Brads thoughts on the Occupy London mob in 2011

The last time I was in London towards the end of 2011, it was when the Occupy movement was in full swing around the world. While it never was given much thought to myself as it was a bunch of Americans in America doing their own thing. I did buy a magazine as I was down in Dover and what I read about the occupy movement in London astonished me. They were camping at St Paul’s Cathedral in the middle of the city, which I think was called the bastion of economic power from the past. I had thought the place to be protesting would be at Canary Wharf as it was the area where the stock exchange is I think. Could be wrong.

The act that did not impress me about the Occupy London mob though I did visit them to see if they were interesting. My interest lasted 5 whole minutes as I was more interested in exploring the city of London. What didn’t impress me was that the people were urinating in the cathedral grounds. I didn’t see any working toilets in the area and it was close to when the Lord Mayors parade was occurring too. I am not religious, but sacred ground being desecrated by human waste especially being in a historic building build by Christopher Wren. It might be a good cause and all, but they should be living like civilised people and not uncivilised living in their own waste. My belief is they should have known better and done something about it, but I don’t know the full story either as I was a simple tourist.

The other thought was at the time was they were waiting for the Lord Mayors Parade as they had the best seats for the Lord Mayor who was walking up the stairs to the cathedral. I was laughing when the whole group on the parade day that the protesters were drowned out by the crowds. The Lord Mayors parade was the best day I had in London as they shut down some of the roads and I could walk in the middle of the road for a little while outside St Pauls to the Law court further down the road.

Sources

St Paul's staff have to clean up human waste INSIDE the cathedral as protesters 'use it as a latrine'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058172/St-Pauls-staff-having-clean-human-waste-INSIDE-cathedral-protestors-use-latrine.html

St Paul's protest: 'Defecation and drugs' at Occupy camp

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-15818724

Thoughts on future travels to Victoria

In June I plan to travel to 3 locations in Victoria, which are Melbourne, Bendigo and Ballarat. The states capital would have everyone understanding due to the culture and my interest in history. There are many areas I would like to explore and I do know some locals that would love to show me those nooks and crannies of a beautiful city that I have not found before. In the past I have been to the shot tower that is located near the old Melbourne Goal where Ned Kelly was hanged. The museum of course, but not the Victoria museum I think it is called. I don’t have any plans yet other than try and get to Puffing Billy and to explore the city. I do have places to go and that will take my time up considerably. Plus Melbourne is a great base from anywhere including airports.

Bendigo and Ballarat are mainly for the gold mining in the area as they are both rich in history. Ballarat happens to be the location of the Eureka Stockade and the flag happens to be in the local museum. There is plenty to see and I think the same would be with Bendigo as well. I do think Bendigo would have plenty to offer too. I am going to a talk, but hopefully that will be a night thing and not a day. I am going to do my own thing, but have had offers to visit the pubs and I do hope people mean for meals.

The weather I have no idea about, but I will have plenty of warm gear and wet weather gear as well. The transport will be trains that are used often and like Sydney, I will learn what the public transport in Melbourne is like. Winter will be brutal for a northerner. There is still plenty of research to do of the trip I am going to go on.

Cannonball run to the Sunshine Coast, the Spyder chronicles

Today for the first time in quite some time I was going for a ride on my bike up to the Sunshine Coast. I did leave just after light around 7am. I was going to meet up with another friend at the Ettamogah pub. That was my plan and I was hoping that it would not start raining as I went up.

After getting fuel for the bike, I was on my way to the Sunshine Coast. The traffic was not what I would call very bad at all unless you looked on the other side of the road especially coming south from the Sunshine Coast on the north of Brisbane. It was bumper to bumper and my ride had only slowed down in Logan and I knew it would slow around that area. I was day dreaming, but had my mind on the job at hand as well. I was happy to be out riding on my can am Spyder and I hadn’t been on a ride for some time due to assignments and work.

Once I was past Brisbane I knew I had heaps of time before I had to meet up. I was planning to head out to the Glasshouse mountains for a look, but it was a small detour along Steve Irwin Way, which takes you past Australia Zoo. It was very lucky I had pulled off to have a look at the town of BeerBurrum as I really needed to use the loo. I did learn the town was a soldier settlement after the First World War and one of many to fail. The school was part of the historic area too, but I had seen one sign that said Cemetery. I did consider riding my bike there, but being unsealed road I was worried I would have problems. The lengthy walk out into the bush and it was there I had many friends who said hello. Many little mozzies that wanted me for one thing only and each step I moved seemed to attract more. The cemetery was very small and had several graves. I didn’t want to stick around to feed my many friends and we walked back to my bike with them resting their legs. Time was getting on so I quickly gathered my stuff and locked several mozzies in my boot.

On my way to the Glasshouse mountain lookout I stopped at the Beerburrum train station thinking it would be something that would be historic and wooden. My thoughts and what the station actually was are two different things. It was a modern train station unlike something from towns like Imbil. According to the map where the toilets were the turn off to the Glasshouse Mountain lookout was pretty far away and I found this was not the case at all. The turn off was just outside of town and I zoomed right up the hill. The good news was the road was sealed and the views were spectacular, but the bad news was I had traded in on some new friends who were big flies and March flies they were in April. I swear one of them could have carried me off somewhere. I headed down the mountain to the township of Glasshouse where I wanted to have jokes lined up saying people living in Glasshouse shouldn’t throw stones. Bad I know and the town was not that big either. At least I found my way back to the main drag that was Steve Irwin Way.

I wanted to fill up my bike before I went to the Ettamogah pub and the one town I liked to do this was Landsborough. One day I will have to stop there to explore. I was asked where I put all my beer and fishing rods in the bike and I replied with the boot. I met Paul at the pub and we chatted a bit before heading to Marcoohydore. Two girls I did not pick up were waiting for a ride to Bundy way up north. I already had my mozzie freeloaders. I  got to see the town a little and also checked out the Wellness centre. I also had lunch and there was no meat in sight. It was vegetarian and nice as well. I still miss the meat, but I was happy for a decent meal. On the way back, Paul and I were talking to the owner of a lovely Macaw named Jack, who had personality. She seemed to take a shine to me and began throwing my hat and sunnies off though it never bothered me as I thought the bird was cute. We did have another look in the office before we headed off for another adventure.

The adventure was me wanting to ride into Clive Palmer’s golf club and take pictures of his dinosaur. The Palmersaurus did look really big on the golf course too and think there would be more to keep people interested, but the whole place was quiet without Palmer himself. After that I wanted to head home as I had a meeting that night and didn’t want to miss it. Traffic was thick and stopped at my sweet spot where I had my first accident. The traffic was congested going towards the Gold Coast. It was good when it opened up again and I could zoom off. It was starting to get dark, which was what I was worried about and my fuel light came on around Burliegh Heads and went off again. It stayed on once I passed Coolangatta and I knew my trip would end when I filled up at 285kms. I was home again after one long ride. Worth it and I think I did around 500kms that day.