Turkey's OzBlog: Ginger Down Under!

Madness? This is Sparta!

2007-03-21T15:17:00.000Z

Madness? This is Sparta!, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

Today, I got to see a special free preview showing of 300 at my local cinema, courtesy of MySpace's "Black Curtain" screenings. It was worth queueing for two and a half hours, cos the film was absolutley amazing!

For those that don't know (can't imagine there's many of you), 300 is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, the same guy who wrote Sin City, so the whole movie is very stylized. The novel itself is about the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartan warriors fought against the Persian army of King Xerxes, reputedly a million strong. Very cool, very epic, very bloody stuff. I'm going to have to check out the book.

The atmosphere in the cinema bares mentioning. It was absolutley packed to the rafters with people who had queued for hours to see this, so clearly, a room full of movie fanatics. It was incredible, everyone erupted in cheers and applause when something good happened, booed when the bad guys did something evil. It was like going to the theatre, not the cinema! Definitley one of the most memorable movies I'll ever see.

Surfer's Paradise

2007-03-16T11:22:00.000Z

DSCF3092, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

Spent three days lazing around at the beach down in Surfer's Paradise. Can you guess where it gets it's name from though? Think you can just about see a kite surfer doing his thing. Some people are crazy.

Simon, Leah and Baby Caitlin

2007-03-16T11:19:00.000Z

DSCF3081, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

I stayed with these guys for one night in Brisbane, really really friendly people. They're friends of Other James, met him in Egypt of all places. Baby Caitlin thought I was hysterical whenever I put my hat on. I'm not sure quite what I should think about that.

Brisbane from the Brisbane

2007-03-16T11:15:00.000Z

DSCF3086, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

The river flowing through Brisbane has the imaginative name Brisbane. Woweewahwah.

Brisbane World Expo

2007-03-16T11:12:00.000Z

DSCF3078, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

We wandered through the Brisbane World Expo site when we were being shown around the city. I don't actually know what the World Expo is, but they had all this funky architecture all over the place, which was cool.

Joey the Cockatoo

2007-03-16T11:10:00.000Z

DSCF3028, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

Me looking like the very epitome of British tourism at Australia Zoo.

Turtles on Fraser Island

2007-03-16T11:09:00.000Z

Turtles on Fraser Island, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

I think I mentioned these turtles before. They actually heard us coming along the boardwalk and so congregated at the edge of the lake to get a good look at us when we got to the viewpoint. The more noise we made, the more of them turned up. Another rather surreal experience...

Sandy river

2007-03-16T11:06:00.000Z

Sandy river, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

Eli Creek, which was pretty eerie as you couldn't actually hear the water flowing at all. We walked all the way up, fish swimming all around us.

Champagne Pools

2007-03-16T10:57:00.000Z

Champagne Pools, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

I did a bit of snorkelling in these rock pools. Loads of fish swimming around everywhere, it was really cool.

View from Indian Head, Fraser Island

2007-03-16T10:55:00.000Z

View from Indian Head, Fraser Island, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

Possibly the worst thing about Fraser Island were the tourist signs conveniently placed at every major scenic spot on the island. This particular one begins "Imagine you are the pluckiest fish in the rockpool". Joyously inane.

Green lake on Fraser Island

2007-03-16T10:51:00.000Z

Green lake on Fraser Island, originally uploaded by turkeybl0ke.

I'm at a bit of a loose end at the moment, so I'm just sticking up some random photos from various locations in Australia. Don't really have much to talk about at the moment, Uni is pretty blargh, and there've been no major events of any kind to talk about.....

Anyway, this was the first lake we visited on Fraser Island. It was awesome, really really warm and with the most enormous dunes heading off to the right of the picture. I actually managed to swim across the lake to that tiny sliver of sand you can see on the far bank. It was a lot further than it looks.

Back to school

2007-03-04T02:05:00.000Z

Well, the summer holiday is almost over down here. Haven't been up to much the last couple of weeks, mostly just lazing around and watching DVD's with my mates, and failing to get a job. I'm still trying though.

So I start back at University tomorrow, which I guess will be cool. Should be able to catch up with some of the friends I made on my courses last semester, but didn't really get to see over the summer. Lots of tea drinking is going to be in order I think! I'm doing three units this semester, Natural Hazards: A GIS Approach, Dynamics of Continents and Basins, and Remote Sensing: Imaging the Earth. So quite a bit of technical stuff using computers, hopefully.

Just about everyone is back in Sydney now as well, the big reunion is going to happen on St Patrick's Day in a couple of weeks I think. Not that they really celebrate it over here, but my Canadian friends maintain that we have to go out and get pissed. I'm not going to argue.

All Quiet on the Southern Front

2007-02-18T00:39:00.000Z

I would say I've been too busy to update, but that would be a complete lie. I've just been lazy.

The rest of my trip was really good. Australia Zoo was much better than I thought it was going to be, although it was quite surreal seeing pictures of Steve Irwin absolutley everywhere, despite him being dead. The "Wildlife Warrior" show, which we ended up watching twice, was probably the highlight of the day, they had some really well trained animals.

After Australia Zoo it was down to Brisbane. Spent a night staying with two of James' friends, Simon and Leah, and their adorable eight month old baby Caitlin. Apparently Caitlin is normally really scared of men in hats, but she thought I was hilarious every time I put mine on. Perhaps it was because I looked like such a British tourist, and it's just the pombashing beginning at an early age. Anyway, we spent the next day wandering around Brisbane, trying out a couple of cafe's and taking a cruise along the river. I parted ways with James for a couple of days after that, and headed down to Surfer's Paradise to stay with my friend from UEA, Marion.

Surfers Paradise wasn't quite what I was expecting i.e. a beach with awesome waves. It was much more like Miami, and was incredibly touristy. Still, it was really good to see Marion again. Spent most of the daytime at the beach, and the evenings having BBQ's and trying out some of the local bars. A good time was had by all.

Flew back to Sydney with James from Brisbane, and spent a day recharging before I was on another flight out to Adelaide to stay with my friend Alan for three days. I like Adelaide quite a lot, it's a really chilled out place where it's easy to relax. I also met up with Pru and Cadie, a couple of the girls me and Tom met on our Great Ocean Road Tour. It was Pru's 25th Birthday, so we went to see the Scissor Sisters in concert, who were actually surprisingly good live as it's not the kind of thing that I'd normally go for. They also took me down to Port Adelaide, formerly known as Port Misery (!?), which was a really pretty area, and then along the coast. Good to see them again, should catch them when they come to the UK sometime next year, with any luck.

So now I'm back in Sydney, with not much to do. I've been trying to apply for a job, but it's proving to be harder than I thought as it seems people are only "employable" if they have at least 12 months on their Visa. Which really screws me over as I've got about four and a half months left on mine. Still, I'll keep applying to jobs, I've applied to half a dozen various supermarkets and convenience stores so far, and I'm keeping an eye on the USyd Employment Service to see if anything else comes up. Kinda sucks that this is how I'm spending my time now, after all that glorious travelling. Oh well, gotta take the good with the bad, ay!

A Brief Attempt at Travel Journalism

2007-02-02T05:54:00.000Z

So I've made it to Noosa now, a rather upmarket town a few hours north of Brisbane. And seeing as it's raining for the first time in what seems like months (and by raining I mean proper British rain, that's not at all like having a warm shower), I'm stuck in the hostel with not a lot to do. So blogging it is.

Been travelling for less than a week, but I've done so much it feels like an absolute age. Spent a couple of days in a sleepy seaside town called Port Hervey, which has no reason to exist other than as a gateway to Fraser Island. One decent restaurant and one decent Irish bar was pretty much it, and it was blazing hot as well. Spent most of the time on the beach (no, didn't get burnt, woooo!), and the sea was so warm it was like having a bath. Fantastic stuff. Also went cycling for a couple of hours, so my training isn't suffering completely.

Three days on Fraser Island were incredible. We did a full blown guided tour, being driven all over the island, having our meals cooked for us and sleeping in king sized beds in tents. Possibly the most comfortable camping experience I've ever had, excepting the unfortunate 4 AM wake up call by the local kookaburras. Did an awful lot of swimming in the spectacular blue and green freshwater lakes that are the highlight of the island, with absolutley beautiful crystal clear water that was once again really nice and warm. We had a mixed group of people, all nice and interesting, most notable of whom were a retired couple who reminded me if my grandparents except "extremified" - apparently their last two holidays had been hiking in the Himalayas and a cruise in the Antarctic. Crazy people.

We've also picked up an additional travel companion for the next few days, an English girl called Beth who my travel companion James seems rather interested in. So I'm a gooseberry til Tuesday. And you can imagine my delight to find that Beth is a full blown Scummer as well. Delightful.

Assuming the weather brightens up tomorrow, we should be off to Australia Zoo, which was founded by the late Steve Irwin. Then it's down to Brisbane and Surfers Paradise. More on that when I get back to Sydney!

What's been happening

2007-01-27T05:35:00.000Z

Well, I've got slack with updating this thing again. And seeing as I'm about to go away for at least another week, I'd best write some things down before I forget what I've actually been up to! Tomorrow I'm going on an impromptu trip with my mate James, up to Fraser Island and then to Brisbane, but more about that when I actually get back.

The last couple of weeks haven't gone by without incident. For starters, I turned 21, which was rather exciting. Ended up spending most of the day at Coogee beach, getting sunburn on my feet and checking out some of the bars on the waterfront. Even managed to find a place that had spare ribs on the menu, so I treated myself to that for lunch. Went to the Royal Hotel, my local, in the evening, and then went to a nearby Japanese restaurant for dinner. All in all, a satisfyingly gastronomic day! Thanks to everyone for birthday pressies/wishes/etc etc...

Was slightly concerned to find out that the Royal actually got robbed at gunpoint not long after we'd left for our Japanese meal! Obviously the robbers had heard it was my birthday though, so let me leave before nicking everyone's money. First time I've ever heard of anything like that happening in Sydney anywhere, and it's certainly not a regular occurrance, so don't worry too much Mum!

Also got to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, courtesy of my parents. I was actually quite nervous before I went and did it - the bridge is 156 m high, which is about the same height at a hundred me's, certainly a scary thought - but I was so securely attached to the bridge I couldn't have fallen unless I'd tried really hard and brought some rather sophisticated cutting equipment with me. In the end, it was just like walking up a footbridge, bar having to duck under the odd protruding girder or two, and the view on the way up and at the top was absolutley fantastic. In the end, I didn't want to come down from the top! I'll put up pictures of me in my fetching blue and grey boiler suit and cap combo, and the view, once Photobucket stops messing me around!

I got to see Muse live in concert at the Hordern Pavilion at Centennial Park in Sydney, and they were absolutley fantastic. They played most of the songs from their latest album as you'd expect, as well as most of my favourites from their other three albums as well, so I was very happy. All in all, including their encore they were on stage for almost two hours, and they are definitley one of the best live acts I've ever seen. Up there with Madness. Highlight of the show would have to be Assassin as an opener, and Plug In Baby. And the rest of the show as well. The supporting act, Ground Components, were incidentally not too bad at all. They're an Aussie band that have a hint of The Pixies about them, although they are more contemporary. Probs worth checking them out.

The last big event was Australia Day, which happened yesterday. It's basically an excuse for the Aussies to take a day off and get really, really pissed. Went down to Hyde Park in the city centre for a few beers, where they had a couple of live music concerts going on all day as well as the Triple J Top 100. Triple J is an Australia-wide alternative music radio station, which is right up my street, and they were counting down, as I'm sure you can guess, the Top 100 songs of the last year as voted for by the listeners. The eventual winner was Augie March with their song One Crowded Hour. No, I haven't heard of that either.

In the evening, via a couple of pubs, we went to see Sydney FC play Newcastle Jets in the first leg of the Hyundai A League semifinal. It's a kinda confusing way to end the league, seeing as Sydney finished fourth, with Melbourne running away with the actual league and yet still having to win two more games to actually claim the title. Still, it means Sydney can still win, and they beat the Jets 2-1, which means that they've just got to draw away at Newcastle next week to get through to the final. I think!

Anyway, that's all for now. More when I get back from my travels.

Resolutions

2007-01-08T00:53:00.000Z

I may as well go public with this, so it can hopefully give me some added motivation to not, y' know, stop doing it after a couple of months as happens with most New Years Resolutions. My friend James has talked me into running a half-Marathon in May with him, so my resolution is to get fit for that. Having never run further than five miles, I have no idea how hard this is going to be for me, so I've set myself the safely conservative target of two and a half hours. Wish me luck. Training commences on Thursday.

Also, Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb tomorrow, woooo!

A Diamond Night in the Emerald City....

2007-01-01T16:21:00.000Z

....was the catchy phrase for New Years Eve in Sydney. Apparently they were celebrating the 75th birthday of the harbour bridge instead of ushering in another year. Still, the fireworks over the harbour were fantastic, we had a real festival atmosphere (as in so crowded you can't move, hour long queue for the toilet type thing) at Macquaries Chair where myself and the few friends I have left who haven't inexplicably returned to the UK for Xmas congregated with 25,000-ish other people. It was something of a sensory overload come midnight, with the Barmy Army singing Old Langsynes or whatever it is, and the fireworks going off on the bridge and on the barges on the water and from the tops of the skyscrapers in the CBD. You really needed to be able to look in every direction at once to take it all in. I believe the proper word for that moment is electric.

I also had a good Xmas, staying with my friend Sara and the rest of the Maher clan in Tamworth. Tamworth is a quiet place, the highlight of which for tourists is the giant golden guitar they have on the edge of town. Quite random. Xmas would of course have been better if we hadn't capitulated so fitfully in the Ashes, so I was soundly mocked for being the only Pom at the party. I gave as good as I got though. Thanks to everyone that send me a card, and thankyou for the presents as well. Sorry I couldn't send any back, you'll all just have to wait for gloriously tacky souveniers instead!

Merry Xmas?!

2006-12-21T07:32:00.000Z

I'm about to head off to spend Xmas at my friends house, where I don't think I'm going to get any internet access for a few days. So until I return on the 27th, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and enjoys the holiday season!

A Note for Auntie Sandra

2006-12-20T05:32:00.000Z

As per Grandma's request, just letting you know that I've received your package. Thankyou!

SUPER ULTRA MEGA UPDATE

2006-12-19T00:19:00.000Z

Well, it's been just over a month since I last updated, and it's been almost a week since I got back from my travels already. Where does the time go? So I guess I should right about all the stuff that's gone down...

So, my friend Tom, who I know from back home at UEA, but is currently on foreign exchange like me except at the University of Adelaide, came over to Sydney for about a week. Didn't see a lot of him really, seeing as we were meant to be travel buddies and all, but he was off being a tourist and doing all the things in Sydney that I have already done. Thursday morning rolled around anyway, and we met up at Toby's house before heading out, laden down with bags, to catch the plane to the airport. It should be noted that I was hungover at this stage, having seen off my American friend Ted at the pub the night before, so my memory of the first day is a little foggy. Our flight to Melbourne was delayed and more than a little bumpy, and I'll admit that my first sight of Melbourne, Avalon Airport, wasn't quite what I was expecting. It's little more than a giant tin shack in the middle of the desert! Not what I had in mind for the second largest city in Australia.

Anyway, our hostel was just the other side of the city centre, so we caught the shuttle bus into the city, which was much more what I was expecting, lots of giant glittering skyscrapers and the like. Very cool. And trams up every street, the place felt bigger than Sydney. Our hostel was pretty awesome, it was almost a hotel. Shared a room with a German bloke and his dad, who snored, but they were otherwise quiet and tidy, so can't complain. I think that first night we just dumped our bags, finished watching the cricket and then went to a local pub to have a beer or two.

We spent four full days in Melbourne all told. Spent quite a lot of time just wandering around, but we also managed to be quite the tourists. Ended up visiting the Flagstaff Gardens, the war memorial, the Botanic Gardens (every Aussie city has one, it seems), the Melbourne Gaol, where infamous Aussie highwayman Ned Kelly was imprisoned and eventually hung, HMS Castlemaine (an old Aussie warship named after beer), Captain Cook's Cottage (which had been moved, brick by brick, from Yorkshire to Melbourne), the Melbourne Museum, where they had a section of rainforest actually growing inside, and perhaps most randomly, a memorial to assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy. I think our most surreal experience was being sized up by the sleaziest Italian bloke imaginable when buying shorts in Victoria market. All in all, it was a surprisingly cultural experience.

We were picked up very early the next morning from our hostel for the next stage of our trip, which was a three day bus adventure tour up the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. This tour was AWESOME! I can't stress how much fun I had. We were really lucky that we had an excellent group of people to travel with, they were all really friendly and a good laugh. There were a couple of English guys, Ash and Josh, a pair of Aussie sisters, Cadey and Pru, a Swiss banker from Zurich named Roland (can we get anymore stereotypical Swiss?), no less than four Germans, Stefan, Chris, Susanne and Miriam, a dutch girl, Marinka, an American girl, Jenny, and of course our legendary Aussie tour guide Andy. We all got on so well, we've all exchanged email addresses and I should be meeting up with some of them after Xmas in various locations throughout Australia.

Less about the people, more about the trip. Our first day we visited Bell's Beach (a famour surfing beach), Apollo Bay, the Twelve Apostles and various other scenic spots along the coastline. Also went for a swim in the sea, which was great because it was effing hot that first day. We visted some temperate rainforest, where they've strung some metal walkways through the trees that reach up to about 47m off the ground, so you're actually walking through the treetops. That was pretty cool. Highlight of the first day for me though was a helicopter ride over the Twelve Apostles, which was absolutley fantastic, amazing views up there. In the evening, we went to watch the sunset over the Twelve Apostles with a couple of beers. Good stuff.

Second day was another early start, with many more scenic views, including London Bridge, the Balconies (aka the Jaws of Death), the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Martyrs and a waterfall I can't remember the name of off the top of my head. All spectacular stuff though! Also hiked up Mount William for some spectacular views, although it was surprisingly hard work for simply walking up a tarmac road for a couple of kilometres, and visited a national park where I got to see my first wild Emus, Kangaroos and Koalas. Our hostel was in the middle of the outback, in a place called Asses Ears, but it was still awesome. Again spent the evening drinking and dancing.

Third and final day wasn't as action packed, mostly due to the six hour drive to get to Adelaide, but we still managed to climb Hollow Mountain, which was more like actual climbing compared to Mount William, and we got to see white kangaroos as well. We were so exhausted by the time we got to Adelaide that we couldn't go drinking, instead we settled for the new Bond film, which, incidentally, I can recommend. It doesn't hold completely to the generic James Bond formula, but I think that's a good thing here, with a new actor it helps to keep the franchise fresh.

Adelaide is a very nice city, kind of like Chichester in feel and atmosphere but much bigger. It's not particularly great for tourists either, I could have done all the attractions quite comfortably in a day. Still had a good time though, just relaxing and wandering around, reading my book and hanging out with Tom and the other guys from the tour that had stuck around and not moved swiftly on. We did manage one last hurrah as a tour group on our first full day in Adelaide, going out for a meal and drinks and a dance afterwards, good times.

So now I'm back in Sydney, and most people I know have gone home. Went to watch Sydney play (they won 1-0 with ten men against Perth Glory), went to a family do with my Scottish mate Graeme, and went to my friend Lara's 20th birthday, but otherwise it's been fairly quiet. I leave for Tamworth on the 23rd, where I'm spending Christmas with my friend Sara and her family. Should be interesting as it's in the outback, but no beach bbq on Xmas Day for me! Anyway, I have written quite a lot now. I'll stick photos of my trip up online sometime later.

Plans

2006-11-16T13:51:00.000Z

My friend from UEA, Tom Schnetler, should be coming to Sydney on Wednesday. After he's spent around a week here, we should be flying down to Melbourne for a week or so, then we're doing a backpackers tour up to Adelaide where Tom is at Uni. I should be meeting up with my old friend Alan in Adeliade as well, so it should be a worthwhile two weeks out. Should be back around mid December, so if there are no updates up to that time, you'll know why!

Freedom! (again)

2006-11-16T13:47:00.001Z

Well, I finished my exams on Tuesday, and spent the rest of the day with my good friend Ryan, who was leaving to go back to the US pretty soon. We went all touristy and did the Aquarium and the Chinese Gardens and the monorail at Darling Harbour, which was rather good fun, and then hit the pub quiz at the Royal to get properly boozed up, as is only fitting after your exams have finished. All in all, a rather good day, and I think I've at the very least passed all my exams, so there should be no visa problems at all.

Procrastination

2006-11-08T02:49:00.000Z

Just taking a break from revision, and I was doing a random search for the name McTurk to see where it cropped up. It turns out that there's a town in Guyana that's actually called McTurk, which I thought was pretty cool. Obviously some entrepreneurial ancestor went out there, subdued the natives and renamed the settlement after himself. The other name of this place is Cajueiro, which has nothing to do with the family name whatsoever. I thought it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Anyway, back to revision!

"Stand fast, for your doom is upon you"

2006-11-07T01:01:00.000Z

There's always a tendency among students to liken this time of year to some kind of academic apocalypse, though I'm not too sure why. Anyway, my exams start on Thursday, and finish on Tuesday, which is quite a tight schedule for revision. But it does mean that all my exams will be finished this time next week, at which point all manner of alcoholic beverages will be consumed.

Wish me luck anyway. With the exams, not the drinking.

International Rugby

2006-11-07T00:57:00.000Z

Did anyone back home watch the England vs New Zealand Rugby Union game? If so, how did we do? I've read about it online, but it was a pretty rose tinted account from the England Rugby website, and I didn't even recognise half the names on the team sheet. I can't be that out of touch, surely. I didn't get to see the game as it was on at two in the morning on a Sunday night. Very inconvenient! Anyhoo, let me know.

Halloween - Canadian Style

2006-10-30T15:07:00.000Z

I almost forgot, over the weekend our Canadian friends Monica and Janine hosted what I guess is our first full-blown house party here in Oz. It's kinda sad that it's taken us three months to do that! It was an awesome evening anyway, even though I don't remember that much of it (surprise!). I've stuck photos up on my photobucket anyways, that you might marvel at the drunken ingenuity of student costumes. Linky

Freedom!

2006-10-30T10:54:00.000Z

Just submitted my final piece of coursework. Of course, this being the last piece of coursework, it just wouldn't stay down. About 3500 words long all told, except the first two times I wrote it the final save file inexplicably got corrupted by the dodgy University computers, meaning all my hard work was scrambled into garbled random symbols. I almost had a break down trying to get it done!

Ah well, all done now. I can relax for a couple of days now and then get into revision. Good times....

All Quiet on the Southern Front

2006-10-25T00:35:00.000Z

Haven't been up to much exciting at the moment. It's the last week of term so I'm bogged down under a bunch of coursework deadlines, just like everyone else, so we haven't really been able to go and do anything. All very dull.

Derek, I got your letter, I guess I agree with you on the graph thing, but just because it looks less impressive doesn't mean that the higher-than-normal levels of carbon dioxide aren't significant.

Got a Halloween party to go to on Saturday, I'm thinking of going as Arthur Dent from Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's very stereotypically British, so it should suit me quite well, plus I have all the props for it already!

England vs Macedonia

2006-10-09T13:20:00.000Z

Now it's time for everyone else to prove that they actually read this Blog. If you watched the England game at the weekend, can you please let me know what you thought of it and how we played, how much of an incompetent wassname Maclaren is etc etc. I didn't get to watch the game and I'm hungry for feedback. Cheers!

Bouncers

2006-10-09T13:12:00.000Z

Saturday night, myself, Richard, Bourke, James and the Frenchies tried to go clubbing in Darling Harbour, and we were almost singularly confounded by bouncers. These ridiculously large men are truly the most stupid blokes I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. And they all seemed to be on power trips. We got very annoyed. Hats off to the truly gentlemenly bouncers at the Pier 26 bar, where we had quite a smashing time.

We got variously refused entry to clubs for a number of reasons, my personal favourites being "Too casual" and "Too smart", the first being myself and the second being Richard at the door of the same club; not wearing jeans; wearing a coat; not being on the guest list (OK that one's fair enough). I think, however, that the best quote of the night has to be "You can't dance dressed like that." It's as if they earnestly believe that how well you dance is directly and inextricably linked to your clothes. Little did they know that I can't dance anyway, so the jokes on them.

Scummer Invades Sydney

2006-10-09T13:08:00.000Z

My dear aquaintance (I'm prevented from calling him friend as he supports Southampton) Matty Reay has arrived in Sydney this past week from UEA, working at a meteorological consultancy in North Sydney for a few months as his year in industry. Very strange seeing another person from Uni here, but I guess it's some kind of comfort. Him and Toby are talking about going "Wwoofing", which is essentially travelling around Australia and working on farms for free. Hard labour for no money? Think I'll give that a miss, but I hope they enjoy it. Effing massochists.

Glee!

2006-10-03T06:40:00.000Z

I'VE GOT TICKETS FOR MUSE! YAAAAAAY!

Problem is I've got to wait til 24th January before I can actually see them. But many thanks to my compatriot James Stringer (he works in broadcasting, doncha know) for getting them for me.

A Bad Weekend to Support... ANYONE

2006-10-03T06:36:00.000Z

It really didn't seem to be my weekend sports-wise. Sydney lost in the AFL, Portsmouth lost to Spurs after numerous bad refereeing decisions, and then Melbourne Storm lost to Brisbane Bronco's in the Rugby League Grand Final. Not that I'm really that fussed about two of those three fixtures, but I seem to have had that touch of death effect on whomever I've decided to follow. Ho hum, them's the breaks.

Mr Meseg's Twenty First

2006-10-03T06:28:00.000Z

Toby was 21 on Saturday, so went over to his to watch the Aussie Rules Grand Final between Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles. It was an exciting game, went right down to the last minute with Sydney eventually losing 85 points to 84. Tobes rustled us up a damn good curry as well. Good darts!

Random Night Out

2006-09-29T15:04:00.000Z

This afternoon I got a call from Rich asking if I wanted to go down to Darling Harbour to watch some fireworks. I had nought better to do, so I went for it, and it was pretty damn cool. Turned out it was some kind of Salsa festival (don't worry, I didn't actually try to dance too much), with music accompanying the fireworks. It looked pretty spectacular over the harbour with the CBD as a backdrop. Went on to Three Wise Monkeys afterwards for post-firework drinks with Rich, James, Vittoria, Laura and Sarah, the latter three not being the three wise monkeys, but probably being the best things to come out of France in a long time. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

2006-09-29T15:03:00.000Z

Pretty!

2006-09-29T15:02:00.000Z

Darling Harbour by Night

Eden Field Trip

2006-09-29T14:56:00.000Z

I got back from my field trip to Eden yesterday. It was really good fun, but I was so worn out I was in bed by six in the evening! Really pretty part of the country, as the photos hopefully show. It's a heavily forested region, and sawmilling and woodchipping are two of the biggest industries. They chop down a lot of the native forest instead of using plantation forests for this, which as I'm sure you can imagine is something of a contentious issue. We spent the three days meeting various people from different stakeholding groups and getting loads of info for them so we can write an essay on the subject. Not exactly something I'm relishing doing, but the trip was worth it to make some more Aussie friends and see loads of rural Australia.

I was particularly excited to see my first wild kangaroos, pelicans, kookaburras and brush-tailed possums, and managed to pick up the very Australian nicknames of "Jim-bob" and "Pommie". My peers should be commended for their originality there. But despite the constant heckling and the lack of a pub near Edrom Lodge where we were staying, it was a pretty awesome trip.

2006-09-29T14:55:00.000Z

The woodchip mill

2006-09-29T14:54:00.000Z

Rather picturesque

The Unthinkable Has Happened

2006-09-23T12:44:00.000Z

I've actually received my first written complaint that my blog isn't being updated enough. Thanks Derek and Tony! Hahaha. Good to hear from you, all is well here. There just hasn't really been a lot going on, nothing to write about! Plenty of coursework to be getting on with, had to write my first essay for several years all about population growth and how it is affecting the water crisis in Africa. Fairly interesting stuff.

Been to the movies a couple of times as well. Everyone should go and see An Inconvenient Truth, that movie by Al Gore. It basically puts across the facts about global warming, which I seem to have been studying for years now, and really highlights the need for some kind of action. We're pretty screwed otherwise. Thankyou For Smoking is an excellent satirical comedy which I'd also recommend, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is also pretty funny, your typical vaguely nonsensical Will Ferrell movie.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off on my field trip. I'm going south for ten hours by coach to the port of Eden, which some might say sounds nice in a biblical sense (if I hear any more jokes about apples or snakes....) to look at the forestry and wood chipping industries down there, and how that poses various political, economical and social problems. Also meant to be a place that is good the whale-watching, so here's hoping that I'll be able to get a good photo of a humpback breaching! I'll be back on Thursday, I'll stick some photos up then.

My humble abode

2006-09-04T09:18:00.000Z

Probably a couple of months too late to actually be interesting, but my parents wanted to see where I live.

2006-09-04T09:10:00.000Z

My house is the green one

2006-09-04T09:06:00.000Z

The start of campus, just across the road

2006-09-04T09:03:00.000Z

The kitchen

2006-09-04T09:02:00.000Z

My desk, where all the magic happens

2006-09-04T08:48:00.000Z

My bed and TV

2006-09-04T08:47:00.000Z

The park just down the road

A sad day for Australia

2006-09-04T07:13:00.000Z

It turns out that one of the most iconic Aussies, Steve Irwin, passed away yesterday. He was famous for being a bit of a nutter and poking crocodiles with sticks. I'm quite shocked that it's happened really. I find it darkly ironic that he was killed by a stingray. Here's the story for you non-believers (looking at you Paul).

X-treeeeeeeeeeeeeme!!

2006-08-28T09:01:00.000Z

Myself and the enigmatic trio of Toby, Rich and Ted had the pleasure of going to ExoGames 2006 this Saturday just past. This was an extreme sports tournament organised by Toby's church, so I was expecting something quite small and pokey.

Turns out it was a full day event at the Acer Arena SuperDome in Sydney Olympic Park, with something like 15,000 people in attendance. And the place still felt pretty empty! Seriously, this place was huge. Highlight of the day for me was seeing some FMX (freestyle motorcross), as highlighted by the crazy dude on the bike in the picture below. Also got to see some pro skating, bmx and wakeboarding, and some kick ass rock bands. Just wish I'd got some of their names. Pretty funky stuff, all told.

2006-08-28T09:00:00.000Z

Crazy motorcyclist

An explanation

2006-08-26T14:16:00.000Z

I feel I should explain that last post a little better, that my noble readers might share the hilarity of the situation.

My friend Paul was attempting to turn his own, vastly-inferior-but-longer-running-and-more-frequently-updated blog into a "Googlewhack" by having the words "Ladysfingers" and "Gillyflowers" on his page. For the uninitiated, a Googlewhack is where you type those two words into Google and see how many sites are returned. If exactly one site is returned, no more, no less, then you have yourself a Googlewhack. One such example I have found myself is Correlated Alakazam. Except it won't be any more, because I've just typed them here.

Paul was hoping to turn his blog into a Googlewhack with the words in the post below. Antagonistic git that I am, I undermined his effort by planting them in my own blog as well, so it would no longer be a Googlewhack. Hilarity ensued for myself.

Paul, in his infinite wisdom, however, as a countermeasure merely chopped the "s" off of Gillyflowers to make it a new Googlewhack. Little does he know that I may or may not have done exactly the same as him, and embedded the word Gillyflower somewhere in my blog.

It amuses me anyway.

Just to annoy Paul, really

2006-08-26T00:25:00.000Z

Ladysfingers Gillyflowers

The Elbow of Doom

2006-08-25T13:35:00.000Z

Sorry to carry on in a footy vein here, but I've just seen a video clip of Ben Thatcher'c challenge on Pedro Mendes from a couple of days ago. Of course, by "challenge" I mean despicable physical assault. How on earth that wasn't a red card is absolutley beyond me. If I'd been in Pedro's position, I think I'd probably have been killed! Good lord, it was the worst thing I think I've ever seen in English football. Utterly disgraceful.

We're Number One!

2006-08-20T13:01:00.000Z

I suppose I should also mention that Portsmouth are currently first in the Premier League as well after beating Blackburn Rovers 3 - 0. Thought I'd just get that in before the Manchester United game finishes this afternoon and inevitably knocks us off the top of the pile.

Those Blue Blue Mountains

2006-08-20T12:09:00.000Z

Yesterday I made my first excursion out of the great metropolis of Sydney. Myself and my friends Rachael, Matt, Sarah, Stefan, Ted, Katherine, Liz and Katie went out to Katoomba to see the Blue Mountains. The big land mark in those parts are the Three Sisters which, as aboriginal legend would have it, were three girls who were turned to stone to stop some demon raping them. Or something like that.

Dodgy myths aside, the area was really beautiful. A lot more green and red than blue, admittedly, but it really hit home how vast a country Australia is. At the gloriously touristified lookout point, we had civilization behind us, but standing at the cliff edge and looking out into this enormous gulf of a valley, it was very easy to feel very small.

Anyway, after a good hour of procrastination we decided to walk down the aptly named "Giant Stair" to get to the bottom of the valley, something like half a mile down, which was pretty scary mainly because these stairs were at times vertical or even upside down. Or so it seemed anyway. It was a pretty knackering walk, but the forest at the bottom was pretty cool to walk through after being in a city for ages.

Brrrrrr!

2006-08-15T08:28:00.000Z

Coldsnap

2006-08-15T08:24:00.000Z

It's suddenly got very chilly here today, and we had a thunderstorm as well. All very exciting stuff, and nothing out of the ordinary I guess, seeing as it's winter. But I wasn't expecting this:

Essential viewing

2006-08-09T12:46:00.000Z

Something a bit cultural for you guys. Tripod have been described by some (well, me) as an Australian Tenacious D (a famous comedy acoustic duo, for those that don't know). I've brought a couple of their albums and I find them really quite amusing. So I give you for your perusal and subsequent enjoyment, links to two of their songs performed live at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Ghost Ship and Make You Happy Tonight.

Another dry month...

2006-08-07T05:23:00.000Z

Well, I guess I should apologise to people for not having updated this for a while. I thought I was really just talking to myself and occassionally Paul on here, but Dad informs me that I actually have readers now who demand that I satiate their thirst for knowledge of my Aussie experiences.

Soooo, I've been in the country for four weeks. Journey over was uneventful, and I was somewhat fortunate to spend most of it sitting next to two rather attractive Danish girls. More interesting than the inflight movies for the most part.

Sydney is an amazing place, so many things to see and stuff. For anyone interested in what it looks like, you can see my pics at http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/turkeybl0ke/. There's some pretty funky stuff to see. It's really weird seeing flocks of parrots flying around, and having to fend off some kind of wading bird from eating your sandwiches.

As it's winter, I haven't been able to really go out and look around the city due to the the air turning to near-solid water at irregular intervals. I'm also reliably informed that we're in the very clutches of the chilly claw as the temperature has plummeted to 11 degrees. These Aussies wouldn't survive five minutes in Norwich in January.

Nothing new to report outside of my email updates though. As soon as new things start happening, I'll endeavour to be a good boy and post more regularly about my experiences.

H-Hour Minus Thirteen

2006-07-04T16:34:00.000Z

It is, perhaps, time to start using this blog for what it was created for.

The past few weeks have been something of a blur, I can't quite believe how quickly this trip has come upon me! I've managed to finish my exams, get drunk on multiple occassions, move out of my house in Norwich and do some failed research for my dissertation in what seems to be a very short time indeed. But now the fateful day is here, and in slightly more than half a day I'll be on a plane bound for the other side of the world.

Scary stuff.

Nerves are just starting to set in right about now. But I guess that's just to be expected. USyd emailed me a couple of days ago asking if I'd like to participate in some kind of student buddy scheme. I'm thinking I might as well take them up on the offer. I'll be needing to make friends quickly so I can continue to punish my liver, which is clearly evil and satanic, which allows me to justify such frequent acts of debauchery.

Nearly there

2006-05-24T18:36:00.000Z

Dizzamn, it's been a while since I last posted so I'd best get cracking.

I'm halfway through my exams at the moment, two have gone well and one was so-so. Only three more to go and then I can happily start doing the research for my Dissertation. Hurrah.

I've sent off my Visa, my airport arrival form, my temporary accommadation form, and sorted my health and travel insurance. There's pretty much nought I can do now for Australia except wait, which is good because it means I can actually concentrate fully on revision for exams. Revision, by the way, sucks the big one.

I'll be glad when I get on that plane and can finally relax and you know, maybe enjoy myself a bit.

I'm off to see Fall Out Boy tommorrow! Apparently they're all the rage with the kids these days.

Come Fly With Me....

2006-05-09T21:25:00.000Z

Got my flight tickets, woooooo!

Also, Toby somehow has managed to get his offer through and accepted before me despite his original application never being sent off! If only our own administration system was as swift and efficient as the Aussie's seems to be.

What is Sven on?

2006-05-08T16:52:00.000Z

Just looked at the England squad, and it's really rather controversial.

Most obviously, the inclusion of Wayne Rooney, who has a broken foot and is almost certain to miss the World Cup because of it, is something of a strange decision. As is the ommission of Jermaine Defoe, Ledley King, Darren Bent and Shaun Wright-Phillips. And the inclusion in the reserves of Andy Johnson, a mere Championship striker, over any one of those last four.

The one choice that may, and I say may, in the sense that it is a one-in-a-million-chance, stuff-that-legends-are-made-of, defeating-the-million-demons-of-Hades-single-handedly-with-a-toothpick kind of may, is Theo Walcott. He's only 16 and he hasn't actually played a Premiership game in his career so far, but he's really quick and can cross quite well in Reserve games, so clearly he's England quality, right?

I just hope we do a Greece in this tournament, and win despite the odds. And despite our manager trying his best to undermine the team.

Marriotts Way

2006-05-08T16:16:00.000Z

My Dad and two of his friends, Alan and PC (who is quite the ladies man, allegedly) came up for the weekend to do some walking. Little did I know precisely how hardcore it actually would be. 21 miles all told in one day, and at times we felt we were in that most awesome of movies, Labyrinth starring David Bowie. The footpath just seemed to disappear over the horizon with no discernible end in sight. Most disconcerting. But not quite as disconcerting as being out-walked by three comparatively elderly gentlemen. That was quite embarrasing.

I did get to show off the wonders of Norwich to them however, and they rather enjoyed such cultural sites as the Rose Tavern, the Eaton Cottage and Oasis Finest Indian Cuisine. Good stuff!

One Step Closer....

2006-05-08T16:14:00.000Z

So I've been officially offered my place at Sydney University. I need to accept it, and wait for them to confirm my place, and then I can get my Visa. Hurrah!

They've sent me the letter three times by email, and the international office have sent it to me twice as well. Really strange stuff. Perhaps they really, really want me to go.

Oh, and I owe them $349. You know, in case I spontaneously combust whilst playing football.

Acknowledgement

2006-05-04T19:54:00.000Z

So I've had an acknowledgement letter from USyd, and I'm told the acceptance letter should be here by oh, I don't know, tommorrow! AAAAAH! Just the small task of passing my multiple exams now.

I feel sorry for Toby. After a little prompting from me, it turns out that the Uni hasn't sent off his application. He's remarkably calm about the whole thing, despite how late it is in the day to actually get it sorted. I mean, the deadline for applications was over a month ago, but apparently it should be ok cos it's UEA that's ballsed it up. Rather Toby than me though, I'd be having kittens right now if it happened to me.

Harry Houdini

2006-04-29T23:17:00.000Z

I am a very happy chappy.

After beating Wigan two goals to one away from home, Portsmouth have secured their status as a top flight club for another season. I am a very relieved Pompey fan.

It's hard to believe that nine weeks ago we looked like we were dead and buried, but what Harry Redknapp has done at the club is damned near miraculous. Lets hope he signs a new contract and carries us forward next season, to greener, more midtable pastures.

Commiserations to Birmingham and West Brom fans. Have fun down there, say "Hi" to the Scummers for me.

MySpace

2006-04-28T16:57:00.000Z

Why does everyone seem to have really artsy photos on MySpace, and the best ones I can pull up are messy drunken ones from some LCR night?

Are they trying to tell me that I should spend a couple of hours posing by myself in my room with a digital camera to get some meaningful poses? Sounds like a delightful waste of time.

More fun than revision, that's for sure.

WE ARE STAYING UP!!

2006-04-22T23:08:00.000Z

Wanted to dedicate an entire post for this one.

I was fortunate enough to get hold of a ticket to go and see Portsmouth vs Sunderland today, and we actually won! 2-1, and it was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life when we went 1-0 down, only to come back and win it with a last minute penalty from Super Matty Taylor. We've got a decent chance of staying up now, lets hope it happens for us!

After watching MotD this evening, the stats certainly suggest we should have won. I mean, we had 25 shots over the course of the game. Let me spell that out in letters: T W E N T Y F I V E! That's a lot of shots, and on that figure alone I think we deserved to win. 17 points from 24 now, and that, ladies and gents, is Champions League form. Premenitions of next season, anyone?

Hell is for Heroes

2006-04-22T23:05:00.000Z

Went to see Hell is for Heroes at the Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms on Wednesday evening, with Jon, my sister Lizzie and her mate Ellie. It was an absolutley fantastic gig! They're such a good band live. This is the third time I've seen them. Does that make me a fanboy? I'm not sure. Anyway, check them out, and have a gander at Keiko, the more impressive of the two support groups as well.

w00t!

2006-04-18T22:24:00.000Z

My iPod is finally on it's way back to me, although I did have to pay an extra thirteen squid to avoid having to pick it up personally. Sigh.

Went out for dinner with Nikki and Jo this evening, to the Smith and Western. Feeling so unbelievably bloated right now. I feel I've been there enough now to be able to say "the usual": I always have a full rack o' ribs, you see, cos I'm a fat bastard. The waitress just looked at me quizzically though, and I reminded myself that it's actually been two years since I last went there. Two years! Man, I feel old. Whatever happened to the days of yore, when myself, Ging, Daws, Mase and the crew went their regularly for meals?

Those were the days.

Exhaustion (and a twist in the iPod saga)

2006-04-16T23:12:00.000Z

A week long field trip in darkest Wales, driven like slaves to complete the fieldwork in time for a beer in the evening, and Rusty and Paul snoring like the very hacksaws of Satan have made me really rather tired. It was good fun though, the "Boys On Tour" group kicked some ass.

Finally home for Easter, got some good stuff lined up. I'll save that for another post. Oh, and MY BLOODY IPOD HASN'T TURNED UP! A week and a half late it is at the moment, curse these repair people for being so inefficient! Words are going to be had....

Blargh

2006-04-07T12:26:00.000Z

Well, nothing particularly interesting has happened recently, but I'm posting anyway just to keep up some semblance of continuity. I've had a week off this week, which I have spent constructively getting very pissed and playing lots of computer games. Not necessarily in that order or at the same time.

We're all off to Wales stupidly early tomorrow morning for the uber-exciting Geophysics field course. It should be a blast, six blokes, one house and a lot of beer. This is assuming the Neil doesn't confiscate it all, but that will be far too much like High School, and therefore that would officially suck.

I also forgot to hail the mighty Pompey's victory over Fulham last weekend. Lets hope they can do it all over again at home to Blackburn this weekend.

Flights!

2006-03-28T23:17:00.000Z

I booked my flights to Sydney, £766.50 via Vienna and Kuala Lumpur....

AAAAARGH I'M GOING TO SYDNEY!!!

The iPod Saga continues

2006-03-28T13:03:00.000Z

Well, phoned up the nearest Apple Authorised Service Provider and spoke to a very nice lady about my iPod.

"Ummm, yeah, I need to get my iPod fixed" says I.

"Oh, you can't do that, we can only give you a replacement refurbished iPod at the moment." Came the reply.

"Ah, fair enough. Carry on."

So this lady takes all my details and gets right down to the price after a good deal of faffing about.

"That'll be £140, sir."

"WTF?! But I only need a new battery! I could get an entirely new iPod for nearly that amount of money!"

"Oh! You only want a battery?"

"Yes, I'm just after a battery!"

"Well why didn't you say so?"

Why didn't I say so? Because you said you couldn't repair iPods, you dappy bitch! Gaaargh. So yeah, about £70 for a new battery. It better be sodding worth it.

iPods

2006-03-27T17:28:00.000Z

I love my iPod mini, it's possibly the best present that I've ever had from my parents, especially as I wasn't expecting it. It's even one of those snazzy and supposedly "ultra-rare" metallic green ones.

Imagine then, how annoyed I am that a mere year and a half after getting my iPod, the battery is pretty much absolutley screwed on it. I mean, it doesn't even last two bus rides onto campus anymore! To say the least, this is intensely annoying.

It doesn't help that the battery has been getting progressively worse over the last half a year or so, and my parents keep going on at me about not getting it replaced whilst it was still under warranted. This is also pretty annoying, in the way that only your own parents can manage to be.

Anyways, I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and shell out thirty precious quid to repair the damn thing, as I can't bare to see it suffering so any longer. That's not so bad considering I very almost shelled out £170 for a brand new iPod nano a few minutes ago. Repairing it hadn't even occurred to me! People would call me a ginger idiot if they knew how close I came...

Veteran soldier

2006-03-19T00:43:00.000Z

Went paintballing today for the ninth time, first time in ages, down at Foxwood Skirmish. Went with Nikki, Jo, and Brownie, who are all comparative n00bs to the whole sport. It was a thoughly enjoyable day! Fourteen kills, four deaths, one of which is dubious as I got "shot" in the gun: harsh ruling in my most humble of opinions. Not my best day of competition, but I put it down to not knowing the courses.

They had some really novel ideas. One course had a kind of stone henge set up, and the objective was to roll this giant Indiana-Jones-style ball through the opponents "goal". Sacrificed myself for the greater good that time, getting head-shotted a treat taking out the remaining members of the enemy team, so my team could score completely unimpeded. Man I'm good.

Knackered now though.

Last day of the Six Nations today. France won it. Woooo. England played better this time round, which is great, but I feel slightly hard done by as the two Irish tries which cost us the game only counted due to shoddy line judging. Ho hum. Thought you only got that in football.

Speaking of football, Pompey won today. Huzzah! That means we've actually got a winning streak on the go now! A whole two games won in a row, how good are we? I had a dream once, that was so fragile that it might actually disappear if I was to so much whisper it. I dare to whisper it now: Pompey just might stay up!

Wha....?

2006-03-13T00:38:00.000Z

This post is an expression of my absolute disgust at the performance of the England rugby team against France today.

Never have I seen such an awful display by the supposed world champions. I ran out of expletives during the game. Aaargh!

Come on Pompey!

2006-03-11T23:48:00.000Z

And it's the first win of 2006 for Pompey! About time. I dare not think that we survive lest the very thought destroy all our hopes of avoiding relegation, but winning today just might spark some miraculous recovery on our part. I am, in short, chuffed to bits.

Lots of stuff happened over the past week or so. Finally handed in my forms for Sydney. I do seem to like to leave stuff to the last minute. The enormity of my undertaking is finally beginning to dawn on me. I mean, I'm going to Sydney. Sydney, Australia. That's on the other side of the world, which is really quite a long way from home. Ye gods, what am I doing?!

Coursework = rubbish. Nuff said.

We had the Oscars Party as well. I can honestly say I thought it was going to be rubbish as I have very little faith in the vast majority of the FilmSoc mailing list to actually attend anything that we put on as a Society, so imagine my surprise when about fifty people turn up and get royally pissed in the blue bar until five in the morning? Good music, good company and it was an excuse to wear my suit. Awesome stuff. Even Jim enjoyed it.

And finally, happy birthday this week to Jo and Julia!

England vs Uruguay

2006-03-02T00:26:00.000Z

Lets talk us some football.

I was glad that we won this game eventually, I certainly felt that we'd done more than enough to win the game. Not a lot we could have done against that wonder goal in the first half, but it would have been nice to keep a clean sheet for once.

I'm worried though by how late we seem to be winning games at the moment. We did exactly the same against Argentina in the last match, only scoring the winning goals in the last moments of the game, and in a properly competitive match like the World Cup I simply don't think that we'll get the opportunity to do so. I'd rather see us taking the lead early with a couple of goals and then holding onto it, instead of having to come from behind.

Man of the Match for me was Joe Cole today, I think he had an excellent game. Wright-Phillips, Carrick, Carragher and Bridge (before the injury) all played very well too. It seems that we've got too many good midfielders at the moment, so it's going to be a real selection headache. Not a bad thing, it's just a shame we can't select them all.

I have my doubts about Beckham and Ferdinand at the moment. Beckham seems a little past it to me, I know he's an influential and almost talismanic figure for us but the quality of his football just isn't as good as it was four years ago. He can't ping those set pieces like he used to, and some of the delivery he was giving today was just god-awful. Ferdinand on the other hand, I certainly don't think should be starting in the centre of defence for us. He's had a bad season this time round, he's arrogant, gives away possession cheaply, is frequently out of position (he seems to think he's an attacking midfielder sometimes) and he's error prone to boot. I'd rather see Terry and Carragher start, or even Terry and King, with Carragher at left back if Ashley Cole or Bridge aren't fit by the time the World Cup rolls round.

But yeah, an enjoyable match nonetheless. Just plenty to think about...

Random update

2006-02-28T22:30:00.000Z

Finally found time for another update. These things are harder to keep up to date than I thought.

Anyhoo, went home at the weekend, which was thoroughly relaxing. Just needed to get away from everything, what with coursework and Sydney forms and getting an idea for that thrice-damned dissertation sorted. Finally managed to get some of it out of the way today, but I think that the mental scarring may be lasting.

I'd like to express my disgust at the extremely lacklustre performace of the England rugby team at the weekend. It was just so god-awful, I've never seen us play so badly, not even in the post-World Cup low! And I've got to put up with Marion taunting me repeatedly over it, and she's only half-Scottish. I dread to think what living hell I'd find myself in if she was completely Jock. Ho hum, we'll absolutley destroy them next year, and it's not like they're ever going to win a World Cup.

It was Adam S' birthday yesterday, so Happy Birthday Adam!

God bless free samples!

2006-02-22T14:32:00.000Z

Farmers markets are awesome. Completely unbeknownst to me, until mere seconds beforehand, the LCR had been invaded by toilers of the soil. Sodding awesome!! Somehow I managed to spend £15 on food, but it's all really high class stuff. Seriously, sausages to die for!

Blogging huh?

2006-02-20T22:13:00.000Z

So I've finally given into what all the cool kids are doing and got a Blog. Except the only Blogger I know at the mo is that Paul bloke, and he's not exactly one of the cool kids. Ho hum!

Anyhoo, here I am. Intending to use this really to keep in contact with everyone when I make the big trip to Sydney, Ozland in a few months, but right *now* I'm incredibly bored so I'm venting some of that boredom by getting this set up. You know, so I'm all prepared and stuff. Plus I'll be able to just blog whenever I get bored. Which is quite a lot of the time. Aaargh.

So yeah, tough day. Six hours of lectures. Wooo, that was fun. Also went to see AeonFlux this evening at the cinema with Mason. Not a lot to say about the film really, it was pretty poor overall, even though it tried to be a bit different to other films in the same genre. Gents, go and see it, it's worth it just to see Charlize Theron in several wonderfully revealing outfits. Girls, don't go and see it, there's not even a vaguely attractive leading man to distract you from the substandard plot.

Oh, it did have an assassin with hands for feet. That did make me chuckle.