1, 2, 3… ELEVEN Petals

Today is my first day back in Sydney after a very long adventure.  It all started on New Year’s Eve with this dude:

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

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 …

Umm – did that say DITCHED??  Oh yes.  Oh yes it did.  Omgosh – seriously – for real – you would NEVER believe it – but it’s TRUE!!!  My new dude friend and I went with an Australian friend (he’s been friends with her for YEARS) to Noosa – about a 2 hour drive up the coast.  We played in the National Park and did a little adventuring at the “Boiling Pot” – a freaking cool little nook/semi… no…. not semi… actually very dangerous watering hole and our “friend” said she’d meet us back at the car.  When we got back to the car she was GONE!!!!  We called her with the TINY bit of battery left on my cellphone and GUESS WHAT??  SHE REFUSED TO COME BACK AND PICK US UP!!!!

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!!!

Omgosh – my New Year’s Eve was AWESOME!!!!!  Not awesome in the everythingwentgreat kind of way but awesome in the I’mgoingtoleavemyplansuptofateandhopeitdoesn’tsuck kind of way.  Yep.  :)  My New Year’s Eve didn’t suck.  :)

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!!!)