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Sunday, 6 August 2006 - 19 days and counting...
...till I fly out! My flights have been paid for, my (five-year) UK entry visa arrived on Thursday, I handed in my notice and finish work in two weeks, and potential replacement flatmates have been coming through the door. So it's all coming together but there are still a million and one things I have to organise before leaving.

Thursday, 10 August 2006 - Exciting stuff!

Full story here. Well with 15 days till I fly out, London is on a critical terrorist alert thanks to a bunch of fuckwits who had planned to blow around ten planes out of the sky en route to the US. Had the attacks eventuated they would've killed thousands both in the air and on the ground. Now although I'm hardly worried about flights form Hong Kong to London and London to Edinburgh being targets, if this shit keeps up I could very well be in for some fun in Heathrow / Gatwick airports. As it stands, no hand luggage is allowed on board except for the essentials (and I'll have a fair bit of that), and flights are being delayed and cancelled and diverted, not to mention the queues of people. Pain the arse!

Saturday, 12 August 2006 - So long Paradise :(

Hehe this was on the side of a train. Bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted isn't it?!		Back to the Gold Coast for the last time before I leave. I was intending on biking down to the New South Wales border in Coolangatta and making a 100kms out of it, but after a few too many drinkies last night and a late morning there was no time.
I fucking love the Gold Coast, particularly Surfers Paradise. It's going to suck not having it just an hour south of me, but on the bright side I'm soon to have the whole of Europe just off to the east :)		Beautiful beaches, busy and vibrant atmosphere...
Sexy attire...		Some pretty nicely (if not weirdly) done-up vehicles...
And some bloody nice Skylines! Check out this R34 - yummy! (One day Aaron, one day!). I saw a gorgeous wine red R32 earlier on the way to the coast (same as mine). Shit I miss my car!
Hehehe, they're not all nice though ;)		Whoa! Sometimes you go into a public dunny to take a slash and come out knowing far more then you needed to!
I think I've mentioned the bats in Broadbeach before, but in case I haven't, there are lots of bats in Broadbeach ;)		This will be Mo and I in the European hostels next month hehe ;)
18.5 months since I bought the bike and it's finally clocked 5,000kms on the odometer (that's the equivalent of New Zealand to Australia and back again) - I think I'm ready to leave now :)		On the way home in the train I got stuck sitting opposite Elder Laurence of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of The Latter-Day Saints, and I must've looked like I was in some major need of repentance because he started banging on about Jesus this and Jesus that! I got off the train about ten stations early and biked the rest of way home.

Saturday, 19 August 2006

Today was the final day of the Ekka and they finished off with a typical fireworks display. Rather than get caught up in the mayhem down there, Jennifer (flatmate replacing me hehe) and I took a drive up Mt Coot-tha to see the action, as did several others including this mint R32 GTR - yummy!
Looking east to south, with the city centre right in the middle.

Sunday, 20 August 2006

Another perfect Brisbane day (I'm going to miss these!). Jen and I went for a wander around South Bank and found a Jaguar car show full of everything from the old to the new. I'm more of a Japanese man when it comes to cars but some of these were quite nice.
I'm going to miss the lagoon too!
It occurred to me the other day I'd never been on the CityCat river ferry in the 19 months I've lived here, so now seemed as good a time as any. The CityCat runs about 15kms up and down the Brisbane River and is a great way to some of the city's sights.
Western side of the central city...		And the eastern.
One day I'll be a rich bastard too living on some body of water with a boat out the front (and a several Skylines out the back ;) Luxury!		And speaking of luxury - "River Limo" hahaha! No thanks.

Monday, 21 August 2006 - 100 more!

With just four more days to go, I felt like busting out a final 100kms along the usual stretch of track. I didn't come across much that I hadn't already put up last time. Final stats: 107kms over 4hrs 35mins (average speed 23.2 - not bad for 100kms that included another bastard head-wind which has left me absolutely buggered!).		Much more exposed than when I was last here. A few months back there were a number of attacks on female cyclists and pedestrians along this section of path by males hiding in tall grass and bush etc. I guess I wasn't sexy enough to get attacked ;)
If you insist.		Hahaha good luck scrubbing this lot off! How long do these things take to 'compose', and how do the little bastards get away with it?!

Wednesday, 23 August 2006
One last email forward, just for fun :)

Thursday, 24 August 2006 - Welcome to your last full day, Aaron!
Thank you very much Aaron and what a way to start it (if you're like me that is ;)

I'm a fairly light sleeper (as opposed to my flatmate Adam who sleeps through his alarm for over an hour), and so I was out of the sack in two seconds flat when I heard all this happen right outside my house early this morning. Three of them: screech, bang, "Oh no, my Holden!"; screech, bang, "Oh no, my Ford!"; screech, bang, smash, "Oh no, my Toyota!"; leaving the poor Diamante up the front who got three good love-taps from behind. This is why we don't tailgate, people!

Holden vs. Ford - I think we can see who won this round ;)		Hale Street is a 3-lane mad-house during rush hour, and to add to the fun it runs down a steep incline. So many mornings I hear horns blasting and tyres screeching but never the big bang or smashes that followed this morning. Since I moved in I've always said that one day, sooner or later, we'll see a massive pile-up out there; this isn't what I had in mind in light of all the paint and crap along the centre concrete barriers (there has obviously been much worse), but this will do hehe. Bring on the European pile-ups!

Friday, 25 August 2006 - Into the great unknown...

Well today's the day. After arriving in Brisbane 19 months ago I've been here longer than I had originally intended but, as they do, things change. Those 19 months had a lot of ups and downs but if I could go back to January 17th last year and do it all over again I would in an instant. I've met a lot of awesome people; seen, done, and achieved a lot; and had a shitload of fun! But now my bags are packed and I'm good to go. Thank you and best wishes to everyone who has had anything to do with my time here. Goodbye Brisbane, and bring on the UK! :)

Final odometer reading: 5,200kms, not bad :)		Hahaha that'd be me!

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