Also...

somebody please show grandpa how to subscribe to the blog so he can see that I've posted something.

I just noticed that he isn't even a follower and now I feel bad because I thought I could post stuff on here so he knew what I was up to.

And Mom, can you send Mutti a step by step guide telling her how to subscribe as well?

Peace yo.

Getting out of here!

In my cherished role as a Food and Beverage Attendant on Hamilton Island, I have learnt many new things:

How to tend bar.
How to interact with possum.
How to fight possum.
How to throw possum.
Waiters love your trash and will always thank you for giving it to them.
How to adhere to a contract and not get fired.
How to get fired (I wasn't fired, a bunch of others were!).
Nipple piercing doesn't hurt as much as many people say it does.
Mom actually does know best.
Dad provides useful input too.
How to carry three plates of food on one arm.
How to talk about different wines (mostly just comparing them to other wines).
Ingrown toe nails hurt, but the surgery is very interesting to watch.
Live your life without cognitive dissonance and you can cut out a lot of stress.
I have no idea of how to draw a frangepani.
Although you may not have remembered to share your address with family, they still find you (Thanks so much for the christmas card Grandpa Tom!).

But still, the island has grown stale and in a weeks time, I will be further south in Australia and will be looking for more jobs there while I spend three weeks with my lovely girlfriend Courtney who will be coming down from dubai to see me!

If I dont find anything within those three weeks, I will hop back on a plane when Courtney leaves and come back to the island in search of a different type of job. I will be handing out my CV to a bunch of places, and in specific, the water sports center in hope of becoming a wakeboard instructor for the hordes of Japanese tourists that will be arriving in this summer (your winter).

I went out diving last week or the week before and was at two spots on the great barrier reef. Absolutely stunning scenery. I saw a lot of my favorite fish, the parrot fish, a shark, a stingray, crabs, a meter long sea slug, a coral trout, an octopus, a massive pufferfish and a remora cleaning fish which was firmly at my side for the duration of one whole dive.

The weather has been pretty bleak for about a month but now it has cleared up and everything is sunny and beautiful and lovely.

Thanks for the mail Mom, Dad and Hunter. And thank you very much as well Grandpa for sending me my first Christmas card of the year! I would send you a letter back but I am useless at using snail mail. And I don't know your address.

ACTUALLY!
everyone, send me your home addresses so I can learn how to use snail mail and send you some christmas pictures and letters!


I miss you all and hope that your winter months are as enjoyable as mine!

Sorry folks!

Hey guys, it's been a while since my last update and I do apologize.

I have been really busy at work recently and have actually been moved into the bar! That's right, Aidan is a bartender. I'm mostly doing cocktails, but I am also really good at pouring beers and making pretty much all coffees. For all of you who may or may not have known before (I know I didn't), a Macciatto is a shot of coffee with a teaspoon full of milk froth laid on top or stirred onto the surface of the crema (the milky brown stuff that rises to the top of the coffee when first poured). Yeah.

I am also proud to say that I have completed all of my Christmas shopping already. Mom, Dad, Hunter and Courtney will all be thrilled to find that they aren't getting a home made Christmas card and a clay model, dripping with PVA glue. Now that I'm making money, I have decided that for my first Christmas abroad, I will be buying people some quality gifts that hopefully wont end up in a drawer somewhere.

Also, my mom and I have been working really hard. Well, she has been working really hard, to get my applications to universities sent off before the deadlines and I'm really happy to know that I have finally gotten the applications ready and sent off and can now relax and make some money before December, when I will be spending the month with my girlfriend.

During my month off, I will be applying to different restaurants and probably a few other types of companies or businesses as well, so that I can get back to Hamilton Island, make a few applications around the island and if after a week, I can't get a place to work, I will take my OzExperience bus south to brisbane and hopefully by then, I will have heard from one of the places I had applied to during my time with Courtney. If I get to brisbane and I havn't heard anything, I will continue southward to Melbourne and meet up with my friend George who is also working in my bar right now and find a job there. Melbourne has been called the "most livable city" in australia and apparently, it resembles London on a smaller scale, with cafes and restaurants always looking for bartenders and waiters.

I have also received a date for my rescue diving course here on the island. With any luck, I will be a certified rescue diver by the 17th of november!

I got a new camera too and will be uploading a bunch of new photos as soon as I can find a computer that will let me access the files on the memory card. all the ones here are like "NONONO!!! we dont let you upload stuff because you not administrator!!". Oh well, I guess it will happen when it can happen.


theres a fat guy watching videos of parrots dancing next to me and he is FULLY absorbed into the screen with his face almost against the screen and his jaw hanging down to the floor with wonder. Hilarious.

peace.

New pictures!

Things are going well on the island but my employers are looking for people to lay off now that the big event season has gone. Im working extra hard to stay ahead of my team so I wont get fired because if I do i will be screeeeeeeewed...

New pad? Hell yeah

I just leased a house on the island today after thinking, "you know what, I'd rather be able to say that my first house was on a paradise island than some grimy place next to my college. I think that liing like a hobo has gone on for quite long enough and am happy to be moving into a small house in 17 days.

Still saving money, still staying fly and still flying high fo life yo!

Later homies xoxo

Pictures from Aidan in the present

I have been much fun and been making much money and I have been going to the shooting range and stuff too! I'm a sharpshooter for life yo...

Hope everyone is good, sorry for the shortness of this post, I cant stay on very long.

Oh possums...

So I have made the amazing discovery that possums are awesome. First I saw them cuddling in the trash room munching on half eaten sammiches and rotten tomatos and thought "rough, but cute", as they are all fluffy like. Then I saw them everywhere, just chilling out and watching me and walking up close like "yo, wassup bro?" and I was like, "yeah they seem like an okay crew" so I decided to let one take a look around my appartment because it was right outside my door and I was curious as to what it would do, it wasn't keen on the place so it walked out and I fed it a cracker and filmed it and he just held it with his little paws and he was just om nom nomming away and then he started sniffing a towel I was holding as well. In the end, I decided to lead him out of the door and get on with my life, but as he was leaving, the little coward bit me and did a runner out of the open door. I named him Timothy and declared him my nemesis.

Today, I went to the mainland and bought a water pistol and went to get my revenge on Timothy in the place I knew I would find him... The trash room...

When I walked into the trash room, I was holding my six shooter water pistol and was filming the whole thing to document my epic triumph over nature. It was an intense mexican stand off and he was staring at me and I was eying him down but in the end, the high velocity jet of water proved too much and I had him dancing on the trash cans like a moving target range. He ended up going and hiding behind the trash cans all sissy like and I walked out, victorious, a man of TRUE POWER!!!!

oh yeah, work is good. and the Australian elections are going on between some old ginger cat-lady and a guy with massive ears. Silly ozzies.

First day of work

Yesterday was my first day at work and i'm really looking forward to going back tonight for work. I've been put in a hosting position in the bistro. I basically just have to seat people and make them comfy while try enter the venue. And I get pretty much any meal from the menu for just 6 dollars :)

in a while, the manager has said that I will be learning the bar so I can start bartending!

My accommodation is pretty decent, but the fridge is really mouldy and will have to be replaced sometime. The only cooking instrument I have is a kettle. So I bought 75 packs of instant noodles. Booyah.

I've been coming up with some awesome designs so far. I figure that I'll have about 300 designs on me by the time I finish my trip.

Well I hope everyone is doing well, keep it real y'all.

ON THE ISLAND!

Got to Hamilton island yesterday morning and am staying here, just hanging out, until I start working on monday!
The island is awesome so far, I'm really lookign forward to starting work most of all though, I don't plan on going out drinking very much, but would like to do my rescue diving PADI course during these upcoming months. That will look very good on a uni application, I'm sure... as will a few months of working at a luxury resort island I guess...

Speaking of applications, mom and dad, can you figure out application deadlines for ASU and some other ones on the list I gave you? I like putting dates and schedules on my iPod so I can organize myself. It's been working really well so far and I havn't even been taking my concerta yet. I will when I start work though, I dont want to drift.

ANYWAY, on the island, we have parrots, cockatiels, mssive black birds, gulls and most commonly seen are the butterflies, you can look up from the pools and just see tons of butterflies around, its cool. There are also Opossums or Possums or whatever the real name is, iguanas and spiders. big spiders. spiders so big they should have small gnomes riding them around.

Met a couple of people last night who were very cool to hang out with but I have been told that there are a bunch of people being introduced to the island like me on monday when the jobs start.

I have been told that there is a lot of money to be made in the next month because there is a race week starting and with the race comes a lot of customers. Hopefully I will be doing a lot of overtime work to keep myself occupied and making mucho mucho monies. And after the first month, I can start doing something called multi-employed or something where I can do another part time job in my free time if I want, to develop peripheral skills as well as make some extra money.

They have wakeboarding and other watersports on the island but it is expensive so I dont know if I'll be doing it very often if at all. Maybe I can do my multi-employed work at the watersports hut doing teaching or driving the boat. OH YEAH! I plan to do my boat and jetski licence here too. So Dad, you can expect me to be able to drive Sugar around by the time I make my return, if you havnt sold it off and bought yourself a pickup escalade.

I also just set up a bank account, dont worry Mom, I read through all of the text that there was to read on the pamphlet before signing, it's a simple transaction debit card which I will be getting my salary put onto. I'll be getting my online banking stuff sorted as well so you can transfer the money I have left onto that one and the HSBC card can just be my backup card like it was supposed to be.

I will be working for 17.60 Aus Dollars per hour, with a minimum of about 36 hours a week, minus 90 dollars a week for accomodation which includes, toilets, fridge, kitchen, water, heating and AirConditioning. And a roof. I did the math and although I didn't do super well in my math exams, I am pretty sure that I can leave the island in 4 months having made around 9500 Australian Dollars, taking into account the cost of food and accomodation but excluding the cost of dive courses and extra activities like golf on the GOLF ISLAND!!! thats right homies, theres an 18 hole golf course which covers a whole island with mountains and stuff... well good... And there's a shooting range and a gokart track, fishing, minigolf and other stuff.

Anyway, I'm sorry I havnt been putting up pictures but I will think about adding some more sometime soon if I can.

Peace out, A-Bomb.

JOB!

Okay guys, I got a job a few days ago working at a carnival and it was just totally braindead work, standing around blowing bubbles and selling little robot puppies from hell.

BIG IMPROVEMENT!
I just got off the phone with a recruitment agent from Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands and made a really good impression as well as setting up a phone interview which, if all goes well, will send me skyrocketing into a job at an italian restaurant next week on the 4th of August.

The guy said I am very popular on the island at the moment and he has had a bunch of requests for me to work at some of the places there.

I would like to thank my wonderful father Aric Ryan Ault for taking me out on a bar crawl in Dubai before I left as it was on this crawl that I met the person who has been passing my CV around Hamilton Island and been putting a good word around for me.

I would also like to thank all my supporters such as my uncle Mark and aunt Amy who very thoughtfully sent me a fake reference, my mom Pia Charlotte Ault who was rooting for me, Hunter who was doing pretty much nothing but who I had a great conversation with recently, and finally, my best friend and girlfriend Courtney Parr who is madly smitten by my wiley charm.

Peace out yo.

WASHED!!!

Mommy, I'm sure this will make you proud.

I did my first ever load of laundry today and I dont think I shrunk anything!

here's what I did...

First, I dirtied all th clothes until I had nothing clean to wear. This took about a month or so, many items of clothing were worn until stinky.

next, i dropped everything into a pillowcase... get this... I did it to keep it separated from the clean stuff!!! it works, I promise!

then I took the bag downstairs, put 3$ in the washer, threw the clothes in, switched the machine to small load, colors, threw a cup of detergent in with the clothes.

The result: lint covered, yet delightfully fresh clothes to hang on the clothes line!!!

One of the proudest moments of my life.

AND!!! I got a mail from the lady at Hamilton Island and she said she had given my phone number to a guy she knows who works at a pizza place on the island and he should be calling me within the next couple of days!!!!!

such a good day. I did a nice clothes washer/dryer design as well, its like a timeglass shape.

sorry, that reminds me that I need to put up pictures!

later today, I promise!!!!

much love from A-Bomb...

applied for internships at some industrial design studios in australia. if I can get one, I may find myself travelling the east coast quite quickly towards Sydney. But I dont think I'll get one that soon, if at all. but hot damn it would sure be nice!

I did some great designs yesterday, i'll put up a load of pictures of the current portfolio from my trip in a day. maybe later today. who knows, maybe I built a time machine and I already showed you them and you just dont remember. or not.

The hostel

So I'm still at Asylum Hostel in Cairns, I have distributed about 40 CV's around town in the last few days, been back to the places I like to check again if they have availabilities yet, and I plan to go back tomorrow again to those places to check AGAIN! I'm giving them 1 week to reply, maybe a week and a half. If I havn't got anything by then, I plan to travel south a bit, towards the colder weather where there're fewer people to compete with.

There are a bunch of people here who haven't heard back from employers for a month and a half and are still waiting, drinking box wine and bumming around every night. I do not, under any circumstances, plan to become such a person.

I'm still living on my pasta/noodle/toast diet and I think I'll last quite a while before I have to go shopping again. 40 dollars for 2 weeks of food seems like a pretty good way to save my cash from now on. of course, I don't know if other places along the coast have the same cheap stuff as here, or if the hostels will be as nice and cheap as here. its 18 bucks a night here with breakfast included, a pool which I dont use, clean and spacious toilets and showers, a comfy bed in a 3 person room, good atmosphere, great weather, books on the bookshelf, free internet and free bbq on thursdays.

I'm writing a book about zombies in Dubai and I think it's going to be a hit when I decide to finish it and publish it... I probably won't...

but I have been doing designs and counted today and I have a total of 35, which means that I have more than one for every day I have been away, at this rate, I'll have around 200 by the time I return! Plus the ones that I have at home in my other design book! So I think I'll do alright.

See y'all later xxx

Cairns

So I made it to Cairns a few days ago and I have been on a solid job hunt every day looking for a full-time placement. I have applied all over the place and there are a few places that seemed eager for me to get the work, however that doesn't mean that I'll get anything from them. I remain optimistic and have done some great designs on this trip, still not fully over my dry patch of drawing, but I'm managing to come up with some good stuff.
Here're some pictures of recent.

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since my last post. I've been adapting to australia. Sydney is where I'm at right now, but tomorrow night I'm going to Cairns, all the way up north.

Today I went surfing on Manly Beach, the place where surfing started in Oz. I got up first try on a wave that the guy said should be ridden by people with some more experience, I was like what you talking bout man, and rode another 4 or 5 of them. only for a bout 10 yards or so each time, but I thought it was a pretty nice start and I liked it and hope to do more of it on my trip. Sucks for Dad because he always wants to compete with me in snowboarding and wakeboarding and wakesurfing but its just a shame that theres no waves in Dubai so I guess he wont be going out and buying himself a multi-gazillion dollar board to show me up in. He may though. just to give himself peace of mind.

Tomorrow I'm planning on visiting a gallery or something to soak up some artsy culture blah blah.

Talk to you later homes

Thailand I love you, but you're bringing me down.

Having a blast in Tao!
I've still not done much other than snorkeling, eating, drawing, writing, reading and sleeping but I've had a really good time and I'm ready for the transition to civilized spaces in Australia. Already got my ferry ticket for tomorrow morning, then I'm going to have to bum around the airport or town center for a while until I have to fly out to bangkok.

The internet cafe is playing "Love Story" by Taylor swift <3 OMG LOVE HER!!!!!
nah just kidding

Grandpa, I'm glad to hear you've been following what I've been doing. Gotta say, I havnt been doing much, but it's been great!

To everyone else, have a good one

Yo homes!

Sorry for lack of updates, I havn't been doing much but snorkelling and chilling in the bungalow. I cant wait to head off to Oz for work, Im flying to sydney on the 5th, landing on the 6th, then chilling there for 13 days until flying off to Cairns in the north. Then I start my descent, trying to find work anywhere. But there is one bright shiny light, I think I'll be able to get work on Hamilton island for quite a while, then chill out a while before I go to New Zealand. As I said, I can't wait. I will be sending a package home to dubai some day when I get to Sydney, in that package there will be goodies for everyone back home.

Hope everyone is having a great summer holiday!

much love, Aidan

Photos from my phone

kettle design
my money holder (and best friend) named Jeffy
Diet
Bungalow living
Shoes
Stich, I figured I needed a rag as I had nothing to scrub with
Gex the Gecko
Bungalows
Me naked in my bed, so kinky...
big smile

Ko Tao!

Finally got off Samui and have been, as you know, in Tao. Did my advanced open water diver course and the dives, now I just need to finsh off some paperwork tomorrow and all should be finished! Today, however, I started my day off by going out and buying a snorkeling kit then going straight to the beach to use it. The mask may have leaked a bit, and I may have been in low tide, but the coral and fish were awesome, its too bad I didnt have a NORMAL digital camera with me on the trip, instead I have a Flip camera which only does HD video which happen to be too big to upload on any site. No matter, I think I may jus record some video and mail it home for mom and dad and hunter to check out. When I was snorkeling, I swam really close to a shark, just a little one, and it seemed petty chilled that I was there, then it saw some fish food and was on its way and I went for a school of fish all in a big bubble. I swam right into them, holding my breath under water, and they formed a silvery/yellowish dome around and over me and it was really cool, then when I surfaced for air and went back down it was just a ring around me. So awesome, and then I swam through a ship wreck along the reef, it was like swimming through an orange, red ribcage with bright fish all around it. Also very cool...

Also, I have started writing a short book about a Z-Day in Dubai and that keeps me fairly entertained for easily up to an hour or so at one sitting.

I have been doing a few sketches, havn't been getting a cap-ton of ideas recently, I hope the design dry spell ends soon because I really want to get into ASU...

I forgot my cable for my camera phone today, so I'll upload pictures tonight or tomorrow. probably tomorrow.

Discovered that buying loafes of bread and ketchup and potato chips can provide a tasty combo for a sammich, and also quite cheap in the long run. they just dont fill me up or provide any variation... CANNOT wait till I go to Australia, I don't expect it to be a great deal different from how it is now in terms of weather, but I really want to get started with work so I have something more meaningful to fill my days with, because at th moment I'm stone-dead bored out of my brains. I don't even know how long I can keep doing the snorkeling. Maybe a day out fishing, but thats super expensive.

Peace out y'all

Diving

Cant get the photos online so fast and I'm paying for internet here, so thats really lame, but I'll email them to mommy or courtney if I can or send the disc in the mail when I can. Just need mom's address that I can mail it to in Dubai so dad can pick it up at work...
I've been on 4 dives so far, they have been great, I'm doing my advanced open water diver license so I'll be able to dive down to 40 meters just about. I did my navigation course today and had some awesome views of pufferfish, hermit crabs and parrot fish which are my favorites. also I got cleaned off by a remora which have the most interesting shape of any fish i think.. they look like my toothbrush, with a rippled pad on theyre "scalp".
HUNGRY NOW!!! so I'm off to 7/11 for soup or something <3

Updated

My room is dark and damp and there are 5 smelly english guys who make me worry about picking up an STD off the toilet seat :P

I was planning to go to Ko Tao today to start my diving tomorrow but I woke up late and missed the ferry, so hi ho hi ho tomorrow I shall go.

AND I woke up today and my toe was finally feeling better. This is after walking on in going up mountains and stuff yesterday and cutting my foor on glass and all kinds of crap. only my right foot though, the left is perfect and practically radiating rays of perfection...



(TO MOM: the flip is useless, i was uploading a video for over 2 hours and it didnt do anything so all videos from the flip will have to stay on the flip for the time being unless I can email them to you.)

photos

LADY BOYS!!! the one with me on the pole is a lady boy too courtney! dont worry xx

photos of stuff

Last night I went to thai boxing and watched two kids kick the crap out of each other. I got some pictures of the airport and the fights so everyone is happy :)