Round the World in 301 Days

Full Circle.

cjmurdoch — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:45:00 GMT

Having just spent an amazing fortnight in New York its hard to imagine going home. It is made a lot easier, mind you, by the fact that im in the departures lounge of Newark Airport about to fly to Stockholm in the middle of an American snowstorm. It feels like the tone has been set, and the tone is Bleak with a capital B. I was fairly sure that my Christmas prayers had been answered and that our flight would be delayed a few days to further enjoy the NY way of life, but it seems that although several inches of snow have fallen since I woke, its not going to be enough to postpone the inevitable.. the end of the road has arrived. As though it were meant to be I just visited the ATM and, after dispensing me just $20, it told me not to visit it again as I dont have a penny to my name. Time to go home after all.

When we arrived in New York from Boston we were both full of the obvious excitement that goes hand in hand with visiting such a massive city and as it turned out we werent to be disappointed. I thought we'd be busy for a few days and then spend about a week wandering around wondering what to do with ourselves but im sure we could have spend a month in the city and still have barely scratched the surface, though I feel like we did see everything we set out to and more. We had a trip up the Empire State, a stop off at the Statue of Liberty, we went to Staten Island, saw the Yankee Stadium, watched skaters at the Rockerfeller Center, visited Grenwich Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, Christmas Markets galore and shopped ourselves penniless, ate in 462,000 restaurants including the Carnegie Deli and a pizza place selling the “Best Pizza in New York” (who displayed their certificate from the city with pride), drank in a few bars, strolled through and took hundreds of pictures of Central Park, turned 25, rode the Subway like locals, avoided getting robbed or mugged a single time, got lost, got found, and visited neighbouring state New Jersey to stay with friends and perform Karaoke in the local establishments. All this in no particular order, but all equally fun.

There was a lot of wandering around as predicted, but NY at this time of year is so colourful and distracting that time flies. We stayed in a couple of nice places and met a few nice travellers but the stars of this leg of the trip have been, without doubt, the Americans. As far as I was aware Americans were a loud, obnoxious bunch of louts with no manners and a national weight problem. None of this, in my experience, has been true. Whether people smelt our money and were therefore polite to us, or whether people keep it down for the benefit of us tourists, or whether the fatties just kept to themselves indoors in the suburbs, I dont care. The States I saw were great and, hard though it is for me to do, I give America top marks. 10/10 America, Well Done... This being the case though, has made it harder than ever to accept the fact that the trip is over and that, in about 9 hours, we'll be home, in our apartment, unpacking.

Must... Be... Strong.

I guess, then, that this is it for the diary. I look forward to reading it, as ive only ever written these updates then posted them online. I havent a clue what I wrote at the beginning of the trip but I imagine I wrote in a lot more detail and complained less, though I find this hard to belive.

Its snowing again, and other flights are being delayed by up to an hour. All that would do for me is to cause me to miss my connection. Unbelieveable!! Im off to check whats what.

************************************************************************

Home at last. As it turned out our flight sat on the runway for 3 hours before taking off as the airport closed during our boarding. This meant that we missed our connecting flight and had to spend hours in the airport loitering with intent to travel. We were put on standby and told to hang around and hope several people didnt show up as the flight was, naturally, overbooked, and there was nothing they could do other than tell us to wait or book us on to a flight the following day at great expense. Fortunately, just the right number of people never showed up, which is handy because I would have sat in the airport until April if it meant not paying again. We got the last 2 seats on the entire plane. Phew...

Many hugs and smiles at the airport, and it was all over.

Just got Christmas to overcome now, then things can really get back to normal!

Bye All.

Post Vegas

cjmurdoch — Sun, 7 Dec 2008 07:41:00 GMT

Youll notice that, despite my promises of frequent updates and my 'staying on top of it' attitude, ive been rubbish. In keeping with that, and until i find time and a thesaurus with enough alternatives for the word "magnificent", im just going to write an update that misses out the last few weeks of my trip.

Here seems as good a spot as any.

We found ourselves in Vegas airport after a night of drug dealer dodging and booze-fuelled gambling in the oldest and most questionable area of Sin City. Having booked cheap last minute flights out of town to the cheapest and most easterly destination we could find, we had our tickets in hand for Toronto and were feeling very pleased that we'd made it to the airport with everything we arrived in Vegas with, and even a little more. By which i ofcourse mean inches on the waist, and not money won - oh no no. Our tickets, had we bothered to look at them in any detail, were marked with 4 large "SSSS" markings right down the middle, and upon going through security we were advised that we were to be the subject of a serious security search and could we kindly follow the officer who had been summoned to watch over us with one hand resting eagerly on the butt of his gun. We were taken from the que of other passengers down a little glass tunnel and into our own security screening area where we were placed, one at a time, into a giant wet'n'dry vaccum. After a quick 10 secong blasting each in the chamber we were told that it was shoes off time. Through the metal detector that neither of us beeped in we went, and thank God too, as im fairly certain had either of us even given a slightly metallic look towards anything alarms would have sounded and the machine, clearly set to terrorist mode, would have alerted the entire airport security team to descent upon us and strip search us where we lay, after the beating and indiscriminate bludgeoning had subsided. As it was, no beeping. Then off to have someone unpack our bags and swab each item all over with little round pads that were then fed into a machine which hummed and hawwed and tried to determine what sorts of explosives we were carrying that they could shoot us for. Luckily, several hundred swabs later, each, we were free to shuffle guiltily off and repack our things whilst recieving suspicious glances from all the other people who hadnt been smuggled away down the tunnel.

But it was to be that, after having it proved to us that America is as free from terror as the sea is free from salt, we were in Canada, and it was good and cold. We'd been in shorts and t-shirts for a couple of months so it felt good to throw all that stuff away, literally, and get the trousers on and buy the little things you forget youll need mid winter... jackets, gloves, hats, scarves, thermals and winter boots. Toronto is a great little place, with everything you will want to see as a tourist within walking distance. We stayed in Chinatown in what the hostel site we booked it on called "a small friendly hostel with great friendly staff and friendly wooden floors". Clearly the reason we chose it wasnt for its amenities or its amazing sales pitch, but fot the fact that it was the cheapest hostel in the country, and it was easy to see why. After 10 minutes of ringing the doorbell of the council house that the hostel turned out to be, the door was answered by a chinese man in his 100's who we were told was the building manager. Not one single solitary word of english did he speak either, so after a conversation with his nephew over the phone we were shown to our room. Amazing. The toilet cubicle in the local pub was bigger. Infact, the only way to get a bed into the little cupboard that was to be our room for 2 nights must have been to build the walls around it. The room was exactly matress wide. Exactly. Still, we were in chinatown so the food was awesome everywhere we went and once we got out exploring we had a blast. A few days exploring in the cold was plenty though, so being as we were in the neighbourhood, off we went to Niagara, ON(Ontario), home to the mighty falls.

With glorious weather and crisp, fresh air we strolled around a town that seemed to be deserted. We enjoyed the falls, which i though to be in the middle of nowhere but are infact in the middle of a city, poked around a bit, and looked over the river to America where Niagara, NY(New York), looked to be about as exciting. We visited a chocolate factory and ate dinner in a Planet Hollywood restaurant in which we were the only guests. It was fairly creepy at times. The restaurant could have seated about 300 people, the bars we were in were massive and deserted and there were stalls and outdoor shops that looked like someone had forgotten to show up for work that morning, but were obviously closed for the winter, judging by the number of absent minded employees it would have taken for this to be the case. Very nice place though, lots of photos.

From there to Buffalo, NY. Back into America with barely a sideways glance this time, and smack bang into a city that seemed to be a ghetto from end to end. Dont go to Buffalo. One cup of coffee and a quick internet ticket purchase later, and we were off to Boston on the first thing moving. Dont go to Buffalo.

Boston is clean, friendly, and small like Edinburgh is small when compared with Glasgow. You can walk everywhere, and we have been. Our first day we went to the "Cheers" pubs. The first bar, the one which gave them the idea for Cheers style and the one they used the exterior for on the show, did us a great lunch and some beer in Cheers glasses that i was allowed to keep!! Hurrah! The second one, which is a replica of the bar television set which they used to film the show in LA, did us more beer in regular glasses but we got to sit in Norms chair and call each other Norm, so i was delighted. Photos galore. Yesterday we did some more shopping for christmas and got the lay of the land - Boston is truly easly to navigate. Today we explored more, took in some history and more good food and met up with Jay, a friend whos coming to Scotland in January to visit. He's a Boston local so he took us to little Italy and showed us a good time. We went to a great little Italian and ate like kings, then to a famous bakery for Canolis. These are like cream filled brandy snaps, but instead of a brandy snap its more like hard pastry. I had a cookie, no Canoli for me. We took them to a cafe next door where coffee was had and cake was eaten, until it was time for a night cap. Downstairs from the bakery and the cafe is a dark little cigar bar with menus of different smokes and a good range of whiskies. I enjoyed an Aberlour 12 while wrestling with a truly enormous 1983 El Fuego something-or-other Cigar in the most eye wateringly smoky room in the whole world. Brilliant. Tonight was brilliant. Ill have to throw away everything i was wearing and shave my hair to get rid of the smell, but it will be a small price to pay for such a great experience. And now its 2am, and tomorrow i have to go and poke around Harvard and MIT Universities, so its time to sleep.

Ill get our tales of Vegas written up eventually, but so much happened over those 2 weeks that it seems like an insurmountable task to ever have to begin. I will get it done though, as i worry if i dont write things down, then ill forget - that would not do at all. We do have over 4000 pictures mind you, so if i ever find my memory slipping i can just have a glance through. With that many snaps i should be able to print them and run them through my fingers like a flick book for a near real time show of what we were up to, but ill still write it down.

We have no number here to be contacted on, but if you need to get in tocuh you can leave messages on here and they all come through to my email.

We go to New York on the 9th, ill write next from there.

Gallery: USA USA USA

cjmurdoch — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 19:50:00 GMT

The Aloha State of Mind

cjmurdoch — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 19:34:00 GMT

Hawaii, within the first hour of being here, was one of my favourite destinations yet. Still a tad raw from the visceral dissapointment of Fiji, i had lowered my expectations of this, another tropical paradise, to such lows that had i been gunned down when i stepped from the plane i wouldnt have been surprised in the slightest. Fortunately, this was not the case.

The people here are, although ive only been to one state, the nicest people in America, if not the world. Everyone is polite in a sincere and humble way that truly rocks me even now, and ive been enjoying it for over a week. Everything is clean, prices are reasonable and standards are sky high even in the budget hotels Jo and i tend to lurk in. Although here, i dare say, we hold our heads high when we leave our budget hotel - its feet from Waikiki beach, private rooms for all, and at rock bottom prices. And food wise!! Weve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner out every day for a month now, but the last week has seem a dramatic improvement in bang for our buck. (Even though the buck is at a heart stopping rate of exchange - this is the worst time financially to be visiting in America in about 5 years) ((DAMN IT ALL TO HELL)) Thank God for the sunshine!! Relentless, glorious, baking hot sunshine. All day, every day. Worth every penny.

Deeming this to be some sort of facade for the real Hawaii we booked a flight from "Ohau", the island on which we landed, to "Hawai'i" (the big island), to see if we could find the seedy underbelly of paradise. Not possible im afraid. On what i expected would be the dark underside of Hawaii is another glorious, totally different tropical wonderland covered in Volcanoes and dotted with small villages packed with welcoming locals and new and fantastic eateries.

Volcano spotting is one of the main draws to the island. The Volcano national park is, obviously, home to some Volcanoes. In fact, the one we visited is the most active Volcano in the world and as if to prove the point, we werent allowed to even get withing a mile of the damned thing, due to some extremely high levels of Carbon Somethingorother Gas. Not to worry, we worked our way round and took enough photos to last one hundred lifetimes, ranging from old lava floes, to lava tunnels to magma flowing in to the sea a creating some mega steam in the process. We stayed in a local town, imaginatively named 'Volcano', and ate at restaurants with Volcano or Lava or Magma in the title. To get around we hired a little car that had a, being generous, one horse power engine, and one horse is not enough to drag around two holiday makers with a thirst for Volcano hunting like we had. But it had to do. The villages we went to were quiet and cosy, but on our last night on the big island we happened upon a town festival called 'black and white nite' where everyone has to wear black and white. Crazy stuff. There were Jazz bands on every corner and dancing in the street. We even befriended a local gent who acted as a guide of sorts and showed us where the bar in town was and told us about the various locals in each band. A great time had by all, i must say.

Then it was back to the other more beach oriented side of paradise to eat more and drink more more and write more and more and more blogs. In 2 days we fly to San Francisco to meet up with Boloni and Lorna, then the following day Alan joins the fun. Its going to be awesome, and if i werent in Hawaii heaven im sure id be too excited to sleep. Also i have a new ipod touch thats literally hours of entertainment in itself, so that helps too.

Tomorrow Jo is getting her nails done, and imgoing to a shooting range. For $80 theyre going to let me fire an AK-47, an M16, an Uzi, a .44 Magnum and a range of other hand guns and rifles that have numbers for names and all sorts of legal blocks to stop people like me using them. I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!!

Hawaii is better than i can say, and the people, despite the major character flaw of being American, are great. The day after we arrived was the election and the cheering at Obamas win went on loudly for hours in such an unreserved way i knew i was going to enjoy it here. Everyones so totally, in-your-face, over the top, loud-and-proud American that it simply has to be fake. But it isnt, and its so so refreshing.

Well, that enough bigging up these fat yanks. Theyve still got 5 weeks to let me down.

Best get out there and give them a chance.

Jo is 23 on the 11th. We'll be in San Francisco, and i think were going to go to Alcatraz.

Bula Bula!!

cjmurdoch — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 19:32:00 GMT

Bula!

Fiji is just like youd imagine Fiji to be. The beaches are white and sandy, the trees are green and full of coconuts and the rain, which we enjoyed on a daily basis, was hot and wet. Still, beacuse its Fiji, we didnt mind at all.

Our time in this little place was all about relaxing and doing nothing. Not through choice, but rather the fact that there is nothing at all to do, meant that we worked on our tans and read books by the dozen. The whole country is on a permanent go slow too, meaning that even when there is something to do it takes such an amazingly long time to accomplish anything, by the time you get something organised your totally exhausted and just want to work on your tan or read a book or two. Such is the Fiji cunning, infact, that they have renamed time itself 'Fiji time', thus giving Fijians an excuse for moving so inhumanly slow. A fine example of this mentality was when we met a local villager and he took us for a hike to see a waterfall. On our way through his village he stopped us and asked how long we think it took him and the rest of the village men to build a school house we were standing near. 18 inch thick straw rooves, bamboo intertwined walls and all sorts. Some guessed a month, other 6 weeks. He said that, left to their own devices, it would have taken them about a year to just pick the straw. Fortunately for the school children the Koreans who were paying for the school showed up just before the construction was due to begin and were so enraged that nothing had been done, at all, that they stood and watched the men in the village build the school in one day, putting an end to the fantasies the men had of undertaking the slowest construction project in recorded history.

We visited some islands that looked like on all the postcards and even saw where big Tom Hanks found himself stranded in 'Castaway'. Pretty neat on the whole, but in my opinion, we've been to nicer spots. This felt like a third world country with a first world price tag, spoiling what could have been somewhere really special.

I hate to give a negative review... Damn.

Gallery: Fiji

cjmurdoch — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:23:00 GMT

Sun, Sea and 4x4 Action

cjmurdoch — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:40:00 GMT

We have been busy over the past week. I wrote last just before Jossan and i climbed aboard our 3 day catamaran cruise and i was dreading being trapped with 45 or so total animals on the high seas. Maybe it was my low expectations, or maybe these were actually great people, but i couldnt have asked for a better bunch of inmates to share this hilarious experience with. People say that trips like this are made or broken by the people your forced to socialise with, and our trip was for sure 'made' by the company we kept. After checking in at our hostel and choosing a few choice items to bring with us in a travel bag we locked away 95% of all our stuff in storage and headed for the pre-boarding briefing. There they told us to make sure we had enough money for the bar on the island, and gave us a snorkel each. Hands down, the briefest briefing ive ever attended. Off to the boat we then went, getting to know some of the other passengers on the way. The 10 minute walk to the ship was long enough to discover who would be a good person to chat to while sailing, and who to avoid getting cornered by at all costs, and in no time were being checked in and introduced to our mega entuhsiastic, totally artificial, remarkably attractive boat rep, who was to organise everything for us during our journey. She was very entertaining and, much like half of everybody on the Australian east coast, Scottish. Rather worryingly though, during our 5 minute safety briefing, she punctuated every safety protocol by saying that we would all soon be getting insanely pissed and wouldnt remember much of what she said anyway. There was excitable chatter about drinking games, some jumping up and down and plenty of loud whooping. All of which, came from her. I think even the most hardened drinkers among us were slightly intimitaded by her drinking ethic and the level of punishment being promised to our livers. Turns out we all rose to the challenge in the end. We were only 28 so onboard there was masses of room. They also provided enough food to feed event the most undernourished traveller like a king twice over, although the food was mainly sandwich ingredients on plates with mountains of bread to DIY a lunch out of. Easy enough on land, virtually impossible doing 25 knots through the waves with a hangover. It was like a gameshow and caused much hilarity, followed by lots of cleaning up, followed by lots of whooping from the Scottish hostess. We sailed straight to our island resort on day one and got settled in our rooms on one side of the island. It turns out the island resort we stayed at is quite decent and costs hundreds of dollars per night to stay at, with additional costs for use of the facilities. The tour groups, us, are banished to the far side of the island to drink in our own cheapo bar and sleep, but are allowed to use all the swanky facilities, totally free. If i had just payed a fortune for my hotel only to discover the island was secretly infested with backpackers who constantly appeared all over the place to use the facilities, id be livid. As, im sure, some were. Who cares i say, Viva la infestation. I golfed, played tennis, swam in the olympic sized pool and sunbathed on the heli-Pad. To top it all i played a magical round of golf, sadly alone, and there was noone there to see me put in on the green from a veritable mile with every stroke. I finished the best game of golf i had ever played and rewarded myself with a drink from the over priced rich-mans bar on the good side of the island, knowing id never be believed about my uber round of golf. Dinner on our side of the island was shovelled in and washed down by about 60 litres of beer. We were just about to launch into the drinking game portion of the evening when someone came up to me and told me, right out, that i was one hell of a golfer and that they had watched me play. Nothing, NOTHING, is more satisfying than unexpected praise. Suitably inflated, the drinking games began. Then blank.
The following day was all sailing, snorkelling, photography and much more chatting having apparently befiended the entire boat the night before. There were a couple of German guys worth mentioning, who were like a hilarious comedy double team. I half suspected their broken english must actually be an act, but it turns out it was good old fashioned German accented banter, and these two were as hilarious as i could hope. Germans are shamelessly blunt, something i find particularly hilarious.
Night two was marginally less alcoholic but still its a tad foggy after about 8pm.
Day three was like day two, but with more sunburn.

And that was that. Sailing done and thoroughly enjoyed, we hopped on a 14 hour night bus to take us to Hervey Bay where we were to offroad drive on the largest sand island in the world. We were even proudly informed that this island has more sand than the Sahara, half of which i must have emptied from my bag when we got back from our tour.

Check in for out Fraser Experience was required the day before so we had plenty of time to see the town and such before getting to the tour HQ at 3pm. We were then split into 2 groups of 8 and given all sorts of maps and itineraries and shopping lists. We were lucky with group sizes as normally they horn 11 poeople into each car. I swear i have no idea how that would work - with 8 we were still pretty well packed in there. Luck was on our side again, and our group was amazing. Everyone got along famously, and the other car was the same story. Due to there being fewer per car than usual we decided to do the trip in convoy so that when we stopped there were more of us, and as they say, the more the merrier. We only had one job the day of the briefing, getting our shopping bought. Each car shopped as a unit which was certainly a good idea as we were to cook as two teams in a sort of ready,steady,cook style affair. Coordinating 8 people shopping into one trolley isnt simple, but we persevered and soon had what we reckoned whould be enough for a few group meals. After this taxing experience however, everyone very sensibly decided to buy their own booze and meet back at the hostel later for a few drinks...
Cut to the following morning and we were all back in the briefing room for possible the longest briefing of my life. Not only due to the hangover and the volume at which the entire thing was conducted, but the jolly bloke giving the talk really wanted to take the time to hammer home the concequences of feeding dingoes or driving in salt water, or crashing, after which people who were previously happy to drive had chaged their minds and were even understandably reluctant to go as passengers. It was all in fun but he had tales of extra charges and lost deposits that made everyones blood run cold. We all laughed at the pictures of cars on their rooves and didnt believe this was a common occurance until, on the ferry on the way over to Fraser, we met a group who were on their way over for the second time having rolled their car ON THE WAY to the ferry. It takes a totally incapable moron to roll a car full of people on the 6 minute drive from the hostel to the ferry. It was a tarmacked road!! While the idiot driving had to go for surgery, the rest of the group went back, got another car, and set out again at a much slower pace without a complete boob at the wheel. The trip is all about the camping and the taking photos of the fresh water lakes, all of which are scattered around the jungle on the 120km long sand dune. Its also about the boozing, making the driving part of the holiday seem a little edgier, but we managed to work it so that me and the other guy driving our car were plenty sober through the day, and far too drunk every night. Highlights included the first nights camping where i produced a fantastic bbq spread for my group in complete darkness, the second nights camping where i produced an equally amazing pasta number in such darkness that it made the first nights dusky attempt at darkness seem positively blinding, and the time when one of the guys in our group found a spider the size on apple in his tent, on is foot, in the dark. There are plenty of photos - have a gander. The trip organisers, Koala - thats what theyre called, were amzingly decent about everything. When we got back after hosing the salt water off our car, they gave the car the thumbs up - no loss of deposit due to a dent here or a scratch there - excellent. Then we started to check back in our camping equipment. We were missing 1 large water tank, 1 set of tent poles, 3 forks, and a spoon. Shame on us we were told, and we all reaching for our wallets when the guys told us that these things happen, that we were all going to get our money back and that they would see us in the bar shortly for some free food and gallons of beer. Happy days indeed.

After some farewells and all kinds of Facebook address exchanging, everyone else was off down the coast in the campervans that they live in. Jo and i were sticking around to go whale watching, hoping to catch a glimpse of the much hyped Humpback Whale. Turns out there are LOADS of whales on the go. We saw about 30 of em', jumping out the water to see what was happening and avoiding my efforts to take a picture with surprising ease. Who knew taking a picture of a 160 ton sea beast could be so tricky. There are pictures, but they could really be of anything. That was a nice day out though, with 'all the free cake you can eat while we're at sea' falling sadly short of justifying the meaty price tag for a boat ride. Still, our time in Oz was almost over and we wanted to cram in as much as possible, so we were both very glad we went.

Next stop - Brisbane. A quick (by our standards) 6 hour bus journey and we were there. Lovely city, we stayed at a couple of good hostels and ate at some amazing restaurants. Our last night we met up with a couple of friends from our Fraser trip and went out for dinner and drinks. What a laugh it was, and i hope that we havent seen the last of that pair - a couple of Nottingham lads who have a great sense of humour and a good drinking ethic... My kind of people!

Which brings us to the airport, now, and our flight out of Australia. We board in 13 minutes.

<SOB>

Checked the weather in Fiji for the coming week. Thunder storms. All week.

Farewell Australia, farewell.

Out on the Road Again

cjmurdoch — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Unbelieveably, the time to leave Sydney has come and gone and im writing this from the poolside of a Cairns hotel. Jo's sunbathing in bursts, trying to take advantage of the few rays of sun that are making it through the thick black storm clouds filling the sky, and im in the shade, praying for a thunderstorm to clear the air and do away with a few of these damned clouds. On the other hand, its about 30 in the shade so i dont know if id survive a day in the sun just yet.

Its day 2 away from the city and already im missing work. The job i had turned out to be one of the most entertaining ive had in ages. It was challenging, interesting and because of these facts, time went so fast every day that i couldnt believe that at the end of a day id worked for over 9 hours with one fifteen minute break. Id almost certainly consider returning some time in the future had i, on my last day, not got so smashed at after work drinks that i found myself alone in an underground car park at 4am with blood on my hands and a pre-hangover hangover that broke all personal bests.

Since i did find myself in this unusual situation however, ill do what any self respecting person would, and never go back to Sydney as long as i live, just in case.

In the weeks leading up to our departure, summer started to rear its ugly head, and all sorts of lithe, healthy young people, perpetually bronzed and happy, started to fill the streets, beaches and bars of a once peaceful city. As a result, it was straight to the nearest gym for me, and thats where i stayed. Every day for a month i went, and it didnt make a blind bit of difference! I hate the gym.

We met up with Hatef, our frinedd from our Bali and New Zealand trips who lives in Sydney too, on a couple of occasions. The first time we met up it was at the leisure center he works at for some tennis. Id spent weeks talking a great game assuming id never actually have to play him, and he'd spent weeks practising furiously and planning an occasion where i wouldnt be able to talk my way out of it. He even drove to our apartment and picked me up. Despite him having actual tennis elbow, i was anniahlated in straight sets and sent for an early shower. I hate tennis.

It wasnt all bad though. While at the gym we were introduced to some of the staff and made plans to go for dinner with Hatef and another pair the following weekend after my ego had a few days to recover. Hat, being Iranian, wanted us to try an Iranian restaurant before we left town, and we ended up going to a great little place under some shops in the middle of nowhere. Id never been to restaurant where they didnt have menus before, and it was this that made the whole experience so much fun. This and the belly dancer. When we arrived and were shown to our table, centre stage, it was already loaded with breads and dips and all sorts. As was every other table there. Turns out, they way they organise everyone eating the same thing is to bring everyone in the entire restaurant each course at the same time. The starter, breads and dips, came with the most unexpected addition of all. A 14 stone belly dancer who could seiously move. The show was actually pretty good until the unspeakable happened and she started dancing and jiggling her way between the tables, selecting victims to join her on stage and dance and shake and forefeit all dignity in the process. Although something even more unexpected happened. It was a hit. People loved it. Apparently Iranians are big fans of the wild dancing, and being one of about 4 white people in the place, i was almost alone in not wanting to dance. There was cheering and clapping and photos and cries for more, and one little girl got up and shocked everyone into an admirational silence by being brilliant at belly dancing, sealing her fate for sure. I could see her father making a deal with the manager of the restaurant in no time. Free dinner for him and his family, and his daugter would work there for the rest of her life, starting tomorrow. Then there was the main course, consisting of all sorts of skewered meats and mountains of different rices. Very tasty indeed! More belly dancing, this time with a sword, and before i knew it, everyone was on the dance floor, arms waving like branches in a strong wind and having a blast. Then desert while a band played Turkish music with the volume turned up to 11, and we decided to call it a nite bofore my brain turned to soup. Very good fun for all the family. I love Iranian restaurants.

Tomorrow were taking a ten hour bus journey down the coast where we'll meet up with 40 other boating enthusiasts and set sail for a 3 days cruise through the Whitsundays. Perhaps some scuba, probably some snorkelling and defanately some drinking are the activities on offer, and theres even a nine hole golf course on an island that were stopping on, and ive booked a wee round on there. Then down the coast for some 4x4 diving action on Fraser Island for a few days. Then thats it. Australia done, we fly out of Brisbane on the 25th.

Back on the road there will be more updates, because apart from doing major story worthy activities, theres nothing to do but read and drink, and im almost out of books and liver already.

Check back shortly, ill tell you how it is to sail around with 40 alcoholic backpackers on a choppy ocean in the rain.

HOOT!!!

A Month In The Life Of

cjmurdoch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:51:00 GMT

Dear Diary,

Its been a while.

Ill start with work – that being where ive spent most of my time for the last few weeks. I was working for Goldman Sachs, an investment bank in the city center the last time I updated, but that assignment came to an end weeks ahead of schedule due to my having done all the work far quicker than anyone expected. Dozens of pats on the back for me and a promise that if my manager had any openings he’d give me a call and I could work for them for the duration of my stay in Sydney.

In the mean time it was back to the recruitment agencies and job boards for me! I got a job straight away from a hostel noticeboard in a garden furniture warehouse, moving, unpacking and selling enormous pots and urns to Sydneys well heeled. One fountain I sold was tagged at close to $15,000… the garbage people buy is staggering sometimes. This job I really enjoyed regardless – it was no responsibility box moving, and had it not paid less than a Vietnamese sweatshop owner I might have stayed. But it didn’t, so I didn’t.

The call came on a Thursday. Could I please go back and take a full time roll at Goldman Sachs in the PWM Settlements Division. Ofcourse, said I – See you Monday at 8.30. And that’s where I am now, and where ill be until the day I leave Sydney. They want me as long as I can stay!! The job is, however, the hardest job in the world. People may as well be speaking Japanese to me, but fortunately its slowly sinking in. Id say that in another week ill be fluent in Japanese and almost fluent in the impossible computer system they use there, Lion – my arch nemesis.

As for our car, a few days ago i sold the old beast. Fortunate really, as a few days prior it had just failed its MOT and the mechanic wanted a whopping $700 to replace the front suspension. Then a pair of unsuspecting Germans rang me and withing hours they'd been to an ATM and taken advantage of the excellent deal i was offering them. I actually made a profit on the car itself. Its only fuel expences that have left me reeling, but im sure glad to be shot of that potential timebomb. Very satisfactory.

Jo is still working for the Oz Health Service and loving it. She is, however, no longer surrounded by 50 something obese ex-nurses, as someone her own mental age started a couple of weeks ago and weve been out for drinks with her and all sorts. Shes 29 on paper, but 19 in every other respect. And she has inhumaly low self esteem. Still, it made for an interesting night out.

We've been out drinking once in the last month pretty much, between me working every weekend at unusual times and very unusual jobs, and Jo's mercilessly tight saving schedule, but things are starting to take shape like we hoped. Our plans for the rest of the trip have had plenty of chopping,changing, tucking and trimming and i thing weve shaved off as much as we can here and there to leave only the most ultimate holiday schedule the world has ever seen. Infact, its been refined and distilled so much that we've had to knock the second trip to New Zealand on the head to finance the rest of the epic voyage we have planned. And thats including an extra 2 weeks of work we'll be doing as a result.

Once we leave Sydney were heading North to Cairns and the beaches of North Australia. 10 days ought to do it up there, with no time for dawdling and absolutely no relaxing whatsoever. Then its a flight to Fiji from where ever we happen to be. 8 days in Fiji holidaying with an intraveneus G+T drip, then off to hawaii for a follow up course of recreational alcoholism for an additional 8 days. With all that holidaying out the way we can then get down to business. On the 10th of November we arrive in San Francisco to the welcoming arms of our good friends Boloni and Lorna (referred to from this point on as BoLorna), where we'll take in the sights and sounds of Americas 14th most populous city for a few days before jumping in our rental car, picking up Alan, our 5th for this particular adventure, and hitting the open road. Ultimately this leg of our trip will be a blur of back slappingly bad jokes, ear to ear smiles and excessive use of the word "Bong!", but i maintain that i think im most excited about this little jaunt more than anything, ever. We'll end up in Vegas and have done everything the west coast has to offer, including that little backwater to the south, Mexico. We all go our seperate ways here with Jo and i heading North for a weeks skiing in Colorado. We've yet to decide where, but we have a friend there whos gonna guide the way and show us a good time. Im thinking Aspen. From there its off to Miami and we'll only have a few days to go before take off home to Sweden. About 18 days i reckon, giving us just enough time to enjoy Disney World (Jo's idea, honest), DC, Boston and a few days in NY NY for christmas shopping. As long as everyones happy with an "I heart NY" t shirt then that should take about 15 seconds. Done.

Home on the 20th of December which, going by how fast the last 6 months and 2 days have been, feels like itll be just after the weekend. It'll be straight back to work for us both squeezing in any hours we can before coming Scotland-side on the second of January. Were there until the 14th and want to see everybody. E v e r y b o d y! So that should be great fun! I was telling Jo yesterday that i miss the Highlander - sitting on the bar stools and having to be taxied home before its even dark after putting 9 pints across my throat and winning then losing at pool to everyone. Jo says she misses the home cooked food the most.

See you all soon.

Nothing Doing

cjmurdoch — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:19:00 GMT

There is, as always, little from Sydney to report. Its all work and no play for now, but in 2 months we'll be back on the road.

While ive been working at my bank through the week ive been earning a little extra on the side as a tree surgeons assistant. Great fun climbing trees and cutting them down and such but the other day, unbelieveably for Sydney, it snowed 2 cm while i was working. Quite unexpected! Yesterday i even turned my hand to a spot of asbestos removal. I spent my day on the roof of a building in the sun - very nice indeed. For the time being at least... give it 30 years and with my luck ill have asbestosis. Thats providing a falling tree doesnt get me first.

I hope alls well with you all. Later folks.

Ticking Along...

cjmurdoch — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:21:00 GMT

Not alot to report from Sydney at the moment. The Pope came to the city and brought 200,000 pilgrims with him. The place has been a mad house with every hotel, hostel and train full to the top for the last 7 days, but they all go home tomorrow and then there will be peace again.

I, at long last, am underway in my role as an investment banker. The job is on an account just now thats worth a fortune selling some biometric software product. On Friday, when we got started, we processed payments and checked security clearances for half the applications we had recieved and i was handling some crazy amounts of money... 2 of the cheques i put through were for $2,000,000 each!! Unreliable as i am, i hold a job thats borderline important. God bless clerical errors. The job, i was told, was to go on for a couple of months but it looks like we'll be finished mid next week. I asked the boss about it and he said that the 2 other people i started at the same time as are going to be let go,but im going to be kept on to help him on another account that starts next Monday. The next account is worth $660,000,000 - there should be work for ages!! So thats that. Jo is still working for the applications processing company. Her job has become more diverse with more responsibility and shes enjoying heself there alot.

We are apartment hunting to try and get out of the ghetto that we live in, but its taking quite some time - there doesnt seem to be that many vacant apartments in the city centre. And we still havent sold our car!

Later all.

Mr Trees, The Brazilian and The Investment Banker

cjmurdoch — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 16:33:00 GMT

Success!! After practically no effort at all ive been given a job i never expected working in an investment bank in the city center. Ofcourse id rather be working outdoors and enjoying myself but the money in this role is too good to pass up so for the next 2 months ill be wearing a suit to work and drinking too much coffee from Starbucks. None other than Goldman Sachs have decided to take a chance on 'an enthusiastic go getter with endless potential'. Apparently this will look excellent on my CV, do wonders for my bank balance and start on Monday. Monday just passed, in fact. I got a phone call on Sunday night telling me the job was being pushed back until Tuesday. Then on Monday i got a call telling me it'd be Thursday. Im waiting for a call now telling me that it'll actually start some time next week, but i remain hopeful. In the mean time ive been having a blast working for various companies around the city. On Friday i was a tree surgeon with a company named 'Mr Trees' after the owner, Mr Joe Trees. No Jokes. On Monday i was a removals man with a unibrowed Brazilian named Lucas for a company called 'Two Men and a Van'. I was the second man. I might be laying bricks for my landlord on Wednesday, but he doesnt have any bricks yet so that ones still in the planning stages.

Today however, Tuesday, ive been taking care of the biggest problem i have - becoming a little soft(er) around the middle. Im just in from the gym and am shaking from the gruelling 15 minutes of strenuous excercise i subjected myself to. I was there for a couple of hours though, its just that i couldnt bring myself to strain and struggle for more than about 5 minutes on the few machines i like, and just sort of pretend i was trying my hardest around the rest. Money well spent if you ask me though - going to the gym, regardless of how little you do, makes you feel much better about the post workout McDonalds.

On Saturday we went to the Opera House to see a couple of Danes perform magic in their award winning show "Holy Cow". They were very entertaining and the show was worth the money, but we were only in some little semi-opera house theatre stashed away in the back. This means that to see the grand hall i fear we'll have to go back and actually see an Opera, but Jo is enthusiastic and assures me that several hundred dollars will be a small price to pay for such a memorable show. Jo should work for the Sydney Opera House. The area around the Opera house is a lot of fun though, with bars and restaurants all looking out over the water between the Bridge and the House where you can drink yourself merry before every show. Like we did!

If i ever get to start my job, the next thing we'll be doing is whale watching. Apparently there are loads of them splashing about just off the coast and they do tours from down at the harbour where they garuntee some whale interaction.

Enough for now, ive got to go and try and sell our car - now that im working about 5 minutes away on foot we can finally sell the old dear and get our money back!!

More Work.

cjmurdoch — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 11:26:00 GMT

The last time i wrote i had just started my new job and as im writing this in my apartment at 10am, i am clearly unemployed again. I knew the job i had was only temporary and its probably just as well i got out of there when i did before the drunken site foreman had me dig any more holes or render any more walls that had already been dug to the right depth or already been smoothly rendered by a professional. I enjoyed my 10 day stint on the site though, and learned alot that i didnt know about the construction of a house : it is not as easy as it looks. I suppose its a blessing i left when i did as the next day i had 2 job interviews for office jobs in the city centre, one of which it looks like ill be starting on Monday morning, working 9 to 5 instead of 6.30 to 3.30. And the pay is better in an office job, so another plus there. Its been sunny for about 2 weeks, not a cloud in sight, and its been great to work outdoors for that time, but soon its going to rain and when it does there'll be no stopping it! Good time to move indoors.

Jo is still plodding along processing applications for foreigners to become Australian Nursing staff. Shes befriended one of the girls who works there whos her own age, who, like half of Australia, comes from Scotland. Stonehaven to be exact.

Our friends who we met in Bali, then travelled to New Zealand with, have all just flown home to the US. Very sad news indeed but it does mean that when Jo and i arrive in the States we'll have some people to meet up with, stay with and certainly party with wherever we go. We have a man in Boston, New York, Denver - where weve decided to go for a weeks skiing, ill finally get a chance to see what this Aspen is all about - and there are a couple in San Francisco which is our first stop in the states. Everyone i think wants a chance to showcase their city and i cant wait to be impressed. One of my favourite parts of travelling is seeing the things that everyone else hasnt, or going to places that, as a tourist, youd never stumble accross without the help of a local tour guide. The next couple of months wont be as fun as if they had all stayed, but these are our working months of this working holiday after all!

On Saturday night ive booked Jo and I in to see our first show in the Sydney Opera House. There are a pair of award winning Australian comedian/magicians who are performing and as soon as i saw the ad in the paper i knew that this might be my only chance to see something in the Opera House that wasnt Opera, so we booked right in. There will no doubt be a thousand photos from that so ill get them up as soon as i can.

Taking advantage of the glorious unseasonal weather the other day we went to check out the world famous Bondi beach. Its half the size of Cullen, but even now in winter there were loads of people splashing about in the surf. Jos stonehaven friend recommended that we do a beach to beach walk from Coogee to Bondai, which meant walking the cliffs along the coast for a couple of hours going past about 20 beaches and 200 surf shops all selling boards and wetsuits. Theres a reason theyre all there though - while Jo and i were watching we saw 2 surfers get dumped by waves so hard that their boards snapped in half like twigs. No surfing for me!!

Work...

cjmurdoch — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:14:00 GMT

Daily checking of the bank balance has proved to be all its taken to push me over the edge from being a backpacker whos worried about running out of money, to being a madman nervously chewing on the ends of my fingers muttering to myself about how its all too expensive and i dont know how ill make it. That said, i do at least have a job, day 1 of which was today.

While Jo is still all set working in her nursing recruitment agency for $20 an hour in a convenient location close to a train station and all sorts of handy shops, im labouring harder than any of those lazy jews who threw together the Pyramids. I got up today at 5am, left the house at a quarter to six and jumped in the car for my drive to work somewhere in the Northern suburbs. I do get to drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge every day, but this doesnt make it any better to be driving in Sydney traffic that early in the morning. 5 am is so early that today i had my first shower without cockroaches trying to share the hot water - they were all, very sensibly, still asleep. And being as we live in the Red Light District there were all manner of weirdos still on the prowl, mistaking the darkness at 5am for the sanctuary of night. Anyway, i digress. I got to work at 6.10 and had to wait 50 minutes for anyone to show up. And noone did. Id been waiting outside number 38 as instructed by my dyslexic recruiter, while the rest of my team got to work just down the road at number 83. I arrived 50 minutes early and was late for my first day at work. Good thing my superior is the kind of guy who calls lunch hour 'Beer O'Clock', and then actually drinks beer for lunch. I know the job i took was as a labourer, but they worked me hard. So hard, infact, that i feel now that ive been steamrolled flat then reinflated about half way. And i ripped the arse out of my jeans during a very hard lift. So now i have to toddle off and buy new trousers because working without them will be very unpopular indeed.

Im glad to hear all went well with Sams graduation, and i look forwards to hearing all about it. Anyone...??

Ill write more now we have a house, dont give up on me!

Middle Earth

cjmurdoch — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:27:00 GMT

New Zealand is the most beautiful country on earth. With its endless snowcapped mountains and unspoiled countryside in every direction its easy to see why they chose to film Lord Of The Rings here for its otherworldly quality. Its actually hard to believe that anyone lives in this wilderness, but they do - i met them. Kiwis are the nicest bunch of natives ive come across yet and Jo and i loved it there so much we talked at length about knocking this Australia trip on the head and moving to Queenstown for the duration of our time down under - had it not been for the working visas we'd already bought for Australia and the fact that we'd made plans with people im sure id be writing this from there instead of here.

We flew in to Christchurch on the south island for the tremedous sum of $150, or 50 quid, and even managed to get flights that were at a perfect time, getting us in to Christchurch early in the morning so we still had a full day to explore. Glorious weather meant that we wanted to actually do something rather than just wander the streets so we caught a bus to the towns gondola, a bubble lift that takes you to the top of a nearby mountain where you can look out over the whole city. The weather was so clear that we could actually see a lot further than just over the city - we could see, from the extreme east coast, a mountain that sits right in the middle of the country. When our friends arrived the next day, it took us almost 4 hours to drive to that mountain. The night we were there waiting for our gang we checked in to a hostel on the outskirts of town, which had been set up in a converted prison. That was the coldest place i think weve slept on the entire trip so far - it really added to the inmate theme they try to build up though, with both of us delighted at the chance to escape from jail the following morning.

The following day half the gang arrived and went to swim with the dolphins while Jo, myself and a couple of others were elected to stay in town and wait for one straggler who had taken a later flight. While waiting we found ourselves in a bar with cosy little tabletop fires and settled about drinking the bar dry, though we had only planned to take a couple of drinks and then see what more town had to offer. Before we knew it we had befriended a few people at our table, one of whom turned out to be the brand ambassador for Huggies and Kleenex and who very generously bought round after round until we found ourselves in an underground karaoke bar belting out classics until the small hours of the morning.

Hungover, we drove to the airport to collect Hatef, the straggler, and got out on the open road. We were headed to the Franz Josef Glacier which we intended to scale in a day and feel pleased that the adventure part of our adventure sports holiday had begun. One long drive later and it started to rain. Alot. We took refuge in a small bar with free pool and waited it out until the rain stopped. Which it never did, so they cancelled our ice climbing trip and sent us on our way. We couldnt come all this way without seeing the glacier though, so off we went and found it ourselves. You can see in the pictures that we look a little damp. It stopped raining just long enough to take a few photos and then started again as we got back to the car to head south. One hour later, there were blue skies in every direction and thats how it stayed for the duration of our trip.

We were heading now for Lake Wanaka, home of the 15,000ft skydive that we had planned as the new first extreme activity on our list. The town was beautiful, scenic and sadly a little windy for skydiving. They pushed our jump from 9 to 11. Then 11 to 1. But at 1, hurrah, we got to go. We climbed in to our dashing multicoloured onepiece jumpsuits and after a 15 minute flight up into the heavens we were strapped to the chest of an instructor and unceremoniously hurled out the side of a perfectly good aeroplane to face a 45 second freefall. We were dropping at 200kmph. Thats fast. So fast, infact, that i though the skin on my face was going to peel away, but sadly it never did and instead i simply managed to whip my face raw with other, looser, bits of my face. It was like recieving a forty five second slap to a cold face. And it was brilliant. The view, the thrill, the right to say ive done it - these are all things i was able to think about once my brain had started functioning again, something that didnt happen until he'd pulled the chute and we were floating down gently towards our landing site. On our way down he gave me an aerial tour of the area involving lots of spinning around and unexpected jerks here and there, which was brilliant too. Everyone loved it and next door there was a shooting range which we went to after to blast out the adrenalin. A few loud bangs later, and we were on the road again.

Queenstown, an adrenalin junkies paradise. Our first day we elected to do the highest bungee in the country, one which you leap from a platform some 165 or so meters in the air. The plan is that you only bungee 143m but when your dropping through the air towards a river beneath you it feels like your going to be the first person to bungee 166 meters and make the news. This is the most scary thing ive done. No doubt about it, the worst part is shuffling to the edge of a cablecar suspended in the middle of a canyon with nothing more than elastic bands tied to your feet. The hardest part is that here you have to make yourself jump, but with the skydiving someone does all the jumping and your simply a passenger. Worst of all was that, being as i am the heaviest in our group, i had to jump first. 143 meters in about 8 seconds, and i still had time to think what a terrible idea this had been, who i should blame for talking me in to it, and how i was going to make it as hard as possible for those who had to go after me. As they hoisted me up though, i had a huge smile on my face that wouldnt go away, and it was far too obvious that i had enjoyed myself to say otherwise. Jo and another girl Megan came as spectators but once there decided that jumping was a must, payed the extra, and threw themselves over the edge too. It was worth it just for the free T-Shirt one of the guys in our group insisted.

We also did a canyon swing which is in the same vain, but without bungee. Here, rather than being attached by your feet, your attached at you chest so you can run or sommersault over the edge and rather than bouncing up, your carried away in a big swooping arc after falling 109 meters through the air. I did my first one backwards, and my second one i did a handstand on the edge of the platform then shot off the edge head first. Jo did one where they dangled her by her feet then dropped her without warning and another guy, Reed, sat in a chair and tipped backwards off the edge. Half the fun of this is that the guys who work there are partly there to strike fear into your heart, with talk of unconnected wires and 'accidentally' pushing you off the edge when you least expect it. They make it such a great experience, so much so that Jo bough a dvd of her backwards jump and you can hear her cursing and swearing at the guys, who are clearly delighted by the reaction!

In Queenstown theres a Gondola to an observation deck too, where we went to take in the views on one on the amazingly clear days we had there. When we got to the top we discovered they had very cleverly installed a louge track and, in the spirit of doing everything there was to do in town, went louging. Those little buggies can really move and more than once i was up on two wheels going around a corner on the icy track - this was actually one of the most fun activities and one of the only ones where any injuries were sustained with one of the guys running another off the course causing him to flip upsides down and continute louging along on his front. Hilarious!

With so much to do, and so little time to do it, our holiday was over in a flash and we found ourselves in the car on our way back to Christchurch. Rather than check in to a hostel when we arrived at about 10pm we decided that, as we were flying at 5am and would have to check in at 3, we'd spend the night in the casino. We saw a guy win a years wages on one spin of roulette - and then lose most of it again on the next spin. Our bets were considerably smaller, but it was a fun end to the heart racing week.

We said our goodbyes to our friends in the airport and boarded our plane, totally shattered. We did decide though, before passing out through exhaustion, that when we got back to Melbourne we'd pack our bags, pack the car, and move to Sydney. And so we did. And here we are. It wasnt as easy as all that mind you. The car wouldnt start after we filled it with all our belongings. Then it started to rain. And i couldnt find jump leads for sale anywhere. So we went to bed and got up really early and bought jump leads only to try and jump the car and have nothing happen because the battery was totally dead. So we had to go and buy a battery, but the garage nearby had 'sold the only one right for our car yesterday'. So we found another garage who had a battery but wouldnt lend me the tools to change it and who suggested i drive the car there and he'd change it for me, which brought forth some colourful language on my part about how cars with dead batteries are notoriously hard to drive anywhere. He said he understood and for an enourmous fee would come and change it for me, to which i agreed, as i still had a 10 hour drive ahead of me and didnt want to wait any longer before setting off. And then we were on the motorway, very low on fuel, and had to turn off and get some only to dicover that the only way back on to the motorway would send us back to Melbourne. So back towards Melbourne we went for what seemed like an eternity at 110kmph, adding about an hour on to our trip and using a quarter tank of the fuel that id just filled up. But we got here in the end. Safe and sound. And despite all the bad signs things are going very well here for us indeed. On day two we got an apartment that im in right now, not too bad and very very centrally located. On day three, yesterday, Jo got a job and started this morning working as a receptionist in a hospital not far from here. And i joined a gym bargaining the guy down from $600 for 3 months to $220! All i need now is a job and were finally on track. I went for an interview yesterday for a landscaping job and have another on Friday to be an actor/extra in some Australian tv shows. By Monday ill be employed im sure, then we'll actually be settled for the first time in months!!

I hope your all well and i hope summer is glorious with you there. Here its still winter!

Gallery: NZ

cjmurdoch — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:12:00 GMT

Melby

cjmurdoch — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:38:00 GMT

Careful what you wish for. Having been driving for days and having not had a sniff of even a light beer, we hit the town running. Little did i know that Jos friend, Linda, has the drinking constitution of the larger half of the Irish Rugby Team, but that she also likes to drink at a feverish pace. The photos say it all. Its nice, granted, that there are some photos of Jo and i together, but i fear this is solely because Linda was the only one with the faculties or amount of patience required to operate a camera and actually have pictures of people, not her own fingers, as the end result. The second time we went out i think everyone except Lindas boyfriend (a very pleasant lawyer) was equally well sauced as on this occasion Linda ended up trying to carry the heaviest men in the bar on her back. Having announced that the heaviest she'd succeded in carrying was a massive 115kg bloke in the past, someone actually said yes to being lifted, despite weighing only a whopping 105kg. Quite the spectacle. I think the band were a little upset noone was paying htem the slightest bit of attention. We went for dinner to their house on another occasion, and that was much more civilised. Noone got smashed at all.

We left Adelaide behind us after some far too heavy drinking and set out on the leusurely part of our cross country drive. We were heading from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, the famous stretch of cliff side tarmac that runs past the 12 Apostles (a large bunch of rocks in the water) and other various sights and seaside towns, all of which looked the same. Im not complaining, i think this is half the charm of seaside towns. You already know your way around before you even arrive. Beside the chip shop is an ice cream store, and on the other side is a place selling small buckets and spades. These three places are wedged between more cafes than there are town residents and its all located conveniently 30 feet from the beach.

The Apostels were impressive though. Jo and i got up super early to go and enjoy them at sunrise, as per recommendations from some other backpackers. As it turns out the sun rises on the wrong side of the world to be of any use at the Apostles so Jo and i enjoyed them in total darkness. I assume these people will be karmically crucified for such a cruel recommendation, but i suspect they wanted for us to go at sunset and were just too rubbish to know the word for it. We waited for a while and saw them eventually though, before getting back on the road and heading on our merry way to Melbourne. Jo, while sitting uncomfortably in the passenger seat, had the audacity to criticise my driving on the windy roads, so i made her drive the whole way. Who knew cars could even go at 20km an hour.

Melbourne succesfully navigated, we arrived at a massive hostel in the north and booked in to a dorm room with 8 other people. We did a bit of touristy poking about and then decided to start job hunting, this is where were going to spend our next 3 months working. I bought an outfit at great expence and was ready for interviews. We decided to go for jobs through the day so wed be free to have a social life in the evenings, so Jo went away to her first interview as a secretary. Then i had my first as some marketing whatnot , then another and another and so on and so on. Weve both been offered jobs now, but neither of us have accepted. Weve changed our minds.

Yesterday we booked 2 flights to New Zealand. The guys we met in Bali are gonna meet us in Queenstown and were all going to go Rafting, Parachute Jumping, Bungeeing and Skiing for a while. Should be a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well be back here in Oz on the 13th of June to start this job nonsense again, but until then were going to carry on like proper tourists. Today were gonna go up the highest building in the city and stand in a glass cube hundreds of stories off the ground. Tonight were going to meet up with a couple who worked with me in Biddy Mulligans, Malin and Peter. We met them a few days ago and they showed us the bar that Peter runs, where he kindly offered me a job, and showed us their apartment, in which they offered us a bed. People here are nice people. Over the next few days im going to put the car up for sale, a sad sad time, but we have $4000 tied up in it and if someone smashed into it we'd be buggered. I want to keep it and drive to Uluru, but that wont be for a few months and finding a place to park it free for 3 months will be tricky indeed!

The sun is shining outside, despite it being winter. Time to get out there.

Jo and i have Australian numbers. Mines 0488732046. Jo's is 0415830156.

AFL

cjmurdoch — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:42:00 GMT

Weve been to an Australian Football Game. This sport is what Australians live for. It was pretty good fun, 66000 cheering madnen and women in full swing. Lots of kicking, no throwing, and lots of scoring.

Weve been told we have to choose a team to follow and apparently theres a team called the Tigers who win all the time. Sounds like the team for me!

Adelaide - the South East

cjmurdoch — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:15:00 GMT

In the last three days ive driven over three thousand kilometers. 10 hours of driving a day, three days straight with about a fifteen minute pause for lunch and an occasional two minute pause for some photo taking at one of the thousand sites of interest along the way. Regretably we did miss out on some good sign posts advertising such interesting places as 'Balaclava' or 'Iron Knob', i was going to fast to stop and Jo wasnt in camera ready mode as we blasted by them. Ill get the sanps we did take up soon enough, theres not many though, as i sat practically stone still for 3 days. We were lucvky on night 2 and pulled into some little backwater twon who offered a gigantic en-suite double room for only $70. Whats more it was roast nite in the local restaurant and for $10 you could eat until you were fit to burst, someting Jo and i both did while thanking God that it wasnt sausage and mash night. Its only in the country you can find these places that are 5 star quality at no star prices. And local hospitality is always far far better out in the sticks. Almost a universal truth though im sure.

The cars still going like a dream but is a thirsty monster requiring several thousand litres of unleaded to get us from Perth to here. In the middle of the desert it was 30 cents more per litre than in the cities. OUTRAGEOUS! We could have flown first class from Perth all the way here for less than we spent on fuel. As a result im going to have to sell the car for thousands of dollars more than i bought it for, or declare bankruptcy.

Tonight were meeting up with a friend of Jos who is studying here and shes going to show us the town that you only see as a resident. I think thats code for plenty of drinking in all the cheapest places, and if it isnt ill be devastated. Im sure itll be nothing cultured anyway, so thats a plus - i havent got my drink on in quite a while now!

I hope all is well with each of you too, get in touch and let me know if anything exciting is underway back there.

Melbourne next, but for now im gonna let the car have a 4 day break. Its earned it.

Albany - 700km from Perth

cjmurdoch — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:32:00 GMT

She runs like an absolute beauty!! Mighty White, or Pepper as Jo calls our brilliantly white car, is a real winner. The only thing that had us worried was a warning tone that comes on every half hour or so signalling that theres a fault with the airbags and that they could spontaniously deploy without warning while im licking along the freeway. Suitably worried, we found a Ford dealership and he told us that the beeping was caused by the fact that someone had taken the fuse for the airbags out and that the he could fix it in a jiffy. One jiffy later and he'd changed his tune saying that because the fuse he put in blew the instant he plugged it in that there was a serious short in the system somewhere and that our best bet was to get to an electrician and let him fix it. Failing that, he said, just turn up the radio and you wont hear the beeping. So thats the plan. We drove this first leg without music as i was too tight to buy an adapter for my ipod but the second we arrived here i threw money at the nearest clerk for the gadget to save me singing for the next 700kms aswell. Jo was happy, though agrees i sing like an angel. I bough a very nice, far too expensive, guitar in Perth so that Jo could play in the back and entertain me while i drove but she insists on sitting up front, rigid as a board with a look of abject terror on her face thats very off putting. Youd think that someone who doesnt like driving at warp speed would prefer to sit in the back but it appears she likes to yelp at things periodically either to keep me on my toes or to simply terrorise me. The car is a real mover. Perhaps "the starship enterprise" would be a better name for the Mighty White but thats probably my mouth writing cheques that the mighty white cant cash.

Yesterday we went on a tour of some wineries and a brewery, stopping a a cheese and a chocolate factory on the way. The tour took all day, we tried over 50 wines and bought only 3, one of which we drank with lunch in the middle of the tour. West coast Australian red wine tastes like vulcanised rubber smells. The white was much much better though, so we got some of that. I never ate any chocolate in the factory. That makes it almost a year and a half since i indulged. In the brewery i made up for it though, sampling almost everything they made there! Too much wine and the big drive today saw us both in bed asleep by 9.30pm, half an hour later than the night before. Driving tires me out. White knuckle passenger sitting tires Jo out.

Tomorrow we start a 3 day drive thatll take us to Adelaide. We could go for 2 fourteen hour days but i dont know if i can be doing with all that. We could stop, but in the middle of the desert is... the middle of the desert. And nothing else.

Off to eat dinner now, sausages, beans and smash. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow. Jo refuses to eat any more sausages regardless how cheap they are and is opting instead for tinned Ravioli. Id rather starve. Or eat sausages forever.

Ill be coming at you next from sunny Adelaide.

On The Road - at last...

cjmurdoch — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:24:00 GMT

For a week now Jo and i have been feverishly searching for a suitable car to take us on our cross country voyage. We've looked in newspaper after newspaper, searched websites, and taken dozens of numbers off of all the backpacker notice boards weve encountered. Today, however, our search bore fruit! We found a sweet little Ford Falcon station wagon, going for far more than we'd planned to spend, in a car dealership not far from our hostel. Yesterday we went up to see her and decided that we'd just spend more than we thought and get her directly, no more messing about. The enthusiastic used car salesman held it until we'd gotten all insured and then today, this morning, we drove off in the mighty white beast and parked up right beside our hostel, ready to hit the road. Weve bought a jerry can and filled it up, filled up the cars tank that was bone dry when we collected the car, bought an enormous bottle (its more like a tank) of water, some musli bars, a 'new car smell' magic tree air freshener and tomorrow we buy the most important road tripping accessory - a guitar. With Jo as my navigator and personal troubador were gonna make our way down the coast to wine country, a little town called Margaret River. Or at least were gonna try - with Jo map reading i feel its more like a lucky dip where we end up but itll be an adventure either way. Fortunately the car is big enough to sleep in the back of, many people having told us that the back of a Falcon will accomodate a queen sized air bed, so if the worst comes to the worst, and weve succesfully navigated our way to precisely the middle of nowhere, we'll just bed down there.

We were supposed to be charity collecting all weekend. Huh... Charity. I hear it begins at home. Best that i stay there then, so as not to miss it.

Perth to Margret River, MR to Albany, Albany to Nullarbour, Nullarbour to Adelaide, then on to where were gonna spend the lions share of our Australian leg, Melbourne. Should take a week to ten days, will take a fortnight plus delays caused by bad driving and worse sense of direction.

Dont forget to see the snaps of the car, its a beauty. I think were going to spend tomorrow coming up with names for it. I like "Mighty White". Jo doesnt.

More soon.

Gallery: Ozdralia

cjmurdoch — Mon, 5 May 2008 13:37:00 GMT

In the Ghetto

cjmurdoch — Sun, 4 May 2008 13:19:00 GMT

Well, ive been getting lazy with this diary thing i can see now, and its time for a nice big update to get me back on track!

We spent a few more days on the Gili Islands and enjoyed plenty of sun, too much sea, and what felt like sand absolutely everywhere possible. I got sick and slept a day away, snoozing for a marathon 23 hours straight. When i came round i felt fairly awful and didnt eat for a couple of days but instead excisted on bananna milkshakes and bottled water.

The guys we met turned out to be truly brilliant travelling companions and there was seldom a dull moment to be had. Hatef, Shaan, Jay, Reed, Magan and Alina provided near non-stop entertainment and due to our numbers and the fact that the island was so small it only took 30 seconds before you bumped into someone, no planning involved. There was snorkling a plenty in the insistant sunshine which never relented, and then in the evening, by the beach, we ate like kings. One evening Jay ate a huge lobster banquet and it cost next to nothing... it looked goooood! I, being about as adventurous as a hermit with agoraphobia, always ate the same thing, three times a day, without fail. Nasi Goreng. This is fried rice with shredded chicken and vegetables through, a large prawn cracker and 2 peanut chicken satay skewers on the side. Excellent every time, it only costs about a pound for a portion thatll squash even the mightiest of hungers - a thing which i seemed to suffer from less than our travelling friends who, amazingly, ate 2 main courses for almost every meal.

We had the good fortune to be approached by an Australian fella while on the Gili Islands, who wanted nothing more than company aboard his 40ft catamaran while the sun set. Blimey, what a boat!! He is a mining man, into gold in China, but also works on the board of directors for a company in Indonesia and manufactures these amazing catamarans to spec first of all for himself, then after realising the market, for a little extra money and the bragging rights that go with being a tycoon - something the three servants aboard his yatch would suggest he is. It was lovely to sail out and see the sunset from the middle of the sea, whilst being served any drink we wanted, free, and all this guy Wayne wanted was an ear to bend about his exploits in the past. A very small price to pay for the 5 star treatment we recieved.

Jo and i had planned to part ways with the guys we'd met as they had almost a week left of their trip and we were due to fly two days later, but they all wanted to stick together and head back to Balis' Kuta beach as a group. There was an internalional DJ playing that night and everyone wanted to go see him so we got to spend our last nite in town with these guys which was great - the more the merrier is an expression made for just such an occasion. We went to a Forrest Gump theme restaurant and ate shrimp and drank cocktails, and ran up a bill that was literally seven figures, but it was good times and worth it as a last hurrah in a country where things are cheap and plenty cheerful. Jo and i woke early the next day to do some last minute shopping and succeded in buying total junk for about another million which we boxed up and shipped home as a treat to ourselves for when we arrive back. Thats the second big box of garbage weve sent home and i already cant remember the contents of the first we sent from China!! Itll be exciting to get back to im sure of that - i know there are for sure 6 pairs of shoes, 3 automatic watches and a guitar case but thats just the tip of the iceberg.

We left Bali, our new friends, and Indonesia for Bangkok, where we would connect with our flight to Australia. Sad that the third world leg of the trip was over, we boarded our flight and made our way to Perth where we landed just after midnight, and in the spirit of saving money i made Jo sleep on a bench in the airport until morning when we could go check in to a hostel and feel like winners who had saved some cash by being truly 'Murdoch' thrifty. And winners we were. A room for the night cost $70. Thats 4 days accom in a 4 star hotel in Bali. Damned Australians had crushed my spirits after only 20 minutes outside of the airport. When i discovered, very very shortly after, that a beer would be almost as expensive, i was on my way back to the airport, until Jo calmed me down and explained that although a beer cost $8, we'd soon have jobs that paid $24 an hour and that cushioned the blow. But only slightly.

Were staying in dorms now for the first time on this holiday and it isnt as bad as id nightmared it would be. It is, however, only marginally better. Than a concentration camp. In the grip of a particularly cruel winter. In Hell. Im a snob though and i know itll grow on me, this 'roughing it' business. As will the mould from all the dirty laundry and half eaten snacks scattered about the floor. But seriously - weve met some interesting people already. One of our room mates was a US Marine, one was our divemaster from Koh Tao in Thailand (a bizarre coinvidence), and the others are quiet Korean and Germans. Im on a top bunk.........

Weve been to the zoo here in Perth and seen the spectacle that was the 4 and a half meter salt water crocodile. What a beast. The only word i could possible use to describe it would have to be 'prehistoric', but 'evil' wouldnt be far off either, and would have certainly have done as good a job at putting my point across. Expect several thousand pictures of Giraffes and other various zoo beasts. We were pretty lucky with the lions - a lioness woke and stared prowling as we arrived and she went on to roar and roar whilst standing on top of an outcrop of rock, presumably to reinforce the stereotype that this is what lions are MEANT to do, before she went back to sleeping and looking like a stuffed imitation of a lion. I love zoos, but the next one i go to will be in San Diego - the biggest zoo on earth!! OOOOHHHHH!!!!!

A couple of days ago, having exhausted all that the city itself has to offer, we caught a train to the town of Fremantle. There are loads of museums, cafes and markets there and we went to most of them. The real reason to go to Fremantle though is the enormous submarine on permanent display on the dry dock at the museum of maritime history. Its a big'n. We were allowed a full tour too, and spent over an hour poking around inside that giant metal cigar with a very enthusiastic tour guide who apparently know all there is to know about the 'Submarine Ovens'. Thats the name of the sub, not the kitchen based focus of his knowledge. There would have been some great snaps today too, had the zoo not emptied the battery so completely that the camera was still charging when we set off, forcing us to miss out on the photo bonanza presented to us. This mighty sub, now decomissioned, was hauled out of the water and last used on the 13th of December, 1995. My 12th birthday.

Jo and i have registered with a couple of agencies to work here in Perth for a few weeks, just to get some cash toward a better car. It isnt going well. Infact, at one of the agencies, it isnt going at all. The other on the other hand has loads of jobs and keeps insisting that we arent getting into the spirit of things. Things that we arent getting into the spirit of include olive picking in the middle of nowhere, olive oil bottling a little further away than that, and a job on an island suitable for a couple of 'Jack and Jill of all trades'. In the spirit of things though Jo expresed interest online for 2 jobs yesterday, one of which said 'works part time needed, doing jobs.' . The other had less information to give but promised a handsome salary for the right applicant. I doubt, however, that anyone is the right applicant.

Today i found a new low. Jo is laughing her ass off even as i write this. Damned Jo. The 1,2,3,4, used to be marine core, fella who sleeps in our room, told us that, although American and therefore not allowed to work in Oz, he had a job that paid cash in hand daily for just standing around. Fascinated by both doing nothing for money, and certainly being given any money at all, Jo and i were interested enough to say wed also like to have a bash at this wonderful job. This job. Collecting money for charity. Charity. tut tut tut. Of the money we collect we recieve 35% and thats the deal. The government take 15%. The organisers take 20%. That leaves a pokey little 30% for the poor charity itself, but thats not the biggest tragedy, honestly id be amazed if they ever saw a dime. The biggest tragedy is that this job, if put in the right spot, gives you the chance for some serious earning. The girl who made the most today took home over $400. I, being as it was my first day and im a big guy who can apparently take care of himself, was placed outside a supermarket geared towards the terminally destitute, three doors down from a minimum security insane asylum, in the back end of nowhere. The only people who donated any money were the wealthy ones who stumbled across this hellhole unawares and gave money as a nervous reaction to the violence and verbal barrages being banded around by the aboriginals.. One man claimed that the hollywood stars of this era had the answer to world peace. When i didnt ask him what that answer was he told me in no uncertain terms that, and i was to make no mistake about it, Jesus was the answer to all our problems, as hed overheard a very believeable guy saying that Jesus Saves, and that was that. Charity work... Not for the feint hearted. Jo on the other hand made wads of cash. While i was lucky to catch the coppers that were thrown at me, Jo was forming orderly cues of people who wanted to give her notes and make pleasant small talk. I actually heard someone outside the market where i was posted ask their friend is they wanted to go back to the sewers. The answer was yes, and off they went.

Tomorrow im going to become a furniture removal man, a frozen meat packer, a brick layer, or a labourer. Today im going to nurse some swolen feet. Yesterday, in the name of charity, i stood perfectly still, without pause, for 10 and a half hours. Jo is still laughing.

From here were gonna head South and see what we can see, but thats all job depending. Were buying a car and its looking like itll be a 13 year old Ford Falcon with 300,000km on her clock. What can you realy expect for five hundred pounds here though? Ozdralia is very expensive.

Ill be better at keeping you all posted as soon as we get somewhere with better proximity to the internet, this hostel has 4 of 4 computers on the blink. Fortunately there is a web cafe next door, and from here ill keep in touch!

Gallery: Indonesia

cjmurdoch — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:18:00 GMT

In In Donesia

cjmurdoch — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Having opted to book our accomodation online while in Thailand we avoided the hassle of finding a decent place to stay when we arrived here in Bali, and our hotel came with the added bonus of an airport transfer to make things even easier. A great place with a big pool, all the trimmings and a previously avoided luxury ; Air Con... This is the high life.

On our first day i enjoyed an hour long massage by the pool, courtesy of the ugliest massuse in the business. She could, however, crush a walnut in those tiny fists of hers and it was a brilliant massage as a result. While i was being pampered Jo got to talking to some of the other people by the pool and we were swept into a group of people going surfing, one of whom was an isntructor who was going to teach us all for free! Great fun it was too, with major bruising to most of my body, two shoulders that felt like theyd been pulled out of their sockets from all that paddling and enough water in my lungs to drown a hippopotamus. That said, were planning to do it again, but having gotten the hang of it after this first experience i feel there will be less punishment second time around. The guys we met during this experience have become travelling companions for Jo and i and we are now a group of 8. They are 6 students studying in Sydney, 4 of whom are American and far more pleasant than i knew Americans were possible of being.

Weve come to the Gili Islands, a small island chain off Bali, to dive, drink and lounge around watching movies at outdoor cinemas. The 6 newcomers are very taken with the place and were all going to stay here together until the 23rd when Jo and i must fly back to Bangkok to fly to Australia. A farce considering Australia is a stones throw from Bali.

Weve been diving again, seen dozens of turtles and other assorted marinelife, and tomorrow i intend to dive a sunken Japanese ship from WW2. There are plenty of snaps on their way but the internet here is painfully slow and i havent the patience or the money to persevere with picture loading until i return to Bali.

Indonesia is the best country yet. I love it here.

I love to read everyones comments on here, its a great way to stay on top of things back in the real world. Keep up the good work all of you.

Thank you.