Well. I was warned, but I wasn’t ready to spend my days picking through rental listings constituted by greed and misrepresentation.
- Room prices of more than $110 for sharing a room with 2 other people,
- Houses advertised in totally different Suburbs to where they actually are,
- and listings for Girls/Ladies/Female only.
everything else is way about budget, at +$210 for what would have been $130 last year.
Tsk. Difficult.
Well today was interesting; I got hit by a car. I was riding through a little English town of Woodley, and coming up to a zebra crossing and lollipop lady. A little orange car started pulling out towards me from a right hand street, and I braked and blew my (extremely loud 130db horn), and they kept on coming. Their back-right side nudged me off my bike, which fell to the ground, and I tripped onto the ground.
By the time I’d got up and was checking damage of the bike, the woman who’d hit me came up, shaking, white as a sheet, and with hands held to mouth. So far I seem to have ended up as good as can ever be hoped for a car-on-bike collision… just a sore wrist, scuffed knee, and aching back (waiting to see what aches tomorrow morning!). The bike is a bit scrapped and bruised from the fall too, but was ridable home, and the insurance is looking to come and repair it, and provide a replacement bike.
It was flagrantly the driver’s fault, and there is no dispute over liability, but I feel a bit bad as a biker that I hadn’t managed to pre-empt/anticipate and avoid it (although I guess I managed to evade to some extent). I was wearing a big reflective orange jacket. Needless to say I have a renewed sense of the stupidity of drivers.
I got home and told of my first getting-hit-by-car experience.
Other notable events for today are seeing a fox, and a shooting star. Both during a night time ramble around the village I’m staying in.
Well, my optimistic (lack of) planning didn’t end in disaster; I bought a motorbike on my second day in England, and road to Paris for the festival to see Bjork. Paris was lovely, and I enjoyed remembering French and attempting to communicate with people.
On my way to the airport in Sydney I managed to pick up a D70 that I’d won on ebay that morning, and yesturday I grabbed a cheap Rollop medium format camera at Delft market to experiment with. Lovely, lovely.
Hayden has some eclectic farewell party pictures up on his flickr account. I’ve got some 3D ones that I’ll put up when I get back to England to get my 3D camera. Harrah!
Here’s the latest Josh news: I’m flying to London on the 18th August. Not sure if it will be a long-term trip or not; I’ve only booked a one-way journey, though I’m not going to burn any bridges.
I’m aiming to have a Friday the 17th Birthday/Farewell party. More on that later when I’ve thought about it more.
The trip back from Melbourne - starting yesturday and ending just 30 minutes ago this morning - was incredibly long and epic.
The stage for my denouement was set in the small town of Tarcutta, coincidently almost exactly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney.
I waited, I thought, I read. I wondered and looked at the incredibly clear sky and saw the milkyway. Then I saw two falling stars, and in the early hours of this morning a brilliant rainbow arch.
I got an idea of the lives of truckies. I got an idea of their deaths. A hundred and twenty-three of them younger than myself killed in truck accidents over the years.
Sat by fires, got lashed with freezing winds. Rode for hours into the dawn.
Trite as it sounds: lost a dream but found a story.
(Illustration image is from a night shoot with Tegan on Bridge St…)
Well this is the end of an incredibly long day. Today I got up at 4am and rode down from Paddington, Sydney to Central Melbourne. That’s about 900kms, which is roughly the entire length of britain tip-to-toe.
It all would have been great except for the freezing my ass off. It took about 12 hours in the end, having to stop 6 times for feeding, fuelling and hot cups of tea to help thaw out and brace for some more chill. Other than than eveything went pretty well. Riding into Melbourne was like riding into a different country - the difference in driving styles and road layouts really compound together, along with their hook-right-turn system which just makes it surreal!
Ironically at the same time as freezing, I also managed to get my face sunburned! :S
Anyway, Melbourne seems nice and interesting (and welcomingly different in a way), and I’ve got a few days of swish hotel to enjoy. 
Well, I’ve had a fab few days here in Hong Kong, and Maja, her parents and siblings have been fantastic! It’s about 11:00pm, I’m absolutely shattered, and now have the trip back to do. Hopefully this will mean I’ll sleep on plane and be in good sync with Sydney morning.
Bought some fun surprises, and have good non-touristy experiences to remember of HK, although I managed the obligatory Star ferry ride and shaky picture of the Island at night. 
Talking of night, ‘night!
Zzz
he said, conscious of a sharp decline in blog quality.
Well, I’m flying out tomorrow lunchtime. It will be my first time to Hong Kong, my first flight on Cathay Pacific, and my first few thousand airmiles on my new frequent flyer card! Very first impressions of Cathay Pacific are exciting; I checked in online to discover that whereas all my previous long-haul flights had been in the format 3 seats-4/5 seats-3 seats, this one only has the aisle seat and window seats. Not sure if this is because the plane is tiny, but here’s hoping there will be much lounging room.
All the promise and excitement of the East is waiting for me in Hong Kong, in the form of crappy rainy weather. Of course Maja (dare-devil dramatic dancer of danger) is there to insure I have a good time.
Tally ho!