Strange Dreams...

Ok so I'm not ready yet to stop blogging in Australia... I just needed to write these dreams down before I forget them.

The first dream happened when I was Esther and Mark's house. I couldn't sleep because I had a bad stomach ache (which I had on and off the whole 2 weeks I was in Adelaide). I was tossing and turning in the bed and finally found a position to sleep in. But then the dream occured. Basically these tentacle-like metalic arms started to spring forth from beneath the bed. There were maybe ten to fifteen arms, all different lengths, sort of robotic arms. Instead of arms at the end, they had saucers with coffee in them. All of them were slowly whirling and extending and retracting around me, offering me the coffee. But I had had so much coffee in Adelaide that I was sick of it. I screamed and flailed pushing the arms and cups away from me, and so the cups and saucers smashed as they hit the floor. But the arms kept persisting, producing forth new coffee with new saucers and cups. "NO MORE NO MORE" I yelled, and then I woke up.

The second dream I had a few days ago. This one was a bit gruesome. It is twilight. I am out in a farmer's field, playing my PSP. The farmer's son keeps being distracted from this work to come watch me play. It is nearing the end of the workday so he instists he wants to watch me, but his father keeps pulling him back. They are working on skinning a cow. The odd thing is though that it is still alive. It has no head, and the legs are shopped off. So it looks like a big hunk of meat, but it is still alive because it is breathing. The meat on the bones heaves up and down and a weird sound is coming from the skinned animal. Suddenly it runs towards me. They are about 200 meters away but this hunk of meat is running at me. So the farmer and his son shoot it full of arrows right before it gets to me. The bloodied pulp has stopped advancing but it it's still breathing somehow. I beat it to submission with a large club until it stops moving entirely, all the while it's making these awful noises, like a strange mooing sound. I awoke from this dream at this point at about 3am.

The last dream I had was last night. I am back in Waterloo near my dad's work. It's sort of rainy and foggy out. I am circling around outside Conestoga Mall, near King Street. I have two large wagon wheels from an old Conestoga Wagon slung around one shoulder. The other shoulder I have nothing on. No idea why I'm not spreading the weight out, but I digress. People make fun of me for this strange, random task I am performing. I am also crossing the street from one end to the other and cars pass by me and honk their horns. On one of these rounds I pass a man that looks vaguelly familiar. He speaks Czech to me, so he must know that I can understand the language a bit. Perhaps he is an associate of my father's. He tells me that he'll see me soon and that him and my father are going to have steak at the restaurant in the mall. This is all I can remember from this dream, but I'm pretty sure I didn't know the man at all.

So that's basically all I have to write this time. I am slowly starting to come to grips with the fact I am only at this job for 3 more days. I am starting to think of places to go at the Sunshine Coast. Perhaps Frasier Island.

So it keep it REALS ya'lls, and maybe lay down some interpretations or suggestions.

Ciao

_J

Jobless, carless, homeless, loveless, careless, brainless, christless...

Well it's over. Last night I got the call that they wouldn't be needing me here anymore. It's kind of fitting though because I was getting frustrated here. The warm weather and beaches and so on is nice and all, but it means nothing to me if I can't come home to something good. Of course the argument can be made that I should just be outside all the time and only come home to eat and sleep. But I'm just not that sort of person.

Next week will be my last week here, and it's a shortened week as well, since it's Australia Day on Monday. I am also going to start doing some touristy things now, starting off with a Harbour Bridge Climb on Saturday. I might go visit some people too but not sure anymore if I want to travel too far anymore. I've had it up to here with it. I just need my movies and videogames and mass-downloading back. 4 months without them is just too long. Deja-vu is setting in now too because this is how I was feeling in my last week in Germany 5+ years ago. Basically what I'm saying is that I'm a computer geek for life, and going to another country isn't going to change anything about me.

Other than that I don't have much else to say. They actually gave me a lot of work to do now but what's the point, right at the end? What's funny is they did this to me in Germany as well, giving me heaps of work in my last 2 weeks there. Funny how the situation just mirrors itself so well. Also, having to take public transport. Even though my car is finished I will get a new one soon and be on my feet (or wheels) before you know it.

The only thing I'm dreading is the knee-high snow and the -20° weather. That will not be fun. Hopefully my friends picking me up at the airport will bring me some proper winter clothing or else it will be quite interesting.

This may be my last post from Australia because I don't have much access to the internet outside of work. But anyway thanks to those that listened and responded and I suppose I'll see you all again soon.

Cheers

_Joram

soldergast

we always had work
but the hours were long
and the pay was low
looking back we had it good
Oh to be in that wonderful
place again where life had
M E A N I N G and everything
had its place

Home and without a computer

Ach du lieber! That's pretty much how I can sum everything up right now. December 30th I went up to Mt. Barker in the Adelaide hills region. My cousin Esther lives there with her husband Mark. This was the first time I met her since she was a child. Now they have a child of their own that is about the age that I last saw her at... between 1 and 2 years old. She is a pretty exploratory child, and babbles to herself a lot. She will go up to random people and just want to meet them. Pretty funny to see.

I finally got to go to a wildlife park after all this time in Australia, the next day. I was pretty amazed to be so up close to koalas and kangaroos, and I finally got to see wombats. It was a much more intimate experience than the Sydney Wildlife World. I actually got to touch the koala and get my picture taken. Esther had a camera with her and they burned me a CD after I left, so I have at least that.

The next day was New Years and I went to the church there the first time. It wasn't so bad, it reminded me of the church I grew up in in Kitchener. Very similar conservative sort of church. The only difference is that there are a lot more young people and children here, instead of just senior citizens. After that we went to a barbecue at Ruth (cousin) & Albert's house. They have 5 kids, and then my cousin Miriam lives close by and she has 3 kids. So a lot of kids all over the place again like last month, only in a different house. We had some schnitzel and good times. My uncle also had a heart to heart talk with me and he told me about his testimony, how he was saved, and also about the dangers of the Internet. He also told me to stop being addicted to the computer. I wonder who told him about that.

The next day we went to Port Adelaide for a dolphin adventure cruise. It only cost $4 so I had a feeling there were no guaranteed sightings. And there weren't... except at the very end when we came back to port we saw a baby dolphin going out to see. Oh well.

All this time though ever since I came to Mt. Barker, I realized my computer had broken down. The LCD screen just didn't come up, and it rebooted itself after a while. Now I've been in touch with HP support via email but it's such a slow process I want to just call them instead. I'm not even sure this thing is covered under warranty anymore, since it was purchased in April 2007.

Also, when I got home on Saturday, my landlord was renovating my room. So I had to move out to another suburb until he finishes it up, which will be about mid-February. The new place is actually not so bad, but the shopping centre was burned down by hooligans in August so it is currently undergoing renovations. So I have to find other places with supermarkets. There is one 20 minutes down the road though, but I'm not sure I want to walk so far with heavy bags.

And when I got back to work naturally there was no work for me to do. So I'm just busying myself with made-up tasks. I did manage to get a bit of work to do but it's not looking so great. What was once a promise of 'heaps of work to do' is now looking like nothing at all! So I should either find new work or get out of Australia back into the cold winters of Canada. We'll see.

Anyway, that's my story so far. Hope you enjoy.

Later

_J