Onwards and Upwards

Today I take the Dog to Cairns. Will report further on this northward progression once I arrive :)

Airlie Beach and Magnetic Island

(Warning: Confuzzled post ahead; due to: 1. lack of time, 2. heatstroke)

I'm now sitting in the only air-conditioned building in the hostel, here on Magnetic Island. It's h'officially toasty at all times. Even the dorms are open to the elements, with lots of netting for airflow.

I've been good, slop/slap/slurping™, or whatever it is they say to do to avoid sunburn over here. Alas, I'm not really cut out for craZy heat (hence travelling up in winter), and so seem to have acquired heatstroke. I can confirm this to be no fun. It's tough to concentrate; it took me 3 hours to read the newspaper today, and had quite a lot of newsprint on my face from where I had to take frequent rests between paragraphs! :P I had booked a sea canoeing trip for today; thankfully the company hadn't enough people sign-up to be able to run the course, so it was cancelled and I got my money back. There's no way I'd have survived a few hours out at sea on a canoe today! :o But enough with my tales of wobbliness!

After my last post in Rockhampton, I went on a cycle trip to Rockhampton botanic gardens and zoo (see photos) and also to the Rockhampton spire of the Tropic of Capricorn. Did I mention the stone-grilled steak in my last post? Maybe not. It was great; my steak arrived raw on a 400C stone slab. It was up to me to cook it to my own liking. Highly recommended!

From Rockhampton, I took the Dog up to Airlie beach. As we arrived, I felt mistakes had been made. My imaginings of an idyllic beachfront and calm serenity were shattered at the sight of drunken British backpackers stumbling from bar to bar.

Evidently first impressions count, and from that moment, I was ready to leave. Even Rockhampton - which I wasn't too keen on before - shone in comparison to Airlie beach.

So, after my few nights stay, I took the Dog up to Townsville, which I promptly bypassed and took the ferry to Magnetic Island.

I'm staying at Magnetic Island's Bungalow Bay YHA, which is part of a wildlife sanctuary. It's just down the road from Horseshoe Bay which is amazingly beautiful. There are tracks that lead to other almost deserted beaches.

I've mostly been chatting to German people whilst on the island (!), I think they like me as they can understand me, unlike the Aussies who they say make no sense! :P

I held a Koala during my "Koala Champagne Breakfast"* here at the YHA. The girl taking my photo couldn't get her camera to work, and so the poor koala became confused as to why I was holding it for so long. As way of thanks, it gave me a little brown gift on my new white T-shirt** :D They also brought around a snake (a carpet python) and a crocodile whilst we were eating. Great stuff!


*Comprising in true Aussie fashion of: Champagne, toast, sausages and fruit amongst other things.
** Clearly the Koala had noticed that my T-Shirt was from a competing YHA - it was the T-Shirt I had won for my "Services to Drinking" whilst staying at Hervey Bay :P

Brisbane, Hervey Bay and Rockhampton

I sit writing this in the sunshine under the awning of my ex-Olympic village unit (self contained, stackable) in the Rockhampton YHA. Here's the story from Sydney to here...

Saying farewell to Sydney, I took a cab from Wollstonecraft to the domestic airport terminal, driven by a friendly (albeit sex-mad) Turkish cabbie from the Stig school of motoring. The thirty-five minute journey took an edge-of-your-seat 15 minutes to complete as we bombed through the Sydney tunnels.

Scraping in at 0.4kg below the luggage limit, I flew Virgin Blue to Brisbane, then took the AirTrain to the city centre. My hostel - another YHA - was at the top of a hill of hostels on Upper Roma St. Clean and friendly, I spent most nights awake listening to the screeching of the coal trains navigating a tight corner nearby. Thankfully this would stop at 6am, to be replaced by the demolition team at 7am who kindly spent the day riping down the older rear YHA building that backed onto my room.

A cheerful Belgian chap completed the ambiance by filling the dorm with his er... 'unique' scent and entrancing us with his repertoire of snores (my 'favourite' being the "Silent-Gasp-Groaner", where he sounded as if he were drowning, then followed it through with a long, deep howl at the moon).

Brisbane itself was better than my Sydneyside friends had made out, though only just. Just like Sydney, Brisvegas is being constantly rebuild. The South Bank, complete with man made beach was calming, the Queen Street shopping hub was entertaining, complete with a week-long "Touch the Piano" competition to win said grand.

I finally bought a new camera (another Canon Ixus) and spent time in both Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha, the Planetarium and QUT (Queensland University of Technology), when I was caught out in the rain & had to spend an afternoon drinking coffee & snoozing in their outdoor cafe*

I met some friendly people in the YHA. I was chatting to a woman in the computer area. Something about her attitude/outlook seemed very familiar. After further chats, she turned out to be another Beeber on a sabbatical too. This further fuels my theory that you can spot a Beebie in a lineup!

Whilst in Brissy, I took a day trip to Morton Island (swimming in a lagoon, sand-boarding etc) in a battered Toyota 4x4. - Great fun! We even saw a massive turtle - alas sadly demised; washed up on the beach.

I think seven nights in Brisbane was perhaps one too many, but it's worth visiting even if just using it as a stopping point.

I took the Dog to Hervey Bay (5hrs drive up the Bruce Highway) and was picked up by the YHA's minibus. On arrival, we were given juice and caek, and were then shown around the hostel. It was wonderful, practically a hotel. I booked my accommodation there as part of a Fraser Island tour, so was given an 8-share room. Even this room was impeccably clean, fresh and welcoming - no bunks either! I almost immediately booked a few nights more. Looking back, I wish I'd stayed longer. The bar had a swimming pool, spar and board games. Outside were table tennis, tennis and basket ball courts. The staff were always friendly & scarily remembered my name!

The weather wasn't so great, but was ok on the two days (one night) on Fraser Island. Having been in a 4x4 tour on Morton Island, I, like some of the others was disappointed at finding out the Fraser Island tour was on a 4x4 coach. Thankfully the group was a very friendly one (including the two French girls who joined from my hostel and a civil engineer who was having a 5* holiday from her work back in the UK).

The rainforests were beautiful & the perched lakes warm and welcoming.

The tour company had forgotten my accommodation on the island, so when it came to sleeping, they were rather embarrassed, and so gave me my own schnazzy tent! Yay!

Thankfully, two girls on a the tour were from Tourism Queensland, so knew what to bring - sherry, beer and lots of it! - so the evening went with a bang. A retired couple (part of Australia's Grey Nomads) told us of their life on a remote station in the outback.

Fraser Island was beautiful, but Morton Island (back near Brisbane) was the star attraction for me.

Back at Hervey Bay, the days consisted of loafing, cycling and mooching, followed by beer & card games with the various German, French and British travelers. I drank enough beer to claim my free T-shirt.

I had planned to go to Airlie Beach, but after discovering the ludicrous travel time on the coach, I elected to stop off in Rockhampton for two nights.

Compared to Hervey Bay, the hostel is a bit grim, but then again, HB was exceptionally good. The whole town smells of manure**.

It's the off-season, so when I went out to dinner at 8:45pm, having just stepped off the coach, the restaurant owner told me the chef had gone home at 8:30! So, in the home of beef, I had to make do with eating in a roadside chicken shop, sharing the view of the highway with a weird looking bloke and a gaggle of emo children.

Despite the fragrant nature of Rockhampton, two things stood out for me:

1. Why is there no orange glow in the distance? :P
2. Why do the clouds have a beautiful silver lining, but no orange belly? ;D
   

I'm treating myself to a cabin at the YHA. A plaque on the wall says that it was part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic & Media Village. All I care about is that this is the first time in a long time I've been able to use a hair-drier!

* I stuck my head into their CS lecture theatre... amazing! So much technology. Mind you, I should have guessed, as most students in the cafe were huddled in groups around their own laptops. How things have changed. :)
** Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia, & where there's moo, there's poo. At night, they drive double-decker cattle lorries presumably to the abattoir, and the nervous cattle release their fear the only way they know how onto the Rockhampton highways.

The Last Wollstonecraft Post

Today is both a good day and a bad'un.

The good news is that I'm escaping Wollstonecraft to start exploring the rest of Australia as of tomorrow, so this is the last full day here.

The bad news is that I must post my Lappy home to the UK so that it doesn't get lost, damaged, broken or eaten by dingos. {sniff!} We've had some good times together, so the breakup will be tough. :/

The result of all this is that my IQ (Internet Quotient) will drop until I return, which some would say is not such a bad thing! (You may have noticed my falling off of MSN etc. a while back so that my internet abstinence doesn't end up completely cold turkey)

And finally, here is a guide that I have found quite useful. Maybe it will help you too! :)

Tougher than the "Travelling Salesman" problem

Problem:

• 3,322 photos.
• One online photo gallery (not based on your continent, with an odd sense of what they think would make a good UI).
• A WiFi broadband connection.

You wish to organise said photos with the correct:

• Sets and Collections (Quite often multiple sets/collections per photo).
  
• Tags (Almost always multiple tags per photo).
  
• Permissions (configured via a separate page for each photo).
  

After three hours of mindnumbing organisation, the answer is: Arnnnng! :D (Perhaps a few more tomorrow... then the next day, then the next.....)

So long, Seven

Yesterday was my last day at Seven. There was cake for brunch*, followed by a JD-fueled lunch of fish and chips at the Point Hotel. My lovely team gave me a card and a gift voucher for Kathmandu (The camping shop).

Carla's birthday dinner was in Darlinghurst at Cafe Pacifico with drinks at The General Roberts pub first (and Finance's drinks at work before that). I tried to slope off into the darkness at one point (claiming wibbleyness) but was dragged back into the fun; and I'm so glad they did pull me back! It was a great evening! :D

Today, after recovering from the Sangria/JD/Blonde beer of last night, I did some shopping with my voucher and performed a trial-pack of my bags for Wednesday's flight to Brisbane :D

* Bad Greg was late for his own cake combined with Carla's birthday cake. (Bad Greg is bad :/)

Lunchtime BBQs

Today we had a BBQ in the park at the top of Pyrmont for lunch. Huzzar I ate all the pies and now will never eat again! :)

Update 2008-04-05: Contrary to my earlier posting, I did indeed have to eat something later. The BBQ was grand (albeit rather windy), and I wish we'd had a fair few of them over the past six months.

Almost but not quite

There are far fewer than Seven days to go before work ends. In fact, my last day is on Friday! Tomorrow we're all off to have a BBQ in the park for lunch and I hope that Friday will be filled with w00t.

Next week, I fly out to Brisbane and from there, internettles are sporadic, so updates will follow suit.

Yesterday, I learnt about the four conditionals of English grammar from the BBC World Service's "Grammar Challenge" Podcast.

Probability of event	Conditional	Example	Time of Event
100%	zero conditional	If you heat ice, it melts.	any time
50%	first conditional	If it rains, I will stay at home.	future
10%	second conditional	If I won the lottery, I would buy a car.	future
0%	third conditional	If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car.	past

(Table from www.englishclub.com)

To the bar™!