Welsh WASTAG

Work colleagues suprised me with variant of the stag night - the WASTAG. Women Accompanied STAG. They say a picture tells a thousand words so.....

......say no more.

The English

Listen to this guy carefully. These people once ruled an empire on which the sun never went down...

That's right, Liverpool is covered in statues of lambs with bananas coming out of their rear ends........The English.

Nature and Stuff

Meant to post this a while back. Not a whole lot to say here just thought I'd put up some pictures from a waterfall hike we took with some work friends. They forgot to mention it would be a five hour hike up a mountain. Anyway just some pictures of the countryside to show you what Wales looks like.

Laying low

Ok, again I've been slack in posting updates on what we're doing. Quick summary;

Went to see Underworld play at a festival called Escape in the Park. Have wanted to see Underworld for years. Leftfield are next on the list whilst here. Here's some film of Born Slippy (that Trainspotting track).








I also managed to win 10 pound at the festival by proving to some friends that I could convince one of the police to let me wear their funny hat. I was told that there was no way they would let me, they never do and get annoyed when you ask. So I immediately went and asked one and he basically told me where to go. I then noticed an older looking Policeman wearing a normal hat nearby and so I decided to approach him (I should add that I was in a pretty good state at this stage):


Me: Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you but why do you get to wear a normal hat when all the other guys have to wear those stupid looking ones?
Policeman: Because I'm the Inspector
Me: What does that mean?
Policeman: I'm in charge
Me: Really, does that mean you could make one of those other guys give me their silly hat so I can get a photo?
Policeman: Where are you from?
Me: Australia!
Policeman: What are you doing here?
Me: I heard Wales was a great place to visit (lying), so I'm visiting. So can you get me a hat?
Policeman: Yes, I guess if I wanted to (looking very amused at this stage)
Me: Can you?
Policeman: OK.
Me: Can you make that guy over there give me his (pointing to the officer who told me where to go)?




At this point he turns to one of his sidekicks, mumbles something to her and tells me to follow her. She is clearly not happy about this. So I follow her over to the officer who told me where to go.


Policewoman: "The inspector says you have to give this fool your hat and let him have his photo taken"
NowveryangrylookingrudePoliceman: "You're kidding"
Policewoman: "No, I'm serious"
Menowbeingacompletesmartarse: "Here, you just have to press this button on top of my camera..."

Madelene went back to Sweden a few weeks back as her registration to work STILL hasn't come through. She's getting wedding stuff organised and coming back to Cardiff with me after the wedding. Went to visit her last weekend and the trip included taking 36 hours to get from Cardiff airport to Gothenburg airport (usually a 3 hour trip), loosing a legal document I had to hand in at Gothenburg for us to be legally married in Amsterdam, almost getting detained by Dutch Customs agents for forcing may way back into a restricted customs area at Amsterdam airport looking for said document, making a KLM airlines representative cry whilst looking for said document, finding said document and being told never to come back to Amsterdam airport again by airport security. Wedding in 3 weeks, will be seeing a few of you soon.

Our Apartment

Just a quick video to show what our apartment in Cardiff Bay looks like.

All quiet on the Welsh front.

In response to Goldy’s question “Jonah, how is it in Whales?”...............pretty quiet actually. All has been quiet on the blog front as I really haven’t had much of interest to report and after my last entry was slammed by a certain Scottish blog critic I thought I’d keep quiet. There are no toilet stories here either Mal so you can stop reading now. We’ve moved out of the cupboard in Grungetown, the prostitutes that were working on our street weren’t the friendliest of neighbours. We’ve moved into a much bigger apartment in Cardiff Bay and they only way the neighbours bother us here is by setting off the fire alarm. The wedding is 9 weeks away so we’re just laying low and organising the apparently endless list of details that a wedding involves. In hindsight, organising to get married in Sweden whilst we live in Wales after just moving from Australia........real stupid. Have been heading out on the weekends to various pubs and clubs. There is no doubt that the Welsh make Australians look like lightweights in the drinking department. Remember what Jooce Nightclub used to look like at 5am......Cardiff looks like that by 6:30pm on a Friday. We headed out last Friday not realising that 60,000 Munster fans (Munster as in the Irish rugby club) were descending on Cardiff for the Heineken cup. We were in a packed pub chatting away to the supporters and all was going well.....until a Munster supporter told Madelene she looked like the kind of woman that enjoyed body contact. Then we had to go home. This is him, don't know how she resisted his Irish charm.

Birthday at Plas Llanmihangel

Madelene's birthday was on the 25th so I surprised her with a weekend at Plas Llanmihangel, an old Norman Knight's manor that was built in 1166. We struck it lucky and were the only people staying there for the weekend meaning that we pretty much had access to the huge place on our own. The manor sits about 30 minutes west of Cardiff outside of a market town called Cowbridge. The current owners bought it when it was derelict and it has taken them 21 years to restore. Ironically, now that they have restored it completely at their own expense the government has listed it as a heritage building and they now aren't allowed to touch any part of it without government approval. Gotta be happy with that.

We're still living in the cupboard in Cardiff but have found a number of bigger, better apartments to inspect this week so hopefully we'll be moving on up in a week or so. Unlike Melbourne there appears to be an oversupply of rental apartments and we've been told we can negotiate rent, lease length and bond quite easily. We also went out in Cardiff on the Friday night for the first time and discovered that it has an absolutely cranking night life. There were people everywhere dressed up as super heroes, pirates, cartoon characters and all sorts of things. When I asked someone if it was a special occasion they replied "Yeah......it's Friday". Awesome.

We're in Caerdydd

We're in Cardiff (Caerdydd), Wales! We've been here for just over two weeks and due to lack of Internet connection I've been slow in posting something on this site about it. So where's Wales? Wales is part of the United Kingdom and Cardiff is the capital. What does wales have? Well, it has the most castles of any country in Europe (photo taken from top of one of the Cardiff Castle towers), is apparently the birth place of rugby, has a team in the FA Cup Final this year in Cardiff City F.C. and has it's own unique language with words like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Seriously, that is actually the name of a town in Wales. Imagine the road signs. I'll get around to learning Welsh just after I tick Swedish off the list.

Why are we in Wales? Well, we wanted to try a few different places in the UK and I managed to get a job in Cardiff. I'm working with people who are intellectually disabled and also have a mental illness. Not the luckiest group of people in the world.
I'm working in a town 20 minutes north of Cardiff called Caerphilly and the second photo is a picture of Caerphilly castle. It's directly across the road from work and is what I look out on from my office window. Apparently it's the biggest castle in Europe, although I'm sure there's one bigger in Texas. In a nice contrast to working opposite the biggest castle in Europe we are currently staying in possibly the smallest apartment in Europe. To be forever referred to as "The Cupboard". The lounge/living/TV room is less than twice my arm span each way, so maybe 10ft x 10ft. The bedroom is in a loft so we have to climb stairs that are almost a ladder and there is a washing machine under the sink in the kitchen. Cosy. We're planning to stay in the cupboard until the wedding and then we'll either come back and get a decent apartment or leave Cardiff. Madelene is still waiting on her registration as a Social Worker to come through so she has plenty of spare time at the moment. In typical Madelene style she coped with spare time (read boredom) for a total of one day. So we're settled now for the time being and will start to explore Wales over the next few months. If the temperature ever gets above 10 degrees we might even go outside.

Q. What does Sweden & Canberra have in common?

A. LEGAL FIREWORKS!!

Here is an excerpt from a US warning on the dangers of fireworks:

U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATION FINDINGS
The Dangers of Fireworks 2007

· Fireworks were the cause of 13 fatalities, 8,500 injuries, 7,000 fires, & $40 million in property loss
· Males are three times more likely than females to be injured.
· 92% of accidents involving fireworks are associated with the excessive consumption of alcohol.

So.......for Easter Madelene's three brothers and myself pollished off the 1.5 litre bottle of O.P. Bundy I brought across from OZ and set off a small arsenal of fireworks in the front yard...next to a fire. We managed to buck the trend and avoided fatalities, injuries, fires and property damage, however the bottle of Bundy resulted in the regular evoking of Mike "don't look at me I'm ugly in the morning" Patton the next day. But I guess it mostly came out as "titta inte på mig jag är ful på morgonen". Not sure if that has quite the same ring to it.

I hear it is hot in Oz

Apparently it was 35 degrees + in Oz over the last few days. Well this it what it looked like this morning in Onsala, Sweden. Temperature gauge says it is 0.4 degrees and Madelene assures me that this amount of snow is minimal. I commented that the snow was beautiful and Madelene's mum looked at me like I'd used the kitchen sink as a toilet. Apparently people who live in the snow aren't particularly fond of it. Oh, and I ate Moose Pie the other night for dinner. Doesn't taste like chicken.

Stockholm Syndrome

Well I'm finally in Europe. Quick summary of what it is like to try and move your life o.s. - it absolutley sucks golfballs. I hope that if I ever tell Madelene to head off 1 month before me while 'I take care of it all' that someone hears me, stops, and slaps me across the face with a large cold trout.

The flight over wasn't too bad. I was all set to try and convince Malaysia Airlines that I was recovering from a major knee injury (even walked up to the counter with a limp) and that I therefore needed to be seated in an aisle and in front of an exit, but they just changed my seat anyway. Important point in the future - ALWAYS request a seat in front of an exit. I had toyed with the idea of telling them it was a war wound, have to try that regardless some day. They did loose my lugagge though, apparently it's in SE Asia somewhere. Hopefully it makes an appearance as I am travelling pretty light otherwise. Oh, and for all those budding drug mules out there Sweden appears to have no customs process. Just walk on in. I did see an x-ray machine at one stage but it had a flower pot sitting on it so I guess it doesn't get used a whole lot.

I wanted to bring Madelene's brother's over some Aussie booze so I brought them a large bottle of Bundy O.P. Rum. She informs me that the fact that I have brought them something which I myself absolutely refuse to drink may be taken in somewhat of a negative manner. Bit precious the Swedes.

So, we're in Stockholm and are heading down to Gotebörg on the train. I think we'll probably float around there for a couple of weeks before we go over to the UK. I'm so glad they're having their warmest summer in 100 years here......it's currently 2 degrees.

Meredith Music Festival 2007

Never heard of Meredith Music Festival? Then give yourself a wedgie. MMF is a music festival that has been running for about 17 years in farmland a couple of hours south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The festival literally started off as a small group of friends getting together for a weekend and has grown to a 10,000 strong event that attracts bands from all over world. Why is it such a great event? A few reasons; 1) Great selection of eclectic music ranging from hip hop, metal, folk, punk, grunge to stuff that is so weird that I couldn't even begin to categorise it. 2) Incredible friendly atmosphere - I have been for the last 9 years and have never seen or heard of a single piece of aggro. Security is barely visible at all and people feel very safe and comfortable. I've spent many a Meredith night wandering from campsite to campsite meeting new people who always welcome you in. 3) You can take your own booze. That's right. Where else does that happen? This stems from the fact that the organisers go to great lengths to maintain the great atmosphere and don't just chase the buck. The numbers are actually capped at 10,000 maximum. One year it went to 12,000 but they decided to restrict it to 10,000 as they felt 12,000 was getting a little busy. 4) Anything goes. Anything. The crowd of people is incredibly diverse ranging from people looking for a relaxing weekend listening to music to people looking to go hard for the entire weekend. It's quite common to find people who stay up for the entire weekend - Fri afternoon to Sunday evening. Not easy. 5) Great location with one stage so you don't have to spend the entire weekend hiking around the place. We are usually able to camp in a nice shaded spot about 5 min walk from the main stage.

Meredith has become a highlight of the year for many people with the 2007 festival selling out in 4 minutes. You become fanatical about it. The guy in the photo is a friend of mine who moved to Dubai last year. He still made it this year. Many people fly interstate from around Australia to attend.

I could keep talking the festival up for pages. If you ever find yourself in Melbourne in early December getting to Meredith is a must. Check out the website http://www.mmf.com.au/.