word verification

ive added this to the comments now, which means anyone can comment, member or not - but may have to type a strange word in to prove that you are human, and not one of these crazy spammer machines

wierd i know

see yer

automatic cars???

anyone know anything about these??

when i switch from PARK to DRIVE or REVERSE, the car does a little shudder or lurch forward or backward, but then is fine. Although it did stall today when going into reverse.
It also idles at quite high revs

anyone any idea??

sounds like the clutch needs tightening, but im guessing really??everything else is fine and smooth

any mechanics out there who know what this may be???

cheers

katherine gorge

katherine gorge which we checked out today, very nice indeed



funny kangeroos they have here

loads of these croc signs all over the place too - basically there are crocodiles here - some saltwater, and some freshwater - the salties are the deadly ones, the others dont really attack, but theres no way to distinguish between them to the untrained (panicked) eye. Its funny to be swimming in places where there may be crocs, although we have stayed clear of the dangerous places which recomend you dont swim at all


and we also saw our first kangeroo yesterday, bobbing along the side of the road. You have to watch for them, cos they can jump infront of cars and sadly we can see the evidence of that all along the side of the major roads :-(

so there you go - im looking for work now, and juz has a few shifts in a bar near here , and there is a farm with melon packing near by so may give that a go

ooh ooh, we saw a possum last night too after the lights went out - he was just dodging around for some food - sooo cute!

nice family estate anyone??

just a quickie as we been on the road a few days, abd just have a few minutes in this cafe left before it closes

so thanks for all the birthday comments everyone, i will reply proper when i have a little more time, so thanks again

and enjoy france too, to all those who are going

so this is a pic of the model of thecar we have purchased, we think its 3 or 4 litres, and came with two tents, a cooker, a gazebo, 2 folding chairs, and loads of pots and pans - its superb

we have been going for 3-4 days now and gone through lichfield park, Kakadu, and are now in Katherine - which is scary if you look at the map - we've moved about half a millimeter on the way to sidney, so we best get a move on

speak later

Bon Jeur Birthday Boy

Hello Dude, it's not your birthday any more, but Siddles and me have celebrated your birthday tonight, in the same boozer where we had you final night before the Arts Club in Notting Hill Gate.

Wasn't planned mind you... I was heading back home after work (Friday) and realised that I’d left my card behind the bar at a pub in Notting Hill at lunchtime… I was not best pleased, especially when I was metres away from home and ready to pack for my holidays which will commence in a few ours with, a train trip from Waterloo to the south of France with Doug and Emma and John and Emma and Jimmy and Jo and loads of other people you know, for Vanny & Dan’s wedding next week. Instead I headed back to Notting Hill in search of my card which I found, (phew) , and in the process, bumped into Sid and her work posse… at which point Sid and I celebrated your big day…. So Happy Birthday mate!... can’t believe it’s a whole year since Swanage and the cool cake on the campsite.

Buzzin’ Fly’s 3rd Birthday @ The End was lovely. Sis Claire was fantastic with her requests to Ben Watts during in his 8 hours set. He will have “Living on a Prayer” in his record box next time… or else!

Sheruncle dot com is updated… including some photos, (a 42 tonne elephant that stomped through London Town a few weekends ago), plus some mixes which have a new A-Z category system, which I’ll leave up to you to work out. There’s loads going on at the moment so, more photos are on the way.

I’ve heard you and Justine are heading to Oz soon for some work, rest and play. If and when you get settled, maybe I’ll come and say hello and may brings some people you know with me… who knows : )

In the meantime, aur revoir … I’ve got a train to catch.

Bon soir

Monsieur Sheruncle

the amazing drumming monkeys....

....perform at Darwins mindil beach market twice a week - they play to the kids but 'dey got de rythym' i have to say, and are pretty cool - its just two blokes in a costume playing bongoes, but they play really well which just makes it a little more surreal

also the food is amazing, there is about 30 different stalls selling all kinds of food, thai, roast dinner, italalian, Chinese etc - and it all looks and smells so nice

we've been twice and each time its taken about 40 minutes to decide which feast to go for - have to say the roast dinner is looing tempting for next sunday!!!

see yer

wild parrots

are here everywhere - you just hear a loud shriek , look up and theres a white parrot flying overhead - wasn't expecting that!

saw a nice car last night

going for a spin tonight hopefully,

had a lovely birthday - watched the England game at 4am, then a early morning beer and some cake, a little sleep and them up for 9 holes on darwins golf course! you can bring your own booze, which is cool although i managed to lose 5 balls, in the lake, and broe one of my clubs!

so we have heard you can get work outside of the cities now, so hopefully we will get a car and head off soon - just need to get going now

a cheese and onion sandwich of course!!!!

errr, no we dont have working visa's, but dont mention it too loudly because people can get rewards for 'dobbing' you in if you look for work here

actually i was thinking of 'dobbing' juz in, and then she can dob me in, then neither of us need to work!! genius or what (not!)

have got a phone though - 0061 (0) 414 919 085, although we are sharing a handset at the mo, so it may be a while before i reply - but we do have credit this time, unlike in the phillipines

also, think we've decided buying a banger is the way to do this properly really, and doesn;t really expose us to much as cars can be had for maybe 4-600 quid, maybe cheaper


so what do ya reckon to this car then??? not bad heh, lady only, used for short trips to the salon etc etc

Finally made it too oz!

yey, after months on the slow route oz, i have finally made it - im still waiting for Juz as she is a day behind me - but hopefully all will be ok

i was let in for a year, which the immigration guy was a little shocked at - apprently its unusual to be granted a year for some reason

so now i find myself in leafy, sunny, clean and quite groovy darwin, its strange to be somewhere 'western' again, paying western prices but its quite cool

and everyone does look kind of australian, which is to be expected i guess

so thats it then i think - ive just bought half a kilo of cheese, one onion, and a loaf of bread - guess what im gonna make??

almost there

at singapore airport now (free internet - brilliant) , just checked in for the flight and had the visa ok'd - so thats the first check out of the way

Juz comes tomorrow on a different flight, cos she had that ticket from ages ago so she is out with some friends in singapore

i land in Darwin at about 4am, and hopefully if they let me in i'll be in the city proper by 6 ish!

cant wait, and hope juz is ok getting in too!!!

see yer

Claire

can you check yer mail please, meed a lickle favour (off dad!!)

see yer !

maybe! just maybe

........ think we may have found a chinese restaraunt showing the game tonight, but knowing the phillipino way of politely saying 'yes' when they havent got a clue what you said - im not holding my breath

and looks like rooney has been declared fit in the last minute, but sounds like a decoy to me - so when they 'kindly' dont select him, they can stick him straight in the next game,

we'll see though - well we might not see if the chinese guy was lying

quite excited actually, see yer

here is a funny one for yer

a met a women today on our bus who started speaking to me in English with an American accent, so i asked her , 'where are you heading to? Puerto Princessa??'

and she replied, 'Oh im sorry, i dont speak tagalog!'

bloody cheek heh!!!

(BTW Tagalog is the Fillipino language)

anyways, i think its time the blog had a picture of a puppy on it, so hows this little fella

sorry, i know i keep doing this but

this is another el nido island and beach, and it looks even better close up - you'llbe pleased to know we've left now and have to face the traffic of manilla tomorrow

we paddled a deserted island yesterday too and had it to ourselves - very nice indeed!!!

errrr, sorry!!

we have no digi camera anymore, so no pics afraid - you'll just have to believe me :-) honest
a big brother blog heh, well, it could be worse
we leaving here tomorrow, for one more night in puerto princessa, then manilla, then singapore for 4 hours, and then ......................... OZ!!!
at last, we finally get to the southern hemisphere
anyways, Palawan has been amazing, nicer than expected
yesterday we did another tour and went to this secret beach, its totally land locked - we had to swim through a small hole in the wall from rough seas, timing our entry inbetween waves and you come out into this open air cave with a lovely sandy beach - brilliant
apparently its the beach that inspired old alex garland to write the beach
we also hired a paddle boat today to go to one of the deserted beaches which was nice
ok then, gotta go - speak later

piccie of secret beach

which we went to yesterday - not the best pic but shows howits completely land locked apart from a small hole in the rocks - you cant get in at low tide at all

big brother lookie likee my arse!

do i look like him?? shirley not - not any more anyway, im tanned, superfit from swimming and look like a cross between jonny depp and Brad these days - really i do

aint seen a mirror for a while though, socould be wrong :-)

this pic is of el nido beaches on the islands which we went to yesterday - its funny cos they are ALL stunning but after 2 or 3 of them your ready to come in for the day

so we have hired a paddle boat today and done some, what else, paddling, around the bay

can you believe no one showed the game here yesterday, we asked everywhere - and id told people to come to this bar called Squidso's who said they would screen it, but couldn't - so about 10 people turned up at 9pm to watch the simpsons insted of the game! doh

hugo the hookworm.......

........is no more - he moved around to the side of my foot, and then kind of erupted into a large blister which is no more

shame to see him go, i do miss him but we must move on from these things

RIP Hugo - May 20th - June 6th :-(

paradise.... again!!!!

well, its just gets better and better - we had 3 days in port barton which was lovely (and quiet) and we managed to snorkel round a few of the islands and even saw a turtle!!

so we were all poised to get the bus to El Nido, when we met a few guys who where taking a boat - its a little bit dearer but we thought, bugger it , and went for it

so after a 4 hour boat ride we find oursleves in one for the most gorge places ive seen - the bay is lovely, we are surrounded by massive hills, and the clearest seas - tomorrow hopefully we will go round the islands on a boat trip, i just cant wait for that , the water looks amazing

so there you go, our last week in asia (for a while) looks like being a good one - very lucky are we indeed!!!
see yer

woo hoo, first tropical desease

looks like ive got a hook worm in my foot - just found this on the internet, saw a docotr the other day the other day who didn't have a clue so we've checked it out ourselves here

it also goes by the name of Creeping Eruption

this is not my foot, but its what it looks like - its bloody itchy at night , and moves about a centiemeter a day - have some drug names i can take to sort it out,

crikes, and i thought it was just a mozzie bite!!!

oh dear, for anyone who is getting worried, yep, marc definitely appears to be losing it! must be that hookworm! or too many mangos...

ive joined a hill tribe, and here i am !!!

ok its not me.....but


ive replaced my long lost africa necklace with the good luck charm from the ifugo tribespeople which reside up here in the northern mountians of banue - so ive gone and got some lovely beads from the manilla megamall to go woth the charm - which give it a contempory feel i think :-) (ok, i'll shut up and stop being such an ethno eco warrior)

anyways, this picture is really quite irrelevant, but it brightens up the blog slightly, so there you go

and i think now ive joined a tribe, technically it allows me to chop people's heads off, think so anyway

(this is getting so un P.C, hope no ones reading it, oops)

byeeeeeeeeee

Banue, and now palawan

well banue vertainly surpassed expectations - we mananged to socre another cheap room with a great view of the rice terraces so we had some lovely moments there on the balcony easting fresh mangoes, and havin a coffee (im back on the mangoes now, 2 a day, gotta cut down)

we managed to doa 8k hike to the gaboi natural waterfall pool, and then we refused to pay the 10 peso entry out of principle - how pikey are we??? thats terrible heh

then we took a lovely walk through the terraces themselves - its great cos they are all single paths with little junctions and its just like a maze, i could do it all day - and nearly had to, and ended up losing my flip flop in a foot of mud and having to wrangle around to find it - disgusting!!

Palawan
so after the night bus to manilla, taxi to the airport, flight to palawan, trycycle to town - we find ourselves in the town of Puerto Princesca - trunst me, sounds nicer than it is - was pissing down when we got here which was pain but we luckily chanced upon a massive street dance tribal festival which was pretty cool - loads of drums and nice dancing, will try dig out a picture