Last week I went on a trip up the coast to a place called Noosa. It was one of the best couple of days I have had here.
Meribeth and I had met a couple of guys at the Police Departments Christmas party that we had gone to. We ended up hanging out with one of them again and he invited us to go up and hang out in Noosa with him for a couple of days. It just so happened that I had Tuesday night off, all day Wednesday, and Thursday day off. Meribeth had to work so she was not able to go. At first I was a little hesitant because I did not know this guy very well and I wasn't sure what we would be doing. After contemplating for a few minutes I figured what the hell, I'm always up for an adventure. (don't worry mom I make responsible decisions). So I packed my bag and waited for him to pick me up. Keeping in mind that I had no idea what we were actually going to be doing, I was pretty proud of myself for only having one small bag with me.
Luke showed up and I apologized for the messy room, and we headed down to his car and he apologized for his crappy car. So things worked out. He proceeded to tell me how nice his motorcycle was so he had no money left for his car. Good thing I'm not a superficial California girl, huh? Haha I really didn't care about the car but the lack of air conditioning made for a very hot hour and a half drive.
I was a little concerned about the car ride up there because he seemed to be a shy guy and although I for the most part have broken out of my shell, I can tend to be quiet in uncomfortable situations. It worked out though and we had a good conversation all the way up. Our conversation was mostly about the differences between the states (by the states I mean California) and Australia. Australians tend to believe that we have crazy people running around with guns at all times of the day and we run around scared for our lives. We talked quite a bit about that. for some reason the story about me being robbed at gunpoint at Togo's when I was 16 didn't really helped out my arguement...oh well.
We finally arrived and what a suprise, his friend is also a cop. They met at the police academy a few years back. This guy's name was Al (short for Allen) and he lived in Police dorms. I have never heard of cops having dorms before but they were actually small dorm like rooms with one communal area. They were right across the street from a police station and a fire station. Judging by the amount of activity around the stations, it's fair to say not much happens around there.
We went inside the dorms and luckily there was a spare room for us to stay in. Luke being the nice Australian boy that he is, let me have the bed and he slept on the air matress on the floor. We dropped off our stuff and hung out for a little while. I then had the pleasure of meeting one of the roommates. It wasn't too hard to tell that he wasn't a big fan of Americans. For the whole two days I was there, he turned everything anything said into an insult against Americans. I thought I was just looking into things a little too much until Luke said something later on. so needless to say I stopped talking to that guy!
Noosa is a small beach town pretty much within a National Park. Al told me that they sometimes have Pythons hanging out around the bottom of the house. I told him I might be a little afraid if I see a bug or animal. I guess I should have told him that I'm more than a little afraid, because I leaned over to look for a snake and right next to me these two little eyes were staring up at me. I jumped a mile and yelled what is that?!? Al walked over and said oh it's a tree frog. I tried to tell myself, oh just a frog that's okay. Then he grabbed the frog and started coming towards me, so once again the olympic runner in me came alive and I began to haul ass into the house making sure the screen closed behind me. Haha he couldn't believe that I was so afraid of a frog. As I'm running passed this baby tree frog I almost stepped on a big gigantic one. The frog was as scared as I was and he tried to jump away. Well I built up the courage to go back outside and Al actually got me to touch one of the frogs. So I can scratch running from frogs off my list because they seem to be okay.
Shortly after that we decided it was time to head out. The American hater gave us a ride into town so we could have a few drinks without worrying about driving. We sat down outside and ate dinner overlooking the beach. it was absolutley beautiful. The waves were crashing onto the beach and it sounded so peaceful and relaxing, it made for great atmosphere. I guess the beautiful sound of waves and water was no comparison to screeching voices and off key singers because we decided to relocate inside so we could hear karaoke.
We make our way inside and add a few more drinks to the table. The boys asked if I wanted some wine or a spritzer. Once I stopped laughing I told them they need to find new girls to hang out with and I ordered myself a rum and coke. Al and I sat down and shy quiet Luke came to the table holding the book of karaoke songs. He carried that book like a little boy opening a present on Christmas morning. You would have thought he was a rockstar or something...well until you heard him sing. Haha j/k Luke if you ever read this. Al and Luke went up and sang three songs (after a few shots) and I was the photographer who got it all on tape. We had a great time and laughed the night away. Since it was a Tuesday night the place closed at midnight so we headed off. As we were walking Al convinced me that all Australians hug gum trees out of respect for the koala bears and that if I wanted to visit and be with the locals I had to hug one as well. So Luke took a picture of me hugging a gum tree and Al is in the background laughing and pointing at me. Stupid American! Makes for a great picture though.
We headed to another bar only to have the lights turned on and last call yelled out. It was time to go home.
We hung out for a little while longer on the patio at the dorms and they showed me the southern cross in the sky. It is a constellation that can only be seen on the southern hemisphere.
The next morning we woke up and Al made us omelets. There was all kinds of stuff in that thing. I really am learning to eat new things here.
Shortly after breakfast we headed out to the river to jet ski. We had to stop and get an intertube so three people could all go out at one time. Al knew a guy that had a personal boat launch so we headed out to this house along the river to launch the jet ski.
The boys got the gas, picked out the intertube, hitched the jet ski to the car, and a few other things to get the jet ski going. I on the other hand watched it all. I was absolutely useless. So I took it upon myself to blow up the intertube. There were two peices to the intertube and a foot pump to blow it up. I felt very useful after that because I had to pump the damn thing up three times. How was I supposed to know the stars had to be lined up a certain way so that it all fit correctly? It gave the boys some time to play on the jet ski before we took it out with the intertube. The owner of the house came out to watch us head out. Something was said about sharks and the man said the biggest one he's heard about out here was about 7 feet long. After I realized I was the only one laughing I realized it wasn't a joke and thought twice about getting in the water.
They actually have bull sharks in their rivers everywhere. I still can't believe I went in. And yet even after hearing about the sharks I had this reoccuring image of going knee boarding in Mt. Shasta with Judy, and Jason had to jump in and get me because a fish touched my toe.
We launched the jet ski and I got in the intertube without barely getting into the water. We get out into the water and then the jet ski takes off, and... I didn't. The intertube had gotten lose and I Was floating in the middle of the river. Of course I'm floating there by myself right after I hear the shark story, so I refuse to get out of the intertube and swim to the jet ski. Luke had to jump off the ski and come rescue the intertube. I'm sure he appreciated that. We hooked up again...Well Luke hooked up again and we were on our way. We had a great time. I got used to being in the water, when I fell off the tube, as long as they rushed back to get me so it wasn't too bad. We all took turns and they let me drive a little bit and I rode on the back and got dumped off a few times. It took them quite a while to realized I wasn't some wussy little girl that they needed to drive 10 mph so I didn't get scared. Guess I didn't really prove that when I refused to get out of the intertube though...
After a few hours a friend of Al's came to join in the fun. Al took his friend on a ride and Luke and I hung out on the deck. I took the time to lay out and get a tan. Then the boys came and picked up Luke and I laid out and talked to mom on the phone. There were tons of blue and purple crabs hanging out on the rocks, so I decided I would film them with my camera. I was laying over the deck with my body half off trying to film these crabs under the rocks. I actually got a few good shots, but I couldn't help but think, give a tourist a camera and they'll stay busy for hours. Wow, do I have some pretty pointless pictures.
After about an hour they came back and had this great idea that all 4 of us should go out. By doing so, 2 people had to go on the 1 person intertube at one time. Al and his friend decided they would try first. I jokingly suggested to Luke that they should ride one on top of each other. Imagine my suprise when the first guy jumped on the tube and the second one jumped right on top of him. Again Australians obviously are not scared of looking gay. Dad, if I knew what sex was, this was looking pretty close. But hey they sure had a lot of fun.
After a little while they decided they had enough and I had to go on the tube. This was not too exciting to me but I did it anyways. It was actually much easier to hold on and there was a little more room than what it looked like. I rode with Al's friend at one time and he was about 6'2 and 180 so when he flew off I had no chance of staying on. His head came up and he head butted me right in the side of the head. Suprisingly, we both came up conscious and that was enough for us.
We headed back up and socialized with the owner of the house for a while. Of course the topic of conversation was about California. Shortly after, we thanked the guy and pakced up.
We headed for home because later that night we had a big trivia night ahead of us.
We got home and we were absolutely starving because we had not eaten all day. Al tried to talk me into liking vegemite. I told him it was awful and he said I just haven't committed to it so he made me a toasted cheese and vegemite sandwich. After trying it I actually hated it more than I did the first time. I tried it though, and I was proud of myself for giving it a chance, but wow that stuff shouldn't be legal to give people. It is just awful. It tastes like dirt. I'll be sure to bring some to try though so everyone can share in the run for water feeling you get when you bite into it.
Anyhow, we got ready to go in about 3 minutes which meant I had to go with wet hair and no make up. I'm not a very high maintenance girl but that was really not a fun way to go out. And believe me trivia night is a happening place to be on a Wednesday night. I really can't think of a better place to meet a guy than trivia night. Most of them can even get the senior citizen discount too!
So we head out to another restaraunt where Al's trivia group meets. Apparently, they have these clubs that sponsor trivia night. There is a man with a microphone and he yells out questions. Some of the questions you answer right away and some you have to write down and they pick a winner at the end.
We got there before anyone on his team got there so we sat down and ate dinner while people arrived. When I first sat down I thought it was just his table that was involved in trivia night. I was shocked when I realized the whole restaurant was there for trivia. That night happened to be their Christmas party and every table had a different theme. These crazy Australians, they sure know how to party. haha There were tables everywhere full of people with different themed costumes all ready to answer the most useless questions ever.
It began and the first question was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and I turn around to say who in the world would know that, when the girl at our table shouted out the answer. She shut me up real quick. I decided not to give my input for a while. One of the questions happened to be about America and the whole table just stared at me all at once. Talk about pressure, these triva folks are just crazy. Somebody else even got the answer before me. Back to being useless for me! Luke and I managed to get a few prizes even though we didn't answer a single question.
We decided we were too tired to stay for drinks and we headed back to Al's house. We woke up in the morning and headed back home. so that was it. Back to Brisbane with a few more Australian memories and a very long journal entry topic.
