Happy 4th of July to all my friends back in the States! Sophie and I slept in and then went to the club to swim. We ended up calling her friend Rosie from the States who is spending the summer with her family visiting her grandparents in Beyrouth (as they spell it around here), to come swimming with us. We had a fun day and Sophie ended up swimming for 6 hours! Later Eddie's friends Lena and Laudi brought dinner to our house that they had prepared all day. They brought kibbeh neighe (like steak tarar) especially for Sophie. She was [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone, Just a quick hello to let you all know I'm fine and still alive. Having a blast over here!! Been all over the place, and just got back from a couple of days in Jerusalem!! Very cool and interesting I must say! We are back in Amman now, and will be til we leave. I leave here on Saturday, and have a few (13 hours) to kill whilst in Abu Dhabi airport, so I will try and fill you all in with all my adventures then. And then I'm off to Tokyo and Beijing for a few days each. [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, I am sorry it took me so long to get a proper post up, but I have not had more than a few minutes at a computer and wanted to try and at least do some justice to my experience here in Israel. This may be a bit of a long entry as I have so much to share. I will warn you right now, there is NO WAY I can come close to doing justice to this trip. But here goes: I really didn't know what to expect when I signed up for Taglit (Birthright Israel). Despite the [View Full Entry]

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We had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up from our hotel on Wed morning to take us to the airport but I wasn't sure if he would show up or not so I ended up asking the hotel to call for one. That's when the fun began. Because my taxi driver showed up the concierge didn't want me to take it because as I found out later they get paid $15 euros for each driver they call. They practically got into a fist fight in front of us before I finally just told my driver that we should [View Full Entry]

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I arrived back from the UK to find that the wonderful Brit bloke had bought me (what had better be !!!) the first of my birthday presents. Have a look at the picture and you’ll definitely see where 50% of the loyalties in this household lie with the only sport that really matters. Dave had the wheel cover couriered across from Auckland in time for my birthday. Dave has said he may have trouble driving the car now with such an obvious show of support to who he terms the perennial chokers - fine by me, he can drive his own [View Full Entry]

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Ive now just made it to istanbul. 12 hour overnite bus and my bum is killing me. Lots to see and do here, im up now at 4 in the morning to get a good jump on things. i want to get out there before every thing fills with people. On todays agenda is the grand bazaar, blue mosque, and hagia sofia. Also, any others i stumble upon along the way. At this point im just waiting for some hot water to return for my shower, 24 hour hot water my ass! Ive got alot of the road to was off [View Full Entry]

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Well we only had minor damage today. Joe landed pretty hard and bucked the fuslage a bit. Everyone is trying to fix yesterdays damage as I try to properly pace my self as the Jack Daniel van just opened and are serving. It's quite something how passionate these guys are in their planes. My goal is to stay out of their way and not step on the wingtips AGAIN. We are currently in 24th place. Good thing there are only 25 teams or we would feel really bad. our goal is to stay ahead of the Romanians. Speaking of Romanians, there [View Full Entry]

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Got off the field late Sunday night from the opening ceremonies which were impressive. They were giving out free Jack Daniels Vodka and tequila by good looking girls in tight white shirts. Pictures to follow. We had a late night dinner and was curious as to what Crap Flakes were so when I received it I got Imitation Crab salad AKA Crap Flakes. We are at the field from 7am to 730pm so it is long days. There was lots of wind in the afternoon and some people are estimating up to $50,000 damage to planes colliding and crashing. Looks cool [View Full Entry]

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Yazd is a small oasis city in southern central Iran, in the middle of the desert. The landscape during the journey from Esfahan did not look like it changed much in seven hours, though admittedly I was not looking out of the window all the time, allowing the bus to rock me to sleep.The city's water comes from underground qanats miles away in the mountains. Here the women are almost exclusively dressed in chadors and the men a little too friendly! The weather is hot, hot at 35 degrees C, but as a dry heat was bearable as long as you [View Full Entry]

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Here in Shiraz, the city of the poet Hafez, wine, grapes and poetry, nightingales and roses; the people are even friendlier and more relaxed than elsewhere in Iran. They pride themselves on their liberal attitudes and sophisticated way of living. Shiraz is most famous for the ancient site of Persepolis which is nearby. Someone who will remain nameless, and should know better, said ‘Oh you saw the film in Iran, I wouldn’t have thought they would show it there!’ They have shown the film a few times in Tehran apparently, so that is a small victory. But no, I saw the [View Full Entry]

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