Eeyores Travels

Canada so far...

2010-07-30T20:47:00.002+08:00

They photos below are all out of order, but we'll get around to sorting them out. Here's just a very brief view of what we've seen so far. We'll post more later.

Firstly here is the view we awoke to on the train. Our fist real view of the Rockies. It was the start of a day where the words splendid, awesome and wow where used a lot.

Here is a view of Vancouver from Stanley park. Very pretty.

This is a statue of a guy who came to Vancouver with nothing but his family and a barrel of whiskey. Apparently when he arrived he told the locals if they built him a bar he would sell the whiskey to him, within 24hrs a bar was built and drinks were served.

Lions gate bridge.

Lady on the rock, she's vaguely based on the statue of the little mermaid. Stanley park Vancouver.
More photos will come.......

Perth Zoo

2010-01-16T20:59:00.005+08:00

What a great day we had at the zoo! Here's some from my new camera, still working out how to use it to get the best effects.

Simons 40th

2009-10-07T13:27:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was Simons 40th birthday and he celebrated it by visiting the Berlin Zoo as he wanted to see Knut the polar bear. After spending the day at the zoo we went to Brandenburg gates which is where Simon wanted to be for his birthday. Here is photographic evidence of the above.

Simon and the Warthogs

Got any fish for me?

Zoom, zoom, I can swim fast - just watch me!

Simon and a bear?

Simon being a Polar Bear

The Lions

Perhaps it's dinner time soon...

What you lookin' at?

Simon and the Elephants

Baby Elephant Walk

Simon at the elephant gates

Simon and the Brandenburg Gates.

Berlin Zoo - There's A Bear in There

2009-10-07T00:41:00.002+08:00

And his name is Knut. He's very cute. On 5 Dec 2006, he was the first polar bear (Eisbär) to have been born and survived in captivity.

And there's Bao Bao, a 29 year old Panda.

This guy was just hanging out watching the white wolves.

Many more zoo photos to come!

Just for Nita

2009-10-05T04:27:00.006+08:00

Ok, so we've listened to our readers and as requested here's some photos with Donna in them. More will come later.

Donna playing with on of the statues used in Sound of Music - Salzburg

Donna at Trevi Fountain - Rome

Donna at Salzburg

Donna and the horizontal mini - Berlin

Catch-up

2009-10-03T13:52:00.010+08:00

We're currently in Berlin and we've finally got some decent internet access, so as promised here are some catch-up photos. They're in no particular order. Enjoy!

Mirrabell Gardens - Salzburg

Mozart Statue - Salzburg

One of the many Christmas Shops in Salzburg, windows were full of eggs that have been blown and hand decorated. It was very cool.

The Horse Well, Salzburg

Salzburg at 7am in the morning - pretty cool city.

Simon pointing out the Colosseum (just in-case you couldn't see it) Rome

Castel Sant' Angelo - Rome

Simon inside St Peters Basillica (not sure what he's pulling a face about - there wasn't any lightening bolts to worry about) - Vatican City
My favourite bit in St Peters Basillica, the window that shows a dove - its way cooler than the photo shows. Vatican City

The statue collection in the Vatican museum - was very impressive.

A wooden mummy case in the Vatican Museum collection - it was taller than me. Only took a photo of his face as I was amazed at the detail.

An actual mummy - was a bit surreal looking at this. Part of the Vatican Museum Collection

The Colosseum - Rome

Simon at Trevi Fountains (and 1001 other tourists) - Rome

Romulus & Remus - Rome

The View from Piazza Venezia - Rome

St Peters Square - Vatican City

The view of the Barcelona hotel we stayed in as we started our cruise to Rome.

The lightening storm in Barcelona - was far more amazing that the photo can depict.

From a distance this guy looks like he's weeing into the water, but closer he's got his hands behind his back and he's looking up. Barcelona

Barcelona's Arc De Triomph

A close up of Mr Octopus - Barcelona Aquarium

Mr Octopus - Barcelona Aquarium

Jaws - Barcelona Aquarium

Gaudi House - Barcelona

Dresden Today Berlin Tomorrow

2009-10-01T21:52:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a day of trains. We trained it from Salzburg to Munich on a fast train, and then we got an even faster train to Nuremburg, then we got a slow chug-chug type train to Dresden. But we got to see some really pretty scenery and it was a relaxing way to spend the day.

Today we've been tourists in Dresden, it's a very pretty town and I'm glad that when they rebuilt it after WWII they did it in the Baroque style that it was previously. The Fraeunkirche is well worth a look and it's probably one of my favourite churches that we've visited on this trip. I particularly liked the cross that was previously on the top of the building which was covered under rubble for many years after the bombing in Feb 1945, they now have it inside the church and it's very cool. The new cross on top of the church is gold and was a gift from Britain, but I don't think it has as much character as the old beaten up one.

Anyway tomorrow we're off to Berlin - yep another high speed train.

The Hills are Alive....

2009-09-28T00:55:00.008+08:00

Today was a glorious day in Salzburg. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and you guessed the "Hills were alive with the Sound of Music". As our tour bus drove along the winding mountainous roads the drive was accompanied by the sound track from the movie and us tour goers were encouraged to sing along. What a hoot. I think the bus was about 75% full of Aussies, not sure what that say's about us.

We got to see some lovely scenery as well as -

The Mirabel Gardens (used when Maria teaches the kids to sing Doe a Deer)

The Mondsee Chapel (where Maria and the Captain got married)

Simon standing by the tour Bus (edited out of the Movie)

The Gazebo at Hellbrunn Palace (used in You are 16 going on 17, and I Must Have Done Something Good)

And Leopoldskron Palace, which was the rear of the house in the Movie and used in scenes such as, were they fall in the lake after singing Doe a Deer.

The little gnomes that the kids danced around when singing Doe a Deer, and here's a photo of Simon singing with one of the gnomes.

We also got to see Wolfgang Lake, which is where the mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came from and she named him after the lake. It was very pretty.

Yep, now that we've done the tour we need to watch the movie again - anyone want to join us?

Salzburg itself is a very pretty town, we got in early yesterday morning (and I mean early) and here's a couple of shots of it from then.

Me with the Salzburg Castle in the background.

Arrivederci Roma, Guten Morgen Salzburg

2009-09-26T19:21:00.002+08:00

Well we've had a lot of fun since our last blog post. We're currently suffering from a lack of sleep as we trained it from Rome to Salzburg last night. We got in at 6.56am, and we left at 7,10pm. Yep we're tired. And this bloody key board is really giving me the irrates as the Austrians have decided that the keys need to be moved around - (I feel better now).

When we've had some sleep we will do a full post (including photos), but we figured we would just let you all know where we were. Anyway we're now off to have some strudel and tomorrow we are doing the Sound of Music Tour - the hills are alive........

Adios Barcelona - Ciao Roma

2009-09-21T18:53:00.002+08:00

Today is our last day in Barcelona as we´re catching an overnight ferry tonight to Rome. We get in tomorrow night. Then we need to sort out the rest of our trip. But so far it´s all going well. We love Barcelona. But we´re also ready to move on.

The Ramblas are amazing. So much life and entertainment put into such a small area. We´ve walked a lot of the streets and seen most of the sites.

We´re even happier now, as we´ve just discovered that the weather should be fine in Rome. Last night we had an amazing thunderstorm here, where the windows of our hotel room were shaking from the thunders. Was very cool. I can´t upload any photos at the moment, but I did get a shot of the lightning. I´m sure you´re all waiting to see that shot :-)

Anyway we´re about to head off and find something to spend our time doing between now and when the ferry leaves.

A quick photo update

2009-09-16T00:09:00.002+08:00

As we haven't used as much down/upload as we thought I get to upload a limited amount of photos. So enjoy!

The view from our hotel room in Barcelona. Not bad huh?

The rain soaked roads of Barcelona - the motorbike rider almost stalled his bike but just made it.

Gaudi house in Barcelona.

Hmm, can't seem to remember where this place was - Paris somewhere I think :-)

The Rain in Spain falls mainly on us!!

2009-09-15T02:06:00.002+08:00

We arrived in Barcelona early Sunday morning. We caught the overnight train down from Paris, traveled first class and it was great. Mind you I didn't get much sleep, but we were comfortable.

The hotel we booked for Barcelona was advertised as being 1/2 price, and it's pure luxury. We're right by the cruise ship port and have ocean views. We're on the 5th floor and it's lovely. We braved it up to the top floor this afternoon to see the view and it was pretty amazing. Photos to come as we've got an upload limit with this internet access.

Anyway today we rambled along los Rambles, had lunch in the plaza and then decided to look in El Corte Ingles (a department store). The weather had been beautiful - warm & sunny. When we left the store it was absolutely pissing down with rain. Total thunderstorm. Roadways were being covered in water, we got drenched even though we were hiding either in shelter or under umbrellas. It was amazing. Then as quickly as it started it stopped. Well the rain has, but the lightening and thunder is continuing.

We're staying in Barcelona until next Monday when we'll be heading off either to Italy or back to London, we haven't really decided yet. Either way we're half way through our trip and we're loving it.

Tomorrow it's off to see some more sites of Barcelona - probably something by Gaudi I think.

Viva La France

2009-09-09T14:35:00.002+08:00

Today we say goodbye to the UK and head east to France - yep we're going by train. We've been spending the last few days in London doing the touristy stuff like St Pauls, Westminster Abbey, watching a show in the West End (Wicked is well worth watching).

Our hosts Mark and Joanne have been fabulous! We feel so at home and comfortable here. It's a little sad to be leaving. But we're already discussing where we want to go next time we're over.

Yesterday we had some amazing weather. It was hot! Well in truth it was humid, but the bloody poms have the heating on in the stores - because it's now autumn you need the heat.

Anyway that's it from us till we hit France. Au revoir.

We're Back in London

2009-09-03T23:57:00.006+08:00

After a couple of days where the electrical gods were working against us, the laptop decided that it didn't want to work (but now it is thank goodness), and then Simon's camera has decided to go AWOL. After much searching through all our luggage, we decided that it's definitely MIA and we bought Simon a new British Camera (well it was purchased here so it must be British right??) So anyway now you're getting a compilation of our photos in a random order.

A plaque we discovered in the National Railway museum

York City Walls

Simon walking the York City Walls

Gateway into York

The remains of York Castle

York Canal

The Ruins of Whitby Abbey

Us at the Ruins of Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey

The cute little hotel we stayed at in the northern Lakes Districts.

View from Stirling Castle to the William Wallace Memorial in the background

View from the wall of Stirling Castle

The bridge we termed "Death Bridge" as it was a narrow single lane bridge that from either direction you couldn't see if there was traffic coming.

A random picture of somewhere in the Lakes District.

Simon at the Housestead Fort Roman ruins.

More of Simon and the Ruins.

More roman ruins

A Black Hairy Coo

Art - Silver Horses near the Falkirk Wheel

Stirling Castle

This is Simon and I freezing at Stirling Castle. Notice how I've managed to dress in grey to match the sky.

The view from our window in the B&B that we stayed at in Stirling. Was really lovely. The night before it started raining and we couldn't see the hills in the distance - we have photos to prove it, but won't bore you here with them.

The Little Nissan Note we hired. We did over 1300 miles in this little beastie, she managed to get us up the Pennines and from Edinburgh back to London via the myriad of towns and cities that we decided to visit.

What have the Romans ever done for us??

2009-08-30T15:47:00.002+08:00

They built ruins! (You would think that they would have built propa buildings instead - lol). We visited Hadrians Wall and below is a picture of Simon and the Housestead ruins, which was a roman fort ontop of a hill (it was very windy and cold on top of that hill!).

Another Simon highlight was our visit to the Falkirk Wheel. It was pretty amazing

Today we're heading off for a day of driving around the Lakes District. We didn't plan it very well as it's a long w/end here and the Keswick show is on and basically it's even more hectic than normal.

We have experienced a lot of what we like to call English weather (or as Chris calls it In-Out weather) in the last couple of days, think Melbourne but more unpredictable.

It is funny where you end up when you tell the GPS not to use the motorway. Here is a link to one of the places we drove through yesterday http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/hartside.htm

Scotland the Brave

2009-08-26T16:17:00.003+08:00

Yesterday we arrived in Edinburgh and managed to find the two most important places, one being our hotel, and the other being the best baked potato place ever!!! Yep, we had baked potato for dinner and we'll probably have it for lunch again today (never can have too much potato!!)

We walked around the city a bit saw the castle, greyfriars bobby, walked the royal mile, checked out our seats for the tattoo tonight. The fringe festival is on too, and the atmosphere is fantastic. As much as I love London, Edinburgh is better. Even thought there are heaps of people here because of the fringe, it's still got a nicer feel to it.

Simon seems to be enjoying himself. He's concerned as it's currently raining, but it's supposed to be clearing tonight. We'll post more photos later, but we weren't organised this morning.

Driving.

2009-08-22T16:57:00.005+08:00

On Thursday we hired a car and headed out to Windsor. Man that's a pretty place. We were just driving along a road and wham - right in front of us was an amazing view of Windsor Castle. Unfortunately we didn't get a photo as we couldn't stop, but it was an amazing view.

We then headed to Legoland

Cape Canaveral Lego style

Welcoming Giraffe - made from lego

Easter Island statues made of lego.

The view of Windsor Castle from Legoland.

Lego Lions

Lego-henge

Lego version of Canary Wharf - if you look closely you'll see a Dalek

Here's the Lego Dalek

Lego Abba

We have plenty more lego photos, but won't bore you with them all from here. From lego land we headed to Basingstoke for the night. We got a good deal and got to stay at the Hilton Basingstoke. We had a bit of a chuckle as the rooms aren't airconditioned, there was no bar fridge and you could open the windows. All very non-aussie really.

Yesterday we headed to Stonehenge. It's pretty cool, you drive over a hill and you can see it.

Interesting road sign - no we didn't see any tanks crossing - shame.

We got caught in traffic, and it was raining. The photo doesn't really show how bad it really was.

Tower of London, Big Ben

2009-08-20T13:29:00.004+08:00

The weather in London during summer is supposed to be rain every other day. It has been nothing but sunshine and light pleasant breezes. Still it really helps when we are doing these walking around touristy things. There are signs everywhere telling people to carry water with them and not to get on the (non airconditioned) trains if they are feeling unwell. None of the buildings have verandas or awnings so apart from trees there isn't any shade.

Below are some photos from day 2 where we did the double decker bus tour.

Hyde Park - The Serpentine

Big Ben

London's Dragon - marks the boundary between London and Westminster.

My Favourite War Memorial for the Animals - They didn't have a choice!

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament

London Eye & National Portrait Gallery

St Paul's Cathedral

Day 3 we slacked off a bit and spent the day locally at Eltham Palace and walking the streets of Eltham. You're not allowed to take photos inside Eltham Palace so we didn't get many shots, but here's a couple.

Eltham Palace

View of London from Eltham Palace - photo does not do it justice!

Eltham Palace - the great hall.

Today we're hiring a car and heading out to Windsor. We'll let you know how that goes.

London Calling

2009-08-18T14:38:00.004+08:00

After a great nights sleep two young (relatively) West Aussies set about on their adventure in the big city. With many oohs, aaahs and wows with the odd OMG thrown in.

We had planned to do the double decker bus thing, but we ended up going for a bit of a walk. We saw Trafalgar square, Buckingham palace (Liz was home but didn't wave), Hyde Park. Bloody DVA, they're fixing the Australian war memorial so it wasn't working :-( Did a little shopping on Oxford St. Caught the tube. And generally soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed being a tourist. Had a London style Cornish pastie for lunch in a park. Forgot that they serve almost all drinks warm - not just the beer. Got a blister on my toe and it hurts.

Simon finds it interesting that there is very little air-conditioning, and that there are signs in the trains to tell people to drink water on hot days (Signed by the Mayor of London).

Today we're trekking back into London Proppa (as the locals call it), and becoming even more touristy - yep todays the double decker bus tour, and I know Simons going to do the oh it's Big Ben, oh it's houses of parliament, oh it's the London eye, wow there's the Thames etc.

Oh and for Garys information the airport laptop count was 1 apple, 3 dells and 4 HP's and 2 Sonys. (sometimes being married to a geek is just a little weird)

Monday Morning and it's looking fine.

2009-08-17T15:39:00.002+08:00

Flight over was pretty good. Was nice to finally get off the plane. Only snag to the whole flight was once we'd landed, we had to sit in the place for about an hour as an Air Canada flight had stolen our terminal gate so we had to wait. Then once we got off the place we got a lovely bus tour of Heathrow as they bused us back to the gate where we should have got off. Apart from that no dramas.

Made it to Marks in good time, and then we headed out for a few beers with the locals before hitting the pillow. Man did we sleep well. Woke up at 6am local time, which we were pretty happy with. Weather is looking great. Marks currently giving Simon some local tips. Today I we're off to do the Double Decker bus tour.

Hmmmm

2009-08-15T09:44:00.004+08:00

As I was busily scurrying around this morning to try and get everything done before we go, I got a phone call that sent my day into a spin. Someone I love very dearly was rushed to hospital. This shook my world and obviously the world of other loved ones. I won't be able to see them before we fly-out. I so dearly want to give them a hug and tell the I love them - but I can't. So I sit here writing this blog instead.

5 more sleeps

2009-08-10T21:59:00.003+08:00

Yep, 5 more sleeps. Can you believe it? I can't. Where has this year gone?

No - we're not packed yet. Yes Lucy is booked into a lovely puppy dog holiday home. Are we organised - probably not, but I'm sure we'll get there.

No more days in the office for me. I have tomorrow off - Jojo is coming over for breakie and then she gets to watch while I clean :-) Then it's off to Darwin I go for 3 days, back home Friday and then it's off to the airport Saturday night and on a big plane to the UK. Woo Hoo!

Yes I'm very excited - not sure if Simon is - think he's just happier about having 8 weeks away from work.

If it's not one thing it's another.

2009-04-05T16:03:00.002+08:00

Just as we're coming to terms with the loss of old Mac dog, we took Ms Lucy in for her annual check-up. And while we're there discussing how old she is, and how young she acts (the vet couldn't believe she's nine, she acts so much like a puppy), we point out a lump on Lucy's back. The vet biopsies, and then we're told, yep, we think we should operate. So almost 2 weeks ago Ms Lucy goes in and gets 5 lumps removed. We wait patiently for the results, finally get them, and surprise, it's a grade 2 Marcel tumour. We have two choices, either wait and see, or take her to a doggie oncologist. What to do?? We'll take her to the vet during the week to have the stitches removed and chat with the vet. But all I can say is it's just a bit too soon.

On A Brighter Note

2009-03-04T18:28:00.002+09:00

It's 164 days till our holiday. So far we're not very organised. But important the flights are booked, and well that's about it.

We'll have to get to and start organising everything else.

Sad Ms Lucy

2009-02-25T17:30:00.004+09:00

It's just over a week ago that my wonderful brown dog died. It's been such an emotional week. Quite hard to explain just how empty it is without him. Lucy girl is feeling it too. She's been very strange over the past couple of days. She's always hated us leaving to go to work, but now she's even worse. She so hates to be alone.

My Beautiful Brown Boy Is No More :-(

2009-02-15T17:27:00.004+09:00

We arrived home this afternoon to find my beautiful brown dog dead. It is so sad to have lost my puppy after so long. He was such a great dog, and so loyal and loving. He looked after me for so many years, there are times that I don't think I would have made it if it's wasn't for him.

I already miss him so much, and it's only been a couple of hours. I miss hearing him pace the house looking for me, I miss him following me around, oh I just miss him.

So here's some photos of him, with his big happy smile.

Long Time Gone.

2009-02-07T07:44:00.003+09:00

What happened to 2008? And it's already Feb 2009. I hate to say it, but my mother was right! Time really does go faster when you get older :-) Not much to say really, just felt bad because everyone else has been really good at keeping their blogs up to date, and well I clearly haven't. But I will attempt too.

What does 2009 hold for us.

We'll tomorrow we're off to the travel expo to see if we can get a cheap flight for our planned trip to Europe later this year.

Monday afternoon is violin lesson. Am really enjoying it and I just need to commit a bit more practice time to it each day.

More Study and stuff to finish off the Public Service Management Program. Yay, will be glad when that's done. But it's kinda interesting.

Work has a major restructure happening - with potential job losses, so that will be interesting. We'll know more details after the 19th when we get briefing on it. (Doesn't that sound like fun, but we get a morning tea before hand to make us feel all warm and fuzzy!)
Simon and I both turn 40 this year. (That's the excuse for the holiday)
Not sure whatelse.

Perhaps as I need to ponder that thought a bit more. WHat do I want from 2009? Sounds like a good topic for some wild writing.

Anyway, everyone is up and awake now, puppies are pacing so I need to go check to make sure old Mac hasn't fallen over

Life....

2008-07-30T19:40:00.002+08:00

Last week, Simon's cousin, Claire passed away. It was quick and oh so tragic. She was only 26. She was young, and vibrant and full of life. (yes I know it's sounding very cliched, but you always knew if Claire was around.

Her funeral was on Saturday. It was heart wrenching. Seeing her poor family come to terms with the loss of someone so young. The thing that got to me the most, was the wake. Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, but it was the sentiment that her mother shared with us that tore me to pieces. She said that the since Claire didn't have a wedding they wanted to spend that money on her anyway - gut wrenching!

In a vague attempt to cheer myself up I have attempted another couple of pages, this time the subject is my new nephew Will Oliver Harrison who was born on 4 July.

Sorrow & Memories

2008-07-18T18:26:00.003+08:00

Nita's grandfather passed away this week, and my heart goes out to her. Having lost my Nanna late last year I can understand the sadness she is going through. My thoughts are with you Nita and your family is this time of sorrow.

Sadly for me it's bought up all the emotion relating to my Nanna, how I never really got to say goodbye, and how I miss her. So, having been inspired by Nita who taught me how to use photo shop here is my first attempt at doing an electronic page - hopefully it will work.

It's been a long time!

2008-06-04T20:59:00.003+08:00

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't written on here since February. I know I've been busy, but I didn't realised that it had been that long.

Busy doing what you ask? Well, we've almost finished the flooring. Which ended up being painting and flooring, so it was a pretty big job. I love it thought. It all looks really good. We ended up tiling the kitchen too, and all we have left to do now is Simon's computer room (we're working up to that), and tiling the laundry. So we're almost done.

Violin lesson are going well. Dad dobbed me in to his teacher and now he and I will be performing a duet together at t recital, and then we'll be part of a quartet as well. I've just managed to make it sound more impressive that it really is, as it's just students performing, and I'm sure it will all sounds like a bunch of cats having their tails trodden on. But it's all good fun.

Well that's about all I can think of at the moment. I will endeavour to update this more often than I have been.

Great Ocean Road - It's Great

2008-02-18T18:12:00.003+09:00

And here's some photos to prove it!

Echidna at The Arch,

Simon & the 12 Apostles

The 12 Apostles

Simon & Me along the Great Ocean Road.

Melbourne to Warrnambool

2008-02-16T18:33:00.002+09:00

We woke up early this morning, and got underway early. Not that we had too! The hotel was close to the airport, so we headed from Tullamarine to Melton, where we had breakfast at a cute little bakery – it wasn't as good as the Pinjarra bakery though. We went to the tourist information centre there, and they ladies were lovely. Mandy – she was almost as good as the ones in Portugal.

So, with 101 maps in hand we head out of town – decided to ignore the Nav Man, and took the raod that looked like it headed the way we should go. The Nav Man was constantly telling us to do a u-turn, but we continued to ignore it for another 5km or so, then once we came to a gravel road we decided that the Nav Man may have been correct. To be fair, we had earlier done what it had told us, and it took us to a no through road!. Having said that it has been very helpful.

We were supposed to get a Prius Hybrid car as we wanted to see how they drove. But clearly the hire car gods were against us as they didn't have one available. So they gave us a free upgrade to a Ford Fairmont Ghia – it's like driving a tank – HUGH! But the air con worls rooly good mate, and it's got reverse sensors which is a bit weird but helpful.

We headed to Ballarat and went to Sovereign Hill, Simon was very sad as he didn't find any sovereigns! He did however buy himself a nice suede hat – and here it is being my birthday!

As we left Ballarat heading for Warrnambool, we again used the Nav Man. It decided that the best was to go was along a number of gravel roads, some narrower than others. Who said you can't have an adventure in Victoria. Anyway, we made it safely.

Reality Really Does Bite!

2007-12-11T20:16:00.000+09:00

Well I've been home for about a month and a half, and back to work for a month, and I have to tell you, this reality stuff really does suck. It's just the routineness of everything that's getting to me the most. Don't get me wrong, it's good to be home with Simon and the puppies. And to tell you the truth, work hasn't been as bad as it could. It pays the bills, and allows me to start saving for our next holiday - 2009 UK here we come. We've even started semi-planning it. Simons pretty much relented and agree to come with - yay! Mind you there's plenty of time for him to change his mind.

Here's some photos from Dave & Mariannes Wedding.

Simon & Me

The Happy Couple

Homeward Bound!

2007-10-25T07:55:00.001+08:00

Here I sit, waiting for the time to tick by before I head to the airport. My flight doesn´t leave till almost 2am, and then I get to sit in an airport for about 15 hours before the long flight home. You can imagine how I´m excited about 15 hours in an airport. Hopefully I can find a comfy seat to sleep.

Mandy´s in Quito now, and I´ve had the day to myself. The guys here at this hostel have been fantastic, as they have let me hang out. Peruvians have a fantastic sense of humour, and these gusy seem to like being able to pick on the Aussies. They also think it´s very funny that we are vegetarian as apparently (they keep telling me that I need some meat, it´s good for me).

Anyway, not sure if I´ll get internet access between now and when I get home.

So.....
Mandy - thanks for sharing the past 3 and a half months adventures with me. The words "is impossible" and "is possible" have a completely different meaning to me than when I first started, as do hazard lights and boompahs! Enjoy your next two months.
Jim & John - Thanks for organising BA & Rio. It was great, and I look forward to our next catchup.
Simon - Thanks for paying all the bills, for looking after the puppies and for everything else that you´ve done for me while I´ve been away.
And Everyoneelse - hope you´ve enjoyed the read and I look forward to boring you with the many (and I mean MANY) photos.

The Past Few Days.

2007-10-21T08:33:00.000+08:00

Machu Piccu was fantastic. We left Cusco at 7am on Thursday morning on the train for Agua Caliente. The train ride took almost 4 hours and wasn´t very exciting - other than the food we purchased on the train was better than the food we were provided by on our LAN Chile flights.

When we arrived at Agua Caliente, we went in search of our hostel. Which isn´t hard, as there´s one main street in town, and everything is off that street. The place town and the hostel were lovely. Mind you everything is up-hill.

We had lunch in the local Hari Krishna restaurant and the food was great and cheap. As were were eating it, we realised that some of the best food that we had had on this trip had been in the wierdest places - Krakow, Agua Caliente and Edinburgh.

We then wandered around the town for a bit (didn´t take long as it´s not that big) and then headed to the towns market. The market seemed to be almost as big as the town. Of course we managed to spend heaps as it´s all pretty cool stuff - but oh so very touristy (strange that!).

So after a very tiring day we headed to our room for a quick "nanna nap", which basically lasted until Friday morning. We had to be up by stupid o´clock to catch the 5.30am bus to Macchu Piccu. We managed to get on the bus ontime, and the adventure began.

The road leading up the Macchu Piccu was .... interesting. It had been raining heavily overnight so the roads were very muddy and slippery and very narrow road that is zig-zag up the mountain. The edge of the road is very close, particularly when a bus is coming from the other direction. By the time we got to the entrace our heart rates were very high! Mind you , what were we worried about - we arrived safely.

Weather wise we were very lucky. The weather reports showed that it was going to rain for the 4 days we were in Cusco/Machu Piccu. It rained pretty much all day Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday morning looked very bleak and we were sure we were going to be rained on. But as we got closer to the Macchu Piccu the sun started shining on the mountain tops and we had fantastic weather while we were there. Sunny, and warm - it was beautiful.

Macchu Piccu is spectaculor. The altitude wasn´t fun. Being scared of hights - again not fun. But the views were well worth it. The first part of the tour took us up and up and up. Nah, it wasn´t really that bad, but the altitude just made it hard to breath. But the view - spectacular. I would upload some photos, but this computer doesn´t have a USB port (well not that I can see anyway).

The tour took about two and a half hours, and was very informative. It was well worth it, and there are some amazing stories that go with the place. I can certainly see why it´s one of the seven wonders of the world.

By about 10.30am, we were starving, and decided that we had seen as much as we wanted to see. So we headed back down the hill. Again the bus drive made our hearts race, but at least the road had dried out.

We got back into town, and had an early lunch (Hari Krishna food again). Then headed to the hot springs. They were fabulous. Any tension that our muscles were feeling melted away in the mineral spring pools. Mandy and I ended up having a water fight with this cute little kid who spoke no english but he kept spalshing us telling us that the water was ¨caliente¨. Clearly his parents had told him he wasn´t allowed to splash frio water. We had everyone laughing at us as we were splashing and squeeling. Then the rain set in. It´s a very weird sensation being in hot springs, getting rained on by very cold rain.

After the hot springs, we then decided that we needed a drink. Something local of course! So we had a Pisco Sour (very nice) and a Caipirinha (this is what we were drinking on Copacabana beach). Both were very nice, and went down a little too easy. As did the pizza and beer afterwards.

The train left Agua Caliente at 5pm and took almost 4 hours to get back to Cusco. The ride back was fun though, as we ended up sitting with two gay guys from New York who were a hoot. They really enjoyed having 2 Aussies to stir, and I think we almost convinced them to come to Australia for Mardi Gras.

We got back to the guest house, and pretty much hit the pillow. We were exhausted. We awoke this morning not feeling so great. We of course blamed the altitude! Couldn´t have anything to do with the alcohol (which you´re told not to have at altitude).

We didn´t get to see anymore of Cusco as we left this morning, but it´s a lovely place, and our experience there was was very positive. I´ve read a lot of comments about Cusco, and a fair percentage of them made it sound like a terrible place - and this was certainly not what we experienced. Everyone we met and dealt with was lovely and everything "is possible!"

In the guesthouse that we stayed in, the people were lovely. They organsied our Macchu Piccu tour, accommodation in Agua Caliente and transfers to and from the train station. They couldn´t do enough to help us. They were fantastic. The guy running the place was very concerned about us going to Lima, and checked where we were staying to ensure it was safe. He gave us a couple of tips on how to survive in Lima. He said that he wanted us to stay safe as we were nice people. Sweet!

His Mum also helps out in the guesthouse, and she´s a true ¨Mum¨. She takes care of everyone and makes sure that you´re ok. On our first day in Cusco, one of the lady´s staying in the guesthouse suffered quite badly from the altitude and Mumma took care of her. She fussed over her, and gave her something and within about 20 minutes she was feeling better. Honestly - if you´re thinking of going to Cusco I recommend you stay at that guesthouse.

We´re now in Lima, staying in one of the safest suburbs of the city (so we keep getting told). We´re staying in Miraflora - it´s on the coast and it´s lovely, but very touristy. We walked along the coast for a while this afternoon and it was lovely. Mind you we ended up walking considerably further than we planned.

We made the owner of our hostel laugh, as we bought some black corn to try and as we were trying to eat it and cracked up, as they don´t eat it. Apparently they use it to make Chicha, which we need to try. He said it´s made from the water that the corn is boiled in, pineapple and cinnamon. So Mandy and I are going to give it a go.

Tomorrow Peru is having a census, and all Peruvians have to stay at home from 8am to 6pm so there will be nothing open, no shop, markets, buses, taxis or anything. So we´re being forced to have a very slack day and do nothing. Jealous??

Getting High In Cusco

2007-10-17T23:14:00.000+08:00

We flew into Cusco yesterday afternoon. Had a cup of Coco leave tea and were promptly told to go and lay down and not to walk around for 2 hours. The lady incharge of the Hostel was absolutely lovely, but as we don´t speak Spanish and she doesn´t speak English it was a lot of laughs working that out. We thought we were fine, until we got up from our ¨rest¨ and our heads spun. But were not doing too badly. We´re relieved that we decided sometime ago not to do the trek, although it would have been fantastic, but it´s so hard to breath even when you´re just lying down.

But as we´re feeling slightly better today, we´re going to take ourselves off into town and check out the local markets - should be fun. Hopefully the rain will hold out, but I´somehow doubt it.

Cusco Here We Come

2007-10-16T06:23:00.000+08:00

Today we spent the day being very slack - which was great. We slept in, then as we left the hostel we heard drums, which were calling us so we folloewd them. And found ourselves amist a miriad of protesters, with drums and trumpets. It was pretty amazing and there was an amazing feel.

We then wandered around town abit and determined that it must be a public holiday as the majority of the shops were shut, as was a couple of the places we wanted to visit. So we spent the afternoon sitting in the local park enjoying the sunlight which was lovely - and we finally got warm.

Tomorrow we head off to Cusco.

It´s Chilly in Chile!

2007-10-15T06:46:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was freezing. Today was slightly warmer, but we decided that we couldn´t stand it any more so we went and bought ourselves some handmade socks from the local market. While we were there, we also bought a majorily dorky socks, and a funky handmade jumper - all of which needs to be seen to be believed.

We walked around a heap today, and saw a number of different local markets. Some more to our liking than others. The dead stuff hanging from varoius angles wasn´t really our thing. Food and alcohol are very cheap here, and South America has been great in that the Aussie dollar is finally worth somthing.

Tomorrow we´re off to have some Taco Bell for lunch, and to see if we can find a power adapoter, or there´ll be no photos of Machuc Piccu which would be very sad.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Farewell Rio - Hola Santiago

2007-10-13T19:51:00.000+08:00

One week in Rio is never enough. Copacabana and Ipanema beachs are glorious, and I'm not even a real beach lover. It's truely an amazing experience sitting on the beach and being able to do all your tourist shopping without moving. Fantastic!

Cristo Redentor was pretty amazing too, with spectacular views.

Just for you Simon - The football stadium.

Mandy, John and Jim

The pavement at Ipanema.

Thanks Jim & John for joining us in South America and for sorting out the accommodation. Lets not leave it another 15 or so years till we catch-up again.

2007-10-07T09:05:00.000+08:00

After the exhaustion of the past few days, I slept like a log last night. I was the best nights sleep that I've had since Barcelona. I know I was going on about going home again, but as I've already made that decision and I'm staying, I gave myself a good talking to and if I'm staying, then I need to start enjoying myself. So today, we became typical tourists in Rio and headed to the beach. What a very different experience that was. I'm used to clean beaches, with generally speaking not too many people around, and the major sound of the beach is the waves crashing. In Rio, it's oh so very different. The Beaches are pretty busy, and for the record budgy smugglers don't look good on anyone, not matter the age or the size! And ladies, let's just say that some sizes shouldn't wear a g-string bikini. Just as you lay down and get comfortable, the sales people arrive selling sunglasses, water, beer, food, sarongs, bikinis, hennah tattoos, jewellery, sunscreen. You name it and it would appear that you could buy it while at the beach. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, and they took no for an answer quite well, it was just very different than I'm used too. Oh and the water was freezing!! The rest of the day was pretty much being slack.

Tomorrow we head off for some markets and we'll see how heaving are backpacks will be by the time we lealve the markets :-)

The Happy and the Sad

2007-10-04T19:13:00.000+08:00

The past few days have had some amazing highs and lows.

Tuesday we spent the day being tourists, we walked around the cemetary where Evitas body is buried. It's an amazing cemetary which mosques and tombs that really just need to be seen to be believed. Very late that night I received an email telling me that my nanna passed away. This sent me into a weird spin. Should I stay or should I go was the only thoughts that I could consider. After much thought, little sleep and a great deal of tears, I decided to stay.

So over the past few days trying to enjoy this trip has become a real battle. I'm still enjoying the sites and sounds, but my hearts just not in it. We arrived in Rio this afternoon, and we're staying a very short walk from Copocabana Beach, and all I can think about is wanting to be at home. I'm hoping that if I get a good nights sleep tonight that this will all improve.

While flying today I became quite nostalgic about Nanna, and remembered some of the good times before she become frail. One of the things that sticks in my mind is how she once said that "this getting old stuff has knobbs on it" Oh how true those words were. I remember her telling me how she used to ride horse and buggy around the streets of Redcliffe. How she used to swim across the river from Maylands to Redcliffe to see aunty Mavis, how she hated it when the multinovas were introduced as she kept getting caught speeding - with her excuse being it was because she couldn't talk her way out of it. How she always made jelly for summer dessert, but she always mushed it up with a fork to make it look prettier. How Lockie would be sitting on her lap whenever her and Pop came to visit. I could go on. It was really comforting to remember her how she used to be, full of life. Her funeral will be on Thursday, and I wish I could be there.

Tomorrow is Simons Birthday - happy birthday!! Hope you have a great birthday and enjoyed your breakfast with Jo & Nita.

Yay - we're in BA!!

2007-10-02T17:21:00.000+08:00

Yay, we've finally made it out of Madrid and into Buenos Aires. We're starting to get a comple now, as it's beenraining since we got here (apparently the day before was beautiful), that means we've been rained on in every country that we've been to. Yippee!! Just as well I kept my rain jacket!

The other exciting thing is that John has bought along his laptop, since Mandy and I are suffering computer withdrawal we're really appreciated to being able to just hopp on the computer when we want to "google" something. And you'ld be surprised how often that is. The other good thing is that we don't have to pay for the internet connection either, so we can juststay on for as long as we like, no rushing - very nice. Thanks John for brining the laptop with, we really do appreciate it.

So, Since I've got a bit of time, and it's stupid o'clock here and everyone else is asleep, I may as well try and find some photos for you'll

Connemarra Ponies - Ireland

Kylemore Abbey - Ireland

Wee Flossies - Ireland

Giants Causeway

Dorky tourist shot, somewhere on the Irish coast looking towards Mull of Kintyre.

Mandy with Oscar Wildes knee Galway

Loch Ness Monster - Scotland

Hadrians Walls - England

Well I've managed to flattten the battery on my camera while checking out my photos, so you'll all have to wait for the next installment for more photos.

Don´t Ever FLy Iberia Airlines!!

2007-10-01T03:06:00.000+08:00

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re still in Madrid. Yes, I know we were supposed to be either in BA or on our way by now, but thewy over booked the flight and well we´ll just have to wait!!! After much frustration and spending many hours in a line at Madrid airport (which is quite a nice looking airport) we managed to get onto a flight at leaves at stupid o´clock tonight and arrives early tomorrow morning. Gee´s - how hard can it be. Clearly ¨the computer¨needs to be sorted out so that they get their s**t together and not stuff people around. Mind you we´ve actually ended up better off in someways, as we´ve been put up in a nice hotel for the day, food, internet and wine has been paid for. We´ve been financially compensated for our delay which was a nice surprise. But I tell you NEVER AGAIN WILL I FLY IBERIA!!

Yay - Photos

2007-09-29T21:01:00.000+08:00

It would appear that this computer will allow me to upload some photos, so here I go. Hopefully it will work, but I´m not holding my breath.

Here´s Mandy at the Arch de Triomphe

Notre Dame And a scenic photo of Paris (it was very hazy while we were there).

At the Gugenheim (Bilbao Spain)

Lisborn Bridge

Mandy at Alhambra (Spain)

Alhambra gardens

Us being dorky on the tourist bus in Granada

Gaudi´s lizard (Barcelona)

Oh and here´s one of Mandy´s puffy hand. They breed nasty spiders (we´re assuming) over here.

That´s about it for now. Yes there are plenty more photos that I will bore you all to dead with.

¡Madrid es el congelar sangriento!

2007-09-27T22:22:00.000+08:00

Damn, it´s cold!! We´ve clearly been spoilt by the weather up until now, but now we feel as though we´ve got icicles forming on us if we keep still.

We´re in Madrid, arrived yesterday, after yet another hassel with airlines. I tell ya what, we´ll be sooooooo glad once we´re done with spanish airlines. Today we got to spend another hour or so in discusions with yet another spanish airline . So we´re over airlines. But hey, as the security guard in Barcelona said, you´re on holiday - relax!! We´re trying to - really we are!!

Anyway, best be off, internet access is a killer on the budget.

Adios Barcelona - Hola Madrid

2007-09-25T21:56:00.000+08:00

We leave Barcelona tomorrow for Madrid. This will be our final stop in the Northern hemisphere. Then we´re onto South America (more beaches & sun). After the hecticness of the past few weeks, we´ve both really enjoyed our time in Barcelona and we´ve both managed to relax again. Mind you spending time at the beach does have a calming effect. Would be good to stay a bit longer, but alas it´s time to move on.

Just had a bit of excitment here in the internet/phone place. One of the guys using the phone was having a temper tantrum yelling at whoever he was speaking with, and so the guy running the place disconnected his call (after asking him to quieten down). We could all hear what he was saying (mind you we can´t speak spanish so we were missing out). Then there was a bit of a confrontation and now everyone seems to be happy again. Seems to be how the spanish do things. Yell, throw your arms about, yell some more and then all is good with the world.

We spent yesterday wandering around Park Guell it has Gaudi´s house museum, cool mosaics etc. Again this computer doesn´t let me download photos so you´ll just have to believe me on this one. I also found an english secondhand bookshop so we managed to swap a few books so we now have something more to read. Hey Simon - you would have liked the bookshop, it was very ¨black books¨but more pretentious.

Today we wandered through Casa Bastillo, a house that was renovated by Gaudi in 1904-1906. Very cool. He used lots of natural light and colours that are pretty impressive too. Again the useage of mosaics is pretty awesome. I´m going to have to play with mosaics when I get home. We also picked up our Brazilian visas - YAY!! So we´re pretty much all set for the next part of our adventure.

Barcelona

2007-09-21T00:24:00.000+08:00

Yay, we´ve arrived in Barcelona. We´re in the apartment and we´ve gotten rid of the car - yay!! Yesterday was a pretty stressful day, due to Barcelona traffic & roads, One World stuffing up a heap of Mandy´s flights (lucky she checked) and basically it was just not a very ¨happy¨day. But the apartment is good and we´re able to cook and do laundry (sad huh). Now we just need to sort out our visa for Brazil and all will be good with the universe (we hope!).

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday afternoon, so we haven´t really seem much of the city yet. We´ve been fairly slack today and only ventured out for a quick stroll along the beach, a visit to the Brazilian Embassy and now the internet visit. Tomorrow we will become tourists again and try and sort stuff out - hopefully some Gaudi.

Best be off. Hope all is good with ya´ll.

Sun, Sea and Surf

2007-09-17T18:06:00.000+08:00

We left Granada Saturday morning, and we were very happy to do so. While the place was lovely it cost us a small fortune. We decided that we were tired of carrying around a heap of stuff, like jumpers and jeans and thought we would send them home - let´s just say we´re carrying stuff in future due to the cost of the postage!! So along with the cost of postage and the cost of accommodation, and the poor service we recieved in the Hotel we stayed in (Man they chucked attitude!) we left Granada happy to have seen parts of it but even happier to leave. Alhambra was pretty amazing though and I think Mandy is going to put a couple of photos on her blog so check those out.

We drove through the Seirra Navada - that we beautiful. However unfortunately the sky was way to hazy to take photos. We drove to a small town called Majacar, which is north of Almeria but on the coast. It was beautiful! And even the large amount of Poms there didn´t spoil the effect of the town. We had a cute little room that had a balcony that overlooked the beach - lovely! We even ventured into the water and had a very relaxing swim. Mind you the pebbled beaches are a bit much.

We´re currently in Alacante, and tomorrow we head for Valencia and then we´ll be in Barcelona for a week (yay, and we get rid of the car!). We´ve managed to get all our accommodation sorted out for the rest of our time in Europe and then it´s of to South America.

Best be off - check out the photos on Mandy´s blog. This computer won´t let me look at them.

Parking - OMG!!!!!!!!

2007-09-13T21:34:00.000+08:00

Gee´s, when we decided that yep, we´ll hire a car and drive around Spain and Portugal I thought the biggest hassel would be getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and the other drivers. But gee´s was I wrong. The worst thing has been driving through cities trying to find parking, and trying to find cheap accommodation that has parking. Well, lets just say that the budget has been blown.

I´ve learn new driving techniques. For example all you need to do to drive on the wrong side of the street, double or triple park, drive the wrong way down a one way road is to put on your hazard lights. I tell you we in Australia totally under utilise the hazard lights and have no appreciation to the full use.

We´re in Granada (and we´ve found free internet use). We spent the day at Alhambra which is pretty amazing and we´re so glad that we went. We thought we might have missed it as we read that you needed to book tickets in advance and we hadn´t. But we found a way and it was good.

Tomorrow is more touristy stuff around Granada, and our poor little feet are getting a good workout.

Hope all is good with you all and see you soon(ish)

Viva Espanià

2007-08-31T16:52:00.000+08:00

Paris has been interesting. There is amazing architecturer, sculptures, monuments, but we're over it. We've spent a week here and are very happy to be moving on. So Spain - Here We Come!

I was hoping to be able to download some photos, of all the sites that we've seen, but I haven't been able too - usually because I forget to bring the cable along with me. So I will just have to bore you all when I get back with the photos.

Anyway, time is nearly up. Hope everyone is doing well and I'll see ya'll in 7 weeks.

Free tours - gotta love 'em

2007-08-23T14:40:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we did a free tour of Munich. It was great (not at good as the one in Edinburgh, but still good). The free tour is a walking tour, so again the day was spent wandering around the city. This city has some pretty cool sites too. Particularly considering it was pretty much wiped out in WWII.

Anyway, today we're off to the castle and we probbly need to get going. Hope all is good with everyone.

Munich

2007-08-22T02:50:00.000+08:00

We arrives safetly in Munich this morning at 7.30am. Neither of us got any sleep on the bus, and we've decided that we won't be doing any more overnight bus rides. Our backs, legs, knee, neckes etc are aching. So no more busses. The bus trip was reasonably unadventful. We drove through the Czech Republic (yay another stamp in our passports). All we can say about the Czech Republic is it put on an awesome lightning storm for us.

The case of the missing underwear (and in Mandy's case clothes) has not been resolved. We spent close to 3 hours chatting with the Police in Poland explaining how it went missing (never again will we trust the hostel laundry service). Now we're just trying to work out how to claim this on our travel insurance. We'll see how good it is.

Today as we were both shattered from the complete lack of sleep, we spent the day trying to replace the missing items. We did ok, but we managed to find pretty much every other store in town before we found clothing stores - gee's we're chicks you would think that we had a homing beaker for clothes shops. So luggage is back to being heavy again.

Thursday we're off to Neuschwanstein Castle (yay) and tomorrow we'll discover what Munich has to offer.

For those of you who don't touch type would find travelling easy as so far each country we have gone to has had different keyboards (this one is winning as my personal favourite as the z and y keys have switched places and the ä us where the ' should be). It all make it fun huh.

Has anyone seen my Underwear??

2007-08-20T18:10:00.000+08:00

Here we sit, waiting to hear from the boss of the hostel what happened to our clothes. For me it's not so bad, I only lost underwear, while Mandy has lost heaps of her clothes. We gave them to the hostel to wash and now they're missing. We don't have long as we have to catch a bus, so hopefully they'll get here soon.

Krakow & Auschwitz

2007-08-18T15:57:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Krakow on Thursday morning {thanks Mark for Dropping us at Gatwick at stupid-o'clock}. The Old part of Krakow is very beautiful. It was also very warm when we got hot (33 degrees).

Krakow is a pretty amazing place - it has heaps of history and some amazing architecture. There are heaps of tourists here, but the city appears to be learning how to deal with them, there are information centres, that don't hold a lot of information, trams and trains run frequently to various places but little information is available (in english) on how to utilise them. But none the less, it's a great city.

Auschwitz.... well what can be said. It was a very moving experience going there. While we were looking at the remains of one of the crematoriums, a group of Jewish tourists started to sing in Hebrew. Gee's that was made it even more moving. It's really hard to explain the emotions that are felt while seeing the attrocious living conditions, torture chambers, stolen items etc that are there. It was saddening and sickening. People can be so cruel.

Tomorrow we head for Munich, and then we'll be onto Paris, so whatever relief the budget was feeling while being in Poland it will suffer some shock going back to the Euro. Today we'll explore the old Jewish part of Krakow.

Just Relaxing ......

2007-08-12T21:34:00.000+08:00

The last two days have been very relaxing. Infact we've been very slack. We've been staying at Mark and Joanne's (Simon's Aunt & Uncle) place since Friday, and it's been fantastic. Yesterday they were nice enough to take us for a drive around the area (they both took us on separate site seeing tours of the local area), this was very cool. Joanne took us through Greenwich - which is beautiful, and Mark drove us through a tunnel under the Thames that has been there since the late 1800's. It was pretty amazing considering Perth has only had the Farmer Freeway since 2000.

Tomorrow hopefully we'll be off to Dover, assuming we can find the bus stop. This in itself could be an adventure, but I'll let you know how it goes. I think today (or what's left of today), we'll probably check out Eltham Palace and the local area as Mark has told us so much about the local area.

Streets of London - well Oxford to be exact.

2007-08-07T23:38:00.000+08:00

We´re currently sitting in an internet cafe on Oxford St. We arrived in London this afternoon - staying in a funky little backpackers that is right next to the train station (always a bonus when one is carrying a backpack) and is above a pub (again always a bonus when one has carried a backpack and worked up a thirst).

We decided that we needed to see a bit of town and headed to Oxford St - got as far as an internet cafe and well stayed here.

The past three days have been beautiful.

Nothing of great excitement to report. All is safe and well.

Day at the Beach!

2007-08-06T16:51:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the first really warm beautiful day we've had since I've been here, so we (along with the rest of the population of York) headed towards Scarborough to the beach. Well lets just say we had our first real introduction to British Traffic Jams. OMG!!!!!! Put it this way, we decided to give the beach a miss and headed for the moors instead. Beautiful scenery.

Almost out of time.

Ciao

What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?

2007-08-03T18:07:00.001+08:00

They built Hadrians Wall! It was pretty cool too. We walked along a little bit of it, but not the complete wall, as it goes pretty much east to west. That will have to be another trip.

We've finally had a couple of nice days. Inverness was fantastic, and we drove out to Loch Ness, which was a lot larger than I had imagined. But we didn't spot Nessies - very dissapointing.

We hired a car in Inverness on Tuesday and have slowly made our way down to the Lake District. Scotland was awesome, and there is so much to see and do here, that you could really spend at least a month or so in each country.

Apart from being bloody cold, or as the locals say "it's a bit fresh", the trip has been great. Hostel life is something that everyone should try at least once in their life - nothing quite like being kept awake most of the night by loud choral snoring, and then when you have drifted off, you get woken up by people packing as they have to leave early, or they're just completely ignoring the fact that there are 6 other people in the room who are asleep - again, you would think the loud snoring would give it away, but clearly no! Mind you nothing quites beats the woman in Dublin that pushed someone out of bed because she wanted the lower bunk (at midnight mind you and we were all asleep!)

Not sure where we're off to tomorrow, but no doubt it'll be south somewhere. Anyway, times nearly up.

Oh - and don't forget to check Mandy's blog too - it's http://www.mctraveller.blogspot.com

Edinburgh

2007-07-27T03:03:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Edinburgh this afternoon. Have wandered around parts of the city and it's amazing. This city has such a great feel to it.

There's only one computer here and there now appears to be a heap of people wanting to use it. Very inconvenient, but you get that with free internet access.

We're in Edinburgh for 3 days, then I'm not sure where we're off too. When I get a chance I'll try and upload some photos, but probably not today.

Hope all is good with all of you.

Galway Bay

2007-07-20T18:32:00.000+08:00

Spent the last two nights in Galway, it's a pretty cool (literally) town, but beautiful. Yesterday we went on a day tour and I got to see my first castle and cathedral. It was very pretty - I'll put photos on at some point when I get to a place that lets me download them. On our bus tour, we drove past a bridge that had been washed away the day before - big news in Ireland. The local guy told us that "There t'was, but t'is no more." It was a pretty impressive washout.

Right now we're waiting for the bus to Belfast. So far it hasn't rained on us today, but it's been really cold, when you breath out you can see your breath - and it's summer here!! No one seems to phased by the coldness or the constant rain.

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

2007-07-18T22:40:00.000+08:00

We're in Galway, and it's raining. We made it to our hostel, got our stuff in our room, had a cuppa, and decided we needed foro and it's rained. And it hasn't stopped. And it has been raining hard. So it might just be packet soup for dinner. We were hoping for baked potatoes.

The country side on the bus triop between Dublin and Galway was very beautiful. Cute little houses, with stone fences lined the country side. Cows and sheep were spotted all over the place - it was very pretty. And everything is very green.

Hm, there might actually be a break in the rain - must off and away in search of potatoes.

In Dublins Fair City

2007-07-18T15:36:00.000+08:00

Yay, I'm here.

The flight was long, and tiring and I didn't feel so great which made it even better - NOT! But I made it and Mandy was at the Bus Station waiting for me which was great. Managed to walk around the city a bit the day I flew in, but then needed to sleep. Aah, sleep - it was lovely. Slept for like 18 hours, I don't think I've slept that much in my life.

Yesterday we took a tourish tour of Dublin. It was pretty cool. Saw St Patricks Cathederal, Dublin Castle, and much more. Didn't do the tour of the Guiness factory as my stomach still wasn't feeling great. Got rained on, but that seems pretty normal too.

Anyway, today we're off to Galway so I need to go pack.

I'm packed - I think??

2007-07-12T16:48:00.000+08:00

Yay, everything seems to have fitted nicely into the backpack - and it only weights 14.5kg, so I'm pretty happy about that. Might have to go through it again tomorrow to make sure I have everything, but I think I'm done.

Happy Anniversary to Gary & Nita for Tuesday. Hope you guys had a great day. 13 years - well done.

Anyhoo, the puppies are being painful -apparently by the puppies body clock it's second dinner time.

3 more sleeps!!

4 Sleeps to go!

2007-07-11T22:55:00.000+08:00

Yay - it's getting very exciting. Last day at work today. Packed up everything, almost managed to stay focused for the entire day, and I'm not going back till 19 November. Doesn't that just sound the best!

Nothing too exciting to add today, and tomorrow won't exactly be full of excitement either - my day will consist with me doing laundry and packing. Hopefully I can get everything to fit into the backpack and that it won't weight a tonne.

Backpack is filling, but where are the clothes?

2007-07-06T07:19:00.000+08:00

I had a bash at packing last night. Figured that since it's only 9 days till I leave I should give it a whirl, just to give me an idea of what I need to get more or take less of. But, to my astonishment, I've kept grabbing stuff, contact lens solution, toiletries, 1st aide stuff, and it seems to have taken up about half of my backpack. I hadn't even started with clothing or shoes. Me thinks I might have to re-evaluate what I'm taking. Oh and about a third of the stuff I packed was stuff that I'm taking for Mandy (and she's already complaining about the weight of her backpack).

Anyway, I have today off work - YAY! My day off will be taken up by shopping for more stuff to take with (I know I just complained about all the stuff that I already have, but I need more.. shampoo, conditioner, body-wash). I've also got the flu and I thought I was beating it, but this morning it seems to have settled in. Hopefully it'll be gone by the time I hop on the plane.

I also need to organise all these pieces of paper with notes of thing I want to see, places to visit, trains to catch. I'll have to spend part of my day putting all of that into my journal.

I'm clearly not as organised as I would like to be. Was hoping that I wouldn't leave it all to the last minute, but it's starting to get there. Oh well that's half the fun of holidays - right??

13 Sleeps! (Ignore the date - I started drafting this a while ago, and never finished.)

2007-06-24T07:38:00.000+08:00

Well, it's not long now. It's just 13 sleeps to go, and I'm a tad excited!! Not sure I'm anywhere near ready. Will have to try packing tomorrow I think to see how much crap I'm taking. The good news is that half the stuff I'll be taking will be for Mandy so I'll be able to dump it on her.

Got a bit of a flu at the moment - not really happy about that. But have bought heaps of stuff to try and knock it off before I go.

Simons Dad is doing really well. He got the all clear and he's looking really good. He's doing a lot of walking to try and build up his fitness. Think he even managed to get to his first Eagles game for sometime a couple of weekends ago so he's doing really well.

Not much else - oh last month I went to the Pilbara for work, so I'll bore you with a couple of shots.

Also, over the w/end we had a craft day at Nitas. We had a great time, didn't really do anything, but good food, good wine and good company - what more can you ask for. Here's some dorky photos for you to enjoy.

It's Jo-Jo and me. We all dressed in Red, White and Blue to wish Nita a happy early 4th of July. The gorgeous beanies are made by Jo-Jo's Mum - Thanks Annie.

And now we've got Nita - being a very industrious sewer - you did a great job Nita keep it up!

Nita wearing her finished product - she was being very silly here.

The weekend before last we went to Dawsons Garden Nursery - here's some photos that I took.

Home Again, Home Again!

2007-05-30T20:02:00.001+08:00

Yay - Baz is back home now. Amazing really, he was in theatre last Tuesday night, and one week later his home. He's looking really well too.

Matthew E will be over tomorrow - so that'll be great. We haven't seen him for ages, so every ones looking forward to catching up with him.

Audrey - hope your arm is getting better. You'll have to fill us in on how it happened. And you can't blame me for this one - I wasn't there. Hope you're ok!

Best be off. Was just a very quick update on Baz's recovery. Not biopsy results yet, but he's certainly looking healthier!

Quick Up-date

2007-05-27T20:11:00.000+08:00

Baz is doing better!! He's doing really well - still waiting for biopsy results, but he's looking so much healthier and he's eating again - only nourishing fluids at this point, but it's way more than what he's been eating for a few weeks now. But he's back and doing well. Thanks for your positive wishes & thoughts.

Mandy and I are now sorted for the first 4 nights of our trip. Dublin here we come! And we'll sort the rest out once I'm there - I think? So travel plans are progressing.

Next weekend is a long weekend, so hopefully be to catch up with Nita & Gary. Haven't seen them in a while plus I have a great new recipe I need to try out on them. Also Matthew E is coming over so we'll be spending a bit of time with them so it's likely to be a busy weekend, which will be good. We might even go to Jo's restaurant again.

Must dash, as I need to get myself sorted and ready for the gym tomorrow morning.

What a Week!

2007-05-23T18:20:00.000+08:00

Gee's it's only Wednesday, but it's been such a full week.

Works been really busy this week. Meetings and stuff have kept me busy, planning and booking the Pilbara trip was surprisingly complicated. But that's all organised now. So it's going to be a very busy next few weeks - well pretty much until I go on leave, which by the way is only 52 days away, of which only 39 are working days, 3 of which I'll be in the Pilbara.

The other majorily crappy thing is that Baz (Simon's dad) is in hospital. He's not been well for a while now - since easter-ish, and he's gradually been getting worse. So he went into hospital on Monday night, and a cat scan on Tuesday morning and by Tuesday night he was in Theatre. He ended up having a splenectomy, a partial bowel removal, and I think that it. He had a mass, which they excised, but at this point I'm not sure if they got it all. He's likely to be in hospital for 2-4 weeks. Hopefully they got it all, and he'll be able to make a full recovery. Simon's pretty shook up over it all, but hopefully he seems to be dealing with it better now that Baz is out of immediate danger - I think.....

So that's been my week so far - how's everyone else's week going?

Boot Camp!

2007-05-15T18:03:00.000+08:00

The joys of working with the military. Tomorrow we're going on a 2 day "Boot Camp". Doesn't that just sounds like fun - NOT!! Why they can't call it something normal, like a team building retreat or some such thing I don't know. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what I'm thinking.

Mind you on the good news front. My flight from Buenos Aires to Rio and return has been booked and paid for. It's 2 months today where I'll be hopping ont he plane. Infact this time in 2 months I'll be on the plane . Very exciting.

Hmm, no photos to put on this entry. Rather boring really. But just wanted to let everyone know that its only 61 days to go!

65 days to go!

2007-05-11T18:25:00.000+08:00

Life has been so hectic lately. I'm not sure where the time has gone. I still need to organise all the same things that I did before. But I've now got a flight to Rio, which I'm pretty happy about, and have changed flight plans and will now be going to Dublin first, then Edinburgh and then London. So at least I won't be exhausted when I do the London eye - hmm, perhaps I should have left it. How panicked can I get??

Last Friday night Nita and I went to the Sing-along Sound of Music. It was a hoot. Mandy you would have hated it, but we really enjoyed ourselves. To get into the swing of things we decided we needed to dress up, but we couldn't decide on what. So we went as So and La - below is La. It was quite funny (in a nerdy kind of way) - So broke, so we had to Sew it back together. Anyway it was a great night and I really enjoyed it. The Sound of Music will never be the same again - and you all must remember to Hiss when you see the Baroness Schraeder .

We've be busy on the weekends going to Jason's Soccer games. It's been good fun, but unfortunately they're at the bottom of their ladder. But as the song says - the only way is up!

Works been really busy, I'm having to do an audit of a heap of stuff at the moment and it's driving me mad. How a company who hires accountants can make such simple mistakes is beyond me - and I only did accounting in high school. But it's keeping me busy and making the time go really quickly.

Nothing else of excitement is happening - not that any of this blurb was particularly exciting - other than it's 65 days to go (which is only 49 working days). Very exciting!

Road Trip!

2007-04-15T07:24:00.000+08:00

Wow, I didn't realise it had been so long since I wrote on here. So what have I been up to.....

On Saturday, 24 March I flew to Adelaide to meet Jo-jo for her move across to the west. We had a look through the city and went to the markets, and got to walk see the fountain which is beautiful.

We spent the night in Glenelg. I absolutely love Glenelg and always have, even before I discovered that it was where my grandfather (mum's dad) grew-up.

On Sunday morning we started our road trip to the West. We spent the day driving and chatting and stopping to get photos. One of the places we stopped along the way was Kimba. It's a tiny town, but it's important because it's halfway across Australia. And, they have a big cockie there.

A bit further along we came to a town that had inselbergs". They're really just big rocks stuck in the ground, but we had fun saying "insulbergs" in really bad german/austrian accents. Then we found a sign that said Turtle rock - so we headed of down the gravel road the 24km to see the turtle rock, that the travel book said really did look like a turtle. But we were fooled - it didn't look like a turtle!! Below is a shot of the turtle rock. It's not a turtle!!

Jo wanted to head towards the coast to see Murphys Haystacks, which are rocks that look like haystacks. But after the dissapointment of Turtle rock, we were a bit dubious. But we weren't disappointed by these inselburgs.

We spent Sunday night in Ceduna. We drove around town a bit to have a look were we could get dinner, but everything looked shut - it was only 7.30pm. Anyway we were pretty tired, so we got an onsite van at the same caravan park that we had stayed at when Robyn & Co and Simon & I did our little drive around. We had a cuppa and a bit of toast and pretty much fell asleep.

The next morning we ended left Ceduna by about 7am, I must say the standard of the Ice Coffee is South Australia is pretty poor. It's soooo sweet. I was looking forward to getting a good West Aussie one.

First stop along the way was Penong. They have very little rainfall there, so to survive they have they use windmills to get water. It's really cool, as you come into town you are greeted by all these windmills.

Then we headed into the nullabour. We stopped at every stop to see the Great Australia Bight. It was beautiful.

Both sides of the bight.

And of course there is the obligatory tourist shot of Jo-jo & the Nullabour Roadhouse Whale.

We crossed the border at some point during the day, which was very funny, as we had been doing a countdown for the past 100km so by the time we were there we were a bit over it. But none the less, more touristy photos.

We drove to Eucla, where Jo-jo insisted we go and look at the old Telegraph station. So off we go on the bumpy road - to see the old townsite, which has not been covered by sand. Pretty cool really.

Off we set agtain, we didn't know where we planned on staying that night, but as there was still plenty of sunlight we just kept going. We stopped at the photo op at the top of the hill just past Caiguna. After such a long flat drive, and there doesn't seem like there is anything to see, it's a pretty cool view. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

We had to fill up at Cocklebiddy. Man was that expensive. Jo-jo bought 2 icecreams and 2 soft drinks and it was $20. Expensive!!

From before Baledonia to Norseman the roads weren't great. There were road works all the way till Norseman. There was an awesome thunderstorm too, we had lightning all around us which was beautiful. As the area is soo flat, you could see it miles off. It was amazing. We ended up getting into Noreseman at about 9pm. We were starving, but there were no food places open that late. So more toast & coffee for dinner.

Tuesday Morning we headed to Esperance. As we were starving and we decided breakfast with real coffee at Esperance was the plan. Had breakfast in a really cool cafe

We then checked out the Rivers discount store & then headed off to Albany at about lunch time. Again there was heaps of road works most of the way. But the trip was good, and there were more thunderstorms to keep us amused. We got into Albany to late to site see really, so we just found a place to stay and then took ourselves out for dinner.

The next morning we got ourselves organised, had breakfast over looking the bay. It was lovely. We then checked out the Rivers store - you can never have too much Rivers stuff. Then we went sight seeing. It's such a pretty place. Below are a couple of photos of the various views about the place. And the wind turbines.

2007-03-13T20:10:00.000+09:00

Well yesterday was WW again, and I was going to pike out and not go, but figured I had better because Kell & Linny would kill me if I didn't show. Particuarly as Kell had said that "no piking was allowed". So off I trudge, and go and weight in - and yes a weight loss of 1/2kg, and no sign of Kell & Linny. So as I ask today how they went, and guess what - they piked. How rude, after telling me I couldn't. Anyway, it's all good as there was a weight loss regardless how small. Having watched "Biggest Loser" it's hard to take normal weight loss numbers but as they work out for 6hrs per day etc, it's a bit unrealistic for the rest of us. But a loss is a loss.

Sunday we did about a 28km ride. Was really nice too, but we seemed to be against the wind for most of it. We started at Tranby house, headed towards the city, crossed the causeway, road back along the river to Tonkin Highway, then back to Tranby. Got there just intime for breakfast. Was a really nice morning. Simon didn't enjoy it that much though, as he started to feel quite ill, and by the end of the day he was not doing so well at all. He's pretty much ok now, but he wasn't doing so well then. Anyway here's a couple of shots from the ride. I didn't take a lot of shots, but it would appear that each time I did Brody was there. So ... here's to Brody.

Brody cycling

Brody contemplating

Brody Sleeping

(he was very tired because he'd been to a friends place the night before for a birthday party).

The Bridge - it was very cute.

Next weekend we're doing the "Bike Hike". Riding 30km, from Belmont Park to Joondalup along the freeway. We were hoping for moderate weather, but it looks like its going to be in the low 30's so it might be a bit misserable. We've picked up our packs already - not that they were that exciting.

About a month ago we sent Corinda a pressie - choccies and vegemite. I got an email from her and she's received them. Just in time too I must add, as she's coming home on the 28th of this month. Yay, very excited about that.

My, My.... How Time Flies!

2007-03-05T10:18:00.000+09:00

Gee's I didn't realise (until I was hassled) that it had been so long since I updated. I knew I had been busy and tired, but leaving it a whole 2 weeks without updating is ridiculous I agree.

So what has happened in that two week. Umm, lets see - WW was bad, so we we won't got there. Last weekend Nita, Simon and I cycled from South Perth to Mt Henry bridge and back again. The ride was pretty good, apart from the beginning where I thought I was going to die, then realise that my brakes were grabbing and making it twice as hard to push. Once that was fixed it was a lot nicer. Here's some photos of that ride.

First photos is of the city from Mt Henry Bridge , the second photos if of the city from South Perth where we stopped and had breakfast. The easterly wind was blowing as we rode towards the boatshed, and it was so strong that it felt like we were almost about to be blown backwards. It was the toughest part of the ride. But we made it and enjoyed the view and breakfast.

Here's Nita and one of the cute little birds that put on a show for us while we ate.

This weekend just gone we cycled around Lake Monger & Lake Herdsman. The ride was beautiful, and very relaxing. Audrey was with us, and she told us that it was the first time that she had ridden a bike since she was about 15 - so she did remarkably well. However there was a bit of a topple, and for some reason she keeps telling everyone that I pushed her !! Anyway, here's some photographic evidence of the day.

The scenery was glorious. There were so many birds around it was just beautiful. The swans were very inquisitive. They even attempted to try and eat out picnic breakfast.

The City views from Lake Monger & Herdsman were spectacular. It was really pretty.

And the scenery in general was lovely. The ride was a nice easy pace as we didn't want to wear Audrey out on her first ride, which was good as it gave us heaps of time to take in the views and as the old cliche says - stop and smell the roses.

Yesterday was a public holiday in WA, and so we figured we needed to get into the garden. Here's a before and after show of what we did.

Lucy the wonder do had a lumpectomy last Wednesday, and we should get the results tomorrow. Hopefully this lump will not be the bad kind like the last one. Poor girl, she's got a huge cut on her back that's about 10cm long, and she's also got a couple of stitches on her nose too where they biopsied the lumps on her nose.

Oh, and I've also had a go at Ribbon Embroidery. Here's my first attempt. What do you think? Not bad for a first attempt??

Monday-itis.

2007-02-19T21:04:00.000+09:00

Today I really didn't feel like going to work. Luckily it was a pretty quiet day, so it didn't end up being too bad.

It was WW night again tonight, and had to weight in. Wasn't feeling very positive about it this week, as I had eaten out for 5 out of 7 meals since Friday. And none of them were low points stuff, but none the less of we went. Again we decided to ride over, as it's not a bad ride. We were setting a really good pace too, until .... I get a flat tyre. Bummer!! We were about 3/4 of the way there. So we walked it till we got near Kells place and then I took Simons bike to the weigh-in while he too my bike to Kells and awaited. Lucky they live nearby hey! There was an amazing weight loss this week - 100 grams! Pretty amazing considering there was wedges & chips & ice-cream & pasta & potato dishes & pasta & well, nothing point free. But hey, I'll take it - a loss is a loss right.

Even though I had a 3 day weekend it still seemed to go very fast. Lunch with Mum & Dad on Friday. Lunch with Robyn, Jason & Eric on Saturday, and then yesterday Nita, Simon and I rode around lake Joondalup - it's very pretty. Was a lovely ride, until the last bit, where we had to ride along Wanneroo Road - which was very busy, and it didn't feel particularly safe. We then had breakfast at Leap Frog, which was lovely. After breakfast we went to the Scrapbooking store in Joondalup which had a sale on, and of course, we bought stuff. Poor Simey - he waited for us while we shopped. Then last night Nita, Gary, Simon and I went to the movies - gold class - to see "Music & Lyrics" Was a very cute movie, and we all had a bit of a chuckle. But I tell you all the eating over the weekend was exhausting! Thank goodness birthdays only come once a year!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

2007-02-16T17:30:00.000+09:00

Today my mobile has been running hot with birthday wishes - thanks everyone, it's been greatly appreciated.

We had lunch with Mum and Dad, we were planning on going to the Atrium at Burswood, but we ended up having it at Farrels instead. Gee's they're funny. They weren't sure what some of the stuff was on the menu so they though they would just go with fish & chips - how boring! So, anyway after a bit of conjouling from both Simon and I we managed to convince them to try something different - and guess what, they really enjoyed it. Plus, what's the point of being a carnivore if you're not going to try different stuff. Lunch was really nice. And thanks Mum and Dad for paying - you didn't have too.

We then went to the Post Office to send of a little gift for Corinda - just some Vegemite as she said she was out and some choccie - everyone could use a little choccie every now and then. I also bought some cycling gloves - as my hand-grips hurt my hands (yeah, yeah I'm a sook, but it hurts!). Then we had a coffee and cake - so much for weight watchers today. But I should be ok, just need to do a bit of exercise and it's all good (I hope).

Simon's Mum phoned this morning to wish me Happy Birthday, and she caught us up with what's been happening in the family. Marianne and Dave moved into their new house. Kaylene is in hospital - appendicitis, and Kates had a rough couple of days/weeks and I hope she's doing ok, luckily her mum has flown over to be with her for a while, so hopefully they'll be able to sort it out.

Anyway, I'm just babbling. But I'm allowed as it's my birthday!

Here's a couple of photos of me, one where I was 12 months old - pretty cute, and one of me recently - still pretty cute (hehe).

101 Work Days to go.

2007-02-14T20:19:00.000+09:00

Wow - 101 work days to go - I didn't realise it was that close. And I still haven't progressed from flights being organised. Hmm, not quite panic stations, but close.

Ok, so next on the list should be some accommodation, YHA membership and vaccinations. Hmm and perhaps I should work out if I need visas too.

Riding Along On My Push Bike Honey!

2007-02-12T21:18:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was very exhausting. We rode for 2 hours! It was very exhausting, but good. Felt quite good when we finished. For a while there I didn't think I was going to make it, but it was more the fact that it got hot, we probably should have started earlier.

As we want to do the 30km "Bike Hike", we need to train a little. So, as I needed to go to weight watchers which is in Riverton, I conned Simon into riding there with me. It took us 45 minutes to get there. There was a head wind all the way there, which was very tiring. Then I weighed in - and yes, another weight loss of 1kg. Had hoped for higher, but as I had some bad food during the week (cheesecake and chippies) I'm pretty happy with the result. Then we had to ride home, wind behind us, but it still took us 45 minute to get home. We went at a slightly slower pace as we were both a bit tired.

So 18km today, 26km yesterday. All in all a pretty good start to the week. Oh, and I sooo need to get new hand grips.

Man it's Steep!

2007-02-10T16:25:00.000+09:00

Here I sit, listening to what's on my MP3 player - trying to work out which songs to delete so I can put more on. Nothing very exciting is happening. Managed to sleep in this morning (puppies did come in and wake me up every half hour though). Visited Simons folks, and did a bit of grocery shopping.

Yesterday one of the women from work sent me some of her photos from when she climbed Macchu Piccu, and these are the ones that show how steep the climb is - see - really steep!

Hmm - what to have for dinner?

2007-02-07T18:51:00.000+09:00

So, what's happened since Monday. Umm, well not much. Work which has been really busy, and there is no sign of it slowing down in the near future. But other than that not much.

Simon and I have taken a leaf out of Gary and Nita's book. On Tuesday nights they have "date night" where they don't do their normal thing, and go out on a date together. Kinda sweet I thought so I figured we'd try it too. So last night was date night number 3, and it was hot, and we were tired, so there wasn't much enthusiasm, so we just watched a dvd.

Jo-Jo phoned last night, and it's 58 days till she's a Perth resident - yay. She's almost sorted. She's got her uplift organised, and her apprenticeship should be done by the end of Feb - so watch out Perth she's on her way :-)

I was supposed to be going out with Deb tonight, but she was too broke. She wanted to do belly dancing lessons - sounds like fun.

Anyway, it's hot, I'm tired and I should go make some dinner. Hmm - what to have for dinner?

When A Negatives Is A Positive!

2007-02-05T20:59:00.000+09:00

Yesterday the "Biking Buddy's" as Brody calls us cycled around our place. Was quite a nice ride, we have a pretty good array of bike paths, and most of them where quite shady by the river. Rode up to Kent Street Weir, which is really pretty. I didn't even know it existed. Then rode home. We rode for 1 hr 16 mins over a distance of 15.6 km (average speed 12.3 k/hr). Nita and I wanted to ride 20 Km and 20km/hr, but we'll get there. Brody said Marcelle might be getting a bike soon too, that'll be great too. Then she and Jorja can come too. All we've got to do then is convince Kurt & Gary to join us (somehow I don't see that happening).

Here's some photos from yesterdays ride.

Pretty river views along the way

Brody

Nita & Simon

Well today was weight-in day, and it was another good week. Lost 1.2kg. So I'm pretty happy. I think I'm going to reward myself every 5kg that I lose (since my goal weight is quite a few kg away I need to set mini rewards). I have to work out what my rewards will be, but right now I have no idea. It can't be food! Hmm, will have to work on that one.

I'm considering buying a cute little dress or top for inspiration. I'm also going to print out a couple of really bad photos and stick them up on the fridge to try and stop me eating too. (Sorry Simon you'll have to put up with the bad photos too). Getting some motivational sayings and put all over the place. Also need to get into the whole exercise thing, as I've kinda slacked off. And Macchu Piccu isn't getting any smaller.

Gee's it's HOT!!

2007-01-29T20:32:00.000+09:00

Today at work it was over 30 degrees Celsius in my office, probably close to 35. It was revolting. Ended up leaving early (only by half an hour) because it was unbearable. It was so hot that getting into the car (which had been parked in the sun all day), the inside temperature of the car was bearable! It was just too hot!

Two exciting things happened today.
- One - my flights are confirmed!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Two - at Weight Watchers I lost 1.3kg this week.

Will need to get a countdown thingy like Mandy had on her blog, to countdown how long till i go on my trip. At the moment it's 167 days, or 113 working days. Not very long really. Quite exciting!!

I'm also pretty happy about the -1.3 kg. I wasn't expecting a very good figure, particularly when I ate and drank a bit down at Albany, and had a couple of other semi bad days. But clearly they weren't nearly as bad as I had thought.

So, apart from the heat, today has been a pretty good day.

An inspirational picture of places I'm going to in 167 days time :-)

Auschwitz - Poland - Going there.

The White Cliffs of Dover - England Going there too.

Eiffel Tower - France - going there as well.

What a week it's been!

2007-01-27T08:19:00.000+09:00

Gee's what happened to the week. First I write how blogging is addictive, and now it's Saturday already! Wednesday was a really long day. Flew to Albany for work, plane departed at 6.45, had to be at the airport 45 mins before the flight, takes 30 mins to get there, and about a hour for me to wake up and get ready - so it was a 4.30am start for me. I didn't get home until about 9.30pm - was a very long day! So Thursday was busy sorting stuff out and as yesterday was a public holiday (Happy Australia Day!), the week has just managed to dissapear.

Sent an email off this morning confirming my flight and travel insurance requirements. So hopefully it'll all be booked by the end of this month. What a drawn out process it has been. I suppose it would have been easier if I hadn't of done it all by email, but hey, it's more convenient.

Now I need to find some places to stay. We want to rent a place in Spain for a couple of weeks so we can just do day trips and not have to cart everything with us all the time. So that's my next project. Also need to see how much it would be to hire a car.

Here's some views from Albany. Very pretty.

Bloggin's Addictive.

2007-01-23T16:54:00.000+09:00

Gee's I never thought that I would enjoy blogging so much. I've never really managed to get into diaries or journals, I've always liked the idea of doing it, but never managed to actually keep it up. But Blogging - hm, seems I quite enjoy. May be because I can type quicker than I can write.

Oh, the semi exciting thing for today is that I've almost got my holiday flights confirmed - Yippee! Just have to read through the travel insurance brochures to decide which insurance I'll be using and then that part will be sorted - Yay!! Then I'll need to get onto the next part of planning - where to go once I'm there. And of course vaccinations & visas will need to be sorted too. At least I don't have to get a backpack.

Anyway, must be off. Have to do some grocery shopping to go with the new WW menu. Be good if they did a vegetarian menu, but I can be creative and swap meat for beans.

I haven't put a photo on here for a while, and I think it needs one, so I've found a picture of Machu Piccu for inspiration.

One small step....

2007-01-22T20:52:00.000+09:00

Today I had to do a 100% audit of the grounds. And well, they were pretty poor, but if they throw some resouces at them it they should be ok before transition. The good thing though, is I walked around for 2.5 hours today. Pretty cool, getting paid to exercise.

My "One Small Step" is that I joined Weight Watchers today. I'm not about to tell you how much I weigh or the amount that I need to lose, but it's a step in the right direction, and I'm sure I'll fill you in on the numbers that it decreases by.

And that, was pretty much my day.

Oh What Fun!

2007-01-21T19:27:00.000+09:00

Today was the first, of hopefully many, craft days for for 2007. It was at our place today, and it was good fun. Nita, Brody & I scrapbooked. Audrey knitted and did some embroidery stuff, mum watched. Dad even joined in doing his crafty stuff. It was a hoot. I really enjoyed myself.

We went down to the local scrapbooking store to have a look around, and Kevin & Janet where there with Vivienne. Was a real spin to see them there. It was good to catch-up with them. Viv's been away on a holiday for a while, and she only got back last week. She's a good kid.

Other than crafting that was pretty much today. At least I've almost finished my melbourne cup album - one more year to go and it's done. So, hopefully i'll have that finished tonight. Then I can start on the other 101 albums that I have to do.

Anyway, Thanks Nita, Brody, Audrey, Mum & Dad, and Simon for today. I really enjoyed it. It was great to get together.

TGIF

2007-01-19T17:24:00.000+09:00

What a day! Spent the majority of the day on the phone trying to sort something out that should have already been resolved. Tell you what it was annoying. If we didn't sort it out we would have been in the poo. But it's all sorted - thank goodness, and it should all hopefully work.

Will by flying down to Albany on Wednesday to check out a couple of things down there. Will be a very busy week, will be doing 100% audits of each service and down to Albany and it's only a 4 day week. Well at least I won't be bored.

Now it's time for the w/end!!

119 Working Days!

2007-01-15T19:45:00.000+09:00

I've been back at work for 3 days now, and well, it's been great. There's been a few dramas, but nothing major, and it's just not a stressful place to work. Don't get me wrong, there's heaps of stuff going on and it's going to get busier over the next few months, but the atmosphere is just great. Must be that semi-rural air or something. Anyway, it's the first time in years that I've actually be happy to go back to work after leave. Could have something to do with the fact that my long service leave has been approved. Signed off and faxed away - YIPPEE!!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited?)

Not bad hey - back at work after a month off and I have my next lot of leave approved. So, in 119 working days, I'm going to have 4 months off of work. WOW! Awesome!! Gees that's not very long at all is it. Aaaaahh, better get on with everything that I need to do.

Gotta go, need to get some sleep and stop Lucy from barking at whatever it is she's barking at.

119 working day!

Evenin' All

2007-01-14T21:38:00.000+09:00

Oh, my God!!! Today was HOT!!!!!!!!! Made worse by the fact that we went for a ride. Thinking we would be clever and beat the heat we started early - commenced cycling at about 7.30(ish). Which meant the that on my last day of leave I didn't get to sleep in - how sad :-(

I'm glad we started that early though, because it was hot even then. It was a nice ride, some slopes and some flat bits. We rode about 12.5km, and we averaged about 14 km/hr (we were doing a lot better, but got to a pretty bit and meandered around for a bit). Nita and I want to try and get our average rate speed up to 16-20km per hour, so it wasn't too bad for our first attempt at doing this.

After our ride, we had a picnic breakfast on Kurt & Marcelles front yard. Hope they didn't mind, because we kinda just made ourselves comfortable. It was really nice sitting in the shade, playing with the kids, chatting and laughing and just enjoying the time. I really enjoyed it. And it's definitely something that we need to do more of.

After breakie, we showed Brody how to put photos on his blog - he now has a really cute one on there. So hopefully we'll be seeing a lot of photos and postings now.

When we left there we visited Mum & Dad for a while - but it was soo hot and I just couldn't get cool. I bought Dad a wooden bin to make, so he can get the old guys at work to make them. Dad seemed to think it was good, so he went and copied it so they would have a project for tomorrow (Dad does OT with the old guys in the nursing home that he works at).

We left Mum & Dads place at about 2.30ish, and it was still very hot. When we got home we promptly found cool spots under aircon vents and basically became lumps that didn't move until about 7.30pm-ish - and it's still warm now.

Anyway it's late, and it's back to work for me tomorrow. So I should get some sleep. Also need to get up early and take the puppies for a walk.

Here are some photos from today.

First we have Brody & Nita (recuperating in the shade)

Jorja the SuperStar!

Brody & Meggie Simon & his Girlfriend Jorja & Me - we were singing!

So, now I'm trying to finalise my flights for my trip, and I think I'm almost there. So hopefully the flights will be booked and I can then start trying to work out the other logistics of the trip - ie accommodation, where to go and what to see. But for now, I'm rather content. All I need to do now is get my leave approved.

What a day!

2007-01-12T21:21:00.000+09:00

I visited my sister today, which was nice. The excuses (not that one is needed) was that she plans on doing some lead lighting for the front door of their new house, and she wanted to see if the dremel could do some of the etching. So off I trot, dremel in hand -well not literally as it's a long drive to have only one hand on the wheel :-).

I get there and the roof frames are being delivered - very exciting and I'm sure Tony will have to roof built within days (well maybe weeks). He's fantastic at building/making stuff. Anyway, after that excitement, we realise that it's lunchtime. So we have lunch & a cuppa & a chat (well that's what visits are all about you know), we decide that we really should start the window stuff. So she gets out all the coloured glass (man there are some cool colours), and find that her glass cutter is missing (she wasn't happy). So she drives into town to see if she can get one, which there was, but it was a pretty crappy one apparently (I wouldn't know one glass cutter from another personally). So we attempt to cut the glass, and well this became an epic adventure. Straight lines no problems, the curves however where challenging. After a lot of broken glass (and not in the good sense - small fragments flying across the floor) we decided that it was just not meant to happen today and we would attempt this challenge at a later date (tomorrow possibly). So, we played with the dremel for a bit, checking to see if it could do what she wanted - and of course it can because dremels are just fabulous!!

So then we uploaded the programme for her new camera - which by the way is very nice. I like fuji cameras, and downloaded all 187 photos that she had on the camera. Job well done. Then the next problem of the day arose - she wanted to burn all her photos to cd. Easy enough I thought, but the universe decided that this would not be so. So, I do the normal thing and well, the process failed twice! Can you believe it - Twice. So rather than do my nana, which is my normal tactic, I said that I would get Simon to come down and check the computers out (as it had to be the computers fault - couldn't have been mine).

After all this entertainment (oh did I mention it was HOT!). I decided it was time for me to come home. It's an hour and a half's drive, and I didn't get home till 6.30pm. As I hadn't seen Simon all day (and I knew he'd be on the computer for most of the night), and the puppies had been neglected all day (well they would think that, as they didn't get to come with), I decided that we all needed a walk. Again it was still warm. The walk started with our normal things of having arms pulled from sockets as it's just soooo exciting going for a walk. Then we though since it's still ok out, lets go for a bit longer walk - so our half hour walk turned into an hour and a half walk, by which time the puppies where exhausted (no more pulling other than to say slow down!). Both puppies are asleep now, lying under various aircon ducts to ensure they stay cool.

And that was my day!

Here's a photo of Holly the wonderpuppy

& Shona (the miniture Lucy)

I love to ride my Bicycle

2007-01-09T09:24:00.000+09:00

Last night Nita and I planned our next riding adventure. Well I use the word adventure in a loose way. It's our weekly cycle where we endeavour to get our heart rates up and increase our fitness. So this Sunday we'll be cycling around Ellenbrook, early as it's goign to be warm and then we'll have a picnic breakfast somewhere. Should be great. I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyway, it's photo time once again and this time I'll give you all some cycling photos. These picutres are from various rides. And sadly (NOT) there are none of me - shame :-)

I should clean.

2007-01-08T09:54:00.000+09:00

Well it's the last week of my holiday and I should really clean the house up. But instead I find myself procrastinating and finding other ways to spend my time. Well I've done what my mum used to do, I've set the timer and after that I have to get on with all the household tasks that I should be doing.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at my folks place and I made 2 picture frames for a couple of pictures that I bought in Vietman. They look ok, now I just need to find a wall to hang them on. Hmm, this room would probably be the best room for that.

Holiday plans are slowly progressing. I need to go to the library today and get a couple of lonely plantes to determine where I want to go. I also need to work out the tour of Macchu Picchu, as this will vary the timings of my flights within South America.

I think the rest of the flights seem to be ok. Hopefully it'll all work out. It's a real bummer that the timing is in peak period, but you get that. I would really like to have the flights booked by the end of this week, so I can organise my leave on my first day back at work.

Lucy the Wonderdog, must have been warm outside, as she's gone for a swim and now she's wet -and has decided that she needs to be near me and is laying under the table. Cute girl - but smelly - yuck wet dog smell.

Photo time - but what shall it be? Ok, so there are some parrots from a trip to Karri Valley Lodge with Nita and Mandy. It was a great weekend and these birds woke us every morning and as we sat on the balcony drinking coffees, the came up to check what we were having.

Then there's a shot of Milford Sound in New Zealand. This was spectacular scenery and bloody cold, and we were there in March!

I've procrastinated long enough. I should be getting on with the many other things I need to do.

Testing Testing One Two Three & Four

2007-01-06T13:17:00.000+09:00

Well I'm playing with HTML & the photo stuff and well, basically just playing with the blog stuff. And we'll I'm trying to work out how this all works. So far I at least haven't broken it.

Me, Mac, Simon and Lucy

Mac , Nita & Mandy

Mandy & Mac

Simon & Lucy

By jose, I think it worked. :-)

Another Day Another Tennis Match

2007-01-05T10:56:00.000+09:00

Well my life has been full of Hopman Cup lately, as I have spent pretty much every day there this week. It's been really great and I have really enjoyed the tennis, but it's also very painful (particuarly the butt & the legs), and it's amazing how exhausting sitting for 4-5 hours can be. Oh well, I keep thinking that it's training for the flight to London.

I was going to add a photo from Hopman Cup, but the camera is still in the car which Simon has taken to work. Oh well, so much for good ideas. Instead you can have a photo of Lucy the wonder-dog swimming. Absolutely nothing to do with tennis but ain't she cute.

Holiday plans aren't progressing very well at the moment. It's hard trying to work out where I want to go, and how it should all fit together. But half the fun of travel is the planning before.

A New Beginning

2007-01-03T13:39:00.000+09:00

Well, it's the beginning of a new year, and the beginning of a new blog. New Years resolutions, I'm sure there should be many, but in reality we all know that they don't stick.

I am in the process of trying to organise my travel, and this blog will be dedicate to that. Be prepared for the ramblings.