Blue Mountains

(10.21.08 Sydney Airport 10:18am)
Next morning (10.17.08) I again attempted an early wake up to go to the 7am mtg but it didn’t happen. I finally got up around 930am, took a shower and headed to the train station. I was meeting a Danielle in the Blue Mountains with a couple CS’er she was hosting around noon and it was two hour train ride to get there. I arrived shortly before her and they met me at a restaurant for a late breakfast. Afterwards we drove to take in the sites. Our first stop was a look out over the mountains including “three sisters”. Then took a quick hike out to three sisters. There was a bridge that allowed you to get to the first of the three pillars and a fence with a sign stating that there was no longer any climbing at the site. It also said if you cross the fence and were caught there was a 300$ fine on the spot. I couldn’t refuse the photo opt and quickly climbed over after teaching Marcus how to use the camera. Chris, Marcus and I all took turns taking pictures in spite of the sighs from the other tourist as we climbed over. Then I decided to take it to another level and actually free climb a steep over hang section of the face. To be fare (that’s a new saying I’ve picked up on my travels), there was a ledge just below me. However, we shot the photos at an angle that made it look pretty sweet! I did slip a few times and almost missed the ledge on my fall, had I missed it was a several hundred foot fall with nothing to stop me but rocks. We next went to another tourist trap where we paid 20$ to ride on the worlds steepest roller coast and back up on a Cable car. It was at this stage of my trip that I figured out that the US dollar is actually stronger than the Oz Dollar. Our .60 $ equals 1$ here!!! I thought it was the other way around and was a lil sour about how much everything cost. The cable car and “rollercoaster” were quiet uneventful but since I only paid 12$ us I didn’t mind. We drove back to the city and I got dropped off at Kylie’s house in the city, a girl I had met while waiting tables in Maui 3 ½ year earlier. For some reason I kept her business card all that time and when I saw her I realized why!!! She was pretty hott! We went to the Noodle Markets, one of the venues for “Good Food Month” in the city, where we met some of her friends and a guy she was seeing. It was kinda an awkward situation since she told me they had a fight 5 days prior and hadn’t spoken since. She made up a story that we had a mutual friend in Maui. After eating, the girls wanted to go dancing so they all started throwing out names of clubs. I was wearing blue jeans, t-shirt, hoodie and slippahs. It was decided that we would go to Hugo’s but first I had to go with Andy back to his house and change. He gave me a nice pair of leather shoes and button up collard shirt. Apparently Hugo’s is a high end swanky club in the city and if you’re not a smoking hott girl or know someone, you don’t get in. Andy, Sean (her BF) and I had to stand back while she talked to the door people. She got us in and we didn’t have to pay cover. As the night went on Kylie kept introducing me to her girlfriends trying to hook me up, but I really didn’t have any interest except going to bed, alone. As we talked I found out Kylie is kinda a big deal, in her own head, and to most people in the city. She’s somewhat of a high profile figure and has dated some major players in the City. The club we were at was really pretentious and not my scene AT ALL. But every once in a while it’s nice to see that side of society. Kylie and I discussed both of our prior relationships and her current one to Sean, which she didn’t seem to happy in. As the night wore on I made it clear that I was ready to go, and I would have already except the fact that I left my bag at Kylie’s house. I was supposed to be waking up and going to Cronolla the following morning at 8am. Around 12:45 am Sean and Kylie began to bicker and it made for an awkward situation since it was just her, Sean, her friend grace and I left it the group. We gave them some space but at the same time I wanted to let her know I had to go. I walked back over and let her know I wanted to leave and she agreed but wanted to finish her drink. I minute later she started walking towards the door with Sean close behind. He shoved her forward and I jumped up to follow them. Giving him the benefit of doubt that he might have slipped and caught himself with her rather than actually shoving her I just followed and didn’t say anything. Right then he grabbed her by the back of her neck and started pushing her forward thru the crowd. I ran to catch up and grabbed his arm, spinning him around “bro, you need to chill the F*ck out” I said. I turned back to me took a step then turned around and headed out of the club. Mean while Kylie had retreated back inside. I sent Grace to make sure she was ok. The three of us walked back to Kylie’s and grabbed my bag, called cab and left. When I got to the parking lot I saw my cab and started towards it. As I approached I there was someone in the backseat, it was Sean! I dipped out of sight and called Kylie letting her know he was down here and asked if she wanted me to come back up. She assured me she was ok, as her father is the Captain of the Queensland Police Department and Grace was upstairs with her. I stayed out of site long enough for him to walk by to avoid a confrontation. Did I mention Sean is an ex US Marine? I took the cab to Felicity’s house in Glebe as she was hosting me that night and the next. Arriving at 2am I called to get inside. She wasn’t able to sleep. She and one of her roommates had a falling out about me staying there and it had got pretty lively she said. The following morning the girls were gonna have a house meeting to discuss the situation and Felicity was gonna tell the woman that she needed to move out. Next morning (10.18.08) we woke up around 8am. Felicity asked me to sit in on the house mtg so things wouldn’t blow up. I felt really awkward sitting there, as I was the reason for the fight. About 5 minutes into the talk Line, another of the roommates stopped the discussion and suggested that maybe I should be there and asked me to leave. I was very relived and retreated to Felicity’s room to use the internet. After the talk we had breakfast and finally got on the road about 10:30 to Cranolla. I told the girls I would teach them how to surf along with the CS’ers I had met the day before in the Blue Mountains with Danielle: Chris, Marcus and Cooper. When we got to the beach I didn’t see much surf and was a lil nervous since the girls changed their beach plans from the northern beaches to Cranolla specifically because I needed to go there so I could paddle at 3pm. Down the beach about a mile a saw a lil white water coming in so we walked down to take a look. Surf enough there was a small shore break coming in and even a small class of students learning to surf. I asked the instructor if they rented boards and took his board to catch few waves while we waited for Danielle guys to show up. I didn’t have a wetsuit and it FREEZING in the ocean. Once the rest of the crew showed up they rented boards and got an extra wetsuit for me. I gave me second international surf lesson on the beach of Cranolla to five students: one from Oz, one from Denmark, one from Canada, and two from Estonia. I started with a land lesson and then got them in the water. The waves were slopping shore break and it the cold didn’t make it anymore enjoyable for me. I helped them all get a good start and even got a few of them up, but I soon ran out of patience and warmth so I got out of the water. Eventually they did all catch a wave and were all super stoked! I stayed on shore and barked instructions to them. I got a call from James saying that outrigger practice had been called off. Felicity, Line and I decided to head out around 4pm because we were going to a Japanese drumming show that night. We stopped to grab my clothes from the night before form Andy’s house and popped in a Lebanese restaurant for a quick dinner togo. I dripped juice from my falafel all over my red Hawaii hoodie as I ate in the car  When we got to Felicity’s house I washed the hoodie but the oil/grease didn’t come out. We showed up at the Riverview Auditorium right as the show was starting so we let Felicity out so and went to park the car. When we walked in I was surprised by the $40 price tag of the tickets, but since the Australian dollar is weak (.60 to our dollar) it really only cost me $24. We walked in during the ending of the first piece and I was really stoked that I decided to go. It wasn’t anything like what I had assumed it would be. I pictured a small gathering of 50 people or so in an artsy lil club or something, with a few people playing drums. Instead it was a full on production of full body drumming! (see www.youtube.com/timlara ) After the show we headed back to the house downloaded and swapped pics from the day and passed out.