My trip

Why.. why? Why can't you order online in Canada from the Nike website. Why do they only have Nike stores in Ontario? If anyone who happens to be going to Minneapolis any time soon could you please pick me up two of the following? Here is the link to said products. According to Nike this may be and I quote "quite possibly the best athlete's shirt ever made" plus in Sports Illustrated Tom Brady and Ladainian Tomlinson are also wearing them... if there god enough for them, well it must be good enough for me.

Well I haven't written in ages because quite frankly I have been flat out to busy with travelling, school and J.C. visiting Erin and I here in Oz.

I'll start with the trip.... Day 1 Erin, Carmen, Sebastian and I all got up at 5 A.M. to catch a flight to Sydney to attend the Live Earth Concert. The day began with a one hour flight delay. Although I most certainly could used the one hour sleep as I was like a kid on Christmas morning and was unable to sleep. The delay allowed Erin and I to enjoy a flat white before departing. I hesitated on getting a big breakfast and this lead to a slight piss off as everyone had eaten,so I had to have McDonald's for breakfast. Normally I don't mind Mickey D's for breakkie, but the cheese at McDonalds here in Oz tastes like feces. Nevertheless I persevered (not without a few minutes of sulking of course) and we made our way to the hotel. We did a 'sneaky' and reserved a two bed room at the hotel, but it was only for 2 people when in reality it was for four people. Us in the industry call this a 'sneaky.'

Upon finally arriving at the concert Erin and I had oval two tickets... this means we couldn't go right to the front, which I was fine with as we still had great seats and I enjoy being in and amongst the blue collar crowd (even though ticket prices are even Steven). Temperature went from being cold to swick level aka sweaty balls. First act was Blue King Brown... decent music well thought out end, but I wasn't a big fan. Act two Angela Bishop and quite honestly I don't even remember her singing and I was not using illicit drugs. Act three was Toni Collette... oh GAWD my ears still haven't recovered. For those of you who don't know Toni was the mother in Little Miss Sunshine, she should stick to acting. Well there was a mix of bands I do not know and then there was the Sneaky Sound System... I had never heard them, but they were a lot of fun and I decided that I'd invite them to my birthday. I bought their track off itunes, but the CD does not do them justice compared to their live performance. My favourite song of the concert was a collaboration of Paul Kelly, John Butler, Missy Higgins as the sung "From Little Things Big Things Grow" it just so happens to be on you tube and well worth the watch... if you don't like that song I think you may have to have a look at yourself in the mirror (for the computer illiterate click on the blue writing and it will open up the link). Anyways, I don't want to bore you with small details... but Missy Higgins, John Butler Trio, Eskimo Joe were all good, but Jack Johnson was the biggest disappointment!! I was pumped to see him as was the other 80,000 people there and what does he do? Plays slow ballads.... I mean seriously buddy open it up a little. Oh I almost forgot to mention beer line was a two hour wait. Did not have a beer until 6 pm and the concert started at 11am.

Day two... J.C arrives and we did the tourist stuff... Sydney Opera House, Sydney bridge, pub, a brutal restaurant, botanic gardens and an overall good day. Oh and we had a great breakfast where we got to chit chat... great day. Almost forgot... had a $10 lobster at the Casino that john was losing his money at.

Day three... Erin leaves for Adelaide and John and I go to stay with Seth Goldberg.. very low key day as we ended up going to bed early. It was a little awkward to stay with all 6 oh Seth's roommates, but nice to visit. the next day John and I went down to Manley (North Beach of Sydney). Went to the aquarium and drank a number of beers.

Day 4... Seth drove up to train station where John and I both had a touch of car sickness. I assume this may have been induced by the 25 beers the previous night, but again just an assumption. We finally got on the plane where I kept my eyes closed well I dropped bombs. John thought it was me, but I kept my eyes closed and was innocent of all charges. The best part is when it tickled the nose of an Asian man a few rows up... classic stuff. Not much in Brisbane, but we did find an awesome 2 for 1 pub where we had a great meal before heading to the pub where we took in cheap beer and met people from the hostel. John tasted his first Oz gyro... delicious stuff.

Day 5... recovery!!

Day 6.. big day at the Australian zoo former home of Steve Irwin... saw crocs, Tasmanian devils, otters (my fav), big snakes and big birds... fun time. Then raced back to catch a bus to Surfers Paradise. Thats me feeding the croc.

Day 7.. Beautiful, beautiful place, Great weather! The two of us went for a run, walked around and essentially chilled out. That night we hit a couple of pretty low key pubs. Made the big mistake of having McDonald's on the way home.

Day 8... John goes about telling me how he doesn't eat McDonald's little did he know that I took advantage of him the night before and bought him a Big Mac. My memory fails me, but I think we walked for a few hours to the Putt putt a 54 hold mini-golf course, but we have done this the next day. I can't remember.

Day 9... Dream World here we come... Superman roller coaster, Lethal Weapon, Shrek, Marilyn Monroe, Wilma, we both had a blast and when you guys see John you have to check out the picture of us on the Superman Roller coaster. Good times!!!

Day 10... Back to Adelaide..... miserable weather, but we went to Ikea to pick up a pillow a John and divulge in 3 footlong hotdogs or at least I did. Can't really go wrong with a day at Ikea. We visited with Erin and were having such a good time at dinner that John and I raced to Dan Murphy's AKA the wall mart of liquor stores to pick up the finest $5 bottle of Cabernet Merlot from the Barossa Valley.

Day 11... went for a 16km run and then 9 holes of golf with Seabass and James... we stink at golf by the way. Treated ourselves to the first of three Adelaide free poker nights. I was the first out and John quickly threw his chips in see we could spend less time card playing and more time drinking beer.

Day 12... Adelaide market, picked up steaks, mussels, corn on the cob and ate like kings... we may have also had a bottle or two of wine. Beauty of Adelaide is that there is no shortage of wine. Another beautiful evening and day for that matter. Oh I almost forgot... John cheated the transit system here.. good for him.

Day 13... James birthday... Erin's classmates, John and I went to a lame restaurant and then the Elephant pub. Highlights... John hitting on the stiffs Erin goes to school with, Welcome to the jungle and a few other songs that got the masses onto the dance floor. WIth John turning 29 looks like he is moving up an age braket with the ladies. Dance... dance..dance!!!

Day 14.. rest for the big race tomorrow

Day 15... 30 km race!!! John and I ran 30km, Erin 15km. I managed to get a time of 2h07m, Erin 1h07 and John 2h45. I do believe John has a new appreciation for the fact that you can't have your best race everyday and that going from 21km to 30km is a big distance jump. He'll do great next time though. Went home and I made pancakes, John went swimming in the Ocean crazy kid..... the water is too DAMN cold and I think he may have lost the ability to plant a seed in an ovary.

DAY 16.... Sore... and also my first day back to school. 6 hour class is too long and particularly when you are sore and have to partake in funk dance, and volleyball. Round two at the poker and I at one point had the most chips, but John got knocked out early, so I dumped my chips and had one of those random nights where you expected an early night, but ended up closing the joint. Not the first time I've done that.

Day 17... my alarm going off at 6am came very early.... very tired at school... went to the Museum and art gallery with John after. Not too shabby for free exhibits if I do say so myself.

Day 18... Round three of poker.... James, Seabass, John and I were all at the same table and ended up with some great guys. Nothing overly exciting happened, but an enjoyable time nonetheless.

Day 19... Started off on our trip to Melbourne, but not before our landlord called to remind us she is selling the place.... fill in and expletive... we drove to Mount Gambier where Erin and I will be living next year. Man-oh-man I don't think we will be out for dinner too often, but a nice enough place. John and I found ourselves a nice little pub where there was free poker, but we stayed away from the tables and just relax. For the record we have had a number of beers by this point in time... stayed in a hostel for $18 each.. The Mac and the place gave me the creeps. There wasn't anyone else staying there and it primed up for a cheap murder mystery, however we survived.

Day 20... Let me tell you.... I did not realize that diving down the great Ocean Road added at least 2hours to the drive. I'm disappointed we had to rush through it, but absolutely beautiful and a must see. I will do that drive again with Erin, but we had only a few hours to get to the footy game, so we hauled ass and after slaloming through the Forrest and finally getting to our Hostel we arrived just after halftime where we managed to drown 6 beers, see everyone pretend they were snorting coke because it was a players second game back after drug rehab.. I always enjoy the home crowd reminding the visiting team and their drug addicted player the joys of his addiction and the night topped off by "drunk lady" falling over.

Day 21... Walked through Melbourne, saw an exhibit by Karin Katt, Federation square, St. Kilda, Erins flight was delayed, but when she finally got there we went out for a beautiful meal, Meringues, cookies and a few drinks. It was the last supper and a celebration of good times and friends.

Day 22... the 5:00am wake up call was shocking, but had to get J.C. to the airport. I normally am not one to get sad about people coming and going as its never goodbye, but rather see you later. However there was a tinge of sadness as we had an action packed 3 weeks. Like a jealous girlfriend I was sad he wasn't coming back to Adelaide with us to spend a little more time together. J.C. is a true blue friend.

Well there was the coles notes version of our trip/visit. I had a great time and I hope John did too. I have tons of pictures and I will post a few here and again I will add some more over the following week. There are so many things that we did and saw its hard to think of them all and at the same time try and squeeze them into this blog. I did however forget to mention that at Surfers Paradise our room overlooked the hot tub. John looked down and did a double take. John believed that the fellow in the hot tub was naked, so like a car crash I ran over to see and I can confirm the was nakedness... how very European. Initially the bubbles weren't on, but I walked away and walked back to take a picture to share with you all, but the bubbles were on... I guess I missed the show.