The Edge Of Madness

I'll prob upload some pics later.

So Lana was off to Antalya, Turkey to meet a mate of hers. I decided to tag along. As well, one of my mates came along to meet Lana's mate (they had been chatting for a while).

But to the trip itself.

Was painful to try and get a direct flight to Antalya. Managed it, with Thomas Cook. Who sucked dogs balls. £12 extra so we could sit together. Plus it was a package holiday flight, so full of kids and chavs. And I didn't realise how far out Stansted airport was from London. But anyway, that's just the flight, not that important.

Get to the airport. Go up to pay for visa into Turkey. On an Aussie passport you can't pay in Pounds or Turkish Lire. Only Euro or US Dollars. So took about 15 minutes to pay by credit card. Weird. Everyone else in the queue could pay by pounds.

Through customs. First strange thing. The bloke spoke perfect Russian and erratic English. Thought it was amusing that Lana, who has a Russian name, had an Aussie passport. Which it turns out a lot of others did as well. So they all thought Lana was a mail order bride. Oh well.

I'll spoil a little. Turns out Antalya is a purely Russian holiday destination. Most people there don't speak English, but speak Russian fine. As an Aussie, I was a bit of an oddity.

Now to the resort. Turns out this was an all inclusive resort. All food and booze included. Never been to one of these before. Place was also huge. 4 odd pools, own private beach. And full of Russians.

Russians are rather amusing to watch on holiday. They like their discos. We went on a boat tour, and halfway through, they broke out the disco. Also their swim fashions are about 20 years behind the times. Men like budgie smugglers, women g-strings. And normally 50 year old men and women. I enjoyed taking pictures of lana and trying to fit in some budgie smugglers in the background (hence I will post up pics later).

Also we ran into a few 50 year old men, with 20 year old girlfriends. And a few older men with a bodyguard or 2 tailing after them. Lana literally stepped on the toes of one of the bodyguards accidently, and got a rather strange look Played a game about who could find the couple with the greatest age difference. 30 was the best we found.

Also a few of the Russians we chatted to were rather snobby. But then again, we found out later we had booked into the poshest place in town. Some of them were cool though.

Food was good, some with a russian twist. Beer was shite. But free. At the bar once, ordered a beer. Bloke at the bar heard me speaking english and started up a conversation with me. Then he started bagging out Russians, and how the resort was full of them. Amused me to tell him I was married to a Russian.

They also slapped on a wristband to track who was allowed in the resort. I promptly ripped it off. Out of curiosity I checked who else had ripped it off, but couldn't find anyone else. I got checked once by this weird security guard coming in once, and that was it.

Decided to walk into town. Turns out the town was about 30 minute drive away. Walked for about an hour with Lana whinging before we caught a bus.

Town was okay, I bought a £2 watch as the batteries in my other one went flat. Pretty good watch, even though 2 of the hands are painted on.

Checked out the museum, which was okay.

With the massive Russian prescence, being a way out of town, and having free food and booze in the resort, holiday was more of being in Russia than experiencing anything Turkish.

Went on a boat ride and a jeep ride. Jeep ride was shite. Jeep broke down halfway, so we got towed for most of it. Plus they told us we could drive the jeeps when we booked, but that wasn't how it turned out. I'm still waiting for a tour that lives up to what they sell it as. Best crap is still the randomness. I hate organised tours, but lana likes them.

But all said and done, was a nice 30 degrees and sunny for the trip. My head hurt from russian being spoken everywhere. I started dreaming in russian, even though I can only speak about a dozen words.

But came back drunk, warm and tanned, so can't complain.

And fuck, I've got to post more again. I just read through this blog post, and it's way too stilted and disjointed. Got to get back into practice.

I've been wanting to do a RTW on a bike for a while. The problem being that Lana can't sit on the back because of her knees. And she was totally fine with me doing it solo or with someone else, but I can't bring myself to disappear for 2 odd years and spend a bucket of cash on it.

Doing it in a car just doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Don't know why.

With my laziness in regards to traveling normally, you might be asking why would you do an RTW? I really enjoy the random touring on a bike. I just hate weekend trips. Same amount of packing as if you'd do a rtw, you run around like a mad dog trying to do everything. I like the more chilled randomness of touring.

So now we're looking at getting a sail boat and doing a RTW on that.

This is raising a few issues.

Starting with the personal.

Firstly, neither of us can sail. I've boated erratically, but last time on a sail boat was 10 years ago.

Secondly, neither of us are rather good swimmers.

With the sailing, if we assume we kick off this adventure in 3 or so years time, enough time to get some lessons and practice in. A weekend intro course is around £200, spending the night on a boat. Bunch more lessons easy enough. Then hire a boat to do some solo sailing around the med. Maybe crewing for a few weeks to get some additional practice in. Or hiring an experienced skipper for a few days just to make sure we don't get into trouble.

In regards to the swimming bit. It's not really a huge issue. Packing an aqualung on board for emergency repairs will be good enough.

Now onto the other stuff. I have been reading and doing some research. All this is in very early exploratory phase. We need to get the lessons in first to see if we enjoy it, and can handle it.

Pirates. After investigating attacks on sailing yachts, the numbers are fairly small. Leaving out arden/somalia, there were about a dozen reported cases last year. And 90% of these were muggings/robberies than pirates. So my stress factor on that went down. It's enough to be slightly worried about it, without going paranoid.

Boredom. But then after a few lessons, a week around the med sea, we should work this out.

24 hour watches. So assume it's just me and Lana. That means while sailing you need a 24 hour watch. Solo sailors normally wake up every 15 minutes to check everything is fine. But checking up on this, a 4 hour watch at night, and a few naps during the day cover it.

Cost. The boat costs the most obviously. Around £50k will get a sweet 40 foot boat. Cost per year of sailing, including maint, is around £20k. So assume 3 years, we're looking at £110k. Doable. Plus at the end we've still got the boat.

Solo or with others. Undecided on this. If we get a boat with 4 berths, it does mean if we want we can pick up hitchhikers. Prob will help with duties and such. And help with me not strangling Lana.

Internet. They have satellite laptops now, which are meant to work anywhere in the world.

Captain. There can only be one in charge on the boat. But we're going to decide this after we do some lessons and see who is better at the sailing bit.

All in all, yet another option we're exploring. Next month we'll prob do the weekend course and see how that goes. Then wait until the warmer months before doing anything more on it.

There is a shit load to learn though.

Yeah, my lingo might be a little off here, so sue me.

Anyway, had some spare cash and went and got my DNA analyzed (well SNP Genotyping) via 23andMe

If you create an account over there, add me, and I know you, I'll share my details if you're curious.

Otherwise here's another analysis of it all via snpedia.

This web page is 10 megs big, so be patient. http://www.theedgeofmadness.com/brad-promethease-snpedia.html

Yes I know this tech is very much in it's infancy, so I don't put much store in most of it. Some of it is right though (esp in regards to the diabetes).

Highlights are (anything in brackets is my comments):

• Increased risk for type-2 diabete (Yep, big family history of this)
• stronger cravings for alcohol; (Well, my last blog post was about a trip across 3 countries to get some beer.....)
• lactose intolerant (Nah, I'm fine with lactose)
• longer lifespan (Fuck, my retirement plans are going to have to change, or I'm eating cat food for the last 20 years)
• significantly higher anxiety levels after moderate caffeine consumption (Yep, that's true, caffine screws me up)
• higher risk for hypertension (Yep, had to deal with it a few times)
• somewhat higher IQ and 3+ IQ points (fuck yeah, me smart)
• increased susceptibility to novelty seeking (hahahahaha)
• paternal haplogroup R1a1. R1a arose 15,000 years ago in the vicinity of Ukraine. Today it is found at high frequency (more than 40%) from the Czech Republic across to the Altai Mountains in Siberia and south throughout Central Asia (This means it's highly likely me and Lana are related )

Loading Lana's through this Promethease at the moment, I'll post her results up when it's done. She's happy to share them as well.

EDIT:

And here's Lana's.

http://www.theedgeofmadness.com/lana-promethease-snpedia.html

Stuff that makes sense for her.

• possibly increased sprint/power performance (She's got reflexes like a snake and is freakisly strong)
• double normal metabolism (All she eats are cakes and she's way too skinny)
• ~0.8cm taller (Nah, this one has to be wrong )
• somewhat higher IQ & 3+ IQ points (Fair enough)
• 1.1x increased risk for osteoarthritis (Well she does have dodgy knees)

All in all, it's pretty damn interesting. But like Horoscopes the risk is you make the circumstances fit the description. Anyway, I've got to go into detail most of this. Interesting thing is you can read all the research papers on this and make your own call.

I'll also upload the raw data shortly.

Man I've been slack on the updates.

The quick run though, spent 3 months in Oz for Nick & Bonnies wedding and Jacques & Eve wedding. Spent 2 odd months with my parents (which was worth it alone for the trip, good to spend time with them). Plus catching up with The Crew and assorted others. Also spent a week with Lana's mum on Hamilton island, and amazingly we actually got on for that trip

But back to this update.

So I heard about the abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren (http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/brouwerij.htm). Meant to produce some of the best beer in the world. It's a long process to get hold of a case. You need to call up the beer hotline at a certain time, book in a pick-up time, then cruise across to Belgium to get it. You can't purchase it in any stores, and you're restricted to between 1-2 cases a month.

Took 4 days of calling up to get through the reservation lines. That's me and Lana both calling up.

A month later, loaded up the bike to go pick it up.

Riding through on the train from Folkestone. This is one of the coolest things I've encountered. You ride up, get on the train, half an hour later you're in France. I'm from Oz, so being able to ride to a different country is pretty much mind blowing.

Fairly cool on the train as well, you sit with the bike. They also stick all the riders together, and as usual riders tend to be a fairly cool bunch of ppl, so plenty to chat to. Got invited to a couple of coffee nights, now I just got to get off my arse to get over there

Then you ride off the train, and you're in France. With the words "Ride on the right" kept repeating in my head.

40 minutes later I'm in Belgium. Again, this is blowing my mind. I'm riding through different countries.

Get to the abbey, down some country roads. Pull up and chat to the monk. Young guy, been a monk for 6 years. Had a bit of a mag about the bike as well. Picked up 1 case of the Westvleteren 12.

Turn around and head on back. I was 50/50 if I was going to do the trip in one day or 2, but I'm feeling fine, and it's pretty early in the day (around 2pm), so plan to head on home.

From France to UK is the first time my passport is checked. But again, on the train with a bunch of riders, all placing bets on if it's going to be raining in the UK.

Simple ride home, ruined by a couple of idiot drivers once I hit London. But no real difference than normal

Get home, and crack open a beer. This is bottle matured beer, it gets better with age. Up to around 3 years old is the best. Is it good? Yep, it's damn good. Easily the best trappist beer I've drunk. It also tastes different as it warms up.

Is it worth a 500 klick round trip through 3 countries? Hell yes. Am I going again next month? Hopefully yes.

I've got 22 bottles left. After the next 6 go, rest are being kept until 2012. So if ya want to try one, you better get your arse over to my place soonish

Also I'm on a bit of a high right now. Sometimes I've got to keep reminding myself how mind blowing it is that I'm living in London. I can't recall ever thinking as a kid that I'd leave Brisbane, let alone one day be riding through multiple countries. Life is rather good right now.

Been playing Ikariam lately. Same guys who did Ogame, but no real need to fleetsave, so I'm not stuck in front of the pc all the time. Much more chilled.

It's a war game still, so you attack and get attacked. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win.

But some ppl seem to take the game very, very seriously.

Take this comment, but a guy we're at war with. Much, much bigger than me, and yep, he's prob going to stomp me. I'm afraid he's going to have a heart attack though.

exactly...TELL TO YOUR PARENTS TO BE MORE PROUD FOR YOU....

you are a pathetic stupid kid...you are using lies for a game....what kind of pathetic person you are really?

You have to learn how to be honorable kid...and you have to respect peoples that you dont know...

Yes i am a bartender and also a musician,a sound engineer...what are you exactly?

Just a kid with pathetic behaviour.... My congrats to your parents boy

Amazingly, he claims to be 33. Oh well, amused me today. I'll keep you all updated.

Didn't know I had to tell the truth to someone I was at war with

Yeah, I've been slack with the updates. Got next week off, so should catch up a bit.

Think I had a month with my parents in Bris Vegas, weekend at Sunshine Coast, weekend at the casino in gold coast, coming home $2k up from poker at the casino, week in hamilton island with lana and her mum, revisit to Sydney.

BTW, if you're in Sydney, and I haven't zapped you a line, feel free to buzz me. Down here until the start of June.