Oh Dear God...

Well I've just spent 2 amazing days in London. I traveled up
specifically to see "Oi Va Voi" live on their only UK tour date and,
to top it off, the launch of their new album. Originally refered to me
by a darling Internet friend, Claudia! We have such similar music
tastes it's almost freaky, down to the same songs on albums. That's
doing well considering my 'odd' music tastes.
It was amazing and so much more then I was expecting. Such wonderfully
crafted and balanced music and the visual show to match, I was in
heaven!
The trip itself was great too... £4.50 return coach, a £15 hostel for
the night, all my maps and details put onto the Nintendo DS along with
heaps of music for the coach. Well planned and stress free, has me
wondering why I'd ever spent a weekend at home!
In other random news my K800i mobile has started working again??
Figures seeings how I just went out and bought a new 'cheapie' phone
from work to cover me. Grrrr again at my mobile! Also my laptop power
adapter that died in Spain, that started working again has now resumed
dying, again!
My future is upon me now... that August deadline for the end of my
working time here in the UK is bearing down very fast...

Easy lungs, fractured 'air time' & portable browsing...

Right... I'd promised myseld I'd get an eary night tonight but here I
am at 11:45pm in a pub sending emails... where did I go wrong?

Anyhow, a big yahoo and sigh of relief to the new no smoking ban that
went into effect as of yesterday here in the UK! It's certainly making
my late night email far more plesent to write.
My mobile phone... still fucked! NOT HAPPY, JAN! (I had to explain
that quote to an Englishman recently, doesn't have the same effect. So
anyhow... sorry to all those that I normally call (not many, sorry
again)!
And now on to the latest purchase, a new Nintendo DS. I've been
thinking recently about all the items that I have to sell so I can
continue to travel (basically verything that doesn't go on my back)
and this means things like PS3, bike & it's looking very likely that
includes my laptop too! So after some research, one thing leads to
another and I have myself a new DS. Oh well... if this email works
it'll mean that I can use it to blog....

Reduced to an Internet cafe... Ewww...

(Pictured: Travel buddies... (L to R) Hayley, Svina & Beatriz)

Well my trip to southern Spain was bloody amazing. The abuse of Lady Luck was shocking yet highly successful. I traveled with 2 awesome chicks that I met in Vaughantown, Beatriz and Svina! I love them both and I'm missing them already.

Granada and Sevilla were both so amazing, I thought I was in love with Spain when I was in Madrid, now Madird looks really average in comparison! Granada specifically just blew me away... I'm left wondering how quickly I could:

• Learn Spanish
• Sell all my belongings here in the UK
• Find a place to live in Granada
• and find a place to work

We all traveled overnight on a bus booked at last minute from Madrid to Granada. Arriving very early we made for a hostel that "might" have room for us. We eventually found the hostel after weaving through Granadas "car unfriendly" streets and found ourselves sat in the reception for about hour, sleepy and weary from a overnight bus nap, not knowing if we'd get accommodation or not. Eventually we scored a spot in the amazing hostel and decided to head up to the Alhambra... the most amazing place I've ever seen in my life! After spending sooo many sunburnt hours there we headed back to the hostel for siesta... sooo nice to nap in the middle of a hot day. We then spent the evening sloothing around the ancient marble paved streets for local tapas and anything else of interest.
Then catching an early bus from Granada we headed to Sevilla... arriving in the early afternoon to open Californian styled, palm tree laden streets and warm sun. Yum!
This time we had slightly organised our next hostel, lesson learned! Once checked in we headed over to the Seville Cathedral... my words will never adequately describe the enormity and just how overwhelming this building just is. Again we headed back to our hostel for an afternoon siesta, yum again, in the evening we wandered round the river looking for somewhere to eat. Was such a cool/warm evening and we managed to find an awesome place right on the river that could be best described to an Australian as a Cuban styled open kitchen, complete with the "Big Mumma" sitting and running the place. Then while wandering home we came across an open stret bar and Beatriz suggests "Mojios" all round! So this very fun and talented bar man knocks up this awesome drink in front of us.... there goes the early night I had planned...

Woke up early the next morning, said good bye to the girls and headed off to the bus station. So 2 buses and a flight I make it home about 11pm that night.

Now to sort out 2 weeks of a neglected life back here in the UK... sooo much dirty washing & a broken phone and now laptop... GRRR!

Yet another Vaughantown... hardly complaining!

(Pictured: The Avila Wall)

Well here I am, yet again in Spain. I've just spent 1 more week in Avila, Spain. Yet another Vaughantown! No more holidays from work this time, I've come over without being paid at work but it's defiantly worth it. I was able to see the same 5 students through their last program, which was great!

I made sure that I have some extra time to look around Spain this time. I've hooked up with 2 of the English speakers to head down to Granada and Sevilla to check them out on, what's sure to be a whirlwind tour of both.

I'll be arriving back late on the 27th which will give me 3 days to chill before I'm due back at work at the start of the month! Ewww! Assimilation won't be so easy this time...

My phone is almost completely dead... and not in the 'carge the battery' kinda way. Not happy, Jan! I forget just how much I rely on technology sometimes. It's my calender, camera, MP3 player / ear plugs , notepad and of course, PHONE!

I got to see my sister for my birthday too. That was unexpected and great value to have her around! I tried to keep my birthday a non-event... almost worked except Virgin found out. They gave my a card which everyone from work had signed, was sweet and hardly expected!

Be sure to check out my Flickr photos as I'm trying to post the best of them there! Though this is difficult with my phone/camera on the fritz! Grrrr!