Just waiting on Visa

I have finally applied for my visa after 4 weeks of procrastinating.
Work has been pretty full on and living at home is kinda a drag as it takes me 1 hour to get to work.

The boys and I went on a road trip 2 weeks ago to attend a mates engagement party in Taranaki. The 5 hour drive was painful as I was sick. The funny part about it is that the 5 people I went up with all got sick! So when I was recovering, they started sneezing and coughing. My bad. From Taranaki, we took another 4+ hour drive up to Auckland as my mates had tickets to the Foo Fighters, I on the other hand did not want to go to the concert so ended up spending time with close family friends in Auckland.
My mate Mike shows a slight resemblance to Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl. While walking down the street, a stranger approached him and asked "Aren't you in a band?"
It was very funny and still is.

There is a casino in Auckland and of course most of my time was spent there, I love Blackjack.
Blackjack paid for all our entertainment so the trip was pretty good.
I've also been using Skype quite a bit to call people. It's amazing how good the quality is. If you have skype, feel free to gimme a call, I may even show you a bit of something something.

SkypeName: Sam-NZ

No time to write, need to catch up on emails.

Sam




Notice the beer in Mike's hand








Fiona was the first to get sick








Party on the farm








Moisties









7 degrees in Taranaki







It's Dave Grohl








Tracey's 21st








He's special








I am a sexy bitch

Wellington is still Home

Only one week in Wellington and I’ve already settled in. My boss at First NZ Capital was kind enough to give me a 4 week contract during my stint in Wellington. Although I would have loved to write loose stories about my nights out, this week has been passive but still fun.
My week has been very busy with catch up, dinner and drinks every night.

Grant, Gemma and I decided to head down to good ole Working Men’s Club for a few jugs. This place was our watering hole every Friday and Saturday night when we were younger. Although it’s mainly for the older generation, we didn’t mind taking advantage of the $7 jugs ($5.50 last time).
4 jugs later, we decided to play the coin in the cup drinking game where you had to bounce the coin into the cup in the middle and of course the loser consumes. The bouncing of the coins was actually very noisy but onlookers didn’t mind too much due to our sheer talent.
I also managed to get a video so everyone can join in the fun.

I still have not applied for my visa as I want to make sure everything is in order so it will not be declined again.
I’m off to Taranaki and Auckland this weekend for an engagement party and to umm…. Party I guess.
Hope all is well in Brisbane.

Sam

Flipping coin into glass - 5.7 MB




Dad's early birthday celebration









Grant and Gemma

Grant wanted a pash

Farewell Brisbane

When I arrived in Wellington at 12:40am, it was 10 degrees! What have I done? I am moving away from 30 degree heat waves to 10 degree chill storms.
We had a little shin-dig on Saturday, food got eaten, beers got drank.
I am still saddened by the departure but it's time to move on and see the world.

The errands for UK has already started. I managed to apply for an international drivers permit, new credit card, 1 month gym membership (free), yes free! It's amazing how a little bit of politeness can save you $200.

I would like to take a few minutes now to sound gay:

To the boys at 99 Gregory Terrace (my second home), it's been fun chilling out and getting loose whenever we feel like it. I miss our Guitar jam sessions and constant chatter about nothing.

To the English, although we have only known each other for 4 months (some even 4 days), its been great doing all the touristie activities. I wouldn't have done it without you. Do look me up on your return to Pommy land.

To the flatmates, Thanks for putting up with my drunken state at early hours of the morning and me walking around the apartment semi-naked.

Rob the dirty Maori, I am not going to miss your 5am wake up calls. Eat a dick.

Last but not least, the lovely Jacqui, you always tend to put a small on my face even when I'm cranky. You are constantly enthusiastic and full of energy. I will indeed miss you.

Farewell Sunshine State

Sam

Diet Coke + Mentos - 5.6 MB





Mum and Dad







It's Gollum!









Drinking Games








Fun with String

Phantom of the Opera

Anna from Auckland is here for the week and I am unemployed again.
On Friday, I was already at the train station having drinks with work colleagues and as soon as I meet Anna at the train station, we went straight back to the bar; luggage and all. After a few hours at the bar, we went back to my apartment to freshen up and it’s back out to meet up with more people.
She didn’t know what to expect, she literally got off the plane 20 mins ago and was already in a pub.
We spent the weekend hanging out, shopping, wining and dining.

On Sunday, Anna managed to drag me to watch The Phantom of the Opera. I have never been to a musical nor was I interested but there has to be a first for everything. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. The story of love and betrayal. Anthony Warlow’s (Phantom) voice is amazing. The energy and sheer intensity is over whelming. We then went out for dinner, drank couple bottles of wine and meet up with more friends for a Sunday session.

I went to the English’s apartment last night for a few drinks. They live on the 17th floor with an awesome view of the river and the storey bridge. We got a bit bored at midnight and decided to make some paper darts to launch off the balcony. All the darts were rubbish and mine ended up on a 15th floor balcony.
The idea was good but too bad we were all retarded at making paper darts.

Mum and Dad are probably at Melbourne airport waiting to board so I will need to arrange for a taxi to pick them up. The next few days are going to be hectic. So much to do with so little time, I need to see an accountant to sort out my taxes before I depart Australia.
If anyone would like me to purchase anything, please do let me know.

I also had to create a new album for random drinking photos here

See you all (NZ'ders) real soon

Sam

Jacqui is loose – 2.7 MB

Paper Darts - 4.6 MB




Flipping Coasters








Anna, James and Linley from NZ








Asleep at the pub again!








The usual drunk crowd








More dinner parties








Crappy Darts

Missing Brisbane Already

I am still in Brisbane but I'm already starting to miss it. Walking away from the lifestyle and friends is going to be difficult. I have met a range of interesting, fascinating and loose individuals during my time in Australia.

My mate Rob invited me out to dinner on Sunday night, which I thought was a bit weird and gay since all we ever do is get hammered on Tequila.
So as I was getting a drink, Lynch and Jacqui approached me from behind. My initial thought was “Hey, its random to see you here” then a group of people emerged from around the corner. Ah yes, they got me. My Cluedo skills did not catch on.
The surprise was organised by Jackie which lead me to question how she knew my other group of friends. Her reply was simply “Facebook”

After dinner, we went to a pub to watch Middlesbrough vs. Manchester United. It was a great game and football is starting to grow on me. London is going to be awesome.
Work was a struggle this morning, having shots on a Sunday night is painful.

Its late and I need to practise some songs on my Git-Tar

Sam





Favourite past time








Sam and Kiwi Rob







I love Sundays

Brazilian Samba

We went out to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant last Friday, although the food wasn’t authentic Brazilian cuisine, the atmosphere was.
Waiters would come up to us individually and serve us meat from large skewers. After dinner, everyone got on the dance floor to practise a simple dance, it was fun and hilarious.
After more games and self embarrassment, the main show started.
Different types of dances were performed ranging from Samba, lombarda to carnival. I managed to get a video clip of Lynchy, Jax and Jimmy grinding strangers. Pay attention to the last 5 seconds of the clip; Jimmy (in green) gets down extremly low with a lady 3 times his age. We then hit the clubs in Valley.

I realised that I still had about 250 business cards left. The postal address and mobile number were my Australia contacts and it would be no use to me in London. Since work is slowly winding down, I decided to build a shrine for all to remember me by. After minutes of sketching, I decided to build a pyramid and a castle like building.

Only 3 more weeks before I return to NZ. I still have not booked my tickets to London. I will be back in Wellington on April 21st if anyone would like to catch up.

Sam

Lombarda Dance - 4.0 MB





Boo







Here comes the aeroplane








I think this was Samba








Excess business cards

Australia Zoo, Crikey!

I just got home from Australia Zoo, apologies for not keeping this blog up to date. Just thought I’ll give you all a run down before I start yarning about Australia Zoo. So my sister gave me the hard word last week.

Eileen: “ok i thought it was only me that got heathrow injection but dude you have eaten some pies!! i just checked out your blogpage. fatty! ha ha”

After looking through some of the pictures I took when I first arrived in Brisbane, I was shocked. She was right!
So now I have 4 weeks to run off this extra chin.
It is a good thing I take photos everywhere I go because I can’t even remember what I did last weekend without looking through the photos. I seem to have contracted a very contagious virus called Hangover-itis. This rare virus is formed when the human body is flooded with alcohol 3-4 times a week. Although it is not deadly, it does cause long time damage to the brain and gives you a second chin.

So here’s a quick spiel about last Saturday. Visited the markets in a hippy town, played slot cars, got lost, went to a cheese factory, ate cheese and yoghurt, got lost, went to the dairy farm, got lost, went to the beach and nearly killed someone with a Frisbee, played guitars, ate Australia’s best pizza, ate gelato, watched DVDs, sleep.
Now Sunday was different because we were all physically tired from the road trip. It went something like this. Woke up at 1pm, ate breakfast, went out to lunch at 2pm, watched DVD’s, ate subway at 11pm, watched DVD’s, drank warm milk using Tim Tams, sleep.
I must be doing something wrong as my cheeks are getting chubby.

Now, Australia Zoo was awesome! Getting up close and personal with the wombat, wallabies and koalas will slowly turn you gay. The best part of the day was the croc show. This 3.6m predator getting feed and teased, very intense. But before the croc came out to play, there were tropical birds flying all around the stands; close enough to touch as they swooped past your head. At one stage, there must have been around 30 birds flying like kamikazes. They also released about 25 white doves and they just flew around the stands in their group. I was so mesmerised that I forgot to take a video footage.
Australia Zoo is also known as Steve Irwin Zoo. You know, the weird Australian that travel’s all around the world taunting and terrorising animals to get a reaction.
The train back into the city was total rubbish. It was so packed that I had to sit on the floor! The 80 min ride home was very unsatisfying.
It’s after 9pm, I’m tired and I have about 300 photos to upload.
Australia Zoo photos can be viewed here

Lazy Roos – 4.6 MB




Somewhere between getting lost and the cheese factory








I Love Gelato








Very cute







Check out the Koala cameo








English people are weird









Eat that F*cker







I'm down with Wildlife

Best Buck’s Ever!

On Saturday, I attended a buck’s party. We cracked open the beers at 11am. It was a beautiful day; 28 degrees with a slight breeze.
After a few more drinks, it was time to make our way to the Brisbane race course and for the groom to get dress. The clothing of choice that the best men’s chose for the groom was a dress, wig, and bunny ears. Smithy was indeed the hottest transvestite in the room.
The abuse and praises was expected while we walked down the street.

At the races, we blended in with a bunch of girls having a hen’s party. It was hilarious watching both bride and groom completing challenges set out for them. We said our goodbyes at 6pm and proceeded back to the apartment for some entertainment. At 7pm, we were greeted by a waitress; serving us drinks while we continued with our antics. Let’s just say she was dressed (or lack of) for the occasion. The main show was at 10pm with an umm…….acrobatic delight. The look on the Smithy’s face was indescribable.

We made our way into the Valley at 1am where we drank and danced the night away. Another 5am morning to top off the weekend.

Here comes the tranny – 4.6 MB

Best man speech - 4.6 MB

Can I please have a glass of champagne? – 3.6 MB





I'm going to get lucky







Let's Party








Boys in Blue








Hen getting spanked








Great end to the day

Brisbane has moved up a few points in my books

Another great weekend in the Sunshine State. We caught a train down to the Gold Coast on Friday night to attend a surprise party. Although we were late, we made up for it with Tequila shots. The night got messy as usual with us walking out at 3am. We stayed at a holiday park as it was close to the bar. Since there was only 2 beds between 4 guys, we had to spoon. I'm pretty sure I did not get violated.

Saturday was Jax's birthday celebration at Dreamworld. Going to a theme park with a hang over gives you a very bad buzz. After a few rides, we walked past a stall where you can throw a dart and win a prize. I had my eyes on a big teddy bear; there was no way I was going to leave without that prize. We all got together and threw about 8 darts and of course walked away with the grand prize. Yes, we felt pretty cool.
I’m not sure if I have told anyone this but I’m scared of heights. Although I did jump out of a plane but extreme theme park rides scares the crap out of me, literally. We went on the giant drop; a device that takes you up 130 metres then drops you, reaching the ground in 4 seconds. For a guy that cannot stop talking, I was lost for words while waiting in line. During the 1 min ride up to the peak, I was trembling and did not say a word. 4 seconds later, the ride was over. I think I left a little wet patch on the seat.
They had thing called Flowrider. Its basically jets of water shooting up a ramp and you can ride the wave on a body board. We did not pack to go for a swim but ah well, “When in Rome”. For the next 30 mins we were all riding artificial waves on the stage in front of the whole crowd. It was grand while it lasted. The day ended on a high and we were ready to rock and roll.

When I got home, I had a cheeky nap. After snoozing my alarm a couple of times, I realised I was 2 hours late for the party. When I finally got to the flat, all the girls were dressed up as school girls and cow girls. It was great!
There’s nothing much I can say about the night, it was fun as expected. All the pictures are available here

Upside down in the Vortex – 2.7 MB

Crammed in the backseat – 4.5 MB

European Idol – 2.3 MB





One big happy family








"Do you speak English?"








Lynchy and Jax with the oversized teddy bear







What a pimp








I think we go to the same school







opps, how did this get here? Sorry Mum

Put your hands up for Melbourne, I love this City

Due to the fact that I love Melbourne so much, this is going to be a long post. So cancel your appointments for the rest of the day.
My 4 days in Melbourne began on Friday at 4am, boarding my flight totally crook with a Cold. A chauffeur picked us up from Melbourne Airport and off we go to the Hotel.
After the usual walking around to check out the sites, it was time to party. We stopped in at a Bottle-o to pick up some wine then we proceeded to find a BYO restaurant. The end result was a Chinese restaurant with all you can eat yum char; we struck a gold mine. So there we were at 1pm eating dumplings while playing rock/paper/scissors for drinks. People were giving us weird looks but that didn’t stop us having a good time. We stumbled out of the restaurant at 3pm.

The great thing about Melbourne is that there is a bottle-o on every street so we had to make the most of them. The poison of choice was Jim Beam & Cola and vodka-red bull style energy drinks. I didn’t think we looked too suspicious walking down the street with a plastic bag of alcohol in one hand and some kind of highlighted orange vodka can in the other. While making our way to the casino, we found a nice spot under a weird sculpture and decided to crack open the Jim Beams. As I went for a swig of my JB, Lynchy stopped me and said “We can’t let people see that we are drinking in public, you have to peel the labels off”. So Lynchy sat patiently and spent 10 mins peeling the Jim Beam labels off then he puts the bottle into a brown paper bag! A brown paper bag! That was possibly the dumbest call of the day. Alcohol has killed off 100 of his brain cells and now he is on -50.
We made our way to the Casino’s bar at 5:30pm, I was surprised they even let us in with our trendy dress code of shorts & t-shirt and smelling like giant shrimp dumplings soaked in bourbon.

8pm rocked around and it was time to depart the casino and to the TelstraDome to watch the Essendon bombers take on the Western Bulldog’s. This was my first Aussie Rules game so I was very excited. Aussie Rules is a mixture of Rugby, football and a bit of boxing by the looks of it. It’s such an intense game. The typical shenanigans occurred at the game. A lot of shit talk along with watered down mid strength beers.
After the game, we spent about half an hour in some weird French restaurant with a bunch of Frenchies. For the whole half an hour, he kept asking where about in Japan I was from. His French ascent was hilarious.

Frenchie: eh, where in Yapan you from?

Anyway, the night ended in an Irish pub with Karaoke.

We went to Lynchy’s mates place on Saturday after having to check-out of the Hotel at 10am and boy was I feeling seedy. I spent the day sleeping on the couch while they were playing Madden 2008 on the PS3.
After waking up feeling fresh it was time to pick up a case of Asahi from the bottle-o. I love beer, I love lamp.
We went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant called Cookie. Cookie?! I was expecting a name like Phuket Inn or Taste of Thailand. The beer and wine list were 60 pages each! They had alcoholic beverages from all around the world.
The even had Tui for $8.50 but I opted for a bottle of Monteith’s Pilsner. We were all having a great time when all of a sudden Lynchy spilt a whole glass of beer on Kirron’s lap (pronounces Kieran). I was getting a sore jaw from laughing too much.

Kirron used to model/catwalk so he’s kind of a big deal. Sort of like Derek Zoolander. He took us to a club called Boutique in South Yarra. The only way to get into this bar is if you knew the guy running the place. I felt very privileged so I did not charge my appearance fee.
The next destination was Prince with the One Love crew on the decks.
The place was packed; there must have been about 700 people there. We decided to call it a night at 4am and munched on a souvlaki (Greek kebab) on the way home. At 4:30am, Kirron walked through the door, stood there for about 2 minutes then said “Let’s go back to Prince” By this time, Lynchy was passed out on the bed and snoring with his eyes open. We managed to wake him up and he went back out with Kirron.
I on the other hand could not stomach anymore beers nor was I able to keep my eyes open. Bedtime for me.

We spent Sunday walking around the city with minimal words spoken. The alcohol was starting to catch up on us.
This post has taken me 3 nights to write and I end it by saying

“Put your hands up for Melbourne, I love this City”

Drinking in Public – 6.6 MB

At the game (Don’t remember recording this) – 7.6 MB

Sexy Bomber’s supporter - 7.6 MB

Kiss from a girl on orientation week

Go the Bombers!








Male models likes to dance with rakes







Photoshoot for Esquire magazine







Couldn't hold it in any longer









Wasted!