I have been lucky I guess with the most placid of stimson pythons who never even looked at me funny and a couple of BHPs(black headed pythons) who barely move. I just picked up a second hand NT Carpet from someone leaving town who didn't really want the snake in the first place. They were to scared to have him and I assume a lot of attempts at handling him had gotten him frightened & defensive over the time. After leaving him for a week to settle into my house and two days after feeding him, I decided this baby was the best way to get over my natural flinch reaction to being bitten. I put my hand into his cage and instantly retreated after he rared up and struck out missing me of course because my hand was already in the fridge grabbing a beer to soothe my nerves.
After the beer my confidence was a little higher and once again I reached in, this time when he struck I closed my eyes like I would on a rollercoaster where you know your going to be ok but reality is you're still terrified and I felt his little teeth scrape innocently against my skin. Opening them again I slowly moved my hand trying not to frighten him he slid over it and then as I moved to pick him up he strikes again. Two drops of red appeared on my index finger.
I take him from the cage he is a little nuts right now and strikes several more times in the movement my left hand is now spotted with red so with slow deliberate movements place him in my lap and calmly place my right palm over him and sit quietly.
It actually doesn't take long for him to calm down but when I raise my right hand he goes flying trying to escape and he is quick for a 20cm pencil thin thing so I try to pull him back and he rears up again and latches onto my stomach. This time I guess he isn't letting go. Well for 30 seconds anyway.
After a few minutes I returned him to his cage and left him alone.
Yesterday I handled him again and after some defensive cage striking and a few more bites he actually is a lot calmer being handled. He ran quite successfully along my arms and hands and didn't mind being recaught when I needed to put him away. I have high hopes for him. Its my first carpet and Im surprised at how fast he moves compared to my other snakes.
Its funny how I have now been bitten by him about 20 times with only half of that barely drawing blood yet that initial fear reaching into his cage is still present. This activity is as much for him as it is for me. I love especially how a 20cm baby carpet terrifies me more then both my metre long BHPs haha.
It was my 30th a few weeks ago and I ended up with three German couchsurfers from my friend. They were super nice boys and I did ply them with loads of alcohol. As I lay passed out in my bed one of them, a 19 year old German guy decided he wanted to cuddle with me. "Can I share the bed with you" he whispered. And I mumbled a very drunked sure whatever. Closing my eyes to fall back in the beautiful slumber I was in. Here I was turning the big 3-0 and I had a 19 year old European wanting to share my bed. I *guess* I should have been happy about that! But as I get older consequences are more prevalent maybe the young Amanda in her 20s would have jumped at the chance but the newly responsible Amanda would rather just ignore her bed partner and sleep through the drunkiness. Although if I told you how long I had been celibate... just be aware I am not joining a nunnery *just* yet.
I also have a super strict don't get involved with couch surfers policy. Though as I have mentioned before it can get quite hard. Luckily for me this one was quite easy to avoid as a/ I was really to drunk and had no interest in him anyway. & b/ he decided throwing up all over my bed was awesome.
No it sucked, I ended up on the floor outside and he got a comfortable (though slightly wet & smelly) sleep on my bed.
Would you in this case give him a negative referance? I think its perfectly justified, if not only for the drunken advances I've seen people give negatives for less. Thing is, I've been that 19 year old kid throwing up everywhere having to be dragged home. Shit in 2010 I smoked to much weed after drinking all day and night, passed out in a bar toilet and had a couchsurfer drag me to my house. I honestly don't consider him a bad person and I hope the experience he learns from and perhaps slows down on the drinking. But hey he is 19 and I think if you host the younger generation often you need to be prepared to deal with the more stupid decisions. All we can do is guide them, if he had shown no remorse in the morning then I would have been inclined to mention it on his profile but he was over apologetic and even sent me emails later on apologising again. So yea, I think he learnt his lesson anyway.
So hopefully next time I get a good looking european in my bed I'm a little less drunk & he has a few more years under his belt!
So this Thursday is RUOK Day spreading awareness of suicide. Its not about walking up to a sad stranger and getting involved but the people in your vicinity maybe a quiet workmate you've never talked to before.
Darwin's buildup is nicknamed suicide season if you have ever lived through a serious build-up you would know why. If you are already frustrated with your life how will you go when extreme heat & discomfort is added on. More people kill themselves in Darwin in the months of October November then any other time.
I lost my boyfriend to Suicide in November and as the month grows near the pain is still real. No one should have to go through that and if just one person's life is saved by this then its worth it.
They say you always remember your first love, RIP Jack.
Cliff-jumping, river crossing, two waterfalls, four parties, dancing in the sand until the sunrise, a cute DJ, wrong number, naked French guys, three red bulls, one coffee, 12 beers.
TOO MANY LASERS!
How was your weekend?
Its way to easy to persuade me to party. And this weeks culprit was Amy a highly talkative English girl with a love of all things random. She had the sense of adventure I love in people and would try anything I threw at her. We had a long but amazing day out at Litchfield with three other people which resulted in me not realising the time and being two hours late for my little sister’s 14th birthday.
I was running on six hours of sleep from Thursday & Friday so after the excessively long day in Litchfield I was exhausted to say the least, it was 9pm and I could barely keep my eyes open. But sleep was not my friend yet, Jason was having his birthday and since I missed dinner for my family I said I would come out for a drink. 12:30am rolls around Heather is cradling a huge fishbowl at the tap and I need my bed, its such a comfortable bed. I sit there wondering if I will choose sleep or party. And the choice was already made for me because Amy was so keen earlier to hit this bush party who was I to refuse?
I picked her up at 1am and we head home so I could change quickly & grab a few things for the party. Two mattresses, a jacket, more beer and strawberry doughnuts. We were ready, for anything. Well not completely we still needed redbull. We stopped at a servo and gathered the much needed energy drinks. NOW, we were ready.
Two hours later we are on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, no signs of a party to be seen. Tired and frustrated I took the hilux out on the beach and see waaay, waay in the distance some lights that told me the party was there. I was scared to drive on the beach in the dark in case I got stuck or the tide was coming in so we drove back and forth three times on the road trying to find a turn-off. Finding other people ready to party but losing them as they got sick of our back and forth. In the end we took any road and drove part-way up the beach excitement building as the Dj booth came into view.
It was cold but I figured beer & dancing would warm me up. I cracked a cold beer when I noticed someone I recognised. “Hey” I tap him on the shoulder “were you at a party the other night, the comic party” he grinned “yea… hey where is your wig” I had been wearing a purple wig at a costume party Friday night. I remembered talking to him briefly on the Friday and he was so drunk it wasn’t the best of conversations but 4am that morning on the beach he was making a lot more sense. We started talking again, I felt like all I needed at that point was a joint and he produced one instantly. His name was James and something quirky about him interested me. I found out he was a Dj which sadly I always have a soft spot for geeky Djs. I guess I felt my second wind as I found myself drawn to this guy.
As the sun rose and I chilled by the fire a bunch of guy weres mocking the lasers which had Amy & I in giggling fits.
One of them walks up asking for ventilin I couldn’t understand him at first then I discover their friend had woken up to an asthma attack. They didn’t seem to care and tried to find a cigarette to calm him down when Amy & I tried to tell them that they needed to take him to a hospital instead of letting him die on the beach 2 hours away. So they left one guy presenting his wig to Amy on exit.
I decided it had been 24 hours of no sleep and I was fading, out of red bull I had limited options. I walked up to the cute DJ complimenting him on his set and he took my number in his phone “to catch up” however I think in my tiredness I gave him the wrong number, ah well, wouldn’t want to wreck the magic of the morning with reality.
I went looking for another friend, Stefan who was sitting in his car smoking a pipe. I got in beside him and joined him only to push myself further down the point of no return. I needed to sleep - badly
I opened the tray of the hilux set out the mattresses and curled up hugging a pillow. I was only metres from the music and could hear the thumping as I tried to slumber. So for half an hour maybe I managed to doze before the harsh reality of Darwin sun snapped me back. I crawled out and stumbled over to the sand where naked French guys were collecting shells and the Dj & Amy were hanging out, just talking. A balloon sat tied to a stick and people threw darts at it trying to burst it over and over again. I wondered what would happen when the balloon finally burst and the joy of the repetitive activity would force many people back into reality. But the balloon never burst.
A French guy came up stroking Amy’s hair and informing us that his girlfriend was in the bush “making poo” which somehow ended up in a conversation about Karma sutra and the “orgasmo” as the two activities are so inexplicitly combined. We came to the conclusion he was looking for a threesome but giggled at his weird conversation.
We left around then Amy & I heading back to civilisation conversation scattered in between my zones and her falling asleep. All I drank was five beers and smoked a few pipes but I had an incredible night feeling some kind of magic that is hard to find in Darwin. Thank god for Amy talking me into it.
Just a reminder to all visitors and operatorsthat climbing and jumping off rocks is unsafe, and prohibited in Kakadu. We have recent reports of individuals as well as operators allowing guests to jump off rocks.
This activity can carry a fine of up to $3,300 under the EPBC Regulations
Its no secret my grasp of other languages is laughable, my accent sounds more like fingernails being scraped down a blackboard, do they still have blackboards in classrooms these days?
A friend of mine has made a bet I can't go to Paris and find cool people, not only that I am not allowed to use couchsurfers, or apparently hippies.
back to the point Not knowing french in paris could be my downfall of finding awesome Parisans however I have decided all I need to do is learn one phrase in every language perfectly and use it as my opening line. So "What's the time" has worked well for me before & "can you take photos with me so I can pretend I made some friends" then in Mexico where I placed a handful of weed in some guys hand and signalled a joint rolling movement. I am adaptable. But languages are my achilles heel.
and the winning phrase of the hour, destined to break down cultural barriers? Classy enough to entertain the Parisians and get a response from the Turkish. Baffling the Canadians whilst getting a chuckle from the English. Oh yes what is that masterful phrase that translates to every language........
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Why did the plane crash? because the pilot was a tomato
