Pink House Ol’ Friend

I’m not going to lie; I’m actually surprised at how many people remember me.

I actually made friends with some French. Spent the evening drinking wine, playing cards, sharing a box of chips, talking and getting to know everyone. I’ve a few favorites, like the very beautiful very lovely British ladies Ana & Katie. Then there are the Irish girls in room one with me and Jean. The most interesting two who I really enjoyed talking to last night with have to be “Manchester Matt with the Cat on his Back(side)” and “Laurence of Ausrabia”.

Manchester Matt with the Cat on his Back(side):

A new arrival to Sydney and Australia in general. He is fresh off the plane from Thailand. Oh yes… that’s right, THAILAND. Just got back from there… meaning getting in the middle of the Red vs. Yellow riots. He did some crazy awesome stuff like eat an owl’s head from some tribal people. As my nickname for him suggests, he is a Pommy from the Manchester area. As his nickname also suggests… there is a cat on his back(side).

The story goes, him and some of his mates got piss drunk one night and decided that they would all get a tattoo. When they got to the tattoo artist shop and began looking through the book, he decided to just go for the absolute cheapest one available. It ended up being a cat in a scared position, and where better to have it? Right butt cheek of course! And so the tattoo artist shaved clear a small patch of skin and applied the cat to Matt’s back. In the end, his friends all pussed out of the deal and he ended up being the only one to actually get one.

The story however does not end there…

A bit of time had passed and one of his other friends decided to go through with it after all. So they go back to the tattoo place and they where flipping through the book, Matt noticed that his cat was not there. He had to ask. So he worked up his courage to ask this big giant burly man who had seen his ass just days before, “So, the cat is gone? I wouldn’t have had anything to do with that did I?”
“I really didn’t enjoy doing that one mate”


Laurence of Ausrabia:

Laurence is also from England, I believe he said he is from near Kent.

He is a true backpacker.

He, like me, is only one populated continent and Antarctica away from seeing all seven.

He backpacked from Argentina all the way up to Nicaragua, though his original goal was to go all the way to Canada, and just in 5 months. Still, a very impressive accomplishment for just 8 months of travel. He speaks Spanish quite well also.



I liked these two guys, and I very much hope to continue our conversations in my remaining days here in the hostel.

As fun as last night was, I am sad there is no Doug. The place is just not quite the same without him. Such is the risk of traveling, make friends only to part with them.