When we arrived at the hostel the Random Stranger from LA and I were in desperate need of food.  Both suffering from low blood sugar, he was getting a terrible headache and my hands were shaking and I was struggling to concentrate.  I know – terrible huh??  But it wasn’t a BIG deal because WAHOO!  there was an all you can eat Mexican Buffet waiting for us.  SWEET!!   Until OUR PLATES WERE TAKEN AWAY!!!  Apparently you’re not allowed to eat until AFTER listening to an HOUR LONG incredibly boring blah blah blah about the island.  AND THEN watching an HOUR LONG stupid movie.  Whatever – skip to the next morning.

Fraser Island is – well – an ISLAND So to get our 4×4 over there we had to take a barge (pic above.)  That alone is pretty cool – but it’s even cooler when you know that the island only has 1 hostel and 1 hotel – and the rest of it?  All people camping.  :)

We were part of an 8 person group which was part of a larger 16 person group (well kind of – we were from the same hostel and both drove pink SUVs.)  Pics of Group 1 and Group 2 below (obviously my group lacked creativity eh? lol.)

So DAY ONE on the Island was Lake McKenzie – oh heavens – it was LIKE heaven.  The water was crystal clear and FRESH!!  That’s right – a FRESH WATER LAKE! secluded by trees and perfectly divine! I’ve been really lucky to see a fair share of turquoise, aqua and crystal blue water in my life – but even still – Lake McKenzie still took my breath away.  Now for all of you dreamers out there … imagine you’re HERE with a special someone or by yourself if you prefer.  Meeting new people, exploring, swimming, relaxing – in your own little piece of heaven – far away from the world of computers and cell phones, far from the world of social agendas and work tasks – you’re free to BE.  Check it out … and dream with me

Even the BUGS were beautiful!!!!!

And the rodents were exotic:

After Lake McKenzie we set up camp – and that night when we settled into our tent…

I TURNED INTO A TOTAL BEOTCH! It’s true. I did.  I didn’t mean to, I didn’t want to, I tried to fight it – but it was like rottenness just crept over me and WHAM! I was not a pleasant person.  I’m not exactly sure what it was.  It had a little to do with my insecurities, a little to do with the situation, a little to do with the fact that I was developing feelings for the Random Stranger from LA and didn’t want to…  And for all of you that ever wonder if I my life is not like “for real” and the happy rainbows and butterflies I speak of are all make-believe – hear me now I tell it like it is.  Even when that paints ME in a bad light.

The next day he gave me a little space.  And finally when I couldn’t take it anymore I said, “You haven’t been your usual tactile self today.”  And he looked at me, put his hand on my leg to reassure me and said, “That’s because you’ve been a total beotch.”  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I laughed – he was right.  So we talked it out, I apologized, and then I discovered I had mixed emotions realizing the Random Stranger from LA wasn’t going to be so easy to push away.  But the more I thought about it, the more I understood that this guy was legit.  He wasn’t just putting up with me or humoring me.  He like LIKED me.  ME!  And I like liked HIM so yeah … it was good.  :)

Day 2 – driving down the coast of the island with a little stop at the Maheno Shipwreck.

Umm … I think it’s right about NOW that I should tell you that the Random Stranger and I have something in common.  You know how I like to do the self-portrait thing??  SO DOES HE!!!  We’d always offer to each other and be like, “Want me to take your pic?” and then we’d always both decline the other’s offer and be like, “That’s ok – I’ll take it myself.”  LOL

After visiting Maheno’s Shipwreck we went to Indian Head.  (note that this was still early in the day – and there are no pics of Daisy WITH her stranger … we weren’t back to normal yet.  HAHAHAHA!)  Indian Head was pretty cool.  I wandered off from the group though because I still needed some space.

The Random Stranger from LA didn’t let me wander off too far though, he came and joined me.  I was glad.

And then – maybe because we both knew we needed to put in a little effort to repair things (mostly on my part though!!) we let each other take pics of the other person.  HAHAHA – I know – but hey – it’s the truth.

And DANG I’m better at taking pics than he is.  Look at how he’s carefully framed on the edge of the photo – oh yes – it looks nice  Whereas he centered me (that’s a no no.)  Oh well – we can’t expect complete perfection can we?  ;)

Ok ok – I’m not being fair.  He did take a lot of the pics above I am just trying to make myself feel better because he DOES have a great eye and takes FAB non-portrait pics – it seems he can do just about everything well.  He took this pic below too …

And then we caught up with our group:

Did I mention that the Random Stranger from LA fractured one of his ribs?  Poor thing.  :(  And I kept accidentally bumping it.  :(   and OMGOSH I almost forgot to tell you we couldn’t swim in the ocean at Fraser Island because of these:

AAANNNDDD because of sharks:

OH!!!  AND speaking of jellyfish – before the Random Stranger and I had made-up and while we were walking down the beach he was wiggling a jellyfish with his flipflop and I came over to observe.  ”I kind of want to step on one,” I confessed to the Random Stranger from LA.  He looked around and SUPPOSEDLY found the PERFECT jellyfish for me to step on.  ”Here,” he called to me.  I went over to the little baby lump of jellyfish and I stepped on it.  ”No you have to like STEP on it,” he tells me.  So I did and PLOP! out goes disgusting jellyfish guts EVERYWHERE!!!!  I did the whole involuntary shudder and gasp – he laughed and laughed.  Gross.  He totally did that on purpose!!!!!

Ok so I know this is now a really long post and there are SO MANY pictures in it!!!  I’ll try and wrap up Fraser Island now and then tell you about heading back to Brisbane and THE GREAT BARRIER REEF in the next post  And of course … there will be more pictures!!  YAY!!!

So yeah – the next night we REALLY roughed it.  No showers, no toilets, no running water and we had to pitch our tents on sand.  The Random Stranger and I watched the sunset together though – it was nice to be made-up again – and then a pack of wild dingoes came into our camp and I wasn’t even scared with him by my side.  :)

holy wow – talking about dingoes reminded me that I have a pic with a dingo:

I can’t believe I almost forgot that!!!!  And how much do you love my ghetto-fabulous $100 towel?  It cost $10AUD but it REPRESENTS so much more.

ok ok – here’s that wrap up I promised  The next morning we did a little more exploring and then we went back to the hostel where the Random Stranger from LA hunted down and caught a few more wild magoes for me.  YAY!

(p.s.) I crawled on my tummy to get under this fence because SOMEONE said that was how I should get to the other side. THEN as soon as I had crossed under he laughs and laughs and points out the entrance FIVE feet away – I could have walked around. Hmpf! Boys!!

(p.p.s.) am I wearing the same thing I did in pics from the last couple of days?  Yes??  Hmm … I wonder how that happened.  Must have involved a wenchface!!  HAHAHA – I crack myself up.

HAVE A HAPPY DAY!!! xoxoxoxo ~Daisy

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So there we were – on a bench in Noosa’s national park staring at each other with disbelief as the reality of the situation sank in.  We had been deserted with nothing but one towel, the clothes on our back, our lil cameras, wallets and a dead cell phone.  It was late afternoon, we were a 30 minute walk from town, we were EXHAUSTED and both still bleeding from our escapade at the boiling pot.  BUT the good news is that we were NOT sights for sore eyes – oh no *wink* we still looked as FRESH as Daisies (haha – I couldn’t resist.)

Ok so we begged a ride into town – there was NO WAY we were walking and after being dropped off by the city center we were given directions to the nearest Hostel.  But GUESS WHAT??

THIS IS WHEN IT STARTED POURING RAIN.

No joke.  It started POURING and do you think we had an umbrella??

So we ducked into a nearby business to wait it out.  And waiting we did.  But the GOOD news is that this business happened to be a travel agency.  So there I am looking at all sorts of travel deals – like to Fraser Island, the Great Barrier Reef etc – and since we were already up the coast – it was as if it was a sign from above and the heavens opened up and (oh wait – they did!) So yeah – we weren’t prepared to do any bookings considering we didn’t even know where we were going to sleep that night but at least it was CONVENIENT!!  :)

Ok so the rain calmed down a bit and we headed over to the hostel only to find out it was booked.  Yeah – the hostel had NO VACANCIES!!  And it was at this point that we learned that every hotel in town would probably have no vacancies and I probably looked like I wanted to cry and the Random Stranger from LA said to follow him and he snuck me upstairs in the hostel and sent me to the girls’ showers (I know – that was a no-no …) but after a nice long hot shower that I wasn’t supposed to take – I felt a LIL bit better.

He took a shower too and then we met here (pic below) in the restaurant section of the hostel and ate dinner.

I’m not going to pretend like I wasn’t a bit grumpy.  And I also won’t pretend that the Random Stranger from LA didn’t have his work cut out for him as my companion.  :(  But I did try my best to be a good sport and by the time the Random Stranger from LA hunted down and caught a few wild and FRESH mangoes for my dessert in a nearby tree … well .. I mean come on – how cute is that?  I cheered up a bit.

UNTIL WE HAD TO WALK FOREVER TO THE NEAREST HOTEL ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT IT WAS BOOKED OUT TOO!!!

Blah blah blah this is the boring part where we had to walk and walk and walk and then we had to go buy deodorant, and a toothbrush and toothpaste and dental floss and blah blah blah they didn’t have what we needed at the first store … walk walk walk walk walk walk = grumpy grumpy grumpy Daisy!!!

Skip to the part where – FINALLY – we found a place to stay and he booked us into a nice hotel room with a huge jetted tub, and he drew me a bubble bath (omgosh – lol – SOMEONE didn’t know much about bubble baths *cough-randomstrangerfromLA-cough*- there were bubbles EVERYWHERE!!!  Like I’m not kidding I wish I had a picture because it was like the tub EXPLODED with bubbles.)  And yeah – we talked about our predicament – and even though I never really doubted it – looking at him, have I mentioned he has GORGEOUS brown eyes??  But yeah – I don’t know why but I trusted him.  And had from the moment I met him.  And even though we were in a terrible situation – even though I was stressed, grumpy, tired, etc – there he was taking care of me.   And even though that made me feel REALLY GUILTY (he didn’t ask for this situation – he didn’t even plan on my being with him!! I was causing him trouble yet he acted like I wasn’t an inconvenience at all and that he wanted me there!!) So yeah – I felt guilty but also reassured.  I started to let my guards down.  I knew it was all going to be ok.   Things happen for a reason.  And this little mis-adventure – well … all I could think about was that if I DID have to go through something like this – if I WERE about to embark on a crazy adventure – how lucky was I that it was with him??

Pretty dang lucky.

Amazing what bubble baths can do isn’t it?  :)

and OMGOSH I’ve made it this far WITHOUT a wicked!!!

Dang that’s pretty wicked.

The next day we made the decision to make the most of it – and booked a self-drive tour on Fraser Island since we were already so close.  :)  And VOILA!  We had 4 days ahead of us with no change of clothes, no make-up, nothing – and I was SO EXCITED!!!!!

_____________________________________________________

I’ll tell you what you do – no no no.  I’ll SHOW you what you do.  :)  You take her advice!!!  So here’s to you Michele from inalittleminute – I took your advice.  :)  (insert devilishly delighted and probably a bit disturbing HEE HEE HEE – dang I love photoshop!)

Voila! – A la WENCHFACE!!!  :)  Hmm … who needs to be watching Oprah NOW??  Apparently not me.  ;)  Ah hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Look – I’ve already told you all in MANY MANY posts that there is a nice spot in Christian Hell being saved for me by my BFFer – so before you go all – YOU’RE THE DEVIL on me – take a deep breath (aw – doesn’t that feel nice??) and know that I just ate a whole bag of Fantales and am well on my way to eating the mysterious balance I crave and getting my just deserves.

OOOOH – speaking of which!!!  YAY!!!  Let’s get back to my story!  Wahoo!!!  Where did we leave off?  We left off here:

“wenchface made a bunch of wench noises like “ugh” and SCOFF and she started being all huffy and puffy and I wondered if the big bad wolf would do me a favor and blow her down.  My stranger and I wasted our breath trying to assure her it was all good – WE EVEN INVITED HER TO COME WITH US but she refused saying, “I left my cell phone in the car.  I’m going to go make a call while you go down there and I’ll meet you at the beach in a bit.”  Whatever…

And off we went!!  YAY!!!  Down to the BOILING POT …. dun dun dun ….

AAANNNDDD NOW for the video I promised.  ;)  YAY!!!  I know most of you don’t like watching videos in blog posts – but seriously there are some wicked cool waves toward the end of this that SMASH My Sexy Stranger – sad! – you should check it out (plus the very end shows how cut up his knee got …)

Video of Wicked Cool Waves:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ok so he convinced me to get into the tidal pool thing with him – I refused to do the underwater tunnel thing (I mean come on! for real? you saw those waves – I wasn’t going to do that!) and then we decided it was time to go meet Wenchface at the beach and yeah – this might come as a surprise to all of you  - but she wasn’t there.  She wasn’t where?  Oh you know – THERE – at the beach  - where she said she would be.

I’m going to be honest with you – we didn’t really think much of it – the whole her-not-being-there thing.  We were just like “Oh she probably ran to the Lil Girls’ room” or something and then because The Random Stranger from LA was bleeding profusely I went into Nurse mode and made him go rinse off in the ocean and we played around a little waiting for her to appear.  If we had known it was going to take dark magic, 14 spells and a shark hair to bring her back – we PROLLY would have started collecting the ingredients needed to brew up the special concoctions in our portable cauldron – but you see – we weren’t given enough notice and by the time we realized she wasn’t coming back – had checked the beach 10 minutes away just to make sure we hadn’t gone to the wrong beach and then walked ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE CAR THAT WASN’T THERE – the sun was getting ready to go down and the magical hairy shark of yesteryear that ONLY appears for 2 minutes once every 5 trillion years – had already swam back into the ocean.  (what? it’s like an imaginary ancient Australian legend – imaginary meaning I just imagined it.)

I pretty much blame the Random Stranger for our being ditched.

On our way to the second beach (before we were tired and grumpy) he was all like, “Oh I don’t have my cell phone.  It’s kind of nice.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just vacation like this?  With no luggage, no phones, no computers – and just be totally relaxed and chill?”  And I  - because at this point I was deluded with fanciful thoughts of being stranded with him – was like, “Yeah, actually, that would be kind of nice wouldn’t it?”  *sigh – what was I thinking??*

But then – after we got to the beach and realized she wasn’t there and realized we had a 30 minute uphill walk back to the car and I personally realized he had just JINXED US – then I was like, “You should be careful what you wish for – I think you just jinxed us.”  And he was like, “No way – Wenchface wouldn’t ditch us.”  And I was like, “Oh yeah?  Well I sat right next to her at dinner the other night and I’m pretty sure she would.”  And WHADAYAKNOW??  I was right.

Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!  I COULD have been fuming mad and irritated at the whole thing but dang dang dang!!! being stressed and angry in a situation like that would have done nothing to help AAANNNDDDD it wasn’t the Random Stranger’s fault and I didn’t want him to feel worse about the situation than he already did…  Soooooooo I had to suck it up – deal with it – and TRY and be reassuring.  ”It’s ok that your wenchface of a friend ditched us two hours away from Brisbane and didn’t even bother to call us (yeah I had my cellphone!)” I tried to tell him – but I think my words sounded about as fake as the color of her ratty hair…

We did have a FRACTION of juice left on my cell phone (which btw she had my number and didn’t bother to call and say she was leaving us) so we called her and she said that because she hadn’t known if we were still at the boiling pot she left.  And then she refused to come back.  omgoodgreatheavensabovekillhernow.  Big lies.  Do all of the sherlock sleuths out there remember that you can see the ENTIRE boiling pot from the walkway?  Whatever – it’s pointless to try and rationalize with irrational people.  And no amount of analyzing is going to make her lies suddenly make sense and be truthful.  She ditched us – she’s a hobag – that’s that.

I had more important things to worry about than arguing with her about whether she was telling the truth – I had to worry about the fact that it was getting late and the Random Stranger and I had NOTHING on us but my bag (which I had pretty much emptied out before the road trip.) Oooh!  And this was when I saw a KOALA IN THE WILD!!!  I was so excited (well as excited as I could be under the circumstances)

So yeah …  there I was – with a now dead cell phone – in a small city far away from everywhere with an almost complete stranger.  Sweet.

Ok ok – we’ve reached MAMMOTH scale – next up will be hitchhiking, big decisions, no vacancies and more!  :)

]]> http://australiandaisy.com/2010/02/02/the-boiling-pot-and-the-car-that-was-supposed-to-be-there-but-wasnt/feed/ 2 http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/27/brisbane-and-being-ditched-in-noosa/ http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/27/brisbane-and-being-ditched-in-noosa/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:46:16 +0000 Daisy http://australiandaisy.com/?p=3662 Oh roll my eyes already.  I can’t even START this blog post without shaking my head and rolling my eyes.  Deserted 2 hours from anywhere?  If it hadn’t happen to me I’d be tempted to believe it didn’t happen!!  WHO DOES THAT???

Deep breath.

As I was preparing pictures for this post I realized I have pictures of Wenchface.  Yep – I do.  BUT I have decided to use a certain degree of discretion and not post them.  I say certain degree because even though I’m not going to post a pic of her wenchFACE I am going to post a picture of her wenchA**  hahaha!    But we’ll get to that in a second.  First – Random Stranger from LA and I walked ALL over Brisbane on our first day there and I want to share a few photos of what we saw.  :)

One of the first things I like to do in a city is check out the postcards.  Why?  Because a quick perusal of the postcard section of the local convenience store will give you a great idea of what the best (or most notable) sights to see are.  HAHA!  Brisbane isn’t a large city however so we quickly discovered there were only like 4 prominent “things to see” (3 of which were bridges and we had already seen them.)

HAHAHAHAHA!!!  CHEESE!!!!  Total cheese shots.  Gotta LUV em!  I can’t look at the one below this without laughing.  LOL!!!

Thank goodness he and I are EXPLORERS!!! We decided to FIND stuff to see.  :)

It was at this beautiful swamp that mosquitoes tried to kill me.  So sad for me

The Random Stranger from LA ALMOST stepped on this water dragon – yikes!!

Ok that’s enough pics from our first day and a half around Brissy  It was the Random Stranger from LA’s bday – YAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

and we met up with a few of his friends for dinner (again – pics are being withheld because someone’s wenchFACE is in them.)  OOOH speaking of the dinner – can we say AWKWARD for me??  As soon as we were seated (with my being placed THREE places away from LA Dude)  it became apparent that Wenchface had arranged the seating in order to set the Random Stranger from LA up with her girlfriend.  Which is totally cool – I mean I was the unexpected tag along and she had probably been dreaming that the Random Stranger from LA was her friend’s lucky ticket to the US but let’s take a second and realize the complexities for ME in this situation. (hahaha!)  LOL.  Here I am - a random stranger myself – sitting at a dinner with 20 people – placed away from my sexy stranger – but close enough to have front row tickets to the “I want an american husband” show.  So great.  AAANNNNDDDD maybe this was part of the reason why wenchface didn’t like me from the start.  I was ruining her set up – OOPSIE!!!  HAHA – It’s such a shame that I don’t feel more guilt.

So anyway the NEXT DAY wenchface calls us first thing in the morning and invites us out on a personal tour of either the Gold Coast or Noosa.  We pick Noosa and she throws a mini-fit.  And this is where I tell you that I’m sorry in advance for how many times your eyes are going to roll from here on out. A mini-fit??  Did I mention this chic is 35 years old?  Anyway the weather was against her choice of the Gold Coast and so we went to Noosa.

Noosa was BEAUTIFUL!!  (as always) and we went for a little stroll.

Things were going great!

Here’s the promised picture of her wencha** – hahaha! (at least I amuse myself!!)

UNTIL we discovered this:

THE BOILING POT!!!

(please note that this is an aerial shot – you can see THE ENTIRE BOILING POT from the path we were walking on – and you can see EXACTLY who is IN the Boiling Pot from the path to the Beach or to the car.  This little bit of information will come handy to all of you Sherlock Sleuths out there in a bit.)

Immediately upon spying this dangerous fun wenchface started flappin’ her gums.  ”wah wah wah wah, blah blah blah blah, wah wah idiotic, blah blah stupid, wah dangerous wah.”  And the Random Stranger from LA was like, “I want to go check it out.  You girls can go to the beach and I’ll meet you there.”

Ummm. NO.

I looked at my stranger and smiled big.  ”I’m going with you.  That looks like fun.”   And that’s when wenchface made a bunch of wench noises like “ugh” and SCOFF and she started being all huffy and puffy and I wondered if the big bad wolf would do me a favor and blow her down.  My stranger and I wasted our breath trying to assure her it was all good – WE EVEN INVITED HER TO COME WITH US but she refused saying, “I left my cell phone in the car.  I’m going to go make a call while you go down there and I’ll meet you at the beach in a bit.”  Whatever…

And off we went!!  YAY!!!  I was about to get a lil dangerously fun alone time with my stranger and I was ALL SMILES!!!  (hee hee LUV it!)

Here’s a less aerial view of the Boiling Pot – That’s the Random Stranger from LA waiting for the next wave before he jumps in…

And I just looked at how long this post is … and have decided to break it up into two in order to give your eyes a rest … in the next post I’ll show you a lil video of how fierce the waves were in the boiling pot – show you how cut up my stranger got (partially my fault – sad sigh) and tell you about the wenchface free beach – which would have been GREAT but that particular beach was SUPPOSED to have a wenchface.

]]> http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/27/brisbane-and-being-ditched-in-noosa/feed/ 10 http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/22/the-aquarium-the-wildlife-park-the-opera-house-and-a-proposition/ http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/22/the-aquarium-the-wildlife-park-the-opera-house-and-a-proposition/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:17:14 +0000 Daisy http://australiandaisy.com/?p=3632 Have I mentioned yet that the Random Stranger from LA was a boy scout?  Maybe it’s my domestic, Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart (omgosh I love her!) -ish ways but I DIG guys who have boy scout skillz.  Want to know what else I like?   Boys from my religion who are chivalrous, respectful and always a gentleman.  Would it surprise you if I told you that the Random Stranger from LA was just that?  Chivalrous, respectful AND a gentleman?

HAHA!  Of COURSE it wouldn’t surprise you.  :)  After all … If you’re going to meet some random dude on New Year’s Eve of all days – and begin your friendship watching one of the most amazing firework displays in the world – while bringing in a new decade … you kind of expect things to be a little better than just average.  *big smiles!!*

After an amazing day at Manly Beach (where he taught me to body surf), a night at a cemetery, and a fabulous day with Deeleea (where even SHE was impressed by him – in fact I’m pretty sure I remember a hushed conversation between us about how – big sighs from both of us – nice it was to be around a guy who cares and knows about manners) we started the next day with some touristy things.  First up was the Aquarium:

This is where I learned that boys are very different from girls.  (hahahaha!)  I found a penny press (my nephew collects pressed pennies) and I was going to press a cute little fish into it – when the Random Stranger from LA was like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???  Boys like SHARKS!!” and he proceeded to tell me all about sharks – had me pose like I was going to be killed by a shark and then took ANOTHER picture of me with sharks so that I could truly understand that boys – including my nephew – would appreciate sharks and shark pictures FAR more than cute little fish.

“I don’t want to pose for this pic!!  It’s total cheese!” I said – the Random Stranger from LA replied, “Yeah but it’s not for you – it’s for me and your nephew.”

“Your nephew will think this pic is cool too” he said – and snapped it before I had a chance to turn around.  So yeah – that ball of red fluff in the lower left hand corner is me.  Those sharks aren’t doing what you think either btw – and that’s a sweet A stingray at the bottom.  *sigh* A boy who cares about my nephew? Adorable!!

The aquarium was definitely not a Sea World – but it was pretty cool just the same.  I really liked the underwater tunnels.  :)

That night he came over for dinner.  What was on the menu??  Sloppy Joes – mmmmmm.  I hadn’t had Sloppy Joes since I was back in the states.  He was so cute because he wanted to make sure I could really have the FULL Sloppy Joe experience and so the Random Stranger from LA – who had only been in Sydney for a couple of days – found a shop that had gluten free buns and then went out of his way to make sure we could get one for my dinner.  It’s not easy for me to have someone fuss over me – I resent it a little and yeah … he didn’t care – he likes to do things the right way – and you can’t eat a Sloppy Joe the RIGHT way without a bun so he made sure I wasn’t left out.

The next day we went to the Wildlife Park next to the Aquarium.  Here we saw all sorts of gross things – which delighted him!!  And although I kept imagining the joke would HAVE to get old at SOME point – tricking me into thinking a bug was about to get me just to watch me jump never ceased to make him laugh out loud.  ROLL MY EYES – at myself mostly – I can’t believe how jumpy I get around bugs!!!

It was also here that my mind almost exploded.  haha!  But seriously – he knew like every little fact about fish – how could he possibly know like every little fact about all of the wildlife too?  And how did he always seem to take better pictures than me?   Grrr.

Today was the day that we OFFICIALLY discussed whether I was REALLY going to follow him to Brisbane.  He offered for me to stay with him – said he’d be going to Fraser Island and I was welcome to join and yeah – I could just tag along.  I didn’t have to think twice – I said yes!!!  It’s been a dream of mine to visit Fraser Island … and with my days in Australia being numbered … I knew this might be my only chance.

So we went and bought tickets.  At the ticket counter he stopped and looked at me, “Oh wait – but how will you be getting home from Brisbane?”  I smiled, “I have no idea – but I’ll figure it out when the time comes.”

And that was that.  I purchased a one way ticket to Brisbane to spend time with a guy I’d only known for a couple of days.

That night we decided to give him the TRUE Sydney experience and visited the Opera House.

Our time at the Opera House was umm … I won’t be forgetting that any time soon!!  Let’s just say I’ll NEVER look at another picture or postcard of the Opera House the same way again.  And neither will he!!

And then – wow – the next morning it was off to breakfast with Deeleea to say goodbye – we were headed off on our adventure!!  Here’s a very typical pic … the Random Stranger from LA may as well be a 14 year old boy for how much he loves to annoy!  lol.  Yeah – that’d be HIS foot trying to ruin my shot.

lol – I haven’t laughed so much for a long time.  He was a lot of fun.  Even if he did keep sticking his finger in my armpit and smelling it just to bug me.

Wait … WWHHHAAATTT????

Yeah – you read it right.

TOMORROW (or the next day) I’ll tell you about my first meeting with Wenchface (the chic who deserted us) and then tell you about HOW it happened.  :)  And how the Random Stranger from LA wasn’t really surprised *shakes head.*

Oh and I’m ALMOST caught up on my blog reading – if I haven’t gotten to yours yet – it should be today or tomorrow  YAY!!  I’ve missed reading your blogs!!! xoxo ~Daisy

That’s the dude you may remember from one of the last posts – the guy I had never met, knew nothing about and had never seen pictures of but whom I sent a random text to asking him if he wanted to chill with me – a girl he’d never met, knew nothing about and had never seen pictures of – on New Year’s Eve.  Is that a little crazy?  Heck yes it is!!  But he’s got a little crazy in him too and he said yes.  And so we met – in a park – and brought in a new decade together.

20 days later here I am – not a new person but definitely a changed person.  Dramatic?  Sure – but you spend 20 days with a walking talking wikipedia boy scout who knows more about everything than it seems possible to know, who shares your excitement for life and adventure, has the same life values and religious beliefs, then book an open ticket to travel with him – find yourself making some of your dreams come true, crossing things off your 101 list, doing things you never thought you would do, then discover that when you’re with him you no longer have the nightmares that have plagued you for months, and then find yourself stranded, camping, snorkeling, LIVING – all by his side – and see if it doesn’t change you a bit too.  :)

Our relationship can pretty much be summed up by this picture:

HAHAHA!  I know – it doesn’t make sense to me either.  :)  But it is what it is.  :)  Anyway – this pic is from New Year’s Day – the day he decided to make sure his time with me was productive.  I told him about my 101 list and then VOILA!!! by midnight we were crossing off our second 101 from my list. Want to know how many guys have offered to help me with my 101 list?  So many I’ve lost count.  But guess how many have actually helped??  One.  The random stranger from LA.

After playing at Manly Beach we headed to the creepiest cemetery I knew of – Waverly Cemetery.  This is what it looks like during the day:

But WE decided to go at night – on a full moon.  Oh yes – we did.  And we had to break in – wait – I mean – we LEGALLY visited it we just had to climb a couple of fences to get in (sheepish grin) WHAT??  there were no signs saying it was wrong!!  :)  Why??  I don’t know – probably because it’s a public cemetery – haha! jk – you mean why did we go?  Don’t worry – we didn’t step on ANY of the graves – we just took a walk along the paths and listened as the waves crashed along the cliffs that line the cemetery.  We went because it seems like something one should experience at some point in their life  Here’s a couple of pics of it that night:

What was he thinking??  Meeting up with some crazy American in Australia and then agreeing to go to a foreign cemetery at midnight on a full moon because it was something she said she wanted to do??  *smile*  Do you still wonder why I was willing to open-end follow him across the country??

The next day we met up with my fave Deeleea:

and checked out the Blue Mountains:

No color changing here – photoshop isn’t necessary with these spectacular blue mountains!!

Our Blue Mountain trip was SO MUCH fun!!!  I think Deeleea probably wanted to kill the random stranger from LA and me  - he and I kind of feed off of each other – tease and bicker like little kids.  lol.  But DANG that dude knows so much!!  I find it frustrating that someone can know SO MUCH more than I do!! (oh wait – I shouldn’t have admitted that should I have?) lol.

Here he is explaining even MORE stuff to me:

He’s not just smart – but he’s also a little random like me.  He’ll just STOP in the middle of doing whatever and – well – all of the sudden I’ll be like – where did the random stranger from LA go??  Then it’s like OH – he’s CLIMBING a random vine or taking a pic or smelling something… lol.  He lives in the now and I love it!!

Did I mention that Deeleea probably wanted to kill us?  lol.  She was fantastic the whole day!!  I even got her to pose for some cheese shots!!  AND after it was all said and done she even agreed to go to dinner with the random stranger from LA and myself!!  YAY!!  Mmmm I love Moo Burgers!!!

The next day the random stranger from LA got me to go to church (yeah I know!!) and then we went to the Aquarium – but I have to start unpacking and re-packing so I’ll tell you more about the Aquarium, the wild life museum, how I’ll never look at the Opera House again the same way, and how it came to be that I found myself on a train with no idea when I’d be back in Sydney with the random stranger from LA soon.  :)  oh and then I’ll tell you about the DISASTER – camping – snorkeling – trains, planes and automobiles – oh and ferries – and the tearful goodbye.

Hearts to you all!!  ~Daisy

]]> http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/20/a-cemetery-my-101-list-and-some-blue-mountains/feed/ 4 http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/12/update-dang-i-wish-i-had-my-american-anything/ http://australiandaisy.com/2010/01/12/update-dang-i-wish-i-had-my-american-anything/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:31:55 +0000 Daisy http://australiandaisy.com/?p=3609 Want to know what is worse than wearing the same clothes for 5 days?  Or worse than wearing no make-up for 5 days?   Or how about – what’s worse than eating food with sand in it for 3 days?  Staying in hostels, sleeping in a tent on a really uncomfortable branch or the next night in a tent on hard-A sand?  Or how about what’s worse than an entire coastline of JELLYFISH that prevents you from going in the water, having no cell phone service and a dead ipod?  Or maybe what could be worse than driving around in a car with no air conditioning and having wild dingoes come within TWO FEET OF YOUR BODY??

I;’ll tell you what is worse.  Not having my American Debit card because some douche stole it and the replac ement c ard was sent to my address in the states leaving me with no access to my money – WHILE having all of the above happen at the same time.

Yep – that’s worse.

Oh and did I mention that the be-otch from the last post – the one who DESERTED us – is now – as of today – FOUR DAYS LATER – how we are now getting back to Brisbane?  I’d say screw it and just pay for some form of ticket back so I’d never have to see her again – but – oh yeah – that’s right – I’m money-less.

And any minute the internet nazi is about to tell me I have to log off… free internet never lasts long enough …

No lie.

And guess what else??  We don’t even know why.  I guess it’s because we were being “stupid”, yes that was her word, by playing at the boiling pot – but there were OTHER PEOPLE THERE TOO!!  It’s like I’m 12 years old now (I’m moving my way down the age ladder.)  SHE’S THIRTY FIVE!!!   Who the EFF does something like that?  Leaves two american tourists stranded 2 hours away from home??

Anyway – we had to walk for HOURS to find a place to stay – everywhere was booked out.  And well – you can imagine.  Today is day two wearing the same clothes and because we’re stuck up here anyway we’ve signed up with a few people to check out fraser island…

What I’m trying to tell you is that I have no cell phone, no change of clothes, no way to charge my camera – and I won’t be back for 3 days. 

But don’t worry – I’m with a super advanced boyscout – and we’re in for an adventure.  Everything happens for a reason they say – and we’ve decided that this happened for a reason too.

Wish me luck!!  I’m not only going to wear the same thing for 5 straight days but I also have NO MAKE-UP – oh the joys.

My 15 mins of internet is out … loves to you all!!!

PLAY IT COOL.  You’re smiling too much.  POKER FACE.  Remember your poker face!!

Darn you – your poker face sucks.  Why are you giggling?? Come one now – he isn’t THAT Funny.  Did you just bite your lip?  Umm … don’t you think you should be worried about the fact he can PROBABLY tell your eyes are twinkling?  And WHY are they twinkling?  Get a hold of yourself!!!

Oh no – you didn’t just say that did you?  Yeah – you’re right to cringe.  CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE –  You sound like 16 year old girl and you know it!

You don’t need reassurance, you are confident, determined, motivated.  Play it COOL.

He’s playing it cool.  Maybe you should take a hint?

But you can’t can you?  Ah that first bite of the love bug, that itch of excitement as it gets under your skin.  You’ve been bitten.

Let’s hope it got him too.

After spending a leisurely day with the photographer from WA I had to make a choice.  WHAT TO DO FOR THE BIG COUNTDOWN TO A NEW DECADE??  Party?  Other Party?  Mingle with small group of friends?  Bondi?  City?  And with WHOM???  The photographer had a late night plane to catch so he was out of the question, I REALLY wanted to watch the fireworks so that took most of my friends out of the question (a lot of Sydney-siders can’t be bothered with the fireworks crowds) and THEN, much to my surprise, I got an unexpected email from a dude I’ve never met telling me that a dude he’s never met was in town from LA for the holiday and, if I was interested, the dude that neither of us had ever met may be looking for someone to hang out with for NYE. Say WHAT??  Yeah – I know.

So I sent a text to the dude neither of us had ever met introducing myself and VOILA I had NYE plans.

(don’t tell me you’re THAT shocked – this is ME we’re talking about – hee hee)

Sure, I could have played it safe and spent NYE with friends but HOW CRAZY was it for me to get this random email??  CRAZY!!!  So I took it as a sign and away I went.  I met him in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people and we watched the fireworks light up the sky over Sydney’s Harbour – WAY COOL!!

(pics taken by him because I didn’t have my camera)

The only dumb part of the fireworks is that there was no countdown.  The fireworks started and we were like – umm – so it’s 2010 now??  Ten minutes into the display the crowd decided to have a ten minute late countdown.  Yeah – we did the 10, 9, 8, 7, thing TEN minutes late.  But it was better than nothing!!  We all needed the ever so psychologically important END of 2009.

And then I said goodbye to my new friend – but only temporarily.  The next day we met up for some beach fun.  What??  Daisy went to the beach to just – well – do beachy things??  I sure did!!  We headed over to Manly – the OTHER beach in Sydney  I like it – it’s a little more relaxed than Bondi.

And gee whiz I’m just SO glad I went with my new friend (roll my eyes) because if I hadn’t I would NEVER have swallowed 5 tons of salt water and I wouldn’t have learned that tucking your bikini bottoms into your cheeks right before a photo (omgosh I can’t believe I’m writing this) elongates your torso and makes beach pics look better.  *shakes head at self for like the 30th time*  Hey!!  I didn’t want to know either – but the new friend and his LA hollywoodness ways wanted me and my narcissistic photo taking ways to know.  *big sigh – shake head – roll eyes – sigh again*  That’s right!!!  I just told you to tuck your bikini bottoms into your cheeks a bit for better beach photos.  (oh dear heavens)  But see for yourself …

Before:

After:

Ahahahahahahaha!  Ahahahahahaha!  Hahahahahah!  lol lol lol.  You mean you can’t tell a difference??  Yeah – I agree.  Boyz can be so dumb.  But I do have a new friend  and that’s pretty cool.   Here we are together – and btw – he’s PICKIER THAN ME about photos.  He actually refuses to pose for them – or puts up his hand or camera to block his face.  LAME!!  And shocking, I didn’t even know it was possible to be worse than me about pictures!!

I spent the next day with him, and the next day, and the next day – and will be spending tomorrow with him – and the next day – and the next day …  I’ll post pics of our Blue Mountain Adventure with Deeleea tomorrow .  xoxo~Daisy (oh and I should be able to play blog catch up tomorrow – sorry for taking so long everyone!!!)