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August 9, 2006 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! Today is our one year anniversary! We can officially consider our Australian experiment a success! I brought home some pretty flowers for Ella for the occasion and she suprised me by baking an anniversary cake. It's been an interesting year. Looking back, I don't think I could even want to change anything... at least nothing that happened in Australia. All the hardships I had came from the States. From coming here with practically nothing to building up this wonderful life. It's been nothing short of a dream. I'm still not sure I want to stay here permanantly... but it would be nice to spend at least a couple more years here. I know I'm not the only happy one, too. Ella is nothing but smiles when we're here. I remember when we were back in Wisconsin and how infrequently she was happy... or maybe that's the wrong way to word it. It's not that she was unhappy... but that she seems to be so much happier here. So this is the last post in the Australian Blog. Our year is up. It's been a monumental success. For future blogs, please visit Chris' Blog or MySpace. No complaints, no regrets, no worries. Good on ya, mate! -Bob |
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August 5, 2006 Today Ella and I went to the Sydney Harbor Boat Show! For those of you that have been talking to us, you might have heard our pie-in-the-sky plan of buying a boat we could live on and sailing it back to the States. Well, this is one of our first steps in that direction. We went to the Maritime Museum a couple days ago and I researched some of the round-the-world trips. Just a few years ago, a 17 year-old boy did it. I mean, seriously, if HE can do it... and by himself... and not being allowed to dock anywhere... and never having sailed before a year prior... then certainly I can handle it. The Boat Show was our trip to see if we could live in such cramped quarters, if there would be enough room for storage, and if we could afford it. We looked at a few standard sailing yachts... some of them meant for speed, some of them meant for luxury. Obviously we don't care a rats behind about speed. We're not racing our house! So we concentrated on the luxury yachts. Most of them were pretty cramped. We were kind of disheartened to figure out that we just couldn't handle anything smaller that a 40 foot yacht. The 30 foot ones, which were in our price range, were just too small inside. Then we found it. The catamaran! I wish I had taken more pictures! This thing was positively HUGE inside. Think of it like taking two 30 foot hulls and strapping them together and building a living room on top of them... then don't charge hardly anything more for it! Seriously, we walked through a relatively cheap catamaran and it had 4 bedrooms and 2 baths! It was BIGGER than our current apartment (less headroom, though). Aside from the interior, the deck is larger and they put decks or netting between the hulls for more deck space. On the rear, they occasionally have a crane with a dingy of some kind... so you can have a jet ski or small boat for rowing to shore. So we're totally sold on the catamaran style. Now it's just a matter of saving up the money... which could be a while. The indoor portion of the boat show was also pretty cool. We researched a little bit on the desalinization equipment (for fresh water) and generators and GPS and satallite radios/internet. Pretty much they make it so you can be self-sufficient and still email people. PERFECT! We also found a place that lets you do a time-share of a catamaran. Since we still don't know if this is for us, we don't want to jump into spending over $100K for something that will have us pulling our hair out in a month. So while we're saving up money, we thought we could do this time-share thing and we could have the boat for a month at a time and learn if we really like it or not. So we're thinking of going that route right now. Keep in mind that we realize that this is all the stuff of dreams... we may not actually do it... but it's what we're thinking of at this point in time. Next week we may be thinking of building an ingloo... who knows. One of the cooler displays was the James Bond exhibit:
There was also a drag boat called the Aggressor. Apparently it was undefeated in racing. That's not what I found to be interesting, though. No, the story behind it was the most interesting. The guy who designed it had no real experience with boat racing and built it himself in his garage. That in itself would make it even more interesting except that he had a policy of giving everyone else a head start. He would purposely lay off until everyone had jumped the starting line and then he would dig in. "If I can't pass them, I don't deserve to win." THAT made it interesting. On our way home from the boat show we passed a truck with "A Man and a Ute" on the side. (For those of you who don't know, a Ute is like a pickup truck... it's the Australian version.) It reminded us of "Two Men and a Truck" from back home. This led to a discussion on what other simple business names could be created using the same formula. I'll jump straight to our favorite, "A Man, a Shovel, and a Box"... you can let your mind wander from there. Once we got back to Kings Cross, we decided to try out the new sushi place on the corner. It was adequate, but the service was slow. I still haven't found good sushi. After that we opted to keep in the oriental spirit of things and we each got a 30 minute massage from our favorite massage parlor. No, there are no "happy endings"... these are theraputic massage parlors... not erotic massage... although I can see how you could be misled considering that they are in the Cross. All in all it was a very fun day. Next week we're off to New Zealand again for our quarterly trip. Hopefully Ella can get into school next semester as I'm starting to get really concerned about how many times they'll let us do this. -Bob |
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July 29, 2006 Yesterday Ella and I went to the 2006 Sydney Sexpo! It was a grand ol' time. Actually I find it quite humorous that I work in Kings Cross, the red light district of Sydney, I haven't been in even one of the sex shops on the street and have only been in one strip club and that was because it was Billy's birthday... and here I am at this huge Expo on sex! One of the items that I couldn't afford, but thought might be really fun (and not in a sexual way) was the X-pole. The muscles on the girls using it were just incredible and it just seemed like so much fun. I seriously considered getting one. One of the more scary things we saw was a creature with boobs for a head and dinosaur feet. I'm not sure what it was, but I didn't find it sexy or even that funny... mostly just... well... terrifying. Yet strangely enough that wasn't the scariest thing. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to go on this ride. I made sure to take pictures of the tattoo booth and the piercing booth for reference if we wanted to get SleeveMasters on the job next year. I also managed to snap a picture of a girl toweling off near the hot tub display. I got these specifically for Meg. Those of you that know her, know why. We had fun. We walked all the way there (a LONG hike) and then wandered around for a couple hours before buying a few choice items, taking in a couple of shows, and then taking a cab back home (my feet just couldn't handle any more. Here are some videos I took of the shows. They're not great, but if you want great just download some porn from somewhere else! Anyway... enjoy!
-Bob |
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July 26, 2006 So the other night I was talking to Billy. He told me this story of a friend of his who took his date to a very upper-scale sushi restaurant. The girl was a real gold-digger and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu... Lobster sushi at $250 a plate! Well, the uppity date didn't really think it though too well. Just like at a nice lobster restaurant, lobsters are kept around in the tank so that they are very fresh... and sushi is typically raw... how did they serve it? The lobster was brought out whole and alive. He was out of the water and had been chilled, so he was moving, but very slow and groggy. His back was then split open in front of the customer and while he was sitting there writhing in pain, crushed sea-salt was sprinkled onto the back muscle, which made it spasm! The guy's date was so grossed out, she threw up all over the plate! Guess you just can't please some people. In thinking about that story, I wonder if it isn't an urban myth that someone told to Billy as truth. I'll have to check into it and see if there is any proof to back it up or actual witnesses. Still, even if it isn't true... it's a pretty cool story. Plus, I find it kind of believable because Australians love to leave the heads on their shrimp (prawns) and this just sounds like something that they would do. I think I may have mentioned it before, but Big Brother is very big here in Australia... for some reason Survivor and American Idol flopped and Big Brother became the "must see." It's been running for about 3 months now and two weeks ago there was a big scandal. Two of the male contestants were booted from the show for breaking some major rules. For the most part they tried to contain what actually happened, but after a while the speculation was too great and they had to come forward with what really happened. They show some video of the two males (John and Ashley) getting into bed with one of the females (Camillla). (This happens often, for those of you who are unfamiliar... cohabiting a bed is NOT against the rules.) There is some shuffling under the covers and some giggles and then after a while a, "Hey, stop it!" from the female. That was it, the guys stopped it and it was over. So it wasn't anything too terrible, but enough that the show considered it sexual harrassment and the two were booted. Turns out what happened was the female contestant received a "turkey slap" and that is what she complained about. I know... I know... at first I didn't know what it was either and I had to research it. Where would we be without the internet? Definition? A turkey slap is where you wave your penis in someone's face. I'll just leave it at that and let your mind wander. I'd never heard of this before and honestly, the thought hadn't really ever crossed my mind... but you know, once you hear of something... you really start to wonder. Sorry, Mom... I'm sure you didn't want to hear that. Last week we went to the movies and we saw another Australian movie, Jindabyne and just like the rest of the Aussie movies we've seen, it was depressing as hell. What is it with all the Aussie movies being so depressing? I'm all for realistic endings and not always having everything wrap up neat and tidy like in Hollywood... but this is getting ridiculous. While we were there, another movie was premiering, Footy Legends. I don't expect this will show up in American theaters any time soon. It opens next week, but the theater we go to downtown is the BIG theater. This is where all the premieres are at... so they had the red carpet laid out with barriers and they were interviewing stars and everything, cameras and crews and lights. All very exciting except that these were all Australian stars and not the equivalent of Nicole Kidman or Russell Crowe... so I didn't recognize anyone. I'll have to watch for more premieres though. Then this week Sheryl finally had her baby! A bouncing baby boy. Tyler T Thorstensen... T3, you know, like the Terminator. I figure anyone who can make it through all the hardships that Sheryl put on that kid in the first month of his life, he's going to be about as hard to kill. Watch out for this one! This weekend there is a big convention in Moore Park near the Fox studios... the Sexpo! Woot! So Ella and I are planning on going to that. It should be kinda fun. I'll have to let everyone know. I'll see if I can't get you some pictures. The next weekend we have the big Sydney boat show. I've never been to a boat show, but considering my recent interest in possibly buying a boat, I think this will be something that I really should go to as well. Again, I'll try to take pictures, although I'm sure they won't be as interesting as the Sexpo ones. Ha! -Bob |
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July 16, 2006 All KINDS of fun stuff has been happening. Work stuff, I picked up another website and logo design job and finally got the business cards printed. Why is it that every time I come up with really good designs the people in charge always pick the worst of the bunch... I mean, I designed them, so they're obviously not complete crap, but it's a typical thing that my least favorite design is the one that the customer will pick. Anyway, here is the new logo on her business card. Soon, there will be a website as well, but we're currently in the design stages and haven't come close to actually starting work yet. Then I got an opportunity to redesign a logo for a custom motorcycle shop. Green Snake Customs was talking to my former counterhand, Lee, and asked him to come up with a logo for their new shop. Lee started a nice sketch and then handed it over to me, because he knew I had a lot of experience doing designs that look really crisp, professional, and work well for all kinds of media. It took me a couple weeks to get done, but I finally completed it. Needless to say, I've gotten quite a few kudos on it. The niftiest part about doing this logo, is that this isn't going to be a small time shop. They're opening with a big party, making up t-shirts and caps, and building a couple of $250,000 motorcycles with my logo STAMPED on the tank! I've been doing quite a bit of my graphics work for free lately, just because I enjoy doing it and I want to keep my skills up. So when something comes along where I'll have a logo that I designed permanantly stamped on a $250,000 machine that will likely be in all kinds of magazines, it gives me a very special feeling of accomplishment. Then I started a new project at the tattoo shop. I just installed a video monitor and DVD player. I've been filming myself and the other tattooists over the past couple weeks and I put together a DVD of still shots and video that we can play at the front counter. Each artist has his own track, so we just put that track on repeat. Each track is about 5 minutes long, so it's not huge, but it was my first foray into video editing, so it's a pretty big accomplishment for me. Of course, it's also my FIRST foray... subsequent videos will be MUCH better as I get used to the software and such. It's a great thing to let people see our work without having a half dozen ugly photo albums cluttering up the counter. As far as social things go, I've been talking to Meg from back in the States quite a bit online. We're really forming a strong friendship here. It's still kind of odd for me to feel this close to someone that I've never met. Ah, but as a wise man once said, with every door that closes, another opens. I'm also trying to keep up as much as possible with Sheryl and Stacy. Sheryl is ready to pop just about any day now. It's been months since I've seen either of them, and when I last saw Sheryl in person, she was just barely showing. She sends me pictures now where she looks like she's carrying twins... but usually with people who are really fit, the contrast is really stark like that. Then last Friday Billy, Ella and I all went down to Tony Roma's Ribs... Wow. I know that this is a chain restaurant that started in Florida, but wow were these ribs good. I had a full rack of their original baby back ribs and the meat just fell off the bone. I'm drooling now just thinking about them. Oh, as an aside, I do not recommend the mozzerella sticks, they're tasteless. Oh, and the highlight of my last week was finding out about the Ben Folds concert. Yes, Ben Folds will be playing at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Orchestra! I'm not much for concerts, but this has to be one of those Do Not Miss concerts. I know people who would simply sell their souls for these tickets. So the last few weeks have been pretty busy, plus I have another trip to New Zealand to plan for. I'm hoping I can come up with enough money to schedule the Hobbiton tour this time. For goodness sake, this is going to be my third trip there! You'd think I'd be able to get it done this time! Plus, I have to save up for the Return of the King extended DVD set... I couldn't find that one last time. Oh, and more apologies on my website being down. Ben had to move again. On the upside, now we're going to be running on TWO internet lines, so speeds should be significantly better than they have been in past years. Plus, we're working on some databasing stuff that should improve my site as well. Ok, now I'm off to make some more money... someone came in for another tattoo and I have to get some work done. I miss everyone terribly. -Bob |
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July 5, 2006 I suppose you all want to know how my Independence Day celebrations went. Well it all started a few days ago. Rosie, her boyfriend, Grant, their houseguest, Jason Chase (Yup, Chase... no relation that we could find), Ella and I all got together at Rosie's and played Monopoly again. We didn't want to show up empty handed, so we brought cupcakes. We thought it would be humorous, since we were playing with two Poms and a Kiwi, if we frosted them red, white and blue for Independance Day. I'm not really sure how it was taken. They laughed about it but there was almost a feeling that it was taken as a dig against the British so they weren't sure if it was meant with spite or not. Eh, I guess it kind of was, but not in a hurtful way. Still, regardless how it was taken, I thought it was hilarious. After the game, where I finally lost for once... although I stayed in with some creative wheeling and dealing until the bitter end... Ella and I said goodnight to the gang and journeyed back down to the tattoo shop. We had two extra cupcakes and we offered one to Billy and Luke. We wanted to give one to Dave, but he can't have too much sugar. I spent some time looking for some kind of fireworks, but I never ended up finding any. On the 4th we received a care package from the Miles family. There were some tiny American flags and some red, white, and blue M&M's. So I stuffed a flag in one pocket and a handful of M&M's in the other and went to work... I hung up my flag on the worklight and I told everyone that I tattooed that night that they had to salute the flag because it was America's Independance Day... especially the Aussies. If they questioned it, I told them I was preparing them for the time when they would claim their own independance from Britian. No one seemed to mind since they were getting good tattoos. That was about the extent of it. Nothing fancy but a big thank you to the Miles family for their help in our celebration. -Bob |
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June 27, 2006 I tried uploading everything when I got home, but it was really slow. I left it uploading all night and most of the photos are uploaded now, but I still have to update the blog... not that you really care about that because since you're reading this, it means it's uploaded... just thought I'd let you know what I go through so you can read about my boring life. I slept in today. I've decided that Tuesdays are going to be my days off from working out since I have to walk quite a ways to go to the movies, plus it gives me one day to sleep in during my work week. Ella and I went to see Click... I wasn't impressed. While we were walking out, Ella and I thought of a dozen ways to make the movie better... it was a good idea, just poor execution. That isn't to say that it was worthless. The special effects were great. It was just such a good idea that there were so many things that they could have done... and it just seeemed like they picked the most boring ideas. They used all the good ideas in the previews. Still, it was fun. On our way back home we passed an anomoly in Sydney... a sidewalk preacher. A portly, older gentleman with a southern U.S. accent had commandeered the corner outside the local KFC. He was spouting the usual "Be saved or go to hell" stuff that you usually hear, although it's much more rare here in Sydney. What made him stand out, though, was the red truckers cap with a piece of wool sewn to the front. On the wool, in rough Sharpie, he had scrawled "JEZUS." I guess I just don't have the words to describe exactly how hilarious Ella and I found this. We would have taken his photo, but unfortunately, whenever you need a camera, yours is sitting at home on the desk.
-Bob |
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June 26, 2006 Last night Rosie and Grant were supposed to come over for dinner and Monopoly... but around 6 they called and cancelled. Unfortunately I'd had a really busy day tattooing (or fortunately, depends how you look at it) and I didn't hear the phone ring. So the first I knew that they were ill and couldn't make it was at 8:30 when I finished my tattoo and checked my messages. Ella had already started dinner so we had a lot of leftovers last night. I didn't mind so much that they didn't come over, all that tattooing took a lot out of me. It was a good trade, after the last couple weeks, it was nice to have a busy day to make some real money. Then today I got up early and started my new workout regime. I woke at 10am and walked down to the gym and had a good 45 minute workout and then went home and jumped in the shower. I spent some time talking to my friends and then tried to wake Ella up. As usual, she was too hung over to get out of bed at a decent hour. Once she was up, my friend Ben came over and we worked on music for a while before I had to rush off to work. So far I've sat here for 3 hours and no one has come in yet. Australia is playing Italy in the World Cup today, so it's really dead. There are a couple of things that really affect work here. The weather (no one wants a tattoo when it's cold or raining) and sports (it surprising how popular the World Cup is here!) I may end up going home early just because there is NOTHING going on. HA! I just said that sports dictate a lot of our work... I just had someone come in that was going to go watch the game and he asked if I could do a quick southern cross on his arm before the game started so he could show his loyalty. Bingo-bango... 15 minutes and he had a southern cross on his shoulder. I've gotten SO quick since I've started working here. Well, that's it for now. I'll try to update this before I go to bed tonight. If not, first thing tomorrow. -Bob |
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June 25, 2006 I've had some really rough times the last month! First of all, it's winter here and the money isn't coming in as briskly as it did six months ago. Weather still dictates the tattoo industry. Last week I worked four days and only made $50! Wednesday I had a good night and I made more in the one night than I would have in an entire week working at Country Maid, but it still was a little thin there for a while. My days have been a bit better, but they're still not the fat wads like I was getting months back. Still better than Country Maid, and the work environment is still worlds better... but I've gotten used to just throwing around $50 bills like they were singles. It's tough cutting back. Then I've had a number of issues... obviously the Jim thing took up some time. I had other issues as well. There were three things that I left back in Wisconsin that I had been mildly concerned about. The first being the car. The second being my Dig Dug machine. I purchased a full size arcade game a few years back. Dig Dug holds some nostalgia for me. When I was growing up my family took a vacation to Florida to visit my grandparents. Back in Wisconsin, we weren't allowed soda very often and we lived out in the country and didn't have access to video games. So, I saved a bit of money, and while we were there, Ben and I rode our bikes up to the local 7-11. We bought Big Gulps of Mountain Dew and played Dig Dug every day. This was my first real exposure to video games, so Dig Dug has some fond memories. When I left, I stored Dig Dug with a friend of mine, Bernie. Bernie has 3 other machines, so I figured it would have a good home. A couple months ago he decided he was moving, though... and he no longer had enough room for my baby. After some searching, Happy offered to take the game in and my parents helped with the transport. Although it seems like that's an easy fix, think about trying to organize it from the other side of the planet... talking to Bernie through Dunham, coordinating with my parents and Happy... finding a home in the first place and waiting for responses from people. It wasn't fun. I have to say that having Happy take care of it was a great idea though. Happy has been wonderful. He's replaced the light in the top and is working on fixing the crackly sound. I wouldn't be surprised if I came back to a fully refurbished video game. I mean, I'm sure he'll get his use out of it, but I feel pretty guilty with him doing all that work. Still, he's proven once again what a wonderful friend he is. The third thing was the belongings that I had been storing in my old house. JJ was nice enough to let me keep a bunch of stuff in a back room in the basement. Unfortunately he had some bad luck with the house. Apparently after I sold it to him, he had to raise the rent. While I had been able to keep the rent lower because I was caring for the property myself, JJ hired a service and had to up the rent in order to support it. The really good tenant moved out, and some other people moved in who weren't so great. At one point they bought a pit bull and left it alone in the house for over two weeks. Well, you can imagine what a hungry, thirsty, bored pit bull could do to a house in that time. JJ had to try to sell it. Unfortunately there were some damages and the renters took off, so the mortgage got behind... and the property was foreclosed on. I had less than a month to clear my things out. This was no small feat as I had a lot of stuff down there, all my books and comics, my "Ws", Radial arm saw and all the rest of my tools, all my halloween decorations (for those of you that know me, you know this was a LOT of stuff). I had to have my poor mom and dad help out, they hired movers and they did the bulk of the work, but there was still a lot of stuff that had to be boxed and cleaned up... My mom did all that. To give you an idea of what we went through, we hired Two Men and a Truck to move the stuff. The day they showed up, they took one look at the mess and decided that they needed more help... plus, the day they were going to move things, the power company shut off the electricity. So everything had to be rescheduled for the following week... when THREE Men and a Truck showed up! I had to pay for all this, during the slow season. I had sent money home for bills, and it all got soaked up by the moving expenses. I now am the proud owner of a storage locker with stuff packed to the ceiling. Blech. So that's the stuff that I've been taking care of back home. On top of that, though, I contracted some sort of virus on my laptop. My spyware detectors and antivirus software couldn't find anything, so I had to wipe the drive. In order to do that, I first had to back up my important documents... unfortunately one of the side effects of the virus I picked up is that my computer would shut down every 10 minutes. You can imagine how difficult that made it to back up about 20 gigabytes worth of info. It literally took me a week. Then once everything was backed up and I had wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows, I had to reinstall all my drivers... well, for some reason all the drivers in a Sony laptop have to be installed in a specific order... so it took me a while to figure that out. For a while, I was surviving without sound and my wireless LAN kept screwing up. Of course, this is when everyone needed work done... it figures. My main workstation is on the fritz and everyone wants web and graphics stuff. Anyway, everything is back to normal and now I'll be able to update my blog. Aren't you lucky? You get to read for the next hour! Yeah, there's that much. So now you know what's been going on with me. I'm all caught up. I'll try to keep up now. -Bob |
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June 19, 2006 Monopoly seems to be the new activity of choice with my friends. Yesterday Ella and I played Monopoly with Lee and Tuuli. They came over after I got off work and Ella made a nice dinner (Mexican fare since it isn't very popular here.) We had a nice dinner with a nice selection of music and some conversation. Then we started in on Monopoly. During most of the game, Lee and I just kept chatting back and forth while the girls were very interested in playing hardcore Monopoly. I mean, they were trading pieces of property (not even the high priced properties) for $3,000! Lee and I were playing a different strategy and it benefit us in the end. The girls were quickly losing their stockpiles and having to give up their houses and mortgage properties. We again didn't finish the game, but it was pretty well assumed that I was going to take it and that Lee wasn't too far behind. Possibly some of Ella's problem with this game, as I would assume an American would be able to trounce a silly Aussie, was that she started off the evening saying things like, "Tasty alcohol... tasty alcohol... tasty alcohol...POISON! Tasty alcohol... tasty alcohol... tasty alcohol...POISON!" Well, after we figured out who won, we all went out for coffee. Lee gave us a ride around town and we stopped in a place that had all night coffee. I got a coke, the girls had warm drinks, and Lee got pizza. What? Didn't we feed him enough? Tall, lanky, blokes... gotta watch out for them, they tend to shove the extra food in their pockets for later! Lee was nice enough to spring for drinks, I'd had a bad week and I'd wired some money to my parents so I was running a little short. So thank you, Lee. The Coke was much appreciated. -Bob |
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June 18, 2006 Well, that's it I guess. History repeats itself and those who do not learn from past experiences are destined to repeat it. Before I left for Australia I gave Jim my car. He was in desperate need and I was in a position to help him. I knew our history and I did it anyway. I guess that was my mistake. When I gave Jim my car I told him he could hold off on registering it until the parking permit on the car ran out (end of July) so he could save himself an extra couple dollars. He didn't get it done by the end of July, so I asked him to return the license plates to me by the time I left for Australia. This also didn't happen. Ah, what do I care though, I'm used to Jim shirking responsibilities and procrastinating. When I settled in to my new home, I messaged Jim and told him that what I'd really like for my birthday was to have the tags returned to my mom. I asked for the same gift for Christmas. In February I came back to Wisconsin for a visit. In the time I had been gone, I discovered that Jim had not only been in an accident (if another vehicle, property or persons had been involved, since it was my car I could have been held liable) but he had run up over $200 in parking tickets on my registration. I respectfully asked Jim that, during my time back, if he would please return the plates to me before I left (2 weeks). While I was back I only ever asked two things of him, that he return the plates and that he return my hard drive that he had been borrowing since our departure from Country Maid. It held quite a bit of my work as well as our music collections. After asking for these things when we got together, he disappeared for the rest of my time back. In the days leading up to my departure, I called him numerous times and emailed him with no response. On the day of my departure, I called him many times, called his wife, Tobi, and called Tobi's work as well. Hours before my flight left, I was standing at his door... the car was gone, no one was home. I finally reached Tobi at work and had to drive there, pick up keys, drive back to their apartment and remove the drive from his computer using a knife to loosen the screws. The plates, unfortunately, were with the car. Without any other options, I returned to Sydney. Although I emailed him once about it, I had plenty of other things that needed to be taken care of, so I let it slide for a while longer. I messaged Jim that I needed the car taken care of by the time the registration expired (March 30th). He assured me that it would be taken care of. Again, another of my loosely imposed deadlines came and went. By this time I was receiving angry emails and messages from my mother who was receiving angry phone calls and mail from both police and collection agencies regarding the plethora of parking tickets. I again emailed Jim with a forward from my mother, my only words being, "Take care of this." I would think at this point that my request would be clear. I didn't hound him. I didn't badger him. I had learned my lesson years before. Just a few simple messages and a couple emails over a period of 10 months. When April came and went, and I was still getting messages from my Mom telling me how annoying it was having these collection agents calling at all hours, I decided to be a little more proactive. I understood that Jim was having troubles, that he hadn't held a good solid job in almost a year, nothing but temps. I wasn't about to impose anything on him that he couldn't handle, but something had to be done. I knew he wouldn't accept money directly. So I enlisted a friend of his. Someone that seemed to have pretty close contact with him, someone that he trusted, trying to keep it as close to the vest as possible. The friend obtained some money and held Jim's hand to pay off the parking tickets. This needed to be done immediately as when I returned to Australia I'd had my wallet stolen. The DMV wasn't allowing me to get a replacement license because of the tickets on my record. Man, they just stop EVERYTHING now for those stupid tickets, don't they? The friend took care of the tickets, but then Jim stopped communicating with the friend. The tickets thing may have been a catalyst, there was probably more involved, but Jim broke off all relations. There had been money put aside for the registration as well, but now that the friend had been excommunicated, there wasn't much that I could do anymore. I emailed Jim again telling him that the plates had to be taken care of. He replied that he was sending off money to my mother for payment on the car and would take care of the plates when he could. Bloody hell! When did I ever ask for payment? I think one time I asked him where he was on payments (we had set up a $100 a month payment plan) but had never really requested any more money because I knew where he was financially. So I told him that I was tired of waiting. He had until the following Friday. I took a hard line. I told him to take care of it or I would. At that point I started calling in what I've come to call my Flying Monkeys, friends who offered to help me with anything I needed done in order to right the situation. I had originally planned on just taking the license plates, but when I made contact with the one friend, I thought I had a chance to help Jim without taking away his ability to drive. Now that they weren't talking anymore, the Flying Monkeys were back in action. Jim and I had been firing taunting emails back and forth, him because he was frightened and offended, me just because I was pissed off. Jim mentioned he had a spy in my camp. That he knew about my Flying Monkeys. For a while I was stumped. I asked specific questions of my friends and all of them answered in a way that they couldn't know everything. Jim knew more. He had to have access to something else. Then I remembered... my email. Jim and I had worked side by side for years and I wasn't concerned that he had my passwords, I had even given them to him at one point. Now he was using them. When I figured this out, I called my Mom on the phone, I told her what was going on and we started emailing back and forth on the account that he was watching. We made up plans how we were going to file for a new title, take the car back, do whatever we had to do. All kinds of covert stuff. In order to give a real sense of emergency to it, we planned it for the Monday before the Friday deadline. I wasn't sure what Jim would do, but he did the most sensible thing and finally got the plates taken care of. So it all worked out. Would I have taken the car? Yeah, I probably would have... but only after exhausting every possible alternative. Jim took care of what he needed to take care of, there was no longer a reason. Was I deceitful and manipulative? Hell, yes. I had reason to be. I had called up an old friend of mine whom I had given a spare key to years ago and asked her to mail it back to me in case I actually had to reclaim the car. I had prepared for every eventuality. The only thing I had failed in was Jim remembering my passwords and his unwavering ability to make his situation worse. There were a lot of strong words bandied back and forth, but that's the jist of the story. Considering my proximity, this was quite a bit of energy that I had to expend just to get him to do something that he should have done nearly a year ago. I gave Jim what I could and, just like last time, he started taking more than I was offering. I'm very understanding about extenuating circumstances, but Jim seems to have a LOT of extenuating circumstances. At a certain point, you just get tired of being taken advantage of. I offer what I can, but you should never press your luck. If I offer you half a sandwich, don't eat the whole thing and then tell me how you haven't eaten for days. I offered you a half a sandwich, didn't I? Most of my actions for the last 6 years have been for Jim's benefit. I was ready to leave Country Maid when he came back into my life. I gave him a job and he fed my creative side. Symbiotic. Years later I planned on leaving Country Maid and following my girlfriend to California. When Jim suggested Australia, I switched my plans. The only reason I'm here now and living the life I am is because of Jim and largely for Jim. In the end, it benefited me in ways I couldn't have possibly imagined, but my goal was to do this with Jim or to at least pave the way for him to join me here since this was his dream, not mine. To say that I've ever done anything to outright hurt him, is ignoring my past record. Even though it's 2 decades of friendship down the tubes, I think it's for the best. Jim doesn't need me giving him vehicles and getting him jobs. He needs to work this all out for himself. As a very wise woman once asked me, "Chris, why do you have to be such an enabler?" So for his benefit as well as my own, it's best if we just go our seperate ways. The thing I can't stand is that he keeps trying to get in the last word... over and over. He emails me and then blocks my accounts. He emails me from another address and then blocks my accounts. He posts drawn out sob stories about how everyone is out to get him (which if you consider someone pulling their funding to be "out to get" someone... then I guess I am) and I don't get to respond? I'm the bad person in all this? Did I do some underhanded things, no... not really... I didn't even get the chance if I was going to. Was I prepared to, oh yes... but as Jim was attacking me verbally and taunting me the entire time, all it did was make me angrier. Jim has this saying about honey, vinegar and bees... I'm sure you've heard it... does he use that mindset with me? Oh no, he attacks me. Rather than beg forgiveness or offer to work out some sort of compromise he attacks the person that has been more caring and supportive than anyone in his life save his parents and his wife. I'm sorry, but as I'm fond of saying, you don't throw rocks at the guy holding the loaded shotgun. I think what bothers me most about this, is his insistance that I've done such a bad thing. I didn't want to do this, but he forced my hand. I've asked him what he expected me to do... what he would have rather I had done... what he would have done in my situation. I don't get responses because my emails get blocked. The other thing is his insistance that he "won." I don't know about you, but I don't see 20 years of friendship getting flushed as "winning." Maybe I'm in the minority. I don't think anyone won. My goals were accomplished, does that mean I won? I don't think so. His insistance that he played a better game than me kind of sticks in my craw, I know the truth about the emails, but it's not the recognition for that move that I want. If I claimed that I had kicked his ass at Trivial Pursuit, he'd tell me I was full of shit. By the same notion, it's highly unlikely that Jim has a shot at beating me at a game of chess. We have our strong points, strategy is not Jim's. Hey, there's no shame in being beaten by a master. I think one of his biggest problems with this is that he thinks I took pleasure in this. That's not true. I took pleasure in the game... but I can seperate the game from the experience. Like seperating sex from love, sure sometimes they get screwed up, but you can appreciate a good lay and have it be a one night stand. You can also appreciate a good game and feel that the whole thing made you sick to your stomach. I've tried sending him numerous emails with the intent of leaving this behind us, not necessarily patching things up, but leaving them in a state where maybe in the future we could return to a state of friendship. He insists that my emails are ones of condescension. He wants to make changes in his life and I feel that those changes will be easier to make if I'm not around to "enable" him. I've told him that if he makes it to Australia that I would consider those changes made and to please look me up. He thinks I'm offering absolution and that I'm some sort of stuck up bastard or better than he is. The thing is, I constantly live in awe of his talent. Sure, he has his drawbacks, but I could never think I was better than him. I have drive and he lacks it... simple as that. He can write, sing, and act circles around me. If he put his mind to it, the same could be said for his drawing skills. I think we're at best even. So, I guess that's it. This post is nothing more than me telling my side of the story. My only hope is that he can see the truth of the matter, then maybe someday.... Until then, I'll be here waiting, with as understanding an ear as I've ever had. -Bob |
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June 18, 2006 (add.) Interesting side note: The day before I wrote this, and one of the reasons that I decided to, I was on my way to work and I ran across a tarot card, face down and crossing my path... the Two of Cups. For those of you that get into tarot, you'll either know what this means or will be able to figure it out. For those of you that don't, just understand that for me to run across a tarot card at all is quite odd (How many times have YOU run across a loose tarot card on the sidewalk) and that it was this card during this time in my life, and in the position it was in, is the equivalent of being struck by lightning. Odd isn't even the word for it. -Bob |
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June 10, 2006 Last night Rosie invited Ella and I over to play board games! It was really kind of cute, she invited us over a few days agod and asked if we'd like to play a game or something. Ella and I went out to Kmart and picked up Simpson's Monopoly, then we had Subway and watched Cars. Then the next day we were to meet Rosie after work. She apparently had a long day and some problems getting a cab. She gave us a call around 7 and we went to meet her at the grocery store. Then we went and picked up a pizza and headed back to her place. We sat around, ate dip and pizza and sodas. Looked at some pictures, then we dove into Monopoly. It was a fun time. A couple times throughout the evening, Rosie's boyfriend, Grant, messaged her to see how things were going. He was surprisingly ok with "the guy from the tattoo shop" hanging out at his girlfriend's apartment... but since she was on a break from him when we went to the theatre and I didn't try anything, I guess he thought I was safe. At one point, he asked if I would be interested in designing a tattoo for him, and if he could get a deal if he gave me Rosie for a little while. I responded that I didn't know how good of a deal I could give him for that. The pommy girl was aghast that her virtue was not only being offered, but that it was being haggled over. Then I mentioned that, since I had to give half of my earnings to the shop, that the boss would have to get his share. Negotiations broke down soon after. In case you can't read the humor in all this, it was all in good fun. Grant showed up after his work shift was over, but by then Rosie was having some major troubles. Ella had started out with a lucky roll and a lucky card draw on Chance. She quickly passed go and was a lap ahead of Rosie and I, so she picked up a lot of properties early on. Also, she kept landing on Free Parking and picking up extra cash. Purely through shrewd game play, I managed to keep up, but Rosie fell behind. Grant did what he could to help her out, but she was too far gone when he got there. Ella even took pity on her and paid off a couple of her debts to keep her in the game, but all it did was prolong Rosie's demise. In the end, the help that Ella gave Rosie (in the hopes of forming an alliance against me) hurt her chances and I ended up slowly taking over. Around 3am, Rosie started to fall asleep, so Ella and I counted up and assumed that I was a little bit ahead, so I was the unofficial winner. Either way, the Americans trounced the Brit. It was a good night. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Fun was had by all and we promised Grant that next time he could play from the beginning. It should add a new dimension, because he had very creative ways of keeping Rosie in the game, interesting deals. -Bob |
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May 27, 2006 A couple weeks ago this nice pommy girl (Australian slang for a British person, like calling me a "Yank") came to the shop and asked for a tattoo. Billy helped her at the counter and she chose a nice cross with a banner and some roses. Billy stenciled it up quick and handed it over to me. I prepped her and I was asking her what she was doing in SleeveMasters getting her first tattoo all by herself. Most people bring in their friends or significant other when getting their first one. Rarely do people come in by themselves. She told me how she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and how she had only moved here recently and was still making friends. I started in on the tat and while I was tattooing, I asked her about the coloring and shading, if she minded if I changed some things to make it look better. Pretty much standard for me, I'm always trying to make the tattoo look better than it does on the sheet. While I was asking her questions, her answers started to confuse me. I picked up the reference sheet and asked her to show me where she'd like certain colors. She pointed to a similar but different cross on the other corner of the page (there are multiple designs on each page). I immediately figured out what had happened. When the stencil is made, it's photocopied and since the crosses were similar, the wrong corner was showed to me. I had already done a portion of the outline of the wrong cross. I sat back and studied what I had done. On the one hand, if both Billy and I had made the mistake, odds were that in a cross on her back, she wouldn't know the difference. On the other hand, I've never made this kind of mistake before. I didn't want to start here. It would be difficult, but I figured that I could probably cover up the small amount I had done and use some of it to create the other design... but I'd need to erase the stencil, create a new stencil, apply it perfectly, and most importantly... terrify a young woman by telling her that I started on the wrong tattoo. I opted to tell her the truth and terrify her. I just couldn't purposely lie like that... even though she probably never would have known. I told her and she thought I was joking until I started to wash off the old stencil with alcohol. I worked as quickly as I could, drew up the new stencil myself, and managed to place the new stencil perfectly. I worked quickly, constantly assuring her that it would be the best tattoo she had ever seen. I put extra care into it, not that I don't usually try to make them look good, but I took extra pains to get the coloring just right. It came out perfect. Anyway, while I was tattooing, I joked about it quite a bit to try and set her at ease. We bonded a bit. I asked her if she'd like to do something sometime, as I was also in the position of trying to build up a base of friends. I gave her my number and my email and surprise surprise, she actually called up to see if we (Ella and I) wanted to do something! Well, a couple weeks later, Rosie (the pommy girl), Billy, Ella, Toby (my counterhand) and I all went out to the Casino for all you can eat. It's good food, maybe a little bit better than Old Country Buffet. The most interesting part of it, though is the huge bowl of prawns. Shrimp in Australia are called prawns. Contrary to popular belief, you will never hear anyone say, "Throw another shrimp on the barbie!" Prawns are interesting, too, as they don't remove the heads here. So your shrimp cocktail looks like a bowl of bugs staring up at you. Still, they are tasty. After the dinner, we went out to see the DaVinci Code. It was a good day. Then yesterday I asked Rosie if she wanted to join Ella and I at the theatre. We started off by going out to eat at Violetta's, then we went to the Darlinghurst Theatre and saw The Illusion. It was an okay story. Some deep meaningful writing. The stage and direction could have used some fine tuning... but the acting was excellent. One of the best parts was the magician's assistant. I really didn't realize who [blah blah] was... that is until he did his monologue in the middle... and then I realized who it was and I just started bouncing in my seat. "It's the ARCHITECT! It's the ARCHITECT! It's the ARCHITECT!" [blah blah] is the actor that played The Architect in the Matrix. Once he did that monologue, it was instantly apparent who he was. I intended to go back tonight with my Matrix DVD's to maybe get him to sign them, but I just plum forgot. Now it's just too late. Still, it was a very nice evening and I had two beautiful ladies on my arm. My life is rough. -Bob |
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May 22, 2006 Ugh, last week was a mess. I got home from New Zealand and some of the first things on the list were to make some payments with the extra money I had left. I put a chunk into my stateside bank account, put some into my Australian account, paid off some annoying bills, and with the rest I decided to finally buy some bookcases. Since our apartment is so small, storage is a BIG issue. We have no storage locker in the basement, we have no garage, no car with a trunk... not even any family nearby that we can store things in their basement. We had been looking for some attractive and affordable solutions and we found it, in of all places, IKEA! I hate the idea that my furniture solution came from IKEA... it seems like I'm supporting the WalMarts and McDonalds of the world rather than buying quality furniture. I justified it by saying that it was just storage. So I spent some time online looking at the IKEA website and I found precisely what I was looking for. It was called the Billy storage system. I figured it was kind of quaint that my storage system shared the same name as my co-worker. Anyway, for just over $300 I could get three bookcases, of varying height, to create a system seven feet wide and seven feet high at the top point. It looked like a really nice set up. The location finder told me that the nearest IKEA was not a full store, and didn't have what I was looking for. The nearest one seemed to be in Richmond, and that was too far away to just check out on my own. I needed transport. I looked around and my counterhand/apprentice, Toby offered to give me a lift. We planned on going one day, but then his car broke down. After he fixed it, we planned on going another day, but I realized, when I looked up on the web for directions, that the Richmond that held the IKEA was near Melbourne... not the Richmond near Sydney. To give you an idea of how far that is, it's like driving from Miwaukee to L.A. In the words of Toby, "There is no way we're driving that far for a bookcase!" So that day was a bust as well. I managed to find one more store that had the bookcases that I wanted, and it wasn't too far away, only about a 40 minute drive. So Toby and I head off to the store. We finally find it and then go through the rat maze that is IKEA till we found my bookcases. The flyer told me that to build what I needed, I needed a #40, #60, and #80. So we picked them up and brought them out to the parking lot, no drama. When we got to the car, Toby was having a bit of trouble getting the back seat to fold down. We pulled the knob on one side and the seat unlocked, but on the other side, the knob just pulled free. Toby doesn't value his car much, so he started just kicking the crap out of it. While it was quite amusing, it wasn't that productive. We couldn't reach the screw that would release the seat, so I went back inside and found a store where I bought a needlenose pliers. It would figure that the one time I leave my backpack home is the time I need my utility tool. Still, now Toby has a new pliers to help keep his car together. We managed to fold down the seat and load everything up. We drove it all back to my apartment and unloaded at which time Toby had to leave for his regular job. I still had a couple hours before I had to be to work at SleeveMasters, so I began to put the first bookcase together. Now, while I've always thought of IKEA as crap furniture, I've never actually dealt with it before. It's a societal thing, I think. "Big business is bad" sort of mentality. As I started to put it together, I really had to admire the engineering behind the furniture. Sure, it's still crap, but it's SO well engineered, much better than Sauder furniture. I got the first one together in record time and then proceeded to open the second box... and then stopped cold. Rather than get one really tall bookcase, one short bookcase, and one in-between bookcase... I had one tall bookcase, one thinner and tall bookcase, and one really skinny and tall bookcase. I sighed heavily and contemplated modifying all the bookcases to suit my needs. That didn't last long. It's one thing to modify crap Sauder furniture, but I really liked this new IKEA stuff... it seemed a shame to modify something with such nice engineering. So I grabbed some glue and tape and taped the one box back up and made it appear like it had never been opened before. We had one nice bookcase, and it would have to suffice for now. I gave Toby a call and let him know that I screwed up. A couple days later, he picked me up again and we returned the wrong pieces and picked up the right ones. At the same time, I picked up a bunch of nice square baskets to hold the smaller stuff we have. They fit perfectly on the shelves and they don't look half bad, either. Toby has been great through all this, but being as I'm his boss, maybe he figures that he has to or something. Whatever the reason, I'm glad he helped me out. He even stayed after we got the peices back to the apartment and helped me put them together. It looks great now and we even have an excess of storage now. It's actually starting to look like a nice apartment now. DVD's and books actually on shelves instead of on the floor. All we need now is a bed! Ok, and maybe a new coffee table so that we can move the bathtub to make more room... but we'll get to that later. For now, I'm just very happy with the new furniture we have. -Bob |
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May 16, 2006 (add. I haven't been updating recently because my laptop developed a bug and it's taken me this long to get it working again. Apologies, I'll catch you up as quickly as I can) Well, here we are, the final three months of this great experiment that we've undertaken. We've just returned from New Zealand, this being the first time that we've had zero issues with customs or travel or anything. This time, everything went smoothly. After working until 4am on Thursday, May 11th, I went home and grabbed a two hour nap before getting up, showering, and running out to the airport so we could catch our 9:30am flight. This time around, both Ella and I left our laptops behind. It's just too much trouble carrying them around and getting them through security for as much as we'd use them on a three day vacation. We arrived at Aukland International around 2 and took a minibus into Aukland where we picked up a big bus to Rotorua. We reached Rotorua around 10:00pm, a little behind schedule because of the traffic in Aukland. The first thing we noticed in Rotorua is the smell. Everything smelled like sulfer. Sometimes it wasn't too bad, but other times it was just plain awful. The entire area is surrounded by volcanic hot springs. Don't worry, though, the smell wasn't so bad most of the time, and the time we had was worth the smell. An interesting thing about Rotorua, no one pays for heat! All the heat is pulled right up out of the ground. Everywhere you look you'll see pipes coming directly out of the ground and running right into the houses. Hot water and radiator heating is just something that everyone just HAS. It's very interesting, but at the same time a little scary. I mean, does it seem SAFE to anyone to live in an area where there is THIS MUCH volcanic activity? It just seems wrong.... like you'll come home and your house has been turned into a vegetable steamer. From the bus station we walked about 6 blocks to our hotel room. This time we had a much nicer hotel room, kind of like a nice Holiday Inn. It had it's own gift shop and a lot of local color. It had it's own swimming pool that was heated by the underground springs. There was even a spring right outside the pool. We got in pretty late and pretty much went straight to bed. It wasn't an easy sleep, because even in the room we could still smell the sulfer. By the next night, we had more or less gotten used to it, but it was kind of rough the first night. Luckily the day had just exhausted us. We had learned our lesson from the last trip to New Zealand, and we forced ourselves out of bed early in the morning to start our day. We were cleaned up and out on the street before 9am to search for breakfast... the funny thing is, Rotorua isn't an early morning town. There were only two places open before 9. This one which served baked beans or spaghetti on toast for breakfast... or this other coffee house that really screwed us on the price. The food was less than a Denny's breakfast and we paid over $50. It just wasn't worth it. Anyway, nearly the entire time we were there, it was raining. We now have a New Zealand Blacks umbrella. Yay. Since it was raining, we weren't exactly sure what we could do. The tours to Hobbiton didn't sound like too much fun because we'd be out in the rain, walking through muddy paths. We thought about checking out some of the museums, in the end we went to the tourism center and asked them what they thought might be fun on a rainy day when you only have one day to do anything. The tourism center was massive and well staffed. Apparently, Rotorua's economy is almost completely based on tourism... and it shows. Obviously the hot springs are the big draw. It's not like you even have to look around for them, they're everywhere. The rest of the area is similar to Wisconsin Dells. There are TONS of things to do. Luckily we had more money than last time and we could afford to do some fun things. The rain was a big factor, though. Most of the attactions were outdoor events. After checking with the very helpful tourism staff, we opted for something in which we would already be wet... and we'd work from there. Our first activity of the day was the Zorb! The Zorb is a big plastic ball with a second, supported, ball inside that one. Essentially, it's like a human sized hamster ball! They drive you up to the top of a hill, stuff you in the ball, and roll you down. For those of you that have never heard of it, I highly recommend it. It's gaining popularity and I wouldn't be surprised to find it in Wisconsin Dells. It started in New Zealand, though, so it may not have crossed the ocean yet. First we were given "wet" clothes. We didn't think to bring swim outfits with us, Zorb supplied us with some extra t-shirts and shorts for a small fee. Then we waited around in about 55° weather in shorts, t-shirt, and bare feet... in the rain... for them to stuff us in the back of a truck and drive to the top of the hill. Once out, we took turns going down the hill. Everyone was given their own ball (although there is a "honeymooners" option with a slightly larger ball... I was just afraid Ella would hurt me.) Ella went first, being the only girl and that her lips were turning blue. I waited till last, since I was handling the cold far better than the poor Aussie that was with us. He looked absolutely miserable. We had to leap into a small hole in the ball to the inner chamber. They filled the bottom with warm water and zipped the hatch shut. Inside it was VERY comfortable. Warm clean water and contained inside this clear ball, it was like a nice hot bathtub in a small bathroom. Then, in cooperation with the Zorb handler outside the ball, you walk forward and hit the edge of the hill. Then you're all on your own. Zippety-do-dah! You're flying down this curly track and sloshing around inside a giant ball! It's like the most wild and unpredictable waterslide ever. The Zorb handler gave us instructions that if we wanted a really smooth ride, to tuck our knees to our chests and lie on our backs. I found it very efficient and I just flew around the inside of the Zorb. Ella thought this meant that it would be more "extreme" and opted for a more starfish like approach. Yeah, I watched her flip upside down and do cartwheels... hence the reason that I listened to the Zorb handler. Once down at the bottom, they opened the hatch, took your picture, and dumped you out. Then it was off to dry off and redress. All of it took less than 30 minutes (including dressing and paying) and it cost over $80 for the both of us. Not cheap, but well worth it. Keep in mind that $80 NZ is only about $50 US... still on the expensive side if you ask me. Apparently there isn't much censorship of license plates in New Zealand. Just thought I'd let you know. Then we grabbed another trolley to the Skyline Gondolas. These were the nicest gondolas I've ever been on. It felt like there should be a butler asking me if I wanted drinks or if the temperature should be adjusted. They even had a velvet rope for the cue when you entered. This took us to an amusement park on the top of a small mountain. Our goal here? Luge! The luge was a kind of modified skateboard with a steering mechanism. By pulling the handles back, you released the parking brake, by pulling them back further, you engaged the wheel brakes (a nice safty feature, so you can't forget which way to pull/push the handles in order to slow down.) We started at the top of the hill and followed a paved road all the way to the bottom. The road was custom made for the luge, so it had banks and bumps and tight turns. For the few hours that we were doing this, the rain stopped. The pavement was still wet, but it's not like we were soaked and freezing. We bought a packet of 10 tickets so we each got 5 trips down. Typically, I went a lot faster than Ella did, so I would get to the bottom of the hill, get off the luge, put it on the conveyor that took it back up the hill, walked back to the overpass bridge, pulled out my camera, and then waited for her. So I have a lot of pictures of Ella on the luge. When Ella would finally show up, we would share a chair lift (much like ski-lifts) back to the top. The luge was put on a conveyor that automatically hooked it to the chairlift for the ride back to the top. Now, as I mentioned, I liked going a bit faster. On my last trip down, I decided to take the expert hill as fast as I could. This wasn't so bad, I mean, they make it so even morons like me can't really hurt themselves. Still, nearing one of the end turns, I saw it was banked. I rocketed straight into it, head ducked down to decrease wind resistance... and I hit the curve as fast as I could, starting high and driving low. This proved too much for the wheels on the wet pavement, though. Both wheels lost grip and I ended up using the bank as a sort of jump, as I slid sideways off of it and into the mud below. Yeah, well... it was still fun so there! They made us wear helmets, but I don't think they intended them for that kind of speed. So after I cleaned up as best as I could in the restroom, we headed back down the hill and set off back for the hotel. Both of us really wanted to get into some clean, dry clothes. So Ella went straight back to the hotel and I searched for some swimtrunks, as I had forgotten to bring mine. Once I located some (and it took a while, considering that we're in the middle of winter, here) I made it back to the hotel and did some laundry while Ella took a nap. Eventually the laundry was done and it was getting late at this point. I had originally wanted to go to this tattoo shop that we saw at the beginning of the day. Our trolley driver had recommended the artist here as being someone who was adept at Maori tattoos. I wanted to pick his brain about the meaning behind them, because I often get requests for Maori tattoos... and I've just been faking it so far, I'd rather that I actually knew what I was doing. Unfortunately, I had taken so long cleaning my pants that it was too late to go and we still wanted to hit the Polanesian Spa. I just have to ask... WHY? We found that they were open quite late, and they were right across the road, so we just grabbed our stuff and ran over. The Springs are naturally heated mineral pools. They had 5 different pools and we sat in all but the hottest one. I tried, but even after getting used to the other pools, that one was just too warm. We spent about an hour soaking and just talking. It was really nice because the pools are outdoors, so we were under the stars, with the steaming lake right nearby and cuddled up in a very warm bath. The Spas were clothing optional, but no, I kept mine on. Trust me, I was scaring enough people the way it was. Then, completely drained, we went back to the hotel and had a nice dinner. We were the last customers. Then it was off to bed around 1am. We got up early again the next day because we had to be on the bus back to Aukland by 8:00. On the upside, we did get to catch the sun rise. We grabbed coffee and breakfast at McDonalds because nothing else was open yet. You have to say one thing about Rotorua, they take their culture very seriously. We arrived back in Aukland around noon and our flight didn't leave until 6. We went out shopping. The goal? The Collector's Edition/Extended Version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy! After dead ends in a number of different places, we finally found two of the three in a specialty music shop that reminded me of Empire Records. By now we had wasted a good deal of time looking for the DVD's... so it was time for us to get going. We jumped on a bus and headed back to the airport. We got our tickets and went through security and we still had some New Zealand cash on us, so we had a choice, spend it or lose half of it exchanging it back to Australian. We opted for the first. Ella bought a really nice sweater, and I bought a copy of Narnia and a ONE RING! Yes, I bought the Lord of the Rings AND the One Ring IN NEW ZEALAND! You may all moan in jealous agony now. (Yeah, I'm such a geek.) So then it was back on the plane, back across the pond, back through customs... and then a cab back home and straight to bed around 1am so that I could get up for work the next day. A very fun and very exhausting trip, a great way to start our next three months of our permanant vacation. -Bob |
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To third 3 months (February to May) To second 3 months (November to February) To first 3 months (August to November) To Pre-Australian preparations (February to August) Back to Odds 'n' Ends |
