I don’t really care what gay people think of straight people supporting them, and I don’t really care what bigots think of me. But to me, everyone is entitled to get married. It’s a right, not a privilege. Who is to say that love between a man and a man is any different and less significant than the love between a man and a woman? How can anyone devalue love all together? How can you remove the right to get married from a person who loves someone who just happens to be the same sex as they are?

We’re all told we should love one another, and when we do we’re told that we can’t marry that person because of their race, religion or sexuality. I think if God was real, he would want us to love each other. Sure, he made the man and woman so they could “breed”, but even if they loved someone of the same sex, wouldn’t he be happy that his children just found someone to love and be loved? Isn’t that all we really want in this life?

I thought if California would vote No on Prop 8, disallowing same sex couples to be legally married, it would be a step forward for the Western world. Two steps forward, 10000 steps back - hey California?

i cry. i get angry easily. i get hurt easily. maybe everyone else does but they hide it incredibly well, i’m not sure. me? if i can’t get it under control in a second, i’ll make you wish i never had a mouth. or even a brain.

i don’t really know what i’m getting at here, i suppose it’s been a rough week. nothing seems to be stopping and standing still for even a second. not even in my sleep. i feel mentally exhausted and everything i say and everything i do feels fake - like i’m putting on a mask so no one will pay too much attention to me. normal, yes. i’ve had those days. but not for a long time. it’s almost like i forgot how to handle being in the gutter.

maybe i’ll wake up tomorrow and things will be some form of “normal”.

and maybe my legs will stop swelling.

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Let me ask you something. Did you read all of those? If yes, then you were like me about a year ago. Keen on reading and learning everything I could about my trade. If you said no, then you are me today – tired and frustrated with the endless crap that is put out there on the interwebs.

Lists are something that get people interested because they present an easy alternative to reading a whole block of text that people get turned off by. It is an ongoing trend that should have seen the light of day yesterday – yes I want to read things now and if I want to learn something I want to learn it now. I want to read things that people really have to say, their advice – not in a list. I want to be able to get in depth information on it because if I want to learn something, I will read whatever is there so I do.

Sometimes I question the integrity of those who do write lists – their posts are mostly unoriginal. It is unoriginal information or screen shots that have been seen all over. I think it’s great that many will love a design or technique but is there a need to regurgitate something that’s already been seen many times before?

I have been guilty of writing lists but realized straight away it is a gimmick. It’s not natural to write an article in such a way unless you’re writing a step by step or a plan. They’re just cheap shots at getting some undeserved traffic – believing that compiling huge ridiculous lists will get them the visits they want from people who don’t know any better.

I hope in the very near future this fad will die out and people will start writing articles like they used to – with integrity and originality. Really offering something to their visitors other than just regurgitated crap. Is tomorrow too soon?

It’s usually just couples fucking on stage, usually to some song. It’s the strangest thing. It’s choreographed sex to music. And at some point I felt completely strange as we were sitting in a normal theatre - one which you would excpect to be playing movies. But this one had couples fucking. And you sat in areas where the term “leg room” wasn’t taken into consideration. You had to sort of sit down as the chair was going down.

Later on as I was getting familar and comfortable, I was pulled up on stage along with another girl on my contiki tour to dance with a male stripper. I didn’t want to go obviously and I felt embarassed. But I could not stop laughing. I thought it was so hilarious! The highlight was apparently rubbing sunscreen on this guy with my middle fingers instead of his requested palms. Everyone in the audience thought this was hilarious and so far on this trip when anyone on the tour is about to give the middle finger they yell out my name and display it proudly as though I gave these people a gift.

Afterwards, a small group of us followed Roger’s lead into various coffee shops and bars around the red light district, getting stoned and drunk. At first, we had gone to this coffee shop that was the opposite of the Grass Hopper, totally local and probably infested with HIV. The staircase was a death trap in this place. You needed health insurance just to go up and down the damn thing. The steps were incredibly narrow and they were no problem getting up. Once we spent about an hour smoking the best weed we’d had in ages, it was a mission to get down without your face meeting the floor.

We spent the next day looking all over the town, despite our contiki manager claiming that Amsterdam is basically a ghost town on Sundays. Every shop was open (including 10,000 H&M’s) and there were people offering horse rides and all that crap. The variety of stores… it makes me wonder why Perth cannot get shops like these.

We began by exploring Anne Frank’s house which was quite interesting. The whole house was done up very well, like the house had been before Frank’s family was captured. In various rooms, it was cold and dark and again we had the dangerous stair cases popping up every now and again.

Later on in the evening, we went on a cruise through the canals. It was such a fun time, we all did shots, drank, waved to a bunch of friendly (or weirded out) locals/tourists and danced until it was pitch black. I didn’t want it to end but it seemed as though my alchol intake would end it earlier than I’d like!

After the cruise, we went on the prowl again back to a coffee shop that we had been to the night before and had loved as it was right on the canal. For the first time in my life, I got so incredibly stoned that I fell backwards whilst asking the bartended to unlock the bathroom door for me.

After Amsterdam, we made our way to Berlin. I had been soo excited about Athens that I had forgotted about all the Nazi history that I was looking forward to viewing and of course, other history.

For some reason, I can’t think of what we did the day we got there but the day after (ooooh that’s right we had dinner at this outdoor beer garden. Lots of fun!) we did a walking tour. The guide covered a lot of German history and it was interesting, but just like any of these things, it can be kind of boring. I mean sure, the history is interesting but all you’re doing is walking, stopping, listening and looking. Then you get bored and look around while the guide is still talking.

Later on, we did a night tour. We had gone back on the tour and looked at areas near sections of the Berlin wall. The night tour quickly turned into an alcohol tour and we left early to save our wallets and livers.

The day after Berlin, we drove on over to Prague…

Oh, be right back. I just gotta check on the landry!

En route, we had stopped off at Helen’s place to get our stuff and drop off some more crap that we had acquired from our Wacken and Athenian adventures. Very nice that she let us drop her stuff there but I felt bad because I didn’t know how to flush her toilet properly and thought I somehow broke it. Seriously, it had nothing to do with feces.

On arriving to our Hotel which was the Royal National, we were running very close to being late to our contiki meeting. Tip of the day: Never ever miss your night before contiki tour meeting. You may think it’s really annoying but it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

After the meeting, we went and grabbed dinner at Gourmet Burger (GB, smart). At first, I couldn’t get over how generally expensive things were in comparison to the australian dollar. Today the aussie dollar is buying 48 pence so it’s not as bad as this time last year.

The hotel was extremely stuffy, and yet again there is no fan. It’s like hoteliers don’t realise that a lot of people coming to their hotel’s are not from the local area and therefore do like some sort of climate control things. We’re not Londoners who enjoy feeling the heat of Cairns every day of the year.

There is no airconditioner and the room is way too hot and stuffy. Normally, this is not a problem but when you are only given a quilt to sleep with and no top sheet it can get very uncomfortable very quickly. It doesn’t really equate to a good night’s sleep. Especially if your room faces the busy street where apparently so many crimes and heart attacks are occuring that sirens must wail loudly throughout the night.

There was even no fan in the toilet (again! Note: in europe, yo shit don’t stink!). This is one of the features we are beginning to find a lot of in this place.

Let me tell you. a lot of hotels do not have a fan in the bathroom which is a really bad idea - especially if you just do a huge stinking dump. How about a 13 hour flight with bad Asian food? What about if you’ve just got the runs? Yeah… maybe the idea of a fan is sounding a lot better to you now.

So after London, we drove to Amsterdam. it was a long drive that involved taking the ferry through the channel to Calais.

…. right now I am not into this so I will just do points.
1. I got queasy on the ferry. Yes.
2. Amsterday - went to a sex show, danced with a male stripper, awesome hotel and got stoned. Of course.
3. Berlin - Awesome day and night tour, great architecture. Lots of history. Just a wonderful place.

AMEN.

Traveling around athens for th epast few days has led me to believe certain things about their homeland.
1. There are more billaboards for cigarettes and alcohol condensed in such a small area that I have ever seen. It makes smoking and alcohol as vital as food and air.
2. People still feel it’s ok to smoke in your face. Apparently asthma has not been discovered in Athens yet.
3. You can smoke practically everywhere. That’s right. Even in your coffin.
4. They like to start hourses and then leave the skeletal structure long enough for it to be covered in grqfitti.
5. They automatically speak to  you in Greek unless you say “hello” and even then, they think you’re weird.
6. A main meal is big enough for 4 people. 4 THIN people. A fat fuck like the one behind me would eat that and her kid’s dinner.
7. Waiters don’t come back to ask if you would like something more to drink throughout your meal and take forever to get the bill.

There are some kids on this flight who need to be killed. Row 38 seats H&K. Obviously spoilt brats who talk to their parents like they are shit but they may as well deserve it for giving their kids everything they want all the time.

Here’s a general tip, as much as I like having people make my bed and give me fresh towels when I come back from a day of doing nothing - I hate to see my shit all tidied up. I do. It’s weird and I don’t know why I hatge it. I think it has stemmed from when my mother used to clean up my room and put everything in neat little piles just so she could see enough table top to clean it. But then of course, i couldn’t find anything and I used to get really pissed off.

Well now I kindg got a problem with people touching my shit in general. Because one day in HK, Roger and I decided to get some fruit to take a break from the crap we had been eating. Of course we had no knives or anything to cut the fruit with we bought a cheap $2 knife. We left it on a bench in the room. After coming back one day it was gone. The fucking bitch ass maid stole our knife! Oh well, it was only 2 bucks.

Fast forward to HK aurport a day later. We are flying to London. We go through security. They check Roger’s bag because what appears to be in there is a knife. Well that was a bit of a collar pulling situation. The maid had for some reason, put it in his back pack. Thankfully security joked about it, and Roger gave them the knife after they asked him if he would be needing it. No harm done but it could have been a lot worse.

25 mins to London. Cannot wait for customs.

One of the other guys started vividly describing a dream in which he was being raped and humbed by big fluffy rabbits. I soon realised that this sounded a lot more funny in a German accent than an Aussie accent. Justt like everything else. Why is that? Not too sure!

We spent yesterday doing a tour of the city and all (most) of the ancient Athenian sites. I was so excited to just know that the places I was walking through were the same places that Pericles, Thucydides or even Socrates once walked. The tour took us to the stadium where the first modern day Olympics were held We then had a drive around the city and looked at the olympian Zeus temple.

Of course the Acropolis is where I wanted to see. It was awesome to see the places were Socrates taught Plato, where the Athenians met to discuss political matters and where they went to the mmarkets and watched comedies or tragedies.

All the way up to the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis there were stupid Paki’s selling ship from umbrella’s to frozen water. It was kind of annoying.

One of the amazing things was that there were taxis going up near the Acropolis and horse and carriage rides.

After the Acropolis we went to the museum. it was interesting but after a while you do get sick of looking at all the ornaments and vases. But the earrings and bangles were very interesting.

Although next time I would not go on this tour. It was 78 Euro for a whole 3 hours. Rip off.

After the tour we walked around the city some more and I found a metal store which we thought was a god send to top of an average kind of day. We felt at home and bought some CD’s that seemed cheap. I bought a couple of Grave CD’s after falling in love with them at Wacken.

And now it’s on to London!

Wacken - lots of awesome metal market places offering alternative clothing and jewellry at very cheap prices. It was a place I could shop at forever. We continued to go back and everytime we did we found something different.

My feet we killing me all day so badly!! I had to keep sitting down.

Woops! Gotta go, be back soon…

__
What a funny day in a non humourous way ?(uh-oh!). Roger and I went for a walk around the Placka. Athens is quite average for shopping! Their GUESS shop was in this building that you had to go upstairs and then ring a doorbell. I was really put off by the incident and we backed away slowly with our hands raised.

When we found an internet cafe, we could see the top of the Parthenon. I have never been so taken aback in my life.

(Random Wacken though - Grave were so fucking awesome!)

The grandess of it - it sticks out like a sore thumb. I had studied the Parthenon and I know about it but it never compares once you actually see it! Tomorrow we are going for a day tour. It should be interesting.

In the late afternoon, we went to the beach across the road from our hotel (which is a nice place by the way!). It was the first time I truly missed home. The beaches in Voula are unlike the ones at home. The “sand” is made up of crushed rock and shell which makes for uncomfortable strolls to the water! Not something you really want to dig your toes into. And once you feel as though you may have reached some sort of freedom from your shell/rock hell, you are greeted by rocks in the sea bed. I kept thinking that something was coming to eat me because I couldn’t see the sand. To be honest, I don’t think there is a living thing in that water. I thought it would be crystal blue!

If Perth has anything going for it, it is the beaches.

One thing I am enjoying is the TV. Seriously, in Hamburg it was so hard to find anything in English. Only the movie channel and CNN was English so we constantly had it on the movie channel the whole time. But here most of the programmes are in English with Greek subtitles.

I have just watched an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 (the old school eps, not the new class or whatever the fuck it’s called) for the first time since 2001.

The food here is amazing. We went to Dream Grill in Woula yesterday and the meat was beautiful. Today we went to some place in the Plaka which was really nice but then we started getting sleepy after our meal and asked for the b ull. It didn’t come until 20+ minutes later. We were both pissed off and didn’t want to leave a tip. However I still gave 3 Euro which was really low. We were also annoyed that they did not ask if we wanted more to drink or if we wanted desert. Pathetic. So the top I left was less than 10%.

I realise that perhaps it is a part of their dining culture. But ours is better

P.S I should note that our bus driver on the A2 route was smoking. ODD. Even though taxi drivers smoke as well… odd. yes.

To start at the beginning:
We were in HONG KONG - it was a long and pleasant flight but we finally arrived. I just wanted to check everything out once we got outside - the heat was so overpowering - we jumped into a taxi without a second thought.

Everyone speaks English in HK so it was no problem getting around. Although our taxi driver didn’t seem to understand what hotel we wanted to go and dropped us off a street away!

We were able to find our hotel easily enough but for me - the heat was far too much to bare. It was so humid, I was sweating profusely & felt as though I might COLLAPSE.

We finally reached out Hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was nicely decorated. Although, these things do come second nature to me - I’m not one of those ‘walls were disgusting peach colour - never staying here again!’ pricks you see on TRIP ADVISOR!

Everything was so cheap. At first, I recall feeling a guilt because we had gone to a 7Eleven and bought three packets of chips, chewing gum, two beers and two smirnoff reds for HK$85 which is roughly AUD$11! Taxis were incredibly cheap. To THE PEAK which was a good half an hour from our hotel was $18 roughly. In Perth it would have cost an easy $35+.

The Peak is really so beautiful. During the day, the grandness of it all really leaves you in awe. And at night, it becomes incredibly romantic as lights from the building have the power to bring the day back into HK. It’s almost like being in VEGAS but not so in your face.

Roger and I bought new phones for most probably record cheap prices. Mine was roughly $700. Still don’t know how much exactly but it was still cheap. A totally impulse buy but who cares?! I had got money back from the ATO so I wanted to spend it after I felt a weight was lifted.

The shops in HK are awesome too. Ridiculously huge but of course, nothing to be found in them!

One thing that struck me was the sheer weirdness of walking. Here’s a story - Roger and I are at a shopping centre at The Peak.  There are at least 5 escalators to go up to the top. We step on them with ease. Roughly 75% of HKer’s begin a ritual of holding on to othe rail, hovering their uneasy foot over a moving step, isolating a single targeted step and attempt to put both feet on them to continue their journey. Untl next time.

It’s not just the walking but the LACK OF SPEED. People walk as thought they have until next year to get home. It can be frustrating - but also for locals. one woman was too busy pushing her way through a slow moving crowd that she failed to see a face-height sign and SMACKED her face right into it. CLASSIC!

But oh, I am not done. Roger and I were at yet another shopping mall when we stopped in the middle - unsure of where to go. Finally we begin walking again, only to have a woman cut in front of me so close that she tripped over my walking foot! As in, the next step I was taking so that I could walk as a normal person does! I was annoyed at first but gained a sadistic satisfaction when I saw her trip and her arms flailed in the air.

THINGS TO REMEMBER IN HK.
- in summer, bring SUMMER CLOTHES! my stupidity lead me to believe I would need ‘warmer’ summer clothes.
- HK is shit for clothes shopping.
- you can street drink (+++)
- HK is good for electronics
- never go to any mall that has no one inside. Chances are, it is shit.
- just ask for a fork. WHO CARES???
- ignore buddhist bitches
- wifi is everywhere
- there is no internet cafes in the city, are on the island.
- expect people to push in front of you.
- taxi it everywhere
- alcohol is cheap
- don’t use hotel internet.

From HK, we flew to London. A 13 hour flight and my ankles did not well. It was an incredibly irratating flight. A dumbass at the front who insisted on keeping his seat and the empty seat next to Him back the entire flight. Parents constantly walking around with their babies, thinking they are the best in the world and that everyone should look at them and coo. Little stupid kids who can’t pee in the actual toilet and pee on the floor instead. People who don’t know how to remove a paper toilet seat cover from the toilet after they go and leave it for me to carefully lift off and bin it. A dickhead behind me who did not know how to properly fold and secure his tray table and leap me out of my extremley light sleep anyway. Just a shiteous flight. But I did enjoy the awesome movies! I watched Batman Begins again. I really want to see the Dark Knight again!!

So we get to London and it seems easy enough to get around. However, it feels daunting to me and I am intimidated. We get to our cheap ass (not really. it was expensive but it was CHEAP! Get me?) hotel and my guts are churning - bad. I constantly felt like i needed to fart or shit. Uncomfortable. Roger had to go out to drop off our valuables to Helen ready for WACKEN. Whiles I was lying on my bed. In a weird, humid apricot room. I wished that my guts would stop churning.

When it was time to go to bed, we slept in thisthis tiny double bed. I barely moved all night.

We were getting up early to get to Hamburg. The flight was quicky and painless and we got to our hotel easily enough (after a random guy told us the wrong way to go!).  By this time I was already intimidated by the language.

We were unable to check into our room and so we wandered around a bit.  And things are for sale so we wandered around a bit. Things are so different there. I almost felt embarrassed for people who come to perth for a HOLIDAY?! For what?!!!

The next day was spent shopping for WACKEN. We ran around like mad dogs trying to get everything ready and trying to remember things from a list we never wrote down. We had to check out by 12 that day and bet at REMEDY RECORDS by 2pm for our shuttle bus to WACKEN which is why the running around was required.

(P.S - before I forget - shit was cheap in hamburg too).

Fast forward to 2pm on July 31st. We are sitting on a bus with 30 other people dressed in black, army pants, studded belts and black hair (mostly). Some people know them as freaks but we are NOT.

On the bus, there were 3 extremely annoying guys from the United States who continuously put a bad name to themselves by being extremely loud, obnoxious, chewing gum loudly and saying “like” every second word. I am glad I will never see them again.

I had felt guilty and sorry for Roger as he had to lug around a huge ass bag containing all our clothes and the blow up mattress wehich weighed a tonne because it was one of those really thick ones. When it was inflated, it came up to my knee.

I DO NOT KID.

We walked around for roughly 15 minutes to find a place to set up our tent which would be our home for the next two days.

Do you even understand me now? Because this is how incoherent I was for the next few days. I look back at Wacken now and all I seem to remember is some sort of awesome blur. I was in awe. I was at the biggest metal festival in the world. 80,000 other metal heads amd 3 days of awesome bands, camping, beer, german food and other cuisines, toilet vouchers and 3am piss runs. Sleeping in a fucking tent that was so restricted in room thanks to the blow up mattress but it was joy so WHO CARES!.

Wacken - I don’t think that I can really capture what it felt to be there. To this moment I am still in awe and shocked. The weather was way too hot on the first day and pissed down on the second.

We got a sweet spot to see UNEARTH and it pissed down with rain so bad that my underwear was soaked. REALLY.

For now I must leave as Roger is starting to feel lonely.

Kalinichta.

What is a good metal band for those who don’t like metal?

My friend, I am afraid that there is no way to get people into metal by giving them an album if they don’t like it in the first place. This is a tough tactic and rarely works. Liking metal is like being ready to love yourself or lose weight – you have to be ready to do it yourself, no one can make you. Sounds so sweet, doesn’t it?

However, I have been guilty of handing over “Damnation” by Opeth to my non metal friends so they can understand that metal isn’t just about screaming and power-chords.

My advice is to give them something easy listening and then slowly start to guide them away from the safety of the shallow end of their music tastes into the deep dark waters of metal. (Textual exaggeration can be fun).

Why are women so bitchy?

It’s because we are insecure. Women are the most insecure creatures on the planet. We’re vulnerable and we try to hide our vulnerability by stepping up to “the man” because maybe we can’t do it any other way. Honestly, I think because of insecurities such as thinking people have to love us and we have to be perfect, we start becoming jealous and crazy over people who are and don’t give two shits about other women. Yes, sometimes even our girlfriends, which sucks.

Why am i so bitchy?

I don’t know but you should stop it before someone bitch slaps you.

What happens to your brain when you listen to metal?

I don’t know. But it doesn’t make you a psycho. And it doesn’t make you want to kill small children. So then… it must be good!

What is an internal customer?

Anyone inside the business you work in who you are providing work for.

Why isn’t metal music on the radio?

Simply because metal does not appeal to the masses – “masses” are generally people who don’t want to think about anything too much. They don’t think that there is money in metal because people don’t buy it. It’s really a cycle. People don’t buy it because they don’t know what’s out there, and they don’t know what’s out there because they’re not being told. Plus, there are stations that do play metal but you’re better off looking in the world wide webiverse for that.