Hi everyone, this is going to be the way I communicate with the outside world once I've left! So you know, I'm leaving from Brisbane on the 15th of November for Nepal and will be back in February from Sri Lanka. It's an amazing journey and I really want to share it with you all! This blog will allow me to record my travels and also keep in touch...

Derek's 31st Birthday Surprise Party... and the breaking of a couple of Pinatas!

14 days until departure. The home weather is very hot. Anticipation levels are rising. The dreams are beginning. The writer had an uncomfortable dream last night of arriving in LA having not packed very important items, no ATM pin number and not enough time to shop for the wife. I'm sure more dreams like this will come. The farewell dinner went ...

This was our final day at sea so we were hoping for nice pool weather. We had it for a couple hours or so and then it clouded over and rained. But it was still warm so we sat under cover and had drinks. The raspberry cappacino was very good, Andy had the Celebrity Dream (think strawberries) and Cathy had the Funky Monkey (think banannas). Betwe...

Our trip started with a pleasant jaunt down to Melbourne. We left our house in the safe hands our the wonderful Kate and Doug, and off we went. We reached the airport with plenty of time to spare and had an uneventful flight to Singapore. Although it wasn't the Airbus 380, we did notice that the business class seats were the new kind - wide enou...

Well, its been over a year since out last entry. Basically we decided the stay in Oz for a while. Got sponsored to stay here and work and settled down in Melbourne. Melbourne is a great place, we live live near the sea but work in the city and you can't beat the trams! If you're planning to come to Australia I would recommend this city - so much...

Setting out in the bright orange combi we headed south west along the Great Ocean Road on Saturday, through Geelong and on to Apollo Bay . We stopped and had a look at Bell's Beach, which is famous for surfing and wathed the athletes at work there in the howling wind and crashing surf. We spent the night in a Backpackers Hostel along with quite ...

Hey everybody! Happy passover! here's an update on one's adventures, and some pictures at last... CANBERRA my second and last day at canberra was spent at their two parliament houses - the old provisional one, that was used for 61 years (11 more than the 50 planned for it), and the new and wonderfully-designed current parliament house. They real...

British and Indian aristocracy greet me in Melbourne. I am going to bed. Melbourne is a City I like better. It is beautifully lit. Good night Georgia. I am closer to home now, but soon, I will be in New Zealand, farther from everyone I have met here in Australia, but closer to you.

Got a wonderful surprise yesterday in the form of an email from Tony Taylor, me old mucker from working at Norwich Union - we've known each other for a few years and have a mutual love of dogs and drills. Anyway, he and his girlfriend Sarah were in Melbourne very briefly before their flight over to New Zealand so we arranged to meet up for a tri...