Day 1

Blah blah blah…

Rhett’s 30th Birthday

combined with

Rhett & Michelle’s Engagement Party

Townsville, Queensland, Australia

Ninh Binh Province

Time to hit the road again.

Today was all about travelling two hours (110 kilometers or 58 miles) south of Hanoi, into the province of Ninh Binh, where you will find the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hoa Lu (which dates back to the 10th century), as well as the Bich Dong Pagoda and Tam Coc.

The Price for Fun

We decided on an all day tour, which I beleive cost $45 USD a person. I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself, as there was plenty to do and see and as we basically had our own bus for the five of us, it made for a great day.

Seeing where I can put the captions.  This is where you talk and talk and talk.  To put captions on photos, go to Gallery > Manage Gallery and choose the gallery you want to add photo captions to.  In the “Alt & Title Text / Description” fields, add the appropriate hover/caption text.  In gallery #3, example text has been added.  Check it out.

Stay Happy!  ;-)

Greeting and Salutations Culture Vultures,

I was chatting to some good mates of mine, Phil & Jodi Wilkins, about going over to visit them in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The have been over there for the past couple of years, teaching at the Australian International School. It just so happens that April is school holidays over there, so the plan was to jet over, spend a couple of days in KL (as the locals call it), then shoot on up to Vietnam for 10 days of playing “Tommy Tourist”.

As with the beginning of any of my new travels, there is always a child-like excitement when I head off to places I have never visited before. I flew in from the mine site where I work, last night, and set about finishing packing for the trip. I was up around my normal time of 5AM and promptly set about removing half of what I packed the previous night, a habit I picked up several years ago.

So, being someone who will never die wondering, thanks to young Sonia, who picks me up in her mobile handbag (the Mitsubishi Triton ute) at 8 bells, I’m off…. a new adventure begins. I present myself at the Townsville Qantas ticket counter and then prepare to spend the next 15 hours and 10 minutes to cover the 4729 miles or 7610 kilometers to Philthy & Jodes place.

The first leg of the trip takes me from Townsville to Brisbane on the tin crow, covers 1112 kilometers (691 miles) and takes a leisurely, 2 hours and 5 minutes.

One of my least favourite past times, waiting at airports, consumed nearly 3 hours of my life I wouldn’t get back. The only positives of a layover, is the fact that you are headed somewhere and can largely ignore the caged consumer feeling of over-priced shiny trinkets, alcohol and personal hygiene products.

For the next 7 hours 55 minutes, I was a guest of Qantas “Frozen” Air Freight for the 6155 kilometer (3825 mile) Brisbane to Singapore leg of the journey. I so won the flying lottery by not only getting the exit row seat I asked for, but there was no one sitting next to me – score!!! I settled in with a good book and two blankets to try and ward of the frigid cabin temperature, which brought out the comment from me “are we flying passengers or fucking penguins”????

Is it me, or is Singapore’s Changi Airport getting bigger every time I visit it? They’ve ripped apart Terminal 1 to renovate it, but the last time when I flew through in 2008, I was on my way to Edinburgh (Scotland) and I didn’t see anything wrong with it back then.

I arrive at the Malaysian Airlines counter in Terminal 2 (Gate 52) only to find that I didn’t have a boarding pass, bad thing for trying to get through security, plus my luggage had not been added to the flight manifest. A couple of phone calls, after they suggested I return to my originating departure point (as if I’m returning to Brisbane???) and I was on the aircraft that resembled a cattle cart, headed to Kuala Lumpur, a short 343 kilometer (213 mile) hop that took 55 minutes.

It was just after midnight that I exited Kuala Lumpur International Airport located at Sepang, which is also the site of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

As you can see by the Flight Map, it wasn’t anywhere near the length of my usual overseas trips…….thankfully

Just to recap, in case you are interested, I’ve broken down the flight times and distances in getting over there:
∗ Townsville (Queensland, AUST) – Brisbane (Queensland, AUST): 691 miles or 1112 kilometers
Flight Time: 1 hour 45 minutes plus 2 hour 45 minute layover
∗ Brisbane (Queensland, AUST) – Singapore (SGP): 3825 miles or 6155 kilometers
Flight Time: 7 hours 55 minutes plus 1 hour 25 minute layover
∗ Singapore (SGP) – Kuala Lumpur (MSY): 213 miles or 343 kilometers
Flight Time: 1 hour

Greetings & Salutations to one and all, wherever you may be. What a funny old month it’s been. In the true tradition of the eternal life trifecta “Hatch, Match & Dispatches”, otherwise known as Births, Deaths and Marriages, I’ve got a bit of news to share.

Firstly the Hatches

A couple of really good mates of mine, she – a medical professional and he – my Caldwell Night Rodeo adult beverage sampling partner. Both of whom are extremely good peoples and shall remain somewhat anonymous, in that I shall only use their first initials – Jax and Ian Atkinson, are expecting.

Now for those of you who were wondering, no, that was not the reason I left town and headed back to Australia after my visit in mid last year. Although it may have been the reason after I found out the neighbour is also up the spout, but that’s a whole different matter. It’d give a whole new meaning to enjoying some Cherry pie. But I digress.

Good for them I say and I hope/wish/pray that we get to greet another White Russian drinking, gun toting well balanced rat bag lunatic larrikin (such as our good selves) in the not too distant future. It’s already been agreed that the bub will NOT be named after me, as profanities are not allowed on birth certificates.

On the Matches front…

Well fuck me swinging & sideways if I’m lying but……… Mike and Rebecca have finally decided to wreck a perfectly good relationship by going out and announcing a wedding date.

Now, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think it’s taken a little time. Global Empires have fallen, Egyptian pyramids have crumbled, man has taken flight, glaciers have produced beachfront acreages and I may have mellowed in the time that Mike has taken to pop the question. They reckon good things come to those who wait, but fair suck of the sav Mike, we already knew Rebecca primo!!! Being a bloke whose had his “trainer” marriage (no offence to my former better half Struth coz she’s a good ‘un) but I reckon Mike had to make sure and let the warranty run out first.

They’ve picked a wedding date of August 8th, 2008. I could only imagine it was Mike who picked that date – easy to remember. It’s the starting day of the Olympics in China, or could it be all he can ate (eights) or simply the day his American Association of Retired Persons membership kicks in??? Who cares – good onya to the pair of them.

With the Dispatches

This one was kind of tough as it also falls into the “it’s not what is seems” category as well.

I had been chatting online with a local nurse, Tam was her name, who’s a 38 year old single mum with an 8 year old boy. We’d go back and forth with emails, IM’s (instant messages) and phone calls over a month or so. We decided on a Sunday brunch over on the beachfront area of town called The Strand. We chatted for a couple of hours and both thought we hit it off pretty well. We left with Tam saying she’d give me a call later in the week as she had a tight work/kid/study schedule. By Friday and having received no contact at all, I thought that she just blew me off and was doing her own thing.

As with every Saturday morning, I grab a paper, a coffee and a bacon & egg sanger and sit down to relax and peruse the local rag. On page three is a large photo of Tams – I’m like wow, I know her. I read the full page article and am horrified to learn that on the Tuesday she was driving 8 hours South to the town of Rockhampton and rolled her car a half an hour outside of her destination, killing her instantly. What a waste.

My shame went through me, like caustic acid, that I thought she didn’t call, because she was blowing me off. Rather sobering and not one of my proudest moments, as it was a hard lesson learnt in “it’s not what is seems”. Food for thought???

Poverty Palace Part III

On that sombre note, I’ll move on to the Poverty Palace Part III. Not a lot has gone on as I’m in the planning stages of a remodel of the downstairs. I’ve got a plan of attack worked out in which I’ll be relocating the laundry, removing a couple of concrete support posts, installing two 6 inch by 16 foot steel beams to open the area up. Then it’s onto the framing up and fitting out of a new huge bedroom (making it four in total for the house) and adding an ensuite shower and bathroom. A couple more cash jobs on the side will see me through with construction costs, so hopefully it won’t be long before my roomy will be the king of his own domain.

The excitement is building for my trip to Scotland and Ireland at the end of August. It’s only 3 months away now and I’m really looking forward to a break for a few weeks. A bit of rugby, a spot of rubber necking and the spreading of good cheer and merriment would be the only routine I’m interested in. Should be a lot of fun.

Anyways, I’ve bent your ears for enough this go round.

Stay Happy

Fitzy

Greetings & Salutations to one and all, wherever you may me. Hopefully you’re either thawing out or putting on your winter “coats”, depending on which side of the pond you are.

Townsville Status Quo

Things have been plugging along at a pretty steady pace over here in Townsville. The house is consuming most of my spare “free” time. I’ve emptied out another 32 boxes and the word “crap” came out a lot during the ritualistic-type unwrapping. As some of you may remember, I really didn’t have any mindset as to which way I was going to go, in regards to where I would end up after Boise. As such, I kept a lot of stuff, that, in all rights should have stayed in Boise, had I been 100% positive on moving to Australia.

After unpacking a dozen or so boxes of clothing, the thought struck me that why the hell would I need 24 pairs of jeans, 16 pairs of runners and 32 long sleeve shirts while in the tropics of far North Queensland??? Must have needed my head read I reckon. Just for the uninitiated, living in Townsville is bit like snogging with a good sort – hot, wet and energy sapping, and you dress (or un-dress as it seems) accordingly. For a lot of the locals, dressing up is making sure you have clean pair of matching thongs (flip-flops) to go with your footy shorts.

Everything in it’s place

The house is coming along pretty nicely, even if I do say so myself. I’ve got all the furniture in place, all the crockery/cutlery/linens & things are all in their respective places. The kitchen and computer rooms are all sorted, while my Californian King bed has totally dominated the entire master suite – go figure

The only downside of the house so far is the fact that it takes nearly 3 hours to mow the bloody yard. Being in the tropics, you have to keep on top of the mowing or it’ll fair bit you on the arse. It only takes a bit of moisture and your looking to pinch someone’s goat to have a crack at it. I’ve never seen anything like it. I left the lawn alone for 1 week and it near took me twice as long to mow the yard.

Speaking of mowing, they’re a real safety conscience lot over here. Everywhere you go, they’ve got the wide brimmed hat and sunglasses. A fair few of them have the hi-vis t-shirts as well. Obviously with the entire blessings of the sweet patron Saint of stupity, the vast majority simply go with a pair of footy shorts and thongs or worse – barefoot!!! She’ll be right, they reckon. Pigs arse I say!!! Ain’t no way I’d ever be giving up an offering to the digit dicer that’s cunningly disguised and an urban beautification tool.

Under Construction

Plans for remodeling the house are slowly taking shape. As much as Boise is an indoors/outdoors entertaining setup, the tropics is more outdoor living orientated. I’m formulating plans to fit out a granny flat/mother in law living are in the lower portion of the house that is only used for storage at this point in time. This project would be the primary focus as I’d like to have the room mate downstairs so that we both have a bit more privacy.

Next on the list would be to increase the deck areas of the house to make it the primary living area. I would also like to add a garage with a living area/deck above it so that I can knock a few walls out to increase the bedrooms and install a master suite on the back of the house. As I said earlier, the plans are just formulation at this juncture, but it is progressing.

Some of my other “free” time, as if I’ve got heaps of it, has been spent researching things to do and see in Scotland and Ireland. A whole heap of us Alice Springs Dingoes are headed across the pond for the World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival in August for a bit of a giggle. If you have any suggestions on things that are pretty cool, unusual or just fun, please email with the details and I’m looking for ideas.

Stay Happy

Fitzy

Late October 1971 in the New York studios of Record Plant, Producer Phil Spector was tasked with cutting the tracks on an album that contained these lyrics –

So this is Xmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

This was the work of a relatively obscure singer/song writer who, up until that time, was more famous for the band he was part of rather than his lyrical qualities. You may of heard of him — John Lennon. History now tells us these 4 lines were the basis of one of the best known and highest selling songs of all time, not bad for an anti–Vietnam war protest song.

Now…… back to reality. Every year I hear the song, I am drawn to the same four lines of song – especially the second line, and with that, I will dispense with my annual edict forthwith:

2007 has been run and won, 2008 has left the starters block, so what’s all the fuss all about anyways ya reckon? It seems to me that the 1st day of the new year is a time of reflection, all be it the manner in which I reflect has changed considerably over the years –

30 years ago I was just getting bored with my Christmas presents and proceeded to ambush my two brothers toys.
20 years ago I was reflecting on what, who or why I did the previous night.
10 years ago was wondering if a career/country/environment move was a good thing.
New Years now means a look back on where I’ve been and where I may be headed.

I have a saying that I like to use all the time “They make rear–view mirrors that size for a reason”. In a nutshell, it’s my of saying you’ve got to keep yourself looking ahead and only sneak glances behind you to see where you’ve been and what’s going on around you. By no means is this going to be a some kind of morbid “Dear Diary” entry, more like I had a bit going on this past year and we’ll see what happens this year. In that vein, I’ll see if I can break the year down to see what 2007 was all about.

JANUARY

The year started out with me not only suffering the effects from a C6 vertebrae spinal chord concussion, but two weeks later and I was nursing an infected hand from driving an inch and a half (65mm) spade bit in to the palm of my left hand. Aside from the obvious 50 percent reduction in my sex life, the transition from holidaying the previous month in tropical Australia and coastal new Zealand, to the sub–zero temperatures in Boise was making my neck ache like a blue–balled Prom date. The month was also spent packing up all the goods & chattels in preparation to my move back to Australia.

FEBRUARY

All the packing and goodbyes were done before jetting off to Tahiti for a couple of weeks. A little thawing out from the US Winter with a little R&R was in order after the hard graft of moving. Air New Zealand has Tahiti as a free stopover when crossing the Pacific, but as the saying goes – be careful of anything that is free as there are usually costs associated with it. Truth be told, Tahiti is a beautiful island nation, but it is ungodly and unreasonably expensive across the board.

MARCH

A couple of great mates, Soni & Fluxy, put me up at the “Walkabout” room while I sort out what I’m doing, a gesture I am forever grateful and indebted for. The 55,000 litre “bathtub” is going to get a major work out, as it’s hotter than a bride on her wedding night – and it’s only f@ck!ng Winter, wait ’til it heats up. I also experienced my own March Madness, of sorts. I ran head on into narrow minded bureaucracy with all manner of pencil necks berating me on “this form” and “that documentation” and “so & so representative” in anything I tried to accomplish. Buying my ute, registering my car and insuring it, health care card, telephones, bank accounts, moving my belongings from the States. You name it, if it had a form and a fee – I was fingered like yesterday’s fish.

APRIL

Could this be career development month? My fledgling career within a government entity lasted the princely sum total of 16 hours, due primarily to boredom. It’s against everything that I am as a person, to simply just rock up to collect a pay check. Within 4 hours at the employ of Queensland Health – Department of Information Technology was near enough to slobbering at the mouth in a rubber room. I scored another job with a financial mob which appeared to be a vibrant and bustling environment that seemed to be just the challenge I was looking for

MAY

I knew that my tenure was going to very brief when the purchase of a corporate jet took more precedence than the desperately required IT infrastructure. For absolutely no other reason than renewing my Green Card, I decided to head off to the sunnier climes of Boise, Idaho to ride my Harley around for a while. Seeing as it was also winter in Townsville, admittedly it was board–shorts weather day or night, but who could resist? A hog, some sun, the wind in your hair and the splattered faecal type impacted matter of kamikaze insects on your teeth is the thing legends are made of – apparently.

JUNE

I got stuck in and helped out Gump with some building stuff, up at his cabin in the woods near Sechesh, Idaho. It was only a couple of hours North of Boise, but what a beautiful spot. While I was in the mood, why not help out my good mates Ian & Jax with bit of a spruce up of their offices in Meridian. Why not stud a wall or two, replace the siding and apply some final trim while I was at it? Hey I was their humble house guest after all.

JULY

The reality/soul searching check, that was 8 weeks in the U.S., had come to a close and it was time to head back to Townsville. Unfortunately I wasn’t any closer to being 100% behind my move back to Australia, but I knew that I wanted out of Idaho and could not find that “idyllic” location in which to grow old disgracefully in. Will it be a decision I will come to regret? Only time will tell. I’ll have a hell of a lot of fun in the interim though.

AUGUST

As hard as I tried not to, it was simply a fiscal matter that saw me returning to the corporate fold, by taking up an IT position with another multi–national entity. Fly in/fly out basis looks to be the best of both world for me, as I was looking to either build a house myself or renovate a distressed property. I was also honoured to be invited to Sianne’s 18th birthday, so I drove the 2902 kilometers (1803 miles) round trip just to say G’day.

SEPTEMBER

of mates, Rab, who I grew up with was a couple of months away from is 40th and in the midst of building his own house. It was decided to have a fair dinkum go and try and get as much of the house done, before his surprise 40th birthday in November. This was also the start of my looking at the real estate ads in order to gauge what you could expect to pay for a house or a bare bit of dirt.

OCTOBER

Pretty much it was all arses & elbows in trying to get Rab & Lisa’s place done prior to his birthday. There was also fair bit of sneaking around trying to organize everything for the 40th without him knowing it.

NOVEMBER

What good night Rab’s 40th turned out to be. People came from near and far to blow the froth of a couple of coldies with him. The house looked pretty smick and it was a good thing as we’d accomplished a fair bit in a short time. The house hunting continued in earnest. As the search went on, we were all shocked at some of the prices being asked for house that, in all reality, should have been demolished.

DECEMBER

A couple of offers, several false starts and over 50 open houses later, I was finally able to purchase my first Australian property. Ironically, all the paperwork was signed, sealed and delivered on the second–last business day of the year. We also managed to get a kitchen remodel done on another mates place in the process.

That’s a wrap!

By any measurement, 2007 has been a pretty full–on year in so many ways – physically, financially, socially and emotionally. I don’t believe in making New Years resolutions, but I will go on the record to state that I hope 2008 turns into a year in which I take a deep enough breath in order to consolidate and take stock of what I have, where I’ve been and where I want to go on this journey called life.

How did your year go? Try not to check the rear–view mirrors too much ;–)

Stay Happy ;–)

Fitzy

Nine Lives

Abo is a cool cat.  He loves the hell out of me.

All sleep and no play

I can’t get this cat to do anything.

The Boot.

Just used up one of its lives.  One more to go before I have to get another cat.