NintenDan's Holiday Article

Well, one may have noticed that my Weekly Article hasn't been so 'weekly' for a few weeks. The reason? Not only was I finishing off assignments and other work, I also went on holiday for a week after the assignments had been done. So two weeks without an article by me; how on Earth did you all cope so well to the point of rushing to the nearest corner and crying for eternity? Who cares, you did a good job to resist that fate. Which is why I'll be rewarding you, with not only the longest article I've written yet, but it will be a travel log of my one week journey. Excited? Good.
Day One:

It was around eight in the morning when I woke up. I had packed last night, so all I had to do was collect the essentials, these being my DS for entertainment, some music for those long car trips when I was too sleepy to play a game, and the usual sunglasses, watch made for children, box o' tissues and a hat, (which I rarely wore during the trip). We (the family) rented a neat looking car along the lines of a four wheel drive. I got my bag of clothing and essentials shoved in their, and waited for the rest to finish off their packing and such. Ten in the morning was when we departed. I'm not saying where we went either, (and the same goes for any information like that) because I'm the sorta person who doesn't like to spill the personal information beans all over the Internet.

After a two hour car trip, we finally arrived at the 16-storey hotel we had booked. I had the faintest idea of which floor we were on, but because we booked one of the few three bedroom apartments, it was only natural to guess it would be near the top if not on the top. The parents got out the car to retrieve the keys needed for daily hotel access and 20 minutes had passed until I was on the brink of heat stroke from being cooped in a car without the air conditioning on. The relief that was felt when those broken sliding doors which never closed opened slightly and the parents came waltzing out as if I wasn't even in the car. We drove down into the carpark which could only be accessed via a key which moved the gate blocking the entrance. Put in a key, gate opens, drive in, that was the process that would have to be repated whenever we wanted to get in or out the carpark. It was time to move all of our items into the hotel. I grabbed two unsturdy trollies to transport our packed goods. It took two trips to fully unload everything. I was the last to get up, and had to go with a family member because you couldn't open the darn lift without the stupid Utility key, (This mother of all keys virtually opened anything that all hotel goers could enter). I grew aware that we were on the highest floor; floor 16. There were three rooms there, so two other holiday trippers were also in the same floor. But I couldn't care less, I was wanting to know what the room looked like.

The door opened and my anticipation grew only stronger. I carted the trolley down a five metre long hallway to enter a fairly spaced out kitchen and television room, (Or living room, whatever. There was a television in there, that's all I know). I pushed the heavy carrier into a large space of nothingness, and took my bag out. I ventured off to see my room, which ended up being the smallest of them all, complete with a friggin' bunk bed. The bottom was a double bed, the top a single. Me being greedy lunged for the bottom double bed. I took out my folded shirts and shorts, slapped 'em in a draw, and put all the other clothes onto hangers and placed them on a mouldy looking bar. So it wasn't the cleanest hotel there was. I had seen far worse, and was lucky to be in a double bed. I only noticed the television upon closer inspection and found it was huge. I'm guessing it was near the 20" - 40" size reigion. I turned it on, put on the Nickelodeon channel and annoyed almost everyone in the house by watching Spongebob Squarepants with the volume cranked up. Man I love that show, no matter how many times they repeat it. Even though I am a bit old for it, nothing better than watching the yellow thing with his starfish friend, Patrick.

The family and I ended up going to buy groceries and the like, which was incredibly boring. Bread this, milk that, chocolates here, uneccessary so-called essentials there. After that 45 minute bore, we had a quick trip to Mc'Donalds for a "small" lunch. What was supposed to be a Quarter Pounder meal deal was mistakenly made a Big Mac meal deal, so it wasn't as small as I had first expected. After that event of trauma, we returned home to watch more Spongebob. And for dinner was some salad and prawns. Me being the party pooper I am replaced it with tuna on bread. I am a huge fan of tuna, more so when it's on bread. It's the perfect dish. If only restaraunts sold it I'd be catered for anywhere. Watched a bit of television soon after, managed to slap in yet another episode of Spongebob somehow, and soon went off to bed. "Goodie", I thought, assuming this bed would be as comfortable as clouds in heaven are portrayed to be. I kneeled on it to get in and then BAM! Instant freakin' squeak. "Must just be a spring on that spot" I guessed, as I put my head down while hearing another squeak... ANOTHER SQUEAK?!? Yes, my bed was as squeaky as all hell, and it was annoying. To top it off, the pillow was truly too puffy. My head just sunk into leading to an uncomfortable position which forced me to lie on my side, effectively cutting of my blood circulation to one arm. Yee-ouch.
Day Two:

"Ah yes... six more mornings of sleeping in as much as I want", I pondered while staring at the frame of the single bed above. "Get out, we're going shopping" my parents demanded. I got out half asleep, went to ate breakfast and "We're not having breakfast" was the phrase I heard. I got dressed in something, and luckily didn't end up putting my arms into my shorts and vice versa with my arms. Hungry as ever, we drove to some shopping centre. We had breakfast there, and I had my usual going-out breakfast, which catered for almost half my sodium intake for the day which made me feel really guilty. The usual consisted of, assuming we went to Mc'Donalds: A Bacon and Egg Mc'Muffin, two Hash Browns, and a White Tea. If they sold MILO I'd be all over that, but that don't so I settle for tea. White tea.

After my quick blast of salt, I entered a mystical world of shopping where everybody's dreams came true. Pity that wasn't the case for me. My fellow shopper, yes; me, no. I had $150 (Australian currency) to spend, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl was at the RRP (Reccommended Retail Price) of approx. $100. I knew I could become a stingy master and get cheaper than that. So the hunt was on. I found an $88 SSBB at one shop, and nearly bought it but figured I go elsewhere. After that, not much happened. We were near the exit when somebody walked into a shop they liked. I wasted the time waiting by doing some survey a computer asked me to do and everytime I said that the total satisfaction of my shopping experience was either 'Poor' or 'Sort of good'. Good fun. I then felt a bit bodgy after having some stupid Mango and Passionfruit shake that my fellow shopper had shared with me. It was good, but after two sips you started to think "Why did I buy this... crap?".

I came home, played a spot of Pokemon Diamond, watched Spongebob, and was dragged to a dine-in place called "Lone Star", which is also the name of a member at the old (The first ever) DS Ultimate. The meals were fairly tasty, and I got something called an Alamo Burger. The only problem was the price. My burger was just under $20, which is a pretty big rip off for food in Australia. Well, it depends if you're one of those who only pays for the best of meals, because this meal was pretty good.

I then returned again, played the ol' Pokemon, and went to bed in good ol' Squeaky.
Day Three:

I woke up again to not be able to eat my breakfast. What fun. We were going shopping again, so I had to eat the usual sodium overloaded meal of delight. And delight it was! We were shopping before you could even wake up. So I went searching again for Brawl. I made it my goal to come home with it. The first shopping centre we had contained all the shops that sold Brawl at the RRP. I didn't want that. I wanted to be stingy! And stinge I did! Before I could say another "Fun it was" type comment again, we were at another shopping centre. I found the shop where I saw Brawl previously for $88. I decided to buy it, and found out I saved around 50 cents! YEE HAW! So I came home happy.

We went to some old people sanctuary for dinner, and fish and chips was the special so I decided to force myself through a couple minutes of pain just to eat it. As you could probably guess, I'm not a fan of fish. It's a chore having to be alert for bones 100% all of the time when eating it. That's why I save the chips until last for a reward of sorts.

Again, after returning home I played Pokemon, watched television (No Spongebob, sadly), and had a date with Squeaky.
Day Four:

I woke up again and was ready to go shopping... again... but to my surprise, we weren't! YEE HAW! I had some cereal at my own pace, watched my morning dose of Spongebob, and just sat. Then I was dragged to celebrate one of my fellow family's birthday. We started off by going to some bodgy place that was built for women and Japanese people. It was either a clothing shop, or an Australian souvenier shop. What a selection. The fun began when we went to a sort of "amusement ride", but not like the ones you see in theme parks. It consisted of wearing these ridiculous gloves and socks (The socks went over your shoes, too...), and walking into a dark tunnel which wasn't a small old thing. It was 2.5m - 3m high. The gloves and socks would glow as they were white, and your goal would be to navigate through the tunnel, which is like a maze. There were bright colours in some rooms, and then there were pitch black rooms that were themed around aliens. There were fake, vibrating hands on the sides of the wall, (But you didn't know that...) so I quietly crapped myself when I first felt one. I was too busy pushing these stringy things away that hung from the ceiling. It was like a haunted house, but not as creepy. More just "Gawd this is annoying". You had to squeeze between two big squishy things too, and get blasted with jets of fast air when you exited.

Lunch was a cookie and a bottle of Coca Cola (Not the prettiest combination, but strangely tasty), and then it was time to go into the World's Tallest Residential building. If you know what that is, you'd be able to tell where I am in the world right now. If not, oh well. First we hopped onto a superfast lift that took you up to the 77th floor in around 20 seconds. Thats approx. 4 floors per second! If you suffer a bad case of getting blocked or popped ears in a normal lift, I'm certain this would be total hell for you. My ears got a fair work out and I swalloed five times to unblock them.

After all that fun, we ended up going to one of the only Pizza Huts were you could sit and dine in that we know of. It was a tasty treat, and a great reminder of the time when these places were everywhere until one by one they closed. I was stuffing down the garlic bread and I drank too much water on purpose to compensate for my recent bouts of unhealthy eating. I doubt if it did anything good for me though...

I came home full, and presents were handed out to all. Even me, let alone my birthday was three weeks ago... I recieved a Dr. Kawashima's Brain T How Old is your Brain? game. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but still entertaining. So after half an hour of that, I played some more Pokemon and BAM! It was another squeak fest for the night.
Day Five:

Again, it was a sleep in morning, so I took everything at my own speed, thankfully. I spent most of what I could at home before being forced against my will to some place for dinner. I had lunch at home, and the whole day was home, so now I had to go to yet another eatery placey thingy. This would take the cake of all the places visited, and not just because of the food. I had lasagne, but after that we went downstairs to watch Karaoke night. Yes, Karaoke. There were some good people, some bad people, but the main star of the night was Jeff. This man was pretty funny to watch. He took his pretend singing career seriously. So serious to the extent that he repeadetly moved the microphone away and towards his mouth while singing to give his vocals a 3rd Dimension. It looked stupid really, and the poor guy hadn't even acheived a 1st Dimension in my book, let alone a 3rd. But he was a good man. Even if his singing sucked, he was a true blue trooper, and I wish Jeff all the best for his future Karaoke nights, as he seemed to be quite the regular for those get togethers.

After my ears finished bleeding, it was safe to put my head on a pillow, get swallowed by it, and not be able to move without squeaking. What a night.
Day Six:

Ah yes, the second last day. This was a relaxer. Yes, we were doing nothing. I again just sat and played Brain Training and Pokemon. My party of six monsters was coming along quite well. I had deleted the game, you see, and wanted to retry everything. I'm still going, after a year, sadly. But at least I had Brawl to look forwards to. Lunch was a sandwhich, and tea was fish and chips. But I unleashed my inner baby and got a packet of six chicken nuggets! And that's not the best part. The lady serving must've seen me and my adorable face and given me an extra nugget, because I ended up eating seven, SEVEN NUGGGETS! IT WAS A NUGGET FEST! After that greasy feed, Spongebob was on, and an important last business meeting with Squeaky Mc'Bediss was fulfilled.
Day Seven (The last day!):

This was spent again going out and eating the usual from Mc'Donalds, shopping around, and then hopping in the car. We stopped at another shop and I found Brawl... for $79 this time... I felt sick after finding that, but decided it's better I paid $88 rather than the full price. We continued driving home, and got back at three in the afternoon. I quickly unpacked, fixed up a few things, got a trusty parent to hook the television back in from fear I'd blow it up like I did the old computer we used to have, and then shoved Brawl in the Wii. That lasted three hours of non-stop Brawl.

I then watched some television, and my eyes grew weary... I was all tuckered out from that holiday... I could still taste that extra nugget too... but there was one thing that I had been looking forward from the very beginning we got in that hotel. Not Brawl, not real food... it was a non-squeaky bed. I then apologised to my previous bed before squeak, explained to it that Squeaky wasn't my way of getting back at it, and that it would always be the love of my life. It loved me back, and I went to bed... without a squeak... or a pillow that tried to eat me...

Sorry, no famous Shy Guy saying today. Too lazy. In fact, that's a good saying... here goes...

"If one has a task ahead, and one is too lazy, DON'T DO IT! How easy is that?!

'From the Guy to the Shy'

~NintenDan