A World Away

Rome part 2

2010-03-22T18:03:00.000Z

Wednesday 17th March 2010:
Left one the first train from Florence today – 9.13am back to Rome.
We arrived into Rome at about 1.30 and went to the hostel to drop our bags off. We were unable to check-in until 3.30pm so from the hostel we walked back over to the Termini building and to the tourist office to see about getting a RomaPass – however with what we are looking at doing, we may yet decide not to get one and as such postponed the purchase until later. From the tourist office we wandered down to the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, then made our way to the Santa Maria Maggiore before heading back to the hostel to check-in finally.
Back at the hostel we met our new room-mate for the next few days and got chatting to him (he’s a chef from Toronto doing his European taste sensation tour). Anyway from that we then headed back out to wander the city once again and found our way first to the Repubblica and Santa Maria degil Angeli (where the was a Galileo exhibition on), then onwards we walked to the San Cario Quattro Fontane, Fontana dei Tritone, trinita dei Monti and Villa Medici. Ater the Villa Medici we walked down the Spanish steps into the more high-class shopping area and Grace found her way into the LV store.
After her little excursion in the LV store we started to head back to the hostel, called into a gelato place for me to get my dose for the day and then on towards a long walk to the Porta Pia (looked like a monument to soldiers or something similar and has a museum located in it. Grace got her usual dose of being a tourist out the way by asking a friendly army guard nearby what the building behind him was (top secret building), and then got a photo take with him.
We followed that little side path with a walk back to the hostel and dinner (stopped at a local cafe for a Panini (not that great a purchase) then back up to the hostel for the rest of the night.

Thursday 18th March 2010:
Today was the 1st full day again in Rome, and most of the day was spent in and around the Vatican City. We started in the St Peter Basilica, and then from there joined a tour of the Vatican museum (personally I would have preferred to have just done the museum on my own without a guide, but the guide was quite good and we were able to enter straight in without having to line up again with the masses to get a ticket. We saw a multitude of stuff in the museum, although not nearly enough to justify the tour price (we only had 2.5 hours in the museum, whereas I would have easily spent 4-5 hours in there. We ended the Vatican museum tour by visiting the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s famous fresco roof painting.
After the tour Grace and I joined a much reduced St Peters Basilica dome line to climb the steps and see the dome of St Peter’s Basilica – about 552 steps in all, all the way up to the top. Nearing the top the passageway got extremely narrow and you wouldn’t want to be too big going up, otherwise you’d probably strike some trouble.

After visiting the Vatican city, we then went for a stroll down to the Tevere river and into the Castel Sant’ Angelo. Not a bad castle, but a castle non-the-less and as such not that overly impressive considering all the castles I have seen now. Out the front of the castle however there was an Italian film crew filming some scenes for an up and coming Italian movie about the pope (apparently due for release in around September and being directed by a famous Italian director (I had no idea who it was, but apparently there are the Woody Allen of Italy).
Across the Ponte (bridge) Sant’ Angelo and for a walk along the other side before crossing the river again at the Ponte Umberto I and a photo opportunity at the Corte di Cassazione (the justice/law courts building), then onto the Metro to head back to the hostel.
We were back by about 6.20 and I was almost asleep at 7 before Andy (the Canadian fella from our room the night before) was back at the hostel and we went out for dinner at a local family run restaurant – great food. After that we went back to the hostel and joined a group of other guests drinking wine and having a good time until about midnight when we all got kicked out – so bed time).

Friday 19th March 2010:
Woke up this morning a bit later than normal (about 9amish). As we were getting ready to leave I noticed that Andy and the American fella from the night before were also up and getting ready to leave. The American fella was looking at going down to the Coliseum aswell, so I suggested we all go together down there. So off we went for a walk down to the Coliseum (about 20 minutes from the hostel). We got there and had to wait about 40 minutes or so in the queue for a ticket and then spent roughly the same amount of time inside the Coliseum. After our time inside we met up with Andy again and decided to go into the
Palatine hill as it was included in the price, as such we said goodbye to Andy and went to the next place. This was quite interesting and a lot of ruins to take in and towards the end of our time in the Palatine hill and Roman Forums we were all getting a little disillusioned by all the ruins and history contained in such a small area. Grace and I said goodbye to our American traveller (who had to catch a train) and continued on for a little bit longer in the ruins before leaving and going to see the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.
From the monument we continued our trek to see the Colonna Traiana, Mercati Traianei, Foro Traiano and Foro di Augusto (a bunch more ruins). Then onto the Domus Aurea which is mainly closed for “Work in Progress”, then we took the long way around to get to the Saint Pietro in Vincoli (St Peter in Chains) where Michelangelo’s statue of Moses is located.
From the we walked down past the Coliseum to the Arco di Donabella, Villa Celimontana then the Santi Giovanni e Paolo (where the priests were waiting for St Gabrielle to arrive with the remains of a young saint), then to the Santi Gregorio Magno church which was closed. Finally we made our way back to the metro and onto the hostel.
Back at the hostel we met our new roomie (an Aussie over here for a few weeks holiday who is also competing in the Rome Marathon on Sunday). We all went out for dinner at another local family run pizzeria, which was again with really nice food that was quite inexpensive. After dinner we went back to the hostel for the rest of the night.

Saturday 20th March 2010:
This morning was a slower morning than normal. We headed out for a long walking day. We started by walking towards the Plazza dello Repubblica then down the Via Nazionale, before detouring towards the Fontana di Trevi, Palazzi Chigi then down towards the Pantheon, which I have to say is nothing compared to the Paris Pantheon.
We then headed into the Palazza Novona which is under constructive work on the fountain and other areas and saw a lady feeding the pigeons next to the wall and they were flying all around her. Next we headed over to the Area Sacra (more ruins), then on to the Campo de Fiori where we got a nice Panini (one of the better ones of the holiday).
From there we headed down to the Sinagoga then over Isola island then on to a walk through the Trastevere area and up to the Monumento a Garibaldi and Faro al Gianicolo. After that we walked along the Tevere river towards the Mausoleo Augusto and Ara Pacis then over to the Piazza del Popolo. We headed back to the Spanish Steps where all the expensive shops like LV, D&G etc.
After a look around the area we headed back to the hostel for a rest. While there we met our new roomie who was heading out to a Roma v Udinese Football (soccer) match. We ended up joining him and having to get a ticket at the stadium. We then ended up getting tickets of a scalper and paid 20Euro for a 12Euro ticket. Until we got in to the stadium it was ok, until we found out that all tickets have a name on them, but luckily for us because we were tourists we were allowed in.
We eventually made it back to the hostel about midnight via a bus and metro.

Sunday 21st March 2010:
Today was a very laidback and slow day for us. We started quite late and only left the hostel around 11am. We were joined by Tess (one of our current roomies who is from Holland but lives in Brussels) for breakfast. Tess was down in Rome to support and watch 2 of her friends run the 16th Roman Marathon. After breakfast Grace and I parted ways with Tess and made our way to view the Pyramid (second time for me, 1st time for Grace), we visited the cemetery that is located next to the pyramid.
From there I took Grace to see the Basilica of St Paul, and we sat in on some of the mass and sermon (all done in Italian) before leaving and heading down to the EUR area. The EUR (definition I don’t know how to say) is an area created by Mussolini as a show piece to the world of his ideas. The main attractions include the square coliseum and the manmade lake (both of which I showed Grace), the coliseum I hadn’t seen the first time I went down there.
From the EUR we headed back to the Circo Massimo stop to see the St Maria in Cosmedin church where the fae in concrete (believed to have been a drainage cover) is located. Many people will remember this from the movie Roman Holiday, where myth tells that if you stick your hand in the open mouth and lie then your fingers/hand will be cut off. There was a bit of a line and in all honesty while I got a photo of the drainage cover I really wasn’t up for standing in a line to stick my hand in the mouth and so we just went through the other entrance to just see the church. Which unlike many of the other churches in Rome was quite minimalistic in appearance and decoration.
After our visit in the St Maria church we headed along the marathon route, stopped into another church and had a look at the basement ruins of what use to be there. Then followed the marathon route some more (in the opposite direction to the runners) and came across a semi-festival of dancing and singing from performers from around Europe and South America (at least). We stumbled upon the event just as the Greeks were doing their dancing and stayed there for another 1.5hrs or so until after some Cuban salsa an d other performances.
After watching the dancers for a while we then headed off to catch the metro back to the hostel for a rest until dinner time. At dinner we headed out to a local (recommended) Italian cafe/restaurant where unbeknown to us it was Cuban night for dinner, although the chef/cook said that he would cook up paste if we wanted it (but not pizza). I ended up sharing a ravioli entre/started with Tess and then having to wait for a while (as they forgot to cook my main meal) for my stewed meat with rice, potato and plantain? (cooking banana).
After dinner we headed back to the hostel eventually and got some gelato on the way back. While at dinner we all shared a really good time and a lot of laughter was shared and happened.

Monday 22nd March 2010:
Grace left early in the morning (train at 5.30am for her flight back to Vancouver). I stayed in bed, mainly because I was falling asleep as she was getting ready to leave, otherwise I would have walked with her over to the train station to send her on her way and say goodbye.
I eventually got up and out of bed around 8amish to have my morning showed, go down to the internet cafe, check-in online for my Ryanair flight from Pisa back to Birmingham and print the boarding pass off, and then over to the cafe for my free breakfast.
After breakfast I purchased my train ticket to Pisa (I thought I would have to go back up through Florence and then over to Pisa, but it turns out that there is a slow direct train to Pisa that I can catch and so caught that instead). Boarded the train and have been reading and listening to music (while having a couple of gypsies coming around and either playing the piana-accordian and asking for money, or just leaving a note on the window table and asking for money. I have also been writing this and updating my entries for the blog while on the train as well, which will get updated once I get to Pisa and get wifi-connection.

Florence

2010-03-16T15:18:00.005Z

Monday 15th March 2010:
Woke up this morning to catch a train to Florence for the next 2 nights. The train takes about 4.1hours and is more of a local than express - the express takes only about 1.3hours.
We arrived into Florence at about 3pm and made our way to the hostel to check-in. Once checked-in we headed out into the town for a bit of sightseeing and dinner before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Tuesday 16th March 2010:
Woke up earlyish this morning for the hostel breakfast - which definately wasn't worth the 5euros each that we paid for it.
From there Grace had obtained from a guy on the front desk the best plan of attack on what to see and the best places in the city. So off we trundled to catch a bus up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a great view of the city of Florence.
From there we headed over to the Palazzo Pitti and went into the gardens to look around. On our way over to look at the Fort Grace found out that she'd lost her entrance ticket for the second time that day. So instead of heading back into the gardens we headed down to the rivers edge and over the Ponte Vecchio (a very old bridge which had shops and houses built on the sides of it).
From there we walked pass the Galleria degli Uffizi then into the Santa Croce which charged us 5euro entrance fee and wasn't worth it as the place is under renovation and the museum was closed.
From there we headed over to the Duomo and on pass the San Lorenzo and along the market streets lines with tented street shops, to have a look at the walls of the Fortezza da Basso and then head back to the hostel for a rest until dinner time.

Rome part 1.1

2010-03-14T16:24:00.003Z

Sunday 14th March:
Well today is mothers day in the UK, but not in Australia - so it hasn't really effected me in anyway nor have I missed out on anything.
However since I am in Rome, my adventures took me to the Piramide stop (yes Rome has a Pyramid - it was built apparently about 18 BC–12 BC as a tomb for Gaius Cestius Epulo - wikipedia reference so not sure if it's 100% accurate). Anyway from here I went for a walk along the Sunday morning markets - food, clothes, jewelery etc are some here - like every other Sunday market in most cities.
From the markets I made my way to the Basilica San Paolo, before walking back to the Piramide metro station and catching the metro down to EUR Palasport/Fermi - a nice area of green grass and a lack with waterfalls which are currently in the process of being upgraded and developed.
I spent a bit of time there before heading back to the hostel for a rest and to wait until Grace arrives.
Went to met Grace at the main train station and then headed back to the hostel for the night.

All roads lead to Rome - Part 1

2010-03-13T10:26:00.002Z

Friday 12th March 2010:
Got the 1am bus this morning from Birmingham to Stansted airport. Was suppose to be on the 2am but talked the driver of the 1am bus to let me on that one instead.
Anyway it didn't really matter either way as I still ended up with an over 4hr wait at the airport. About 2hrs before I was able to even check-in.
Eventually checked-in, and made my way through security. Once through I grabbed some breakfast (bacon and sausage baguette), before sitting down and just relaxing and semi falling asleep while waiting for the plane.
When boarding time came, I was one of the last on the plane, but then when everyone was on the plane we were told that there was a sudden air-traffic controllers strike in Italy and the plane could be delayed by up to 3 hours at that stage.
I just fell asleep during the ensuring 2 hour wait until the plane eventually was able to take off. This then meant that I landed at Pescara 2hrs later than planned, on a bus to Rome 3 hours later than planned and when I eventually got to Rome it was dark and by the time I got to the hostel it was about 8pm.
I checked-in, then grabbed some pizza for dinner before going back to my room and falling asleep pretty quickly.

Saturday 13th March 2010:
Woke up eventually after a good about 10 hour sleep, to feel a lot more refreshed.
Went out to a local laundromat to get all the washing I needed done done. It's one of those drop-off now and pick-up later joints that charged €7 for the whole process which in all perspectives isn't too bad.
Spent the rest of the day just relaxing updating photos uploads etc.

Luxor ending

2010-03-08T14:12:00.002Z

Monday 8th March 2010:
Today was a very lazy day of just sitting by the pool, went for a couple of swims then spent the day just doing nothing.

Tuesday 9th March 2010:
Eventually woke up and headed off to the Karnak Temple. It's pretty darn big and if it hadn't been so hot (probably about 39C) then it would have been more enjoyable. Oh well got some good photo's and then went back to the hotel to chill and relax.

Wednesday 10th March 2010:
Woke up and slowly got going as today was the last day in Egypt and Luxor. Check out was at 12 midday, and after we checked out we went and got a feluca for a couple of hours slow sailing on the Nile.
I went for a swim with one of the local guys who owns the feluca in the Nile which was pretty fun and let me tell you the current in the Nile is strong. I tried to stand still and upright in the Nile and I kept getting my legs pushed out from below me, and I wasn't even able to walk to stay up with the feluca.
Flight back to Gatwick was pretty standard although a little bumpy coming into land.
I got a slightly earlier bus back to Birmingham (12 midnight instead of 1am) for my less than 24 hour stay.

Luxor in Full

2010-03-05T14:44:00.003Z

Thursday 4th March 2010:
Woke up for our first full day in Egypt and Luxor. After breakfast we caught the free hotel shuttle bus to the Luxor Temple and had a look around there. We didn't bother to go in for a close up view, but were able to see most of the more interesting sights from the outside.
We then thought about the Mummification Museum but also ruled this out at the cost was more than what we wanted to pay. Instead we headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool. I had a swim and the read for the afternoon.
We then headed back towards the Luxor Temple and caught up with a horse and carriage driver who we had been chatting to before hand and organised a good price with him.
He took us through the old market street (which we would have like to have got out and walked along and possibly shopped at, but he said we shouldn't - never listen to an Egyptian horse and carriage driver)!
He instead took us to a 3 story shopping center where everything was apparently 1/2 price, because they were closing down for 3 weeks for a refit). After that he took us to see the Karnak temple in the dark just saw it from the outside), then on to a perfume factory and sales center. Then on to dinner, where the price ended up being 20% more than what we expected because the prices shown didn't include their 20% taxes and charges - obviously we weren't very happy about this.
Next we headed back to the hotel. Had to run in and get some money to pay him - then his price that he'd said it was going to be increased massively, but I walked away just giving him a bit more than the initial agreed price - and no where near his revised price.

Friday 5th March 2010:
2nd full day in Luxor and because we got up late, we weren't able to make it to the temple to met a cabbie we had met the previous day who had said he'd take us around the West Bank. Instead we were walking along the street and we were called over by a guy we'd met on the Wednesday evening. We sat with him for a while, got some water and then arranged a tour onto the West Bank for the Saturday.
We then headed back to the hotel to again sit by the pool (I had another swim), and read, then had a fairly relaxing rest of the day.

Saturday 6th March 2010:
This morning we headed off to do a private taxi/car tour of the west bank. We called into the Valley of the Kings, Hetchepsut Temple, some other temple and then a quick stop at the Colossi of Memnon as well as seeing the teombs of the nobles in the distance.
We finished about mid-afternoon, then followed that by going into the center of town. We met some fella and started chatting to him, then went off to dinner at a more local cheaper restaurant with some good tasty food.

Sunday 7th March 2010:
I got up in the morning and met Andy (the fella we met the night before). We both headed out for some lunch at one of his cousin's small local & cheap eatery shops), this was then followed by a ride on his motorbike to a local coffee shop.
eventually came back to the hotel and eventually went out to grab some dinner.

Off to Egypt

2010-03-03T17:23:00.002Z

Tuesday 2nd March 2010:
Woke up at the hostel and then made my way to my friends place. From there we caught a train to Gatwick airport and then the airport shuttle bus to the hotel for the night. This means instead of getting up real early for a bus to Gatwick, we can get up later and just catch the airport shuttle bus.

Wednesday 3rd March 2010:
Woke up at the hotel and made our way via the airport shuttle bus to Gatwick terminal to catch our plane to Luxor.
Flight was fairly standard, however the leg room in the ThomasCook plane was extremely short and made me feel like a 6 footer on a normal plane. We arrived into Luxor and caught a taxi to the hotel, and got a quick guided tour by our taxi driver on the way to the hotel.

Final Day in Paris

2010-02-26T17:20:00.002Z

Friday 26th February 2010:
Well today was my final day in Paris. I woke up, had breakfast, checked-out and then headed straight to the Louvre to spend the day there.
Arrived at the Louvre at about 10.30am and was able to get through the security fairly quickly, then ticket line was pretty small as well, I guess there are advantages of coming to Paris in winter time. Spent the rest of the day there until about 3.30pm when I left, sat in the gardens outside the Louvre for about 30 odd minutes before making my way back to Sacre Ceour to grab dinner at a restaurant, and then spent a bit of time in the hostel chilling.
Now about to head out to the bus station to grab my bus back to England. Should be fun and will more than likely sleep most of the way out there.

Goodbye Paris for now, may we met again in the future sometime.

A slow quiet day in Paris

2010-02-25T16:47:00.002Z

Thursday 25th February 2010:
What can I say, I went for a quiet and short day in Paris today and got it.
In the morning I went out and did some laundry as I was running out of clean clothes, so this took up about 1.5 hours including folding and walking time.
I then ventured out into the city and went to visit the Catacombes. Quiet and interesting and a little eerie place, but overall well worth the entry price and walking distance to see all the bones down there.
I then made my way out to the Cemetiere du Pere Lachaise, where all the famous people are buried. I found and visited the graves of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Choplin as well as seeing all the other graves and monuments to the deaths of those who died in various wars and the Holocaust victims.
The most interesting part was on Oscar Wilde's monument where it states that "He died fortified by the Sacraments of the Church"
After visiting the Cemetery I made my way back to the hostel to relax and rest and try to upload photo's and to pack my bags ready to leave tomorrow.

Paris day 3 - gypses among other things

2010-02-24T20:05:00.002Z

Wednesday 24th February 2010:
Well another morning and day in Paris. Woke up eventually and just in time for breakfast, then headed slowly out. Not in a rush today at all.
Started out again near the Notre Dame, but instead made my way along the riverside towards the Louvre Museum.
Walking towards the Louvre Museum I received my first ring guy for the day. By this I mean that he bends down and pretends to have found a "gold" ring just on the ground. Of cause it's obvious that he hasn't, but the first one you go along with and I ended up giving him 2euro for the effort. Of which he was wanting 4.50 for lunch and I told him to go to a supermarket and buy lunch for 2Euro because that's what I was going to do.
Was looking at going in, however thought I'd leave it until Friday when I had a full day to do it. So instead I headed up the Champ de Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.
Did the free version of this instead of paying their wanted fee to go up the top of the Arc and get a good view of the city (figured I'd leave that for the Eiffel Tower.
From the Arc I again went down to the riverside and walked all the way along until I got to the Paris version of the Statue of Liberty. Much smaller than the American version, but just as good looking.
My second encounter with the "gypse" ring guys was at the start of the Champ de Elysees where a younger guy again tried to give me a ring he'd just found on the ground. I showed him the other one I'd already had and he still tried to get me to buy the other one off him. I told him no and kept walking.
My third and final run in with these guys was on the bridge near the Statue of Liberty, and this guys effort was the poorest of all 3. It was a last minute thing where he though I might just go for it, but unlucky for him 1 I'd already had 2 guys before him try the deal, and 2 I say the ring just sitting in his palm as he went down to the ground to pretend to pick up the ring. I promptly told him that I'd already seen it and we both kept walking in our different respective ways.
From there I wandered back to the Eiffel Tower where I spent the next 4 hours in and around the tower. I decided to walk up the stairs to the 1st and 2nd floors which cost 4Euro less than taking the elevator, and was well worth the walk. The line to get in and pay for a ticket was a lot smaller as well and I only had to wait about 1 minute for my ticket compared to at least 30 minutes if I'd wanted to go the elevator up.
Eventually made my way all the way to the top of the eiffel tower, where I must say it was extremely windy. And by that I mean that on the west to south side of the eiffel tower it was really blowing a gale to the extent that it was extremely hard to stand in one area without being blown around.
Lovely views from up there though and I got photos of Paris in both the day and twilight times.

A return of the single walking tour

2010-02-23T18:30:00.002Z

Tuesday 23rd February 2010:
Woke up this morning at around 8.30am, went inside the hostel (my room is on an attachment on the outside of the main building) to grab some breakfast (croissant, glass of milk and 1 roll (not feeling very hungry).
From there I grab a banana I'd bought the day before and headed out to book my euroline bus back to London (leave late Friday, travel overnight and get into London Saturday morning around 6am I think).
From there I caught the Metro into the Cite station, where Notre Dame is near to.
From the Notre Dame and the archelogical crypt, I wandered around the city down pass the Sorbonne, then the Pantheon. Then over to the Palais du Luxembourg, then down and over to the Observatoire de Paris. From there I wandered through the Cimetiere du Montparnasse over to the Tour Montparnasse (but they wanted 10.5Euro to go up to their observation deck so I passed on that. Onwards from there up to the Eglise des Invalides and took in the tomb of Neopleon and the war/armory museum. Had a look at the 1st and 2nd WW exhibit, and was going to look at the pre-WW exhibit however it was closing time, so from there I wandered up to the Grand Palais and on to take a distant photo of the Arc de Triomphe, before catching the Metro back to the hostel for dinner and a well deserved rest.

End day 2 in Paris

An afternoon in Paris

2010-02-22T19:46:00.003Z

Monday 22nd February 2010:
Woke up early (6.30) for a very early start to get to Paris. Caught my bus at 8am and headed on my 4 1/2 hour journey to Paris (with 1 about 10 minute stop after about 2 hours for a rest break).
Arrived into Paris at 12.30pm, then made my way very easily out to the hostel in Montmartre (north of the Paris city centre). Spent the afternoon wandering around and seeing the sights in and around the district/village of Montmartre.
Visited the Sacre Couer Basilica, the St Pierre Church, the Moulin Rouge district and theatre (again I find myself in near a red light district and was propositioned to go into a few of the venues for a free 5 minutes just to look around - didn't because I didn't want to - however the ladies pretended they didn't understand what I was saying, although I'm pretty sure that they did.
Met an older French guy (I think his name was Aundre?) at near the Sacre Coeur who started chatting with me about Montmartre and Rugby and then took me back into the St Pierre church, where I'd already been and showed him the photos'. But he insisted I take a few more photo's of specific items.
We parted ways, I went to take some photo's of Paris in the twilight before heading down to the Moulin Rouge to get a photo in the night time, followed by heading back to the hostel to have dinner.

Thus endth my 1st proper day in Paris.

Off to enjoy some Belgium Waffles

2010-02-20T21:19:00.003Z

Saturday 20th February 2010:
Up in the morning around 10 am, to cheak out of the hostel. Went to visit the Van Gogh museum before heading back to the hostel to grab my bags and head to the bus station to catch a euroline bus to Brussels.

Unfortunately the buses aren't that regular and so had to wait at the eurobus office until 2.45 before being able to get on a bus to Brussels.
The trip was fairly uneventful and not much to be seen from the highway the bus takes. Arrived into Brussels at the north train station, then headed on foot following the directions given to the hostel.
Checked into the hostel, made my bed, then grab some pizza for dinner before heading back to the hostel to relax, write this blog, upload photo's and get some sleep for an early and long day on Sunday in Brussels to see the sights, and buy my bus ticket to Paris for Monday.

Sunday 21st February 2010:
Woke up early thinking that I'd need most of the day to see the Belgium and European capital Brussels. How wrong was I, by 3pm I was back at the hostel taking a break. However I did get to see nearly all the major sights in and around Brussels (except for their Arc De Triomphe - couldn't be bother to walk all the way down to see it.

Instead I spent the day wandering mostly by foot, but I did catch the underground train out to the Atomium - 1950's architectural masterpiece. I grabbed myself a Belgium waffle for lunch as well as my obligatory keyring in the image of the Manneken Pis.

Starting to wish I'd only decided to stay one night in Brussels and headed out to Paris tonight instead of tomorrow morning - but oh well, what's done is done. Head off to Paris at 8am Monday morning, to arrive by 12.30pm. Should give me time to check into the Hostel, before going out to see the sights at the Sacre Coure Basilica.

Last night in Amsterdam

2010-02-20T21:11:00.002Z

Friday 19th February 2010:
Spent the day with the 7 Spanish people who are also in my hostel room. Went out to the Heineken Brewery to do the Heineken Experience tour, where we got to sample 2.5 beers (but only half pint size not full sized), as well as the opportunity to purchase a bottle of Heineken which was personalised. I got one with my name on it for £5.

After that we went for a stroll back to a cafe they Spanish guys wanted to visit - a traditional Amsterdam Cafe - called Cafe Atlantis (the name of one of the magic mushroom varieties). Spent some time in there before heading out for some food (the Spanish are really prepared for everything as they had some sandwiches already made and shared them with me), while we wandered down a market street. We parted ways at the end of the market as Iwanted to go see the Anne Frank house.

Disappeared on a tram to go see the Anne Frank house, however there was a massive line up and I really didn't want to wait for an hour or so to see the house, so instead I got back on the trams and made my way down to the Sex Museum. Pretty interesting albeit quite graphic and mostly of mid 19C porn pictures etc.

In the evening I joined up with the Spanish in our room again for a few drinks, before heading out for a party night. However I got tired of walking around looking, so parted ways again to grab some chips, and then head back to the hostel for some sleep.

The world of 2 Dam's

2010-02-18T18:44:00.003Z

Tuesday 16th February:
Woke up to buy the last couple of things before heading to the train station to go to Liverpool for my flight. Once at Liverpool airport the security check-in line was long, however apparently not as long as it had been as it was Mid Term break and so everyone was catching flights out.
Flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and eventually made my way to the hostel after getting mixed up with their directions once off the tram.

Wednesday 17th February:
Woke up for a day of exploring Amsterdam. Nice city although very very cold. Started the day with a breakfast of banana pancake (plate sized). Followed by a walk around the city including a visit to the Rijksmuseum. Quite an interesting museum, although a little expensive at 12.50€.

Thursday 18th February:
Up early this morning (8.30am start) to make sure I caught a earlyish train to Rotterdam. Train journey was nice, but I wasn't able to see much scenery as it was fairly foggy and mostly miserable. Rotterdam is an very interesting city with a cacophony of architectural types.
Spent the day either in an office (meeting a recruitment agent there) or on a tram going between stops and sights. Good thing I had a day ticket.
Eventually came back to Amsterdam at about 5pm arriving at about 6.30ish to walk back to the hostel (found part of the red light district, but it was pretty ordinary and dead while I was walking down it - will head there late Friday night to see what all the fuss is about).

To Tunisia and return:

2010-02-15T10:27:00.003Z

Sunday 7th February 2010:
Woke up early to catch a train at 8.30 to get us to Gatwick Airport at just before midday. We booked in and went through and waited for our plane to be called and boarded. The flight to Tunisia was fairly uneventful with a little bit of turbulence, but not a lot.
Arrive into Monastir, Tunisia were we went through passport control, but being Tunisia and me being Australian I had to wait for them to issue me a visa. While waiting there was another couple of which one was South African and also had to do the same wait.
We eventually were issued our tourist visas and pickup our bags, I had to get some Tunisian money to pay back the South African guy as he forked over the 10 Dinar for my Visa as they only took Dinar and I only had pounds and Euros.
We walked straight through the security bag/customs check and found the Thomson desk to get our transport to the hotel.
Arrived at the hotel just before 8pm, and got checked in and went up to the room before heading back down for a late dinner (which closed at 9pm, so we were lucky enough to be able to get there by about 8.30).
I went for a wander outside after dinner and met an English guy who is also staying at the hotel for the week and we got chatting and had a beer.

Monday 8th February 2010:
Woke up in time for a 9amish breakfast (breakfast is only served until 10am). I spent the day lounging around the hotel reading the latest John Grisham novel, finished it, then went for a walk into Port El Kantaoui for a look around before heading back to the hotel. Met up with Kev the English fella again, had a beer and then went to dinner around 7pm.
Came down later to check emails, and met up with Kev again, My friend came down and joined and we had a good chat. Kev and I had a couple of beers, before it was bed time.

Tuesday 9th February 2010:
Woke up around 8 amish to get going early, we caught a taxi to the Sahara Beach hotel and had an agreed price for that and him taking me further onto Monastir. However once My friend was dropped off he wanted to up the price for the further trip to Monastir. I disagree with the amount he wanted to charge me extra and so just walked away from the taxi with only paying the price to the hotel. Went out the front of the hotel and caught a bus into Monastir about 1/2hr later.
Wandered around Monastir for a couple of hours before catching a bus up to Sousse. Wandered around the Medina in Sousse for a little while with a personal guide (who asked for money at the end (as I was expecting), for his tour and mini history lesson). He ended up taking me to a bunch of different shops even though I had no intentions of buying anything. However I did end up getting a leather face Versace belt for 20 dinar (about £10). Eventually left Sousse around 3.30 and caught a bus back to the hotel where I went out to get a coke and some bottled water from a local supermarket (cheaper than what the hotel charges).
Wednesday 10th February 2010:
Up for breakfast before heading out to the harbour for bit of browsing and sightseeing. This was then followed by the day out in Sousse for My friend to do some medina haggling. Didn’t end up buying anything but still had a long time in the medina to enjoy and waste the day away.
After catching a bus home from Sousse the rest of the day was just spent just around the hotel for dinner and the rest of the night.

Thursday 11th February 2010:
Woke up early, but not early enough for to have breakfast. Headed out to catch a train from the Sousse to El Djem. Train journey was standard with some nice scenery on the way, albeit very blandish. Arrived into El Djem at 9am and walked down to the Coliseum for about an hour and a half wander around the inside of the Coliseum. We then called into a shop for My friend to get some gifts before then heading back to the train station to get the train back to Sousse. Unfortunately it was a lot colder a day than what we were expecting and so were not ready for the rain or cold weather.
Trained it back to Sousse to then catch the bus back to Port El Kantaoui to spend the rest of the day warming up and relaxing before heading out for dinner.

Friday 12th February 2010:
We got up to have breakfast before heading into Sousse for a look around the Medina. We wanderer all the way from one end of the Medina wall all the way around the entire length of the medina wall. We then headed to the train station again to catch a train from Sousse to Tunis – about a 2 hour journey.
We got to Tunis and then found a taxi which took us on a 2.5 hour sightseeing journey of Carthage for 20 Dinar each (total 40 Dinar or about £20 for the entire trip). Our first stop was at the Amphitheatre Romain, followed by the Quartier Punique & Museum where we spent about 40 odd minutes taking in the stunning landscape scenery and old roman ruins.
From the Museum our next stop was the Theatre Romain where we spent all of about 5-10 minutes and I ended up buying 2 fake Roman coins for 5 dinar, and as such made up time as all the roman ruins close entrance at 5pm. By the time we left the Theatre it was about 4.15. Our next port of call was the Parc Archeologique Des Thermes were we spent probably about ½ hour wandering through the ruins of the old crypts, grave sites and old Roman bath ruins, as well as getting a few scenery and coastline shots.
We then made our way onto Sidi Bou Said where the whole town is made up of blue and white painted buildings only. As we were running out of time we were only allowed about 15 minutes here to see the sights, wander the streets and take some photo’s before heading back to our taxi and guide for the afternoon.
From Sidi Bou Said we started to head back to Tunis and the train station in time for our 5.35pm train back to Sousse and Port El Kantaoui for dinner. We drove past the old Roman Aqueducts, then on along the Tunis Lake before getting a 5 minute tour of downtown Tunis and back to the train station.
We arrived back in time for the train ride back to Sousse at 5.35pm and eventually arrived into Sousse at about 7.30pm. We tried to catch a bus back to the hotel, however as we were unsure when the next bus was due and one didn’t come along while we were standing there we bit the bullet and caught a taxi back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel and went straight to dinner at 8pm (the restaurant closes at 9pm), after which we went to our room and then to bed.

Saturday 13th February 2010:
We went for a quick 15 minute swim before heading off to breakfast. After breakfast we headed into the Harbour to get some souvenirs before heading back to the hotel for a few hours before our camel train ride.
At just before 2pm our guide picked us up to take us out to the camel station. Unfortunately for us it had started to rain, and it didn’t let up, but got heavier for the entire Camel trek through the lovely back marshes of Kantaoui (it really wasn’t that exciting as what we saw was a lot of rubbish and olive trees. We arrived at the halfway point and joined a bunch of other people who were either on their own wonderful Camel trek, or taking off on a quad bike adventure/ride.
We were given some traditionally made bread (although had to pay 1 dinar for it), before deciding on taking the horse and cart back to the hotel. Where when we got back we both had a nice hot show before relaxing until dinner time.

Sunday 14th February 2010:
We woke up, had breakfast and then relaxed in the hotel room until the midday check out time. Once we had checked out we went for a walk down to the Harbour for a little last look around before getting some food for the plane flight, then went back to the hotel for the rest of the time until it was time for us to leave on the coach to get to the airport.
Checked in at the airport then went through security to wait for the plane. Flight was fairly uneventful, albeit with a bit of turbulence. We got to Gatwick on time, although we were taxiing for about 10-15 minutes before we got to our gate which was almost at the end of the airport. Got through passport control and then pickup the bags and caught a train to London. I got the Gatwick express to Victoria to catch my coach back to Birmingham.

I eventually got back into Birmingham at about 2.45am and got a taxi home to sleep for the rest of the night.

And thus endth our Tunisian adventure.

Italy - Milan and Bergamo

2010-02-02T19:43:00.003Z

Sunday 31st January 2010:
Left the house to catch a train to Liverpool and then a bus to the Liverpool airport. Nothing exciting happened and I was at hte airport with plenty of time to spare.
From there the flight to Bergamo was pretty standard with nothing happening on the flight. However when I got to Bergamo I missed the first airport bus by a couple of minutes because I had to get a ticket of the bus, so I then had to wait almost an hour for the next bus. Then went past my stop in the city, so when I got back to the correct stop, the other bus up to the hostel had gone, and so I had to wait almost another hour for the next and last bus to come and take me to the hostel.

Booked into the hostel and got some sleep.

Monday 1st February 2010:
Woke up eventually to explore the city of Bergamo. Had breakfast and then headed out for the bus to take me to the Citta Alta (old City). Spent most of the day wandering around the old and new cities and seeing the sights before heading back to the hostel for some cheap dinner and to unload photos onto the net book.
Eventually went to bed around midnight.

Tuesday 2nd February 2010:
Got up a bit later than I planned to. about 8.20 instead of 8am. As a result I ended up getting to Milan just before 11am. This still allowed me to see a number of different sights including the Duomo, St. Maria Church, where the Leonardo Di Vinci 'Last Supper' painting was done, unfortunately it was under restoration and out of view of the public when I went there.
I did try and get into the Museum of Science Leonardo Di Vinci, however due to restoration work this is also closed on a Tuesday as of the 2nd Feb. Just my luck.
I wandered around the city a bit more, before catching about 3 different metro trains to the Central Station to catch a train back to Bergamo. Back in Bergamo I grabbed some pizza for dinner then followed by more unload of photos and the writing of this.

Wednesday 3rd February 2010:
Got up early to catch a couple of buses to the airport, unfortunately due to my luck I caught 2 wrong buses and what should have been a 40 odd min ride at the most turned into about 1.5hr's slog.
Eventually got to the airport with plenty of time to spare thought and had an uneventful flight back to Liverpool, where I caught a bus to the train station and the train back to Birmingham.
Since being back nothing exciting has happened and I've had a show, unpacked, done some clothes washing and now eating dinner.

Prague 18-22nd Jan 2010

2010-01-21T18:32:00.003Z

Prague
Monday 18th Jan 2010:
Woke up around the usually time I would have if I was still going to work – albeit 15 minutes later. Walked down to get the bus only to find that the times has changed and it was already gone and the next one wasn’t due for 1/2hr.
Got to the airport, and boarded the plane for Prague. Flight was very uneventful which was good and we got into Prague ½ early.
Caught the bus and underground metro into the city centre, then made my way to the hostel for check in. Went straight out after that and got completely lost and turned around (which has never happened to me before as I can usually figure out where I am on a map). Eventually found my way back to the hostel, got my bearings and headed out again. This time to catch a tram and got to the Prague version of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately there was a hold up along the line, so I got off a bit early and walked across the Legion Bridge. From there I slowly found my way up the snowy and slippery footpaths of the park to the top, where the Petrin Lookout Tower is situated (looks a little like the Eiffel Tower - in a Czech kind of way). It was a wonderful view from the top and I was lucky enough to get there just after the sun went down and was able to get the contrast between a city in daylight and a city in twilight and as the lights are switched on.
I eventually made my way down the hill via the funicular (hill side tram – like in HK). To walk back to the hostel, then pop out for some dinner at a local quick eatery joint. Came back to my room and greeted my roomies for the night (who arrive at 1am the night before). 2 Mexican brothers and a Chilean girl. Shared a couple of beers with them, before writing this up, watching a movie and going to bed.

Tuesday 19th Jan 2010:
Slept in until about 9.45am, then decided to get up, grab some breakfast from a store near the hostel before making my way to Old Town Square for a free tour of Prague.
This was an interesting tour and we were laddened with an American tour guide who’d been living and working in Prague for the last 5 years. Entertaining to say the least about him. We walked around the Old Town, Jewish Quarter and some of the New Town seeing most of the more interesting touristy sites and hearing some interesting tales true and false.
After the tour ended I made my way over the Charles Bridge and down the river bank to the Jiraskuv Bridge to see the Fred and Ginger dancing building. I then made my way back to the hostel to dry out my socks, feet and shoes as they were all well and truly cold and wet. Relaxed here for a few hours before heading back out again – still no internet though so couldn’t do anything online.
In the evening I went to the supermarket to buy some cheap food for a couple of days (breakfast for 3 days and dinner for 2 days), came back to the hostel to cook up dinner. After dinner at about 8.45 I headed out to the old clock in towns square to see who would show up for the organised pub crawl. Quite a few people turned up, so I joined in and had a night on the town with a bunch of people. Eventually making my way back to the hostel and then sleeping the night off.

Wednesday 20th Jan 2010:
Woke up eventually, and while I was in the shower my new roomies showed up (5 girls – lucky me! ;)). I then headed out to the Prague Castle and wandered around the city for a while before my legs got tired and I started to get hungry. While heading back to the hostel I stopped in and got myself a hotdog. Got back to the hostel to find the internet working, so I was able to check-in for my flight back to Birmingham on Friday (still have to print out the boarding pass though), caught up on a couple of emails and other net stuff, before going back to my room and finished watching “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which I’d started watching on Tuesday night before the pub crawl.

Thursday 21st Jan 2010:
So I decided in the morning to head to Kutna Hora, which is about 1.5hrs south of Prague. It's a quaint little town with a number of different churches around the place, which unfortunately being winter were closed to the public and so I was only able to see the outside of most of them. However I did at least get to see the inside of the bigger St. Barbara's Cathedral, which was pretty impressive inside including all the old paintings done on the walls of the cathedral.
I made my way back to Prague after a couple of hours spent in Kutna Hora - where I had been freezing (I believe it was around -8C during the day, so my hands, feet and face were all pretty much frozen.
Got back to the city, to unfreeze in the hostel, where I met one of the owners, a lady from NZ, had a good chat with her, then went up to my room to unfreeze, before heading back out for dinner.
Came back to jump on the internet and spend the rest of the night in the warmth of the hostel.

Friday 22nd Jan 2010:
Woke up, checked out of the hostel, then headed for the airport.
Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so got some food and a drink then sat waiting for the plane. Time to board came, got my seat and had a very uneventful smooth ride back to Birmingham with a very smooth soft landing.
At home now, doing washing - having had a shower - and checking hte net and downloading missed programs.

Japanese Christmas

2009-12-25T08:04:00.003Z

Monday 21st December 2009:
Up at 4am to catch my train at 6.10am from Birmingham New Street to London Euston and onto Heathrow airport.
Plane was on time and I eventually got through the long line up at the security checkin section, only to find the complete airport waiting and shopping area completely chockers of people.

The flight to Helsinki was uneventful. However on arriving to Helsinki it turned out the connecting flight to Osaka was delay, due to weather problems on the weekend, by about 3.5 hours. When the flight finally arrived, it turned out to be overbooked, and volunteers were asked for compensation of 600euros and a night in the Scandia Continental Helsinki hotel.
Stayed the night in the hotel having a good nights sleep and waking up for breakfast on Tuesday.

Tuesday 22nd December 2009:
Met one of the other ladies who took the compo aswell and we went for a walking tour of Helsinki. When we left the hotel it was snowing a mini storm and so we got covered in snow. This eventually disappated about 45mins later, and was replaced by freezing weather and sunny skys - was -2 while it was snowing, and probably dropped below that as the day got older.
After some souvenir shopping, we headed back to the hotel and on to the airport. Only to find our plane was again still delayed but this time by just under 3 hours and due to leave at 20:00. I had to get my Osaka flight changed again, and so now have a flight leaving Osaka at 18:15 and arriving in Tokyo at 19:25. I was also given a 17euro serivce voucher for food for the wait.
While waiting I jumped online and was chatting to G & V about the new flight details etc, and arranged for me to stay with V for the night and meet up with Greg etc and surprise M&D on the Thrusday (Christmas eve).
Flight was eventually called for boarding at about 8pmish. While the majority of everybody else lined up, myself and the other 4 people who took the bump from Monday night stay seated until the line was almost gone.
We didn't have to wait long to get to the front of the line. Lucky for me I was the first of us, and as such the Japanese lady in front of me wanted to swap her business class seat for an economy one - not sure why, and the check-in lady said it's the first time she's ever heard anyone want to do that. Well lucky for me I was right there and said in a joking/serious manner, well is she doesn't want it I'll take it. Oddly enough it worked and I got upgrade to a business class seat for free - sitting in my bc seat writing this at the moment.
Well I have to say the service and attendants are much better up this end of the plane. We had to wait for about 1.5-2 hours on the plane while we waited for the clearance to taxi and take off. During this time we were treated to drinks and a small prawn cocktail. All the movies are available and can be paused while watching them - unlike most economy seatings. Dinner consisted of 3 courses - entree being Japanese cha soda noodles, miso soup, seasonal salad, and either a sushi selection or a lightly salted salmon with horseradish sause - I had the sushi instead of the salmon - main consisted of either a roast turkey fillet, gingerbread sauce and goat's cheese rosti, or beef, teriyaki sauce and Japanese rice or Fried salmon stewed fennel and spinch potatoes - I had the fried salmon. Dessert consisted of either a mature emmental and brie cheese platter, a raspberry shot, an ice cream selection (vanilla or strawberry) or fresh fruit - I had a strawberry ice cream with a sweet wine.
Watch movies of 500 days of summer, and the Disney movie UP.
I have to say I do love these seats that recline and fold down into a bed for sleeping, not that I got any - as usual couldn't sleep on the plane, I did try to but was just unable to fall asleep, so I just ended up resting the eyes for a few minutes at a time.

Wednesday 23rd December 2009:
Plane - The day started on the plane and as such because of that I decided for this exercise that the day started at breakfast, which consisted of a choice of roast cod and tamagoyaki omelette, a cheddar cheese omelette, cheese sauce and bratwurst or a selection of cereals and natural yogurt. Well as I don't like egg, I guess I was stuck with the cereals and yoghurt, which was such a bad thing, as it all came with fresh fruit aswell.
Japan:
Osaka - 3hr wait over in Kensai airport, went through customs and had to collect bag and recheck-in for my JAL flight to Tokyo.
Tokyo - Arrived at the airport, collected my bags again - after the piped christmas music on the plane - then met Van who was waiting for me. We then caught the mono-rail to the train station, then the train to Van's place for the night.

Thursday 24th December 2009:
Woke up early for a trip to the train station and star bucks to surprise mum & dad. Got the camcorder ready and walked to the window in front of them and just stood at the window filming. Eventually after some prompting (about 1 min) mum and dad realised it was actually me.
The rest of the day was spent walking around Tokorozawa, having lunch then heading back to Greg's for the afternoon. I got to hold Hanna and she fell asleep in my arms.

Friday 25th December 2009:
Christmas Day.
Woke up early for Jack to open his and Hanna's presents.
The morning was the spent at the park, the off to Jonathons for Christmas lunch (which included desert).
We then headed back home for an afternoon kip, followed by homemade pizza for dinner.
After dinner it was more present opening time followed by bath and bed time for Jack and Hanna.

Saturday 26th December 2009:
Off to Yokohama today to see somewhere new. Made our way by train down there. Waiting for Baba and Jiji - Yukiko's parents. I again had to hide away out of sight as they didn't know I was coming to Japan. We surprised them by me walking up and asking them if I could take a photo for them.
After out coffee/tea break we headed along the park and waterside down to the old brick warehouses for lunch.
We followed this by a ride back on the water taxi to the Yokohama park - dad get seasick and forgot to bring his tables so we didn't end up going on the sightseeing boat tour.
We then went for a walk around chinatown for a bit before heading in for another coffee/tea break and then heading home.
Dinner was what you will followed by bath and bed time for Jack and Hanna and everyone else.

Winter in the mists

2009-12-14T19:28:00.002Z

Monday 7th December:
Work, and a bitterly cold day to boot - went with a one of the guys at work into the German markets (was an open invite but just hte two of us went).

Tuesday 8th December:
Work and another cold day, then off to see Law Abiding Citizen. Good movie with a few good twists in there to go.

Wednesday 9th December:
Work

Thursday 10th December:
Work, then a quiet night at home.

Friday 11th December:
Work, the another quiet night at home.

Saturday 12th December:
Slept in, and then went shopping for gear. Night was spent just watching a couple of movies on my laptop.

Sunday 13th December:
Church morning, their play version and taken on Slumdog Millionaire called BRumdog Millionaire about the story of Esther.

1st Week of December

2009-12-06T16:44:00.003Z

Tuesday 1st December:
Work, then a dentist appointment for a filling, then went to see "A Serious Man" - an interesting movie, bizarre could be a better word for it.

Wednesday 2nd December:
Work

Thursday 3rd December:
Work, then made my way to get my new baby - Samsung N140 Netbook (Windows 7). Unfortuantely I had to recharge the battery so I didn't get to play with it until Friday. I also had football to go to aswell - scored the first two goals for my side.

Friday 4th December:
Work, and trying to get my internet bill queried by people who have no idea what I want and are unable to give me what I want because the company doesn't offer the service. Spent the night setting up my new baby.

Saturday 5th December:
Semi relaxing day after going out to post Christmas presents. In the evening I went with a friend to see the Birmingham Ballet company perform the Nutcracker - very entertaining and thourghly enjoyed by the both of us. Also chatted to M&D during the day.

Sunday 6th December:
Never woke up in time for Church, so it was missed. Had to go into town to Selfridges anyway and try and sort out the issues I had with my netbook. Turns out it's most likely the fault of the anti-virus software. Deleted that off and added a new software and hoping that will sort the issues out.
Also called in to get a hair cut, then spent the rest of the day doing the weekly food shop, cleaning the house and relaxing while trying to get my netbook sorted.

Sunday 6th December:

November time to catch up with the blog

2009-11-28T17:49:00.003Z

Sunday 1st November:
Church and weekly shop.

Monday 2nd November:
Work

Tuesday 3rd November:
Work, movie night was cancelled as I was late home from work and as such couldn't be bother to go out again.

Wednesday 4th November:
Work

Thursday 5th November:
Work followed by football

Friday 6th November:
Work and quiet night in

Saturday 7th November:
Another quiet day and weekend spent walking around town getting a couple of nit-nacks etc that I needed/wanted.

Sunday 8th November:
Quiet relaxing day and weekly food shop.

Monday 9th November:
Work

Tuesday 10th November:
Work and movie night - The Men Who Stared at Goats.

Wednesday 11th November:
Work

Thursday 12th November:
Off to Bremen out of liverpool for a well deserved long-weekend.

Friday 13th November:
In Bremen for the weekend, woke up and started to wander the city (not a big city so this didn't take too long). I Ended the day with a tour of the Beck's brewery and dinner before having a nice quiet and early night in.

Saturday 14th November:
Just had a slow wander of the city until it was time to pick up my bags and head to the airport (which is just outside of the ciy centre and so only takes 10mins to get to). Got to the airport and waited for the plane back to Liverpool. Fairly uneventful flight except for the passed out then semi-verbal-abusive drunk guy telling a kid to be quiet - she really wasn't that loud. Good laugh for a few of us with some of his antics, but overall just a bit of an annoying guy.
Got back to Liverpool and made it into the city and hour earlier than I expected and so had time for some all-you-can-eat chinese before catching my train back to Birmingham.

Sunday 15h November:
Slept in and catch up on some much needed downtime, and then the weekly shop.

Monday 16th November:
Work

Tuesday 17th November:
Work and movie night - 2012

Wednesday 18th November:
Work

Thursday 19th November:
Work and football

Friday 20th November:
Work

Saturday 21st November:
Earlish morning followed by a wander into town and semi-walk through the German Markets. As well as the weekly Tesco food shop.

Sunday 22nd November:
Church time.

Monday 23th November:
Work - Dentist appointment

Tuesday 24th November:
Work and movie night - The Informant

Wednesday 25th November:
Early morning for a trip up to Chester for an IFRS update session (yay for me as I got paid for it and got 2.5 CPD hours out of it aswell. In the evening I went out with my friend for some badminton.

Thursday 26th November:
Work then football night

Friday 27th November:
Work, lamb steaks for dinner and then a chat to Greg and Mum and Dad in the evening before a late night to bed.

Saturday 28th November:
Slept in before heading out to town to buy my new baby toys. Samsung N140 netbook from Selfridges - unfortunately they were all sold out in the Birmingham store and so are having to get it internally transferred from London.
Logitech V550 Nano mouse from Selfridges.
Panasonic H81 comcorder and bag from Currys.
Took back the webcam to Tesco's for a refund as it wasn't working properly.
Got my weekly food shop done.
This is Milin's last week for about a month in England as he is going back to India for a few weddings etc and as such is semi-moving out. As such we went out for dinner to one of the local Indian restaurants (Bombay-Mix).

Sunday 29th November:
What to say, it was a quiet day in all. Checked out my new video camcorder. Did the weekly shop then spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Monday 30th November:
Work.

Back to Birmingham

2009-11-28T17:36:00.003Z

Sunday 11th October:
Back in Birmingham and after a nice sleep and showed I everually got up and went out to do some weekly food shopping.
When I got back I met my new neighbour in apartment 69 (the other two girls moved out while I was away). Got the internet restarted and sat and enjoyed some downloading action.

Monday 12th October:
Back to work.

Tuesday 13th October:
Work, movie night was Surrogates.

Wednesday 14th October:
Work

Thursday 15th October:
Work then back to football in the evening.

Friday 16th October:
Work

Saturday 17th October:
Bit of shopping then relaxation

Sunday 18th October:
Church time then Tesco shopping for the week.

Monday 19th October:
Work

Tuesday 20th October:
Work and movie night - Zombieland - went to see this with my new neighbour.

Wednesday 21st October:
Work

Thursday 22nd October:
Work and football

Friday 23rd October:
Work

Saturday 24th October:
Some clothes shopping and a few other bits and pieces with a friend before a quiet night in.

Sunday 25th October:
Sleepin and quiet night and weekly shop.

Monday 26th October:
Work

Tuesday 27th October:
Work and movie night - The Imaginarium of Dr Panassus (not sure on the spelling).
Again my new neighbour came along (finally roped someone else into Tuesday night movies).

Wednesday 28th October:
Work

Thursday 29th October:
Work followed by football.

Friday 30th October:
Work

Saturday 31st October:
Another quiet weekend ahead.

Morocco Part 2

2009-11-12T09:28:00.002Z

Sunday 4th October:
Had breakfast as one of the little cafes in the centre square, before heading off with a few of the group to see the tombs and palace (missed the palace but got the tombs). while there we saw some very small baby tortoises and I saw an owl poke its head out of a hole in the wall before disappearing again.
After the tombs we split ways with Wes, Lexi and Steph, and Jen, Sarah and myself went off to wanderer the shops and do a bit of shopping (well the girls shopped I just followed and site saw).
We eventually made our way to the souks and wanderer their maze of avenues and streets. We eventually made our way for lunch, before more wanderering the souks and then had a drink on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant and sat and watched the action below in the market square.
After this we headed back to the accommodation, before I headed out for a hammam (Moroccan steam room followed by a scrub and massage - mine wasn't that great).
For dinner we headed back to the stalls in the market square, and then headed back to the taz for a few drinks again.

Monday 5th October:
Another 7am start for breakfast, which was followed by some people with a few last minute pick-ups/purchases.
From here we were off to the local area for waterfalls in the mountains. We arrived before and prepared lunch before heading out on a hike to the local big falls. Pretty decent in size and beauty (albeit with a bit of rubbish and graffiti around the area). A few people were brave enough and took a dip in and under the waterfall (which was quite cold).
After this we made our way back to the town and sat around until dinner time (more tagine).
Early night in all for most people.

Tuesday 6th October:
Up earlish for the drive back through Marrakech on to Essaouira. We stopped for the obligatory coffee break. We arrived in Essaouira before lunch again.
After lunch was prepared and eaten we wandered into town for a look around the town, before heading back to the campsite for dinner and a night of drinks and chatting and fun.

Wednesday 7th October:
This was classed as a free day for us to do whatever we wanted to do. Some people went on a horse ride in the morning, while a couple of the guys jumped on the quads for a few hours. The rest of us had a quiet morning before heading into the town and wanderering around for a while.
I checked into and internet cafe and checked my email's, before heading out and oddly enough meeting into Wes and the girls - whom I joined for cheese burgers at a local English cafe.
Eventually made my way back to the campsite for a few hours to relax and read and enjoy the sun. Eventually headed back into town for a pizza for dinner and wander around at night time. Made my way back to the campsite for another night of celebrations.

Thusday 8th October:
Up early again for a 7am start and leave.
We had a long drive on towards Moulay Bousalhem (the local Moroccan holiday destination). This involved a very long drive along the highway near the coast, a drive past Casablanca.
Lunch was in a highway rest stop and fastfood joint.
Eventually made out way to the destination after dark and then had to set up the tents and cook the dinner for the night.

Friday 9th October:
Up latish (considering most of the mornings), this was due to the fact we only had a shore distance to travel.
Wanderered up into town for breakfast and a look around, before heading back to pack up and get ready to leave for the last and final nights destination.
As I said it was a very short trip up the coast to our last destination and as such we called into the big bulk purchase store for some more booze for the final night.
We got to Cap Spartel mid afternoon, and set ourselves up for the final nights festivities to happen.
A few people made their way down to the cliffs to have a look at the caves, the rest of us hung around and relaxed.
Dinner was made on and over the camp fire and the night got started as dinner was being cooked and prepared. This involved a long night of drinking, chatting and general merriment to be had, before heading to bed and crashing for the night until the next morning.

Satuday 10th October:
Up eventually, some people earlier than others - some people had to make their way to the airport and seaport for transport options to finish or continue their trips.
The rest of us slowly got going, packed up and said our goodbyes. Myself, Michelle and Bec decided to hang at Cap Spartal until heading ot the airport for our respective flights (it was closer and just as easy to stay than go back to Tangier and then back again to the airport).
We said goodbye and waved off the bus, before heading down to the cliffs to find something to eat (unfortuantely there really wasn't much down there). As such as our options were limited we headed back up the road to the local 5 star Mirage hotel.
Here we sat in the lap of luxury for our last few hours in Morocco and enjoyed a chicken burger and chips, hot choc and oj, all the while overlooking the massive beach just down from the hotel.
Once time came, we left and caught our taxi to the airport.
Bec and I were on the same flight and so said goodbye to Michelle (whose flight was later in the day).
Our flight was very uneventful, and when we made it back to the airport we parted ways to get different trains back home. I cancelled my night's accomodation in London and headed back via NationalExpress coach/bus to Birmingham, to arrive at about 2am and sleep in my own bed and relax and sleepin on the Sunday morning without having to worry about getting up the next day and catching a bus then.

Moroccan Adventure

2009-10-17T15:13:00.011+01:00

Saturday 26th September:
WOke up, did a final pack and check then got a taxi to the train station to catch my train to London then Gatwick for my flight to Tangier, Morocco.
The flight to Tangiers was very uneventful, but I did get dinner on the plane which was Pasta and in a chicken sauce.
Arrived at the Tangier airport to be pickup by by the owner of the Marco Polo Travel agency and driven to the hotel where the tour was due to start - I arrived at the hotel at 10.30pm, after dinner had been had and the majority of people had met each other. I on the other hand had eaten and was very tired and so went straight to bed in my hotel room that I had by myself.

Sunday 27th September:
Woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast. Met a few of hte people who were on the tour over the table during breakfast, then headed back to my room to get my bag and head back downstairs again for the first formal met and greet done by our tour guide (Dean).
We followed this by seeing our truck transport nad home for the next 2 weeks. Jumped/climbed into the truck and headed out of Tangiers. Stopped for a coffee/tea break on our way to Chefchaouen - the first of many that happened during the 2 weeks of travelling. We eventually made it into Chefchaouen, I had decided to join our driver up front (and was the first person on the tour to do so) for the final leg into Chefchaouen - it was an interesting ride up the hill and into the town and camping ground. We arrived for lunch time where we set up and the first team (which I happened to be on) we're due to make - pasta and salad. Unfortunately as there wasn't much else for everyone else to do, they kinda just stood around and watched us make lunch.

After lunch and the setup of tents etc, we were taken on a guided tour around the town of Chefchaouen. We stopped at one point in the first of 3 carpet stores for the whole trip. We followed this by continuing the tour into the Kasbah where the town had started to get quite foggy and eeire. We were then let off our hooks and allowed to tour the town centre on our own. Many of us just walked up and down the main strip, and a few of us had to get our money changed into Moroccan Dirham. Before dinner about 6 of us made it into a hotel bar and grabbed a beer before dinner.
Dinner was at a little cafe/restaurant in the centre of the town and was quite nice. After dinner we headed off again for a bit before meeting up to grab taxi's back to the camp site. As it was Morocco, and only 3 people could fit into a cab, t was safer to have 1 guy with 2 girls per cab. Which worked for the majority of cases except that there were 6 guys (included the tour leader, Dean - our driver Martin didn't come out with us) for 17 girls. Bit of an overlap but it all worked out in the end and everyone made it back to the camp site safely.

Monday 28th September:
Up early for a early start. Had been sleeping on and off since about 3am though when the roosters and dogs all started to stay on Ramadan time instead of reverting back.
From Chefchaouen we headed out to Volubilus which is an old UNESCO-listed Roman ruins site. We had lunch there and then followed it with a tour of the ruins, with some interesting antics once we hit the "dog house", especially between the father - daughter team of Wes and Lexi.
After our time at Volubilus we then drove onto Fes and the campsite just outside of the city.
A number of people stayed at the campsite and ate a camp dinner.
The rest of us went out to a traditional Moroccan dinner, at a restaurant with entertainment, which included one of our group (Sophie) being involved in a fake Berber wedding ceremony.

Tuesday 29th September:
Today we started off at the top of a hill overlooking the city of Fes, after which we headed down to a pottery place to see how they make their traditional Fes/Moroccan pottery and craft work. We followed this by a long and winding tour through the coty of Fes and it's many alley ways.
For lunch we had Berber burgers at another! carpet store.
We then went on towards the famous Fes tanneries, then stopped off at a store where they made and sold scaffs, which the majority of us got one for out trip into the Sahara then next day.
Night was spent around the camp dinner tables.

Wednesday 30th September:
We left camp early this morning as we have a reasonably long trip ahead of us to get to the Sahara. 6.15am starting/leaving time.
I decided as no-one else was up there to jump into the truck cabin with Moartin all morning and got treated to the varied Moroccan landscape changing from Fes, to the mountains and Swiss like ski resort, to desert and platues like in the central parts of the USA.
We stopped for lunch at a night little cafe/restaurant (Midels) for Berber pizza and fruit, drinks etc.

Back on the bus/truck afterwards (sitting in the back of truck) for the long drive to the Sahara. The landscape scenary kept changing al the way down to the Sahara.
We arrived at the edge of the Sahara and got all set for our Camel trek into the Sahara and the berber camp where we were spending the night.
Once to the camp we climbed up a sand dune (almost fainted at the top from the exertion (had a cold since day 2, so my energy levels were lacking).
Once up the to, in time for the sunset we then all started to sand board down the dunes - most people only halfway, as there were only 2 boards, and someone from the riders had to bring the board back to the top.
Having almost fainted, I scored myself a fast track ticket all the way to the bottom - my much prefered option anyway, and only 4 people (2 per board) could do it. So myself and Michelle ended on the first of the board to go, and with about 1/3 of the distance left I gave up steering and trying to control the speed and let us just rip down. Heeps of fun, and so wanted to do it again!
After that we had dinner in the berber tent followed by a night of drinking, partying and then sleeping on the dunes.

Thursday 1st October:
Woken up to see the sunrise over the dunes - spectacular, to say the least!
After which it was packing up and riding on the Camels back to base camp, breakfast and the truck.
Breakfast were berber pancakes, eggs (which I didn't have) and the usual bread and jam/cheese.
Once all this was done we pilled back onto the truck and headed back over the black desert and rough & bumpy ground on towards our next stop for the day.
We stopped about 11am at a place called the Kasbah Hotel where we were able to have a shower (albeit cold - still but refreshing) and a swim in the pool. We then had lunch (tagine again) before heading off again.
Our next stop was at the old wells and Salem (an absolutely mad man, and that's putting it nicely) where we were stopped for about an hour, and he got us to either dance or dress-up before he headed down one of the wells to come back up in another well about 100m further down the road.
Once we said goodbye to him we headed off towards Todra Gorge - Dean then got sick - the first of many and the catalyst of it all - the other couple of us previously only had colds and so don't count). We eventually got to Todra, settled in and had dinner.
While most people decided to sleep in the open air of the roof, a few of us decided to take the beds in the rooms and sleep indoors. Martin, Carly and I we the last one's to go to bed as we were up for most of the night just chatting away.

Friday 2nd October:
Woke up early for a cooking tour with Mohammad - How To Cook A Tagine - he was subsequently a carpet salesman aswell. He taught us how to make a traditional Moroccan soup and Tagine.
After which another group of people joined us for lunch and Mohammad showing off his carpets.
After all this was done we went for a long walk back to the Todra Gorge hotel and onto for some rock climbing - again I wanted to do this but knew my ankle and body wouldn't accept the physical exertion needed for the activity, so instead I just say at the bottom of the cliffs and watched the others participate.
We had tagine for dinner again, from which I left directly after and went to bed early (about 10.30pm) - everyone else slowly filed up the hotel and onto their respective mattresses in the open air.

Saturday 3rd October:
Again we had another early start - pretty much the standard for the whole tour) - of leaving at 7am.
We left the gorge and made our way along the roads to Marrakech for a two night stay. Along the way we pass by the Moroccan film studios, stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant, and then made our way into Marrakech just in time to see the sunset over the mosque.
Once settled into the hotel/raj where we were staying, we headed out to the market place and food stalls for dinner, before being let off our reigns and allowed to wander the city at night - MArtin and I just went straight to a hotel for a couple of drink - I was tired and couldn't be bothered walking) - we were joined very shortly after by more of our group who came to enjoy a few drinks aswell.

Final Days before Morocco

2009-09-25T22:57:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 22nd September:
Work and movie day. Went to see The Gamer - not bad, not a great story line but decent enough action.

Wednesday 23rd September:
Work

Thursday 24th September:
Work, but only a half day as we had an all finance fun day. Half way between the two offices of Birmingham and Cheadle (Manchster). Wasn't bad and a lot of fun was had. Got to do the sumo-suited sumo, coughts, big buzzer, big jenga and a very big operation game.

Friday 25th September:
Last day of work for 2 weeks. Yahh. Was just another day at work, although I had to make sure that most of what I was doing was finished so that I could leave it and not worry about it until I get back.

Off to Morocco tomorrow, and not posts until I get back.

Only a few days left

2009-09-20T14:59:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 15th September:
Work had the launching of the new brand and company day today. Got to go in casuals and sit through a company wide meeting for the new brand launch - really exciting stuff!, then a night at the movies to see Dorian Gray. Was an ok movie, nothing spec and varies quite a bit from some of the out tales told about Dorian.

Wednesday 16th September:
Work and a quiet night at home.

Thrusday 17th September:
Spent the day travelling to and from Manchester and up in Manchester office for a team meeting. Really exciting and almost put me to sleep.

Friday 18th September:
Work, quiet night at home watching a movie, then out for a couple of drinks with one of the fellas on my floor.

Saturday 19th September:
What to say...got up late, posted Greg's b/day present and card, banked a cheque and then went and bought a pair of sandles and jeans, ready for my trek in Morocco.

Sunday 20th September:
Got up early enough to get to church this morning. The afternoon and evening were spent getting the food for the week and watching a couple of programs and movies.

Monday 21st September:
Work wise as always.

Internet always an issue

2009-09-11T18:52:00.003+01:00

Tuesday 8th September:
Work, and being cheap-arse Tuesday movie night. Went to see the new District-9 movie. It is well done and considering that I had see a few people who didn't like it, I loved it. Done in a bit of Mokumentory style for part of the movie, it was well created and interesting. It had sub-expressions as to the political situation past and present in South Africa, but these we only minor parts, the rest of the movie was well executed and acted. A movie that had I paid full-price for I wouldn't have been disappointed - as such it is a must see!

Wednesday 9th September:
Work

Thursday 10th September:
Work, then football afterwards where about halfway through the match I got my right ankle step on and as such pretty much couldn't run for the rest of the night - still having trouble walking on it and generally have to limp around the place.

Friday 11th September:
Work, and Birmingham currently have an Artsfest on, which started today and goes all weekend. So I might head down there later and see what's going on and enjoy the entertainment and take a few photo's.

Saturday 12th September:
Spent the day out at Artsfest, with a couple of stop overs at the walkabout to watch the cricket action (pretty boring and standard Australian teaching England how to stage a successful run chase).

Sunday 13th September:
After doing the weekly food shop in the morning, I spent half the day out at the last day of Artsfest Birmingham. Followed by dinner at home and then went out again to watch Reverend & the Makers play. The were pretty decent as a live act and I wouldn't mind seeing them play again.

Monday 14th September:
Work, work, work, work and more work. Followed by a relaxing night at home.

A disruption and the start of the count down

2009-09-02T20:16:00.007+01:00

Tuesday 1st September:
Had an email this morning from the airline that I had booked my flight to Prague with. Apparently they have decided to declare bankruptcy, and as such I no longer have a flight to prague. Luckily I hadn't yet book accomodation, but I will look at getting a different airline to fly there with on the same weekend though.
Fingures crossed, but probably not overly likely to happen. Oh well these things happen, at least I should be able to get the money back through the bank since I paid via credit card.
In the evening I went to see the Hurt Locker at the theatres. Good movie, decent action and interesting enough plot and story line.

Wednesday 2nd September:
Work and quiet night at home with a call from Mum and Dad.

Thursday 3rd September:
Work, then got home to the internet not working again.

Friday 4th September:
Work and a quiet day at work. Came home to cook my lamb steaks for dinner and listen to the first ODI of Australia vs England. Followed by a relatively quiet night at home.

Saturday 5th September:
Just a quiet Saturday spent at home, and at the shops buying food.

Sunday 6th September:
Another quiet day, went with Milin (my new housemate) down to the Walkabout to watch the English batting in the second half of the ODI. While there met an English guy who was over from Ireland with his wife, 2 year old son and parents-in-law. Got chatting and had a few drinks bought for us while watching the English get beaten.
Also it was Milin's birthday, hence the trip to the bar for a few drinks.

Monday 7th September:
Back to work.

A week of new beginings and Germany

2009-09-02T19:57:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 25th August:
Work, also went to see Inglorious Basterds at the theatre for my cheap-arse Tuesday movie night. Good movie, typical Tarantino moive and if you don't like his stuff you probably won't like this one. I really enjoyed it. Quite funny, althought the subtitles were a bit annoying occasionally.

Wednesday 26th August:
Work, also showing a variety of people my appartment as apparently there are a few other's around the place that are free and my landlord isn't into, so I'm showing them my room.
Also apparently the guy I thugh was moving into the free room is no longer do so and it's a different (Indian) fella - not overly happy about that and not a big fan off the first visit.

Thursday 27th August:
Work, work and more work. Then Football/soccer at night aswell.

Friday 28th August:
Work, and final day before a long weekend. Nothing else much happened although got a call about just before 5 from my new flatmate asking if I was home (well of cause not I'm at work!). Anyway one my landlord's daughter came around later to give the keys to the new fella - he eventually came (it was the Indian fella - damn it).

Saturday 29th August:
Flew to Dusseldorf in the afternoon, to arrive at about 7.30ish then catch a bus into town. Booked into the hostel (kinda reception closes at 9 and I arrived after that, but they had given me the door code and room number).
Anyway met some Manchester fellas there for a weekend away, and eventually went out for a night on the town with them.
Was a good night wanderering the hotspots of the city and having a few drinks. Saw all the germans, and lots of Hen and Buck's night going on. German women have an odd custom of going out on a hen's night and selling sex toys and shots to help raise money to either spend on the nights drinks, or help out in some way for the wedding.

Sunday 30th August:
Eventually got up at about 11. Had some breakfast and then went out to wander the city and see the sights of Dusseldorf - the city on the Rhine and some other river).
Quite a nice day to start off with but then it started to get overcast and a bit colder.
Made my way back to the hostel for a rest after about 5 odd hours of walking. Went out to for a nice dinner in Altstadt, then back to the hostel again.
Met up with the Manchester fella's again and we headed out eventually for another (albeit much quieter) night on the town. Went up the town's tower for a beer and night time viewing of the city then off to another bar on the banks of the Rhine for another drink.
Eventually made our way back to the hostel for the rest of the night (well for sleep).

Monday 31st August:
Final day in Dusseldorf and I had forgotten to change the time on my phone so I got up an hour later than I was wanting too. As a result I never made it back to the tower to get a skyward view of the city.
Eventually cuaght the bus back to the airport where I had to wait for about 2 hours (buses aren't that regular out there). FLight back to Birmingham was uneventful, but by the time I got home I was extremely tired Said hi eventually to my new flatmate and then did a couple of things, had dinner and then eventually went to bed.

Another Week goes by, another one starts

2009-08-24T20:37:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 18th August:
Work, then went to see 'The Time-travellers Wife'. Not a bad movie, good story line and some good funny parts to it. Overall a typical chick flick, but worth the effort and odd query from the guy at the counter to see.

Wednesday 19th August:
Work - Booked a flight to Prague in the evening for a long weekend in October.

Thursday 20th August:
Work, then a trip to the doctors to get hte first 2 of 3 shots needed for Morocco. As a result of the shot's I skipped soccer/football as I though it was probably not the best idea to go.

Friday 21st August:
Work followed by a quiet night in. Although I did get rudely awake at 3 in the morning (Friday morning) by a couple of girls somewhere outside yelling at each other about something or other. Not the greatest thing to happen.

Saturday 22nd August:
Walked to the bullring to spy out and by some new glasses for myself. Mission accomplished. Should get them sometime in the next couple of weeks max. The rest of the day was spend buying and posting Yukiko's b/day present then heading home to see what the damage was for Australia in the Ashes.

Sunday 23rd August:
Got up latish and so didn't make it to church this morning. Instead spent the morning chatting to Dad over Skype, before heading out to do the weekly food shopping. Went to the pub for a quick beer to watch a bit of cricket, and left fairly promptly after finishing the beer.
Sunday night was just spent quietly at home.

Monday 24th August:
Work, not much to report really other than work. Had to show someone around at home who will potentially move int one of the free apartments down the hall. Other than that it's a very quiet night at home. Downloading a new espisode of True Blood and playing a bit of poker online.

No internet sucks - and is painful, but all works out in the end

2009-08-17T19:48:00.000+01:00

Saturday 1st August:
As you will all know already I had a ticket for the cricket for the 3rd day of the 3rd test. Unfortunately the whole day was rained out and as such I missed out on my day at cricket. The up side being I get most of my money back, however I would have preferred to see the cricket to getting my money back.
As such I never really left the house because of the rain.

Sunday 2nd August:
Church in the morning, then I found myself at the walkabout (Australian bar) to wile the rest of the day away watching the cricket.

Monday 3rd August:
Not much other than work as well as watching the last day of the cricket on the net.

Tuesday 4th August:
More work, and end of month – luckily for me it’s still very much the slowest and least amount I have had to do on a month end since working for the Police Credit Union all those years ago.
Tuesday movie night was seeing a new British film called ‘Moon’. It was quite good, although a little odd, probably a bit more on the artsy side of things that I usually watch, but entertaining non-the-less.

Wednesday 5th August:
More work and work and work. Got home to find the internet not working properly (needless to say this has actually kept going on until Sunday – suppose to be getting fixed on Monday when the bill’s paid as it turns out that, that is the main reason behind the internet being excessively slow, or at least I believe it is will have to wait until Monday to confirm it though).

Thursday 6th August:
More work, then soccer/football in the evening.

Friday 7th August:
Last day of the week at work. Nothing overly interesting, however had a informal meeting with my manager about my plans, and theirs etc. The basic result of this is that they would like me to keep going until I can no longer work anymore, and I’m more than willing to do that (although I will probably still just put my feelers out to see what’s happening in the market).
Friday night was spent doing much all of nothing – due to the internet being down and all, although luckily I had still some downloaded programs I had yet to watch, so I at least had something to do for most of the night.

Saturday 8th August:
Made my way to the walkabout for the day to watch the cricket and Australia hammer home their advantage over England.
I the evening, again due to no internet, I went to the movies to watch ‘The Taking of Phelam 123’. Not a bad movie and worth the money spent on it.
Had a couple of text’s from Mike who had just arrived into Heathrow and was waiting in the customs line – lucky Mike!

Sunday 9th August:
Watched the final 1 and a bit sessions of the 4th test at the Walkabout, with a break at lunch time to go and do my weekly shopping. That was pretty much it for the day with nothing else having happened for the rest of the day.

Monday 10th August:
Work and still no internet! – AAAaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Tuesday 11th August:
Work, no internet still and movie night – went to see the G.I. Joe movie. Not much to it really, pretty ordinary and it’s no wonder most people don’t know and can’t name movies which Sienna Miller has been in, because they are generally shockers. Not because she’s in them, just that G.I. Joe is pretty much non-existent for story line, plot, good acting (and those who do a decent job can’t make up for the lack of credibility this movie eminates).

Wednesday 12th August:
Work, and finally find out that Ben hasn’t paid the internet bill even though he was saying he had. Not sure which bill he’d paid, but definitely not the one for our internet.

Thursday 13th August:
Work and finally some internet for the day although extremely slow, so I was basically unable to do anything much on it. Got to check most of the emails, although that still took a while to do.

Friday 14th August:
Work. Mike arrived tonight at just after 8pm. Met him at the train station then walked home. Went out to the local Wetherspoons for dinner and a few drinks.

Saturday 15th August:
Picked up the car in the morning from Hertz, and decided to drive out to Cambridge for the day. Really nice university town, but not quite as nice as Oxford. We had a good day there with some really nice weather. On the way back we called in the Leicester to see Annabel and pick up a 2-4-1 voucher to Alton Towers for Sunday’s trip. We arrived at Annabel’s just in time for dinner (not planned, just happened that way). Picked up the vouchers and eventually made our way home for the evening of strolling around the city, visiting the Gala Casino (where we both joined up, got a free ₤10 voucher. I played mind on Blackjack and walked away with ₤15 (had to win the initial 10 back before going on) and Mike walked away with about ₤10) So a bit of a profitable night for us both.

Sunday 16th August:
Up early in the morning for a cooked breakfast of bacon, pork sausages and tomato (home cooked), then into the car for the trip to Alton Towers. Lucky for us our car had Satnav in the car (and we didn’t have to hire the system) otherwise we would have gotten very lost. There was a massive line up just to get into the car park and then the park itself as well. We eventually got into the park around 11am, and made our way firstly to the Air ride (longest waiting time 60 mins). Both really enjoyed it with myself laughing through the majority of the ride. We followed this with our next ride on the Nemesis which was even better, and gained more speed than the Air ride.
After which we went for lunch at an all you can eat pizza and pasta joint followed by the nice relaxing ride on the rapid rapids ride.
We then made our way over to the Rita (Queen of Speed) ride, which was extremely quick in speed and in time it took to complete the ride. Called into the Alton Castle (the original inhabitant of the park before being enclosed by the theme/amusement park). We then walk over to the Oblivion (which takes you up and then does a vertical drop of about 30 metres (not 100% sure actually how far) before curving back up and around to the start). Really good fun and muchly enjoyed by the both of us.
We then drove back to Birmingham, I showed Mike the place I use to live, then drove the car back to the airport and dropped it off.
We made our way home where I cooked dinner for us of marinated NZ lamb steaks and enjoyed a night in.

Monday 17th August:
Mike left this morning, and I went to work where I was extremely tired and noticeable so.
Got home to go shopping for the weeks food, and finally I have internet again!!! Wohooo!!!.

Beyond all else there is Cricket

2009-07-28T18:57:00.005+01:00

Tuesday 28th July:
Usual day at work, nothing much happened. Ineresting article read today was about how and where the current western concept of Time and Date came to be.
Off to see Public Enemies at the theatre. Not a bad movie, some interesting camera work in the whole thing, although it did kinda vary a bit too much in regards to the different types of camera work and filming done. Gave a bit of a haphazard feel to the whole movie, but a good movie nonetheless.

Wednesday 29th July:
What can I say other than another day at work. It's still raining here in Birmingham - welcome to a typical English summer as I know it!!!
Ohwell at least I got some warmth and sun down in France.
Picked up my ticket for my day at the Cricket on Saturday (3rd day of the 3rd Test - should be good as long as it isn't raining).
But I digress, it's a Wednesday and nothing ever really happens on a Wednesday - which is good coz it gives me a chance to just relax.

Thursday 30th July:

Some French Leasons

2009-07-21T19:07:00.006+01:00

Tuesday 21st July:
Nothing unusual today other than work and being a Tuesday it was movie night. Off to see The Hangover: (verdict to be added later)
On a lighter side the interesting article that caught my eye to day was about the up and coming wedding of Kelly to Kelly in American who met on facebook. Not sure how that will pan out especially when explaining to people yes my name is Kelly Hildebrandt and yes my husbands name is Kelly Hildebrandt. I suppose one up side for her is that fact that she doesn't have to think about changing her last name to his and going through the who episode of that as she just needs to put a Mrs in front now instead of Miss/Ms.

Wednesday 22nd July:
For those who like a bit of history, this is an article about the new The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary
As for work, well it was another day at work is all I can say about it really. Nothing else much happened there other than the usual - although I still have yet to work the stupid Access programming out and have decided to scale back my efforts to a much more simple form and query.
As a side note I have been getting to know one of the Big Issue vendors who I generally see about 3 or 4 times a week on my walk home through the city (I see a few of them here and there but generally just but the magazine from one vendor). She is a girl from Romania with a couple of young children who is selling the issue to fund and look after her girls. It's always a pleasure to see her and we have been having generally small chats on most days that I walk past. Today's was a bit longer and as we got chatting about her kids etc. Not much else to say about it really, but I figure it lightens and breaks up the day for her a bit and I get a pleasure out of chatting with her aswell. Highly recommend the magazine if you ever get a chance to buy one. The vendors get half the price of the magazine for themselves and they always go through screening before being allowed to sell the magazine.

Thursday 23rd July:
More work today, although at least it is only half a day. Off in the afternoon to register at a doctors, pay my rent for the 4 weeks and then catch my plane to Marseilles. Flight was uneventful as was the trip into Marseilles. The best part of it was the fact that you have to coming in close to the big lake that is right next to the airport. Marseilles being in the south of France is also in the middle of it's summer and so the nights are about 21C and 30-34C days - perfect weather really (except the over night temps).
Got to the Hostel eventually (got a little semi-lost) or should I say I went in the completely different route to those provided on the directions. I got chatting to Sam the owner as well as an Australian girl who'd been there for a bout a week or so, and an English fella who'd been there just a few day's less. Went out with them for a couple of beers which was fun since none of us spoken any French beyond the basics - but the good thing about Marseilles as I found out is that they are quite happy to speak English (if they know it) if note then trying to get to understand each other in a different way.

Friday 24th July:
Got up semi-early (being around 9am) and headed out to see the sites of this Southern Port City (being a port city it has a reasonable amount of character and sordid history).
I wanderered down to the old port district (the hub of the city), stopped off to get some croissant's for breakfast then walked around the old town district. Walked around the Fort Saint-Jean - the other thing I noticed while there is that event where there are no beaches and only rocky out crops near the water's edge the French inhabitants and (I presume a few french tourists) will use them and go for a swim or sunbath.
From there I walked up to and viewed the Cathedral as well as a few other places and back streets of the old town. From there I walked back towards the Old Port and caught the Petite Train for a tour of the coast road and a ride up to the Notre-Dame De La Grade. There was a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea and the city houses, appartments and other assorted buildings, on the way up to the Notre-Dame.
There was a spectacular view from the top of the hill and here I left the Petite Train and walked back down the hill towards the Old Port. I stopped off again for some lunch (a quiche and strawberry tarte) before walking some more around the city and then taking a 1hr boat trip out to the local islands some of the coast and back again.
From there I headed back to the hostel where I met up with Gary (English fella) and Amanda (Australian girl) and headed out for some dinner at one of the local restaurants and then a bottle of wine. We then walked back to the hostel for Amada to get her backs and helped her over to the train station for her train back to Germany.
After that Gary and I went for a couple more beers down by the old port.

Saturday 25th July:
Up mid morning then Gary and I decided to grab a train and go out to Aix-En-Provance which is a nice little quaint town which had a lot of history to it and was nice to walk around in for a few hours, and noticable cooler than Marseille (albeit not that much cooler but cool enough).
It was a nice day out and away from Marseilles and we got to see some of the other regions of France aswell as a few decent buskers plying their trade.
Back into Marseilles in the afternoon and then we met up with a couple of other English people who'd just booked into the hostel. Went out for dinner at the old port (had mussles and fries for dinner) then we went looking for somewhere to dance but stumbled upon the red light district and quickly escaped to find a couple of other places for a drink or two.

Sunday 26th July:
Slept in a bit and only got up around 10. Out for breakfast with Gary, then I headed down to the old port to book passage on a tour boat to see the Calanques from Marseille to Cassis and back.
It was a great way to spend 3 hours especially since I had a prime spot at hte front of the boat for the whole trip along the coast to Cassis and back.
After the trip I headed back to the hostel to relax for a bit before heading out for dinner and then catch my bus back to the airport.
Went out with Gary again, as well as a couple of Aussies who where in Marseille for a day or two. Finally found a place to eat dinner (pizza again) and then as it was getting to about 8.45 I remember I had to go and grab my bus so I ate, said a quick good bye, paid and ran up to the train/bus station to book the bus and get to the airport - unfortuantely I just missed one bus and so had to wait just under 20 minutes for the next bus to the airport.
Luckily for me the bus only left 5 minutes late but only took 20 minutes to get to the airport so I arrived 10 minutes before the gates closed - the closest plane catch for me.
The plane ride was uneventful and arrived on time as usual for RyanAir (even though it left late) which is annoying because if they are on time you get the dodgy 'Congratulations' music and speach - sooo annoying.
Anyway just caught the second to last bus home (otherwise would have been on the train) and walked through the city at midnight to get home by just before 12.30.
Off to bed and that was the end of my nice relaxing and heat filled weekend in France (which felt like a holiday from the time I stepped out of the Marseilles bus/train station to when I left).

Monday 27th July:
Back to work today (and unfortunately up at the usual time which meant I didn't get a huge amount of sleep because of my late arrival.
Not much to say about work, jus the usual day there, then food shopping as Asda on the way home (won't bother going there much as it's about the same price as Tesco except for a few items).

A Week of rain and Weekend in London

2009-07-15T18:50:00.010+01:00

Tuesday 14th July:
More work, and still trying to figure out this stupid DB in Access, occasionally get a small win, but still can get any of it to some together and work well for me. Oh well the lovely frustrations of coding - potentially the reason while I never went on with it after studying it at uni!
Got home then went off to see Bruno - the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. Please I implore you do NOT spend your money on the movie, wait for it to hit either the weekly movie shelf or come to TV. The beginning held a lot of promise, but it fell away after that and became so disjointed it was painful to watch, there were parts in there that were funny, but overall it was a long 1hr 22min, and I'm glad that's all it went for. I thought firstly that it was a short film, and there's a reason for it being one.

Wednesday 15th July:
More work and frustration on the DB.
Got a bit of a lift this morning from the Quote of the day on the BBC website:

"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself." J KRISHNAMURTI You Are The World

Quite fitting really when you think about it. If you don't go out to achieve it, it won't come to you basically.
Well that is pretty much it for the day, nothing overly exciting happened.

Thursday 16th July:
More work, and our monthly team meeting - oh they are great and glorious times.
Nothing much happened at work nor on the way home - albeit they were filming something at the Bullring today - don't know what, and really not to fused about it either.
On a different note it was Soccer/football night again tonight - got a couple of goals in as well which was nice.
For an interesting article that I was reading today about the abandoned tube stations see here.

Friday 17th July:
Well another day at work, although the day started off well with the news that Hanna Erika - my new Niece was born in the morning - great way to start the day off.
From there work was the usual, although really didn't want to be there at all today, and then I started to get annoyed with the Cricket and Australia perchant for letting a game which they should easily draw because of rain, semi go down the drain because they play stupid stupid shots - AAARRrggghhhh. But these are the things of cricket.
For dinner I went out to a new restaurant that has recently opened up near me - the Flaming Dragon. Not too bad a place although since it is currently in pre-official opening I gave a bit of criticism on how they could improve.
Now all I am waiting for is Saturday and my weekend in London.

Saturday 18th July:
Slept in this morning - got up just after 10ish, then mum and dad called, so I ended up chatting with them for a while before leaving to catch the train into London.
Got to London and found the hostel I was staying at - Clink - not a bad place, a little out of the way but not that far out.
Once I got my bed setup and organised I got my stuff together and headed towards the Palace theatre where I was going to see the Priscilla musical. Stop ed a pub next to the theatre to grab a pint and then dinner aswell while I waited for the box office to open up and me to grab my ticket that was waiting for me there.
Anyway got into the theatre to find that I was 3 rows from the back and right on the end of the row next to the wall - I came all the way from Birmingham to get almost the worst seat in the house - not really what I was expecting.
Anyway I was hoping to be able to move as there seems to be a lot of spare seats and I was hoping that there would still be at the start of the show. Unfortunately it was packed out and I had to end up watching the show from my seat - one advantage of the seat was that I could stand up next to the wall and get a better view of it.
Anyway I digress, the show was brilliant and highly entertaining, although unfortunately Jason Donovan wasn't in it and was obviously having a day off - he is suppose to play the leading character.

After the show I made my way back to the hostel where they have a pub on the lower level - the hostel is housed in an old court house building. I was eventually able to grab a couple of beers from the bar and sat down to drink them. Nearing the end of my second beer a single girl rocked up and so we got chatting. She was from Brasil but living and studying in Lisbon, Portugal.

Sunday 19th July:
Slept really badly during the night and constantly woke up, I was kinda sleeping in an odd position without much help from the bedding or the smallish bed, as well as the room being fairly warm aswell - not a great combination.
Anyway eventually got up in the morning, had a shower and breakfast then checked out. Met up with Mariana (Brasilian girl from the previous night), and we were going to go and join up with the free London walking tour, unfortunately it started to heaving pour down with rain and so we decided not to join up with the tour, instead I caught the train back to Marylebone to catch the train back to Birmingham, and Mariana decided to go and see a couple of museums.
Back in Birmingham it ws raining again on my walk from the train station home, where I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and doing nothing as I felt like doing, as well as getting some hope up that Australia may yet still win this current test, or at least give England a run fr their money.

Monday 20th July:
Another day at work like every other day except for the fact that it was the final day and Lords and with Australia in a semi decent position to potentially make history and win the 2nd Ashes test on a record chash, and honestly had Haddin and Clarke or Johnson still been there at lunch with just having lost one wicket in the morning it would have almost certainly been an Aussie win, unfortunately they didn't win, but these things happen and they ultimately lost the test in the first innings when they gave their wickets away on mostly hook shots.
Beyond that it was a very normal day and ending to the day as well.

Tuesday 7th July - Monday 13th July

2009-07-07T20:12:00.006+01:00

Tuesday 7th July:
At work today I have been fiddling around with my new DB that I am developing. The first task was to get what I had done in excel - the initial workings that allowed me to see the correct result in a format and program I know how to use - imported and the excel formulas correctly coded into access.
Had a bit of a weird experience today at work where my vision went a bit cloudy for about 45 minutes or so. It eventually cleared up but had a headache develop around an hour later.
Went to the optometrists to see if they had any clues, and they subsequently booked me in for an check up on Wednesday.

Tonight I have decided to go and see the movie Year One - I love living near the cinema (5 min walk down the street)and even more so cheap arse Tuesday.

Wednesday 8th July:
Well I finally got the Access DB up and running and now fiddling around with the reports section trying to get that to work. So far it's not doing what I want it to do and I have a few minor issues in regards to the incorrect date order etc, but I'm determined to sort those out and try figure out how to get around it. The Internet is getting a good workout by me looking up how to do different things with Access.
Had my appointment with the optometrists tonight and did the usual eye exams as well as getting a digital photo taken of the back of both of my eyes which is kinda weird.
Anyway the most likely reason for my vision issue on Tuesday was suggested to be a migraine/the onset of one anyway - classic symptom apparently.
Anyway got told I needed an upgrade to my lenses which wasn't a massive surprise to me, but will have to wait a month or so until I have a bit more loose cash in the bank. Holiday booking is currently trying up my credit card a bit too much at the moment. But at least this will mean the next little while or the major bits at least are booked and paid for.
Ashes start today!!!

Thursday 9th July:
Work - finally got the date issue sorted out, had to produce a new field in the main query to reference and sort the month properly which then had to be referenced in the report to sort the date order correctly.
Next major issue is organising the report so that you can have it come back with a selection of line items instead of them all.
Continuation of the first Test - I'm watching it via the cricinfo website - meaning I'd doing a bit of reading as well as watching the score increase.
My old neightbour goes out on Thursday's and plays indoor soccer and before I left my last place invited me out to play.
Today was my first week and game, and while it's extremely fast paced, I will be going back again to play - always prefered to play soccer/football than watch it.
Booked myself a weekender in London for the 18th-91th July. Going to see Priscilla - Queen of the Desert with Jason Donovan in.

Friday 10th July:
Not much to say about today really.
Work was work, although my current chanllenge at work with me for and report that I am try to produce and get to work is causing a few headaches. Off to get a VBA/Access book for some light weekend study to get my head back into gear for what I use to study 8 years ago.
On the way home I got to catch a RedBull moto-cross display in the city centre - saw them setting it up in the morning, and I guess was just lucky as they were just about to start it as I got of the bus and was walking past it. Pretty cool I have to tell you, and yes I got some photo's and video of it on my phone which I will upload at some stage.
Anyway the Ashes continue which is nice and hopefully I'll be able to watch a bit of them tomorrow (Saturday) and it doesn't rain all day long.
Dined out tonight, just downstiars at one of the pub's which operate just outside my window and I can look into whenever I look out my window. Wasn't bad, but usual uality and quantity I've come to expect from a Weatherspoons chain pub, over all cheap and decent enought for dinner. That's been pretty much it for the day.
Booked myself another weekend away for the August long weekend. Off to Dussledorf/or near by for a few days. Cheap flight, just have to organise accomodation and how to get from the airport to Dussledoft 89km away when the train only come's once and hour and bus stops just after I am suppose to arrive. Oh well can organise that closer to the time.

Saturday 11th July:
Saturday the bastion of the 9-5'er. Well that's what it still feels like after 4 weeks at work, and yes I have been there a month already - kinda gone quickly in some senses and slow in others.
Not much to say about Saturday other than watched a bit of Cricket and that was pretty much it for the day.

Sunday 12th July:
Again not a lot to tell other than the fact that I did a bit of food shopping mid afternoon after sitting down to watch the first session of the final day of the 1st test. Watched the second session in the afternoon and then went home to listen to it on the net, mightily glad I did, as I would have been hammering the Aussies had I bothered to stay at the pub to watch it - on a side note I want to say Congrats to Mark Webber for his first GP win - not that he'll ever read this, but at lease I got to see some of the race inbetween watch the cricket aswell.

Monday 13th July:
Another fairly unproductive day at work, still trying to figure this stupid annoying DB out that I am doing. To top it all off the day started on a bad not with me remembering at the last minute before the bus arrived that I needed a new bus pass - so off I quickly walked to get a new monthly pass - luckily for me the bus is uaually late to my stop and it kept up the records today.
Beyond that the aircon at work decided to hack it in again, but at least the aircon guys are out now trying to get it to work, but it means another couple of days of 25-30 odd degree heat in the office with very little air movement, and we are not allowed to open the windows very wide in case we damage the blinds (which are obviously more important than workers health and welfare).
Now on a lighter note I read today about how the days of the week were created and the 7 day week aswell.

The Beginning, the Middle and the End

2009-07-05T01:10:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 30th June:
As expected the day was a day at work, and my first month end with Lloyds TSB Autolease (from here on known as either autolease or my/the job). Nothing overly exciting but you never know I may just stay here for the next 6 months to finish my legally allowable working time in England rather than heading up to Edinburgh as first planned, but we will wait and see. Also went to see the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen tonight.

Wednesday 1st July:
Work, and the start of the month end and learning what I will have to do in the future for a few months - also ended up chatting to Greg over Skype which was really good, as it's been a while since that has happened.

Thursday 2nd July:
Work, and the first of a couple of meeting that I am going to this week and month end to understand and get an idea of what people do and the job is about a bit more - trust me it's not that interesting and not an avenue that I will be aiming to follow when I leave the contact, but I should at least learn something here. In the evening I had an unexpected late evening Skype call from mum and dad which was nice.

Friday 3rd July:
Started like every other day of mainly just work, and again the second of the two meeting for me for this month end, which luckily I have not had to contribute anthing to.
However that is where normality of the day ended, as when I got home after a long day at work and a long week as such I arrived at my front door to find an Abandonment notice on it and the locks changed. The wholely unfortunately thing about it was that while it said to contact the local key holder, they didn't give any detail as to who this mysterious person was. Further to the matter when I tried to get in contact with the company/agency on the notice there was no one there to answer the call and no out-of-hors phone number provided.
The further frustrating and annoying thing was that I was also unable to get in contact with my new landlord to try and either a. find out what was going on, or b. get it sorted and get into my appartment. Needless to say I was not going to have a great night after that. About 5 mins after I got home to find this unfortunately turn of events, my new housemate also arrived home to find this and understandable was also a little lost about the whole situation.
In the end I gave a couple of friends a call and ended up around at one of their places for the night where they kindly loaned me their couch to sleep on. Having said this we at least got to met the guy who lives directly opposite us who then gave me a lift to Shaun's (friend I use to work with) place - only about a 5 min drive away that took about 10 because we got lost trying to find the place.
Evening spent with Shaun and his girlfried was good as we watched the West Indies v Indian one-dayer.

Saturday 4th July:
Today started terribly, as again I was unable to get hold of either my landlord or the company that arranged for my locks to be changed. As a result I missed my bus going down to Bristol for the day (which I was looking forward to) - as I really needed to get the lock and door sorted. Due to not being able to get in contact with anyone and my battery dying very quickly (5% battery life by the time I left Shaun's) I decided to instead head into the city and visit flight centre to look at trying to find flights for my trip to Morroco that I have been planning for the last 1 1/2 weeks or so.
Anyway after about an hour or so with the nice lovely travel agent at flight centre uk (Bull Ring, Birmingham branch), I left having planned and booked and partially paid for my 5 day trek/tour with onthegotours - Camel-souks-kasbahs (with a 20 pound discount, my flights - flying with Royal Air Maroc and a yearly short-trips travel insurance policy to cover it all and future trips.
Depart:
Saturday 26 September - AT9815 - depart Gatwick 1950, arrive Tangier 2140 - (all airport transfer included)
Return:
Saturday 10 October - AT9814 - depart Tangier 1510, arrive Gatwick 1900
While I was at flight centre my landlord called me to find out what was going on and had happened, of which I thus had to explain what had happened. Initially I was going to have to organise for a locksmiths to come and change the lock, however it was decided that he would make his way over and get it sorted.
So by mid-afternoon and my holiday planning and booking therapy I was eventually able to get back into my apartment. Needless to say my front door lock and now been changed twice in 2 days (so 3 different keys and locks in 2 days have been fitted to my door).
I spent the rest of the day catching up on my emails, and usually web happenings as well as having a shower and cooking my marinated lamb steaks that I was going to have on Friday to much delight, and then in the evening knowing it was a clubbing night for Broad Street, up late writing this and playing a couple of free poker tourny's online before heading to bed later once the clubbing has finished for the night - 2am at the moment.

Sunday 5th July:
Church in the morning, followed by a hair cut which meant me sitting there for about 1.5hrs and in the chair for 1/2 hr.
I followed this by shopping at Next for 3 new shirts, 3 ties and a new pair of pants for work.

Monday 6th July:
Work, and a bit of free poker practice online. Nothing overly exciting happened at work, but I have started to build the main database for the main project I was given at work to accomplish that has to be mostly finished by the end of the month (fairly doable really). Looks like that DB training that I did at Uni may come in handy although it has been 8 years since I last properly touched a DB and did work on it - including writing formulas/code.

Busy week and a move

2009-06-29T18:47:00.002+01:00

Saturday 20th June:
Nothing overly interesting other than having to figure out where I want to live. Was at the hostel doing the usual upload of picture and download of programs, while searching the flatmate ads online to see whats available.

Sunday 21st June:
Decided to go with the place in the city - if I could get it that was. Obviously having now moved in I did get it.

Monday 22nd June:
Another day at work, and more tireness coming my way, but a bit on the upside I met with my new landlord in the city to hand over a 50 pound deposit on the place to secure it.

Tuesday 23rd June:
Another day at work, and another day about htinking of packing my stuff up.

Wednesday 24th June:
Another day at work, and did actually get of my arse to start packing my stuff up for my move.

Thursday 25th June:
Work, and had another meeting with Jay today when I got home, only because the real estate agent was bring some propectives around to see the place.

Friday 26th June:
Work and it decided to rain a crap load on my way home from Big Johns (fast food join). Finished most of my packing, and then started to clean the house top to bottom, waitng for Jay to come over and help - which she did eventually to help out with the kitchen and living room areas. After a couple of hours of good cleaning, Jay and Jason left me to finish up with the sweeping and mopping of the floors - of which I put off for a bit to go down stair to my ground floor neighbours (this second set were a nice couple I got along well with). Handed over some spare eggs and wrapping paper I wasn't taking with me, and we got chatting for a while. Eventually left to go back up stair and do the sweeping and mopping.

Saturday 27th June:
Final morning in the flat - last little bit of packing and cleaning (the fridge). Jay eventually came over to help me move my stuff into a taxi and over to my new appartment in the city. It was a good move in all with everything more or less running smoothly.
Met my new room mate late in the evening - he's an Indian fella (probably late 30's early 40's) doing an MBA and on top of that is a Hari Krishna - of all things - overall a decent fella though. Best thing of all he doesn't get up during the week until after 8 which means I get to have the shower and do everything else I need to do in the morning and leave before he even gets up in the morning.

Sunday 28th June:
Went to church this morning for a bit, before leaving early as I had a lot of shopping to do - food and a few other things that I needed that didn't coming with the appartment that I thought were coming with it. Oh well these things happen.

Monday 29th June:
Lead up to end of month at work today and tomorrow (Tuesday) - should be interesting being my first one in the job - not really sure of what is expected of my with it all or what I am suppose to do in regards to it all. Guess I'll find out soon enough. As I am writing this it has just stopped pouring down with rain outside - it's been a very warm and humid day today and suppose to be the same for most of the week - unfortuantely the airconditioning system at work is broken and as such it is actually cooler outside than it is inside - luckily we had some windows opened for us today - not that it helped that much as they aren't allow to be opened too far in case the place cools down too much and the heating comes on - oh that and because the blinds might break.
Luckily for me I sit next to a window and could feel the occasional cool breeze coming in though the slit of the opened window.
The guys are suppose to be coming on Wednesday to fix the system - so here hoping that they do just that.

Last part of Ireland and then Birmingham

2009-06-20T13:37:00.000+01:00

Saturday 6th June
We left Galway at the usual time, but as we were unsure where Joe was meeting us, went outside and we about to head up to the square, when low and behold Joe rocks up in the bus on the other side of the street.
Back at the bus we headed off again and drove through the Burren Landscape (similar to the landscape of the moon (apparently – personally I didn’t really see it as it was pretty rocky).
After a few photo op’s of the burren landscape we drove to and stopped at the Corcomroe Abbey. This was then followed by a stop by a holy well where we all thought a penny/cent into the well and made a wish, one of us was the photo girl for another tour group who drove slowly by to take pictures instead of getting out to take them. And then we stopped at some more small cliffs before the Cliffs of Moher.
We get on for another long day of stops all over the place. Our main stop was at the cliffs of Moher, which were spectacular. There is a section of the track which a huge signs warns not to go beyond, but you get some of the best views from the other side and get to be right up to the edge of the cliffs. A number of us went past it to join all the others on the other side to view the cliffs and get close to the edge – luckily no-one fell over the edge but it was quite windy and towards the end of our time there it began to rain quite heavily.
At the end of the day we stopped in Cork where it was raining, 5 of us went out and bought some food at a local shop and cooked in for the night (it was raining all night long so we didn’t end up seeing much of the city except for what we drove through). Towards the end of the night Renee got a new nickname of Drunken Girl by an Irish girl – even thought Renee wasn’t drunk, but a different girl was.

Sunday 7th June
Our first stop was at Charles fort and then an hour stop at Kinsale for a rest period and to see the city/town. Towards the end of our time there I joined in on a town guide for a 10 minute listen into on the history of the town.
Our next stop for the day – two hour stop – was at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Most of us kissed the stone, and while there were a number of people in front of us and we thought it’d take a while to get there to kiss it, most of the people in front of us didn’t kiss the stone.
Some of us ended our time in Blarney with lunch at one of the local restaurants/pubs.
From there we ended our day in Killarney where there had been a local Gaelic Football match on between Cork and Killarney, as such there was a huge amount of traffic and we went straight to the hostel instead of a drive around the town.
From there I went for a walk around the town trying to see what was open other than the pubs – pretty much nothing except for a few clothing stores and Dunnes department store.
We all went to dinner with Joe to his recommendation followed by a night drinking at his recommended bar. There were some local Irish music playing after we arrived. After a few hours after Joy and Betty had left us, Joy came back to say there was another pub down New Street where they were playing, singing and dancing together. We all walked down there to find us coming in midway through the final song and being the youngest people in there, as the average age in the pub was about 50.
We subsequently left the place and found a club further back in the centre of town – a couple of streets away.
We eventually left there about 12.30am leaving Inya, Vjeran, Ryan and Julie to enjoy the loud music and drunken Irish.

Monday 8th June
We got to have a sleep in this morning as 5 of the group decided to do the Jaunting Carts optional ride. As such we didn’t have to leave the town until 10am.
Our first stop was atop the hill over looking Killarney for a few photo’s.
Our second stop for the day was in Killorglin at the statue of King Puck, the last unofficial High King of Ireland. King Punk as it turns out is a goat. The quote goes “Kings may come and Kings may go, but King Puck goes on forever”.
Why is King Puck a goat? Well for hundreds of years, a male mountain goat has been enthroned as King of Puck Fair in Killorglin town. The Puck Goat reigns over the fair held on August 10th, 11th and 12th of each year. King Puck is a symbol of a vast tradition whose origins are lost in the mists of time. As such because the Irish didn’t want to elect a new high king after the last one died they created King Puck to rule over the Irish instead. Damn the Irish are weird.
We stopped along the coastline for a few photo op’s as always. The next stop was at the Old Barracks in Cahersiveen as well as a photo op of the Monks sculpture.
Our next stop was in Waterville where Charlie Chaplin use to visit regularly and stay in a white house down near the ocean and beach.
For lunch we stopped close by at Sneem where we enjoyed a nice lunch and beer. We followed on with a stop at the Ladies view point, and then the Torc waterfall, back through Killarney onto Inch Beach were we stopped for a dip of the feet into the Indian Ocean.
Following this we arrived at our final stop and were we were due to spend the night in Anascaul at the Randy Leprechaun.

There isn’t much in Anascaul except for the Paddy’s Palace backpackers, a few B&B’s and then some houses. The shop contained expensive food and so it was a night of eating at the pub of Paddy’s Palace. During the night we got to do some karaoke. Ryan, Charlotte and myself started of our group with Bohemian Rhapsody, then Charlotte and I sang I’m a Believe. We got to listen to some good singers and some shockers, luckily we were all roughly in the middle of it all.
We weren’t the only tour group there as there was another 6 day all Ireland tour who happened to be there the same night as us, which was good as it wouldn’t have been such a good night with out them.
As it turns out I ended up chatting with an Aussie chick who had spend a year over in Europe studying law, and was of Sri Lankan descent. (Unfortunately I didn’t end up getting her contact details that night or the next in Killarney either – slacker that I am).

Tuesday 9th June
Today we started at 8.30 to do the Slea Head coast road ring. We stopped a few times along the road for a few photo op’s. The first one was along the road at the new stone building for the Stonehouse Restaurant, opposite of which was an old stone fort – didn’t go down to see it as it cost money. At the stonehouse there was a donkey which started to bray for a while just as I rocked up (about 1 second before hand another donkey further away had brayed – which I don’t think anyone else heard). After this we stopped at some ancient Beehive huts which were used for the monks who were waiting to be transported to the monastery located on one of the nearby islands.
Next Joe dropped us off at the next point along the way and got us to walk along the road to where he had just driven down too – just a long smoko for Joe really, but a really nice walk and wonderful views from the cliff road. After this we stopped a little bit further down the road to take a photo of the sleeping giant – island that looks like a giant lying down – near where we stopped there was also a very small narrow road that was used in an Irish greeting card saying an Irish Roadjam with a lot of sheep.
This was then followed by a 2.5 hr lunch break at Dingle – a Gaelic speaking fishing village – the 2.5 hrs was a bit too long in this village as it wasn’t very large and we ended up leaving early because we were all back at the bus with about 5-10 minutes spare – it was also raining quite heavily at the end of our time there.
We made our way back to Killarney for our final night together on the tour. We got back fairly early (about 4.30pm) so we spend a bit of time just doing nothing – I recharged my phone. We all went out to dinner for the final night to the same place as before, before heading to the same pub as before (the Grand) for some live Irish music and another live cover band after that. We left there at just before 2am and headed back to the hostel for the night.

Wednesday 10th June
Early start for us this morning – having to drive a fair distance from Killarney back to Dublin. Our first stop after the usual petrol halt, was in a little town called Adare – there isn’t much in the town, although apparently there was a reasonable amount of stuff to do near the town, and as such could just the town as a base to explore the region. Anyway all that was basically there were some thatched-roof houses and a church, and as I was fairly tired having had little sleep the night before, I wandered around for a bit before heading back to the bus and sitting outside it until our time in the town was up.
We then followed this by a drive to and stop at the ruins of Dunamase – or the Strongbow Castle as it was owned at some point in time by Lord Strongbow – yes someone had been kind enough to leave an empty strongbow can in the grass.
We had a few photo op’s in the ruin before heading off again for our next to last stop at the Midway food court (somewhere in the Irish countryside) where we stopped for an hour for lunch.
Our final stop in the day was back in Dublin at the Guinness Factory, as we only had 2 hours there myself and Mel (who wasn’t that fused about the place) made our way topside to get our free pint Guinness – since I had done the pulling of the pint on my first visit to the factory, I let Mel pull a pint and got some photo’s of here doing it for her. Luckily for me she is Mormon and so doesn’t drink, and so I got to have her pint. We caught Adian and Charlotte up there aswell before heading to the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor for a view of the city and my second pint. By this time we were rushing it a little bit and so I only had about ½ hr to drink the pint and get back to the bus – which we did eventually.
The off we were again to our final destinations of our respective sleeping abodes. As mine was different to everyone else’s I agreed to meet them back at the Paddy’s Palace where they were all staying and head out for the night from there. We ended up at Super Macs for dinner (Irish version of Macca’s), before heading off to the Arlington Hotel for a few drinks and to listen to some Irish music and see some Irish Dancing for free. The night ended fairly early and I got to bed at the hostel very early.

Thursday 11th June
Woke up after a good nights rest, and went down for breakfast. Met a girl from America and we got chatting and as I was planning on going to the Jameson’s Whiskey Distillery, she asked if she could tag along and I had no issues with that so off we went after eating. We got there just after another tour had started and were able to join on to that one. The tour guide was really exciting and clearly loved his job (said is a sarcastic tone of voice). He seemed a little bored and unsure even though it turns out he does the guiding quite regularly.
The added advantage was that they do some whiskey tasting at the end of the tour but only 8 people can do them (luckily for us there were only 8 of us so we all got to do it). 3 shot’s of different whiskey and 1 glass of Whiskey later off we were again, although not until after we got talking to an America couple who were also doing the tour. Interesting conversations followed needless to say of which most I don’t remember. We parted ways, I went on for a walk out to Croke Park Stadium and my lovely companion went her separate way as well.
That was pretty much it for the day as I eventually got back to the hostel and lazed around for the rest of the day before a cheap in house cooked meal and again an early night.

Friday 12th June
Work up late but in time for breakfast. Decided to do an independent tour out of the city and went to Howth which is a small fishing village just 30 min’s train ride from Dublin city centre. Nice little place, but quite a windy and cold day and again feeling quiet tired so walked around for a bit, had some fresh fish and chips for lunch then headed back to the hostel for another lazy afternoon on the couch.
Even though it was my last night in Dublin I was still so tired that I ended up in bed early again – unfortunately we had an Italian couple staying in the room who were quiet noisy when there arrived back late in the night after their night on the town.

Saturday 13th June
Stayed in the hostel for most of the day as I couldn’t be bothered doing much in Dublin for my final day there. As my flight was at 9.35pm it was a bit of a long day, but relaxing. I eventually made my way out of the hostel around 5pm to grad some dinner at SuperMac’s and then catch the airport bus. I got chatting to a couple of young girls on the bus (one Scottish the other American) who had met while doing a YWAM course in Brisbane the year previously.
Caught the flight back to Birmignham, quite uneventful, and train back from the airport to the city then taxi home. Unfortuately I had left some clothes for Jay to wash for me while I was away and these unfortunately weren’t done so I spent my first couple of hours back in Birmingham late at night doing some washing so that I could have some clean clothes for the next few days. Oh well these things happen.

Sunday 14th June
Woke early and headed out for some food shopping, and that was pretty much it for the day.

Monday 15th June
Had to head into the Reed offices to provide a bit more info for my new job that was suppose to be starting on Tuesday but was then later delayed to starting on Wednesday instead. Headed to the hostel afterwards to upload some photo’s. The most annoying thing was that I got a call from Edinburgh saying that HBOS has requested an interview and I had to turn it down because I had to job at Lloyds already – damn it when a job comes they all come, but when there’s none there’s absolutely none.

Tuesday 16th June
No work yet, and just another lazy day around the house, although it was a nice day outside so I did enjoy a bit of the sunshine while I could. Got told that I would be starting my new job on Wednesday.
Also now looking for somewhere else to live and so view 3 different places in the evening. 1 was fairly decent the others were a bit iffy in regards to the surrounding houses.

Wednesday 17th June
Started my new job at 10am, and it’s not much of a job, although it is a different position to the one I was told it was going to be, but that’s ok as it is the more interesting of the 3 potential roles that I was going for. Finished the day very down and out, bored and emotional about taking the wrong job and wishing I’d kept to my guns and said no and just gone to Edinburgh. But no time for regrets just wishes is all. Saw another 2 places tonight of which bother were a bit iffy in regards to surrounding environments, but great locations, as they would be near the main road I take down to work.

Thursday 18th June
Job was a little better as I had some access to do things that I hadn’t had on Wednesday, still not that wonderful but I’ll survive at the moment.

Friday 19th June
Job again a little better and I should be able to stick at it for at least the initial 3 months that I signed up for. View another apartment tonight aswell. Right in the city centre just of Broad street, was nice and all new, however a little bit on the pricy side of things and at the top limit of what I want to spend. But it was a double room, and there is apparently a single room coming available at the end of the month which I would probably prefer of the lot. Great location, single rooms a lot better priced and more in my price range of things.
Went to the local for a few drinks, and the night ended in an interesting way, but in the end I’m all good and that’s all that matters.

Monday 18th to 5th June

2009-06-15T13:28:00.000+01:00

Monday 18th May
Work

Tuesday 19th May
Work

Wednesday 20th May
Work (got a call about having an interview with Lloyds TSB Autolease).

Thursday 21st May
Work (received another call rearranging the interview time with Lloyds).

Friday 22nd May
Work in the morning and then had to leave early for my interview at Lloyds TSB Autolease. After which I booked my flights to Ireland return.

Saturday 23rd May
Bus to Oxford for the long weekend. Uneventful ride, walked around the town, along the canal/river and enjoyed the sights of people punting and sunbathing. Then in the evening went to see the Jazzchoir of Uni Bonn, really good music and well worth the free entry, shame there weren’t more people there to hear it.

Sunday 24th May
Spent the morning walking around Oxford again, before catching the bus back to Birmingham.

Monday 25th May
Public Holiday Monday, spent at the Hostel uploading pictures and downloading TV programs, also booked my hostel accommodation in Dublin.

Tuesday 26th May
Work

Wednesday 27th May
Work and booked my ticket onto the Paddywagon tour – 10 day all Ireland.

Thursday 28th May
Work

Friday 29th May
Final day at work. Got a call in the morning with the job offer from Lloyds, initially rejected it as the pay was enough to keep me in Birmingham. Went to lunch and then after lunch received another call (about 4 - calls all up in the day) about the job at Lloyds offering my rate I wanted to stay in Birmingham. So I finally got a new job, and didn’t have to worry about money while in Ireland.
Then after accepting the job, I ended up with about 20 odd pages of forms which I had to fill out for the job. Wasn’t able to fill them all in and spent Friday night and Saturday morning finishing the paperwork.

Saturday 30th May
Last minute shopping, shorts from Next, T-shirt’s from Primark, and exchanged some cash to spend while in Ireland. Then onto packing my bag for my 2 week Irish holiday.
Ended the day with a couple of drinks at the pub.

Sunday 31st May
Woke up early for my flight to Dublin, got to the airport early as I had nothing else to do. Flight was uneventful, a little bit of turbulence, but nothing much. My bag was the last bag in the lot when I went to retrieve it after arriving in Dublin. I guess one of the draw backs of getting there early.
Booked into Abigails Hostel (second time I’ve been there) then went for a walk to find Paddy’s Palace so I knew where to go in the morning for my tour pickup.

Monday 1st June
Up early, no breakfast as I had to leave too early to get any, and I had to get to Paddy’s Palace to make sure I got the bus.
Got on the bus and so starts the tour. Our first stop was in Drogheda for a visit to Oliver Plunketts Head (yes a semi-preserved head, which they have never done anything to to keep it that way). Here we had too pick up 3 more people (3 Irish girls). As there were not many seats left they each ended up sitting one behind the other, with one girl sitting next to me. We got chatting though the day. We stopped for lunch in a little town just over the Republic/Northern Ireland border. Forgot that we were doing that and so I need to take some pounds out of the bank in the town.
Onto our first stop Derry (not Belfast as per the itinerary). Went for a guided walk around Derry, been there before so wasn’t to fused with the sights and so no new photo’s there. The highlight of the tour was getting some of the history of Derry and the conflict’s etc that happen there.
Dinner was spent at the Ice Wharf (weatherspoon’s pub) followed by a night out on the town and drinks.

Tuesday 2nd June
Up and on the bus at 9am. Our journey first stopped at a seaside castle which we got to view from the distance for a photo op. This was then followed by our second stop for the day at the Giant’s Causeway, these were very impressive.
Our lunch stop for the day was at Carrick-A-Rede – where the marie-rose sauce (1000 island dressing) was caked onto the prawns of one of our unfortunate Irish girls. Some good jests came out of it though.
We followed this by going to the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, where we had to pay ₤4 to cross it. One of the girls had trouble crossing it as she doesn’t like heights, and so stayed on the wrong side for a while. The view from the other side was just as spectacular as from to Ireland land side. The girl who had trouble getting across eventually joined us on the other side, and a few of us had some photo op’s taken of the group.
On the way back I promised to by a beer for the girl if she got across without and issue which she did, so I was thus down a beer, but was worth the offer.
From there we ended up in Belfast (where we were suppose to have our first night, but there for the second). Oh well whatever happens happens and it’s a holiday so who cares.
Went to dinner with the Irish girls, an Irish guy (Keith) who has lived in Australia for about 12 years and Emily, Keiths friend to the Globe. Ok food but good price for a burger and beer.
This was then followed by a night out at the Egg (shortened name but what it’s known as), where it ended up that they had cheap drinks (3 bottle/shots/pints for ₤5) and a quiz night. We ended up with two teams of paddywagoners competing against each other. Unfortunately the other team won third prize and we missed out. Oh well was a good night anyway.

Wednesday 3rd June
This was the third morning of the tour as such and where we split and parted ways between all the different tour types (up until now the 3 dayers, 6 dayers and 10 dayers were altogether). And this morning we all went in different directions.
In the morning we had a Black Taxi tour of Belfast and a bit more history behind the ‘religious’ divides in Ireland (which are more ethnic than religious as it turns out). It was a great tour of the Catholic walled area and what happens there.
This was finished with a stop at one of the walls to write some messages on it to those who care to read them.
From here we headed back to Derry, where we stopped for lunch (Big Al and I ended up at a place called Sizzler (not the same as the one that was in Australia) and got talking to a guy in the restaurant/café (not sure what his association with the place other than working there was) about the Irish and a few other people.
After lunch we made our was out to a castle/manor in the middle of nowhere, that was next to a big lake (apparently the cleanest in the country due to no pollution going in there).
The place was nice, but just another Castle/Manor. Nearing the end of our time there, and after my walking around the gardens for a while I stumbled upon Melissa (from Utah) and we got chatting.
From there we headed back to Derry for our second night there, and then out to drinks at the Ice Wharf for 5 of us (Al, Noelle, Aidan, Charlotte and me) where we ended up being approached by a drunken but friendly Irish guy.
2 of the other girls ended up back at the pub we spent our first night there in, and as it turned out when we were chatting in the morning met the same guy as us but with a different story to tell.

Ahh good times!!!

Thursday 4th June
Left Derry at 9am to travel towards Cong. We first stopped at a Stone Round Fort of Grianan Ailligh near Derry but just over the border into the Republic. We had about 15-20 minutes there while we explore the roundness of said fort.
We followed this with a stop at Bundoran beach (one of the main Irish surfing beaches – unfortunately there really wasn’t much surf there). The ironic thing at the beach was a sign saying that the beach and water was unsafe for Bathing due to dangerous rocks, currents and soft sand.
Our next stop was for lunch at another beach called Strandhill.
Our first stop directly after lunch was at Creevykeel – on of the finest Court Cairns in Ireland built in the 3rd millennium B.C. and is basically a wedge shaped building containing a burial chamber. There were a few more photo op’s here and as for the last few days was warm and sunny.
After then driving for a bit Joe (our driver) stopped for another 15-20 minute stop (by now we had all pretty much figured that it was just a smoko for Joe and we’d have these fairly often.
Our next stop was at Drumcliffe Monastery founded by St Colmcille in about 574 AD.
Our next stop was at Knock at the Catholic shrine to 3 children/people who claim to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary.
This was our last stop until we got to Cong, visited the local church and abbey ruins then a shop for our breakfast and dinner (a few of us decided to cook in at the hostel due to limited dinner options).
Our hostel was quite a nice place that was quiet and snug, although it was hot due to very little ventilation.

Friday 5th June
This morning we all decided to give Joy and Betty (the older American mother and daughter) the front seat behind Joe. Turned out to be a good thing and was quiet entertaining. Betty had been semi-vocal near the back seat as every bump we went over she’d mutter ‘oh Joe’ because of her surgery she’d had on her back 3 times. As a result this was one of the reasons for allowing her to be in the front seat behind Joe so no-one else had to put up with it.
As we were driving along quite quickly, Joe had to suddenly put his breaks suddenly on to avoid hitting the bus or wall, as a result with Betty asleep and without her seat belt on, she went flying into the back of Joes seat – from then on Joe was known as Crazy Joe to her. She was alright, however as the rest of us had seen it coming, it was no surprise that this would eventually happen. Having said that, Betty wore her seatbelt all the time after that.
After this we arrived out our first destination of the day – Croagh Patrick – one of the 7 holy mountains of the world. We all started up the mountain at different intervals. Kate was well ahead of us early on. Myself, Al and Melissa trailed behind before Big Al (named for being 6”5’) with his big stride took off to try and catch Kate. Behind us came Inya and Vjeran (the Croatian brother and sister), then Charlotte, Aidan and Renee. Then somewhere behind them were Noelle, and Joy and Betty. Joy and Betty never made it past the steps, Noelle we are unsure where she got to, Renee stopped about half way and turned back. Inya and Vjeran wandered off somewhere halfway up (probably onto another route).
Melissa and I kept going slowly loosing Big Al and Kate in the distance, we stopped halfway up for a 5 minute rest before starting on the most difficult and steep part of the climb/hike. We both made it up there in a little under 1.5 hrs, about ½ hr behind Big Al and Kate and about 10-15 minutes before Aidan and Charlotte. We then got a few photo ops, off the whole group who made it up by a couple of German students who came up while we were there.
We all started to descend together, but Big Al with his stride got well ahead of us. We all eventually made it down the mountain to Joe waiting for us (I didn’t stumble on the hard stuff only the easy stuff).
When we got to the bus it was off down the road 100 metres to lunch. From there we stopped at the Acsleigh Falls, down along the Famine walk and black lakes to Galway our stop for the night.
Al and I did a bit of exploring of the city with a few photo’s taken before heading back to the hostel, and going out for dinner and drinks and to enjoy the Volvo Ocean Race festival. It was an interesting night, and at the first pub we went to for dinner and drinks there was another group of Paddywagoners there, a few from Australia – on from Adelaide another from the Yorke Peninsular.

Week Ending 24th May

2009-05-25T11:47:00.003+01:00

Sunday 17th May:
Usual Sunday events, doing the weekly shopping, coming to the hostel to upload pictures (finally up to date with them all) and downloading TV programs.

Monday 18th May:
Work, frustrating work

Tuesday 19th May:
It was only Tuesday and it felt like a long week already, not a good sign.

Wednesday 20th May:
Work, also got an interview with Lloyds TSB Autolease for the Friday for a job.

Thursday 21st May:
Work and got rung about the Lloyds interview which was brought forward by a 1/2 hour. One of the Australian guys working for Carillion is leaving to company soon to head back to Aus, and so we went out for a few drinks after work - I didn't end up staying for dinner as it was going to take me about 1.5 hrs to get home, and I didn't fell like getting home at midnight still needing to iron my shirt for the interview on friday.

Friday 22nd May:
Work, left early to go to my interview which is down near the Birmingham Internation Airport. Wasn't too bad an interview, and all things considered provided the pay rate is right I would take the job in this market. Also booked my flights to and from Ireland for a 2 week holiday. Leave on Sunday 31st May and get back on Saturday 13th June.

Saturday 23rd May:
Got a bus trip to Oxford for the weekend. Great weather to be going there in, sunny and warm. Got to Oxford booked into the hostel and then wanderer the town/city centre and surrounds. Walked along the canal and river, before having a rest at one of the churches where a Jazzchoir from Bonn uni were practicingfor their performance in the evening. I ended up going to it, as it was free and while there weren't that many people there it was a really good evening and display of talent.

Sunday 24th May:
Woke up had breakfast then waited in the common room to book out, as it happened that Jazzchor of Uni Bonn (or at least some of the members) were staying at my hostel. I ended up chatting to a couple of them (3 guys in the choir are from the USA). After the chat I went to a local baptish church where they happened to be guests and so got the chance to hear them again. Followed it by chatting to one of the guys again, then wandered down to the river bank where I sat sunbathing for a bit before heading back to the hostel to get my bag and heading to the bus station to head back to Birmingham.

Monday 25th May:
Another bank holiday, spending it at the hostel uploading the Oxford pictures and downloading a couple of programs. still relatively warm although the day is very overcast. It's going to be a nice relaxing day.

Monday 4th - Saturday 16th May

2009-05-17T11:13:00.000+01:00

Monday 4th May:
Another Bank holiday which gave me a lovely day off which was subsequently spent around at the Hostel uploading photo’s and downloading TV programs. This was followed by a nice quiet evening at home.

Tuesday 5th May:
Unfortunately back to work.

Wednesday 6th May:
More work – the pain of work is if you don’t like it you don’t want to be there even if the people are nice. Hence I struggle at the moment for work.

Thursday 7th May:
More work – also gave notice of our moving out date (the start of a few complicacies! As it is not on the anniversary of our moving in date)

Friday 8th May:
Work – getting ready for the weekend.

Saturday 9th May:
Well I was suppose to be working, and as such got up early, as I also had to go to the post office and retrieve our second house key of which the spare had been found by our landlady. Followed by the train trip out to Wolve’s to find that the building was shut up tight like fort knox. Bit of a wasted early morning. However instead of working I just got back on the train, went home, got my laptop and headed to the Hostel for the usual day. Nothing exciting after that.

Sunday 10th May:
Lovely quiet day at home cleaning the house. Yes cleaning the house on a Sunday, while it was sunny and warm outside. Not the best thing to do on a Sunday, but I at least got to watch the GP. This was however preceded by going into town for a haircut.

Monday 11th May:
Nice quiet day at home away from work. Took 3 days off work because Emma and her cousin Susan were arriving later in the day for the night. First time I had hosted a dinner party at the flat, and all in all it went well.

Tuesday 12th May:
Up early as Emma, Susan and I were getting into their nice rental car and heading off to Brecon for a couple of days. We headed out of the city and made our way to Leominster to follow the Black and White Village trail (Tudor buildings mainly in the villages). We had a great time, and decided to stop at the Big Oak, only to find it really wasn’t that impressive. However we did notice a public walkway that ran through a couple of paddocks, where we decided to stop and enjoy our lunch – only to then find out we were eating in someone’s sheep paddock – the lady owner was very nice about it and we ended up have a nice conversation with her.
From there we headed to Hay-on-Wye, where we stopped for a few photo op’s, Susan loves her photos. We followed this driving to our destination for the night in the B&B Grange Hotel in Brecon. We checked in then after Emma asked the owner where was a good place to go for an hour walk before dinner, we headed off to climb/walk up the local semi-mountain (330 meters at it’s height, which I believe thus justifies it as a mountain). As such we wandered along with me as their GPS unit walking until we found the gravel road leading unmarked up the mountain, we entered the paddock gate of the mountain and made our way up the slope to the top of the mountain where it turnout to be a very windy experience. BTW the day had been very sunny and warm – for English standards, however Emma and Susan were finding it a little chilly. We also discovered that the rental car has a full length sunroof which was a very cool thing.
Anyway back to the mountain, after a number of photo’s we decided to try and make our way down the hill via the other track – not that easy to find so we ended up going through a couple of sheep paddocks until we actually found the proper path. All good fun seeing the sheep and lambs.
We followed this by going to the Three Horseshoes pub for dinner, were we entertained in an eating contest to finish all the mains and veg. Very entertaining to say the least, very hospitable owner operators, and lovely meals.
Then we headed back to the Hotel for the evening.

Wednesday 13th May:
Up in the morning for a very Welsh breakfast, consisting of Eggs and mushrooms (both of which I didn’t have), tomato, toast, sausage, bacon and fried bread. Then we left the Hotel we headed off to the Brecon Beacons and the waterfalls. Enjoyable time with drizzle and my phone ringing about potential jobs and my landlord calling in regards to my letter and us leaving the flat on the 7th. More issues concerning and complicating things. Anyway we eventually visited a number of waterfalls and headed off to a local town to grad some grub and Susan to post a couple of postcards.
We then headed off to the next stop for Emma and Susan at Cheltham Spa, which included going along the main motorway and over the bridge between England and Wales (near Bristol and Cardiff). The girls dropped me off at the train station where I caught the train back to Birmingham – very uneventful train trip.
When I got home I had a shock in store as our water bill had arrived and it showed us as owing ₤456 – and we apparently had used 1.08 cubic meter of water on average per day. This was clearly wrong and when I look at our water meter under the sink it showed on a reading of 445 instead of 614. big difference and meant we owed over ¼ less.

Thursday 14th May:
Work and more work. Had to ring around a few people during my lunch break. Started at calling the water company to get the water bill change which went quite successfully. This was followed by calling the electricity company to pay my electricity bill. This was then followed by calling the Real Estate agents to sort out my rental issue, however that didn’t go so well as I think the agents is a bit absent minded (as I rang Steph a call later in the night and she said she’d called him and he was suppose to call her today as well after talking to me). Then I rang and was on hold with the council to pay my council tax bill.

Friday 15th May:
Work – where I gave notice that I was finishing up at the end of the month, followed by a train trip to London to met up with Jenny and Jamie for dinner and night in London at a hostel. Unfortunately my train took longer that I was expecting and kept getting later and later, so Jenny and I ended up arranging to met for brunch/lunch on Saturday instead of dinner.
As such I booked into the Hostel, then went for a walk along Queensway to get dinner at Saki Japanese restaurant. Then went for a walk, had a waffle with Belgium chocolate for dessert then went for a walk along the outside of Hyde Park. Then went back to the hostel where I got chatting to an Italian girl over for a few days in London on holiday. We went for a beer and a chat then went back to the hostel for bed time – 12 people in a tinny room does not bode well, although it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday 16th May:
Work up early at the hostel due to the noise from some of the other people who were staying there. Got up for breakfast which was cereal and toast. From there I booked out and decided to walk along Hyde Park to Piccadilly Circus, then down to the Millennium Bridge to met Jamie and Jenny for brunch at a local restaurant that Jamie had been to a few times, was really nice meal and dessert had.
From there we walked along the north bank toward the Victoria Theatre for Jamie and Jenny’s date at the stage show of Billy Elliott. From there I left them and made my way to Victoria Station to catch the Tube back to Marylebone station to catch my train back to Birmingham. Got back to Birmingham without any issue then walked home before going to Morrisons for my weekly shopping.

Week's Ending 26th April & 3rd May

2009-04-25T13:36:00.004+01:00

Monday 20th April:
The start of an eventfully week. Started with working during the day, then in the evening as I was getting my lunch ready for the next day I sliced part of the top off my finger. This ended up resulting in me catching a taxi to the hospital because it wouldn't stop bleeding after an hour or so. Got berrated at the hospital by the nurse for not being registered with a doctor over here in the UK.

Tuesday 21st April:
Work

Wednesday 22nd April:
Work, followed by a trip to the NHS walk-in centre to get the dressing on my finger changed and my finger looked at - Doctor was ok, althought a little abrupt - probably because I rocked up after they had closed the reception, but she still squeezed me in to get the finger looked at and dressing changed - she also partially berrated me for not having a doctor in the UK.

Thursday 23rd April:
Work

Friday 24th April:
Work, then followed be another trip to the NHS walk-in to get the dressing changed again and finger looked at - much niced doctor this time. Also had a call from the agent who put me forward for the role with BAE up in Scotland with the bad news that I didn't get through but no-one else did either as the manager now has rehashed the requirement specs and want's someone with a prior practice background/experience. Followed that by a night spent at the local and a call with my mum and dad.

Saturday 25th April:
Usual Saturday thing, went food shopping followed by a day spent at the hostel uploading photo's and downloading programs.

Sunday 26th April:
Off to the supermarket to get my weekly shopping done, this was followed by a trip into the city to get my finger checked for the second to last time and a quick bit of small shopping. Then got home and watch the F1 race.
When I was coming home there were a bunch of cops near my flat. As I went down to feed the ducks there were 3 of them at the canal, stopping people from going in one direction. Got to talking to them for a bit before heading off in the opposite direction to feed the ducks. Went down later again to feed the ducks the last of the bread and ended up chatting to another cop down there for about 15-20 mintues (as always they were unable to tell me what was happening) found out later on the Birmingham news site that there was a guy (who had apparently been kidnapped) then bound and had canister strapped to his body - so alleged bomb threat - and this was all happening withinabout 500-600 meters of my house. Excitement for the week for that one.

Monday 27th April:
Work

Tuesday 28th April:
Work

Wednesday 29th April:
Work and final trip to the doctors about my finger - it's getting better just raw skin at the moment.

Thursday 30th April:
Work

Friday 1st May:
Work and more work.

Saturday 2nd May:
Took the day out to Shrewsbury - nice little quaint town where Darwin was born. Not a bad little town surrounded by water - althought it must be the hangout place for Emo's and Goth's because there were a lot of them just milling around in the city centre.
When I was catching the train back to Birmingham I ended up picking the wrong train and ended up going in the wrok direction to Gobowen, where I had to get off and catch the train going back the other way to Shrewsbury. Saturday night was quiet.

Sunday 3rd May:
Went to Chruch then bought a new book on the way home. From there I went up to Morrisons to do a weekly shop and then followed by a quick feed of the ducks (they weren't very hungry). The afternoon afterwards was very quiet which was nice.

Week Ending 19th April

2009-04-25T13:28:00.002+01:00

Monday 13th April:
Last day in Dublin, work up at the Hostel after a quiet night the night before. Caught the bus back to Dublin airport and then flew out back to Birmingham. Got back to Birmingham where I got home then had to go out and do food shopping for the week ahead, had another chat to my new downstairs neightbour's who moved in over the weekend (have yet to see them again though).

Tuesday 14th April:
Back at work.

Wednesday 15th April:
Work

Thursday 16th April:
Work

Friday 17th April:
Work, followed by a few drinks at the local before heading home and resting for the night.

Saturday 18th April:
Food shopping followed by the usual day spent at the Hostel uploading photo's and downloading programs. Also got to speak to my mum and dad and sis over Skype which was nice.

Sunday 19th April:
Watched the Chinese F1 GP in the morniong, then finally got back to church in the morning, followed by an afternoon spent at home relaxing.

Week Ending 13th April

2009-04-13T19:46:00.002+01:00

Monday 6th April:
Work

Tuesday 7th April:
Work

Wednesday 8th April:
Work

Thursday 9th April:
Work

Friday 10th April:
Easter Frideay - went to the hostel to download TV programs and upload photos. Including talking to Mum and Dad and Vanessa which was nice.
Followed that by heading home to clean the house before going away for the weekend to Dublin.

Saturday 11th April:
Up at 5am to catch my flight Dublin for the weekend. Flight to Dublin was very uneventful, landed on time and made my way to the hostel where I left my bag for the day.
From there I walked out onto O'Connell Street to catch the Dublin Tour bus where I got to be classes as a student. Jumped on the bus and allowed it to take me around the city. Got off at the 2 Cathedrals and paid and went inside the St Pat's Cathedral as well as walking the St. Pat's gardens.
Followed by a nice sit in the park followed by a stroll along the Liffey back to the Hostel to book in.
Met a Canadian fella got chatting as well as some French guys and an American girl. Went to a local pub to have some Irish Stew and Guinness.
At night went out with a group of Italian, French and Americans to a couple of local clubs and bars in the Temple Bar district. Ended up back at a bar near the hostel where a guy was playing an live acoustic covers set - lotsa fun, but expensive beer.

Sunday 12th April:
Woke up to a bathroom that was semi flooded by someone in the room.
Then after breakfast went for a walk along the Liffey to the Guinness factory.
Near the top of the Guinness storehouse I got to do a pull oyour own pint. Met 3 Malayasia girls who were pulling at the same time as me. While sitting down 4 seat near me become free where the Malayasia girls sat into, we got talking and as it turned out, one of the girls brother works as an Accountant in Adelaide and the 3 of them are studying in Birmingham.
Anyway as they were getting up to leave 1 of them had only had about 2 sips from here Guinness so I took it from here and finished it - so in the end instead of the standard 1 pint I got 2 at the storehouse.
I followed this by walking back throught the side streets to Graffton street and the park's in Dublin.
Eventually went back to the hostel then out for a pizza dinner then followed a walk along the Liffey, by then it was bed time.

Week Ending 5th April

2009-04-10T13:25:00.005+01:00

Monday 30th March:
Work

Tuesday 31st March:
Work

Wednesday 1st April:
Work

Thursday 2nd April:
Last day at work before the Easter long weekend.

Friday 3rd April:
Hostel time, uploading photo's and download TV programs.

Saturday 4th April:
Usual hostel time to upload photos and download TV programs, as well as food shopping.

Sunday 5th April:
Slept in then did nothing for the day which was nice.

Week Ending 29th Mar

2009-04-04T12:12:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the late update, however I have been having trouble with my internet connection and it hasn't been wanting to connect properly to my blog.

Monday 23rd Mar:
Work

Tuesday 24th Mar:
Work

Wednesday 25th Mar:
Work

Thursday 26th Mar:
Work

Friday 27th Mar:
Work, followed by a nice quiet night at home on the couch watching TV and the friday night movie.

Saturday 28th Mar:
Believe it or not I was at work from 10am til 5pm, followed by my usual food shopping trip all at Morrisons, before watching the Saturday night sci-fi movie and then talking to my parents and sister.

Sunday 29th Mar:
Daylights Savings started and as such because I forgot, I missed the first hr of the Australian GP. In the end I caught about 1/2 hr of it before heading off to go to work again for a few hours. 10am til 2pm. Followed by a lazy afternoon and about of beers at home.

Week Ending 22nd Mar

2009-03-24T20:28:00.002Z

Events for the week ending 22nd March 2009.

Monday 16th Mar:
Work, work and more work, but at least it is more interesting that my previous assignment at the same place. Doing some reconciliation work.

Tuesday 17th Mar:
Work

Wednesday 18th Mar:
Work, followed by more work.

Thursday 19th Mar:
Work, but was told today in a team meeting that things were changing slightly. Moving down to a different floor with my new line manager.

Friday 20th Mar:
Work, but my manager is away for the day so a bit of play aswell. Booked my flight to Dublin for the easter break.

Saturday 21st Mar:
Hostelling it to upload photos and download programs. Followed by a few drinks at the local.

Sunday 22nd Mar:
Ended up doing nothing, which was quite nice for a change. Then cooked a roast for dinner - mmm left over roast for lunch during the week!!

Week Ending 15th Mar

2009-03-16T20:07:00.002Z

Monday 9th Mar:
Started on a new role at my assignment today. Doing reconciliation work now, so at least partial accounting work.

Tuesday 10th Mar:
Work

Wednesday 11th Mar:
Work

Thursday 12th Mar:
Work

Friday 13th Mar:
Yeah the second of three Friday the 13th of the year. Had a half day at work and then caught the train down to Bristol for a meeting with the recruitment agency down there. Train was late - not that unusual for England, it was about 1/2 hr late getting me to Bristol, so I ended up being late for my meeting, but had called ahead to let them know.
From Bristol I caught the train to Bath for the night and chatted to a bloke from Calgary who was staying in my room.

Saturday 14th Mar:
Wandered around Bath sightseeing the place, visited the old Roman Bath's and Abbey. Watched the Wales vs Italy 6 nations rugby match. After which I caught the train back to Bristol for dinner and watched the Scotland vs Ireland match. After which I caught the bus back to Birmingham.

Sunday 15th Mar:
Slept in which was nice, ended up gtting up at about 11am, and then headed out for a haircut and then shopping for the week.

Week Ending 8th March

2009-03-10T22:27:00.002Z

Monday 2nd March:
Work

Tuesday 3rd March:
Work

Wednesday 4th March:
Work and call from the agency in Belfast, didn't get the job in Belfast but there are still possibilities potenially available.

Thursday 5th March:
Work

Friday 6th March:
Work

Saturday 7th March:
Shopping, and uploading photo's and downloading programs at the hostel, then a nice quiet night at home.

Sunday 8th March:
Church then a bit more shopping and then another lazy afternoon at home.

Week Ending 1st March

2009-03-01T21:44:00.002Z

Monday 23rd Feb:
Work and a few calls from agencies not in Birmingham about my job applications.

Tuesday 24th Feb:
Work and more calls from agents about jobs I had applied for.

Wednesday 25th Feb:
Work and a call from an agent down in Bristol to arrange a time to meet up with her about potential jobs in Bristol and meeting up with her to have a chat.

Thursday 26th Feb:
More work and a couple more calls from agents.

Friday 27th Feb:
Work, and then a call from an agent in Belfast about a job I had applied for over there. Had a great chat with her about the job and getting my CV forwarded to the client in the hope of getting a phone interview with the client.
Followed by a few drinks at the local with Jay and the local inhabitants of this area.

Saturday 28th Feb:
Food shopping followed by the rest of the day spent at the hostel uploading photos (of which I got about 140 odd done) and downloading tv programs. Ended up chatting to an American girl who had just finished a stint working on a cruise ship.

Sunday 1st Mar:
Jay and IU left the house to go and see Che part 2, unfortunately it doesn't play on a Sunday at 11:45am only 5:15pm. So we left the cinema and went to Wetherspoons for lunch instead.
Followed by the rest of the afternoon and day spent at home.

Week Ending 22nd Feb

2009-02-26T22:02:00.002Z

Monday 16th Feb:
Work

Tuesday 17th Feb:
Work

Wednesday 18th Feb:
Work

Thursday 19th Feb:
Work

Friday 20th Feb:
Work followed by a night at the pub drinking with the locals, and listening to karaoke - ended up having to sing Men at Works "Land Down Under".

Saturday 21st Feb:
Food shopping spent after by a day at the hostel uploading photo's and downloading programs. Again followed by a couple of drinks at the local.

Sunday 22nd Feb:
Church followed by a lazy afternoon at home.

Week Ending 15th Feb

2009-02-19T20:49:00.002Z

Weekly Update:

Monday 9th Feb:
Back to work

Tuesday 10th Feb:
Work again

Wednesday 11th Feb:
Work again

Thursday 12th Feb:
Work again

Friday 13th Feb:
Gotta love Friday the 13th and there are gonna be 3 this year - another one in March and the 3rd in November.

Saturday 14th Feb:
Went to the Hostel to download programs upload photos then went out at night to the local with my housemate Jay and one of her friend's Julie. Mate a few different people there, Jay picked-up the village bicycle who agreed that he was the village bicycle - not the smartest of people in the world.

Sunday 15th Feb:
Feeling a little worse for wear, didn't do much beyond that.

A Week in Scotland and thoughts

2009-02-14T12:42:00.002Z

Well, I was going to try something new, but it doesn't seem to have worked. I was looking at doing a weekly update of what I have been doing during the week, no matter how mundane and boring it may have been, but I don't seem to have started it yet.
So let's try from this week forward and I;ll try to remember to do a weekly update on a Monday from now on.

Anyway I was away all last week touring Scotland - which has left me very short of cash now for a few weeks. Anywho enough of my money troubles, below is the daily update of what I did while away.

Saturday 31st Jan:
Caught a bus from Birmingham up to Glasgow - about 7 hours to get there, with a half hour rest stop on the way. Ended up having pizza for tea from a nice little independent joint that served a variety of different products.
That night I met a nice young couple from Belgium who were over in Glasgow for a weekend, and as a result I now have somewhere to stay when I go to Belgium. Also met a French Canadian who was also over on holidays.

Sunday 1st Feb:
Walked around Glasgow for the day. Went past the very old and interesting Glasgow University and saw the Millenium tower from a distance, along with the Millenium bridge and BBC building.
On the walk I also went to see the Peoples Palace which is free and shows what life was like over the recent decades of Glasgow, as well as some older history. From there I walked to the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis both of which were very interesting in particular the Necropolis.
On the walk back to the hostel I walked along the main shopping strip and back through the backstreets of Glasgow suburbs.
Once back at the hostel I ended up chatting to the Belguim couple again as well as a group of portugese who have been living in Belgium for a number of months.

Monday 2nd Feb:
From Glasgow I caught a bus up to Inverness. As I was leaving Glasgow it started to snow, and we drove through a mini blizzard on the way though the lowlands and highlands. With about a 1/4 of the way to go, the snow cover stopped and it was clear and snow free for the rest of the way.
Inverness is very scenic, quaint and pleasent. I has been very cold though, although oddly enough warmer up there that what it was in Birmingham.

Tuesday 3rd Feb:
Visited the Victoria markets as well as part of the Great Glen Way and other parts of the city centre on the way to the bus depot to catch a bus to the Urquhart Castle. Ended up having to walk about 2 miles from where the bus stop is to where that castle was - very nice walk but it was cold, windy and raining for most of the wya up there. Unfortunately the buses only come about every 2 hours, so had to sit a while after getting back from the Castle.

Wednesday 4th Feb:
Walked to Inverness Cathedral, then over to the locks at Clachnaharry/South Kessock (suburbs of Inverness).
From there I went to catch the bus from Inverness to Edinburgh. Within 1/2 hour of leaving Inverness we were back into another snow blizzard with snow covering everything all the way down to Edinburgh which had more rain than snow when I arrived. Once in Edinburgh and checking to the hostel I left to wander the city at night for a while.

Thursday 5th Feb:
Went stright from the hostel up to Edinburgh Castle where it was snowing for most of the way and got heavier once I got in and was waiting for a free tour of the castle. Great view from up there of the city and it surrounds. From the castle I made my way to Calton Hill and it's monuments. After which I walked around the city, went to the national gallery and spend sometime there including having a go in their interactive area with a F1 race simulator.
After that I went to the movie theater and watched Underworld III - the rise of the Lycans, before heading back to the hostel.

Friday 6th Feb:
Walked down to the Palace from the start/finish of the Royal mile all the way (From Edinburgh Castle to the Palace), where I also had a look at the Scottish Parliment building before heading back up the side streets to join a free walking tour of the city which took about 3 1/2 hours or so.
So enjoyable and interesting with a energetic tour guide (they work for tips). From there I took another walk through the city, stopped in at Waterstones bookstore for a new book, then abck to the Greyfriers Church for a photo op.

Saturday 7th Feb:
Caught the train from Edinburgh to Newcastle - about 1 1/2 hours long. Walked around the city for a while and visited the Baltic Mill modern art building and other various touristy and non-touristy locations.
At the hostel I ended up chatting to a fella staying there while looking for work and somewhere to live form NZ (he's been living in England for about 6 years) as well as a group of Pharmacy & Chemistry students who were having a reunion as they all worked in the same company for a 2008. After that I went to a club with the NZ fella and finally got back at about 2:30 in the morning then chatted to the last fer Chem/Pharm guys still up before heading off to bed.

Sunday 8th Feb:
Walked around the city with John (the NZ fella) for a bit more and ended up a the CityHope Church of Newcastle at their starting time - very coincidental asI had no idea where they were and had never heard of them before. Was a good group of people and I enjoyed in immensly. From there we walked to the Newcastle Football Stadium which is a very large stadium to say the least, then down through Chinatown and back to the hostel. We both then went to a pub to watch the 6 nations match between Scotland and Wales.
After the rugby match I went back to the hostel, got my bags and went to the train station and caught my train back to Birmingham where I got back at about 9:50pm then had to walk through the snow covered ground back home.

Stockholm to Scotland

2009-01-24T13:54:00.002Z

Well, I have now had my birthday present weekend in Stockholm and absolutely loved it, and would recommend going there to anyone.
Stockholm is such a beautiful city and easy to get around as well. I have a wonderful time there even with it being zero or below. The Saturday was sunny and like a lot of other people I walked around the islands for most of the day to see the city and scenery.
Sunday I against walked around the city but mainly just through the old city and up through the main shopping district to the observator before head back to the bus station to catch the bus back to the airport.
I have to say though it wasn't anywhere need as snowy as I expected it to be, in fact these was very litte snow, although a little did fall on the Sunday while I was walking around.

For the first week of February however I am heading off up to Scotland for the week. Going to see Glasgow and Edinburgh, and more than likely get my way up to inverness for a day or two between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It should be a good week and quite enjoyable, albeit very cold again. But I am willing to take the cold weather to see Scotland.

Birmingham, Derry, Liverpool and Blackpool then Christmas

2008-12-25T13:42:00.002Z

Well, I know it's been a while since I last posted anything and I guess you could say I've been busy and without decent internet too long.

Since I last posted I have of course been travelling more. At the end of Feb I went with my housemate Jay to London Derry in Northern Ireland which was brilliant although a little frustrating as there are no bus services to or from the airport on Saturday or Sundays. Either way though we really enjoyed ourselves and it was good to get away from Birmingham for the weekend.

After which I finally scored a job at the beginning of December which was great as I was finally able to buy myself a new warmer jacket to wear. This also meant I could do my next trip on the second weekend of December of going to Liverpool for the day. As it turned out the weekend I was to be there was the weekend of a big football (soccer) match. As such I couldn't find anywhere cheap to stay Saturday night and so ended up in Blackpool for the evening and part of Sunday.
Blackpool isn't much and is probably better during the summer when there are more people and the amusement park is open.

Anyway I had a great weekend away and really enjoyed my self with some great scenery and meeting some nice people aswell.

Today however is Christmas, my housemate left on Monday night for Europe for 2 weeks and so I get the house to myself for a period which is nice. Christmas is being spent around at the Birmingham Backpackers Hostel where I was invited for Christmas dinner etc. Great day to be had unfortunately not a white day but a cold day none the less.

Oh well a long weekend ahead followed by NYE and another long weekend...I think I'll just go to my local and spend it there as they have a sign that they are having a party there.

Till next time enjoy the Christmas break and have a great New Years Eve.

Birmingham - Manchester - Birmingham

2008-11-19T14:09:00.003Z

Well I've been in Birmingham for over a month now, still no job, but hopefully something soon as I have been put forward for 4 positions in the last 2 days - but we will have to wait and see.

I took off to Manchester last weekend for the weekend which was good to get away but also ended up with one of the worse sleeps I;ve had in a long while in the Hatters hostel there. The beds weren't very comfortable and I could head everything that was happening outside of the building on the street below - which was just plain annoying.

Back in Manchester though and back to things going wrong in my flat. Got back from the weekend to find that my fridge had basically decided to give up on us. So yesterday at the landlords expense I was out searching for a new fridge to replace the old one. It arrives on Thursday - although I have to ring tonight after 5pm to find what 4 hour window it will be delivered in.

Fun times. Also went to see Max Payne - the movie - yesterday which was a decent movie with enough action in it.

Booked my bday flight to Stockholm for the 2nd weekend after my birthday - planning on going to Dublin for the weekend directly after my birthday with my house mate to do a bit of partying.

I think thats about it at the moment - but I really really need a job and as of next week will be aiming to get some retail or anything else I can get to get me over Christmas and get some cash coming in rather than always just going out.

Birmingham Part 2

2008-10-31T16:47:00.002Z

So I now have a place to livei n Birmingham - about a 20-30 minute walk for the city centre.
However I have yet to secure an Accounting Job - which kinda sucks biggish.

Anyway I keep walking around a lot and ringing the agencies and looking online with my crappy mobile internet, but there doesn't seem to be much about at the moment so I may end up doing some odd jobs just to bring in some cashflow.

On a light note I am off to Derry at the end of November which should be fun - and I love the Irish accent so it should be very kewl.

Enought for now.

Birmingham

2008-10-18T19:55:00.002+01:00

Well I've been living in Birmingham now for the last 2 weeks on and off. Last weekend I went back to London to pick something up followed by a day down to Bournemouth to get my suitcase with my suit etc.
Saturday night I saw the production of Blood Brothers.
Birmingham has been good, but mainly just pottering around the place trying to find somewhere to live and work.

I've been out the Warwick Castle which wasn't much as there wasn't anything on on that day. Also been to the cadbury Factory which was very nice as I got some free chocolate to eat.

At the moment I'm up in Cardiff spending the weekend here. I looked around the city yesterday (Friday), today I walked out to Llandaff Catherdral and then walked down to the pier.

Head back to Birmingham on Monday morning.

Back in the Mother Coutry (England)

2008-10-02T16:45:00.002+01:00

Back in England now and have been now for a week.
Spent 2 nights in London before heading down to Bournemouth. Bournemouth is nice and most likely a great place in summer to holiday by the beach and just sock up some sun and relaxation.
Walked around the city, then on Tuesday took a tour out to StoneHenge, Salisbury and New Forest.
Stonehenge is pretty cool and there weren't too many people there while I was there.
However it started to pour down and hail while we were there.

Followed by a longish trip to Salisbury because of road works. After which we went to New Forest and saw the native ponies and got to pat the ponies.

Thursday I caught a bus up to Bristol which took 4hrs. Bristol is ok, but just one of those places that I really don't feel like staying here more than my 4 nights. Heading to Birmingham on Monday to hopefully find a reasonably paid contracts and reasonable cheap accomodation.

I (heart) New York

2008-09-25T02:56:00.002+01:00

Well I arrived back into New York on Friday morning after the bus trip from Toronto.
I then had to make my way out to Brooklyn to the Loftstel for my first 2 nights back in NY.

The hostel wasn't bad, clear and tidy and quite comfortable by way of hostel standards. I didn't do much on Friday as I was quite buggered after the bus trip. On Saturday I made my way out to Coney Island for the day. I ended up there for the Irish Festival, however it wasn't really much. However during the late afternoon early evening there was a DJ broadcasting over the net on the broadwalk.

Sunday, I had to leave the loftstel and make my way out to Harlem to the Jazz on Lenox hostel. Not a bad place, but a little noisy and the mattresses are made of plastic.
I have been sharing my
dorm room with 11 other people, 4 who are from Spain and fairly unconsiderate, as they have beem slamming the door as they go out in the morning while I'm still trying to sleep to the bathroom - but that's hostel's for you.
Sunday afternoon I was walking around Harlem when they had the African American parade on, which was quite interesting but a little unorganised. That evening a couple of fellas decided that they would shot each other outside a deli in Harlem - a couple from the hostel were unfortunately caught up in the deli during the shotting and got stuck in there for about 50 mins until the police rocked up.

Monday I went to the statue of Libery and Ellis island. Quite a line up to get onto the erry to get our to the statue of liberty. Once out there she is not quite as big as I expected. As I was walking around and ended up helping a girl take a photo of herself in from of the statue. She returned the favour, and we ended up talking for abit. It ended up that she was from Woodville in Adelaide, over in NY for a business conference.
After that I went out to Yankee Stadium and happened to be there in time for the Yankees team to be walking out to the team buses to go to their next game. Where i ended up listening to a fella just talking about the yankees and who was good, and who each person who came out was etc.

Tuesday I caught the train out to walking over Brooklyn bridge then back over the Manhatten bridge. From there I had lunch baught a pair of black formal shoes from Aldo. After which I went to the Rockefeller center and went up to the observation deck on the top of the rock and waited 2 hours for the sun to set, over which time it got extremely busy up there and hard to get a view point.

Wednesday (Today) I caught the train out to Grand Central Station followed but a lot of walking around down Madison Ave, 5th Ave and Broadway. After that I caught the train out to Central Park and relaxed and read for a couple of hours. After thaT I was walking around and stumbled upon the David Blaine newest stunt.
However I was extremely unimpressed as he spend over 10 minutes on his platform taking a pee and talking to a couple of his helps, 15-20 minutes taking photos with people, and at least 10 minutes where by his helper was holding his head above his heart and his legs were one by one dangling loose.

Tomorrow I head out to JFK airport to catch my final flight to London, and so do not know when the next update will come. But hopefully it won't be too long.

Toronto and the 1000 Islands

2008-09-18T20:58:00.002+01:00

Well I left the capital of Ottawa on Monday to head back to Toronto.
On the way I called into a couple of towns along the 1000 Islands stretch and took a boot tour/cruise around the islands - it was an hour late due to a tour bus coming from Montreal with a bunch of French tourists on it was late and we were waiting for them.

It was interesting but a bit overcast and cold so not the best time to do it.
I eventually found somewhere to stay in Toronto as it also was pretty booked out. There are some pretty interesting people around here and I am more or less right in ChinaTown which is pretty ok.

I didn't do much yesterday (Wednesday) except drive to a beach/bay and sit, chill and read my book - which thus meant that today (Thursday) after I took back the car, and met up with Andrea (friend from Vancouver) for lunch we went to the World's Biggest BookStore and purchased another new book.

Back at the hostel again at the moment until I head out to grab some dinner and then walk down to the bus station to catch the bus back to NYC

AA, New York and Ontario

2008-09-14T21:24:00.003+01:00

Well I left Vancouver on Wednesday on a flight with AA. I will try the best I can to never again fly AA as they are a shocker to book into at the airport, not only that but the flight from Vancouver to Dallas Fort Worth and New York does not include food - you have to purchase it onboard, or bring it on after buying it at the airport.
The Air Hostess' and Hosts' were ok and realatively welcoming albeit of the older variety.
Also both airplanes had either the overhead TV's or no TV's at all.
DAllas Fort Worth is a massive airport structure with about 5 or 6 terminals all linked by a monorail type system to get you between them all.

New York is quite a sight and much bigger than I expected, although Times Square was smaller. The Hostel I stayed at is a bit out of the action at W101st street, but only about 10-20 mins by train from the action of Times Square etc. The only problem with the hostel is that the matresses are not that soft. You can feel all the springs in it. I tried to soften it up by sleeping on the blanket, and it helped a little but not much. Also I had to slug all of my luggage up the 7 floors to the top one because that's where I was placed.

During the day I was there I walked around the city saw Times Square, M&M's World etc.
At 4pm I went back to claim my backpack and laptop, and this woman was there talking to the staff when she turned around and saw that I was wearing the T-Shirt that Yoshi bought for me in Narita a couple of years ago. She had to make a comment that it had a big dragon on the back of it, I then pointed out that there was also a smaller one on the front and one on my sleeve, at which point she decided to tell me that the dragon is a sign of the devil. Of which I replied telling her where I got it from and mentioned that to me it was just a dragon and meant nothing. Her reply was that it was a sign of the devil in a lot of cultures around the world - all I ended up saying was that it was a picture of a dragon and meant nothing to me other than it was a dragon. After a couple of minutes of this conversation I took my bag and left of which I mentioned to the doorman that it was just a dragon and he and the staff behind the counter were about as perplexed by the conversation as myself.

I then caught the bus up to Tornoto, and ended up chatting the a nice young girl on the way up between sleeping. After which when I got to Toronto, I picked up my car which was suppost to be a subcompact, but ended up being an economical Toyota Yaris. Kinda small and just fits my luggage on the back seat.

On the way up I stopped over in Belleville for the night then continued on up to Ottawa. Then found a nice hostel in Ottawa for a couple of nights.

Went out to a club with some of the people here, and then at about 1.30am I got kicked out of the club because I was apparently stumbling and kicked over a it's wet sign then bend over and picked it up.

Today I went with an English fella whose here and we walked around Ottawa seeing the sights for the day. Now it's raining and raining a lot.

Vancouver Back Again

2008-09-08T06:40:00.002+01:00

Well I arrived back into Vancouver from Tokyo on Wednesday and eventually crashed around 5pm and woke up around 10 hrs later.

Thursday I picked up the hire car (A Ford Taurus) then went with Paul to White Spot for lunch, after which I started my drive down to Seattle to visit Mel & Jared for a couple of days.
When I got to the US boarder I had to obtain a Visa Waiver, of which the border control agent was so serious in dealing with me it was quite funny.
Once I was through the boarder, I tried to find somewhere to buy a phone/sim card (which is really really hard to do in both the US and Canada) In the end I went to Radioshack as the direct phone company agents/stores do not sell pre-paids.

Eventually got to Mel & Jared's place, after which we went out to dinner at their favourite tequilla place, after which I crashed.

On the FRiday Jared & I went out to the Boeing Factory to take a tour around the place, however due to industrial relations action the tour was cancelled. However as a result we were able to get to see the gallery and a driving tour around the perimiter for free.

After that we went for lunch at the RedNook Brewery, and then took a $1 brewery tour. Really not much of a tour, only basically one room which was a tumbler cup beer, followed by some talking, another taste test, followed by more talking, more taste testing and talking, then another taste test followed a look at the fermtation barrels then the last taste test and that was it.

After which we came back to the apartment and had a BBQ dinner followed by some games of Quoridour and Family Business.

Saturday Mel & Jared took me to see the Microsoft offices where Mel works, followed by a long and traffic orientated drive downtown to see Pike Place Market. Where we ended up having some clam chouder for lunch while watching a juggler.

After which I left at about 7pm to drive back to Vancouver, stopped for some dinner, the felt tired so I stopped into a couple of rest stops to sleep before heading off again in the morning back to Vancouver.

Got back into Vancouver and went to Kyle and Annas place for a visit which was good and got too see a few people I haven't seen since I left. Followed by Paul and I in the afternoon climbing and doing the Grouse Grind which was a chore but well worth it in the end to make it to the top.

Japan to Vancouver

2008-09-04T16:24:00.001+01:00

So I have finally arrived into Vancouver and it was a bit like a home coming really. Remembering where all the areas are, the fact that you have to walk 500m or more before you come accross a toilet in the airport arrives walkway.

Overall it was good to be back even if it is only for a week.

The flight from Tokyo was good, even better was the fact that JAL have a camera at the front of the plane, so you get to see the view from the front of what it looks like in take-off and landing. Pretty sweet I tell you, pretty damn sweet.

But onto other matters, I am now about to go off and get my hire car to drive down to Seattle and visit Mel and Jared and do a bit of a catch up for a few days. Should be all good seeing the old housies again.

Tokyo and Rain

2008-09-02T02:53:00.002+01:00

Well it's my final day in Tokyo and Japan and I finally get some sunshine for 2 days in a row without rain. Although yesterday did rain a small fraction, but not enough to worry about.
I never got to climb Mt Fuji this time around becuase of all the rain which has been falling here in Japan over the last two weeks that I have been here.

It's been fun catching up with my Brother and his family and my Sister and everyone else that I know and have seen here in Japan htis time around.

It is not time to start thinking about packing my stuff up, back into the suitcase and getting myself ready for my next flight and section in Vancouver and Seattle - it should be fun and I am looking forward to seeing my friends in Vancouver again.

Week in Japan so far

2008-08-29T13:38:00.002+01:00

Well I have now had a week in Japan, and am sitting at the laptop probably unwisely while writing this during a tunderstorm.

Last Saturday I went out during the day with my Sister, and then went to a festival in the evening with my brother's sister-in-law Mariko. It was spectacular, and throughly enjoyable, even with it raining all night and having to stand up for 3 hours to watch it.

On Sunday we had Yukiko's birthdya party (my Sis-in-Law) at her parents place, this was fun and good to catch up with the Otsuka's again.

Monday I decided to take a 10.5 hr tain trip up to Morioka (7 different trains from Ueno station - 9 from my bro's place). Finally arrived at just after 10pm.

Tuesday I wanderered around Morioka to see the sights that the city had to offer - not much really, and had completed it after about 5 hr's including walking 15km's and stopping for lunch. Nice city though, just lacking on things to do.
As a result of finishing the city so soon, I ended up back at the hotel room and read my book, this also unfortunately mean that I finished my book.

Wednesday I travelled another 11 hrs to get back to Tokyo, unfortunately since I had finished my book all I had to do was listen to music and look out the window and doze occasionally - this made for a very very very long day and trip. I also didn't get back home until about 13 hrs after I left the hotel room because of transfer waiting times etc.

Thursday was Yukiko's birthday and we went to Costco and the outlets stores for some shopping - finally can now say that I have been to and into a Costco store.

Friday (today) I met up with Vanessa again and we went to Shibuya for the day, had lunch and looked around the area.

The last week here has been full of rain and thunder/lightning storms. Last night I was woken up at about 4am but some massive claps of thunder - very cool though, however also means that I will most likely not be able to get to Mt Fuji and climb it this time around because of all that has been happening with the rain etc.

Oh well these things happen and Mt Fuji will just have to wait until the next visit.

To Hong Kong and Tokyo

2008-08-22T16:27:00.002+01:00

Was sitting in my bed in HK unable to sleep when I wrote this entry.

Had a good flight from Adelaide to Melbourne and onto HK. Was seated next to a nice young girl on here way to England for a study exchange program for 6 months. We hit it off fairly quickly in regards to being able to talk to each other without any issues, and ended up having a good few conversations with each other all the way to HK between movies and sleep.

Unfortunately she got motion sickness on the way, but luckily for her she ended up with a number of good people around her and nice air-hostesses that were willing to help her out to make sure she was ok, which she was grateful for.

Only ended up watching 1 movie on the flight to HK and 1 TV program as there wasn’t much I wanted to see and it was the old just run and watch it as it happens system not the new on-demand system. So I ended up reading most of the way will a very little and light snooze thrown in.

Arrived into HK on time and eventually caught the airport bus to my hotel. I love HK airport for it’s efficiency and being able to get through Customs in next to no time.

On Tuesday I left the hotel and caught the train out to see the Big Budda. You have to catch a cable car or bus out there once you get the Lantau Island. I caught the Cable car up was a nice and relatively smooth ride with a great view, and the bus back down. The Big Budda was big, and busy and 250 steps up the hill. Apparently it was a special day, which meant that the cost of the cable car was slightly more than normal – but the bus on the way down wasn’t any dearer than normal, so I go figure.

From there I have now arrived into Japan, on a flight which was hit by a reasonable amount of turbulence, but was overall good. Was greeted into Japan with a thunderstorm, which was nice as I love thunderstorms. Had a nice first day here, spending time with my Bro, Sis-in-law and nephew.

Off to England

2008-08-18T01:54:00.002+01:00

To anyone who has been looking lately I have not posted anything for a while, mainly due to that fact hat I have been just back in Adelaide doing what I use to do.

Now however I am off again over to England to do a Working Holiday for a couple of years there. On the way I am calling past Hong Kong, Japan to visit my Bro & his family and Sis. Then from there onto Vancouver and Seattle to visit friends, then New York and Toronto to visit the cities and a friend over there...then finally in 5 1/2 weeks I'll land in England to continue the o/s working experiece I began last year in Canada.

I am looking forward to it, but to travel with currently 2 big bags for 5 weeks is going to be an interesting experience. I'll try to keep this more up to date while I am away again and my Flickr page will be updated with all the latest photos of the places I have been to see.

Over all it should be an interest experience visiting the mother country and making my way again in a strange and new country.

Work and the rest

2008-01-20T12:40:00.000Z

Well, I don't even know if anyone is even going to see this post, and this will probably be the last one until I head overseas again in the second half of this year.

Anyway I have now secured myself some contract work for at least 3 motnhs, but will most likely keep going for 6 months until I head o/s. Not only that but I also now am renting a place with a friend which has a nice big lounge (those who saw my second Vancouver basement will like to know that the lounge is almost as big as that apartment). It has a pool, big screen plasma TV and a PS3, so all the luxury's.

Cheers and have a great year - until I see you all again someday.

Las Vegas Photo & Online Guide book

2007-12-23T00:42:00.000Z

I know that it has been a while since I last uploaded anything onto this blog, but I guess the last couple of months have been pretty lazy. The most exciting thing to happen other than my 2 week road trip along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne then up the coast to Sydney and back thru the center of Aus to Adelaide, has been my inclusion of a photo in the Schmap 4th Edition Holiday Guide book.

For a look at the photo which got included got to Schmap Las Vegas (Circus Circus)

Madrid and the Freaking French

2007-10-18T10:44:00.000+01:00

Well I arrived in Madrid this morning and went to book my next train ticket to Paris only to find out that the French are having a rail strike and so I can't get to Paris or anywhere else for that matter.

So here I am trying to find someway to book a trip from Spain to Germany so I can catch my next flight out to Singapore on the 24th Oct. It should be fun...there seem to be a number of cheap airlines around the place but which one is the best...

Lisbon

2007-10-18T10:43:00.000+01:00

To Lisbon (Lisboa) I arrive…eventually. As things go the train that I was on we had to stop short to Lisbon because of a problem (probable somewhere along the rain tracks) and go from that onto buses for the last leg of the trip (oh what fun that was).

Even still what’s better is that I got of the said bus at the first train station stop instead of the second so I got my first taste of Lisbon’s metro system – which is pretty quick and efficient although not the most trains come along – but I guess I can’t expect that many trains that often in a city of a little under 600,000 people.

My day consisted of walking up a steep steep hill with my backpack on to a little guesthouse – which tired me out…then walking back down again to wander around the city get some lunch and then about 3 hours later head back to the guesthouse and fall asleep for about 5 hours. At the moment after writing this I will try and figure out what I am going to do tomorrow (although have pretty much decided just to find somewhere to get some breakfast and water and then walk over to the castle to start with. That may take me all day to wander over there wander around the castle and wander back again…but we will wait and see. In any case this post won’t happen until after that has happened anyway – actually it’s most likely only going to get posted once I get to Madrid probably.

13th Oct Paris - Lisbon

2007-10-18T10:42:00.000+01:00

So I decided to head straight to Lisbon on an overnight train rather than run the gauntlet of possibly not having accommodation in Paris. I guess that’s the advantage of having an open plan on what I want to do and when…all I have to remember to do is be back in Frankfurt for my flight to Singapore on the 24^th Oct.

So I start again on a train trip this one taking me from France through Spain to Portugal. I’ll arrive into Lisbon at 11am having left Paris at 3.50pm the day previous…nothing overly exciting to report thus far though except that I get a train room all to my self for the night which is good.

To Lisbon I ride…

12th October Europe

2007-10-18T10:41:00.000+01:00

Left the hostel to go to the airport once at the airport my flight had been delayed due to fog – typical London weather. Luckily however it was only delayed by about 30 mintues. Once in the air it was quite pleasant with a half full airplane. I had two seats next to me free which was nice – although a guy from across the isle change seats and sat in the empty isle seat on my side.

Once the plane landed in Frankfurt we were away from the actual terminal – which meant walking down the stairs onto the tarmac and catching a commuter bus over to the terminal. Quite an experience to do that in Germany.

Beyond that German immigration was easy to get through but getting a train ticket wasn’t as easy. Once on the train from Frankfurt to Kohl – I realised that my ticket that I was given was going to take me through Belgium (not a country included on my Europass). However the extra cost was on 20E so not too expensive a mistake.

However I am heading into Paris on the eve of the France vs. England semi-final rubgy match – and so accommodation maybe a little difficult to find – but we will wait and see what I can get. If I can only get tonights (Friday’s) accommodation and nothing on Saturday I will catch the try and get an overnight train to Madrid and do Paris on the way back up and to Frankfurt at the end of journey in Europe.

Just an added point, it pays bonuses being over 25 as my Europass is 1^st Class – so I get to travel in relative luxury compared to 2^nd Class.

And so begins my 13 day adventure in Western Europe…

2007-10-12T23:23:00.000+01:00

Just an added point, it pays bonuses being over 25 as my Europass is 1^st Class – so I get to travel in relative luxury compared to 2^nd Class.

And so begins my 13 day adventure in Western Europe…

London

2007-10-10T23:44:00.000+01:00

The flight from Vancouver to London was very uneventful – I ended up watching 3 movies as I was unable to sleep (as usual) on the plane.

Once in London I made my way to the Earl’s Court Hostel where I booked in bought a couple of items and then slept until about 4.30 Saturday morning…when I got up and made a list of all the things that I wanted to do and see.

I was lucky to get Friday (although I sleep through most of it) Saturday, Sunday and Monday being clear days…Tuesday rained all day long and relatively hard aswell…Wednesday rained in the morning and then was fine in the afternoon.

I have done all the touristy things like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, The London Tower, Tower Bridge etc. I have also gone and seen 2 West End shows – We Will Rock You (the tribute to Queen) on Tuesday night, and Spamalot (the Monty Python show) tonight (Wednesday). Both shows were excellent however I wish I’d paid more for my ticket to We Will Rock You as I was stuck in the balcony in the second to last row – not too bad a view but a little out of it.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will probably jump on a river Themes boat tour and possibly get off at Greenwich the zero time zone of the world.

Las Vegas & Seattle

2007-10-03T07:42:00.000+01:00

Well I figure I'd better post something about Vegas up on here...

So I left for Vegas on Saturday the 22nd September without any accommodation for the Saturday night - I figured that I'd probably be up all night anyway so why bother with it and the expense. The flight to Vegas was eventful as while we were waiting to board the plane I was listen to someone else telling someone what to do, go see etc. There was a mum and daughter pair that we going down for the first time from Wales (in the UK for those who don't know where it is) - the daughter lives in Vancouver now...also the guy telling us what to do had a Betta Electrical (for the Aussies) T-shirt on which he'd got when he was down in Australia once.

So on the flight to Vegas when we were about 1hr out from our destination we hit some pretty bad turbulence which flung the plane from side to side - once really badly that my head actually hit the window...but it also dropped down aswell - although I have to say it is the first time on a flight that has hit turbulence that bad and the majority of people on the flight were laughing.

Once in Vegas I checked my bags at the Sahara hotel (where I was staying at) and made my way along the famous Las Vegas Strip...it was a sight to see and once I got to the main section where most of the casinos are located it was pretty busy and hectic - that is until about 3-4am when it really started to die off. I kept walking and visited most of the casino's along the Strip on the Saturday night...I was dead tired the next day and while waiting to check in sat at a slot machine and while playing slowly was falling asleep and was grateful once I had checked-in to finally get some sleep after beening up for about 27hrs straight.

Monday was pretty boring with not much to do - and is when I lost most of my money because of it - but in the evening I went to see a comedy show called the Second City Theatre in the Flamingo casino - it was pretty damn funny - I got a great laugh out of it.

On the Tuesday I took a tour to the Grand Canyon and it was certainly Grand - we went to the South Rim which is the widest section of the Canyon and it was we worth the trip - even with a bus that was on the verge of completely breaking down...but as a result of that I got to go on the famous Route 66 and stop in the town where the person who partitioned the US Government to recommission the road lives (and is now know at the home of the start of the historic Route 66) - it was definitely a place worth seeing and well worth the inconvenience of the bus basically breaking down and putting us about 1-1.5hr's behind schedule - which was fine as we rocked up to most of the stops just as the last lot of tour buses were leaving.

Wednesday was pretty quite as well though - I played in a poker tournament then went and played at a poker table after that to kill time before I had to catch to plane back home (I did ok at poker, not the greatest but decent enough to hold my own with some half decent players - no one famous thought).

Now onto today... I went with my friend James down to Seattle to post some of my stuff back to Australia (as I didn''t want to carry it through Europe - and it was cheaper to post it out of the US rather than Canada)...it was kinda eventful especially at the border crossing as they wanted to have a look inside the boxes but we got through ok in the end and made our way down to Seattle to post the boxes - it was fun and I got a couple of laughs and gave a couple of stories to the boarder crossing customs guys and the postal workers aswell.

We also went and visited a couple of bookstores down there that were suppost to have Jame's books in stock - the first place didn't even know who James was ... which in itself was quite funny, that and they were mixing him up with Jesse McCann who has written graphic novels (like the Dragon Ball Z books). The second place we went to were interested in James when he introduced himself and actually had one of his books in stock - so I took a photo for him with two of the ladies who worked there...he way even get some events down there which would be great for him. On the way back through the Border Customs they customs official could believe it when we said that we had just gone down to Seattle for a day visit and all we had bought was one measly Western Europe phasebook worth $11 and asked me a second time if I had bought anything else other than the book which I was holding in my hand...which I politely replied that it was all I had bought and that was it. Well we got through and had a good laugh out of it, and so ended a successful day of posting and touring some of Seattle - BTW while I have been to Seattle before James hadn't so in effect I was showing him around Seattle rather than the other way around.

Vegas, London, Europe, Singapore - Adelaide

2007-09-11T06:58:00.000+01:00

Well I know it's been a while since I last wrote anything on here, and I guess it's just been a case of neglect and other preferences (whether they be good or bad).

Anyway, so I head off to Las Vegas (Sin City) in just under two weeks (leave on the 22nd Sept and get back on 26th Sept). I am soooo looking forward to this trip, playing a few poker tournaments - well maybe just one or two is probably all I'll have time and money for. Anyway so I've been searching through all the hotels, their casinos attached and the possibly day tours to do. So I've decided since I'm down that way that I'll go to the massive Grand Canyon and off to the transformed Hoover Dam. All right I get to see when Transformers was partially filmed - all righty then - sweet as.

So heres hoping that the 4 day 4 night adventure will come out profitable - if it does I'll be a damn happy and joyful bloke, if not then I've just lost the money that I saved for it so no biggie.

Also to keep everyone in the loop I leave Vancouver on the 4th October to go through 7 days in old town London, England, 13 days in and around Europe (ok so 13 days from when I land in Frankfurt to when I leave from it) Hoping to do a bit of France, possibly down to Spain and Portugal then back again for a last few days in Frankfurt, before jetting off on a long flight to have 7 count them 7 wonderful, lazy and relaxing days in the city state of Singapore - I can't wait to have my first experience of a 5 star hotel in Singapore. Damn it will be nice.

Unfortunately I will be leaving Vancouver, as much as I don't want to, but you never know I might be back to work here again one day, at the least I'll definately be back to visit.

Camping Weekend

2007-08-13T04:25:00.000+01:00

This past weekend I went with 8 other guys for a guys only camping weekend. I haven't been camping for a long time (even though I quite enjoy camping) and it was enjoyable getting away from everything and everyone (espes technology) and getting back to the peaceful tranquility of nature.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend away and had a blast of a time, and wish it could be done more often, as I was really quite relaxed and was able to unwind without doing much.

The month of not much

2007-08-07T02:35:00.000+01:00

I know it has been about a month since I last posted anything on here, and that is due to work, laziness and not much to write about.

Last night I went to a few Jen Millers CD launch which was pretty exciting as I have never been to a CD launch before. She is a great musician, and I will share the music on the CD later when I get home and if anyone wants to listen.

Beyond that the month of July was taken up with a bit of sunbathing, working a decent job that I don't mind and enjoy sometimes - which is a bit of a novalty.

Also I have hit the point where it is not only 2 months before I leave Vancouver to head through Europe and Singapore before arriving back in Australia. - and the is a large part of me which doesn't necessarily want to do this as much fun as it probably will be traveling for a month.

American 4th July Celebrations

2007-07-08T02:26:00.000+01:00

Well,Wednesday July 4^th I went with 4 other friends down to Bellingham, WA in the USA to watch and experience my first true American 4^th of July celebrations. It was quite interesting and fun, and in a lot of peoples backyards people were letting off their own fireworks displays – which apparently is illegal in every other city in the USA.

We went to Appleby’s for dinner (interesting place not bad for a chain restaurant – had a really nice burger there), and our waitress was really nice and gave us directions to the shore to see the major fireworks display from. From our vantage point we were able to view the whole shore and see the mini fireworks displays going off all along the coast. It was quite a view and spectacle. Even right by us there was a place and one of the guys there was letting off quite a decent display for everyone to see. Once the major display started at 10.30 we were far enough away that there was a general 2-3 sec wait between the lights and the sound, so it was quite interesting and add a little bit of amusement to the evening (that and the fact that the music being played (apparently what you play at fireworks displays in the US) was marching band music.

The big show lasted about 20 mins before it finished and we got in the car to leave, cross over the US/Canada boarder again and get back to Vancouver at about 1am. It was a fun evening and well worth the trip.

Soccer

2007-06-28T07:57:00.000+01:00

Ok so last week was our first true win of the season, we had won once before due to default (the other team only had 6 players instead of the required 7). But this week being the final week was a little different. Every other week we have had a game consisting of 2 25min halves. This week being the final week. it was set out as a tournament - 2 games 25 minutes in length each. Well only 3 teams rocked up - meaning that the team that we were suppost to play in the finals didn't turn up and so defaulted and we were automatically entered into the final match (bonus for us as we were fresh for the game compared to the other team who had just played a 25 minute full on game of soccer).

So in the end we won the final game of the season and came off the season champions (having won only two games in our whole season) - the other odd thing was the fact that the two teams in the final match were actually the two teams that were on the bottom of the ladder leading into this weeks match (go figure hey!!). So what did this mean you ask? Well it just meant that each member of our team received a Urban Recs season champions T-Shirt. Well I'm pretty stocked about it like most of the team as well were.

So yea go team!!!! (BTW our team name was the ANZAC's - standing for the Australian's (2 of us) New Zealanders (2 players ) and Canadians (the rest of the team) - less the ring-in's who varied from where they were from.

Toronto, Toronto, Toronto

2007-06-18T16:33:00.000+01:00

Well ain't Toronto lovely. I went off to Canada's Wonderland yesterday (BTW it was father's day over here) so it was a little packed, however the actual park also has a water park component to it aswell, so it was nice and warm and so most of the people were in the water park section (which was good for me as it meant less people in the line ups for the rides). With less people in the line ups meant that I was able to jump on most of the rides without having to wait. My longest waiting time in a line up was about 30 min's - which was brilliant. So I spent most of the day just wandering around the Wonderland and riding the rides.

Best of all yesterday Roe texted me to say she was in town for a bit on her way down to her works head office - just south of Toronto. So we met up and went out to breakfast, which was great to see a familiar face for a change.

Montreal - Toronto (TDot)

2007-06-16T15:44:00.000+01:00

Had a nice few days in Montreal, and I was starting to get use to the humidity that I was getting over there. On Tuesday I went with a few people I had met at the hostel and went back to LaRonde (the amusement park) and had a great full day just riding rides and hanging out. Went for a few beers after and enjoyed the time. Wednesday I headed off to the Montreal Casino.

Thursday I work up early for a 6.50am train ride to Toronto, got in and walked to the hostel - I was utterly tired and so walked around for a couple of hours before heading back and snoozing for a few hours. I then headed out to the CN Tower - it was quite a nice view and I got there at a time where I could get the day time view and the nighttime view of the city. (The photo's are starting to stack up a bit).

Friday (yesterday) I headed down to Niagra Falls on a Moose tour bus - met again some nice people and enjoy the day down there, we went to a winery that is famous for it's icewine (very sweet but quite tastie). Niagra was interesting, although very touristy but enjoyed the time there - even went to the Niagra Casino while we were there with a few of the other people on the tour. Our tour guide even let us stay for the fire works display before we headed back to Toronto, and a few beers as the backpakers joint the bus parks at.

Today I'm off to try and see a baseball game (should be interesting but enjoyable I figure).

Montreal

2007-06-10T03:43:00.000+01:00

Well I arrived into Montreal after a pretty none eventful flight from Vancouver at 10pm. Travelled via bus to the central station then got a shuttle which dropped me off right out the front door of the hostel which I am staying at last night(Thursday night), and tonight (Friday night) only to find that I was only booked in for one night. The guy on reception was good and has found a bed for me tonight though. I can't say that it is overly hot here at the moment - it is definately warm and very humid which is a bit of a pain really (only got about 4hrs sleep on Thursday night).

Had a nice trip up to Mount Royal in the morning then just walked around for a while before making my way over to the island where the GP is on. Unfortunately it is completely sold out so I will miss seeing it. Although I will get to hear the action.

Saturday - I went to Le Ronde (amusement park) today, and spent the day there. It was fun and I will go back again probably on Monday. Again (as seems to becoming a habit of mine) I lost my hat - this time I was coming down on of the rides (the log ride/Pitoune) and my hat flew off in the wind - was quite funny seeing the photo as in it you can see the moment that my hat flew off my head). Luckily though about 7 hours later when I went back at closing time it had been recovered and so I was a happy man being reunited with my hat (sorry I have become kinda attached to it lately).

To night is my last night with the Alternative Backpackers Hostel before moving to the othe place that I had booked - quite fortunate really to still be here as Saturday everywhere (including here) was completely booked out, but as things go people haven't rocked up or have cancelled and so now I have a bed for the night.

Tomorrow is another day and I have yet to figure out what to do for it, but I am sure it will probably end up on here for you all to see.

Seattle

2007-05-31T06:43:00.000+01:00

Well, I just got back from a nice 3nights 3 days in Seattle, and I had a great time. Got to stay with a friend of a friend (Rachel who is Georgie's friend) which was heaps kewl, and was muchly appreciated. I got to met some cool people down there, some of Rachel's friends and some other just random people around the place.

I left Saturday night from Vancouver via Amtrak Train and got into Seattle at just after 10pm - it was a really nice ride and I got too see some awesome scenery, customs was easy to get through. Sunday Rachel took me down to the Pike Market, and I got to see the famous fish throwing (well famous to the extend that it is known by people out here), then went on the underground tour of Seattle - interesting to say the least and I got a great guide who gave quite a bit of information - including addition info - he was quite the character.

Monday I went to Seattle Centre and the Space Needle (some really really nice views from up there) and the Experience Music Project - the morning was a little overcast, but it cleared up nicely for the afternoon and they whole weekend they had a folklife festival (in it's 23rd?? year). Some interesting music, and I got to lie on the grass for the rest of the afternoon listen some good music and just relaxing. After which I went back to Rachel's place and sat and watch TV - exciting I know, but something I rarely do in Vancouver (as I have no TV).

Tuesday, was again another great day nice and warm - about 25c. I took a ride on the monorail - only cost $2 and worth the I did it factor - a bit like the space needle. Then I spent the rest of the day wandering Seattle, the waterfront then the Sculpture park - I again laid on the grass and got to soak up some sun - unfortunately I was burnt from Mondays session, so I probably got a bit more burnt but oh well.

Caught the bus back from Seattle to Vancouver - bus was a little late as it was waiting on a connecting train from LA (I was suppost to be getting the 9pm bus, but when I went to the station earlier in the day I was informed that the train that was connecting with that bus was going to be about 5 hours late (at a guess)). So instead I caught the 6.30pm bus - left at about 7.30. Nice sunset - on the way to the Canadian border (unable to get a decent photo of it though). Had a bit of a odd experience with the Canadian customs fella, asking me some interesting questions - ie how many days I was away, where my bag was and was that all the clothes I took - I had one mini bag as it was all I needed for a 3/4 day holiday. Other than that I was pretty uneventful.

And thus concludes my Seattle trip - now I get to bum around Vancouver for the next week before heading off to Montreal and Toronto next Thursday (7th June) - Cant wait for that.

Steveston

2007-05-22T05:05:00.000+01:00

Well today I headed down with a couple of friends to Steveston in Richmond - interesting place I must say, very nice and quaint and olde English with a touch of Asian. I'll post the photo's late of the excursion. Had some of the famous fish and chips from there - soso really, nothing special that I would go back from, and a bit pricy to boot aswell.

Oh well, I'll probably go back during summer sometime and do the long walk all the way around Richmond - already done part of it, but it looks like it would be a reasonable walk to say the least.

Long Time

2007-05-15T07:47:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a bit of time since the last major post I did on here. Mainly because not much has really happened to post about I guess.

Anyway I started playing soccer last week (8 weeks on a social league with a bunch of friends) and luck me I am the captain, and I have to say for the first week, for a bunch of people who have either never played, rarely played, or just haven't played in a long time, we did well and I am proud of my team.

Now for the interesting news, I quit my job today - something that is probably a couple of months over due, but none the less has now happened, and I feel good about it. So now I am in the planning stages of a little 3 week holiday away from Vancouver. I will be going to seattle first (planned for the first weekend I have finished work), from there I will come back and play soccer for the wednesday before flying out to Montreal - and hopefully make it to the Canadian F1 race, followed by me heading off Toronto and Niagra Falls - look out East Canada here I come!!!! I am really looking forward to this little trip, something I had hoped to do at some point in time, and now have a chance to do.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE

2007-04-29T02:44:00.000+01:00

I finally found a place to watch the world cup (had I known about it before this week, I would have been there regularly while the WC was on.

Anyway I was up at 6 am this morning about to get out of bed to go down to the Indian place to watch it, when I noticed that it was being delayed by rain, so I stayed in bed for another hour before finally getting up and getting ready to go down to the place. Got down there and had to wait another 1.5 hours until it finally started. Man I have never seen Gilly in such good form to produce such a brilliant innings. And I have never been so happy to be watching the Cricket, having gone all winter without seeing on game, and only being able to read it via the cricinfo website. But I digress, it was a great atmosphere, as there were a few Aussies, a lot of Sri Lankans and some Indians/Pakistanis. Had a few beers and some good lunch provided by the proprietor's of the restaurant. - Will have to go back there to enjoy some of their other food sometime.

But in the end AUSTRALIA won ... a deserved winner of a weird tornie ... but I must say that the two best sides from the whole WC did make it to the finals, and there was at least pasts of a competition happening during the match.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!!!!!

Calgary Roadtrip

2007-04-17T03:23:00.000+01:00

I finally got out of Vancouver and BC last weekend and went on a road trip with Georgie (my roommate) and Monique (a friend) to Calgary. We left Friday afternoon and drove 11 hours to get there through the Rockies at night (with rain and fog - probably not the greatest idea but worthwhile none the less). Didn't get to see much of the Rockies on the way over, and I was given the task of driving the last 3 hours or so through the last bit of the Rockies into Calgary - Monique drove the first 7.5 hours (the driving machine she is).

It was definitely worth the trip, even though Calgary is very brown this time of year, and we have a whirlwind tour of the city. Went to the actual city centre, then the Calgary zoo, then back into the city again for a few drinks at a pub (was a good day and night).

Then on Sunday we left at about 11am for the trip home. On the way home we got to finally see the Rockies in daylight - they are something well worth seeing if you ever get the chance. On the way home we called into Banff then Lake Louis - all worthwhile a visit and very touristie - it was what we were there for anyhow, so figured we might aswell be tourists. Lake Louis was still well and truly frozen over, but looked absolutely fantastic and will have to go back during the summer to see it unfrozen aswell.

For dinner we called into a small coal mining town (sorry don't remember the name of it) and have a really nice meal - after we left I was driving again and unfortunately we ended up getting stuck between 4 trucks at one point in time for about 1/2-3/4 of an hour. It was't until we were gifted a nice long straight stretch of road without any on-coming traffic that we were able to finally pass (I gunned it straight pass both of trucks in front of me). After that it was fairly plain sailing with a lot of overspeed happening to put distance between us and the trucks so that if we had to stop again we wouldn't get stuck behind them again.

Eventually we got back into Vancouver and home again at about 11pm. It was a great trip and worthwhile, albeit a very whirlwind visit (22hours driving for about 31 hours in Calgary). So now goes the planning of the next one somewhere else - most likely down to Seattle this time (maybe) will keep you posted.

Flowers for Food

2007-04-08T22:52:00.000+01:00

On Friday while I was walking home from town (the skytrain was having issues so I got off at the Stadium Station and walked the rest of the way home), anyway along the way I came across this homeless guy panhandling cars for cash to be able to buy some food to eat. Anyway I asked if he wanted something to eat which he did and we went to Macca's for a meal. Along the way as we were chatting he was telling me about this deal he and another lady had arranged with florists to take all their discarded flowers and he is allow to hand them out in return for donations - hence the "Flowers for Food" website and program was started. Have a look at the website and read about the foundation of the actual idea behind this - and how one lady saw his approach and decided to help in arranging better flowers etc for him to hand out in exchange for change.

I have to go back sometime as well and have another chat to him again as I promised him (he was a really great guy and very generous, even though he had little as he is at the same time looking after a young fella who is a drug addict and trying to help him realise the reality of living on the streets and issues and problems which arise due to that.

EASTER

2007-04-08T18:55:00.000+01:00

HAPPY EASTER

To those who celebrate Easter - Happy Easter and God Bless.
To those who don't but get to enjoy the holiday have a great long weekend.
To those who aren't in countries who celebrate Easter or believe other things that I just hope that you have/had a nice weekend.

Fun but Sore

2007-04-08T07:27:00.000+01:00

So I finally got up Cypress mountain again today from the second time to go snowboarding. It was fun and I am getting better each run. I signed up to have my second lesson and paid the normal rate for a private lesson as I was the only one in the class (bonus for me). But of cause I fell a bit, completely wipeout on my last run of the bad and wacked my head on the hardish snow which was not a good thing to do.

So this weekend has been fun with snowboarding and all, and there is the second Open House public gathering tomorrow which should be good, and interesting to see how it goes. I'll try and give a bit of a run down on here afterwards if I remember.

I am also heading over to Calgary next weekend for just the weekend and a road trip to get there - its about a 10hr drive to get there from Vancouver. But we get free accomodation once we get there so it should be all good.

Currently I am in the End Cafe where Georgie (my second roommate) works - tis Cuban night so there someloud Cuban music and a lotta salsa dancing going on, quite interesting and fun to watch.

Parents About to Leave

2007-03-28T06:53:00.000+01:00

Well, I have had a nice full last 2 weeks with my sister and parents here. My sister left on Sunday to go back home to Tokyo, and my parents leave tomorrow morning to head back to Tokyo for about 6 days before heading home to Oz. It's been good having them here and I have enjoyed the time that they have been here, and the free meals I have been getting:) (Nothing better than a free meal).

Anyway I'll see them off at the Hotel tomorrow as they are getting the airport bus to YVR and so tomorrow morning will be the last time I get to see them again for a little over 1/2 a year at this stage. While they were hear we headed over to Victoria on Vancouver island where it rained all day on the Saturday, but cleared up a little and stopped raining on the Sunday for us to enjoy the Burchart Gardens, and heading back on the ferry to Vancouver. Then last Saturday we headed up to Whistler for the day just to look around (I didnt get any snowboarding in, but that was ok), it pissed down all the time that we were there, so I was kinda glad that I hadn't gone up to snowboard in the rain.

Hopefully this weekend on Sunday I will again get to go up to Cypress for a second lesson andmy second day snowboarding - that is the plan and aim at the moment, so we will wait and see whether that happens or not - it should and if anyone in Vancouver is reading this then you are more than welcome to come and join me/us in going to Cypress for the day to snowboard.

Parents and Sister

2007-03-16T04:11:00.000Z

Well, my parents arrived safely on Tuesday (all be it to a lovely welcome oncewe had reached the hotel adn then left - some guy was walking in the opposite direction and said "Get out the way or get a punch in the face". Great welcome for them really, but thats Vancouver for you.

My sister arrive today safely all be it 30 minutes late as her plane was delayed, and it has been nice visiting them the last 3 days, and this weekend we are all off over to Vancouver Island and Victoria for the Saturday and Sunday, so there will be a whole bundle of new photo's on my website, and probably a nice new entry as well to go along with it.

1.40am

2007-03-12T08:38:00.000Z

Well it's 1.40 am on Sunday night and I have to get up in about 6hours to go to work, but I can't sleep, not sure why, but my brain seems to just want to run through a whole bundle of scenarios at the moment. I don't really know whats going on at the moment, things all seem to be in a bit of a wierd place at the moment. Work, girls, church, life in general.

What to do, what to do. At least I have to comfort of knowing that M&D and V are arriving this week to visit for the next 2 weeks, and that the world cup cricket is about to start on Tuesday as well, for the next about 6 weeks. Luckily I have a friend (Lisa) who has a TV (for those of you who don't know I do not have a TV over here and have lived without one for the last 4 months since I got here - I have seen a little bit of TV but not much) which has access to the channels which it is playing on (so I have already told her, I'm going to be around there a lot over the period of the world cup). - Hmmmm maybe I should warn her it's going to be going on until the end of April!!! :)

Anyway, what to do. Things work in one direction, and then suddenly they seem to change and I don't know in what way they decide to change to or even sometime when they decided to change. God know's, and I do wish he'd let me in on it sometimes. Maybe yes, maybe no - I dunno, I want something to happen, but I don't really know if anything will happen. Maybe nothing is good?? I dunno and I'm so confused and still being awake at 1.50 Monday morning isn't helping to clear my head of these things either.

Maybe things will get clearer tomorrow once I've had a bit of sleep, gone to work and then cooked dinner for the 3 of us?? Who knows, either way all I know at the moment is that I just want to get some sleep.

Blog Updates

2007-03-06T06:56:00.000Z

So, I have finally had a chance to up date my photo's and add some new photo's. Unfortunately there won't be any new photo's until my parents get here with my camera. Which will be mid next week (March 13h), which is soo cool, I get to see my parents again and do some stuff with them, and get a nice care package of lotsa food care of them which they are bringing over for me, and my sister is also arriving Thursday next week as well (March 15ht) which is also really kewl.

So things are currently going well over here, people are coming and going, things are consistantly changing in lotsa ways which can be good and bad at the same time. The tOH starts their new meeting this week (tomorrow Tuesday March 6th) at Kristens place, which will be interesting to see how it will go, I plan on going as it is closer to home for me, so I have to travel less which will be nice as for the last couple of weeks it has been taking me up to 50 minutes on the bus and then another 20-30 minutes of walking to get to Kyle and Anna's place for Church. Not it will be just a 30-40minute bus ride and then a 5-10 minute walk to Kristen's. I think it will be good and will go well, as those who I know are looking at going to the new meeting are looking forward to having a smaller group again and interested in growing it aswell (not that those who aren't going don't want that).

So all things are interesting and changing at the moment, and I'm looking forward to having visitors and going up to Whistler with my parents and sister - Yay

Snowboarding

2007-02-19T02:11:00.000Z

Well I finally got up the mountain and went snowboarding today. I am sour and a little battered, but over all I'm fine (my wrists are killing me even with wrist-gards on which I got at lunch time;)) I had a huge amount of fun and did a beginners lesson, and ended up after lunch boarding down the bunny run with one of the girls from the lesson. Kept each other company for the journey and had someone who could relate to our own face plants.

I wanna go again and do the second lesson so I can learn to properly turn on the snowboard rather than just moving backwards and forwards on the thing. But that is my currently most exciting news. That and I finally move offices on Monday (finally after 5 weeks of being told I was moving).

We FINALLY have a place

2007-01-30T20:15:00.000Z

Well, Mel and I got offered and took a place today. It's in a basement again (but cheaper than what I'm paying now) and it's only a 1-2 minute walk to Broadway so when I move offices I only have to go a short distance to catch the bus to work. It's also really close to Commercial drive and skytrain station. It's brilliant and about time. I'm stoked, Mel's stoked and now we can have a place that is ours, and I feel at home in enough to invite people around for a party/poker.