Paul in the UK

Well now it's USA here I come

2005-02-05T18:00:00.000Z

Well it's been confirmed to me that I'll also be going to the US for DEFCON in Las Vegas. So that's a trip to Amsterdam at the end of March for around 3 days (though I'm thinking of going 2 days earlier to look around on the weekend beforehand), and a trip to Las Vegas at the end of July for about 6 days. Well I'm pretty happy about that. I've also got some events here beforehand including INFOSEC a security road show here in London (I think).

Well it's a pretty cool run this year I think but it probably means that they will be expecting big things from me; I can only do my best. I am very happy with work, the bosses are fantastic (they are thinking about flying the whole pen testing team to Amsterdam to meet up after blachat's just for a fun trip). They also decided to send the whole Pen test team to the US for DEFCON that's 11 people, after flights and accommodation that's a lot.

Well, I'm just waiting around wondering when Joe is coming back. I'm sure he said today and I assume he was having too much fun to be able to SMS me when it actually is. Well I guess I'll play WoW without him.

Paul.

Well I got that wrong.

2005-02-01T19:29:00.000Z

Ok, so I got a little confused. I'm not going to the USA for black hats so that means I'm not automatically going to DEFCON. It was late on a Friday so I mixed it up a bit. I'm actually going here which is still the same black hats course just in Europe and at the end of March. So I'm going to be in Amsterdam not Las Vegas. There is still a chance that I will get to go to the USA for DEFCON still but not definite as there are only so many people work can send and I'm not sure if I'll be one of them (fingers crossed). So I'll have to add another country to my list of places been.

I won't get much of a chance to sightsee I'd guess though, maybe they could send us up 2 days before and we could look around. I think I'll see if Martin and Wade are up for that and maybe we could book a cheap hotel before the course somewhere else and check out the place.

Well seems I am getting better at keeping up my blog, not sure if that's because I have interesting things to talk about or because Joe's away and I have complete control of *my* laptop. Soon I hope Joe is going to get his own laptop and this one can be solely mine again.

Thanks for those who wrote it’s nice to know how things are going. I've still got so much to do, so many countries to visit like Italy (for Venice, Rome), Prague, Germany (autobahn, Nürburgring Südschleife) and anywhere the WRC goes. The Netherlands was on my list and so is the USA so it would be good to go to both of them. I'd also like to see Finland or Norway and also see the Nothern lights which my work colleague Martin was talking about going and seeing. Also about going to a Ice Hotel and having a couple of drinks. I think that is a fantastic idea and if I had enough holidays I'd do it. I have been trying to save my holidays as I used a number when Chloe was here and I'd like to use the rest for seeing Chloe and going places with her. At the moment I'm playing with the idea of flying back later in the year maybe Sept and if I do that I'd want to take a decent amount of time off so as to recover from Jet lag and enjoy my time there. Maybe I should take a day or two off to do the Northern Lights or I'll just leave it till next year.

Well it's a crazy world over here and you never know what will happen next do you.

Paul.

USA here I come!!!

2005-01-30T13:50:00.000Z

Well, when I first got my job with Portcullis I knew that they had sent their whole pen test team to DEFCON and that they would be sending at least 10 members this year. The idea of being sent to Las Vegas for a big hacker conference seemed to appeal to me, and I have been hoping I'd be one of those lucky few (or many as the case is). The DEFCON conference rides on the back of the Blackhat briefings which seems to be the more intense cooperate one where there are hands on seminars. The advantage of Black hats is you get to do what they talk about and have the expert help you through it. This runs for 2 days, after which there are some open conferences and DEFCON.

Well black hats being a 2 day intensive with a practical side costs a lot of money and so most of the hackers and smaller company penetration testers go to DEFCON as it is very inexpensive. Only the flight there and accommodation is expensive, and for such a large team this adds up. So enough of the background.

I have wanted to go the DEFCON for a while (as it's the more likely one I'd be able to go to), and so was hoping that work would send me. The Doc (one of the bosses) teased me with something the day before about Halvar Flake (wrote a paper on heap overflows and is presenting at both black hats and DEFCON). So I got pretty excited as this will help to no end with writing a heap exploit I've been working on and probably means I get to go to the US for DEFCON.

Well it turns out a little different to what I thought, he is going to send Wade (another aussie), Martin (a crazy brit) and me to Halvar Flakes 2 day black hats presentation Analyzing Software for Security Vulnerabilities. Now that is way cool, expert guidance for accessing and writing exploits for applications. I am very impressed and very excited to have this opportunity, and hope to have a great time in the USA. I have assumed I'll be going to DEFCON too since it doesn't cost much to go to that and I've already been flown over.

Well that's my big news!!!

Paul.

Open air ice skating

2005-01-27T09:28:00.000Z

Well to keep Chloe and Joe happy I'll post again. Joe and I caught up with our cousin Mark and his wife Lara last night (stayed with them 2 months when first here). They had booked us all tickets to go ice skating at somerset house and we went down to meet them after work at Temple station. This open ice rink is only open from 25 November 2004 - 30 January 2005 and has only been running for the last 5 years so is still a novielty for londoners. As such you can only get on for an hour and all the times are booked up months in advance, it also costs £11.50 (or about $30 AUS) so not cheap.

Well better late then never

2005-01-23T09:42:00.000Z

I know it's been 2 months since my last post so I thought I better post something. It's been a hectic couple of months and I just couldn't be stuffed posting at the end of a long day. I get up at 7am (that's REALLY early for me) and it takes about 1hr 10mins to get to work I work from 9am to about 6pm generally and then get home at 7pm. Since Joe gets in to work some time in the afternoon (bloody lazy sod) hge gets home even later even though he has 1/2 the travel time. So as we are boys and Byrne's neither of us can make a decision on food so it's normally around 9pm or later before we eat.

I like to do something other than eat and work so I normally want to watch a DVD or such and after this I know I need to get up early so go to bed. Pretty lame excuse for not blogging but it's my excuse and I don't want to change it it's my excuse and I like it real fine.( little sesame street reference for you)

Anyhow as I said it's been busy and if you've been keeping up with things from Joe's blog then you'd already know we went to our Auntie's house in Somerset and the drama that happened there. On that I'd just like to say for the first time Joe was the impatient one and wanted to get a taxi to their house where I was thinking of just sticking around (but didn't really push the point).

Also you'd know I was lucky enough to have Chloe come visit just after christmas and spend 2 weeks with me. I took her to Paris for 4 days and we had a fantastic time, I'll see if I can link some photo's up for you to see. I think if we go back to France we'll go to somewhere else like Leon and see some of the other bits of France as I've been to Paris twice and saw the same things so would like somewhere else. Next time Chloe is over I think we will go to Italy and see Venice, Florance, Rome, as well as hopefully some of Germany (maybe Berlin where I have a cousin who offered me a place to stay. Silly boy should have known I'd take him up on it)

Well I can't wait till she comes back and all those doom and gloom soothsayer's out there who told us long distance relationships don't work, well you are WRONG. We have only got closer and happier (though being in the same country or at least within 1000kms would be nice), I think it's stressfull, no doubt, but maybe it just tests the strength of your commitment to each other. It does cost a fortune in phone calls as we talk at least once a day, but that's something I'm happy to spend money on.

Even though we said no gift's for christmas/birthdays as we where both spending lots of money flying her over and going to Paris, Chloe still bought me a beautiful silver ring. I've never really been into jewelry much but I've worn this ring everyday and as she gave it to me it reminds me of her and so is very special. It's amazing, she gives me gifts that at the time I think "hmm not sure on this" but they are always great and I realise why she gave it to me and why it's so fantastic. It must be terrible for her as I don't jump up and down straight away, she seems to know what I need more than I do sometimes.

If you've been keeping up with Joe's blog you would have seen that we have the beta for World of Warcraft now, it's been released already in the US and Australia. The Australian release was earlier due to the fact that they are using the US servers and since Europe have their own ones they are still in testing for it. So after my good friend Matt Riener tornmented us with the fact he had already started playing, Joe pre-ordered 2 copies!!! of it so as to secure a beta kit to play it before it was released.

So I've built a big dumn Tauren Warrior but I like to keep it simple with a new game, (though even the warriors have a lot of depth) I think I'll make him a tank. I don't want something I'll like too much as all the beta characters will disappear (being a beta). Even though Joe insulted my computer he still over spec'd it as it doesn't have a Radeon 9700 128mb it's a 9600 64mb so I think it's doing remarkably well and handles it fine the lag when using wireless is the real problem. It has a 54mb/s connection but in WoW (game mentioned earlier) it gets a lag of like 20000, if I plug it into the ethernet it's 20. Go figure.

Well for those who know me well I am dying to get a car, the fact that I've resisted to buy one so far (nearly 6 month) should shock many of you. To put your minds at rest most of that is due to money and the cost of setting up, I have had little money left and have been hesitant to spend till I know how much living costs. Now that I know I have a bit of money to spare I'm thinking a car could reduce my 1hr trip to work as I estimate it would be a 25-30min drive. This would ruin my fitness as I have to walk 30-40mins a day from the tube to work and back again (work is out in the sticks).

So I have been looking into what type of car to buy, unfortunately I don't think my insurance rating transfers so I have decided not to buy a turbo car (so no WRX :( ). A bike has been on and off the books as I've been close to buying a ducati monster a number of times now, though the amount of rain, snow etc here is a bit of a put off for a bike. So I thought a nice sensible car was in order, SENSIBLE you say, as if Paul could buy a sensible car. Of course I can, the mini was "reasonably" sensible. So a nice small sensible car.

On another completely unrelated topic I had my birthday only last week, and Joe bought be a gift that he new I'd like and I'm sure Richard A would like too. "The drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya Drift Bible, A complete guide to drifting" DVD. Knowing my obsession with a Japanesse cartoon called Initial D (thanks for introducing me Richard) he chose a great gift.

So that day I started looking for cars, Toyota Truneo AE86 Hachiroku was obviously top of the list. A corolla is a practical car. The only problem is they are very rare and so I found some in the UK being imported from Japan but they where ex-track cars to not *as* practical. In the end the track car was sold and only the turbo ones where left. I decided I'd better look at something else. So I'm now thinking about a MR2, which isn't really practical either but what the hey.

I orginially dismissed a turbo as the insurance would kill me but amazingly Chloe had suggested that I just insure it 3rd party (fire & theft) and save the other part and by the 2nd year I've saved enough for the whole car anyway. So I started thinking a MR2 turbo (nearly moved to another Subaru WRX as I'd be getting a turbo but want to try a different car). I'll still get another WRX when I get home.

I have been looking for a while and was planing on getting out and looking at some but somehow let another weekend pass and haven't done it. I plan on doing it soon though.

Paul.

Work Jukebox

2004-11-23T10:16:00.000Z

If Matty P is reading this, we have a jukebox at work and the song that was just on was "That Loving Feeling", since the jukebox is for vinyl that means it has lots of classics. Thought you might find that funny. For everyone else well I can't be bothered explaining but it's an old song for serenading a girl when on a youth camp or simular.

P.

Working and Busy

2004-11-23T09:35:00.000Z

Well again having not actually posted for a while, I've started work so seem busy all day and have a few issues at our new place. Other than the washing machine, dishwasher, shower in ensuite, and no security gate code the phone seems more difficult than reasonable to connect so no phone and no internet.

Work is great, I think I'll really enjoy working here. The people are really good and the work quite interesting so I'm pretty happy with it. Still lacking experience in practical testing of security rather than theoretical analysis of security I'm learning a lot. This is fine with me and I'm more than happy to I just don't have enough time in my days to do it though.

Well I better get back to work.

Paul.

As they say here, "It's sorted".

2004-11-03T09:04:00.000Z

Well the process took longer than I wanted, but only 2 1/2 weeks really (after all that holidaying) it just seems long when you're living off savings and waiting to find a job. I was offered a job as a penetration testing / security analyst yesterday in a company called portcullis security, they do penetration testing and security assessment services as well as product development, they are also engaged in research. The role involves quite a bit of travel around the UK and most to Edinburgh (Scotland) which is fine as I have a lot of family down there. I'll be started at a base level having no experience in penetration testing :) which means I'm only paid a base rate + bonuses. Their bonus scheme is that if they we a set target in a quarter then I get a bonus, so a potential for a reasonable bonus each year. Apparently they've only missed 1 quarter and that was a year or 2 ago.

The job is out in North West London, really in the suburbs and took me ages from my cousins luxury pad in Notting Hill (he's an Senior Accountant for big Telecomm company in central London, his wife's working for Estee Lauder and a senior advertising manager or something). Joe also has a job with a games company (his dream) in Notting hill and since we thought we'd flat together we'll probably end up around zone 3 and in between the 2. Hopefully I'll find something in the next couple of days as Joe started work on Monday and I start next Monday. Paul at portcullis said he wanted me to start soon because they are taking the whole company away for the weekend and wanted me to come along. Woohoo free food and drinks, and should be able to get towels and linen for our flat ;).

Well back to finding a flat.

An update but not much

2004-10-30T14:38:00.000+01:00

Well I know I've been really crap at updating this, I'll go back and add some of the trip to Paris stuff now as I wrote a little down. I've been looking for work the last couple of weeks and living with my cousin Mark and his wife Lara (and Joe of course). It's a 1 bedroom apartment in Kensington (posh) but it's very squishy with four, I've been getting a little clostriphobic and can't wait to get a place.

Joe and myself have been looking at flats the last couple of days and found a nice one, as Joe has landed a job (in the games industry, on good pay, in 2 weeks, wow) and starts on Monday. So even though I don't have anything we thought'd we'd get out. I'd been getting a bit down as I'd not had an interview even lined up yet as recruiters seem to decide if they feel your good enough even without much knowledge of computers. If you don't have the exact same wording as the job description they don't seem to send me on.

I've been revamping my CV many times to individual jobs so as to get the recruiters to send it on, spelling out skills etc. I've also started phoning them so they pick my CV up out of the 100's sent and I tell them why I am suitable.

Well all this has finally paid off, I was told on thursday that I have an interview on Monday with a security firm for a penetration testing role, they are a good company portcullis security and do more than just consulting and pen testing but even research and vulnerability posting, so are very active in the security comunity. This is the area I want to work so I was very happy.

Then it just hit me like a flood, all the jobs I'd been chasing seemed interested, all the hard work paid off. Another job as a Pen tester/Internet Investigator and an interview next week to be confirmed. Then on Friday an interview for a third Pen tester role this time with Ernst and Young a MASSIVE consulting company and at the forefront of the industry. I've got a book on Pen testing and Earnest & Young's Security/Pen testing team are the main authors, they also teach the Hacker technique course at SANS. Also a phone back on a contract C job in chippenham which pays £225/day or about £56000 /yr with 4 weeks off, still good but I think I'd rather London and Pen testing despite the money.

Well I thought things couldn't get better and then I get an email from a company in Notting hill (just around the corner from Marks'). The're a development company building hardware IDS, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam etc and are looking for a C/C++ developer. I got an email from him asking me for some more info on myself and looked up his website and read about his products, I told him I'd rather work in C++ (as I don't see much future in being a pure C developer). He said I'd be able to work mainly in C++ and told me something about his company. They seem good on training and being in security I'd be able to do some security training courses.

So things have certainly looked up now for me.

How are people going, can't you email ;)

In London and out on the Town

2004-10-17T01:47:00.000+01:00

Well we had a lazy Saturday, after a week of job searching we decided we needed a rest. So Joe and I slept in and later Mark and Lara got back for a walk and we went out for brunch at a nice little cafe opposite Kensington Palace called Dianna cafe. It was really good food and not too much, it was a good why to fill yourself up for a big day. You could see why they called the cafe Dianna, the walls were covered with pictures of her and a number of her with the staff. Apparently Dianna would go there frequently for breakfast.

After this Joe and I decided to go and see this market that was in kensington (forgot what it's called but apparently it's quite famous.) The first couple of blocks were just full of antiques and trinkets, a lot of junk to our minds. After that where food stalls, looked like some nice fresh food (I'll have to come back again when I find a place.) Joe bought some chinese 5 spice as Lara mentioned that she couldn't find it here, again mental note for supplies.

Later on (how far does this market go...) there were clothes, bags, LOTS of Union Jack G-Strings (Thongs for those brits) about every 4th stall. Only 1 or 2 CD stalls, and then it just thinned off. We decided the crowds (as bad as the club later) wasn't worth going through so we'd head across and back down the next street. Joe carefully navigated me over a bridge and to the right then into some very sinister looking paths between some highrise apartments. Past a creek that looked more like sludge (there was a sign saying that touching the water was a health risk). Then to a path through a park with an outline of a person in white tape (I'm sure it was only to say that it's for pedestrians, though I cyclist nearly knocked us over).

We then decided that maybe we should get the tube back. This was a great plan in theory, it was only the execution that was the problem. We got onto the Hammersmith line and worked out that we needed to get off at a certain stop. Then change over to the circle line back to Notting Hill Gate. Well we got off at the stop quickly changed platforms to the one with the circle line and saw a tube at the station and jumped on. About 3 stops along I look up at the tube map, look at the name of the station and realise we just jumped on the Hammersmith line to go back where we started!

Well we got off and started over again, right back to the beginning. Well it did fill in the day.

We hanged around Marks until going around the corner and getting some indian food, I got butter chicken as Chloe now has me addicted to it and it seems it's the only thing I can order now. Surprisingly this one was actually as good as the one Chloe started me on (though there Nan bread was nowhere near, can't beat it yet). So good food and of we go to meet Karen for a night out. Joe and Mark and myself tried our best to make ourselves look presentable and hopped on the tube to piccadilly circus.

We met Karen and literaly jumped across the road to our destination, a club called On Anon. We stayed mainly in their Club room but only because we didn't get a seat upstairs in their Lodge area which looked really cool (Ryan would have liked it.) Joe and I wanted to go check out Ministry of Sound, but we thought we'd wait until Karen's flatmates turned up first (handy as Karen forgot her phone and keys). When the girls got there (Bianca, Rachel, Lo, Kylie, see I even remembered their names) I tried to convince them to go to ministry of sound with us.

I guess the £15 entry might of put them off a bit, they also said they didn't like that type of music. Apparently they had listed to an album a friend had, we think it may have been a hardcore night from their description. Well the convincing didn't happen and as Joe mentioned the club started playing a number of tracks on Joe's ministry of sound album. The girls seemed to like these songs, so it seems they do like the music (not the music they thought they played) but I guess the £15 saving was good. We'd decided to stay as the girls didn't want to go so Joe and I figured we'd just go some other time.

Well Mark stayed around till the last tube and dance the night away (protecting the 5 girls by himself at one point) and we decided to go home too and leave the girls to dance the night away.

Well there we go, an update at last.

Goodnight.

Flight to Paris

2004-09-29T15:15:00.000+01:00

Well Damien had convinced me to go get my hair cut at his hairdresser, it was not that long or anything I for some reason thought it needed it (I'm just not used to not having it shaved at the back and sides). Well I again stuck with the layered back and side so still feel it's long (well 1 month on. Anyway, his hairdresser was an interesting Scot, chatted about Paris and said it was nice but he preferred Rome (Had a feeling that he was part Itallian as he talked a bit about Italian scots). He then preceded to speak French to us (which I understood none of) then Italian when he spoke of Rome (Damn I hate these Tri-Linguals, only because I'm jealous).

Well back to Damien and Annmaries and packed our bags then headed off to the train station, the train to Glasgow Preswick was leaving when we got there so we had to wait 1/2hr for the next one. We decided to get a coffee at Costa Coffee while we waited. I mentioned to Damien that I thought their seperation of smoking and non-smoking was pretty ordinary. They were both in the same room/area and there was an invisible line between them that the smoke obvilously didn't seem to respect. The biggest problem was the smokers were at the back and so was the air-con blowing the smoke through the non-smoking area out the door. This seems very common through the UK, an invisible line between sections (with exceptions of course, Nandos in Bayswater London).

The train ride was £5.20 which seemed a lot but was quite a long trip so about right. We went past the Isle of Arran which Mum talks about fondly. We also went through Troon which my Uncle Paul is a member of the Royal Troon Golf Club. It's an exclusive club, one I'm sure I'll never be a part of, many because I can't ta play golf.

Glasgow international airport seemed to me like Adelaide domestic, very small and not much there, actually Adelaide domestic is probably bigger with more but this is RyanAir and we paid 50p for the flight (+£24.50 tax) so what do you expect. This is what Annmarie thought too. The line to put our bags in and get our tickets was quite long and took a while.

The flight took little time to start boarding, since Damien and Annmarie had the kids and we were all booked together we got to the front of the line. Since we were there early we managed to be first in line with a pick of seats. After everyone was on board things seemed to be delayed and we didn't seem to be in any hurry. Well to reassure us the Captain decided to speak, "The lights will go off as we turn off the electrical system, there is a problem so don't get worried it's just us mucking around". Well such a speach inspired confidence to me about their technical expertise, WELCOME TO NO FRILLS FLYING!

Later he told us it was just a fault in the navigation system, which of course was a core system and when it was fixed we'd go. It was not much longer and we were off, confident we'd get there of course.

The flight was quite uneventful, the bus to Paris from the airport was nearly longer than the flight (RyanAir have cheap airports far out of the cities, if you call this one an airport more a strip). Nice enough trip, read The Bourne Identity (thanks Chloe) and took in Paris.

Willows school

2004-09-28T23:37:00.000+01:00

I'll just put notes and fill in later.

Went to see where willow goes to school, saw the Kabab place on the way back (in paper very fatty)
Did nothing during day, Joe went to Wiggles concert with Willow et al.
Went to a mexican resturant with Joe, nice Sangeria?

Watched the Princess Bride, Gaberial watched it (should have been in bed, got up) and was facinated, said he really liked it. He's now my favourite nephew.

To Cardiff

2004-09-16T21:40:00.000+01:00

I got up reasonably early to go catch the bus to Cardiff, my bus left at 11:00am so I was trying to get there a little early. I left Ben's house at 10:00, guessing it would take 1/2hr to get there. This would leave me 30mins to get my oversized (weight) bag onto the bus. The train to Victoria station was a very old English train, one where you open the small doors yourself and the handles are only on the outside (you need to open the window to open them from inside). As I moved along to find a seat the corridor was very narrow and had little rooms, as I got into one of them lugging my huge bags one of the school kids in there said exactly what I was thinking. "This is just like the Hogwarts Express in harry potter". Yes it certainly seemed like that.

When I got there the bus was not even there so I decided to ring Chloe while I wait (I need to remember to stop calling Australia on my mobile, it really costs too much). Well things went quite smoothly and I felt less worried about my large case being 26kgs (6kgs over their limit) as a chinese guy had 2 huge bags and 2 medium sized bags and a laptop bag. A bit over the 2 medium bag limit. He was struggling to get into the line to get to the bus so I let him infront of me.

So about to put my bags onto the bus and Joe appears (he was going to a friend of Mum's in Surrey) he asks if I wanted to take my rain jacket and phone charger to Wales. Hmm, rally in Wales, I guess a rain coat would be handy. Well now with the rest of my luggage and Joe on his way, I got onto the bus. I saw the chinese guy I saw earlier with all the bags, so I decided to sit next to him. His name was Bo and he was a great travel companion, he had lived in London the last 4 years.

I'll get back to this later.

Trial Run for bus

2004-09-15T16:11:00.000+01:00

I had booked a ticket on a bus to Cardiff for the Rally of Great Britian. I looked at booking it a couple of days before but didn't do it, this was very unfortunate as I would have got a ticket for £8 rather than the £17 I paid. I would have paid £29 on the day though so it was still a lot better. As I hadn't done the cheaper E-ticket I had to go pick it up, this was fine with me as it gave me a chance to see where I was going.

I much rathered wandering around aimlessly without all my luggage and no time limit on getting to the station. It was luckly as there where signs of where to go out of the train station to get to the Coach station, but nothing after that. So we got to the street and just guessed which way, we fortunately guessed correct and picked up my ticket and went home.

I guess I should really link my brothers bloggs, this is Joe's blog and has a slightly different version of events of our travels, and this is my brother Damien's who was here 6 months before us. Talk about him a little later when I'm in Glasgow.

Tommorow, RALLY!!!

Meeting Margaret and Cousin Mark

2004-09-14T23:15:00.000+01:00

Well we organised to meet up with a friend of Mum's who lives in the northern side of London, luckily we had already traveled on the northern line to see Karen so we must have looked like old hands. She was in between the Goodge street and Warren street stations, so we got off at warren street. It was nice to see another familiar face and Margaret took us out to coffee at her local cafe. Margaret was very nice and even offered to do some laundry for us, she told us to just bring it in and she'd take it home to wash and dry then drop it off to us the next day. I thanked her for her offer and said I would do it later (Ben's dryer didn't work).

She also told us how to get to china town and where to get a cheap phone card, the phone card was a great deal. The little phone card shop sold a £20 phone card for £15 but when I went to use it, it actually had £25 on it. Margaret said she couldn't use it up as it only lasts 3 months, I told her that I wouldn't have any trouble (And I don't, thought the rate to Australia is something like 1.5p per minute so it should still last ok). Just means I get to talk to Chloe more :)

Well from there we had organised to see my cousin Mark at Covent Gardens as he works in the middle of London and Covent Gardens is very nice. So we had a couple of hours to lose, and decided to wander around and see what it's like. We decided to walk there, so walked through Soho, there was a place there that Margaret had told us about which was apparently a world famous Jazz Bar. I think it was called Rays Jazz Club, it's definitely a place I'll have to checkout.

Anyway, we walked to Covent Gardens and found that it seems to be a market (The buildings suggest 1800's market, not that I'm an expert) and there were many buggers(buskers) there some good, some not so good. One particular pair of buggers(buskers) were a pair I remember for Adelaide, they are from Peru I think that play some of the most amazing Latin music I've heard. I took a couple of photo's and some video of them which I probably wont put on the net as the files are too big.

I took a number of artistic photo's of the market area and we saw a couple of other buggers (buskers), a couple of jugglers on uni-cycles but they were not really that good.

I rang up Mark and he was running late so Joe and myself went looking for food, we decided upon an American burger bar (looked a little upmarket, so not fast food rubbish). It was called Hamburger Union and the food was quite good. We rang Mark and told him where we were and he arrived a little later. After a bit of food we went across the road to a pub and had a couple of drinks with Mark. My friend Ben arrived a little later and Ben and Mark started talking football (real football so soccer for those Aussies). Since Joe and myself have little knowledge of this topic, particularly English Premier league, we bowed out of the discussion.

It was a great night and good to see my cousin as I haven't really had much chance to see any of my cousins.

Note: For those wondering about all the buggers, I used the spelling checker as Annmarie suggested and the touchpad must have made me agree to change all buskers to buggers. So any interesting words are care of the spell checker.

Being a Tourist

2004-09-13T21:16:00.000+01:00

Well Joe and I decided to be tourists and go and see the Tower of London. This became a quest for the holy historic membership (gives a half price entry to and buildings in the heritage trust group). Well my understanding was that you just go to one of the sites and join up. This ended up becoming a fun filled day of running around trying to join up. At first I asked the ticket person, he said he knew about it, that we'd get half price tickets but knew nothing about joining. He told us to go to the welcome centre people just a little closer to the Tower, we asked them and they didn't even know what we were talking about. They told us to talk to the group booking people (probably out of confusion) who preceded to tell us they too knew nothing and told us to get on the tube to Liverpool street station to see the Tourist information centre.

Well on the way to the tube station I saw a girl doing Poi, I've got a photo where you can kind of see her. Thought I'd add that in for Ryan. I'll get some photo's there some time.

Well the Tourist information centre was missing that vital bit of information that told us how to join the heritage group. For a group that has over half the heritage buildings in the UK, you'd think the British tourism information centre might have some idea about it. They just gave us a tourist booklet that told us where some of the castles are and where expensive places to eat and rooms.

We then decided to get a coffee and have a seat, I went to find a toilet and discovered that in London you have to pay to go. It's 20p to have a pee (he he, I was dying to say that). Anyway a guy was trying to go through the turnstone with a lot of luggage (looks like he just got into London). So the crazy guy decided he couldn't get it through so left all his luggage there and went in!!!!! I was worried so stayed and kept my eye on it from a distance till I saw him come out again. Not that I know what I'd do if someone tried to steal them.

Pretty boring other than that.

A lazy Sunday

2004-09-12T12:52:00.000+01:00

Well on Sunday I felt like a bit of a rest, so after a very lazy morning, Joe and I went to Clapham to get a Virgin SIM card for me. I figured I might as well be on the same network as Joe and Karen considering that I'd probably talk to them most so might as well make it cheap (I think I was wrong as most of my money is spent on phoning Chloe and that definitely uses up all my money on the phone.) So after that we decided to have a counter meal at the local pub with Ben and his friend James (who we met the night before and went to the house warming with.)

I'm still not impressed with English food, the pub was what a stereotype of English pubs, small and smokey. Well anyway it was smokey, pipes, cigars and lots of cigarettes, and every real man was drinking beer. So Joe and I felt really part of the culture already. I decided to have a traditional English meal and had fish and chips, I decided not to be so traditional next time. It was not bad like burger king, but not much there and not that good.

After lunch, Joe went back to Ben's to do internet stuff and I hang around to watch the Spurs play Norwich (James is a Spurs fan). Well it was a lot of fun as both Ben and I were teasing James about the fact that the Spurs (who looked much a better team ) seemed unable to put the ball into the net (although it was to a bit of luck from Norwich). Nearly the whole pub were Spurs fans and a man with his 2 kids in front of us definitely was. I couldn't work out who swore more, the father or the kids, it was very funny.

Went home and sat and watch crappy English TV.

Meeting Karen

2004-09-11T11:30:00.000+01:00

Well , SMSd Karen from Norwood volleyball and organized to catch up, Joe and I meet her at Tottenham Court Rd station which is north of London. She was running a little late so it gave us time to get Joe a SIM card, he went for Virgin as they seem to be the best deal for pre-paids (I got an Orange and Im already regretting it as it seems bad in the charges and free calls it gives you. I might change over to it now before I give my number out too much, as its cheap to call others on the same network so thats already Joe and Karen.)

Well seeing Karen was really good, nice to see a familiar face, she was very helpful and gave some advice of where to look to live. Its good to know where not to go and she was telling us what she learnt from her mistakes. Well from there we all jumped on a tube to Trafalgar Square, Karen said goodbye and was off to meet Bianca (also Norwood volleyball) and we were back into sightseeing mode.

Looking around the streets of Trafalgar makes you realize how much history London has, every building is a masterpiece. The streets are beautiful so we walked around, snapping away with the camera. We saw the Queens Life Guard and had the obligatory photos, then wandered around to Westminister Abbey. Unfortunately the Abbey wasnt open to visitors so we will have to come back but from the glimpse through the doors the inside looks spectacular.

The details of Westminister Abbey and Big Ben (Parliament House) is incredible, these are amazing pieces of architecture. I noticed that they have placed large concrete barriers around all the buildings which is a pitty as it takes a bit away from the beauty of them. Its a shame that terrorism has done this to our society and that nothing is sacred anymore.

We wandered done over the bridge to the London aquarium ( a lot of walking done, as weve done everyday so far). We decided to go in and have a look since we are tourists at the moment, it was very nice and Im glad I went. Ive got lots of pictures of this as we didnt have a huge amount of time (spent about an hour and a bit though) so wanted photos of things we skimmed over. It was hard to take decent photos as there was limited light and flashes didnt work most of the time so the shutter speed was slow and things got blurred.

We decided to go home because Ben had invited us to a house warming of some Aussies a couple of suburbs over tonight.

Out and About

2004-09-10T11:06:00.000+01:00

Well Joe and I decided to see what wonders London contains, we went down to the corner store to buy a day pass for the trains, tubes and buses, it costs 4 pounds 30 pence or about $11 Australian. I was off to HSBC to get my new English bank card and credit card from HSBC. I opened this account in Australia as in the UK you need proof of address to open an account which can be difficult when you've just arrived.

Anyway, Joe and I jumped on a bus to the train station at Clapham Junction and then a train to Waterloo, from there we went down to the tube to shoot off to Piccadilly Circus. A funny thing happened while waiting for the tube a lady comes up and says she's not from London and asks Joe if the tube went to Charing Cross. Well it seems that we look like locals already, and as there is a map of every tube line on the wall of every station we were able to answer her question.

Well all went well on getting all my bank cards and we also saw a “cheers” pub on the way, we've got some photo's (not very good ones) and started to collect monopoly streets. I told Joe that I'd like to play monopoly and so get a photo of every street on the board, Joe decided to add the task of getting a photo of a hotel which later became any hotel, house or mortgage which only a hotel was really possible being the centre of London.

In the middle of the game we decided to get something to eat, and just wanted something familiar so went to burger king. Joe decided to have an XL Whopper meal Super Sized (no he hasn't seen the movie yet, he was apparently doing research before seeing it.) were I just had a normal, not upsized meal. We did a proper documentary style recording of it and used the camera to do a little movie through the stages of meal.

Anyway back to being a tourist, we then continued on the monopoly track and wandered along Piccadilly until we came across Green Park which had a sign to Buckingham Palace. So off we went to the Palace, the Park was fantastic as I’ve notice London had many large parks in the middle of the city as well as the outer area’s (for example Clapham has some large parks). The gates of Green Park near the Palace is spectacular, massive iron gates with gold, I am not really a writer so can’t really describe it well you’ll all have to wait till I get some photo’s up.

There is a monument in front of the palace which is quite impressive as was the palace itself, it was really unfortunate that my camera ran out of battery’s at this point so I don’t have many photo’s of the palace. We decided that we’d call it a day as the camera already had given up, and headed back for Ben’s house. We are getting a lot more comfortable getting around and surprisingly have felt quite at ease on the public transport here, actually the public transport is great here and you can get anywhere.

We got back and I had a bit of a rest as we where going to go out with Ben to have drinks with his work mates. In the end I was too tired and didn’t feel up to a train ride to the outskirts of London (Woking for those who know) and stayed in. I guess the jet lag is still around; it’s taking a while to get used to this UK time zone.

London

2004-09-09T10:24:00.000+01:00

Well we arrived last night in london, only for me to realise that I sent Ben the wrong itinerary for which flight and time we'd come in. We had changed our flight to play(in the end only watch) the grand final of our volleyball, glad the other norwood team won.

So we where flying in about 3 hrs early and I was a little worried about waiting around in the airport till Ben arrived. We phoned Ben the minute we got off the plane to allow him time to come in and meet us, hopefully only a 30 min wait after we get our baggage and go through customs etc.

luckily Ben noticed that there was a web link with the latest info and came early, he was at the airport when we rang.

Well it's 10:30 and I'm hungry, I'll try and update with news of the 12 1/2 hr flight.

Paul.

Beautiful Japan

2004-09-07T22:05:00.000+01:00

Well we have now said goodbye to our loved ones and are heading off across the world, we arrived in Japan yesterday at about 6pm we got through immigration and customs very quickly. As Joe said to me last night, in some ways it doesn't feel like we've left yet.

The flight to Japan was great, we ended up in the middle section on either end, so both on aisles, and the two seats between us were empty. Lots of space and very comfortable. Didn't get much sleep (not enough alcohol I guess), but saw a movie or two and read a little of "The Bourne Identity" that my beautiful girlfriend Chloe lent me.

We got onto a shuttle bus that took us to our hotel, the Nikko Narita. It was dark by the time we got there so I didn't get to see much of the country. I noticed that they don't seem to have as many lights as we do on their streets, looking out the window it was pitch dark and I wondered where they were taking us...

The hotel is great, we had a shower and came down for some food. The food in the hotel is very expensive (as you'd guess for any hotel) and I was starving. I got a hambuger and fries and Joe had spaghetti blankest as we didn't want to get something we couldn't eat. I also order deep fried octopus and Joe order something too (can't remember what) so we would try something.

We tried to wander and take photo's but the hotel is really close to the airport and there is nothing around, you need to take a bus to the city of Narita. Unfortunately the buses start at 9:56am and are an hour round trip and we need to get onto a bus to the airport by 10:05. So much for seeing Japan.

We went to the Sunset lounge bar at the top of the hotel, so I could drink Saki (?spelling). I didn't drink much as it's 31C and humid so wanted water more than anything. Meet a Canadian who is going to Korea to teach English, nice girl and quite friendly, but a smoker so I didn't try to set Joe up with her. :)

Well I'm going to meet Joe and try and get our boarding pass early so we can get get good seats.

See you in sunny England. :)

Paul.

Not long now

2004-09-04T02:32:00.000+01:00

Well as much as I had planned I haven't been able to keep this blog as upto date as I may have planned. The party was fantastic and I only wrote 3 lines on it, I will update the details of that soon including the bad influence Dean and the barcardi 151's ;).

Well I have been keeping everything together by following a list of things I need to do and slowing ticking things off. This week has been a matter of getting all the list finished. I have pretty much got everything ready, british bank account, reference from last landlord, money changed, Internatrional drivers lience. I have suspended everything here and got some travel insurance (online, how computer savy).

I made a point of buying my girlfriend something nice for her as I want to spoil her before running off to the other side of the world. I took Chloe out to the Red Ochre on thursday and brought my fancy wine , a Grant Burge Meshach Shiraz. It was the best evening of my life. I have a photo of us all dressed up before we went there but I'll have to get around to posting them.

Last night went over to my best friend's house to catch up with him and his wife, it's good to see him before leaving and I wish I had had time to catch up with everyone before leaving but time was not on my side.

I'm going to go to the Grand Final of the Volleyball soon to cheer on our other reserve team, I'm dissappointed we didn't get in but it did free up alot of my time.

I also had my final Tia Chi lessoin on wednesday, I've now completed the 24 set of Yang style with Tia Chi & Chi Kung Institute. I found it very good and it was well worth it.

Well I haven't eaten yet so I'll update this soon.

3 more days to go.

Paul.

End of Work

2004-08-30T04:13:00.000+01:00

Well it was my last day of work on Friday, it's a very strange feeling quiting my job without a job already lined up. I guess with the prospect of going to live in another country is quite a scary venture, but exciting as well.

I've got a lot of photo's from the night I'll try and put up.

Starting the Story

2004-07-29T03:10:00.000+01:00

This is my travel Journal, for the exciting trip to the UK I'm about to endeavor on. It's about 4 1/2 weeks till I fly out and everything is seeming to be coming together. I haven't found any work yet (yes this is an extended trip) but it's not worrying me too much. My brother and his wife are already over there (his blog is here) so I'll be seeing them and the multitude of cousins I've yet to meet.

Well I just wanted to set this up.

Hi to everyone out there. :)