Days 216 to 225

(Sorry for the delay - ed.)

The wait in LAX seemed to drag on FOREVER after Alex left.

I figured there would be decent amenities in the departure lounge – but I had forgotten that Terminal 2 is sparse at best. Dinner was nice at Wolfgang Puck’s. Can’t really compare.

Fast forward to 10.15 pm and we are all boarding the plane. Now the Air Canada was nowhere as nice as the ANZ flight being that it was on the same continent. I pass by first class. And, as it is my want to do, I’m just scanning around my surroundings and I see a teenager keeping to himself. He’s got a toque on. Not trying particularly, I see his boarding card.

Bieber, Justin.

Yep. One of the biggest pop stars on the planet and future SNL musical guest I found out was in the same airspace as me. And for you people that like him, I’m sorry, no pictures or autographs or stories because frankly a 32 year old male approaching a 16 year old male to get an autograph just really wouldn’t jive. The less said about an encounter with one of the stars from Life With Derek, the better.

The flight itself was uneventful although I will give Air Canada credit in that they always have a nice selection of festival films – I got to see the majority of the Academy Award nominees for best live and animated short. Fun.

Arriving in Toronto on Day 217, I got off the plane just after 6 am, check. Customs, no problem. Change/brush teeth/shave/generally freshen up, done. Champagne still intact! I called my friend Kelly and we went out for breakfast. It was nice to be back on terra firma but a bit disorienting! Especially because it was hit the ground running. Kelly dropped me off around 9.15 am in King City and about 15 minutes later my ride arrived to go to the pool!

It was all a surprise because my friend Bill didn’t tell anyone I was showing up. I got buddied up with someone who was new to the club who said afterwards “Oh yeah, you’re the guy that everyone blamed because you were on vacation”! HA HA HA very funny.

We went out for lunch afterwards and I shall not name the establishment as someone at my table had a birthday ice cream which we’re not sure was really their actual birthday… The rest of day was super lowkey… just watching some telly because I didn’t have much energy.

Was very pleased when on Day 218 I awoke at around 8.15am! No jet lag? How bizarre… That evening was really nice as my roomies invited me for Easter Dinner. With both ham and turkey on the plate it was very filling but enjoyable nevertheless! I very much appreciated it.

Day 219 and the jet lag hit. Majorly. I awoke at 3 am but couldn’t make it back to bed. However later in the day there were things to be done, so I made my way up to Barrie to help and open my friend’s pool.

It’s not necessarily hard work, but it just seems like it doesn’t end!! We did good work of it and finished mid-afternoon. I even jumped into what little water was in the pool, dunked my head in and rushed for the towels as I was only in my swim trunks! Sorry, that’s “SWIMMING COSTUME” for my friend at Yongala Dive.

It was then on to Easter Dinner part two! I feel very lucky to have had dinner at friends’ houses two nights in a row! It was extremely tasty and very sociable. The ride home I had to open up a couple of belt notches!

On Day 220 it was back to a non holiday day so I had a run around kind of day in that I visited friends, got my hair cut, got some groceries and dropped my computer off to get a bit of a fix. That was the highlights for that day!

Day 221 was a Wednesday so it was up to Barrie to do some dive running around. Got some paperwork done and then headed over to evening class. It was a combined night and with tables being taught it was quite comprehensive but rewarding nevertheless. Capped off with a nice gathering out for wings and I was quite happy to be staying over to…

Day 222 which started with Cranberry pancakes and then a visit to the Go bus route back to Newmarket featuring probably the most informative GO bus driver that I’ve had in quite awhile (or perhaps ever) who taught me a couple perfectly legal tricks of the trade in regards to more effectively riding the rails!

Later on that day I headed down to Scarborough (which, by public transit, is not the easiest!) to see a live production of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog.

It was tons of fun… perhaps one day I’ll be in a production of it! The U of T Scarborough folks did a really good job. I also have a contact through them which is great as well. Back up to Newmarket and then Day 223 was a bit more low key before blending into Day 224 which was back down to Toronto.

I’m getting dizzy just typing this up and I already experienced it! This time it was to see My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Which you might think is a bit bizarre, as a title obviously, but it was great seeing with a good friend and we both really enjoyed it!

It was then over to my friend Emily's house for a "catch-up party" as she was home from England for a bit (and I believe still is because of the volcanic ash situation).

We had tons of fun... Cranium is a hoot!

Day 225 and it was chill time but it was quite nice as my friend Caleb was home from Cleveland so I enjoyed seeing him for a bit. Running around was the rest of the order of the day – along with catching up on Amazing Race... it's definitely heating up!

I think that’s enough catching up for a bit… catch you later!

Cheers,
Vick.

Days 211 to 216: Wrapping up in Oz.

It was a lazy Sunday, to quote the SNL crew, on Day 211. I was up early to wish everyone off at the dive shop and say goodbye to the crazy crew from the night before. I had to be out of my room at 10 am but was able to just take it easy – go for a walk on the beach, surf the net, eat lunch, and then headed out at around 12.30 to catch my 1.15 bus.

I found it difficult to leave. Alva Beach was probably the nicest location that I had stayed at hostel wise and it was so refreshing to deal with a dive organization that was extremely professional.

But it was time to move on. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, passing through many a town and several stops until we reached Cairns around 8.30 pm. At this point I had no idea where my lodge was so through a series of events I ended up at Ryan’s Rest shortly thereafter.

I had made a conscious decision – due to Saturday’s events on the boat and being a wee bit low on funds that I wasn’t going to be doing any more diving at this point. So nice and early on Day 212 I headed out to explore Cairns. It definitely is a town aimed towards tourists, especially backpackers. “Padi course four days $475!” “Skydive from 14,000 feet!” “Car rentals only $39 per day!” Signs like this could be seen all around the town. It would definitely be hard to decide on where to go.

In the afternoon I headed back to the hostel and got a hostile reception.

It turns out that this establishment rents out to long termers in the lower season.

“Where are you staying?” the guy in the next room asks me, forcefully. I explain next door is my room.

“Well, just so you know, this is my tv and my area!”

Sorry, I think, isn’t this a common area? I mention this later to the owner and her solution is to let me watch tv in the empty apartment downstairs. A stop gap, but not the right way to do things.

I immediately book for a switch of hostels starting two days later, which makes me quite happier. It’s a shame, however, at this point that I have a massive headache as I would have loved to gone to the new hostel’s traditional Aussie BBQ but my cranium can’t take it.

I happily wake up on day 213 and decide that with the rain it might be an inside kind of day. It is cheap day at the movies so I first ride the escalator up to the entrance.

Always stand on the blue feet. Safer communities together.

I decided on seeing The Blind Side. I had thought about seeing it on the plane but I figured my focus wouldn’t be there. I was quite impressed – very enjoyable, and so nice to see a good movie that doesn’t think it has to rely on sex/violence/language/adult situations/etc.

I spent the rest of the day packing and starting to scout out souvenirs! It was near the end of the trip so I needed to start picking things up.

Day 214 and I have spent too much time at the shopping plaza (although its air conditioning is enticing). But first I have to move hostels in the morning which is not that hard as it’s only a block away. Souvenir shopping is next – I really enjoyed browsing around, which included a stop to the “night market” later in the day.

In the afternoon I enjoyed a relaxing day down at the lagoon. Although it was overcast it was still enjoyable. Basically due to the jellyfish population it is unsafe to swim at the small beach so the town created a lagoon.

And even though it was still doing off and on raining, guess what the temperature was?

Not bad, eh?

The evening entertainment was a presentation at Reef Teach. It was really great – in fact something that most people should have to go to before they interact with the Reef. We got to hear all about the fish and coral on the reef and how they deal with everyday situations. There were also some fossilized (sp?) specimens that we were allowed to touch. Loved the leeches.

On the way home I found out something which I vowed to make my entertainment for my final day.

Day 215 was April Fool’s. I really wanted to pull a prank but I figured the timing was off sadly! Not much happened until later in the day but I very much enjoyed running into Guillaume from Rennes. He was very surprised that I just burst into French when I heard his English accent. I always enjoy speaking with native speakers. At around 3.45 pm I arrived to take a flying trapeze class! The funniest thing by far was that I was the only adult amongst a bunch of tweens!

First off you had to practice kicking your legs up. Now I’m not the most flexible person but with a little help of my instructor (who I kicked in the face, sorry Craig) I did get into the right position.

And that was pretty much it! I ended up being near the end of the queue, but as you can see, for the most part, I pulled it off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHOh1pFjmkk

Please understand that due to my stubbornness I did pay for a second swing and did actually nail the backflip, much to my surprise! Sadly I didn’t get that one on video due to space on the camera.

What a thrill that was! I’ve got to find some classes closer to home.

There wasn’t much time to relax so I “Oprah walked” (read: speedwalking) back to the hostel to grab my change of clothes and shortly thereafter it was off to Cableskiing Cairns! For $39 I got two hours of wakeboarding, a bbq and transportation. The best part was that it was limited to 15 people so it was nice and quiet.

As it turned out, the road was flooded, so out we got nearer to the home base!

Let’s get one thing perfectly straight. I’ve never wakeboarded but was anxious to try. That being said, it was like being on Wipeout as I kept falling over repetitively but I just kept laughing. Kneeboarding I had better success with, made it around the track twice! Here are some pictures of the experience.

I ended up chatting with Carly, the first Welsh resident that I had met on the entire trip! She had also taken some time off of work to travel, so we found that we had similar interests.

I would have loved to have gone out for a celebratory drink to finish off the trip, but my arms and legs determined otherwise!

Day 216 and it was time to wrap up. Eight weeks travelling through New Zealand and Australia had wrapped up. And unlike Europe, when I felt that I just didn’t stop, I boarded the plane in Cairns around 12.30 pm with the satisfaction that I had paced myself better and thus didn’t feel zonked when I left. And talk about a dream trip … it really was!

The flights home were long. Cairns to Auckland was about 4 hours, although I passed the time by watching the Australian film The Castle which was very much enjoyable. And an episode of Glee.

The experience in Auckland going through security (as we were heading into the US) was not the most enjoyable. I often wonder why everyone things that passengers are guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around?

The young lady next to me unfortunately had some items confiscated and she was not pleased so we sat and chat for awhile, just to think about other things. She was from Calgary but is in Toronto quite often so we agreed to meet up for coffee sometime.

The flight itself from Auckland to Los Angeles was twelve hours so I figured I would catch up on some entertainment! In fact due to it being Good Friday they were running an Easter contest. Here’s my submission:

The Decision
by Ryan Vickers

The temptation is too great
But I feel
As the occasion comes
But once a year
That I allow myself
To indulge.
The decision is wrought
With choice.
Do I break it open
Or
Should I poke a small hole
And drain
It out with a straw?
This is not a
Life-altering decision
However I feel I must handle you,
The cream egg,
As unlike your other yellow and white friend
I’d rather not have you
End up scrambled.

And guess what! Inspiration that hit at 2 in the morning netted me a magnum of champagne for second place! Sweet.

As a result when we checked into LAX I had to repack my bags to accommodate the spirits! And once I had finished that I was off to meet up with my friend Alex Purnell.

Alex, like me, is a game show veteran – she’s been on almost a dozen if memory serves! This is the first time we’d been able to meet in person and it was great to sit down and shoot the breeze! I also appreciate the fact that she came in all the way from Orange County to have coffee with me. Thanks Alex!

Following the visit I took it easy in the departure lounge for about 5 hours before boarding the overnight flight… which will be covered in the next installment!

Cheers,
Vick.

To tide you over

I'm flying home today, but to tide you over, here's something I did yesterday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHOh1pFjmkk

Cheers,
Vick