It's just wrong in so many ways, but after three years I suppose it's time to face 'that other season' called winter and see what it feels like to have a whole year without jumping continent as soon as the temperature drops below 16°C ;-) I have a stack of miscellaneous photos from nights out, work, trips away and so on that don't really belong anywhere else, so this is where they will go.

Whenever it gets a bit too cold and dark in northern Europe, a quick trip to the sun and the snow is just the thing to fix things up... In this case I decided first to hit Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain and then off for a week on the slopes in Switzerland with some of the lads from Newcastle

Mike and I were supposed to be joined by the Geordies Derek, Paul and Ian but ended up doing the two day trek on our own up over the Langdales, missing the peak of Scarfell pike (where we'd been on a previous trip) and going down into the picturesque Wasdal valley and across to the Mediobogdum (Hardknott) roman fort... http://www.leaney.org/lake_district_walks_overview.php

A lastminute booking (less than 24 hours before I fly) to the capital of Tunisia, Tunis where I will be working on my melanomas and Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Grandma usually manages to sneak quietly into Europe, whizz around doing some sightseeing and escape without bumping into me, under the pretext of tight schedules and not being in the UK. You'd almost think she doesn't want to see me, except when I'm in Australia I usually get a sound telling off if I've been in the country for a day or two before I call her. Ah thus is the justice of my grandma, it's a good thing she's not a judge.

This time she's with uncle Ron (my cousin Bonnie's grandpa) who I'd like to meet as well, so Bonnie and I are going to sneak up on them. Tsering might join us as well.

Then, around mid-week, I'll fly to Berlin and catch my mum Elizabeth and my stepfather Bill, who are cruising around checking out Vienna and Berlin.

Back in time for the weekend, since there might be a party in London ;o) All of this right in the midst of finding my new pad in Islington area!

Heading back to the UK, I'm stopping in Singapore for a couple of nights. I originally planned on going to Burma but have changed my plan to pop over to Thailand's tsunami areas to help out and document the recovery...

Life is hard sometimes :-p

The world is not suited to people who move frequently. Us mobilitarians have to put up with various forms of discrimination, from subtle suspicion through to patent and perverted penalization. And what for? What is the huge attraction of being the village bumpkin, born on Parochial Crescent, taking a holiday in Nearbyville, marrying Mary the horse from the neighbour's yard, and dying in the pasture next to the barn where you were born?

Are we trees? Are we mere vegetable matter? No, we have the power to move, think, act with intelligence, discrimination and altruism, some of the few things that separate us from animals. Surely the best instrument in the toolbox of broad-mindedness, of cultural and interpersonal empathy is placing yourself in a position where not everything revolves around you and the banalities of your daily existence are stripped away, leaving you to think about your real purpose in life?

Either way, people who travel, or who decide to live in any different situation from that which they grew up might find the tips herein useful.

Once we have the ability to write articles and reviews on BallOfDirt.com, these entries will be turned into their final form, with an assigned topic, comments, ratings, feedback, discussion, and other searchable details which anyone can use to find the thing they're looking for.

In the meantime they are just placeholders which contain the text and any photos/media I will use. So consider them drafts and email me if you find anything useful, inane, or you'd like to comment on it.

send me an email on tenzin !at! Ball Of Dirt dot com (changed so that I don't get automated spam from machines reading this page)

Southern Land

near Soho - good place to get chinese food but always pay cash because there are cases of credit cards being copied

just a few days recorded...

this will probably be a tip or review once we have this going, in the meantime it's a couple of panoramic shots of Trafalgar Square, in London with a view of the National Gallery and the fountains

A week in Sharm El Sheikh, diving in the Straits of Tiran, Jackson Reef, Yolanda, Ras Mohammed...

Named after a fiery curry called Gaeng plaa duk... Three weeks in thailand, the plan is to spend the first week going from Bangkok to the Andaman Sea, and the remaining time chilling, diving, partying and stimulating taste buds in the Gulf of Thailand.

see how crowded Brighton beach can be on a summer day in England

a walk through the Lakes District of north-western England, probably the best scenery I've ever seen in England

a quick trip to the Canary islands, the islands off the west coast of Africa which belong to Spain. Lanzarote is a bit like visiting the moon, the most interesting parts are covered in craters. Unlike the moon, the less interesting parts are covered in fat British tourists, trying to attain the exact hue of a lobster. Palma is actually nearby and is supposed to be very green. I found the volcanic landscapes interesting but not worth more than one visits.

Dunedin is my home town where I went to school and university, my mum and stepdad lived there. So this was a quick visit to home in winter time. Most of the shots of Dunedin will be irrelevant unless you know my family or Dunedin itself but I recommend checking out any of the entries after that which suggest scenery, especially as we head towards the west coast. From Dunedin we went for a trip to Wanaka to go snowboarding and flew across in a small plane to Fjordland and Milford Sound. There are some beautiful shots of NZ scenery in there.

just a test journey really, only two photos and pretty weak descriptions of everything because i was drunk and didn't make any notes of what i did, so it's all a blur