Wally Nes’ Blog

Conflicting with the Japan theme I had starting off, the Korean theme I hope this will evolve to and the European theme this blog has now that I’m sorta stuck in the middle I would like to use this blogpost to take you on a journey to a place I lived and traveled in 9 years ago. Australia

If I ever find myself with too much time on my hands (which isn’t a realistic prospect just now) I will have some of the pictures scanned, but anyone who has been at my place has seen them on the wall. The big A4-prints illustrating some feature of Australia.

In the fall of 2001 (Southern hemisphere: March) I crossed the Nullarbor plain. Nullarbor means No (Null) trees (arbor), and is a misleading name. There’s at least 5. Which I suppose is , for a 1200 km stretch, close enough to no trees after all.
The actual plain is 1200 km from east to west at its longest but the highway that travels through it doesn’t become any more interesting after exiting the highway. In reality it is more of a 3k drive between stuff. Sure, there’s the bits and pieces of skylab to see in different roadhouses to keep you distracted on the 2 day long drive but for some people this is not enough.

I was lucky enough to encounter people with car trouble underway and we were able to keep busy helping them along and snickering behind their backs. Rani got a ticket for sleeping on the backseat without a seatbelt.
It was still pretty boring.

BUT NO MORE!

Australian businessmen have banded together and are building A GOLF COURSE.

Read the article here.

This is the route it takes. And just so you know, this is what it looks like now

And this is how natural it will look

What can I say . . . . I quite like it. Can’t be much worse than it was before.

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Quote of the day:

OK, first of all. I did not come up with that name.
Just so we’re clear.

Some weeks ago it was my birthday. I blogged about that, or about the fact I’d forgotten about it. I received many great gifts including the Lonely Planet photography book, a spoon (for tunneling out of North Korea) and a chain mail dice bag

But the best gift came from some people I met on the interwebz. A meet-up had been on the planning for some time in Vienna aaaaaaaaand that’s where my interest stopped. I am quite broke at the moment and flying to Vienna doesn’t really line up with being broke. So someone offered to drive me there, no charge and a bed was offered soon enough after that. I got a long weekend in Vienna for my B-day present. WHeeeeeeee.

Wednesday night I made my way to Arnhem so we could leave the next day at 05:00.

This brought us 1100 km to Vienna. Though when the odometer went back to 60 km/h on the first hill I was a bit afraid of the fact that Vienna . . . . well, it’s in Austria. And Austria is mostly in the Alps.

Undaunted, we continued. Ronald had to drive the entire way solo as I am not a licensed driver.

Thanks again Ronald.

After a grueling drive we arrived. Our gracious host received us

Aaaaaand put us to work

There were some 20-odd people in total on the meetup, but that’s too cumbersome to navigate throughout the city so we split up by houses. This was mine

We humbly thank the officers of the Vienna police department for not having us all arrested.

When we finally did get together there was food
|
more food

more food

cake

good ol’ fashioned fun

Booze

shenanigans

sushi

and euhm . . . . .

karaoke

Go here for more pictures.

Thank you all for a wonderfull (long) weekend. And special thanks to whoever infected 10-odd people with the flu An extra week at home recovering was nice.

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“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

~Terry Pratchett

The last months have seen me working toward a specific goal. And I was fortunately able to reach that goal and end that part of my life. My BSc is in the bag.  The official status is as of yet still undetermined, but it’s in the bag.
This coincided with another change in my life.
I lost my job, a part time something I only used to cover my rent, but still a place I have spent 7 years of my life.

I have been going to school pretty much full time as far back as I can remember (excluding my gap year) and I have had a job besides that since about . . . 14. A paper route. That’s the last 15 years. I still go to school, as I still have a Master to finish. But I haven’t gotten a new job yet.

It’s an odd experience. It feels like the end of an era, though of course it is not nearly that impressive. I have been experiencing an odd feeling and have been unable to get much in the way of inspiration to finish what still needs to  be finished. Things still get done, as a matter of fact I have finished 2 more courses required for my diploma, leaving only 2 and the final thesis work (for which I may have a proper offer btw, I may write something about it after the 2nd meeting this Wednesday), but I am not really feeling the drive.

It’s probably something to do with having been driven so hard for the last 6 months. I have been unable to support a base of social activities outside of school to the level I really want and being this close to leaving to Korea I haven’t felt like making any new starts. The initial drive gone and the time-filler of the job gone, this has left me in a sort of still water. Adventure and wild seas are just on the horizon, but for now things are quite stagnant. I’m not sure I’m enjoying the experience much. But, like stated above, change is on the horizon. Moving to Korea will be an adventure in itself. The thesis work looks to be exciting and rewarding. Leaving friends will be painful and making new ones will be interesting. It’s just the time waiting for it is awkward to fill. I am stuck between one cycle of life and waiting for the next to begin.

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Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting

- John Russel