So I just passed the 2 year mark. Thats two years since I left Oz and came to live in the UK. Feelings are really mixed at the moment. I love the summertime here, but I hate the winter. I love where I live and my house mates but I hate working away during the weeks! I went home for xmas, and had a great time catching up with everyone. I really missed the place but I’m not ready to come home just yet! Plans for the next step are formulating, but I won’t say anything on here. But anyway, the summer is here right now and Europe is happy. Love it.

Right now I’m working away in Derby (in the east midlands), staying in a hotel Monday-Friday. There’s not much to do in Derby, but theres some cool old pubs about. I’ve been working there since February and its getting really old. The place I’m working is pretty dull, and theres no windows. Every weekend feels like a holiday coming back to London! On the up-side, I got promoted and I’m doing a technical team-leader role on this project which is really interesting.

Highlight for this year so far has been the trip to portugal. We stayed in Alvor, and got some great surf in Sagres and Arrifana. Heres a link to some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chazwoza/sets/72157623698780277/. A few upcoming travel plans include Hungary for the Formula 1, Israel, and a couple of trips that are yet to be confirmed. Hopefully somewhere warm where I can get some diving in, as I haven’t been diving in 18 months.

Since the last update, I’ve been a) Working hard and b) Travelling hard.

I’m working on a bunch of different projects. I won’t bore anyone with the details, but I’m bouncing from client to client, day to day, and it’s getting really tiring.  Thankfully, most of it has been in London or close, so no airports/hotels. Just plenty of train travel.

In August/September, I took a month off and did a bunch of traveling. I went to Italy for a week, and saw Genova, Cinqe Terra, Lucca, Florence, Bologne, and Venice. I loved Italy but it really is damn expensive.  Next time I go, I want to hit the south and go to Rome.

I came back to London briefly for Reading Festival, then Skippy and I headed off on Eastern Europe Mission 09. We hit Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and finally finished up at Munich for Oktoberfest (my second year in a row). Great trip, and I met some great people. Highlights were probably Budapest and Oktoberfest. Heres a link to the Eastern Europe photos. I’ll put the Italy photos up soon when I get some time.

The other major news is that I just moved to Wapping which is in East London, near Tower Hill/Bridge. I put some other photos of the new area up here.

The weather’s getting colder, and today it is dumping the rain down. I guess things will get quieter for the rest of the year, although I do have most weekends booked up now! Highlight should be a trip to Edinburgh in late November. It’s only about 7 weeks now til I come home to Perth for Christmas. Can’t believe I’ve almost been gone for 18 months.

Can’t bloody wait to see everyone!

chaz

If anyone cares, here’s screen shots of what they did to it:

• The first time:  hacked1 ….
• and the second time hacked2

I guess it’s a good time for me to reflect on some of the achievements over the last year. I’m not going to write the details. All in all, I have done exactly what I’d planned, and a bit more I guess. So the whole thing has been a success. I am dieing to come home and see everyone, but I know it wouldn’t be long before I felt like I had to leave again. I guess with all the travel I’ve been doing over the last few years, it’s really opened my eyes to how much is out there in the world. I’d love to do it all, but sadly I think I will run out of time!

Anyway, I’ll be home in December, just before Christmas, for about a month. Can’t wait to see everyone!

Here’s a few quick updates on whats been going on)

Work, I’ve been working on 2 projects for a while now. Long commutes to work every day, but at least they’re in London. I don’t want to work anywhere else! It’s been a bit boring really.

Travel, I’ve done a few small and 1 major thing. For my birthday, a crew of us went down to Newquay in Cornwall, for a surfing weekend. The surf was rubbish, but at least we got in the water. I went on a small trip to Lille (France) and Brussels (Belgium). Skippy (Ryan) came to London in early July, so I spent a bit of time showing him around.

Then in July, we’ve just done the big one: San Fermin festival in Pamplona (Spain). This is the crazy 9 day, 24 hr a day festival which is famous for the running of the bulls. We stayed at a camp-site called El Molino, which was kind of cool. We had to get shuttle bus’s into the city, which was about 25 minutes away. So Skippy and I did the run, and I must say it was a massive sense of relief to finish it alive! I didn’t get any injuries except some scratches, but I did lose a shoe. The closest I got to a bull was probably about 1 meter. You really need to watch out for the other people, as they push, shove, and fall everywhere! Tragically, one spanish guy died this year. It was the first time since 1996 or something that somebody has died. I guess we’re lucky to be alive.

You can see the photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chazwoza/sets/72157621458718742/. Also, here is the video that Tom took of the actual run I was in. I don’t think you can see me, as I had already run off ahead a bit.

I am glad I did it, and I know it’s something I’ll never need to do again. And I never want to see Sangria again! From there I drove across France with Tom, and stayed with my cousin at the air base in Saint-Yan where he is training. Won’t name his name in case he gets in trouble for having us there! Then we drove on to the Netherlands, where I stayed in Amsterdam for a couple of nights. It was a pretty cool place, the only downside being the attempting mugging by a crazy guy who reckoned he had a knife!

So that’s that, one year down, what to do next? Let’s see what happens!

Some other news since the last update:

• In December (after Egypt), I went to Vienna for Christmas to see my parents who were staying there.  From Vienna, I met Aliz in Milan, and we went on to Lugano. Then we headed to Davos in Switzerland, where we went snowboarding for a few days. We After Davos, I went solo to Zurich, and then to Basel, from where I flew back to London.
• Went on a small work junket to Antalya in Turkey for a week.

Next (planned) trip: Pamplona in July for the San Fermin festival.

I’m finding it hard to make time to write updates on here. I guess my twitter is going to have the most news these days. They should be feeding along the right hand side anyway.

Hope everyone is well! Miss everyone back at home very much

Chaz

December 08:

With alot of uncertainty whether my project would be delivered on time, I wasn’t sure how December would go. In the end, I got it all done on time, and needed something to do. So I jumped on a tour to Egypt! I went with The Go bus, who were recommended to me, and I can’t recommend them enough. Heres their website. And heres the tour I did, Pyramids and Beaches. You could read the tour itinerary, but heres a bit of a run down:

Cairo
We started off in Cairo. You meet the whole crew at the hotel. 25 people, 24 of which were Kiwis and Aussies. The odd one out was an English girl. It took quite a while to get to know everybody, but all-in-all they were a great crew. Hope to catch up with some of them soon. Cairo was okay… but the Pyramids were amazing! It’s everything you imagine.

Aswan
Then we took an overnight train to Aswan. From Aswan we saw Abu Simpel (spelling?) which we had to get to by police convoy, and some other ancient temples. On a spare afternoon, Garrat and I went on a little exploration mission. Across the river, we could see a massive sand dune with what looked to be a temple at the top. So we had to find out what it was. We found a ferry which was crossing the river, and on the other side, found ourselves in a crazy camel market. Well thats what I think it was. Lots of kids wanted to meet us, and many don’t ask for money, they ask for pens, or something to write with. We got to the top, and i’m not really sure what it was, but it was an amazing view!

Felucca Ride up the Nile
From Aswan, we took a Felucca (traditional boat) up the Nile for the next 2 days/nights. It was so relaxing, so much fun. Nothing to do but lay about on the deck, drink beer, doze off, talk crap! The first night, we stopped by a small village and smoked sheesha pipes with a local in his house. The second night, we parked at an open area, lit a bonfire, and the Felucca captains played traditional music for us. We danced a bit and got pretty wasted.

Luxor (Ancient Thebes)
After two days, we arrived somewhere near Luxor, and reluctantly had to get off the Felucca I could have easily stayed a few more days and nights on that boat! We got off, near the Kom Ombo temple which is where they worshiped crocodiles. They even had crocodile mummies! We then went into Luxor, and saw the Luxor temple at night, which was very impressive under lights! The next day, we took a donkey ride out the Valley of the Kings. This is where they found (and are still finding) old tombs where Pharaohs are buried. It’s pretty incredible.

Back to Cario
From Luxor, it was an overnight train back to Cairo. Here the group split up. Some were ending their tour here, others including myself, were off to Dahab at the Red Sea.

Dahab
First thing we did when we got to Dahab was organise diving. Dahab is one of the popular diving towns on the Red Sea. I organised to do the Advanced PADI course. Then we had dinner, and headed off to MT Sinai to stay the night. I believe Mt Sinai is where Moses got the 10 commandments from god, but could be wrong on that. We climbed to the top of mountain at about midnight, and hired little mattresses from the camel men to sleep on. You have to bring a sleeping bag, which I swear did nothing as I nearly froze to death. Anyway at dawn, theres a really amazing sunset to be seen! Once thats done, its back to Dahab. I spent the next couple of days diving, completing my scuba course. So now I’m a cerified advanced padi diver! Sadly, a camera accident meant that I couldn’t get any underwater shots in dahab The next couple of days were spent chilling out by day, partying by night! We also went on a four-wheel motorbike safari. Dahab was awesome, and I’ll definitely be coming back

Well that’s about it for Egypt. I missed many small details, but you’ll have to go for yourself to experience those. I have to finish by saying it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and nobody should go without seeing this place at least once!

If you want to see any of my photos, here they are!

So, to bring things up to speed…  heres a bit of a timeline (up until Egypt trip)

September 08:

As soon as I got back from the USA, I moved into a flat in Battersea (Southwest London). It was great while the weather was warmish, but when it gets cold, the heating just doesn’t cut it Other than that small complaint, the place has a big living room and kitchen, and I put a big flatscreen TV ( plus PS3) in it!

Luckily, workwise I got to settle straight into a project in London. It was writing some software for one of the big banks. The one with massive financial problems at the moment!

Mid-project, I took little excursion to the European continent. Aliz and I hit Salzburg (Austria), which was really nice. Some photos here. Then we headed to Munich for Oktoberfest! All I can say is that it was the biggest party I’ve ever seen, and I had a blast. Can’t recommend it enough, and I’ll more than likely be there again in 09

October 08:

Got back from Oktoberfest… not a whole lot happened this month. Just alot of hard work! Really…

November 08:

Took a couple of small excursions…

Up to Newcastle to see my cousin Will. Had a great time at a party up there, although it got a little messy!

Went into France with the aussie crew to see the Australia vs France rugby match! Had a great weekend sightseeing and eating/drinking. And watching the rugby!

In August/Sept, I went on a work trip to San Francisco Bay Area, to work in our companies product development team. It was a pretty good experience, but 2 weeks really isn’t enough. On the way, there was a few flight stuff-ups which resulted in me spending the night in Washington D.C. So I made the most of it by doing some site-seeing. I saw the White House, Capitol Building, Abraham Lincoln Memorial, George Washington Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and some others that I just can’t remember. Anyway you can check my washington photos out here on flickr.

So then I finally got to San Francisco, and stayed about 30 minutes out down at Redwood Shores. Heres some photos of our headquarters and of the area. From there I worked by day, and checked the area out by night and weekend. I stayed in the Hilton in San Francisco city on the weekend. I saw Santa Cruz, Napa Valley, Mavericks (although there were no waves), Half Moon Bay, and probably some other things that I’ve forgotten by now! You can check out photos from San Francisco here on flickr.

So since I was heading that way back to London, I decided to take a trip to Denver to stay with my Aunty and Uncle, Niel and Alice. They live in Golden which is just in the Rocky Mountains. So that was a chilled out few days, with one exception, the big mountain climb. Mick and I decided to climb Mt Bierstadt which is about 14000 Feet. To get an idea of how high this is: Denver is about 5000 feet (1 mile above sea level), Niel and Alices place is about 7000 feet. For Mt Bierstadt you start at about 11000 ft, and go up to 14000 ft. Thats 4.26 Kilometres above sea level! So it took us about 2 hours to reach the summit. Every few steps you are really tired and you need to rest. Eventually we got there, and the view was amazing. At the top, you are very dizzy. After signing the register, taking some photos and videos etc (see below), we took a 1 hr walk back to the car. Both of us were feeling like absolute crap at this stage! Probably some form of altitude sickness or something.

The next day, I took a trip to Vail (ski resort for millionaiires) to check it out. It’s a really nice town but theres no snow in summer. Would love to go back one day in winter.

So that was the trip over, and it was time to head back to the UK for the move to London, which I’ll write about in the next post! Bye bye USA.

Driving across Golden Gate Bridge:

And… driving down the worlds most crooked street, Lombard Street.

And … Riding the famous Cable Cars. This vid is a bit jittery, its pretty hard to hang off the side of a moving cable car, with people moving all around, and take a steady video!!

• Stayed and worked in Leeds for a couple of weeks. Leeds is a cool city. Lots of old buildings, good restaurants and clubs. Shame I didn’t really know anyone out there!
• Have done bits and pieces of work around London. Getting to London from Reading is a major pain in the arse. The trains are packed, and the tube is HOT.
• I went to Munich, Germany for a training course! For those that don’t know, Munich is in southern Germany (Bavaria). Its famous for Oktoberfest. I truly love Bavarian food and beer!! Half roast duck was awesome.

So thats about it in point form. As for whats coming up, I’m going to USA (San Francisco) for 2 and a half weeks. I’m going to be working at company headquarters, which is in the Silicon Valley area. Its about time I got over there! Some work, some play. I’ll let you all know how it goes!