Happy Christmas

"So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, a new one just begun..."

So in reply to the opener of Lennons 'Merry Christmas, War is Over' I could recap unquestionably the most eventful year of my life. One that started on cruches back on the Thai island of Koh Phangan, saw me learn to Scuba dive on Koh Tao, relax like there was no issues left to be dealt with left on earth in Koh Lanta. February saw an emotional fairwell to South East Asia and my Australian epic began in Perth (where England just gave up the Ashes). A little livin, a little workin, then a move on to Melbourne, a holiday on holiday if you will. The atmosphere was electric for the Commonwealth Games and I saw some great scenery before heading back for some more back packing in Thailand and Brunei.

On to Sydney where I would gain some employment and exploit living in New South Wales as much as possible; galleries, horse riding, beach days, bike riding and snowboarding to name a few. After my birthday in August I made my way North for the Winter, taking in the gems of the East Coast, diving from an aeroplane and a live-aboard boat on the Great Barrier Reef. Homeward bound through Auckland, finding something like paradise in the Cook Islands and then an amazing trip around California in my adopted V6 Mustang before enjoying my final days away from home in Manhattan.

That short break at home was almost enough to catch up with everyone before I headed back to Sydney via Dubai where I've been working, living and partying for the last 2 months... but anyone who reads regularly will know all that already. So a big thanks if you are one of those people, it means a lot whenever I get any feedback for what I've done, written or photographed.

I can't believe I'm sat here writing another Christmas blog entry already - I could say the year has flown by, but the blog at least serves to remind how much I packed into 2006.

So for 2007! I know I won't ever get a year as eventful as this last one, and if I get one half as so, then I'll be very lucky. I have a million and one ideas of what I'd like to achieve, but for now, I'm enjoying soaking up a little reality whilst I'm back in the working world.

Thanks again, best wishes for the festive season and the coming new year, may it be lucky and prosperous.

Yer old buddy, Luke

Thankyou!!

First 5000 hits...

Since April 2006, the hit counter for this website has been ticking, and has now clocked past 5000 hits... okay 4800 of them may have been me, and 183 my mum, but a big thanks to everyone that's taken the time out to have a read and look at my shenannigans. It's been way too much fun creating the stuff I've been writing about.

Cheers!

Black & White

Party Season,

After the amount of abuse self-served up last weekend, my intention for the week was to lay low. A task I think managed remarkebly well. A few nights in with a book, a night out at the IMAX with a great meal at Wildfire overlooking the Opera House and a long hard Friday where I managed to cull my usual Friday night habbit and instead take a night off the big time to play some 360... yeah, that's right - video games on a Friday night!

There was a deeper reason for all this other than just wussing out, the works Christmas party.


So after a morning shopping trip to Bondi Junction, we were ready get dressed up in monotone for the evenings procedings. You can guess the theme of the party from the pictures I'm sure, but then venue was filled with colour, as well as dozens of pool, fussball, pinball and air hockey tables for free-play. Wine, Champagne and several beers were freely available along with canopes and side-show style food stalls.

A live band played out some hits, while some Cirque-Du Soleil dancers took centre point in the pavillion twirling up and down their ribbons in sync.

After much smoozing, boozin and eatin the food, all was left to do was dance the night away...

A quick trip into Kings Cross capped off a great fun night for all, though with that much bubbly consumed, I'm pretty sure there were to be some headaches the next morning.

After sleeping out most of the AM part of Sunday, I spoke to a mate on the phone who informed of how great the weather outside was - sure enough I had a peek and the Blue sky contracted my pupils quicker than a typical English Ashes innings (which is pretty quick).

Out of bed like a kid at Christmas, I headed down to Coogee beach for a sun bake and dip. Az, Jazz and Vards were all down there so we had some time to reflect on a great night out at the Hordern.

Righ after that, myself and Aaron headed off for some Lawn Bowls to see out the sunny afternoon in possibly the most relaxing sporting style. There we met a whole bunch of other friends where we ate BBQ snacks, and sipped down on some $9 jugs of beer.

Another Sunday dinner session at the palace put the curtains down on another great weekend.

Buy it in Bottles

House Warmer, Sydney

In a single week I managed to partake in three sporting passtimes. Sunday Squash, Wednesday Tennis followed by another first for me; Thursday Netball. A sport I'd always known was predominantly played by girls and non-contact at that... I still managed to give myself mild concussion when I collided with some dudes shoulder in the 1st half of the 1st game. I soldiered on, but 5minutes later I could see nothing but a yellow blur in my left eye so decided that without depth perception, I was probably no good to anybody. I saw out the rest of the game from the sidelines, but was back for game no.2 where I ran myself ragged in the Centre position. Game No.3 and my week of sports was taking it's toll, though I just about managed to see it through till full time. Blistered and without so much of an arch under my feet, I heavy footed it home with my partner in sporting crime, Azz.

So came the weekend, a slightly spontaneous Friday night with work mate Paul followed by my house warming party on Saturday.


A great little turnout made it considering how short a time I've been here, the songs played out as the mid afternoon sun warmed us, Decca made his way in to town too. I showed the Ozzies how to do a real BBQ (ie. coals rather than gas) English style... snags with one side blackened for effect ;) Later on the party left and carried on at the Coogee Beach Hotel in to the early hours. A Sunday of sore heads and sizzlin' sunshine followed. Not a highly productive day other than the hosing down of the appartment - looking a little worse for wear before the cleaning began.


The weekend played out with a Christmas dinner at Aarons place, with a few Poms in the house, we had a pretty traditional meal courtesy of Mick and Chris cooking up all the usual meats, stuffing, veg and of course Xmas pudding and mince pies for dessert. Note: Due to my over relaxed mood, my camera recieved very little use... though I will try and source some more pics from other people for this post.

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Homebake, Sydney

Another weekend rapidly fell upon me, and with it the associated celebratory Friday night drinks that drifted from the relatively upper class ECQ bar (not far from the Opera House) to the other end of the slider - at the Coogee Beach Hotel, a haunt as old as my time in Sydney. I did however register a personal first, in managing to get thrown out of the said establishment for being too drunk. I still to this minute have no idea how the door monkeys worked this out (I'd not even had that much to drink), since I'd been sitting down chatting for the majority of the evening, and had strolled up to the mensroom, before emerging back out into the bar to be greeted with my marching orders.

So Saturday was all set to be a better day than Friday. I managed to get a last minute ticket to Homebake, a 1 day music festival that dedicates its time slots to, as you can kinda guess from the name, home made acts (Australian & Kiwi). Myself and Aaron rolled up and met up with some friends before settling into a rambunctuous afternoon/evening routine. Though the heavens opened and gave the crowd the best of an English festival, we still partied on through to some great acts.

It was quite a different festival for me in that I'd never seen a single act before and was generally able to judge each act on their own merits rather than pre-told media plauditry. A hip-hop kiwi outfit called Scribe sounded great, Butterfly Effect gave me a good taste of Queensland rock before we made it to see a band I was more than familiar with. Loving a couple of their albums though, I thought the Vines sounded a little off, and the set-list didn't seem to do too much to get the crowd pumped. That said, the big-top tent they played in did offer us shelter as heavy rains bore down again on The Domain.

With the outlook a little clearer, we plodded on to see the climax of the evening; Eskimo Joe and Silverchair. Both of which delivering high quality live performances before the night was capped off with some low quality culinary McDelights.

With the weather really not doing it for us this weekend, all was left to do was have a good old fashioned English Sunday... Xbox 360, some great pizzas in Randwick followed by Borat at the movies.

Christmas Bells

1st day of advent...

"Today is the first day of Summer"

A quote I heard from a co-worker on the phone today - the 1st December; the first time I have ever heard those words spoken on the 1st December! Normally a day I always associated (at least as a kid) with the first day I got a chocolate before breakfast...

So as Sydney gears itself up for the festive season; I find myself really not feeling it. I've already worked out that I'm going to have to discover Christmas all over again whilst I'm here - as everything that is Christmas back home, is pretty much non-existant here. For instance I probably won't get to watch Home Alone or National Lampoons Christmas Vacation once, let alone 4-5 times!

But things are starting to come together, the works Christmas do is coming up, a couple of other Christmas engagements are planned. Though despite listening to Wham's "Last Christmas" on my iPod the other day, I'm still not really 'there' yet.

Nine2Five

Sydney, Australia

To my relief, I started my new contract last Wednesday. The first day couldn’t have been a fresher breath of air. Some great little touches to make working more of a pleasure than a chore, there’s unlimited soft drinks, fruity & biscuity snacks and on a Friday night or special occasion – the magic fridge loaded with beers, wines and girls fizz. Not to mention a great team atmosphere and an ethos that encourages imaginative ideas.

The building itself is pretty amazing, it won some kind of Green award for it’s innovative design; solar responsive blinds that block rays entering the building at key times of the day, a worm farm on the roof so the buildings organic waste never leaves the area and a funky water cooling system that negates the need for Air Conditioning throughout the entire building; with exception of the IT data room, which itself is show-cased to visitors with glass walls surrounding a series of LED ridden black server racks. The office is in Sydneys 'Rocks' area which sits on the South side of the Harbour bridge, a nice spot with water views and the open top tourist buses humming by every hour or so.

So with a first day ending in a meal out on Darling Harbour with the team, I was comfortable I was going to enjoy my stay here. The week was bettered even more with the copany quarterly party - a warehouse across the street hired out with bands playing while employees drink yet more free drinks!

That evening set the tone for a weekend of ease... a BBQ on Saturday out in the lovely suburbian part of Paddington, another BBQ and beach day at Bronte for Sunday, before an evening session at the Coogee Beach Palace capped off the weekend.

Call the Police

Sydney, Australia

Thankfully, the inevitable was confirmed on Tuesday when I got the call offering me the new position. Just a little pleased with myself I handed in my 7days notice and went back to work.

A working week followed of catching up with sleep, making preparations for moving into my new place and a pretty random night in the Cooge; dinner followed by several beers and the most dismal performance in a quiz I think I've ever managed. 8 out of 30! But a laugh it was. After that the CBH was playing host to a swimsuit show, which we figured since we were locals and all, we should support this sort of event. We rolled up as the show was about to begin only to find out that it had been postponed, they were kind enough to pour us a free drink for the inconvenience!

With Friday night, came cause for celebration. As well as Aarons birthday, it was my final day at my short-lived employment with the State Government Department. A shame really as with this session, I found I was starting to get to know some of the people I had been working with.

I ran over the 7pm deadline for meeting with my room mates so found myself burning the pavement as I made a cross city dash to a Teppenyaki restaurant.

I arrived at the restaurant as everyone else did, so all that was left to do, was relax with an Asahi and get my catching arm ready for some projectile food throwing. The chefs emerged with hungry audience before them. There were around 18 of us eating the Jap-style banquet.

Some huge prawns kicked off the meal, and after the first taste, we knew the evening was going to be a success. Though as the delicious foods were served, they eventually made way for the flying food varieties; mainly egg and rice. Pretty soon after the chef had thrown some cooked egg, Jarrad (Aarons bro) decided start picking people off with raw eggs, and so began the food fight…

Aaron copped the overwhelming majority of the missiles, and struggled to make many return hits through the convulsions of laughter that had infected him...

Some of the party left as we headed off for a few more drinks, (though after smelling my clothes the morning after, I’m surprised we got in anywhere!) which got progressively more, err, well progressive I guess. The core party whittled down to just two in the end, with Aaron putting out his best moves on a dance floor who’s only other dancer was a 70yr old dude that seemed to be going a bit mental to a Stones cover of ‘Satisfaction’… some headaches were to follow the next day.

Indeed they did, just when the Summer seemed to be showing up. I technically had to move out that Saturday, and though I made some effort, I only managed to get half my stuff to my new residence before it was time to party the night through all over again. This time, in 70’s attire. After some diversions, we arrived at the party in full swing (swingin’ 70’s style that is).

A psychedelic night followed. The guys shirts and ladies attire were truly amazing (if that’s the word?!) and of course, I could wear ‘the rug’ out with pride!

Stumbling in at some unearthly hour, we had partied hard this weekend – more an accomplishment for Aaron whom also just made it into the exclusive ‘Club 27’; he had to go to work on Monday, where, for me, I would just get to laze in the sun… or at least as much as I could in between running around getting the final things ready for my new room.

I did however get to the beach on Tuesday afternoon to soak up some D, before going home, only to look forward to a life of work once more…

Come Back Brighter

Another New Job, Sydney

Late last week, after a couple of days settling into my new job, I got a few calls from various recruitment people that I'd either dealt with the previous week or some of the stragglers a little too late to help. Except one. Jordan called me to ask if I was interested in a roll at a well known contruction firms flagship office in Sydney. Having heard about the company before, I was interested in knowing some more about the role and so went on with the conversation.

3days fast forward, and I'm running from my office near Town Hall to the underground train at 11.35am. Out at Wynyard station I carried on into the Rocks and onto the road the company is based on. My brief map research however had only showed me one side of the crescent shaped road which loops from one side of the harbour bridge to the other. I was walking for 25minutes, around 12more than I actually had to play with before the start of my big interview. I made an advanced call to apologise and things seemed okay once I met with the gents conducting the interview.

Over tea & coffee overlooking the harbour, they fired questions, and I answered them. It all seemed to go very well. Then it was time to make the dash back downtown from my "lunch with friends". I guess I should have tried harder to uphold the lie, but I couldn't resist walking back into the office with a fruit smoothie and slice of cake - which incidentally, no-one clocked considering they all knew where I'd "been". Several hours later, I received a call to tell me that the feedback from the interview had been "very good". My weekend was set to be a good one, with just my final offer to come through before I could throw in the towel early at my tedious role in State Government.

A typical Sydney Summer weekend followed; well, to be honest it started on Thursday night, carried on Friday through till Tuesday after the U2 gig.

Saturday was absolutely stunning though, and with the Sun, I helped Aaron with the pool maintenance in the morning before heading down to Coogee Beach at lunch time for a beachside BBQ and Frisbee-fest.

We tried to do the same on Sunday, but at Bronte beach. The weather was not as good and cloud cover kept things cooler than we’d wished. We did however make it to "Go-Low"! No, not a limbo institution, but a cheap shop selling all kinds of magical stuff. We picked up some inflatables for the pool, a hand saw, some chocolates and a santa hat. All for pennies! Random stuff you may think, and I'd have to agree, but the hand saw did help us massacre the neighbours tree overhanging the pool (it'd been dropping blossom and leaves in the pool clogging the filter, not just cos we were in a destructive mood!). When we were done, things were much better, and of course we got to feel like real men for all that sawing we'd done!

Help the Aged

Telstra Olympic Stadium, Sydney

A day waiting – First thing in the morning, I got to wait for 40minutes for a bus that never showed up, I had to walk into the nearest town to catch a trip to work making me an hour late – something about a union dispute with the buses. Despite being an hour shorter than most other days, work ticked by at it’s usual slow pace, though I was anticipating the U2 show that evening at one of the main sites I’d yet to get to in Sydney.

At 5 o clock I made my way to Central to catch a train to Olympic Park. I was made to wait again as the ATMs had huge queues - I got sick of the waiting and walked around to the Olympic Aquatic centre where I got cash instantly. Then it was time to play drinking catch up with Decca and his friends in the short time left before entering the gig.

Down at pitch level, I walked in to the arena with Kanye West bangin’ out some tunes, he was pretty good in fairness – mixing his rap hits with some dance mixes to keep the performance flowing with flare.

A drinks break between West and the main feature, and then the ageing rockers finally made it from the retirement home to the stage. Hyper on Jack and Coke, the first few numbers were up tempo and got the best response from the crowd all night. A little way in they slowed the show to their own comfortable pace which was nice while they performed classics like “With or Without You” & “One” but with the show lasting 2½ hours, this neutral fan was getting a bit bored. The band made several 3 song encores before finally leaving the Sydney Stage for the final time of the weekend.

It was a good show, don’t get me wrong, but compared to the last time I saw the band 10 years ago at Wembley, they just didn’t have enough mojo to keep me interested in the stage… though maybe because this time they didn’t have a huge lemon on stage – aside from Bono – just jokin’ of course. Thank goodness for Pies, Jack Daniels and Kanye West – and good company more over…


All was left was to stand behind about 45,000 people lining up to get into the train station… Home at 1.30am on a school night… I could see work being a bag of fun the following day.

Real Life

Melbourne Cup Day, Sydney

For my regular blog readers, you might recall my last view from my desk was of the Opera House; this time is not quite so glamorous in that I can see Woolworths (and also, the Town Hall Clock)! So, a little further South in the central business district of Sydney, I’ll get to learn about all of the culture and history (also read “restaurants and bars”) of a new area.

My 2nd day was also Melbourne Cup day, “The Race that Halts the Nation”. A new projector had been installed to coincidentally be ready for the big race as the majority of the department crowded the board room to watch the grand 3200m horse race. I had a few bucks placed on a couple of nags in the company sweepstake and as luck would have it, one of mine – Pop Rock came in 2nd place earning me an 8-1 return on my $2! Sweet.

After the food and drinks in the afternoon, work was pretty laid back throughout the afternoon as most of Australia stayed in party mode. It’s quite a strange atmosphere seeing so many people in a city where the event isn’t even staged, dressed up to the nines in suits, dresses and hats.

Synaesthesia

Sydney, Australia

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to arrive in Sydney 3months and 1week prior to the day you must cease work in Australia, find a 3month contract and begin working to start funding the rest of your life.

Failure to do so, will result in, well, a good old fashioned loss of earnings I suppose. Best of luck old bean…

So after dropping my things off, I headed into the city to begin the search. A quick visit to my old employer, and then applying for anything vaguely suitable I could on the internet job search engines.

My first day or two were fairly fruitless, except for finding a few hours each afternoon to fall asleep as the jetlag tried to haul me back to Europe. Then, some phone calls started coming in, and then an interview for the Monday, however – most jobs were of a much shorter period than I really required – but anything’s better than nothing I reckon.

An easy weekend followed; a Halloween party at my old friends Julian & Dave’s place, a trip back to Copacabana to visit Decca, to enjoy his housemate’s birthday party and bring my old belongings back to Sydney. Sunday saw the welcome return of the Sun, by lunch time we were sat out on the deck sunning ourselves.

Monday, and my first interview – a long and stifling journey out West suited and booted – not much fun, I managed to choke on one of the questions leaving me pretty frustrated and downtrodden for the rest of the day. A couple of other meetings followed in the week though if anything, the market seemed to be getting more stagnant.

Luckily the 1st November rolled round, and everyone decided to start recruiting! I had a barrage of calls, and arranged a few meetings and interviews – one of which while I was taking a rare couple of hours out to get sunned on Bondi beach!

Thursday the 2nd November – exactly 3months until my VISA runs out, I had all but dismissed the idea of getting a 3month contract, and instead was thinking I’d be getting several shorter term contracts. At 10am I sat an interview, it went well and within an hour I was working! Mainly just induction stuff, but I got paid for the interview, and got all that dull stuff outta the way so I could hit the ground running on Monday morning. The best news, was that my Australian job hunting is now over with and I have employment until my last workable day here! Lucky!

My final weekend, and days off of an epic year rolled around. Still not the richest guy on the planet, I managed to end up in an old favourite; the Slipp Inn, that was serving FREE beer till 9pm as part of it’s annual Summer party, where fire dancers performed in the beer garden, where, ironically enough, it rained too.

Dune Buggy

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The UAE consists of 7 Emirates (these are pretty much like States) and is just a short flight South of war-torn Iraq… though in saying that – it’s across a Gulf and there is no such trouble here. Dubai is a growing city – and growing fast. The Arabs are very keen not to be outdone by any other city and will basically stop at nothing to get one over on old New York, London, Sydney or Tokyo; the new ‘world’s tallest building’ is on it’s way up right now.

As I rode a cab ride from the airport to my friend Kats parents house, the citys skyline imposes itself on you – twinkling lights shining out from as many ‘in-construction’ skyscrapers as complete ones. Aside from very regular 30+ temps, Dubai’s got a heck of a lot that I'd never realised; Beachs, Advanced Sporting Facilities, Museums, Big Malls, Many tourist attractions, a huge club scene – as well as the stuff I did realise; sand, very plush hotels and one of the worlds most advanced indoor snowdomes.

After an evening settling after the flight with a BBQ and drinks, Monday gave me a jam packed day of fun. First off, I got to dust off ‘The Stud’ at ‘Ski Dubai’s’ 400metres of two slopes (one regular and one expert) with Kat. Perfectly groomed, no ice, a café half way down the slope, a quad seat chair lift as well as the enormous luxury Mall of Emirates underneath and sideways-on to the huge dome complex – so big it has aircraft warning lights fitted to the roof and a multi-story car park - underneath.

I started with a slightly shaky first run, but then started to gain my ‘snowfeet’. Riding my own board and gear for the first time since April 05 felt extremely satisfying! The two slopes off have several natural humps and bumps that you can pop the board off, with long landing zones – surprisingly empty at most times of my session. I think I needn’t say much more about how much I enjoyed this, since it is after all, snowboarding; my favourite past-time.

After this we met with Kats family for some traditional Dubai Kebabs followed by some ice cream, that, once I’d finished made me feel a little sick – though only due to the quantity I ate. However, the feeling of sickness would last well through the afternoon.

Arabian Nights Tours picked us up for the desert safari tour; a Toyota Landcruiser, the vehicle of choice. We arrived at ‘Big Red’, a huge mountainous looking sand-dune where some of the air pressure was let out of the cars tyres. Then, BAM! What I thought would be just another 4x4 sand dune tour; our driver, who never actually introduced himself (I’ll call him Ali for arguments sake) was possessed by Satan himself. The cars front wheels literally leaving the sand on one occasion, sliding sideways with the cars axis well off and near-misses of other tour cars quickly becoming the norm. As fun as it was (I do still have a grin on my face writing this), I was actually more scared at moments of this ride, that at any point of my skydive back in August. As we finished up with the scary stuff, the red Sun set over the dessert… but not completely before we had to pull another tour car out of a tight situation.

A quick visit to a camel farm, and then onto an almost traditional market where we could fulfil all our Arabian dreams… except maybe flying a magic carpet or finding a genie in a lamp. The site offers the guest the chance to drink Arabian coffee, smoke Shiesh (Apple, Pear or Orange flavour tobacco) through a large water bong, get Henna, ride a camel, dress up like an Arabian, eat traditional food, watch and take part in a belly dancing show and of course, buy souvenirs. Aside from the last option, we did the lot – my henna experience was a little disappointing though, I asked for a star – thinking I’d get an emo inspired design. What I got was a quick entrance to the witching club on my left ankle (I’m pretty sure the woman doing it wasn’t the spawn of the devil though). I guess I should’ve just gone for ‘Love’ & ‘Hate’ on my knuckles instead…

After digging the other tour car out delaying us, we got back home pretty late after the tour, and with an early flight for me the next morning, we had to leave the club-night till another day.

I packed up my snowboard, clothes, plus new & old backpack contents and said my thanks & goodbyes. As I got a taxi back to the airport, I got to see much of the city for the first time in daylight, and I have to give the Arabians credit for city beautification. Considering the task, so many streets are lined with grass & flowers, with monstrous skyscrapers standing like giants. One road has nothing but two parallel rows of skyscrapers – which almost look as if a set square was used to get them so straight and orderly. I would really recommend Dubai, I’ll definitely return some day to try out all the other stuff on offer like the 7* Burg hotel at around £1000 per night… well, maybe.

Pretty soon, I was back where I’ve been on average once every 2 weeks for a little over a year – flight no.28 in 54 weeks – and this was the longest one too.
I’m beginning to believe in air-karma. On my flight to Dubai I got the typically worst seat on an airplane – in the middle of 3 people, with the seat in front constantly reclined for my discomfort! This time I got lucky seat 25A – the one at the front of the economy rows with all the leg room and a much better tv screen – as well as the window seat without the inconvenience of having to move the person next to you each time you want to get up. 15 hours later, plus another 6hours ahead in international time zones, I landed back in Sydney at sunrise Wednesday, jumped straight in a cab and headed for my new home. Randwick is the next town inland from the beach town I stayed at last time; Coogee, so it’s an area I’m already more than familiar with.

Inbetween Days

I've learned a lot in a year. Thankfully, I learned from my last big exit from the UK, to get certain stuff done in plenty of time to keep stress levels down around the final evening and morning of the flight. With all my packing complete, I just had odds and ends to organise on my final Saturday evening.

I visited Lakeside & Grays, where the Christmas shopping public was out making the roads and the shopping experience the pits! I was glad to be outta there. A quick visit to say g’bye to the Norringtons, then I was like Chris Rea – ‘Drivin’ home for Christmas’! I arrived home for dinner with my family and unexpectedly, it was Christmas dinner with festive trimmings to make up for this, my 2nd consecutive Christmas away from home. Thanks mum!! Dad then dug out some old-skool family slides as we drank wine and enjoyed the evening together.

Emotional goodbyes are becoming far too common in my life right now, and saying goodbye to Megan, Sian and Grandma kicked off this trips tearful farewells. In the morning, it was mums turn, as Tim drove dad and I to Gatwick’s North Terminal. A Sausage bap, cup of tea then the three of us were saying good bye too.

Up on Emirates flight EK012, I had a huge and tasty lunch as I worked my way through the movie list on my way to Dubai and my short 1 day stopover before heading back to Sydney.

This is the Land

One Tree Hill - Essex
I couldn't really come home without a trip to the legendary One Tree Hill. Way before someone shamelessly stole its name for a lousy TV show, One Tree Hill could compete with all the worlds major landmarks that you may have seen here on my blog in the past 12 months.

If you come at the right time of year (Spring) you will see a sea of Bluebells, come in the winter, and you might get a chance to go sledding down the hallowed hillsides like most residents of Thurrock may have done at some stage in their lives. But come any other time of the year, and you might just spot a few black bin liners, empty aerosol cans and if you're real lucky - a burnt out motor!

Just messing of course, some great walks and cool memories are up here from years gone by growing up in the area... dammit I'm getting sentimental again!

Living For The Weekend

The weekend finally landed, a Friday night out in the city took us around Tower Hill & Covent Garden... The blogger is taking a rest so I'll leave you with the pictures ;)

Shrek showed up afterall...

Paul, Mark, Joe, Matt, Craig, Blane, Steve & Andy joined me for the event...

What a hoot, cheers boys - until next year!

After a mild hangover during Saturday, it was time to head over the Thames to Gravesend to meet up with the old Customs & Excise crew:

So it was great to see old James, Natalie, Wal, Gary, Vicky, Am, Danny, Bev, Sooty, Neil... in fact - everyone. A bottle and a half of Cab Sav and I was toast...

These Streets

Essex, UK

At approximately 6.05am, Sunday the 8th of October, a stranger passed through passport control at London Heathrow. After 359days away, I returned back to England.

Dad hadn't arrived yet as I landed 20minutes early, so as a novelty, I went and met him. So good to finally see the old man, we had a long hug and then set about the leisurely drive around the M25 to a place I call home.

I walked in through the back of the house, noticing that the grass seemed way greener than it ever had before - the plants in bloom as if it were late Spring rather than Autumn, as normal as it would be making this walk, my home since day 1, felt extremely different. I walked in and mum stepped off the staircase. A minute or so later - we actually spoke to each other after a long hard hug.

The house seemed smaller than it ever felt before, and the next shock was awaiting me in my room. For 12months, I lived out of one 85litre black backpack, suddenly, I realised how much stuff I actually own - I can't even begin to describe what a feeling this was.

Next up my sister and neice came running up to No.57. As I saw Megan for the first time, she didn't say a word until I did - I guess apprehensive that her Uncle Luke might not in fact be, her Unkle Luke. With Megan now up on my right shoulder, I gave her and Sian a long embrace. She'll thank me for writing this, but Sian wiped away a tear or two before we could carry on...

Megan, Sian and myself took a little mid morning trip over to Wat Tyler Park, a nature preserve not to far from home and spent the time drinking tea, and playing on the kids playground.

With Sunday Roast came Grandma. She wasn't too sure when I was due back, so we left it a surprise to find me sat in my usual place at the end of the Sunday dinner table. "Oooh" she remarked seconds after she'd sat down, before I gave her the customary greeting.

Not too many people knew I was back in England, so I'd take great delight in surprising everyone I knew in the next few days. As well as getting a whole bunch of stuff organised, some long overdue catch up sessions with good friends took up most of my evenings this week, finally culminating in a great trip into London with Claire to see an amazing Paolo Nutini in concert.

Nearly a week on, and I'd come to realise what home is. Not so much the bricks and mortar that I'd stomped around since 1979, but my good family and friends - for whom I'm so grateful to have.

Twilight

New York

After drinking a little too late for our own good, we didn't get up till the most of the morning had vanished (again!). Todays first port of call was the American Museum of Natural History. The top half of the sphere you see in the picture is home to the museums planetarium, which I'd really recommend - the audio and visuals are both stunning, and there's plenty to learn too!

Lisa left me early to go to a class, so after I'd finished exploring the museums wings (mainly concentrating on the deep sea exhibits - an interest freshly born of my recent diving experiences), I took a long & easy walk down to the hustle and bustle once again.

With New York being the final stop on my grand itinery, it was time to get in some presents. On 5th avenue I found nearly everything I needed before once again being lured down to 42nd Street by the bright lights of Times Square. I took a similar picture as the one here last time, and noticed that absolutely everything barring the restaurants and skyscrapers had changed in 3 years. It's amazing how many tourists pack in down in the part of town when there is so much else to enjoy in this city, though I won't complain - it keeps those better spots all the quainter for me!

I jumped back on board the subway to 125th street to get ready for another NYC night.

Back down to one of my new favourite hangouts in the world; Greenwich Village for another evening of mischief.

After trying to go to the Guggenheim Museum the day previous but being denied by their 'Closed Thursdays' rule, we returned on Friday. Slightly disappointingly, the buildings unique exterior was covered for renovation work, luckily inside everything was still on show including the unique spiral system that houses the exhibits of this gallery.

A little different to the MoMA, the Guggenheim has a majority exhibition that changes on a fairly regular basis. As well as this work, we had the chance once again to see some more great work by Picasso et al - as well as the superbly named 'Lucio Fontana'!

On trying to take the subway, we found it a little more packed than usual - the train stopped in a station for 15 minutes before they announced that the NYPD had closed off another station as a security procedure, so we had to hit the streets with hundreds of other people to make our way into the main part of the city. It was though a pretty cool way to see Lexington Avenue with all it's funky shops and typical NYC architecture.

Out 3rd and 42nd, the shopping was a little more cosmopolitan and way less crowded - I was gutted to find this so late in my trip! But with money dwindling, it was time to move on back away from the stores.

One final night, one final meal, 'Citrus' the venue. Absolutely delicious Thai food, that I couldn't bare to leave on the plate.

But when all the food was eaten, and all the wine was drunken, it was time to take my final nights sleep in a foreign country.

My final morning spent local to the apartment, a walk up past a street market, pancakes for breakfast in Tom's Restaurant (Seinfeld), and then a wander down through the Riverside Park, parallel to the Hudson River. The sun was out again and made the mood all the more colourful.

Before I knew it, a cab was dropping me at John F Kennedy airport, I was waving goodbye to Lisa and I'd cleared my final security check.

It seemed fitting that the sun should be setting as my United flight taxied its way to the end of the runway at JFK airport. My final takeoff was to be the most emotional, with two conflicting interests of everything and everybody I was leaving behind me in an epic year of my life, and of the family and friends I was now so close to seeing again for the first time in so long.