same message. I dismissed it as déjà vu, until I was woken up from my second stint of sleep by yet another call by the same guy saying the same thing. I told him that he already called me twice before, and he claims he didn't. If he calls again, I swear he will get an earful.

Play that funky music

What was probably the worst part of today was when I found out that renowned band Tool are touring Australia... in January! Normally, this would be great news. The bad part comes when you consider my overseas trip. I'll be in Canada working on the snow during their tour, so I'll miss seeing them. It may not be a complete loss though, as they could still tour North America (again) after finishing off their overseas shows.

What I'll also be missing out on is Homebake for 2006. The festival of home-grown acts has a great line-up this year, including Silverchair, You Am I, and Infusion just to name a few. Last year's show was incredible, and I doubt this year's would be any different. Sadly, I will narrowly miss it by a week due, once more, to my trip to Canada.

Oh snoes!

I read in the local paper today that so far this snow season, the NSW slopes have experienced the worst snowfalls since 1982. That's pretty horrible, considering 1982 had 91.0 cm of snow. That's less than a metre! I'm glad I decided to stay away from the snow (apart from the yearly pilgrimage) until my trip to Canada. I sure hope this terrible record doesn't follow me over there.

This week on Mythbusters

I went to see Australia play Kuwait with David (Boyd) in an Asian Cup qualifier tonight (which is technically last night) and had a ball (no pun intended). It was with a bunch of people from his work, and it all only cost $20 including the transport to and from Aussie Stadium. The only bad thing to come from it was that we got there about 30 minutes into the game. Fortunately, no goals were scored in the first half.

Australia ended up winning 2-0, and the crowd was understandably elate. People were singing various Australian/victory tunes whilst exiting the venue. I decided to start singing Bohemian Rhapsody, which worked out pretty well. I did, however, damage my lungs and throat in the process. As for the title of today's post, one of the girls that were there was a spitting image from Kari from Mythbusters. I'm not kidding here, she looked very much like the attractive female member of the Mythbusters.

Some good news today. I have finally found a suitable flight for my year-long mission to Canada. It leaves on the 26th of November, and goes to Calgary after 2 stops. I am indeed very excited about this development. More on this as it happens.

Late on the bandwagon

Radiohead are great. Ok, maybe I'm about 15 years late to the party. So sue me. I had heard some of their stuff before but have never owned any of their albums. It was only recently when I got a hold of OK Computer and was completely blown away. I haven't been able to stop listening to it since. Now I'm eager to get their other five albums. And The Eraser. And their next album expected in 2007.

Radiohead bandwagon... check.

I only started reading comics again lately so you can't blame me as much for this one. There's a great mountain of titles that I still need to catch up on as well as some ongoing series of considerable interest. In particular, I've been hooked on Marvel's Civil War event and Y: The Last Man. Ultra was a great mini-series by the Luna Brothers, as were all of Frank Miller's Sin City stories.

However, what has impressed me the most so far has been the works of Brian Michael Bendis. I read through his Alias and Secret War series, and they were just pure gold. Both series showed that the Marvel Universe can be very gritty indeed, and I think Marvel was very smart to get him on board. I also read through other Marvel-related things that he masterminded, namely The Pulse, Avengers: Disassembled, and House of M. Although I had only heard of him in passing in the past, now that I'm back into comics I can safely say that I am now a Bendis fan.

Bendis bandwagon... check.

It must also be noted that I used Wikipedia for 100% of the links on this post.

Wikipedia bandwagon... check.

Randomness, part 2

I just realized that I didn't even cover the drunken shenanigans that occurred on Friday night, so since I'm still awake, I shall try to elaborate. Friday was Lauren's birthday, and so she decided to have a night out with friends. It wasn't until about 9:30 when I found out where the hell to even go, and so the drinking began soon after at the Glasshouse which, it must be said, is one of my most hated places in all of Wollongong these days. The beer taps there are pretty horrible, and the other drinks are expensive. Mind you, I only spent around $50 for the entire night, including the cab fare home, but I digress.

I guess I still had a few drinks there because I wanted to have a fun night. I randomly ran into a girl named Angela who remembered me from primary school. I didn't remember her... but then again, I only remember about a handful of people from primary school. My memory sucks, and the fact that I don't have class photos doesn't really help either. Kind of annoying really, I wouldn't mind meeting all my former classmates again. Anyway, after Ricky, Lauren's boyfriend, got kicked out for having sandals (the Glasshouse has really stupid rules for such a small-time place in the great scheme of things) we headed over to the Illawarra Hotel, leaving behind Tara who was seemingly out of contact. The Illawarra was pretty good. I guess I don't really put as much hate on the place since an acquaintance runs the place.

The drinks were much cheaper there and so I drank. I also played pool. Now, I only remember playing pool once, but Amanda assures me that I played quite a bit. The powers of alcohol at work, obviously. Amanda was one of the people that stayed sober that night, so I'll take her word for it. She also claims that I was doing a very strange dance with some lady on the dance floor. I also don't remember this. Apparently it was very amusing to watch, though that's not really that hard to believe. Seeing me dance is like a spectator sport. It's kind of like how people watch Funniest Home Videos to see people hurt themselves... you watch it because know it's going to turn out badly.

I eventually went home at around 2-ish or 3-ish. I split a taxi with Matt, who lives relatively nearby. I tried escaping the taxi without giving him my part of the fare, but he was very observant (that is, probably more sober than myself). After a short sleep, I woke up with a headache and some memory loss. The reason I got up was because work called to ask if I could take an early shift next Saturday. And so the cycle begins once again. I can't say I'll miss it when I finally leave.

Map your visited countries

I can't really think of very many things to do in the early hours of the morning, so I usually just read stuff. The usually fare are comics, Wikipedia, and other people's blogs. After going through Nabil's blog, I found the following handy little link for the keen world traveller.

Visited Countries

If you haven't already figured, it marks on a world map the countries that you have visited. Hopefully one day I'll have covered a good portion of it. For now, this is the extent of my adventures.

"Same thing we do every night, Pinky... try to take over the world!"

Canada is obviously next, though I've already got that on my map (I was there for about a week in 2002). After that, I'm thinking it'll be New Zealand and Japan.

Early morning ramblings

What is it about the twilight hours that makes somebody think up weird random thoughts? I think the better question at the moment is "why am I awake so early in the morning?" I guess I just woke up randomly and can't get back to sleep due to said weird random thoughts.

I'm still considering whether or not to go to Sydney today to record some stuff with Morgan and co. I mean, it would be nice to experience a recording and all, but I figured it'll take me about 2 and a half to 3 hours (or possibly more) to actually get to the place from Wollongong. That means a total of about 6 hours on public transport for barely 4 hours in the 'studio' (I say 'studio' because I don't actually know if it's a studio I'm supposed to be going to... but I assume it is in one way or another). I guess I'll have to discuss it with Morgan if/when he calls me later in the morning.

I've never really had anything against public transport before. I think being on the Sydney-Wollongong train for extended periods of time every couple of weeks for the past few months has started to get to me. It's not so much the fact that there are complete weirdos on the train. I'm used to that. I see weirdos all the time. No, it's the fact that, in the 1 and a half to 2 hours it takes to make the trip, the most exciting thing to happen is often to find yourself trying to memorise which station comes after which.

Shenanigans

I've been convinced that I should apply for the US B1/B2 visa just to make sure I don't get held up in the US, even though I've been told that they are usually confused when you show them the visa. The B1/B2 visa is meant to be for stays in the USA of more than 90 days. It stipulates in the conditions that going to neighbouring Canada or Mexico does not count as leaving the country, so technically I would have to get a visa even if I'm only transiting through the USA. However, by all reports they usually tell you at the airport/border that the visa is unnecessary, thus causing more confusion than would be desired. Regardless, I'll still apply for one just to get it out of the damn way.

In terms of the actual flight, I have yet to book anything. Since I'm applying for the visa, I figured I may as well get the cheapest flight that goes through the USA instead of going through Korea or Japan as I had originally considered. This would also mean I could visit my relatives in San Francisco. The FlyBuys idea fell through pretty quickly. It turns out that the flight is valid for 12 months from the date of issue, which is really annoying. It would mean that if I book it today, I would have to return in August, and if I book it later in the year, the seats would probably not be available anymore.

It's true that I usually enjoy the organizing part of a trip. However, if it involves the USA, stress inevitably comes into the equation.

Further tales from the deep

And now time for more dreams that don't make sense...


I was minding my own business at work (doing checkouts at Coles) and noticed that one of the supervisors was in the store, off-duty, and had a very attractive friend with her. I decided to help them out in whatever the hell they were trying to find. It was starting to get late in my shift so I decided to try and hurry them up. A while later, I tried looking for both of them and before I knew it I was in the clothing section of K-Mart. No big deal as K-Mart was in the same shopping centre as my work.

The worrying thing was that I found that I no longer had my pants or shoes on. My supervisor friend then told me that I better get back to work as I was late. I started heading back to work but, after running randomly into another friend from work, who offered me a lift back, I realised that Coles was on the other side of the mall.

In what can only be described as an extended scene from Risky Business, I finally found myself back at work. I didn't quite remember it being that far away from K-Mart, let alone either K-Mart or Coles being in the city mall. I rushed in, more than 30 minutes late, and told the supervisors that I was sorry I was late but I had somehow lost my pants and shoes. They already seemed to know all about it and laughed it off. Maybe it was because the girl I was helping out was already back at the store (she somehow got there before I did).

I went back to my register, which had now turned into a really old-school cash register, and tried signing off (which isn't the right procedure, mind you). For one reason or another something wouldn't print out, and it took all of the supervisors and a few other people from the store, all crammed into the register area, to fix it. All this, time I still haven't put on my shoes or pants.


What the hell is it with dreams involving me being half-clothed?

In like Flynn, baby!

I had to pike Dave's birthday. I had to skip what was probably an awesome bonfire with the boys from the Northern Beaches. It was all worth it.

I started off the day being woken up by my mobile phone alarm at around 7 in the morning. It took me a good while to get up from bed and, after taking a shower, I caught the bus into the city. I had a hot chocolate at Gloria Jean's while going through my 'interview notes' then proceeded to head to the nearby Y Hotel, where the IEP Work & Ski Canada Job Fair was being held. At this point I was feeling both very tired and very nervous. As soon as the employer presentations started, the nerves miraculously went away.

The first couple of hours seemed to go like a bullet train. Not just a regular bullet train either, more like the ones you see in Japan. Before I knew it, I had a job offer from both employers I interviewed with. I had a choice of either being a kitchen steward at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, or a room attendant at Panorama. Mind you, my interview skills had deteriorated a great deal over the years. My mastery of the English language is not nearly as good as it was when I was still in public education. Anyway, I decided I'd wait for Leigh and Ben (from Canberra) to figure out where they'd be going before I chose which employer's offer to accept.

Several coffees, a Guinness, and a few slices of pizza later, it had looked like Leigh was not going to get the job at Whistler so I stopped hassling the IEP people about details about the trip (especially Alison, whom I had talked to a few times before with related issues) and put my autograph on that piece of paper for Panorama. I haven't exactly got the job yet... but it's pretty much guaranteed. All that needs to happen now is for me to send off a reference or two to Panorama and for them to send me an employment contract.

And so the grand plans for a year-long North American adventure begins. I'm having some Verdi Spumante (really nice despite not being very alcoholic) to celebrate.

Extravagance

Monday was a strange, strange day. I guess I could just leave it at that, but something compels me to write about it. Most likely because I am rather bored and taking breaks from watching season 2 of Stargate Atlantis.

It all started in the wee hours of Monday morning. I had gone with my parents to Sydney so that, on the next day, scout out the location of my interview, which takes place this coming Sunday (more on this here, here, and here). I was ready to go to bed when my mum realised that she had left some important documents in Wollongong. I volunteered to go home and fetch said documents the next day. I proceeded to spend about half an hour figuring out the bus routes and schedules in Wollongong, as I had not caught public transport there in quite some time.

4+ hours on buses and trains later, I had made the return trip from Sydney to home and back in one piece. During transit, I ascertained that two of my friends were no longer attending a dinner I had planned (the other reason why I was in Sydney), leaving only three of us in total. The other two people were Jim and Apte, from the great Thredbo adventure.

After taking care of some travel-related things and buying some CDs at the $10 CD store (it must be noted that cheap CD stores are evil, but I digress), I jaywalked seemingly dozens of times (thanks to peak-hour traffic) and met the duo at Circular Quay station. Our eventual destination: the Heritage Belgian Beer Café. We came for the beer - as Belgian beer is among the best, if not the best in the world - but we were also there for dinner. The appetiser was a bottle of Forbidden Fruit, served in its own fancy special glass. After our main meals, we decided to go all out and split a magnum of Chimay Grande Réserve three ways. It was by far the finest beer I've ever tasted. It also cost us around 20 dollars each. The entire dinner (including drinks) cost each around 60-70 each. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it for a nice fancy night out, and I would not count out doing it again some time. In fact, I would bet on it.

Sadly, the fancy-schmancy theme of the night ended there. After leaving the Heritage, we headed to a nearby bar and played some pool. I made the dubious decision to purchase a Jager Bomb. Stupidity and memory loss ensued, as is often the case when I have that drink. The last thing I remember after leaving the second bar was being at home. Later investigation (by way of looking at my TravelTen) suggests that I caught the bus home. Apparently somewhere along the line Apte climbed a pole too.

Tales from the deep

I was at the parking lot and a stranger asked me for a lift. He says he "only lives 60 minutes away" and I tell him I live really close by. He got in the car anyway. I get this creepy feeling about him. Anyway, I drive home... apparently I live in an apartment block. He tells me to drop him off at the laundry room. I decide to drive off immediately. However, after doing this I am now out of my car and all my clothes apart from my undies are on the floor. I assume this is because I saw a laundry room.

Anyway, I run to my neighbours' house. I instinctively head for the daughter's 3rd floor balcony. Seems I've done that a few times before. After realizing this was probably not such a good idea to do this in my undies (as I've been running around half-naked carrying my clothes in my arms all this time), I go through the front door. Now here's the weird part (yes, you heard me)... the door was about half a metre away from a wall, hanging up in mid-air (not floating, but protruding), to the side of a bunch of stairs, so I had to hang from the stairway railing to step sideways and reach the door.

After somehow managing to open the door and walking through, I find myself in the room with (presumably) my neighbours and one of my (chick) friends with her girlfriend (even though she's not gay). The daughter, who turns out to be a neighbour that I I've seen around but haven't ever talked to, welcomes me in by saying "it's the alliance" then explains to everybody "we have this alliance thing going." The mum tells me to come in and says they "ordered the super mega pizza pack" or something along those lines and that it's too much for them. I tell them that my family was on holidays and asked if I could join them for dinner. Still in my undies, I seem to take it all in quite well and take a seat in front of the couch as they all watch TV.










Damn weird dreams.

Snoblog 2006: Thredbo

Well, I'm back from a week at the snow and I've been nagged to blog it up and post some photos, so here it is.

We left for the snow in the wee hours of Sunday the 16th of July, not 24 hours after I had gotten more than slightly inebriated at my 22nd birthday party. In between those two events I had worked a 3-hour shift and was understandably tired by the time I had arrived at Central for the coach's departure.

I soon met up with my 'crew' (or 'homies' or 'dizzles'... what does that even mean?) for this year, consisting of Jim, Morgan, and Phil (a girl, don't be deceived by the name) from last year's really small but awesome trip, two of Jim and Morgan's friends, Kevin and Alex (or 'Apte', being his last name), and Phil's snowboarding buddy, BD... affectionately known as DD, ED, EB, JJ, or George W. Delays were the order of the day, and it took quite some time to sort out the Sydney Uni people from the Ski Kaos people (our trip). After randomly running into Bradshaw (from uni), who was on his way to Star City, we soon started loading the buses and were on our way south.

Morgan wtfpwns Apte

Due to my very busy couple of days prior to the trip, I managed to get a fair amount of sleep on the bus trip down and woke up for the McBreakfast stop in Cooma. Before too long we hit the slopes on what can only be described as very disappointing conditions. Little did I know that the trip would be filled with many experiences, both good and bad.

Rain and pain

The sight of the snow upon arrival at Thredbo was not a welcome one. The cover was incredibly limited, and almost immediately after we started riding (or skiing, as was the case for Jim and Kev) the rain came. It would have been all dandy had it been a few degrees colder but as it stood, it was above freezing so the precipitation was rain instead of powder. I fear that my curse of bad weather had followed me around once again.

Monday... ok so the picture looks better than it actually was

It wasn't a very pleasant start to the trip and continued on to the next day. In fact, it was raining so much on Monday that a great majority of my so-called 'waterproof' clothing had been completely soaked. The bad luck didn't end there. While at the High Noon intermediate terrain park, Phil failed to get enough speed approaching the funbox and somehow twisted her knee, an injury she was to carry for the next couple of days. Fortunately, she eventually recovered.

Tuesday

On the topic of injuries, a lot of the sounds heard from our section of the bus throughout the week had been groans of pain. BD had bruised his hip (or thereabouts), and I carried on the tradition of leg injuries (Liza also messed up her leg on last year's trip) by spectacularly face planting on the picnic table in the terrain park after hitting the kicker too slow. It was probably similar to this but instead of slamming into the funbox face-forward, the side of the picnic table caught my shin (quite painfully) and I flew smack-bang onto my side, culminating in a face plant. The entire left side of my body was in tremendous pain. The worst part was that there were only about two witnesses. There were other great crashes throughout the week but thankfully, there were no major injuries for the trip, save for a South African girl who somehow snapped some ligaments in her leg. Ouch.

Bored... or artsy?

Our luck with the weather soon turned as the temperature dropped and snow started falling from the heavens.

Off pissed and off-piste

There was a definite party atmosphere in the trip thanks to the great people, especially the two tour guides, Simmo and Chris. I couldn't have asked for better tour guides. Except Bruce. Bruce is the best. Please give me a season pass. ANYWAY... as the liquid from the sky started to turn into snow the liquid falling into our mouths began to turn into sleep deprivation.

Progress shot of our room's beer consumption

We also ordered an insane amount of pizzas throughout the week, and threw up upon mention of the place Bits 'N' Pizzas by the fourth night. That particular night happened to be the Thredbo Invasion - a pub crawl held by the Ski Kaos folk. A lot of pre-drinking had partaken and the coach to Thredbo was very cheery.

Beer goggles

Stacks on!

Everybody had a great time on the crawl, and I spent a great deal of money. Damn kicking cowboys (like a regular cowboy shot but with some glacier ice on top for a nice kick, hence the kicking part). It was worth it though, and I found myself somehow outlasting Jim. We were watching the Tour de France, and I was trying to wake Jim up for an exciting finish to the stage, but alas he had passed out and my violent shoves did no good at all.

The beer commands you!

The next day was a top day of riding. The runs were still limited, but there was a nice constant stream of snow dusting throughout the day, increasing in intensity at about lunchtime, providing some beautiful views (which I was sadly too lazy to take pictures of) and a surreal feeling while going down some runs.

Thursday

The last day of skiing was probably my favourite day on the slopes. We had some excellent breakfast at Eagle's next followed by some excellent off-piste riding. We went to the highest lifted point in Australia and did both the marked and unmarked runs up there, both of which I enjoyed a lot. We then ended up riding some trees on a traverse, which wasn't that great, but I decided to go off by myself towards more trees, eventually leading me to some more off-piste riding. There was some icy bits but there was also some decent powder and, being the first off-piste I had done since 2003, it made me wonder why I had skipped it the previous two years. After having some unbelievably awesome sausages at the bottom of the slopes, the trip was soon over.

Count it... 11 large pizzas

Highlight of the trip? Probably the off-piste riding at the end. However, this one came close...

The sticker says it all

It's a condom machine with a half-torn off sticker that reads "if product proves faulty, insert baby here for refund". Good stuff.

More pictures

The rest of the pictures I took (sans blurry ones, which I discarded) can be found here. Note that it shows them in reverse order because the Photobucket settings are currently set to show the latest uploaded image.

More on Canada

Only a slightly snow-related side-note (and by slightly related I mean very related), I had gotten confirmation during the week of my interview times at the IEP Work & Ski Canada Job Fair. Both of the interviews are on Sunday, the 6th of August. I interview with Fairmont at 10am and with Panorama at 11am. Like the late Big Kev, I'm excited!

Australia makes it into the round of 16!

If you don't know what I'm on about well then... ummm... I dunno.

Anyway, this momentous occasion in Australian sporting history coincides with a bit of good news for me personally. After a shaky start to the month, which I'd rather not get into, I have some good news to keep me happy. The first bit of good news is the fact that I have successfully applied for my working holiday visa for Canada (see previous entry for more about why I applied), meaning the trip to Canada is almost certainly on. The second bit of good news is that I'm getting a decent amount of hours per week at work (averaging at around 15-20 hours), which means I'm starting to earn money for the trip.

Location, Location, Location

In terms of the IEP program, I decided at the last minute that I'd try for a position at Whistler/Blackcomb (well, a hotel at Whistler/Blackcomb... which will do me just fine) seeing as it's a monster of a ski resort that will no doubt keep me busy for the entire season. My second and third preferences were the aforementioned Panorama and Lake Louise, respectively.

Money, Money, Money

I asked mum if she could 'fund' my trip to Canada. That is, I'd use the credit card, etc. on the condition that I pay her back upon returning and getting a full-time job. Both of us were more than happy with this agreement, figuring that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I should make the most of it. I'm really hoping that working during my trip will limit the damage while keeping things fun.

For the meanwhile, work hours have been going well, as I mentioned, and I've saved around $1000 for my return flights to Canada, which will probably end up costing around $2000, give or take. Hopefully the rest will be covered in the next couple of months of work. There's also the possibility that my mum can use a combination of FlyBuys points and United Mileage Plus points to manage a 'free' trip for me, so to speak. I kind of doubt the convenience of this though.

Apart from those details, I've decided to put myself on a self-imposed ban on making any further plans for Canada so as to not get my hopes up too much. It is looking rather good at the moment though.

Let it snow... well, you get the point

Back to matters closer to home and in the near(er) future, my trip to Thredbo is now only about 3 weeks away. I've been watching some snowboard trick tips videos and I plan to improve my skills when I go. Ideally, I'll pull off some sweet moves on tape and get sponsored... although realistically, I'm just hoping I don't get hurt or look like an absolute tool. In any case (except the one where I get hurt), it should be a great week at the snow. The cover has been good at the Snowy Mountains ever since opening weekend (possibly attributed to the multi-million dollar upgrade to the snowmaking system), so let's pray it stays that way until at least after the trip.


And finally, to get back to my first statement, best of luck to the Socceroos in the round of 16 against Italy. I hope the boys make it far, though I don't think anybody will be disappointed with how far they've already made it. Who's the man? Guus the man.

The month that was

...and what a month it was.

It appears that I totally neglected this blog last month due to circumstances beyond my control. That is, they were in my control, but I was too lazy to control them. First it was trying to juggle around my career options while being addicted to a video game, then it was being so off the ball that things started getting weird. After it all calmed down, a plan that was put on the backburner a few years ago came back into consideration.

Addiction

For some reason I had gotten back into Guild Wars, an online video game with the gimmick of no monthly fees, and was playing it an insane amount. After returning from Melbourne, I new job opportunity came up that I quickly jumped onto. Unfortunately, this didn't work out and it left me working only weekends at my old work. This made the addiction to Guild Wars a lot worse at it meant I had more time to play it. Fortunately, I lost most of my desire to play the game after I had finished the main storyline.

Just not on the ball at all

I noticed that I was not paying a lot of attention to certain things last month. Notable moments would have been when I ran a red light late at night because I thought it was about to go green (luckily it was a quiet area with no red light cameras), not being able to go out one night because I didn't even have enough money to pay for the bus (hence not being able to reach an ATM), and generally just doing things I wouldn't normally do. Fortunately, I seem to have gained a good deal of my concentration back lately.

Snow

With the job I thought I had in the bag having fell through, I decided to explore other options. Leigh, a friend of mine from Canberra, asked if I would be interested in working in Canada for a season at the snow. Naturally, I was very interested. This had been something I wanted to do about three years ago before uni got in the way. This time, I have nothing to lose (except a great deal of money, but shut up) so I decided to pursue it.

Meanwhile Morgan, another old acquaintance (from last year's ski trip), had started to organize a trip down to Falls Creek to ski/snowboard for a week. I decided I would join this trip as it had been a place I wanted to go to for the past few seasons (but again, uni got in the way). Unfortunately, we ended up booking too late, and had to settle for Thredbo once again. The season hasn't even started yet and I'm already getting excited about it. In the midst of it all, Morgan asked me if I would do vocals for a song by his band, River of Bass, which I think will be a pretty cool experience.

Anyway, back to Canada... I had done a bit of research about the program by IEP that places people with some employers in or near ski fields in Canada. In my eternal nerdiness, I even made a spreadsheet with details about each employer and each ski resort close to the employers. With the quality of resorts over in Canada, this is something I definitely want to go ahead with. I attended a free information session about the program held by IEP a couple of nights ago, and it answered a few of my questions, so that was really helpful for my cause.

My next step would be obtaining a working holiday visa for Canada. Once this is done, I'd likely be fully committing to this little adventure. This is because you can only be issued a working holiday visa once in your life, meaning if I don't use it then I will have wasted my opportunity. Of course, it would be a nice bonus to secure a job before heading over there, which is why I signed up with IEP. The success rate for applicants in last year's program was supposedly 100%, so that figure is a bit comforting. However, me being me, I'm never sure and will be very nervous about it until I actually know if I have a job or not. I've recently decided that Panorama Mountain Resort (working on the ski fields) and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (working in hospitality right next to the ski fields) are my two preferences. Either one would do as both are, in my view, excellent choices.

One hitch is that it is gonna cost me a whole lot of money. Airfares would be around about $2500 after taxes, so I'm going to need to save up. Consequently, I have gone back to working weekdays at my current casual position. Lots more stress but it also restores my cash flow. I really hope all things go smoothly but, knowing life, I'm always preparing myself for a few bumps on the way.

Melbourne!

Best laid plans? Not really...

I have just returned from a very enjoyable (yet incredibly tiring) weekend trip over to Melbourne and it was a great travel experience.

I originally got the desire to visit Melbourne after meeting a steady-flowing stream of Victorians over in Europe, all of whom claimed that Melbourne is a really nice city. Since coming back home, I have waited for an opportunity to visit to see the sights and meet some friends. Unfortunately, work only gives out rosters one week in advance, so effectively, I would have to make plans the weekend before I would go. This is how it turned out and, as it turned out, it would be an expensive flight on a holiday period. Bad planning? Yes. Diabolically clever? Maybe. No matter though, as fun was had.

Murphy's law

On the morning of the flight I had to work a morning shift. Basically, I finished work at 12:15, which would give me a manageable buffer to get home, get changed, and catch the 12:44 train. Unfortunately, not everything went smoothly.

I finished work on time and proceeded to power-walk to my car. This, it turned out, would be a futile attempt to save time as, being peak hour for shopping, the parking lot was in the middle of a traffic jam. I was screaming obscenities inside my car (which must have looked really amusing to other drivers) as cars moved very slowly, taking me probably a total of 10 minutes to get to the main road.

I got home and got changed to my street clothes in record time. I decided to skip grabbing a take-away lunch so that I wouldn't miss my train but, as it turned out, I could have comfortably ordered (and probably eaten) lunch from the KFC across the road because CityRail, role-models for reliability, had the train to Sydney running around 10 minutes late.

By the time it arrived in Sydney it was around 15 or so minutes late. I was sitting at Central Station in Sydney waiting for the next train to the airpor, wishing very bad things towards the state rail system organizers.

Despite all the annoyances, I did get to the airport on time and decided I'd grab a Boost juice before takeoff.

I don't know if I should quote Weather With You or Four Seasons in One Day

Sydney was sunny and warm when I boarded the flight, and I was still drinking my Boost juice, which I had taken with me since it was still full of ice and mostly undrinkable. I was very conscious of the people in the seats around me while I slurped on my drink.

The moment we landed at the airport the captain gave his thanks for flying with Virgin Blue and made a comment that went something like "I hope you have a jacket because it's 8 degrees outside." I immediately cursed out loud in front of everybody (I had only packed my outer thermals).

It turned out that it had started to rain that day, and I had no doubt in my mind that it was my weather curse, the one that makes it rain whenever I go out or travel. "Everywhere you go..." as the song goes. I also had "Four Seasons in One Day" in my head as it's the famous saying about Melbourne. However, it seemed more like 2 seasons, both of them cold, repeated twice during the day.

Anthony and Emily picked me up at the airport and we made our way to the city centre, to meet up with Luke, Simon and Stuart at Flinders Street station. After a short dinner at Degraves Street we headed to E55, a nice underground bar at 55 Elizabeth Street. We also checked out another bar (the name of the bar escapes me) and the casino (I think... I can't remember it all that well) before calling it a night.

Being a tourist is a hard job

I caught the tram from Anthony's place to the city the next day and headed over to the tourist information centre at Federation Square. After making my bag twice as heavy as it originally was due to brochures and flyers, I went to check out the local cuisine. That is, I ducked in to Hungry Jack's for a burger. The rest of my meals for the day would consist of KFC and a French fries joint called Lord of the Fries.

Sights for the day included the architecture at Federation Square, the Yarra River, the Queen Victoria Markets, where I unsuccessfully tried to find a decent jacket, and the Carlton Gardens, where the Royal Exhibition Centre and the Melbourne Museum were located. I didn't go into either though. I covered a fair few miles walking around the city so by this time I was pretty tired. I decided that my last major stop before nightfall would be the Observation Deck at the Rialto tower. This gave some great views of the city, and I was lucky to get pictures before and after the sun set.

I met up with Anthony after resting for a bit in the Observation Deck lounge and we headed over to bide some time at E55 before seeing Charlie Pickering at the Comedy Festival. I noticed that E55 had a tabletop version of Galaga, so I couldn't resist having a game. As for the gig that followed, that was pretty entertaining. It wasn't the best stand-up I've ever seen, but it was funny, and that's what matters. It was probably the first live stand-up performance I've ever been to though. We ended the night by meeting up with Emily and Stuart at Luke's work, a backpacker's hostel/bar, where we basically just chilled.

Trams... TRAMS!!

On my last day in Melbourne, I found out one very important lesson for tourists... use the trams! My legs were either dead or dying after a day's wandering around, something that could have easily been prevented by catching the trams to get to places.

Anyway, the day started with a hangover and a coffee with Alice, a Melbourne local that I met over in Rome. I noticed Andrew Johns from the Newcastle Knights in the table across from me having lunch with a few people. He didn't seem too concerned that his side got smashed by the Melbourne Storm the night before. After coffee and a late breakfast, Alice showed me around the uni for a bit and suggested other places to visit.

I caught the tram back to the city centre and was going to check out the Aquarium. Unfortunately, it would have cost me about $20, which was all I had left in my wallet, and I decided that this would be best spent on food. This made my next stop the MCG, followed by a trip around the city relaxing on the free City Circle Tram.

After my final trip to Lord of the Fries, I checked out a few cool buildings and outdoor sculptures at Docklands as I like outdoor architecture... and let's face it, any sculpture named "cow up a tree" deserves a look. This would be my last activity in Melbourne, and I soon headed to the airport to head home.

My legs are still killing me as I write this entry, and it causes me so much pain to walk that I had to call in sick at work today. That said, it was a very eventful trip, and I should have visited long ago... and besides, my bad planning turned out to have a hint of luck to it as it was a good weekend for people to come out and meet up.


Pictures from the trip should be up by the end of the week.

New side-project...

Side-project? Side-project blog? Side-blog? Whatever. Anyway, it's here and it's me singing really badly. Fun times.

Eurotrip pictures

The pictures from Europe are finally up! Unfortunately they've been mega-resized, but I will attempt to upload some bigger ones in the future. Some of the blurry ones have also been omitted.

Warney! Warney!

I love the dedication of some people. This picture was taken with my mobile phone while I was in the music DVD section of K-Mart.

Why wasn't it in the sports section?

Adrian's cooking disasters

Episode 3: Revenge of the frying pan

Okay, so maybe I said last time that I was gonna do a cooking experiment with pre-made sauces. Unfortunately, that went far too well, and I didn't deem it worthy of a 'disaster'. However, I felt that I should mention it before I moved on.

On a slightly more disastrous note, I did try to cook some mashed potatoes early this morning when I couldn't sleep. It was the second time I had attempted to cook this dish and, since the first time had been a raving success, I was more confident this time around. The only difference this time was that I decided to use less potatoes (last time had too much for one serving). Unfortunately, I had forgotten this fact when I went to add the milk to the mash. The result? Incredibly watery semi-mashed potatoes. However, I did salvage this meal by using a drainer (which I wasn't 100% convinced was clean) to drain out the excess liquid, making the mash a lot more normal.

Anyway, today's episode...

(Not very) Green eggs and ham!

Ingredients:

• Thick round piece of ham
• Egg
• Salt
• Garlic
• Rice
• Frying pan with unknown oil

The vegetable peeler is only there for effect

Take some ham and dice it up into cubes. Look around at the stove top and decide to use the frying pan with an oil from who knows where that's probably been there for 3 or 4 days.

Spooky, no?

After heating up the pan, add the diced up ham and stir until cooked. Don't forget to add salt, and certainly don't forget to spill the salt all over the stove top afterwards. When the ham is done, place it on a plate and move onto the egg. Crack the egg on an edge and proceed to get egg white all over your hands. After cleaning your hands, remember that you turned the stove off and quickly light it to medium. Scramble the eggs then and there, on the pan, to get a nice white and yolk scrambled egg mix. Add salt to the eggs as it cooks. Again, spill the salt all over the stove top afterwards.

The pan with the ham, Sam I am

Place the eggs on the plate, add a bit of oil to the stove, and add some garlic. When the garlic browns, add some rice. Stir the rice around for a bit and add some salt (spill it). When it looks cooked enough, turn off the stove and put the rice on the plate with the ham and scrambled egg.

The finished product

The result? It actually turned out exactly as I expected... it tasted like eggs and ham. Apart from the whole salt-spilling incident, this meal wasn't a disaster at all! But, since this segment is about bad cooking experiences, doesn't that mean that this meal is really a disaster? Think about it.

(Apologies for my shaky hand in the photos)