29/10/12

After I uploaded the blog last night, I took some pretty awesome pictures. Because of the full moon, the sky looks blue, and the trees are as if it's day time. However, lying on the grass to take those pictures gave way to some bites from some nasty critters. In other news; I hitched into Port Douglas again and finally got my hair cut. Not disastrously short like the Airlie beach cut, it actually looks good! That's about all that happened today.

30/10/12

I awoke today with a message from Sabrina Cipullo, the Italian girl we met on the Whitsundays trip. I messaged her yesterday about when I'm travelling home I'd like to visit her in Italy. I also requested details of any hostels nearby, I wasn't fishing for accommodation. She responded by saying she can host me in Switzerland where she lives, then we can visit Milan and Venice and stay at her Granma's and go to her home town too! Looks like I'll be experiencing a bit of Italian culture August next year!

I mean, technically, it's the 31st, so Happy Halloween! But I sit here at 03:40 having made the difficult decision to go into town, have a few drinks and socialise. Don't give me that look, it was a difficult decision! If I'd stayed home and been sensible I would've saved money, not risked being rough the next day and certainly would've had an early night. Instead, I chose to party with people who are leaving soon, see Joey (our Korean dishwash) sing Gangnam style and certainly have a good time. Regardless of how I feel tomorrow, I made the right decision, I'm gunna miss Matt, Jo and Charlotte. Likewise; Richie, Angie and Luke when they go next week. Things are gonna change round 'ere.

31/10/12

Waking up to a pizza delivery with a munchies is the best thing in the world. Loren took my pizza order last night and delivered it to my door when she got in at 11am. I had lunch and a lazy afternoon before work at 3pm which seemed to go by pretty steadily. After work I skyped with the Sister and now, at 1am, I sleep... for 4 hours. I'm getting up for sunrise before heading off to Mossman Gorge, The Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation for the day with Charlotte and Joey.

01/11/12

What an exhausting but adventurous day. Very briefly because I'm shattered: The day started with a 5am alarm and making my way to oak beach for the sun rise. After which; myself, Charlotte and Joey headed up to Mossman Gorge to go for an early morning swim and check out the views. The swim (in the shallow water) took place about 100m up stream from where we could enter, over many rocks, in bare feet. Not worth it. After this, we headed up to Daintree Village where we went on a walk to Cassowary Falls, that 2km walk was definitely worth it. You'll see what I mean when the pictures go up, a huge waterfall with a deep billabong underneath. We swam and dicked about there until we headed off for the main event, or so we thought. The Daintree river cruise to spot crocs! We saw huge crocodiles. I say huge, I mean tiny. I say crocodiles, I mean crocodile. I say we saw, I mean we saw it's head. On the plus side, we got a free pie and drink because we were there at lunch. Get in. After the pie with a side of disappointment, we made our way up to the Daintree discovery centre where I hoped to get a picture of the famous Ulysses butterfly for my Mum. I failed. When we got there, I explained how I'm a porter at Thala and people keep asking me about the centre. We all got in for free. That was pretty lucky, considering it's not a place you want to be if you've been up since 5am walking around. Moving on, we got Ice Cream! It was good ice cream and the mixture of fruity flavours was a nice change. Heading back, we hit a couple of stunning beaches, played a bit of frisbee and I slept. Woke up on the way to Port Douglas for dinner. Not much to report there, just don't get the lamb shank from Central Hotel. Unless of course you enjoy being disappointed twice in one day. Now I hit the hay for a decent 12 hours sleep. I wish I could go into more detail about today, but too much happened and I guess the pictures will show how beautiful it was. Goodnight!

04/11/12

Well I finally have enough time and energy to write something. The last few days have been pretty busy. Friday not a lot happened and I was just too tired to come up with anything interesting to write, Saturday was a 14 hour day which ended with a 1hour 12minute skype call with the parents for Mummy Borland's birthday, finally; today. Today is my day off. This day off started at 8:44 with a phonecall from work asking me to work. 6 hours later, I get on with what I'd planned: Clean my room. Actually, before I do that... there are a few things that have happened over the last few days. A new staff member arrived: Phillip, today he got given the infamous 'coffee cake' and ate the whole thing... wut? I don't know if it was a case of eating it to be polite, eating it to not give anyone satisfaction, or eating it because he genuinely likes eating coffee grind. Whatever the reason, he ate a whole coffee grind cake. A guest gave me 6 beers aaaand tips are back on the increase. As much as I b**** about it, working long shifts gives you a chance to really interact with guests and get to know them. I even had one offer to call my Mum when she got back to the UK to let her know that I'm okay. As nice as the offer was, I skype with my parents on a weekly basis, so it wasn't really necessary.

05/11/12

Remember Remember the 5th of November. It's like Christmas! I had 2 things arrive! First and most importantly; a card from Selina with 2 Norwegian flag patches to sew on my bag along with the Australian one I've still yet to sew on. Secondly, my Ukulele arrived! It's better than my one in the UK, the bag is better and it came with a tuner too, so it's perfect! After spending a while tuning it, I played a couple of little tunes I could remember and I've been playing with it since, tinkering in my room learning new songs and converting guitar tabs so I can play more. It's good to have music again.

Wow, stuff is happening today! I sent an email to a helpx in Tasmania, a sheep cheese farm just south of Hobart. Able to sign my visa, they have up to 7 helpers at a time and have wifi, so it wont be like the last one where I get bored and miss social interaction. Something else got done today; I booked the camper for me and Max travelling down. Came to about $500 each which isn't bad considering it's our accom for 12 days too. Oh and finally, I'm being called into work for an hour whilst star gazing is on because Lisa didn't know it was tonight and I'm available. Means I'll miss the only tv show I get to watch on a weekly basis; Can of worms. It's this show where they ask 'on the cuff' questions and debate. Great discussions and brilliant banter.

07/11/12

I wasn't needed on Monday night, so I got to see Can of worms. Last night saw the departure of Luke, Richie and Angie. The final backpackers of my original Thala team. The dinner table today consisted of nobody who was here when I arrived. It's a strange old feeling, but it makes me realise how long I've got left: 4 weeks, and that's not long at all.

09/11/12

Starting to get Apple Tree Creek syndrome. Although the guys here are lovely, I don't really hang out with anyone before or after work. Something I was able to do with Lloren, Charlotte or the guys down at the staff house. So although I have my ukulele AND I'm still learning German (Ooo, exciting stuff coming) I still feel quite, well, bored? This is why there are gaps in my blog and I'm not uploading it as regularly, nothing much is happening.

Now on with the exciting stuff: We still have a German group in house and today a German lady came to the desk and (in German) asked for her room key. I got the impression that she was happy I understood, so I said that my German isn't very good. She asked me my age and after I replied, she said I'm young, she is 70 so it's difficult. I loved my life. I had an actual, non-rehersed, conversation. Achievement Unlocked. In other news, I've been saving my tips for a new watch, a decent one which will last. The tips from the German group yesterday and one large one from the awesome dude in #77 has boosted it up to $97. Aiming for the watch I saw in Port for $120, I'm almost there. I guess that's all I've got to report, as I said; nothing much is happening.

11/11/12

Waking up at 11:15, I was certainly quiet for the 11th hour. This silence was followed with a whirlwind as 2 bus loads arrived. The eclipse is coming. The resort is booked out and they all arrived at the same time. I worked solidly with the other guys to get all their bags to their rooms, this is the only portering I'll have to do over the next week. It ended at about 3pm, so I then grabbed my Uke, a beer and headed to the beach. Lying on a hammock, Max wandered past, he joined me for a beer, followed by Lisa and Daniel to play frisbee. A spontaneous but fun couple of hours on the beach. Back up to lunch and boy; what a treat. Lamb cutlets cooked rare, chips, veg and gravy. Did I do something right? It gets better, it was too undercooked for Phillip and Dean, so I had theirs. The evening will be spent watching a film and getting an early night. Tomorrow morning, I test out my homemade filter for the eclipse.

12/11/12

Well I tested out my filter this evening and it seems to work well. I also hitched into town to buy my watch. Turns out it was $199 not $120, so if I get up to $100 tips over in my last 3 weeks, it'll be going straight back into the bank. Weirdest thing happened though; hitched into town in one lift, 2 girls. 1st lift back; 2 girls. 2nd lift back; 2 girls. I need to note down what I did. Anyway, in an attempt to beat Apple Tree Creek syndrome, Lisa and Daniel are coming over to drink wine and watch Can of Worms. Wow, has that been a week already? Blimey, these weeks might just fly by after all!

13/11/12

With the American group in for the eclipse and no arrivals or departures it was a more active night than I anticipated, I go to bed ready to wake up at 3am. "3am?! But the eclipse doesn't start until 5:45!" I hear you cry... Well, I'm following the guest astronomers and going to Wetherby Cattle Station. It's still on the path of totality, but it's about 40minutes inland. This means there's less chance of clouds, and judging by the recent mornings, that's exactly what will ruin it for people here at Thala. So Katlyn, Joey, Max and I are heading into the dry country. Let's hope it pays off...

14/11/12

I can tell what you're thinking, of course it paid off! The picture for this entry is of the eclipse! Well what if I told you I just ripped that offline and it's just a picture of what I wish I could've taken? I had 2 dreams of the eclipse; the first I missed it, the second I left Thala to watch it elsewhere and it was cloudy. Luckily, neither of them came true as we arrived with plenty of time to spare and the clouds were few and far between! So what if I told you I did take that picture and that it was difficult to choose the best of the bunch? An absolutely amazing experience, tainted only by the running commentary by Mrs 'Pointoutthef***ingobvious'. In your loudest, most whiney New York accent, say the following and repeat 3 times. "Here it comes", "I can see it!", "Any second now"... and you'll get an idea of what we had to put up. And that was just during sunrise! I managed to block her out when the eclipse started. But it was excruciating nonetheless. Also, as predicted, the Americans lived up to their reputation of clapping and cheering something which will gain no satisfaction from such an appreciation... It may seem like I'm complaining a lot, but it really didn't ruin the experience. When I saw the sunrise, already 25% covered, it reminded me how incredible this phenomena really is. Totality lasted a little over 2 minutes but it felt more like 20s. Who knows when I'll see the next one, who knows IF I'll see another one. For most people it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm just lucky enough to have seen 2.