I want to apply for this but I havent got time to fill in the application - damn!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/lastmanstanding/

Off to Poland....

I'm off to Poland tomorrow with the Atkin clan. We're trekking accross the south of the country (flying into Krakow) with all of our stuff on our backs, staying in mountain hut type accomodation, with a stay in a nice spa/hotel on the last night! We may venture into Slovakia too (visa issues permitting).

Lucy and I packed up our stuff yesterday and she lifted my bag and exlaimed "how heavy is your bag - you need to take stuff out!", already at the bare minimum, I got in a mood and took out all the slightly less essential essentials. This was followed by Lucy's "ooh, what makeup shall I take?".

Well it turns out that my super large bag that I have purchased for my Indonesia/Australia trip is a little heavier than I first imagined, and even with nothing in packs a bit of weight.

Oh well, its all good for the beer belly. I'll post up some pictures when I get back...

Undignified Poses

This is a picture that my friends Fu and Tom thought would be funny to put up on Facebook, after putting my life in extreme danger by switching on a camera phone mid flight!! Anyhow, when they posted the picture, little did they know that I had taken a photo of them (albeit with Fu rather in the background) on the outgoing flight! Bwa ha ha!

I have since come to the conclusion that sleeping on an aeroplane is perhaps the most undignified thing you can do (bar snoring whilst sleeping on an aeroplane), or at least I cant think of anything else to match. Anyhow, here is the revenge photo...

Leaving Lucy

Since starting this blog, I have recieved several complaints that I havent mentioned the lovely Lucy enough. Therefore this blog is devoted to her.

Leaving Lucy is definately going to be the hardest thing I have to do come October. Lucy is moving from Leeds to either Manchester or Bristol to do a year long masters course in Psychology of Education which is something she really wants to do. I'm rooting for Manchester (though of course I would never dream of influencing her decision).

We both knew we would probably have to spend some time apart at some point, as we are both adamant that we want to live in a number of different countries before we settle down.

On the up side her course means she has a month off at Christmas and can come out to see me in Oz! Here's to Chrismas Day on the beach!

(And also I wont have to wade throughclothes and mess for a while!)

Carbon Offsetting: "Like Getting Permission from the RSPCA to Beat Your Dog!" (Rant)

For those who dont know me yet and are visiting this blog for the first time, I must warn I am prone to a bit of a rant - often on quite random subjects (though this one is quite close to my heart!)

I was reading a letter in the exciting and enthralling publication "Energy in Buildings and Industry" (reasons for reading this will hopefully become clear below) in which somebody had written the they thought that Carbon Offsetting is like "getting permission from the RSPCA* to beat your dog", a sentiment that I fully agree with.

Carbon Offsetting occurs when environment concious organisations and individuals feel guilty about the carbon dioxide emitted from their activities and rather than reducing the emissions themselves, choose the easy way out and buy carbon credits from a number of different organisations such as Future Forests. These organisations then either plant trees or run projects in developing countries to save the amount of Carbon emissions equivalent to that which you wish to offset. There are a number of issues that I have with this.

Firstly can improving energy efficiency in another country count as offsetting? I was watching a programme the other day depicting one of these offsetting organisations installing energy saving light bulbs paid for by eager offsetters in oublic buildings in a developing nation (I think Cuba). The first thing that sprang to mind was - its all very well a western organisation or individual buying credits and counting this as a saving of carbon dioxide for their organisation, but what happens when the developing nation decides it wants to meet its Kyoto climate change targets through energy efficiency? You can be damn certain that the saving will be counted twice. The planet doesnt care where the emissions comes from...

Secondly and more simply - nothing can detract from the fact we are taking fixed carbon from the ground and chucking it into the air at a rate faster than the earth can take.

I have slightly less of a problem with the concept of planting trees in order to absorb carbon. In my unheard opinion the UK government should definately be looking toward restoring more traditional English oak woodlands to absorb carbon dioxide and reinvigorate some of the most beautiful English landscapes which I enjoyed as a child (by incentivising farmers with masses of unused land). But this shouldnt count towards any emission reduction targets.

I dont know whether anybody reading this knows, but I am currently an Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Consultant with a comany based in the UK and I spend my time helping Industrial and Commercial clients reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Anyhow this job has led to me working on developing carbon footprint for some very large organisations, and has also led me to be party to some incredibly imorral actions (or lack of action) from some FTSE listed companies (commercial and industrial) that I would call "carbon crimes". Unfortunately I cant say who or what they are, but I reckon I could get vast amounts of money from newspapers for some of my stories (of course I would get the arse sued off me directly afterwards due to confidentiality agreements!).

Anyhow, it looks like this blog is going to be the story not only of my travels across the world (emitting a lot of carbon!) but my struggle trying to get a new job reducing energy and carbon emissions somewhere along the way (hopefully more that I emit) ....

Rant over.

p.s. thanks to all those kind people who have commented on my blogs (mostly on the request of my inferior older brother). When I get the hang of navigating around this thing, I hope to give a few comments of my own.

*The RSPCA being the UK animal welfare organisation

A Note on Bullfighting

One interesting thing that happened over the holiday was that we went to a bullfight (or should I say bull massacre!) Lucy wasnt best pleased with this and our conversation went as follows:

Lucy: Where are you?

Me: At a bullfight

Lucy: Really thats cool, I'd love to go to a bullfight!

Me: Really? I thought youd be angry! Do you know what bullfighting is? Anyway gotta go.

10 mins later via text after dicussing bullfights with our housemate Jim: You're Sick

Seriously though you have to have a strong constitution to go to a bull fight as well as a lack of morals. As far as I can tell this is how it goes:

1. The bull runs into the arena a bit dizzy and drugged up and runs into a few barriers while trying to gore some matadors


2. The bull gets tired and the bring out some horses with riders with spears


3. The bull tries to gore aforementioned horses and fails (as they have armour on and a guy is stabbing them with a spear)


4. the main matador then comes on and the knacked bull ambles round while the matador sweeps his red cape over the bull to much cheering.


5. The matador brings out his knives and stabs the bull in the back as it trundles past slowly


6. The matador brings out his sword, the aim of the matador is to stab the sword through the bulls back and spine and into its heart swiftly. This is apparently the macho part


7. In four out of five fights the matador completely misses and his assistanta come out and have to repeatedly stab the dying bull in the kneck as it flails around


8. the bull gets butchered in the entrance to the stadium!

Anyhow we were very close to walking out and I have to say I was fairly close to being sick. I am one for experiencing different cultures, but it is very difficult to see how this is macho in any way. I think we were the only ones yelling "come on the bull!" and hoping the matador would be the one that was gored!

Oh and ps, the pink frilly oufits do nothing for the matador's image!

Valencia Holiday!!!

Just to wet my appetite for warmer climes and truly make me wish that I was no longer at work, I just got back from a fantastic holiday in Valencia with the guys. During this short 5 day trip we managed to:

• Get asked to leave a metal bar for being too loud!

• Sustain horiffic sunburn
• Obtain a large number of injuries including a damaged back (Tank), two swollen ankles (Paul and Rob), a swollen finger (Kerjinger), and a severe drink related glass wounding to the hand (myself - which still hurts!)
• Go to a bull fight
• Not once get served promptly (not even in McDonalds)
• Spend about £8million each
• Annoy evey single one of our girlfriends by bringing home photos with random women in them
• Get really angry mad with Rob (though this happens every year)
• Buy a rubbish robot bull which walks accross the table (Fu)
• Probably drink our own bodyweight in beer....
• Get mugged - agin! (Rob!)

The Valencia cast can be seen here (as you can tell, I havent got a lot to do today!) along with a few choice pictures (I havent figured out how to load up pictures en masse just yet - any comment Dan?)

Resignation Difficulties

Well, the first step to quitting your job and running away with it all is of course the quitting your job part. This has been made incredibly difficult firstly due to the fact that my boss and I havent been in the same office for nearly a month now, secondly due to the fact that there has just been another person in my team at my level who has quit (there are only four of us) most probably due to the lack of market rate pay in the company!! And thirdly due to me galavanting off to Valencia last week. Anyway planning to go to my bosses house at lunchtime tomorrow otherwise it will be another 3 or 4 weeks before I get the opportunity.

Once I get hold of the rest of the photos from the Valencia trip, I will post some select items up here for all to see. In the meantime see the attached Taster.



Note: this is not actually a picture of Valencia, its a picture of Lisbon but it might as well be as all of the Valencia ones have the same people in the same (either drunk or hundover) anyway,


Left to right: Fu, Hurdy Gurdy, Sam, Sergeant Major Tom

Rabbit Confused with Raisins

I feel it necessary to offer reasoning for the naming of my blog, the purpose of which is to keep everybody informed of my globetrotting adventures later in the year. Firstly I wanted to use the name Travelling Matt (or Uncle Travelling Matt or Uncle Matt), who as everybody knows is the fraggle with the white moustache who spends his time exploring 'outer space' - unfortunately this was taken as was just about every other name which I attempted to use. My thoughts then turned to the most random name that I could think of in order to secure my site.

This was the name of one of the best meals I have ever eaten, one one of the best holidays I have ever had, translated by one of the worst translators you could think of.....