Thursday, July 29, 2010

St Kilda, Victoria, Australia (2)

It's official. I think I've lost my mind. Tonight was one of those evenings where I surprise myself. I have spent the previous two months living at altitude, eating heavily and poorly. After getting settled in in the city, I decided tonight that I should go for a run (especially after the quantity of fish ad chips I consumed for lunch). I expected that lifestyle would lead to me feeling like i want to vomit within 10 minutes, like I usually feel when I start running again. What I didn't realize was that all this negligent behavior was the perfect training to complete yet another half marathon. In the process I shattered my record for least amount of training days required to complete a half. The old record was 13 days and was set when I was 4 years younger. The new record is 0 days. It appears as though the key to my success was living at altitude.

For those of you that have spent days, weeks and months training for a half, I'm sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I am having extreme difficulty getting up and down stairs right now Normally that wouldn't be a problem because this hostel has a lift, but I am sleeping on top bunk tonight....

St Kilda, Victoria, Australia

Finally, my time as a ski and snowboard technician/receptionist/manager has come to a conclusion and I have subsequently evacuated the Australian Alps. I did have the chance to snap a few more photos of the snow before I left.


After I completed the employment portion of my journey, I took the bus down to Melbourne and returned to my Australian home. I have lost count how many times I have returned to Melbourne (it's more than 3) but everytime I do, it has a different feeling than anywhere else I've been on this trip.

Since I've returned to Melbourne/St Kilda I have returned quickly to my backpacker lifestyle of wandering around taking photos and borrowing wifi. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day focused entirely on photos and I've got a few of the highlights for your enjoyment.





Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia (7)

Time for a video update. This will probably be the last video update for a while as I managed to forget my battery charger for my video camera in New Zealand. So enjoy it while you can.

Spinning Down the Summit


Falling Down the Summit


Jumping in the Back Yard

Monday, July 19, 2010

Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia (6)

Well another anniversary has come and gone so here is my monthly update of my Facebook status'. Enjoy

Gibby Davis is proudly wearing his Dockers beanie tonight and copping lots of crap because of it.
June 19 at 7:41pm

Gibby Davis wonders if he should watch the final round of the US Open or enjoy the first bluebird in a while.
June 21 at 8:25am

Gibby Davis believes that if you injure an ab muscle, it does in fact prove the existence of ab muscles.
June 21 at 2:56pm

Gibby Davis has plane tickets to London and Budapest. Sweeeeeeettt
June 22 at 1:06pm

Gibby Davis accidentally forgot his ID and couldn't go to the bar. And oddly enough, it wasn't intentional.
June 24 at 12:01am

Gibby Davis is bending.
June 24 at 6:50pm

Gibby Davis appreciates Canada Day so much more now that he's experienced it in another country.
July 1 at 5:56pm

Gibby Davis can't believe it's already July and at the same time is astonished that it's only July.
July 3 at 11:04am

Gibby Davis wonders if bringing the D300 to the bar is photographic overkill.
July 4 at 11:28am

Gibby Davis is going to miss his Australian friends.
July 6 at 5:21pm

Gibby Davis is putting Melbourne on notice. I'll see you in a few days.
July 8 at 10:03am

Gibby Davis is starting his first countdown. 1 week until I am done my job.
July 12 at 8:05am

Gibby Davis can't believe how frustrating it is to not be able to be there for your family.
July 13 at 11:08am

Gibby Davis is disappointed by his lack of willpower.
July 14 at 10:03am

Gibby Davis has been motivated to get up by powder.
July 15 at 8:17am

Gibby Davis is in the process of getting drilled by customers at work. I'm rapidly remembering why I'm leaving this job.
July 16 at 1:41pm

Gibby Davis is extremely excited for the all the places he is going to visit in August and September.
July 18 at 8:30am

Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia (5)

Time for an update on some of my newest travel plans. I have been constantly looking up information on wikitravel and hunting for cheap flights to many different locations across the world. After much consideration and consultation I finally made some major updates to my plans. So here is my next few weeks in a nutshell.

July 26 - Bus to Melbourne
August 2 - Bus to Mt Buller for a friends birthday party.
August 3 - Bus to Melbourne
August 8 - Fly to Bangkok
August 9 - August 14 = A large undetermined area of my travel plans.
August 15 - Fly to Macau
August 24 - Fly to Bangkok
August 27 - Fly to Frankfurt
August 28 - Fly to London
September 1 - Fly to Budapest

After that my plans are still a little hazy, but I will keep you informed. I'm absolutely blown away that I get to visit all these places. Can't wait to get back into taking a million photos and losing hours of sleep looking at them.

I've also been stunned by how many people have been reading this blog. I never expected to have such an audience and I can't help but be humbled. Thanks for reading and caring about what's new in my world.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia (4)

Alright, it's time for this blog to get running at full steam once again and there is no better way for that to happen than for it to get interactive.

As you may have guessed from my previous post, my travels have taken me once again headlong into the unknown. I've got so many options in my head, and I'm sure so many more that I haven't even thought about. So I've going to give you the options that I am considering for you to choose from. If you don't like any of my ideas, then give me a new one. I'm open to just about anything.

I would love to hear your opinion on what I should do, where I should go. I realize that some of you will have biased opinions based on your proximity to me (I'm looking at you Duck Inn staff), so I will judge your opinions appropriately. I can't guarantee I will follow your advice but I'm pretty much as unsure as I could be about what to do. So here we go.

Qualifiers
1. I am poor. I've got about $2000 to last me until I hit Europe on August 27 (and Europe isn't going to be a time to save money either). Cheap is good.
2. I will be based in Mebourne as of July 19.
3. I have no job.
4. I am willing to travel.

Given those assumptions, here are a few options that I've thought of.
1. Stay in Melbourne until my originally scheduled departure on August 25. I can stay with friends and use up some free nights I have at a hostel in St Kilda.
2. Leave Australia a few weeks early on my way to Thailand and visit the northern part of the country for the first time.
3. After returning to Melbourne for a while, continue my travels around Australia. I still haven't been to South Australia (the only state I haven't been to).
4. Leave Australia a few weeks early and travel to some other country (leaving from Bangkok). Options include Vietnam, Korea, etc.

So there you go. Those are my options that I've come up with. Let me know what you think.

Before I go, I will mention that there is still one potential monkey wrench in all these plans. I have been in correspondence with the company that runs Mt Buller and they have been searching for a photographer. If that pans out, all bets are off. To give you an idea of what they have been looking for, here are some of my photographic highlights from the last month. Enjoy.



Thursday, July 8, 2010

Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia (3)

Hi everyone and welcome back to the ongoing saga that is my life.

The last time I had a full update on this website I mentioned that I had worked 20 straight days. Well that streak made it to 24 days before it ended and since I returned to Buller on May 30 I have had a total of two days off. Needless to say I was reaching my whits end with work and finally after a few weeks of self-tribulation I decided it was time for me to move on with my life.

Apart from the excess work, I have been extremely lucky to experience something as unique as winter in Australia. Most of all I'm thankful that I got to meet and live with so many great people. This is definitely a stage in my life where things didn't go the way I expected or hoped, but at the end of it I know I have learned from my experiences.

The hardest part about leaving my job will be to leave my friends behind not knowing when or if I will see them again. It's one of those things that I have been through numerous times over the last 8 months (and really my whole life) but it never gets any easier. To them, I want to say thank you, for being you. Alright, that's enough of a sappy moment.