The cost of laziness

Glum is how I feel having left this blog so far behind. Now if I hope to remember any of this last trip in a good 20 or more years I shall have to scrounge up my memories with the assistance of the photographs. Kind of fortunately I've had mild insomnia of late (it now being 3am) so this is hopefully conducive with getting up to date, due to lack of interesting activities available at this time; might however reflect on the quality so sorry future Paul.

Well back to Paris.. Ze beautiful Parie. I've already completely forgotten what I wrote about it just last year when I visited! Reason exactly why I should focus, and jot on down some memories. How is it possible too even procrastinate on something I've chosen to do? This is not uni, this is personally beneficial in the long run! But still I cannot focus. Heck. Ok well it was nice to be there with some kindreds (potential a completely unsuitable word for this context but i like) who'd not yet visited Paris. Brett particularly was blown away by the brilliance of the architecture, the history and the general feel of the place. Because even though it is no more beautiful then Vienna; it is after all Paris. Something about its vastness and ever so recognisable attractions takes it to another level; when your in Paris you know your in Paris. I have perhaps just mentioned Paris, five too many times.

So some highlights, well this time we actually ventured inside the Pompidou centre and the exhibition on at the time was fantastic. The Pompidou centre is the Parisians take on a modern art gallery. Its wild styling was actually quite clever; leave all unnecessary innards on the outside therefore maximising interior space. Best of all is the stark design contrast between this wonderful building and every other within a good 5 km radius.

Paris was also the first city where we took a free walking tour. Dean had recommended them and we ended up doing one in Amsterdam and London also. My favourite of these tours was however this first one through Paris. Our guide was most pleasant and very enthusiastic to reveal the history of Paris and some interesting trivia along the way. For instance I never would have known that thestatued faces along Pont Neuf (which is French for New Bridge, but is actually the oldest bridge on the Seine) were basically a fantastic prank. The King of the time held a glamorous party inviting everybody who was anybody, throughout the night he had artists draw these friends of his in whatever state they might have been in and eventually got them sculptured along the bridge! Although a horrific waste of money this is one of the best stunts pulled I've heard of considering how long its lasted already. Some of these poor basterds have their faces immortalised mid a very drunken expression; at least they lived like Kings hey.

End of Maroc - Enter Paris

Morocco is over, we’re currently flying to Paris in our smallest group thus far; Brett, Jacko and I. Won’t last long as we meet up with Martin and La in Paris and will stay with them until Amsterdam. As for the rest of Marrakech I think Morocco really grew on me.

Once you get over the sickness and get used to the sometimes frustrating cultural differences it was a pretty enjoyable co

untry; though I wouldn’t choose to spend extended time there. It was really good to see Crissy and Byron but we didn’t really end up spending all that much time together as all us lads went on a little expedition to the Sahara. With our limited time we decided on two days, one night.

We started early with breakfast at 6:30; trey early for holiday mode. Fortunately our van was the same Hyundai we’d had in Fes; we would need this comfort for the 10 hours of driving each day. It was the five of us and one couple whom appeared roughly 30; very nice people, the guy Jess was American and his girlfriend Celia was Spanish. Celia is however living in Paris at the moment and we’re hoping to meet up with them whilst we’re here. The drive was glorious, passed through such a wide variety of incredible scenery it was phenomenal

.

I’m not sure there would be too many if any other places in the world where you can go from snow topped mountains (and it did snow abit when we were driving through) too desert landscape in a matter of hours. Interestingly we only covered about 400km, but the roads are winding and not always that good condition, mix this with a pretty slow (careful which we were grateful for at points) driver and lorries using these same roads and it becomes more understandable.

So at the end of this days driving we trek the final two hours ever so ungracefully via camel. It was a fun experience and a necessity of course, visiting the Sahara desert you’ve got to include a camel ride in the package; gladly this means I can skip this in the future. They seem like great animals but they really prefer lying down and are rather uncomfortable after about half an hour. Crissy and Byron had shown me pictures from their trip into the desert which they’d done before meeting us in Marrakech, this really got my hopes up for what our campsite would be like at night. They were surrounded by sand dunes all around, this appealed. So as we were plodding along for longer and longer and less and less comfortably on our camels it was seeming very unlikely we would make it too such a remote destination. Suspicions were confirmed but care was lost once presented with a great big Tagine for dinner. In actual fact we were quite isolated at the campsite, surrounded by dunes of up to 3 metres in size! (sarcasm present) It was a very nice night as only one other couple joined our tight unit making for an intimate performance from the local guides looking after us. They played the bongo’s and sang in Arabic and it was all very pleasant. And we slept.

As the sun rose Martins birthday (21^st) and Australia day came with it. We were able to treat him somewhat by shouting him a quad bike ride. Brett, Dean, Baranovic and I did the ride but due to time restraints we could only fit in half an hour. It was still awesome fun to be in control of a transport machine. Was pretty funny sight to drive past camels and donkeys on the road, then once we got onto the dirt it was sick trying to get the back out. With more time you can go to the proper big dunes, up to 300m the guy said. This got us all very excited and I want to cover desert on a quad bike or motorbike pretend Dakar rally style; we had a revelation when we were discussing the Sahara desert the whole time that perhaps we could do something similar in the Simpson Desert and see Australia for once.

The rest of the time in Marrakech was spent either eating or searching for bargains in the Souks (narrow and overcrowded shopping alleys). We had lots of great finds with the food, I was over the moon just being able to eat and not feel sick.

Now in Paris, currently sitting in a KFC using the free wifi so i might take the opportunity to put this up..

Some Spain and Morocco on the cards then

Last entry was coming back from the dream land of Strbske Pleso, so before we ventured off to Granada we had a couple more days left in Bratislava. The most memorable part of this was when we stumbled upon a fantastic little cocktail lounge internet cafe. We could not resist the amazing cocktails and some rounds of shots which had up to 72% alcohol meant things were quite blurry indeed once we finally left. Babitchka went above and beyond again cooking up some seriously enjoyable food including crepes with homemade apricot jam for breakfast and some massive pots of stew.

We then had quite a hefty transit day, Martins uncle Lubo drove us to the Bratislava airport in the morning where we took a ryan air flight to London, had a few hours wait, then back south to Granada in Spain.

Granada was a spectacular city offering up more beautiful European architecture and probably the best idea in the world; a plate of food when you purchase a beverage, tapas. Oh how I do enjoy this phenomenon. It wasn’t all heavy drinking though, our visit to the Alhambra was really grand. Reminded me of Angkor Wat where Phill must be somewhere near at present. On the final night in Granada we really did exploit the tapas, it’s just so good; buy a beer or wine which is usually less than 2€ and get a tasty plate of food to go with. In one bar which had all seafood we got talking to a couple who offered us accommodation, Jacko and Martin joined a 50^th birthday celebration where they even received cake in another, there was a classical singer and guitarist who sounded fantastic in a different small bar. Many great times to be had, and the cost of this was a horrific next day; mainly for myself but Baranovic wasn’t fairing too well either. This was a real shame as we were catching a train-bus combo down to Algeciras not a good mix with hangover. But even my bout of self inflicted illness couldn’t waver from the staggering beauty that is southern Spain. It made me immensely happy in fact as we weaved our way through the mountains winding roads in a bus; because I now know that in the future i will return to that glorious driving road with a motorbike and no hangover.

In Algeciras we met up with Dean who has been in London on exchange for six months. Reunited we found our way to the boat which took us to Tangier in the north of Morocco. Again this wasn’t pleasant for myself; in fact it was extremely lousy. Nevertheless Africa!!

We spent a few days in Tangier and are now in Fes. In this time Jacko, Martin and I have all suffered from sickness in some way. I highly doubt the other two will last much longer before they get their turn. It’s not pleasant but at least its only lasted around 24 hours and there’s some peace of mind knowing it’s not self inflicted. - Two day interim –

Frustrating times; although the sickness was never extremely bad it had a crippling effect on the amount of sight-seeing I felt comfortable attempting ie. None more than 500m from the bathroom. Missed two days of exploration in Fes and from the lads photo’s it was a real loss; walks through Fes’ old Medina which has 14km of alleyways to get lost in, the tanneries where you can see the whole process where cows are transformed into good leather goods and hillsides overlooking the city (always a big favourite of mine). On the day of my return we’d organised a van which ended up being extremely comfortable and we felt very ritzy with our large, new, clean vehicle (a Hyundai shh) with personal driver; only we were missing Jacko... can we ever be complete in Morocco.

Our first stop on this day tour was the Roman Ruins at Volubilis which is the best preserved archaeological site in Morocco and a Unesco World Heritage site. The monuments were built in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries; I’m thinking that makes them the oldest man made buildings I’ve ever seen. It was a beautiful picture with the near two thousand yr old ruins resisting gravity defiantly amid the green fields, finished off with a perfect days blue sky. After this we stopped in a small bustling town before heading to Meknes for our late lunch. One of the tourist sites in Meknes is an old jail which was ironically designed by a prisoner from Portugal I believe.

Anyhow I’d best try jump back to highlights from Tangier or they mightn’t get in.

Done.

No there were definitely some worthy mentions from there, our arrival to our accommodation for instance. We got a taxi straight from the boat whom we thought could find us our place; we did have the address after all. Apparently this isn’t always enough and even after asking many other fellow locals along the way we eventually decided we’d risk trying to find it ourselves. We had some directions to go by, which began at the Mosque in this particular suburb, only there are three Mosques in that suburb. After a small amount of time we were requesting the locals help and within no time we had enough numbers to form a small army, us with our big packs looked the part as well. Tangier seems to be less popular as a tourist destination and the area of our accommodation was far enough from town that the locals found our presence a bit of a novelty. Ended up being quite a walk before we did get to the right place and we really must thank the three guys who stuck it out till the end, felt like we might’ve been on the streets without them. Our place in Tangier was amazing, appeared to be a locals place and it was all very decorative design.

Since that initial generosity every other person who’s offered help or perhaps even a useless fact has been doing so hoping they’ll get something for it. I like to think those guys were actually trying to help, or perhaps our naivety and genuinely thankful handshakes satisfied them as much as our Dirham could have.

I’m not even sure what i’ve written as it’s mostly been late at nights. But we’re currently at an cyber park in Marrakech so i might as well put this up! Have joined up with Crissy and Byron also which is awesome but i’ll get into that some other time hopefully.

Found a little place called heaven.

Actually its called Strbske Pleso but i can't pronounce that. It's in northern slovakia and towards the east i believe. It's a very small snow town which is of course why i love it, too say i've been thoroughly enjoying snowboarding is a bit of an understatement. I could go on for a long time but the jist is it excites me greatly and I am going to miss it the moment we leave.

Anyhow back to where i left off from last time, somewhere shortly after the new year. We

decided to go visit Vienna in case we didn't get the opportunity later on, unfortunately this means we might not fit in a stint in Budapest. I guess we were being a bit optimistic with the number of cities we planned to visit. I was leaning more

towards Budapest as Martin told me he thought it was probably the most beautiful city he visited last year, but even he was saying we should go Vienna as it's also very beautiful and holds

more history. It was not a bad choice at all.

In fact I found Vienna to be the most beautiful city i've ever been too, endless amazing buildings; couldn't possibly figure out what each of them was meant to represent. We caught the train from Bratislava which was convinient and went without a hitch. Only an hour train ride and we had gone from one capital city to another, Europe's proportions are far more convinient than Australia; I guess you can get from Brisbane to Ipswich in one hour...

Soon after we first arrived in Vienna we stumbled across the Belvedere palace. We didn't go

inside for the museum as the grounds and the buildings were staggering enough. Then we continued on through the city in the general direction of our hostel; we didn't actually know where this was and had no maps of the city. Eventually with some help from Jacko's iphone we arrived late in the afternoon having passed many amazing buildings and going into the incredible St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Our accommodation was pretty good, very reasonable price and we even had a computer with free internet in our room. That night Brett, Martin and I went out too search for a pub. Amazingly we couldn't find one place where we thought we might be able too afford more than one drink. Also it was incredibly cold with the help of a strong wind. So after wandering the streets for a while and getting hotdogs and kebabs off the street (not literally, not too far off though) we headed back to Jacko who was feeling a bit ginger and had stayed in.

Next day we visited the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) which housed thousands of incredible pieces. The building itself is immaculate, it was completed in 1891 and unlike De Louvre and some of the other impressive museums it was purpose built for its task of Museum rather than turned into one after peasants grew sick of Monarchs living in such incredible places. This means the rooms were designed around the contents. Very commendable, still I think the old Musee de Louvre was more spectacular and will be able to compare again soon.

As the day wore on we were tossing up whether to head back to Bratislava or to make a visit to the Schonbrunn Palace; this might sound like a no brainer but we were tired and thought we

surely must have seen every beautiful building in Vienna as there had been so many. Very fortunately we decided to go and it was possibly the most spectacular that we saw. Again we didn't go for any tours throughout the Palace, the grounds were definately spectacular enough and we were short on time. This is one of Jacko's photos and its of the Gloriette, I don't think it has any purpose other than being very aesthetically pleasing; offering a nicer view to wake up to in the morning?

By the time we left it was getting quite dark and getting off the underground a stop early made us really pushed for time too catch the train back to Bratislava. Alas the heroes got there in the nick of time, it would only have been one miserable hours wait at the station if we'd missed that one though.

It feels good to go back to Babitchka's house in Bratislava, definately has a homely feel too it and we know we are going to get a good meal; always excites me.

The next day we met up with Martins uncle Lubo at his work. He took us for a fantastic lunch at the Architects Resteraunt i believe it was called; funnily enough Lubo is an architect. After this delightful but at times (such as the entree of Liver soup) interesting meal we went to see Martin's Auntie and Lubo's wife Jana at her art shop she runs, only five minutes walk away. All of Martin's relatives have been incredibly hospitable too us. At the shop we were offered snacks and mineral water even though we were there for under twenty minutes. Then later that night we went to these spoken auntie and uncles house which we thought would be a quick stop over before hitting the pubs. Ended up staying there for a few hours as Lubo and Jana were good conversation and offered us snacks and beverages we simply could not refuse. This peaked at the 60 year old moonshine which was passed onto Lubo from Martin's Grandma (the aforementioned Babitchka we've been staying with) from his dad's side of the family. It was a real treat to have such blissful alcohol when we usually opt for the most affordable. Later in the night Lubo showed us a game on his iphone which Brett and I took particular interest in and really wanted to beat Lubo's highscore of 90 something thousand.He is definatley practiced at it as the best score we managed was 19 thousand, I now even more badly want an phone though. Jacko won't let us download this particular app on his phone; basterd.

From then we split up for a whlie as Martin went to visit various other relatives and we went straight to Strbske Pleso. Our train ride there (which we're currently on the return route) took around 5 hours. From soon after leaving Bratislava most of the scenery was simlar; snow covered everything with quaint houses and lovely hills and lakes. Once we arrived in Stbske Pleso it didn't take too long to find our accomodation which turned out to be very delightful once again. There was a bit of difficulty with the language barrier as the woman who ran the Villa Emma accomodation spoke no english and without Martin we were very limited ourselves. We managed alright though and organised our snowboard hire and lift passes as well on our own. It was good to reunite the whole group once more when Martin arrived a few days later and we'd had a small chance to learn how to ride on the snowboards. Again I shan't go into too much detail for worry that i won't be able to stop, I did love the snowboarding greatly and was very happy with the progress I was making. Must make another trip to the snow soon; hopefully with Phill again so we can push eachother with a limitless excitment.

A New Adventure

Well its currently 5.30 in the morning and i feel i should start up the old blog. Jet lag has been wreaking some real havoc, but glad to say we all fought through the new year and actually stayed up until very early the next morning considering we'd been up since 3.30am the previous day.

Lets get this in order now, chronological if you will.

I experienced my new longest ever transit period, as the time it took from arriving at the Brisbane airport until we got to Martin's Grandma's house in Bratislava was at least 30 hours! Fortunately it all went very smoothly, the worst part was probably the stop over in Taipei which was only for three hours. We were stuck in the old terminal, a very bland and uncomfortable place where there weren't even any chairs let alone lounges. Still we did have a nice meal their, Jacko and I had a beef noodle soup and Martin and Brett both got a pickled cabbage variety. Our spirits were raised immensely when entering the plane it was evident that many spare seats would be on offer. This was very fortunate as the flight from Taipei to Vienna is an anticipated 14 hours, fortunately again, ours was only a touch over 12.

China Airways lacked nothing major, nothing to write home about but also not too bad. To be critical i guess it had some of the worst meals i've had in the sky, i managed to acquire both of the breakfast main options (Chinese option consisting of rice in lots of water and a packet of meat fibre you just pour in & the western equivelant was a very ordinary omelette) neither of which satisfied my cravings. Also the entertainment system lacked variety in a big way; really hoping they've got some different options for the return flights in a couple of months time.

Arriving in Vienna it was exciting to once again be amidst a very cold climate. Once we got to Babitchka's (Grandma in Slovak) home we had some breakfast then ate all her snack food Zahy Couske (most likely spelt incorrectly) that was left out. Martin assured us it makes her happy if we eat alot, some of the greatest news i've ever heard. Then it was out to explore Bratislava.

For the first couple of days it was very foggy and overcast with rather limited visibility. This wasn't all bad though, made the woods in particular look rather majestical. But as we saw yesterday, the first of the new year, with a clear sky Bratislava is far more beautiful; when you can actually see it. When we visited the Bratislava Castle for the first time I found it underwhelming, not very exciting or impressive. Going back to it yesterday though and i was hugely impressed, it's a beautiful Castle that can be seen watching over the town with a dominant stance. It was built in the year 907 AD and understandably has had to have major reconstruction.

As with everything i associate to be European Bratislava is very beautiful, it does however have a lot of communist Russia influence particularly in the outer suburbs. These are buildings which appear to have been thrown up as quickly and cost efficiently as possible. So they greatly lack the usual quaintness and appeal of european design, in fact they have not one ounce. But not too worry, there is far more beauty in the midst.

Our routine for the first couple of days was explore the city, and when it came to food we would accompany it with beer and a shot of spirits at the end of the meal. On the first day Martin took us to a little restaurant that is a well kept secret i'm sure. I doubt many tourists would ever usually find it on their own, it was very nice and apparently during the wars it used to be used to store gunpowder. We all had the same dish; a national favourite called Bryndzove halusky. It is boiled lumps of potato dough similar to gnocchi (the halusky) and Bryndza which is a soft sheep cheese, and finished off with a heavy sprinkling of bacon. Quite simple and very effective. We all enjoyed it thoroughly but due to the richness of the meal I was the only one who managed to finish it. When we ordered our round of shots i was frightened when the glasses were twice the size than back home. The shot actually went down really well though; a lot of the spirits we've had are flavoured with fruits; or herbs even such as the one we were drinking on new years eve that smelt and tasted quite alot like chai tea. I'll follow with that segway and jump to New Years Eve now.

We had stocked up well on fireworks which can be purchased from vendors who set up at supermarkets in the lead up to New Years. Martin loved to abuse these and when different people were asleep he would light them outside the rooms of the sleeping people making for a rather amusing practical joke. Unfortunately i was always a member of the sleeping party and am very much looking forward to getting him back. He never goes to bed first though and i feel it's a bit of a faux-pas to wake the whole neighbourhood up at 4am with an extremely loud firecracker. Anyhow on the eve of new years there was one group of young Australian lads who thoroughly enjoyed lighting off a huge number of fireworks. Mainly due to money restrictions most of these were just explosions that made a huge noise rather than a pretty sight. We had a couple of really good ones though, long ones that shot about 20 into the air and lasted at least a minute. For the actual changing of calendar years we met up with Martin's cousin and a couple of her friends and viewed the professionals efforts at lighting the sky. It was better i must admit; less rewarding though. We then went back to one of the friends apartment in the city and it was very nice indeed. Then having fought off the desire to sleep for so long we went to a nightclub. It was rather perculiar; as Martin said in Brisbane if you pay for entry to a club there's always a nice decor at the very least, this one was pretty shocking. An interesting experience anyhow.

Well i'm getting quite tired again now, its almost 7am and still no real sign of the sun coming up, but it does rise by about 8 so it's not so bad.

A quick note on the cars here, have only seen a couple of nice ones, there's a ferrari california thats been parked outside the Crown Hotel everyday, and on the street just adjacent to this one there is a nice Volkswagen Scirroco; a truely beautiful car in the flesh, i'm angry that Australia doesn't get them because they're by far the best looking car for around the 40 or 50k dollars they would cost.

Flights

I must wrap up the conclusion of the journey. The final leg of the trip. With our apprehension towards the flight with Thai Airways it was particularly exciting to find that they have improved by a mile/kilometre since Aly's horrid flight with them. They had an applaudable in flight entertainment system with which I dabbled amongst the old Nintendo games with a childish grin, the service was very asian; that is efficient and effective without the fuss, good one, the blankets they offered were the biggest I have ever recieved on a flight, but best of all we finally had the window seats, and better than this there was noone occupying the aisle seat so we could stretch out as much as we liked. I actually had a number of coffees because I wanted to stay awake the whole time and play and watch and drink wine.
On arrival in Australia Aly was particularly startled that everyone was speaking the same lingo, believed them to be copying her I think she did. We had a very frustrating time trying to get a taxi to the Formula 1 hotel as it's very close to the airport and taxi drivers are slightly retarded in their thinking, it could only work out well for them to take us considering we pay their extra 2.50 to get into the airport anyway. All this coupled with Aly's previous vendetta with the taxi folk were making for quite an emotional time for the poor girl, she didn't quite manage to smash the rear window on one wagon but she gave it a good slap.
Eventually we got to our accomodation for the night, and proceded to sleep.
I will conclude with my journey back up to Brisbane, I managed to get lucky with the seat again. I was situated at the wing exit so my legroom was slightly greater and I had the window:) It was quite funny though when they came around at the beginning of the flight and told us how we should respond in an emergency ie. not opening the emergency door if their is a fire outside and not until we're completely stopped. Felt like I was in on a dirty secret. Didn't have to pull the hatch however and have returned home safely. Of course for my own future reference I already know this.

Closing Time

Ahhh, the end of another great travels, 4 months this time but with negative funding and just recovered from the pox it's not looking so bad to go back. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep that mind frame but for now it doesn't seem so bad to have to stop.
We made it up to Bangkok by overnight bus last night, had to stay in an overpriced accom because everywhere was booked when we arrived at 6 am but it was nice to sleep in an air conditioned room. Bangkok is incredibly hot, its very different having the heat and not having beautiful ocean to go and cool off in. I got used to it though being stuck inside in Koh Lanta for the past week, still not that comfortable though. Must make more of a mention to Alyson's efforts at looking after me; not that I'll forget when I'm reading this in the future but without her it would have been much more frustrating and difficult. Then again that's for the whole trip.
Just been sent a sneaky photo of Lee and a new Ducati that one can only put two and two together, exciting times but Aly doesn't seem to feel the same.
It's hot, will be home soon, hope the flight back is not so bad because it's with Thai Airways and Alyson said that last time she was with them it was a horrible flight. Got a good book though so everything should be ok.
See ya'll at home and thanks for reading. And happy merry Australia Day, only knew that it was because one patriot was wearing a flag cape.

Chicken Pox and other unfortunate recent events.

Well I managed to get my hands on Chickenpox somehow. It actually wasn't too bad at all, mainly just one day and a terrible night when I felt the fever attacking. Rest of the time just wasn't good to look at and had to resist the itch. I got sick though and stomach problems on that really sick day and pretty well didn't eat all day. Everything is scabbing up nicely now and it's nice to be able to get out of the room some more again. It has been incredibly hot. Main reasons why I would have liked to get the pox at home is because then TV and Sony could have kept me busy in the times when i felt to ill to read my books. have had some good books though; the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy series thanks to Kevin and Michael and the Alyson found a couple of books in reception. One of them which i'm now reading is Marching Powder, i'd been told about this book working with an English guy in 07 and it's about a crazy corrupt drug ridden prison in Bolivia. It's a very interesting read and Crissy might even be able to go on a tour if she goes through Bolivia. Unless later in the book they finish them.
Other unfortunate events happened recently, on the day we found out about my chickenpox we'd gone to the beach just after we had lunch. My stomach was a bit unsettled at the time and I had a sudden terrible urge to go to the toilet. Unfortunately of course there were none around as we'd just ridden our bike to a beach quite far away so I had to hike off into the scrub as best I could and find a try to hold onto whilst I terribly uncomfortably immersed myself with nature. The place was so dusty that I even had to wipe the dust off the leaves I used. Also their was Lantana or something similar that was cutting my feet and legs as I moved around, and lots of big Elephant poo. At this same beach the next day I was sitting in the shade hiding from everyone as I'd just been diagnosed with my pox though it still wasn't that bad. I was reading my book minding my own business when an ant suddenly appeared in my pants. I'd been worried about them climbing over me and making my pop my blisters in an attempt to get them out of my shirt but this was much worse, he'd made it all the way into my undies without my noticing. When I did I was trying to get him out as quickly as possible but he got a couple of very good bites in before I could evict him. Was incredibly painful and I wasn't happy. That beach hates me. This story reminded me of in year 2 when Phil and I were at after school care one afternoon. There was a girl who liked me and wanted to kiss me, but I didn't want it. So Phill thought he'd help out the girl and he held me down, I remember watching as two wasps flew into my pants and down my boxers. I was then going crazy trying to get Phill to let me go because I had bigger problems but they succeeded in biting me a few times before flying out. What a tragic reoccurance.
My main other unfortunate event happened in Koh Tao when we went on the girls wishes to a Cabaret show. This was a Cabaret show with a difference, they were all Lady-boys. Even though I must say a couple of them did incredibly well to look female and some even had real/fake breasts. It was a pretty good show that they obviously all enjoyed performing but at the end when they needed volunteers I felt choosing me was a rather bad choice. The only drink I'd had all night was an Ice Tea so I definately wasn't in the mood. We did however do the best we could to dance along to the YMCA dressed in our extravagent dresses. Mine was the dress that one of the guys had worn to make fun of Britney Spears so mine was very over the top with huge breasts that the much more drunken lads enjoyed. To make it even more embarressing they have a small chat to you at the end. The guy hosting usually makes a joke as well, for me he went into kiss me but I refused. Then after our chat he asked if he could have a kiss, just on the cheek. I though fair enough so I went in and the sneaky devil turned his head on me. He had Huge amounts of shiny sparkly lipstick on and it covered half my face. I didn't enjoy that so much and I think i failed to hide it. Ahh well, just my luck.
Other than that Thailand has been beautiful and wonderfully warm. The beaches lovely and cooling and wonderful to look at. Everything has been about a third more expensive than last year due to the exchange rate unfortunately, the only place we got lucky with that was in England.

Never finished off in Scotland. On New Years Eve day Pete drove us round and did a wonderful job as a tour guide. He showed us Loch Loman; the biggest Loch/Lake in all of Britain. It had a beautiful old hotel on it which has some serious wealth surrounding it. In the Car park was a Rolls Phantom, an Aston Vanquish, and a helicopter!! Also their is a story of some friends of friends that had planned their wedding there. They recieved a call saying that someone wanted to book it out for the weekend and was there anyway they could move the wedding. This would obviously be incredibly annoying because everything was booked, all the guests had been told and what not. Expensive stuff. The person who wanted the hotel however was willing to pay for the wedding dress. No, still not interested. It went on like this with more and more offers. Until they eventually offered to pay for the dress, the whole wedding, buy two new cars for the bride and groom and an around the world holiday, they couldn't say no in the end and apparently it was David Beckham who was hiring it out. Crazy stuff.
For new years eve night we went to Graeme's in Edinburgh and went out to some members club bar that they managed to get us tickets for. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and all their friends were good guys. We had a bit of time to explore Edinburgh the next day and it is beautiful. We had dinner with Graeme's family which was very nice and a great meal as well. Scotland will be a very nice place to visit some more.
Alright that'll have to do for my update, it's very hot and I wanna get a motorbike.

Thailand!!!

Unfortunately we're not staying on the computers that long this session so I won't be able to write much once again.
It is so amazingly good to be back in Thailand where we can just relax on the beautiful beaches and afford the meals that we get; and oh such tasty meals. We did a massive 48 hr travel journey which involved getting trains around London to Heathrow Airport, then plane to Zurich, another plane to Bangkok, taxi to Khao San, then we decided to catch the sleeper train that night to get to Koh Phangan, so taxi out to train station then the 12 hr train ride to Siruthani, 1 hr bus ride to the coast, then 3 hr boat ride to Koh Phangan. It's all the little ones that take it out of you because you actually have to move your bags and all that. Overall though through the time zones and what not we did pretty well with the sleeping patterns as far as I can tell.
At the Bangkok airport Zarah was waiting for us and is able to join our travels for 10 days.

It has been an absolutely beautiful day today. Would have been the best day ever had I not had some strife with the motorbike, the tire was too bald and it went flat but ruined the chain and rubber as well so had to replace everything not just the tube. Cost alot for here, still not much in all but the money is rather tight now. The water feels kind of cold when you get in at first; but i figure that's a good thing because it gets so hot that you need for it to cool you down, and within a short time its a very pleasant temperature. The sunset yesterday was really beautiful and the water feels really perfect when the air cools down some. We've been playing lots of frisbee and Alyson and I were already burnt before we even got to the Island. Our pasty extended winter skin could not even survive the boat trip. It was rather decieving though because the wind made it quite chilly.
I'm in a tired patch at the moment so its even harder to jolt the old brain. Guess I better talk about the rest of London and Scotland.
Well everything worked out a little too well almost in relation to getting to Scotland for new years. We'd left everything very late, then Kevins parents offered to take us up to Glascow because they were going that way, and luckily Pete was able to take us across to Edinburgh the next day; so the only thing we had to book were flights back from Edinburgh which we got for a reasonable price considering the short notice.
The first night in Glascow we were able to stay with Jeremy at his parents place. Then that night we met up with Pete and they took us on a pub crawl down a small little street behind Pete's ex Uni.
Wooh, we're on the move now. Gotta go and I am very ready for a massage or lay down on the beach.

Brief Post from Heathrow

I'm short on time but I must add something otherwise I'll be much too far behind and will take forever to catch up. We're at Heathrow just about to journey to Bangkok via Zurich.
Alyson got me an awesome Casio watch for xmas, saw it at duty free and it's very heavily discounted which is grand. Has lots of functions which I will take a long time to read through it all on the plane.
I've just seen the coolest thing ever though. For 100£ we could get an under water thruster is all I can think to call it. It's made by ski-doo and claims to do 3.5 km/h which I'm sure would feel rapid underwater. Its charge lasts for about 50mins and takes 4 hrs to charge. It only ways 5 kg. Would be great in Thailand. I want one.
Really short on time but we went to Scotland which was amazing, need more time to think.

Christmas Time

Unfortunately I was never able to do the Ferrari tour. Tragic loss, and also probably more unfortunately but definately close is that we didn't get to go to a Moulin Rouge show either. We left it to late and the shows were booked out. I seem to think we've been far to unorganised with the majority of things in this trip. Somehow we still manage to see just about everything we want to see but its not usually very well planned. I'm certainly not trying to say it's not my fault. I think it was just so different in the South East Asia trip last year. Made me really enjoy having rough plans to follow because, no set deadlines; if you like a place you stay a bit longer if not you move on. In the rest of the world however it's far more expensive and often booked out to do it this way. It's so cheap around Thailand that you can leave everything last minute, it's all so well set up for tourists that you can get just about anywhere in the day, even if the bus trips might well kill you.
So it's been challenging hoping to have that same freedom with deadlines and things, for instance we've been hoping to get to Scotland to see Pete, Jai and Graeme hopefully, amazingly we might even be able to just through luck. But the fact that we've left these things so late is I think a curse of the convenience in Asia.

So on the last day in Paris we went to a flea market which is apparently one of the best Antique markets there is. At first it was very difficult to believe this. All you can see are the dodgy stalls trying to sell their counterfeit designer products and all those kind of cheap stalls that exist everywhere. But at some point you turn a corner and the crowds deminish and the stalls are all fantastic. They've got many old antiqueties(hard word to spell) and alot of it is quite interesting stuff. Alyson was very happy because she found herself a lovely old coat. ITS FUR!!! Strangely contraversial subject isn't it. I can't help but feel a little bad about fur; but then I wear leather, and obviously eat the meat which seems worse. Can't figure out how fur got the worst wrap. It's a very nice old coat though and i helped pay for it as her present. After thus we delighted in some of the Boulangeries fantastic cakie goodies. In all we tried a large percentage of the available pastries and cakes that the patisseries have to offer. On the last day we found the best one, I don't remember what it's called, but it's the one Alyson had on the train trip to London. I think it could rival the Magnolia bakery products in NY. Shame though really, would have assumed the French products to destroy the competition. Very high quality foods though, tasty.
During the evening we intended on walking to Sacre Couer. It is the church on top of a hill in Paris. I was following the maps and everything seemed to be going to plan, we found a park that was on a hill and kept walking up assuming we'd be near it once we reached the top. Well we had to ask a man who turned out to be very nice and had visited Australia and enjoyed it. Well he pointed out that it was quite some way in the distance. Anyhow at least we found that park which was very pleasant and otherwise we would not have seen, I made Alyson walk there because I only wanted to catch the Metro home, and it was our last night and we could enjoy some of the sights on the way. It wasn't a very good area we were walking through must admit but it didn't take to long to get there. It's a beautiful church with such a nice view. You can see over Paris with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance. We had a beautiful smoked salmon pizza because Alyson had said she'd had the best Pizza she's ever had last time she went there. We think it might have actually been the same place because it was pretty awesome, not sure about best ever but certainly up there. There was a little fair on in a small park where Alyson got herself a nutella crepe, I opted for the hot red wine which we always called Gluevine or something when we used to make a big party of it at home; Mum would host large parties and the scent of the Wine and the cloves and things was very similar to the hot wine. So I had to try it because of that... It tasted rather terrible I thought.

Our train up to London was not bad, quite uneventful except for the fact we missed the first one but they got us on the following one which is good. We had some nice cakes that we'd brought along for the ride, as I said Alysons was particularly fantastic. It's not that bad a train ride because it only goes under the Channel for about half an hour max. I fell asleep for a while. The worst part was we didn't have any books to read. They're smooth and fast trains though, and it was nice to differ from planes for longer travel, however we did end up catching about 7 trains during the day, with our suitcases.

In London we had a Sausage Roll! It was mighty fine and we have had another 3 or 4 since. We had time to get ourselves out to Kidbrooke station which is where Crissy's friend Kevin lives. He's been incredible kind to us and is letting us stay in his room! And then for Christmas his family invited us to go there for the day. It was bliss. So much food and champagne and we played on the Nintendo and Xbox for a very long time. Santa even remembered us this year, more found us as opposed to remembered I guess. They gave us Stockings with lots of awesome little things, heaps of chocolates and little mind games and little polysterene plane that flies pretty well, even a couple of pieces of fruit. Very kind. The dinner was fantastic, Turkey and Pork and lots of nice potatoes and veges. Best meal we've had in a long time now. During the night Kevin and I accomplished something big. We finished every song on the new Xbox game they got Lips. It's a karaoke game, it had 40 songs, Alyson didn't find it impressive.

Another amazing thing has happened in that today is a Sunny day!! Crazy. I think we're pretty lucky to see one, particularly in winter from what i gather.
In London so far we've seen the Buckingham Palace and came across heaps of the streets on the Monopoly board around the city. Also we were walking along and found a Rolls and Bentley dealership, saw another Bugatti Veyron! Fantastic, Kevin has told me that theres a McLaren dealership around somewhere, I think he might be thinking of the Mclaren- Mercedes though but i'm gonna search hard because if there is a McLaren F1 in town that would be incredible.

We're trying to organise going to Scotland, we might be able to get a lift up with Kevins parents which would be great, just have to find out about flights back and so on.

Also the streets, I think around Oxford St and Regent St. in the city were the busiest streets I've ever seen, apparently it was a little more than usual due to christmas shopping but crazily they say that it's not that different to that ordinarily! For a small section it felt like a mosh pit it was that tightly packed with people.

More from Paris Francais

Bonjour! Paris sure is an amazingly beautiful old city with more history in one street than in all of Australia. We have done a lot of walking, on the first day we found the Louvre and the Notre Dame; might I say it is the most beautiful church I have seen, very nice on the inside. I find it difficult not to use the word beautiful as the description for everything, there aren't enough words along the these lines that do justice. Brilliant or spectacular seem to miss something, most other synonyms add too much personification. Beautiful seems all that will do, I bet the French have more words with enough emphasis to provide a worthy alternative.
On wednesday we ventured inside the Louvre, spent a good number of hours following our handheld tour guides around, they're fantastic little gismos. We saw the three masterpieces, funnily enough I can't even remember the names of two of them, I never knew them before and they don't stick with me now. Both were rather good statues of woman. Then there was the Mona Lisa, I simply don't know why its the most famous of all the paintings. Its a good thing though, to have such famous items, it gets you to go and you see many incredible works of art which all help to make these famous ones look mediocre. My favourite thing about the Louvre is the Louvre itself. The meticulous furnishings carried out by these stupendously wealthy men way back when. You've never seen so much extravagence or craftsmanship.

Unfortunately we did get a rather large dose of jet-lag. It affected me a little worse because I slept so much on the plane i think, Alyson would have done better were it not for here ongoing cold which has woken us all up to coughing fits during the night. Usually I was already awake though as the max amount of sleep I could pull off was 4 hours; I know you seem to live with that somehow mum but that's not so normal. It gave me ample to time to read my book sitting in the bathroom usually so as not to disturb or using my headtorch sometimes. Unfortunately on completion of the book I discovered I wish i'd never read it, its the first completely disturbing, depressing book I've ever read. It's like watching a horror movie, except you can't really cover your eyes as well as I thought it was going to be more a psychological investigation as opposed to a nasty tale with terrible insights. Least I can start on something else now. The book was 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', don't really recommend it. I'm overreacting to it but i thought it was going to have a very different ending.

Friday was our first and thus far only sunny and good visibility day. We captured on this and headed up the 'Tour Eiffel'! It's a fantastic structure, really holds up to its expectations which is quite an effort. We took the stairs up the first two floors though from their it was decided an elavator to the top was Alyson's only option, must admit i didn't mind too much as I was in a tired wave from the lack of sleep and we'd walked some distance to get there. The view from the top is nice, obviously your there so you have to go all the way up, but its not really any better than the 2nd level, from there your already high enough to see everything and your closer to it.
Yesterday we also made it to the Arc de Triomphe. It's pretty great as well, the street that we walked up to it from had all the exclusive label shops as well as some car dealerships. In the Renault and Peugeot dealerships it was very interesting because the majority of the cars they're displaying are concept cars. I liked this concept. Most of them were hideous interpretations of unfortunate future cars, though some did ok. Also they had a couple of X-Box 360's in the Renault store because one of their cars is on the new Need For Speed game, Alyson was determined not to let me on but I broke her strong line of defence.
On the walk back home that night we saw a magnificant (just realised thats a word with a bit of the extra oomph that beautiful has) sunset which was made more majestic with the Eiffel Tower in the foreground. It glows blue at night at the moment, however I got to see it for a few seconds when it lights up in sparkling lights which really looks stunning. Apparently when Alyson visited 5 years ago it was always lit like that at night. There is a hotel down near Notre Dame that is lit up like so and the effect is awesome.

Today,
We ventured off to Versaille to see the Palace. It is where 5 generations of French Kings and Queens spent their time spending their peasants money. Its simply incredible. So much history layed out so beautifully. They really had far more style back then. The worst thing about it was throughout a number of the rooms they displayed the artwork of Jeff Koons I think his name was. He is my most hated artist. His work is ridiculous, and displayed at this beautiful historic Palace it only achieves making the French in charge look like they have the worst taste of all people in the world, period. Perhaps they should let the Monarch rule again, just to bring some more class back. It is such a contradictory portrayal of history, to go through these incredible, insanely incredible structures and learn of these Kings and Queens. You hear about how it was basically all started by King Louis the 14th XIV and he sounds like a really good guy. As you move further through the Palace, head out to Queen Mary Antoinette's estate which is very lavish, her main building is actually slightly modest, bigger mansions these days aren't uncommon, but then you wonder her grounds and find the monuments, the gardens, the petting zoos it would seem and finally the Armenian village that were all built for her when you discover just how insanely prepostrous it all was. They spent every penny of the publics money. That's why eventually they gave her husband king someone the guillotine and 9 months later she recieved the same treatment. Obviosly the French revolution was inevitable with the kind of leadership they were showing, but what they left behind was perhaps the most beautiful craftsmanship around in all the planet. Certainly up there to rival the greatest.
Thats why their seems to be the mixed feelings even among the French people towards these cruel and selfish royals, they made such exquisite buildings that will remain as perhaps the most beautiful memorials ever to what must have been an excruciating few centuries to live in.

Now tommorow I've found for myself one of the best christmas presents possible, it's from Alyson though so its alright. Its a sightseeing tour of Paris in a Ferrari 360 Spider, apparently driven by a racing professional which I can only hope means hard and through tunnels.
Unfortunately they haven't replied to the email so I'm going to have to try and call them to organise it. Alysons sleeping so I've happily taken to organising it. Hopefully it will happen.

Getting to Paris + best day ever

Well we are in our very petite hostel in Paris now. Made it without to much difficulty. Our flight, I think it was 10 hours the first one, then a couple of hours stop in Zurich and a quick one over to Paris. It all went rather incredibly smoothly, yet i can't quite grasp what has happened with time. What happened in theory or on paper is all relatively simple but when I fall asleep intermitadly, outside its going between day and night, getting served breakfast heading into the evening, it all got really confusing. It's just not easy to follow when your up there breaking all the rules of time lines. From what I gather we are about 5 or 6 hrs ahead of where we were in LA making that13 hrs of travel turn into 20 odd, and by the time we got to our hostel after the most crowded train ride i've ever been on it was more than 24 hrs of travel. Somehow I feel the exhaustion as if I had lived through the whole time even though I had pleasant sleep and was fed regularly, my body felt very tired and hungry, it was just confused. Enough talk about the jet lag, or potential jet-lag i'm not sure yet, its too difficult.
Zurich seemed beautiful from what we saw of it. It was quite foggy so that you couldn't see anything much until your on the runway, though up in the clouds there were mountains poking through to join the space usually occupied only by the aircraft, always beautiful. As well we saw a special sunset on the Zurich to Paris leg, one of the beautiful ones that you just don't get at ground level.

We have eaten a little, nothing healthy funnily enough but it still felt better than the US food. Looking forward to exploring the bakeries tommorow, or the Boulangie I think they're called here, my French is ashamedly poor after two years of studying it. It's always depressing once you meet Europeans usually who are so very multi-lingual and you feel incredibly stupid. One of the air Hosts was fluent in 6 languages and he was learning his 7th. Incredible.

Now i must get back to Sunday in LA.
I think I had mentioned that i was going to search for a Bugatti Veyron because LA is the place to find such a beast. I had my research ready, looked at the maps and figured that i could make it their by foot, just might take a while. Well it ended up taking quite a long while, not made any easier by my socks giving me blisters and Alyson came along with me too... I know it couldn't be fun, or at least as fun for her, so she did well not to winge for the majority of the time however when she did let loose it was a biggen.

All worth it though, all so incredibly worth it. Not only was there a Bugatti Veyron, there were actually 2 of them!!!!! Each worth 2million Aussie dollars, each capable of reaching 407km/h a speed which still felt fast enough when we were doing it on our plane, and if we had good enough roads I say we shoud all convert to Veyrons for transport. But these cars were beautiful, very very special piece of engineering and craftmanship. This was not the end, this dealership was a joint venture, it was home to Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Bentley, there were a couple of Ferraris, a Maybach 57S and another of those most brilliant Mercedes-McLaren SLR.
Now this was definately a party, these cars all so special, and a lot of them were just parked outside gathering dust, literally, it was incredible. So this was a special day then obviously...
Well eventually I plucked up the courage and asked the receptionist, they'd been very nice and it was empty because it was a Sunday (and they know not to assume that even a young couple like Aly and I might not have a fortune of some kind or another, in fact all the salesman at Porsche in particular made sure to let us know they were there if we needed anything, its just that rich an area.) I asked if i could open the Lamborghini please. She said it was fine and all the cars should be open other than the Bugatti's!!!!! Well this did it. I went up to Murcielago roadster, popped its little door handle thingy and then, well tried to press the button which i'd assumed would open the door? It's not so easy, then Alyson joined in trying on the other door. Pulling and pressing away trying to figure out this marvellous contraption, not feeling bad in anyway because they couldn't see us and i was excited as all hell to be touching it. Then pop, Alysons door swung up allowing access to the passenger seat. Must say this hurt a little, I'd kinda hoped, assumed/expected I'd get it. But my excitement had made my head a little fuzzy i think. She had to show me how, but then, I closed the door. And then I opened for the first time ever the door to a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster!!! HEaven. We went crazy and sat inside and I felt the seats hugging me, just like they had in my dreams haha, that sounds really obssessed, but i actually remember driving one in a dream and it was pretty much just like that, holds you very tight for those high speed turns, and everyone knew i was obsessed so i guess its ok.
We went on from there to try the Gallardo, a score, then sat in an Aston DB9, pretended to be royals in the back of the Maybach with our kms of leg room and endless gadgets. Piloted a Bentley Azure, they have a very special interior they do, then a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti; this is unfortunately my least favourite Ferrari but it has an awesome interior and i could pretend it was any with the horse staring at me from the steering wheel. Unfortunately the Merc SLR and the Vanquish S were locked but it was so damn awesome to have free reign around those cars. It was seriously enjoyable, I mean at motor shows they usually only have a small portion of these cars, and they don't let you anywhere near them. Or at the dealerships in Aus they would keep them locked constantly, with good reason of course, they have to sell those things for serious money, thats what made that day such a blissful heavenly day. I think i've said enough, but very good times.

Also can't believe how small the hostel is here, the rooms are so minituare. It's in a pretty good location though, and was the best deal we could get, but we are very lucky in Aus to live so spread out in big houses, it is so much more comfortable. And they can't drive all that big cars.

STARS, CARS AND NBA... + more cars.

Well well. We have now ventured to some of the far more razzle dazzle areas in LA. We've basically been carrying out all my dreams really. Cars and NBA, it has been quite delightful. First day we were here we just wondered around Hollywood Boulevard and it is one of the most dissapointing places you could ever find. Not that i had any expectations on what it would be like but it's just nothing spectacular at all. It's got a rather large amount of homeless people and everything seems on the derolict side. I think all the movie characters that stand on the street are actually homeless people that they've dressed up. It's a good idea really, except when you walk around the corner and catch Cat woman and Jonny Depp from pirates of the Caribean shooting up, haha, no its not that bad but they do enjoy a smoke and seem to have a habit of begging when i think they'r paid to do it? It's very funny at night when some of the characters wonder the streets on their way home at night. We found Big Bird all alone just wondering home, very funny sight. I think it would be amazing to see how much the area would transform when the Oscars and such events are on.

On Thursday we caught a bus along Santa Monica Boulevard out towards the Ocean. The beach was very pleasant and the weather was beautiful, a very nice change after spending so much time in rainy/snowy conditions. It's very similar to Brisbane weather it would seem, considering it's winter here at the moment it can still be t-shirt and shorts weather during the day but at night gets a little brisk. I'm not sure what the water temperature was like but the beaches were rather empty. It was incredibly flat swell, but their are surfing beaches around here; as demonstrated in BayWatch and the O.C. Also in those shows are the little life guard huts scattered around the beach, it was pretty cool to see them when they've been used in a number of infamous shows. Along the beach they have public playground equipment of sorts, they have a few swings and such but then alot of the equipment is gym based. They have high vertical ropes and rings and parallel bars, saw some guy who was pretty amazing using some but the most amazing thing was a little girl who could have been no more than 3 or 4 years old doing the ring swing things, looked awesome.

Yesterday night I went to my first NBA game ever!!!! We just turned up to the Staples Centre and managed to score the cheapest tickets possible, they were only $10 US each. On the map it looked like it would be incredibly bad, we were rather far away, like the 7 foot giants looked a little bit like ants. No it was actually really quite good, the view was fine, nothing obstructing it at all because the stadiums are built so well and higher rather than further back so your looking down on the game with a pretty good view. We're glad that we didn't buy tickets off a scalper who was selling us tickets in the next section over, like just beside us for $40, very fortunate. One of the cool things about sitting up high is that whenever anything happened you had a view of the crowd as well, so when something massive happened you would see the whole stadium erupt which was fantastic. The game was LA Lakers Vs. Sacramento Kings. Kobe Bryant was rather awesome along with Pau Gasol, and i think it was John Salmon from the Kings also had a very good game. A couple of times Kobe did some incredible dunks that raised the roof. One time he broke his man down with a killer cross just beyond the arc then drove down hard took off from two feet and slammed down a hard two hand jam on a couple more of the Kings players. It was so incredible too watch, beautiful, absolutely incredible player. Crowd went nuts for a good long while myself included on that one. We enjoyed the spectacle of the, don't mean to generalise too much, but the rather stupid incredibly unhealthy American public. To give some examples, well during the game there is non-stop action, like advertisement quirks from endless fast food chains. They all have a very well organised little routine that lasts about 2 mins, like a txting competition between the upper and lower levels for free coupons or various challenges. One of the main ones was Carl Jnr's was going to give the whole crowd two free taco's if the Lakers held the Kings to under 100 points, nearing the end of the game the crowd was yelling taco's or something spurred on by the screen. When a kings player hit a 3 in the last minute to take them to 101 points the crowd/America was devastated.
This takes me back to how incredibly difficult it is to find good food over here, much more surprising is that even in the supermarkets you ahve to search hard for the fruit and veges, it's just incredible. We have however found a good little chinese place nearby that Alyson has been devouring the Wonton Soups, they are a good big portion as well, surprise surprise. I've been enjoying the 99c burgers at Wendy's which are surprisingly tasty and filling. Can't complain that we don't have more of it back home though, each one i consume feels deadly, deadly good.

Now lets get to the cars, this could take a long while. The kind of craziness it is can be illustrated in that when we were heading out the stadium from the game I noticed a Rolls Royce Phantom, a second later I saw a Maybach, these are both 1million dollar cars. Crazy business, I watched the cars go from that exit and saw an Aston DB9, countless Maserati Quattroportes and much more.

Today was the glory day however, I got incredibly excited initially because i spotted my first ever stationary Mercedes-McLaren SLR, that one that i saw back in Montreal, only to find out that it was even better than first thought. It was the 722 a slightly later release which i think stood for 722 bhp. As well as this it was the convertible model. Absolutely breathtaking beauty, lovely car. Managed to come across the beverly hills Merc dealership and there was another one their as well!! Along with 4!!!!! Maybachs. Bonkers, this is bonkers people. During the day I spotted another SLR on the road and yesterday I'd seen one also. The receptionist helped me track down the Ferrari/Maserati dealership which i went to with gusto, I was dissapointed that they didn't have an Enzo or an MC12 but rather surprised and delighted to find the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. It's a beautiful Alfa supercar that we will never see in Australia as it's only coming in left hand drive and all the orders have already been taken for them. It was awesome because they must have been having an introduction day for the Maserati Gran Turismo because a number of them kept going past us with the dealerships plates on them, the salesman squeezing the throttle a little more than most owners seem too; bliss.
My favourite place so far in LA is Rodeo Drive, the rich haven with all the Lui Vuitton and other expensive brands i can't spell all that well. Constantly you see Bentleys, Astons which i've now seen the DBS (James Bonds ride) many times and it looks incredible everytime, Maserati's, and even Rolls-Royce. Mercedes and BMWs a plenty as well of course. One of the craziest cars was the Rolls Phantom Drophead which is the convertible, saw one of those parked, it was Yellow??? Then whilst taking a photo of it a Ford GT came alongside so i got that as well:)
It's been very happy times for me, very happy indeed. Somehow though I'd been expecting slightly more, don't get me wrong i'm incredibly satisfied, but tommorow I am going to go search the dealerships for a Bugatti Veyron. That should be exciting times. My expectations were high because i've seen videos on youtube of the car shows that happen around here, they would be so incredible. The amount of good cars is just insane, and to see them all brought together would just be heaven. I should have planned better but I am still a very happy camper with how things are going.
Tommorow evening we are off to Paris so i have to go and look at some more details for that.
Toodooloo.

Hollywood!!

We're in the big smoke now. It is so far however not that impressive at all, not nearly as many beautiful cars as i would have hoped and none of the celebrities that Alyson had stalking intentions for. Not to judge to quickly though, we have only been here for one brief afternoon and the weather has been simply divine. It's blissful to wear a tea shirt again, just a tea shirt, without any extra layers on top and to feel perfectly warm. Good old sun gets through down here. Feels very similar to Brisbane in a lot of ways, and somehow so far it seems more similar to the 'worse' areas within Brisbane. It's a massive expanse of a city, but we are staying just off Hollywood Boulevard and have strolled along Sunset Boulevard during Sunset feeling just a little underwhelmed. Again though i say we have a whole lot more exploring today.

Skiing, oh my love. Won't get to ski for at least another six months now which is more than depressing, it was getting so thoroughly enjoyable again towards the end. Even though i was usually on my own still i was getting better air and hurting myself less when i would retardly try the rails. Great sport that one. Unfortunately I only have 10 seconds left. Will do more tommoorw.

Skiing cont.

Well firstly i must include how our night went last night. It was a good night, all out and feeling good. Must just mention the main point though was that i got kicked out of a club for the first time ever. Stupidly they decided to play a Metallica song so we got a little excited on the dance floor and small mosh circles started up. They kept breaking it up and telling us to stop. I could see the bouncers getting more and more agitated so i wasn't going to go back in but some guy puts his arm around my shoulder and starts jumping with me. About 2 seconds later a bouncer grabs me and drags me away. I'm kinda startled but the only thing i really cared about was that my beanie was knocked off and when i kept trying to pick it up the bouncer wouldn't assist and continued to drag me away. I was still within a metre trying to tell him to let me get it but he told me i would have to come back the next day?? It was still within a metre away? Anyway it was just this that mainly pissed me off with the whole thing, and the fact that i don't look aggressive or act it yet he grabbed me, most likely because i looked the easiest to grab. Outside their was a big bouncer but he was pretty nice and eventually when he had the opportunity he went inside and managed to find the beanie for me and kindly suggested i wash it before wearing it, nice guy. It was an interesting time but i didn't really care about not being in the club because it was overrun with males about 10:1, unfortunately the girls didn't know where i'd gone and waited around for me for a long time.



Skiing!!!.

Well yesterday i had a great day because Alyson finally came up with me. And as i knew would happen we bumped into Grant and Kyle two of the guys that work at the hotel. So I had three people to ride with! It was a fun day but today again Alyson couldn't manage to get herself up because she's getting a bit ill it seems and she had work till late last night. Hopefully she fights it away, i think Alex is getting something too. I still had a really fun day though today because i'm at a stage where i'm pushing myself hard again and i have a good run set up with lots of small jumps off the side and things. I even did my first little 180's which i look forward to exploring much more extensively. I can do them quickly off the small jumps now. I've been practising going backwards/switch and it's becoming more comfortable with a bit of speed which is exciting. Still getting some bruises whenever i try the thinner box/rails. Wish I had more time here. Because unfortunately at the moment the snow isn't good enough or plentiful enough to have any proper jumps. There are still a lot of places you can get some enjoyable air. My it's been jolly. Also I've been flying down the one run which is the steepest part of the mountain thats open at the moment. It's good because their is often noone else or very few people on that particular part. Seen a few movies lately as well now. With Alex I have seen Bolt; a childrens movie which we both kept falling in and out of sleep in, was good. Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn and Reece Witherspoon, quite a funny. Then the most memorable was Twilight. It's based on a novel that was really big in Canada. It's about Vampires and one particular one named Edward that falls in love with a mortal which calls for a challenging relationship because he has to resist eating her amongst other things. Anyhow the funniest thing is that it's been out for a few weeks and whilst working i've seen the swarms of giggling teenage girls that line up sometimes for 2 hrs before it started and take photos with the cardboard cut-out of Edward. I even had to take some photos, it was crazy, the little girls love him. Far more ridiculously then these thirteen to sixteen year olds was Alyson Rachel and Alex performances after the movie. They talked about this guy for about an hour. It was very sad. They even talked about walking through the woods and having Edward come save them. I think they thought it would happen as well, I know at least one of them did because when Rachel had to go meet some friends she decided to walk instead of wait for the bus or catch a cab. It's only a 15 min walk but it was night and their are proper scary animals in these woods. She ended up calling us because she was scared as she went through and I think a little dissapointed that Edward never turned up.
Must mention now that Rachel had also seen a couple of Wolves on the edge of the village just a few nights before. We haven't really spotted much more wildlife other than that for a while now.

Skiing!!!!

Well I've been skiing all day for the past three days now. Unfortunately right this instant It's easier to feel the pain from my toe that has been squished incredibly hard, i couldn't tell whether it was being squashed or if it was just the numbness. They're bruising up now so i take it they're squashed. Gonna go get the boots checked out after this because i gotta be out there all day tommorow again, tough. It's been rather awesome. Such very thoroughly enjoyable times getting used to the whole business again. Little sad because i'd kinda hoped to jump back on and be at exactly the point where i left off, but just taking a short while to get used to the different conditions and new skiis and such. Still my air is progressively increasing, very exciting.
However what i really look forward to is having someone to ride with. Aly has all her stuff together now which is good so hopefully she'll come with me very soon. It's been interesting to be on my own all the time, there are some perks, I listen to music and i take the singles line at the lifts. Take breaks when i want or as rarely as i like. A lot of freedom but i look forward to company. Alex is in town, can't remember whether I'd said that in the last one. But Alex Bourne from school is with us now which is very nice. The girls had a late one last night but i wasn't up for it because i'm tiring myself out pretty well at the moment. They didn't return home till 4 though and tell me things were good.
Fortuntely it seems we're able to keep our 4 star hotel room for the last 8 days or so in december, really very lucky with that. It's awesome because when i get back from skiing all day i take a spa and then a sauna and it's brilliant. Really brings the best out of the place.
Hopefully more snow will fall still because they haven't actually opened the whole mountain. It was snowing all day today, not that heavily however. It's quite frustrating because you have to take the Gondala back down the mountain. Still the runs that they have open are really very long considering it's nowhere near as big as they could be when the whole mountain is open. Hopefully everything will be able to open before we leave.

Incredibly Exciting Times.

The fields are opening tommorow!!!!! I'm so damn excited and ready. Cannot wait, kinda wanna go to bed now. I intend on being up there from 8.30 till 3.00 when the lifts close. I think it's forecast for a sunny day also so i'll just wonder around enjoying the scenery whilst getting my legs back because i don't have anyone to go with tommorow. I've been studying a trail map and am extremely excited. Apparently it's still not that good snow and everything, but we'll see. Hopefully Alyson and Alex get their stuff organised soon and can come along with me.
Alex got here last night and we showed her a quick tour of the village when i finished work. Today we went walking to Lost Lake. Beautiful once more and this time we actually walked around the lake. Assisted by our scrumptous breakfast of pancakes with lots of Maple Syrup, fruit and yoghurt. I'd been craving the Maple before we came and hoping that it would be cheap for the good stuff over here because, well for obvious reason. Unfortunately however it is not, so have to do with the cheap stuff for now which still tastes fine. After this internet session we're going to go for another Splitz Burger, definately looking forward to that one. Aly and I have been having it quite often indeed. Have filled up our stamp card, so get one free today!!

Had a good weekend because Jas one of the girls from the cinema let me tag along on her party weekend. Finally after nights of useless depressing insomnia we were able to go out and enjoy the time we should be sleeping. On friday night we went to a house party which i thoroughly enjoyed. It had been snowing on friday and the house was in Creekside. It's quite high up and the hill and it was beautiful, snow covering all the trees and the ground was covered in about 25cm all over! I loved it because at one point everyone decided to go outside and try boarding on a snowboard that didn't have any bindings on it. It was great fun and even Aly had a go which was awesome. I'm overly impressed with myself because we decided too try about a 2 foot acid drop with about a 2 metre run up. The first guy was too drunk to stand up on it. Second guy fell when he did it. I assumed i was going to fall back and smack my head on the ledge, I think we all did. But no, I landed and gracefully stepped off. It was great times anyhow. Also we had my best snowball fight ever. Only comparing to the time in NZ when Phill and I got sick of hitting eachother from a few metres away so decided to turn upon Alyson who didn't care for any of it. Another good thing about it was whilst you play you can put your drink down and it's kept naturally very cold. Great time.

I really just cannot wait for tommorow. Can't wait. Very exciting, very much.

Just waiting...

Ok it's getting seriously frustratingly depressing now. Really need for the snow to fall. Apparently they're still definately going to open the chair lifts on the 27th, and next week there should be snow and things so it should be alright. At the top of the mountain their will be some at least, just have to catch the lift back down probably. Unfortunately it looks like we'll only get two weeks of snow time. The mood is the same with everyone pretty much, it's just waiting for the snow, but none so much as me. Incredibly unfortunate.



Alyson got back from Vancouver yesterday so that was very good. We went for a pretty good walk to Green Lake, passing Lost Lake again on the way. They're really beautiful as i've said and i can't wait to go back and see them when everything has snow, just better happen soon. During our walk we spotted what at first looked like squirrels, however due to their shorter tails and when they started speaking to us we realised that Alysons assumption was correct, these were in fact Chipmonks!!
At work the other night when i had to do my bin run, I saw some shady figures skulking around the dark alleyways, I was abit worried because i've heard that Coyote's wonder about at night. Eventually I got a good glimpse of them and it turned out to be a rather shy family of Racoons, three of them. They're awesome little creatures, I love all the woodland animals you get around here. You hear so many stories of how people see Coyote's at night, and Bears that wonder the Village, It's crazy. One of they guys down at reception said that when he went out for a smoke he'd just closed the door when he noticed a bear about 3 metres away. It was only the size of Shiba, so an average/largeish dog but they can still easily kill you. Would have weighed about 5 times as much as Shiba and big claws and so on that make it quite a worry. He kinda snuck back in whilst whistling to it trying to let it know he wasn't going to hurt it. Apparently their personality is abit like a cats, they don't really care about you, they'll just go about what they're doing until you actually make enough noise to scare it off or make it decide to leave. I wanna see one up a bit closer, though it'd be incredibly frightening at the same time.

Took Alyson to see Quantom of Solace last night and she liked it which was good. What's better however is that i've crushed her fetish for popcorn in the only way possible, through drowning. I've brought her home so much now and last night we again had way to much that she says no more. We'll see how long that lasts. It hasn't exactly lasted all that long with me considering just about every time I work i eat so much i get sick and then remember why i never want to have it again, or at least quite so much.

The Splitz Grill is a famous burger place over here, it's really really beautiful burgers. I've had the Spicy Lentil burger before so when we went that's what Aly got and i tried the Legendary Splitz burger which is beef. It was very delightful. I'd like to try compare it to the Ferg Burgers in Queenstown but i think it'll be out of mind by the time i get back there.

Whistlers Lakes

Well in the past couple of days we've been to visit most of the surrounding lakes that are within walking distance. On wednesday it was rainy and things but Lost Lake still looked brilliant. Yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day, something rare in these parts, so we went walking for a few hours to three more lakes, Alpha, Nita and Alta Lakes. They're all spectacular, the views are astonishing because of the clearing that the Lakes create you can see some of the incredible surrounding mountains. It's really brilliant and I look forward to seeing the all again once everything is covered in a thick layer of snow! Some of the lakes are so glassy that it honestly reflects just like a mirror, got a couple of awesome photos that when you turn the camera upside down it looks just like I've taken shots of the landscape, not the reflection in the water. Can't beleive just how reflective it was.

Alyson went back down to Vancouver last night, she'll be coming back up on Saturday at some point which leaves me quite lonely. But i'm working all three days anyhow, so she would have been on her own otherwise i guess. Last night to help drown the loneliness I went and saw a couple of movies. Bottle shock is about the succes off the Napa Valley vineyards in Calafornia, it's ok. And then the very first showing of the new James Bond 007 Movie. Bit of a let down, still good, not as good as Casino Royale though. Nice Aston DBS but it's only in the movie for the first car chase scene unfortunately. And you barely see it before once again it gets pretty wrecked.

Must move on quickly.

Paintballing the other day.

Well it was just like paintball always is, but it was so cold, and rainy, which i'm really not used to. It's usually extremely hot when i've played in the past obviously in brisbane. Also the most amusing differing aspect is that we had to watch out for bears, apparently they enjoy the sweet nectar of paintball as well. It's a vegetable based paint you see.
One of the rounds that we did was just crazy, it was invincible capture the flag. Two teams start on either side and the idea is to get the flag from the middle to their opposing side. And you can get hit as much as you want. It's a ridiculousu round, crazy. I was the hero though! hahaha. i ran and took the flag to the other side in about 30 sec and recieved at least 20 hits and some from within a couple of metres because i ran round the side of one of the trucks and caught someone by surprise, they regathered themselves and got me a lot though. The most annoying thing about it was that my gun could not shoot in a straight line. I had a clear view of people sometimes and i would take 20 shots and not one would hit, they went in different directions mid air everytime, most guns were just about as bad as mine but one of they guys on the other team had the straightest shooting gun i've ever seen. It's like the disadvantage of a slow kart when go-karting; incredibly frustrating. The group of people I went with were from the cinema, Alyson was invited to come but she preffered to save the money, and i'm not sure she would have enjoyed it so much. One of our manages at the cinema looks exactly like Dan Accroyd as well as Elvis. He's a strange man, but we were told that he had nicknames for Mack and I who'd both recently started there. I was bitch because I tie my hair up and Macks was considerably worse because he thinks he's gay in how he acts gangtser cause he's all into the skiing scene. he's actually sponsored and everything so he must be pretty damn awesome. Anyhow the day was successful because apparently I'm going from bitch to hero after my run, that's exciting news, and i recieved some decent welts to go with.