The complete London experience

I remember learning in school about how my country started.... Good old England has an acute shortage of prison space, this combined with a zero tolerance crime and punishment policy meant that new and ingenious ways needed to be found to accommodate the ever growing prison population. The Government of the time knew of a Great South Land that had recently been discovered and apparently this land had no one there, Terra Nullius they called it (we wont talk of the thriving indigenous population living there at the time…). So they thought to themselves....hmmmm..... these damn prisoners.....these convict folk..... why not send them across the oceans to this strange land far away.... down there they can't steal anything because there isn't anything to steal....yeah....lets get a fleet of boats together and send them to this empty land of the south....and thus my home country, Australia was born....

So what better way to connect with my home country than to travel all the way to London (where the birth of my nation was decided upon) and be pick pocketed by a Londoner.... Yep now I can truly connect to my home. So as I caught the no. 52 from Knightsbridge to Notting Hill, with flowers in one hand, the hand of Farah in my other hand and my wallet.....hmmmm...where is it.... I thought it was in my coat pocket....HA! Not likely my friend.... "Like to pick a pocket or two..." or so the song in Oliver Twist goes.... Well my wallet of ten years...yep one of my first purchases after getting my first checkout chick job at Coles Warrawong...is now gone...and Oliver Twist and all of his friends are now £20 + Oyster Card (£10 of prepaid London travel), photos of Farah, Sister and Debussy and Bonney (my cats of childhood), gym membership cards, video cards, phone card, and two credit cards better off... Do'h! Well that'll learn me I guess.....

So now I am planning super secure travel techniques for the next journey... I guess I can be thankful I have learnt my lesson now and not in Bishkek or Tashkent….

So keep your wallet safe ladies and gents.... the world is not a safe place!

The curse of Sundays...

It's funny how no matter where I live Sunday brings with it the pain of never feeling like you got what you really wanted to out of the weekend.... And thus the sun is down the rain is here and another week faces me in London... only 20wks left though... amazing how the days just disappear... just like the polar ice caps the days leave us at what appears to be an increase rate of knots....

Well it has been an interesting few weeks in the mind of Lucas... The direction of momentum has moved off into the future travel that awaits Nick and I in just 5 months. The plans are starting to take shape.. http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/album08/The_Plan And with Nick gradually going insane at work (given he literally has nothing to do, and in true English style, rather than asking for more work to do, he apportions what little he has across the week and spends the rest of his time writing emails about world domination, the pain and pleasure of being a single hetro in search of love and researching travel...) plenty of effort on his part has gone into travel planning, hence the above link to some crazy plan to see the worlds most difficult to see places...

The next phase is about the begin with preps i.e. getting Visa's, which after doing a little looking around last week, I have realised that it is going to be a very expensive activity... Seems like the world’s most dodgy places are also the hardest and most expensive to get Visa's for... esp. Iran and the "Stans"... do'h... But get this!? I have one thing to thank good old Johnny Howard for => Thanks to the coalition in Iraq... and obviously our country's involvement there... I as an Australian citizen can get a Visa to visit Iraq!!! Yes (as mum and dad's brains explode...) I could go to Iraq.... Not that I will... but nice to know that the option is there...

Anyways besides thinking about travel I have to organise Tax here... which is a slight dilemma as I think I could avoid it if I wanted to..... But given I believe in the state and gave a speech at my graduation about paying taxes being a good thing I think I should get my stuff sorted and pay up..... But the evil temptation sits on my shoulder..... Also have to think about moving again in a month.... which will no doubt involve a midnight tube trip across London... fingers crossed we get a good deal and somewhere well placed...

Well I could ramble but I wont.... rest assured I am okay... feeling lazy on a Sunday evening..... didnt do what I wanted to do today => Work out master plan to save the world from certain destruction...hmmm maybe next Sunday hey!?!?!

Days getting longer and Lucas is getting happier :-)

Hard to believe that the worst that London had to offer in the form of weather is almost over... and coming to think of it the worst of everything is over... as I sense a strong need to touch wood. But really life has hit a really good patch of late and baring my normal mood swings, which I have decided are part and parcel of having a slightly over active mind the pros outweigh the cons so I will keep my fortnightly grump session thank you very much.

The last few weeks have been productive and enjoyable and time is starting to fly.... which I am not sure is a good or bad thing. Like I wait for the 1 July date for when all the travel starts again but well.... hmmm I am getting older too and when these days leave me they have left forever..... I have started learning French, thanks to Farah so I have a weekly Monday night lesson, which also involves me skating over to her house, which is great fun, I never have really skated regularly ever.... do I sense the need to do "young" activities to fight off the encroaching old age??? Ha! Well I hardly think 24yrs is a large amount of time in the big scheme of things.

Also starting to get back into web design so keep your eyes open to Futureshock101 joining the world of the web in a new way. Work has been pretty good of late and have put my little toe into the possibility of staying on here... obvious I wont work at this point in my life for the sake of work.... that's for the money hungry, the married, the tied down to financial commitments i.e. largely unnecessary material possessions..... fast/expensive cars, fancy large houses, you really need these things??? Well I guess living in a world without nature nor much meaningful spirituality means you need something to make it all seem worthwhile... so why not the pursuit of the material?

Actually the pursuits of life have been occupying my mind a bit of late... And with Nick sprouting many a controversial topic on his page I feel the need.... no duty to sprout my on rant.... So close browser now! hehehe. Well life I have decided (this is one opinion, I have ones on the other side of this argument, but like to explore all sides of ideas....) is quite possibly rather meaningless in its current state in the western world... Think about it.... We were originally designed to have children and perpetuate our gene pool.... now we avoid children like the plague until we have "enough" money for them, only have a couple and usually to the same partner... hence we aren’t maximising our evolutionary potential... so that reason for life is gone. Next meaning was spiritual.... well I wont delve into this except to say that the modern/"intelligent" life means God takes a back seat... so God as meaning is gone...Then the state.... we now are told to distrust the state and head towards individualism instead.... so our goal of a mutually created utopia, involving all society is gone too... So where is the meaning???? Basically our job is to consume to ensure the wheels of the economy keep turning.... sounding pointless???? So anyway.... I am still seeking meaning in this world..... Just a short rant for you.

Yeah check out some photos.... we swam in the Serpentine in Hyde Park on Saturday morning, it was 2C.... now that was so so so fun and all these old people were doing it.... I guess it is things like these and the people you meet doing them that create meaning in our lives.... sounds reasonable to me.... http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/album14

Anyway lost my train of thought.... will try to write more and email friends as I have been lazy of late. Take care all!