The taxis at Piccadilly, all that fuss of human colour while the white buidlings look grey in early snow. Down the street is Haymarket, Maggie Smith with the sharpest tongue and the fastest footwork runs through The Way of the World while the audience laughs just to catch up with her. At interval everyone is happy to think it was only the 18th century. Everything is wrapped in the most perfect cellophane, however Burlington Arcade only reminds us how the place is dingy once you go home. Still, the nicest thing is to sit in Botolph's Bishopsgate Churchyard, or under the Turners in the Tate, wondering why they left to become Australians in the 1830s. Breakfast carries you until four o'clock, when the sun sets behind a sky already black. Then it's the tube at St Paul's. London in the winter of 1984.

Woah Shadow!!! Seriously, it's been f**king ages since I've heard from you. In fact I think this is the first I've spoken to since I left over a year ago! Sorry mate. How's life been treating you? What have you been up to? Hopefully I'll see you in Simon's wedding video. Sime, when I saw your name on the package I figured that's what it would be. Unfortunately I haven't been able to watch it yet cos Lewis hasn't been home in weeks. He's spending all his time at the place where his brother used to live and I'm waiting for the punk to come home so I can watch it. I saw the photos on the web ages ago and you guys scrubbed up really well. Thanks for sending a copy of the DVD all this way. Cheers! Zane

Hi Zane, Just a quick message to say i have sent you and kinga a dvd of the wedding. Enjoy.
Sime

Hi Zano, i can't remember the last time i spoke or heard from you so i thought i'd drop a line saying hi, making sure your still alive and hopefully having an awesome time.

Hey zane, ha ha ha those new years picture r so funny, glad to c u picked the best ones!........U r a absolute sweeet-hart and very much missed! good luck with the new job, the world is your oyster! luv megsxxx

Hi Zane, Yes potentially this is the best meeting place ever! Thanks for providing the service...hehe. I'm still waiting for a reply from Tobes though so I may have to start looking elsewhere for his elusive contact numbers. Anyway, just so you don't feel left out, how's it going over there? As you may know, Hayden and Kirsty just had a little baby girl over there in the UK. Her name is Eva and they are happy little campers from what I hear. Glad to hear you've got some more work. When are you coming back to Oz? I have started playing again in the old basketball team. I tried calling you the other day but I think I spoke to your housemate. Anyway we need your nimble hands back in the team...hehe. Well, stay happy and catchya soon. Jon Apps

Glad to see that my message board is bringing old friends together (hey Tobes and Apples) whilst also serving as a writing blog for travels 20 years past (thanks Philip)... I'm just happy to see people are making themselves at home and occasionally remembering me.



Things are going well thanks Sime. Happy Birthday for last week. How are ya mate? Living the family life by the sounds... married, house and wait for it... a dog! You should be glad if a dog like spike can bring your b**** more puppies. I still think he was the coolest dog ever! Yeah, and how crazy is it that my brothers are growing up? Dion's even at high school, but not Upwey (good move). My mum recently sent me their latest school photos. They haven't changed all that much since I saw them a year ago but I bet you'd be surprised to see how they look now. Still all blonde with cheeky smiles. Meanwhile these days I'm finding the odd extra grey hair and realising that ID is a unnecessary item of the past. Although I'm not 30 mate... still a few years yet, and remember you're not much younger than me punk! FYI Philip is my uncle, a poet and an historian amongst his impressive repertoire so that man can write. In my laymen terms he's a wordsmith.



To briefly cap what's been going on with me. I've been unemployed since Christmas and even though my activities have been pretty low key, I've been burning cash in London like it's going out of fashion which isn't hard. Luckily, as is common in my life, right when it was about to reach crunch time, things turned the corner and it starting raining work. I had 4 great job offers in as many days. I was thinking of taking a permanent technical authoring position at an engineering company a bit out of London but it would have restricted my travel plans. So now I'm back working at Mute for a couple of weeks covering IT admin and after that I'll be at V2 (another record label) until my trip to Turkey and Greece in April. So my self funding is back in action! Woohoo!



Hey Nick and Barb, thanks for the message. It's nice to hear from you. Hope things are going well. What's happening? Not much gossip to speak of... to be honest that couldn't be further from the truth but then this is a public forum. Also... you do realise I've had my tongue ring out for over 6 months now. Get with the times. You're living in the past man! :)



Happy Australia Day Vicki. Did you have a BBQ in the Sydney sun? A lot of people went on a boozer to celebrate over here but I didn't even leave the house. Paul and Lauren came around for dinner and we stayed in to watch Chelsea play Man Utd. How bad is that! I think you will have to take my place as an Australian and I can be a an honorary Kiwi or something. Last week I went on a Waitangi pub crawl. I didn't realise how many of you guys there are in London. It was insane... they even had me singing some Maori songs and joining scrums with random strangers! Tomorrow is Lauren's birthday so tonight we're all heading out for dinner and drinks in the west end. Should be fun. Loved your crazy "worst day" e-mail by the way but to be honest I think even with your bad luck on the side, just winning a $2000 spending spree would rate pretty high on my best days.



Hey Candice. Great to hear from you. Aaron's off to RMIT... cool! In the city where I went? What's he studying? What have you been up to? Working in some tripped out piercing parlour yet or has that ambition been replaced with something else? It's your birthday soon, right? What have you got planned? Love to hear what else the family has been up to since Christmas.



Will write to you all again soon.



Cheers!

Zane

hey zane, just looked through your recent pics. you're looking well. everyone over here is doing well, aaron starts at RMIT soon and he's all hyped up, its so cute. better go as its a bit past my bedtime(opps) =) stay safe and keep having a great time. luv ya candy
ps my turn next

Happy Australia day Zane, I celebrated it for all you aussies in London!! I have been loving looking at all the pictures, makes me feel like I never left. xx

Hi Zane, glad you got rid of your tounge bolt !!!!!!!!!!. Glad to see you are havin fun. Cheers NicknBarb

Sorry, just another quick note. I was reading over the msg's and i cannot believe Dion has got a mobile phone. I remember when he was BORN!!!!!!!!
That makes me feel OLD!!!!!! But not as old you! LOL. Almost 30 dude.!
Cheers Simon.

Zano, how you doing chief? I forgot all about this site!!!! Sorry. Good to see you are still putting up heaps of pics to show us how the other half live, isn't that right Jonny Apples.
Your mate Philip Harvey should be a writer/song writer(if he isn't already). Maybe for a band like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It would suit their image down to a tee, or is it tea. Anyway doesn't matter.
I haven't got much to report to you except that everyone is healthy and i hope you are having a good time living. Oh, and my American Pit Bull Terrier is getting the insides taken out today. So now at least my Staffy x Bull Terrier x Some other dumb big black dog can't try and bone her. He kind of reminds me of the dog known as Spike. Remember how good Spike was. What sort of dog was Spike?
Anyway as your mate Ducky would say i will catch you on the flip side. Simon.