a new post for ya'll

ok, well lets see: where to start.

my last blog was some time ago so i will try and cover everything thats happened since then.

well i got back from pure pwnage which took some time. the next couple of days i rested i believe, or maybe i snowboarded. cant remember either way, me, roman and antony were having a good time livin it up in the hostel. we'd go boarding, cook diner, have a few beers, play some pool, watch tv and then go out to the BnG or explorers most nights. fun fun fun times.

then rosy left - what a sad day. she has since then had EVERYHING of hers stolen - bummer. that includes all her clothes + passport etc... etc.... so yeah.

then erm, sometime while all this was happening amitay also left - he had hurt his leg and couldnt board any more.

then antony left, then it was just me n roman chillaxing out. ooooh and this other french fellow who i couldnt understand at all left sometime HAHAHHA he boarded with us aswell..

anyway the last 2 days i was at lake louise the snow was amazing. lots and lots of snow!!!! it was insane. did some jumps, rode in the powder, generally had a freakin amazing time. the last day of the season it looked really bad out so neither me or roman went up. then i went to banff and was at the hostel there for 4 days. i was feeling pretty sick so i didnt board for 3 days but then i went up on the 4th day when i was also catching a plane to montreal that night. anyway what a day!!!!!! 17cm the day before and then 7cm over night. lots of powder, did some fresh lines through the south chutes off of goates eye mountain - wo0o0oo0t double blacks ehheheh :-P

erm yeah, just generally had an awesome time but i did get sunburnt cos i had forgotten my balaclava - i looked completely freakin rediculous the next few days.

erm then what, yeah i packed all my stuff up, checked out, played hacky with some fellows from belgium i believe. then some pool all while i was waiting for my bus to the calgary airport. the bus came, but it was a realy boring bus ride - i tried to liven things up.

i would sing loudly and poorly to the songs on the radio. i spoke to the other people on the bus, i offered everyone in the back half of the bus (thats 4 people) my dental floss after i started flossing my teeth myself. i offered people my nail file after i was done with it. just generally livenin up the mood and stuff LOL.

then i had a 4 hour wait at the airport. holy shit the calgary airport sucks and 1am flights suck. esepcially when you loose 2 hours traveling across time zones and hence only get 1.5 hours sleep on the plane. got off the plane at 7am in montreal.

got coffee and my bags. yay for tim hortons (a place similar to starbucks for all you who dont know :-P )

then yeah, got on a bus downtown. go to the hostel around 9 BUT!!!! i couldnt check into my room till 1pm. holy shit i was sooooo tired but i had to wait 4 hours.....so i skated around the city and checked stuff out.

erm lets see the next 6 days i have done:

1 pub crawl
1 thai cooking class thing at the hostel
been out a few times
went to the botanic gardens here - completely shit house
went up mount royal (mont royal) - the mountain montreal is named after

met the single most anoying girl in the world. me and my aussie mate paul who has now left :( spent 2 days trying to avoid her. we plotted trying to kill her, changing hostels, sleeping all day so she couldnt find us etc... etc.... no words canm describe how anoying she was. a dutch fellow we met said she is very 'and this one time at band camp' (she is infact exactly like that girl from american pie)

erm we've done some partying. then some german dudes moved into my room. stefan, stefan (stef) and another guy. we partied with these guys aswell. germans like beer just like aussies do so good times were had.

i got a little lost on the way back from the pub crawl and it took me atleast 1 hour more like an hour and a half to do the 25 minutes back to the hostel. much to the amusement of the others who had found their own way back before me. grrrr

erm. me n paul went for a cruise in the german dudes minivan. we went to a famous restaurant/lunch place and got their 'smoked meat sandwhich'. the only reason its called the sandwhich is because they put 2 small pieces of bread on the plate which is filled with half kilo or so of smoked meat. LOL its basicly a plate of smoked meat and some bread and u throw down lots of sauce and munch away. very very very tasty. mmmmmmm :P

then erm we again went upto mont royal, took more photos, had gneerally a good time. the last time i was there i fed the squirrels with peanuts - LOL ive got a pic of one on my leg.

erm i think thats about it. oh i also got a haircut. you see i hate talking to the hairdressers back home because they talk about shit i dont care in the slighest about. but here....well i found a nice french hairdresser, made it obvious that i was an aussie (gerald's number 1 travellin tip - if you are in a country where people dont speak english, great them with a big G'day and they realise your from australia and hence excuse you for any social mishaps which are to follow) and yeah, i told him how i wanted it, he cut my hair. didnt talk to me. i walked out $14 + a $5 tip lighter and now i have a different hair cut. its kinda short. and today i died it purple LOL its very very purple.

erm lets see....

i think that about covers what ive been upto.

pics:



i mentioned in my last blog that i crashed at some dudes house in calgary downtown - this is the view. pretty damn nice




me, roman (who i forgot to mention is a chef by trade and helped me cook myself some nice meals + he cooked me a steak + potato n stuff one night. very tasty) and then on the right is antony a cool french (actual french) dude who 'shreds the gnar'




forgot to mention my 4 hour guided bike ride with this fine lass who works at the hostel here in montreal. for $20 i got to see heaps of the city including many of the things created for the world show in 1967. much fun. this is us taking a break on the litle island they mae for the world show and that has all the big crazy sculpturs and stuff.




the two swiss girls i had the pleasure of enjoying the botanic gardens with, enjoying a nice long conversation outside of the hostel one night with and enjoyed having a beer and talking to 'vladamire' a kenyan man studying politics and diplomacy here in canada. good times



the view from up on mont royal look out thingy. they have good ice cream there too. yummy



isnt it cute!!!!! im sure feeding them doesnt help them at all and all the other squireels i had seen in banff just ran away but i think its cute!!!



the view from saint joseph cathedral - the big one on the all the post cards. yes there is like a gazillion billion steps to walk up. the inside is actually pretty shitty compared to the roman catholic cathedral just down town. oh well what can ya do??

the last and best photo:



thats me, the german fellas and paul sitting on the steps yesterday outside of the hostel enjoying a Haka (sp). those indians or chinese??? are onto something with their crazy flavoured tobacco that is somehow smoked without a flame even touching it. awesome day, awesome weather.


so yeah, thats about it. oooh and gotta mention brutopia. worst bar in montreal. u buy their house beers which have terrible flavours like raspberry or apricot and shit like that. its $6 after a tip per pint and the beer is always flat. but its down the road and everyone seems to go there because its famous for their beers - who knows why. anyway yeah, after chilling on the steps we went there.


anyway lets see. i leave here in 11 days. i habe 5 planes to catch in 2 days.

montreal - vancouver, vancouver san fran, san fran to auckland, auckland to sydney, sydney to adelaide.
YAY YAY wo00o00ot lol cant wait. shit, what a 2 days that will be.
thats about it.

tooodles for now
gerald

p.s. just scanned this quickly and as always there are millions of mistakes and such but just battle on through - im sure you can all understand. im outa time here now :(

its taken me a whole hour - apperciate it.

toodles

the best day of my life??

well some of you will know how much i love purepwnage.

some of you wont, and some of you wont even know what it is.

www.purepwnage.com

anyway thats the site, its a bunch of people who make a video series which you download off their website and the series is about how they play computer games.

ive been a fan for quite some time. anyway its wicked. last night they had the premier of their latest episode. ep 13 in calgary.

so i hopped on a bus after a few hours of snowboarding to check it out.

well i walked into the cinema in downtown calgary only to see 'jeremy' and 'doug' there right away. shit yeah, i was stoked. i had a little talk with them and yeah, then we started watching the series. first we watched the last two episodes so we were all up to date with what was happening.

then we watched the new episode which was freakin awesome!!!!!!!!! holy shit it was good

then i got a t-shirt and got it signed by jeremy, doug and kyle (the director).
got to learn their actual names. doug is called joel in RL, kyle is actually called jeff and jeremy is jarret.

anyway after getting my t-shirt signed and some photos, i sat around for an hour or so until all the noobs had left and i could find out what the plan was afterwards. anyway they were going to a bar called the black swan so i got a lift with one of the dudes who helps with the soundtrack. i went along, had a few beers with jeff and jarrey....joel wasnt out :(

anyway yeah, while i was at the bar i was talking to another fan who had tagged along and i told him i was from adelaide, he said he had studied there for 6 months while he was in year 11. turns out he went to glenunga and he knew mr.marino, mr.knight and our old PE teacher who remembered cos he drove that yellow subaru LOL!!!

awesome times. anyway i ended up crashing at the soundtrack dudes flat in downtown calgary, it had an awesome view of the town - pics later and such i hope.

and yeah, then in the morning i skated at millenium park and came back here with a stop off in canmore and banff


what good times. here are the pics:

me n FPS doug pwn nooobs together.



jeremy does actually pwn in RL, i watched him pwn at big buck hunter!!!! lolzor

this is us pwning too:



cyuzz
gerald

wow, could my luck become any more amazingly wicked?

ok, well its been a while since my last blog entry, mainly because i now have to pay for the internet. to those who aint getting myspace comments and e-mails as much as before - my apologies, but then who actually reads this besides my family, jackie, martha, rita somewhat and other people who i direct to it.

anyway been living in Lake Louise. its pretty nice here. the hostel is nice, lots of fun people. there are 2 bars in LL, explorers - really relaxed. and the BnG (bar n grill) which is a bit more roudy.

lots of fun things to do,

karoke nights once a week
bon fire nights,
pool nights,
etc....

anyway here is my latest cool story.

was hitching back from lake louise ski resort with some nice people. hop out the car at the shops where they dropped me, went in and got some vegies for dinner, then come out and realise my bag is in the car and the car aint there anymore....AAAAAHG. then i realised my camera with all the photos is in there, some of my diabetes stuff is in there, my goggles, gloves and helmet are in there etc.. etc..... actually thats about it. anyway yeah, i was up shit creek in a barbed wire boat without a paddle....as some put it. it wasnt your usual shake n bake scenario.

so i went about my hunt. my english chef buddy roman was with me and he had seen the driver around before so we knew they were locals. so the nxt day - sunday (LL's biggest day of the week) i set about looking into the back seat of every SUV in the carpark. 1 hour later, no luck. so i left a note on a black board down the bottom of the gondola explaining to who ever read it that i was at the hostel. later that day no luck. i went to the police and got a report so i could claim it on my insurance and at the same time asked if anyone had handed it in. no luck. today i did the same thing, looked in cars, went to the police. walked around town trying to find the car. then i get back to the hostel this evening and i guess the person had seen my note and dropped my bag off with everything in it.

it does pay to live in a small town of only a few hundred. YAY!!!! anyway thats my amazing story. besides that i went to banff today and yes dad i did get the package. yippy. anyway i hitched there with some cool chinese bloke who practises acupuncture and he was pretty interesting.

on teh 26th, just 3 days away now i will go to calgary and meet my buddies:



and




wo0o0ot im excited. while im there im gonna crash at the downtown hostel and then the next day check out this place and have a bit of a roll as i purchased myself a skateboard the last night i was in banff.



so yeah, thats about it. the snow is still fun cos it gets slushy and u can hit stuff in the park. right down the bottom of the slope near the beer garden there is a BIG puddle which ive hit but it keeps getting bigger each day. after a long day snowboarding its enjoyable to relax with a beer and watch all the little kids and the people who dont know how to board/ski attempt it and fall in. anyway tomorrow, if its nice and warm i am going to try and hit it wearing nothing but my snowboard boots and some boxer shorts. should be fun!!!

pics to come of my attempt if i make it or not

toodles for now
gerald

go see this movie

ok, well according to my research this movie comes out on may 10th. and that is why on may 10th everyone who reads this, because i am telling them to, is going to go and see the movie GRINDHOUSE!!!!

yes its 3 hours and 10 minutes long
yes its actually two movies strung together
and yes the two movies are made by Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462322/

yep its ranked number #108 on IMDB and it got an 8.6 wo0o0t

the end to this movie is freakin' awesome. Well the end to the second feature is awesome, the first one is just weird but its pretty freakin awesome! during the course of the movie the audience applauded 3 times!!! just erupted into applause. it was brilliant. The only other time i had ever witnessed this was in year 9 when the year level went and saw master and commander.

anyway i cant convince you all to go see this movie anymore. of course its not for anyone under 18, but the only people who read this who are under 18 are Jackie and Martha....so, well just disregard this.

cyuzz
gerald

me and my uber 1337 snowboarding skillz.....

thats about it really.

cyuzz
gerald

easter and stuff

So, since I've stopped working I've been boarding heaps more. its wicked! went out some 5 days in a row - not full days every day but enough to satisfy my cravings. last two days have been taking it easy but i might go and do some night boarding tonight as its Friday, its free, easy to get it and the snow at Norquay has improved a bit since they got a fair of a snow the other day.


NOW......


As I have everyday now to do what I want, Ive been putting a bit of thought into my next blog (this blog). I've always done a fair bit of reading and this topic has always interested me. Anyway as it's in the middle of Easter I figured I would try and write a few words of my own (inspired by what I have read) about the religion which Easter has budded from.

Many of the articles I read are to do with Christianity and the most recent one I read explained how Christianity has changed. Changed from a religion which is supposed to spread love, compassion and teach caring for your fellow man, into a religion where people enjoy spreading words of hate, at the moment, specificly on 2 issues - Abortion and Homosexuality.

Now I know it is a little different back home, because for a while I was involved in a group - st Vincent de Paul - which went out to feed the homeless, cared for them and weren't judging of the people who came to them for help, even though I am sure it was made up of many non-believers. But, living in North America I have been slightly more exposed to the Christian extremists.

From what I can see, hear and read, many Christians are more focused on spreading hate; hate for homosexuals, hate for people who are pro choice and hate for people who might have different believes and opinions to them, and you can be sure they will make life difficult for them. E.G. have a read about this branch of the baptist church

This makes me really annoyed, more so than normal ;-) Now I know lots of lovely Christians, they don't try to convert me - partly because they know they wont get anywhere - they don't spill words of hate and tell me I am going to hell. But it seems the people who represent Christians on tv, radio and in newspapers, aren't these people. The people who represent Christians through mainstream media aren't the ones who go out and help the poor, the homeless and the anyone who needs a hand. Instead they are the ones who argue about issues which really shouldn't be the centre point of their religion.

Now this is all coming from a person who has for quite a long time not budged on his opinion that Christianity is based on a bunch of things which didn't happen . And while I will never be able to believe the bible word for word or that Jesus did rise from the dead or that God even exists, I have come to find a wee bit of religious tolerance inside of me :-P So much so that I'm going to agree with my mum (yes my mum gets a shout out here) that the bible/the word of Jesus yada yada yada does have some good points namely the one which goes "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This is what Christians should be focusing their energy on, helping others and treating them with dignity, not arguing stupid debates and forcing their ideas/believes onto everyone else. (and if they don't get their way, they go to extremes, read this)

So, even though this is hardly going to be read by any christian extremists, just keep it in mind that Christianity shouldn't be and isn't about spreading hate but sharing love. And its just unfortunate that the people who represent Christians alot of the time are idiots. And if anyone repeats these words to someone who tries to convince them that being gay IS an abomination because it is in the bible. And the same person refuses to listen and learn and spread love and compassion to those in need like they should; then just explain that if they want to follow those specific words of the bible, they best make sure they follow all the words of the bibles:

exodus 21:7 allows parents to sell their daughters into slavery

or

exodus 35:2 which explains that Sunday - the seventh day is a day of rest, BUT those who don't rest are to be put to death :-O

or

leviticus 15:19 which we all know warns us not to touch a female for a week after she has had her period or we will be unclean. :-S

the BnB: A.K.A the Blue Mountain Lodge

so moved into the new place which is a tiny little room on the top level of this this:



its a pretty cool place even if it tiny. there is 1 room with 3 beds and then a really really small shower/toilet room thingy-ma-gig.

its cheaper than the hostel at $145 a week each. we get breakfast served each morning which includes:

juices, cereals, yoghurt, fruit, criosants, boiled eggs, milk and muffins. its SOOOOO good, but then ive been eating the staff cafe food from the banff centre the last 2 months so everything tastes good. if you eat breakfast at 10:30ish and grab a muffin + piece of fruit to go, then you can go the whole day till dinner time without having to eat anything else. it really is a solid breakfast.

now for some pics of the room: (cos words cant describe this thing LOL)



thats my corner, yes i sleep under a bear :-S it is actually quite freaky waking up under it. oh and having a sloping roof like that sucks ass, its impossible to store stuff properly in that corner ><



thats the other side of the room. yes there are two fox skins hanging by the couch! also in the room are some old saws, 2 sets of antlers from what i think were deer, an axe and some of those weird oldschool snow boot things which look like tennis rackets!

anyway it hasnt snowed in a few days but ive been up 3 days in a row now. went night skiing last night which was chilled but the snow at norquay is really really slushy. went to sunshine today and did a few runs and found some nice snow with tim. wasnt a bad day at all considering we were there for only 3 hours.

anyway thats about it, gotta go grab some fresh baked cookies from down stairs ;-)

toodles
gerald