Picture this

So far camera course has been fun, but I got homework - how is THAT fun ? I've picked up a cheap old manual camera and a couple of lenses to play with off ebay. Early results - appaling! Aside from drinking, I've been watching movies and playing some board games (Chess, Settlers of Catan and Formula De) to fill up the evenings. Basically being very un-rock and roll at the moment, but saving dollar for future stuff.

Thoroughly bored of my job at the moment - a problem that has arisen in all many career choices so far ! Definate need to figure out what I really want to do, or who I want to work for needed before my next career move. Just counting the days really and starting to think about travelling onwards. Ah well - it's Friday - it's 5pm - and that signals beer'o'clock !

Itchy feet and Photo hassles

Firstly I have finally uploaded my Tasmania pictures - however it seems the website I am using to host them is finally making it's financial play and charging for memberships. I have membership access for a year, enough time to migrate to another solution, but I am kind of worried this may affect access to photo alubums for other people ? Let me know if you encounter any problems - all album links are on the left-hand side as always :)

Oh - and you get asked for a login, you can always use benguest123 for both the username and password. The only reason to create a login is if you want to add "personal" comments - you can always e-mail me them instead, of course :)

Speaking of photos, after the cancellation of my cocktail course (not enough interest - go figure), tonight I am starting my camera course. Should be fun to do something different in the evenings, and maybe learn why my photos suck half of the time :) Have to sign up for advanced photography to find out why they suck the other half of the time...

Recently I've been to a classical concert, a bit of bowling, drinking frozen cocktails and a few movies. Still waiting for the new Micheal Moore film to come out here, until then looking forward to the unobjective but fun McDonalds slur/documentry, and of course the "bet it's rubbish" remake of a horror classic.

I've also been reading e-mails for travellers and ex-travellers alike, both giving me itchy feet and a desire to get out there and travel again. Only 7 more weeks... hmmm, that's quite a long time. I also fancy a spot of snowboarding - seems we are geting some snow down here and I'm not sure I can wait until January :)

Back to (Melbourne) life, back to reality

With business visa in hand I finally returned to work a couple of weeks ago. And I'm now dealing with trival daily stuff like sorting out camera repairs and sorting out lots of neglected finacial stuff.

Nothing really blog-worthy aside from the discovery that a friend of mine has broadband + firewire ports in his computer which = new tunes on the iPod ! It can be a drag being stuck with the same 4,118 songs for 10 months :)

Currently dealing with the "nesting / consumer" instinct that wishes I had my own place to deck-out and put lots of things that I want to own. Possessions do not = happiness as I know, but when your livin' the city life, the city instincts kick in, and I want more stuff :) I need to learn to be engaged and happy without computer stuff and toys, but sometimes I'm jsut sh*t bored in the evening.

So much so that I've signed up for a couple of evening classes - firstly, a one-session class of the art of cocktail mixing, which should be fun - and secondly a six-session course on Basic Photography skils. Think I need my own SLR camera for that though, and not a busted digital one ! Have to see if someone can loan me one for the classes (bit suprised that the course doesn't offer deposit based camera loans).

Was going to learn a new language (Espanol), but remebered how much I hated GCSE French, so canned that idea quite quickly !

Time out in Tazzie

Whilst waiting for my business visa, I have spent the last week and a bit out in Tazmania taking in the sights. I also took lots of photos which I'll link into this post when I have uploaded them, and as always provide an album link in the "links" panel.

In my brief week I hired a Mazda "fun top" - a silly little car with a pointless convertible roof (it drizzles here daily). But it has a good set of speakers and a tape player for me to play my iPods tunes through using an adaptor, so it met my criteria.

I headed first to the old convict prison of Port Arthur to learn about all the nastyness that went on there. Then I went up the East coast and walked through Freyginuet (sp?) National park, and saw the beatiful wineglass bay. Onwards up the coast, I stopped off in a winery and then into Lanceston to restock on city stuff like food, pizza and pants.

Making use of the great weather I was getting I went via a caving tour onto Cradle mountain, which provided a great full-days walk, with lots of tricky bouldering in icy snow at the summit climb. This kind of strained my ankle, so the next two days involved a boat cruise around Strauhn and the west-coast Huon pine fields + Sarah Island, and some other short walks in the South-West National parks.

Finally, back in Hobart, I've gone on an "Airwalk", wandering around rainforests suspended 30m in the air on walkways, and tomorrow I visit the Cascade brewery before flying back home.

It's been nice to travel and recharge the batteries. I've met lots of cool people on the travels, and with Tazzie being so small, you keep meeting people again and again which is really nice. Plenty of Boags and Cascade (the local brews) has been consumed, although not too much as I've been starting out around 8am most days to make use of the limited sunshine (by 6pm it's pitch black) and opening hours.

The only regretable news is I discovered exactly where the legendary beer drinking pig (pay $1, feed the pig a beer!) was when I had driven over 250km past it. I debated a return journey, but prehaps it was best left as a myth or legend... reality sometimes doesn't live up to expectation !

Anyhow, look back in a few days to see an edited, photed up version of this post ! Back to work soon, assuming the work visa finally gets approved...

eternal turmoil of the spotted mind

And so it was, that as I hurried to complete my business visa paperwork, fighting the red tape of beaurocracy, that another option occured to me. The option was promoted by the messages for so many people at home announcing weddings, social plans or wanting to know when I'll be back. And the option was to throw it all in and come home next month.

I was basically at the point of emotion collapse this afternoon as I worked through the issues. It seems the job market at home is pretty good right now, so no problem there, and it also seems the snowboarding season plan may be not happening now, hence no immediate need for extra savings. However, there is so much of Australia to see I decided that I will stay on (therefore getting a new plane ticket, rather than being tied down to the 20th June expiry on my prev. ticket). Note to RTW travellers, buy a one-way ticket to Oz, and then another to get home - costs a little more, give you lots more flexability !

So all that remains is for my business visa to be approved by Monday. Except the application probably won't even be submitted by then ! So I have booked a one-week trip over to Tazmania, to brave the cold windy isle and see some real outdoor stuff again. Hopefully I'll team up with some backpackers over there, and hire a car to travel and see the sights (roadtrip !). Might need to get a working camera though - I'll have a go at mine tonight, but my tool selection is quite limited...

Anyhow - what have I been up to otherwise...

Recent fun has included lots of AMAZING films - "Enternal sunshine of the spotless mind" and "The barbarian invasions" are two of the best movies I've seen in ages (since Donnie Darko, I reckon). Also saw "Elephant", which was very good but quite hard watching, and "Tais Toi!" which was kinda stupid but funny.

Aside for my film habit, I've been indluging my drinking habit. Some afterwork drinks of Coopers beer (a mere 5.8%) on an empty stomach led to a befuddled walk home, followed by a brief spot of memory loss (whoops) and then a conversation with some nice policemen. They seemd very insistent on giving me a ride, and I was very politley insistent that I was prefectly capabale of walking home without there kind assistance. Not sure how I came to be talking to the nice policemen (that's part of the memory loss) but I eventually submitted to a nice ride in there nice car (my parents will be soooo proud) to my home address (and not the drunk tank as I expeceted).

The only small final snag is for some reason I've since forgotten, I decided to lie about my address (clever, huh !) So I ended up pretend to walk up to the house until the police had gone away, and then quickly and stealthily I made my way to the hostel (only 2-3 blocks away, by some miracle). Somehow I doubt my actual progress was the ninja-like effort I thought it was, but I woke up in my own bed, hungover and feeling stupid. But slightly amused too :)

They have people here called Troy !

It seems some people were still unaware of my extended stay in Oz - even though it has clearly been posted since... ...April 20th ! It also seems there are those who log on quite a lot, only to find I have failed to update once again - well this ones for you ! Oh, the title has nothing to do with this post. But they DO have people here called Troy :)

My time in "the Nunnery" hostel is drawing to a close, as I prepare to move in with a workmate for the next two months. In that time I have had pizza thrown at me by a drunken roomate, only to have to wake her up early to catch her early flight (for which I was given the rest of the previous nights vodka. I hate vodka). I've woken up on the TV room sofas once too often, had lots of free ice-cream and nibbles, indluged in the SUnday morning pancakes and basically got sick of sleeping in the same room as 2-3 random people every night.

Kite surfing has become a constant pain also - my final hour lesson has been cancelled the last 6 weekends for not enough wind, except the one time where just for irony it was cancelled for too much wind. My conclusion is Kiting and 9-5 jobs don't mix well. At least it stopped me spending $2,500 on my own kit... Anyhow, final lesson scheduled for tomorrow - weather outlook isn't too promising (naturally).

Bens final thought - essentially I am staying on for the money. I like my job and workmates, and I've got a little social cliche going over here, so things are pretty good. But the big worry would be returning home to discover I have no cash and need to take the first half-decent job I can get which could take a while with the job market still not "recovered" from the crash two years ago.

There are a lot of things I am going to miss this summer, and I have had major doubts over the last week or two as I sort out my business sponsership about staying on. There are weddings, summer festivals and even college reunions all happening - so I expect lots of photos from everyone attending these events ! Alas, regarding photos, my camera has finally taken on too much dust / sand / mistreatment and broken down after 9 months of major usage. Short of getting it fixed, I think I might be looking for a new camera soon. Until then, no new pictures on the photo site I'm afraid... Missing everyone loads at the moment (I blame it on the final scene of Love, Actually which was on the hostel TV the other night - lots of people hugging at an airport - it's a killer for backpackers that one). Take care, Ben