A nice Sunday

Inspired by BitsofBobs’ blog posting about his nice Sunday jaunt, it inspired me to tell you about what I did last Sunday. Last Sunday I walked the Tongariro crossing, which was a lovely walk – however I decided to spice it up a bit by climbing up Mt Ngauruhoe, pictured below.

 

It was actually the mountain used as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings film, and the big eye at the top was pretty off putting but made it to the top…just. It was the hardest hill I’ve ever climbed as its actually a live volcano and so is covered in a thick layer of volcanic dust, which makes climbing it extremely hard work, you take two steps up and then slide back down the same distance – soul destroying. But worth it for some cracking views. Anyway, enough chat, here’s a couple of photos to keep you occupied.

 

So I’ve described my Sunday, BitsofBobs has described his Sunday, and as this is an interactive blog I’d love to hear about your Sunday, either what you did, or maybe a description of a perfect Sunday. I leave it up to you.

(PS This is all wonderfully formatted on my screen, sorry if it looks balls on yours!)

Former Binman Andy Abraham

Why is it that no-one in the press can refer to our Eurovision hopeful, star of X factor, man who has had a number 2 album that has sold over 300,000 copies (Cruelly held off the top spot by Journey South), without mentioning the fact that he used to be a binman?

Imagine if we always mentioned that Neil Macewen used to be a crack addict, or that Robin used to be cool in every sentence – people move on. The British Media, if you’re reading this, please let Andy Abraham put his noble past behind him, and praise him for what he is – A pop star of a certain calibre.

Mana from heaven

As mentioned on my earlier post I have been in Fiji for the last week, which was marvellous. I stayed on a small island called Mana, pictured below

You could walk round the perimeter of the island in about two hours, the electricity was only on from 6pm til about 2am, the showers were just a cold tap higher up on the wall and the doorless dorms were pretty basic – but I had a fantastic time. A week was probably long enough for me, but if relaxing not doing much is your thing them Fiji could be the place for you. However, the last day I found tough – I’d got a bit sunburnt the day before, and stayed up late drinking with some Austrians and a couple of locals.

It was a great laugh but woke up feeling pretty ropey, not good considering I had an hour and a half journey in a wee speedboat in choppy waters back to the mainland. Well, it was the longest 1.5 hours of my life, I was pouring with sweat and I reckon my face had actually turned green. I must have been minutes away from spewing over the other few people in the boat, but held on bravely, you’d all have been proud of me.

Jonathan and Daniel

Jonathan and Daniel are a pair of very nice Swedish lads who I met in Sydney, and I felt them worthy of a blog posting. Here is a photo of the pair of them

If you see either of these men on the street, please bid them a good day, and offer them a biscuit if you have any. Of course if you are without biscuits they will not take offence, it is not their way.

Here’s a bonus picture of Jonathan at the Blue Mountains as it’s a good un

Sorry, I’ve been away…

Hello all, sorry for the dearth of postings lately, Roy arrived in Oz so didn’t have so much internet time and then I was in Fiji without the internet access at all. Thanks for your concern though Macca and Nicola, I am safe and well. I’ll make up for it by making the next few days absolutely blogtastic!

Much Gaeity

Today I went to Mardi Gras in Sydney. It is the 30th anniversary of the festival, which celebrates gay and lesbian life in Sydney. It was a thoroughly happy affair, with lots of smiling, laughing and gyrating. Much like the Carnival in Stornoway, except with more floats, and the floats had names like “Mature Age Gays”, “Black Booty”, “Would Jesus Discriminate”  and “Rams 25 years of gay bowling” instead of “The Rotary Club” and “The Firemen”. The clothing was also an eye-opener, if I had a pound for each of the men I saw wearing just a thong and a pair of leather chaps, I would have somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds, not a bad return for just seeing something and doing nothing I think you will agree.

It had a very nice atmosphere, everyone having a good laugh, and most people just using it as an excuse to get drunk. It was a far cry from the first march in 1978, where although the organisers obtained permission to march, the police revoked the licence and arrested many people. Although the charges were dropped, the arrested peoples names were printed in the paper (as was normal at the time), but due to homosexuality being so taboo in those days, many of these people ended up losing their jobs – so in all they had a tough old time of it.

Anyway – enough of that seriousness, here’s a man I saw at the mardi gras, Apparently his answer to the question “Would Jesus discriminate?” is a resounding yes.

The most something

Today I stood at the most easterly point on mainland Australia, by Cape Byron lighthouse. Have any of you recently (or ever) done something that could be described as the most something….?

John Leslie

I saw John Leslie down the pub this morning. Was watching the Celtic – Barcelona game. I think it was him anyway…

Yes, yes it was him. We won’t discuss the game though, eh?

Name my blog pt 2

Conyinuing the “interactive blog” theme I’ve got going here, I asked you ages ago to name my blog and received many excellent responses. I have whittled it down to three, and I’d like you to vote on your favourite and once I have the results the blog shall be renamed! Well done to Robert, Gary and Wan who submitted the 3 final nominees. You each get a biscuit when I see you next.

The nominees are

We’re not in Stornoway anymore

Fly Fishing with DW Macleod

Daversion

Votes please. Oh and a special mention to Thomas, who, although his name suggestions didn’t make the final cut, sent this fine pictures depicting me, Dave, as part of his contribution, so thank you Thomas!

What would you do?

What would you do in the following situation? Once you have responded I will let you know what I did and what the outcome was.

On my first day in Hobart I decided to buy some provisions, to make myself some lunch/dinner and also make myself a packed lunch for the hill climb I was to do the following day. I visited Woolworths (As that’s the main Supermarket here) and picked up some ham and some rolls, fruit etc. and then I thought to buy myself some biscuits. I went to the biscuit aisle and my eyes settled on the tim-tams. A popular Australian biscuit, similar to our penguin biscuits.

However, At a price of $3.30 they were a little bit expensive, not that I was completely put off, but I looked further round the biscuits, when I spotted the Woolworths own brand select biscuits. Almost identical copies of the Tim Tams, at 70c cheaper at $2.60, looking good. “I can do better than that” I thought, and looked a little bit further down the aisle and saw the own brand basic biscuits for $1.99. Then I spotted an offer. If you bought the Select biscuits, you could get two packets for $3, and it wasn’t just limited to the plain chocolate ones, on you could get toffee topped ones too. So here was the choice, bearing in mind I’m trying to travel on a budget.

1) The premium Tim-Tams $3.30, although the most expensive, it would mean getting to taste an Australian staple

2) Woolworths Select biscuits single pack $2.60

3) Woolworths Select biscuits x 2 $3.00

4) Woolworths “Home Brand” $1.99

What would you have gone for?