Lazy me

I know that I have been a little lazy with updating this, but I will make up for it by putting a pictur of me in a to-to at the bottom of this post.
I am on my second trip since my last entry, last week I was up in Port Hedland and Karrattha with work. There is nothing to great about those places but then again they arn't really hoiday places. Everone there is on good money, and they work bloody hard for it as well, but that also means that the price of everything there is high.

At the moment I am in Bunbury and it is the first time that they have sent me away with out an engineer. It is a lot better as I am in control of what we do and when we do it, but of coarse that means that I am working harder than I have been while away in the past.

The beaches are amazing down here, but the photo's always say more than I can.

and of coarse there is that I promised you all:

Away again

Towards the end of last week I started some night shifts at work. The first one was a bit tough but after that they got easier as I was able to sleep during the day. One thing I noticed was that if I had to much coffee or redbull during the night I couldn't sleep during the day and that meant that I had to have more the next night.

Neil and I spent Sunday cruising Freo and visiting the beach. That night I had Neil, Chris and Caz around for a barbie. It was a good night and I think that the Dog was a bigger hit than me. They loved him, but most people usually do.

I got the call Sunday lunch time letting me know that I am going country. Tonight I am in Pinjarra and the only accommodation that we could find was in the local pub. The rooms are small, no private bathroom TV or anything like that. It's a bit of a shame when I'm spending less than a third of what the company is willing to spend on me.

I am not to sure what the next few days have in store for us. We are going to head in the direction of Albany tomorrow. If we are giving more work we will stay there, if not we will head back to Perth.

Booze Watch

Check out this page, it rocks......

www.boozle.com.au

A decision made...

Over the weekend Gwen was here, she arrived on Thursday and left again on Saturday night. We spent most of our time in Margaret River, such an awesome place.

It was hard to say goodbye a second time, but I have made a decision. I am moving to QLD at the end of this job. Not sure the date yet, if the job finishes mid December I am going to hang around Perth until Chrissy.

I also hope to drop in on a few friends on my way over, maybe a stop in Adelaide and a stop in Melbourne.

Away again

Well I have been back in Perth for a few days, but it is time to move on again. Still with work I am off to Collie tomorrow.
The plan is to be back on Sunday, but I am well aware of how easily that can change.

There is one thing that I know, and that is that I am going to be back in Perth for Wednesday night when Gwen arrives. We are planning to go away for a couple of days.

Back in Perth

Well I have been back in Perth for a couple of days now after being away for a week and a half. Work is good, things seem a lot quieter in the office then they are on the road, it is 0825 while I am typing this and there is 4 people in the office, while we where on the road we always started at 8 some times earlier....

Last night Pete Pat and I played squash, we played for about 2 hours. I think that is the longest that we have played since I've been back in Australia. We where fairly well matched up last night with all of us taking away some good victories.

I am not to sure when I am heading off into the country again, I think that it may be as early as tomorrow but I'll find that out later on today. I would be happy to work another weekend as I need the money and the tax man doesn't hit me to hard for working 7 days compared to 5 so it is still worth it.

Steve Irwin, RIP

I heard the news when I got back into the car after lunch. Steve Irwin has died while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.
He leaves behind a wife and two children.
This is a tragedy for all of Australia. I used to always watch him on a Saturday or Sunday morning when I was in the UK. He was always such an emotion charged figure, a true icon of Australia.

Rest in Peace Steve
22 February 1962 – 4 September 2006

Margaret River

Well we have been in Margaret River now for 3 nights and we have just booked in for a 4th. The test numbers still aren't working and we can't call 3G TO 3G so there is not much to do. But being Monday we are being paid again so it is all good.
On the weekend we managed to get out and about, but I only got a couple of photos. On Saturday we headed out to see one of the caves. We went to Jewel Cave but missed the tour by about 10 min and the wait to the next one was about 50 min. So we headed off to Mammoth Cave. We got a audio guide so we could see that cave at our own pace. The cave was amazing, but I much prefer going through a cave with a torch, but I understand that with thousands of people going through these caves there needs to be some systems in place to protect the cave it's self.

After we went to the cave we moved on to the beach for lunch. We went to The Sea Garden Cafe for lunch, it was a mazing, it looked over the ocean and the food was good. We then moved on to the Leeuwin Winery where we sampled some nice wine, but not to much as I still had to drive. After that we found the chocolate facturty and then another winery on our way back to Margaret River for the game (you shouldn't have to ask what game).

I went to the Settlers Tav to watch the Docker vs Port Adaliade. Of coarse the dockers thumped them and cemented their place in the top 4 teams for the finals. Next week they play Adaliade in Adailade, it will be a tough game but we are playing very well and we should win the game.

On Sunday we hung around town for the morning to see if they could get the problem fixed, come lunch time we realised that they wern't going to so we moved on. We spent the afternoon in Busselton and then went out to my Uncle and Aunty's farm in the afternoon.

Now we are sitting out side the local IGA Supermarket just trying to kill time until we can do some work.......

Cow Crossing

I just found this photo on my phone, it was from when we where near Pemberton. We had to stop for about 15 minutes while the cows crossed the road....

Margaret River

Well it is confirmed that we are not going to be able to do any work today (Saturday), and there have even been rumors of me returning to Perth on Monday. It seems that Marcio has to get an X-Ray to forfill some visa requirement. Marcio is an RF Engineer that I have been working with. Most of the engineers on this job have been brought in from overseas and there fore visa requirements are always hampering the time line for the project. I think we might spend a bit of the day today checking out the wine region as well as some of the caves in the area.

We are testing the 3G network for telstra. It hasn't been launched yet but as we go around we turn on the network. We are testing Video and Voice calls as well as HSDPA (high speed internet) calls. What this means is that from your mobile you can get speeds faster then most people have in their home from the internet. It also means that where ever we go we have access to the internet. At the moment I am sitting in the car out the front of my motel in Margaret River typing this as the internet here is faster than everyone else.

Well I am not sure what we are doing this weekend but I'll keep people posted.

Just a quickie

Well at the moment we are in Margaret River, we are going to spend the night here but we still have about 2 hours of work.......
The number that we are using isn't working, hopefully it will start working soon otherwise this job is going to take longer than we ever thought.....

Well once again things go wrong in a nice town, lets hope we aren't here for 3 days this time. I am looking forward to getting to the Settlers tavern for a drink tonight. I am almost turning into an alcoholic on this trip, if I didn't have to drive every day I think I would.

Pemberton

Well what was meant to be just an overnight stop has now been extended to at least 3 days. It seems that there is a problem affecting all of WA and it means that we can't continue until it is working.
I can think of a lot worse places to be stuck, this place is amazing, it is unfortunate that we can't take some time to do some tours as we are still working, even though we aren't doing anything. We have to wait and see if we can make a call, and when we can we will start working again. There is one good thing coming out of this, I am still being paid for hanging out here not doing much :-)

Photos

I was going through some of the photos on my phone, thought I'd post some of them:

It looks just like a road in Australia, but it is a road linking LA Beach and Hollywood

These are the great busses you heard about in my earlier posts

My brother Dave at Michaels house in Rossmoyne

I swear there just mucking around

See, I told you

A road I drove down on the way to Pemberton

The Zutons playing at The BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee

My desk in Edinburgh, clean isn't it.....

And my new desk working with Ericsson, at least it is a comfy chair.

Batteling his way through a pint

Empire State Building

Some Bastard in Edinburgh

Sunday - Walpole and Denmark

On Sunday we decided to go and do a half day as to ensure that Monday wasn't going to take 14 hours to complete. We left Albany at about 9am, and plan to be back for the derby that kicks off at 2pm, however I am not sure that we are going to make it. As I type this it is 1245 and we are still 45Km from Denmark, but we are making progress.

While we where out this morning we stopped at the Walpole Tree Top Walk, Valley of the Giants. It was so worth it, only $6.00 to get in and there was a tree top walk over a bridge that wobbled with every step and then a ground Forrest walk, past some great old trees that had been hollowed out with years of fire and fungi growth.












We also stopped at a look out, over looking the Walpole Inlet. A number of times during the morning we have seen parts of the Biblinum Track, seeing it again almost makes me want to try walking it. It's amazing that there is a walking track that links Albany and Perth, a trip that takes you about 6 hours to drive at 110km/h.....

Away Again

Well less than 4 weeks after I landed back in Perth I am on the move again. Nothing as fancy as round the world this time, nor anywhere as relaxing. I am away with work, traveling the south west of WA.

I am working for Ericsson testing the new Telstra 3G/HSDPA network. I started on the 16 Aug and after a bit of training I was sent off with another guy (more on him later). At the moment I am in Albany and we are testing the network in this area. I haven't been away with work before so getting my accommodation, food and any work related expenses covered is a bit of a novelty. Even the internet that I am using to type this is paid for by the company.

We are staying in Albany, and we plan on being here for a few days. It is great to be somewhere a bit different for work. Not that Edinburgh wasn't different, but when I was there I was living there, I called it home. When I am in Albany I am here as a tourist. On our time off we are seeing some of the sights, having a look around the town, doing the normal tourist thing.

I am traveling with a RF Engineer from Brazil, Marcio. Spending a lot of time with him makes me realise how well we have it. I am hearing stories about corrupt governments, bad healthcare and education, poor unemployment benefits and still high taxes.

We are making our way around in a new Ford Territory and I must say that I am glad I don't have to pay for petrol. It is about 1.40 a liter here..... No wonder I don't own a car yet.

We are staying at the best western motel, it is a nice place and of coarse I have my own room, with foxtel, a clean shower and toilet. It is a lot different to hostelling it around the world.

Well until next time, I might tell you a bit more about what I am doing, and how I am typing this blog.

Back in Perth

Well I got back in Perth late on Friday night and since then I have been taking it fairly easy. Playing a bit of squash, walking the dog things like that.

I am back living with my Mum, which is fairly weird but she is an awesome house mate :-). She is also allowing me to use her car when she doesn't need it.

In the last few days I have been spending a bit more time looking for a job. I am looking for a Technical Analyst position or really anything in IT. I have a job interview on Friday lunch time and as long as the pay is right I think it'll be a good job. I have also registered for the Dole, I don't plan on being on it for more than a couple of weeks, but just in case I will have some access to money.

Honolulu

I landed in Honolulu late on Tuesday night and I had one day to see the place. I decided that I wanted to learn to surf, and what better place than in Honolulu to learn? I headed to the beach early on Wednesday morning and I booked my self into a surfing lesson at 1000.

After breaky I went back and meet up with my instructor, she ran us through the basics and we hit the water. I managed to catch the first wave that I went for and I even stood up on the board. Now admittedly we where using long boards but I was still fairly happy with myself. I stayed on the water for about an hour and by that time I was well and truly stuffed. I managed to catch a number of other waves, now I don't think that I am going to be winning the Ripcurl Masters or anything but I am happy with the progress that I made in only a couple of hours.

Later that night the hostel was having a pub crawl, so I decided to tag along. We went to a lot of bars, but I did get the feeling that it was a bit of a cash for guests thing. We went to a few bars and they where quite, not really the pumping bars that I was hoping for. But as always after a few drinks I didn't really care.

I headed back to the hostel at about 2330 as I did have a plane to catch the next day and I didn't want to be to tired for the long trip back to Perth.

Los Angeles

After a nightmare bus trip back to LA I decided that I was going to get a cab to the Hostel. After I checked in I went for a bit of a walk and managed to find and internet cafe that had Skype.

I spent the next day just walking around, much the same as I did on my first day in LA. I had to get a plane that evening so I didn't go to far. However I managed to finally chat to Gwen. I hadn't spoken to her in about 3 - 4 weeks and it was so good to hear her voice again.

Later that day I headed for the airport and left the mainland US.

Las Vegas

On Friday the 21st July I set off for Vegas.

I went to the bus station a couple of hours early so I didn't miss the bus. However I did manage to go to the wrong bus station so I missed my bus. I got a transfer to the Los Angles bus station and I was set to get on a bus

We where staying in Harrah's, it's quite a nice hotel/casino on the strip. One think that did concern Mustard and I was that they put us in the Mardigra Tower... After checkin we headed over to meet Pete and Mike Coucil.

We meet them at the Paris Hotel, it is an amazing hotel that has a fake Eiffel Tower and an 1/8th size replicular of the Arc de Triumph. Inside the casino the roof made it look like you where out side during the day, it was a great blue with clouds and there was even a breeze blowing in the casino it's self. The drunker we got the more we thought we where outside. We played rapid roulette, and I didn't do to bad, I think I made about US$20 on that game and we played for a couple of hours and we had a few drinks. After that we moved over to another casino <<<<>>>> where I didn't do as well. I think that night I lost about US$100, but I was fairly drunk and if your playing you don't have to pay for your drinks.

My room on the first night had bed bugs so I didn't get much sleep. I went to bed at about 0530 after a huge night of gambling and got up again at 0930 to find that I had been bitten. I went for a walk, got some breaky and then went back to bed by 1130. When we got up at about 1530 the bites where worse and there was a lot more of them.
Mustard and I went down to the lobby to speak to the manager and she was very quick to get us into another room, but that was about it. We had to wait about 40 min for security to come down (but they did give us a $50 voucher to make up for that) and take a report we where told that we would be contacted in 3 working days by their risk management people. They weren't going to do anything about it then. It wasn't until we started to get annoyed and angry that they did something. If you know anything about bed bugs you will know that if you just move rooms with out cleaning your clothes then you will just take the bugs with you. We complained and said that we didn't want to pay for the room and that we wanted the hotel to clean our clothes. After a bit of talk they agreed to this and we still haven't heard from their risk management people (now Wednesday), so I am glad that we didn't leave it up to them. It is frustrating that while we where understanding and patient with them they weren't going to help us out, we had to get annoyed and almost yell at them before they would help us.

They moved us into another tower, this one called the Carnival tower and the room had a much better view (of the pool and the strip in the background) it had a larger bathroom and more floor room in the room it's self. We sent our stuff off to be cleaned by the hotel but it wasn't going to be back until Sunday night.

Earlier that morning Pete and his brother headed off so it was just Mustard and I left to run a muck in town. We had specific instructions from Pete that we had to got to a strip show in Vegas, and I'm sorry to say Pete, we never got there. But we did do one other thing that I knew you wanted to do but you'll hear more about that later.

On Saturday after we had sorted out all the crap with our rooms we decided that we would live it up a bit. We planned to go and play a bit of $5 blackjack at O'Shires and then move on to the Bilago for a but off dinner and to check out their casino. We went to O'Shays but they only had one $5 Blackjack table and there was no chance of us getting onto it so we played a bit of roulette before heading over to the Bilagio. We had dinner there and then made our way onto the gaming floor. I couldn't believe the amount of money people where betting on cards on the main floor. The kind of bets they where placing I thought belonged in the High Steaks room, there where tables there win a min bet of US$500 and US$1000 for blackjack, a game that moves quite fast.
We played the machines for a bit before hitting the roulette (it was one of our fav games). Things where going well with our system of the black/red betting before a table had a run of about 15 black numbers. By the end of it I was betting US$150 on each spin, but I got all my money back when it came up red :-)
After that near miss we headed back to the Hotel to get some sleep, it was ealry for Vegas (0130)

On Sunday we started early (1200) and headed out for breakfast before finding a $5 Blackjack table. We sat down there for about 4 hours and tipped the hostess that was bringing us our drinks and so they came faster and stronger. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, but I will try to recreate it. After we left there we headed back to our Casino where we saw that they where doing karokee in the piano bar, as you all would know I couldn't walk past that. Mustard and I stopped in there had a had a little sing. The question was what song. We realised that there was only one song that we could sing, Down Under.... So we did and everyone loved us, we where the hits of the night. Infact I think if we had our green cards the hotel might have hired us, well that is what it seemed like at the time. After that we went and had some dinner in the restraunt in the Hotel, thanks to the $50 voucher that we had. I know that we had Calimarie for a started but I can't really remember what we had for the main, it might have been a burger. A few more drinks there and we decided that we where going to a casino that we hadn't been to before, the Hilton. The Hilton is a theamed casino, and it is of coarse..........STAR TREK........ Unfortunately by the time we got there the Star Trek Experience has closed for the day but we still managed to get a lot of good photos around the place.

We headed back to our hotel after that and Mustard called it a night. I wasn't ready for bed so I hit the casino again, this time winning about US$70 before I went to bed. The next morning we had to check out and we found that they had charged us for the laundry, it came to US$180 to wash our clothes. We went down and spoke to them and told them that we weren't paying for it and they removed it from our bill.

My bus trip back to LA wasn't as successfully as my trip to Las Vegas. I got to the bus station at about 1100 for a bus that was going to leave at 1200 and I still managed to miss the bus. The line to pick up the tickets was huge. I managed to get on a but at 1330 however about an hour into the trip as we where crossing the desert came apon a traffic jam. It turned out that a truck had caught on fire and was blocking the road. It took us about 2 hours to get past that and then 30min later we had to stop at another Greyhound bus that had broken down. It turned out that it was the 1200 bus that I was meant to get and they had been sitting out in the desert for about 3 hours, now you have to remember that the temp out there is about 48 Celsius, not to cool. We put most of them on our bus and then headed off again. When we stopped at the lunch break we came across another group of Greyhound customers that had been stranded there so we filled the isles with those people as well. We finally got into LA at about 2330, when I was meant to be there at 1800. I got a cab back to the hostel where I went straight to bed.

Los Angeles

After I landed in LA I knew that I had to get most into the one day as I left on a bus the next morning to go to Las Vegas. I got the shuttle to the Hostel that happened to be across the road from the walk of fame and also the location that they hold the Oscars.
I went for a walk down the walk of fame where there where guy's all dressed up in costumes, there where budding musicians wanting you to listen to their music, break dancers on the street and there was on that caught my eye, he was giving away tickets to live filming of shows. I grabbed one for amazon.com’s fishbowl. It was interesering to see the filming of a live show, and something that I didn't know before was that they have a paid audience as they can not always guarantee that they are going to have enough people to fill the seats.
That evening I went to see a movie, as you do in Hollywood. I went to the El Capitan Theatre and saw Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. It was great; they had an organ player when everyone walked in. After that there was a bit of a light show and there was also a display set up behind the screen and with lighting they put on a bit of a show.
The next morning I headed to Las Vegas.

Vancouver and Pemberton

Most of my time spent on the west side of Cananda I spent on a farm new Pemberton.

Lindsey and Sandy where great in offering me a place to crash and also to let me experience the life of a Potato farmer in Canada. The view from their farm is amazing, there is huge mountains in either side of their farm and some of them are even snow capped. I spent my time there helping around the farm, well not so much helping as watching what they where doing as I had know idea what to do. They farm mainly potatoes, but they also farm a lot of other veg. Their farm is one of the only organic farms in the area and the produce that is grown here tastes awesome.

I went and had a bbq with the wolfers on Tuesday night. It was one of the best steaks I have had since I have been away. Cooked on an open fire in the bush, it was amazing.

On Wednesday I headed back to Vancouver and spent the night in a Hostel that Mustard recommended to me. It wasn't to bad and I had to get up early for my flight down to LA.

New York

After my late arrival in town I headed straight for bed, there was going to be no going out that night.

On Friday morning I got up early (well early for being on holiday) and then headed out to see some of the town. This place is HUGE and there is so much to see.

I started the day by heading to Time Square, now this isn't much of a square, infact I couldn't find a square at all, just an amazing area of lights and colors and advertisements. Nothing I could say here would do it justice, so you'll have to wait until I get some photo's to add to this post. Let me just say that it was amazing.

From there I planned to head over to Grand Central Station, but as normal I just wondered around and I stumbled on to the Rockefeller Center. I wasn't going to bother seeing that, as I hadn't heard anything about it in the past and there was heaps to see and do in NY, but as I was there I stepped in side. The Rockefeller Center is the home to the NBC, the network that created things such as Friends, Scrubs, Sienfield and heaps more. There store was interesting, of coarse it was all about selling t-shirts and key rings of the shows they produced but it was still ok. Apart from there the Rockerfeller Center just looked like another city center shopping mall, all be it one with expensive shops. I hear that it also has an ice rink in there somewhere but I didn't manage to find it, although I didn't look to hard.

After that I headed over to Grand Central Station to see this amazing roof they talk about. It is fairly impressive, but nothing like some of the roofs and halls that I have seen throughout Europe. An interesting point is that there isn't much national rail traffic through Central Station any more, it is more just local services.

From there I headed over to Central Park. On my way I passed a stage where Train where rehearsing for a show they are doing tomorrow morning. I stopped by had a listen and moved on. They are good live, I wouldn't mind seeing there show tomorrow but there is still heaps to do here :-)

The Lonely Planet book I have says that Central Park is the one thing that is keeping most New Yorkers sane in this huge city. Although it is nice, there is still the city smoginess and the smell, I would they are all being ripped off after seeing Hyde Park in London.

After Central Park I wondered around for a while, I headed back to Time Square had a bit of a walk around and tried to look for an internet cafe. As you can tell I found one, but not before stopping my the hotel and asking them. There doesn't seem to be any in this town, it's crazy.

That night I headed out to the Empire State Building. I had planned on getting there as the sun was setting but due to the lines I was late. There was still light when I got up to the 67th Floor but the sun had set. The city is so amazing from up there. I had an audio tour that kept me oriented and explained all the areas that I was looking at. An amazing fact about the building is that it only took 16 months to complete. Apparently there where so many people looking for work that it didn't take to long at all. I headed back to the hotel after that, blisters and all to get some sleep.

On Saturday morning I spent the time doing some washing. I am back to a climate where I can't wear a set of clothes more that once, the heat makes sure of that.

After that I headed out to Ground Zero. There isn't much to see there at the moment as they are building the new Freedom Tower. It looks like it is going to be something special when it is completed. There where a lot of poems and flowers on walls remembering what happened on 11 September 2001. One thing that did surprise me was the demonstration that was on the path near it commenting on how the government new about it and set the whole thing up.

I had an early night that night to try and give my feet a break. I think it worked cause on Sunday I was feeling a lot better (could have something to do with the 12 hours sleep I got.)

I headed out with the intention of getting on the ferry to go to Liberty Island on Sunday morning. Well I got to the (I should say a) ferry terminal and heard an announcement that it was just about to leave. I asked someone and they said that it was free and that is all I needed to hear. I ran to the ferry and boarded it just before I left. The thought then occurred to me I should have looked before I leapt. I managed to get on The Staten Island Ferry. It wasn't a complete loss thought, it went straight past the Statue of Liberty and gave me a great view of it, not only that the view of Manhattan was fantastic.

After I got the ferry back to New York I went in search for the correct ferry. As you can imagine this one wasn't free, but it didn't break the bank either (US$11.50), the annoying thing was the lines. Unlike Europe where you have to line for something and it can sometimes take longer over there, at least you know where you stand. I had to queue in 3 different lines to get the ferry. Once there it was all worth it. I spent a good hour or two just laying on the grass reading my book. I had a great view of the New York sky line and a nice cool breeze coming off the harbor. I went for a walk around the Statue after that before making my way back to the city.

One thing that I think has been misrepresented about New York is there sub way system. The news, movies and TV shows back home make it out to be a dangerous place, somewhere to be avoided. On my first day here I did just that before realising that I will need to venture down there if I am going to see any of the city outside of Manhattan. It is clean and I always felt safe when I was using it. The ticket prices are reasonable and I am very happy with the service that I received.

I have found New York to be one of the Highlights on my trip home so far. I haven't really got into the night life as I am on my own and I think that if I did then I wouldn't have had the same experience during the day. If you can get over the heat and the concrete jungle then it is just amazing and really has to be seen with your own eyes.

The Train

What a train ride I had yesterday....

I boarded the train in Toronto at 0830 in the morning and I didn't arrive get off in New York until 2330 that evening.

It was caused by one hold up after another, the worst being an hour and a half that we spent at the Canadian / US border....

Toronto and Niagara Falls

On Wednesday morning I woke up to heavy rain. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, I thought that the CN tower was out of the question cause of the low lying cloud so that left Niagara Falls.

They do free pancakes in the morning in the hostel but as it had stopped raining by 930 I went out for a walk before the tour to Niagara Falls left (1115). The tour cost CAN$50 and it doesn't get back until about 1130 in the evening.

I was right to choose Niagara Falls (I think). I just went for a walk and I could only just see the base of the CN tower. The clouds are so low that it would just be a waste of time.

We got picked up from the Hostel at about 11am and we headed out to the Niagara region straight away. We stopped for lunch before we got there as it was going to be a bit cheaper. The first stop was NOTL (Niagara on the Lake). It was described to us as a retirement town and it lived up to that. The town center seemed very quiet (apart from the tourists) and the shops where all geared towards the older generation. I managed to find a Scotish shop that sold Irn Bru, unfortunately a 2L bottle costs CAN$8. Needless to say I left it on the shelf.

Next we headed off to do some wine tasting. It was the same as most other wineries, we had a look around, heard the story of the winery then there was a tasting. They also made a wine there that I wasn't aware of before going there. It is called Ice Wine. They pick the grapes during the winter when they are frozen. Doing this reduces the about of juice you get from each grape and hence the wine is very expensive but it is also very sweet.

Next we headed off to the whirlpool, it isn't the kind of whirlpool you would make in a pool, like in Florence for example, but a culmination of about 70 smaller whirlpools where the Niagara river takes a 90 degree turn and stirs up all the water.


After that we headed off to the Falls. From the top I was wondering what all the fuzz was about, sure they looked fairly good, but it wasn't until I was down on the Maid of the Mist that the true power of them became apparent. The boat went right into the horse-shoe falls and the sound, the height, the way it rocked the boat and just how wet we got from the spray was amazing.

We had a little free time after that to look around and get a bit of dinner before we went back to the falls for the night show. The town that has sprang up at the falls is one of the most touristey places I have been. It looked more like a carnival than a town. There where adventure rides, theme'ed restraunts, strong man competitions casinos and even haunted houses.

At night they shined coloured light on to the water and it created a great effect.

During the bus ride back to the hostel I managed to get a bit of sleep, you will all know how much trouble I have sleeping :-)

Arrival in Canada

Leaving Amsterdam I had a flybmi.com flight to London and from there I flu to Toronto. The flight was uneventful with almost no turbulence. I think one of the flight attendants took a liking to me as she kept trying to feed me booze the whole trip. It started with two Scotch's and cokes then the wine with dinner and then more after that, everyone else was lucky to get one :-) (there's nothing to worry about Gwen).

Entertainment on the plane was movies and TV shows. I didn't watch much, I mainly slept. The poker chips that I am carrying in my day pack keep setting off the airport security. So far every checkpoint has gone through my day pack after they spotted them in the X-Ray scan.

Toronto is a big new city. After traveling around Europe and the UK for so long it is almost strange to see sky scrapers, not to mention the CN Tower (the tallest free standing tower in the world).

I'm not sure what I am going to be doing tomorrow yet but I will keep you all posted.

Look after you self

The End of Amsterdam

My last few days in Amsterdam have been fairly quiet as the first few where crazy. I am on my own and that isn't as dangerous as it sounds. Believe it or not Fuzz can behave himself even with all this temptation around.

On Sunday night I was in bed by 8pm and slept till 9 the next morning. I did a bit of reading, some internet and kicked around town for most of the day on Monday before heading down to the bar for happy hour and a bite to eat. I had planned on an early night as I had a long Haul flight the next day, but isn't it funny how things like that never work out. I met up with a few of the people that where in my room and we got talking had a few beers then decided to head out. We went for a walk through the red light district then spent the rest of the night in one of the bars there before walking home at about 1am.

That night the room seemed to be warmer than it had been for the other 4 nights that I was there. By 3am I decided that I wasn't going to be able to get any sleep so I got up and went and did a bit of emailing, got some water, had a shower and then tried the sleep thing again. I managed to get a few hours.

When Pat and rest of the guys checked out they stood in line for about an hour before getting to the desk, so I had a plan to get around that. I set my alarm for 7am, got up and went and checked out. I then went back to bed for 3 hours.........

The Dam - 3rd time lucky

I arrived in Amsterdam at 1300 on Thursday (06 July) and meet Pat at the airport. After 15 months it was fantastic to see him again, unfortunately her wasn't feeling that great after a huge night in Greece the night before.

We made our way to the Hostel (Hans Brinker) which seems to have taken another step closer to being the worst hostel in the world since I last stayed there. But still it was the only place that could take all 8 of us over a weekend. Some places wouldn't let a group of guys stay there others wanted us to change rooms every day and other where just full.

Pete, Mustard and Bush arrived later that day and into the evening. After they checked in we headed out for a bit of dinner and a few beers before calling it a night.
On Friday we hired bikes and just rode the streets of Amsterdam, by far the best way to see the city. We rode through the Redlight District and then across to Vondel Park seeing as much as possible in-between. Later that night we had another few join us (Mike, Justin and Matt) and we headed out for a night in the Redlight district. After a bit of dinner we stopped in at a coffee shop and then hit a few of the pubs. We got back to the hostel at about 3am, the only thing is that Mustard had to catch an early plane, I think he left the hostel at about 5 but I didn't hear a thing.

On Saturday we had a bit of a late start but Pete and I made it to Ann Franks house. It was amazing to be in the same place that these people hid for years on end, only to be caught and killed a few months before the war ended. Truly tragic.

We then made our way over to Vondel park where Pat Pete and I spent a few hours relaxing laying on the grass in the sunshine. That night we thought to ourselves, maybe a quiet one. We went to a Mexican restraunt for dinner then for a walk that strangely enough ended up with us at a few bars in the red light district and back at the Hostel for about 4am.

Today has been spent relying whilst the other guys pack up. I am on my own from here on in all though I do hope to catch up with Pete and Mustard in Vegas.

Friday Night

On Friday night we went out for dinner at a Moroccan restraunt then headed over to Jongleurs for a comedy show.

It was my work leaving do, even though I am still working on Monday and Tuesday next week but that was the last time we would all be together as Anthony is on Holidays the next week.

The Moroccan restraunt (http://www.walimarestaurant.co.uk/) served some great food and some even better beer.

Jongleurs (http://www.jongleurs.com/clubs/edi/intro.html) was great as always. They provided us with beers in tubs of 5 although the wait at the bar was quite long the prices weren't as bad as we where expecting. There where three shows and one of them was an aussie. I think he managed to offend every lady in the place and some of the guys, but still I almost fell off my chair laughing and I had tears running down my face. By the end of he 3 acts I had laughed so hard I had a headache but still that did not stop me heading over to mood :-)

We stayed there for an hour or so before I headed home. It was a fantastic night.

Who ever read my last post and sent the Aussie couple around to rent the room and buy the TV at the same time, thanks. Infact they only came around to have a look at the room, but with my great upselling skills, by the time they had left they had taken the room and also decided to purchase the TV.
Now all I need is for them to come around on the weekend and give me the money and all will be good :-)

Don't suppose anyone wants to buy a TV or rent the room I am currently staying in?
I need to get rid of both with in a week..... Hurry up :-)

Loch Lomand

On Saturday Gwen and I where picked up by Chris and we headed out to Glasgow then Dombarton and then on to the Loch for a Booze Cruise.
It was a great day and the weather treated us so well, sunshine for most of the day and no rain, that's not to bad for western Scotland.
We stopped at a pub on one of the islands on the Loch and then off to another Island for some free shortbread.
We ended the day with a barbie back at Chris's place, and let me tell you, these Scottish need some lessons on how to cook a barbie. I eventual got hold of the tongs but nut until the damage had been done. Can you believe that they pre-cooked the meat in the oven.......

This weekend we are headed off to a boat booze cruise for one of my last weekends in Edinburgh.
We are leaving tomorrow morning after doing a few chores and returning Sunday morning.
There is still a chance the Neil might be coming back down to Edinburgh on Sunday, if so it'll be great to catch up with him, if not I'll see him in Perth when he lands.

Gwen fly's out on Monday and I am seeing her off at the airport.

iPod

This weekend I went out at got my self a 30gig iPod Video. I couldn't afford it my self but with the help of work, in the form of Ovations Vouchers that I got for doing a number of things it only ended up costing me £30 including the FM tuner and remote. Not to bad.

Germany - World Cup

I have never been a huge Soccer fan but it is hard not to get court up in it over here.
I am living in Scotland now and with the England / Scotland rivalry people here where never going to support the England Team.
The decision was made a while ago by the radio station here to support Trinidad and Tobago (TNT).
Last night they played England.
The final score was 2-0, in favor of England and we knew that the result was going to be like that before the game started. The amazing this was that it took England 83 minutes to score their first goal. TNT almost scored at half time but it knocked out. They almost scored again at the 92 minute mark, but it was ruled off side.

It was a great night at the 3 Sisters, and there is still hope, if England win 2 - 0 in their next game and if TNT win 2 - 0 then TNT will get through to the next round.

Since I last blogged, Australia beat Japan 3 - 1 in their first game of the world cup, that's huge. It was played at 2pm UK time and we only remembered at about 3.30pm that the game was on. I was at work so I logged onto the FIFA web page and brought up the realtime info on the game. It seemed that everytime the page refreshed we got another goal. It turns out that every one of our goals was scored after the 80th minute. That would have been amazing to see.

On Thursday I thought that I had the Paris fault closed, but then yesterday symptoms of the fault resurfaced and we are looking into that, what a kick in the teeth. At least I had a good weekend.

Gwen and I headed to Newcastle on Saturday where we caught up with Ant and Ian, the lads that we meet on busabout. We got a train to Newcastle in the morning and we met the boys around lunch time where they proceeded to show us around the town. It was good to have some local knowledge of the area, things like.... That's a good pub, that place sucks -you know all the important things.

The main reason that I wanted to go to Newcastle was for the beer. I have been drinking Newcastle Brown Ale for years back home so I wanted to try it in Newcastle. After the tour we went hunting for pub that sold the brown ale. It seems that it is a bit like Fosters back in Australia. We went into about 3 bars before we found any, and even then I was the only one drinking it. Gwen got a pint, but didn't like it so I helped her out with it (I'm a nice guy :-). We got a train home later on in the afternoon, all in all it was a great way to spend a day.

On Sunday we didn't to much. Walked around town (Edinburgh) a bit had a look in a few shops but not much else.

Diary

Just thought that I'd put a quick note in to say that I got my diary back. It turned up on the Busabout bus somewhere near Prague. Not to bad considering that I think I lost it in Paris.

Paris to Berlin......

Well it may be a cranking song but I am hating Paris at the moment.
At work it seems that we can't connect a VC call to Paris with out it dropping or sending corrupt data, so for the last 4 weeks I have been talking to telecommunications company's, placing test calls and trying to got the French to actually do something. It is still going on and that light at the end of the tunnel is still a long way off.
The good thing is that I know that it'll only be my problem for at most another 4 weeks, cause I have given my notice and it is exactly 4 weeks until I leave.... Whooooooo Hoooooo :-)

The Mean Machine

I watch Mean Machine on the weekend and it was great. I haven't seen that Adam Sandler movie about football with the guards, but I know that this one is better.

It wasn't a comedy and Vinnie Jones was perfect for that role. Come to think of it, he's good for any hard man role.

My Birthday / Highlands Trip

I had my birthday in the middle of our highlands trip, but I think that there was enough going on to warrant it's own Blogg entry. I got up in the morning to Gwen giving me presents (get you mind out of the gutter). I got a USA Lonely planet book and some nice aftershave as well as a IOU for a trip on the Harry Potter train, that will be great. I've been reading that book in the bookshops and I did plan on getting it before I headed off, but it's nice to have it so I can get some planning done. We headed off fairly early, at about 0810, but not before we had a Jager Bomb to get the day started. Neil and Mustard also got me a CD (MOS Annual 2006)I have been after for a while but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to listen to that before we headed off. That was all that was said about my birthday for a while, that is until we arrived at the Loch Ness where I was told by Marty (our tour guide) that as it's my birthday I have to go swimming in the Loch. After a bit of coaxing Neil and I went in for a swim, joint by another bloke from the tour Ben. It was cold, dam cold but I felt alive once I got out.

That in it's self is a great story, the water was so cold that I got pins an needles as soon as I got in and after I had been in there for about 30 seconds I was numb all over and a strange tingly feeling was creeping over me. It turned out that I could feel my feet so walking over the rocks back to shore was a bit of fun and I ended up paddling through the water until I was as close as possible before standing up. We stayed in Kyleakin for the night where went to the pub for dinner and Marty brought me over a scotch, then way the scotch drink it, straight. It was nice to start with with a honey flavor but then as you swallowed it I felt it warm up, then burn.......... :-)He also organized a song for me, the catch was that I had to sing it, so up on stage singing Down Under off my face only to be lead to the bar after that was over and fed more drinks :-)All in all it was a great night.

Easter

Hi All,

Well it is the day after Easter and all is quiet, well in my head it all seems loud after last night.
It was Marcella's birthday yesterday so Gwen and I headed over to their place for dinner then to party. It was a good night with all of us very merry and jolly by the end of the night.
I am coming to the end of my 4 day weekend now, but never fear I have another one coming up in a couple of weeks. I have taken the 28th off work for my b'day and it just so happens that the Monday after that is a public holiday as well. We (Neil, Mustard, Gwen & I) are planning to do a highlands trip over that weekend. It'll be great to get away.

At the moment I am ripping all Marcella's CD's as Dave got her an MP3 player and I volunteered to load it with her music. I am so nice.

Well that is all for now

My Brother Arriving

He landed on the morning of the 12th January 2006.
The afternoon before Mum and I had a little chat over email and realised that neither of us knew what time he arrived or what flight he was on. I called the office that he was going to be working for over here and found out that they seemed to know even less that I did. How was this possible, they where supposed to be organising his first few weeks accommodation.

I took the morning off work and headed to the airport in the morning, hoping that I hadn't missed him. He arrived not long after I got there, looking like shit. That wasn't really his fault as he had just spent about 30 hours in transit. We got the airport bus back to my place where he showered and then a taxi to his work place. I got dropped of at work and then left him to his own devices.

Mamma Mia

During the week I had an email from a mate asking me if I wanted to see Mamma Mia on the weekend (01 April 2006), I know a mate asking me to see a play full of white spandex and platform shoes.. A bit gay. But I knew this guy and we had shared a room for at least 6 months so it was all good...
As is becoming more and more normal I was running late. I was sitting at home just finishing my lunch and watching Scorpion King and I was thinking "I'll watch the end of this then do some internet and then head off to see the play". What I didn't realise was that it was 1405 and I was meant to meet outside the playhouse theater at 1410. So I ran out of the flat down the stairs and into a cab and I made it there by 1415.
The show was amazing, great music and dancing, including one show with guys in wetsuits, snorkel and fins.....
It was a story of a girl who was getting married and her search for her father. She found her Mum's diary and it could have been one of three men so she invited them all two the wedding. What followed was a singing dancing comedy where everyone ends up happy.
By the end of the show everyone was standing up and singing along to the songs. I never thought that I was much of an Abba fan but I seemed to know all the words.

It was a Stirling idea

On the 04 February 2006 Gwen, Neil, Nat, Scott and I headed to Stirling for the day. It was fairly good value with the return ticket only costing £7.40.



The low part of the trip was the castle, it was supposed to be amazing and better than the Edinburghcastlel but in myopinionn it was lacking. There was a lot of work going on there and a lot of the rooms looked new. I had trouble picturing a guy in armor walking through thecastlel or even a fight between two armies happening.





The best part of the trip, was also part of the worst, was seeing the town of Stirling covered in fog. From up in thecastlel we where above it and it looked like we where above the clouds. After thecastlel we headed back down into the town where we decided that it was getting a bit late to try and get to the Wallis monument so we went to a pub.







My brother, not liking anything with any spice decided that he wanted Nacho's but with out that stuff that makes it spice. He ended up with a plate of corn chips and cheese.

Back at it

Well I have to start doing this again, it seems that as I am working here things are very much as they would be back home. But I am wrong, back home I wouldn’t have had snow in the last month, back home I wouldn't have meet Gwen, back home my Mum wouldn't have had to come and visit me cause I would have been only a 10 min drive away.
All these things and more make it important to keep this Blogg updated. Over the next few weeks I will attempt to update it with memories, trips and stories of things that I have done since I last posted.