Monthly Archives: January 2009

Amazing Tokyo!

“Ritcey” made a comment on the previous blog that I posted about Tokyo, saying, “The thing about Tokyo, for me, was I never, ever forgot for even a moment I was in a foreign country (unlike, say, Germany). I’d love to go back – enjoy your stay!” I certainly am enjoying my stay. And I […]

Konichiwa – Goal 32 achieved in Tokyo.

Konichiwa! (kon-nee-chee-wah) I arrived at Tokyo airport yesterday afternoon, and found an ATM to get some Japanese Yen. The maths took a while, as I tried to figure how much Y10,000 is worth. I didn’t want to get it wrong, and withdraw ten bucks worth, or try for a couple of thousand by mistake either! […]

Travelling forward through time.

Today I flew from Hawaii to Japan. Or was that yesterday? Actually, I think it was both days! I set off from Honolulu at 11.45 am on the Monday 26th Jan, and after a nine hour flight arrived in Tokyo at 4.00pm on Tuesday 27th Jan, over a day later. This is the first time […]

Goal 31 – Paula Campbell is in the top ten!

Today is Australia Day, when the whole country celebrates it’s identity as a nation, and commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia. So what better day than to announce that Goal #31, […]

Hawaii holiday.

I have been pottering around Oahu for a few days now. There is plenty to see and do, and it’s all very spectacular. Here are a few places I have enjoyed:- By far the most spectacular so far is the stunning Hanamau Bay, where I went snorkelling on Thursday:- On Friday I took a bus […]

Fundraising goal – be a small part of it.

Today is the 22nd January. Fifteen years ago today my father was taken by bowel cancer. He died long before he should have done, and missed out on achieving many of the goals that I know he had on a list somewhere. My stated goal is to raise a sum of $50,000 for bowel cancer […]

Welcome to Waikiki.

I flew into Honolulu yesterday, and was lucky enough to have a window seat on the right side of the plane. The approach was pretty spectacular, over the sea, with the island of Oahu clearly visible below. Our approach brought us in past Diamond Head, and then the main part of Honolulu itself. At the […]

Pelagic Magic.

Pelagic: [pe·lag·ic]: adj. – Of, relating to, or living in open oceans or seas rather than waters adjacent to land or inland waters. Magic: [maj·ik]: adj. – Mysteriously enchanting. I had done a longish telephone interview with Carolyn, who writes for the West Hawaii Today newspaper, the previous day, but wasn’t sure when the piece […]

Goal 28 – amazing underwater ballet.

Almost seven years ago I took a trip up the west coast of Western Australia, only a couple of months after moving there from the UK. It is a beautiful stretch of coastline, and way up north there is a little place called Coral Bay. There it is possible to go diving with manta rays, […]

Dive! Dive! Dive! Journey aboard Atlantis.

After my Captain Zodiac ride, I had an interview arranged with Karin, who has her own Hawaiian-based news website, Hawaii247, as well as often submitting articles for Associated Press. As we ate lunch and chatted, Karin told me that her father ran the submarine Atlantis, and although it was not quite a trip to the […]

Mystic reading with Troy.

Dragonfly Ranch has been a fascinating place to stay, and has caused me to ask more questions of myself, and examine my assumptions and beliefs more than any other stop on this journey so far. I have been introduced to an amazing group of people, and have made huge efforts to keep my skeptical mind […]

A day out with Captain Zodiac.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the Captain Zodiac trip, as I had only had a very quick look at the website to find out where they were. This was another adventure that had been organised by Becky at the Big Island Visitors Bureau. So I was up early again this morning and […]

Goal 27 achieved – Kilauea volcano.

I was up very early this morning and packed my stuff for the day in darkness before driving the 20 miles back to town to meet up with Danny, the guide from Hawaii Forest and Trail, who would be taking a group of twelve, including myself, on a tour of the Kilauea Volcano. This had […]

No manta rays yet…

I received a call at lunchtime yesterday from Jack’s Diving Locker, saying that manta ray dive would have to be cancelled due to rough conditions, but I have rescheduled for Monday night, so all is not yet lost. So with a free schedule I spent a bit of time looking around Dragonfly Ranch and chatting […]

Aloha!

This trip just continues to be such a wonderful adventure. Yesterday morning, as I boarded the plane from Oakland airport in San Francisco, headed eventually for The Big Island of Hawaii, I had no idea of where I would be staying, and had only managed to make a reservation for the night dive to see […]

Heading to Hawaii.

On the way down to San Francisco I met up again with Susan, who showed me around the city on my original visit there. We visited Shasta Lake on the way down, and stopped to look at the impressive Shasta Dam, the biggest in the US when measured by concrete volume. The documentary about the […]

Travelling south.

The border crossing back into the States was reasonably straightforward, troubled only by the now familiar complications of travelling on an Australian passport, with a vehicle registered in Illinois, and no job or obvious means of financial support. At one point during the interview I was sternly told, “You can’t get another I-94 after this […]

Many thanks to Dave Gorman!

I first came across English comedian Dave Gorman several years ago, when a friend gave me his book “Are You Dave Gorman?” The tale of his tequila-inspired bet, and ensuing long-term adventure to win the bet really appealed to my sense of humour, and to my sense of adventure too. It reminded me a lot […]

Another person from ALife4Sale.

When I first put my ALife4Sale.com website online on 14th March 2008, the world’s press got a little excited about it all, and a few people asked if I had any worries about actually being able to list my “life” for sale on eBay, and whether I had actually spoken to anyone at eBay about […]

Last day at Whistler!

A friend made a comment about my first Whistler blog, saying that it seemed very matter of fact and unenthusiastic. Well I went out today for my third day on the slopes, and enjoyed MUCH better conditions than the previous two days! It snowed for much of Sunday night, so there was fresh powder everywhere […]

Goal 26 achieved – more fun in the snow.

The last time I was on a snowboard was five months ago, back in August last year, when I achieved the very first of my 100 goals, by snowboarding on the huge indoor ski slope in Dubai. You can read more about that here. That was a brief session of only two hours, and is […]

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Eve was the last chance to get out on a dog sled, and we harnessed up a small team of six dogs to take us directly out from the kennels on a small track through the woods. I am getting much better at harnessing the dogs, and between us we were set up […]