GenesisDreams

Farewell Australia

Guest Entry Its now 8pm, we’ve been on the plane for 5 hours and have left Australia a long way behind us. It strange to think we were there for a whole month, all of which are now great memories of a fantastic time. …Laptop batteries run out… Finally on British soil after 25 hours flying. We got back into Liverpool at about 9am after Graeme picked us up from Manchester airport. The flight home was definitely better than the flight coming, maybe because we were both so tired and slept the majority of it, or maybe because the second leg of the journey was the long 14 hour one. We’ve showered, partly unpacked and been food shopping so are going to finish unpacking and then probably fall asleep at around 4pm local time (1am Brisbane time). Hopefully Michael will not suffer badly with the jet lag this time and so he will go to work tomorrow and I will drive back to Nottingham. This trip is the longest I have been away from Britain for, probably the longest period of time in which I have hardly spoken to my parents for, certainly the most intense time I have spent with Michael since we got together. I loved every part of being away for a whole month, it was surprisingly easy and always fun. I had the best time in Australia and I will definitely visit it again someday. -Nikkie

Family Day. Our Last Day.

Guest Entry We got up late, packed some more and got ready for the arrival of the Mead family for a banquet made by Helen. We all sat down to a fabulous lunch of lasagne, quiche, salad and wine followed by rich cheesecake, strawberries and cream. Once we had all collapsed from being fed so well, Michael’s cousin Paul played the piano and his uncle Eddie sang while we chatted amongst ourselves. Everyone left around 4pm after leaving us with more stuff to bring back to England, how are we ever going to get it all home?! We drove to Zim’s to meet up for the last time with Michael’s friends for some poker and dinner before our flight home. Zim’s house, or houses took about 45 minutes to drive to. On our arrival, Zim and Cowan were battling it out for the poker winnings. They eventually agreed to half the winnings so we could all go out to dinner at The Hog’s Breath Café. Dinner was good and it was nice to see all Michael’s friends before we flew home. They reminisced about old times, especially the last time they had all eaten together there (the last time they had seem Michael off to England) and other amusing tales of teenage life. We mulled about in the car park for a while, arranging a meeting time for tomorrow at the airport. It was really nice that they all seemed to want to wave Michael off at the airport, certainly showed me what good friends they have all stayed since high school. Simon dropped us home at around 10pm. -Nikkie

Cigarettes And Alcohol

Guest Entry I spent the morning and the afternoon, on Michael’s return from his last day on the course, packing. Packing, packing and more packing eventually took its toll getting both of us angry at the weight of stuff we had to bring back home with us. Simon watched us discuss (maybe slightly angrily) with great amusement. At 7pm Simon, Kristy, Ed and Jeremy came over and the 7 of us went for dinner at an Indian restaurant Helen knew the owners of. The food was great, if not slightly too hot for what I was used too, the wine continued appearing and we had a great time. The plan had been to carry onto a club afterwards but Michael and I were so incredibly full…and drunk… that Kristy drove us, Simon and Helen back to the flat while Ed and Jeremy went clubbing. At Helen’s the wine continued to flow in copious amounts, to the extent that a cigar and many cigarettes were smoked to the background of piano playing. Kristy went home when Helen went to bed and the three of us carried on chatting until Michael passed out around 12pm. He clambered into bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep not to be woken for the next 10 hours. Simon and I chatted philosophically, righting the world’s wrongs, until 2am when he left to go the Regatta and I went to bed. -Nikkie

Packing

Guest Entry So, we’ve come full circle back to where we began. I decided to take the day to pack some of the things we had collected over the month being here. I washed, ironed, washed some more and had my suitcase almost full by noon. Zim called, requesting me, as a last resort, to try and persuade Michael to skip the afternoon off work so they could carry on the drinking that had already begun. It was eventually decided, after much debate, that Zim and Al would take me to see the University of Queensland while Michael and Graham finished work after which they would meet us and we would go for dinner somewhere. UQ is on a huge campus, about twice the size of Nottingham Main campus with 1960’s buildings dotted about. The main square and law buildings, like on all campuses, were impressively build of sandstone made to look old. Michael met us a bit later and the three of them took me (for the second time) to the Red Room, the campus bar. It was a similar size to The Ark at Nottingham but a lot more expensive. We had a couple of drinks there until our stomachs told us it was dinner-time. They took me to a chippy called A Salt And Battery! Such a place would only be found in Australia. It was ok but again, nothing compared to English fish and chips. After the food we went back to Simon’s house for a few more drinks and then everyone dispersed home. It was after all, a weekday. -Nikkie

The Waterhole

Guest Entry Today I ventured to Brisbane’s Australia Museum. Although by this time I had realised that Australia did not have many old buildings, I did expect the museum to contain a bit more history than I got to see. I left 2 hours for the museum before I was due to meet Michael for coffee but was finished by 11am. The museum consisted of a tiny collection of aboriginal art and artefacts, lots of stuffed animals (which I was not too enthusiastic about due to our recent visit to the zoo, er oh and the fact that I am a grown adult!) and information about a book called The Waterhole by an illustrator called Graeme Greene. This caught my eye as it described, in great detail, how the author had gone about illustrating his book. I have always been interested in art since I did my GCSE and to this day I wished I had done it for A-Level (the equivalent of Australia’s senior certificate) There was a clear storyboard for each page with a final watercolour, pencil and ink painting along with an ink backdrop. The colours in the painting were so rich, the detail so perfected and each of the 11 were different and a wonder to look at. I was determined to buy the book as these paintings were so exquisite. The book was a complete disappointment. The richness of the paintings had been totally lost in the book and it quickly blended into another children’s book which, unless recommended, you wouldn’t pick up. Having overestimated the time it would take to look around the museum, I had time to go back to the flat, relax, eat and still get back to the city in time for buying the last few pieces of the holiday and meeting Michael at 4.45pm. I got my photos developed, bought a few more bits and pieces and got to Starbucks in time for Michael’s arrival. We had a coffee, a snack in Coffee Club and went to the Imax Theatre to watch The Island starring Scarlett Johansson and Sean Bean. It was a great film, especially on the big screen. We met up with Simon for a quick drink at a bar in West End called The Pavillion and retired for the night at around 10pm. -Nikkie

More Boutiques

Guest Entry Helen had the day off again so took me into another area of Brisbane, which I immediately compared to the Sloane Street of London. It was full of small, incredibly expensive shops filled with rich, well-dressed women. We bought some fabulous coffee from a famous coffee warehouse, some jewellery as gifts to take back to the U.K. and I bought a blood-red suede duffel bag for $100. A few hours and a wonderful lunch later I had accumulated a few more items, mainly for Juliet’s birthday. Not sure how I am going ship all this stuff back home! Helen then took us both out for dinner at a local Italian in West-End. It was lovely. -Nikkie

The Holy Day Of Rest

Guest Entry Okay, so I made today a recovery day, doing very little. Michael had begun his new course so had to travel into the city again, I rose at 11am, had a late breakfast and took my time to get showered and dressed. I pottered, washed, worked, read and sunbathed before Michael finally came home from work. We, hooked by now on Big Brother, watched the week’s evictions and went to bed. -Nikkie

The Morning After The Night Before

Guest Entry Michael and I woke up around 10am, got showered, dressed, marvelled at the glorious view outside our balcony window and headed downstairs. After a BBQ breakfast of eggs and bacon (you Aussies can cook anything on a BBQ!) Simon and Michael took me to see Surfers Paradise. We ordered a starbucks and sat on the beach soaking up the morning rays. The beach was phenomenal. It was miles upon miles of clear, pure, white sand and a sea of crisp electric blue lapping softly against the sand. We cleared up and drove home around 3pm to a lamb roast which Helen had rustled up for us. Tired, we went to bed. -Nikkie

Australia Zoo And The Glasshouse Mountains

Guest Entry We got up early today, as we had to check out by 11am, so by 10am we were heading for Australia Zoo. When we arrived, at 11am, the animal shows were beginning in the Crococeum. We saw the snakes, tigers, birds and crocodiles. The Zoo Keepers told us each a bit about the animals and then fed them, which for the birds was not very eventful but it was very impressive for the tigers and the crocodiles. We wandered around the zoo after the shows were over and saw a huge list of animals; snakes, birds, crocodiles, alligators, koalas and wombats (which was the first time I had ever seen one while getting to stroke all the kangaroos. It was awesome. At around 3pm we got back into the car and drove to the Glasshouse Mountains. We had to drive up really high up a long winding road and then could see all the mountains. The landscape is totally flat except for the volcanic plugs shooting out of the ground, which once were surrounded by sandstone but the sandstone eroded away and left the igneous plugs in weird and wonderful shapes. On our return to Brisbane we went over to Simon’s for another ‘quiet night in’ which ended at 2am after 3 bottles of wine, half a bottle of Bundenburg rum and lots of pizza! Damn you Simon! -Nikkie

The Last Day At The Beach

Guest Entry We got up early today to make the most of our last full day at the beach. We went to the same café as previously for breakfast and wandered to the beach. A full day of sunbathing later, we got showered and dressed and strolled into town for dinner. Again, we stopped at Starbucks and then decided against going for dinner and headed back, along the beach, to our hotel for a dinner of corn flakes! Both Michael and I had got ridiculously burned on our backs as we had run out of suncream and underestimated the power of the winter sun. Okay, so I had the excuse of being an ignorant foreigner but Michael was really annoyed he had forgotten how string the sun really is in winter. -Nikkie

A Truly Lazy Day

Guest Entry Today, I can truthfully say, we did nothing except read in the sun. We got up really late (about 10am) and went for breakfast at a local café and then headed to the beach. I went for a long run along the coastal road, which was the first run I have ever enjoyed! Dinner consisted of fish and chips from the local take-away and was eaten while lying in bed watching T.V. I don’t think I’ve ever done as little as we did today!

More Sunbathing

Guest Entry Today we woke up around 9am and walked straight to the beach for a day of lying in the sun. A couple of swims later Michael popped off to get me some lunch which was such a luxury. He’s so great. More sunbathing, reading and swimming was done till about 4pm again. After a short run we went back up to the room for a shower and to get changed to go out for a wander into the village and to grab some dinner in a local restaurant. We stopped off in the local Starbucks for a coffee by the beach and then went to the best restaurant in the village. It was called Casual Dining and had really good food and wine. We spent most of the evening in the restaurant and chatted the night away. -Nikkie

Alexandra Headlands

Guest Entry We drove up to Alexandra Headlands in a little over an hour. We checked into our apartment, which was on the beach. After dropping our things off in the apartment we strolled down to the beach for a swim and sunbathe. The beach is filled with soft golden sand and a massive expanse of Pacific Ocean. Much to my dismay, however, there were no shark nets to be seen! Although I swam I made sure I did not head out too far ensuring someone else was always further out to sea than I was. This meant that if the lifeguards called a shark warning I could quickly swim into shore! All my life I have said I would never visit Australia because of the poisonous animals and now that I have I had to swim. But, not being worried about the sharks was too big a step all in one holiday! – again, no laughing please, this is a serious issue of mine! All the lifeguards were voluntary which I thought was fantastic as they were manning the beach from 9am till 4pm every day and had been fully trained. We stayed till 4pm, went for a run along the beach and had a dinner of beans on toast. A perfect end to a perfect day! -Nikkie

Shifting, Lifting And Sorting

Guest Entry Today was spent again at Michael’s nana’s unit where more stuff was transported to various places with careful planning and ensuring we could get the maximum amount of stuff in Jeremy’s ute each trip we made. We caught the train this time to allow us a bit of a lie-in. The trains appear to be reliable as they run on schedule, but they reminded me of the trains in the film Batman Begins – very plain and indifferent. This seems weird but compared to those in Britain, which all belong to private companies and look different depending on the company you travel with, the Queensland trains are quite different. The train ride was enlightening - we talked about the differences in the education systems in England and Australia and although I think the kids probably learn more in Australia, maybe for the simple reason they have more respect, the systems are state controlled which I think is a strange way to organise education for the simple fact that if a child moves house from Queensland to the Northern territory they may be in a different year at school. Anyway, we visited Jeremy’s new house on the way to Helen’s place and it really shocked me how cheap houses are here. He is paying roughly the same amount as Jade and I per week and is getting a house almost three times the size! I’m seriously jealous! We dropped some furniture off at Jeremy’s place and continued to Helen’s flat where the rest got dropped off. Michael returned to his nana’s where he picked up the car and came home. We went to Simon’s local (The Regatta) for dinner. It was a trendy bar with a restaurant attached to the side of it, which made it huge. Dinner was lovely, again proof that either the Aussies (like every other nation) can make better food than the British, or that it’s just cheaper so people can afford to eat at nicer restaurants. I think it’s the former! We went back to Simon’s house to watch ‘The Ladykillers’ where I fell asleep and Michael carted me home. -Nikkie

Starbucks

Guest Entry Today was the first chance Michael and I had got to spend some time together since we arrived. We wandered into the city and immediately headed for the local Starbucks in the Queens Plaza (a newly build shipping mall containing Max Mara and Tiffany’s). It was nice to just sit and not have to worry about having to get home for anything and reminded me of the beginning of last semester at uni where we would go to Nottingham Starbucks on a Saturday morning and sit for hours just chatting. We met up with Simon later that morning and he took us to his work. He works in a really modern environment and I spent the morning learning about the complications of manufacturing computers. It was quite an experience for me to see massive machines producing tiny motherboards for computers. Michael and Simon spent a while fixing Ed’s computer and I went through Simons collection of 20,000 downloaded songs for any I wanted copying. I now posses almost double the amount of songs I had yesterday! -Nikkie

West End

Guest Entry I took myself into West End today while Michael and Helen were at work. Although some of the shops were good (it has a lot of charity shops) the atmosphere was slightly disconcerting. I now know that it is a major place for tramps to congregate and is seen as one of the aboriginal living areas of Brisbane which may explain all the funny looks all the Caucasians were getting! I bought the sixth Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the half-blood prince) which I read for the remaining part of the day. I have been waiting, just like many others, for the next book to come out and it, like the prior ones, was fantastic so much so that I couldn’t put it down! I met Michael coming home from work and we went to see the Southbank Arts and Craft market. It was really cute, reminding me of French markets. The sun was setting and the market was full of people, which gave it a really lively atmosphere. We stopped off for a drink and then walked home. Michael went to bed at 6pm as he was feeling ill and tired. Hopefully he will feel better in the morning. -Nikkie

Boutiques In Paddington

Guest Entry Felt really awake for the first time this whole holiday, think I’m finally relaxed and over the jet lag! Got up and started work on my dissertation which was something I was determined to do while over here, the model student that I am (cough, cough)! I sunbathed for a bit, to enable me to bring the suntan back as proof of an awesome holiday! Kristy took me to an area of Brisbane called Paddington which is a student housing village but contains some boutiques and charity shops in close proximity – my idea of heaven! We wandered the shops for a while and I picked up a leather handbag for $2 from a charity shop which was located in an old village hall. It was most definitely the best second hand shop I had ever been into as it was in a beautifully old wooden building, all the clothes were organised so looked like an ordinary high street shop and it was the largest charity shop I’d ever been into. We stopped for a coffee in one of the places voted as having the best coffee in the city. It was a tiny little coffee house but the coffee was the best I’ve tasted at the same time as being fairly reasonably priced. That evening the family got together for a Chinese meal. It was lovely to have a chance to just chat over dinner. Although I have met Jeremy and Ed before it was only briefly on a night out in Nottingham in January 2005 when I was slightly preoccupied with ‘wooing’ Michael! The food was lovely and had a really great time with them all. -Nikkie

Cruising

Guest Entry Simon and Kristy both had the day off today so they took me driving around Brisbane. We covered over 200km and I saw so many things. They took me to both Michael’s schools (Bald Hills and St Paul’s), two of his old houses (Bald Hills and Cashmere), the places Simon and Michael used to play at as kids, Mount Nebo, Mount Cootha and Somerset dam. We stopped for a really nice lunch in a cute café at the top of Mount Cootha and then drove back through the city to their house. In the evening, we went for dinner with Simon’s dad and his partner, his sister and her little boy. The restaurant was called café Primavera and was set on the side of the road about 30 minutes out of the city. It was a classy place with good wine and yummy food. Conversation centred mainly around Simon and Michael as kids, which gave me a good impression as to what little boys get up to; throwing rocks at the neighbours, setting things on fire and building holes in unused quarries just to name a few! -Nikkie

A Seafood Experience

Guest Entry Helen took the day off work today to show me around. She drove me up to Redcliffe, another Brisbane suburb, but stopped at Chermside shopping centre (the popular hang out on a hot summers day) for a coffee. The shopping centre is huge for outside a city centre. Helen bought me lunch in a seafood restaurant called Morgans, which was situated right over the sea front. I had a Barracuda in breadcrumbs with a luscious salad, some chips and a glass of white wine. It was gorgeous. We headed home around 2pm and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Another great day. -Nikkie

The Joys Of Drainpipe Jeans

Guest Entry Today, Monday, was the first day I was alone all day. Michael had to attend the first Microsoft course and Helen was at work. I took myself into Brisbane at 8am and in 4 hours I managed to find a pair of beautiful drainpipe jeans, which I have been wanting for ages. I love this place even more! I also spotted a pair of grey slouch boots for $190 (approximately £70) and bought a pair of smart summer suit trousers and a pair of smart shorts/three quarter length trousers with a turn up. In total I have spent around $200 on clothes, which equates to about £80. Again, this place is amazing. Since being here I have come to the conclusion that I would love to live here one day. Out of all the places I have been; France, Holland, Spain, Greece, Malta, America, Canada, Cuba and Turkey to name a few, Brisbane has definitely made an impression on me. I think it’s got something to do with the modern style, the lifestyle, the weather and the relaxed atmosphere created from outdoor living. The winter months are certainly nice and warm and although I have never experienced the oppressive heat that makes up the summer, the Australians’ seem fairly prepared to cope with it – air conditioning units everywhere and houses built on stilts to give good air circulation. One of the huge bonuses is the cost of living. Although this is relative to the average wage, if you saved in Britain for 5 years and immigrated to Australia you would immediately be put into the wealthy bracket. -Nikkie

Moving House

Guest Entry Today we went to visit Michael’s nana who had just moved from a bungalow to the nursing home due to a fall and consequent conclusions that she was unsafe to remain alone in a house. It was interesting to see what a nursing home looked like here in the land of excess space but each room is no bigger than those back in the U.K but there is a large block of land adjoined to it. I also met Michael’s auntie Marg and Uncle Eddie who are John’s parents. Everyone, again without fail, was so welcoming to me. The day’s events consisted of clearing out the bungalow and sorting through Michael’s boxed stuff. For me, it was great to see a fraction of each part of Michael’s life; cutie photos of him growing up and other bits and pieces, but I think he found it quite hard as his life in Australia ended up consisting of three medium sized boxes. Some stuff, mainly his birth certificate, school records and photos, he will bring back to England but a lot of it got thrown out as there was no longer a place to store it all. Jeremy took a massive cactus type plant back from the bungalow to his house in the ute but it was a serious task getting it there in the first place! Michael, Ed, Jeremy and I heaved it around the back getting spiked all over. It must have been an amusing sight though! Michael took me to see his old house in Sandgate, a large house set back from the road. It, or so I’ve heard, had a large swimming pool in the back garden which I get the impression is pretty standard in a house in Australia!! It is located about 10 minutes walk from the sea, which to me instantly makes it worth so much more. Maybe that’s just because I’ve never lived near the sea. He took me to Shawncliffe, which is a cute little village next to Sandgate. I say a village but both Sandgate and Shawncliffe are more like suburbs because they are directly next to each other, there is no long winding country road separating them like you would always see in Britain. Again, that’s probably because the suburbs are not nearly as old as the villages in Britain which began being small dwellings of certain clans of people before they became large enough to be called villages. Shawncliffe was very much like a British coastal village with the exception of the gloriously blue colour of the sea and the bright weather! The only thing that concerned me was the shark nets, or the lack of them on one side of the pier but their presence on the other side. The presence of vicious animals in Australia has put me off visiting it for as long as I can remember. So the obvious presence of sharks scared me and I was even reluctant to walk along the pier past those nets. Of course I realise that the pier isn’t going to collapse and that it’s as impossibility that a shark would clamber out of the sea onto the pier and eat me alive. But it was still scary! – no comments please, only a foreigner would understand! On our return to West End we promptly went to bed, exhausted from the day’s events. I proceeded to have nightmares about shark attacks! -Nikkie

New Farm Park And A Few Drinks Later

Guest Entry We’ve been here four days and the jet lag has finally ended. We got up incredibly early – 6.30am – to go to the Gunshop café with Helen for some breakfast. The food was divine and has a reputation as the best breakfast in the city. As with so many popular cafés here, this place was tiny (enough for about 50 people) and had people queuing to get in by 7.30am! I had French toast with strawberries and organic yogurt and a smoothie of orange, mango and banana, Michael had French toast with bacon and maple syrup, which sounded awful but tasted exquisite and Helen had salmon, scrambled eggs and toast, which was also fabulous. Michael had organised a BBQ in New Farm Park for the afternoon to catch up with all his friends. I was slightly unsure how a BBQ was going to be possible in the middle of a park, I thought maybe we would go and buy a couple of throw away BBQs but on the assurance of Michael that we wouldn’t be needing them I followed and soon found out – free electric BBQ’s strategically placed around the park. What a fantastic idea. You simply press a button and the BBQ heats up perfectly sufficiently for cooking food on it. Genius! On the eventual arrival of Michael’s friends we sat around drinking ice cold beer (kept cool in huge cool boxes, or Eskys). After the food and beer was gone, a game of touch rugby took off. The rules are pretty much the same as in England but the Aussies have an alternative called AFL. The tragedy of AFL is another story (sorry guys!) but simply this game is like a sane version of rugby without the violence. The rules are similar in that you have two teams but AFL contains 18 players in one team. They have to get the ball (slightly smaller than a rugby ball) to the other side of the pitch through kicking it, running with it and passing it (all of which can be done forwards) before kicking the ball through the goal (again which looks like a set of rugby posts and the goals are much like a rugby conversion). I just don’t understand what 18 players on a team could possibly be doing to warrant them all begin on the pitch at once! Maybe that’s just because I’m English! It was great fun to have a kick around with a ball again, something I haven’t done in so long. After a quick visit to Coffee Club for a snack we all went home for a power nap before heading out into town. Our night out was great. Eventually. I had to be driven back home to collect my passport, as the bouncers would not accept my driver’s licence. We ended up in a club called Birdie Num Nums (a bizarre name for a club) and had a great dance till around 2am when we headed home. The nightlife definitely lived up to Michael’s description of it; the partying till 5am, the dance music all night long and the scale of the places. Each bar/pub we visited were huge and most of them had a club associated with them, which had at least two different levels to them. -Nikkie

A Brisbane Virgin

Guest Entry Michael and Simon took me on a walking tour of Brisbane after a lazy morning recovering from the night before. It was a beautiful winter’s day and I burned my stomach in 10 minutes of sitting on the veranda – this is the life! Brisbane is phenomenal, truly beautiful. Everything is clean, shiny and brand new. We went through Queens Street Mall, which is not a shopping centre in English terms as it is outside! The whole city is set out so well, what with the incorporation of trees and new shiny buildings everywhere along with a man-made beach in Southbank, a good transport system (or so it seems) including a city cat, botanical gardens and a great night life. It seems like a great place to live as a young adult. As far as I can see this city has everything, and so much more, to offer young people. Sure, like any city it’s more expensive to live in but there is so much to do here. Out of the many places I’ve travelled to I think Hilversum (Holland), Vancover and Brisbane are the three I love the most. We walked past some new sky scrapers which had been transformed into apartment blocks, each with a balcony and a sensational view of the river. Alongside it was a jogging route, grass spacious enough to be classed as a park (in the centre of the city!), bars and clubs a few streets away and the fantastic weather to round it all off. -Nikkie

A Capital City? Hardly. – No Offence!

Guest Entry Michael’s working visa came through ok which is a relief. We flew out at 6am and travelled two hours on a plane to arrive at the capital city of Australia. I could fly to Amsterdam and back in that time! The scale of things here is just unreal. Canberra is a nice town. Just nice. It’s not a true capital city in the same way London is though. It was made the capital because Melbourne and Sydney fought over who would become capital of Australia and couldn’t decide. So rather than have a civil war over it, they settled on a place smack bang in the centre of the two. First impressions are that is incredibly quiet for a capital city, everything is more spacious and with less people in it the atmosphere is fairly relaxed. The women are so much taller than in Britain (mental note: stock up on trousers!) and everywhere you look the buildings are modern and clean. I guess that’s because the country is so much younger than Britain. The first European whose claim to having sighted and landed on Australia can be substantiated was a sea captain named Willem Janszoon (Jansz) in the ‘Duyfken’ (little dove). Janszoon set sail under the command of the Dutch East India Company to explore the south coast of New Guinea. We sat on sofas in the middle of the main shopping centre virtually all day. I blame the jet lag. But sofas randomly in a shopping centre? Very bizarre but rather classy. Overall, Canberra was a bit of a disappointment. Most Australians’ I have spoken too before and after the trip agree but I guess it serves its job as housing the federal government but it’s certainly not a real capital city compared to any I’ve ever been to. Our returning flights have changed as Michael’s course bookings got altered. The woman he was dealing with from the Microsoft course went off on annual leave without finishing booking him into the second one so we are now staying a whole extra week! This means we can have a week up the coast! Went to Simon and Kristy’s place for a quiet night after flying back into Brisbane at 6pm. So much for the quiet night. Take away seemed to energise us and once again, the beers came out, followed by wine, vodka and whiskey. Nine hours and way too many drinks later we finally got a taxi home and clambered into bed. -Nikkie

Sicky Pants

Guest Entry Michael was so sick today from the jet lag. I hardly suffered but we stayed in today because he was so ill. Hopefully he will be ok for tomorrow as we have to board another plane to Canberra. Simon, Kristy and Al came over for a while so they could all catch up on each others gossip. -Nikkie

The Land Down Under…

Guest Entry We arrived in Brisbane at 7pm local time on Tuesday night. After picking up some duty free and finally getting through passport control, customs and baggage reclaim we were met by Michael’s mum, brothers and best friend Simon. It was all rather overwhelming but everyone was so lovely and I felt at ease almost immediately. 20 minutes later we arrived at Helen’s ‘unit’ (apartment) and the Aussie lingo already started to baffle me! A quiet night in with everyone was just what we needed and we livened up after the beers began to flow in true Aussie style. The let lag had set in but we stayed awake till an appropriate bed time to try and reduce its grasp on us. As I slept most of the way on the last leg of the journey I didn’t suffer to badly but Michael…oh dear. -Nikkie

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Guest Entry Starbucks was the first place to be visited in Manchester airport as we both needed the caffeine fix – 5am is an early start even when you are off on an adventure! Fourteen hours later we arrived in Singapore airport. It’s now about 4am Greenwich Mean Time and I’m shattered, jet lagged like never before and have totally lot track of the current time or date we’ve travelled through so many time zones! One coffee and a shower later the batteries are recharged, maybe not to full but enough to cope with another 8 hour flight to Brisbane International Airport. -Nikkie

And The Packing Continues!

Guest Entry So I’m finally all packed and a bit more organised now after having three days to try and cut it down. I’m finally in Liverpool after Michael and I drove up in my car. It was a complicated trip up though, only took two and a half hours but I’m not sure I would find my way again, think I’ll stick to the trains in future. We are off to Geoff and Linda’s now for dinner and to pick up a suitcase large enough for Michael to bring all his stuff back from his nana’s flat. Geoff and Linda really are fantastic people; Michael’s lucky to have found such great work friends in such a short space of time. I am so excited and slightly apprehensive about meeting so many new people and remembering their names. It will be a real adventure though so I can’t wait. I’ve tried to imagine what Australia is actually like and other than watching neighbours and seeing films set in Australia I don’t have a clear picture in my head. Obviously the weather will be totally out of this world but it is winter over there at get moment so the average temperature according to Michael’s mum is around 22 degrees. I definitely think the weather will change the lifestyle though; there will be much more outdoor living which I could definitely get used to. I’m excited about the fashion differences too, but that always gets me excited no matter where I travel. The cost of living is apparently a lot cheaper, so I should get more stuff for less money! Woohoo. -Nikkie

And The Packing Begins

Guest Entry How am I ever going to fit all my stuff into one tiny suitcase?! Ok so it’s not so tiny after all but I have a lot of things to bring, especially now with Michael having lots of stuff to bring back from Brisbane. Well, I can have complete intensions to pack lightly but it’s so never going to happen! Only three more sleeps to go and I’m off to the other side of the world. I’m so excited, and I never had the desire to visit Australia, although I think that’s because everyone from the U.K. wants to travel the east coast and I hate following the crowd. Well crowd, here I come! -Nikkie

These little piggies went to Amsterdam

Friends - Fun - Guest Entry - Personal - Travel - University This is Nikkie. Michael asked me to do a guest entry so here goes... The physiotherapy course is so hectic that this is the first time in a year that we have been privileged enough to have been given a week off while all the other students are busy celebrating the arrival of an 18 week summer holiday. I grabbed the opportunity to whisk Jade, my best friend and housemate, off to Amsterdam for a wild night out to celebrate her 21st birthday. Before our adventure could commence, we had to endure painstaking revision and an exam which took place on the Wednesday morning (1st June) at 8.45am. Jade and I were both very nervous for the practical exam as you never have enough time to think and appear a fool if you don’t have the answers at the drop of a hat. The exam consists of a case scenario, 15 minutes thinking time and then joining the examiners to discuss all the relevant anatomy and clinical reasoning to arrive at an appropriate diagnosis. Next, you discuss a management plan and have to demonstrate 2 treatment techniques on a model. Finally, after what seems like forever, you document everything done with the patient, including treatment dosage, gained consent, safety tests, advice given and when you would next like to see them. Jade and I were given the same scenario of a patient with tension headaches so we came out of the exam intrigued as to what treatment we had each given. Luckily, we both appeared to administer the same treatment for similar reasons, so with that out of the way we left to get ready for our trip! I drove, for the first time, up to Liverpool. We arrived, after a relatively stress free journey to the city but as we approached Michael’s flat, things became slightly more traumatic. At this point it is fairly relevant to mention that Michael has lived in Liverpool for 5 weeks but still appears to walk around with his eyes closed, hence the reason he (and Graeme) will be blamed for getting us lost! We ended up travelling around a roundabout 5 times until they could meet us there and take us the right way! So, we eventually arrived at the flat, piled our belongings up the 3 flights of stairs and headed out for some lunch in a typical English café. The boys left shortly to return to work and us girls took the opportunity for some light shopping before our lift to the airport. Jade and I are both fanatical about fashion and the idea of retro and vintage clothing delights us! As a result, spotting 4 charity shops to rummage through determined the activities of the following few hours. At around 5pm, the boys had finished work for the day and we hopped in the car, laden with plastic bags full of vintage 1940’s purses, tops, scarves and the odd few bits including a wooden elephant names Widnes! So much for the light shopping trip! Graeme and Michael dropped Jade and I off at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport and I managed to shop as soon as we got there, buying a fantastic golden yellow leather handbag. We boarded the plane at 7pm and by 11pm were sat in a bar in Amsterdam. An exam at 8.45am in a British university, and barring in Amsterdam by 11pm - I love Europe! Staying in a cheap hostel in the red light district ensured we were surrounded by lots of young people. We quickly re-applied some lip-gloss and changed our shoes to heels and headed out. Passing the local chippy, we were unable to resist the classic Dutch chips and mayo. I got back into the swing of the language and was soon chatting to the chip-shop man only having slight difficulty understanding the Amsterdam dialect, which is very different to that I am used to. Once our appetites had been satisfied, we followed the crowds past some very sexy and virtually naked women in doorways to a bar for a beer. Soon after our arrival we began chatting to the barman who, much to our disgust, told us we were not in a ‘green’ café, although smoking in there was permitted. We rushed off to find somewhere selling pre-rolled joints, as neither of us were in any fit state to start rolling ourselves. On the recommendation of the guy behind the counter, whom I now realise we should never have trusted, we bought 4 joints for the equivalent of about £10. Back in the previous bar we lit up and began to chat to a bunch of Aussie men. It amazed me how many Australians there were in Amsterdam, most travelling Europe after uni. Mindless chit chat revealed that these particular guys were all living in London as teachers although one had flown in from Sydney that afternoon. They were a laugh and bought us a couple of drinks so we decided to stick with them for a while. By about 1am, we had broken off and un-surprisingly only two guys remained. We visited a few more bars, smoked and drunk a bit more while playing cards in a chilled bar. The lads knew where our hostel was, as they were in the same one, so we began our walk home. We were halfway there when Jade was cornered by one of the lads and had to apologise that he must have got the wrong idea from her. Realising that he was not going to get anywhere with her that night, he swiftly left. The other guy, however, was more persistent and we had to team up to get rid of him, which we eventually did by hiding in our dorm! Although I had shared a dorm with mates on camping trips ( I was in the scouts) and on school trips, nothing quite prepared me for this. It was a dorm of 20 beds and great fun. We sat up a while chatting crap due to our stoned and drunken state when we over heard a couple arguing over a guy having been in a peep show instead of meeting up with his girl! I’m sure this would have still amused me sober but we were both having serious difficulty in resisting laughter and continued to listen to the bickering trying to work out whether the guy’s story was genuine or he had in-fact been in a sex show as his lady was stating! By about 3am we got ready for bed and fell into light, interrupted sleep. We awoke at 8am with the sun streaming into the room and the dorm already half empty. After showering and attempting to make ourselves look remotely human we wandered downstairs for a full English breakfast, and a mug of incredibly strong tea. Our persistent friend from the previous night pulled up a chair questioning us about where and when we were leaving Amsterdam. Making quick excuses and ensuring we were sufficiently dosed up with caffeine we walked in the direction of the main shopping street – Kalver straat. I had been to Amsterdam previously with relatives living nearby so was slightly more orientated than the average tourist and we found Kalver straat fairly quickly. We shopped, had some lunch in the Vroom and Dressmann restaurant, a definite must for a cheap detoxifying meal, and shopped some more. After a few more trips to the cash-point and laden with bags, we returned to the red light district for some major vintage shopping. I got a pair of ankle height grey slouch boots which I had been on the hunt for ages. All in all, we spent over £200 of our student overdrafts on clothes and accessories, all very worthwhile! After all, you spend what money you actually have, and then the bank decides to give you more! No, I don’t always have such a lax attitude to money but do find it very hard to resist a bargain! By 5pm we were exhausted and grabbed our bags from the station lockers and returned to Schipol airport for a ‘maccy D’s’ (Mcdonalds) and to catch our flight home. We landed back in Liverpool at 10pm and were greeted by the boys who drove us back to Michael’s flat. Shattered from our adventure we went to bed and slept soundly. The following morning, Michael strolled into work at 10am and Jade left to rush back to Manchester to grab fresh clothes for a night out with some old friends in Newcastle! I, on the other hand, pottered around the flat with my eyes half closed all day trying to recover from abusing my body so much. The next few days have consisted of more pottering and trying to get Michael’s hole of a flat slightly more liveable! I have cleaned, washed, tidied and sorted but this is the first and last time I will do, so he will have to become domesticated from now on! We did a very ‘grown-up’ shop of cleaning products yesterday evening which Michael clearly needed some guidance on - he was shocked to discover that bathroom and kitchen cleaner were different! My work here is definitely challenging! On Saturday night we visited Liverpool’s night life which I definitely felt was something else! I felt like I was in Ibiza, obviously without the gorgeous weather, it was very surreal. We sat in a square outside surrounded by bars and a very concentrated amount of gorgeous people. The women were all slim, verging on the border of too slim, had all been bronzed, either by a bottle or some hard work on a sun bed, and were made up with very expensive looking clothing. Graeme, Ben and Michael, un-surprisingly, were in awe of them all, [Editor’s Note: I was more in awe of my fantastic girlfriend of course!- Wigs], as was I, but my eye was placed more on enjoying the surrounding fashion statements. I must state though, the women were some of the best I have ever seen, obviously not including celebs, models etc, only with the downside of the Liverpudlian accent! The men were incredibly well groomed and also in expensive clothing. The music was brilliant, Michael said that it was much like the dance music ‘back home’. Being out with the lads I had to keep up with the pace of drinking which, with a reputation of a lightweight I did quite well, going drink for drink with them. Overall, Liverpool was a great night out, expensive but great. Our trek home left much to be desired. We caught the night bus home after waiting for a taxi for over an hr. On the walk home from the bus stop we got separated losing Ben, our other scouser housemate who had come home for the summer, and fell asleep with him not having returned to the flat. We woke with a startle the next morning realising Ben was still not home. I dressed hurriedly, on a bad hangover, to jog around and try and find him. Michael eventually got him on his mobile at the same time as I came across him asleep in the back of his car! Safe, but still very very pissed he came up to the flat to sleep off the alcohol. I went for a 20minute run along the beach and came back when Michael and I decided to return to bed till 3pm. Another crazy but fantastic night out. To think that a year ago, I was still in Newark Hall, had only known Michael 6 months, was a fresher and living a very dependant life shows how much things can change. Life is fantastic but it has been hard to get to this point; I considered dropping the physiotherapy course during the harder times, Michael moved 3 hrs away from Nottingham just when we finally got together, I moved house and Graeme’s changed university course. The summer is only a month away, I have one more outpatients placement to get through and then I will be back in Liverpool living and working here for 6 weeks. Third year will be here sooner than later and then I’ll be a qualified physiotherapist and will have to become even slightly responsible! On second thoughts, I’ll delay that as long as I can, go travelling, live a little before pinning myself to a 9-5 job. The end of university is so close, yet so far. I’m only two thirds through it and things have changed so much since arriving in September as a fresher. Change is good. Hard but good.

Brum Bento Tabehoudai

Guest Entry sweet mojo. 3 continents, 6 countries, 10 timezones (daylight savings notwithstanding) and a three year reunion, but finally the circle is complete. Now I am the master (only a master of eating, Itamae). Astride the splendour of Birmingham's beautiful canals (like Venice, except it's clean, modern, structurally stable, and odour free), £10 all-you-can-eat sushi. Shogun Sushi and Noodle Bar @ The Mailbox, Wharfside Street. Makizushi, nigirizushi, tempura, soba; I am the destroyer of foods! Includes tepanyaki bar and chef with panache. Sugoi.

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I found this on my computer when I came back home yesterday morning. Ads is back at my place, and went to Birmingham for the day. Apparently he came home drunk and full of food and decided to write something. He left this morning to go down to London, and then he is on his way home. I'll miss him.

Alton Towers Adventure!

Friends - Fun - Guest Entry Yesterday Nikkie, Ads and I drove down to the theme park Alton Towers. We were meeting up with Jackie, Jo and Tom who were coming down from Liverpool. It's Jackie's birthday today, and so the Alton Towers trip was a sort of pre-birthday fun-filled excursion. --- ads override --- So Wigs is getting his Neighbours fix at the moment (despite declarations he is not hooked enough to watch the same episode twice a day, this is today's second viewing,) so the burden has fallen upon my heavy shoulders to summarise yesterdays adventures. And maybe add my 2 cents about eurobackpacking, life, the universe and blogs. Actually screw that, I hate blogs :D After 2 hours sleep (long story) I was awoken at half eight in the morning by Wigs (booming voice) for Operation Alton (dinner-out is a go). A bowl of cornflakes (Sainsbury special), a 50 minute burl down the motorway (M-1 through M-69, it seems), 20 minutes through the archetypically British, picturesque Alton countryside (complete with winding roads and blind corners), and a 5 minute walk from the Alton Towers carpark to the theme park proper (monorail inoperative) and here we were (where?). It'd be nice to say that going to Alton Towers embodied some sort of symbolic return to the UK for me, as going there had been one of the last things I had done before emigrating to Aus. Alas I couldn't actually remember anything about it, except there was lots of fun to be had. And fun there was. Oblivion. Nemesis. Submission. Rides appropriatelly named. A disconcerting indicator of the degree of intensity of a ride is given by the tightness of the harness on your crotch. And these rides were real crotchbusters. Which isn't a necessarily bad thing. Everybody has pondered what exactly would happen if your harness failed mid-ride. Most likely they'd be scraping you off the pavement. This is why I was expecting some sort of sympathy, concern and/or worry when the ride diagnostics said there was something wrong with my harness on Air, and the supervisor had to come and check it out. But no, instead Tom and Jo just point at me and burst out laughing. Thanks guys. More of the same after the second ride, when my ankle clips (yes, Air has harnesses to secure your legs) didn't unlock. Ride after ride, one by one we bugged out. Jackie on Enterprise, Jo - Ripsaw go #1; shortly followed by me on go #2, fighting rising bile as my stomach was palpitated by my intestines. Inertia is funny that way. Nikkie on the Tea Cup ride. The Tea Cup ride. After braving the Tower's top 5 adrenalin busters, the oldschool 'all round fun' Tea Cup ride may seem a peculiar choice for a black flag. But that is an opinion reserved for those who have not experienced the singular pleasure of 5 people, damp to dripping wet (see below), crammed into a giant teacup screaming, singing and spinning while tracing gracefull, high velocity spirographs in an area the size of a front yard. Ripsaw made me mildly nauseous. Mr Tea Cup ride OBLITERATED me; this thing is the destroyer of worlds. I wasn't alone. It is the most underrated ride there. I cannot overemphasize how bad. Fighter pilots do not experience g-forces quite like these. It was followed by unanimous agreement to grab a coffee and have a 10 minute sit down. Make that 30 minutes. Somewhere along the line Wigs and I stopped for a game of DDR, much to the digust of everyone else. And of course no theme park excursion is complete without the water rides - or namely, the conspiracies to get the unsuspecting soaked on said rides. And the conspiracies were abound. After the Wigs-Tom-Jackie (these three being the most mischievous) entente to drench the rest of us only resulted in their self-soaking (viz. Tom - 'My bottom is swimming!') on the rapids, we proceeded to the flumes. Better known elsewhere as the log ride, to those not in the know, it involves a bathtub sized conveyance (indeed, our particular vehicle at this venue was called a bathtub, nuff said) taking a narrowly winding water path with some sudden drops and accompanying splashes. These get progressively larger. The main 'fun' (and I use this term loosely) comes from seeing who gets drenched at each drop. It's sadistic, random, quite unfair and oh how we loved it. Here we were all mightily impressed by Wigs, who chivalrously offered Nickie a seat where he assured her she wouldn't get drenched. How sweet. Then he sat behind and used her as a water shield. Careful, oh intrepid readers: this man is devious. However, Tom and Jackie were the real show stealers. Jo and I, having escaped lightly on the rapids, were afraid the law of averages might catch up. But providence smiled. On us at least. Tom and Jackie had some dirty plan to avoid the water by hiding in the enclave at the front of the bathtub, yet making it fore-heavy to increase the splash for others (ie me, Jo). Make no mistake about it, log ride dynamics is apparently an intricate subject. In this case however, all it did was submerge the front of the tub on the drop and effectively dump buckets of water on them. There was one particularly memorable drop, done in the pitch black of an artificial cave - I braced for the drop, felt the impact, heard the splash. I was thinking 'that wasn't so bad' when Jackie let loose a gawdamighty loud splutter-cum-shriek. Music to my ears. When we got off that ride, Tom looked like he'd been under a shower for 20 seconds; Jackie like she'd jumped in a pool. She took it well, or better than I would've. Once again no sympathy. Not from this bunch. Come late afternoon, the crowds disperse; Tom and Wigs (the rest of us drained) to hop on Nemesis something like a billion times in a row, while I stay to talk fashion with the girls. I can say with confidence Gucci handbags are still in, by the by. So we finally make our leave from Alton Towers. Now when Wigs says 'we' drove, he more means Nikkie drove, he talked, and I slept. We did stop by a pub for some typically excellent British pub food. By now everyone's stomach is settled enough to eat - fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding, shepherds pie. There are some things about Britain I'd forgotten I'd missed.

Campus Jubilee

Guest Entry Way back in the beginning of June, my friend Morgs came to visit me at Uni (you can read all about it here). While he was here I got him to write a guest entry for GenesisDreams. It was never completed, and it has been sitting on my desktop gathering virtual dust all summer. So, in an effort to keep updating regularly, even though I am too slack to write something myself, here is a very late, only partially finished, guest entry from Morgs.

Life at Wigs' joint is comfortable, eventful and well... sometimes difficult to remember. Upon arrival on Wednesday night over a week ago I was treated to some rare hospitality in the form of a warm English welcome - a few beers at the local campus bar. Situated no further than thirty meters from Wigs' room 'the BAR', as it is known, is the place where all the action begins. The lively, youthful crowd populates the place at 7:30pm upon opening and disperses well before 11pm when it closes. That's right - it closes at 11pm. In fact, all bars and pubs in England close at 11pm. That's why there is such a raging club scene. It didn't take long before I was shown around. On Thursday, we visited the Pitcher & the Piano, a pub located inside a church. Some may claim it's sinful, others may say it's a stunt for cash, but between the chandeliers and the stained glass windows, all enclosed in an enormous stone chapel, the Pitcher & the Piano is quite simply the most grandiose place I've ever spilled beer in. On Monday, the UK's largest foam machine made a stop at 'The Works', a multi-room, seven-bar nightclub packed full of fit chicks with wet t-shirts. Order five shots of vodka with redbull (it comes in a pint glass) for five quid and sip this while enjoying watching everyone on the dancefloor being irregularly squirted by foam guns. Afterwards, dance to some well mixed club music on any one of three dancefloors. On Wednesday, the crowd from the BAR... Life... A free bed, a free catering card and a few free drinks here and there have made my stay at Nottingham both comfortable and remarkable. Mind you, it still wasn't cheap; Between the pound-fifty drinks, the 16 pound 'Summer Party', and the endless poker games (all at my expense), Nottingham has so far proven to be one of the most expensive places I've stayed.

Filling The Gaps

Friends - Fun - Guest Entry Continuing from where I left off in my last entry (becuase it is not as late as I thought it was)... I didn't spent all my time at my cousin's asleep though. My friend Jacqui came to visit me during the week. We had a great time and it was really good to catch up. I did my best to show her "traditional English countryside" and she cooked dinner for me, so it all worked out well! She wrote a wonderful description of her stay for her periodic mass emails, which I am going to reproduce here (I hope you don't mind Jacqui!):

I'm in Milton Keynes (England), staying with my friend Michael (from uni in Brisbane) at his cousins' place (they're away in Cornwall) in their gorgeous home - an old converted water mill - with bunny rabbits outside the door, a stream running past the back of the house, cows in the neighbouring fields and beautiful green, green scenery everywhere! Michael's surprise for me yesterday was to go kayaking - we climbed out the window of the house (first surprise!) 'cos that was the easiest access to the stream. Lifted the kayak down, jumped in, paddled across to the other side (like, 3 metres), jumped out, hauled the kayak up, carried it a few metres to the bank of the river, lowered the kayak down again and headed off downstream. (it sounds like a lot of work, but as we each nearly fell into the mud and water a couple of times, was actually quite funny). Down the river about a kilometre, I guess, then another muddy landing, then carried the kayak up a hill, before lowering it into... the Grand Union Canal: which, if you follow it far enough, ends up in London! The canal was great - colourful canalboats to look at, (no bunches of reeds to navigate!), people walking their dogs along the path beside the canal... and only one lock to get through! At the lock we jumped out, carried the kayak to the other side, and got back in again. We followed the canal up as far as a (nice, old English) pub, got out and had lunch and relaxed there for a while, before heading back the way we'd come. We were nearly back (rowing harder because we were going against the current this time) when we emerged from the leaves of an overhanging tree branch, to find a family of swans in front of us. Michael very wisely suggested we not go any closer, since Mother Swan was giving us some VERY suspicious looks! So we slowed down to swan-speed, and followed the family home - Dad in front, the three kids, and Mum bringing up the rear, glancing back at us frequently to make sure we got no closer! I wished I could have reached my camera, but it was tied up in a big bundle of my jacket and Michael's, keeping it out of the water which seeped into the bottom of the kayak. So you'll just have to imagine what a magic scene that was!

Jacqui had come up from London, and after staying a couple of days with me, headed off to Oxford. She is in France at the moment, and if you are reading this Jacqui, good luck on the rest of your trip! After Jacqui had left I did some more sleeping and watching DVDs until my cousin came home, where I did some sleeping and watching DVDs intermingled with going out with them. Which brings us up to The Elephant Vanishes. Yay! I am now almost up to date! I'll write all about my new place and my housemates and what we've been up to after the weekend.

Missing

Guest Entry Hey, this is littlewing doing a guest entry. Michael has put this upon me and I don't really want to coz I'm not into stealing anyone's thunder or anything but here I am. Michael and I had a pretty cool day together. We met up in town and did some final "things before going away" stuff. It was pretty strange for a while there because we've been arguing again. We seem to do a lot of that lately which is stupid because Michael's going away and because we're going to miss each other infinitely. I guess we analyse things way too much and should get on with just being friends rather than worying about whether or not we're true friends. God I sound like such a girl. Guys never write about this crap.... Anyway by the end of the day it felt like old times again... well sort of. I'm sitting here now among what's left of Michael's stuff that he hasn't packed away yet, wating for everyone to come over and have a "going away drink" if it could be called that and it's funny because even though I'm sitting here with all the stuff that's going to be left behind, I don't think it's going to hit me that Michael's gone away until I come back from my trip. I admit we don't see each other a great deal and we don't talk like we used to but he's still one of my closest friends in the world. I just hope he remembers that when he's a million miles away. So I guess I'm already in a state of missing Michael and missing the past but time goes on, the world's getting smaller and forever doesn't really have to exist if people don't want it to.

Sander Kleinberg kicks my ass

Guest Entry Hey guys, this is Calvin here. I'm writing a special guest blog on Mike's site cuz, well, I convinced him that I'd be able to write something really interesting. I've also found an mp3 of Tatu's 'All The Things She Said' on Mike's hard drive, and I've so far played it three times. Tatu!. The idea of eastern European lesbians is kind of turning me on right now. I'm thinking now that eastern European lesbians might feature prominently in my next novel. I'm meant to talk about interesting stuff here, so I'm thinking back over last weekend and what I got up to. I did a reading from Sushi Central at the Straight Outta Brisbane festival on Friday night, which was different to say the least. Pretty good fun though. It was in this tiny little space just off Brunswick street in the valley - the place was full of weird bohemian types and the dude before me read out a short story about a cute little fox who drove a train and spent his nights searching for porn on the internet. I was drinking these Skyy vodka things and had too many but did a good reading anyway. Afterwards, I went to Bowery, on Ann, with some of the other writers. Kept drinking, bummed a lot of cigarettes and spent a long time talking to Craig about what we're going to do for our second novels. The rest of the night is kind of a blur, but I remember meeting up with Miranda and Jamie, dancing, bumming more cigarettes, and I might or might not have gone home with a group of Russian sailors. Saturday was kind of dull by comparison. I was meant to go to a party that night but I fell asleep instead. Hung out with Nicole on Sunday, watched some sex In The City, tried to do some writing that night but hung out aimlessly on the net instead, watched Donnie Darko for the twelfth or thirteenth time and, um…. That kind of brings us up to date. My novel is still kind of selling pretty well, but I'm having kind of an artistic crisis at the moment. The other day, I scored Sander Kleinberg's 'Everybody - It's A Renaissance! The best mix album in the history of the universe!', and it has inspired me to give up being a writer and become a DJ instead. I can't mix and I don't own a turntable but I'm not letting this hold me back. Spent most of today thinking about what tracks to put on my first mix. All I know is it's going to include Miss Kittin's 'Rippin Kittin' ("Daddy, can I go out and hunt tonight like you do on Sunday mornings?") Well. This whole thing has been kindof retarded, so I guess I'm heading off now. I'll keep working on my mix album - I'll let you all know how it goes. Nice. Or as Diane von Furstenburg would say, Nass. Note: This was written entirely by Calvin. Ignore the "Posted by Wigs comment below.