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| 22nd April 2004 |
| Hello Honkers! Thursday 22nd of April Hey all. After an amazing two and a half weeks back in Aus for Georgie's wedding I'm now on the road again, refreshed, and ready to and embark on phase II of my adventures. A big thanks to all of you who I caught up with while I was back home and who helped to make my time there so much fun. Of course not everyone reading this will be up to speed on what I got up to in the land down under (especially my Canadian and European friends) so a brief summise is due. After arriving in Sydney on the morning of the 3rd of April I headed straight up to a place called Port Stephens 3 hours drive North of Sydney. I spent the first weekend with Gary, my new brother in law, and all of his mates for his 'Buck's Weekend'. It was an awesome experience after a long European winter. We spent a lot of time out in one of Gary's mates boat and I managed to quickly lose my Irish Whiteness and get a decent browning. After we got back to Sydney the rest of the week was spent catching up with the family and the soon to be in laws. Gary's buck's night on the Thursday before the wedding was great fun with about 40 people coming along. The Best Man copped a lot of flak though after disappearing with his phsyco girlfriend at the first pub we visited after dinner. The wedding was absolutely awesome with perfect weather and I have to admit that my Big Sis scrubbed up pretty well. |
| The wedding reception was brilliant with a first rate venue that included a great view of the bridge and harbour from the balcony come dance floor. Despite Georgie's friends placing wages on me being the most intoxicated at the reception I'm glad to say that I maintained my composure and saved the serious partying until after the recption finished and I hit some of Sydney's better clubs with Gary's mates and there girlfriends along with Gary's brothers. After a relaxing day on a boat on the Harbour the next day, recovering from the previous night's antics, I then returned back to the heartland of South Australia. A very poor effort on my behalf at organising meeting up at the pub on the first night back didn't deter anyone and I was really happy to see so many old mates at the Exeter on the first night back in 15 months. I spent the rest of the week catching up with mates and family including a great round of golf in North Adelaide with Guy, Luke, and Paul which was accompanied by a goon of port (I was very impressed). So after an awesome time in the land down under I'm now making my way back to Europe with a four day stop over in Hong Kong. I flew into Honkers last night and I'm lucky enough to have the use of Georgie and Gary's apartment while I'm here, which is a lot like staying in the penthouse of a hotel seeing as it's a fully furnished serviced apartment, which means that the cleaners come in every day and replace all the towls and linen and clean the dishes! Just like the first time when I came to Hong Kong in 95 I'm absolutely blown away by the city. I spent the first half of today walking the streets around the apartment and I popped into a Chinese eatery and had a great noodle dish. The energy and diversity on the streets absolutely amazes me and I love just walking around and absorbing the smells, sites, and sounds Unfortunately to get free internet I'm sitting in a place that's about as European/Western as you can get, it's the Pacific Coffee Company (very similar to Starbucks) so I think it's about time I got off this computer and hit the streets again. I'll write more and post some photos at the first chance. Thanks again to all of you that made me feel so welcome while I was back home. It's great to be returning to the other side of the world knowing that I have such great friends back in Aus. I think it's something I lost sight of towards the end of the first part of my adventures. After so long overseas I almost expected that everyone would be tied up in their own lives when I got back and it was reassuring to see that the old friendships were as strong as ever, even though many of us haven't stayed in close contact. One final thing, A huge thanks is due to my parents. As I mentioned in my last update having been travelling for so long I was a bit short on funds for the trip back to Georgie's wedding and Mum and Dad were kind enough to pay for my return flight. Without there help I probably would have had to have got a one-way trip back to Aus and I would have found it hard to have continued my adventures in Europe amd to have kept doing what I love best at the moment, which of course is travelling and experiencing new things, and meeting new people from around the world. Keep visiting to find out all the happening from part II of nedsadventures. Ned. |