www.thewhitebalance.com

St Petersburg Yacht Club

2012-02-01T12:06:00.004Z

The White Balance recently created a 3 minute full CG animation and set of 8 Still images for IDG and The Bush Consultancy’s redevelopment of the St Petersburg Yacht Club.

IDG in collaboration with The Bush Consultancy presented proposals in Russia for the new scheme.

The principle aim of this development is to enhance the existing facilities to allow delivery of an international standard Sailing Centre and also create an exclusive ‘boutique’ hotel that whilst operating independently, will harmoniously relate to each other on the site. Aesthetic expression of the buildings and facilities across the site are represented through angular / linear forms in the functional areas of the sailing centre facilities, with more organic forms reflect the emotive aura of the hotel.

The presentations included physical models and also a dynamic fly through movie prepared by The White Balance. Martin Kendall from The Bush Consultancy spoke of the workflow between the Architects and Animation team at The White Balance as seamless and professional in executing all of our design details. The CGI’s and Animation were able to help portray the essence of the scheme aiding a hugely successful presentation of the proposals and resulting in an instruction to progress the scheme to the detailed design stage.

Spec Montage Head Office Interiors and CGI's

2011-10-14T13:19:00.000+01:00

The White Balance recently completed 12 Interior CGI's for the Russian management company SpecMontage24's headquarters in St Petersburg. As well as completing the visuals, The White Balance also co-created the interior design package for the new St Petersburg building with Paintworks neighbours IDG.

The brief was for a contemporary modern office space and reception/lobby using quality finishes and materials. The 6 companies that will occupy the office floors each have individual identities under the umbrella of SpecMontage24. We wanted to give each floor a feature wall subtly showcasing that specific companies logo using precast plaster and led lighting techniques. The logo's create abstract shapes throughout the building including cuts in the office carpets and viynls through the connecting stair cores.

Fit out has already started on the building and the team in Russia will be using the CGI’s for marketing over the next couple of months.

Welcome to 2111

2011-02-02T15:51:00.004Z

The White Balance recently produced 8 CGI's for BBC Focus Magazine; visualising what life would be like in the year 2111.The 7 page feature included a front page cover and an ipad app animation! Look out soon for the image breakdowns showing how we created the the world in 2111!

Toy Soldiers

2010-12-06T15:13:00.003Z

Big news from the team here at The White Balance studio! We recently completed a series of animations for a new CBBC and BBC HD TV show called Toy Soldiers.

Toy Soldiers is a documentary series following the highs and lows of a group of youngsters. Tackling a different subject each episode, the strand provides an insight into the lives of different children across the UK, each with a unique story to tell.

The White Balance produced 3 short animations plus the title sequence to the show. Using original drawings created by the children featured in the show we animated a story to each drawing - which resulted in the drawings coming to life.

Catch up on BBC iplayer here

Toy Soldiers talks to four children from army families and finds out what it is like to have a parent away, for long stretches of time, serving a tour of duty in a war-torn country. How do they feel when they see stories on the news on an almost daily basis and what happens when the unthinkable happens and their worst fears come true?

Callum and Jade really miss their dad when he is away and keep in contact by writing letters, sometimes up to four a week. Taya cannot wait for her dad to come home in December, in time for Christmas, and details all the preparations and plans she has to celebrate his return. While Aiden reflects on how life has changed and how he copes after his father was killed in action.

The topic was quite sensitive and in some cases the drawings the children had created were very emotional. We had to really get into the mind set of the child and interpret what he/she was imagining when drawing - especially as we had to "Draw" additional content in the style of the original drawing.

"Having worked with The White Balance on my BBC series Sofa Surfers I was confident that they could handle the animations required for my next project. Toy Soldiers (BBC) was a sensitive and emotive film based around children’s real life accounts of being in an armed services family. The children created drawings of their Dad’s at work in Afghanistan. Animating these whilst maintaining the integrity of the Child’s original work was a delicate balance of technology and styles something The White Balance excel at." - John Walsh Walsh Bros

The show was directed by the Award winning and Bafta Nominated John Walsh.

http://www.walshbros.co.uk/

Edited by Green Rock
www.greenrock.tv

Toy Soldiers will be aired;

Monday 6th December 6.15pm – CBBC Channel
Wednesday 8th December at 5.00pm– CBBC Channel
Thursday 16^th December at 4.30pm – BBC 1

The White Balance Case Studies

2010-10-19T12:10:00.001+01:00

The Perfect......Sandwich

2010-09-24T10:59:00.000+01:00

This month The White Balance have created a fully CGI sarnie!!! are we just peckish for pixels? nope this was for our monthly feature slot in BBC Focus Mag - writer Daniel Bennett reveals the rigorously researched methods of making a sandwich fit for scientists.

Resort of Fire and Water

2010-09-21T12:09:00.007+01:00

After a few months of top secret projects (noticeably last post was xmas!) we can finally release one into the world of websites, twitter and blogs. At The White Balance we love a good old show and tell so here we go - Back in early 2010 The White Balance were approached to work along side IDG on a conceptual master planning proposal. The Brief - The Resort of Fire and Water. Pretty exciting times! we produced 6 marketing stills along side a 3 min Full CG animation. The resort comprises of a 350 bedroom 5* hotel, 48 Bedroom Boutique Hotel, Sports Pitches and Watersports Centre. The design of the resort focuses on two of the four elements, fire and water, which are reflected not only in the two wings of the 5* hotel but also across the site with multiple water features and flame pits. The resort aims to indulge its clientele providing relaxation, leisure and conference facilities for the local commercial enterprises.

How we did it?.........Happy Christmas

2009-12-13T17:24:00.007Z

2009 is coming to a end, and here at the White Balance we wanted to show you how we do what we do! We have broken down the stages we went through to create our 2009 Christmas Card! Enjoy, and we welcome your comments.

When brain storming ideas for this years christmas card we saw this image of a standard light bulb. We kept coming back to the bulbs simplistic form and thought wouldn't it be nice if we could have the shape of a christmas tree glowing inside the bulb! using 3d and post production its possible ...

Stage 01.
First we create the 3D Environment, and model the details on the bulbs.

Stage 02.

Render a Ambient Occlusion Pass. We use this to add realistic grounding in Post Production.

Stage 03.

Next step Texture and light it up! and press Render (sounds so simple doesn't it!)

Stage 05.

Post Production - We colour grade and add that extra Sparkle.

Stage 06.

Render a depth of field pass. We use this as a mask when we blur the image. This gives the illusion of a Macro lens camera.

Stage 07.

Using the depth of field mask we blur the final image.

Stage 08.

Finally a Happy Christmas and we are done :-)

My lifes a Jigsaw

2009-08-26T16:44:00.001+01:00

See the Making of the "Jigsaw". We entered this table in this years Bristol Design Festival. This short film was shown at the festival, as part of the Grafikea competition! Make sure you have the sound on for this! although beware, the tune might be in your head all day!

Sunshine and Podcasts

2009-08-21T13:45:00.012+01:00

Last month The White Balance were asked to take part in the new Bristol Media Podcast, the podcast was to be the first in a three part series discussing Business Start-up, Growth and Exit, in association with Business Link

Bristol Media invited five business start ups and six advisers from the world of business to discuss the issues around starting up a business. The Podcast covers everything from coming up with the big idea, business plans, money, marketing, bootstrapping, networking, entrepreneurship and everything in between. Download the podcast here to have a listen as Matt debut's on the airwaves.

We have been busy with a highly anticipated architectural project for the Award winning Dan Brill Architects. Last week we were thrilled to see the project featuring as BD magazines project of the day! The White Balance produced 3 CGI's for the proposed chalk extension. Click here to read about this great little project.

The White Balance are enjoying working closely with BBC Focus Magazine on a series of 3d illustrations. In this months issue see the images we created explaining the new surf reef in Bournemouth, and stealth wind farms. Here's a sneaky peek at a few of the images.

Having just got back from the beautiful island of Kefalonia we are fully recharged and ready for the next few busy weeks here @ The White Balance.

Jam Packed July and a Football or two

2009-07-16T11:54:00.010+01:00

I have a spare 20mins so i thought i shall update the old white balance blog! its been a while! Cant believe we are half way through July already! last month was crazy and it seems July has carried on the trend! We have been busy on a couple more illustrations for BBC Focus Magazine (issue released 30th July!)Last week we finished 12 Exhibition stand CGI's for our Paintworks neighbors at Ignition DG, Unfortunately Ignition have whisked the views off to the USA for a series of presentations. Hopefully we can show them off soon!

The White balance entered the Annual Bristol Media 5 aside football tournament last Sunday (12th July)! After some very poor preparation Team White Balance rolled up in matching football shirts (no time to print logos) and a team put together the night before due to injuries and last min drop outs. Oh dear it wasn't looking good for our boys, never kicked a football together and entering a tournament! The guys did good! but not good enough! if it wasn't for those pesky kids! Theres always next year. Here's some lovely photo's of the day by Neil Young.Photography (capturing Team White Balance Versus Team Aardman (Blue) Result 2-2 - Pahhh so what if they have an Oscar!)

Thats all for this month busy busy i better get back to it - what ever it is! just better do it.......

Banksy, Grafikea and Milan

2009-06-18T13:54:00.024+01:00

What a month here at the white balance!

Busy busy busy end to May getting everything ready for the Bristol Design Festival. As well as being proud supporters of the festival we were not only exhibiting, but entering 2 entries into the Grafikea competition! big love for the BDF!

The exhibition was on from the 5th - 11th June at the old fire station here in the heart of Bristol. We had a really good response so thanks to all of you who wrote in the comment book and enjoyed the constant supply of MAOAM sweets!
So next up our Grafikea entries! firstly the "jigsaw" inspired by a, well jigsaw. This was a tongue and cheek spin on ikea's famous flat - pack - furniture. my lifes a jigsaw........ tune is now haunting all those poor BDF folk! that was the theme tune to the film we put together of the making of the table. somebody must have liked the film so much they decided to steal the laptop playing it! bad form thief.
Second entry was "tablego" an ikea table with a pixel art splattering of lego. lots of lego, lots of glue, and lots of patience.
Here's a few piccies of the Grafikea tables.

Last week we woke up to find our favourite local artist that pesky Banksy had taken over the Bristol Museum. His largest ever UK exhibition had been unveiled as a top secret plot on the usually conventional museum. At the white balance we are massive Banksy fans - especially our northern leanne! Banksy was actually one the reasons "for" moving to Bristol - some say fan, some might say stalker. As u can imagine we were very excited to get down and see what all the fuss was about! we queued for an hour behind a family in chordory and "explore Bristol maps" - not the expected Banksy fan, but hey who are we to judge! there was a massive turn out of all sorts of art lovers - just shows what diversity Banksy has pulled in!
We were not disappointed! amazing - over 100 new Banksy pieces.
here are a few snaps from the exhibition.....

And Finally we are off to Milan in September for the Italian Grand Prix. Very excited here for a couple of days in the Italian city of culture! bit of art, hint of grand prix bling and maybe a spot of shopping!

Its non stop! work wise we are busy working with our friends at preconstruct on a big architectural project, a couple of illustrations for BBC FOCUS magazine.

We are officially a proud Supporter of the Bristol Design Festival 2009.

2009-05-22T15:35:00.002+01:00

In our vigilante effort to get out and about the city more (Crimes of Passion, 17th April) we have been accepted to showcase our work at the coveted Bristol Design Festival 2009.

This is a great opportunity for us to show off some of our latest work, and a select few self commissioned works to the public and design professionals of Bristol and South West alike.

Bristol Design Festival has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years and we are particularly interested to see what this years "Grafikea" competition throws into the mix!

"Modify an Ikea coffee table.
Put your own price on it.
Exhibit it & sell it at the show.
Win prizes"

So simple its great, right up our street! We are going to have an overload on the smarties and fizzy pop this bank holiday weekend and see what comes out the other side, watch this space!

Whilst the festival is being held at several different venues across the city we have been given a prime spot in the main venue, The Old Firestation, Bristol there will be over 100 different

designers at the festival's main venue plus the results of the Grafikea competition the old firestation is the hub of the festival and we will be right in amongst it.

You can meet designers, have coffee and relax whilst seeing some of the most innovative and exciting design work from Bristol and the South West.

The festival opens on the 5th June (running through to the 11th) so there is plenty of time to pop down and say hello.

As ever the visual people we are we'll be posting pictures and blog updates as the event goes on.

Remember you can subscribe to the blog to keep upto date with our goings on or you can follow us on twitter @thewhitebalance.

Wedding bells are ringing.

2009-05-01T16:04:00.004+01:00

So as it's my little sisters wedding this summer we couldn't very well let her go and get some wedding invitations designed and printed somewhere else now could we!!

With a clear idea of style for the wedding we went for it, creating a three piece card for the day invitiation and single card with ribbon tie for the evening invitation.

We have even designed an identity and logo for the wedding, well it is what we do!

Not only do we have all the joys of the wedding we also get to enjoy the atmosphere of Goldbrick house for the service.

We are unfortunately not planning on making it regular service at the white balance, but it was definitely good to see the potential scope of various design and print markets.

We all know weddings are big business.

Crimes of Passion - Bristol

2009-04-17T16:21:00.005+01:00

After a few crazy weeks here at the white balance, we thought it was long overdue that we took a trip around this city we call home and see whats about.

Our first stop was the crimes of passion exhibit at the Royal West Of England Academy. There was some out standing work on display and some pretty crazy stuff too.

Graffiti meets historic architecture now that's our cuppa tea!

Now don't get us wrong it's not that we don't love our work, but over the coming months we are planning on getting out of the office a little more. At the weekend we are off to that place they call London, maybe snap a gherkin or too!
Pics of Guildford and London coming next week. In the mean time matt will be finishing the new logo for Walsh Bro's. Website coming soon!

Well let you be the judge of our work!

Sofa Surfers Goes Live.

2009-03-13T16:54:00.004Z

As you all know there have been some late nights over the last couple of months here at the white balance and i bet you are starting to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Well the wait is finally over we are pleased do our bit and spread the good word of Sofa Surfers.

Be sure to check it out.

All work and no play.......

2009-02-25T17:04:00.017Z

Sorry it's been so long.

So here at The White Balance we have had a crazy couple of months. Consisting of late nights, more take away Thai curries than you can shake a stick at and plenty of coffee.

We are currently working on our website and it's 75% complete. Once it goes live you'll be the first to hear about it. We'll be showcasing all of our projects and featuring our animations and BBC work.

Honestly we do work a lot of the time, we are not just sat around taking silly photos!

design.
Still on the case with The Grange Hotel we are soon to be launching their new website. Along with identity and literature designs and a web package for Pomegranate, our local late night cafe. There is lots in the stir.

motion.

Hot off the press, The work with Green Rock Media and Walsh Bro's Ltd has finally reached completion. It has been a busy 3 months and the roto-scoped animations are finally complete. Sofa Surfers (the show) airs on BBC HD and CBBC on March 16th at 6:30pm and will follow shortly after with it's BBC 1 slot. We'll keep you posted.........

visual.
With the 3d being the backbone of our work we only thought it fair to sneak in a small image for The Bush Consultancy. In amongst everything this month there has been time to chat to Dan Brill Architects based in Winchester. Which has positively lead to a project for next month. The architecture is very clean and ultra modern so right up our street here. Look out for some very exciting images coming up.

We're taking a holiday.
Not that we aren't appreciative of the spell of snow we had here in England. We are off to Austria for the first week of March to dust of the snowboard and hopefully find some fresh powder and a bit of après ski. Matt's going to be taking his DSLR so being the visual people we are there will be plenty to show on our return.

2009 - Resolutions and more.

2009-01-14T15:44:00.013Z

Firstly we would like to wish everyone a happy new year.

So 2009 has firmly set foot and the festivities of Christmas are but a distant memories. Whilst we all enjoyed the relaxed times of not really knowing what day it was, just that it was some point between Christmas and the new year, now its well and truly back to the real world.

Our new years resolutions - Simply build on the relationships we have and make a couple of new ones along the way.

We have had an exciting start to the new year and thanks to our friends over at Green Rock Media we are under way in securing design work for RBS and The BBC.

There have been more talks with the ever impressive guys at DOT Architecture for some architectural imagery. So watch this space......

We also recently had an enquiry for some identity and web design for our local Italian coffee shop, so never passing the chance to spend more time than we already do in coffee houses we jumped at the chance to work with them in building their brand and web presence.

Matt has also been out and about with his camera making the most of the early evenings and Christmas break, with his eye for photography he's been working on his long exposures. Now The White Balance has made their Flickr debut be sure to bookmark this page to see what we are up too.

That's a little about us and our new year, so how are you?

dreaming of a white christmas.

2008-12-16T11:23:00.003Z

So this is Christmas.........

You know how we love making images here at the white balance, so this year we got all festive and designed our very first christmas card, we think it looks pretty jolly and the feedback so far has been excellent.

From the team here at the white balance,

"may all your christmases be white"

If you haven't received your card yet be sure to drop matt (matt@thewhitebalance.com) an email and I'm sure he'll be happy to get one out to you, you'll even get the special tear off card to keep for the whole year.

This and That.........

2008-12-11T11:54:00.013Z

Odds and Sods

With our super slick work-flow now in place, and our passion for creating inspiring digital media flurishing, we are happy people here at the white balance!

As Christmas draws closer we thought we better tell you a little bit about what we've been up too recently...

design.
those poor old designers have been busy beavering away hardly coming up for air, completing photography and print work for The Grange Hotel and Sportscene, with lots more follow up work there is going to be plenty more to see soon.

motion.
very exciting times lie ahead, collaborating with green rock media we are currently in talks for producing a series of short characterized stings for a new BBC documentary. watch this space.....

visual.

3d has been booming. Completing projects for The Bush Consultancy, Anders Roberts Associates, DOT Architecture as well as a few private clients what can we say.............. the images speak for themselves. check out the website for more.

money matters.
to end on a positive note. with the current looming recession everyone is feeling the pinch. here at the white balance we have optimised our workflow to guarantee value for money with out compromising quality. why not give us a call to see how our inspired visual solutions can showcase the quality of your next project without breaking the bank.

subscribe.
remember if you subscribe to the posts you get nice email's right to you inbox when we update our blog.

the white balance is here!

2008-11-13T17:38:00.008Z

Its Official.

After many sleepless nights lots of coffee, jammy dodgers and thai take aways, we have finally completed our shiny brand new office and branding!

Matt has morphed from designer to painter/carpet fitter/electrician all in time for our exciting launch.

Welcome to our blog, we hope to update each week with news on what us crazy kids are working on here in the white house - well one day pinky!

the end.

2008-05-08T15:44:00.001+01:00

after 3 months of laughs, tears (lea) and sweat (matt) we say goodbye to our amazing time away. back to the real world! love you guyssss x

part two.......

2008-04-24T06:29:00.000+01:00

So frasers Island amazed us more than we could image and was as a proper tropical island. After getting back to the campsite and more importantly the van we decided to partake in a spot of tennis,
to our surprise we had not completely forgotten how to play and if you started early enough it wasn't too hot so we had sucessfully found a new sport that could take over as the main pas-time as the surf has well and truely dried up and the beachs are tropical from now on up, not crashing 10ft waves that we like ;-).

Up very early the next morning for a long long drive, Aiming at getting to Airlie beach and more importantly the whitsundays island. This is also pretty much in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. What a long drive it was, about 800km in one hit, we eventually got there in the evening. Learnt one major thing about driving at night in Australia unless you can drive with your head lights off dont bother. The front of the van was like a bug grave yard. Every type of bug had smashed against the front of the van at 100kph and let us tell you it make a mess. Subsequently with the carnage on the front of the van we just then attracted more bugs, the nice little buggers they are they like to eat there dead relatives!! So we had a problem. Nothing a couple of night of heavy rain didnt sort out though.
So with a huge pile of leaflets and a budget in mind we planned our trip out to the reef and around the whitsundays. We were up bright and early for the transfer coach to pick us up to be met by a man saying the trip had been cancelled that day, AWESOME. Apparently they couldn't get hold of us as we had no signal on our phone! So we re-arranged for the next day. We were up bright and early for the transfer coach to pick us up to be met by rain. Gutted, we decided to go for it though and see what it brings................ We snorkelled on the reef for about an hour, as you will have seen from the pics, due to a little thing called a marine jellyfish we had to wear these amazing suits, very telly tubbies!! Brightly couloured all in one. Sweet as if the fear of sharks wasn't bad enough! As the woman descirbed in the trip booking shop "Oh they are not so bad, first of all you dont know you have been stung for about half and hour, untill the infection starts to semi paralyse your arms, then you feel you chest caveing in and start to have convoltions, all whilst trying to swim" she laughed, we look pale (even with our tans) So we have to also look out for these as well (although you cant see them as they are see through). But in we went to the Great Barrier Reef. The coral was cool as ever but when we were clearly out of earshot of any patriotic aussies we both agreed egypt was better. Maybe because Egypt was the first coral we had seen or maybe because we were rained out of the water, kinda take the shine off it!! So on to the islands, que rain and swell................. Lots of rain falls and we hide from it, then as if the man in charge of the weather saw how unhappy we all were and cleared up the sky for perfect blue couple of hours on the beach. Bliss! The whitsundays just got a lot more appealing. Back on the boat, more swells from the random weather and a rough old boat trip back in to the harbour!! Great Barrier Reef - Tick

Moving further up the coast again we head towards Misson Beach, Yet another epic drive, It was becoming apparent to us that the nice little short drives of New South Wales days were
long gone Queensland offers lots of amazing attractions but they are so far apart and the is literally a kangeroo and a tumble weed between them, Oh and very ocassionally a petrol station.
Mission beach was a very very quite little place, the campsite, town convience store, restaurant, petrol station, mechanic and single resident was all in the same building, Scary!! Still the
campsite was nice and although you couldn't get in the sea the beach was huge and deserted! We relaxed for a couple of days and enjoyed the sunshine!

Next stop Cairns

We arrive at what looks like a trophey cabinet. It is actually the reception for the "best campsite in Australia" (Six years in a row) It was amazing, bouncing pillows, two tennis courts (suited us),
crazy golf, two pools, parks, basketball, garden chess, outdoor cinema, table tennis and our spot even came with a pub stly bench. We are home at what is officially a 5 star campsite! What to do in cairns, having seen so much country side on the way up we skipped the rainforest walks and sky cable car rides for what any young traveller would do - A BUNGY JUMP!
Arriving early we thought we would suss it out and watch a few. We decided to go up on at a time so we could A - watch from the bottom. B - video it (mainly to avoid having to by the extortionately
priced videos and photos) I went first, I thought i was pretty calm, I could actually see the guy in front of me's t-shirt pounding with his heart, the video afterward actually showed me lokoing pretty nervous and taking what seemed like the worlds biggest breath.........5-4-3-2-1 and jump, was all you got then a plumet to the lake at the bottom, "small" shreak, i went in pretty deep and got soaked! Glad that wasn't the ground though. Big adreanaline kick and lea is straight up after me
Lets just say the girl before her must have felt like a right wimp, as lea's perfect swan dive crashed down the 60m with only a small scream (sounded like a ghost train sound effect) but both completely buzzing from it.
Well worth the money and we were both so glad we did it!

So.................................................

6006kms (boob we now call it) distance actual number!!!!

3072 baked beans (matt)

2189 m&m's (lea)

756 bites

379 backward grafton ozzies

18 tanks of petrol

17 campsites

5 flipflops

4 4gb full memory cards (geeeeks)

3 states

2 vans (rip shazam)

1 surfboard

0 moneys!

we are finally leaving Australia heading to sydney again for the next stop!! the adventure continues!!!

hope everyone is ok back in rainy england (it rains all the time here too!!!) missing you lots

love matt and lea

Dazy, Hazy and Lazy

2008-04-19T03:14:00.010+01:00

So Grafton, Grafton, Grafton, ahh the place brings back such fond memories! As you are all aware we were stuck in Grafton, A place that if it was to put in the dictionary would be described as backwards. So we had checked out of the hotel to be met by the man at the garage with a self assuring smile that our van would be definately ready for lunch time that day. Lunch time = no van a promise that it will be 5 o'clock that day....................Sit and wait some more. 5 o'clock = no van and check back into the awesome motel. We decided best not to venture into the pub again so i could save face from the one armed man that was sure to be there!! So angry phone calls to the van people and the garage people and nothing was sorted...Sweet! We finally got so scared of the local people we literally sat in the garage waiting room just sitting and being a visual annoyance to the man that kept feeding us bull s#$t excusses. Eventually after three days of waiting (and hiding from the locals) Shazzam was given some serious CPR and she lived another day. Seems our annoying questions and waiting had paid off and the fat (didn't mention that before) balding man let us on our way/ Fixed it to get us out of his "hair". Joy the adventure continues...............

Heavy wheel spins and 120kph we were out of there without even looking back!

The plan was to try and get back to the original plan and save a day here and there. So we trying to power through and drive straight to the gold coast. Night fell and we stopped and Byron Bay (pretty famous) It was pretty much dark when we got there so we just pulled into the park and crashed. Relax we were back on track. Up early to see what Byron had to offer and it was a really cool place (if not a pricey) but the surf was good to watch (we had not time) and there was a really cool lighthouse up on the hill which seemed to attract alot of people! So after a morning roaming around we decided to continue to the gold coast.

Surfers paradise was the destination and we were properly looking forward to it. Our campsite we were heading too even had a crazy golf course! Lots of fun to come. However surfers paradise was not really that much like paradise. It was the biggest city we had come across in a long time. Several skyscrapers and eveything. It was pretty much a wash out. It was also huge, although there was lots of surf spots there were so far apart it was like driving for a couple of hours just to get to a decent beach. The caravan park was not on the sea as it was lead to be believed by the pictures and description in the book it was on a river and quite far north of everything. So get ready for it.......................................We snubbed the Gold Coast and mainly Surfers Paradise. Wiped off the itinerary, moving stright past.

So we arrive at Noosa, now in the sunshine coast and this was looking more like our cup of tea. Nice campsite lots of little beachs and a trendy little town, (with some pretty big name shops, i.e Hugo Boss) suddenly the reality of being on a backpakers budget was depressing. So we headed to the beach to revive our excitment for the surf!! The beach was really cool. Still pretty busy (school holidays again) but we found some little breaks and had our surf spot. The weather was becoming more and more mixed with tropical storms for hours then clear blue skies in the afternoons then rain again. Got us down abit because it get dark so early here you kinda have to make the most of the daylight. You will all be shocked to hear that our body clock now consists of getting up at 6:30 - 7 ish and going to bed at 9ish (well the going to bed isnt so much of a shock for those of you that knows lea's sleeping patterns) so we were really missing our mornings. We make a big decision towards our surfing careers and decide its time to sell our soft top surf board on and try and pick up a couple of cheap fiber glass ones. Big decisions coming ahead!! Lots of shopping around and we eventually go on lea's instint and get an amazing deal for it. Now comes the hard part trying to get the new ones......We rent some to give them a try and hope for good weather so we can use them!! Dreams come try and we were blessed with a short spell of good weather. So after shopping around abit and trying some differnt boards the following day the worst happens.................... (well not the worst there were no sharks involved) Lea picked her wave, rode her fate and lost, surfing right up onto the rocks, OUCH! Well not for her really more the board. To say the damage was light would be lying. Lots of nerves about what they would say at the hire shop when we return there board with a 20 inch gouge through the bottom of it. Worried scared (well lea was, my board was fine ;-)) we head back to the van to pack up and try and sort it out....................."STRUTH MATE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FISH" from afar a random man had picked us out of the crowd due to the injury (to the board) 'MAN MY SON IS GONNA SPEW" turns out he was the dad of the guys who hired us the board. I mean what are the chances, more importantly to us, why was this middle aged family man at the beach surfing in the middle of the week day, and not at work like most grown ups!! Any way after pretty mush telling us how trashed the board was and how much he thought it was gonna cost we were on our way........ Arriving at the hire place i take the good board in first, even before i got a hello, or gooday mate. "My dad already phoned me and told me about the fish" What the hell we got ratted out by his dad, Started to explain a little more why he wasn't at work!! So after a long wait and people telling me how messed up it was (all in surf language by the way, so i didnt understand most of it anyway) we got stung with a massive repair bill. Oh yeah a little detail i forgot to mention about this whole ordeal, Lea was abit to scared to face the people in the shop so i had to sort it all out, shocking display of burrying your head in the sand miss pike, but it worked out for the best in the end, They assumed Lea was hurt (who was i to correct them) and i got to blame Lea, as she wasn't there. Moving on...........

Next up was Frasers Island, a biggie, and we were both really looking forward to it. We had stayed longer in Noosa so we could try and let the bad weather pass for Frasers. We hit a long drive up to a place called Hervey Bay, Basically a town purpose built as a pass through to Frasers Island. Nothing special there much like a mediterrain holiday location. Lea enjoyed her first subway though, and loved it. Our campsite was really nice though. So we booked a one day trip in the end and decided not to camp on the island over night. Up early and ready for the long day adventuring.
Frasers was abosolutly amazing, the island is pretty mind blowing (the story of the island was very well told by the crazy man in the photo's, Captin Kangeroo) From the beach's to the Rainforest to the sand roads (that had to re-swept every day because the sand moves that much) The one day trip consisted of a small loop around the main attractions of the island. The road systems on the beach were pretty wierd and made us glad we hadn't opt'd fpr the self drive, the beach was the road and also the run way for the planes that was also the beach and people had right of way over the plane, busses and 4x4's!! Accident waiting to happen. Lake Mckenzie was by far the most amazing beach/lake i have ever been too. The water was spring water so you could pretty much drink it..................... part two coming later (we thought we'd lost this draft but we found it again! woo ........matts sarcastic comment here is "obviously!" oh yeh quickly have to say we have just done a bungy jump ahhhhhh crazy!!!)

lea chilling (hervey bay)

lea chilling (DHL)

rainbow beach (we took a short detour - lea (the nav) says its only a few mins away ended up being 2 hours......all cause she liked the name of the beach......matts isnt bitter!

wheres matt......

noosa beach full of spoilt rich ozzie kids!! ahhhhhh

us in the gorgeous lake makenzie - fraser island! bliss

lea splashing in a creek (fraser island)

us up the creek.......

the rainforrest (fraser island)

mother mn\

A real frozen shark at the shark exhibition airlie beach!!!ahhhhhhhhhh (si are you ok?)

Our new van!! and to stace and sam - is that

matts baby feet in talc! (fraser island)

lake makensie

another whale beaches at fraser island...... (lea had that smile on her face the whole time we were at fraser island lush!!)

whitsunday islands - whitehaven beach in the rain still pretty amazing!

please use your imagination for this one.......

matt takes a nap (the lago

oh no it got lea!

bit of a kodak moment for the website ;-) but stace inpaticular check out lea's dance moves!!!haha

lea on whitehaven beach (doing some kind of strip act?!)

the sun breaks through after the rainy start!! yay!!

lea splashing AGAIN!

white

us in our stinger suits!!!!!......................................

bit of an arty one - its been a while! (whitehaven beach!)

it all got to much for lea

"we have no jobs.....our pets heads are falling off........" so this is what we have been doing for the past 3 months!

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

2008-04-03T00:55:00.009+01:00

Hello People, Long time no new's! So how are things back home??

Well ventured to Merimbula to learn to surf, having speant quite a few lazy afternoons watching people on 10ft waves we had convinced ourselves it can't be that difficult!! How nieve were we! (well might have just been typical Loughran male attitude on my part). To build ourselves up to the surf lesson we decided to enjoy the luxury of the amazing campsite we were in. And spent a day lounging by the pool (we were the only people at the pool all day, so we aptly adopted it and called it our own) I had also decided in preperation for the surfing i had better crash some swimming in, topping out at a feable 10 lengths i was a little stirred at how hard this surfing lark was going to be!! Leanne by the way, simply sat by the side of the pool and continually laughed at my attempts of trying to recreate my year 6 school swimming lessons!!

The lesson all went well we had an early morning lesson, very very enjoyable, unfortunately it quickly became appartent to us, the instructor and the other person on the lesson (stacey by the way!! What are the chances) that we are not natural born surfers and being able to snowboard dosen't mean you can instantly surf!! Lots of falling over splashing around in the water and fighting against measly 3ft waves (feels like a brick wall hitting you when you are out there though) After 2 hours of surfing we decided we liked it and it was going to become our mission to become pro's by the time we leave OZ. At $50 dollars a day to hir the gear we also quickly decided it a good investment to by some gear. After a 2 hour session in the sea we crashed, (for those of you that know, the sleep that followed was close to the sleep that followed skiing return at christmas!!)

Spent the next few days in merimbula lounging by "our" pool and shooping around for some surf gear. With the purchase under our belts we headed straight to the beach to practice, Still not pro's!!

Left Merimbula for Batesman Bay, where we had booked into a nice campsite with a good pool and the beach...........Mix up there end and we couldn't get in, mini drama as it was Easter weekend and everywhere was rammed, we found the last spot in another site (not such a nice one) but hey we were in! The next few days the weather wasa a bit mixed up so we just got on with it and surfed in the rain and we also filled a pretty overcast afternoon with some local cinema action............My god was that everntfull. Imagine going to the cinema 15 years ago in England and thats what it was like, our TV & cinema system at home was close to the effort of screen two at the (ready for this) "bay city cinemas complex" (was actually only 2 screens, so complex might be over selling themselves abit) but for your rainy days back home "horton hears a who" is pretty funny. Ours was filled with kids. The biggest highlight for us of Batesman Bay was the internet cafe, it was run by what looked like a 15 year old kid (complete with headset and joystick) who's main clientele was his mates, As we were happily sat there checkingout flights to NZ lea heard a shout from behind us " I f-ing love this gun, man" shocked we turned around expecting some kind of small town store robbery, but instead we were met with no less the 10 kids all playing some internet war game against each other. Now we are geeks at the best of time's but some of the quotes that were coming out of this room were even to much for us. So we ran.

We head for Kiama, we stopped at a place for lunch outside Kiama called werri beach, (pretty famous surf beach) and it was such a cool little place we stopped over for a night. Even treated ourselves to dinner. Kiama was cool, lots of surf beachs ( Werri beach was very close to kiama in the end) and pretty little country side villages. We found a really good beach for beginners called 7 mile beach, by the name you can tell there was plenty of room for us to find our own little spot to practice. I got stuck in my first rip (thats where the tide pull's you out) leanne paniced as i tried my hardest to get back in (unfortunately my 10 lengths practice wasn't holding much ground against the current of the sea!!) We decided to do some touristy things in Kiama and go see the famous (hardly world famous, but OZ famous none the less) blowhole (...............insert your own rude joke if you wish) funnily enough the small one was bigger than the big one!! Wierd must be something to do with the water spinning the wrong way round the toilet!!

Next stop Sydney, Now bearing in mind all the advice we had been given about the driving in Sydney we were prepared for the worst...........London! Wasn't actually that bad i think the roads were worse than the drivers! Our campsite was on the north side so we decided to stop and Bondi beach on the way through. Bondi was cool, very trendi (see what i did there) and some great people watching. About as close to the posers of miami as you can get i think! Took a drive up oxford street (most of Sydney is named after England, and especially London) which had all the designer names on it and was a nice mix of oxford street and covent garden (England) with much better weather. We spent the first day driving around north Sydney's beach's looking for our surf spot. Palm beach was my fav (summer bay, Home and Away) but lea got stuck in the rip this time and knocked her for six straight away, so after a little surf there we decided to head on. This is where we found the gem (not my sister), Manly was a cool place, and we found our spot on the beach. Good waves, great people watching and a relativly up to date shopping town!! So we surfed the first day away. Still not pro's but standing up more freaquently on bigger waves now!!! Small steps We head to a small little spot on the river opposite the city for some night shots of the city and our real look at the skyline. Pretty good picture spot even though we were both shattered from the day in the sea!!

Up bright and early for our City day, jumped on a ferry and headed into the city, was a cool way in as we went right past the Opera house and Harbour bridge, needless to say the camera almost started working by its self. We had a casual stroll round the opera house before heading round the harbour to the Bridge where we had booked a climb!!!!!!!! So with all the gear strapped on, (amazing jumpsuits) and through more securty than at the airport we started the climb. The views at the top of the bridge were amazing and, unbroken 360 degree's on a sunny day and we could see for miles. The funny little guide (a mix between the penguin, from batman and a woman, wierd) gave us fact from head to toe and took tuns of pics of us (obviously no cameras were aloud) nearly 1500 steps later we were back on the ground and after a few moments of "jelly legs" (lactic acid build up made lea's legs resemble oscar's) we crashed out back outside the opera house for a well deserved beer. Passing through a weekend market at The Rocks, very trendy area between the bridge and the main harbour. So we pretty much just chilled out and watched the sun go down on the the city. Luckily it was the 80th Hour power out in the city that night so we sat and watch as they turned the light's off on the city!

This was offically our favourite day of the trip so far and the first time we have both thought (get ready for it parents) we could live here!!!

So our final day Sydney we decided to head back to Manly for a day back on the beach. It was the weekend now so it was much busier. People watching was at it's highest. Followed by more surfing. It was a bit like sardines in a can though as all the locals were out and not the 7 miles of empty learning space that we were used too. But none the less we found a spot and started, we now have a body board too so the person not surfing can mess around as well! As we were both enjoying the waves a feint tannoy system could be heard from the sea, but one word grabbed lea's ear SHARK. (I would like to add hear that the shark couldn't have caught up with lea if it wanted too) Like a dart lea was was flagging from the side, people had emptied out of the sea in seconds (althogh i was a little curious to see it) i too was out of the water with a shaking lea in my arms. Lots of people including us were just sitting on the shore staring out. Some nutters just carried on surfing with out a care in the world as a speed boat raced up and down the length of the beach. One man even decided to get in for a swim!! We sat and trembled for a while before following the surf school back in (we figured if they have taken a group of kids in it must be pretty safe) As we got it it suddenly dawned un us how many time we have got in un-patrolled beaches and how silly we were being!! Whoops (so mum's ignore the photo's of us in the sea by ourselves)

We left Sydney loving it completely. We headed north again to Port Macquire, which was originally just a stop over as we covered some ground to get to Brisbane. One leaflet however changed our stay, "Pet a Koala" being favoured over the Kangeroo we decided to give it a go and stop in. Port Macquire was really nice once we got here this little stop over place really surprised us. Petting a Koala and also feeding more Rock Wallabies, surfing and even seeing the Ironman entrants in training, The competition is this weekend, so we miss it but we still saw them all in warm up.Mental people, 225km triathalon, whislt we are bumming around on a surf board. I know which one i would rather be doing!

Moving on and heading north again towards the long awaited Gold Coast.......................We break down.

After 3000km Shazam is dead.

After being picked up by a tow truck and having me and lea share a bench seat in a pick up for 20ks with two slightly (please add lots of sarcasm) overweight mechanics, he actually said you (me) sit up there and put your missus on your lap, as he squeezed in after us sandwhiching us between them, (please try and think of the nutty professor when he gets fat again the car and thats what it was like). The funniest thing for me was when the rescue mechanic said yeah its f*#ked i'll call you a tow truck. Then twenty minutes later the same guy pulled up in a tow truck. It was like he radio'd himself in this little town and then came out himself. Wierd. Lea's highlight was the 25 min silence with 4 people in a cabin made for 2 1/2 people. Sat on my leg brushing against the fat smelly man next to her with every bump. (just cast your memory to everytime you have seen people in a tow truck with a face like thunder and thought to yourself i would hate to be there!!!!!!!!!!!!). Dad it was the altenator so it was fine once it was running, sound familiar!!

So we are in a place called Grafton between somewhere and nowhere trying to kill time as they call in a part from somewhere or nowhere. We checked into a pub/hotel/bookie's/restaurant last night (literally opposite the garage, hoping that as soon as we hear shazam fire up we can wheel spin out of here) Sitting at the bar last night i was called up (insert your own hillbilly OZ accent) "you holding the pool table" i said no (not knowing what the guy meant) he was challenging me, with a little fear of being hustled i entertained a game, he won!! Not knowing the local etiqutte i bought a game back, I won. He then asked lea if i was allowed to play a decider game. (rare thing a aussie man speaking directly to a woman, un-heard of in these parts) He won. Oh yeah i forgot to mention the man i was playing against was a bit drunk.............................................................and only had one arm!!!!!

I dont know what was funnier the fact i lost to a drunk one armed man or the situation!

So sitting waiting for shazam parts and we have truely topped out the activities for Grafton. Who knows whats next.............

Miss you all lots

Love to hear some family news

(Oh yeah for the record, i do NOT have a job in Sydney and sorry for the April fools mum, Love you)

Love matt and Lea xxx

Dead Shazam

Lea couldn't take anymore

Matt flapping as fast as he can
To stacey lea on the rocks reconstruction

Lea, I'm really doing it!!!
Oh yeah matt's put on abit of weight
At home in Shazam, by candle light
Rainy rainbow!
By the power of greyskull

Bondi beach, great lookout.
Only a spec on here but the coastle pacific highway
Lea found a tree, ran from the spiders though
Please no photos!
Matt, I'm really doing it!

Opera House (just about)
Sydney city
Sydney city (by night)
Matt, Home and away (please sing that bit)
Summer bay............closer each day!

Art opera house
Nice jump suits, at the top of the bridge
Lea at the rocks
Being stupid with a national landmark (opera house)
Being serious with a national landmark

Big love sis
Matt was painted on a rock
Port Macquire
Can you guess what it is yet!
Don't look behind you lea!

pictures from oz......

2008-03-22T02:22:00.006Z

families are like chocolate some have a few nuts in them.......

2008-03-18T08:22:00.000Z

So Melbourne from the start.

Travel day was long, when you thought you have flown pretty much half way round the world (Thailand) Australia can't be that much further. How wrong were we, its almost as far down as it was around!! 24 hour trip to Melbourne and we meet lizzie, as we were waiting we were having a little guessing game as to what lizzie would look like and how we'd spot her, should have know better as she's got the standard Loughran look and we spoted her in the car coming from a mile off (slight exaggeration, with my eyes) Actually could have been mistaken for Gem, scary. As we said lizzie was amazing had tone's planned and loads of recommendations for us so we just about held out through the day chatting (and drinking lots of tea and coffee) when we were finally hit by the travel and crashed out at about 8 o'clock, nice early night ready for the first big day in Melbourne.

Oh yeah before we go any further i would like to let you all in on a little secret. The brave miss Pike who had given up her hairdryer and straighteners for a life on the road had a lasted a whole month (all very proud) in Thailand had then used Lizzie's for the first time and in and instant we had gone to the shop and back again sporting some of Remington's finest. The Hair-doing strike was over. Curls no more.

So up bright and early for breckie with lizzie and her sister Genny (my second aunty, I think) and then into the car heading south of Melbourne to Phillip Island, Pretty famous for Penguins and Surfing and the Moto GP (Impressed DadofLea?) All very excited we drive over the bridge and get suckerd in to the first place we come across. FREE CHOCOLATE SAMPLES. Practically running into the chocolate factory we soon realised we had been sold a massive con (Thailand wiseness had worn off already) 1 free sample, but what seemed like a showroom for chocolate, needless to say we bought afew bags. Onwards,Firstly we stopped at the Woolami Beach, very famous for surfing, I could feel the bug building inside me instantly and wanted to learn. So we sat and watched the surfers and had a little pick-nick (im leaving that spelling in of "picnic" because lea says its too funny not to share!!). We head south of the island to a spot which is renowed for seals, Unfortunately we didn't see any, but we did see tons of penguins. All very cute, and soooooo funny, Also lots of fantastic scenery of the island. Heading north again, we stopped at Cowes for some fish and chips, I had Shark, lea had Snapper, was so good to eat some proper chips, gonna have to try hard not to live off them as they were lush. Headed back south to the penguin night show. This was hilarious, After sunset all the penguins come in from the sea and find places in the bushes to sleep. So you basically sit there and watch, but the best bit was the walk back up from the beach. All the penguins were walking along side us in little groups. We particularly like the little fat one's who had to keep up with the group but kept falling over at the back. Very enjoyable. Oh yeah missed something funny off this little story, when we arrived at the beach (due to conservation we were quite a bit back from the sea) so as we arrived late (naturally) we were like (well mostly blind me) " wow look at them all just standing around waiting" after watching them in awe from a couple of minutes on of them fly's away. We were shocked to say the least, "I didn't realise penguins could fly" Leanne looks at me, Those are seagull's. Do'h

With plans to head into Melbourne for the morning, we were unfortunately too lazy (mostly just enjoying the comfy bed and hot shower, God i sound like we have been in prison) So we just woke up late and strolled down to the beach by lizzie's house. Stunning beach again (think it's a pretty common thing that all the beaches are picture perfect) And we chill out, even venture into the water. Nice relaxing morning. It's the biggie coming up though. The family get together. So we come back from the beach and everyone is already there. (Late again) So here goes........... Me, Lea, Ruth, Dennis, Lizzie, Sharron, Gloria, Alison, Locky, Genny couldn't be there but her daughter and grand-daughter were there. Very cute little girl. Oh yeah and Elwood lizzie's dog. Good food and a few drinks (and more tea). Will have to fill you in on the family details when we get back, but needless to say everyone looked the same.

Today we hit the city, up early and into Melbourne city for the first time. Moomba, is a massive festival that happens in the city in march (i think it's for the close of summer, leanne said thats not true matt you just made that up - the word moomba means get up and have a good time - its an old aberigini word. check her out bill bryson!) So loads and loads for us to do. Firstly on a geeky note, so many skyscrapers, Melbourne is a massive city built up city so me and lea were kind of holding our breath ready for the pollution to kick in, it didn't. It was a little surreal, it's like being in the centre of london with on a couple of cars on the road and hardly anyone around. Very strange. So we made our way down to the river (again similar to london) on the tram which was cool. As we walked along the southbank river (again similar to london) we decided to cut through the Crown Casino (it was huge) to get to the festival, i was worried as we had flip flops on and might not be allowed in, i should however have been more worried about the giant woman security gaurd who used her gigantic arm as a barrier blocking entry to lea - quizzing her on the spot for a date of birth. gutted as we had no ID (for young leanne) on us. so retreating away from the lesbian looking woMAN on a powertrip (obviously secretly fancying leanne!?) we walked round. We had decided to treat ourselfs to a little tourist type thing and went up in the Eureka tower (landmark skyscraper for Melbourne). Hopped in the elevator and wizzed up to the 88th floor, (took 30 seconds and my ears poped twice) at about 170 meters we could see right across the city and suburbs. Obviously both of being architecture geeks we loved it. We then continued our trip towards moomba. Festival was really cool, loads of food and stuff to do, lea chickened out of the reverse bungee thing (where you are in a ball and they fire you up, secretly i was relieved) We pretty much just spent the whole day watching water skiing, skatebording, vollyball and some serious people watching. Ended the day with an amazing firework show but we were both really gutted as we had an amazing spot on the river to watch them but our camera had gone flat. So i'm afraid you guys will never get to see them!!

Up bright and early again (not getting the usual lazy lie-in's here) Ruth and Dennis came to pick us up and we headed into the hills to the Heale wildlife sanctuary. Ruth (alot like grandad) is comparatively quiet to Dennis and we had a real tour on our hand today. Ruth led the way with the picnic when we got there chicken drumsticks, bread and salad followed by beer and wine (11:45 am i'll let you know) was really tasty little surprise as we skipped breakfast for extra sleep time, (also lea not to be rude even ate chicken straight off the bone, wonders never cease) So entering the place Dennis quickly grabbed a volunteer and gently persuaded him to give us a private tour. We spent about four or five hours going round this place and it was amazing, we saw every type of Australian animal and bird possible all but the Tasmanian Devil (oh yeah its a real animal, not just a cartoon). We even got to stroke a Rock Wallabie that was just wandering around, very cute. As a little souvenir we bought a little Koala (teddy not a real one) he is gonna be our lucky charm for the road trip. We aptly called him "Kenny the Koala" (for those of you that dont know......lea has a teddy she has had her whole life called "Lenny the Lion", unfortunately due do lenny's old age we could not get him insurance so he had to stay home. So lea needed a new teddy in her life, However lenny if you read this you have not been replaced, you just have a friend). We went to Sharron's for dinner and boy did she feed us, we had a fantastic mixture of curries, the family was very impressed as lea quite happily applied a spoonfull of the old family chillie pickle to her dinner, didn't even break a sweat. Good job. I got a Little freaked out as one of sharrons kids Dan had a school photo on the wall and mum it was almost identical to the one in your lounge. Scary

So the big day finally arrived..........................We bought a Nintendo DS (had to give it straight to lizzie to charge as we didn't have a plug socket in the van, talk about your all time anti climax's of buying something), oh yeah and we picked up our van!!! Its at first we were torn between tears of joy and sadness. The 10 year old van pulls up to the front of the hire place and we are like cool look at that, big graffiti of Shazam (cartoon) on the side and a really hippy retro look to it (just old, not done intentionally) We head over to have a closer look (note down all the dents and chips with the hire guy) her shows around the inside................. So theres the sink, front seats, bed/backseats, oh and heres the engine. Sweet, Sweet. All sorted a little shock as it is pretty ropey but we told ourselves it will be fine, its cute........(and the turn around of opinion began) So we head straight to Torquay start-ish of the Great Ocean Road (tipped off there were some wicked surf shops there) we pretty much drive all the way down the GOR we were one major town from the end. Stopped at some nice little spots on the way, finally pulling into Port Campbell for the night. Just got there in time to see the 12 Apostles at sunset, very pretty but we were sure there aren't 12 anymore. So our first night in Shazam and this is where we were really converted from being a little freaked out by how small it was to thinking, you know what it's cute. Everything we needed so close. We headed out into the town for some food after the long day driving to be met with a tumble weed and some swinging saloon doors. Pretty much the whole town was closed (at 9pm) we managed to sneak a pizza in (mind you they locked up whilst we still in there).

First day and night done in Shazam, we were loving it. Up bright and early and back on the road we basically just drove back the way we came (going back to lizzies in Melbourne suburbs for a night). Today though we had alot more time to stop at the nice places we saw the day before. After making little stops at remote beaches we made two discoveries 1- The beaches were so empty, we stopped at more than one that we were the only people on 2- and i quote "The sea is so massive, i can't get my head round it" (more leanne's than mine). Arrived late at Melbourne, but got to drive round the city at night which was cool, very excited to have our first go on the new black DS when we got in but pretty much crashed. Little 2 day round trip in Shazam = 650km. Man this is gonna be a long drive.

Stocked up the van with all the essentials the next morning and parted ways with lizzie ( p.s thanks for everything) and hit the road again. Headed straight to Lake's entrance, recommended by Dennis for a night stop over (driving over here isn't helped by the fact they drive so bloody slow strict 60/70 mile an hour) Saw amazing views of the lake from the top of the hill. Tonight was our first proper night as campers, we made dinner on the gas stove and everything. Check us out,

Mum and Dad (Loughran) you might wanna hide the keys when we get back, we've got the camping bug!!

Next stop Merimbula to learn to surf.........................

Pictures coming soon

love you all

Chiang Mai charm......

2008-03-11T11:15:00.003Z

me and my 250 with an audience
matt chilling in the park
lea involved with the monks
matt "amonkst"

lea carefully feeds the hungry ellie!!
this naughty munk pushed in and gave the elephant the bunch of bannanas rather than my one at a time!!!!
lea takes on chiang mai
matt peering over the viewpoint (quad day)
us and our two latest additions!

DONT LAUGH!!!
matt looks like he was worshipping BUT he wasnt he was making fun of me taking a pic (its all about perspective!!)
the perspective!!! (doi suithep!)
how cute!!
matt and the elephant.....

matt and the panda.......
matt and the tiger........
this is a re-enactment of when we walked up to this STUFFED animal i didnt see it and matt gasped and i got so scared i thought it was a real on...............ooops.
but then fed a lepoard!
so did matt......

matt after a bite of the leaf!!!!
me pre leaf!
amazing!
it took us ages to get this shot - please comment below.
matt bombing!!!!!

this photo should be at the end - this is us on our first day in oz (just thought we'd stick it in!)
chiang mai zoo's latest attraction!
tired leanne?
look how light my bag is people!!!
matt isnt impressed!!!!

the pics above are in a really random order so sorry if it gets confusing......

The big days traveling Phi Phi - Phuket - Bangkok - Chiang Mai

So from Phi Phi (which by the way i was still calling Fii Fii not Pee Pee – the correct way to say it this caused confused looks from locals and frustrated looks from lea) early morning ferry to Phuket (which by the way i was still calling Fu-ket not Pu-ket. It hasn’t clicked the Thai’s don’t have an fffff for ph).

Pretty crazy sea journey as the ferry was so busy it was a joke, another great example of the Thai organisation four boats tied together going to separate places, so you had to queue up in one queue to clamber (carrying back-packs an all) across the ferry's to get to the right one, we were luckily on the first ferry, no clambering for us! So we pull up to Phuket (exactly the same spot as we left from) the boat men just start chucking all the bags blocking the exit off the boat!! Never fear an Aussie woman who had just stepped out of her power suit stepped in to save the day, barking orders that everyone completely ignored and just hurdled past the bags and the Thai guys just kept making the pile higher. With an hour and a half to spare we hoped in a taxi and headed to the airport. In a vague attempt to try and surge some urgency into the the Lazy old Thai taxi driver i dropped in that our flight left in and hour and we were in a hurry – I forgot to mention to lea my evil plan as when I said to him “flight leave hour” lea loudly went nooooo it doesn’t matt it leaves at….. !!, We must have caught him on a good day as he floored it. At the point that we thought the car was going turn into a ball of sparks and leave fire streaks in the road (Back to the future style) the man turned round mumbling in mixed english-thai about how "he over took a 2 litre car in his old banger" and "how she was still a good girl and juice left in her" arrived at the airport to find a que out the door!!!So we acted like rude European’s and pushed straight to the front. On the plane and into Bangkok in less time than it took to board the ferry. Landed in Bangkok and then had a little time to kill before boarding to Chiang Mai. This flight was really quick we were sure by the time the plane had reached its flying height it had to come back down again. With not much planning done for CM (what i am going to call it as the whole name is a pain to type) we suddenly found ourselves grabbing every leaflet the airport had to offer (a lot). Jumped in another taxi and went off on our way, It was a nice surprise to say the name of a hostel and the driver to actually know it! Check in was all smoothe (;-), we got “suspended” from work for that last time i typed that, oooo bitchie) Was the cheapest hostel we had stayed in so far, but to our surprise it was nice, pool, hot shower, TV and cheap beer in the fridge (new fav’s chang for me and singha for the mrs), Awesome, And SLEEP.....................

Day 1 in CM
So we must have been pretty excited as we both woke up early and headed straight out, Into the streets of CM a little apprehensive as it was a big city and the nightmare of Bangkok was still haunting us. But we actually smiled, the air was clean, the traffic was non existent and the people smiled. Sweet, so we pretty much bounced to the nearest coffee shop (no restaurant at the hostel) only stopping to look at a funky blue scooter.
The city is a perfect square with an old wall the gates the corners and any entrance’s into the square and tones of little street and paths through the center part, Heading towards our first old temple, perfect blue skies and it was getting pretty warm and then as the pavement wall dropped the brightness almost hits you as this gold painted reflective building blinds you, eyes adjusted we enter in through the gate and start to get pretty excitable as we see monks milling around and so much to look at, more importantly to us, so much to photograph. Camera in hand we start to make our way round the sights of this relatively small temple (god what were going to be like in a big one) Bit of restoration work going on inside but on the whole was very interesting place to look around, learning new rules of the Thai religion, You must never touch a person's head it's like the rudest thing you can do, Luckily we hadn't been touching heads so we were clear! Flip flops back on and back on the road to the next sight, another temple. We had a wander through a couple more temples and kept trying to secretly photograph monks, doing fake poses and other such staged event to try and catch them. Then we stumbled across the last temple in the inner city, by chance we had walked into a monk school on a meeting in the main hall, we nearly fell over at the sight of a 100ft room filled with monks sat on there knees, literally hundreds of them! After a couple of photographs we started to feel a bit rude and made our way towards round to the back to look at the rest of the buildings, FU#KING HOT.............Some man had just come over and shouted that to us, as we kind of got ourselves together he had already started another line of conversation, he was a Thai man who had lived in Melbourne for about 15 years (so his english was pretty good, especially the f word) he then went on to quiz us about what we were doing where we heading and stuff, went mental at the fact we were flying to Melbourne next and pretty much tried to sell us tickets to his Thai boxing school in OZ, He was with this little girl who was his niece, but she had literally covered her face with ice cream and he didn't have any idea. We were then quizzed about why we weren't married and had kids, leanne was quite abruptly rubbed on the tummy by the strange man!!! So we parted our ways with a slightly scared smile and a faster pace than normal. Sitting opposite a big puddle for a rest on the curb (proper travelers now) Lea started to try and catch shot of the day (mini photo competition between us) of a monk walking past the puddle with the temple in the background, all very nice, after what must have been 45 mins i am starting to get itchy feet and wanting too move on, so as we get up and start to walk away the most unbelievable sight hit us, a wash of orange as the hall was literally spilling out monks, we scrambled for the camera and began snapping we were officially the only western people amonkst (best punn ever, i will take credit without hearing the laughter) over 500 monks, Well it was quite surreal. We then stopped at the inner city park which was amazing, perfectly groomed and very relaxing, lazy lounging for a while. We headed into the market, pretty much sunday market stuff really lots and lots of nik-naks that would be great if we didn't have to carry them round for 3 more months, so we zipped through as we didn't really get grabbed by much, Until lea spotted something from afar. Like a dart we headed across the market and back into the food stall's (most of which by the way are like a B&Q metal BBQ welded onto the side of a 125 moped, with, if the driver is proper mental, gas bottles strapped to the back) So as lea made her bee line towards this one stand i started to stumble in shock as the girl who "felt sick at the sight and smell of street meat" Was happily ordering from a food cart. One corn on the cob (ok so its not a street meat Thai soup) later and lea was a very happy, naturally i finished it off. But how proud was i leanne had ordered and eaten something off the street vendors. Enlightened i think so. Went out for dinner and we again gob smacked at how much cheaper it was than in the south, Like a meal and drinks for 2 was about 4 quid, smiles all round.

Day 2
Whilst sifting through the brochures at breakfast (how very civilized) the day before we had decided to book onto a Quad biking (after such a good experience in Egypt). So the transfer bus come to get. All excited we hop in and on our way up out of the city and towards the mountains. After a windy trip up to the bike place we arrive and have the “safety talk” Consisted pretty much of “read this, but don’t worry about all of it points 5 and 6 are the only one’s you really need to worry about” good sign there! So as we are experienced riders now (three hours in Egypt don’t ya know) we opted for the 250cc (hoping we can really tear around in them). So we head out onto the road. Thumbs pressed half way in (accelerator) we motor up the windy mountain roads. Thumbs still pressed half way in and we are still making our way up the windy roads just now about 25km away from anything. By this time the engine is getting pretty hot and blowing some very hot air out onto our legs! Maybe 35km up into the mountain road the “guide” (used in the loosest term possible, he spent the whole journey so far going ridiculously slow and chatting on his mobile) pulled us over, told us to switch to the up hill gear and off we went again (with a little excitement that we were going to endure some off road action). Maybe another 10km up the road we finally head off onto a dirt track. Very steep gravel and mud roads and even a few big puddles to splash through. After maybe 15 mins of crawling through these step verges of mud (pretty fun while it lasted although we prefer going fast more) we stop for a break, not from the aching thumb (it’s like pressing the clutch of a car down with your thumb for two hours) but more from the burnt legs, which was getting pretty worrying now! Though we were now at the top of the mountain and it was high, the only problem was that it was such a hot dusty city when we got to the main attraction, the high viewpoint, you couldn’t see much at all! Just miles of haze. So pressing on, back on the quad for another 20mins more of off road adventure…….then we came back on the normal roads for the next hour. Bit of a money grabbing rip off. (this is leanne writing from here our little baby feet matt has got writers block) when we pulled into the quad shed the family who ran it all started cheering us!! We thought this was there welcome back they gave everyone! then they told us it was because I (lea) had finished the course!!! The cheek I thought!! But then they explained that a woman has never completed the course on a 250 before!!! Hehe so then I was well chuffed for the rest of the day. When matt was complaining it was a rip off I was defending my thai quad biking title – bit gutted there wasn’t a certificate? Or trophy ceremony? Ok end of quad biking day. We went home crashed lazed by the pool then on the night went people watching and ate spicy curries. We love chiang mai.

Day three
Im going to be quick now as I type this im in lizzies (matts dads cousins house in oz) and shocked at how behind we are in the blog! So day three today we mounted (oh yes I have an action leap) the scooter – matt pulled the visor down (this means he’s concentrating I think? Another words shhhhh!) and we headed up to the top of a mountain looking over chiang mai – at the top there was a temple – a biggy! This one was called Doi suithep. So we made it after a smoothe ;-) trip to the top – fed an elephant at the bottom of the 300 steps to the temple - as you do. A monk pushed in front of us for the feeding experience by the way!!! The temple was cool although I was stopped on the doors of entry by a boy thai bouncer – I sinned!!! My skirt was above knee level so wasn’t allowed entry I had to rent some trousers! – nice. Although I was really embarrassed and thought Buddha would hate me – then a thai girl got told off too so I felt a bit better!! This made us laugh a lot well matt mainly laughing at me wearing a shawl and some size 30plus trousers! Moving on. Temple was amazing very bling. Then we scootered on down to chiang mai zoo. Which was cool – although was spaced out over about 5 miles so lots of walking. Oh yeh and by today I had a flu?! Very random but sickness seems to follow us this hol! So got pretty worn out walking around in the heat! Saw lots of animals from tigers to koalas!! Cant remember what we did on the night? Must have been a good one!

Day four
we started off by doing a bit of a matt and leanne thing........mmmm. we saw on a map we have that there was a 700 year old stadium on the out skirts of chiang mai - matt really wanted to see this as we thought it would be like that one u went to see last year in Greece (mum and dad of lea)! anyways we did think it was odd that there was no tourist tours to this stadium - but never the less we thought we had just been clever. we asked a man how to get there - didnt click he was shocked we wanted to go and see it as he said - theres nothing to see - anyways off we went on the baby blue scooter like harry and lloyd! to find it was a new sports centre complex. oooops. so that deserved a day by the pool! then we went and sat in the park and had an ice cream followed by some bargain shopping - i bought some FAKE yes believe it i went there! - FAKE diesel jeans for 10 pounds!!!! bargain - you cant tell they are fake - and i bought a fake chloe bag anyways cost me 20 quid!! (abi and gem we have posted yours too ;-) ). Matt bought some jeans too (little bit of a bargain rivalry between us at the min!) so all very nice and happy and the budgie bargains (cheap cheap!) we have posted them back to matts mums (will arrive in a month – we hope!!). on the night we had a lush meal - our last authentic thai meal!! we went all out and went with what the waiter man recommended as a starter! now people are you sat down here - we ate leaves!!! we wrapped all sorts of spices and chilies and sauce inside a leaf and ate it!! it was so nice!!!! i think i have definitely widened my taste horizons here (lea!) we got a bit drunk off the beer or maybe the leaves? Anyway when the waiter was cleaning away our plates and asked how it was matt still had a leaf across his tooth, looked up to him, smiled, and said in a very strange voice cause some food was still going down – “I made a mess” haha I couldn’t stop laughing and poor matt the waiter giggled too. So matt doesn’t know why he said that – as it was true he had made a mess but the food was amazing so maybe all senses were confused? Hummm. So yeh I got drunk and had a wicked last day!!

Day six
Today we left for oz – we leave Thailand totally more wizened to the Asian culture! From finding Bangkok crazy and too much, to loving the relaxed southern islands! We loved chiang mai and wished we had a few more days in the city to experience a bit more. Matt will leave Thailand amazed at how green everything is and I will leave with a few kids I hope to come back and adopt (joke parents!) both of us have amazing memories from the land of smiles!! What a month! Can’t wait for the next stop down under………… (Im writing this already in oz – so quick note to family – arrived safe and loving Melbourne been doing so much! Met all the Loughrans and its scary how much you all look alike!! Staying with Lizzie (Ruth’s daughter) who has been amazing to us and is making our stay sooooo comfortable! – will write a lot more in the next one but just wanted to say something about Melbourne xx)

shout out to the mothers....

2008-03-02T14:28:00.008Z

Mum L - Happy mothers day, hope you got the card? Tried to call dads work phone to get through and then text but its proper expensive to call a mobile so would only be able to say hel............... (Officially the one time you not having a landline has been a pain). So i will call you tomorrow in the shop. Hope you have had a nice day?

Mum P - happy mothers day mum! glad you got the card in time (phew!!!) and bad dad for playing the ooo lea must have forgotten game!! hummmm...... hope your ok and no more earthquakes have happened :-( how scary!!!! dad - too much red wine and beer if you slept through it!!!! now i know where i get my sleep ability from!!.... hope you are having a lovely relaxing day! love you xx

After loving Koh Samui so much it was finally time to leave, it was hard but we got through it. Mid morning pick up (which was nice) for the epic travel back across the southern mainland towards Phi Phi. Ferry from samui was the best yet for 50 baht we upgraded to 1st class (less than a pound), Someone put a DVD opened a pack of oreo's (new favourite) and it was all golden. Ferry arrived all in good time and not sickness (oreo's and sea travel is a challenge) To the bus depot, about an hour away on coach, sorry tin can actually a metal cylinder, kind of like a petrol lorry with windows cut out of the side and seats rammed into it. As before, similar interior trimmings that resemble a very old persons lounge (not being ageist) with a metal edge to it. From there we stopped at a bus station in what must have been the middle of no-where to wait for the next bus (the nice one that takes us the bulk of the journey). It rolls up all looks good, we get on front seats = extra leg room (good work pike, pushing in is becoming a forte). The the un-thinkable happened, the driver put the TV on some local news channel, news loops none the less. He then reached for the radio and put that on some crappy music channel. Being at the front we had an awesome mix of news up-dates and mid 90's pop music. So when the driver got out for fuel, due to a dare, i got up and turned the tv down, The driver didn't notice. Joy, just mid 90's pop now. Bring on the chess (oh yeah we bought a wooden chess board in Samui after the checkers incident we'd dare not spend valuable hours making one for someone to steal it) It is also getting very competitive. We arrived at Ao Nang, (west coast of the southern mainland) again for the night stopover. Whilst waiting for the taxi/minibus to take us to the hotel, we got chatting to a girl (annoyed me straight away, ML) she had some how swapped passports with a guy in samui travelled all the way across Thailand, realised, called him and then told him to travel all the way across (10 hour journey) Thailand to swap back, which he did, to which she, (the dumb ass) was waiting at the wrong bus station and had no means of getting back in touch with him, seriously!! (anyway made us laugh/laughing at her)

Finally we arrive at our hotel for the night (after what is a pretty epic travel) to be met by a German/Austrian/Thai man with his hand together say "ahhh we've be waiting for you". Right we'll that's pretty freaky. the place was nice but the mad man was a little needy (we think we were the only guests) As we were having dinner he pulled up a chair to the table spun it backwards and sat on it legs spread (good enough mental image) and said (................insert your own dodgy accent) "you know its a shame you arent staying for longer, you know maybe 1 or 2 more nights, there is some beautiful countryside around these parts and i think you will really love it here" Firstly scary man you only met us 7 minutes ago how do you know what we like and also why are you so weird. Anywho, after much counselling we are over our fears of the scary/weird German/Austrian/Thai man. Up at 8 on the road again to phi phi.

Stupid ferry crossing again where, you have to get a long boat (old rusty thing i described before) to the actual ferry. but as you can image a ferry holds a lot more people than a 12 seater long boat, so you have to sit for a long time whilst these little boats cart all the people out, I think it actually took longer to fill the ferry than it did to make crossing. Efficiency isn't a Thai priority.

So we arrive had two more days in Phi Phi to try and cram all the stuff we wanted to do before but never had the chance because of the illness. Plans we set in stone First and foremost we wanted to go to the southern Phi Phi island (Phi Phi Lay) to see the infamous Maya bay (where they filmed the beach) and a new one on the list do some cliff jumping. Also was to walk up to the peak of the hill in the center of the island to wittily named "viewpoint". Check into, and follow the lady on a "short" walk up to our bungalow, carrying our backpacks, (shocking normally someone grabs it off you in seconds and carries it for you). "Short" walk was not for the light hearted, we thought for a second our bungalow was at viewpoint. So after lots of profanity and sweat (i was being a gentleman for a day and carrying lea's bag too) we now understand why they didn't offer to carry our bags. Bonus was we had a fantastic view of the whole bay from our room. Phi Phi underway and going well.................Que rain! Maya bay trip had to be scrapped, we didn't fancy our chance's getting in one of those Rusty little boats in anything conditions other than dead calm, and it was looking pretty choppy, and wet! Very Wet.

The rain did hold off the following day though and we began the trek to viewpoint. Man there were some steep steps (340 steps the a path) Although the weather was not crystal clear sunlight did break though every now and then in the distance. First lookout point reached, and some random monkeys came out of no where they were a mixture of cute and weird. All very playfull till food came out (realised later it must have been feeding time, don't believe the press, monkeys are not stupid, they didn't bite the hand that fed them). Lots of Territorial stuff between the big male monkeys then one of them took a swipe at a french girl (who in the monkeys defence, she stuck a huge digital SLR camera in his face a took a photo blinding him with a flash) So a little wary of the monkeys we decided to move on swiftly as feeding time was over and the local man was now holding a huge catapult and not a bag of nuts. So we carried on up to the top the view from viewpoint was amazing. We could see for miles right out over the bay and harbour, it was pretty much postcard stuff. Happy people, we had done something we set out to do on Phi Phi and the rubbish changing weather didn't put us off.

WE would like to thank our mothers on this special occasion, we would not be here today if it wasn't for your hardwork, commitment and love.......

Next stop Chiang Mai

Pics notes (in order)

346 steps in total and a lot more hills to viewpoint on PHI PHI - matt looks down on me :-( hehe
I just look up to matt so much i often raise him up on a pedestal.....
our infinity pool - matt tries to make it in time for the self timer but causes a wave (matt is not allowed to make a tsunami joke at this point!!! - but tries)
rain rain GO AWAY!
another arty pic from me - matt looks out whilst i hide behind some shells?!
leanne dont do it!!
we made it to the top! amazing views totally worth it!
we left our mark :-) (until it rains.....which was pros 10 mins later!)
killer monkeys come from the depths of the trees - very scary NOT CUTE! (this one was actually yawning not about to eat us)

washed out in samui

2008-02-26T10:16:00.015Z

Ok folks like every good story there needs to be a twist. So with the illness's cured and some nice beaching under our belt, we have been loving the life in Bophut, north Koh Samui, which as with lea's comments i would totally back up and recommend this place to everybody, fisherman's village is a fantastic little spot with a really trendy feel to it.

So time to venture out, to the scooter hire place. Beautiful day, scooter filled up (1 pound 15 to fill up, sorry no pound sign on the keyboard) and we hit the open road for some 15 mile an hour wind through our hair (again i would like to remind you all of the dumb and dumber scene). Samui has one main road the is like the scooter version of the M25 the circles the whole island only the M25 is a walk in the park, this road is like they get their tarmac from slabs of the moon.

Anywho we start our lap and head out to see the "big budda" (literally a big budda) its like 25 meters high and painted gold, pretty mental really, and a little surreal. (Since going there we have realised you can actually see it from pretty much everywhere along the north coast) So tick on the sight seeing list and off we go.

Next up Chawang, Like a chunk of Phuket dumped on this island, i think we may have actually reached a soring 25mph as we put our heads down and powered through the main strip. Lil Mario (scooters name, printed on the front) pushed us through the vile smell of sewers and out the other side of Chawang as we head further south again and hit Lamai (this is the place we were going to stay) and as we stoped on what appeared to be a nice beach for a little refreshment (15mph really works up a thirst) we realise its pretty dirty and the sand is mostly just shells. So we end up loving fisherman's village even more so.

Back on the road and to some of the islands infamous waterfalls, getting pretty excited as these should be some good photo op's. So we pull into the parking spot pay the woman 20 baht (not much) and off we trek down hill into what appears to be the jungle. Keeping our eyes peeled for insects, bugs actually pretty much anythig that bites (i still have lots of open weeeping bites on my feet that seem to just attract more insects to bite me, pretty clever really its like the bugs have tagged me as tasty and stuck a sign on me for all thier mates) so down and down we go to what we are thinking is going to be a huge water fall as we have properly treked down hill. Picture this if you will........................A rock the size of a football surrounded pebbles and other loose stones and such with a half turned on tap dripping out onto a hill about a mile away trickling through the gaps in the rocks. Awesome, us along with some angry german men practically run back up the hill as to show whoever was watching our utter disgrace with the so called waterfall. Nobody was there hence nobody really cared what we thought, it was a rubbish tourist attraction, (As i am writing this it suddenly dawns on me that it was obviously a rubbish tourist attraction as the was no gift shop/men trying to sell anything, no fee's, no donation pots, nobody around, nothing) Well back out we head to the next one. As we pull in a man flags us down and calls us over to a desk, (yeah a desk/reception more promising already) he says we can not get to the waterfall by road and have to pay him 1500 baht per person for elephant ride to the waterfall. Clearly seeing the road running right off ito the distance and combine that with the fact there was not a single bike around (rare thing for Thailand) plus the fact it was an absolutely extortionate price, we spotted the scam and told him where to go and we were off. He shortly came running on over and said its fie we can drive on up to the waterfall. (con-man defeated, we might actually be wising up) So as leanne decided against her will to put her fingers up to the man we zoom towards the fall, Pretty good one this time, lots pf people jumping off rocks into the fall (some whimping out), good old dirty looking water though (someone please let grandad know we didn't go near the water, not that i think it makes much difference as i have probably been given everything by the bugs anyway). Was actually pretty impressive though a good 30 meters high, in monsoon season i bet if chucks down off the rocks at the top. Leanne had a nice little climb on some vines, and i had a jump around, seeing how close i could get to breaking my ankles!

Good day out.

Planned a day by the pool as we are in a nice hotel and it had a clean pool, (alot of the one's we have seen look like river water, mossy, dead things floating on the water etc, you get the picture) Plus lea wanted some long deserved sunbathing. Cue clouds lots of clouds no sun = day wandering round various coffee and ice cream shops. We decided though as it was cloudy anyway to hop on the scooter and head to the golf course where randomly they have zorbing (put in a 10ft inflatable ball and rolled down a hill, but this one rather than tie you in they just put you in and half fill it with water, random but lots of fun.

We had booked a trip over to Koh Panghan for the day to meet up with Ben (friend from bournemouth) after getting up at 6:30!!!!! (those of you who knows lea will know how challenging this was!!!! )to get the early ferry across we were not impressed, The clouds had turned into rain (= A VERY UNHAPPY US), lots of rain. Full moon party scrapped, Day in Koh Panghan scrapped. Sorry ben got so close but we had to come back, as forest gump would say "its that big old fat rain that feels like the sky is falling on you" So 11 am we head back to hide.

The we did the unthinkable, checked the weather forecast 5 days rain and thunderstorms.

The only thing we could possible do in a situation like this is rent a dvd player by some films and sit it out. We have changed some plans, we decided not to head back to Phi Phi for 5 days as the rain will destroy any chances of doing anything there, They dont even have power during the day. So we are in our nice hotel a couple more nights finding indoor things to do.

Yesterday (look at us almost up to date) we booked a thai cooking course, very excited as we had been getting pretty bored of hiding from the rain. So back on the scooter (down down to about 6 or 7mph as the rain is still hard, and the road system has become a canal system. Had to head back to the dreaded Chawang, but we could just about bear it for the afternoon. So cooking, a little thai lady took the class were we mostly learnt about chillies (awesome) but it was a really good course we made three dishes, Chicken Massaman curry, spicy King Prawn salad with dressing, and fish balls soup (fish meat rolled into balls, not the other thing). Was an experience and hopefully we can remember the technique for when we get back ( well i say we, but really we all know its gonna be lea as i have already forgotten it) But really good afternoon/evening and it even tasted amazing. And i only got laughed at once by the thai people, although lea was befriended by a middle aged german woman who felt the need to start cutting up her ingredients and generally helping her out by explaining what a peanut was?!. We actually had the dinner with some aussies and they found it good to tell us every possible way we could get stung, bitten, poisoned, trapped, eaten, dead'ed by everything in OZ. Even what to watch out for in Sydney, Although one of the guys was most scared of the road systems as he described you can be driving down a road one way one day then BAM the next day they have changed the direction of the road on you, (sounded like a contraflow to me, but i didn't wanna say so at the time).

So you are all invited to come over for a Massaman curry when we get back (oh yeah and have somewhere to live)

Next stop we are heading back to phi phi and try and run away from the rain.

Hope everything is well at home.

Lots of love US.

XXX

Stacey, good update today, loved the detail and thorough narrating! you have skills

Gem thanks for the update, and hope everything works out with work.

Mum say hello to nan, and hope she gets better hope she knows who its from.

mum and dadoflea hope your ok and keeping grandmas attacks on the fellow WI - ers to a minimum!!! tell grandma and grandpa we'l send some postcards this week! love you lots xxx

the pics in order.....

we await the chance of sun!!
dumb and dumber on the road again
leanne has a erm.... go!
leannes geeky arty pic
we cook thai style!
we explore the jungle..........and matt impersonates a flying squirrel
matt wanted to adopt this little boy so leanne calls him Angelina Jolie!
oh yeh we rolled down a big hill in giant bubbles......as you do!
pretty nice sunset (whilst on the ferry to samui)
leanne visiting a Buddha
a waterfall we visited in the middle of the island.

kodak moments

2008-02-21T04:23:00.007Z

well as i sit in a little internet cafe in ko samui i thought i'd post some much awaited snaps of our epic time so far! im fully recovered now!!! the illness and drama is over. Phi Phi beaches, sun and anti biotics cured me so im not coming home now - there was an oscar peformance where on my death bed in our Phi Phi tree house, where i announced that it was all too much and i wanted my mum!! haha - stace maybe you arent the only peformer in the family! so our last couple of days were interesting on Phi Phi - as im all better now, obviously the way this trip works it was matts turn for the rough time :-( as you can see from the pics below mattanaldo played a game of football with some locals - but - the first aid kit came out for the first time - as matts feet got cut to pieces on the shells! ouch. being a "man" he had to play on - so they got worse. They have healed now after some TLC - matts ego hasnt healed after he was called, and i quote "ah you are baby feet" hehe. after Phi Phi we headed to Krabi for a night, and we did some proper back packing as we were dropped off on a beach and told to walk to the hostel, we found it and had a lovely night!, well anything would have been better than the tent we had stayed in 2 nights previous, i tried it are you proud?! but i dont think we will be staying in a tent on a beach again. The bugs and creepy crawlys have taken a liking to matt his feel are one big bite (ahhhh baby feet) - from krabi we got a coach across thailand to catch a ferry to ko samui. arrived last night in a resort on the north of the island called bophut beach!! the hotel is amazing and this resort is lovely and quiet with a stretch of really fancy bars and restaurants! its a fishermans village so we are quite chuffed to be staying here and calling this home for 5 nights. over the next few days we will explore samui then over to the nextdoor islands.

enjoy the pics! hope everyone is ok back home? any news? all sounds exciting about the wedding plans - and wow about the connection to posh and becks!!

stace hows life you little bumble bee? and more importantly did sam here back off hollyoakes??? me and matt want day passes!!!!

love to you all

lea and matt xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

these are all in a random order so read the captions....

sunset at the tip of phuket island
matt "baby feet" playing football (check out mr burns whimpering in the middle!)

matt in our tree house with the checkers board we made!! how creative of us.... (but someone stole it!!!:-( )

me in my tree house!! (stace NO jokes about my origins!!!)
this is the life! (phi phi island)
this photo was a mistake but we think its funny - check me out jamming to bob marley!!
phi phi island - they were building a new house and thats how they got the materials!

when i was ill :-(

bangkok - can you spot me? i was taking in some of the madness round me - you cant see it but infront of me was a park full of people (about 500) taking part in the biggest aerobic class!!

matt in a bangkok park

matt swinging on a ball (phuket)
me having ago (matt pushed me really hard and i was swinging for a while!)

matt chilling out on Phi Phi

More scooter adventures!

2008-02-18T02:38:00.003Z

Hello all,

The scooter story continues..............

So after the last update the getting around Phuket and learning that the scooter is the only way to travel (although pimp my tut tut is a rapidly growing fashion, neon lights, subs, big alloys, a million spotlights and even a windscreen skicker all regular fashion). We have finally plucked up some courage and went for a little adventure on our scooter. We had promised the hire lady (insert own comical Thai accent here...............) "you look after my motorbike" "you will be carefull with my motorbike" "use unleaded 91 octane in my motorbike" (we actually believed it was her own personal "motorbike" she had given us) we headed south of Phuket in search of something nicer than Patong beach.............................

We found it! Yay we had actually found some nice beaches with out the neon strip of blackpool. It did take most of the afternoon though. Let me set the scene for you............beautiful rich green rolling coastline hills for as far as the eye can see no mix that with the scene from dumb and dumber when they are both sat on the little scooter.........You got it, at least we weren't cold. Another benfit is that it only managed about 20 miles an hour so when you got hit in the face with a bug (consenquence of all those beautiful rich green rolling coastline hills) it wasn't going fast enough to hurt! So back to our lush paradise like beach...... Well it was acutally getting pretty close to sunset by the time we got to the very south of the island. So we pulled into a posh looking restaurant for a nice (valentines - brownie points) evening dinner adjacent to the bay to watch the sun go down for the day. However the posh looking restaurant didn't open till 7:30, way after the sunset (think they are missing a bit of a marketing dream there but there loss) so we went over to the other side of the bay and found a not so nice looking plastic table and chair set. The food was absolutly amazing and we both watched the sunset on the our first enjoyable day in Thailand.

5:30 the alarm goes off continually, sorry i mean the worlds most annoying rooster, loud as you like next door! Shocking. So we hope today is the day for the nice enjoyable Thailand to prevail and after yesterdays good fortune things were looking up. Up wakes a voiceless leanne. NOT GOOD! So with a bottle of water in hand and packet of strepcils we head down for the minibus transfer to the harbour. Lots of coughing, fleming, and croaking later we have arrived at what seems to be a harbour made up of boats tied together. We buy a ticket and get on the boat, easy! We have actually done some cross land travelling now, by boat and everything! All the boats untied and race off in thier different directions the "harbour" dissapears!

Koh Phi Phi here we come.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Arrive at phi phi, much the same really, lots of offers for random stuff, The main difference is that all the men standing at the side of the pavement are now offering "taxiboat" not "tut tut" sadly there is no pimp my taxi boat going on here, if anything its like the opposite. A taxi boat consists of wood older than most of the trees on the island nailed to an engine older the most of the houses i have ever lived in, hit that with a tsunami and you can imagin the state of these taxi boats but hey they get you there........ (lea just read that bit for the first time and gasped - noted!! - bad matt)

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

There being a treehouse about 15-20 meters up, (not exactly the desired beach front bungalow we were sold on)

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Still feeling the illness, leanne hit the bed hard, pulled the fly net (godsend) around her and was out. Only stirring for a cough, swig of water and a moan! (I am gonna get in trouble for that one) I picked up a random book called "invasion that was floating around in the reception book share thing, one of the only english ones! So i began to read. Leanne slept/ i read. Continually for about 6 or 7 hours. The bungalows are great everything you need to sleep and read. The only thing i would say is the generator that powers the bungalows only comes on when it gets dark/ a man turns it on, subsequently when it gets dark you don't have any power untill they turn it on, nice. So i had a little nap i was warn out from all the reading) untill they turned the power on. Much more illness...........

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs and the biggest spider we have ever seen (lea here for a couple of words - matt screamed a high pitch top C note when he saw the trantula!! x) Yeah thats right the thing had more chest hair than me!! (lea here again - and thats furry!!)

We now call it, leanne needed some anti-biotics - So we travelled by taxiboat again ( there is nothing where we are staying but the bungalows and the restaurant, the rest of the civilisation is on the other side (much like Lost). Long and short of it anti-biotics IN - throat infection OUT (and parents relax), i tell you we almost have smiles again. Apart from the fact we are now staying in a TENT. Nothing more to say about that, we are not at that point where you can look back and laugh on it. So that will come soon. - we hope.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Oh yeah the after nearly 400 pages i realised the book i picked up is actually abouth the TV show the 4400 , god bless my memory!

Plans are to head over to Krabi then Koh Samui. Gem/Trip advisor the last advice was actually spot on, any more info for Samui?

Hope everyone is well, any news?

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Love you all lots

From an almost better matt and lea xxx

Sawadee (Hello) Phuket!

2008-02-12T13:52:00.000Z

Well we actually did some off the shoulder traveling and manage to get our way from bangkok to the south, Phuket! (well we booked a flight and got on it, then got in a taxi and we were here not quite hardcore traveling but its a start.) Little fright at the airport when they updated the flights board with a 4 hour delay for our flight and saying the gate had changed. Found out (with not long to spare) they were just random changes on the screen and the flight was on time as normal, nice organization! So into Phuket and our first hostel, it is actually pretty decent, got a TV and everything, (only 25 channels of Thai stuff though) The only thing that keeps upsetting Leanne is the reception consists of a school style desk with a box of biscuits on it and some printed taxi signs blue-tacked to the wall, small random worries in a world of madness!

What we have found so far in Phuket.........

1 - Its hot, i was sun stroked before (or heat exhaustion as the sun doesn't actually get through the smog in bangkok) so now i (we) have that plus sunburn, and i was sat in the shade all day!

2 - There are strangely more taxi's/tut tut's than people

3 - Likewise more jet skis than people

4 - Odd one but lots of hairdresser

5 - More dogs and street meat, but the street meat looks like actual animals here rather than the left overs of a heavy night out like in bangkok.

6 - Scooters are nearly as cheap as beer, and you safer on one than walking as they just dont care about whats road, pavement, grass, beach or water, also the people you can get on it the better.

So to summarize, get a taxi here, towing an empty one (cause its spare) get dropped off to get your hair cut, grab a beer and scooter (from the same place) pick up as many locals as you can fit on your scooter and then see if you can find petrol (a petrol station is a drum on the side of the road with a hose-pipe handing out of it) Try and make your way to you hostel with one way systems that don't really apply whilst trying to knock over as many walkers as possible!

Job done, day in Phuket!

What else we have done, booked all the internal flights around Thailand. (For the parents) leaving the south on the 01/03/08 flying to Chaing-Mai (north) then back to Bangkok (not leaving the airport) on the 06/03/08, connect to our OZ flight to Melbourne! Also booked our camper van for NZ (lots of love for queenie the camper. "lp", sounds abit too gay for my liking. "ml") check it out http://cheapmotorhomes.co.nz/queenie_%E2%80%93_2_berth_hi-top_manual_5845_new_zealand_motorhome_rental.html(Si, this is the site if you wanna forward it to your dad, insurance adds on a bit to the price at the end)

So back to Phuket, saying here in Patong for 3 more nights whilst we try and arrange some kind of boat crossing to phi phi, but we are go out and discover more secluded beaches tomorrow, Kata is supposed to be nice (Then i am sure Leanne will tell you all about how i was going to make her walk that far cause it said it was only 2ish miles on the map!)

StacEy Pike a special mention for the hollyoaks update, it was like really watching it, (although the dramatization was well out of the range of beth's acting capabilities) but i think you might be on to something there, i am thinking about posting them in a separate blog!!

Mum, (Loughran) i left a magazine subscription card in the bedroom on the bookcase could you post it for me please?

Lots of love to all
XXXXXXX

sawat-dii kha (good-bye) Bangkok......

2008-02-11T02:33:00.000Z

after an eventful 3 days we are leaving the random and wonderful land of koks. its been such a culture shock, we have seen beautiful parks and architecture along with dead dogs and melting face woman ( a homeless womans face was hanging down to the floor!!) i think 3 days here have been enough, i am so ready to see some lush beaches and open spaces! just sat in the airport now, poor matt is ill :-( he has sun stroke so i think we will find some shade over the next few days (obviously il find a sun patch right next to him). We are heading down south (sorry dad im becoming a southerner again!!) to phuket, and we are staying in a hostel in patong beach called "@nania" - authentic!! we are there for 4 nights then we plan to explore phi phi (thanks for that tip gemma) and stay in a beach bungalow!! just bought a big memory card for the camera so will post some pics next time we get to a comp (matts in cold turkey at the min from p.c's - so maybe its not sun stroke?!)

comment away its nice reading them :-) - keri (mum) how come you are called "matt loughran" on your comment?-look like ive been writing on my own blog :-(

love youuuuuu x

newbies arriving!

2008-02-08T13:32:00.000Z

friday feb 8th 2008 - day one!

we have arrived safely after an ok flight - we watched dvd's, played computer games and matt slept - so pretty much a normal night for us! we found our way to a shuttle bus taking us to the hotel - BUT it took us to gridlock bangkok traffic jam - so we befriended a german couple (random) who took us to the sky train (it flies above the city) - and they showed us where to go, although the man properly fell over on the way! ouch. so we found that the sky train equals a happy leanne and matt - the roads however have enough dead meat (street meat is leannes name!!!) to keep leanne in the sky forever!!!

we made it to the hotel! its amazing!! - what a way to back pack ey! hummm could get used to this, so we are going to make the most out of these 3 days . got a nice top floor room so plenty of kodak moments of bangkok skyline! - although what is more amazing is matts feet have swelled up to reseble hover crafts - what a light weight :-p (henders not enough walking prep)

we are both pretty shattered so going to relax in the pool on the top floor........

we love youuuu

matt and leanne xxx

first stop BANGKOK......

2008-02-02T12:31:00.000Z

Not long to go now!!! eak...... we have booked the hotel for the first few nights - www.unicograndesukhumvit.com -a bit of luxury before we really experience the beach hut life! ( leannes idea!) yay so big plan is buy back packs and havaianas the jet off thursday night!! - we have got the 12 mega pixel camera so are all set for posting some amazing pics.................... anyone jelous yet :-)......... will post something more exciting when we get there! - or maybe our backpack trial walk in bournmouth 2moro might result in something amusing!!!
leanne and matt xx