My Mum and Brother are driving me loco.
Half of Wednesday was spent flying. 1 hour to Melbourne, 2 hour wait, 1 hour Hobart. In Hobart we stayed at some
backpacking joint but had our own room. There were Irish codgers about the place and silent Asian types. Also a french girl. My mum couldn't stop talking, I stayed quiet while she asked the Irishman,
"Oh you're from Ireland? Are they their own country? So you support Sinn Fein?"
The
Toyota Corolla 5 door hatch we're renting has a smooth ride and responsive engine, the only thing that shits me is the prominent right hand pylon that blocks vision when turning. Had a quick look about Hobart in the cold wind then retired. My eyes got worse before they got better. Puffy as the marshmellow man, but started to settle down over a few days. Unsure why. The eye drops don't help at all, either type.
Thursday I got sick of my immediate relatives and they went on their own to
Port Arthur. I spent the day wandering Hobart, searching for Dance Machine, increasing mystockpile of pharmacy medicines, and yelling at Optus Insurance in the guise of my father. I did find Dance Machine. It was pretty expensive at $2 per 3 rounds, and I frequently went out on ththe second and first rounds. My Level is
Standard 5. 6 I struggle, 7 I lose. Also I found a
Koorong, it was big and christian.
Friday we changed Hotels within Hobart, drove out east to
WineGlass Bay. It was pretty barren, very overcast, windy, and rather unexciting. Drove home and did many a
Sudoku and otther puzzles from some shitty Puzzle Book. I am owning these easy Sudoku, I'll be bored of them soon enough.
Saturday drove to Launceston which for the previous period my Mum had been calling Laun-cheston, and my Brother, the fountain of knowledge he is, imitated. The drive was easily the most pleasant, and coincided with the here-to-fore best condition my eyes have been in. The rest of my body had become racked by another tedious fungal infection or some shit (when it rains...). The drive was gorgeous, excellent weather, not the over cast, windy, rain intermittent crap we've put up with so far. In Launceston, had a hunt for Dance Machine but could only find the pretender
Pump dance game - pads in the corners? WTFstfuLAMO. Had a few games of Silent Scope 2 then we went to see the
Cataract Gorge in Launceston, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately didn't have the digital camera with me and the video camera promptly ran out of battery power. Turns out the camera's battery is almost buried, and there is an issue with the internal screens going blue intermittently - unsure if the latter affects what is recorded. Anyway, the Gorge includes a gorgeous garden with Peacocks all over the place, and pleasantly lit. Several short path's ring the gorge itself, and on one side is a shallow public pool in a park area on the edge of a pooled area of the gorge! Could totally get used to living in Launceston and walking down there for lunch, a swim, or a kick of the ball in the parked areas, or even just to sit and eat a peacock. Saturday night we had fox in the
Adina Place Apartment we stayed at - the best motel so far. So I watched the
Liverpool - Middlesborough game where all 3 aussies started. Kewell looked good witth some dribbles and a few crosses, but he's not as sharp as Morientes and couldn't latch on to any of the latters flick-ons. Viduka had a great chance and shot in the second half but saw his drive blocked by the legs of Reina. Went to sleep on the couch and only saw glimpses of the other 2 games, Wigan v Chelsea and Newcastle v Arsenal?
Sunday drove to
Cradle Mountain. Andrew was driving - so we got lost, cause he's an idiot and didn't listen to me. I hear a lot of people telling me I think I'm always right, I hear them telling me I'm
Wrong much less frequently... Cradle Mountain was pretty coo. A 2 hour walk around the Lake turned into a 3 or 4 hour trek as I both took my time to take plenty of photo's, and followed a much trickier than expected path up to a secluded lake right beneath the mountain face. Had a small chinese dinner at a decent restaurant then retired to yet
another different motel - they had a decent home cooked english style breakfast - muffins, fruit and cereal and the like.
Monday. Finally I find myself here, in an Internet Cafe in Launceston. Hopefully will revisit the Gorge to take some pics, and maybe go Cable HangGliding cause it sounds inherently cool. The weather is fine again today so hopefulyl will take advantage of it.
Other Notables: Hobart and Tasmania have may
one way streets, planned in loops, despite bot h cities being quite small. The size of a city can be judged I suppose by it's population of Dance Machines. Canberra has 2 (? 1 in intencity?), Hobart has 1, Launceston has an imitation 1. Also in the shitty ancient Arcade in Launceston where all the machines were $2! I came across a
unique arcade...
Agro's Great Game! A ticket game with 1 button, which you hit when the Agro on screen tells you, e.g. to smash a bug. The game was quite hilarious to look at. The cabinet was ultra dodgy and read Agro's Good Game and the good was crossed out and replaced with great. It was less than the quality of the old
Simpsons Game arcade machines which used to be in all arcades. Also Agro would randomly call out "Gimme more tickets!" while in the idle mode. This internet cafe has the
SHITTEST keyboards. The entire keyboard is sloped to the left. Not up and down, like the microsoft ergonomic keyboards, its sloped like a wedge of cheese. It's fkin annoying. And it's laid out like a compact board despitte being full size! Meaning the end/home keys arern't isolated and I keep hitting them since they are now wedgedup against the important keys which have been reduced, e.g. backspace, delete, enter, shift... ggaaaayy.
World Cup Draw: Something needs saying about this of course. I couldn't get up early enough to watch the draw but Cecila texted me the group.
Deutsche Welle had a lot to say about it and by coincidence paid particular attention to Australia! Their view might be viewed as the international view of Australia's recent performances so was curious. In a word, Guus. He will be recieving all the plaudits for Australia's performance next June it appears, but with decent reason. Also we were said to have a 'fantastic, talented squad with players all over europe' and our defeat of Uruguay has not gone unnoticed. Against Brazil, Japan and Croatia: lose to Brazil, but whoever gets a draw against the joint favorites will have an edge over the others who will probably not pick up points. Japan got past the group stage at home, but I think/hope they won't be in the reckoning. Croatia has some ex-aussies to spice up the game but we can also overcome them too hopefully, they are now without Davor Suker and others although Dado Prso is still about. Australia to get past the group stage! Go and bet now!
