The Space Strider

Into a Wild Coma

2009-04-05T19:12:00.007+10:00

After a quiet rock star farewell I have headed off to Cooma, or Coma as many people (not locals) seem to call it. In spite of the reputation Cooma is actually a very friendly and interesting little town. What makes it interesting is the people. I'm not sure if it's the higher altitude but people have a part of jovial quirkiness mixed in with the standard country town demeanour.

The first thing I have discovered is how strange it is having two extra hours in every day from reduced work travel. Basically I have to take up pastimes. And I am taking suggestions so feel free to post them. So far exercise is the main one.

Many people have asked for photos so I'll post a few of those instead of rambling on about Cooma. I hope your strides are taking you all to interesting places.

My house

My house and manual ute

My office

My office hallway

My office building

Running amok in Cooma

2009-03-19T15:56:00.003+11:00

Hello everyone. As an aside does anyone remember the guy with the really deep voice who used to be on ABC Classic FM. That "Hello everyone" used to piss me off no end. Possibly because I associated that smugness with hours of painful classical music.

Anyway back to the update. SMECians including myself recently went on a graduate trip to Cooma. There were some interesting nights and sights during the day. Of particular night was a 3am trip to Cooma's McDonalds. Upon arriving there our group of 10 discovered about 3 couples all copulating at various stages in the gutter. No, literally in the gutter. I'm still not sure whether to be impressed or disgusted. Either way the people need to discover the beautiful thing that is grass. Here is a pic of the group of us with the Snowy Mountains behind us:

Cooma must have been good because I'm now taking a 3 month posting there with work. Will be working with scale models of dams to determine how they function in flood. I'd love to tell you more but to coin a phrase "I know nothing!". If I remember I will tell you all about it when I finish.

In the mean time I have been spending my time working, playing Fallout 3, doing a bit of home improvement, and some random schenanigans. (Did you know that word is in the Microsoft dictionary? I know, I was surprised too!). I cant take that much with me to Cooma so I will probably be bored stiff so email me with your updates and check out the links on the left if you have time.

RLR

Da Sis Big 21st

2008-11-08T11:51:00.005+11:00

Hi All,
Spring has been springing for a while and hayfever and birthday fever have been in the air. As well as a number of birthday parties the Spring Racing Carnival has provided a variety of entertainment in the form of drunken boys and girls dressed in their finest. So far the highlight was the girl squatting behind the car, in second place was the guy leaning on a post at a 45 degree angle but it's not over yet. I have begun the long but rewarding task of painting the front of the house, well parts of it anyway. Was starting to look a bit scrappy and it's amazing what a few new coats can do.

The big birthday celebration was the Queen of Mongeese herself. Having a sister turn 21 is a strange moment when you realise she is not so much of a baby sister any more. I'm sure some people have witnessed this before. A little unsettling but a fantastic night and a few photos are below.

Two final things, I am involved in growing a mo for Movember and am offering a vote on the look of the facial hair (as well as the obvious donations to cancer & depression). To sponsor me go to this link: https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1506581&country=au or for more info click on the mo button to the left of screen. The other is that I will be back in Canberra from the 20th of Dec till 4th of Jan for the Christmas break. Look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible then.
:P

Winter Worries (or the lack of)

2008-06-05T11:15:00.007+10:00

Hi Everyone,
Hard to believe it's been over 6 months since my last post. Since then we have moved into the house, furnished it with stuff (thanks Rinski), unpacked (mostly :S) and got to know the area. Kensington is a suburb of halves with an older eastern half that's been around for yonks and newer western half that is only 10-15 years old. We are in the western part and a 10 minute walk from a few different train stations and tram lines. Take a peak on Google Maps if you like.

Work is going really well. I have been working with the Water Resources section at SMEC and doing some really interesting stuff. Some of the jobs so far have been: designing road drainage, designing stormwater networks, calculating retarding basin volumes. Still visiting Bendigo every once in a while but mostly have been local. Doing a lot of work in computer programs like 12d, DRAINS and HECRAS which has been of particular interest for me being computer related. Didn't think I really had any knowledge of computers until I started here. Being the youngest in the group means supposedly I am IT support :)

We have both had colds in the last week but I think I should shake it off in the next day or so. Looking forward to setting up the gym equipment that we won from a Nutri-grain packet in our garage. So I hope that gives you an idea what's gone on recently. Obviously these are just some highlights, also planning to visit Canberra in October for a big 21st birthday party. Should be there for at least 4 or 5 days so see you then if not before.

I was asked to add a few more photos so here is a couple. Introducing James and I after a few drinks. Second is a group of my work mates all out for a duel birthday/farewell celebration.

A House of the Town

2007-11-10T13:50:00.000+11:00

Hi Everyone,
Wanted to let you all know that we have bought a little townhouse in Kensington. As you can imagine we are really excited. We should be moving in mid-December. So after that you will all have even more of a reason to come and visit :D Here's a picture:
If you would like more pictures (or the address) then just email and ask.

Should also update you on Christmas plans. Currently I'm flying up to Canberra on the 21st and back on the 1st. I really want to see as many people as possible so send me an email and let me know when you will be in town.

Best wishes and I hope you are happy and well.
NS

Hiho, hiho we're off to Bendigo

2007-08-13T16:58:00.000+10:00

Well it's all good news since my previous posts. We have moved out of the crazy house and into a much nicer place in Glenhuntly (in the southeast for all you canberrans) with Audrey's sister. Not only that but one of the three possible job offers actually came through and so now I'm working for SMEC. Acronym for the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, SMEC does consulting work for large civil engineering projects. Hydro is obviously where they started but they now are into roads, dams, bridges, water treatment and environmental projects. Currently I am in the water infrastructure group which focuses on aspects of water and sewerage treatment. Had a few little tastes of things in the first weeks before they shipped me off to Bendigo to help with a part of the planned upgrades of their water treatment plants. The company seems really hard working but friendly and sounds like a great place to get into some work.

Bendigo is so far a little boring but that is mostly my fault as the town is over 90,000 people I think. Not knowing anyone here and not really having the guts to just walk into a bar and meet people, I have spent most of my time working and reading. Will probably only be here a few more days though before I run back to Melbourne.

Sal is visiting this weekend so that's exciting so I hope you will all do the same at some point. If you do we now have a place to take you and even a mattress to sleep you on so no excuses :P. Keep in touch, sorry for the slow email responses to people in the last few weeks but since we moved I have no internet at home. Will all be fixed soon :)

Melbourne Update Part III: The City of Melbourne

2007-06-18T11:41:00.000+10:00

So by now you have probably read the two previous updates and heard the news stories about this morning's shootings. In fact just when I thought the mafia was going out of fashion it seems they are making a resurgence at least in the theories of media columnists. This, to me, is strange because the vibe of Melbourne is far more inviting and friendly than other cities I have visited. The only one I can properly compare is Sydney where the vibe I found was far more chaotic and tense. So far I have found the people of Melbourne to be pretty friendly, highly diverse (particularly racially) and an interesting cross between being busy and laid back. They love their restaurants almost as much as Canberrans and love their football (AFL elsewhere) more than anywhere.

I have so far been to one AFL game with a Carlton supporter where Carlton scored a big upset over Port Adelaide. This game had a small crowd of only 30,000 people in Telstra dome but even so the atmosphere was exciting particularly when the mainly Carlton crowd all roared for a big goal.

I have also been to a few restaurants but with the massive selection I can hardly hope to have as good a knowledge of the places to eat than I had in Canberra. So far their Italian and Greek food seems to be some of the best.

The geography of the city is particularly interesting as it has grown far more strongly in the east. Rail lines go out from the city like spokes on a wheel and the suburbs are arranged into zones for rail ticket pricing. We have only travelled within zone 1 which encapsulates suburbs within a 30 minute train ride to the city. The Yarra river runs Northeast from the city centre and between it and Port Phillip Bay in the South is the greatest growth, largest number of people and most expensive places to live. The West on the other hand is typically more industrial and contains far cheaper housing except along the coast.

We are in Essendon which is part of the Northern section between the river and the airport in the North-west. It takes us around 20 minutes by train to reach the city and Audrey gives herself around 45 minutes to get to work in the suburb of North Melbourne.

Aside from the shopping that all the girls are excited about there are lots of good things to do around the place. Sport, concerts and theatres are all at a higher level in terms of busyness. The weather has been pretty average as it seems we brought rain with us somehow. Chris told me it would be four seasons in one day and that has been the case a few times already. But baring the terrible insulation on this old house we have been able to cope with the temperatures. Although nights are warmer the sun definitely does not warm much during the day.

All in all we have enjoyed our first month. I apologise for the enormous length of these updates but the next ones will be far more succinct. I hope you all enjoy hearing about it. I would enjoy hearing about how things are going up there if you can update me.

Best wishes and stay in touch.

Melbourne Update Part II: The Job Hunt

2007-06-15T12:26:00.000+10:00

Ok so I've given you a background of basically our only difficulties. Now the job challenge.

I contacted the three major players in the environmental engineering consulting arena in Melbourne before I left. Then waited it out for the first week I was here. Although there was some initial interest from GHD they did not follow up.

Audrey spent the first two weeks applying for jobs mostly on Seek but also a few from the paper. In all she applied for over 60 positions! Of those about 10% followed up for an interview, 30% declined an interview and the rest did not reply. In only her third week she had an interview with a small company called Macutex for the position of Operations Manager which she has taken and is very happy with.

So after my week of waiting I gave up and applied much more broadly to both job agencies and to a range of large engineering companies. I probably only sent out 30 applications and so far have had about 20% interviews but I think that was because of the more narrow focus of the field compared to Audrey. Had about the same number of applications declined and the other 60% or so unanswered. Also just this week I have had some contact with one of the companies I contacted a month ago. So after all that the current situation is that I have three interviews that have got to "2nd round" status. I think (and hope) that the results of these should be known by the end of the month and that I will get an offer from at least one of them.

But not wanting to count my chickens I will hold off on further details until I get something official. While it has been a little nerve wracking it's also given me a chance to think about exactly what field of the environment to go into. Hope this satisfies people's questions for now, I will let you know as soon as I have more news on this topic :)

Stay tuned for the last part, Part III: The City of Melbourne.

Melbourne Update Part 1: The House

2007-06-14T13:17:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone,
Yes I have finally got around to updating you all on how this crazy expedition is going. Seeing as there is a lot to tell I'll do it in 3 parts.

The house we are staying in is a fairly large place in Essendon along a semi major road. We are sharing with three other people who couldn't be more different. The first is a 17yo blonde girl called Amelia from Ballarat who is pretty quiet but friendly. The second is Warren a guy in I guess his mid 30s who runs marathons, works as a storeman by day and loves his sport. He is pretty friendly too and his most unusual attribute is the enormous meals he eats at night. E.g. last night he ate 5-6 toasted sandwiches full of potato, corn, devon and cheese. And last but not least is the landlady who can be friendly but would be better described as an old, grumpy, racist, tightarse, teacher who likes to leave notes on every single thing in the house and chastise you whenever you do something that she construes as wrong. I think the best way to demonstrate this is with examples:

1. She put a note on the bin saying that we should empty it when full (and it was). So I empty it and next thing there is a note on the bin saying how a new bag should be put into the bin (as I had forgot).
2. She refuses to allow us to use the landline despite us paying for bills and when I ask about internet she insists I pay her an extra $30 a month to use the slow adsl connection that is being shared by 3 people.
3. She makes us keep all our food posessions in one box which is a tad challenging for two people.
4. She claims to be an environmentalist by insisting we have very short showers, and turning everything off etc but then goes and buys appliances with 1 1/2 star ratings.
5. She lectures Amelia about having someone over to visit for security reasons when it is her cousin.
6. She rummages through our few fridge items and wraps or removes anything she doesn't quite like the look of (e.g. onions). In fact we are not even allowed to put onion scraps in the kitchen bin and have to take immediately out to the green collection bin outside.

So that gives you an idea. There are many others but this post is long enough already. Instead I am running a competition called "How to know when you should move out of a share house." Feel free to leave comments/entries. Rosslyn in particular should have a few things to say about cockroaches.

Stay tuned for Part II: The Job Hunt

Turning over a leaf

2007-05-24T14:26:00.000+10:00

So the title of this update is for two reasons. Firstly I am incredibly slack and have not been updating this blog anywhere near as often as I should so I plan to change that. Secondly the result of the last post is that I am now living in Melbourne. I know it's huge news and to many people it came as a surprise and sooner than they expected. So my next update will be to tell you all about where I am living now and what I'm up to.

But first a recap:
Jan 26: Australia Day (Triple J Hottest 100 BBQ)
Somehow (i think the competitors were hungover) I managed to win the top 10 competition this year. But it was a fun day and I hope it continues in my absence.

Feb 3: Audrey's birthday bash
Despite obvious problems with indian food she insisted on celebrating it at the very tasty Rama's restaurant. A good spicy night was had by almost all :)

Mar 17: Liz's 21st
One of my fabulous friends had an equally exotic 21st party where we all had to dress up from the Moulon Rouge. Much wackiness was to be had including someone with a windmill on their head.

Apr 1: First ever protest march
I had never been on a protest march before so what the heck. This one was an anti nuclear one and the collection of people was smallish (50?) but were all sorts of interesting people. After a nice walk and a chant there were talks from people including an old lecturer of mine and some music. Definitely something everyone should try at least once.

So they are the photo ops from the last few months (when I've remembered to take a camera). All the pictures from the events are in a general folder called 'stuff' in my webalbum http://picasaweb.google.com/oznightshade

So enjoy those for now and very soon I will give you all the low down on my first weeks in Melbourne. Feel free to add comments both to this post and to the pictures in the album.

Choices, choices so many choices?

2007-03-08T18:54:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone,
I figured that I hadn't updated this blog since I got back from OS so its time to play.... PICK A DIRECTION!

Yes I'm debating my next moves and looking to make a decision about where I go next. So if you have views, ideas or just random comments then just click on that comment button.

Choices are...
A) Brisbane
B) Melbourne
C) Canberra
D) Perth (well not really)

Lots of luvin,
NS.

Home, home on the range...

2006-12-14T10:03:00.000+11:00

Yes I have made it back! Not too battered and bruised so that's good. Definitely a great time and a learning experience overseas. Highlights have been:

The Swiss countryside with the alps and lakes
Eating real Italian pizza
Beer guzzling at Ockoberfest
Getting surrounded by stuffed animals at the Vienna Natural History Museum
Meeting great people on our Topdeck tour
Cruising the Greek isles with Audrey
Being inside an active, smoking volcano crater
Seeing the beautful Loch Ness
Strolling around Sherwood forest and seeing the 1000 year old Major Oak
Stone Henge

Overall a great time with great people. But I still love Australia if not more so than before and all you crazy people are one of the reasons for that. So email me and tell me whats been going on. Catch up sessions and webpage updates will abound.

Also there are some new photos in my Europe Trip Album. Finally for anyone keeping track of my hair experiment I started off with a max length of 3mm and ended up with over 2 inches after 3 months so that's about 1/2 a millimeter per day :)

Final Week!!!

2006-12-11T20:42:00.000+11:00

Monday4/12 - Cambridge, England
Went to King's College chapel which was good even without the singers. We found the place where Bec's grandfather used to work and then had difficulty finding a place for lunch. Cambridge is definitely crying out for some more food shops as the lines everywhere were huge. Afterwards we went to Trinity college but it was closed and of course the rain began to bucket down so we beat a hasty retreat to the internet cafe.

Tuesday 5/12 - Cambridge, England
Went to Trinity college first and saw the statue holding a table leg. Then headed to the Round Church which had a good history of England and church. Also found that Norse gods were the reasons for some days of the week. Thor=Thursday, Freya=Friday, Woden=Wednesday and Tiw=Tuesday. Then went back to Trinity for the now open Wren Library which has many interesting exhibits including some of Newtons work including his first edition of Principalia Mathmatica. Saw the parkland called the Backs and at night had the very great pleasure of watching England getting trounced on the last day of the 2nd Ashes test.

Wednesday 6/12 - Cambridge to Canterbury
Today sucked. Train and tube failures meant we didnt get to Canterbury till mid afternoon and at night Bec was really sick from something she ate. I blame the olives cause I didnt eat them. The less said about this day the better.

Thursday 7/12 - Canterbury, England
Feeling better after a good nights sleep we hit Canterbury Cathedral, the centre of Anglican worship in the world. This three stepped building is chock full of history of which we heard a decent chunk of from an aging but very knowledgable lady. Like St Peters in Rome you could spend inordinate amounts of time studying the various places and pieces of art but we went with the shock and awe tactic which worked well. Following this we went to Westgate museum where I tried on some armour and then to Canterbury Tales which was a little strole through medieval Canterbury's sights and smells.

Friday 8/12 - Canterbury, England
Failing to book accommodation in London meant that we had to commute but with free train travel on our Brit rail it wasnt a big deal. The trip takes about 1.5 hours so we tried to fit as much into the few hours of daylight as possible. First spent an hour in London's Natural History museum and saw my 3rd real Dodo skeleton as well as many other things including a good exhibit on people's environmental impact. Then made our way to Lord's to catch the 2pm tour where we were shown around by a posh old english member of the club. He showed us all parts of the ground including the players rooms and 'real' tennis courts.

Saturday 9/12 - Canterbury, England
Train into London again and this time made our way to Greenwich which to our Canadian friend's annoyance is pronounced Grenich not Green Witch. Just missed the giant red ball dropping much to Bec annoyance but we did see many things from a busy time in Astronomy and time keeping including Harrisons H1-H5 clocks. Following this we went for a quick visit to the National Maritime Museum and saw some of the biggest boat models I've ever seen.

Sunday 10/12 - Canterbury to London
Moved all our things into the bustling London Globetrotter Inn and organised some stuff for tomorrows fly out. Whipped out to Portobello Road in the afternoon to find some Knick Nacks but most of the stalls had closed up because of the bad weather. From the looks of things it is only getting worse so it's probably a good time to leave.

Well that's all folks. My next update will be when I'm back in sunny Canberra. As soon as I get a decent computer I promise I'll upload all the last 2 months of photos onto the web so you can all see them. See you soon ;)

Month 3 - Week 4

2006-12-05T05:11:00.000+11:00

Monday 27/11 - Bath, England
Started the day with Bath's main tourist attraction, the Roman Baths. These are a complex layered set of ruins on top of an underground aquifer that pumps out something like 1/2 a million gallons of hot water per day. Next we went to Bath Cathedral which was, like many, on top of a bunch of previous cathedrals. Next we went to the house of Jane Austen which in the end turned out to be down the street from one of a large number of places she lived in. Nevertheless the information and history of the immensly tallented author was pretty compelling. Found a shop full of miniature dolls house bits including biscuit cutters max 5mm across.

Tuesday 28/11 - Bath to Salisbury
Much quicker train trip today and managed to see a bit of Salisbury before getting to the hostel. Major event of the day for me was seeing the new Bond movie, Casino Royale which was even better than I had expected. A good mix of classic Bond elements as well as a few new ones such as fallability.

Wednesday 29/11 - Salisbury, England
Today's big plan was Stonehenge and fortunately the weather did not disappoint. Caught a 40min bus out there and then walked with an audio guide around the amazing monument. A couple of the things that struck me about it were that very little is known about it for sure and that it somehow has strong spiritual, natural and geometric beauty. For me this was emphasised when I saw a huge painting of what it probably looked like when it was made.

Thursday 30/11 - Salisbury to Oxford
3 or so train jumps to oxford in the mid-morning but we made the mistake of trekking across town to the guesthouse. Back on our feet later although Bec's ankle is a bit worse for wear. The town is definitely a student city and we looked around a bit and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere (and some more good cider).

Friday 1/12 - Oxford, England
Lots of things to see so we started at the introduction to tourists called the oxford story. This carted us around and taught us some history at the same time. Generally it seems Oxford has been centered around the university, sometimes to a fault as summer holidays would shut down businesses. The museum was closed so we went to the Natural History museum instead. Aside from the Oxford dodo (my 2nd for the trip :)) the array of dinosaurs and animals was imprssive. Particularly the skeletons cause you really saw how different they are from current species. Tonight's cider was called Savana from South Africa.

Saturday 2/12 - Oxford, England
First today we went to one of the university colleges called Christ Church college. Many hugely famous people have gone here including Lewis Carroll, one of my favourite writers. Next to the Bodleian library who's structure was only exceeded by the £6 entry fee. Having seen an amazing library in Dublin already we instead went to the interesting (and free) museum. Exhibits ranged from Pre-historic axeheads to Morris Minor factory lines. Then tried to get into another college, Magdalene, but unfortunately it was closed for interviews.

Sunday 3/13 - Oxford to Cambridge
Via London we made our way to the other university city of Cambridge. Despite missing lunch we went quickly to check if King's College had services running but the term has finished and so we sadly miss out on the experience. Nevertheless we made up for it by polishing off a few of Englands answer to the meat pie, the cornish pasty, before a night of movies etc.

Today is World Aids day so even if you are not donating, click on the ribbon link to the left to check out some of the info on the world epidemic. One week to go...

Month 3 - Week 3

2006-11-27T22:38:00.000+11:00

Monday 20/11 - York, England
Light rain but headed to our main destination anyway, Yorkminster. Even though I'm pretty over cathedrals this was pretty impressive. We were given a guided tour before heading into the crypts. In there were the remains of the Norman and Roman buildings that had stool on the same locations centuries earlier. Failing to see and ghosts we left and walked along the city walls and then to a Viking display called Yorvik. Cider of the day was one called Scrumpy Jack.

Tuesday 21/11 - York to Edwinstowe
An earlyish start but still had to wait a while in the cold for a train to Derby. Some train stations are better located on the network than others. Then from Derby to Nottingham where despite my best efforts I couldn't spot the Sherriff. After some difficulties we managed to find the bus to Sherwood forest. Had dinner with 3 other Australians who were the only other people staying in the hostel. Chatted about everything from immigration to horses in space.

Wednesday 22/11 - Edwinstowe, England
After a hostel brekky we headed into the nearby Sherwood Forest. The main tree type is the English Oak but there are patches of pine. We began at the info centre where we learnt about the history, flora, fauna and plans for the forest with an obvious emphasis on Robin Hood. After this we saw the Major Oak a 1000 year old Oak tree that was very humbling. Wandered through the forest and then got to the cafe as it began to rain. Later headed into town for internet and food.

Thursday 23/11 - Edwinstowe to Stratford
Made our own breakfast then caught the bus into Nottingham and the train to Birmingham. For some reason you have to walk across the city to change stations so we arrived in Stratford in the mid afternoon. At the information center we found that accomodation was pretty full and seeing as the hostel was £50 a room we got a B&B closer for only a bit more. At night there was a market on and they were lighting the Christmas lights. We sung carols, listened to boring speeches and witnessed a generally shambolic event. Tried Weston's Old Rosie and Perry cider of which the Perry made from pear was the better.

Friday 24/11 - Stratford upon Avon, England
Started the day buying tickets from the Royal Shakespeare theatre and info center. Got on a "Hop on and off" bus and went to three Shakespearean locations. Hall's Croft the house of William's son-in-law, Anne Arden's farm in the country and then to Shakepeare's birthplace. The highlight was seeing a falconry with many varieties of owl and bird of prey. Also learnt a stack about the man himself which was interesting. After dinner we went to "A Winter's Tale" at the famous Swan Theatre. £5 for standing tickets and we were in the midst of the actors as they performed around us. This and the quality of the Royal Shakespeare Company made it a fantastic experience.

Saturday 25/11 - Stratford upon Avon, England
Caught a bus to Warwick and made our way to Warwick castle. Climbed towers, saw a torture chamber, an armory and a Victorian marriage celebration exhibit by Madame Toussaudes. This took most of the day before Thai and movies.

Sunday 26/11 - Stratford to Bath
Got to the train station at 10 only to find the first train was at 12. Things went from bad to worse when we got to Banbury and found the line cut and 100 people waiting for the replacement bus. Ended up going via London and arrived in Bath at 6. Moral of the story is don't travel on Sundays. Funny point: Bath train station is called Bath Spa.

Two weeks to go!

Month 3 - Week 2

2006-11-23T01:37:00.000+11:00

Monday 13/11 - London, England
Early start and headed to Victoria to get tickets to the one musical I really wanted to see. Bec tried to find a coat and then we went to Hanley's, supposedly the biggest toystore in the world. 5 levels of toys was pretty impressive. Plus they had the remakes of "Monster in my Pocket" for sale. Then we went to an equally impressive Science museum which we saw about 5% of in 2 hours. Particularly interesting was a line up of 30-40 aeroplane engines from 1900 to today. Later to the theatre for "Wicked" which was defintely the best musical I have seen. You cant beat the production methods of Lion King but Wicked had the best plot, acting, songs and singing.

Tuesday 14/11 - London to Edinburgh
Caught up with a mutual friend for breakfast at King's Cross station. Jumped on a train to Edinburgh which goes every hour. Arrived to pouring rain and darkness at 5:30 so caught a cab to the hostel. It only opened in september so everything was new. Had Magners cider for dinner which is pretty common here.

Wednesday 15/11 - Edinburgh, Scotland
Few spots of rain as we headed to the supermarket and information centre. Booked tickets and then headed to Edinburgh castle. Got an audio guide and hid under objects listening to the complex history of the castle. Taken and retaken by English and Scottish armies for centuries and with famous events like the Black Dinner and visits from Mary Queen of Scots. Various war museums, regiment museums and war memorials are now in parts of the castle. As it closed we set a quick pace back to the hostel but the rain had been falling all day and managed to soak us on the 15 min walk. Rain also canceled our ghost tour :(.

Thursday 16/11 - Edinburgh, Scotland
Our day tour of north Scotland started at 8:30 so it was an early cool start at the Royal Mile. Fortunately the mini bus was heated and our tour guide Ally was knowledgable and funny. Started in the lucious lowland pastures but quickly got into the highlands with mountains, lochs and lots of snow. Our lunch destination was Loch Ness and although we didn't see Nessie it was a beautiful place. Got dark at 3:30 on the way back! Got back, had dinner and at 10 we went to the ghost tour spot and with less rain we got some history, witches, torture, and finally the haunted vaults and a big (non ghostly) scare.

Friday 17/11 - Edinburgh to Newcastle
Shopped in the morning and I bought an extremely fashionable beany (read dorky) which has not been off my head since. Then headed to the train which was practically full and we were lucky to get seats. Upon arrival we found the accomodation also booked up because of a Scissor Sisters concert. Eventually found a bit expensive place at the Premier Travel Inn. Woodpecker cider for dinner which was a bit sweeter but tasty.

Saturday 18/11 - Newcastle to Haltwistle
Caught a train into the village of Hexham which we planned to stay in. However after a recommendation from the info centre we got back on a train and went to an even smaller village called Haltwistle which is close to Hadrian's wall. Also saw a 1303 "Old Gaol" and abbey in Hexham.

Sunday 19/11 - Haltwistle to York
Caught an early taxi to a fort on Hadrians wall. The old Roman fort was in surprisingly good condition (that's Roman construction for you). Looked around it and a small museum for an hour and then walked along the wall. 6 miles to drive which would be fine except the path is both windier and hillier than the road. They built the wall in a position that would make it difficult to assult. After the tough walk and another 2 miles back to the village we caught a train back to Newcastle and then to York.

Month 3 - Week 1

2006-11-21T03:16:00.000+11:00

Monday 6/11 - Rome, Italy
Small market in our street. Explored some of the local area and found that despite being near the main Termini station (or perhaps because of it) there are poor and homeless all time of day and night. After some washing we went to a pizzaria cause I had aimed to have as much Italian pizza as possible while here. Then went to St Peter's Basillica which is deservedly called the home of the Catholic church. The iconography and history is pretty mind blowing as is the amount of effort by so many famous artists. Then went by a fortress of the pope before heading back to the hostel and spending the night chatting and playing cards with an Auzzie couple.

Tuesday 7/11 - Rome to Firenze
Up at 5 and after a brush up headed to Termini for the early train to Florence. Unfortunately our departure station was different from the one we arrived at so we purchased a map and trekked across the city. Lacking luggage storage, Audrey and I had to work in relay to explore and get food. Also got our passports thoroughly checked by two border guards that increased our belief that Italy is far more paranoid about illegal immegrants. Met a nice American guy on the dreaded overnight train.

Wednesday 8/11 - Paris to London
Last day in Europe. Train wasn't so bad and we could watch the French countryside going past when we woke up. Did a bit of a Metro shuffle and got to the Eurostar terminal. Spent our Euro change on a paper and found out that there was a train strike. Fortunately this didnt apply to Eurostar and so we whizzed under the English channel in what seemed like only a few minutes. Staying the night in a hostel near Royal Oak (sounds posher than it is).

Thursday 9/11 - London, England
First we went to Leicester Square and bought tickets to Spammalot. Then wandered the city streets, bought Lion King tickets and had lunch in Trafalgar Square. Then went to Hyde park and saw the Squirrels. Started getting dark at 5ish so we went to Harrods and explored 2 of its 5 floors of just about everything. The food section was a buffett lovers dream. After some dinner we saw Spammalot which was really good but our seats were pretty bad. Thats what you get for only paying 15 pounds. Afterwards bumped into to friends from tour and had a drink before resolving to see them tomorrow.

Friday 10/11 - London, England
Met with Adam and Naomi the next day and decided to check out Portobello road. First we got some lunch at an organic burger shop then found this shop with a great selection of collector toys. Afterwards walked down Portobello markets and bought brownie. The markets when for a mile before it started getting dark and we headed back for coffee. Then headed into the city for dinner before seeing Lion King which was an amazing production with so many great techniques that made it worth all the acclaim I had heard about it.

Saturday 11/11 - London, England
Audrey's last day and also Remembrance day but her flight wasn't till 6 so we went and explored the Royal Oak area near the hostel. Found a cinema and decided to see the Prestige, a good but creepy movie about 2 competing magicians. Afterwards we were actually pressed for time but we got to Heathrow with a bit of effort at which point we had a coffee before parting ways :( Then I caught a tube to Hammersmith and after waiting for an hour it turned out Bec was waiting at a different entrance. Headed back to her family friend's place and had good cider and good pie from a good local pub.

Sunday 12/11 - London, England
Most trains not running today so delayed plans and caught up on all we had missed. Had a bit of a walk in the English rain before heading to a 'specialist' burger joint for a great Jalapeno burger.

Next update ASAP.

Month 2 - Week 4

2006-11-11T21:05:00.000+11:00

Monday 30/10 - Hania, Greece
Went to the bus station early but the first bus to Stavros was at 2 so we shopped and caught some internet. After a bit of lunch we headed to the bus and it turned out that Stavros beach was not nearby or a beach as described. Then again I guess I'm comparing to Australia. But the water wasn't cold enough to keep me out so I swam for a while in this sandy cove. Then explored the rocky beach and got followed by 2 wild dogs before the bus back at 5:30. The rain just started to fall as we were walking back to our room.

Tuesday 31/10 - Hania, Greece
Rained all night but stopped in the morning. Went out to see the harbour swell rising over the pavement and flooding the shops. Instead we went into the back streets and got some lunch, shopping and a small museum there. Then the rain started again and we could do nothing but run back to our room.

Wednesday 1/11 - Hania to Athens
Big improvement in the weather. First we went to the mini zoo and saw Cretian goats. Following this we ran into some ww2 monuments about Crete's involvement so we learnt a bit there. Basically they held back the italians but the germans took the island in a week. Audrey continued her goal of eating as much baklava as possible in Greece. Later we bussed to the airport and went to the same hostel in athens as last time. In the bar there we were given many free shots and drinks till by 2 we were both well tipsy and crashed. N.B. Tequlia andMe do not agree.

Thursday 2/11 - Athens, Greece
Saw some of the classy parts of athens including Kollonaki. Went through Plaka to finish our souvenir shopping then sat on the hill leading up to the acropolis until dinner in local taverna.

Friday 3/11 - Athens to Patra
Mid day train to Patra after learning that McDonalds here doesnt sell hotcakes. Had to buy ferry tickets from the port but everything went smoothly.

Saturday 4/11- Bari to Rome
Way cold for some reason when we arrived in Italy. Had to check out the city as we had some spare time before the train. Saw a procession through the streets and a burger with chips in it. \

Sunday 5/11 - Rome, Italy
Psyched for a big day. First we saw Pallatine Hill and wandered through the Forum before going back to the Colloseum. Walked around absorbing the huge structure and saw an exhibit on the Illiad. After 4 hours of walking we wandered back to the shopping part of town for lunch. Also saw the hand eating statue before heading back for free pasta dinner.

Month 2 - Week 3

2006-10-30T21:19:00.000+11:00

Monday 23/10 - Mykonos, Greece
Delos delayed cause monday is their day off. Bought some Greek snacks and ate them by the sea. Headed out at 6 to see the sunset in an area called little Venice. One of the features of Mykonos is the windmills that dot the place. We sat next to one and then after sundown headed back to the Lotus for a great little dinner. Early start so no wine.

Tuesday 24/10 - Mykonos to Santorini
Left early and had to race across the harbour to make out 9 o'clock ferry to Delos. Half hour trip and the ruins didnt disapoint. Literally ruins everywhere, a small museum and a tough climb up the 113m peak of Delos called Mt Kynthos. Caught the noon ferry return and had an hour or two in town before our ferry the "Flying Cat" took us to Santorini. Weren't so lucky with the rooms there (no hot water) but the place was beautiful and we couldn't wait to explore tomorrow.

Wednesday 25/10 - Santorini, Greece
Highlight of the day was hiring a 4 wheeler in the morning and exploring the island. These things are so fun and I recommended it to everyone. We went to a few of the black sand beaches and then drove to the south point of the island. Headed back to the town 'Fira' and then up the hill to catch the sunset over the cliffs.

Thursday 26/10 - Santorini, Greece
Late start and spent the first half of the day shopping. Heaps of jewellry places including one that had an octopus necklace for 5,000 euro. Turned out it had a few carats of diamonds and sapphires overlaying platinum (eek). Headed into town in search of fish which is supprisingly difficult to find. Supposedly our waiter told us this was because the fishermen dont fish in off season so much, go figure. Free shots at the end of the meal tasted of pine.

Friday 27/10 - Santorini to Iraklio
Caught an early cable car down the massive cliffs and jumped on a tour of the surrounding islands. First was an active volcano and that was definitely an awesome sight as we stood on the edge of the central crater. Smoke smelling of sulfur coming out from many spots around the place. Next headed to some hot springs where i took a dip before heading to Thirasia island for lunch. Ferry to Crete in the evening took longer than expected but all worked out in the end.

Saturday 28/10 - Iraklio, Greece
This town is the main port of Crete and Greece's 5th largest city. Main tourist attraction is the nearby Knossos which is where we headed. Wandered around this Minoan palace for a few hours before heading back into the city. Here we found processions in full swing and found that it was a public holiday celebrating Greece's entry into the 2nd world war. Walked around the Archeological museum which was free today and saw some classic artifacts. Had the best lunch ever followed by a nap. Then later wandered the streets and found a pizza hut restaurant serving a pizza base with a whole sausage in the edge. Went elsewhere and saw "The Devil wears Prada" in the local cinema.

Sunday 29/10 - Iraklio to Hania
Caught a bus across the island to a smaller town called Hania. Our plan to see Samaria gorge was thwarted as busses stop in low season. Picked up a room in the Venitian quarter (which many towns seem to have) and explored the streets and harbour a little for the rest of the day.

Leaving Greece soon :(

Month 2 - Week 2

2006-10-23T21:51:00.000+10:00

Monday 16/10 - Cherbourg to Paris
Arrived at the port of Cherbourg at about noon, lost an hour so really 1. Had to quickly jump on a train to Paris but I had time to squeeze in the birthdays of mongeese. Got there mid afternoon andhad to connect with our next leg straight away. Paris underground is pretty good so we got to it a few hours before it left. Time for some good chicken curry (i know its really unfrench but the selection was about as limited as my knowledge of the language). Jumped on the overnight train which really sucked. Worst thing about the trip was getting stopped at the italian border at 4:30 in the morning and having one of the ladies removed shouting from our room because of visa issues.

Tuesday 17/10 - Paris to Milan
Arrived in Milan at 7am. Good metro system but the busses suck and so we got incredibly lost even though we followed directions. Ended up cabing to the hostel. Dingy place but after the crappy sleep on transport it was just fine. Went for a walk into the main city and public park and with the help of a fold out map managed to sort out how the city was laid out and get around pretty easily. Some traditional italian pizza and a good shower and I was all good again.

Wednesday 18/10 - Milan to Bari
After London we weren't taking chances with transport so we got the metro to the train station nice and early with a nice healthy leftover pizza breakfast. Arrived about 5 and jumped in a quick cab despite being offered this dodgy unmarked car as an alternative. Sadly Bari was the port of our next overnight ferry and it was barely better than the last.

Thursday 19/10 - Bari to Athens
Lost an hour in transit but got in around 11am and walked around a bit before lining up a bus direct to Athens. The views on the bus trip were amazing with sea, mountians and islands following us basically the whole trip. Arrived there mid afternoon and again got lost following directions. Found the hostel finally and the owners were friendly. Cleaned up and went into the city which got simpler to navigate once you figured out the basic layout. Went to a funny fast food place called Goody's which is the local version on McDonalds but with much better food. Then had some local sweet pastries before crashing.

Friday 20/10 - Athens, Greece
Good sleep and woke ready to take on Athens. First headed to the Acropolis and bought a pass which allowed us in to heaps of the major attractions. Saw the Temple of Dioseyes, the Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Roman Agora. Had lunch in a traditional greek taverna and then spent the afternoon in the 2 huge parks in the city. Saw turtles, rats and dogs all going about doing their thing. Then went to the parliament building and saw the changing of the guard. Walked through town back to the the hostel. Dinner at a local restarant where I had the local fav souvlaki and house wine in a classy capped bottle. After free shots back at the hostel we crashed.

Saturday 21/10 - Athens to Paros
Fairly early start and got to the local port Pireaus but we had missed the 7am ferry and the next one to the islands was at 5:30. So we wasted a day wandering the streets including walking an hour to the archeological museum which was closed. Finally the ferry got there and 5 hours later we were on Paros in the Greek Isles. Not the one I'd planned but I was pretty relived to have got there. We were immediately approached by a local with a cheap nice room which it seems is the upside of low season.

Sunday 22/10 - Paros to Mykonos
Purchased the first ferry tickets to Mykonos and saw a bit of the main Paros port before being whisked away to another island. Again happily accosted by accomodation owners. After settling in we went for a strole into town and set up transport for the next few days. After a nice lunch on the harbour we decided to take advantage of the good weather to catch a bus to Paradise beach. Unfortunately luck was against us and we ended up walking for a few hours to get to the closer Ornos beach. The water was cold but refreshing, and very salty. Dinner at the reclusive Lotus and ended a busy week with dessert and a bottle of local greek wine sitting on our balcony under the stars.

So there you go, finally here and planning to stay a while and enjoy it.

PHOTOS!!!

2006-10-18T04:07:00.000+10:00

Ok so Ive managed to get our photos online and I think you can access them all at http://picasaweb.google.com/oznightshade/EuropeTrip

If some mongoose could let me know if that doesnt work that would be good.
Enjoy!

Month 2 - Week 1

2006-10-18T01:29:00.000+10:00

Monday 9/10 - London to Dublin
While planned this day quickly went askew when the underground rail that should have taken 15 minutes took over an hour due to signal failure. We had to sweet talk our way onto trains that we were not booked on but in the end managed to get a ferry at Hollyhead bound for Dublin. People seem pretty nice here but the prices are like London. The place we are staying is on one of the main tourist drags called the Temple Pub and there is music and drunk, noisy people on the street below, and this is just Monday :)

Tuesday 10/10 - Dublin, Ireland
Planning day in which we spent the first few hours going from place to place trying to book the next week. Later in the arvo we went to Trinity College and saw the book of Kells which is pretty interesting for a many hundred year old book. After this we went to Christchurch Cathedral and saw the tomb of Strongbow and saw a pretty eeire crypt.

Wednesday 11/10 - Dublin to Killarney
First day of a 3 day tour of Ireland. First we went to Blarney and climbed a few hundred steps to get to the Blarney stone to kiss it. Also the surrounding lands are pretty picturesque. Cobh or Cove as everyone calls is was our next stop and is known more for its history than present. Irish people emigrated via this port in the thousands during the famine in the 1840s. Mostly they went to America and Canada but some went to Australia and New Zealand too.

Thursday 12/10 - Killarney, Ireland
2nd tour day and unexpectedly good Irish weather for a tour around the ring of Kerry. This is a stunning part of Ireland and as we cruised around the west our guide had a lot of knowledge and humour to pass on. Lots of interesting local customs including crowning a wild goat for a drinking festival. Once we were over the smell of peat we headed back and had fish and chips for dinner as well as guiness which was actually pretty tasty.

Friday 13/10 - Killarney to Dublin
Last day of tour and today we went further north. Very popular day tour starting at Bunratty castle which has been fully restored as well as a whole period village surrounding it. Then to Doolin for an Irish pub lunch and Bulmers which is everywhere here. Then to the main attraction the cliffs of Mohar which are reeeeally high and not a place to go if your scared of heights. Then caught the train back to Dublin for the night.

Saturday 14/10 - Dublin to Rosslare
Jumped on the 10am bus to Rosslare which is a port right on the south east tip of Ireland. Unfortunately all it has is the port but this keeps a few businesses going including a supermarket and takeaway which was about all we needed. Had the greasiest fish and chips ever but they were good and due to the lack of pubs or other things to do we watched some Bond, James Bond.

Sunday 15/10 - Rosslare to Cherbourg
Our ferry to France did not leave till 4pm so we had to kill time for a while. Once we were on it was a significant improvement from our last ferry trip (no sickies) but again not much to do on ferries so we crashed in our dodgy ferry chairs and woke each hour (not a recommeded form of travel :).

k so im in transit to Greece at the moe. Hope everything is going well down under (or over if thats where your reading this).

The 1 month update - Week 4

2006-10-14T08:18:00.000+10:00

Monday 2/10 - Prague to Berlin
Drove for a few hours into Dresden. This is a nice city and one of the few places where the buildings suit their surroundings and purpose. The city was completely flattened during the 2nd world war and most of the important buildings have been rebuilt with many of the original stones. Short while later we got to Berlin and had Bratwurst and shnitzel for dinner. Still a bit sick but a bit better.

Tuesday 3/10 - Berlin, Germany
Had a great walking tour from a strange english guy called Gabriel. The streets were quiet which was quite unusual and it turned out that there was a public holiday today celebrating the fall of the berlin wall. Still not on top of our game we took it fairly easy. Walked through a big fair and a giant park in the west of the city. Listened to a huge bell tour playing music in the park. Interesting night including getting flashed by one of the girls who was really drunk.

Wednesday 4/10 - Berlin to Amsterdam
Lots of wind turbines as we headed west. When we did reach Amsterdam we had a time we wont forget easily. It was getting dark and there was a tour into the red light district by our entire group (mostly girls). At one point we went to a live sex show which was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Fortunately I wasn't dragged on stage but many people were. Afterwards we walked around a bit and saw the sights and ate doner kebabs. Some people hit the weed and a few got shrooms and had an 'interesting' experience.

Thursday 5/10 - Amsterdam, Holland
After last night everything was tame but we went on a bike tour of the city (everyone rides bikes here). Then went to the Van Gogh museum housing 200 of his works and then to the flower markets and to the house of Anne Frank which was a pretty sad ww2 jewish story. Had dinner at a 4 story chinese place and then went on a canal cruise which was a sort of goodbye bash for everyone.

Friday 6/10 - Amsterdam to London
Early exit from Amsterdam and arrived at Brugge around lunchtime. This meant that basically all we saw of Belgium was its food, which was really tasty (great waffles). On the ferry from Calais to Dover Audrey got really seasick cause the channel was very choppy from a freak storm that had gone though a couple of days earlier. Sat in Dover for 3 hours...stupid bus company but eventually made it back for a late dinner.

Saturday 7/10 - London, England
Quiet recovery day including washing, food and other boring things :)

Sunday 8/10 - London, England
Went into the city and saw the British museum which at first glance is faily small but once you start exploring is actually freaking big. I think we were lucky to see the small section that we did in the few hours we were there. Went to meet up with Abbet for the first time in over a year and had strange Jum Cha lunch. Was great to see her finally. Then went to the London Eye and paid a ridiculous price to go on a large ferris wheel.

Oh well that's the first month done. Next month: Ireland and Greece!!!

The 1 month update - Week 3

2006-10-09T06:20:00.000+10:00

Monday 25/9 - Venice, Italy
Drove into the canal city and walked to St Marks square where it started to rain. The square got flooded and my boots were soaked. Went on a gondola ride once the rain stopped which was great fun. Then jumped on the ferry and went up the grande canal.

Tuesday 26/9 - Venice to St Johan
Early exit from venice and headed into Austria. Got to the river and went white water rafting in icemelt which was a touch cold. Although the rapids were only rated to 3 they seemed pretty big sometimes and it was great fun. Got to St Johan at sundown and stayed in a really nice hotelish place with a strange basin designed specially to clean your bum.

Wednesday 27/9 - Munich, Germany
Left at 9 for Ockoberfest! Basically a giant fair with giant everything. Giant beer halls with 1000 people each, all drinking giant 1L stiens and eating giant pretzels. Before getting too drunk I went on an intense roller coster. After a couple more steins I was happy but my head cleared pretty quickly after I ordered some chicken and half a whole chicken came out :)

Thursday 28/9 - St Johan to Vienna
Went to Salzberg the home of mozart and after a short walking tour we picked up a guy who had got lost at ockoberfest. At Vienna we went to a performance of a small orchestra with dancers and singers which was really good quality (mostly mozart and Strauss).

Friday 29/9 - Vienna, Austria
Drove to the summer palace and went through a hedge maze. Then went to the natural history museum and saw dinosaurs and dodos (dead obviously). Then went into a butterfly museum which was like 40 degrees and really humid but still awesome. After Vienese hot chocolate we went to a carnival and one guy got ripped off 20 euro.

Saturday 30/9 - Vienna to Prague
Drove through no-mans-land (there were giant plastic dragons) into the Czech republic. Did a walking tour and saw Prague castle, astronomical clock and old town hall. Cruised the main street for a bit and saw the biggest bookstore ever, 4 levels all the size of an arcade (all in czech). Booze here was cheap and I would have liked to take advantage of it but I was finally coming down with the thing audrey had had for the last week.

Sunday 1/10 - Prague, Czech Republic
Terrible campsite with dirty rooms & bathrooms, 3 piece couch beds and wasps everywhere. Feeling very sick and had a fever last night so spent the day in bed. Funnily enough it rained most of the day and everyone else didnt have much of a day in the city either.

The 1 month update - Week 2

2006-10-09T05:56:00.000+10:00

Monday 19/9 - Nice, France
Spent the first half of the day recovering from the previous night. Lay on the hills above the waterfront and went to sleep. Had the strangest bacon and eggs. After brushing up we all went to Morocco for the night and went to the palace and then the casinos. Roulette minimums were 25 euro so we played machine poker. Mixed success and ended up 3 down. But on the way home we played tyre roulette and I won 36 euro from that.

Tuesday 20/9 - Nice to Florence
Early start from Nice to arrive in Pisa mid morning. Amusing that a failed piece of engineering is so attractive for tourists. Went on to Florence where there was a really nice campsite with pools, tennis courts etc. Fantastic dinner including 2 pasta dishes and a whole pizza followed by gelati and cake and all with wine of course.

Wednesday 21/9 - Florence, Italy
Started doing a walking tour of Firenze for 2 hours culminating in a visit to a leathermaking shop. Then went to the museum with the statue of david. Following this we went to an exhibit of Da Vinci's machines which was so good. All the things were hands on and you really got an idea of the huge scope of his work.

Thursday 22/9 - Florence to Rome
Stopped at Ovieto on the way to Rome. Cheap fruit and wine was $3 a bottle. Arrived in Rome at 4 and went on a 3 hour walking tour of the city. Sights included the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Colusseum amounst others. Good introduction to the city.

Friday 23/9 - Rome, Italy
Went to the Vatican in the morning and after a few hours in a queue got in to see some good art by Raphael. Overall the place was a bit mind boggling and with so many people and so much art it was hard to really enjoy it. Cistene chapel was good though. Audrey got increasingly unwell during the day and I had to take her back. Someone tried to pickpocket me on the way back but I didnt get anything stolen. Rest of the day sunbaking and swim in the pool.

Saturday 24/9 - Pompeii, Italy
Walked around the buried city of Pompeii. The number of inventions they had in 100AD like central heating and refridgeration was pretty surprising.

Sunday 25/9 - Rome to Venice
Drove to Verona and arrived mid afternoon. Went on a guided tour for an hour or so and saw a statue of the supposed Juliette. Drove to the Venice campground and had a fairly big night as a fellow Topdecker challenged me to a drinking competition and by the end we had lined smirnoff ice bottles along a table. Nice photo if I can find it.

The 1 month update - week 1

2006-10-08T02:54:00.000+10:00

Well after an intense month of debauchery I am finally back in London with some internet time to burn woohoo! I will send you all some updates of the trip broken into weeks.

Saturday 9/9 - Sydney to Osaka

Earlyish flight from Canberra to Sydney. Getting through Sydney customs was easier than expected. "The man with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle". Eight hour flight with Japan airlines service is good but entertainment sux (plane 747 cruising speed 955kph). Met Audrey's sister in Osaka and tried many weird foods including pink stary shrimp.

Sunday 10/9 - Osaka to London

Strange but good Japanese breakfast buffet. 12 hour flight passed by much faster than I expected. Had personal tvs which was cool with games, movies, music and inflight camera. Arrived in the afternoon in london when it should have been midnight. Tube to hostel was good and crashed after some mac cheese.

Week One
Monday 11/9 - London, England
Woke up every hour in the night. Tubed to London bridge and walked along the Thamesseeing many sights including Fancy old churches, tower bridge, tower of london (tour), St Pauls, Houses of Parliament (tour), westminster abbey. After 7 hours of walking I was so sore that i sould barely stand. Dinner was the most expensive fish fingers I have ever had (they just made it sound fancy).

Tuesday 12/9 - London to Paris
Early start and met the tour members immediately. Bused to Dover and saw the White cliffs (biege really). Ferried across to Calais and passed many more bus hours before arriving in Paris. Went through the red light district and saw Moulon Rouge. Went up a huge hill to Sacre Cour on Mont Mart (famous church) and saw some of the dodgy rip off artists on the way. As we were walking into the hostel a guy jumped off a vespa and grabbed the bag of one of the girls. The strap broke and he got nothing.

Wednesday 13/9 - Paris, France
Walked around and saw the sights of the dirty city of Paris. The Opera house, Notre Dame and the Louvre which was awesome. We sped past a 1/4 of the exibits (including mona lisa) and that took us 2 hours :O. Climbed the eiffel tower in the afternoon and the view was stunning. Traditional french for dinner. Audrey tried snails and I tried cheval (horse).

Thursday 14/9 - Paris to Lauterbrunen
Long day of driving but had introductions to everyone. About 35 on the trip (27 aussies and 27 girls). As we got into Switzerland the sights just get better and better. Huge mountains around giant lakes with small villages around them. Simply amazing stuff.

Friday 15/9 - Lauterbrunen, Switzerland
Had the best hot chocolate ever. Went up into a glacial cave (tonnes of water falling a 100 metres every minute). The views of the mountains and valleys will be hard to beat. Tried a strange cider called "mountain twister" which came in a twisted glass bottle.

Saturday 16/9 - Lauterbrunen to Avignon
Drove back into France and the scenery changes very quickly. Arrived around lunch and cruised around the town on a short guided tour. Back into town later for a night of kareoke.

Sunday 17/9 - Avignon to Nice
Left Avignon early and after only a few hours arrives at Cannes. Home of the film festival and so we walked the red carpet, swam, shopped and walked. Travelled to Nice afterwards and went for a night on the town starting at a french restaurants with giant bottles of wine and then onto an international bar where a few bottles of wine later I needed a bit of help from Audrey to get home.

Vienna

2006-09-29T20:14:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,
This tour is way more hectic than Id expected. We are always on the go. I am currently in Vienna and having a good time. In the last week I have been through Italy to Pisa, Rome, Pompeii, Venice and now am into Austria. Yesterday I went to Ockoberfest which was really cool fun (was quite drunk). And are heading to Prague tomorrow. When I get back to London I will try and get some serious internet time and do everything in detail.

Till then hope you are all well.

Nice

2006-09-18T01:49:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,
I have just got into Nice on the French Riviera. Finding it a bit hard to get hold of internet connections which is annoying. This is the 6th day of the tour and so far we have been to 3 countries.

London was actually pretty good. We caught the tube to our accomodation (public transport is sooo much better here). Spent a day looking around London including the Tower of London, London bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and a few other huge churches. After 7 hours of walking I knew I hadn't trained myself enough :)

The tour went over the english channel from Dovers white cliffs and went straight into Paris. Our experience there was less than ordinary. In one day we managed to get accosted by people called the 'stringmen' and one of the girls was attacked by a bag grabber outside our hotel.

After Paris we went to Lauterbrunen in Switzerland. This was a simply amazing place, and incredibly beautiful. When I get the chance I will upload the photos for you to look at.

Back into France to Avignon which was an improvement on Paris and today went from there down through Cannes to Nice on the Mediterranean. The water is really good and an hour floating in there made us feel much better.

If I manage to get some serious internet time I will send a more in depth update but this will have to do for now. Having a great time and hope you all are too.

I'mmm Out of Here!

2006-09-08T11:04:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone,
Last post before I fly out tomorrow. I have resigned from work and today is my last day.

Only major thing to report is that I have sold the caravan! I know it has been a long and arduous story but in the end I advertised it on the trading post and sold it to a guy from Tahmoor. While the plans for it were great they just never quite made it. Like Kara's Commy I feel a slight pang of loss but hey we have to move on eventually.

So say farewell to one of the most usused pieces of machinery ever to exist. Good riddance :)

2 weeks to go!

2006-08-25T09:10:00.000+10:00

HUZZAY!!! Only 2 weeks to go before I catch the plane out of here. I will be sending updates via this blog over the next three months. If you right click on the url address at the top of the screen and copy it then go to this website: http://www.google.com/reader/ and paste the link into the search bar at the top. Click "Search for new content" and once results appear in the reading list click the "Subscribe" button.

If you do this then every time I make an update it will automatically appear on your Google Reader. You can also do this with your favourite magazines, ebay searches or other blogs and get updates without having to visit all of their sites every week. If you have ever been to a website and wondered what those orange buttons with RSS on them were then wonder no longer. They are actually urls in button form and are called RSS feeds. Right click and copy them and if you paste them into reader then they will send you new content from the website when it arrives.

If you don't like visiting the google reader site all the time then add Google Reader to your google homepage www.google.com/ig. If you havn't got your own homepage then get to it, it's really useful.

Ok so good luck with all that technical stuff. Send me an email at oznightshade@gmail.com if you have any questions. Also don't forget to check out my webpage at oznightshade.googlepages.com and send me updates to your profile as often as you like. They are at oznightshade.googlepages.com/nativemonsters

To Europe and beyond!!!

Lucky Mo

2006-08-10T14:54:00.000+10:00

And now it is time to put our hats on our chest, bow our heads and have a quiet tear in remembrance of Lucky Mo. I remember the warm summer's day in 1998 when I met Lucky Mo. Surrounded by friends he amused us for hours with his tales of current world events, sporting achievements and bargain motorcycles. He was a good bird and after leading a long and frivolous life in the habitat of Nightshade's domain he sadly had to be put down due to insanity.

It seems being made of paper mache is just a bit too much for some animals. Over the course of the last year Lucky Mo had been seen drinking copious amounts of flour glue and abusing lonely people with the claims tatooed on his skin. This downward spiral continued until he was found one day in a cardboard box reeking of oil paints and missing many feathers. It was a tough decision to put him down but the right one, after all it is the good times that we will think of with this lovable old bird.

So please raise your glass of water, champagne or computer screen to the memory of Lucky Mo and the laughs, tears and dodgy classified adds that we shared in our time together.

Cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting

2006-08-10T14:31:00.000+10:00

Well if you know where the title of this post comes from then you will know what the content is likely to be about. Hair and interesting methods of cutting it. Here is a little adventure I had in home hairdressing last week:

I started with hair about 3-4 inches long and put it in crazy anime style for your benefit :) I bought a hair trimmer from BigW for $10.

I decided that I would like to relive the early 90's when undercuts were the rage. This picture kind of reminds me of those evil nerds you see occaisionally on tv. Cool for them but not for me.

Seeing as many popular people in our society like Kyle from Idol :P are going with the fake mohawk I thought I'd try one. I looked like such a jock that I was forced to shave it off immediately.

Yay all done! And look how much hair I lost. Enough to power a car or something :S All for half the price of the real thing.

The Kraken

2006-07-21T17:10:00.000+10:00

Ok so I'm slack with the monster of the month thing. But this month I have incentive cause there is a monster that is in the spotlight: THE KRAKEN! Yes I know, I built that anticipation up like a chinese dungpile.

So I enjoyed the movie but more because of the costumes, props and effects than the plot. Nothing beats a bad guy when the producer has said "No he's just not evil looking enough. Replace his head with a squid."

The Kraken has been one of the most popular sea fairing monsters of recent times. It appears in a bunch of movies, tv shows, computer games and board games in which the sea features. In particular I should mention that he appears on my monster mountain at number 11.

Cool huh? Well that's it for now. Until next time, keep it freaky people.

Mafia Murder Mystery

2006-07-03T14:36:00.000+10:00

Went to a Mafia Murder Mystery last weekend and I played the godfather's brother Waldo. Not sure if the name or my actions made me more suspicious but everyone guessed it was me. All I can say is "It's never the obvious one".

My first market experience

2006-06-19T13:22:00.000+10:00

This weekend I had my first market experience. I mean I'd been to heaps before but never had a stall of my own. So seeing as I had all this junk to get rid of I got up at 6am and packed the frozen car with various goods. And it really was freezing, I had to pour warm water over the car to melt the ice and then by the time I had driven to "The Den of Wo" the water had already frozen. River couldn't even open her door cause it was frozen shut. Thank goodness for my tundra fleece.

Anyway once the sun came out and we set things up, everything improved. I sold about a quarter of the things and made a profit of $100. But best of all it was heaps of fun. Check out a shot of the stall about halfway through.

My entry to the modern art/photography prize

2006-05-18T17:09:00.000+10:00

I think it says a lot about modern society. What do you think?

The Pony

2006-05-14T11:27:00.000+10:00

The Space Strider prances in from stage left. Say hello River.

Plans for this blog include:

Making you suckers read about our strange lives.
Monster of the week...or month when I'm slack.
River's 'something odd' on a regular basis.
Pictures, lots of pictures.