Inca Highlands Day 7 - Inca Ruins Galore

Waking up and extracting myself out of the sleeping bag on the morning of the third trail day was tough! Tough because of the ardurous day prior, and tough because it was early in the morning - 5:30/6am start. Some advice for people doing the tour... stretch. It really helps in the long run.

We were told that today was going to be another long day, 16 kilometers horizontally, wildly differing altitudes - "Peruvian flat" one of the tour guides joked. This was mostly true. Long, yet definitely not as tough. The great thing about the third day of the trek was that there was quite a bit to see!

The journey to the third and final peak began after another solid breakfast. The first sight of the day was only a short stroll away, the Inca guardhouse called Runkuraqay. As it was relatively early in the morning still, it was a quick fly by. That decision was primarly driven by the promise that there was plenty more to see.

The journey up to the peak of the second pass at 3,800m was steep due to the fairly large steps on the way up. Whilst the stairs were steep, the journey up to the summit seemed significantly easier. It's possible that the body was getting used to the tough inclines.

After a short stop with a bunch of the tour group it was time to move onward. The section to follow was the one between the second and third pass - this proved to be one of the most fun parts of the trail. The section consisted of a significantly steep descent, a block of Peruvian flat in the middle, followed by a moderately steep incline up to the third pass.

This section of the track was quite beautiful. The main reason for this being that it is the section that provides a view of the majestic Cloud Forest. Lush, fertile jungle speads ownwards as far as the eye can see at the bottom of a valley, accompanied by a fluid rolling mist that hovered just above. Photos that I took definitely couldn't capture the majesty of the place.

Along the way there was a significant Inca landmark for us to view, Sayacmarka. Sayacmarka was a large monestary-like building that was dominantly perched overlooking the cloud forest. As the mist was quite heavy I decided to skip the detour up to the ruin and continue onward.

Travelling down to Sayacmarka was highly entertaining as some of us were trying to get down at pace. Skipping through sections of steps seemed to be what the porters were doing, so this is what some of us attempted to do - with varying degrees of success. At several points along the trail I would let a porter pass through and I would attempt to follow them down as far as possible. One attempt of mine was even caught on video! As I had a yellow windproof jacket tied to my backpack I looked like a bit of a chicken waddling down the Inca trail.

After passing Sayakmartha we descended down lower into the Cloud Valley. Along the way, approximately 5 to 10 mintes onwards, there was another small outpost. Perhaps another guard post. Perching up on top of the walls of the little guard post proved to be an interesting rest point, as I could observe the other members of the group pass by the trail path just underneath.

Lunch was served just prior to the Phuyupatarnarka Inca site, at approximately 12:30pm. Originally we were meant to eat earler at the Chaquicocha campsite, yet this was moved further on as we were progressing quite well as a group. Lunch was another pleasant one... salad, soup, a particularly satisfying chicken drumstick, Inca version of fried rice, and a few salads. Yum, yum.

After lunch it was time for another Inca lesson, this time at the Inca site Phuyupatamarka. Here we learnt about the fundamentals of the Inca religion and the level of knowledge that the Inca had of astronomy. Impressive considering that the Inca had no formal standard of writing. Unless of course the whole talk was BS. Hah.

The cloud forest walk continued, not terribly difficult. The walk was quite leisurely with the guide Liborio accompanying us for a fair section of it - highlighting particular flora and fauna of the region along the way. Very interesting, although I struggle to recall much of it!

From Phuyupatarnarka there was approximately an hour or so descent followed by a choice marked by an electric power pylon. The quicker path lead to the Winay Wana campsite, the other would lead to the same campsite via the awe-inspiring views provided by Intipata. The Intipata route was chosen.
Plenty of mischevous snaps were taken at Intipata - including the Jestar starjump, a machete fight, and contemplative seated yoga poses. Intipata provided sweeping views of the river below and the towering land masses perched on each side.

Once we were over taking photos it was finally time to check into the campsite at Winay Wana. Campsite 2 to be precise. There was the option to do a further walk (not too far away) but just about everyone decided to stay at camp. The reason for this was that the rare commodities of hot showers and cold beer were available at the campsite!

I decided to make the 10 minute trek down to Winay Wana itself, rather than kick off my boots at the campsite. Unlike the some of the concave terraces seen along the Inca trail so far, the terraces of Winay Wana were convex. Not only were there terraces to be seen, but there were also well preserved buildings on display (missing their thatch rooves). Very green and very neat. The third trekking day was definitely jam packed full of visual treats.

I thought that the line to the showers was long, wrong! Once I got back from my trip to Winay Wana there was an extensive queue. As disgusting as it may sound, I avoided the shower for one more day. Instead, I opted for a cold water head bath - alternatively known as putting my head under a cold water tap.

Dinner was quite a feast - consisting of pasta, lasagne, jelly, and a birthday cake for one of the trekkers in the group. The chef came out with quite a nice orange zest cake. Impressive given the lack of proper utilities out in the middle of nowhere.

There was much entertainment to be had next, with regard to the cake. In a strange turn of events the birthday boy was tasked with cutting his own cake. Unfortunately for him the knife and the scoop were in the wrong hands. The result of this were diabolical pieces of cake. Admittedly the cake was on the crumbly side, so it was probably inevitable anyway.

To make matters worse (or funnier, depending on your perspective) a female member of the group offered to cut the remainder of the cake. Made sense. However, one of the other guys in the group decided that it would be a good idea to affix a headlamp to the girl cutting the cake. Fail. The headlamp fell onto the cake. Haha! A true comedy of errors.

The third evening would prove to be the last one on the trail. The next day would see us on the grounds of Maccu Piccu itself! As it was the last evening for all of us (i.e. with the porters and the chef) it was time for us to present a few gifts and say a few parting words. A sad evening.

Inca Highlands Day 6 - Steep Climbs on the Inca Trail

After a rainy evening with a reasonable amount of rest I was awoken at approximately 5am by roosters. Yes, roosters. This was the surprise that the tour leaders alluded to last night. Roosters were milling around the campsite signalling the dawn. It was actually quite entertaining hearing them cluck and crow as they waddled around just outside of the tent.

Hot cocoa tea was brought to our tents shortly after the roosters quietened down. The delivery of the tea set the clock ticking. We had thirty minutes to pack our bags and be ready to leave the tent. Quite the struggle for me as i'm generally quite a slow packer of bags - evidenced by my near-miss with the initial flight down to South America.

One of the frustrating things that I realised in the morning was that I left my pants resting against the side of the tent, as I had changed to shorts for the evening (sleeping bag). The side of the tent became moist overnight as a result of the evening rain. This meant that I had the pleasure of starting the day with wet pants! Not the best start to the day, that's for sure.

This morning was a bright and lovely one. As it was such a nice morning the mess tent was put away so that we could have breakfast with the blue sky in clear view. Breakfast out in the open was hearty and refreshing. Omelettes, banana pancakes, bread with jam - much needed fuel for the day ahead.

After everything was packed away it was time for a meet and greet - where all of the trekkers, porters, and guides would all say hello to eachother. A good idea since we would all be spending several days with eachother. This greeting was quite a large affair as there were 13 trekkers, 3 guides, 1 chef, and 18 porters!

This would have normally have been an event free affair, yet for this trip the introduction proved to be very entertaining. The porters went first, and it was clear that most of the porters had come from the nearby Sacred Valley - the Anta region, to be specific. The porters weren't all young, with ages ranging from the early 20s right up to the late 40s. Unexpected for some. The usual occupation of the porters, their day-job, was farming.

Thanks to the introduction I got a good sense of the organisation required to ensure that we would all have a resonably comfortable trek to Maccu Piccu. Each day porters would have to carry cookware, cutlery, tents, stools, our duffel bags, food, supplies, and their own daily items (clothing, toiletries, etc). Not a trivial logistics operation!

It was the trekkers to introduce themselves after the porters had done theirs. When it was my turn I tried my best to inject some Spanish into the introduction. I didn't manage much - most of what I could come up with was something like "Hola, Buenos Dias Muchachos, mon nombre es Marko". Don't even know if that's correct.The rest of my introduction was in English - which was subsequently traslated by one of the trekking guides.

The most entertaining segment was to come. It was time for one of the ladies in the group to perform her introduction. After a brief introduction she was asked if she was single or attached (a question that all of the younger ladies was asked). She stuttered and eventually answered that she was single. The porters all seemed entertained and one of the younger single porters was being ridiculed by the other porters. The trek guide grabbed the single porter and I grabbed the single girl and we brought them together. The porter passed on a peck on the cheek and that was it. After the incident I was politely told "Mark, i'm going to kill you". Hillarious!

Onto the trek itself. The second day of the trail walk was said to be the hardest by the guides, and there was no reason to dispute this. The journey from Wayllabamba to Paqaymayu was indeed ardurous, as it had involved a particularly steep and extensive climb of 1200m in its first phase before a shorter yet equally steep descent.

The uphill leg was tough, yet the previous day's walk helped me understand how much weight would be ideal for carrying. I carried much less on my back on the second day of the trail than the first - dropping at least a litre of water and a couple of items of clothing. It was not as cold as some claimed that it would be!

The experience of the climb changed as the altitude increased. The initial phase of the climb was mostly warm and humid, with trees and foliage providing a shade from the sun. The climb was made more difficult thanks to the heat and humidity, yet the streams that ran close to the stony path upwards provided a useful cooling function.

The latter parts of the climb to the peak of the second pass were quite different. Vegetation was sparse, the stream was nowhere to be seen, and the sun was able to bear down on me with no problems - having said this... it was cool. Not cold, just cool. The steepness of the climb was similar, the environment was quite different.

By the time I made it to the peak of the second pass I was a little tired. A break was in order. The peak provided a sweeping view of the climb just completed with snow capped mountains as a backdrop. I took the opportunity to rest up,take some photos, and chat with som members of the tour group. More importantly, I was starting to get hungry and lunch was nowhere in sight. Lunch was to be a couple of hours further on, at Pacqaymayu.

Half an hour passed and it was time to move onto the last segment of the day - the descent leg. I felt that the descent leg was tougher than the ascent leg. Why? Most likely because I was hungry, I wasn't fresh, and nature was calling. Having said this, the descent was much easier after making a slight detour off the well warn track. I wasn't the only one who made a temporary diversion though, everyone does it!


Through the second day I noticed something different with the Maccu Piccu trek when compared to the Everset Base Camp trek in Nepal - the method in which the group as a whole travelled. In Nepal we effectively had 2 groups, a fast group and a slow group, and stops every 30-45 minutes or so - regrouping at key places. In Peru, people are allowed to go at their own pace with guides towards the back and someway towards the front. An interesting contrast.

At 3pm I stumbled into Pacqamayu Camp #5, lead to the specific campsite by our chef Cesar. Boy, was I glad to see camp. After quickly selecting a free tent it was time to head to the mess tent for some well deserved lunch! I was starving! Lunch was fantastic, although that could have been because I was very hungry. Cevice (fish) salad was the starter, followed by a prawn soup, finished off by an alpaca, plaenta, and rice dish.

Pacqamayu camp was the site of the evening camp, so thankfully no more trekking was planned for the day. Due to the lateness of lunch, it was only an hour and a half or so left remaining before afternoon tea was scheduled. There was the option to stay and have some afternoon tea... but I passed. I took the opportunity to rest up and napped until dinner time. Popped out for dinner and a quick chat before it was back to bed again (with nothing leaning against the side of the tent).

Work Tip: Presentations (Always have Outlook closed)

At long last i've finally decided to kick the dust off this blog of mine. It's been an age, and then some. I'm actually surprised that the blog still exists, but hey... perhaps I am loved afterall. So to herald my return to the world of blogging i've decided to let loose with a tip on conducting presentations - and that tip is: Always have Outlook closed.

So every week we have this team meeting and we have the occasional guest speaker. Now, I won't bore you with all of the details on what the presentation actually contained... but it was mildly interesting. Now the presenter had brought his own laptop, and was connected to his email wirelessly. He had prepared presentation slides and they were visible to the 25-odd attendees via a data projector pointing to a bare white wall.

Now, as many of you are aware Outlook has this feature where a little pop-up appears on the bottom right of the screen when an email is received. Just to be sure that we don't miss it. Well, this was one occasion where you clearly did not want the incoming email alert to fire up. Lo and behold, up came the alert approximately 35 minutes into the presentation.

I don't know the presenter, and I don't exactly know what the contents of the email were but the subject alone was enough to have me in stitches, along with many of the other attendees at this meeting. In big, bold, capital letters the subject was clear for everyone to see... and it was "I AM GAY!!!". ROFL! Poor guy had a hard time recovering from that email. The presentation wrapped up 5 minutes later. So a tip for those that wish to hold presentations... always have Outlook closed.

I hope that was entertaining, and chances are that i'll probably take an age to write again. See how diligent I am. Ciao!

The Asakusa Grab - Day 2

The afternoon tour began (for those that were on the morning tour continuing onwards) in Ginza shortly after lunch had ended. The new tour guide's name was Reiko. The morning tour was one of enlightenment, however the funniest moment (and strangest) of the day was in the afternoon tour. This leads me to the first stop for the afternoon - the Asakusa Temple, a Buddhist temple.

To get to Asakusa shrine we had to catch a ferry. I don't quite remember the name of the wharf that we travelled to, however our destination was clear - Asakusa. The trip wasn't the shortest, 40 minutes, but it was quite the cruisy trip. I wasn't really paying too much attention to the announcements over the intercom, however it appeared to me that many of the bridges that we passed under are imitations of bridges that exist (or have existed) around the world. Odd, but whatever works.

We were greeted by a seriously packed temple after walking from the wharf. There were people everywhere! Dozens of tiny stalls lined the main walkway to the Temple building itself. True hustle and bustle style. After moving past the stalls Reiko stopped us and started to explain the story behind the temple and the pagoda, but the best part of the afternoon is to come.

On the way to the temple itself we came across a tiny little structure which had incense in it. I asked Reiko what this was for and she mentioned the incense smoke is meant to purify the body (wash away badness).

Classic moment here at the incense structure. As I was breathing in the incense and wafting the air around me a young Japanese couple caught my eye. They really only caught my eye because they were directly opposite me. I then started to observe their behaviour. The girl was closer to the incense and the boyfriend was close behind. He started to waft some incense her way and she breathed it in. Seemed like a fair enough thing to do. Next, something that I wouldn't have ever expected. The boyfriend stopped wafting incense and slowly moved his hand down and... grabbed her breast! Obviously, she gave him a playful slap and they walked away. Tell you what, it was hillarious to watch. As I said, classic moment. (Apologies if I have offended anyone).

On that note, i'll leave it there. Did end up going to Akibahara and Roppongi Hills as well as eat at a sushi/sashimi restaurant.




Ginza Shopping District


The Asakusa Grab



Roppongi Hills at Night

Touchdown In Tokyo - Day 1, Part 2

So... the rest of Day 1. Dinner. We ended up wandering around for about half an hour before heading back towards the hotel and we spotted a neat little side stall with some Ramen plastic imitations out the front. It looked like a neat little place to eat, so we headed in. Trouble greeted us as we sat down - the menu in front of us (if you can call it a menu) was only in Japanese. Furthermore, the staff also only spoke Japanese. Arg. We did manage to order though - as we pointed to what we wanted to order (the imitations out the front). In the end it was quite a good feed, and it was also reasonably priced.

I've been told by almost everyone that everything in Tokyo is expensive. I don't really believe that this is the case, although it's really only Day 1. The ramen meal that I ate was 900 yen, which is roughly 9 Aussie dollars. Not too mch different than eating noodles back home. Will definitely have to see how it all pans out as the trip progresses.

One really odd part of the dinner experience was the lack of Japanese people around. For some reason this little Ramen shop on the main street seemed to be a bit of a foreigner's haven (although not foreigners in the blond hair and blue eyes sense). There seemed to be some people who spoke both Cantonese and Mandarin wandering into the store as we were sitting there. Strange. There were Japanese people inside though, but only a few.

So after dinner it was time to walk around for a little bit. It's always good to have a bit of a walk around after eating... well I guess it's always a good time to have a bit of a walk. Anyway, we walked this wide circuit out eastward gradually making our way back to the hotel. A few interesting points to mention whilst bumbling about town.

Petrol stations. Yep, petrol stations. Maybe it was the chilly night messing with my brain, or maybe it was something else - but I was thoroughly impressed with one of the Japanese petrol stations that we passed. The photo can be seen below. The fuel pumps come from the ceiling - quality. Furthermore, the price / amount of fuel is displayed on this electronic board above the entrance of the shop. I wish there was a Dr. Drive in Sydney. Classic. Actually, really don't know why I got excited about this... Japanese technology is great!

Respect. The Japanese seem to be big on respect, and this was quite true on the stroll around town. Being a big urban behemoth, Tokyo has quite a bit of construction work about the place. We passed by one of these contstruction sites and there were people assisting with the flow of traffic (both pedestrian and cars). As we were passing by one of the construction sites, one of the gentlemen there bowed to us. Impressive. Of course, a return bow was given :).

Finally, a little bit of humour - at the vending machine. Shenanigans at the vending machine - seriously funny. Got some video of this, but Blogger doesn't accept video as far as I can tell. If I can be bothered, maybe i'll whack it on You-Tube or something. So given that there are thousands of these vending machines about we thought we'd give it a try by purchasing some Hot Chocolate. It should have been easy - but it wasn't. Dave had a crack at the vending machine first - 120 yen required. Dave puts in a sucession of coins... all rejected. He gives the machine another look and tries again. Failure. Would have been highly embarrasing if anyone were to watch. So I then have a go. The money is accepted, I press the button for Hot Chocolate (as well as the funky one with the rabbit) and out it comes. Classic. In built discrimination! After I got my drink, Dave managed to get his. Quite the funny way to end the day.




Tokyo Tower at Night


Dr.Drive Petrol Station


Vending Machine Shenanigans

Touchdown in Tokyo - Day 1, Part 1

Day 1 was quite the adventure, things are great here overall plus i've started to keep a travel diary which is completely separate from the blog. I think the format for the future will be that blog entries will be summaries of the travel diary - although there's no guarantee that i'll be doing either. Planes, public transport, and bumbling around the city was the order of the day. Much to laugh about.

First i'll start off with planes and technology. I've always mentioned that there should be external cameras on commercial planes, but it appears that Japan airlines is way ahead of me. Obviously i've been watching too much Air Crash Investigation. Anyway, all off the passengers aboard the flight (Sydney - Tokyo) had access to two external cameras - one facing forward and one facing below. Novel!

Takeoff was quite the thrill, considering that there was more to see. Not only did I have a partial view out the window (just forward of the right wing), there were also the external cameras to look at. Flying has become that much better. Truly. I would highly recommend that other carriers provide the same external camera service for their passengers - it would also lessen the appeal of a window seat. Slightly.

Take off was 10:50am Sydney time and touchdown was 6:00pm Tokyo time. Slightly ahead of schedule. After touching down at Narita International Airport we had to make our way to the hotel via train - which leads me to my second point, public transport.

Getting around in Tokyo is quite simple, everything is in English as well as in Japanese! Even though there are masses of train/subway lines cris-crossing Tokyo it's still dead easy to get around... and quickly too. Everything is intuitive, and it is difficult to remian lost for long. A plethora of signs leading to stations, graphical displays of upcoming stations with approximate timings on the stations, and status indicators on the trains themselves (along with automated voice confirmations) makes travelling around in Tokyo a real treat. Truly a standard for City Rail should adopt, or attempt to adopt.

Sitting on the train also leads me to my little Lonely Planet joke. Although it sounds much worse written down (I promise). It's one of those random comments that seem to come out of my mouth from time to time. The situation is that i'm reading through some phrases out of the Lonely Planet book helpfully donated to me by Kieu... common phrases such as "Arigato gozaimasu", meaning "Thank you, sir/madam". Suddenly I flick the page and spot some odd phrases and start to laugh. This page contains the Japanese translation for the phrase - "I have diarrhoea". Seriously, I can see why it can be a Lonely Planet - with people using phrases like that I can see why it would be hard to make friends!

I've split this entry up into two, as there's lots to read and you probably want to see some photos!

-- Apologies for the poor use of past and present tense (if there are any errors), i'm sitting in the business centre of the Shiba Park Hotel but some retard is playing really annoying dance music... trying to concentrate damn it!!!

Maccas Madness

Well, well, well. I haven't really posted up anything wierd or funny recently. In fact, I haven't really posted much at all. So here is a little segment to tie off those who have been watching my website and have been bitterly disappointed with its rate of updates.

So there I was at the Maccas drive-through, just entered, and noticed that the car in front of me had left the ordering window and just shot straight through. Didn't even bother to stop at the collections window. Odd, but not entirely abnormal... I guess. So anyway, without dwelling on this further I continued on.

Next, I was hovering outside the ordering window in my car. A kid. He was playing around with the electronic cashier in front of him and looked quite lost. He looked as though he was pressing way too many buttons for normality. It was just a bit odd. "Just a minute, be with you in a sec" was the first words that came out. Alrighty then. Time to fiddle with the change and get the required amount ready.

Medium six-nuggets meal. That's what I was thinking. Some more kids entered the ordering booth, and a quick conversation followed - still while the first kid was pressing away on the electronic cashier.

Some kid - "What happened with that lady? She just drove through."
Button pressing kid - "She didn't have enough money"
Some kid - "Really?"
Button pressing kid - "Yep. Not enough"

That was the entirety of the conversation, fairly riveting stuff. Now it was time to order. Good. I ordered the medium nuggets meal and then paid the required amount. "Thanks, and have a nice day" was the closing statement from the Maccas kid.

Now the collections window was where it was at. Here the intrigue begins. I pull up to the window and look through. More kids. Wow. Looks like it's the day where all the young 'uns come out to work. Good on them, though. Much better than sitting at home playing computer games or watching TV all day.

Looking about the place I notice that there is a chain of drinks next to the drinks dispenser. All large, and presumably, all Cokes. (The drink, nothing more). Kids everywhere. More kids were having a bit of a discussion and then I heard "just give it to him". Soon enough a large Coke was given to me. Riiiiiiiight. Can't complain, I guess.

So I thought that i'd get a free upsize - something like that. Oh no! What did I end up getting? A bag full of burgers and fries. Errr.... what the? It got even more interesting. The kid at the collections window told me to wait in the waiting bay. I diligently did so, hoping that my nuggets will arrive in the next batch. Nope.

After a couple of minutes the collection window kid came out with another bag full of goodies. Absolutely packed. Chips, Quarter Pounders, Big Macs, you name it. Bloody strange. "Thank you and sorry about the wait" is what was said to me. OMG.

So off I went home with about 4 packets of chips and a dozen burgers. No nuggets. Damn kids. LOL. An interesting adventure indeed.

Wallace and Gromit - Recommended

I managed to go out for once. Hooray for me. Can't spend all my time cooped up at home... so what did I do today? I used some free Greater Union tickets that I received in the mail and saw the movie Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

I must admit that i'm a bit of a Wallace and Gromit fan. The clay-based animation done by Aardvark (the company that does all the modelling and what not) is pure class. In typical Wallace and Gromit style the movie was quite entertaining and there were quite a few cute (yea, no other way to describe it) animations.

The funny bits in the movie can be seen in the trailer. One part where a giant female bunny is attached to Wallace and Gromit's car and Gromit, whilst in control of the giant bunny, conducts a bit of a cabaret dance. Another is in the church when the crowd asks Wallace how he is going to trap the were-rabbit, Wallace replies by saying "...with a big trap", then this old man proclaims "by Joe... I think he's got it!". Classic stuff. There were also some cute moments in the movie as well. The little bunny rabbits waving to eachother, now that's quality. You'll know what I mean when you see the movie. It's so cool.

Anyway, i'll fast forward to the evening - gym time. Decided to try out the "Body Attack" class that they were having there. I thought i'd give it a try... from the outside it didn't look so bad - a bunch of people running around and jumping all over the place. Oh dear... was I wrong. After the class I felt as though i've been the victim of an attack - someone's grabbed my legs and placed a portable vice on each of my calves. I was struggling and i'm not afraid to admit it. You may laugh at me, that's fine - but don't bag it until you've tried it. I've learnt my lesson. It was a good workout though, quite intense.

After the gym I ventured down to a cafe in the local area. Food was fairly decent, as was the service... but something really strange happened. After ordering and receiving the drinks we wanted to order. This dude in red was nearby so I looked over at him - usually that's enough, once a waiter sees that you're looking around then it's fairly obvious that it's ordering time. Nope. This derro just stared back. Fine. I put up my hand and give a half wave. Nope, still staring. At this point i'm thinking "what a dumbass". I tried again - charades style, I mimicked writing on a pad with my two hands. Nope, still staring. Once more with the charades, same thing. A reaction! The dude walks forward two steps and proceeds to outline a window with his arms.... WTF? At this point I saw a waitress walk past behind him and write something down at the counter - I pointed to the girl behind him, obviously indicating that I want the girl's attention. What does this n00b do? He draws the bloody window with his hands again. At this point I gave up called out "Excuse me" loudly, drawing the attention of the lady... this time all it took was one look.

Alas, the shenanigans don't end there. The intelligence of the staff really perplexed me. We ordered a couple of pizzas and the waitress wrote down the order, finishing off each entry with the letter P and surrounded by a circle - fair enough... represents pizza. So at the end of the meal I went to pay. "That'll be $8.50 thanks" (the price of the two drinks). I stood there a little confused, obviously I didn't maximise on my good luck. This dude (not the retard mentioned above) repeated again "$8.50". Something was obviously wrong so I asked him "are you sure?". He looked hard at the docket and then called over the girl that wrote down the order in the first place. This is the little conversation that they had:

Dude: "Hey, how much does this all cost"
Girl: "Add it all up"
Dude: "Including these?" (pointing to the pizza entries)
Girl: "Er... yes"
Dude: "Oh, ok. What does this P mean? I thought it meant 'paid'. "
Girl: "It means pizza, duh!"

LOL. Dumbass number two right there. I should stop being honest, could have saved myself some money.

Oh! Also, on the way home... a bit of luck - petrol @ 117.9 c/L. What a bargain!

Lacking Motivation

I've mentioned the thesis time and time again. I've also mentioned that it's not really getting anywhere time and time again. Well, not much has changed... still. I'm starting to get quite annoyed, more so than worried - but oh well.

I'm going to talk about some psychology. Something a bit different than what i'm used to posting. Anyway, i'm finding it quite hard to remain focused on work - I find myself procrastinating to the extreme. I'm posting on my blog, i'm reading lots of news, playing lots of sports, and bumming around the house.

I'm guessing that this is the case as i'm not really getting anywhere. The lack of progress leads onto the further lack of progress. Maybe this happens to others as well. I guess the only exception to the rule could be a looming deadline. A deadline usually is all it takes for progress to surge forward. Comments?

I need a holiday :(

On a final note - the fun that can be seen in student politics.
This little segment is from today outside Eastern Avenue Lawns.

Leftie: "Daddy's paying for your election campaign again is he?"
Rightie: "At least I know who my dad is"

ROFL! Slammed. Now that is a comeback worthy of votes.

Sister Perspective: Rita the Bitch

What is this? My life may be amazing but this little story was too hard to pass up. So today marks the inaugural episode of "Sister Perspective". The first episode is Rita the Bitch. I like the name of this episode, and you'll see that it is highly appropriate.

Prelude. Early in the Semester. Jessica meets a girl called Rita in Accounting, they become acquainted and become friendly.

Recently. University. More Accounting. Group Assignment is set. Jessica once again meets up with Rita, and Rita asks Jessica to be in her group. The group size is three - so another one of Jessica's friends joins this group. (Male - identity is irrelevant).

A couple of days later. Jessica and Rita are talking in the lecture, just as everyone does in University lectures. They discuss their tutorial groups and Rita mentions that she is worried about hers. Jessica assures her that it's a great class because it contains some of her brother Mark's intelligent friends. Jess: "It's a good tute. My brothers friends are in there, they're geniuses, like HD students". (Yes, Mark is me)

Today. Jessica gets a message on her mobile, Rita has already joined a group. After reading the message all is fine. Later when Jessica gets home she still needs to complete or join a group so she asks her brother Mark to ask his intelligent friends.


Mark: Hey Dinesh
Dinesh: Hey Mark
Mark: Got a question for you, on behalf of my sister. Do you have an accounting group?
Dinesh: Yes. We've got 3.
Mark: Ok, no worries.
Dinesh: We've got some girl from our tute.
Mark: Is her name Rita?
Dinesh: Yea. How did you know?
Mark: Sister had a hunch.


So Rita has dogged the group that she originally joined and ran off to the genius group, the group which Jessica mentioned in the lecture (and the group that Jessica wanted to be in). What a bitch that Rita is.

That's the end of todays story. Hope you enjoyed it.