Thou Shalt Always Muse?

Hi all,

I've begun to write pieces of 'stuff' recently, I like to call it my musings, I'm not labelling it under anything at the moment, but once I've got enough, I might try seeing what I can do with it. This is my first piece I'm banging up on my blog, I hope to do many more both before and after I travel. I was going to give it a silly arty title, but if your of a travelling mindset, I'm sure you'll appreciate the title...

A commentary on my escape





Interesting isn't it? These times of dark recession,
Most folks cant seem to shake their deep dark depression,
Boom or bust, win or lose, passiveness or aggression?
We seem to have found ourselves right here, in a cultural regression.


There are kids on the streets, drinking and fire-lighting,
The weekends drunken 'adults' too, drugged-up, shouting and fighting,
Political 'bigots' are rising, moral conscience is declining,
A 'Racist Peter Kay Lookalike', is the north west remotely inviting?



"Welcome to the Real UK", what is there to be proud of here?
A few literate words from Keats perhaps, maybe a few lines from King Lear?
Some of our kids think the Canadian President is Shakespeare,
But is that really to blame for the menace and fear?


Arrogance and ignorance, the tools of the todays 'yoofs' trade,
I've even heard people 'doubt their kids could use a spade',
Or chisels, saw's or hammers, but then again they've been forbade,
from learning those those things in school, and taking pride in what they've made,


Who's really at fault here though, the parent, teacher, or 'student'?
Maybe it's possibly Catherine Tate, who started the 'Am I Bovvered?' movement?
Perhaps they should have proper role models and teach them to be prudent,
Maths paper from '97 : Education X 3 = kids (with no improvement)



My mate's have just left uni, with their reams of 'impressive degrees',
Not a chance of a job though, so its off to be branded 'Dolies',
Settling into their staple diet, staring into daytime TV's,
Their so called 'god' Jeremy Kyle shouting LOOK AT ME! (without even a please)


See now if you can; the irony in the phrase 'CV',
Those two letters make up the difference, in 'previously' and 'preciously',
Consider how applicable those words are to our lives and family,
When used to describe jobs that provide security and stability.


What's going to happen here, maybe in a year or so?
I'm a pessimist you see, and if it's the worst then I don't want to know,
I'm worried blood will run on the streets, so right now I'm preparing to go,
To the land they call 'down under', and I'm going to take it slow...





Was it worth staying up to write? This is kind of my first jump on writing anything, though my inspirations are up there in the picture, this was inspired by Scroobius Pip in particular, the man who makes poetry and spoken word accessible to dummies like me!


Drop some comments or critiques if you like...

Lee :)

Why Why Why, Australia?

Hi all, first of all sorry for the Tom Jones reference...

I just thought I'd put up a topic asking the big question, which might help us forming our travel cohorts; WHY GO TO AUSTRALIA?

This is a pretty big question, is it complete randomness? Is it some soul searching? Are you looking for love in a faraway place? Pissed off with life in your home country? Seeking some understanding? Gapping university or your career? Are you leaving some heartache?

I'll let you into my story, I'm 24, just come out of a pretty heavy relationship about 12 months ago, was mortgaged up, looking towards engagement and the rest and living with them.

I just felt the need to do something in my life before I settle down, so I left for pastures I knew there was somewhere I wanted to travel, something I needed to see.

I'm leaving a bloody good career here in the UK, I have thought about seeing if I could do the same over in Australia, and I've been messed about by migration agents left right and centre, I decided a working holiday visa would be the best bet, get out there, see the sights and settle if I can.

Back to reasons, I'm heading out to see what I can, mainly for experience, and mainly because theres just something in my heart that yearns for travel and experience. I'm pissed off with my home country, personally think there will be some major political and racial strife this next few years, so if I can get away for a year while it all kicks off, thats a double bonus.

I suppose travelling will give me a new perspective on what's important in my life. I've lived solely for my career and other people for the last 4 years or so, I feel like jumping on the plane will give me some time to take back some time for myself!

I do have this slightly romantic vision of meeting someone out there; be it a fellow traveller, or an aussie, but to be honest I think my mind creates muses in any spare moment I have. It's going to be a massively giant adventure, I cannot wait for the next 6 months to be over already!

I hope that give's anyone looking a bit more perspective into what goes through one's mind to make them wish to travel as I will be doing on the 19th of January 2010...

Lee

My First Post...

Hello Everyone, (not that anyone'll be looking now, I've just started right at the begining)

This is my first post on what I hope to be a great blog charting my journey to Australia and beyond. I've decided to start writing it now so that people I meet on websites like Gapyear.com (great site) and travel mate's I meet will be able to see what's happened from the begining.

As I've put in the 'About me' bit. I've decided to do a bit of travelling for a few reasons really:

At the moment I'm working for a company in Warrington, a town just out of Leigh (twinned with Angers in France and Lake County Illinois apparently...), and have worked my bones off for the past 6 years. I'm 24 now, have worked really hard since I was 18, and to be fair I don't really have a great deal to show for it (I'm shit with money) and also don't have the greatest of memories for it either (missing Christmases with family etc.)

Because of this, I decided thats rather than spend my money on useless shit like DVD's, Real Ale and impressing women (only interested in one-night-stands), I'd spend it on travelling instead.

Now travelling seems like a crazy term to use really, you travel to your local shop for a packet of crisps or a pint of milk, but travelling across the world, hopefully will give me a little more satisfaction. It's been surprisingly cheap too, For 300 of her majesty's english pounds I've managed to book flight via an airline called AirAsia, and those will take me from London Stansted Airport to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, then after a night's stopover there (and photo op at the 'towers') a connecting flight to Melbourne, Australia. From there I've booked another flight to get me to Sydney.

I've booked myself onto a week with a backpackers orientation firm called OzIntro, they seem to do a good deal, saving me loads of effort and sorting out all the boring stuff. Basically they've sorted me out a Visa to work/stay there for 12 months, my tax number so I can work there without being emergency taxed, a Medicare card which gives me free point of service healthcare, and a mobile phone simcard on Vodaphone over there.

As well as that, they're taking me and the rest of the group booked on it for excursions all week, and also booked us into a hostel for our first week too. That takes a huge enormous chunk out of arranging my 'what to do' after I've landed.

I've got 2 people I want to go and visit while I'm out there.

One is a friend who I met via LeighLife.com (a local community website) called Lynn, she lives in Wollongong, and we've spent the last few months attempting to talk over webcam/msn/voice calling with some difficulty! She's an ex-Leyther (the term for people from Leigh) and I'm sure will make an excellent host when I come over. She's been a godsend to me already, talking me through likely jobs I could get and has helped me seperate reality from fantasy in my mind about what to do out there!!!

My other friend I'm hoping to see is an ex colleague of mine called Katie, she's a similar age to me and we met when she came over to work in the UK. She's an australian, and lives out towards Brisbane, which apparently is a VERY popular spot with backpackers. Katie brightened my life up when we worked together, and I can't wait to see her again, I'm sure I'll be infected her free spirited nature and highly contagious smile, if history is anything to go by...

Anyway, thats a brief bit of my plans, I'm hoping to post up here pretty regularly so people can see how I'm doing, what I'm up to, and what thoughts I'm having (on the occasions that I do actually have them...)

Sithee later,

Lee

xx