Work??

Bah! Budgetting is a pain, but one that seems necessary.

I decided last night, having been serenaded Italian pop songs by my 3 Italian roomies, I decided I would look for a job today. Unfortunately an ideal web job a friend was going to get me fell through, which would have been sweet... $14/hour cash in hand for sitting on the PC for 70% of the time and just logging people in and out, aparently.

Wandering around and looking at various hostel travel boards, there's not much similar going - a lot of jobs go via word of mouth.

So I'm currently undecided whether I should look for work in Sydney, where there's presumably some work somewhere and I just need to look for it or go outback for some hard yakka (work) in the fields or move north soonish to near Brisbane to where their harvest season's just started. I'm edging towards not being stuck in an office or shop, which I could easily do in the UK, and being in real outback Oz, even if it's back breaking, aka character developing!

Then... just to put a spanner in the works, the elaborate yet truthful and yielding budgetting says I have 107 days left of wonga. I'm in Oz for 109 days... so should I just chill for a few weeks?? I theoretically don't have to work, and the budget includes more than just eating budget pasta, tomato paste and cheeze along with "Chikin' Biskits" for snacks - I could do a bungee jump per week on the budget.

The consequense of that future of mine is that I would be scraping the barrell towards the end of my trip, should there be some unforseen expenses/unwise decisions to drink cocktails not $10 for 4 litre boxes of wine. Plus there's a multitude of cool stuffs in Cairns, at the end of my Oz leg of this trip (diving, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting etc :D), so I almost need to spend the least now, more later...

If I was to work, then, say for a month in an average job, I'd get ($17 x 40hrs x 4wks) x 0.7 tax = $1904. And a bit more of a relaxed time on the rest of my journey.

Right, I'm going to see an exhibition about monkey faces after some sushi, then I'll read a book in the sunlight, surrounded by these birds. Took this pic yesterday in Hyde Park, central Sydney. They're as common in the parks as pidgeons and seagulls.

Sydney, Capital of ROCK!

I've had a brilliant past few days - Sydney is a bustling, exciting place to be in, with strange things happening all the time. Not bad-strange, but unique, funky strange.

For example, Virgin Mobile were giving away luxury Icecream from a pimped-out Icecream van, complete with alloy wheels, ice-cream/red paintjob and scantilly clad ice cream donors. On the same street, there was an aging homeless shoeshine who I'd seen on the TV a week or so before (presumably in a news lull). Had a chat with him about his new found fame, though couldn't offer me his services on account of my shoes being flipflops.

Everything here is a lot more compact and less organised than in Melbourne - blink and you'll miss a huge shopping arcade on your left or a cheap Sushi shop on the left. Still enjoying sushi - for $5 you can get a decent, healthy and nutritious lunch.

My hostel that I'm staying in is "interesting" to put it one way. On the first night, I was watching TV on a beanbag, coloured a slightly mottled and darker version of what it should have been, when I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. On closer inspection I couldn't see anything, but it happened again 5 mins later. I looked right to see a cockroach running up the wall, its antennae flailing like corn in the wind. I've now got used to these non-paying visitors and their flying, biting relatives, even when they crawl from under your toothpaste. or around the food storage areas.

Other interesting things in "The Palms" (technically wrong, as there's just 1 palm tree outside...): Wanna sit down on the toilet? Pic the seat off the floor at the side of the loo. My bunkbed is also made from bendy aluminium and has the ladder at the end, over another occupant's bedside table.

Its not really that bad, these things just make for an interesting blog. Theres free web, tea and Xbox; my room has an ensuite and ceiling fan. Woo!

A few nights ago I met up with some relatives of mine (Mum's cousin)- Alan and wife Helen. I went over for a super nice dinner of smoked salmon (which you could actually taste the smoke flavour in) and avocado, followed by a thick piece of lamb and sides. They were nice people, and seemed to enjoy good food and wines - I equired what the type of wine I was drinking was, in a vague attempt to become cultured and edumacated, to be told it was a 1999 Caberet Sauvignon. 9 year old stuff? That must be expensive! They've obviously done well, being situated in a 24th floor central Sydney apartment overlooking a public park and the sea to the North-East. And the phone they had I saw on Will & Grace the following night. Alan created some of the rules and regulations for the stock markets and Helen works as an unpaid academic/lecturer. Very interesting people who told me I have some similar mannerisms as Mum.

Contrasted against the Youth Hostel Association 'crowd', the poeple in my hostel are pretty similar to me, except 1/2 of them are German. One funny incident involded me picking up a riff that someone was playing a guitar. Eventually it led to a request session of songs not many people would know, and me being introduced to Brant Bjork, who sounds worth looking into. Oh yeah, I was singing a lot of the songs... Ouch.

Musically, the past few days have been brilliant - culminating in yesterdays physically demanding V Festival in Centennial Park in Sydney.

I stumbled across a flyer in a shop a few days before, and low and behold, Queens of the Stone Age and Smashing and Air are playing! All of whom I've had on my 'to see' list for a long time.
So I get up bright and early yesterday (10am), make a beefy sarnie with salami, cheeze and margarine, and get going to the Virgin Megastore which was vending them. Then, incredibly, I see one of my favourite drummers walking down the street towards me. I stop and say "Hey, are you Joey Castillo from Queens of the Stone Age??" to which he replies that he was! I think I just said typically uncool stuff like "Oh my god, I love your music, can I have a picture", and resulted in one of the roadies (who may have been a new keyboard player onstage later that day...) taking a picture of me and this drumming icon.

Needless to say, I walked away internally skipping and externally beaming with a smile a cheshire cat would be proud of.

After getting my ticket ($137.50 for the day... I winced but thought I need to splash out every now and then), I asked 4 different bus drivers and information point-type people how to get there. Of course I got 4 different ways, but I eventually got there, asking 1 final person which stop I should get off at.

After a brief heart attack at being told my UK Driving license wasn't sufficient ID to be let in (and just going to a different line to get let in perfectly fine), I wandered in, under the midday sun. No one of the information point people knew when any act was on yet, so I wandered around, collecting free Jagermeister temporary tatoos, Gnarls Barkley peak hats and orange flavoured mints from the "VIP" Virgin Mobile loos.

I ended up seeing about 5 bands/artists including the happy clappy Plug in City, Swedish pop-idol Robyn and indie-ers Hot Hot Heat. The next band suprised me - Modest Mouse are another band I'm going to CD-up on when I get home. Singing some very punk lyrics through the guitar pickup to the backing of 2 drummers, an accordian and double bass was quite an amazing spectacle and created some brilliant music. The following band, The Jesus and Mary Chain, had a middle age man jumping and spinning annoyingly infront of me for the 1 hour set, aparently this brit-pop style band had just reformed or something, so he was celebrating, sweat, balding head and all.

What came next was in a totally different league to everything else I'd seen all day - Queens of The Stone Age, the people I'd come to see. Incredibly hot, heavy and tiring, it felt like being in an inside arena due to the heat. A lot of people were being dragged out, staggering by friends, obviously dehydrated and not tip-top. Best thing they played was an extended jam version of a song that they lost the tapes of in the post - The Fun Machine Took a Sh*t And Died. THE live song. Definately going to see if some people have put this up on youtube in a fewdays...

After lots of inter-song innuendo (big beach balls floating around, it ain't hard), my back started to ache as the adreneline faded when they walked off (with no encore...).

I didn't quite know what to expect from the Smashing Pumpkins; afterall they were ageing rockers with only 1/2 the original lineup. The lead singer walked on to 50,000 screams in a shiny silver skirt, naturally. The music was almost totally new to my ears save a few songs, which were altered greatly and jammed. Its brilliant hearing new(ish) music!!

Got back, tired and hungry, after being slightly bemused that the train system uses trains with 2 floors and being annoyed that the cheap jelly I bought for emergency energy was powdered crystals, not proper 'raw' jelly.

Good times! Now onto looking for a job...

Canberrra, capital of drizzle.

I think it was a mistake going to Canberra over the Easter Weekend. When I arrived here after an 11 hour night bus journey (which I thought could save me a night in a youth hostel), I arrived to a city centre with no one in it, apart from a few pigeons. I found a brekkie place and had a fry up for the first time in months, checking out what the guide book has to say about Canberra. Quite generic stuff, to be honest - Museums, Galleries and tours around the sights. I thought I'd try and get a tour around these sort of places, so I hopped on a tour bus. Got talking to a Slovakian guy called Lukas, who reminded me of the Comic Book guy from the Simpsons.

According to our white-haired tour guide, our first stop received the most visitors per year out of every attraction in Oz, the War Memorial. Slightly doubtful about that fact, considering it's up against things like the Opera House in Sydney and the likes. Granted, it was interesting, including a real B52 bomber and Japanese Midget submarine which blew up a lot of Australians, all in a great hall 6 floors below ground level, but war is always depressing!! I still can't see how it can be called an attraction...

The rest of the tour was interesting. For those who don't know, it was built from the ground up from 1909, officially becoming the capital in 1930 ish. The result is that the only 'industry' is administrative - everyone works as a civil servant. It also meant that the city has had great national parks established within a very short distance of the centre (which is positioned either side of the huge man made Lake Griffin), creating leafy green views at the end of a lot of roads in the city. This combined with the super wide and generous road networks and absence of the bustling you'd normally find in a city, Canberra seemed a little too clinical and unreal.

That night, after my $10 shopping spree in Aldi for nutritional items, I went out to find the city centre dead. This was a Saturday night, and there was only one place that had a number of people in it. Lukas and myself having a few in here, we ended up talking to some locals who were our sort of age and confirmed my suspicions that its not the best city to be young in!

Cherishing sleeping in a real bed that night, I got up the following day and decided I'd rent a bike and cycle around the lake. Getting the one with the meanest bell and a helmet with go faster slits (a legality in Canberra and the state it's in, ACT), I started around the lake.

Lucky me! Mother nature was threatening to rain, so I made for the National Museum of Australia. Discovered some quite intriguing things - in northern Oz, buffalo were considered a pest, and were hunted from the 60s by men in reinforced Toyota cars with great grabbers on the side, almost like a modern day lasso! Reminded me of Robot-Wars, but without Craig Charles.
It also took the white settlers 100 years to believe the Aborigines when they said platypuses laid eggs...

The whole cycle round the lake was wonderful. It must have been about 20miles altogether, so I got back just before sunset (its also illegal to cycle after sunset without lights), having cycled through forested areas, grassy lakeside parks, mud and hills that demanded gear 2 going up and 21 going down (a fun that we can't have in the Fens!)

If I thought of a youth hostel, before I came to Canberra, I'd think of back to basics living, dirty cutlery and thin mattresses. It surprised me, then, to find out the basement had a swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, all included in the $30 (14 quid) price. To top it off, they had frequent film nights with free popcorn upstairs! There was still some dirty cutlery and plates, or none at all, on account of the group of 35 beefy rugby players who were in residence.

That night, a pair of Canadian cousins, Mark and Leea, who came to Canberra on the same bus met up with a guy they knew from home. Taking us out to a place called Black Mountain, the view over Canberra was amazing. The avenues and their linear blue lights shone through, creating odd patterns which led up to the New Parlaiment building (Which cost $1.1bn to make, has 24km of corridors and the biggest tapestry in the world in it, according to my very proper tour guide from the day before). Quite randomly but seemingly the right thing, there were a group of people up at this lookout already, who seemed to be having fun, so we joined in and had a chat. We tried getting into the Casino, for the sake of it, but soon left when the minimum bet on the tables was $15 and there was an absence of machines.

All in all, the people made my stay in Canberra enjoyable, despite one of our dorm 'buddies' being an excentric Moldovian 50 year old who talked at me (and Mark) about everything from YouTube to the clean shaven Republicans who want the Queen off the throne to my hair to his artist friend to his overbearing mother to liberating Tibet and beyond. Quite exhausting and it meant that my pasta overcooked...

Surfing and Goon in Torquay

Torquay - the headquarters of Quicksilver, Ripcurl and other brands like that.

My hostel ended up being a great place, though its quite off putting walking into the common room/kitchen where every one's just watching TV, not talking and don't even look at you. Found myself trying to appear busy, as if that actually mattered!

Through the medium of card games, got talking to some people and the idea of no one talking to me disappeared! One of the only shames about this trip is that I've already met some really nice people who became good friends, only to have to say goodbye the following day or so.

Checked out some surfboards with some new found Brit acquaintances; they're so expensive!! $400 for a decent one and then some. And they seem to get damaged superquickly, too, because they're basically polystyrene with a glass composite on top. I opted to rent a threadbare, hole ridden wetsuit and foam board instead... Wow! I forgot how tiring surfing is - being battered by oncoming surf constantly makes it feel like you're making one step forward and two back. Poor condition, unfortunately, but it was good to get a few waves.

I've also discovered how bad I am at remembering names, so a Danish person I got talking to, I took to calling him 'Danish'. Other people are similarly bad; I got dubbed 'Pinochio' on account of my flailing arms while playing Hot Potato on Torquay beach. Good game, but the forfeit for loosing all 3 of your lives it having the ball kicked at you.

That night a mad Frenchman, called Dennis, with an Afro decided to teach me how to play the Mario Bros. theme tune on the harmonica. Brilliantly simple, and is guaranteed to make people around you smile and reminisce about hours wasted on Video Games. This then provoked another Frenchman and myself to create more Video game sounds, including favourites from Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64!

Surfing the following day, I walked down to the beach with Danish, where he proved to be the slowest walker of all time, which is one of the most frustrating things ever (see the Facebook group, "I secretly want to punch slow walking people in the back of the head", to which I am a devout member). The surfing was the best I've had so far, not that I've had much to compare it with. I think there was only about 3 others surfing at the same time! Could have been because it started raining heavily and it was veeeery cold.

Later on, we trundled 100m down the road to the Quicksilver retail shop, where there was a special promotion event or something for their next season of clothing. Free beer and sweets and snacks and freebies and an acoustic guitarist ensued, with my concience telling me I really didn't need another T shirt or nice new hoody, thus my wallet was spared. Take that advertising promotions!

On the next day, we took a trip down to the famous Bells Beach, where the Rip Curl Pro event was happening. Seeing the worlds best surfers surfing 12ft waves is quite awe inspiring. I thought it was funny how all of the viewing attention shifted to Kelly Slater when he came out, to the extent that people were running into the shallow surf (it was getting cold, windy and overcast by this point) to get a picture of this international Surf name. I proved I was the better person by staying sat down and just craning my neck like a tortoise. Watching a fair few heats and deciding it was getting too cold and windy, Danish and myself walked (slowly) back to the bus stop, to be told the free hourly shuttle had left 3 minutes ago.

Eventually we got back to Torquay, and looked around the outlet stores, which were all fully priced and made me thankful for the existence of TKMaxx and H&M. Thus it was time to leave; I had the task of navigating my way back to Melbourne via public transport for my 9pm Greyhound bus. I left 5 hours to get there, thinking that the 4 stages of transport would mean a load of waiting, but no!! The state of Victoria's public transport system is actually good enough to synchronise their timetables.

The following night was an aweful nights sleep though...

The Great Ocean Road

Seems a long time ago now, but I hesitate to spend more than 15 mins on the web when you're paying $7/hour for it... I've made the journey to the National Library in Canberra to just get free web, which was a pain, because even the inner city buses only run hourly.

Anywho, The Great Ocean Road was the first proper tour I've done, so I was quite anxious to get there on time. Leaving at 7.30am, I had to work out how the hell I could use JUST public transport to get to the city for my seriously suburban location. Fortunately, the Melbourne public transport system is A-Ok, and the first bus out would get me there on time.

At the bus stop I got talking to an old man about the weather (suprise) and how its actually been quite hot. He also informed me how St. Patrick's day had been moved by the Pope, which I dutifully believed, I mean why would a respected gentleman lie? I received a minibus full of laughs when I confidently informed my tour-chums of this alteration in their calendar later. Ozzies are probably the most sarcastic race on earth.

Getting the tram the wrong way in Melbourne, I arrived 10 mins late (I hate the idea of being late or making people wait, makes me tense and ajitated (sp?)), and we got on the road.

Talking to some of the people on the bus, I noticed how most of them had uprooted themselves totally from thier old existence, quiting their jobs and selling homes to fund their trip. A bit extreme, but it made me realise what a good decision to do this trip at this point in my life was; I can quite easily jump back into the norm (whatever that it) back at home without much changing, apart from my bank balance and my pasta making skills. It was also strange to see how many Brits there were on the tour, it was almost like doing a tour in the UK.

One of the non-brits, a West-Australian did get on my nerves a bit, though, and to this time (4.29pm 23/3/2008) he's the only person to do so. Constantly telling people not to go to Adelaide beacause "Its a hole" and not not taking pictures at places we stopped on the basis that he didn't want to be a tourist is just sad. Chill out and do whatever you want to, but don't try and infect us with it.

Anyway, we stopped at a huge sunken volcano called Tower Hill and checked out the emus and koalas. I realised why the koala is a national icon - it dosen't move, so tourists have a decent change of seeing something really Ozzie. For the same reason, koala and 'roo warning signs are promoted as iconic, too. Our tour guide, Todd, informed us of koala mating rituals, including the males' calling to ladies up trees, quite romeo/juliet stylie, only to go up and rape her if she didn't come of her own accord. Trees are bad escape routes, evidently. Koalas are miracles of evolution, or very lucky, as they only move 4 hours a day, sleeping the other 20, and eat from about 25 varieties of Eucalyptus trees of the 20,000 that exist. Eating these trees right out of leaves so they die and don't provide further food, they have no natural predators and have to introduce a resistance to the poisons in the Eucalypt leaves to babies by regurgitation......

fending off 1001 flies and a couple of emus eyeing up my 1ft Subway sarnie, we got back to the bus. I next got my first sign of surfing and some decent waves, which made me smile like a mad man, when we got to Logan's Beach.
(Gotta be quick now, library shuts in 15!!!) went here then: - Bay of Islands- Bay of Martyrs- The Grotto- London Bridge
Which showed some pretty awesome limestone structures and powerfull waves. Swam at one of these's beaches, which was wonderful for cooling down. 40 degrees is bloomin hot, for sure, and aircon only cools your skin, not your overheated internals.

Having a barbie at our accomodation and getting some stubbies in, we went to the 12 Appostles (Of which there has never been 12), and saw a boootiful sunset. 20mins later, a tiny blob/gaggle/swarm of penguins came home from shopping for food and darted into their cliff-face residencies.

Saw plenty on signs for Peterborough on our way around the hostel area, but never quite had the reaction skills to get out the camera in time...

following day, did a short trek round a rainforested area, where there were some ancient trees and 6m meter ferns. Considering they grow 1cm max every year, these were rather old.

Awesome scenery on the way back along the Great Ocean Road proper, which took 40 years or something silly to complete. A perculiar highlight of the tour was visiting THE "Round the Twist" lighthouse, which brought back surreal vague memories and an MP3 of the theme song.

The tour finished with me being dropped off in Torquay, the home of surfing, and sawpping or a few contact details. Awesome tour of that area, best done in 2 days, and now the Librarian's on me like the plague to get off the PC!

Jazz Bus

One of the things that makes me smile is one of the bus drivers on the route to the train station. He greets everyone with a great big smile and a "Hey man, how you goin'?" which is always good. The best bit, though, is his constant playing of Jazz music, which I've never associated with a bus driver-type person! The speakers on the buses are unsuprisingly poor, so it sounds like a really old radio in the 50s or something.

Visited a suburb called St. Kilda on Wednesday(12th). Aparently it's the red light district of Melbourne, but I saw nothing to suggest that, though the whole place reminds me of Brighton except with 50ft palm trees. After another awesome Sushi lunch (and the discovery that some Wasabi is stronger than others) with Coke, I took a walk out onto the pier.

On account of the impending Melbourne F1 racing, Red Bull had hired a whole section of the pier for their promo, so I couldn't get the Icecream I really wanted, which was a shame. Beyond this, there was a rock harbour wall which curved round to create a sheltered small beach with a wooden walkway. One thing I noticed here was a group of around 5 old men standing around in speedos with pot bellies and extremely brown, wrinkly skin. It seemed like some sort of club to which only a certain demographic could join. I sat down on the walkway and listened to their banter, a few of which were too funny not to write down:

"There's only shark fins in there"/"Shark fins?"/"Yes, fins of a shark"
"I hear something"/"Whats that?"/"Bullsh*t coming out of your mouth"
"Look at his hide, its getting thicker with all these lies"
"Go, sing your song"
"If that girl comes with you again, we have to talk"

Strange old people. One of them, I noticed, had a popped out belly button that I thought only pregnant women get, which had stretched about an inch out in front of him.

Did a bit of sitting on the beach and reading, but got scared of sunburn after a while (Its really difficult to sunscreen up your back, for some reason!), quite rightly, when I realised I'd forgot to do my forearms; they're still red, a few days later. Fool! Poked some big (15cm) jellyfish with a shell, too.

It was 40 degrees a couple of days ago! Its difficult to just be outside in that sort of heat, the wind, despite it being light, felt like someone had a hairdryer on your face and body. I'm still confused how anyone could physically cool down without aircon or cooled water when blood temperature's 37 degrees or something. I think I just made sure I was inside as much as possible...

Met up with Tom Anderson yesterday, which was good. Another hot day (forest fires near Adelaide, their 11th consecutive day above 35 degrees) at 38, he found it alright as a temperature! At least it wasn't humid, that would be aweful. Might be meeting up with him between Sydney and Brisbane, and do some off the beaten track things, as he has car access.

It would be good to go into the outback - I want to do a few bushwalks, though maybe later in the year when these unseasonally big heats subside and Oz enters their "Winter".

Ok: plans for the next week: Monday/Tues doing a tour of the Great Ocean Road and surrounding area. Getting dropped off in Torquay late Tues, where I'll stay for 3 nights and surf some good incoming surf and maybe check out the Rip Curl Pro surfing championships at the same beach. Should be good! friday night, I'm getting a bus to Canberra, 10 hours away, Where I'm staying for 3 nights til Tues 25th! Then off to Sydney! I'm thinking of getting work pretty soon after getting to Sydney, but who knows... Not me, thats for sure.

Most tensest moment yet!

Wow, I was nearly homeless there for a minute.

Time to leave my hosts - they're going to Sydney early Saturday. Checked all the Youth Hostels, probably twice, but they're ALL rammed to the ceiling - its the Melbourne F1 this weekend. Then asked my 2nd Cousins, but they're all busy busy and unable to take me; but suggested LastMinute and WotIf, some late deals sorta places. The cheapest available "bargain rate" was $300 a night, no crap. x3 nights I need before I next move on, is 450 quid.

gggNot on my nelly, so I even started looking for Emergency Accomodation, having thought about where the best place to sleep rough would be:- Not Flinder's street train station, there's no seats plus I'd get turfed out. I thought the airport may be good, I could pass myself off as someone who missed their flight... Desperate or what? but I was really thinking this, about 30 mins ago.

Nina fortunately obliged in taking me on for a few more nights. I feel bad doing it though, because I thought (and they thought) that I was getting out of their hair after probably outstaying my time!! So I'm extremely grateful now...

Meeting Tom tomorrow (Under the Clocks...), should be fun.

37 Degrees

Is actually quite hot. Poor Adelaide has 40 degree heats, according to the TV! No thanks...

Experienced something new on Saturday, and distinctly Red-neck. I was invited by Mick, my host's son, to a "Burnout" event. Sounded fun, and I've played the video games of the same name, so I went along.

Arriving and parking outside the 'Thunderdome', I could hear far off sounds of straining engines and a vast plume of white smoke arising from an area that everyone else was walking to, obviously aware of what this event was all about. Paid up (about 8 quid) and followed Mick inside. In the trade area, where numerous marques and tents were set up, was a sight of 'Too Fast Too Furious' meets 'Grease' meets 'Dukes of Hazard'. Along side trade stands selling decals and tee-shirts (of mean looking snakes and dragons) were the shiniest, meanest mostest retro-tastic cars you've ever seen.

With engines which were too big (and too shiny) to be restrained by a (mere mortal's) bonnet and paint jobs that would make Picasso weep, these were definitely show and tell cars. What I liked about them (this is before they actually started up and went to 'work') was that they weren't modern day cars, in the most part - there were cars from as far back as the 50s turbo'd up and supercharged into the 22nd Century. There was one car modeled around very early cars, circa 1910, like this sort of thing, and reminded me of Dastardly and Mutley sort of cars. It was immediately obvious that these were the life and soul of many grown men (and a mean looking lady). Retirement perhaps wasn't such a rosy prospect now they had put that money into altering a machine that was designed to make a rocket-load of noise and spin around on the spot, as I later saw.

Walking onto a mound opposite where the action was happening, I was greeted by a loud yet dull explosion, to the cheers of the hundreds of spectators who were obviously a little bit more savvy about it all than me. One of the competing car's rear tyres had blown out, sending flailing strips of rubber into the mesh fencing and the massive white smoke plume that I had seen earlier. Not phased at all, the driver upped the revs further and applied the front wheel brakes, whatever they are, increasing smoke, noise and cheers. And sure enough; BOOM! and the other wheel had gone. Officialman lowered the official redflag and the car limped off, like when you sit on your leg for too long and can't feel it.

A multitude of cars did the same thing, spinning round in varying levels of noise, explosiveness and style along a short strip of raceway that can't have been wider than 10 metres and longer than 80, though no one clipped the sides once. One of Mick's friends was there competing (its anyone's guess as to how the 60 second display is judged), though his lack of disposable (or indisposable, which ever way you see it) income unlike many of the older guys there meant that there was never anyway he'd win, though he did put blue tyres on his Holden (Ozzie Vauxhall), which still had 10x more beans than your average 4 door saloon any day.

It was fun stuff to watch, akin to some form of Russian expressive dance (I am the sun, you are the sky) in hotrods. I'll try and upload a video I took at a later date, because I've already used up a sizeable chunk of my host's upload limit... Count yourselves lucky, pomes! The advantage of a small country is the infrastructure can be so much more advanced! God bless the unlimited bandwith package.

This is a very popular 'sport' in Oz, apparently, as is horse racing with carts - chariot racing! I haven't seen anything to do with this, but it conjures up very roman gladiatorial images! Strange how these sort of things take of in some countries but not others.

Talking of inter-country differences, I was talking to Mick about preconceptions of the other country, and he said "Don't you like cross a street and black people live there?" which made me laugh, as if there were racially separated legal districts in every town. I suppose it does sort of exist, but generally through immigration fluxes and cheap housing areas, I think... Hearing his impression of an English accent cracked me up, too, as it sounded more like mangled East-European. Interestingly, the crime rates in the cities has increased many many times over the past few years since immigration and asylum seeking policy was relaxed and a lot of people came to Australia, bringing different cultural values and norms with them. Unfortunately, this seems to encouage the social segregation of minorities such as the Sudanese and Korean, though the Japanese have been here for more than a generation, I think, so they're well integrated and thoroughly Australian now, to some extent. Pomes are still Pomes though!

Yesterday I took a trip into Melbourne again to see the Moomba Waterfest, celebrating stuff n things. More specifically I went for the Birdman Rally, which came over here in 1971 with some RAF dude. I'm sure they do it of Brighton Pier (one thats not burned down), but I've never seen it, so this was fun! Its quite simply people jumping off a pier in silly silly suits and trying to get the furthest. Of course you get the few guys who make an aerodynamically correct polystyrene/polythene wing and float for ages in the air (still quite a feat), but the competition is designed for fun and showing off. One that springs to mind was a guy who was brought in a big animal crate and then stepped out all alien like, providing some slapstick alien comedy at its best.

Along with this event was things like waterskiing and wakeboarding along the Yarra River, which was good to see along with some annoyingly natural kids on skateboards demonstrating in a skatepark (which was provided for free by the YMCA, and made me want to try skating again!) and some guys spray painting a mural along it's back wall.

Its good to see that some things in life are still free!

If I haven't already told you...

Here's the Mobile number I'll be using:

0423191021

Replace the 1st '0' with '0011' if you're calling from abroad to reach this Australian number.

Basically there's poor signal as soon as you leave a city's boundaries, so don't be surprised if you can't contact me. Its really only for essential comms, but its there. It only costs me 20c (10p) to text abroad, so if you feel like it, tell me whats going down.

Raining!

Yes, that favourite topic of conversation! Its raining heavily enough to discourage me from leaving the house, so I'm probably just going to plan and research things for my impending future.

Got a few options:
Travel to Torquay, a a surfing town SW of Melbourne. Could do this via a tour operator, which would take me to see places off the beaten track that an average punter wouldn't see, at least not me on public main-route transports.
Then there's Philip Island, home to the 'Penguin Parade', where tiny penguins make a mad rush up a beach like clockwork a few minutes after sundown. I'd like to do this under my own steam instead of bundling around on a tour, so I can enjoy the island in my own time, but its a difficult island yo get around, it seems.
Then theres work issues! Got my tax File Number, which means I would get a reduced tax rate from 49.5% to a miniscule 29.5% (!!). Should I get a month or so of harvest work whilst there's plenty of work? I think there's a better season in New South Wales forthcoming, so once I get to Sydney, I'll think about this again.

Meeting up with Tom Anderson (a friend from school who's around in Oz) next week, so it'll be good to do some of this stuff with him.

Brilliant day yesterday - an exhibition had opened in Melbourne called 'Game On', where I found myself playing scores of video games from old school Pong to new school Halo3 LAN games (which I won, of course. Even though I haven't ever played it before :D). My little face lit up when I saw so many buttons and flashes and sounds! Looked at my watch and realised I'd spent 7 hours in there, forgetting about eating even. Got a Subway's and went back to play a little bit of Doom, Mario 64 and a Japanese Train Simulation Game.

Beaching

Monday, and I boarded a tourist bus around Melbourne (for free, naturally! I wouldn't associate myself with actually paying for stuff) and saw the various landmarks from behind a UV protected window in an aircon aided bus. I think the bus driver was trying to be helpful when he spoke over the prerecorded info onboard, but only served to speak over it and make an unintelligible noise.

Jumped off at the Rememberence Shrine, a huge Mayan temple-like thing in the middle of wide gardens. It was a little bit depressing unsuprisingly (I don't know how they can make an attraction out of it, even if they do have exhibits and things), but I was told it was worth a look and it seemed to be a respectable thing to do. One thing that drew my interest was how Ozzie troops were sent to the fields in Europe with only shorts and a shirt - the Red Cross provided extra clothing and allies provided their weapons.

Back on board the tourist truck, I bathed in the air conditioning for a mile or so, before we reached the start of the loop and I searched for a a fabled food court for luncheon, on recommendation of an elderly lady who looked rather wise. 2 pieces of pizza and Fanta for $9, a semi-bargain! Interestingly, Oz Fanta tastes more like Orangina, a fizzy drink from my yoof (I remember drinking it in the local swimming pool (with the bestest flume and a deadly slipperly route down a ramp to the changing rooms) out of a pear-shaped glass bottle) in Laaaahdun town. Its a phenomenon we rarely have in the UK, food courts, but most foody places are within these buildings. Well it seemed busy, so some business plan must be working. Fed-up and completely happy, I trundled off to the NVG (National Victoria Gallery). One of the things that fascinated me here was the Mayan/Aztec sculptures. I think it was becuase I looked at this type of art/imagery and culture in year 10 for an art project, but viewed everything totally through a computer screen. I'm thinking of a tattoo using Aztec and Mayan styles, but I dunno yet, and I have to be 100% (Don't worry Mum('s), I won't rush into it).

Did (another) guided tour around parts of the immense gallery/museum and couldn't get the guides pronunciation of antiques out of my head - "Ant-eye-kyews". Well wierd. Also picked up that some Ozzies, generally from 'up north' say 'yous' instead of 'you' when addressing more than 1 person... Anyway, enough eloquence analysis.

Australian's also watch Simpsons heavily, which is good for the Eve'. Look out for 'Drawn Together', an adult cartoon that Oz and the US has, but I haven't seen it yet on UK Freeview. Also good for a warm eve' - VB! Victoria Bitter, a lager, which I have suprised myself in liking, and all people seem to stock it. Fosters is also considered old fashioned and outdated, too; the idea of it being a true Aussie drink is 95% marketing for the UK!

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Following day, a Chewsday, I visited the Queen Victoria Market, which is like Camden Market (ie cheap clothes and tourist tat) except, er, australian. And more teatowels. Had fun going around nearly identical stalls trying to get a $3 item down to $2.50 (About 2op off). Petty or what??? Good exercise for the wheelin' and dealin' muscles within though. Top tip: the ultimate threat is showing mild interest then total disinterest after a price has been given, even if you haven't offered your price.

Saw some big spiders, big (3m) squids in vinegar or something and other stuff in cases in the Melbourne Museum during the afternoon, which peeled a whole $6 from my greasy mitts. Good place for old and young, with buttons and games and videos. good exhibit about the disturbed mind and artisic visions it can provide - abstract, scary and odd pieces created by crazy people, along with an attempt at deciphering it's meaning.

Spent a lot of the afernoon under a big palm tree reading a book, HA! Bet its cold in the UK.
Did the same this afternoon (Wednesday 5th) on the loverly beach of Port Melbourne (Melbournians pronounce it 'Melbun').

Strange things happen! This morning I met up with Margot, (get ready) my mum's cousin's wife's sister, who took on my mum when she was on her gap year in Oz about a trillion/30 years ago. Apparently I also look just like your mother. Nice seeming someone who can tell tales on your own mum!

Finished today with a couple of beers with Nina's 2 sons, Brent and Mitch (2nd cousins), watching the 2 dogs running round like madmen and one getting a little bit of lipstick.

Brrrr

Checked out more bits in Melbourne on Friday, there's just so many places that are interesting for whatever reason. Couple of art galleries, where I was stalked by a few security guards, on account of being a thuggish yoof. Fortunately I was able to shake them off by walking backwards. Seeing arty things again made me want to get drawing again, but absent minded doodles will have to do for now.

Went up one of the tallest skyscrappers in the CBD, the Rialto Tower, which was quite a sight at the top. It reminded me of how big Melbourne and other cities really are! Coming down the 55 story elevator, I was shunned into 'Rialtovision' - a short cinematic experience which was basically advertising melbourne through exciting imagery, orchestral sounds and sweeping titles despite all of the occupants of the room being in melbourne already.

Coming out, there were 5/6 great big fire trucks outside the building opposite with the building's occupants standing outside. With absolutely no smoke, crying women or urgency in anyone's eyes (apart from the flashing lights on the trucks), this was an unsatisfying spectactle! A 12ft high Super Mario figure seemed to be enjoying it though, from the Museum of Moving Images. Annoyingly though, that games specific exhibition mario was advertising was yet to open! Spent a good few hours watching videos past and present, clever and stupid from students of Victoria's various art universities and colleges. One that I remember well was a cell animated (individual frames drawn) love story between a tape player and a CD player. The tape player couldn't talk to the CD player, because he couldn't find the right words on tapes, went to a wise old gramophone. Together they made a mix tape of the right words from vinyls and the story ended happily ever after, with lots on suggestive headphone jacks being used.

I got the wrong bus on the way home, because I couldn't decipher properly the heavy Oz accent of the driver... hey ho, adventuring I go! Well, Nina and Keith rescued me.

Saturday, and it was actually starting to warm up properly! Got the shorts on without feeling like I had to use British determination. Went adventuring around a few Melbourne suburbs with Nina over a 4km bridge and had a Jaffa Cake flavoured Ice Cream at a shop called You Scream! in a nice relaxed Italianesque town called Williamstown. Being sunny, seaside and breezy, it reminded me of Cowes in the Isle of White (sp?). Drove round a section of the Melbourne Formula 1 racing track, which is used as a public road out of race season. Naturally I made racing car sounds as we cruised round at 25mph.

Phoned home today (Sunday 2 Mar) at 8am, which is 9pm Pome time, which was good. Totally forgot it was mother's day, though luckily it wasn't Mothers Day in the UK, so I wasn't technically a bad son.

Them we visited a wildlife sanctuary 80km away, saw a load of Ozzie animals, including the wierd hodgeheg relation, the Echinda which walks around like a fat tiny bear and the koala, which only moves an hour a day!! Good life. Fed and stroked a very soft and docile wallaby, which satisfied the child in me asking 'what does it feel like' and 'will it bite me if I poke it'?

Some beautiful scenery on the way and some monster vinyards next to huge cow ranches, though edging on too hot in direct light. Hope I acclimatise soon, before I start working and sweating buckets...

Trying to put pics up here, but its being wierd, so more pix later...