Part I

Hello peoples,

I am chilling out to System of a Downs latest offering at Ash and Lisas apartment at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane awaiting my flight to Singapore which is just a couple of hours, a ferry and train ride away. My plans are still loose for asia, touch down in singapore, get a room and make up my razoodock what to do.

The journey so far...

Brisbane. Drinking mainly.

Brisbane is cool, it's been really good to me. Good weather, good muse and good company.

The flight was pretty uneventful, it was cloudy all the way from Welly to just off the coast of Brisbane where the clouds gave way to a perfect sunny day . Not too hot either. Had a party to go to that night at Aleeshas flat in the west end which became a bit of a bender. Nice to be able to sit outside of an evening ; ) Started on the XXXX (which I cop a bit of sh!t for drinking, aussies claim that no one drinks it, much like fosters...) There was a large share house (flat) over the back fence full of travellers so I rocked on over in good neighbourly fashion. Then on to the Vic which is a large crowded pub. full of young courtney place type peoples. Played some really bad pool, I managed to sink the black and send the white whizzing off the table in one impressive game ending shot. Checked out the band too, which was a dude with a bass, a dude with a guitar and a pc. They actually sounded pretty good, did a cover of the old Screaming Jets song Better which none of you have probably heard of or remember anyway.

Ended up at the casino drinking $3 daiquiris... I had every colour there was! That place is a maze, little rooms full of pokies all over the place and carpet that looks like something out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Aussie needs to import some Iraqis though cos their kebabs are shizer (well, the 2 I had weren't all that). Maybe abrakebabra should set up a franchise... Woke up in someone elses bed with a hangover that took most of the afternoon to shake. Watched the Doors movie, hadn't seen that in a while, excellent recovery media. Ash cooked a nice lamb roast for dinner too.. all good.

That took some time to write, I'm now writing from singapore...

Went to a wicked driving range, the tee automatically loads itself and it amazing how far one can hit the ball when you don't have to change stance between shots.

Was riding around up top on one of the city ferries when I first got here, drinking carlton colds when the captain came up and said "aw guys, you're not allowed to drink p1ss on the ferry" so we said "sorry mate" and kept on drinking. The guy actually apologised when we got off cos he wanted to be up there too...

Went for a road trip out into the country, which was interesting, was supposed to go to a vineyard but they were shut. Did look all that different to home, except there were eucalyptus and Had a tasty feed at a surf club on the Gold Coast. Had a moreton bay bug which is like a prehistoric crayfish. Was tasty but the best part was having this vivesected exosceleton on the plate : )

Went out to Pauls beach house at Kooringa on Moreton island, which is 80 k of the Brisbane coast on Pauls mighty Bertram 25. Did lots of fishing. The water was clear as and it can be quite frustrating watching the fish swim in the surf but not be able to catch any of them! They'd follow the lure in then bugger off. We set the crab pots, which turned into a drama. Paul, Ash and I took the dingy way out into moreton bay. The sea was a bit rough but we got out alright and dropped the pots. Then, right after dropping the last pot, the damn outboard stopped and wouldn't start again. We rowed for about 2 hours across the bay, and no one would come to our aid, until we managed to hitch a ride back with some rich fullas in a massive cat. It turned out to be a weekend of engine dramas. None of the outboards would work so we had to row whenever we needed to get to the Bertram. Got quite good at rowing. The quad had a spat as well but we got it going again. Had a good rark around sandy tracks through the bush. Picked up the crab pots in the Bertram and got a good feed for dinner. Crabs are fascinating critters. I sat there transfixed to them the whole way in They've got that fighting spirit when you try to get them out of the pot, large pincers grabbing anything they can. The all latch onto each other too. Pincers were about an inch and a half long, I managed to not lose a finger while I played with them. Theres wicked little soldier crabs on the beach too, the all get up together and march off on some mission unbenown to anyone but them. Lots of pelicanbs on moreton too, they're cool to watch. Still haven't seen a snake. Saw a Bandicoot when I went for a nocturnal mission.

Had lots of barbeques and a roast while out there. Ash caught a squid too, just enough for 1 squid ring each. Did some fire dancing while I was there which was excellent fun. Aleesha put on a good show and I did a worthy one myself aparently. Going to have to get a staff for the beach in asia I'm thinking. Ash and Mike put on a good taiaha display on the beach on the last day. Went to start the Bertram on the last day and it was its turn to play up. Had to charge the battery. Apparantly everything works sweet, except when I'm there, or so they say... Had to row out to the squid grounds when I went out last year too. The boat ride back was pretty rough and we were running out of light to get the crab pots. Got a few crabs, the pots had been pillaged by pirates though.. arrrr... Had a little boat following us in the relative calm of out wake, they're lucky we were going over cos they probably would have been been staying on moreton otherwise.

Got some good painting muse while in Brisbane too. Came up with a couple of concept sketches. It's not exactly renown as a cultural mecca yet there's cool murals all over the show and sculpture as well, some cool, some not. Nice park lands around the river. Some great spots for Qigong and Taiji. Southbank is really cool at night. Wicked catching the ferry or the citycat around the place. I think thats about everything covered in a rather jumbled, non chronological way. Go to art school and you too could have a head as jumbled as mine...

The flight over aussie was wicked. There desert looks incredible from the air, fractal like. Theres all manner of colours and interesting shapes. Rather inspiring. Headed diagonally across, transitting Darwin.

All in all, Brisbanites have a very good lifestyle, no wonder so many kiwis are jumping ship.

b) Singapore.

I am in singapore now. It is damn hot and really humid. I landed at the airport then realised I had absolutely no idea where I was going but knew there was a train (MRT) l could catch. It took some time to find the train however for there happens to be 2 terminals and I was at the one without the train. After finding the train I had to backtrack and find some tourist info. Catching the MRT is easy as, just get a smart card and off you go. Cheap as too. Eventually got to the area known as little india but ended up walking for miles following a dodgy map to backpackers that were fullup. I got a nice aircon place in the end. The even provided eggs on toast for breakfast which a nice dutch girl cooked for me. "cook the man some eggs..."

Camera shopping shall be the plan for the rest of the day. Probably going to go down to indonesia after all. Got another night here in singapore then might mission off tomorrow.

Ah.. thank god for free broadband. Better get outta here, theres a whole city to explore!