police

Oh,

I forget to say that I was pulled over back from Scotland, just south of Glasgow I noticed that there was a police car traveling at about 60 miles an hour so I slowed down to a steady 73 miles an hour as did a BMW just behind me, both cars then creep by the police car and steadily pull away then I noticed that the police car was no longer in the inside lane at 60 but was in the out side lane and catching before I know it they had settled in to a rhythm just behind me. And depute my clever maneuvers to try and subtley shake them off, ( there is no where to go but on wards on a motorway) but that failed and I was pulled over. But it was just a random check and there was nothing wrong with my car or my driving, except that when he asked me if it was my car I replied "I don't know" but he didn't seem to bothered and before long I was away again.

by the way have a look at this clip

only 11 days to go.

Scotland

Well you may have noticed that I have been a been a bit light on the entries for this blog over the past week, this was because I was n Scotland saying goodbye to all of the lads and laddets from up north. Had some good nights out but the absence of any useful morning made it very difficult to find an internet cafe. It was a very worth while week and I even managed to take in a comedy club where I was one of the chief victims of the compare, who for some reason accused me of being a red haired Dungeons and dragon playing Volvo driver. My case was not helped by the red lighting nor by the fact that I insisted I had blonde hair, and so for the rest of the night I was the "Ginger warrior". Managed to get to Dundee for one night only and found myself in the Union, which has completely changed, but I have t say I really like it the liar keeps its character whilst there is a great deal more modern feel to it, you can still do circuits and air the new bar whilst being a bit poncey does appear to server alcohol which is all you really need. The problem is that all of the current students do not worship me like the good old days, but hey can't have everything and I hid have two them believing I was Jesus Christ.

Leaving gifts

Well I am now truly chuffed. The Guys at work had a collection for my leaving do and I am now the proud owner of a GPS System a pen knife and a deck of cards, all of which will be very useful for my travels. Slightly less useful but equally great was the huge leaving card that was bought for me.

thank you very much everyone and keep in touch.

Leaving do

Had my work leaving do yesterday, and now only have to make it til 5 o'clock today and I'm out of here. Leaving do was damn good quite busy and despite not making it to Bar bollywood we did find our way to the light bar and everything was ok. Its been really good working with all the guys (and gals) and I will miss the crack. But hey sometimes you got to move on and I can here the drums calling me to Africa.

photos from last night are n the sidebar. Thanks to everyone who came and I'll see you all soon.

Terrible Journey

So this morning I took the train like I have done every day but today the fate was not with me for what started off as quite a well timed arrival at Elstree & Borehamwood station (got on an earlier train just as the doors where shutting) it turned in to a nightmare at kings cross where we where all told the underground station was to full to take on new passengers so I had to walk to Euston where the northern line was too full to get on a train four trains latter I was still waiting and so I had to go via the Victoria line and central line all in all it took me almost 2 hours to get in this morning most of which was the Journey between Kings cross and Moorgate (just three stops), and probably only a half hour walk.

Traveling update

I have decided to throw caution to the wind and go the rest of the way around the world with Josie and Miriam, Despite having trouble keeping the money together and sorting out what there is to do, as a very bad rapper once said "this is your shot, one opportunity to make yourself" so I am going to nike it. I can get a flight to Melbourne leaving on the 14th April and coming back via South East Asia for £600 this flight would enable me to go along with Jo and Miriam for the rest of the trip, but additionally it would give me until April 2006. Which leaves me with a few questions.

1. Can I afford it? - probably not but hey can I afford any of the trip and it is probably my last chance to do something like this for a while so why not live a little. Lets change this answer to Yes
2. Do I want to stay for longer? - I don't know yet given that I will have already been traveling for a year I may just want to come back, but then could I rally justify that with all the world still to see. Also the advantage of the ticket is that the return fare is fully flexible and I could change my return date whenever I wanted to so that makes this answer a Yes also.
3. Where do I go with the extra 6 months? - perhaps the most difficult question of all, but given that I will be in south east Asia and without adding an extra £400 to the flight I would have to stay roughly in the same region, here is a run down of the options.

• Nepal - Always wanted to go to the Himalayas and now that I am planning to do Killie next march it would be kind of cool to have a look at Everest the very next year. Also Julie and Kate are talking about doing Nepal in 2006 and so we could meet up there just before my return. The down sides are that it is quite a distance from any where I could fly out of back to London (At some point I am going to have to come back). And I don't think I could spend 6 months in Nepal however I could probably spend more time when I take in Kashmir, Assam, and some more of the Indian sub continent and I could travel overland through Burma, and Butan before weather flying back from Delhi or get a one way flight to Bangkok before I return. And there are many more bits of India that I could spend my time in. So lets give this an 8 out of 10.
• Japan - Another of my most wanted's I could get my return flight back from Tokyo and then a single flight from SE Asia to Tokyo from where I can get my return flight to London. 6 months in Japan I reckon I can handle, and if I get bored the is all ways Korea. But I don't know anyone there and it is quite expensive so lets give this one 7 out of 10.
• Russia - Now this is a big country so I would definitely be able to spent 6 months here but it is a bit far away and by the time I got there it would probably be better just to come home directly which would add cost but could use lower cost Russian airlines. This of course would add the advantage of letting me come back whenever I wanted. I would have to investigate where to go a bit more but I could jump on the trans Siberian railway and come back all the way from Bangkok by train. Sounds a bit much like a trip in its own rite and quite complex to organize which leaves Russia on a lowly 5 out of 10
• Back To Oz - Not really a practical option but I know plenty of people that say 6 months is not enough and that they wanted to stay for longer, so I could island hop back to oz and new zeeland spend a bit more time in the sun and then get a single flight back to Bangkok for my final return flight, probably the safest of the options so far but it is a bit of a reverse and I am sure there are more exiting places to go than back to Oz so we are left with lowly 4 out of 10
• China - Now china that would be something else altogether could defiantly spend 6 months out there, but was not on my travel to list until I went to India. But now it strikes me as being a completely different environment. It is reknowned for being difficult to travel in and being difficult to enjoy, but currently if there is any where in the world where you get to see a completely different side of life china would be it. it is the closest of my options and is a definite possibility which would score higher if it wasn't for the difficulties about visas and such, which leaves it in third place with a 6 out of 10
• UK- I could always come back to London in October 2005 and get back in to the European swing of things after a year of traveling it might be quite appealing, and there is no reason I would have to come back to London so the world or at least Europe would be my Oyster. I could then come back and start saving to plane another proper trip either to Nepal, South America or one of the other options above, it actually has really possibilities when you think about it so we' give it another 6 out of 10.

oh and of couse my passport runs out in June 2006 so that is another thing to add to my to do list.

Leaving date

The last couple of days at work have been quite stressfull, mainly because my initial leaving date of the 15th looked like it was in speedy however it now looks more secure as 2 of my tasks are now completed, the third looks like it will be completed latter and the final one does note look as mountainous as it previously did.

Josie has just got back from Borneo and so the excitement about Africa is definitely on the rise, still lots more to do, any volunteers to pay my student loan for me?

Music career

As work has been very busy over the past couple of days I have considered a career as a song writer and so have written a few Songs to feature on a an album entitled "Scrambling Free" here is the title track


Underground, Overground, Scramling Free,
The scramblers of Snowdon Valley are we.
Making good use of the rocks that we find,
Things that the everyday walkers leave behind.

Uncle Bulgaria,
He can remember the peak when there wasn't a cheaters Train,
With his map to the summit.
Pick up the route and Follow ol' Tobermory!

Scramblers are organized, work as a team.
Scramblers are Quick and scramblers are Brave.
Underground, Overground, scrambing free,
The scramblers of showdon Valley are we!

People don't notice us, they never see,
Above their paths a scramble may be.
We Scrabmle by might and we scramble by skill,
Looking for route one to trundle away.

We're so incredibly, utterly devious
Making the most of everything.
Even bums, knees and chins.
finding the rocks and make them into Scrambling routes,
Is what we do

Work

Running out of things to do at work and have now decided that I must stop wasting my time by going to the local shops around the office, primarily because there aren't many but also because everything is damn expensive, but I still end up buying stuff.

The internet is also proving full of false hope. Once you've seen one spoof website you've seen them all and even the most interesting of time wasting sites only lasts until you've read it all.

having gone out of my way to try and dissuade people from sending me joke and spam e-mails I now find my self with an empty inbox staring at the BBC news website(which has been slowed down by the Deutsche bank police) waiting for the world to explode just so I can have something interstice to do on the internet.

therefore if you could help me out I would be gratefully you could point me in the direction of any websites that are worth a quick look, alternatively you could just go and do something that would appear on the news.