"There is a house in New Orleans,
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy,
And God, I know, I'm one."

-- The House of the Rising Sun



The first self-imposed rule of Travelpod was that we wouldn't talk about women. There were all sorts of reasons for this at the time and it has proved to be a good rule. You don't need the details of every little misadventure we find ourselves in, and wouldn't be interested anyway. The truth of the matter is, the story about the time I found myself romantically involved with a Belgian girl in the staff changing rooms of the sixth floor of a Xi'an hotel in China is only really interesting to myself - even the Belgian girl in question seemed only mildly entertained.

The second self-imposed rule of Travelpod was that we wouldn't talk about doing anything that wasn't completely legal. The two of us are, of course, upstanding members of society and for us the idea of breaking the law is as abhorrent as, er, having sex in the staff changing rooms of some Chinese hotel. The point is, however, that every now and then you are compelled to, how can I put this, blur the law at the edges, for purposes of work and immigration status and so on and so forth.

The third rule was that we wouldn't write about anything that our mothers would disapprove of. As this pretty much only includes rule one and two it doesn't really matter, but three rules sounds better than two.

Usually this wouldn't make much of a difference to anything. We would talk about the things we had been up to, the adventures we had found ourselves in, and subtly not mention anything that breaks the Holy Trinity of Travelpod Rules.

Recently though, it's become impossible to say anything of interest without breaking one or both rules, and this is why my updates have been so few and far between.

I could, for example, tell you about the time Vinny and his were coming to visit me and my in Melbourne but they got their flights messed up and when they thought they had seven days to prepare they realised they actually had two hours to pack and get on the plane. This was particularly upsetting as I had organised to have the following weekend off and could only actually spend a few hours in their company.

Or the time I hired a car with my and had a lovely three day trip up and down the Great Ocean Road, only to come back and find I had a b****** speeding ticket waiting for me which I have no intention of ever .

These stories, however, miss that punch and depth that you, the Travelpod several, have come to expect from myself and Vinny.

I did spend some time writing another in the series of Mak and Vonny adventure stories, which detailed in gory detail how our intrepid adventurers spent the last five months, but decided against publication as some people - some people - have suggested I use Mak and Vonny as a way of confessing crimes that I myself have committed - amazing, I know.

It's not a problem though. As the next entry will explain, the rules have changed. We are about to find out that nothing ever stays the same and, unfortunately, everything that has a beginning has an end....

Until then.

xx



The photos of the pub were pinched from pub photographer Tim Chuma's website with permission, just like normal.... Timmy, what was the link to the hidden photos from Louie's leaving do? I seem to have forgotten it.