Monday, 26th July And so the second half begins. The infamous 'Asia diaries' as they will come to be known upon my glorious death. For blog readers (thanks by the way) it's business as usual; mindless rants at those who don't deserve it this time with the key difference that I won't put it under the pretense Hayley believes it too. Let's leave the poor girl from being tarnished with that brush. Anywho for me it's a brand new diary, not the beaten, torn and weather-worn notebook used for South America. Better paper does not mean better quality. In truth after a week at home I was a little apprehensive about coming away again. Living out of a backpack for an extended period can really make you appreciate the home comforts. Eventually I came to my ... read more

Saturday, July 10th Toronto Blue Jays versus the Boston Red Sox. That's two of the heavyweights of the game we've seen now, both times against Canada's only representatives in the Major League. The Blue Jays are nothing special, but boast good records against the Yanks and Red Sox this year. Last night as we met Mitch for a tasty little dinner in Toronto's restaurant/bar district the Blue Jays were 8-0 down within 4 innings. That might explain a half empty Rogers Centre. Baseball's a funny thing in that respect. With a game a day more or less over the summer months and America's complete coverage of every angle that you could possibly want, including inside the players' trousers as they made that diving catch to the left, there's little reason to regularly fork out the 10 ... read more

Tuesday, July 6th Today a day for the cliches. The stuff you don't do as a local. Rising at a reasonable hour we hit the subway down to Ground Zero. It's been four years since I was here and five since Hayley had been. Not a lot has changed, it's still just a work site; a tribute to bureaucracy no doubt. The pictures look like it will be nice once it's finally complete - we'll probably never get to see it though. This was only a quick stop on the way to the bottom of the island. At our stop, the Statue of Liberty, crowds of people were gathered all in one single line to catch the ferry. Man, we thought the British loved a queue! Does a statue relatively insignificant to either of us warrant ... read more

Friday, July 2nd The first half of today was spent flying. Oh how I wish I hadn't seen the first episode of Lost on tv yesterday. So superstitious about stuff like that. How much worse it got when the book I am reading stated "the more safe flights I have, statistically the closer I am to a crash." Read that on the plane. When the hour long bumps started and he spotted the lightning over Venezuela, resignation just sat in. That was the first flight. The second was bumpier. But we made it. Into JFK. The turbulence robbed of us sleep and we were irritable with a capital F**K. Literally the sight of South Americans was winding us up, and the customs queue was 90 minutes. What a ridiculous joke America can be. 15,000 more security ... read more

martes, 22 de junio An amazing breakfast bap and into Ica to catch the bus to Pisco. We know it's not far but not quite where to go. It's okay the conductor knows he has our ticket. Oh. No. He doesn't. That stop half an hour ago was ours. And he doesn't speak English? WHAT THE F**K IS HE SAYING??!! Literal translation (or what we did anyway): "Get off the bus on the middle of a busy highway right in the middle of the desert, then try and run across the road with 2.5 stone backpacks whilst cars belt past at 60mph on the side of the road you are otherwise unused to, after which try and communicate with the ticket auditor (who also doesn't speak a word of your mother tongue) and explain the situation ... read more