Reunion in Belfast...

Phill and I in front of Belfast City Hall

Phill and Mike

Remember Phill from my easyrider and melbourne blogs?well he was in Belfast with his friend Mike for a wedding a couple of weeks ago and i was able to spend the sunday with them both.it was great to catch up with him again and reminisce about our time in australia.poor mike though,he had to endure all our tales!with nothing much open on a sunday in belfast we ended up doing a tour around belfast on a big yellow bus!it was interesting for me too as we were taken places that i had never been before.for example,'the falls' which is the area that's in opposition to 'the shankill',the falls is a catholic area and the shankill a protestant area,these 2 places were where most of the troubles in belfast occurred and people were killed on a daily basis in certain places.thank goodness it's not like that anymore!!also,interesting fact of the day was that apparently a man from Northern Ireland actually invented air con - how ironic considering what our climate is like!

phill and mike seemed to enjoy their weekend in belfast and hopefully i'll be able to reunite with more pals from oz someday soon!

happy birthday april and theo!!

Happy birthday to my wonderful wee aussie friend April and my awesome american mate Theo!!hope you have the best birthdays!!!miss you both!

Me&Shayela - the next morning was goodbye...sob!

Irish dancing in the streets of Rome...

real Italian food!

Shayela's treat for me after being pick-pocketed!!

Italian beggar...

Roman statues...

Saints through the window...

Tombs and confessions!

confession time!!
The grave of the last pope
The tomb of the apostle Peter - apparently
I had studied Latin in school and so recognised some words but others were beyond me!

Vatican drama...

I was most impressed with the Vatican,everything else we had seen had been set in amongst the buildings in the city but the vatican was out on it's own and it looked so impressive. I was trying to imagine the millions of people that would have filled it when the last pope died.

The drama there involved Isaac,Shayela's brother leaving his backpack sitting against a railing and us going off to a cafe.it was only as we were leaving the cafe that it was noticed that it was gone and we raced back to the vatican to find it in exactly the same place as he had left it!was lucky as there was a $2000 video camera in it!amazing it was still there as there were hundreds of people around,anyone of them could have lifted it as it had been sitting there for over an hour!

The rest of the weekend dramas involved both shayela and her mum having problems getting access to any cash due to pin-number issues.i unfortunately couldn't offer any help as i had no money or cash cards!

on returning back through the train station that i'd had my wallet stolen we asked again to see if anyone had found it,i was hoping to even just get my wallet back as there was sentimental stuff in it.the guy there then produced a plastic bag full of wallets - they had all been stolen from people that day!!!unfortunately mine wasn't there and even after the guy so kindly went and looked along the train tracks for me,there was still no sign of it.aw well,it wasn't meant to be obviously!

despite all the disasters that happened,i did still have fun with shayela and her family and we were able to laugh about it all at the end of the day,i mean much worse things could have happened!

i was extremely sad to say goodbye to shayela again as i honestly don't know the next time i'll get to see her,but at the same time it was nice to get home after all the dramas!

Day 2 disaster...

The next morning we all set out to make our way to the Vatican.We went to the underground station,got our tickets,went down the escalator and got onto the train...it was then that i realised i had been pick-pocketed!!!i'm always so paranoid about it happening having been in a few major european cities where i have been warned about it.generally i'm always careful with my stuff.the person must have been watching me as i know i had my wallet at the top of the escalator as i put my ticket back into it and then put it into my bag.now my bag was full with lots of other sorts of crap so they must have know exactly where to grab it from.i figure it must have happened when i first got onto the escalator as i walked down a few steps and then moved in infront of shayela,from that point my bag was between the side of the escalator and my body and shayela was right behind me.we got straight on the train and then i put my hand in my bag to make sure my wallet was there - but it wasn't!

From there we returned to the train station,no sign of it,we were then told where police station was and off we went. i didn't really react,i think i was in shock as ALL of my money was in it,my cards,my drivers licence and sentimental stuff from oz.i had meant to separate my cards and take some money out but i think being really sick the previous day took over and i honestly just forgot about it.

I then called my dad at home to get numbers to cancel my cards but then my credit ran out!it was scarier to think what would have happened if i'd been on my own,no money,no way of getting money and no way of contacting anyone,at least shayela and her family were with me!

So shayela and i embarked on a mission to find the police station which proved bit of a challenge as even policemen we talked to on the street weren't able to help us with directions!We eventually found it though and i filled out some forms and that was it.

Next stop,the Vatican...

A reunion in Rome...

I just spent the weekend in Rome meeting up with my best bud from Oz - Shayela!!i had organised to meet her there while i was still in australia so it was something i looked forward to from the time i got home from oz.I've missed Shayela heaps so it was very exciting thinking about getting to see her again.

And what an eventful reunion...

The trip started after i'd had 3hrs sleep on the thursday night (due to my lack of organisation from being so busy at work and then staying up until midnight sorting stuff out and then having to get up at 3.30am to get ready to go to the airport).So,that was fine i tried to sleep a little bit on the plane journey and after being delayed on the runway for about an hour leaving Belfast,i eventually arrived in Rome just after 11am. The first scam happened when a very eager taxi driver basically kidnapped me after i got off the coach from the airport and took me to the hostel where i was to meet shayela,her mum,bro and sis.he gave me a price and i handed him some euros and looked in my wallet for the rest,thinking i could give him the exact money i asked for the note i'd given him back,however it had mysteriously changed from a 10 euro note to a 5 euro note in a split second!now,i know for a fact that i didn't have any 5 euro notes and the discussion in italian and english continued till i realised i just couldn't win and gave him the rest of the money.i was more interested in just getting to see shayela!

it was so awesome to see her again and felt like it had only been a couple of weeks since i'd seen her last rather than the 4 months since i've left oz.

we embarked on some sight seeing in the blistering heat and all was good until i started to feel sick and proceeded to search for corners in the streets where i wouldn't be noticed chucking up!so,i spent most of the rest of the avo spewing - lovely!i still continued to sight-see,i just needed to take spewing breaks every so often!ha ha!

so,after a bad night's sleep i ended up feeling quite a bit better in the morning.after only having left the hostel a short period of time we went to the underground station where the next bit of drama unfolded...

2nd disappointment of the day...

England lost on penalties AGAIN!!!awww,i feel really gutted for them,they fought so hard after Rooney was sent off and gave it their all but once again the penalties ended it for them.The Portugal goalkeeper was amazing during the penalties,saving them all except the one from Hargreaves,and even then he was so close to saving it.It was so emotional seeing how fully gutted the players were,I feel bad for the older guys like Beckham who most likely won't play in another World Cup.I was totally supporting England to win but imagine what the English fans themselves must be feeling.

To all my english friends - i'm gutted for ya.

1st disappointment of the day...

Awwww,Agassi lost. He was playing Rafael Nadal who is ranked number 2 and although agassi nearly took the 1st set,it just wasn't meant to be and he went out in straight sets.It was an emotional farewell and the usual tradition of only letting the players be interviewed on court after the final,was broken as Agassi was allowed to say a few words to all his fans.You could see the tears in his eyes as it really is his farewell to a tournament he has made exciting over so many years.I of course was blubbering away in my room!I never could cope with seeing him lose but seeing him be emotional as well was all too much!

come on agassi!!!

With the world cup and wimbledon on at the minute it kinda sucks to have to work!i'm so glad to see andre agassi back in the tournament this year.it will be his final appearance as he's due to retire after the US Open this year.I've adored andre since i was about 11 years old and he became one of my biggest heros.I used to get so tense when i watched him play on tv,so much so,that when i was younger and he was beaten in wimbledon,my granny used to phone up to make sure i wasn't too upset!i used to cry and everything - i was distraught when he lost!

i loved him through his long hair days and still do in his bald days.he's one of the great tennis players,having won all 4 grand slams slows his talent.i think he made tennis "cool" with his alternative and wacky dress sense and style all those years ago.it was in my list of dreams to see him play someday,but i guess unless i make it to Wimbledon very soon or the US Open this year,that will be a dream that won't come true.

here's hoping he shows his talent all the way to the end of wimbledon!he last won it in 1992 so maybe,just maybe, he can have one last showdown on the grass courts.

"missing photo"

I was sorting through some old photos tonight and came across this one - it's my "missing photo". it's from years ago when i was in america,when my friends saw it they thought it looked like one of those photos that are used on the side of milk cartons in the US when someone's missing and the parents etc are making the public aware. so ever since then it became my official "milk carton missing photo" if i ever happened to disappear!ha ha!think i better update it though!

look how long my hair is!and that's not when it was at it's longest!