Throw another Davis on the Barbie or The Chronicles of Vegemite aka I'm goood at tpyos: Australia: I hardly knew ye or Blogpocalypse Now

Well, that's it. The jar of vegemite being empty, I packed my things and left Australia.

"I love the smell of vegemite in the morning....smells like...freedom, actually no, more like a strange yeast spread"

Overall, despite my not being able to see nearly as much as I wanted to, I still think it was a successful journey. The winery was great and I think I learned a fair bit. My free-time outside work was somewhat (read extremely) boring, but this led to that many more blog posts, so aren't you all happy.

Yep, about what my Friday nights looked like.

I was able to get to 4 of Australia's states: New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania (though not nearly enough time in NSW and Tassie). I'll just have to go back for the rest.
(I'm beginning to notice it's much more difficult to be creative and witty when you're not bored out of your mind and 4 Cooper's deep.)

Things that will be missed from Australia:

-Coopers Sparkling Ale - I adopted him into my family and made him my own and now he's moving on with his life. Goodbye Coopers, may we meet again someday, perhaps via online beer order.
-Readily available Vegemite - I'm pretty sure somewhere in Australia they sell liter sized jars of vegemite. I'm going to find this online and order it (as of now, I haven't been able to easily find it stateside but the search will continue, oh yes, it will continue).
-Kangaroos - I still find it hilarious how they are just kind of everywhere and don't really care. Also, I hear they hide gold in their pouches.

"hand me a beer, gordie"

-Inordinate amounts of cursing - I think most adjectives, verbs, and adverbs are four letter words in Oz (or variants there of). Really made me feel at home. I mean, come on, where else to get to hear the term "fuck-knuckle" being used jokingly at work. I suppose a lot of sailors did settle in Australia.
-Triple J - I really fell for the music out there. Obviously not all of what they played was good but a decent amount of it was good and new to me. Luckily I can stream it through iTunes.
-Flat Whites - breakfast ambrosia. It will be sorely missed. I even forced myself to have one before leaving, when I was still sick and not supposed to be having dairy...it was worth it.

"I want you inside me....oh hey, from before"

Things that won't be missed so much:

-Boredom- Sorry Penola, but there is nothing to do in your township. Never good when work becomes the exciting part of the week. However, boredom did let me get in decent shape since I had nothing better to do but go running and stuff in my free time (3 inches off the waist, 10 lbs and 5% body fat gone...suck on that Jenny Craig. Just go work a harvest in Oz if you wanna get in shape)
-Insects - soooo many millipedes....soooo many crickets. I think I may be a certified exterminator now with the number of these two stupid insects that I've dealt with.
-Corned beef- just really am not a fan and yet it was one of my meals like every week. I still don't even know what the hell it is. I can only assume it's corn and beef mixed together (go figure some stupid british food idea). Either that or they grow a type of cow in vast fields like corn. Definitely not gonna miss it.
-The Ute - as nice as it was to have something to drive out there, it would have been that much better it was able to go more than 100km at a time and had power steering and mirrors.
-the stupid coins - $2 coins?!? why?!? I still have a bag full of coins that I can't do anything with but is probably worth $50....ahhh well...I should have just left it in a kangaroo pouch
-Renting a room - my second time doing this now, and I'm never doing it again. Always feel like a prisoner confined to his room for the whole time.

Final Facts about Australia:

-lots of sheep, lots of cows, even more bugs, and every tree is a Eucalyptus tree.
-tasmanian devils dont spin or destroy trees as much as I was led to believe.
-strange american movies are always on tv....really never thought I'd see "Down Periscope" again on TV...granted I still don't understand how Kelsey Grammer was snubbed for an oscar with his brilliant performance

One of the many movies randomly played on Aussie Tv.....I don't get it either. Maybe they get a discount on all the shitty movies or something.

-beer costs more than gold and yet still somehow is consumed in quantities beyond the imagination. I swear the government must be swimming in cash from alcohol taxes.
-speaking of beer, little known fact: kangaroo pouches can be used as mobile coolers (the pouch changes colors when the beer is rocky mountain cold)
-Outback steakhouses are actually on every corner and all Australians eat there at least once a week while consuming copious amounts of Fosters oilcans and watching Crocodile Dundee movies.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed reading the ramblings of a bored dude in Australia. Who would have thought a town of only 1000 people wouldn't have not a lot going on? BTW, this will most likely be the final post. Now on to finding another job in California (anyone got a full time winery position out there for me?). Probably won't have a blog going while out there since there is just slightly more to do there than in Penola (but really, no offense Penola, no yeah, it is awesome and exciting the Mary Mackillop started her school there).Sorry this post wasn't funny or interesting; the end of so many things is always a lackluster event, so it goes. So, goodnight frog, goodnight blog, goodnight kangaroo jumping over the blog.

Bonus: Tassie Devils doing what they do best - eat:

"But to us too it seems that this will be a good place to stop"

But before I go, for the final blog, my favorite Australian songs from my time in OZ:

Hungary Kids of Hungary - The Vacationer