The photo for this blog entry was the view from our room.

30/07/12

Well, what can I say? I spent the day travelling really. From Mission Beach to Townsville, checked in at Civic guesthouse. I have my own double bed, fridge, free internet. This is good. Met Stu and Charlie from Caravella's too, heading over on the same ferry as them tomorrow morning. That's something actually, the dive course only starts on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Mondays... So why the hell did they accept our booking for Tuesday? Ugh. Well at least I don't have to get over there for 9am tomorrow morning.

01/08/12

Yep, skipped over the 31st, as I just said to Luke I was having too much fun. The day was spent getting over here (Magnetic Island), meeting up with the guys, going food shopping, swimming in the sea, lazing on the beach and hearing about their crazy night on Monday. The night, however, was spent... you guessed it, drinking. But this isn't any ordinary drinking, this was drinking with a group of Irish lasses. I'm getting ahead of myself. The hostel is the only bar, restaurant or any form of entertainment for a good couple of miles. So every night they have a theme or activity at the bar. Last night was 'Boozy Bingo' basically normal bingo but you have to do different things on different number calls, and if you're the best/fastest/loudest, you get a free shot. Side note: I won a shot for doing the fastest 'Chicken Dance'. So number 16 is 'Sweet 16, never been kissed - kiss the person next to you'. We are sat in a group of 6 guys. f*** THAT! I explained to this group of girls that we don't fancy kissing eachother and could we sit with them, this lead to a night of drinking and dancing on tables...again. Luke won one of the rounds and got a queen sized bed and an en-suit bathroom with a sea view all to himself, which we all crashed and made use of. Today we're renting scooters and riding around the island. Should be fun! So long as we don't fall off...

Well I didn't fall off. James did, but the rest of us were pretty good on them. Mine struggled massively to get up hills, but they were good fun. We went on a walk to look for Koalas (as Magnetic Island boasts the densest population of wild Koalas in Australia) but didn't see a single one. So that was a massive waste of time, and it was a difficult walk too, you'll see from the pictures. But one thing I've learnt with all these walks is that the harder the walk, the more rewarding the view. We also went to a bit with a sign saying 'DANGER - CONSTRUCTION SITE - DO NOT ENTER' really they should've put a sign saying 'DANGER - TOTALLY AWESOME GUN LOOKOUT POINT - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK'. I'd say that was the highlight of the entire walk. Now I'm typing this in bed, about to watch a film as the dive course starts tomorrow. It is ladies night at the bar, and cross-dressers do get free drinks... But I think I'll pass this time.

02/08/12

Boy have I written that date a lot today. Spent the morning watching risk videos, signing and dating forms and answering questions, and the lunchtime/afternoon getting a (long) bus ride to the top of the island to get a medical. A bus ride which took about 3 times as long as it took us to do it on scooters yesterday. Apparently I'm fit and healthy, and alright to dive. So that's a relief, seeing as I've already paid 300-odd-$. We got given homework. f***ing homework?! 4 chapters to read and answer questions, 4 of us? Coincidence? I think not! So that homework is done and dusted in record time. Went to sleep for a couple of hours, woke up for tea, ate tea, stroked a possem and now I'm in bed again to watch another film. Oh yeh, last night I watched 'The Bucket List' starring Morgan Freeman & Jack Nickleson. Absolutely brilliant film. Now I'm going to watch 'Source code'. Let's see how this compares.

Well that film is bloody brilliant, I'm not on here to write about films though, so something about the weather. Something crazy about the weather. Well, me and the weather... I think I'm climatising. After the dive course, so about 4pm, we all decided to do the work inside because 'It was cold'. I really doubt it was under 18 degrees. So yeh, bed time now, pool diving tomorrow, should be more exciting than classroom stuff. I use the term 'classroom' loosly, it was in a hut with picnic benches, sun beaming down, sea view, palm trees, the lot. Niiiight!

05/08/12

Dive course complete. I am now a certified open water diver. So that's cool. Not much else happened over the last few days apart from the dive course. Fed possoms at night, and just lounged on the beach after the dive course during the day. On our final dive today we saw 2 sting rays, so I guess I'm doing better than Steve Irwin already! I write this back in Civic Guest House with free wifi in a twin room with Luke. Going to ring the harvest line in a minute to try to get work either down the coast (Ayr or Bowen) or inland (Charter Towers) well, basically anywhere there is work.

I almost forgot... Max got bit by a possem.