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In Bullet Points:

• It’s hot… very hot (why do I keep forgetting this each time I go to SE Asia?)
• I bought muchos clothes… muchos…
• Things are cheap over there.. deceptively cheap…
• I got Hools on her first ever ride on a motorcycle (well, scooter)…. she’s now in love with two wheels.
• That’s one more reason why i’ll be marrying her later on this year.
• We surfed, paddled, ski-ed, swam, white-water rafted, hike, sight-see’d (?),  fed wild monkeys, avoided malaria, lounged by the pool (with built-in bar and endless cocktails.. hmmm, cocktails), drank 8,000,000 long-island-iced-teas, purchased near on 500 DVD’s (serious).

…. and generally lived the life of someone who has afforded themselves the opportunity to relax.

Still, glad to be coming home, I miss the insanity of my normal life …. I think …

Adam

Adam uncategorized 2009, travel

1. I’ve got so much to say;

2. I’ve got no  time to do it;

3. I’m off to Vietnam (woo-fucking-hoo!) in 48 hours ;

4. I’ve booked myself in for another pain session, the Penrose 24 Hour Rally … why… why do I do this?

5. I’ve still not completed my commitment for 3 posts a week!
Miss all you guys

Adam

Adam uncategorized rants, travel

I write this to you in the BA lounge……

And I suppose the first two items in this title probably make sense, but alcohol poisoning?!??!

So my work colleague and I (now, let’s say for this post we’ll call him ‘Sean’ …. his name actually is Sean, i’m just too fucking stupid to keep putting a pseudonym in so we’re sticking with it) have been working pretty solidly in the great Great Britain, travelling by every means of transportation imaginable and seemingly getting to know the friendly guys and gals at Novotel Reading like they’rere our family.  They even remember what my drink is after a 6 month hiatus away…

So as we enter the final stages of the trip, trying to finalise the gargantuan report that we (I!) have been writing for the past 3 weeks and deciding that we should catch up with one of our local vendors (I will add here that he is a known pisshead and his very-soon-to-be-wife doesn’t mind the odd tipple either) and shake off some of the stress we’ve been under.

My recollection of the night is something like this:

18:30 - Start in the hotel lobby, consume a scotch-and-dry and gobble down a handful of nuts and make our way to the wheel-and-barrow (or the elephant and spade, or the cock and spaneil… really, the english love these pub names..)

18:45 - First pint of Cider (no, not that strongbow arse, we’re talking hand pumped, off the barrel, tongue-melting, draino-smelling nectar that takes the hairs off your arse and back and promptly hands them to you in a handbag for later reattachment)

19:30 – Third pint of Cider is going down faster than Britney’s panties on the VHA awards.  Adam, who has been working on being less talkative, no longer constrained by that ass-about logic (whysh would i notch want to speeeak, i means … reallY!), gets amongst the conversations like a born-again-evangelist aiming for his million-dollar-week of donations so he can buy himself a new ferrari…

20:30 – Several weeks of pub fare and italian food, we head to a local Thai haunt to swallow down some fantastic local treats … ridiculous pricing, but hey, works paying so alls well in the world.  Two more ciders (mangums of cider, so … 800ml a bottle) are consumed.

22:00 – Stumblilng ever so slightly, elegance and finesse in walking replaced by being the funniest guys in the world and that real men that we are, we should head to a local for a few more drinks. 

22:10 – As Adam hasn’t yet popped the question, Adam receives a cock ring (there’s no other way of explaining this) to help kick off the process…… 

0:00 – Not only are Sean, Steve and Adam the funniest guys in the world, we’re also now the smartest.  Having solved the worlds problems, engaged in deep and meaningful debate of the implications of football on the prosperity of the nation, finding out that the Brits actually made it to the world cup (how the fuck they thought they might miss out beats me??) and the pub kicking us out, we decide that a 24 hour establishment is in order.

…… guess what the only place in town that’s open 24 hours and sells lots of drinks …….

uhhuh….

1:30 – After having kept our hands firmly in our pockets, our eyes watering and our mouths filled with an assortment of flies and other small creatures of need, we realise boredom is setting in, and Steve is dying for a smoke so we return to another local with an outside bar… and every smoking in Reading standing there bringing on the cancer …..

2:00 – The party’s just getting started, and in tow we have nigh on a dozen people having a soddin’ good time and Adam steps it up a few notches with the storytelling of times gone and been, craziness encountered and general debauchery of when he was incredibly young, totally irresponsible and living some kind of evil dream …..

2:30 – An englishman(!) things we’re cracking onto a irish lass that we’ve been talking with (she wants rid of him, i can’t stop taking the piss out of him) …. so invites us to a drinking competition.  Now mind you, by now Sean is on fire, he’s a drinking machine (probably ten pent up years of marriage and three weeks away from his missus) so he’s like ‘absolutely… you buy the first round’ … and off he toddles….. Of course as we’re aussies we’re just thinking free-fucking-booze… gold! and therefore continue to be amused at the antics of this guy.

3:00 – Adam finds out that this irish lass in a skydiver…… Adam has only worked out a few minutes ago he now knows why is neck is so sore… practicing arch manouvers on a table surrounded by twenty people with the bouncer letting you off the hook because you’re an aussie… (aussies rock ) ……

So back to the skydiving, all is good, we all reminisce and Adam finds out that this lass’s instructor has also taught Adam how to skydive for some of his advanced techniques…..

English boy gets more upset at Adam and Sean being excited.  English boy buys more drinks in an attempt to drink us under the table.

Adam and Sean step it up :)

3:30 – (btw, *some* time between 2-3:30 Steve went home.. something about still wanting to have a wife and work… work-smerk we say!) ….. world is really staring to spin now, things getting a little cloudy.  We head back indoors to find a lass with surface piercings…..

Adam loses his fucking mind and practically gropes this girl (her piercings, not her!) as this is some of the best work he’s ever seen.  Apparently Reading has one of the best surface piercers in the country and she’s had some of her work in for two years.  Adam then realises that he can’t get piercing done tomorrow because the alcohol won’t be out of his system.

Adam decides that he needs another drink to fill the gap of sorrow in his heart.

Sean just joins in because he wants another drink.

4:00 – Adam and Sean decide now’s a good time to go home… it wasn’t dark anymore and they both had to do an executive presentation to a CEO, a CFO and a regional director… in 5 hours …..

4:20 – After stubling home, Adam and Sean find out why good hotels are worth their weight in gold.  Security guard breaks into the lobby bar and steals us 2 x litre bottles of sparkling mineral water.  Heaven.

And so you have it, the circle of life, the hotels, the pubs, the clubs, the lobbies and the lounges …….

So how was your Thursday night?

Adam

Adam uncategorized drinking and debauchery, rants, travel

Howdy….

Over the next week(s) i’m going to publish a lot of stuff (a lot!) …. and this will be the master page as when I publish these pages, they will have disappeared from the front page before you can see them (ie i’m posting them when they were supposed to be published…..)

1. Oxfam Trailwalker 2007 – A Brief Synopsis

2. Scotland Haggis Adventure – Day 1

2. Scotland Haggis Adventure – Day 2

2. Scotland Haggis Adventure – Day 3

Adam

Adam uncategorized rants, travel

Well apart from the (very) long diatribe that is our story of our amazing trip, i’d quickly like to add a couple of photos to give you some perspective of our final destination, Paris.

We are lucky enough to be staying at an apartment that is less than 5 minutes walk from the mighty Eiffel tower and seconds away from both the Metro and RER lines…..

The first photo is from standing inside the dining area of the apartment, as you can see, almost all of the tower is in focus, but it’s slightly cut off by the verandah….

However, five steps later and you’re on the verandah for this view….. *sigh*

I promise i’ll have a complete story to tell at the end, and i’ll post each of the days adventures in logical sequence and send through a table of contents so you can bore yourself to tears!

Adam

p.s – Both these photos are without zoom!

Adam Uncategorized travel

Loch Ness -> Urquhart Castle -> Culloden Battle Field -> Clava Cairns -> Kingussie -> Dunkel Cathedral -> Edinburgh

We begin our tour today by winding down the side Loch Ness to our first stop at Urquhart Castle to the deepest point of Loch Ness. After scouring the breadth and width in an attempt to locate Loch Ness’ famous creature we re-board the blue-machine-of-fun and roll onwards up the side of the mighty Loch.

After a relatively short drive through the town of Inverness we trumped off the bus and onto the battlefield of the Battle of Culloden where 4,500 Jackabites (Catholics rebelling against the erosion of Monarch power of the Scots to London) lost their lives under the mismanagement of a general who then fled the country not to be seen again for many years afterward.

Two minutes down the road and we were at Clava Cairns, ancient burial grounds for the Celtic druids, and built over 4,000 years ago.

Lunch at Kingussie which consisted of local pub fare and finally the emergence of some vegetables for seemingly the first time in 20+ days of travel.

Our final stop brought us through Dunkel and for a visit to the quaint Dunkel Cathedral.

Back onto the bus, we made our final trip of the blue-bus-of-fun over the Forth Bridge and then back into Edinburgh for final farewells.

Adam Uncategorized travel

Fort Augustus -> Loch Garry -> Elan Donnan Castle -> [onto] Isle Of Skye -> Portree -> Loch Ness

Our first stop for the had us alongside the beautiful Loch Garry where we talk some time out to take some photos of the gorgeous landscape.

From there it was back aboard the bus and onto the Elan Donnan Castle, still used by the MaCrae family over the winter months and a last fortress for the warring clans with the castle switching hands many times over the past 500 years.

From there we proceeded over to the Isle of Skye where we learned more of the history of the clans that inhibited these lands, and the tourism industry that has now flourished as a result of the Skye Bridge being assembled back in 1986. (A point of note, the bridge was the 2nd most expensive toll bridge in the world, with a small 29 seat bus costing a horrendous 80 pounds(!) for a return crossing. They stopped taking tolls a few years ago.)

A quick stop had us beautifying ourselves at the Skye River, the tale being that if you dip your face in the river for seven seconds you will be forever beautiful. I’m not sure it helped me a great deal…..

From there we headed over to lunch at Portree, the main town of the Isle of Skye, a small, picuresque fishing village north off the island.

From there it was onwards and upwards further into the higher regions of the Isle of Skye to an amazing waterfall for spectacular views, even though the weather was horizontal rain.

For our final stop, we shipped ourselves up to Kilt Rock where we continued to brave the weather and caught some beautiful views towards the north of this beautiful island.

Night time visit to The Clansmen Centre where we had a taste of what it would be like to live in a Black House as a Scot Clansmen 1,500 years ago.

Adam Uncategorized travel

Edinburgh -> Loch Lubnaig -> Glencoe Lochlan -> Ben (Mt) Nevis -> Loch Ness

Tour Manager Claire, a well-travelled North Scotland lass who has been working with Haggis for over four years. This trip we are not on one of the mighty yellow Haggis buses, however we do board a similarly attractive blue ‘middy-bus’.

Our first stop was at the National Wallace Monument with some great views over the surrounding landscape. It was also the home to possibly the worst statue I’ve ever laid eyes on, a replica of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

From the Wallace Monument, we reboarded the Blue Bus of Fun TM and drove through to Loch Lubnaig for a quiet photo session.
From there we pushed on through to lunch at Green Welly Shop where we had the opportunity to meet Hamish the (Highland) Coo (Cow) saved from slaughter when the Mad Cow Disease plague ran through the UK and Europe.

From there it was back onto the bus and forward moving until we arrived for a 30 minute walk around Glencoe Lochan

Pushing on, we made way for Ben Nevis, Britians highest mountain at an impressive 1344m where we captured some photos, and took away some great historical stories of the region and the Macleod and MacDonalds clans.

From Ben Nevis, it was onto Inverlochy Castle and a chance for more photos, and more shivers as the weather started to turn rather quickly against our favour.

Our final stop for the day was onto the The Commando Memorial (predecessors to the SAS) … training grounds where Americans, Scots and English trained for WWII ….. slogan “Together We Conquer”

For the final leg we pushed on through to Fort Augustus where we bedded at Morag’s House for a night of baked potatoes stuffed with Haggis and other traditional western fillings.

Not a bad first day…..

Adam Uncategorized travel

I’m really fucking stressed out atm … really stressed out… like stressed out getting aches and pains, scaring the shit out of me stressed…..

I realise its stress because:

1. As soon as I start to relax (irony.. really) or head to bed and switch off from work all my muscles start to relax and I sleep soundly
2. When i’m awake, and at the office, everything tenses up
3. I went out last night with some friends and after I stopped thinking about work altogether, I started to feel fabulous….

I am seriously looking forward to this holiday, I have pushed myself to the max and i’m honestly not looking forward to coming back (though I think 6 weeks away and i’ll be sufficiently de-stressed!)

Missing all of you, i’ll work on posting photos throughout the trip, will update this page if I get anything added in.

A

Adam Uncategorized travel

I’m currently in the UK with a work colleague.. and he’s a nice guy. A great guy actually who I honestly enjoy working with (he does all the right things and gives a toss about his job, I like that).

But he doesn’t drink…

And that’s ok, but I do drink…..

And that’s still ok…

But get this….. I ask him casually about the ‘trip’ he’s taking in France after he’s finished work next weekend (ie he’s doing the same thing as me and taking a much-needed holiday afterwards)….

You know where this is going, don’t you…..

Un.. fucking … believable…

Of *ALL* the tours in the world, at all the times to go on them… quite literally, he’s on my tour…. Oh yes… exactly the same tour, exactly the same time…….

You just wouldn’t fucking believe it.

Adam

p.s – God help me, you all know it’s actually true…..

Adam Uncategorized rants, travel