Well now that summer is over and I've officially been back at uni a month, I found myself reflecting over my summer and what I actually did. Here goes:

• Managed to go to the beach at least once a week, even pushing it to three one week.
  • Benji, Jess, Yeatsie and Kyle were the normal crew with a few special guests including Cameron, Yank, Amy and Adam.
  • We discovered that there is nothing like going to the beach early (ie. 7am).
  • Main Beach the most solid beach, North Burleigh produces the biggest waves and North Surfers occasionally good for a paddle. Coast
  • Coastwatch is a good guide to swells and conditions, but not bulletproof
• I was introduced to the game of poker.
  • To date, I'm $32 ahead
• I started to play guitar
  • I'm still terrible
  • In time your fingers really do stretch though so stringing some notes together now isn't as hard as it once was, but I'm still no Mustaine.
• I went to Sydney with Mel and Benji to watch Tool play and have a holiday
  • I'm glad it happened. I now know that it's about $500 to see a band in Sydney
  • I went to a strip club, no cover charge
  • I don't think Benji, Mel and I has 0 BAC the entire time we were there
  • We learnt that cask wine is terrible
  • I randomly hooked up (unsure?) with a 26yo British backpacker
  • The Empire Hotel was awesome
  • Benji and Mel learnt not to doubt my navigator ways
  • Mel and Benji loved to bicker about money that one fateful night
  • Mel and I were ready to destroy Benji if he said one more quote
  • Bondi Beach isn't all that great
  • Return tickets on transport doesn't exist in Sydney
  • The Harbour Bridge is well, a bridge. The Opera House is, well, put it this way, if she was a girl a club, you'd call her a DDW
  • The Tool show was great!
  • Utopia is CD heaven (sorry Mel and Benji)
  • The Cambridge Quality Comfort Inn wasn't what we expected.
• I managed to continue and then stop my CD collection at the magical 199 mark. Megadeth's new album (United Abominations, May 15th) will be my 200th.
  • I have saved alot of money by abstaining from CD's!
  • I have rediscovered some bands that had been forgotten in my CD buying spree, aka Dungeon, Pantera and Lacuna Coil.
• I completed a Bar Course and obtained my RSA
  • I still haven't got a job to utilise it yet
• I discovered a range of different bourbons, from McK, Southern Comfort, Woodstock, Jim Beam/Black, Black Douglas, Cougar and Wild Turkey
  • Black Douglas and Cougar are terrible
  • Southern Comfort isn't much better
  • McK is a nice smooth drop, along with Jim Beam Black
  • Woodstocks are dead cheap, go down easy and sofar I've had a 100% happy drunk success rate with them
  • Jim Beam has a nice taste, just below Woodstock for me
• Eating out is fun
  • Hogs Breath gets two thumbs up
  • Need to do it more often!
• The Shack maintenance and improvements kept me busy every other week
• The Group website and various web projects entertained me until midway through December.
  • Don't worry, I've started getting back into it, a new version will be released this year, in fact, I'm using an alpha version to type this blog.
  • The most frequent bloggers would have to be Amy and Benji .
  • Mel , Kyle and Yank take the cake for laziness, I'm not far behind.
  • Danman's blogs were entertaining 100% of the time.
  • One of Amy's articles was discovered by Google and has since had discussion by randoms
• Enjoyed many weekends out on the town clubbing
  • Yeats, Kyle and Benji were the normal crew.
  • I tagged along every so often, Adam even less so and Yank even less then that
• I got myself a 30GB Ipod, it's pretty cool
• I discovered a bunch of random TV now that the OC is gone (tear)
  
  • My Name is Earl is a great show, watch it.
  • The Biggest Loser keeps Cameron and I entertained every weeknight
  • LOST confuses me, but I'm interested enough that I'll probably rent the first two seasons so I have some clue
  • Bondi Rescue isn't a bad show
  • Rewatching That 70's Show is definitely worth it
• I joined two websites that I think people could benefit from, 43things and last.fm
  • Amy , Kyle and Cameron agree with me.

That's about it, I'll add to it as I remember. OaO

Addictions are fascinating mainly because everyone has got one. Everyone has that skeleton in the closet that they keep hidden away and secretly (or not so secretly) practice. Most people immediately think of destructive addictions (not to defend addiction as a healthy habit), such as drugs or alcohol, but more often then not addictions form in smaller, more niche areas, such as lust or desire.

My demons often break free in times of weakness, such as when I'm drunk, or my day as been as enjoyable as stabbing myself in the eye with a rusty fork. It's always subconscious though, well, initially and then it just crosses my mind, 'wait, did I just think that? fuck!' and then before I know it, I'm trying to pretend it didn't happen, or trying justify it in my mind.

It's always the same cycle, the addiction sucks you in like a cheap advertising campaign with conditions so small you'd need The Hubble to read them, and then it spits you back out with little more then a fleeting memory and vision of what should of been. Should of been to whom? The mind is amazing, show it shit and it'll give you flowers. It's always hard to remember that in the heat of the moment though, but somehow, it's never that hard when your lying in bed at night, wishing you could go back and punch yourself repeatedly until some sort of sense lodged in your head.

It's more of a ballbreaker when you think your cured though; you think you've overcome your addiction, put the demons back into their place so to speak, risen above the ashes of your burnt out soul and ready to move on, a better man. It's ugly when you realise you've done nothing but bury it under a thin layer of bullshit lies and denial. Who's to blame? We rarely blame ourselves, it's easier passing the buck to someone else or putting your actions as the result of someone else's choices.

Once burnt, forever scarred, how much scar tissue can you handle? 

Firstly, the traditional Happy New Years must be said, accompanied with a thirty word or less spiel about how life is short and your only as strong as your weakest link so have a ball in 2007. Now that's out of the way, my new years could only of been bettered by having more mates enjoying the experience instead of all being spilt up across Brisbane!

All week I have been tossing up with what to do for New Years and I wasn't too fussy, I just wanted to be with all the group. It didn't go to plan as we had everyone off doing their own thing, which isn't bad, I just wanted to spend it with everyone. In the end, I decided to go with Kyle, Benji and Cameron to our mate's party at Ashgrove. It had promise, 60+ people on the invite list and MAXIMUM models were meant to be part of that list. So the night started at about 5.45 when Benji's nan picked me up carrying our supplies, a 6pk of Canadian Club and McK.

Kyle and Cam had started early, so they were almost finished their bottle of Canadian Club and were ready to start on their carton as we rocked up. We chilled here for about an hour, eating sausages and using our creative wits to invision new extensions for The Shack. Kyle's mum got home and within 20 minutes we were on the road to the party. With Kyle being heavily trashed, we are lucky the boat got to Ashgrove as his mum wasn't too impressed with him.

Eventually we got to the party and prospects looked great, for the first time in, forever, the chicks outnumbered the guys! With everyone's chances higher then normal, Cameron took one for the team when he loudly asked, 'Where's all the guys?' I think immediately every girl there forgot Cameron and replaced it with, 'Gay Fat Guy'. Poor buddy, no matter how hard he tried to convice them otherwise, his grave just got deeper and deeper. The night progressed, more people came and more alcohol was drunk and as usual the Runcorn boys took home the 'Most Smashed Award', something we initially won at Tiana's 17th at Cleveland and I don't think we have lost it yet.

Moments before 10pm I was informed by Benji that Kyle had called his mum (aka, our lift home) to get him because he was too trashed. I was dissapointed, it left three men on the boat and his was going to spend New Year's passed out at home. His mum called me saying she wouldn't be far away so me and Benji got him out onto the street waiting for his mum. When she pulled up we tried to put Kyle into the front seat and send him on his way. Kyle had other ideas and started swinging blind punches at me and Benji and just raged up in general. His mum had to stop the car and help me and Benji get him onto the back seat. Once inside the car he went nuts, like a tiger in a cage, then the drunkness kicked in again and he passed out.

We went back to the party and I think I ventured upstairs to raid the kitchen for food with Cooke. I returned with pita biscuits and then shared the love around. The night gets a bit blurry here, but we met Ms Black's daughter (teacher from Runcorn) and I met some stupid girl who I labelled as jailbait (fair call, 16yo at a 18yo+ party). This came back to bit me in the ass later, well to an extent, in hindsight I should of manned up and said suck it.

However, came midnight, I did come up trumps, with not one, but two chicks! Gold! It was the element of randomness as I don't know their names and didn't get any numbers. Perfect. 2007 started with alot of promise. After the hooking up, the girls ordered a taxi to take me and Benji into the Valley to continue our midnight romping. The taxi arrived, me and Benji jumped in and then our mate instincts kicked in and we bailed because we were leaving Cameron behind. The girls got snappy, called us gay or something because we were staying behind for the 'Gay Fat Guy'. Bros before hoes

We went back to the party, and then lost Cameron somewhere so spent the rest of the night trying to find him. Halfway through our quest, I was approached by jailbait's friends who were ready to flatten me for calling her jailbait. Was fucking funny, now and then. Who the fuck gets worked up over being called jailbait. Absolutely fucking hopeless, it's more of a compliment then anything but these dudes with shit for brains obviously didn't see that, they just let words fuel their 'oh so manly' fists. After Benji being a bit of a mediator, it all faded away and we proceeded to begin mission "Let's get the fuck out of here". We searched for Cameron for another 20 minutes, and although we felt like deserters we started to leave Ashgrove in favour of The Valley.

As we were walking away from the party we found a body lying in the gutter, low and behold, it was Cameron! He was wasted, he wasn't responding to any movements or voices. He was absolutely smashed and dead to the world. I waved down a car who just happened to be trying to find the party we were just at. In return for directions they helped us roll Cameron into the recovery position and then phoned the ambulance for assistance. Thanks to the ambo's giving us directions we managed to get him to wake up, sit up and then walk around a bit. We said our thanks and then united we began the trek into The Valley. Dozens of "Happy New Year's", 6.5kms and just over an hour later, we were at Brunswick Street mall where we meet up with Amy! Me and Benji decided to let loose a bit here, so we dumped Cameron with Amy and ran to the Mustang Bar.

We made it in with minutes to spare and then absolutely shell shocked that we were here, proceeded to get some drinks and just chill on the side of the dance floor. We couldn't believe what just happened, the night had gone from Ashgrove to the Mustang Bar. We completed both our plan and our backup plan in one night! I reconed a can of Canadian Club into the Mustang Bar, so after our drinks I was feeling really shitty. We grooved around for a bit and then headed out to the bus stop to get home. We couldn't be fucked waiting for the bus, so decided to grab Macca's.

This turned to be one of the best decisions of the night. The quarter pounder meal was the best thing I've ever eaten. So warm, so juicy, the sauce, just perfect and the chips! The chips were fantastic! It was heaven, sent down in little portions and packaged by Macca's. So damn good. Anyway, we got the bus home, I was a drunken fool but entertained people nonetheless and then we saw Dani's workmate Blake at the Casino bus stop. I don't think he knew who we were, but we were making alot of handsignals and gestures so I'm pretty sure he saw us!

Our bus finally arrived at Garden City to which we saw Cameron and Amy who was a little upset cause Loren ditched her and walked off. Drunken caring Brendo shined like a lighthouse and called in his Dad to pick him up and take Amy home. Benji did that same with his pa and before I knew it, I was crawling into bed with my bottle of water!

OaO