GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST: The voices in my head seemed more impatient than usual. They were talking to me in my dreams, whenever I closed my eyes, whenever I looked in the mirror- go west they whispered- go west.
At first I didn't know how to react, this hadn't happened in months, not since I signed the final form for my flight over here.
We're already on the other side of the planet I said what more do you want?
I figured the west coast of North America was already quite far West enough. The voices disagreed.
Go further West. They said. Over the water.
Now I was starting to get annoyed. I already left home for no good reason to come over here, now they wanted more! Well this time I wasn't gonna take it.
No, no more travel! I'm gonna sit right here and play Street Fighter! You want to go west, get there yourself!
If you go west, we will give you ice cream...
Damn. These voices know me too well. Fortunately, Simon told me of a road trip to Vancouver Island, so once again I packed my bag and set out on a vague but ultimately rewarding trip for no good reason, other than the voices in my head told me to. That and I thought it might be quite interesting.

As it turns out, my voices were right again. Vancouver Island was pretty cool. Although we spent most of the time in the car (we being Me , Simon, Gavin, Paul Smith and his workmate Becca) we saw a lot of stuff- although a lot of it was in the dark, thanks to our group ineptitude for direction finding. While we got to our first destination, Tofino, easily enough (there really aren't that many roads to get lost on) once we got there, we decided to go see long beach. As the name suggests Long beach is quite long. The problem was everyone (except me) in the car was convinced that the beach was on the left when in fact it was on the right. Bearing in mind the beach was in the Pacific Ocean, largest body of water on the planet, this really was a major oversight. It also meant that we spend about an hour in the dark driving down random side roads, lined with trees a la Evil Dead, even after the mistake was realized . Once the sun eventually rose however (glorious warm sunlight!) We managed to find our way a little easier. First we went down to Uculet(?) and had a wonder around the coast there, complete with lighthouse and amazing view, after a little more diriving aimlessly before we finally cracked and asked for directions. Then we visited the near-mythical Long Beach. It turned out to be worth it , because even overcast it looked great. Gavin and I somehow managed to resist the urge to go for a paddle in the freezing cold ocean whereas Simon, Becca and Paul were weak of spirit and jumped in (some for longer than others). After this we all jumped back in the car for a quick look at Victoria. It turned out to be a quicker look than we all expected, as although I'm sure Victoria is a wonderful place, it didn't really inspire us. Although we did stop for afternoon tea there, which was perhaps the most surreal experience of my whole trip to date and only increased my urge to leave. I think I sholud listen to the voices in my head more often...

CRUNKING AND JOOPING, FUN FOR ALL! Happy New Year! So very much has happened, what with Christmas cooker failures, engagements, new year disorganisations and slightly salty disappointents (Ian can tell you about the last one) that it's almost certain that I'm going to miss something. Anyway, first things first...



I've lost one of my socks. This may not seem like much, but I bloody liked that sock. It looks a lot like the one pictured opposite, so if anyone sees it, please return it to me. Seriously...

On a lighter note, Chris and Debs got engaged, hurray! Chris surprised her with a tip to New York and proposed in Central Park. I'm sure it was all very romantic; toilet or no toilet. This was shortly followed by our grand Christmas celebration, where a large crowd of up to 14 people gathered at our house in anticipation of a feast being prepared by the future Mrs Ralph. Unfortunately, nobody relayed this information to the God of Kitchen Appliances, and so in accordance with the law of sods, our cooker broke down.

Despite our best efforts, including dismantling, kicking and shouting at the cooker, nothing could make it work. Fortunately after a few phone calls to our neighbours and our joint landlord (no pun intended) we (i.e. Debs) were able to use next doors' oven and we were back on track.





As you can see, christmas television lacks the tension and originality that we have in the UK, but we happened upon a televised log fire, which was perhaps the most riveting seasonal entertainment that any of us had witnessed before. Except the Great Escape obviously. After christmas was over with, we were forced to go out and enjoy some form of New Year celebrations. While some of us were organised and had our plans prepared up to 3 days in advance, some of the more confused of us (me included) attended an emergency meeting in Darby's pub at the end of the road. After fierce debate and conflicting opinions, we eventually decided that Ian and Paul would go into town and buy tickets for either the Railway Club or Doolins bar. It was perhaps inevitable then, that we ended up going to Malone's Bar and Grill, complete with Latin Funk band (actually not as bad as it sounds). After spending and drinking too much, and spending 90 minutes playing Street Fighter 'til sunrise I turned in around 11ish so I could be up the next morning for my volunteering at the local orphenage (Hi Mum!).