Yarr... do ye have any spare change?

Back on dry land... ohh yeah! I've still got sea legs though... hopefully won't be too long before I can walk in a straight line.

The job wasn't too bad at all... well, the job itself was pretty damn boring, but the people I was working with were great. My job was to assist the technicians, who were implanting... dealies (sigh. I didn't pick up the terminology I guess. Little round white balls so pearls would form) in the oysters. Then I'd take the oyster, put it in a net, then zip tie them to the net so they stayed upright. Then repeated 4-500 times a day. Wooo! Those were the days anyways... fairly boring. There were 4 technicians and four of us assistants... two German guys, an English girl and me. We'd usually keep occupied by pelting each other with oyster guts (which really stain)... and making more zippy ties. The thin zippy ties we had weren't long enough, so we had to put two together. Thousands and thousands of them. It became therapy after a while.

Every day we'd start work at 6:00, and usually finish 4:30-5:00... with a couple breaks for breakfast and lunch in between. After work we'd go fishing, or watch DVD's. Nothing that exciting, but we didn't usually feel like doing much after standing around all day.

Anyways, I've decided to go back out again for another 9 day trip, leaving this Sunday again. It's a pretty good way to save some money, and the food is fantastic. We have a full-time cook for us, Julio from Spain. I've never eaten this well. (sorry Mom and Dad, home cooking is great but...)

Some pictures... there's the boat we were on, the Yardie Creek. Pretty comfortable boat... there were only 17 of us on this trip, normally there's over twenty. Also a slightly blurry shot of us playing with a tiger shark :)





The sharks were cool. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the big one we had around the boat though... there was this small tiger shark and the big one hanging around most of the time we were there. So I didn't go swimming, obviously :) Plus I saw whales, dolphins, sea snakes, turtles... great change of scenery for a while.

Well, the next few days are going to be beach days for sure. I figured that since I'm working on a boat I'd have a chance to work on my tan, but we were indoors the whole time. Sigh. Skin cancer'll have to wait I guess.

Today I'm moving down to a caravan park by the beach and pictching my tent instead of staying at this crappy hostel again... only 10 bucks a night, and I know people with cars there now :) I'll probably be hanging out with the girls back at the hostel most of the time anyways. Thursday night'll be a good one, going to the local club with everyone from the pearl boat, plus all my friends at the hostel. Should be great.

Well, maybe another post before I go if I do anything interesting. Probably not though :)

-Brad

Going pearling!

Lots of new stuff this time. Me and Ann didn't end up moving to a hostel closer to the beach, we moved to the hostel that's connected to three different bars. Heh. It's been a good couple of weeks here in Broome though, four English girls that I'd met in the hostel in Perth came up and stayed here for a week. Once again, it seemed to be me and half a dozen girls hanging out... not that I'm complaining :)

So here's a picture of the walkway in the hostel I'm at now. Best part of the place, unfortunately. This hostel seems to have something against kitchen utensils and pots/pans with handles. Hmm.



The pool at this hostel is very nice though, and it seems I've spent most of the last week sitting by the pool or going down to the beach and sunning or swimming. My tan's coming along nicely... heh. There's tons of little sand flies around though, it's something you really won't get on the tourist brochures. Everyones legs and arms are mostly just itchy little red dots. Very irritating... literally. We're all doing the Itchy and Scratchy thing.



But other than that, I've been searching for a job most days... rather halfheartedly, but still looking. Just today I got a job from an agency in town, working on a pearl boat. Don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but I'm leaving Sunday for 9 days out on a boat :) Can't wait... the pay is the same as what I was getting in Perth, but meals and accommodation are paid for. I've never said this before about any job, but I can't wait to get started. heh.

Huh. Guess there isn't as much new as I thought. Oh yeah, Stacey (from Zimbabwe!) dyed her hair blonde tonight (don't ask me why, it already seemed pretty blonde), and had some left over... and yeah, being the dumbass I am I got her to use the rest in my hair. Yup, my hair's now orange. Sigh... Just for that I'm gonna post a picture of her trying to open a bottle of wine on the beach. Heh.



I'm sure there'll be plenty of pictures of me with the 'ol orange hair, but you'll have to wait. Ann has a day off tomorrow so we're heading out on the town tonight, and I'll take my camera out.

Nothing else I guess until I'm back from my job in a couple weeks... other than a quick Ha-ha Nelson style for anyone I know starting school again. heh.

-Brad