GAP YEAR 2... going around and looking at stuff

Mad City

2006-07-31T04:00:00.000Z

hello from Madison, WI (see pic) thats a pic from wikipedia.

been having a nice time with the Pollasch Family here... muchos grandos. i'm currently trying to write this blog while watching the history channel (about the WW2 - very interesting but distracting. i could just turn it off but i'm of the MTV generation so i like to have flashing, fast moving images and loud noises going on around me all the time)

so since the last entry...

had a cool time in the big D... went to the sixth floor museum where President Kennedy was shot from (according to some people anyway... those some people include me and most people with more than six teeth) and just generally hung out with shannon and her friends. i ate mexican, and sub way, ben and jerrys. bit silly in that i mis-calculated my leave date... and ended up moving up to chicago a day early. got the train up... took 22 hours but the trains where fairly lush... had lots of leg room. arrived in chicago with not really sure how i was getting to madison (3/4 hours away) if i was getting picked up or if i had to sort my own way... so after calling mother i sorted out a bus and got her to inform the P's of my arrival.

in madison... i've been shopping. prices are like half here... got two pairs of Levi's for about 25quid... not bad. went to see a baseball game yesterday (understand the rules... rather like rounders but with bigger sticks) and went out on andys friends boat... tried wake boarding (like water skiing) but wasn't all that successful... was thinking it would be alot easier... but with out explaining all the physics of it it's actually hard to stand up on water from lying on water while being towed at 15-20mph. was fun anyway... got lots of water up my nose. then we went tubing (where you tow a glorified big inner tube behind the boat while you hold on to two handles stuck to the tube for dear life... while being towed at like 14,000 mph... or there abouts) was v fun but completely knackers out your arms (that today feel like they could just do something odd at anytime -like play a violin say) was so humid too and having forgotten to bring any water and by the end of the day was starting to see all the world with oily bright colours swirling where there shouldn't be bright oily swirling colours.

also went to Six Flags theme park and had fun there with some guys from my course in NZ. did some insane roller coaters but i realised that i'm becoming a middle aged man trapped in a 20 year olds body when i started thinking that the really hard core ones where just a little too rough for me and i perfere the smooth nice ones (of course i did the hard core ones anyway just to prove my hard coreness - not that my hard coreness was ever in doubt)

well off to NY tomorrow... only there a matter of hours before i'm get me flight home... back to blighty... after the best part of 9 months. yay. only 28 hours to go... nice.

i have to go now... (the battery in this PC is about to quit...) i will write one more post... from home in a day or so with some exciting gap year 2 facts!... if you like facts you'll like a fact book... and my last post)

thanks for following, Simon x

Guns & Beaches & Hollywood life

2006-07-20T23:44:00.000Z

hello,

sorry a little long on the gaps between blogs recently.

FIJI

well i survived in fiji (with all my stuff) had a relaxing time on the beach, at a backpackers resort that they're about to develop into a 5* resort. so it was quite a nice location... ended up, my friend Katja from finland, who was on my bible college with me, was out there too (starting work there soon) so she came and hung out with me on the island for a few days. which was cool... she's a professional advertisement photographer... trained in Rome and has lived all over the world. so i got a few lessions from her in the joys of photography (actually took some rather nice photo's in the end... tho i thing the thousands of pounds worth of camera and equiptment may have played a small part...) so now i have a nice collection of 23mega pixel photos of fiji (and some from NZ too)

just hung around on the beach for a week mainly. was very odd to go from living 24/7 with a group of people, in the freezing cold, working really hard to... being all on my own (the first few days), in the heat, doing nothing on a beach. was cool but took me a few days to get used to. was nice.. met a few cool people... a trainee doctor fella from london and his bird where cool peeps and rather funny (if you ask me) and some random others.

was quite funny on the way back to the airport i left some of my stuff in some of katja's friends house (a fijian family) so that i could go into town to the internet cafe and buy some trinkits. and when i arrived i was invited into the garden where they interrigated me to find out who i was and what was my relationship to katja - was quite random and funny (especially as she is like 35 so i'm basically half her age - oops)

LA

well LA was a bit of a dump... my hostel turned out to be about 30seconds from the kodak theatre (where they do the oscars) and just off hollywood blvd. (where they have all the stars with the names of the famous actors) didn't see anyone famous but saw lots of mad/drunk and crazy men waling about on the street. hollywood is insane it's so so rich and so poor at the same time just walking down the street there are people dressed as superman, a man with a sign that he was the messiah, a big armish choir, people doing break dancing and just loads of randoms. very odd place.

GREYHOUND

the greyhound trip across america was fine (quite cool to see the scenery) a few nutters on the bus but hay. not a bad 36 hour bus trip (in the words of monty pythons' black knight - "i've had worse") (actually one of the guys who came to pick me up from the station in dallas thought it'd be safer to bring his gun with him to pcik me up (it's ok he had a concealed weapons licence!) infact i was gonna go to a shooting range with him this eve but i think his work over ran so will have to wait for another day to shoot pictures of osama bin landen. hay ho... life goes on.

DALLAS

so i'm here staying with shannon & co. for a few days which is fun... was barraged with millions of england questions last night... so managed to teach them most of the swear words (giving someone two fingers is fine over here! hehe! they just think your saying peace) been eating lots of junk food, which is nice. (the madness... basically a bucket of coke is like 99c. here, crazy!) going to the JFK museum soon... driven past the famous grassy knoll several times.

it;s hot here at the moment (i hear the same on both sides of the atlantic!) but i'm sorry to say i think here is hotter, 110 degrees F i'm told plus the air is hot so when you open you window on the car you just get heat blasted... having said that we have the joys of the air conditioning unit here... hehe... so not so bad after all.

anyway hope your all well, home soon, will be great (tho i'm enjoying it lots here too!)

love, Simon

FIJI

2006-07-07T00:56:00.000Z

hello,

well in in fiji, i arrived this morning and am very tired i was going to sleep in the airport and then check in for my flight at 4am but in the end i didn't sleep, not because of the noise but because i think i had too much coffee and i was concerned that if i fell asleep i may never awake.

so i'm in nadi, in a backpackers, one of those times when the picture of the pool and all the facilities and everything looks really idylic but when you arrive the pool doesn't work and is really dirty and as far as i can tell i'm the only person in my room (which i guess is good in some ways and bad in many others) the people there seem nice tho, but so did the two people that have tried to sell me drugs on the street and the guys that were luring people into there shop to drink cheap cava (at least i hope thats all it was), to welcome visitors into their shops, so they could sell them really crappy gifts for stupid prices (aparently the profits go to charity!) - seriously you couldn't make it up. so i expect i'll arrive bact to my hostel to find my bag completely empty. ho hum... life goes on. tomorrow i'm going to a nice tiny island with only a beach and the sea... sounds much better. and one of the people from my course in NZ may meet me there for a few days...

anyway i had a nice last few days of the course and we had a cool graduation, which was enjoyable... we did an esther play with a arab oil shake as king xerxes, i was haman (complete with evil laugh.) and also a eunich. sounds cheesy but was actually really very funny. was sad to say good bye to all the peeps, and to pack up an leave.

then i flew up to auckland and stayed two days, a korean lady on the course met me at the airport and had arranged loads of stuff for me (i didnt know about this), me and one other lass from my course, that was also in auckland were treated to amazing korean food both nights we where there and i stayed with her friend, in his flat (which was actually a hotel room that he rented). was fun, and unexpected.

anyway i'm reall tired and i need to check that all my belonging still belong to me so, until next time, goodbye x

change in plan...

2006-06-24T01:14:00.000Z

so i've changed my mind, i'm not coming home (for a few more days)

so i was looking at my ticket and a map of the states and i realised that instead of going LA - Dallas - LA - East Coker Village that seeing as i was travelling 1/2 way across the states i may as well travel the rest and finish in New York. i also looked at complex ticketing options i actually worked out that it was cheaper anyway so i may as well.

so now...

i have a few days in LA (may meet with a guy from my course, scott... 'n go to the themepark)
then i get the Grayhound Bus to Dallas, hang around for a few days there with Shannon and friends (one of the lovly peeps that i hung around with in Malaysia-and later Australia)
then i get the Train from Dallas to Chicago, to see American Andy and the Polfishes and also meet up with a few of the guys from my course who live only 1 or 2 hours south of the Polfish Estate.
then i fly (with the help of an areoplane) from Chicago to New York then home to East Coker (before my insureance runs out in early August).

so thats basically the plan now

so now i have one more week of the course.... which is mad, it's gone really fast. then a week more in New Zealand and a week in Fiji (trying to restore the tan, to my now pale skin, that i lost having spent the last 3 months inside a classroom) then the new USA plan kicks into action.

also i need new shoes... mine are 3 or 4 years old and really battered... they have several holes in the bottom which do a great job of absobing water (and snow) now the soles are actually peeling away on one shoe... i'm hoping they'll survive until the states where i'm sure they'll be alot cheaper than anywhere else. but it'll be sad to say goodbye to them... from the early years of college to being accidentally set them on fire in india, from beaches to mountains to cities to country, they've been to 4 contenants and over a dozen countries... poor little guys have had a good innings. a sad good bye.

Some Pics

2006-06-17T08:55:00.000Z

this is where we live and it's got snow everywhere... look snow!

because the guy asked "where did i put the camera?"
-this was when we went snowboarding (which we did this wednesday! it was ace.)-

i don't know this guy

when we went to see the rugby my face was a diffrent colour (and my hair was big and black like what a sheep has when he is black and hairy-see picture for details)

horses on the pitch, and a big sword are vital elements of the rugby game.

this was when we built jerusalem and then burnt it down (me, and a guy called mitch and ben made the massive tower... it was bigger but we had to cut it in half for the burning cos they were scared it an 8foot burning tower was a bad idea. shame)

ben wants his computer back now and cos he's in league with stan i have to give it back....

byeee

Snow

2006-06-12T08:06:00.000Z

6 inches of the stuff!

very nice... yum yum.

got plastic bags on my feet... very stylish... set a trend! ummm nice.

got a speaker here from england (quite randomly once used to go to BCF (where i did my year out thingy) but didn't join as some scary girl fancied him and he didn't want to give her the wrong inpression by joining (...i'll track you down who ever you are!)

they had the YWAM NZ leaders meeting here last week and i was talking to a guy from auckland he asked where i was from and i knoticed he had a whales badge on his shirt (like sown on) and to cut a long story short... he went on a day trip to whales when he was staying with dave and rhi day, cos they where in Bristol working with BCF... and then his wife is like one of mari Day's best friends... like seriously BCF stop stalking me... i know where you live. its worse than India... where the infamous words "Pastor Dave" would open so many doors!

laters... like i said snow... no time talk

much love.Simon

News

2006-06-03T03:08:00.000Z

hello,

don't think i've done this for a while but i have some free time so it's probably a good time to post some news...

well went to a Crusaders (Christchurch, Rugby team) match the other day... in fact it was the final of the super-14 competition (like the FA Cup of the rugby world... with southern hemisphere teams... NZ, Aus & S. Africa) the Crusaders won! yay. about 25 of us went... we had really good seats (in terms of position, not interms of comfort and space). not really into rugby but i was supporting the team in orange that seemed to hold a position near the sides of the pitch (i think they may have been midgets)... didn't think they were doing very well, then someone pointed out that they were, what they like to call, 'ball boys'. enjoyed when the knights came around on their horses, they played rousing music and everyone cheered... looked really cool cos it was all foggy. sadly the foggyness was not so good for the actual game itself... we won tho so was all good. only cos like 10quid! (and that was the biggest game of the season!)

we have an xbox in the house now... and a projector we cunningly combined the two so we now have a complete video wall/cinema. it's good!

been studying the old testament... did kings this week, Deuterononmy last week and a bit of Leviticus, we spent a day looking at the hygene law with notes written by a theological & medical doctor who does alot of work in africa... it was v cool, loved it. looked at all the medical law and how unique it was in the time... interesting stuff.

other news... think my mummy and daddy sold the house?! (don't think we'll have moved by the time i get back though.)
Georgie (my dog) is going to a new home on friday... kinda sad but it's probably good in the long run.
i found my hat.

hope all is well, Simon

brooms & a trampoline

2006-05-04T22:57:00.000Z

thats me vomiting up a glacia

(the mystery is solved... about how glacias come into being!)

quite an old photo now... about 2or3 months?!?

i'm nackered (have no idea how to spell that and like i say i'm nackered so i have every right not to... has it got a silent 'k' on the front i have a habit of putting them on random words that start with an 'n'... so i decided not to put one on there but perhaps i should have risked it... i tell people my incompetance is just to confuse them but really it's just because i'm plain incompetant! oh well!)

anyway been working so hard and i think i may die... start at like 8:30 and go to bed (having worked all day by 10. and my brian is startingaling to gett-a-maf-a-ling fragaggled! help!) just been out on the trampoline to try and break up the work a bit... somthing quite odd about a jumping on a trampoline at night... in the pitch black... all alone. but you know it's somthing to do.

i have work duties to do later too... i sweep and mop the kitchen floor every night (today the cook (cant spell chief) complained about it so now i have to work harder- oh and i broke the only broom too!)

the learning is interesting mostly (although it's vast in volume... see stuff above, which seems to take away some of the enjoyment) the teaching really varies teacher to teacher. last week we had a guy from auckland who's written a load of books about christianity for sceptics, lectures at several universities and debates with lots of diffrent people about belief and xianity. apparently he is writing a book at the moment about 7 of the most famous atheists in the world with counter arguements to their arguements all but one are dead the only problem is the one remaining alive one just said that he now does believe in god and he was wrong after all (quite funny!) such an interesting guy... i may stalk him. but then this week we have a guy who just reads somebody else's not all that well written notes on the book of hebrews and showed us a flim (i would date around mid 80's) of a mime artist doing a mime of moses. kinda surreal.

more news...
+ had some J.W. turn up at the door the other day... came back the next day too... stayed for 5 hours!(over the two days) was interesting to see what they believed. but sorry not a JW just yet... maybe mormonism is for me... who knows... they've never nocked!
+ some friends from the orchard came down (on of their bdays... so we went out into christchurch) was quite funny... lesson #1 don't bring v drunk people back to a bible college! hehe! actually they were quite respectable drunks just acted a bit weird...

anyway back to work....

love, Simon xxx

Exciting facts for this week...
i lost my hat (which i love... see pic at top)
been away over 6 months now
the uk has the 2nd highest fuel prices in the world, new zealand 100th and USA 103rd!

...so i punched him!

2006-04-28T01:26:00.000Z

punched a guy yesterday! oops! whats more he is about twice the size of me and used to beat people up for his hobby...

well we had to act out the 4 missionary jouneys of paul... the group i was in had jouney two... so it starts with paul and barnabus having an arguement and splitting up... so we decided to start with a boxing intro with eye of the tiger playing and us skipping and boxing the air then me (paul-in a pink cowboy hat... think that bit was slightly extra biblical) and this other guy (barnabus) have a slowmo fight matrix style... the problem was i thaught he'd leaned back so i went for a punch (not very slowmo)... sadly he was still very much upright so i hit him in the face! (and he got a big lump!-well a little red one ( katie - an eyewitness is telling me it wasn't actually all that big- spoil sport!)) never hit anyone before... kinda enjoyed it... probably a bad sign that i came to bible college and found my love for violence! anyway he didn't really mind.

other highlights included restraning Timothy then circumcising him with a meat clever! hehe!

well today we're reading the bible... cover to cover... well some of it and in the wrong order! but you have to start somewhere. oh and everyone in my group is dyslexic which makes it quite interesting...

i think thats about it,

hope your well, Simon

Dyslexics Untie!

Home Work

2006-04-22T22:03:00.000Z

time is moving really fast! and i've got too much work to do. this weekends homework was read mark... in the whole chapter highlight the connectives (words that connect! like "but, also, therefore"), and the repeated words, figures of speech (and what kind it is), look at the historical context (like who actually was herod or the herodians or the scibes or the zelots and why did people hate the tax collectors so much), then note what each paragraph says (using words from the text only) make a title for each paragraph (using again only words from the text with a max of 4 words) then titles for each section (but using your own words this time) then draw up a table for each section and write notes on all of the obove in said table then summerise each section and apply the things which should be applyed then find a timeless truth or two and write it all on the bottom of each page (about 17 of them) oh and then give your interpretation of all of the above of what it meant to the original reader... and then wirte a report on the information that gives the background to the book and another sheet of more general applications to your life and then death. (we recon it's about 30 hours of work... which is why i'm on the internet doing the equivalant of putting my fingers in my ears and saying "Lalalala")

help.

and to top it all off i had to go to the dentist the other day (to sort out the filling i got in Malaysia) she was telling me that it may be infected and i'd need deep root canal surgery! (oh dear!) but it wasn't so i just got the filling sorted (only had a temp there before) and the only charged me like 7.8pence (well in dentist terms anyway)

much love, Simon

Oxford Education

2006-04-13T01:49:00.000Z

hello,

well it's been a week now at the oxford YWAM and the course is going well... we've studies the book of philemon all week (even though it's only 25 verses long!) but we've just basically been getting the tools together on how to interpret the rest of the bible. we learnt about the bible generally... how it was formed an transfered down the generations... and looked at all the types of genre's within it and lots of other random stuff... which i cant really remember (doing well then!).

went to 5 churches on friday as part of this oxford churches thing... was kinda fun just to see all the quirky things they have about them. then in the evening we had a base meeting using a ceremony from the 4th century where you read out some of the final events jesus's life from the bible and extinguish 4 candles until the room is in complete darkness. i liked it.

me and a few others went up to camp on a big hill after the meeting (had a fire and everything) then mountain biked on the hills around oxford the next day... was all good until we got to a section of very narrow path with more roots, rocks, trees, fallen trees, metal spikes (sticking out of the ground) and big drops than ridable path. was certainly an interesting challenge. but we ended up down at a waterfall (one bike down due to a puncture) after a while the other two rode back up the hill... while i pushed the broken bike half way back up (virtually what they did anyway... infact i only got there about 3 mins after them!) then back to the car (on the top of the hill...) and cycled after the car all the way back down the hill on the road... much funner.

anyway thats about it i think, i'm tried and my legs hurt.

happy easter, Simon

P.S.
+ a member of the russian K.G.B. once did a ywam course (he was spying on them in eastern europe-when it was still cummunist)
+ did you hear about the native american who decided to drink 10 liters of tea? - well they found him later drowned in his own teepee. (bad joke)

who ate all the pies?

2006-04-09T08:17:00.000Z

listening to radio 1 (online)... about to watch ali-G dvd... reading the sunday times (online) and eating meat pies (not online, though that could be interesting?!)... feels like home.

brought the newish athlete cd t'other day... was nice and cheap and i love it... wires is an a bril song. have been listening to it while reading a book about humanism... has chapters called stuff like "the epistomology of secular humanism" needless to say quite a heavy book... interesting but heavy... need lots of breaks to process whats going on (otherwise, someone told me, bits of my brain may fall out of my nose).

start properly tomorrow.

caio, Simon

Oxford... 7

2006-04-07T21:59:00.000Z

hello,

had a good few last days of apple picking... was sad to say good bye to a few of the people i'd met there tho... but i'll definatly see the italian again later in NZ... (ummmm good pizza... he taght me how to make it actually....sooooooo good) got another infection in my last days... no worries tho... caught it early went to the doctor and she gave me the medicine and then charged me only about 8quid which was v cool.... whats funny is the medicine i take is made in england... i can allmost smell the fresh english air as i open the capsuels... so that takes the tally to 7... well it's actually 9 but two self treated so i'm not counting the ones which i didn't go to the doctor for.

well i arrived in oxford two days ago... i hitched down from motueka (the north of the south)... which took a very long time (9 1/2 hours in fact... so by the time i arrived it was dark and i was v tired) on the way up it only took 6... but i basically only took two lifts to get there where as this time it took 8... quite a diffrence.

the first guy i met from the course (the only kiwi) had lived for 5 months last year in england and was interested to know where i was from... anyway turns out he lived in shaftsbury and used to go down to yeovil to the cinema... so we laughed about the chavs and general dank yeovil style. so that was weird. the place seems nice... there's juts 12 of us on the course. half of us are about 20 and the other half are about 30ish... so it'll be interesting to see how group dynamics work out. interesting.

i met another girl who had lived in LA... so i was like "LA hay, so i'd better watchout or you'll pop a cap in my ass... etc" anyway shortly later i found out that she'd become a christian in prison and just generally had all this really mad stuff happen to her... crazy

i've been away over 5 months now which is crazy... which remeinds me i need to sort out extending my insurance or i'll be in lots of trouble! oops.

i'm looking forward to starting the course properly and just having a fixed place to stay for a little while... moving around and living out of my bag gets a little tiring.

anyway hope all is exciting where you are,

Simon

Apples is Apples

2006-03-30T07:54:00.000Z

so i've grown a little moustash... like it.

still picking... no news really... it was my itailian house mates birthday yesterday and he cooked amazing lasagne... ummm nice. picking quite alot faster now too so i'm actually earning some dosh... picked 3 tons of apples today and my back actually feels like it may peel out from under my skin and fall on the ground.

exciting apple fact... they export the apples mainly to the US and Europe but the USA will only import the biggins... which is wierd cos it's the small ones that taste the best! i recon it was all part of an intricate french plan to get the best apples... by pretending they want the big apples so america wants them and then using their massive pile of never ending cash americe out bids france so poor france is left with the nice smaller apples?! who knows... it's a theory anyway.

picking Fuji at the moment... taste really good.

looking forward to starting the SBS cc on thursday... it's really crept up fast

i think my grans not as bad now so thats really great too...

love simon

ps i sent my mother an email for mothers day but it bounced back so...

to motherdearest this picture basically sums up the sentiment....

happy late mothers day

Apples

2006-03-25T01:48:00.000Z

more apples this week... moved house again (4th time) because they were going to sell my new caravan (but not anymore) like it better in a house anyway... more space and less funny smell. i went to a bbq organised by an old guy with a beard who calls himself santa yesterday... you meet allsorts!

grans a bit ill which is a bit of a worrie... she's a legend... was a champion welder during the war and once tipped custard on my dads head when he was a boy (every time i hear that story it's better then the last). so i hope she get better soon... strange to be away from home at the moment.

really looking forward to starting YWAM... tho it'll be sad to say goodbye to people i've met here... time's gone very fast.

caio

Gladice & The Wandering Spiritual Guru

2006-03-19T02:11:00.000Z

some people over here have asked me if i'm going to become a priest...! just to clear up any confusion... no i'm not... firstly because i'm not a catholic and secondly because i dont really want to be.

may become a vicar tho and that way i can look cool when i'm at parties and people are like what do you do and i'm like "i'm a vicar" and they will be impressed and i will become some sort of wandering spiritual guru... of course i will be some sort of hip modern vicar and start my prayers in the street lingo and stuff, i'll be like "Yo... Big G, i is here with Gladice and she is wantin to be a phat bridge player, please make it so that she is wicked..." it'll be amazing. tho i hear that the forms to become a vicar now have a box that says "if you are becoming a vicar just to impress people at parties, you want to be some sort of wandering spiritual guru and/or phat modern vicar just to be flippin mental please tick this box" which if you tick you cant be a vicar apparently... had a friend who fell for that one... so this may just prove to be the flaw in my plan... been thinking about it alot... picking apples... not much else to do you know.

finally sent letters to my grand parents... been meaning to for agggggges (mutiple g's represent length of age) and been finding post cards and stamps in various countries and start to write the letters but somehow something always comes up. got my act together and wrote phat letters (with pics and everything) hope it's not to late... like 4 1/2 months late!!!

been eating lots of amazing pizza with my italian firend and his czech house mate. in nelson again (50mins down the road) got a lift down with some of cool guys from my orchard... thought i'd missed my lift tho... then they turned up... but an hour late... they then informed me the clocks went back!!! oops... could have had an extra hour in bed! went to church this morning was cool (been having craving to go to church meetings... weird. normally the opposite way around) was good, my italian friend joined me, and was cool... the pastor turned out to be quite prophetic... sparked off quite a few q's from my friend... v cool.

Health Watch: my underarm infection is threatening to come back... was warned it might... i've ammassed a small clinics worth of drugs on my trip tho so i should be able to kill it off soon (as it's in early stages).

hope all is well in the world,

Simon

after birthday review....

2006-03-12T02:49:00.000Z

after every birthday i like to have a detailed reviewing session of the time i had (factoring in various joy/fulfillment/fun percentiles and indicies) what follows is my review for this year...

expectation factor 34
randomness percentage 59%
fulfillment factorileage 82* (*mainly due to low expectation factor)
joy index reached 56 (seasonal avereage - up 4 points from last year)
fun quadrant 39 (out of 57)
5 equalatral triangles and a parralleagram where also sighted.

well i got given two birthday cakes... i recon they felt sorry for me and my pee smelling legs. had a bit of a birthday bash yesterday (yes a day late and note. bash as in party not fight) would have done it sooner but really think about having one until the day of my birthday. was quite cool we just took all the old sofas and chairs from the staff room and put them outside... then everyone came with food from their own country... which sort of happened... had shepherds pie and dumplings (of czech land) and was supposed to have sushi and chili food but it never appeared (may have been eaten by some naughty chipmonks)and the italian pasta was runied by tomato sauce so never saw the light of day. i made pineapple and cheese on sticks (because no party is complete without them) we just chatted ate food and drank beers.

was a cool day and people were really amazing with cooking cakes and all generally being cool. however i must say birthdays do have a habbit of making me miss home and being with people i know... missed home last time in india too. next year i think i'm gonna have a big party (was thinking a rasta theme on a beach or park and a bbq with lots of meat-to scare off nasty veggies*)

on my actual birthday... i forgot for a bit that it was my birthday... then i remembered (because i had infinate wisdom having just turned 20). i got an apple (original there) and a kiss on the cheak from a czech lass. picked about 4 apples the entire day and when i got back i fell asleep... then went to town to buy some food and a subway sandwich and then home to have a few beers and muscels and japanese noodles with my temporary house mates... phone my mother then sleep.

anyway in my new caravan/house jap house mate moves in today... should be fun?!?! called hasushi or somin methinks? hard enough to remember names when their english... may call him george or somin? was thinking it was a day off today... turns out it wasnt... oops. (lots of us missed work tho and the boss is ace so it's ok)

hope your well (appriciate the comments left by comment peeps by the way)

Simon xxx

*excludes veggies that bring farm yard themed cakes - they are more than welcome.

Q. what do you call a man with no shins? tony. (think about it)

PS buy NZ apples cos their skint and in lots of trouble (look for enza stickers)

Madness...

2006-03-09T06:32:00.000Z

so had a bit of an eventfull 24 hours...

my caravan mate went out last night and got incredably drunk... drove home and went to bed. about 30mins after he got in i hear this weird noise... i wondering whats that? then i realise that it's my caravan mate going to the toilet... the problem is there is no toilet in the caravan! whats more he not just going anywhere... but he's going at the end of my bed!... so he has weed all over the bottom of my bed and sleeping bag! yes very very strange. luckily it was dark so i didn't see any thing that left any mental scars (if you know what i mean). so i turn on the light and am like "WHAT THE FLIP ARE YOU DOING" (or words to that effect anyway) to which he's like... "oh sorry thats not the toilet is it!" and goes to back to bed (he was completely out of it... think he was quite stoned too). so i put my sleeping bag outside and turn over my matress (is very thick one) and think i'll sort this tomorrow (luckily i didn't get wet). so i'm there with no sleeping bag and it's like freezing so i'm wondering what to do... so i try and curl up and sleep but then its freezing and he starts being all weird and talking to himself and just generally being a bit mental and angry...

...so i'm thinking "i'm not liking this" cos being stuck in a caravan with an increadably drunk and angry (and mental) ex army australian man is not really my idea of a fun time. so i say "i'm gonna sleep in your car" grab all my most vital posessions and head for his car (which is parked in the open with lot of cabins overlooking it... safer i think). anyway his car was an interesting story in it's self... there was no lock in the driver side and the handel on the inside was all bent and obviously been tampered with. so i'm thinking "oh dear... escaped the drunk, angry, urinating australian only to find my self sleeping in his stolen car." (there were other factors which made me think it was stolen like the key for the car was a copy, he arrived completely skint and the car was fairly modern and he seemed to be quite nervous when driving once and we saw a police car)

anyway the next morning, after one mostly sleepless (2 hours total) and freezing night (was frost in the morning), he said sorry sort of (but it didn't seem that remorseful) and when i said i would like him to wash my stuff (not exactly an unreasonable request) he seemed to think he didn't need to (anyway he did shortly after). so then he tells the boss the story and says and i quote "i must have mistaken his legs for a toilet" (which has to be some sort of quote of the century... is certainly an orignal one) so anyway i speak to the boss and so we sort it that i will move and he will give him a verbal warning (he couldn't just sack him he has to give him and verbal and written warning before he can do anything)

so i go back at lunch time (we were picking offsite) and the whole thing was hot gossip at pack house (still not exactly sure how they found out) and i'm a minor celeb and there asking me lots of questions... i move my stuff to a new place with some cool chilians and a jap and i go back and pick apples stupidly slowly (am v tired) anyway at the end of the day when we get driven back to our homes he's completely gone and taken all his stuff and is just no where to be seen at all... it's all very strange.

so a bit of a weird time really (my last day of teenagerness was certainly an eventful one). although he did anger me... i also feel quite sorry for the guy... his life was completely screwed up (think he had a drink problem... would drink most nights) he told me about some of his past and it seems he's had a hard time all round really. he seemed v confused and lost... and said so himself. we ended up talking about god (after he asked what i was doing in Christchurch and i explained) he was interested and we had decided that we would go to church on sunday (a good one that i had been to previously) which i think could have been really good for him. but he just seemed to have very little hope.

so all a bit odd... it could only happen to me!

anyway my new house mates are all really cool and it looks like i'm gonna have sushi for my birthday (prepared by an actually jap... had pizza the other day from an actual italian too)

anyway i'm off now cos i need to walk home and go to bed.

hope your well,

Simon

2006-03-07T03:11:00.000Z

so today they ran out of work... going to a diffrent orchard tomorrow. so i thought id seize the oppotunity to come down to town, write a blog and do a couple of e-to-the-mails... you know how it is.

well i've been eatin alot of bacon recently (tho i think i'm allowed seeing as i'm working so hard and all) and also alot of weetabix (or weet-bix as they call them here) been through a massive packet in less than a week... i eat like 10 a day. (there flippin lush). also alot of fruit. the farm supplies to 'enza' (they've got a red apple and green pair in their logo... look out for it... may have been picked by me - in fact i got a razor blade and poked holes in some with little messages on them for anyone who gets them.... shame lost quite a few blades in there... so watch out if your munching could be painful!)

got a little caravan which i live in... really nice to have some semi-home like space where i done have to keep moving and having to buy tiny amounts of food. i also have a house mate (well caravan mate) who is... well quite interesting. he's about 40 and lived in oz most of his life... he is... well... probably about as opposite as me as you could possibly get. (picture your sterotypical outback oz bloke in your head times it by 10 and thats about him... he is remarkably like crocodile dundee actually?!) in every morning he brakes wind several times... very loudly which definatly ensures that i wake up alright. he's an interesting, but a nice enough bloke really... gives me lots of lifts places which is good of him.

other people are nice and random. lots of eastern europeans (who work sooo hard) and south americans and some locals. think one girl got a bit offended the other day cos she had told me where she was from about 3 times and then i said you'll have to teach me some czech some time and she was like... i am from chile!!! oops.

the works ok actually... but the pay is fairly pants. if you pick a ton of apples you get about 20quid after tax (20%)... you pick about 1 1/2 to 2 tons a day. but been in the sun all day (getting a nice tan) and it's physical which feels good to do. got lots of scratches (like loads) on my arms from the bushes so i look like a self harmer... tho that could come in handy when i get to the Ywam base... can pretend that i'm some down and out and they'll give me lots care and free stuff (wohaha).

yep so i think everythings cool at the moment... random but cool,

anyway, remember to keep it real...

Simon

ps its my birthday on friday (10th) i realised that my last birthday in the uk was my 18th and my next will be my 21st... weird.
pss... why did the little girl fall off the swing?
...because she had no arms.

Quick Note

2006-03-03T00:04:00.000Z

hello...

i have a job... fruit picking/slave labor... 9-10 hour days 7 days a week and about 80-90NZ bucks a day (35quid?) if you work really hard.

um... will try to get a way and update soon... (i'm only in town to open a back account so the people can pay me the pittence they owe me)

hope all is exciting wity you, Simon

Jobs...

2006-02-26T22:11:00.000Z

so...

apparently there are millions of jobs in this area at the moment it just seems that every place i've called has been completely full (and i've called a lot of places). i'm off to another town (by the name of motueka) an hour up the road today to try and see if there's any work up there (i think a lot of the locals take the jobs around here). have had a few leeds recently but i'm not holding my breath... there's a waiting job going (which'll be easy for me... done it loads before) but i'm not sure if im around long enough.

spent the last few day laying around on the beach (hard life) managed to tan just the left side of my face (don't ask). had a couple of chillians in my room... so played alot of cards... they looked quite stereotypical... unbuttoned shirts, catholic crosses around their necks and lots of chest hair. one looked amazing like my sisters b.f. (well fiance now... weird to say that?!?!) matt (i've always suspected you know...) learnt a new game called "porto centrua del casimo rica"... actually i dont know the spanish name but that sounded quite cool anyway (the actual name translated into "nobody knows what your thinking"). quite good... want to go to chilli now. then had some english girls arrived... from london... had quite a similar sense of humor so all was good... learnt all the goss from back home.

hope you are all well (and not caught up in any million quid bank raids)

with any luck you wont hear from me too soon (cos i'll be working),

Simon

Nelson Hitch

2006-02-23T01:58:00.001Z

Hello,

well i'm in Nelson (again) which is right at the north of the south island... managed to hitch my way up here from christchurch (about 5hour car journey) was quite fun. took quite a while to get my first hitch... but a lady picked me up and took me 10mins down the road to a better place where i got my second hitch was with a lady from the states who i think had forgotten that we were no longer living in the 60's (had a world peace sticker in the window... you know the sort) rode with her for a while (the car over heated twice) then got a lift with another bloke for litereally 2 mins who took me into the next town where i got my final hitch (about the 3rd car to pass me) she said that i looked like i'd been waiting there for hours (hehe - sucka) was not bad at all really... felt like a bit of a scab but then again i kinda was?!

left some stuff at the slacks house... so i didn't have to take 2tonnes of random collected stuff with me... very cool to have been introduced to them...

anyway nelson is cool... i'm staying right near the beach. i miss being with the other guys tho (i've realised that i way prefere to be around people than just hanging around on my own) so everywhere i go reminds me off the good times (i get these kind of hazy, slowmotion daydreams... running, skipping and hugging in sun soaked corn fields... flowers in our hair, holding hands and looking fondly at each other... you know the sort?!) hopefully will get a job soon... can work my but off and meet new weird people.

it's hot here, the hostel i'm at has free 'bikes' in the widest sence of the term bike... well the wheels are sort of round... and who needs brakes honestly... i think brakes are for whimps.

hope your all well...

Simon

PS i'm thinking of working in a fish packing factory... i could basically work loads get loads of money (by NZ standards anyway) also when i'm middle aged and middle class i can talk about it at dinner parties. it's just a matter if i want to hate my job or not?! ummm...

News (& more pics)

2006-02-20T03:20:00.000Z

had my infection poked at by the doctor today... gave me some drugs and cut it open and squeezed out the puss... its got a bit of gauze in it which is ment to draw out the last bits of puss... i have to watch out of leakage. i have to go back tomorrow and have it finished off. it means that i stay here until wednesday... at the slacks house (very very kind of them) when i will try and hitch a ride to an apple producing region to get some work.

Since i have some time i thaught i'd upload some other pics i have taken on my trip...

Malaysia

my house for a week

cooking (sadly no bacon in malaysia)

at a rubber plantation (rubber we collected and tapped)

before leaving malaysia

Thailand

our beach

elephant

me feeding a very clever elephant that defied the laws of gravity.

very cool festival involving thses big lanterns which you light and they float off into the sky

Sydney

harbour bridge

opera house

harbour view (circular quay)

More NZ...

one of our last nights camping we slept out on a pier...

Goodbye Oz (& Infection 6)

2006-02-18T21:33:00.000Z

Hello,

well said goodbye to the other oz team that i was travelling around with yesterday... was a bit of a shock actually hadn't really been thinking too much about immediate life after touring around with them... was gonna do that job in milford but then they changed the finishing date. was really sad to see the guys go... you actually get to know people quite well, spending 24hours with them, even if it's just for a few weeks... especially sad as i probably won't see most of them again... but i offered if they ever wanted to visit they're v welcome... (i'm sure that's ok mum and dad)

well at the moment i'm still in christchurch... we where staying at a friend of some of teams family house here then the team left but the (very lovly) family here offered to me that i could stay if i needed to... so i'm here until monday when i'm gonna hitch up to the north of the south island up to nelson to do some fruit picking.

and yes i have another infection... i have like a big raised (pink and saw) bump under my arm... tis painful to move my arm or to just even to have it still. it's kinda annoying cos i emailed dad and he told me the exact drug i needed... but i need a perscription... to get a percription i need to see a doctor who will charge me $130 just to write the bit of paper. luckly the the mum in the family i'm staying with works at the hospital so has doctor friends... so she was saying shewould probably be able to get a perscription written out for free... which would be v nice. it dosen't really bother me it just an annoying detail which needs to be sorted.

anyway hope your well,

Simon

Some Pics

2006-02-16T05:41:00.000Z

jumping...

camping

sliding (on the worlds steepest street)...

cars (our cars)

ice (well a glacier to be exact)

narnia

milford

sunset

It's official

2006-02-13T00:14:00.000Z

well i've been accepted onto the course...

so i start on the 6th of april and finish on the 30th July!

sadly i think that job may have fallen through though (cos they need someone to work until the 15th of april. think it's quite easy to get a job fruit picking tho (plus you get a nice tan).

Flipin' Christchurch

2006-02-12T06:41:00.000Z

Hello,

well heard some news about the job... i think they're interested but apparently the job now lasts until the 14th of April and my course starts on the 6th?! so that's a bit annoying... i'll email YWAM and see if i could turn up abit late... but it's not ideal. i'll probably offically apply anyway but i'll have to tell them that i acnt do the whole thing (it's worth a try!?).

well like i said (in the title) we're in flippin christchurch at the moment at a flippin house... not in flippin tents for the first time in flippin ages... also i've got into saying flippin loads and i'm not really sure flippin why? all the others say it too now and they keep blaming me for it... but i never said it before with such frequency so who knows?? i think they say it here a bit so maybe thats where i've got it from...... anyway like i said were cuurrently in a house of the friend of most of the team so it really nice to just be able to relax (cos we know where we're sleeping) and have the net and just chill and watch tele. hurray.

spent the last few days in the north part of the island laying around on beaches and generally driving around... saw two whales from the beach in kiakoura just after my last blog which was really very cool. (actually now i mention it we saw two dolphins in milford sound when we where there which was really quite mental too). ran out of petrol and ended up having to sleep in the car the other night... was ok just stayed up and chatted and then realised it was 6 in the morning so went to sleep... happened the next night too (didnt stay up tho was kinda knackered)

anyway all is well... kinda jellous about my sister being in italy for the olympics tho... watching Lord of the Rings and Donnie Darko tonight... Yay (well not so much about the LOTR... tis kinda dull)

Simon

Exciting Fact.... my grandad was offered a job in NZ when he was but a young lad but turned it down... so i could have been a kiwi bloke or just not a at all.

100th Anniversary

2006-02-06T22:10:00.000Z

Hello,

in Kaikoura... lots of whales (i'm not being rude about the locals... actual whales... you know fins and stuff)

well yesterday was fun... went to arthurs pass which is where they filmed Narnia was actually really cool cos you could actually recognise where they had filmed certain stuff (unlike lord of the rings where it 95.674% compter animated and you can only recognise like a hill or a stone or a tiny twig that was in the corner of the screen in 2 seconds of a scene that only really really hard core fans would ever notice)

right next to it there was this cave/river which you could go in. thinking it wouldn't be that hard core i went in sans-torch (cos it broke a few weeks before... funny that somthing of mine broke) and i soon realised that pitch black caves and fast flowing waste deep water are not all that great of a combo... the guy i went in with (a cool, curly haird, yank by the name of mark) had a v small torch and we managed to get about half way through the cave sharing it's light until we met up with the others (who had gone in before us... cos we had to go back to change into shoes... was gonna ware flipflops!) but was really fun anyway... bit more of a challenge. found out today that someone died in there not long ago and that there are eels in the water. Nice.

then we drove on and saw the YWAM base where i should be doing the School of Biblical Studies Core Course (or SBS CC). was a very cool little base. the town it's in won "New Zealands best small town award in 2002" which i certainly found most exciting. they seem to do really cool stuff there... a team we spoke to were about to go off on what they called "faith week" where they give them 10 bucks then drop them about an hour from the base and then say "goodbye see you in a week" and they just go off and pray and see what happens... apparently some have stayed in 5* hotels and made it up to auckland and some even got to australia i think! all on 10bucks. the town is called Oxford so now i can say that i studied in Oxford for some time... sure will look good in that CV. also heard about how intense the program is... apparently you just study like 10 hours a day and then spend your whole weekends having to read up on the stuff for the next week (think i'm gonna have to learn how to dicipline myself) there should be about 12-15 of us on the course and i'll probably be one of the youngest... there are people from all over the world (especially yanks) so should be interesting. looking forward to it... tho haven't really done any intense study, i'm tempted to say ever, but not for a few years certainly.

then drove up (via Christchurch to drop off two of the guys) to here... like i said Kiakoura and now is now. i don't really think much else exciting stuff happened between now and my last blog acutally now i think of it we went to see a glacia and mount doom (mount cook) of lord of the rings fame.

hope all is well in the UK and other locations,

Simon xxx

PS it's the 100th anniversary of the first motor car in NZ today & haven't heard about the job yet. also you can see the new "rough plan" to the left of this blog...

i've added a link to peter of sweden's blog thingy which has pics on it which you can look at (links top right hand corner)

2006-02-01T22:40:00.000Z

hello,

got a bit more time today. i don't know if you read the last blog really fast or not but you were supposed to... in fact if you didn't i would like it if you could go back and read it again and this time put some effort into it.

as seems to be the fashion recently i've arranged my blog into 3 sections again today...

Previously on NZ

well been shooting about all over the place.

i'll give a little run down of what i've been up to these last few days.... i know that some peeps who may or may not be reading this have been to NZ before so it may be of some interest.
+ well arrived like i said in christchurch which is the east side of the south island (i spent no time there tho)
+ down then down to Omaru and stayed a night at the moreki boulders (big like perfectly round boulders in the beach) then stop to see the seals
+ then to Dunedin (were my last blog was from) to eat chocolate and stay on the peninsular with lush beaches and big cliffs.
+down the catalins coast (the very bottom of the island) randomly got lost and managed to see the rarest penguins in the world (yellow penguins). apparently penguins only have a 6% divorce rate.
+up the west coast past Te Aneu to stay in a camp site by a lake in the national park. it was there we decided that if we wanted to we could go off alone (or in smaller groups) and climb the mountain and sleep there. i did one night sleeping on top of the mountain, in the freezing cold in all my clothes, extra jumper and sleeping bag and tent (was just below the snow line). got up at about 2 and saw about the most amazing stars i have ever seen in my life... really very cool. amazing view the next day too.
+anyway went to Milford Sound on a little boat trip yesterday... was very very beautiful waterfalls and sheer mountians rising out of the water and free coffee.
+now we're in queenstown. which is where they filmed quite alot of the lord of the rings stuff. it's quite adventure sporty too.

Exciting Facts

as you probably know i love exciting facts... here's some NZ ones for you...

- NZ hase the same population as Singapore and Norway (4 Million)

- it's nuclear free

- there are 10 sheep for every person on the island

- in terms of area it's slightly larger than the UK (but only 2/3rds the size of california)

- there are two types of flush on the toilets here one is more powerful than the other (you can work that one out for your self) and of course being in the southern hemisphere the water goes down the opposite way from "old blighty" too!

- it rains 1/2 as much in christchurch as london.

Near Future

well i may not be back for a little while longer than i oringinally expected. i shall explain.

now when i left the uk i gave my self 3 missions to complete while away. 1st i wanted to read the whole bible cover to cover (and properly too not just a light skim) 2nd i wanted to return home hairy and 3rd well i hadn't really thought of anything else so i guess my third was to think of something else while i was away that i wanted to do...and then do it. i was gonna have just two missions but i think three sounds alot better.

anyway, so when i was in malaysia i was talking to the YWAM guy and he was teling me about how next year they would start running a 3 month bible course that was really good. it involved reading the whole bible cover to cover and then picking out 14/15 of the books and reading them in detail... looking into the historical context and the type of literature and loads of other stuff so that at the end you basically know those books inside out and then you have the tools to read the rest of the bible and interpret it meaningfully and get loads from it. they also teach you how to run bible studys for all sorts of people (even the illitarate) anyway it sounds really good. there is also a 9 month course also where you read the whole bible and apparently at the end they give students a degree test paper from a top US bible college, with no warning, and every one aces it (apparently it's rare for anyone to get lower than 85%). thats how comprehensive it is...

but the course in malaysia starts in sept 06 (when i start uni!) so i'm like... well maybe one day?! so i pray about it and i really feel i should do it now in new zealand. so i check it out and see that there is only one course in new zealand and it's starting in April and it's the three month one i want to do... anyway it's a really long (and winding) story but basically i applied a week or so ago to do the course which starts in may and will finish at the very end of june which will mean that i wont be back until the middle to end of july which will be a bit mad.

one problem... these things cost money "so what am i going to do about that" i think, having already applied. i have a working hoilday visa so i can work here fine and the guys that i'm here with atm are leaving NZ on the 18th of Feb and the course starts on the 6th Apr so i'm thinking if i can get a job that runs between those two dates and pays enough (with long hours) and hopfully have some accomodation too that'd be ace... but where will i find a job like that i'm thinking...?

so i'm on the boat in Milford Sound and i see a poster that catches my eye... "want to work on milford sound" i think "yes, That'd be nice" so i read on "person needed to work from the 20th feb for 6 weeks". excellent i think to myself so i start to talk to a member of the crew about it. so she explains that basically they need someone to work on the tour boat just sailing around and pouring cups of tea out to people who want it. working 50 hour weeks (5days x 10hrs) for about $12.50 an hour plus free (and good accomodation). the only problem is cos it's in the middle of nowhere and you need to eat i need to go about an hour or so by car (which i don't have) to the nearest supermarket... but apparently if you ask nicely and theres a free seat you can get a free lift on one of the light aircraft that fly in and out to queenstown all the time. not a bad shopping run if you ask me!... basically if you where to ask me to describe my ideal job for the next couple of weeks and i was feeling especially optomistic i'd probably describe that job on offer. so now i just have to apply and see what happens. the lady who i spoke to seemed positive.

the course fees are $3,600 (which includes accomodation and food for the 3 months) and the job if i get it should earn me $3,750 which isn't too shabby really.

anyway that's really cool (and quite amazing really) there is more to the story than just this stuff but i think i'll save the rest for a rainy day,

hope every ones well, Simon

the worlds fastest blog type thingy

2006-01-29T02:25:00.000Z

hello, well i've got about 13.25376 seconds to write this blog so forgive the amazing spelling that will probably follow.... (sorry mother)

well i'm now in new zealand with all tooth problems now (hopefully) behind me. i now have a half plastic tooth until i get back to the uk and the good old NHS can pay for me to have a porcelline and gold one (yes i did say gold) one fitted... that'll teach them for giving me a bad filling in the first place (and maybe me for eating copious amounts of sugar). the whole thing cost me about $1800 dollars in the end (insurance only covered $500) so that kinda sucks but luckily i'm travelling around with a group of guys (non geneder specific) who put the fru into frugal so i'm happy and any not as bad as i was expecting in the whole bank area.

anyway a way from my health... been having a fun time in NZ just travelling around (the 10 of us) in 2 rented cars that put the bas into basic but they drive and work so thats all good and then been camping in random places along the way. i arrived and they picked me up from the airport... and they were like "do you like maps...?" so i was like "dunno" and they were like your gonna navigate... so having just steped off the plane i was naviagting our way to the first town (using a big map of NZ and the small maps in my lonley planet)... think it must be the english accent=clever association they make... luckily gareth davies map reading traning made all the diffrence and we've not got lost yet.

NZ is amazingly like scotland actully... the town i'm in at the moment is virtually all scotish... if you told me i was actully in scotland i would probably believe you. it's ironic i've spent my whole life trying not to go on holiday to scotland with my parents... get to choose my own place to go.... travel half way around the world and end up in a giant scotland but with more sheep and less crazy drunk people. also a weird thing... landed here and the customs officer was from glastonbury! very odd.... small word... etc

went to a chocolate factory yesterday... ate lots of chocolate.

anyway i best be off,

Simon

2006-01-24T00:55:00.000Z

thankyou sharron! well it was quite an emotional time, a time of joy and a time of freedom and goodness and life and happiness and... well you get the drift i fink.

(see post below)

had my tooth op yesterday. Was ok... no more infection. Back tomorrow for the final part then i fly (with the aid of an aeroplane) to Christchurch, New Zealand on thursday. i thinks i'm gonna like the land of the kiwi.

Saying Goodbye in Brisbane

2006-01-23T22:12:00.000Z

OK - Simon is right when he says it was sad to say goodbye to team Oz (being a member of team Oz I speak from experience, I was quite sad myself). However, I don't fink (think) I've ever seen a grown man cry that much. I mean a couple of tears is sweet and makes you feel quite loved, but the uncontrolled sobbing got a little be scary after awhile. Luckily he was able to pull himself together after an hour.

back in sydney

2006-01-22T22:49:00.000Z

and before i knew what was happening i'm back in sydney...

i've just had a bacon and egg breakfast so i'm happy. (very fickle). so got the bus back from brisbane last night. must say wasn't a particularly fun 16 hour bus journey. arrived at 6 this morning... slept ok in the beginning (even managed to ignore the ever-so-much-in-love-constantly-kissing-couple for most of the start of the journey.) had two seats to my self which would have been ok where it not for the odd man (who obviously needed to learn a thing or two about the concept of personal space) sat in the two seats across the isle who managed not only to spread himself across his two seats and the isle but also half of my seat... so unfortunatly i spent half the night with this guys feet pushed up against my legs keeping me awake... kinda weird and really fustrating when you trying to sleep.

anyway apart from the slightly annoying journey, brisbane was nice... was really cool to see the team i met in malaysia again. the plan of leaving early to get famous and rich kinda worked almost (apart from the famous and rich part) but they just all laughed at my accent and general incompetance and how i say words with a 'th' in them... honestly 'fink' sounds way better! was kinda weird tho too cos there was about 3483829million more of them (other people they weren't clones of anything cos that'd just be strange) spent about a day just engaged in small talk with vairious new people, just repeating the same thing over and overuntil my head exploded... by the end i'd decided just to come from london (basically because that's the only place people have ever heard of). had a nice meal out with them on one of the last nights (free too... aparently a millionaire malaysian man had given them some money(after i left-he he he) to go out and get a nice meal) was cool to see them, sad to see them go...

well off to the dentist at 3:45pm (about 5:45am your time). been speaking to my insurance company and they say they'll only pay 250 pounds of the total (over 600) so that's quite annoying. aparently that's all they cover of dental work... it's mad that dental stuff is treated so diffrently from health in general. poor nieve me thought that what with having 5million health cover i'd be more than ok if anything went wrong. i'm gonna look in more detail at my policy and phone them back and steal a small childs lolly to make him cry and the explain to the person on the other end that that's my child crying and that money was going to pay for his food but now we can't eat for a month. that should work. it's quite annoying cos i can even contact my parents cos, well firstly, my dad's in south africa and secondly my parents phone line has been down for quite a while now. bit annoying...

it's sunny in sydney now (the second day of sun so far) which is nice... off to NZ soon. V excitied... i've heard great stuff about it.

anyway hope things are well with you,

Simon

2006-01-19T00:20:00.000Z

well todays blog has been roughly sorted into 3 logical and completely comprehensive sections...

the good

i've been moving up the east coast and am meeting my OZ friends in brisbane in a few hours which is cool. last night i sayed in a little town called bryon bay which is kinda hippy and funny. i stayed in a place called the 'arts factory' which went along with the whole hippy theme and was kinda cool... aswell as droms you could stay in tepees (i have no idea how to spell that) and busses and other weird and wonderfull things. there was a cool little cafe which always got my order wrong and would give me like twice as much as i ordered for the same price (had 4 yes 4 rashers of bacon for 2bucks... thats like 80p! i could actually feel it's colestrol joy giving juices of greatness and joy as they entered my blood stream and encircled my heart! amazing) went on this free bush walk thing to with a man who had a parrot on his shoulder and somehow managed to turn everything he said into some kind of inuendo... was v cool tho... i now know how to make natural string and sunblock and plasters and toilet paper and antiseptic sap stuff. v interesting. forgotten it all tho now (oh and i saw the world second most deadly spider)

a very random thing happened the other day (for a change) i was just walking up the elevator back to my hostel and who should i see but.... abby Macaskill of BCF fame (i have no idea how to spell that second name... think i may have missed out the silent 'iuagsfiouahselkjrtnqwelkrtjn' that goes on the end?! who knows) it was really random and cool... (in a city of 4 million to go for just 6 days and bump into someone you know is very random) so i went to her house and ate some vege pasta (i know no meat... whats that all about! but was actually was quite nice?! don't tell anyone i said that) anyway she's doing really well (like really well) and was apparently a bit of a celeb at her hostel where she stayed for a month after she prayed for a guy who had a massive swolen leg from football (he refused to go to hospital) and it was completely healed (a bit mad!) so everyone called her the miricle girl... really cool and really funny. loads of otherstuff like that happened too... i think she made a bit of an impression! so that was mental. when i go back to sydney for my tooth op... i'm gonna go back and eat more pasta (may talk to her too)

the bad

went to the blue mountains and the kangaroo place was flooded so we couldn't go and then we went on a walk up this massive hill and when we got to the top it was really wet and very foggy so we couldn't see the massive vally and cliffs and basically all the really stumming scenery that we were supposed to see. everything in my bag got soaked and fried some of the electronics in my cd player... it still works but when i press the skip tracks button it now increases the volume (so no more skipping tracks for me then!).

the ugly

it rained last night (and i mean really really rained alot) and now my trousers smell like dead animals

i've either lost or had my camera stolen... actually there's been so much stuff like that recently that it just made me laugh... it's just madness! i got the photos off a few days before so it's ok.

my insurance company are being funny about me trying to claim for my medical expences (they have pay them now because they're over 500 pounds) basically because it's dental and they're funny about dental stuff. a bit annoying.

well got to fgo catch a bus now... hope everyone is well

Simon

Worse Things Happen At Sea! (infection 5!)

2006-01-16T06:26:00.000Z

Root Canal Work: so that tooth ache turned out to be an infection (now there's a surprise) of the roots around the tooth... basically what happened is this i had a filling in that tooth before, probably a few years ago, then in the middle of this summer (a few days before i went on holiday) it just randomly fell out (i don't think i was even eating) and took half the tooth with it. so i went to my dentist and he put in a filling... sadly, evidently he didn't do a very good job, apparently he didn't clean it out properly so there was still bacteria under the filling which grew and infected the gums around the tooth (that's what happened with the other tooth actually too! but just not quite as bad as this one... think someone may be changing their dentist when they gets home!)
so it was really hurting on saturday so i went to the hospital and they gave me codine which made me fall asleep at random times throughout the day (went to the beach yesterday and fell asleep as soon as i lay down-dribbled a little too but don't tell anyone) so i went to the dentist today and they removed the old filling and cleaned out bascially the whole of the inside of the tooth stuck in pins into the root (my roots are about 21mm long! that seems massive to me?!) they did all sorts of weird and wonderful things with drills and clamps and goodness knows what and now i have a very numb face and i keep biting my lip. so now i have to go to the dentist 2 times to sort it out at a cost of $1400! and thats just the first bit... then in a month or so i have to go two more times to get a porceline cap fitted. he said somthing about the whole thing costing $4000 or about 1700+quid (hurray for medical insurance!) it's just all a bit annoying at the mo. alot of hassel.

anyway as my granny says "worse things happen at sea" which is very true... i think i may just stick to land for the mo... might give the boat an infection.

hope things are a little better where you are,

Simon

going to the blue mountains tomorrow (hope i don't still have a numb face)

Tooth Ache!!!

2006-01-14T21:20:00.000Z

not really quite sure whats going on! just seems to be one thing after another.

it's been low lying pain for about a week or so but had to go to the hospital last night because the pain was getting too much, they gave me some heavy duty pain killers to take until i could get an appointment today... unfortunatly it being a sunday it's gonna cost a bomb (like 240 bucks/100 quid before they've even looked inside my mouth... which is just madness) i do have health insurance but i couldn't even get through to the guys at the dentist who said they were open today... so i'm feeling a bit sorry for my self at the moment. i'm just in the internet cafe at the mo (obviously) trying to rearrange my trip to the blue mountains from monday to tuesday so i can have a dentist appointment on monday.

whats funny is that i've had colds and small chest infections and other stuff too at the same time as all of this but i've never really been bothered to mention it because it didn't really seem significant. but it really has been one thing after another. apparently some of it is linked (ie the infection on my legs is fungal which was caused by the antibiotics that i had to take to treat my other infections! that's irony for you) but most of it is fairly random stuff.

anyway other than that i've been to bondi beach (but it rained) so went to the travel agent to book the trip to the blue mountains and left my credit card there (so now i have to go back on monday too to get that!)... luckily ther girl there was really nice, and from bristol (nice and from bristol... thats not something you see very often!) she played me her wurzels cd and i sang the somerset song ("i can't reeed 'n i can't 'rite but 'at dont really ma'er. cos i come fr'm somerset n' i c'n drive a trac'or" just incase you weren't familiar with said song/poem/saying).

then went to hillsongs church yesterday (just too see what all the fuss was about... apparently the last album their worship band released went to no.1 in the austrailian chart... which is quite odd for a country where only like 2 or 3% of people go to church! and they film it too and put it on prime time tv... it was massive in asia (esp. india) too-well with he Xians anyway) anywho... left my hostel with 2 hours to spare caught the train and arrived at my destination to see the bus i was supposed to catch from the station shot past,had to wait for an hour for the next one... ended up turning up an hour late and catching the end of an english guy doing the talk! oh irony... how you stalk me like a big stalky thing!

but met some nice people who'd missed my bus too, at the bus stop... talked to the guy about all the ways that animals in austrailia kill people (out of the 10 most poisonous spiders in the world 7 are found in oz apparently... anyway the guy owned a snake so i thaught it best jsut to nod and agree). they showed me where to get off and raved about hillsongs... tho the guy seemed to be mostly excited at the vast number of beautiful, single women that it seemed to attract (his wife didn't look too amused) after the meeting i got a lift to the station with one of the aforementioned beautiful women and her husband and another lady from canada who talked the entire way home (including the train) (think janet-street-porter but canadian and scared of most things) she was nice enough just a bit much when you've got a tooth that feels like its about to kill you from the inside and your feeling v tired.

anyway was thinking about wandering around in the backstreets just to get the muggings over and done with... i'm sure they're next.

i've been reading some of job... makes me feel a little better. think i'm not having as quite a rough time as him. actully my overall moral isn't too bad at the mo... just need to have a moan. i think cos i've been facing all this in small bits it isn't not too ununmanageable (now theres some double negitives for you to try and work out!)

anyway hope things are a little better where you are,

Simon

PS can you pray for me (if you do that sort of thing) just cos it really hurts and i need to get it sorted... and just generally too. cheers.

infection 4

2006-01-12T06:28:00.000Z

well just been to the doctor again (within 4 hours of arriving in a country thats gotta be some sort of a record!) so i had to go get a medicare card from another part of the city so i could get free care (apparently the uk and oz have some kind of agreement) this time it's a fungal infection on the insides of my legs... not nice.

the flight was ok... slightly delayed and a small child a few rows ahead seemed upset for most of the journey (not fun when your trying to sleep)

sydneys seems cool tho (their medical centre is quite posh anyway) i'm in a bit of a backpacker centre in the city so i seem to be hearing more english accents than anything else at the mo... i mean honestly you travel half way around the world!

think i'm happy to be out of singapore... i didn't really like the place. it just seemed a bit souless and full of crazy rules. i was speaking to a girl on the train about the law banning chewing gum... apparently they have to go to malaysia to buy it and then you chew it in private because you'll get a fine. maddness. it just seemed impersonal and quite oppressive... there was stuff on the radio there about how there was a big problem of people beating up their maids...

anyway on a lighter note may go in search of the harbour bridge later.

Cor, Cow Pat Poo!

2006-01-11T12:15:00.000Z

...translates in thai to "can i have some crab fried rice..." and "cow pat guy" is chicken fried rice. best of all, to turn a sentence into a polite one you add the word "crap" to then end. what a genious language.

well, as well as all that learning malarchy, i've been doing loads recently (probably somthing to do with the fact that i just tagged along with the rydes for a couple of weeks... if i leave it to myself i normally don't do very much at all) i'll blog in some more detail about that soon.

i'm in singapore again of to Oz... it all happened a little randomly... i'm actually in singapore airport at the mo (on the free internet) i would wirte more but there's a line of other peeps hanging around all trying as hard as they can to look like there's not increadably fustrated at the massive amounts of time people are hogging the glorious goodness of the inter-joy-bringing-goodness-net. so i shall attempt to be a good citizen.

will blog again from sydney (hopefully with some pics too)

lot of love, Simon

Operation

2005-12-31T09:45:00.000Z

just a quick note...

went to the hospital last night to see if they could take a look at the big red infected spot (see post below) that was making it hard for me to sit.

i showed the doctor the infected spot (he spoke a tiny bit of english) he sent me to the emergency room to get the puss sucked out. i think it was about the most pain ever... (worse than drilling of my tooth down to the root, with only some wierd strawberry flavoured spray anaesthetic and even worse than sticking three needles into my toe before cutting away at the nail and skin) i think it was so bad cos the skin was all tough and swolen so the needles wouldn't go in very well... and he had to use a scalpul to cut into it and then squeeze out loads and loads of puss.

now i have to take 15 tablets a day! (and 12 of those are pain killers!)

feel better now (but slightly violated). the drugs are kicking in so i'm basically back to normal (thats what barry the pink unicorn says anyway. he's the guy who comes and sings to me at night. nice guy.)

happy new year!

Simon

infecto-raft

2005-12-30T12:21:00.000Z

hello,

i have another infection... this time somewhere inbetween my lower back to upper leg region (you can do the math!) think a mosi bite got infected so now it's all sore and pussy and hard and pink and annoying (that'll be about my third infection of the month then!) i'll have to go and get some kind of medical cream... was gonna show john (of ryde fame) but i don't think he was all that keen to get familiar with that particular region of my self.

anyway moving on... went white water rafting today for about an hour... was good fun not quite enough white water tho for my liking but still good fun and not bad for 400 baht (about £5!)

accidently getting a suit talyored too which is odd. went in to the shop was thinking about getting one made but then suddenly i was getting one... must have temporarily blacked out. will be usefull to have it and i'm sure it'll be really nice and lovely (it's cashmere, crease proof and charcoal grey) and it's v cheap for a taylored suit (about £75 for a jacket and two pairs of trousers) plus now they have my measurements i can order more stuff from them and they will just send it over (for exchange with cash obviously). hope it looks good... am going back for a second fitting tonight. cloths and things are really cheap (about £3 each for a really decent branded teeshirt) so it's really hard not to buy a really vast amount of stuff just cos it's cheap.

oh also... the day i blogged last was actually really cool we had xmas dinner and opened presents and it felt actually quite christmassy.

really like thailand, people are really friendly and chilled, don't think this'll be my last visit.

lots of love simon

ps i can now say the word white man in three languages! (can be my party trick... plus i could always make up a few fictional languages too... in which case i can say white man in 9.4 languages. bril)

COMMENT NEWS

hello... well i was wondering why noone (not even my own mother) had left any comments... so i was playing around today and found out i'd turned it off or something (i think it might have been cos the first one i got was an ad trying to get people to buy viagra?!) but then i forgot i did it. anyway i found a few which were hidden which was cool (i had thought people were just ignoring me) so that was cool to find them... (there mainly on the first few posts)

by the way... now you can post without having to sign up. so no excuse.

i will probably still get ad comments (they do look quite real) normally they will include an link to another site (you can see a few examples as comments on the early posts tho one is real) so just ingnore them (i'll try to work out how to delete any bad ones i get)

Xmas 2

2005-12-28T10:19:00.000Z

Merry Xmas one and all...

well i hope you had a good one.

i'm in thailand now celebrating xmas 2 with the very lovely ryde family in their rather lovely shiny house. very posh. just had bacon and i'm about to eat a big chicken so all is well. arrived in thailand last night from malaysia and caught the train up from the airport, which was surprisingly easy considering i didn't have a ticket and i only had one hour between landing and the night train leaving. got chatting to a japanese guy on the station who knew a little english... we managed to develope a sort of sophisticated sign language to communicate... started with the obvious fundimentals like... "do you like bacon?" but soon moved on to more sophisticated signals... he explained how proportional representation was obviously a flawed governmental system and how an elected oligarchy was a more officient system (but still had it's own draw backs)...

anyway got the train up to the north of thailand (about 14hrs for £7) slept ok am a smidge tired now.

Xmas day

had a nice but weird xmas day. i know christmas never does feel like christmas but this one didn't especially... partly i think because of the heat, partly because of the lack of family but mostly because there was none of those little bacon covered sausages that you only have at christmas! oh the tears.

was cool anyway. had breakfast in an indian cafe (really lush roti (bread) with this coconut jam which tastes nothing like coconut... hard to explain) then went to church and had the service (which was a surprise) and had this big meal at the end with all the church. then i went back to the house and made chocolate brownies and got picked up by some friends and taken to a chinese place to have a dessert called ABC which literally translates into ice and nuts... i asked for no nuts in mine. luckily there was more to ice and nuts than just ice and nut... there was all sorts of weird jellys and beans and this kind of milk stuff (i wasn't quite sure what it was) but it looked colourful and tasted ok so it was ok with me... then went to their house, about 1/2 an hour away, and watched (and even joined in a little too) making fresh noodles which we had for dinner with about the lushest pork ever tasted in the world ever. then played Uno, got a lift home... phoned my family, they told me to call back later so i did.

Between the aformentioned time and the time that is generally know as the present (at the time of authorship)

just went to the mall lots (well walked between three malls) met up with some peeps some days and looked at lots of stuff but brought very little (apart from burger king) saw king kong which i found rather enjoyable went out for a chinese meal with steve and fungchu (which included the worlds tastiest prawns and a sign on the wall which said "please do not spit" in three languages!) and i cant really remember much else.

well thanks to all people of malaysia (and visitors) for a memorable trip,

Simon

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house nothing was stirring, not even a mouse"

2005-12-24T14:33:00.000Z

hello,

blogging alot at the mo... seems to go like that. either i'll blog loads or not at all or somewhere in between... which i suppose makes sence!

well i left the oz team yesterday. they're here for a few more weeks so i pulled the whole leave early trick to make them miss me more than my worth... wohaha... like when a celebrity dies early they instantly become immortalised and legendary and they make documentaries about them and tee shirts with their faces on (dont believe me then go to any rural village in malaysia and behold the most hard core nirvana fans in the universe! quite surreal) then i'll return in a few years and do chat shows and morning television until i'm rich. quite a plan hay.

anywho... been out shopping with some friends and went to see king kong this eve... was very much enjoyable.

also for right sado's like me cheak out this site...
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail

thought i'd add some pic's from the last 2 or 3 weeks as it is christmas and everything...

lush water fall

went to see a stilt village, built by the government, with the team... my tooth was really really really hurting so i'm attemping to keep out of the way.

thats the beach at the 5 star hotel (not that i ever stayed there)

had to be done...

beach on the island

a bug that looks like a leaf...

exotic island day...

2005-12-22T10:41:00.000Z

the day started like this...

got up at about 6:30 (in the rain) and got a lift to the nearest town (as i'm not currently in the city) got on a very rickity old bus into the city... (was still raining but slighly more heavily now) got dropped of randomly in the city in a place where i had no idea where i was... then i realised it was the bus station (well i guess it does make sence after all) and walked to meet my new(ish) found malaysian friends.

was still raining

stopped raining but still grey and crappy (hardly ideal island weather)

anyway took the boat out to this lush tropical island and the clouds over the island slowly burnt away... went snorkeling by the reef and saw like the coolest fish ever (well compaired to the brown, smelly fish i normally see anyway) they would all swim around me and some would nibble my leg hair (do you know chinese men have no leg hair and some even buy fake leg hair socks... true fact apparenlty) anyway was enjoying the gloriousnessness of the under water world when i realised... um i wonder where i put my passport... so turns out it was in my pocket! oops, it's ok though i managed to develop a complicated drying system using coins and toilet paper so it doesn't look to bad.

so the island was cool and i even bumped into the oz team in town afterwards so i could get a lift with them (and not try to catch the bus to the town i'd forgotten the name of)... so then the engine and the brakes stoped working on the mini bus that 'team oz' were using so that was nice... luckly we stop right out side a mac donalds (the joy of the silver lining!)

went to a 5* resort today which was nice... just kinda walked in... don't ask was with a pastor who knew some one who was somewhere or somthing, somehow? i don't know (see i told you the church is just like the mafia) anyway went and walked on their beach and had smoothies by the pool.... very nice.

anywho... thats about all i can think of at the moment,

Simon

PS foreign people are great cos you can use all the real old school jokes on them and they think they're really funny (wohaha... the fools!)

new feature...

2005-12-20T11:31:00.000Z

well...

i'm experimenting with this whole blog thing and i've found out you can invite other people to blog on the same site (although i still have the ultimate control) so i invited some yankee red neck bird to write on here too... although i see that she has already started to abuse the power that i (in all my greatness) have decided to given her and write a post in the style of me - take not of the repeated use of the word bird... (no offence to any birds or shall i say chicks that may be reading this!)

been eating alot of curry recently and now i feel slightly sick. off to thailand in a week which sould be fun (although i'd probably better book my flight fairly soon me thinks)

well i'm sleeping on the floor again actually i've been sleeping on floors on probably all but 10 or 15 days of my trip here and i think i've developed callouses (spelling?!) on my hips. went to a carnival last night in the town (in aid of christmas) was actually quite good whats more there were other white people there which is always odd and you end up stairing at them and giving a little nervous smile when they look at you (and the circle is completed- if you catch my drift?!)

funny it's christmas soon... actually was thinking back to last year (when i worked the whole of chrsitmas in the firy pit of "comet - the home of electricals") and how the year has gone soooo fast... it's almost a year since we left for india. the madness.

i'm off to the islands tomorrow... got an early start. there are like these lush tropical islands about 20mins by boat from the city. in fact i think they filmed the american version of survivor here (you know the one where they stuck a load of people on an island and they had to do stuff and something like that... not a very memorable show but i do remember the island in the british one being lush so should be similar.

anyhow... have fun in the nice crisp coldness of the UK...

Simon x

Amazing Bird

2005-12-20T11:18:00.000Z

I met an amazing bird the other day. Her name is Shannon. She is about the funniest person on the planet and I think I'm a blessed man to even have met her. I could talk about her for ages, but I'm sure everyone would find that so boring. Oh well, I'll do it anyway. Shannon is smart and pretty and did I mention funny and oh yeah, American, which is the greatest nation in the world and I just wish I could live there and be an American myself. Maybe some day... sigh.

More Medicine

2005-12-16T09:28:00.000Z

well ive been to see the doctor (well dentist) again...

this time for my tooth ache (had it for 3 days in a row so thought i'd go get it fixed) i walked in and the dentist and his 2 assistants were just sat around so i got see hom straight away... he was really good and explained everything (which was a change from my dentist who says nothing but seem to put the strangest bits of metal and random things in my mouth... i mean who'd thought a weasel's nose would be good for your gums!) anyhow he replaced the fillin that was causing the problem. what was really great was that it only cost 70 ringgit (about a tenner) for the whole 1/2 hour thing... which was great... anyway i have to go and get a small second appointment in NZ to cap it or something?! he said something about a very important message... to do with a weasels nose and then something about a danger of death. i forgot.

some stuff i forgot from previous posts...
+ went to a wedding which was really random because we had no idea who the people where and we were their guests of honour... we just turned up half way through the thing ate the best food and then left... v random.
+ i've been trying to learn a bit of guitar... quite fun tho i'm not all that good yet i'm expecting i loose interest fairly soon (just judging by my history of starting things...)
+ the americans, canadians and sweds think i'm really odd with my english accent... i think it's also tricking them into thinking that i'm smart too... it's all falling into my plan (thats a catchphrase which i'm trying to develop... see if it catches on)
+ also (tho not really relating to my trip) was reading tother day that in the 21century it's funny cos when your alone you are public (ie you blog) and when your in public your private (ie you listen to your cd player and ignore the world) weird hay... just a random.

so cant really remember what i've been up to in the last few days... went to burger king the other day which was nice... and i've become addicted to bread?! (bit tired of rice now...)

looking forward to goin to thailand... tho i still need to book my ticket... will do it soon thinking of flying to KL and then getting the train up to chang mei so i can see more of the countyside.

Christmas Greetings and cheer to all, Simon x

Toes and Xmas

2005-12-14T07:15:00.000Z

well this week i've been hanging out with a team from Oz... Although none of them are are actually austrailian (complicated...! don't ask!) anyway they're a really cool bunch and even though they've all spent like 6 months solid together i joined them and they embraced me to their collective, metaphorical bossom... which is nice. it's really refreshing just to be around people with an equally surreal sence of humour as me. they're a cool bunch and i've just been getting involved in the stuff that they've been doing.

well some toe news... i forgot to say in my last blog but i hit my big toe on a rock and all the skin down one side of the nail it split away and bled alot and made me feel faint... anyway this week it got really infected so i had to go to a clinic and have a small operation... the guy stuck a (well actually 3) big needles into my lovly big toe and then got out his scissors and cut off half my nail and some of my skin... so it looks really rank and is really tender (ive got a video of the operation and it is actually really gross) actually today i've been having tooth ache and i've picked up a bit of a cold... but i feel a bit better now this afternoon.

was doing a kids camp all week... went well.

anyway i'm in an internet cafe at the mo so i better go,

all the best (and missing you all), Simon xxxx

PS i'm not really sure why but there are about 20 KFC'c per meter in malaysia also it's really weird it being hot and there being xmas decorations up... v surreal.

Kampong

2005-12-05T13:44:00.000Z

Well hello,

It’s been quite a while since my last blog (no computer for like aggeeeeessssss – note: the long length of the word ‘ages’ indicated the length of the age) so I’ll try and up date you…

Well I’ve been living in the kampong and helping with a youth camp thingy sortof. I’ve been sleeping on the floor, bathing in rivers and eating rice for the last 3 weeks so arriving back ‘home’ last night was lush! Soft beds, speaking English and showers is what life turns out to be all about. I still had some of the chocolate left that my work gave me to nibble on, to help me ease gently back into my comfort zone… oh how I love that zone of comforty goodness!

Because time is the illusion of the masses I will arrange my trip into topics rather than like an actual chronological order…

People

Well I was a little worried about this cos I started the thing and knew nobody… well I had spent a week with the other staff (all malay) but the only people who could speak English well were a few of the girls (and although I love girls very much and would happily talk to them all day I was unsure of the cultural jazz when it comes to the ladies) so as far as I could tell I was fairly alone when I arrived (though the boss was a brit). I spent the first few days having conversations that went something along the line of
“hello I’m simon…”
Them “halo, my name is kjoiahsdjfwe”
Me “ok…, have you come from a long way”
Them “what”
Me “from how far have you come?”
Them “about 4 oClock I thinks”
It took me a few days to realize that there were people there who spoke English as a primary language… but even then it’s still not so easy to get over cultural and age differences. So that I must admit that was hard… I did make some quite good friends by the end it just took a little while longer than normal… in fact I was quite sad to say good bye to them at the end.
The humor is quite different… one guy I got on well with left for a few day and when he came back I told him “it was a shame he had gone because while he was gone a magic pony came and handed out free money” at which he just looked very shocked and exclaimed “Magic Pony!”
I got on well with one lass on staff who had spent some years in OZ… she was about 25 me thinks and but we spent long time discussing our theorys of life, the universe and everything plus when you insulted her she laughed (I wish more people were like that). So that was cool. There were some guys from KL who seemed fairly sound too.

Kampong (village)

Spent the last week in the proper, proper village… though of course the shop still sold coke (I’ve yet to go to a place which doesn’t). me and 6 others stayed in a tiny bamboo, rat infested, stilt house. I found that some bread in one shop and brought 3 loaves in total… by this time I was craving bread like something else that craves bread, craves bread (it’s quite tiring trying to think up comparisons all the time you know).
One the second night I was woken up at 3 in the morning, shined my torch over to the food area to find 2 rats helping themselves to our butter crackers… so I spent the next hour trying to find ingeneous ways to hide all the food from the rats only to go back to bed (well I say bed I mean floor) and hear them breaking through my carefully thought out hiding places and having to re hide every thing. There was also a lizard that came out every night and said in an extremely loud voice TUK-KEY… so I gave him a turkey and watched as he rode it off into the sunset… but then back in reality I realized that it was the really poisonous lizard that if a snake and it bite each other the snake dies! Also we got up at 6:30 every morning… seriously. Are these people mad!
We did some cool stuff in the village… we were taken up the side of a hill to go and eat fresh mango with this weird chilli, soy sauce, sugar and salt sauce., later we went up another hill to go eat corn that they cooked on an open fire… then on the way down the hill the guys who took us up climbed a coconut tree (as easily as I climb the stairs) and then cut a whole in the top so we could drink out of them and then he quickly wittled up a spoon out of the outer layer of the coconut so we could eat the flesh… (that was very cool)
Another day we collected rubber from rubber trees and then helped re cut the trees then went back down to the village to eat mimi noodles with or something for 1 ringgit (about 18pence) like I said we bathed in the river… washed our clothes and plates… and collected our drinking water from it. Was ok… not to brown… I’m still alive?!
One day we went up to a part of the river that was really deep, where there was this massive rock you could jump off (I thinks about 3 meters)… when we got there we realized the small naked boys had beaten us to it… anyway we joined them (not in their nakedness but in there jumping) and they called me “big hairy white man” (in their language obviously) then we played chuck the small naked boy into the river (trying hard to avoid any lawsuits)
Also met the village nutter who just wandered into our house some days… he, rather worringly, had a big knife that he carried around with him… now I wonder who had the idea that the village would be a lot better off if the nutter had a knife to occupy himself with.

Animals

Saw two snakes… at different times both coming towards me… bit scary though they were fairly small.
Saw some millipedes… about 30cm long and fat and red.
Ate snails
Chickens, not very hairy dogs, like I said lizards and rats also saw monkeys that people chained to their houses for pets (poor little things)

anyway thats all i can think of at the moment... now i have to go and pack cos i'm moving house tomorrow...

miss you all (and my mac too - i had a weird dream last night about steve jobs (the guy who owns apple computers) last night he come to my primary school to realease all of apples new products and nobody really cared... evidently it was a nightmare!)

love and jazz, Simon X

(i'll try and post some pics on here one of these days)

3 weeks of no net...

2005-11-14T00:41:00.000Z

well i'm of the the kampong (that's village to you and me) in about 3 seconds... as usual i've left everything important to the very last second.

i would tell you about the massive cockroach that was crawling up my neck in the car (it was about 6 foot and had lazers for eyes) but i hvae no time....

will blog again on the 3rd..........

byeeeeeeeeeeeeee. x

Intolerance

2005-11-09T23:02:00.000Z

Hello world-wide-web-watchers...

howdo? well i've been learning some malay (only because i have to!) so far i've learnt "hello", "good bye" and "please can you tidy my room?" (seriously... have actually learnt that... now time to put the lessons into action! ha... soon all will be mine!)

well i've been in training for the team which i will be working with next week (and the two weeks after that also) like i said i cant go into the details... seriously i cant i know everyone will think that i'm just making it up and trying to make it sound exciting but i'm not... scouts honour (or honor for those americans out there) but they seem like a nice enough bunch... they're all malay nationals (actually alot are chinese origin) but the team is lead by a brit. today i went along and found out that there was no training today so i just hung around all day in the baking heat and read an amazing book called "intolerence" which was amazing and great and ace all in one.(i'll come back to it later)

well i've managed to quell one of my fears... that i like to call withoutamacidie-o-phobia... guy who runs the course is also inlightened in his choice of computing... yes... indeed... he has a mac! and whats more it had a fault with some of the software (made by microsoft may i add... sounds like some kind of conspiracy to me!) so i've been asked to fix it... which is what i'm doing now... sortof (i accidently 'needed' to bring it back home to do some more stuff on it... hehehe) yes this very blog come from those very same life enhancing, white keys of goodness!

actually i'll talk more about intolerence (and why it's great) in my next blog... because i'm tired and i actully do have to fix this computer now!

the plan

2005-11-06T11:54:00.000Z

thaught i'd explain the general plan for the whole thing... for those who don't know.

well i have purchased a multistop ticket... it goes something like this im in eastern malaysia until just after xmas volenteering and the such, then i'm going up to thailand to visit friends who have just moved out there and to ride the elephants, may well be coming back to malaysia after that for a little , then the ticket takes me to sydney for a week and new zealand for probably about 1 or 2 months. then the states via fiji and home again to pay off my debts! anyway thats the plan... it's open to change.

i'm on my own which i think is mixed good and bad... it's really hard not to compare the trip with india (which i think, by the way, you'd have to be stark raving mad to do on your own) and it'll be interesting to see if i miss that compainionship of having someone to laugh at all the misshaps and random things that seemed to happen daily (i mean i can laugh on my own... but i look a little mad!) but on the other hand i've probably had way more experiences and met more people already that i would never have met if i was with someone else... mainly because you have to... plus there is that whole thing about completely being your own boss. i think it'll be interesting to see what i think at the end.

about malaysia

in some kind of horrible twist of fate i've managed to arrive just at the beggining of the rainy season... and guess when it ends, yep pretty much the time i leave! ooops. it's really hot all the time (it stays the same temp most of the year) and at the moment i keep falling asleep at random times througout the day... and having really odd dreams.

just had rat tail noodles - like really thick noodles that oddly enough look like rats tails! strange that. there are lizzards in the toaster which you have to shake out every morning. and there is a small cat called pebbles.

my work type stuff starts here on tuesday and lasts for a month... actually i've been asked not to go into to much detail online as it may get people in trouble, it may sound bit mellow dramatic but i've been told about it and you could see the risks far outway the benefits (don't worrie it's not dangerous... i cant really explain tho it's coplex - have to wait til i get back)

Simon

PS a few peeps i couldn't email (cos i didn't have their addresses) that i said i would so if anyone asks can you give them this address.

Malaysia at last

2005-11-06T11:45:00.000Z

hello,

well 8000 miles, 4 countries (inc malay and UK) four cars, one boat, two trains, three planes and alot of walking later (although some of it i must admit was on those cool travelator things which i'm not completly sure classes as actual walking or not) i have arrived in malaysia! was an ok (but long and complex) journey. Singapore Airways is actually lush the food is by gordon ramsey and there are those cool tvs with loads of chanels and films to watch whenever you want... which i must say almost made up for the baby that cried most of the night (in a really weird way aswell... like some kind of burgler alarm, in 3 second blasts... must be german).

anyway one bit of the journey that ended up being really cool was my wait for my last transfer flight to Kota Kinabalu (where i am now)...
was trying to phone the guy in malaysia where who was going to pick me up from the airport but had no burnei dollars and the changer place was closed (was the day after the last day of ramadam - a bit like christmas) anyway found a hidden cash machine (harry potter train station style) and then had to get a card, find the codes, slay the dragon, etc... anyway a guy came up to help cos i was looking confused and talked to him for a little bit then he asked how long i was waiting for, when i said 8 hours he said if i wanted he could show me arround... so i said "yer sure, sounds great" (symiltaneously wondering how the news crews would report my grusome death) anyway he turned out to be really cool, a canadian/brunei mix... so i went and saw his restraunt (which he had to go to because he was selling it to some people that day) and had an illeagal beer (which some how made it tasted just that much better) then went on a motor boat around the silt villages, saw the sultans place and a few mosques too boot.

anyway few cool brunei facts... the sultan went to uni in the uk and liked 'capital fm' so much burnei has it and 'capital gold' transmit here in brunei too.-quite surreal
also they pay NO TAX! basically the sultans are so rich from oil that they don't need to!

hope all is well in old blighty,

Simon xx

(ive republished this post because some random person had left a comment... think it was some kind of advert and i had no idea how to get it off)

Singapore...

2005-11-03T23:56:00.000Z

hello...

i'm in singapore... it's raining and the internet is free!
(a more detailed blog will follow)

Simon