New Years Eve, Travel Plans and Roommates

Holy crap it's been a long time since I've written on this thing. There have been quite a few things that have happened since my last post. Gather around children and let me tell you a tale filled with wonder and excitement!

I got fucked up on New Years Eve. Drank way too much. There were 3 parties that I knew of happening on NYE but I didn't go to any of them. Lachie organized a house party literally 2 days before hand and managed to get a fairly decent turnout considering the time constraint. It started off with some casual drinks and well behaved and controlled games of beer pong, but after about 4ish hours my snazzy gentleman demeanor spiraled into a Gollum like character. We managed to walk to Coogee for a bit to meet a few people and chill out.  When we got back we played 20 games of consecutive flip cup. We went through an uncountable amount of champagne, goon and beer. It turns out that I can be quite persuasive when I'm drunk coz I managed to convince a girl who had lasted till 1:00am trying desperately not having a drop of alcohol to have 1.5 bottles of a champagne playing flip cup with me and my team. I later found out that her desire to be sober that night stemmed from an (how should I write this that's not disturbing?) explosive gag reflex to alcohol. I spent the remainder of the night chatting to Andreas, a German guy who was visiting Australia for a few days, and looking after Sven, a German guy who had passed out puking in my backyard. It was a good night :)

Oh speaking of international people, I've managed to organize more of my trip. I'm not sure what I've told you before in previous posts, but i'm going to assume I had no clue what I was doing back then so I'll tell you the plan from the start. I leave on the 24th of Jan (that's right, in 3 weeks!) and I visit the following countries in order:
Indonesia
Thailand
Nepal
Dubai
Turkey
(insert almost every European country)
France
Malaysia
Australia

I've recently booked a unlimited train pass around Europe. This is beyond awesome because it means I have complete freedom to travel any path I like from Turkey to France. I really like the idea of waking up in Italy for breakfast and then deciding spontaneously that I want to be in Switzerland for lunch and Germany for dinner. I'm not sure how fast the trains travel though, so I guess I'll probably end up having all my meals on the train :/

Oh yeah, so in case I haven't mentioned this before, I currently look like a yeti. I haven't cut my hair (or styled it) since February 2014 and I haven't trimmed (or styled) my beard since November 2014. I'm not kidding when I say that I've forgotten how many friends have pulled me aside in private to tell me how much they hate the appearance. I’ve noticed parents shy their kids away from me when I walk down the street and homeless people look up at me with a weird smile of admiration. My parents also recently pointed out that the curls I’m getting on the side of my face are making me look Jewish. Maybe if I keep growing my beard out I might look Muslim. That would be ironic.  I even asked for a house vote to see if I should cut my hair or not. The vote wasn’t good – 6 to 0. Even I voted that I should get my hair cut. I keep telling everyone I know that I’m only growing my beard and hair out so that I can have a natural rug to constantly hug my face when I’m climbing the frozen heights of Everest. However, I’ve never had the strength to tell my closest friends and family the real reason why I keep growing my beard – that’s why I decided to post it on my public blog.  You see folks, the real reason I’ve kept this disgusting appearance for almost a year is because… I want to trademark my youth. I want to see pictures of me on Facebook in 30 years and think to myself “wow, I’ve come a long way”. I know it looks disgusting, it’s itchy, unclean and oh so impractical in the middle of the Australian summer, but goddamn it! If I could grow a ginger afro, I totally would. 

Ok ok, enough about me. It's time for me to tell you guys about my current roommates. They've been staying here for about 6 weeks now and it's entirely my fault I haven't talked to you about them. One is an Italian called Mitch (his actual name is Michele, but I can't pronounce it without offending him so I just call him Mitch), and the other is called Ann (her actual name is Anke or Ann Katrin or something but I can't say that right either). Mitch is 29 years old and loves playing beach volleyball. At first he joined me playing beach volleyball, but it wasn't long until I realized he was muuuuch better than me so I quit out of shame. He's also a professional soccer coach trainer so he knows a whole lot about fitness. Most trainers like him would ask for a $200/hour training session but I asked him if he'd be willing to train me every day for a reasonable payment of 1 beer per week. He didn't accept - typical stingy Italians, eh? Ann is completely different. Reason (1) she's female. Reason (2) I suspect she's probably the most mess sensitive in the house. Amazingly though she seems to love rolling in the Animal House filth with the rest of us. I think she's just remarkably trained at hiding her disgust and pain when she walks into the kitchen or bathroom. Reason (3) She's a Chemistry student (I'm very sure she isn't a Chemical Engineer due to Reason 1) on some scholarship to try and cure cancer or aids or something. Both Mitch and Ann are awesome sauce. They're remarkably friendly and social. Both of them have independently shown me great songs to listen to: Mitch introduced me to Dramma Nero by Coez, and Ann introduced me to Aaron by Paul Kalkbrenner.

Ok, I'm almost done with my riveting story. My website is finally completed. I can begin putting my own content on. This is great for me. Sadly it's quite late - it would have been perfect if this happened 6 months ago. None the less, this event has given me a powerful motivational kick I needed to get some more educational videos produced.

Alright kids, that's it. I've got work tomorrow and I'm way too tired to write more about my life. Wait till the sequel.

Google and Travel Plans

Google has coded this awesome website where you can make your own movie using Google Docs. I made one here:

http://goo.gl/HMpIzj

In other news I'm getting closer to planning my trip to Europe and Asia. I've payed the deposit for Everest and I'm probably going to book my flights to Indonesia tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about going to Sumatra to climb Mt. Kerinci because there are no registered companies that organize the 4 day hike for you. Instead tourists are forced to contact individual guides to walk them up the mountain. Whilst my experience of living in Indonesia has led me to believe that locals are very trustworthy and friendly, I'm still very scared of arriving in Padang Airport with nobody there to meet us.

Also, I have two new roommates now! There's so much to mention that I'll have to leave this for another massive post next time. Spoiler: they're German and Italian just like the last crew.

Tough Mudder

I ran a 19 kilometer obstacle course today called Tough Mudder. It was awesome! It wasn't too crowded and it was very challenging. A lot of the early obstacles were super easy - just climbing over walls or walking through mud. But by the end I was pushed to the limit with 3 obstacles. One of them - called 'Leap of Faith' - featured an old fashioned Navy net that had its lowest end elevated to about 2m above your head and and about 4m in front of you. But the hardest part wasn't jumping and reaching the lowest rung of the net. The hardest part was climbing the net using only your upper body strength.

Another obstacle was a essentially a manlyafied version of monkey bars. You had to swing from suspended ring to suspended ring to get from one side to the other. Sadly this was the only obstacle I didn't make :( - hardly anyone did. The rings were widely spaced that it was impossible to gather the momentum to swing to the next ring. Your only hope was to do it in one go - practically jumping through the air and hoping to get the grip and angle necessary to grab the next ring.

The last obstacle was what many may have perceived to be the easiest, yet ironically was the hardest. All you had to do was run in a straight line trying to dodge dangling electrodes. There were so may that it was impossible to dodge all the electrodes so I just decided to sprint through. Half way through the pit I thought it was a piece of cake, I could barely feel a thing, and I thought to myself if there was any chance of me being stung it wouldn't sting more than one of those prank electric pens you can get for $10. Then it hit me. It was as if Zues himself punched me in the heart. The jolt forced me to jump into the air like a rag doll and shout out the worlds "AHHHHHHHHH!! FUCK!!" at the top of my lungs. It retrospect it was actually quite funny because there were a bunch of kids spectating this final obstacle by the finish line. At the time though, I was only focused on the giant surge of adrenaline coursing through my veins which made me leap out of the pit straight through the finish line like a badass.

Molly

On November 10th at 4:30pm we put Molly down. Our dog was born in 1997 so she was 17 years old - a very old age for a Labrador. Within the last year she had a seizure and was diagnosed with a liver tumor. For far too long we have been fighting nature by trying to keep her going with medication and scrupulous care & support. By the end though, despite my Mum and Dad taking care of her with undying passion, she had lost control of her legs, could barely see, hear, move or even go to the bathroom.

Over the last 17 years she'd developed quite a unique character. Here are a few things that made her special:

1) She never needed a leash. Even when she was a puppy with boundless energy she would always come sprinting back to us.

2) At first she hated swimming, but like the trooper she was, she learned to dive into the water and swim with the fishes. She always tried to catch the fish she saw in the water. Even though she was very smart I don't think she ever learned that bouncing around through the waves actually reduced her chances of catching a fish.

3) Whilst she had many names including; santoh, moless, poodle, smooshie, smooshie poodle, smooshie poodle pie etc etc, she would respond enthusiastically to any name said in a high enough pitch.

4) She hated almost all other dogs but loved my Mum and Dad more than anything - and that includes schmackos doggy treats.

5) She once jumped out of a moving boat to try and swim with dolphins in the middle of the ocean.

6) Molly had a minor fear of cats ever since she was attacked by one in Jakarta

7) We used to go on beach trips to Sambolo in Indonesia. My brother and I would use her as a pillow for the long car ride down. Although we were always there for at least 3 days, she would exhaust all her energy running around on the first 2 days and spend the last day completely motionless in the car waiting for us to drive her home.

8) Towards the end, she would sleep with her tongue lazily protruding from her mouth. Somehow it made her even more cute.

On her last day I was both glad and disappointed to see that Molly was relatively vibrant. I was glad because I knew her last day would be a happy one and because I knew we were putting her down before she mentally and physically deteriorated any further. But I was also disappointed because I had this nagging emotional voice in the back of my head yelling at me saying "she can go on a bit longer!". Reason won in the end. She had a full life and died peacefully right next to the people she loved.

RIP Molly. I'll never forget you.

Avoca and Volleyball

Woah it's been a while since I've written on this thing. If you find a series of typos, that's just because I've forgotten how to type.

Well lets see, what did I last write on this blog? I could probably just read my previous post, but that'll be boring. I'll assume I haven't told you guys about Avoca or this new sport I've gotten myself involved in.

Ok ok so Matt Gates finally managed to organize a trip to Avoca. About 15 people showed up and it was awesome. There was plenty of food, beer and sun. The view was tremendous too - it really made me think of how awesome it would be live by the beach. I honestly don't think I could ever get bored of it. Towards the end of he weekend however, we noticed a bunch of blue bottles washed up on the shore. In case you don't know, blue bottles are the scorpions of the sea - they're jellyfish that act like little blue mines that bob up and down in the sea. If you touch one of their tentacles you can get an extremely painful sting. I witnessed from afar an Asian woman who was confidently marching over thousands of these dehydrated blue bottles without a care in the world. She was either confident as hell or completely color blind.

I recently (well, like 5 weeks ago) joined the volleyball team for UNSW. It's quite nice. The people are very friendly and welcoming and I'm learning some good skills. It frustrates me a little bit that our 'coach' is a 22 year old volleyball veteran who can barely play volleyball himself, but it's not a big deal since we still get to play for a couple of hours after training.

I also recently signed up for a 1/2 year membership to the CBVA (Coogee Beach Volleyball Association). This gives me access to join training sessions and play games with other members 4 days a week. I played for 3 hours yesterday which was heaps of fun. God mustn't have wanted me to join though because my face is now painted a light red.

In other news, I've had 0 progress with my website. My website designer guy has decided to go AWOL, taking all code to my website and also $100 with it. Not the biggest loss, but it's still a nasty set back. I tried to teach myself entrepreneurial skills via YouTube in attempt to motivate me to keep going. Sadly however, YouTube is filled with unhelpful crap in this sector of online education. Every video I clicked on (and this includes videos from top tier Universities) offered no useful advice. Most of them just stuck to overused sport related cliches - "you've got to want to succeed in your company as bad as you want to breath!" and "when you look in the mirror, you should see success!" were two of my of my favorites. I guess entrepreneurship is too broad an area to learn via YouTube.

I've been desperately trying to get Nepal organized. It's not easy though because my friend, Matt, is infamously hard to organize. The recent snow storm that killed 54 (I think it's 54) people recently is no doubt going to cause more indecision. Either way, I'm going to go. As practice for high altitude climbing, I've decided to try and breath less on a daily basis. I don't think it's working though, I just feel dizzy most of the time.

Last week was a very strange week for me because one of the PhD students had their computer catch fire over the weekend. About 1/4 of the office was drenched in water because of the automatic sprinklers which went off. Unfortunately my desk was in that area of the office covered in water. It turned out to be a good thing though because it gave me the opportunity to work from home which was a refreshing break.

International Roommates

Jonas and Alberto have been gone for a few weeks now. The house is no longer stained with dirty bowls and cutlery, but it's also a whole lot more boring. Jasper and Lachie usually work in the evenings and have very independent social lives so it's as if they're not really living here. In an attempt to jump start the social life of the house I've taken it upon myself to invite everyone to 'Double Steak Tuesdays' at the Doncaster Pub or buy a blow up pool for Summer! It's not really catching on though because sadly my Australian roommates aren't as excited by things like 'Double Steak Tuesday' as I am - it's their loss really, it's awesome value.

Ah well, I'm glad I taught Jonas and Alberto a little bit of Australian culture while they were here. They learned that no one wins the Australian game of drink, not even Australians. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with Jonas in February next year in Germany as part of a spontaneous trip I'm going to eventually organize in January.

Jonas described to me a whole bunch of German drinking games, but we never had the people or resources to play them. It'll be really rewarding to learn these important life skills first hand. Strangely enough, Lachie and I invented a drinking game earlier today while he was waiting for a program called "steam" to install on his computer. All you have to do is drink at the same speed as the application being downloaded. Because Australia's internet is so bi-polar this makes the whole thing much more challenging than you think. Also, if you screw up then you have to Skull your drink. Now that's a 21st century 1st world drinking game if ever I've heard one!

Lastly, I just came back from a village party I managed to get invited to. I left early once I realized that a few first-years I tutored last year were there. Man I'm old!

International Trips

A friend of mine from Texas is currently in Australia. He arrived last week and is currently staying in a hostel in Kings Cross. I picked him up from the airport on a Monday morning at 6am before I had work and as a gift he had got me a bottle of fine whisky from the duty free. I think I noticed him holding onto the bottle a little too tightly as he handed it to me - clearly some regret was forming in his mind once he realized alcohol is 23 times more expensive in Australia. That Wednesday, we went drinking at the Wanderer which is a great pub in Central to celebrate his birthday. The drinks were cheap (because my roommate was working there), the company was good, and the music was awesome. Sadly though, I think I'm kinda failing at my responsibility to be a good tour guide to Australia - I'm at work on the weekdays and he wants to go clubbing on the weekends. It was actually kind of disappointing to find out in the car that he didn't want to do any cultural activities in Sydney - he just wanted to get wasted every night. I dunno, my policy when I travel to somewhere new is to do the touristy stuff in the morning when you're sober, then fill in the gaps of time with alcohol.

This reminds me, I'm planning a trip to Indonesia early next year. I'm planning on meeting up with my Spanish friend who recently got a job in an embassy in Jakarta!  I really don't have the specifics sorted yet. Actually I don't have the over arching picture ready yet either. But at this point, I'm thinking of hitting S.E. Asia first, then heading to Qatar and maybe a few carefully selected places in the Middle East, and finishing it off with Eastern Europe. I've been guilt tripped into experiencing Istanbul by a work colleague of mine. We'll see how awesome it is. I really wanted to fit Canada or California in there somewhere, but they're just too far away :( Why can't the world be shaped differently :(