Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in steveothedevo's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
5:57 pm	final entry?? so, 2 and a bit months since the last entry. we had a couple of interesting charters in jan, from party animal (possible) porn producers to very boring photographers (although there was nothing wrong with the topless models getting around the boat). we had 2 new recruits for the new year, julie and nadia. julie is a french gal, quite attractive but pretty forward. she came in as chief stewardess for the two charters, and anje and nadia didn't handle her too well. i think that the extreme lack of sleep from the party charter played a big role, with both girls breaking down quite often into tears over something or other. i kinda found it funny, as i found the reasons pretty trivial, like being asked to do something once they finished lunch while there were other people present?? the second charter was the photographer guy, a very old guy and to be honest they were and extremely large pain in the arse, very demanding. pretty cruisy for the deckies really though. there were a few models on board as mentioned, but i got a crush on one of the photographers (saskia), a german girl with incredible eyes and a great personality. (what is it with me and germans anyways???). then came the best holiday (albeit short). I WENT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats right, i finally made the mission back to the land of oz! i started the holiday with a 33 hour flight back, arriving in the morning to sydney. from there it was straight on a train to hornsby, then to wisemans ferry to meet up with jezza, johnny, blackie, davo, kerro,carl dan and val. pretty hot day, 42 or there abouts, and lack of sleep and lots of beers on a house-boat resulted in me waking up the next day with a mega hangover, and a partially shaved head/eyebrow. sooooooo, after not seeing my family members for 3 years my appearance was less than desirable. anyways, the bucks show was still a beauty, then it was off to newcastle to catch up with the rest of the crew. bit of a disappointment, as i thought that everyone would be making arangements to catch up, but i guess i was wrong. anyway, i still had fun in newie. special mention goes to ricey, he was one of the few to really catch up with me, and it was great to see turner and carso again. i went out to dinner with a few more of them which was nice, but all in all not quite what i had in mind. from newcastle it was off to see rach for a night in sydney. little eden wasn't quite as pleased to see me as rach was, she burst into tears at the sight of me. maybe the haircut had something to do with it. brilliant to catch up with rach, even though it was only for a night before heading to qld to see mum and my brother and the fam. i went for my first surf in 3 years with my bro the day i arrived, and amazingly i could still stand up! i also was priveleged enough to get stung by a blue bottle (also 3 years since last time). we then went on a surfing bonanza over 3 days, my muscles and ribs protesting greatly by the end. chris, mark and i also went out for a couple of beers. interesting night ha ha. on the bus home, i happened to run into katie, rad and jess! how random is that, after 3 years i come home, go to qld, go to the pub, then of all the busses i could have caught there they were! another friend i caught up with was jess troup! she's all grown up now and a practising pharmacist! we also had a really nice afternoon in the park behind the perigian surf club, free live music and beers sitting in the grass, only in australia hey! chris had his newest bub the day/night before i had to leave so welcome to the world olivia rose bryant. it was really nice also to catch up with mum and meet her new partner lloyd (not sure of the spelling but... to give you and idea of the kinda guy he is, he gave me a watch because i didn't have one, after only meeting me 2 or 3 days earlier! mum was still looking great, and i was surprised how little everyone had changed over such a long period. from qld it was to nsw, port macquarie. dad arrived to the airport to pick me up in the recently finished jag xk120, what a beautiful machine! we drove to the farm/resort (a kinda dusty trip in a canvertable) and seeing the new house was another impressive sight! holy smokes that joint is flash! while in port we went for dinner and i got to catch up with mitch and trouper, he seems to have settled down a bit now. i went out to troups place one night too and caught up with marcus and marty. troup flew all the way from perth to catch up, AND as a result missed his girlfriends birthday, what a guy! rach and eden were in port at the same time too so it was one big happy family reunion there aswell. we went for a waterski, and i must say that i'm a little rusty ha ha. rach, if you have managed to read this far, can you send me the pics from that day? the next day i got and idea of what a stroke patient must feel like when they try to walk, after being hit by a small vehicle. i haven't been that sore for a very long time! the old man still barefoots too, not bad for a 61 and a bit year old! vicky was ever the host as always so all in all port was brilliant, really nice opportunity to really relax. unfortunately i was cut short a week of holidays due to a 3 week charter being confirmed. i also got news that one of the deck hands would not be on board as his little brother was killed in a car accident. so then came the fun task of organising a flight back to the carribbean (via the bloody moon). i got one, from sydney, to LA, to chicago, to boston, to charlotte and finally carribbean, with a plane change at each airport. it took 40 hours and 17 seconds in the end, not looking forward to doing that again! my final days were in sydney, where i got to catch up with a couple more mates. i was really happy to see leese, bretto, layla, mithch (again), alana, steph (though brief), and training wheels! haven't seen that guy since 2nd year uni, and he came straight from a flight from perth to the pub! they were having a "joker jackpot" thing at the pub where you get a raffle ticket with every drink purchase, then every hour or so they would draw a number. if your number is picked then you go up to a board and pick a card and if its the joker then your looking at a cash prize of 600 bucks (increasing by 50 every draw). needless to say we put in a valiant effort to get tickets, and our hard work paid off, with our table getting all 3 draws for the night! so what now? well, looking to the forseeable future i can't see myself doing much different from what i'm doing now. i think i have the best job in the world, and i get to travel for the rest of my employed lifetime and hopefully after that if i still feel the need. much to my family's dismay a can't see myself getting a wife and having a boy to keep the bryant name alive for another generation, although you never know i guess. so although this might not necessarliy be my final journal entry, i reckon that this is a good snippet of my life so i'm going to transfer this onto a word doc from here and save it. life has been great, wouldn't change a thing. for anyone who is worried about taking a chance, i say have a crack, not going to be the end of the world if it doesn't work out, but i had a bloody good go at it and the outcome has been life changing! well, not much else to write i guess, but i'll continue the adventure and from time to time if something really exceptional happens i guess i'll stick it in here for future refrence, who knows, maybe there will be a part 2 to this thing!! signing off steveo Current Mood: nostalgic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
4:45 am	another year... well, another year nearly has gone. i spose i've had quite an interesting time. right now i'm in sint maarten (no spelling mistake i swear) and have just arrived back from the soggy dollar. we've picked up 2 new stewardesses (sorry if i'm grammicaticaly incorrect) who are sound gals. i am sort of disappointed with the whole "crew" being a solid bunch. ok so here it goes, normally the crew of the boat gets a bonus at xmas time. the captain has been at the casino for the last 2 weeks. then the captain went on holidays with gina (the chief stew/chef with whom he has been shagging for the last 7 years, whilst having a wife and 2 kids) and there is a cost cutting thing so that no one has got a bouns this year. HMMMMMM. makes you wonder hey. the phillipino dudes just seem to do their own thing so not a lot of love there. i had a good laugh with the engineer that i share a room with (glen, who snores like an atomic explosion, though only on the fourth or fith snore of a sequence), that he had a dream that he finalluy got his xmas bonus late and that it was a grand (this is his first year without a bonus after 8 years of service). what else to gripe about... well, i spose if anyone has tried to call me it's been a waste of time, as i've tried to call all the fam for 4 days now and have come up nil. i know that the company is cheap, but i'm starting to think that i'd prefer to pay 3x the money so at least i have contact with the people who are important. other than that i know i have my other things that shit me the most, but think thats enough of wighning for this year. for christ's sake, i live in the carribbean, get over it and get over the whole "minor thing" thing. anyways, hope everyone enjoyed the 2008 series and i reckon that 2009 will be a real hum-dinger... Current Mood: indifferent (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
6:57 am	well, we made the crossing in one piece. it wasn't too bad, only a couple of days of rough weather. the three south africans on board didn't bode too well, and the 2 that claimed they didn't get sea sick were the first 2 to succumb to the motion ha ha. not much really to report from the crossing, we only saw 2 boats in the 10 days it took to get across the atlantic, and 5 flying fish made it onto the deck. there was a sea bird that landed on board as it was exhausted so one of the engineers brought it in and looked after it for the rest of the crossing. he called it steven, (as in steven seagull ha ha). we managed to arrive the day before the last day of the boat show so were extremely busy getting the boat up to show standard, but it all went pretty well. st martin is exactly how i pictured it to be, white sand, palm trees, lots of rasta looking guys who say "mon" a lot and very warm weather. it rains here pretty much every day, but only in short bursts. after the show they organised a crew party which was free. it was a good time, we went zip lining out at a place on the french side of the island called lottery farm. zip lining is pretty much like riding a flying fox only you don't have to hang on, you just clip in using a harness. then there was a free lunch and drinks at a pub across the harbour. they then had the after party at a bar called the soggy dollar, which is about 20m from the back of our boat, but i was so buggered by the time it was kicking off that i didn't end up going (sad huh?). we have a confirmed charter now for the 2nd of jan for one week. i hit the captain up about holidays but he said that he basically can't give me a definite answer until prob the 10th of jan, so i guess its a matter of playing it by ear. i managed to pull watch for new years eve which sux, but i have xmas off so i guess i can't complain. well, i guess that brings things up to speed again so i'll probably be back after xmas some time. Current Mood: cheerful (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 24th, 2008
3:20 am	quick one last entry before we cross. we're supposed to be leaving this afternoon for the carribbean, so fingers crossed! the only possible problem is that the weather is pretty bad, i.e. 100km winds etc, but we might still have a crack at it anyways. so for the next 2 weeks i'm outta contact i think, but i'll have a go at the phone if we're near shore. so fingers crossed that the next entry is in the carribbean, and that we don't sink on the way :) Current Mood: optimistic (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
2:14 pm	4 weeks since... well four weeks have passed and quite a bit has happened i guess. i went to ireland, which was a brilliant time! caught up with all the crew inc kieran, paula, nelly, ross, big kev, rob, catriona and a ferw others so as not to bore people with details. needless to say there were quite a few beers involved, a mechanical bull, and a few blurry bits that resulted in me miraculously waking up in my hostel! perfect weekend i reckon! after that i had a week of normal work followed by 2 weeks of study for my yachtmasters. it was a bit of a head strain getting back into the whole study routine. i was up every morning for the first week at 5am doing my homework (as i was too buggered from the day before, and i had to travel 40 mins each way from nice), and the first 2 days of practical were worse (travelling from monacco to antibes). anyways, i passed the course in the end which is brilliant to say the least. since then we have been on and off about heading to the carribbean. then, to my delight we were told that we were going. this was last tuesday, and we were supposed to be leaving on thursday morning. so, in classic steveo style i told everyone that we were off, but then tonight (wednesday 19/11) we found out that the weather is supposed to be kinda nasty (35 knot winds and 6m swell) which means that we might have to delay our exit. in delaying our exit, we will miss the st martin boat show, which was the crucial deciding factor behind our departure as it costs 50,000 each way in fuel. sooooo, once again who knows what the hell is going on. i've resigned to the fact that no matter what happens i'll have a ball. there is snow on the mountains again, so if anything i'll do some very unpleasant wash-downs of the boat but snowboard, or i'll be in tropical weather somewhere, doing twice as manny washdowns and swimming or something. could be worse i reckon. so, i spose apart from going to ireland and gaining some very valuable knowledge, not too much has changed. i still don't know what the craic is with where i'll be in the next week, but i have a very full tummy (due to a 450gm t-bone with onion rings, fries and salad) and know that there is plenty more where that came from. so that leaves you nicely up in the air as to what the hell i'm doing. saty tuned till next time........ Current Mood: okay (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
12:06 am	movin on up last time i filled this in was the b'day. not a lot has happened really since then. leon went on holidays for 5 weeks so i've been the only deck hand on board the boat since. in a way its been good though, getting the feel for what its like being in charge. i've got new experience now as i've been in charge a couple of times now when we're moving the boat, which means talking the captain in and out of berths. the very first time was a disaster. not my fault but all the same. it was a very, very tight squeeze to get out of our berth, as in we actually had to poush against the other boats to get out. not usually as problem when we are fully crewed, but there were only 4 on board. captain driving, engineer getting the anchor up, chef fending off and me on the radio. it was going ok, but then a ground line (rope anchored to the bottom of the harbour) got sucked into our bow thruster (propeller at the front of the boat to push the nose left or right). freakish thing to happen, never happened before as there is a grill over the bow thruster to stop that from happening. anyways, that meant that every time we tried to move forward, the groundline pulled tight and uplled us back. so we ended up scratching the bejesus out of the boat next to us, i mean a 2 metre gouge in the side of their boat, and also put a nice little one on the back end of our boat. by then we had a nice little crowd watching the drama unfold. so we had to get the divers in to try and free us up, which took about 40 mins. i was pretty nervous by then! then, once we were free we tried to get the anchor up and found that it was stuck under someone elses anchor. it was a tight little area so i was under quite a lot of pressure to make sure we were clear at all times on both sides, a lot of running back and forth. once the anchor was up we were out of port, but what a way for my first time on the radio to go. since then i've done it a couple more times with no crashes, and the captain certainly didn't blame me for it, just one of those things. i completed my vhf course yesterday. thats the first step out of the way towards my yachtmasters, and my medical exam is on monday. the requirements for the course is that i have done 2500 nautical sea miles, with at least half of that in tidal waters. we worked out that i have done 4133 nm, however non of those were in tidal waters. so the captain has put down that i did the atlantic crossing with them so that my tidal mile scrape in. there are a few other things that i need to know that i will have to look into, but i'm booked from the 3rd of nov - 14th, and all things going to plan i should be qualified and ready. we're supposed to be doing the crossing on the 15th of november, but its still up in the air. if we haven't got any charter we may even be staying in europe. i'll be very disappointed if thats the case, but am kinda tied to the boat for a while as the captain is paying for half of my yachtmasters, which would be a big slap in the face if i turned around and said catch ya and headed for the carribean. anyways, i guess we'll just play it by ear. other than that, hmmm, oh, i'm heading to ireland this comming weekend to catch up with the crew. good to get away from the boat for a while and also the last opportunity i have till next med season i suppose. anyways, i've babbled long enough so i'll be back another time! Current Mood: optimistic (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
1:20 pm	birthday, again... well, 27 now i guess. don't think i look amy worse for wear as far as i can tell. another rubbish birthday really, slugged arse cleaning the boat then got excited about going out but unfortunately it all fell to bits and ended up being a maccas feed on the boat and me sitting here typing out a journal entry, whats new? since last time reighly has left the boat which was sad, as i liked that chick (not as in like-liked, just great value), and dee (danielle) is gone as of friday. two beautiful gals (in all senses of the word) gone. but we've gained a new one in anje (ann-ya) so i spose things continue to move on. i'm still unsure as to what the next move is (as far as the boat is concerned), but i guess that sums up the last few years, so i guess as things are going pretty good i'll maintain the status quo and keep up the adventure. when will it end???? i'm hoping never to be honest, but a trip back to oz (3years since the first entry) is first priorty now. happy birthday eden, and can't wait to meet harry and maybe even the next one pis and crip are havin. (as an aside i bet if its a boy they won't name it steve as they won't ever see him, although that may be a plus in the first year...). other than that, i reckon i'll drag myself back to the crew mess for a cameo appearance before pulling a casper and disappearing for the night. till next time gadget.... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 1st, 2008
11:40 am	well, i've finally completed a charter season! the rest of the time with the owners was ok, but very slow indeed. i guess time definitley goes faster when your busy. we went to heaps of places, highlights i spose were santorini, capri and bonafasio (corsica), and also seeing my first erupting volcano. we left the owners in bonafasio the motored over to croatia to subtat (next to dubrovnik). really beautiful spot! the new guests were on the day that we arrived so we were working bloody hard to get everything spic and span. the new group were a lot younger, and i soon discovered how kids can always seem to find extra energy. after a little over 2 hours of tubing it was wakeboarding time, for a further 2.5 hours! that was pretty much the pattern for 9 days, just motor somewhere through the night and do watersports all day in a new location. one of the nicest places that we stopped at was a greek island owned by the shipping magnate Anassis. incidentally it was also the place that the girls decided that they wanted to jump from the top level of the boat (10 m or so), and the youngest one (11) finally jumped, or more accurately belly flopped. poor little thing got quite a shock, though in retrospect it was pretty funny seeing her expression when she came up, eyelids inside out. that was also the day that captain steve and myself did a synchronised dive from the spreaders (in keeping with olympic spirit and to keep the good old tip-ometer ticking over. (biggest one so far, €1700!!) we dropped those guys off in greece then headed straight back to cannes. after 42 days of work straight i was absolutely exhausted. we received a call about a potential last minute charter within 30 mins of arriving in cannes picking up the next day but thankfully it fell though. our charter season is over now, and its still up in the air about our next movements. unfortunately reighly and d are leaving the boat (partly due to high tensions from 42 days straight). as far as the possibilities now, the boat could still maybe go to the carribean taking the chance that charters will come up, go to savannah to the ship yard for 9 months till next season, or maybe even relocate to genova italy. the first two are what i'd prefer, as it means getting a change of scenery and hitting an english speaking country, but i guess i'll just roll with the punches, its been working for me so far. other than that i took a quick trip to london to visit the crew there and to get off the boat. really enjoyed catching up with them and spending some time away. i'm buggered, even though its only about 6pm, so reckon i'll grab some grub and hit the hay. that'll do for now.. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
3:56 am	not long into it but a very quick update so far the trip has been good. in addition to the last entry, the wind speed increaswed to 45 knots, and the anchor let go. it was all action stations with me a leon sent to pull in the ladders and get in the tenders (small boats) and everyone ready for the worst while the engines were kicked over. no collisions so all good, and very good timing as we had only finished loading the owners and a truck load of their luggage (litterally, they hired a medium sized industrial flatbed truck with a crane arm in the back)10 mins before it gave. the owners and their kids are really nice people thank god. i was a little shocked however at mrs cannell. her skin is the wrinklyest, saggiest, skin i have ever seen!! for the lads, if you picture a very cold scrotum, then blow that up to human size, that is the extent of wrinkles. i'm not sure if it is a disease or just from living the good life, but i thought someone with that kind of money would have a nip and tuck, in in this case a lot of them! anyways, they are really great people so i'm very happy being on board with them. the other drama is that the chef got fired today. not too worried really, cause she kind of freaked me out. i get the gut feeling that she is the kind of wierdo that would kill you in your sleep so i'm not exactly shattered about the move. well, things have been great so far but i'll leave it there for now and maybe there'll be some other stuff to talk about soon. oh, incidentally, found a plaque that has all the boat measurements, total mast height is 16m on this boat, which means that where we jumped from must have been about 14m! really makes my mind tick about how high i've actually jumped from before, cause i didn't even hesitate from that height. oh, and i had a long chat to steve cannell (owner) yesterday and he was giving me a run down on the boats history, and the owner before him was mr grundy of grundy tv in oz! cool hey! orright, thats it for now Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
6:49 am	in greece alrighty, i know i said that i probably wouldn't be back to this until after the charter, but i've had a pretty good couple of weeks so i figured i'd better put stuff down before i forget. the first week not that much happened really, few beers on the weekend etc etc. bastille day happened, fireworks and so on and yes, a few beers. we did a bunch of cleaning and so on as we were to head to greece to pick up the owners. i decided not to hang around the boat last weekend as i will be spending pleanty of time here over the next month (probably won't have a day off). i went down to la ciotat (pronounced la sea-o-ta), as my mate sam who works on a mega sailing yacht called eos was down that way and promised some beers, cliffs and other activities. it took about 2.5 hours on the train. not a very impressive town as far as scenery really but after great difficulty (bloody phone wasn't working) i met sam and went on the hunt for accomodation. found one of the only places with availability to stay, the only one i had found was E125 for the night. then i came across this one, and unfortunately they only had a double left, at the grand price of E35, score!! i then went with sam to meet some of his crew in this beautiful little bay. the crew members i met were sound people, and the two stewardess' (who were stunning) were quite comfortable spending the day topless and chatting, sweet!! there were a couple of cliffs to jump off there, probably about 14 metres or so so all in all i had a good time. that night, you guessed it, we had some beers. we also went along to miss la ciotat beauty pagent, pretty good for a laugh. everyone put a fiver down on a number. unfortunately as we arrived a little late i had no hope betting on the scraps. the next day a german dude mikey came down from nice and took sam and i along with a dude called myles rock climbing. really beautiful spot, (there are pics on facebook) and a brilliant day on the cliff. then it was time to head for greece. the captain steve taught me a bunch about navigation, and gave me the international rules for lights and seamanship. read all that stuff and he tested me a couple of time. he reckons that now i know more than a lot of the people who have their yacht masters! he even trusted me enough to navigate a busy channel at dusk while on my watch and set the course etc to get us to mykonos! i was bloody stoked to be in command of a 45m power boat! so we have arrive here now, and i'm sitting here waiting for the arrival of the owners. mykonos is an ok place, apparently its the most visited island in the world. dunno about that, and really can't see why its so popular. its nice, and easy to get lost in as we proved last night ha ha. had one of the biggest t-bones i've ever seen last night, if thats the result of feeding livestock steroids or whatever, i'm all for it! the other thing about greece is it is super windy! today the wind is howling at 35kts, about 65-70kms! its always like this they reckon. it makes me nervous actually, gotta do an anchor watch to make sure that it doesn't drag, and we are moving about on it heaps. the thing is, if it does give, i reckon we'll only have about 1 min to get the engineers to fire up the engines before we hit the rocks or another boat, in other words we're screwed if that thing goes. oh well, i guess we'll have to wait and see. so there's my story for the moment, hope that brings things up to speed. as i said, there are pics on facebook in a new album france2 i think its called, so feel free for a browse. and for chris, why don't you make a fake facebook alias so you can have a look at the stuff! hope you are all good out there!! Current Mood: cheerful (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 30th, 2008
8:27 am	first proper charter down! well, been a little while but still living the dream. i went to the splash party with ross and the crew from the boat. had a brilliant time there! had a drunken snog with a chief stewardess from another boat and drank quite a lot of free booze. i met up with therese too before that. was good to see her again as i hadn't seen her in months, well before i left ireland. the charter was really good, thoroughly enjoyed it! the weather here has been absolutely steaming hot, so i was sweating like a paedophile in a barney suit without the option for a swim, even though i was on a boat surrounded by the med. it was brutal putting guests on jet skis and taking them wakeboarding/tubing with the knowledge that i wasn't going to get the opportunity to have a go!! most of the guests on the charter were my age or younger so you can imagine that they were pretty keen on the watersports. incidentally i must say that the girls that were on the charter were stunning!! didn't help with the temperature but quite enjoyed seeing them in bikinis all day all the same :). my saving grace from the temperature arrived on the second last day of charter in the form of 2 bikini clad guests. they had heard a rumour that someone had once jumped from the spreaders (wing-like things on the top tower of the antenna) into the water. its not too high, only about 6-7 metres, though the captain reckons it is 50 feet (16m). pigs arse its that high, i've flipped from higher than that. anyways, the challenge came out from the captain that he'd dive off the spreader if i jumped. he doesn't know me that well huh. i was in my boardies and balencing out on the end in a flash cause i was pretty bloody hot at that stage! no worries with the jump, all went well. i think the guests said that they were going to put it on utube so once i get the link i'll stick it in there for ya. i got reighly (stewardess on the boat) to take a photo for me. i had the camera set up to take a multi shot but then she turned it off so it wen't back to normal, then the photo she took has a big bloody finger in the middle of it, so i guess i'll have to do it again at some stage. the tip for this charter was the same as the other one, so 1200 richer for the month. the next charter is the owners. they are on for 3 weeks so i reckon that i'll be well and truly buggered by the time i get off that one, and there is no tip for that one either. i think that its heading to croatia, though i have also heard greece so i guess i'll go with the flow there, either one is better than a kick in the balls. other than that not much else to report so for now i'll leave this, prob won't be back till the next charter starts/finishes as the next 2 weeks will be hard core cleaning and polishing etc for the owners. if anything outrageously exciting happens i'll be back before that. Current Mood: jubilant (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
1:27 pm	settled in. well, i've settled into the usual work stuff now. lots and lots of cleaning, sanding and varnishing, but i still enjoy the work strangely. i went to the monacco grand prix a week ago. it was amazing to see, though my seating left a little to be desired. i got the cheapest ticket i could get, which was on a hill, a big one at that. i had to do a wee bit of rock climbing to get to a little ledge that i perched myself on which had an ok view. the task was made a little more difficult as it was bucketing rain. pretty funny watching the less agile trying to tackle the slope and try to get up to similar spots as mine, pleanty of carnage to keep me occupied till the race started. the noise from those f1 cars is amazing, you can feel it in your chest, even though i was probably almost a kilometre from the track! the rain here made things difficult on the boat. it rained for a week or so, and as it was pretty windy the rain was full of red dust, which in turn caked the boat in red dust. i'm not talking just a little bit either, i'm saying it looked like someone had thrown a grenade of mud at the boat. and every time we cleaned it (approx 8 hours excluding the hull which takes about 2.5-3 hours) it would piss down this red rain again, highly frustrating trust me. the weather cleared up over the last 2 days so working in the sun and loving it! other than that not much else to report. there is a party on for yachting crew called splash which is on june 13. we managed to get free vip tickets (200 euro worth) so free bar and 1000 people attending so should be a cracker of a night! to add to that, ross, the dude i met at the running of the bulls is comming over for the party aswell. the joys of facebook hey. i'm meeting therese this weekend as she's over with her boyfriend (she's the canadian bird i was mates with in galway). anyways, be back to this when there is a bit more to report, but at the mo, life couldn't be better (well, much anyways) Current Mood: complacent (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
7:02 am	gainfullly employed! well, it took a bit of time, a lot of money and effort but i managed to land a job as a deck hand! i'm on a 45.7 metre power boat by the name of big d gibralter. i think i really landed on my feet with this one as i have heard some horror stories of arsehole captains and first mates etc but the crew on this boat are unreal! we have quite a mix on board, with phillipinos x 3, 2 americans, 2 english, a south african and me. we finished our first charter on wednesday here in cannes. the guests were from a film financing company called future films and we had some people from pepper productions aswell. on the most part they were lovely people, though there was one lady who was a mega snob, but thats not too bad i spose, 1 from 12. i have to say that the work was easy, though boring and required a 24 hour watch on the passerelle (gang plank). that meant that the most sleep i got in one block was 4 hours, most of the time though it was a 2 hour power nap here and there. i must say this now though, having all these movie types on board really opened my eyes to how full of shit these people are. i reckon if you collected all the turds from every porter loo for three years, that would be a pretty close indication of the amount of crap that one person could spill from their mouth in say a 25 minute session of talking shite. name dropping, laughing at things that weren't funny, trying to sound artistic and intelligent etc etc was pretty much crammed into every sentence that was spoken. on top of this there were movie hopefuls trying their hardest to get on board (as there was a guest list), whose crap levels had reached critical mass where they felt it necessary to bombard me with shit also. i think i got the "i'm tired of listening to your shit" look down pat by the end as most gave up after 5 mins, probably just enough time off load enough shit to get them to the next boat before they reached terminal shit levels again. anyways, the charter has finished now and i have the weekend off before we begin the hard work again. we have 3 week here in cannes before the next charter. i can't wait for the next one as we'll actually be leaving the port. i got my tip for the charter too, 1200 euros!! not bad for a weeks work hey! as far as the feswival here i haven't been in to see it yet. sharon stone was staying on the boat 2 down from me (owned by some fashion designer called roberto carvelli or something like that) so i got to see her a couple of times but didn't manage to get a picture of her. shes really showing her age now, i didn't realise it was her at first! anyways, the only other thing to put in here is that i've decided to head to monacco to watch the grand prix tomorrow! i'm super excited about that, though once again i'm going solo as none of my friends from antibes are keen due to cost. only half of the crew have managed to land work so far, things are still tough here i tell you as far as work, though from all accounts girls are landing work really easily! well, i think that brings things up to date in the adventures of steveo, so i'll leave this for now and repost some time soon after the gp. salut.. oh, just remembered something else cool to add, the boat i'm on is owned by the dude who wrote "the A team" and renegades! fingers crossed i get to meet mr T, the crazy fool :) Current Mood: ecstatic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
1:22 pm	made it! here i am! this keyboard is french so i won`t make this a long entry as its bloody hard to find the keys to type. i got hopelessly lost on the way to antibes. it was pretty funny i guess, but it was a little stressful. i missed the bus stop for antibes and the driver didn't speak english but pointed back down the road to show me that i had gone too far. i got off and went into a supermarket and asked directions to the hostel i wanted and got a few surprised looks. the manager shook his head and told me to stay at the shop. i didn't know where i was heading so i stayed until the shop closed (20 mins or so) then he got me into his car and drove me to the hostel!!! glad i didn't walk cause it was a good 15 min drive and in the middle of nowhere! the people there are all doing the same thing as me and we've all bonded pretty well. its good as everyone here is looking out for eachother and helping eachother whenever they can. the hostel is a good 40 min walk out of antibes so not ideal. i've registered with a lot of angencies now and have the docks to walk so its a matter of luck and timing now. we organised some alternate accomodation now which begins in 3 weeks. its half the price of the hostel, only 20 mins walk to the docks and town, has a kitchen and pool, and there are only 5 people in each room. its a hotel so is regularly cleaned for us too! so i'm moving in with a kiwi, english guy, an aussie and a saffa, quite a mix huh! antibes itself is beautiful, it really is. everything is super expensive here though so i'm pretty keen to start work as soon as possible. the season has started very late this year due to bad weather which sux cause there are a lot of people here and not much work to go around. hopefully things will pick up soon. jess troup came to visit me yesterday which was very cool, its always great to see a familiar face. well, thats as much as i will write for nowcase this keyboard is killing me, but i'll be sure to keep this posted. i'm going to pop up to monacco in the next couple of days to check the work situation there and maybe cannes and nice aswell, can't hurt. well, catch you later! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
11:39 am	allez la blu well, i'm pretty close to d-day now! i'm in london at the moment and leave for france on wednesday. to be brutally honest i'm pretty nervous about it all. i'm giving myself 2 weeks to get income comming in, no matter what kind of work it ends up being. one of the agencies have been really good so far so i'm hoping that after meeting them they will be able to hook me up with something. the course i did was great for the last three days. the practical day of fire fighting was unreal! they had an iron model of the insides of a ship that they set fire to one of the compartments and we had to go in donning the full fire fighting kit including self contained breathing apparatus and everything! it was about 130 degrees celcius in the room that had the fire (it was a real fire set to wood pallets, not gas) so we had to hose the ladder so it was cool enough to climb down without setting our gloves on fire! the next day was personal survival which was held in a pool with life boats etc so that was a good fun day too. i've enjoyed seeing the crew in london, though it has changed quite substantially since i was last here. over half of them have left london now so there are a few new faces getting about. so now i guess the new phase begins! i have to try and book some accomodation somewhere in antibes. i called the crew housing but they are full, and said i should call when i get in in case someone gets sent out which will free up space! i really don't want to be taking those kinda chances so will try to book the one and only hostel in antibes for a few nights. if they're full i could be sleeping it rough for a couple of nights cause the hotels in antibes are about €150 per night, and i really can't afford that! anyways, i'm going to head now, the next update will be in france! might be catching up with lucas's sister jess in france too which would be unreal, be nice to see a familiar face to calm the nerves a bit! anyways au revior and i'll be back to hopefully rub it in how i have an amazing job on a super yacht earning heaps. if not i might be on a plane home with the tail between the legs... Current Mood: nervous (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
4:40 pm	nervous! well, my time in ireland has come to an end. what a year huh! i'm pretty worried about this move but scotty batterham has helped me lots, thanks heaps mate! i had my farewell last night which was pretty crap. we had it at kierans place and had a bbq as an aussie style send off. nelly was very cold to me (as antonio pointed out this morning) and it was picked up by a lot of people there. i really don't know what the deal was but it hurts lots and put a bad buzz on my night. i left the party at about 11 or 12 as everyone was sitting around watching youtube videos, not really my idea of a party to be honest. we have 2 new people that have moved in, and they had the biggest domestic i've ever seen. there was a lot of screaming, punching, kicking holes in doors, and even biting/bleeding. so i guess my final horah in ireland was a mega anti-climax. shame, but i still have loved this place. so now its off to southampton tomorrow to begin the course, then to london on the 26th-30th, then to nice on the 30th. from there i have to catch a bus to antibes where i will have the fingers crossed that everything falls into place and i'll be happy as a pig in s***, or more accurately steve in the sea! well, still a little down at the minute about everything (as far as leaving and nelly etc) so will leave it here for now and get myself geared up and excited about this next move. new beginnings, new adventures, new friends and hopefully this could be the beginning of an entirely new life. au revior (or something like that) Current Mood: contemplative (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 17th, 2008
10:53 am	happy paddys day! hey there dudes, just a quick entry this time. its paddys day in ireland today! sorta bummed though cause all my mates are elsewhere and mark didn't stumble in from work today till 8 am ha ha. needless to say he's in no shape to be having a celebratory pint. nelly (the german gal) has been keeping her distance over the last little while. i think that it might be so my departure from ireland won't be too painful. sucks cause i want to spend all the time i can with her to make the most of what we have left, but i guess it makes it easier to move on. oh well, i guess life goes on, the world ain't going to stand still for me. i've got an email from lucas that i keep that always puts a smile on my face, so i guess i'll immortalise it in the journal now so i'll always have it. jesus that kid is a class act!!!! here it is! Hey Stevo, Im slowly getting the hang of this facebook buisness.Cant rush these things you know. I tried to give you a ring the other night but failed miserably.The phone booth was half buried in snow and my fingers were partially frozen and as you know Im not terribly bright. Oh well. You would have been proud of me the other night though.It was the second night in our new house which is flash but very small and our new flat mates were having a bit of a party.The whole house was packed full of people who were generally nice enough but mostly ski instructors and certainly more refined and stylish than the company I usually keep. Anyway after a significant amount of duty free bundy an explosive bowel movement suddenly came apon me. I hobbled outside only to be illuminated by a sensor light just before i dropped me dacks.No worries I thought and went to the far corner of the back yard where the nieghbours sensor light came on. It seemed I had no option but to go indoors.Inbetween blasts of hot liquid shit there were chicks knocking on the door enquiring about my intended length of stay which at the time was most unfortunate as there was no fan or dunny spray.I tried rubbing shampoo in my hands and waving them around but it was to no avail.Meagan tried to warn them that I was most likely doing a shit and that it would be wise to not only refrain from entering but clear the area but they didnt believe that anybody would do such a thing.When I finally came out one chick went straight in to take a slash but didnt stay long and emerged looking most upset and declared loudly oh my god he just dropped a bomb in there. As you can imagine the smell and upset looks and comments spread quickly through the small house and the new aussie guy was not very popular, especially with the ladies. Anyway all the best mate, let us know what your up to if you get a chance and Ill give that phone card another go one of these days. Current Mood: melancholy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
1:06 pm	and then... hey ya, things here are still going fairly well i guess. i'll start with what has been going on on the job front. after finishing up at the toy store i was back out on the job market, something that increasingly sux on an exponential scale depending on how long you have to look. anyways, the agency came through for me with a data entry job. not the most exciting and was a 20 min bus ride followed by 15-20 min walk (depending on how hard it was raining). that was a three week contract but unfortunately i didn't pace the work very well so finished all they had for me in two weeks. back on the job market again (nb increasing sux scale). the agency wasn't coming up with anything at all for me so i took it into my own hands and applied to everything in galway pretty much, junior accountant jobs, and anything that i wasn't skilled at aswell as things i do know. in the end after 2 weeks of this the first call came in for working as a charity fundraiser in the street. i though, why the hell not, its a paying job, can't be that bad. anyways i took the job and did the training etc, then donned my bright yellow jacket and hit the streets of galway with tremendous enthusiasm, i mean, who wouldn't want to give their bank details to some twit jumping around in a bright yellow jacket right?? it was a good cause, but i know from my experience that if you see that you take a very, very wide berth. so after a week of abuse, freezing and all in all shitty work i had decided that maybe that wasn't a career path for me. anyways, while that was all going on turner (matt, the guy i lived with in newcastle) rocked up in ireland for a visit. so after finishing my less than successful job i decided i'd show him the toystore i previously worked at. the manager saw me come in and called me over immediately. i though i might have broken some sort of rule about ex-employees comming in or something, but instead he asked if i was working. after telling him i had finished the day before, he asked me to come back! turns out a "friendly" game of soccer between the lads resulted in a broken foot for one dude and keyhole surgery on the knee for another. good timing hey! so now i've come full circle in galway and have settled back into the swing of things at the toystore. also while matt was here we took a little trip to connemarra. its a really beautiful area near here, and one of the only places that they still speak gaelic. was nice to see the castles around here as well as the scenic landscape and learn about mystical irish creatures like the water horse (thats right, but not like the recent movie, more like a gigantic eel with a horses head). brillant tour guide too so well worth it! on aussie day over here we celebrated in true aussie fashion. strangely enough the drukest man at the pub was my canadian friend nate, despite concerted efforts from mark, myself and the other aussies there. anyways, a couple of the old crew from the toystore joined in the festivities. long story short i sort of got a girlfriend out of it! her name is nelly, and she is german (love the accent i gotta say, german irish!!). i know i promised myself a million times not to get attached to anyone while i was away, but i guess it happens. its only been a month, and already not entirely plain sailing for various reasons, however i really like this one. that has thrown a spanner in the works though. i'm left now with a conundrum as to what the hell i'm supposed to do. i have to leave ireland by 18/04/08. i am going to do the yacht course etc, but really don't want to call it quits just yet with nelly. what a pain hey! anyways, theres still some time and i know anything can happen in a couple of weeks so i guess i'll have to wait and see, as well as look at possible options (don't worry, marriage ain't one of them :)) just to finish off, i hear that the aussie summer was crap. in fact that is all i seem to be hearing from you guys over there! well it snowed here yesterday, followed by 50 km/ph winds, then pissed down rain with a top temperature of 3 degrees all day!! so its not summer here, but last summer here the top temperature was about 21, and in 148 days there were 3 days without rain. so thats enough bitching and whining out of you lot, your not even in the ball park of shit weather!! final note, farewell to aaron and kylie. lovely to have met them. we had a wee party at their place for the farewell (nelly couldn't attend cause she was sick). there are a few tagged photos on facebook for those who want to have a squiz. i'll get my arse in gear and post my pics too in the comming weeks. till next time be safe guys and gals!!!!! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
4:51 pm	10 weeks later! man i've been a busy little beever for the last while. where to start... i've settled down in galway now for the rest of my stay in ireland. i love this place, has to be my favourite place outside of oz! mark and i have moved into a flat in the very centre of the city so i now have my own room for the first time in probably over a year! i landed a job after 3 weeks of looking in Smyths. its a toystore in galway and around the country. i was taken on on a temporary contract for the xmas period. it was absolute madness! i started work most days at 2pm and finished up usually around 4am. my longest day was a saturday working from 11am till 5:30 am the following morning!! that job is ending for me on friday. they let go virtually everyone, but asked me to stay on. the main reason i turned them down was the money. its minimum wage and they could only give me 35 hours a week which wouldn't quite cut the mustard so i'm back to the drawing board. i contacted the health and safety authority to see if there were any openings in the galway office, worth a try i spose. i called the visa office who said that i'm not supposed to go back to muy old job, but they have heard of people doing it but they can't say that i'm allowed if you get my drift so if i can get in to the hsa again thats where i will be heading. other than that there isn't much to report. i can't remember if i mentioned that i went to see the cliffs of moher here but i did. was pretty impressive though you couldn't spend too long there. our tour guide was a real old bloke called desmond. he spoke just like a darlect from dr who, and repeated everything he said twice. it was hysterical and i have it on my camera to prove ha ha. other than that things here are good. i've met some really nice people (nate, mel, theresa, aaron, kylie, trista, rob, aoife (pronounced eefa) and a few more) but haven't done a great deal apart from work and sleep for the last couple of months. well, hope everyone had a nice xmas and new years. i spent mine with the crew and nates parents which was nice. new years was average though, not much of a craic there. ok, well i finally got in and did this journal, one more thing to knock off the list!! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
3:11 pm	in galway hey there guys and dolls, i've made it to galway now. stalky jarred and dallas came over from london and hired a car so i hitched a ride down to galway. i had farewell drinks from work on friday the 26th, but it was a poor turn out (of work mates), lucky i had the cavalry in the form of kate, breanne, lisa, stalk, joe, jarred, dallas, mark and all the frenchies so not a bad night anyways. i've been spending all of the last couple of days getting aquainted with galway. caught up with olive (from work) here which was good, few drinks to be had there. i'm living in a backpackers now, kinlay house. not a bad joint, pretty small room for 6 blokes. other than that not heaps to report. just doing the usual job hunting. have a limp still but am mobile which is a plus. i've added a bunch of photo's from the tour to facebook if your interested in having a squiz! catch ya on the employed side (i hope) (1 Comment |Comment on this)