Groundhogs can climb trees

Today as I was cleaning up my dad's office, bringing stuff to our house, I spotted a groundhog in the parking lot close to the car. So, I did the sensible thing and chased it away... as I was gaining on the fat little rodent, it scampered up a tree! I was so surprised because I had no idea they can do this. So I thought it was funny and took a picture.

So after this I decide to go back in and pack some more stuff. About 15-20 minutes pass, and out of curiousity, I went back to the tree. Sure enough, it's still there, scared out of its wits! So I proceeded to throw pine cones at it to make it feel more scared, and took some more pictures.
All in all it was a very productive day and I've very proud of myself. Yet, I still don't have a job or any prospects. Yay me.

later

_Joram

Back to the life I wanted

Well as you can probably tell I am back to Canada now. My last week in Australia was fun though, and I will forever cherish it. I met my cousin Sam and his wife & kids, and he let me stay in his apartment for a few days. But unlike the visit at Dave's place, I actually went out. In fact, I rented a car, and drove on the wrong side of the road! It was a pretty freaky experience, and I rented a GPS unit as well, which ended up being a real blessing.

I met a nice lady on the plane to Sunshine Coast airport, and she shared some of her life with me and I did mine. Usually people sitting next to me don't talk to me, but this was one of those odd times when it did happen. The 1-and-a-bit hour flight seemed much shorter. She seemed to know everything that was happening, from the wings to the undercarriage and the wheels. Of course she ordered a lot of drinks as well, and got really happy towards the end. She gave me one of her friends' phone numbers, which I never ended up calling. Oh well. I guess I'm not that adventurous.

I immediately recognized my cousin, although he didn't me. He said he thought I was a bit taller! So it was sort of funny. The car rental was a nice Toyota sedan, but I can't remember the make anymore. I tried to follow him in the dark but I was still getting used to driving on the left side. Good thing for the GPS! We had programmed his house in before I left, so it was all good. He passed me on the highway and I knew all was well. Driving in the passenger seat was so odd to me, I will probably never get over it. I met his wife and she was lovely. I think I even got some leftover dinner, some nice spaghetti and meatballs. And so I slept on the extended sofa. It was sort of humid out and I couldn't really fall asleep. In the middle of the night his young daughter walked out of her room and said hi to me, although I pretended to be sleeping.

The next day I went to Rainbow Beach. I had booked a Fraser Island tour for that day, and left 3 hours in advance to make sure I got there in time. The roads were so well paved it was a dream to drive on them. Even the expressways here only go up to 2 lanes, because 3 aren't necessary. Guess the population isn't that big yet to warrant that. I got to the place about 1 hour early, but I was still happy I left early. I parked my car and waited for the tourbus, and it came at exactly 7:40am. It turns out there were only 10 guests that day in a 40-seater bus, so we sat up front. I didn't really talk to anyone there, but it was a nice mix of people. Australians, 1 Danish guy, 2 Irish people, and 1 from New Zealand. Good times! The tour guide was a nice chap named Mark, and the company was Fraser Island Explorer Tours. It was great fun and it would take too long to talk about all of it here, but it was just awesome and I recommend it to everyone. The day was cloudy and overcast and it was still great. The island itself is a national park and it's protected, so no actual roads are on it. Instead, you can only drive there on 4WD buses/trucks. Our tourbus was awesome though, we passed all the amateur drivers doing self tours easily. The highlights were a walk through a small rainforest, sand dunes, freshwater streams, Lake MacKenzie, a shipwreck, and a blowfish washed up on shore, believe it or not. We also saw some wild dingoes!

That evening I got back and actually got to meet my cousin's kids. Typical kids, playing and having fun. He actually made a new house though and next time I come visit I'll probably go there. The next day I went to Australia Zoo, and that was cool. Steve Irwin's presence is still strong there. Lots of memorials set up for him. Almost made me choke up. The park is really heavy on the crocodiles, which take up a large portion of it. But they are expanding to more things now, they even had a tiger which you could see up close and some elephants that I got to feed.

The last day there, I just drove around randomly. I went to a small aquarium, but it was nothing special really. I also went to a cool lookout point on something called 'wild horse mountain' or similar. Very neat-o. I also had some Mackers with my cousin and we said our goodbyes after he showed me around his work place. He is a surveyor and a civil engineer, works on bridges a lot.

So then I flew back to Sydney, and the next day I finally went up the tower there. It's not as high as CN Tower, of course, but it's not too bad. Nice 360° views. I was feeling sad because I had to leave this warm weather behind. I knew that coming up next would be some snow and cold times!

On Saturday, February 7th, I left back to Canada. This was a mostly uneventful trip. The 15-hour flight to San Francisco was much shorter because I had my PSP, DS, and some movies to watch. I sadly only caught a small glimps of the Golden Gate Bridge because the airport is a fair distance from that portion of the city. The US Customs guy gave me a bit of a hassle, because these days you have to do an electronic registration over the internet if you want to travel through the states! Lame as! So he said this was still a grace period, and to tell my friends to sign up if they intend to travel through the U.S. Cool. My next two flights, from San Fran to Washington, and from Washington to Buffalo, didn't really matter as much. I was back in North America! The coolest part was landing in Buffalo, and my former roommates were all waiting for me, with a picture of Little Joramee. Very cute. So we caught up with each other, had some Wendy's (which they don't have in Aussie), and stopped at the duty free. No border problems either, good thing I had recieved my travel papers at the Canadian Embassy in Sydney! We got home at around 3AM, I even drove the last bit myself cause all my friends were way too tired.

So it's been a month now, and I'm reflecting on things. I have been half-heartedly applying for jobs here and there, but so far no real interest. Got a lot of rejections, but mostly there's just no reply. No interviews. But I am enjoying downloading non-stop again, and playing all the games I missed out on. It makes the time go by very quickly. I like watching Lost again and Battlestar Galactica, both of which are excellent shows and I recommend to everyone (not just sci-fi geeks like me).

So is this the life I wanted? Living with my parents for free while freeloading off them while I pretend to look for work? I don't know how long it can last, to be honest. I may have to find a job in retail or something else that isn't related to engineering. Who knows. One more month maybe is all I can take of this, then I will have to get desperate.

Anyway, thanks again to those people that read this thing. I know I tend to ramble on a lot and don't show a lot of photos. But I did on Facebook, so look there if you want to see some. It's not and evil place, as a lot of you think it is. Through facebook I have reconnected to so many people I thought I had lost forever. And I used it to communicate with my cousins as well. So I can't hate on it. Give it a try!

Later!!

_Joramee

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

Adelaide again

Well I'm here again and I'm so damn bored. Dave and Jodie are nice enough people, there just isn't enough for a bloke like me to do around here! One of Dave's friends is offering to take me out one night to a club but that isn't just my scene at all. I will try to avoid it. I have mostly been sitting at home while Dave's at work, surfing the internet. Unfortunately I sucked all his bandwidth dry by downloading an hd version of Tropic Thunder. The movie's not so great and I fell asleep while watching it, so it wasn't really worth the download. Argh! Shoulda done my research a bit before I got it. Hopefully Dave won't be upset that he can only download at 64kbps now. Good thing it's near the end of the month now, and he should be up to his 1.2Mbps in January.

I am trying not to take advantage of the situation and just freeload here, but I keep getting offered candy and coffee and all sorts of snacks so who am I to refuse it? And when we go out Dave always pays for me, so I say hey why not. Today though i'm going to my other cousin's. My aunt & uncle will pick me up around 7pm tonight and then I will stay there for the remaining time. It shouldn't be too bad. They're nice people I'm told. It will be nice to have a change of environment. This hills of Adelaide are pretty nice, they remind me of the hills in Germany a bit. Twisty roads galore!

Christmas was ok here as well. The kids got a trambopoline and inspired me to download the trampoline episode of Simpsons. Back when it was a good show. His son got a Simpsons game too, and we played it and I knew none of the answers to the trivia questions because they were being pulled from mostly newer episodes. I haven't really been following Simpsons for the 20th century at all. When will someone finally pull the plug on it??? Seriously!

I was almost tempted to buy some $100 headphones. The current ones I have are pretty tinny and i want to hear the bass when I'm listening to my chunes. It's just the only way! My sister may be coming here soon, as she is running out of money in Sydney. It's too bad we weren't together here at once.

On Sunday we went to the River Murray about an hour from Adelaide. There I tried some kneeboarding and it was epic fail!! I fell so many times and I've been sore the past two days after. This is the river where Adelaide gets all its drinking water from. The whole road leading up to it has a big pipeline going along it. We had to get to the other side of the river and there is a free ferry that does that for you. Apparently it's cheaper for them to do that than to build a bridge.

Anyway that's my boring life so far. I spent the entire day importing my 2003 and 2007 blogs into blogspot. It was heaps fun! I just want to have a centralized place where I can find everything. I just hope I don't have another EMO moment and erase it all again, because I don't have anymore backups and I enjoy reading through old posts sometimes to see home much I have or haven't learned over the years.

Well that's it.

_Joram