GTA Gum Removal

If anyone is looking for gum removal, please head to our website or give me a call at 647-801-5783.

We were on City TV! Check out the video!

http://citynews.video.citytv.com/video/594266224001/Machine-Removes-Gum-From-Sidewalk/

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holidays are a blast!

Andrew

Prospective SWAPPERS

So I am back from my working holiday down under. For all of you considering whether to apply for SWAP, or just considering going to Australia in general, here is a little advice for you.

Firstly, SWAP = IEP (International Exchange Program) in Australia. IEP has two offices, one in Melbourne, one in Sydney. Both are filled with people there to help out travelers while they are down under. Check out their website here. It's not the best looking, but once you can log in as a member, you get access to helpful info and links; applying for an Aussie bank account, phones, etc, can be found there. Also, there is a forum where you can arrange meetings with other IEPers, which leads me to my next point.

Don't be afraid to go alone. I headed to Australia on my own. Making new friends there is one of the easiest things you will do. Unless you are really awkward, or socially dysfunctional, you'll meet lots of people in no time. Travellers want to meet other travellers, simple as that. You'll meet people from all over the world, and it will blow your mind. :P

Be prepared. Your already doing the research if your reading this, so good on ya mate. Keep it up. It's best to go with a general plan in mind of what you want to do when you're there. It can be a little overwhelming awesome once you arrive, so knowing what you need to get done helps. I can't really say much on this since I'm not the best to sticking to a plan myself, but it does help if you've got one.

Book your Greyhound buses online, and more than 24 hours in advance. Travelling by Greyhound buses is a great way to go. The network they have there is awesome; you can access the entire country! Just make sure to book online, as I once booked a bus over the phone for myself and my friend, and the guy screwed up and only booked my friend on the bus. So, not being on the list, I had to wait and see if there was enough seats on a bus I couldn't afford to miss because of my schedule. It was brutal. There ended up being 1 spot left, and 2 people who needed it (the other person had had the same mistake). We both managed to get on though, so all was well. Book well enough in advance as well; not being on the list sucks.

Watch out for GOON. What is goon you ask? It is cheap boxed wine. Dirt cheap. $10-15 for a 4L box cheap. We don't really have goon here in Ontario (probably Canada as well) like they do. It's what the Aussies grow up drinking, so they are well aware of it. Basically, you can get really really drunk for little money. You'll turn to it when your budget demands, I'm sure. Just be careful. It has very little taste and takes awhile to hit you, so you are warned. My first experience with it was an absolute nightmare. I've got a post about it somewhere on here, but I'm not proud of it so I won't link.

Learn how to surf. Just do it. That is the thing that I am most proud of now that I'm back; give me a board and some nice waves and I'll rip it up. I tell everyone, and everyone is jealous.

Umm, what else?

Have fun. You're going to have the time of your life. Meet new people. Try things that scare you. Take a million pictures. Remember forever. (Something like this blog helps)


Wanna see what fun you can have? Check out these posts. Here are some of the really cool things I did while down there. My trip sorta got cut short (poor financial managment and my lil bro became sick) but I still loved every minute of it. I am still working on posts for the ladder half of my trip, but so far the really cool ones are:

Self-drive Camping on Fraser Island.
An orientation at Rainbow beach before heading out camping...
Awesome Fraser Island Camping Day 1
Awesome Fraser Island Camping Day 2
Awesome Fraser Island Camping Day 3 (almost done)

The hour I spent in Noosa when it wasn't raining.
Oh Noosa you could have been so wonderful...

Surfers Paradise.
Surfers paradise really looks like a surfers paradise...

Surf camp at Spot X
Spot X Surf camp and whats going on in Byron Bay...

How I felt on my first day.
Day 1 - Here.

I lived in Sydney for 5 months. Here are some of the places/things you should check out if you can.
Watson's Bay
Watch a Sydney Swans game
Sydney Botanical Gardens
NYE in Sydney
Blue Mountains and the Jenolean Caves (just learnt facebook public links can expire)
Videos from the mountains/caves


Well I hope this helps a bit if you're trying to decide. I wish you all the best of luck, and safe travels. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I was in the same position and I don't mind trying to help :)

Cheers mate,

Andrew Meades

Google Wave - Google's newest way to communicate...

Hey all who come here, I would like to show you Google Wave; it's basically Google's answer to 'What would it be like if email was invented now?'. It's a simple to use program combining Email + Social Networking + Instant Messaging. This can help you share your traveling experience easier!

Watch the first 20 mins for a demonstration.




Just of the top of my head, some things that this could have helped me, and can help you, when blogging or communicating abroad.

1. It makes sharing pictures between people much easier. No more browsing 4 different facebook albums.

2. Posting about your experience becomes simpler too with the Bloggy add-on.

3. Also, you can get proper feedback from people who see the blog, answer questions right on the page and so everyone can see them.

4. There are add-ons for Video/Audio chats, so if everyone get this (which I hope they do when its released) it's easy to communicate. I had to go around and get all my friends and family to download Skype so I could video chat with them, and they were rarely ever signed on.

Those are just a couple off the top of my head. I hope as a future or current traveler you can appreciate how this will make sharing your travels with everyone easier.

It's not out just yet but they are giving out 100,000 invites tomorrow for the public to try. You'll probably have to wait until all the bugs are cleaned out, but that's okay!

Hope all is well,

Any questions feel free to ask,

Andrew

New Beer Trick

This weekend I invented a new way to open a beer with some buddies. It involves a golf club + bottle opener + a beer. Check it out! Obviously the one smashing the beer is me. I'm not the best at golf...



How To Open A Beer - Watch more Funny Videos

Awesome Fraser Island camping Day 2

 The rising sun woke all of us up nice and early.  Some of us were a little hungover, the rest, like myself, were doing just fine.  Once up, it was time to pack everything and get breakfast cooking.  Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with tomato and onion with bread (there was no real easy way make toast).  The rest of the groups we had camped with were ahead of us leaving, but we took our time and made sure to get a nice meal in.  Apparently, one of the groups left their food outside and had most of it taken by several dingos (which we never saw).  Sucked to be them :P

Breakfast was delicious.  Mmm.

We left and headed back South down the island.  The itinerary suggested that we head back to town, stock up on ice, and then continue to Lake Mackenzie, which is what we planned to do.  On our way back down we hit a traffic jam.  There was a huge line-up of cars waiting to access a one lane route around rocks on the beach.  Someone told us that a truck had gotten stuck and was waiting to be towed and everyone was waiting on that.  

So what were we to do?  Instead of waiting in line, we backtracked a few minutes to a place called Eli Creek, a beautiful fresh water creek, and planned to play there a bit and wait for the line-up to dissolve.  Eli Creek was sweet!  A group of us walked to the beginning of it and swam down.  I loved it!!!  The water was crystal clear and you look beside and see small fish swimming along with you.   

You would often see planes fly by and some would land right on the beach.

After we were done, it was time to see how the line was doing.  Unfortunately, it had not lessened at all.  In fact, it was slightly larger than when we left it.  Shitty.  There were lots of trucks hauling 25ft+ boats from a fishing competition that was being held on the island.  It had ended I guess, and everyone was in a rush to get home.  Watching a truck pull its massive boat up some the tracks was wild as they grew quite steep and rocky at times.  

Anyways, so here we were stuck in massive line-ups waiting to get past the 3 rock by-passes so we could get to the small town on the island.  At one point everyone in the back jumped out to walk along the beach, which was faster than the truck was headed.

It ended costing us about 2 hours to get through it all, but we persevered.  We made it to the town, stocked up on ice, and met the 3 other groups we'd left with.   Along the wait, C.J. heard from another driver that a big storm was on its way and that we should camp inland tonight.  We made plans for that and decided to use the campsite close to Lake Mackenzie, which would let us spend the most time possible at what we'd heard was an amazing place.  We let the other groups know that's what our plans were, headed out of town to a water tap, and passed them all again on our way to Lake Mackenzie.  We literally drove past them all without stopping figuring that we'd all meet up again at Lake Mack.      

That didn't happen... Take note for tomorrow.

We trucked it up to the campsite, only to find out it was closed.  Fuck.

Check out the fences they use to keep away the dingos.  Pretty intense.  The cables along the ground are electrified.  

I found this massive tree here when we stopped to figure what to do next.  

What were we to do?  The closed sign suggested some other campsites, so we decided on the closest one, Lake Boomanjin, but since it was much further South, we headed to the lake first.

Even with the crappy on and off rain, and the little sun, it was still absolutely beautiful.

Swimming in Lake Mackenzie was one of the coolest things I did while Australia.

Check it out:

Even with the clouds, still was great.

When I got there I immediately noticed a stretch of light blue water, which then sharply darkens.  That boundary line in where the lake suddenly dropped much deeper.  

Look at me, I'm having fun!

Luckily, C.J. had a waterproof digital camera so he was able to take some underwater photos.

Here I am diving down to grab some of the bottom.

Here is a picture of the group of us in Lake Mackenzie.

I dove down pretty deep and took this shot of C.J., Ashley, and Connor.

Lack Mackenzie is the clearest lake I have ever seen.  Swimming in this lake was wonderful.  You can see people at distances away that you wouldn't think possible underwater.  I tasted a bit of the water to see if it was salty at all.  It. Even. Tasted. Good.  Take that as a measure of just how wickedly awesome this place was.  

Here I was happy we'd had lots of fun there; we made plans to come back tomorrow.

We were all reluctant to leave when it came time.  And seeing as time was of the essence (we were not supposed to drive at night), we needed to head out to make sure we had plenty to set up camp.  Our first stop was Lake Boomanjin, a campsite about an hour South of Lake Mack.  Once we got there, none of us liked the look of it.  There were already about 8 trucks there, none of which were yellow tops.  Interesting. 

We were having lots of fun during the trip though.

I went for the retard face unlike everyone else...

Onward we went.  Dilli Village was about 40 minutes to the Southeast.  It was a fun and quite bumpy ride to get there, but we all had plenty of drinks to pass the time with.  Poor C.J., I think he was the only completely sober one at this point, but that is the sacrifice he made being the driver.  He made up for it later in the night, no worries.

We arrived at the campsite, but first drove a bit to check and see if camping at the beach was a viable option.  It wasn't.  The tide had come in, and it would have been impossible to get to the beach site, short of a trip as it was.  It was starting to get dark at this point, and we looked to see how we would camp here.  Dilli Village, we learnt, was one of the few campgrounds that you have to pay to camp there.  $10 each to camp for the night.  Fuck that.

So back to Lake Boomanjin campground it was.  At this point were driving in the dark, which was no big deal, it was more of the fact that we'd wasted time getting here and our asses were getting a little sore that was annoying.

The goon began flowing...

Needless to say we made it safe and sound (and a little more inebriated) back to Boomanjin.  By now there were, I'd say, 15 trucks there, and finding a spot to pitch our tents wasn't the easiest.

It was here where we all worked beautifully as a group.  Some went off to set up the tents, others began preparing our dinner, which was vegetable stir-fry.  Another delicious meal.  It was supposed to have chicken as well, but the chicken bag had popped in our cooler.  Thankfully most of the other food in there was properly sealed.  We got everything done quickly and efficiently.  Great job!

And after eating it was party time!  

There were plenty of other people to meet, and since we had our truck's music blaring, lots of other campers came to visit us.  We were party central, and we all partied by truck for the night.  The goon had been flowing freely for awhile already, and it continued.  At one point, the rain turned on heavily so the party moved to the back of the truck.  It soon stopped, and we all slowly began to pass out.  There was a small storm in the middle of the night I remember waking up to, our tent managed to stay dry.

It was a great day followed by a great night.

Andre\/\/  /\/\eades

***The next day we ran into a big surprise.  Make sure to check it out.

My last day in Australia...

So this is it, my final day here in Oz. I don't know how I feel really. Wait. That's a lie, I do actually. It's a mixed feeling. I am sad to say goodbye to Australia, a country that has treated me so well. One that has helped me learn more of who I am. Helped me understand more of this world and of its people. But I am also happy. Happy to head back home and see faces that I have missed, and to a place where I grew up; one that is forever familiar.

What sort of things am I doing as a final goodbye? Nothing really. I ate an Ogalo chicken burger, a chain here in Sydney that I like. Other than that, nothing. I lived in Sydney for 5 months. I've done the city. Now, all that's left is my arrival back.

Back to home. Back to family and friends. Back to pennies. Back to my car, dog, cat and a new puppy. Back to work. Back to where I was before I left.

It wont be the same though.

Things have changed. I have changed. Changed, so that even though I will be heading back to where I was before, it wont feel the same. Home will never be the same. My view of where I came from will be different. I have seen some of what this world has to offer and will automatically compare that to home. Don't get me wrong, home is still home, just not like it was before. The same way you change once you head off to university and come back. That same change, only a greater one. And this change is exactly what I was looking for, and needed, so I am glad.

Now, the next step for me is to figure out what I am doing with the rest of my life. Too easy :)


Good bye Australia. I love you and will miss you.


Andrew Hamilton Meades



** I am still working on the rest of the posts but will not be able to post them for a few days, so hang with me till then **