Updates...

Here are some more belated updates on what I've been up to in the past month.

I've been out for a cycle ride around the Chilterns with Claire. It was quite good fun, especially the small hill that we went up near the end of the ride. Claire had a habit of managing to pick up midges in her eyes. God knows how, I tend to pick them up in my mouth while I ride along at speed. There were plenty of wide open tracks past fields but not much in the way of really exciting drops or single tracks. Still a pleasant ride non the less.

Here are a couple of photos of us just at the top of the hill, hence Claire walking up with her bike and being totally knackered, and still having a smile on her face as ever!

Claire absolutely loves the British countryside and has much more enthusiasm for anything than I do, which is really saying something. We saw a lovely sunset while on the ride and then went on to Tescos to pick up some supplies. We were both covered in splatters of mud and must have looked a bit odd walking around and shopping for food in our bike gear.

You can see me here looking a bit sweaty, muddy and very happy after the climb. Neither of us made it to the top of the Chilterns without stopping though. Next time I'll have to not give up so easily.

Deirdre, Allen and I met up with Mohamed in his hometown of Winchester over one weekend. The weather couldn't have been better that day for some sight seeing around the place.

We all arrived around lunchtime and were fed very well with a buffet lunch by Mohamed and his wife Sheila. They then took us around some local meadows and into Winchester town centre. We saw the usual tourist sites and also had a good few beers in some great pubs. I do miss a decent pint of Guinness.

Unfortunately there was a £5 charge to enter the cathedral on a Saturday and the great hall had closed early so we couldn't see King Arthur's round table either.

Deirdre and Allen came down to see me in Bristol one weekend. I showed them around the usual tourist sites and pubs around the place.

Here they are walking along the Clifton suspension bridge. Something quite funny was when they set off from Oxford to get to Bristol. I got a phone call from Allen asking for directions to Bristol as they were lost. They had apparently set off from Oxford only worrying about how to get to my place once they got to Bristol, but didn't really think about what direction to head when they immediately left Oxford!

When they called me they were along the A34 heading south near Winchester. They totally missed the M4 towards Bristol and didn't really think about what direction they were heading. Something I'll never let them forget as they'll never let me forget not showing them the world's longest escalator when we were in Hong Kong. Honesty it's only an escalator.

Here's a view of the Bristol Observatory with a camera obscura in the tower. I never knew of the Bristol camera obscura till today. It's basically a Victorian one with a lens on top of the tower that projects an image onto a large 5 feet white concave table. There is a small darkened room in the tower where you can see the image and rotate the lens around to get a 360-degree view of the surrounding scenery.

The quality of the image produced was really good and we felt as if we were voyeurs looking at people along the suspension bridge and on the Clifton downs. It also made us feel like ancient Greek gods looking down at people in a film or computer game. You could almost imagine picking up the people and playing with them as toys.

Here's the view of the suspension bridge from the observatory.

We had a quite a good time doing some tourist things and also doing some window shopping around some of the great Bristol streets. It all made me realise why I like Bristol so much and what a great city it is. Not quite on the same scale of Sydney, more of a mini Sydney with a small smelly harbour, famous much smaller bridge and Hippodrome theatre. Well not quite the Opera House, but it'll have to do for now.


Lola is getting much better these days. She will regularly come indoors now and even demand to be stroked and rubbed on the belly. She still likes to sit on my car in the garage as it is very warm after I've been using it, or is it the car fumes that she likes to smell in the garage?

She also likes to dab her paws in puddles and then walk all over my car leaving muddy paw prints on it. More so when I've just given the car a good clean. I wonder if you can train a cat to wear socks when they come indoors or to wash their paws first?

We suspect that Deirdre is a part time cat whisperer. When she was in the living room Lola just came indoors and saw us in the living room. She didn't bolt off, as she would normally do with guests. Instead she walked into the living room and wanted to be stroked, something that she never did before. She then jumped onto Deirdre's lap and lapped up some affection from her.

We first suspected that Lola must be a racist cat, a logical conclusion by all accounts as she would never do this with Naheed or me. But then later on in the week she did the same to me and now regularly likes to come into the living room to have some attention.

Allen and Deirdre also took a quick spin in my car. Allen went out in it when we were in Winchester and this weekend in Bristol it was Deirdre's turn.

Can you see the look of fear in my face, as Deirdre is about to try to reverse my car out of the drive. She was in 6th gear at the time so didn't really get very far. Fortunately she didn't really thrash it at all or spin it either. Her 'broom broom' noises when going around the roundabout were very impressive though!

Unfortunately I’ve neglected my web blog in the past few weeks, my god it’s almost been a month! It’s just not been a priority to update it recently and I’ve had better things to do with my time. Here’s a brief update anyhow.

A couple of weeks ago I went up to Manchester to see my good friend Jeff get married to Claire. They had an absolutely lovely wedding in Manchester and it was wonderful to see my friend get married and be so happy. It was a simpler wedding and much better for it in my opinion. Mainly just the church service and a gathering of friends afterward.

There was the usual church ceremony just after lunch and then an afternoon reception. There were also a couple of other people that I used to work with at the same company where I initially met Jeff there. It was also very good to catch up with them too as I hadn’t seen one of them for quite a few years.

After the afternoon reception there was an evening gathering at the hotel where we were all booked in to stay. I was great to get together and chat over a few beers with Claire, Jeff and Steve for the rest of the evening.

The following morning I had a relatively early start, well early for someone who had a few beers till one am the previous evening. I bought my mountain bike up to Manchester to get some cycling with Dave who lives there.

On Sunday morning he took me to Delamere forest near Chester, which he had been walking around before. We found some excellent trails and also a technical area in the woods especially made for mountain bikers to test their skills.

Here you can see Davey standing on a very steep slope after he stopped about half way down realising how steep it was. He said he could barely stand up where he was let alone cycle down it. After he climbed back to the top I went down with some advice from Dave. Basically just ‘go for it’ and maintain some speed, so I did and managed to get down to the bottom. Shortly after Dave came down the slope too with a massive grin on his face.

We went though plenty of streams as whenever Dave lead he appeared to be magnetically attracted to the streams and automatically went straight through them when he had a choice. Needless to say we got very wet but it was all good fun, if a little icy cold!

As usual for a ride I managed to come off my bike and graze myself. I was going down another steep technical bit after Dave and I was going a little too fast and had to turn right a little to avoid a tree. Unfortunately I was going too fast and went crashing over my bike and straight into the tree. I managed to put my left arm in the way to stop myself doing a face plant into the tree, but managed to graze my arm and leg quite well. It looks like some cat had attacked me as I had a series of three scratched lines on my left arm and some grazing on my right leg. Still no permanent damage done and some more stories to tell. Dave was watching me fall from the bottom and said it looked very good and he was a little jealous of my graze marks. As usual it was much worse than it looks in the photo, honest!

Well Lola has been settling in quite well in my house now. She doesn’t automatically bolt out the house whenever I get near her now. She even lets me stroke her a lot of the time. She particularly likes having her belly and under her chin being stroked for long periods. She purrs so much I think she’s about to explode! Well she should like living here as she does just about get her own bedroom and bed in the spare room, well I only ever used it for guests and doing laundry.

Quite often in the morning she gets up when I do and walks with me down the steps and then sits on the bottom of the steps watching me rush around the house. One morning I was running a little late for work and I almost forgot to feed her. I guess I have some responsibility to someone other than myself now.

MFK and More Catching Up with Friends.

I’ve been down to Milton Keynes to meet up with some of my long term University friends. I met up with Phil (who lives in MFK), Dave, Greg and Steve. We generally get together at least one a year every year, normally during the Superbowl weekend to watch the game and have a good time together. They didn't get together this year during the Superbowl so I felt we had to gather soon to catch up.

I took my bike down to Milton Keynes to get some biking in over the weekend because I really wanted to get some exercise. Normally I would just visit the gym, but because of my part time membership I wouldn’t be able to go until the afternoon which wouldn’t do.

I got down to MFK on Friday night and met up with the lads. We were fed very well by Phil and settled down with a few beers and played four player Halo 2 for the evening. Always a good laugh for some hectic gaming action.

On Saturday morning Dave and I both went down to the local Aspley Woods for some off road biking. The local village next to the woods is called Woburn Sands, we quickly found out the reason for this was because of the amount of sand on the trails in the woods. Believe you and me that cycling on sand is very difficult. If you’re not trying to avoid going sideways then you’re franticly trying to get some traction on the sand.

When looking for the woods I had some directions to look for St Mary’s church in Woburn Sands. We asked two separate people for directions to the church in the town and both replied whether we were looking for a Catholic church. It gave us the impression that they were wary of the Catholic church and wondered why we were looking for it. Quite strange and also very funny.

We hadn’t a clue of where to go around the woods so we just randomly made our way around the trails having lots of fun. There was one section where there was a steep single track downhill section. I went first and at the bottom of the steep hill there is a right turn. As you come around the turn there was a large horse turd on the left hand side. I had to take some evasive action to narrowly avoid the manure and as I did so I shouted “big poo!” which would hopefully warn Dave. The problem was that he waited a few seconds before following me and unfortunately didn’t take evasive action to avoid it, so went right though it. We came down the same slope a second time later on in the morning and I could see a definite V shape where Dave had previously ridden!

In the middle of the woods in a big bowl there was a BMX course that had been set up for some stunt tricks and big air jumps. There were a few kids playing around on the jumps. They were very good at getting some good height off the ramps and we were very impressed. Of course our bikes weren’t really designed to tackle the jumps otherwise we would have shown them how to get some serious air!

Also on another narrow single track section which involved riding though trees and bushes either side of the track, I was going quite fast when there was a sharp right turn. I applied my rear brakes and managed to slide my bike sideways on a full skid. It put a really big smile on my face and I really enjoyed it. When I came out of the trail I had such a big grin on my face and couldn’t stop laughing. For me it was one of those really scary and fun moments that I really live for.

We both had a really good ride though the woods and I can’t wait to go again with Dave somewhere else for some more off road biking.

The rest of the weekend involved more beer, talking about crap and playing more games. We always have a good time when we get together and it’s a shame that we can’t meet more often. However, we all live in almost opposite ends of the country and have other commitments so can’t get together too often. Hopefuly we won't have to wait until the Superbowl next year before we get a chance to gather.

More extreme weekends.

I went to visit my sister and her family a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t seen them for almost nine months so it would be good to catch up with them and also my two nieces.

I had a really good weekend playing with my both my nieces, Elise (on the left) and Aimee. As you can see they are both real terrors and spending time with them is much more extreme than sky diving or anything else that I do for fun.

We went out for a cycle ride in a local park. Elise can ride her bike quite well, while Aimee is still learning. She can ride her bike once she gets going but starting off can sometimes be a problem. We also went for a walk in the local woods and threw a frisbee around as well. The really confusing thing was when we played topsy turvey, where everything is backwards and you have to say everything the wrong way around. I was Nam Mailliw, or rather wasn't Nam Mailliw! They were very well behaved all weekend and it was lovely to catch up with my sister and her family.

Something that surprised me the other day was when my new cat Lola came up to me and let me stroke her! She isn’t the friendliest cat in the world and generally isn’t a people person. She’s getting better now and will also come into my house and sleep in the spare room overnight, if not there then she will sleep on top of my car in the garage.

On the whole though if you try to approach her she will run away. When I try to get out a new cat collar that I've bought for her then she will run a mile. I guess some cats just aren't meant to belong to anyone.

Mud mud and more mud! Whehey!

On Easter Day I decided to get up of my lardy arse and go out for a full off road ride in the woods near the Mendips.

I cleaned my car and packed my bike on the back of it. I decided to do a Cleeve Hill route which in the cycle route book that I had described it as a moderate grade.

I found the start of the route quite easily in my car, as it was only just SW of Bristol and just off the main road.

The start of the route had quite a big steep climb up a wide path and single-track road and it was quite difficult for me. I had to stop a few times because I just ran out of puff. I did carry on walking, determined to make it up to the top without stopping.

Once I had made it to the top of the climb there was an off route path which where the fun really started. You can see the condition of the track in this first photo. It was really deep in mud in some points and it was quite obvious that a tractor had driven trough it. I had to cycle though the tractor tyre trails. The problem was that they were very deep in some points and I couldn't peddle as well as concentrate on staying in the very narrow tracks. Consequently I had to stop a few times and put my feet down. This meant stepping into the very soft and deep mud!

After a few more miles the muddy paths turned into full forest trails, which were fantastic to ride along. They were mainly downhill sections though forest trees and over rocky and mud trails. There were a few muddy puddles which were really good fun to ride though.

Later on the forest trail turned into a long downhill section. The trail was about a car width wide and quite steep in parts. I took the really steep sections a little more slowly but by the time I got to the bottom I had a massive smile on my face. I was covered in mud splashes all over and my bike the same but I had a really good time.

At the bottom I was back on the main road and got quite lost around the area. The trail that I was following in the book wasn't that helpful and there weren't any road signs. I did manage eventually to get back onto the path and follow another forest trail. Again I did have to stop a few times, I guess I really need to get much fitter as at times I was quite out of breath and my legs were really aching.

I covered ten miles in total today and it took just under a couple of hours. Considering the number of stops that I made to look at the scenery and also the forest trails I'm not surprised at the slow time.

This is where I parked my car to do this ride and here it is with my muddy bike perched on the back. I didn't think that I would get that muddy so forgot to bring something to clean myself off before getting back into my car. I had to ask at a local house for a plastic bag to put my shoes into! :-)

My first bike ride in Bristol.

I went out last Sunday to break in my new bike on the Bristol bike paths and roads.

The weather couldn't have been better really. It was a little chilly (for me) but probably quite warm for everyone else.

Here's a shot from a hill near the M32, Bristol town centre is just behind me. I've often seen the yellow building from the M32 but never bothered to try to get up there to see it up close.

On my bike I managed to cycle from my house to the yellow castle and further. It was quite nice to be able to cycle up here and see a view of Bristol and the motorway that I wouldn't normally see.

Here's a landmark on the top of the hill where the previous photo was taken.

There were two ways down from the top of this hill. The way that I came up which was a little steep but nothing that I couldn't do easily on the way down. There was also a much steeper drop down, I would have loved to have a go at it, but thought I shouldn't because I was on my own.

From this point I cycled under the M32 and then onwards to Frenchay and the Bristol & Bath Railway Path. This path is basically a cycle path that follows the railway between Bristol and Bath. I'd heard about the path but had never bothered to investigate it.

I only went on a small section of the path for a few miles as I wanted to try to explore some more adventurous routes on my bike. I'll have to do the path all the way to Bath sometime in the future.

While on the path I saw a parallel off road route so decided to climb over a small fence and get on it. It turned out to be quite a good route, which had some small technical parts to take my bike over.

There were also some mud trails, which were fun to ride though. After the trails I followed a path that ran parallel to the Bristol ring road (A4174). As I approached under a bridge I could see three teenagers throwing stones from the path to the dual carriageway! The council had put some pebbles on the side of the path to help with drainage. Unfortunately these pebbles were being used by the kids. As I got near the kids I shouted at them and then when I got really close they stopped throwing stones. I asked them what they were doing and they just replied "Dunno". Then a jogger came along and told the kids off and they then rode off on their bikes.

I did some more exploring after this incident. I saw a small path off the main off road routes and decided to follow it. The path started to get a little wild after a few hundred yards, so bad in fact I was eventually cycling though brambles and got quite cut up on my legs. I was determined to follow the path to the end figuring that it must go somewhere. Unfortunately it didn't! Eventually the trail petered out and ended up at a dead end. I had to follow the path backwards but really didn't want to go though the brambles again. I saw a small path off to a side but had to climb over a barbwire fence to get to it.

After managing to get my bike and myself over the fence I followed the path. It turned out to be a footpath so I really shouldn't have been on it with my bike. However no one was around at all so I carried on cycling. I passed some cows and eventually saw a farmhouse. I cycled towards the house and was really hoping that no one would spot me and tell me off.

Fortunately I wasn't spotted and managed to get back on a road. I followed signs towards Bristol and after 17 odd miles in total finally made it home.

Returning Home.

Wow, I'm finally back in Bristol and almost settled in my house again. Naheed was still staying in my house till the end of the month so we had two house loads of crap stored about in one house. Then my Sydney boxes of stuff arrived last Wednesday which made even more clutter. I went out with one big box and one snowboard all weighing 50kgs and came back with six smaller boxes ane one snowboard weighing 110kgs.

I got back last Thursday and went straight down to the Honda garage to pick up my car. Naheed has been very helpful in helping me get my car back on the road. Around £800 for a service and MOT and my car is going again. Mind you it did need two new rear tyres and a new battery. It was a major service for it as well. To say that I was happy to get back in my car and drive it was an understatement! It was like buying it again from new, after a year of hire cars I was very happy to get back into a car which was more responsive in every way.

One of the first things that I really wanted to do when I got back was to go and buy a new bike. I decided to get a top banana full suspension bike with disc brakes and other bells and whistles. In the end it came down to two models, one from Trek and one from Kona. Both were around the same price and had similar components. I finally made a decision to buy the Trek one, if only because I trusted the brand and it also came in a better looking colour. Colour is very important in buying a bike. :-)

Here you can see the bike on the back of my car. It took quite a while for Jason (The Mud Dock bike shop assistant) and me to be able to mount the bike on my car. I bought a bike rack specially that I knew fitted my car. Needless to say that I drove very carefully back home and I also noticed that cars behind me kept their distance as well! I felt like a kid at Christmas getting his new bike and I went out on it as soon as I could when I got home. The cycle lanes around here are crazy. They just stop and start for no apparent reason, sometimes there are signs indicating that you should ride on the pavement and the signs don't ever tell you when you should stop. I'm quite looking forward to exploring the cycle tracks around Bristol and Bath and also doing some off road cycling.

One thing that I've noticed since being back home is that people do drive really fast on the motorway. In Sydney people generally tend to keep to the speed limits, while over here everyone obviously breaks the speed limits and quite often by quite a bit. I'm sure that I used to be one of those people before I left for Sydney. Now I don't tend to drive as fast and am more aware of my speed when driving around which is probably a good thing.

I've also managed to join a gym back here. I decided to join the local Esporta gym, not because of their extortionate prices that's for sure. They're more expensive than gyms in London! The reason I joined them is that they are the biggest gym within a fifteen-minute drive of my house and they aren't even all that big. At least they have a 25m pool which will get some use from me now. Not quite the same as Manly but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Do you think they'll let me in there with a body board?

Settling back in is sometimes quite difficult. It's very much like taking a step back after over a year of living in such a great place and having such a good time. I'm having to come back to earth and try to get back to my life before I set off. I'm sure there are many changes that I'm going to make over the next few months back here, but I can't help but think that I've had to take a big step backwards in my life. One thing that I'll try to do is make the most of my time and try to make more of my weekends.

The range of available food and more expensive meals when eating out is something that I'll really miss. No more sushi or CBD noodles that's for sure. I've already been out for a couple of meals and they were both curries. Dave and Steve came to welcome me back to Bristol last weekend and we did the usual Clifton curry and beers.

One thing that I've gained since being away is a cat! Naheed has two cats, Jeff and Lola. Jeff (pictured here in my bed) is the friendly one while Lola is a bit more feral. Lola doesn't even like people touching here. She wouldn't go into Naheed's house and seeing as I have a garage with a cat flap she does use it to sleep in. So she's probably better off in my house rather than Naheed's.

I do have to remember to feed her, as I'm not used to having a cat and the extra responsibility involved. I'm sure I'll remember with all the paw prints on my car every morning when I get my car out, as she likes to sleep on top of my car!

Finally one more thing that I've noticed, is that it's bloody cold and rains a lot in this country! How do Britains cope?

Climbing Big Hills.

I took a few hours off from shopping in Hong Kong to take a hike up the hill behind my parents’ village of Chau Tau. Here is the view of the village from the highest point that I managed to walk up to.

It was a little hairy on my walk up to the top of the bigger hill. At some points I almost gave up thinking it would be quite tricky to walk back down. However I figured I would regret it if I didn’t try to make it up to the top of the hill. There was a narrow path up to the top but it was quite steep at points and if I stopped to look down then it would make my knees shake a little.

I did push onwards and upwards and was rewarded with a great view of the surrounding area. The views were a little obscured with the smog in the air. You can clearly see the amount of pollution in the photos.

This is a shot of the big city of Shenzen just on the other side of the hill. It used to be a small town before China took over Hong Kong. Since then it’s been ever growing and growing. Also in the photo you can clearly see markings in the hills. These are actually barbed wire fences put there to stop people from China from getting into Hong Kong. The borders are still closed between China and Hong Kong to people without the proper passes. This scene always reminds me of Steve McQueen trying to escape in the film The Great Escape.

Walking back down the hill wasn’t as bad as I expected. There were a couple of points where I slipped but I didn’t slip very far and managed to catch the slide after a foot or two.

Finally here’s a shot of my grandparents old house in the village. You can see how small and old the house is. No one lives in the house anymore as my grandparents have passed away and I suspect it’s only kept for sentimental reasons.

The paths in the village are very narrow in places with only a meter between the fronts of the houses. I guess even out here in the countryside of Hong Kong space was a premium and they had to build houses close together.

Stop off in Shopping Central.

I’m back in Hong Kong again for six days before finally coming back to Blighty. It was very hot and humid on the day after I arrived. I hadn’t been here for more than 12 hours before I was bitten a dozen times by whatever insects are here. Mainly mosquitos and midge like things I hope. The weather has turned much colder recently and it even rained quite a lot last night. It’s probably good preparation for my return to even colder climates later this month. Going straight from sunny Manly beach on the pacific to not so sunny Bristol mud flats in the English channel would be too much of a shock to my system.

Unfortunately I can’t really do too much shopping over here. My backpack is much too full to be able to carry anymore back to the UK. It weighed in at a hefty 22kg at the airport. Fortunately I could stuff as much into my coat and laptop bag without them being weighed which helped. Unfortunately that does mean I end up with monkey arms.

I’m always amazed by the public transport system in Hong Kong. Well I suppose most of the population does use it here to get around. There are TV’s on just about every train and bus. Probably to take your mind off the fact that you’re more than likely stuck in the terrible traffic jams that they have here. Their general solution to the traffic problems here is to build more and more roads. The roads appear to be ever wider and ever higher up each time I come back here.

The housing is continually growing to cope with the ever-expanding population as well. There are always new high-rise flats going up to house people. This shot was taken from the 15th floor of one of my auntie’s flats. She lives in a one-bed apartment that is probably about a third the size of my Sydney place. I had problems turning around to close the door in her bathroom it was such a space saver. If you can imagine a shower, toilet, washbasin and in swinging door all in the space of a metre square space you can get the idea.

I’ve been to see my mum’s side of the family who mostly live on Llama Island. It’s a very nice island that is just off the Hong Kong mainland. It’s much quieter there as there aren’t any roads and hence no cars. There are also much less people on the island and it’s roughly divided up into four sections. One with a coal power station and the others being general communities. I believe that there’s a hippy section but I’ve only been to the area where my relatives live.

Here’s a photo of my mum, one of her brothers and an older cousin. I’m sure you can see where my family good looks come from. ☺ My mum was telling me about how she used to be quite a good swimmer when she was younger. She once almost drowned when she was chasing a inflatable ball out to sea and she didn’t think about how far she was swimming out only about trying to get the ball. Once she caught up with it she then looked back and realised how far she had swam out. Then she forgot about the ball and just concentrated on trying to swim back to the shore.

Just behind one of my uncle’s house there are some small hills. Apparently just last weekend there was a mountain biking event up and around the hills. It’s a shame that I missed that because I would have really liked to see where they rode and how difficult it would have been. I suspect that because there aren’t any trails going up to the mountains they have to either make their own way up there or they mark out a rough course. I think I’ll have to try to make my own way up there the next time I’m back here. Everyone is quite impressed with my skydiving and mountain biking exploits, probably less impressed with my scars from my mistakes!

Last full day in Sydney.

I spent all yesterday walking around Sydney taking as many photos as I could to try to remember the moment. My fifteen minute walk into work, all the places that I would eat lunch and shop in. In the afternoon I caught the Manly ferry to see Manly beach. I only had about an hour on the beach but I still managed to catch the sun a little!

Well I'm all packed up now and finally ready to leave Sydney. We went out for some final drinks and food last night in the CBD.

Started out in the Bavarian Beer Cafe for a swift 300ml (it's all metric here) and then on to the Orbit Bar for some great views of Sydney at night. For food we went to Wagamamas, and strangely enough it was the same Waggas that I first ate at when I got here on my own. What a strange coincidence.

We ended up at the Opera Bar for some drinks into the night. Deirdre, Allen and I wanted to have one more drink but unfortunately at 12.30am we couldn't think of anywhere close to my hotel that was still serving. The Forbes bar was strangely closed as it's normally still open at this time during week days.

Well what can I say. I am very sad to be leaving Sydney and Australia. No question that it has been one of the best years of my life. Like all good things it has to come to an end eventually. I have done so many things over here that I would never have thought of doing in the UK. If there is one thing that I have learnt while here is to make more of an effort to do things with my free weekends. Rome is only a short and relatively cheap flight away from Bristol!

I have really appreciated it when friends visited me over here in the past year and seeing them over here while on holiday in a city that I lived in is very strange.

Best of all, better than sky diving, ice climbing, mountain biking, snorkelling and bush walking, is that I've made some really good friends in Deirdre, Allen, Roger, Ian and Joe. I'd like to think that we have all had lots of fun here and hopefully if the coming year can be half as good as this one then I'll be very happy.

Hong Kong again next... Hopefully I won't be married off before I leave the country!

Why jump out of a perfectly good plane?

I went sky diving with Roger from work last Friday. I really wanted to go again before I returned to England and Roger kind of wanted to go but just needed someone else to get round to booking it.

There are only two places in Sydney which do sky diving and the one I chose was in Penrith just west of Sydney. It’s only an hours drive from the centre and the place was right next to the Olympic rowing lakes. The weather wasn’t’ fantastic for the jump and I felt it could have been cancelled because of the low cloud.

They went ahead anyhow and after a brief training session Roger and I were lucky enough to be going in the first group of people. I must admit the people at Simply Skydive weren’t the best, as they weren’t that friendly really and there wasn’t much confidence when their set-up was literally just a tent in the middle of a field. At $500 including a DVD and photos it was a little more expensive than the New Zealand sky dive as well.

The actual air field was also a twenty minute car ride from the landing zone as well. When we got to the airfield I met my instructor, Bernie. Roger met his instructor on the mini bus and he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world either. I think he was just a little angry against everything and hardly spoke to Roger and didn’t really talk about the jump we were going to make at all.

Well the plane that we were going to go up in looked like a patchwork of metal just pained over red and I was frankly surprised that it managed to take off. I was sat almost right next to the pilot and was going to be last to jump out of the group of three sky divers in our plane. There were some great views from my wing seat, more so when we rose above the clouds and saw the full sun.

I realised at this point that I would be jumping through the clouds and thought, fantastic! Roger is on the very left of this photo. I’m sure his instructor was yawning during the flight and kept closing his eyes all the time. I thought not to mention this to Roger at the time.

We only had a video camera attached to each instructors arm and this was to provide the video and still photos. The New Zealand sky dive had a digital SLR for still shots and a separate cameraman jumper. I guess they both have advantages as the separate jumper can take better shots when falling, while the camera on the arm can capture shots while parachuting.

This is me just after jumping out of the plane. I pretty much had an insane grin all the way down. My mouth was quite dry at the end of the jump because it was open for so long too.

I was a little disappointed because the jump was advertised as being from 14,000 ft, but I noticed on the altimeter that we jumped at around 12-13,000 ft. So we probably only had around 45 seconds of freefall.

It was one hell of a 45 seconds though. The feeling I got when doing a somersalt out of the plane was fantastic, something that I didn’t do on my first jump. Even better was falling towards the clouds and then falling though them to see the ground below them. I could also see Roger just below me as well.

The instructor let me have a go at making turns once the parachute had been deployed. This was really fun as this time I was in control of what we did. I could pull really tight turns and almost fall horizontal downwards which gives that falling feeling in your stomach.

Even though Roger jumped before me I managed to catch him up and land before him while doing turns. Probably because I was doing more turns to fall quicker. The instructor did say before the jump not to pull both cords at once otherwise you collapse the parachute!

It was a very good jump and really encouraged me to want to try to do a jump on my own. It will cost quite a lot though so I have to weigh up whether it’s really worth it.

Just behind me you can see the Olympic rowing course in Penrith. I could see quite a few rowers in the lake. I wonder what they made of people falling out of the sky towards them.

Roger appeared to quite enjoy the jump as well. He looked very happy that he had done it and enjoyed it too. We both have a DVD of the jump which is quite good fun to watch. Unfortunately you can’t hear what I’m yelling on my way down. If you could hear it I’m sure you would hear me shouting “I’m alive, I’m alive, I feel so alive!”

Something quite funny happened on our way back from Penrith. The sky diving company are quite happy to pick us up from the CBD but wouldn't give us a lift back. Anyhow, we caught a lift from their next set of jumpers to the Penrith train station as it was on their way. In the next set of jumpers there were three younger lads who looked quite sure of themself earlier on. Now that they were in the mini bus they looked very quiet and stressed. We mentioned that we were heading back to work and one of them said in a very surprised voice. "What you're going back to work, after what you've just done!". We just replied, "Yes morning sky dive and then afternoon back to work as usual.". Tee hee.

Last night I went out for a final evening out with Ian and Anita. We went for some beers right after work and then he took me to a really cool steak restaurant called Prime. It’s located in the cellar of a very old post office building. The old post office building is amazing. It has all sorts of designer shops and bars as well.

It was very posh in the restaurant and we did feel very underdressed while there. The wine menu looked more like an encyclopaedia with all manner of wines, the most expensive was just over a thousand dollars.

You could have waggu beef here too, which was the most expensive thing on the menu. I decided to plump for the 500g T bone which was cooked to perfection and just melted in my mouth. I’m sure that everything was probably so high in calories that I’ll have to take a week of gym time to work it off while not eating anything but lettuce and plain boiled rice.

Almost there...

Last Saturday night I went to a National Rugby League (NRL) game with Ian and a few of his friends. The game was only a pre-season friendly game to play for a charity shield.

The game was played at the Olympic stadium in Sydney that was built for the 2000 Olympics. The stadium was really big, probably one of the bigger stadiums that I've been to. It seated around 90,000 people, but unfortunately because it was only a friendly game only 24,000 people were there. It was lacking in atmosphere and to be honest the game wasn't really a great one. The South Sydney Rabbitos were playing the St George Dragons.

It was more fun to chat with some of Ian's friends about their life in Australia and how great it is to live here. The reason that I managed to get free tickets to this game was because one of Ian's friends Shane. His dad's manager has come over from Germany to start a four year stint working in Sydney. Sounds very familiar! Because he works for a big CAD company they own an executive box in the Olympic Stadium. The box had eight seats, a TV to watch highlights and a padlocked fridge. We never did find out how to get into the fridge. There was also seat service by some waiters if you wanted it. This was one of the first times that I've been to a stadium to watch a game in which there was carpet in the aisles, instead of just concrete. How very posh. :-)

We were planning to go to the Bennelong in the Opera House for a celebration with everyone involved in the project. However unfortunately the Sydney Water employees can't accept any sort of free meals from their contractors. It wouldn't be looked upon very well if a Sydney Water employee was found to be in the Bennelong eating a free meal paid for by one of their contractors. You could imagine the headlines, public water employees living it up in the Bennelong with your money while your pipes are leaking. It would be a great exclusive on Today Tonight, which is one of those trashy documentary programs on TV here in Australia. Its typical headlines are something like immigrants are taking over Australia and living on welfare while you work to pay them.

Instead of having a meal with everyone involved in the project we had some beer and snacks in the Sydney Water offices. It was all a very civilised affair and there were a few speeches and back patting on how well the first part of the project has gone.

Fortunately after the tame Sydney Water celebrations the Earth Tech and Wallingford employees continued the celebrations, we had the Earth Tech project manager Shane take us all out for a paid meal.

In the photo you can see (left to right), Archie, Ian, Stephanie, Me, Paul and Cathy. Other than Ian and Me the others are all Earth Tech employees who are taking on the next portion of the project after us. They are going to use the software that I've helped to develop to actually model the water systems in the Sydney area.

I've finally started packing up the contents of my apartment and have been making preparations to come back to Blighty.

It's all been a little stressful and hectic while trying to organise leaving Australia and also return to the UK. There is so much to sort out, so many people to call and things to cancel. My apartment is a bit of a mess with things in a partial packed state ready to ship back on the 12th.

I've just had my last gym session with Quentin and it's a real shame that I won't be able to train with him anymore. Here's a photo of him for all you curious fans out there. He's made a big difference to my life in the past year and also the way that I train.

I also went for another sky dive in Penrith just outside of Sydney yesterday with Roger. Like so many people Roger wanted to have a go but just never got round to organising it, so I took the lead and booked a couple of places. I'll have some photos of the day soon and will publish them with a report next time.

Paul's BBQ Part II. The return of the BBQ.

We've almost completed the Sydney Project over here and all has gone very well. Generally lots of pats on the back and congratulations for everyone involved. Paul invited us all over to his place for a BBQ on Thursday night to celebrate. We were also there to break in and show off his new BBQ, which he recently bought. I'm sure the size of your BBQ here is the equivalent of the size of your manhood! :-)

Paul has obviously learnt to not let his wife near the BBQ now and Ian, the only local Australian there was suitably impressed with the BBQ as well. I quite like the union jack dartboard just behind the BBQ.

There were some very noisy rainbow lorikeets in Paul's back garden. There were very colourful but so noisy that at times it was difficult to talk over them. Mind you Paul didn't help matters as he does encourage them by putting out birdseed. There are stories of dozens of these birds covering some houses and eating their way through the roofs!

We all ate more than we should have and had a good time talking through the night. Most of the conversation was about how great Australia is to live in and also what an easy and stress free project it had been in the past year. Joe said that all the previous projects that he had been involved in had had some major problems but this one was as easy as it could be for him. We even managed it only three weeks over schedule and well under budget.

This is Paul's new BBQ I'm sure it's bigger than the stove in my kitchen in the UK. Actually it's bigger than my UK and Australian cookers combined.

It's a bit of a fake BBQ though, as it all works on gas, but then again just about all the BBQ's in Australia work on gas rather than the traditional coal and lighter fuels. Probably something to do with bush fires and the dry climate here.

Sydney Storms.

They've been having some anti terrorist exercises over Sydney over the past few days. From what we could see this involved a few helicopters hovering over various parts of Sydney and causing accidents in the traffic and people to walk into each other when looking up. Well that and Dick Cheney was visiting too so there was considerable security around as well. The locals weren't too pleased when they closed the harbour bridge to allow him to cross over in his stretch limo.

There were quite a few protests while he was visiting and some fighting in the streets. Even though he was staying in the Shangri-La just a couple of blocks away from my place, I managed to avoid all the clashes between the police and the protesters. I couldn't avoid the night time helicopters though. One night they were hovering outside my apartment when I was trying to get to sleep. I walked downstairs to see what they were up to and their searchlight passed right over me. They must have had quite a shock to see me half dressed looking right up at them from my apartment!

Last weekend I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of NSW again, for a last visit before finishing here. There wasn't much on that interested me in the MCA, but the AGNSW had a very good exhibition on from this years senior art students.

The ideas were really fresh and really reminded me of when I was a student and I went to see some exhibitions from back students then. I was very impressed with some of the work and I felt it was generally much better than the established works in the place. It must have been the first few days of the exhibition as there were quite a few people there and lots of students were around talking about their works.

There was a good storm on a few days ago and I managed to get some good shots from my camera. It has a feature where you can take multiple shots per second, albeit at lower resolutions. These pictures look as if Sydney is being wiped out by a bomb. Here are the shots that I managed to get from my apartment...