Straddie!

Hee hee.. it's Friday arvo here at work and I'm so looking forward to this weekend.. :)

Me and Dan decided a couple of days ago to spend this weekend doing healthy things, seeing how last weekend mainly involved drinking ourselves comatose.. (but hey it was the weekend of the Big Gay Day - so it we were in good company!)

So we decided to go check out one of the huge 'sand islands' that lie off the Brissie coast - North Stradbroke Island or "Straddie" as we locals call it - and I can't wait!! :)

We're staying 3 nights in a self-contained, beachfront apartment - and because we're going over on the car ferry with my 4WD, there's plenty to be explored over there. This weekend's going to be 29 degrees and sunny all the way.. I feel like a little kid about to break up on school holidays!

I think there's something about growing up on a small island (the U.K. I mean) that means you never feel as though you're really going on holiday until you leave the island you're living on, or at least travel over water to get where you're going. Maybe another Pom can back me up here - do you know what I mean? Like, if you live in Bristol and you go to Devon on holiday, it's cool, but if you go over the Severn Estuary to the Gower Peninsula or something, it feels like a million miles away.

Well, living now on this bloody huge island as I do, leaving it is a little less obvious.. but this weekend we're doing it! I'll post photos when we get back no doubt.

Yay! :)

Public Nuisance? ..bloody criminal!

Well I suppose it was inevitable.. sooner or later I had to have a run-in with The Law.

Here's the story.... A couple of weeks ago, me and Dan were waiting in line to get into this backpackers bar "Birdee Num Nums". Everything was fine; the bouncers checked my ID and let me through but then as I was walking into the place I heard Dan pipe up - "Hey Mikey, we've got to go!". It turned out they'd checked his ID and refused him entry, apparently because there was a crack down the front of the card.

Having a few beers inside me, I decided that they couldn't possibly have refused him entry because of the ID (it is actually a little far-fetched) and, with a drunken leap of logic, decided therefore they must have refused him entry because he's Maori! So Mikey got on his high horse, went back to where the bouncer was, looked him square in the eye and [dumb I know] spat on the floor, about 30cm from his foot. Then I just walked away, not a word exchanged, feeling that I'd somehow righted the wrongs of the universe...

All was well until about 5 minutes down the road I saw police car lights flashing behind me, then heard the police calling out at me: "Were you just at Birdee Num Nums?". To cut a long story short; they cuffed me, threw me in the back of the police car, drove me back so the bouncer could identify me and then charged me (not very clear at that stage what with exactly) and took me down the station.

It transpired they were going to get me on assault charges, because the bouncer had alleged that I spat on his leg - a complete lie! The only reason they dropped that charge was because I guess in my rapidly-sobered-up honesty, I must have convinced them the charges were false. They ended up charging me with "public nuisance", taking me down the watch house to get fingerprinted and finally un-handcuffed (about one-and-a-half hours in handcuffs by that stage), and then released me on bail with a date for a magistrates' court appearance. I wrote a letter of apology to the bouncer a few days later by the way, because I realised I acted like a complete dick.

I did some reading up the next morning: it seems this "public nuisance" law is a bit controversial. It's only applicable in Queensland, it was created in April 2004 and since its inception it's been responsible for such memorable arrests as:

a mother double-parking near a school for picking up her kids at hometime - she was arrested on the spot and her kids spent time in care.

people shouting at people in the street from passing cars

that dude who was arrested up in Palm Island for being drunk and singing in the street, who one hour later wound up dead in police custody..

I looked up the actual text of the law, and basically the police can arrest someone if (I paraphrase) your behaviour in a public place is likely to stop another member of the public from being able to enjoy that public place. No-one has to make a complaint, it's all down to the individual police officers' interpretation. The scary thing is, this means that it's literally possible in Queensland to be arrested because a police officer doesn't like the look of you. Police state, anyone?

Anyway; today was the court hearing. After being made to wait nearly 4 hours, the magistrate decided that I didn't deserve a criminal record after all and gave me a fine of $150. The funny thing being, during New Years I'd picked up a $175 fine for parking in a "no stopping" zone for 10 minutes while I picked up some chips from a chip shop! At least that fine didn't involve court proceedings...


So - that's an episode I'm glad to have behind me!

turning over new leaves...

It seems there's a lot of change around at the moment. I finally bit the bullet and rented out one of the spare bedrooms in my apartment to this guy James: another Pommie, who's over here on the old Working Holiday visa. It was suprising how quickly it all went in the end: I put the ad up Tuesday evening, then Saturday morning James moved in!
I was a bit hesitant at first about the whole 'becoming a landlord' thing, but I'm pretty sure it's going to work out OK. To be honest, the only reason was financial: a home loan is a bloody scary thing!

Aside from the flatmate situation, there's also a new development on the work front: I got an offer on Friday to start a new job.. My job at the moment is fine, but lacking a bit of creativity and motivation - so maybe time to move on. I have to admit, it's good to be in a situation where I'm being 'headhunted'! It's a far cry from the first time I was in Australia, when I ended up looking for an IT job for 4 months solid before giving up and becoming an ice-cream truck driver.. ;)

So yeah, lots of things seem to be changing this month: my sister's found a new job, three people left the team at work (two pregnancies, one travel-round-the-world), I've got a new flatmate and maybe a new job too, Em and Chris back in the U.K. are getting engaged, and Jonny and H have set off for Rio... Interesting times!

Seeing how I now know how to upload photos, here are some from our hangover-recovery trip to Nudgee Beach - a strangely beautiful place about 15 mins from where I live.

Hello World..

OK Here it is - my first real blog entry. The ones so far were just me figuring out how to use the thing (and having a whinge)!

Working with computers pretty much every day, there are always occasional moments when I'm online and need a bit of a change from the intense concentration - as shown in this photo of me at work, snapped "paparazzi style" by my mate Adam!

So I reckon a blog might be a good idea.. We'll see!

Anyway it's Monday morning here in Brissie, which means the start of the working week: the long commute to the office, the echoes of the weekend still floating around your head, the lack of motivation...
Well actually no it's not like that at all. I've managed to wangle (is that a word?) myself most Monday's off, so I'm sat typing this on my laptop on my balcony at home! So Monday mornings always feel good to me! :)

I realise a lot of people who might be reading this blog are gonna be mates from back in the U.K. and Holland who I've (as usual) been rather crap about keeping in touch with. Sorry guys.. you know what I'm like. So, shout going out to the Bristol massive and the Sheffield crew, en een harstikke warme knuffel voor mijn vrienden in Nederland!

Actually I'm most likely going to go back in the U.K. this year - the first time since I emigrated here to Australia. My second-oldest niece Sarah - our Julie's oldest - is getting married on 1st July in Sheffield. So the plan is to back "up Noorth" for that.. Also my good mate Paul, who I've known since those long-distant days back at Colley School, he's tying the knot at the end of July too. There must be something in the water up there in Sheffield..? I haven't sorted out the details yet about exactly when and for how long I'm going to be back in the old country, or if I'll have time to make it over to Amsterdam.. Watch this space!

I'll sign off with this quick link to a photo gallery my boyfriend Dan made of the "Good Vibrations" festival we went to on Saturday. Awesome day...

Here's another link I set up today: I'm renting out the spare room at my place, and this link takes you to the online ad I made. There are photos of my place on there, so check it out if you're curious where Mikey's sleeping these days!

bad user interface!!

Is this creating a new post? Jeez this is a bad interface!! To create a new post you've got to edit an existing post (instinctive..), then completely ignore that and hunt down and click the tiny little "create" link! Nasty!!

I guess when you spend all your working day on computer systems, you get a bit picky hey.

I'll try to upload a piccy..

I can't believe this is so difficult!! It just doesn't work!!! Aaagh!!!!

I thought it might be the Opera browser I use, so I loaded up the page in Internet Explorer and guess what? : I can't even log in! Seriously; this is a BAD design..

OK I managed to find how to log in now (go to home page - I guess a "log in" link would have been too obvious ;).. Maybe the photo link will work now from M$oft I.E..?





That's better! Blogger.com are obviously browser nazis (or just bad coders?). Enough whinging...

The photos are of me and Dan by the way. More on that later! ;)

hey

not much of a start, but i'm only really creating this so i can post on my mate's blog page:

http://www.jonnyandhdownunder.blogspot.com/

maybe i'll come back here later..?