I went for a walk and wandered into a music store. It must
have been an old bank cuz their amp room had one of those big doors with the
bars coming out of the side. And I went
in and the walls must have been treated cuz it was super quiet. Good find.
This morning I walked out of the hostel to get breakfast at
the grocery store down the road. I was in the deli area (not getting meat, just
standing there like an idiot). My mouth starts getting watery and wham! Gonna
spew.
So I jambled on out of the store and throw up in the street.
Looked like a drunk. A bum gave me the thumbs up.
Then I was fine and went back in the store.
There’s a bird in the library now. I feel bad for the birds
that get trapped in buildings. Like in Lowes.
The café here in the library is called Café Trim. I don’t
think they get it.
In fact so many places here have weird or punny names. I
love it. Near the courts there’s a café called Legal Grounds. A hostel around
here is called Jolly Swagmans. And a dentist office near my hostel is called
Confidental. That one doesn’t even
make sense.
I’m going to talk to a guy in Thirroul (sounds like that’s
in Skyrim) about a job on a surf camp. I can stay for free and they pay me. And
we live on the beach with kangaroos, sharks, whales. Basically everything you
could want. I’d be helping set up, driving equipment around, and cooking for
campers.
That middle one is the tricky one. The driving. I wanted to
practice before I got the job so I asked Nikolai if I could drive his car
around today. So I drove lefty!
The car was a bit wobbly, like really wobbly, but besides
almost scraping a wall I did it! Slowly becoming Australian.
Some girl and guy made me get
chocolate tonight while watching Modern Family. I’m not really a chocolatier so
they made me try this orange thing. You smash the package and it comes out
slices and tastes kinda orangey. You probably know what this is, but I didn’t.
It was ok but I think I’m a little allergic to chocolate cuz it always burns my
throat a bit. Probs why I’m not a chocolatier.
Today I got too antsy waiting for people to get ready for
the beach and just walked to Darling Harbour and around there myself.
I went to the Hard Rock Café. I know it’s like too
commercial or whatever but I don’t care. It’s like a museum with rock n roll
memorabilia. I’m trying to go to all the
ones in the cities I go to. I’ve been to Pittsburgh, Toronto, the American side
of Niagara Falls, Orlando, New York, and maybe Philly. It was cool, saw a
guitar Wolfmother used on their second album and an Angus Young school boy
shirt.
I also like Hard Rock’s cuz nobody really wants to be there.
Waiters and Waitresses know they’re in the cheesiest of cheese fests. Patrons
are usually families on vacation who are just burnt out. It’s all like a big
joke, it’s supposed to be like an entertaining theme restaurant but everyone’s
pissed off.
Terrible parties are my favorite
parties too.
I had my interview for surf camp manager in Thirroul today.
It’s about 2 hours south of Sydney by train. I liked riding the train, it was
mostly empty in the suburbs and the trains are pretty futuristic. They have a
bathroom that’s like a big capsule with a sliding automatic door.
The interview went fine. Just ok. I didn’t really connect
and I feel like he didn’t really want me as his number one guy. He said the job
is really labour intensive. Carrying and setting up tents for like 12 hours
once a week. He asked if I was strong.
“Are you strong?”
“Yea?”
I couldn’t not have a tinge of questioning in my voice. I
mean I’m big but I don’t lift. I run a lot and have good endurance, but am I
strong? I would be on the weaker end of the set of people that would answer yes
to that question. Are you strong?
Since I was in Thirroul I figured I’d go play around there
before I went back to Sydney. I wandered into a neighborhood and found a trail
and started walking up a big mountain. I found some bogan (is that racist? I
don’t know if I’m allowed to be saying that) territory but the trail eventually
became over grown and I finally saw a sign that said the trail had been closed.
I wandered out a different way in a different neighborhood
and up a different trail. This one was legit. It was straight up a cliff. Like
70 degrees steep. And there were metal stairs you had to climb near the top. Skinks
were there.
At the top I got a fish called a barramundi at a little café
on the cliff. I don’t like being vegetarian. The fish was meh and the chips
(fries) were fine. I had that “well I’m this far, I should keep going”
mentality again and wandered off into another trail.
I saw some big black parrots and they talked to me for a
while about the nuts they ate. I don’t care about the nuts. But they led me to
a cliff where I could have jumped off and died. But I didn’t cuz I was pretty
sure there was more to see.
I meandered along the trail for like 5k, putting my arms out
in front of me, trying to break spider webs like a wuss. I moved pretty slowly.
And it just kept going and going. No one else was around.
Eventually I popped out into a clearing. I had been hoping
to see a wallaby or a kangaroo herd (Flock? Pod?), but it had just been miles
of bush. Some power lines had been the reason for the trail to break. I whipped
out my phone to see where I was. I was nowhere and going nowhere for another
15k. But I had been having a bit of an intestinal issue for the past hour or
so. So instead of my journey ending with a climatic view or animal encounter, I
took a dump in the woods.
I skipped back the way I came much lighter than before. And
since no one was around and no animals were to be disturbed I sang some songs.
Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits.
I took the train home from a dif
station than I arrived. Good day, good adventure.
