Finally Recognised Well finally my talents have been spotted, and TNT magazine in London has acknowleged my talents by awarding me Hotshot of the week for my picture 'New Begining'! - Unfortunately I have won a tour of Wales and the Westcountry, and I am guessing it will not include flights from Aus!

http://www.tntmagazine.com/uk/community/displayPage.asp?ID=tntmag#hotshots

So back in Sydney for a few days after spending three days on the Oz Experience bus getting here via Gelantipy, Gippsland and Camberra. I have seen Steers being roped for the first time, my first Wombat, and more kangaroos than Rolf Harris could draw!

During a midnight safari to check out the wildlife in Gippsland, one of the girls on the trip lost the flip from her flip flops from the back of the truck, turning them in to flop hops, and had me in hysterics by continuing for most of the following day with one flip flop on, suffice to say I didn't get any points for mentioning that she was lucky to be on a 'hop on hop off' type of tour!

Camberra, was as I had been told, impressive and yet boring at the same time, like a big version of Milton Keynes with far too many roundabouts, and has clearly been planned to look good from the air, without much thought for what it will be like for pedestrians, the result is that you spend most of the time literally driving around in circles, looking at the same things but from different angles, didn't feel bad about spending less than 24 hours there at all allthough was glad to see the Aboriginal Embassy, basically a very scruffy looking collection of tents and bivis along with some hand painted signs and faded flags pointing out that the incredibly opulent parliment buildings directly opposite are in fact camping on their land!



Arrived in Sydney during a thunder storm, and pouring rain acompanied by heat that reminds me of a greenhouse, checked in to a hostel with probably the worst smelling rooms I have experienced since basic training in the TA.

Off to buy some air freshner or a gas mask, which ever I can find first!

G'day

e  ¶ 7:09 pm 0 Comments

  Great Ocean Road Back in Melbourne, after spending a wonderful three days touring Victoria's, Great Ocean Road! Endless rolling blue waves crashing in to brilliant white on to miles of sandstone, gently carving out unique stacks, bridges and gorges for the past few million years has left the most beuatiful coastline I think I am ever lilkely to see.



The coastline here carries over 300 shipwrecks so I am told, and upon seeing it you can understand why. Even on the balmy summer day that I witnessed, the energy and power of the waves made it impossible not to contemplate how terifying it would be for the hundereds of people unlucky enough to have perished here.

On the second day I had my first ever flight in a helicopter, and soaring through clouds at 1000 feet in what felt like a flying volkswagen beetle, over the famous twelve apostles was both terifying and exhilirating at the same time. (photos soon) - Afterwards it was off to town for a Kangaroo Kebab, I kid you not! Kangaroo meat has the ability to stay in the pitta bread much better than lamb because it is a marsupial and is used to being in a pouch!!!


Allways good to know the pilot is a practical joker beforehand!

That night we camped in the Grampian Mountain range, under the stars beside a lake in Swag rolls, me inexplicably humming 'waltzing matilda' above the sound of Koalas, walabies, wombats and any other strange fury creature you can imagine. Morning was shattered by the sound of the Kukaburra, which if you havent heard is somewhat akin to the sound of a naughty chimpanzee, Myself taking an early morning dip in the lake, to the disbelief of most of the other group members was the perfect start to the final day which saw us checking out the ancient artwork of the Aboriginal peoples*,
tasting some of the wine at one of the local vineyards before heading back to Melborne for a well deserved beer, shower and a sleep.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

e


*Not wishing to offend an ancient tribe, but it looked a bit like Monkey out of the Sky Digital Adverts?   ¶ 6:44 pm 0 Comments

  Van Diemens Land Well here I am again, back in Melbourne, after a chekey little sentence in Van Diemens land. Spent most of the time in Hobart which, if you look at a 'map of Taz' is near the bottom! (heh heh)*

Hobart is a charming place, a capital city that thinks it is a village, the people are very friendly, I suspect because of the large amount of alcohol they consume, and tourists are much fewer in number here, making you seem more of a novelty!

I flew in to Hobart on Saturday and met up with Alex and Tash (From the South American Trip), and travelled North to Launceston, where Alex lives. They were gamely departing on the famous 6 day Cradle Mountain treck the following day, during what I later discovered was a extreme weather warning. Alex was loaded down with a gas cooker that would be too big for your average car boot, whilst Natasha was carrying enough cocolate to open a tuck shop), They dropped me off to join a bus and I made my way to Strahan on the west coast, only to find there wasn't a single bed there! -Fortunately I did manage eventually to get a last minute cancellation and found myself in a lovley bungalow overlooking the harbour, paying slightly more than I had intended........ (to spend over the next two weeks) still a beds a bed eh?

I saw pretty much all there was to see in Strahan the following day, and caught another bus the following afternoon down to Hobart. Now I remember whinging about the frequency of busses in Sydney, but nothing really prepared me for the Busses in Taz, for a start you are lucky to find one bus a day, the journey from Strahan, to Hobart ended up taking 7 hours, thus arriving long after the hostel I had booked into had closed, but once again I was sparred the indignity of sleeping on the streets by the eventual arrival of a sleepy looking receptonist whom we awoke by phoning the emergency number in the hostel.

I went out to Port Arthur (http://www.portarthur.org.au/about-portarthur.htm), to do the famous Ghost tour, and allthough I did not see a ghost, there is an unquestionable atmosphere about the place that gives it a very dark and foreboding feel. Having been to some reputedly haunted places before including the tower of London, I can honestly say that Port Arthur ranks as one of the scariest places I have been, even more scary than being a singing telegram at Simon Cowells Birthday party!



Anyway, my next plan is to 'do' the Great Ocean Road, then make my way up to Bris Vegas causing as much trouble as possible on the way, hopefully taking time to visit Kellyworld in Glenrowan - something that is apparently so tacky, its can't be missed. I can't get enought of the fact that The great sporting nation of Australia has taken to it's heart, a comedy criminal who unsuccessfully** tried to evade capture by wearing home made armour and sporting a bucket on his head.

Such is Life

Eric


*For those amongst you that are confused by my references to the 'Map of Taz' you should be aware that it is an Australian coloquialism for a ladies tangled triangle!

**He was shot in the leg, having had neither the foresite to consider extending his armour, or to stand behind something.
  ¶ 5:40 pm 0 Comments

  Carefull with that ketchup Eugene Well hello my little friends,

So......... i'm on the way back to the hostel, on my first day in Melbourne, and I pop in the the 7 11 for something to eat, picking up a sausage roll and a sachet of sauce, and life is good - life is good that is untill i try to open said sachet of ketchup. This little fella looked like the sort of ketchup sachet you would see in the uk, the little square plastic blister pack with a film top, except there was two small blisters side by side and no little fold at the corner to help you get the film off?



Ok, so I like to think of myself as above average intellegence, I can build a totally fault tollerant network linking offices from across the world and I can make it effectively unhackable, I can talk most helpdesk operators in to giving me any information I need on the pretext of being someone else, I can make films, take photos, play the guitar, fix just about anything electrical but can I open an Australian ketchup sachet? - can I bugger - So there I am walking through central Melbourne, Sachet in one hand, half eaten sausage roll in the other hand, when it suddenly I'm hit across the face and chest by a jet of tomato sauce, looking down at my hand with my one good eye, it is now clear how one opens these things, simply by folding the sachet between the two small cups, the middle of the film is broken and the sauce flows out at a rate proportunal to the pressure applied, unfortunately the pressure I had unwittingly applied was enough to make me look like an extra from Gladiator.

I wondered the final mile home as onlookers gawped, and mothers sheilded their children from the view stopping only once...........to buy some washing powder.


Some say that the devil is in the detail, but I have reliably been informed that he is actually in Tazmania, and thats where I am due to fly to tommorow (Yes I will buy a map if I can find one)!

Love and Tomatoes

Eric
  ¶ 11:34 am 0 Comments

  Auld Lang Syne My Dear?

Hello again you guys, It has been a while since I last wrote but I wanted to have something interesting to tell you about rather than boring you all with an anoying list of things I have done and you haven't, but then I figured what the hell......

Last night was simply amazing, cold beers, 700,000 people in a party mood, 20 tons of explosives lighting up the balmy Sydney sky and adorning the harbour bridge in golden showers (well I had a lot to drink and the toilets were miles away). I saw the fireworks from Mlsons point on the North West side of the bridge and was totally overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the celebrations, by the good humour of the people there and by the efficiency of the organisation. Here is a place that knows how to party! I look with intrest to see how London will answer this challenge, most likely with a transport meltdown, a string of arrests, 10 inches of rain and the sort of fireworks a Chelsea pensioner could sleep through.



So by now you have guessed I am still alive, quite a feat given my frequent dalliances with the grim reaper, and whats more I am having more fun than a puppy with a squeaky toy.

Christmas was spent in Campeltown, meeting a whole new side of my famly for the first time, and trying to work out why they were banished to this side of the globe, and why I have never heard them spoken of in anything but a whisper until now? (I will let you know If I find out).

On saturday I head to Melbourne and then on to Tazmania before heading North to arrive in Brisbane by Feb, then probably back to Sydney to look for the enemy of backpackers everywhere "WORK".

Thats enough for now, I'm off to look for stingers and bluebottles on the beach!

Auld Lang Syne My Dear?

Enrico

Oooh and look out for new pictures coming soon to a site near you!
  ¶ 2:56 pm 0 Comments