Welcome to my Blog. My name is Neil and I have been living in Buckinghan, UK since the 11th September 2020.
I lived in the Armenia, Latvia and China.
I am a teacher of Geography, Global Perspectives and English.
I am married to Lena who is my soulmate and best friend.We also have a little boy, Robert.
As you can tell from the Blog's name I am Scottish although I was born in London.
My Blog will be for sharing my thoughts on anything that takes my fancy. Please feel free to comment.
Well Gentle Reader, lets see out the old and ring in the new. I want to wish all of you, wherever you are, a happy new year. May 2018 bring you all you wish for.
1600: The British East India company is given its charter by Elizabeth I.
1720: Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Young Pretender is born.
1759: Arthur Guiness brews the stout that still bears his name for the first time.
1857: Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town to become thecapiral city of Canada.
1937: Oscar winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins is born.
1977: South Korean Singer and producer Psy is born.
1999: Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia. He is succeeded by Vladimir Putin.
Hello Gentle Cobbers. As we are in Australia and its Wednesday 27th December. My final Wednesday thoughts of 2017 are going to be about Australia.
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.
Charles M. Shultz
Every country is like a particular type of person. America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy; Canada is like an intelligent, 35-year-old woman. Australia is like Jack Nicholson. It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner.
Douglas Adams
If you're Australian, you feel it in your bones because you're at odds with everybody else, except other Australians, in the sense that people always seem to be behaving strangely. People always seem to be behaving the wrong way, in a different way. You say things and there are silences.
Nick Cave
I think probably Australians have just a little more taste than most people.
Today we visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane. We were hoping to hug a koala but because it got so busy all we could do was pet one called Matt and have our photo taken.
Sleepy Supermodel?
We also got the chance to see loads of other Koalas just hanging around munching on Eucalyptus leaves.
Saying 'How do you do?' to a Kangaroo.
A highlight for me was being able to hand feed kangaroos. I had no idea you could get so close to these amazing animals.
We also had the chance to pet an Emu, watch a dingo sleep and see a few crocodiles, turtles and other animals.
It was a great experience.
We also drove to Toowoomba to see this amazing view.
Hey Gentle Readers, I hope your Xmas is as good as you hoped it would be.
Lena, Robert and I arrived in Brisbane early on Christmas Eve and the first thing we noticed was the heat.
Waiting for the "Hot" Air Train.
After weeks cold (well less than 15 degrees) in Foshan, to walk out into 30+ temps was unusual.
Brisbane is a nice city but the area our hotel was located seemed a bit run down. We got to our hotel and although a bit rough around the edges it seemed ok. We decided to go out to see the new Star Wars movie and returned to the hotel about 10.30 after seeing the Xmas lights of Brisbane.
City Hall
Xmas Tree in City centre
Wow! The Thomsons are impressed.
Unfortunately when we returned to the hotel the room was teaming with bugs, small cockroaches mostly. We complained asked to speak to the manager etc but nothing was done.
So we found another hotel and left. We arrived after midnight.
G'day Gentle Readers. Its nearly Christmas and I am sure a few of you will be throwing a log on the fire, pulling on a nice new jumper and snuggling down together and keeping warm.
Not us....we might even have Christmas on the beach. The Thomson's are going Down Under.
Its the first time that any of us have been there and also my first Christmas not in the UK. We will be in Brisbane for Christmas and then drive down the coast to Sydney where we will see in 2018.
Here are my fun facts for you.
1. Former Prime Minster Bob Hawke isin the Guiness Book of records fordrinking 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds.
2. In 1832, 30 women bared theirbacksides to the govenorof Tasmania to protest. Did they invent the Flash mob?
3. The Great Barrier Reef is the worlds largedt living structure and it has its own post box.
4. The Australian Alps get more snow than Swirzerland.
5. If the Sydney opera house sails were put together it would form a sphere. The architect was inspiredby an orange.
6. The Selfie was invented in Australia.
7. Eucalyptus oil is very flammable meaning trees can explode during bush fires.
8. The Lyrebird which is native to Australia can mimic many other birds and other things.
9. In 1979 parts of the Sky Lab probe fell on the town of Esperance in Australia. The town fined NASA for littering.
