Turnz’s blog

Hey All, thought its about time that i add to this for all you avid readers.

Well last week finished with me applying for a few jobs down the sport management field, as im avoiding teaching and trying to develop further in other areas.  Played 80mins of footy on saturday and that was good, we played one of the top teams and only went down by 4, i played first 5/8 and was a bit rusty so to speak after 5 months away, but was still good, was a bit sore sunday and monday but sorted now.

Greg and I have moved out of the flat and are in a sleep out together now with 4 outher boys from rugby, so pretty nice house and we are out the back..currently sleeping on airbeds until we find some cheap beds to buy, hasnt been to bad after one night.  Monky is pretty sick at the moment so he is sleeping inside so he doesnt keep me awake.

I coached at the wasps academy on saturday, stole some free kit and then went to the wasps vs leicester game and sat in the corporates at adams park and got a free feed so was pretty happy, ill chuck some photos on of that.

Today i had a job interview for a job where i work for sport england, wheel power (disabled sport organsiation) and bucks university as theire disabled sport co-ordinator, pretty much i set up courses and get people to take them to get people that are disabled involved in the administration etc of there own sports, so courses on coaching, officiating, management etc.  Its all building up for the 2012 paralympics so these people can be used as the volunteers to run the games pretty much..At the moment the post is 20 hours a week and will be about 5 months long at this stage with the chance of going on further, the first courses will run in april so have to get set up by then...Ill be incharge of finding people to take the courses, and maybe teaching a few myself, we are using state of the art technology where we can get people to take a course from the other side of the world and we will link it in to the classroom ill have at where i work and we can do everything via video link, so pretty exciting...Possibly making the rest of the workign week up with personal training work..  So hopefully this will get me through until about august and then im plannign on doing a contiki around europe by myself..  This job has the chance of going fulltime so might not need the personal training, but aslong as i get some money coming in, will be making about double of what i was as a teacher a fortnight so thatts a good thing.

blair the guy who has sorted the job for me is part of our club, so he told me that i prety much have the job and will be confirmed this week..so heres a start i guess, will be good to get amongst a new challenge, something that ill be soley responsible for and can be driving, pretty happy about that...

I booked my flights the other day to the runnign of the bulls in early july, so when work begins i better put in for some leave for that.  AS soon as rugby finishes ill be looking to do as many international trips as possible on the weekends.  Spain in may also for rugby so that will be good times..

Other than that ive got the rest of the week to myself, the new place we have moved into has everything, so might watch a few movies etc.  will catch up with people in a week or so, if you have SKYPE i can chat to you on there as we now have a better internet connection and a webcam..

catch ya

Turnz

Hi all from Aylesbury, just north west of london towards oxford..well moved in with monky and things are sweet, tomorro i have a days relief about an hour from here, so thats good to get some quid coming in..I have an interview for the duty manager job at a gym and have to construct a ten min presentation on leadership and motivation for it so been busy trying to do that.

Hi all from Aylesbury, just north west of london towards oxford..well moved in with monky and things are sweet, tomorro i have a days relief about an hour from here, so thats good to get some quid coming in..I have an interview for the duty manager job at a gym and have to construct a ten min presentation on leadership and motivation for it so been busy trying to do that.

Well after finally adjusting to the colder weather of the northern hemisphere the biggest weekend of my life begun...waitangi day pub crawl was yesterday and it was awesome...the best expereince ive had in a long time, about 5000 kiwis absolutly running a muck in london central..the police had no show of slowing down the black and white wave of intoxicated kiwis...the idilic grounds of parliment square, big ben and westminster abbey were reduced to something similar to a pig pen after we all invaded there and cut it up..I lost geoff and patrick my fellow 4Square men early in the day and spent most of the day with senior krefty and a few of the old waimea college boys, we managed to miss the haka at parliment square that made the tv news.  You can see me just on the news when they show a bird spewing on the side of the road in blue pyjamas i was standing right besides her taunting her and telling her that she was a disgrace to the country.

At about 4pm i made it to parliment square which is a big patch of grass probably the size of half a rugby field underneath big ben and outside westminster abbey (where princess diana was married or funeral or something).  I had lost geoff and patrick and still being pretty novice at catching tubes and trains etc by myself i was a little bit woried.  I text them both and as i send it,  i look up and see them both starting the massive game of scrag/bullrush in the middle of this grass square that is now nothing but mud.  So standing afar and watching these boys for a while entertained alot of the watching crowd..i nearly got dragged in but managed to avoid them through the thousnds of people.

I didnt see them finish up in there and leave so when i finaly decided to go i was alone, i saw a sign for waterloo station knowing i had been there the day before and new the way home from there, at this stage pretty sober and cold from wearing nothing but a business shirt and tie i was walking accross westminster bridge when isee two twins absoluytly covered in mud giving every tourist absolute shit so was pretty happy to find them and get home with them, we couldnt get on any public transport with them covered in mud so we flagged down a cab and they had to strip right down to sit in it..

From here we hit geoffs girlfriends dress up party and i ended up coming home about 1am after a pretty solid day doing my country proud..im pretty happy i havnt sufferred from any real jet lag so thats a good thing.  Monk decided to get on the piss today (sunday) and have the day off tomorrow so we are training out to aylesbury tomorro to move into the new pad..got a job interview out there next week for a gym mangement job so will see how that goes, hopefully ill pick up some supply work out there to get some pounds rolling in..Im thinking after the footy thing if things arnt set up out there ill come back into london and try chase a job in sport management, not sure if i can be to bothered with the hole teaching thing, as the kids a shit house and thats not ideal for me.  I could easily slot into the suit an tie scene of london in an office, so ill surf the sport england website and see how i go..

this link is the video off tvnz news, the guy andrew potter didnt get my joke when i had him up about coming dressed up as the channel one news team, was very dry about it actually, but fair enough to he had probably been getting shit all day.

 http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/waitangi-day-pub-crawl-in-london-02-04-2466563/video

will be in contact out at aylesbury, will text to get you to go on the net to talk so it doesnt cost money to ring.  Love to all in the land of the long white cloud

Well what a whirlwind last 36 hours of my life, started with a delayed flight out of auckland but once we got under way we were all good.  I managed to sleep a large part of the leg from brunei into dubai and then a portion of the part from dubai into heathrow...I got sat by a young girl that went to cant uni and is doing a similar trip to me so that was good to chat to someone for most of the journey, she was heading onto dublin so was a big day travelling for her.

Geoff met me at the terminal and once i breezed through the customs check, this place would have to be the easiest place ive ever been to get into the country, just walk in no bag scans or anything..  Rush hour on the tube for my first taste was a good start, we took 2 tubes and a train to get to geoffs.  He headed off to work i sat down watched telly for a while and then showered up and went for a wander down to clapham junction down the road from his place, set up a bank account and then got a phone, also setting up with a teaching agency for some work next week.

The first bank i went to rejected me for some reason so had to go to another and get sorted, no biggy though, we got there.  So now im sitting in the impact teachers wreaping there free internet before i head off again, i managed to bump into a rat a guy who did forestry at canterbury on his phone outside so ill give him a text and might go catch up with him for a bit before heading back to geoffs via the supermarket coz im starving..i have to get through this afternoon without going to sleep so i can sleep properly tonight, im doing surprisingly well to be honest.

The weather here is real grim, snow on the side of the road and drizzly sleet but its all good i have to remember im here to enjoy it, its all really exciting at the moment, looking forward to getting out to monks and getting settled, got a job interview there next week for the gym managers job so will see how that goes..

Well people i write this the night before i leave nelson on my mission to the UK...What a whirlwind 3 weeks it has beem since leaving bangkok, thailand.

Ended up in Nelson and jumped in the car and went to Wanaka with Chips, that was a great trip and made me appreciate the beauty of NZ once more before leaving.. Wanaka was awesome, with Gus and the family, great hospitiality and generally a brilliant time in a wicked part of NZ...the Wanaka tri was good fun, came last, but had fun doing so, good training run before rugby in uk..

from there went to queenstown for sammys stag and was a lot of fun,, $100 dollars to breath in queenstown cant do anything cheaply there, but well worth it...the wedding in chch was amazing so glad to of sticked around for it and was great to be apart of.

the week back in nelson has disapeared into thin air, and now im off.. a little bit nerve racking but has to be done, this year is about me and seeing as much things as possible...So watch this space closely, ill try communicate through here as much as i can..ill be in touch with you all regarding UK cellnumbers etc.

youve been on the road with Turnz

Well the last night on koh sahn was similar to the rest, a few changs, telling a few people to piss off and then it was bed as we had a massive day the next day of travelling.

I write this message now from back in brightwater after a massive day travelling in the last 30 hours ive had about 1 hours sleep, so im pretty wrecked.  The process of bangkok to brightwater was a telling one, with a scary taxi ride accross bangkok to the airport where the driver thought i was gay with nick and begun hitting on me...im adament he was a raging homosexual.  Arriving early at the airport we did some people watching and thn it was our time to get flying.  It wasnt that bad a flight back to auckland, it was just the waiting in auckalnd that was the hard bit and then finally home mid afternoon the eleventh of jan.

Off to wanaka in about 8 hours so thats going to be awesome.  Until next time that was on the road with turnz thailand edition stay tuned for three weeks time when i jet to the united kingdom to chase the lure of the pound..

cheers

Turnz

Hey all, well yesterday we arrived real early in the morning so got a few hours sleep before jumping in a taxi and heading to china town, what a place that was, just utter shit crammed into everypossible space it could be, with people everywhere, the 4 of us stood out like dogs balls in there, so much physically bigger than everyone else, was a pretty cool feeling, being the big men on campus and using our size to push people round in the hustle and bustle of the little alleyways.

We came from there back to koh sahn road in the funniest taxi i have been in probably in my hole life, the guy insisted on selling marcus as a prostitute to his freinds, he believed his friend would pay up to 5000 baht, about 250$NZ to have sex with him, the only thing is that we didnt determine weather the freind he spoke of was a boy or a girl.  When we got back to the road we went about ganging up on stool owners and getting cheaper deals by buying in bulk, i brought three tee shirts for $7nz each, so pretty happy with that.  AFter we got over with arguing with people we went back home for a shower met up with thompson and went out for dinner for a few classic yarns.

this is where the night took either a turn for the worst or went from a standard night to an umbelieveable night.  70% of all travellers to thailand are male, be it they want to see the ping pong show of patpong road.  we werer no different, and ill honestly say now, i never ever ever want to see the things i saw last night again in my life, my appreciation for NZ woman or western woman in general with any form of respect for themselves has gone through the roof..i will not go into exact detail of what i saw as it is terrible, but i will enlighten you on the fact of how i was picked to be the one that hit the table tennis balls back at her off the bar, i got hold of two of them with a couple of brilliant forehands and sent them whizzing back past her ears as fast as she was spittin them out,made her flinch a couple of times., this cost me $5 NZ to perform, but well worth it, all that table tennis practice in the waimea college health office finally paid off, after this we made a quick smart exit out of that club before they got any more money out of us....(if you want more specific details of what acts were performed i will enlighten you, but due to the fact that my mum reads this and i respect her as a women i will not go into any more detail)

So storming out of the club in utter disbelief of what we saw, some of the boys even nearing the early stages of vomiting we jumped in a couple of cabs and once again raced through the streets of bangkok, telling the driver to follow that cab infront coz we were going to kill the people in it (the other boys were in front mum)...we have realised if you say this to the driver he gets you faster around town...its a crazy country what can i say.

With a quesy stomach, we got back on koh sahn, went to the seven eleven brought a chang and reflected on what we saw, all of us validly stating that we respected the females we knew back in NZ and our homelands.  back to bed for a horrible nights sleep thinking about what i had just seen.

This morning we have got up early and are off to MBK shopping mall, apparently this plae is pretty massive, with a water park etc in it.  finish off some shopping and come home for a few beers in the hub of bangkok, definatly steering clear of the ping pong show.  Looking forward to getting out of the dirt and into some clean conditions.

Catch ya

Turnz

Well we finished our last full day in the island by catching a boat over to another islan to snorkell, wasnt that impressive really, few cool fish, but tones of people etc.  bit of alet down, but cool none the less.

Yesterday was quite possibly one of the shittest days of my life, we had to catch the boat over to the mainland of chumporn, and then cathc a bus all the way to bangkok, 8 hours or so on a bus, they told us 13 but it ended up bein quick i dont no wher we made up 5 hours but we did.  this bus was ratshit, the guy infront of me had his seat reclined so far back i could see in his mouth, so i obliged and put mine back jst as far.  got some sleep on the bit from midnight to 4am...Arriving in bangkok at 4am in the morning is a pretty awesome expereince. especially with no where to stay, we ended up finding a place and crashed for the night, costing us $25NZ, with shower, air con etc, Rich amd Marcus are up the stairs abit, they lucked out on this one and got the fan with no aircon.

Today we woke up early around 10am, got a feed and are currently waling around ko sahn road, this palace is amazing, if you want to buy anything you will find it here, so this could be us for the day, Thompson is in town somewhere so we should really try and find him  since he is by himself.  Other than that a lot of money to spend here on various gifts etc and a new camera at MBK (the biggest shopping mall, makes richmond mall look like a shopping mall for ants).. China Town soon in a tuk tuk apparenlty a bit cheaper.

Catch ya on Sunday

Hey well after the weather shat itself in koh phangon, stress levels were pretty high as we went through every possible way to get back tot he mainland and avoid the typhoon.  We sat on the internet for an hour in the travel agent before he said there was a bigger better boat going in 30mins, we missed our first boat as it was too rough and the boat was ssmall.

So we loaded on this about 100ft boat, with about 200 people and ventured out into the 4m swells in the gulf, alot of people were being sick etc, but you could pick the kiwis out who were laughign the hole way, quinn even fell asleep.  We were abit slow getting to ko toa but we finally got here, we walked upt he street got a good feed in us as we werer a little bit nauseas and found a place to stay, two rooms for $25 nz a night, ours doesnt have aircon but is all right, just two matresses on the floor with a toilet and cold shower, battling with the fact that when you wipe your ass you you have to put hte paper in a bin, quinn has all ready filled the bin up, due to the development of the shits.

Thsi mornign i got up and went for a run as i realised i am racing a triathlon in 13days in wanaka, so thoguht a bit of a run will help, looking at the race as a training run now as i wont be competitive at all.  We had the most amazing pancake breakfast for 1.50nz, and then got some scooters and soome snorklellling gear and went on a mission to find some coral, we didnt have to swim far off the beach before we were over coral and there were heaps of tropical fish around , some amazing coloured fish etc, its a shame that every now and then you swim over a water bottle in the water or a wrapper of some description.  We hoped on the scooters and missioned to another beach but the remoteness of the raods and beach got us with me and quinn falling off, luckly i was on the back so as we fell off i was able to hold the handle and keep the bike off the ground preventing any scratches on it that would cost us a bit of money.

we resorted to a beach front restaurant for lunch as quinn checked his cuts and him and marcus went out for a nother swim, this time not as good, richie and i stayed at the table watched our gear and watched the exposed breasts that were infront of us.

Tonight is going to consist of a few changs and then down in to the main town, the hole village here would be the about the size of waimea college probably so its pretty easy to walk around.  Im starting to get sick of people being in my face everywhere trying to sell me stuff, the boys have resorted to speaking maori everywhere to get them to piss off, they cant understand that.  We recitied the hole haka the other day to each other before a guy buggered off.

Bangkok on tuesday, so if you want anything put your order in, we boating from here to chumporn and then on bus to bangkok about 13 hours travelling, going to be real fun, hopefully this bus is better aircon then the other earlier in the trip..Will update about our snorkelling trip tomorrow, thinking of heading out to an island to do some snorkelling on a few reefs, bit more expensive here thought, so probabaly wont get to go actual diving....my jandals of a year have finally worn through so need to buy some new ones before walking around bangkok.

catch ya