Dirty cheap plug adaptors

It may be awhile until I'm online again because I've blown the motherboard in my laptop due to a freak eletrical incident. I was plugging in my laptop to the wall when there was a loud snap and the lights went out. After flipping the breaker I discovered my laptop was dead. I've taken it in to an HP service centre and they say I need a new motherboard, but the hard disk should be alright. Hopefully it is, or else my life the for the couple of years is down the tubes! Haha, won't be that bad...

Anyways, hope the summer has rounded out well for everyone. Mine is just beginning assuming I weather the storm that is the PNG Gas Project.

Had a job offer for a refinery in St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands), what do you guys think?

Surf's up dude

Spent another weekend at Straddie surfing, eating, tennis'ing, ping-ponging, swimming, and sun'ing. I caught my best and longest wave on Sunday, I think I may have actually looked like I knew what I was doing! It was awesome dude. It's hard to explain the feeling when you're floating on your board out behind the break, a couple hundrend meters from shore with dolphins swimming a few meters away, waiting for the right wave... Rising and falling with waves that look a lot smaller from shore. The stars were aligned my friends, and I seized the moment. After standing up, getting settled, and actually turning the board to ride out the wave to it's end it's wicked taking a last look around and diving back into to water (and not falling off) and swimming back out for another chance at glory. Being completly bagged after a avo sess (afternoon session), and collapsing on the beach to soak up some vitamin D is the way life should be lived.

Oh yeah, work goes on... still some uncertainty in the air, but they can take as long as they want as long as I get to beach next weekend.

P.S. Australia is in desperate need off all things engineering & construction. Sell all your furniture, buy one way tickets, and get your asses over here.

The work front

Yes, I am actually still working over here... There's been rumors abound here in Brisbane regarding the future of the PNG Gas Project, most recently spurred on by this new article, among others. What it all means for me is sort of still a mystery... I've heard everything from it's business as usual to they'll pull the plug at the end of the month. It's hard to speculate how exactly it will effect me, so I won't... But I think I'll be ok until the the end of the year...

Aside from the uncertainty at work life is still great. Heading to Byron Bay this weekend... it's small surfer/hippie town 2 hours south of Brisbane on the north coast of New South Wales. Not exactly sure what I'll be doing there, just going to check it out for the day. Sunday I have a tee time at a Greg "The Shark" Norman course, so we'll see how that goes...

Weekend at Caro's

Back from the weekend and into another work week. There's one problem with weekends, and thats that they're seperated by weeks.

But the weekend was great. A girl from work invited myself and a few other people from work to her place on North Stradbroke Island, which is just off the east coast from Brisbane.

We stayed in a sweet beach house that was equipped with everything needed for a beach holiday: Kayaks, snorkling gear, fishing poles, surf boards, boogie boards, bbq, hammock, etc., etc.

Basically here's how the weekend shaped up: Left work a little early to catch a 6pm ferry from the coast to the island; drove to the house, settled in, made supper, played cards on the deck; woke up Saturday and went surfing and played some rugby on the beach, home for lunch; kayaked out to Shag Rock and went snorkling, took an eskie of with a couple beers and had those out on the ocean. We saw 2 sharks (but apparently they were a species that didn't have teeth, oh well!), a sea turtle, big fish, and little fish while snorkling. Before dinner (pronounced dinnah here in Oz) we went for a tennis match under the lights (sun goes down around 6pm here in winter) and had blast. That night we steamed some fish and our cook for the evening did an excellent job. The rest of the night was filled with cards, beers, music, and laughs. Sunday morning we went for another surf, a swim, a snooze on the beach, fishing, and more laughs. Here are few pics, hope they're alright...

The hammock:

Friend from work by the Jeep in the yard:

View from the deck... you can't really see the ocean through the trees but it's there:

Went fishing from a cliff on Sunday, here's a fellow fisherman. I don't think had caught anything all day:

Me... on a cliff:

Took this pic from the beach when we surfing the 2nd day:

Sweet

BIFF

I'm taking a break from playing so much squash and golf this (hockey stays) due to a sore/pulled serratus anterior. Luckily for me the Brisbane International Film Festival is in full swing. I've been to a couple theatres and have a couple more lined up, but tonight I saw a movie called Like Minds. The movie gets 4 out of 5 koalas but I stuck around afterwards for the Q&A with the writer/director, which was interesting enough in it's right. The price of the ticket included a drink, wine, cheese, and fruit and was a great excuse to get out during the week.

Mount Tibrogargan and the Monkeys

Had another great weekend! Saw The Arctic Monkeys at the Arena in the city on Saturday night and still don't have 100% of my hearing back. Great show though... The music was tops and watching drunken pomme lead singers mumble their way through a drunken rock show is always fun. Sunday I golfed and played hockey, which is becoming routine... no complaints there.

Saturday morning another hilight though... I went hiking/climbing on Mt Tibrogargan in the Glass House Mountains up on the Sunshine Coast. I thought it was supposed to be a casual walk/hike up a hill, but found out early that I was in for much more. There was some serious rock climbing / scrambling involved. It was good fun though and was worth it for the views from the top. I finally bought a camera too so here are some pictures:

















The Glass House Mountains are found in the hinterland of Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They are actually the cores of 20 million year old volcanoes, so that the sides of the volcanoes have eroded away leaving only hardened plugs or rock spires. Captain James Cook gave the area its unusual English name while sailing past, on his way up Australia's east coast, in 1770. From a distance they reminded him of the glass-making furnaces of his home town in Yorkshire.

Could use some updates on people from home.... what has everyone been up to??