Pretty Standard

Here's some writing from my days out on the boat... 10:45am, Saturday March 26th. Completed two dives so far today, the first one being at sunrise about 6am. Our second dive was at 8am, both of which were at The Three Sisters on the Milln Reef on The Great Barrier Reef. I am feeling considerably better now than I was about 18hrs ago. During our first dive about 1pm yesterday, I couldn’t equalize. I made it down to 6.2m and couldn’t go any further so the dive master trainee and myself ascended and I got back on the boat. I was totally upset, disappointed, embarrassed, frustrated, and pissed. I could feel my right sinus blocking up for whatever reason, but ate a couple cough drops in an attempt to clear my sinus’, and hopped back in the water for the 4pm dive. Got to 8.9m and the pain was bad, so up I came again. This time I was feeling hopeless, frustrated, and sad. I ate dinner, was trying not to be too much of a spoil sport, and went to bed for a nap. About 9pm we had a...

Found some free wifi, cheap pizza and happy hour at the Bella Vista along the ocean in Cairns. Lisa dropped me off here midday and I came to terms with the bed I'm bunking in. Well, I haven't totally come to terms with it yet, but I've paid for 3 nights so I'm sure I'll get there! I'm in an 8 share dorm - just $13/night. It's hot as all hell up there, but fortunately the lagoon is just 2mins away. There are no beaches here - you have to go up north a bit, so the salt water lagoon must suffice. I've got tomorrow off to do whatever I please, and Wednesday I start my scuba diving! Wed/Thurs pool and theory, Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon I'm on the boat doing my dives to become a certified advanced diver! Next destination for some diving will be in Exmouth on the west coast to see the whale sharks. Eeeeeooooooooooo!! It's about dusk right now and these black birds are going MENTAL! They are screeching like something in a horror movie and going crazy fly...

2:45pm, Saturday March 19th. After getting over the eebie jeebies of Freddie the Tree Frog and his buddy who I’ll now name Frank living in their laundry bathroom area and wanting to come inside the house, Lisa, Ross, and I headed north. We’ve now just arrived at Cape Tribulation hot, hungry and eager. We had reserved a cabin at PK’s Jungle Village (we are now in the Daintree rainforest with some of the oldest rainforest in the world) and are settling in nicely. Ross has cooked up some steak and salad, and some Haloumi. Mmmm, Haloumi. This cheese can be fried, and it doesn’t melt. Just gets nice and crispy and has such an incredible nutty flavour. I digress... we arrived and I bought a few nice postcards, then Lisa and I walked across the street to book the Jungle Surfing which we’re doing tomorrow 3:30pm. Soooo excited to go zip lining over the trees! It has been beautiful and sunny today – only a speck of rain. Ross rode his Harley here (approx 4hrs) and Lisa and I drove in the ute. A...

1030pm Tuesday night. Just had one of Ross and Lisa's friends over for some beers and dinner which was good fun. Had a real down pour for a while just after dark, but apparently this random, unpredictable, "liquid sunshine" has been going on this entire past year, so they're well and truly gettin' pretty sick of it! We've booked a trip up to Cape Tribulation for this weekend, Saturday and Sunday nights. We'll do some Jungle Surfing, amongst other things I'm sure! Really excited about that! Yesterday, the three of us took a drive over to the Tablelands (flat mountains) and took in the breathtaking scenery, many waterfalls, and persevered through the rain and sunshine. It was a totally gorgeous day! Today Ross had to go back to work, so Lisa and I spent the day together. We went into town mid morning and I sorted out my bank account, then to wait out the crazy downpour we hit Target. Found some good bargains there so that was some fun times as always. Af...

530pm Sunday, got into Innisfail with Ross and Lisa today about 2pm and have just been chilling out. They have a beautiful bit of property surrounded by sugar cane. Just had a chat with my Dad on the phone and he warned me not to go walking through the sugar cane as nasty beasties live in there - I mentioned this to Lisa, and she said that not only are there nasty beasties, there is "hairy mary" on the sugar cane which sticks in your skin like fibre glass! Yuck! I happened upon a really cute little bird while looking from my hotel balcony yesterday - it's called a Willy Wag Tail! Pictured above. They land, and swish/wag their long tails around and just look so funny and adorable! Also pictured above: those prehistoric birds/bats I saw flying around outside the hotel - they're actually called fruit bats, or flying foxes and they're everywhere! You must be careful walking under their trees! This morning we had to check out from the hotel, so I did a complete...

Day 3 and it's finally starting to set in that this is real. Lisa and I went out last night - had some bevvys (everything is -y in Australia. I'll demonstrate: drinky, bikey, esky {that's an eskimo cooler}, divey...), and now I'm chilling in the cyber world for a bit before I head back up to my room to explore more of my backpack and figure out all the compartments etc. It's so sweet I lovvvve it! Can't believe I'll be living out of it for the next year or so. Pretty freeing feeling. Like my Dad says (quoting one of his old friends), "If you ain't got nothing, you ain't got nothing to lose." I'm sitting here in the hotel lobby listening to all the Aussies around me and all I hear is "Hey mate, y'alright?" Hehe love it. Last night the four of us (me, Gordon, Lisa, Ross) went for a great Turkish meal - I had the falafel, and it was some of the best falafel I've ever eaten. We just had a big dump of rain, but that's ...

10:40am BC time. Not sure of the time in Australia, but I know that I left at midnight yesterday in LA and I’m now blogging in Word on the plane till I get to an internet source. Our flight path says we’re going 883km/h, it’s -52 outside, we’re flying at an altitude of 38000ft, and 2hrs 40mins till we reach Brisbane. This has been a thoroughly enjoyable 14hr flight though! Almost better than from Spokane to Seattle (turbulence has been a bit dodgy), and my bottom is feeling rather squished despite the lunges, stretches, and tours up and down the sleepy aisles. We’ve crossed over the international date line by now, so by the time we reach Brisbane it will be about 7:30am Australian time on Thursday March 10th, after leaving LA at midnight on Tuesday the 8th. This sure is a long haul – 30hrs is a long time to be on and off aeroplanes, in and out of airports. Not that I’m complaining because soon I will be in Australia and changing into my shorts! This Qantas flight is really gre...

I opted for the Heineken. I suppose these are your options when you land at LAX - LA international airport. I am also quite enjoying a delicious quesadilla SALAD to eat up the last of my USD. So I welcome myself to the cultural melting pot that is LA, watch all the people on their electrical devices, and enjoy the hazy sunset I've seen in the movies. Quite fittingly, I sat beside a stylist on the plane ride here. She has partied with stars, been privy to all the gossip while on set, and gets to watch celebs work out together at her gym. While it all sounds very glamorous, I can't say I'd want that lifestyle. Yep, this material girl has set out on a journey across the world with a purple duffle bag and a double bagged Ainsworth hot springs sack. My back MAY be out by the time I reach Oz because they are not easy to haul around but that's ok - I'll just lay on the beach for a few days and work out the kinks hehe. You'll find me with no shoes on at the security ent...

Well, first leg of four is officially over. Did my 1hr flight from Spokane to Seattle, and now enjoying the free wifi access in the airport to kill some time till the next flight to LA. My layover in LA is 6hrs, so I imagine I'll spend the last of my USD on dinner and a drink. I had fresh sushi and miso soup for lunch today and it was delicious. I'm sitting right by the window and soaking up some rays - really lovely since I left blizzard conditions in Spokane this morning. They had to de-ice the plane before take off, and the deicer said "How's my deicing?" Once I accepted the fact that one of those massive propellers by my head could fly off and slice through the plane and kill me, I slept most of the flight till the end when the turbulence hit. We circled above the clouds above Seattle for 10mins or so - you would have thought it was a training session or something for one of the pilots because we'd accelerate (this was a very noisy and relatively small pla...

1050pm, sitting in hotel room digesting the awesome indian dinner we had tonight after a long day of shopping. My sister Olivia and her Mom Sherry and I left Grand Forks about 9am this morning, grabbed some sugar free muffins from the Bakery by Flexus, and hit the road. Played some slots at Chewelah, broke even, got my eye brows waxed for just $8 (yessssssss! not $15!), did some shopping, ate dinner, and here we are. I'm getting the airport shuttle tomorrow morning at 830am to start the flight portion of the journey. It was very sad leaving Jasmine this morning, as I knew it would be. I will miss her so much - we are one and the same. I have asked all the horses and my angels to watch over her too till I return. I couldn't have asked for today to be any better - great to spend time with friends before the 30hr trek to Oz. I'll have to pick up some red slippers on the way. :) I must say that Grand Forks is full of special people. All my girlfriends, guyfriends, f...