My tales

(too much vodka...)

When someone says Thailand, I think:

Thai noodles
Gorgeous beaches
Food markets
Buddhas
Clear blue waters
Heat
Tuk-tuks

Wonder if I'll think differently once I've been there??!!

Bring on 8th January, that's what I say!

Hi to whoever's reading this! (If anyone!)

Adi is an interesting humourous Romanian artist and well travelled enough already - I met him at Katelios sea turtle project - definitely worth checking out his blog. Adi's website is full of colourful magical pictures and paintings of his own - go see for yourself and say 'hello' at http://adrian-borda.blog.com or see http://adrian-borda .com too

Anyways, I have to be off now (back at home with family!)

Merry Christmas & Happy new Year to all

I wasn't sure if I'd reached my blog limit for photos but it appears I have more space! Here are some more...

"See, we do actually clean up from time to time" Protest Shana Pirhana above and Laura below!!

And Shana boasting to the new hatchling; 'Hey, you, you think you're so cool, huh, well it takes ME only 3 seconds to reach the sea from here mate'!!!

Hardcore Sara saying "Yeah, think you can catch me?!" I have no idea where she gets all her energy from - she walked the hills around Katelios one day then did Mt Aenos with me the next day!!

Will it rain?! Ask Camilla and Manu.

Yes, this was the night the zombies invaded, remember those weird animal noises coming from the swamp, well, these were our culprits!

Ha, ha!! Sorry about filling your inboxes - here they are!

For the majority of people who weren't there in September - you missed some breath-taking sunsets. This was taken from Mounda beach.

The hill above Katelios gave some great views

I liked this one particularly.

Sara and I walked 26 miles that day just to see Mt Aenos!! Crazy Spanish girl that she is!

You don't p*ss these guys off!

We led 13 tourists through Keffalonia's countryside, past some beautiful waterfalls and took the victim's, erm, sorry, tourist's money - not much though!

Do you like the sign Cleo and I painted?!

Some Keffalonia cats owned by the founder of the sea turtle project.

Well, we've all got to act the hippie and live in a tent at some point in our lives. Doctored t-shirt or no doctored t-shirt!

Aaron eatin some sand - hey, what was wrong with the stuff Shana and I cooked you on the beach hey?!!

This is Alexis on Mirtos Beach

Yes, this beach DOES exist and are these colours - I caught the splash of the wave!! (Yeah, after using up half the film trying to get the right picture!!)

Alexis at Mirtos with his Catalan friends.

Yep, the St. Tropez of N Keffalonia (with the prices that reflect it too!!)

This is Shana and Aaron on the beach we camped on.

That's all for now folks,

Blogs are the new fourth estate.

(i.e. 'first estate' is religion, 'second estate' for modern times is government and justice system, 'third estate' is the people, the 'fourth estate' is the watchdog over these things)

Blogs are doing (albeit exposing, exploring, holding institutions to account) what the papers should be doing but aren't.

Money, money, money.

Which will sell their paper; a sensationalist story or a more boring one that's no less important but doesn't have human interest, self interest or a story that comes from a press release (from the very institution they should be holding to account) giving journalists an easier time???

(I do not wish to demean journalists; they have their own constraints they must work within)

In my opinion, we (the UK, Europe, USA) have not struck the right balance between free market vs regulation. (Aha, that old chestnut!!. Read Das Kapital yourself - I ain't spouting it here!!

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

I see it's transcendance down to my own situation with my mother, i.e. my utter disappointment with the mental health services; who do little, change little for my mother, have been found to be obstructive and patronising. Their excuse being to not create a dependency on anything at all, (drugs, home help, talking to someone) i.e. "feel like committing suicide?", "living in absolute hell daily?", "shaking with anxiety?" We won't do anything for you when you feel your worst, no, we'll just do nothing. Well, when CAN anyone have drugs, have home help, talk to someone then? When they're OK? When it's too late? When you're dead? OUTRAGEOUS!!
Why? Because it boils down to money, honestly, it does - I'll expand when I can articulate my thought process more clearly.

My concluding point is that blogs are not all money-driven, they are driven by thought, passion, compassion, anger, reason, the need for debate, sorrow; and sometimes if it is just 'feeling' driven - all the more effective it is at getting to the crux of a matter.

So there.

New soap for all those dirt lovin, down with the kids, blaspheming their way into the can...

"Wash yer mouth out ©"

Whadderya think??!!

Pretty cool, huh?!

Hmmmmm...

Off to the Ghurka Kitchen tonight (a restaurant); just a practice run, you must understand, for the Nepal travel bit of our trip, of course!

A Ghurka Sword...
(needless to say - keep on the right side of the chef!!)

Til the next time...

OK, so the pros and cons, just to put it on 'paper', of the following are:

A) RTW ticket:
On this you select flights to/from several countries you want to visit, you pay before you go and can change dates. The ticket must be used 12 months from 1st departure flight.

Good quality/ value companies I would recommend are:

1. www.travel-nation.co.uk (as good as below travelbag and cheaper!)
2. www.travelbag.co.uk (v well-travelled and so well-informed staff slightly higher prices)
3. www.roundtheworldflights.com (good basic sort of co)

Pros -
1. Great cos you know how much money you have left to play about with while away
2. Fairly good value
3. Have proof of onward travel when entering other countries
4. You feel like it's all organised and you only have to waoory about what you gonna do when you get there.

Cons -
1. If decide that don't want to go/ can't go to one or two of the destinations, you can't get refund; you have to take the flights
2. If you want to be away for more than a year, you can't as it's only valid for 12 months
3. Miss out on spur-of-the-momentism

B.)Only buy outward ticket, buy others on the way during travelling: Say you arrive in Thailand, and are bowled over by the charm of Laos, but need proof of your onward journey - simple, just buy a refundable flight while in Thailand, from Laos to wherever!

Pros -
1. Absolute FREEDOM!!! So you don't pass up any opportunity cos you gotta catch that flight you bought earlier! And the things that are waiting to discover you, you're likely to experience, cos you haven't planned too much!

Cons -
1. May be a bit more expensive way to do it than RTW, though i've heard it can be cheaper to buy flights once you're there - as local travel agents know the best deals in their area better than a UK one. ( You always have back up of credit card, which can be repaid once back in the job market. This also assumes you want to return to the commercial 'survival of the fitest' frenzy...)
2. More open to scams perhaps???!

I want to choose (B.), though as I have little debt (except student loan), the credit cards were for emergency use where debit cards wouldn't work, and could be paid off from my back up funds, but if back-up funds are exhausted, cos I bought flights etc, then I can't pay off the credit cards, damn, damn, damn....

Aaaaah (Brainwave!!) Mr. Manager HSBC likes me, he speaks French and has helped me out in much more impoverished studenty times, aaah!!! Yesss, a visit to the bank is due, for a look at the old overdraft facility... still has to be paid back though... but no time constraint.... hmmm.

I have just finished reading Rebecca, by Daphe Du Maurier.

The rhythm of the book reflected well the events. It did annoy me at times - I got so angry with the heroine! - when she gave in to Mrs Danvers' goading of her and made her own assumptions about Rebecca.

OK, now I have have my own take on it, but why do YOU think Du Maurier never revealed the name of her heroine???!

Ha, Ha!

At last I have loads of images which unveil the once in a lifetime experience that meant a lot to me with a little explanation underneath. (How corny does that sound?!!) As you know I went to Keffalonia for 2 months as a sea turtle volunteer, here it goes...

So yes, dawn on Mounda. This sight we took in every day! Us, sea turtle volunteers, had just walked the beach you see before you, a 7 km stretch, that we patrolled there and back every day. We scouted across the sand for evidence of new nests, hatched ones and picked up litter (great one for the CV, maybe not, and that wasn't the point!)

The volunteer briefing... Manu, the chap in red at the far end of the table, is the most laid-back philosophical Italian I have ever met, well compared to the 1 or 2 Italian sleaze bags I have met anyway! I'm the one in the pink top, 3rd in on the left side of the table. We all gathered here every night, ate dinner together, laughed together, and chatted. Manu gave us updates and advice on procedures such as excavations or told us off for not writing down our results yet!! Meanwhile, I enjoyed being able to use my french and some spanish as some of the volunteers came from Catalonia and Madrid. I'll introduce you to some of them once the other pics are ready.

This was our rota and Manu's nightmare! Volunteers stayed for 1 or 2 months, but of course they arrived at different times; I'm glad I didn't have the rota as one of my tasks! The tasks involved campsite cleaning, patrolling, tourist information/ education and beach cleans.

The dining area was where everything went on. You could always just go there, (not when you're working of course!) sit, relax, read, and people come and go, who you drift into conversation with. Or you can stay silent, eavesdrop a little (!), re-fashion your volunteer t-shirt so it actually fits!! Then make a gypsy head-band out of the cut off sleeves!! (My t-shirt was the last one and an XL, RIDICULOUS!)

This was the small colourful kitchen where 2 people would cook for 20 on a budget of 20 euros!! With many of the volunteers being marine biology students/ zoology students, they were mostly vegetarian, so it was mostly lentils and having to be create tons of things to do with tinned tomatoes, potatoes, rice or pasta! We actually came up with some tasty things. I'll leave the recipes later.

This was an excavation; the volunteers dug down to the nest, where there were often 100 Loggerhead turtle eggs. We measure the nest, note down the numbers of infected eggs, deaths, live hatchlings, unfertilised eggs etc, erase any tracks to the sea and fill the hole again.

This was the last beach party (not on Mounda, as it's a protected turtle beach) - All of them were very bad for my health... and my memory!! (I wonder why?!) This was near the start and the music hadn't arrived yet - A must-have at any beach party if no-one has a guitar! I may tell one of the stories... watch this space!

I'm losing my patience now, so I shall return fairly soon, with more stories and pictures... wait til you see the sunset!