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14th November, Tuesday
Finally recovered from the Olympics (six weeks later!) - they were a party like no other! There was a real sense of loss once the flame finally went out. I was a little disappointed that SOCOG didn't get the Bush Fire Brigade in to hose it down in true Aussie style. It's tough not having 24 hours of world class sport on the box, no traffic on the road and a perpetual party to go to.
Just got back from the Melbourne Cup - had to check out first hand a pony race that stops not only a city, not only a state but the entire country. Great fun, but unfortunately I didn't clean up so I've got an added financial incentive to start work again. Tragic story of the week - I had the winner "Brew" picked out and my wager burning a hole in the pocket, but I got caught up in the bar line and didn't get to the betting window in time. There's a moral here - alcohol costs you money in many ways, but when your friends are thirsty there's no excuses (not even 17-1 payouts).
On the job front - I'm talking to lots of fascinating people, but still holding out for the right position. It's really interesting immersing myself in a wide range of differing business environs and styles - a bit like "commercial backpacking" without the beaches, wild nights and dodgy taxi drivers.
Still riding like a demon - any fitter and I'd be dangerous (ok - even more dangerous). I think I'm the fittest I've ever been. The down side to this is I'm pushing that much harder, and breaking / wearing out lots of bits on the bike - the guys at Bike Addiction (the best bike shop in the known and unknown universe) rub their hands in glee when they see me coming. Yet another financial inducement to start work again! There's a recurring theme here - stay tuned
19th September (five days into the Marathon), Wednesday
Olympics Central, Sydney
Sport sport and more sport - I just love the Olympics!
OK, the Aussies are kicking butt and playing air guitar after silencing the Americans in the swimming relays, but my gold medal favourite moment to date has got to be Eric Moussambani's swim in the 100m freestyle heats. This guy from Equatorial Guinea was swimming against two other guys who false started, which automatically disqualified them. So Eric swam the 100m by himself (well actually in front of a sell out crowd of 20,000 screaming fans), notching up a new Equatorial Guinean Olympic record time of 1 min 53 seconds. He was swimming for his country, his family, his kiddies and bugger it, for sport! The world record in this event is 48.24 seconds, but Eric's enthusiasm and determination was just sporting magic!
My silver medal favourite moment has to be Michael Klim carrying Fatso, "the fat arsed wombat" when he received his gold medal for the 4x200m relay. Move over the Boxing Kangaroo, move over SOCOG sanctioned cutesy mascots - Fatso's barging in!
So far I've been to the women's beach volleyball at Bondi - complete with the "world's biggest beach volleyball fan - Belardo". He is literally the biggest - he's a black Brazilin guy who must weigh over 200kg's. He looked like he was wearing an inflato suit, but he wasn't! Top it off with a blonde wig and an accompanying entourage of drummers, horn players and samba dancers - Brazil has definitely got the gold medal cheer squad! I'm off to the mountain biking this weekend, and the athletics on Monday - can't wait to see the stadium first hand.
It's an awesome time to be in Sydney - weather's stunning (which makes the job hunt that little bit more challenging!), everyone's really buzzing and it's fantastic to be out soaking up the sport! If partying were a medal sport, there would be over 3,000,000 people lining up for the finals. We made our country proud watching the opening ceremony in town (with a few hundred thousand other sports fans) and have been going pretty hard at the outdoor viewing venues. It's tough, but after over a year travelling - I've done the physical training - I've done the mental preparation - now it's time for GOLD in the Olympic party marathon.
PS: Guys - what's happening to NZ in the medals ??!!??
4th September (11 days until the Olympics), Monday
Wollstonecraft, Sydney
Olympics fever is catching! Sydney is the place to be when too much sport is barely enough! Today I bought tickets to the Athletics and to the women's Mountain Biking. The athletics will be a four hour sporting feast of the men's 1500m, men's long jump (qualifying), women's 100m hurdles and women's discus - oh, and I've got a complementary astronomy session too! Well, my seat is so high up in the stadium that I think I'll be able to see nearby solar systems clearly with the naked eye … still it's all about getting out to the Olympic stadium and having a look. Can't wait!
I've started getting in to the job hunt in earnest - I'm pursuing my passion in Internet marketing / E-commerce. It's a really dynamic and evolving area, and seems to be a great fit with my background and skills gained in classic blue-chip marketing and my long-term interest in computers and the Internet. I'm in the stage of going out and talking to lots of different people and gathering information about the different options in this area. It's absolutely fascinating! There are lots of really talented and motivated people doing some amazing things with e-mail and the web - it's literally the start of a revolution in how people communicate, how they interact with their favourite brands, how they buy things - it's making the world a more exciting and accessible place! Cliched but true. I'm really enjoying the process of getting a job - wow! - this is one of the "hidden" benefits of travelling for a year!
We're still riding like demons - a mate of mine Rob was out from Atlanta recently, and it was awesome to get out on Red Hill. Some guys have built a new downhill racecourse there, which is pretty fast and scary. This particular piece of track seems to be magnetic, and we seem to have a pretty high iron content (well, this is one way of explaining why we seem so "magically attracted" to hitting the dirt at speed with alarming regularity). One of the crew James is nursing some cracked ribs from a particularly nasty 1.5m roll off. The pain fades, the scars heal but the glory remains forever!
In the next few days I'll post some of the recent nite riding photos on the Biking page - stay tuned.
After travelling around the world and riding wherever I could, this area is still one of my (if not THE) favourite mountain bike rides in the world. Big call, but it's awesome! And even better, it's only 15km from the Harbour Bridge. I've lost most of my travel gut (an unwelcome souvenir!) and am really starting to get off-road fit - feels fantastic! The new bike is riding sweetly - I'm really enjoying getting out there while I can (ie before I start working again).
Apart from the Olympics, job hunting and biking - I've been catching up with everyone again. Spent the weekend with friends up at a mate's weekend house in Pearl Beach - a magic part of the world about 1.5 hours north of Sydney. Great wine, BBQ's and generally hanging out - awesome! Yep, travelling was brilliant, but it's also great to be in Sydney.
One of the most amazing things about travelling is knowing what is going on at this instant somewhere else in the world. For example, at 9am on a sunny Sydney morning - it would be 1am on Ios in the Greek Islands and people would be partying like there is no tomorrow. The main square of the village would be filled with several thousand people spilling from dozens of bars - all going off! - this is happening simultaneously while people are crawling around in rush hour traffic here. It's a really bizarre but amazing thing thinking about what's happening everywhere - right NOW.
One more example - it's 10:34pm here now - right NOW it's 6:34am in Peru, and there would be maybe 50 trekkers walking the Inca trail just arriving at the Sun Gates at Machupicchu - about to watch the magic of the sun rising over these awesome ruins. Right now!! Spin me out!!
13th August 21st Century, Sunday
Wollstonecraft, Sydney
Unbelievable but true – I’m back in Sydney!
It’s quite surreal to be here – everything’s the same, but just a little bit different – still it feels fantastic to be back. The weather is just stunning! Caught up with Nika the other day (she’s got a place with an AMAZING view over Bronte beach) and we ended up going for the first ocean swim of the season. It was brisk, but definitely not unpleasant – very therapeutic actually. Nika’s really cool – got a good job working for SouthCorp Wines, got the big Falcon family car and is having a wild time.
I’m currently staying with Liz in Wollstonecraft, getting into the “do list” of the few hundred thousand things that need to be organised (OK, I’m exaggerating, it’s closer to ten thousand things that need to be done). Number one priority was rescuing the bike and hit The Hill with the boys. Well, they’re riding like total studs, I need to work on my attitude and it was awesome to be on the dirt again. The drops seemed to be about three times higher than I remembered them, some of the ravines have got so deep that headlights are required to navigate through them, and the new downhill course at The Hill is just bitch’n serious nasty fun! Dirt soul therapy – highly recommended for recently returned travelers.
It was bitter sweet leaving New Zealand, sad to say goodbye to everyone (especially Mum, her wine cellar & the 18yo cat), but great to it Sydney again. Everything got sorted out nicely in Auckland – I think everyone will be able to move forward positively and enjoy their lives. Very satisfying but draining – this is one area that I definitely don’t want a job in.
Speaking of jobs, meaningful employment, careers and pay cheques (in ascending order of importance). I plan to start the hunt in earnest towards the end of next week – need to get the annoying details done first (sorting out bank accounts, optometrists, transport, blah blah) – I’m really looking forward to getting into it, but am not going to rush into the first thing I come across. Very keen on the e-commerce / Internet marketing area. Stay tuned
12th July 21st Century, Wednesday
Milford, Auckland, New Zealand
STILL in New Zealand ??!!?? Well, I didn't make the week one July back in Sydney date ....
Everything is almost completed here, but the lawyers are dragging their heels a bit - no insurmountable problems, but just frustratingly slow. My Mum moved into her new house last week - relatively painless - well as painless as carrying a few hundred boxes can be. Great place, I'm sure she'll be very happy here. It's also been really interesting to watch the cat settle into to the new place - she's literally been pacing around, going into every cupboard, every nook & cranny, as if she's looking for something familiar - perhaps the magical door which will let her back into her old life.
Even though I've been really busy (moving, organising, going out, riding, etc) it doesn't feel like I've been doing much. When we were travelling, there was so much to explore & tell about each day - now, not travelling or working, it's really like being stuck in limbo land. Weird, but an interesting experience (short term that is!).
Went out today to the test day of the International Rally Series, which is about to rip through the forest just south of Auckland. Awesome sport! The performance of the cars, the speed, the noise, the unbelievable driving skills are breath-taking to watch. We were literally running up the track listening out for cars (which sound more like machine gun firing rocket propelled missiles which have overdosed on the angry pills) and when one hurtled along, scrambled up a bank or dove into the nearest ditch. They hurtle past at anything up to 200km/h plus on twisty wet gravelly roads - taking corners at seriously brown undies speeds. Literally, they pass meters away, showering us with parting salutes of stones & mud, and leave the ears ringing. It's awesome! We also wandered through all the service areas - poking our noses under bonnets, into cockpits, serious techo stuff! Never thought I'd say (or admit) this - but the front mounted turbo intercoolers and ducting on the latest Impressa WRC are strangely arousing to look at. Must be a XY-chromosome thing - almost exclusively male spectators.
Still pushing around the bike - rode down Mt Victoria the other day - a pretty large 45" grass sided volcano. Amazed myself that I arrived undamaged at the bottom - after some serious speed, minimal braking traction and considerable luck. Almost ended up in someone's backyard - wouldn't have been a problem, as I'm sure the washing on their line would have slowed me down (similar concept to arrester hooks used when landing on aircraft carriers - well that's the theory).
Hopefully will be on a plane within two weeks - stay tuned! I think I will be expelled from the country soon for my heresy in predicting the Wallabies are going to down the All Blacks this weekend - lots of people are getting tres upset about this! I'm taking heaps of bets (for beers) against people who are predicting that God's Own Rugby Team (the ones dressed in black) are going to win by anything from 6 to 24 points. Peoples brains tend to go to mush here when sport infringes on religion.
Ciao for now.
18th June 21st Century, Saturday
Birkenhead Point, Auckland, New Zealand
Still in New Zealand - things here are taking a bit longer to sort out than expected, but are moving positively. Expect to be back in Sydney around week one July - watch out everyone!
In the mean time, I've been spending heaps of time on the net here - getting really net savvy & loving it! Everything from hunting through on-line job sites (never knew how big this area was!), to on-line investing (through Motley Fool), to checking out all sorts of really interesting dot.coms (check out www.strikingitrich.com for an index of some really lateral and fascinating sites!), big auction sites like ebay, and literally hundred more. Really neat!
Also riding lots - in the process of destroying my younger brother's mountain bike - sincerely hope he doesn't read this before I go - I promise to fix it ;-). Mainly road riding, playing hard in the local traffic, but also whetting the appetite with a little bit of illict single track. Fun, but really looking forward to getting back to Sydney where I can reintroduce myself to the local flora & fauna in an upclose, rapid and intimate manner.
Getting back into indoor rock climbing - have learned that in the year we were away the force of gravity has increased substantially - I feel much heavier! Couldn't possibily be a result of eating our way around the world ??!!??
Been going out heaps - one of the severe side effects of travelling (and subsequently not working) - I tend to go out with heaps of different groups of people. Consequently I'm having about five huuuugggggggeeeee nights per week. Will need to book in for a liver transplant soon! I actually look forward to the "nights off" - sad! (but awfully good fun in the process). Ask me about "Mermaids" some time in the future...
I've got the last bunch of photos developed (all 31 rolls for the last 6 weeks in the States) - there's some awesome photos on there which are going to hit the photo gallery soon! There's also some shockers, which aren't going anywhere (except into the World's Most Ugly gallery which will never ever see the light of day for the next 50 years)! Stay tuned.
24th May 21st Century, Tuesday
Birkenhead Point, Auckland, New Zealand
Wow - there's actually life after "the best year of our lives"!
It is almost surreal to be back in familiar surroundings. Still, there's a few twists ....
I haven't actually made it back to Australia yet. I flew directly from LA (after an awesome day at Disneyland - great place to escape reality) to Auckland. My parents separated after being married for 42 years - I'm over here helping sift through the mess and getting things sorted so they can both move forward and get on with their lives. It's a very weird and disconcerting experience to really see up close & ugly that your parents are quite human and fallible. It's also very distressing to see that, despite the obscene amounts the old man earned as a trial lawyer, they didn't put enough into superannuation. If you only take out one key thing from our entire trip - it's "make sure you have enough superannuation for when you're old!!!!!!". Extremely sobering! Telling someone (especially your mum) how much she can afford to live on and for how long is not a nice experience (an extreme understatement to put it mildly!)
I should get back to Sydney about the 10th or so of June. Fingers crossed on how things continue here!
Nika went straight back to Sydney - she's been living with her family in the Blue Mountains (about an hour and a half from Sydney / anything) - this is what I call a culture shock! Going from travelling to that!!!!! She's interviewing for a few jobs that sound really neat - should have one in a week or so! Can't say anything until they land though - net, she will be a very "merry" person to keep in touch with!
And her rabbits are still alive. Still very gay. And enormously fatter (guys - if your girlfriend comes home with bunnies and tries to sell them in as "dwarfs" - bullshit - get out the frying pan - great with garlic!)
Back to the trip.... the epic!!!
We both really really want to thank from the bottom of our hearts (however deep they may be...) all the people who we stayed with, took us in (& out) and made us feel extremely welcome. You really are the people who made our trip so fantastic, and the times we spent with you are actually the real highlights of the trip. It was one thing to see all the sights - it's another amazingly better thing to have shared a bit of life with you all. That has been the most amazing part of travelling, and the bits that I will remember most fondly. Thanks again. Needless to say ... when in Aussie!!!!
Speaking of remembering - at last count we have over 4,000 photos. Sounds a lot, but it's only just over 11 a day. OK, it is a lot. What I'm going to do with them is scan them digitally and then burn them onto CD-ROMs - if you want to see what any part of the world (we went to) looks like - drop me an email & I'll gladly send out the NoDoze and some CD's.
Now the not so good news - Nika and I have decided not to go out together anymore. We're really good friends - we travelled well together for a year together and didn't kill or too permanently maim each other - we know things about each other that no other person in the world knows (or wants to know!) - but we're really going in different directions, so we decided to call it a day after the amazing high of the trip and stay close friends thereafter. Net, it hasn't been a good month for me in dealing with relationships!
I plan to keep updating this website periodically - detailing what we're both up to, future travel plans, scanning some more travel photos onto the overseas galleries, putting up a Frequently Asked Questions page (we get the same ten questions over & over; "what was your favourite place?", "did you get robbed?", "how much, uhm ahh err, did you spend?" etc etc). All fascinating compelling stuff - I'm more than happy to answer any question! Hit me! After waking up in a youth hostel in Italy surrounded by naked hairy 40-something year old Italian men - I have no inhibitions. Actually, in that instance I ran! Fast! And quietly!
Check out the page again in a week or so. Ciao. Ian.
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