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Published: February 28th 2008
Hello again, so i'm a year older and wiser since my last blog.. (on second thoughts, scrap the wiser part!!)
This one is all about my last week or so of Byron.. enjoy!
On the 13th I woke up with knives in my throat, guess what, tonsillitis…. again! Fun! So I went to the doctor straight away in order to nip it in the bud, he gave me the standard antibiotics and the standard instructions to stay tucked up in bed!.. as if that was going to happen! As much as bed was an appealing option, my friend Charlotte (who I worked on the cruise ships with) was arriving that afternoon to visit me (she is ever so excited to be included on one of my blogs so hey charlotte!!! ;-)
Locky lent me his car for the afternoon so me and Gem drove to the airport in Ballania, we picked her up and on the way back, stopped in Lennox head for a coffee by the beach. After a grand tour of our mansion, along with locky, ryan and chris, we went to the Great Northern pub for a pizza and game of pool!
The next day
was Valentines day, Charlotte and I were wondering through the town when we came across a tarot card reading place. Now I’ve never done anything like that, to be honest, I’m so sceptical that I find it hard to believe anything like that, but I am also very intrigued and charlotte is quite into it, so we decided to go in!
Charlotte opted to have her palm read and I just said I wanted a bit of everything!
A woman came into the shop and said I had amazing eyes, and she could see spiritual guides all around me!! It turned out randomly that she was the one doing my reading.. it was defiantly an experience, I wont go into everything she said, but basically, she read my tarot cards first, and to be fair, she was pretty spot on with my personality and life style! Afterwards she looked at some of my past lives and spiritual guides. I really wasn’t sure how much I believed, although I would quite like to and was so intrigued by it that I actually bought a book about it all… I can now read palms!! (Please forgive me if I come home holding
cleaning lady!
yup.. she really did do our house work for us!!a glass ball wearing long, flowing skirt!)
That evening, I had booked a table for us at a sushi bar.. it was one of those cool ones where the sushi goes round on a conveyor belt.. its ever so exciting to choose what to eat. (Dad and Abby I bet your proud I now love sushi, but before you get too excited, I do stick to the cooked stuff.. like tuna, prawns and chicken!!) Gem, Charlotte and I dressed up to the nines just for the fun of it! me and gem had been desperate to wear our dresses since their first (and very short) outing on new years eve!
After a lovely meal, we went to La La’s it’s a cool club, however, it seems the rest of Byron was tucked up with their loved ones.. leaving us 3 singletons to have the whole club to ourselves!!
After a couple of drinks we decided to try somewhere else… putting the lone man busking love songs with his guitar aside, the streets were deserted and we precariously entered cocomungos, it was slightly better in there.. despite the fact that the music wouldn’t have been out of place at
valentines day..
dressed up to the nines!! a children’s party!!
On the 15th, I decided to show charlotte a few scenic sights, unfortunately the weather was pretty shocking… dull and rainy so the beach was out, but Tax offered to drive us to Minion falls, they are beautiful waterfalls, about half an hour away and I packed a picnic to take with us. We arrived at the falls and laid out our blanket on the look out spot. As I opened the box of tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches, a fly flew out!! It had come all the way from Byron with us, and I was actually quite upset to think it was now somewhere so far from home, and might have kids of a wife at home missing him!!
We sat at ate, while people all around us came to look at the falls!! We then trekked further along the falls and came across some stepping stones going across the river!
On the way back we saw a big snake all curled up, and a rather friendly kookaborough… it even ate a sour cream and chive flavor crisp out of my hand!!
We headed home and chilled out for a bit, before I took Charlotte
sushi
ooo.. how exciting!! to experience the delights of Cheeky Monkeys! We had some dinner and spent hours entertaining ourselves by reminiscing about the ‘good old days at sea’!
When we got back home, we sat outside innocently drinking a glass of wine, when a police random testing van, along with 3 police cars, pulled up right outside our house.
The police cars out here are cool, they are all different colours, red, orange, black, blue and yellow.. it makes them much more appealing I wonder if the policemen get to choose which colour they drive? Anyway, our entertainment for the night got really gripping; they were breathalysing everyone and even stopping people on bikes for not having lights and helmets! One chap rode up the road, saw the police van, turned around and rode off again… the police car was immediately on his tail, siren on, chasing him up the road!
One by one, our house mates came out to see what was going on, I even went and woke a couple of the guys up, it was so exciting! Soon, there was 12 people sitting on the drive, watching… the beers soon came out, and we had all kind of plans
to taunt and trick the police but decided it was probable against our best interest!! Better than a DVD any day!
The next morning was my birthday, I opened all my cards and presents (thankyou ever so much guys, it was lovely to read all your cards and have parcels to open!)
I knew that Gem had a surprise for me to do that day, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was… however we woke up to rain that morning and unfortunately she had a phone call, canceling it. I went into town to do a few bits and pieces when suddenly the sun came out… and simultaneously got a phone call from Gem, telling me the surprise was back on!!
We met Charlotte at the beach and got into a green van, I was still oblivious as to what was going on! We drove to one of the beaches and pulled up by a Hanglider!!! Woo… that was the surprise… I literally had no time what so ever to be scared!! Within 5 minutes, I was zipped up inside a cocoon, had some wings attached to me and had signed my life away!! Me and Gem were
minion falls
yup... its a big water fall!! going to be up in the air at the same time, we had driven up to the top of the cliffs, where there was a small wooden platform just over the edge of a big cliff! When they found out it was my birthday, they suggested I should have the ‘aerobatic instructor’ ….brilliant! I was first to go, and as we stood on the edge of the platform, I must admit my stomach had a few butterflies! We took off easily and soared into the air, it was so windy that we got a lot of height straight away.. I was side by side with the instructor so it was easy to talk to him. We spent the first few minutes just floating around, it was amazing, really amazing, its got to be the closest thing in the world to being a bird. We saw Gem take off, and our instructors got close together so I could take a few photos of her in the air. Now, im sure you think that photography in the air sounds cool, however, getting the camera out of a pocket on the front of my suit required me to let go with both hands..
at the falls
gem, me, taz and charlotte posing, again! not so cool!! I was a bit dubious about it, when the guys said its fine to let go, in fact he said he would let go too!! I begged him not to, but he did!!! The glider was actually completely stable, but I breathed a big sigh of relief when he put them back on again!!
He asked me if I got sea sick (!!) and when I said no, a sly grin appeared on his face… with a push of his hands we shot downwards and turned into a big spin, it actually felt like we were upside-down at one point! He continued to do turns and spins for a few minutes and it was awesome, awesome but scary!! When the air pressure and wind is on you, it fells fine, like your being held up, but when it disappears, that’s when it gets daunting! We floated around a bit more, then did some more spins. We were about 800 ft up in the air, when he asked me if I would like to drop 200 ft… I forced a “yep” out of my mouth and we went down, it was like a rollercoaster, albeit, a rollercoaster with
gem me and charlotte
in front of the waterfall!! the best scenery in the world!!
After about 20 minutes, he asked me if I would like to fly it.. would I??!! I took hold of the bar in front of me and was amazed by the result the slightest hand movement would create. A tiny move of the bar away from you and you go slower and higher, bring the bar back and you go down and faster. It only takes an inch or so to the left and it swings the glider right and vice versa! I could feel the glider rise as we went over the mountains, and dip as we flew over the sea! After half an hour or so, it was time to land.. now, this was the hairy bit!! I was adamant for the first few seconds that we were going to land in the sea!! He assured me we weren’t and pointed to the spot on the beach we were aiming for, and sure enough, Charlotte and a couple of other guys were there waiting for us!
As we were about 30 feet from the ground and just about to land, the wind picked up loads.. the instructor seemed a bit panicked and
was forcing the glider down against the wind. The bar hit me on the head a few times and the bloke on the ground was running over.. he was preparing me to land in the trees, but luckily his experience prevailed and we landed in the shrubs instead!!! It was actually a soft landing but the bloke on the ground looked very relieved we were down safe and sound!!!
I got out of the gear and watched Gems hanglider land just behind us. It was defiantly one of the most awesome things I have ever done and an awesome birthday present.. thanks Gem!!!
I was absolutely buzzing from the adrenalin of the flight and must have bored everyone senseless talking about it!! we decided to go for a well deserved drink, so the three of us sat in the Beachy, the bar overlooking the sea and had some food and a few glasses of vodka!!
On the way home, we picked up some wine and drank with our housemates for hours. At about 1 o clock we decided to go out, so about 10 of us, traipsed in the rain to La La’s. it was an awesome night! Possibly
bless
our picnic!! made better by the fact we were wearing pretty crazy outfits and I was wearing my badge (thanks mum), which ensured me a few free drinks!!
On the 17th, it was time for Charlotte to go home, Taz took us to the airport, and I was sad to see her go, it had been so much fun catching up! (and she cleaned our room for us!!)
When I arrived back home, it was time for us to get our cat!! Me and Gem had previously complained to the landlord about the mice, so she got a cat for us to solve the problem!! “Charlie” was a really sweet ginger cat, she was at home straight away, even going outside and coming straight back in! She got so much attention, but stayed placid and loving.. how good she’ll be at mice catching though, I’m not convinced!!
I've also sadly had to say goodbye to the dreads... i love them but my hair was actually getting properly dread-locked underneath... and im not sure i can handle real ones just yet!! it was quite a mission to get them out but i can put them back in anytime, so im sure they'll
be making an appearance soon enough!!
On the 19th, and getting restless of Byron, I decided to take myself off on a little day trip!
I booked the bus and went up to Surfers Paradise, I had heard lots of opinions about the place and wanted to see for myself. I got the bus at 2 o clock and it was a 90 minute journey up there. It was really nice to have some time to myself, the weather was a bit unpredictable, but I managed to have a good look around the town and even visit the beach (in the rain!!) I actually really liked Surfers, It was nice to be in a big place, after the small village life of Byron, and as soon as dusk set, all the lights came on an it looked like a vibrant, exciting place. I got the bus back and arrived in Byron at 11 o clock.
The morning of the 20th was a scurried, harassed mess of packing our bags and scrubbing walls! We were trying to pack all our stuff and get the room ready as soon as possible so we could spend one last afternoon at
wow!!
the kookaborough.. and the crisp!! the beach. We lifted up the floor mats, swept underneath, washed the walls, cleaned the fridge and tried to cram 2 months worth of living into one suitcase!!
Eventually we were almost finished and a car load of us decided to head down to the beach, we took some beers down and had a fun evening of playing cricket, football and surfing! We stayed until it was dark and after a few drinking games, headed home, where there were about 10 people in our lounge. We had a kind of mini party and it was a great last night!
Bye Bye Byron Bay
x x x
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