17. The Boys Are Back In Town...

17.

The Boys Are Back In Town...

My friend Nathan came down to Melbourne for the weekend from Sydney. He used to live in Melbourne for a while and we worked together in a call centre for a few months and then he decided to have a change of scenery and try out living in Sydney. Anyway, what me and Nathan like to do is get very, very drunk together. Pretty much every Friday night we would hit the pub and then the city after a long week at work, often we would ask to leave work early, be told "no" by our boss and then just run out of the office and down to the pub when he had his back turned. We would get a bit of a telling off or a stern look on Monday, but nothing too serious...thankfully. 

 So Nathan and I felt compelled to keep up the tradition this Friday and got completely annihilated once more. It turned out to be a pretty good night on the whole, I finished work early (bonus), bumped into old work mates in the pub, socialised with new ones, had a laugh and got very drunk. We then ventured out to Brunswick St and met up with some of Nathan's friends. I'm not too sure what we did after this, all I recall is that we had several shots, a Kinder Suprise and a KFC, and then stumbling in around 5.30am and not resurfacing until well into the afternoon on a Saturday.  Good times. God help us when we go to Bali together in a few weeks time, we have 11 full days of this to look forward to. 

These are the kind of states we get in.

It's our anniversary on Tuesday. Me and our Peg have been together for 2 whole years now, that's a bloody long time isn't it? Gone really quickly too. It seems so weird that 2 years have passed by already. In many ways we know each other very well and in others we're still just getting to know each other. It's a bit strange because we've both come from very different backgrounds. Well for starters we are two different nationalities, then there's the different school systems we went through, the cultural/social differences, the TV shows we watched as kids, the holidays we've taken whilst growing up, etc. There's so many differences when you date someone from another country as opposed to dating a fellow English person. She's never watched Live & Kicking, or Rosie and Jim! But then I'd never heard of Blinky Bill or The Wiggles until I'd met her. I think it keeps it a bit fresh and exciting, because you're constantly learning new things as you go along. 

Our daily routine. One before breakfast, one after.

I know these blogs tend to be quite sporadically posted and never really have a consistent theme or nature to them, and for this I apologise.  I've recently been thinking of starting to write actual Travel Blogs / Reviews. The Lonely Planet now pays $100 for each travel post they receive that they use on their website or even in their travel books. It does mean I will have to conform to a stricter format and keep the rants more contained, as well as the profanities, but it is a great feeling putting down your thoughts and opinions in text and having other people take the time out of their day to read them and appreciate them, it's the ultimate complement in my opinion. So if you're reading this, I am eternally grateful to you. You big dickheads. 

I had an epiphany the other day in work. I was sat on one of the massage chairs (yeah that's right we have free massage chairs in my office) and I was thinking of how a certain smell can remind you of a certain place or person, for instance the smell of coconut reminds me of skiing in Italy because I used coconut scented sunscreen when I was there, or the smell of Diesel White aftershave takes me back to being 14 in High School, when I used to cover myself in it so I didn't smell like cigarettes. So it got me thinking, wouldn't it be good if one day you could 'Tag' a scent to a picture? I know it's been done for some of the specialist cinemas where they spray hot and cold water at the audience, have moving seats and release certain scents at certain times during the movie to make you feel more involved in what's going on and it becomes a more engrossing experience for the viewer. But what about bringing this experience to a broader audience. Add the smell of cider and smokes to those festival snaps? Essence of Tequila and Lime to the birthday cocktail picture album, or simply just the smell of burning charcoal to the family barbecue picture album? Just some food for thought. (see what I did there?)

I used to hate people who watched TV seasons. Well, not hate exactly...I just always thought there was better things people could be doing with their time. How wrong I was. I got right into Entourage and finished all 8 seasons in like 3 weeks (Ari Gold = Legend) and I've been making my way through House for some time now, but I have a new obsession, and I know I'm not the only one. Breaking Bad. Seriously how good is it? The concept is pretty unique, for those of you who are unaware it's about an over qualified high school science teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, his wife is heavily pregnant and he has a disabled teenage son. To support his family he decides to start selling Crystal Methamphetamine he 'cooks' with one of his former students. The show switches from dark comedy to action thriller like no other and is, in my opinion, absolutely brilliant. I do strongly recommend it if you haven't already started watching. 

I was flicking through my pictures from travelling around India earlier and came across this one. I'd never really stopped and looked at it properly. It was taken in the holy city, Varanasi on the ghats of the river Ganges just after morning prayers. 

16. A Fijian Adventure

16. A Fijian Adventure...

So I went to Fiji for a week, and holy shit it was actually amazing. Here's a few extracts of a journal I kept whilst I was away...

The trip has been incredible thus far. We're staying at the exclusive island of Denerau. It's a gated community for people staying at either The Westin, The Sheraton, The Sofitel, The Radisson and The Hilton, and we have access to all the resorts. We were greeted at the airport by a traditional Fijian band who constantly shouted "Bula!" throughout their song. I've learned this is their word for pretty much every greeting, be it Hello/Good Morning/Good Afternoon/Good Evening, etc. It's also used for Cheers too. Our taxi driver gave us a brief bit of information on Fijian life and what is also known as 'Fiji Time'. I love and embrace this concept. It basically means that the people here don't really do things by the clock, more when they feel like doing it and this certainly suits me. Time seems to stand still on the island, which is great when you're here to chill out and relax. They really love to name things after their country here too, for example the main two beers are Fiji Bitter and Fiji Gold. There's also Fiji Water, Fiji Crackers and a whole variety of other Fiji 'branded' products. Interesting. 

We took part in a crab racing event at the hotel. It's a way of raising money for what they refer to as their 'special children'. Basically you bid for a crab that has been given a sportsman's identity and nationality and then every one races against each other. All the money goes towards paying for Christmas presents for underprivileged kids on the island and the winner gets a free cocktail from the bar. It was pretty fun and for a good cause, my crab was Bradley Wiggins, he didn't do as good as I'd hoped though, I'm fairly sure he came dead last.

There was a guitarist on as part of the hotels entertainment at the hotel last night, he was just going through the usual covers - Summer of 69, Knockin' On Heavens Door, that kind of stuff. Anyway, this oldish couple got up, easily in their 60's, and started having a dance. They were doing a bit of snazzy footwork and then next minute...BAM! He's picking her up and throwing her around like a rag doll doing all these professional lifts and spins. They were like Torville and Dean, only without ice skates. They must have been professional dancers when they were younger or something, there's no way you learn moves like that doing Zumba on a Thursday evening.

I have the great fortune of sometimes hearing my girlfriend say something hilariously funny first hand. It's generally something abstract, misinformed or just plain wrong. At the start of our holiday I read about Neil Armstrong passing and read the article to her which had a quote from the Armstrong family, which was along the lines of "next time you see the moon, look up and think of Neil and give it a wink". Walking through the grounds of our hotel one night I observed out loud that it was a full moon to which she replied "look up and give Lance a wink", and proceeded to wink at the moon. The smart arse in me couldn't resist. It was so simple. Handed on a platter. "you are aware Lance Armstrong is a seven time Tour De France winning cyclist and has never actually been to the moon, right?". Brilliant.

I went on a jet ski safari the other day. We had planned to do it the previous day but it was booked out. The previous day was glorious sunshine and 33degrees and when it was our day to take part it was cloudy and raining. It's safe to say we weren't all that impressed, but it turned out for the best. The flat ocean, good cloud cover and frequent rain showers cooled us down and ensured we didn't end up with a ridiculously uneven tan. We ventured out to 6 different islands - Malamala, Navini, Beachcomber, Treasure, Bounty and South Sea. We stopped off at Beachcomber island for an hour of snorkeling and a well deserved brew. I wasn't in high hope for the snorkeling but it turned out to be terrific. There was ample coral reef, heaps of multicoloured tropical fish and even a 4 foot reef shark. I got out soon after seeing this. Beachcomber is a singles party island, Bounty is a couples island and Treasure is a family island. Apparently you meet on Beachcomber, holiday together on Bounty and go back as a family to Treasure. And if it doesn't work out you start out again at Beachcomber.

Not far from our route on the jet ski safari was another island called Monuriki, this is where the film 'Castaway' was filmed, you know the one with Tom Hanks where he gets stranded on that desert island? Our guide also told us that the island is neighboured by Mamanuca island which is the home of a huge resort where Tom Hanks stayed during filming. The funny thing is that when they do the panoramic shot in the film, it shows there's nothing as far as the eye can see. In reality Tom could have doggy paddled across to the resort using Wilson as a floaty and it would only have taken about 10 minutes to swim it.

One thing I have come to notice during my time here in Fiji is that there are a huge amount of gay people on the island. I'm not homophobic or anything, just a general observation. The man who makes my coffee is proper gay, the guy with eyeliner and painted on eyebrows at the Hard Rock Cafe is definitely a left-footer, and easily half of the hotel staff are too. Maybe it's a cultural thing, I don't know. Just sayin'.

Visited another island today, this one is directly opposite our hotel and is only about 10 minutes in a boat. The Akuilau island is home to only one family who live off the land on the island and allow guests from our hotel to travel over and have a look around, as well as flogging them fresh fruits grown there. It was pretty good having a potter about the place, found a massive shell too, like the biggest one I've ever seen, I wouldn't like to see the size of the crab that used to live in it!

And there you have it, these are my brief journal entries whilst enjoying the wonderful Fiji. The blogs will become more frequent again now that I'm back. I've also just booked to go to Bali in just over 6 weeks so more travel news coming soon.

Thanks for reading. Or Vinaka as the Fijians say.