5:50pm EAST
09:50 Swedish Time
Temperature : 13 - 19C (Currently 18C and Cloudy)

First, a photo :

L - R : Gins (Latvia), Diana (Estonia), Me, Andreas (Sweden), Andreas 'Andy' (Germany), Neil (England), Ben (Germany)

It's from the Toga party last weekend, and comes to you courtesy of Wolfgang (Germany). Thanks Volfy.

Not too much to report in the way of 'International Incidents' as Karen so aptly put it, although I have made pancakes 3 times this week. Yum. I am getting bloody good at it too, or so I am told...yay for my ego! For fans of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, I am thinking of taking up permanant residence here as 'The Pancake Man', although there does seem to be a shortage of Perfectly Normal Flour.

I moved in with the Wessens yesterday. My new address is below in a previous post, and I am likely to live with them for a couple of months. The Wessens are :
Susanne - International Coordinator at the engineering department at the uni. Speaks very good english. Is very nice. Actually, the whole family is sickeningly nice!
Magnus - Forging and Casting specialist, in the traditions of old :) English is pretty good.
Janus (10) - Understands english, and speaks it ok...
Clara (7) - Can say and understand 'Hello', 'Good morning' and 'Good bye'. Likes to skip a lot and is always asking questions (via translator) about animals in australia.
Lund (2) - the dog, a King Charles. Very cool little guy. It's a funny exercise to talk to him, because he will answer his name, but will only respond to Swedish commands and not English ones. Whilst this is obvious, it's still kind of funny to talk to him in English and see the expression on his face. Mum, be thankful that you don't live in Sweden because vets here are ridiculously expensive. Lund has his own health insurance for up to 10,000kr...roughly $2,000AU.
My room is really nice, however it has a very low ceiling...I cruise around just fine in there, although cadden wouldn't be able to stand up!

I found this great website of Visingsö, an island on the lake roughly 20km from here.
http://www.visingso.net/turokul/engelska.html
Visit the photos section as it has a month by month photoshoot of the area, and gives you an idea of just how beautiful this place is. (Jönköping looks the same as Visingsö) Also, they have this festival of castles there in June and July each year, where there are people riding around in suits of armour with big swords...these swedes are crazy mad keen when it comes to celebrations I tell you.

Also I finally picked up my boxes...it was like chrismas...I have clean clothes again, which is awesome!

That's about all I have to say today. Hej to all my friends and family back home...missing you all heaps and wish you were here...even though the weather is starting to turn, it is still a beautiful place.

Hej Då!

Thank you to my secret Australian correspondant for this little gem.
How goes it Miss Terry, err...I mean Troy... :)

Try tracking me down and hitting me when I'm 15,000km away lis...

checkmate. ;P

8:54pm EAST
12:54 Swedish Time
Temperature : CNN Lies!!! 12 - 22C (currently 18C)

The bastards at CNN said it would be sunny...why is it raining??? Eurgh...I feel the end of summer is nigh...noooooooooooooooooo...errr...or rather neeeeeeeeeeeeejjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj!

PS. My Address from next Monday will be
Rowland Marshall
c/o Susanne & Magnus Wessen
9 Norra Barrgatan
55313 Jönköping
SWEDEN

9:00pm EAST
13:00pm Swedish Time
Temperature : 23 - 12C (currently 22C)

Hej! Ok, so in honesty I really don't feel like writting much today due to the fact that I am unbelieveably buggered...but all the same I'll give you a rundown on what's been going on.
The most amazing thing would have had to have been the Student Water Event on friday. The only way I can possibly describe it to you is by saying this :

Picture an indoor Wet 'n' Wild, hired exclusively by the university for 2000 students. Add a very large bar. Turn the wave pool into a rave room, with smoke and lights and awesome dancing music. Turn the outside pool into a live music venue with a stage playing live bands all night. Host interfaculty crazy games in an Olympic swimming pool (aka Pool Pony relay...more later with photos). Make the host of this event the equivilent Swedish TV star from our Neighbours back home. Throw her in the pool. Add several spas. Also add big glove boxing and inflatable wrestling/gladiators. Oh, and what the heck, chuck in Bungee Jumping and a private fireworks display from the university's own Student Pyrotechnics Club.

Then make the ticket price for the event $12 (whilst Sweden is really expensive, the Student Run Events are so unbelieveably cheap they put our scheming back home to shame...they don't have a pizza card though).

What do you get? The best 8 hours of your life. It is impossible to describe by typing, but basically, no other uni I have ever heard of does such a thing. I'll say more when I put up the photos next week. Oh, and I also ran out of Vegemite :( I will say though that it was thoroughly worth it to see the looks on the faces of all the different nationalities that tried the stuff. Us Aussies were sitting around cracking up and eating Vegemite on toast by the truckload.

We also had this crazy toga party last night which was pretty poor, but notable for the fact it was my first, and I wore the Aussie flag, and taught people our national anthem. The other thing I learned last night was how to say 'pitching tent' in German. Tselt Astleden. Or something like that. You can work out the rest.

Yesterday was pancake day. Not for any other reason other than the fact that they are cheap to make and I wanted pancakes, although it was a kind of long distance belated promise fulfilment to Janie :) The one thing here that I found interesting was that everyone in the house (I took up two stoves and cooked pancakes for 10 people) has NO idea what pancakes are. They think pancakes should be very thin, and very rubbery (much like Aussie crepes) and that crepes are slightly less rubbery pancakes. So I introduced them to the tradional 10mm thick super fluffy Aussie pancake. It was awesome...they loved it and apparently I have to cook again next weekend. Fine by me :) Bulk pancakes all round, and someone else does the cleaning up because they liked them so much. Oh yeah. Also, many of these poor souls had never experienced lemon juice and sugar on pancakes. Side note - whilst neil the brit will quite happily add lard and fat to anything he eats, he was appaulled by the amount of sugar I had on my pancakes. Go figure.

The next week will be quieter, and I'll try to get my website up and running. Also I pick up my clothes today (yay!!!) so I will be playing soccer a lot more. One thing to note for the guys - Girls soccer is really popular here and they are bloody good...I currently play at the local field in a social mixed friendly every once in a while and have resigned myself to Goalie until further training ensues. The Swedes may be be able to play around with the ball, but they suck at putting the body on the line, and so I fair ok as goalie :) Especially when I can wear my wallabies jersey and take a lot of ground ball one on one challenges. Although my ribs are a bit bruised after yesterday.

As I was telling M + D, a few of us are also trying to get together a 7 a side rugby competition going. Should be fun. And it'll make a great excuse to absolutely crush the evil french people living in the room next to me. Asta La Viva La France froggies.

OK, so here are the first of a couple of photos...nothing too interesting

Hong Kong Sunset. I could have taken a hundred photos of this.


Harold killing time during one of the many 4 hour airport waits. He's so intellectual that boy.


My first home...the yellow house at the top. Lake Vättern is in the background.


The local football club J-Sodrä...This field is literally behind my new house...oh yeah


My room at Gula Villan, as modelled by Howard. Also some crazy church remains just up the hill form home

One last thing, in aid of the sweet tooth, I'm organising a 'Swedish Chocolate and Wine' afternoon next week for 50 - 100 people...it'll be awesome! But I need people to remind me of all the classic chocolate games. Please email me (click on my name).

Hej då!

11:32pm EAST
15:32 Swedish Time
Temperature : 11 - 23C (currently 23C)

OK, so anyways, I woke up this morning with a woman in my bed...and I've got to tell you that the floor was bloody uncomfortable! More on that later. What a night! Last night signified my first night on the town...basically for three reasons, one being the most important that it was Meredith's 21st Birthday (happy birthday darlin', and I actually managed to have my first beer right on 12am Aussie time so there you go), 2nd was that I managed to find an ATM that would actually accept my card and thus I was given the gift of the coin, and finally, the night's student organised event was Karaoke! Boooyah!

OK, so backtrack. Mere's birthday, and I knew I had to have a drink and a cheer on Mere's birthday. Actually, for the record, by the end of the night not only had I toasted a happy birthday to you, but so had 3 portugese, 1 brit, 3 other aussies, 5 germans, 1 latvian, 1 Istanbulese, several swedes and a South Carolinian. So I hope you feel loved!

We started at roughly 6pm (12am EAST time) with what I will regard as one of the best drinking games I've ever come across. It's called caps, and basically involves sitting on the floor in groups of around 10 and flicking bottle caps into someone else' beer in order to make them drink. They can reverse challenge you and so on, and it gets very vengeful. It was awesome. We played this for about an hour and then left to go have some dinner. After dinner it was off to the J-bar in town for the Karaoke night. Karaoke didn't actually start until 10:30pm, so everyone was dancing and having an awesome time to various music from around the world. The venue was done up like the inside of a spanish galleon in one part, and a kitchen in the other...weird...but fun.

OK, we danced away and I took some awesome photos. Now as you all know, I'm not one to let people sit down when there's dancing to be had. I had a multipart plan to bring down the Swedish Shy Ethos, and part one was the best conga line you have ever seen.

Not long after this, Karaoke began. The more boisterous amongst us (aka americans, aussies, french and South Africans) belted out a few tunes and pretty soon we had the place rocking.

In the fine tradition of old, you (particularly Cadden) would be pleased to note 2 things...the first being that I was humane enough to only sing one song, and (2), that that song should be none other than a solo Frank Sinatra performance of New York, New York. Baby yeah!

Complete with can-can accompaniment of course :)

With that part of the plan out of the way the next Objective of "Project Aussie-fy" was a spur of the moment limbo.

This broke the banks, and was finished off by the fact that Anna (Portugal) and I decided we should personally invite every single guy and girl sitting down to dance with us. The end result : Every single table in the nightclub was pushed back against the walls, everyone was funking it up Troy & Pato style, and we had completely succeeded save for 3 Spaniards who must have been glued to their chairs.

OK, now we come to the part where I ended up with a girl in my bed. :)

The Student Party Group (yes, they have a specific commitee of 15 people who are specifically designated the task of organising university funded parties throughout the year) Entre then decided that we needed to find out what country had the best beer drinkers in the world. Of course, this was no contest, but we still had to go through the rigmarole...Poor old Sarah (Cameo's friend Janie) and James had to down 4 schooners each in 4 minutes (two elimination beers and 2 for the final) to prove their worth, and of course, Australia opened a major can of Vegemite Jihad on the USA in the finals.

Aussíe Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy! (I have the photos to prove it!)

However, victory aside poor old Sarah was shattered, (considering she'd been at a dinner party since 6pm prior to Karaoke I am not surprised) Rather than pass out on the bus to Råslätt we took her back to Gula Villan which was much closer, and she passed out on my bunk whilst I had the happy task of taking the floor, which didn't bother me too much since the bed was giving me back ache anyway. The end result of it all was that by the time we were able to leave Gula Villan this afternoon I had to RUN to make my 1PM Swedish Lesson...heh heh heh. And judging by the state of poor old Sarah this morning I'm glad I kept my running total to 4 beers for the day. Nothing like having the party of the year for only $20AU I'll say.

Oh yeah, and the prize for being the best beer drinkers (besides the pride)? One more beer each. For breakfast I'm assuming.

Oh yeah, one last comment, I've been telling the other students about how to have a proper Aussie BBQ and they are all dead keen. Here's hoping Pato... :)

PS. This lab has a scanner...so hopefully I'll be posting some pictures next week.

Hej Då!

totally true

Hey look,it's Jaymis everybody...

9:17pm EAST
13:17 Swedish Time
Temperature : 12 - 24C (currently 25C)

Call To Arms

I've heard rumours that this weekend people might be neglecting their civic duties. This weekend is not a time for work. It is a time for solid worship of the pale ale in the spirit of the man who knows it best, Joshua Socrates Galletly. Heck, I'm in another freakin' country and I'm rounding up random people to get drunk in his honour. So don't even think about driving, don't think about turning down a beer and don't DARE think about piking, because I have a rampaging horde of Vikings here who would do their best to teach you otherwise. Ladies and Gentleman, DON'T MOVE...(from your seat on saturday*)

*...unless another beer is required, or Goat wants another beer, or you need to visit the little boys/girls room.

9:20pm EAST
13:20 Swedish Time
Temperature : 12 - 24C (currently 24C)

Jag Heter Bra!!!!!

Today rocketh the house very much. In 15 minutes my stress levels here went from 110% to 'the weather for today is fine and sunny, and we hope later to cross live to Ibiza for some live Bikini Suicide Frisbee...'

For a while now I've been uber stressing about super high rent, and perhaps now I have a solution. So I am happy :) Susanne Wessen = mega legend of an International Contact.

Basically this means that do not try to send me any mail until further notice, because my address may/probably will change over the next 2 weeks. Don't stress if you have already sent something (aka Janie darling) as I'll get Neil to pick it up for me. It hasn't been completely solved yet but fingers crossed and my time here is looking up!

Hej Då! Vi ses i morgon!

Yaaay! Three cheers for my mum the legend!!! My boxes of clothes are on the way!!!!!!

Oh, and another note, I can tell you for sure that when I return I will have the worst English around...I have basically stopped speaking normal english in the presence of other International Students, because they don't bloody well understand you. So spoken sentences like "It feels a bit hot today, so I think I might go for a swim later. Do you want to come with me?" is now "It feel hot, I go swim soon, you come?" Of course this sits beautifully with little old efficient thinking me, but it does leave one feeling like they are trapped on an episode of Home and Away

2:16am EAST
18:16 Swedish Time
Temperature : 12 - 24C (currently 22C)

For once I thought I'd write my post before reading my email. Actually, I lied and I have read my email, but I still thought I should do this first. Because I am a lazy bugger. Or something. It's just after 6pm ST here and I'll be heading home from my first day at University soon...what a bludge. Don't worry mum, I won't get mugged - there is still another 4 hours of sunlight left.

Well, another un-fucking believably beautiful day here in Jönköping today...like seriously their summer opens a can of Jihad on ours back home. Not to ditch on Australia or anything, but they have this new fandangled thing called the 'Ozone Layer' here in Sweden which means when you are at the beach in the middle of the day you don't feel like you are being showered with Sulfuric Acid. The entire day the sun just oozes this continual and most likely Swedish 'designed-for-your-comfort' 25 degrees celsius, and you can quite literally spend the entire day (which, I will add, consists of about 20 hours of sun in the middle of summer) on the beach playing volleyball or going for a swim (whilst the wind blows the warm currents south on the lake the temp. of the water is 20, when the wind blows north it is generally 12 or 13...so you usually check where the wind is at before diving in!!!)

When you compare this to the Aussie "is it midnight yet?" "no dear you'll have to wait another hour before the sand is cool enough to walk on" summer, you gotta hand it to the lads of Sveridge. This, however, is almost entirely countered by the fact that there is NO SURF. I say entirely because they DO have these concrete blocks sticking out of the sand not far from the water every 10 - 20 metres along the beach SPECIFICALLY so that you can have a BBQ (or rather the swedish equivelent which involves a lot of Jiffy cubes) without having to worry about getting dry sand into your meat. Great!

The majority of the other international students arrived over the course of the weekend and all I can say is thank GOD. I was beginning to drive myself mad with silence and poor old Howard was about to kick me out of our room. Howard is a stuffed dog if you get the drift of my sanity levels. Anyway, in moved Neil (England), Ben (Germany), Gins (Latvia), Wolfgang (Germany - no joke), Andy (Germany), Mysterious-French-Couple-Who-Smoke-In-The-Room-Next-To-Me-And-Are-Going-To-Get-An-Ass-Whooping-For-Doing-So-Next-Time-I-See-Them, Shaun (Taiwan - also not a joke), Christian (Lebanon), Patrick (Lebanon), ? (India), ? (India), ? (India), ? (Vietnam). So my kitchen is bloody full now. Learning curve for Rowland...actually having people in the kitchen area when he is cooking.

Neil is a legend, and as far as I am concerned, the saviour. Everyone else in the building is deadpan and serious by Aussie standards, and I knew it was love at first sight the instant this boy from Newcastle let one fly in the kitchen at 4 in the afternoon and then proceeded to proclaim that we should go to the pub as soon as possible. Speaking of pubs, the two locals other than the Student pubs are typical ye olde 'Engleske' pubs, or so the sign proclaims out front of the "Bishop's Arms" and "Sir Simon's". It is highly evident that Sweden too has fallen for the ye olde pub craze. The bugger is that outside of the student pub a pint will cost you between 50kr and 60kr. To let you know how much of a rip off (or 'rape' as Neil calls it) this is, I can tell you the exchange rate is roughly 5kr:1 Dollar AU. Begin heart attack NOW. :)

All I'll say is it's a good thing I am used to being pretty dry, because the Wagon here has very wide seats.

Student Welcome begins this week for the international students. It's a small affair, as summarised below :
Monday : Pub Initiation @ Student Bar
Tuesday : Welcome Drinks @ Sockertoppen (Råslätt's student center)
Wednesday : Karaoke @ J Bar, followed by party at Student Bar.
Thursday : Beach Party at Rocksjön, then nightclub Calypso party at Huset ('the house')
Friday : Student Water Event at Rosenlundsbade (basically they hire out an olympic pool and olympic diving pool for dancing and live bands and pool games
Saturday : Student Pub DAY
Sunday : Picnic at Rådhusparken, followed by Toga party at Huset.
Monday : IS Games Day. Prize : Beer.

It's a nice quiet town I think, and I'm glad that drinking isn't a big part of the local student community. I'll probably skip most of it to work in the lab. :) But then of course the rest of the student population arrives next week, and the University Welcome begins........

Today's post was hilarious.

One comment after going through all the Weekend @ Dunks photos...HOW DID SOMEONE NOT DIE THAT WEEKEND?????

Food for thought really.

11:16pm AEST
15:16 Swedish Time
Temperature : 17 - 23C (currently 23C)

Sorry, but once again I've burned myself out replying to emails...not that much has happened since my last post...I woke up on Tuesday with a sore back from a bed I'm not used to yet (yes my own you dirty buggers) and was pretty much resigned to sleeping all day. Then Wednesday I finished (sic. did as much as I could be bothered for the week) my shopping - it's a 10km round trip to the A6 centre where they have the equivelent of woolies (COOP or MAXI...I think they are big on capitals here). My most recent revelations...until I look harder and am proven wrong, are :

- I think aerosoles are illegal here...I can't find aerosole deodorant anywhere. Which sucks, because scientific testing has proven them to be more effective for men (roll-ons for women) and with the way I sweat no way is some stupid little stick going to cut it.
- Older swedes dislike you immediately if you can't speak swedish...I have clocked it to microseconds in changing a smile to a frowning "WHAT DO YOU WANT" face at the post office. They really make you feel like you are intruding on their territory. Younger swedes, on the other hand, will become rays of sunshine when you give them a chance to test out their English. I love them for this very fact. So my advice is smile and say 'Tack' and 'Hej' to older swedes, then duck for cover in your nearest McDonalds. Who would have thought those pimply faced little dweebs would actually be your savior in another country (sorry Janie, but you did quit so I can hang crap now). So do me a favour and next time you are at McDonalds, tip them (there you go Janie). Tip them in McDonalds cookies, but none the less do it all the same.

OK, now I keep forgetting to do it so I will now post my address for you all. I think it sounds pretty cool, AND it's in the posh district apparently.

Rowland Marshall
Room 15
Gula Villan Studenthotell
Tomtebogatan 2
55313 Jönköping
SWEDEN

I'm hereby going to forever refer to it as U.N. Headquarters because I found out yesterday that the other people living here with me are from everywhere, including Sweden, Australia, Lebanon, Vietnam, India, France, Germany & England. No Yanks, so it'll be an uncorrupted U.N....or at least a quiet one...

Man I am a racist bastard. No, wait. Make that Yanks-ist.

I found out today that my boxes haven't been sent yet due to reasons beyond our control. So somehow I have to make do with 3 sets of clothes and NO SOCCER BOOTS for a little while longer. Bugger. Could make the International Students Opening Party interesting...I suppose it'd be Australian of me anyways to go in sandals, boardies and my "Weekend at Dunks" bluey singlet (yes it did make it with me guys) . Not that I'm going though...I'll be in the lab of course...

I will try to find a scanner some time in the ensuing weeks to send you photos of Sweden. It's very old in general, particularly in Jönköping (ps yes my keyboard does have a special key for those cool öäå letters!), and then right in the middle is this super cool looking building. It's the Siemens building. But across one of the lakes from that is my uni, which is super super super cool, and very much state of the art. Every lab is kitted out with either LCD or 19" monitors, and there is a robot or mechanical arm in every work lab. So cool. And the library is an old converted forge, and open plan. It's amazing. You dare not break wind in there though because they'd hear you three floors up and down the other end of the building it is so quiet...I even type lightly to avoid the evil eye.

Before I forget, Jimmi is a legend for providing me with so many photos of friends with which to scare the locals with. My personal favourite is this one...

entitled "The men in blue truckers' singlets take control of the situation."

Gawd I'm gonna miss this year's W@D. For sure I'll be wearing my singlet in honour of the occasion.

Anyway, I think I've babbled enough: Best to head home and get some food into me, perhaps a bit more of a book and then some sleep. Ciao!

9:39pm AEST
13:29 Swedish Time
Temperature : 14 - 21C (currently 21C)

I have seen the moon and it is orange. Man...I've just spent 2 hours replying to emails so I think this will consist largely of chopped bits from them. OK, I didn't post from Heathrow because the free system was down and I was too buggered to change dollars for pounds. And Jönköping doesn't have internet cafes so I had to wait until at uni this morning. Also, keyboards here aren't normal, but at the same time aren't as crazy as I thought. there are some extra keys (åäö) and all the top keys have three functions so you have shift, and Alt Gr which access them. Plus there are some keys for euro € etc. Geek aside, here are some random chopped bits.

The past day and a half I have been in Jönköping I have basically been trying to get set up...the town/city is only small (110,000 people, and about as big as the City right along the river to say St Lucia, although it does flow right into the two adjacent cities which I'm not including). It's been pretty interesting and tiring...about half the population (the younger portion) speak English here so it can be a lottery as to who you chose to ask questions of. Also, everything is written in Swedish, which meant shopping can take a little longer trying to work things out...aka I've already learned my first lesson - 'Vasf' means cordial, not juice. This I learned one large gulp and a coughing fit later... :)

The only other story I have to relate is that I was here only 20 hours before a car full of british tourists pulled up and asked me if I spoke English. As luck would have it, I did, and they promptly explained they were lost and would I be able to help. Out came my trusty map which I donated to the kind fellow, and 5 minutes later they were off in the right direction, leaving me pissing myself on the side of the road. I laughed the whole way home! It seems that not only do we have to show them how to play Rugby and Cricket, we also have to hold their hands as they cross the streets of Europe and Scandanavia. :)

You would really love it here in Jönköping - it's really small but has a pretty vibrant student life and night scene...it's only 100,000 people but it has waaay more nightclubs than Brisbane. Not that I've had a chance to sample yet, but I'll keep you posted. What you would like is where I am staying - it's a beautiful old hotel just up in the hill 15 minutes from the city centre. There's a waterfall that flows beside it which is awesome, and it's lovely and green with lots of birds. Apparently it's the rich district, so of course I'm right at home with my scraggy hair (soon to be cut I'm thinking) and wardrobe of only 3 sets of un-matched clothes...I can't wait for the rest of my stuff to arrive on Friday...

There is a cute little pier with little fish shops and old wooden yachts and putt putt boats a-la Diver Dan, and a small cove with a beach with no surf that you can bath in next to beach volleyball courts and stuff. The sun here is really nice and warm and you can lye in the sun all day without feeling burnt by the sun...hooray for the actual existence of the Ozone layer in the northern Hemisphere! :)

Other than that at the moment I am passing the days wandering around the town getting organised and buying food/etc.

I will answer what has quickly become the most commonly asked question here thanks to you low brow Aussies. :)
1) I am convinced that all Swedish men here are cloned for reproduction. They all look identical, and come in two forms : One with the Beckham haircut, and one with the Jamie Oliver haircut.
2) 95% of all women are blonde. Probably 50% of this figure are bottle blonde.
3) All swedes are fit. There must be some rule here because I have seen like one person you would class as obese. Anyone you see fat here is probably an English or German tourist.
4) Everyone has good legs. That's because they all ride bikes EVERYWHERE, and just leave them in the street. There is this cool bike lock here in Sweden that is built into the frame. Very cool. They all ride without helmets which is a bit weird.
5) Everyone lives for the sun...they are always outside soaking it up.


Other interesting observations.
- on weekdays, everyone drives a volvo, VW, BMW, Saab or Ford. On Weekends, everyone drives a convertible, a 1960s restored chevrolete straight out of back to the future, or a Harley Davidson, complete with too much leather to be attractive.
- Everyone is super patriotic. Every second house flies a swedish flag, and most runners are wearing Adidas pants or shorts in Adidas colours.

I have to go eat now. I'm buggered, with a million things still to do.

23:29 AEST
21:39 Hong Kong Time

Now I consider myself to be one of those people that believes they should eat the food local to the area they are situated. But seriously, do you know how bloody hard it is to find a traditional Hong Kong restaraunt that serves a traditional pizza or even sushi? And pato mate...NO BLOODY BABS. F#$k this shite, I'm coming home. ;)

In the end I managed to find this quaint little tea house whose name the locals pronounce "Starabuks". Hooray for them. They made me a nice traditional Caramel Frappacino and Mushroom and Potato quickie.

I've also now decided that planes are heavenly bodies of rest and sleep (and meals brought TO you), where airports are the spawn of satan who will do evil temptuous things like deflate your soccer balls and place the nicest food vendors on the OTHER side of customs. The bastards. However, they do have Duty Free Porn. So Goober, if you get this in time send me your order :)

22:36 AEST
20:36 Hong Kong Time

The toys!! the gizmos!! THE FREAKIN' TOYS!!!!!! :)

Oh my freakin ears...the toys in this airport are awesome!!! And I['m being good...no purchases save for 1L of Absolut...but that's allowed. But they've got those cool RC tanks from thinkgeek.com and they are only like $70...it's insane...

That was one mother of a plane trip. The first quater was spent numb...the next asleep...the next going "Oh my gawd...who would have thought there are so many beautiful islands between Aus and Hong Kong?? - I want to hike them all!!!" and the final quater going "Land God Dammit!!! Land"

Here at HKIA it is so damn clean...and every where you look there is some short scrawny looking security guard in a military-esque outfit. They are really bloody scary. I'm serious. I mean come on...name me one country in the world whose anti-terrorist presence is done so armed ONLY WITH A PAIR OF WHITE LATEX GLOVES??? I was sure they were going to Lei Lu Lan my ass into next week. They actually pulled me aside at the security gate to search my bag more thoroughly...the item they were worried about? My mini soccerball! Are they rather seriously and unceremoniously deflated the ball and returned it to me I turned around and walked away breathing a sigh of relief, smug in the knowledge that my hacky sack was safely tucked into my back pocket :)

So basically I have to kill some 3 hours here before my next flight leaves. Man...I have like 47 solid hours of travelling. That's evil. But hey, the internet is free and plentiful, the keyboards here respond like a prodestant girl in heat and I KNOW that I'm at least a week or so behind in my Sluggy, Ink Tank and other such cartoons :)

I'll leave this post here and revisit it at a later date. But for now, I'm off to find me some nice woked poodle. :)

8:42am AUS EST.
Sydney International Airport, Canada... :)


where the fuck am I for crying out loud?!!! Thank God for my trusty North seeking compass. Yay for North. Yay for shitty sultana bran breakfast. Yay for my parents deciding to get up at 5am for a 6am flight...


Ooops. Cadden(and co) don't hate me - I left my bloody film at home on the bench. Mum, please send with other package on Monday. I've checked with customs and they said they've dealt with idiots like me before. Thanks Georgie for the card and for coming through with film I can actually hang onto... :)

Side note : I found out where all the keyboards with the f#$ked space bars went...the free internet lounge at Sydney I.A. grrr.

So far I have slept through all flight time...granted it was only one hour, and granted my butt went very numb and my head objected to pressurised atmospheres, but that gets better with a bigger plane right...RIGHT?

No doubt within the next 4 hours I have to spend bored in an airport with nothing but my trusty soccer ball, hacky sack and harmonica(soon to be confiscated or result in an international incident - my first! yay!) I'll log on again to say hi...but otherwise I'll let the novelty ride for the time being.

One last thing - BIG HUGE MOTHER OF ALL thank yous to the people who got up super early to see me off only to watch me literally run past them and onto the airplane. You rock. And I assure you you get first pick of the masseusses. :)

Ciao. Hmmm...perhaps I should get into the swing of things...Adjo!!!

PS.sorry to Jane for not getting the long movie-esque good bye she deserved...rather having to settle the poorest of poor kisses and a not-nearly-long-enough hug. You rock the most.

PPS. I promise to stop using the word rock.

Eurgh! 1:20am. I had designed a beautiful web page and then I ran out of time to post the bloody thing. Boo hoo :(

Jaymis, you still have my access codes, feel free do do something beautiful with it. I'll email you the logo I like for the page. :)

OK, so this is it for updates for the next while. It'll really start getting going from the 18th onwards when I have regular computer access at the beautiful Jonkoping University!

I'll leave it at that for the moment except to say my 'buggering off' party was unbelievable and you are all wonderful sexy people whom I love heaps and will miss dearly.

:)