It has been a while..... no, a long long while,.......... Have I neglected to share my stories? Have I suppressed my creative writing abilities? Or have I just been too busy enjoying life to put finger to keyboard and write about it?........... maybe all....... or maybe 'Facebook' facilitates to such an extent that only those who participate regularly and follow status updates become a part of the process.

Alas! I'm back in the blog with a seemingly large gap to fill.

Norway was good to me, although work dried up in the YMCA over winter 2009, I moved to a small ski resort in the East and was lucky enough to find work in a restaurant on the ski slopes, many hungry snow junkies would ski right in for a fill and on the few days off I had snowboarding became my personal challenge...... The season lasted until April and by then cabin fever had well and truly set in... time for exploring, so I set off with my good friend Riccio with a goal to reach the Northernmost tip of Norway and to enjoy some of the stunning scenery along the way. For 3 weeks we travelled by train, boat, bus & car through fjords & tunnels, around islands & over mountains absorbing the stunning snow splattered vistas. A beautiful serene journey, spectacular landscapes, hiking, biking, reindeers and a lot of fish......

My holiday continued back to England to visit my family for a few weeks then I returned to Norway and beautiful Bergen for a summer of fun in the YMCA with our International crew, many social interactions & getting fit in the surrounding mountains.

September brought a chance to pick Apples in a beautiful valley close to the Austrian border in Italy, a lucrative meditation amongst nature. 3 weeks in the orchards for 9 hours a day, delicious home-cooked food, organic wine & serenity.

With a wad of Euro's in my pocket my Euro-tripping adventure started in Austria, sharing special moments with beautiful friends along the way. Whilst exploring magical cities I inevitably attained a veritable smorgasbord of history, flavour, music & culture. Travelling by train into Czech Republic & Germany, by plane for a long awaited re-union in Spain, back to Italy to scoop up my friend Riccio and onto England for more family time.

A plan to work in Italy for the winter season proved futile, with 3 weeks CV dropping in the beautiful village & ski resort of Livigno close to the Swiss border, there was little prospect of a job...... what to do...... I enjoyed the snow with cross country skiing through the scenic valley and with Christmas approaching I gave up and took the opportunity to spend this special time of year with my family.

It seems that all in all, I have been in Europe for more than one and half years - pheweee..... how did that happen? However it was fun, lucrative and I did not die from minus degrees in temperature as I had once feared, but still I hunger to experience different cultures, explore new countries, feel the earth and sand beneath my bare feet, the warmth of the sun on my face, the freedom of travel and the excitement of the unknown.

2nd January 2010 - Thailand......... an easy step back into Asian culture, tropical weather, a chance to reunite with old friends, make some new and score some merit along the way. Every day of my free 30 day visa was an absolute joy.... even whilst waiting 5 days in Bangkok for my luggage that eventually made it from Delhi. Travelling to the north, exploring the street markets of Chiang Mai and back to nature and friendship amidst the beautiful mountains of Pai - my old stomping ground. In a small town along the Thai/Burmese border I met many special people and got involved with an NGO working with Burmese migrant high school students, here as a volunteer I developed and taught a short course in Western Cookery & Restaurant Service to 8 students. On the final day we hired a restaurant where they produced and served a Western Style lunch to 20 people. A successful venture that was fun and rewarding, the students were amazing, they developed new skills whilst demonstrating natural team work and enormous enthusiasm. Tempted to stay longer but my flight to Philippines was imminent.

1st February 2010 - Philippines........ I have been working in Norway with Jhuvy, my beautiful Filipino friend who is now home for 6 months with her family, my reason for this choice of destination. Such a joy to relax into warm Filipino hospitality, hang out with the family and learn about the culture first hand. We took a trip to Isabella province, the 10 hour bus journey North revealed a landscape unspoilt & untouched by tourism or industrial development, only the introduction of concrete breeze blocks spoilt the aesthetics of some of the rural villages we passed through. At the family home amidst swaying fields of corn, rice paddies, banana palms, soaring coconut trees and pineapple plantations the sound of the laughter fills the air, everyone I met was an uncle, aunt or cousin. We had to pump water from a well for bucket showers and ate the most delicious food that I would never get so good in a restaurant. A reminder that simple sustainable living is far more rewarding and less stressful than the materialist wasteful society that is predominant in the West.

This remote part of Philippines doesn't see tourists, it's not even in the Lonely Planet guide book, one day we went to an uncles house for a ceremony (one father was asking another for the hand in marriage of his son to the daughter) whilst the family gathered under the mango trees the police arrived. They came to see me..... I had been spotted riding on the back of a motorbike through the town and the mayor had been informed, he sent the Chief of Police to find and interview me to ensure that this foreigner was safe in his province. I was surrounded by about 20 family members so it didn't take much to convince him that I had enough security around me, it was very funny, we had a chat and he asked me to marry his son or to bring him to England to visit Queen Elizabeth ;o)

No matter whether in a rural village, the heart a bustling city, deep in dense jungle or tucked into a coastal retreat every morning the Philippines awakes to the reverberating sound of crowing cockerels. c*** fighting is legal and frenzied here, every Sunday village arenas erupt with enthusiastic gambling whilst prized birds compete for either title or cooking pot. This appears to be the national sport, alongside basketball, which is played everywhere - even the poorest village will have a crude interpretation of a court that becomes alive as soon as the daytime temperature drops low enough. And then there is Video Karaoke, perfect to painful crooning which can be heard long before seen, day and night in the most unexpected and sometimes unwelcome of places like adjacent to an idyllic waterfall or continuously on an overnight ferry.

The last month or so of island hopping and exploring has given me a veritable smorgasbord of outdoor adventures amidst spectacular scenery and beautiful people. Highlights include: swimming with whale sharks - magnificent majestic giants of the ocean, trekking through terraces of rice paddies, dense virgin forests, and damp jungles to caves, waterfalls, hot springs, cold springs, crater lakes, through remote villages and up & over active volcano's. Exploring islands by motorbike, the calls of 'hi friend or hey Joe', riding on the roof of colourful jeepneys soaking in the landscapes & mountain vistas, rice paddies dotted with scarecrows, magical fireflies, the dawn & dusk chorus of jungle crescendo, chilling out in riverside tranquility, absorbing the creative energies of artist communities, strolling white sandy beaches, snorkelling over colourful reefs, tropical fish and giant clams, natural waterfall massage, caves of underground rivers, island sunsets, colourful markets, fresh tropical fruit, grilling fresh fish on a beach camp fire and sampling local delicacies - I've relished it all and there is more yet to come.......

watch this space.....

Photo's to accompany this dialogue can be found on Facebook