future blog entries and gay games trip

Friends,
I'm sorry but for now I'm going to discontinue my blog entries.
If you'd like to see the photos from my trip to Europe and the Middle East look me up on facebook.
Thank for following!
Brian

Getting ready for Gay Games

Well friends with only 1 week to go I've started the finer details of my month long trip to Europe and the Middle East.

For those not aware of this trip, here's my itinerary in brief. I leave Melbourne on July 20th and fly to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I'll be staying with Jan Newton, a friend I used to work with in Portland. She's lived there for 7 or 8 years now. On Monday July 26th I fly to Frankfort Germany and then catch a train to Cologne. I’ll have 2 free days before my friends from the Melbourne Rainbow Band. We stay here for 11 nights and have 2 performances for the Gay Games. Then on Friday August 6th we'll take a train to Amsterdam, Netherlands to attend the Gay Pride celebrations on August 7th. (Which is my little brother’s, John, 40th birthday. It's really weird saying little brother and 40! Trust me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN sorry you can't be parting it up with me in Europe!) On Monday the 9th my band mates leave for the rest of their adventures. I’ll have 2 more days in Amsterdam before heading to Tel Aviv Israel on Wednesday the 11th. I'll spend 7 nights there with a friend of mine Effy Sadah. I met him here in Melbourne when he was on vacation back in 2009. Returning to Melbourne late on Thursday August 19th. Where my friend Shelley Smith will be here from Scotland! I haven't seen her in more than 12 years. My guess is we'll get drunk in her hotel room and play canasta all day! Just like old times! (Why don't you come and join us Melissa!!!) Shelley and I flunked out of Vermont Technical College together WAY the hell back in the fall of 1986! After that the sad sad day of August 23rd will come and I'll have to go back to work. :(



I don't have any pictures to load at the moment but trust me there'll be lots and big long wordy blog entries when I get home!





Happy Birthday's Go out to my dad who's birthday was on July 21st, Robin Elliot's is also that day. Jan Newton's in on July 22nd, my little brother turning the big 40 and to Chris Hall who'll forever be 39 on the 22nd of August. My apologies to anyone I left off. (Erica, I know your's is coming in September)

Untill I return dear friends take care and COME VISIT when I get back of course!

Perth and NamBung National Park

Friends,

This isn't going to be the long winded blog posting you're used to getting. Some, I'm sure are saying THANK GOD! Last weekend Iral and I flew over to Western Australia for a long weekend. We arrived Thursday evening and got settled in before heading out to dinner and a few drinks. On Friday we wandered the city and had lunch with the CAD Manager, Sandra, from URS's office there. In the evening we went to "The Court Hotel" Perth's main gay bar. We danced and drank the night away until about 2am. Saturday morning we got up and were on the road by 9am, heading north for 250km (155miles) to the Nambung National Park, more commonly known as The Pinnicles. A lovely place by the Indian Ocean with cool rock formations sticking up out of the sand spread over many acres. Then a few more drinks back in town for Saturday night. A tour of Kings Park in Perth and a couple hours at the Casino on Sunday (nothing good to report) before catching our flight back to Melbourne. In all Perth is a nice town of about 750,000 people. Fairly young by most standards only about 150 years old. Not as culturaly diverse as Melbourne and with a larger population of rural country kids coming into town to get drunk and be stupid on the weekends. A nice place to visit for the weekend.

My next blog entry will be in late July I hope to make a small posting before leaveing on my big GAY GAMES trip. We just got the music this morning so I need to start practicing

HAPPY BIRTHDAY on June 26th to the one and only Phyllis Hag Hanson! I miss you!

Oh yeah Mike Wrobleski gets older too on June 16th
Miss all of you really! Come visit!
Brian

May's adventures

Friends,


Sorry it’s been so long since I last made a posting. A lot has been going on since Easter Weekend at Mount Kosciuszko. A big part of April and early May was spent working 6 days a week on a large wetland mitigation project for the Australian Capital Territory and the city of Canberra. I’ll try to bring you up to speed on the more fun things that happened in between all the hours spent at the office.

In Early May there was the Melbourne Jazz Festival. I attended 4 events at several venues. One was at the city’s town hall where Iral and I wandered around the building experiencing different shows in the various rooms. It wasn’t your traditional Jazz performance I had expected. One event was just 2 guys with about 50 different items that made noises that they grabbed to form rhythms. They had cow bells, pieces of plastic tubing, buzzers, a guitar and one of the guys making vocal sounds. It’s what is considered improvisational Jazz. Another was a group of people that all used their voices to make a chaotic pattern of sounds. There was lady that wrapped her face in tinfoil and hummed into her microphone. While another guy grunted and a 3rd person made strangest noises with more people doing things too hard to describe. The group as a whole made me wonder whether they were all mentally stable or just on some acid trip that has lasted for years! There was a very cool performance we attended with this German drummer and a huge pipe organ built into the main auditorium. These 2 guys put on a spectacular show. One of the other events I went to was a Saxophone soloist also from Germany that had been playing longer than I’ve been alive. His style was unique in that it was based upon a free form Jazz style that he helped develop in Europe back in the sixties from the more traditional style of Jazz we all know from the states. Again this is hard to explain and a lot of what made it so cool was his technically ability to do things with the saxophone that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do.

Probably the most fun thing was at Southern Cross Railway Station where a portion of the stairs where converted into a piano and you could run up and down them making a tune as you stepped on each tread. There were lasers set into the side of the stairs and as you crossed the beam of light it set off a tone. This brought out the inner child in me and many other people.

After this was the performance with the Melbourne Rainbow Band, our Australiana concert at Chapel off Chapel. The weekend was VERY busy. It was just before my deadline at work, near the end of 5 weeks at 50 + hours. I went into the office in Saturday morning and was at the concert hall by 3 for our technical rehearsal. Out for a few drinks with the band after and did it all again on Sunday. The performance as a whole was very good. It was our first dual performance concert and we had been struggling with some of the pieces and some of our instrument sections were short key members. But in the end we pulled it all off beautifully. The concert itself was all music with an Australian tie. The music was composed by Australians or they were Australian folk songs. Iral showed us he has an amazing voice by singing “I am Australian” and bringing the house down. We had 4 performers that accompanied the band and many said Iral’s was the best of the show.

Then just last weekend I got to check off one more National Park in my book. This time it was Fort Nepean National Park, which lies at the tip of the mouth that creates Port Phillip Bay. Just about an hour or so drive from the city, the park was originally a dropping off point for many immigrants in the 18th century. It also became a quarantine area for live stock that arrive by boat in the 19th century and then finally being used at a military base helping to defend Melbourne during WWII before it was turned into a national park. We were able to tour some of the old military bunkers and bomb shelters. But the most spectacular thing by far was the view along this thin peninsula. We stopped in coastal tourist town of Sorrento for some fish and chips on our way home.

The last thing to fill you in on was my participation yesterday in DC Comics attempts to break the world record for the most superheros in one place. The record was originally set in the states with 1016 people dressed up as superheros. Then last weekend London broke the record with 1091 people. Melbourne SMASHED it with 1245 people. Yours truly went as the Phantom. While a co-worker, Kevin Donnelly, and his girlfriend, Jackie (she’s from Long Island) went as Zorro and Super girl respectively. We even managed to talk Iral in to getting one of the free costume DC comics was handing out and he became the tiniest super girl ever, by draping a toddler’s costume over himself. I rented my costume from a local shop along with Jackie and Kevin rented a few piece but made the others himself. We met at the office and changed before walking about a ½ mile to Federation Square to join our fellow superheros and nasty villains. We saw a lot of Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman characters. There were also a couple incredible Hulks, Iron Man, Jokers, and even a few odd ones like Indiana Jones and Princess Lea form Star Wars. I picked the Phantom mainly because it’s what the costume shop had available in my size and it was purple spandex who could resist that! People were snapping pictures all around and it gave me a sense of what the Hollywood elite must feel like. The Phantom was very popular here and I was the only one in his outfit that I noticed. Eventually, the parents of a little boy, Zane, found me and we got our picture taken together, he was dressed up as the Phantom too. It was a fun thing to do and while not actually named in the world Record book I can say I’m now a part of it.

Coming up this week for me is my first trip to Western Australia and the city of Perth. Iral and I are flying over on Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend. So be on the lookout for that blog entry before I leave on the big trip to the Middle East and the Gay Games in Germany on July 20th.

As far a birthday shouts go Marian’s was April 23rd, the same day as my flatmate Michael. Shelley had one on May 17th, Roger had his back on May 22nd, Mike Wrobleski has one coming up on June 16th and Phyllis notches up another year on June 26th. I’m sure there’s a few of you I have missed but you are by no less loved. I owe Marian special thanks for sending me 2 boxes of Peanut butter Captain Crunch and 2 jars of fluff.

COME VISIT!

Easter in Kosciuszko National Park

This entry starts with a sad bit of reality. Wednesday evening March 31st I got a cruel bit on not so funny April Fools. When going to my truck to drive to my sax lesson I found out someone had broken into my truck and stolen the radio and my GPS. Just the Sunday before I fixed the radio that had been broken for 3 months. I don’t drive very often maybe 2 or 3 times a week. The city is very public transit friendly and the tram or trains take me where I need to go. Besides parking in a city of 4 million people is a bitch! But I digress.... The truck was parked in my gated driveway and behind my building where it’s not even seen from the road. Something I always thought was a good thing. The creep managed to pry a piece of moulding off the window and use a slim jim to unlock the door. Now I don’t really miss the radio it was crap. No CD player or even a cassette. Just AM/ FM and the reception wasn’t great either I had trouble getting a good signal in the city let alone in the countryside where radio stations are scarce. I usually just used my IPOD on road trips anyway. But my GPS that I was sorry about! I just bought it back in September for my trip to South Australia. I used it frequently around the city and always stashed it out of sight when I parked the truck. Nothing else was taken, thank god, because my brand new 2 room, 4 person tent was in the back seat. The criminal didn’t break anything and even left the moulding on the running board so I was able to put it back on. After my sax lesson I had more time to think things through and Thursday morning I called the local branch of Melbourne Police and filed a report. To my amazement they wanted to fingerprint the car. So after work I took the Tommy the Tank around the corner and filled out a police report. The chance of getting my stuff back is pretty slim but it did feel better the talk to the police about it.


Thursday evening about 6pm and I was able to get back on track with loading the truck up for my camping trip to Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. The plan was to pick Iral up at his home around 8pm. Have dinner and hit the road. We had booked a cheap hotel in Albury just over the state line 4 hours drive away. Then Friday morning we’d only have a 2 hour drive into the park and able to find a camping spot early in the day. We arrived in Albury and found our CHEAP hotel in the centre of town. It was an old Australian/colonial style building with a bar on the first floor with 3 stories of rooms above. The door to the front desk was locked and Iral had to go into a load crowded Irish bar, Paddy’s, full of drunk 20 something or younger (the drinking age in Australia is 18) to find someone to let us into the room. Once in room 408 we found it technically qualified as a room with a bed and bath. But with paint peeling from the ceiling, cobwebs in the corners of the windows and only 1 electrical outlet in the entire space. This meant we had to figure out a way to plug 2 CPAP machines in. A word to the wise if you ever find yourself in Albury New South Wales stay away from “The New Albury Hotel”! I’d hate to see what the old one was like. Tired and thirsty from a work week and 4 hour drive we headed down to the bar for a couple drinks. The place was packed and most people were very drunk. The security was kept busy keeping young men full of testosterone and beer from showing how low their IQs had fallen and the ones smart enough not to get in a fight were proving that drunken white men can’t sing karaoke to Guns and Rose or anything else for that matter. It was a humours place to be for about 5 minutes. Sucking down 2 quick drinks Iral and I were back up stairs in bed in less than an hour.

Friday morning we made it up and on the road by 9 am. I found a cafe to get Iral some coffee while he checked us out and we were headed east and towards the park with a beautiful sunshine in our faces. This area of Australia is rolling hills with open fields of farmland. It’s called the Australian Alps, with most peaks around 1000m (3280’) it’s more like the Berkshires of Massachusetts then the majestic Alps of Europe. As we drove into the park I had to stop and get my first photo of the trip.

After checking out the Ranger information station in Khancoban and filling up with petrol (gasoline) we started to seek out the campgrounds for an isolated place to spend a few nights. The road took us southerly along the western edge of the park before heading east again into the top skiing resort town the Thredbo New South Wales. The 4 day Easter weekend is considered the last holiday weekend of summer and EVERYONE gets out of town if possible. So as we toured the campgrounds we found them to be full of caravans and families. Not really our scene as I tend to like the smaller places without a lot of people. One of the reasons I love camping is the solitude and nature. Hanging out with Ma and Pa kettle while 9 bogan (redneck) little ones run around under foot wanting to poke their curious eyes into everything I’m doing isn’t my idea of a relaxing weekend. (No offense to my friends with children, but the queen is getting OLD and many of you know  patience is not my strong suit)Iral and I had to drive a little farther than I’d hope but we managed to find a FANTASTIC spot in the Indian Head campground. There we’re no facilities and the closest general store was about 15 kilometres away (9.3 miles). The camps sites were large and open to the sky. They all had rock fire pits but no picnic tables and were spaced far apart. All this was perfect in my eyes as it meant the people that come to this type of spot are ones well stocked and wanting privacy. We found a spot that was literally about an acre in size. I’m talking an imperial unit of measurement acre not a metric one! We had a large fire pit that and a nice flat rock to prop up and use as a hot plate for cooking. It took Iral and I a few minutes to set up my new tent. Then we gathered fire wood from the ample fallen debris around our new home away from home. It was about 3pm by now and the sun was setting fairly early, about 6:30pm. We decided to relax for a little while. I broke out my sax to practice and Iral worked on some vocals. He has a lovely voice and will be singing a couple songs at the next band performance in May.

Near 5pm we started to prepare the fire and our items for dinner. Iral cooked some wonderful marinated chicken quarters with roasted veggies. I tried to advise him on campfire cooking techniques but took the hint after a few evil eyes and just shut up! (I know some of you are thinking it’s almost impossible for me to shut up.) I went back to sipping my vodka and reading my book with my lip buttoned as best as I could. The evening had clouded over and as the darkness approached to we realized there would be no star gazing tonight. After dinner I threw the jumbo log on the fire and settled in to watch the flames dance for a while. It was a cool evening you can really tell that summer is over in the southern hemisphere. We had piled the blankets high on top of the air mattress in preparation for temps in the low teens (mid 50) not really that cold for most of you. But it hasn’t been below 65 degrees even at night for the last 6 months here and I have to admit I’m getting acclimated to the Victorian weather. About 10 pm we brought all our gear into the spare room of the tent and zipped it up for the night.

Rising with the sun ,as campers do, is a much more refreshing thing than most think. The crisp clean air opens your sinus while the squawk of the cockatoos opens your ears. I rustle around in the fire pit checking to see if there are any good coals left to start a new fire with and there are some. A few minutes later water is heating in the billy (saucepan like pot) and in no time at all Iral and I are having hot chocolate and coffee warming our feet by the fire. We make the muesli for breakfast, do a hobo wash and head west towards Charlottes Pass where the trailhead is. We stop in Perish Valley a little ski town about 15 kilometres away so we can use a real bathroom and get a REAL latte at the cafe for Iral. There are about 5 buildings in this little town most are fairly large since it is a ski resort place. But it resembles a ghost town at this time of year. The lady at the counter let us know she’s the only thing open in town. Why would there be anything open there are barely any people here at all.

Back in the car all refreshed and we continue on, arriving at the trailhead we’re surprised to find the parking are over flowing with cars and people parking all along the roadside. I had no knowledge of this hike other than a dotted line on the national park map. I knew this route we were taking was the longer of 2 options. There is another trail that started with a ride up the hillside on a ski lift from Thredbo. But we had come around the ridge line and were starting from the back side of the peak. Looking at the trailhead sign I realized the walk was 18 kilometres (11.5 miles) round trip and had 400 metres (1300’) of elevation gain not really all that bad after years on the trails in the Columbia River gorge, Mt St Helen’s and Mt Hood. But still a little longer than I expected and I wasn’t sure how much of a trek Iral was up for. But he was game and I just had to stand on the highest point on the Australian continent, no matter what!

We started out at 1835 metres (6020’ in elevation) with several other small groups of people and a few mountain bikers along a wide well travelled gravel road. All around us was wide open expanse of valleys and rocky peaks. You see the well worn paths the Mother Nature had made as water headed for the lowlands and eventually the oceans. The walk was easy and we made a fairly good pace. At the 6 kilometre marker (3.7 miles) and at 2000m in elevation (6550’) there was a sturdy stone hut for day use and emergency overnight use, named Seaman’s Hut in honour of a group of people that didn’t make it over the pass back in the winter of 1928. It was a great place to take a rest. Inside there was 2 small rooms an old cast iron pipe stove and a large pile of wood. The place was fairly busy and about 20 or so people were milling about.

After a bite to eat and a short beak we continued on the trail. We rounded a corner and you could see our destination clearly across the valley to our right. The trail curved and climb up the hillside. The last mile and a half climbed a little more steeply as we had to gain 800’ in that stretch. Not too hard core but at the elevation we were at you feel each step. We came to the pass level where the trail from the Thredbo side of the mountain met ours and all of a sudden the few people we had been hiking with became a mass of families with Grandma in her brand new sneakers and purse right down to the littlest wee little ones being carried on Dad’s shoulders. This was a bummer for the 2 of us. We had spent the better part of 2 hours enjoying the scenery, the vistas and the peacefulness of the open country. Once reaching the summit we found a tiny little spot to rest amongst the other 100 plus people that we up there. We snapped a few pictures and this one of me standing on top of the rock monument with a survey marker in my usual hiking pose. Then finding a person to snap our picture and headed back down the trail.

The stroll home was much easier. But a little colder the rest had allowed our bodies to rest enough to feel the cool temperatures and our sweaty clothes made it even worse. Once down pass the pass level were most of the day tourist went the other way we got out of the wind a little bit and it was better. As always the trip down hill is faster and we only stopped once. With about 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) left Iral had mentioned several times how sore he was so in an effort to take his mind off the pain. I sang him “99 bottles of beer on the wall” Yep all 99 verses too! He had never heard the song and I’m fairly sure doesn’t ever want to hear it again. We made it back to the car in about 4.5 hours too bad for a hike completely above 6000’ in elevation. I grabbed us a couple Dr. Peppers and some moon pies and we drove down the road. We stopped at one of the caravan parks, Sawpit Creek, to pick up some ice and got back to camp shortly after 3pm. We chatted about what to eat for dinner and what to do with the rest of our time now that our main goal had been reached. It was decided we drive to Canberra about 200 kilometres (124miles) away and we’d stay in a hotel. So dinner was a smorgasbord of meat. The evening ended much like the one before with vodka and another giant log on the campfire.

Easter Morning we got up and made scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, and veggie breakfast by the campfire. Eddie and Corina know just what I’m talking about. It’s an old favourite I’ve been had many times. After breakfast we cleaned our dishes and started to break camp. I took all the things out of the truck to repack and Iral started to work on removing things from the tent.

On Wednesday night before we left, while shopping for supplies, Iral had a great idea that we have our own Easter egg hunt. So we purchased a couple small packages of chocolate eggs with a big bunny and planned to scatter them in our campsite. After we had packed up everything except the tent and chairs we split the campsite in half did a coin toss to see who hid their eggs first. Iral started and I stepped into the empty tent for a few minutes. When he was done we swapped places and I hid Iral’s treats. Once I was finished we both set out on our sides of the field and hunted for about a dozen various sized eggs and one 8” chocolate bunny each. Iral managed to find several very quickly and I had to turn over every rock, leaf and piece of bark to find some of the ones he had hidden quite well. After about 15 minutes of each of us searching on our own we started to give hints to each other. The day was sunny and warm we were afraid the chocolate might melt before we found it. I was finally left searching for a few medium size eggs and the last 2 tiny ones we never did find and left them for the animals to enjoy. Iral had found all of the ones I had hidden fairly easily but I really hid the bunny well and I had to give him some focused tips for him to find it. I don’t remember the last time I hunted for eggs and it was a great time bringing back found memories of search in my grandparents yard for the plastic ones containing chocolate and coins with me cousins.

We packed up the tent and hit the road by about 9:30 am. It was Iral’s turn to drive Tommy the tank and I was able to relax a little in the passenger’s seat. The drive wasn’t very long just a couple hours and along the way we found a 3 Rivers clothing outlet store and stopped in see what they had on hand. I got 3 new shirts for work and a pair of stylish boots. Iral got 2 pairs of boots. We’re in a little competition to see which one of us can become Imelda Marcos first. Stopping again for a meat pie and coffee we arrived in Canberra about 2pm. We did a little driving around in circles to find the Information centre and then to our hotel by the Parliament building. Once checked in it was time for a LONG HOT shower and a nap in a proper bed. We got up about 4pm and got in a little sightseeing before dark at 7pm. We had just turned back the clocks the night before or should I say the people in the civilized world did. You tend to lose track of time while camping and an hour doesn’t make much difference. We left the hotel and went straight for the Parliament building.

Canberra is NOT like Washington DC at all. Sure it has all the monuments, a range of national galleries and museums. But it is a fairly young city, less than 100 years old and VERY quiet. It was a selected as the site of the national’s capital in 1908 and construction began in 1913. But only after World War II did it really get a foot hold and begin to grow in size. Today’s population is only at 345,000. You can read more about by clicking in this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra

We only really had one night in town and less that 24 hours at that. We were not able to go inside the building because it had just closed minutes before we arrived. So we snapped a few pictures and then took a tour of the world Embassies located nearby. Several of the buildings were done in an architectural style befitting that country. My favourite was the Papua New Guinea building.

The American one was an entire complex of several colonial style buildings. Complete with an iron gate surrounding it and several Australian Federal Police officers keeping a close eye on anyone venturing too close. When we first saw it I stopped Tommy the Tank nearby and got out to snap this picture. Just by pulling over it made this cop get out of his car and start walking towards us. When I mentioned I was a Yank and just wanted to take a picture he nodded and stoped approaching us. But he never relaxed or retreated in any way until we were back in the truck and on our way out of the area.

After the embassy tours we headed into town to find a place for dinner. We stopped at the casino and we’re severely disappointed. It was a small room with about 10 tables. 2 blackjack, 1 roulette wheel, a poker table, an electronic roulette table and a off track betting area was all that was running. Not slots machines at all. The place maybe had 40 people in it and that included the staff.

So we headed for the “city walk” area, a pedestrian friendly zone with shopping, bars and restaurants. Find just a few things open we had a nice dinner and then tried to locate the only gay bar in town we had been told about. It took some time to find the doorway and that was only cause we saw 2 guys standing out front trying to figure out if it was open. They were international tourist and we helped them confirm it was indeed a gay bar and I saw the sign inside the glass entry way stating opening hours began at 10pm, which was too late for all of us, as it was only 8pm at the time. Iral and I went back to hotel to get a good night’s sleep before our 700 km (435 miles) long drive home in the morning.

We slept in a little and grabbed breakfast at a McDonalds along the freeway in a town called Yass New South Wales. I can tell you we made a LOT of joke about eating in Y’ass and driving through Y’ass as I’m sure you can imagine. We stopped back at the CHEAP hotel in Albury to pick up the power cord to Iral’s CPAP machine that I forgot to repack the morning we left. We also got some lunch there at the local Pokies club (slot machines) filled the tank and hit the last stretch of road home. The closer we got to Melbourne the heavier the traffic became. Lots and lots of people trying to get home after the 4 day weekend just like us.

Well friends I’m going to end there. 3800 words and you all are probably saying THANK GOD!

Sorry this has taken so long to post. I’ve been working 50+ hour weeks and am just too tired when I get home to sit in front of the computer for any length of time.

Happy Birthday goes out to my Stepmom, Marian on the 23rd.

The next blog will be sometime in late May after the next band concert. So until then take care my good friends.

I'm back....with butterflies

I know it's been a while since I've made a posting and I apologize to those people who have missed my words of wisdom. Life in Melbourne has gone on just like life anywhere would. Week days spent at work, the gym, band practice or sax lessons mostly. A few more mundane things like laundry and grocery shopping to spice up the week. The weekends have been a little more eventful.

Back in late February Iral and I met some of his friends at the Melbourne Zoo for a picnic. The Zoo itself is fairly small, maybe half the size of Portland's. Having seen most of the native animal in the wild, seeing then caged up isn't that exciting. The zoo did recently have a new addition as one of the Indian elephants gave birth, A first for this zoo. The lines we so LONG we didn't even try to get a look. I just kept telling Iral it looks just like the big one yo can see from here only smaller. Really it was bound to be at least 45 minutes waiting with screaming kids, annoyed parents and the general public. Who wants to wait in that line without any hot men to watch while standing around? Sure as hell not me! So we made our way over to what for me was the highlight of the day, the enclosed butterfly sanctuary. It was a large greenhouse with hundreds of native butterflies flitting around you. The enclosure was made in the native habitat with lots of green foliage. The temperatures were kept fairly warm and humidity levels around 80 %. Not an unbearable climate but more uncomfortable then the typically warm and dry days of February in the far south.

With a little persistence and time we managed to get one of the little fellas (or gals) to land on Iral's hand for a split second. They also had a breeding area where you could view many types of butterflies in various stages of the metamorphosis which was a cool thing to check out.


The only other thing worth noting was the male silverback gorilla we saw. The viewing area was packed with people but I managed to trip and old lady and kick a small child on my way to the front (just kidding I only elbowed the old lady LOL) This guy was more than a metre tall (about 4') sitting and was very impressive. His face showed he had a high level of intelligence and while I couldn't tell if he was happy to see all of the humans on the other side of the glass he definitely knew we were there. His hands looked large enough to cover my entire face and with enough strength to crush it easily if so chose. None of the other primates were close enough get good pictures of or like me they were scared of this imposing male figure near the glass.

Then during the first weekend of March we had a Monday off for Labour Day. I know that sounds wrong but when you realize it's the end of summer and March is like September here and the beginning of Autumn (they don't say Fall) just warmer than where most of you live. It does kind of make more sense. Iral and I took a road trip to Merimbula (Mer-Rim-Bu-La) on the southern New South Wales Coast. We did 16 hours of driving on a 3 day weekend, just to get there and back. So on the 1 full day we had in town to took a drive LOL! to Bega (BEE-ga) and the Bournda (Born-Da) National Park. I took a walk along the beach, explored inlet where a river met the ocean and I was able to check off one more park in my book.

Bega is only on the map for one thing. It's cheese factory. You can buy Bega Cheese in all the grocery stores across Australia. If you have ever been to a cheese factory then they're all pretty much the same. This one didn't have a tour of the manufacturing plant. but it did have a historical museum where you could view a lot of old pictures from the late 19th and early 2th centuries when Bega was just making a name for itself. The best part of this stop was of course the free sample bar of cheese and the homemade ice cream. Now we had to pay for the ice cream but who cares its ICE CREAM! And you can't get it any fresher then on a dairy farm.


Back in town and back to work after that weekend I did attend a few movies for the 2 week long Melbourne Queer Film Festival. Nothing to write home about really and probably movies no one will ever hear about any way. 3 French films, 2 American and an Isreali one. They were just the ones playing at times I was available to go. One was fairly interesting about 2 twin brothers that walk, hitch hiked and train jump their way from somewhere in France to somewhere in Spain to attend a funeral for a mother they never met. It was really a movie about brothers and only had one small scene that related to the festival. It was a good movie but only had about 100 lines in the 2 hours I sat there and all in French. I think the name translates into "Give Me Your Hand"


This blog is intentionally kept short and was meant to bring you up to speed on my wanderings.



I'm going to start another blog entry right away to let you know what I did over the 4 day Easter holiday weekend we just had. So stay tuned I hope to have it out to you before Monday. Sorry but it's already late Tuesday night here and Thursday is my sax lesson then band practice and Friday I'll be at the gym after work. I hope to put some time in tomorrow night then finish it up on Saturday before my skype call with Roger and Eddie.


On side note, my house is rented again so that's good news!

If someone would come visit it me I'd have more to write about HINT HINT!

Riding on Hot Air and Marching Band

Friends, I’ve been dragging my feet on this blog entry and the only reason I can come up with is this entry has so many COOL photos I’d like to load and this site has become a pain to load photos on. I finally stopped putting it off and sat down to type it out.

Back on Australia day, January 26th Iral and I had one very busy day. We awoke at 3:30am and placed a call to the balloon pilot for the final confirmation that our ride was taking place. We had one weather delay just before leaving for Cairns but today Mother Nature graced us with a beautifully clear day. We met the shuttle vans and the other passengers at the Hilton hotel near the central business district at 5:15am.

Once everyone had filled out the health and safety forms we jump in the 12 seater van and set off for Yarra Bend Park, northeast of town. Arriving at the launch site just as the first faint rays of light started to illuminate the sky. You could see the giant fruit bats heading back to the tree tops. It was a chilly morning and most people brought light jackets but not yours truly. I braved the dampness and 55 degrees with just a t-shirt. The pilot and his assistant soon put us to work unpacking the balloon anyway. The basket was a lot bigger and heavier than I imagined. It always looks so tiny way up in the sky. The wicker sides are about 4’ high and has a few foot holes in one end to help you climb into it. There are 3 compartments, one interior wall is parallel with the short side containing the fuel and pilot. The other wall down the centre of the long side split the basket into 2 areas for passengers. Once the balloon was laid out and attached to the basket our pilot, Nick, started to fill it with cool air. I was asked to hold on to a 150’ long rope attached to the top end and try to hold it down as long as I could. There were 2 other big guys with me and I thought more than once the balloon was going to lift me into the air with it. We had been asked to do this to inflate the balloon as much as possible before it was completely upright and at the point where we started heating the air inside it.

Once the balloon was fully inflated we all climbed in and got ready for takeoff. There were 3 groups of about 10 passengers each taking off this morning with Global Ballooning. Ours was the first to leave the ground. I never really felt anything as we started to rise above the earth. There was just this realization that “Oh, we’re going up!” Immediately the views of the city and the sun rise take your breath away. There’s no breeze at all since we moved with the wind. The only sounds you here is the chatter on the radio of Melbourne’s air traffic control tower, the talking of the other passengers and the occasional burning of fuel to keep us aloft. The flame is about 1.5 meters long (4’ +) and the heat from it feels like it’s scorching your head. I was very glad I brought at hat. We floated along effortlessly on a smooth current of air. There are really no other words to describe the feeling so I let the photos entertain you for a minute. Of which we took almost 300 in the 3 hours the whole encounter took. You can go to my facebook page to see more.

We stayed in the air for about 75 minutes circling around the eastern side of the city. We would rise to about just under a kilometre (3000’). Then slowly float to a lower elevation, turning from a valley/mountain view to the awesome site of Melbourne’s skyline. Finally the time came to land and we skimmed the tree tops of Faulkner Park about 8km (5 miles) from where we started. Just as with set up the passengers are expected to help deflate and pack away the balloon. With all hands on deck this didn’t really take very long and we were back at the hotel by 8:30.

Over all the experience was SPECTACULAR! Our pilot told us we had a perfect day for flying. I highly recommend it to everyone. (Grandma, you’re not too old! Mom, I’ll send some money to help) Even if you have height issues you should do this. It was worth the money and I’ll be looking for another place to do this again.

From there Iral and I headed into the city to meet my friends in the Melbourne Rainbow Band to march in the Australia day parade. Think of 4th of July without the fireworks. A quick change of outfit in the car on the way over, a snack for breakfast and warm up the lips then stand around and wait for the parade to start. In the formation area there are all kinds of groups of people proud and honouring their Australian citizenship. Thai, Greek, Italian, Pilipino along with armed forces people. The premier of Victoria (governor) speaks for a while. A f16 flies over head and the parade steps off. We walk the 4 city blocks over the Yarra River and quickly pack it all up to head to Mt Macedon. An hour’s drive northwest of town to a private residence to perform for the JOY FM 94.9 (gay radio station here) fundraiser picnic. These are both events the band does every year and our host out at Mt Macedon is one of the band’s benefactors. We perform a set break for lunch while the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian chorus performs and then do a 2nd set afterwards. By the time we load all the band equipment back into Tommy the Tank and get back to town it’s just after 5pm. It was a wonderful but very long and exhausting day. Iral and I relax on the couch for a few hours to end the day.

Remeber you can click on any image to make it larger.

Thanks to Ben Baker and Gwen Kalvelage for letting me know they read my blog.
Congradulations to my mom who will soon be retiring! Happy birthday to Kam Sisco I think it's soon.

who's reading this blog??

Friends and Family,
I'm thinking about changing my blog to another website but am interested in know who's really reading this.
Please send me an email at bkhpdx@yahoo.com and let me know you're interested in future updates.
It'll help me know how much effort I should continue to put into my stories too.

Cairns part 3 – The Great Barrier Reef

On January 2nd Iral got up early once again to return the rental car and to find the boat taking us to the reef. We woke up to another rainy morning and this time it was pouring bucket loads of giant raindrops. It didn’t matter because in a few hours we’d be 80km (50 miles) out to sea snorkelling on the reef all wet anyway. Returning the car I managed to find a covered spot for us to wait under for the shop to open at 7am. But as I made the dash to the door I stepped squarely in a puddle about 4” deep. After the paperwork was taken care of the rental company was nice enough to give us a ride to the docks about 1.5km (1mile) away. By now the rain had let up a little and it was only raining cats and dogs. With our overnight bags we walked up and down the dock looking for the Reef Encounter and only seeing the Reef Experience. There were several similar type large catamarans doing day tours and it wasn’t easy to tell which one we should get on. There were lots of people getting on several different ships. With a perplexed look and about to call the number on the receipt another passenger noticed us and let us know the Reef Experience was the ship we wanted. As we boarded someone took our luggage and we headed inside to fill out the required forms. As the shipped filled up with tourists the rain subsided and overnight guest we escorted to the upper deck lounge. We were informed that this was a day tourist boat and we’d be transferred later to our overnight ship. Sitting in the lounge we met 2 very nice ladies from Nova Scotia, Jill and Francine. They had been travelling around Oz for a couple weeks and had a 2 night stay on the reef planned.

About 90 minutes later we arrived at the reef and were shuttled over to the Reef Encounter with the other guests and piles of luggage. We were all given the safety briefing and information about our stay. Lastly being assigned our rooms and allowed to store our bags. A quick costume change and Iral and I were out on the reef snorkelling. This was my 2nd time on the reef and Iral’s first. The rain had stopped and the sun was out. We grabbed fins and goggles. Being sure to spit in the mask and rub it around before rinsing with salt water as a trick to keep it from fogging up. I then swabbed a finger full of Vaseline in my moustache to help seal the edge of the mask. Air and water temperatures were around 30 C degrees (86 F), just perfect for jumping in the water. As we entered and swam away from the boat the full life of the reef comes into view. Hundreds of fish in all sizes, shapes and colours are swimming around you. Tiny little bright blue ones, plates size yellow ones with black stripes, and large parrotfish. There are corals of many types, hard and soft, sea cucumbers deep dark purple lying in the soft sand beds. Floating in the water is millions of tiny particles, so much it’s floating on the underside of the surface and in the water like a film of pollen might on top of a lake. It’s really beyond words and unfortunately I don’t have an underwater camera to show you photos. You’re just going to have tom come visit me and see it for yourself. The Great Barrier Reef is an absolute must thing to do in your life and I’ll gladly go again at any time!

A couple hours in that spot we were served lunch in the dining room and sat with our new friends, Jill and Francine. They were headed to Tasmania after the reef and then to Melbourne for a few days. Iral and I filled them in on a bunch of things to do in both places. After lunch the boat moved to another location on the reef. We were given the scuba diving safety speech and filled out our introductory dive forms. Iral has mild asthma so was not able to do the dive that came with our trip. He tried several times to convince the crew it wasn’t a problem and put up a good fight but in the end they wouldn’t budge, citing safety concerns. He was very disappointed and I was too. But the bright side was they let me take his dive instead since it was already paid for. While I suited up for my dive Iral did the best he could and become the photographer for a few minutes before doing some more snorkelling on his own. As our group of 4 plus a guide started to descend down the anchor rope I cleared my ears several times from the pressure that built up and gave the ok signal every few feet to our leader. At about 5 metres (16’) below the surface we left the security of the rope and started off in the direction of the reef. Here the water was much clearer. Gone were all the coral sperms, fish poo, and itchy sea lice that got in your way at the surface. Here you can’t feel the waves but you can feel the ocean current trying to pull on you. As we approached the reef the full magnitude of this most incredible of Mother Nature’s wonders overwhelms you. The multitude of fish swam all around you. The colours are a little less vibrant because the water filters out red first at these depths. While we swim around the corals I get to see a full grown green sea turtle. He’s (or She’s kind of hard to tell) is about 2’ across and chomping on some soft vegetation. Our guide takes us closer to it and while the turtle does seem to notice us he’s not overly concerned that we’re watching. Our guide then takes us to a sea cucumber about a 1’ or so in length and 4” in diameter. He is a dark purple, almost black colour and I can’t tell which end is which. We drift around trying to take as much notice of all the details as I can. Trying to keep my breathing slow and even to maximize the amount of time I have in this beautiful place. Here you lose all sense of time; you become part of the sea, one of the many creatures of a complex ecosystem. You begin to understand what we as humans are missing by being at the top of the food chain. Why we must try and save this planet and the reef itself for all others to experience. When the time finally comes to return to the world above the water I’m sadden that my time is over, but excited about the next time I’ll be able to enter the underworld again.

In the afternoon the boat moves again allowing Iral and I do more snorkelling together at a 3rd location. Since he wasn’t able to dive he tries to just holding his breath and diving below the surface. I do this a couple times and then come back up with my ears full of water and very painful. We make our way back to the boat and dry off. I’m pretty waterlogged at this point so a little time out of the sun and water would be good. I talk to some of the staff and find out I can barely hear anything my ears are so blocked. They recommend tilting my head to try and drain my ears and told me at this time of years it happens quite often because of all the stuff floating at the surface. I decided t go one step further and lay down for a little while before dinner.

When we hear the dinner page about 7pm I’m feeling a little better but not great. We go down to dinner and meet up with Jill and Francine again. Jill got to dive today but they wouldn’t let Francine for medical reason too. I found out Francine’s ears had gotten blocked up that day snorkeling also. What this meant mostly was Jill and Iral chatted while Francine and I just tried to hear what was going on. Shortly after dinner I went to lie down again. About 9pm I woke up feeling better. My ears had drained some and the pain was much less. Iral and I went up on to the sun deck and stared at the stars for a while. The moon was half full, very bright in the sky and shimmering on the water. The stars this far off the mainland, even with a bright moon are in the thousands. So many you never see living in the city. We were able to see Orion’s belt a constellation most of you can see in the northern hemisphere and is part of what southerners call the saucepan. We get a great view of the Southern Cross and are clearly able to see the 5th star that is so hard to see at home. Even the Milky Way is stretching from one end of the horizon to the other. After star gazing for some time we headed below deck and caught the tail end of dessert, brownies and ice cream. What a fabulous way to end a wonderful day.

In the morning we awoke to calm seas and beautiful sunshine once again. This day was spent much like the one before. Iral and I got some snorkelling in after breakfast then Jill and I got to go on another dive. My ears were much better but I was still a little hesitant. So I explained the situation to our dive guide and we took it really slow on the decent checking my ears and making sure the pressure didn’t build too much. Once things were good we set off from the anchor rope and headed for the reef. This time I was lucky enough to see 2 white tipped reef sharks, each more than a meter long (maybe 5’). They were circling near the sandy bottom at the base of a tall coral formation. Beautiful tropical fish all around with 1 eye on these menacing carnivores. After our dive the boat moved again and we did more snorkelling. By lunch I was pretty waterlogged again and we had to move out of our room so the next guest could move in so we lounge in the common area for a while. Iral and I watched the newbies come aboard all excited and eager to get in the water. They got the welcome and safety speech before being assigned rooms. We got another chance to chat with Jill and Francine and swapped information. Promising them a little tour of Melbourne after they visited Tasmania. (We're all facebook friends now too) After lunch us  and the rest of the departing guest were shuttled to the other ship and then back to the main land. Iral with a smile on his beautiful face and me not too badly sunburned!

In the evening we had dinner and repacked our luggage for the trip home in the morning. Chris the resort bartender made us one more Mango daiquiri and we sucked up what we could of the booze in our room.

I’ve ended this entry a little abruptly because I have another one to type up and get out to. Not to mentioned I’m almost a month behind now. The next blog is one you won’t want to miss and t's all about my Australia day adventures! There’ll be a lot less text and a lot more photo’s in that one if I can get this website to load the photos properly.

Happy birthdays go out to my grandmother who turned 87 on January 30th, my friend Dean here in Melbourne who also had a birthday on the 30th. I did have a drink for you both!

My apologies to anyone I have missed.