Robbed

Well, after the exhileration of drawing with Croatia to enter the final 16, of course it takes a Spanish referee taking kickbacks from the Italians to hand Italy a quarter finals birth on a platter and send Australia packing. Very frustrating. Thankfully, the English press has stuck up for the Aussies and really given to the quality of reffing in this tournament, which Australia copped the brunt of more than most!

Anyways, a piccy from a big function we went to to see Australia v Croatia (Brick Lane in East London). It was like a mini cinema in there and was packed to the hilt with Aussies so you can imagine the atmosphere during the tense match and the relief and partying following! I had to go to work the next day though but my boss was sympathetic to my tiredness during the day! Brick Lane has the, and I mean, THE best bagle shop on the planet. Head down there if you get a chance when next in town. Mmmm.

Bath Bath Bath Bath

So I also managed to get out there and hit Bath finally. Not since my days as a wee Luco following Mum and Dad and their Griswalds European Vacation back in the mid 80s had I ventured to Bath. To be honest, I don't remember too much of it from back then but visiting this time in splendid spring weather was truly beautiful. I managed to wing a nice little convertible to take advantage of the glorious weather and hit the road with the roof down (and umbrella ready -u thought Melbourne weather was unpredictable! yikes) and fanged it to Bath, well, just on the brink of bath.

Bath of course has its major attraction being the old Roman baths, which funnily enough aren't so old with seemingly everyone restoring them to some shape or form over the centuries to the point where there aint much original bath left, mostly early twentieth century remakes. Anyways, they are very interesting and have interesting stories behind how they fitted in to old Roman society when the Romans had settled the motherland.

I tried to mould into the surroundings as best I could to feel like it may have been in old Roman times (see above) and truly discovered why it is the Romans wanted to present their culture to the local english hooligans. Altogether, a fantastic short trip, with fantastic spring weather, and fantastic sports driving on the speedy motorways!

Kiev

I hit Kiev with Toddy and Hirdy over the Easter break and had a fantastic time. Lots of caviar, cheap vodka and beer (everyone drinks beer in Kiev at any time of the day which is no wonder considering it is about 80 aussie cents for a 500ml stubbie!) and women wearing short skirts, also at any time of the day and big mafia looking dudes in big black suits - again, at any time of the day.

Kiev was an amazing city and somewhere I would like to return. It hasn't encountered the wrath of British tourists yet (unlike the Baltic states and some other Eastern European destinations) which really preserves it as an authentic, not too touristy destination to travel too. The only pain being Aussies need a visa but hey, I was willing to sacrifice and it was worth it.

From our 3 bedroom apartment with jacuzzi launchpade on the main street in the city, we hit the attractions (one of the beautiful orthodox churches, St Andrews I think is shown above with Toddy as well) which included churches, an interesting market where you could buy everything from old rusky passports to Nazi war medals and KGB IDs. I bought a beautiful painting of the St Andrews cathedral in a winter scene. It will be on the wall one day back at home.

The restaraunts and bars were interesting. Of course we had chicken kiev (c'mon! you gotta do it!) which was delicious and all the meaty dishes the Ukrainians love so much, and the bars which were interesting moreso because of the shady mafioso looking characters lurking around with the beautiful women sidekicks to match. All in all, a fantastic holiday and somewhere I can recommend anyone to visit (before the Brits invade anyways ;))! The other picture is me standing in the market with all the dodgy memorabilia. I got myself an old Red Army broach and commy belt (very cool) 'apparently', according to our Jewish market stall owner, belonging to soldiers in the Red Army from the first world war. He also sold Nazi war medals and the like - go figure.

London home!

And here is a picture out my bedroom window at home in South Ken. Looks out towards the Natural History Museum. Actually went and saw a Che Guevara exhibition next door on the weekend which was quite interesting.

oh...lake bled. bled in slovenia, purely a beautiful location and somewhere i recommend to seriously chill for a while. this is a view of the lake which is incredibly tranquil. give it a go.
say gday to the swans. go swans!! back to back 2006.

one of the few pictures i can find on my computer since Hewlett-Packard deleted everything on my laptop after going in for a service to fix a fault with their dodgy pc. NEVER BUY FROM HP please. anyways, this photo survived. a pub in ljubljana, slovenia right when i was halfway through growing my finely styled beard and looking rather dero. about august 2005!