Australia Day Long Weekend (ADLW)

It was Australia Day weekend last weekend... me and a few mates rented a house on Stradbroke Island from Friday to Sunday and basically beached it up. Swimming, surfing, frisbee, en guard, and jamming a million beers. Which is basically how you do it.

Saw this and 3 other "utes", aka trucks, like it on the ferry on the way to Straddie... CUB, Cashed Up Bogans, gotta love it.

Monday was a public holiday, and the official Australia Day. I went for a huge breakfast feast at Ed and Kates, and then we headed to the Story Bridge Hotel for their (in)famous celebrations. It was a great atmosphere, busy but not too busy, and just a party atmosphere...

Inside bar:

Ed and Kate:

Outside dunk tank, just missed her in this photo:

Outside tent bar:

Outside:

And then the Cockroach races... Basically they bet on cockroaches. Contestants bring their own cockies... they have a bunch of races where they put like 10 in the middle of this big circle and the first one to run out of it wins. The crowd goes nuts.

Before every race the pipers march through:

The winners of the first one of the day:

And then back for a big week at work... Not sure what's planned for the upcoming weekend but it may be a little more low-key.

Also, big props out to the Peck's who will be putting up my Aussie friends Emma and Pete who are making a stop over in Calgary on their 6 months of holidays. Also, props to my mom & Frank who very nearly put them up too!

And if anyone knows of a place to rent in Banff or Calgary let me know because that's where they're headed next...

More from Day 2 of Sunset Sounds last Thursday

I Heart Hiroshima (wicked):
Low key early crowd:

Ash Grunwald:

The Grates:

Franz Ferdinand (the highlight of the festival):

A busy weekend

Dropped the boys off at the bus station Saturday afternoon, but it was no occasion to go home and relax. Instead I went to the circus! Cirque Du Soleil is in Brisbane with their Dralion show. It was spectacular, as could be expected, and makes me wish I was an Olympic trampoline artist. Very impressive...
Saturday morning I went to the 1st ever Brisbane International tennis competition. We sat front row on the baseline and it was awesome! Watching tennis live is great because you get to witness all of the player's reactions and can hear them arguing the umpires and each other way better than on TV. Plus the action is great, you really gain an appreciation for their consistency and power.

This was Fernando Verdasco in the Semi's, he went on to the final:

This is Radek Stepanek in the Semi's, he was the eventual champion as he beat Verdasco in the finals. He was very entertaining to watch, very animated and played a lot of mind games with his opponents. He lost the first set of the last 3 matches (quarters, semis, final) but managed to out wit and out last each opponent. He was 23rd in the world rankings before the tournament...

Saturday night my friend's Emma and Peter had a going away gig for themselves... They're off to Canada, the States, and Europe for 6 months together. FYI they'll be in Banff until April, so for all my Canadian friends I may give your phone numbers to them. They're awesome and fun and I'd expect you to show them a great time! For their going away party we did some barefoot lawn bowling, then a great dinner at a crab & steak house, and then some local Redcliffe pub and party hopping.

Sunday there was no rest as I had round of golf with a couple guys from my hockey team. Shot like crap (I'm going to the range tonight). After hockey we had our first game of the 2nd half of Summer Hockey... it was tough after being off for 3 weeks but we pulled out a narrow victory.

And then it was back to work . Last night (Monday) I spent the whole night cleaning the apartment as I hadn't had a chance to restore order after hosting an 18 and a 20 year old for 2.5 weeks and a NYE afterparty... My house is also devoid of all foodstuffs and alcohol. Eventually I'll make it back to the stores to restock the shelves.

Peace.

Sunset Sounds

Tegan and Sara:
The Kooks:

The Hives:

The crowd:

More Hives:

And I made it to work the next day, almost on time too!

The New Year

It's been a fun couple of weeks with Derek and Travis visiting. I think they've had a decent introduction to Brisbane city living as well as a couple excursions along the way.

- Down to the GC a few times for surfing and beaching
- Climbed through a tropical rainforest to the top of a volcanoe (Mt Warning)
- For NYE we had an awesome seafood dinner at The Wharf at Breakfast Creek. Then we boarded a yacht (35 foot Tasman Catamaran) and sailed up the Brisbane River to watch the fireworks. Afterwards we stumbled to my place for a few beverages and living room dance-offs.
- A day of boating in Moreton Bay with Nadya and Peet on their yacht. We swam with Dugongs and turtles while they ate sea grass all around us!!
- Hit DreamWorld for some rides and perving (I wasn't perving, Derek and Travis did though).
- The Normanby for a Super Sunday Session.
- Introduced them to sushi.
- And of course many a night in the Valley, sampling the local markets...

And today after work we head to Sunset Sounds, a 2-day music festival at River Stage in the Botanical Gardens. Bands include: Day 1 - The Hives, The Cat Empire, The Kooks, Tegan & Sara, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Faker, Gomez, Soko, Yves Klein Blue... Day 2 - Franz Ferdinand, The Grates, Santogold, Donavon Frankenreiter, Ash Grunwald, C.W. Stoneking, I Heart Hiroshima.

On Friday the boys are leaving me and heading north for some real backpacking and tourist hoopla. First they're off to Noosa for a river kayak and camping, then to Fraser Island for a 3-day adventure, and then they push further north to Airlie Beach and the Great Barrier Reef. Oh how I'd like to join them .

Randome pics:::

Dream world Tower of Terror:

The Wharf for NYE Dinner:
The Platter at The Wharf:

The Great South East we had for the NYE river tour (sails weren't up at the time):

Sushi:

Family Nightclub:

Happy birthday

For my birthdayi took derek and Trevor to the Gold Coast for surf lessons, patio drinks, and site seeing. This is the only pic we got of the sites...



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Puma juice

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Went to another party.


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Mt warning

Boxing day hike up a mountain with derek and travis. This is where I made my Christmas calls home from, doesn't sound as adventurous when there is still a cell signal!

Half way:


The top, what a view... Haha


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Dunno

In....yah.





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Stupid tourists...

Kangaroo Point BBQ

BBQ with friends before everyone splits for xmas. Queensland is great, they have public and free BBQ areas everywhere. You just show up with food, drink, plates, and friends... push the button on the gas BBQ and grill away. This one was up on the cliffs at Kangaroo Point overlooking the city and a thunderstorm off in the distance.

Before:
The view:

During:

Aussie Burger

Beef patty, bacon, lettuce, tomato, beet root, cheese, sauce, and a fried egg.

Queen at Xmas

Da tree.


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Don't stop till u get enough

"company" Xmas party... Open bar!


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SSS

The Normanby for a Sunday session, no regrets!






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Tis the season

The Company (I've officially been asked by IT to not mention the name or tell any bad stories about the Company anymore) xmas party was night. And in an effort to make myself behave I booked a scuba trip the next day, which meant I had to get up at 5am and be in tip-top shape. After getting to the xmas party I realized this may have been a mistake because the party was circa 1998 hay-day engineering/oil company xmas parties in Calgary. Dinner, dancing, awards, laughs, and an open bar. I faced the challenge though, drank moderately, and when the clock struck 11.5 I drove home at top speed.

Diving was awesome. I've bought all the equipment necessary now except for tanks and weights (BCD, Regulators, Fins, Gogs, etc). Also, a mandatory accessory for diving in Queensland is a dive knife, which I was super stoked about (ask Greg and Lisa). In Egypt they were banned, and in Australia they're mandatory, I love it. I actually met a dude at the xmas party who has his own boat and scuba stuff and we're contemplating going diving on our own... I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but I think I'll do it anyway. But anyways...

We departed the East Coast Marina in Manly and headed for Stradbroke Island. For long term subscribers to my life story this is where a girlfriend had a house and we went surfing a bunch of times when I was here in '06. This time though I was there for underwater activities... The first stop was Shark Alley at Flat Rock:

We saw a few very large Wobbegon Sharks, which are bottom feeding docile beasts. They were fat and numerous. Unfortunately other than that Shark Alley didn't live up to it's name, but it was a good dive nonetheless with the standard mix of small rays and other fish that I don't know the names of.
Next stop was Manta Bommie:
Here we had a bit more luck and spotted two giant Bull Rays (Steve Irwin killers), Leopard Sharks, and another species of shark that was a proper looking shark. I'm not sure what they were, most likely a pair of Grey Nurse Sharks, but they looked cooler than this pic:
Leopard shark:

Bull rays:

Tomorrow is golf, ice hockey, and then a SSS. Super Sunday Session at the Normanby hotel, where professional rugby league players frequently get into dust-ups with drunken patrons and many a Brisbane filly has lost her way.