Joyeux Le Quatorze Juillet

Sometimes I wonder what the liberation days are in other countries. I mean Australia Day January 26th is quite a worldwide event considering there are only 20 million australians about 50% of them are more than likely in your country. This means one crazy night of drunken fools in Aussie boxers, and flags tatooed on their faces running amuck in your bars! Ok perhaps I am a little guilty of that myself

What can I say the two Australia days I spent in Canada were more impressive then events in my own town!

If you look back at Australia day as a historical thing you would know its more aptly called "Invasion Day" as it represents the first fleet landing in Sydney Cove. A bad day for the local indigenous population whoose lives were torn apart by western culture. Yet still I have immense pride in my country despite its dark history (I mean really a lot of amazing countries have a dark past!) and am truly proud to be australian.

So today is Bastille Day Frances own National day and it makes me think of a bunch of frenchies who entered my life through couch surfing.

Morgan & Morgane, Jordan, Kevin, Julien, Alice, Eric Pierre & Greg, Eric & Letitia and a few more whoose names elude me. I wish them all the best for their french day and will end this with a video I created of the good times we had.

THE Interhitch CAN COUCHinental Kite CRUISER

I'm gonna go ahead and guess you have never heard of the Beer Can Regatta? its quite unique to Darwin and run by a local charity organisation to raise money for various causes. I have to say one thing Darwin is well known for is their excessive consumption of beer! I had wanted to build a boat this year but ran out of time and energy and went to put it off another year. However a couple of eager surfers Taylor Tobias Martina & More banded together and ended up building a boat in just three weeks under the Couchsurfing name.





It involved a little over 3500 cans all donated from various bars around town and some probably consumed by the surfers themselves and around $400 of duct tape donated by Express Signs who also made the banner. There were two floating pontoons and a makeshift couch which resulted in the finished product THE Interhitch CAN COUCHinental Kite CRUISER!!



Now would it float?

Not only did the boat float





But it came in second, although the boat that came in first cheated!

Getting interviewed by the news for their second place win



and not only that the boat got the prime spot in the Northern Territory Newspaper with the ever enigmatic Kim Su front row..



About 30 couch surfers from around the globe and even a few hosts from Darwin came together to support the team and possible future boat building endevours. Watch this space perhaps next year we will come first!



Special thanks to everyone who made this possible and has definitely inspired me!!

doesn't matter what time it is, something interesting can always happen.

The other night I was woken up at 1:30am in the morning to excessive shouting outside my window. Its a bit of a notorious hot spot with a lot of people walking home from Karama Pub drunk so I often keep an eye out for troublemakers.

Anyway this particular morning the cops had pulled over a white ute and were arguing with the driver who had got out of the car and they were saying "Chris get back in the car" over and over again while he was shouting "I'm not resisting" over and over again and "aren't you supposed to serve and protect" the passanger got out of the car and the cops yelled over "what are you doing" and he had his phone mentioning that he was making a phone call. Next thing Chris gets back in the car but flies across the drivers & passengers seat and out the passengers door and makes a run for it. The cops give chase one of them going back to the cop car to follow him and the passenger gets in the drivers seat and just drives off. 5 minutes later I see the cop car again just trolling the streets so it makes me wonder if the guys got away. I guess I don't really mind being woken up at 1:30am when its THAT entertaining.

So I'm telling the people at work and the accountant who is quite new says to me "Amanda I think your one of those people who attracts adventure" and now that I look at it my life is realatively crazy and crazy shit does happen to me and sometimes I wonder how I surive... its not that I attract adventure I think its that I'm open to everything and rather than sit home I'd rather be out there doing things. And maybe that means adventure who knows but really even the bad stuff I generally find exciting.

Now the Israeli boys were back last night and we went out dancing which was awesome because I love to dance! They are a great couple of guys and we have a lot of fun with them. They love hanging out with us and mentioned several times how we made their Darwin trip which I have to admit Tal was pretty drunk but hey I'm not one to ignore such praise even if its drunken praise!

As for tonight its going to be a little busy in our house. There is two american couples, a scottish guy, an english girl, Ilona my german sidekick, Heather and I and possibly the two israeli boys again and Nathaneal should be back tonight. Really its always a party at my house!

Dear couchsurfing.com

Because of you I am now an alcoholic

Signed, the surfer, the host, the spirit.

new wheels.

Ok so I love couchsurfing virgins but weird people are my favourite. Just that little bit out of the norm which makes them slightly kooky but still functional where you don’t really know what is going to come out of their mouths next.
Philipp my German couchsurfer is one of those, sometimes I wonder what goes on in his head.

We were at the hospital recently and he had brought his guitar which needed tuning he informed me that he was going to see if a doctor could look at it and make it well.

This morning he walked through our front gate about 7am pushing a children’s doll pram.
“Look at my new wheels” he says
“I got a ride to work today so I will park it here”
Then leaves the pram in our driveway and walks off.
I think it belongs to our next door neighbours.. I hope they don’t miss their pram and see it in our driveway!

ritual sacrifice anyone?

I have two nice Israeli boys couchsurfing with me right now

They arrived when I was playing video games online so I was sort of half listening as my sister chatted to them in the living room.

All of a sudden I hear from my sister

"AMANDA LOVES VIRGINS"

o.O she was talking about couchsurfing virgins I promise.

my jeep

This time last year I was in Colorado staying in a beautiful house in Denver with the ever amazing Zachariah completing the final touches of my return home.
Trying to fit my entire life into two suitcases wincing as I had to leave behind some treasured items that had just gotten me through over two years abroad. An entire collection of my life.

And don't let me forget my Jeep and everything we went through together. Sleeping in the boot because I was camping in bear country alone and decided to get stoned by the fire and assumed everything was a bear that wanted to eat me. Driving 14 hours straight from Salt Lake City to Seattle. Outrunning a hurricane coming into Florida as I made my way to New Orleans. Picking up strange hitchikers in Nova Scotia. Breaking down in the middle of winter just outside of some small town in Alberta only to make it home with a small can of WD40. My Jeep who I drove back and forth across the USA with, my one solid thing in my life for a year and a half when my boyfriend left me and I had no fixed home. Who took me up to the ski hills every day and STILL started on the days of minus 40. Crossing the mexican border and driving up onto a beach where we camped for three days. Being searched countless times at the USA border, even once with drug dogs. Hitting a car in Chicago because my paralell parking wasn't good enough for big cities. Driving up the wrong way in a one way street in Quebec City. Taking on New York City in rush hour traffic! Getting a misdemonour in Utah, and a warning from a cute cop in Texas. Countless parking tickets across the country. Being pulled over for my brake lights in California whilst an ounce of weed sat in the glove box making the entire car smell like weed only to have the policeman wave me on my way. Flying off the road in Dawson Creek British Columbia when the snow had melted and sucked us in.



Outrunning caribou, moose, bison on the way to Alaska. Sliding through stop signs as the wheels locked up on the ice. Somehow fitting much more than the car could carry. Overheating in a huge traffic jam on the way to Niagra falls on a 40C day. Providing music at a cabin in Ontario then running out of battary and being jump started. Driving over 30,000km in three different countries, 30 US states, 7 Canadian provinces. Getting lost in Mexico. Crawling along at 20km/h in huge blizzards. Breaking in when we locked TWO sets of keys in the car, continuously getting in the drivers seat whilst drunk because I thought it was really the passangers seat. Being trapped on my first USA freeway in Nebraska for an hour. Becoming a highly agressive city driver who conquered some of the biggest cities in the world.

Yes my Jeep I miss you and the adventures we had. I hope whereever you are now is a happy place for you.