london in a day.

Had a great day yesterday, the weather for the last few days has been sweet. apparently there is a heat wave either here or on the way; all the english are spewing but everyone in our house is stoked. so yesterday was pretty warm, probably close to 30 and it was prefect blue skies, so i decided to go on an open roof bus tour, so its a double decker bus, with the roof cut off, and you get driven round the city seeing all the big well known touristy stuff, and there a guide who also tells you some of the less well known stuff, and you can jump on and off whenever you like. so i was exploring for about 10 hours yesterday, was ace. the first guide i had on my fisrt bus was a bit dodgey, i think she was new, she was like ' we are coming up to mayfair, and thats what it was, it used to be a fair held in may', and i was like, wow, she knows stuff . the second guide i had was irish and really funny, and knew all this random stuff about everywhere, some of it sounded like he was making it up, but he was entertaining non the less. i also saw the hairdresser where princess diana got her hair trimmed, it costs £500 and theres a waiting list for 7 weeks. apparently. i also got off at buckingham palace and saw what i thought could have been the changing of the guard, there was heaps of those dudes with the big, black furry hats marching around with a band playing and stuff, was pretty cool. so i saw all the big things, like trafalgar square, big ben, the london eye, westminster abbey, london bridge(the london bridge is actually pretty normal, the cool bridge is tower bridge-most people get them mixed up) etc. then i met up with 2 girls from camp, and met up with andy after work, and we went out for dinner at this japanese or chinese or something place, was really cool catching up with everyone after not seeing them for 10 months, had a great time, then me and andy just chilled at trafalgar square, looks nice at night and you can see the big ben all lit up in the background. it was cool as, just being there, id seen it on tv so many times, and to be there just hanging out was sweet. great day. hope all is well wherever you are. keep smilin :) andyb

how keen am i.

hey team,
well i think this is the 4th post in a week, thats bordering on computer nerd territory. Im not working yet so i might as well take advantage of the free time i have, as i might not be able to write so regularly later on. since saturday, we have moved houses, we went about 1km down the street to a smaller but equally as cool little flat thing, some of the other people moved out so we had to downsize a bit. so we had to move all our stuff by bus, had to do a few trips. it was a mission but a bit of a laugh, me and 2 other guys went back for the last load, and there was more left than we originally thought, still we battled on. we actully looked like criminals stealing stuff. one guy was dressed totally in black, including beanie. and was carrying a tv, dvd player and a guitar. had a bit of a laugh at him, so we hurried along as to not get questioned by the bill. the fa cup football (soccer) match was on between man u and arsenal, that was pretty huge as everyone is football mad over here, and pretty much the rest of the weekend we have just been chillin and setting up the new house, nothing to hectic. today, monday ive been doing a bit of job searching, seems to be going ok, waiting for a few phonecalls, one looks pretty promising so with any luck ill be working next week, which will be nice, instead of burning my aussie dollars with the conversion rate over here. so ill keep you posted, anyways thanx a lot for all the comments and emails, its been ace hearing whats happening back at home. keep smilin :) andyb

ps: oh in one of the cupboards in the new house we found a clarinet, and even though no one in the house can play, its still entertains us for hours as we attempt to either try to play something like 'mary had a little lamb', three blind mice or simply try to annoy the other housemates by seeing how loud we can squeal it. how fun is london.

mind the gap.

i have currently been in london for 4 hours and 15 mintues. had a ripper flight, managed to get a bit of sleep and it all went really quickly, which is great cause its pretty boring sitting still in a chair for 13 hours straight, or there abouts. But first i think ill update a bit on the last part of my malaysian adventure, i had so much fun over there and staying with a real malay family ensured i had the full experience with food and culture etc, the last few days i kind of just caught the train around and explored stuff that people recommended. There is heaps of shopping centres over there and since aus dollar is stong against the ringgit (their money) its ace for us, but since i didnt have much room in my bag, and didnt really feel like buying anything, i didnt, makes sense. One day i was walking down the street and stepped on a grate/sewer/drain pipe cover - and nearly fell through it. the original one must have rusted thru, so they replaced it with a bendy plastic one that looked exactly the same, pretty funny since i didnt fall in, would have been different if i had. - so i had a great time in malaysia, i saw all the main touristy sites in kuala lumpar, but next time id like to see more of the countryside and some of the surrounding islands, so had an awesome time, was looked after so well. ace. So now im sitting in an internet cafe in dollis hill, bout a 30 minute tube ride from the heart of london, been here for a couple of hours, havnt seen any sun yet, its been overcast and drizzly rain, which is cool because it feels like, how i pictured england. Was a bit worried at immigration, cause i only have a one way ticket, but the dude didnt even ask any questions, just stamped the passport. fine by me. beautiful. A mate was going to meet me at the airport, but emailed and said he wasnt sure if he could make it, so i just started walking toward the tube was about half way there and there he comes running up the tunnel, was heaps cool to see him again, been about 8 months. so im staying with old mate, everyone in the share house is aussie as well, so thats cool, but their lease runs out tomorrow, so we are moving somewhere else tomorrow, its cool cause im able to stay with them for a few weeks for pretty cheap, also might have snaked a job as well, cause one of the boys works somewhere and a guy is leaving, so might have a shot there, i think its working in a warehouse or something. Not huge money but better than nothing, think its gonna be mega hard to save any decent money for travelling. so ill stay in london here with the crew for a few weeks and see if i like it, if not ill move on...oh yeah i got a mobile number just then...it is..07876365778..if your in australia, which i reckon would be the vast majority, try 0011447876365778 if your keen and you have the energy to type in all those numbers..i think sms will work from aus..not sure...try it... anyways theres the update until now, from what ive seen, which isnt much, england is pretty cool, so i look forward to getting into the swing of things and doing some exploring as well, should be fun. Oh and the title of this post 'mind the gap' refers to the voiceover in the train, in australia i think its says 'doors closing soon' or something, but here they say ;mind the gap', the gap between the platform and the train. i was going to work it into the post, but i forgot. hope you all have a great weekend. keep smilin. andyb

malaysia time

well i am now in malaysia, had a shocking flight, no sleep or anything, felt fully wrecked...but was the best landing ever, i hardly even felt the plane touch the ground. beautiful. Had to wait at the airport for about about 10 minutes for my mate to come, in that time i got asked about 50 times whether i wanted to use their taxi. I asked a guy where a payphone was and he tried to sell me a 20 buck phone card, but i saw right through it and made a call for 10 cents, bargain. The family im staying with live about 45 mins from the airport, the highways are really good, but the driving is not, people just drift from lane to lane, and im still yet to see anyone use their indicator and then theres the motorbikes, when approaching a traffic jam, everyone just stands on the brakes at the last minute, but the guys on the motos just speed up and rip through the middle of the cars, unbelieveable. The driving is crazy, but they are all the same so it seems to balance out and there arnt many serious crashes, there arnt many courteousy waves either, for that matter. The food over here is obviously different, totally weird for me, but im willing to have go as an experience; as eating is such a bit part of the malay culture. At home for brekkie i would be tucking into a bowl of weet-bix. This morning i had steamed rice, with marinated baby squid/octopus and sundried small fish (kind of like guppies)... so that was interesting, but living with a malay family you do everything as they would, and really experience their way of life, which is cool. Last night i met up with another girl i met in america and we went up the mentura(?) tower, looks like the centrepoint in sydney, Its the 4th highest of its kind in the world, went up to the observation deck and had a pretty good look over kuala lumpar at night. Then went out for dinner at like 11pm with some more friends...they eat dinner really late over here. and today, everyone was working, so i caught the train into the city centre by myself, just cruising around and looking at the petronas twin towers, the tallest buildings in the world, so they say, i didnt reckon they looked that tall, and as i was taking a photo these 2 other boys walked over about to do the same, and i said "bloody tourists everywhere over here", and had a bit of a laugh, turns out there were from brisbane, and they're catching the same plane as me to london, so that was cool as. So we all caught a taxi to the chinatown markets, the home of imatation stuff...like all the big brands. In australia homeless people carry their clothes in a garbage bag, here they carry their stuff in a fake gucci or prada bag. Awesome place for seeing weird stuff and having a bit of a haggle, one of the boys bought a rado watch for 30 bucks (after bargaining down from $210,nice),he was having a bit of a champion moment, when 10 steps away from the stall, trying to adjust the strap, it completely snapped off. Funny stuff, we gave him heaps. The people go to great lengths over here to sell you their stuff, and prove that it is genuine, like burning the leather goods with a lighter to prove its not plastic. mmm. interesting. heaps of funny stuff going on. we're thinking about renting a car tomorrow and trying our luck in peak hour traffic, but im thinking that is not wise, so we'll probably stick to the good old trains for now. Anyways having a great time over, enjoying the experience-pretty hot, mega high humidity, and all the shops and trains and that, have the air con fully cranked...so you go from boiling to freezing. So having a pretty top time over here at the moment, but will be really stoked after clearing customs and settling in london. But for the moment ill be in malaysia for 2 more days, ill enjoy that, then see how we go in england. Hope all is well where ever you are. keep smilin :) andyb

Leaving Home

well this is the first real message for my blog, i think ive got it all sorted out. Today is the 15th of may and in about 12 hours ill be on the plane to kuala lumpar, exciting stuff, ill be in malaysia for 4 days, really dont know what to expect- like what climate, how expensive things are etc. So thatll be cool, i like going to new places and experiencing new cultures and meeting new people and the like...so fun times ahead. I havnt even left oz yet and already ive had a few hiccups, such as my dad somehow losing my plane ticket when he was looking at it...a tad unlucky there, as it is quite and important travel document. believe it or not. I got a phone call this morning from a mate, whos picking me up from kuala lumpar airport, wondering where i was, as they had been waiting for an hour already, somehow the dates got confused and she was a day early. and on top of that i think ive just got the flu, not the best start to an overseas trip. Hopefully its not a sign of things to come, and today wont set a pattern of bad luck for the next 18 months. see how we go. So apart from that, it still hasnt really sunk in yet that im leaving in a matter of hours,havent fully packed yet- but everything is coming together alright. Really looking forward to whats in store for the future, im sure there will be some great adventures down the road. to everyones whos reading this, keep posted, ill try and write weekly...feel free to throw in a comment or 2, or hit me back via email. beaden7@hotmail.com. cheers guys, have a good one :) andyb