Here Ye! Here Ye! The past few months have just swooshed by and oh what fun they have been. One minute surfing Mona on a beautiful Sydney summer Saturday morning with Josh and Pete, the next riding the backside of Keystone Mountain in Sunny Colorado. Getting between the two locales may have been another tale but Las Vegas was fun for the short time it existed... can only use interesting when describing downtown LA. Living in "the cage" may be unbearable for some but it most certainly has its "Slope Side" advantages. Go catch a bus Sunrise guys and gals. With just over fifty riding days to my name this season, the career 100 is looking grim, but the video highlights perhaps tell a different story, then again perhaps they don't. A house party on New Year's Eve turned out to be more fun and most certainly more rewarding than one could have expected... actually, more than "two" could have expected. What night is it when a bunch of Base Area employees head into the office, on a Tuesday, with a keg of Fat Tire and a whole bunch of beads? It's Mardi Gras and a whole lotta trouble for everyone else. With Eric deciding that a snow pile outside Winterset would be a great place to sleep the night off, the others made their wobbly way to the bunny hill for some upmost entertainment. As if aquiring a "Toownie" bike wasn't enough and as if riding it down the bunny slope with the rear brake disengaged wasn't enough, Dan thought he better ride it down and forget to jump off. His face, as well as the photos, tell his story and our immense satisfaction of knowing Dan... as a mate. But again, with one forward flip not being sufficient... oops... he did it again. But noooo, the fun was not over for the evening. Steve thought dancing to radio of a Keystone truck was fun... Tom and Rory thought taking the truck would be more so. Soon with a bit of starting skill from Tom, it was travelling down Keystone Road, to the lodge, Ace Ventura style! In the morning it was back in place. Tom doesn't remember bringing it back but is assured he was the one. Remember children, don't take a dump if you're not prepared for a snowballing. As found out by Rory and some poor bloke in the cubicle next to him, it is not fun to get snow down the dacks. Until we do it all again...
Be Gone!
Attention All (September Y2k)
Thought it was about time that I indeed made an attempt to write of my sagas once more. And so I am. How's it going people may ask? Well it's going, I tell ya that. In essence I'm no longer a bum, who just does nothing except goes to uni once in a while and plays footy each weekend. To begin with the important things... footy, I hurt my knee (again) on July 1st and haven't been able to play since. Which leads to the next important thing. In December I have been given a job in Maintenance at Keystone Mountain, part of Vail Resorts in Colorado. It would be the thrill of a lifetime to do, all that has to happen now is the US Governemnt approve my visa and my knee to get better/be repaired, the latter methinks is necessary. The job is meant to be for 6 months, but I could stay between 3-12 months... hence major loss of contact with Oz... but I think I can survive... hehe. My footy team ended up coming second in reserves, but won the Grand Final for the third time in a row against Sydney Uni in first grade... GO MACCAS! This semister, uni has increased in difficulty by about 10 fold, with structural engineering, water engineering, and Engineering Math popping their heads into the course... ahhhhhhh. On top of this, I now worked many hours / week. I'm still doing tutoring, both personal and for my old school... yep good ol' PHCS... and on top of this, I work at Hardware House just down the road, which is a sweet change from studying for my entrie weekend... and I never used to study on the weekends anyway, so it's turned out good. I'm gonna have to give this up if I move to Colorado in December, which will be a shame, but you know... I'll be very happy about that! At the moment, it's the Olympics Holidays, without which I would have exploded, with not a second to spare during the semister. I'm doing the surf thing for most of the 4 weeks, making our way up to Anna Bay for a few days, and generally just doing the local beaches, Central Coast included. On top of that, I'll be studying/catching up on uni work, and really making for a fun last ditch effort before I'm outta this place! The torch relay is presently enntering Sydney, and with the olympics starting in days, a partying time in the city at night is the call... should be mad fun! Ah well, ALAS,I have nothing more to say... be happy and party on...
Sausman going beach, Go catcha wave!
BE GONE!
Attention All (March Y2k)
Well this may take a while, but tis definitely worth the anguished minutes and much aligned coffee breaks. It's been a while and this perhaps and in fact parallels the fun and good times being had be all (me) in the past few and more months. It all eventuated on a warm and sunny December day (sun = warm in Oz unlike Canada), December 1st to be precise, a day that not only was looked forward to but will be looked back on, as one of the great beginnings, a beginning, this one, that will shape and correct my perception of life for the years to come.
Basically I lived in Vancouver for the majority of the time, firstly in a backpackers hostel, and then to a house and then to my friend's apartment. It was a fantastic time. I wouldn't have given it up for anything. I basically worked 3 days a week and snowboarded the rest of the time. The money was great and the snow even better... I can't wait for our winter now! In February I set off from home (which I now regarded as Vancouver) to Toronto for 1 day, Niagara Falls for 1 day, and then to the pinnacle, New York City for 4 days of intense walking, intense viewing and intense photography... It was fantastic... I just looked at the photos again last night and can't wait till I get around to borrowing a scanner to scan them. I walked the length of Manhattan at least 3-4 times... went to Yankee Stadium, Empire State building, Seinfeld's Restaurant (Tom's restaurant, and very reasonable too), the Guggenheim, City Hall, Wall Street, Brooklyn, The Bronx, JFK airport, the west side, the east side, you name it... I saw it... then back to Toronto where somehow I got myself to be given a personal tour of the Toronto Skydome..?? and then back to Vancouver for 2 mins... then to Calgary. Now Calgary was ....hmmmm.... strange... I got there at like 7pm... and it was empty... no cars, no people... basically no fun. So off to Banff I went (without snowboard, because there was no way I was carting it around NYC) and spent two days in paradise... hiking through about 3 feet of snow, falling into frozen rivers and melting things on the heaters at Banff Springs Hotel... I even did a bare feet run out into the snow to take pictures... ouchies! My hands nearly fell off, but I've waited all my life to see Banff and it was much worth it. Well I got back to Calgary to catch the plane, only problem was I only got back with 20 mins to spare, and I was on the wrong side of the city... but after 30 dollars and a "quick" taxi, I made the plane by 1 minute, they shut the doors behind me! (a non-refundable ticket - i would still be there today). So back to Vancouver, and back to the ski fields... On my last day of the snow we had four people all riding together and the last certainly was the best... so much fun, so fast, so exhilarating... almost perfect... then the next afternoon, I packed up, with way too much stuff... and left... for hawaii!!!
I got into the terminal in Vancouver and it was a very hot day (bout 9 degrees... and yes I am boiling over HERE). As soon as i put my bags in, I stripped off, stuffed my jacket and pants and jacket into my snowboard bag and was left with my t-shirt and boardies on!
And that was it... got to Hawaii at night, nearly died from suffocation... ie humidity... and at 9 am woke up and jumped in at Waikiki... yes it felt really good!
I met these guys from Virginia the next day and for the next 4 days, headed up in their rent-a-car to the North Shore... it was on the second day that I did the most thrilling thing of my life... I was with one of the guys, and these guys are like full on 20 years + surfers, so I followed him out at Waimea bay, it was about a 25-35 foot day but was decreasing... so not so scary from the beach... Well I was out there, and I did something silly... you might not know about waves breaking etc... but I didn't have fins on, so I would neva have got the speed up to catch these fast, big waves... so what did I do in my naivity? I went into the drop zone... the place where the wave breaks, the place where in Sydney, if you're learning to board, you would go in a hope that the 2 foot wave might break on you and carry you along.. only these weren't two foot waves... So I'm there, and this camera man yells at me, and I'm like don't worry, I'm alright (in my naivity) and then I see it, it grew to about 30 foot in the end, and when I saw it, I paddled and paddled... for my life... it got me... I got on it.. and as it broke, it threw me about, I'd say 30- 40 metres (length) (10 foot high) through the air, and I just held on. Well I held on for my life, because this was my life... Fortunately I did, and when I landed I managed to hold on, after smashing and nearly breaking my nose on the board... and rode the wave like another 200 metres in, and I just turned around... and went:
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
My friend kept talking about it to everyone after that... those guys were soo funny, he's like (in his virginian accent):
"I'm like out there, and I like see Rob going into the dropzone, and then this muther wave comes, and he like disappears"
"I though you were dead man"
It was so funny in retrospect and so so exhilarating at the time...
So that was it, after that I went out at all the Nth Shore Beaches, and the waves gradually decreased over the week, so it became not at all freaky... and then I came home, went to sleep and went to uni when I woke up!
And thus, this is the reason I've been so lazy this semister at uni... an evidence crammed essay I must say...
My fingers are now sore from typing...
that's all I have to say about that...
Attention All (August 99)
Well he's back and back he is. Thought the ENTIRE MATHS class at UNSW would appreciate it if I added some more culturally inspiring incentive to this otherwise non-entitical, boring and predominated humour. For humour cures all misery... but at the moment I wouldn't know about that... would I. Yes I am having perhaps what could be naively stated as the "best time of my life!!!" What has happened over the past weeks is both unbelieveable as well as perhaps misinterpreted by myself... but who knows eh? With my life dreams complete... what more is there to do? Okay let's start with the mighty Broncos... well, meeting them did indeed contain its share of emotion, then getting them ALL (nearly) to sign my 3-peat banner and to get Mr Sharpe to speak civilly most certainly were no mean feat. Well it happened... Mr Bowlen is my witness.... and Coach Shanahan and the rest of them. Well one man in Denver was certainly jealous by the whole uprising... by the way thanx for the kick Jason, your a champion... anyway we must be moving on, so shall we?
When things are going right, nothing much can go wrong. The fast approaching trip to Canada, the US and Hawaii in December - February is helping to aid the "rightness". As well as every other thing possible, that could possibly go right, going right... I think one gets my point. Who needs women eh? Rhetorical question, please Liz and others, don't take that one to heart.
More to say... most positively so... surf's up... and it's still Winter, but technically my summer, as is any temperature aboue -20 degrees! Coogee Beach, pretty trashy, but nice enough to brave the "better than I expected" water temp. Also, a Grand Final win, and Carlton and Parra doing well all add to the most wonderful and memorable August that this one has been. GO PHCS ALL AGE 9s!!! WE WON!!! And yes... "we" can tell our mothers from our fathers... that's all for this month boyz and gals!
PS... Oh wait... there is a PS, don't you feel special... to the suicidal one who wrote in my guestbook... congratulations, humour was achieved... thankya!
Attention All (July 99)
It's been a while, and right about now, this thing seems to evolve during the holidays. Uni's been great, now with first semister over, I only have to get my marks back (gulp). At uni, well what fun times are had by all. It might be alright for those arties who have got nothing better to do than to smoke pot and protest about everything, but in Engineering, us guys and gals actually do something unbeknownst to most, and that is, work. We study our little butts off (relatively, that is), and our failings in almost all subjects and most ironically "evident" of these ideal traits. So we move on, indulge ourselves in BBQ's and Harbour cruises and have an all out wopper of a time, does fate betwist?
"Traitors hoist by their own petard, or victims of the gods,
We shall never know!"
YES, I still remember a Ros and Guild quote from the HSC, maybe English wasn't so hard after all. And apparently that play just seemed to ask questions, rather than answering them... I think that's why I never quite got a grip of English.
But we can't all be studying English and bludging round in year 12 again. Some of us travel (ie to and from uni), play soccer on the weekends, train for soccer once a week, train for AFL twice a week, date psychologists, build bridges, train for the university games soccer comp (actually, I think I'll forget about that), organise their end of year working holiday trip to Canada in December, tutor HSC students and present none other than boring and nonsensical emails to people we haven't seen in ages, while at the same time listening to Fatboy Slim and attempting figure out why I went to a Geography lecture a few weeks ago... when I don't even do Geography?! A bit of culture neva hurt anyone I spose, except for the Nazis' and a few others' now that I consider that thought. Where waz I, that's right.... or is it wrong, depends on how you look at it I spose. See the thing is, uni is about 5-8 times more work and harder than Year 12, so instead of doing nothing but uni, I've decided to do as much as I can as well as uni, neva a dull moment thus, and the premiss is "you just have to pass!" And so it will be, I hope. For instance, two weeks ago, I decided to do something different, I went down to the Village Green one evening, had a bit of a kick with an oval shaped golden footy, and thus now I am part of the Uni AFL team. I've neva even played before, so there ya go (watching the Beautiful Blues neva hurt though). So time is short, and even shorter now, oh alas.
(pause for breath)
So there's my life in its present state. Not even time to duck down to Bondi for a bit of a surf, haven't even been to the beach for about 15 weeks now. Although my beautiful 50+ beach routing during the Chrissy break sure makes up for it.
Also, Harbour Cruises at uni are most certainly not to be missed, probably the best fun I ever had, yes I believe it was. Even if we did get a bit wet in the process. Now off to update tables, write a resume, watch Carlton and contact Canadian ski resorts... must be runninz!
Attention All (February 99)
Well the holidays continue, and there's not much else going on...*sweet*! Going to nearly 40 beaches in 27 days did indeed seem perhaps daunting at one stage, but now Sausman's Beach Challenge is well on the way to success. Speaking of success, and perhaps the one thing that has held me together over the past month is the Denver Broncos! They've come back from almost the brink of failure a few weeks previous, to trounce their oppostion and REPEAT!!! Superbowl triumph in consecutive years. Now it's time for 3-peat!!! The joy is bliss! Moving on... enrolment at Uni was interesting to say the least, two assignments on enrolment day had me worried at first, then I realised it was uni so I DON'T HAVE TO DO IT!!! Haha! Oh, special thanx must go to Kendra who has helped me out sooo much over the past weeks (pity it didn't eventuate to anything, babe... oh well... I was the one who was WRONG!). Life moves on, as does time, thus holidays are almost over, and then uni days are here. Motto: I "DON'T HAVE TO DO IT!!!", thus more holidays, 4 years of them, oh, but I shant get too cocky, uni's harder than thou thinks it is. And don't I know it.
Attention All (January 99)
I welcome All to '99, the year that may indeed be the LAST! So party hard and Rock on, is the call from the bench! Uni should be one big party or so they'd have us believe. Everyone's happy, or there-part-of, with their results and I'm happy for All. Lacking in rest and productive relaxation, I can be about as witty as a frozen Elk so enjoy. The whole concept of reading this crap is pretty lacking, to say the least - or perhaps to say the most, for that matter. Ha ha - phonetically. Apparently cigarettes will kill you, or so Ben Lee would have you believe. Excellent piano riff I must say. Budgewoi, a hippies paradise, has indeed "induced" me - to take up body boarding that is. Nothing like catching a wave. Congratulations to Troy on his Police record, that five dollars in petrol must have been worth it, a good drink indeed! Drunk Poms are also humourous sometimes, especially combined with a drunk "Scott" (The smart arse in yr11/12). Alcoholism has perhaps got the better of Tunni, or so a couple of Cheltenham girls and a Kings boy would believe to be true. A bag full of happy juice and removed eyebrows didn't help the situation. The fireworks were also good in part, pity about the smoke though, and Cathy Freeman really could have let us in, we're nice enough! Malcolm "designated drunk" Thew kept up the good and impressive record. Good to see, Mal. Nice car, too, thanks a heap! So to Uni we go hey? What next, work? A boring, normal life perhaps? Let's party while we can, get the most out of Uni. By the way, Saving Private Ryan is really beginning to get on my nerves! Paranoia Paranoia everybody's comin' to get me... Excuse, listening to Harvey Dags. Must be departing. It's a sin to live this well!!! Or perhaps not, but life is GOOD!!! Rock on people!!! To epigrammatise, '99 is Supafine!!! (saluting the word that saved me in English!)
Attention All (Christmas 98)
Well, I'm back from Hawaii and as I sit here thinking about what to say, I am driven to engage in thoughts of lost love and of the hapless Broncos. Bring in BUBBY! (I still luv ya John) The year's end is fast approaching, as well not without New Year's Eve. If it ever seems that nothing in life is worth looking forward to, we always have fireworks - they keep our society together. Hawaii's over (until I start as Punter for the Rainbows) GO U.H. RAINBOWS!!! (Jim Jones should have us back on our feet) Football and Fireworks, perhaps the basis that ALL society runs on? The all awaited Michelle Barker executed "Cruise" is also over and what stories there are to tell. Let me just say that perhaps MB and a hospital had a little encounter (costing $400). What do ya know??? We can't all be cruisin' though, some of us have to meet two beautiful ladies who share the same passion for the Broncos as them. Of course the encounter would have gone over better if they hadn't told me THEY LOST! A Steve Atwater fan in a lonely ABC Store later put it plainly, that he was somewhat "humbled" by the experience. I, alternatively was "mourning the loss". Pyscho man, Dr White most certainly wants to investigate things for himself. Names. Numbers. Addresses. What more could the man want? And I'll tell you this, people of Sausland, He won't get anything (it was hard enough for me to find out). You and your "connections", Whitey, you shall know nothing. Moving on, Scholarships are hard to come by and fortunately, too. UNSW is looking *sweet*. Budgywoy (or how eva the hell u spell it) seems nice enough for a couple of days also, then those fireworks. Thou can not beat 'em. Back to Hawaii: attacks were rife. Nutty Germans (using abuse) and legendary Broncos fans were easy to find. Drug swindling maniacs, the old lawyer off "Picket Fences", Tree huggin' hippies and even Michael Hempsall (I have proof!!) were spotted. I'm sick of typing this. That would be it, I'm (or perhaps "we're", I soooo much hope so!) gonna party like it's 1999, and soon it will be. In the meantime, however, 98 is GREAT!!!
Attention All (December 98)
Well, now the formal is over, I understand the boat sucked and Tunni got tanked, woke up naked and tried to stick his tongue down Lynette's throat. Well, perhaps not the last one, but the waking up naked after being caught breaking into his own house is pretty bad, yes we think so too. The Formal was anthithicately (is that a word???????????? Answer: No - put down to poetic license - Cause Mrs M said so) a HUGE success. Congratulations to AMANDA COOKE who SINGLE HANDEDLY prepared and organised the whole thing. (Sure others, like me, perhaps put in a half arsed effort, but she put in more than everyone else combined. Evan, sorry Michelle couldn't stay for the boat, but if we had been staying for the boat, I would have probably SMACKED YOUR FREAKIN' HEAD IN, but it was the last time I'll probably ever see you so I refrained and forgave. Anyway, Sausman's worlds have collided brought upon by Sausman himself. At the formal, as many may be aware, my hidden secrets of bus chasing and obsession with Cheltenham Girls were let, and I stress "LET" out of the bag, through the planned release from Michelle. (I chased the bus for a chick!!! - why the hell else would I do it??? - Carolyn Jones, long story, even longer than Michelle's!) My two worlds, Sausschool has collided with Sausout-of-school and the product: Sausuni. I've had the interviews for University, funnily enough I hope I get no scholarships so that I can get in UNSW cause UNSW ROCKS (already met two chicks doing CIVIL). I leave for Hawaii on the 3rd and am certainly looking forward to it. Relaxing for three weeks should be easy!!! "Closing Time" has begun and directs me to ending this paragraph soon. "One last call for Alcohol... finish your whisky and beer". Ummm... I'd love for the grade (YR12 PHCS 98) to be left with some words from Green Day's "Time of Your Life", perhaps one of the great breaking up songs of all time, but it's been overplayed so it can't be done (C Quote of the month). For that's what our grade is doing - breaking up. I will NEVER see probably three quarters of our year, ever again. It's sad, but at the same time happy - POIGNANT (Thanks Dr B). We must try to keep in touch - song's finished. 98 is Great!!!
