Life Of Riles

After a few mishaps we’re back home.  We were meant to make our way back home via Istanbul and then Kuala Lumpur but some not so healthy Turkish food threw a spanner in that works.  Firstly, Katie went down ill on our last day in Turkey then on the flight from Turkey to Kuala Lumpur (via Dubai) Ned went down as well, such that once we got to Dubai he was too unfit to fly.  The poor blighter was  hooked up to an IV in the medical rooms at Dubai airport.  He was in there for a couple of hours all up so by the time he was right to fly again we had to make the call between continuing on to KL or to catch the next direct flight home.  It was too tempting to just get home rather than risking any more fall outs from the Istanbul cuisine.

I’m sure Istanbul could be a cool place but where we stayed near Taksim Square with all the dodgy nuts preying on tourists and with the food poisoning experience, we won’t be in any hurry to go back.

‘Twas about a year ago today that we left Australia and today we find ourselves on the way home, via Istanbul (it ain’t Constantinople any more in case you ain’t heard the song before).

It’s interesting enough here.  Last night I popped out of the hotel to find some food.  In between ordering and collecting, I was accosted by this bloke what reckoned he wanted to show me the best place ever to have a beer.  He followed me along and then pointed out this place which he assured me was a decent place to go.  When I said I wasn’t interested in a beer and that I had food to collect, he turned.  Instead of wanting to have a beer with me he began insisting that “you are a gay man”.  I believe he was attempting this scam here.

That was last night.  Today we walked from our hotel near Taksim Square, down to the water, across a bridge, through some crazy busy markets and down to the Blue Mosque.  We then headed home and stuffed ourselves silly on some delish Turkish food on the way back.  Yum, yum.

The end.

P.S. Here’s some photos what I took…

Today we went to this place what’s called Glenshee.  Not too far up the road from Perth, just at the beginnings of the Cairngorn Mountains.    Check out the video below…

Tonight I was thumbing through The Age newspaper’s website and came across this article here.  The article highlights the fact that dudes from Melbourne what are in the story would normally pay AU$4 for a pot.  That’s AU$4 for 285ml of beer.  In today’s money, AU$4 is equivalent to £2.60.  In Scotland £2.60 gets me a pint (or 568ml) of the good stuff.  Now, you don’t have to have a commerce degree to determine the fact that the same money in the UK gets you double the beer.  Hmmmmm.

I have around 12,000 photos and loads of hours of video footage from this year which I will bang into some sort of shape at some point.   In the mean time, today I got bored and put together a video using some “borrowed” footage to show y’all what Perth looks like.  Check it out…

This weekend we headed up north to pay a visit to the lovely, lovely Pete and Anne in Hopeman.  Below are some pics of Hopeman, the nearby ruins of Duffus Castle and some of near Aviemore on the way home.

P.S. We leave the UK in a month today.  We’re is the year going?

This last few days we went down to this town what’s called Londons.  We squeezed in a bit of work and a bit of play.  After Londons we headed north to Manchester where, in between Chav dodging, we did some Smiths and Oasis stalking.  We also caught up with Katie’s Lynne and Harry in Burnley.

Here some photos what I took…