Perth

The new and improved backpacker version of Danielle.

Living quarters at Penner's, it would have been impossible to cram more people in this little room.

Perth in all its glory.

Sometime during the final minutes of the Australia-Japan match, no idea what I'm trying to accomplish here, but I do know that at this point I was well on my way to the hangover I'm now nursing.

Danielle and I flew back down to Sydney the day after my last update. We went out one last time with her buddy from home Hollie, who showed us a bit more of the city. The next morning Dani flew back to Vancouver and left me all alone at the airport... I found my way back to Penner's place after scoring a ride with some people from Edmonton and adjusted back to being a lone backpacker. Stayed at Penner's cramped little apartment for two fun nights before flying to Perth. My original plan of travelling to Alice Springs (central Australia) then up to Darwin and down to Perth were squashed when I realized just how bloody expensive this country was. The travel agent came up with a really good deal on a flight to Perth that left the next day so I decided to jump on it. I'm now where I expected to be in about 2-3 weeks and no idea what to do from here seeing as everything costs a small fortune. I'm slowly but sadly coming to terms with the same fact that everyone else in the hostel has which is that it's a whole lot cheaper to just hang out in Perth and watch the World Cup than it is to actually do anything. I stayed at an extremely boring, dull hostel before finally picking up my bags and travelling across town to a new one. Went out last night to watch what we figured would be the crushing defeat of Australia against Japan, but were pleasantly surprised with the opposite. We celebrated the victory with a few cocktails. Luckily for me that wasn't the only major upset in sports last night. Sometime in the middle of the game I decided to join the Perth 8-ball pool tournament against my better judgement. There were forty or so players, some with their own cues and shooting gloves and everything else that made them look quite superior to yours truly. A small recap of the event as I can recall from my blurry memory:

Game #1 - Not sure who this guy was, but he somehow sucked even worse than I did and after both missing a few hundred shots, I finally ended up the victor.

Game #2 - This guy was damn good. I was perfectly set up to lose after not having sunk a single ball, when the moron mistakes the 8 ball for one of his purple ones (theres orange and dark purple balls, first person to sink their colour, then the 8 ball wins the match) and sinks it, therein securing my victory. It was in this round that the guy I was there with, Dan (who was the reigning champion), lost to a hotshot Brasilian with slick backed hair, who wore a special shooting glove and had his own ornate pool cue, more about him later.

Game #3 - Was now just laughing at the fact that I had made it to round 3 (and that Dan hadn't) and continued to celebrate with pitchers of beer. The competition was getting fierce now and all the crap players (except for me) had been weeded out of the tournament. This was yet another game where I played exceptionally poor, having only sunk one ball while my competition had had his way with the pool table. Luckily for me he sunk the cue ball whilst trying to sink the 8 ball at the very end, so he lost, onto round 4!

Game #4 - This game was against another buddy, a guy named James from Sudan (probably the first and last Sudanese traveller I'll ever meet...). James is an incredibly skilled player, who unfortunately had bet $400 on the assured Japanese world cup victory and it was during our game that Australia scored the quick 2 goals that won them the match. This angered James greatly and unfortunately affected his game to the point that I was actually able to beat him, or rather it was another case of him beating himself by constantly sinking the cue ball and giving me more chances. It took a damn long time, but I eventually beat him, somehow.

Game #5 - The Grand Finale - Having no idea why I was even still in the tournament, let alone playing for the grand prize, I turned to face my opposition, the Brasilian with the slick backed hair who had defeated Dan. I knew it would be trouble when he took his jacket off to reveal his lucky Ronaldo jersey and calmly slipped on his black shooting glove. The next 10 minutes were a complete black out for me. I don't know if it was the roar of the crowd cheering for me while making sidebets, the celebrations of the Australian soccer team on TV, or just the incredible amount of Victoria Bitter I'd consumed. I awoke from the trance having somehow beaten the guy, it was kind of like that scene from Old School where Will Farrell does the debate. Apparently I made some fantastic trick shots that won me the game, at one point prompting the DJ to mutter into the microphone, "my god the Canadian guy is amazing", I have no recollection of any of this, but I'm sure it happened.

I quickly secured my prize (a 24 pack of Toohey's Extra Dry) and retired to a nearby park with my fanclub to hold a celebration. Woke up this morning feeling all the effects...

Anyhow, that went on for much longer than expected, so I'll cut it off here. Still have no idea where I'll be headed from here, and I may just stay in Perth to save money, who knows!