Skipper and Motor Bikes

OK. So I'll elaborate on two of the main topics of the Bali adventure.

First up is a man by the name of Greg Skipper. We (Jerry, then Julia and I) met him in the pool at the Matahari. We started out jsut with general chatting about Australia and Canada and about the bartering experience and different things about Kuta, places to eat, things to watch out for. I have him to thank for not getting screwed out of about $40. He told us to be very careful when exchanging money because he was taken advantage of. So a couple days later I go to exchange some money with what he had said in mind and sure enough the guy tried to scam me EXACTLY how he described it, and the 3 of us were watching him and he still managed to do it without us noticing. The only way I knew is because before I gave him my money I counted it all up, after he counted it out in front me and it was short 360,000IR, which is about $40 - $45 AUD. Anyways, then he mentioned that he was a stunt man, can't remember where it came up but we continued to talk about it for close to 4 hours. He had the most entertaining stories to tell and I never got bored of it. He was super animated in his stories too which was funny as hell. He be dive bombing all over the place and I got a face full of water when he was recounting his Mission Impossible experience where he blew up a boat. He told us of a BIG M Milkl commercial he did here in the 80s and we found it later on youtube. He was telling us about all the actors he's worked with (Pierce Brosnan, Russel Crowe, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan etc etc etc). The man was an inspiration for us and gave us a plethora of material to go on for the rest of the trip, from how he incessantly rubbed and squeezed his teets, to a moment where his foot somehow ended up in and around Jubee's face, and all the splashing and animated story telling. The man will forever be a major part of our Bali experience. Super nice guy.

Motor Bikes. So we got to Bali and saw that EVERYONE drives these motor bikes. It just seemed like chaos and I was relieved that I didn't have to drive everywhere. It's crazy, there are like no road rules, cars follow the lanes (for the most part) but you have these motorbikes flying up and down the roads weaving through traffic like mad. It's not terrible fast traffic anywhere, which makes it a LITTLE bit safer, but it just seemed OUTTA CONTROL! We did a ton of walking the first few days then went up to Ubud and did some more. When we got back to Kuta we were thinking about how faster it'd be if we could get a bike, just to get around town, down to the beach and maybe see a little more of the area. We enquired and it was DIRT CHEAP. For a motor, with insurance and 2L of gas it was $8 per day. We got two bikes for 2 days each. It was a BLAST. Jared and I cruised around for a while, as Jubers was a little tired and light headed so she was resting in the AC bedroom. Then Julia came out with us, despite being a little apprehensive. We all had a BLAST and it was a lot safer than we had expected, and we went alllll over. Through the SUPER busy downtown street and a little outta town on major roads, we cruised forever and saw a ton. We went out for dinner at a place down by the water and didn't have to sweat by walking the whole way there! We'd go and park wherever we wanted and only had to pay the equivalent of .20 once for parking. WE GOT PULLED OVER BY THE COPS! Haha, this was a little unnerving and makes you realize how corrupt it is over there. They pull over ALLLLL the white tourists and just harras you and try to take your money. They were telling us that because we didn't have our Canadian driver's license on us we would be charged $250,000 rupiah and maybe have to go down to the jail. We were terrified but managed to talk our way out of it after a while. Other than that the things were one of the best things about our trip. It was SOOO much fun to just jump on the HOOOGS and kick it.

The Bali Blast

We're BACK. That was an amazing trip.

This post will be 100% random because there's so many thoughts that I want to get out that I really don't have the energy to go all out with proper sentences and such.

We left around noon from home and met Jared at the train station and took a bus to Central (track work so there were no trains on the south coast line). We got to the airport in Sydney in good time and just chilled out before our flight. I love flying now, at least the start where you take off and feel the power of the plane.

On the plane I read The Alchemist. It's an awesome read. A story of a boy who was a sheppard and goes in search of his own personal legend. the story is great and tells you a lot of important life lessons, biggest one being to appreciate what you have. We got to Bali around 9:30PM, got off and the heat and humidity was CRAZY! We waited forever and paid our $25US for the week VISA and then went out and got our free lift to the hotel.

We got settled and went out for a feed and to see the city (though it was really late). We went to a restaurant on the main road (Legian) and had a meal. Julia ordered Gado Gado... Gado Gado is the best meal in the world. It's boiled veg, rice, peanut sauce, some tofu, some egg, some tomato and a prawn cracker. We took pics of a few. I ate probably 20 Gado Gados.... no exageration. About 7 - 8 in the last 2 days. Best part, it ranges from about $1.50 to $3 MAX for the meal. Meals were ALL cheap.

The next day we spent walking around and seeing everything. We did some bartering and got told off a few times... hahaha. All these peasant shops have the same shit, knock off everything, watches, sunglasses, shirts, shorts, sandals, hats, jewellry, PORNO! Imagine walking by a place a guy whispers "porno porno" in your ear... in a funny accent. It was awesome. Had that about a dozen times, so once Jared and I decided to take a peak at the selection and we got a good video of this one guy trying to sell us some porn. PRICELESS! This day we also booked our first excursion - White Water Rafting! We went out that night and partied a bit, drank a little, nothing serious.

We got up and got picked up at 8AM and went up for some WWR. It was a 1:30 drive with very scenic views of rice fields and mountains and such. Really cool. The WWR was super fun. We were 3 in a boat with a guide. We got suited up with our vests and our paddles and helmets and walked down to the river. I was SWEATING BUCKETS! We eventually got into the water and worked our way to our boat with our guide. We hopped in and were on our way! They gave us some key words that the guide will yell and what we need to do when we hear it. "Boom Boom" means hold on tight to the side cause we're gonna hit something! Forward means paddle forward and backwards means paddle backwards. Lie back means LIE BACK! 'cause we're about to go under a bridge that the boat clears by no more than a couple inches, NO EXAGERATION, I was shocked how low they were. We stopped halfway and had a drink and there was this amazing waterfall there. We took a bunch of pictures and then got back on our way. We finished the ride with a 4M drop over a dam. And then we had a BIG lunch buffet. :)

OK, I'm tired... gonna put down some point form stuff that I'll elaborate on later.

Greg Skipper -Big M Milk, Tom Cruise, Ghost Ship, Robinson Crusoe

Massage

Monkey Forest

Scooters - fun, police

Show in Ubud

Clubs - set-up, entertainment

Beach - TOPLESS! People selling stuff, surfing...

Currency Exchange - thieves

Sri Ratih - Palace, MIX MAX

Sierra - April 9 - 4:15AM EST

Wow. Same day I had a great run, got my trainer delivered and started my "dream job" I also became an uncle. I came home and was told to check the messages on the phone because it rang and nobody answered. I checked and heard Annie's voice. It was awesome! I got teary eyed right away and brought the phone up for Julia to listen. We immediately got on skype and called her cell phone and chatted for a few minutes. How amazing is that!

I can't wait to get more photos and see her on skype! I'm so excited for Annie, mom and dad and REALLLLLLY wish I were there to see her in person. Another 8 months will be a long time to wait to meet my little niece. She was a perfect little bundle of joy. Tiny (5 pounds, 14 ounces) and cute as heck. I don't know what else to say but Thursday was an absolutely INCREDIBLE day.

Dream Job, dream deal

Dream Job, not dream carreer, but dream job. I am proud to have gotten this job as I bugged the hell out of them to get it! It didn't just fall in my lap sort of deal, I "worked" for it. I emailed my resumee to the owner a while back and got no response. I went in a little over a week ago and dropped off my resumee to the store and talked to the manager (who is 20 years old!!!). He forwarded it to the owner. The owner emailed me saying to call him. I called him right away but he was on the other line and said he'd call me right back. That didn't happen. I emailed him that night and said that I was gone for the weekend but still very interested in the job and that I'd call him ASAP when I got back. I did that and he answered and asked me to go to an interview at Warrawong (about a 25 minute bus ride). I went right away and met with George, the area manager or something. That was very informal and the ONLY thing he was worried about was the fact that he didn't want to train me to have me leave in a year. I bullshitted him and said I was trying to get into the Master's program and I would be applying for another visa... hahah, gotta do what ya gotta do. I got a call later that night and was offered the job and asked to come in the next morning.

Also that day I found a WICKED deal on a trainer. I saw one on Ebay for $240 (no bids on it yet) and bid on it. It was no shipping if I picked it up and luckily it was like an hour and 15 minute train ride from home, so it was doable. This trainer retails for $400 new and this one WAS new as it was a prize someone won and didn't want to keep. Well right towards the end it skyrocketed to $285 and a little outta my price range. I was kinda pissed. I wrote on a webforum asking if I should get a chepaer/more affordable one and was told NOT to skimp and to get a fluid trainer. An owner of a store in Sydney saw the thread and said he was selling the same one that was on ebay for $299 on his website. I said that was still out of my price range and recounted the story of my recent Ebay experience. He then messaged me and said he would do me a favour and sell it to me for $250 SHIPPED to my door THE NEXT DAY and that "selling sells". All I would have to do is write a review on the website once I hae tried it out. WICKED! $250 means I can use it for the year and sell it for AT LEAST $250! That should be awesome. It arrived Thursday but I worked all day. (details to come) So I just set it all up and got on last night for an hour ride. It was awesome! I miss the bike and now it's back! The fitness will go through the roof now! I wrote my review last night.

Thursday I started at Sneakers Direct at 11:30AM. It's literally a 300m walk. I got there wearing black slacks and black shoes and they offered me an orange "Sneakers Direct" shirt and told me to change into my runners! Dream job! Then I was hanging clothes on hangers and such and learning as much as I could as I watched the others. The owner was in the store all day as well but he's pretty chill so it wasn't terribly stressful. I listened to Lee (manager) sell shoes and just learnt as much as I could about the different tasks that we are responsible for. The owner said 2 big things are important: 1. Sales/security/service and 2. Tidyness. The day was LONG I was there until well after 9PM but it was great. I learnt that my deals are SICK! I can get Kayanos (retail $260) which are what I wear for $95!!!! And I can get like hats for $4-$5 and such. They also carry SKINS (compression clothing for recovery) which I like and they have swim goggles and speedos and one model of bike shorts (which I'll need soon too as I only brought one pair with me). The whole atmosphere is pretty laid back and fun and with these deals it will TRULY be a dream job while I'm here! YIPPPEEEEE!!!!

Inspiration Destination: Port Mac

That was overall an amazing weekend. I gave some basic details of the Saturday but will go into a little more detail about the big day, as it was a BIG, LONG day.

In the morning Jared and I got up early (5AM) and got down to the transition area around 5:45, watched the pros start and then headed over to the men's tent to start helping out with whatever we could. It was a MESS. The ground I mean. We're talking mud bath, and this is BEFORE the athletes came through. I just went barefoot, I figured if it was safe enough for the athletes to all be running through barefoot then it would be safe enough for me too. It was gross but I dealt. We set up some more chairs for the athletes and boxed up about a thousand bike pumps. Then we waited.... The first few pros came through and you don't even need to help them really, a couple of the experienced volunteers helped them out but they don't need much, they are in and out SO fast. We did a lot of standing around and cheering for the first 40 or so minutes as the pros started 40 minutes before the age groupers... Then, all of a sudden it was CHAOS. We were both a little timid at first but once you get into it it's just a ton of fun. there's about 4 rows of chairs back to back and about 20 deep, and they filled FAST. Basically the men run in with their wetsuit either half off or full on still and carrying their bike equipment bag with helmet, shoes, socks, nutrition, sun glasses etc... I asked if they wanted help with their wetsuit, or if they were going good with it, I started opening up their bag and organizing their stuff for them to put on easily, then I put the wetsuit and swim cap/goggles into the bag, tie it back up and bring it the corner where we had a MASSIVE pile. Each bag is numbered with your race number and organized for you when you approach, so relatively easy to find. The whole volunteering experience was wicked, and so many of the men truly appreciate it and thank you. Many said "thanks Brian!" (nametag) or "Thanks mate!" And it's nice to feel appreciated. For once I'm on the other side of the equation, but it felt amazing also. Different but still really good.

After all the men were through we ducked out of the tent and went and watched some of the pros and age groupers come through the 60k mark on the bike. It's a 3 x 60k loop so you see them a few times on the bike. We got to see all the pro men and Chrissie Wellington (my new hero) who was only 7 minutes down to the main pack of pro men. She's an amazing athlete, no female can touch her right now. I think she's 6 for 6 in Ironmans, maybe 7 for 7. Anyways, that was awesome. We ran back down to the tent as I had to get my shoes and socks back and we saw that there was free food for the volunteers. We each had 2 veggie wraps an apple and a gatorade. Then we walked back out and met up with Julia and Lee and did some more spectating. We wandered around for a long while and eventually the pros started coming in off the bikes and we got a chance to see them transition for bike to run. Chrissie had a 12 minute lead off the bike, and running is a strength. We ran back and forth watching some come in and then some pass by on the path already 5 or so k into their run. It's again a multiple loop deal so we saw them a bunch of times. We ran around (I did and they all followed, haha) to get pictures of them as they passed by. For the couple of hours we watched the Age Groupers run by, I made a special effort to call them by name (as seen on their bib#) as this is something I truly appreciate when I race. I forgot to mention. I noticed this sign that said "Volunteer Food" from afar so we went over and there was a free barbecue for the volunteers. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but let's just say that we frequented it throughout the rest of the day and here are the final stats: Jared: 8 steak/egg sandwhiches, 3 apples, 2 waters and 2 coffees. Brian: 4 steak and egg sandwhiches, 4 apples, 6 orange quarters, 1 coffee and 5 waters. Lee: 1 steak and egg sandwhich. Julia: 4 slices of bread and a water. Of course Jared and I had to collect these for the ladies. :)

So the finish. This was AWESOME. It was SO weird because Ironman Australia was the FIRST triathlon race I ever watched on TV a few years ago and I watched it so many times that I basically know the commentary like the back of my hand. It was AMAZING to be there the whole day, and witness this finish, I got chills the whole time. It wasn't the same party type atmosphere and same BIG show as at Ironman Canada, but it was still an amazing experience. We saw the pros finish. We watched 10 men finish, then Chrissie came through. She finished in 8:57. A woman to finish in under 9 hours is CRAZY and has only happened a handful of times. Second place female was close to 30 minutes behind. It was ridiculous. We left right after Chrissie finished and did a little speech. We were on the road again at 3:30 PM and made it home by 9:30.

For a super quick, weekend trip it was beyond expectation. I'm SO glad I volunteered and had that experience. The whole weekend though was amazing. Beyond the race which was obviously my main highlight, there were tons of great things. We had a blast at the hostel on the Saturday night, just playing around in the pool room, writing on the wall. (see pictures) To see the Koalas at the Koala Hospital was cool too, they're so cute and we feel good going there versus a zoo! We also took a walk through the bush along this path and we saw HUNDREDS of bats. BIG bats, hanging from trees. It was SO creepy, but super cool.

Jeepers. That was a 2 day trip, I can't imagine what we're going to experience in a week! I'm excited!

Mac Attack

We left Wollongong at 2AM on Saturday morning to head up here to Port MacQuarie. I drove the whole way and the others mostly slept. I banked a solid 6.5 hours of sleep from 6 - 12:30 so I felt really good so I didn't mind it, but it did get boring. Jubes barfed twice while we were passing through Sydney, but she was fine after that. I kept thinking I was getting lost and was paranoid but never was actually lost and we got here in good time. We dropped off our stuff at the hostel and headed down to the expo, it was pissing rain. Jared and I went to the volunteer tent to get our tshirts and check in and then we went over to the expo and started looking for deals. We all tried on shoes and Jared and Julia each ended up buying a pair. We watched a little nutrition seminar put on by Powerbar with Tim Deboom, after which I got a pic with him. :)

We left the expo, came back here, dropped off our stuff and headed back out for a walk and eventually ended up at the Koala Hospital. It's a place where injured or sick Koalas go to be taken care of. They were all so super cute! We got some good pics of them that we'll put up.
Now it's race morning, I'm up early... but not racing! What a weird feeling! But it'll be fun, Jared and I have to be down there soon.

PS - I took some pics of my class and students while they were at the assembly on Friday.

A Whole Whack of Stuff

Here's what's up at the moment, at least in my life. If you want an update from Jubee, you'll have to get it yourself, 'cause she apparently doesn't wanna write any of this blog.

Today is my last day of my first 3 week prac. SHIT THAT FLEW BY! We're having a pizza party at lunch and then some of the teachers are taking Aaron (maybe just me as he may not be able to make it) and I out for a drink afterwards! This 3 weeks have been amazing. I mean I was nervous going in because it was going to be THE tell tale of whether or not I'll like this teaching gig. I mean Uni is Uni, classes are classes, regardless of the subject I typically enjoy it, just learning and such, but this was different. Prac is what teaching is, you're in there, teaching and learning hands on, full-on. I had no clue what it was going to be like from a teacher's perspective as I had not stepped foot in a classroom back home to even try it, or see what it's like at all. Well lets just say I lucked out because I'm LOVING this. I actually don't really even want to go back to Uni, I'd rather just do more in class stuff. Maybe I lucked out but I love my school, my teacher is awesome and the students are a good mix of behaviours and learning abilities. So it's been challenging, but really rewarding and I've realized that THIS is the route for me! Imagine, me as a school teacher! Hahaha

Second item is, after school and after drinks (I'll probably just have water) I've got to go pick up the rental car for this weekend from Hertz. I'll swing by there (it's about a 4 minute walk from home) pick it up and come home. I'm hoping to pass out by like 6PMish, and be up again around 12:30 - 1AM. We'll pack the car up this afternoon and we're heading out at 2AM. This is for a few reasons. I want to mazimize the amount of Saturday time we have at IM Port Mac to check it all out. See the bike check-in (I'm getting goosebumps, I love this stuff!), check out the expo for deals on shoes (both of us need a pair) and a few other things for Julia and MAYBE look at trainers for the bike, if there are even some there. This way we also don't have to pay another $30 each for the hostel for tonight AND I don't have to deal with a lot of traffic on the highways and in towns. Wicked funn man! Hopefully SOMEONE stays awake with me. :) I'm excited to volunteer on Sunday as well, that should be fun! I get a free t-shirt and a close-up experience!

THIIIIIRDLY. I applied at 5 places earlier this week and I got a response (sort of) from one of them. The guy emailed me and in the subject heading was his name, his phone number and "part-time work". So I called him up right away and he answered and told me he'd call me back as he was on the other line. That didn't happen. True enough it was like 5:30PM when I called him but I was kinda sitting around waiting for a phone call back. HOPEFULLY he calls me today and we can set up an interview or something! It's at a shoe/sports apparrel store RIGHT around the corner from us. Literally like 2.5 blocks, ~5 minute walk from our place. How sick would THAT be? Plus they've got all the good stuff in there, which I MAY be able to get deals on as an employee. But lets not count any chickens before they hatch right? I've definitely got to follow up on this one! And I'll keep ya'llllll posted.

Fourthly. Bali is getting planned! Tunes is doing TONS of research and finding good places to see and ideas of stuff to see and do. She's even set-up a tentative JAM PACKED itinerary. We may not be able to see it all, but we're going to use it as a rough guide of the MAIN places we'd like to go. Kuta, Ubud, Lovina and one of the islands off the South East coast. I can't wait! Thanks for the tips mom and dad and I think we're good to go with all that stuff. I look forward to haggling with the locals for cheap stuff... even though I'll still be the one getting ripped off.