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Category Archive: Travel
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Home to meet Oliver :)
Biram closed the city of Istanbul and I was lucky to get my christmas shopping done. I found a few little stores but my barging powers were greatly reduced as the grand bizzar was closed 
It also meant I missed out on islamic art galleries which I was really interesting in visiting.
My flight left Istanbul at 17:55 on the 23rd and arrived in Sydney at 06:25 on the 25th via Frankfurt and Singapore. The flight wasn’t too bad, I lied and said I get leg cramps on long flights so could I get a exit row seat 
It really made a difference. I tried to fight jet lag on the plane by working in Australian time as soon as I boarded. It didn’t work and I ended up only getting a couple of hours sleep on the 30 hour trip.
After customs cleaned my boots I exited the gates to the sight of my brother. It was great to see my Stuart and to know I was home. After a long hug we headed to Newcastle to surprise the rest of the family (the rest of the family thought I was coming home in march ’08). My brother had left Newcastle at 0345 telling the family that he had “Navy Duty” in Sydney. A quick shave at the twin caltex and I changed into Stuarts Navy uniform. Just around the block Stuart disembarked Black Betty (the name of his car), and I drove up to Sam and Aaron’s house. A very pregnant Sam was outside and walked in with me. After a bit of idle conversation about breakfast not being ready, Jannell spotted me and gave me a hug. Then Sam clued on and screamed. My mum quickly ran out wondering what had happened and after looking at me for a second she too screamed. Then it was time to introduce myself to Oliver (my Nephew that had arrived while I was overseas). Ollie and I bonded as I bathed and dressed him. He’s got a very strong character and beautiful blue eyes. The family and I merrily feasted in the uncommonly bad weathered christmas day. Stuart and I still had our traditional swim.
I’m returned to Sydney to organise myself. As soon as labour hits Stuart and I will return to Newcastle to greet our new niece into the world. It was great to get home and see Molly (our dog who still new my personal commands). Something was different at home, my room was now a baby room :s I tried to explain to my mum that I am the baby but it appears that oliver has stolen the crown from me after 24 years. It was a good run though.
Second place isn’t that bad
Australia came second place in the ruby world cup match against England which I think is an alright attempt. I’m off to Ireland tomorrow to drink black beer with Scott, Chris, and Jacqui. My blog entries will be erratic for the next few months because I’ll be traveling around Europe.
It’s been nice staying in Swanage between my aunt & uncle’s bed and breakfast and my grandmother’s apartment. My mum’s nose is also stuck to my aunt’s face which is oddly comforting. Yesterday I visited a castle with my Grandmother (it was built in the 1800’s and was designed to be a restaurant). She’s quite mobile for her age and I enjoyed the walk. She told me about berries. I walked her home and then went for a guided walk around the old rock quarries that litter the Perbeck coast. After the walk I played geologist and hunted fossils. I found lots of fossilized rocks.
Caroline and John took me out again today. We lunched in an English pub in the port town of Weymouth and visited the museum. It has prison ship floating out in the harbour. After Weymouth we visited an 800 year old church today, it sat cold and lonely on top of a whether beaten cliff with great ocean views.
I’m going to miss England. It’s coming into autumn and the leaves are turning yellow. It’s something that doesn’t occur to the same scale in Australia and I would have liked to crush them beneath my bare feet. The houses are very cosy here and they group together like penguins. Time scales are completely different here, I’m amazed that people created structures that out live them and their great great great grandchildren. It is time for me to go though and I am excited about my impending adventure to more new countries.
Blisterd hands
My hands are blistered and my legs are sore I spent the last two days landscape gardening. It’s been good working outside and it’s been fun commenting on the “birds” with the boys. I feel tough working with my hands but I don’t like it when the dirt makes them feel too dry so I keep washing them but that doesn’t make me any less of a man. I got to play with the cement mixer today. It was really fun but I made it too watery because I was washing my hands when filling the mixer, I think I’ll invest in gloves of a rejuvenating moisturiser for night time use. I’m working with my cousin, Greg, and his work partner Neil on a property in Ascot.
Last night I had a few pints of Guinesses with my cousins down at the local, the Boots. The Rugby was on but the TV in the pub didn’t have channel 3 so we watch East Enders, it made me feel more British. After East Enders we played some pool. Greg and I played against two gentlemen called Dave. Evidently Greg’s are better pool players then Daves.
We’re meant to be going out tonight but I really don’t feel up to it. I’ll try and get out of it because I think they’re having a big one and I don’t have the money or energy for such and adventure.
last day :(
Today was my last day of work at the Laurel Pub Company. I spent the day stuffing my self full of chocolates and feeling sick, guilty and oddly content.
I’ve really enjoyed my time there and played some fun pranks on the new staff. I thoughtfully lent Sarah my pass when she left hers at home but I swapped the Laurel security pass for my Ceroc membership card so she had an amusing conversation with one of the building staff. Yesterday I played the lift game on the new girl Cheryl. It worked perfectly as Kirtsy and I observed Cheryl trying to swipe her card into a different company while the meeting inside stared at her. Cheryl however had seen accessed my myspace page and shared some pictures she’d discovered with the office in revenge. I will get her back. We went out for lunch and I received some nice words in my cards and some warm goodbye hugs.
My new adventures start in Bracknell on Thursday so I’ve got a lot of packing to get done. My laptop will be going home to Australia so for the next few months my blog entries may be far and few between but I’ll try to keep you up to date
Greg vs the Mosque
Yesterday I visited a Mosque in Luton. I am planning on traveling to Turkey and I wanted to get a better understanding of the Muslim Faith and culture. My timing worked out quite well and when I arrived I was informed by a fellow outside that there was an open day of sorts upstairs. They had lots of information in the form of posters, pamphlets, and talks from people of different faiths out lining Islam and it’s relationships to Christianity and women etc. I also talked to an Irish fellow who had converted to Islam because of Christianities effect on his home land. I agreed with most of what was said (except for a really boring talk by a 13 year old boy about Islam and the environment, it just didn’t finish and he used all those annoying effects in powerpoint with the spinning letters and annoying sounds!) but I don’t understand why people choose to derive their morality and humanity from contradictory ancient books as apposed to thought and reason. It seems a little dangerous no matter how good your intentions. I’ll stick to my agnostic pantheism, that’s the way god made me 
, and you’re entitled to disagree… but your opinion is wrong. One thing that I really did like about Islam was the free chocolate croissant at the back of the Mosque but I’m pretty sure that’s just a trick to get me back, we’ll see if it worked next Saturday.
Last night I cooked for everyone. I was meant to cook 3 cheese tortellini with creamy sage sauce but because Tescos doesn’t sell fresh sage leafs and I’d bought square pasta sheets instead of round pasta sheets it became 3 cheese ravioli with creamy red sauce Silly Tescos with it’s lack of sage and abundance of Yorkshire puddings and alike.
Today was spent playing with air rifles, bows and arrows, kayaks, and rock climbing walls. It was a scout event for adults that Hayley took me to. I really enjoyed it, it was like year 10 camp but my voice had broken. We played with the air rifles first. The target was 10 meters away and we wore funky science glasses. I’d never shot an air rifle before and I was quite surprised by their accuracy and power and now I want one to shoot stuff. Next we played with the Kayaks, they weren’t all that great and there was something wrong with mine because it wouldn’t go straight. Archery was set in woods and I felt just like Robin Hood expect I had trouble hitting the target 20 meters away unlike Robin Hood who can split an arrow in half. We finished the day on the rock climbing wall but I wasn’t feeling that well and Hayley and I only played once before retiring home for supper and pudding (that means dinner and desert for those who aren’t familiar with pomie english).
