Verity and Mark

More pics as promised

2008-05-01T07:14:00.006+01:00

Verity sent you all an email saying there was new pics - which was a bit of a lie really. But it did have the effect of making me put them on at long last.

Speaking of Verity, how did you guys enjoy her post? I had many emails asking for me to re-write it in my trademark hilarious style, which is flattering, but its done now folks.

Here is an Orc at the base of Mount Doom....tee hee

These few are from the Tongariro crossing. A weird place called red crater. It was indeed very red and craterish. And there is also a couple of the lakes which were pretty.

There was a similar photo opportunity in Australia (with a kangaroo on skis instead) but I can call this one a skiwi which is very funny indeed.

This was at a place called Kerosene Creek. One of the few places where you can swim in naturally hot water for free. It was on one of Billy Connolly's shows he did and he loved it.

MORDOR! looks kinda scary. Just missing that big flaming eye and it's Lord of The Rings.

This one was called the artists palette or something like. Loads of natural chemicals telling people that the whole place is volcanic and quite likely to blow up in your face sometime soon.

Till next time Blog friends.

NZ

2008-04-27T03:33:00.003+01:00

Hello,

I decided I should make an effort and write on the blog for once instead of Mark. NZ is pretty good. We wish we had come here first instead of spending all our money in Australia. We have been all around the north island and now we are working in a ski lodge saving for the south island. We have mainly been visiting places with volcanic activity and have seen geysers, bubbling mud and colourful lakes which all smell of rotten eggs because of the sulphur. There were some cool caves that we went in which had glow worms all over the ceiling. They look pretty in the dark but in the light you realize they are just maggots. We also stopped off at a traditional Maori house where we ate some traditional Maori food and slept in a huge room on the floor with the rest of our fellow backpackers. The highlight of the night was when Mark had to do the Haka and flexed his muscles. The pictures say it all really. I had to do a silly dance with a ball on a string which really wasn't as entertaining as Mark's performance.

Mark also made me do this really difficult walk called the Tongariro Crossing which basically involved walking up and around a bunch of volcanoes. I complained quite a lot on the ascent but the views were worth it in the end. There were huge crators filled with turquoise water. The place we are staying in at the moment is where they filmed some of Lord of the Rings and we can see 'Mount Doom' from the lodge.

So that's about it for now.

We have put more pics on. It just takes so long uploading them.

Verity x

Photos.

2008-03-19T06:02:00.003Z

Took the first one today - you thought the English were bad with immigration? Imagine a country about 10 times the size, with the Australian males having peanuts for brains, then this is the slogan you get on the back of work vans. Charmers ain't they?

I forgot to add a vital point to the Rottnest trip - Verity was millimetres away from bagging herself a brown snake. It decided to cross the road just as she was turning the corner, and she managed to just miss it's head with the tyre. If i hadn't seen this myself i would have dismissed this claim as pish and balderdash, but it is true. Unfortunately it slithered away before it could be photographed. Below is a reconstruction of the event....

Trip to rottnest.

2008-03-11T11:07:00.005Z

Hi all,

Just a flying post as i am tired and don't really have much to say. We have been working primarily - which is, as everyone knows, pretty lame. Our lives were brightened slightly as we went to rottnest for the day, a little perth island getaway.

Its about 40 mins on the ferry and you can cycle around it in one day, which we pretty much did, turning Verity into mega-crab mode for the day. Its dotted with some sublime beaches and corals, where I put my mask into use and verity implemented her fear of jelly fish and sharks.

There were cool things for the whole family - there was a WWII cannon that both our dads would be loving. It was built in Newcastle and went the equivalent of 8 stories underground. Then there is snorkelling, swimming, lazing and seeing the little rat-like Quokkas (see pics).

Anyway, until i have more to say, adios.

P.s. These photos are taking ages - i'll add more sooooooon.......

The worst person ever.

2008-02-20T13:10:00.002Z

Well what a fun few days it has been. Not much been going on really, trying to find work and turning into a semi-vegetarian, due to the Hare Krishna takeaway having ridiculously cheap meals. $2.50 for a massive tea - thats about 1 pound and twenty little pennies. Ace.

I had another job trial at a hotel place for a waitering position, and I thought it went ok till I met the big cheese on the first day. The woman in charge was a pretty awful individual named jess, who had the cheeky-cheek to take issue with my appearance by looking at me like I was repulsive (my 1-day stubble, the sign of a real man) despite her looking something like a beached whale and jabba the hutt. A kinder, nicer person said she would call me, but as they are selling the place I cannot see why they would want more staff. I hold literally no hope of them making contact. On the plus side I am working tomorrow as a receptionist where I will turn up freshly shaven and bushy-tailed.

Verity got registered for her mad free-styling nursing skills and is currently at work till midnight, working as a nurse/guard for ill people and mentals - which is great. Although she did have to pay for all her lifting certificates and uniforms etc, which made her somewhat crabby before she actually got any shifts. I sense deja vu, Verity at work and me stabbing a computer keyboard.

THANKYOU FOR COMMENTING ALL YOU COMMENTERS! We feel loved once more. And to everyone crowing about wanting Verity to write some stuff - take issue and email her! Its like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Hopefully i'll post some more pics soon when i'm on a pc that isn't quite as haggard and old (I'm sat next to a 486 - the ones before pentiums) as i can't see anything that resembles a USB port.

Till next time.

Perthetic

2008-02-11T11:13:00.000Z

Hello again people.

As you may have guessed from my intelligent pun-title we are now in Perth, although it's not really pathetic. As we are beginning to feel the burn of an increasingly empty bank account, tomorrow is officially find work day - hurrah. Fortunately, the big temping agencies I worked with in Canberra had me in mind and put branches over here especially.

And seeing as it is coming up to Valentine's me and Verity have decided to go all student and go the day after (now known as Vark day, or Merity day, both are catchy).

On to my main point; PLEASE COMMENT ON THE BLOG YOU NON-TALKING GOONS, its what the comment section is there for!

Heres hoping we can get some work and comments so everyone can be happy. And i can go diving and show off my sickeningly good skills.

Goodbye.

Last week in Canberra - city of dreams.

2008-02-07T03:22:00.000Z

I am being paid to write this - crazy eh? not when you temp for silly companies who leave you with a laptop and nothing to do all day.

We will be moving on up shortly to Perth, home of the most isolated city in Australia. As plans are still up in the air we think we will be staying for at least a couple of months and working our little bottoms off while trying to see the cooler elements of Western Austalia (see Keryl & Dates blog for fun times).

whats happened since the last blog update you ask? nothing much. Although we did see some wild kangaroos on red hill (pics later) and we celebrated Deryls birthday yesterday by eating a spankingly good meal.

I also managed to sample some differing jobs and improve my CV using core skills with positions such as supporting underwater ceramic technician and warehouse shelf distributing loader. People will be clawing for me with such vital credentials.

My latest idea is that we may move over to New Zeland a bit sooner and get working visas for there as it seems like its nice over there. Then get some skiing on the go when the winter comes around! pop pop.

Anyway, not much to say - just letting everyone know we are alive and reasonably well.

ta ra, Mark & Verity

Fraser Island, Whitsundays, diving, fireworks & jerks.

2008-01-04T04:57:00.000Z

Hello,

I am currently writing this part of the blog while in Cairns which has to be one of the most sweaty places in the world, its like a steam room at times.

After yet another dream of a coach journey (last one thank god, no more peasant wagonning for us) we left Airlie Beach where we sailed and dived around the awesome Whitsunday islands. And before that was the equally awesome Fraser island which had a bunch of quince-alike dingoes.

The Fraser island trip had its fair share of weirdos - referring to the 2 Canadian spanners who stole the van, despite not being insured, at stupid o'clock in the morning to go searching for a (non existent) "bathroom". Even the way they said bathroom riled me too.

Despite that, Fraser island has to be one of the coolest and weidest places around. It is made entirely out of sand, meaning some pretty scary 4x4 driving by some novice & highly unskilled drivers (me included). I nearly managed to eject one of the Canadians out of the back door, which she left wide open for ventilation. She thought it might be a good idea to not wear a seatbelt too.

Anyway, i digress. Normally when you see underneath the ground there is soil, but not here, just sand. Pretty weird when you think its 150km long (I think). The idea is you drive around this island for 3 days in a group of ten and see all the sights and then leave again without wrecking the van. Before we came we heard all sorts of horror stories about flipping vans and driving then in salt water, but in the end, it was all gravy.

Hopefully, if i have done the photo right you should be able to click on it and see a bigger version complete with a cheeky little dingo pup nicking a fish out of a boat. Word is we were quite lucky to see some dingoes, as since the mauling of a young boy, they have become something of a pest that are chased off by wardens when near camp sites and banned from being fed.

After Fraser was the Whitsundays where me and Verity dabbled in some diving and went to the super-duper Whitehaven Beach. I didn't risk taking my camera as the sand is almost pure silica and was used to make the lens of the Hubble satellite. In other words it wrecks your camera if you decide to drop and rub it in the beach. If you want to see it just google it and i'm sure it looks the same.

As you can see I swam with a great white.

From the whitsundays we then went to Cairns to do a proper dive course. It was pretty hard work as there were exams and practical tests and the hours were long. The instructor was a nice guy but he had no time for people who didn't learn as fast as him. Verity told him to jog on when he snapped at her on the barrier reef. Happy days. He also had a pretty funny Dutch last name - Foekema, pronounced fook-e-ma. He always spelt it out instead of saying it. Can't think why.

To cut a long story short - I saw 2 sharks swim near me underwater (real sharks not badly-photoshopped-in-the-background-by-a-random-sailor sharks.... see above) and Verity saw a turtle. The reef was something special too, blimmin' colourful and as many random fishes and corals as you shake a stick at. Oh and I am now a proper diver! Get in.

After all that its time to calm down a little, where better than Canberra. Kates generous dad is letting us stay a little longer, and earn some more dollars before we march onto Perth and more jobbing over there.

We went to Sydney at the end of Decemeber for the celebrations and had some of the worst luck with weirdos. We averaged on every 3 hours i believe (Check Deryl and Kates inferior blog soon for some good tales). Fortunately, Sydney was just about forgiven when NYE came around. I'll leave you with some of the shots i took in Sydney over new years. The fireworks were the biggest and best I have ever seen, it felt like the city was erupting.

Till next time, you stay classy people.

NOW THEN

2007-11-14T08:10:00.000Z

How is everybody? Good i hope. Sorry for the lack of updates, soon its going to be a annual newsletter. Since last time we have done a lot of things. Fun things, wet things, expensive things and more wet things. The biggest myth of Australia is that it is permanently sunny like ramsey street or that stinking beach off home & away, as the truth is very different. Wet different.

Basically when we left canberra we cruised up to Sydney on another of Oz's luxury buses. This time the ride was 3 hours so all was good in terms of sleep-loss. When we got there we suddenly sprang into life and went around doing all the things tourists do in Sydney when you have 4 days. Opera house....done. Harbour Bridge......done (do it in a Gordon Ramsey voice, it's funny). Got some nice cheesy shots of us pottering round, however this internet connection in Byron bay still runs on rail tracks so no photo's this time. I'll throw some more on facebook when i get the chance.

After the first day it started to rain, not too bad though. This did not stop us as we were tourists of the hardiest constitution. We trudged through the rain seeing Taronga zoo, Manly beach, the really tall tower and many parks. After sydney it was on to the Greyhound again to go up to the 'Gold Coast'. Or as we now know it 'Wet Wet'. There we met Deryl, Kate & Dels parent's - Bill & Rose. We had good times galore at the Warner brothers theme park, the ironic 'wet 'n' wild' water park and Seaworld. We got the wettest at the Warner brothers place. I have never been as wet. But the saving grace was Superman - the ride. It really felt like superman was pushing us as we went roughly 5,000 miles per hour.

So that brings us to Byron bay, hippyville and home to some of the biggest population of white dreadlocked males in the universe. After enduring the rain for some activities it finally cleared up the day before Del & Family were about to leave. I think its safe to assume the Slight family is cursed. Since then everything has been so pretty and the beaches are ace. I even went body-boarding and saw a lighthouse, wild dolphins and i nearly stood on a jellyfish. Happy days!

keep safe blog heads.

Mark & Verity

Jobbing in Canberra

2007-10-08T04:16:00.000+01:00

Hello people,

Around 3 weeks since the last post. Bet you've all been moping around, rocking slowly on your chairs and wondering what to do with yourselves. Fear not though, another post has arrived.

We arrived in Canberra, the nations capital at the end of last month after pottering around Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. Melbourne was pretty cool, lots to see and do and all that, but the Great Ocean Road was great. Easily the most impressive thing we've seen so far, even more so than the evil nazi buddha.

For those who don't know what it is, the Great Ocean Road is a big road built by out of work soldiers after WW1 as a sort of memorial. And yes you may have guessed by the name, it also runs by the ocean. It's made famous by the amount of surfer dudes going to places like Lorne & Torquay and the mad rock formations, caused by big ol' waves smashing the cliffs and eroding the softer rock. The rock then crumbles like Sheffield Wednesday when they get a lead.

Next up was Canberra. However, when Verity spoke to one of the northern chaps in our last hostel - the response that we were going to Canberra was resonably downbeat. "why?" he said. Apparently there's not much to do.

After meeting with Deryl and Kate - our new hosts to leech onto - we travelled up to Canberra seperately as we chose the luxury of a coach compared to a plane. As it was overnight we were guaranteed a garbage night's sleep. The seats started in a position similar to that of a stapler, then the recline button laid you back to a nearly luxurious 'L' shape. After we arrived to the lovely house I slept like a baby. It was great.

Now a quick word on Canberra. It's a very strange layout as there dosen't seem to be a real centre to the city. It's like a big sprawl of smallish suburbs. But I kinda like it. Nice in a laid back retirementy way. It looks pretty much like the American movie style suburbs just with those Australian trees that peel like cheese strings. I asked Del about why it was the capital and apparently it's because it was a toss up between Melbourne & Sydney. They couldn't settle on either, so they compromised by developing Canberra, which is between the two. It's the equivalent of choosing between London and Brum and settling the argument by building Milton Keynes as the capital.

Anyway, Since we have been here Verity has got a reasonably ace job Working about 30 hours and I am still a stingy layabout. Most places pay $18 per hour (just under £8) for normal jobs i.e. bartending, retail etc. which is pretty darn good. At the minute i have spammed a few places with my CV but they clearly don't want my super talents. I must be too good, it's the only explanation.

We are going to start up the east coast at the beginning of November, which involves Sydney, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Whitsundays and Maybe Cairns. Then the West Coast after new year in Sydney!

Until next time blog-chums,

Mark & Verity

Another post.

2007-09-18T13:08:00.000+01:00

Afternoon campers.

Apart from a little credit card trouble, the trouble being we didn't bring one, everything is going dandy. Because of that the hire car went a bit pear shaped. We were going to cruise along the great ocean road in a hyundai getz. Instead we will be doing it in a day, in a coach, along with many other people. urgh.

We have been largely moseying around Melbourne which is pretty decent. There's a free tram and bus which gets you pretty much everywhere. You get none of that generosity in northern england.

Theres loads of stuff - especially good was the Pixar animation exhibition in a big building. It showed you the ins and outs of how they made every film including all original sketches and models. It was ace.We also went to the big human body moving museum where all the dissected and 'plasticised' bodies were. It was done by the guy who performed that real live autopsy on British TV not so long ago. Pretty interesting.

And there was a free museum - and possibly the best - in which there was a real life pygmy blue whale carcass which they found washed up on a beach and a video of how they got it there. Dig us going to all the museums and galleries.

Anyway on to the the meat of this post, our visit to the zoo and a few animal icons of Australia. We saw (and stroked) a Koala la la, saw some exceptionally lazy kangaroos and best of all was the wombat which seemed to have trouble doing anything at all other than stand there. See the pic for this truly amazing event.

The Kangaroos were a let down. I expected far more tricks and bounding about. Even the wombat did more than them.

Hong Kong.

2007-09-13T10:12:00.001+01:00

Good Afternoon All. Hope everyone has been jolly good while we have been largin'it up. We're in Melbourne at the moment, which fortunately isn't as gay as Lincoln and is actually pretty laid back and cool in a hippy/student/bum sort of way.

Seen as we haven't posted any pics/stories of Hong Kong (zillions of people cover every inch of the place - madness i tell thee) here are some of the best times.

The Buddha was one of the most impressive things i have seen in a while, well since i saw my own bronzed body that morning. On a serious note it's not every day you see some multi-tonned buddha on top of a choc-off mountain.

We came amazed, yet strangely left thinking "as if you could be arsed to build that.....". I Guess we take some pleasing. Another thing that puzzled me was the Nazi swastika (spelling?) that sat in the middle of his burly bronzed body. The only possible reason was that Buddha was a Nazi.

Anyway, here are the rest of our pics....

keep tuned in for a post next week sometime, ciao.

Lincoln is gay.

2007-09-04T17:46:00.000+01:00

Just got back from Lincoln today after seeing Verity's family. Got a big old double bed to myself after verity got sick of me sleeping on the diagonal like some kind of massive git.

Today also combined with Mike's (Verity's little brother) first day of high school. bless him. He's at the stage now where everything is 'gay'. Getting up is gay. Carrots are gay. Elton John is gay. Made me chuckle.

Anyway, the other day I missed out a pic from when we went for my last meal at the mighty mighty fleece. After getting back I tried on my new present from my old workplace. When i say present, i mean sick joke.

I tried my best to look human.

Mark's last day. Ace.

2007-09-01T11:27:00.002+01:00

Probably not really worth posting as i have done nothing apart kick back since last night.

However, yesterday was no normal day. Yesterday was my last day at work. So here are some pics. Hopefully i will learn to write longer and funnier blog entries....