Earn Your Striper Isla has been putting together some small and beautifully formed blog posts on nuggets of information she has been gleaning from those she encounters on a day-to-day basis.

These brilliant titbits are going under the heading of Margaret River Insider Knowledge, and Part I lets us all know that Margaret River is currently hosting the Karaoke World Championships – with a hefty amount of prize money!

Part II divulges wisdom dispensed by a lady in a pub regarding ginger beer. It is a fine variation on the ‘a man in a pub told me’ cliché.

And the latest, Part III, is from the tourist information centre, where Isla was given the best locations for checking out surfers, err… credentials?

And as I write these very words she’s onto Part IV! It’s a good one involving an ancient skull…

Our three Earn Your Stripers, Romy, Isla and Martin, have been entering wholeheartedly into their Town Bike challenge. Simply put, get on a bike, have some fun and see what you can find, as Martin explains…

“I have another challenge to do for the ‘EYS’, was challenged to get on your bike and have a ride in the local area. So I decided to head off to Huggins Lookout which is above the town of Bright.”

Very pleasant, unlike the sound of Isla’s efforts – A Dirty Detour. Nevertheless it isn’t as bad as it sounds, in fact quite the opposite, mostly because Isla spotted a snake that totally piqued her excitement levels,

“It was a Tiger Snake, by the way. Grr, I feel hardcore.”

Romy on the other hand went less extreme, yup, Romy got a tandem. Unfortunately for him though his partner was a little too eager to play the passenger,

“Bonnet [his biking partner] decided to come along for a free ride and not pedal, cheeky b*****d.  This behaviour was obviously met with multiple dead arms and a string of expletives.”

I think that is probably fair enough and the need for an impromptu return to the hire centre after a puncture allowed them to switch to two separate bikes. A welcome alteration to plans for all concerned, as illustrated by the video below – mind the language.

Earn Your Striper Romy has been able to experience the glamour and excitement of the Australian Grand Prix while on his work placement at the MCG in Melbourne.

In doing so he utilised his International Student Identity Card (ISIC),

“[…] got our tickets to the F1 (ISIC card has now paid for its self four times over, bought from STA Travel when I got my flight here and got $31 off my F1 ticket, not to mention the greyhound pass and zoo’s etc.).”

Although the main event was obviously the thrill of the F1 (good work Mr. Button), Romy did a whole lot more involving the Red Arrows, souped up motors of all kinds, Mini racing, a helicopter doing tricks and mechanically reclaimed meat (chicken from a food van)…

That wasn’t it though. After the F1, Romy ran on the track, celebrated and then filed into the arena section to catch The Who in concert, a YouTube vid of which is here. His final thoughts…

“[…] another great day.”

So Bex is moving on from Ghana, and after spending a fun-filled month working at the rather magnificently monikered ‘God’s Divine Academy’ is off to Hong Kong, and although excitement no doubt lies ahead – she

“Will miss this place as it is so lovely and friendly and you really don’t have to worry about things here”

Ever onwards though, but for anyone thinking of giving Ghana a try – do take a moment to have a look at Bex’s observations on the country and ‘Amusing Ghanaian things that we have got used to and forgotten how weird they are’, the highlight of which is no doubt…

“All of the men wee in the sewers. Or bushes. They just stop in the middle of the road and wee.”

Yeah – thanks Bex!

Besides the bush tucker challenge, the Earn Your Stripers have also been charged with snagging interviews of people they meet on their travels. Romy has entered into this with an unsurpassed commitment.

See his stunning work interviewing working holiday visa backpackers in this post – though be prepared for some language on the fruitier side of common decency…

There is also a host of other interviews on Romy’s YouTube channel and some footage of action from the Australian Football League. Great stuff.

Martin’s latest placement at the Bright Brewery sounds like a bit of a dream job. Not only does this leg of the Earn Your Stripes adventure see him getting to brew some of Australia’s finest beer, but he’s getting to ‘educate’ himself on it as well. How does this work? Yup, by drinking on the job. And despite confessing to being a cider drinker, the blind testing of a quintet of beverages went reasonably well,

“[…] on my first try I manage to get 3 of the 5 right, not bad going I must say. Am told will try again tomorrow and until I get them all right, oh such a hard life being made to drink alcohol.”

Unbelievable, will Martin ever get them right? Hmm, I wonder…

When it came to the actual brewing he was up early for producing the Gold Award winning Hellfire Amber Ale. Martin found the process of making the ale less complicated than he expected, the details of which you can read about here.

Isla, the rose between two thorns (no offense Martin and Romy) in our Earn Your Stripes project has been updating her Picasa profile furiously.

She’s created albums about what she’s experienced so far on her travels including of course, her EYS work placements. The Margaret River collection contains not only Lake Cave but also a splendid red truck – whereas the host of images from the Bright region where she was brewing includes massive vats and caterpillars.

There is also evidence of her entry in the ongoing EYS bush tucker challenge and group shot, taken by our own Col, of the Stripers relaxing before the graft began – in fact you can see it below.