It's been confirmed...

...I am a lazy bum. I think its been well over a month now since I've posted anything. In my defenense though, I have managed to get a small collection of pics up on facebook. Its a weak defense I know, but I've been impeded by alcohol and other distractions. Anyways, I spent a very different Christmas in Byron Bay with a bunch of cool folks I met there. Byron Bay is basically the Australian counterpart to Whistler: surfing instead of snowboarding, board shorts instead of boarding gear and Canadians instead of Aussies. Its crazy how many canucks hang out there. Its also got the same pary atmosphere as Whistler. Definately a good time.

After stopping over at a few places in between, I ended up in a place called Noosa, where I stayed for 3 weeks while working at a hostel there. I guess its some sick form of retributional justice that I had to vacuum and do houskeeping work for 3 hours every day, but I did get a free bed and meal in exchange. I bought a beat up old surfboard in Noosa and continued my battle against the waves. It was a great place to learn though, and I was able to stand up on at least a few waves every day. I feel I'm well on my way to equaling the skill of a 5 year old Aussi kid - well, maybe by the end of my trip.

A few of the random and entertaining events that happened in Noosa:

- One night, drinking behind the hostel at with a few friends, a couple local guys walk by and shout g'day or something. We say g'day and they come over and start talking. One guy is apparantly from London and starts talking with one of our buddies who is also from London. They're yakking about this and that from London, and then someone makes a crack about pommies (aussi slang for brits) and the guy all of a sudden switched off the London accent. It turn out he was really an Aussi. And just messing with us. I was blown away, but more relevantly, so was the Londoner. Then (and I forget how exactly this started) the fake-pommie starts rapping. Yes, rapping. I kind of laughed it off at first, but then listened for a bit and he was actually really good. He was freestyling for 3 or 4 minutes at a time - no breaks. We of course were egging him on as much as possible. Then he tells his buddy, who was silent up until now, do do a little beat boxing! Buddy starts up with a sick beat and then this aussi Marshall Mathers starts up freestyling again. It was straight out of 8 mile!

- Another night me and a work buddy from the hostel were having a no-drinking night (this is how every night in Noosa started) and went up to the bar for a game of pool. It was almost closing time (12:00) when we met a couple aussi girls who forced us to break the no-drinking pact and head to a club with them. The best laid plans... blah blah blah... Anyways, after the club we end up meeting up with a few of their friends at the beach. One of their friends brings his fire spinning stuff and starts waving around flames. We are endlessly amused. Cool. Then fire spinning guy, comes over and insists that we give it a try. Hmmmm. I've never done this before and drunk on the beach at 3 am doesn't really seem like the ideal time to learn. Crap, my bus just got here, this story will have to be continued...really! Hopefully sooner than a month from now.

Bye for now!

Dave