Leaving Paradise

Well folks, I'm leaving. I've got to get out of here in the next few days.

Wait, I'd better clarify that. I'm leaving Airlie Beach, not Australia :)

I've been here for almost 6 months, and as much as I love it here, I need to see other parts of this country. I've given my notice, and Halloween will be my last day. Also, as an aside, Aussies don't celebrate Halloween as such. Nobody gets dressed up, goes trick-or-treating or anything like that. I've actually had to explain what Halloween is to some people.

Anyhow, because I work at Hoggies, I've initiated the Halloween celebration and dress up for the staff. For those of you don't know, I had a costume a couple years ago that won me second place in the Calgary Halloween Pub Crawl, and I'm going to resurrect it again this year. I won't tell what it is, but I will have pictures up, I promise.

Anyways, back to me leaving. I'm going to head to Brisbane for a month or so, and staying with a friend of mine, Rachel, who was up here for a couple months before heading down to the big city herself. It should be a good time, and after I get my taxes back and all my medical stuff taken care of, I'll be set.

Of course, this all hinges on me passing my medical tests, and not having a chest cavity full of cancer or whatever they're looking for. I'm pretty confident though, as I've only been sick twice in Oz, and I clean my system out pretty regularly with copious amounts of healing alcohol.

Oh! My aunt and uncle are currently in Australia. They are up in Cairns right now (pronounced like "Cans" of soup, not the way it's spelled). After they do their touristy stuff up there in the rainforest, they're driving down the coast, and will meet up with me in some random place. It all depends how long it takes them to come down, but I'll either meet them in Airlie, or in Brisbane. Either way, it'll be nice to see a familiar face after all this time.

And of course, thank you to those of you who sent the comments regarding my being here for a year. It's been, quite possibly, the most interesting year of my life (barring the year I spent in the Calgary run of A Chorus Line where I was line dancer #7).

Cheers folks! Join me for my next installment where I discuss the proper way to eat vegemite and I'll have some astute observations of the political climate in Australia (hint: it's looney tunes).