Heya Lovers and Fighters,
It's been a whirlwind two months since I have been back at school in Burnaby so I thought it was time to upload some incriminating piccies and dirty details of my latest crazy adventures and shenanigans. My first full weekend back in Vancouver after "Road Tripin' USA" with the old man was very eventful. We played and won Friday night footy, destroying the Cougars for the 5th time this year. It was Micky Peddler's last game for the club and he had a beauty, winning the magic mug and playing a blinder. We ventured to Mahoney's Pub after to watch some live AFL, but I couldn't celebrate too much as Nat and I were headed to Seattle at 7am the next morning for Bumbershoot, a 3 day music festival. Tickets were only 25 bucks and I got to see Crowded House live for the first time. They were pretty impressive, playing most of their big hits, and were joined on stage at one point by Eddie Vedder who seems to pop up with random bands everywhere! Nat and I saw some very cool up & coming bands, including MAE, but ended up in the beer garden for most of the day watching random acrobatic chicks in lingerie doing some adventurous climbing and dancing routines!!
Nat and her circle of friends have really taken me in this year and helped me experience some crazy things and participate in random events. Probably the best example of this was a few Friday's back when I caught up with the girls at a local club. After consuming god knows how many drinks (mostly double bourbons!) and doing some dodgy dancing we crashed at their place. Next morning at 9am the two girls get up and start drinking shots of Vodka, dragging me along for the ride. We ended up going to the waterslides in Tswassen (freezing cold, but so much fun) for the day, getting crapped on by a very large seagull and generally being idiots. By nightfall I was EXHAUSTED!!! I don't consider myself a lightweight drinker, but these girls drink me under the table hands down! Some other examples of their craziness:
· Priya's birthday when we ended up at the Hop 'n' Vine pub at 2:30am for a lock in and had free run of the bar!
· Jen's Housewarming party when Jaclyn and I did a bulk rubbish collection on the walk there to find expensive housewarming gifts for Jennifer like shovels and witches hats!
· Nicole's birthday, which fell on International Pirates Day and led to many crazy "pick up" attempts using quality lines like "aaaaaarrrrrr ya single?"
After dominating the footy season in Vancouver, the Grand Final Day set up is weird to say the least. We played a round robin against Vancouver and Seattle. It was a disappointing day for the Eagles, losing both our games to Vancouver and Seattle, though that night we celebrated like we had won!! It was a shame that we didn't bring our 'A' game that day, as we are by far the superior team and had comfortably beaten both sides throughout the year, only to fall at the final hurdle. Nonetheless it has been a super season with the boys, just a shame we couldn't cap it off. We headed out to the Regal Beagle in Kittsilano afterwards for many beers, with Crackers providing the entertainment, Steve providing the fireworks (literally) Boomer being thrown out and me ending up down town with Ryan's friend Shelly until the wee hours of the morning.
I backed up the next day for 'Mad Sunday' at the races with the boys. Boomer, Steve and Co almost got evicted for being too rowdy, on the way to the track Ads escaped with a warning after being caught with no license, no seatbelt, speeding and booze in the car!! At one point the lads had mounted the racetrack fences, were screaming abuse at the jockey's and threatening to run out onto the track (something they actually did at a later meet apparently!). I managed to pull a tidy trifecta which helped pay for some of antics from the night before. The footy boys got together again for AFL Grand Final Day (Night) and had a great night despite watching the worst GF in years. Erin and Rich made it down from Powell River with their friends Holly and Jaime and we got stuck into the shots early and then joined the lads down at the rugby club. After the game, we ended up taking a stereotypical yellow school bus donwton with 40 other lads in one of the more rowdy bus trips i've ever taken. Lots of laughs, a sing along of club songs, a bit of biffo and a massive spew (not me) over a pair of designer jeans made for a very entertaining journey!!
Over thanksgiving long weekend, I made the massive journey across Canada to Halifax in Nova Scotia. Amanda moved there a couple of months ago and we hadn't seen each other since Chicago. I flew from Seattle with stops in Chicago and NY, taking 13 hours for a 5-hour flight! Halifax is soooooo different from the west coast, a lot flatter and colder, but very scenic. Amanda and I had a great weekend, visiting the local breweries, eating at some awesome restaurants and playing tourist. The time went so quickly, but we finalized our plans for Africa and getting back to Perth. We have decided that after the wedding in Ethiopia (not ours!!) that we will do a safari through Kenya and Tanzania, lions and tigers here we come! The way home from Halifax was nothing short of a NIGHTMARE! I ended up stuck in Halifax Airport for 9 hours with delayed flights, meaning I missed my connection in New York. I ended up sleeping at Newark airport, the 5th airport that I have slept at this year which in turn meant that I didn't make it back in time to get to school, oh well another sicky for me!!!
Last weekend was footy trophy night and I was extremely stoked to score my first ever footy trophy!!!! It was the Players' award, as voted for by the lads. I actually polled a few best and fairest votes too......wonders will never cease!! I tried my best to go easy that night as I was running my first half marathon the next morning, but shot after shot was offered (and consumed), talk about twisting rubber arms! I brought Leith's sister Stiena along for the night, and she had fun although I lost count of the number of footy boys that had a crack at her (after asking me of course if she was mine hahaha.......we have known each other for 15 years, not likely!). The half marathon was nothing short of a mission. After 4 hours sleep I got up to be greeted by pissing down rain and freezing cold conditions. The guy I was meant to be running with pulled out on me at the last minute so was forced to go it alone. I was super impressed to even finish it and my time was awesome, 1hr 55min especially considering my training had been limited to a few 10km runs.
That's about it from me for now, more shenanigans to follow with Halloween this weekend (they go bananas here for it), CFL, NBA and NFL games all in the next two weeks, Ben Lee and Eskimo Joe concerts and Henry Rollins Spoken Word Tour. Throw in Melbourne Cup night and a trip to Tofino, I will be going flat out until I head back to Perth just in time for my 30th, time to grow up.......................NOT!!!!
Wherever you are in the world, I hope this finds you in mint condition and loving life.
Keep smiling, Ben
