M on Mary Apartment Hotel Brisbane

"It's a totally inhospitable place, you shouldn't be here, the sun, you live about three quarters of a mile from it, I've seen insects walking around with kneepads, you fling yourselves into the sea when you're not actually walking around audibly crackling in the heat and the sea is full of jellyfish and sharks and other things who hate you, but you persist in living here...So you know, it's a jail, you live in, its lovely, you've done wonderful things with it, but you're still in denial."<br ...

... called Quilpie! To say the least we were both quite shocked! <br><br>The next day about 20minutes before we left, we were told there was no job for us in Quiplie! But were told to go with the mail man anyway + then go to Charleville. So we were picked up by the mail man at 11am to start our 3hour drive to Quilpie! <br>We had quite a good time until, about 40km from Quilpie the van decided to break down! <br>Ray (The mail man) thankfully had a sat ...

... br><br>In the evening Adam &amp; Toby headed off to watch Lions vs Bulldogs at the Gabba. It was a bit of struggle to find a bus to get their. Brisbane bus system has its own bus-line (kinda like trains); they have their own separate area, which made it hard to find a bus. Ended up parking at Garden City &amp; taking a taxi to the stadium &amp; then a bus back. Average game, Lions didn&#8217;t play well &amp; got beaten despite rallying towards the ...

... Toronto or Montreal, and that's all I know. Not too keen to lock myself into dates, so I'd rather just wing it and see what I wanna do, and take some advice from locals. <br><br>Most places these days have wireless internet, so I'm making it a goal to update this via my iphone or public inter-web machine each night, or at least have some sort of entry I can update at some point. Photos too. <br><br>Talk soon. <br><br>Ryn<br>

Today Alex's friend Toby has arrived from England for a four week holiday and is staying with us. I fear a holiday is hopeful as the furniture gradually disappears. I hope Alex finds himself a rented place soon, someone rents our place and some good samaritan takes care of the cats, is it too much to ask with a week to go?<br><br>Toby arrived just in time as we set about a massive cleanup for our open house tomorrow. He put down his clothes and I gave him a cleaning cloth, welcome to ...

... friends and old work colleagues and now English ex-pat of 9 months, has kept us well in her spare room and loaned us her car and sightseeing advice. Despite Suzi trying to keep a cold at bay and the increasing cases of swine fever we have enjoyed our stay, and so far, without hint of a runny nose ourselves! (lets hope the thermal imaging at the airports see likewise!?). Nine days have passed after arriving what seems like only yesterday; obviously we have managed to fill our time easily ...

... natural disasters continued, as our destination had been spared of this mess. That being said, we had planned to stop en route, in a town called Bundaberg, to witness young sea turtle hatchlings make a gritty survival race from the beach to the ocean. (This was to replace the Toronto Maple Leafs' gritty, no make that pathetic, race to the playoffs, which I have now officially given up on.) The plan was scuttled however, as Mother Nature, in one of her ...

... either by seeking out funny situations, attempting to make light of the ones I find myself in naturally, or outright inventing them. This blog is partly for my memories, but it's also to keep me mentally in shape for writing for when I come home, so that I can hopefully find another journalism job. Thus balancing information and entertainment is part of the author's responsibility to their readers, and my responsibility to ...

Just a quick note to my faithful readers - I'm sorry I have gone a week without an entry. I have been so busy (as you are about to find out) and have simply not had time to get into the right mood set to indulge in the endless description and cynical metaphors of down under. So stop moaning, you have your entry. And your metaphors... On our first night in Cairns we had all been out for a while and it was coming up to 11. I got talking to a few people and Will ...

... needed to get photos for our ISIC cards today, thankfully, that could have been an absolute disaster come check in time on sunday seen as our flights require ISIC cards, LOL. Although the thought of showing our photos on these cards to other people, is a disaster in itself!!! Anywho thought you should all know roughly where we're headed. Itinerary as follows (note it's in USA dates) 28th Dec - 2nd Jan - New York ...