Move Update

Okay, we've finally got everything located into the rental house. Thing is, I did not expect it to take as long as it did. It turns out we had way more stuff than we thought we did, and it made it an extremely difficult move. My mum even had a garage sale just before the move so that we wouldn't have to bring much stuff. It helped, but we still had a shitload of stuff to bring.

Now the rental house, I have to say was EXTREMELY dirty. I have no idea how the house came to such state, and how the previous tennant (or perhaps even the owner) allowed it to get to such state. The house is apparently only five years old, but judging from the amenities, walls, carpets, smell, everything, you would swear the house would be much older. There is literally a jungle growing out in the backyard, there is some writings and even holes on the wall. One thing that disturbed me the most was the amount of human hair there was in the carpet. It even clogged not one, but TWO of our vacuum cleaners. Gross. Yes, there was pubes in the bathroom even. Grosser.

But, my family are Kings (and Queens) of cleaning. I have to say we are one of the most anally retentive people on the planet. My parents make sure every nook and cranny is spotless. As such, we have since had the carpets steam cleaned, the walls scrubbed, bathrooms washed, kitchens touched up and is now looking rather spotless. On close inspection, there is not one pube in sight, except for mine. I know it's mine coz it's been clipped and therefore rather short ;-p hehehe

Oh, and I haven't got ADSL relocated to this house yet so I have to resort back to dial up in the mean time. Now, I haven't used dial up in years and let me just say that it is extremely painful to surf the net in such a way. It's horrible, pages take yonks to load up and you can't do multiple things at once. I can't wait to get it back, I'll post some pics up once the ADSL modem syncs up. Until then you have to make do with this entry.

We'll be movin' on up...

Okay, so it looks like we'll be moving out of our house by the end of the week. Friday/Saturday to be exact. I've got mixed feelings, a part of me is excited as it kinda feels like it's a mark of a new chapter in life. The other part is a little sad, sad in that I'm going to miss this current house terribly. It's a nice house - good size, (kinda) nice location, the Chinese takeaway is precisely 573 steps from my front door (LOL) and best part of all, people knew where this house is when I told them so. I'll be like, oh it's the white house on the corner and people will be like, Oh, yeah the Christmas house!!! LOL

I can't wait for the new house to be finished, but it would probably be April next year before we move in. But for now, we've rented a two storey house in... wait for it... WOODCROFT! LOL. Looks like its another couple of months or so left in this shithole LOL. But it's an okay house I guess, just as long as it had air conditioning then I'm fine with it.

I'm now in the process of dismantling everything, and I absolutely hate it. I hate packing things, I hate lifting things, I hate moving actually. If I had my way, I'd just hire slaves for the day. They can be my little meerkats. Or whatever animal that lift things... Dung beetles? Yeah, one of those...

Also worth noting is that my brother and his family (finally) moved out into their own place. I think they'll be just fine, but I'm gonna miss two little kids running around the house. I love my little nephews, I wish they were my own kids, they're so awesome. I'll miss my older nephew telling me I'm "Bis-kusting" (disgusting) or that he loves the colour green and loves to eat "Pas-ketti" (spaghetti). I'll miss the little younger one saying "uh-oh" when he's done something wrong or asking to play with the plastic balls upstairs and just generally squeezing his puny little fat cheeks. But LOL it's not like they're moving to another country, I'll still see them for most days every now and then. Still... awesome bunch of kids, they are.

I guess that makes me the man of the house now. My dad doesn't count... coz... he's... fat.

The Art of Camera Whoring

Okay, this art has been passed on to me by the wise Lucy and Ron. I felt it was my duty to teach the art to some fellow students. We had access to the photo studio today at class. All the lights, all the equipment - I just couldn't help myself.

Here are the results:








LOL I love the one where Jane and Marcus are giving eachother the high-five. LOL

To Do List

There's SO much things I wanna do in life, but I've realised that I've just left them there as dreams in my head. Well I say, enough is enough and so I've compiled a little 'To Do' list for everyone to see. So when you guys see me the next time, you can bother me about it, asking me if I've completed this and such. I've not put a time frame just yet, I guess I don't wanna pressure myself too much. However, being on this list means it must be done.

With that, we start with:

Going overseas for an extended period
Now, this is priority number one. I'm working on this right now, but I realised it's gonna take me a while to do. I'm actually gonna need to get a degree for this one, so I guess it's a work in progress. But yeah, extended period means anywhere from 6 months to 5 years - or even longer. Place? North America? Europe?

Have my own little studio apartment in the city
I guess this is in lieu with the one beforehand. It could be overseas or my own little one here in Sydney when I get back. C'mon who wants to live with their parents forever?

Travel, travel, travel FFS!
Hawaii? Check. Where next? Brazil, USA, Canada, Italy, Greece, Spain, UK, Japan, Thailand. Who wants to come with?

Kick-ass job
Okay, I've been studying for a while now. I would LOVE to have a job in the media field. I don't care, print, TV/Film. If I can have a job doing that - doing what I love to do then AWESOME. If I end up doing a 9-5 office job, suit, tie, behind a desk, behind a computer, number crunching, it would be horrible, horrible I tells ya!

Extra-curricular activities
Now, I've been extra lazy. I wanna be out there more, the gym is fine but there needs to be more. I want to: Take up singing lessons again, hip-hop dance, capoeira. Oh, and I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO SWIM FFS!

Be on a reality TV show
LOL this one's a bit out there, but omg how cool would it be? Australian Idol? Big Brother? Survivor? Dancing with the Stars AFTER I go on Idol and/or Big Bro?

Have a kid
Fuck the wife and life in the suburbs. Just let me pop the seed and keep the kid and head off. Easy. LOL

Now, this list is a work in progress. I will add on to it every now and then. Think of this list as v1.0.

Another year...*sigh*

Well here it is, October 18th. What does that mean? It means I'm another year older. That's right, it's my birthday. How depressing.

Dear Lordy, I'm 24. Twenty-four years, veinte cuatro años, zwanzig vier, vingt quatre ans, ni-juu-yon sai - however you say it, it means one thing - I'm on my way to becoming an old codger, and that, my friends is one scary thought.

What scares me even more is that within these twenty-four years, I don't feel like I've done ANYTHING profound, or anything that makes me say "you know what? I've done a lot, well done!". Instead, when I just think about what I've done, there's just silence. I'm pretty sure there's tumbleweed running around in my brain when I think too deep.

Actually, there are some things that I'm sort of proud of, but when I look at what the others have done within the same time frame, I cower. It always seems like the grass is always greener on the other side. But is it really?

Perhaps I am being a little austere, perhaps it's the type of people I hang around with? Maybe it's because my friends seem to be such high-hitters, high achievers, big dreamers? Should I try and hold myself up with such high regard? Or should I just go out and find me some new friends who are on the dole, live in a housing commission in Mt. Druitt and think that that's the best it can get? LOL maybe I should, that way it looks like I'll be the high-roller and I'll definitely feel good about that! LOL

LOL in all due seriousness though, life's been good to me. I've a great family, great bunch of mates, I'm in good health, I live right and that's all that matters in my opinion. Sure, it would have been great if I was anchored in a great career by now. But when I think about it, if I had established myself within a career, knowing me I would probably be bitching about work right now on this here blog. So I guess I have to be happy with what I have at the moment, and I am.

I wonder what my 24th year on this world will bring? A career? Love? A trip? Who knows. I'll take each day as it comes, and live each day like it's the last.

To everyone who greeted me today, thank you very much. It's very much appreciated. To those who didn't, may you all fuck off and DIE!!!!!!!!

LOL no just kidding, I love you all.

Let's get physical

I've started to really get into the gym again this week, after about two weeks of just going in and doing some pithy cardio workouts. It's almost summer so I'm thinking what better reason to get into shape. I mean, you don't wanna be going to the beach with a flabby belly or like, skinny arms and stuff. It's not gonna get you anywhere, if you know what I mean. At the moment, this is my aim:



I'm not there YET. Woah, I have biceps... LOL

Anyways, I went to the new Fitness First over at Norwest on Monday. Driving past it every now and then I was expecting a huge gym. I go in, and it's pretty small actually but it's got everything I need which is good I guess. I can see this gym getting extremely packed during busy times just like the Castle Hill gym so it's best to go in when it's not too busy.

I feel really intimidated everytime I go in though, especially while doing the free weights. It seems like all the muscleheads are lifting like, barbells and dumbells a million times the size of mine. I feel like doing my weights over at the silent end of the gym away from everyone, or next to the fat chick that does a smaller weight than I do. I'm pretty sure, in due time I'll be pulling them in like the big boys. One day.

I've ran out of protein shake too, and those things cost like a million bucks. Need to replenish my stock tomorrow I guess, there goes another $80.

A true Canadian Idol.

LOL! Is it even possible to have no control whatsoever?

Sold!

So our house has finally been sold, which obviously means that we have to move out soon. Our new house is not built yet, would probably take around 5 or so months before we move into that new house. In the meantime, it means we have to stay at some rental house while the other house is still being built.

I'm arguing with my mum at the moment because I want to rent a house that no one has lived in before. I don't want to be in a house that someone else has been in already, for me it just feels... what's the word... icky. It's like, I'll be staying at a room where someone has lived in before. What if there's like nits and pubes left by the previous tenant? Gross LOL. I know, I'm sounding just a little bit finicky but you know...

Am gonna miss this house here, I had some good times I guess. I graduated from High School in this house and well... that's pretty much it. Gonna miss it tho.

I'm gonna miss this view from my room, it kinda feels 'Hawaii-sy'. LOL

psychic?

Ever get the feeling that you may just be psychic? Like, you may for some reason just know what might happen in the near future? Little things. I know it sounds completely mental but just some little things just scare the shit out of me.

Yesterday morning, I was in the shower thinking to myself - wouldn't it be cool if I met someone else with the name Juan and I'd never had that particular thought before, I thought it was fairly weird to be thinking about stuff like that. Fair enough, I get to work and the first customer I served was this dude named Juan. We had a little conversation, about how so much people get our names wrong and had a little chuckle about the wrong pronounciations. Afterwards, I remembered having that thought that same morning. I thought, man... not again...

It happens with songs as well. Random songs that I may not have heard in ages just pop up in my head in the morning, like it just repeats and repeats in my head, sometimes waking me up even. And either a) someone ends up singing that song around me; or b) a coverband sings that song that same day/night; or c) it's the first song that pops up on the radio or just plays in the radio during the day. When I say random songs, I don't mean songs like S.O.S by Rihanna or something really mainstream. Think "Kokomo" by Beach Boys or "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog (!) or something.

Like I remember in Hawaii, I was in the lift to get to our room. I had "Baby Can I Hold You" by Tracy Chapman in my head nonstop. I just couldn't stop singing it period. We head out to Ala Moana Shopping Centre and they had a band playing somewhere and yup, they played that song. Out of all the songs, that was the one that was played. Weird.

Ooh, check this out. I drew this pic in illustrator a day before we went off to Hawaii. I then took the photo with Rons camera below a few days later whilst in Hawaii. Similarities? Yup. Coincidence? I don't think so...

*cue Twilight Zone music*
ooOOOooOOoooOOOOo

Buyers remorse?

See that shirt up there? It's one of the many vintage shirts that I got over at Hawaii courtesy of 88Tees (great shop btw). Now, I've come home and I can see that I've gotten myself into a little a dilemma - ALL, yes ALL of the shirts that I bought over there mentions "Hawaii" in some form or another. Okay at the time of purchase I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be great to buy a shirt that has something about Hawaii on it? It would make a great souvenir. Now I come home and when I put on I look like a walking advertisement for the bloody place and I should probably be paid by their Board of Tourism.

Real situation - I meet my friends one day with my Honolulu T-Shirt on, all have a bit of a chuckle with them saying "oh, looks like you bought the shirt over there, looks cool". Second day, I've got a shirt that simply just says "Hawaii" on the front (and it's not the one on that photo LOL) my friends laugh "geez another Hawaii shirt, good one". Day three, I've put on the shirt in the photo, meet my friends who look at my shirt and say " OKAY, for fucks sake you went to Hawaii!!". Shutdown, I was. Worst part of it all, there's still about three or four shirts they haven't seen yet. Yes, it says 'Hawaii' on nearly all of them. Sigh.

And no Ron, that does not mean you can have the shirt. LOL

Day Eight: where'd Saturday go?

Satdy morn, and it was time to finally leave our little beautiful island. Our bags are packed and we head off down to the lobby to wait for our taxis. Instead of having a limo like last time, this time we had two taragos and obviously we had to split the group into two. I ended up riding with Ate Rina and Tita Au. All the way to the airport, the music playing was absolutely, 100% Hawaiian as Hawaiian can get - think the theme song to Hawaii Five-O. If I were to sing it, it would sound kinda like this -

"tanga tanga tanga tanga doom doom tak tak doom dom tak tak..."

Okay, it probably doesn't work when you read it but if you've got the Hawaii Five-O theme song then you've got it spot on already. Anyway, it was way cool.

So we get to the airport and of course, security was tough. I always hate going through security gates and scanners because I always feel like I've done something wrong. So I'm always usually extremely nervous, I mean I watch border security for fucks sakes, I know what they do, and I seem to know the little gizmos they use and how good they actually are. All the while, I'm thinking whether or not the anti-diarrhoea medicine I had would trigger off some drug scare or something. Oh yeah, one word of warning - Pepto Bismol (this upset stomach medicine thingy) is good like, it works and stuff but it makes your shit EXTREMELY dark. It's scary.

Anyway, we board the plane bound for Sydney. One part of me didn't want to go and another part of me was wanting to go home. I actually ended up missing my family and my friends back home and at the same time, I knew I would probably end up missing Hawaii.

On the way home, I had a bit of a nap although it was a bit hard especially with the loud man behind us. I ended up finally watching the Prison Break episodes that I had stored on my PSP, seriously that show is awesome. Question - how can Wentworth Miller see at all? I'd imagine it would be hard to see anything while squinting as hard as he does.

Despite us not experiencing nightfall during the flight, we managed to touchdown into Sydney a complete day and a half after our departure in Honolulu, even when the flight was only 9 hours long. Confused? Well I was too, and I kinda felt cheated that I lost one whole day in my life.

So yeah I miss Hawaii, I miss not having a care in the world for that period of time. I miss the humidity, I miss the sunsets over the ocean. I miss a lot. But at the same time, I'm now home. Although Lucy and probably Ron most likely wouldn't agree with me here - but Sydney is my home. My heart is here, and I really love this place and I can't imagine not growing old here. Sure, I'd love to live in another place for a year or so but I would love to settle down here in Sydney. I love it's beauty and at the same time, I love it's faults. Sydney is by no means a perfect city, but what place is? Best part of it all - it's not in America.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi! Oi! Oi!

Day Seven: the final Kal Bi

Last full day in Hawaii saw us going off to the nearest Wal-Mart to find some little things here and there to take home. I went to get a whole heap of chocolates to take home and pretty much most of us did the same. Ron on the other hand had something else in mind, he wanted to buy a bike so that he could take it home and go biking all across the M7 or something like that. Anyway, he had his heart so set on that one bike and I have to say that it was one hell of a sexy bike. It was cheap there too, $US109 which is about $A140 and Ron was telling me the same bike would cost up to or around the $A500 mark.

Ron rang up Qantas early that morning to see what the procedure for taking bikes on the plane were. According to him, all that was required was that the bike be boxed up and be put through as part of the allocated luggage. Lucy, being the questioner she is decided to ring up Qantas just to make sure and fair enough, apparently if a bike was to be part of the luggage even if still under the allocated weight limit, it would be treated as if the carriage was overweight and therefore a fee would have been charged. Now this fee would have amounted to about $A200 which would bring the amount closer to the Australian price for that specific bike. So in the end, they decided to bypass the bike which broke Rons heart - he was shattered. But in the end, all was good, coz he ended up getting kick arse shirts over at 88Tees (I wanted that orange one, Ron LOL).

We then decided to go to Waikiki beach to do some final swimming and for me a final chance to get a nice tan. Ron and Lucy went off and swam while I just stayed on the sand, on the ground listening to some Eskimo Joe while I fried.

This was also the final chance to do some serious camera whoring, the sunset provided a perfect backdrop for it all. I have to say, it was probably one of the first times I'd EVER seen the sun set on the water and it was incredibly beautiful, almost poetic.

There's this shot that I took of Ron and Lucy by the sunset, with Ron kissing Lucys forehead. It's probably one of my favourite shots I've ever taken, it looks like a poster or a cover for some Hawaiian tourist magazine or something. Again, into my portfolio, that one...

We had our final supper, I had my Japanese chicken and Ron and Lucy had their kal bi (Korean BBQ thingy). Ron bought some major grog, a bottle of beer as big as my torso (LOL) and a corona each and ended up getting almost drunk ( I think I was, I don't remember) on our balcony, wishing we were to stay there for much longer and dreading going back to responsibility.

Wasted as I was, I had an awesome sleep.

Day Six (night): Seriously, I'm full...

Thinking about it, Thursday was probably our biggest day hence the two postings for the one day.

Now, after the amazing experience at Hanauma we went back and had dinner at the local Chillis restaurant. Now here's the thing I found so weird in America - there's like a billion or so fat and obese people over there, is it perhaps because the serving sizes of all their dishes insanely huge? McDonalds, Burger King - or pretty much every place we went to, all the servings are MASSIVE. Their 'Normal' sized meal are our Large, they don't have a small meal and their large meals, oh man, it would be enough for a whole family to eat. Their cups are huuuuuge, it can double up as an aquarium or something.

Anyway, the dish I had was massive and I ended up not eating the whole thing which is way weird for me. Usually, I'm the only person who completes the whole dish, even licking extra sauce off the plate. But no, got way too full half way. It was apparent Ron got full too, I escorted him to the bathroom because I needed to pee. He warned me when we were there that he was about to 'excrete'. I heard his poo drop. Sounded like he got his moneys worth, sounded like a big one. LOL

Afterwards Ate Rina, Ron, Lucy and myself made our way to the local bar 'Big Kahuna' on Kuhio. We bought a lot of grog, including this thing that was actually served in a fish bowl. Got me rather tipsy, but I didn't get drunk. We all got pics with the waitresses there and they all had massive tits.

Not sleepy enough, we walked around Waikiki at night and just had a bit of a chat. Ate Rina and I went our own way to let Ron and Lucy have a bit of "them" time, which they probably did deserve. We ended up talking about the world, news, things, you know.

Oh yeah, LOL we caught all these couples having a full on root (sex) on the beach, like out on the open beach, for all the world to see. Not just dry humping, but full-on pelvic thrusting without clothes on type. Amazing! I would NEVER have mustered the courage to do anything like that. It was extremely weird, yet I couldn't take my eyes off them. I felt like, incredibly privelidged to have seen it. If they happen to have kids because of that specific root, if I ever meet those subsequent kids I could tell them that I was there while they were being made. Cool.

Oh, of course we camera whored for the rest of the night.

Day Six (day): Please don't feed me...

Thursday had us waking up a bit later than usual, it was a well deserved rest since we never did have a chance to have a break until then. But once we were all up, we all decided to go down to Hanauma Bay for some snorkelling action. So we got ready, went down to the nearest ABC store and bought some food and a snorkel set. I demanded a yellow one for some reason, don't know why. We then made our way to the closest bus stop and waited for what was about an hour before our bus came.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. All the while, I was just thinking - yup beach, seen 'em all. Upon arrival and looking out the ledge to see the bay I was gobsmacked, the bay was a testament that God did exist and made this part of the world so special. It was incredibly beautiful, coconut trees lined the edge of the beach, white sand met the jade green-blue water and was so clear that you can easily see the coral from metres above. I also saw a mongoose, it was brown (LOL).

To get into the bay you need to pay $US5 and watch a compulsory video that explains the guidelines while at the beach. First, of course do not touch or tread on the wildlife (coral, fish, fat people etc.). Second, do not feed the wildlife. They went so far as to use the "Under the Sea" song in the Little Mermaid movie to put that message across, of course reworded. It was way stupid, and probably infringed copyright rules but it got stuck in my head anyway. To be honest, I forgot what the other rules were, I think it was like, don't eat the seals or something (???).

Anyways, we hired some flippers and I hired a floating vest since I was a non-swimmer and off we went. It was awesome, corals and fish everywhere, it was like watching 'Finding Nemo' but in real life and so the fish didn't talk. The water was rather shallow, deepest only went up to my chest but it made for great snorkelling. I didn't go out as far as Ron and Lucy did, but was extremely pleased with what I saw. It was, for me definitely the highlight of the trip.

Day Five: Ala-Mo-Ana - oh yeah I know them.

Day five starts off with us saying farewell to Lucy's cousins - back to Lala Land they went. It was great having them around, but alas they had to leave due to commitments back at home. To cheer ourselves up, we headed of to Ala Moana Shopping Centre for a little bit of retail therapy.

Ala Moana is apparently Hawaii's largest shopping centre? Or was it just Oahu? I don't really remember, but yeah it was kinda big. It was outdoor-indoorsy, reminded me of Warringah Mall back here in Sydney. But yeah, there were SOME bargains to be had, but for the most part it was pretty expensive. Didn't buy much, only small presents for my family and for myself. As usual, camera whoring happened whilst at the shopping centre, but it wasn't majorly extreme.

The day ended with us just walking around Waikiki at night, watching street performers as well as further shopping over at the International Marketplace. We bought some grog afterwards and drank it over at Lucys Aunts room, had a late night just having a little chinwag with Ate Rina. We also made friends with these people from another building a few hundred metres away. Oh, and I also found out that they stopped serving grog at 11:50pm at night and that ABC stores close a couple of minutes after 11pm. Not very convenient for those wanting a bit of a late night grog fix.

Day Four: Going on the Dole

Day four sees us trekking to the Dole Plantation - as the name suggests it was a plantation and perhaps the people that picked them were working for the Dole (LOL sorry). From what we saw it was basically just all pineapples. A whole shitload of them. I reckon all the workers there ate the pineapples all day, and if you were to just accidentally eat one of the workers, I bet they would taste like pineapples (???). We didn't stay there for long, once you've seen one pineapple you've seen them all. They had this maze there though in a shape of a large pineapple, apparently it's the world's largest maze which is cool. I bet you the prize for getting to the end would be a pineapple. We had lunch, drank pineapple juice and I did a crap in the toilets before we left for the north shore.

Now Lucy's cousins told us that there was an awesome beach up at the north shore of Oahu, so fair enough we all end up driving up there. We had two loaded seven seater SUVs full of pineapple loaded individuals. I should note that Ron ended up driving the Jeep on the way back home which was very brave of him. Anyway, we made ourselves there and fair enough, it was a great beach with lots of locals away from the tourists that plague Waikiki which was a good change. But was the beach deep or what? I didn't bother swimming, it went too deep way too quickly and being the non-swimmer I was, I opted to lie down and tan instead. Further camera whoring followed and we up and left back to Hilton Village for more swimming. The beach infront of the hotel was awesome; shallow, warm complete with little fishies swimming around your feet. The night ended with even more camera whoring and at this point we probably reached our 10 000th shot.