One good reason to visit the Baltic states, other than for Latvian alcohol

Well now I am getting all out of order with all my travel diaries, but hey, I just had to put this pic of the great Frank Zappa on my blog. Frank Zappa was well loved by the people of Eastern Europe, especially by the good folk of Lithuania. When he died of prostate cancer in the early 90s, a group of devotees in Vilnius made a statue of him, and me being ever the intrepid traveller made well sure I paid homage to my teenage music hero! It was a pity it was located in the carpark of a chemist, but hey, its a statue of the great man!
I was in Vilnius as part of my epic travels in 2001. I'll tell that story once I'm finished with 1997's tales of the road. I've just been warned of telling my stories, and that people will rip off my stories and use them for themselves. Thats a bit of a worry, it would suck to hear my adventures being told by someone else, and even worse if it made them famous and rich!
bah!

Work work work. That is all I am doing today.

What is happening here, you may ask? It is Alison Wonderslam signing a devoted fan's chest after the Angry Samoans performance in the outskirts of San Diego. That's Metal Mike in the orange shirt at the back of the photo for all you die hard Samoans fans. Read the blog entry "Touring with the Angry Samoans" to see what happened on this night. This pic is in Santorini in Greece. Man.. it's winter here, I'm feeling like getting over to Europe right now and being lazy.. Check out that hair! I think one of these days I will have to grow it again, oh poop I just got it cut today.
I suppose I should start writing my travel tales again. The Sweden and Norway travels were pretty full-on, I will need to have my thinking cap on for all that. I got an email from Anette this week, hooray! I best be calling her soon, I think its time she left the Arctic Circle to hang out with me.

It's the Curtin Uni Guild Ball tonight. That should be great, this will be my last chance to go and be with my old mates. Can't wait. Booze, tuxedos, music, friends. Hopefully I will have a good one here..

Wayne's World, excellent

This pic is from the Great America theme park in California. Yes that is the original car that Wayne and Garth sung Bohemian Rhapsody in in Wayne's World!
I sure do miss my ol' Elvis sunglasses. They travelled to many destinations with me.. they now live on the bottom of Sydney harbour - they fell off one day when I was on a yacht!

Well I guess it's nearly time to continue with my adventure tales again. Where did I leave it at? I seem to remember it was just as I was leaving Greece to Sweden.. it is time to crank up the diary and see what i was doing. I think i will translate it more now, rather than directly quoting it, it's more fun that way.
Ooh, I think I will have dinner first though!

RTR radiothon

Last night was the Ambient Zone edition of the radiothon for RTR FM. Errrgh, it was great but now I've just had a long day of work with only a few short hours of sleep! I'll yak about my adventures later when I've had some sleeeeeeeeep!

I'm hella annoyed today! I have had to withdraw from the Latvia Program at Curtin Exchange, as I haven't got a spare day to devote to an internship. I was hoping to work on and eventually go to Aluksne in North eastern Latvia at the end of the year to work on a youth program based on increasing self sufficiency in former Soviet countries. Maybe there's still a way to do it, but it's all about time management, and these days I aint got as much as I used to. Hmm, I'll have to find a way, as I'd really love to get back to Latvia again!

Sydney pics

Eep, this work thing sure takes up a lot of time. It's hard to imagine that not so long ago I was working a 50 hour week. This 40 hour a week thing makes me tired and boring, hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon and get my life in order. So things are starting to going well, and I finally got the material joy of being able to finally afford a new pair of shoes! Yay!

Here's a pic of Vince, Sue and myself at the end of a long last night in Sydney at the upgraded Newtown RSL. That place has been totally revamped. It was hella snazzy! Shortly before this pic was taken, I had to become a member, as is the rules when going to an RSL club. Here's the ID card.. whaddaya think, best ID photo ever? I've got a few more pics to put online here. Let's see what I've got. Here's a pic with Button and Amanda after an Indian Restaurant feast in Surry Hills, and the other one.. .. is Sue gesticulating whilst eating with a 5 second time delay exposure.

Work

No blog entry for ages. I have a job in Perth now, grr no time now! Will write soon though. Must write about my last few days adventures in Sydney.

Anna, if you read this, call me, I'm worried about you and online's the only way to keep in touch!

bearszorba
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Bears doing Zorba the Greek in Bray, Ireland

bears'n'chef

bears'n'chef
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

bearsthinking
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Some old pics from when I first moved to Dublin. My bro's wife organised a charity barbeque in Bray for Enable Ireland, a muscular dystrophy society, and that's my bro acting like a clown.. I was acting like a crazy chef. It was a cool funny day, and no one had really seen a barbeque on the foreshore quite like this

Random wanderings and ramblings

It's a sunny August day in Sydney, and I'm ready to go and check out all things new. Yesterday i walked all over the city and just looked around to see what's changed after being out of town for four years. So far nothing much is different, my big worry was that I had heard that Newtown had become totally gentrified, and had lost it's bohemian charm that attracted me there so many years ago. It definately has changed - it's slicker and there are more new buildings and less punks than I remember. But the Newtown vibe is still there, my Saturday at the Town Hall hotel and other places showed me that. I was having my arvo coffee at Fish Cafe on King Street when two people I know walked past. Not bad after a 4 year absence! I dropped into Alpha House (the housing cooperative that I lived in for a few years) and some of my flatmates were still there. It felt strange, like I had come home after a long break, yet the lounge room of number 6 was no longer orange, the dodgy carpet was gone, and the trees were all a lot larger. Gorgie Boy the dog was still there, it was good to see him! And Connor showed me around. Ah yes, it does feel good to return to a place where you had many good times.

Later on when I was in the city I popped in to Central YHA where I used to work, to say howdi to my old work buddies. Amazingly, the guy I trained up before leaving was on the afternoon shift and proceeded to offer me my old job back! Hehe.. I was tempted, but then I remembered the $12.50 wage, and the last 3 1/2 years of uni study, poverty and sacrifice, so I told them I'd 'think about it'. I want to get my degree getting me career moves, although I have very fond memories of working at that youth hostel..

Today I think I'll say hi to Stephen Bacon, the man who I used to work with at BNPParibas, and is famously remembered for his purpose in life to become more like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons! It'll be cool to see him, he was always one of those eccentric guys that never ceased to make me laugh, what with his world domination plans and everything.

I walked a bit around Surry Hills, another of my old stomping grounds before I moved to Europe, and I came across the place where Julie stayed when I first met her. Wow that was a long time ago now.. I remember a group of us went back to her hotel room, completely out of it, and that she walked on my back to show me something she learned in massage school. Hmm I wish I could remember more.

Well, enough of this ol' reminiscing, there's a world out there to discover! Time to hit the road! Ciao for now..