So I'm back from Paris for hopefully just a little while until contracts are sorted out between my company and my client in Paris, and I've gotta be honest I'm far from thrilled about it. I picked up a discarded newspaper on the Tube last night and this is the shit I see. "I watched Dad put Mum in car boot" (after he'd bludgeoned her to death in front of their kids), "Boy, 15, is stabbed to death by killer who gloated: 'I done him'", and members of the government being prosecuted over an on-going saga in which dozens of them fraudulently claimed for bogus expenses which are reimbursed from tax payers' money. And it's not like this just happened to be a bad day in London or in the UK - every day is the same. Granted the media hypes it all up, but after just getting back from Paris which I've completely fallen in love with it really drummed home that I'm approaching the end of my fifth and final year in the UK and I'm well and truly ready to move on from this place. The odometer on my bike just clocked 13,000kms yesterday, I've seen a lot, done a lot, and achieved about as much as I could have hoped to. Two years in Edinburgh, two years in London and basically a year in Paris - it will have been an amazing and successful five years and I will miss Europe immensely, but it really is time for me to move on (yet again) to pastures new. As yet, I'm not sure exactly where those pastures will be, but I do know it'll be either Canada or the USA, and regardless I have a bit of time to figure that out. The plan at this stage then is this...

My five-year UK ancestry visa expires on August 26th, and despite initially thinking about extending it to give myself a plan B, I've now changed my mind - it'll cost £1,350 to do so believe it or not (which is disgraceful - there's no excuse for charging that, they just know that if people want it / need it they'll pay it) and I don't intend on using it though I can apply for it later if need be. At the very start of September I'll kiss it all goodbye, and board a plane bound for Kristina in Texas. Apparently that's a good time of year to see her neck of the woods, and a few weeks thereafter we'll both board a plane bound for Southeast Asia where we plan on travelling around for a few months. I'll then spend some time showing Kristina around my neck of the woods of New Zealand and Australia into early next year, after which we may continue travelling for a bit somewhere in the Americas depending on money and time and whatever else comes up. Anyone reading this is free to jump on board for any of that - open invite :)

Once I've got all that travelling out of my system, I need to set up camp somewhere for what will be the fourth time (Brisbane, Edinburgh, and London being the first three 'camps', and maybe Paris if you can count that). My options at the moment are a Working Holiday visa in Canada or a potential role with the company I work for now but based in New York. I'll cross that bridge nearer the time, but for now I'm counting down to the end of another era - 3.5 months and counting!

There was a BBC news article (here) that came out last week about this fuckwit, Harold Camping in the USA, an evangelical broadcaster who has made a complete arse of himself and his religion by proclaiming that he knows "without any shadow of a doubt" that Saturday (yesterday) will be judgement day! That's right, old Harold here predicted that the big man himself, Jesus Christ, will return to earth on Saturday and approximately 200 million true believers will be swept up (or "raptured") to heaven. And meanwhile, all non-believers (that's me) will be dead by October 21st. The BBC news article focused on the massive party that US atheists were planning to hold last night when Harold and the rest of his cronies were inevitably found to be full of shit. And now today the BBC news headline (here) is "Believers perplexed after prediction fails" hahaha - what is there to be perplexed about?! Many of these so-called believers spent a shit load of money from savings funds on various preparations for yesterday's apocalypse, and a shit load more was spent on radio and billboard advertising right around the USA - unbelievable!

In the words of Einstein: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Well said that man! In this day and age, how anybody can still believe in the existence of a God, and heaven and hell and all that jazz, absolutely astounds me.

So his latest story is we're all still going to get what's coming to us on October 21st this year, but he "miscalculated" in his prediction that the action would start last Saturday. BBC News article here.

According to that article, some equally-stupid followers of this idiot donated their life savings or simply gave away their worldly possessions as the day of judgement approached. Many expressed bewilderment and shock as the day came and went with no sign of the global cataclysm. I mean, my God, what the fuck goes on these people's minds?! Do they have any comprehension at all of how goddamn stupid they are and how hard the rest of the world is laughing at them, or are they so completely brainwashed by their religious beliefs that it simply doesn't register with them?!

Given his age, ol' Harold here will probably be dead by October 21st himself and that's what pisses me off the most - he won't be around to witness his own hat-trick of utter stupidity. As I said on Sunday above, in the words of Einstein: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Amen to that! In this day and age, how anybody can still believe in the existence of a God, and heaven and hell and all that jazz, absolutely astounds me.

This afternoon I fly out for what will be my final decent-sized European trip (nine days) before I leave Europe altogether in August. And the destinations: Slovenia (the only country in its area that I haven't seen), and Krakow in the south of Poland (also a country I haven't properly touched). My plan is to spend a couple days in Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, followed by a few days up in Lake Bled which I've been repeatedly told is absolutely stunning. From there it's two long train rides to get to Kraków for a couple days before coming back to London (or Paris, though still no word on that yet). While I'm in Bled I'll be turning the big 29, so just as I've done every year for the last five years, this will be my birthday trip for this year. Davydd was going to come with for the Slovenia leg but he's had to pull out, so it'll just be little old me.

The earthquakes in Christchurch that is. There were two more massive aftershocks overnight UK-time (Monday afternoon local time). During the first my Mum was in a warehouse and had to make a run for it while shit was falling down around her, and for the second she was in Christchurch Airport awaiting a flight north (which was subsequently cancelled) and they all had to evacuate! They just aren't stopping! These two caused a few injuries and further worsened the extensive damaged caused by the big one in on February 22nd, but thankfully no fatalities this time. The city is in utter chaos, and I'll be there to see it for myself in about six months.

With gas prices soaring but traffic congestion getting worse by the day, many smart folk are turning to the trusty bicycle. It was the way of the future a hundred years ago, and it's the same today. This is especially true in New York, with the number of cyclists "exploding" throughout the city. Despite this, the authorities appear to be having a difficult time adjusting, and cyclists are getting handed fines for such ridiculous reasons as not cycling in the bicycle lane. This hilarious YouTube video stars one such 'offender' who was handed a $50 fine for just that, and made a video about it in an online crusade to push authorities to ticket motorists etc. who obstruct the bike lanes. BBC News article about it all here. Seriously, even if you don't give a shit, watch the video - it's fucking funny! If all goes to plan I may just end up settling in New York this time next year, and after seeing this all I can think is I can't wait to see how the authorities react to me hehe (example here).

It's my mate's birthday next week, and to celebrate we all piled into here for the night - Proud Cabaret, modelled on a 1920s speakeasy and where the uniform of the waitresses and female bar staff is a saucy corset! Over the course of several hours we smashed back a myriad of cocktails and watched a myriad of very saucy burlesque acts - nice! Video footage of one of the acts here (I probably looked like a real pervert taking this ;)