Work your way around the world...

I'm in Newcastle, NSW right now, on the prospective job hunt. Which is hard if your main experience is in retail, in this town at least anyways. Newcastle is weird. It's a beautiful town, but shots of alcohol are illegal because too many people get drunk off their tits and beat the shit out of each and their kids.
The beaches here a fucking awesome. No worries about crocodiles or stingers 'round here, which is pretty exciting because when I was in Darwin and Cairns, if you put your toe in the friggen water, somebody would jump out and yell, "Look the fuck out mate! There's bloody crocs in there!"
Not here though, there's even ocean baths built up above the water a bit. In case you're paranoid about sharks or some other stupid thing that lives in the ocean and hates you. One is even called the Convict Bath, cuz yup, prisoners built it!
I got here on Saturday, me thinks? Yeah saturday. Adam's sister Cristie and her friend Amy picked me up from the Airport and we went for some drinks at a bar called Blackbutt because their friend is the singer of a band and she was playing. We got out of the car and two guys were fighting. Full on fisticuffs! "Welcome to Newcastle!" Cristi remarked over-zealously. Twas a good evening, went to a bar called the Brewery. Everyone asked where the fuck I was from and poked at my arms. We saw a giant rat in the harbour. A giant rat, or a giant squid, or a giant effing something. It was weird looking regardless and paid no head to our drunken yellings at it.
I got drunk and drove the other night. After a 7 bar pub crawl with Adam's bitchin brother Tim and his mate Dean ( the D.D.) Which was pretty hilarious, and not at the same time.
Not only do I not have a full license, but I was trashed, and driving a car where everything was friggen backwards to anything I was used to. All of which equals the potential for me to get deported. Dean and Tim were extremely encouraging and supportive and congratulatory at my amazing ability not to smash the fucking thing into a wall. Overall, Dean being the designated driver, didn't do a very good job.
We pulled over at McDonald's and I relinquished the driver's seat. I got a filet-o-fish and it tasted pretty good, considering.
So, I'm basically here in Newcastle to finally settle the eff down and get a god damn job. I'm not entirely keen, my feet have been itchy since I got to this country. I keep feeling the urge to just pack up and hitch up to Byron Bay, work for my room in a hostel, and just chill. But alas, my funds be running low, and it's time to get back to the real world, if only for a short period. The plan, essentially, is to get some sort of work, anywhere. Grunt shit labour if I have to, and just work long enough 'till Adam and I go on our great Australian roadtrip in late October.
We're swinging down to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and boomeranging up to Ayer's Rock (Uluru) then over to the sunshine coast to get my home made Bourbon that's distilling in Sarah's basement, all 5 litres of it, and drink it all the way back to Newcastle.
I still don't know how I feel about Newcastle, again, it's probably just the itchy feet, I gotta douse em with something. A job!
I will probably enjoy it alot more when Adam gets the eff back early October.
I'm going to pickle myself with vast quantities of booze upon his return. lol
So, I dunno, I like to live in the now, but if work is this hard to get everywhere, I have to consider buying a plane ticket somewhere else well in advance, just in case I end up being a wandering vagrant for the duration of my stay here. At least then, I know I could get somewhere or back home at the very least.
But meh, thats a year off, well 11 months, but still!
I'm taking a course to get my R.S.A. (responsible service of alcohol) certificate. So I can be an effing bartender and get a bitchin job and be like Tom Cruise in Cocktail.
But mainly just so I broaden my job prospects, because if you want to be a waiter/barista/work in a bottle shop/or even be around liquor, you need it. Seriously, any job that is roughly 10 feet from a bottle of booze, you need the god damn thing.
And New South Wales is the only state where you can't just take it online, you actually have to go in for a course because they want to make sure you're awesome because NSW is fisticuffs, drunken bogan party state of the country I guess. So, thats booked for next Saturday.
Hopefully I can get a bartending job! How fuckin' rad would that be!?
Main goals while in Australia; grow my hair down to my tits, and a beard thick enough to hide my wallet. Kinda like Silas Kito Hocking up there!
I'm already shaving once every two days! The shortest period between shaves so far in my life!
C'mon puberty!

Oh, I'm sailin' away my own true love,
I'm sailin' away in the morning.
Is there something I can send you from across the sea,
From the place that I'll be landing?

No, there's nothin' you can send me, my own true love,
There's nothin' I wish to be ownin'.
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled,
From across that lonesome ocean.

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden,
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona.

Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean,
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss,
For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.

That I might be gone a long time
And it's only that I'm askin',
Is there something I can send you to remember me by,
To make your time more easy passin'.

Oh, how can, how can you ask me again,
It only brings me sorrow.
The same thing I want from you today,
I would want again tomorrow.

I got a letter on a lonesome day,
It was from her ship a-sailin',
Saying I don't know when I'll be comin' back again,
It depends on how I'm a-feelin'.

Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.

So take heed, take heed of the western wind,
Take heed of the stormy weather.
And yes, there's something you can send back to me,
Spanish boots of Spanish leather.

Is in love...

Taken from physical journal entry.
Revised, edited, and updated for Internet purposes.

I've gone about coming to Australia, all wrong.
For the first time in my entire life, I am, without a doubt, 100% in love. I had always known I loved her, but, I never knew if it was absolute. Definite. The love of my life is up in Palm Cove, and I'm here in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, staying at my friend Sarah's house, trying to figure out what to do next.
I first got to Australia, and stayed in Brisbane for a week. There, staying with Ailsa, she managed to take me on touristy outings, and help me see things I wouldn't have otherwise. I saw the Sunshine and Gold Coast, most of the city of Brisbane itself, Wellington Point, and Kondalilla Falls. I visited Sarah, here in Nambour for two days, and together we went to the Australia Zoo. Which was heaps fun. After returning to Brisbane to Ailsa's, I grew slightly weary of being in the city, naively, I thought that a city here might differ from any back home, but they're all pretty much the same. On top of that, Ailsa and I and her friends, didn't quite get along. I shared no interest in most anything with them, so I decided to jump somewhere else.
I had originally told Rikki, that had things not worked out in Brisbane, I wanted to come up to Cairns to be with her because I felt utterly alone, and she felt the same. Then an opportunity arose to go to Darwin in the Northern Territory and see Brendo and Hayley. Brendo and Hayley being no more than acquaintances from back in Banff, I was more interested in seeing the NT. I never heard about anyone going there, so I thought it would be neat to see. Upon telling Rikki this, she was devastated. I understand now how much of a slap in the face it must have been for me to tell her I was coming there and then flip flop and tell her I was going somewhere else. I stressed the fact that it was only to check out Darwin, to see it, and scope out the work, and that I wanted to come to Cairns after I visited it.
I got to Darwin and had a pretty good time there. Brendo, Hayley, and Jimbo were more than welcoming in their hospitality, and Brendo and I biked many days of my stay up and down the coast line. Beside the beautiful white sand and bluer than blue ocean. We drank wine, and ate cheese, ate delicious meals, talked, and laughed.
I had been talking to Rikki via texts and over the phone during my stay, and was at a loss as to what to do. I enjoyed it there in Darwin, I might have even got a job, but itchy feet and a sense of displacement remained. I missed Rikki, the more I was apart from her. We talked about many things over the phone, and I tried to figure out what would be best. I knew I wanted to see her, and I didn't know how to put together what we had been talking about over the phone. So I made a decision to go to Cairns, to find out in person, and be with her. I was in Darwin for a week. Every place I had been, and every person I had spent time around, had all been a distraction from how I really felt. I wanted to be with her. She was always on my mind.
I didn't tell her when I was coming because I wanted it to be a surprise. I don't know why, I had just thought that maybe it would be a fun thing to do, just show up and say, "Here I am!".
Upon arriving in Cairns and leaving the terminal, I saw the landscape, and knew Rikki was nearby. I felt happy, like everything was going to be alright. Things, soon turned ugly. I booked a hostel on the northern part of town, the Nomad's Serpent. I got a hold of Rikki and let her know I was in town, and that I wanted to see her. Shortly there after, my heart sunk into the back of my ribcage, beating against my spine. My emotions finally catching up to me, and me realizing my true feelings for her, I broke down.
Every second spent in Cairns was spent thinking about her. No other thought entered, crossed, or left my mind. Before coming to Australia , I had felt alright about going our separate ways for a time. Like a delayed reflex, my true feelings didn't make themselves shown until I was closest to her. I have never loved anyone, as much as I love her. We shared a bed together, for almost a year, back in Banff. She was there for me whenever I needed her, smiling and always happy to see me. I enjoyed the nights I would tell my friends I was busy, and stay inside with her.
While in Cairns we spent days in Palm Cove and in Cairns itself, walking up and down the beach, or seeing the yachts in the harbor, or just generally walking around. Mostly I was sad the time I was with her. I told her how I felt and that I wanted to be with her, there in Cairns, but it was too little, too late. After seeing how much she had grown and how strong she was, I realized that I couldn't hang around and dump my problems on her. I also was distracted by her every single absolute second, I thought of nothing else. So I vouched to leave.
I have never felt so selfish in my entire life. I let the love of my life, slip away, and for what? So that I could see a city and stay with a person I only considered half a friend? How could I have been such a fool!?
I was thinking with my head and not with my heart. Always, I told her to think realistically. Think about the conflict of interest, thinking only for myself. Not taking her, the woman, the first woman at that, I have ever, ever, truly loved, into consideration. I hope that some day soon I may get to hold her in my arms again, to kiss her lips, and breathe in her wonderful scent, and keep it in my lungs.
I should be embracing this current sense of lost direction, but I'm nervous, worried, terrified, and I feel alone. Rikki, as much as I want her, I know that I must let her grow.
I have learned from my mistakes. I'm not sure, but I guess I had to make them before I saw anything for what it was. I want her to explore and see and experience new things. Figure out what she truly wants and who she truly is. I am so proud of her. She is strong.
I can only hope that one day she may ask for me to be beside her, to see it together, like I should have done, so many months ago.
She is the blood in my veins,
the air in my lungs,
the sun on my face,
and the wind at my back.
She is the most beautiful person I know.
The spark that beats my heart,
is Rikki.

So apropos...

I have arrived in Australia. Last night Rikki and I landed in Sydney, caught a connecting flight to Brisbane, and slept in the airport until she got on the next plane to Cairns.
It was extremely weird flying out of Vancouver and saying "Peace out!" to the land mass I've been born, raised, and living on for the last 22 years.
I learned something along the way though. The further away from Canada you get, the more bitchin' the airplanes. Progressively, each flight had a better airplane, with wicked ass GPS effects, and full on meals, and what seemed like 40 flight attendants.
I still didn't sleep though!
For some reason my body does not allow me to sleep while sitting up, nor while slightly reclined. I basically chugged on flight red bulls to stay awake for 3 days straight because I was trapped in this weird, unable to sleep but extremely tired limbo if I didn't.
Honolulu airport was shit. It's an extremely awesome building though. Essentially, the entire structure is open, being that there is not really any exterior walls or doors in the entire thing. Rather, because it's so humid I imagine, it's just one big patio. There was no where to sleep though, and Rikki and I ended up sleeping on a bench for only 3 hours while I snored and scared people passing by.
Right now, I'm extremely tired and am sitting in my friend Ailsa's room trying to recover from the lengthy ass flight. Her and I are going adventuring the next 4 days, she has them off from work. I've compiled a list of things to see in Brisbane and the area. The Storey Bridge, Australia Zoo, Gold Coast beach. The landscape here is gorgeous. All hills and plants and oceans and rivers. Beautiful. Ailsa has informed me though, that I do only have the week to stay here with her and find a place to work and live, which may have planted a seed of altering my plans. A week (excluding the days of sightseeing) is an extremely short period of time to find work and a place to live, which has made me extremely nervous. But, I was in pretty much the same situation when I moved to the mountains, and that worked out all right. :)
We'll see where this week takes me, for now, I'm just happy to be here.

And so it is...

Well, I have never kept any sort of personal record before. Awkward!
I shaved my legs with an electric razor because it was extremely humid. Not all the way, just enough to maintain strength and manliness through body hair, but enough to keep my legs bitchingly cool through the Southwestern Ontario heat. Which is ridiculous.
Living in the mountains was great. No sweating! Ever! Really dry though, lots o' bloody noses. The ones where your boogers become sharp daggers and punch holes in your nasal cavity.
I'm in Ontario right now, rounding up what has seemingly turned into the longest two weeks ever. Stuck in Canadian Shield purgatory fresh from a year long stay in the mountains. Making the rounds to friends and family before I take leave for Australia and then who knows where. "Hello"'s and "How have you been?"s, quickly followed by the "Well, see you later!". The obligation of visiting half strangers and sitting through awkward visits because you share some of the same blood. Strange.
It shall be nice to escape the continent on August 12th. Hop on a plane and say goodbye to Canada for what I should hope to be an extended period of time. I should like very much to see and absorb as much as this world has to offer, or at the very least as much as I can handle, before I consider coming back.
Although, CNN keeps airing headlines about this horrific mid air collision that happened over the Hudson river in New York. Discovery Channel at the same time aired a worst case scenario type documentary about another mid air collision. With re-enactments. Coincedence?? Probably.