The Cycle

Its time to very belatedly include Ben's response to a somewhat self-indulgent set of questions I posted a few months ago on this blog. His simple way of portraying what happens to well meaning white folk like ourselves when we get to a place like Cambodia is portrayed below...

Lifes Choices Comic

One of the last projects that I helped to initiate before I left Cambodia was a comic book for school students done by the wonderful people at the NGO Our Books. After a long gestation period, the comic book is now available online (THOUSANDS of copies were also distributed to campuses across the country). I was really proud to be involved in this project, so here's hoping it actually resonates with the target audience!

Togetherness Project

So, as some of you may have noticed I am no longer alleviating middle class guilt (hard to do when you are unemployed and no longer surrounded by poor people in desparate need of your fabulous expertise). The blog has also received a new lick of paint with the 21st century equivalent of re-painting a bachelor pad, removing stains in the carpet and putting up tasteful wall hangings in an attempt to appeal to more feminine sensibilities. As of this post, there are now two authors to this blog. Inspired by Ben and Bec's togetherness project, Anth has shut down her old blog and joined me in what we hopefully be a successful attempt to chronicle our nomadic lives in coming months/years (I will attempt to change the URL accordingly too).

We have now been back in Oz for 2.5 months, and its been a trans-continental bitumen blur of travel to and from Adelaide and Melbourne, and up to Sydney and Canberra. In that time we have managed to sneak in much socialising with our wonderful friends, some sorely missed live music (Midlake, Shihad and Andrew Bird), weddings (Nic and Melissa, Kate and Andy, and Tim and Sal), Anth's first taste of live spectator sport at the Adelaide test, showing Steph around Melbourne, and time in Kangaroo Island before NYE:

We will be spending the next 7 weeks preparing for the next travel chapter (China, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Europe (briefly) and down to South America to find work) which begins at the end of March. Its been great to be home - and to enjoy the freedom of unemployment - but we are looking forward to tackling some of the uncertainties that are currently hovering over our heads.