Calamity is my middle name...

The important thing to remember about today is I saw a wild sea turtle. I may have finished up in A+E with a mild concussion and stitches in my foot, but by gum I saw a turtle.

We set off early to Morton Island, Fraiser Island's little brother. A little easier to access from Brisbane and tons less busy. Shortly after we arrived we were strolling happily down the beach to access the woodland hike trail. We saw some starfish. Don't call me a hero but I may have saved one or two of them being beached.

We then hiked up and discovered a vast desert encompassed by thick woodland. We sat at the edge a while for a snack and a drink. Then I saw it, a glimmer of fun in the distance. I took off like a pistol - to others this may have looked more like running like an excited toddler who's had too much sugar- after running a good 600m+ I held my newly acquired sand board aloft in victory and scaled the closest, very steep, dune.

Without any fear I lept onto the board and sledged down super fast. All of a sudden though the sand became finer, whipping it up into my face. A continuous torrent of sand now pelting me in the face so hard I thought it was going to knock my head off. I pulled my hands infront of my face to try and block the ferocious tide slowly filling every cavity in my face to at least protect my eyes. 

Big mistake. Bringing my arms forward mis balanced the board causing the nose to dig in. This came as a complete surprise to me as I had three inches of sand over my eyes. So like a pea in a spoon flicked by a bored child at a family dinner I took off -getting what felt like some pretty impressive air time- flying through the air like a rag doll. With an almighty thud I landed, square on my face with my arms straggling by my sides.

I didn't feel my best but had to sort my priorities. After a bit of strong language, rolling around and coughing up half a sand dune I started trying to dig the compacted sand out of my eyes. This was very tricky, especially with sand encrusted hands!

I had to do something I hope I never have to do again in my life. 

I had to spit in my eyes to try and allow myself to get at least 70% of the sand off. 

Now I could see I realised the extent of my problems. I've had some concussions before but this is easy in the top three. All around the edges of my vision was like a kalydascope with bright flashing lights in the top left of my visual field. I started to try and jog back to the others to see if it would ease off if I ignored it, classic tactic. Before realising with my new sway I was covering twice the distance, side to side, as balance was a bit of an issue. 

Alex then showed us how it should be done, standing up like a pro. I had another go but couldn't balance on the board; even sitting down!

I manned up and we hiked down to the beach again. On the way developing a crazy tension headache that even hurt in my teeth! 

Before my legs gave out I had to lie down on the grass and cat got my some ibruprophen and some ice for my head.

In an hour or so I was feeling a lot more human and after a check up with the first aider we migrated to the beach.

Now I'm not coming all the way to Morten island and not snorkelling the ship wrecks in the bay! That would be madness.

So I shook myself down and strapped on my goggles and a pair of bollaks and went for it.

The volume of fish was breathtaking and the colours were superb. We pooteled around with he fish for a bit then I took a bit of a dive through a hole in one of the ships to go to another section. After diving through I saw him. A majestic sea turtle. Slowly swimming through the clear blue around the bottom of the abandoned ship.

I 'calmly' surfaced and screamed like a little girl "sea turtle! sea turtle! Sea turtle!" And dived back down to have another closer look. I went down a bit, floated up as I watched and kicked out again hard to go back down. I smacked my left foot really bloody hard on the rusty old wreck but didn't think too much of it. There was a bloomin big sea turtle down there!

After the excitement  we swam back to shore.

As we walked out of the shallows the wispy red caught my eye. On closer inspection I realised that I had a huge gash across the top of my foot spilling blood into the ocean. Good job there wasn't a shark! I showed Alex who looked a bit worried, then Gill who looked for a moment like I had just shown her a severed head!

I got some pretty clear instructions from them that I was to go straight to the boat jetty and find another first aider while they fetched the bags.

I hopped up the beach and gave it a wash in the shower when the life guards arrived. They patched me up (while I bossed them around because I'm a terrible patient). Just as they finished cleaning my would and strapping me up the Island's paramedic arrived. He undid all their hard work and strapped me up again.

Several hours later I was causing trouble in A+E. 

Firstly I wanted to make sure the fact I saw a turtle actually went in the notes. It was, of course, a vital peice of information.

Because the depth of the wound -you could see my tendons, it was pretty cool- and the location, aging with the way I cut it, it was a very high infection risk. Therefore they didn't want to seal it with stitches. The registrar tried to dress it, to no success so we had to wait for the consultant to arrive and give her the ok to give me a few loose stitches.

You want to know pain? Try taking anaesthetic injections into the web spaces between your toes!

Eventually I was all stitched up. which was A story in itself as the last anaesthetic injection didn't work so I had to have one that I could feel -still less painful than having another injection-.

Before finally heading home.

What a day!

It's Christmas

Today was a driving day. A big driving day so I settled myself down between my backpack and the window. With a loaf of bread as an armrest and a box of eggs at my feet. Neither of which I was aware of until I had to apologise perfusly 4 hours into the trip; as the bread was squidged and the eggs broken. I was walking on eggshells the whole journey... Du dum dum tshhh!

We played some really fun games, I apparently lost the entire English language during one game of contact (a catogeries style multiplayer game). I was also terrible at Spotto, a journey long I-spy game, with a solid score of zero at the end of the trip. When we arrived in Brisbane we played some cards -which just like spotto I was terrible at-.

Christmas morning, I awoke at 7am to the bright sunshine streaming through my window and Gill calling out throughout the house "merry christmas!". To which I grunted heartily after what felt like only two hours sleep.

On waking I found that a little Christmas Cat (my new travel buddy rather than a feline) had left a stoking at my door full of goodies.

Over a huge Christmas breakfast we exchanged presents. I got some chocolates, some fancy pants, a slingshot, a elastic aeroplane, a twister mat/ towel and some bubbles!

After that we went down to a church and it was a very nice service. The ministers daughter was a friend of Cat's so we went back to their house for Christmas dinner.

After a fantastic game of monopoly (I won), we had Christmas dinner. The dinner was a cultural combination. As well as us bringing the English to the group Cat's friends were actually from Zimbabwe but had moved to New Zealand some 12 years ago before arriving in Australia last year. We had roast pork and chicken with salad and of course prawns, but they were a starter!

After lunch we moseyed over to one of their neighbours pools for a dip in the roasting Christmas sun; played a bit of frisbee and generally had a good time. I was playing with the pool hose and when I wasn't expecting it Gill blew hard in the other end squirting loads of dirty pool water in my mouth. Yum yum yum!

We then went back to our house and I skyped home. It looks like Makoto got some great stuff this year  and Dad still thinks he's welsh! It was really good to spend a few hours with them but I wish I could have been there in person. When will someone pull their finger out and invent teleportation.

In the evening we watched my favourite Christmas movie. The Nativity.

On Boxing Day we had a relative lie in compared to the pre 6am starts we had been having until this point. A giddy 8:30! Eventually we pulled ourselves up and out to Red Beach on Bribie island were we went back to sleep!

For sunset we went up a small mountain just to the north west of Brisbane. The view of the city and the colours in the sky were mind blowing. Such deep rich reds and oranges blended with blues and subtle purples. Georges.

The cv crawl

Today I went for a run. I wanted to run around all the big landmarks of Sydney. I was a little unsure about my ability to do so as my knee was still really painful. I figured as it was mainly around my epicondyle and my adductor tightness had greatly improved and ibruprophen was so effective; it was probably just some inflammation around the soft tissues of the area. A good gentle run out would do me good.

I first ran across the harbour bridge then down to the opera house along the banks and up into the botanic gardens and Hyde park.

After my run -and a very necessary shower- I met up with Konstantine. We went to the rocks museum, dedicated to the first convicts in Australia who lived there. They really had a pretty good deal, they were dropped off in a sunny green land and free to persue business and sport opportunities. With free food shipped over from England.

Although,

The museum was aimed at children so it is possibly missed out a lot of rapeing, killing and other misdermeiners. 

After that I walked round with Kontsi handing out CV's. It was real hard work. He wanted to work in a bar so obviously we had to check each of them out thoroughly. When Kontsi started slurring at managers as he threw a cv in their hands it was time to go home.

Return to oz

Although I had to rush like a mad man to check in for my flight, it ended up being delayed for two hours! 

The flight was actually really interesting again. I sat next to a young German guy traveling to Australia to train as a catholic minister. We had a really good talk about the freedoms each of us have over the course of our lives. Touching on a bit of genetics v social conditioning. He also had a bad shoulder so I traded him some Physio advice for a pack of biscuits! 

Funnily I slept well on the plane, I found a good position with my feet in the pouch in front of me. Very odd but hey, it worked for me!

My first night here I wandered down to the local(ish) supermarket and ate tons of food, knocking me into a food coma so I fell asleep for an hour or so in the park over the road. I then returned to the hostel for a second dinner and then straight to bed.

Yesterday I met up with Tyrone and Konstantine from Kuala Lumper again for a walk around Sydney harbour and city. We fried up a few Kangeroo steaks, delicious by the way! Before getting a box of goon for pre drinks.

I was very disappointed. Throughout my travels I have been told time and time again about this mythical 'goon' a cheap drink enjoyed by backpackers. Only to find out what they are describing is simply a box of wine. 

Anyway, we enjoyed our goon and then headed out to "space truckin three" a party I had been invited to by Charlie, a friend I made in Thailand. Only to arrive to a sweaty, dark, dingey pub with about seven people inside. I felt like a prize lemon as I had dragged the two guys plus a couple of Finnish girls and a kiwi out with me, even stopping them from seeing the Christmas firework desplay. The night trailed off quickly. We had a couple of beers and then went home after we found out how much entry was even in pubs!

Dinner date and an early rise.

After Dan left me yesterday evening I had a good rest day today and hardly left the hostel. However in the evening I had a dinner date with KP. The Singaporean guy I met on the plane to Perth.

He had a very nice holiday and I had an excellent time with him. KP picked quite an assortment of Singaporean culinary treats including some great satay's with peanut dipping sauce and giant tiger prawns with garlic.

The chat was great as was the food and I couldn't thank KP enough for a wonderful evening.

I rolled back to the hostel full to burst and crashed out. Well not quite that simple as I got off the wrong side of the subway and panicked I was lost as I hadn't brought my compass.

I got up at 6 the next day to break n my new shoes with a run along the southern ridges. It was a really nice run but my new shoes really hurt my knee so I was hobbling and nearly in tears by the end of my run. A very kind man drove me to the closest subway so I could get home. I decided instead to go to the botanic gardens. It was very nice but due to the pain I couldn't enjoy it that much. I did bunk in to the orchid garden without paying, but still didn't enjoy it all that much so I went back to the hostel.

That evening my knee was still bad but I decided to move to a livelier hostel. I'm very glad I did as I met a really nice group and had dinner and was up till 2:30 drinking with them.

Today I visited a couple more museums and lost track of time so only managed to scrape in to my flight with 5 minuets to spare!

Mission Singapore part 2

After a cracking day out yesterday Dan and I planned our attack for today over copious amounts of free toast at breakfast.

Today we got the tube down to the Asian civilisations museum. One of the best museums I have been to. We did a free tour and found out Father Christmas is based on Siberian magic mushroom sellers who dress in red wolly cloaks and drop their sacks of mushrooms down people's chimneys during the winter months.

Who knew!

We then went up to raffles hotel for a world famous Singapore sling cocktail. Before heading off to look at some funny books at the bookstore then watching the night light show at the marina bay after a quick visit to the 'fountain of wealth'.

Exploring on a mission

Dan, a guy I met last night at the hostel and I met again at breakfast.

We decided to attack the city today and get as much done as possible. 

I'm going to have to take a deep breath now and try to rattle off all we did!

Walked to little India

Went in an amazing temple

Gait crashed an Indian marriage and nearly the reception too

Explored little India

Nearly got killed by a falling pidgeon

Got a train to Chinatown

Gave a camera master class

Saw the best chinease temple so far

Witnessed a bhuddist ceremony

Crashed the ceremony to get a photo with the monks

Found the monks cafeteria and had lunch

Walked through Chinatown

Finally found a architect building where you can see the blueprints to many new projects

Architect building was closed!

Walked to marina bay

Strolled along the esplanade

Visited the marina bay gardens with their amazing metal beacons and rooftop walk

Past a floating football pitch

Saw a classical choir at the esplanade concert hall

Got thrown out of the VIP section of said concert hall

Got food from a local hawker food market

Dan got chicken gravey thrown on him and I got fronted up to by a 4 foot chinease lady because we bought our own beer

I tried to steal said lady's money belt

As we left the food hall got told she would kick us *did the action* if we came back with beer again

Chatted up and kissed the angry lady

Had a beer in the hostel deck chairs

Won at life

All the while we chatted about loads of cool stuff. Dan and I have so many shared intrest I doubt we were quiet for more than three minuets all day!

I was going to be productive I swear!

I woke up nice and early today to get out and explore the city...

But there is a new series of New Girl out! Man I love that show!

Eventually at 2pm I got down to the Marina bay! I went into the durian shaped esplanade concert hall and found some of the acts for the weekends concerts rehursing. So I stopped a while and listened to the fantastic a Capella band. They really were fantastic. I then walked around the bay. 

For new year Singapore are allowing people to write one wish on a giant white ball, which they are launching into the bay for the festive celebrations.

After I wrote my wish I visited the art museum, which looks like a flame. It was cool but not really my thing. An exhibit on a bunch of people wearing a pretty ugly jacket made by some famous designer.

I then continued my leasurely stroll around the bay before meeting three girls from the hostel from Crawley to go watch the free concert at the esplanade concert hall. 

Hope, Laura, Charlie and I really enjoyed 'Jamaca cafe', an Indonesian barbershop style group accompanied by two beat boxers. I particularly enjoyed their cover of party rockin'. The concert was outside on the backdrop of the spectacular harbour architecture.

We then grabbed some drinks and went back to the hostel where we met a bunch of other people and had a great time.

Shopping in Singapore

So I arrived back in Singapore at 3am, found the trade lift again and found my little corner on the fourth floor by the airport staff offices. 

I slept so well, with my pirate eye patch, on that I had a lay in till 9am! The only annoying thing were the staff who kept walking past me on their way to work and tutting loudly. Very inconsiderate.

I then made my way to my hostel, dropped my bags off and hit the shopping district. He'll on earth!

Like any good male shopper, I knew exactly what I wanted (nike wildhorse trail shoes), it is very hard to get in and get out quickly when you are dealing with a street with about 20 4-8 story shopping malls! It took soo long! Ahhhhh! But I came away with my prey eventually. I even got a bargain! 30% off! The only thing was that they were discounted as the shoes are so garish no one would ever ware them. Up steps Gary Nicholson. They are bright blue, neon green stitching and heel with fluorescent orange swoosh and laces. Your going to see me coming!

Wine tasting in the Valley

Toni, Laryssia and I met up at 9:30 to get the train out to the Swan Valley with our bikes.

We had an utterly fantastic day cycling throughout he sunny vineyards stopping regularly for wine tasting. Leaving each cellar door a little tipsy with a short cycle through the vineyards to sober us up.

The Swan Valley is Australia's 'valley of taste' and as well as wine we tried fresh ice cream, honey, nought, nuts, chocolate and some beer. I really couldn't imagine a better day, with fantastic company. 

I had so many great wines and way too much Honey, leading Laryissa and myself to be wide eyed and literally buzzing as we left the shop.

After a day of tasting all the good things in life we cycled all the way back along the river bank back to Perth, spotting yet another beautiful sunset from the wooded banks of the Swan with the city silhouetted. 

We arrived back at around eight and I cycled back to the house. We all had a great chat that went on and on, setting the world to rights on every topic. It was a really interesting conversation with many points of view. It was really interesting discussing economics and psychology with people from so many countries. Between us we had England, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and France. The company was so good in fact that Dave, Danniella and myself set to bed after 5am!

Cycle to the coast

Today I grabbed my bike again, earlier though today! And went for an explore.

I met Toni briefly, who I had met on the walking tour, and arranged to meet her tomorrow. Before shooting off along the distal bank of the swan river. I cycled through the university where there were some outstanding buildings and grounds. I visited the art gallery. It was modern art so some of the 'art' was a little questionable. When does someone colouring with crayons and using copious amounts of glitter stop being shit and start being art? 

I then glided through the grounds to find the England 2nd XI playing cricket against their Australian counterparts. After a while of watching paint dry, I mean cricket I set off to find Scarborough beach.

OH NO! I have forgotten my compass!! So I did what has lead me to ruin several times and went with my instincts. Amazingly I cycled in exactly the right direction and turned off at exactly the right time to get to Trigg beach. North of Scarborough beach. This beach was even more beautiful than the day before. With weathered sandstone rocks jutting from the shimmering blue sea at jaunty angles. It was spectacular. After a while of beach bumming I cycled down the coastline to Scarborough then city beach. Where it was the bikinis making these shorelines beautiful, leaving the sandstone out of it.

I continued my cycle and again enjoyed the best sunset yet from the banks of the swan before heading back for heaps of fun at the house with my new housemates.

Rockingham beach

I went out a little later than planned today as I was having such a good time messing around with Steph and Daniella.

Eventually I tore myself away from the fun and took my bike on the train to rockingham beach. As soon as I arrived I threw myself in the sea. Which was an error as it's bloody freezing!!

The beach was stunning, golden sweeping sand backed by grassy dunes fronted by Chrystal clear turquoise waters. The stuff dreams are made of.

 I did a bit of snorkeling and saw two whole fish! I was very happy. Simple things ay! The water was very shallow though and the seaweed kept tickling my belly. I didn't  like that so I shot straight out and payed around for a while.

I then cycled down the deserted beach front to penguin island. A small bay island where penguins live in the sunshine. Along with seals. Unfortunately I had pissed around so long it was now 3pm and I had missed all the tours and the last ferry. I watched the kite surfers in this section of the bay for a while before popping in my head phones and zooming over the hills and along the beach front on my bike before enjoying sunset on an isolated peak.

A park fit for a king

I took my new bike out for a spin around kings park today.

I cycled out along the swan river towards Kings park. Well I tried to, I had to stop every 10 meters as it was so beautiful I just had to stop in awe.

I got to the park and coasted around the edge facing the city. The views over the city and river were spectacular.

I found an Australian with language skills less than spectacular. He asked me how to spell 'ladder' I told him, to the response: "ah damn, I put double t." .... Double t..... Really?

I then cycled along the cliff some more before heading up to 'reflection point' in the botanic gardens.

I don't know if the title of the spot got me going subconsciously, or if this place really is as magical as it seems but I got thinking a lot as I sat in the garden. I was thinking about how lucky I have been throughout my travels and my life. Most things seem to pan out well. Not always as I had planed -rarely if truth be told- but always turn out good in the end. 

I also thought about how I have changed since I've been away. I'm not going to start spouting off about 'finding myself' or any of that bollaks; but I think I have become much more patient, more logical in my thinking and I definitely have so much more self control. 

The realisation that life is about more than one thing. It may be good for short periods to work, study or party intensively. But over a period of time even a good thing can easily become mundane and tedious. I think that is why it is important to try and experiance and do as much as I can in this life. Variety is the spice isn't it?

Some times it can feel like I 'can't' do something or it would be 'wrong' -so we're clear I'm talking about speaking to a stranger or climbing down a dangerous ladder, not killing someone or anything! I have started to realise by pushing through this fear, that if we think logically about the actual risks involved the only thing limiting us is our mind. Without sounding like a hippy, fear is all in our minds to limit us. If something is logically possible and safe(ish) then why the hell should you listen to that voice in your head saying "don't do it, don't talk to them they might be mean." Or "don't buy that." Or "don't go into that cave."

After this reflection I cycled up to the high DNA tower to watch the sun set majestically over the tree line and the distant city.

Let's go to the beach!

Today we made an impromptu trip to Fremantle. 

Fremantle is awesome, it's an old style city, really rustic like a 21st century cowboy town. There was a really funny street performer. He was a very talented juggler, doing knives and all sorts. He was very funny, mainly because he was very surley taking the piss out of the audience a lot.

Anna, a Ukrainian born American girl. David a French guy and I went round the indoor market. We were then joined by Lila, another French girl when we went to the beach.

After the beach Anna and I got showered and changed and went out to the chritmas parade through the city. It was a lot of fun seeing the floats and kids groups performing through the street. After that we grabbed a couple of beers and had a couple of drinks up by the horseshoe bridge where a duty beach had been built. A section of sand complete with deck chairs and buckets! We had a great chat, hitting all of the deep topics. I also nearly got caught by a security gard while weeping behind some reeds.

We then spent an hour and a half looking for a bloody taxi. As soon as we gave up and started walking I spotted one and pretty much jumped on his bonnet!

Suburban adventure!

Today I didn't do too much exciting I just went into town, wandered around a bit and got some food at the local polytechnic.

In the afternoon however I set off to buy myself a bike off gumtree.

I got the bus towards suburbia, which is vast in perth! I got on with a few people including a mother and child in a pram. After about half hour the bus driver pulled over and got really pissy with this woman. He had remembered that she had a ticket for one zone. I stayed very quiet as I had actually shown him an invalid ticket!!

So, I arrived in the huge suburbs. Looked in my wallet. Shit. No money!

I then had to walk 45 minuets to the closest shop. I'm glad I did though. As I past both Gay Street and Bonanza Road. 

When I took a photo of Bonanza Road a chavvy guy -or as the Aussies call them 'a bogen'- came out of his house with his dog.

"Oy! Why are you taking a picture of that sign!"

"Oh hi, because I'm English and it's a funny name."

"Well don't"

"Well.... I already have now."

"Well don't do it again."

"Why would I take another picture of the sign? I already have one."

Then I just waved his finger like an American cheerleader and walked back into his house like he was the victor.

The trip was topped off by a ride with my new bike down Nicholson Road.

My camera decided however that it should make me transparent. So in the picture below I'm a ghost.

We all went out that evening into Perth, it was a lot of fun. David, Nathanial and I cracked open some very enthusiastic dancing in a super trendy bar. We got a lot of funny looks but it was great fun!

After a few beers in town some of us headed back to the house. Anna and I stayed up till three chatting we finally called it a night and went to bed. As I was heading back to my sofa in the front garden Dave and Nathaniel got back. So obviously I had another beer with them! Bed at half four then!