Just returned to Byron from Brisbane where I spent the night partying with Chase (it was his birthday) and a lot of people from my course. We had a great night! Even though coming into the place where were supposed to meet, was more difficult than I thought. And it was not because of how we were dressed.

The problem were our IDs, because these stupid people at the door would only accept an Australian ID or an international passport. I mean, I had my national identity card on me and my drivers license, but no dice. They really wanted to see a passport! So I really had to go back to the hostel and grab it. Fortunately it wasn't very far, but it was still soooo ridiculous! I mean, that they require everyone to show their IDs is alright, but to demand an Australian ID or a passport is just ridiculous! Especially since we were in a group. Aside from me Chrystal from the course and Sabrina, an English girl with whom I had driven up from Byron, were refused entry. How stupid is that? Three people out of a group of ten people, who all were clearly over 18. Ah, well, I know that I will never go to the G.P.O. in Brisbane again. Aside from this it was a great night, though!

The crowd

Aside from Chase, his girlfriend and some of his friends, Chrystal, Isobel, Jade, Simone and Chelsea from the TESOL-course were there (and I just pray that I haven't forgotten to mention someone. If so I'd be terribly sorry.). I think that's a pretty impressive turnout! Chelsea had also brought a friend of mine and I had brought Sabrina. And we had a ball! We had sucha good night! It's really too bad that I'm probably never gonna see them again, 'cause together we rocked. And danced. And drank. And drank some more. And rocked some more. In the course of the evening Sabrina got very, very, drunk and I found out that Chelseas lipgloss does indeed taste as good as she had claimed. Chelsea is, btw, one of the nicest people on earth! She's working for an Australian airline here and has offered to put me on an unused spot on her staff travel list, so that I can fly for cheap! Isn't that the nicest thing ever? And yes, I would like her too, if she hadn't almost free flights to give away. She's simply a legend.

Jade, with barely 19 years, the youngest in our class, seems to have alreay found a job, btw. In a few weeks time she's gonna fly to China to teach there. Can you imagine being 19 and going to China for a year to teach English? Hell, I find China scary! She's definitely braver than I am!

Back at the bunk

Coming back to Brisbane and my old hostel was really nice for other reasons as well. People in the hostel were really happy to see me and I got a lot of "Hi TIMO! What are you doing here!? Welcome back, mate!?" That was nice. That night they also had a miss-competition on, which was fun to watch before we went out to meet Chase.

Sabrinas birthday

At midnight we had another birthday to celebrate: Sabrina turned 25. And she intended to celebrate as hard as possible. She got absolutely wasted! And I'm really looking forward to seeing those photos! In the end I had to drag her home where she got violently sick before being able to push her into a bed. A bed. Not her bed. She just wans't able to get there and that bed was empty. Needless to say that she didn't remember much the next day, including having pulled two guys. Good girl! But we always kept an eye on her, so it was cool. The only problem was that she had to geta bus at 07.40 the next morning. And guess who slept through two alarmclocks ringing? I then tried to drag her out of bed but that turned out to be more difficult than I had thought. She simply refused to belive that it was already morning and thought I was playing some terrible joke on her by forcing her to get up in the middle of the night. Where the hell did she get that idea from??? Anyhow, eventually I did manage to convince her to leave bed and she realized that she had to get to the busstation really, really quickly. Somehow however she managed to miss her taxi (how can you miss a taxi?) because she "had fallen out of the lift". At least that's what she told me in the afternoon when she called me. What the fuck????? As you can tell, she still didn't make much sense in the afternoon. Fortuantey though she found another taxi and reached her bus just as it was about to leave. So aside from monstrous hangover everything is good.

Splendour in the Grass

Tomorrow the Splendour in the Grass Festival is gonna start, her in Byron. Apparently they are expecting up to 25.000 people to show up. And I hadn't even known about it! Tickets are all sold out but now I'm thinking about maybe buying a ticket for Saturday on the blackmarket about an hour or so after the festival has started. After all, how often do you have a music festival within a ten-minutes walk of your bed? I'll probably make it depend a bit on the weather though. While Brisbane was nice and warm, Byron is still pretty fresh and it's raining for a bit almost every single hour. I know, I'm a whimp, but I'm a whimp with a pretty bad cold. And I don't want it to get worse! Besides, a few people from the hostel will try to get in for free, i.e. we'll look for holes in their security after it has gotten dark. Can't be impenatrable, can it? So with someluck I might even be able to sneak in for free.

On the web:
Splendour in the Grass