Can you feel that soil covering your coffin?

I don't really have much to say.

Since I got to Brisbane I haven't really done much in terms of fun things, other than attempting to find a job and then working once I found a job. I can't say I'm too fond of my job. In fact, I'd much prefer to quit my job and I would 100% do that if it weren't for the simple fact that I need the money to survive until June, at the very least. I need a vacation from this vacation.

I like the people I work with, I just don't like the people I interact with on a daily basis. Oh well.

I can't wait until May, though. That should be a good month. A lot more exploring, more experiences, site seeing, ridiculous nights, and in general more fun. Hopefully.

Last weekend I went with Tristan (coworker) to see Miles Away (Australia), Defeater (USA), and Fires of Waco (Australia) and it was probably one of the best shows I've been to in a while. Aussie kids absolutely go off when American bands come through, like a bomb went off. It's seriously unreal.

This is a pretty pointless entry, but it's just to let people know that I'm still alive.

Aussie Words of the Day

Because Lenny is an asshole, I have decided to update my blog with just Australian terms. Also, because I'm at every day 9-5 and have nothing exciting to share...yet. Here we go:


Technicolour Yawn. "Dude, I got so wasted last night that I had to technicolour yawn all over this guys back porch." A technicolour yawn is to throw up.

Chunder.  Same deal as above, except I have a story to go with chunder. In the 1800's when people would be sailing to Australia, the boats would be of two tiers, and due to the seasickness people would experience they usually would throw up over the boats railing. Now, because it was a two tier boat, the people on the top deck who would get sick would yell out "Watch under!" and spew everywhere onto the lower deck. But because of the ocean people would simply hear " 'ch under" instead of "watch under", and thus chunder came about.

Unco. "You are so unco, it's not even funny." Unco is to be uncoordinated.

Punch on. Australians for some reason say "I got into a punch on Tuesday night when I was wasted" instead of "I got into a fight Tuesday night when I was wasted".

Similarly, a biff is a brawl.

Straya. Straya is an attempt to express the pronunciation of the word "Australia". I'm not even kidding, but this is how Aussie's pronounce their country's name. Straya, fuck yeah.

Sook. A timid, cowardly person, especially a young person; a crybaby. "Quit being such a fucking sook, you wanker". Pretty sure I was called that, hahahaha.

Cracked the shits. To get really pissed off, or angry. "There have been so many times when I've been close to cracking the shits, but I just kept trudging through. Don't crack it, and you'll be right."

For some reason a Bluey is a nickname for a redhead, or a ranga.


Come a guster. To make a bad mistake, or have an accident. Yeah... I don't get it either.

Doona, a duvet.

Suss. "Yeah dude, I'll have to suss that out. It sounds awesome." My buddy Will Maxwell from Melbourne always says "suss", and it means to figure something out or work something out.

Onya. As in, "Good on ya"

You're right. Whenever you bump into or get in someone's way on the train/tram/where ever, and you apologize for it, they usually respond with "You're right" which essentially is "No worries" or "It's okay".


Finally, the other night I heard the expression, "To hang shit on your nose" or something to that affect, but I have no clue what it means. I even asked people and they told me I made that shit up, but I was watching TV (Good News Week, to be exact) and a British comedian said that he had just learned that expression that day, and how much he loves the Australian language.

I'm a fucking walking paradox, no I'm not.

May 12th to May 16th can't come soon enough.

Whitsundays. You're jealous.

Aussie Word of the Day: Dongle. A dongle is a wireless internet USB stick.

I've never been so...

It's Friday night, at 11PM and I'm sitting in my apartment living room half watching The Wire and half watching the news about Japan. I wish I was out right now instead, though. Blah. Maybe tomorrow night.

So, Melissa left her Australian adventures two days ago and although there were a lot of times when I wanted to rip her fucking face off, I genuinely had a good time and I'm glad she got home to Toronto safely today.

I started training at work this past Monday. It's been pretty good so far, really dry and boring at times to the point of nearly falling asleep, but I've met some pretty cool people and it seems (hopefully) like a fun laid back place to work. My recruiter, Dan, was an English backpacker but was sponsored to stay over, so we'll see what happens with me. I'm sure he was amazing at the job, and I doubt I'll be anywhere near caring too much about the job and making sales - though it does seem relatively easy...or easier than I thought it'd be.

In terms of the Japan 8.9 magnitude earthquake, 7.4 magnitude aftershock and the resulting tsunami... I hope my roommates,  David, family is alright. He still hasn't been able to get in touch with them about 7 hours after the quake and tsunami hit. Seriously hope they're alright. I hope all of Japan is alright, and I hope that everyone in the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, Hawaii, the west coast of the US, etc. will be alright. Be safe!

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, there is no Tsunami threat to Australia, and New Zealand after having had tsunami warnings has been downgraded to a marine threat. The below image shows proof of the no Tsunami threat.

I don't really understand how NZ could have warnings, but AU wouldn't... Either way, I'm glad that both have been cleared, for now, since neither can really afford to go through another giant catastrophe after having being rocked by an earthquake three weeks ago in Christchurch, NZ, battered by record cyclone Yasi in Far North Queensland, floods in Brisbane and surrounding areas, and just recently landslides in FNQ, again.

I'm alright, and I hope everyone else is alright! Seriously.

Wow, my father an astronaut! I've never been so... what's the opposite of shame?

Proud?

Not that far from shame.

Less shame?

Yeahhhh.

Aussie Word of the Day: "Gobby". I definitely thought this was short for the  candy "Gobstoppers", but it definitely isn't. I'll leave you to find out what it actually means, if you're so curious to find out.

It's That Time Again: Pictures.

As promised, here are more pictures of Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, and the Gold Coast.

Click here for a link to my Flickr account.

We Got That P.M.A.

We got that attitude.

I had a one on one interview on Friday morning at a call centre in Milton, a suburb of Brisbane, right across from Suncorp Stadium (which is where the Brisbane Roar (soccer) and Brisbane Broncos (rugby) call home). I wouldn't normally look to find a call centre job, but this particular one comes with a $750 weekly pay, plus commission. It went well and I was invited back in for a group interview on Monday morning.

On Saturday, I went to watch the Brisbane Roar play the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League semi finals. It was a draw 2-2, but the Roar advanced 4-2 on aggregate. Now, since I love soccer, and I don't know anyone in Brisbane (yet) aside from my roommate who absolutely hates soccer (and Seinfeld - seriously?) I decided to go alone, which was kind of awkward at first. It got much better as I got further and further immersed into the game well into the second half when the Roar fell behind 2-0 and had to force a comeback with two outstanding goals in something like 6 minutes. Because of this, I may also decide to head to the A-League Final at Suncorp Stadium on March 13th, probably alone again.
Sidenote, I definitely feel as though had I continued playing soccer, I could have played in the A-League. It's much worse than the MLS.

On Monday morning, I went back for that group interview. On Monday afternoon, I got myself a job. Training starts next Monday, the 7th of March.

Now I just need to land a date and I'll be set...

I'll be heading down to the Gold Coast on Thursday morning to pick up Melissa who is back from Phuket, Thailand so that should be fun.

Aussie Word of the Day: Catch. Australians say "catch" at the end of a sentence instead of saying "bye". Catch as in "Catch ya later", but since Aussies are lazy and shorten everything - which is rad - it's become "Catch".

Photo Update Vol. Who Cares?

Send your care packages and/or post cards to:

Daniel Alcinii

Unit 22/52-62 Newstead Terrace

Newstead, Queensland

4006, Australia

Shitty camera phone updates again! I'll get my actual camera pictures up soon, I just need to edit them. In the meantime, here you go:

SYDNEY 
Seriously, if you're ever in New South Wales, specifically the Sydney area, do yourself a favour and eat at Moo Burgers. It's definitely the best thing in NSW if you're not a vegan/vegetarian. Anyway...

This is the absolute first thing that I saw getting off the plane in Sydney was, of course, a Canadian Club ad.

Our (Melissa and I) first day in Sydney. I had a one hour flight, and Melissa had a 23 hour flight, but I insisted that we both head out and take a walk down to the Quay to check out Sydney, otherwise her sleeping schedule would be incredibly fucked. Also, because I'm a selfish asshole and would have been bored exploring alone (get stoked on day one in Brisbane, Stepha). We did so, and started that off at a restaurant out by the botanical gardens where we saw this bird for the first time: 

 I'm not exactly sure what these birds are, but they're everywhere and they're huge. I didn't see them until I got to Sydney (and now Brisbane). There don't seem to be any in Melbourne though.

We then made our way (it's about a 10 minute walk, but it took us maybe 40 minutes of walking in circles to get here) to the below images:

The Opera House, obviously.

 The harbour at Sydney Cove / Circular Quay.

  The Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Circular Quay.

 The Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Circular Quay.

 People paying $200 to walk along the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and then having to pay for a picture at the top of it since they can't bring their own cameras.

 Palm trees are everywhere. I love it.

BONDI BEACH


We were supposed to meet up with Ashlyn, Steve, and Scott on this particular day to head out to Bondi, but happened to miss them at their hostel by 15 minutes. Melissa and I decided that we would still head out to Bondi to possibly try and find them. When we got there, we stopped off at Moo Burgers (fuck yes. Seriously, eat there) and then attempted half heartedly to find the aforementioned. We didn't see them (and I didn't know what they looked like at this point, so I kept pointing out the elderly and extremely Asian tourists asking if that was them).

 Skate park overlooking the beach. So rad. If only I could skate...

 A school of millions of children learning how to surf competitively. Seemingly all under 10 years old.

 And again.

 And again.

 The next few are Bondi Beach from the rocks to the left (looking at the ocean)

 COOGEE BEACH


This was the day that Melissa, Ashlyn, Steve, Scott, Michael (our German one day friend), and I decided to head out on a three hour coast walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. The following was seen on a cool, windy and overcast day (of course - Sydney sucked for weather that week after a week long heatwave of 35+ degree weather):

 And the coast walk officially begins!

 There are about 8 or 10 pictures of this view where Steve and I attempted to guess which waves would break hard over the rocks. It happened eventually... or did it?

I, for some reason, think it's incredibly awesome to see a plane flying through the clouds. Appearing and disappearing. It's like a ghost plane. That's what the above photo is trying to show, and if you see any other plane shots, I just think they're rad (but hate being on them).

 FINALLY!

 Again...

Retards.

And then this happened... 

It was just a hole in the rock, with a little lip underneath so that you can climb down and stick your head or head and arm combo through it. It's highly advisable that you stand no where near the cliffs as you saw from the sign above, but fuck that. We were four Canadians, an American, and a German.

The cemetery overlooking the ocean.

Nearing Bondi Beach and the end of our walk:

 Scott, our Seattle friend who's studying in Sydney.

The Blue Mountains in Katoomba:

Following our three hour coastal hike, we (Melissa, Steve, Ashlyn, Scott, Chet (from Seattle), Monica (from Ottawa), Monica's German friend who's name started with a V, and I, decided we'd take a two hour train out to Katoomba and hike some more. When we were leaving Sydney, it looked like a great day to head out to the Blue Mountains. When we got there, it was drizzling misty rain (like at Niagra Falls, where you get soaked after 2 minutes) and you couldn't see anything from any of the lookouts. We read all of the placards for the Three Sisters and what not, but couldn't see anything aside from extremely dense fog. It was a fun day regardless though, especially the train ride back into the city where we were all delusional and insanely tired laughing about things like "Food costs money, I'm a backpacker. Babies are free to eat", the amount of money you can get fined on a train for cursing and a "cursing chart" (by the way, the fine is anywhere from $400 to $1, 200), and playing the card game "Bullshit" (which could have netted, we assumed, a $600 fine) with two decks of cards. At one point after Chet placed down his stack of 7 Queens or whatever, it prompted Chet to turn to me and say "Is this blowing your mind?!", where I responded by saying "No. Cheat." It's way funnier if you were there, trust me.

Oh yeah, the German girl thought she was going to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. She hated heights and walking, so she was fucking enraged when she found out we weren't going to the zoo, and in fact were going on a mountain hike. I'm not kidding about this, she actually fell off the train on the mountain side and into some bush. Had that bush not been there, she'd probably have died. No joke. AND instead of walking back up with the rest of us, she decided to take a trolly that crawls steeply up the mountain side at an impossible angle. Worst day of her life. Funniest day in New South Wales.

These were the best pictures I could get. We have pictures of all of us at the look outs standing next to a white background, it's pretty funny. This was at the bottom of our walk before we returned up the mountain.

Ferry ride to Manly Beach (but no pictures of Manly itself for some reason...)

Steve has some pictures that I will steal and claim as my own. No one will know the difference.

These pictures of Manly weren't really good at all, but trust me it was a beautiful ferry ride.

THE GOLD COAST


This was the day that I had to take Melissa down to the Gold Coast airport so that she can make her flight to Thailand for the week to meet up with her boyfriend, Adam. My parent's weren't too pleased about it. Also, Melissa initially booked a two day $800 return flight to Phuket accidentally, hahaha retard. The Gold Coast looks beautiful, and I feel as though I should have moved their or the Sunshine Coast (which I haven't been to yet, but still!) instead of Brisvegas. Oh well, I'll be back. We didn't get much time here, we got there at 4PM and I had to be out by 8PM to make the bus and train back to the city. We ate on the beach, had a quick swim in the warmest ocean water I have ever swam in (seriously, so nice) and then walked over to her YHA hostel that was apparently so fucking far from where we were. When I left at 8PM to the bus stop, I waited about a half hour for the bus before realizing that my bus wasn't coming. I checked the schedule, and the last one was at 7 something PM, so I take the next bus that comes all the way to Pacific Fair Mall, transfer there, and take another bus to the Robina Town Centre where the train station is. Then as I'm sitting down to wait 40 minutes for the train into the city, the BIGGEST FUCKING COCKROACH crawls down my leg. I freaked out, shook it off, got up, said "Fuck that!" and walked to the other end of the train station like if it couldn't walk there... As I get on the train, the conductor says that due to maintenance we would have to get off the train at South Brisbane, take a bus to Roma Street Station, and then take another train to where we wanted to go (Ferny Grove north to Bowen Hills Station). All in all, I left the Gold Coast at 8PM and I got home to my apartment at 12AM. It was absolutely the worst return trip I have ever taken, hahahaha fuck. Anyways, here's three pictures of the Gold Coast:

There will be more pictures of the Gold Coast after March 3rd when I pick Melissa up from the airport. Hopefully the Sunshine Coast / Maroochydore soon, too!

And finally....

BRISBANE

My new apartment in Brisbane (well, Newstead): 

The kitchen, dining room, and living room. Hahaha.

 The living room (where I currently am):

 The view from the balcony. This is our courtyard:

The Brisbane River (or Breakfast Creek as it's called in our neck of the woods) is just beyond that building to the top right. So rad!)

There's a pretty nice pool behind that white wall that I have yet to swim in:

Our living room again, with all of David's things and his nice TV. I really like that banner and black globe to the left of it, too.

A better view of our (relatively messy) kitchen:

The hallway with the laundry room to the left, David's room in front of you, and then my room and the bathroom to the right of that:

My bathroom:

My room with three suitcases and shit spilled all over the floor. I haven't really moved in yet:

 My rooms pretty plain, I only have a bed side table and a bed in it, and David has a little balcony in his room, but I get a view of the city from my room (again) which is pretty rad!

 I really like this poster of New York City (hanging in David's room...)

 Davids room: