"I'm gunna make it, through this year, if it kills me."

This is out of a little song by 'The Mountain Goats' called 'This Year', and at the moment it's remarkably apt.
I know the year has just started, but I really need to get off my arse and do something with my life. I've actually been saying this for about 2 years (Jen can attest to this) but only taken baby steps to actually getting myself there (TESOL course.... and uhh.... TESOL course. And there was an RSA course in there too!). This year... i'm sure will be the year. I mean, objectively, what reason do I have to stay?
- Most of my uni mates have already moved away. Those that are still here won't be for too much longer.
- I dont have a full time, well paying job.
- I dont have a girlfriend (Well, no relationship that's going to keep me here anyways...)
- My room. 'Nuff said.

There doesn't really seem to be a strong case for me staying in Albury at the moment. Not that there ever especially has been, but it really gets reinforced when your mates graduate, and move onwards and upwards, and you're left working at a petrol station.

So i'm currently working 2 turdy little jobs and one good one, whilst living in a little hot-box of a room (I hear of similiar size, temperature and cleanliness in POW camps) and drinking too much on weekends, and being completely petrified of any emotional attachment to a girl thanks to my desire to leave this place.
Man, this is really a sob post, isn't it? Well, it aint all bad. I still have plenty of mates living around here, and it's not a bad place to live. Just not a great one! I seem to just be scared of knocking some girl up, buying a house, filling it with kids while working some shitty job in a factory.
Not my idea of heaven. Wish me luck with the saving!
-j

Bastards...

Lockout!
Originally uploaded by jases.

On the Adelaide trip, my 'friends' locked me out on the balcony wearing only my shorts, and then left me out there for a while. They took some photo's, laughed and pointed, then closed the blinds for a while, until my banging on the door irritated them enough to let me back in.
Theres a few new photo's from the holiday on my flickr account! Check 'em out!
-j

Back Into the Grind.

With Adelaide just a sunburnt, drunken, and distant memory, i'm back into the harsh reality of working and regular sobriety. And i'm not too fond of it at all! No sir!
After the lovely week of fun and relaxation I got home on the friday night. It then dawned on me, that this was the coming week:
Saturday: Work at the internet cafe. knock off. Go to work at the bar.
Sunday: Work at the internet cafe. Knock off. Got to work at the bar.
Monday: Work at BP. 6 hours standing and being nice to people. Followed by toilet mopping.
Tuesday: See Monday.
Wednesday: See Tuesday. Followed by bar work.
Thursday: Bar work. Dropped a spoon on a lady's lap and almost went to snatch it back before I realised how innappropriate that would be.
Friday: See Thursday. Sans spoon.
Next week: See last week.

On top of this, I moved during the week. Into possibly the smallest room in creation (see diagram. Brought to almost life by the magic of MS Paint).

As you can see, it's not exactly the Hilton.

I stole the fan from the loungeroom last night at 3am in the hope that if I put it on high and pointed it at me, the mosquito's would get blown away. This took care of the little ones. Meaning only the larger, meaner, and more dedicated mosquito's had access to my precious virgin blood.
You can also see that there is no wardrobe... or storage space whatsoever. I'm living out of the bags I packed when I moved there (see 'Alllllllll of my junk' section), and you might notice there is also no door. I'm slightly worried about this. I sleep in my boxers, and any casual passer by can see into my room, and straight up my shorts.
I'm not so worried about it, but for the 2 girls I now live with, and any of their guests, it does raise a few concerns.
Well, on that lovely note, i'm out for now!

-j

Adelaide, part the 2nd!

The second day was as gloomy as hell. I woke up, hung over, mouth tasting like i'd been sucking on an old boot all night. Housekeeping had forgotten to put a fold out bed in our apartment for me, so uncle Jason spent the night on the lovely 'BackFuck 9000' model couch.
Everyone eventually came out of their rooms looking slightly worse for wear. Max and Caddie, Belle and Matt, and single ol' me just watched some TV with stupid, hungover looks on our faces. Max must have been feeling manly, because he cracked a beer and dared Matt and I to do the same. There was no fucking way that I was even going smell beer at that time, and Matt and I both declined, despite being called pussies by Max. It turned out he had about a mouthfull, turned green, and regretted it so much he tipped the rest out.

The day was saved by one fo the girls we were up with, Anna. Her gorgeous cousin came around and took us to the beach in her old mercedes. And she looked great in a bikini to boot!
We spent a good few hours there. Despite the fact it was pretty damned cold. When youre not from the beach, and you go on a holiday near the beach, you gotta get the hell in, weather be damned!

The next day we were told that the 'singles' (Me, Anna, and Nes) were heading out with Anna's cousin, while the 'couples' (Matt & Belle, Max & Caddie) all went to their separate romantic rendesvous. This suited me just fine, and at about 8.30 pm on a Tuesday night of all things, we were all ferried to the pub by Anna's aunt (lovely lady).
I couldn't believe it. Tuesday night, and the pub was jam packed with gorgeous girls, and smarmy looking metrosexual men. I felt pretty out of place, not having one of those stupid friggin 'faux hawks' , a designer shirt with the collar up that was 3 sizes too small, or a speed addiction and latent homosexuality.
Nonetheless, I manfully soldiered on with my drinking. Admittedly, I didnt talk to any new girls. I mean... that was the time for it. New pub, new place, and if i did something really heinous, they would never see me again! but alas, my time was spent talking to Anna, Ness, and Anna's hot cousin (so it was still pretty good). I partook of the Coopers beer that seems to be Adelaides staple beer, and it wasnt too bad. Not that I could have convincingly picked a good beer from Drano by the time I drunk it (I was on the vodkas until then).
Eventually the pub closed and we wandered to another one just down the road. We were waiting in line for a while, but our chances of being let in were dashed when Anna called a (female) bouncer a 'fucking bitch' and threatening to 'report her' for letting her cousins in before us.
We caught a taxi to a pub called 'Sugar' after that, and I can't clearly remember how it happened, but I ended up on the couch, with Anna's hot cousin on top of me, making out. It was great fun! I just can't recall the exact circumstances that lead up to it... hot girls dont generally just latch on to me. Let alone without a reason!
We went home at about 3, back to the hotel and fooled around all night. I learned later that we had left Anna to the mercy of a nice, but unbelievably boring (apparently) army guy. But she's a big girl, and she sorted her shit out.

I woke up in the morning, hung over, and barely able to move. The hot cousin had left to go to work earlier (Like American Pie 1!! I felt used). But ended up hiring a car with Max and ferrying everyone out to the beach. It was pretty good! A little Suzuki Lianos or something, and I flogged the turd out of the poor little car that wasnt mine!
Come to think of it, that's pretty much how the rest of the week went. Hiring cars, and swimming On the Thursday, we hit the town again. And there were $1.85 cruisers! I dont even like like the damn things, but shit, i drunk them for $1.85! Hot cousin came out again... and I kinda got my hopes up. She's a rad chick and I liked her a little bit... her being keen on the snow, being smart, being really funny and having a cool attitude. But she also had another dude that she seemed pretty keen on hanging around her. C'est la vie, I guess! Seem's to be a running theme with me... the girls I like that I pick up don't want to know me after one night, but the girls I pick up that i'm not that keen on... won't leave me alone!
We flew home on the friday night without any mishaps. It was a fantastic trip, and I should hopefully be able to post some photo's soon. Sorry the ending is so curt, but hell, i'm sick of typing right now, and I have work soon.
-j

Awesome! A Quiz!

I'm planning on revolutionising the world of Blogging by completing a quiz and putting my own, individual answers on my blog for all to see. Just watch this fad catch on!

Choose one of your favourite bands/artist: Blink 182.

Answer all the questions using SONG TITLES from the BAND or ARTIST.

1. Are you male or female: Adam's Song (Enema of the State)
2. Describe yourself: Boring (Dude Ranch)
3. How do some people feel about you: What's my age again? (Enema of the State)
4. How do you feel about yourself: Dammit! (Dude Ranch)
5. Describe where you want to be: Going Away To College (Enema of the State)
6. Describe how you live: Toast & Banana's (Buddha)
7. Describe how you love: Carousel (Buddha)
8. What would you ask for if you had just one wish: All the Small Things (Enema of the State)
9. Share a few words of wisdom: Give me one Good Reason (Take off your Pants and Jacket)
10. Now say goodbye: Please Take Me Home (Take off your Pants and Jacket)

Gah! All done. It's actually kinda boring in hindsight, but heres hoping my legions of fans appreciate it. More on Adelaide, and hopefully photo's coming up! Crispy skin, boofy hair, and much more for you voyeurs!
-j

Adelaide, Part the 1st

Saturday morning we were all up bright and early (7am) to get to Melbourne and catch the plane. Matt, Max, Caddie, Bel and I all piled into Maxy's Magna and kicked off the trip.
It's pretty much customary to stop at the Mcdonalds in Glenrowan (about half way to Melbourne) every time you go there. I hadn't had breakfast, and almost cried when Max, being the arsehole that he is, cruised straight past it.
I had to make do with a roast pork roll from a truckstop about another hour up the road. I remember asking for the roast beef roll. Five minutes later the lady comes out and says "Sorry mate, the only roast beef we've got is pork". I wasn't sure what this meant... the only roast beef being pork... but another ten minutes later I was hooking into a roast pork roll and some chips, which pretty much set the bar for heatlh food in the following week.
We hit Melbourne and found our parking lot without too much hassle (Andrews Airport Parking are pretty damned good!) and a dude who looked like harry from 'Harry and the Hendersons' drove us all to the airport in a courtesy bus.
The flight to Adelaide was interesting. I'd never been in a proper plane before up until then, and while I had a brief thought that my complimentary biscuits and tea might end up in the hair of the person in front of me, my stomache behaved itself all trip.
We touched down in 40 degree Adelaide and waited around for an hour for another one of our group to fly in. They've just built a new Airport in Adelaide, but our flights were still going to the old one, and it is shit. Hot as hell and the A/C wasnt working, and the tap beer was broken! Very convenient that we had to buy $7.50 a-fuckin'-bottle beers to keep cool!
We taxi'd into the middle of town to our apartments, threw our shit down and started exploring. In hindsight, we probably shoulda got there a day earlier to get our bearings, but oh well. We managed to find a bottle-o and get a slab of coronas, a box of some lovely goon, and a bottle of vodka to kick off the night. Adelaide is a very pretty town, but New Years Eve was a slight downer. It was pretty much spent wandering Adelaide, lost, not knowing where the pubs were, and somehow, with unbelievable accuracy, finding only pubs that had fuck all people in them... all damned night. New Years came, I got a kiss on the cheek from Caddie and Bel, and hit in the eye with a streamer from Max, and the first night was over.
Continued later!
-j