The Stove

Mr. Blacky

Pia

Unky Charles

My messy room

Greetings from ...

jerry springer says so

hi. its alice here. as you all would know. i have nothing really to say, but i just want to work on my touch typing. it isnt working well.... anyway... i have nothing to report as far as travel goes, but i do have only 15 days to pay my ticket in full and that's the end of my story. i got really excited when i figured out i will be on jaan's doco!!! i am going to completely ruin his thailand section with my boring stories and camera hogging... ha ha haaaaa!!!!!!!! ok. love to all take care of yourself... aaaaaaand each other....

Jaan's a star!

Tuesday, 24 May 2005 1
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

WARNING: A bit of shameless self promotion here...

Well, most of you, if not all of you, have already seen this, but for those very rare few who haven't (in particular one fine dude from Canada who contacted me recently) here's an article they did on cystic fibrosis in paper. If nothing more, I got to mention the doco so maybe some big exec will read it and say "Hey, why don't we give him some money? It's not really fair that he's doing this on his own..."

It could happen!

I'm off to a new place

Due to unforeseen circumstances I'm starting my own blog so that people can see a whole site just about ME! Hope all stays well in our travel blog world, I'll be over in beckys big world trip world. Outtie Becky www.beckys-big-world-trip.blogspot.com

Ode to the Sun

Oh the Sun full and bright how Englishmen crave, The town comes to life as the heat starts to wave, With blankets and beer pastey skin is exposed, Bellies get bigger and girls start to pose.

Positive thought for the day ...

When you feel that nobody loves you, Nobody cares for you, And everybody hates you, You should start asking yourself ... ... Am I TOO sexy? I found this on Uncle Charlie's wall and thought I'd put it out to everyone there, cos when you're travelling - sometimes it can get tough - although I think I'll dedicate it mainly to Jaan - the guy who adopted the slogan "I am sex" a few years back ... and well, who can argue with that? Second day of painting today - crawling around on my hands and knees painting and caulking skirting - makes me kinda nostalgic for home - not. Saskatoon is best described by the variety of music stations available - we have 102.1 "Classic Rock'; 98.2 "Soft Rock" and 93.5 "Contemporary" Everyone drives big trucks. Oh also - I don't know if someone here has a wicked sense of humour or is just plain stupid but there is a funeral company called "Mourning Glory" ... aside from the double entendre what the hell is that supposed to mean? But it's cool - I'm glad I'm having what is basically a holiday from my holiday - i'll be having a holiday from this one when i go visit mitchel in a week or so - effectively i'm deep within the folds of four holidays at once! Four weeks for working, and collecting my thoughts.

welcome to toon town

now i'm here in saskatoon - apparently it took two days to get here but i wouldn't know - i wasn't there - it seems i disappeared for 48 hours and reappeared when the bus arrived at the saskatoon station the prairies aren't so bad - they're big and flat and remind me of home jaan - you're going to love the bussing life - nothing to eat but beef jerky and highway hotdogs and hamburgers - i haven't had a crap i two days hopefully uncle charlie will put me to work so i can feel productive and useful again but today i'll tour the town - there's even a motorbike i can borrow brummmmm brummmm bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm

... that guy again

i'm sure you're probably bored brainless so i'll help hammer it home - for those who need/want to know - i won't be going to england as soon as i had just planned and then changed my mind about then re-thought and flip-flopped on a few times ... peter's ingenious suggestion of extending my visitor status so as to save money that would be spent on going to england in a rush was a grand idea indeed whatever is to come, be it work or study, i'll be staying here i'll go to unky charlies for four(ish) weeks now and hopefully there will be enough Saskatoon berries for the picking so I can rack up a little of that filthy lucre this way i'll hang about here a bit longer, get myself organised, then go to london on a whim in the next few months - basically whenever another cheap flight pops up there are many bonuses to this plan: * i'll get to see peter, trudy and becky all at the same time * i'll have more money to survive on here and to pay for visas/uni fees/bribes * i'll have more money when jaan comes so we can have some fun together * i'll still get to go to london oh yeah - happy birthday josh! and i'm going to mars volta tonight, woo for me! end.

woot woot!

look everyone! im not jaan anymore! Yay!

its contagious... i smite you all!

hello all. this ia alley here, not jaan as you all would have first suspected. and yes, as ben would have told you two messages ago, i have bought my ticket to bangkok in december. YAY! i plan to meet up with jaan the same day he arrives in the noisy city and then we'll travel around for two weeks together doing stuff and having fun. our plans, as you can see, are set in concrete... ill let everyone know what is happening and when as the details unfold, therefore contributing to this wonderful blog that i have been invited (forced) to put something on. dont get me wrong all - i love telling you all about what ive been up to, but i just think im way more boring than everyoe else who is jet setting, so forgive my modesty. love to all, alley YAY!

ahem ...

I (benn) do (truly) believe (undoubtedly) that a certain somebody (alley) has a certain (highly interesting) something (about getting a certain something (ticket) to a particular place (bangkok) to do something (trek about) with a particular person (jaan) in a certain month (december) for an undisclosed period of time (a couple of weeks)) to tell us all (you (peter, trudy, kate, becky and all the other net nerds out there) who are reading this (the blog)). Personally i can't wait to hear this suprising news.

oh yeah ...

For those of you who know the little elevator movie that i made during the film festival in adelaide - it was shown at this month's montreal kino screening - so that was a bit of fun. Dave and dimmy have now both been seen half naked on the big screen in at least two countries. ... still haven't heard from concordia.

tonight i went to another concordia screening, it was okay - still haven't heard from them about my application.

yep ... the title says it all

No real news, just thoughts

Hi all. This isn't really an interesting post. I haven't actually changed any of my plans. Haven't got any more news. Just ideas and thought what sort of friend would I be if I didn't share them with you?? I'm just at the point of sending out all my letters requestion money off. I'm not expecting to get any, so if I do happen to get some it will be a bonus. I went to Sony shop and the lady gave me some contacts to ask about TDK tapes. Apparantly they're nice and should do some sort of deal with me. The PDX10 is just under $4000, which is cool. And apparantly there's this new mike that is half the price of the Senny we used at Uni but is twice as good. Go figure. So I'll try and snap me up one of them. We (Alley and I) are going to travel agent on Monday to see if we can maybe find a flight that suits Alley coming over to Thailand. Apparantly school finishes a week earlier than we were told, and there's definately a possibility she can also leave before the end date, so that's pretty cool. Just gotta see if we can get a flight and of course see how much it's gonna cost... I was having a hard time what countries to see while I'm in Europe. I saw my cousin Eva yesterday who's just got back from about a month overseas, and she was telling me about Greece. I completely forgot about that! What an idiot I am. So I'll definately pop over there for a bit, you know, hang out in the villages with the relatives I never knew I had. Should be a blast. Now just gotta see what other countries are close to there that I might visit. I think Bulgaria's close... So yeah, that's my plan up to date. I'll let you know how the meeting on Monday goes. Hopefully all good, but you never know. Peace out y'all, Jaanarama P.S. Lleyton Hewitt and Bec Cartwright are expecting a little bubba. I knew you all LOVED to know that.

dit-dit, ditditditdit, dit-dit, ditditdit, dit-dit, ditdit

THIS JUST IN! Every day I'm surfing on the internet trying to plan my travels in the near future - and every day they change - come with me as i explain the most accurate plans up-to-date! May 14th - a two day bus trek across the reputedly mind-numbing prairies of central Canada to Uncle Charlies house! May 16th - 20th - a week of working and hanging out with aforementioned uncle! May 21st - 22nd - a weekend spent with Hockey-Cousin Mitchel Villani! May 23rd - 29th - another week with aforementioned uncle!! May 30th - another two day trek back across the prairies just to see if they really were that boring!!! June 1st - on a plane to London!!!! June 2nd - 15th - two weeks dossing at Becky's house and being out of Canada before they kick me out!!!!! June 16th - back in Montreal to re-assess the situation!!!!!! ... stay tuned because these plans are bound to change!!!!!!! ... possibly within the next hour!!!!!!! dit-dit, ditditditdit, dit-dit, ditditdit, dit-dit, ditdit (...fade out...)

Benn saves an entire city and possibly the world ... again

That's right guys - you probably won't see it in the news but i just saved the entire city of Montréal from being blown into smithereens ... Well ... i was going to crap on about my heroic adventure but that would be bragging (and requiring some imaginative exercise) ... I don't know if saving the world is such a good idea - maybe it would be more interesting if ... wait ... i'll just stop there also ... I can think of a whole bunch of people just south of where i am ready to kill me if i went any further ... Well thus far I think i've helped maintain the inanity of blogs and proven that travel plus me does not an exciting story make ... so ... has anyone eaten anything interesting lately? I had some cheese with Guinness mixed in ... it was okay. And also a pink drink with a lizard riding bmx on the front ... pretty gross. ...last night I slept a little funny - I'm pretty sure I had some dreams but about what I can't remember ...today the sun is shining and it's warmer outside than in for a change ...I was told by a lady, whom I'm sure is become increasingly annoyed by my pestering, that Concordia will be sending out accepted/REJECTED! letters this week - so i'm hanging out for that - just so I know what i'll be doing in the next few months - either way it will be good news I say. ...oh yeah - Cathy and Mike - if you're still bothering to read this web-page - I've searched high and low to find your message - for the past two weeks i've been thinking it was in an email and went through everything i could find - Becky just told me it was on here - but I still can't find it - so don't think I'm a rude bugger for not replying - and drop us a line if you're still out there. ...so, what else is new? ...oh, I know ... ...Molson - the Canadian beer company - is putting out guarana-charged-beer products for ravers who are bored with ecstasy and are getting into the brew ... or jocks who like to smash stuff but find straight beer makes them too sleepy to be productive ... that's new I hear kangaroos are all the rage in australia ... Is this true? Do you have television there yet? What's it like having criminals for ancestors? Does everybody eat "bush tucker" Why do you eat Vegemite ... are you crazy? Your Pen Pal, Bennn.

Becky's Financial Guide to Living in London

A. MOST IMPORTANT : one pound does NOT equal one Dollar Australian. B. See above and bloody remember it. C. Make sure you have a return flight cos you won't have any money left to leave once you've been there. I've been to scared to tell people but this is a blog and it's the sort of thing you're supposed to put on a blog; I'm completely broke and I'm half way around the world !!! Last thursday when I went to get money for the bond and first month's rent for my new flat I got a bit of a surprise, I did luckily have enough money but I only had £2 left over!!!! (1 month's rent and bond for the flat was $1600 Aus) I was quite excited about this actually, it meant I was finally being given a challenge, and that's what I did. I survived 5 days in London on £10 borrowed from Adam! Until you get to London you have no idea what an accomplishment that is... And that included a day trip to Greenwich and an afternoon in the Tate Modern. Have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. Been living on canned soup and two day old bread rolls, living the hard life... Well I got paid today so I think 5 days of that lifestyle is enough... back to chocolate and restaurants! P.S. This is in no way meant to be begging for money, but I don't know if anyone got my text about putting money in for Malberto. If you guys want to put some money in my account I believe Jaan has the account details, but no pressure at all.

Jaan has some news... (possibly good)

It's official!
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, I finally have some useful information to post on this stinkin' site. Yes, that's right. Hold on to your hats boys and girls - I got my ticket out of this hell-hole. Nah, that's a lie. I've just booked my flights out of Adelaide for a few months. Keep in mind these are the initial dates, which will more than likely change, but here's my plan for the moment:

I depart Adelaide on Monday, August 22nd 9:05am
Arrive in Sydney 11:25am
Depart Sydney 1:25pm
Arrive L.A. 9:45am (argh, where did the day go?!)
Depart L.A. 12:52pm (no schmucky 12 hour wait for this boy)
Arrive Vancouver 3"39pm (that's still August 22nd for anyone who wants to meet me there.)
Depart Toronto Friday, October 28th 7:55pm
Arrive London Saturday, October 29th 8:00am (peter, trudy, Becky – this one's for you to remember)
Depart London Friday, December 2nd 9:25pm
Arrive Bangkok December 3rd 3:40pm
Depart Bangkok Friday, December 16th 5:40pm
Arrive Sydney Saturday, December 17th 6:25am
Depart Sydney 10:20am
Arrive Adelaide on Saturday the 17th December at a loverly noon o'clock.

So between arriving in Vancouver and my flight to London from Toronto is where I'll be doing all my Canadian trekking and majority of doco filming. I wasn't able to get another stop in Europe, so I figure just over a month between arriving and leaving London gives me a bit of time to see what I can be bothered seeing in the immediate area (Wales, Scotland, maybe even France and Spain). We'll see what happens.

As most of you know, Alice was going to come up to Bangkok and keep me company for the two weeks I'm there. however, due to good ol' TAFE, which doesn't finish until December 16th, that doesn't look like happening. So if we can't work out anything, I'll more than likely spend a bit more time in both Canada and Europe, and just do Bangkok as a stop-over. We'll see.

So yeah, y'all proud of me? I'm pretty happy - considering I only really first thought about it yesterday. No time wasting for this monkey! I'll make sure to post any changes, but Ben, this gives you a rough outline if you wanna do any Canadian venturing with mwa.

This is your Captain signing off for now. Stay tuned for a later update.

Happy Birthday Peter!

I made this cat in the hat cake in your honour peter ... I also though it would be good to encourage the kids across America to read ... 2001 was a good year so I thought I'd put that in too ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

hockey and fatness and improv

I went to watch Kino Chris in a couple of ice hockey games - the team got into the semis - it was quite fun to watch - sure beats the crap out of cricket and footy as far as pacing goes - i think if i'm going to be here for winter i'll have to take up skating/hockey to avoid turning into a blimp - it's far too easy to subsist on grease swabbed food when the weather isn't the best - last night i went to an improvisation again - it's a fun way to learn french since people are making things up on the spot they speak slower and the comedy is quite physical and not so hard to get - and besides people screwing up in any language is funny - kate - i think if you have enough interested people you should start a little improv game of your own - that's if you've got the time you busy little bee.