Random Piccys

Nothing particularly exciting to report over the last few days....but I finally got some more pics off my camera, enjoy!




Pav, Taylor, Katie, me, before going into the Big Brother arena!



Us again + Rach, posing inside...



The Big Bro stage



We went to a really nice bar this week called Titanium, which overlooks the river, this was the view



Just before drinking commenced!



Me and Pav at Melbas



Me and the Italians, this was a while ago!!

Big Brother!

Dunno if it has started in the UK yet but Big Brother is in full swing over here at the moment! The house is at a theme park called Dreamworld, which is near where I'm living. I came home the other day to find that our boss had got us all tickets to go to the eviction show!!

The crowd area is much smaller than the one in England so we had a pretty good view even though we were near the back. The weird thing about evictions over here is that everyone cheers the evicties....needless to say, we booed, and got some dodgey looks! Was great fun!

Nearly Arrested!

If you read the last few posts you'll know that one of my duties, working at the hostel, is to take the backpackers out drinking some nights... Usually I just take our guests to one bar but on Saturdays and Wednesdays we join 7 other hostels for the 'Big Night Out' pub crawl. This usually involves leading 150-200 people around 4 different bars....oh and we get free drinks while we're 'working'.

This Wednesday was the first time I'd repped on a big night out. It started off quite well, me and Sara (the other rep from our hostel) got a loads of our guests out, piled everyone on the bus, and got them into the first bar no worries. We had some drinks with the reps from the other hostels and then got given instructions for moving everyone on to the next bar. Before we got into the second bar there was a group photo then everyone started lining up to go in. As we were getting the last of the guests into the line, some random, homeless-looking guy came up to me and started having a go at me about people who had stood on a bench while the photo was being taken....he then said he was an undercover cop and started shouting at me about another guest who was using a traffic cone as a hat...by this time he was starting to annoy me so I told him to prove he was a cop, which, for some reason, pissed him off even more!

After showing me his badge I thought I better get the guy to remove the cone from his head. Once I'd got back the cop had apparently stormed off, saying he was gonna get the pub crawl shut down (whoops!). When I went over to the club the bouncer said that the cop wanted to arrest me....I couldn't help but laugh and asked him what for....he told me to stop being cheeky (moi!) and walked off. Anyway, the bosses of the pub crawl sorted it out (not that I actually did anything) and I didn't hear anything of it again, phew! It wasn't my night because I got chucked out of the third club after the bouncers mistook me for someone else.....but got free pizza so it was all good :) All was fine with the last club and it turned out to be a really fun, if eventful, night out on the town!

I actually did stuff this week. I went to a place called 'the spit', which is a mass of sand thats built up around the mouth of a river near here. There are really good waves to surf and its a great place to watch the sun go down while fishing....although I didn't catch anything! I also went on a mini surf trip with one of the guys I went white-water rafting with (who lives in surfers). We went to Tweed Heads then Coloundra, which had some of the best waves I've ever surfed! On Thursday I went fishing with Taylor, an American girl who works at the hostel, and we caught the smallest fish I've ever seen. On Monday I found a job for one day, cleaning the biggest school you could ever imagine. This school was so big that you have to drive from one part to another and the security patrol on quadbikes, it was hard work! I also went to look at the Versace Hotel, which is damn swish from the outside (they didn't invite me in!). And finally, I went to Tambourine Mountain with Sara to look at a waterfall....which turned out to have no water cos there is a drought....damnit! Was still fun though :)

Finally, good luck to everyone who has uni exams coming up. Hope they all go well guys and enjoy the partys afterwards!!!




The Sleeping Inn Limo!



With its trusty chauffeur



I finally had someone to take a picture of me surfing. Unfortunately my camera isn't really good enough for action shots so this is the best of a bad bunch of photos....grrr



View from the spit in the day



Then at sunset



The Versace Hotel

A job! Which pays no money....

Yes, I'm doing what every backpacker does when they are really short of money....working for the hostel I'm staying at, in exchange for free rent.

Surprisingly though, its turning out to be one of the best jobs I've ever had! I 'work' five hours a day, which means I'm getting paid about $5 an hour (2 quid!), but the job doesn't usually involve me actually doing anything and comes with loads of perks! If I'm working in the morning I hoover the dorm rooms (the hard shift, especially if you have a hangover). If I'm working in the afternoon I pick up the guests in the most ridiculous stretch limo you could imagine! This baby is white, with red leather, orange writing on the side and pink-panther seat covers! Finally, if I'm working night security I watch DVDs and take the occasional break to tell people to be quiet. But the best part of the job is repping on big nights out that the hostels organise. This basically involves taking all the backpackers, from our hostel and others, on a big pub crawl, and drinking unlimited free drinks along the way!!

Soooo, so far I'm having a great time in surfers paradise, meeting lots of cool people and actually getting some good surf in for the first time in a while! I've been away for nearly 7 months now....I think I'll embark on a journey to a new country soon.... ;)

Pix to follow!

Surfers Revisited!

Went south to Brisbane again and spent a day in the library trying to do some research on places I wanna go to after Oz. There was something dodgey going on with the car and I was getting worried that it was on its way out so I took it to the Greek guy who helped me out before. Luckily it was just the ignition leads, so I bought a new set and fitted them myself, another lucky escape!

I continued south to Surfers Paradice. As I wrote last time I visited, its not the most beautiful of places, but its definitely a fun place to be! So I've decided to stick around for a while cos I think I should finally be able to get some work.....although I've just been partying it up so far and haven't even looked for a job, doh! I arrived 3 days ago and so far I've been on a crazy pub crawl, done more drinking, and been to the casino (where I won $100 playing craps, I think I'll work as a professional gambler!).

The surf here isn't bad but I had a scary moment the last time I went. I was sitting out the back waiting for a wave when I saw a dark shape in the water and a fin break the surface of the water. While paddling as fast as I've ever paddled, I looked back to see three more fins and realised that they were dolphins. They also like to surf, gliding down the waves and doing a little jump at the end! They were only about 5 meters away from me, it was so cool to see them that close!

Anyway, I'll write properly soon, just letting you all know that I'm still alive!

Noosa....again!

I decided to go back to Noosa as there were a few things I missed on the way up. I also caught some good surf there and its a beautiful place so I thought I'd stick around for a bit and get a job. Unfortunately things did not turn out as easy as I had imagined. Its impossible to get a job even close to Noosa...I just finished a maths degree and I can't even find a job washing plates in a restaurant!

Got in some really good fishing though. The first evening I arrived I caught a load of big bream. I just happened to be fishing next to a guy who cleans fish for a living so he showed me the proper way to kill and prepare the fish (my earlier attempts didn't leave me with much to eat). After selecting three of the biggest, and giving the guy the rest, I cooked them up on the BBQ, nice!

Soooo, after a few days seeing bits of the national park I missed, one good day of surf and a lot of fishing, I got bored of Noosa so have decided to head south again to try and find some work!



The fish, ready to slap on the BBQ



Alexandria Bay where I surfed

Its good to be Greek!

When I was in Brisbane I noticed that my car had an oil leak. It looked like transmission oil rather than engine oil but I couldn't see where it was coming from so took it to a mechanic. After looking under the hood and giving the classic sharp intake of breath, the guy said he thought my radiator was broken.... I asked him to show me but he said he couldn't without getting it up on the ramp, so I asked him to get it up on the ramp.

'I'm a bit busy', he said.
'Don't worry, I'll wait', I replied.

After walking around a shopping 'centre' that consisted of 3 shops, a Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and a petrol station, I went back to have a look. The car was still in the same place so I went for a wander again. After two hours the guy still hadn't got it on the ramp and suggested I leave it with him and he'd fit a new radiator by the following morning, for $300....needless to say, I took the car and found another mechanic!

At the next place the boss got one of his mechanics to take it onto the ramp and have a look. In the meantime he got me a coffee and just chatted away about surfing etc. At some point he took my name down, realised that my surname is Greek and told me that he is also Greek-Cypriot! He even got us some lunch while the car was being checked out. It turned out that it was just a cracked oil hose, which he replaced straight away. When I asked how much I owed him he just shrugged his shoulders and said don't worry about it. I told him I had to pay something so he took $20 (like 8 quid), which probably only covered lunch! Before I got on my way he offered me a place to stay if I'm ever in Brisbane again, and said I should join him for a surf.....lucky huh!