Great Keppel Island

...so how great is this - I thought I had accidently deleted the pics that Matt and I took on our vacation to Great Keppel Island, but no! I just put them in the wrong directory! Woot! NOW I can recap our vacation!

For those of you planning to go to Great Keppel Island, there's several things you should know:

- There's a small plane that flys you from Rockhampton airport directly to the island. The trip takes 10 minutes, but when I say "small plane" I mean SMALL PLANE. i.e. You can reach out and smack the pilot from the BACK seat. What this means is turbulence city. Anyone who's flown with Matt knows this isn't one of his favourite things.

- The wildlife on the island is CRAZY! In the three days we were there, a kookaburra tried to eat Matt's hamburger while he was eating it, a possum wouldn't let me have a cigarette on our balcony and two parrots wouldn't leave us alone while eating breakfast.

- Go in the off-season. The weather was still 30oC (that's 86oF for you Americans) and there was probably another 20 people on the entire island. We would walk to the other side of the island and have the entire beach to ourselves. That meant we could frolic like Brooke Sheilds and Christopher Atkins in "The Blue Lagoon". OK, *I* could frolic. Matt doesn't frolic.

- The one crap thing about these island resorts are the eating options. Basically for dinner, you had the choice of the resort buffet and the resort buffet. No room service (Damn you Mercure!). That wouldn't be bad if the buffet was any good - but it wasn't. Ahhh well, you can't have it all eh?

The full photo album is located here. Don't we look tanned? :)

Song of the Day: "U and Ur Hand" - Pink

Beer, Boobs and Bucks

...so last Saturday was my brother's bucks night - for you Americans, that's what us Aussies call "bachelor parties". It was your typical (is there such a thing?) bucks night with lots of alcohol, titties and poker. What made this one particularly special for me was:

a) It's for my brother! He's finally getting married! and,
b) It was Matt's first bucks night. Although he HAS been to two hens nights... (that's bachelorette party for you Americans)

Now everyone knows it's not a bachelor party without a stripper - but Matt and I were feeling bad for her. We kept thinking what situation she is in to have to strip for a living - which I'm sure is not the reaction she wants. I was also feeling bad for my brother who had to endure (ok...for me it's "endure", he probably enjoyed it) the stripper while his future father-in-law was in the audience.

I also did not enjoy the stripper-pouring-red-(of-all-colours)-syrup-down-her-front-into-my-brothers-mouth (yuk). I also REALLY REALLY did not enjoy the sticking-of-the-lollipop-into-her-bits-and-then-into-my-brothers-mouth (YUK TO INFINITY!!!). However, I refuse to be hetero-phobic! I remember going to a gay nightclub in Santiago with my boys Rhandy and Steve who had to watch a (very attractive) male stripper with a massive erection proceed to face slap all the guys in the front row. If they can watch that - I can watch lollipops!

All I can say is...there will be NO LOLLIPOPS at my bucks night.

Oh, and that's me and my bro in the pic up there. I'm the younger one. Don't EVEN make that mistake. Nothing makes your day like your brother's friends who are pushing 40 thinking you're older than him (who, by the way, is 36). *glare*

Song of the Day: "I Say A Little Prayer" - from My Best Friend's Wedding. Nothing washes off memories of a female stripper like a sing-along from a romantic comedy. :)

I heart NY

...so I know I can't claim that I've lived in New York (yet), but I feel a certain affinity to the city. Maybe it's 'coz I've been there 5 times in the past year. Maybe it's 'coz one of my best friends lives there now. Maybe it's 'coz the last few times I went there I felt so at home. Whatever it may be...on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 my heart goes out to everyone whose lives were affected that day.

I'm sure everyone has their "I remember where I was when it happened" story. I was living in Melbourne at the time and just got back from playing tennis when I turned on the TV and the first tower had been hit. I watched the second tower get hit live which was extremely surreal.

God bless you New York. I hope we're worthy enough to live in your confines one day. Soon.

p.s. The photo on this post was taken the last time I saw the Twin Towers - January 4th, 2001.

Randomness

...so Matt didn't win the DJ comp. He didn't even place! ROBBED! He was so obviously the best (and hottest) dj of the night... Oh well, can't win 'em all right? The silver lining though, is Matt has new gigs @ Bar 333 and Republic Hotel! Woot!

- That sucks about Steve Irwin passing away. I can't say I was a fan but he WAS entertaining. May he be wrangling crocodiles somewhere out there.

- Watched "Snakes on a Plane" the other night. How fun is that movie! Although I may never pee on a plane again. Probably not the kinda movie you wanna watch when you're on planes as often as I am. They should make a movie "Gays in a Nightclub" - where gay guys get attacked by poor fashion sense and bad haircuts.

- I'm still winning the poker tourney we play on Wednesdays. The even better news is Matt's coming second! Last week I came 8th and Matt came 2nd. That makes the seventh 2nd for Matt (always a bridesmaid...) Don't worry baby, you're #1 with me!

- The pic on this post is another example of the drunkeness that ensues whenever Matt DJs. For all the pics from Matt's DJ heat, Bar 333 gig and DJ final click here.

- I'm in Auckland for work right now. New Zealand looks really nice in "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy - but Auckland ain't that New Zealand. Not that Auckland doesn't have it's good points...they have Wendy's! Hello Classic Triple Cheeseburger (aka insta-heart-attack burger).

Song of the Day: "Doesn't Really Matter" - Janet Jackson