Whoa!burn Abbey

Today was a bank holiday so in the afternoon I drove out to a little place called Woburn, not too far from MK. The current Duke of Bedford has a nice little house out there which he lets people wander through, after taking the 15minute drive up the driveway. No wonder he has a helicopter to get around in. Although it was quite nice to drive through the grounds, lots of deer prancing around. There's a tally at the gate which tells you how many deer have been killed on the driveway this year. It was about 20 or so from memory. I wonder if the Duke gets to eat them if they've been killed on his property?


Movie of front(0.7mb)
Movie of courtyard(0.9mb)

As you'll see from the photos it's not exactly small and half of it was demolished in the 1940's for some reason. Unfortunately I couldn't take photos inside which housed an amazing collection of art, sculptures, dinner sets and all sorts of other things that had some connection to royalty.





On the way home I also stopped by a nice old church.





And I also saw another canal boat. This time it was at a lock, but this wasn't an ordinary lock this one had 3 levels! Figure that out!


Oh I also forgot to mention that I bought a car on Saturday too. A blue Ford Focus pick it up in about a week.

Oxford rains

Drove down to Oxford today, just for something to do. Quite a nice little place, besides the weather. It rained or drizzled for most of the day and when it wasn't raining the sky was so cloudy it made everything look really flat. Not good for photos. But here are some anyway. Just roll your mouse over for a desciption.










I've also got some more canal boat shots for you Dad. Enjoy.



On the way home I also saw this driveway. Apparently if you look closely enough there is actually a house at the end! Then there was a field, and the last shot is the car I did the shooting from, the push start Renault. No I didn't have to push it along the road before starting it(surprising for a Renault) You put a card in a slot in the dash then pushed a button. Ingenious really!

my World Vision is....

Started work today. The first shock(which I actually experienced from my brief visit last wednesday) was that there were no partitions or offices! Everyone's just out in the open. My boss was in London today so just sat around and played with things and met people most of the day. Movie of the office(1.6mb)

Tonight I moved into a different place through connections with a church I had contacted before I left. The room's in a house owned by Martin and another guy David(who works at WV) also lives there. It's still a temporary place until I find somewhere permanent to live, but should do okay in the short term.

Milton Keyless

Finally arrived in London. Picked up my luggage, then headed to customs. It took a while but was all reasonably easy. Then I went to get my car. Ended up choosing a little Renault Clio with sunroof and Air/Con. Then off to Milton Keynes.

After about 1 1/2hrs I arrived in Milton Keynes and headed to the real estate agents to pick up the keys. What!? You havn't got the keys? I was supposed to be using a friends house for a few weeks which had just sold and was getting settled sometime mid-September. Apparently the new tenants had decided to settle early so they could move in and start painting. This left me without a place to stay. So the only other people I knew were work people so rang them then drove out to work. Luckily someone there had a spare room which I could use. So headed there to change and get over the flight.

I did a bit of driving and as Dad wanted some photos of canal boats I went and hunted some down and found some nice trees while I was at it.

Thai me down

Well the first stop after leaving Melbourne was Bangkok, Thailand. This place really stinks, and I mean that literally. I arrived sometime close to midnight and went straight to the hotel(this was the view[movie - 1m]). The next day(9th August) I ventured out to see what Bangkok had to offer and experienced a sensory overload. Smells, wafting up from drains, loud noises from tuktuks flying past, lots of people, rushing over there, there, there even there.

First thing I decided to do was go and see some sights(shopping could wait) So I caught the train to the river to take a cruise. This cruise had about 15-20 stops where you could get off and see the sights then get back on again.

I was really only interested in seeing a big Buddha and some fancy temple type buildings so got off at the stop that had one of each. After a short walk I entered a big room(without my shoes) that had a huge Buddha reclining inside. I was intrigued to know how he got in because none of the doors were big enough. I can only assume he wasn't so big when he went in? The photos don't quite show how big it was as I deliberately cropped the tourists out. But it was huge.



Then I wandered around the grounds of the temple and talk about Mosaic tiles, these guys have mosaic'ed this whole place. Pretty shoddy job though, I'll remember not to get them to do my bathroom. They were crooked, they'd used cracked tiles, and their choice of colours eeek.



After I'd seen enough I grabbed some food at a restaurant all for the exhorbitant price of about $2. And just in time for the rain to come. When there was a break in the rain I dashed back to the boat and headed back to town. When I got back I had a wander through MBK(a massive shopping centre) before getting some food and heading back to the hotel.

The next morning I extended my stay for another 1/2 a day which meant I didn't have to leave my luggage and precious saxophones in the lobby until 10pm. It also meant I could use the room to shower in after walking around all day in the heat.

After this I walked up to something park, past some huge hotels and consulates. It was quite a nice park but the water in the lakes was a really eerie green colour. After this I walked to some more shopping type roads and walk past heaps of people trying to sell me stuff. Naked girls seem to be the most popular, or the hardest to sell, one or the other because I was constantly hassled by people selling them.


Then I have this kid come up and start chatting to me and decides to help show me to a shopping centre where I can get everything. So we walk a little way down a road toward what legitimately looks like the back of a large shopping centre. Ends up being this little room really well set up with lots of jewelry and fabrics and things but after a quick look I decide I'd been had. Little jerk, if anyone sees him when their in Bangkok tell him to watch out. He was kind of short and had dark hair.

So then I headed back to MBK to see what I could buy at crazy bargain basement prices. Only got a few things, including some bathers which I then went back to the hotel and used. I figured I should try out a tuktuk so rather than taking the train decided to catch one of these. That was en experience - check it out here[movie - 1mb].


That night I had dinner at a what was sort of the Bangkok Le Restaurant equivalent. It was just across from the hotel and had an awesome view and a guy on a piano singing along to dodgy midi backing tracks. The best part was the whole meal cost me about $25 and half of that was the wine.


So after the meal I went back to the hotel to get my gear then headed to the airport. Next stop London.

First one

This is when I got on the plane. And this is my blog. Click on the pictures for larger versions. You can also sometimes mouse over it to see a description. There are also some links to movies within the text.

You can post a comment by clicking on the 'Comments' link. To do it without signing in just click on the 'Or Post Anonymously' link below the button. But remember to put your name in it so I know who it's from.

jas