Alex

"They think were drunken idiots, but really we're just bloody idiots!"

Hello!
Thank you very much for the Birthday wishes! )
Obviously I’ve had a very heavy weekend on the booze – I didn’t see the end of Friday night after drinking half a bottle of Jim Beam, a jug of snakebite and Jaagerbombs! I have no shame in saying I called it a night at about 11! )
Last night was great fun as well and lasted long after they played Happy Birthday through the bar – I got drinks bought for me left right and centre, we played some hilarious games of pool on an octagonal table and me, John and Helen kicked off the empty dancfloor by going for it on stage! This morning I woke up blissfully hang-over free and had a humungous fry up, slowly joined by the team. Joe phoned just after I woke up which was really good, especially to hear how much of a jammy sod he’s being at work! )
Had a really nice relaxing day, reading some UK newspapers, eating tasty food, getting lots of hugs and kisses and sadly saying goodbye to 5 individual, really nice old-timers. I may well be leaving here earlier than planned myself as I want to catch up with Susie who’s now in Perth, but I’ll probably wait for my big fat tax back first.
Well thanks again, its a shame I couldn’t spend my Birthday with all you lovely people – I’m sure we’ll make up for it on my return! Take care, Alex x

Caught in the act of trying to dance!

p.s. sorry this post is up late, the hostel wifi is broken.

Hello! If you’re reading this then you probably know Alex, and if you do, you might be interested to know that he was born on the 28th of June 1988, which makes today his 21st Birthday!

Please leave a comment to say Happy Birthday. I’m sure he’ll be making a post sometime today.

Joe (Alex’s Brother)

Alls well here down under. Work is quite good at the moment as we’re putting new irrigation lines into a fallow paddock and finding all the leaks which are around 6ft underground. So lots of standing around a big hole smoking and watching Rusty in the JCB… ) Having said that though on a normal day the work’s not so much fun, mainly as I’m by myself but also because I now have to walk up and down the rows; since me and Yvan have already done all the paddocks I’m now going through perfecting each sprinkler and the bosses think I might be too lazy to get off the quad if a sprinkler is just on a slight lean (which, in fairness, is absolutely true).

Susie smiling now she's finally at the top!

Then again the other day we were all stood around a giant hole having a good chat about the mess of 6 inch pipes at the bottom, when everyone started to head off to do their jobs I asked those same bosses what they wanted me to do and after a floating a few possibilities around they said “Just look busy”, and Phil turned around and said “Hop on your bike and go for a ride mate”! I then spent an hour FLYING around the most obscure roads I could find, through creeks, over hills, down rows, through mud, filling up with petrol and off again with no need to worry about anyone asking what I was doing! ) Fantastic.

Go! Go! Powerrrangerss!

This weekend has been great fun – I’ve been teaching English to a Korean girl Susie and so on Saturday we climbed Mount Tyson (me for the second time) which was hard work but the view was stunning!

Then today she went for a Tandem skydive and I didn’t need any further excuse to get one in myself!

Freefall was exciting enough but what made my day was the canopy ride! I opened at 5,000ft just above a fluffy cloud and did a whistling 180 degree hook turn right into it! I then spent around a minute dipping in and out of it, trailing along its edge with a fantastic view on my right and a magical white world on my left – simply amazing. Also I saw my picture-perfect shadow on the cloud framed perfectly by the sun’s round halo – a sight I’ll never forget.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! )