Australian Digest Volume 07

Here in Sydney I've had a lot of time to reflect, and it dawned on me that I've done all these wonderful things in Sydney, Las Vegas and a number of other exotic locations around all the world. But I've done little to nothing of the brilliant things Newcastle has to offer on my doorstep, being away for so long I'm beginning to respect where I'm from and will make a big push to get out and explore Newcastle and the surrounding area when I'm back in the UK. These include but are not limited to going on a River Escape Tyne Lunch Cruise, sight-seeing at the Angel Of The North, visiting Wallington Hall and further afield get to up to Edinburgh Zoo.

I'm coming to a time in my life, where walking away from all the drama and people who create it seems like the best and easiest direction. Here in Australia I've met and making an effort to surround myself with good people who make me laugh, forgetting all the bad and keeping clear focus on all the good going on in my life. Victoria Ling, Lisa Glanville and Kerry Miller are all wonderful girls who I've had the honor of meeting, I'm thankful and I know these girls will go a long way towards enriching my Australian experience. I love the people who treat me right, and even think good thoughts for those that don't. My life, like everyone's is too short to be anything other than happy. Falling down is part of life, and getting back up is living. I'm inspired by these great people around me, and I'm using that great energy to channel my inspiration and excitement through FTP. You only live once everybody, make sure you all cherish every second.

Continuing to press out the tourist excursions, on Saturday 2nd February I visited Port Stephens and Nelson Bay. This again was with ATTKings and was a full day event with a great tour guide, the day had great structure starting off with a visit to Australian Reptile Park around an hour outside of Sydney. This was where I met Kerry Miller, Here I had my photo taken with a Koala and baby Alligator and had the opportunity to feed the resident Kangaroos.

Then back on the coach for another hour or so until we reached Port Stephens, where I had lunch at Hog's Breath Cafe before joining the rest of the guys for our dolphin cruise. As you can probably tell by the photo's below, the conditions were very wet and windy so which went someway towards spoiling the experience. But I made every effort to get out and did actually spot a couple of dolphins, which was a bonus as I didn't hold out much hope.

Then to finish off a great day we made our way to the majestic Stockton dunes, here we would take a 4WD adventure through the dunes before stopping at a steep hill to try out some sand boarding. I was very excited for this and loved it, honestly was just so much fun. There are not many locations in the world (around thirty if memory serves) that have the right terrain for sand boarding, so I'm really pleased I took my opportunity when I had it.

The following day Sunday 3rd February I headed off to Tarango Zoo, here joined by Kerry as we both looked to tick a box on our "Sydney To Do" list. I haven't been too many zoos, but this was the best I've been too by far and I've heard it's the best in Australia and perhaps the World. I got to see so many cool animals including Elephants, Rhinos, Lions, Tigers, Gorillas and Giraffes amongst others. Unfortunately we ran out of time as the park closed at 17:00, so we missed the final bit which included Zebras, Orangutans and a couple of others. Overall a very pleasant day, rounding off a nice weekend.

On Wednesday 6th I booked up with bondihelicpoters for a twenty minute scenic flight, this gave me the opportunity to see Sydney and its coastal wonders, in spectacular Helicopter flight. I Departed from a private lounge at Sydney's Mascot airport, and headed straight to the coast to see the amazing homes that abound the dramatic cliffs along Maroubra and Coogee. Tracking north and I was over the world renowned Bondi Beach, and its crystal clear waters before passing South head into Sydney harbour. BRILLIANT EXPERIENCE

Moving onto my poker exploits and I've pressing the value button over at The Star, playing both Mondays $200 and Wednesdays $300 for the last few weeks with a degree of frustration. At a risk of committing the cardinal sin of discussing a bad bead, I'm going to mentioned a hand that happened after making a deep run at the $300 on Wednesday 6th. I took a flop three ways holding JJ, and after flopping quads I got 80,000 (200,000+ chip pot) in the middle and after the runout I finished third. I didn't even know that was possible, so yeah that was extremely annoying. I take my position in the community seriously and of course wished the young man good luck in my general nonchalant avuncular manner, and I meant it as he was a really nice lad who's been playing some good stuff from what I've seen these last few weeks. Whilst around the casino I managed to see Sam Trickett and Andrew Robl, who were in Sydney briefly for one night between finishing the Aussie Millions at Melbourne and flying to Macau for the high stakes action. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera which sucked, as I would have liked to get a photo with those guys but never mind.

Not forgetting my training and exercise regime, which I've been really banging out hard since February started. I'm really comfortable with where my diet is at the minute, which has been helped by taking on board some great advice from my good friend Adam Matues. I reached a new low of 80.5kg on Friday 15th February, which I feel I really deserved and have worked hard to achieve. Finally I would like to pass on my unconditional love and thanks to my friend and personal trainer back in the UK Gary Sidney. He is just one of the best guys I have in my life. A really good, kind and loyal friend to me who has made a real difference in my life. Gary inspired me, was patient with me, advised me, motivated me, supported me and believed in me. I'm at a point where I feel absolutely great, for this and all future feeling great happiness ahead I owe it all to Gary.

At my apartment I've been having some domestic affairs with a new tenant called Simon, he's just a complete idiot who has nothing better to do than complain about trivial issues. I have zero respect for this retard who just constantly sits in the apartment, like he's always in and clearly has no life, friends, job or ambitions. Originally I tried to entertain him but it wasn't long before I just started to ignore him, this then prompted him to complain more than usual. He complains about everything saying my fan is too loud, music too loud, that I slam doors, that my food stinks and pretty much anything. To the point and things boiled over on Friday 15th, I had just had a tuna salad for dinner and was in the kitchen washing my plate and cutlery when he came out his room and started rummaging through the bin and picked out my empty tin of tuna (which for the record, was airtight tied up in a plastic bag). Then said at the top of his voice "YOU ARE NOT TO EAT THIS IN HERE!!!", at which point I replied calmly "I'm not six and you're not my Dad, now shut up you idiot". He continued with his aggressive loud tone getting more and more angry the more I laughed at him, until he followed me into my room and grabbed me by the neck and tried to punch me. I'm by no means a particularly hard or strong lad, but I won't allow anybody to mug me off so I threw him out the room and gave him a couple of punches. This obviously took him by surprise as he ran back into his room once he realized I fought back, anyway the upshot of this is he has reported me to the landlord and has bruises on his face and body. I've explained to the landlord the situation who on the whole is a good guy, but I guess because he is the one covered in bruises I look the criminal right. Anyway he tried to tell me to leave but I refused and explained my tenants rights, and basically said if you want me out then you'll have to physically remove me. Fortunately there is a young lass in the other room (Lisa who I mentioned at the start of this post) who knows the situation and has stood up for me, given our landlord a detailed analysis of his endless complaining about nothing. So yeah I'm very thankful that she has done that for me, and I guess it's just a waiting game now to see how things unfold. Not something I would usually blog about, but felt appropriate to mention so all my followers know it's not all fun in the sun and like all of us I'm having to deal with some problems too. SUCKS RIGHT

I have omitted a few details from this entry, as I've found from personal experience shorter more frequent posts are a little easier reading then large posts. So I'll likely post something small in the next week to include an update on the aforementioned domestic situation, couple of recent trips to the cinema, ANZPT Sydney, seeing the sites at Royal Botanic Gardens, doing the Bondi to Coogee coastal cliffwalk and my thoughts and plans for the near future.

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi! Oi! Oi!