London to Newquay

After enduring a 15 minute phone call with a painful echo that went something along the lines of

"Ask him for his departure station"
"What is your departure station"
"Ask him which day he wishes to depart"
"Which day do you wish to depart"
"Ask him what time he wants to depart"
"What time would you like to depart"
"Ask him where he wants to go"
"Where would you like.........

and so on and so forth for EVERY possible detail of the trip. Thorough yes, required.... not really. I suppose I was a little annoyed because I had already been through this with the online booking system 5 times only to find that at the last stage the system could not book the tickets because of 1 of 17 possible errors with the site.

Hmmmmm, helpful? I think not.

The reason all these questions weren't required was based on the fact that I had completed this 5 times already and new the exact departure time place, arrival time, connecting stations and even the name of the driver for the trip..... and I explained all of these things as soon as the first question was asked.

But the guy was new and I suppose he had to learn how to cover all the bases at some stage, not everyone would be calling up thinking they know everything about a trip.

The good news is that I'm booked in and am finally going to make it over to Newquay for the weekend where I'll catch up with the boys and get some more filming done.

I arrive on the Friday night and I'm not due to head off until Monday afternoon so there's plenty of time to get all the shots and make sure that I kick up my feet and relax in one of the laziest towns in the UK.

Happy New Years 2008

Happy New Years!

I was just going to leave this post at that first line, but I figured seeing as we're all reigning in a new year something more probably should be said of the situation.

It's about 11.15 New Years Eve and I've just convinced my gorgeous house mate Sarah (who is single by the way.... but you'd better be nice to her because I'm kind of protective) that I'm not going to head out tonight for the celebratory fun.

I wonder why that is though?

Why this year of all years should I not head out for a big night?

I've been telling everyone it is because I've been sick over the Christmas break and that another good nights sleep and a lazy day in bed will do me wonders to get back on top of things again. Of course, the other way of looking at it could be a social night out bathed in the warm glow of fireworks amongst the happy reveling crowds which could spark the life back in to me. But of course there's the risk of being out till 5pm tomorrow afternoon still drinking at a big New Years Day recovery session (how good was the cav that year!)

I'm definitely close to booking another trip over to Ireland for a few days this time with the two surfing maestro's which will be long stints on or near water in freezing conditions, so I want to be fully fit for that when it occurs. Could that be it as well?

I shouldn't forget either that 12 months earlier we were all struggling to keep our eyes open in Torquay at the house. It wasn't until we started up a game of taboo between the sexes at the back table we were able to make it through to till the am (although me and the rest of the boys still think the girls were cheating, there's no other reason why they could have possibly won by that margin).

This year New Years Eve falls on the biggest year of my life to date. I've seen more of the world, learnt more about other cultures and myself, and have made more friends and close family then I ever thought was possible.

New Years Eve is a night to celebrate the past year, be thankful for what you've accomplished and look forward to new beginnings. The strange thing is that while I have been travellling just about every day has had that outlook.

In the end I think it is a culmination of all these things which have kept me quiet for this new years...............and I couldn't be more happy than this if I tried.

So from me, thank you to everyone that helped me out in 2007! You know exactly who you are, and I thank you thank you thank you! With out you there is no way that I would be at this situation right now (and that's a good thing).

It's now 11.51 (see, it might not seem like it sometimes but I do actually put some thought into these posts) and I'm about to flick the light off. I'm sure my house mates will be in to wake me when they get back, but for now another BIG ..........


!!!!!!!!!HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

London Photo Walk

On Saturday I caught up with Toni Louise for a wander around London to take some quick snaps of the place.

We decided to meet at St Pauls and I was disappointed to find the apostrophe cafe had closed down for good. This was the cafe that I spent about 3 hours every day for a few weeks surfing the internet and sipping coffee while gazing out the window at the passers by and St Pauls.

It's where Jusso and I made the plans for the reunion, booked flights and train tickets and secured couches to stay on.

It's where Lana and I sent out numerous emails for modelling jobs, and where I found my job at Squiz on Gumtree.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end.

We met up just before sunset and raced to Millennium Bridge in just enough time to catch what was a pretty amazing sunset....... for anyones standards.

From there we just roamed around and took photos where we saw the occasion. We eventually found ourselves at www.gordonswinebar.com and had a glass each of house (big spenders). A couple was kind enough to let us sit at the end of the table, and when the waiter came to take away their left over platter they offered it to us.

4 whole pieces of cheese and a french loaf. Hmmmm, should we be posh and let it go, or backpackerish and eat the lot.

All I can say is that was some damn fine cheese.

The Thames from Millennium Bridge at Sunset

Moon through the winter shredded tree's down by Embankment on the water

"Don't leave the path" from An American Warewolf in London came to mind while I was walking through thick fog in the park on the way home.

Candle lit Wine and Cheese at Gordon's Wine Bar

Just looked kind of cool

Best laid plans of mice and men................

I swear this time I didn't even utter the words "nothing could possibly go wrong".

I suppose when you look at it nothing actually went wrong, it just never happened.

Today started really well too. I was up late putting a project plan together to send a client first thing this morning. I probably could have got away with an bit of an earlier night, but I filled the work in with quick chit chat with Maddy as we shared stories about our past.

And when I woke up this morning! You know those mornings when you wake up before your alarm and you're already wide awake and ready to tackle the world, well it was one of those mornings.

All my clothes had dried over night and were ready to stuff into my bag, the camera battery was charged and I remembered to put it back in the camera before packing it, I even remembered to pack my toothbrush and passport. (although I left my england to aussie electric convertor for the laptop, lucky there's 3 other aussies at work).

I got to work and had a great breakfast, the client was really happy with the project plan and things were going great guns. I had a great lunch and an offsite meeting went quickly and with purpose.

The boss put on christmas carrols, food, champe's and beer for everyone and I got my train in time to the City Airport (my favourite airport in the UK).

I got off the train at the right stop and saw the line of people with luggage coming out of the doors. I looked to see airline tags on the bags and realised that the luggage carriage was broken again (last time I had to line up for 40 minutes to put my luggage on the flight).

Fortunately this time I only had a carry on bag! No line for ME!!!!!

I touched the screen to start the automated ticketing system and entered all the details, but it said it couldn't process the ticket at that time and to line up. Pigs arse, you should see the line!!!! I tried again with the same result....... As I went to attempt it a 3rd time I started listening to the very cute French girl explaining that a flight was cancelled.

Hope it wasn't my flight she was talking about.

Fortunately it was the flight to Berlin.

When I glanced up to the monitors I could certainly see that Berlin was cancelled. As was Frankfurt, Belfast, Munich, and every single other flight that was departing City Airport.

Due to bad weather they had grounded all the planes. Bad weather! It was a bit of fog. I'd have flown. Todd would have flown.

I made my few phone calls to tell Chani and Phil the bad news then worked out that I couldn't get a refund, but I could book another ticket for another time.

I'm now on the way back to work where there's still beers in the fridge to post this, have a few beers and head back to have a few quiet bevies an a bit more of a catch up with my new house mates.

Dublin for the Weekend

It's on again. I'm flying out tonight via the best airport in the UK, city airport, and getting into Dublin around 9.30

This is not a filming weekend though, my partners in crime are Miss Chani Mortimer and Mr Phillip O'Donnell.

There's sure to be many a pint past my lips and many an old story retold in the pubs or Ireland. I'm sure one or two new stories will be cropping up as well.

My first football game

Yep, I did it.

I called it football, not soccer. Un-Australian maybe, but both teams had aussies playing for them and by the end of the night rol's and I were insistent on standing up for West Ham rather then turning cheek.

The night started off as well as I could have hoped. Dave and his girlfriend Susan organised some Carling Cup tickets for myself and Rol's, West Ham United Vs Everton in the Quarter Final at West Ham's home ground of Upton Park.

We met at the Upton Park tube stop and wandered up the road in the freezing cold winter wind in search of some Hammers merchandise, a warm pub and dare I say it, a warm beer! (it was that cold).

I picked up a beanie and a scarf and we all picked up a couple of beers around the corner from the ground. We tried to get into the popular Hammers bar, but it was popular and 6 deep at the bar so we ducked around the corner to somewhere less busy.

It wasn't long before we were through the first two beers and looking to head over to the ground to watch the game, but not before the was a bit of a scuffle in one of the other rooms in the bar which saw a bunch of young fella's come running into our section and quickly removing scarfs and beanies to, I guess, become less recognisable. The police told them to cross the road and keep there heads down and they should be fine.

I'd hate it if a police officer told me I "should" be fine.

That's right, I'm a card holder now

We wandered over to the ground, found our enterance and seats just in time to cheer the hammers running out onto the pitch and to start my first rendition of "Blowing Bulles", which pretty much consisted of me singing "Blowing bubbles in the air" at the end.

Upton Park

The beginning of the game couldn't have started any better with Cole taking random lob into the box on his chest, turning to beat the keeper and slotting it into the back of the net. That saw me jump to my feet and scream out with nearly as much passion as I would for a Glen McGrath LBW shout to remove Tendulkar for a duck.

Celebrations after Cole's Goal

That was it. West Ham seemed to just give up as Everton out played them for the remainder of the half and were unlucky to only get an equaliser.

Half time saw me desperately lining up in the loo's to relieve a pint of water and two pints of beer........ and then desperately trying to race the girl in the line next to me to order the last two pies.

There were ups and downs in those races, and in the end if I had to lose one of them I'm glad it was for the pie.

Roland and I settled for a couple of hot dogs and half a pizza each, and of course a beer to wash it down. We looked around and couldn't help but smile at the........ lets call it the variety of fans that flooded the outer halls at half time.

Now I've been in the outer at the MCG on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Ashes test, but it wasn't as mad packed as the isles during half time at this game.

We made it back to the seats, and fortunately West Ham made it back into the game even though the Ref was doing everything in his power to keep them well out of it.

Unfortunately a simple mistake by the keeper and defender allowed Everton to put away the easiest of winning goals in the 88th minute which then lead to half the crowed leaving the ground.

We walked out on the losing side, but it was an awesome experience to be cheering on the home team in such a great stadium, with such great seats.

We were going to head straight back to the tube, but seeing as there was a pub right outside the tube stop it would have been stupid for us not to at least stop for one beer. While we were in the pub there were a couple of girls walking around trying to flog off pirate dvd's for £2 a piece. We laughed as the guys next to us bought a couple, and then jokingly said where are the stick flicks.

Well apparently they weren't joking as the girls reached into their bags to produce twice as many dvd's with such great titles as "Cliff Banger" "Butt Bandits VII" and numerous others. After much, much laughing at the situation, and at the guys saying if they had a DVD player they would have bought the lot, we wandered onto the tube for the trip home.

Normally stories would do well to end here, but fortunately Roland and I decided to make more of night for it.

We sat on the train with plans to head back to London Bridge and then onto the Norther Line back SW. We sat near three other guys and one of them soon brought up West Ham (we were still wearing West Ham Beanie's and Scarfs) and how Lukas Neil wasn't as good as Tim Cahill.

Initially we thought they were West Ham fans and were saying as Australian's Cahill was better, but we soon found out that they were in fact Everton fans hell bent on stirring up trouble. They pinched the beanies off our head and made a quick game of keep it off us before we took them back off them.

It would have been wise to put them away, but at that stage I'd be damned if I was going to hide the team I supported (having seen all of one live game..... idiot).

Most of it was banter, with the 3 of them trying to chant us off the train at each stop, but it could have gone pear shaped on a couple of occasions..... like when we found out that they were Everton supporters and Roland told them they were a long way from Liverpool, they pointed out we were a long way from Australia. Fair call really.

Another time may have been when one of the guys said my west ham gear would look better laid out on the ground at the next tube station, and I mentioned that he would look better in a similar situation.

And finally, when we suggested that they were either too poor to afford, or too scared to show their true support for their team by not wearing anything that represented Everton.

Seems silly now, but at the time we may as well have been life long West Ham supporters and weren't budging a bit.

I had to laugh though, we'd actually got onto the wrong tube and weren't heading for London Bridge at all, so we wouldn't have been in the situation to begin with. And to compound my laughter we could have got off at Moorgate but it was during one of their chants to get us off the train, and even though it was our stop we didn't want to give them the satisfaction of thinking they'd won (they'd already beaten us at the game, couldn't give it to them twice).

All in all it was an awesome night, especially seeing as we stayed out of trouble and got to cheer west ham for 88 minutes of the game.

Come on you Hammers!!!!!

Surfing Vs Working

It doesn't seem like much of a contest but the last few weeks Surfing has been give a huge touch up.

I draw the line today though, after I got an email from Mum asking why I haven't been keeping this updated. I thought I moved out of home 7 years ago to stop the nagging (only joking mum).

I do have a bit of tale to tell, but unfortunately long hours spent in front of the computer for work make me less inclined to spend much time in front of it out of hours. However, I do believe last wednesday's nights trip out to Upton Park to watch the Hammers is more then worth a few minutes of key stroking.

So don't loose hart, that story and more (a trip to Ireland this weekend included) will be coming up shortly.