After a 2.20am flight from New Delhi, 8 hours in the air (with 5 hours sleep) and a pickup at Heathrow by Dave’s mother we eventually made it back to Dave’s family home. We unpacked our bags, lunched on some homemade soup and took some much needed rest.

On Saturday 21st April we drove north to see Helen’s brother, Emily, Sukie and spend the weekend at Helen’s family home. It was lovely to see everyone again and have we all enjoyed catching up and the delights of home cooking.

Now to find some work, earn some money and evolve notworkrelated. Stay tuned.

Helen & Dave x

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

For our last few days in Sydney we made the most of having a place to ourselves in a fantastic location. Just down the road and under the Harbour Bridge is the North Sydney Olympic Pool and so we decided to spend a good half day there enjoying it’s facilities. For $18 we could use the gym and pool for as long as wanted to, so we spent the first part of the morning in the gym and the second part enjoying the 50m pool. It’s in an amazing location right under the bridge and next to Luna Park, pretty surreal to have so much of interest built around this historic pool and with a famous restaurant overlooking us. We enjoyed the location and the workout. The pool still has much of it’s original art deco styling around the site and large windows line one side so you can people watch as passers-by walk past on their way to and from the ferry.

Later that afternoon we enjoyed a trip back to The Opera House, this time armed with the Leica so that we could get some better shots than our ones from a few days ago. We also walked around the Botanical Gardens home to many tropical parrots and birds and the Flying Foxes or Fruit Bats hanging from the trees above. The parrots are very tame and create quite a raucous sound as they come back to nest or feed from people gathering around.

Around the corner we could see an event taking place where the Open Air Cinema is located, it was actually the opening night for start of the summer season and the Australian Premier of Marilyn was being screened. So there was quite a buzz about the place with media and red carpets all around. What a location though if you have the money, some tickets are available each night on a first come first serve basis but you would have to queue early as they sell out pretty quick and all of the pre-booked tickets were already sold out for the entire month. We weren’t sure whether you’d spend more time looking at the city lit up than the film on screen. Luna Park greeted us as we made our way back to Kirribilli on the ferry, along with moody skies over the Opera House. The Diamond Princess Cruise liner still dominated the Sydney Harbour, impressive but ugly at the same time. Not quite seen one that big before!

We managed to fit in a beach day on the 12th and jetted off using the ferries to Manly Beach, described by many as being the nicest beach in the area. It is certainly a nice spot but it does get so busy during the holidays so perhaps on a quiter day you might find see a little more sand! The sea is good to swim in though and we were getting a bit of a beach day on the go!

On the 13th we enjoyed a pretty low key day which involved washing, shopping for food, planning and cooking some cookies and chocolate brownies. Helen wanted to bake something for the picnic later on and to take to her friends place where we would be driving to the next day. We also got a phone call to say that the Leica was now back so we planned to collect it on Saturday. We also enjoyed a pleasant walk around the Neighborhood and to Milson’s Park taking in the architecture around us. It is a very Art Deco area, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the city (well as far as we’ve seen!) and it has also been maintained to a very high standard. We could tell it wasn’t cheap to live in this part of the city, and so looked on in admiration to our surroundings. We had been very spoilt – BIG thanks to Rob, Monica and Lottie for letting us stay at their lovely flat.

On our final evening in Sydney we finally managed to catch up with friends Amy and Amit who moved here after a stint of travelling last year. They actually left the UK on the same day as us in 2010 and are now settled and expecting their first child! We had a lovely picnic in Glebe Park and an all round fab night catching up with them. Best of luck to them and wish we could have had more time with them whilst we were there!

On the 14th we were ready to make tracks and leave our little home for the past 7 days. We picked up a hire car in the city and packed ourselves in tightly into the little 3 door Hyundai Getz. Happily back together with the Leica we bought ourselves a 3 man tent and a new stove before making our way to Helen’s Uni friend’s family home close to the Blue Mountains.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Our Qantas trans-pacific flight was easy enough with over five hours of sleep to pass the time and the obligatory movie or two. We all know what airplane food can be like, but recently both of us have been fairly impressed with the offerings. However not this time! Dave’s fish dish was very dry and Helen was only given the option online of setting a Vegetarian Indian Meal which was below par, even including a chickpea curry breakfast! Whilst everyone else got cereal, muffin, egg omelette with mushrooms (and bacon) etc. After some bartering with the slightly unfriendly air hostesses, (who even said that maybe next time we should bring our own food for Helen! She only avoids red meat!) eventually we managed to get a spare continental breakfast! Victory!

Landing at 9am New Zealand time we headed for our pre-booked hostel Garden City Lodge using the fixed price shuttle service which cost $36 for both of us and our luggage. The hostel is located just outside the main part of the city in Parnell on a quiet side street. We checked into our small bunk bed twin room which was basic for $60 per night, but good enough with shared bathrooms, a mid-sized kitchen and good communal areas downstairs. We bought a quick sandwich at the Italian Bread Shop before heading into Auckland through the park to look for the Backpackers Car Market to see if there were any decent camper vans for sale as we didn’t want to rent like we did in America.

The Backpackers Car Market was shockingly bad, overpriced, poor quality and poor choice of vans and cars. We decided the most important thing was a new mobile as our American phone would more than likely cost too much to unblock. After some backwards and forwards between shops we found our new phone and SIM for NZ, let the van hunt continue. Stocking up on provisions at the Countdown supermarket we headed back to our lodgings to cook up some dinner, it had been a long day!

We spent most of our time in Auckland looking for a van to buy rather than sightseeing. We checked out the adverts on the hostel wall and gumtree (at this hostel you only get 100mg of free wi-fi, it’s $10 per 100mg after that) and we managed to find a couple of possible candidates to purchase in a much more reasonable price range than at the backpackers market, and made some appointments to view the next morning. We really wanted to get something ASAP so we could get on the road and start exploring as well as beat the peak season backpacker rush for vehicles. One possible candidate was situated just around the corner so we decided to view that evening as it looked promising.

After a short walk we arrived and started to give it the once over. The van looked in good condition with no rust in the arches, practically new tyres, relatively clean, converted with a double bed in the back and cooking space, recent repairs to radiator and a new battery. After meeting with Jodie and Sam, the current owners, who showed us around and answered our questions we went for a little test drive around the block, the Mitsubishi L300 Sportpac handled gracefully enough and we said we would sleep on it. Before we got back to the hostel we had decided we wanted her and contacted Jodie and Sam to say yes to the purchase. Prior to some garage tests… We just bought ourselves a camper van!

The following day we booked a garage appointment on Parnell Street to give the van the once over for any issues that we couldn’t figure out ourselves. For $85 worth of peace of mind its definitely worth it and there was only a minor issue that was fixed and we were good to go. We withdrew the money over the counter at a local bank rather than accessing lots of cash machines and then signed a couple of documents with Jodie and Sam, got the van registered in our name and within 30 minutes we were the legal owners of Po. A spot of 3rd party insurance through Travellers Car Insurance and we’re all set for our New Zealand adventure. Tomorrow we would head north in our new home for the next two months. Before the day was out we went to the Warehouse store in Newmarket and bought some additional gear for the van; toilet roll, and extra chair, pillows, sheets and a few other necessary items for our new home!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

When we left Khoa-Sok our aim was to be on Koh Pha-Ngan for a week with a 5 day yoga retreat at the Yoga Retreat Koh Pha-Ngan. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived and after the mammoth and annoyingly long process of getting there with a combined bus and boat ticket, we had to make plans to come back. We had some sad news of a family emergency.

Where to begin in writing about this!? Our Notworkrelated adventure would have to be put on hold, but we will resume our travels and be in touch soon about when this will be. In the meantime enjoy a wonderful spring and summer, the weather has been pretty good to come back to all things considered and it’s great to see our family and friends again.

We wanted to leave a Spring-like photograph on here in the meantime to remember those we love and have lost.

Thank you for following our Notworkrelated adventure and we’ll be in touch soon with plans for the future journey.

David and Helen.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)

Woke up to a constant drizzle today and read in the hotel that the bike tours for the Imperial Palace are on Sundays only and aren’t on when it rains either! You can hire bikes there without a tour but again not when it’s raining. So with waterproofs on, we walked along with all the other umbrellas to the Palace grounds in search of the Museum of Contemporary art. We’re based only a 10 minute walk from the Palace moat and main entrance, it would have been great to have witnessed this area on a clear and sunny day, it however it was still impressive in the drizzle. Upon arrival at the museum we discovered no thanks to any signage that it is closed for the entire week!

Hmmm we chose this museum as it is free entry and on our doorstep, the back up plan was to walk to a Lonely Planet recommended coffee spot. We’re still not getting our food choices right here, although the images definitely sell the food, after a few mouthfuls we’ve kind of thought not sure if this was the best choice! It’s all part of the fun we thinks! So after a slightly less appetising lunch we went in search of the @home cafe. Akihabara is like an up-market Blackpool on speed! There are young girls approaching people in the street dressed in maid outfits trying to entice you into the well known Tokyo maid cafe’s. We soon realised that the @home cafe was going to be along the same line. What an experience… With a 700yen per person sitting fee we still thought ‘yeah go-on then let’s give it a go’. We had our own maid who’s name was Michel…? She tried with poor English (although better than any attempt whatsoever we could make at Japanese!!) to entertain us, we only wish we had an interpreter with us as they refer to the men as “Master” and the ladies as “Mistress”, sing songs and play games with the guests. There were mostly young men in the cafe but a few couples with a few older men and women. It’s a little like a culture for the lonely as the maids become your best friend once you have paid the entrance fee.

After the surreal experience of Akiharaba we set off to the more fashion conscious areas of Harajuku and Shibuya. In extreme contrast here we have high-end designer shops and quirky artsy backstreets offering a taste of local fashion design, art and culture. Again we hit the after work, school-leaving crowd who love to shop! We passed through the international gymnastics centre, where Japan fashion week events are taking place and eventually found ourselves in the even more trendy Shibuya. Moving from area to area you really get the sense that places are broken up into clear districts, building-types and genres of shopping . We decided that we would come back here tomorrow to get a further taste of the area.

Later we stayed local to our Kanda area and went for some less-local cuisine opting for what appeared to be cosy little taverna offering Spanish food (noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner can be difficult to stomach). What we had was an overpriced, small portioned meal which kind of left a foul taste in our mouths due the sting of the cost. Lesson to be learned there. So after a spell of emails, photo-editing and tasty chai bed-time reached the height of 11.30pm!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

So I finally left my home of 4 years this week & moved in with my parents who live closer to Liverpool. This has been one of the major hurdles for me in the build up to our trip. Not just in the sense that I have managed to accumulate a lot of things during my time on the lovely Burns Street and getting it out of there in time before new tenants were to move in! But the fact that I’ve really loved living there, it’s been my own place to do what the hell I want, when I want & I’ve loved it! So having to let go of it (a material thing) has been really difficult for me, but I feel that the excitement & planning involved with notworkrelated has kept me well distracted & it was only this week that got to me.

This move means we are getting closer to our leaving date…I have so much sorting out to do & we still have travel plans to finalise, but I guess this is part of the parcel of going away for a year…at least that’s what my parents keep telling me. I will enjoy my time here with them though & make the most of seeing my family whilst we’re still here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be seeing close friends, catching up with my brother, his girlfriend & their beautiful daughter Sukie, as well as buying our last minute items for the trip, so no doubt we will have a few more updates before we go.

So fairwell to my happy home that has given me a real sense of security over the last few years, I will miss my home and friends in Leicester, but now it’s time for someone else to enjoy living there.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Photoshop)