A Quick Brief on James' Travel Plans

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick brief of what I’m doing and planning on doing....

Ok, firstly, I’ve been working at the schools and at the pub at the same time. I've seen snow blizzards, and been caught in one too.

In Mid March I plan to go to Hanover, Germany for a week for a trade show for Etechgroup back at home. Then spend a few days in Berlin, and then travel back to London for a few days to sort out travel plans and other things.

I’ll then fly to Lisbon, Portugal, where I will begin a big trip across to Athens via other countries(including visiting Jana in Slovakia in August). This trip consists of Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Rep, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Greece.

I will fly from Athens to London to Melbourne late October back home, in time for my brothers wedding. Jana may or may not accompany me depending on finance, visas, etc. I will stay at home for two months, for my birthday, Xmas, new years and summer weather!

Then, finances permitting, I will fly back to England after New Years to work till my holiday visa expires.

After that I travel through England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, fly to Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania/Latvia, St Petersburg, Moscow, Russia, Tran Siberian railway down to Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand,, visiting my sister in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia then getting back home by the following xmas 2005.

Things I miss and the BETT show

G'day all,

I say that because I fear losing my Aussie accent having been in this place for so long! Streuth, it's been nearly 5 months since I’ve left Oz. Time has been flying...

How I miss summer. Having left at the end of winter last year only to enter another colder one in the UK is really getting to me. I miss having long summer days where it didn't get dark at 4pm, the sunshine instead of the dark grey clouds that never seem to leave...

Actually I’ve compiled a list of things I miss (during one typical rainy afternoon). In no particular order:

· My guitar (I miss playing one. People tell me when you travel you are bound to bump into people in hostels etc who have one. I have not seen once since being here! In any case I’m in the process of buying a second hand one for 10 pounds - that's how much I miss having one!)
· My bed (in fact my whole bedroom, having a queen size comfy bed surrounded by TV, stereo, computer and all manner of electrical entertainment equipment guaranteed to induce vast amounts of radiation on me when I sleep).
· My much-loved trademark black overused well-abused overcoat.
· Dim Sims (Oh how I miss thee! No one knows what I’m talking about when I refer to them. No sign of them in fish and chip shops. Just some green thing called Mushy Peas that looks like slime. )
· Chicken Satay Noodles from the Magic Monkey Noodle Shop in Russell Street (something that some people at Etechgroup occasionally treat themselves to at lunch.)
· Vegemite (though that has been resolved having bought some from the local ASDA supermarket)
· Carlton Draft Beer (in fact many beers like Crown, Cascade, VB etc...)
· BBQs (I'm dying for the taste of a barbequed chicken wing with tomato sauce, downed with one of the above mentioned beers.)
· Mums Xmas turkey (which is stuffed with special fried rice, a kind of "east meets west" sort of thing).
· Mums cooking (never thought I’d say this but I miss homemade Chinese food!)
· Mum and Dad
· Long conversations with Dad after dinner about things, from his life in Vietnam to what movie to see next in the cinemas together.
· My car – Toyota Corolla CSI Ltd Ed, Maroon, 1993.
· Painting (or attempting to paint)
· Fire twirling
· Having a "few" drinks at my best friend Dan and Mary's house.
· Friends and Family (though this really goes without saying)
· The beaches at Lorne/Anglesea
· My pet rock at Spud's house (the one with the goatee and bubble eyes - the rock I mean, not Spud)

Anyway, a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to in the last month:

As you know I’ve worked in the pub and got some good bar experience that I’ve always wanted. I'm still working there now actually, on weekends and some weeknights after working at the schools. Jana is also working at the pub, having come back from Slovakia. We’re still together in a secretive sort of way.

I also went to London for a week to man a stand (actually 3) at the BETT show (British Education Technology Trade Show) to promote and demonstrate the Etechgroup StudyWiz Extranet system. We were set up in the Connect with Australia Austrade stand, the AT Computers stand, and most impressively, the Apple Computers stand. It's quite a sight to see the big apple symbol on the wall, underneath appears the words "Online Education", underneath that the word "StudyWiz", underneath that the word "Etechgroup". Anyway we generated lots of interest, made heaps of new friends and contacts (In typical Aussie fashion we on the Australia stand with other Australian companies had to play Frisbee with each other in the middle of the show - just can't get away from our sports now can we?! Lots of fun, though I don't think the surrounding exhibitors were too impressed when the Frisbee came flying at their heads but oh well...)

Got to catch up with Emily and Iain, who I took out to a Thai restaurant with some Argentinean wine, the next night they made me a lamb roast with French wine. Then the next night went to a Etechgroup dinner function at a French restaurant with Tasmanian Wine. Don't you just love multiculturalism? The nightclub we went to that night was a shocker, it was underneath the French restaurant, and it was filled with really young people, it was dark, and you could smell marijuana all over the place. We only stayed 5 minutes, which was too long in my opinion. I think the most funniest thing that happened though was getting drunk with my boss at etechgroup and 3 representatives from the Tasmanian Government in a small 4 star hotel room after raiding their mini bar fridge, singing along to mp3s on a laptop and fighting over which song to play next!

Pub work at Xmas

Hi all,

Merry Xmas and New Year and all that...

Below is a link to photos a friend from the Contiki tour put up. Have a look, there are several photos of me in different states of intoxication and half of the places I went to see.
http://adobe.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b35f9d770580

Xmas has been quite a busy time for me. I found some work at the local pub called the Wishing Well and it's been interesting learning to pull pints and serve food. I reckon this would be useful experience for when I might look for work during my travels, as it's easier to get work when you have bar experience.

I've worked through xmas eve, Xmas day and boxing day etc to keep myself from boredom and also because I couldn’t spend xmas with family. But people in a small town are wonderful and I was invited by two families to spend Xmas with them after work! So it all was well in the end.

Jana is spending her Xmas in Slovakia - she'll be back in two weeks. And yes we are now together, though to avoid gossip in this village that we live in we're trying to keep it secret from the locals.. I guess the heart won.

BTW, I’m annoyed to have missed the Concorde landing/last flight, seeing I was only a few km's away from it in Filton in Bristol. I mean, travel thousands of km from Australia to Bristol only to have to miss it. Grrr, blame the guy I had to run his class for while he went to a meeting (and happened to see it fly by twice as a result!)

Had quite a cultured week last week, seeing the school's musical "Grease" being performed which was pretty good, and saw Handel's "Messiah" at Colston hall in Bristol (Halleluiah! Chorus you might recognise it).

Will be in London from Jan 6th to 10th manning a stand at the BETT show in London (British Education Technology Trade Show). So Emily, Martin, etc who happen to be in London or nearby if you want to catch up for a drink etc then email me or ring me..

My birthday, Xmas parties and a Girl called Jana

Ahoj (Slovak for Hello)

It's been a while since I have last written to you all. Then again not much has happened to add to my travel adventures. I've been pretty much stuck working for the Kingswood partnership doing some school administration analysis’s (boring!!), developing concepts like system wide flash interfaces with WebObjects java backend, setting up and running online education test pilot groups in 5 schools simultaneously…

I'm also learning to speak Spanish from my mate/landlord John, in return helping him with online marking for GSCE's. So I’ve been pretty busy during the cold cold winter I am now experiencing while many of you
back in Oz are probably sizzling by now! Soy froido y eres caliente?

I recently have just turned 24 on December 1st. Tengo vientequatro anos. It is the first time I have had a birthday away from family and friends so it was quite daunting. However I received lots of happy birthdays from
people at work and home so it turned out ok after all. Jez (one of my managers at work) bought me a huge cardboard box full of different English foods, from Wagon Wheels to Tea Cakes, from Beef Broth to Different Beers. What a nice chap!

I also received a copy of Lonely Planet Guide to Eastern Europe from John which was nice of him because he knew I wanted to visit more of Eastern Europe than west as originally planned. I want to see Czech Rep, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Moscow/St Petersburg, Turkey, Romania etc because of all the beautiful cities, buildings and spectacular views/scenery, from forests to lakes to mountains...

Went to the BBC Xmas party, unfortunately didn't meet anyone really famous. But I did meet a girl called Jana at the party, Jana is Slovakian, she's my age, extremely beautiful with long dark red hair (dyed), caramel eyes, very nice and fun to be with. She speaks very good English too even though she's in the middle of learning it. And she only lives 5 minutes away!

But before you get too excited, we're not officially together. Neither of us want any attachments at the moment holding us back from the things we want to do. Which I guess is silly since we both like each other a lot and all. Oh well...it’s a matter of if the head or heart rules the body I guess. In any case it’s still good to have a friend like her to keep me from going insanely bored in a town where everyone is very old or very young and the only thing you can do at night is go to pubs which I’m getting tired of doing. I've plans to meet her back at her hometown in Slovakia in August after I leave here in March.

I'm seriously considering extending my trip overseas, there is so much I want to do and so little time and money to do so. At the same time I miss all of you friends and family back at home, and I miss Melbourne. I watched
a program on TV the other day and they were talking about Melbourne and I felt so homesick. There is no place like home! It occurred to me that Melbourne is very much like a European city. It reminds me a lot like Vienna. And it makes me appreciate its plethora of multicultural blend of restaurants, gardens, cafe culture and nightlife I never really got to enjoy thoroughly. Hope you're all making the most of it back at home.

Pa! (bye in Slovak)

Wales, Guy Fawkes, and the Great Cider Challenge

WALES
is a nice place, especially near the Wye Valley. I went on a day trip to Chepstow, which is just past the Wales border, so now I can technically say that I’ve been to another country. Woo hoo! Anyway, went to Chepstow
castle, the oldest stone castle in the UK apparently. It is quite impressive and you could spend hours admiring the ruins and the views from the top of the castle to the river and the town below. The town was nice in itself but not particularly interesting except for this big castle wall cutting across the middle of the town, obviously to protect it when the town was much smaller and contained within it in the past. Anyway, I then went to see the famous Tintern Abbey, known for it's picturesque qualities. It is quite breathtaking seeing this secluded ruin in the middle of the Wye valley, which in autumn displays a magnificent array of auburn colours in the trees surrounding it. I was quite impressed and wished I could sit and paint a picture of the place....

GUY FAWKES NIGHT
is a night given to celebrate the hanging of some dude called Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament. Some people reckon there would be more celebration if he succeeded. The actual story revolving around the
dissolution of the Catholic Church etc and the plot to assassinate the King and leaders of Parliament to stop the assault on Catholicism does raise some interesting questions: Was what he was doing an act of terrorism, or was he a hero for the sake of Catholicism? Based on that, how does that tie in with today's problems with terrorism? Anyway, what's also interesting is that Guy Fawkes didn't actually do it, he was part of a group that did, but he got the rap for it.

Anyway, the country goes berserk around this time and buy all the fireworks they can to let off on the night (and 5 nights before, and 5 nights after which can be annoying because it sounds like a war zone outside some nights
when people all over the town are launching them in their back yards. It is pretty spectacular though). I went down to my "local" (Crown and Horseshoe Pub) to see the big display and BBQ they had going. It was dangerous when two of the big fireworks went astray, one hitting near the BBQ (who would know what would happen if it actually hit it), the other in front of the audience, narrowly missing the kids standing there. It was a good night, met a lot of people that night, including a group of French girls

THE GREAT CIDER CHALLENGE
South West England has a local drink, which is cider. Not the cider you get from bottles or strongbox etc, but REAL cider. This is made in farmhouses where farmers get crab apples and crush them down, and then let the juice ferment. That’s it. The thing with cider is that it's quite potent and gets you drunk feet up, so you find you can't walk before it gets to your head. Now Nick and Paul (two guys from the group I drink with) were more than
happy to take me to a pub where they served the cider (not many pubs do serve it), to see if I can handle it, because they're proud of the reputation of their local cider's strength. I was to disappoint them, because I was able to down 2 pints of the stuff and then walk to the other surrounding pubs.

I can only thank Contiki for increasing my alcohol tolerance.


OTHER THINGS
Went out to Bristol to see some of the famed nightlife. However because I was with older folk I only got to see some old folks pubs. (no clubs, maybe next week though with some other people).
Went to the old Duke jazz pub? one of the famous jazz pubs in the world, which was pretty cool. Also went to some other pubs that weren’t too bad but not worth mentioning too much about.

Thanks to Daniel Zylberberg, I was on Melbourne radio on 3AK talking about my experiences in England. Had he called me a few minutes later I would have been taking that call in the bath! Anyway I’ll have to get a copy of my unprepared dialogue from him and someday you can all listen to it.

I've been invited to the BBC Christmas party in Bristol (Tina, one of the people I drink with has invited a bunch of us to come). So maybe I can make some contacts, get on TV...wishful thinking

Next week should be interesting seeing I’m the only Aussie who will be in an English local pub watching the rugby grand final.

Go Wallabies!

Bristol, Bath and Everything in Between

I miss Aussie Beer.

Yeah, typical of me to start an email with a reference to alcohol. But the local beer here is just not right. It's warm and it's flat. But then, as we were taught on the Contiki tour when coming across things like this, "It's not wrong, it's just different!"

Then again, there's no escaping it. Warm Flat Beer is WRONG!

Anyway, let me tell you about Bristol/Bath.

Bristol is a nice city, though there wasn't really too much to see. I saw the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, not sure why it's famous, so if anyone knows then fill me in. Something about being the oldest suspension bridge in Britain I think....There is also the SS Great Britain, which is the first Ocean Liner ever built, and the Industrial Museum, which showed old printing presses and aircraft engines, including the Concorde as it was built there apparently...Bristol was known for building airplanes of all sorts, which is better than being known as a port of slave trade in the 18th century I suppose. There are some beautiful churches, namely St Mary Redcliffe’s, which was nearly blown up during WW2 (many buildings were destroyed in the war which is a shame).

As for the famed Bristol nightlife, well I didn't really experience it. Bristol is not particularly safe at night if you're by yourself, especially during the Rugby Cup season. Lot of drunken youths out on the streets because of it. Instead I sat in front of the telly with a group of other people in the youth hostel. It's interesting that some people have been in the hostel for months. It's not a bad hostel, people are friendly, the conditions are clean, and free unlimited tea and coffee and a big TV, no wonder people are still there.

Anyway, enough about Bristol, I left the hostel after that weekend to go rent out a room with a supply teacher (substitute teacher) called John Barnett. He's a 52 year old who gave up full time teaching because he felt
that supply teaching gets him enough money to live happily on, and more (cause teachers get paid well up here). He's been all over the world, speaks multiple languages, and has a zest for life. It's a bonus living with him because he knows where to go around UK/Europe and how to do it cheaply. And I could probably learn how to speak different languages from him that I could use on my trip (eg Spanish, which he teaches at home tutoring at the moment).

Not sure how long I’ll be there though depending on work etc. I'm being kept quite busy at work though at the moment. At the moment I’m setting up a teaching model using the Extranet system Etechgroup built, that the teachers will be using to deliver their lessons and tasks through. Also I’m creating lessons and material for a pilot group testing this model, the first of many pilots across several schools. So the school may keep me on after my four-week contract is up, I guess we'll know by then..

One thing though, it's great being here. The countryside is beautiful, (I’m located between Bristol and Bath) both towns are easily accessed through the local bus, the trip itself taking you through narrow roads and magnificent
countryside dotted with old houses...ah the serenity!

Anyway, I went to Bath on the weekend, which has beautiful architecture. Went to the famed Roman Baths, and had a taste of the hot spa water, which wasn't very tasty (43 minerals in it apparently, so it tasted quite metallic. Better than some English beers I guess Nah just kidding!) Also saw the Royal Crescent, the Circus (not the one with clowns), and took a photo of the house Jane Austen lived when she was a child at 4 Sydney Place.
Though someone else is living there now, so I felt weird taking a photo of someone else’s house. Oh well.

Anyway I get a week off next week due to school holidays, so I might spend that time travelling or taking it easy. I'm planning on visiting Stonehenge, Avebury, and all those places in the Somerset plain, or I may go towards
Cornwall... not quite sure yet, really depends if I need to go the Gloucestershire to run some training sessions for a reseller (AT Computers) of the Extranet.

James in Bristol

Hey guys,

I'm in a Youth Hostel in Bristol at the moment, spending the weekend sightseeing (and I also saw Bad Boys 2 which was pretty cool, a bit long and a little gory but eh).

When I left you last in my last exciting email episode, I was staying at Becky Zylberberg's house in Leyton, London. So many thanks to her. Met some interesting cool people living with her, and had some interesting brownies which seemed to contain more of something else than chocolate. Spent some time sightseeing and doing touristy things in London, saw Big Ben (cool), Buckingham Palace (okish, didn't go in), The good ol' monopoly streets like Pall Mall, The Strand, Regent Street to name a few (pretending to be the shoe by hopping on one foot was tempting but probably wouldn’t have gone down too well with the unsuspecting public). Saw Trafalgar Square (nice), National Gallery (nice), Leicester Square (nice apart from the Asian girl trying to get me to read the Bible to save my soul), Piccadilly Square (nothing really), Millennium Wheel (it's big but that’s about it), Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (cool), Westminster Abbey (nice except on principal I refuse to have to pay to enter churches), St Paul’s (see Westminster Abbey), Westminster Cathedral (ok), and Starbucks (ok).

Anyway that was all done before being picked up near Heathrow by Derek, a good friend of etechgroup who works for Apple and this project that I was going up to Bristol to work for. He was nice enough to drive me to Bristol (well the school I was going to work for, called Sir Bernard Lovell which sits just outside Bristol in a place called Oldland).

Before I go on let me explain my job situation.
Etechgroup is working on something called the Extranet which is an essential part of what is known as the Kingswood Partnership Pathfinder Project, which is a consortium of 8 schools around the Kingswood area, St Bernard Lovell being one of them. In a nutshell it seeks to combine the resources of the 8 schools to allow students and teachers to utilise resources they don't have at their school (eg one teacher may access grade 6 art material at another school known for it's art resources, etc). The other part of this is developing a new educational concept known as an ILP (Independent Learning Plan). This will exist online, allowing students, teachers and parents to define their own learning modules (such as a student wanting to learn about fishing, or how to become a bakery chef). This has some influence on students getting jobs later on. I am one of the people currently involved in conceiving, improving, developing and pioneering this new concept which hopefully will be the model that schools across the UK (and perhaps the world) will adopt as their education module. Blah Blah Blah.

So, having arrived in SBL (St Bernard Lovell) I was working closely with people involved in the project, holding training sessions, providing support, and developing the ILP. However the plan was originally to work for 3 days with SBL, which Etechgroup was paying for, and also paying for my accommodation (which was in a converted Barn loft in Tog Hill Farm, which is the highest point in the area for 50 miles).But the school seemed very impressed with my work, and as a result have hired me to work for them for the next month full time on a good rate Woo Hoo! They are hiring me to develop content for the extranet, hold more training sessions and teach some kids web design using the extranet as a basis (so the kids are pretty much test subjects). I'll be developing the model of which we will use to educate other kids on the same topic at different periods of time throughout the year using the same resources etc).

Also a staff member at the school has offered cheap accommodation at his house that is 15 mins from the school. Only reason I’m in a Youth Hostel this weekend is because I wanted to be in Bristol to do some sightseeing before going straight back to work. (I'm working in a small country town exactly between Bristol and Bath.)

Anyway, that is my news to date. Future plans are to go to Bath, and to see if I can get an international licence and then see if I can hire a car or combi van for the one week when school is out and I might not have work, which I am thinking of using the week off to drive down to Cornwall and all the coastal towns to the south west of England as I’ve heard it's beautiful, (beaches and countryside). That’s the idea anyways.