Well, I celebrated St. Patrick's Day properly for the first time. There are only a few Irish pubs in town, we went to one called PJ O'Brien's. I had walked by earlier in the day and the place was packed inside and out. I'm no one for Guinness, so I did not partake in the typical Irish fare during daylight hours. Dr. Elephant, a good local band I was told to check out was playing that night, so we decided it would be nice to go check them out after work... and thus, the night of debauchery began. It started off calmly enough with just a pint of Strongbow cider for myself, but as the night went, it would get more entertaining. Dr. Elephant was quite a good band. They are typically a three piece and do a large variety from Lumineers, Skynyrd, Black Keys, George Michael, Stevie Wonder and the like. However, on this particular night, the lead singer was losing his voice, so they had a friend come up and help them. He was quite good. The place kept getting busier and some of our group split outside to cool down and smoke. After a bit, I was left alone and couldn't take the heat anymore. I didn't have my Oz phone on me either, so no one could contact me. Luckily I spotted them back in the queue to get back in, which was ridiculously long at this point. We decided to jump ship and head for the Woolshed.
The queue wasn't as long this time, but it was just as packs at PJ's if not more. They had some more free champagne for the girls, which took forever to get because they kept running out of the beverage and glasses. We met up with some other friends and continued to chat and dance the night away. The music was alright, obviously not the best, especially when I'm used to live music, but it works when you've been drinking. I believe I was having vodka lemonades, 3, 4, maybe 5? Then the Irish car bomb, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and more cider. So much for not mixing drinking, but if the last few days have taught me anything, the more I drink, and the more variety of what I drink, the better off I am the next day. Perhaps I'm turning into a highly functioning alcoholic. Oh Australia, what are you doing to me? Around 3 or 3:30, we finally made our exit and went back home. I left a little earlier than the other half of our group who made it back about a half hour after us. I was super happy that I had pre-made some sandwiches. I had to sleep on our couch again because my bed just wasn't doing it for me. The couch really does help with sobering up however. I managed to stay up long enough to hear the others come back. I skipped to meet them in the courtyard where we stayed up chatting a bit longer. We had some leftover chocolate cake that we devoured, and I tried to properly rehydrate myself. As we were sitting and chatting, a cute little black cat wandered in after us. Most of the cats around here are quite skittish, but this little girl was lovely. She let me pick her up and cuddle for a good half hour or so. I decided to call her Jameson in honor or St. Pat's. Around 4:30 we eventually called it a night. I managed to get sleep until about 6:30 before the world demanded I be awake again.
I was surprisingly full of energy despite the night before and little sleep. It was a bit of a pity that I didn't have to work until 10. A nice breakfast of lots of leftover free food helped set me even more right. I was starting to get a bit worried about how fine I was feeling the next day after a big night of drinking and little sleep. Surely I would crash and burn soon. Work went quite well, a few people who went out with us the night before looked a little worse for wear, but I think everyone survived well enough. I was somehow still so wired that I couldn't even take a proper nap. Our air con timer got messed with too, so it doesn't stay cool enough in there to sleep in the afternoon, you just wake up sweating and miserable.
I did make myself be somewhat productive before I needed to work out bbq. I managed to talk to one dive shop about traineeships and picked up a little bit more food. The rain and wind managed to stay away for our bbq and fire show. As soon as I was done eating, I was heading in for a food coma. I think I slept for almost 11 hours. I must have switched off my alarm during the night as well, because I was planning on getting up at 5:45 for a workout, but when I opened my eyes, the sun was up and it was shortly after 7. I really needed it though. Since the cyclone's coming back in, it's sort of messing with my plans. I was going to do the long Blue Arrow hike at the botanical gardens, which would take about 7 hours getting there and back, but I've been told that it's not the smartest thing to do in the rain. So, instead it is visiting more dive shops and chilling out at the hostel. I'll have to try it next week on my last day off before I leave. It's pretty crazy that I only have about a week left here, though I am fairly certain I will return, most likely for a traineeship.
On Monday, (yes I realize I'm messing with your temporal logic by going back in time) we got to see off Erin, our head receptionist, for her two week holiday in New Zealand. She gets back one day after I leave, so it was our last real change to visit. I do plan on stopping back at the end of May, so we'll get back in touch. We just had a pretty chill night in the courtyard chit chatting with wine and cake. It was quite lovely. It was an early night for everyone, which I needed after Sunday and in preparation for St. Patrick's Day, which I didn't intend to be so big for myself.
Cyclone Nathan's return was a bit of a let down. Scheissenbedaurn is perhaps the most apt way to describe it. For all of you that don't know, it is literally translated as "shit regret" and is the disappointment you feel when something turns out to be not as bad as you thought it would be. I was all ready for a legitimate cyclone party, but it went too far north and we didn't even really get any rain. I could have done my hike on Thursday, but opted for the safer route. All of us girls that currently work at the hostel have become really good friends now. I plan on visiting them in their home countries (Germany and Ireland) after I'm done with my return to Cairns in the fall. I will get to go home the long way. We all decided to go out to the Woolshed for Ladies Night. I've already explained about the Woolshed. I believe they steal a little piece of your soul every time you get your hand stamped for entry. I'm sure mine is being collected in an empty bottle of Wipeout. I wasn't going to go off the rails too bad, it was my responsibility to watch the others and make sure everyone got home safe. Ladies Night has free champagne for the girls. It is the nastiest champagne I've ever had, and I generally like champagne. It is also the only alcoholic beverage that has caused me to get sick here, so there's that. We brought along a guy from the hostel, and I think he had more of the champagne than us three girls did. One of the girls bought cyclone shots for us, and those suckers burned, I was surprised that I could talk the next day. I also learned the the Woolshed is a place that is best and perhaps only experienced drunk. The only way you can "enjoy" it, and I use the term "enjoy" very loosely, is to be so drunk that you don't care how bad the music is, how many drinks get spilt on you, or how tightly packed it can get. Yes, not fun to experience it sober. We ended up staying much later than we intended. We thought we would have an early night, but we left around 2. The smartest business owner in the world has a shop next door selling kebabs (think giant gyros, not skewers). Nice greasy lamb, beef and chicken with yoghurt garlic sauce and sour cream with all your toppings. Delicious and great drunk/hangover food. We had a nice little jaunt back home, and my roommate and I stayed up until about 4 am just chatting as we often do after a night of drinking. It doesn't serve us too well when we have to get up for work in the morning, but not bad. I had the early shift the next day, so after a quick 2 hour nap, it was up for cleaning and excitement.
Friday was supposed to be the really bad day with Cyclone Nathan, but once again, nothing. Just a small shower when I went for a walk in town. I did happen to find a really cute moonstone necklace that I bought. Luckily we didn't go out this night. We just had a few drinks in the courtyard. I had found a Heineken in a room that was checking out and drank that. I don't like beer, but it wasn't that bad. It's not as good as cider though. I really love Strongbow that we have here, I think I'm going to miss it when I get home. We needed a day of rest after the previous night and in preparation for the next night when one of the girls that used to work at the hostel was coming back to visit and party with us in the night.
Saturday was another big party night. I have started a trend of going out and drinking heavily one night, getting a couple hours of sleep and working and functioning fine, then sleeping like 9-12 hours the next night and starting the cycle over again. My liver is going to hate me. It was another night at the Woolshed. Every time I go there, I shake my head as I enter and think "why am I here?" It was alright for us on Saturday. We each had coupons for $8 jugs (pitchers). The four of us each got a jug of Strongbow cider. When we ordered them, the women at the bar asked how many glasses and we just said one each. We looked like a bunch of alcoholics, and we had already had a couple drinks back at the hostel. Oh well. The music was once again crap, with a few good tunes mixed in, but after we had made it about half way through our jugs, we didn't care. At that point I was sufficiently buzzed and was jamming out the awful music. Since I get more vocal and chatty when I drink, I think I talked all the girls' ears off. We all seemed to be having a good time though. Not too long after, I started to sober up and needed to either drink more, or leave. Someone fed us a bunch of jello shots and that helped to keep the venue tolerable for a little bit longer, but soon it was time to leave... and get our kebabs. I had honestly been thinking about eating my delicious kebab all night since we had decided to go out. It was delicious and I ate it all. We enjoyed our little walk home and chatted with a few people when we arrived back at the hostel. I went up to my room a bit later, laid down on our couch, the one that everyone hates and thinks is uncomfortable but I really like and it helps me sober up. I let myself sober up, then I fell asleep for my nap before work.
Work was just fine on Sunday and I went into it in a great mood since I Skyped home and got to play a 20 minute game of "got your nose" with my nephew who thought it was the greatest thing ever. I was on a great high and nothing could really get me down that day. It was just a lovely day and after a quick trip to the market with one of the girls, we headed to the lagoon for a lazy Sunday to soak up some sun, tunes and take a dip when needed. There was an acoustic duo out that only played for a couple hours, but they did some neat renditions of lots of classic rock songs. They often added in the didgeridoo and it sounded really cool. After the band stopped playing, some guys came around with free bananas from the market, we snatched them up as we drank our bubble tea. We continued soaking up the last of the rays before heading back home. We changed and had dinner then headed to the casino for karaoke. It was quite interesting there. The demographic skewed heavily to the 60+ crowd, people of the elderly persuasion if you will. They had quite a few songs, but they were all quite old. I ended up being the only one of our group to get up and sing. I did Faith by George Michael. As soon as I started singing, I wanted to adjust the EQ in the monitor. I'm fine singing normally, because what I sound like to myself is different than what I actually sound like. Whenever I sing with a monitor, I wanna boost up my low end and cut lots of the highs, I don't realize how much in the upper register I am until then. My friends seemed to enjoy it though, and a little bit later we made it back home. Getting there around 11. Wow, I had made it home before tomorrow. We had to play it a little safe though, since we were going out the next night. The pattern continues. We have a lot of fun stuff planned for my last week here in Cairns. I'm looking forward to it, but also getting a bit sad that I'm going to have to leave my friends. We'll still stay in touch though, and if any of them are still around when I come back at the end of May we will catch up. I should have lots to report for you then. Until then, keep living the dream everyone!
Cheers,
-Celina
