OH, THE VOMIT!

My friend Dorothy, which I nicknamed Leah, and I were walking in the woods today.  We strayed off the path and got lost.  I don't know how we managed because the path was made of bright yellow bricks.  When I finally spotted the path again I asked: "Shouldn't we go back on the Oz Trail, Leah?"

...

And that's where I'm writing from.

My plan was to sit down and write part 3 of my Frasier Island trip today but a more compelling story came to mind so unfortunately, part 3 will have to wait for a bit.

A couple nights ago, the roommates and I had much to celebrate!  I don't remember the exact details but, in short, we ended up at the pub across the street and had a jolly olde good time.  Apparently, some of us... *cough* You know who you are *cough* had a hard time holding our liquor and came home early.  We proceeded to vomit in the middle of the hallway, turned off the lights, go to bed and leave it there, all the while making sure the front door was locked.  Now the hilarity about to ensue would have been hilarious for yours truly if it had not involved him.  A series of unfortunate events(UE's as I like to call them) unfolded, all prompted by the seemingly innocent and unimportant actions of others.

At about 10pm, I decided to swing home to grab my friend James' camera stuff because he was heading home.  He accompanied me along with my roommate and her friend, first UE.  I got home first, noticed that the front door was locked, second UE, and ran down to the back of the house to come around and unlock the door for the others.  James followed, third UE.  As I got to the top of the stairs and started walking towards the front door, at the other end of a long, narrow hallway, my roommate and her friend, realizing that the door was locked, started banging at the door, fourth UE caused by first UE.  I therefore increase my movement speed to jog.

So there I was, jogging to the front door to be a good Samaritan, minding my own business when a second away from reaching the door, the soul of my foot, which is normally a pretty sturdy surface to rest my weight on, became very unstable due to the fact THAT I WAS RUNNING IN VOMIT!  I pulled a classic, just like in the movies, slip on the banana peel kind of stunt and slid all the way to a very nice, yet unplanned and unorthodox meeting with the front door.  BAM!

My roommate, thinking I was trying to be smart with her by banging the locked door from the inside, politely asked me to stop fooling around and open the door: "OI! Open the door, $%&*!".  My only reply was: "THERE'S PUKE EVERYWHERE!"  All the while, James was following me and all he could muster up was: "HAHAHAHAHA!" When I finally got around to opening the door, and the situation became clear to my roommate because of the vomit smeared on my behind, I became the proverbial butt of the joke, that was mentioned for the next couple days.

Suffice to say I showered up and called it a night, for good reasons.  The next day, unmasking the culprit was my utmost priority.  Fingers and blame were aimed in all directions.  I finally found the culprit and forgave them, mostly because I still owe them lots and also, they added another hilarious story to my already sparkling collection.

I think you'll agree that putting part 3 on hold for a while was worth it.

Lesson learned: NEVER RUN IN THE DARK.  Nothing good will ever come of it.

Australianly yours,

Joël

P.S. You will understand that I chose not to include pictures in this post.

P.P.S. Google added this cool functionality in blogger that lets you see where people are reading your blog from.  I'd like to take this opportunity to shout out to my 18 readers from Russia!  INSANE! Let me know what you think/want to hear about!

Tales of Fraser Island – Part 2. The epicness begins.

When the sky was lit up like an expensive pair of diamond studded macro made leather shorts on Fraser, I decided to lie down on the ground and try to spot constellations.  I came up with a name for this exciting and entertaining activity!  I call it and Astral Lie, ya? What do you think? Will it catch on?

Putting aside my ever worsening puns, we re-join the rest of my exchange buddies and myself about halfway up the coast of Fraser Island, waking up to the waves and birds on the dawn of our first full day on the island. Oh yeah, and we had brought Nicol’s still UNUSED guitar in the tent with us… It was in the way is all I’m saying… Hopefully, the main animal we are warned against while entering the island, the dingo, hadn’t tried to get into our coolers. Nope!  Everything was cool and our 20$ tent had held up the night! BONUS!  All it had to do was hold on for another.  Game plan for the day: Head up to the very end of the island to Indian Head to see the sights, visit the Champagne Pools and come back in time to make supper during daylight.  Wait hold on… Did you just say Champagne Pools, Jo? Yes. Yes I did.  Imagine my excitement.  Now imagine that same excitement being immediately crushed by someone telling me it wasn’t actual champagne… I died a little inside.  Yet, I keep my dream of one day finding a container, whether naturally formed or not, filled with beverage of any kind in which I can take a GLORIOUS swim.

Indian Head – During our two hour drive up to this place, we came across 10-20 trucks stopped on the beach, with all their passengers disembarked and attentively staring and pointing at the ocean… Being the independent, strong willed leaders that we were, we stopped to see what the fuss was about…  Believe it or not, there were a group of humpback whales putting on a show about a kilometre out.  Jumping, diving and flailing about like we had paid good money for tickets to this show.  INCREDIBLE.  I started talking to one of the people on the beach who told me he had come regularly to the island for the past 20 years and had never seen anything like this.  We were mesmerized to say the least.  After about 20 minutes, the whales dispersed and we got on our way knowing full well we may never see that again, ever.  Then I noticed that my water bottle was missing from the car and I swear I had had it moments beforehand.  I swear… Someone trained those whales to distract passersby while they steal their FRESH WATER! It was never seen again. 

When we got to Indian Head, we walked up to the very top of a cliff out looking the endless ocean.  The water below us was clear enough for us to see everything going on beneath the surface.  Turtles, manta rays, fish, dolphins and sharks were all viewable from this incredible lookout spot.  The incredibly oversized cherry on top of this already towering (insert favourite cake flavour here) cake was that the humpbacks (whether they were the same ones are not is unknown) decided to start going Marineland on us once again, 1 or 2 kilometres out.  INTENSE! Which one? The present one.  I didn’t know what to do with myself! Yell, sleep, cry, dive out and join them? Let’s just say I was a bit overwhelmed! Plus this cliff was on a skinny peninsula so our peripheral vision was simply ocean.  It was like being suspended over this incredible ecosystem with front row tickets to its happenings.  I don’t know how much time we spent standing there but…  I’m sure dust collected on our paralysed, jaw dropped faces. 

Okay... Maybe we weren't paralyzed the whole time...

Champagne Pools – When we finally left, already content enough to go back home and call this trip a success, we headed to the Champagne Pools which had already disappointed me once today.  Stupid non alcoholic pools… So I set the bar really low for this destination and I believe that’s why I enjoyed it so much more! 

Look at this place! Two incredibly well deigned pools, formed by these rock formations at the exact height of the ocean and just deep enough for you to sit in without having you head engulfed by salt water.  When big waves came in and crashed against the rocks, we were treated to a water show only rivalled by multi-million dollar firework shows.  Now that’s value for you.  

There was a pelican fishing in the pools!

By the time we decided we should leave this place, the majority of our day had already vanished.  We drove back to one of the campsites for people not brave enough to camp on the beach and used one of the public barbecues because we were running out of gas for our Coleman.  Unfortunately, the sky was not as calm as the night before and we did not have the pleasure to meet the stars once again.  As we started driving back to our “campsite”, and I say “campsite” because we were basically camping on dunes, the sky became angry and started to cry.  We could not figure out what we had done to anger it but it wasn’t happy… Hopefully, everything at the campsite would be intact, in working condition and dry on the inside… Tune in for part 3 to find out!

Yours for the reading,

Joey Jo Jo

Tales of Fraser Island – Part 1

To start off, I have to mention that I met this smoker the other day. I nicknamed him Ash Tray. I noticed he wasn’t very good at telling the truth. Later that night, Ash told some stories that were questionably true. Hence, I am writing to you from the land of the “Ash Tray Lie, ya”?

Enough with the pleasantries… Fraser Island! Largest sand island in the world, it was the location I headed to last week for my spring break. Fairly remote and desolate, you absolutely need a 4x4 to get around on this island as there are no roads. I went with a few friends from exchange and did not have a great part in planning the trip and did not really know what to expect. I basically packed the morning of at 4 am, headed to the train station, unknowing of what lay ahead of me… Epicness my friends.

Having not planned the trip, I did not know how long it would take to get there… I figured I didn’t want to ask the others not to look like a fool who was just along for the ride… Besides… I figured it couldn’t be that far, right? RIGHT? *crickets*

Two hours of riding on the train later, we arrived at a station. AWESOME! We’re almost there. “So where is the 4x4 rental place?”, I asked naively… I was met with “Right off the main drag when we get to Noosa Heads” as an answer. Hmmm… Now I’m confused… Why did we get off the train? “Right-o.” was my response… “The bus gets here in 15 minutes guys”. Cool! We’re taking a bus. I can totally pull off looking like I know where were going. I get my ticket and get on the bus. About an hour later, we get to the final stop. “Everybody off!” I look around a bit and realise we’re in Noosa Heads! Awesome, we’re getting our 4x4 here and then we should be like 20 minutes away from the island! WRONG! We get our 4x4 and I overhear a phone conversation to people we are supposed to meet indicating we’ll be there in two hours. At this point, it’s about 11 in the morning. The fact that we left at 5:30am suddenly hits me. IT ALL MAKES SENSE! I’m in for a longer day than expected. We get to our meeting spot and try to fit everything in our car… Thank god I’m good at Tetris. Doo doo Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo(Count them… They are all there. If you don’t understand, FOR SHAME!). Still, we were packed to the brim. I was packed up in a little ball, had a guitar on my lap and well, just to make things sweeter and keeping with the Australian theme I was sweaty as hell. I mentioned in passing to the guy who brought his guitar that if he didn’t use it while we were there I would… How to put this… Dismember him.

I was obviously not prepared for this trip!

We finally got to the island about 20 minutes later and it became evident to me that this place was going to be an adventure and a half. As soon as we got off the barge and were officially off the coast of Australia, I knew we were in for something unique… We were driving on the beach, in the sand with the ocean as far as the eye could see to our right, forest to our left and endless beach in front of us! INSANE! I just tried to take it in… I swallowed a fly with my head out the window and told myself I probably shouldn’t try to take it in literally… After two hours of this, we came upon one of the main attractions of the island – the Maheno Shipwreck. I won’t bore you with the details of the ship, but it was caught in a cyclone in 1935 and washed up on the island. It was impressive to see this incredible structure defeated by time and weather.

We then continued on our journey up the side of the island to try to find a suitable camping spot behind the dunes to try to outwit the blanket of darkness that would eventually fall upon us. Nicol, a Scot, and I had gotten the cheapest tent possible (20$) and pitched it in about 3 minutes. While everyone else had trouble putting up their fancy tents, we had already cracked open our first beers. HA! It pays to be… Thrifty. I say it now, and shall repeat it many a times during this tale, I assure you.

By the time we started cooking diner, the sky was lit up with an unfathomable amount of stars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many stars in the sky… If only we could turn off our cities at night we would be able to witness this spectacle on a daily basis. This excitement was tamed by the fact that we, as a group, forgot to bring a knife and that cutting things would prove most difficult with our stubby, unsharpened fingers… Thankfully, I had brought my trusty Swiss army knife.

Sidebar – There’s a Swiss army? And there still fighting with knifes!?! No wonder they never participate in the wars! They would get smashed!

I now realize that this post is getting pretty lengthy and would you look at that… I have a class starting so I will leave it at that for now and I promise that part 2 is at least twice as good as part 1. That’s where all the funny happened. Check in soon.

Joey Jo Jo

The clumsiest day of my life, so far…

Important note: I saw a dingo on a recent trip to Frasier island (which will be the subject of my next post coincidently) and named it Lia.

Writing to you from a place where I saw "A stray Lia",

Waking up yesterday, I thought to myself, as I try to do every morning: "Another beautiful sexy day for me to love. Can't wait to bask in it's company". Well, let me tell you yesterday was a dirty strumpet and I never want to see her again.

It all started when I popped into work for my shift. Sidebar: I recently got a job at the restaurant directly across the street, The Caxton, as a waiter to accumulate some extra scratch… Yeah, thought I would try that word out. It's not working. Don't worry. I won't use it again. Promise. What was I thinking…

In any case, I knew I was walking up a slippery slope when I was trying to get some knifes from a drawer to set up some tables when I managed to... How to put this... Pull the drawer out of its socket, making it plummet to the floor along with about a hundred clean knifes. BAH! I JUST POLISHED THESE LAST NIGHT! This may not seem like a major event to you... Big deal, right? A couple knifes on the floor... WRONG. At this restaurant, after the cutlery is washed, every single piece is hand polished and I absolutely despise having to dedicate my smooth, soothing touch to this activity. That’s right ladies... Oh man I’m creepy. Suffice to say I produced a good 20-30 minute chunk of polishing work.

But it doesn’t stop there. A footy team (don’t ask me what that is because I am all confused about sports here... All I ever see on TV is what I define as rugby yet I have never heard anyone utter the word rugby since I’ve been here) had reserved a part of the restaurant for a function and so we had to set up the restaurant to accommodate such an event; move tables, plastic plants, chairs, etc. Well, about halfway through the set up, my trustworthy pants abused the trust I had instilled in them by deciding to explode at the ass seam when I bent over to grab a plastic plant. Imagine the biggest rip you’ve ever had in your pants. Done? Good. Now double its length and you’re probably close to the size of the rip I had down the middle of the back of my pants. I’m really glad I decided not to go with the theme these plastic plants I was moving reminded me of: commando. So I took my break, after being laughed at by the staff, to run home and try to fix these pants and go back to work.

After about 15 minutes of trying to thread the needle with no avail, let’s just say my regular eloquent speech took a backseat to more raw emotional verbage. That’s right, verbage. Renn, my roommate, asked for a try and got it on the first try. WHY DO MY FINGERS HAVE THE DEXTERITY OF A LOAF OF BREAD TODAY?! It’s like trying to thread a needle with chopsticks... I then proceeded to sew up the pants and SOMEHOW, the needle broke in half...

...

Let’s be polite here. The pants were thrown with vigor. Renn offered to lend me another pair of pants. I accepted and went back to work taking a few deep breaths.

As I got there, the diner service was about to start and a few things were left to be done: amongst other things, filling up stations across the restaurant with cutlery. “Yeah, I’m up for it.” Carrying the cutlery bucket with these wooden pirate stubs I had for arms, I set it down on the corner station only to have it lose balance and fall to the floor along with half of its contents. I will spare mentioning the angst this creates as it has been mentioned but by this point, I reached a mental state of frustration and disempowerment only equalled when you get kicked in the genitalia. I then heard someone in the vicinity remark:”That’s the second time you do that today.” Yes. Yes it is. I’m glad someone is keeping count. Maybe I can take a stab at the record.

The rest of the shift went fine, but was overshadowed by my kicked in the balls feeling. I got home a couple hours later, nobody was home. Thank god this day is over. I did not know at this point that it in fact wasn’t over. Seriously. I went to the cupboard to take out a bag of cookies I was aching for. It was sealed. I, like any normal person, grabbed onto each side of the bag and pulled to open it. The part that separates me from mere mortals is that my arms generate super strength that explode bags and sprinkle cookies all over the living room. I have never seen a firework filled with cookies but I’m pretty sure that the closest thing to it I’ll ever see. I was planning on going to bed, but that was the thing that did it. I JUST WANT A COOKIE! In anger, I found the closest cookie to me and smooshed it with my foot. THERE! TAKE THAT! I immediately realised that I had crushed a cookie with my foot and started laughing... Scrunch it all to hell, I’m going for a beer with the roommates.

I love how analytic methods, if used properly, can convey emotion.

On my second beer, I unconsciously decided that I would rather have it on the floor than in my belly. Those rakes I was using as arms and flailing about as I expressed myself about how defective and dysfunctional my day had been, caught my glass and the sweet golden liquid it was containing fell to a pavmenty death. THAT’S IT! Crummiest, most dissatisfactory, junkiest, substandard day that I can ever remember having.

Although looking back on it, it was a fine day in the grand scheme of things... I think what made it crappy was that the little things got to me.

Lessons reminded: Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff. Also, never underestimate Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Oh, and to be clear... I had a cookie off the floor. It was inevitable.

Thanks for reading,

Joey Jo Jo

X'Zams

Writing from beautiful… Where again? OH! Stralia.

That’s right. Thought I was out? SUPLISE! I would like to thank Marine for helping me out with that one!

Now I know what you’re thinking faithful readers... “After a month of hiatus, he just expects us to start reading his blog again. We were invested, checking in every couple days, and he hurt us! He wasn’t there for us when we needed him!” Okay… That might be extreme, but I would like to let you know that the only reason my blog took a backseat for a couple weeks was mainly due to the fact that Queensland University of Technology finds it funny to give all of their exams and assignments at the same time in all their classes. For the last three weeks I have been spending more time at the library and computer lab than I care to mention. Actually, so much so that I’ve been coaxed into sleeping by the dizzying heat produced by a room full of computers…

I felt the sensation coming on last Tuesday when I was studying for my programming exam… “Meh, I came early today and I don’t have any classes… I can sleep for a couple minutes.” *falls to keyboard* Now, an important fact I did not know myself at this time is that computers are a hot commodity at QUT. There are not many lying around and there are always people walking around ready to pounce on the next available station. So, I was awakened by a student tapping me on the shoulder, asking me if I was done with my computer… Bouncing up and acting like if nothing had just happened, I politely said that in fact, no… I was not done with the computer… “How to feel like an ass 101!” When he turned around, disappointed, and left, I found this written on the end of my word document: “dsakfljerkgndgnf;l”. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but I either have a big dyslexic head that likes to type when I sleep or the student that wanted my computer is evil and wanted to screw with my document. I personally think it was the latter, but I guess we’ll never know. The kicker to this story is that when I turned up to my programming class the next day, I was geared up for a midterm exam, I was reading to drop some knowledge (watch your feet) and the teacher walked in and said: “Alright guys, before we start today I just want to remind you that we have our midterm exam next week. Make sure you’re ready for that.”

*FACEPALM*

Thankfully, this did not happen in any other classes. Lesson learned: I know that I’m almost done my schooling forever but it might be time to start using an agenda… Then again, I’ve been saying that for years…

Since I’m still in exams and I’ve got many assignments to hand in the next week, I’m keeping this post relatively short compared to previous ones. To give you an idea of what interesting things I’ve been up to in the last couple weeks though, here’s a nice, convenient list. If you would like me to elaborate on either one of these in oh… let’s say a future blog post, leave me a comment and I’ll write about the most popular ones.

- Brisbane Races – The city’s biggest hippodrome race event of the year
- Brisbane River Fire – A yearly firework show with a military jet display
- My first and most likely last rugby league game attendance(the local team got eliminated)
- The international students’ golf tournament (Thanks Cecilie!)
- A whole range of exciting days studying at the library
Etc.

Thank you all genuinely for your continued readership!
Joey Jo Jo

The Roof, the Roof, the Roof Is On Fire...

Writing to you from my new German friend’s house; his name is Haus.  Haus Tralia.

Didn’t think I could pull one more off did you?  Don’t worry... I’m surprising myself too.  This one is dedicated to the Montreal crew that have to live with this on a daily basis when I’m home.  Also, a mention to the Australian roommates who find it funny now, but will eventually see the light, I’m sure.

I consider myself to be somewhat ingenious.  To which extent? Well, that really depends on the situation but, enough to get by with the title of ingenious. To illustrate, I once made a rake out a soda can and a small stick!  It worked for the task I needed accomplished and I’m not going to lie... I was pretty impressed with myself.  You can therefore see how I would enjoy taking on the persona of a real life MacGyver.  I set off on a MacGyver quest last night when I decided I wanted to put steamed cauliflower in a dish I was cooking and realized that we did not have a steamer.  I puttered around the kitchen, trying to come up with a concoction that would get the job done.  After a bit of creative thinking, I came up with the idea of putting our metal strainer on top of a pot of boiling water using the pot lid as a cover on the strainer.  I figured it would probably take more time to steam since the holes on the side of the strainer were still uncovered but the job would be done in a reasonable amount of time.  

When my meat was almost done cooking, I checked on the cauliflower only to find it was still pretty hard.  My timing was going to be all off!  No golden spoon for me.  Oh well...  Thankfully, I live with an engineer (Renn), so I had some brains backing up (or so I thought).  When he walked in, he asked what I was doing and came up with the brilliant idea of wrapping the strainer with paper towel as to block the holes on the strainer.  “Won’t that catch on fire?” I inquired.  “Nah! Nah!  It should be fine.” Renn replied.  My internal engineer told me this was probably a bad idea but the real engineer standing beside me actually was educated and qualified in the matter.  “Go back to your little office inside the brain building and do some more studying internal engineer.  You really blew it on this one.” I thought.  Absolutely delighted about our invention, we celebrated with high fives and pictures!  I kid you not.  Proof:

To my surprise, the next 10 minutes of steaming went great.  When I opened the lid, the cauliflower was softening and I was on my way to serving a great meal.  Renn went back onto the porch and I stood in the doorway, conversing and keeping an eye on the kitchen.  While listening in on a heated (foreshadowing) conversation, a thought came to my head: “Hmmm... Something smells like burning.  I wonder what that could.... OH MY GOD! IT SMELLS LIKE BURNING!”  I didn’t skip a beat.  I left my post at the doorway while the other carried on with the conversation without really clueing in on my quick exit.  Our friend the paper towel decided it was dressing itself up with fire for a night out and let me tell you, it looked HOT!  Flames engulfing my makeshift steamer, I had time to rip the paper towel off.  The only problem is that after having done this brilliant move, I had a FLAMING PAPER TOWEL in my hand and had not thought ahead to what my next step would be.  Looking back on it, I should have thrown it in the sink and opened the water but, in the heat of the moment (literally), I decided that throwing the towel to the floor and jumping on it was the best and most gracious course of action.

So there I was, yelling like a camel getting hot flashes: “OOUhh!  AAHHHH!  FIREE!!!!” hopping on and off the fiery towel like a gorilla, when my roommates finally saw me through the window and I heard someone yell out: “Why are you dancing?” These Australians must think we Canadians have some strange cultural dances to think I was actually dancing...  In any case, my jumping extinguished the flames and no real damage was done.  Renn, being the engineer, went straight for design model 2.0.  Suffice to say I was a bit reticent to jump right back into it, but I was informed that testing is an inevitable part of a new design.  I then realized that he had never told me what kind of engineering he was studying...  Be wary!  We modified the design a little bit and it did perform up to our standards this time... Maybe I should get into engineering, it now sounds a lot more exciting than I had first envisioned. I’m also going to have to find a way to replicate burning paper towel in a steamer because it gave my cauliflower a fiery taste that was absolutely delicious.

Lesson learned: If someone tells you they are an engineer, DO NOT give them the benefit of doubt.  You are just as much an engineer as they are in most situations... Haha

Australianly yours,

Joël

Beat Up, Yet Up Beat

Writing to you from my Host-Tralia,

I know... The puns are getting pretty bad... I’m running out!

This week was my fourth week in Brisbane.  I’ve been gone a month, people! 

I’m at the point where my roommates are comfortable blaming everything on the fact that I’m Canadian.  I’m at a point where I can understand expressions like: “Macca’s (McDonalds)” and avro (afternoon).  I can’t believe it’s already been a whole month! Since my arrival, my mentality has been:”Take advantage of EVERY opportunity, you’re not here for long!”  As much as that is true, I think that taking advantage of EVERY opportunity is catching up with me...  I am here for pretty long...  Last Saturday night, let’s just say I stayed in.  Why?  Let’s paint a portrait.   

To start off, I got up last Monday and took care of my regular morning duties entrusted to me by Morning Joël, when I noticed, starting into the mirror that my eyes were freakishly red.  Instantly, they started to hurt... Talk about body and mind harmony!  Hmmm... Double you, Tea, Eff Mate! After some light Wikipedia reading, I was pretty sure I had Conjunctivitis, more commonly known as Pink Eye.  I’m still puzzled as to how, when and where it came about... I’m just hoping it wasn’t because someone farted in my face while I slept, which is the only other way I’ve ever heard of someone getting Pink Eye... My main suspect though, was Evening Joël and his doings!

Next off, on Wednesday my roommates and I started off on a first round of light cleaning in the apartment as we were preparing for an apartment evaluation the coming week (the landlord gets a company to come check the apartment every now and then).  Now, it’s important to note that I’m allergic to dust, usually forget about it and never take any precautions when cleaning.  I usually feel like my nose and sinuses are inhabited by a giant, very well inflated, liquid leaking balloon for the next couple days after a dusty encounter.  This was the case here.

To add, I was determined that on Thursday night I shan’t miss the organized international students’ event, no matter how I was feeling.  It just so turns out that that event was a pub crawl... And that I had classes on Friday...  I knew it was going to be a though day on Friday, but I didn’t want to miss this.  Morning Joël could deal with it.  Evening Joël was IN!  When all was said and done at around 3 am, I let Evening Joël make a stupid nevertheless chivalrous decision.  I offered to walk a friend home without previous knowledge of where they resided (incredibly far, in case you’re wondering).  “DAMN YOU EVENING JOËL!  You didn’t get home till 6 AM!  How am I supposed to concentrate in class? (Class at 9am by the way)  Your decision making privileges are revoked for a WEEK!  Go to your part of the brain and think about what you’ve done!”  Suffice to say I participated as much as I could in my classes to make my environment dynamic enough to keep me awake...  Hopefully, that got me some participation marks!

Finally, I still had bruised knees from surfing the week before (and wipping out like an amateur) and my feet were blistered and scabbed up because on the weekend I had walked a lengthy... Length... In shoes that should not be used to walk lengthy lengths... (NEVER AGAIN)  So, when the propositions for a fun filled night came a knocking, I politely responded that a Red eyed, stuffy, blistered foot and battered knee Canadian stays home on Saturday nights as to be rested for his wood cutting duties on Sundays.  The only noteworthy response I got to that comment was: “Mmmm... I wonder how battered knees would taste”.  Touché! 

Only today am I feeling back to normal (Tuesday).  I think it’s time to slow things down...  Plus my wallet feels thinner when I sit on it for some reason...  Strange.

Lesson learned: Keep your evening self in check.  He or she is most likely one of the most selfish people you’ll ever meet.  NOTHING BUT TROUBLE I TELL YOU!

Australianly yours,

Joël xo