Seriously ask me 3 years ago if I had heard of either Parramatta or Paramaribo, and I would probably have said “no”. Life is a journey and I ended up in both, becoming quite attached to the former and inspired by the latter. So where are they and what are they? Cities is the…
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The above quote, the headline, the lyric and the song was something which I first discovered on arrival in Australia, “the land down under” back in October 2009. Seems a lifetime ago now. The lyric comes from the Jimmy Barnes/Cold Chisel hit song “Khe Sahn”, a song which will forever remind me of my time…
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I probably couldn’t have left Sydney in any worse a state, but in many ways I was better off for it. Thanks to Hannah Wicks I got a lift home to my flat in Parramatta around midnight, with my flight in 10 hours time, I was feeling a wee bit worse for wear, but had…
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Goodnight Parramatta – internet in New Zealand is shit so photos and videos are banned sorry… I had been so busy, I just about had it all sorted for leaving Parramatta for a 108 day stint globetrotting again – this time I would be entering three new continents, to finish off visiting all seven continents.…
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Not quite, and “hardly end of the rainbow stuff” (as Del Boy once said to Rodney in ‘Only Fools And Horses’) but I have a flight booked out of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport this very Friday morning. Not since I was aged 8 have I spent so long in the same country. I will have…
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Only in Australia have I ever heard of such a thing as “Half Way To St. Patrick’s Day!” This happened to be last week, on the 17th September 2010. Makes sense given that St. Patrick’s Day is on the 17th March, yet when you consider there are less days after the 17th September (due to…
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Believe it or not, I hadn’t heard of Australia Day until 2004. It was only thanks to a promotion from the Sun Newspaper which offered a free beer on Australia Day in Bournemouth’s Walkabout Pub, that I realised it was in fact Australia Day. I spent the best part of 6 years living in the…
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Parramatta as a city has plenty to see and do, its quite a normal type of city to be honest. Parramatta translates itself as “where the eels lie down”, it is an aboriginal word. The dominant sport here is Rugby League. And without attending a match I have become a fan of the local rugby…
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Ask me a year ago if I knew where Parramatta was and I’d not have had a clue. That’s why life is so unpredictable, and now I’m living in a city called Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia!! Parramatta doesn’t even appear on most maps of Australia. It’s hardly part of Sydney, though some class…
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