Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated my blog. Actually, I *can* believe it because nothing exciting has been happening in the past few weeks. How was everyone's Christmas?

My Christmas was spent drinking a few with some friends I met on Christmas Eve. The hostel in which I'm staying had a free Christmas dinner (with turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy and everything else Christmassy) so I went to that, met up with some folks, and then proceeded to full my belly with alcohol. The evening is a little fuzzy, but from what I remember it was a pretty nice time. It was a little different than last years Christmas, which was spent in Sydney and my dinner then was a nice steak in Darling Harbour.

It's weird that Christmas isn't a big thing here. There's one big tree at the end of Queen St mall (just a big outdoor mall in the heart of Brisbane) and that's pretty much it. No other decorations to speak of, and we were even able to go to a couple restaurants and pubs on Christmas Day. Why do the Aussies hate the baby Jesus? They're heathens, that's why.

New Years will be spent in Airlie Beach this year, and I can't wait to go. I fly out on Saturday morning, and I'm staying until the 2nd. Should be good times. Has everyone got your New Years Eve all planned out?

What You've All Been Waiting For:

I know I've been lax in my posting lately, but really, I haven't been up to anything exciting. I'm working pretty much every day, and Brisbane doesn't lend itself to a lot of fun. I'd have to take a train an hour north to Sunshine Coast or an hour south to the Gold Cost to find all the exciting stuff (SeaWorld, Wet & Wild Waterpark, Luna Park, Surfer's Paradise, etc) and I'm just too damn lazy.

In place of stories of adventure and derring-do, here are some pics from Airlie and beyond. Enjoy!

*NOTE* Stupid Blogger won't let me cut and paste pictures (probably because I'm on IE7 in Windows Vista. Vive la FireFox!), so these are in reverse chronological order. I hope that doesn't make anybody's skull hurt.

Here's a nice picture of my Auntie Diane and Uncle Ed, who came and picked me up from the airport in Brisbane after which we went out for some dinner. It was nice to see some familiar faces again after all this time. They went back to Canada recently. How silly!

Me, Shawna and Pauly (her boyfriend) after she got back from Canada. We ended up going to a handful of pubs around Brissie, and just hanging out and catching up. Now they're back up in Airlie, where I shall hopefully be in a month or so.

Caz and I clowning around after the bar. Had we found these before going out, I don't think we would have needed to go out at all. Seriously, pots and pans can provide hours of entertainment assuming you have a vivid imagination and a belly full of grog.

Me, Connie and apparently Santa decided to make an appearance on my last night in Airlie. And he's busting out gang signs. Santa then proceeded to pop a cap in some chump's ass and crunk it up. Word.

This is the celebratory parade in Airlie after some sort of festival. I'm gonna be honest, this was my last week in Airlie Beach, and my memory ain't so good. I think it has something to do with boats, or boating, or owning boats. Or maybe giant pig mascots.

This is one of my favourite pictures of Connie. This is just outside Mama Africa's in Airlie, easily the best bar I have ever been to, anywhere. I think this was taken at about 5am, and I had borrowed some random's mobile to make long distance calls back to Canada. Ah, the sweet memories.

This is most of the crew at Hoggies on Jesse's last day (he's the guy with the "I Heart Maps" shirt). Left to right is Dave, Me, Phil, Sara, Jesse, Connie, Holly and Kat. This is the last picture anyone has of Jesse. I think he's facedown in a ditch now.

This is the best picture I have of my Halloween costume. I'm being carried by the dude behind me (who, of course, has been firing back the PCP to be able to carry me for hours on end). The crazy witch next to me is Sandi, one of the Hoggies crew. She actually disn't know it was Halloween, she just always dresses like that. She *is* English, of course...

That'll have to be all for this round of pictures. Once I get out of Brisbane, I'll take some more. Unless there's enough people who want to see what downtown Brisbane looks like (hint: it looks a lot like where you live).

Hilarious Aussie Town Names

Because I love making fun of other cultures, here's a list of the funniest towns I've found in Australia. Of course, other countries have funny names too (There are no less than 6 places in the US named 'Blue Ball'), but since I'm not in any other country, let's have fun at the Aussie's expense. They can take it.

10 - Tuggeranong, ACT : The only weirdly named place in the Australia Capital Territory, though to be fair, the ACT is only 910 sq miles (2,358 sq km). I would also like to point out that the official faunal emblem for the ACT is the gang-gang cockatoo, and that the ACT is "very lax in its recreational drug laws". That really does explain the cockatoo.

9 - Mirrabooka, WA : There are actually 2 Mirrabooka's, one in Western Australia, and one more in New South Wales. Scholars can't agree on whether this name refers to the Aboriginal name for the Southern Cross, or whether it means "the dog died here". Seriously? You'd think they'd be able to tell if the interpreter was pointing to the ground or the sky when they named it.

8 - Wangaratta, VIC : This just sounds like some horrible disease I never want to get.

7 - Wollongong, NSW : A suburb of Sydney, Wollongong has the distinction of being the only place called Wollongong.

6 - Booragoon, WA : I just like any place that has the word GOON in it. It's got a good ring to it. GOOOOOOOOOOON.

5 - Dubbo, NSW : Dubbo is located 400km away from Sydney, and they have an annual show called the Dubbo National Steer Hoof and Hook Show. In this show, they judge live and led cattle (hoof) or, and I'm not kidding, un-led and dead cattle(hook). I'm just going to have to assume the people in Dubbo are insane.

4 - Indooroopilly, QLD : Aboriginal for "gully of the leeches". Sounds just like the type of place I'd like to set up a town.

3 - Woy Woy, NSW : Woy Woy has been named the "largest above-ground cemetery in the world", a title which they proudly wear. I'm actually beginning to think that it's not just Dubbo that has crazy people.

2 - Wagga Wagga, NSW : Aussies seem to love double naming their towns for some reason. I'm gonna start saying I'm in Brisbane Brisbane, heading into Sydney Sydney. I'm getting a headache headache.

1 - 1770, QLD : Not "funny" per se, but I'm pretty sure this is the only town in the world that is actually a number. Oddly enough, with a population of only 250 or so, and reachable only by 2 roads, it gets a surprisingly large number of outside visitors who come for the fishing and water activites. That's all I have to say about 1770. What?