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Published: September 21st 2009
Yeah, I know. It isn't nearly enough time. I could spend years here. But first let me catch up on what happened in New Zealand since the last time I wrote.
So my final week in New Zealand was interesting. I had one last night out at Winnies in Queenstown which was a mess. I met up with Sandra from Tekapo who got a new job in some spa there. I hope she stays there a while... Things didn't end perfectly for her in Tekapo, but she's good at what she does. Queenstown is a party town, so it will be interesting to see how long she lasts. Anyways it was good to see her, but the drinks that night didn't treat me too well the next day. The boys were taking off to Christchurch for the final. So I left the keys for my car with a Greek national player that played with us named Clese. He was driving down to the city the next day to watch the finals, and I needed the car in Chch to sell it before I left the next thursday. The bus ride was rough, but we stopped by in Tekapo on the
surfing
These guys would pull up in their work trucks and take half an hour to jump in the wake. What a sweet life they've got.way to get one last practice in. I saw everyone I could in Tekapo for a second goodbye, then ended up in Christchurch for a good night's sleep. The next day we were getting ready to play, when I get a phone call from Clese... it was bad news. The car didn't quite make it to Christchurch, and was broken down with smoke coming out of the hood. It wasn't a good omen just before getting onto the ice for the finals... The game was close from start to finish, but we didn't get the bounces we needed for the win. I was playing alright but it wasn't my best game, and we ended up losing... it was an exciting game though, and I was glad to be a part of it. It's a great story to tell when I'm older, and I ended up with some hardware anyways. It would have been nice to win the Erewhon and the Championship in one season, but it wasn't to be. I decided to get some things sent home, including a jersey. Even though I played with numbers 21 and 28, I chose to ship home 26 to remind me how old
I was when I played with the Stampede... cheesy? Perhaps... But when I'm old and senile I'll always remember that time I went to NZ and played the Canadian game.
I won't go into too many details about the car, but long story short, I went to check it out along the highway on some old Brit named Sol's property, which ended up being its final resting place. The car was done. Something was wrong with the head gaskets, so the engine overheated super quick. But when I think about it, it got me to where I needed to be until the very end, so she was good to me. Instead of the expected thousand dollars for the sale of the car, I got $100 for the wheels. I guess it's better than nothing. It was sad to leave it behind, but after sitting on the side of the road for a few minutes still hungover from the team's last night out together, I'd had enough. Luckily I had a friend that picked me up and took me back to the city. I took the next few days in Christchurch to get all my affairs in order before leaving
John and Southbank
Auntie Catherine's favourite spot is just to his left. for Oz on the Thursday. I even snuck in a visit to a nature reserve where I saw a real live Kiwi first hand. They're nocturnal, like me, so we related. I knew exactly where these little buggers would be hiding, and I eventually sighted one. They have peculiarly long beaks, and their nostrils are at the very end, so supposedly they have a very acute sense of smell. Thank god I didn't have one of those growing up with Andy. I doubt I would have made it this far... Walter called and invited me to go hunting near Tekapo on the Wednesday before I left, but I hadn't finished my errands. That decision not to go hunting in NZ might haunt me for a bit; I should have gone. Maybe someday I'll end up back in NZ and go for a wander up some hill and find some Tahr another day. Here's to optimism...
Australia has been AWESOME. This is another area of the world I'd love to visit again; ten days has really been too short. It didn't start perfectly either. Jetstar somehow misplaced my luggage somewhere between Christchurch and Brisbane. It boggled my mind how it
could have happened, but I stayed cool and luckily it was delivered the next day to John's place. John greeted me at the airport and drove me to his and Janie's place in Forest Lake, a suburb of Brisbane. when I landed I was treated to some perfect weather, and that didn't change. The weather report was extraordinarily boring... Sun, and 25-28 degrees all week. I was ready for some warmer weather after skipping from Canadian winter to Kiwi winter. John told me about his visit to Toronto to visit his sister, and my Auntie Marie when he was just seventeen (only a few years ago 😊). He mentioned how fond of my parents he was, and he'd love to see Dad come and visit again. I'm sure it won't take much convincing to get him over here sometime (Right, Dad?). John and his family have been great to me. I met Darren (John and Janie's son), his wife Jade and their son Jasper, which was a treat. He's a cool little guy, and I had to do some work to get a high five from him, but it was definitely worth the wait. I even met Bob, and his
John at Home
In his and Janie's beautiful backyard enjoying the grub wife, Jade's parents at Bob's 50th birthday. Since I've been here I've watched two Brisbane Strikers games. Darren coaches the under 21 team, and they dominated their final match and took it 2-1. I then went with Darren and a few of his friends to the senior Men's game, but they lost to a better team 4-1. Afterwards we ended up in an area called The Valley for some drinks (including G and T's... those were a mistake). Joining us were some of the Strikers, and they were great company. I heard some classic stories that cannot be mentioned on this family friendly blog... I ended up buying some overprice piza for the long cab ride back to Darren's place. I crashed in an extra room at their place, and in the morning Jade treated me to some painkillers, fruit toast and lots of water. That night Jasper, Jade and Darren came over for a barbeque in the backyard which was nice. I was in bed early catching up on some Z's.
John and I drove to Noosa beach one afternoon. Again, the weather was perfect, and I enjoyed the beach life. It was a really nice spot, with
PRAWNS
They were delicious perfect little boutique shops, coffee shops and restaurants. Another day the boys, Jasper, John, Darren and I went down the sunshine coast, enjoyed the beach and the weather and had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant. On the way back from the beach there was a sweet little park, where they had these cool pedal bikes on a track. Of course they were designed for kids much smaller than myself, but I think I was more excited to try it than Jasper was. I took it for a few test laps, then Darren and Jasper joined me. It was good fun and a great day.
I wrote this part from somewhere above the Pacific Ocean, on flight 810 from Sydney to Brisbane after three days in the home of the 2000 Olympics. I just flew over the Olympic stadium too; It looks nice from up here! After spending a few days in Brisbane, it finally dawned on me that Wes from Uni lived in Sydney, and that I should probably go visit him. I gave him a heads up that I was planning on visiting some time ago. I hadn't seen Wes for two years, and I had
attack possums
The mother was pretty aggressive. This is the first ever sighting of a baby possum at the Forest Lake residence, and I was lucky enough to be there. to go. So I hopped on facebook and gave him a days notice. Thankfully he and his girlfriend Jess were ready for me. On the wednesday Wes and I took off and caught up over some lunch, and enjoyed a few beers throughout the city. We checked out the Opera House which was impressive; we walked to an area in Sydney called The Rocks, which is the oldest part of the city. We had a couple of pints on a rooftop and caught up some more. He's in Sydney studying law, along with his girlfriend Jess, and another friend of ours Jeff from Guelph. We had some great times at Guelph together and it was great to see a familiar face all the way across the globe. We walked to the financial core of the city where we found another nice pub called 333, and met his girlfriend Jess there for a quick beer. We walked past a movie location used in the Matrix... You know the scene with the woman in the red dress? Yeah, that one. There wasn't any women in red dresses though. oh shucks. Wes was doing a great job as volunteer tour guide showing me
all the sights of downtown Sydney. We even checked out the biggest Imax theatre in the world. It was massive. The Aussie's seem to do everything on a big scale; at least in Sydney. That night we went back to Randwick (the suburb) and had a nice Tappas meal and some really good ice cream. Then it was home and in bed... the next day would be a big one. Wes had to get to work that day so I was left to my own devices. He left me with the keys to his apartment so I could let myself in when I returned. I decided I'd check out Bondi Beach, which is a must see when you're in the Sydney area. It was about eight or so kilometers, and I thought I'd walk along the shoreline to get there. I loved the walk. There were some killer views and the weather was perfect. My choice in footwear was questionable though, and I paid for it at the end of the day. When I got to Bondi and just relaxed. I ate. I people watched. When I got too hot I jumped in the water for a quick swim. I
just bought a new camera that's waterproof; it's something I figured I'd appreciate in Asia, and I was excited to test it out in the water. I brought it in with me, and attached it to my shorts to make sure I didn't lose it in the Pacific Ocean. The waves were big, and some hit me pretty hard. I doubt I looked graceful in the wake at all. Maybe a little like Shamu. A beached, less coordinated Shamu. Anyways I wanted to get some body surfing on film, so I tried to hold up the camera and catch a wave at the same time... It didn't turn out the way I had wanted it to. The wave ended up hammering me so hard against the sea bottom. It would have been my head if I didn't get my arm in the way. Going to SE Asia in an armsling wouldn't have helped much; I'm sure it would have been a bit uncomfortable. But the good news was that the camera didn't let any water in!!! WOOHOO!!! I found my safe place on the beach to heal and ended up laying there for another little bit. After turning different shades
of red I'd had enough of the sun. I walked back along the same route which was wicked again, and got back to the apartment without too much drama. But my feet were killing me. I pulled the set of keys I grabbed before I left, and tried all of them on the ring. None of them worked. Oh oh. I tried them all again just to make sure, and again they didn't work. So I walked across the street to use a public payphone (The first time since the 90's for me), and let Wes know that they weren't working. The fifty cent phone call didn't last long enough for him to tell me the really bad news... He arrived about ten minutes later, and mentioned that I had taken the wrong set of keys. The right set of keys had a bottle opener on it... I wondered why I wouldn't just naturally have taken the ones with the bottle opener, and it was cruel because before shutting the door behind me in the morning, I made sure I had a set of keys... Anyways, I thought it wouldn't be a big deal, and that he would have pulled
Cogee Beach
just down the street from Wes' apartment. out another set. But no, I wasn't that lucky. The only set of keys were locked inside. Awesome. My older brother Steve has a very similar story involving keys to someone elses apartment in japan, locking them in, which resulted in some major embarrassment. But I'll let him tell you the details of that one. I'm sure he'll find this story hilarious. We considered borrowing an extension ladder to get up to his second floor apartment, but after wandering around the neigbourhood for a few minutes, we realized it would both be very sketchy and a dangerous option. We decided the best bet would be to call a locksmith. It cost us $130 to get this guy to drive up with his tools, and pick the lock within thirty seconds to get us in to Wes' apartment. What a horrible way to end the day. We were laughing about it pretty much right away, but I felt like an idiot. That night we went to a bar called the Local which was a nice spot. Victoria Buckley came to meet up with us. It was good to see her, and I was glad to hear she's doing so well at
Coastline
Taken during my hike from Randwick to Bondi. Well worth the scenery and the blisters. Med School. We caught up on some hometown gossip, and she promised to send me a list of to-dos in Asia (which she's done already). The next day I was on my own again, and spent it at Manly Beach. It took a ferry to get there, and I got a wicked shot of the Harbour Bridge and the downtown core, which made my night. Once I got there and wandered around, grabbed a grilled fish and chips meal which was so good, then treated myself to another ice cream (Nate and Malcolm probably would have like it there... I had vanilla with cookie crumbles and rocher, then added some almonds to the top... mmmmm sounds good, eh boys?). I couldn't help but notice all the surf shops around town. It's a big scene there. There were guys on push bikes with their boards on a homemade rack hanging off the side. It's another place that I'd like to explore a little bit further down the road. Another interesting feature they had at Manly, and all around Sydney were notices painted on the sidewalk about which way to look before you crossed the street. Supposedly they put these down for
the Sydney olympics because they were worried they'd have a few accidents involving cars and plenty of visitors. they would have been handy in New Zealand when I first arrived... I could have avoided some near misses.
The ferry ride back was quick, and I got a look at the skyline at night. It's a good looking city. Wes and Jess were already in their pjs when I got back to their apartment, so we finished the night off with some Wii and some beers. I wanted to throw down pillows at each other, eat ice cream and gossip some more, but I didn't bring my pjs and we ran out of ice cream. Wii it was. It was probably a good idea since I had an early flight to catch... and I'm no good with mornings, as some of you might recall. I didn't get too much sleep that night because of some crazy drunk girl screaming obscenities at someone for at least an hour. I'm glad it wasn't me, because in her drunken stupor it sounded like she really meant what she was saying... I was up at 4:45am anyways for my 6:20am flight, so it really didn't
Homeless man's paradise
there's a dude living on the side of the hill, and has a tin pot down with a teddy bear for donations... Shouldn't he be paying rent? Ah well. Good on him for living the dream... matter how much sleep I got. Jess and Wesley insisted to drive me to the airport which was very handy. I said my goodbyes, and I was back to Brisbane by 8:30 where John picked me up.
We spent the day hurtling around the city, and we visited Southbank. They have a manmade beach in the middle of the city. What a wicked idea. John told me it was Auntie Catherine's favourite spot, and he actually pointed out here very favourite spot under two palm trees. I could just see her chilling out there... On the way home we stopped by John's favourite fish market where we bought whitefish and prawns. They were so good. Take a look at the pictures. Dad, you would have loved it, and John has promised you can have the same thing when you come visit.
My last stop before I depart for Asia is to a Brisbane Roar game. i've been watching a whole bunch of Hyundai A-league games and i'm excited to see one live. When I first got here I got to check out a community event that John organized at a school at a Brisbane suburb. They had a
Bondi Beach
Paradise in Sydney huge inflatable soccer field including nets, and the kids loved it. I met Andy who is one of the community liaisons for the club. He was quite a character, and all the kids loved him. It was good to see.
The game was an interesting one. As soon as the game started, Brisbane had an own goal within a minute. Darren missed it as he was getting us some refreshments. The whistle was blwon a lot, and the referee didn't do a great job. Darren actually called it from the outset. But the stadium was beautiful, and in great condition, especially since it hosted one of the biggest NRL games of the year the night before. The pitch was perfect. The final score was 4-2, but I enjoyed the experience. I was allowed onto the field afterwards with John and took a couple of snaps before getting a glare from security. I said my goodbyes to Darren and Jasper. I'm sure next time I see him he'll be all grown up. And Jasper too (hahahaha). No, really, they were so great to me, and I will definitely be keeping in touch with all of them. John took me to
Bondi
Beautiful people EVERYWHERE the airport AGAIN, and I said my goodbyes. He was absolutely incredible and made me feel at home the entire time. Thanks John. Love to Janie as well... I promise we didn't get up to too much trouble!
Next up is Southeast Asia. It's basically the area of the world that got me off my ass and on a plane. I'm excited and a little nervous to see what it's like over there. I'm meeting my good buddy Clark in Bangkok in about a day, where we'll figure out exactly where we are heading. At least two days in Bangkok is the plan right now, but after that is a mystery. I'm sure the stories on here will get a little more exotic and a tad bit more exciting. I've loved the adventure so far but it's going into high gear now.
As I finish writing this, I'm sitting in HQ hostel on Solam Soi 3 in the heart of Bangkok. I'm hot, sweaty, a little lost, but so excited for the next few days. I'll be making a return trip to the airportto greet Clark.
So bye for now! As always, I hope this finds you
The prodigal Uni floormate
And incredible guy. Thanks for the good times Wes! well.
Love,
Brooksie
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Auntie Catherine
non-member comment
Lucky you
Hey Geoff I am so jealous you have spent time in Brisbane. It is a fantastic place. Isn't Southbank something else. Can't offer you the same weather in Scotland but our beaches in Monifieth are pretty good. Hope to see you. Love Auntie Catherine