Dave's Blog From Wherever He Is At The Moment

Which Way to Go - Left or Right in Hong Kong?

2011-06-14T09:51:00.000-05:00

Hong Kong (Hongkers from now on) is a funny spot. I was there many months ago and have been meaning to share an observation. A good friend recently commented on the same thing so I’ve decided I’m not crazy, so here it is:

People in Hongkers drive on the left-hand side of the road, but walk on the right-hand side of the footpath.

I’ve been to plenty of places across the world, but I don’t remember this phenomenon occurring anywhere else I’ve been. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously, people walking will usually stick to the same side of the footpath (or hallway, stairs etc.) as to which they stick to when driving or riding their vehicles. Even when I lived in Tanzania, where only a tiny percentage of the population actually drove, they still followed this general rule when walking. I guess it gets drilled into us like rats getting electric shocks – when we bump (or nearly bump) into someone we learn from the mistake and adjust our actions accordingly.

So why are the people in Hongkers so bonkers? I assume that the reasons are as follows:

- Hongkerians drive on the left because they used to be a British colony, and Brits drive on the left

- Hongkerians walk on the right because most Hongkerians have a Chinese mainland heritage, and the mainlanders walk and drive on the right

Assuming this is the case, I find it interesting that the passing of time has not caused the walkers to veer to the left. Maybe they will in the future just to give the Chinese government the s***s!!!

Formula 1 in Kuala Lumpur

2011-06-14T09:12:00.001-05:00

Less than a week after returning to Jakarta I was off again!

As a man with no responsibilities, I made the financially ridiculous decision to go to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for the weekend.

The objectives of this weekend were:

1. Meet up with my mate Ade from Bangkok

2. Attend the Formula 1 Grand Prix

3. Meet up with my mate Robert from Cyprus

4. Eat laksa

5. Meet up with my sister-in-law’s brother, Craig

6. Win a game of pool against Mark Webber

Well, I achieved 5 out of 6, but this was only because I didn’t play pool against Mark Webber. Given his form this season I’m pretty certain I would have kicked his arse if I had played him. I probably could have raced him around the F1 track as well!

My flight into KL on the Friday night was a bit late, but Ade had arrived a bit earlier and had a bottle of wine ready for the taxi-ride to the hotel. Although some might frown at drinking red wine from cardboard KFC cups, we found it to be a delightful way to pass the time while our illiterate, innumerate taxi driver got completely lost for an hour or so. Without the red wine, and without the knowledge the taxi-fare was fixed, we might not have been so relaxed! Unfortunately this idiot (trying to be nice) wasted so much of our time that by the time we checked into our hotel it was about 1am and we gave up on going out. Good for the physical health but not so good for the mental health. The bonus of arriving late was that the hotel had given away 1 of our rooms so they had to upgrade me to a special suite, though it was only for 1 night.

On Saturday morning we woke up sober, had some breakfast and wandered the streets on our way to the train/bus station. We took the bus out to the track and settled in on the grassy hill that comprised the “cheap seats”. We managed to track down Robert pretty quickly, and had a good old afternoon of chatting while the F1 engines screamed around us.

It was a good day out but I would have to say that the “Sepang International Circuit” could do a bit better at catering, even for us lower-class citizens in the cheap seats. The food options were:

1. Option A - Cold hamburger and chips in a plastic container

2. Option B - Cold hotdog (????) and chips in a plastic container

3. Option C - Cold fried chicken and chips in a plastic container (this was my personal favourite)

4. Option D - Cold fish and chips in a plastic container

Not exactly what you see on Master-Chef. It was hardly surprising on the Sunday when they were trying to sell all of this rubbish off at half-price because nobody could bring themselves to eat it. It was interesting to note that the food options in the more expensive seats were considerably more appealing, with the prices being about the same.

Anyway, the cars were fun and so was the company. When we left the track we hitch-hiked to the bus depot with a couple of locals. Very nice of them to pick up a few foreigners, and it was good for Ade to face his fear of strangers!!!! We survived and saved quite a bit of time waiting for the bus. All good.

That night the 3 of us headed out for some dinner and drinks. I was disappointed when I couldn’t get myself a laksa at dinner, but I did manage to eat a stingray, quarter of a duck and a bit of pork to compensate for it! It was difficult to find a decent bar that wasn’t obviously a prostitute collection point, but we found enough alcohol to keep us going. Robert headed home pretty early while Ade and I moved on to a different area which was much nicer. Although the evening never really hit top gear, we did have plenty of fun (unsuccessfully) hitting on Iranians. After hardly meeting an Iranian in my life I had met several in only a week or two – spooky.

Sunday morning I got up to meet Craig for breakfast. It was great to see such a cheery, familiar face after many years and it was a bit of a bummer we didn’t have more time to catch-up. Next time. Ade had a good sleep in and then we met up for lunch where I finally got my laksa! Laksa is not as popular in Indonesia as I would like so it is rare to have the opportunity to consume one. Although this wasn’t the best I’ve had, it ticked a box that needed to be ticked. After that we thought we better get to the track to see a F1 race. We found Robert at the track and settled in for the afternoon. The crowd was great and it was another wonderful day. Although the rain threatened it never eventuated.

The disappointments of the day were:

1. The beer running out

2. The food being the same crap as Saturday

3. The video screen breaking down temporarily

I think that this is all part of the marketing ploy of the Sepang International Circuit folk. I’m pretty sure they know we will have a good time in the cheap seats, but that we will feel it necessary to upgrade to the expensive ones the next year. Clever? We will see if I decide to return next year.

So, Robert took off soon after the race while Ade and I went to investigate the pit straight to see how the other half lived. They lived very well. We even caught a glimpse of Sebastian Vettel celebrating with his team. Even though I can’t stand the smug little s**t, seeing a driver almost made up for the beer running out. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stick around for the concert afterwards as I had to leg-it to the airport in time to eat a laksa before my flight. That was the end of a wonderful little weekend! Now I just need to work out if I blow some more cash on the same thing next year!

Shock of a Lifetime - Lightning Strike!!!

2011-05-05T11:19:00.002-05:00

Well, I am proud to say that I am a survivor of a lightning strike.

I don't know how the statistics compare with spotting Komodo Dragons in the wild, or with catching piranha, or with snorkelling with manta rays, or sitting on a tiger, or many other things. However, as a mathematics teacher I am pretty confident in saying that I believe I am the only living person on Earth to have been hit by ligthning, seen Komodo Dragons in the wild, caught 2 piranha fishing, snorkelled with manta rays and sat on a tiger. However, I could be wrong. It is a big planet.

After leaving Pulau Rinca we headed back towards the port of Labuan Bajo. To break-up the 4 hour trip we stopped to do 30 or 40 minutes of snorkelling around a spectacular coral reef on a little island. It was great. I even had a Clown Fish (Nemo) swim right up to my mask. As we finished snorkelling it began to rain quite heavily. A storm was coming in. We set sail for home, but it became apparent we were going to get very soaked before we got there, despite our little boat having a canopy.

The rain got heavier, and the lightning began. The captain instructed me to put my camera away, which I did. It didn't occur to me that a camera could be a target for lightning. In hindsight I'm very pleased I put it away. There was still about 2 hours of water between us and home, and it was going to be a long and wet 2 hours for the 7 on-board (captain, 2 crew, 2 Dutch, Thommo & I). However, the scenery was spectacular and the lightning strikes even more so. Slowly the strikes came closer, and one struck about a kilometre away. At this point we started getting a little nervous, which we had not been before. The boat chugged along, while we mostly just stood or sat about with little to no talking. I was standing up bare-foot (stupid) and holding on to the (wooden) roof of the canopy for support, just behind the bow (front) of the boat under the canopy. There was a metal anchor on the bow nearby. There were also metal support cables joining a mast to the canopy. The canopy itself was wooden, as was the floor. However, everything was wet. When the lightning hit, it hit the anchor and the support cables. The support cables were less than a metre from me, while the anchor was probably less than 3 metres away. However lightning will conduct through anything, even wood, just with much less power than it would through a natural conductor. I assume the lightning did not hit me directly. If it had there is little chance I would be typing away now. However, I still consider myself to have been "struck" by lightning. I was certainly "engulfed" by it.

I don't remember hearing the fizz or sizzle that accompanies lightning strikes. I'm not sure if that is because the rain and motor drowned it out, or if I don't remember it, or if it was overwhelmed by the sheer noise of the strike itself.

What I do remember is this:

An extraordinarily loud sound. White everything. White everywhere. Electricity flowing from my hands through to my feet. An understanding of what was happening. The complete clarity of thought "Well, it's a shame it had to end now, but it has been a great life". Vision restored. Hearing uncertain. 2 or 3 seconds of quiet. A crew member sitting on the deck where he had been blown-over backwards, staring at his hands in a daze. Everyone else looking around quietly at each other. Realisation that I was alive. The word "f**k" slipping out of my mouth. And again. The crew member still staring at his hands. Me removing my hands from the canopy and staring at them. Sitting down. Thommo and the Dutch tourists saying "f**k", repeatedly. Moving my hands. Smiling - they worked. Frowning - I couldn't feel them. Frowning again realising my testicles were experiencing some sharp pain. Grimacing. Starting to communicate with more than "f**k". Feeling for my testicles but realising I had no feeling in my arms so having limited success. Grimacing a little more. Laughing nervously a little. Talking a little.

It was an incredible experience, obviously. Not one you order from the tour brochure, but certainly the most unforgettable experience of my life. Although I assumed that I was dying or dead, and somehow my brain had time to have a very quick reminisce on life, I wouldn't say that "my life flashed before my eyes". The white all around me certainly was not heaven, it was simply my brain getting blasted by sound and light at unimaginable levels. It did take several seconds to realise I was alive, and it was a great relief to me!

A few minutes after the strike, after we had had time to discuss it a bit, I went into shock. Although it was wet, it wasn't exactly cold, but I shook uncontrollably for half an hour or an hour. Evidently I was very pale and not very communicative. The lightning went on around us for a while before eventually moving further away. By the time we were approaching port I had got myself back together, and the feeling was returning to my arms. My testicles were still struggling but there was no way I was going to investigate that issue without a hot shower. As we disembarked the boat we discovered a large split in the hull. Luckily it was just below the deck and was not too close to the water-line or it could have added another twist to the tale. Everyone was alive and relatively well. We said some strange farewells and moved on.

Thommo and I headed back to our hotel. I showered and surveyed myself, finding everything to be in order, at least to the naked-eye. We then went to the only "bar" in town where we downed 5 or 6 quick drinks each, with some intermittent conversation involving plenty of "f**k" words. Thommo had not been blasted quite as badly as me, sitting further away and not holding the canopy, but he was still pretty shaken-up. The drinks were a nice anesthetic for us both.

In the week or so to follow my body was a bit shaken up. I'm not sure how much was to do with the cold I had, how much was to do with drinking too much in Bali and how much was to do with being blasted by lightning. My hearing was a bit funny but is fine now. My body temperature fluctuated quite a bit but stabilised after a few days. My hands regained full feeling and are fine. I don't believe I've gained any super-powers myself, but I'm pretty sure I have some super-powered sperm on board (though my testicles seem otherwise fine). That is probably enough references to my testicles for the internet today.

Anyway, to conclude a long story, in the last few weeks I've been out of the swimming pool much faster when I hear thunder in the distance.

Komodo National Park - Astaga, Naga!!!!

2011-05-05T09:57:00.003-05:00

I've seen Komodo Dragons in "the wild". That's pretty cool. The chances are that you haven't seen them, unless it was in a zoo, so I'm obviously cooler than you! Having said that, it didn't feel much different to a zoo, but it was still pretty cool. Do you think I've said "cool" enough in this paragraph?

Thommo and I decided that we had better get off of Bali before we got liver poisoning. We didn't have time to wander around Lombok, and we didn't want to do the same as everyone else in the Gili Islands, so we booked a flight to Labuan Bajo on Pulau Flores (Flores Island). After plenty of fun at Denpasar airport (as discussed in the previous post) we hopped on our little plane to Flores. It was a pleasant enough flight, and it was all very quaint landing at this tiny airport with very few facilities. The quaint-ness (?) was lost soon after disembarking and discovering that our luggage had not come with us. Considering there were only about 30 passengers on the flight we thought it was pretty form that Merpati Airlines had left behind 25 of our bags. It turns out they had a back-log of scuba gear to get there, so our luggage had to wait until the next day. Bastards! If they had mentioned that at check-in we would have just taken what we needed as carry-on for 2 days. As it was we ended up without everything but my camera and our wallets. Not perfect, but at least we could survive and take snaps.

So, Labuan Bajo is a pretty small town with little to offer the visitor by night. We had a quiet night that didn't even involve getting drunk! We had booked a 1-day trip for the next day, starting bright and early. Thommo, myself and a Dutch couple arrived at the office of the tour company at the arranged time in the morning, but it was 30 minutes before our guide arrived. Poor form again. Eventually we got underway, and had a lovely boat ride to Pulau Rinca ("Rincha" Island). Komodo Dragons live on Pulau Rinca and Pulau Komodo, but Pulau Komodo is further away from Labuan Bajo and requires a 2-day trip to get there and back, so we decided to stick with Pulau Rinca.

Once on Pulau Rinca we did a short walk to the "village". This is where the Dragons hang-out. Although the locals say they don't feed them I find this hard to believe. I doubt the Dragons just chill-out here because they like having their photos taken and they delight in tourist-watching. Regardless, it makes it very easy to get an extremely good, close-up look at these enormous lizards. The guides carry big sticks to protect the tourists, but you can still get surprisingly close without feeling terribly threatened. They are big, ugly and lazy looking creatures, but not always so. We went for a one-hour hike around the island but didn't see any outside the village. I had imagined scenes similar to those in "Jurassic Park", with Dragons roaming through the fields, frightening the lesser creatures by opening their big jaws and breathing out fumes from their giant infectious gobs. It was not to be. We did see lots of photos of them fighting and hunting, but the best evidence of them doing anything except posing for photos was the occasional hole which they had dug for laying eggs.

One of the undoubted highlights of this little sojourn for a relatively new Indonesian resident was that I got to use my favourite phrase:
"Astaga!!!! Naga!!!!" which translates to "Oh my God!!!!!!! A dragon!!!!!!!"
My Bahasa Indonesia teacher was very proud upon my return.

Big-Game Fishing & Manta Rays

2011-05-05T09:24:00.005-05:00

Early in the trip we met up with parents from my school. The father took us about for the day, eating pig and visiting some nice places. Later in the day we collected the wife and kids (two of my students) and went to a fabulous restaurant at Seminyak. Of course they wouldn't let us pay for anything so that was very nice indeed. When the father was asking us about our plans for the coming few days Thommo said that we hoped to go fishing. The response from the father was "well come with me - I'm going out on Tuesday and you can come on the boat for free". This was an offer way too good to be true, as it would have cost us $500 or so between us, and I don't know anything about fishing and generally don't enjoy it much. This was a good result.

The views as we left Benoa Port were beautiful, with volcanoes and islands visible all around, along with some incredibly expensive boats. The conditions on the water were far from ideal, which ruined the fishing but made for some other fun. We did some "Jigging" and some "Popping" - both terms of which I was completely unfamiliar previously. Jigging and popping are both hard work. I didn't expect fishing to be hard work, apart from mentally. After jigging away for half an hour I was completely stuffed! Luckily Kris (the father) caught a fish. It was a lovely 8 or 9kg ruby snapper. Of course Thommo and I had to get our photo with it to make-out we caught it. Since the age of 14 I think I have now caught 1 squid and 2 piranha. Unfortunate record for someone with a surname to do with fisheries. After the obligatory photos we jigged a bit more, and then we swapped positions and jigged a bit more, but then everyone was getting a bit tired so we gave up on jigging. We headed for the popping spot, encountering some very large waves along the way. It was pretty cool "surfing" on waves in a big boat in the middle of the ocean. We even had to dodge a floating tree once!

When we got to the popping spot it was a bit too rough, so we pulled into a spectacular little bay for a snorkel. This place honestly looked like something out of "The Beach" - beautiful. So Thommo and I had a snorkel for half an hour, checking out some nice coral and fish. We then hopped back on the boat for a bit of lunch. Half way through lunch the crew spotted a manta ray! And another! We grabbed our snorkels and jumped straight back in. They stay quite close to the surface so they are easy to spot from the boat but not easy in the water unless they are close-ish. So, I would watch for signals from the boat then paddle myself as fast as possible over that direction until WOW! The first time I saw one coming towards me I almost **** myself. These things are big and crazy looking. It was coming directly toward me, at exactly my level. When it was about 5 metres away it turned and dipped gliding past just out of my reach. Breathtaking view. We spent the next half an hour or more having close encounters with these beautiful creatures. 2 more times I had the "close-call" but generally we were watching from more of a distance. At this point one of the crew members told us he had seen some sharks over by the rocks. This did not relax us. We were back on the boat very smartly. After a few minutes on the boat the same fellow decided it must have been the mantas splashing about, but there was no way we were hopping back in again! We watched the mantas frolic about for a while longer from the boat. There was one in particular that seemed interested in the boat and did many passes close-by. He had a huge scar on his back (pictured) which could have been from a harpoon/spear or possibly a shark. If it was indeed caused by humans then he was remarkably brave to be hanging about a boat again. Anyway, it was a completely magical hour or so, and an experience that was completely unexpected. Much more fun than jigging and popping!

Well, after that excitement we finished our lunch and did a bit more popping, then went half-way back to Bali and did some jigging, then gave-up and went home. Although the conditions for fishing were terrible, it was still a great day and I'll never forget those manta rays. Wonderful!

Boys Behaving Badly in Bali

2011-05-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

At the end of March I had a week of holidays, which I had arranged to spend hanging with my mate in Bali. Although I hadn't exactly loved Bali on my previous visit, it was the easiest place for my mate to get to from Australia for not-much cash.
My mate has a name. His parents call him Matthew. I call him Thommo (pronounced Tomo) but everyone else calls him Tomo (pronounced Tomo).
Thommo is a great mate from waaaayyyyyyyyyyy back - we've been hanging for almost 20 years now. When I visit Australia I normally try and skip-up (not literally) to the Gold Coast to visit him for a couple of days, but I hadn't got there during Xmas holidays, so this was a great opportunity to catch-up.
We had great "plans" for our week together. We were going to do some hiking, head to Lombok, head to the Gili Islands, go fishing and visit Komodo Dragons. We didn't tick all of those boxes as, unsurprisingly, we behaved badly, boozing most nights and the occasional day. We did however have an enormous amount of fun, ticked a couple of those boxes, and ticked a couple of others unexpectedly.
Given that we only had 9 days we did quite well to:
- get drunk 7 times
- only go shopping once
- eat seafood in large quantities
- only lose one ATM card between us (not me!)
- eat pig in reasonable quantities
- not lose any phones
- successfully act as a tout (me) for a seafood restaurant for 10 minutes
- only lose our luggage on a flight once
- survive swimming in the dirtiest water I've ever swam in (at Kuta beach )
- do some networking with school parents
- play guitar on the beach (well I listened and harassed women passing by)
- go big-game fishing
- snorkel with manta rays
- see komodo dragons
- get hit by lightning
It was a very happy time, and even more so in hindsight given that I am alive to tell the tales!
More on some of those in the posts to follow, but a quick mention here of the last photo above.

When we caught a domestic flight to go and see Komodo Dragons our flight was predictably delayed. This meant we spent a considerable amount of time at Bali airport, which has to be one of the worst world-wide considering the amount of tourist dollars passing through it each year. During this time I spent plenty of time talking with strangers. The bloke pictured above was hilarious. He took great pride in the fact everyone thinks he is Japanese despite being an Indonesian from Jakarta. He delighted in telling me stories about how he and his wife (both Muslim) sneak over to Bali once every month or so to eat Babi Guling (roast suckling pig) without being judged for it! The same went for drinking alcohol. His other great talent was spotting women with even less subtlety than myself. He would point one out across the room and say "what do you think of that one?" before giving me his analysis of their sexual history or lack thereof! Not what I expected from him when he sat down next to me! He also provided me with an "in" to start flirting outrageously with the Iranian woman sitting on my other side. This woman was incredibly beautiful (you can see her arm on my left!). I knew she was Iranian because I had seen her passport when she sat down. When I started talking to her she said she was Spanish, but she spoke worse Spanish than me! Maybe she was an international spy? Anyway, my "extreme" flirting was working a treat and we had quite an audience. Unfortunately she was headed to Jakarta but leaving again before I got back. Aaahhhhh....... What might have been????

January to March 2011

2011-03-25T05:00:00.002-05:00

As always, life has been very, very busy for me. I can’t imagine how people survive having to find time for spouses, children, pets, house maintenance, team-sports, cooking and other “normal” things. I struggle to do my job, exercise, do my homework, have any sort of social life, and get enough sleep given the restrictions of 24 hours in a day. However, that is improving rapidly now that I know my job so much better than a year ago.

Work Stuff

My year 12s are rapidly approaching their big, scary final exams. As these approach the pressure on students is increasing, while the pressure on me has been decreasing somewhat. I have taught the whole curriculum and we are now revising, which makes for easy teaching. However, I am teaching 4 extra periods each week to help them prepare, and that will probably increase in the final week or two before exams. Regardless, I don’t need to prepare at home which is freeing up plenty of time.

Last weekend I went on a school trip with some year 11s to Pelabuhan Ratu, which is a surf beach about 5 hours drive from Jakarta. This was an “Adventurous Journey” for 22 of the students who are doing an “International Award”. Although I missed the first day of the trip, I got there for the last 2 days. I was the leader of the hiking party, and was then able to join the surfers at surf-school. Although my dodgy knees are not strong enough to even attempt surfing, it was great to do a bit of body-surfing for about an hour. We then had a trip to the local markets where the students had to haggle for fish and vegetables for their “Master Chef” type challenge that night. It was good fun, but unfortunately we got rained out just before the cooking started. Despite the cooking challenge and bonfire being completely rained out, and everybody being soaking wet, the students never complained once. That made for a very enjoyable, but of course exhausting, little trip.

This week has been a pretty relaxing last week of school. The swimming carnival took up Tuesday, while “3-way meetings” (i.e. parent/teacher/student meetings) have taken up Thursday and Friday. The swimming carnival was split into two halves, with the serious stuff in the morning, and the games etc. in the afternoon. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the serious stuff, but did get involved later on. My weak legs showed up in a kicking race, but I got to show off my awesome raw power in the teacher v students relays! I even felt competitive briefly!

Other Stuff

The last couple of months have been good socially. There have been plenty of expat events, a bit of sight-seeing, overseas visitors and a few weddings. For no particular reason I celebrated Australia Day at the German Club in Jakarta, the highlight of which was some delicious pork chops. Any pork is good pork in Jakarta, but this was exceptional pork. I have also attended my first Sunday brunch – these are fancy “all you can eat and drink” events at fancy hotels, where foreigners and well-to-do locals go along, act posh for a while, stuff ourselves full of prawns, oysters and other goodies, while drinking gallons of wine (almost as rare as pork is), before stumbling out in not such a posh state a few hours later. I’ll do it again.

I’ve been to 3 weddings recently which have all been nice, but I have also missed another family wedding in Australia, which was sad. Chinese New Year is quite a big deal in Indonesia, and the celebrations start well in advance, with shopping malls covered in decorations, and lion dances happening everywhere – the lion dance at school was a bit more impressive than I’m used to in $10 Chinese restaurants in Australia! I also hosted one of the tamest St. Patrick’s Day parties ever. It was for work friends, and it started right after school at my place. I had a pretty good turnout of 20 or 30 people, but everyone had left by 8pm!!!! St. Paddy was probably offended, but it was a Thursday, and I do live at school. It is also impossible to buy real Guinness in Indonesia, so any St. Paddy’s day is going to be a bit disappointing. Next year.

While on the subject of alcohol I must mention a major accomplishment of mine in recent times - I have purchased large quantities of quality alcohol!!!!! This has been a big challenge for foreigners in Jakarta, but my persistence has paid-off, and hopefully my discovery will allow an easier life for many around me as well. Apart from drinking in bars here, it is very difficult to buy wine and spirits. This is because they are only sold in duty-free shops, and customs officials are generally monitoring the duty-free shops to ensure they only sell to diplomats etc. However, one of the shops agreed to do a sneaky home delivery service if I ordered a sufficient quantity. So, I had to order 24 bottles of booze! I now am the proud owner of 14 different spirits and a few different wines!!! Although that is a ludicrous quantity to possess, and a silly amount of money to spend, I now don’t need to worry about alcohol shopping for a long time! Since the success of this first order my friends are now organising group-orders so an individual only needs to order 1 or 2 bottles if they want. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

The highlight of the last few months (apart from buying alcohol!) was the visit of a great mate of mine, Ade. Ade is British, but I met him when we worked at the same school in Bogota. He now lives in Bangkok so it is not too far away from Jakarta. He came to Indonesia for a week of holidays, so spent 3 days of that with me in Jakarta. We booked a hotel in the city so that we wouldn’t have to spend as much time in taxis. It was a great weekend, despite Jakarta letting us down in a few departments. Warm beer was our first disappointment, then an empty nightclub, then an extremely dangerous nightclub that didn’t seem to be anywhere near as dangerous as we expected/wanted, a lack of an ATM at the said nightclub, a restaurant without beer (normal here but still annoying when you forget), traffic-jams etc. etc. The list of small complaints was topped by the fact I got the last Whopper at Burger King/Hungry Jack’s, while Ade missed out. I didn’t know it was possible for Burger King to sell out of Whoppers! Regardless, Jakarta is never going to be a great tourist drawcard – Ade was here to see me and he did that. It was fantastic to have an old friend around with whom you can talk about anything. I’m going to see him again soon as well – we are going to meet up in Kuala Lumpur in a couple of weeks for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, even though neither of us are huge fans. Just a good excuse to get out of town!

I have been naughty, typing this at work – it is the last day of term after all! Flying to Bali tomorrow to meet my mate Thommo, who is flying up from the Gold Coast, and spend a week or so with him. We’ll probably head over to Lombok, Flores or Komodo rather than hang in Bali the whole time, but we’ll work that out over a couple of cold Bintangs tomorrow. Can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

via Perth

2011-03-25T04:20:00.000-05:00

After seeing some of the Northern Territory before Christmas, I decided to see some of Western Australia after Christmas. It was my first time visiting WA, except for just passing through the airport. One of my cousins who could not be at the family Christmas has been living in Perth for several years with her husband and 2 children, so I decided to visit them. As expected, they were sensational hosts – looking after me brilliantly despite the complications of tending to two children. They drove me around and showed me the key sights of Perth, walked me through the parks, taught me plenty about Perth and the people that live there (some of whom drive Ferraris with my name on the number plate), fed me delicious food and spoilt me with delicious liquid refreshments at lovely restaurants. I was very lucky to have such good hosts. They even let me invite other friends (the aforementioned Ando & family whom I hadn’t seen for years) over to their house one afternoon!

On my final afternoon I got dropped off at the “Little Creatures” brewery to enjoy some final Australian beers. It was fabulous to meet up with some friends there. Emma and Bec are 2 Perthites that I met travelling in Patagonia several years ago, and both of whom lived with me briefly, at separate times in Bogota. This was the first time I had met either of them in Australia. Another mate, Peter, whom I met in Bali last September also came along and it was great to share some laughs, and plenty of beverages, with him. I indeed have a lucky life when I can travel to a “new” place and meet up with friends that I have made in different countries around the world. All too soon I had to head to the airport to catch my flight to Bali, where I had several hours in the airport before finally getting home to Jakarta. I covered plenty of territory by plane, train and automobile during my 4 weeks and it was absolutely fantastic – but maybe not so good for the planet!

Friends in Oz

2011-03-25T04:03:00.000-05:00

Every time I go home to Australia I love catching up with my friends. Although I am very lucky to have plenty of friends, most of my best friends are friends I’ve had for many, many years. This year was particularly good for me as not only did I catch-up with most of the friends I normally see, I also caught-up with many I hadn’t seen for years. My mate Boulge (pictured with Trav) was back from the UK, and it was the first time I had seen him in 8 or 10 years. My mate Kussy (pictured) was back from Poland – I hadn’t seen him for 5 or 6 years and I got to meet his wife and 2 kids for the first time. I caught up with Tim Walters for the first time in 3 or 4 years. I saw my mate Frogger in Alice Springs, and my mate Buzza in Alice Springs – when normally I might only see them once every 2 or 3 years. I caught up with Ando & his family in Perth – it had been 5 or 6 years since I saw them. I met up with Tammie and her daughter – first time in 3 or 4 years. I’ve probably forgotten a few, and of course there were plenty of others that I caught up with, albeit way too briefly. There always seems to be some extra children running around the place as well. Kym & Tracey (pictured) have just had another baby so their car is full to the brim now! It is wonderful to share some laughs with everyone, but also sad to disappear so quickly. It is amazing that any of the children of my friends have any idea who I am at all, but most seem to remember me! A special mention to Jessica and Maniah (pictured) who always make me feel like the most important person in the world when I visit!

Family Christmas 2010

2011-03-25T03:45:00.004-05:00

When I meet new people they often ask me if I have family. What they mean by this question is “Do you have a wife and children?”. However, my answer is always “Yes – I have a huge family and they are wonderful”. Of course that leads to more questions about where they are and inevitably to “Don’t you miss them?”.

The answer is of course “Yes. Yes I miss them enormously”. It is extremely difficult to live away from your family, but that is the life I choose at the moment. However, every Christmas now ( and possibly at other times) I will have the opportunity to see my family at home in Australia. This is a wonderful time for me, with days or weeks of talking, eating, drinking, watching cricket, attending theatre, cooking BBQs, swimming, golfing and laughing with my parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunties & cousins. We are a very fortunate family in that we get on magnificently together. Of course there are a few minor issues here and there, but we actually choose to spend time together because we enjoy it, not because of any perceived obligations to spend time with family. Although this is not unique to our family, I have not seen many families that have as much good fortune as ours in this regard.

So, I love Christmas, not because of any religious beliefs, not because of gifts, trees and carols, not even because of the Christmas ham and pudding. I love Christmas because it means my family are all (well, most of them) together for several days. Christmas 2010 was much the same as many before it – fantastic. We always forget to take big group photos at Christmas, so I’ve just selected a few random photos I liked – one of my parents, aunties and uncles (from Dad's side), one with my brothers and an in-law, one with 3 generations of boys, and one of my sister and her family, who managed to get home from Papua New Guinea for the occasion - good form!

Alice Springs to Adelaide

2011-02-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

It is quite a drive from Alice Springs to Adelaide. You certainly need to get into 5th gear occasionally, and you certainly want to rest from time-to-time. First you need a car. I went to see the good people at Hertz a few days earlier and asked them if they had any one-way rentals to Adelaide. They said yes and arranged a super deal for me. I paid $10 per day rental, plus $30/day of insurance for 2 days, making a total cost of $80 to drive a car to Adelaide. Of course I had to pay for the petrol, but the cost didn't work out too much more than a bus ticket, and was certainly less than an airfare. I had always wanted to do the drive anyway so it was a good result for me. The second thing you need is a co-driver if you are doing it in a reasonable hurry, which I was. So, I recruited 2 of my friends from the Uluru tour to come along with me. Chirag, an Englishman, was on his way to Melbourne for Christmas. He decided to come along instead of flying directly to Melbourne from Alice Springs. Monique, a Dutch girl, was on her way to Adelaide to catch a bus to Melbourne. She cancelled her bus ticket from Alice to Adelaide and came along as well.

The drive was long, but always interesting for me at least. The countryside does change substantially and often. The colours are incredible, particularly with so much green around at the moment. I was very lucky to have 2 very capable co-drivers with me so I could relax when not driving myself. We had one close call with a sheep on the 1st day, but survived that and didn't see many kangaroos, so it was all pretty cruisy. We drove about half way, to Coober Pedy, and booked in at an underground hostel there. It was quite late already but we had time to visit a couple of local attractions, then drive out to see The Dog Fence and The Breakaways. It would have been good to have a bit more time but we had to get back to the town to taste "The Best Pizza in Australia" at John's Pizza Bar. Despite being in a little town in the middle of nowhere, this place has won numerous awards for their pizza, and it is a must on the list of every visitor. It did not disappoint. The pizza was spectacular. Maybe not worth driving 800km from Adelaide, but I'd certainly drive 100km occasionally if I could! Well worthwhile. After a few glasses of wine we bunked down underground for the night, and slept very well indeed.

Day 2 from Coober Pedy to Adelaide was long, and we had a few deadlines to keep:
- Chirag had to check-in to his hostel
- Monique had to catch her bus to Melbourne
- I had to meet up with my mates Boulge & Trav to get drunk (I hadn't seen Boulge for 8 or 10 years)
We drove to Port Augusta where we had some King George Whiting and chips. Very nice. My co-drivers were a bit surprised we were at the ocean before Adelaide though! From Port Augusta we had a detour through the Flinders Ranges with a quick visit to Quorn and Alligator Gorge. We then drove down through Clare and on to Adelaide. I timed it superbly, meeting all of our deadlines with about half an hour to spare. Good thing I didn't run out of fuel!
I dropped off my friends, then drove to the airport to drop off the hire-car. Boulge met me there and threw me a FUIC (Farmers Union Iced Coffee) to greet me. Even if we haven't seen each other for years, nothing much changes! It was great to be back in Adelaide, so we went to the pub, met Trav and got drunk. A great night!

Kings Canyon, Uluru & Kata Tjuta

2011-02-06T06:06:00.000-05:00

I have never really been a backpacker in Australia. I've lived in my car, I've stayed for weeks on sofas at friends, and occasionally I've stayed in a proper hotel or motel. I've most definitely lived out of a backpack but I haven't BEEN a backpacker.
So, when I went to Uluru etc. I joined a tour full of backpackers. It was pretty funny that our tour guide was called Dave, and I was the only other Australian on the tour, also called Dave. Although I certainly did not have the knowledge of tour-guide Dave, I was asked plenty of questions over the 3 days and really enjoyed being able to answer them to interested listeners. Maybe I'll become a tour guide later in life. If I was still 25 years old it would certainly be a good way to meet young ladies!

Day 1 of the tour involved a long drive to Kings Canyon, in which the 22 of us got to know each other a bit. Funnily enough the 2 people sitting closest to me on the bus were Colombians, which certainly gave me plenty to talk about. In addition to the Colombians there were a few Brits, a few Germans, one Cypriot, one Dutch, a few Czechs, a few Koreans and a few Italians. They can all be seen in the black & white picture attached - unfortunately the person taking the photo put it on the wrong setting (it couldn't possibly have been my fault!). It was a good mix of characters and we all got along pretty well. Although the drive was long, it was much more spectacular than I imagined. It is amazing how green everything was after having big rainfalls that year. It is also nowhere near as flat as I had expected. Kings Canyon was amazing, and for me it was more spectacular than Uluru or Kata Tjuta. Many of the others agreed. The walk wasn't too challenging, and we got to have a swim half-way through to refresh. Very nice, and not over-touristy. After the walk we had a long drive to our camping spot for the night, where we slept in swags around the camp-fire.

Day 2 involved digging for witchetty grubs (unsuccessfully), a long walk around Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), the visitor centre at Uluru, and the viewing of Uluru at sunset. Kata Tjuta was spectacular, but it was a tiring walk in the heat and that took away from it a bit. The colours were amazing, but difficult to capture in photos. Uluru, as expected, was also spectacular. It certainly does pop-up in the middle of nowhere, and is very, very large. It is incredible that 3 quite different formations (Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Mount Connor) can all pop-up like that within relatively short distances. Sunset at Uluru was very enjoyable. Lots and lots of photos of course, including lots of silly ones. I enjoyed walking around and watching people watch the rock. That evening was spent with songs around an imaginary campfire, and a bit more of my duty-free whisky.

Day 3 was almost a disaster. Tour guide Dave over-slept but luckily I saved the day by waking every one up just in time for us to make sunrise at Uluru. We are all quite certain Dave took us to the wrong viewing spot due to the lack of time we had to get there, and the fact we were the only ones there. It probably would have been more spectacular from the "right" spot but never mind. Couldn't fault him otherwise - an excellent guide. Sunrise was nice, then we did the walk around the base of Uluru, which takes a couple of hours. I ended up talking quite a bit on that walk, and forgot to look at the rock much. Photography is forbidden in many spots so you never quite know when you can take photos and when you can't - so generally you don't! After the walk we started farewells. Many of the group were being dropped at the Uluru airport, while others were going to accommodations nearby. After farewells there were only 6 of us in the bus for the long drive home to Alice Springs. The obligatory "after-party" wasn't quite the party it would have been if we still had 22 of us, but we still had plenty of laughs. It concluded a great few days.

Darwin to Alice Springs

2011-02-06T04:55:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, my whirl-wind tour of the Northern Territory did not allow time for me to explore Darwin. From my very brief experience there it seems like a pretty cool town. It really does feel like a big country town - you can even park in the main street! However, given the clientele I encountered on my Bali-Darwin flight, I suspect the people of Darwin, as a whole, might not be quite as nice as the town itself. Maybe I'm being harsh again.

I just had the one evening in Darwin before swapping my hire-car for a seat on The Ghan - the train to Alice Springs & Adelaide. It was very comfortable and I was extremely impressed that the "cafe" on-board charged normal prices for food and beverage! Normally in such a monopolistic situation they charge ludicrous prices but this was very reasonable. Respect to The Ghan. On the first afternoon we arrived in Katherine where everybody was "encouraged" to choose a tour from the many on offer through the railways. I did a boat cruise through Katherine Gorge and it was very pleasant, though the Gorge itself was nowhere near as spectacular as I had imagined. Regardless, it was nice to get off the train briefly. That evening I enjoyed a couple of reasonably priced glasses of wine and then slept very nicely given I was in a train-seat. The train arrived in Alice Springs the next morning where I was warmly greeted by my mate Frogger Pete.

Aside: Believe it or not, Frogger Pete was not actually christened as such, his name is actually Peter. He used to live across the street from me when I lived on Seaview Road at Henley Beach South. It was quite a busy road. My house hosted many an afternoon/evening party on the front terrace, and Peter would often wander over from his side of the street, usually after having had several warm-up beverages. Watching from the elevated terrace as he attempted to zig-zag through the traffic he reminded us all of the wonderful old computer game "Frogger", and so he was (re-)christened.

Frogger works as a tour guide/bus driver in Alice, but luckily he had a couple of days off when I arrived. We ate parmigianas, drank beer, watched cricket, chased women, played golf and drank more beer. Good times catching up with a great mate.

When Frogger went back to work I met up with another mate from years gone by - Buzza.

Aside: Buzza (he prefers Bussa as it is more strictly correct but it doesn't sound anywhere near as good), like me, used to slave away in a Chartered Accounting firm. Buzza (whose name is actually David but he has a surname starting with Bus), like me, had it suggested to him by the management that he might want to pursue his career elsewhere. He did. Buzza moved to Alice Springs to work for an Aboriginal health organisation, where he has now been doing accounting and IT work for 12 (?) years or so, and is about to become the head honcho. The move certainly did him good. I love Buzza but I think he is nuts (he wouldn't argue) because he runs marathons. Plenty of space to run in in Alice, but it does get pretty warm.

Buzza took me out in his 4WD for the day exploring the West MacDonnell Ranges outside of Alice Springs. We did quite a bit of walking and we swam in water-holes. It was an excellent day out and it was good to clear the alcohol from the preceding days out of my system. That evening I went to the casino! Alice Springs has a casino, which is quite the fancy place to hang out in town. Buzza and his girlfriend Maria took me there for dinner, but no gambling. The dinner was a buffet including seafood and the works. Very nice indeed but I was disappointed with my consumption. I only got through about 3 plates of food and couldn't even fit in a 2nd serving of apple crumble. Next time! Then it was back to the hostel for a good sleep before an early start the next day.

Territory Wildlife Park

2011-02-06T04:09:00.000-05:00

On the drive back to Darwin from Litchfield NP I dropped in at the "Territory Wildlife Park". This is a world-class facility, and caters to thousands of people per day in peak-season, but of course I was one of about 20 there during wet-season. At the end of the day it was myself and one staff member - the grumpy old man driving the "train" waiting to ship me out the gate so he could lock-up and go home. He was a bit upset I was there until closing time!
Anyway, it was a nice afternoon out, and it was great to be able to get so close to so many animals, especially without the crowds of people as well. The raptor show was a definite highlight, along with seeing a freshwater sawfish (crap photos though) and discovering just how big they are. If you are wondering what the 4th picture is, it is a floating duck seen from underwater. I liked it!

Litchfield National Park

2011-02-06T02:51:00.000-05:00

AAAAaaaghhh... Moving photos around on blogger.com really is difficult. They just won't go where you put them on the "design" screen. So, my apologies for the poor presentation here!
Litchfield National Park is a lovely place, not too far from Darwin, that is visited by hoards of tourists in the dry-season, but by hardly anyone in the wet-season. However, Dave the Intrepid does not let the weather interfere with his life too much, so as a result I had Litchfield National Park pretty much to myself (well, there might have been 10 other people there).
One of the reasons it is so popular is that it has 2 sets of waterfalls at which you can swim around in the natural waterholes, flirting with fellow travellers. I am told this by my mate who used to take tours there. In the wet-season the waterholes are closed for swimming, to avoid flirty young travellers being consumed by hungry crocodiles who move in with the wet. So, I didn't get to swim, or flirt, but I did get to see some lovely waterfalls without anybody else around. The car-park at the falls above must hold 200 cars and 20 buses but mine was the only vehicle there that day!
As well as several waterfalls, the park also has a large area of magnetic termite-mounds. Unfortunately the "board-walk" for viewing these impressive structures doesn't actually take you anywhere near them, so they are not as impressive as they should be.
The photos above show some flying foxes hanging out near a waterfall, the boot of my car, and the fuel computer of the car. I don't get to drive a car much anymore, so whenever I do drive, I enjoy it very much. At different times in my life my car has effectively been my home, so it was good fun to turn my hire-car into a home on wheels for a few days. I emptied out my backpack and spread everything, along with my groceries, out over the boot. A perfect wardrobe and pantry!
Litchfield National Park does not contain any fuel-selling establishments. I knew this before entering, but didn't realise how far into the park I had to go to get to the sights I wanted to see. It became apparent that the fuel in the tank was only just going to be enough to get me out of the park, so I had to be conservative with my adventures. Silly me. However, on the drive out of the park the "kms remaining" started dropping much quicker than the distance travelled, and it became apparent I would be fuel-less before escaping the park. However, fortune favoured the stupid and I managed to drive the last 12km or so when my car was telling me I couldn't. That avoided some inconvenience!

Kakadu National Park

2011-02-06T02:13:00.000-05:00

December signalled the start of a month of holidays, which were very welcome indeed. Instead of racing straight home to South Australia for Christmas, I decided to see a bit of Australia I had never seen. I've travelled so much away from Australia, that I sometimes feel a bit guilty for not seeing my own country. However, for once in my life I had enough money in my bank account to support such travel so I thought I would make the most of it!

I flew from Jakarta to Denpasar in Bali, where I transferred to another flight from Denpasar to Darwin. That flight was quite traumatic for 2 reasons:
1) I have never been so embarassed of being Australian. The flight was packed with all sorts of stereotypical Aussies, nearly all of whom were wearing a Bintang (the Indonesian beer) singlet, most of whom had their hair freshly braided, and most of whom had obviously come straight from the pub to the airport. I know Bali is a great, and cheap getaway for thousands of Australians, and I might be being overly judgemental here, but it was horrifying. Two "ladies", probably around my age, had a conversation in which they said how f*****g great it was to leave the f*****g kids with the f*****g babysitter while they got f*****g s***-faced on cheap cocktails by the pool. F*****g awesome. Lovely.
2) I THINK I had the chance to hook-up with a nice cabin attendant (air hostess), but I might be wrong. After all, I'm not exactly Ralph Fiennes. We talked quite a lot as she had to sit opposite me at the emergency exit. When approaching landing, she asked me where I was staying in Darwin that night/morning (arriving 3am) and I said I was going to sleep in my hire-car for a few hours. She then said that she was headed home to her nice, cosy bed, and I'm sure I detected an "ask the question" tone at the end. However, under the pressure of having a super-bogan sitting next to me listening to every word, I chickened out and let it slide. Maybe I'm wrong about the whole thing but either way - regret! It was very hot in the hire-car, even at 4am!

Anyway, the flight arrived successfully, and I collected myself some duty-free booze, sorted out my hire-car, and had a nice little nap for a few hours. I then did some shopping for supplies, bought myself a SIM card and took off towards Kakadu National Park.

Before I go on, I will give a little plug to a phone company. That does not happen often. However, I was EXTREMELY happy with the deal I got with Optus while in Australia. I bought a pre-paid SIM card for $2 to put into my existing handset. I then had to pay $2 per day that I actually used the phone. That meant I got to make as many phone calls (within Australia) as I wanted, and send as many SMSs as I wanted, without ever paying more than the $2 for the day. Normally when in Australia my mobile is costing me that much that I can't have a normal conversation using the phone, as I'm in such a hurry to hang-up. This was a nice change and meant I could talk for hours to friends and family all around the country. Thanks Optus for making my trip home much easier, and cheaper. Plug finished.

So, I drove to Kakadu National Park, where I spent the day at the Visitors Centre and doing a couple of little walks. The town I was in had no budget accommodation available, and being the tight-arse that I am when travelling, I refused to pay $150 for one night in a bed. My tent was not tough enough to hold-up to the Kakadu wet-season so I decided to sleep in the car. After a few hours I discovered that this was rather difficult, as it was very warm. So I headed to the local bar (sports club) for a few beers and a game or two of pool. Four beers put me to sleep nicely, and only cost me $20!

Day 2 in Kakadu started with another couple of walks. Many of the driving tracks are closed in the wet season, limiting where you can go. In addition, many of the walks are closed as the water levels in the billabongs are higher, meaning that crocodiles could end up much closer to walking tracks. Stupidly, I decided to ignore some of the warning signs as I wanted to see a billabong - I am Australian after all. I walked along the track to the billabong where the track disappeared and I decided I'd just walk 20 metres around to the right to get a better view of the hills nearby. I heard a large commotion nearby and looked up to see a crocodile swimming through the reeds AWAY from me and out into the billabong. I must have scared him, and I was very lucky he went that direction. He would only have been 8 or 10 metres away maximum when he moved. I was on dry land so I may have escaped, but it would have been 50-50. If you look VERY CLOSELY at the 2nd photo above you can see his head in the reeds as he swims away. Nice billabong anyway.
That afternoon I used my savings from the previous evening (and a bit more) to take a scenic flight over the park. It was spectacular, and highly recommended. Although the park is beautiful at ground level, it is difficult to get any perspective of it. From up in the air you get to see the whole landscape, the thunder-storms all around, the escarpment (cliff-face) that separates Arnhem Land from Kakadu, the waterfalls you can't access in wet season and the Ranger Uranium mine. It was well worthwhile. In the evening I drove down to Cooinda, running over at least 30 or 40 cane-toads along the way. Those little buggers are everywhere. I found some budget accommodation and settled in for the night.

Day 3 began with a "Yellow Water Cruise" very early in the morning. We spotted at least a dozen crocodiles and hundreds of birds of all shapes and sizes. 2 crocodiles were having a territorial dispute that involved a bit of argy-bargy in the water near the boat, and at one point one of the crocs had a snap at the boat which caused some excitement. It was a lovely cruise, and despite being well over-priced, it did give an opportunity to see much more than you would without spending the cash. However, don't start me on the "compulsory breakfast" that we all had to pay for but nobody wanted! After the cruise I visited a nearby Aboriginal centre and headed out of the park, passing hundreds of enormous termite mounds along the way. That night I headed for Litchfield National Park.

MOvember & Kuningan/Cigugur Camp

2011-01-16T03:49:00.008-05:00

It has, as always, been a busy couple of months. November was spent growing a silly moustache for 'MOvember" - a new tradition in Australia to raise money for charity. Although I was pretty happy with my effort, the voting went against me at school, but we raised a reasonable amount of money for a local charity. God knows what the locals though about the crazy white man walking around looking like something out of a history book!
December brought another school camp, this time with Grade 11 to Kuningan and Cigugur in West Java. Most school camps are thoroughly exhausting, as after working from breakfast to bed-time, you need to walk around all night making sure the students are not engaging in any "unacceptable behaviour". This camp was a revelation as all of the students were staying with families in homestays, so their "parents" were responsible for them! The camp involved an excellent balance of work and play, with the students being involved with many projects to help the community, and to gain awareness of how easy their lives are in comparison with other Indonesians. It was wonderful to see how the students grew with their experiences over such a short time.
I was a bit of a celebrity in West Java. I don't think they have many bules (Westerners) pass through town. During my first public appearance I was swamped by local school-kids who wanted to practice their English and interrogate me with 200 questions. It was lots of fun, but a little surreal, particularly when I had to sign autographs for them! That evening their was a special puppet show in town, and a local Prince was the guest of honour. There were a few rows of VIP seating kept free at the front, and when I was spotted standing in the crowd with some students due to the lack of other seating, I was soon offered a seat behind the Prince. I was so special! Although I didn't need to sign any more autographs over the coming days, I was still very popular when walking past schools (see photo above) or the homes of locals. I got invited in for tea and snacks at 3 different houses during a 20 minute walk!
One of the community activities that the students were involved with was a health project in a tiny village, where all of the children get weighed once a month and given some special foods/medicines. The picture of the little girl was taken while she was being weighed - very cute!
The moth above astounded me. I was leaning against the bus when one of my colleagues told me to look at the butterfly near me. I did, and I laughed thinking it was a stick-on fluffy toy. It was not. I studied him for a while but then had to hop on the bus for the drive back into town. 5km later the moth was still perched on the side of the bus! That meant I HAD to take a photo of him sitting on my hand. Beautiful. I don't think you would want him living in your closet though!
The final day was all relaxation before the long bus trip back to Jakarta. There were some cool wobbly trees, before a freezing shower at a lovely, but very violent waterfall. Standing underneath this torrent was tough work. I could hardly stand up against the force of it, so I don't know how some of the 40kg kids did! I'm pictured there with most of my tutor (or form or mentor) group from school. After the waterfall we went to "Fish Therapy" in town. This is a fish-farm of sorts where you sit around dangling your legs in the water with hundreds of little sucker fish nibbling away at your feet, cleaning the dead skin away. I'm not particularly ticklish, but this took a lot of getting used to! The faces on the students were priceless as they were nibbled mercilessly!
After all of that fun, the 6 hour bus ride home was not quite as enjoyable. The limited music selection on the bus included lots of Justin Bieber, and other similar trollop. I was glad when we arrived home!

Hong Kong Weekend

2010-10-30T00:38:00.000-05:00

I work for a good school. When I signed my contract here I was promised IB Diploma training in my first year. In my first 4 months of that 2 year contract I received what I was promised. At my school in Colombia a similar promise was made, and in two and a half years there they never made good on that promise. I am happy with my school here.

My IB Diploma (curriculum) training took place in Hong Kong last weekend. Myself and one colleague were sent to Hongkers for 3 days of intensive subject-specific (Mathematics SL for me!) training. We flew out from Jakarta on Thursday (with a bottle of duty-free booze each) and arrived at our HK hotel about 6pm. Duck, pork, beer (Tsing-Tao of course), egg tarts and wine were consumed in large quantities at low prices. Happy days!

Friday was day 1 of training. We were staying at the hotel recommended by the course providers, so there were about 100 other teachers at the same hotel. This means being herded to breakfast together, and herded to the buses together. They literally treated us like kindergarten kids which was a bit weird. Luckily I didn't get lost as I don't remember seeing many policemen nearby to help me. The opening address at the conference was quite funny. They were basically telling us that there was a good chance we would get hit by a typhoon later that night or the next morning, and that the course would be cancelled on the Saturday if that was the case. The whole of HK was bracing itself for the typhoon but it ended up missing us, although it did get reasonably windy and cool that night.

My "class" at the conference consisted of 25 "students" (teachers) and our workshop leader. I felt very worldly as there were 3 people there from Guangzhou (where I lived), 3 from Jakarta (where I live), 1 from Turkey (who actually went to the school I was teaching at there) and several others that had distant connections to my life. The workshop leader has actually just moved to Jakarta so he could become a useful resource for me. The 3 days of the course were wonderful because I actually learned lots of useful things. I could not say that about many of the other training courses I have done since becoming a teacher. I sincerely believe that I will be a better teacher a a result of the course, not just have a nice piece of paper. That should be good for my students as well.

That evening my colleague (Chris) and I headed up to Victoria Peak to check out the lights of the city. We were accompanied by a few other teachers who managed to get us completely lost for 2 hours finding our way there, but it was good fun. We even went crazy and paid for a nice Japanese restaurant overlooking the city. Later on Chris and I went wandering the streets and saw a man with a pool cue leaving a doorway with signs only in Chinese. We went in to discover a pool hall, as we had hoped. The lady at reception spoke English. She was quite convinced we were looking for a room (not for sleeping!) but we managed to convince her we wanted to play pool, so she told us our table number and we went in. There were about 40 full-size billiard tables, with all except ours occupied. There was only one woman in the room. There were 100 or more men playing snooker and billiards, with not one alcoholic beverage in sight. Strange. It 20 years since I played on a full-size billiard table. They are big. Very big. The pockets are small. Very small. It is more than a little challenging. Chris & I completed one game of snooker in 50 minutes and were suitably frustrated to leave it at that. We grabbed a bottle of wine to finish the night off on a positive!

Saturday night we took the Star Ferry across to Kowloon, where we wandered aimlessly, as we had no map or no idea where we were expected to be going. Chris is cool. He is an adventurous traveller from way-back. We found a restaurant that looked nice but had no English at all. We went in and sat down and looked at the Chinese menu, and then each pointed at a group of Chinese characters. Chris went for the longest word in the purple section, while I chose the shortest in the blue section. After we ordered they found a menu with some English on it, and everything seemed to be tripe and gizzards so we got a bit concerned. It all turned out will though - Chris got some fried cuttlefish and I scored a big bowl of noodle soup with tofu and minced chicken (or maybe chicken gizzards). Very tasty and good fun. We then found a couple of bars that sold REAL GUINNESS! My first pint of real Guinness in 3 years I think. It was very, very tasty, so I had a few more. We tried to get into a hidden bar/club but the cover charge was for "all you can drink" and it was too late for that, so we headed home.

Sunday, after the course had concluded, was our final evening in HK. We met up with a couple of other teachers and went out for a bit of a lads evening. Lots of great food, lots of drink and a great night all-round. Getting out of bed for breakfast and check-out on Monday was rather trying though. After checking out Chris and I wandered around looking (very unsuccessfully) for shops to buy useless gifts from. This is a big part of Indonesian culture. If you go somewhere you are expected to bring back oleh-oleh (gifts) for your 700 closest friends. We honestly did try, but our hotel just wasn't in a touristy area. So we headed to the airport for more mostly unsuccessful shopping, but we did manage to purchase another bottle of duty-free each before the flight home.

Cleared customs at about 10pm which was good, as we both had more than our allowance of booze and were a bit nervous! Evidently the bribe isn't much to get an extra bottle through but you don't really want to go down that path! Then we were stuck in traffic because of flooding in Jakarta, so it was midnight before I was in bed. Safe to say Tuesday was a very long day at work!

A Few Months in Jakarta

2010-10-29T23:04:00.000-05:00

My life in Jakarta was very quiet during July and August, which suited me very well, as I had plenty of work to do. I was also busy shopping to set-up my house properly, and was particularly tired, as I didn't get any holidays between finishing my job in Turkey and starting my job in Jakarta. So during this time I wasn't quite reclusive, but I certainly wasn't out partying every weekend. Since my 2 week holiday in Bali my social life has improved dramatically, and I am starting to feel very at-home here.

Of course there are always things happening in Australia (& Colombia & elsewhere) that make me home-sick. One of those things was not the Australian Federal Election in August - I was very happy to miss that, particularly as it dragged on for so long. One thing I did miss around that time was my Dad's 70th birthday, when nearly all of my family spent a weekend away together celebrating. I was lucky enough to talk to them briefly on Skype but it would have been great to be there. The other significant event in Australia during September is obviously the finals of the Australian Football League (NOT RUGBY AND NOT SOCCER). I was lucky enough to see most games on TV in Bali or Jakarta. My team in the SANFL (Norwood) made the Grand Final for the first time in 11 years, but got beaten, albeit only just, by the bullies of the league. Last time they made the Grand Final they also lost, and I proposed to my ex-wife that same day, so it is probably a good thing I was not at the match this year! Who knows who I would have proposed to?! Last weekend I was very sad to miss my 20-year school reunion. I had planned to blow a lot of money to get home for it, but then my school booked me in to a conference in Hong Kong the same weekend so I couldn't go anyway. I still have many close friends (including of course my twin sister) from school days, and that makes me feel very fortunate. It has been great to see their photos on facebook but it would have been better to be there. I will have to wait another 10 years!

There have of course been many significant events here in Jakarta over the last few months. Here are a few:

1. Ramadan came to an end. This meant that I finally managed to buy some alcohol apart from beer!!!! It is pretty close to impossible to buy serious alcohol here. There is a wine shop that charges exorbitant prices for crap wine, and astronomic prices for decent wine. I haven't been able to bring myself to spend $50 on a $5 bottle yet, but that day may come. There are a few "duty-free" shops, but these are only supposed to sell to diplomats, which of course excludes most of the population, even of foreigners. However, sometimes they will sell a maximum of 3 bottles to a foreigner without a diplomat card, on the sly of course. This did not happen at all during Ramadan. I have now had one successful trip to the duty-free, and along with a trip to Hong Kong I am now in the possession of 5 bottles of alcohol! They might sit there for years or they might not, but it is reassuring that they are there - just in case!
2. My classes of Bahasa Indonesia (language) have started at school. We have a one hour class once a week. There are 5 students and we are all crap. I am probably the 2nd most talented language student in the group which is not a good sign for 3 others! Our teacher tries her best but can't really understand that we just need practical knowledge before we worry about technical stuff. Hopefully we will improve.
3. This didn't "happen", but I feel like mentioning it if I didn't in an earlier post. The Indonesian word for "teacher" is "guru". I think that is way cool. I'm a guru. That is even better than being a "professor" in Spanish. When someone asks me what I do I simply say "Saya (I) (am) guru". I try to leave off the word for mathematics - it seems to lose the interest of some people. Weird.
4. I had a birthday. I'm not sure what was scarier: turning 37 or having a 20 year school reunion. I guess they both tell me the same thing. Time is marching on. It was a good birthday. I had just got back to work after Bali, so went to dinner with a group of friends. It was a bit strange only having 2 beers on my birthday, but that is what happens when most of your friends are sensible! One of the highlights of my day was receiving a clock-radio from a friend. This might seem of little importance, but it had been on my shopping list for 11 weeks, and I had not found one in the 37 shopping malls I had visited. It is nice waking up to the radio instead of a mobile phone.
5. Oktoberfest! This was my first big "ex-pat function". 500 people jammed into a fancy hotel ballroom standing on tables with beer steins, and singing along to an oom-pah (?) band, while also stuffing their faces with pork galore, and lots of other tasty German food. This was exactly my kind of event! It was a great night. I met lots of new people, discovered a couple of new bars and generally had a great time. Of course I lost my phone (in the taxi home I think), and that always makes me feel like I have found a home. I've since bought a new one, along with a lanyard to keep it attached to me on boozy nights!
6. AFL Grand FinalS! The morning after Oktoberfest I was to be collected by a mate at some ridiculous hour to go to the AFL Grand Final function in another swanky hotel ballroom. Due to 1) my lack of a telephone and 2) my deep beer-induced slumber, my friend could not collect me. I woke up later, but just in time to make the opening bounce at the function. It was remarkably similar to the night before. Met lots of new people, and ate and drank way too much, and had a wonderful time. Of course I did not have a phone to lose, but no doubt I would have lost it if I did. The tied grand final was extremely exciting, even when you are not particularly supporting one team or the other. The next week the function happened again, albeit on a much smaller scale, with only about 100 Aussies instead of 1000 attending. It was great fun again but the game itself was dull. The great thing about both of the AFL functions was that they included all you can drink wine as well as beer! That meant I got to drink wine for the first time in 3 months!!!!
7. Introduction to Jakarta's nightlife. I have had 1 visit to Blok M. I don't need another one in the near future. This is a particularly seedy part of Jakarta, or at least the part I was taken to is. Every bar is basically a brothel or pretty close to it. Always good to get to know a city but apart from getting to play a few games of pool, this place didn't have much for me. I have also been to Jalan Jaksa, which is quite a famous area here. It was good! Lots of little bars, restaurants and clubs, all catering to a mix of locals, ex-pats and tourists. Cheap prices, good food, interesting people and a friendly vibe. I'll definitely be back there. I also discovered a bar with 2 free pool-tables! I love playing pool - it is a complete release for me. I don't care if I win or lose as long as I get to hit the ball hard and have a laugh. I am quite handy at times, but there are some serious players here, including the women, even the 7 months pregnant women! It was a great night, and I even arranged a date for the following evening in the same bar. Of course I got stood up, but that gave me a chance to play more pool and meet more people. Another great night which doesn't happen often when being rejected!
8. Karaoke. After being persistently hassled, not quite as much as in Bali, but not much less, I finally attended karaoke for the birthday of a friend. It was very enjoyable, despite only having 2 drinks and the karaoke machine lacking the only song I can remotely sing (Mustang Sally)! As karaoke is a national obsession in Indonesia, the locals get very, very good at singing. Most of my best friends at school are actually involved in choirs and have talent, which makes karaoke a bit more bearable than in Australia! There are 2 photos above from karaoke night. The first is a collector's item - Dave Gill singing sober.

Bali - Eat, Drink & Get Perpetually Hassled

2010-10-29T10:59:00.000-05:00

Most Australians love Bali. I didn't. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't wonderful. Plenty of that is my fault, as I did not plan my 2 week holiday at all. I just booked airfares and a hotel for the first couple of nights, and thought I would go with the flow when I got there. However, once I got there I was too lazy and tired to make many plans, so I ended up spending most of my time in places I won't again. So, partly my fault, but also partly Bali's fault.

Seminyak/Kuta etc.
I flew in on Friday night from Jakarta. My flight was delayed and I was tired. I slept on the flight and woke up with about 15 minutes to go. The Slovenian girl next to me started talking to me. She didn't have a hotel and I had a driver from my hotel collecting me. I said we could drop her at a hotel along the way, but then it was very late so she ended up sharing my enormous bed. Strange start to the holiday. Nothing happened between us, and we didn't even swap email addresses in the morning, just had breakfast and said farewell. Travelling certainly does bring on some funny experiences.
I spent the next few days hanging around the main beach areas. I stayed in Seminyak away from the main "Aussie" drag in Kuta, but did venture down that way in the evenings a couple of times.
Positives:
- alcohol available readily, something that was certainly not the case in Jakarta during Ramadan
- plenty of good restaurants
- nice beach with good waves
- lots of English speaking, making it very easy to do most things
Negatives:
- very expensive compared with Jakarta (but very cheap compared with Australia)
- prostitutes everywhere
- continual hassles on the beach from people selling anything and everything
- continual hassles from taxis and motorbike taxis offering rides
- lots of foreigners speaking English, particularly Australians

Ubud
Has everyone been out to see Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love"? I haven't yet. Evidently she ends up in the town of Ubud in Bali. Ubud was already very popular but it is getting more popular now. Probably too popular.
Positives:
- cheaper and better accommodation than Kuta etc.
- religious ceremonies happening constantly
- free pool tables at one bar
- lots of Babi Guling (pig on a spit)
- quieter than Kuta etc. in the evenings
- beautiful walks to do nearby
Negatives:
- continual hassles from people offering you taxis, transport, restaurants, massages, postcards, blah, blah
- terrible service at the Babi Guling restaurant
- I didn't meet Julia Roberts

............ I have travelled a fair bit around the world, but I don't remember ever being as bothered as I was in Ubud. This is an artistic, spiritual community, yet I simply could not walk 5 or 10 metres without being pestered here. I found it very difficult to relax. That might explain why massage is so popular here? Or in my case, it sent me to the bar every evening, as I was never sure if the massage was supposed to be a massage or a "happy ending" massage.

Day-Tripping
I can't ride a motorbike. Or at least I haven't ridden a motorbike since I was a kid, so I assume I can't ride one. I'm also a little scared of them which is quite different to my brothers. Maybe I should learn sometime as it would certainly improve my travelling experiences. I don't understand how plane-loads of Aussies who have never ridden a motorbike get off the plane in Bali, see traffic crazier than they have ever imagined, and decide to hire a motorbike without any lessons. It is very surprising more are not killed. Maybe it is as easy to do as everyone says!
Anyway, my lack of prowess on 2 wheels didn't stop me from hopping on the back of the bike of a guide, and heading around half of Bali. I told him to keep me away from most of the touristy stuff and he did a good job. The highlight was going to a large ceremony at a temple in the middle of nowhere. We rode past and saw the crowd so we stopped. I was the only foreigner there, which is extremely unusual in Bali. I was special. Nobody but my guide spoke English but he translated and they invited me to help make satay, roast the pig, and generally hang about. It was simply fabulous. We then rode on for a while and spotted another crowd in the middle of nowhere. This was an illegal cock-fight. This wasn't quite so fabulous, but very interesting. Once again I was the only foreigner, and I suspect not may see cock-fights as they have to keep them very quiet. The build-up to an actual fight took close to an hour, with the "matching" of the cocks being all-important, before strapping their weapons on, placing (very large) bets, and finally having the fight. Of course the fight was horrible, but maybe slightly less so for me than bull "fighting". It lasted about a minute, and I was very pleased to leave immediately after. However, the people-watching was great.
That day I got soaked to the skin on more than one occasion, but each time got to huddle under some shelter with the locals and share a laugh. I saw several volcanoes, thousands of rice paddies, a lovely rainbow, the temple on the 50,000 Rupiah note, and much more in addition to the above. It was an amazing day. It saved Bali for me!

Balian Beach
After my day-trip saved me I managed to escape Ubud. I spent my last few days at a place nobody has heard of - Balian Beach. It was goooood!!!!! The only tourists here were surfers, as the beach is dirty and the ocean is very dangerous - big waves, strong rips and plenty of sharks (as I was told after 3 days of swimming). The surfers weren't a bunch of 18 year old curly-haired idiots, but mature men and women, mostly my age or older, who do a lot of surfing and not much else. As there are only 20 or 30 tourists in town at any point in time there is nobody bothering to try and sell anything. If you want to buy something you simply go and find it at a shop up in the village a 15 minute walk away. Paradise! The hotel I stayed at had a beachfront room for $20 a night including a great breakfast, cheap (and good) food at the restaurant, and plenty of friendly staff. I sat there for 4 days "learning" (very unsuccessfully) Bahasa Indonesia, and (unknowingly) swimming with sharks. It was relaxing. Thank you Balian.

So, now that I've been to Bali (too), I know how to plan my attack next time if there is one. Realistically it is only a $100 flight from Jakarta so I'm sure I'll be back at some point. I'm sure I will have a more positive report then!

Bali - Photos Involving Rice

2010-10-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

Bali must produce a fair bit of rice. There are rice paddies everywhere. Even at the coast, and I mean right up to the sand. I'd only ever really thought of rice being grown in mountainous areas so it surprised me a bit. Rice is very green most of the time, which makes it very pretty. The Balinese are well aware of this and now make rice paddies pretty for the tourists rather than practical for farming. I guess they make more money from tourism than farming. Regardless of the motives, it is very pretty, and all this rice means lots of bugs, and lots of work for ducks to do eating bugs. It was good fun watching lines of ducks moving around like little soldiers in formation, and at other times "herds" of ducks like sheep. Very cute, but that didn't stop me eating them at every opportunity. With rice of course.

Bali - Photos Of Things I Found Funny

2010-10-29T09:14:00.000-05:00

The warning for the strong current was very necessary indeed - but I had been swimming there for 3 days before someone told me it was "the sharkiest beach in Bali, and maybe Indonesia". If they wrote that on a sign they probably wouldn't have as many problems with swimmers getting swept away!

A Few Observations From The Workplace

2010-10-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

After 4 months at school I have made a few observations which I would like to share. They are not particularly connected to each other, but they have all been made through my working life:

1. Ramadan (or however else you like to spell it) is tough on kids. Get up at 4am to eat and drink before 6ish, then get to school for 7.30am start and don't eat or drink anything, even water, until you get home that night. In the meantime you've had 9 x 40 minute lessons, as well as break times where you want to play etc. Luckily for the kids they normally have 1 or 2 periods of mathematics in there to keep their spirits up, otherwise it would be really tough.

2. There are a lot more Christians and Catholics (completely different categories in Indonesia) here than I would have expected. This makes it even tougher on the Muslim kids during Ramadan.

3. Indonesian kids are generally pretty crap at sports. The school athletics day was a very enjoyable day, but most Australian spectators could have been forgiven for thinking they were at the athletics day of "The CLIMS Academy" (i.e. the world famous Children Lacking In Motor Skills Academy). I watched 400 kids do the long-jump that day and only 5 or 6 jumped further than they would have gone by taking a long step! It was completely comical, but everyone was that happy to be participating that it didn't matter. It was a similar theme at the high-jump, but mercifully some of the runners were actually moving at a reasonable pace. Obviously my generalisation is harsh. I just had one of my students travel to Italy for 2 weeks on a soccer trip, so he is obviously handy. We also have a new teacher at school who represented Indonesia at the Olympic Games in swimming, and another teacher who looks like he should have when you see him in the pool. However, generally they are crap. If I didn't have such bad knees I would be a superstar at any sport I chose here!

4.Trips away to the country for "Professional Development" of the whole staff rarely develop more than 2 or 3 people professionally. However, lots of people get drunk and enjoy the company of their colleagues more than before. Those that don't drink sing instead, and enjoy the company of their colleagues more. Interesting concept. Indonesians like to sing. Karaoke is certainly more popular than having a pint and a game of pool.

5. I am a seriously organised person. Possibly seriously anally retentive. This causes some frustrations in the workplace as everything takes me longer to do, because I like to do it right. My colleagues have cottoned on to this, so now I am being used to check everything they do and correct it, which takes me some time as plenty of corrections need to be made. Something for me to work on.

6. Indonesian people are mostly a little bit mad, but it is a good mad. A quirky mad, not a freaky mad. I think that is why they sing so much karaoke. Or maybe they are mad because they sing so much karaoke? I finally sang karaoke a week or 2 ago. Hopefully now that my friends have heard me sing they will stop asking me to sing in the future!

Yogyakarta

2010-10-29T07:45:00.000-05:00

Sorry. It has been over 3 months since my last confession. In fact, over 100 days. That is very poor form. I've been a busy boy, and have probably been prioritising plenty of things over communications with loved ones. I hope to correct that partly this weekend. Anyway, sorry.
OK, apologies over. Time to move on.

Firstly, if anyone is wondering why the name Yogyakarta sounds familiar in the title to this post you may have read it in the news in the last few days. Mount Merapi is a volcano not far out of Yogyakarta, and it erupted a few days ago killing about 30 people, with the potential for more eruptions in the near future. This event has been big news combined with the less photogenic but more lethal tsunami off Sumatra around the same time. However, I'm not a news agency so I had better get on with telling a story.

So, early in my time at school I was asked if I would like to go on a school trip. I said "yes" because I quite like school trips. Although they are ridiculously exhausting, they are also a huge amount of fun (normally), and not only do you get to know your students and colleagues better, you also get some free travel when you should be "working"! The school trip was for the whole of Grade 7. This is their first year in high school, and as they have all been in individual classes in primary, they don't know each other all that well. This trip was all about mixing them up and getting them to find new friends outside their comfort zone. For many it was their first trip away from Mum & Dad so a few were pretty needy, but not ridiculously so.

The trip was to Yogyakarta (or Jogja) in the East of the island of Java. To travel there by road or train from Jakarta would have taken most of the week, so we flew. Interesting experience herding 70ish young kids through an airport without losing any at check-in, security, shops, toilets and the gate. Only a little stressful.
We got to Yogyakarta mid-morning and piled on to Bus A and Bus B to head to the Kraton, a lovely palace right in the city centre. After a very impressive lunch it was on to Borobodur which is about an hour out of town. Borobodur is an ancient Buddhist monument and is one of the most famous sights in Indonesia, and in South-East Asia for that matter. It was impressive, but maybe not as impressive as I had been led to believe. It certainly didn't match Angkor Wat in the "spectacular" category, but it was most definitely cheaper and less touristy! After a couple of hours at the temple we reverted to playing team-building games on the lawns below while the sun set over the monument. Nice. Finally on to our hotel, which was very nice indeed, especially compared to what I am used to both from school camps and my personal travels. This place not only had hot water and soap, it also had free shampoo, conditioner and cotton buds! Exciting times. I had to share a room with a colleague but we both survived.

The next three days were less spectacular, but very enjoyable. We had oodles of team-building games, most of which included the kids getting soaked in mud, soaked in muddy water, soaked in clean water, soaked by torrential rain, soaked in a river, soaked by water-balloons or soaked in a swimming pool. There were also flying foxes, dance performances, arts classes, stilts, bonfires (compulsory) and plenty of other bits. The highlight for the kids was probably the white-water rafting, which was pretty tame for me, but pretty intense for most of them. Camping overnight in tents one evening was also a bit of an eye-opener for many of our kids, so much so that a few parents flew from Jakarta to "observe" from 200m to ensure everything was OK with their precious ones. No wonder the kids get nervous being away from home if Mum & Dad are like that.

The last day involved obligatory shopping for 3 or 4 hours. Dull. At least one of the parents had arranged for the "Highway Patrol" to escort our buses around town all day to ease the pain! Parents with pull. The final hurdle was another trip to the airport. Chaos reined when I was the only teacher through security for quite some time. Trying to control a large number of excited young kids in a crowded departure hall with not enough seats and no departure gate put me on edge, but we survived. A large thunderstorm in Jakarta caused our flight to be delayed a couple of hours, so by the time we got back to Jakarta we were all complete wrecks.

I've been on many school camps, but this was the first one on which I've gained weight. Normally it is the opposite. Each morning we would have a buffet breakfast at the hotel, then receive a "snack" on the bus half an hour later, then another snack an hour or 2 later, just before going to a buffet lunch, then receiving another snack to wash down lunch, and another to prepare us for dinner, before an enormous buffet dinner, and one final snack. Absolutely ridiculous. I am not joking here - 3 "all you can eat" meals, plus 5 snacks (of 3 small cakes usually) every day!!!!! However, as my friends and family will know, I don't mind a bite to eat so I shouldn't really complain!

Starting Up in Jakarta

2010-07-18T10:27:00.001-05:00

After leaving Adelaide on a Sunday night at 8pm and flying through Perth, I arrived in Jakarta at about 5.30am Monday morning without incident. Despite having my Indonesian visa already stuck in my passport, I still got stranded in immigration for about 15 minutes, as there were no immigration officials to process me!!! They must have had a late breakfast. After customs I was met by a school employee and taken to my new life. I unpacked a bit, had a shower, and hopped in bed for a 1 hour power-nap. Then up and off to work!

Work has been excellent. The management team are very solid. The support staff help out all the time, even if it isn't their job. I generally get answers to my questions when I need them. My department isn't perfect, but it never is in the maths department, as we're all a bit odd! My first week involved 2 days of orientation for new teachers (including shopping), then 3 days of meetings etc. for all teachers (and some time for shopping). On the Friday I finally got my timetable and draft class lists for the following Monday. That Friday night was my first social function in Jakarta, with one of the bosses hosting a margarita party. A good night, and I was very pleased to rediscover my missing mojo, briefly at least! The rest of the weekend was spent shopping.

The second week was the first with students. They are lovely, and small. Very small. After a few months teaching Turkish giants these Indonesians genuinely seem pigmy-ish. They are also very shy and quiet, which makes them seem even smaller. It is more difficult than normal to get these kids to talk in class, and difficult to hear their little voices when they do. A couple of people suggested they might be a little scared of my beard, so I've trimmed it back a little and we'll see what happens this week. My classes went well. Although it isn't perfect teaching four different year levels, I have been extremely lucky with my grade 11 class - I only have 5 (maybe 4) students due to the structure of the groups, so that should make it nice and easy. My grade 12 class has been swapped about so I'll meet the real group tomorrow. Only 12 in that class as well. Hopefully only 3 or 4 of them will be smarter than me.

Friday after school I went shopping. Saturday I went shopping. Sunday (today) I didn't go shopping as I have finished phase 1 of the "arrive in a new country and settle into your new home shop-a-thon". Phase 2 will be ongoing, cheaper, and non-critical. As a follow-up to this topic, I must inform you that I have now joined the dark side and become a plasma TV owner. After a few years of bagging all of my friends for competing over who could own the biggest TV, I now own a monster (for me at least) myself. In the knowledge that I will actually have some TV here that I want to watch, and that it was probably going to be my only TV purchase for a decade, I went nuts and bought a 42" LG Plasma. It is big and it shows television sometimes. My cable TV got connected a week ago, and I got home from shopping Friday night looking forward to watching the Crows smash Geelong on 2 hour delay. I flicked on the TV to check it was still starting at the appropriate time, and discovered my cable was not working. 4 or 5 phone calls later I had established that "technical problem" did indeed mean "technical problem". Luckily I was able to watch the match over at my neighbour's place. I have been unable to watch my 42" monster all weekend, which has resulted in me finally updating my blog, so everything has worked out.

What have I achieved in my 2 weeks in Jakarta? Well, I've set-up house well, started my job well, visited 5 different shopping malls and a few stand-alone superstores, got my mojo back, set-up a new laptop, watched a football match and done a lot of swimming. It hasn't been an overly exciting life, but now things are settled I should be able to explore a bit more. I haven't even taken out my camera once yet, so sorry for the verbosity of these posts. My knee is enjoying the swimming but I haven't pushed it much with long walks (apart from shopping). The 25 metre pool at school is located about 150 metres from my front door, and it is always warm here, so I have no excuse for not swimming. I have already built up from 10 laps (250m) to 50 laps (1,250m) so hopefully I will get some reasonable fitness happening soon, and dispose of my Kebab-belly!

What haven't I achieved? Well I haven't learned any Bahasa Indonesia, and I haven't found out where to buy booze apart from beer. Those 2 things are high on the list. However, one of the few beers available is "Guinness Foreign Extra", which is not exactly Guinness, but is close enough to make me happy. Certainly much better than the complete lack of Guinness in Colombia and Turkey. Happy days!

Passing Through Adelaide

2010-07-18T09:36:00.000-05:00

Flying from Istanbul to Adelaide got a little frustrating at times. I was no longer on crutches, so didn't have any luck getting free upgrades, and was stuck in cattle-class. I flew West from Istanbul over Europe to London Heathrow. It was nice flying in and seeing all of the famous sights of London from the air - it really is very impressive. I then hobbled quickly from end to end of one terminal to try and see a friend flying from New York to Nairobi before she boarded her onward flight. I missed her by a minute or two but did successfully send her a note via the flight attendants. I then hobbled quickly from end to end of the terminal, stopping for 20 seconds when Spain scored against Portugal, and on to the boarding gate for my onward flight. I then flew East from London Heathrow over Europe, and over Istanbul. Thankfully I then started making some progress towards Australia. A stopover in Singapore for 2 or 3 hours to check the internet and eat some sushi, then on to Sydney where there was very little to do for a few hours - they didn't even sell Farmers Union Iced Coffee or Vili's Pies. Anyway, onward to Adelaide where some family members awaited. 2 parents, 2 brothers and 1 sister was not a bad turn-out for a Thursday morning. The most enjoyable part of the welcome was the fact my brother is one of the heads of airport security, wearing uniform, and he gave me a big hug when most of my fellow passengers probably thought I was about to be arrested!
3 days is not much time for getting over jet-lag, getting organised to move to a new country, seeing the dentist, watching a football match, eating and drinking the appropriate local products, buying a couple of things and spending time with family and friends, but that was the mission. It was accomplished. Everything went beautifully to plan, even down to the details of the Crows having a win, with the only minor hitch being the dentist visit being a bit more complicated than I had expected. I survived.
As always it was wonderful to see my loved ones in Adelaide, and thank you all for fitting your schedules around me. I even managed to bump in to a few friends unexpectedly, including my most avid reader, the one and only Jan Trengove OAM!!!
A special thank you to Frank & Michelle for being chiefs of logistics - providing food, transport and accommodation, and even organising parties!
Leaving from Adelaide was emotional as always, but maybe a little less than normal in the knowledge I will nearly definitely be home for Christmas, which isn't far away at all. See you all again then!

Finishing Up in Istanbul

2010-07-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

Well, my time in Istanbul has ended. Life has been a bit of a whirlwind the last few weeks so I haven't had much time to reflect, but I guess this is my normal forum for such things.
After my last post I had to return to work - horror! However, I would have to say those last 2 or 3 weeks of "work" were some of the easiest I've had since becoming a teacher. I graded a few exams, finalised grades for the semester and year, sat around in the classroom with a few students occasionally watching episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", ate lunch and drank coffee. Even on crutches that was a breeze.
My social life got a little busier in those final weeks, after hardly existing for a few months! I went to a couple of "wind-up" type functions, a "stag party", a few "watch the World Cup football on TV" events and I even had a couple of "dates". The "dates" were with nice ladies who were extremely keen on using me for my conversational skills and intellectual prowess, meaning that after 4.5 months in Turkey I remained perfectly pure - no Turkish Delight for me. Even at the stag party there was a distinct lack of hormones racing about. I am quite certain that the female belly-dancer was no female - she certainly was in no danger from the small group of men in "her" audience.
The day before I flew out of Istanbul I had my final check-up with my surgeon. He had anticipated 2 more weeks on crutches but when he tested out my knee he was extremely happy and said I could finish up with them that day! So I did. It was slow going without the crutches but it certainly made airports and planes much easier. On a negative note I will need knee replacement surgery sometime in the next 5 to 15 years. Ouch.
So, that was that. I packed my bags and headed for the airport. A big thank you to British Airways for charging reasonable prices for excess baggage, instead of the exorbitant ones charged by Etihad and Qantas.

Well, 4.5 months isn't long to get to know a school, a city and a country, but I did my best.

My school was fabulous. I respected my bosses, my colleagues and my students. They respected me. Nice. I was able to do my job without interference. I did not have to take any disciplinary action against a student. I had a school laptop that I could do all of my school work on, and use with the digital projectors in the classrooms. I got paid reasonably well, and when I had financial difficulties (the knee) the school helped. Incredible. The academic level in mathematics is very, very high. I was teaching things to grade 10 and 11 that are not usually covered until university, even in high level school courses. This has helped me develop my knowledge well, and will help enormously in the coming year. I was so impressed with my school that I even recommended it to a friend who was looking for work. He got the job, so now I just hope he (and the school) are happy or I will feel very guilty!

Itanbul is an incredible city, but I hardly know it. The one negative of school-life was that the campus is a long way from transport and the city centre. This means that visits to the city were generally only made on the weekends. I saw all the tourist sights, got to know the main areas (on the Asian and European sides), and knew my way around well. However, I would want to live IN the city if I ever go back, so I could really get to know it properly. I still felt like a tourist most of the time - something I never felt in Bogota.

Turkey is an interesting place. It is a big, diverse country - sometimes predictable, sometimes not. The people, like anywhere, come in all varieties. I met wonderfully generous, helpful, intelligent people, as well as a few I could only describe as wankers. The one thing I did see nearly everywhere though was a desire to move forward. This does not necessarily mean joining the EU, but it certainly means becoming more respected and influential on the world stage, something highlighted dramatically recently with the very public clash with Israel over the flotilla. Turkey wants to be heard, and it deserves to be. However, before they can move far forward they must allow male teachers to grow beards! I felt oppressed every day!

Goodbye Turkey - see you again I hope!

Black Sea, Fer-ry, Bung Knee, Grand Prix

2010-06-06T05:47:00.006-05:00

Well, the last few weeks have had some ups and some downs, and at the moment I'm a little down, as I'm on crutches AGAIN. More about that later in this post.

The week after Macca left was a funny one for work. I had to work Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday were holidays, followed by working again for the half-day on Friday. Of course only a few students rolled up on Friday so it was a waste of time. They should have given us a 5-day weekend instead. Regardless, I shouldn't complain about a couple of days off. On the second of those days a few of the teachers who live on campus arranged a day-trip to a small town on the coast of the Black Sea. It was a lovely day out with plenty of walking, tons of eating and plenty of chatting. Even though it was an overcast and cool day I felt obliged to have a quick swim at the end of the day for no other reason than to say "I've swum in the Black Sea - so there". So I did. Everyone else simply watched. Weird.

The next Saturday I took the public ferry cruise up the Bosphorous, almost to The Black Sea. It is a 7 hour trip on the ferry, and a super-relaxing 7 hours they are. I challenge anyone to stay awake for that whole time. Impossible. It was a lovely day, and it was the last big touristy thing I wanted to do in Istanbul. Done.

That evening I went out to watch the Champions League Final in town. I had a few beers at the pub with some new friends, and was having a very nice evening, when my knee decided to collapse when going down the stairs to the toilets. This came as a bit of a surprise as I'd been playing tennis for a few weeks with no problems. I was in a huge amount of pain and a little upset to say the least. 9 months of rehabilitation exercises out the window. I thought I had just re-torn the cartilage they sewed up in August. Of course my knee is not covered by health insurance as it is a pre-existing injury. This means I have to pay for everything. Bugger. Luckily the husband of a good friend here is a surgeon, and has all the contacts I need. We had to go through the public system to get my MRI scan - and to jump the (6 month waiting list) queue I had to make out that I was the engineer coming to check the machine. That was a little bit of fun. The results of the scan were not good however. My Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction had failed again, the cartilage was torn, and lots of tidying up was required. I couldn't afford (financially or emotionally) the ACL reconstruction again, but decided to have 3 other procedures (menistectomy, synovectomy, chondroplasty) to tidy up all the floaty bits.

The surgery happened at a private hospital, which was very nice. Some of the staff spoke a bit of English which made it a bit easier. Unfortunately the male nurse who was given the job of shaving my leg did not. He seemed quite determined to shave everything below my navel, and he succeeded. I kept trying to explain they were just cutting 2 holes in one knee but he insisted both legs and my wobbly bits needed to be tidied up as well. Maybe my wobbly bits are closer to my knee than I thought??? After being wheeled into surgery, and while receiving my anaesthetic, my gown was pulled up to be used as a screen between myself and my bottom three quarters. I couldn't even have the dignity of having my clean-shaven wobbly bits covered up while they were operating on my knee. Hospitals sure know how to strip away your dignity. However, when I woke up nothing terribly abnormal seemed to have happened, as the only bandage I had was on my (correct) knee. One night in hospital, and then I was released the following afternoon. Back home where I was greeted by a few friends with loads of food for me. I will be at home on crutches for the next few days before returning to work for the last 2 or 3 weeks. My school has been fantastic. They have paid me all of my remaining salary in advance and helped me pay for the surgery. They are delivering me lunch and dinner each day. I am receiving newspapers and magazines. They have worked with the Indonesian embassy to ensure I don't need to fly to Ankara to get my visa, which looked certain. They have paid for 5 new trees to be planted in a forest instead of for flowers. It is very nice to have a good employer. Anyway, back to work later this week, then up to 5 more weeks on crutches. I hope this will be the last time.

The weekend before surgery was the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix. This happens about 5 or 10 minutes from my house so I thought I would go along. I couldn't walk very well, but I didn't need to walk much. I went nuts and bought a silver ticket so I could sit in a seat without moving about much. Although reasonably pricey, the seat was in an amazing spot, with views of the fastest straight, the hairpin at the end, the chicane, pit-lane and the home straight. I don't know much about car racing, but I couldn't imagine being in a better spot to watch it. It was a very enjoyable couple of days, although nothing compares with the Adelaide Grand Prix many years ago. The atmosphere at the track in Istanbul was pretty much non-existent. This is because you can't really move about much (even if you can walk!), and there is no entertainment happening apart from the cars. The prices INSIDE the event were also absolutely criminal. Istanbul Park should be ashamed. Hot weather and they are charging 8 times the normal price for a bottle of water, and 6-8 times the normal price for a beer. If you can't drink cheap you don't get atmosphere! To eat it was 15 Lira for a doner sandwich or crappy hot-dog that would cost you 3 Lira normally. I simply refused to spend a cent inside the event, and I'm sure most Turks did the same. The only people spending money insided were rich foreigners using the GBP or Euro. This should have been a great opportunity to show off Turkish food, beverage and fun to foreigners, but it was completely wasted. It is now very likely next year will be the last Turkish GP. Enough whining about that. The other downer was that Mark Webber got wiped out by his "team-mate" when leading, so only finished 3rd. Regardless, it was a very good weekend before getting chopped up again.

Merhaba Maccaaaaaa!!!!!!

2010-05-19T07:50:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was simply wonderful, as I had a REAL visitor for the first time in a few years! By "real" visitor I mean somebody I knew before moving to Istanbul - not a new friend, couch-surfer etc.
Mark Mc certainly qualifies as "not a new friend", as we have known each other since grade 7 when we would have been 11 or 12 years old. A few years have passed since then! Mark Mc also now holds the record as my best visitor, as he also visited me in Galway, Ireland many years ago.
Mark arrived Friday afternoon from London, and he just raced me to our dodgy hotel in Taksim. Our single rooms each cost 30TL ($20) including cable tv and a bathroom. They were tiny but cleanish, and excellent value for what we needed. However, if you are looking for a quiet night in your hotel room you should be looking elsewhere! The pubs and clubs surrounding it are seriously loud until 4 or 5am'ish, but with enough alcohol in your blood system this doesn't matter so much.
It had been several years since our last catch-up, so we had plenty to talk about. So Mark's Istanbul experience began by walking 20 metres to the pub to have a few beers. After that we did a fair bit of walking, lots of eating, and a bit more walking. It was a great afternoon and evening, and we were reasonably sensible that evening - I will blame Mark's jetlag for our good behaviour!
Saturday I played tour-guide, which for me generally involves showing the client every possible food and drink that they must try while in the country. I'm good at that. We had Ayvalik toast for breakfast, then took a ferry to Asia for some Turkish coffee and baclava. Then a ferry back to Europe where we forgot to eat for way too long! Did the spice bazaar and grand bazaar, then in exhaustion resorted to eating lunch. Then got seriously touristy with the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya, followed by a beer watching the FA Cup final, then a long and wonderful meal with views over the Bosphorous, and plenty more food and beverage. A quick freshen up at the hotel was followed by a great night out, hanging with loads of university students in the heart of Taksim. After a few vodkas Mark is even less shy than me, so he was pretty good at getting us talking to strangers! Met a handful of great people and had a fabulous evening - easily my best in Turkey!
Sunday started pretty slowly. However a fish sandwich with extra salt and lemon got us going, and we headed across the bridge to Sultanahmet again, primarily to drink tea at Gulhane Park overlooking the Bosphorous. Although Mark didn't like the tea much, he did take the opportunity to pose for his "wig in a foreign land" photo - be assured, that is not his normal hair under the fez! Unfortunately this brought our time to an end, and we headed our separate ways. Mark raced the volcanic ash cloud home to London, while I carried my "care package" back home. The care package that Mark brought across is fantastic - Coopers, Tim Tams, Violet Crumble, Caramello Koalas, Burger Rings and more!!!!! That should keep me going until the start of July!
What a great weekend!!!!!

Cappadocia - From The Air

2010-05-12T13:21:00.004-05:00

Here are a few photos from my lovely little adventure in a hot-air balloon.

Cappadocia - On The Ground

2010-05-12T13:15:00.007-05:00

When Australians were enjoying an ANZAC Day holiday I was at work, but a couple of days earlier I had a holiday for "Turkish National Sovereignty", which created a 3-day weekend! Instead of battling the crowds of Aussies and Kiwis at the Gallipoli Peninsula, I decided to head to Cappadocia in the middle of Turkey. This region is one of the "must see" sights of Turkey - it even makes the front cover of the Lonely Planet!

My Thursday night flight with Pegasus went much better than my previous Pegasus experience, mainly because I allowed oodles of time, which was just as well, as about 32 million Turks seemed to be flying somewhere for the long weekend. My flight went nicely, and as I was hopping off the plane 2 people approached me and asked "are you the new guy at school?". I answered in the affirmative - funny how I am still meeting colleagues a couple of months after arriving. The bus trip from the airport to the town of Goreme is almost an hour, and I met a couple of people on the bus which was nice. I then got to my hotel, with the friendliest host imaginable, and soon got shipped off to the last restaurant open in town with 3 Spaniards staying at the same hotel. This was an excellent result as I got to practice a little Spanish (not surprisingly their English was much better than my Spanish) and then hung out with them quite a bit over the next few days. They were lovely guys and it was great to have people to hang with, as well as having time to myself. All good.

The Friday was spent at the Open-Air Museum, which is the big-ticket tourist site, as tourist buses can arrive with thousands of photo-snappers, and let them wander around in a nice safe environment, and then sell them lots of crap at crazy prices. It was pretty but I was happy to move on. I spent the next 7 or 8 hours hiking through valleys near town and it was absolutely wonderful. Spectacular formations everywhere, caused by erupting volcanoes however many million years ago. I had the obligatory trip to see the Whirling Dervishes, which was nice, but dragged on a bit, and was very pricey considering you couldn't take photos and it was in the middle of nowhere. I'm not about to become a whirler but respect to those that are.

Saturday started incredibly early with a balloon trip - my first ever! I counted 51 balloons, and assuming about 20 people in each, this maths teacher says that is over 1000 punters in one morning, each paying about 130 Euro. Someone is making BIG money in Cappadocia! The balloon might cost a whack but gas is pretty cheap! It was a great experience, and I'm very glad I did it, but I won't feel the need to do it again in the near future. In the afternoon I hitched a lift with the Spaniards to an underground city. I hated it. Shuffling through tunnels with my head up the arse of a stranger, and the head of a stranger up my arse, being unable to breathe (not just because of the arse situation), and getting very sore knees and back, with difficult photography conditions, and at a cost of $10, is not enjoyable. The history of the place is very interesting, but I would have been happier to watch a video in a restaurant up top. So, I declined a lift with the Spaniards to a nearby valley and wandered around the village markets nearby for a couple of hours instead. Bused back to town and watched Spurs get beaten by Manchester United (as usual) on TV at the pub. Went out with the Spaniards that evening, and ended up belly dancing with the local men into the wee-hours at a hidden away bar somewhere. Belly dancing is done mostly by men in Turkey, but the emphasis is not so much on the belly as clicking tiny symbols between your fingers while shaking about a bit. It is good fun after quite a bit of raki. It does strike me funny that in a society that is very homophobic, men openly kiss each other on the cheeks as greetings and farewells, then proceed to girate up against each other while belly dancing sober. Interesting.

Sunday was pretty slow. I knew what the plan would be Sunday - shopping for Turkish carpets. This is an obligation while living in Turkey. I am a bad shopper. I don't enjoy it. So, the grand plan was to party pretty hard on shopping-eve, so that I was more relaxed and tolerant on Sunday. The plan worked as I discussed carpets with different carpet sellers without throwing punches or storming out of their stores. However, the end result was that I spent much more money than I had intended, although I am still very happy with the carpets I now own. It was effectively a very expensive night out!

That evening I got chauffered to the airport by my new amigos, and said farewell to the "fairy chimneys" of beautiful Cappadocia.

Tulip Festival

2010-05-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

I don't know much about flowers. My mother does but I don't. I never really considered flowers as important. Maybe that is why I have an ex-wife not a wife! Well, I still don't consider them overly important, but they are pretty.
Tulips are generally associated with Holland, but what most people don't know is that their modern origins are in Istanbul. Istanbulians (or Istanbulites or Istanbulis) are very proud of their tulips, and they are found in decorations everywhere. They hold a festival each Spring in a big park, and thousands of people, including myself, go along to look at tulips. There isn't anything else to do at the tulip festival except look at tulips and pay exorbitant prices for breakfast. I did both.
The photos above are of various types of tulips, myself with a tacky kangaroo, and a couple of incredibly tacky ducks stuck in the middle of some flowers which I believe are not actually tulips. I appreciate that tulips can get somewhat repetitive after half an hour, but are statues of kangaroos and ducks really the way to break this repetition?

Istanbul

2010-05-11T13:45:00.014-05:00

I haven't really said much about Istanbul the city. My photos are pretty crap as the weather was mostly overcast for my first couple of months here. I hope to get some better pics now that the weather is glorious. Regardless, I'm sure you can find many more spectacular shots of Istanbul than I am likely to provide you here.
The city is huge. According to Wikipedia the city proper has 12.8 million people, making it the 5th largest in the world. Before I moved here I hadn't really realised how big the city was. I have lived in some big cities, namely Bogota and Guangzhou, and very close to them (in Johor Bahru across the bridge from Singapore). However, these look small compared with Istanbul. After all, this city spreads across Europe AND Asia. The traffic is pretty bad at times, mainly because the city is split in half by the Bosphorous (strait between Sea of Marmara and Black Sea), and there are only 2 bridges crossing the bridge. Public transport exists, and is reasonable, but a city this size really needs a more integrated system. A metro exists but only in select areas. All of this should improve as a new tunnel and bridge will open sometime in the next five or six years.
The city is amazing. Mosques are everywhere, with their minarets towering up into the sky. The bridges look wonderful spanning the Bosphorous, and the ferries zipping back and forth draw your attention always. There are hundreds of spectacular old buildings, as well as plenty of ugly old buildings, ugly new buildings and the occasional spectacular new building. The streets are full of character, and not just in the old quarters and touristy areas. There are modern areas full of restaurants, cafes and bars, as well as grungy fresh produce markets and dangerous looking side-streets. This city certainly has a feel about it, and so many smells - good and bad! If I was going to be here longer I would have to move into the city just to feel the energy. Maybe in the future!
I want to mention 2 of the pictures above. One shows people fishing off the Galata bridge. There are literally thousands of fishermen lined up along the top of this bridge with their super-sized rods protruding out over the water. It is a wonderful sight. The other was taken at a football match (can you tell?). In Turkey I support Galatasaray FC, simply because they have 2 Aussies (Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill) playing for them. One of my students knew this and after I met his father at parent-teacher night, they promised to take me to a match as their guest, which was very generous of them. That match was the last home game of the year. Unfortunately we had dropped out of contention for the championship, so the match was a bit meaningless, which was lucky. We got beaten 2-1, and the one goal we did score was actually an own-goal by the opposition! The atmosphere was fantastic anyway, and I really enjoyed it, so thanks to Burak and his Dad for taking me along.

Campus Life

2010-05-11T12:55:00.000-05:00

This is a view of my social life living on campus.
I might be exaggerating somewhat there, but sometimes it feels that way. The school campus is out in the middle of nowhere, so any time we want to go somewhere it is on a minibus as a group. These service buses generally take us to supermarkets and shopping malls (which do not feature in my "top 300 places I like to spend time" list), but on the weekends we get dropped in the city where you feel free to roam and enjoy life! Now we are even getting a Saturday night bus every fortnight to take us to somewhere with nightlife. However, it all does feel a bit like you are doing a tour sometimes.
Another negative side to campus life is the fact I live very, very close to an airport. Sometimes it sounds like I live at an airport. The planes certainly do come in very low, to the point there shadows are very clearly defined. It is amazing how quickly one becomes accustomed to the noise though. I sleep through pretty well without disruption. If watching TV or a movie, you simply hit pause or turn the volume right up for 30 seconds until the plane passes, then return to normal.
The final negative is that my (thankfully free) internet connection is the school internet connection. This means that peer-to-peer programs and lots of multi-media stuff cannot be accessed. What does this mean for me? It means I cannot illegally download TV shows, movies and music!!!! This has caused a significant change to my life. I can't say I've really seen the error of my ways, but i have adapted. I also have found it impossible to watch Australian Rules Football, which is probably a good thing based on how my team have been going in the first 7 weeks of the season.
Positives of campus life are that I have a great apartment (lojman) in a beautiful leafy area with loads of space nearby. I have free access to a gym, tennis courts, a pool table and cable tv in the "social centre". Internet access and a laptop are provided by the school. Theoretically I can also go and buy a cheap meal at the school cafeteria in the evenings, but I'm trying to ensure I don't eat another 3kg of yoghurt each night. In the last 2 weeks I have been playing a bit of tennis, mostly against the wall but also once with a few colleagues. I have been doing this to enjoy the sunshine and test out my knees. The knees have, touch wood, been excellent so far. I am not exactly working them hard, but they seem stable and despite general soreness I'm very happy with them at the moment. I hope that continues after the horrors of last year!

Turkish Treats

2010-05-11T12:26:00.000-05:00

I LIKE talking about food. It is something I do quite a bit of in life.
Turkish food is great. It is worth talking about, but I will try and control myself and just point out a few key bits and pieces:
- The school lunch here is brilliant. Always 2 hot dishes, an enormous salad bar, tasty soup, yoghurt galore, fruit and occasionally a nice dessert as a treat. Whatever is in season dominates the menu. That means that at the moment beautiful fresh strawberries are served nearly every day. Yoghurt seems to be in season all year!
- The Turks have quite a bit of sea nearby. The Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea, Sea of Marmara and Black Sea make up the quartet. These seas provide plenty of seafood, which makes me happy. Pictured above is some squid (probably from the Sea of Marmara) and some octopus (Aegean Sea). One of the seafood highlights is a Balik Ekmek (fish sandwich) which is available at the cost of about $1.50 at ferry terminals and nearby. This is a little bread roll with a nice grilled fillet of fish and a good squeeze of lemon inside. Always lovely and suitably cheap!
- Eggplant (aubergine) is eaten in enormous quantities. This pleases me. This delicious vegetable (but strictly speaking a fruit) is still way under-used in so many countries. I always was led to believe it is difficult to cook, but it doesn't seem so here, but as usual I will leave the preparation to experts! Turkey is the 4th highest producer in the world, which might explain why they eat so much here. Good news is that Indonesia is the 5th highest producer so I shouldn't have too many withdrawal symptoms when I get there.
- As I mentioned very briefly in an earlier post, yoghurt is consumed in staggering quantities here. You can buy 10kg tubs at standard supermarkets but I only buy a couple of 1.5kg tubs each shopping trip. Yoghurt is used in drinks (sweet and savoury), soups (sweet and savoury), salads (sweet and savoury), main courses (savoury only I think) and as an accompaniment/sauce for pretty much everything. Empty yoghurt buckets are used as containers of all sorts in homes, farms and offices. This is all good by me as I am rather fond of it.
- Honey comes on the honeycomb in all fresh markets, and at most supermarkets. It is tasty, and it looks amazing. It is nice when you have your toast for breakfast and spread the honey straight from it's source. I only do that at hotels though, as I'm drizzling honey from a bottle onto my yoghurt and cereal in the mornings.
- Turkish Delight (Lokum) is available everywhere. I still haven't worked out if locals buy plenty of this, or if it is just the tourists. However, it is delicious and available in about 48000 varieties, although I haven't seen much of it inside chocolates, which is a tad disappointing.
- Bread is always consumed at breakfast, and often with other meals. At lunch and dinner the bread is sat on the table, but never with any butter, margarine, olive oil or anything else to jazz it up a bit. It can become quite the challenge to chew through a few pieces of bread with nothing juicy at all to help break it down. The cleaners and labourers at school, who I can only assume earn very low salaries, consume mountains of bread every lunch-time, while ignoring much of the tasty main dishes and salads. I find this interesting as the bread is the most readily available and affordable item at home, while some of the other foods would be very expensive for them. Maybe I would get bored eating smoked salmon and caviar every day? I think it would take a while!
- Kebap comes in about 300 varieties, but the unifying factor is that it is all food stuffed on a stick and grilled. It does not have to be served on the stick though. So, grilled chicken on a stick is kebap. Grilled mushrooms on a stick is a kebap. Toffee apples are not kebaps as they are not grilled. Grilled toffee apples would be a kebap. Fairy floss is not a kebap, even when it comes on a stick. A whole pig grilled on a stick is a kebap. The 7 or 8 varieties of kebap I have eaten have been wonderful. My only disappointment is that the standard lamb kebap (yiros for South Australians) is generally lacking in a garlic sauce to jazz it up. I'm not sure if that is more of a Greek thing or an Australian thing, but I like it, especially late at night after an evening involving ale consumption.

Turkish Law Enforcement

2010-05-10T14:44:00.007-05:00

Most Turkish police vehicles do not give the impression that the police are likely to chase you down the freeway at 180km/hr after you rob a bank. This particular vehicle was in quite good condition compared with a few I saw when I was not wielding my camera.
I can only imagine that this policeman has been recruited to target cyber-crime or to keep the older law-enforcement officers up-to-date with what is happening amongst the youth of today.
Obviously our young military man has received some excellent Western training. In this case he has assumed that two burqa-clad (presumably) women carrying a large, heavy, concealed object are radical fundamentalist terrorists aiming to cripple Istanbul's incredible transport system with a weapon of mass-destruction, and has followed them while communicating with CTU using his wireless communications device from a safe distance. Through the quick thinking of this young man thousands of lives were saved that day, and ferries and buses continued on their merry way.
And yes, I have been watching way too much "24" recently. I want to be Jack Bauer in my next life.

That's Nobody's Business But The Turks!!!

2010-05-03T14:20:00.008-05:00

Here I am going to talk about a few of the quirks and/or annoyances of Turkish life. It won't flow very well, but I am catching up slowly and that is the focus at the moment!

Smoking: This is quite a popular activity in Turkey from what I can tell. Plenty of locals and loads of tourists smoke nargilehs (water pipes) at cafes. However, apple and plum flavoured smoke filtered through water is a bit more pleasant than normal cigarette smoke.
My school has a non-smoking campus. That means that theoretically there is no smoking anywhere around the school buildings, or the lojmans (apartments) where I live. However, in reality there are still plenty of smokers. The school staff who smoke head outside and hide behind a group of trees against the gym wall. The funny thing is that there is a huge "No Smoking" sign about 3 metres away, and that the teachers stole this spot from the students when the ban came into place! I believe that "Lark" is just a brand-name with no other significance in Turkish, but considering how many Turks speak English, I am surprised they are allowed to use this name. However, I am waffling again!
WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY when I started talking about smoking was that Turkish TV channels are not allowed to broadcast images of smoking. This means that any TV show that is brought in from abroad (mainly the USA) has to be edited to blur out the cigarettes from images. This means that lots of people have big furry blotches where their hands used to be. This is really, really distracting when watching any serious TV, and in my opinion it draws more attention to the smoking than actually seeing it. Just one of the surprising censorship things that happen here.

Backgammon: Along with dominoes and cards, backgammon is played by groups of Turkish men at tea-houses everywhere. Men dominate tea-houses, bars, restaurants and pretty much any other social meeting place, particularly in rural communities. I can only assume that Turkish women are playing their board-games at home. However, at many bars when a couple sit down for a nice drink or meal they also request the backgammon board and play for hours. It is lovely to see.

Blankets: All cafes, bars and restaurants with outdoor areas, and ones with very cold indoor areas, will provide blankets to their customers. That is why I appear to be wearing a leopard while enjoying a beer in the photo attached. Each establishment has their own distinctive blanket design. I imagine that this is to minimise theft, as most of the designs are seriously ugly, and if you walked down the street wearing one then you would immediately be identified as a thief. However, it is a very nice touch when you are feeling a chill!

YouTube: Blocked in Turkey, as mentioned briefly in a previous post. Why? Evidently a video was posted that insulted the founder of modern-day Turkey, Ataturk. The Turkish people are justifiably proud of their heritage, and are extremely patriotic, but surely this is going a bit far? This is a country who is trying to join the European Union and I just think it is a bit over-the-top.

Bed Sheets: Beds in Turkey seem to come in the normal international sizes as far as I can tell. However, the sheets to cover them do not. I have spent time in several different beds here (unfortunately all in hotels), and they all have sheets shorter than the bed! Maybe this is just a way hotel-owners save money on laundry and linen, but I am not certain. I will hopefully investigate a little further.

Irish Pub: I went to an Irish pub recently and ordered a Guinness. "Sorry, we don't have any - what else would you like?" was the response. So I asked for a Murphy's and the first response was repeated by the parrot serving me. I asked what Irish beers they had, and they said "none". I then asked for the menu to see what they did have, only to find it was the same as everywhere else: Efes, Budweiser, Heineken, Carlsberg and Foster's. Did they really think an Australian would lower himself to drink Foster's in an Irish Pub? I did not. I drank the Turkish Efes. I don't think I will be back to that pub.

Haircuts: I have been for 2 haircuts in Turkey. The first was shocking. The second was good. My lack of Turkish is primarily responsible for the first, and possibly also for the second. Haircut 1 was ridiculously short, but also ridiculously cheap. It grew back. Haircut 2 was the full works at a barber-shop in Cannakale. It was still ridiculously cheap. I pointed at my head and used my hand to show how clippers work. I then signalled him to leave my (also ridiculous) moustache alone, but to clip my beard as well. He clipped the hair with one machine. He then tidied it up with scissors. He then applied some cream to it. He then used 3 different types of clipper machines to do my beard perfectly, before applying 2 different creams. He shaved the back of my neck, clipped my nostril hairs away, washed my face etc. etc. before the main event - the ears. I am told that every barber has his own technique, but they all involve flames or extreme heat. In my case a metal implement of some sort was heated by flame, then pressed against the hairs and skin of my ear to burn the hairs away. A fraction of a second later the skin is cooled by a wet towel. This process is repeated several times per ear. Others dip the hairs in methylated spirits and light them! All good fun and my ears have never looked better.

The Aegean Coast - Part 3

2010-05-01T15:36:00.002-05:00

After my day at Gallipoli I did my Australian duty and drank too much in a local bar. It was good fun but it meant I slept in a bit longer than expected the next day, my final day of holidays. This caused a little complication getting to the ruins of Troy.
One is expected to do a tour to Troy, but I was determined to avoid this, so I decided to make my own way there. The buses were less frequent than expected (being Sunday), so it took me more than a little while to get there. However the actual site doesn't take long to see once there, as the ruins are much less spectacular than Ephesus, and the site is comparably tiny. Of course when one thinks of Troy, one thinks not only of Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, but of enormous wooden horses. About the only photo opportunity at Troy is an enormous wooden horse. Of course the real horse disappeared thousands of years ago, but the replacement was still good enough to fool a nearby American tourist who thought it had stood the test of time very well!
After spending half an hour or hour at the site it was time to head back to Cannakale to grab my bag and fly home. Unfortunately for me the buses had stopped running, so I had to hitch-hike. This didn't go so well for a quite a while until I came across a bus at a cafe that seemed to contain some English speakers. I asked about and eventually conned my way onto the bus. It turns out it was a group of teachers and specially selected high-school students from Western Australia enjoying a 3 week educational visit around Turkey. I was welcomed on board to the singing of Waltzing Matilda, and upon the students discovering my vocation, I was invited to settle a disagreement upon the definition of infinity. It was a funny experience. Their bus wasn't going all the way back into town so they dropped me on the main road and I got a lift with the next car coming along. A couple of Turkish guys who spoke no English, but understood my Turkish word (centrum) for city centre and got me there without delay, thankfully. I then had to catch a taxi to the hotel to grab my bag, then straight to the airport where I arrived 31 minutes before the flight. Phew!!!! If it wasn't for those lifts I would have been stuck on the overnight bus back to Istanbul which would have been a bit depressing!
The trip finished brilliantly. I was flying back with Turkish Airlines instead of the afore-mentioned Pegasus Airlines. This time I was allocated a window seat. My backpack was not treated as a freak of nature. When I got to my seat I discovered that they had upgraded me to business class so I had LOADS of leg room. The (only 30 minutes) flight was beautiful, watching the sun setting over the The Dardanelles and Sea of Marmara. They even gave me dinner and a drink in that short time. And finally, when the baggage carousel began, my (not-such-a-freak-after-all) backpack was the very first bag on it. Happy days!

The Aegean Coast - Part 2

2010-05-01T14:43:00.002-05:00

Ayvalik is not the most amazing town. It is famous for a toasted sandwich which contains salami, pickles, loads of tomato and even more mayonnaise. I tried it twice and enjoyed it each time, but decided that the enjoyment being provided by these sandwiches MIGHT be exceeded by being in a slightly nicer place. So I moved on. I discovered over the coming days that "Ayvalik Tost" is available pretty much everywhere anyway, which made me even happier I had left Ayvalik behind.
The next destination was Bozcaada Island. The ferry trip proved that it definitely was an island. You purchase a one-way ticket to the island, and then it is free to escape back to the mainland when you elect to do so. I liked that system.
The tourist season was yet to begin in Bozcaada, and I was surprised to find that nearly every hotel on the island was undergoing renovations, or was simply closed. It took me nearly an hour to find somewhere open and with a room available, so I checked-in despite the price being a bit more than I would normally pay. Better than nothing!
Over the next 2 days I did an enormous amount of walking around the island, which was quite lovely. The island is full of vineyards, flowery fields and the occasional pine plantation, and it seems to have a very small population. After I got out of town on my first day, I walked for about 4 hours and only saw 3 cars. The next 4 hours provided about 15 cars, so things definitely get busy in the afternoons. Luckily after 8 hours of walking, a couple of funny little farm vehicles overtook me at a pace not much greater than mine, and one pulled over to offer me a much-appreciated lift. The other one is pictured, as mine overtook him shortly after I piled on the back. I got plenty of funny looks as we pulled into the town square with me still sat in the back. I certainly did not feel like a local then!
Noticeable events of the next day were:
- visiting a wind farm, and then getting followed for 2 hours by the guard dog who seemed to like me. His boss eventually drove up next to us, grabbed the dog, and did not even look at me. He seemed to think it was my fault the dog wouldn't go home! Some retraining might be required there.
- almost being killed on a deserted beach. I was walking along a beach (not on the map) overlooked by 20 foot sand-cliffs when the cliff collapsed about 5 seconds behind me. I probably would have only been badly bruised, but it was a very dramatic moment on a lonely beach!
- saving a baby tortoise who was trying to cross the only busy road on the island
- watching a spear-fisherman walk out of the ocean with a dozen squid hanging from his belt
- eating a couple of squid (quite possibly the same) later that evening
Bozcaada was a beautiful place to visit, and was a definite highlight of the trip. However, I suspect that this island, like many rural communities, has a bit of a red-neck element as well. I did not witness this in person, but I found plenty of evidence. Empty "Efes" beer cans appeared discarded every 10 or 20 metres along the roads. Given the lack of traffic, that means some serious beer is being consumed while driving. Every 100 metres or so, there is also a used shotgun shell or two on the road. Often this is associated with a badly damaged road-sign, or indeed a very badly damaged beer can. I asked a few people but nobody could tell me if the culprits were bored locals or tourists releasing all of the tensions of city life while in the country. Anyway, I was very careful not to chat to anybody's girlfriend at the bar.
After 2 lovely days and nights in Bozcaada it was time to move on again. The next destination was the city of Cannakale, which is one of the most famous places within Turkey. Cannakale is situated on The Dardanelles strait between the Mediterranean/Aegean Seas and the Sea of Marmara. The Dardanelles is enormously significant in world history, not just Turkish history. The ancient city of Troy was located here, and in World War I The Dardanelles were pivotal. Australians and New Zealanders think of Gallipoli, while Turks think of Cannakale. Indeed the equivalent of ANZAC Day for Turks is called Cannakale Memorial Day, which occurs on March 18. This is the anniversary of a famous Turkish naval victory several weeks before the ANZAC troops landed on The Gallipoli Peninsula.
I arrived in Cannakale a few weeks after Cannakale Memorial Day, and a couple of weeks before ANZAC Day, so I avoided the biggest crowds. However, there were still plenty of tourists, local and foreign, in town. On my first day I did a proper tour of The Gallipoli Peninsula. The guide was excellent, and it made for a good day. I don't like doing tours but I'm glad I did one there, despite it feeling rushed at times. The area is not populated, and this emptiness makes you feel like you are moving through a museum at times. Trenches are still trenches in places, and the scenery still looks the same as in the photos you see at the museum. It is an emotional place, but being there as part of a group ensures that not many tears flow. It was also strange to see cemeteries surrounded by temporary grandstands for the upcoming ANZAC day services.
ANZAC Day has now passed, and I am glad I decided to visit Gallipoli before it, and to be elsewhere on the actual day. I just feel that my general dislike of crowds would have ruined my experience, as it was distracting enough being there on a Saturday with dozens of buses of Turks and foreigners zipping all around the place. No regrets.

The Aegean Coast - Part 1

2010-05-01T13:33:00.001-05:00

After I had done 11 full days of teaching classes, I felt it was time for a holiday.
So, I decided to fly off to The Aegean Coast for 10 days of backpacking and sight-seeing.
Things did not start particularly well. The taxi was 20 minutes late, meaning when I got to the (very close) airport I was starting to get pushed for time. Then I had to go through all of the x-ray machines BEFORE entering the terminal building. The (non-English speaking) security staff were confused as to why I would have a corkscrew in my luggage. I tried to explain that a social animal such as myself likes to be prepared, and that the corkscrew was in my check-in luggage. After a couple of minutes they were satisfied I was telling the truth about this. Regardless, the carry-on luggage all gets checked again so why bother looking the first time? I guess it creates employment, but I also suspect it is a nice way of making tourists miss their cheapy flights, and have to rebook expensive ones. Am I being too cynical?
So, despite set-backs, I arrived at the check-in counter with a reasonable amount of time to spare. The airline was not happy with my backpack. It had to have a special form completed, and tag attached, to identify it as being unusual! There must not be many backpackers flying with Pegasus. Of course I could not get a window seat, and the flight was not particularly fun. At the other end I waited at the baggage carousel, knowing full-well that my bag would never arrive. When it didn't, I spent about 30 minutes getting redirected all around the small airport, until finally someone agreed they were the one I should speak to. They phoned Istanbul and eventually discovered my bag had been left behind. It would arrive on the next flight in 2 or 3 hours. Wonderful. So I provided them with the address of my hotel, and they promised the bag would be delivered soon. About 7 hours later, at about 7pm on Saturday, I phoned them to ask where my bag was. The condensed version of the reply was "We couldn't find the hotel, so we brought it back to the airport, and put it in the storage area. It will be delivered on Monday". This response did not impress me. An Australian man catching public transport in a city he had never been to, with only 3 words of Turkish and a particularly average map, managed to find the hotel without any difficulties, yet these local idiots could not. So they lock it away in the storage area, and head off on 2 days break! My hotel staff were most impressed with the enthusiasm of my verbal response to this situation, and evidently the airline staff were as well. About 3 hours later I had my luggage, and my holiday could begin. Thank you Pegasus Airlines for a wonderful all-round experience.
I spent the remainder of Saturday and Sunday chilling in the coastal city of Izmir. On Monday I took the train to the town of Selcuk (that should have a funny c but I can't switch my keyboard across to Turkish here) and went off to the extremely impressive ruins of Ephesus. I started walking back to town to avoid the ludicrous taxi prices, and successfully hitched a lift with a nice Turkish man. The site (photo 1) is wonderful but, as with most similar sites, it is difficult to avoid the crowds.
The next day, I moved on to the tiny coastal village of Yeni Foca, where I was DEFINITELY the only foreigner in town. After the crowds of Ephesus, this was very, very nice. I spent the day wandering through the village and the surrounding countryside, as well as having a nice lunch. Shortly after having completed lunch, I was walking past a house when a woman ran outside calling to me in Turkish. I made it quite clear to her that I didn't speak Turkish, and when she realised her mistake she spoke a couple of words of badly-broken English. She needed help, and who better to ask than me?! She escorted me into her back yard, where she pointed out a hand-saw and a few trees and branches that needed chopping down or off. So, I hacked away for 20 minutes or so while singing "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK....." and got the job done. She then asked me if I wanted tea (as in a cup of tea), and I accepted. So, I got a cup of tea and............... an enormous table full of food. I kept trying to explain that I had just had lunch, but I think she misunderstood, so she kept bringing more. I did my best, just to be polite, but not even I was up to the task. We said our farewells and I moved on. It was the most enjoyable hour of my trip - as I instantly felt like a member of the community. Fabulous!
That evening I caught a couple of mini-buses on to the town of Ayvalik, and stayed in a very dodgy hotel, which provided the customers (mostly prostitutes and their patrons) with a lovely view over the Ataturk statue and the ocean behind it. The photo of an Ataturk statue here is not that same one. This one has more pigeons. One does not have to travel far in Turkey to find a statue of Ataturk. Indeed to find a photo of him you basically need to open your eyes when indoors. His photo adorns the wall in every office and classroom across the country, and nearly every shop and private residence would have a picture on the wall. They are extraordinarily patriotic here.
This extreme patriotism, particularly the idolation of Ataturk, is the main reason behind the banning of YouTube within Turkey. You do not want to say anything negative about this man while in Turkey and, not that I would anyway, I won't.

Wall Hung Toilets

2010-04-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

In my travels recently I have come across several of these "Wall Hung Toilets". I can't imagine that they have any practical advantage over a traditional toilet, but then I'm no toilet engineer. I assume that they are becoming popular simply because they look cool or stylish.
Regardless of looking cool, when I sit upon one of these I get a little nervous that the toilet could de-hang itself from the wall at any point in time, especially given my substantial weight being sat upon it.
Imagining this possibility, and the serious ramifications of it occurring, causes me great concern. Am I the only freak experiencing this?
Probably.

School Life

2010-04-28T11:09:00.000-05:00

OK, I finally have a little time to right something semi-substantial.
Hopefully within a week I will be back up-to-date, but no promises just yet!
I thought I would write a little about my working life here, and some of the small differences to my previous schools, or jobs in general. I haven't taken my camera to work, so it will be a bit wordy, but hopefully interesting as well.

Lunch: Is served from 11am. There are 2 lunch hours for different year levels with the "late" lunch starting at 11:45. At my last school lunch was generally around 1.40pm, so this has taken some getting used to. I generally just stuff myself (no change there) with as much as possible to ensure I don't get too hungry until 7.30pm. The quality of the school lunch is incredible in my opinion, and of course it is free. Lunch ALWAYS includes yoghurt, whether it be in a main dish, a soup, on pasta, as a drink, or in a salad or dip. I am consuming buckets of it!

Coffee Delivery: There is a service "cafe" downstairs. If you want a coffee at your desk, you simply ring up and a few minutes later a waiter arrives with your free coffee! They will also deliver some naughtier stuff (chocolates etc) if you are willing to pay. It is a nice touch.

National Anthem: Every Monday morning and Friday afternoon the national anthem is played at a flag ceremony. This is a beautiful thing. The students even pay attention, without mobile phones or talking. However, when standing to attention for the anthem you must not hold your hands together in front or behind you, your arms must be straight by your side. It is amazing how uncomfortable it feels standing like that for 3 or 4 minutes. Try it.

Beards: The Ministry (of Education, but not unlike one from "1984") dictates that teachers (male presumably) are not allowed to have beards, as these are seen as being religious. Moustaches also need to be restrained within strict guidelines. So, shaving has become a much more regular part of life than over recent years. In my first few weeks it was happening daily, but I've dropped slowly back to a couple of times a week, and now I'm limiting the trauma to Monday mornings only. I grew a moustache for a while, just so I could save 30 seconds of shaving. I was reading "Atonement" at the time, and started having concerns that I looked like a British Army Officer from the 1940's. This, along with the general disapproval of my students, led to a clean shave after about 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to being bearded in Indonesia.

School Toilets: Teachers have to share toilets with students. This is just wrong. Maybe I am just an overly private toilet-goer, but I am quite certain this is a line that does not need to be crossed. To add to the potential discomfort involved in my ablutions, it would seem that the (female) cleaners feel a need to clean the bathroom nearly every time I enter it. Some of my colleagues have suggested this is no coincidence, but I doubt that - I don't seem to have had much of an effect upon most Turkish women!

Meet the Parents: Parent-Teacher night arrived about 1 week after I began teaching my classes. In the lead-up to the evening my colleagues were quite confused when I asked "are there any Yummy Mummies?". It would appear this term is quite new to Turkey. Anyway, my short time in charge of classes meant I had little to no knowledge of my students, and consequently little or nothing to say to their parents. However, during the 3 hours of allocated time I only had about 5 minutes where I was not talking to parents. This was quite the contrast to my old school where I once sat through 6 hours and 55 minutes of waiting for parents before my sole visitor arrived with 5 minutes remaining. It was nice to meet lots of locals though and get a feel for their expectations. Yummy Mummies? Not really, but one Yummy Cousin. I might have to fail her cousin to force some more contact.

Singing: Last week was Children's Day, and the Maths Department was in charge of entertaining the school during an assembly. So, our (slightly nuts) department head decided that we (the department) would sing a few songs to entertain the students. Entertainment??? So, we sang 3 songs in Turkish. The first was about how useless school is, particularly mathematics. It went well. The second was a catchy kids tune about "My friend the donkey". This would have very different connotations along the Caribbean coast of Colombia. In Turkey it was received well. I have no idea what the 3rd number was about. It was only added about 2 hours before the performance and we rehearsed it once. It was terrible! This was my first time performing (without the aid of alcohol) in many years I believe. Some teachers and students said I appeared a bit rigid. They were quite right! I was trying to read the words in a strange language, to songs I had hardly heard, in front of 2000 people I don't know particularly well. If I had been drunk that would have been fine, but I was not. I did however sing my lungs out, along with my colleagues, and we were generally received well. It is out of the way now and I can get back, thankfully, to doing my job!

OK, hopefully more to come very soon. Bye!

Istanbul Intro

2010-04-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

So, I have been living in Istanbul for more than 5 weeks now, but unfortunately this little introductory post will be just that - introductory. I have run out of time to post properly, but i thought I better put something up.
The first 3 weeks here I had to go to work, but I was not teaching. I was simply getting used to the school, observing lessons, learning systems, reviewing the curriculum, organising documents and bank accounts etc. It was a pretty relaxed time, but I did plenty of homework to make sure I was well prepared.
The last 2 and a bit weeks I have actually been teaching, and it has been fantastic. I teach 2 classes of grade 10s and 2 of grade 11s, and they are all very responsible and mature kids. When you ask them to do work, they do work! That is not the only difference with my old school! Anyway, I am very happy with my teaching so far, and I think the students are too.
But now it is time for a holiday!!!!! I have the next 9 days to wander around the Aegean coast of Turkey, and take in some sights such as Ephesus, Troy and Gallipoli. It will be very nice to escape the school compound in which I live!
When I return I will endeavour to post properly about Istanbul, life, and my travels.
Well, until then my friends!!!!

Farewell to Oz

2010-03-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

While in Sydney at the start of January I was offered a job in Istanbul - a short contract covering a teacher on maternity leave until the end of June. I had to decide if I moved to Turkey for a few months or accepted the 6 month contract at my old school in South Australia. Both options had big positives for me, and it was a difficult decision. When I returned to Australia I had planned on spending 6 months there, but a couple of months ended up being enough to satisfy me, so I accepted the job in Istanbul. It will be good for my professional development as I get to teach much higher level maths than I was teaching in Bogota. I also get some experience with the IB Diploma programme. My time in Turkey will be short but I will have time to see Istanbul well, a little bit of the rest of Turkey, and maybe even the odd trip to Europe with a budget airline. I might even get a visitor or two while I'm here!
As a result of the interviews in Sydney I was also offered a job in Indonesia starting in July. It is an excellent opportunity and fits all of my requirements - closer to South Australia, teaching IB Diploma, good facilities including swimming pool and tennis courts, good (relatively at least) salary package, stable and (hopefully) trustworthy management. The only problem is that it starts only a few days after I finish in Istanbul, meaning that it will be a crazy time flying to Australia, unpacking and repacking, sending freight etc. and flying out again. Not really looking forward to that little time but I might get to see a Crows game!
Anyway, although I wasn't working in February, I had plenty to do to get organised. A final run around catching up with family and friends was high on the list. I also culled my wardrobe seriously for the first time in 10 years! My ex-wife would be very pleased to know that some of the items she encouraged me to dispose of have finally gone, particulary the muscle-shirt pictured! New work shirts were purchased, and old smelly ones disposed of. Vaccinations were had, fillings were received and moles were removed. It is funny how the list builds up when spending long periods out of the country. My boxes of personal belongings (no more cocaine jokes please) arrived from Colombia so I had loads of unpacking and repacking to do. I had to pack for Istanbul and Indonesia at the same time, and throw stuff away, pull stuff out of my boxes in the roof, and generally get very organised. It took days.
Then it was time to fly away. Adelaide to Melbourne. Melbourne to Abu Dhabi (fancy airport pictured). Abu Dhabi to Istanbul. And so a new, but short period of life begins!

Australia Day

2010-03-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

January was busy.
I was in Sydney and Canberra at the start of the month. Then I went to Melbourne to start my application for a Turkish visa (more about that later). Then I went back to Adelaide. Then I went to the Gold Coast and back to Adelaide again!
The trip to the Gold Coast was to catch up with my good friends the Thompsons. Thommo was holding a party for Australia Day and it ticked all the boxes that I needed to tick.
The main thing on my list was the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown on the radio. Very, very important. It makes me feel young to still listen to this each year when I can. We also had cricket on the TV and cricket in the backyard. We had girls in bikinis and a makeshift urinal (where Laz looks a bit upset about having his photo taken!). We had lamb on the bbq and beers in the pool. All good! Everyone had a great day, and I had a few great days with Thommo showing me about the Gold Coast. Not a bad place to be really!

Hanging in Oz

2010-03-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

Well, after Christmas it was a time to relax. More eating and drinking (obviously) combined with cricket on tv is the standard drill. However, we also went a bit crazy with a "Sing Star" (?) evening in which I was completely, but unsurprisingly, humiliated. No more drunken karaoke for me in the future. A couple of days of golf were also squeezed in, although it isn't terribly relaxing when I play! Trev is pictured here as he prepares to do a shearing presentation to the kids (and adults) - how Australian is that?
Just before the end of the year I started doing a bit of visiting in the city, where it seems all of my friends have hundreds of children, but more specifically they all have twins! I'm pictured here with my best mate Trav (not Trev) and his 3 wonderful kids. Visiting friends is not quite as simple as it used to be - kids can complicate matters. Not many big nights out with the boys happening nowadays, although I did squeeze one of them in!
New Years' Eve was great. Caught up with a bunch of old friends at a party in McLaren Vale. Slept in the car then had to drive about 4 hours North for a BBQ with school friends at my sister's place. Those 2 days were great as I got to catch up with loads of people without chasing them around. That evening I had to drive back to Adelaide to catch an early flight to Sydney the next day. I was a wee bit tired.
The Sydney visit was for a couple of days of job interviews at a recruitment fair. It was a very worthwhile trip. I get very spoilt when in Sydney as I get to stay for free on the waterfront at Tamarama - lucky me! I also got to a day of cricket at the SCG with my sister Catherine. Happy days!
From Sydney I took the train to Canberra for 2 reasons. The first was to visit my friends Jim & Sam and their new daughter Francesca. The second was to see an art exhibition that was on at the national gallery. Both very worthwhile. Flew back to Adelaide a very tired boy though!

Images From An Aussie Xmas - Part 3

2010-03-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

I could put hundreds of photos from Christmas up here, but a dozen is plenty. Over recent years the family has been expanding at a rapid rate. My twin sister has highlighted my poor breeding efforts by having her 4th child. Another sister has had 3. My cousins are now getting in on the act, and with a few weddings approaching we could see another baby-boom soon. So, these few photos show some of the faces that will be the next generation of our family Christmas.
As always, Christmas was an extremely special time for me. I am extremely fortunate to be part of such a close family. We all get along together brilliantly 99% of the time, if not 100%. That includes all of my siblings and their offspring, as well as parents, uncles, aunties and cousins. I used to know someone who remarked that my family was artificial, and that nothing seemed genuine, simply because we didn't fight. That someone was a long way off the mark. I could not wish for a better family. That is why I, and the rest of my family, always do our very best to be home at Christmas time, wherever we are in the world. I've only missed 3 in 36 years!

Images From An Aussie Xmas - Part 2

2010-03-05T13:52:00.001-05:00

Here are 2 wonderful reasons to live a bit closer to Australia - my parents. They recently celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary, which isn't a bad effort really. I only lasted 5 years when I tried! They even put on a bit of a dancing display for us on Xmas morning, bringing back memories of when we went to REAL dances when I was 5 or 10 years old. Although not quite as nimble as they were back then, they certainly still move beautifully together. I wish they had handed down some of the dancing genes to me.
During my time at home my parents looked after me wonderfully. Mum, as always, turned out beautiful meals every evening to satisfy my poor taste buds that had wasted away in Colombia! She was also good enough to lend me her car for the whole period of my stay, which made life considerably easier. Dad didn't do any cooking, but he did put up with me interrogating him about his health, and giving him instructions about what he has to do to make sure he's around for a while yet. He also got me out and about at the Spalding Lawn Bowls Club where I became a floating member for a few weeks. Although my bowling is horrible, it is good fun over a couple of drinks, and I even won myself a meat tray (how Aussie is that?) and a travel pillow (it was a sign!).
Thanks to Mum and Dad for everything over the last couple of months.

Images From An Aussie Xmas - Part 1

2010-03-05T13:33:00.001-05:00

Here are a few little snapshots of OUR traditional Aussie Christmas: A dodgy tree; prawn cocktails for breakfast; champagne and sparkling red to wash down the prawns; mornay (recipe of my late grandmother). The last 3 are particularly good reasons to be home for Christmas!

Las Vacas Gordas

2010-03-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

Although neither Lee or myself had many positive things to say about Chile after 2 weeks there and in Argentina, there was one shining light for us - "Las Vacas Gordas" (translates to "Fat Cows").
This is a restaurant in Santiago. It got a good write-up in our guidebooks so we thought we should try it. It was wonderful. A serious restaurant (only male waiters!) with perfect presentation, truly spectacular food, good wines and a nice ambience. All of this at very, very low prices for what you are receiving. Check it out - we did twice! The 2nd time was my final meal in South America - a great final memory!

Slightly More Serious Photos From Chile

2010-03-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

I didn't do much serious photography during the 2 weeks in Chile and Argentina. This was partly because of a suspicion I would be robbed, and partly because Lee is a professional photographer and I would feel just silly next to him!
1) Church in Santiago
2) Lots of Lines in Santiago
3) Street signs in Valparaiso (Alemania means Germany)
4) Colours of Valparaiso

Happier Days In Argentina

2010-03-05T10:48:00.000-05:00

Things did improve in Argentina. They weren't perfect, but they were definitely better.We decided to become more touristy, and booked in for a few tours. It got us out and about and made drinking less of an option most of the time. The food was better, the drinks were better, the taxi drivers were the same, the city (Mendoza) was nice, and the people seemed to look after us OK. Oh, and the women were much more attractive than the street-dogs. Unfortunately I was still much more popular with the street-dogs.
We probably spent 1 week in and around Mendoza, and did not get robbed. However, we did meet a honeymooning couple from Ireland who had been in South America for 10 days. They got robbed on day 2 in Rio, then robbed again on day 9 in Mendoza. Remarkably they were still smiling and happy. Good for them.
Things of note that I did during our time in Mendoza were:
a) Attempted to eat the biggest hamburger (pictured) I have ever seen. I don't remember what it was called on the menu but it was the equivalent of "big burger with everything", which normally catches my eye. It did not have egg - it had an omelette. The meat was 2cm thick and the size of the plate, as was the bun. Ridiculous. After half an hour I conceded, after taking one bite of the 2nd half. It cost about $3.
b) Saw the highest mountain in the Americas (North & South). Aconcagua is 6,960 metres tall, which is quite a bit. When I flew in to Santiago I could see it out the window and it looked huge even in comparison to the surrounding Andes. Very impressive.
c) Drank Absinthe (pictured). This is one serious beverage. Tough drinking at about 60% alcohol, but very colourful and amusing. It actually tasted OK, but you couldn't exactly knock it back. After 1 shot of that both Lee and I felt pretty chirpy for an hour or two. Don't leave it around with teenagers nearby!
d) Went on my first winery tour outside of South Australia. The hostess was pretty, but everything else was pretty standard.
The last two photos above amused me, as often happens. "Buceo" means scuba diving. Although there was a lake off a cliff to the right, when walking this road I really hadn't expected to see scuba divers all suited up. The last photo was of a travel agency in Mendoza. I'm not sure exactly who there target market was, but even Lee and I resisted the temptation to try it out.

Silly in Chile

2010-03-05T10:22:00.002-05:00

When leaving Bogota my flight was to pass through Santiago in Chile. My good friend Lee was in Chile at the time, and despite being a hell of a long way from Santiago, he decided to spend a couple of days in a bus to come and meet up with me there. I decided to have 2 weeks in Chile before returning to Australia in time for Christmas. Hanging with Lee in Chile would be fun!
Well, despite having some fun, we didn't enjoy ourselves as much as we had expected or hoped. Chile was crap.
I feel pretty bad saying that at the moment, given what the people of Chile have just gone through with the massive earthquake and tsunami, but it is the truth. Chile certainly doesn't deserve what she just got, and I feel deeply sorry for her.
However, for the purposes of my visit it was crap. Lee came and met me at the airport and we went to the hostel. All good. We had a look around that night. Not the most exciting night out. Ripped off by a couple of taxi drivers, one of whom must have arrived on the same flight as me as he knew the city as well as me. The next day was OK. We walked plenty. That night, as Lee and I would customarily do together, we got drunk. We attended a small concert in the park. I had a significant amount of money stolen. Bugger. The next day we decided to leave Santiago as things would be better elsewhere. The metro line was having renovations so we had to walk the last 2 stops with big packs. We got lost and angry in the heat. Finally got a bus to Valparaiso. Had a crap meal. Paid too much for average digs in the town. Went out for dinner. Waited 20 minutes and still didn't receive a menu. Lee left. I left. We had a few drinks to relieve the tension. Ripped off by 2 taxi drivers. Back to digs. Next day was OK. Sat in the square talking to street-dogs and having a drink. Decided that on average the street dogs were equally as attractive as Chilean women. In retrospect think that was a tad too harsh. That night ripped off by another taxi driver, and a bar. Walking down the street and searched by police. Getting miserable now. Decide to leave town, and Chile, ASAP. Last meal in Chile. Ask for a coffee. Man brings a coffee cup and a Nescafe sachet. Wait 20 minutes to get hot water to add to sachet. Pizza was good though. Catch bus to Argentina. Huge stress for Lee as he has misplaced an entrance document, but it doesn't cause a problem. Arrive in Mendoza, Argentina. Will life be better here?
The photos above are:
1. Interesting subway station
2. Lee looking curvier than usual
3. Chilenos get excited about Nescafe. A bit of a comedown after the beautiful coffee of Colombia.
4. With elections happening there were posters everywhere. Most were vandalised within hours of going up. This guy was one of my favourites. I hope he got elected.

Farewells

2010-03-05T09:35:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately I don't have photos of my farewell party here. Despite the great sadness of leaving, the party was a hell of a lot of fun. I had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the years, and I could not take it all with me. So, I received small donations for some more significant items, and gave the rest away to whoever needed or wanted it. This involved a circle of 20 or 30 people drinking in the living room having random items thrown to them from all over the house. What didn't go at the party went to my maid afterwards, but that wasn't as much fun! I managed to get my luggage down to a semi-acceptable level, but still had 9 boxes (my computer was 3) to send home as freight even after the wholesale disposal! I think I need to settle down properly somewhere and get all my belongings in one place.
So, the last 3 photos from Colombia are my last beer, my first and best Colombian friend Ana Carolina, and my darling friends Alejo & Ange who drove me to the airport and shared a final Juan Valdez coffee with me.
To all my friends in Colombia, you are greatly missed. The expats were easily the best bunch of expats I have come across anywhere, and the locals were simply fabulous.
If you are thinking about a trip to South or Central America, or the Caribbean, or the Amazon region, or the mountains, or wherever, then go to Colombia. It has everything. You won't get ripped off. You won't get robbed. You won't get harassed. You will be appreciated. You will be well looked after, even if you don't speak Spanish. Of all the places I went in South America, Colombia was the safest, cheapest and friendliest.
Adios mis amigos.

A few things I will miss.........

2010-03-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

Goodness! This new photo software is very difficult to handle! My apologies for this messy post. Nearly all of my photos from my last couple of weeks in Bogota are on my computer. My computer is in a box in Australia, and I am not in a box or in Australia. So, I only have a few photos with me.

I thought I would share these with you as a few of the things I will miss. The enormous Punto Blanco swimwear poster was in the window at Palatino shopping centre for the whole time I lived in Bogota. It made me smile every time (which was often) that I passed by. El Corral hamburgers are easily the best burgers I have ever had from a chain store. Infinitely superior to McDonalds, and vastly superior to Burger King/Hungry Jack's if you need a reference point. Colombians should be, and are, proud. Crepes and Waffles is another chain store with quality well above what you would expect, and prices well below. Another fine Colombian institution.

Ch....ch....ch....ch....changes

2010-03-05T08:58:00.000-05:00

Well late November 2009 and early December 2009 was a period of great change for yours truly.
After expensive and depressing bouts of knee surgery, working very little during the academic year, some concerning circumstances at home in Australia, and various other factors, I hastily decided that I would leave Colombia with the plan to be closer to Australia in the shorter and longer term.
Although when I arrived in Colombia I had a plan to stay 2 or 3 years, at times I thought seriously about staying longer term. Life was very comfortable, although not financially rewarding, and I got to see plenty of the continent. The school, or at least the department I worked in, improved greatly during my time there, but it was still a complete mess, and I certainly was not developing professionally as much as I would have liked. However, the main problem with Colombia is that it is a damned long way from Australia.
With the knowledge that I had a 6 month contract available at my old school in Oz, and with the intention of moving to somewhere in Asia in July, a few months at home around family and friends sounded great. So - it was decided. I was to leave Bogota after a great 2 and a half years.

Swimming Pool Etiquette

2009-11-16T15:37:00.003-05:00

Firstly, I didn´t have my own photo, so I did a quick google search of "Swimming Pool Etiquette" and this image came up. A good excuse for showing a photo of a girl in a bikini on my blog.
Since my knee surgery I have been getting to the pool at my gym as often as possible. Walking in water and swimming are both wonderful safe exercises for my legs, so I have a practical reason for being at the pool.
Several of the people at the pool do not have such practical reasons for being there. Some seem just to be hanging out with nothing better to do, while the young children are obviously enjoying a splash about for fun. Some others are doing rehab or swimming but not many.
The swimming pool at my gym is very small, and this means often space is at a premium.
Colombians are intelligent, friendly, polite and courteous people - but something happens when you put them in water, and all that goes out the window. They become nothing but obstacles.
Honestly, they have absolutely no spacial awareness at all, and spend nearly the whole time getting in the way of any swimmers who are actually swimming. While I am trying to relax watching the black line, I have to constantly break mid-stroke to turn 45 degrees right, then 60 degrees left and 30 degrees right and then follow the line for a few feet before repeating the process. AAAGGghghhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Stay out of the f#####g way damn it!!!!!
Yesterday was the peak of my frustrations. I am the ONLY swimmer in the pool. I am swimming along the wall, so that obstacles can only come from one side (theoretically). This leaves the rest of the pool completely empty, including steps for sitting on, walls for hanging or leaning on, space for swimming laps, for jumping and frolicking about, scuba diving or whatever. (Yes, they do have scuba classes occasionally in the pool as well)
A woman of 50 odd years climbs into the pool. She decides to lean against a wall. Of all the walls available she parks herself against MY wall. I now swim directly at her, do a little right-left around her and continue down the wall. I turn, head directly for her, do a little left-right around her and continued down the wall. I turn, head directly for her, do a little right-left around her and continue down the wall. This pattern repeats for about 10 laps before I give in, defeated, and move across the pool into the open space. Shortly afterward she started wandering around the pool, completely oblivious to my frustrations. Once again, aaaagggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
So, now every time I go swimming at the pool I feel like I am "Frogger" from the old computer game, dodging and weaving the traffic, hoping to survive. I am indeed a very frustrated Frogger.
Thanks for listening - I do feel better now!

Expatriate Life

2009-11-16T15:06:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the weirdest experience yet of my expatriate life anywhere. That is quite a big call because living as an expatriate is quite often weird.
So, an English friend at work told me about a quiz night for expats that was happening at a pub in Bogota. I love a good quiz night, and have sorely missed the one that used to happen here in my first year, so I got rather excited about it. A group of 6 or 7 of us from school decided to go along. That included a few English, a Welshman and myself. I also took along an Aussie friend Rebecca who was staying at my place.
So, we arrive at the pub on a Tuesday night only to discover that the pub is a German restaurant. That is a bit weird for a British style pub night.
At the door we are greeted in a strange combination of German, Spanish and English, by about 5 old women simultaneously. Within moments they have plastered name tags to our chests, forced us to write down who we are on a guest list, and taken 10,000 pesos ($5) off each of us. We are then shuffled past the greeting desk to where a kindly gentleman pours us each a glass of wine for our trouble. Thankfully.
Then it gets weird. We creep into the main area of the restaurant, where all the tables and chairs have been cleared, and stand around in a small group. We then notice that nearly every person is the room is British and over 70 years old. They all have names such as Reginald, Silvia, Harold, Gertrude (no offense to my late grandmother Veronica Gertrude), Leonard and Polly. At this point I feel like I am in Fawlty Towers and about to have a chat with the Major.
Indeed, within moments circles merge and I am speaking with the Major, or his twin brother, and his wife. Stories are exchanged and and all of a sudden I am being invited to golf courses, cricket matches and to visit schools, all by complete strangers with whom I have nothing in common except that I am a foreigner in Bogota. Weird.
THEN comes the piano. A gentleman (Jim if I recall correctly, which I probably don´t) sits down at the piano, calls our attention and sings us a couple of old ditties. If anyone watched the wonderful Canadian TV show called Slings & Arrows, this bloke reminded me of the piano player in the opening sequence there, but this bloke was not remotely entertaining or amusing. He plays us a few tunes, while song sheets are passed about.
We are then invited to join in!!! So, 80 or 100 mostly British people with a few Colombians, Germans, Australians etc mixed in, then start singing along with Jim. The songs are mostly old British and Irish tunes which I have been blissfully unaware of until this moment, but Danny Boy did feature at one point. About an hour later the wine still wasn´t slipping down quite fast enough, so I decided that I would chase the only woman (Colombian) there under 60 years old that I didn´t arrive with. That kept me distracted from the freaky situation I was in for a little while.
Poor Rebecca, who has been backpacking for several months and was wearing her best dirty jeans, sandshoes and t-shirt, and who was used to staying in hostels (and on sofas) and hanging around young travellers, was in complete shock at the situation. She survived admirably.
So, where the hell was my pub quiz?????? My friend Valerie informs me that she ASSUMED that a "pub night" would be a quiz night. Wrong answer Valerie - don´t assume.
The positive to come out of the evening was that my friends have decided to start their own quiz night, so I´m hoping that might happen in the next month or two. Pleeaaassseeeee!!!!

A New Niece

2009-11-16T14:54:00.005-05:00

Halloween is not one of my favourite times. In Australia it is hardly even noticed, but in Colombia it is absolutely huge. Everybody (except boring Australians) dresses up in fancy outfits and parties the night, or several nights away. For those of us who don´t like going to fancy-dress shops, it all becomes a bit monotonous.
However, this Halloween included a big positive! My twin sister Paula gave birth to her FOURTH child, Bronte Cecilia Gill. Here she is pictured with her sister Annie, brothers Darcy and Charlie, father Trevor (looking a bit stunned by it all), and her wonderful mother Paula.
From what I have heard all is going well for this expanding family, although Charlie seems to be causing a few issues for Bronte and her parents! The family is now so large that they actually have a Tarago to get around in!
This means that when I get home to Australia for Christmas holidays, my first time in Australia for 2 years, I will meet 2 new nieces (Bronte and Mimi), as well as a nephew (Charlie) who was only a few months old when I met him. Of course I will also get to see my parents, 6 brothers and sisters and their spouses, another 5 nieces and nephews, loads of Uncles, Aunties and cousins, and plenty of wonderful friends. I can´t wait!

Smart Cigarettes

2009-10-23T14:52:00.003-05:00

When my friend Martina arrived from Austria, she brought with her a pack or 2 of cigarettes, as she is one of those crazy characters who still enjoy a puff.
For those puffers of you out there, don´t waste your money buying cigarettes before you come to Colombia - they are incredibly cheap here. With the savings you make you could easily invest in a few other vices at much lower prices than you would be able to if at home.
Anyway, I found this pack of German cigarettes to be quite amusing.
Comment 1: Can you imagine a cigarette company in Australia being able to use this name?
Comment 2: Do the 3 key words go together?
Comment 3: Why the hell are the 3 key words in English on German cigarettes?
Comment 4: Is that a warning at the bottom, or is it a marketing spiel telling you how intelligent you will look and/or become if you smoke these cigarettes?
Comment 5: Maybe these cigarettes light themselves when they sense lips holding them?

Keeping "Busy"

2009-10-23T13:12:00.004-05:00

So, as I prepare to return to work on Monday it is time for me to reflect: What the hell have I been doing for the last 9 weeks?
Now, one would hope that I have used the time really constructively, improved my Spanish substantially, and found a religion that would guide me through my remaining years on the correct path.
I haven´t quite done any of those things, but I haven´t been completely useless. As always, there are plenty of excuses to throw around.

Excuses
After each surgery I didn´t feel like doing anything except take pain-killing drugs and watch tv or movies. The period of time lost after surgery 2 was a bit longer than surgery 1, as both legs were out of action. Regardless, I did lose a fair bit of time to discomfort.
When you have absolutely no reason to get out of bed, it is pretty hard to motivate oneself to get out of bed.
During this incapacity pretty much everything has taken much more time to do than usual, especially when I was on crutches. I´m sure I lost a couple of hours every day to low productivity rates!

What I´ve Done

Spanish: Started strongly in the first few weeks, and then faded to little or no effort at all. This is generally down to laziness and lack of confidence, but also partly because I don´t know if I will be living in a Spanish speaking country next July or not - and therefore I don´t know if I should work harder at it or not.

Mathematics: Worked on this pretty well throughout the downtime. As it is a seriously long time since I completed the last couple of years of maths at school, my knowledge of the curriculum in the final years is very limited for a maths teacher. This year I am teaching grade 9 (grade 10 in Australia), and some of the material is new to me. I have therefore been brushing up on all of the material required to teach to the end of school. I still have a few chapters to go but it is fair to say I have put in plenty of work on this to ensure I can teach to the higher levels in the future.

TV: I have been very good at avoiding the television set. Unfortunately I have not been so good at avoiding my computer screen, where I can source pretty much anything I want. During my painful days I watched 2 series of "24", 1 series of "The Wire", "Summer Heights High" and "We Can Be Heroes". I have also watched a fair bit of soccer on tv and cricket and Aussie Rules football, via the wonders of the internet.

Movies: I have watched quite a few movies, many of which I had fond memories of from my childhood, but were obviously terribly films. "Flash Gordon" is one that springs to mind. I remember watching it about 15 times with my brother in 2 days on our brand new VCR many moons ago. Also caught up on lots of John Hughes flicks and similar fare. That is not to say it has all been rubbish. I watched a couple of fabulous Aussie films called "The Black Balloon" and "Unfinished Sky", the wonderful flick based in Colombia "Maria Full of Grace" and a few other gooduns I can´t think of at the moment! "The Kite Runner" was also good.

Cinema: 2 trips to the cinema in 9 weeks. I don´t even remember the first, but Julie & Julia yesterday was absolutely fantastic. Great acting and great food on screen all the time, making me very hungry. It made me feel a bit pathetic writing my mundane little stories on my blog, compared with Julie´s wonder-blog of cooking, but it made me laugh a lot as well. Laughing loudly at the cinema is generally much more comfortable when there are only 4 other people in the cinema - just the way I like it.

Outings: I have been out to dinner and drinks plenty of times, but this was very rare in the first few weeks. The lack of an elevator in my building certainly restricted my adventures at that time. I have been to the end of my street where the skateboarders etc. make merry in the park. I have been to the supermarket once or twice! Not much in the way of big outings but it is much easier now, so I hope to get back to seeing a bit more of the world around me.

Construction: I have been watching the new apartment building across the street go from an empty block to a 5 storey concrete shell. This has been occasionally interesting but always incredibly noisy and annoying. If they had planned to build that apartment block to avoid my 9 weeks off I would have greatly appreciated it. Starts at 7am and is noisy all day, sometimes going late into the night. Sunday is rest day thankfully. I assume I have lost quite a bit of my hearing over these 2 months. The enormous crane got hit by lightning while I was watching a storm a few days ago. It didn´t even stop moving. I don´t think the operator even blinked!

Photos: I have been designing photo books! This is a very time consuming activity, taking 10 or 12 hours to design 1 book well. I have designed 4 but only printed 2 at the moment. Since the digital revolution I have not printed one photo, so this is rather exciting for me. I now am starting a collection of photo books so there is a hard copy for posterity. The photos are literally printed into the books so there is no fiddling about with loose photos. For the tiny (I think) price of 65,000 pesos ($35 Australian) you get a 48 page book with hard cover. Fantastic. Hope to get more done over the coming months.

Reading: Haven´t done as much as I would have liked, but did finish "Anna Karenina", "The General in His Labyrinth" and "The Yiddish Policemen´s Union". Currently on"A Thousand Splendid Suns".

Exercising: When I had the surgeries I was very concerned about putting on huge amounts of weight without being able to exercise. Normally I walk 1.5 hours each day, as well as time on my feet in the classroom, and 2-4 trips to the gym to swim, cycle or push weights each week. Without all this I was sure I would put on 10kg. However, I have eaten very sensibly, drunk less than normal and generally looked after myself. It is quite amazing what good exercise crutches can give you. When I stopped using them 2 weeks ago my upper body was probably in the best condition of my life, or maybe equal to when I was working in scaffolding. Since retiring the crutches my tone is dropping off again, but I must concentrate on my legs. I have been to the swimming pool for 1.5 or 2 hours every day for the last 2 weeks, and it really is good, safe exercise for me. I also have exercises to do hourly at home for the rest of the day and it feels like a full-time job. When I started walking 2 weeks ago my legs had pretty much turned into skin and bone, with all of my muscles disappearing. They are slowly coming back now but it will take some time to get back to normal. I am still walking with a bit of a limp, and still have pain in my right knee, but stairs are getting easier so school should be OK on Monday.

Ladies: An amazing thing happened after my surgeries. I lost my sex-drive. That is quite a surprising thing for a heterosexual foreign man in Colombia. I´m not sure if this was a result of my physical inability to chase women, or if it was more of a mental problem knowing that I wouldn´t be able to perform at 100%. Regardless, it seems to be back now that I am off crutches, so despite moving pretty slowly, I´ll slowly work myself back into the game!

General Wrap: I am actually really looking forward to getting back to work. 9 weeks at home is a long time. I didn´t achieve many of my objectives in that time, but I am very relaxed and I can´t wait to put some energy into my classes and feel like I´m doing something worthwhile. God, I´ve been typing lots of rubbish here so I am very sorry to bore you. However, remember that this is my personal "diary" as well as information for my friends and family, so I need to put everything down! Time for more exercises.
Chao for now

Arrivals from Abroad

2009-10-23T13:06:00.003-05:00

Over recent times it has been nice to welcome various things from abroad. A few of these things are:
1. My Welsh mate Geraint has returned to Bogota after a year in the UK finishing his studies. He absolutely loves Colombia and decided to come back here despite his lack of a job. That is what Colombia does to people. He has found work teaching English, has hooked back up with his girlfriend from a year ago, and all looks like it is going nicely.

2. A phone call from Australia!!!!! Thanks to Thommo for the phone call from Caza´s 60th birthday party on the Gold Coast. I could be wrong, but I believe that this was only the 2nd (actual real) phone call that I have received from Australia in over 2 years. I know everybody relies on skype, especially me, but that is ridiculous. It was nice to be woken up by familiar (admittedly drunken) voices from home!!!
3. The arrival of plenty of "Coopers" merchandise from my sister Fiona in Australia. Coopers is my beer of choice at home, and I do miss it. Fiona has been promising me a Coopers cap for years, and discovered a Coopers show-bag recently including a cap and other stuff for the same price as the cap. So now I am the proud owner of a Coopers cap, a Coopers beanie, a Coopers scarf, a Coopers wristband, a Coopers stubby holder, a Coopers sticker, a Coopers magnet and 5 Coopers coasters. I have built a small "shrine" to honour the great beers, but unfortunately it doesn´t include any of the actual product for which the name is famous. Once again, I will have to wait until Christmas.
4. My Austrian (not Australian) friend Martina who I met trekking in Colombia 15 months ago has moved to Bogota for a few months, volunteering in a NGO here. It is great to have her here, although the chocolates she brought me have disappeared already!
5. Another show-bag from another sister (-in-law)!!!! The Bertie Beetle show-bag at the Royal Adelaide Show is well known amongst us oldies as being the best value going around. Michelle sent me the entire bag of goodies (chocolates and other sweets) and it arrived a week or two ago. One "Redskin" was a bit melted and two "Berties" were a bit crushed, but it all tasted good. I am now challenging myself to keep the other bits for as long as possible before I cave in to the desire to consume them. This is reminding me of how mentally strong I used to be as a kid at Easter time, when I would hoard Easter eggs for months, then sell them off to my siblings at ridiculously inflated prices in order to boost my savings. Although I probably copped a few beatings as a result, I certainly learned valuable lessons about supply and demand.
6. Included from Michelle with the Bertie Beetle show-bag was a team photo of the mighty Adelaide Crows, signed by 2 of the players! I don´t have a pool-room, so it went straight to the fridge door. Thanks Michelle!

Footy & Feasts

2009-10-23T13:04:00.004-05:00

Well, the week following my birthday was much better than the week preceding it. Most of my pain had disappeared, making it much easier to get motivated to use my time at least a little constructively.
A few items of note during this time were:
- Watching the AFL Grand Final (Australian Rules Football NOT American Football League) on an illegal internet broadcast at 11.30pm on a Friday night. I had a few friends come over to watch, all of whom were very impressed with my ability to shout GGGOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! for about 30 seconds without breathing. This talent could allow me to get a job commentating football (soccer) in Argentina, but I might have to improve my Spanish a little I think.

- Attending a feast of curries at the apartment of Marion, all of which were prepared by Marion and her friend Val. The first big positive of that day was that Marion´s apartment building had an elevator, something that crutch-users really begin to appreciate. The second big positive was that all of the curries were spectacular, despite my scepticism (I use a "c") before the event. The third big positive was that I got a second plate full of curry. Fourthly I got to see lots of friends. Finally I got motivated to do some cooking myself. The final photo is of a nice Thai curry I prepared a week or so later. I am looking forward to stocking up on curry pastes etc. while home in Australia at Christmas.
- Hosting my first couchsurfer in some time. Anita from Germany was booked in before my surgery so I hosted her despite my inability to show here around Bogota very well.

Mi Cumpleaños

2009-10-23T13:01:00.003-05:00

Well a few days after my last post I celebrated my 36th (shhhh.....) birthday. It was only 10 days after my last surgery, and those 10 days had been pretty miserable, so I was keen to have a drink and relax. Being particularly grumpy after a week of pain I didn´t really organise anything, but a few friends came over, bringing with them cakes and bottles of wine and rum, so the afternoon and evening turned out very nicely indeed.

I have included a few photos all of which were taken early on, and are therefore not overly incriminating. The first photo is of a bunch of friends from work, with special note to be taken of the lady sitting at my left shoulder - mi profesora de español, Olga Lucia Rayo. The second shows me with one of my cakes, and the third shows me with a couple of my very best friends - a glass of wine (life-long friend) and my crutches (short-term friendship, now terminated).
It was a great night.
Also a special mention to my twin sister Paula in Australia who, funnily enough, had a birthday as well. Now about a month on she is expecting to give birth to her 4th child in the next week or so. Good luck Sis!!!

Under More Knives

2009-09-18T11:07:00.005-05:00

Well, I had a bit more surgery last week. The doctor decided it was pretty important to do an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction in my right knee, and I agreed. The waiting time was a bit longer than I had hoped, but pretty good really, only 2 weeks. I am still a bit confused as to what my health insurance company agreed to do for me, but it appears that I will save a couple of million pesos ($1,000) through their help. That still means I am broke but it is better than it might have been.
My normal wing-woman for surgery and other important medical appointments is Ana Carolina. Unfortunately she was ill on the day of the reconstruction, so I called on Lee to be my wing-man. We met at the clinic at the designated time, and within a couple of minutes I was shipped off to get into my robe, having hardly had a chance to even talk to Lee. When I woke up several hours later he had disappeared, but was ably replaced by a mutual friend Stephanie.
The surgery was not simple. To reconstruct the ACL in my right knee he (the doctor, not Lee) needed a bit of ligament to plug in there. 14 years ago they had used a bit of my patellar tendon (I think) from the right knee. They didn´t want to use any more of it. So I had 2 options, use some from my left knee, or use some from the knee of a corpse. The corpse option comes with a risk of infection, and the doctor was pretty keen to use a bit of my left knee, so he did.
So, he had to cut open my left knee vertically to take out some tendon and bone, then sew it back up, cut open my right knee and push the tendon and bone into the right spot there, before fixing it in with a couple of extremely expensive biodegradable screws. At the same time he took out one old metal screw, but left one in there because it was in a funny spot, and to ensure I can still have interesting X-Rays.
Along with the other holes for cameras or whatever else they stick in there, this left my knees looking less than attractive. Although it was good to get my first major scar on the left knee, my right knee is now getting quite crowded. The photo was a bit difficult to take, so it has left off the vertical scar from a few weeks ago. The right knee now has 2 vertical cuts, 1 horizontal cut, 1 horizontal gash, 8 or 9 "hole" scars, and 3 internal screws. I might have to become a hand-model.
Anyway, when I woke up from surgery Stephanie set about paying my bills and getting my clearance to leave the clinic. This took some time and the morphine started wearing off, causing a huge amount of pain in both legs, and quite a bit of dizziness. I was desperate to eat but the clinic didn´t have anything available. This made me feel worse. Eventually permission to leave (paz y salvo) was granted, and we headed to the taxi rink. The 5 or 6 minutes spent getting into the taxi were some of the worst of my life. I had to get from a wheelchair into the back seat of a taxi with 2 straight legs, without being able to put pressure on either, and it was quite the challenge. One could safely say I was a mess. Poor Stephanie didn´t know what to do as I screamed with pain and bawled my eyes out! Eventually I was in, and the taxi headed to my apartment block. That was the easy part done.
Then I had to get to my apartment on the 4th floor with no elevator. My mate Ben had arrived as a carrier, but another mate had pulled-out (wise man). We roped in the portero (security guard) to help, and the poor taxi driver somehow got involved as well. So, with Ben and the portero under my shoulders, my left leg with Stephanie and my right leg with the taxi driver, I was carried feet first up 8 flights of stairs, and then gleefully deposited upon my bed. As most of you know, I am not exactly a skinny bloke, and carrying a crippled 82kg man up that amount of stairs must not have been easy. A HUGE thank you to my 4 helpers.
Once on my bed things improved slowly. Ben and Stephanie organised some food and some pain-killing drugs. It took a while to get the food down safely, but the pills began to help immediately, and the pain started to disappear. Within a few hours I was semi-comfortable and my helpers were excused. Despite the discomfort I managed to sleep OK and things have been improving ever since.
I can get around on crutches still, but I must not put any pressure on the right foot, and only minimal pressure on the left. This means I use both feet for "landing" while walking, with more pressure on the left, and using the right one for balance. It is slow going, but I am surviving OK. Left the apartment yesterday to see the doctor again. Getting down stairs was pretty tricky, but coming up was a bit easier. The doctor removed my bandages, meaning I was able to have my first shower in a week!!!!!! Happy days! I will go back to see him next week to remove my stitches. It looks like I will have another 4-6 weeks away from work which will mean lots more time watching old movies and tv series, reading, learning Spanish and maths, and hanging about. I am surviving OK at the moment.

Under the Knife

2009-08-22T15:38:00.005-05:00

I liked this when I came across it in San Andres. It is good to know that the Swiss Army is not just helping out handymen and campers across the globe with fancy gadgets, but that they are helping us smell good as well.
Anyway, I needed a photo for my "Under the Knife" title, and I´m bored with showing photos of all the scars on my knee, so this is what you get.
So, I got back to Bogota and hobbled around work for a few days before the students arrived. The students have been back for a week and a half now. Things were going great, apart from the hobbling, as my classes are really good and my timetable is much lighter than the last 2 years. I was really, really enjoying my job, and looking forward to a great year.
My knee doctor had examined me and told me I had a torn medial meniscus in my right knee. This sounded good, as he was confident that my reconstruction from 14 years ago was still intact. Surgery was required but it would probably just involve cutting away the damaged section of meniscus (cartilage), meaning only a couple of days rest afterward before returning to work.
So, I went into surgery yesterday with a very positive outlook. The surgery was even covered in full by my health insurance.
When I woke up after surgery the doctor reported he had changed plans. Instead of cutting away the meniscus he stitched it back together. This is a good long-term result as my knee still has all of the meniscus it should. However, it means I am supposed to use crutches for 6 weeks, without putting pressure on the knee at all.
I live on the 4th floor without an elevator, and I work on the 4th floor without an elevator, and the doctor thinks work would be too dangerous for me, particularly with 1,500 kids running around everywhere. So he is recommending 6 weeks off of work.
In addition, he discovered that although my anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is still in place, it is loose and useless, and I need another reconstruction. This is unlikely to be covered by my health insurance (pre-existing condition) and could put a big whack in the vacation funds. However, if I´m going to do it I should do it now while I am already laid up. I need to see the doctor again Tuesday, but it is likely that I will have the reconstruction in the next week or two, and then settle down to apartment life until mid-October.
Positives are that I should be able to use my time well at home, learning more Spanish, building my maths knowledge for work, and crossing some things off the list that have been there for years. I hope I do use the time well.
Visitors are very welcome during this time!!!!!

Providencia

2009-08-22T15:33:00.002-05:00

Providencia is a Colombian island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. One must pass through the "neighbouring" island of San Andres on the way to Providencia, and transfer to an 18 seater plane for the last 30 minutes. It all feels like quite the adventure flying to a Caribbean island on a tiny little plane, and landing at an airport with a little hut as the terminal.
San Andres is a resort island, with plenty of all-inclusive hotels and cheap shopping. Providencia is a much more relaxed island, mainly because it is so small. The population is tiny and everybody seems to know everybody else. A perfect holiday destination.
I spent a couple of hours wandering door-to-door before settling on my accommodation at El Recreo. My cabin is pictured on the left. That is my back door and window. The front door leads onto a balcony that is (literally) 3 metres from the sand and palm trees. Not a bad location for a bit of a getaway from work. Until, 18 seconds after checking in, someone calls out your name from the neighbouring cabin and it happens to be someone from your work, with his family in tow! Small world. Anyway, that caused no concern at all.
What did I do in Providencia?
- I read a couple of books. Funnily enough I was reading "Anna
Karenina" and met an American girl who was reading the same book - there are probably only 20 books on the island and 2 of them were the same!
- I did a scuba dive for the first time in 5 years
- I ate a lot of seafood. The first picture of seafood is at a fancy restaurant. The dish of lobster, crab, cuttlefish, prawns, fish and accompaniments set me back an enormous $15. The second picture is at a down-market beach-side restaurant where one has to pay $10 for half a lobster, a whole fish, a dozen garlic prawns, a pile of crab and some cuttlefish, along with coconut rice and platanos. Wonderful value and wonderful food full-stop.
- I saw lots of crabs crossing the road. I arrived just after the bulk of the annual migration had taken place, but there were still hundreds around. It is a bit spooky walking along a dark road at night and hearing the crabs scuttling around in the dead leaves by the side of the road.
- I went to see the monthly horse race on the beach. Unfortunately, after a 20 minute build-up, 1 of the 2 competing horses withdrew, and the race was cancelled. The remaining competitor decided to put on an exhibition run and almost killed 20 spectators who had given up on anything happening and were no longer watching, but all ended well. He went too fast for a photo, so the photo above just shows the crowds retreating from the track (beach).
- I met some locals and went dancing with them on the beach. That was when my knee collapsed for the 2nd time in 2 or 3 weeks. This time it didn´t look like clicking back together - and it left me spending my last 2 days in Providencia in bed in my cabin. Bugger.

So, that was the end of holidays, as I hobbled back to Bogota on one leg!

Wedding in Cartagena

2009-08-22T15:20:00.002-05:00

Due to my slightly delayed return from Brasil, I only had 1 day in Bogota before flying out again to Cartagena on the coast. Friends from school were getting married, and I rarely pass up the chance to get to a wedding, so I went. Cartagena is a beautiful city, quite spectacular in fact, and it was good to get back there for a few days.
The wedding was of Neville (history teacher at my school) and Jenny (lawyer at my school). There were only a few people from school there, so I felt quite special. The first picture is of myself, the groom, and Fraser (who now works at a different school in Bogota) by the pool at the hotel pre-ceremony. The ceremony and reception were held at this boutique hotel and it was all lovely. Most of the men dressed in traditional "Costeña" wear, and the special couple provided us all with hats to complete the picture. We looked great! The ceremony was hot, the reception was hot, and I was hot - but it was an absolutely wonderful night. The best thing about the whole weekend was that we got to hang around the hotel anytime we wanted, swimming in the pool and relaxing. All the luxuries of a $200/night hotel while staying in a $10/night hotel 2 blocks away!
Thanks to Neville and Jenny for looking after me so well and sharing their special day with me. They have since moved to Sao Paulo to create a new life and I wish them all the best there - hopefully I will get to visit sometime and put another couple of kilos on my waistline!

Brasil Wrap

2009-08-22T15:14:00.002-05:00

Here are a few things I noticed in Brasil:
1. Table salt comes as a saline spray
2. Nearly every toilet-seat in the country is padded
3. When greeting someone you give 1, 2 or 3 kisses on the cheek depending what part of the country you are in
4. Brasilians use knives in their left hands and forks in their right hands
5. A glass of tap-beer is called a Chopp
6. "Oi" is not rude at all, it means "hi"
7. The toilets have some of the most vigorous flushes I´ve ever seen. Don´t drop your earrings in a Brasilian toilet and expect to recover them!
8. Frescobol is beach-tennis in Brasil, where the 2-4 "competitors" just hit the ball back and forth, not trying to beat an opponent, not trying to get a big total of consecutive hits, just hitting the ball
9. Table sugar comes as a liquid - sometimes drops, sometimes a spray
10. "Borracheria" in Brasil is a tyre-repair shop, while in Colombia it would mean a place to get sozzled drunk
11. Every restaurant table has a bottle of olive oil ready for you to smother your meal with before tasting it

Brasil was a wonderful place to visit. If you speak some Spanish then it will help you get around, as the written languages are quite similar. However, the pronunciation of Portugese is that different to Spanish that I rarely understood anything that was said at full pace. The people are extremely friendly and helpful if they have been introduced to you somehow, but can be a little stand-offish if you are a complete stranger. Use your contacts (or couchsurfing) to meet some people before you go. Plenty of things are cheap, but inter-city transport is not, and Rio is not, particularly if you want to do Sugarloaf or Christ the Redeemer. Public transport in the big cities is easy and cheap - much cheaper than taxis. Oh, and the girls - there are plenty of beauties, particularly at the beaches, and one could easily pass a day or two simply watching the beautiful people pass by. However, overall Colombians are definitely more attractive, and I am not being biased!

Another short note: I spell Brasil with an "s" not a "z". That is how Brasilians spell it, and it runs with my Australian distaste for American "z"s in everything.

So, my Brasilian adventure finished up with my flight to Lima leaving an hour late, and arriving more than an hour late, just as my connecting flight to Bogota was taking off. That made for a bit of a bummer. I was one of 6 people who missed that flight. The airline sat us down while they tried to get us on another flight, but that ended up being 12 hours later. I bumped into a mate in the airport which kept me amused for 20 minutes, but then I started to get a bit bored. I managed to convince the airline to let me into the VIP lounge (the power of being white not Colombian), and that was a great relief. Free food, free drinks, free internet, free drinks........ After several glasses of red wine I was relaxed enough to enjoy a few glasses of Bailey´s while catching up on a month of internet. Time passed much faster than if I was out with the real people! So, eventually I got on my flight and arrived back in Bogota and the comfort of my own bed. Bye, bye Brasil!!!

Pretty Photos from Brasil

2009-08-22T15:10:00.002-05:00

Of course I do have a slightly more mature side to me, so I have included some pretty photos as well.
The first was in Sao Paulo in Parque do Ibirapuera. It was particularly pretty as it was about 5 metres from a 20-lane superhighway.
The second I am very proud of. These 2 sisters look very different from face-on, and they were quite shocked when I took this photo to show them their side-on similarity.
Full moon on Copacabana beach with the waves crashing in - how romantic!!!! I was of course left in the role of photographer.
Boats in Buzios. Nothing too exciting with this one but I liked the fact I could get 3 red ones in a shot without any other colours interfering.

Funny Photos from Brasil

2009-08-22T15:05:00.002-05:00

Just a few images that I liked while in Brasil. Yes, more than a little childish I will admit. However I am a teacher, and I need to stay in touch with my inner child to aid communicating with my students!
I hope the first image needs no explanation.
The second was particularly funny due to circumstances and recent conversation about breast implants. Despite not possessing any formal qualifications in the area, I am pretty confident these are not real.
Where else in the world would you find street signs warning of football players??? I loved it.
And finally, my favourite chocolate biscuits for long bus trips. Choker. Probably not going to find a market in the English speaking world!

Brasilian Food - Part 2

2009-08-22T15:02:00.003-05:00

Sao Paulo is the culinary capital of Brasil as far as I could tell. Although the quantity of seafood available is a little less than on the coast, for obvious reasons, they make up for that with variety. The suburb of Liberdade is the centre of the Asian community, which is predominantly Japanese but with plenty of other ethnicities as well. I ate here several times and particularly enjoyed the dumplings pictured. Yummyyyyy!!!!!!
The other 2 photos were taken at the central market in Sao Paulo. The first is me trying an avocado milkshake (vitamina). Now this was one of those things I was told I had to try, and being quite cooperative, I did. I won´t need to again. Give me some nice guacamole any day!
The final photo is of a mortadella sandwich, a result of a heavy Italian influence in Sao Paulo. I didn´t quite trust the photos on the menus, as it seemed impossible they would put that much meat in a sandwich but it is true!!! And lovely it is. Kramer would be proud of how thinly sliced and flavoursome it is! The market itself is well worth a visit just to see the Italian influence with all of the imported products available. I haven´t found something similar in Bogota as yet - luckily or I might weigh a fair bit more than I do!
Brasilian food rates four and a half stars for Dave Gill. It would have been 5 without that avocado milkshake!