Alex

Hello everyone!
I hope your all well and getting into the spirit of the holiday season! On my part I cant believe its Christmas! It all seems very surreal seeing people in shorts and bikinis walking past Christmas trees, and sweating profusely while rubbing sunburn only to hear Christmas carols on the radio! Mind you, there are some very good and funny Aussie takes on the classic carols. Also seeing flocks of noisy parrots, pelicans and palm trees (not in flocks) on your way to the shops is a bit disconcerting too.

The view from work

Its been incredibly hot these past couple of days, well into the 30s and very humid, which causes you to break out in a sweat just drying yourself after a shower   )
Despite the heat Ive been out and about, exploring the area during the week on my bike and working most Fridays, Sat and Suns. Ive made friends with most of the guys at work so its usually a laugh, and working in the Boeing Offices has been interesting, lots of posters and military component designs to casually glance at as Im ripping up and laying carpet. )
I went out to the local RSL club the other night and joined almost all Australians in gambling large amounts of money on the ‘Pokies’ (video game slot machines). I won enough to get quite drunk and probably lost around £20, which wasn’t much to pay for a lot of entertainment and a good night out with a good crowd. Also, I went to see the film ‘Australia’ which is amazing, its about a British woman coming out to a sheep-station and the bombing of Darwin in the war, its a great laugh and if you get a chance to see it I recommend it. Its suffered from being overhyped over here as the Tourist Board latched on to it along with drinks and food companies etc etc, but it’s a fantastic film all by itself.

(In a Shrek Voice:)

This fantastic picture comes from Alma Park Zoo which I went to this week, and although it looked like a minutes walk away on the map it took me several hours to get there by bus and train! The donkey is making it as easy as possible for me to give it some food, and I couldn’t resist getting such a funny shot. I saw a Sun Bear, Kangaroos, Koalas, Echidnas, Wombats, baby Alligators and more, and while I did get some pictures I’d prefer to wait until I see them in the wild to put on the blog.
Ive decided to go north when Fi and Chris come back, and do some fruit picking, skydiving, diving and white water rafting etc up near Cairns for a couple of months, which should be a bit more fast paced than here. Scarborough seems to be a bit of a retirement village/satellite suburb, so theres not a great deal happening much of the time.
I went up the mast of a boat to drill out the supports holding a huge radar dish last week for a nice couple, which was good fun up until the point the bucket containing the drill caught on something as it was hoisted up and fell from the top! Luckily it didn’t kill anyone and didn’t actually go through the deck, and it did still work, but needless to say I tied everything down separately after that!

A nice area I found on my ramblings

I was surprised to find out that Christmas is on Thursday! I have no idea what Im doing yet, and food is a bit of a problem at the moment as I’ve had to turn the fridge off due to battery problems on the boat. Oh well   )   New Year should  be good   -  theres a huge party and firework show in Brisbane on the river, so I’ll probably stay the night at a backpackers for that.
All the best for now then mates, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Nadolig Llawen, Al x

P.S. Theres still a photo of me up the mast to put up soon. Also, the morning after I wrote this post I woke up looking like I’d been massacred by mosquitos. I went to work as usual (getting bitten by a black ant on the back of my neck on the train, which was excruciating, did nothing for my mood!) only to have to go to the doctors half way through as the rash spread. Apparently Im suffering from a really severe allergic reaction to something, to the extent that Im now covered from head to toe in an itchy, blotchy rash. Despite anti-histamines this afternoon it spread to my face, which naturally Im not at all happy about. I look bloody rediculous!  So Im confined belw decks at the moment, drinking tea and reading and feeling somewhat fragile. )

Nature's most impressive lightshow

Hello everyone.

I hadn’t realised how long it has been since I last updated my blog! Im just tucking into a kangaroo sausage (kanga banger), cheese and tomato sandwich at the moment! I’ve developed a taste for kangaroo…

Well I have been up to quite a bit since then, so I’ll just touch on the highlights. I’m still working in Brisbane at the moment at the weekends, and if it wasn’t for the 11 mile cycle to the station it would be ideal. It’s a good crowd, and on any given day I can find myself wandering around the Queensland Treasury, Dept. for Housing or Transport or more interestingly the Government Protective Security Offices. At the latter we were forever waiting for the

A chance to meet the neighbours

tilers to get on with it, so I had plenty of time to have a look at suitcases full of switches and buttons etc and different kinds of cctv cameras, all under the supervision of a friendly Irish guard of course. This weekend the security is going to be super-tight as I’m working at the Boeing Military Component Design Offices, which ought to be good. )

The other day though I had just finished a days work, just riding out of the station when the Police pulled me over and reprimanded me for not having lights and a bell on my bike. They let me off the $200 fine so long as I walked home! And its lucky I did as they passed me

My funky new laptop

three times over the several hours it took. I didn’t get back until 3am and needless to say I bought a bloody bell the next day! )

The stormy weather has continued, and we actually had a cyclone (!!!) come through Scarborough! I was sat watching the massive front looming over, with lightning flashes and forks twice a second for hours when I suddenly experienced the perfect cliché. There was an almighty crack of thunder directly overhead and the rain and small-marble-sized hailstones began pelting down, and a few seconds later the wind hit! The whole boat was thrown against the pontoon so violently that things fell off the table and out of cupboards, and at the same time the rain cover covering the hatchway blew in, so swearing and getting soaked I had to get out in this maelstrom and put it back on. We had lost power at this point too and the radio wouldn’t work for the interference and so it was a very interesting night. I could look up through the hatches and see cloud lightning dancing away and flashes several times a second. When the radio came back on I heard that Scarborough Hotel had lost its roof, and there is some serious damage all along the coast, but it appears that the main strength of the cyclone passed 5-800 metres away! Lucky escape.

Dave and Liz on Alaban have arrived, and I’ve had a few home-brews with them and today Dave rigged a bosuns chair and rope so I could go up the mast (twice) to check something for Chris. Also a young American couple invited me over to celebrate thanksgiving with them and Whisper, which turned into an afternoon and evening feast and piss-up, including very passionate and hilarious conversation, and it was long past cruisers bed-time by the time I stumbled back to the boat .

This weekend the Marina hosted a big barbecue complete with disco-dancing 5-14year old elves singing takes on Christmas carols, which was funny and the food delicious (not to mention free).

New overtaking the Old

Then that evening I stayed over at Dot and Jonathan’s house, (the couple on the boat next door and a partner in the company I work for) and had a really nice meal again and met their son and daughter, Ben and Hannah. The next day was brilliant, it was a bright 30 degree day and I got a lift into Brisbane and wandered around the CBD, I bought some new shoes which always makes your day, a book which I read for a bit in the botanical gardens, and a mouse for my as-then-yet-to-arrive laptop. I asked an old guy where a good bookshop was and he walked me halfway across the central city to show me, which was very nice. I caught a bus and a train back to Redcliffe and from there walked to the Marina, getting lots of smiles and hellos from attractive girls (always nice) and when I arrived my laptop was waiting for me! Its an Acer Aspire One, 1.6Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB and weighs less than a kilo! I’m really pleased with it. ) Ive now got internet onboard and Im typing this post in the cockpit!

Notice the coastguard helicopter at the same height as me

Im now waiting for my shirts to dry so I can go and apply for a job at an Italian restaurant – Dot asked her estate agent whether she had any work for me, and she said no but she thought a restaurant she had visited did and so the next day the estate agent went and checked for me! It turns out they do, so fingers crossed…

Take care everyone, thanks for keeping in touch and I’ll catch you again soon, Al x