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

let me fly, far away from here... fun fun fun

There are a lot of enjoyable things about travel, less so as well.. of course, but I’m just thinking about what I like.

Things changing all the time is good, and not having to answer to anything except the bank and the cold, that’s cool too. There is a bit of me that’s designed to be on the road and to live out of a pack.. I think that lives in conflict with the bit of me that wants to stay still and drink tea whenever I want. Tea can come later.

But I’m loving having both the time and the inspiration to write and take photos too. There is so much richness in everything, and variety, and that mixed with time is so rare. There is time to spend a day taking photos, maybe you only get 10 good ones in a day, but then you can edit them and muck with them on photoshop and end up with something quite cool. And I know if I don’t do it now it’ll never happen, cause no matter how much time you have at home its so rare to actually make something happen.

And rediscovering the enjoyment in writing is fab too.. and its something that doesn’t seem to happen as much at home. I can rarely write more than a page at a time at home, and im on my 5^th page now. I wonder if I could do my y12 folio by correspondence, its so much easier and more interesting to write when there is so much to write about. Not that there isn’t stuff at home.. its just a different kind.. and sitting at a kitchen table its harder to imagine the situations that are actually reality when you are wandering around. So it’s a very different type of writing, created from consistent stimuli and the kind of thought process that wonders why trees are called trees.. you don’t have to worry about that at home.. they are just trees. Why the bloody hell would you actually wonder about that at home? At home you KNOW that everyone thinks English, everyone drinks milo and knows what ‘The Boyz’ is. (It’s THE café to people out there who don’t know.. the capitals are there for a reason)

I think the people you meet as well.. they are well. In a million cases it would be impossible to actually make up people like that, no one would believe you. Reality is a lot stranger than fiction, we all know that. I could never invent someone who didn’t think they need a passport to get to Australia. A Kiwi/American? That messes with my mind more than a Norwegian/American.

I could never have so perfectly said that you will never meet a ‘real’ American o/s because a real American would never have a passport, let alone take the time off to go overseas. You cant be American if you do that. (I didn’t say that.. it was a guy with a US passport)

I never would have thought of a mother who backpacked across Indonesia with her baby on her back or a Norwegian who spoke such good American English I thought he was an American who had learnt Norwegian (I was impressed for a moment). The world is full of the kind of characters writers only wish they could capture. Some do, I think Pratchett got it working well, I think ive seen Nobby, Captain Carrot (that was amusing.. he did smell of polish and he gleamed.. I think he was a parking inspector), the odd Agnes and a million and one Two Flowers and of course everyone knows a Nanny Ogg. But I think there are characters out their odder than B S Johnson.. and they scream out to be written about.. they are just such good stories to let them go to waste.

Then there is developing interest in less solid things.. like advertising, language, body language, similarity, difference and of course brands.

So my interest in brands, in logos and advertising has been intensified with being away. Brands can and have created a product that is sold anywhere, that is the same. They can sell normality, a dream, an idea, a safe choice.

It was when I actually went out and brought a bottle of coke that I started to worry. I have come to the conclusion that I brought it for two reasons, a subconscious one and conscious, in a sense they are rather in conflict. Subconsciously I would guess I was buying something ‘normal’ something ‘safe’ (within limits of the meaning of safe) something of home, even though I don’t drink it, perhaps the logo itself is reassuring that home and normality still exist. Consciously I have brought coke as a kill or cure idea, specifically in Peru. We came to the conclusion that if coke can rot teeth, steaks and nails then there's a high probability it will also be murder to any bugs currently giving you gyp. It worked too.. although whether or not that was just good timing its hard to tell. Could have just been a spike in blood sugar and caffeine.

Later I came back from a shopping trip and actually looked at the products id brought (pretty much everything was based on price) and realised that I had brought almost all ‘home brand’ stuff, something I would never do at home. I think (again thought in process) this was mainly because I didn’t recognise the home brand logo (it was ‘Casino’ the name of the supermarket I was at) and the products were too foreign in some cases to recognise brands. So instead of basing my purchases on familiarity, or branding it was totally on price (or in the case of the cheese if it looked like it could be cut by a plastic knife AND not go off without refrigeration) and size. I found it curious, at home I would always go for the yellow brand milk (cause that’s just what we drink..), the easy presliced unplastic cheese.. I might get homebrand flour.. if its cheapest (beware homebrand is not always cheapest.. thats just a rumour they spread) but stigmas I guess cant exist if you don’t know what to be biased against. And if you haven’t seen the advertisements.. then its harder to be influenced.

This of course led to thoughts about money, which led to the concept that money doesn’t actually exist. And how often we are sold things that don’t actually exist, people out there buy Air Guitars. I remember when I was little thinking learning about shares, and being told that say shares in ColesMyer mean you own a little bit of ColesMyer.. I had a lot of trouble understanding that although one may own a little bit of ColesMyer that DOES NOT mean that you may go into a store and take a bottle of milk. Its logical, a bottle of milk looks like a small enough percentage of ColesMyer for one person to own for $1.50. I think its interesting how long it took me to understand the idea that you could buy something that doesn’t actually exist, yet as we get older and more ‘worldly’ that seems more natural. We deal in levels of money that do not exist in gold or jewels, we sell dreams and lifestyles. We sell products that are not a thing, but a symbol of an ideal. Coke is sunny days at the beach with good looking friends, a Pandora charm bracelet is not just gold and silver but solidified memories, Kathmandu is the clothes you wear when you want to be somewhere else. As we get older we get used to the idea that we are told, that we can buy something to make our lives better. Something ephemeral, something impossible, and it’s a concept that I could never have understood when I was young. I wanted barbies because I was told to by society, not because I actually thought they might make my life better. I liked pink because I was told to, not because I found it aesthetically pleasing. As we get older it gets harder to just tell someone ‘want this’, unless of course you are living in a dictatorship, in which case you could just tell everyone to like pink.. and the world would tun to hell even quicker. But we need to be sneakier as advertisers as audiences get older, we need to sell something that doesn’t exist so that consumers continue to buy in the hope of someday actually managing to buy impossibility.

Now I want a mini because of the image associated with it, I use a pack and not a wheelie bag again because of the image, because of the lifestyle associated with it. Because people with packs are always going somewhere more interesting. (also because they are more practical with stairs and dull things like that.. but we can ignore that for the point of this exercise)

I think its all fantastic.. and I have the time to write it down too.. which is cool. What more could you ask for? Inspiration and time.

Maybe not the best writing.. but meh.. that’s all relative.

There is something from a long time ago that still worries me a bit, I do worry about our countries reputation somewhat. It is very random and not in the slightest related to the rest of this blog. Some time ago I was at a café at home listening to a conversation happening at the next table. I do rather regret eaves dropping now, as what I heard still haunts me. The man at the table referred to one of his employees as ‘not an Einstein’ and his daughter than asked him what he meant. He said something along the lines that Einstein was a very smart man, who invented things, but was rather mad and spent a few years in a mental institution. Now as far as I know, this is not true, Einstein was very focused etc. for sure but he wasn’t locked away for that as far as im aware. What I do know is that we have a movie starring Yahoo Serious called Young Einstein where we claim that Einstein was Australian (Tasmanian specifically) that he split the beer atom, did e=mc^2 etc. and invented surfing. He also invented rock and roll (well.. roll and rock he calls it) and was locked away in a mental asylum with Marie Curie for a while. Considering some of the other references this bloke used to Einstein I became a bit worried that he thought this movie was actually a historic representation and haven’t shaken that fear for a long time. It’s a scary thought that some of my country men may actually believe Einstein was Australian, let alone that you need to split a beer atom to get carbonated beer. Its also rather frightening to think that they are spreading this fallacy. We could create a war with the Germans over something like that. And all we could do in defence is bubble beer at them, dear dear me. The movie does have some good music though.

And I am still in France, progressively getting more attatched to my music.. which is some weird lynk to home. Also wondering why some euro countries only have UHT milk when they have cows.. its odd.

And that’s all folks.. the world is just as mad as we all thought it was.. admittedly possibly more interesting too.. take notes.. you never know when there will be a surprise test..

Smile™

I’m all alone, more or less…

I’m all alone, more or less…

So I was planning on being social and writing this blog in some ‘communal room’ sadly they didn’t have power points, and the other room apparently was being over taken by weird relaxation music. So im in my room, the girl above me was trying unsuccessful to explain why she is upbraiding her hair, and the lady to my right was complaining about the French universities which have just changed from mac to windows or something, I do know she uses a mac and has been living here since september. She was having a bit of trouble thinking in german and trying to speak English, why when she is native French.. im not sure.. but she knew what she meant. Ultimately that’s all that really matters. So viol la..
Youth Hostels are such interesting places, in a study of humanity kind of way. This one seems to be set on redecoration at the moment, its interesting, I was trying to pay attention to a conversation last night, it was a bit tricky with light balls, new tool sets, powerpoints, blow up corona bottles and cardboard palm trees going past behind the speaker. It was like watching a cheap film set get organised, I have the feeling someone has just got a bee in their bonnet recently. A bee with some very odd taste in décor. They also seemed to get a bit confused about what a bar mat is for.. they are currently nailed to the wall.. meh.. what can you say? It’s the French :P I thought youth hostels sort of grew with all that stuff like a kind of fungi.. it never occurred to me you could sit there and actually watch someone nail a bar mat to a wall.. well.. it never would have occurred to me to nail a bar mat to the wall.. but if anything I would have expected it to actually be part of the building.. not an add on as such.
But.. yes.. Youth Hostels are good if you are looking for a little bit of theatre (ie. Bar mats on walls), amusing awkwardness (other peoples awkwardness is always amusing.. just watch someone at the reception while they are waiting for their credit card to be cleared.. while they know there are like 20 other people in the room) and to watch this strange kind of fraternity that is developed in exceedingly short periods of time. Whilst simultaneously no one trusts the next person in the mildest, they were talking about how people keep their wallets safe (after the credit card incident I am differently careful about my wallet and cards), passport, pack, etc. One guy had chained his pack to his bed. Now in perfect theory im sure this could be a good idea, but to me that suggests there's something interesting in it. Something more interesting than a whole pile of dirty junk. Add to that there is one exit to the place, in a very obvious spot. So, for sure it could get nicked, anything could. My socks (which we all know about) are worth a mint, but possibly only to me, you would have to be a certain type of person to take them. I have doubts about their worth on the black market, although they do have L and R on them, talk about tech. I worry more about my little nessie.. that’s got to be worth.. oh… at least one euro on the streets.
Its an interesting concept of worth. To me all my gear is worth everything, obviously it currently is everything. Things like shoes, rain coats, packs, sleeping bags all cost A LOT but really they are of limited worth to someone else. You cant really resell them, defiantly not for their original value. And they are only useful if you are the same size as me, and happen to be into wearing boots (in which case they might take the socks as well) that smell like a kind of war fare.
So although its possible, I have come to the conclusion that its not worth caring round my bags all day just in case someone really wants trashed jeans. Plus in comparison to what else im carrying it isn’t worth it, digital cameras, mobile phones (quad band thanks), mp3 players, lap tops. I use the plural because back packers carry serious money in tech, im not the only person ive met with a lap top (there are at least 8 here currently, 2 macs.. id go for them personally). Backpackers! With lap tops! WTF? As dad said back packers used to be the bottom of every food chain in the world. Now they carry macs. They all have some form of iPod (iPod being the main one still.. sigh), no one uses film.. film pah! (my brother recently reminded me that 4 years ago you couldn’t get me to touch a digital camera with a long pole-they were the ultimate in evil technology that was going to kill photography, and you could only get 12 pics to a $200 card-.. now I cant imagine leaving the house without it) so there are various levels of camera from basic, to hard core DSLR.
Worth really is in the eye of the beholder, I think the thing that shows this most to me is my jeans. They aren’t really that swish, they aren’t branded, nada, but they fit.. they still look ok after 2 weeks no washing.. to me they are worth much more than the $60 I paid for them. Static worth is not.
So ANYWAYS.. these places attract a certain kind of mad clientele. Currently there are about 30 (seems like that anyway there's probably only 7) small children here, who have taken to running down the corridors at 8am screaming. SIGH.. the world has changed when 11yr olds stay in hostels. I guess that’s a good sign, I don’t know. It does mean that there is no such thing as cheap travel anymore, pah there's no such thing as cheap. But it does mean there is a place for small children and mad people to congregate, and its clean too.. so I guess its all good. Aside from that fact that they are allowed to run around late at night, and early in the morning screaming, and taking photos of each other leaving the toilets.. that bit is not good (this is the children, the mad men are much better behaved)
I was very excited to discover one of my French stereotypes is accurate, think of that an accurate stereotype, the smoking one. No one (so far.. I hold hope though) wears striped shirts, red scarves, and black berets.. everyone does carry a baguette though.. and a cheese.. I shouldn’t have got rid of mine eh? Its recently illegal to smoke in here.. but I was quite happy that one of my stereotypes lived up to what it should. a lot of roll your owns.. which I still find fascinating.. (to me they are something older men, and characters in books smoke) I never quite worked out how they work.. and why the whole thing doesn’t just whoosh up in flames like a tea bag. I guess because its not made from a tea bag.. or tea... that could be it now I think of it.
I am assuming that they don’t go whoosh because no one seems to be wandering around with burnt noses and lacking eye brows. would be a good discouragement from smoking.. (fumar tua.. yep.. same ‘smoking kills’ slogans world wide)
But.. the best thing is that this hostel has a million dollar view, this piece of real estate must be worth a mint. Right back out over the city, I can see the path I had to walk yester day to get here. But the thing I noticed with this somewhat different view is that the buildings actually look like buildings in a city that you draw as a child, it is a mary poppins city. With all the windows long and rectangular, and lined up perfectly (a stark contrast to the UK where houses we stayed had no windows were on the same level at all, let alone a straight roof) in square buildings that are only one or two stores higher than the ones next to them.
They are the Buildings we imagine a city to be made out of. Its quite cool. And only one really noticeable highrise .. thankyou SAS.

So today was cold. According to dad (again a sign of the times.. my father knows the weather where I am, and I don’t.. I knew it was overcast, he didn’t believe me until he checked the internet and it agreed with me) it was 3 degrees with wind chill. For the first time in my life im thinking that $250 for an ice breaker jacket isn’t too expensive. I was wearing 5 layers and still couldn’t last the whole day.. everyone else was wearing hard core jackets.. im thinking if the locals are wearing such things.. that might be a hint to the little aussie. I don’t know how people don’t turn into little frozen bundles of carbon… some genetic thing.
What else?.. There is also a miniature museum.. ie. A museum of miniatures.. not a miniature museum. Although looking in the window I got enough miniature ness for the day. And indeed in the window was a minature museum.. little skeletons of dinosaurs and everything.. im not quite sure I see the point.. very compact.. easy to get in one photo.
So.. because of the cold.. I ended up in a few fascinating shops. I found an English language books shop.. which was quite cool.. I got a book (mum and dad both wince.. not more weight they say) about global branding.. which looks interesting although did nothing to defrost me. Various art supply shops, delicatessens, bakeries and super markets.
I also got one of my friends (who is attempting to learn French) a kids book it appears to be about a pirate called arsenic who, judging by the cover, is a blue ant. So it sounds.. interesting at the least.. and could keep me entertained for a little while.
But yes.. I got the brand book because my interest in brands has increased with time away.. and more exposure to which brands are global, which logos etc. And the power brand names have over me and other people. Roxy and Billabong noticeably, and Pringles.
But what we know, and others don’t is interesting. For example you could say the word ‘Safeways’ over and over to whomever you like.. and get no where. Ergo safewas is not universal.. considering its not even national, probably should have guessed. (both safeways and Coles are supermarkets, Safeways is also known as Woolworths in other states)
You cannot say to someone ‘where is the nearest coles?’ I have tried.. it doesn’t work. They don’t seem to have anything comparable, there are shops slightly larger than a 7/11 (also not so international as I would have guessed) then huge barn places like Bunnings for food. Nothing sort of in between.. normal coles/safeways sized. So perhaps supermarket sizes aren’t universal either.
I found it interesting what we refer to as brands, and what is reffered to as the actually product. Ie. The difference between Panadol and paracetamol, its not really Phenergan its anti histamines.. Blu Tac.. and well try explaining that one. Its blue and you use it to stick stuff to a wall.. no no its yellow here (and no its not yellow tac either.. its yellow blu tac but made by the same people.. talk about confusing).
Things that change names are also interesting.
Kodak, Body Shop, United Colours of Benneton, Apple, Microsoft, ESPRIT, Coke and Pringles are all the same so far. Same colours, same logo, same name. Where as Peters (the ice cream) is Ola (lit. hi or hello) in Portugal, and Pauls in the UK I don’t know if its here. Haven’t been looking for icecream. Same font and swoosh around the word though. Also a brand I cant for the life of me remember, but they make lip gloss.. here its called ‘labello’ same font and logo though.. same product as well.
Its weird, you see all most everything the same.. and then just the name is out.. and its very mirror world.. very odd.
Our attraction to brands is interesting.. or our repulsion and the ability to be affected by them seems international. Its curious.. but moving right along..

I was told last night 30% of the English language is French.. I have no idea if that’s true.. but I wouldn’t be surprised. Im better at following conversations in French.. and whether this is similarity or exposure im not sure. But a lot of the words on mums make up.. ‘nior’ and other ones I obviously cant think of now, are all just French cause it sounds cool (go wine knowledge as well.. for example Pinot Nior- black.. umm Pinot.. for an interesting fact it is often drunk by people heading down the goth path and people wearing darker clothes- from working weddings-.. where as Merlot is often chosen by ‘lighter’ looking people). Working in fancy restaurants works too, they seem to think its cool to say jus instead of Juice.. and fancy ways of saying ‘mashed potato’ and although it was annoying at the time (WHY would you bother if the clientel don’t know what it means, I don’t know what it means, and the owner has to look it up in a book.. all it does is make people feel ignorant) its useful now. And champignons means mushrooms in general.. not the specific type of mushroom.. I was proud of getting that. (spell checker even has it)

Then there's the difference in native English between Candies, lollies and sweets. I still get confused. In the states I think its candies (and as such that’s what a lot of people learn), I think of candy as a person.. and that just leads to confusion. ‘Do you want a candy?’ ‘They come in packs?’ To us everything is lollies, except lolly pops.. which are what they are. To the British they are Sweets (I would more think of hard boiled lollies) except a lolly which is a lolly pop. I never expected such a simple thing to be so mind bending.

And with that I shall leave you.. forewarned it forearmed.. no more candie troubles. Or lollie as the case might be, no more sweet troubles doenst really sound right.
Ciao.
And apologies for the scatterness.

Ah.. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my sponsor.. umm.. that car company.. they have generously decided to share the goodness of the internet and put an unsigned hot spot nearish the hostel. Very good people, citroen I think.. with the dots.

theres no kind of atmosphere

Well I am sitting in my room drinking my first decent cup of tea in over a week. The last attempt ended up with milo cereal in it, and the ones made by other people were decidedly weak. So, I have tea, I have this room to myself, and the new waifs album. I also have a view out the window over some unidentified autmny trees and some stunning mountains.
As they say, this is the life.
I am actually relaxed for the first time.. well in a long time. Relaxed being a very different state to happy, having fun etc. So although I have had some awesome times in the last age, I haven’t been relaxed as such. Its quite nice, and rather addictive I have to say. Lol
The last times I can remember being relaxed (I am not counting the tiems doing nothing feeling guilty for not doing anything.. they are many) were ages ago. In y9 on great vic I remember lying under the trees at Cerbrus.. probably an unconventional place to feel relaxed (it’s a miliary base, and great vic involves riding great distances with 3,500 other people). The other time was at the prom, sitting on my surf board in Oberon bay.. considering that was at least 2 years ago (due to the fires last year) I think I am well due some nothing time. And I have to say I am appreciating it, you never know when the normal madness of life is going to take over, although I don’t think id really want to live all my life like this, maybe just a month a year. Lol
So.. I was thinking a little of things that I would like to have here. If they didn’t weigh anything, weren’t impossible etc. I haven’t included people.. duh.
So.. we have:
-ice cream.. it is very expensive to buy in small amounts, and impossible to transport thus illuminating the possibility of buying larger amounts. It is also cold to eat outdoors.
-Milo and milk.. ahh good old milo.. none of this tea/milo crap
-kettles.. very rare buggers leading into the next point
-consistent tea supplies… well actually there are at least 6 tea emporiums here (I didn’t think a town could sustain so much tea) but that’s not the same as milk, tea, a mug, and hot water all in the same place.
-Toast.. now why the Europeans don’t eat toast I will never understand.. it is one of their few failings.. cold bread for breakkie isn’t the same
-Consistent internet.. preferably that doesn’t involve sitting outside in the cold..
-Clean clothes.. yes.. that would be good.. I think other people would like that too.
-My car.. (yes.. right hand drive.. that would NOT be a good idea) car=freedom from public transport.. and strikes
-A good shower.. not one where you press the button and water runs for 10secs.. I don’t know who decided that saves water..
-cheap phone calls.. damn Telstra.. I say that very publicly..
-easy to use electric plugs.. English ones are the worst.. you need a crow bar to get the plug back.
-and the worst.. and girliest.. my hair straightener.. sigh.. how technologically dependant I have become. Well not me.. my hair.. anyway’s that’s not to worry.. moving right along.. actually moving along in a second. I find it interesting that although I may desire all that crap.. I am surviving quite well without.. we are very adaptable things.. I think mostly we choose not to adapt. Much as I know I can survive sans hair straightener, con hat, I don’t plan on it when I get home. Im sure that makes me a bad non greenie.. if I buy a hybrid does that make up for it? lol

I was not disappointed yesterday. I got my obligatory European show. I was wandering around, slightly locationally displaced, I think in the tourist area of town, which was the laziest tourist area I have ever seen, I think all the touters had the weekend off, that or they are in Grenoble. Anyway walking along as I was, looking at 300 euro bags, I found the event of the day. A bunch of people, I suspect they were actors but the sign was slightly incomprehensible, were dressed up in ski gear from the 80’s (shudder) sitting around in deck chairs taking photos of each other. One was trying to smoke a salami. I don’t know why. I doubt I ever will. Its one of those mysteries.

But, moving along from smoking salamis (from what I saw he was unsuccessful.. probably a good thing really) there's something I cant work out about Europeans. They look stylish ALL the time, I don’t know why, or how. They even look stylish when rollerblading in lycra. That takes skill.
As far as im concerned it stands out from miles away that I am Australian. We are not known for suave, and I defiantly am not, especially when washing clothes in a sink..
Like, there are backpackers wearing white pants, and yes they are white, not grey. My new blue jeans are a kind of browny grey and would possibly walk if struck by enough juice to give them a bit more life, currently they try to slunk off.
In my normal circles I would look scruffy, but here I feel like a big ball of scruff, in comparison to the locals.
I don’t know why they are so slick. It cannot be genetic, genetically I am after all European and British. And it cant be in the water cause I would have caught it by now. Perhaps its some vitamin supplement. I don’t know, man they can make a polar fleece look like an acceptable item to wear down the street, not rain coats though. I have got a ‘look’ for wearing a rain coat down the street (as such for the next few rainy days I didn’t take anything water proof, and was attacked by multiple umbrellas) the guy I was with was highly embarrassed to be seen with me. ;) It was all very amusing.
That said the trend of shorts and boots and stockings has taken hold here, (and to anyone reading this please don’t take offence if you are in the habit of wearing this particular outfit) im not quite sure why.. im sure skirts exist for a reason.. but maybe its cool. Still they make that look slick.
Perhaps all this is emphasized by the fact that I have been wearing the same clothes (with some washing.. its ok.. don’t panic) fairly consistently for the last 2 weeks because I cant be bothered to totally unpack to find other clothes. As such everything is slightly crumpled, some is shrunk due to bad experiences with washing and drying machines and some colours are a bit patchy due to bad experiments with washing powders. And my hair seems to have decided that the world is going to end, and as such has gone into a frizzed panic trying to warn other people by jumping out at them. My hair has a little too much spirit, as mentioned earlier.
About the only bit of me that fully fits in is the jewellery, I think Pandora has become as, if not more so, universal than Fossil. Possibly more so, there was a girl in Northern Norway who had a bracelet.
I am wondering how there can be such a differenece between Europeans and Australians in the suave stakes. Fashion is nigh universal, so it has to be in the wearer not the clothes. Although perhaps they have more access to the clothes.
I am in a town with three different ESPRIT shops (womens, mens, and something called EDC) a united colours of Bentton and Lacloste. (you know what I mean, spell checker doesn’t) and I am defintlay not in the city, I am in a town built around a lake and skiing, its like Omeo or Baw Baw village having those shops.
In one shopping centre in Portugal there were 3 united colours of benneton stores. I was proud of knowing the name, I even own a shirt from them (go DJ’s sales). So perhaps it is the clothes, or the vitamin supplements. Who knows, I shall ask someone when I get the chance. Or maybe something else.
I come from a land down under. Of rugged mountain ranges and dusty red soil planes. Now I have the suspicion that I just mixed and mutilated two very well known famous poems.. BUT I also come from a land where a bonds chesty (other wise known as a beater –pronounced Bee-da) is considered fashionable. That could be the problem, not that I can blame Bonds.. but it is tempting. I only just realised what a hold they have on our market. Sigh. And what a hold beaters have on our market. Maybe this is something to do with it all.

I was wondering how much globalised communications such as this have affected our views on travel. If I wasn’t writing this blog, well its possible I would have lost touch with more people than I have and they would have even less of an idea of where I am. And possibly I wouldn’t remember as much. When I got home all people would have heard was maybe one or two tales, and none of the bad stuff would have been communicated. I am wondering if things like this ruin some of the blind romantic ideas we have of travel. When we talk about the travels in past tense only the good bits get discussed, and they get amplified, thus people end up with a more positive impression. Whereas with this warts and all get aired (hopefully in a balanced fashion). I haven’t yet decided if this is a good or bad thing, perhaps its just different.

And with that the world goes on.. I gradually turn into a little amelia shaped icicle and get rambled at by mad men because im sitting on a park bench with a lap top.. yay for the world.

its cold out there

Today kiddies we are going to discuss a few things.
Psychology, a reoccurring theme I know, of myself (a topic on which I consider myself an expert), of Europeans(in a mass generalisation sense) and different tourists. And other stuff that comes into my head as I type.
Typing I notice is physically a lot easier than writing with pen and paper.. as such I tend to write better and more when im typing.. maybe lugging around a laptop is worth it.
For free internet it defiantly is. (better than an euro for 10mins.. ouch!)

So.. I spent a lot of time on busses yesterday. Busses are not specifically my forte.. for some reason I prefer trains, less air con I think. Anyway.. the scenery was spekkie.. and aside from a bung back it was all pretty groovy. (apparently not adjusting my pack to my back was unwise.. I now spend quite a bit of my time either wincing at apparently invisible demons to passers by.. or very flat on my back.. I feel about 60 lol) The reason for the buses (and a 5hr journey, instead of a 1.5hr one) was because of a very inconvenient train driver strike. I am all for better conditions for French Train Drivers.. but not so much when im trying to get somewhere.
So, thinking along, I realised im in France. No Shit… that may seem like a bloody obvious statement.. but sometimes im a little slow on the uptake. The fact that it took a week probably means im processing a little slower than normal.. but I got there in the end. It sort of sunk in that of all the places I have ended up in.. im in France.
This may not seem like an illogical place to end up in to most people.. it’s THE tourist route.. but I have secretly hated France for years. For no particular reason. Up until last week my total of French people met was at total of one. My knowledge of France stretched to Paris, The Champs Ellesays, Mont Blanc, le Tour and one Top Gear episode. And that its vaguely star shaped. I think with nothing other to base a like/dislike on, I went with the very old English view.
So I was somewhat confused as to WHY I came here. I have a friend here, I know a few people who came on exchange here, and other people I know go paragliding here. That’s it. But for some reason it seemed logical.
Im quite glad I came here actually. The foods pretty good, and not break the bank. The people are entertaining at the least (although that comes later) and its very beautiful. And I seem to be able to mostly get around ok without French.
But yes.. I also realised that my view of the world has become curiously insular. I think this has something to do with the events of the last week or so and being alone in a non English speaking country.
It’s a very simple world.
There's me.
There's the rest of the world.
And such is the world divided.
There's my little bubble with English thoughts, music and my little views on the world.
These views are being constantly proved wrong, but still they are mine. I accept that they are, or can be, wrong.. but they are valid, least I reckon.
So the world is either older younger, more or less normal than me. Etc.
So when I get asked little questions like ‘how old are you?’ I get rather stumped, I had to think for some time. I seem to be assuming that I know.. therefore everyone else does too.
Not so.
Its interesting, ‘the psychology of Amelia wandering the world’. Lol..
I think its this insular ness that leads to circular thinking.. very annoying.
I also seem to be emitting a field that puts me at, on average, 3-7 years older than I actually am. That’s possibly more annoying than the circular thinking. Although I don’t think ive got it that bad.. one 17yr old I met had a girl guess his age at 28. That was a bit devastating for him.

I think there is some part of the EU that states every European must do something unbelievably mind bogglingly odd in front of a tourist daily. I quite enjoy this little bylaw. And think it should be encouraged.
Yesterdays was good, taxi drivers in a rank in front of a train station would move up the rank as one taxi was used (you know the general drill). So instead of actually going to all the effort of turning on the ignition and putting the car into gear, one guy got out of his car and pushed it the next 10m to fill the gap. Very fuel efficient.
Actualy yesterdays was two. A whole bunch of teenagers were running around with packs of flour and breaking them on each other. I don’t know why we didn’t think of that for muckup day.
Todays was even odder. I thought id missed my oddity of the day, and was feeling very disappointed when walking back to the hostel I saw a group of people who thought they were hippies sitting in a circle in a park. There was the juggler.. guitar player and two, count them, TWO didgeridoos. I don’t know why. They probably don’t realise exactly how weird that is. They thought they were cool though. (no, they weren’t aboriginal.. nor Australian to boot.)

I met some French Canadians the other night. I was quite excited, I discovered I can actually understand Canadian French a lot easier than French French, I don’t know why, but if they talk slow, or are explaining something I can get it almost no worries. I understood ‘The French Prime minister has broken up with his wife’ and ‘dinner tonight is 3 courses, Salad, some main thing, and dessert, and cheese’. Im on the up and up.

What else? I was eating lunch today.. sitting enjoying the sun and the view. When I had a crow decided that he was going to save me from the effort of eating my lunch myself, I assume by eating it for me.
I did not appreciate this.. and I spent most of lunch in a kind of invisible tug of war with this crow. But it got worse. As I was trying to work out how to turn a lap top, pair of gloves and note book into a deadly projectile weapon to skewer afore mentioned avian creature, a tourist (asian.. what is it with Asians and annoying birds? SeaGulls aren’t cute.. crows attempting to steal my lunch are also not cute.. nor photogenic.) decided to do a little photo shoot with said creature.. which had just developed the gall to jump onto the back rest of the seat.
I was not impressed.. in the interests of international peace I stayed still, seething, waiting for the ego stroking to finish so that I could go back to working out if I was fast enough to grab and strangle the bird just enough to discourage it from lunch napping again.
It did make me wonder about the different types of tourists though, it would be sort of nice to be that enamoured by everything you saw. Very easy to please, and I don’t think that would be a bad thing. Oh.. the bird survived, the war continues.

I then spent the afternoon attempting, futilely, to document Autumn. Autumn here is somewhat of a different one to that at home. Its different when all the trees loose their leaves.. the colours are stunning.. some resemble so strongly the fire in opals. Its cool.. different to evergreens. And I think I got a few ok pics. Not as many as I would have liked.. but the good ones are good.

And now.. European psychology.
This theory is a work in progress.. I don’t think it could actually ever be totally finished without bias.
But obviously Europeans have a very Europe centred view of the world. (This is a gross generalisation, I do know people who know about the IR laws, Pauline Hanson and who aren’t shocked to find that Indonesia has its own language, so this is my perceived average) I had vaguely thought this might be the case, but I don’t think I realised exactly to what extent this is.
I also didn’t realise to what extent our view is Australasia centred.
There were some small tips, like people not having any idea about Australia, not knowing that there was an Indonesian language. I also found it very confusing to find their idea of Asia. We describe Asia culturally, ie. China, Japan, SE Asia, with India in its own category (probably the sub continent), then the middle east.
To them, I think, everything to the east of Turkey is Asia. There are some mountains that denote the border, it involves cutting Russia (hear that Russia is now Asia.. )
Its weird, it never occurred to me to describe it so technically. It also makes it hard to differentiate between the Middle East and Asia, and I do think its important to be able to easily differentiate. There are some huge cultural differences between the Japanese, Mongols and say Malays BUT I don’t think they are quite as big as those between people in the left and right of ‘Asia’.
Either way im obviously biased, and you could pick almost any European out of a crowd and they will emphatically tell you that you are wrong. It does mean that organisations can say they cover Asia when they say go out to Iran and Kazakhstan and that’s it. (this pisses me off a little.. my personal belief is that you ignore asia at your peril.. there are organisations that are ‘world wide’ and hit nowhere near the borders of India let alone Australia or New Zealand)
I think, again as a generalisation, we have a similar understanding of Eastern Europe as the average European has of Asia (ahh.. our Asia..)
Ie. Did you know that there is two countries? Slovenia and Slovakia.. they are different places. I must have known this because I knew that the language of Slovenia is Slovene, but it wasn’t a conscious knowledge. So I can hardly say we are better (although of course we are :P) but just very very different.
But this whole thing actually gets to me a lot. Not just because I am sick of being told that im wrong. (I am wrong in a geographical sense… not in a cultural one.. its like the difference between sex and gender) Also not just because it can appear that Asia doesn’t really count (im sure that’s not how its meant.. but just how it can seem) we after all have 2.5 (technically) of the BRIC countries. Brazil, Russia, India, China, from my understanding, they are the biggest economical developing countries-not the best way of saying it-. Ie. The places multinationals need to have a finger in to satisfy shareholders. Huge spenders.
It was because I have met a notable number of people who don’t know about the Bali Bombings. And they didn’t care, and perhaps its this indifference. (this mainly arose in Portugal, as such it could be a cultural thing, or just individual and as such generalising is rather incriminating for many innocent people)
Our school was affected by the bombings, and since then I have seen lectures by the AFP (Australian Federal Police) about the whole thing, including pictures of the Torso of one of the bombers.
And the thought that people could just not give a shit, its very emotive.
Perhaps if it hadn’t affected our school, if it hadn’t hit Australia so hard, if it hadn’t been the beginning of more hits on Bali. Perhaps then I wouldn’t care, which I think shows how hard it is to shake something once it becomes ‘personal’. I think also travelling makes it a bit realer, that there were attacks planned for the airport I used in Germany, for Heathrow (which I have used 3 times to date).
And im sure that there are similar horrible things that I am similarly unaware of, thus making me rather hypocritical, which I am well aware of.
But it doesn’t change how simple a thing, area definition, can create such a divide. Lol so to speak. Its not the thing you would have expected.

On the good news front, Canadians use toasters, they also cannot understand the lack of them in Europe.
I found a wifi spot.. on wonderful French person was so kind as to not lock his network.
I believe two things should be permanently free, Parking and Internet. Currently Parking isn’t quite at the top of my list, possibly because I don’t currently have a car.

That reminds me slightly, just, of a radio play I grew up listening to.
I blame this particular Radio Play for my tendency to hit things against tables to make them work, and my distrust of the media.
There is a character, Nikola Tesla, who runs the Digital Circus, whose big blessing is ‘free electricity for everyone’ .. I think we need something similar for Internet.
I think ‘Ruby’ has a certain responsibility for my growing up. Probably not the most typical hero to have as a kid. She was a Galactic Gumshoe (or bounty hunter) she sounds like shes simultaneously stoned, distracted, sexy and about to attack something. Its awesome.. Her job (in the play) is to work out who is manipulating reality through the media. I think that’s just as relevant now.
After all we call Big Brother reality TV.. and I cant think of anyone for whom that life is reality. Perhaps if we believe Big Brother actually is reality, reality will become Big Brother. What a horribly scary thought.

And on that note I will leave you.. perhaps next time ill think of something more interesting to discuss.


‘to know your enemy is to enter combat and appear to be no threat by losing, then pass on the information to others.’