Hiking in the Peak District

With a few friends (Thomas & Yumi, Seb & Nat, Cris, myself), we head to the Peak District for the weekend. First, on Saturday we watch Yumi and Cris play the England Cup Final (equivalent of the FA Cup for volleyball).

Then Sunday early morning ... 11am ... heading to the Peak District for a day hike. What's the plan? Hike for 4-5 hours then head back to London in the evening. The forecast was : "Sun with a few clouds", but considering the extremely changing weather here, I would not trust them. They usually can't get the next day forecast right.

the reservoir at the beginning of the hike

Nico the sheep whisperer ... or Am I looking at it thinking I could turn it into a great roast!?

This way !! .... no the other way !!! .... Nooooo we are lost !!

Yumi always has an extra arm or two to help

I would not venture this way, you may go but I stay behind with the food

Seb! Your girlfriend isn't going to jump. She just enjoys the view from up there.

"I believe I can fly ...."

Almost at the top Thomas. So him, always want to be on top of everything

This is it! Almost over ... we now find our way back to the car.

Job Update

Good news on the job side of life. Yesterday, I got my first interview in 2 months with a french company, Sophis. Yipeee! Thank you to Risto who works there and knows everyone. They have a permanent position (not so lucky to have a contracting role yet) as an IT Technical Consultant. The job sounds great and interesting. What now? I am waiting for the next round and the HR interview. Fingers crossed !

When a good news doesn't arrive alone, I should also get an interview with another company (in the insurance industry) sometimes next week.

On top of that, to keep the moral right at the top, the weather is amazing at the moment in the UK : sunshine, 20 degrees temperatures (almost like in summer).

I am so excited right now. Not so much because I could have a job soon, but more because with a job, I will be able to buy a motorbike. He he! A Honda VFR 800 VTEC ... look at this one, doesn't it look gorgeous?
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikesforsale/searchresults/detail/?R=NXGN-7520882&mfy=

Updated pics of the flat

Now that everything is sorted, all the items out of the boxes, everything in the wardrobes ... I can show you the flat in its (most likely) definitive state. It has now been 1.5 month since I moved in, but only 3 weeks since I have my furnitures. Bloody movers ... yes they notified me, by sending a letter to the old address. So I didn't get any news, I waited, waited and waited. Of course, I was expecting a phone call, but nothing! Finally, I decided to contact the uk company. And you know what they said? "Oh yeah, we have had your stuff for 3 weeks now". Grrrrrr!!!

Zee Kitchen

Ze Living Room (thomas dvd's on the left - 163 so far, movie bean bag in the center)

Ze Living Room - part 2 (big plasma TV 42" and my dvd's below - only 147, so close but so far)

My bedroom (bright and sunny, with paintings I bought in Sydney a few years ago)

My London Bicycle

Atfer many requests from Jewlz to have a picture of my bike on this blog, here it is. Thanks to London thieves, I have had my lights stolen once (hopefully it will be the only time). My unlucky friend Seb got his stolen behind a gate and locked to a pole after only 1 week of ownership. If you ever have a bike in London, you better triple lock it, remove the wheels and seat, the chain and pedals .... basically within 2 weeks you are an expert in assembling it!


I forgot to mention that the frame is 22.5" tall (or 57 cm)

My London flat

I now have a flat in London and I moved in early March. So far, I haven't received my shipment from Australia and the main thing missing is my bed. So I have to sleep on the living room sofa. Luckily it's quite big and comfortable.
Then the view of the garden (shared between all the flats of the building) from our office/spare bedroom. It looks like no one is using it, so we already planned to do my 30th birthday in the garden.
The rest of the office with the desk and all kinds of maps attached to the wall to keep track of our journeys around the world.
And the wonderful bathroom with a spa. It feels "deja vu" as I had one in Melbourne too ... he he he!

House warming party at my house in 1.5 week ...

Back in London ... for now!

After 2 weeks in Australia of eating and meeting friends one last time, I finally arrived in London. Now with a flat to settle in (you don't know how good it feels to open the suitcases), a mobile phone to call friends (not many left after 3.5 years), and no job yet. Of course, London won't be the final stop, it is only a city for at least a year, 3 or 4 at max. Then what? Maybe more traveling, maybe France, maybe back in Melbourne ... Joker! I will decide that later! :-)

Food, food and more food in Hong Kong

Thank you to my friend Iris and Kathy who showed me Hong Kong from the local view. I should have stayed at least 8 days, but due to interviews in London I had to shorten my HK adventures to 4 days (from the 15th to 18th of Feb). But still, it was really worthwhile and I am happy I came. So what is so special in HK about food? I tried, for experiment, a couple of local dishes, such as Chicken Feet. I am sure you are wondering what can you eat and why in hell you would do that. Still, I had 1 foot and ... it was ok. Nothing bad, nothing exceptional, but good experience. Then later on, my worst fear was the "durian". This is the deadliest fruit ever by its smell and compared to that fruit a rat dead for 1 month smells good.
I stayed with Iris' family in the New Territories (north West), in Yuen Long. It is actually closer to China than it is to the CBD and no tourist can be found there, which means everything (except for the direction signs) was written in Chinese. That made it really challenging when I was hungry and wanted to order food in a restaurant. To resume the situation, I would say that my Sweedish is as good as my Chinese, it's null! Luckily I had my HongKongese friends with me who ordered everything and I just ate whatever was coming.
Let's face it, if you stay in a central part of Hong Kong, you will be fine as most of people will speak a langage that can be assimilated to english. However, if you get lost elsewhere ... you are fucked and start praying! However, people there are very friendly and helpful.

Pau and the Pyrenees

5 days in Pau with Yannick (my friend and flatmate from Nice). We spend a sporty weekend with fantastic weather as you can see on the pictures below. Starting with snow rackets, then snowbarding/skiing the next day, and indoor rock climbing the day after ... we well deserved a break with a spa/sauna session on the last day.
This is in this moment that you realise how small we are, but how great the nature is (i am only saying this words because of the lack of oxygen) ;-P

Marseille under heavy snow

After 10 days in Morocco, I head back to Marrakech airport, catch my flight and return to Marseille. However, my flight was canceled. The only flight of the day to Marseille was CANCELED. Noooooooooo! After discussing with other people like me and the airport employees, apparently Marseille airport is closed due to snow. I can believe it! It can't be true, we only get snow once every 20 years. Thank you to Royal Air Maroc who organised 4**** hotel and pickup from/to airport for absolutly nothing. A great way to finish the trip! Many airline would have told us to bugger off and do it ourselves. But Royal Air Maroc provided excellent service and efficiency.

The buzz of Marrakech

To describe Marrakech in a few words ... it's busy, noisy and not quite like the rest of Morocco.
We arrived there after 5 days in the wild, so the choc was extreme. We had peace, quiet and tranquility and we get noise and pollution. Starting with the big square in the middle of the city, Djemaa El Fna, where you have activities all day long. During the day, some locals make the snakes dance at the sound of their flute ; the food stands sell you dried fruits (dates, nuts, apricots, figues, ...).
At night, the square is transformed and many stands are setup to make food for both locals and tourists. On the side of that, the story tellers narrate fables or legend but you need to understand arabic to understand anything ... we didn't! :-(
And within the Medina (the old town), you find the souk and the narrow streets. A real (non organised) mess for the inexperienced eye. We navigated for about 1 hour in the streets, zig zagging between tourists, locals, mopeds, donkeys and un-defined things. Basically, the same kind of stores can be found every 10 meters (babouches, souvenirs, tajins and typical clothes).
But Marrakech is still an experience to live ... but not for too long. You can get dizzy quickly with this crowd and still we went there during a more quiet time. Not for faint hearted! But the best thing in Morocco is the bargaining. You can reduce the price 2 or 3 times easily. They don't mind and in the end everyone is happy. You think you made a bargain (even if it is not true) and the shop keeper sold you an item.