There's nothing quite waking up at 4am, taxi arrives and holiday bound. Usual airporto fun with Helen having to through the x-ray body scanner, i tried to see the picture but the airport staff didn't seem to happy about me peering over the barrier... Time for some brekkie before lift off and Weatherspoons looks decent, although on entering we notice a lady drinking a pint of red wine, bear-in-mind that its only 5:33am, strong commitment to the drink! In the flight we board and get seated, usual tiny seats made for Mr Average. We doze off until I'm woken by Helen wanting me to look out the window... Its the Alps and they look pretty awesome and completely covered in snow, maybe a skiing holiday later in the year is in order..! A few G&T's later ... read more

Pacific Islands all the way to our LAX... The US of A here we come, first stop the home of the rich and famous in Los Angeles and landing in LAX, whoop whoop to the America, burger me! So we’ve got three days to visit three iconic places, first port of call is the Walk Of Fame, which famous person to walk on first… Then onto Universal Studios, back to the future rides, terminators and dinosaurs! Finally, it’s time for the home of the Walt’s in the land of Disney, awesome! We are staying in North Hollywood so should be able to see the sign, if the smog clears that is… Day one and we get dropped off in North Hollywood, aka Dodgeville USA! Our hostel, NoHo is like a loony bin with an old granny ... read more

Christchurch First stop on our NZ adventure was Christchurch other wise known as the garden city of New Zealand. It’s taken us three days of hardcore travel to get to New Zealand and on getting off the plane it was a relief. On walking through customs, obviously nothing to declare we get asked the following: "Do you have any tinnies?" YOU WHA???? (Thinking he wants to know if we have smuggled any can’s of beer with us) "teeeeeennnnnts!!!" the guy says slowly this time, erm, no we have no tents, thank you Mr Officer?! Slightly random question and the accents have already baffled us! After spending up to 10 months in 30 degree Celsius plus weather conditions, it was fair to say we were unfamiliar with the sound of our bones and teeth chattering. Driving from ... read more

Well this one has to be write retrospectively as it was sometime ago and the years have flown by, it's not 2014 and I'm on holiday in Santorini, Greece. Work takes it toll and time just keeps on ticking. As such this will be more of a summary of some of the highlights of living in Sydney and taking in the Australian dream. We arrived in Sydney after leaving south east Asia and it's a just as warm here but much fresher and less humid. We let Jay know we have arrived and find ourselves a hostel to kick back in. The first we do is get ourselves a smorgasbord of olives, delish meats and breads to welcome us back to western society, oddly this was all bought from Woolworths which is still going in Oz. ... read more

Finally, we are heading to the Oceania that is Australia and the land of shrimps, barbies and beaches! Landed and stayed in guesthouse called boomerang which consisted of me and Helen heading to Woolworth’s and buying a lot of nice breads, olives and other dips and eating till we fall asleep! Day 2, back to the other member of Team James, the Jay. He was to be found sleeping, shock, at the blue parrot in Kings Cross, we booked ourselves in and went for a beer.... read more