Sunday, January 21, 2007
Pigeon-holed in “Travel”
And I’ve booked it. I’m going to be flying from here to Milan, Milan to Delhi, Delhi to Kathmandu, and then return from Delhi a month later. Cracking, although I think my bank might be wondering what hit them. Actually the price wasn’t too bad, probably between £100 and £150 cheaper than I might have guessed so I’m quite pleased.
Despite clearing this up, my list of things to do is not shrinking and despite my best attempt to fall asleep last night, I didn’t actually nod off until about 4am, so it’s likely that I will be feeling rubbish by sometime mid afternoon.
This week holds all the excitement of being that time of year when my contract expires and I have the intense pleasure of looking at all the sparkly new handsets. This isn’t going to be an expensive exercise though, not if I can help it. I’m quite prepared to dodge networks in order to get the best deal and I don’t particularly want to be spending more than I already am already; I’m saving any extra pennies for my trip to patch up some of the damage Jade Goody has done to international relations.
After moaning about the tedium of sorting out photo albums the other day, I spent Sunday
biting the bullet and sorting the remaining images into the file; the best part of 500 photos mounted, plus all the
little tickets, maps and souvenirs along the way. The boredom was alleviated by two things; firstly James was over
so I had conversation/gave tutorials on setting up the Macbook and secondly I was reinstalling Windows on the WDM,
which as anyone knows is one of the devil's favourite punishments. Gladly I didn't idly have to sit in front of
the thing all day as it worked it's Windows Update magic.
Both the photo album and reinstall are complete
now, although there is still some software loading to be done but hopefully the upshot will be that things will run
a bit faster now.
There are a number of projects to get on with today, as is there a need to be making a
number of phone calls... my bill this month is likely to be something ugly.
After
a couple of months, I've finally got around to uploading all my Australia and Japan photos, which you can now see
in the galleries here...
Although still not entirely happy with the
system, the new Flash layout does give greater visual appeal. One th down side it's still not showing the photos in
chronological order (the bain of my existence) and if Flash isn't your thing, then you can use the old gallery system here (look in the 2006
gallery).
Today has been productive, and I've finally whittled my inbox down to a skeleton on six messages.
The first time in years. I've also managed to pick up a new client who I'm looking forward to working with on a
fairly short term project. Now that I've finally hooked up everything on a network it's tempting to re-format the
WDM (a huge task). Before it was a bit of a nightmare, but
since I got it talking to the Mac backing up has become a lot easier and so this could be the opportune
moment.
Still in the computer-related vein, yesterday I took James to buy a new laptop at the Apple Store. My
first Windows/Mac convert! Admittedly the thing that flipped his choice was that you could run Windows on it, but
when he had a couple of plays on mine he decided the difference was manageable and has made the switch. Due to the
bargains going on at the moment he got a pretty sweet deal too; he managed to get the student discount, plus a iPod
nano 4Gb for 30 quid, then a printer for free and Apple care for sixty more. It did knock the initial price up, but
after rebates he's rolling in it.
I took the opportunity to check out the Mac Pro while I was there, as I
have now resigned to the idea that when the WDM finally falls
over, I'm going to make the switch properly. Fortunately they had a couple set up in the shop and despite not
having Photoshop on either (?) I made the most of seeing what punch it packed. I was impressed with Aperture's
performance, as I was with the video editing, but it frustrated me not to find more example content to play around
with and so I resorted to the time old industry test (that I just made up) of loading up everything on the dock to
see if it still worked. And it did.
Aim for tonight; get the inbox down to five and hang up the phone for the
first time today.
Unfortunately,
somewhere in Australia, there is a small boy trapped down a old mine shaft that will never get rescued. That is
because I ate Skippy for dinner last night. Kangaroo tastes a bit like beef; we ate out at some place that was
billed as authentic outback Australia, but infact was upmarket resort-ville where the nouveau riche spend
their pennies. Still fantastic though.
We stayed in a fairly expensive campsite last night; the first warm
shower in a tiled bathroom in nearly a week made a welcome relief from the usual cold water outhouses, and we
rounded off the night drinking the beer that James had originally claimed was 'really good' when we had bought it.
It had sat untouched in the back of Eric for three days after we initially tried it.
So this morning was the
move to the airport. We stumbled across it by accident, one hour earlier than anticipated, so there was just enough
time for photos before saying farewells and me climbing on a plane, leaving the other two to their own devices.
Heather heads over here (to Singapore) tomorrow, but despite the initial plan, I will already have departed. I have
been making the most of the airport pool as apparently no one else knows about it. There were 25 lockers in the
changing room, and I was the only one in there. My top tip for Singapore connections; ask where the pool is... it's
tucked so well away you'll have it and the bar to yourself.
I arrive back at Heathrow at 5.30am tomorrow. I
can see jetlag will be much fun to contend with, and so am planning on making the most of flying BA/Qantas, using up
the free alcohol they are so willing to provide you with. Much nicer than flying EasyJet, although I can't
understand why the films on planes are either ones I've seen, or one I don't want to see. The in-flight guides
always promise so much more, but I end up watching Ice Age 2 (again) or a story about some bloke and his huskies.
Nice one.
I've got 5 CDs worth of photos. The gallery is going to be a bit huge.
So, this is it. The final full day of life in Australia for the time being. I'm sure I
will be back here soon; there is far too much surfing to be done, and I still want to dive the GBR, so they haven't
seen the last of me here.
Yesterday we took another early bus over to the cruise terminal and caught the boat
to Hamilton Island. This large island resort is the biggest in the Pacific, and the only way to get around is by the
golf buggies. The island has some stunning beaches and there was plenty of time to check out most of the island
roads in the two hours we had before having a BBQ back on the boat and heading
over to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven was voted Australia's best beach this year, and it's 6km of pure white silica
sand squeaks underfoot. It's pretty impressive. We bathed, played ball and got buried before taking a sunset ride
back to the mainland. A quick shower and we were back on the road in Eric, starting the final push to
Cairns.
We stopped around 2am this morning to sleep in a free campsite (my usual night-time story provided),
and woke at 9am to finish the journey into the town. We're currently doing a big CD swap of the five million photos
we've taken between us. Tomorrow I fly; it's flown like no holiday I have ever taken before, and has (despite my
preconceptions) left me with a really big thirst for more.
Today was spent visiting one
of the great natural wonders of this world, the Great Barrier Reef. An early start (warmer) took us to a bus which,
in turn, took us to a boat for the two hour crossing to the reef. I'd booked in with James and Heather to do a
scuba intro, something which I've been wanting to do for years, but was disappointed to discover that due to my
asthma, they wouldn't let me dive. Apparently it doesn't mean I can't dive, just company policy doesn't permit
it without a full medical, and as I hadn't had mine, it meant no dive. I was understandably irritated. Instead I
booked myself onto a snorkelling tour, and then later a helicopter ride to see the reef from above, and the see
reef's most photographed icon, The Heart.
Thankfully I wasn't disappointed. The boat moors up at a large
platform which everyone disembarks onto and can get changed into the appropriate equipment for whatever they are
doing. Activities included the three mentioned above, plus an underwater viewing gallery, sunbathing on an upper
deck, and going for a trip in a semi-submersible (the posh way of saying a boat with a glass bottom, but we knew
what they meant).
The weather was hot; clear skies for the most part and the boat journeys there and back were
vomit-filled for many of the passengers. Thankfully this is the sea I like the best (the movable type) and while
most people were reaching for the sickbags, I was soaking in the sun and salt air.
The snorkelling allowed
fantastic access to the reef walls. Hundreds of fish and corals line the steep banks where we swam, and most of the
fish are fairly friendly. You could drift through large shoals of brightly coloured things, some very inquisitive,
some very small, some very large. There was a chance to hold starfish, coral and to watch clown fish amongst the
reef. Although a bit cold in the water, it was worth every penny. I decided to compensate my lack of scuba with a
helicopter ride, and after chatting with the pilot for a while, was able to get a reduced rate. The view was
spectacular, and if I hadn't forgotten to bring my camera to the internet cafe, you'd be able to see for
yourself.
The ride back was even more tempestuous, but I lapped it up. We arrived back at 5ish, went shopping
and cooked bolognase on the fire. A good day, despite spilling coffee on myself, forgetting my sunglasses and the
initial disappointment.
After arriving back
from Fraser Island last night it was drivetime. Unfortunately one of the major downfalls of Eric (our van) is that
he is not well powered and also struggles with radio stations. Heather's iPod is now dead, and ten hours of country
music is too much for even the most strong willed traveller. We have spent the past 24hrs stoked on iced coffee;
punctuated with cans of 'V' and energy foods. The drives have been pretty intensive; last night we clocked a good
700km before retiring in a petrol car park at 2am. We might have carried on if we hadn't been so short on
fuel.
After waking (cold) again this morning, we were straight back on the road, heading up the Gold Coast
over the Tropic of Capricorn and into barrier reef country. Fields and fields of sugar cane line the lone-laned
highway that hems the coast, and good weather made the next 700km of driving easy. We arrived in Airlie Beach at
around two this afternoon, and the over-helpful tourist office equipped us with an itinerary for the next two days.
Tomorrow is our crash course scuba trip over the reef, and the next day will be spent at Australia's best beach
(winner this year). Finally some 'chill with the still' time.