Holy Crap its Mid December???

This is a note to my future self that is not going to remember all the comings and goings from my last blog to now because I took so long to write it all down.  I am sorry, however I am sure this won't be the last time I penalize my future self to make life easier for current me.

With that being said, here is what has been happening, some thoughts, stories and a picture even.

After my Wolverine esque recovery from the car hitting me I have seen 1 friend come and go, 2 friends just go, hit the 42 days left of work mark, booked a flight to Thailand, moved into an apartment, gotten kinda tan, and did I mention the best part......42 DAYS OF WORK LEFT!!!!

Big thank you to Lindsay Bushnell for making the trek way way south to come for a visit.  Not only did she come to see me and this great country, she brought gifts.  Diet Pepsi, nuff said.  I have 4 cans left and might just drink them all in one night.  Chris Jones or Brendan Lawrence when you get here I want a Bud Light. Linds and I took a trip to the zoo, and man is that place great.  I forgot how much I like just watching animals do their thing.  Sadly about 68% of them are sleeping, but a few taps on the glass can often fix that.

A sad goodbye to my top two Euro transplants.  I would be remiss if I did not mention how great you both are Anna and Stu.  You will each be missed in such different ways, just know that if you ever want to head to the US, ill do my best to find you a nice hostel to stay at (Ha, bet you thought I was gonna say stay with me, no way).

The following might not dispel any rumors, and I only take the very rare picture here is a mini collage:  Stu, your fire burned too bright.  Upper left, in the club, upper right, suited and booted for the races, and bottom him reading his goodbye card that I forgot to sign.  I need to take more and better pictures.

The weather has been hot here, nearly 84 or so each day.  Here is how I best explain it, it is hot to the point where you are kind of sweaty all the time, and it makes your clothes uncomfortable and damp, especially your work clothes, to the point where you can only wear any outfit once or else you are risking major smellage, however so so so many people here seem to take that risk and one out of every three people flat out stink, and they seem to relish it, I mean its damn near 2014, sure if you've been working outside or something you can smell a little by 4:30, but the guy in a suit or women in the sun dress, the b.o. has to be handled.

Cricket you say, you are interested in the most boring sport in the world.  Well you are in luck, because in 2013 we have the rare opportunity of a match that is supposed to occur once ever two years, happening twice in the same year.  I am going to try and answer your cricket questions here, this "match" is called The Ashes, named after the trophy for the winner of Australia/England 5 test contest.

What is a test- A test is a 5 DAY match where a winner is the team with the most points after the 5 days of play.  HOWEVER, and this makes cricket not a real sport, if both teams don't get to finish their turns after the 5 days of play, its a tie.  Yep, a tie.

For all the math majors who are ahead of me, that is 5 test, so 5 days, 5 times, so we are looking at about, what is that, 45 days of cricket just to settle this thing.  Really though 25 days of a terribly boring sport, and there is a strong chance that it will end in a tie.  Makes baseball look action packed, it only lasts 4 hours.

Like I said before we have the honor of this happening twice this year.  I am not sure where we stand, but I know that England won the first Ashes, and now the Aussies are up 2 tests to 0 in Ashes part Deux.  They also take tea breaks, lunch break, afternoon snack break, 4 minutes between hurls, runners don't have to run, batters can hit for hours, they wear about 5 pounds of that zinc sunscreen on their faces, and after all that can end up in a tie because it got too dark outside to finish.  How is everyone ok with this??

Lots more going on, but this is getting to long and I am sure you stopped reading after I brought up cricket.

Comfortable Enough to Jaywalk Part Two

Here is an email exchange from a buddy and me while I was at work...............  Check out the date.

On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Stuart Bowker<bowker.stuart@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Right. I am going to run you over in a Honda civic. I will give you $100 for every mile under 10mph. $200 for every mile under 20mph. $500 for every mile under 30mph. $1000 for every mile under 40mph. And $2500 for every mile over 40mph. E.g I run you over at 25mph you get $5500. How fast do I get to hit you. There are no guarantees of your safety and no special medical treatments. If you get hurt we have to call and ambulance and wait for it. 

My response:
                                       On 24/10/2013, at 2:42 PM, Scott Hall <shall@costco.com.au> wrote:

I think I would ask for about 11 to 14 MPH, $1600 or so. 

Would maybe go higher if I had insurance that would cover all expenses.

Well...........................On November 18th of 2013 I was indeed struck by a car and for some reason no one paid me $1600.  Let me set the stage, it had been raining HARD in Sydney all day and rather than take the bus to the train station I was offered a ride.  I gladly accepted and was dropped off at the corner across from the station.  Wanting to make the light and about 5,000 previous lights in my life I was willing to jaywalk/cross on a red.  On this day I was halfway across the intersection when the turn arrow sprung on my and I found myself in front of a car that was ready to roll.  (Had this been America I would have anticipated the turn arrow and none of this would have happened).  Being as I am an angry driver I did not want to piss this driver off, so I was quick to take off in one direction or the other just to get out of his way.  I take weird stances in life, like the severe anguish it causes me when I am wasting someones time.

My options are, go back across the street and wait out the whole 30 seconds mind numbing, non candy crush playing boredom.  Or, sprint for it and get to the other side.  My issue: blind corner around the car I was in the way of.  Like I have learned so many times throughout the years, my mind is more athletic than my body and today I was going to pay the price.  I take a step in the direction of the station and realize that I can not see around the car and think better of it.  With the rain, my dress shoes, and my inability to stop on a dime and change directions, I upended and landed on my ass with a maroon car barreling down on me.

First instinct was to get my head out of the way, second was to squint, throw up my forearm to stop the car, and then brace for impact.  The car skid, and smashed into me, sending me skidding across the concrete. Before America turned against him because it became popular, Dane Cook had an wonderful joke about this very situation.  Ill highlight the true parts.


Three weeks ago one of my dreams came true. 
I finally got to see something I've always wanted to witness live. 
I finally saw someone get hit by a car.  ( Sadly I did not get to see it)
Nailed, this guy got hit right in the hip. (Arm and torso)

This guy gets nailed.. this is the setup. 
He's walking down the street and he's doing that wacky speed walk...  (jog walking across the street to catch the light)
he's got the buds in his ears, 
So Johnny Tambourine (Scott Hall) is walking down the street, 
he's got the "not a good time to cross" signal. Yep
As he's going across, I see the car *car noise* coming down the street. 
*collision noise* 
The guy goes flying into the air, his shoes flew off.  Skid on ground, backpack stays on
When you get hit by a car, sometimes your shoes will fly off.  Right one did
Sometimes your pants will come off. Holes ripped in them, down to one pair of work pants
as the car was coming towards him I reached out and I said, 
"ohhhhh. ohhhhh." 
That's all I could think of to say. 
Theres so many things now in retrospect that I would love 
I would love to have been like "you're about to get struck by a vehicle!!!"   One car honked....I think
I did not have time to say "You're about to get struck by a vehicle" 
so I went with "ohhhhh!" which is like a concerned moan. 
The guy gets tagged okay, the greatest part of the story. 
He's in the air flipping around, Ground skidding
t this is how he lands on the other side of the car.   Middle of intersection, popped up instantly, adrenaline RUSH
and he starts walking around, embarrassed.  OH LORD, Felt so stupid
He's trying to play it off like he didn't just get hit, by a car.  I really did, waved at the driver and apologized and took off for the train
People around him are like... 
--"Oh my god! Oh my god! Are you alright? Are you okay?" 
He's like ... 
--"I'm fine, I'm fine. Seriously, I'm fine. I'm a little bit hungry. I said that I couldn't go to the hospital, I had a basketball game to get to..................

The skit goes on, but that is pretty much the gist of it for me.  After the lady told me to go to the hospital and I said I had hoops, I put my tail between my legs and just walked until the train came.  I felt more stupid than hurt, luckily, maybe magically I was not hurt that badly.  Played in my game and hit 7 three points.  Was pretty sore the next day.


I know a whole post and that is all that happened, minus the internal bleeding and ruined work pants.  I should have bought a lotto ticket that day.

Upcoming posts:
Friends from America coming to visit
Thanksgiving in Australia
Its starting to heat up
Flight home booked.......but when and where am I headed first??





(March 3rd, Thailand and maybe more)

Breaking Bad- 11/13 Updated

Since coming to the great country I have had to make a couple of sacrifices.  And for the most part that has been a good thing.  Due to the outrageous prices of about everything........except the .30 McDonald's ice cream cones, EVERYTHING is 50% more.  Including some of my vices.  This includes, Diet Pop, Alcohol, and Energy Drinks.  Luckily Costco has provided me a cheap outlet for an every now and again .80 Diet Coke, but the other two are being purchased less and less.  And I am not good at math, but I think less buying is leading to less consumption.  Other bad habits that have been quite easy to break are candy (never ate that much anyway, for $3 a bar, Gas- don't drive and have not ridden in a car for months (they are getting my money on the jacked up rail pass though, and gambling, can't afford it.

A few bad habits I have picked up

-Several phrases and terms: lads, reckon, unlucky.  I will lose these quickly upon return to the states I hope.

- Being ok with having no clue what is going on in the world: is the government still on strike?  I can't even tell you who is in first place in the NFC East- Cowboys??

- Gossip Girl- UGH, I am embarrassed, but I have all 6 season at my disposal

- A commute- not going to do that when I get back.  1 hour give or take each way, what a waste, which leads right into my next one

- Candy Crush: I may not be eating candy at this time, however I have had everyone's fill of Candy Crush.  I think I am on level 385, ha what a joke, I know exactly that I am on level 385 and have been for 2 days now.  If someone could write a letter to the company and tell them to make an end so I can quit that would be great.

Estimated Return Home:  Late Feb, Early March.  Still need to book my flight, but it's looking around that time.  Work ends at the end of January and then I hope to travel just a bit more.

One request that I have been receiving a ton of is, what are you doing down there.  I did a fairly decent job of outlining my travel time, but other than those amazing home gym photos I have not really summed up a typical day in the life if Australia Scott.  So......

5:30 AM- First alarm, unless its Monday, then it is first and final alarm to get up

6:10 AM- Second alarm, won't go back to sleep, but refuse to get up, so I just lay in bed mad

6:20 AM- Get up and shower for work, dress in the hallway mostly to be polite to Stu the roomie (yep sleeping in a bunk bed, bottom luckily)

6:35 AM- Grab a $2 coffee from 7-11 and catch the train to BFE, where Costco is

???- No idea what time the train is scheduled, but I wait till one that is going my way comes and get on it.

CANDY CRUSH!!!

7:30- Get to work around a half an hour early because I can't handle being late, check fantasy football, emails, hide in the bathroom to avoid starting to work before 8.

8-4:27- I don't really like this time of my day.  Soul crushing might be an understatement

4:28- sprint to try and catch the bus to catch the train home, usually its late, which is agonizing.  You know when you are waiting at a stop and the bus does not show up, the time comes and goes, but still no bus.  You are approaching the next arrival time, and then two buses show up at once, your late bus, and then the one that is on time.  Mine is always the late one.  Really sets the tone for a commute.

4:???  Same as the way to work, get on a train headed home

Candy Crush, or zone out and listen to another Adam Carolla podcast (current listened to count around 200)

5:45PM- Arrive home and depending on the day of the week I will have something to do.

Monday- Basketball league up North

Tuesday- Basketball league by the Bay

Wednesday- wash clothes, buy food, play cards.  Note: any task that involves going somewhere is done on foot, meaning that it takes longer than back home and I can only do so much at once. Like carrying groceries or getting to and from basketball games.  I still love the transit system though.  Very efficient.  Would have really enjoyed taking a train from Issaquah out to Seattle for basketball games, or UW games, I can not stress enough how much I hate riding a bus, in any country.  

Thursday- Sit on the couch and watch some stupid British show for 15 minutes to just relax, then go change and get ready for some prime time lounging OR get our dream team together and head to trivia night at one of many many many bars.  This team consists of whiz kid Dan- American who knows an insane amount about geography and general trivia, very smart guy, stinks at movies and sports....we are a good pair.  Then you have previously mentioned Brit, Stu, Stu is our Australia expert with a great grasp on current events, British and other random sports, and various other categories you would find in normal trivia.  Then we usually have a few stragglers that are good for an answer or two and most of the time talk us out of a correct answer so their contribution is next to nothing and in a couple people's cases negative.

Friday- Get super excited and be totally over stimulated, usually run to the store and not buy anything because I really want to go to the bottle shop (liquor store).  Buy a case for the weekend, run out that night and then be forced to come back again on Saturday, or not drink, not drinking actually usually happens.  Saturday is the day I lay around until noon and then head to the outdoor courts to hoop.  Sunday is reserved for the Dawgs and sleeping.

Other things that have happened since my last update.

My Monday basketball team won our championship game and finished 11-0.  Here in Australia they call every championship a Grand Final, which always makes me laugh.  It could be the final of our Monday basketball league, or the last hand in a rock, paper, scissors best two out of three and it would be a GRAND FINAL!!!!!  So dramatic.  Anyway, the league was not great, as my 29ppg 12rpg 3bpg avg would suggest, but it was fun to get out and run each week.  I have never scored that many points a game since grade school, it was kinda cool being the best player again.  Is that sad??  NOPE, ok a little.

Halloween has come and gone and this is kind of funny.  Brits/Aussies call dressing up for a costume party "fancy dress."  No that does not mean nice clothes, it means wearing a costume.  In addition they all dress full gore (blood, fangs, black everything, ripped clothes and such), so instead of skanky nurses, you would see a respectably dressed, undead, still bloody, pasty face nurse.  I think we do it better, much better.  We dressed Stu up as a mummy by ripping bed sheets and wrapping him up.  It was a half-assed job that took about 25 minutes.  He had tons of gaps and about one wrap around his head.  We walked in to the party and after no more than 45 seconds he was told he was a nominee for best costume.  So, when I say I think we do it better, I know we do.

Card Games:  I have made the full conversion from guy, into old woman.  I bring my own bags to the supermarket, I take public transportation everywhere, and now I can play the game Bridge.  A group of us have taken to the game and enjoy it even though its still a bit too complex.  Fun game, much like driving a stick shift car it was something I thought I would never learn to do in my lifetime.  I was wrong.

Hoops/Race weekend, This past weekend Stu and I had a all sports weekend, with a Sydney Kings game on Friday night, and then the Randwick Horse Races all day Saturday. The tickets to both were free, but only the races were worth the price of admission. Sydney was playing fellow west coast rival Cairns and it was plain to see that both teams were over matched from the start. I know these guys are way better than me...taller, faster, stronger, but man did I feel like I could have gone out there and lit up their weak 2-3 zone. I posted a while ago that everyone out here plays a zone d, which applies to their pro teams as well. To sum up the game we saw 2 dunks, a lot of bricks and one pretty awesome split the d tomahawk drive to the hoop. Final Grade C- 

Knowing that we would need a good night sleep, we took it easy Friday night and were up bright and early for the track. Met up with some of Stu's Rugby friends and were at the races by Noon. One of the guys father had a horse in the first race, we got their just in time to see it finish dead last. Bummer. But saved me the $10 I would have bet on that guy. All in all it was a sunny, amazing day and we all walked away up a bunch of money on racing, but down a bunch on drinks. Race three Stu and I both lied about the horse we bet on and then silently celebrated when our actual bet won the race, and quickly realized that we were both full of sh*t. Maybe the most entertaining part of the day is the outfits everyone wears. Guys in suits and ties and ladies in dresses and all the crazy hats you could ever think up. Think of the most insane art you can imagine, and then turn that into a hat. Bird's nest, yep, why not, anything is fair game at the races. No mint juleps though. Bummed about that, since I have never had one. Overall race experience B+, only because I got sunburned. .

No idea what the deal with this background coloring is, but I can not seem to shake it.  Apologies.

Kayaking Sydney Harbor

We are past the halfway point and no better way to reflect on that feat by hitting the highlights............

Best experience thus far:  Now I am supposed to say having my sister and mom fly 348 hours across three planets to come visit me and spend a month in another country living off the land with only our wits to sustain us.  That is what I am supposed to say and while that might be the best lifelong memory that I take from this trip, because it was pretty amazing.  I am going to go with the whole scuba diving experience.  Scuba diving is supposed to be a rich man's game full of clams with pearls in them and yachts.  In Australia for $199 and some lying on a waiver form you can hop right down in the ocean and live underwater for a half an hour at a time.  If you really take some time and think about what a feat that is, not for me, but just to be X feet underwater and pretty much a tank is keeping you alive, its pretty amazing.  Add in all the stuff you get to see, people throwing up on the boat, staying up till 4am the night before, the Willy Wonka style elimination of  my fellow divers and a dive instructor named Grace that pretty much let me do whatever I wanted and you have a pretty memorable life experience.

On to today:


This is how this story should have gone.  A large group of us went kayaking in the harbor.  It was sunny and we all had a great time. 

What actually did happen was much less fun and exciting, but it does make for a decent story.

I woke up early so I could watch the 4-2 Huskies play against Arizona State.  Could not get the game streaming online until after the first touchdown.  7-0 Dawgs and it seemed like we were rolling.  Fast forward about 40 minutes of crap later and we are getting whipped on both sides of the ball, Keith Price can't complete a pass, the line can't block, and the D stopped tackling.  Really fun to watch.

After the third quarter of more BS, our group packed up to make the trek to Manly Beach for a kayak adventure.  I work for from town so I purchase an unlimited rides pass each week.  This entitles me to all the bus, train, and ferry rides that I need to take for a week.  The majority of the group takes the 12:10 fast ferry ($$$$) and I am going to wait for the 12:30 which is free.  I am denied entrance into the ferry terminal, of course the rules have changed and my pass no longer works on the ferries.  So, I get in the 50 person line and miss the 12:30.  We are all meeting up at 1 by the way.  So as to not miss the next ferry I get straight in line and am herded into the waiting area that is so packed you hold your wallets to make sure you don't get pick pocketed.

It is in this moment that a young Asian boy decides to yak his lunch on my leg.  No big deal, at least I can move, go wash up, and still make the ferry.....................nope, no I cant.  They offer me ONE wet nap and I proceed with a pukey leg cause we are so packed in there is no turning back.  The ferry actually takes off early, things are turning around, and we are headed to das beach.  Midway I get a call from Stu to learn where I can meet the rest of the group.  

Phone dies, and I am lost forever.  Luckily my specialty is wandering lost so I am fairly certain that I can find everyone, how many kayak stands can their be??  Too many is the answer, I never find anyone, wander aimlessly, and take the ferry home defeated.

The weather was perfect, the ferry ride beautiful and I did get a decent tan started.  It was not a total loss of a day, minus that "football" game in the morning and my leg is starting to smell

We have recently had a crazy sting of bush fires out here.  I guess the worst its been in nearly a decade or so. These are some pictures I took after work.  One of my bosses houses was right on the edge, and I think she just missed losing her house by a few feet (I almost typed meters).

Fleet Week

It was Fleet Week here in Sydney this week and they were celebrating 100 years of Australian Navy.  Boats from all around the world came to celebrate and I hear Rihanna, Prince Henry, and some other celebs where here.  Here are some photos from the weekend (I did not take all of these, but I wanted you to be able to see what I saw).

The city was buzzing all weekend because of this and was extra packed.  Which is exactly what I was looking for in coming here.  Had a great night out with the crew and it pretty much lasted until an early morning.  The next day I went and watched the UW game............moving on I stayed up till 3am to watch the Hawks game.............and that was the weekend.  Not sure what happened in either game and I blacked out with rage.

What a bummer that Dawgs game was.  Reasons why we lost:

Opening Kickoff Ret TD

End of first half secondary mess up

Penalties in first half

And magical camera ferries that showed that ball hit the ground when all the angles they showed on tv game NO CLEAR EVIDENCE to overturn the call on the field, had they called incomplete, and those were the two camera shots they had to go on, I would not have been upset if they kept the ruling on the field and we lost, but since they called catch, it should have remained a catch, no arguing that.

At least the Game Day crew will be headed to Seattle next week, someone take out Corso if he puts on the Donald Duck head!!!!!!

Another question I am asked quite often is what you miss most from the US.  Other than all of you, here are the products that I have been unable to find here:

Like I said before the beer here is not good, unless you go IPA.  And not being a beer fan in general I need my beer to taste like delicious water.  Nothing in the world better than Bud Light!!!!  I think the #1 beer drunk over here is called Toohey's New, it is ok, but its the sweet sweet nectar that is Bud Light!

They don't have it here and Diet Coke sucks, I drink a lot less soda then I used to.  Probably a good problem to have.  I have increased my coffee drinking by about 1000% though.  I hear that the coffee here is better than the coffee at home, whatever, but I guess that means since I did not drink coffee at home I am going to be missing the kinds you get here.  Regardless I'll be back on the DP most likely when I get home.

All the deodorant down here is spray, which is great if you want to smell like a cologned up, lasts for 20 minutes in this heat, all day BO Aussie.  But, most countries where we shower at least once a day, colonging up 5x a day is not really going to prevent the smell.  (Think NYC taxi, but everyone).  Its a really easy way to tell who is local and who is not.  This exact brand, this exact kind, I have one stick left and I am getting nervous.

Just so good.

I don't let my hair get too long, so I have made do for 6 months with one of these bad boys, however its getting low and seeing as hair products cost $47 about down here I might just be letting nature have its way for a while.  Speaking of hair I went in and got my haircut about 4 weeks ago.  It was magical.  The guy sat me down, asked me what I wanted and then we did not speak again until he asked me if I wanted my side burns shortened.  My god, he didn't ask me a thing, I loved it!!!!  No, "Are you off work?" "Where do you work?" "Have any kids?" "How's the weather?"  Just the most mundane talks you can have and I hate them, I hate them so much.  If you could pay extra to guarantee no conversation would transpire I would go as high as $7 extra.  I also have an amazing idea for a new kind of hair cutting place that I have shared with some of you, it would be a $$$ maker for sure.

Other Stuff:

Group night out, fun bunch of people.

I am Chandler Bing, nice awkward hands

This picture was taking in the main corridor of Central Train station.  I wandered in there on my way to work as I do everyday, however on this day they were filming an Aussie reality TV cooking show.  There were about 10 station like this one, with couples doing some sort of cook off.  There was a six foot barricade that was blocking people from the one you see in this picture.  I walked right past that and up to where they were cooking.  Then I took about 5 photos.  Then I was accosted by security and a lady that tried to take my phone.  Several lies later I was on my way with just this one photo.  I even got some of the cameras to turn in my direction.  By the way if you have never seen a reality show (why would you), they had like 8 cameras on each pair, which would drive me crazy.  There were more cameramen in that place then anything else.  In summing up I am an Australian Reality TV star, channel 7, look for me.

The following pictures are my home gym.  These are the torture stairs, mostly used for torture and going up and down between floors.  About 20 minutes of them will do.

You know those long bands that people use in the gym and do self propelled flys and other various workouts.  We use towels and they are awesome.

Multi-purpose bar and weights.  The bar weighs about 5 lbs and we have about 50 lbs of weights, so there is only so much you can do, but when its too light, just have to increase the reps!!!

These are detergent jugs full of water.  Great for lunges and replacement kettle bells. 

Yoga Mat

Then this guy.  I know its hard to see, but that is his hair.  He has it in the shape of sun glasses, pretty awesome.

1-7

1-7

That is the current record of my two fantasy football teams.  One league I am in with 7 Brits that know nothing about "American" football, and the other is with the Issaquah boys that we have been doing for well over a decade.  Basically what I am trying to communicate is that NFL does not exist down here, I have watched one game, and all I know for sure is the Hawks are 4-0.  Games start at 3am on Monday morning and are pretty much only on while I am at work.  Sucks, sucks bad.  Another team that I am actually able to follow is the also 4-0 Washington Huskies.  Huge game coming up this weekend, and it will be the first televised in Australia, so while the rest of you are out Saturday night watching the Dawgs, I will be at a sports bar on a Sunday at noon trying to find a place that has ESPN 2.  Can't wait, and I am not being sarcastic.  I even have about 6 of the Brits shouting U-dub upon my entrance or exit of a room.  Its pretty great.

I asked for some topics to write about and here is some of the questions I was asked.

How are the Aussie Women??

- Crazy, they are fun and loud and quite unstable.  I know I am making a very broad generalization here, but from what I have encountered in 6 months, they are equal parts awesome and equal parts nuts.  I have been on a couple dates, been in the trenches and I have not taken marriage off the table, but its teetering on the edge.

Lingo that I find stupid

- Mackers- this is what they call McDonalds, its a dumb nickname and all the menu items are not good and overpriced.  EXCPET the .30 ice cream cone, oh god how much do I love the .30 ice cream done.  Best deal in the country.

-How you going- How are you doing, how are you?  I have refrained from adopting this and have yet to ask sonmeone, but you will hear it 5-6 times a day.

-Unlucky- Aussies will say this is anything on the planet does not go your way.  Miss a crazy basketball shot, "ahhhh, unlucky."  Get caught robbing a bank, "Ohhh rough go mate, unlucky"  

-Toliet- Bathrooms do not exist, only toilets

-Return- This is a round trip, its a tiny thing that drives me crazy.  If you are going to work and back it doesnt take 2 hours round trip, its 2 hours return.

-Take Away- This means to go.  This phrase is also annoying

Ill do some more as I am too agitated now. 

Here is what has been going on lately for me:

Monday- Work, Men's league hoops, home, bed

Monday 2- Work, Co rec league hoops, home, bed

Monday 3- Work, Workout on the roof at the hostel, movie

Monday 4- Work, make up an excuse as to why I can skip working out (I had a vegetable earlier in the day, its too windy to run, or the walk to the bus was at least a 5k (about 100 feet) ), bed

Friday- Sleepwalk though work, nearly pass out at my desk, get off work, 100% awake and ready to go enjoy the Sydney nightlife

Saturday (park hoops, try not to get robbed, win some games, explore the city)

Pre Monday (Sleep, blog maybe, watch the dawgs on pirate internet tv, movie, hate life as its almost Monday)

*Weeks do vary, and I am making them less exciting than they are, part of that is to keep this pg and the other part is that I live in a freaking hostel full of idiots (not all the people in here are idiots, just most)

Here are some pictures of recent events:  I apparently need to take more pictures..........  The first two are murderball, USA vs New Zeland vs  Australia.  US #1 and Australia is #2.  Turns out US is still #1, weird!!!!

The bottom one was 5:30 am on a Tuesday, while you were all enjoying Labor Day, I was drafting my 0-4 fantasy football team.  The things we do.  And one fun night out (ok those wont post, ugh, next time)

Much more to come soon, again anything you want to know just ask.  

Nearing The Halfway Point

Really can't believe it has almost been six months since I have felt the sweet US soil on my feet.  The time is flying here, except from 8am till 4:30 every Monday through Friday, that is work time and work time is terrible.  In six months I have managed to do a number of amazing things, meet some great people, and attempt to make the rest of this planet hate the US that much less.  They do by the way, they hate us real bad.  I understand where a lot of that hate comes from:



As long as you are not an arrogant A-hole, then people will usually give you a fair chance to prove their US hate wrong.  Trouble is you have to act like a beta wolf and basically submit to their ideas and belief structures in order for them to not see you as a threat and start attacking all things USA.  Its a delicate dance and I have gotten pretty good at dancing it, unlike all other real kinds of dances.  This Syria business is not helping out either, but in reality we are damned if we do damned if we don't.  I'd compare peoples feelings towards the US as bandwagon hate.  Same kinda reason Dane Cook went up in flames.  He made some bad movies and probably got a bit full of himself, but his comedy never changed and was still funny.  Then some people turned on him, and that became the norm, hating Dane was in fashion and people without a real reason to dislike the guy hated him in the same way that a person who spent $20 to go see "Good Luck Chuck" or "Employee of the Month" did.  (My Best Friends Girl, was awesome, don't care what you say, Alec Baldwin was in it.)


That is the case with the world vs the US.  I am not sure how many of you have had the chance to really travel outside the US, but when you get the chance to, you will be captivated by the disdain the world has for your home country.  I usually take it as a challenge to prove them wrong, or I just agree with them and then passive aggressively insult them until I go to far and they figure it out.

Anyway, I was not planning on writing about this at all, but I guess its something new and interesting.  Life updates, I am still in the hostel as looking for rentals is a real hassle and with work and hoops and whatever else I can find to do down here there is not that much time.  I'll either end up living here until I come home, or finally get my act together and find a rental.  Hoping for the latter, expecting the former.  Work is good, bank account is getting back in shape, as am I...slowly.  A buddy in the hostel and I are doing Shape Up September.  Rules has been tightly followed and are:
-1 drinking session a week
-No fizzy drinks at all (EASILY THE HARDEST PART FOR ME)
-Daily workouts or sporting activites
-Cut down spending by making meals
The goal is to shape up the body and the bank account.  We are thinking Out of Shape October since the O was a tough letter to do exercise related word, but I would be willing to reexamine if anyone can come up with a better word.

Good Luck to the Dawgs today.  I got up at 6am to watch the game, its on at 8:30.......awesome.  Happy Birthdays to cousin Mykel and the girl next door since I was four, Michelle Gervin.  I am sorry I was not there to celebrate with both of you.  Next time I write, since not a lot of excitement is going on, I''ll answer any questions you guys have regarding my life down here or Australia in general.  I already have some good ones from Brenden Lawrence and Lindsay Bushnell.  The more the better.  Email me at scottmorrisonhall@gmail.com