holidays!!!

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yeah for holidays!  they have been a long time coming, although they are sad at the same time, as it means Megan must leave soon 😦

Uni wrapped up, and it was a good result all said and done.  i got a 5, 6 and 7.  all law subjects, so that gives me a deans commendation and my first ever 7 in a law subject.  1 all Greg, we are even now 🙂  somehow i think seeing you did 5 subjects this semester you will not have bettered me by one!

Holidays have been off to a pretty fast start.  we went to a QLD orchestra concert to start, before jumping in the volvo and putting 12 hours in to getting to Sydney.  haha, yep, don’t know who else drives to Sydney these days, but i did 🙂  Megan riding shotgun providing entertainment. 

Although she was beaten on the trip for the best entertainment by one up and coming Kangaroo.  On a stretch of road at dawn, coming up a rise with a truck from the other direction with lights that limited vision somewhere along the line this bloody kangaroo ended up flat bang in the middle of the road in front of me!  can’t even tell you i saw it jump on, all i remember is seeing it there!  Megan had a sharp intake of breath just as i saw it, all i can remember is a massive stab of the brakes, a sharp tug of the wheel to the left (thank god for wide shoulders) and we steered around the starlet.  I was very VERY impressed with the car with the way it handled it.  the ABS engaged as the steering park of the process began but the car stayed 110% stable the entire time.  not even the slightest twitch from the front or rear.  Car didn’t even understeer as it steered around.  It was the type of thing that only ever happens to you once and makes you remember why you pay so much for a well sorted package.   I doubt there are many other brands that can perform so well at high-speed.  Kinda like driving through the snow when we were in the US and you see other cars slipping and sliding and yet the bug chassis took it all in its stride. 

Impressive cars never stop keeping me impressed. 

 

So there was that event!  the trip took highway 1 down the coast line.  in news for those that have traveled it we have gone the way of the american interstate system,  they are building a bigger highways that are all dual carriage, 110km/h that really speeds the trip up.  the really sad part though is that they are by-passing all the small towns!   that classic little towns that have a couple of take out places, a pub, and $50 a night motels are all getting run out of business.  such a shame.  we kept turning off the highway so that we could go and see them.  i didn’t want to miss them, they break up the drive and often have some funny things out to attach tourists.

the funniest thing is all the “Big” things.  the big prawn, big clam, big rock, big banana… whole heap of big things…  like they say, if you’re a small town and you haven’t got anything there, just make something big!! 

 

it was a fun drive.  went from 3am to 3pm.  we have stops all the time to stretch legs and to see the sights.  could have probably shaved a couple of hours from it, but it’s not worth it really.

 

Got into Sydney, which was fun.  I like it, but I like Melbourne more.  that’s me though.  I know others disagree. 

Megan got her birthday present,  we did all the touristy stuff, saw all that there was to see, and then a coupe of days later we started out on the way home.

the way home we went allot slower,  stopping along the way at just about anything we liked the look of.  we past some BEAUTIFUL sea-change  towns that were along the coast line.  they were gorgeous places, we could have easily stayed there for days on end.  It’s a coast line that was very much like the california coast.  high cliffs and beautiful views.  QLD has allot more beaches, but being high up gives you some totally unspoilt views.

we spent a night a town called Kempsy and then made out way onto the gold coast the next day! 🙂  met up with the Taylors for dinner.

 

attached are some photos! 🙂

 

oh – stats for the trip were around 660miles, 24 hours moving, average fuel consumption was a truly amazing figure which was a 2nd surprise about the car I’ve never known!  5 car sedan, 250Hp turbo and it over 1150 km’s managed an amazing 8.5l/100km  30mpg.   really pretty good i thought!

heading to melbourne

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Long time between updates,  which happens… uni has this way of having a look at your timetable, finding those quite moments you thought you’d have an then dumping you with a heap of work!  Needless to say though, we have powered through and overcome this small detail!   The last couple of weekends we have had in the house which has enabled us to get onto of our uni work.  Yay for that!   All I have to look at some company law details while I’m down in Melbourne and it will be all done.  Not a bad effort for week 5,  I’m pretty impressed with myself for that one.

Of course the big reason for keeping up is that we have some plans for the later half of the term! Megan’s parents will be in town in around a month, BIG news there!   Lots of fun will be had,  trips all over the place are due to happen, from the north and south coasts, cairns, Melbourne, Adelaide.  The list is pretty extensive but it should be good at getting a really good taste of the place.  With any luck we will also get out to the Stanthorpe area for a day so we can hike up “bald Rock”.  It’s the largest granite rock in the world apparently,  you can pretty much see NSW, QLD, the ocean all from the top.  Think Ayres Rock but made of granite and you have an idea.  Its smaller by a bit, but its still pretty huge.  SO, while we might not have time to actually hang around and see the area over a night with them, hopefully we can head out for the day.  Queen Mary falls out there as well… and the Cunningham’s Gap lookout,  always a nice one  well.  Perhaps they can be lured out with a Porsche drive! J

Megan birthday as well coming up there….  Not going to be an easy one for me to put into motion either.. hmmm….  I’ve got some ideas and have organised one part,  but still,  leaves a little to happen in other areas.  Its pretty dam difficult to compete with a trip to Vanuatu, or some other place similar (it’s a pretty open idea I here!  Doesn’t make it easy does it!  Its quite a challenge I have been given, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.  Starting to think I may have backed myself into a corner with the Valentines day plans I made and executed!  You do something like that for just that day, what do you do about a birthday?!?!?!  It’s a tough one ain’t it!     I don’t mind a challenge…  which is a good thing considering what I’ve gone and done!

Anyway’s,  so, I’m on a plane to Melbourne right now,  I’m in 21C…  sort got conned on the seat here, just don’t treat frequent flyers like they used to!  In the old days they treated you special, now they treat you like you have some sort of OCD!

Lets think…  so far this year,  which is only in march I’ve been:

LAX – Hawaii

Hawaii – Sydney

Sydney – Brisbane

Brisbane – Melbourne

Melbourne – Brisbane.

As of tomorrow I’ll have  bumped that up to another two flights…  people are going to start to think I’m running from something!  Hmm… I think my bills are all paid!

SO,  I’m in the back here…  I have some of the worlds less respectable travellers with me…  and I’m saying this knowing full well that I’m putting myself into the category seeing I’m with them,  but really,  I’m starting to feel less and less ‘average’ as the days go on… YES, I’ve felt average before!  Below average even!  I had to sit in the front row of my grade 12 photo!  So that places me in the bottom end of heights for students in my grade 12 class!

I’m really talking randomly here aren’t i..   I’ve been smart though, I’ve actually turned my screen font size and preview size right down so no-one can actually read what I’m writing, and I’m watching the news on the TV at the same time,  so its sort of one of those “just start writing” exercises and you get to see what comes out!  Yep, that’s a early warning sign for stopping to read!!  You’ve been warned!  So in 3 pages when your going “I WANT MY !) MINUTES BACK” not only should you not blame me, you should also look into why its taking you 10 minutes to read this!

On a side topic, its actually pretty hard to type with turbulence!  You think you’ve hit the key, but your hand has moved since the last time you thought the keyboard was at a particular height,  SO, you end up missing the keyboard!  And then I can’t actually SEE what I’m typing!  Its all small lines on the screen, so I can’t actually check what I’m writing, where I am, if I’m making sense… and see there you go, I watched an add for a new ford on the TV and now I can’t remember what my point was!….  this could take a little!

Perhaps I just shouldn’t post this?!?!  Hmmm, nah, that’s no fun! J criticism of my blogs isn’t a bad thing, its about the only interaction I get with people! J (practice for my future years as a lawyer! J

Things that have happened of late… not allot really.  Been doing a fair degree of uni work,  have been watching  large dosage of movies as well.  Just subscribed to the BIGPOND movie delivery thing, so we are getting 4 movies or so at a time to watch.  So far I have been catching up on some classics!  Which is never a bad thing  some of the ones:

North by northwest (Bernard Harman really was a master of music, and Hitchcock outdid himself again on that one)

Casablanca (haven’t watched it yet, I’ll get to it though)

To catch a thief  (my fav Hitchcock by far so far)

The Dish (Aussie classic)

The castle  (not as good as the Dish)

And now I can’t remember the others… there should be 7…. Yeah I fail I know.  I’ll look them up online I guess and that way I’ll just pop them on…

LAYERCAKE… that was another one. British movie.  It was a 7/10 I guess.  Good, not memorable.

And.. now I’m out again!  Hahaha, someone once  described my brain as a series of random firing neutrons…  its true probably..  funny though if they had down a med course or something and that was a technical term for an average brain…  ANITA, that was it,  should have guess from the semi insult style of it! J

Well.. I think of more later and I’ll let you know!

The Shining was another…

Pulp fiction…

Yeah I think anymore then that and your going to be pushing your luck!  I can’t think of everything!   I’m lucky I remembered the…  THE TICKETS!!!  …  kidding, I have them with me.. hahaha, it was funny here…  guess you had to be here.

Have I mentioned that I’m going to Melbourne for the Grand Prix??  Well,  I’m going down for the grand prix.  Dads been down for a week or a little less  He goes to see the family and I just turn up the night before the racing!

We stay out my aunties place and then head onto the track each day from there.  Park at crown and then get a tram from there to the track.  Nicer way to do it then stay in a hotel in general,  not that we don’t still eat out!

Anyways…  I’m off to Melbourne.  Grand prix for 4 days, then home hours afterwards.  I’ll be home on Sunday, it’s a short and tight trip, but there you have it!

I’ll leave you from my dribble now anyways, don’t think I achieved much, but its been fun non the less! J

L.

Well,  an interesting flight hat was to be sure.  I ended up putting on “The styndel Syndrome” which is a Dario Argento film.  Man..  that’s an interesting film!  Probably not the best thing to try and watch in a public place.   Its graphic, violent…  seedy in parts…  perhaps though they can’t hear the music in my headphones so the seedy electronic music thing can’t be heard… I’m sure it looks it to though!   Got a little watched, although some seems I thought best to jump through so that no one else behind saw anything and got offended.

I had the pleasure of getting a junky it would seem next to me,  so he was twitching all over the place, bobbing around, asking for can after can of coke, staring allot… wearing glasses the whole entire trip.

Trip went by though.