we never lose.

ill be the first to admit that its been a rough year for aussie sport, ever since i came over here its seems like we havent won anything. ricky hatton beat kosta in the boxing, we lost the ashes, we had the worst rugby union losing streak since 1962. but noone ever beats us at rugby league. thats our game. the tri-nations event with us, the kiwis and poms was on a few weeks ago, and as australia had already made the final, i thought id go and check it out- also it was up in leeds and a good opportunity to hang out with my old mate andy. so i drove up there, about 3 and a half hours and met andy at the walkabout pub, the designated meeting place for the aussie supporters, we were going with a group called the fanatics- theyre the guys you see on tv all wearing the same t-shirts and making a racket. great fun, there was about 300 of us there. we met a few randoms and all jumped in a taxi going to elland road stadium. there was about 28,000 in the stadium. about 27,500 of them were poms. england didnt even make the finals, but they had already bought their tickets in the hope (ha) that the poms would get to the final. so instead they all turned up hoping for a kiwi victory. the poms seriously hated us- everyone was against us- but i guess its a healthy rivalry. it was great chanting with the aussies boys stuff like:

- id rather be a kiwi than a pom!
- are england playing tonight?
- 3nd is better than 3rd!
- you sent us to paradise. doodah doodah. etc

sure reading it off the computer screen you cant excatly feel the vibe or the passion, but it was a great having a bit of friendly verbal jousting with the poms, we were doing it for a laugh, i think the poms were sledging beacause they actually hate us. haha.

well to cut a long story short, we are not as invincable as i thought we would be. actually we got killed. 24-0. i dont think we even had any attacking raids in their 20m. worst id seen the aussies play- at least the heckling was fun.

went back to the walkie to meet up with all the aussies and kiwis, real good spirit. at about 11pm most of the aussie team came in, looking all tough and cool, and i was like- thats the worst ive ever seen you play, you shouldnt be smiling mate. so me and andy struck up a plan to get back at them, we picked out a player who thought they were extra cool. first target scott prince- who was sitting in the middle of about 9 girls and thinking he was superstar. we got my camera and went up to him and said, 'oi scott could we grab a quick photo', 'no worries boys', then we gave him the camera and told him to press the button on the top and got him to take a photo of me and andy, he looked like goose and didnt know what to do- a few girls laughed at him, haha-mission accomplished. we also did the same thing to willie mason, he got mega cut and took a photo of the ground and turned his back on us. next time score a try mate, thats your job. anyways that was funny as- had a great night chilling with andy and catching up. then slept in the car for a few hours, dropped andy off at the train station and drove back to work the late shift. in under 24 hours i covered 451miles (750km), and spent quite a bit of money doing so, only to watch the aussies get walloped. oh well i guess sometime we had to lose.

...

well it wasnt a real emergency, i was covering for someone at a gym down the road and was working on my own, so was using the time to be productive and write some more in my blog, and the lady on my next shift came in 30 mins early, so i had to get off the net...

anyways i arrived in dusseldorf, germany about 8am, and caught a series of buses and trains up to bremen, where i had planned to meet my mate at 3pm. trains are really expensive in germany as they are privately owned, i travelled on them for a total of about 8 hours during my trip and it cost me 131 euros ($200+ aussie). bargain. i met my mate outside the train station, it was so busy, im glad she saw me cause i was scanning the hundreds of people pouring into the station and had no chance of spotting anyone. it was so cool to catch up again after 15months. awesome. so we took a tour of bremen, which is a cool city, it doesnt seem overly big, but its got everything you need. Theres a giant uni in bremen so theres young people everywhere, who create a cool, hip atmosphere. so we cruised around the city and just chilled. went back to her little flat which she shares with 2 other people; and found that werder bremen's football stadium is about 5 mintues walk down the end of her street. and even better there was a game on saturday night, and there was still tickets so we snapped up a few of them. just chilled for the rest of the afternoon and met a few more of her mates. that night we went to see one of her friends mates bands at this underground hip-hop clup, the music was cool chill out style and her mate played the trombone and also beatboxed as well, was cool as. also met a stack of young people who seemed pretty excited to try out their english with a real english speaking dude from australia- good night out.

saturday morning, we went for a more extensive tour of the city and cruised around looking at all the touristy stuff, including a statue of 4 animals standing on top of each other. we crusied along the riverbank and just chilled in general, than off to the werder bremen game, if youve never heard of them; they are a quality side, in the champions league; and they were playing wolfesburg this night and absolutely walked all over them winning 6-1. solid crowd, and a great atmosphere as they had a lot to cheer about. walked back to the flat and chilled with a few mates. everyone goes out really late in germany, if youve left the house to go out by 11pm youve peaked to early, we were heading to an indie club where we were meeting some people and caught the tram(yes, melbourne's not the only place to have trams) at about 12:30, and headed to a place called tower. quality fun. it was packed and everyone was just having a good time. one guy was talking to me for about 2minutes, the whole time i was trying to tell him i couldnt understand and i only spoke english, but that somehow much have translated into some sort of germany conversation when mixed with the loud music. got home a bit late and hit the sack. sunday we caught the train up to hamburg which is about an hour away, to meet up with a few more friends and take a quick tour of their city. also to a cruise up the river/sea, it was nice but freezing cold. all of germany was freezing, but so far the snow had been dodging me. 4 days after i left they had snow. at one stage i was wearing 5 jumpers (all that a brought) plus my jacket and i was only just warm. sunday night we took it easy and just chilled.

monday and it was time to leave bremen; said goodbye to my mate with whom id had such a great weekend and had so much fun, with the promise that i would be back next summer for the world cup and id come and say g'day again despite how expensive the trains were. i jumped on the train for another 3 hour marathon down to cologne for a quick visit. the catherdral there was absolutely amazing, must have been about 50m high with great detailed sculptures. there was also a christmas market which started the day i was there. they set up all theses stalls selling random christmassy things and traditional german food (sasuages) ther're open for 4 weeks before christmas and all the germans working in the hotel rave about them, so it was cool to check out the market and get caught up in the christmas atmosphere, everyone loves chrissy over here. in australia it doesnt seem to be so hyped up. sure, kmart loves getting the decorations out in october; but over in europe everyone really gets into the spirit, everyone has decorations, everyone has a traditions meal of christmas day. in australia you just have a barbie on the beach, then go for a surf, and if your really making an effort, you cut down a tree from the forest a few days before and wrap a bit of budget crazy clarks tinsel round it. its cool to see how things are done differently in other countries. and that wrapped up my lightning tour of a selected part of germany, i had so much fun- the time flew by; its always great catching up with old friends and meeting new people along the way; thats half the fun of travelling.

my flight back home was a nightmare; due to bad weather conditions at stansted, and the fact the the budget airlines get low priority when it comes to landing slots, we flew back 4 hours late, therefore i missed my train back to my car, and had to sleep at the airport. got home at 11am, to start work at 2pm. bit of a mission, but all part of the fun.

next trip is up to scotland for 4 days, including the biggest and best new years street party and fireworks in the world, cant't wait. anyways gotta run- im going to buy a decent jacket.