The final piece of Into The Looking Glass… (Click here for Part One), Brings us finally to the moments that I live in now and where I live in New South Wales, Australia. I hope you’ve enjoyed a look into my past as much as I have enjoyed reflecting upon it and I hope that you have more understanding of who I am as a writer and where I come from.

So after making the jump to Australia, we settled into New South Wales where my girlfriend’s parents live and where she grew up. She is now a teacher and I’m an aspiring writer, hoping to find my wings while I work at K-Mart. Retail is easy and fun, so it will keep my mind on the writing tasks at hand. However, despite engulfing myself in words and work, I am still a visitor to this country. So needless to say I’ve begun looking around the nearby areas and doing all those things that tourists do. Although I am still learning the language (need to go to Canberra? It’s actually called Can-bra. Melbourne? Mel-bin.) it’s still an awesome time. From the first day I arrived I began to see the sights, and I must say Australia is more beautiful than I could have imagined.

First off, I saw the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, they are as magnificent as they appear in the movies and I would definitely suggest heading across the harbour to Taronga Zoo. Not only is the zoo amazing, but the pictures you can get from the water of the bridge and Opera House together make for some fantastic shots. Although be careful, on our way up to the zoo, I saw a spider that was probably three inches in length with a huge web on a lamppost. Absolutely terrifying, if you bring children, keep them close!

The zoo was a lot of fun, but it was actually Symbio Wildlife Park where my mind was blown. Not only did I get to see kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, and a plethora of other crazy animals, but I got to feed kangaroos and pet a koala! Although the kangaroo I was feeding had a joey and if there is anything cuter than a kangaroo, it’s a joey. As I made my tour of all the kangaroos some held onto my hand while feeding them making it a definite memorable experience. Also, on the topic of wildlife, I have seen a platypus as well. Normally I wouldn’t expect them to be so well suited for the water, but those little guys just look so happy and playful that you can’t help but smile. That and it just looks plain weird, but in a cute way.

My spider count here is climbing as I have finally seen a Redback, one of the most poisonous spiders in Australia. Knowing that something that tiny can make you really ill or even potentially kill you is terrifying to the point that you will do whatever it takes to end that tiny beast. I’ve killed two now, they call me TJ “Spider’s Bane” Edwards now in my small town. Yeah, soon it’ll be known everywhere! Also white tails are in abundance around our neighbourhood, but they are actually a hunting spider. They don’t have a web, they simply prowl your house looking for bugs, which is really handy and I wouldn’t care except their bites can cause long-term skin and muscle damage.

Aside from that I’ve been laughed at, told I have a great accent (which is weird when everyone around me has an accent) and told to speak english so all in all, I think I’m fitting in just fine. Some of the place names though are hilarious. There is a place called Blackbutt, a street nearby called Wooleybutt and Kanahooka. Kanahooka? Yes they can! If you don’t get the joke, say it aloud and then if you still don’t get it… well sadly you won’t fit in.

Also for anyone living in Canada, remember the robins and blue jays we used to see and those were really exciting come spring? Well you know those cockatoos at the pet shop for a pretty penny? They fly free here in flocks of twenty to a hundred or more! There are also beautiful birds called Rainbow Lorikeets that are literally a rainbow of colours. There are just so many gorgeous birds here that I could spend all day just naming off amazing birds. Although pelicans are much stranger to look at in person than on cartoons and television shows. I saw one using it’s neck to scratch it’s chin, it did this by leaning it’s head back and pushing its neck up into its floppy neck. Such a weird sight to see!

However I am still trying to get my bearings while driving, I have only driven on the wrong side of the road once and I am terrified of roundabouts. These circular free-for-alls are pretty much the most terrifying thing in Australia, seeing as how people blow through them at eighty km/hr. Getting to and from work would make me bald, if I wasn’t already! But for now that brings you up to speed on this canuck’s adventures amuck. Feel free to leave your comments below or email me! Thanks for reading and thuc concludes Into the Looking Glass!

Part Six of Into The Looking Glass… (Click here for Part One), which is a look back at where I’ve come from as both a person and a writer. I’ve been through many trials in my days, however I will leave full disclosure for perhaps a professional autobiography if I manage to make it as a writer and worm my way into media somehow. For now, enjoy my path, picking up as I make the decision to leave my homeland behind and undertake my longest journey yet, to the land down under!

After leaving my friends behind at the HMV in West Edmonton Mall for my shot at management with my own HMV, I found myself enjoying the challenge of business again. As I arrived I found a decent staff awaiting me, just lacking focus, motivation and passion. It wasn’t their fault as they didn’t really get along with the previous manager. Lucky for me, we may not have seen eye to eye on a lot of things, but we all got along well enough to get the store trending upwards and actually watching what we spend our money on. Even now I miss some of the hilarious times we had and the great challenges we managed to overcome as a team. I also miss my boss, who was very respectful, knowledgeable and an all around great guy. If things may have happened differently, I might still be there… enter… the love interest!

As time passed one of my friends from working at the old store grew closer. We began to spend more time together and really found ourselves enjoying each other’s company. As I watched her head off on a trip across Canada, I began to wonder if I should pursue her. Her being Australian would put a damper on the career path I had begun building in Edmonton, but since when does anything go as planned as I learned from my previous relationship. I was heading home that summer anyway so we discussed it and I figured I would meet her in Nova Scotia and show her around my home town. After all, I would get to play tourist all over again and see all those sights I hadn’t seen in years!

The time flew by, as I travelled around with her in Halifax for a few days I decided that I did want to pursue this. She was great and I didn’t want to be that guy who lets the girl get away and spends the rest of his life wondering, “Oh… what if?” I asked her out and she agreed, but it would mean she’d need to stay in Canada for an extra six months on her visa. I told her if she made that commitment for me, I would come to Australia so long as she still wanted me to after her visa was up. She agreed and we both decided to fly back to Edmonton. Lucky for me my Dad was able to sell her van with no back seats, and my parents got to meet her at the same time.

Only a few short months after that, my Dad tragically passed away. The iron man was no more, and I was especially glad that he had the chance to meet my girlfriend. I decided I had to go home, but it was going to cost me quite a bit. Lucky for me my girlfriend and her parents helped pay for my trip back and I will always be grateful for that. At times like those, it’s so hard to focus when something has happened so close to you. As the trip back was planned, my boss at HMV told me to go home from work, although I couldn’t leave my store knowing that no one would be covering. I worked the next two days and then had a day to pack. As we travelled back to Halifax, it was an awkward moment for everyone as it would be her first time meeting my entire family.

This is where I found out my family mostly has facebook and stalk me regularly. Everyone mentioned to my girlfriend they recognized her from facebook. Social Networking 1, Funeral Service 0. However it was a wonderful service and I will definitely miss my Dad. But my family is always super awkward at these kind of events. We are a group of people who love to laugh and we do our best to make jokes, no matter how much worse it makes things. For example, when my Mom told me we were having my Dad cremated, I had no idea what to say to make things better, so I naturally asked “Should I bring the marshmallows?” These jokes cropped up all week long as we struggled to maintain some semblance of sanity in the chaos things had been thrown into. In a moment of my uncle and I forcing my Dad’s ashes into a much smaller box then the bag of ashes we looked at each other and laughed. I couldn’t help myself, “Difficult in life and in death, at least he was consistent.”

After that passed, Christmas was a blur and suddenly I found myself selling all my worldly possessions and moving to the great land down under, Australia. Despite not drinking tea or alcohol, having an overwhelming fear of spiders and not understanding the national language of Australia (English, Well… Kind of); I feel like I’m beginning to fit in. But I’ll definitely tell you all about Australia in my next and most likely final piece of Into The Looking Glass. If you have any questions or comments leave them below and hope you enjoyed the stay!