Autumn in London

Been a while since the last post, this is because I haven't been doing much. Those around me know that I've been having visa problems to stay working and living in London, but I'm on my way to fixing that now. But while sorting that out, I've been lying low, hence no travel posts. Also during this time I've left my sharehouse and moved into a friend's place.


First event would have been seeing the Socceroos vs Ghana friendly at the QPR stadium in Shepards Bush. The tickets were pretty cheap, and about 6 of us went together on a brisk Autumn evening. The game was pretty good, drawing 1 all by full time. There's another friendly coming up in February which I think we'll definately attend.





Remember, Remember the 5th of November...well Guy Fawkes was upon us again in London. For those that don't know, Guy Fawkes was a part of the Gunpowder Plot in the 16th centurary, which was a plot to try and blow up the british parliment. Unfortunately for Guy, he was caught and executed. Funny now that the event is remembered in Briton by fireworks. Well, it's legal to have fireworks in England, and we had our own party near a friend's place in Chiswick. The photos might not look like much, but it was us lighting our own fireworks so I think it was really cool.


The other event was the Arup Christmas party. Unlikely previous years, this one was a black tie event at the Royal Society of Arts on the Strand in London. Everyone got dressed up, despite alot of grumbling the previous week from lots of the guys. There was slight Bond theme with some mock gambling tables and with the alcohol free flowing and dance floor lively everyone had heaps of fun.

Edinburgh Festival and stuff

Wow, so long with out an update. Well got lucky this time, didn’t even have to pay for most of the trip, work has decided that I’d be more productive in Edinburgh…during the festival. Oh the fools. But seriously I was sent up beyond the Hadrian to do a job. Due to the festival there was no affordable accommodation anywhere near the city so I ended up staying in the little village of North Queensferry, which is at the northern end of the Forth road and rail bridges. It was only 15mins on the train into the city and one stop to work, but the train was only every half an hour on average.

Anyways, Edinburgh was lovely, if I had to summarize the look/feel of the city, I’d say solid. The architecture is square cut massive blockwork, there’s a massive castle in the middle of town on a solid rock mound, and the old buildings are just tall (apparently up to 15 storeys) back in the 15^th century. Because of the glaciers in the ice age, Edinburgh is a series of steep hills and valleys, and to cross these, the engineers of old had build up these massive arch bridges crossing the town, which resulted in a multi-tiered city. The second day I went for a wee stroll up Arthur’s seat which this hill/park towards one end of the city, from the top of which you can see the city all around you. It decided to lightly shower just when I had nearly gotten to the top, but I weathered it out and got a few quick snaps for you all to enjoy.

While I was there the festival was on, now for those who aren’t aware, there’s a number of festivals on during this time, the majors are the International, Fringe, Film, Book and the military tattoo. I managed to see a few shows while I was in town, mostly in the first and last weekends and a couple after work. I even managed to get a scalped ticket to see the tattoo on my last night in Edinburgh. One of the walking tours took you down into the vaults of the city which is supposed to be the most “psychically active” haunted place in the UK. I didn’t manage to see anything though, but the guide was trying his best to scare the pants off anyone who was listening. All in all a fantastic trip all curtsey of my employer Arup.

Chang Family Reunion: 20 years in the making

For those who don't know, my parents immigrated the family to Australia from Taiwan on the 9th of July 1986. Well my sisters decided that this year we were going to recreate this event. With no small part of organisation from everyone in the family, everyone arrived in Taichung a week before the big flight. My route to Taiwan was via Hong Kong; luckily I was able to get on the same connecting flight to Taipei as Chialia and the 3 boys. The first few days were spent waiting for Eddy to arrive from Tokyo. Those few days was spent in and out of air conditioning to escape the humid Taiwan summer days. The evenings were mostly cruising the many night markets, eating local food and checking out the local barging shopping. The day after Eddy arrived we headed to Alishan, one of the highest mountains in the middle of Taiwan.

Mum and Dad had organised a few nights away in the mountains for the family as well as one of our cousins and his wife and daughter. We went up there by train most of the way and in two vans for the remainder. The trip was almost cancelled on account of rain, as there is a risk of landslides in the mountains. The first afternoon was pretty easy as everyone just settled into our new accommodation. We went for a small walk up to see a sacred tree (cypress tree hundreds of years old) and the foundations of a Japanese shrine, the path also went past an old bunker in the hill. The second day was spent walking around Alishan itself. Highlights included seeing the site of the Alishan sacred tree, this tree was estimated to be 3000 years old when it was chopped down in 1997 (this tree was still standing the last time I was in Taiwan in the end of 1996). Other highlights included the Two Sisters Pond, the story that really got to Josh for the remainder of the trip. The walk took us past waterfalls, streams and a grove of ancient trees, and some really odd shaped tree stumps. That night we took a walk in a dark part of the woods near the hotel and we saw fireflies. Fireflies are getting harder to see in the wild as they require particularly unpolluted conditions with a water source but we were able to see quite a few that night. We woke up at silly o'clock the next morning to hike up a nearby peak to see the sunrise. When we got there was this guy who didn't know the way, didn't have a torch or any water that also wanted to climb the same peak. After a false start (we had walked down the wrong path in the dark) and many stumbles we finally got to the top in time for the sunrise. That afternoon we began the trip back to Taichung, making a number of various tourist stops along the way. A couple of days later we all headed towards the international airport again in Taipei, unfortunately we all couldn't get on the same flight back to Brisbane, but most of us did arrive in Brisbane on the 10th of July.

I spent most of the week in Brisbane frantically catching up with old friends and former work colleges. I managed to meet up with most of the guys that I used to work with at GHD, Brad, Stuart and Dave. Most of the time was spent having lunches and dinners, it seems that the eating didn't stop once I left Taiwan. The quiz night in the valley with Wei Yang, Wayne and Carla and Ian was particularly fun, even though we got our butts kicked. In all too short a time it was back to the airport again for the long haul trip back to London.

Royal Ascot

There's other sports happening other than the World Cup. Trish had the idea to organise a trip to Royal Ascot for the horse racing. A group of us managed to get down there eventually after a false start while back in London. All of us made a few punts, a few more successfull than others, I personally came slightly behind but had a great time nonetheless. Like the racing scene I've previously attended back in the Brisbane Ascot (isen't that cool), the girls looked great, guys were well dressed...all out for a drink in the sun while pretending to be upper class. Although there was more pimms and lemonade here in the UK. The weather turned a treat although I think some people got a bit burnt. We had a picnic in a nearby park when the races finished prior to spending a bit more time at Ascot at a nearby bar before returning to London. On the return to London we met up with Cherrie who had missed the day's excitement but was having a party of her own which we gatecrashed as usual.

2006 Football World Cup Finals - Group Round

I cannot resist, I'm a sucker for big hype events, so of course when Australia qualifies for the Football World Cup, I decide to follow as many relevant matches as I can. I think I'm not alone in saying that Australia were the underdogs in the group match against competition favourites, Brazil. However, given by how well we played in the lead up to these finals and how we beat Japan, I held out a slim hope, to be honest, I'd settle for a draw. So when Mike (friend from uni days) organised to watch the match in a sports bar with his Brazillian flatmate, I had to go. I think we played extremely well in the first half, and I guess the Socceroos just got a bit tired in the second half. In any case I think the game was fantastic, lots of attack from both teams right up until the bitter end, plenty of attempts at goal, the Brazillians just happen to be able to put it INTO the back of the nets. Congratulations Brazil, but just imagine what if Australia had won today? :)

I must say, watch this space, the World Cup is not finished, and if Autralia doesn't make it to the end, I'm sure my English friends will drag me to all of their games.

Happy Birthday Patricia

This saturday I was fortunate enough to have been invited to celebrate my friend Patricia's birthday. For those who don't know, I met Trish through Megan (who was Trish's ex-flatmate) when I first arrived in London back in October 04. It actually wasen't Trish's birthday this weekend, she decided to have celebrations early because she wasen't going to be in London on the actual date. Lots of Trish's friends came down from Bermingham, which was really awesome of them. Quite a few of us partied all night in a club in central London until the wee hours of sunday morning. I think we all agreed it was a fantastic night.


If you do have the inclination move through the photos, you'll note my "new look". Once again I've lost my hair, which really isen't news at all now, but I'm now sporting glasses. I started to realise that my eye sight was getting worse and finally did something about it a couple of weeks ago, so it's official, I'm short sighted. I don't really have to wear the glasses except to watch tele and read street signs (I now need them to drive).

London Aquarium with Carly

Last weekend I finally caught up with Carly, we had originally planned to either see Hampton Court Palace or a play at Shakespear's Globe, but the typical London weather wasen't going to play along. Instead we did what all Londoner's do when the sky turns foul, museums/galleries/exhabitions. We met up at the London Aquarium, which I was told, has been featured in a number of films (must be chick flicks, because I don't really know which ones). Anyway, Carly and I spent better part of Saturday morning wondering around tanks of rare and exotic fish. Summary of the highlights:

• Fish from the Thames (believe it or not, there's life in them waters).
• Sharks and rays and huge deep sea fish in a tank with Easter Island head ornaments.
• Tropical fish, I think no matter how many times you see colourful fish it's still exciting.
• Fish from South America and Africa.

On a similar theme Carly told me about these giant catfish that was caught in the Mekong a few years ago. Incredibly rare, the villagers that caught it however did what you probably think they did...yes they ate it.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/photogalleries/giantcatfish/index.html

Easter Holidays

The easter holidays came rather unexpectly, actually I forgot that they were coming up, if it wasen't for Briony and Brandon. Briony and Brandon are friends from Brisbane who are now working in Cardiff in Wales. They came to keep me company in London during the holidays, during their stay I met Brandon's parents and rode the London Eye with them. The view was really cool from the top of the eye, however it wasen't the clearest of London days and hence we didn't quite get the full range (on a crystal clear day, it's rumoured that you can see for 100kms from the top).

On easter monday we welcomed the end of the long winter by having our first backyard BBQ.

Will Crawford's Farewell

The end of March saw one of my new found friends leave London. Will's an english friend that I met and he has kindly introduced me to his other frinds. At the end of March, Will will be moving to the United States to get married. Needless to say, we had a few send of sessions for WC. The group shot was taken at a local pub in Kensington, "The Builder's Arms", which has been somewhat of a venue where we go for special events as opposed to our regular sessions on Tuesday nights. The other send off session was at a paintball field north of London. The day was pretty cool, about half of the people that had come had not played before and hence there was lots of jokes about how much it would hurt. All in all I think everyone had a great time.

Back in London Again

I wish I could say that leaving Australia, family and friends the second time was easier than the first. The only thing that was easier about coming back to London again was getting my way through the UK customs and immigration and then navigating the tube to get back to my place. This time around I've got a little more idea of what I'd like to do with my time in London and Europe. I hope that I'll get in the habit to keep this blog going with plenty of photos of my travels and experiences while away from home.

The two weeks that I spent at home in Brisbane, was mainly spent between, family friends and former colleges at GHD. It was so good to see my family, especially the boys who have grown up so much. Luckily I managed to spend a week with dad before he went to Taiwan.

Jane, Stuart's girlfriend had organised a surprise birthday for Stuart's 26th which was really fun. Gave me the opportunity to catch up with old friends and get updated. Also during the stay, Brad's fiance, Sachiko had been finally granted a visa so that she could come back to Oz. I managed to catch up with lots of friends, from GHD and GW, but had also missed out on quite a few, for that I'm sorry.

The short to medium term plan is to be here in the UK, so watch this space everyone. If anyone happens past this part of the world, please don't be shy, come and say hi.