I had the most amazing two weeks again… continuing on my last blog. I caught this weird cough that week… so I wasn’t doing all that well. Think it’s the foreign bugs in this country that I cannot handle all that well yet. So was hanging on my couch. I Got a bit better before the weekend which I was really happy with because the planning for that weekend was amazing. Friday night one of my new favorite bands was playing at the Stepinn in the valley, a reggae/roots type band that I discovered at the Island vibes festival, Darky Roots. The manager of the bar is a friend, Hamish also the boyfriend of Adrienne, friend and roommate of Sarah and Andrew! So I met him there. 4 other friends were supposed to come, but in the end no one showed up! I was a little bit disappointed. I think the monsoon rain that was continuing to poor all night might have had something to do with it. But to be honest, it couldn’t really get me down. Besides Darky Roots, who were even more amazing then I remembered from Island vibes, a few other awesome bands played, The upsteppers and a reggae band from Byron bay, from which I cannot recall the name at present. I met a really funny Brzazilian guy there who really reminded me of my Portuguese cousin! Hahaha… was funny. So he kept me company and joined me for a boogie on the dance floor. At one when all the bands ended I had to cycle back home to be fresh and rested for the next day. Luckily the rain had stopped by then and I was all hyped up from the good music that it was an easy ride for me uphill back to home in Red Hill.
The next day I woke up at seven to prepare for GOOD VIBRATIONS! A popular dancy type festival at the goldcoast. We arrived at 11:30 at the coast and met a few friends close to main beach where we had rented an apartment with a group of friends. We had a few drinks in preparation and headed to the festival. Finally there we found that there was a huge line of people at the entrance! We had to wait half an hour before we reached the entrance to be led in like a herd of cows. But once in there the party really started. We saw the end of Arts vs. Science, had a little peek at naughty by Nature and then settled in front of the big stage in expectation of Salt ‘n Pepper! Oeh whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man!!!! They were two older ladies on the stage but rockin like there was no tomorrow. I have to admit that one of them looked more like a drag queen than a woman, but they were awesome. Playing all the golden oldies, not only theirs but also earth wind and fire etc. They had to fill up an hour.. and their songs only last 15, so there was a lot of talking involved. We had a tiny break in between to get drinks. But then I heard cries from the Big stage! THE GOSSIP started!! Now if there is one thing that is vulgarly awesome it is the singer of the gossip. She was awesome and maybe the best performance for me! Next up was basement Jaxx! Awesome! And then as a finale a good one and a half hours of the Killers! With all their big songs. We were the only lucky ones of good vibrations to see the killers, The mother of the lead singer died and they cancelled their performances in Sydney, Melbourne and ehm… the other one! It was amazing! After that it was time to go back to the apartment, running out of the gates, the busses were ready to transport all the tired people back to their homes. We drove back to surfers paradise and walked the last half hour home. A little after party in the apartment. The next day we had to check out early. Too bad it was raining cats and dogs otherwise it would have been a lovely day at the beach. Instead we drove back to Brisbane and had a day lodged on the couch.
At the end of the day Clive and Sophie came home with the idea to have a drink at the powerhouse. We left the house way too late but we ended up having a beer at one of the backpackers in the valley; Birdee num nums. Which was quite fun! After a few beers everyone was quite hungry and we walked around the corner to china town to have a lovely meal at green tea. The best Vietnamese lemon chicken ever!! I was unbelievably delicious! And of course one of my new favorites fresh ricepaper rolls. When finally home I got into bed and crashed while the rest went down to the Normanby hotel for a party.
The next week at uni was mainly doing literature study, working on my introduction and learning new techniques. But the one highlight of my week was that the crystallization trials I did actually produced something! I found something that looked like crystals! I’m not sure if it is crystalline but it started growing gradually and it has some sharp edges! I was soooo excited when I saw it! There were five of them and funnily, they looked just like the Australian southern cross!! Hahaha.. of all things it could look like! So good results and good progress!
Friday night we had Michael’s goodbye party at Fab’s place! Barbequing an awesome lamb stake, drinking some beer, having a salsa boogie on the dance floor singing Fuck her gently and having fun. The next day.. Michael , Fab and I headed out for springbrook national Park! Where we visited the natural bridge, a waterfall that poors straight into a cave inhabited by bats and glowworms! It was an awesome sight! After that we found a spot somewhere in the park to park our cars, we were with both magnum and mister pink! Made a little common area by parking the cars with the back towards each other opend the booths and threw a tent over them! I made a little teriyaki chiken on my gas burner. We enjoyed the sight of clouds moving between the mountains and talked sang some songs ond fell asleep watching sons of anarchie on Germie’s computer! I woke up to the sunrise at 5 am after my worst night sleep ever! The mozzies were killing me and it was way too hot, so I was really keen to leave! Michael had his mind set on driving to the coast and having a surf, but fab and I wanted to see more of the park, so we split ways, but after 500m we found Michael again, in awe of the view…
One word…
UNBELIEVABLE…
The most beautiful view ever! After making tons of pictures and watching the sunrise we headed of to drive around the park and try to reach a spot called best of all lookouts. Which was, due to my crappy map, unreachable. We found a gas station to fill up magnum and had coffee with a lovely custard tart. After that I came up with the brilliant idea to drive to mount warning and see whats happening there! We found out it was a 4.4k hike to the top! 4.4k’s that’s nothing we thought…. Wrong we were, it is a proper climb! With a wall climb for the last 100m to the top! It was quite exerting but so worth it! He forest looked like a proper jungle with strangles figs, ferns growing in trees, lianas, enormous trees, jungle birds and mushrooms everywhere. In total we spent 5 hours climbing up and down the mountain! The view on top was a tad disappointing because the top was covered in clouds, but we managed to take a picture from the 5 secs that we could see the valley that was laying in front of us!
The planning was to go to snapper rocks after that to watch the Quicksilver pro surfing contest. But due to a tsunami warning because of the earthquake in chili (8.8 richter! That is … horrendous!) the contest was halted and everyone had to leave the water and the beaches were evacuated. The eventual effect of the tsunami here was only a rise of the water of approximately 1m. No big wave fortunalty. We did go to meet Mikey at his friends Abhi’s place at the Griffith uni houses in southport, stayed there for pictures and dinner and then headed back to Brisbane. Arriving home in the pooring rain I found that the house was empty. No one was there. I made a phone call and found out that everyone was sitting at Andrews deck and fab dropped me off there. We had a few drinks, Dj’s a bit and then headed for the valley, there was this new fancy place called the Queens… something. Very fancy, but a tad too fancy for me (read:priceso of the drinks) Luckily Andrew was there to save me with a delicious glas of champagne. By chance I met Adam there so had a little talk with him and then went for a little dance downstairs.
The next day it was Uni time again, Monday blues and sore muscles from my climbing adventure, so had a quiet morning and did my reading and work at home. Today Tuesday was the start of the Queensland Protein Symposium 2010 that I am attending! It is a three day symposium. The speakers are such accomplished intelligent people, I really felt like a little mouse between giants… It was quite intimidating. But no feaf! I will try to talk to every one of them. Who knows, maybe I can score my next internship with Ray Owens at Oxford university… The chance is very slim, but it would be soooooooo cool! So I have to try! My supervisor had a talk too! The best of them all to be honest, since he explained the methods to come to the best expressible protein and the rest of the lectures were quite specific and did not apply to my research at all. But nonetheless they were very, very inetersting! In the mean rime I am also trying to attend the lectures of a protein course that runs this semester to obtain more knowledge!
I’m a information sponge! Trying to mix it up with fun things! So two more days to go and then another inetersting weekend ahead, giving a chocolate workshop to sarah and here sisters, doing a 5 k run for charity and having a girls night out! Looking forward to it already!
Talk to you soon!
X linda
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