03.10.09
I'm creating a blog with the reason that I'm going to Australia in few days and I feel bad that I didn't do that already in USA, because it would of been cool to remember things I did there.
Well I'm guessing the best way to start this thing is, because I'm not there yet talking about what I have done so far to get ready for it. First thing was of course deciding that that’s the place I want to go. For me things kind of just worked out that way, hard to explain actually :P.
Well anyways I thought about it a while and made myself a promise that I'm going to do that no matter what. I started looking out information about it. Actually at first my sister wanted to come too, so she helped me with it too. Lots of surfing in Internet, basically I spent lot of time at work when I wasn't doing anything learning about Oz. Next step was visa, it was actually really easy thing to do, probably easiest things about the whole process :P, had to fill out few things, the regular ones like are you criminal and things like that and then paying the visa fee, something like 100 dollars or whatever. My father allowed to pay for it from his credit card.
After that more research and started looking for plane tickets. Wasn’t real easy thing to do.
Because it started getting late to get em and prices were real high at that time I wanted to go, because the high season starts about that time. Anyways things worked out real good again :P. I was at my grandfathers place and there was one guy too that is working with these things and he suggested me that I should try the Aves reisid, because they are the kind of guys that find real amazing offers from time to time. And I saved quite good sum of money because of them. Though it didn't matter what was the price, because my uncle promised to pay for it. At first I didn't want him to do it, but because it would of real hard for me to get that kind of money I decided to take it and he said that it would be kind of my prize for my work that I was doing. I really don't like accepting money or that kind of help from others, but I think I didn't have not much choice in that, well actually one thing was, but well no point of thinking back on it.
Next thing was finding good insurance. I wrote to many insurance companies, but they were quite expensive. In the end I found one through Orkut forum: Eestlased austraalias. Guy named Janno got me the insurance I wanted and with half the prize. That was paid also for me :P by my father.
Now what’s all left to do is finish things here and pack. Have already done most of packing, sent my stuff I’m not taking with me with my grandfather. At the moment I’m quite nervous and thinking about if I have done all I need and if I have all I need. That probably turns out while I’m there. I’m trying not to take too many things, because I need to be able to move around too, mostly clothes and things that I need straight at start.
I actually can’t get to sleep real well past this week, but this is probably because of me being nervous. So actually I have been drinking a lot lately, it helps to get me to sleep and besides lately my friends have been asking me out a lot. Tho I have been a total ass for quite some time and not trying to keep in touch with my friends, because I have been thinking about Australia and this is gonna be obstacle for going there. I’ve lost many of my friends, but at the moment I’m thinking that I really found out who are my real friends. I’m not trying to get my self in depression, so I’m not gonna talk about it much. Tho lately the friends I have, have actually helped me a lot, because if there haven’t been them I think I have gone crazy. So my thanks to them, but I’m guessing I’m trying to keep in touch with em and see how things work out. Also the same thing about my family, I’m trying to get things together for myself, but thank you for your support and always trusting me. Most I’m gonna miss my sister, who I could talk about things most, and also my mom, my uncle, my mother side grandfather. Tho probably I can’t leave out my father, thanks for mostly the financial support, I know he was trying to help me other ways also lately, but sorry, I’m not the person who he thought or wanted me to be. But for everyone who knows me, I’m going to search my real self and trying to keep to myself...
7.Oct 2008
It’s time to continue with a blog/journal. Tho the last end didn’t went so well cause I was quite drunk :P but what ev's. Lot of things have happened, but I’m not gonna talk what happened in Estonia. Lets start with the trip to Oz. From Tallinn to Frankfurt was good, no problems or anything, even the arrival was almost at the time what was promised. There I had to wait like 4 hours, actually more because the plane was late so it was like 5 hours. Was real boring, there wasn’t many places to sit too. Watched a movie and then it was almost the time to go. I had to do check in there again. There was some kind of problem with my visa there, cause I didn’t have mine printed out. But in the end all went well and they just said that my name was written wrong. Like always :P. And also they told me that I have to get my luggage in Beijing too and check it in again. Was kind of strange, but thought what ever :P. Well in Frankfurt I didn’t see so many Chinese, but in plane to Beijing there were most of em and from that time on I didn’t hear much more anything than Chinese too. Flight was long, got couple of glasses of red wine and even got some sleep, wasn’t actually so uncomfortable. I arrived in Beijing, later than I should have tho but still. The airport there was so damn big. When I was told that Frankfurt is big, then freakin Beijing was huge. Tho didn’t have so much problems with that. When I asked where I have to go in the first information desk I saw everything was good and had no problems. But when I went through all that stupid security and other stuff again and then got my luggage then I didn’t understand anymore where I have to go. Asked from information, but I think they didn’t know their selves also where I have to go :P. So I went into check in I was shown. Then it turned out that I was in the wrong place. There was like 1 h till the plane. Well the guy I was talking to didn’t understand me well and I didn’t understand him :D. Then I thought what ever and went back to the girl I was talking before, she said that I have to go to the domestic flights and go tho freakin Shanghay. I was like wtf. Ok what ever, I went to other floor and asked some security guard, his English wasn’t so good either. Tho he said that go up one more floor. So I did then. Well got into huge room where there were lot of those check in tables. Started to go one way and thought if I’m lucky ill find a right place. But well, I wasn’t. Asked from one other check in desk and they said to go to other side of the room. I was like, damn, cause all that time I had to carry my big bag too. Ok, well got to the kind of right place, but didn’t see exactly where I had to go, so asked around again and finally got to the right place. Got my bag checked in and I was asked why didn’t thy do that in Frankfurt. I was again like wtf. Started running towards my gate, had to go through security again… damn, then I thought that ill miss my plane. But luckily I got there right time, almost to the time that boarding started. By that time I was sick of everything. In plane it was told that we are gonna make a stop in Shang hay. So it meant that I couldn’t get much sleep in plane and anyways the seats were quite uncomfortable too. So when we landed we had to go out, take all our stuff and run to the other side of the airport to get on the same plane. There I thought I lost my wallet, but luckily I found it in my bag :P. Well boarded a plane and got to Sydney. Didn’t get much sleep in plane tho, red wine didn’t help this time.
Finally I was in Sydney. Got out from there and then I thought, well, what now. Saw Vodafone there and got myself a Australian number. After that I called to Danielle, the girl that gave me her number through Couchsurfing. Talked to her and said that Im gonna go find a hostel in Kings Cross. She helped me by giving directions how to get there best. And she said that after I have settled down there then I would let her know and later we could meet. After that I got on the train in airport and got in city, switched trains and got to Kings Cross with no problem. Got out of station and started looking around. Didn’t see any of these hostels I had looked out. Walked around again with my big bag and figured out that this must be the wrong street. After that went to the others side of station and started walking again and found the hostel with no problem. Got myself a room and asked around how things are here. Receptionist was quite friendly and cool. After that I got in my room, found out that Im sharing my room with one French guy and other Korean girl. They seem to be cool, so no problem with that. I got myself washed up and made my bed. After that I called to Danielle again. She said that she will come here and we will meet. But it would take like 1, 5 hours. Well I spent my time hanging in hostel then and talking some more with receptionist. It turned out that this day was public holiday and banks are closed. So no bank account that day. Then just chatted with him and used internet for a bit. Danielle then asked me if I wanna go the city or beach. I told that what ever and we decided to go to the beach. I took time to get her there, but I had to spend my time somehow. So I talked with the Indian receptionist again and turned out that he was only one year older than me. He was real friendly and we got along quite well from the start. Little later we went to the store and decided that we will gonna make something to eat together. Well it was going to be chicken with rice :P. But then Danielle contacted me and she said that she will be here in a bit. So we decided that we will cook later then :P.
Met Danielle and went to Bondi beach. Talked with her about different things and it was actually quite interesting to talk to her. She had bike accident some months ago, but her leg still hurt and she couldn’t walk so much, so at first we went and sat in some coffee shop and just talked. But after that we hanged out in beach which was cool, like those beaches in movies, with white sand and beautiful sea and surfers. It was like that. But the water was actually quite cold. At that moment the time difference did its own work and I started to get tired and she wanted to go home too, so we headed back. It was really fun to have some intelligent conversation with someone and I actually enjoyed it, tho I was actually quite tired. She said that she is busy tomorrow, but if she has time she will let me know and maybe we will hang out some more. I headed back to the hostel, made some CDs for the Indian guy and we cooked some food. It was quite fun and learned about hostel life more. One British guy joined us later and we talked about different countries. One Korean girl joined us too. At first it was really hard to understand her, but later on it got easier. All four of us hanged out actually real late. In the end I was so tired so I think when I fell on bed I was sleeping :P kind of surprising for me. Anyways woke up in the morning, ate breakfast, finished some things in internet, like applied for Tax File Number and so on. I just hanged out. And now soon I think I’m going to go to the bank and make an account.
Well at the moment I’m thinking if I’m really gonna write so much then I gotta write more often or take it easier. At the moment I have already used almost all my cash I have used, cause its not cheap here. Then I’m gonna cash in my traveller cheques in bank when I’m gonna make an account. I guess im just trying to learn as much I can about Sydney at the moment and then when Kaupo comes we can go hang out in those cool places I have heard, because I don’t think that it so fun alone actually. Tho maybe it would if would know that there’s no one coming :P. But oh well, maybe I’m just making excuses. I say what ever :P.
10.Oct 2008
Here I am again, trying to write something and remember what has happened. Checking last entry and looking where I finished last time. I not making any changes in text so Ill see what and how I thought at that moment, well at least a bit. After all I’m not talking about everything, not to offend anyone or what doesn’t seem appropriate. Anyways I got my bank card today and put my travellers cheques on my account, so I have some money now again a bit. And what more I have done. Well I went to the Bondi beach again, this time swimming too, with two interesting Indian guys. What’s even stranger, lately mostly the people I’m talking with are from India. So I’m learning something about their culture and their thinking. So far I have gotten into the conclusion that its easy to get friends with them, but also lose them. And they are offended quite easily, also kind of jealous for friends. Not wanting to do much work, but want to get paid well. But I’m sure that all isn’t like that. One guy that I went to beach with, who has been living here for 3 years almost seemed totally different, cause I’m guessing he has seen how life is here. Also there is one Japanese girl in the hostel. Its actually really hard to understand what she is saying but in time it gets easier. Because of her English she has gotten into trouble also couple of times. But in general I think that she is friendly. She is also worried about her age, cause she says that in Japan she is too old to anything, that her age girls are already married. So I’m kind of worried that she would get a wrong opinion of me, tho I’m just trying to be friendly. Wouldn’t be the first time too. Anyways so much of the people here. I’m not talking about Aussies at the moment, that will come later I think, cause haven’t met many at the moment. So far I could say that I enjoy hanging out with em most.
Ok left off from Bondi. Water was actually quite cold, but the waves were great. So it was pretty fun, but after coming out of water it was freezing. Actually we went to get ice cream also after it :P. When I got home I checked my phone and saw that Danielle has called me, the Aussie girl I met before. Called her back and she called me on barbie, with her friends. I’m not stopping into it for long, but it was really cool experience, had my first Aussie beer (not counting Fosters in) and first drink in Australia anyways :P. It was quite fun, started to get use to the Aussie accent too. We talked about different stuff, actually they were the ones that did most of the talking, but still it was fun. I mostly talked about Estonia, I hope that they are not thinking that I’m boring and don’t know anything else than about Estonia :P. I hope Ill see Danielle again and we do something fun.
Got home quite late, like 2 am and then woke up 9 am and couldn’t get more sleep. Next day like always started off with breakfast and shower. I just understood that Im already mixing up days or not. Anyways it was one day between 7th and 10th October :P. That day I went to check out Sydney. It might have been the morning of the day I was talking about too. Well I started walking to the place I thought to be a park. Took some time, but good thing is that the places in the town centre are actually quite close. Close enough to walk. So it actually was a park and big one. There were quite many people. Doing sports or just chilling. Was quite cool. Took some pictures with my phone too. After that I decided that Ill walk forward. I got to the botanic garden, which looked beautiful and I like that most that day I think. Walked around the garden and suddenly got to the Sydney Opera House, I was quite surprised, but decided well if I’m already here lets look around. Saw the massive harbour bridge too, took pic of both of them, the Opera House and bridge. Well atleast got done, but I’m guessing Ill be visiting em again when Kaupo arrives. That was about it. After this I headed back home. Don’t remember if I did anything more interesting past days. But today I went walking again. Was trying to find the Swedish church my sister was talking about, to get some snus. But that wasn’t like the main goal, I just looked up the address and if I would of seen it, I have gotten in and seen how it is. But I didn’t so I decided to keep walking and go to the harbour then. Well I got there, tho it wasn’t anything special. When Kaupo comes then maybe we will go to the aquarium and the wildlife thingy in there. I just needed some time off from the hostel, cause I’m feeling that I’m going crazy soon here :P. Hope this wont happen and Ill be still sane by the time Kaupo arrives :P. Made some plans too already. Today we are going out with some people from the hostel and Sunday I’m meeting Cherie, another girl I wrote in Couchsurfing. Maybe on Saturday I’m gonna call to Ricardo too, one guy I met on my way to the hostel after coming from barbie. Till then peace out.
13.oct 2008
Ok now I have some free time so Ill write what have I done and what I am going to do. Friday night was quite boring, Radeem told that we are going to party after his work, but when his work ended I was tired and so was he. Decided to go to the bottle shop and get some beers. That we did and drunk each 750 ml beer (Toohey) which was actually quite good. After that went to bed. Saturday morning Danielle texted me and asked what are my plans. Ofc I didn’t have anything and asked if she had any suggestions. She thought that we could go watch some movie. So we did. I went to Epping and then we waited for her housemate, had a coffee while doing that. Anyways when her housemate came we headed to Macquarie mall. On the way there I learned that Danielle’s housemate, she was called “Mel”, but its not her real name, which was more difficult :P, wants to learn psychology too. That in Macquarie Uni, she said that they don’t have those old buildings, but they have the best program, worth of checking it out. Checked out movies and decided to go for, damn don’t remember the name of that movie. It was about terrorism, especially suicide bombers and US government fighting it. Actually really good movie and little different, things got together in the very end. Danielle’s housemate had to go before the end, so after the movie we were thinking what to do now. So we went back to Epping and decided to get some more movies and watch them at her place. Oh, and in the mall I got to try first Australian candy (I’m failing Heigos list that he gave me before leaving :P). Watched movie called “The Redemption” I think and “300 Spartans”, basically old version of “300”.
It was cool movie night. And when we finished with them it was quite late and she let me to stay at her place for the night, they had room too, because one of the housemates was away somewhere. Danielle herself had something to do in the morning, but she said that I can sleep as long as I want, because Mel was at home. So I had pretty good sleep defiantly better than in the hostel. Started watching one more movie in the morning, called “Kenny”. It was about one Australian, got to know that Aussie slang little better. I guess it was meant to be kind of Aussie stereotype, little extreme, but was really cool movie. Danielle got home like in the middle of the movie. After the movie we went out to get something to eat. Got fish and chips :P aka fish fillet and fries. Sat down in park and ate our lunch. Then we went back to her place and watched another movie :P, called “Even Money”. Before that she actually showed me some pics when she was in Tasmania and recommended to go there. So now Tasmania is in my list too. The movie was ok, not very good and not very bad, tho the point of the movie was a mystery. After the movie I headed back “home”, to the hostel. It takes actually quite long time. So I got “home” quite late and then Radeem said that he had waited me to go out or whatever. Kind of strange that he didn’t call me. Anyways what ever, I can’t do nothing all the time. Checked few things in internet, took a shower, ate and went to bed. Today haven’t don’t basically nothing. Finally got my USA videos in my comp, I guess Ill be working with them now. Maybe I'll hang out with Danielle tomorrow again, if not then on Wednesday there’s a game night in Epping in Danielle’s friends café. And on Thursday Kaupo arrives and Danielle is going to visit her parents and asked me to come with her. I gotta see if Kaupo wants to come and let her know.
I guess this is it for the moment. We will see how things work out now. I guess I’m gonna cut down the blog making a bit and talk only about more interesting stuff :P
15.oct 2008
Well I promised to cut down the quantity of my blog, so Ill try to make it short. On thing I want to talk about is the night of 13th of Oct. It was so strange and I even thought about it if I even gonna talk about it, but oh well now I’m gonna do that :P. Well basically nothing happened before I decided to go to sleep. Anyways had my dinner and was heading back to my room, when one girl starts talking with me, tho I didn’t understand anything she was saying. I was trying to understand, but I didn’t understand anything. When I met her I was on my way to my room to get headphones to my friend, so he could talk to his parents. And she followed me all the way to my room and my way back down also. I was trying to get rid of her actually, because it isn’t allowed for strangers to be in the hostel. But I couldn’t she was tailgating me all the way back to my room. In the room I started understand what she was saying. She was actually asking me if I have seen some movies. She gave me many of movie names, but I didn’t know basically any of em. I really wanted to go to sleep so I was trying to get rid of her, not the very rude way, but I was kind of ignoring her. She kind of understood that I guess (was surprised cause she was I think under drugs or something) and started bothering other people who were in the room and sleeping. So she woke people up and asked stuff. While she was doing it, I took my clothes off and got to bed. She came back and laid on my bed next to me and started asking about movies again. I ignored. Finally she left the room and I was trying to get some sleep. Well it wasn’t long when she was back again, laid on my bed again. I was ignoring her still, but she kept going. Until she asked me if I wanted her to give me a hand job, then I started laughing and said that Ill pass. Then she asked me if I wanted (I think I heard right) blowjob. I couldn’t stop laughing and said again that Ill pass. Then she asked lot of stupid questions like I were gay and if I have a girlfriend and I was still trying to ignore her. Well anyways after a while she left my bed and started bothering one other guy in my room who had just came in and was trying to get some sleep too. Well after that I fell a sleep. But it didn’t last long tho. I didn’t look at the time, but I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that this girl was naked and she was lying next to me, sleeping. I got quite scared, but I didn’t dare to wake her up too, cause when she were on drugs she might go crazy or something. So I took my pillow and my blanket and tried to get away from her and hoped that she would leave soon. Anyways it was actually scary to get to sleep, because who knows where that girl has been. After some time I fell a sleep. In the morning she was still in our room, so I took shower and was trying to get away. Before I left she actually waked up and asked me if I wanted her to be my girlfriend. It was quite funny, but scary too. I said that Ill pass.
Anyways I left the room and because I didn’t get much sleep at night I went downstairs to TV room and laid on the sofa and fell a sleep. Yesterday didn’t happen much interesting so I won’t talk about it. Maybe I have to mention that I met one super friendly Canadian. We had quite good chat with him, cause it was actually really good to talk to someone, with who you don’t have hard time to understand him. Was quite fun too. Today also nothing much. Went walking. Oh and btw I answered to one ad in internet. One guy is renting out 2 room apartment in Sydney downtown and with really good price. But thing is actually that he answered me and asks me to pay 1 month in front and 500 AUD bond. He said also that he we can’t see the place because he is living in Africa and needs that money to get his agent here to show us this place. So Im not sure about this and I’m gonna show the mail to Danielle and see what she says. Well in the end I want to say that I’m sick of this hostel, it is getting really annoying and boring. Kumi, the Japanese girl is all the time talking to me and asking for help, with her different problems here, like sexual harassment. But she doesn’t speak good English and I think she wants me to do everything for her. I’m trying to help her telling what to do, but I don’t want to get myself into all this. Because her English isn’t really good I recommended her to go to Japanese embassy and/or police. But so far she hasn’t listened to me. Another guy that is kind of annoying is the Indian guy from reception. He is really helpful and friendly, but sometimes it pisses me off that he thinks that I have to do everything with him and only thing he wants to eat is rice (we are cooking together usually, its cheap but I’m sick of it). And if people who he counts as friends find other friend and spend some time with them he gets mad. He has to work most of the time, the reason he cant do lot of things we do, so that’s what he should concentrate on or find other job. It’s good to hang out with him when I have nothing to do, but sometimes he gets annoying.
Should of put negative things in the front, but what ever…
And I bought tickets already to get to Danielle’s parents place with Kaupo, for tomorrow. And tonight I’m going to Epping again, there’s a games night in Danielle’s friends’ café.
23. October 2008
Haven’t had any time to write for some time now, but I’ll try to remember what I have done in that time. I’m trying to figure out if I should put this really up to internet too or I’ll just keep it as my journal. The reason why I wouldn’t want to put it up is that I am afraid that I could hurt someone’s feelings who I have met and put here my opinion about them, but maybe I should stop talking about people then. I don’t want to do that too actually. We’ll see about that.
Anyways what have I done? I left off where I was going to meet Danielle and her friends in café to play some games. It turned out to be really good evening. We played some word games, which were little hard for me, but I did actually quite well. The first game we played you had to write a picture of the word and your teammates had to guess what it was. Other conditions too, but in general it was like that. The other game was that you had to explain the word with other words and couldn’t use the words that were written also on the card and the others had to guess the real word. In that I didn’t do so well, but it was alright, at least it was fun.
Next morning Kaupo was supposed to come and we had to go to Blue Mountains. It ended with that Kaupo sent me a sms, which I got in the morning saying that he will actually arrive on Friday. I already had tickets so I had to figure out what I’m going to do now. Night before the Canadian I was talking about asked too if he could come, so I asked Danielle, if I could ask some other to come with me. She said that it’s OK as long as he is not serial killer. That was decided then and Chris came with me to Blue Mountains. We had to meet with Sarah (Danielle’s friend who had to take me, Chris and Danielle to the bus. Our way there was quite interesting and I had real good conversation with Chris about how he sees the world, religion, environment, little politics and also genetics. One thing that seemed strange to me was that he wanted to be real good in everything, but maybe it’s strange just for me, because I’m thinking that everyone has their talents and things they suck in. Everything is learnable, but to be good in everything would take like 10 human lives and even then I’m thinking you would be like Jack of all trades. But that’s his choice and its not my business to judge. But it turned out that Danielle were little late and had to take the train. So we drove to Richmond with Sarah to meet Danielle there. We got there and arrived like 5 min before Danielle did, so it was good timing. After that we all headed forwards to Lithgow to catch our bus there. Got on bus on time and rode to Orange, where we were picked up by Danielle’s mom, Lorraine. From there we were drove to Molong (the place where they were living) and went to local pub to eat. There we met with Geoff, her father and her mothers friend, don’t remember the name, but she was from England originally. Had couple of beers there and I had some lamb to eat. Was quite fun dinner and Lorraine and her friend were quite interested of me, because I didn’t know what I am going to do and because I was interested in psychology I think.
Then they said that Lorraine knows how to make cards (Tarot) and that they will do that for me. Well I won’t get into much other things, all dinner was kind for getting to know each other. After dinner we headed to their place and continued our conversation. I also made a gift to them, Estonian liqueur. Chris went to bed actually quite soon, because he was tired from the time difference, because he had arrived like 2 or 3 days ago. After Danielle went to bed Lorraine made me cards, not earlier because she said that Danielle actually don’t like it. It was quite some time ago now, but I’ll try to remember what she said.
Tarot. Things that went through the whole thing were changes and choices. She said that I had to stay myself and follow my instincts and everything would be great and not to listen what others tell me. She said that I have also lot knowledge waiting for me, but she didn’t know if it would be soon or it takes time, kind of like with all other cards. I suppose to have one 4 day journey coming. Also she said that there would be different people in my life, two guys and one girl. One guy would give me lot of experience in business field and the other one spiritual kind of experience. I don’t remember exactly what kind of affect the girl had on me. There was also card called the Tower and it meant that there were two roads that I could take and I have big choice ahead of me. I had 4 knights in my cards too and it supposed to be a good sign. Also she spoke about some other girl in my life, The One, that she was supposed to be perfect for me, but I have some other relationships before that. Don’t remember much more. We finished in like 5 am with everything and I headed to bed and had to wake up 7 am. One other thing what we did was that we found Chris work. He was going to work with Danielle’s dad, who was building garages, starting the next day.
Next morning I got up 7 am, took a shower and ate. Packed things to car and took off to get Danielle’s car. Got her car, Ford Laser :P and went to see what Chris and Geoff are doing and if Chris wanted to come with us to Sydney and back on Sunday. Got there chatted with them for a bit and turned out that yeah Chris wanted to come with us. So we started heading back towards Sydney but we were going to stop in the mountains and look around. Also we had to meet with one other Couchsurfer called Tim from Hawaii in the mountains. That we did in some small town where we had lunch. After lunch we headed to popular tourist places to see the mountains. There were like outlook places, where we went to takes pictures and walk around. It was beautiful, tho I think I would of liked this kind of view while just walking somewhere in mountains, but it was quite fun anyways. I was little tired too so I wasn’t very talkative. We walked to the Three Sisters. Last part, where there were lot of steps Danielle didn’t do with us, because her leg. But me and Tim went down there to take some pictures. Took some pictures on our way down there, but the main thing happened down there. We went behind the fence, where we actually we shouldn’t have been to take pictures, got some real good ones. Tim was extra crazy and wanted to get some pics like he would be climbing there so he was just holding the rock with two hands in the place where there were long way down. I got some really good pictures of him. Also one interesting thing he said there was that he wants to take the most from that place, because he don’t think that he will ever be back there. Kind of interesting way to take things, but I guess I wish that I could be that kind of person sometimes. Tim is also very talkative and friendly. Finds lot of interesting opportunities. But he isn’t kind of person that listens tho. But I still liked him in kind of jealous way too I think.
Anyways after that we went to the place to get on train, Skytrain, to see some more of the mountains. We got there and there were some naked aboriginal statues outside made of bronze. Tim and Chris made some pictures with them, it was quite funny, especially when Chinese tourist group came and were laughing there and then got pictures from their selves too. The trip with world steepest train on rope (train moved by the rope it was connected to, pulled it up and let it down the mountain) and up with one other thing cost around 20 dollars and I decided that not this time. So I hanged out with Danielle and had a coffee while Chris and Tim went down and came up again. After that we started driving back to Sydney. On the road we decided that we are going to surf next day on Cronulla beach. Everyone fell a sleep on the way to Sydney, so did I, tho I tried to stay awake. We got to Sydney and dropped Chris off to hostel/backbackers and picked up Kaupo who had been hanging out in Sydney all that time. After picking him up we took Tim where he was spending the night. Danielle had to go somewhere after that, so she dropped us off in Sydney to some place and we had to just wait. So we were just hanging around and talking about what are we going to do and other things with Kaupo. Also we found Estonian House. After like hour and half she was finished and picked us up and we headed to her place. Yeah, she said that it was ok if we spent few nights at her places, because Mel (her housemate) kind of liked me, meaning that she was ok with me to stay there. We went to sleep almost straight away, because we were just so tired.
Well anyways I’m gonna stop here, because I’m getting tired. I’ll try to write tomorrow about how we went surfing, the koala park, how we found a job and doing the RSA licence.
26. Oct 2008
Ok now its time to write some more what I have done. We are now in Blue Mountains and eventually I’ll try to get so far with the writing too. I just got as far as Kaupo arrived. For next day we already had a plan what to do. First thing to do: go surfing. So it was for Kaupo the second day he was here and he already went surfing, how cool is that. We woke up quite early, woke up like 7 am and then it turned out that we had to actually leave the house 8 am, so we were like 1 hour too early. Tho that’s what Danielle said last night and I asked like 3 times over, so it wasn’t our fault :), but we were the ones that suffered :D or it was some other morning. Hmm, doesn’t matter anyways now. We waited for Chris to come too. Then we called to different places that rented out surfboards and found one near the beach. I almost forgot sunscreen and actually lost the places address. It actually didn’t matter, so we started driving there. We got there and it turned out that they don’t have the boards that we wanted, the beginner ones, soft top boards. We talked to Tim, the guy who had to teach surfing to us and turned out that he had been talking to some guys from the beach, from surfing school and we could get the boards cheaper. So we headed to the beach then, Cronulla beach. We got there, found Tim and got ourselves boards and wetsuits. Headed on the beach and started with dry land training. It took like 10-15 mins and it was easy, just told us basic things, like how to get up from the board and that most of the time we will be paddling and he was quite right. The surfing isn’t as easy as it seems and it actually took a while to get up on the board. After you got the trick it was easier, tho it was really tiring, I mean pulling yourself up on the board. Few times it actually happened that I already tired myself with paddling so much that I didn’t have the power to get up on the board. Lot of times I ended up crashing in water or just falling off. Couple of times I think I crashed in the sand too with my knees, because they were quite painful for few days. In the end I got cramp on my leg too, actually 3 times. First time was small one and it got stronger, so that with 3rd one I couldn’t walk anymore and I had to finish my surfing for the day. Another noticeable thing was that I swallowed so much salty water that I almost started throwing up, but luckily that didn’t happen, drinking regular water helped in that case.
Anyways we were surfing for like 5 hours and I think it was quite good result for one day. Now only thing we have to do is get our own surfing boards. That’s gonna happen when we get enough money for one, cause they are actually quite expensive. After that we (actually Danielle, but I needed to go with her to have some chance to get there too, if we would of decided staying in Sydney) had to go see one family who needed house sitters, to take care of the dog and the house. Quite cool people, but asked many questions. They were British, but now working for Australian Navy. They were taking vacation and needed someone to look after the place (especially after the 12 000 dollar dog :D). Had a good chat with them and then we left promising them to give an answer in a week or two.
After that we went to the city to meet one German girl that had contacted Danielle through Couchsurfing too. Picked her up and went to the Sydney Harbor to just sit, talk and relax. I actually didn’t talk to her much, Danielle did most of the talking, I was more busy waiting in the toilet line and drinking my tea. But turned out that she had been working kind of marketing field too, for Emor so it was quite interesting and reminded me things about work. After that we dropped her off near the place she was staying and we were heading back home to get something to eat and go to bed.
Well next two days after that was kind of relaxation day (I think, because I don’t remember things so well anymore, sorry). We didn’t do much, slept till noon and after that were just chilling in Epping and watching movies. On Monday we went to Gloria Jeans Coffee to the internet and Kaupo went to the bank. Just chilling out after that (or it was just so boring that I don’t remember much about it :P).
On Tuesday we went to the Koala Park. We had to go with like 10.10 bus, but that bus driver told us that it is wrong bus, but it actually wasn’t. So we had to wait for an hour. Because we didn’t have breakfast we went to Coles to get something to eat. And then we headed to the park near by to eat what we had gotten. We also bought mango, which turned out to be awesome, so freakin good :P. Chilled there and headed to the bus stop again by 11.10. This time we didn’t have any problems and we got off also in right place. We had to walk a bit, but not so far. At first had little problem finding it, because didn’t know which way to go, but after we got the directions it was easy. Koala park was real fun and we spent like half day there. But koalas actually were sleeping the time we got there and one was woken up so that tourists like us could take a pictures. One at time and 4 times a day, used always different ones in one day. They were kept awake by giving them something to eat. Actually not much to see, but I guess first time it is interesting. Got some pictures too and after that we headed to see the kangaroos, but about this next time, because right now we gotta go to eat. More things to tell about: kangaroos, finding a job, doing RSA, helping homeless in Sydney (Salvation Army) and Jenolan caves.
Continues…
Ok just came from dinner, getting ready for tomorrows workday and going to sleep. Lets continue where I left off. We continued to see some roos and we found lots of them. Big ones, small ones and some with baby’s. They were more fun than other animals, because they were real chill. You could just go there and hug them. We got real good pictures from and with them. We hanged out with them for quite long time. After that we moved around there, saw bats, some birds, some more roos behind fences, wombat sleeping, hedgehog like anteaters, dingo’s, more roos, penguins, kakaduus and more. When we had seen them all we went to see the sheep shearing show, which wasn’t so interesting, but doesn’t matter, we didn’t have anything else to do anyways. Then we left and got something to eat from Coles and had kind of picnic. After that we got on the bus and headed back to Epping to Danielle’s place. Don’t remember exactly what we were doing there, but I think we were watching movies.
About Wednesday: (22.10) got up quite early in the morning to get my hair done. Danielle put me time for hairdresser where she usually goes. It was quite interesting, the lady was from Lebanon or something like that. Got little different haircut than usually and kind of haircut where I need to use gel, so I gotta get used to this thing again. After getting haircut we had to go meet with John from Housesitting, at first we had to meet in some café, but Danielle didn’t have time for that so we had to meet with him in Station near there. We got there quite early and we actually didn’t know where exactly we had to meet him and he didn’t answer his phone also. We walked around there for a while to find him and after like half an hour we actually did. We talked about the place, well he did. And he said that we should look after like 30 grayhounds and it won’t be easy. He said that we have to make sure that the dogs wouldn’t hurt each other and their selves. Like if there are some wild life lurking around the dogs we should take a bow and kill that thing or just let one specific dog out who would chase it and kill it. Also he said that we should carry defensive objects with us all the time when we are out of house, like a bow or metal bar. We had to be able to make sometimes some shots (flee medicine or something like that) on dogs without killing them. Also put some medicine in their throat. He said also that he actually don’t care if we get some friends with us as long as the house and the dogs are ok. This had to be total outback and no one near the house, so when he moved in there he didn’t see anyone for months. Closest town was 100 km away. We said that we will think about it and we had to give our decision by Saturday if we wanted to go see the place. After that we thought that it would be awesome, but we need money for that because finding a job there will be real hard especially as we don’t have driving licence.
We got on bus and headed once again to Danielle’s place. There we surfed the internet and were just looking for a job. We were kind of interested of jobs in a farm, especially the ones connected to horses, like horse tours or just horse riding. Then Danielle just had an idea to call Jenolan caves and ask them for a job. We looked up the number and she called. And it actually turned out that they really do need people. But to work we needed to make RSA licence (responsible service of alcohol), which everyone who are working for a place that is serving alcoholic drinks. We said that we will do it this week and get in touch with him so we could come there in the weekend. He said the name of the place also where we should of go to get one. So we searched it out from internet and booked it for next day. Later on we found one place that was doing horse tours too. I called there and asked for a job, they said that the person responsible things like that weren’t there at the moment, but we should send them e-mail and then they would get in touch with us. I said ok and then we started fixing our CVs, but we didn’t have time to finish them at that time, because we had to leave Danielle’s place and go to the hostel. We checked in, talked few words with Radeem, dropped our things to our room (got 6 bed dorm places with same price thanks to Radeem, but we only shared it with one German girl) and then went out to get something to eat. Had our dinner and went to bed. (Added few things on 27th Oct because I didn’t want to split days)
27. Oct 2008
Friday: we had to wake up quite early so we didn’t have time to get some breakfast in the hostel. Got on the train, drove to city and started looking for the building where it was in. Found it quite easily, went on the 7th floor and waited till they opened the doors to get in there. The whole training was actually quite interesting, showed quite cool videos and what the guy was saying was fun too. Actually we didn’t get bored there much. In the end of the lecture there was like a test, which was real easy and we could use all the materials. And the way he checked our tests was quite funny too, so I started wondering if it even is possible to fail it. It took 6 hours to finish it. After that we were looking around and kind of shopping, tho we (me mostly :P) didn’t have any money, but we needed thongs which we also got from Woolmart really cheap. Kind of crappy ones, but at the moment they will do. When I have money I will go to SSD (it think this is how you spell it, Surf, Ski and Dive) and get cooler ones :P. Anyways hanged out in the city for a while, then headed to the backbackers, put our stuff there and headed out to eat. I had 2 free meal vouchers for The Gaff nightclub, that’s where we headed. It was quite close to us, maybe like 15-20 min walk. The deal with the vouchers was that you had to buy a drink to get the free meal. So we got beers and ordered our food. While we were sitting there one guy came to talk to us and asked if we wanted to surf. He said that he is making surf tours from 1 day to 3 days. Most popular ones had to be the weekend ones, but this weekend one was full, but he said that he would make room for just two of us. Just chatted with him for a while too till we got our food. Ate our food (which wasn’t good, but it was kind of free :P) and drank our bed. After that headed back to hostel, sat in internet for a bit and then went to bed.
28.Oct 2008
Saturday. We woke up early again to get to Danielle’s place, so she could drive us to Jenolan caves. There we packed our stuff in her car and started driving to Blue Mountains. Also Chris, the Canadian, was also interested working in this place, but as he was in Molong at that time, Danielle’s dad had to drive him there. So we all had to meet in Jenolan. Drive went without any problems and we got to Jenolan by noon or so. We asked James in the reception, but actually he was right there, so we didn’t have to wait. He organized room for us and told us to get our stuff in there (in his words: “Chase out the lizards” :P). After that was done we went to see James again. He filled us in what we have to do and showed us around and asked things about us, like if we have any these kind of experience and what can we do. It took little while and then he said that that’s it for the day and tomorrow we can do caving and look around. The work started on Monday. Also he made reservation for us in the restaurant, so we would know how it would be like for guests and I think so we would know what we are serving. We went walking around before dinner for a bit, saw couple of lizards and kangaroos. It was quite fun, because the place here is beautiful and it’s possible to see wildlife. After the walk we headed to the restaurant to get something to eat. It was little strange, but actually real good experience.
The dinner had two courses and dessert. We wanted to try different things so we both ordered different things. I got salmon and lamb, Kaupo got fettuccini and kangaroo. Salmon was simple, cold smoked salmon and salad, nothing special neither as nothing bad to say. Kaupo didn’t like his fettuccini so much I think and he said it was quite hot, I didn’t try that one. After that it was turn for main course. My lamb was real good and juicy and rushing ahead I’d say so far the best thing in the restaurant. Kaupo’s kangaroo was interesting, just because it was kangaroo. But in general, nothing special, kind of like our liver sauce as Kaupo said. Dessert was already put out and we could choose what ever we want, there were cakes, fruits and some creams. Kaupo took a cake and I took chocolate cream and fruits. After dinner James said that at that time it is possible to see opossums, wombats and platypuses around the hotel, caves and lake, also he introduced us to piano player, who was also doing cave tours and he thought that he could show us something next day. So we went walking to see if we actually do see any of them. The only thing we saw that night was platypus ass as it ran away from us. So after doing that we headed to bed to have some good sleep.
29.Oct 2008
Sunday. We had one more free day before we had to work. We slept till noon or so. Then we went to see if we could do some cave tours. James was busy at that time, tho he said that we should go see him before going to guides office. But as he couldn’t come we went to see if there is the guy we met last night, the guide manager Dan. Turned out that he wasn’t there and we had to wait an hour, so we chilled so long. We talked to him after he came back, but we had to wait more some 10 minutes before he had time for us. After that he told us what could we do and said what tours are coming up. One was adventure tour other was just regular cave tour. We picked the adventure tour, what it meant was we went into caves through “back door”, using ropes. There wasn’t so many people luckily, we were six together and had 3 guides with us. So we decided to take it easily and just enjoy it. We crawled and pressed us through some quite small spots and heard some stories about the caves and the ones that discovered them. It was fun defiantly and real good experience. It took together 1 and half hours. After that they said that there is gonna be one 6 hour tour like that, but it’s only like 1 time in a month. But I hope we can do it before we leave.
After that we decided to do one more tour, but the regular cave tour. It turned out to be not so fun, but the caves looked nice. The place we went was called Temple of Baal. There were like that “angel wing”, altars and Baal created from all the water drops, crystals, stalactites and stalagmites. Actually if to think about it, it actually was beautiful, but it should have been shorter tour.
After all that we went to see James and see how it is with a dinner. And he said that it would be like it was last night. We were like guests again. So he made a reservation for us and we went to eat in few hours. This time we took again totally different things. I took duck rolls and Kaupo crocodile. My duck rolls were quite boring, couldn’t actually say that it was duck, but Kaupo’s crocodile was actually real good and interesting. I think the crocodile is actually the best entrée. For main course I had chicken breast and Kaupo had rainbow trout. My chicken was quite dry, but otherwise taste was actually good. But Kaupo said that his trout was quite bad, I even didn’t try that I think. This time dessert was something you had to order. I had marinated pear and Kaupo had panna cotta. My pear wasn’t anything special, just the pear and little bit of ice cream, Kaupo’s panna cotta was interesting, but quite too sweet for me. So after dinner we went walking again and this time we saw opossum near lake and platypuses swimming. And after that we headed to bed, because next day our work started at 8 am. But about that later, because we just woke up and now we are heading to get something to eat and after that we will see what are we gonna do.
Monday. Well it was our first day at work and so there were lot to learn. We had to be in bistro at 8 am. When we got there we had to do some preparation work, like filling the fridges with drinks, little cleaning and more things like that. I was put to sell and make hot food and Kaupo was put in dish pit. We were told how things work around there and basic stuff. Later on Kate showed me how things at hot food work, there wasn’t actually too many things but at first it seemed to be quite hard and lot to remember. She talked also quite fast, so I missed few things what she was saying but I thought that what ever, that I’ll learn as I go. At first there was lot what she said about setting up the hot food section in the morning. Like what to turn on and where to put things and so forth. Then there were things about cooking the food and getting it ready for clients. That also seemed quite hard at first, like so many thing to remember. She actually made the first part of these things to show me how she does that. And then I had to wait for clients. It actually took a while when there were the first client, I called Kate there and she showed how it actually works, like putting the food on plate and dealing with money. In general it was quite lot things to remember, but nothing real hard. From that point I was basically alone and I actually didn’t do so bad, had to ask few things from Kate, but otherwise I’d say that for the first time it was actually good, tho I made few mistakes with putting things in the computer and dealing with the money, but it wasn’t that bad, at least that’s what Judith (she is kind of our boss in the bistro) said later.
Finished the bistro job at 5 pm, then had one hour break and went to work in restaurant (Judith said that James gonna show us just little bit about restaurant work, like for an hour). When we got to the restaurant then James showed us where things are and how it all works. Then he showed us how to carry plates and we had to do the same thing for some times. Then when clients came we had to follow him, so we could learn how he is doing it. Then we already had to do it ourselves, actually me mostly, Kaupo was sent to the kitchen. Introducing, taking orders, putting orders in computer, taking food to the table, taking away dirty dishes, filling water glasses, cleaning and setting up tables, thing like that were what I had to do. Some guys who were working here came to the bar and asked us to go out with them (s
orry too many people, don’t remember names) and have a drink. We said that ye sure we can do that after work, but we didn’t actually know where we had to go and anyways we worked till quite late and didn’t think that there would be any point to go. So work end like 11 pm, got our dinner from kitchen, ate it and were leaving the place, when the cleaner here asked if we wanted to see some opossums. She showed us the opossums just out the place on the tree next to door, there were two of them and she was giving them banana to eat. We were just chatting there when Scott (Mossy) came out, the bartender, who knew those guys who called us for a drink, so he asked us again and we decided just to go check out what’s happening. We went there and they offered us a drink and most of the time we were just listening what their talking about. But later on we were talking about Estonia too, kind of like always when someone is interested :P. Left their place after few drinks, like 2 am. Next morning had to be at work also 8 am :D.
I am making progress, I have cut down little on describing things too much and reached so far that I’m writing about yesterday.
Tuesday. Woke up at 8 am again, tired like hell. Today we went to work in different places. I went to bistro again and Kaupo went to work in restaurant. I was on hot food again, kind of like last time, but this time it went easier and made only one mistake (that I know of). Kaupo joined bistro after lunch and I had to show him how things work in the hot food. Tho I’m not so good in it myself I explained him the main things about it. Later he helped me to clean the place too. I got free at 4 pm and had to go check what I had to do in the restaurant, Kaupo didn’t have to do anything and he decided to go running after work, but he also had to stay longer in the bistro to help clean it. So I went to see James and he said that I have half an hour brake and then had to be back so he could show me few more things and help him out. Got an energy drink and rested my legs for a half an hour. Then went back there and I had stay in the bar for a while, because James had some other things to do. There I learned how to make coffee with the machine, but turned out that I’m not so good doing that, but luckily I didn’t have to do it for long. Then James showed some things to me and said that I can go home after washing the dishes. So I washed the dishes and asked how it’s going to be with the dinner, he said that I should come back later with Kaupo and he will make something. So I went home and remembered that I had forgotten my jacket in the bistro with my room key. When I got home I saw that luckily Kaupo was back, but it took a while till I got in because he was taking a shower and didn’t hear me knocking.
Rested for a while and then headed to have some dinner. James actually did cook for us and he said that he’s actually cook by trade. Got some chicken and rice, which was quite hot (seems that here hot food is quite popular), but real good. Anyways after we ate, we heard that next day is our day off and asked him if we wanted if we could do something anyways. For that he said that we should come there and ask tomorrow. He also said that he will leave tomorrow and won’t be back till Tuesday. It means that we have to do weddings without him this weekend, we will see how it goes. Told us few things about the weddings, what we should do there and how it is going to be. After he finished with us we headed to bed.
I’m really awesome, because I’m just starting to write about what happened TODAY :P. Just gotta keep it up and write something everyday.
Wednesday. Because it was our day off today we slept as long as we could. Washed ourselves and just chilled for a while (wrote here this thing :P) and headed to the bistro to get something to eat and I needed my jacket from there too. Little bit about eating here in this place. Eating is free. But so far we haven’t eaten any breakfast, lunch is from bistro and dinner we can get from restaurant kitchen or order from bar. In bistro there’s cold and hot food. Hot food isn’t so good usually, lasagne have been best so far in my opinion from there, but also pies are quite popular, so gotta try them sometimes. And today it was the first time we ordered from the cold bar, I think it’s better choice actually than hot food, so I guess we will try to try some other things from there too. After that we decided to check what cave tours are happening today and then go see if someone needs our help somewhere. Saw that there is one good tour coming soon, so we went to the restaurant and asked if they needed us today. Turned out that they will be alright that night, but then Judith (from bistro) came there and said that she might need us for a bit. But that would be in like 2 hours.
So we decided to take that tour, but James filled us in fast about few things that had to be done for the weddings when he is not gonna be here. We hurried to the guides office to ask about the tour and turned out that it had just gone out, but they gave us the tickets and we had to run to catch them. We caught them just before going up the mountain. The tour was better than the second one we did on Sunday. So it was quite fun. The tour finished just before we had to show up in the bistro. Went there and Judith said that she needs us to get few things to her and after that we had to clean few things. All together just few hours. After that we decided to just walk around, to go to one valley near by. It was quite interesting saw some more Australian bush and its wildlife (kangaroos), some of them just standing in the side of the road and looking us.
While walking up we thought that we would like to go up of one mountain. We decided that what ever, we are going to do that. Looked for a way to get up, but then we thought that doesn’t matter we are gonna find way there. Went off road and started climbing up the mountain, climbing the rocks. So we went, just kept going. After some climbing and walking we found some old trail that we took and started going by that. We got quite near the top, but not the real highest point. So we decided to do some more rock climbing, which actually turned out to be more harder and longer than I thought, but more fun too actually. By that time it was actually getting dark and by the time we got up it was quite dark already, so we decided not to stay long and started coming down. We took a little different way there and kind of lost because half way down it got really dark and we actually didn’t see much. So there we were in the bush in the dark and didn’t know where we were and how we get back, because when taking little wrong step we could of ended up falling down some real high cliff. Luckily I had my phone with me and we used its light to see our way, but we were still kind of lost. There we decided which way we should go, we got to an agreement and started to go that way. After some walking we actually got to familiar place and found the trail, so we were saved :P.
Finally we got safely down and went to get some food from the bar. We ordered two breads (garlic and herb) and two pastas. Pastas weren’t actually so good, but the herb bread was good. Talked little with the French who are working here and heard about Halloween party (Kaupo actually heard about it from one English girl earlier), but she (yeah one French is a girl :P) didn’t know where and when exactly, because she said that nobody know at the moment. After little chat we got home and I started writing this thing here and now its time to get to sleep. I’ll try to talk more about people next time if I have time. For so long, gn and hf :P.
30. Oct 2008
As I am doing quite well with the writing here and there won’t be probably much happening now, because its mostly work that’s going on I will have more time to talk about other stuff here.
Thursday. Today had to go to work at 12, so we could sleep quite well. But we had to wake up earlier, because we had to move out today. So far we had been living in kind of like hotel room. We had TV, big bed, sofa, hair drier, tea and coffee, well the whole place looked real nice. But now we are living in hotel area that should be under renovation, so rooms are dirty, only things that are in room are bed and cupboard, at first didn’t even have a bed. And my room door doesn’t lock. It takes down the motivation, but hell with that, I hope they pay us good then at least. Anyways we packed our stuff and headed to our new rooms and dropped our stuff in one of them. Then got something to eat and headed to see what we had to do. Our task of the day was setting up the function room, where there is going to be big wedding on Saturday. So we got there and started with cleaning it all up, then had to get right tables in room, put table cloth on them. Then had to find the cutlery for all 110 guests and interesting thing was that everything was everywhere around and missing lot of stuff. Also folded like 110 napkins and polished all the cutlery for the wedding anyways set up the tables as much as we could, nothing real interesting. Finished that like 6 pm and then asked if they needed our help in restaurant and turned out that they did. So we had to set up some more tables, for breakfast, which was also interesting because we didn’t have enough right table cloths. We got that done with like 2 hours. Then waited for our dinner in kitchen and after that got our rooms fixed (means that I got all the stuff for my bed and things like that). Before going to sleep played one game of chess with Kaupo, not real easy game, especially after hard day of work. So nothing real interesting for today and sorry I’m too tired to talk about people and other stuff, but when I’m not so tired I will think of something.
And for so long… peace, out…
1. Nov 2008
Already next day, haven’t gone to sleep actually, so I’m actually gonna talk about Friday. Not much to talk about tho, because we have been working all day, from 9 am to 11 pm basically, mostly getting things ready for wedding, again. We did lot of moving things around, like plates, cups, glasses, knifes and more, cleaning and other things like that. In the end we did some dishwashing too, I think Kaupo has had enough dishwashing and I don’t think that he wants to do it much more. So it wasn’t anything surprising, lot of running around and lifting stuff. Today we had to have Halloween party, but everyone were so tired in the end and/or had to work early in the morning.
Ok I might start talking about people here. Today had quite good conversation with French girl that is working here. She is here with one French guy (no, they are not together :P) and came here to work through one agency. Her name is Agathe (I hope I wrote it right) and she actually speaks really good English, so good that I’m actually surprised because French are known of not talking in English if they even know it. But the guy isn’t speaking so good English, but for a French it’s good :P, his name is Joe. Haven’t talked much with Joe, because it is little hard and just haven’t had anything to talk about. But Agathe is quite talkative and fun, don’t know her that well, but that’s what I can tell by what I have seen/heard. She is mostly working in the bar or coffee area in bistro, other things I haven’t seen her doing. If I’ll learn anything about her more, then I’ll write more about her. But that’s basically it for today I think, time to go to bed. There are more people to talk about, but she was probably the first one worth mentioning and besides I just talked to her for quite long.
More to come…
2. Nov 2008
Saturday. We had this huge wedding for what we had been preparing last days. We were suppose to start at 5 pm, but actually last night it turned out that they need Kaupo 9 am and me 11 am. So we had to get up early to go to work. Kaupo had to wash dishes again and when I arrived at 11 then I had to do the same thing and I did it for like 2 hours which really pissed me off, they actually didn’t need me. After this was done we took of from the Caves House so that they couldn’t find us, because we really needed a break, because we were so sick of washing the dishes. But at that moment we didn’t know that we had to do it in the evening too actually. So on our break we ate and did one more cave tour, the River cave one. The tour was actually quite cool, I think the best of the regular ones.
After this we headed back and started changing clothes and turned out that everyone are already looking for us, tho we had still time till work, so it was real strange. We put on our work clothes, the cleaner ones because we thought that we were serving food and drinks, but when we saw Dennis he said that we will be working in the kitchen, doing DISHES again, so from that moment every time I see him I want to punch him in face, but so far I have managed to hold myself back, telling myself that James will be back in few days. The wedding was crazy and everything actually was chaotic. Luckily we didn’t have to do dishes all the time, we were helping out the chef also getting food ready and on plates, so something different and more interesting too. We worked till 2 am, so it was long day too. And it turned out that we are not the only ones that hate Dennis, in fact most people hate him, because he is such an ass and actually can’t do anything himself and then gets mad at people if they do something wrong.
After work I was so tired, but still I wanted a beer before going to sleep so we went outside with few people, sat there drank beer and just chatted. Got to bed like 4 am. Dennis said that one of us has to be working at 9 and the other at 11 am. So we decided that Kaupo is gonna be the one who goes by 9, so he got like 3 hours of sleep, sux. But we’ll try to keep up the good spirit.
Sunday. So Kaupo went to work at 9 am and I woke up, took a shower, ate and got to work by 11 am. Guess what, we both had to do dishes again, Kaupo started with it at 9 am and I helped to finish it off. And did it most of the time, in the end we helped to set up and move the tables for next wedding on Monday too. We got a little break, actually I did, because Kaupo is off today, so he is gonna show kangaroos to French guys at six when I’m going to work :S. Shit happens, tho luckily there’s gonna be only like 12 people, hopefully it will be quiet night. Oh btw, guess what I gotta do at work, you guessed right, DISHES AGAIN. But Rosie, one British girl (or Irish don’t know exactly :P) said that maybe I can be in the bar, because there won’t be so many people. We will see about that later then, I’ll try to keep this thing here updated :P. And if theres not gonna happen anything interesting then later on I’ll talk about something interesting maybe, if I think what that interesting thing could be :P.
So long then…
4. Nov 2008
Haven’t written here again few days, but this time not because I have been doing lot of cool stuff, but opposite, nothing to talk about, have been working. Some news I have tho, I am now working in the kitchen prepping food and cooking, quite interesting, but bad thing is that I have had to do the dishes still, kitchen dishes. And tomorrow James will be back.
On Monday we had another wedding, but luckily smaller one this time, heaps easier. I was working at that time, Kaupo had evening off then, so I was the one that had to do the dishes that night and then actually Owen (the chef) asked me if I wanted to work in the kitchen from now on and of course I said yes, because I wanted to get away from Dennis and didn’t want to do dishes anymore. It’s little better now but not much. Today, on Tuesday, I had real easy day actually, got to work at 1 pm and didn’t have many people today, so could take it easy and got off from work already before 10 pm actually. So I’m taking easy and spending my time on working at the moment. French smoked weed in their room and now our corridor smells of it, but fuck it :P. They are leaving tomorrow to Sydney for three days. There are lot of people who I could talk about, but at the moment I still don’t know about who to talk about, because so far people haven’t talked much more than work. People who are in the list to talk about: Jaye and Tara, Rosie, James, Megan, Kate, Judith. These are the people from who I would like to learn about more and who seem to be interesting. Till then… cya
7. Nov 2008
Hey, it’s me again. Right now I don’t want to talk about what I have been doing, tho I have something to talk about from today, Chris arrived today here, but that I’m gonna talk about later or some other day. At the moment I just want to say few things about what I am thinking now. It is little driven from the fact that I am watching “Into The Wild” again.
I am here where I can’t get into internet much and there is no signal for mobile, but still I get the feeling that I need to tell people in Estonia few things how and what I am doing. I kind of envy Kaupo, because he can do without it basically, he dropped a line to his mom and before that spoke to his sister through Orkut a bit, but I have talked with my family heaps more. I get the feeling that if I am not saying anything I’m kind of letting people down, because when I was in Estonia I said everyone that ye, ye I’m gonna keep in touch, even if I didn’t actually mean it at that moment. So I’m feeling that I’m kind of lying. So who ever is gonna read this one day don’t feel like I don’t care about you, in fact the other way I care too much of you, so much that I even can’t spend the time only for myself, tho that was one really big reason I came here to be away from everything and anyone, so from now on I’m making promise to myself that I am cutting back on talking with people in Estonia. I’m gonna put this thing up in internet so when I have time then I update it, then no one can ask me what I am doing or if someone does I can give the link to read this, but that’s only for those who speak English. Only person I don’t want to give it to read this is my dad at the moment, but if I have time I’ll talk about it later. And I think my uncle too right now, because I’m feeling that I could disappoint him, maybe not with what I have written now, but what might be coming. My mom doesn’t speak English so that will be alright too :P my sister can tell her few things what I have been doing then. Hmm, maybe I’ll keep it for myself for some time and give this to read to only few people. Anyways I’m getting tired too, it’s so freaking hard to explain your thoughts in foreign language. So in general I’m promising to just drop a line or two in a month to my mom and dad, then tell my uncle with few words what I’m doing, do the 21 points that Heigo gave me and from time to time drop few lines to my sister, if possible I’ll do even less than that. So anyone reading this and understanding what I’m saying, don’t get the feeling that I don’t care about you, it’s just I need some time for myself. Love you all.
Next time I can talk about what I have been doing and why it feels so hard for me to just quit this job here and move along.
9. Nov
Actually still don’t have much to talk about. Days have been pretty boring. Wake up like 11:30, taking a shower, get ready for work, go eat and get to work, after that its bed time. At work I have to prepare for dinner, which means cutting veggies and setting up things, after that’s done we usually have little break. After coming back there is almost dinner time, so when orders come in share things between us what everyone is doing, I am mostly doing the entrees, but also desserts, main course isn’t my thing. I get them ready on the plate to be sent out. After the dinner is over it’s time to start cleaning up, which usually means that I have to start doing the dishes, but luckily it wasn’t this way today.
There is one thing to talk about actually, not so much but just to mention it :P. Yesterday after work we went up to the flats, where the “locals” live, had kind of party. Guys brought shit load of beer and we started drinking and playing drinking games, like king of beers and there was something more, but don’t remember what was it called. Anyways we made Sam (he is one of the guys I’m working with in the kitchen) to drink a lot and quite fast, so it didn’t take long till he went hugging the toilet pot. After that we finished playing the game because it got quite crazy and just drank and chatted. People started to go to sleep and in the end me, Kaupo, Sam and Jaye (who was actually also sleeping, he fell a sleep while writing a sms on the chair). Well we stayed there for little while, I’m not gonna go in details tho.
Sam had to be working in the morning for the breakfast, so it was quite funny, but he actually got there, but he went home after breakfast, tho he should of stayed there for the whole day, to get some sleep. I was quite alright in the morning, had a little headache, but it wasn’t so strong either, I think Kaupo was also alright, he said that he had a headache too. Now I’m feeling that I’m kind of leading Kaupo on the bad way.
Ye, but Sam was totally fucked :P it was funny :D
Alright gotta go to sleep now, have to be working at 12:00 tomorrow :D. Gn!
11.Nov 2008
Boxing bag, eating, Joakhim and Agathe leaving, mountain, Joe, flats/moving, Kanangra falls, shower, eating, flats/drinking/movies, going to sleep.
13. Nov 2008
Henry David Thoreau “Walden” (give me truth)
Primo Levi “Bear meat” (nothing to help you but your hands and your own head)
Lev Tolstoy “Family happiness” (I have lived through much)
Lord Byron “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture on lonely shore; there is society, where none intrudes; By deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but Nature more…” (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv. Stanza 178)
These are the books I want to read, these all are based on the “Into the wild” movie and these as quotes from these books were used in the movie. There were actually more, but these are which I liked the most.
Anyways these things what I wrote last time are the things I wanted to talk about, these are the things I did on my day off. But as I promised that I won’t delete anything I’ll leave it and especially because it was quite some time ago actually and I don’t remember all. I’m kind of sick actually working here already and I’m starting to feel that it’s not the right thing, not the reason why I came to Australia. But the thing is that I couldn’t do without working here either, because I have no money to travel for, so I don’t see any other way out of this too.
Well anyways I probably don’t have anything else to talk about anyways than what I did on my day off, because other stuff would be quite boring, like work and stuff like that. We have been hanging out with Sam quite a lot lately, so during break been gone watching TV at his place and after work the same, like today we watched “Kung Fu Panda” :P (there is no secret ingredient, it’s just you). Ok anyways about that day off. I woke up when Kaupo came to my room, after that we headed to the flats (this is where “locals” live) to beat the shit out of the boxing bag there. Did that for a while, but there weren’t any real boxing gloves so we did some improvisation and just used cloth. It was just fine. After that we went to eat in the restaurant.
Later on we talked to Joe and heard that they are leaving this day back to Sydney for 3 days, Joe wanted “Into the wild” to watch on his way back to Sydney, so I gave it from my external hard drive. Then we decided to go up the mountain we went before with Kaupo, but this time Chris was coming also with us, tho I don’t remember when he joined us. Doesn’t matter, anyways we went there same way we did last time, to take some cool pictures, because if you remember last time we got there real late and got lost in the dark too. So we did some rock climbing and few pictures of this place too. After that we started coming down again, this time we didn’t get lost because we were there at daytime. We also found one old dried and dead tree on our way back leaning down the mountain, not yet broken. So we decided to give a little help to it and we hoped that it will kind of roll down the mountain. After quite some time and lot of jumping on it, tree broke, but in our sadness it didn’t start rolling down, because it actually got stuck behind bushes. Finally reached the bottom.
After that we decided to eat something, so we went and grabbed something from the bistro, when we got there we saw also Joe and was surprised that they are not yet left, but he said that they got a bus that will take them straight to Sydney and it will leave in few minutes, so we said our goodbyes and continued eating. After this we were thinking what to do, so we thought to go Kanangra falls, but needed a ride to there, so we went to talk to Sam in the flats. But about that later, because I’m tired at the moment and need to go to sleep.
14. Nov 2008
Ok I’m gonna finish what I started to talk about. We got to the flats and saw that Tara and Sam just arrived from somewhere, car full of furniture. Then they said that we are there right on time, that Tara needs to get all the stuff on car get to her place. There it turned out that the flat which was vacant was given to Tara to live there by herself. We thought that we will get it or it will be the frenchies that will be living there, so it was surprise for us. It wasn’t Tara’s fault so we helped them to move all that stuff to the last floor and some stuff back down. It was actually quite hard work, lot of stuff to move and lot of them quite heavy.
After that Tara stayed there to clean up and Sam said that he will take us to the falls. So we went to see Kanangra falls, which we heard to be huge waterfall, but Sam said that it was just rock wall, tho he said that he had been there when he was very young last time. It is like 40 km away from Jenolan, but luckily Sam took us there. We got till the end of the road by car and after that we had to continue by foot. It was like 5 min walk and we reached to lookout and it really was just on huge rock wall. We were already quite disappointed when we saw that there actually is waterfall, but its like 2000 steps below (ok maybe not so many, but still :P). That’s where we headed now because we wanted jump down in the water from the top of it. When we got there we saw that the waterfall was actually really small and the pond under it was shallow. Because we were on the top of the mountain we were pretty sure that there has to be more of the waterfalls on that river. So we headed down following the river and actually there were more waterfalls, couple of small ones and one huge one, after what we couldn’t continue going down and it wasn’t possible to jump down from it either, because of the rocks.
Then we headed back to that first waterfall and thought that we didn’t just come here for that so we wanted to jump in, but we wanted to know how deep that place were before that (but the water was quite cold and we didn’t just want to go swimming in it to check it out :P). Anyways after some time Chris decided to get in and check out how deep it is. He got in yea, but he didn’t actually check how deep it is, he just swam over the place we thought that was the deepest place and so we didn’t know what was in the bottom either. Chris got out and didn’t want to get in more, so Kaupo decided to jump in from the rocks and just hope that its deep enough and he won’t hurt himself what ever is in the bottom. He actually did that and turned out that water was over his head and almost over the hand too and in the bottom he didn’t hurt himself, tho he actually touched it. After that Sam said that he won’t get in, but we got him so far that I made a deal with him that if I get in he will too. So I decided what ever, I’m gonna do it. Took my clothes off and then thought that I’ll make things more interesting and gonna jump from the rock little higher. When I got there I started to think that it’s quite crazy what I’m doing, because I actually had to jump quite far not to crash in the shallow part of the pond. What ever was going on in my mind at that moment I did it and I didn’t even touch the bottom. After me Sam jumped in and then we started coming up again, climbing the stairs. Kaupo ran in front, Chris followed him just walking and me and Sam raced in the beginning, but I didn’t even get half way through when I was already dead :P, so I ended up being the very last one up the stairs. Well after getting back from the falls we got a shower and after that went to eat. Later on we went up to the flats, had few drinks there and watched movies. That was pretty much the day, because of I’m quite into the details in some things I’m trying not to talk about things that wouldn’t maybe be so interesting to others and anyways can’t write everything here.
I will still trying to find the time to write more about people here, but I actually like to sleep much, so sorry if I won’t.
(Note for myself: check the quotes in “Revolver”)
16. Nov 2008
“There is no avoiding war, it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy” Miccolo Machiavelli 1502
“There is no such thing as external enemy, no matter what that voice in your head is telling you. All perception of an enemy is projection of ego as the enemy” Dr. Deepack Chopra
“Your greatest enemy is your own inner perception, your own ignorance, your own ego” Dr. Obadiah S. Harris
“The greatest con that he ever pulled, was making you believe that he is you”
“Embrace the pain and you will win this game”
These are the quotes from “Revolver”. I’m trying to gather as many cool quotes as possible, if I get enough of them I’ll write here too why I’m doing that.
But anyways there actually not much going on right now. My thumb is swollen at the moment and killing me, that’s because of Sam from yesterday, but fuck that, fuck him. I hope it will be alright by the time I will be back at work. Oh yeah, I have now 4 days off from work. Tomorrow is just day off and after that we are going to do six foot track, so before going there I won’t write here anymore and after that I hope I’ll have few things to tell. Six foot track is like 50 km of mountain road going up and down. We are gonna do that all and just have fun, doing something different. Tomorrow I’m gonna go to the internet for a while to upload few pictures, get my blog up and write few e-mails. There is actually quite few things that I would like to write more here, but at the moment I can’t put all in words and I also don’t want to disappoint people too I think. So I’ll keep it for some other time when I feel like it’s the right time. I also want to write some letters and send postcards to my mom, sis, grandfather, uncle, MPG and Heigo. So I might be doing that tomorrow, write some stuff. And we are trying to get some stuff over here with Kaupo, like booze and chocolate, but gotta finish the list so Kaupo’s brother could send it here. I also weighed myself and the scale said that I’m 70 kg, which is not bad at all, before coming here I was 67 kg. But we had just eaten, had more cloths on and the scale might be lying a bit too, so I’d say that I’m actually about the same as I left, which is good news that I haven’t lost weight, but bad news that I haven’t gained either :P. Also I’m trying to do push-ups and abs over a day, so I hope if I would gain anything it would go as muscles :P. Oh, yesterday (it’s actually Saturday night at the moment, because I’m always writing this thing at night after everything) my nose was bleeding :D, haven’t had that thing for quite some time, tho it wasn’t bad, just a bit. It might have been because we are in the mountains and it was different weather too that day. We hope to get tent for the six foot track from someone, because then we don’t have to buy it just for that and the food for that we should get from the kitchen, because Owen said that Jenolan still is responsible of our food or something like that. Anyways we will see how it goes. So long cya, gn and hf.
I hope that next post won't take that long :P
