Was it a good time?

I would say that it was.

P.S - new photos!

Going Golden

For those that don't know (which is probably very few of you by now), I'm one lucky SOB.

I was on National Australian radio and just so happened to win myself a contest. I won a game that got me into a draw for a grand prize last Friday. It was a 1 in 5 chance of winning, and they pulled my name out of the hat.

So, now I get round trip flights, accommodation, taxi transfers, and gold grandstand passes to the Nikon Indy 300. The venue is the lovely Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane.

I'm leaving this evening and hooking up with even more of the McSevney family (they're everywhere!).

Certified

I've spent the last 3 days strapped into 50 pounds of scuba gear, diving in the ocean, and am now a certified open water diver.

We did 4 dives in Manly, diving to about 10 metres (33 feet) under the surface. It is, by far, one of the most amazing things that I have ever done. So much better than paragliding in the Swiss Alps or partying on a bus through Europe. We got to see Spotted Wobbegong sharks, Port Jackson sharks, Eastern Blue Gropers, Weedy Seadragons, Numbrays, Octopi, and much much more. We even swam through a massive school of fish.

We saw a crashed motorcycle on our first dive, and just as we began to swim away I looked to my right a saw a port jackson that was at least 6 ft. long no more than a foot away from me. It was amazing!

I'm already itching to go out again and am looking to get my advanced open water rating before leaving on my Contiki to Cairns.

Who's got a job?

This guy's got a job!

Yep, IEP referred me over to NOSH which is a hospitality recruitment place. Even they say they are head hunters, they are more like staff suppliers, because I work directly for them, they don't find me another place to work. They do mostly corporate functions, sporting banquets, weddings, etc. I'll be one of their waiters.

It seems like a great job because it is flexible work, if I want to travel for 3 weeks my job will be waiting for me when I return. I get to work all over Sydney in a bunch of different venues like the Olympic Park, ANZ Stadium, Sydney Cricket Ground and the Opera House. And the pay isn't too bad either, $20/hr. weekdays, $24/hr Saturdays and $30/hr Sundays.

I only have one possible issue. How many banquets/weddings/parties have you been to that occur on weekdays? The lady that interviewed me tells me I can get 30-40 hours a week no problem, especially with Christmas coming up. I'm just not sure if I believe her at this point.

I'll give it a few weeks and see if the hours are good, if not, I'll find a day job to help with the funds coming in.

Behold! The common Australian house spider

(click to make bigger)

That fine creature is called a Huntsman spider. It is fairly common in Australia, and much like most spiders back home likes to go indoors when the weather sucks. Those legs are longer than my fingers, and the body is probably about a third the size of the palm of my hand.

Which begs the question, how do you get rid of it? You can't crush it because, well, it'll ruin your wall. And you can't really shoo it outside, because it'll probably just eat your hand. So they tend to become pets until the decide to leave.

Apparently they're completely harmless, but I wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as one of those. (This one was on the ceiling of Penny's room)

65

Right, so that 65th wedding anniversary was not what I was expecting. We did nothing but bake when I landed until the weekend, and then 52 people showed up to celebrate. I spent 3 hours doing dishes :P Good times though, seems like it was a rousing success.

Been mildly job hunting, although not really as I was waiting for my Aussie mobile to come in. At least now I have contact info that isn't Penny's house. For anyone who wants to know, my number is on Facebook. I don't want to post it here, god knows what freaks lurk in these pages.

Other than that, not much to report. Oh...I do have a cold, thanks Dad!

Are we back? We're BACK!

Yep, landed safe and sound, and am back in Australia.

It was also the first time I was white knuckled on a plane in a long time. About an hour after takeoff from Vancouver we hit some of the roughest turbulence I've ever been in. I was the row behind one of the partitions in the plane, which wasn't connected to the ceiling, so I could see how much sway there was with every bump of turbulence. There had to be about a 3 inch swing in each direction while we were getting thrown around. Worst part was it lasted for at least 45 minutes, fairly constantly.

By anyhow, it's time to go do something before the body realizes what time it should be and that I should be in bed in a few hours.