The end of the ATC...
Weather is kinda crappy right now, which wouldn't be a problem, but the waves are no better, so i'm gonna kill off an arvo here and finish up my canberra bloggings. Expect it to be short and sweet...
We woke up on sunday at about 4 in the arvo. Nursed our hangovers in the pool and infront of the televison for most of the day. The news was frightening. Apparently the extreme heat and 100km/h winds had whipped up the bush fires in victoria so that they were completely unmanageable. Aerial video from the king lake area showed that the entire town had been razed to the ground. It looked like a war zone. There were some truly amazing stories of close escapes, but unfortunately, just as many reports of those who had tried to battle the blaze only to succomb to the flames. There was a very thin line between life and death; One clip that has stuck with me was a shot in king lake of a mail box and a news paper box, not 1 meter apart. The mailbox was charred black while the news box stood untouched.
The fight-or-flight policy (either flee your home or stay and battle the blaze) seems like it caused more damage than good in this case. Apparently the day before the fire brigades and computer monitoring systems had predicted the worst conditions ever on record for saturday. had they had a straight up evacuation policy, perhaps alot of these lives could have been saved. Yes, some houses were saved by their owners armed with fire pumps and gardening hoses, but I imagine these house were insured. A life insurance payout will never replace a parent or spouse. In my mind it wouldn't have been worth it to stay and fight.
I think the big higlight on the day was we went to KFC for these super greasy monster chicken burgers called "tower burges". And towers they were. A breaded chicken breast, deep fried to help with the hangovers, with all the usual fixings and topped off with a deep fried hash brown. Sickeningly good. A solo to wash it down and we were back infront of the tv. With all 3 seasons of the might boosh under our belts we moved on to "It's always sunny in philadelphia", which was just as funny. Danny DeVito is hilarious in this show, and the episode where 2 of them are trying to get on social security by smoking crack was incredibly funny, while also being incredibly horrifying.
Brookly returned in the evening, having gone to sydney for the weekend. Lucky bastard spent his weekend on the beach as opposed to the paddle pool. I was green with envy.
Hangovers in check, we called it an early night and went to bed.
Monday i went into town, catching a ride with brooklyn again, and met up with dan at about 11. he was working evenings this week, so didn't start untill 3pm, leaving his morning open for some shred. We went to city walk and played for a couple hours. The heat was still incredible, but it had dropped to a down right chilly 30. After shred i think dan went to work and i went along with him and enjoyed a schooner at Transit and hopped on the internet, abusing Dan's free YHA internet card.
Copey picked me up around 6 and we headed back to the castle. We ate, jumped in the pool and settled in for some more philadelphia. It was at about this time that i started my preparations to get outta doge and head down south. I secured a spot on an overnight bus to Melbourne and scored some fantastic flight deals from melbourne to hobart and back to sydney for about $160 all in! Sweet.
Greta, the house mate who just moved out and whos bed i was currently sleeping on came back to pick up a few of her things in the evening, but thankfully left the bed behind. And with that we called it a night and went to bed.
Tuesday went similar to monday. Caught a ride into the city with Brooklyn and met up with Dan for a kick at about 11. The heat was a bit less intense today and we managed to play a bit longer before getting totally exhausted. Dan hit a couple really good sick three's, a couple first try! We gave each other some combos to hit and over all had a pretty sweet session. Again, headed back to the YHA in the arvo and abused the crap outta dan's free internet access (the reason why i managed to blog at all in canberra). Back to the castle in the evening and chilled in the pool. And uneventful day, but a nice one, none the less.
Wednesday was to be my last day in Canberra. In fact i may have left on tuesday, this was quite some time ago. If it was infact tuesday that i left, simply add the end of this section on to the end of the last section. Since i'm not sure, i'll just post what i think happened...
Ride to the city with brooklyn, kick with dan, yha internet abuse, ride back to copey's, arvo shred at the tennis courts with copey, shower and dinner at copey's, chill out untill my bus, pack my gear, drove to the city to catch the bus.
The bus left at midnight and there were some loud, unsavoury fellows waiting for the bus when we arrived at the spot. They drunkenly bellowed "which one of yez is taking the bus?"
Copey very very quickly pointed at me and said "He is! He is taking the bus. I'm not taking the bus."
They then asked if i had any dope i wanted to sell them. I replied that i don't smoke, to which they responded "too bad, it's gonna be a long ride, hahahahaha!"
this first encounter did not give me much hope for getting any rest on the bus.
"They sound like fun blokes, dun they? You're in for a nice trip i reckon!" copey joked while i silently prayed that i wasn't going to be seated anywhere near them.
The bus pulled up eventually, so i thanked Copey for the good times in canberra. Got my seat assignment (said a little prayer again), loaded by bags onto the bus and said good bye to copey.
"Have fun with your new mates!" Copey called out. I gave him the finger. We lauged and i boarded the bus to find that the bus gods had smiled on me, placing me towards the back while "my new mates" were closer to the front. I had a window seat, so i got my gear organized and settled in for the 9 hour ride to melbourne.
The driver informed us that the road we were to be taking was going to be passing straight through bush fire country, and while the road was clear and the fires were under controll at the moment, if the winds changed we may have to turn back. He said he had driven the route a few times in the past days and had yet to have a problem, but had to detour off the hume highway a few times, and fancied our chances of getting through.
"My new mates" started talking shit quite loudly, so i put my ipod on and settled in to try to get some sleep, hoping that, with a bit of luck, i would wake up in melboure well rested and still in one piece.
Weather is kinda crappy right now, which wouldn't be a problem, but the waves are no better, so i'm gonna kill off an arvo here and finish up my canberra bloggings. Expect it to be short and sweet...
We woke up on sunday at about 4 in the arvo. Nursed our hangovers in the pool and infront of the televison for most of the day. The news was frightening. Apparently the extreme heat and 100km/h winds had whipped up the bush fires in victoria so that they were completely unmanageable. Aerial video from the king lake area showed that the entire town had been razed to the ground. It looked like a war zone. There were some truly amazing stories of close escapes, but unfortunately, just as many reports of those who had tried to battle the blaze only to succomb to the flames. There was a very thin line between life and death; One clip that has stuck with me was a shot in king lake of a mail box and a news paper box, not 1 meter apart. The mailbox was charred black while the news box stood untouched.
The fight-or-flight policy (either flee your home or stay and battle the blaze) seems like it caused more damage than good in this case. Apparently the day before the fire brigades and computer monitoring systems had predicted the worst conditions ever on record for saturday. had they had a straight up evacuation policy, perhaps alot of these lives could have been saved. Yes, some houses were saved by their owners armed with fire pumps and gardening hoses, but I imagine these house were insured. A life insurance payout will never replace a parent or spouse. In my mind it wouldn't have been worth it to stay and fight.
I think the big higlight on the day was we went to KFC for these super greasy monster chicken burgers called "tower burges". And towers they were. A breaded chicken breast, deep fried to help with the hangovers, with all the usual fixings and topped off with a deep fried hash brown. Sickeningly good. A solo to wash it down and we were back infront of the tv. With all 3 seasons of the might boosh under our belts we moved on to "It's always sunny in philadelphia", which was just as funny. Danny DeVito is hilarious in this show, and the episode where 2 of them are trying to get on social security by smoking crack was incredibly funny, while also being incredibly horrifying.
Brookly returned in the evening, having gone to sydney for the weekend. Lucky bastard spent his weekend on the beach as opposed to the paddle pool. I was green with envy.
Hangovers in check, we called it an early night and went to bed.
Monday i went into town, catching a ride with brooklyn again, and met up with dan at about 11. he was working evenings this week, so didn't start untill 3pm, leaving his morning open for some shred. We went to city walk and played for a couple hours. The heat was still incredible, but it had dropped to a down right chilly 30. After shred i think dan went to work and i went along with him and enjoyed a schooner at Transit and hopped on the internet, abusing Dan's free YHA internet card.
Copey picked me up around 6 and we headed back to the castle. We ate, jumped in the pool and settled in for some more philadelphia. It was at about this time that i started my preparations to get outta doge and head down south. I secured a spot on an overnight bus to Melbourne and scored some fantastic flight deals from melbourne to hobart and back to sydney for about $160 all in! Sweet.
Greta, the house mate who just moved out and whos bed i was currently sleeping on came back to pick up a few of her things in the evening, but thankfully left the bed behind. And with that we called it a night and went to bed.
Tuesday went similar to monday. Caught a ride into the city with Brooklyn and met up with Dan for a kick at about 11. The heat was a bit less intense today and we managed to play a bit longer before getting totally exhausted. Dan hit a couple really good sick three's, a couple first try! We gave each other some combos to hit and over all had a pretty sweet session. Again, headed back to the YHA in the arvo and abused the crap outta dan's free internet access (the reason why i managed to blog at all in canberra). Back to the castle in the evening and chilled in the pool. And uneventful day, but a nice one, none the less.
Wednesday was to be my last day in Canberra. In fact i may have left on tuesday, this was quite some time ago. If it was infact tuesday that i left, simply add the end of this section on to the end of the last section. Since i'm not sure, i'll just post what i think happened...
Ride to the city with brooklyn, kick with dan, yha internet abuse, ride back to copey's, arvo shred at the tennis courts with copey, shower and dinner at copey's, chill out untill my bus, pack my gear, drove to the city to catch the bus.
The bus left at midnight and there were some loud, unsavoury fellows waiting for the bus when we arrived at the spot. They drunkenly bellowed "which one of yez is taking the bus?"
Copey very very quickly pointed at me and said "He is! He is taking the bus. I'm not taking the bus."
They then asked if i had any dope i wanted to sell them. I replied that i don't smoke, to which they responded "too bad, it's gonna be a long ride, hahahahaha!"
this first encounter did not give me much hope for getting any rest on the bus.
"They sound like fun blokes, dun they? You're in for a nice trip i reckon!" copey joked while i silently prayed that i wasn't going to be seated anywhere near them.
The bus pulled up eventually, so i thanked Copey for the good times in canberra. Got my seat assignment (said a little prayer again), loaded by bags onto the bus and said good bye to copey.
"Have fun with your new mates!" Copey called out. I gave him the finger. We lauged and i boarded the bus to find that the bus gods had smiled on me, placing me towards the back while "my new mates" were closer to the front. I had a window seat, so i got my gear organized and settled in for the 9 hour ride to melbourne.
The driver informed us that the road we were to be taking was going to be passing straight through bush fire country, and while the road was clear and the fires were under controll at the moment, if the winds changed we may have to turn back. He said he had driven the route a few times in the past days and had yet to have a problem, but had to detour off the hume highway a few times, and fancied our chances of getting through.
"My new mates" started talking shit quite loudly, so i put my ipod on and settled in to try to get some sleep, hoping that, with a bit of luck, i would wake up in melboure well rested and still in one piece.
