Rick on July 6th, 2009

Roskilde seems different to other festivals I have been to. There’s no one reason why – it’s partly that the music is so truly eclectic – there are seven stages spread over the site and you can hear anything from death metal to opera on any one of them throughout the festival. It’s also got a lot to do with the people –

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Rick on April 4th, 2009

In 2008 just after I arrived back in the UK one of my closest friends, Michael, moved out to India. He must have got some dirt on one of his bosses – possibly some compromising photos that he may or may not have also been pictured in – and he had been promoted to oversee [...]

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Rick on February 26th, 2009

The Czech Republic has always been somewhere I have been drawn to. It would be easy to say it is because of the beer, or the culture, or the length of the Czech girls’ legs – but in reality it is because that is where my father was working when I was a boy, and [...]

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Rick on January 1st, 2009

2010 is now here: ‘The Year of the Future’, ‘The Year of Change’, ‘The Year of Progress’ (and apparently also ‘The Year of the Girl Guide’.) And for me personally it will also, at least in part, be the year for catching up on my blogs.

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Rick on October 3rd, 2008

It was with much sadness that I left the wonders, warmth and whimsy of Australia behind me and returned, prematurely I felt, back to the UK. I had made so many friends, seen so many fantastic things, and been to so many exotic places that the previous year had swept past me with the speed and force of a tornado, leaving me a little dazed and dizzy in much the same way.

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Rick on September 21st, 2008

Magnetic Island is just under two hours from the Great Barrier Reef and so it is a great place for a day-trip. We set out early one morning on a catamaran bound for Kelso Reef and spent the trip out there sunning ourselves on the open top deck and learning about the marine life we [...]

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Rick on September 14th, 2008

When it came to extending our stay at the hostel ‘Bungalow Bay’ we found out they had a seven night maximum stay policy, so we sadly accepted that we would have to get back on the road and leave behind the tropical paradise of Magnetic Island. We were returning to Townsville later that day anyway [...]

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Rick on September 2nd, 2008

Townsville is one of the bigger cities in Queensland with a population of 120,000 who mostly serve in the armed forces or work in the mines in the outback and use Townsville as their base during their time off. The town itself is a sprawling mass of houses and bars, and the main attractions are [...]

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Rick on August 26th, 2008

It is just over 1300km from Brisbane to Townsville, and much of that stretch has been described as ‘famously uninteresting’ in at least one guide book we have with us. So we were lucky that we travelled in a shit-heap of a van which made our journey far more remarkable! The van had been ‘affectionately’ [...]

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Rick on August 24th, 2008

Our last morning in Byron Bay started slowly on account of the beers consumed the night before, but by midday we were on the road to Brisbane where we were meeting our friends Mike and Bex. We had originally met them in the Blue Mountains before Christmas, and seen them a few times since, but [...]

Continue reading about A Weekend in Brisbane