homeward bound

well, my time in europe is finally coming to an end and my sights are on my return to perth via se asia for a cupla months backpacking, diving and beaching. by the time i arrive back home i will have been away for four years and in that time i've seen and experienced so much - some good, some bad and some ugly.

i've really enjoyed my time in kraków for the past three and a half months and can say that poland has gotten into my blood. it's a fantastic country that i've grown to love with really wonderful people. also i've been extremely fortunate in meeting my colleagues here who have now become friends that i will really miss when i leave. it's always sad when it comes time to say goodbye but i spose that it's a part of life.

updates to my blog whilst i'm away are likely to be few and far between and depend on how often i make it to internet cafes. i also won't have a phone so will be able to enjoy an extended period of being incommunicado. beaches, massages and relaxation here i come!!

benny boy

now maybe i'm a bit of a cynic but i find it hard to believe that in four months mr cousins has completely overcome his drug addiction and is ready to focus back on football. as i've said before in my writings (rantings?), i really hope ben is able to overcome his problems and get his life back on track. when it comes to things like addiction, even i try not to make cheap shots at the guy. but seriously, i do find it hard to believe that he's beaten his problems in such a short space of time and would really be interested to hear from other people who have suffered similar addictions about how long they took to finally break the shackles. as i said, i may be a cynic, but it does seem rather coincidental that when west coast were travelling well they were saying it was unlikely he'd play this season and may possibly never play again and now that they've lost four of their last six games he's suddenly being touted as looking at starting training on monday. let's hope that the interests of ben cousins the person come ahead of those ben cousins the football genius.

good luck bomber

following in the footsteps of greats such as moloney, neesham, allan and moss, 'bomber' riley takes over at melbourne after this weekend's game against essendon and becomes another claremont coach to also coach in the vfl/afl (with 'bluey' mckenna another possibility next year). i remember well when he took over from neesham in 1994 and that grand final against old easts where we ran out of time (another 15 minutes and we'd have snatched that one!!). i've never heard a bad word said about bomber and it says a lot about him that he's described as a "teacher rather than a ranter" (see the great article about him here). ranters are a dime a dozen in footy circles and i really believe it takes someone with a special character and a deeper knowledge of the game to try and teach and guide players rather than berate them. paul roos is another example of this. so good luck to bomber and i hope he is very successful.

on the note of the coaching roundabout.. possibly connolly to melbourne and daniher back to freo next year? i love chris and really hope he stays on at freo but if he has to move i reckon daniher would be a great choice as replacement. of course, mark harvey might disagree with me!

pearl jam in katowice

wow.. what an awesome night last night. to set the scene, we had a day of thunderstorms with lightning flashing across the south of poland and the deep rumble of thunder crossing the land. it was grey and wet and oppressive and not at all promising of a good night in an outdoor stadium watching pearl jam. to make matters worse, i hopped on the train from work to katowice only to realise one stop down the line that i'd left my ticket in my desk drawer in the office. so, off i had to get and back to the business park to get the ticket and wait for the next train... in an hour. the journey pt 2 wasn't any more promising as it was raining most of the way.. then..

arriving in katowice the rain had finally stopped and the air was still warm. i had no idea where i was going so followed some people who looked like they could be going to a rock concert. sure enough, my pied pipers led me to the stadium in the park in chorzów (i think it's a part of katowice but i'm not really sure) where the sounds of linkin park were already filling the air.

to cut a long story short, i made my way into the stadium and met up with zbyszek and aga from the office and settled into waiting for the band to appear. the sky was pretty clear and the air still and warm.. in short, perfect conditions for an outdoor show. it didn't take too long before the sun had gone down and the boys arrived on stage to launch into 'rearviewmirror'. they played a great set and eddie was in fine form as he interacted with the crowd. someone had written down a spiel for him to say in polish which was quite humourous but, as i don't speak the language myself, i had no idea what he was saying. the set was full of songs that are very well known (set list below) and the crowd responded accordingly. when 'daughter' morphed into a short cover of 'another brick in the wall pt 2' the singing from the audience almost overpowered eddie's singing. it was the first time i've seen pearl jam and can now see why their live show gets such great reviews.

the show finished just after 11pm and zbyszek and aga were kind enough to give me a ride back to kraków so i managed to fall into bed at 1.45am. today i'm tired, but very pleased i went.


main set:
rearviewmirror, animal, hail hail, corduroy, given to fly, worldwide suicide, elderly woman behind the counter in a small town, i am mine, lukin, even flow, comatose, nothingman, state of love and trust, spin the black circle, severed hand
encore:
leatherman, improv/daughter/another brick in the wall pt2, whipping, black/we belong together, jeremy, indifference

the land of the free

i've just been watching a fascinating and disturbing documentary on BBCworld about the CIA using secret prisons in eastern europe and afghanistan to get around their own laws banning the use of torture. the evidence is compelling that this abhorrent practice has been used extensively by the USA and further undermines their claim to be a bastion of freedom to the rest of the world. no-one wants the terrorists to get the upper hand but surely when countries that claim to stand for freedom start using torture to gain (often false) confessions and information then they are no better than the terrorists themselves. after all, how can we ask other countries to behave in ways that we are not prepared to do ourselves?

weekend in ukraine

i thought i'd celebrate my new british passport by heading somewhere on the weekend that i can't get into with my aussie passport without a visa so i headed for the ukraine. last time i was there i only saw kyiv and had wanted to also travel to lviv so, since lviv is quite close to the polish border i thought this would be a good location.

the first lesson learnt is not to enter the ukraine in the car as the border crossing is SOOO slow. on the saturday morning it took about two and a half hours to finally get through. but once through it was worth it as it is a very pretty country (as is much of eastern europe) with the things that make these countries such special places.. horse and carts, little villages with wooden houses, people in traditional dress etc.

i got to lviv and it is a very nice city although it probably would have been helpful if i had a map a bit better than the one in my lonely planet book. eventually i found the hotel i'd planned to stay in and also found secure parking for the car and set out for a bit of sightseeing and some tucker. the food was very nice but the heavens decided to open and there was torrential rain for the best part of an hour. once the rain started to lighten off i headed out with umbrella and saw the sights whilst still managing to get quite wet... my cons won't ever be the same again!! as with many of the towns i've been to in this area of the world, the main sights are a town square, some old and huge churches and various fortifications. this is not to diminish the specialness (is that a word??) of these places as they are certainly worth visiting, just to point out that when the guide books make out as though they're unique, it's usually not quite the case.

anyhoo, the town itself is lovely and not at all what people would picture when they think of the ukraine. it is clean and the historic buildings appear to be in good condition. unlike the people of kyiv who i found to be quite rude and unhelpful, the people i came across in lviv were quite the opposite. i was only there for a short while but enjoyed it very much.. even with the rain!!

sunday morning i got up and did a bit more sightseeing before heading back towards the polish border. arriving at the border crossing i figured it may take a little while to get through but there was no way i expected it to take the 4 hours it ended up. i arrived just after 1pm and finally managed to get on my way just after 5pm. aaarrgghh!!!

kraków 1257 - 2007

saturday marks the beginning of the celebrations for kraków's 750th anniversary. a huge stage has been set up in the square and there are decorations around the city. it's quite exciting to be living here at such a significant time and i'm looking forward to some of the events that are scheduled for the next couple of weeks. who would've thought as a kid growing up in karrinyup that one day i'd be living in poland and celebrating a city's 750th anniversary?? it's funny how things turn out sometimes.

oh the arrogance

so george bush jnr has finally accepted that climate change is a real phenomenon and also that it's caused by human actions. well good for him.. if he truly believes it. i spose it's better late than never. what is truly breathtaking is the arrogance of the man in trying to dictate that america will now take charge of the problem. as one of only two major nations to refuse to ratify the kyoto protocol (us being the other) the usa is hardly in a moral position to start trying to dictate to the rest of the world how the issues facing us will be addressed. to a cynical observer it would appear that bush (or, more likely, his advisers) have realised that the world is going to deal with these problems with or without america being involved on the inside and has decided to try and head things off at the pass. it was clear that the germans were going to take the initiative at the upcoming G8 summit and obviously the americans couldn't allow that to happen so the man who has tried for so long to deny that climate change is a scientific fact or that man is responsible for it has tried to get in first. well, as far as i'm concerned america has had more than enough opportunity to take the lead on this and now needs to demonstrate a bit of humility and learn to follow the lead of the countries that have already started to make changes.

climate change is a reality and we need leadership from people and countries that take it seriously; not from someone who is only prepared to address it for political expediency.