All entries for Thursday 26 October 2006

Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect (or Dancing About Architecture)

The lecture period is over, and the time for revision has already begun. Seems weird seeing as only three months ago I was relieved at fighting the last lot of exams off yet I’m already back to the grindstone again.

Me and Loh were a bit lazy one evening and headed for a Malaysian take-out and came to chatting about his course, architecture. What immediately comes to mind when you think about architecture (don’t say you haven’t thought this) are drawings of buildings. I guess that’s what immediately came to mind when I was looking at courses over three years ago. If I’d actually looked into it, with hindsight I probably would’ve taken Architecture as a course. The course is so much more diverse than I ever expected, looking into Philosophy, Sociology, Finance and Psychology as well as expected areas of Art, Science and Technology. I never really thought about why I’ve chose Engineering other than I thought I’d be pretty good at it, which I guess has turned out to be mainly true. I’m not saying I’ve made the wrong decision, I just wonder sometimes what would’ve happened had I taken a different course.

Then again, the hideous workload I’ve seen him encumbered with is enough to shake my head of the idea and make glad that I’ve picked a course that still gives me a fair amount of breathing space for at least some parts of the year, whilst also leaving me time to explore all these other subjects at will rather than be forced upon them. I suppose if I’d taken another degree I’d probably be saying the same thing about Engineering… ahh well!

James Riley : 26 Oct 2006 06:28 |  Tags: Life Ramblings University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Wrapping up the Barrier

I thought to give over prolonging the agony of waiting for each installment and finish this in a rather abrupt way, because there’s plenty of other things that I probably should be writing about…

Day 3

We headed out from Medlands Beach and a short hike and walk later arrived at the next collection of houses (you can’t really call any of these places towns to be honest)...

This is us relaxing at the amusingly named Claris, Texas restaurant, in, you guessed it, Claris! It’s also where we found about Steve Irwin, much to the amusement of some of the locals when we declared it quite loudly with some amount of surprise. Fish and chips were gobbled down for the second time this trip and we hiked off again towards the north, and wherever the next lift would take us.

The next lift took us to the north-eastern corner of the island, courtesy of a DoC official and his exquisite Jeep (at least it seemed like it at the time). It also took us to a campsite full of sheep (not pictured) and a long beach rather pretensiously captured by Jens’ handling of my camera shown above. We spent the evening dancing around a campfire of driftwood, excited by flames and egged on by the shots of lemon-tinged vodka before light rain persisted enough to make us give up and return to our tents. A rather unexceptional night of keeping a stove sheltered from the wind and rain for an unexceptional meal of our ‘tuna tikka’ was quickly ended by a few more warming shots to finish off the last of the whiskey and send me off to sleep.

Day 4

This picture of the morning after rather reproduces the image of the night before with our eyes transfixed on flames but with the rain finally dissipated and our pot full of oatmeal. We didn’t wait long in the morning to leave, giving ourselves the whole day for a forest trek that followed the coast to the next beach and campsite. The rain had relented for a while but it was quite soon into the walk when the heavens opened again. The forest provided a little shelter but now all equipment had to be covered and waterproofs donned.

The track headed around the coastline and occasionally peeked out over bays and unreachable beaches that were marred by the grey weather. A swift and simple lunch taken halfway through did little to brighten the mood. What did eventually cheer us up was the realisation that the advertised five hour hike was dispensed with in a mere three hours, and that in reaching the campsite on the other side, even the most stubborn clouds had given up pouring water on us.

The campsite was at the head of a great estuary, leading to this amusing ‘walking on water’ feat from Alex as he went off to find the sea. The rain had let off enough to hang our washing on the line, and grab a nice sunset view over a game of cards and the last of our rationed alcohol. It was a pleasant relief after the persistent rain to have some respite. In the morning, we’d be heading up Mount Hobson, the largest peak on the island and hopefully end up somewhere to spend the night. It’d be a long day…

James Riley : 26 Oct 2006 06:21 |  Tags: Beach Drinking Food Great Barrier Hiking Life Photos Travel |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem