Auslander -

2011-12-22T13:47:00.003Z

Leaving work at 1630 to go out to central London west end, just had a two hour lunch break as its Christmas hours; looked at some furniture as moving to Crystal Palace end of January.

Well, I had some good holidays in 2011, Caribbean cruise in Jan, sailed to the Bahamas, U.S Virgin islands, Puerto Rico and Turks and Caicos islands. Easter went to Budapest then a train to Vienna, May went to Gothenburg and Zurich, took a train to Rapperswil and Lucerne and Rhein falls.
Then flew home to Perth in June for my 40th birthday, two weeks.
In August went to Malta and Nov a week in Gran Canaria.
Off to Berlin for new years eve!!!!

The Prussia cultural holiday.....

2010-07-06T19:06:00.005+01:00

Ive always wanted to see the palaces and trappings of the royalty of Prussia, now present day Germany. These kings and queens lived a life of luxury filling the town of Potsdam in present day Brandenburg, Germany with palaces, parks, statues and fountains.

I finally went to see it all in June this year.

Potsdam has the same status that Windsor has in the U.K and Versailles has in France.
A royal residence away from the respective capitals - surprisingly everyone knows where Windsor and Versaille are and what they represent but few have heard of Potsdam.

Potsdam is a beautiful city, so meticulously done up and its hard to believe it was in such a bad state when it was behind the iron curtain from 1945 to 1990. There are few signs of the grey colourless world of the German Democratic Republic. You do see tall high rise council flats surrounding the city but even these have been spruced up.

Berlin, of course this city is amazing, seeing the two halves of the former divided city join together - walking around Berlin is like walking through 5 different cities.

You have Berlin buildings from the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) the Third Reich (1933–1945),
East Berlin (Soviet Puppets 1945 to 1990) West Berlin (Allied American British and French 1945 to 1990) and finally the new Berlin (1990 to the present)

This city has survived so many moments but it has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of hatred and war. It is the here and now, past and future.

Dresden was almost destroyed in World war two, now it is rebuilding, 20 years after the iron curtain it is still going through a long process of reconstruction and rebuilding.

The baroque buildings are burned black from World War two. I feel this city lost its soul in 1945

and it will take many years not just its appearance but the people who live day by day as well.

anyways, enjoy my photos!

x

2010-07-05T13:00:00.002+01:00

The Synagogue in Berlin, reconstructed, burned by the Nazis on the night of long knives.

Coloured tiles in

Hackescher Markt

Under the Brandenburg gate looking towards the Reichstag.

Tiergarten

The television tower in Alexanderplatz.

Western Caribbean cruise sailing........

2009-09-13T22:51:00.004+01:00

Missing the cruise! Was looking at photos of it today.

Sailed from Miami to Grand Cayman, Roatan Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel,Mexico.

7 nights on the Carnival Valor.

2008-09-03T19:00:00.001+01:00

Tonight I had Chantal over for dinner. Cooked Cow swear. We had wine as well.

2008-08-15T20:00:00.002+01:00

Tonight, I fly to Athens in Greece. Tomorrow I sail on Easycruise, sailing to
Kalmynos, Bodrum, Kos, Paros, Mykonos and Syros.
2 nights in Athens later.

Park Plaza Olympics

2008-08-08T18:00:00.002+01:00

This weekend, The park plaza hotel is hosting a stay and a treasure hunt, similar to the AMAZING RACE.

Stayed at the Park Plaza County Hall which is superb. They had a Brazil theme party on the balcony, with dancers and all were dressed in beach gear.

Perth, Australia 2008

2008-03-14T13:30:00.000Z

Today I flew to Perth my old home town for two weeks.
Flew with Emirates airlines.

2008-02-29T20:00:00.001Z

Tonight, flew to Dublin with Ryanair for 2 nights.

2008-01-11T18:00:00.001Z

Tonight I flew to Cologne for 2 nights with Easyjet.
stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. saw cathedral and old town.

2007-08-10T18:00:00.000+01:00

Tonight flew to Zagreb, Croatia for a week.

Oscars Awards night Cranky Yankees

2007-07-13T09:01:00.000+01:00

Tonight at work we have our annual awards night, In Vauxhall at the Riverbank Park Plaza hotel. It is a masquerade ball, so we all bought masks to paint and wear.

Robin (Craig) and Darren (Captain America)

2006-12-17T11:50:00.000Z

Robin (Craig) and Darren (Captain America)

Spit roasting AND stuffing the Christmas turkey

2006-12-15T08:43:00.000Z

Spit roasting AND stuffing the Christmas turkey

LOVE THE SIGN!!!!!

2006-12-15T08:30:00.000Z

Love the Sign!

Stuffing the Christmas turkey

2006-12-15T07:33:00.001Z

Stuffing the Christmas turkey
!!!!!!

2006-12-15T07:11:00.000Z

Captain America gets in touch with his feminine side!

The Masked Zorro and Julian

2006-12-15T06:35:00.000Z

Work Christmas party , Yates pub, Croydon

2006-12-15T06:30:00.000Z

Well! 2 of us showed up dressed the same, Myself and Cedric as Zorro!

Work Party Yates Croydon

2006-12-15T06:27:00.000Z

Captain America attempts to assasinate Zorro.

Work Party Yates Croydon

2006-12-14T18:59:00.000Z

Work Party Yates Croydon

2006-12-14T18:30:00.000Z

The Coats came early, got really drunk and fell all over each other.

Work Party Yates Croydon

2006-12-14T18:29:00.000Z

Captain America!!!!

Qatar Airways Party Soho

2006-11-22T06:35:00.000Z

We went as the Spice Girls, Ginger and Sporty won prizes!

left to right -
Me, Eleana, Lisa, Darren and Leanne.

Darren wins

2006-11-22T06:00:00.000Z

Adventures in Prague

2006-09-25T06:35:00.000+01:00

I landed in Prague flying Germanwings 4U 2770, at 14.45. It took ages for my baggage to come out on the conveyor belt. After bussing to the train stattion for only 20 krowns, I caught the train to Karlova Namesti. This was just near the river. After checking into the hostel, i lay down on my bed, it is a mixed 5 bed dorm. The place is fairly clean but totally bare and lacks atmosphere. After nightfall I walked down to Wencelas Square.

2006-08-01T01:13:00.000+01:00

This is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts, birthplace in Salzburg. He was Austrias biggest rock star of the 1700´s. Austria have struggled with rock stars ever since.

Going back to Germany

2006-08-01T00:03:00.000+01:00

Today I stopped off in Salzburg on my way back to Germany for two hours.
What a nice city! Here is me in one of the many town squares.

2006-07-12T23:59:00.000+01:00

Today I set out for my trip to Croatia. Had to drive south through Germany, Austria, Slovenia.
Love the castle on the mountain top!

The infamous Trabant.....

2006-07-08T23:24:00.000+01:00

Today I went to rubble mountain in Stuttgart, (the remains of the bombed buildings were piled on top of each other and filled with earth and trees to create an artificial mountain.)
Next thing you know, I saw a Trabant for the first time. It is a cold war symbol of the former GDR (East Germany). It rarely worked very well, and everyone in East Germany had one. It was also exported to other Eastern Bloc Countries. I wish the sun hadnt been shining in this photo as a cloudy day would better symbolise the grey , colourless world of the GDR.
The Trabant's body panels were made of duroplast, which is plastic containing resin mixed with cotton! The reason for my fascination with this car is because of U2`s album "Achtung Baby" which shows the band riding in a Trabant in the albums artwork.

They also had 10 trabants suspended above them for their multi media Zoo TV tour.

World Cup - Stuttgart ist viel schöner als Berlin!!!!

2006-07-08T08:05:00.000+01:00

This is all of us in Stuttgarts town centre, to watch the video screens for the world cup.

A lot of national pride!

Germany won against Portugal.

2006-05-03T06:16:00.000+01:00

This is Cottesloe Beach , Perth . Have spent many a sunday here!

Three logs

2006-05-03T06:15:00.000+01:00

This is three logs, a place on the Canning River in Perth, Western Australia. As you can see there are only two logs left.

2006-04-24T01:05:00.000+01:00

The brewery in Margaret River......

South west

2006-04-23T04:03:00.000+01:00

This is our chalet in Mandurah,
it rained like hell!

Travelling the south west of W.A.....

2006-04-22T23:01:00.000+01:00

A milestone ...i went to Margaret river wa! Never been before.

Well, everyone travels all over the world first before you see your own backyard.

Back Home to Perth!!!!

2006-04-07T16:15:00.000+01:00

My first time home in 2.5 years.....The flight was 10 hours late,

do not fly Air New Zealand they are fucked!!!!

Models party!

2006-03-04T08:20:00.000Z

Amelia Toby and I went to a party on the fourth floor of an apartment
overlooking the city.
Cool!

Sydney !

2006-03-02T20:11:00.000Z

Sydney from the plane window....
Opera house and harbour bridge middle view
Im Home!!!!! Yay!

Back to the magical land of oz( 3 nights)

2006-03-02T19:25:00.000Z

Bliss.

The company I work for gave a free airline ticket to everyone to go to Sydney.
perfect opportunity to go to the motherland and party!

The airline is Lan Chile, the national airline of Chile, South America.
As they have joined the One World alliance, they have really improved.
However the food wasnt that great but it was a new aircraft and the best thing is you can watch movies in your time with your choice to stop and start if you are eating. I woke at 1.45am Fri 3 mar and my flight was at 545am.
because there was no traffic I was at the airport in 20 minutes!
Way too early. I checked in and the staff were quite grumpy and I packed my lighter into my cargo suitcase rather stupidly so had to unpack then and there and find it. Auckland airport is rather nice and I watched the news for awhile.
Dont we all just love filling out immigration cards?
The flight was full - surprsing for the time of the morning. I watched the Dukes of Hazzard which is nowhere near as bad as everyone says it is!
The flight path meant We flew past the city and could see all of the harbour
bridge and opera house.
Bought some duty free ciggies and it took ages to get through customs and immigration as many flights had landed.

The Original Backpackers provided a free shuttle from the airport which saved a few p[ennies. Its a great older style mansion on Victoria Street in Potts Point.
My room wasnt ready on check in as I was so early.The place was full of English, Canadian and Germans. They were preparing to have party, with decorations and wine and beer for $5 a head that night.
(No surprise, we're in Sydney!

Roast Chicken for Dinner

2006-02-20T08:32:00.000Z

Today I ate roast chicken for dinner filled with stuffing made of
chestnuts, celery and eggs and breadcrumbs. Auckland is so exciting that
I had to write what i had for dinner.

Groove in the Park

2006-02-06T00:52:00.000Z

Today I am going to the Groove in the Park festival in Aucklands Domain park. Its put on by George Fm radio. Don´t know if I can be bothered though as I think I have heatstroke from going to Waiheke Island yesterday! We went down at 4pm, bit late.

Wedding is off

2006-01-08T09:37:00.000Z

The wedding I was going home for is now POSTPONED. !

Back to a five day week!

2006-01-08T09:27:00.000Z

Tomorrow its back to a five day working week. Last two weeks have been 3 day working weeks due to the silly season. Its gonna be hard to get motivated believe me!
Friday night was cool, first we went to Joanne and Chris` house and had some wine and cheese.
Then we all went lawn bowling, sounds dull right? it was actually quite fun, like standing on top of a giant pool table! but there were no old people there and I was hoping to play some and have a stir. It had an old pub that hadnt been redecorated since the sixties...in fact it looked like a
1960´s airport lounge. Helena, Andrew, and a lot of Jo and Chris friends were there. it was all for jo´s birthday. Then we all went back to ´Jo´s house and drank a lot of Jagermeister - yuk!
tastes like cough medicine. We all then went to the Met bar - really opulent.
Saturday we got to bed at 530am so the whole day was a write off.
Today went to Breakfast at Dennys and St Lukes shopping mall.

Not long to go........

2006-01-02T10:13:00.000Z

well well well......
Christmas and New years is over for another year. Early days of a new year are alway really dull
arent they? It has been 2.5 years since i left Perth and so much has happened. Have met tons of people,
have travelled around Australia in the style of an international backpacker therefore getting a
completely different point of view of my own homeland. Lived in a huge old colonial style hostel in Brisbane for 3 months which was a great adventure!
Here´s a pick of me with 2 dear friends, Rob and Nikki - a Canadian couple who I loved with
in Melbourne near St Kilda!

2005-05-27T08:07:00.000+01:00

Ritz Carlton pool

2005-05-26T22:54:00.000+01:00

Kuta Beach

2005-05-26T10:32:00.000+01:00

Indonesian king prawns yum! Lunch at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua

2005-05-26T04:08:00.000+01:00

Ritz Carlton pool view

2005-05-26T03:10:00.000+01:00

View from the Ritz Carlton hotel cliff top....

2005-05-26T03:08:00.000+01:00

Stunning over the cliffs in Bali.......

2005-05-23T00:01:00.000+01:00

sunny day

2005-05-22T11:49:00.000+01:00

Oona and me

2005-05-22T11:47:00.000+01:00

Spotlight on the ocean at night, with Hindu altar covered in sea mist.....

2005-05-22T01:59:00.000+01:00

Entrance to Nusa Dua beach

2005-05-22T00:08:00.000+01:00

Nusa Dua beach deckchairs....

2005-05-21T22:27:00.000+01:00

Conrad hotel pool view

2005-05-21T22:25:00.000+01:00

Conrad hotel

2005-05-21T22:06:00.000+01:00

Pool at Aston Villa hotel

2005-05-21T21:50:00.000+01:00

Tanjung Benoa beach front from Aston Bali hotel....

2005-05-21T21:46:00.000+01:00

At the Oasis Resort, Tanjung Benoa. (South Bali)

2005-05-21T21:41:00.000+01:00

These are pics from my Bali trip May 2005, This is the pool at the Oasis Tanjung Benoa...

2004-06-05T20:00:00.002+01:00

Tonight, I left Melbourne for good. Flew into Cairns to live and work for the Northern winter.
My former house mate Ashleigh is flying with me. We landed and stayed at the Cairns International Hostel. Went out for a drink later.

Melbourne

2004-05-22T16:01:00.000+01:00

Tonight, Rob, Andi and I went on a boys night out. We ended up very drunk at a nightclub called "A Bar called Barry" in Collingwood.
We met these people who proceeded to get blind drunk with us!

A Traveller´s Tale

2003-09-16T12:50:00.000+01:00

Hey!
I got itchy feet again, previously lived in London, England for 2 years. One day i woke up, decided i had enough of Perth, and booked a VirginBlue flight to Brisbane in 2 weeks time.
I didnt um and ah about it. I just do things and worry about what comes later.
Richard Branson says "Live for the present, and the future will take care of itself"
If you think things through too much, you may never do a lot of stuff you want to do.
No obstacles, just do it!