My toothpaste tastes like Root Beer!

OK, so once again it has taken me way too long to write a post on here. I've been wanting to put something up for a while now, but every time I set time aside to do it something else has come up! It's been so long now, that when I originally came up with the idea of the title for this post and I wrote it and stored it on here...well that toothpaste has long gone now, and my "Fresh Mint flavoured" toothpaste actually tastes like mint now!

So since my last post, I realised that I seem to just be listing what I've been up to, and this is due to the lack of photos that I have been taking, and this is due to the lack of times that I take my camera out with me, and this in turn is due to my lazy excuse that 'I have been here before, so I don't really need my camera!' - Not Good Enough! For example, I didn't take this one:

Well to start off, River Fire last month! It was pretty awesome, the planes were epic, I'm not much of a fireworks person, but the fireworks from South Bank were awesome, and I did take pictures, some of them came out awesome...but sadly I managed to delete them all from my phone? Fortunately MJ sent my this one of the Goodwill bridge on fire....

Oh, I typed that last paragraph last night and don't wanna change it, but this evening I did just manage to find these deleted photos on my phone though...fluke...nope, skill!

I did stay out till "I dunno what time in the morning" that night, but I did still go up to head to Lone Pine, on the southern outskirts of Brisbane, with Dandy to do some mountain biking, and some lake swimming.

The following day, as my interview went well the previous Thursday, I had a medical on that Monday (and an excuse to take a day off of my (old) job). I did have to endure another week at my old job, waiting for this company to get the results back from my medical and my 2 references, one being in England, the other being in Japan. On the Thursday though, they did finally get back to me to offer me the job, which of course I said "Yes' to. And I told my other company that Friday was my last day.....on that Friday afternoon.

Of course my trousers did rip on my last morning of work...so I had a great temporary fix for the afternoon. 

This is how badd that company was. When I left them (nearly four weeks ago now) I told my supervisor and the accounts lady that I was leaving, that was all I needed to do, I as told. Then about 2 weeks after that, I had a missed call from a random number on my phone, so I phoned this number back,
"Hello"
"Hi, sorry who is this, I had a missed call from this company"
"Oh, Hi it's Georgina at (the company I worked for), and who's this?"
"Hi Georgina, it's Mike, how are you?"
"Hay Mike, good thanks, ummm yeah, it wasn't me who phoned you, it must've been one of the managers, but do you still work for us!?"

Two weeks! It took them two weeks to realise and then ask the question!


The next weekend, was a long weekend that followed, with the Monday being a bank holiday, and me not really achieving too much on any of them days off (apart from Tash's and Coop's joint house birthday party on the Friday night)!

Actual Root Beer - Only $2 for IGA, previous American/Canadian addiction reaffirmed!

The following weekend included finally catching up with Terry and Amber again on the Friday, for the first time since arriving back in Brisbane, we headed out to see Kidnyte playing at Kerbside, in the Valley, before heading of to Brisbane's very own Oktoberfest. So many people wearing their Lederhosen, and not one of them speaking German, which really disappointed a drunken me. A group of us checked out the West End festival and live music in some random and some not-so-random places around West End on the Saturday. That weekend finished with a small Kayaking trip around North Pine, on the northern outskirts of Brisbane, with Dandy, Pete, Logan, and Sandra (in the back of my one man Kayak....kinda hard work).

Terry - Kidnyte

Das sind keine Schnäpse!

Last weekend Sandra and I tagged along with Dandy and Steffi on an adventure to Byron Bay. We left late Saturday afternoon arriving in the evening. Chilling out, and checking out this awesome Canadian fire twizzler (for lack of the correct term to use) Scott, he put on a great show. Towards the end of one of his shows some kid in the crowd came out with "Your fire's gone out!"
To which he replied in quite an inspirational manner, whilst not stopping his performance "it's not all about the fire, life's not all about the flame or the climax, it's about the journey, the ride, the art, you need to appreciate the art, and enjoy all the great parts in life"
"But there's no fire!"

Both valid points I feel.

We ended that night with a late night/early morning swim in the sea, with the best bioluminescence I have ever seen in my life....it was an acid trip of a disco in that sea! All over our bodies....probably the best piss that I have ever had too! Before all four of us bunked up in the back on Dandy's van for the night.

Sandra and I slept in that "bed" that is under where Steffi was in this picture...actually pretty comfy...but tight if you wanted to roll over!

Sunday morning on Byron Bay

...And afterwards, on route back to Brisbane, at Brunswick Heads.

See, that (self quoted) "Evil German" does like me a bit.

A bit more sparse than Byron Bay is.

And finally (in regards to weekends) this weekend, just passed, started out with a night out in the Valley with just Rosie and me. The first time we've been out just the two of us in well over two years....well well well overdue. And on Saturday Sandra and I met up with Finn and Alice to watch the Ruby Four nations at the Suncorp Stadium, with England beating Samoa 32-26, and then the Aussies getting turned over by the Kiwis by 30-12. Now at least I have proven to Sandra that England don't just loose.

 Friday:

Saturday

The Huka....from afar!

It was kinda cool sitting in a crowd of mixed nationalities

As far as my job's concerned, it is going well. It's taken a little while to get going really, been a bit of a delay with my project starting (not in my control) but it's slowly starting to pick up now. I can see that it may get a bit repetitive, but overall I am definitely happy with the job swap that I have made, and it's quite cool getting on the buses now knowing that I am repairing and replacing the equipment that controls/scans mine and everyone else's Go Cards. Actually, to get an idea of what I am doing check out this link here. We had the Queensland government come in to our warehouse last week, with loads of camera crews (I'm actually in the background working (off camera) as they were interviewing the Transport Minister), those are the products that I am actually working on. Nice 6 month contract there! The 2nd half of the video doesn't relate to me at all.

I'm still riding to the same suburb, Murarrie, every day, so I'm still riding about 11.5km each way. Although my bike is currently well and truly out of action, so I've been riding Jeff's awesome mountain bike to work, which saves me about 10 minutes each way...happy-(lay-in)-days! I've also started doing boxing with Terry, an evening a week in Roma Street Park, in the city.

The Gateway Bridge in the distance, taken from Breakfast Creek Road

Looking back down, after the ride up!

..The top...

 Brisbane River, looking out to Port of Brisbane

...And the ride down!!!

 I saw on the bike path of the Gateway Bridge there is a speed limit sign of 10km/h, to that I say: "Going up hill, I wish! Going down hill, Get fu....!"

A big storm brewing on my ride home on Monday night...that fork lighting was huge, and so constant! Living in the tropics

Also, as far as our living arrangements go. The other week, Nina asked if we wanted to stay here until April, which fits in nicely with my work contract, plus we're both happy here. So no house hunting for us just before Christmas any more. So we're both well happy about that for many reasons! But it'll be interesting to see all the living arrangements within the house over the next month or so, with Chris moving out in a couple of weeks (even though he's hardly ever here), and other things that have come up (which I won't talk about on my blog, as I feel it would be unfair as it doesn't involve me).

On Tuesday (last) night I took a trip down memory lane for meal where I used to work at the Groove Train, on the river front with Sandra, Kerri and Aguns, Laiken, and Amber. No one that I know seems to work there any more.

On route to the Groove Train yesterday.

The guys causing havoc all over our house!

The guy that should be in my room...

...but this is the guy that's in our room!

I know I'm gonna sound like my sister here, but he really was huge. I just got him out of our room as I was writing this!

And I know (just as well as any and every other Saints fan knows) that it won't last, so I will comment on it whilst I can. But, WHAT'S GOING ON!?!, we're back up to 2nd in league! And what was that Sunderland game all about, 8-0! Actually EIGHT to NOTHING! COYR! Enjoy the high whilst it lasts, I'm well aware we haven't really played any big teams in the league yet!