thats all folks

And that’s it for the trip.

Well as much as it can be over.

Photos need to be processed. Stuff needs to be found. But it ends when you clear customs.

And that is potentially the end of this blog.

Writing is addictive. It gives things a point and thoughts solidification.

So for that reason I’m not sure that it will actually die, but time will tell.

So, well I hope those who have read this have enjoyed it. I hope you found some mirth and possibly some appreciation of the worlds madness. You never know.. if we stop appreciating the universe it might feel unloved and give up.. so its really in everyone’s best interests to laugh at fossils in cathedral brick work, at everyone’s adamence that theirs is the best country in the world, at the duck billed platypus. (although that might be a bit harsh on the poor thing, the last thing it needs is more comedic bullying)

So, get out there. Poke at the world, see if it pokes back. And don’t trust anyone who says they can teach you how to think, that’s dodge if it ever was personified.

And keep that powder dry..

thanks for reading.

Take care

“I was hunted by the wolves and heckled by the crows”

Im on a plane.

I thought you would all like to know that. Gives the writing some context I think, when you know the writer is an unnatural hight above terra firma. And when you take into account tiredness it excuses madness.. this blog is actually being posted in Hong Kong.. thus making it cool and foreign.. lol

Amazingly I am unable to connect to wireless internet (on the plane), what a surprise. My computer actually feels the need to tell me that.

So, im on my way home. In the last six hrs I have eaten better than for ages and ages. On a plane for goodness sake. But its Qantas, they are being very good at looking after us, which is much appreciated.

So, the last few days have been in London, doing a bit of tourism, shopping all that jazz. And of course meeting aussies, we have invaded, invaded I tell you. You cant go anywhere without hearing the accent, let alone the youth hostel kitchen, its not safe.

I did meet one nice one though, a nice lass from Cairns, we had the room to ourselves and spent Sunday night in hysterics. Which was quite a good way to end the trip.

We discussed the word dishy, a book I brought recently which has reminded us to use ‘struth’ more often (literally its ‘gods truth; condensed so its quite potent in its real meaning), and ‘Drongo’ too of course. So that was fun.

Fossils in church bricks were mentioned. Pratchett came up, and I was stoked to be able to show someone a bit of the HogFather movie.

We also discussed various forms of religion, I don’t remember why, but Satanism came up, probably because of Camden Town. Now I had never thought about it much before.. the thought of torturing small furry animals and calling it religion always was a bit sick to me, well very sick. But I was wondering what they get. All religions have a reward, heaven, virgins and sherbet etc. so what do you get for worshipping the devil? There are three obvious possibilities:

-Hell (in which case its a lot of effort to go to, when according to the majority you’ll get there anyways)

-To be a demi demon, and continue horrible practices on small furry animals (slightly tedious and repeditive, but attractive to the right kind of person)

-An apple on a stick. (it wasn’t really that serious of a conversation)

Now, why I came up with apple on a stick, I will never know. But it did lead to the possibility that, well what if it was all miss translated? What if its really all about apples on sticks? Not heaven, hell or sherbet, but apples. It would make sense with the whole adam and eve thing.

What if you get to the gates (pearly or fiery either way) and instead of eternal whatever someones standing there with an apple on a sick, looking incredibly embarrassed at your vexation saying “im sure it was all very clear.. worship me and its an apple on a stick.. admittedly god X has a bit of a better deal, it’s a toffee apple on a stick, but you still get the apple.. and a stick.. we just upgraded to carbon fibre ones”

It would be somewhat of a bummer I have to say. Great potential for a comedy radio presenter doing a commentary though.

Now please don’t take offence at this, it was all for pure comedy value, and not meant to offend in any way, although its very hard not to offend when it comes to religion.

What else? Something less offensive.

There was a person from King Island in the kitchen. Now this surprised me, again showing my lack of ability to think things through, or think at all.

It had never occurred to me that people came from King Island, I assumed that it was purely a place from which Beef and really nice Yoghurt came from. Obviously I should have thought.. hey yeah.. yoghurt in containers does NOT just appear.. it needs some level of human intervention. Cows have not, to my knowledge, developed the ability to make milk go off in just the right way to get yoghurt.

I do like the idea though, of cows milking themselves in sunny green pastures, making the yoghurt, packing it, and then (to avoid human intervention in the form of posting) putting it in floating boxes when the tide is right so that it can then float to Melbourne like a message in a bottle.

I think that’s an awesome idea for an ad campaign for King Island. Potential all the way.

Ah, now some of you will know ive had a cold for the last two weeks or so. This of course has led to me coughing, and anyone coughing on a plane has a certain leper quality to them, what with air recycling and Bird Flu. Now sadly there are some things too serious to joke about, which is a bit of a shame, good jokes have to die in the making. So ill share it over the net, where its not so bad.

So, we thought I should cough a little on the plane, to clear some seats around me, I then thought, to make this hypothetical situation more amusing I could add “damn I shoudn’t have let that turkey sneeze on me”.

Personally I like the idea of a turkey sneezing, knowing how funny dogs look when they sneeze, well add all the weird red dangling things and a beak. Now add a person nose to beak with such a sneezing creature. Now try and think of a legit reason why someone would be in that situation, now add a tissue.

Sadly its not really a laughing matter, and the potential of ending up in Quarantine for years and years totally removes any potential from the whole scenario.

Maybe it was just amusing because plane trips are sooo boring, and all humour has been removed from something that isn’t really that amusing in the first place. Ah well. So much for not being offensive.

And back on the religion track, I’ve found it interesting. Three (potentially five) of my Agnostic friends have become adamant Atheists in the last small while. One of my Agnostic friends has done the reverse and gone Catholic. Which is a bit harder to follow. But this sudden conviction across nationalities has been quite surprising. I’m wondering if anything particularly un-godly happened while I wasn’t looking. Perhaps they discovered that it is actually all about apples on sticks, that would be pretty off putting, although wouldn’t lead to Atheism, something else probably. Maybe its come with age, and the feeling of disillusionment after leaving school. It has led to some interesting conversations though, and the potential that we have messed it all up amazingly. I don’t know that religion is supposed to be a common thread throughout travel, but people do seem to be more and more open about it, and desiring to discuss it. I think Religion and Philosophy, Morals and Values and Globalisation have been more overriding and noticeable that anything physical in this trip. There has been more conversations about Globalisation than visits to Cathedrals.

Of course you cant take pictures of conversations, but it has been awesome. There are some incredible people out there. Adamant, persuasive and intelligent, right and wrong. Its been real, and good.

So keep your powder dry. (I like that better than take care) While I spend time sitting in a seat millions of miles above normality.

And see you soon... and don’t trust sniffing turkeys.

“When I arrived in my own set of clothes, I was half a world away from my home.”

“We all see what we want to see. When Coffee looks he sees Russian Subs, you have to look with better eyes than that” –The Abyss

I was reminded of this quote some time ago. I was going through a bad mood and one of my friends at home got in my ear somewhat. He reminded me of something I already knew, but had forgotten. When we feel bad, when we hate the world we will only see things that encourage those thoughts. We will see, and concentrate, on the bad, to the point that they are blown out of perspective. The reverse is also true, when we are happy its we see things in a different light, we can laugh easier at the madness of the world instead of being further upset by it. That little pep talk made quite some difference, and although it isn’t always possible, it was worth keeping in mind.

Anyway that was actually applicable ages ago.. I just kept forgetting to type it.

So im leaving Europe, not goodbye but farewell.. ill be back sometime not in so long. Its just an interlude in a long wild ride. Just an interlude for a bit of sun, some coffee, different company and maybe a bit of real education.

Having been away for a little time Id like to do thankyous again. This trip, as they say, woudnt have been possible without the help, friendliness, and generosity of people everywhere. I have spent about 2.5 weeks in Youth Hostels, 3 weeks in Hotels in Latin America, and 3 weeks in Hotels with my mother. The rest of the time has been spent with people, pretty much.

As a summary:

3 weeks tour of Peru and Bolivia with Intrepid

1 week Northern Norway (ARR/ESC)

Some days Oslo/Stockholm

1 week Manchester

2 months Portugal

1 week Germany (ISSC)

1 week London

2 weeks Wales/Scotland

1.5 weeks Belgium

2 weeks France

1 week Toulouse

1 week Paris/London

And no it probably doesn’t actually add up.. but that’s approx. there was also one overnight bus, and one overnight train. So that’s the general gist. There were a few highlights.. most of them are those weird random moments. But Macchu Picchu was awesome, the whole of ISSC was brilliant, seeing the millennium centre in Cardiff.. that was totally fab. And that’s enough for highlights.

I think the biggest mental jump was going straight from Bolivia (one of the poorest countries in Latin America) to Norway (one of the richest countries) that was intense.

Actually most of the trip has been pretty intense.. awesome though.. I don’t think there is anything I would have not done, although there are things I won’t do again. There was also a lot that I learnt. Simple things like some French and Portuguese, different edible and inedible foods (china still has the highest percentage of inedible foods.. kungee is not edible.. it is mushed cardboard.. sorry to all those chinese kiddies out there) etc.

One of the least expected things that stands out the most this second that ive learnt is that sexism is still alive and well. And there's nothing surprising about sexism in Peru, China where ever.. you expect that. But it was in Belgium, that was surprising, and hardcore. I had to that point taken it for granted that my opinion was respected (in developed countries, by the majority of people) and that I would be treated like an equal, and when I wasn’t (by people of my generation, and above) well I wasn’t impressed (in a kinda teenage petulant way) I was also kinda shocked. That wasn’t the only problem that I had in Belgium, but I think it was the easiest thing to pin point and learn from, and to remember that we cant take things like equality for granted. We cant assume anything, and nor should we, we appreciate things more when we don’t assume that they will be so.

So with that in mind I would like to thank everyone who has treated me like an equal, and who has respected my opinion even if they didn’t agree with it. Eivind, Brad, Ben and my father stand out in this. (I just had a long train trip.. waaay too much reflection time)

I have also stayed at a lot of peoples houses, Eivind’s, the Raanes’, The Field/Rhyds, a D’Aloia’s, the Matosi (for two months.. thanks guys), Ben and Amy’s, my cousin/Aunt in Uig, and lastly Patrick’s. So thankyou again to you all, wonderful people that you are.

Particular thanks to Brad, Ben and Patrick because for various reasons staying at those homes was more than just having a roof over my head and something to eat.

And to my friends at home, because this blog isn’t soppy enough yet :P. Thanks to those who kept in touch.. and reminded me that Australia hasn’t fallen off the face of the planet.. and that its not quite as screwed as I thought (I checked the news one day someone had been shot in Melbourne, people had been arrested under the new laws, there had been floods and the drought was still going, and we had sent troops into the outback.. that wasn’t cool to see, I genuinely thought my country had gone to the clappers) and I look forward to a catch up. To being brought up to speed. And I am constantly warned that when I get back ill be disappointed in my friends, because they wont have changed, they wont care about the travel etc. But.. I don’t think that’s the point. I don’t want to come back and see that the whole world has changed at home.. the world out here is mad enough without that happening. If you want change you can go and find it. There is sanctuary in normality, in non-change. There is a kind of freedom in talking about nothing over coffee.. this blog exists to keep people up to date if they want. With it people know about 70-80% of whats happened.. so I don’t have the need to share everything with everyone.. what needs to be said has been, and although there are some storied that are left for the telling, the general impression has been communicated. So I don’t think people need to be as negative as all that, saying people don’t care, because they do.. everyone just shows it differently.

And my battery is about to die.. I think this blog will need editing, but that can be done another time.

And for the last goodbyes.

We say goodbye to the autumn, to the coming winter and the cold. To the irrationality of the French, to the randomness, the pissing and the wine. To the Euro, the churches, narrow streets and driving on the right. (and cycling in my case.. talk about hair rasiing)

As much as the pissing is somewhat unnecessary, I don’t think it’s the worst national hobby I’ve come across. I still think the huge Urns full of phlegm in China, with the “hoicking” takes the cake, that is pure mank. There is soemthign feral about a flower pot containing what is technically a liquid, although mutant lifeform would be more accurate, that is the contents of a million chinese smog infused lungs. It looks like a strike of lightening would give it a kind of life only seen in Calvin and Hobbes cartoons.

That’s about it really.. Anonymity in London here I come.

Well here I am actually.

Saw the Greenwich line.. the meridian thingo. That was cool. There was a bloke there telling stories about the place and about how well.. its amusing actually. There is a line marking the Meridian, with a little sculpture and everything. So people go up there, take their picture, jump over the line etc. and then they discover that that’s actually not the line at all. What they are infact doing is jumping around like a mad person in an entirely insignificant part of Greenwich. Since the line was placed down, it has infact moved to another part of Greenwich that isn’t actually marked. Not quite sure why you would move a line just a few metres.. but im sure there is some kind of map making logic to the whole thing. Or English logic. Either way.

And now I have a 4hr wait, because the shops don’t open until 12 on a Sunday.. so I think ill actually buy internet.. and post this.. and generally kill time (poor thing). And then sit around and think of all the other things that I forgot to write about.. as always.

So take care, and smile

Unadulterated comsumerism.. and what do you get?

I again had a feeling of oddness in my life today, they are quite regular now. I was sitting in a fibre glass menhir about to go down a waterfall in a theme park based on a French cartoon that my maternal Grandparents collected the comics of, wondering what on earth my grandparents would have thought of the whole thing. This was quickly followed by, damn its bloody cold and I’m about to get very very wet. I did too.. to the point that I was actually laughed at by a very small boy for dripping.. have to say I laughed too.. I looked ridiculous. But it was amusing.. which is all worthwhile.

It was all pretty random.. the French have decided to make a theme park based on the Asterix and Obelix cartoon/comics. It was actually pretty good, it was the last day of the season too, so there was practically no one there. There were signs for rides saying 90mins from here, and half the time we got to stay on the ride because there was no one else waiting. That bit was totally awesome, so much better than the Gold Coast where there are always ques because the weather is always good. It was cold.. and wet (not that I can blame anyone else for that) and there were some pretty cool roller coasters. The best was a Zeus one, made from wood.. that was pretty cool.. this is closely followed by the scoobie doo one at Movie World, that’s the best ‘scary’ one ive yet to go on. But the Zeus one was pretty awesome.. and no ques makes it even better.

There was also an amazing amount of commercialisation, (which one should expect from a theme park I know) but it was weird to see that you could buy pretty much anything Asterix and Obelix. (and no matter what you brought you HAD to be given a bag.. there was do option, even if you already had one of theirs) there were at least 20 designs of Mug, similar number of different pens, dresses, dress ups, lots of dolphins (which I didn’t really get), bags, jewlerry (of dogmatix.. ), plush toy oblexisi, towls, a bikini, etc. I think they were having a fair shot at competing with Disney. (Better than Disney all the way though.. not that I can really compare.. but I can imagine)

But the parc was awesome.. even by yourself, in the cold. There was a lot of weird daggyness.. the actors in some of the performances were the characters come to life… they were 3D cartoons. I had trouble following the play about, well I think it was about, a new recruit into the Roman army. There was a lot of disappearing tricks and possibly the army looking for fleas in the audience.. not 100% sure though. It was all in French but still very amusing and everyone had fun.

I even managed to get a present for some relatives.. talk about a successful day.

In my Paris re-visited I have also visited le Louvre and the musee de Orsay. The weirdest thing is that you are allowed to take pictures in the Museum. Although you aren’t supposed to take them of the Mona Lisa people still were.. considering how many times I have got into trouble for taking ‘unallowed’ pictures (we aren’t even allowed to photograph inside the State Library) I thought it was brilliant, and as such I have a few hundred pictures of statues, people drawing said statues.. and lots of Egyptian stuff. I saw the Mona Lisa from a distance.. it wasn’t nearly as disappointing as I was expecting, it was as one would expect, looks exactly like all the copies of it. Lots of people were having a pretty good look though. There was a lot of angsty Italian art of horrible things happening to other people. The Egyptian stuff was really good, much better than the stuff that visited the Melbourne museum, but its kinda weird to see what is basically a dislocated wall behind glass. Someone went into Egypt, ripped out the wall then brought it back to France for people to look at. Kinda odd. There were also a lot of small children, not the best thing, about on par with the Americans I think.

But the old stuff was cool.. and the Caravagiggo sketches were also awesome. Totally worth while. Art is such a personal thing as to who likes what and why.. although considering how much of the stuff there is out there I think there's something for everyone. Although whether everything has its someone im not too sure.

And that’s all I feel like writing.. cant think of much more intelligencia to add.

Oh, I am currently not sure what i should think about Starbucks. well thats not true.. i know what i SHOULD think about Starbucks (ie. that they are evil bastards killing local coffee people.. etc. etc. pure evil globalisation) but im not sure that thats what i actually think about them. I know that they are evil, but they are soooo good at it. They are soo brilliant at globalisation and evility.. its beautiful.. but i know i shouldnt be looking at it that way.. its a bugger..

“and so we face another table, and raise our glasses one more time”

And we face another goodbye. To acoustic guitar, and Norwegian salad, free internet, discussions about the weather and logos. To Nutella (I think ive actually eaten enough Nutella for the rest of the millennium, although it is a brilliant cure-all), fresh bread (none of this flaky French baguette crap), to getting lost, facebook wars (I’m Sorry). To songs about some girl breaking hearts (what was her name.. louise?... nah), and dislike of Bob Marley (I’m hoping its something ill grow into), washing dishes, fried couscous, and the Belgians holding up a mobile phone ("Brussels is a troublesome city"). To a canal that’s on a bridge over the road, to autumn leaves that fall and scare the crap out of me cause I didn’t see what hit me, to crepes, colds, cheese, skype burbling, to IKEA everything and bootleg programming. To feeling guilty for distracting my friend from study and imposing, to trying to interpret the words of Mr Tambourine man (far out, good luck with that), to Shakespeare’s quotes and insults (“thou smellest of mountain goat”), to train tickets, Mars bars that fall out of vending machines just cause I look at them, fire cracker chickens, ditzy backstreet boyz musak and of course the wonderful language that is Norwegian.

And that’s how it goes. Having spent a week with someone most readers of this only know of as ‘a friend’ sharing much seems somewhat wrong. Suffice to say all the above makes some semblance of sense to me at least, and I seem to have ‘caught’ saying ‘somewhat’, my gramma is also slightly AWOL, although I don’t know that that’s just from this week.

But lets see.. it was good to be social again, to taste normality, and listen to music on speakers. (ok.. im referring to staying with a Persian-Norwegian in France as normal.. that’s probably not good) It was pretty cool to get some new music, I think anything else isn’t really blog material. I did see the sixth sense though, that was quite good to actually see it.. I had heard about it a lot.. it wasn’t too bad either.

But really a blog about movies I watched isn’t really that exciting for readers. So.. I ran into Alex and Montse (not quite ran into, but it was all very well timed) that was cool to catch up on a bit of goss, not that there was that much, aside from a few rather dull domestics. We did discuss accents though, that was interesting.

So far I’m yet to find a culture that views accents quite like we do. I am assuming it has something to do with the Globalisation of English, but it could also be some old English thing as well.

To us (and I realise there will be exceptions, but defiantly from Alex, my and a few other native English speakers ive talked about this with) accents are important. Whether its just because they tell you where someone is from (and thus a bit about them), in older England accents told you someones town, and sometimes socioeconomic background also, or for some other reason. But we, and defiantly I, have always viewed accents as cool. There's sleezy ones, georgeous ones, sexy ones, etc. Often you find girls prefer a guy with a nice English accent, American ones aren’t as attractive, Deep South American and you automatically assume they are dumb (Direct quote from a Northern American), kiwi ones are just pretending to be different from Australian and so on. Light French is kinda cool.. German can be a little military, Italian=Coffee etc. But what I cant understand is that its not cool to have an accent in other languages, ie. Speaking French with an Australian accents isn’t groovy. Where as there is a certain coolness to English with a French accent (or Spanish, or Norwegian, take your pick) as long as its understandable. Trying to convince non native speakers not to go out of their way to lose their accent just doesn’t work, they don’t believe that there could be any kind of advantage to speaking English with their own accent. I don’t think they will ever actually believe us, but we are telling the truth, don’t do it! lol

Explored a bit of Paris today, saw the Champs Elessays-totally exciting (was totally overwhelmed by the shopping, especially the Disney store), saw the Effile Tower and went to the Musee de Orsay which was cool. I had some trouble taking all the art seriously, some what quite angsty and very random. But there were lots of the obligatory naked girls flopping around and statues of gods eating fruit etc. there was some Monet (which I was quite glad to recognise) which was cool to see in the flesh. There was also a replica of some Parisian (I assume) streets under the floor.. im not sure why.. but it did look cool. There was also some pretty good people watching, sooo many Americans talking knowledgeable about art. And lots of French girls sketching a statue of a young boy/goat (Goat legged person.. don’t remember the name), maybe goaty-ness works better for the French than accents, lol joke joke. And that’s all I can think of.. it’s all getting a little nonsensical, so ill leave it there.

Take care

'On my way home I remember only good days'

So..
im not sure at what point coming home actually began.. was it halfway through the trip? is is just when you get on that last plane from Hong Kong? Or is it when you actually start to think that you are coming home.

Im thinking its the latter. so.. im on my way home.. well back to aust at any rate. as it goes ill only be there for a week and a bit and then on the Great Vic Bike Ride, which is going to be AWESOME. a) its going to phillip island and the Prom.. what better to come home to? and b) the little stevies are going to be playingn live again.. so yes.. looking forward to that.. and seeing ppl too of course.. lol oh and c) Poi and Devil sticks with little kids watching us thinking we are the bees knees.

so.. im currently in Toulouse.. and decided to spend the day exploring. And consideringn ill be home in a week and a bit i attempted to get some souvineery things.. (wasnt too successful.. sorry.. everything you see either would die in transit ie. chocolate, wine and crockery, is painfully heavy ie. books or is illegal to bring into the countryie. food, cheese, honey etc. an everythingn else is the same hippy asian and indian stuff you see everywhere.. but i still have some days.. so we shall see..) but i did have some fun shopping.. mirror world alwyas makes things interestingn.. and not being able to understand what shop keepers are saying to you.. and of course the dodge looks from security guards.. they dont seem to like me.. (its the rain coat and back pack, least i hope its not that i just look suspicious) but that all kept me entertained for some time.. including the regulatory looks at cathedrals etc.
Sadly it turned out that i hadnt paid quite enough attention as i should have been.. (a reminder of school days) and as such i ended up soemwhat lost..
well not really somewhat.. very.. which was incredibly vexing and embarassing and annoying (this kind of thing doesnt happen to me, as far as im concerned) so i spent 1.5 hrs walking aroundn the town looking for a waterway (turns out there are actually 4 which didnt really help) as it gradually got darker and everything got harder and harder to recognise. Eventually it was decided that i should give up and i took the subway.. sigh.. such a cop out. My getting lost did have one positive.. it amused my friend immensly.. which i see as a good thing (there had to be soemthing good)
My friend was lovely though and met me at the station.. where we brought nutella which fixed all problems- uber appreciated.. and then watched Troy which quite good.. the chicks were annoyingly pathetic though.. rather like in herculuse returns (only not as a satire) and i cant help but wonder if Achillies really would have liked to be rememberd as a tendon in ones leg, and as a part of weakness (ie. achillies heel) rather than just a hard core hero..
oh.. i have finally caught up on the chaser goss.. and saw the whole scene from the APEC thing.. it was fantastic.. i am so proud that i come from somewhere where that happened (well maybe not that the cops were pathetic) but that the chaser can get paid to do that.. thats awesome.. i want to do that.. well id probably prefer to work in PR for some weapons manufacturing firm.. but hey.. you need more than one option ;)

anyways the whole point of this blog is to say im heading home.. within a week and a bit.. although i will be buggered so be kind please.. lol.. i do not want to have to repeat the same stories as on my blog over and over lol.. there are others, they will probably pop up in like 3months over breakkie. (when i work out what the føæk i used to eat for breakkie.. i still have no smegging idea.. )

and thats all folks.. im in need of sleep.. i had slightly more exercise today than expected wandering town..

And the music goes round my head

So… hmm..

So I am currently staying at a friends in france. He lives in on campus accommodation, this seems to mean that the majority of people who are at the door speak Norwegian. Which is somewhat confusing, but Norwegains are cool, and its Europe so you have to expect it I guess.

Anyway. I am currently here by myself, it has been an odd afternoon, someone asking about bread and then the latest. A bloke only speaking French came to the door babbling away. I gathered, correctly, that he wanted to drill a hole in my friends door and put one of those peep hole things in. I don’t know why. What is one supposed to do in these circumstances? I let him drill the hole.. whilst rather worried that this wasn’t supposed to be happening. Well not rather worried.. very worried. It was all very odd.. but it didn’t seem like a likely evil person thing to come and put a spy hole thing in the door.

There was some confusion when my friend came back.. i was contemplating just not telling him and seeing if he noticed. But he did.. I opened the door (forgetting to look through the little hole) to find him staring rather bemusedly at the door trying to work out how and when this thing had happened. But all is well.. the town is nice.. a uni town, slightly industrial etc. has an awesome canal thing that actually runs on a bridge over the road.

I think this is going to be a rather short blog.. mainly ive just been reading and working out whos music will be played. We did come across the most awesome quote though:

“Of course it’s a classic symptom of teenage narcissism to believe that the end of history coincides with you’re arrival on earth.”

I think its gold, and somewhat true.. well very true.

Not that I would say we are narcissistic but.. well.. I think history has a higher probability of ending for us than everyone else.. obviously.

It is common teenage narcissism to believe that the end of the world perfectly coincides with your being on it.

A couple of days ago there was the coolest thing.. a bunch of kids were having a ‘dance off’ on the main square. From back a bit it looked like a fight.. but turned out it was a bunch of guys having an awesome time showing off sans music, beats me what they were rating the dancing on. Didn’t expect to see that kind of thing in France. But that’s what MTV and globalisation is all about.. least it’s a friendly kind.

The leaves are still falling.. its quite an awesome season aside from the cold, it has different sounds, smells everything.. im quite glad ive go to experience it a bit.. not soo sure about a winter Christmas though.. I prefer our system of warm chrissie then Christmas in July. Either way it will be something I will have to experience at some point, a proper snowy Christmas.

My life seems to oscillate between extreme isolation and constant companionship.. I do rather wonder why.. although it does make for an interesting life.. which is always good. I have found myself in music recitals in German Churches and playing pool with people discussing potato pizza (pomme de terre lit. apple of the Earth). Of all things to understand it was somewhat out of the blue. I guess it makes as much sense as a ‘Pine apple’, sure it looks like a pine.. but the apple?.. sure.. That it was on pizza is still somewhat of a mystery.

And that’s it for the night..

Bjnos.. and ciao