Well gday everyone. hope your all well. it's been a while since I last properly wrote. I have been pretty busy since I last wrote. Mainly with work and cricket but I have managed a little bit of sightseeing along the way.

Firstly work - I suppose you could call my line of work garden maintenance but really most of what ive been doing is raking up leaves. I am working for the agency however I have managed to secure a job with a maintenance firm. It is in East Putney so every morning I get up a 5am and cruise off to work. IT takes two hours to get there but it's alright. Get paid ok and the people are cool. Before though I was working for another firm but I was just with a racist Albanian fella who thought he knew everything. He was a b****** so I managed to get my job changed. All well though. Im beginning to use some of the hedge cutting power tools so I feel like a tough man.

Living - well josh and I are going strong in our little room. He doesn't have a job so he has been giving me the bed pretty much every night which is good. Josh has put a few posters up so the room feels a bit more homely. We still havn't fixed our curtains so the light shines brightly in from 4:45 in the morning!!! nice.

cricket - well cricket has been going well for me recently. Since I last wrote I have scored 3 50's. 68, 69 and 58. The 58 was in a good league so that was cool. The standard is really crap so we are going to see if we can go up a bit. Next month they have this thing called cricket week at our club where they play a whole week of cricket. I might play a game or two. Still not being given a bowl but doing a little bit of keeping and even had the chance to captain. So far I'm 1 from 1 with a stellar 50 run win!!! Guys are great. getting drunk then heading off the Cactus Pit (a very seedy club in blackheath) for some dancing. Some chick hooked up with josh last week. he had no choice in it she just came up and got him. hehe.

sightseeing and fun

Between work and cricket I have managed to do a bit of sightseeing. In London I went to the Imperial War museum. It is great. Pretty much covers all wartime pursuits from 1900 to now. I need to go back and finish it off. Also went to Maritime museum in Greenwich this morning which was good. Learnt lots bout the ocean and saw some really cool models of ships. Also after work the other week I took myself to Royal Richmond Park which was pretty cool. It is massive and alot of it is wild. I saw some kite flying which is very popular in the open public places of London. But the real reason I went was to see the wild deer that belong to the queen. They were cool. I read that if your dog goes and attacks them then the park staff having HM (her Majesty's) permission to shoot the dog. Also I managed to get myself to an evening of Wimbledon. It was great. I think we managed to get one of the only rain free periods of the whole tournament. It's cheaper if you go after 5 so josh and I went and saw Chris Guccione play Alex Bogdanovic. Guch smoked him. Other players with fairly famous names I saw were jakko Niemenen, NAdia Petrova and MArcus Baghdatis. Great time. Weather has been a massive problem in London (much like eastern sydney and central coast). Its been the wettest June ever and during the height of the floods up north, the average june rainfall fell in a day. Didn't really affect us badly except that cricket has been cancelled a bit.

Josh bought a car withhis mate from back home a few weeks ago (josh doesn't have his licence and now his mate has gone home). So we went on a rode trip two sunday's ago. We went south east to Leeds castle which was awesome. The castle was built in 12th century and is built on two islands. It was great. It had been privately owned since about 18th century and so rather than being a royal old castle most of the inside looked like an old rich person's 1920's house. There were a few rooms left to look like how royals lived. But the castle itself was magnificent and the surrounding grounds wee amazing. Also on the site is an aviary, hedge maze, winery and a few other bits and pieces. IT was sweet. We then went to Canterbury cathedral for a couple of hours. IT was good but some was closed off because services were going on. Somehow we got in free and managed to see lots of it. For those not familiar with the cathedral, it is to the church of England what the Vatican is the Catholics. It is a place of pilgrimage. It was good.

Just yesterday I got back from the Running of the Bulls Festival in Pamplona, Spain. I went with a group called PP (the Party Professionals). It was the most shambolically organised experience I have ever been involved in. We left for our supposed 20 hour coach ride which would get us to pamplona with enough time to have a sleep and get the opening ceremony, where the canons are fired and everyone parties. Well only about an hour outside of Calais our incompetent bus drivers (now know as Bog and Bear) got the coach BOGGED at a gas station trying to turn around. We were stuck there for about 6 hours. To make matters worse the reason we didn't get winched out earlier was over who would pay for it. Money become very integral to this trip. A couple more times the bus almost refused to go till PP paid them for petrol and a cracked window (ill explain later). So we were stuck but many of us (including me) had been drinking, some alot more than others. We were told the French authorities were on their way so we had to put out grog away. Oneguy was particularly smashed and another guy had a few words to him telling him to calm down because the police were on their way. Well he didn't really take to kindly to being told that and proceeded to talk some s***, then break a bottle all over the stairs, blame it on some one else, spit on someone and then got himself a bit of a hiding at the hands of a couple of the blokes. He then passed out in his seat). As if that wasn't enough. When he woke up he was aggro and another altercation happened in thebus where he was hit by different people again. He then went nuts punching everything in his way including the coach's front window braking it twice. He was then dragged outside and hit his head. He looked like he had been knocked out. But they held him down so he couldn't go even more nuts. Crazy crazy time. But then the bus was freed. Then the bus drivers were on the verge of not even taking us further. But eventually we managed to leave 6 hours later. But then at 3 in the morning (when we were supposed to be there) our bus drivers decided they were too tired to go on and needed some rest. So we had to wait another 1.5 hours (who knows why one didn't sleep while the other drove). And because money was such an issue, the drivers took us ways so we missed as many toll points as we could. they hadn't ever driving it before so they got lost about 3 times. So we were late. 9 hours late and still not there our bus looked like to have given up. The brake and the clutch (from trying to get out of bog) were struggling. We thought we would miss everything. But our stupid bus drivers had forgotten o take of the bloody handbrake. SO we were away. We eventually arrive two hours after the opening ceremony had begun. We had taken 31 hours to get there and missed the ceremony. Luckily the party was still going and we went and got pissed on sangria. Those next few hours were absolutely awesome. I few of followed this band around dancing and pouring Sangria all over each other. I had a disposable camera so who knows what the photos are going to look like.It was just awesome. Bout 8 we went to get bus back to campsite. Surprise surprise, it turned up 3 hours late. When we got back to the campsite though we had a quick swim the ocean then went to bed at 2. Up again at 5 to head in for the bull run. I had every intention of doing it however at one of the service stops when we were stuck there were video's of previous bull runs and it looked brutal. I was scared. In the end I decided no to do it and Im pleased I didn't. I lost everyone else and scalped some tickets to get into the arena. IT was an awesome atmosphere. When the bulls eventually came in they just ran through and out the other side. I thought that was a bit s*** that it was over...it wasn't. Once the ring was full (thousands of people) they let an angry bull back in to go nuts at people. IT was brutal. I really didn't like it in the end...the Spanish...well they loved it! The tame bull would then come in and take the crazy bull out...they did that 5 times before I left. Brutal!! We then headed back. It was then that I leant that pretty much all the people from our group had missed out running because they had been kicked out of the run because it was too crowded. But even worse, one of the buses broke down and some people didn't even get to the run. It was diabolical. So there were many who didn't get to either the opening ceremony or the bull run (the only reasons we came on the trip). The rest of that day I spent in san Sebastian, a really really nice coastal city. It was really great. I had a swim in the ocean. Good times. The coach picked us up at 8:30 to leave back to London. All in all we were in camp for about 30 hours...that's it but spent 55 hours in the coach all up. The bus ride home was better but only marginally. More squabbling over money and because someone crapped in the toilet. Also the drivers got themselves lost more and more. But we eventually arrived home only 3 hours late. All in all the most shambolically organised trip ever. However, the bog, the extended trip, the sweet afternoon at Pamplona, the day a San Sebastian made it worthwhile trip because we got to know everyone way more than we would have otherwise. It was certainly and adventure but one I wouldn't recommend. So never use PP travel for any of your trips.

Wow, what a story (ive even had to leave bit out including missing the Calais to Dover ferry and the bus drivers stupid driving at the Calaisport). I was good though.

So what are my plans. I am planning to go travelling by myself in September and October around western Europe and some bit of eastern Europe. Then I might came back to London for November, then maybe see if I can do Egypt and morocco (maybe) in December and then hang do all of the UK and republic of Ireland around Christmas and new years (hopefully spending Chrissie with my brother Pete where ever he will be...not sure yet. Hopefully seeing a white Christmas). Then I might come home earlier than expected some time in January to work off some debt which imp sure I would have accumulated to my parents then!! but that's only a plan so we'll see what happens.

Anyway I hope everyone is well. Im really sorry bout not replying to people but imp really busy. So hopefully reading this is enough. I love to hear from you all though.

Anyway have a look at some more photos.

Happy birthday to Nick and Pete seccomb.

For those who know her, Ann is having a great time in Africa. and i miss her heaps. In fact miss you all.

Catch you all soon.

Tim