hi all, a request has been made for me to update my blog (thanks mum- he he!)..

it's been a few weeks but time has flown from when i last wrote. I'm currently in London trying to hibernate as much as i can until i find a job, a place to live and settle.

After i last wrote i headed up to Sapa for trekking trip. I would say it was definately in the top 3 highlights of the entire trip so far- brilliant time up there. There was a landslide on the train tracks which delayed things a bit and resulted in a 5 hour bus ride over shocking roads but it was so worthwhile. The hotel we were in as part of the tour was phenomenal- easily the nicest hotel i've stayed in so far. It was right up on the summit of the mountains and the views were gorgeous. I somehow scored a VIP room to myself which had a king sized bed and a bath (that's rare for asia...)

I met a dutch girl and two israeli girls, Adi and Gal on the trip who i spent most of my time with on the treks. Our group had about 8 people in it. The first day we did a 7km trek through the villages. Ended up having a few drinks with some others that we met over dinner that took about 6 of us back to one of the girls rooms for a couple more after the bar closed. It didn't finish too late luckily as we had an early start for a 13km trek the following day. It rained most of the day and the track became really muddy and slippery- luckily the grip on my trusty birkinstocks held up and it didn't fall ass over as many others did. We befriended many of the locals from the villages who joined us on the walk and were really lovely- it was great to interact and they were such a friendly group..

I had another overnight train on the way back to hanoi. i was in a hard sleeper which is on the upper end of fancy for westerners; but in reality it's 6 beds in a tiny sleeper; mattresses about 3cm thick and you can't even sit up right without smacking your head! on the way back there was a vietnamese family in our sleeper and a signaporean and candian girl who were on the same tour as me.

I only had half a day to kill in Hanoi before heading to the airport for my flight to Bangkok. The airport at Hanoi was pretty basic and expensive compared to outside ($4 for a cup of tea was something i wasn't used to.... until i entered into the UK and Ireland!)

I flew Air France from Hanoi to Bangkok and they were ace- didn't know what to expect but it was a really fancy plane and great service! I had an overnight transit in Bangkok and stayed at a hotel close to the new International Airport. The flight to London was long... and there were no tv's in the back of the seats!!!! GRRRR!!!! ah well- there was plenty of space on the plane and it wasn't even half full- i ended up chatting to the bloke next to me most of the way; he worked as a barrister in the uk and singapore so he was giving me some tips... i had about 8 gin and tonics (figured i had to get my moneys worth) and didn't want to fall asleep as wanted to try and get through the jet lag... he fell asleep and started hardcore snoring after a few drinks- my god- and went on for 8 hours!!!

i had a 3-4 hour transit at heathrow before catching a flight to dublin. i was pretty out of it by then- no sleep for well over 24 hours and the ground was beginning to sway. i had a coffee at cafe nero for; oh; about $6 when the reality hit of the pound-he he! I almost missed my flight to dublin. BMI put down gate 82 on my boarding pass... so i went to gate 82... as you do. the boarding time came and went, and there were still alot of people waiting so i figured it must just be late; when people did begin lining up finally i didn't really see the point of racing into the line when there was a seat allocated for me.. so when i did get there i was pretty surprised that they told me it wasn't the plane i was meant to get on! i ran to gate 78 (which had a different p.a. system) and they were calling my name as last call for boarding.. i felt so sorry for a couple of other people who were waiting also at gate 82 as they were definately meant to be on my flight as i was chatting to them when i was checking my bags in- they missed the flight... i got into dublin fairly late and was in total shock to find the taxi line had about 100 people in it (this is at midnight!)- last time i was in dublin it was pretty quiet airport- now total construction with them doing the whole thing up! but the line moved pretty fast so didn't take me too long to get to my brothers place.

Nick and i ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning drinking red wine before i had a contented/passed out sleep on the couch. He and his g/f Meg have an awesome apartment in smack bang central dublin- it was so sweet to be able to stay! the following arvo we met up with some of his work mates and started the 6 hour journey to dingle for our camping trip- many drinking shenanigans later we arrived at almost midnight and darkness to set up the tents! it was an awesome camping site- there weren't very many people camping so wasn't too crowded (Even though it was apparently at full capacity) and there were great communal kitchens and facilities for the dorms inside and the campers. dingle was so cold it was a total shock to the system... i had to buy socks to wear with my havaiana's as i had no closed in shoes with me! dingle was ace- we went for a road trip on the second day around some of the old ruins, famine cottages and mountains and went to the most westerly pub in the northern hemisphere (which was a bit of a let down- they had no hot food!) most of the day seemed to surround seeing different types of animals-i should call my photos 'animals of ireland'! the guys went on a boat trip to see fungi the dolphin the following day. I gave it a miss and went to the local pub to watch gailey football with one of the others because the weather was a bit rough- glad i did as apparently heaps of ppl on the boat were very very sea sick (no further description needed).

i had a couple of days left in dublin when we got back from camping. Some of it was spent doing up my CV for a recruiter and chilling out. Nick's place had Pay TV and it was pretty rainy outside so it took some prodding to get me out of the house before noon each day! i went on a hop on hop off bus tour; went to guiness brewrey (finally- 3rd time to dublin and it's the first time i've been!!!); the art museum, the national museum (where they had all these 'blog bodies'- bodies from the iron age that had been preserved in mud and dug up by farmers- there skin and hair was attached still- really really leathery skin. crazy haircuts on them and many were redheads/gingers too- def recommend going to see them if yr in dublin) the prison; and the dublin zoo. went on a couple of walking tours around the city centre.

Enjoyed cooking for nick and meg two nights- been 6 weeks and hadn't stepped foot in a kitchen. The last night was great but such a bad idea in retrospect.. went to an awesome turkish pub then restaurant called the bank (which was an old bank refurbished into a pub) had wine with dinner; then; of course; we had to try baby guiness shots, with the famous irish bulmers cider, then onto a famous german schnapps shot that you set on fire before drinking it. then you guessed it- back to red wine. how they went to work the next day i have no idea... it was a mission to get to the airport for me! but nevertheless it was a great final night!

It was total dejavu arriving back in London. getting off the tube at goodge street and walking to the pub nothing had changed, except the pub itself which had been refurbished.. but then when i went inside all the old regulars were still there (just different people working behind the bar) so put my bag next door at eryns (who'd set up a little bed for me on the floor- awww!!!) and ended up spending most of the night with the girls i used to work with. An offers come up for me to house-sit for a mate and feed the cat while she heads back to australia which has worked out perfectly as i can hibernate and look for jobs. I've spent the last week catching up with friends; there's still a few i am yet to catch up with. I've still managed to spend more in one week in london than the whole 5 weeks i was in asia- go figure!! It's nice to be back tho- went for a huge walk a couple of days ago through covent garden, west end, the houses of parliament, over to waterloo and along the river to london eye; and then it started pissing down; utterly pissing down with rain!! the weathers been like autumn back home- tshirt, cardi and jeans weather with a hint of sun. it's crazy staying light until so late tho- 8-9pm at least! eryn (the girl i'm staying with) is off at v festival at the moment- sounds like she's having a ball!

we've got tix to a festival and xavier rudd in a couple of weeks time. kate nash is playing at the festival- whoo hoo!!! i have my first interview on wednesday for a job i'm really keen on so far- wish me luck

hope everythings going well back home :-)