Nic's Blog

Flock

2006-06-21T13:02:00.000+10:00

I'm now using the browser "Flock" which has a lot of features like an RSS reader, and integration with blogger and flickr photos that lets me post blog posts from my browser, it's also compatible with Firefox extensions.

See more info at http://www.flock.com/

Sydney Motor Show

2005-10-16T12:38:00.000+10:00

Went to the Sydney International Motorshow yesterday.

It's seemed to become a yearly thing for me now. I'm not really interested in cars, but I take an interest in the new cars coming out, and seeing the latest cars.

This year the show seemed a lot more low key compared to last year, perhaps it's because I went on Saturday and Sunday mgiht be the busy day.

Anyhow it was interesting, a few points of note were:

Ford's new Falcon
Holden's concept car (which looked like some post modern 60's kind of strange thing)
Toyota's concept F1 car, the MTRC
Toyota's future city car concept, the i-UNIT

We did the whole show in about 4 hours. I used to be a big fan of the Nissan 350Z but this year I fell in love with the Mazda RX-8.

Link to images on my MSN blog

It's been over for quite a while, But i havent been arsed updating the blog

2005-10-16T12:25:00.000+10:00

Yea, the trip ended almost a month ago now.

Overall it was a great experience, I made new friends, saw many great things and have witnessed life outside of Australia.

It was especially great living in Calabria, I mean it was only two weeks but it was a great little snapshot into Italian life. I wish Australia would follow their lead and put working and society at 2nd place importance and stress a lot less.

As to traveling with my dad, I appreciate the fact that he paid a huge amount of the trip, but I'm afraid to say I wont be traveling with him in the same style as I did this time.

If it ever did happen again, I would be pay my own way, I would have my own room and I would be as independent as I can. I don't know what his problem was, but his attitude towards things was annoying sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, there were many times I enjoyed being with him, but then there were many other times where I just needed to get away from him. It's safe to say that most of my homesickness was caused by confrontations between him and me. I suppose it is normal when people travel and virtually live in the same room for 6 weeks.

Perhaps it is because we both have different ideas on a holiday.
He seems to want to shop like mad, and believed that you had to be constantly on the move, not relaxing. I on the other hand believe that you should take your time, relax, and enjoy the trip.

Our beliefs on what a holiday should be seem to be like water and electricity, they just don't mix.

Anyhow, apart from his attitude, me and we all did have a great time, we did plenty, saw plenty and it is an experience that I won't soon forget!

Almost over

2005-09-18T13:04:00.000+10:00

Unfiortunatley due to crappy net access the whole idea of having a blog was ruined. O well.

I'm in Malaysia at the moment, KL is great. Currently using free net access in a Sony shop to write this. I've seen all the new gear here which has been good. We're staying in a 5 star hotel too and my god the look after you. Dinner and breakfast was execptionally good.

Anyhow in 2 days I'll be on the plane and on the way home.
Looking forward to seeing everybody back home... till then cya

Lack of updates

2005-08-29T18:51:00.000+10:00

I've got very little internet access at the moment. Can only use the internet in a Net Cafe in a neigbouring town 7km away so updates till next Sunday will definatley be few and far between.

I don't know what internet access will be like when we're on tour but I will update as often as I can.

Rest assured that many interesting things have been happening though.

We've been staying in Calabria which is sea side province right on the 'toes' of Italy. It's a really nice place, really relaxed and care free. They're setting up for a festivle at the moment, which will be good to see.

The sea water is nice and blue here, thanks to the grey coloured sand (it home its green because the blue mixes with the yellow sand). I've met the family, in both here and the neigbouring town. It has been quite an interesting time.

The pizza here is absolutley beautifull too.

Most days have been comprised of drinking coffee at a cafe at the side of the road, chating to family and going for walks. Thats all changed now that we have a car though. unfortinatly I'm not covered by insurance (due to excessive price) so I will be doing very little driving while here. It's definetly strange being on the other side of the road, often we'd be droiving along, I'd look up at the road and realise that we're on the wrong side and sort of freak out a little. I'm used to it now though, but it stil happens occasionally.

Anyhow I might end it here, having fun and will update where possible but don't count on timely updates.

PS. I hope everybody back home and where ever else in the world are all well. Looking forward to catching up in 4 weeks.

Rome Part 2

2005-08-23T00:58:00.000+10:00

Its Monday, andf Rome is definetly much busier today.

We were up and at it at 8am this morning, about 1 hour later then we wanted to. Had a quick breakfast and straight into touring.

We did one of those tours where you buy some bus tickets and you jump on and off when and where ever that you want. It was fun getting the ticket, we were told to get the ticket from this red box at the bus terminal, then they told us to get a ticket in the train station, then they told us to get a ticket in the red box outside the bus terminal. We finally did get the ticket from the original place that we were told to go.

While we were waiting in line in the train station, some poor backpacker fainted, and knocked down half the que railing around the place. I guess those backpackers must wear themselves out, meals being few and far between, etc.

Italy certianly has it's share of con-artists, with beggars everywhere, they put on huge acts about being poor, etc, but you can tell its fake, and just to take advantage of tourists. While we were in line for tickets, this guy came up trying to sell us tickets for a competing bus company, or so he lead us to believe. We ignored him, but its definatley a lesson that you shouldnt trust people off the street trying to give you a "good deal".

We drive around in the bus past a few attractions and ended up getting off at the Vatican. OMG that place is huge and immaculate. Everything is made of marble, and there is so much art and history to the place. We got plenty of pictures, and video.

We also visited the tomb of Pope John Paul II and the other popes, I was supprised that you can take photos and video cameras down there, but you can, so we god heaps of pictures of that too.

Just as we left the Vatican it started raining, so we jumped on the bus and went to the next destination. The busses are the 2 story ones, with the top story being open air, just like in London. Unfortunatley it means that it collects rain, and as the bus turned, water would gush down the steps into the cabin below. It didn't really bother anyone though, except for an Australian couple who had a bag on the floor of the bus, the bottom of it got wet.

We stopped at some big fountain (sorry, I dotn have my map with me again, can't check place names), had lunch, and took a walk to the Spanish Steps. The spanish steps were ok, but not great, I think that the giant foot locker advertisement billboard plastered onto a church at the top of the steps kinda ruined it's atmosphere. It was still nice.

We then walked back to the hotel room, which was quite a long walk. Half of one of my filling came out while I was chewing some chewing gum, there isnt any pain, so im gonna wait and see what happens before I do anything about it.

We were all buggered, so we took a nap for a while, I only slept 30 mins, so I took a half hour walk. I went into this book store, which i thought was small, but after I walked in, the small bookstore turned into this massive 3 level store. I was kinda amazed about that. After that, they were still asleep, so I went to the hotel, jumped online and started writing thus update.

They've just woken up, so we're going to ride the buses till 7pm when our ticket becomes invalid, and then get some tea.

Might update with the rest of the day's activites later.

Happy 24th Scott

2005-08-23T00:55:00.000+10:00

Just thought that I'd wish Scott a happy 24th birthday, you bloody old fart!

Pictures

2005-08-22T08:21:00.000+10:00

I'll post more pictures shortly, at the moment its kinda hard because I'm using public computers.

I was going to post more at Michelle's last night but I ran out of time. Perhaps I'll get a chance when I get to Calabria.

When in Rome...

2005-08-22T07:31:00.000+10:00

Well its been an interesting day thats for sure, theres been flight delays, hair raising landings, baggage problems, rip off taxi rides, and very Roman things.

I'm writing this from a net enabled PC at the hotel (and trying to get used to the REALLY strange layout on this Itallian keyboard ;) ).

Itàs nice to see that people are reading my blog, thanks for the comments. "Issac and I" have been reading them.

We left Michelle's house at 05:00 in the morning and headed to Gatwick airport in London. Gatwick is a seperate airport in London, and I reckon it beats Heathrow hands down, but Iàve only seen 1 terminal at Heathrow.

Our first supprise today came when we were driven by bus to our plane, only to find out that something had gone in the landing gear and that we needed to wait for another aeroplane to become available. After about 45 mins we were on our way to the new plane. The flight went ok except right at the end when we landed, first of all there was a jolt that felt like it was coming from under the seat, then this air rushing sound, which frightened the heck out of just about everybody on the plane, then when landing, we landed must faster then we had previously landed, so it was a little hair raising.

When we got to the baggage terminal to collect our bags, I found that the top zippers (both of them) and the padlock had been removed. We went to the baggage complaints desk, and literrally waited 2.5 HOURS for someone to tell me that there is nothing to be done about it. Brittish Airways does not compensate for damage doen to bags. I also wanted to report it just in case there was foul play involving my bag.

Whats even more amazing was that the lady that was serving the line that I was waiting in slipped out to have lunch half way through serving this Indian guy in front of me. There was no warning, no explaination, she just left, it wasnt till this American guy (who could also talk Itallian) asked the other girl serving the other line that we found out that she had gone to lunch. About 30 mins later 2 more people staffed the desk, but it was amazingly stupid.

Of course, after this Corrado was all fed up with waiting, he asked this man if he knew how much train tickets into Rome cost. He said "€25 one way per person, which costs €75 in total, but it just so happens that I drive a cab, and I'll take you to your hotel for €90 (A$150)". Off we went, the cab driver was all happy and nice, explaining all this stuff as we drove past. When we finally got to the check in desk at the hotel and asked the man behind the desk how much a taxi ride is, we found out that it is only €35, and train tickets are €15 each.
We got totally ripped off!

After we got to the hotel, we went exploring around the place. On first impressions, Rome is a very dirty, grafitti ridden, and rubbish drowned city. It is growing on me now, but I still do believe that the rubbist left around the place is appauling, and it is horrible that there is grafiti on virtually everything in the city. Even Corrado was going on and on about how dissapointed he is that the city is so dirty.

That gripe aside, the ancient buildings are brilliant. We went to this huge chapel where this king is burried (sorry for the lack of names, but I dont have my map with me, I might edit the place names in later). This building was absolutley HUGE, and inside it was just amazing, with marble everywhere. We had lunch on a cafe on it's roof top overllooking the Colleseum and several other amazing buildings and ruins.

After lunch we walked over to the Colleseum. It's an amazing building, I was kind of expecting it to be bigger then it actually is, I think thats because the gladiator movie makes it look so huge. It is definetly huge, but I don't know if it is as big as they make it out to be on the movie. The whole thing was once made of marble, and its amazing walking through it, and imagining that this is where all the romans came for their entertainment.

We saw plenty of other things, our walk lasted quite a few hours, but I can't really name what we saw, but it was great.

After that we went to the hotel room and freshened up. Then went to try some Pizza, I gotta say that a traditional pizza is definetly different to the ones we get back home. Like I've been told, the toppings are definetly sparse, but they are nice.

We were going to walk to these fountains, but it started storming (which was calming because it kinda reminds me of summer at home) so we decided to call it a day at about 11:30 pm.

Now here I am at 12:30 using the internet access here in the hotel to update this blog, but im done now, and im going to sleep.

We're going to be in action from 7am tomorrow morning to get the most out of our one full day in Rome. We're getting an all day bus pass, and going to just jump on and off buses, kinda like we did in london using the Tube.

Cyas

UK - Day 3 - Windsor Castle

2005-08-21T07:07:00.000+10:00

Today Michelle took us on a trip to Windsor castle. It was great seeing all the old archetecture and all the old things around the place.

First off (after getting lost on the M25 a little bit) we went to Windsor and had lunch at this cafe at this small quiet area in the street.

The food looked and tasted good, but unfortunatley the servings were so small, A$25 was waaay to expensive (ill bet it was a nice inflated tourist price).

After lunch we headed to Windsor Castle, we took a tour, its an amazingly big building, all made of stone. I found it interesting that it was originally made of wood in 1010 (or something), and they started replacing the wood with stone 100 years after its construction.

We then checked out the inside of the castle, and the chappel where Prince Charles recently got married. For such a medieval looking building, the inside was just amazing, with detailed artwork, and intricate furniture everywhere.

After we finished at Windsor we went back to Michelle's house, and I went up with her to the supermarket. Not much, but it was good to do something with Michelle without Issac and Corrado. Also, I was curious about what Brittish supermarkets were like. Not supprisingly, it was pretty similar, with similar brands to Australian supermarkets, similar products. Also, a nice supprise was to see that you can indeed get Milo in the UK, well you can at Sainsbureys supermarkets anyhow for only £3.50, which is about $10 AU, expensive, but worth every cent (or pent as it might be here).

Michelle has been great, really making an effort for us, we keep telling her that she doesnt need to bend over backwards to please us, but she insists. We certianly appreciate the good hospitality. We'd all like to give Michelle, Phillip, Talullah and Ruby a huge THANK YOU for being so great to us over the last few days.

Tomorrow we fly to Italy at 7am, which is going to take me and Issac right out of our comfort zones. Might be a while till I can post again.

Ciao!

Michelle and Phillip's House

2005-08-21T06:59:00.000+10:00

I thought that I'd better write up a quick little thing about Michelle and Phillip's house.

It's a nice house in a nice neigbourhood. Currently it is exactly the same as it was when they bought it a year ago, and is in need of renovation, but it certianly has heaps of potential.

They do have plans to get it renovated which are being passed by council, at the moment. The renovations are going to make it bigger at the back.

The back yard is huge, especially to what I assume the average size of an english back yard is. Great for Talullah and Ruby to play in. We had breakfast out there on Thursday morning, which was really nice and relaxing.

Inside they want to basicly gut the house and change over paint jobs, etc. A lot of work but the result will be well worth it.

London - Day 2

2005-08-19T11:02:00.000+10:00

Well guess what... its raining, which made today extra fun and wet.

We caught the train into London this morning, which was interesting, they have a great public transport system. It can be confusing to noobs like us, but when you're used to it I;m sure it woudl be dead simple to navgate.

We got an all day pass that gives up unlimited access to the Tube and train between here and Ashford. It was great to be able to just jump on the tube when we wanted to change places.

Anyhow, we ended up spending heaps of time outside walking around. First of all we caught the wrong train and ended up at Waterloo station rather then Victoria, which wasn't really a major drama. We just got off at Waterloo and started to walk, and walk we certianly did.

We started out walking around the South Bank of London. Past the millenium wheel, we were goign to go on it, but the large line and high price kinda stopped that from happening. Right next to it was an art gallery with a Salvador Dali exhibition on, i would have lived to see that, but dragging Issac and Corrado into it would have been cruel (they were willing to go and see it).

Anyhow we crossed the bridge right near Big Ben (took many photos of Big Ben) and continued walking around. By about Lunch time we were near Picadilly and ended up calling into this all you can eat Pizza buffet which was right near Picadilly Sq (called "Deep Dish Experts" i think). Wow Pizza Hut is doing well in the UK with their all you can eat bars, they seem to have many around the place, and they're all packed.

After lunch we took photos of Picadilly and proceeded to find the Science Museum. Walked past many interesting things, took photos, got lost, then un-lost and ended up at the Museum.

The museum was quite interesting, I expected it to be a little better,but im not complaining, it was good. After all, I did get to see the real Appolo 11 command module that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin back to earth, I was stoked about that (got my picture next to it too).

After the museum we went walking around the place, went to find Bucking Ham palace, and once again got lost, but I enjoyed being lost, because we saw plenty of other things, and I got plenty of opportunities to take pictures.

Buckingham Palace was ok, as good as you can expect a Royal building to be. We got pretty wet trying to find it, but that didnt really bother me too much.

Afterwards we caught a cab to Victoria station (which made Issac exremely happy) and left caught the tube back to Waterloo and then to Ashtead.

It sounds short, but plenty of stuff happened inbetween, like catching the wrong tube rides, etc, but it was all interesting and all fun. (Well I enjoyed it, no one else did I think).

We got back to Michelle's at 7:30pm, so it was a big day, 10am till 7:30pm. I was going to hit the hay early but instead I ended up writing up the last 3 days of travel (which is a good thing).

Nic out.

London - Day 1

2005-08-18T20:00:00.000+10:00

Phillip took the whole day off work today, something that we're told he has never done, so we're quite honoured. Michelle and Phillip wanted to take us on a tour around London today, kinda like a quick crash course about London.

Tried their Coke for the first time, I was curious that all that I'd heard about it being 3 times less sweet was true. The final verdict is that it is no less sweet then Australian Coke, it is definatley less fizzy, and there is much more Vanilla flavour in vanilla coke (a little too much to be honest).

Anyhow, thats not important.

First we went oud around Ashford, where they live. We took a tour around the various srtreets and hills in the place. It's a really great place, nice and peacefull, just like a small town, except only a stone's throw away from London.

After that we went on a scenic tour of London from car. So we drove around for a while, looking at the various major things around the place. Saw plenty of places like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, various districts, other landmarks, and a strange building that Londoners call the "pickle", its kinda like this HUGE glass bullet in the ground.

We then stopped for lunch at the Jungle cafe, whcih is this cafe that has a rainforest setting with fake robotic animals all around the place. The setting was great, but the food was very average (well mine was at least, every body else's food looked nice).

After we'd finished there we took a walk around London, we went to this place, Formerly Sega world, but its a new name now, and half of it is closed. It's basicly a giant arcade. I have literally never seen a building designed so that you cant leave, untill this point. We had to ask some security staff how to get out, and then it was even hard to get out, we were trying to get Michelle's pram down this half escalator, half stair case setup, in contrast, getting in was dead easy.

We then did some more walking, before going back to the car and taking off back to Mcihelle and Phillip's house.

My god, their driving is bad here. They make Aussie roads look tame in comparison. Everybody speeds around corners, nobody waits for anybody, and so many cars have minor dents in the sides where they'd ran into people.

Afterwards, me, Zac and Corrado went for a walk around Ashfort, (where Michelle lives) and visited the shops up there. It was great just taking a walk and slowly investigating all the things around.

Afterwards we ended up ordering Dominos pizza for tea, we were having a BBQ but ran out of time. Dominos in the UK shits all over Aussie Domnios. The pizzas were really good quality, with nice ingredients, not the kind of mass produced stuff that we get. Of course at roughly A$34 for 2 large 10 slice pizzas, it is definetly much more expensive when in Australia you can usually get them for $12.

TOmorrow me, Zac and Corrado are going into London oruselves for an adventure. Will post about it later.

The Plane Trip

2005-08-17T20:00:00.000+10:00

Three words... boring boring and BORING!!!

It was great to finally go on an international flight, but it certianly didnt go quick. It was 23.5 hours of flight time in total, and that doesnt count the extra time waiting in transit in Kuchang and Kuala Lumpur air ports (about 4.5 hours all up), and then there is the travel and wait time at Sydney airport and Heathrow airports. All up probably about 1.5 days of non stop travel, so it was safe to say that by Wednesday night, me, my dad and Issac were all totally wrecked.

Of course Issac "wasn't tierd", but he was first to crash, at 8pm, I went down at 8:30 and Corrado at about the same time.

Anyhow, the flight wasnt all bad, in fact some parts were interesting. We never realised that we were landing in Kuchang, (a country in Malaysia), and as we were landing there was a tropical thunderstorm happening. Needless to say that there was turbulance and plenty of lightining happening right outside the aeroplane. I'd never seen a storm from the inside, it was definetly interesting seeing the lightning happening inside the clouds, and every time that a flash occured there was a small red flash after it.

Kuala Lumpur airport was very fancy and modern. Plenty of shops, the transit area was huge. Shops everywhere selling stuff pretty cheap (and it was all 100% legit stuff too).

Fast forwarding quite a bit, we finally got to Heathrow airport after much time spent in the plane. When we landed, Corrado left his mobile phone on the plane, I ran back to get it, the plane was already security sealed and I had to get a security staff member to check for the phone where we were sitting (i wasn't allowed back on the plane). Anyhow that didnt turn up anything so then some high up guy from Malaysian airlines escorted me on the plane, we had to literally dis-assemble 2 seats and we finally found it in between the seats.

We met up with Michelle at the airport, and were back at her house soon after. It was all surrealistic when eating tea that we were actually at her house and not the other way around. Also the fact that we were on the opposite side of the planet.

More updates to come...

2005-08-16T14:47:00.000+10:00

JUST OVER 7 HOURS TO GO!

Just thought I'd let ya'll know. Anyhow, I'm packed and ready to go.

Just over 1 day to go

2005-08-15T18:11:00.000+10:00

Well its just over one day to go.

There's been massive staff strikes at Heathrow airport, I'm hoping that it will be strike free by the time we get there, although I don't think it affects us, only Brittish Airways and Quantas customers only.

Kuala Lumpur is covered in thick smoke too, I hope it's gone by the time we get there, because it would be nice to get a view of the city as we land.

Anyhow everybody is excited, we had a family fare well dinner last night, as well as celebrations for Dame and Rachel's 21st birthdays, and Cladia's birthday, which we will sadly miss.

Shortly we'll be out again for another farewell dinner with mum's side of the family.

28 hours to go! WOO HOO!