Hong Kong!

Just a quick update while I have the opportunity - I'm in Hong Kong! It's pretty cool, at first I was in a bit of a grump at the communication breakdown, but that's because I was tired from the flight. Now it's more of a challenge trying to get things done, which makes it all more the fun.

I visited the HK Science Museum earlier, that was cool, had a look round and played with some of the stuff they had. Wandered off in search of food and came up trumps on this little cafe that did me a delicious tuna sandwich. I think I'll do all of my (window) shopping today, then do some more touristy things tomorrow. It's funny being a tourist, I feel silly for taking pictures of things!

Anyway, off to find myself a watch.

Tata!

The aftermath...

So! Had my leaving party/other family celebrations yesterday - and received my new camera! Very shiny, I will upload some pictures. It was good to see everyone and we certainly partied good, which is sad because it won't be happening again, the world will move on (Stephen King!). We spent the afternoon eating party snacks and having a chat and it was all very nice. Playing with the camera was fun, trying to get snaps of the ever elusive liam. Success in the end though, very satisfying. Headed into town afterwards, which was a good and bad idea. Got to celebrate my last night out in Bridport with all my friends, however I drank some vile concoction and was gone for the night. Still feeling it now. Anywho, I'm going to miss all of my friends, but hopefully they will come out to visit me in Australia, and any of you if you are passing by. Just let me know and I'll find you!

Group photo!

Anyway, I (mother) packed today and now the cupboard is truly bare, as are my shelves. Come wednesday the computer will be gone and my room will be nowt more than an empty husk with a bed. Roll on thursday I say! I can't wait to get on the plane, not been on one before so it's pretty exciting. My bag weighs just under the limit I think, I haven't checked my hand luggage (which at the moment is 6 books), so I'm all set!

I'm off to play badminton for the last time in the UK (for a while at least), ciao!

Oh and last but not least, a big thank you to Oli for making my blog design, it's excellent.

The beginning of the rest of my life!

Will begin on the 29th of October! For those of you who don't know, and I'm sure that's a minority since it's pretty much all I talk about, I'm moving to Australia - flight leaving on the 29th of October. Pretty damn exciting really - lots of people ask me if I'm scared. but no, not really. Perhaps ignorance is bliss, perhaps I'm just brave, but it doesn't seem to me like I'm doing anything crazy. So it's a one way ticket and I don't really know anybody over there, but hey, it's all good fun.

I've always wanted to go to Australia, mainly because my dad went there when he was young (many years ago :P), and because pretty much everyone I've asked say they loved it when they went there. So in my head it's the land where dreams come true (cheesy I know), but the world's my oyster and I don't much like seafood.

Anyway, I'm Ben and I'm an alcoholic... Wait, what? I'm making a blog so you guys 'n' gals can follow me about on my travels and see what I'm doing where - there'll be pictures to see (if I find out how to upload pictures), and I'll give updates on how things are going. First step though is to finish working, sell most of my worldly posessions and get on the plane. I get to stay in Hong Kong for 3 days, which is pretty damned exciting - I've never really wanted to go to a Disney Land, but there's one in HK so I may as well go.

Then I'm landing in Australia (Perth, WA) at 23:45 their time (oh the jet lag will be interesting). Once there I have to find somewhere to live and a job to work! That'll be exciting, who knows what odd job I'll end up doing, *rolls dice* come on bookshop! Once the summer has passed (and it'll be hell for me, I'm not that good at summers over here!) I'll hopefully move on out into the bush and find some job doing manual labour, visit my uncle and a friend in NZ then head back to the mainland for University. So that's my life all planned out! At least for the next year or two.

And now for a little more information about me, if you so care to read on. As we established earlier, I'm Ben (but not an alcoholic, honest!), and you can call me Conan if you like. I almost changed my name by deedpoll to Conan earlier in the year for some reason. Robert E. Howard wrote the Conan books, and I read them and became slightly obsessed at the time - but they are great stories. I've not read his other stories, but they're being released in an awesome binding in a couple of days so I'll buy them then (so excited!).

Music is another thing that I love - and I love wide range of it too. As phil amusingly pointed out yesterday, my music taste ranges from 40's swing to obscure german metal bands. Other hobbies include badminton and sitting around. I want to learn to surf and snowboard though, so they may soon be added to my list of hobbies. Now I've run out of ideas of what to write about, so I shall cease to write!

That was a rather long post, congratulations if you read it all! I shouldn't think the following posts will be as long. More to follow.