New Zealand South Island

Hello hello hello again.. How have you been? Good? Good..

So I last left you on the ferry from the North to the South Island of NZ. A great time had been had in one week on the north island. We had 2 and a half weeks planned for the south. Make sure you've been for a pee cos there's a lot to tell..

Firstly, the natural beauty of this little part of the world is ridiculous. You actually get sick of beautiful mountains and lakes. Imagine. You get lethargic about it. "Oh, another beautiful alpine lake created by a glacier? Zzzz" So many times I was slapping me head off the windscreen going "You ungrateful prick." Ha ha  seriously though this place is amazing everything has been created by Volcanic activity and everything is breathtaking.

So we started off the first day driving the LESSER known Marlborough Sound (Sound being the word for Fiord I gather after doing no research). Look at the pictures, look!! This is the little brother of Milford Sound barely even on the map..Come on!

After a side trip to the beautiful Kateriteri (spelt wrong) beach we made our way to camp in the world famous Abel Tasman National park. This is a NP along the North coast of the south island famous for it's three day hike along the coast. Unfortunately we didn't have time for this so we made camp in a class campsite and satisfied ourselves with a half day hike at sunrise. Pretty spectacular I'm sure you'll agree. After this hike we made our way back along and visited the Captain Cook monument and enjoyed the long scenic drive back down in land from the National Park. Then we visited the Te Waikoropupu springs (Or Pupu for short). They claim to have the cleanest water in the world with underwater visibility of over 60 meters. We did all this before lunch. We hadn't had lunch yet and we had hiked a national park, visited a monument to a great explorer and seen some amazing springs, before a sandwich. Today's word boys and girls is: "ridiculous"

Kateriteri Beach

Sunset Abel Tasman NP

Abel Tasman

More Abel Tasman Beaches

Sam happy she finished the hike..

Captain Cook Monument

Pupu Springs

Pupu Springs, you can see how clear the water is here

We headed south and camped at Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. We hit a bit of rain here and got maimed alive by sand flies (New Zealand's version of mosquitoes sent directly from hell to ensure you don't enjoy the place too much). But we did get some sweet photos of the lake in the morning  with the mist.. it's all about the mist..

Sam at the lake

Lake Rotoiti

We began the journey down the west coast of the south island in the direction of the glaciers. Not a massive amount to see and the fuckers rape you on the petrol price. We managed to fit in a Gorge formed by an earthquake and a seal colony, as you do..

We then arrived at Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Two little towns that have sprung up due to the easily accessible Glaciers. The Glaciers are great an all, amazing products of nature etc etc but they certainly don't advertise how much they've shrunk. Holy Crap the things have halved in size in the last 5 years alone. Look at the pics below and you can see a sign which shows where the Glacier used to be and where it is now. Very shocking. However a massive tick off the list of the NZ must do's.

A far off view of Franz Josef Glacier

At Franz Josef

Fox Glacier, the sign is where it used to be only 3 years ago..

It was here that we both did our skydive. Another huge must do in life is the skydive and holy crap it was amazing. A serious rush with a beautiful view of Mount Cook and the Fox Glacier as you jump. And yes, they did scare the crap out of one of the girls next to me asking each other if they'd fixed the harness and saying it was a temporary fix for now and she fell for it too dumb bitch hahahaha.. It wasn't too scary the worst bit is shuffling to the door and then hanging out before you jump it's like holy shit and then next thing you know you're falling to the ground like a stone.. But seriously if you haven't done it, do it! Gravity is great.. Take a look at the video by clicking here


It was now time to head towards Christchurch to pick up our friends Andy and Tracy who were joining us from Melbourne. We camped at lake Wanaka a beautiful campsite on a Glacial lake. I took a swim in the lake unbeliveably clean water. The next night we camped at the foot of Mount Cook. This was a little gem of a place as the drive to Mount Cook is the most spectacular scenery there is. Unfortunaltely as we arrived the weather turned nasty and a storm came in real hard. We parked up and couldn't even get out of the car it was raining so hard. So to pass the time I smashed (drank) a bottle of Red and Sam polished off a big plastic bottle of cider (classy bird!).. in the words of Doris from Gavin and Stacey "I won't lie to you, I was absoultely twatted." Oh and I had a pack of Oreos for dinner. At least we got some sweet pics of the mountain...

(Deep breath)

Next stop Christchurch to collect Andy and Tracy (hereby referred to as Trandy).. We managed to get a day looking around Christchurch. The destruction from the Earthquake is still very evident there.. the entire city is a building site. But since they've reopened the city center there seems to be a very optimistic vibe there for the future, and loads of building work!

So we collected Trandy from the airport after they took their sweet time going through customs and headed south again towards Queenstown. We camped in a place called Fairlie for the night. It was fairly good..........
We had a good night. Me and Andy shared a bttle of wine together and there were candles.. 

A nice leisurley drive the next day and we arrived in Queenstown. The tourist capital of NZ. We stayed with Sam's friend Helen who lives and works there which was sweet (Thanks Helen if you're reading) and hit the booze to get the reunion properly underway..

The next day was a big one. It was time for another huge life tick.. BUNGY JUMP! Wohooooooo what a buzz. This was much much much scarier than skydiving even though it was only 47 metres as opposed to 12,000ft.. All 4 of us did it which was a massive surprise as Andy is terrified of heights he can't go up a building without getting queasy and Sam did it too. I've never seen her so scared she was trembling.. the guy said to her when he was putting on her harness "So what do you do back in Ireland" Sam said: "I don't know.." ha ha ha And AGAIN they told me they'd have to be careful so as not to brake the harness.. basterds.. but so funny. Again, serious buzz.. Click here to see the video of me Bungying..


After the Bungy jump we did Luging. We did this on the north island. But it's so much craci flying fown a concrete hill in a plastic cart is serious craic.. And I beat Tracy every time she's a serious slow coach..

That evening we went to a place called Fear factory where you walk along a maze in the pitch black and people jump out and scare the shit out of you. Sounds laim.. it's not!! It was fookin scary nearly pissed myself. Oh and then we hit the booze again after a round of frisbee golf in the park..

Knackered after a seriously fun 2 days we were on the road again. We were heading towards Milford Sound. This is one of the major NZ attractions. It's quite a journey by car so we decided to camp close by and then get an early morning boat trip as it was cheaper and not as busy. So we had a mini road trip and stopped off to camp.. This is where the weather screwed us over.. Tracy made Potato Curry (as you do) and just as we were eating, the feckin ghost of Irish weather past slapped us in the face.. We had to sit in the van and play Chocolate Monopoly and drink more wine to cheer us up whilst we took bets on how far Trandy's tent would blow whilst the car shook with the wind.. think Father Ted on holiday in the caravan the only thing missing was Graham Norton (which is debatable..).. But hey, no sandflies!

The next morning, still soaked, we hit Milford Sound. An amazing spot. We got hit with a bit of fog and more rain but the sun lifted just enough to get out and get some pics.. It has some amazing views, great waterfalls and kick ass Seals on rocks..

After this we made the long drive back to Queenstown and then onto Christchurch the next day as we dropped the guys off at the airport at 3am (typical Tracy having to be awkward..). Very sad saying bye, but hey; Shanbally Reunion 2: the Revenge of the Punch, is currently in filming...

So there you have it.. New Zealand is an incredible country. So much amazing scenery, cool stuff to do and the people are the salt of the earth.. It gets 10 out of 10, I'm not even taking points off for the weather, that's how good it is..

Next week on Ben's Blog: Brazil, including the biggest party in the world: Carnaval..

New Zealand - North Island

BEN'S. BLOG. IS. BACK..

That's right folks.. Hello!

How are ya?

Don't be mad, don't be mad.. I know, it's been a while!!

June 2013 since my last entry in fact..

A lot has gone down since then. And a lot hasn't. Aside from the conclusion of my great first year in Melbournel, an horrific three months doing farm work in North Queensland, my second year in Oz including a trip to Tasmania and the east Coast, a trip to Fiji including a wedding (not mine!), a reunion trip to Ireland and England which included the Shanbally reunion, a move and a three month job for Cadbury's in New Zealand which included a trip to Cape Reinga (the northern most tip) as well as the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, Hobitton and Waiheke Island.. not a lot has gone on..

So why am I starting again? Cos the travel is up again folks! That's why! As I mentioned I moved to New Zealand in October 2013 the day my Oz visa expired. Sam (the new missus for those who I haven't spoken to in over a year!) and I quickly got jobs in Auckland when we arrived. I scored a sweet (pun intended) job in Cadbury's NZ. Awesome place to work and a nice change from the high pressure Customer Service jobs I'd had in Oz. Kiwi's man, what can I say? The coolest bunch of people there is (probably joint first with the Fijians). We had a great 3 months working in Auckland and more importantly managed to save the necessary funds for the next big trip - New Zealand.

So we got a campervan - the only way to see New Zealand apparently - we got a spaceship. I didn't particularly want to drive around in a bright orange car which says 'Rocket' which made us look like a pair of over enthusiastic Protestant Leprechauns.. but it was cheap and cheerful..

So we headed first to the Coromandel Penninsula - A popular holiday spot for Aucklanders. We traveled right up to the top via 35 km of Gravel road to our first camp spot at Stony Bay. We've stayed at Dept of Conservation (DOC) campsites that only charge $6 - $10 per night which has been great and saved us from freedom camping. Apart from the nice scenery there's not a lot to report from this place. Sam was feeling sick (for the first time in 3 years!) as luck would have it so we went to bed early and left early in the morning.

Cooking!

The Rocket

My own Spaceship

The next day we drove down the Peninsula and visited 2 of my favourite places so far - Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. As you will see from the pics Cathedral cove was a beautiful little beach which takes 30 mins to hike to (40 mins when Sam is coughing her lungs up from being sick!) but is well worth the journey (and the sunburn which I got!). Hot water beach is a little beach close by where if you dig a hole in the sand at low tide and sit in it you have your own natural hot tub heated by the Geothermal heat of the earth. However in true Ben and Sam style we arrived at the wrong time to experience this but still a cool little beach all the same. We camped that night in what can only be described as a gravel car park by a river.. but still cheap so happy days continued..

Cathedral Cove

Me @ Cathedral Cove

The next day we drove to another popular spot - Mt Manganui. Refered to by the locals simply as the Mount we climbed it and got the great view from the top. In return we gave the mountain the last of Sam's phlegm. We're always giving back to nature.. We drove along the coast known as the Bay of Plenty visiting a Kiwi farm (the fruit, not the locals!!) and Sam continued her love affair with oversized things on the side of the road. We camped at a great campsite which included a 3 minute shower for 50c extra..

The View from the Mount

Sam made it to the top!

From here we made our way to the tourist haven of Rotorua. This is an amazing place not to be missed and is distinct from the rest of the country as it smells of rotten eggs - literally! This is from the Geothermal activity in the area and the many active volcanoes in the region. Even in the park in the town you can go along and look at ponds and small lakes that bubble from the heat of the earth - pretty cool! Here we: Luged (see below), Zorbed (see below) and visited a park with huge amounts of Geothermal pools and Geysers which are frickin amazing. However, the highlight for me was a visit to the Tamaki Maori Experience. This was a night where you visit a Maori tribe and they show you how they used to live. It was brilliant. They did a traditional welcoming ceremony where you have to assure them you come in peace then they show you some of the skills ancient Maori warriors and people used along with a traditional meal called a Hangi where the food is cooked underground using Geo-thermally heated stones. A great evening and.. I GOT TO DO THE HAKA!!

"Rotorua is kind of like your pet dog.. It smells bad but you can play so many fun games with it that you can't do with anything else, you hafta love it" - B. M. Buckley 2014

The Welcome!

Me Doing the Haka - Highlight of my life!

Welcoming Ceremony

At the Geothermal pools - heated by the earth

Luge!

Zorb!

Me at Tongariri National Park

Wining in Napier

Sam and her Cider in Napier

We scooted south to Tongariri National Park and did a drive around the circumference of the park which includes 3 active volcanoes including Mordor from Lord of the Rings but because of the stupid cloud we couldn't get a photo... We even did a drive and had a look at the Ski resort which was vacant for the summer (for the craic sure..) and the views were pretty cool. We capped it off with a 2 hour hike to a waterfall before a swift visit to Taupo (to have a look sure..) which is home to New Zealand's most active Volcano (which is located UNDER the huge lake that it's on!!) before driving to Napier in Hawke's Bay.. (That was all one day!)

Here we met up with Colin and Wendy whom (avid, loyal followers of my Blog will know) I met on my last trip (see previous blog for full details!). We had a great weekend including Wendy and Colin forcing Sam and I into a 20km bike ride before and after a big meal, a tour of the very cool Art Deco orientated town, a free wine tour and a great BBQ with their family including their hyperactive, very funny 5 year old Grandson; Hunter. It was a great weekend and reminded me what it was like to get a real bed, Internet and showers after a week on the road! Thanks so much for your hospitality guys! Oh and the wine was pretty tasty too..

We then moved onto Wellington where we visited the museum and rode the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked down. I now write this on the ferry to the South Island.

Next Week on Ben's Blog: New Zealand - The South Island!
Coming Up: South America and a whole new bunch of travelers in a truck..

Stay Tuned!

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this little comeback blog I'm going to keep it up to date now for the next 6 months so keep onnn reading... Talk Soon, Ben..

Bye Bye Melbourne…

So my time in Melbourne has come to an end. 9 months in one place was a bit of a luxury after what the previous 6 months had entailed but I hafta say I enjoyed every minute! Last time we spoke wa Christmas I think. So much has happened since then. Much of it significant, lots of it not. But summing it all up in a blog will be a challenge but fuck it I can’t be arsed writing two so I’ll keep it brief.

First off I’m delighted I chose Melbourne to come to. It’s a real happening place. Officially the most liveable city in the world (Don’t believe me ask Mr Google), really lived up to its name. In a way it reminded me of what Ireland was like before the recession. People earning shit loads of cash for not doing very much and loving life as a result. Melbourne is just simply bars, coffee, beaches, ice cream, more bars, more coffee more good times. It would be a mystery to me why anyone would not want to live there, except maybe the weather is shit in winter that’s all I can think of. The transport system gives me a hard on as well..

So I started my job on January 3^rd working for Tru  Energy in an Inbound Customer Services role. For those of you that don’t know: that is the posh way of saying call centre. But it was actually a good job. We got ridiculous money like $28ph as well as 4 weeks paid training and huge amounts of training and support for the first 3 weeks on the phones too. By the end of my contract I was getting a bit sick of the repetitiveness of constantly answering calls but we had a great team and good managers which made it much more fun than it would have been. The team I was on eventually dwindled down to about 15 people. Half Ozzies half travellers it was like the United Nations in there: English, Irish, Scottish, American, Mexican, Indian and more. It was really fun working with everyone there. We went out nearly every Friday after work together and got royally boozed up which as you know is one of my favourite things to do… The job has made me think a lot about work and what I want to do in the future. It’s certainly made me more aware of the fact that you can’t take life too serious and maybe I’m not cut out for the office life.. But I do also enjoy earning shit loads of cash and am aware you have to work hard for it.. Mmmm food for thought…

Friday Club

Friday Love...

So the main reason I chose Melbourne was for the comedy festival. The Melbourne Comedy Festival running in March and April for 3 and a half weeks is the 3^rd biggest in the world after Montreal and Edinburgh and was something I desperately wanted to be involved in when I knew I’d be down this end of the world. So just before Christmas I made arrangements to do a nightly slot at Pugg Mahone’s Bar in the city with some other Irish comics during the fest. As a result this motivated me to do as many gigs as possible in January, February and March. I was gigging everywhere I could; 3-4 times a week sometimes. The highlight of which was being joint winner of the Search for a Funny Bone Competition and getting to play in the National theatre in Melbourne to 700 people!

 Before I knew it the festival had arrived and I did 28 gigs in a row. The first 3 gigs including opening night were awesome. Great, festival crowds, big laughs proper hecklers. I was finally here…

Originally I had applied for time off work but I removed my request as I was only getting part time hours so I decided I could manage to work through it. However, less than a week into the festival we got moved up to full time which meant I was gigging whilst working full time…

This was fine for the first few days but after 2 weeks of this I was properly wrecked. It was like working 2 jobs and at times it was hard to go straight from work, stand on a street corner and hand out flyers for 2 hours and then be funny to 20 people for 20 minutes. I felt myself draining and looking forward to the end of the fest sometimes dreading to have to go up an emotion I had never felt towards comedy before. It was weird. Alien to me. 

People talk about the ups and downs of comedy. The highs and the lows as it were. This was never more apparent as week no 2 of the fest. The Monday night was media night. This meant we were getting reviewed. I was very nervous about this. By some miracle we had a packed house (1 of only 5 for the whole fest!) and I rocked it. Seriously I killed. Huge laughs, perfect crowd interaction and huge appreciation from the audience. I came off buzzing I was so relieved the gig had been a good one. Two days later the review came out and my spirits went from flying high with the clouds to right down as low as the shit at the bottom of Loch Ness. The review was awful. Granted it was 2 and a half stars and said I had energy but it wasn’t pleasant. I will forever be haunted by the words “Mouldy Bread.” I had never been reviewed before and the experience was bizarre. It took me quite a while to get over it and realise that you can’t please everyone. The crowd on the night enjoyed it. This one guy didn’t. The fact that he had access to the Herald Sun was unfortunate. However, the references to being stereotypical also held a kernel of truth and that is something that I will learn from. That. My friends. Is a lesson learnt. BOOM

So needless to say, after the festival I kicked comedy in the arse. I didn’t do a gig for about 5 weeks as I recovered. This time was spent with my friends. Three gigs a week was replaced with 3 sessions in the local Banff where Beer and Pizza were the norm. By the end of my time in Melbourne I had become very close to my friends. A theme I’ve noticed since travelling is it’s the people you’re with that make it. You could be in the best place in the world but if you’re hanging with dickheads you’re gonna have a shit time. This was the case with school, with work, with my Odyssey trip and again with Melbourne. As the guys in Tru energy made it an enjoyable place to work so too my friends made Melbourne an awesome place to live. There’s too many good sessions to talk about as I’ve been blabbing on for ages now and you’re probably bored. Some highlights however include but are not limited to:

1.       Lazy Sundays hanging at the beach

2.       Creamy Guinness with Jack, Pete and Andy (And Cider for Pete 2!)

3.       Banff sessions with Trace and the guys

4.       Being chucked out of Night Cat with Pete (although that’s not technically a memory)

5.       Taking the piss out of Aisling

6.       Road trips down the Great Ocean Road and the Mornington Peninsula

7.       Cat and Politics arguments with Jenna, Roisin and Tom

8.       Grooming with Tracy

9.       Everything to do with Mum and Nan’s visit

10.   FRIDAY CLUB

Ok that’s enough soppy shit. As you’ve probably guessed I loved Melbourne. An amazing place where I met some people that will be added to my ever growing list of lifelong friends.. But all good things must come to an end and I’ve decided to do another year here which means I must do 88 days of farm work to obtain a second year visa.

But that story is for another blog…………… (how very theatrical of me)

Talk Soon folks….

An Eedjit Abroad..

Oh
Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!!!

It's been a while since we last spoke. Times are changin,' things are different, lifestyles are unrecognisable but I'm still blogging!

So when I last left you I was making the trip from Singapore to start some sort of new life in Melbourne for an undetermined amount of time, with no contacts, just enough money and no idea what the hell was gonna happen next. Well I landed in Melbourne on the first day and the first thing that hit me: frickin freezin!! My balls, that had been hanging loose and sweating uncontrollably for the last 6 months shot up inside me like a started hamster into it's tube (might as well start the blog as we mean to go on)..

I got settled into a Hostel on Fitzroy street in St Kilda and immediately couldn't wait to get out. Not because the people weren't nice or that it wasn't a nice hostel but cos I wanted to relax. I can't describe how drained I was from the trip I had no adrenaline whatsoever and would sleep for 14 hours at a time for nearly a whole week. Having said that, I got drunk on my first night there, losing a drinking game to a Frenchman and drinking nearly a whole box of Goon (Shit wine).

However, within the first two weeks I had managed to find a house to live for a few weeks, a temporary job and had done a successful gig. The land of opportunity was delivering on its promise..

So I moved in with two lovely English girls in St Kilda (aka little Ireland which I'll get to later) and began my job. My job was an Outbound Call Centre, the only consolable thing about it was that it was a regular wage and not commission based sales which I had heard so many horror stories about. It was ringing Shareholders in companies and giving them information on new board proposals and then taking a survey. Not so bad? Do it 200 times a day reading from the same script.. your brain will go numb! But hey it was good money and was paying the bills (and for the alcohol)

I made friends relatively quickly with people. I made friends with Dan on the bus from the airport! The majority of people I know are English and Irish. It's quite hard to not hang out in groups of English & Irish people for a number of reasons, mainly because you make friends through who you work and live with. But one thing that really struck me about St Kilda was the amount of Irish people around. Holy Crap!!  Is there anyone left at home seriously it's like every second accent is a backpacker: weird! I reckon there's Irish people in St Kilda who don't even know they're in a different country. They just got fucked one night and woke up here and just carried on.. Anyway, I made good mates in the block I was living and then through my job I met my friend Aisling who introduced me to and brought together the lads I hang out with now. Aisling (Dublin), Tracy (Dublin), Andy (Dublin), Pete, Jack and Jenna (Harrogate, Yorkshire) and Tom and Roisin (Cambridge) make up the Motley Crue! Good times are had by all!

So from St Kilda I moved to a different suburb called Brighton for a month or so living in a sweet apartment with Kim and Ishmael. Ishmael is the best Bridge player in the world no joke and him and Kim ran a Bridge club. Kim had lots of cool/weird stories about Bridge players!

From Brighton I moved to where I am now in Windsor. I now have a really sweet apartment just off Chapel Street which is a really great street filled with bars, restaurants and shops. I'm only 3 minutes away from the train station to get the 10 minute journey into the city and 5 minutes to our local that does happy hour drinks at $3 a schooner..happy days! Also living with an Ozzie bloke who's sound..

I've been out of work for a while now. The calling job lasted about 4 weeks. But at the beginning of December I secured a job working in Customer Service for an energy company.. Starting January 3rd it's much longer term than the last job and I can't wait to get back to work, earn some money and have a routine again. Weird how you crave those things after being living in la la land for so long..

So, that's all the boring stuff outta the way. So what you really wanna know is; what's it like?

Well I have to say Melbourne is an awesome city. There's loads to do, great nightlife, good comedy scene, beaches, awesome public transport and all in a culturally diverse, liberal place to live. Melbourne was voted the most liveable city in the world recently and I can see why.

What fun things have I done since I've been here? Well a lot of them can't be repeated on this Blog but a few activities have been:

1. The Aquarium
Melbourne aquarium was actually quite cool. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Afterwards we went for a drink in Bony Fish Island which is a cool bar that's literally on the river- it's attached to the support leg of a bridge.. followed by McDonald's..

Penguins!!

There was a queue of kids waiting to get their photo taken in this

Watch out Steve Irwin :)

Me, Tom & Roisin at Bony Fish Island

2. The Zoo
We had a great day at the Zoo. Loads of Animals. Followed by drinks in the Belgian Beer Gardens.

Grrr...

Me and Tracy riding...

She'll get up on anything

Petting a Kangaroo

Belgian Beer Gardens

3. The Beach
About once a week we'll have an impromptu beach day. Just chiilin and nillin on the beach with a Guitar and wine. Very civilised

Pizza on the Beach

Suncream anyone?

No idea either...

BOOM

Sunset good Times

Sunset at the Beach

Oh yeah....

Sweeet..

4. Spanish Festival
The Spanish festival in Richmond was awesome. There was a street of stalls serving Spanish food and Drink. There was a stage with dancing and music and then we went for a drink in a bar there and there was a Spanish band with Spanish guitar players. Man they know how to play music..

(No Photos Available)

Comedy is going well. I've done quite a few sweet gigs. The clubs though are in high demand so spots are limited and you have to fight for them. A lot of the clubs weren't booking this side of Christmas but I was lucky to get a number of cancellation spots. I will be doing a joint show with my mate Johnny P at the festival this year. That will be a gig every day for 4 weeks at the end of March through April. Venue and all is set. Just have to get people through the door now... Can't wait!

Live at the Exford Hotel

Plans for the new year:
1. Comedy Festival
2. Australian Open Tennis
3. Australian Grand Prix
4. I will have money again so expect to hit more of Melbourne's live music venues
5 Couple of music fests

So all in all life is sweet. Starting good work, got a gaff, got great mates, getting gigs and living the life. It took a bit of work to get set up but there wasn't any points where I thought I couldn't do it...

A Merry Christmas to all my blog readers and a Happy New Year. Thanks for being with me every step of the way for the best year of my life so far..

Here's to a happy and prosperous 2012