2008-11-20T00:13:34Z Loic Donadieu Copyright 2008, Loic Donadieu SPHPBLOG here.
Enjoy.

I've also posted the video of flo and I doing a silly dance underwater. It's just here.

I'd also like to say thanks to all those who have been reading this blog. It seems there's more of you than I had thought... I hope you have all enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and hope to do more in the future.

Cheers!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061119-115727 2006-11-19T00:00:00Z 2006-11-19T00:00:00Z
So the next day, I grabbed a train, made my way to the airport and had a pleasant flight here to singapore. I was sat next to chris, another brizzer, who was about to travel the world.

Well, the singaporeans sure know how to make an airport. I've had a pint or two in the gorgeous cactus bar, and have just stepped out of an hour-long jacuzzi session which was much needed. Right now I'm feeling sleepy and relaxed-exacty how yu=ou need to feel before the mother of all long-hauls. Free internet too.

Well, I'd best be off. Planes to catch and all that. I'm hoping it''ll all go smothly and I'll be back on the island without a hitch. Fingers crossed!

Adios.]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061117-060535 2006-11-17T00:00:00Z 2006-11-17T00:00:00Z
I relaxed in the 'lagoon' of airlie to music and the Dawkins book I'm reading (really quite interesting - 'The GOD Delusion' - give it a go), then made a move when my skin started to make a sizzling sound (smells like bacon). I grabbed the coach, then a plane down to Brisbane and checked into a hostel up the road from the train station. I met up with phil who I was sharing a room with, who's a right proper northen lad from lancashire trvelling solo. He's a sound guy.
I got some food (man they do the best steaks here) and went for a beer or two in a couple of pubs with live music. I returned quite early as I was pooped and had eaten too much (hadn't eaten all day, then ate loads in the evening: not wise).
This morning, I went for brekfast with Phil, then he had to make his way to the train station where he was going to arilie beach, coincidentally...

Today, I'm sorting everything out for my return trip tomorrow: organising tickets, charging phones, iPods and backing up photos, just in case (I've got over 300 for you unlucky bastards back home, plus the underwater collection from the boat - no yawning!).

This avro I'm going to relax again and top off that tan of mine in the botanic gardens (it's a tough life, but someone has to do it) then maybe go to some of the hostel bars that seem friendly so far. Trying to work out the best strategy for jet-lag busting, I think I need to get a bad night's sleep tonight so I can sleep tomorrow afternoon. See what happens.

I suppose this is my last day in aus. It's been mind blowing, and I really love the place. If I did the same trip again, I'd probably cut sections shorter and spend less time in each area. I regret not visiting Fraser island which I've heard nothing but overwhelming adoration for the place from all I have spoken to.
I'm positive I'll be back here soon (hello immigration office!) to see all that I've not checked out yet, although you need time in the order of months rather than weeks to see just the basics, which is going to be tricky with the job...
So, a twenty-odd hour journey home, then back to freezing rain, overcoats, umbrellas and the calming tippy-tap sound of the computer keyboard. I can't wait!

]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061115-191736 2006-11-16T00:00:00Z 2006-11-16T00:00:00Z
Winding back a tad, I grabbed a 2 for 1 pizza deal with Florean and we chatted long and hard. The guy is very intelligent, being trilingual and just finished his master's in economics, but still a bit of a party boy. In the afternoon we relaxed in the lagoon (the 5am start and luncheon beer making us sleepy) and generally chilled out. In the evening, we grabbed a cheap bottle of red, a couple of subway paper cups and relaxed on the beach to flocks of 'greenies' (smallish native parrots) flying past, and people doing poi with flaming swingy jobbies. Soon enough a french chap from Martinique came along and joined us in our convo. The usual discussions on where we've been and what we're upto being the classic conversation starter here. Strangely, we all flipped over to speaking french after a short while, and I managed to keep up, even learning some French 'virlange' where they flip the main syllables of words (eg cigarette becomes garrciga). It was a fantastic evening, but flo had to grab a coach to continue on with his journey later on. He frequently goes to St.Malo, so he'll likely pop over to Jersey next summer.
At this stage I was more than tired and had an early start so I crashed.

This morning was the big jump day; I got up early and had a light brekky (I figured I might not keep it down, so wouldn't want to waste). A minibus picked me and alex - another german dude- up and we hurtled to the nearby airfield. The briefing was suprisingly short, they handed us jumpsuits (bastards gave me a girly yellow one) and we were in the aircraft before we knew it. A half hour climb to the (maximum legal limit) of 14,000ft over stunning views of all the whitsundays passed fairly comfortably, and I felt surprisingly calm throughout. Only when the door was opened and I was sat with two feet out did I get the butterflies, but we weren't sat around too long before the fella I was strapped to jumped.

Wow. It's a buzz. Very windy, too. The acceleration, air rushing into your mouth and adrenaline hit makes your chest feel tight for a few seconds, but other than that it's one of the best feelings imaginable. They're technically set up quite well and had a video online within minutes. If you want a video of me looking particularly dorky, strapped to a man and jumping out of a plane, then just click right here (you'll need realplayer and probably broadband). You'll notice I tried breast stroke at one point like the cartoons, but it doesn't really work. Bit random, that.
I'd recommend a jump to anyone, but go for 14K as it goes by in a flash.

Well, I'm back on land, and I didn't shit myself which is a real bonus (getting low on clean clothes, you see). I'm off early tomorrow morning and have decided to take a flight down as it's only a few quid more than a bus for some mad reason. Not too sure what the plans are just yet, but I have today to sort that.
I've loved airlie beach and am sad to leave here; I know for sure that at some stage I'm going to have to spend a lot longer in aus. Most people I speak to are over for upwards of five months, others for up to two years.

Well, the adrenaline has worn off, so I'm going to grab some lunch and get on with enjoying my day. I've fixed the hideous spelling of my previous entry, too.

Speak to you all from somewhere near Brisbane soon!
]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061113-170511 2006-11-14T00:00:00Z 2006-11-14T00:00:00Z
I arrived on the catamaran soon after writing the previous entry feeling a tad worse for wear. Upon arriving at the meeting zone I found I'd be sharing the vessel with a 23-strong group of very different people, from 20 year old French students to a 55 year old Austrian couple who have been traveling together for years. As we set off we had a safety briefing, then were allowed to roam the deck. The boat was a power/sail catamaran maybe 40 feet long with ample space for the lot of us. Weather was perfect for sunbathers but less so for sailing, so they had the engines running.

After a couple of hours sailing/sunbathing (I unleashed the pasty flab zone known as my chest to my unsuspecting fellow passengers) we arrived at a gorgeous bay at the first of many picturesque locations. It was a small island, maybe a mile across that climbed steeply from the sea and was covered in lush vegetation. Reefs are scattered everywhere in the seas around the Whitsundays, but this is one of the best dive zones. Not having the qualification, I had to go through the basic training again (I really need to do my PADI) but we were soon in the water. Because of the jellies and other nasties, we had to wear wetsuits, but it made it even warmer than it was (the water here has been around 27 or 28C - no need to pee in my wetsiut) which was stunning. I dived with 'Flo', a 23 year old german chap who's dead friendly. The diving was fantastic, and they took a bunch of photos and even a video where we had to dance underwater (a note to all: the can-can is difficult 12 meters underwater wearing fins). We saw all the different types of coral and fish that you'd expect in the tropics. Don't you guys worry, I have many, many underwater photos of aquatic life to bore you all with when I return.

After the SCUBA dive, I did some freedive snorkeling, and it turns out I still have the skills, getting about 12 meters down (once I bumped into the qualified SCUBA divers at about 18 meters, but that was pushing it - it's dead easy to black out and wind up dead) again and hitting times of 45 - 50 seconds which I was chuffed with. Snorkeling was almost as good as the SCUBA, swimming amongst shoals of thousands of fish with 2meter wide sea eagles swooping down from the trees on the island and swiping unlucky fish from around you. Magic.

In the evening, we had some stunning food prepared and watched through the day's photos (the sods had a photo of my power-chest much to my horror) followed by a movie and chilling on the back deck to a couple of guys who had brought along guitars. The stars here are out of this world (see what I did there?); because there's very little in the way of towns and cities here, the stars are clearer than I ever have seen. It's similar to the photos you see in magazines where the sky is a true black with the stars shining as described in romantic poetry. Frankly, I can't describe just how good the sky looked... you're all going to have to come ver and have a gander.

Morning arrived at 6am to the sound of Bob Marley being played through the speakers and fresh fruits and other regular foods being prepared. we had a long day ahead, so the engines were started and we made our way around the headland. By 08:30 I'd finished my first dive (I recommend diving to anyone as the ultimate wake-up), and we continued up to another dive spot for an early afternoon dive. Mid afternoon we visited Whitehaven beach, classed as the second most beautiful beach on the planet by national Geographic (it was second t a beach in Mexico which has subsequently been screwed over by a hurricane, so technically, it's not the most beautiful beach on the planet). The sand is very fine (high in silica or something) and a beautiful white colour. Sting rays and small sharks cruise around in the knee-deep waters... I'll have to show you photos of this place to describe it. Just imagine a paradise beach. What felt like a thousand various photos were taken (a great laugh: the french are crazies!) and we spend a few hours there (my god, was I burnt last night), then we made our way back to the bat. Another night of chilling out ensued with the boat barbecue being used for steak and sausages, and we all chatted late into the night over XXXX beers and rum/cokes. Everyone was very friendly, and thankfully, there were a few single fellas amongst the lovers.

This morning, we awoke even earlier, maybe 5am, had another dive and were on our way home for 8:15 am. 11:30 we arrived, and I was quite sad to leave the boat. It had just been 24 hours, but it's amazing how close you become to people when you're sharing a few square meters on a boat. All in all, a truly magic experience. Something unforgettable that felt t\like the true australia I was looking for when coming here.

Well, I've met back up with flo who's off tonight. He'd just finished his internet session, so I must hurry. Everyone who's still in airlie tonight is meeting up in a bar for some drinks this evening which I'll probably go to.
It's my last proper day in aus tomorrow before I start making my way back down. I'm skydiving so am a tad nervous....

I'll message tomorrow if I've not become a pavement pizza.]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061112-204552 2006-11-13T00:00:00Z 2006-11-13T00:00:00Z
So, the weather held out, I checked out the sights of brisbane and in the evening I took everyone out for an awesome chinese to say thanks. The next day, with the weather looking a bit dodgy (I swear it's following me) Kerry took me to the coach station where I made my way up to Maroochydore to see my uncle phillip and julie.

It was great to see phillip again who I'd not seen in 12 years and to meet Julie. They took me around the local area, into a gorgeous forest waterfall trail and as well as sights in the local town. Naturally, the rain arrived and the area saw massive thunderstorms with golf-ball sized hail stones that damaged cars and property soon after we left the forest. Less than ideal.

After some hearty fish and chips, C&J dropped me off at the coach station where I took a lengthy 16-hour ride up to airlie beach. It wasn't so bad after a sleeping pill although they put on possibly two of the worst movies I have ever seen on during the journey which I suppose aided sleeping.

So yesterday I arrived at Ailie beach feeling somewhat groggy but glad the coach journey was over. It's quite the party zone up here with tanned babes and beefy hunks loitering everywhere generally being cool, so I feel right at home. Taking a moment in a cafe/bar to have a read and wait till checking in time, I got talking to Sandra, dave and kirsty who live an hour south of airlie and come up for party weekends. We chatted for a while, but I soon had to go to the hotel and do some hardcore stuff such as chekcing in, laundry and ironing... wooo!
In the evening we met back up and had a night on the town. It's a great laugh with everyone being so friendly. The club had this wet t-shirt competition (sexist bastards wouldn't let me enter) which was a laugh for a while but soon got tiresome with it being judged on how loud people scream. It finished soon enough, but we moved onto another club with better music soon after.
All in all an awesome night, but I'm feeling pretty rough this morning and totally regret the greasy brekky I just forced down. In an hour I'm off for this three day SCUBA sailing tour which looks like it's going to be good fun. I guess it's unlikely I'll be updating during that time...

So far the weather up here is gorgeous and I'm hoping the storm doesn't come up when I'm in the boat!

Speak to ye laters, ye land lubbers! aarg!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061110-165531 2006-11-11T00:00:00Z 2006-11-11T00:00:00Z
In the evening, Alison and her fella Graham invited me out for dinner with them and their rowing mates to a really nice indian restaurant. Here, they have unlicenced restaurants that allow you to bring your own alcohol, thus making the evening significantly cheaper. We arrived and met up with the rowing crew who all towered above me (rowers need to be tall so they can pull longer strokes). I was close to a foot shorter than Graham, so I looked quite the charlie when we went on a 'bottle run'. With great enthusiasm, the lads bought rum, red wine, white and a selection of beers which they rapidly consumed with their massive portions of curry. They're a really friendly group; a great laugh to go out with, and explained what they were going on about when talking rowing, which was handy! Talk soon turned to the mini 125 pit bike that a couple of the guys had bought together, so after the meal, off we ventured to the carpark to check out this bike. Graham had a go, which wasn't wise condsidering he can't really cycle, was pretty leathered, and had never ridden a motorbike, so promptly fell off a couple of times, but did manage to get a circuit of the carpark in. I had a go aswell, and it's amazing the speeds these things do, not to mention the noise they make for only a 125 single 4-stroke. I figured I'd pass it over to someone before I did something stupid though, especially since it had nobbly motocross tyres which don't work so well on tarmac. I passed it to Seb, the owner of the bike, who was as confident as he was drunk -and he was really confident. A couple of laps of gradually increasing speeds and he pulled the front brake whilst at the apex of a bend. Down he went, and he slid a couple of meters, spilling the fuel on his trousers. He insisted he was fine, but a little while later it looked like his arm was hurting. I'm thinking he cracked a bone, which is kinda nasty.
Lesson learnt, the bike was put back into the car and we headed off to 'the valley' which is where all the clubs and pubs are. The aussie lightweights all drink 'schooners' of beer which are something like 2/3 a pint, so I got a couple of proper pints in to show how the brits drink. Graham and kev were looking a little rough at this stage (wisely, I hadn't touched rum or wine), so a couple of beers and a good laugh later we made our way back. Somehow I managed to lose Graham outside the club, something I didn't think you could do with a towering 6 foot 8 chap, but I managed it. He'd gone off to 'purge' but we found each other soon enough.

The next day my head was a tad thick, but I got up early, despite it. Kerry, Steph, Paul and I made the trip to Steve Irwin's 'Australia Zoo' which was simply awesome. As you'd expect, there's a massive array of australia's wildlife, some really informative shows and a stack of good photo opportunities, like this one:

It was a fantastic day, and my feet were aching after the miles of walking (the place is pretty huge!). I got quite a few decent photos, too, which is always a bonus!

In the evening, Steph prepared sushi which we ate along with gormet pizza. All in all a fantastic day, but I was truly knackered by the end of it.

Today, I'm hoping to check out the sights that I didn't manage to see the other day when it was raining since it's a real scorcher. It's my last night here in Brisbane tonight, so I'm hoping to take out the Scobbie family for dinner as a thanks for their more than genrous hospitality.



]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061105-164727 2006-11-06T00:00:00Z 2006-11-06T00:00:00Z 'Bluebottles' which are the portugese man 'o' war jellyfish. The tentacles can't really be seen, but they sting like a bastard and no amount of piss, vinegar or water really helps. Being a wuss and not fancying the sting I decided to have a beer instead. However, mid-beer I brushed something off my neck which promptly stung my finger and flew away so I guess fate had it in for me either way. So far no eggs have hatched in my finger so I think it'll be Ok...

I spent a few hours up at the beach and surrounding area, then made my way back on the fast cat ferry. I grabbed a well tasty steak and one of the local 'Victoria Bitter' lagers whilst watching a street performer play the digeridoo. All in all a pleaseant day.

The following morning I got up late, had some food, packed and got in the van to the airport. The weather had turned something nasty and it was pouring with rain, monsoon-style. A quick flight later and I met up with colin. He gave me the tour of the city and we went to a few bars where we met Alison -his daughter- who had been at the gym. After a beer, Alison gave us a lift to another bar where we met Bill who was a Guernsey-ite (cue braying donkey sound) where we had yet another beer. Kerry (colin's wife) met us at the bar and we all headed back to colin's where Steph (His daughter) had set up a delish array of food. We chatted late into the evening over the quintessential barby complete with lamb-chops and 'snags' (sausages).

This morning I awoke to the sound of the residant Kookaburras nesting in the tree next to the house. Alison had been up since 4:15 (she's quite the dedicated rower!) so we all met up, along with Graham (Al's fella) and Paul (Steph's fella) at a cafe for a hearty brekky. It's an interesting amalgamation of english and american foods here. For example, you can go for a platter very similar to a full english, but can also have sweet pancakes with bacon and hash-browns which Graham smothered with a more than generous coating of syrup (not my cup of tea!). Today, I'm exploring the city, although it sounds like it's just started pouring with rain here, so I think it followed me up from Sydney, which is less than ideal. I'm hoping the weather picks up a little for the sailing trip! Apparantly, they've had the worst drought for years here, and haven't had rain for many months, so I guess I got lucky!


Adios for now!
]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061103-170349 2006-11-04T00:00:00Z 2006-11-04T00:00:00Z Cassowarie. I got some pretty good closeups that I'll blag I got when trekking the bush or something when I return :)

After that, I dragged my lead legs to the Sydney car show that was pretty freaking awesome. It had everything from little micras to top fuel dragsters (the really long skinny ones). All the latest cars such as the new TT were there, the renault F1 car, Maybachs, the diesel Audi Le Mans winner and some trouser-stirring concept cars like the Saab Aero X that blew my mind. Coupled with this was a liberal sprinkling of skantily clad models draped all over the cars which was nice, although they kept getting in the way when I tried to take photos. All in all a good time, though it seems the aussies think the British accent is right hoot for some reason: one lady advertising a forthcoming motorbike show was giving me things like 'darlington tea' to say so she could have a good hearty laugh at my accent. Ah well...

I was totalled at this point so grabbed some japanese noodles and a couple of beers in an english-style pub (complete with manky sticky carpet) then crashed out till early this morning. I'm writing early today as I'm going to grab some new shorts and then try to make my way to manly beach. There's a SCUBA place there so I might try to get some underwater action in. If not, I might just lie on a beach all day and maybe even unleash my pasty legs to the aus population (boy are they in for a treat!).

I'm off to Brisbane to meet 'uncle' colin tomorrow so I guess this is my last night in Sydney. I've been too tired or jet-lagged to venture too far at night so far, but maybe I'll be better this evening at manly... see what happens.

ta ta for now!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061101-152010 2006-11-01T00:00:00Z 2006-11-01T00:00:00Z
There was an interesting street performer who was juggling with frying pans and flaming torches. He had gathered a healthy crowd of easily over 60 people, but had the unusual tactic of swearing at, insulting and even giving the finger to anyone who walked away. This got progressively worse until the whole crowed bailed before this guy had some kind of an episode. Good juggling skills but certainly not a people person!

This morning I made my way down Oxford street which has a huge variety of zones, from Prada-style fancy shops complete with Paris Hilton wannabes strutting about all the way down to razz-mag shops. There's a good few bars and looks like it could be worth my time, so I may venture there again later. I returned after I'd walked off the map and things seemed to be becoming residential...

After that, I've pretty much just been cruising the stores looking for some good deals, although many places are a far cry from the '3 t-shirts for $9.99' I'm used to! The victoria center is a stunning building, immaculately maintained which hyper-posh shops inside. It also sports the biggest christmas tree inside I've ever seen, and I have no clue how they got that bad-boy in there...

This afternoon, I'm thinking of going to the aquarium which according to the tourist map is australia's #1 attraction, although I have my doubts. There's also a car show which could be cool.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to try and get out of the center a bit, possibly up to manly bay or something. I'll see what's about.
City life is OK, but like bangkok last year, it's only got so much to offer before you get a wee bit bored...

I'm afraid the past 24 hours have been quite uneventful, but I'm hoping to have some witty anecdotes tomorrow!

Take care all!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061031-172447 2006-11-01T00:00:00Z 2006-11-01T00:00:00Z
I awoke early feeling more refreshed and alive than I care to remember, so I made my down and helped myself to a hearty brekky. With nothing planned, I figured I'd book a bridge climb over the Sydney harbour bridge (Here's the Site) as I saw some people doing it from the opera house the previous day. When I arrived, it turned out there was a group about to set off so I jumped at the opportunity and went along. It's a fantastic tour, and you get to climb the upper arch some hundered and thirty-odd meters above sea level. You're breathalised beforehand and have to wear overalls and have nothing loose (no cameras, of course!) on your body. We got to use these radios that instead of having ear pieces had headsets that vibrated the bones in your skull to get the sound though, kick arse-technology.
The most concerning parts were the 'catwalks' at the early stages which mere mesh grilles suspended above the streets some 50 meters below. Many sections were made of wood and I was concerned the wheezing americans might critically weaken them, but thankfully the aussie engineering held out under their manatee-like weight.
After the three hours or so on the bridge, I grabbed a beer at a very pleasant rooftop pub, mainly for refreshment, but also to forget the price I had just paid for said trip + photos.

Stella aside (boy, was I reassured it was so expensive), I made my way to the jaw-dropping botanical gardens. These are so well maintained and were full of wildlife. Where you'd see a pack of starlings in Jersey, you see flocks(?) of hundereds of fruit bats. They smell as bad as the ones at the zoo, too.

People seem very healthy here with joggers all over the place. There's a keen crowd of cyclists who zip amongst the traffic at crazy-bastard speeds with seemingly no regard for their own well-being. You could almost say they were cyclo-paths.. (hmm, that sounded better in my head).

Right now, I'm moving east where someone on the tour said was the place to be. So far it seems less upmarket than central Sydney and I'm keen to see what it has to offer.
Whoever made this internet cafe sure has a clue as they've put the computers on an incline with wheeled chairs and a tiled floor, so I'm simultanously getting an upper body workout pulling myself back towards the desk whilst typing. At least these computers belong this side of the millenium...

Well, time's up so I'm going to make that move. I've just got confirmation that the skydive is booked in Airlie beach and after how I felt walking up the bridge, I think I'm going to buy some spare pants before the jump.
I hope all is well back home. I'd be lying if I said I missed it!

Bye for now!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061030-191122 2006-10-31T00:00:00Z 2006-10-31T00:00:00Z
Thankfully, the gods took favourably to my prayers and Mrs Deep-Pan was nowhere to be seen. Instead, my airline buddies were an aussie mother and daughter who were returning from Paris after not having had a good time . Aparantly it a) smells and is dirty and b) doesn't actually have any french people left in there. Nyssah, or whatever her name was, sure was helpful in telling me where about to go in Sydney, and was even going to get her friend who lives in the city to give me a guided tour, which I politely declined. Still, it sure looks like aussies are freindly people so far.

The stop in Bangkok was much needed, although the recommended massage area was full to the brink. Feeling hungry, I went to a bar, but unsure whether I should be eating breakfast or dinner I gave it the benfit of the doubt and grabbed a chang beer and a salami sarnie. Top notch. Back on the plane and a beer + sleeping pill later and the time just zipped by. It's not as bad as I remember, this trip across the planet.

I arrived in Sydney at 06:30 local time and made my way to the hotel who of course couldn't give me my room till early afternoon. I dropped my bag off, picked up a map and used my homing-pigeon stlye sense of direction to walk the wrong way for 20 minues. I grabbed an earl grey cuppa at an authentic aussie starbucks (made with Koala milk, no less) which set me straight. I'm now in an internet cafe which boasts "The best PC's at the Best prices', although I think I've been fleeced as they're running '98 on 233 celerons and it looks like they're sharing a 56K connection between the lot. Further, this is the second time I've typed this out as it died on me ten minutes ago. Bastard computers.
I'm typing this with arms tucked close to my body as I'm long overdue a shower; deodorant being banned in hand luggage, of course. I might go into some perfume store and use some of the free samples and have a 'french shower' by masking the fetid odor.

BO aside, I'm feeling pretty spritely despite only a few hours sleep over the past couple of days. I'm probably going to check out the opera house and all the other tourist traps today, and generally mull about seeing whatever takes my fancy...

Well, time to make a move I suppose. Hopefully this time the entry will actually make it into the system otherwise the poor lady running this store is going to have a computer flushed in the lav.

Hope all is well back home, it's still quite cool here (maybe 23C) but looks like it'll warm up in a bit. I've stashed my comedy hat for now as I felt like a bit of a tard walking around amongst the suited and booted city slickers here. I'll save it for the beach!

Ciao for niao!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061029-152235 2006-10-29T00:00:00Z 2006-10-29T00:00:00Z
So I've just had an awesome steak sandwich albeit at a crazy price and I'm silently praying to the god of air travel that the morbidly obese sweat factory I saw in the queue isn't sitting next to me on the flight...
Next stop, a few expensive beers and a crazy-long 20 hour-ish flight. Looks like we stop at Bangkok for fuel and ladyboys, then onto Sydney. Neato!

The security is crazy these days and they have a full body scanner here at Terminal 4 which I'm unsure of how it works, but I did see a few people being taken behind a curtain to this thing. No water, makeup, paste (including tubes of 'hair fertiliser' some guy had to remove from his bag) or lighters are allowed of course, but you can still buy vodka and other flammable duty free products encased in (potentially more dangerous than a box cutter) glass. Whatever.

Well, I must dash before I have to sell my other kidney for a further 5 minutes of internet time.

Speak to you from sydney next, with a little luck!!]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry061028-204332 2006-10-29T00:00:00Z 2006-10-29T00:00:00Z
So, as per the Thai travel blog, this is going to be a method of communication to those back home since we'll be 24 hours out of sync and at opposite sides of the planet.

So, I set off on the 28th October to Aus, and hopefully I'll land in Sydney a couple of days later. The plan is to stay in Syndey for three days, then fly north to Brisbane to stay with a family friend, Colin, and his family. Three days later and I'll be off further north to my uncle's place for a couple of nights. After that, I'll just be doing whatever I fancy.

Fraser island sounds good, and I'm hoping to get a load of SCUBA diving in, and possibly even a sky dive (depending on whether I have sufficient spare pants).I might hire a motorbike, but we'll see.


Hopefully this entry will actually make it to the site and not be lost.

More soon...]]> http://frenchgeek.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry060927-182212 2006-09-28T00:00:00Z 2006-09-28T00:00:00Z