Ramblings of the travelling nature

Well it's my first week aboard & where in Egypt already! The boat is moored up here for a night to take on fuel and supplies ready for our 2 week trip to the Maldives down through the Suez Canal and Red sea and onto the Indian Ocean. We should be arriving there around the first week of December and be there for Christmas & New Year with the guests.

All is well on board, one hell of a learning curve but getting there slowly although I think I've got a mild case of culture shock for the first time in all my travels!!! The fact that I'm working on a boat for days and days without seeing land, no nightlife or entertainment to speak of besides DVDs, no girls, no alcohol & nothing to do except live and breath and scrub the yacht. I'm sure I'll get use to it, just a bit of a shock to the system and different words for EVERYTHING!, can someone get me a yachting dictionary for Christmas hehe; alright for the hardcore yachties on board but I’m already realising that I don't want to end up like that, seems like it can turn into the 9-5 office grind....even at sea!!!

Not sure when I can be in contact again as we are loosing internet for the next two weeks and might not have it for the whole duration in the Maldives.....like till after New years!!!!! don't know how I will cope

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4002340

Well I managed to make it out of Ibiza thanks to my mate Steve & the 24 meter yacht that he captains & have been parked up here in Monaco for the last month.
The trip here was quite eventful, passing through Mallorca, Barcelona and then up the Spanish coast through the Gulf of Leon which through some heavy swell at us, then it was down along the French Rivera to our final stop in Monaco marina.
The French Rivera is absolutely beautiful with the train & the road out too Italy hugging the coastline and boring through the mountains, there's even a little bit of snow forming already on some of the peaks.
Monaco's not the liveliest of places, more of a rich old mans town, hell they even have defibrillators on the street for those unannounced heart attacks. Although it's not lively I think it’s just what I needed. Chilled out doing nothing and just setting myself back in order has been really good. The French seem not too bad, not as bad as I've heard from others, although maybe the fact that I'm still speaking broken Spanish to them makes it look as though at least I'm trying.

Living on the boat hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, it's quite big with 3 bedroom each with ensuite showers and a kitchen...better than some flats I've lived in, just feels like a normal floating house & whilst I've been here have been helping out with bits and pieces on the boat. Steve's such a top bloke that he let me borrow his mates car for a day to drive to Antibes for some interviews & that. Now being the first time driving on the wrong side of the road (the right hand side) with a car that I was unfamiliar with (why are the blinkers on the other side!!!!!) and not knowing how to get to where I was going I think it went surprisingly well......besides the wing mirror kidney slap I managed to give some bicyclist at 60km p/h. Going by the rear view mirror I'm sure he'll ride again another day.

I've also managed to get a trip up to Gothenburg in Sweden since I've been here, my first taste of Scandinavia & a fucken cold one!
Well I've not been one to do anything half hearted I've dived absolutely full steam into this yacht thing. Have done a shed load of training which has cost me an absolute packet that I don't have and am not even guaranteed a job at the end of it. I kind of look at it as an investment if you will, once I get a job I can pay it off in no time at all, just have to borrow from the bank to get it in the first place. So since leaving Ibiza in my messy state, you will be surprised to hear that I am now trained in First Aid, Freezing water sea survival, fire fighting and all sorts of other things and have managed to pass my medical examination!! And too think that just a month ago I had no idea what was next, where I was going and a not a dime to my name, bloody hell must be doing something right!

Now I sit here absolutely ecstatic as I've managed to pick up a job as a deckie on a 54 meter super yacht that's heading down to the Maldives, Thailand, Seychelles then back up to the Med over the next 5 months!!!!! I’m absolutely speechless, I get flow out too Istanbul where I will join the crew and start cruising down to the far east. Am one lucky lucky man :D

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/3818460

Well I came, I saw, I conquered and I survived. I survived a full season of the Ibiza madness, I might not have come out better health wise then when I entered and lost a few million brain cells in the process but fuck did I have a good time or what!
The beach, the babes, the booze and the banter along with the rollercoaster of highs & lows all combined to create the most craziest summer of my lifetime.

Ibiza in itself is it’s own little world, things happen here that don’t happen anywhere else I know of…but it works. The security relaxed approach to everything except cameras, being able to go clubbing morning, noon and night 24/7, getting a beer at the hairdressers and something that doesn’t happen ANYWHERE else……Space mornings, my god I’ll never look at Sunday mornings the same again, forget church!
But even Ibiza can have its problems. This season there was a terrorist bomb alert, police shutting down 3 major clubs (which later re-opened), an oil spill and the weather being a bit shady towards the end. But in all of this you have the Spaniards which do have to put up with a lot of shit and still show a friendly face & continuously chirping ‘Holla, Holla’, maybe it’s the fact that your paying double the price of everything compared to the rest of Spain.

It wasn’t all highs though & by the end of the season I was well and truly ready to leave the island and had honestly had enough of the parties and everything that went with them and too see mates turn into something and someone else by the end of the season was truly unbelievable. With that came peoples reliability which disappeared & selfishness took over by the end. The later of which I did get caught up with. Sure everyone always says that it’s a bad thing to be selfish. But I’ve come to realize if you’re not selfish, even just a little bit you get nothing and seem to go nowhere, well at least not to where you want to go anyway. If you want something why not have it or at least trey to get it, but of course you can always take it too far. I think there is a healthy balance somewhere, a balance I think I’m getting better at over the years.
But we all help each other out through the tough times even if it is just a guest list here & there for a mate with no cash and the mates I’ve made here are just top notch, maybe because we have seem the ‘good & bad’ sides of each other, so to speak. That’s goto build a strong friendship but deep deep down I think we were all ready to leave at the end.

The memories, fuck the memories here. The things I’ve seem, done and being here are things I use to dream about and imagine and I promise you I’ll never forget the first time I walked into Space, the atmosphere, the people, the tears. Unbelievable. Just wish I hadn’t lost everyone on the way in!!

Towards the end of the season I came to the realization that I had not a Euro to my name and how the fuck was I going to get out of here. I was trapped in Ibiza!!!
Well like everything it all works itself out and while plans of going to Ireland were scrapped, then doing a ski season in Andorra were put on the backburner, I ended up meeting a captain of a yacht through a good mate and has taken me onboard showing me the ropes and what not so hopefully should be cruising to some exotic location in the next month or so.

So the big question. Would I come back?
Well for anyone that has known me for an extended period of time knows that this is me to a tee and has being for a very long time and as much fun as I did have I have had more fun elsewhere, which I found really interesting. Perhaps its my personality traits kicking in with the fact that I can’t stay in one place for a long time even if I am enjoying it. The weird thing about the whole thing is that I love it so much and can’t imagine my life without this music, having it day in and day out, every night, every morning, it just looses it touch. Doesn’t seem to make it special anymore & that’s what I want to keep, the specialty of it, when it makes you cry with joy and smile so much you face hurts from smiling too much, that’s what makes it special and that’s what I want to keep. But going from this last week I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon as any recent tune jogs memories of somekind of randomness and am finding it hard going out….it just ain’t the same as Ibiza!!
So in short, I can’t see myself coming back for a full season but can never rule it out, but will definitely be back for a holiday some time…..a long one! as there is nowhere else where electronic music is celebrated so much in such a small place.

Adios Ibiza, you treated me well

Peace

Favorites

Favorite Club: Space
Favorite Party: Tiesto @ Privilege
Favorite Club Night: Carl Cox @ Space
Favorite Moment: Looking round when Tiesto was playing at Privilege and everyone smiling ear to ear.
Favorite Food: N/A
Favorite Drink: Fanta Naranja / Oakey Banana Milkshake
Favorite Place: Sa Trinka / Dalt Vila (Evissa Castle)
Favorite Beach: Cala D’Hort
Priceless Moment: Beach parties with mates
Scariest Moment: Realization of having no money and having to leave in 3 weeks
Amazing Moment: Falling ever so slightly in love for the most amazing girl,
Song of the season: Love is Gone - David Guetta
Quote of the season: Give love….Get love back (Lucky, 2007)
Jobs: Minimal Bar, FunKafe, Pago Pago, Hed Kandi, SpinClub, The Zoo Project,
Wonderworld Festival, Milk ‘n’ 2 Sugars
Lost: My hearing (even more), my senses, my money, my towel, one sock, my mind.

Check out the pics here >>>
Month 1 - http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/2966657
Month 2/3 - http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/3148295
Month 4/5 - http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/3561327

Well after getting back from Switzerland things got a whole lot better in Ibiza. Not sure weather it was down to just taking a break from it all after being here for 2 months or just the whole situation changing but whatever it was it was a good change.

So what’s being going on since I’ve being back. Well I did make it back to Spain with no immigration problems, although we’ll have to wait and see what happens when I go to leave the EU.
The parties have being going on thick and fast with not that big of an income, I can only wonder how I can afford to go out so much. Tiesto came and conquered the island with a party that was just beyond belief. Talk about bringing out all the guns; there were singers, fireworks, ridiculous amounts of ice cannons, one gigantic video screen and two fuck of f big colour lasers. I swear there was no one there that didn’t have a smile on there face the whole night & being the biggest club in the world definitely did it justice. Then there was cream, Carl Cox, Roger Sanchez & his live sex show, Manumission & the list goes on and now with all the closing parties taking place it’s all starting to come to an end!!

The housing situation has being a bit up and down with all of us being evicted from our apartment with one hour notice. Basically what happened is the guy we were paying our rent too & who we through owned the apartment turned out that he didn’t own it and found out when the actual owner turned up to get 2 months rent which hadn’t being paid to him by the guy who he thought was staying there, the guy we were paying rent to!!
Anyway one thing led to another and we wouldn’t pay the 2 months rent that we had already paid and got booted out onto the pavement. Since Mel had already left a couple of weeks earlier it was just Laura, Jayne and me to find a place. Well we all split up to different places and Laura went back to the UK soon after. I ended up staying with my mates Nati & Coti where I got evicted from after a couple of weeks after the owner found out & am now staying at Ben’s apartment until I leave the island.

Another wicked thing that I’ve got into over here is the Couchsurfing Project. I’ve been a member for the last year or so but it hasn’t being until Ibiza that I’ve really started to get involved in it. Basically it’s a website that travellers round the world use to meet people & stay at there places where they are living. It seems that there weren’t that many young host in Ibiza so ended up meeting some fantastically wicked people who stayed in our apartment. Now I’m not sure if I’m a really bad host or if it was just bad timing but managed to make there stay all the more ‘exciting’ The first one was Melissa who came from Barcelona for a couple of days, lovely girl & was all going well until the day before she was planning to leave. Basically we just use to leave our key outside as we had managed to lose all the other key sets. Anyway we all seemed to have forgotten to put the key out and all ventured off to various places for the night. So poor Melissa has come back to the house for the night only to find that the key wasn’t outside and all of us were all round the island & not a single Euro of phone credit between us.
Long story short. None of us could call her back and I totally forgot she needed to go to the airport in the morning, but what can I do with the keys locked in the apartment?? Well it all seemed to work out as she made friends with the neighbours, stayed there the night and went to the airport……without her bags in the morning! Felt so bloody bad, she was quite cool about it all though and when I eventually arrived home; hungover like you wouldn’t believe, Ben kicked the door down, thought about what we had done and went to the beach. Bad host???
Another bad host story if not worse was with another Spanish girl from Denia, Monica. Fucking wicked girl, possibly one of the most loveliest girls I’ve ever met. She wanted to stay in Ibiza for one week, I was like yeah that absolutely fine as were all the other flatties. She’s arrived & we’ve gone to see Laura who told us that we were getting evicted in a couple of days. Oh bugger! Surely it won’t be this week I reassured Monica. Well one sunny Saturday morning while Monica & the rest of the crew where at Space, the landlord knocked on out door and basically gave me an hour to get all our stuff out. Now being the only one home and having to pack up an apartment along with four girls accumulated clothes and assorted shit, I had the whole house packed up and on the pavement with time to spare.
So there I was having no idea where the fuck ill be staying little lone poor old Monica who I’m meant to be hosting. So there was that big thing, then when I gave her bags back there was stuff missing and messed up with the other girls clothes. Then I temporarily lost her bag with all her money in so she couldn’t be buy a ferry ticked home, then I also managed to temporarily lose her bag with here house key in; which she realised once back on the mainland!! Am thinking I’m not the best of hosts, although quite good at taking them out and partying on down at the best parties and doing my wicked Space tours….but not accommodation host. Although I did managed to introduce Monica to Vegemite & Pot Noodles, both of which didn’t go down well, but did manage to re-house Monica & myself and it all worked out in the end; made for an interestng trip I say!

To check out Couchsurfing follow this link >>> http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/redmonkey

Has being a wicked journey out here though, with a few mates coming out from London & meeting some amazing people out here. Managing to destroy mine, Jaynes and my brand new camera and then topping ioff the season with a trip to neighbouring Formentera Island which has the most beautiful beaches in the Mediterranean; riding round on bicycles and chilling out before it all wraps up.

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/3561327

Well i made it back to sunny old Ibiza with minimal hassle.

Now I don't normally run off to the middle of Europe just for laughs, but as I’m an Aussie I can only stay in the EU for 90 days before having to leave and since I arrive at the start of May it was time to run off and get a stamp so I can stay for another 90 days.

Before leaving I was really unsure if the whole thing would work or not as you actually have to leave the EU for 90 days before being able to come back. The whole thing seemed to gone off without a hitch except for the fact they didn't give me a stamp!!! All that way and upon arriving to Switzerland gave a couple of wrong answers to the immigration officer causing him to dig deeper into my passport and then refusing to give me a stamp, never mind I thought ill just grab one on the way out of the country. Well that didn’t work as at Zurich airport there was this lone dude doing 'Passport Control' which just meant making sure every one had a passport that walked past, well I thought I’d give it a go, hell it was my final chance but nope he didn’t even have a stamp behind his little counter! But I’m here back now, even though I still don’t think I can stay here, but heading to Zurich for a week sorted allot of shit out and doing absolutely nothing at all was a complete change for the craziness of Ibiza.

Well the second chapter is about to start, right on the halfway mark and I’ve come back, looking chilled and apparently younger ready to go again!!!

Well where do I start, so much has happened in the last month and it’s a bit unreal. Time moves here at a really slow speed but the days are so jam packed full of things that it feels like a whole week is jammed into just a day!

Hmmm, so where to start......Well since last writing I’ve picked up more jobs & being fired from one, have moved flat, ran out of money & had some passport issue and have had a birthday.
It’s being an absolute whirlwind of emotions & issues.
I think the last time I wrote I was working at FunKafe but walked out of there [edited by request of FunKafe] and found a job PRing for a beach bar called Pago Pago which was a wicked place to work in, some nice chilled people & was a bit of fun. Unfortunately I was fired from there after a couple of weeks as I now need a permit to work on the street and as being Australian that’s never gonna happen. It’s all good though as I have a few other jobs going at the moment to keep me busy and the money coming in.
I promote a night at Space nightclub called SpinClub which is on Thursday nights with Chris Liebing, its only 2 days work a week but is easy money & the promoters are nice as. I pretty much do the same thing for a night at El Divino nightclub as well called Milk ´n´2 Sugars, just giving out discounted wristbands along the beach & streets & just generally promoting the night. The other job I do is work for the Hed Kandi label packing promo packs & cleaning the mammoth 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom DJ apartment, which takes about oooo 5 hours to clean after the DJs have partied, packed & gone home. I’m also starting to get involved with production of the Hed Kandi night through my mate Ben & can hopefully get some more work like that for Hed kandi & other events too.
So with all these jobs you would think that I’m loaded?? Well I have enough to get day to day but now without a big money (full-time) job it’s quite tight as its a bit of an expensive island & also the problem of having to save something as I've got no cash to travel on at the moment..eeek!

What else has being happening here??...well there’s being a few apartment issues. We were living in central Evissa for just under a month after Jayne & Tilly arrived from London & then Jack half way through the month. But after a couple of weeks Jack couldn’t hack it any more and decided to go back to London & Tilly ran out of cash & had to jump ship. This was all happening about a week before our rent was due & not knowing that Tilly was even thinking about leaving meant that when we did find out we had hardly any time to sort something out, which made me a wee bit angry & don’t really want to talk to the girl anymore, well at the time, am over the whole thing now.
Anyhoo the big guy upstairs must have seen what was going on and how stressed Jayne & I were that one balmy night whilst I was standing on my corner PRing and was just randomly chatting to these two girls who were looking for a place to live & just as I was about to say go & check out the local newspaper Jayne came storming down the street & dropping the bomb shell that we had to move out, NEXT WEEK!!!
Well put 2 & 2 together the 4 of us started house hunting the next day & after narrowly avoiding putting all of our combined life savings together & giving it to the Italian Mafia who were trying to rent out a house that we reckon the owners were on holiday from....we all live happily now in a 1 bedroom apartment in Playa Den Bossa where the population ranges from 4 to an average of 6. Is very cozy indeed and if there has being anytime I have craved even just a little piece of personal space, it's now.
So now I’m living with 4 English girls with the extras from Jayne being Mel & Laura, sounds like the perfect situation...Living with 4 girls in Ibiza, but am ready to go cut down a tree or something, or kill a deer with my mates, just too much girly vibes and girly shit everyday, although I have learnt some really interesting things though.

The Parties......Well I can't even explain, the pictures tell some of the story. Have being so many good times with mates & randoms like the beach parties, the villa party in the mountains under the stars, Space in the mornings, evenings & the afternoons, ahhhh.
The most random night being the night I turned into 'Rambo'. It all started off after finishing work & heading to the bar where Mel & Laura work & after polishing off a bucket load of free sex on the beaches climbed aboard the bus to Privilege where it all started to turn pear shaped. The craziness continued on the bus & after allegedly falling over a couple of times I realized that my belt bag thingy had gone missing. For those not familiar with the Belt Bag thingy, It's not a bum bag nor a man purse but simply a fabric belt with a bag on the side, so when your pockets are full you can add some more. Anyhoo knowing forewell that it hadn't come undone and that some fucker had stolen it, this sent me into a right old rage and the barstard had to still be on the bus.
So the bus pulled up to the club carpark & while all my other mates were flaffing around the floor like chickens looking for it I spotted this one dude who just didn't look right & going on this hunch I told my mate Ben that this dude had it and as we exited the bus saw this wanker unzip it behind the bus! That's when my drunken haze evaporated & Rambo made his first guest appearance.
I started piss bolting after this idiot, chasing him at full speed through the carpark and as he stumbled down this embankment tree covered I launched myself and leaped through the trees above him and landed smack on top of him at the bottom of the hill, timing!!! Now I couldn't hit the poor fella, I’m not a violent dude, think i might have slapped him a couple of times to try and slap some sense into him. Now special mention has to go out to my good mate Ben who was a couple of steps behind me right the way & who managed to chip his front tooth during the action. Cheers buddy, absolute legend!! Also Ben told me about the leap through the trees, which apparently was a 3 meter drop, and what actually happened, as I was to pumped full of adrenalin I can't actually remember doing it. So much so that I literally couldn’t open my mouth to talk for the next 2 hours & was so bloody tense for the rest of the night.
Ahhh but what a wanker though, didn't even have anything in it really, just my cigarettes, but its all about the principle innit bro
I thought I had too let you know all that as it never happens to me and nothing like a bit of action!!

So that's pretty much Ibiza to the minute. I'm writing this from Switzerland as I’m here for a week to get my passport stamped so I can return and stay in Spain for another 90 days.
I’m having an OK time here, some brilliant times with mates and that but it is still stressful with money and that and its not just me going through it. It's also quite a quiet summer here as at the start of the season 3 clubs were shut down for a month which made people cancel there holidays and now a couple of weeks back a cargo ship sunk spilling oil & 3 beaches were closed off, so might get even quieter.
Still having a ball though, its an absolutely nuts island & will hopefully be here for another 2 months, will keep you posted on the passport situation!!

P.s Am now on FaceBook, how bloody cool is it....so if i haven´t added you already send me an invite!!

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/3148295