I Met Ben! (In London...)

Well, it seems that I've survived a marathon 26 hour flight from Sydney to Bangkok, to Dubai, to London. I have never eaten so much plane food in my life, I was pretty over it by the end of flying. Emirates is a pretty cool airline though, it has some good inflight entertainment in the TV's. I watched Mission Impossible 3 and Inside Man, and they were pretty enjoyable films. The video games however weren't that great. Thee coolest thing was that they had these cameras on top and underneath the plane, so you could see outside the plane when were flying, landing or taking off, pretty rad....


The travelling vibe kinda all hit me when I arrived in London Gatawick airport. I got really excited when I arrived! Gatwick is about 30minutes outside London town so I managed to jump on a train to Victoria Station and stowed my backpack there. Victoria station is really big and initially confusing, and I found myself looking at the boards for OVERground trains for ages, instead of UNDERground trains. The 'underground' system is the primary system to get around London.


My first stop was Westminister, where I got to see Big Ben. I walked along the Thames River all the way down to the London Bridge, which is really close to the Tower of London. Some highlights of this walk were:
-Views of buildings and the city along the Thames
-A skate park that was amongst some really posh and up-market cafes and tourist places
-The tate museum which has Contemporary art
-View at Tower of London
-Experiencing 4 seasons of weather in one day...I couldn't understand the weather, it was drizzling, then sunny, then cloudy and cold, then dumping....what gives dude!!??

After the walk, I took the tube to Leceister Square, which had a really cool vibe. A varied mix people from young dudes hanging in the park, to foreign tourists like me. Its pretty much the entertainment quarter of London, where it has heaps of cinemas and theatres all in close proximity to each other. And smack in the middle is a park and courtyard...different huh. It was late in the arvo, and I was very jetlagged...so I decided I needed coffee. I visited the nearest Starbucks in Leceister square, and not only was it bad service, but it was horrible coffee. (Christina tells me that London has worst coffee going round...hmm)

After the experience of one of the worst foreign coffee ever drunk by man, I check out the National Portrait Gallery which was pretty cool. It had some pretty cool exhibits and the most interesting was the one of The Beatles. It had various photos from recording sessions, official press photos, and live shots.

By the end of the day, i was pretty stuffed and headed towards West Hampstead, where Christina Ericksson, a friend from Uni lives. It was really that she offered up her place for me to crash... :)


The next day, I set out towards the Tower of London, but I found myself at 'Covent Garden', which had markets, shops and street performers. There was a massive courtyard where street performers would do their stuff, and it was great to hang out. The architecture around Covent Garden was pretty cool as well, heaps old stone buildings and herritage buildings. The ground was cobble stone as well, so I found myself tripping and sliding all over the place as walked around the courtyard.


The Tower of London was a really cool place. Its where England's royalty use to stay in the 18th century (I think) and earlier. The Kings use to keep their armory and weapons in the Tower, and they use to torture and execute traitors here. It was amazing to see how old the place was and the views around the fort...very cool stuff. I spent 4 hours here, and was pretty stuffed by the end of it.


I headed back to Leciester square and towards Soho, where I walked around the streets. I manage to pick up a book about the UK grafitti artist 'Banksy'. I was heaps stoked to find some indie CD stores as well...had some really cool music playing, a varied catalogue and heaps of vinyl...very cool. I think I have to go back there soon. I also got to hang out in Trafalgar Square, which was amazing, there were so many people there and it was really busy. The vibe was pretty awesome, and the view was really pretty because it was late afternoon.


Well, today, Im headed towards the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The have some really cool exhibits which im looking forward to seeing, and Im going to see Westminister Abbey, hopefully.


Nuff said, will keep you posted on the London weather.

d

The trip begins....well almost!

Well, im sitting at this MAC trying to kill some time, whilst my friend Jarrod is talking to me on Skype...ahh technology! What am I gonna do without technology...

I don't really have much to say, but thought i'd put a up picture of me drinking guiness....which I hope to do while I'm in London. This was taken at Surfers at an Irish pub. Last week, I was in Lismore with my mate Pete Yock, and I had the privellege of eating a 'Guiness Pie', which was apparently cooked in Guiness...I felt like I ate 2 meals because of the pint of guiness I drank, and eating a massive meal of guiness pie.

While I was at Lismore, I visited Byron Bay a lot. Spent a lot of time swimming, walking around the beach and having coffees...Heres a snap of the last nite I was there...prettty huh.

Well, I'm all packed and ready to go. I hate the feeling of not knowing if you've forgotten to bring something, and when you leave your house and get too far away from your house where its no use going back, that you've realised that you forgot to pack something. This happens to me quite regularly, even on short trips...does it happen to you?

Anyways, I'm flying out to London today and will probably feel very Jetlagged once I reach there. I'm staying with Christina, a friend I met at UTS through Credo, so it should be a blast. A big thanks to her in advance for putting me up!

nuff said.

d

PS: A big happy birthday/birthmonth to Kathryn!! How does it feel to be 22...? She finally owns her first pair (i think) of black low top converse's. I tried to guess her shoe size (womens 9) but I happenned to be VERY wrong when she told me that she was actually a womens 5...whoops. :P. Anyways, hope you're feeling very 'emo' now that you've got your converse's! d xo

PPS: If you're a pray-er, please pray for:
-Safety and protection
-Meeting friendly people!
-Logistics of travelling place to place, and getting to hostels
-Spending time with God everyday and being a witness to others
God Bless

More animals…Becoming Deaf

After a massive 2 days at theme parks, we had to get up early to get on a bus to get to Australia Zoo, which was 2 and a half hours away from Surfers. Being on a bus on that long was just enough not to completely go insane, but at least the view on the way and back was nice!


We arrived at the zoo and checked out a few animal shows at the ‘Crocoseum’ (Cheesy huh…). We saw a reptile, bird and croc show and learned heaps about the animals but didn’t really get a close look at them. The show was pretty good and it was cool to see a croc devour some meet hand fed from the host.

Unfortunately, no Steve Irwin in the flesh, but there was massive plasma screen that was showing ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ episodes, so we watched them for about 30 mins before the show started. I just can’t get over how Irwin is so excited and enthusiastic about snakes, crocs…well animals all the time! There were exhibits and boards, which had Steve Irwin all over them, with really surprised, ecstatic, over-the-top WOW faces…and I thought… “dude, its just a camel man”.


So yeah, we did see camels and was very cool. I also got to visit the Asian Otters and there was a feeding session. They’re so cute and they always have heaps of energy!


Obviously, there were a lot of crocodile and alligator exhibits. Another highlight was a Bird Avery we went through which had really pretty birds, a lot of them were vulnerable or endangered. Also, we got to feed elephants some fruit and vegies…which was very cool (even though you walked away with a slobbery hand)! They took the food right out of my hand with their trunk, amazing creatures! We took the bus home, and for those who hadn’t had enough of Mr Irwin, the driver though it’d be a fun idea to screen MORE ‘Crocodile Hunter’ episodes….hurrah. Yep, as you can imagine, I was pretty over Steve Irwin and his super enthusiastic face…but you can’t blame him, animals are way cool! It made me think and appreciate that creation could not have happened by ‘chance’, but by ‘intelligent design’.


After a quick meal at the unit, I head out to Coolangatta to catch a gig at the Coolie Hotel. I managed to get a ‘Time Off’ (which is the equivalent to Drum Media in Sydney) and saw that Shihad were playing there. Doing a little research, I caught the 700 bus to Coolies…which was quite a little adventure for me. I finally get to the pub and these really obnoxious security dudes suss me out. They checked my ID...that was cool...then the dude wants to suss out my backpack. He goes through my pack and sees nothing ‘malicious’ in there (only a jacket and bible) and all the guards tell me off for bringing a pack and that I should never bring one to the pub ever, ever again! I apologised and tried to get their sympathy by saying that I wasn’t a local, and I guess they understood.

Anyways, so I managed to get in there. Saw this nu-metal like band called ‘Lump’, which were a Gold Coast act. Kinda a mix between Puddle of Mudd and Korn. Wasn't a massive fan. Everyone was pumped for Shihad and they did a really cool set. The played some new songs off their forthcoming record and some old stuff. I was really looking forward for them to play ‘Alive’ and they did! It was pretty heavy live. They’re good showmen (and show offs), but you gotta hand it to them, Jon ‘Toogood’ gave the crowd a great time with his hardcore rock star facials, and especially when he took off his shirt. However, I wasn’t wearing any ear plugs, so at times my ears were really hurting from the degree of loudness of the band. I think the acoustics in the venue were really bad…though it could’ve also been that I usually wear plugs to gigs and I wasn’t use to not having them on.

Well that’s my little blab for this time...mmm I think I need a coffee.

d



PS: A big happy birthday to Elize Yock! Congrats mate, hope its a good on for Saturday! I know you're seeing Vince Jones and Im soooo jealous!!! Have a kick ass day!
**dangerous d**

Up at the Goldie

Its finally begun, a month and a half of holiday time!! I arrived in Surfers Paradise 2 days ago (Monday) and its been pretty good so far! Being on a family holiday with my folks is pretty strange because we hardly go on family holidays. Its funny seeing the idiosyncrasies of your parents when you go travelling with them…its almost like you’ve seen a new side to them. The view from our apartment is amazing. We have the beach view from our balcony where we have breakfast every morning, and my bedroom has a view of a river…its really nice here!

Yesterday, we manage to hit Dreamworld and made a massive day of it. Glenn and I managed to convince my very cautious and safety conscious mother to get on the ‘Tower of Terror’ (TOT). I was saying that it was like a ‘very quick train trip’, and Glenn was saying that it wasn’t that scary and that it was not going to go for long. If you’ve been on the TOT, it accelerates very fast up to a vertical peak, and then you go heaps fast backwards coming to a sudden halt to where you began. The photo that was taken in the tunnel showed my folks crapping themselves and me having a ball of a time! It was so funny seeing the dirty look my mum gave me after the ride, but it was worth a million bucks!! I think my mum liked it, but she blames me for the sore shoulder she has due to the ride….


After the TOT, we cruised around and saw heaps of animal exhibits. We saw a cool tiger show where they did all these really cool tricks and jumps, and then afterwards we got to get close to some cougars. There was a really cool looking white tiger. Llamas are always cool too look at, though I was afraid it was going to spit at me. I got to pat a baby crocodile, which was very cool. Another spinout was that we got to visit the Big Brother House. It was quite surreal that I was standing in the middle of the house of a reality TV show…hmm.


Today, I woke up and hit the beach, which is 1 minute walk across the road from our apartment. It was a bit cold outside (Not as cold as Sydney I’d imagine), but I couldn’t resist getting in the water and catching a few waves. I reckon the water temperature was warmer than being outside. The surf was great and was a great start to the day! After a kick ass breaky, we hit Sea World. I actually enjoyed Sea World more than Dreamworld because I love looking at marine animals, which was what we were doing for the majority of the day. We saw an awesome dolphin show, where they did all these somersaults, belly flops and other tricks, that was cool. There was a seal show, which was pretty cool because seals are funny creatures, but I was a little bored with their story of finding some stupid ‘Golden Seal’.


The coolest part was seeing a white (well kinda yellow) polar bear and seeing an underwater aquarium, which was filled with tropical fish and sharks. I spent a lot of time looking at these awesome fish, just gobsmacked by the colours going past me! The sharks were massive and scary looking as they swam among the schools of fish. It made me really want to get a tropical fish tank…something I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time.

Lastly, we got to sit in a 4-D cinematic presentation where we had to wear 3-D glasses. It was a pretty cool show because we got sprayed on by sprinklers when a polar bear sneezed and there were smoke machines. 3-D movies are way cool, they should do a horror film in 3-D (if they haven’t yet) because it’d be way more scarier (though it may literally give you a heart attack). It gives you the sensation of something protruding out to you from the screen and you can’t get away from it (ie: ducking or moving away).


Tomorrow, we head for Australia Zoo where we’ll see more animals. Then who knows what next...keep you posted!

d

PS: for some reason, this computer at this net cafe is being very silly, so I can't upload pics...but i've been using Gloria Jeans hotspot so its all good now....!! How Nerdy! :P

Being Sick Sux

Well here's the next installment to this blog....

As you may know, I have caught the flu and have had it for the last 2 weeks. Its puts a real drag on your life cuz you're always walking around going "Gee, my head is really full of snot and theres not much I can do about it..!". In my case, my cold digressed from being a sore throat where I was coughing up a lung each morning to my nose being filled with snot every morning and having to blow that out! Im almost over it so rest assured...Im ok!

I managed to catch the movie "16 Blocks" today with my man Heath. It was a pretty cool film about a washed up, alco and depressed cop (Bruce Willis) who has to take this witness (Mos Def) to a court house by 10AM. The movie starts at 7AM abouts and goes through the following 3 hours. I kinda thought it was weird how all the stuff we watched in the film could have happenned in 3 hours. Its like watching an episode of 24 and thinking how that could have all happenned in 1 hour! Anyways, it was a good watch and I'd reccommend it if you wanna watch an action flick.

We also saw this funny trailer called 'Snakes on a Plane'. It was a pretty cheesy trailer and has Sammuel L Jackson in it. As the title says, its basically what it is (plus some various other phobias) and its suppose to be a thriller...yep...you can only imagine. Just think how S.L Jackson is in Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown and put in a film about these crazy snakes that get let loose on a plane. Yep, an instant blockbuster! :P

I managed to catch DJ shadow at the Horden Pavillion 2 Sundays ago, and that was one kick ass show. Shadow's setup was amazing, he had 3 massive projector sheets behind and below him all screening these awesome and trippy movies as he was playing! I wish I had photos to show you, maybe they'll get put on the JJJ site soon....i'll keep my eyes peeled!

Some might know, but I've been planning a trip to go away to Europe in September. Its pretty exciting and Im looking forward to it! Its a little daunting too because Im going on my own...but I know theres someone always watching over me! Im flying out on the 28th of August and into London on the 29th. From there Im catching a train to Paris, then to Venice, Bologna and Rome. Then a quick hop to Athens, then back to London and back to Sydney! I should be back by the 22nd of September because I have my graduation ceremony on the following week, and then I'll be starting work in October. But if you're a pray-er, please pray for guidance and safety my travels, as well as staying solid of the King! I'll be putting up pics and writing my crazy adventures on this blog...if you're interested.

Lastly, heres a pic of one of my fave pics, Dennis Lycxen, of the band Refused and (International) Noise Conspiracy. If you get a chance, check out the DVD Refused released called (its a little rude) "Refused are F#$k@#g Dead".

Anyways, 'nuff said.

d

Latest Listens:

• Jamie Callum - 20 something
• Jose Gonzalez - Veneer
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• Something for Kate - Desert Lights
• Protest the Hero - Kezia
• TV on the Radio
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