Christmas

Hi guys. Very sorry, attempted to put some photos up, but sadly my phone is too complicated for this cafe. Well, more truthfully, the phone and computer combined are too complicated for me, and I've left the cable for the camera at home. This is a shame, christmas was excellent, was hoping to put on some photos of how excellent it was. Spent the day at Maeve and John's house drinking wine, eating food and getting to know cousins big and small. It was fabulous, very relaxing and a lot of fun.

Not a whole lot else to talk about. Most of my friends are still away, still getting in a lot of couch time. Life continues on as always. New years should be fun, have been invited to a party at a hotel in Hertfordshire. Loads of food, wine and a piper to bring in the new year. Can't do a lot better than that.

Whatever you're doing for new years and beyond, hope its a lot of fun. See you all in 2007.

Never warm again

Please, ignore any reference I may have made to how cold it can be in the last post. It has, of course, gotten a lot colder now. The sort of cold which makes you think that you'll never be warm again. Cold mixed with fog and predictions of snow, its something else.

Having said that, it really doesn't feel like Christmas. Its freezing, Christmas should be spent in the pool with stubbies on a hot summer day! But enough about the weather.

Am missing home this week. This is the first Christmas outside of Brisbane or Sydney for many many years and its an odd feeling. Am having some great times in this here little town, but have a feeling that I'm missing something at home that's happening right now. Missing Matthew more than anyone if truth be told, am feeling the huge distance now more than ever. Still life goes on for the moment.

Am spending Christmas day with Aunt Maeve, Uncle John, Aunt Brenda, some cousins and some children of cousins. Who I suppose are also cousins. Vive la differance, family is family and I'm faring better than a lot of folk here who have none. Mind you, they've all gone to Prague for what sounds like a meat and beer festival of some description....

Anyways, to all who read this, have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and an excellent new year. Will be thinking of you all.

Dreaming of a white christmas...

Christmas is a funny time of year. No matter how many warnings you receive it seems to sneak up and catch you unawares. One minute you're cursing the carols in October, the next you're fighting your way through checkouts, knowing that the thing you're buying will be half the price in a week. Yay for christmas.

There's no sign of a white christmas here, in fact, it is 'unusually warm'. I've put that expression in inverted commas because that's what everyone is saying right now. This is troubling. Clearly, it is not warm, it is very cold. Proof? No worries. Look onto the street. Your average punter is not wearing a hawaii shirt and deck shoes, overcoats, big scarves and woolly hats are the order of the day. I think then that the phrase refers to the fact that it is not cold enough to snow, which is a bit of a shame really.

Anyway, it is the season to be jolly, and I do hope that thats what everyone who reads this drivel is actually doing. I'm trying to be good, still have designs on coming home in late January to see Matthew. If nothing else, the change in temperature will be a killer.

Have arrived at work this morning to the wonderful news that Australia has won the second test. Its great. When it comes to sport, the one thing that Australia and England have in common are that we are both very cocky prior to the game. The huge difference is that the English are rubbish at any type of game at all. Cricket, rugby, soccer, don't matter, they suck. When they lose, the team are torn apart mercilessly by the media and the public, who are amazingly negative, until the next game, where they are back to their 'of course we'll win, we're english' attitude. Since I've been here they've lost a game of soccer to Croatia, a game of rugby to Argentina and a game of cricket to a team selected by John Howard, all of which have been great fun to watch.

Anyways, better run. Hope you are all super.

Dark and cold....

I'm sitting at my desk, its 2:30pm and thanks to a suffocating cloud cover, theres nothing but gloom outside. It is cold despite the blazing sunshine this morning, so current weather is a bit sad really. Can't complain much though, despite all of the warnings the weather has been really good from the start. Yeah, its cold now, but only outside, heating is a part of life in the same way that air conditioning is a part of life in brisvegas. Definately manageble.

Not a lot to tell. Birthday was fabulous, had a big p!ss-up at an old man's pub near work. Most of my new friends came along, most of them were very sick the following day. I was also, and had to be reminded that I had become engaged to a kiwi. Apparently a breakfast invitation and a marriage proposal got mixed up somehow, Louise ended up leaving the pub with my keyring firmly placed on her engagement finger. Apparently the wedding is scheduled for May if anyone wants to come along. I have insisted that the marriage be an open one, which hasn't impressed her too much though, it may be short lived.

Not much else to report really. Had a friend down from Scotland for the weekend, went on the tourist trail and showed her the sights. The highlight was probably Abbey Road. The road itself is quite a busy one, and the famous pedestrian crossing is quite close to an intersection. On the day that Mia and I were there, there was about 10 tourists anxiously waiting for a break in traffic so that they could pose a la the beatles. Of course, this being a city where everyone seems to be impatient, cars who were held up by this display of pure tourist evil were forced to sit at the crossing and honk their horns until people stopped having fun. It was pretty funny to watch.

Anyways, someone sent me a postcard, for which I am very grateful. I couldn't understand the first joke, but the second one was very funny. I would be happy if the person who wrote it would please own up, honestly don't know who you are.

See ya.

Ottery St Mary

Ottery St Mary is a little town just north of Exeter, which is on the south coast of the country. It would usually be one of those places you pay a fleeting visit to before moving onto another town, both of which you'd probably forget in due course.

Once a year however it plays host to one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed, something that is at its heart, truly English. Put simply, residents of the town set alight tar soaked barrels and carry them on their back through the streets of the town. Sounds dangerous enough, the barrels have been soaked in tar all year in preparation, they burn alright. One would think that the safest place to observe such an event would be from the safety of your hotel window.

However, for reasons that no one can adequately explain, crowd participation is mandatory. Put another way, the residents carry the barrels through streets packed to the rafters with people who are generally very drunk or very stoned. The result is a kind of running with the bulls type effect, a mass of people moving out of the way as some loon literally charges through the crowd with a massive flaming barrel on his or her back. This is, of course, very dangerous. Quite often the crowd was asked to move aside to let through an ambulance taking another burns victim to hospital.

What is probably most odd about this event is that no one really seems to know why they do it. One explanation was that it was a pagan ritual designed to burn away evil spirits from the town, however it started in the 17th century, pagans had long since gone by then. What you're left with is a tradition which people do just because they've been doing it for a long time. In reality, this is as good a reason as any to keep doing it. In a world of spiralling insurance costs though, one has to think that the days of tar barrelling are numbered, which is a great shame indeed.

Nosferatu

Had a lovely weekend. Was driven out to Berkshire by my cousin Chris to catch up with family, which is always a treat. I won't bore you with the details, but it was typically English in that it involved small village pubs, warm and flat beer, darts, pickled eggs (if ever offered, say no), pork scratchings, a dinner of roast guinea fowl and a barmaid with a heart of gold. Very satisfying.

My flatmate Helen and I went and saw a movie last night. They say that you can do just about anything in a big city, this was a very good example. We saw Nosferatu, the first Dracula movie, first released in 1922. This is, of course, a silent flick, a guy was standing next to the screen playing a guitar and keyboard. Tell me that that isn't the best way to spend halloween!

The quiet weekend

Visited my local for the first time on Saturday morning, a little pub called the Mitcham Mint. Never expected much, and was completely satisfied. The decor is reasonable and the Guinness was very good, but I found myself mixing with a lot of English men who were busy drinking bitter and whinging about the state of English cricket. I was cheering their collapse quietly, it seemed the safest thing to do. It seemed to me that everyone there was named 'Fark', thats what the incredibly large man with a bad skin condition was calling everyone he saw. 'Hey, faaaaaarrrrrkkkkkk!'. He was only quiet when he stopped to shovel more food into his gob, it was quite a performance, one that saw me leave after a pint.

Then visited the pub that Rossco recommended in a previous comment. Despite the review, the place was half full of Aussies watching the cricket. This lasted until the innings break, when the television was changed to the racing. As soon as that happened, loads of dark looking people appeared from the shadows and shuffled their way towards the lonely television clutching piles of betting slips. Once that happened the place lived up to its reputation.

The pub after that looked quite fancy from the outside, but was just as bad on the inside. There was only one other person there, a wiry guy with a lot of tattoos who sat at the bar and stared at me with a little grin on his face, most disturbing. About halfway through my beer an asian girl came into the pub armed with a sackful of pirated dvds that she was selling on the cheap. As I was looking through them she said 'I have this', and shoved a wad of pornos under my nose. Went back to the Mint after that and found that the cricket had been replaced by the football. Had a pint with fark, fark and fark before going home and ironing. It seemed the best thing to do.

Queensland seems like a very backwards sort of place this morning for one reason only, that being that your average Joe or Liz simply isn't trusted with fireworks. Thats very different here, my local convenience store sells them for quite a reasonable price. If that doesn't seem dangerous enough, it is forbidden to set off fireworks in public places, like parks, leaving pyros with no choice but to do so from the safety of their tiny backyards.

Saturday night was Diwali, one of the big hindu festivals of the year. My area has a large Indian population. And so with ads on the radio telling you what to do in case you were hit by a firework in the eye, most of my close neighbours were setting off full blown fireworks in their backyards for about 5 hours on Saturday night. If that doesn't get you here for a visit I don't know what will.

See ya

8 days after monday

Have just arrived at work. Had a bit of a sniffle this morning so blew my nose onto a tissue. Discovered that there were flecks of dirt mixed into the snot. The last time I remember this happening was at a big day out many years ago. It was a great festival, I remember that it was stinking hot and really dry. 70,000 others were also there, the jumping and moshing on the dry dirt of the parklands created something of a dust problem, eyeryone was reporting similar nasal problems. No one seemed to mind, it was a great concert, side effect only add to the story really. The train ride this morning probably won't be quite as memorable for the mass of humanity squeezed onto the carriages.

Thats not to say that there isn't fun to be had on the tube, no-sir-eeee. The other night I stood up to get off at my station, Streatham Common. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone looking at me. It was a little Indian fellow, all of 5 feet tall, very skinny and with an oversized red dot on his forehead. He was looking at me alright, he had a very intense expression which was aimed in my direction. I looked at him, at which point he said in a broad cockney accent "go on then, p*ss off". It was really very comical, I giggled and got off the train without further incident.

And such is life at present, continuing day by day.

Monday

2 weeks people, 2 weeks. That’s really not that long! I’ll tell you whats happening if you want, but its not going to be that interesting.

Look, everything is great. The house is fantastic, flatmates are excellent, although it wouldn’t have been hard to top the last flatmates. As yet, neither of the girls have had their father over to give them a ‘special massage’. Jo is a budding opera singer. She has a terrific voice which is really loud. Helen is a hyperactive pharmacist who insists on spending Sunday nights watching period dramas. I’ve watched a couple of episodes of Jane Eyre. Its like a Mills and Boon novel set in Ye Olde England. Honestly, I think that shows like that set back the cause of feminism by a couple of centuries. The women are all submissive gold diggers who bow and scrape before their masters, who are rich and cocky. I did suggest to the girls that we should model our house along the Jane Eyre lines. Jo and Helen would then have to refer to me as ‘sir’. When speaking about me to each other I would become ‘The master’. They would cook and clean for me and generally compete with each other for my affections. Thankfully they took the suggestion into consideration, even if it was a brief consideration. Just went back to making them tea after that.

So yeah.

Very few stories to tell I’m afraid, very few interesting stories anyway. No photos to show you, work computers are ancient and have all had their sound cards and ISB ports deactivated. Work is as uninspiring as always, have nothing to do at the moment, but am obliged to be here so that they’ll pay me.

Hope you are all well.

and again

another update. There may be less things to write about now that I'm safely locked away in an open floor office in London. Work is alright I guess. Now that I know what I'm doing its become painfully obvious that I have in fact got nothing to do. This is a bit of a problem having come from a job in which scratching was considered a luxury. I did raise my concerns with my supervisor. She looked at me like I was Oliver, you want more??? I persisted and was given a job involving paginating and hole drilling. Ah well, for this sort of money thats probably alright, probably won't be complaining in the weeks and months to come. It is a funny place to work at. Last friday a couple of the workmates said that they were going to the museum at lunchtime. The british museum is just around the corner, I thought there might be a nice egyptian exhibition or something. Of course, the museum is a pub right across the road from the museum. The only pieces of history there were the barflys who looked like they'd been there since the 20's.

Found a place to live. Its in Streatham, a nice residential area south of the Thames. Way south actually, its about 3 stops past Clapham for those of you in the know. Its a big room, will be sharing with 2 pleasant English girls, the place has a backyard and a bbq. It was always the preferred option for a number of reasons:
1. There is a common nearby.
2. There is no walkabout pub nearby.
3. There are no New Zealanders in the house. At least, not if I've got anything to say about it. :-)

That'll do for tonight, see ya.

Salaryman

well, just finished 3rd day at work. Managed, once again, to successfully pass an entire day doing absolutely nothing. Read an accounting book for most of the afternoon before reading (once again) my one allocated file and trying to understand just what on earth I'm supposed to be doing. Did a bit of photocopying on Tuesday, that was fun. Found a machine on monday that dispensed something which the English refer to as 'coffee', although it doesn't resemble the drink of the same name from home.

Was looking at a flat near Finchley on Monday night, would be sharing with a houseful of Greeks. The smell from their kitchen at dinner time was so damn good. One of the girls casually announced that she was from the island of Lesbos. All sorts of comments flashed through my head at the time, but remembering the kiwi incident I just turned casually and gave her a knowing sort of smile. The kiwis still haven't called by the way.

Finally, just to prove that its a small world after all, 2 of my ex-collegues work with me. Michael Kely and Kat Dent. Both are ex-dpp. I can see Michael from where I am sitting, which is just a little bizarre.

Anyways, off for an early night. Adios.

Big and smelly

Yup, London's all that. Random street corners that smell like vomit, women wearing ridiculously skimpy garments in cold weather, lager louts singing songs at train stations, it all happens here...

am back after spending 3 days in Edinburgh, what a city that was. Small, clean and absolutely packed full of history. Another place other than london which I could easily go to and be happy. Scotland was quite similar to ireland in that sense, both have made quite an impression, and I can't work as a lawyer in either.

Looking for a place to live now, which is proving quite difficult. Went and saw a flat today which I would have been sharing with 3 kiwis. I asked for a reduction in rent on the basis that I would be sharing with, well, 3 kiwis. Got 3 blank looks in response. They haven't called back either. Talk about sensitive, jesus!

Starting work on Monday, booooooooo.........

Scottish adventures

Adventures is a loose term, designed to hide the fact that I'm still in Fort William. Am leaving for Edinburgh tomorrow for a couple of nights, meaning that Scotland has been limited to one night in Glasgow, 2 in Edinburgh and 7 here. There is a lot more that I wanted to see, the Isle of Skye for instance, but this has been a most excellent week. Have made some very good friends at the hostel, and have even been upgraded to sleeping in the staff dormitory. I can't remember being this relaxed in a long time, and the prospect of starting work in a week is not a happy one.

Fort William is set amongst a mountain range and a Loch. There is so much to see and do, it seemed a shame to leave without having a proper look around. The highlight was probably canyoning, which basically involves jumping, sliding and swimming from ledge to ledge down a rather large waterfall after signing a pretty flimsy disclaimer. The grand finale was a blind 30 foot jump over a waterfall and into a freezing cold rockpool below. Something you should all try once.

Climbed Ben Nevis yesterday, the tallest mountain in Britain. Was very lucky, the visitor centre claims that the peak is covered in cloud for 355 days of the year. I picked a day where there were no clouds, the view from the top was incredible. It made the 9 hour trek worthwile. The Ben Nevis Inn is quite possibly the best located pub in the world, its at the bottom of the mountain at the finish of the walk. It was a relatively hot day, just about everyone who climbed the mountain stopped for a beer at the end of it.

Of all of the sights I've seen so far, none has been quite as strange as the whiskey flavoured condoms sold at vending machines in the pub toilets here. I've often thought that the concept of flavoured condoms is a strange one, for reasons which I won't write about here because my mother reads this regularly. Yet, my confusion was nothing compared to a friend of mine named Maz, who admitted to a table full of people that when he first encountered flavoured condoms, his first thought was 'wow, do women have taste buds down there?'. This is a man with 2 degrees, obviously anatomy wasn't one of the subjects covered. My own embarresment was to come later, when I returned to the hostel armed with the condoms. A spanish girl in the living room asked me to try and put one over my head and blow it up. I tried, it tore, so I put the tip over my nose to amuse everyone. I then blew out heavily with my nose, which sprayed the spermicide hiding in the tip of the condom all over my face. Many things could be said at this point, but again, mum reads this...

Anyways, hope you are all well. My phone number here is +44 7789 055 716. I'm going to switch off my Australian account pretty soon, but feel free to send texts to that number. It won't cost you more than if I was in Australia stil.

Ciao.

Fort William

Hi kids,

Fort William is a little town in the west of Scotland which advertises itself as being the 'outdoor adventure capital of the UK'. If one were to venture outdoors today, 5 minutes is all it would take for one to get very wet and freeze ones tits off. As such, I'm stuck in the backpackers reading books, which isn't a bad thing I think. What really sucks is that I've left my camera at home, so there won't be any photos of the haggis I ate last night, or the lone piper on top of the mountain. (Kidding, there is no piper) Haggis, well, its glorified sausage mince really. At least thats what it tasted like. They don't cook it in sheeps stomach these days, they have plastic stomachs.

People seem to want to know about the job. Well, the insolvency service acts as an official receiver for individuals or companies that have been declared insolvent. Ross was right then, they oversee the disposal of the remaining assets of the company. A debt collector, as my mother so eloquently put it. My role is in the investigative department, I will be investigating insolvent company directors with a view to determining whether they have acted in breach of the law, and whether an application should be made to the court for additional penalties. To be honest, it sounds dead boring, theres no court work and there is masses of financial documents to wade through, but its an income and that will do for now. Don't worry about that though Alice, just get yourself over here!

Anyways, better get back to the book. miss you all.

Employment

This is a big city, and things tend to happen very quickly, but I wasn't expecting this.

Had a job interview with the Insolvency service at 4pm today. Whilst on the train home they called and offered me the job, which I accepted. Whats even better is that it doesn't start until 18 September, giving me plenty of time to travel a bit more and sort stuff out. Everything has managed to work itself out very well!

Its not the job I wanted, it doesn't pay quite as much, but its still pretty reasonable by Ipswich standards and sounds quite interesting. Plan now is to head to Scotland soon, before coming back and sorting out a place to live.

This is so cool!

Brighton and Liverpool

Hey guys,

well, just returned from a whistle stop tour of brighton and liverpool.

Brighton is a largish city on the south coast of England, famous for Brighton rock and the pier, which is a tacky tourist attraction. The pier houses the erroniously named 'Palace of Fun', which could probably be renamed 'Palace of shite'. The city itself was very nice, and it did have a pebble beach, which looked quite bizzare. Had a couple of lovely nights there with friends. Did also have my first curry on English soil, which lived up to its reputation.

Liverpool though was something else. We landed right in the middle of a big free musical festival. We missed the proclaimers by about half an hour, which was a great shame, but we did see Hermans Hermits of all people. Who are they you ask? Well, only the people who wrote 'Theres a kind of hush, all over the world...'. Mum and dad will no doubt remember who they are. It was strange, the average age of people who go to the festivals I do is about 20, the audience here averaged about 50. Many of them wouldn't have been out of place in a mosh pit such was their dancing style.

Of course, we were also in the middle of beatles week, meaning that beatles tribute bands had arrived from all over the world to perform at various landmark venues. On Sunday we went to the cavern, where the beatles first made an impression. there were beatles bands from Spain, Brazil, Japan, Liverpool itself, France, Holland and even a Russian quartet who played beatles songs with 2 accordians and some bongos. and they were all brilliant, except perhaps for the russians.

On at least 3 occasions I found myself in the position of not understanding a single word a local had said to me. I can only assume that they were speaking English, we were in England after all. I think the girl in the 80s bar was simply too drunk to talk properly, but the other locals had no such excuse, so thick and strange are their accents. The 80s bar deserves a mention, being in the position to buy plastic madonna boobies and a tinsel wig listening to 80s music was was like being in a very special place indeed.

A very satisfying weekend. Have a job interview tomorrow, which should bring things back down to earth a touch. hope you are all well.

London

Well, here we are, my home for the next little while. London, big, cold, wet but generally very pleasant.

Had an interview with an agency yesterday morning. Seems they're crying out for Australian lawyers at the moment, they've put my name forward for 4 jobs already, all this in the space of 36 hours. The money is unbelievable, the job I really want pays £18.50 per hour. This equates to about £35 000 per annum, or $80 000 Australian. Whatsmore, the cost of living is not that much more expensive that what I'm used to. All in all, sitting back from the comfort of my uncle and aunt's house, the decision to come here seems like a very good one.

If I get offered any of these jobs, the plan is to delay starting for about 2 weeks, during which time I'll head up to Scotland for a look around. Never been there, it looks awesome and summer is about to disappear.

The weekend starts tomorrow, heading to Brighton to catch up with an old friend of mine, Rachael Smith. Then catching a lift with her to Liverpool to see Natasha Goss and a Beatles festival, before heading back to London on Monday in time for a job interview on Tuesday. Everything is happening very quickly, but its all a lot of fun at the moment. You should all make plans to get yourselves out here as quickly as possible!

Goodbye Ireland

Its a sad farewell to Ireland today. The last 2 weeks have been wonderful, but the truth is that I can't stay. My law degree is recognised, but my qualifications as a barrister are not. For that to happen I would have to go through the usual post-degree route along with everyone else, which is basically a series of exams. This is complicated by the fact by the fact that 2 of the exams test your knowledge of Gaelic, the ancient Irish language. The only thing I know how to say in Gaelic is kiss my arse. Given that the language itself is spoken by so few people here, this would be virtually impossible, so back to England we go.

This isn't too upsetting, Ireland itself is a very short and very cheap flight from England. And I think that the last week has taught me that its not so much where you are, but who you are there with that makes the difference between having a good time and having a great time. I do miss the company of friends, and have many friends in London.

One tip for anyone that does come to Ireland in the future. Dublin is a lovely city, but the Ireland you see in the postcards is away from Dublin. Galway was an easy place to be. Buy a pint and chat to the closest person, they will respond. Had a couple of great nights there with people whose names I don't remember.

So, back to England tomorrow morning without any hand luggage. Have an interview on Tuesday morning with a recruitment agency, hoping that something excellent comes from that.

Cheers to all.

Photos

Alrighty, theres some photos at this site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsnotalogitsablog

Connemara

Its difficult to know what to write without sounding repetitive. Have just spent 3 glorious days in Connemara, a part of Co Galway famed for rugged countryside. It was spectacular and wonderful, just as everything on this holiday has been so far.

Stayed at a hostel on the shore of Killary fjord, which advertises itself as being the only fjord in Ireland. I was kinda expecting a glacier, but apparently fjord simply means deep narrow channel. There ya go, who said that logs weren't educational?

The first day was spent walking 20 kms with my trusty French companion Sebastian. We walked along the fjord to the Atlantic ocean. Unbelievably, we found white sandy beaches and a scuba diving centre. Even more unbelievable was that there were pasty white Irish families swimming in, a move which I described as close to child abuse.

We were joined by our American friend Christy (sorry if the spelling is wrong) on the second day, which was another 20 km adventure into the small town of Leenane and beyond. No walking trip would be complete without a pint, which I think made the spectacular scenery on the way back all the more exciting. Quote of the day belongs to Christy, who expressed surprise when a sheep baaed, saying 'they really do baa!'. Thats right Chris, although you know that they bark after sunset when they are on the hunt for human blood.....

On the third day myself and a the lovely Mireille from Quebec hitchhiked to and from a little town. This was another first, hitchhiking for me conjures up images of Ivan Milat style men carrying shotguns and driving massive black utes, however it is a testament to just how friendly this place is that everything went very very well. It was nice to be picked up by natives. Its been very difficult to find Irish people here, someone may well think that French is Ireland's first language. I asked one French couple why so many came to Ireland to holiday. They answered that the Irish and the French had one big thing in common, they both hate the English. This seemed a perfectly reasonable answer.

Back in Galway city now. Going to spend a couple of days on guided tours before heading back to Dublin to spread some charm at employment agencies. Miss you all.

Galway

Up until now I've been travelling with Paul Alsbury, crown prosecutor from up Rockhampton way. We parted company this morning, he had to head back to Australia to work, which is very sad for him. We had a lovely night last night, in a pub with session musicians in the corner playing traditional Irish music. Its a great arrangement, they turn up with their instruments and play in exchange for free beer all night. Kinda wish I'd brought my recorder.

Paul's company has been a highlight of the trip so far. He tripped an old lady on the bus this morning. The best day we spent together was the 45 odd km bike ride through the Gap of Dunloe. I will try to post some pictures at a later date, although I doubt that they will do the place justice. The gap is a 10 km road which runs between two mountains. The scenery was absoutely stunning, green fields, steep mountains and glorious lakes. It wasn't hard to see why the Irish have so many tales featuring fairys and leprachauns, it was just the sort of countryside where you could imagine a little green fella talking about his pot of gold.

Having said all that, the experience would have been much better if Paul hadn't have been complaining about bruising to his perianal area. :-)

killarney

have about 7 minutes left to write something meaningful.

has been quite a few days. Thinking about it, have quite literally travelled to the other side of the planet in the space of about 3 days. Am currently sitting in an internet cafe in the aforementioned Killarney, which is just gorgeous. Dublin was great. In the absence of anything to tie me down at the moment, may well stay there rather than London. made it to Dalkey which was a real highlight.

Flight was uneventful and long. Choice of 2 highlights really, the chinese fellow sitting next to me who farted all the way from Brisbane to Taipai, or the Irish fellow I met in Frankfurt airport at 7 in the morning who had bought duty free Jack Daniels from Sydney and insisted that we drink a bottle between us. London looked great after that!

Better run. Miss you all, keep in touch.

What to call it

It seems that blogging is a worldwide craze. Up until last Saturday I had no idea that such a thing existed. My lovely sister Louise probably made the best comment, she thought a blog was something one left in the toilet after a boozy night out. I'm in full agreement, the title therefore serves as a constant reminder to both me and anyone who could be bothered to read the drivel that will no doubt appear in the next few months and perhaps years.

Its funny, I feel as though I should be more excited about the upcoming trip, but I'm not. Its not easy at age 31 to consider completely uprooting oneself from the place I've been settled in for 22 odd years. Christ, 6 months ago I was going follow in Nigel's footsteps and put myself into masses of debt. Now i'm heading off with a finite amount of money, no income and no real plan of attack. It feels like a very odd situation. Isn't this supposed to be liberating?

Mind you, I'm sure that 2 weeks in Ireland will sooth the worry in no time. I've always loved Ireland, theres a real spirit to the place. Its hard to put into words, but every time I've gone back I've always felt settled and happy.

Anyways, that ought to do for a first post. Will be in Ireland on Sunday, and drinking in my home town of Dalkey on Sunday night. This will be a first, and I can't wait. Paul and I are off to the lovely town of Killarney the following day. Killarney is in county Kerry. Last time I was there it was the middle of winter. It was still great, but I'd like to see it in summer. Am pretty sure that the pubs will be packed to overflowing with American tourists drinking half pints of Guinness, but hopefully there'll be one or 2 cute ones amongst them :-)

See ya.