NOTE TO SELF-----
do not post blogs when you are still pissed, as you cannot delete them!



oh well- whats drinking for if not too embarras yourself now and then?

i have some big news that i can finally tell everyone- for legal resaon i couldnt post about it on the internet before or i would have been in BIG trouble.

at the club i work for ( it is actully split into two - one is a bar, where i work, and the other is a club)

the bar closes at 12, and the club stays open till 4 in the morning or something. Anyway- we get into the the club for free and we dont wait in line. this que jumping hapens in all the clubs in soho really, we did it at a club called "escape" last night. everyone else had to wait in the rain for hours while we walked straight in! hhahaha! lol.

the big secret is, it doesnt matter who is playing at the club- we still get in for free.

and they have just announced that Madonna is playing there on the 19th.

how cool is that! i will get to see madonna for free. in a venue that is probably about the same size as the enmore theatre.

arnt i lucky?

i mean i am not the biggist madonna fan in the world- but i dont know anyone who doesnt like at least ONE of her songs.

so that should be great fun.

not much else to report really. i have finshed my book- "Stay Alive, My Son", it was written and printed by a guy from cambodia and it is al about the time he spent there during the years that the Khmer Rouge had control of the country. it was really sad to read and it made tears well up in my eyes.

i am giving it to angela to read, and then she can pass it on to you mum.

hope everyone is well and backs a winner for the melbourne cup. am oing to try and watch the race at the "walkabout" its the aussie pubs are caled here. an aussie version of scruffy murphies i think.

:-)

love

xO

well i havebeen out fpr a few drinks after work and it si 4 am in teh morning- thought i would do a quick post so i adont hav eto tomorow..... dont ask me about the speklling- i am pissed as a fart.

:_)

update on the date-

date went well
we spent the day a the beach which is about and hour south of london on the train, it was nice.

we had fish and chips fro lunsh and the =n we had a game of putt putt golf which I WON!!!!!

buy three shiots to mind you!

anyway- her eis a picture of the "sand"at beaches in england.

yeah as you can see it wa sjust ROCKS with bits of shells.

it was th shittyist beach i have ever been too.

but in spite of that i had a really nic time.

after the bech we went back and watched a movie , "28 days later", and it is a zombie crossed with lord of the flies type movie.

the basic plot is zombies take over england and this guys has been in a coma and wakes up in central london to find it deserted.

i have NO IDEA how they emptied londno to film those scenes. NO IDEa at all. he stumbles round the city and it is just empty which is a spin out because nomatter what time of the day or night here are PLENTY of peolpe around- if you havent seen the movie SEEiT. it was grouse.

anywawy i had a great time untill my date told me that they have to fly to new york for two weeks nad then when they get back they are going on a cruise for twoo weeks with their mum, so it'll be a while before we see each ohter againand we have only really just started to get to know one another.

that is the sucky thing about being single. you meet someone you like and for some reason or anotehr it never gets the chance to take off for some shitty reason.

why did they not tell me this before?

oh well- that sthe life of a singleton i suppose.

xO

GIANT PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS EVERYWHERE.........................................................





well as i metioned on previous post- the volume of people who dwell in london is just astounding.

luckily for me i work outside of peak hour times so i miss the most of it- but you know the transport and stuff is so effiecent i dont think it would matter too much.

i am yet to wait for more than ten minutes for a bus or train. and they are all clean.

i was in the top of a double decker bus the other day and i took a snap just to show you how many people are walking around the city. keeo in mind that these photos were taken NOT in rush hour, but at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a monday.......

this next photo is one of me and the half the gang at work. the two on the left are english and they are both the rock boys i guess. they have been friends for years, the first one is lee and i forget the next ones name cause i havent worked with him much, then there is hot sexy me, then there is sylvestor who is polish, the fat chick who is looking like a stunned mullet is charlie, she is the supervisor,then there is chris who is irish, and richard without the sleeves and he is spainish.

i am of to "roachford" today.

i asked charlie where it is and she was like "what?"

and i said "roachford" ( but with my aussies accent it sounds like ROACH as in cockroach FED)

and she said "you mean roachford" (and pronounced it in her cockney accent, ROACH as in rochelle FOOD)

and i said yeah! thats it! i said it differently because i am austrailan deerrrr!

to which she replied

" yoor foookin shiten meee, yoor ooostrolion"

we both laughed and she sreamed

"YOU FLAMION GALAH!"

damn alf stewart. he has done as all in for that one!

xO

well, just about to start work in ten minutes, so i have to be really quick.

just got back from my lunch date.

how old fashioned.

it was really nice though, to do the old fashioned "meet up for lunch" thing, instead of the "get smashed at some club thing"

i think it went reallly well.

we had lunch near soho square at a little resturaunt called "the edge", and then off to a bar to have a quick pint.

i am going down to my dates place on wednesday as i have that day off and we are going to see a movie.

i cant believe this has happened so qucikly, although come to think of it, i have been single since christ,as so its been nearly ten months.

i guess i thought i would have a few holiday flings first before i met someone i like.

not that you all want to hear that but there you have it.

i am excited about it and have no one to gossip to about it here so i will have to blog about it instead.

:-)

well i am off to work with a big grin on my face now.

hope you are all well in sunny austraila.

xO

DAMN TIM BAILEY AND HIS DUMB WEATHER REPORTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!








for those of you who don't know, there are a few people in the world that just shit me to tears for no reason other than that they exist.

eg.- nicolas cage, darryl summers and tim bailey.

i hate Hate HATE tim bailey. the man drives me mad. he is like 40 and pretends that the is 21 and hip and cool and he doesnt even realise that jessica rowe and all the rest of them at channel ten news treat him like mario off the footy show.

the point of this is, the weather report.

despite the emminent threat of global warming due to the excessive amounts of greenhouse gasses we all pump in to the atmosphere everyday, the paper reads.....

"LONDON TO SEE COLDEST WINTER IN 60 YEARS"

?????

this cold snap has been waiting for me.

hibernating under the artic waiting for little owen with no blubber to keep him warm, and freeze him while he sleeps.

and although it really has nothing to do with him, i will blame tim bailey.

because maybe if he wasnt such a tosser my year in london would nt be the coldest one in living memory.

i know that my theory has its flaws, but it lets me sleep at night so dont question it- just agree.

tim bailey is a wanker.

i feel warmer already.

xO

PHOTOSHOPPING THROUGH OLD LONDON TOWN.......................................

well what is there to say?

work is work where ever you are in the world.

i will say, that has anyone who has worked in a bar with me before can tell you- i have never been too fond of our pissed pommie backpackers and i thought it was just becuase they were, you know, 'on holidays' or not used to being able to drink for soo long that they carried on like idoits.

not so.

thats just how they are.

:-)

for eg.

someone came up to the bar and barked,

"white"

?????

i'll translate that for you. "can i please have a white wine thankyou?"

having said that- the crew that i am working with are fantastic. they are all so nice and friednly and they have been showing me the sights and sounds of late night london which is great.

all the pubs shut at 12, so after work there is no such thing as 'a quiet brew'

no.no.no.

you have to go to a club. which is a bit wierd. i dont always feel like going to a loud club when i have been working my arse off. i would prefer have a few beers and a game of pool, but when in rome....

i am not complaining. the clubs around here let us in for free because of the bar we work at. how cool is that?

i was supposed to meet anglea glenn and chan today but glenn has a hangover ( as do i ) so they are going to pack for their trip to germany, and we are going to meet up tommorrow at trafalger square where they are having a special celebration thing for "the battle of trafalgar"

what ever that means.

i think that was WW2?

wasnt that the battle of briton though?

retorical question. dont answer it. i will find out tommorow.

well laura told me i wouldn't meet to many people with english accents ni london and she was right.

there area about 20 staff at work and only three or four of them are english. two ar irish, then there are poles, checks, slovaks, spainairds, itailans, aussies. (only two of us though)

i often have to get every one t o repeat what they are saying to me. and when the irish guy talks to me i am like "mate. you are talking too fast i cant understand a word you r saying. "

then he will slow downand i will say

"now your bloody mumbling."

its like his talking pidgon english or something.

we do have one guy Pedro, who was raised in portragual and he has an aussie father and he can do the best aussie accent, beside merriyl streep yelling "a dingos got my baby", i have ever heard!

well i will stop rambling on now, i am going to go back to bed and get some sleep.

good news- i survived in london on only £200. this week. i set my self that budget just to stop me buying things willy nilly and dwindling my savings away. i only paid £55 for my weeks accomadation though. it s gonna get more expensive when i have a flat. people tell me that you can room share with people but am not keen on that.

so here are some photos to show you what i am seeing everyday.

when i saw this post box i had to take a photo of it. if you look closely you can see there is too holes for the mail. not "next day delivery/express post" and then "normal post" holes.

"first class" and "second class".

if your poor use the shitty side.

i though tony the B-Liar was a labour man?

whay doesnt he fix this wording? its horrible

when i walked past this pub, i just had to take a photo of it. i pissed myslef laughing. who names their pub "spread eagle".

p.s

if you dont know what a spread eagle is, i am not telling you. ignorance is bliss. trust me!

here is the worlds end in camden town. this is where i met clare and brendon. what a cool name for a pub hey?

all of the outside (and kinda the inside as well actully) look the same. except for differnt colours. even the font of the signs are similar.

these signs were parked out of the street near downing street. i think the sign with the petrol bowzer being a gun is really witty.

this pauls cathedral i think?

it is just off the river thames, and i was huge. it is just giangantic. which reminds me- when i spoke to natasha breifly she said- "hows the volmue of people?" and she was spot on. there are so many people. the mass of people here is just insane. it doesnt matter what time of the day it is there are people everywhere. not just a few people but a shit load of people. it is all very orderly though. itsnot like a jumbled mess, they have everything worked out quite well.



this was taken walking alng the thames and as i was walking down, the leaves were falling onto the footpath like rain drops. it was very romantic looking. except, you know, i am by myself and stuff.

which reminds me- for those of you who care-

i am going on a date next week. very excited. my date works as a union rep for medical workers. isnt that cool? i dont know the offical title but i mean, when you work for the union, you cant go wrong with someone like that can you?

xO

CALLING ON THE TELEPHONE.................................



thats a blondie song, for those that dont know.....

i have had a few people saying they have bben tryong to ring me but have had trouble getting through.

my number is

07722421383

i dont know what the country code you have to put in front of that before you dial that number, you will have to ring telstra to fid out.

if you are calling from a mobile, just type in +07722421383, or wanting to text,

and it should go through straight away.

i am working in a bar at night so the best time to call me would be london time between 1pm an d 4 pm.

try and send me a text, and if i reply- call, if not- i might be in the shower or on the toilet or in the tube or any number of things that prevents telephonic communication being advisable!


today has just ben spent orgainsing my u.k bank account, and also i have to do some washing. how boring and mundane.

thats lif ethough guys isnt it?

not in thailand where i can pay someone else to do me washing for me anymore!

xO

I HEAR LONDON CALLING............

you know your in london when you see your mr.red police dr.who phone box in the street. And you defintly know you are in europe when you go inside one.

the funny thing about these phone boxes is that all up on the inside wall of them they are plastered with X-rated photos of women syaing things like "call me now, i am waiting for you". these europeans are not afraid of some raunch.

you buy the paper here and as soon as you open it up you find a great big photo of some chick with her tits out all over the place. these girls are called "page 3 girls" located, funnily enough, on page three. dont ask me why its necesary or even newsworthy to have young women flash themselves to the entire country every day, while people eat thier breakfast, but there you have it!

meanwhile, the big news in the country at the moment is... bird flu. everyone is terrifed of the impending doom that the bird flu will set upon us. it has been discovered in greece and it'll be only a matter of time before those birds migrate over here. the queen has been put first in line to get her fix of the vaccine.

bitch.

speaking of the queen, here is me in her front yard.

the palace is huge, as you would expect it to be i suppose.

dur.

i was hoping there would be those funny men in the red suits and fluffy hats, but no such luck.

so you get to now see a heap of touristy photos with me in front of them looking like an absolute dick.

this here is the famous mr. big ben. i got the photo of me in front of big ben and the london eye on the only patch of blue sky that i have seen since ariving here in england. when people tell you how damp and cold it is they are not bullshitting you!

this is piccadilly circus. when i first found air after being submersed in the tube, this is what i arose too!

this here is the giant millenium wheel/london eye. it is the biggist ferris wheel in the word. if you wanna go on it you actully have to book up to a week in advance they say!i do wanna go on it but not untill i have people to come on with me. it'd be a bit funny hoping on it by yourself!

in this photo down here i am infront of Leister Square. ilook so much like my dad in this photo ( a better looking vesion of him though of course) that it scares me!

thsi si a photo of out the front of the club i work at on old compton street. it is taken on a saturday night and the line starts up in the bottom right hand corner where the white light is, and it goes all the way around the corner on the left hand side. there was nothing special on that night or anything like danni minogue, (who i didnt get to meet by the way. :-( we were suppose to close at 12, but stayed open till 1.30 because danni didnt want to go untill she had signed everyone who was waiting in lines c.ds. the place was packed and we needed all hands on staff, which sucks) it was just a normal night. that is how busy it gets.

so that is my big giant post to make up for all the shitty ones i have done lately.

i am now satying at a hostel in Bayswater which is right next to Notting Hill, where hugh grant lives.

its a nice enough hostel. i have defintly learnt that a "full contintental breakfast" is toast, jam, butter, cereal and milk.

whoppdie do.

the wether is quite cold here already but everyone keeps telling me that is is about to get REAL cold soon. i was at the supermarket the otehr day and the check out chick said " you must be missing the weather back home now" and i said , "oh, i've only been here a week".

and she laughed and said "oh you wait! its about to get really cold soon"

it already feels like a winter. a melbourne winter, not a sydney one!

thsi week i have to get a IN number, which is like a tax file number. and also open up a bank account. which is proving to be more of a haslle than i orignially thought.

you see, you have to have a letter from your employer proving you work, then no employers will give you a job without a bank account. luckily for me i lucked out on that one, but still the bank wont let you open an account without a permanent residintal adress.

is a work in progress.

hope your all well and basking in that beautiful aussie sun.

love to you all

xO

well once again only a quick post.

last night was really busy as the bar is celebrating this week as its been open for three years.

so all drinks last night were £1.50

when i got home at about 1.30 am i had to shower so i didnt get to bed til about 2.30 and the n people in our room were up at 6.30 and then there was a fire drill at 9.30 and i missed breakfast being served so i had to buy my own.

must get up early tommorow!

tonight danni minogue comes in.

i am excited about that. all of the other guys are like "yeah, so what" cause she there all the time.

but i am excited and i dont even like her music.

i said to them, "look danni is like austraila version of princess fergie, and kylie is diana"

they already know that though i suppose!

well have to dash back off to work.

its a nice bar and very busy. it is quite the hip place to be apparently. everyone was like "why are you so special to work here when you've not been in london for a week?"

because i am the shit, i replied.

xO

will definnitly update tommorow

i promise i will because i have to get up early for breakfast!

xO

well there is angie poo, when she was leaving oz ready for europe!

and that is pretty much what she looked lik ewhen she arrived.

we had the camers out and stuff but she zipped out before we realised so we missed the kodak moment.

well i have decided that i will try and get the originla hostel in the city to give me weekly rates, and stay there because the free breakfast gets me up in the morning and also it will be close to work so i wont have to catch the tube.

it will do untill i find somewhere else where i can cook my own food. In the one i am in now, they have a kitchen and stuff and everyone has a bucket with thier name on it for thier food.

it was great to catch up with clare again, and brendon and his girlfriend jackie was there too! we did a little bit of a pub crawl, and they all gave me plenty of helpfull advice. it was a great sunday afternoon.

start work at 5pm, so i will upload some more photos today now that it seems to be functioning again! i am actully looking forward to working and meeting new people and all that. should be fun. monday noght is generally th emost quietest night of the week, but it should still be good, just to get back into some action and a routine.

love to you all!

xO

WHICH HOSTEL IS THE BEST.................



well i moved over to another hostel last night.

its further out from the city center but still in zone 1 for the underground, and its only £12 instead of £20.

but the thing is, i would have to catch the tube to work and that will cost about £5 a day any way and the other hostel included breakfast......


what do you do?

i will wait for about a month or so and then look at myabe moving in to a flat with someone!


hope your all well.


love
xO



p.s

i saw angela at the airport yesterday, and she creid when she saw glenn. even glenn got a bit tearie eyed.

i asked her if she understood how i felt at the airport when i left now and she was like "yes!"

am off to meet clare today at a pub called " the worlds end"

how cool.


xO

just found a great news item on the net...

seems america is waking up to geaorge bush...


"His poll numbers are terrible: an NBC poll put his approval rating at 39 per cent, the lowest of his presidency, and only 28 per cent of Americans believe he is taking the country in the right direction.
After Katrina, and despite eight trips to the hurricane devastated region, he has only a 2 per cent approval rating among black Americans."


hillary for 'o8?????


xO

ALL BY MYSELF....


DONT WANNA BE....ALL BY MYSELF, ANYMORE




right. i hope you all have that shit song in your head now so i dont suffer with it in my head alone.

was not going to post again untill i could put a photo up here but could not help my self.

i have had a bit of a pang of homesickness. i thought about it and it has almost been a month ny myself besides my stint with the irish girls. it felt sooo good to sit down and read some comic books in my bed and i guess that made me start to think of all the things i am used to doing at home. normally when i red my comics alex comes and jumps up and snuggles in next to me and i almost went to see where he was for a second.....


ANYWAY,
just as i have started to get the feeling 'i dont want to be alone anymore', i realised that tommorrow i am picking up angela from the airport, where i will meet up with Channie and Glenn who i havent seen in ages!

then on sunday i am going to meet up with Clare, we used to work @the sando in newtown together- we've have had some wild nights on king st in good old newtown back in the day) and she is going to show me around camden town. which i am told is the newtown of london.

then i got a phone call from Eyal who is going to come over to london later on in the week, and i havent seen him for YEARS.

So i will be overloaded with famiair faces even though i am on the other side of the globe which i s great, because i think i will really need that right now.

Some more good news- i did a resume drop today when i realised how much i have spent here in london ( also my hostel has decided to charge 20 pound a night instead of 15, becuse it is getting more full??????

bastards.

anyway i thought i would do a resume drop and then i would go and see an agency on monday about work. it has been hard trying to snap out of holiday mode, i still dont get up until about 12 o'clock ( thats bad isnt it!) i was concerned that iw ould spend all my money before i even started doing stuff.

i needent have worried my self. the first place i dropped my resume off to just called and they asked me when could i start. ( could have saved my self the bother of going to all thopse other places!)

GREAT.

i would tell you guys the name of the club but i think dad will have a coronary so i will just say its not a go-go bar but its not for the faint hearted either!

its quite abig club.

danni minouge is apearing there next saturday.

(i will make sure i ask her how kylie is doing!)

hope you are all well, and i cant wait to post some pics.
love to you all

xO

07722-421-383.

this is my new mobile number.

bang it in to your phones now!

spent the day doing not much but exploring london.

am looking to stay at another hostel, as this one is only £14, but you cant cook your own food which means it'll make it more expensive in the long run.

also, still having trouble posting pictures on the site...sorry guys!

you will get a shit load of them when i they fix the site up again!

"We apologise for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it. "



this is why i cant post any photos guys......


well i waas going to post a photo of angela about to leave everyone at the airport.

were those tears in her eyes.....?

lol

i will admit i was worried that she wouldnt hop on the plane, and was getting cold feet.

i know i was reawlly worried before leaving and iahd thoughts of "why do i wanna do this anyway? why am i not just happy beong here? why dont i just stay at home and go to uni?"

i am glad i here now.

going to get a sim card today and also try and get a job.

(went and bought some comic books today- i will now admit it, yes i have an addiction!.

love to you all.

xO

well my welcome to london was with beautiful weather, so i tired and weary owen walked the streets of london in somewhat of a daze.

i asked for directions to buckingham palace, (maybe the queen was doing the lawn mowing or something, maybe i could invite william out for a pint) and the guy was like "its a long walk from here, it'll take you about 45min"

that was fine. it gave me a chance tosee more of the city. the problem came when i got to buckingham palace. it started to drizzle.

which was fine. i thought "this must be the light drizzle they get here everyday that everyone has been tellling me about.

everyone had umbrellas handy- must be a london thing i thought.
then it started to piss down.

and i got SOAKED. even my shoes made that horrible squishy sound when i walked. urgh!

but i survived and i got back to my hostel which the lonely planet guide calls " the grooviest back packer joint in london"

all the staff have blue polo shirts on and act so friednly like their working at genmeral pants or something. gross. i hate tht fake friendlyness.

anyway they have £1 pints here everynight between 6-9pm, so ithink that should be enough to keep me around.

i am sharing a four bed dorm with two other guys. all the dorms seem to be same sex. dont know weather that is a good thing or not yet.

xO

oh.

my.

god.

i am grinning from ear to ear and i cant wipe the smile off my face.

london is everything i guess i ever imagined.

i feel like i am walking through the streets of some big movie set at fox studios or something because this place LOOKS real, and it SMELLS real, and it SOUNDS real, but it is so so far out that surely it cant be real.

i am spinning out much more than i did in thailand, because i've always wanted to be here i guess.

i found a back packing joint to stay at for tonight, but i cant check in untill 2pm. its only 11.30 now so i have some time to kill.

am going to go to see buckingham palace. (just the outside of it) and maybe ask a few pubs for a job.

(the first thing i did actully was go to a pub and ordered "a pint of your finest english lager please mate!")

i now realise that being as jet lagged as i am, maybe that wasnt the best idea.. especaily considering how tired i am. i have had about 3 hours sleep in the last 24hours. and it is not even mid day here.

i really do need some sleepbut man!

THERE ARE DOUBLE DECKER BUSES DRIVING THROUGH THE STREETS! it just doesn't seem real.

i mean..... F%$K I AM IN LONDON!

i have been on "the tube".

how funny.

oh well i better go because i want to post some photos.

i got one of me near a statue at picadilly circus but i left my usb cord in my suitcase back in the hostel.

lots of love to everyone!

i want to make some calls but i cant seem to find a pay phone anywhere here, everyone has mobiles. i thought they would still have those doctor who phone boxes but apparently not!

xO

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE..........


can anyone tell me the difference between the following....

A. the U.K
B. Great Brition
C. England



a special no-prize for who ever gets it right.

dont ask me the answer cause i have no f--king idea!

xO

EXCUSE ME, YOU DONT HAVE THE TIME DO YOU?



well. it is 3.15 pm

my flight leaves at 12.30pm.

i have yet to start packing because i have hit s slight snag.

i have no scales here. so i dont know how much to put in each bag, and how much to wear.

it is also like 30`C here and i am not putting on three pairs of jeans untill i absoultly HAVE too.

am thinking about heading to the airport maybe eariler so i can do the packing and wearing of clothes there. at least i can use the scales there and throw out :-( anything if i need too.

im not paying $188 if i dont have to and im not doing it for three shirts.

i went for a quick shop to try and get some last minute bargains. i know i havetoo m uch stuff already ( i mean really owen, did you need a dumb "von Dutch' beenie?), but i cant help buying this stuff because it is soo cheap.

i am a shopperaholic.

i blame you for this disease hailea!

oh well. wish me luck. my next post will be in london and i imaginbe there wont be quite so many once i hit the u.k



xO

IF ITS PHOTOS YOU WANT.......... THEN PHOTOS YOU"LL GET!

it seems no one really wants to listen to me ramble on with bullshit but the photos are a hit, so......i'll meet you half way and do more of pictures and try to ramble on less.

well one of the first things i have found travelling all on my lonesome is that when do stand next to some dumb tourist monument for a kodac moment, you've got no-one to take a photo of you next to it!

and i am really untrusting of strangers on the street, so its rare they'll be too many photos with me in them, so hailea- your stuck with this ugly shot of my mug in a taxi!

yeah i still havent shaved. dont nag me throug the computer guys.

well todays misson was to track down a apple store so i could find out how to transfer all the c.ds that i bought (i got about 30) on to my ipod without having to formatt my ipod first and loose all the songs on it that i already have. I am still abit "horse and cart" with my ipod skills.

so off to the Pantip Plaza.

the biggest electrical store in asia.

not just a store but a entire MALL of only electrical goods.

so as you can see from this photo, (i couldnt capture the whole mall in one shot- its just too big. this is only about one quarter of the mall), i had my work cut out for me. but i thought to myself- everyone knows "apple". this wont be that hard.

not so.

then i thought, well apples store are always very swish and they all look EXACTLY the same.

and when i found the store about an hour and a half later, i realised i was right.

this apple store looked EXACTLY like all other apple stores do.

or did.

20 years ago!!!

"lets do the time warp again" yeah kids thats right, this is what apple stores looked like in the 80's.

now that i have found the store, surely getting the right advice wont be too much harder!

:-)

i think that considering the language barrier, we did all right.

one thing about the thai peaople is - they always smile. its called the land of smiles and rightly so. i am sure that i drove the woman inside the store insane, but they always just smile and be helpful.

we got there in the end.

hurray!

after that it was off to get something to eat. i'll stick with something safe like chicken i thought.i wandered outside only to find a resaturaunt out on the street.

yeah, you see here in thailand- they'll cook you dinner while you chat in a phone box. they have a special little spot- right by the gutter where they put there garbage!

YUMMO!

yeah right. i think ill stick with me two piece feed from kfc thanks matey!

on my way home from the markets the other day i ventured on to the subway. i have to admit i was abit scared about that. i kept thinking about all the derro's on trains at home and my first day in thailand i met a girl that had had her bag snatched on the train, and the other day i met a bloke who had been pick pocketed - so i have been wary.

when i did hop on i was shocked. it was sooooo cleasn. efficent. nice. ON TIME!

polar oppisite of the city rail network at home.

so instead of fighting with the traffic which you see on this picture below......

i had the cheaper, much more luxurious space of the sky train. now if you look in the top right hand corner of the traffic photo- you see a huge concrete thing- that is the "Sky Train". it is a very cosmopolitain "metropolis/Gotham City" type of rail way that runs through the city. it is really HIGH in the sky and a bit scary to look down with my fear of hieghts and stuff but you know- you bite the bullet and do it, dont you?

this is a photo of me being a dickhead in the middle of the station. zoom up if you click on the photo and youll see it is really me.

well tommorow i get on the plane to london. i dont fly out till about 12.30 at night but thats cool because ot gives me time to get some washing done, and all that stuff.

i went and had a day spa for the reset of the day and got a haircut, manicure, pedicure, seaweed body scurb, and vitamin mineral bath so i will look HOT when i get to hit the longdon clubs. it cost i think $40. how cool. they treated me like a king.

i think i'll miss that.

xO

ONE, TWO, THREE.............................CHEESE!!

i once read somewhere, who knows where, that this traveller said he never takes photos on his journey because it makes clouds your memory with the photo, and not all of the whole experience. you know how when you look through a photo album and you se a photo and it reminds you of that day and the only thing you can really remember is the photo?

well for some reason that stuck in my head and i have tried to only take photos that i think have been worth taking.

ever since i took that photo that i showed you guys of me watching the sunrise on the islands, which i was really proud of, i have been trying to match it with every other photo i have taken.

so as a result, i havent really taken that many. a few people have been asking me for more photos and when i went through them all, i realised that i should have taken so many more.

so i have been a bit snap happy today.

hope you like them!

this is the one of the sunrise minus me. the photo isnt blurry like the one with me in it.

when we were on our way from Ko Phangyang to Phi Phi Island, this guy sat up the front of the boat and pulled his guitar out and started playing. this was the boat trip when the dolphins came up and swam with the boat and itwas really hot and a nice smooth trip, total oppisite to when i left the island!

this is just one of the islands on the way to phi phi.

these islands really are exactly everything that you'd imagine a tropical paradies to look like.

this is one of the roofs in the Wat Pho where the worlds largest reclining buddah is kept. it was really overcast and just as i arrived and went to take this photo the clouds parted a little to give me a patch of blue.

here is the touristy shot of the gold and mother of pearl ladden reclineing buddah. the budda is actully about 15meters tall.

just when you though the buddist religon was something different, something shows you otherwise.

no my friend, a church is a church.

and money is money.

the buddah and the boy

praying in the great buddah hall.

these little tackers were playing checkers with pieces of fruit that had fallen off the tree above them. the ripe ones were orange and the unripened ones were green.

no gameboys here kids!

you make do with what you've got.

well only two more sleeps in bangkok left. my flight to london leaves at half past midnight on the 11th.

going to catch up on some gift shopping and then try and see if it is possible to wear 15 kilos of clothes!

if there is a will, there is a way!

xO

went to see a go-go show last night.

a go-go show is like a cross between a carnival freakshow and stripshow.

i dont think i really have to add anything else to this post do i? everybody has heard the stories of what goes on in there.

a trip to thailand is not complete without a visit to one of these clubs.

what a eye opener!


xO

just a quick note....

some background info on the chatachuk markets..

the biggest out door market in the world with over 9,000 stalls.

can have up to 20,000 people visit on a average day.

it was like walking through town hall station at PEAK hour in 34 degree heat ALL DAY!

and stupid me wore jeans( you have to be carefull of pick pockets and in my jeans my wallet feels safest.)

by the end of the day i was just starting to get really agitated and had to high tail it out of there!

TODAY I WENT TO THE ZOO-oops-I MEAN THE MARKET!

today i went to one of the biggest markets in asia called the "chatuchak" or 'weekend markets' here in bangkok.

i dont think there was anything there that you couldnt buy. it was insane.

there were dogs. cats. guinea pigs. chickens. ducks. parrots. sea snakes. normal snakes. turtles. albino turtles. tortises. porcupines. hamsters. stingrays. scorpians. spiders.

i felt really bad when i saw the animals they had for sale. None of them had water and they were all pantng, and cramped and overcrowed in thier cages.

the first photo is of baby rabbits in little bird cages. no water. no food. i promise you that some of them would have not made it through the day i am sure of it.

the next photo is of these squirrels. they were mostly in cages too but lots of them with soft ropes around their necks on top of the cages so you could pat them. they were really cute and grow up to be about the size of a chiauhau.

the last photo here is of some of the birds. it looks like these guys here are fresh out of the egg. there were birds of every shape and size. they even had two babie cockatoos god know show they scammed them into the country.

they also had every dog you could think of. huskies. chihuahuas. pug dogs. labradors. cockaspaniel. poodles. heaps of shi-tzu maltese.

i asked how much for the little chihuahua and he said 3,000B which is about $90.

of course i didnt buy it. but i do think that the animals we had at pets world in sydney were living a life of luxury. peolpe were buying the puppies and it made me think- the only pet dogs i have seen people have here are puppies. all the adult dogs are strays. i think we all know what happens to them once they are no longer cute little babies which is really sad.

there is not much you can do to stop it really other than not buy the animals.

aNyWaY!!!

i did buy one thing.

a piar of Lee jeans.

i know, i know. why am i buying more clothes when i have too many with me as it is?

well they were size 28 (a rare find) and i have ALWAYS wanted a pair but couldnt justify paying $250 for them. so i tried them on (just to see what they looked like) and then i thought ' if i cant bargain him down to 500B i am not buying them.

and so i think i have discovered the secret to bartering, and here is the big tip-

pretend you dont really like it.

if you act excited than they charge you more. if act all nochalant, they know they will have to offer you a bargain to make the sale.

i acted all casual like i didnt really like them and gave them back to him and said ' no i dont want them, how much are they?'

and he was 1,000B.

and i went " yeah look i dont really like them. sorry" and so he was all eager to drop the price and said "800B"

and i went and perked up a little bit and went " ummmmmmm" pretending i was considering it. and then went "no. no too expensive and i dont really like them."

then he said "how much you pay for them"

and i said "400B?"

he looked pained, like as if i had just whacked him in the stomache.

"600B" he pleaded.

"500B"

DEAL!

i think i have the knack of it.

i am only getting air conditioned taxis now. and i refuse to let them barter a price before i get in. i just say "no. we put the meter on." sometimes they whine a little first, but usaully they say o.k

if you ask for the meter they think you've been here for a while and know where you are going. even if they do drive you the long way it is ALWAYS cheaper then the original barter price.

hope your all well.

when i get to london i am going to try and find a job straight away. adam has moved into his boyfriends house so i wont be able to share a flat with him now. Oh well. i will meet more people if i am in backpacking places anyway.

so i will try and make it in brighton england first and if it all falls flat on my face go up to scotland after that.

xO

SCREW YOU DAD, IM GOING TO JOIN THE CIRCUS...................









well as i am sure i have said previously, i see something that spins me out everyday.

today i went to the airport to try and sort out this luggage stuff. (more on that in a minute)

i was in a taxi when the driver started saying "trunk! trunk!" , and i was thinking what you'd expect i was.... "what is he going on about....'
then ofcourse i see a baby elephant on the back of a ute, speeding down the highway.

now shit me you sure dont dont see that everyday!

on a side note- we were doing 130/km weaving and zigg zagging through the traffic when i saw a speed sign that said 8o/km and i was like "slow slow!" and the driver didnt understand why i was worried. i made hand actions and said "it makes my heart go BUMP BUMp BUMP! too fast!" then he understood and apologised. the thai are really friendly people.

he drove very carefully after that.

so back to my over luggage deliemma. it seems that it will cost me about $188. to send a 10kilo suitcase as unattended baggage. so all i have to do is' weigh' up wether i can fit more than $188 worth of luggage in that extra suitcase. judgeing by how cheap clothes are here, im thinking yes. the big thing is they charge you about $100 to send anything as unattended baggage. so really after that intial fee it is cheap. that is, if you are sending a heap of stuff. but not the case if you are only sending a little bit.

i was thinking of ( well i will be doing this) wearing as many items of clothing as i can. i will put on ten shirts and three jeans and two jackets. i will probably freak out the other passengers and i imagine definitly attract hte attion of security but as long as i dont have to throw anything out its all good. i will be there for 12 months so i think i should take as much as possible.

i am heading off to the huge markets that they have here in bangkok tommorow to try and get me some bargains.

hope you all well.

xO

LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION!!!!!

well i had my first celebrity sighting last night.

as i was meandering down Kao Sarn Road, i saw this mob of people with their moblie phones out and they were all in a swarm.

curious, i went in for a look only to see a pretty girl with a blue shirt and jeans, flanked by security and police.

she wasnt anyone familar but i did she her face recently- then it clicked- she was in the paper this morning visiting sick kids with aids in hospital.

it was none other than Miss Universe! not the aussie one jennifer hawkins but the new canadian one.

she didnt look like special. i wasnt like "OH MY GOD THAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!!"

she looked just like any other pretty girl wlaking the streets except she was being mobbed by hundreads of people.

i am above all that of course. NOT. i pushed my way to the front and i think i was th eonly english speaking person there so i said something stupid like "how do you like thailand?" and she was like " its great. its mad"

tthen the security huddles around her and off she went into macdonalds.

the rest of my night was otherwise spent haggling and dealing trying to get good prices on clothes. i only bought a few. i am sticking to my 1,000B a day $$$$$ limit.

love to you all.
xO



p.s

thanks everyone who has been leaving messages on my post.
please do so because it makes me know that you are all reading it. its espeacially cool when people i havent seen in a while leave them too.

love the long hair pinko!

"the gift Bangkok offers me is the assuance i will never be bored"- William Warren

well.

this is my room that i am staying in in bangkok. i was trying to think of a way to describe it and all i can think of is- jail cell!

i had my back against the wall to try and capture it all in the photo.

we have acess to communal showers (no hot water ) and toilets and the room has a fan but i am too scared to use it because it looks like its going to fall off!

i have just got back from the travel agents around here and it looks like it will caost me an exorberant amount to go to china.

it will cost 20,000B to get a return flight to beijing and i would only be able to stay there for two nights. it will cost around 7,000B to do the same with hong kong. veitnam is slight ly cheaper but if i inkclude the cost of my same day visa, it works out about the same.

that is too much money for too little time.

Am i upset that i wont get to see china?


yeah. i'd be lying if i said otherwise.


but the positives of it are this-

when i get to china, i will be able to do it properly and not in a mad rush.

i get more time to properly explore thailand, i mean , i havent even seen a temple yet!

this means i will have almost DOUBLE the amount of money in my pocket when i get too london.

so those are two pretty good reason i think, to wait untill my way back.

also, in the u.k, ALL the tax i pay will be reutrned to me when i leave the airport, so i will have heaps more money to spend on the way back with out having to worry too much about saving while i am there. ( i will still save- so dont nag me)

anyway, i am not going to be sitting back whinging about anything at all. this city is every inch the crowded, polluted, exasperating explotive and steamy asian metroplois you have heard it is and i intend to take full advange of it!

THE PERFECT STORM....................................










the boat trip TO phi phi island was idealic.

the sun was shining.

we bathed in its warm glow.

a group of dolphins came and started swimming around the boat and jumping out of the water showing off to us.

it was like out of a movie. i swear you could not have made a better scene if you were monet.

then, there was my trip OUT of phi phi by myself.

first- they couldn't take the ferry after we had all loaded onto it because it was too windy.
second- the boat they put us on was already full of passengers so it was now obvoiusly overloaded.

third- the sea was so rough.

oh. my. god.

i will NEVER complain about the ferry trip to manly from circular quay EVER again.

it wasn't just me that was terrified- there were woman crying. the sea was lapping up onto the boat were i was sitting.

if i wasnt holding onto the railing i could have easily been swept off i reckon.

i even started looking to see which island was closer in case i did need to swim.

but alas, i survived.

when i got to bangkok airport the airline shops were all shut- so i probably would have been better off just catching the night bus from phuket to bangkok instead of flying and saved money on accomadation because i could have slept on the bus.

once again, i live and learn!

i am staying at Kao Sarn Road. i took a picture of my room and i will upload it in the morning. it has a fan but it feels like it about to fall off so i am too scared to use it! the room only cost 130B (about $3) so i shouldnt really complain! i mean , what do you expect!
:-)

will try and see how cheap a flight i can get to china first thing in the morning.

love
xO

TO DEPART BRINGS SUCH SWEET SORROW.....


am about to leave phi phi island and boat it over to phuket to catch a plane back to bangkok. not looking forward to that.

when i arrive at the airport am looking to try and get cheap flights to china.

will update soon as i know where i will be!


Ah! the joy of travel.

p.s
i have attached a map of thailand so you can see all the islands i have been talking about.



xO

A THAI BOX HERE, A THAI BOX THERE........


last night we went to see some thai boxing. when we hopped on the back of the ute to head over to see where it was these candians caught the taxi too and told us that the thai boxing they saw was obviously staged and fake like wrestling.

so after we got there i was thinking "god i really wished he didn't tell me that."


then the second fight came on and i tell you what- if they are faking it then they deserve bloody oscars! there was blood and spit and they were nearly falling out of the ring. (as you can see from the photos we were pretty close!)

the thai locals were screaming and really getting into it as well.

the best thing about the whole night was easily when this one guy who was really buff and had all these tatts, beat the shit out of this guy who was like my size, and when the fight finished, he got down on his knees in front of the bloke with blood all coming out of him and bowed down at his feet and almost like kissed his feet twice and then got up and hugged him. and not like a piss weak man-hug. he really HUGGGED him. it was so nice to see REAL sportmans ship.

you could tell that although he had just beaten him sensless, that if they were all at the pub drinking and someone hassled the guy for losing, the one that beat him would have been the first guy over there to defend him. it was really nice.


there were two soldiers killed in the south of thailand the other day, and then i went over to ko phangan, Now we are back in the southern islands and there has been a bombing in bali again.

we are in Phi Phi island and it is still being reconstructed. it is easily the most beautiful island i have ever seen, and they are really doing there bit to rebuild after the tsnaumi.

if you ask the locals no-one will admit where the tsnaumi hit. they will say "oh no, not here over there..." they only see it as a negative thing that has kept people away. (although in phuket they did have tsnaumi post cards ??????)


missing everyone heaps and heaps. am going to look into maybe pushing my flight back half a week or so because i want some tim eto explore this island before i go to china. if i cant push my ticket back i am heading off to china tommmorow...

xO