Hi, has been a while since either of us has posted. Been either sick or busy most days since. Had a funny morning today with PeachTea being really cuddly and when I was eating breakfast he was really trying to get my attention to get me to take him out of the cage. So I did and sat him on my shoulder while I ate. After watching my food for a while the bird decides he would fly down and land in the middle of my bowl. Had to wipe him down and give him a bath to clean him off before I could go to work. Other than that been spending some time wandering around with Mitch when we are both off and had a colleague come over to my place to play music. Was good to have a jam again. Have heard back about my ordered drum kit too and should be getting it sometime next month. Could have got the floor model and had it early but decided it was better to have a brand new one. Looking forward to picking you up on Sunday and giving you a squeeze. Hope all is going good in Japan. Have no pictures to make this pretty this time. Really wanted to get one of the bird in my food but thought it better to get him out before he got more dirty.

Day 9

Hi beautiful, still confused by your day count. Gave the bird a bath today as I mentioned to you over Line. Not sure if he really liked it or not but was quite willing to sit there in one spot while I sprayed him with a squirt bottle. He was puffing up and fluffing his feathers while he was getting wet and surprisingly dried off a lot quicker than I expected he would. Attempted to pat him dry with a towel once I got him back inside and put the heater on to try to make it quicker for him as I was a little worried that he would be cold. Was also surprising that while wet he was more willing to the picked up and petted.

Hana's birthday was quite good at Ondergrounds. There was a good crowd, no costumes this time and the DJ was a lot better than they usually are there. Am sure you will be able to see some of the pictures they took on Facebook from the event. Everyone was asking where you were and how you were doing in Europe. Felt strange to be out at a club without you.

Been working on a song these past few days. Need to practice so I can re-record it but I wanted you to hear it.

Day 4

I'm currently in the bus, travelling from Florence to Venice (it's a four hour ride) and I had just finished writing the entry for day 3.

It's 7:40pm right now and it's all dark outside the window. Not that there's much to see, a lot of farmlands on either side, though earlier there were mountains and hills in the distance. Overall not too different from long distance drives in Victoria. Although, I admit, the buildings are a little different, older too.

Last night, after visiting the Trevi Fountain, we travelled about an hour or so towards Florence before stopping at our hotel for the night. This is to reduce the travelling time the next morning.
The hotel was called Park Sabina Hotel and, our tour guide told us, offered the cheapest wifi rates out of all the hotels we'll be staying on the tour (not including the hotels which offer it for free).

I quickly bought one, and was using that to upload day 2's entry. I must admit that I was falling asleep while I was typing that in bed, dropping the phone frequently as I fell asleep whilst typing.
The bed was much firmer than the one in London (we'd stayed at a Holiday Inn near Heathrow airport) and I didn't wake up with a bad back as I did in London.

Waking up at 6:30am this morning seemed like a luxury compared to the 3am start the day before. Breakfast consisted of two small slices of bread slathered with Nutella (it seems to be a favourite in European hotels), a juice and a yogurt - I spent too much time trying to get my contacts on and didn't have much time left for breakfast.


After a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived in Florence. For all it's fame, again I did not see any obvious business district. Just like in Rome, everything is hidden behind old buildings.

We didn't spend much time in Florence to be honest. We drove up to Michelangelo's Square where we spent some time taking photos of Florence from afar and the statue of David.


Hmm, Maggie and I spent so much time taking funny photos of us and the statue of David that I didn't actually spend any time studying the statue. What a shame... ;P

A short bus ride took us to Delta Hotel for lunch.
I was not expecting much after our sub par experiences so far (dinner last night was spaghetti cooked in tomato sauce, and there weren't even a lot of sauce to speak of), but this restaurant actually looked pretty decent (just realised I didn't take any photos).

We were served spaghetti marinara that wasn't too bad. We were also served a roasted chicken with potatoes and salad sides, margarita pizza and ice cream. I wouldn't say it was fantastic Italian food, but it was surprisingly good for this tour.

After another hour of bus riding - I sleep through all of the bus rides if I can, though I've taken to reading a book (more on that later) - we arrived at Pisa.


You can't actually drive to the tower of Pisa, you have to either take a shuttle bus or a "train". The train like those you see in Disneyland or in shopping malls, a little car at the front pulls a series of carts and the whole thing decked out to looks like a train. Ours was also decorated with ads for the McDonalds, "100 meters from the Leaning Tower of Pisa".


The tower and it's surrounding area is actually surrounded by high stone walls, so we couldn't see anything until we walked through an opening in the wall.

I swear that sight was the most impressive out of all that I have seen on this trip so far.


Perhaps it was the stormy clouds behind the buildings whilst it was sunny where I was standing, but the Tower and the two buildings in front of it was starkly outlined and imposing.
The area around the Duomo, the Basilica and the Tower Is surrounded by a large area of manicured lawn. People sit or lay in small groups enjoying the sun and the view.


Of course, we took the required, "pushing tower" photos.

After the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we are now headed to the hotel in Venice. Best Western I believe.

Oh I mentioned a book didn't I?

Well back in the hotel in London, they have a bookshelf for books people leave behind. You're free to take one or leave one behind. I took one called Ink Exchange and quickly found that it was the second book in the series. So, I downloaded the first book called, Wicked Lovely. Pretty good so far, though I don't think it's your sort of thing.

Location:Isenburger Schneise,Frankfurt,Germany

Day 6

Hey, not sure what day you consider day 1 as I thought it was on the 29th of September when your post was titled 'Day 1' so I will have probably messed up the days for this post title but it could just be a difference in date between timezones so I will continue with my original theory for post titles. Either way I have been  missing you since I dropped you at the airport so it is day 6 for me.

Nothing overly interesting happening for me when compared to your trip around Europe/England/Japan/Hong Kong. Have another two day show to run at work the first day of which was today. I enjoy doing these jobs but the content of the presentations is quite boring with the topic being risk management/insurance. Can't think of a way to explain it but it is kind of a branch of accounting and preparing for worst case scenarios to lessen the financial impact. Also been having iphone problems since I updated to ios6. Having to wait for icloud to sync photos before I can upload any as it no longer works like a usb, not to mention the constant crashes. "After writing that I decided to do a restart and is working again. Also got to see Mercure where I will be working soon. Seems rather basic but hopefully busy enough to allow me some more opportunities within the company.


Bought a game recently on recommendation by Owen so that we have something to game with each other again once he gets his new computer. Is a medieval style game similar to battlefield, so far seems pretty fun.
Took PeachTea out again for a cuddle and he was being quite good to me today letting me pick him up and sitting on my finger while I rub my nose up against his. Tried to get him to run around on my computer table while I type to you but he did not want any part in it so he is sitting on my shoulder now.
Also been spending some time writing another song.

I am going to assume you threw 0 coins into the fountain as you have already seen the fountain so have no need to visit it again, you have your one true love waiting for you at home so no need to throw two coins and you definitely don't want to get rid of me or else this will become a very one sided blog. Also you could use those coins to buy yourself something nice as you are beautiful and deserve to have whatever it is that makes you happy.

Day 3

My iPhone's camera roll has screwed up and is crashing on me like mad. I knew I should have brought my laptop along; I'd be able to fix my iPhone. Now I'll just have to work around it. For this entry, I'm afraid you'd have to refer to the pictures on my Facebook feed as you read.
{edit: I have since fixed this, yay!}

Ok, itinerary for day 3.

- Gatswick airport
- Ebi Restaurant
- Vatican
- around Rome
- Colosseum
- Trevi Fountain

Waking up at 3am to catch the plane to Italy want that bad; I think it's because I'm still on Australian time (that's 12pm I think), and the fact that I slept at 6pm the night before.


Breakfast consisted on hotdog and a milkshake, banana and passionfruit. I think you'd like it.

The flight to Italy was about 2 hours, wasn't too bad - slept through most of it. But it was on British Airways again, so the service was as crappy as usual. Remind me of that when we decide to go to Europe; don't fly on British Airways.


Arriving in Italy, I finally felt like I was in Europe. I think it's because London was still too much like Melbourne; everyone spoke English, the signs were English, the people were English. There were differences sure, but not as much as when I stepped off the plane into sunny Italy.


The first meal on Italy soil was less than impressive though. We pull up in front of a Japanese restaurant and I thought, "cool, Japanese."

What we got instead was food of the Chinese inclination. And not even good stuff either. One dish was fish, one was pork, the rest was veggies. Tofu, beans, cabbage. The dishes were small and the tastes were bland. I didn't expect much from the tour, but that meal was pretty bad. I was "physically" full when I got back to the bus, but not in anyway satisfied. If you'd been there, I don't think you'd be too fussed on the food either.


Things are much older in Italy, that's to be expected, what I didn't expect was the lack of new buildings. No new shining office buildings front by glass. Everything is hidden behind the facade of old buildings.


From what our tour guide told us, the Italian government really supports the idea of preserving historic monuments. This includes the buildings in the city.


You can redecorate the inside of a building to your heart's content, but you need to keep the outside of the building the same.

We do the same in Melbourne for some of the buildings, but not to this extent.
I guess this keeps the tourists coming.

Remember how I said the Westminster Abbey was less grandiose than I thought it would be? Well in Rome it's all the opposite. Everything is so much larger and more impressive.


The courtyard in front of St Peter Basilica was massive and so was the church itself. The ceiling just goes up and up, the statues are all huge and the altar in the centre of the church just towers over everyone (photos in the DSLR - show you later).
You could apparently climb up into the dome of St Peter's Basilica, but the line was huge. When we go to Rome, we should try climbing up.


Unfortunately they had an event going on at the Vatican that night, so there were a lot of machinery and crew around. It detracted from the scenery, and crowded up a lot of the open spaces, otherwise I'd think the place would be even more imposing.


Next stop was the Colosseum.
The day had gotten pretty hot while we were visiting the Vatican, so I decided to leave my purple-checkered-hoodie-thingy in the bus.


We barely got to the Colosseum when it started raining, big fat drops that hits your head and roll down your scalp.


Luckily a few of the other tour members had umbrellas with them (originally to share from the sun), and we all shared and huddled.


The tour guide told us not to worry, it's a passing rain and it'll be over soon. She said that we only need to worry if the sky suddenly turns red. If that happened, she'd rush us all back to the bus.


The sky did clear up momentarily and we were able to take some pretty fantastic photos.


We didn't have time to go into the Colosseum, just took photos from outside. Again there was a huge line, but I think we could tackle it if we go there?


Last major sightseeing stop was the Trevi Fountain. This was a real surprise for me. I seriously did not think it was so big. When you stand right at the end of the fountain, the entire monument just rises up over you.

And the crowds, there were people EVERYWHERE. Tourists lefts, right and centre. Tour guides waved their little totem sticks around - did you know, tour guides don't wave flags anymore, instead they'd have their own little totem, soft plushy whale hanging from the end of what looks like a retractable blackboard pointer, sticks with streamers tied to the end, but the most popular are retractable umbrellas extended but not opened.

Our tour guide has a bright pink retractable umbrella, but the case around the end is in the shape of a bear. Our guide is really tiny, so we just follow the bear through the crowds most of the time.

Apparently you can make a wish at the fountain by throwing coins in it. One coin means you wish you can come back to the fountain again, two coins mean you wish for true love/love to be successful. Our tour guide warned us against throwing three coins though, because that would mean you wish to be separated with the one you're with now.
Guess how many coins I threw in?


During our free time around the fountain, Maggie and I ate some gelato at a place a friend recommended. I chose two flavours, honey and ginger & cinnamon. The ginger and cinnamon was different, but I didn't think it was any better than the ice cream place in Doncaster. Perhaps we didn't go to one that was that great.

Then, while we were in search of a coffee place for Maggie, we saw some street stalls selling watercolour paintings.


I don't know why I ignored the first two stores we passed by but I stopped to look at the third. Perhaps it was fate, but I was really captured by his paintings. They were very detailed, even the tiny ones.

The subject matter were always scenes around Rome, the majority being of the major sightseeing spots, but each painting was of a slightly different angle, different time of day, different colour palette.

The painter's name is Federico Cafieri - I spelt his name wrong on Facebook - and he very kindly explained his pieces and recommended some of the ones he liked best and why. He knew I was only looking at ones of specific size so he pulled out a collection which he thought was best.

I bought one and Maggie bought one. But now that I think about it, I should have bought three. The size I bought was a collection of three small paintings arranged in a horizontal layout, if I had three such paintings, I could arrange them in a layout on my bedroom wall.

Oh well, I asked him for his web address and he did say he accepts orders, so I could always contact him for more.

Since buying his art, I've looked at other watercolour pieces (in Florence though, not Rome) and none of them has such and attention to detail.

Location:Le Crete,Italy

Day 2

The plane to London was so packed!

The flight was the complete opposite to the flight to Hong Kong. It was only two hours longer but it seemed like forever!
The seats were narrow, my chair couldn't recline, and the air hostesses were abrupt and unfriendly.
I was so glad it was over.


I was so woozy after the flight I don't even remember what drink I ordered. I think this was some tropical stuff, pineapple, orange etc. tasted good though. 

Took this photo while we were waiting for the tour bus to come pick us up. We waited for 15 minutes in the pre-dawn cold because there's been a change in the airport roads and our driver was lost.

Remember how in Gnomio and Juliet the owners lived right next to each other? Apparently there's a lot of houses like that in the UK. They're call semi-detached housing. Guess its kind of like our townhouses.
I couldn't take a very good pic of them on the bus (not to mention that I slept through most of the ride).




Pictures of the front of Buckingham Palace. There's pre on my DSLR but I haven't had time to transfer them to my iPad.




I never knew this but apparently the Royal family doesn't like Buckingham Palace very much and don't reside there often. Guess it must be the swarms of tourists visiting each day (you can't seem them in theses photos, but there's queues of people on the sides of the palace, paying to go in).
















Westminster Abbey. Very pretty but much less imposing than I what I thought it would be.




Same with the Big Ben, but that could be because of where we were standing.




And the London Bridge. Did you know the one we usually see in movies isn't really the London Bridge? The one in the movies is called Tower Bridge.












The British Museum is pretty impressive. The artifacts are imposing and some of them are just out in the open (and not hidden behind glass) which means you can get up close and really feel the imposing size of the statue/fresco/artifact eg.
We really should go to some museums when I get back. I want to see whether ours are just as good and I don't know it.




Chinatown. Nothing much to see there. Food was nothing special.
Then around London.
I realise how late my entries are, and I'm sorry. The tour is so rushed I find barely enough time to write before we're rushing off somewhere else.
Last night I went bed at 6pm, local time, in preparation for a 3am morning call.
I know you can already see the photos from Italy on Facebook. I'll try to keep up and give a bit more detail next time.

Day 2

PeachTea seems to be missing you almost as much as me. He hasn't been staying put on my shoulder for as long as normal. Took him outside to get some sunshine while I sat beside him playing my 3ds. Also found out what Magdalen was talking about with PeachTea singing along to songs when I put some music on while I was cooking dinner. While I am writing this I am watching him attempt to find the entrance to his cage of which I left the middle door open for him to enter.

Spent the majority of Saturday out at Benji's new place with some of his other friends though ended up having to go to work for an hour and a half  to do a short job for a wedding reception.

Hope that you two are having fun over there. It is not good that you had to clean up so much mess when you arrived but it seems as though you are both not wasting any time resting. I really like the iphone case that you found, it is very cute. Can not really tell how the sushi was from the picture but assume it tasted better than it does here.

Missing not being able to call you when I want.