L'Exil...est retourné!

Haere mai from Edinburgh! Been here for 2 nights staying at the YHA not far from Toll Cross and Princes Street, great view out over the Scottish flag and the Castle. Freakin' cold though! Apparently it is unseasonably cold...still walking around in jandals though. My new boss has resigned (headhunted) and I have been asked to apply for her position by the big boss (stroke the ego...mmmm....purr) after all, I have absolutely no experience! Choice. The position will be looking after 4-5 others in a brand new Coastal and Sustainable Communities team. Beleive me, I feel like i'm diving head first, Greg Louganis style - well maybe not exactly like him. Had an interesting discussion with a lawyer and two Catholics about homosexuality and morals last night over a bit of Mexican food. A large portion yes. Yesterday we did the Castle tour, the Scottish Whisky Heritage Centre (no free half hour afer that one boys like the Tui brewery). Paid £8.50 for a wee dram of 25 yr old Port Ellen wh...

Great work. Why keep running?

How much talk do the English engage in? First they talk up their rugby chances, then their cricket chances! Walk the walk England... And why are all the doorways made for midgets?

This road train never stops...have been a bit slack lately because have been on the go since I got back from Spain. Arrived back late in the night, then next morning/lunchtime the fam headed off to do the north in a rental Ford Focus - Ma, Pa and wee Ellie. We have been through Hedingham Castle YHA, Beverley Friary YHA, and last night found a B & B in Pilkington. We are basically heading up the east coast to Edinburgh and then looking at coming back down the west coast and through Wales before the others head off to Ireland without me, and I go to work in Beverley for the Council. We have checked out Groton, the home of the Winthrope's and seen the small church where John Winthrope started out and went on to found Boston, Ma. Rock on! Go the Celtics! The travelling situation is just like old times, we are all taking turns in having bad moods, arguments at every intersection, backseat drivers, bags of lollies (no sparkles!), and even crazy walks through the North Yorkshire Moor...

I am struggling to fill in the days here: cafe, walk, beach, sunburned, beers, food, walk, sleep...and again...cést la vie Hasta mañana!

Hola! My spanish is only sufficient to get by, let alone hold a conversation. There´s a hot girl that works at this place "KZgunea", (unpronouncable Euskadi/Basque word) that gives free internet to the citizens of Hondarribia (and me thanks to the nice lady at the turistico office) but I can´t even talk to her. This will not do and must therefore be remedied. Next trip to this corner of the world: camping mission through the beaches and mountains of France and Spain over a few weeks. The campgrounds all seem to be in pretty good spots if you have a car, but i´m not sure if they´re that cheap or what the facilities are like. The Kombi would be ideal - i´ve always wanted one. Throw some bikes in the back, deck it out with leopard skin rugs, furry car seat covers, fluffy dice, a bar...and some drugged up Westies like Stereogram. I guess you could consider the Spanish girls´ haircuts to be Westie-ish... Tomorrow I fly back. Booked a ticket on EasyJet from Bilbao to Stansted for ...

Cruzcampo is not a bad wee drop. I think its the local Basque lager. As for tapas - i´ve had a few but they mostly come with tiny little anchovies and whitebait (inanga)-looking things. Not my style. I had some the first night I got to Spain and proceeded to get a mild form of the runs, but they were readily defeated by the trusty old Immodium. This morning when I got to France I bought a loaf of french bread, some camembert and some "Jambon" of the bone. Tasty and delicious, mm mmm that was a good sandwich. Not sure how the cheese stood up to a day on the beach though...

I went to France this morning...and they didn´t even know I was there. I saw a nudist beach by accident (honest!) as it was up the other end of the beach to which I walked. I was walking to see some pancake looking rocks, well I saw a lot more than pancakes I can assure you. Same old story, mostly old men - just like that holiday park in Nelson "optional nudist park" at Mapua. Thanks again Dad! Hendaya is the beach over the ferry in France, and it is a cracker. It has waves, girls, good sand, a seawall so you can catch a wave out to meet another wave and when they find harmonic motion you get dumped. Great fun. So relaxed. I love the beach. I think after I finish working in Beverley (it´s a place...) then maybe find a real beach somewhere and learn to surf. I think i was born to do it. I love bodysurfing - i´m just not fit enough to stay out longer. And to think all those years at the Mount, across the road from a great beach. You could say i´m dumb and i´m an arse - which a...

Well here I am...made it. Nice place, not too hot. Apparently Spain is having a heatwave, 40 degrees, I thought it was this hot all the time! Staying at my first youth hostel. They make you pay more for the same service if you are over 26 - age-ist bandits!

Not sure exactly why i´m writing this, but here goes...I guess i´ve had time to do a lot of things (like becoming a BLOG geek!) and a lot of thinking recently: The thing I miss most about home is my friends and family. I really miss having someone to talk to , to tell everything to, to listen with an open mind, to not be judgmental, and to not approach from a fixed viewpoint. I never wanted to become one of those solo travellers (especially when you can´t really have a decent conversation with anyone else because you don´t speak their language); like "Lewis" the English/Scottish guy from Phnomh Penh in January. We ridiculed him for being too clingy, almost a little desperate. I don´t want to be that, but I now understand it. But I meet girls and chase them like they are the last ones on earth. Which leads me to believe that maybe I am a little bit lonely? Admittedly there are also some beautiful women around this part of the world... Work however, is a great diversion a...

Here´s a few photos from my first few days in Bilbao - The world famous Gugenheim Museum and its spider I didn´t even go in to this museum as the main exhibition was about Aztec stuff and I thought a month in Mexico was enough for me. It´s pretty cool though and on the other side away from the river it is guarded by a fearsome giant puppy made of flowers... La Playa de Gorliz, the beach at the end of the Metro (BBK) Tomorrow I think the Bilbao Renault World Series starts and goes for 3 days...fast cars, small towns etc... It is a street circuit like Monaco so should be pretty cool, hopefully more passing options than Monaco though. I wanna see some crashes! Bilbao World Series of Renault

All the women (aside from going topless on the beach) have these really bad Joe Dirt-like haircuts. It is the latest fashion here, but I think this time the fashion gurus have it all wrong. "Can I have a look at your Lonely Planet?" Yesterday I went to the beach at the end of the Metro, near a town called Plentzia. The beach was called Gorliz and was a sheltered bay with a few big and disused buildings along the waterfront. Anyway the beach was packed with locals, a veritable banquet for the eyes. Met a ex-soldier from Norway (Tarje - I called him Terry) and his ex-girlfriend Nina who spoke four different languages, studied linguistics and was from Germany/Austria. We ended up having a few beers on the beach and carried that on when we got back to Bilbao where we met up with some classic American college guys (some of which had the classic "Revenge of the Nerds" haircuts). We ended up at locked in a bar with a Spanish girl (can´t remember her name) after everyt...

howdy all, and so begins my first backpacking mission in a "1st world country". i have landed in spain. bilbao to be precise - home of the famous gugenheim museum, basically yhe only museum more famous for its outside than what artifacts it has stolen from around the world. nice one bilbao! took a ryanair flight from stansted to santander, booked a bit late and it cost me around 100 quid. there is absolutely nowhere to put your legs aye, built for irish midgets i reckon. decided to jump on a bus to bilbao after all that (met a nice, friendly girl from leeds), and will park up here until something else tickles my fancy. we got given a free spanish classic novel on the bus "Torquemada en la hoguera" - first clas, luxury bus...this town is so chilled out, i instantly love spain! and the metro is cheap too! rooster if you´re reading this, my phone ran out of money when you called me (global roaming charges like a wounded bull). need to fix that. my phone has found a ...

slightly surreal as it has all been for most so far, these blasts will no doubt make people more vigilant in the next few weeks - but how long will that/can that last? it's not a healthy state of being - suspicion, paranoia. London has been damned lucky, this sort of thing happens almost every day in Iraq. Ahh, things were so much simpler back amongst the green, green grass and open expanses of home. i'm off to spain on sunday or monday. probably the northern coast toward Bilbao and San Sebastian.

my cell number is - 078 3721 0988 (plus UK dialling codes). address - 39 Mildenhall Street, Clapton, London, E5-0RT

Well i have a job! two actually...went for an interview at bath with the council there (bath and NE somerset council) and they offered that role to me at 15.50/hr. not too shabby at all. and then monday went up to beverley and nailed the coastal job after a 10 minute powerpoint presentation on their plan! so totally stoked. the job up in yorkshire is ideal - implementing a ICZM (integrated coastal zone management) plan by designing a second generation shoreline management plan (make sense?) with the folks around there. great fun. apparently it snows down at sea level up there too...so anyone for a beach holiday? there are also at least 3 nuclear power stations in my county, each with 8 huge chimneys (i think - at least they all look like Springfield). kind of weird. dont want to stay there too long then aye, might get sterile! To Bath or not to Bath? that was the question, the answer is that that job is development control work and can go to hell. i told them i would do it for 20...

All of us Fitzy's are ok. Hey everyone, if you haven't heard - at least 7 bombs went off in london this morning shortly before 9 am. one on a bus and the other six on trains and at train stations during rush hour. all the blasts were in central-north london (above the thames) and targeted the mass transit system. london is at a standstill. anyway, have talked to ma and pa and luckily they had not gone out yet, ellie just missed the blasts and had (unusually) decided to go to work early, and i of course was still in bed. the place is in a state of disbelief now i think, but people still seem to be going about their daily lives. all travelling is suspended. Thanks for the email's about yesterday's birthday. had a really nice day. today could not have been a greater contrast (from a completely selfish point of view). what an inevitable tragedy? my thoughts are with those families and their friends. Be safe, Tom

i have been priviliged to see two of the most complete sporting performances this last weekend. these are two guys that have taken their respective games to new levels. great sporting weekend. could anyone get the wimbledon scoreboard 'virtual tennis' thing to work? it looked like it would have been cool...? PS. am supposed to be reading up about the coastline of east yorkshire now for my interview in an hour and a half...she'll be right. check this website out for coastal info - EBOP eat your heart out... East Yorkshire Coastal Observatory

Bath is a nice little town - the whole town centre is a World Heritage Site for historic buildings. had an interview there on friday which went well - i think. you never know. i'd have to buy a car for the job which would be an initial cost but would soon pay itself off at 40p/mile...today i head up to beverley (near hull), a small town in east riding of yorkshire for an interview as a senior coastal officer. should be fun. have to do a 10 minute powerpoint presentation on an as yet unknown topic. hopefully i get neither of them and then i can go off to spain in peace. met up with paul in bath, old mate from NRM at varsity. was great to catch up. did a lot of drinking, and i now know all the bars in bath and can navigate with ease at night. tehn we got up about 2 hours later and watched the AB's kick some arse. imagine what a combined tri-nations team could achieve, and then in a series against the lions. i think maybe we should roll out manawatu for another crack at the lio...

but i don't care 'cos i'm about to book my ticket to spain! yee hah! just went and saw 'war of the worlds' at the odeon on finchley road, missed the first 10 mins but i think it made it a bit better. speaking of which the odds of the lions beating the ab's this weekend are also 'a million to one'. the original media manipulation of the americans The vapouriser guns that leave the clothes behind are very cool. it's been a while since i read the book, so i bought it again. managed to find a bookshop amongst all the sex shops in soho "'allo darling, would you like to come and see some ladies?", "er, no thanks luv, i'm spent" ( i wish i'd said that). soho really is the theatre district after all...how's the guys with their hands in their pockets coming out of the adult cinema?! got a couple of job interviews, one tomorrow at bath, and another for a senior coastal officer role at east riding of yorkshire council. a...