mark? who's mark?

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Holy Crap!
So, i'm sure many of you don't remember who this Mark Richardson
character is as you haven't heard from him in over a month (i
think). Hopefully some of you haven't forgotten me, such as Paul,
no you're not an only child, you have a brother. To all of the
others, you might remember me from places such as Animal Critical
Care:where the animals get better and the staff get crazy,
Kamloops, where the air is Pulp Mill fresh, and just people who
i've known since infancy or school, or from the busy party schedule
of Riverside, wett bar, pound, and the beloved ozone, and a few
great people i've met along the way in this big island.
So, where the hell have i been and what have i been doing? Well,
i've been here in cairns, and i've been working.
talk to you all soon,
mark








Hahahaha, kidding. So, yes, still here in cairns, and still think
it's beautiful. The lush surroundings, the deafening parrots in the
trees in the evenings, and the flying foxes filling the skies in
the evenings. I still haven't managed to do too much here. For the
first little bit it was because i was driving the hostel bus and
just didn't have much, if any, free time. I gave the hostel bus up,
passing it on to a nice unsuspecting irish guy by the name of
Lorkan, who i thought maybe got his name from a Lord of the Rings
book or something. So, now i am solely employed by P.J. O'Briens
and Lagoon Cafe. P.J.'s is a chain irish bar/pub through australia.
It's got a nice dark woodsy feel to it, and you can go in for a
quiet beer, or get crazy and shake what your momma gave you on the
dance floor. They show lots of English Premier division soccer
games, and rugby, and also have a Coyote Ugly night on wednesday
and saturday where some girls in hot pants and chaps dance on the
bar, and then they get unsuspecting people up who want to win reef
trips or bar tabs and get them half naked before they know it
(sound familiar to anyone? byron bay?). So, it's a fun place to
work, good times. It's quite a popular place and on st Patty's day
i got a nice 15 hour shift there. Cripes. I guess i can't complain
though as it's the first work i've done in four months. so, i pour
beers there. I'm a bartender if you will. It's a basic place so i
don't have to make any fancy drinks, and i kind of take pleasure in
telling someone that no they can't have a 'cosmopolitan' cuz we
don't make those. Also, a great thing is we always get a
'knock-off' beer. After every shift we get a free drink or beer.
How great is that. ACCG take note.
My other job is a the Lagoon cafe. Because you can't swim in the
water off the coast here due to the cute and lethal box jellyfish
(cute?), cairns city has built a big outdoor free public pool where
you can cool yourself on a hot day. Any big outdoor pool needs a
concession stand to sell water, soft drinks, coffee, chips, and
other random junk to people. I'm the guy they come and see to buy
this junk. Mostly it's to 14year olds who want candy, but some
times i do luck out and get the old guy in a speedo. Like i said,
good times. It's possibly the easiest job i've ever had, easier
than a gas station, or a pizza parlour, easier even than the ICU
ward at ACCG, if that's possible (kidding). People come in, they
say, how much is a pepsi, and i say "$2.50" and they say "okay" and
give me $2.50 and i give them a pepsi. Do i need to go over that
again for you slower people? Petrie? I try to have fun there, goof
off when possible, and to see how much ice cream i can fit in a
cone for people. The good times never stop really. The only time it
gets hard is working lots of shifts together. Saturday nights at
P.J.'s are late, i usually get in at 4:30am or so, then have to
work at the lagoon the next morning at 9 until 5, then back to
P.J.s for 7pm until 3 or 4. It's a long couple of days, but right
now i need the bling to pay my way for all the travels i plan to do.
I've started a 4 day dive course finally and have done my 2 first
days in the pool. Most people do the 4 days all together, but being
that i am among the gainfully employed, i have to break it up and
do 2 one week, and 2 days the next. I was supposed to do my last 2
days, the 2 days on the reef, last week but had to cancel due to
lack of sleep from work. Now, i have the days i need booked off,
and will be scuba diving the great barrier reef monday and tuesday.
i imagine i will love it, as just being in the pool and scuba
diving around there was great.
cairns overall is treating me well. It's a small enough place, and
i don't go too far. I have a few places i go to, and just walking
around a lot you get to know people in the street, familiar faces,
people you see at the pub, and run into people i've met along the
way up the east coast. Last week i ran into an english couple who i
met over 4 months ago in Melbourne! crazy! We went out for beers
and had a great time catching up. Good times for sure.
I haven't yet been able to go mountain biking, but there's a guy in
a closeby dive shop who's from courtney on vancouver island
originally who mountain bikes, so i'm in the process of trying to
rent a decent bike so we can go for a ride. How exciting. The only
thing is that in australia, they swapped the brakes so that what is
usually the back brake is now the front brake, which could have
some hilarious consequences should i try and be cool and skid my
back tire and not think about which brake lever to pull. Hilarious
dirt eating consequences.
So that's it for now. Not because i don't have more to say, but
because i don't want to type anymore. I'll write soon, maybe in a
week, and by that time i should have done some cool things.
Tune in next time for:
Scuba diving:the final days
mountain biking; Eating dirt down under
Mossman:some place that i'm going and don't know anything about so
i can't write something half funny after it, except maybe : little
town or misunderstood man?
that was bad, but i'm sure you're all used to it.
latas
mark

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