G-LOG - A Gaetan Lee blog

prince regent pub gloucester road

2006-03-15T13:19:00.000Z

prince regent pub gloucester road
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

So I was in the pub last night, which afforded me the oppurtunity to do a number of things. mainly to actually write up a few things in my blog.

So first of all I ordered for my PSP a new 1gb card at about half of the price of the high street.. Thank god for ebay. It took a while to get here from Hong Kong. but so worth it, as I can now have music pictures and videos on the thing with out worrying too much.

Personally I think it is a huge shame that the logic 3 PSP keyboard has been cancelled I had been realy looking forward to that.

I have been flickr' ing as per usual and really getting in to it. Discovering all sorts of new applications within it, like making mosaics of my images.

Any way I was at the pub because I wanted to meet up with Cas. he had just had an interview that day that day witha company called... Acamite. though I not sure yet how to spell that.

So Cas will be back in the land of the employed very soon. At last.

Any way it was a noce night knocking back a few jars of guinessand all was right in the world again.

Also another techy thing here I am glad they have finally released a few UMD films cheaply here now. Under £8. now i can have a few movis for when I am on the go.... though that does make me sound far to geeky and techy. oh well

Staurday

2006-03-12T11:21:00.000Z

So saturday was a day of culture... well culture for me invovles going along to a comic book exhibiton

Images and orginal drawings from the V for Vendetta comic book,

At the gaurdian newsroom.

Now i can't wait for th efilm to come out next week. bu the problem is do i re read the comic book before I go and see the film.

G

What have i been listening to

2006-03-10T08:00:00.000Z

Well I have been listening in a kind of a additive way to the kanye west album late registration.

some great samples and fantastic lyrics. Fun and serious stuff all the way through.

I would recommend it to all of you. the diamonds track is so good as is the really sweet song for his mum... ah bless

http://www.kanyewest.com/

Musical night out

2006-03-10T00:19:00.000Z

Just been out tonight and been to see a cool band, who did an acoustic set in a cool little room off bond street. 43 south Moulton street. It was a really lovely session, a bit folksy but more of the Belle and Sebastian / Nora Jones /Beth Orton.

The band was called 'me and bobby'.

Check out their website if you have a moment

http://www.meandbobby.com/

The best bit of the night was the atmosphere there was about 40 of us in this cooped up little room with a great band playing. The music was amazing really because the it sounded so clear at times I wish I had a audio recording device to keep it all, because it was so clear.

G

Sculpture in melbourne

2006-03-07T12:06:00.000Z

Sculpture in melbourne
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

And apparently this is the most intersting one. How they work out intersting is beyond me.

Strange to think that I will be working now at the dana centre only for another 3-4 weeks. Scary. then on to the world of podcastign for me it would seem after a little bit of travelling.

The light lounge and it's circular sofa

2006-03-07T10:35:00.000Z

The light lounge and it's circular sofa
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Apparently out of all of my photos, this one has had the most views with 63 views... the light lounge has obviously been designed to haunt me for the rest of my life.

iceland volcano

2006-03-06T08:24:00.000Z

iceland volcano
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

An image from within the pure iceland exhibition at the science museum London. realy other worldly.

Flickr posting values

2006-03-05T20:29:00.000Z

So as you may know from a lot of my extensive photo uploadings, i have quite few images 'out there'. Below are the links to some of the more popular images that I have online. I really will try to increase these values. Like the teacher would write on your report card...must try harder.

Tavistock film - logo

2006-03-01T12:20:00.000Z

logo
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

And one of the things I had on my list to do was to get back involved with my film making group. Started a few emails towards this... and will be going to see one of suzanne's plays that she directed this week!

Night tree

2006-03-01T12:18:00.000Z

night tree
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

So I have recently bought myself a moleskin book withthe fervent hope that I will get my non work life into gear and sort out things. I allready have nearly 2 pages of entries... oh dear!

Street lights

2006-02-27T20:17:00.000Z

street lights
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

This is a long exposure of the a London street. With the cars racing past with the lights streaking out on the CCD inside the camera.

battersea bridge

2006-02-27T19:09:00.000Z

battersea bridge
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

This is one of fvouite photos i have taken so far.. mainly because it was done in the middle of the night on a 3 second exposure on my camera. Just the blues of the sky and orange of the foreground are fantastic I think. And of course battersea bridge as well.

DSCF1014

2006-02-26T12:16:00.000Z

DSCF1014
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

you have to love the fact that i can write a blog entry from my psp on a wireless randomly found on a street.

Iron man - camera shy

2006-02-25T17:07:00.000Z

Iron man - camera shy
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

I just like the idea of it being camera shy...

Snowdrops

2006-02-25T17:02:00.000Z

Snowdrops
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Things have been growing in my garden, and surpirisngly enough is these groups of snow drops that have been popping up all over the place in teh garden, in fact literally in the middle of the lawn. which is kind of weird. I have also been planting seeds of basil... for future summer harvest. Yes country domestisity is getting to me.

white washi origami flower pot

2006-02-22T21:02:00.000Z

white washi origami flower pot
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

as well as all the other things i have been doing recently. I have been keeping up with my origami skills as can be seen in the image above.

2006-02-19T14:04:00.000Z

So i am having a relaxed sunday afternoon at work here at the science museum. I found this nice little application of goggle maps...

these are my cycle routes to and from work!

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=25316
URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=25318

not that intersting but nice use of technology in terms of organising parties
 and drawing out the route for people so that they can find their way to yours!

Late nights at Dana

2006-02-17T11:26:00.000Z

So this week has been a week of late night events, one of which ,(speed dating sceince) i have now done... but one fo them is still to come.

speed dating science though was hilarious... not only was it a fantastic event which had the science of body language talk then speed dating but also the fact we had loads of peope staying at the bar durieng and after the event.. some how i was leading a procession of these people down to the south kensington wine bar that i knew was open late. Janets'!

when i got home at 01:00 i thought it would be a genius idea (i may have been drinking) to try out watching ferris bueller day off again.

It has to be said waking up to the sound of bird call at 5:30 in the morning is not allways a good sign especially when you have been slumped on the sofa for the past few hours, with the TV still on in the background showing the ferris bueller test card.

Any way.. tonight will I am sure be more restrained and relaxed which will be great. It is all about aliens.

catch you all soon. I will be loading up some new photos soon. when i get a chance to take some images.

classic english food - chip butty

2006-02-12T00:44:00.000Z

classic english food - chip butty
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

!Is this not beautiful? Especially after working over night in the museum. True 'english food'.

clapham comedy night

2006-02-12T00:42:00.000Z

clapham comedy night
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

I went out recently for a comedy night... and dear lord it was the longest night of my life... acomedy show should not go on for 3 hours. especiaaly when the main host is high on coke!!!

friday-

2006-02-10T13:50:00.000Z

So it has been another hectic week, but finally in london the sun is coming out to play. so i will be going to take some photo's. I really should have a go at a long exposure at night photo on the streets of shepherds bush... maybe this weekend!

event night

2006-02-08T17:32:00.000Z

so this is the time between 17.00 and 18.00 when i can take a small breather and erlax. get some food and drink etc. Tonight should be a great that will run fine.

http://www.danacentre.org.uk/calendar.asp?filter=date&date=08/02/2006

but boy am I looking forward to some nights when I won't have to worry about this...

oh hallowed day. In the mean time I have to look out over a beautiful london sunset (lots of pinks and blues) in the knowledge I can't leave the building to take some photos.... curses

Flickr

2006-02-07T16:09:00.000Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

dead bird hanging in a tree

2006-02-06T16:36:00.000Z

dead bird hanging in a tree
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

this was a particulally disturbing thing i saw th other day in battersea park. A dead bird just hanging in the branches of a tree. like it was caught in a spider's web. Very sad and thought provoking and all that rubbish.

statue on a church

2006-02-04T13:42:00.000Z

statue on a church
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Well this is not really a museum picture but it is on a church near me in shepherds bush that I liked.

photos

2006-02-04T13:38:00.000Z

but I have promised myself to take some images of stuff in the Science museum today and load them up on flickr. otherwise what is the point of having that as a hobby

sweet jesus

2006-02-04T13:27:00.000Z

I have been so bad keeping up this blog things I know.

but it has been that crazy I kid you not.

It is just that there are so many events I have been working on.
this is what i have been working on since in january here in Dana and the ones I have still to come.

SAD: Lighten up your life

10/01/06,19.00 - 20.30

The Dana Pub Guide to: What stuff's made of

11/01/06,19.00 - 20.30

Global Pandemics: Should we panic?

17/01/06,19.00 - 20.30

Smart Materials

19/01/06,19.00 - 20.30

Climate Change: Fact from fiction

01/02/2006,19.00 - 20.30

The Dana Pub Guide to: Energy

02/02/2006,19.00 - 20.30

The Things We Do for Energy

08/02/2006,19.00 - 20.30

Speed Dating: Laws of attraction

14/02/2006,19.30 - 23.00

An Extraterrestrial Night Out

17/02/2006,18.00 - 23.00

Speed Dating: Laws of attraction

22/02/2006,19.30 - 23.00

The light lounge and it's circular sofa

2006-01-19T08:45:00.000Z

The light lounge and it's circular sofa
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

This is the thing that is the bane/joy of my existance.

It is amazing how much success it created.

cas

2006-01-19T08:39:00.001Z

cas
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

In the Pub/wine bar after the slime event i took this photo of a friend of mine, Cas.
I really like it. He probably doesn't.

But i think it looks kind of soulful

Slime makers

2006-01-19T08:39:00.000Z

Slime makers
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

This is one of the Events I worked on that was a lot of fun... if you can't allready tell these are a bunch of adults making slime, a mixture of pvc glue and borax

Insanity

2006-01-19T08:35:00.000Z

I have had some crazyweeks of work in my life but i don't think anything compares to the past 2 weeks.

I reckon I have:
Done more than 20 media interviews
Worked 5 days of more than 12 hours
Been out drinking for more than 5 nights
one of which was with this hard drinkng OBE person
Run at least 4 full Dana centre events by the skin of myteeth

and now it looks like it has calmed down... for a while.. well 1 week...

any way let me put up some photos for you to look at.

radio 4 today programme

2006-01-09T08:09:00.000Z

talk about nervous....
I just had to do an interview on the today programme aboput this light lounge thing we had built here and i was a wee bit nervous... any way it went ok ish. I will try to get my interview up on line soon for those that care!

Bald headed woman

2006-01-09T06:27:00.000Z

Bald headed woman
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

this is only ever going to be a funny photo for alan and cas some friends of mine.. the rest of you have to wonder why if i am mental stable to take a weird photo like this!

Not much to say

2006-01-04T22:53:00.000Z

I wish i had more to report apart from the endless amount of fixing/installing of my parents computer!

any way I will be taking more pictures soon and posting some up fro you all to see.

Since the Fuji FIne pix s9500 i got at xmas rocks. The black and white photos are amazing! It can only get better.

tree in ravenscourt park

2006-01-02T10:22:00.000Z

tree in ravenscourt park
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

couple of pigeons in a tree

2006-01-02T10:20:00.000Z

couple of pigeons in a tree
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Refelction in a building of london skyline

2006-01-02T10:06:00.000Z

refelction in a building of london skyline
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

I have been trying out the new camera with it's black and white function. It is coming up with some real beautiful pictures of london like this one. It is a black marble like material reflected a sky line of london. Hope you like it. i will post a couple more of these black and white images.

places i have visted

2006-01-01T10:43:00.000Z

found this on one of my hour long flickr searches. it is a way of creating an image of all the places you have been to in the world as an image. i have only done about 8% of te world.. still a lot to go:

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

tate and lyle factory in east london

2005-12-28T20:00:00.000Z

tate and lyle factory in east london
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

I am especially proud of this one.

since it was taken with my new camera. which i am still bonding with. It has far toomany knobs/dials/buttons i don't know what half of them do!!!

but any way this was taken one sunny day in the east end of london. it is a picture of the smoke stacks that comes out of the tate and lyle factory. The smoke and shadows and chimneys just look so good!

light coming through glass door

2005-12-27T00:19:00.000Z

light coming through glass door
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

So as you may have guessed, well I say guessed, I mean blatantly know, since I have mentioned it earlier. That I have a new camera... and I have allready been abusing around london. I am now not sure what i love more the camera or my psp? they are both black and shiny, though only one has a zoom function!

The best picture I reckon I have taken so far with it is this one with the light shining throuhg the glass of the door falling on the wall of the coridor.

light comes through a dinosaur mouth

2005-12-27T00:15:00.000Z

light comes through a dinosaur mouth
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

No real reason to post it other than to say that I thouhgt it looked especially cool

Sam and anoushka

2005-12-27T00:12:00.000Z

Sam and anoushka
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

so xmas with my family...

not much to say about it really. though withthe new camera i got i took this photo of my sister and her partner sam. Amoungst the presents they got included Schot's almanac and a genuine habitat chiken in a pot , pot. I am not sure wat it is, but i have been led to believe that you cook chicken in it. And apparently it helped really kick off habiat down a profitable path in the 60's.

green leaf sunlight falling on it

2005-12-26T00:13:00.000Z

green leaf sunlight falling on it
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

In terms of my technological addiction, it is getting worse. I have just got a new digi cmaera as well. And I have been out today playing with in my garden. took some great shots though. like this one.

With this camera I can take decent close ups of all sorts of things

Amy susanne and brookie playing the guitar

2005-12-26T00:09:00.000Z

Amy susanne and brookie playing the guitar
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

you have to love when you go digging through your old photos on the machine and discover silly party photos from 2003.

And ina bout 1 month only one of these people will still be working in the museum

giving me far too much pleasuse my psp

2005-12-26T00:04:00.000Z

giving me far too much pleasuse my psp
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

it is 12 inchs of big blak shiny love.

yes i have come to genuinely love my psp. Although I do not think ican marry it. no place to put on a ring.

It is just so damn cool. What I wonder though is how soon will it become redunant? 2-3 years?

At least I can be an extra smug bastard by having bought it in japan and paid only £100 for it compared to the £180 ripp off price over here in the uk!!

out on a jolly with the team

2005-12-23T00:16:00.000Z

out on a jolly with the team
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

This monday me and the team headed out to the comedy store in london,. where we saw the genius that was:
James Campbell's Comedy 4 Kids
http://www.comedy4kids.co.uk/frames.html
I have not laughed so much and so long as when a 9 year old was telling us the weirdest comedy involving two teddy bears (with magnets in thier head) fighting over fanta and bread... at a teddy bear picnic, despite the fact they don't have mouths. yes it was insane and all the aadults who watched where wetting themselves laughing, the kids watching where bemused by him!

stole all his material though...

James cambell set was good, though you could tell that he almost let in his more 'adult material in to set.. despite the children in the audience.

west london sunset from dana centre

2005-12-21T15:23:00.000Z

west london sunset from dana centre
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Yes sunset photos may be boring and reapeated all over the world... still doesn't stop the colours in them from looking fantastic.

This one picture was taken last week from the dana cnetre in London where I work and looks out over south Kensington and west london as a whole!

cybersalon xmas party dana centre

2005-12-21T14:26:00.000Z

cybersalon xmas party dana centre
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

A load of people enjoying themselves in the dana centre surely not. Well the cybersalon group clearly are.
www.cybersalon.org
They are an ecceltic group/collective of creatives/electronics/computer/art types.

They had just had their xmas lecture and then followed it up by having a good old drink in the bar afterwards... since I was event manager I couldn't join in with them in the alcohol drinking but I had one tasty sald before heading home at about 22.30.

Yes I am a salad eater, what about it!

Shepherds bush green in the morning

2005-12-21T14:19:00.000Z

Shepherds bush green in the morning
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

can you belive in the space of 1 week i have set up a shepherds bush online phot group... get 19 members... and nearly 30 photos. you have to love it.. maybe there should be a photo group for lots of parts of london?

Crane in a west london building site on a sunday

2005-12-14T13:35:00.000Z

crane in a west london building site n a sunday
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

So my rant of the day is about contracts and lawyers.. absolutley necessary I know but dear god does it take the life out of you!

not sure who would go first in the revolution lawyers or health and safety people!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/shepherdsbush/

2005-12-13T12:09:00.000Z

acton crane and the sky
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

As part of my on going addiction to flickr I have created and allready invited people to add thier pictures to a pool of images of Shepherds bush where I live...

Feels weird starting a mini image bank... but I like it. Community forming

Want to join?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/shepherdsbush/

dan in a haze of liquid nitrogen gas

2005-12-12T20:40:00.000Z

dan ina haze of liquid nitrogen gas
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

so this picture arose when after having looked after the punk science boys, an event i filmed and webcast for last week. they do experiments with liquid nitrogen.. like freezing a sausage/penis.

but they a shit load of liquid nitrogen left over, so we chucked it on the ground and took some silly photos like this one.

alan at the pub quiz

2005-12-12T20:25:00.000Z

alan at the pub quiz
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

So what is the best way to spend a sunday night...well as cas me and alan/barbara now know it is the local pub quiz in hammersmith. but last night it did not go so well...

What went wrong? too many bloody tough questions... but we did sit opposite this famous guy from Tv that I couldn't (and still can't) place.

PS are all the perfume ads at xmas getting you down? Kill a perfume spritzerin a department store... make yourself fell better instantly.

mural in notting hill gate

2005-12-05T12:11:00.000Z

mural in notting hill gate
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

one of the things i have found since getting back and getting myself a goood camera on my phone is how i just love taking pictures of art around town. things that just appear for no good reason. or are amazing and are down some back alley. like this mural down the back alley of notting hill gate you would hardly notice itif you didn't know it was there.. and it is 4m x 4m big!

do not leave litter vs fridges

2005-12-05T12:08:00.000Z

do not leave litter vs fridges
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

come on, you have to love this... I am not sure whose sense of humour this was but genius!

Black elvis at explainer christmas party

2005-12-01T14:19:00.000Z

Black elvis at explainer christmas party
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

yes ladies and gentlemen, Elvis is back... and this time he is black!

last night the performer of choice was an elvis impersonator... a good all round show!

Sunny morning in london trickling through the trees

2005-12-01T14:17:00.000Z

Sunny morning in london trickling through the trees
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee.

Ok so it isn't snowing.. I can't go to the beach or anything fun that way.. but it doesn't mean that London first thing on crisp and cold morning can't look beautiful. just look at my road here. either i am still hung over from the explainer xmas party last night in South London Pacific ( a tiki bar in kennington) or that is a beautifull sight.

Inverse colours starbucks cup

2005-11-29T22:08:00.000Z

Inverse colours starbucks cup
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

So although this isn't something from london i have just uploaded it to the net (flickr.com). I just think it looks so damn cool. it is a reverse picture of the a starbucks cup from my time in paris last weekend. I have decided that cold weather is fine so long as you are on holiday. When you are working it is a pain in the ass especially when you have to cycle and you have lost your gloves.

The only thing that happens when you cycle in this type of cold weather is you start to lose feeling in your extremities.. then you lose your extremities. A situation I do not wish!

London road sign

2005-11-28T22:15:00.000Z

London road sign
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

An ominous looking sign that shadows us poor and helpless soon to be passengers on london transport. This is next to the bus stopwhere I have to get on a bus to take me to take wor when it is too piss cold to cycle.

I mean I would love to cycle to and from work, but honestly I can't take it at the mo!

sepia Alan shit eating grin

2005-11-28T22:06:00.000Z

sepia Alan shit eating grin
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

So i was out last thursday when they brought out teh 24 hour liscening.. did no spend all night dringking like fools... no... we went home at 10.30pm.

Yes we all started to act sensible.

what is the world coming to

Restart

2005-11-28T21:59:00.000Z

So i have decided to restart my blog... But his time as a photo blog.. Of what I do in London.

Dull and tedious I hope not.

I have the net again

2005-10-15T09:59:00.000Z

Hoorah I have my wireless network up and working again!!!

Hoorah

So I will be writting up my blog of my time in Singapore and Japan soon. As well as a email to all of you who have read my blog and helped me on my journey!!

G over but not quite out!

G

back in UK

2005-10-13T14:32:00.000Z

I am alive though i do not have the net until tomorpow.

last full day

2005-10-11T04:45:00.000Z

Is being spent seeing the sites and sounds of Shimbuya/asakusa/shinjuku.

So tomorrow it is all over and I will be back to a normal life....!!!

BOOOOOO。

On the road

2005-10-09T23:40:00.000Z

I have now just done Kyoto and Hiroshima... and i am now slightly hungover. Now my last 2 days on the road will be spent in tyoko... depressing does not even begin to describe it...

Your correspondent in Kyoto

2005-10-08T09:10:00.000Z

I have this to say at this moment in time.. I hate　rain and although i may have said it before.... it has put a bit of the dampner on the wonderful pictures I wanted to take here in kyoto.....arse...

Any way.. tomororow I am off to Hiroshima for the day and then I am coming back to Kyoto for my last night here... catch you on teh flip side.

Kyoto

2005-10-07T08:19:00.000Z

Yep all the way from kyoto today`s entry is coming from... After having taken the bullet train to get here I am now a little bit more relaxed about things...

ahh the temples await me tomorrow.

From the Mac store - Ginza Street

2005-10-05T07:00:00.000Z

Yes so there is free internet in Tokyo.. the Mac store.. Very chic

Any way to the point of the mail, is to give you an update on my self... first of all I am now booked into going to Kyoto and will also be staying in a traditional Ryokan when I get back to Tokyo.

Unfortunatly the weather has been horredous and so i have have been soaked. I am hoping the weather does improve byt eh time I get back so that I can go to Mt fuji... but I am holding my breathe on that.

laters.

G man

Totally Tokyo

2005-10-04T05:42:00.000Z

Just to let you know that I am alive and well in Tokyo.. though a little tired after the long trip... This is going to be a crazy town... what a shame my accommodation is so far away from the centre for the next three days... But afterwards I will be Kyoto then Hiroshima and also Mt Fuji. Hopefully.Any Way hope to hear from yousonn... Email me you b`stards...

G love and lots of special sauce

Melbourne Slide show

2005-10-03T10:56:00.000Z

Have a watch of my Melbourne slides as a slide show.

Flickr Slideshow

Melbourne meets Gaetan Lee

2005-10-03T10:24:00.000Z

So I have of course neglected to mention anything about my time in Melbourne... Mainly because I have been so busy with my international jet set life style.

But fear not I have been keeping a journal of what I got up to so here goes

Friday:
Got in as I said on Friday morning with a back pack the size of Mount Everest ( I exaggerate but not by much).

It was about 7.00 am and Greta was expecting me.. But for some reason the bus drop of was not where she and I had expected.. It was thankfully however even closer to her house in Carlton. So a quick taxi to hers was soon in order.

As you may know treading the streets is a favorite pastime of mine once in a city and Greta was eager to do the same. It had been a good bit of luck meeting/staying with her during the following week as it meant that she also had a week off from college.

So what did we get up to well there was a trip down to the heart of town including a visit to flinders street station and federation square. We went into the film museum. And I found out the first feature length film had in fact been shot in Australia (that I did not know).

We saw some kooky art Exhibition called White Noise and then headed to the 'mighty' Yarra river. Where we checked out the experimenta:Vanishing point exhibition. Which was also brilliant.

The town was very alive with the final of the AFL game being the next day, In fact the Swans (go Sydney swans) and the eagles (who cares) were teams form out of town and so the locals could not go as crazy as they might have.

But there were footie fans all over the place none the less.
I think I was pretty much passing out by about 22.00 that night from sheer exhaustion.

Saturday:
AFL final day, now for those of you who have followed my travels, you will of course know that I supported the Sydney Swans, Since I saw them play about 1 month earlier. The match was in the afternoon, so in preparation we got a a couple of bottles of wine from a great wine shop called clear skin.

Then we headed off to the a friend of Greta's, I think called Matt, Having said that I think all of Greta's male friends are called Matt.

Any this guy had the Lushest Apartment ever with this amazing view over Melbourne. He had everything set up there from a great barbecue, to a fuss ball table.

But to the game, It was great, the swans won of course but it was a close match and although the Eagles pulled ahead briefly they managed to lose their lead to the swans by the end of the game. This is a amazing game to watch, I heartly recommend it to any to watch.

After the game it was time for some Ipod DJ'ing, more eating, dancing and more fuss ball action than I could cope with.

At about 20.00 we headed off to Brunswick street, the local hip street in town. And a few of us Packed into the 'Provincial' a bar/club type thing.

Most of the buildings on this street on the outside look deliberately shabby in order to give them that 'Shabby Chique' Thing. It was ok, but as Greta described it, It was full of Bogans. In Fact one of them had tried to chat her up with the following line.

"huh, You look like a secretary... That's sexy"

Some how it didn't work... What a surprise!

But since the music was rubbish we headed back to the Shack. By the way it is I think in my memory the only place in the world where there was a que for the mens toilet and none for the women's??!?!? What is going in the world?

Sunday:
Greta and myself had only a mild hangover. Since we didn't push our selves the day before.
Greta's Brother was in town as well, He was up from Tasmania with some of his bloke mates to watch the match in bars in Melbourne.

He, Greta and myself went to grab some breakfast/brunch type thing on Brunswick street at a place called Gluttony... Aptly named.

I ordered the Scrambled Surprise.... Jesus it was a monument to Egg/Bread/Tomato/Rocket salad. This was the biggest and quite frankly the best fry up breakfast I have ever had the bread was this delicious greasy and cheesy. Greta and her brother also got monumental breakfasts as well. I think mine was over 15 cm high!

Stuffed.. That is the only way to describe the sensation within my stomach at that moment in time. But Greta was determined we also visited a Gelati near by. As she says we all have a secondary stomach made specifically for desserts.

What of the rest of the day well the after noon was spent languish in the pool of my only sloth and gluttony using their house hold wireless net. So good. Actually what am I talking about .. We headed off to this great Museum. The Melbourne museum. I can't tell how great eh design and the content is of this place... They must have thrown money at this from every where, but it is so good.

But the evening we headed off to one of the Free (oh yes!) character comedy gigs at the Melbourne fringe festival. Not a bad night as we were joined by Tam, who was at the party the day before,and one of tam's mates.
Like all these things some good acts some bad...

Monday:
Although it was a holiday week for Greta, she did have to do some work, so she headed off to the library to get some Isolation/no distraction time. So I went around town sorted out some administrative things that needed to be done as well as headed off to the Fitzroy gardens.

Where Captain cooks Parents house can be found... Yes they shipped it here from the UK?!?!?!?

Um what else happened... Oh I know we went to watch Wallace and Grommit at the local cinema. So good!

Tuesday:
More tourist things National portrait gallery and the Rialto towers... Best view in town.
Greta is perturbed by how well I seem to be doing around town in terms of orientation myself.
But the evening Was the real main activity of the day.

It was going to be Curry night with some of Greta's mates from her course. I felt like a toy from a show and tell class, but no matter. A good night out though one of her friends was getting worried that I could spot him for the Secondary school teacher that he used to be.

Word of the evening was 'cheeky' as in the wine we bought to the BYO Indian restaurant.
By the way all of Greta's friends are Insane.. They are fantastic..

Like one of them was on a tram getting weird looks off this annoying idiot and then (the idiot that is says) what are you looking at.. She then turn around and says "you, you fashionable c*nt" and promptly hops off the tram...Class!
We relaxed later on a local bar called the comfy chair and headed to the back lounge area to avoid the bad singing of the guitar player in the bar. It has to be admitted by the end of the night I was slightly hammered, Wine, curse your inebriating ability!

Wed
Great Ocean Road
Today would be My first and hopefully not my last Australian road trip.
The crew was Myself, Greta, Matt, Amy and Jean. Amy and Jean joined in to the trip at the curry night the night before.

Highlights of the day consisted of going to the TV series 'Round the Twist' lighthouse.
Seeing a lingerie shop called: Fishy nickers
Going to Erskine fall and Bells beach.
Eating our picnic lunch outside a run down antique shop with a porch.. Since it was tipping down with rain.

Rushing back to town to make sure Amy got to her Dinner appointment.
We slumped back to Greta's and watched Bottle Rocket, the first Wes Anderson (royal tennenbaums) film.
Sleep beckoned soon after.

Thursday

Thursday was to be a trip out of the city and a stay at a hostel, as we were going to see the mini penguins of Philip Island.
Certain things however prevented this from happening.

Primarily the stupid woman who runs the Hostel said that if we grabbed the bus at 3.40pm we would get there in time to see the penguins.. She was wrong of course! It was 4 hour Journey and by the time we got there .. The sun had set and the penguins had come into nest.

So Instead Greta and myself, sat around the hostel, Playing Pool badly, drinking wine and finding an obscure board game called Global Pursuit... Which we proceeded to play. We kinda made up our own rules for it as the game progressed.

Friday
Undetered by the previous nights disaster we hired some bicycles and headed to the penguin parade to see what we could see in the day time. It was a 12 km run and a tough one at that. I ask the hostel woman if there was jills she said yes but not too bad... Again she was monumentally wrong.

I was having a hard time of it but Greta couldn't cope and headed back hlf way through.. I preserved and got there! I rule! Any way I got a chance to see inside some of the nest boxes and checkout the nesting penguins... Another Australian animal I can tick off my list.

Back to town met with Greta again and then It was back to Melbourne where I got my Japan rail pass, and where I promptly left my Credit card behind!! Yes it was a bit of a panicky night as i didn't realize it for 6 hours and was flying to Singapore.

But before all that I headed to a special Screen if the proposition.. a film written by Nick Cave, of Nick cave and the Bad seeds Fame. After the film there was a special Q & A with the director , Nick Cave and wait for it Guy Pearce the star of the film.... Easy ladies.. I don't have his Phone Number.

A nice little film at any rate.

After the film Panic struck in as I realized I Couldn't use my card.. As I didn't have one... Thankfully over the course of 2-3 hours it all got sorted and I was financially solvent again.
Phew does not begin to describe it!
the end

Ps flew to Singapore the next day and that was two days ago... Almost up to date with this bloody thing!

On the subject of sweat..

2005-10-02T07:58:00.000Z

Bloody hell....

This is one damn hot and humid country....! Hotter and more humid than either Fiji or south carolina. Ihave had 2 showers allready today.. and I can garentee I will be getting 2 more!

it is 33c in the day and 27 at night... it is insane.

I doubt there are pigs in singapore that are swaeting as much as I am at this moment in time...

Check out what wikipedia has to say on the subject of sweat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat

Number five is alive

2005-10-01T15:31:00.000Z

Yes I am alive and surving in a sweaty place known as singapore. why would a country on the equator be this hot???

Erskine falls road trip gang

2005-10-01T05:06:00.000Z

Erskine falls road trip gang
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

A last photo from my archive of my Road trip down the great ocean road and the crew that did it...

G

:)

Hard core blogging

2005-10-01T04:51:00.000Z

From the Airport in Melbourne I generate my last Australia blog post. talk about bl;ogging as Greta Described it. I can now report that I am now Financial stable again.. After last night's disaster. And A big thanks to my parents (dad) for sorting it out. I am bow ready for Singapore and Japan... And all the treats they hold in store for me... If you wish me to get you duty free and/or gifts from Japan... Tell me now! Because I need to know...

One thing I will be doing in Singapore is going to the Raffles hotel and having a Singapore sling.. Or as My friend Alan put it so delicately I will be a dick...Cheers mate! Let me know how things are going back int he UK as I will be back all to soon. With a photo album that es on anything you have seen before!!!

Heh heh.... First the tropics then Northern Hemisphere here I come...

Last Blog for a while

2005-09-30T23:20:00.000Z

Ok so here is the deal I have had One Kickass time In Australia due in part (in a large Part) to tall the fantastic people I have met.

Greta has been a star for the past week here in Melbourne so visit her site
handsupwholikesme.blogspot.com.

Just this morning we had a lazy think in and came up with a genius idea for a short film about a girl who has soap for arms...

Yes I will be writing it soon

And they say the drugs don't work

More importantly I fly to Singapore today, for 2 days then off to Japan. Talk about crazy! I have a rail pass for Japan that will let me travel any where in japan for 1 week!

So Since I don't know when I will be able to Blog again in the immediate future let me just say that I am still alive, well and fit (cycled 24KM yesterday... Long story).

Any way... Will catch you all later.

and if any one can find me a job by the time I get Back I would be grateful!!

Some new photos up online now

2005-09-29T03:09:00.000Z

Just to say that I have now loaded up a new images to my Flickr account.
Check them out:

Sydney - Part 2
Melbourne
Canberra- Australia's capital
Great ocean road Day trip

Canberra

2005-09-29T00:37:00.000Z

Ahh this is so good I am now getting virtually up to date here!

Ok so I spent about 4 days in all in Canberra and obviously the main reason for this was to visit Questacon, THE Australian Science centre.

Day 1:
It was an early bus that left around about 8.00 am, especially with the night before being my last night in Sydney. But it did get in to Canberra at about 12.00. it had been a while since I had carried so much stuff with me.

Mainly since I had the opportunity to store stuff with kath and Emma I had been traveling light down the East Coast. Since I had Not heard from my contact in Canberra/Questacon, I booked into the Hostel accommodation for 2 nights I knew I would probably stay more than that, but at least it meant that it was out of the way.

I do believe that I bummed a little bit around town all day and then promptly found myself falling asleep at 20.00. but not before I made contact with Lish and arranged to meet up with her the next day.

Day 2:
The morning saw me going to the local park where they had a flower competition/display on. All very nice but the weird and the cool bit was finding a gnome coloring/painting competition. Schools and businesses had submitted a load of rock and roll inspired gnomes... My favorite was this kiss one.

But the afternoon was more important than kiss ( I know what a thing to say!). That was of course me Visiting Questacon. It was great to see Lish Again. I hadn't seen her since London just before I quit my job there.

Any way she got me into the science centre and I got the chance to look around the centre, it is so good they have genuinely good interactives. Ones that actually get people to think. But enough of my old shop talk. In the afternoon they gave me the chance to use the internet and talk to some of the teams there. They indigenous communities programme is pretty amazing, I would so love to be involved with that programme.

Lish then lent me one of her cycles for the night and before I headed back to my hostel we had a quick pint at her local. Oh and some great beer batter chips!

Day 3:
The previous day I had agreed to do a talk for a questacon about adult programming and the Dana centre. So at 12.oo at sat down at a computer terminal and about 1 1/2 hours later I had Put together an amazing 24 slide power point presentation. I then gave a 40 min presentation of what they should and shouldn't be doing as well as an amazing history of the Dana centre Project.

What was most amazing was the fact that after not having been working at the place all the information was still in my head like a form of brain washing.

Then I was introduced to the Director of Questacon, Graham Durant, who I had a beer with up in his office, talk about classy.

The evening saw me having a lovely meal with Lish and one of her friends who worked at csiro, another science communication place in Canberra. I was good to have a good old gossip about Science communicators in the UK. Then It was off to a local folk playing bar for a quick bevy. Then to sleep at Lish's House for one night. Lish was kind enough to let me stay at hers and it meant I did not have to spend more money at a hostel.

Day 4:
Ok time for some serious tourist stuff around Canberra on what was to be My last day. I went and headed to the New parliament buildings as well as the old one and the portrait gallery.

I saw an Exhibition of Cecil beaton Photos as well as some thing about foreign reporting by ABC.

Ahhhh the culture flowing through my veins.

It was a late night Bus to Melbourne and got there the following day at 07.30 in the morning!phew

OK I am going to get this one done quickly

2005-09-28T23:46:00.000Z

A week in Sydney.

For the purposes of trying to drag this blog some where relatively near to where I am time wise. I am going to purely write up the highlight of my last days in sydney before I headed off to Canberra and the south.

The only problem Is that I did not keep the extensive notes that I should have on my time there so this will have to be brief.

Went to the Maritime Museum.
Spent loads of time in the Global Gossip on george street doing net stuff
slept badly on the overnight bus from Byron bay and arived wasy to early 5.00am
Last two days Angelika caught up with me again and we did loads of tourist stuff
Had an amazing dinner/night out, in Darling Harbour
Crashed at Kath and Emma's again
Went to see the Syndey Football/soccar team play (they have Dwight Yorke)
Got into a free Architects party (with a free bar) and huddled underneath the heater all night
Went to the top of the brick pylons on the sydney harbour bridge.
Purchased a cheesy $100 bill design towel from Paddy's market.
Went to the old observatory in Sydney.
Said goodbye to Angelika, My semi travelling companion of the east coast, I was heading to Canberra, She was flying back to Switzerland from syndey.... Boo hoo.

Left for Canberra

I am sure there was more stuff that I did, but to be honest I don't have the time to go into all of it now. So I will leave it as written above.If you want o know more ask me when I get back.

Byron Bay

2005-09-26T03:09:00.000Z

Sept 12 - Day 20
Phew getting through this so well This was the day I went surfing then left for an over night bus to sydney.. So since I already have written about this I can skip to the next day. hooray! I have so much to write up on this damnable blog.

Brisbane leaving

2005-09-26T01:02:00.000Z

Day 19 - September 11th
So I Had the morning of doing pretty much doing exactly what I had been doing the night before. Absolutely bugger all. I knew Angeleika was getting into town for about lunch time, but that I was also going to be heading on at about 17.00. Which was cool because it meant I got to spend time with some one I knew. I did However see this Psycho old guy who was annoying everyone in Noosa. And pretty much looked like he was doing the same thing again in this hostel as well.

Lunch was at an Irish pub and a cold pint of Guinness was exactly what I needed. After walking around town and going through the Botanical Gardens with Angelika. We suddenly realized that I might miss the Bus. it was Like Magnetic Island all over again. it was a mad dash across town to collect bags, then to the bus terminal with 5 min to spare. Phew....

Byron bay was the next destination for me, I wouldn't bump into Angelika until a week later in Sydney. When arriving at the hostel was a little bit out of town so myself and two French people had to call them to collect us. It was not a nice hostel. Especially when I got the room I put down my bags and put some stuff on the bed. Then later on I went back to my room and there was someone sleeping in it.

I found out that the miserable bastard who was at reception had given me the wrong key. What an idiot.

Jesus!

Any way got to sleep after watching Australian Idol.. Though my sense of taste and culture felt sullied.

Brisbane Bound

2005-09-26T00:24:00.000Z

Day 18 - 10th Sept
After all the time in Noosa it was time to head on tothe next destination. Bisbane. Angelika was going to stay there for a day extra so as to able to go to the australia Zoo.

I myself was off brisbane for one night only. I had a free night there with my package deal for the whole of this leg of the travels. I did not care much for doing anything big in the city since i have allready done a big city llike sydney and also I knew I would be spending time with Greta in Melbourne.

I basically got to the city and spent a good 2 hours uploading and blogging.
I really should have moe to report on this but it was a day of nothing ness. I spent the evening watching a bad UK film called Purely Belter. It was around this point in time that I was starting to realise that my shoes where starting to get a bit funny.

I like to ride my Bicycle.

2005-09-25T23:30:00.000Z

Day 17 - September 9th

We had a plan Angelika and myself, we wanted to cycle around town and see some more of te coastline. With outhe ability or legal right to hire a car we went for hiring bikes. which at $15 for the day was a bargin.

We headed out early and cycled west first of all andsaw some of the great house's that I am sure cost a bomb. Noosa is also known for it's fine dining/cuisine and witheh restaurants we saw along the way that would not surprise me.

Unfortuntely we made a sort of a wronf turn and we spent about 1-2 hours going through the less nice side of Noosa. The area where all the building centres are. But we did get back to the nice part fo town ad go around some nice bits of parks. A quick stop at coles to collect our lunch/picnic.

Off to the end of the spit of Noosa Beach. An afternoon spent just lazing in the sun... In fact i lazed out so much that I fell asleep. Angelika took advantage of this to cover me in sand. Lovely.

I prepared another dinner for us and yet again (unintentionally it was pasta again, how mundane) and we jsut had alvely night together watching noosa from the balcony of the hostel.

New day

2005-09-25T22:35:00.000Z

Day 16 -8 September
Again there was not much to do early in the morning so I sat and read some more Of Henry Miller. I knew that Angelika would be coming along at about 10.00am and that after having got an over night bus would be completely out of it.

Went down to meet her at the bus stop and helped her carry the stuff up to the hostel. It has to be said it is good to have a semi-traveling companion for this part of Australia.

Angelika was pretty much ready and raring to hit the beach early on. So we grabbed some boogie boards and headed for Noosa beach.

Though unlike Aeirlee and magnetic island it was now m turn to be un tired and listless. Which did eventually get to the point were there was a sand fight... I lost... i had sand in every part of my body.

One of the best things about the hostel in which I stayed was the fact they had deal sand coupons for all over town. This included the ice cream parlor. I did not think it was possible to eat too much ice cream... But I think I did at this place..ow ow ow.

the next stop during the afternoon was the national park (again for me) but for angelika the first time. it was a beautiful walk along the coastline mainly because we could tick off more animal that we had seen wild in Australia. Out in tea bay there was a pack of Dolphins swimming around, Koalas hanging around, possums moving through the trees and wild turkeys all over the place.

On the way back I took some amazing pictures of the sunset that I won't ever forget.. The sun turned to this tangerine orange as it set over the sea and sand.

Back at the hostel it was an evening filled with the following
1/2 bottle of shiraz
Pool games
Table football (I want one for my own house)
a shooter cocktail
and about 2hrs of playing the card game shit head with some of the English crew in the hostel.

Sleep beckoned soon after.

New video

2005-09-25T01:08:00.000Z

Just to let you know that I have created another video from my photos. This one is from Fiji and the music is a traditional fijian dance/song type thing... enjoy.

http://www.gaetanlee.com/video/fiji.wmv

Melbourne

2005-09-23T12:58:00.000Z

I should also just say that I have made it to Melbourne and am staying with hertill the end of the week and when I head to Singapore.

Next day

2005-09-23T12:24:00.000Z

Day 15 - Sept 7
It was a quiet start , I pretty much just sat in bed listening to the news on my radio till about 9 in the morning, God i love being a news junkie.. If i can't get the radio it has to the newspaper... But i digress.

One of the good things about the hostel was that there was free boogie and surf board hire.

So we headed (Rhona and Myself ) headed to Noosa Beach, and spent the morning body boarding. It was a great wake up cure.. Revitalizes you.. After this we headed to the Hostel, Rhona then headed on to her next destination of Cairns.

Bummed around Noosa National park in the after noon and then in the evening I spent playing shit head with Richard/Donna and 2 other guys I have no idea what their names are. Better after some wine in my system.

Noosa bound

2005-09-23T07:10:00.000Z

Day 13 - 5 September
It was an early bus for me to Noosa. Which involved watching.. Now for the 3rd time the brilliant film 'Bulletproof Monk'. The bad bit was that I missed out on saying goodbye to the great crew that i had on my fraser island trip. I think they were more of a laugh then the people on the whitsundays crew... But these things are always hard to judge.

It was 6 hours to Noosa and I arrived at 16.00, a little tired and disoriented. So I had a bit of a walk around town. I always find it a good thing to do on my first day in an area/town. It means that I get a feel for a place... And the feel I got was good.

In fact at about 17.00 I decided to have a dinner early and to use the some of the 5 avocados i bought for $2. But mainly I was little board. I did get talking to this one south African girl called Rhona, who was going to be around for a few days in Noosa. And we proceeded to do the whole travelers tales.. Where/what/how/who etc.

Day 14 - Sept 6
ow ow ow.
So last night I discovered that the YHA hostel in which i was staying in, had a cheap bar with wine at $14 so 2 bottles later and a glass of G and T later. I woke up at 6.30 am with a slight hangover slouched over the sofa up on the verandas. With Rhona on the other sofa. Apparently we had both fallen asleep from our wine the night before.

The irony is that I had paid for 3 nights to stay there and the first night there.. I froze my ass off on the sofa. Rhona was faring less well, and suddenly I get the memory that she is the worst... (worse than angelika) pool player i have ever seen

Any way the day had in store for me the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, Crikey.
A little bit about he zoo.. it is a fantastic zoo with some great demos but it does feel a little bit like the cult of Steve Irwin is a little bit all pervasive. And from an outsider kitsch perspective that is ok but.. it starts to become worrying afterwards.

It has to be said that there is a huge amount of development that has gone and still is going on at this visitor attraction. But it never misses a chance to sell something to us the visitor...

On the subject of Steve Irwin is exactly what he says he is. And that his upbringing has made him all he is now.

An once I had got back from the bus/ferry, that had taken us there and back, I did some food shopping and decided that I would like to stay in Noosa a litle bit longer. so I booked in an extra couple of nights. I had a feeling I would also be able to meet Angelika again despite the fact she was about 3 days behind. Spent sometime in evening just reading some Henry miller (Nexus) which I bought at the book exchange in Noosa

2005-09-22T05:34:00.000Z

Day 12- Sept 4

Forgot to mention that we had the rangers pop round us and let us know that the place in which we camped the dingoes... Where a little bit more 'aggressive' so we should throw stuff at them.

and in fact during the night we spotted some of them and did just that.

In the morning as we left our tent we saw that the dingoes had come round to our campsite and had tried to dig up the food that we buried close to our camp.

We only had a half together on the Island, so we headed nice and early to our final destination on the island Lake McKenzie. Yet again a beautiful sand filled fresh water lake...

On the way there we caught sight of this 1.5m long lizard just wandering around the lunch prep area.

In fact speaking of lunch, we had pretty much wiped out the food they provided us, so we improvised with the remnants of what was left.

But somehow we made do with Turkish bread with spaghetti hoops!

a ferry and drive later on the mainland we were back at the car depot to check that our car was ok.. And thankfully the only thing lost was a potato peeler. But while we were waiting we had a bit of a kick around with a football/wembley. But Jaime kicked it a bit to hard and now there is a cheap green football located on a industrial park roof in hervey bay.... :(

That evening our car crew went to the BYo Chinese restaurant with eat as much as you can buffet.. Talk about a bunch of gluttonous and drunk crowd...! White wine is my new poison. But it is so cheap over here. I stopped off briefly in the TV Room in the hostel and started to semi drift off in front of the TV.

I think I even woke myself up from a small snore I had just done.

Some more while I have the Internet

2005-09-21T06:46:00.000Z

Day 11 - September 3.

It was an early start for me at 06:30am just missed out on sunrise. So the second day I went to the front of the 4x4 and become nominal navigator for the day our first stop was tthe champagne pools past indian heads.

It was the first time that we really got bogged down int he sand but not the last for that day.

A crazy bit of rock formation with volcanic metal with streams of pure steel/iron. I have no idea how it could form.. it messed with my geological head.

We must have spent about 2-3 hours there.. swimming and just chilling out with wembley.

Then off to K'gari camp ground to prepare our lunch. It was a Aboriginal camp and so no drinking of alcohol for us. At the camp though they did have tame dingoes just hanging around.

They even apparently feed them round the camp fire at night. So I can tick that animal off my list of aniamls from Australia.

We spent the night near lake Wabbby and joined up with another group of 4x4 car people. It was at this point that we had a 2-3 hour long conversation about fingering dingoes.

It was a weird and drunken conversation that the rest of the details couldn't possibly be revealed with out me getting censored or something. but i thinki took video of neil and the rest of the crew on my video phone saying stuff that was fairly explicit.

Where was I.

2005-09-21T06:10:00.000Z

Day 8- 31 August

Oh yes I was up to my time in the Aierlee beach in Queensland. Now after not doing much the night before apart from dancing like a fool till 12.30, I now had nothing to do All day till 20.05 when my grey hound would take me to Hervey bay. But I knew that Angelika would be getting back from her boat trip so I decided to meet up with her in the afternoon.

So up until then It was trip to the shops... Develop photos... And generally bum around on the beach.

Angelika turned up, around 14.00 and we had lunch together on the beach. A true back packer lunch involving a tomato, a French stick, a pen knife and pack of Philadelphia cheese. Sorted.

It was then that I infected her Swiss mind with the Spoon game. Where you start calling everything around you a spoon.

Yes, it is entirely possible that I have gone mad.
But a fun day none the less. Angelika came down to the bus with me, saw me off before heading out with her new friends from her boat trip. I then had to look forward to an overnight Bus trip to Hervey bay! Oh the Joy of trying to sleep in a space that is unsleepable. No matter how much you recline those chairs.

Day 9- 1 September
The next adventure.. Getting ready to visit Fraser Island.
I would be sleeping in the a hostel before we left the next day and have to have a briefing in the afternoon. But until then was again free time. So I went and did some much needed food and a little clothes shopping. Thankfully I have come to love the clothes (and prices) of Target over here.

Also having spent some time with people who had done the Fraser trip with the same company, I knew that the food they were going to give us would be basic and inadequate.. And I knew that I would want to eat well on the trip there.

But the best bit of info I had from people was that the briefing would be a little crazy.

Let me give you an example:

Breifing Guy: Whose vegetarian?
Gaetan Lee: I am
Breifing Guy: So do you eat tuna?
Gaetan Lee: No I don't eat Meat or Fish.
Breifing Guy: What about ham?
Gaetan Lee: That would come under the category of meat!

The guy leading the briefing was this utterly mad and scrooge like geyser who looked like a cross between Santa clause and Captain nemo. He had no charm and was constantly putting the fear of god into us about what we could and couldn't do on the island. And less about what we could enjoy about it. The part of my brain that used to deal with people and the public, had alarm bells going off like crazy and I had to resist telling him to develop a bit of charm! Not a people person.

The briefing was also a chance to meet with the rest of our Fraser crew before we headed in the unknown the next day. A good bunch of people it has to be said!

Devina/Steve, Sam/Jamie/Neil, Cornelia and Kev/Eamor

Day 10 - 2 September

Yes we were all looking forward to tea early start of 06.00 in the morning.

We all got loaded into our car. And Pretty quickly divided up who was going to be driving for the next 3 day/2 nights. I had already volunteered for guess what.. Yes that is right the cooking.

On the 30 min trip over to the Island we just lazed around on tea ferry soaking up as much sun as possible...

find out more about Fraser island here

The amazing thing about Fraser island though is that it is made entirely out of sand, yes that's right all sand. Our first 30 mins leg was going to the interior of the island and going to basin lake and then heading back and making lunch. We then headed to the eastern side of the island and headed north stopping off occasionally to do some 'photo stops' like the Wreck of the Maheno above. A beautiful spot, I took some amazing shots there.

We also stopped off and purchased a cheap green football who would later on become the 10th person on our 4x4 Toyota land cruiser crew known as 'Wembley'.

Our first night on the Island was quite interesting as we desperately looked for a spot to camp out along the beach. There are camp sites but there is a strict lights out policy at 21.00.

We picked a spot next to these older Australians guys out on a week long fishing trip. Jesus was it a mad night. At one point 2 of the guys in the car disappear and then they reappeared with a car load of girls.. .Then these two German guys turn up. Two of the Ozzie guys got into a fist fight and one guy lost 4 teeth.

This was the sort of night that you can't plan. Thank fully I managed to stay in some degree of control by looking after the music all night long!

I went to sleep quick quickly into our tent at about 12.15.

Behind...again

2005-09-19T09:13:00.000Z

Ye I know i am behind in updating my blog and i am about 2 weeks behind again.. but there are lots of reasons for that. but just to say I am alive and well in Canberra at the Mo for a few days. will update fully later on.

Not going to do a lot of blogging today

2005-09-15T03:06:00.000Z

Because I am bored... what I have been doing is cataloging my phot's online more and uploading more... ( yeah I know sooo exciting!!)
And in terms of touristy stuff I went and saw the Maritme museum yesterday.. it was free. Which was a good thing! Any way nuff said, back to my photos.

The Boat.

2005-09-14T03:40:00.000Z

29 August 2005 day 6
As I have previously described I slept really well on the boat, I bet it is some bizarre sort of fetal memory. So are first stop was the Whitsunday island Itself, with Sand of pure white silica. Absolutely stunning natural beauty, Breathtaking. Nuff said.

I Had a theory that I might be going into the water on a semi regular basis. So I purchased some goggles and nose clip before I left for Cairns a few day earlier.

And a good thing I brought them along for this part of the day since it meant that I could catch the Sting rays that skimmed past our feet in the water, Diving in after them and seeing them flee.

Other wise we all sat on the beach and just soaked up the sun. Gloriously hot as it was. And in fact at this moment in time at the end of my trip. I have two tan lines. One where my shorts are and where my thong (flip flops to you English) are.

But less of my tan vanity.

Walking on the sand here is weird almost like walking on a cookie dough mixed with sand. And in the after noon it was a trip to another place... I can't remember where. But it wasn't too far and the afternoon had an exciting session of snorkeling on the reef and then diving on it.. it was fantastic. Fish of every description.

the really cool bit for me was the noise you could here under the water. The fish where eating the coral and you could hear them biting away at it. And in places it was a feeding frenzy of 10-20 different fish all having a go at it. Check out my diving photos for more info. But let's just say as you may have guessed... It was fantastic..

Then the evening came.

This was going to be a heavy night of drinking and mess... I could feel it in bones. Maybe it was the large amount of booze the Irish had brought on, or the lively atmosphere of everyone. All I am going to say I just was not into he mood to get completely hammered.

So a couple of G & Ts sorted me out well. They have this almost sobering effect on me, which was what I needed. Especially after I saw what sort of things happened on that boat... All I will say is that what happened on the boat, stays on the boat.

Day 7 - 30 August

I am a sick sick person, who does love the drama of the morning after with other people. You know when people wake up having slept with each other when they shouldn't have. The Grim hung over faces. When you have been up for hours. Ah the joys of being sanctimonious.

I would Like to thank my G and T drinking for me avoiding this particular odious response in the morning from other people.

That I the fact that I could enjoy retelling the night to people who did not have the slightest memory of it. We did some morning snorkeling in a place called Blue Pearl Bay. Beautiful again. And the sun was with us this morning, as was this giant (1-2 m long) fish that we chased and touched gently in the water.

The crew also were putting out bread to feed and attract the fish. It is a really weird sensation to snorkel through a load of fish and feel them swim past you and hit you with their fins.

Any way it was back to shore and then chilled out and watched some TV before heading out for drinks with the crew and the rest of the people on the boat. But about 12.30 I decided I wasn't in the mood for a big old night. Admittedly it was after 2-3 schooners of beer and a bottle of wine.
ps I feel I am supporting the Australian wine industry well at present more to come tomorrow. Still in Sydney for a while yet, Canberra & Melbourne are to follow soon.

Saturday 27-28th August- before the boat

2005-09-14T03:11:00.000Z

Ah so where was I up to.

Saturday 27th - Day 4
After having bummed around the beach on horseshoe bay for about 3-4 hours before our bus was due to leave. first of all with Magalie then afterwards with Angelika. we sat down around 12 ish in the bar and had a glass of wine, I had a feeling we were too relaxed possibly. Then magalie and myslef, after a while suddenly looked around and saw the bus, that should be taking us to the ferry, . We had that 10 secs of looking at the bus leave with out us then we looked at each other and just shook our heads.

There was then the desperate panic as we booked a taxi to get us to the ferry, the Taxi driver was from Rhodesia (not Zimbabwe apparently). Thankfully there was no problem.. we got the ferry with plenty of time then the grey hound afterwards heading towards our next stop Aeirlee Beach.

As I was to find out later out it kept Angelika amused for hours. Apparently it was the expressions on our face. The greyhound film of the day was 50 first dates. A pretty good funny rom com.

At 18.00 Magalie and myself rock up to town eager to find out where and what she can book for here own boat trip (mine was allready organised). The dorm room was allready filled with some gals and guys from Ireland. And as I found out they were also going to be on the same boat with them... "krackerjack" for the next few days. Any way we spent the night with them kciking back a couple of Gin and Tonics, and then we headed to Magnums the local bar.

Sunday 28th August - Day 5

the boat was not due to leave till 16.00. So we had time to chill out and also to organise myself. Since for the next few days I would not have access to anything communications based. I had to transfer my gin to a plastic bottle, well what was left. Went to the local book exchange and got myself two boks... one for the intellect, one trash.

Ernest hemmingway: A death in the afternoon
Robin Cook: chomosome 6

But as I had said previously the main reason for getting these was that it was getting very annoying that everyone and thier dog was bloody reading Dan Brown's books.

Anyway I headed off with the irish outside Magnums to the quay and to our boat. Magalie was to do her ownday trip the following day.

Actually we were all quite anxious about the weather during the day as it was looking overcast. On the boat we had a roughas helll time getting out to the whitsundays. We had 1-2 metre waves hitting us, sending one way and the other on the boat.

We had a couple of people (we were 16 in all, including 4 crew) getting a fair bt seasick and then they proceded to throw up overboard. apparently the winds were 30 knots... what ever that means.

I found that standing up was the best option and just adjusting myself tothe shifting of the boat. But when we got to the islands the waves calmed down and I had a ralaxed and good night's sleep. I reckon it was the gentle rocking of the boat once anchored that helped.

Back to the beginning- Gaetan lee

2005-09-13T06:08:00.000Z

As promised from my extensive beer soaked notes here are the in detail exploits for the last 2-3 weeks.

24th August
Not much happened on this day except that I finally got the Internet sorted for Emma and Kathryn At their house right after they had organized the phone and got it working... There was much jubilation and subsequent surfing.

And because I was getting sucked into a techno moment, I left a little later than I had intended to get to the Airport to get to the flight, but most importantly was the fact that I got to the flight. Which by the way I got for the bargain price of $120 , one way to Cairns. Nice! The flight though was sheer genius. There was only 80 people on a flight for 300. Oh yes did I ever just relax out over 3 seats.

Got to Cairns and promptly got a cab to the hostel. My plan had always been to do bugger all in Cairns. As I wanted to leave the next day... I know it is a complete party town but still. It was a pretty shitty hostel I stayed in But it didn't really matter as it was only a stop over.

Thursday 25th August.
An early start at about 07.35 in the morning, though having lived for the past few days with Kath and Emma and their early morning medical starts, I was used to it. The grey hound down to my next destination of Townsville, wasn't too bad especially since they show films on the buses. Today's choice was The notebook, which had all the trappings of being a trite piece of sentimental rubbish, but by the end of the film I had actually quite enjoyed it. Damn me for saying so.

Along the way down the east coast I discovered the fine Australian tradition of creating big and unnecessary statues in glossy paper machier.

The trip Introduced me to a giant Captain cook, a giant emu and a giant Gum Boot.

It was a brief stop as townsville as it was really only a gateway for me to get to magnetic Island. The ferry over was really nice except of course that it was the end of the school day and all of the kids Where going home... On the island.. So it was a little bit like the museum at times (though I do know several people back home who would have had an immense Urgge to throw them all over board!). But I sat up on the deck at the back of the boat watching the Australia coastline disappear.

And I started to talking to one of my future traveling buddies (for the east coast)for part of my journey. Magalie . From Marseilles in France. It also meant that I could practice speaking French (yep using my French tongue), which I have not had too much of an opportunity to do.in the evening Made dinner the usual and just a had nice couple of drinks with her while looking out over magnetic Island's Horseshoe bay to the north.

The Hostel (maggies beach house) was excellent and the food they did their was great. Though Magalie was dead keen to try some kangaroo before she left. But appartently it was not going to be at this hostel. magalie and I spent most of the nicest looking to see what her options were for getting a boat at Aeirlee Beach, were we where both heading next.

Friday 26th August
Now I had heard form many people that magnetic Island was kinda of Special and definitely worth another night. So I Booked myself an extra night there at my own expense. It was definitely worth it. By the way who ever said that girls don't snore.. You are so wrong. I awoke at 06.30 to a cacophony of snoring form these two German girls that where in my room... So bad!

After all the usually onward booking and organizing, myself and magalia and Sebastian form Germany ( I had spotted him from the ferry yesterday) went on a 6 hour hike around the north part of the island. The plan was to hit all of the local beaches, go for a swim, lie on the beach for a while;e then move on to the next beach.

All I have to say is that this was the first real point where my tan got topped up on my 2-3 weeks down the coast.

We Hit first of all Baldies (the Nudist Beach), then Respite, by which point we were already 4 hours into our walk/swim/relax, so when it came to the next two beaches Fortune and Arthur we took it pretty easy and just walked along them really.

By the way for future reference magalie could really swim! She dived into the water then 30 secs later she would turn up 40 meters away practically! Damn it was impressive. By the time it came to walking back to town we had considered visiting the Fort at the top of a large hill... But we were all just too knackered. The only thing that was driving us was the thought of buying some ice cream from the local supermarket there.

Dinner was next and as always I offered my delectable services to prepare something for Sebastian and Magalie. Then we started playing some pool, drinking some beer and then some wine (or was it the other way round), then we started to talk to this Swiss girl called Angelika, Who is possibly worse than me at playing pool... If such a thing is possible. There was also another bit of origami frenzy in the bar with people wondering where it was all coming from. In the drunken state that I was in Angelika started to take me through her photo's of Uluru and Kakadu, during which I was falling asleep on her shoulders. Classy! Hopefully I wasn't dribbling. But anyway I got to bed at about 01.00am and I do remember seeing a lizard on the wall about 10 cm big... Sort of a little bit bigger than the cockroaches I remember from my days living in New York.

Any way I would be bumping into Angelika several time on my trip since she was 1-2 days behind me in terms of travelling down the coast.

That will do for today. As you can tell I am in sydney and spending a fair old time internetting. I have been uploading photos like crazy to my Flickr account As I now Have have upgraded my account and can store more online... be sure to check out my under water rubbish photos from the whitsunday island and Great Barrier reef!

Surfing Oz - Part 2

2005-09-12T06:53:00.000Z

HPIM1727
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

Just before I head to Sydney... Here is a photo of me riding the waves in Byron Bay today! Yeah Baby! Surf up Dude!

Surfing Oz

2005-09-12T00:55:00.000Z

So after having surfed in California and having surfed in Cornwall... I will now be surfing the beachs of Australia and not just with a boogie/body board. Proper full on surfing for me today here at byron bay. Though it will cost me $55, it will be so worth it!!

Oh the endless joy of paddling and more paddling and then... yep you guessed it ... even more paddling. But I will stand up for a wave oh yes... it must be done.

Byron Bay

2005-09-11T23:24:00.000Z

Hey just got into Byron Bay last night and will be here for the day only... then I am off back to sydney (on an overnight bus) for a few days.. before canberra and melbourne.

Gaetan photo's

2005-09-10T10:34:00.000Z

HPIM1691
Originally uploaded by Gaetanlee.

Just another test image load form my online photo store. I am having fun trying to perfect my uploading procedures