Merry Xmas!

Just to make you aware of the new Christmas @ Rupert House gallery in my Photo Album!

As I mentioned before, me and my housemates invited a whole bunch international friends to celebrate Christmas 2005. A great and delicious dinner, lots of drinks, Chistmas Presents, Christmas carols, A Christmas Tree, all ingredients were there to create a real Christmas atmosphere! It was just an amazing night!

I'm at work now, my last morning of the year behind this desk, cause this afternoon I'll be flying to Goldcoast! If possible I'll try to do an update in word and picture during the trip. If not, you'll gonna have to wait till next year.

Anyway, I wish everyone who's reading this a Wonderful Christmas and A Fantastic New Year!

December update!

As promised.. a far too late update with a list of the highlights of the first half, or - shame on me - first 3/4 of december! While the days are short, dark, rainy, cold and maybe even snowy in my home country The Netherlands nowadays, summer is really kicking in overhere, with the weather becoming less random (but still random), temperatures getting higher (34 degrees yesterday) and the days becoming longer.

With exception of the amazing Christmas celebration and dinner with 12 friends last weekend at our house, (See next post soon) I can't say I've had the kind of cosy ("gezellig") Christmas and "December" feeling which probably is inescapable in the Netherlands during these days. Nevertheless I'm still feeling more than happy, enjoying the beaches, barbies, the beautiful city and nice people overhere. Reading and watching the paragraphs below and the pictures in my photo album, you should not have any reason to question that!

Great view on the city
It feels like ages ago, but it's still worth mentioning. I've had the greatest view of the city so far when I went to visit Heidi, a student from Malaysia, at her new appartment at 26 floors high in the hart of the citycenter! Though it's not a villa with view on a good surf beach, this kind of accomodation comes close to my dream house! On the top of the building, about 40 floors high, there's a swimming pool where you can have a dive and swim your tracks looking over the city. During the night the place is absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a good picture of that, but I guess it wouldn't approach watching the millions of twinkling lights in real from the balkony anyway. Heidi has left to Europe now, hopefully I'll be able to visit the place again when she's back ;) For some more photos check the City Gallery of my Photo Album.

Barbie @ St Kilda
On december 4, Rita, trainee from Hungary, organised a barbie in St Kilda, the suburb where she lives. St Kilda is situated at the bay and therefore has some nice beaches and a kind of "beachy" atmosphere. It should be a lovely place to live, at least it is a good place to have a barbie! We had a great time eating, drinking, chatting, chilling, sunburning in a park next to the sea, during a beautiful day. The free gas bbq places are such a good thing of Australia! You just invite some people to the park, everyone brings some meat and drinks, and everything is set for having a blast of a time! Photos, check the Daily Live Gallery of my Photo ALbum.

Fefe's birthday
Yet another great birthday celebration! Two weeks after Matt, my other house mate Fernanda,(the wonderful chica from Brasil;)) turned 27. Matt and I surprised her in the morning with a breakfast at bed and decorated the house with balloons. In the evening we went to Gerben and Gerbrand who organised a sort of farewell poolparty / barbie at their place, since it unfortunately was their last week in Melbourne. The next day Fernanda invited people to a pub in the citycenter called Decorum, to toast on her birthday and party all night long. Check the Party and Going Out Gallery for the pics.

Surfing with Luc
Almost every weekend we load the boards in Lucs car and head to Torquay or Jan Luc to go surfing! So far we've always been able to catch some waves. Not that it's epic every time, but at least there's always something to surf. I'm improving my skills little by little. Cutbacks, Off-the-lips, sprays, I'm starting to produce them by purpose, in stead of by accident! Luc is also doing well.. having surfed just a few days, he's already able to stand up on his small 6,2" fish and ride the broken wave for a while! A couple of new pics are availble in the Surf & Beach Gallery of the Photo Album.

Goldcoast and Sidney,here I come!

The sun is shining, the days are getting longer, it feels weird, but it's true, it's almost Christmas time! I've got 10 days off, and I'm going to travel!! The flights are booked, just in about one week I'll be flying to Goldcoast! I'll stay there for six days, enjoying the surf, the beaches, visiting Brisbane, having a barbie on Christmas Eve, things like that..! Afterwards, december 29th, I'll fly to Sidney where I'll be celebrating New Year, watching the fireworks above the Harbor Bridge! I'm so excited, just can't wait!!

I'll be sure to give you an update on this site about the past weeks of before I'll leave. Lots of things happened again, so just keep on checking!

A conference, a farewell, and a bumpy 6ft swell

The last weekend of November was a good one as well. I went to a conference of AIESEC on Friday and had some crazy wipe-outs in a 6ft bumpy shore break at Torqay Surfbeach on Sunday. Unfortunately we also had to say good bye to Abi, a very nice Filipina who's traineeship came to an end, on Saturday.

The conference...
AIESEC conferences, at least within AIESEC, are kind of notorious, and not just for their productive meetings, learning sessions or interesting discussions about international values... The party took place literally in the middle of nowhere, on a campsite in a forest full of kangaroos, about 2 hours drive from Melbourne. Despite some trees blocking the unpaved road to the camping, which were removed by a passer-by who coincidently had a chain saw in the back of his car (freak!;)), we arrived in time for the official delegation of tasks to the brand new boards and committees of AIESEC Victoria. Lots of tears, emotions, words of thanks later, the drinking finally started, and how! I don't think I've ever seen people drinking their beers as fast as after the words "Chins on table, Face the water, Drink!" during a game named Skolling (similar to the Dutch "Bier Estafette" / Beer Race). So, respect to the Ozzies!;) Besides lots of drinks, a waterpipe (an Asian style one..) appeared during the night as well. Though it wasn't Marihuana the stuff we smoked, I slept like a log in our cabin, after a week of hard working and a wonderful Friday night!


The farewell...
Initially the plan was to wake up early on Saturday and do some sightseeing along the Great Ocean Road. Because we didn't want to end up IN this Great Ocean, the idea was canceled as Huy, who was suppose to drive us, found his bed at the sociable time of 7AM, and had his drinks as well... Back in Melbourne late in the afternoon, we had little time to recover,next party was about to start. This one had a pretty sad reason, after a 1,5 years stay in Australia, Abi was about to return to her homeland, the Filipines. Though I didn't have the change to get to know her really well, obviuosly it's a pitty she left. She brought a small present and a personal letter for everyone, how sweet! Abi, in case you read this, thanks for the Hawaian bracelet, I'm wearing it! I just hope you're doing well now back home, I can imagine it's tough, cause just thinking about having to leave Australia, makes me feel sad... (Sorry Mum!;))


The bumpy 6 ft swell...
A 2 meter swell was hitting the beaches of the Victorian "Surf Coast" on Sunday. The Dutch guys Luc, Gerben and Gerbrand picked me up in the morning to drive there and ride some waves. The latter wasn't easy; gnarly, powerfull and huge amounts of water,bumpy because of the wind, made me eat the sand and centrifuged me far too many times! It was good fun though! And the best thing, Luc bought his own surfboard that day. Since he's really enthusiastic about surfing, it might just not have been the last time we drove to a surfbeach with his car...


Photo's: Darren cheering after winning a "Skolling" game. Me, Abi, Jaqcui, Fernanda at the farewell party. Luc and me and his new board (from Luc's site)! More photo's, as usual in my Online Album. New photos can be found in the Party @ Going Out Gallery. I've added a lot more pictures of Matt's birthday and the Latin Festival as well.

Brighton Beach and a Latin style birthday party...

Before a new weekend starts, time for an update about the last two weeks. With two weekends full of parties, drinks, beaches, waves, "barbies", sunshine, rain, Dutchies and AIESECers as the mayor highlights, there's once again plenty to write about!

To not make it too confusing let's just do one weekend a post in chronologicle order, starting with saturday November 19th, the day my housemate Matt celebrated his birthday and the day I took my very first Salsa dancing steps!

Melbourne is a city of events and a city of many different cultures, there's always something good happening somewhere in the city, always something to see. The weekend in question, it was the Latin community's turn to show and celebrate their roots, during the Johnston Street Latin Festival. We decided visiting it would be a nice way to get in the mood for Matts 28th birthday party.

After a few shots of tequilla and some Coronas at our house (as an AIESEC trainee, you should always try to adapt to new cultures as good as possible!:)), we went to the place with a whole bunch of people, and had a blast of a time! Life music on the streets, many small market booths with different kinds of latin food and goodies, people dancing everywhere, and last but not least beautiful latin girls all around! Some people took pictures and even some video shots of me trying to learn Salsa. I haven't been able to get my hands on this material, but in the very rare case it would be worth showing you, I'll get back on it!

In the evening the party continued in the "Trainees House" with an indoor barbie and Matt's delicious home-made Sangria. It was such a wonderful night, that even the police decided to drop by to see what exactly was going on! They made us turn down the volume of the music as well!:-)


The day after, Sunday November 20th, was a kind of lazy day. Together with the Dutch guys Luc, Gerben-Jan and Gerbrand, who all had stayed in the house for the night, I went to Brighton Beach. A nice and quiet beach not too far from, but with a beautiful view on the city. It's situated in the Bay though, so no surfing. Just chilling, sleeping a bit, watching the kite- and windsurfers, drinking the last Coronas which were left from the night before. We concluded with a good pizza and salad in one of the many Italian restaurants at Lygon street.

Some more pictures of the weekend can be seen in the Party and Going Out gallery as well as in the Surf & Beach gallery of my Online Photo Album. It's not too much though, I might upload some more footage made by other people later on.