The adventures of Trent

4 months back home......

Trent — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:02:00 +0000

So its already been 4 months since I left incredible India to come back home and "settle down" for the time being. I've managed to score a job as an accountant working with a medium sized firm called Davies Knox Maynards. Top place hey, good people, good hours, the moneys good, so overall I've managed score big time. And I'm planning to stay here for the next few years while I do my post grad degree to qualify to do my CPA to eventually become a fully qualified accountant. Yes the one thing I've been resisting against over the past number of years, I'm doing it ;) don't laugh, accountants are people too.....

But I must say its been challening coming back home...and when I say coming home, I really do mean coming home...staying with my parents. After more than 2 years of total independence living just a few kms from the centre of cities to coming back home to logan...the sticks, the burbs......its taken alot of getting used to being back in logan again...

I really miss people.....like there is just no one around. I miss having people everywhere...things happening all around....my senses constantly being aroused and challenged.....smells, sights, sounds, tastes....god I miss spicy Indian food. The "indian" food here just isn't the same. A while back I ordered a butter chicken and told them to make it as hot as they possibly can....and it really wasn't that hot. I was sweating like a royal pig while eating it, but the burning sensation of my mouth just wasn't there......so the search continues for good, hot indian food...especially cheese pav bhaji, i would dead set sell my first born child to get a cheese pav bhaji from Kanti Sweets on CMH Road in Bangalore.....

.....ah I miss India.......

My new little project - drifting

Trent — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:43:00 +0000

So I've been back home for just on 3 weeks now, and I've managed to come across my next little project, while I earn enough money to go travelling again. My brother cameron is big style into cars and has gotten into the competitive drifting scene in Australia. Now the only thing really keeping him back from being big is money, as this is one bloody expensive past time. So what we are starting to do now is to start up a drift team. So if anyone who sees this knows of anyone who would be interested in an alternative method of advertising to Australian youth, please let us know.

Below is my brothers car and also a link to the drift action we went to over the weekend. As you can see his car is extremely bare and in need of sponsors......opportunity sitting right here ;)

enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYlHCKjmNEM

The end of India Tour '07

Trent — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:14:00 +0000

So yes its true, the India Tour '07 is over, which also means that I'm actually making this post from my bedroom back in Australia......after 2 years away I'm back. But before I move onto being back in Australia, I have to put up some photos of the final parts of our trip. So these photos are from Delhi, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, Goa (waiting on photos from the scottish boys, as we were too smashed to take photos ourselves ;)) and finally the last few moments in Bangalore.

Token and his family whom we stayed with for the 4 days in delhi and the India gate

Looking towards the Indian Government buildings with the presidents house at the end. Beside it a very powerful statement that is writen above the entrance to the prime ministers building.

Touristy sites in Jaipur, aka the pink city

Photos from the Teej festival in Jaipur. A festival celebrating the god Parvithi.

Sites of Jaisalmer, a desert city which revolves around this magnificant fort.

Our Camel Safari in Jaisalmer.

Sunset and sleeping in the Thar Desert on our safari....true blue desert living

Classic Mumbai, VT Station and Hotel Taj

Me and Matt acting as extras in Bollywood, staring in the upcoming bollywood and hollywood movie named "The colour of passion" and no it wasn't a porn....unfortunately

Final days in Bangalore...this is Kanti Sweets where I've spent on average 4 out of 7 days each week over the last year eating Cheese Pav Bhaji and Paneer Cheese Roll and hanging out with the guys who work here...Chidanandan, Swami and Dilip...rock on Kanti Sweets, my kitchen away from home

Final drinks with my room mates from the Indiranagar Trainee House (minus Stefan). Thanks Fuzz bucket, Nikhil with an H, Hubli, Snoop, Christian and Selmene for the good times and great memories of that house, I couldn't have asked to live with better people...Long live ITH....

And I thought that to finish off my experience in India, I'd upload these videos of what it looks like from the back of an auto rickshaw going to the centre of Bangalore.

So thats it, back home and broke as a bum. I'm already keen to get out of Australia again and see more of this beautiful and amazing world, with my eye on Latin America for the next adventure...but we'll see.

Farewell India and g'day once again to 'Straya, till something exciting happens here at home...take care all and say g'day to your mum for me

Politics in New Delhi

Trent — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:02:00 +0000

One thing that I wasn't expecting during this trip was to gain an interest in local politics. But one thing in New Delhi has changed this for me and its something that I just have to share with the world. The reason for my interest in local politics in New Delhi is all thanks to the Chief Minister of New Delhi, Sheila Dikshit. As an aussie, this is the ultimate name of a politician. Yes she is a real person and if you google it, you'll get to see some of the things Ms Dikshit gets up to.

So yeah, rock on Delhi Politics and fingers crossed that in Australia get more Dikshits in local politics, currently there are plenty, but they are just not recognised as or officially named Dikshits ;)

After Varanasi - Agra, Amritsar and McLeod Ganj

Trent — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:23:00 +0000

So at the moment me and matt are in "our" city in India; McLeod Ganj. McLeod is spelt differently as we are MacLeod, but we still feel at home up here none the less. So over the last couple of weeks we've gone from Varanasi to Agra, spent a night back at Sheela Inn, where everything happened back in 2005 for IC2005. We then went up to Amritsar for a couple of days, checking out the golden temple and chilling with the Sikhs for a bit, then coming up here to the chilled out hill station McLeod Ganj. Here are a few photos of the last couple of weeks.....

South Indian Ghat in Varanasi with Indians bathing in the ganges and the view of the sunrise from our boat trip along the Ganges

Us in front of Taj and me doing "Indian shit position"

Memories of IC2005 still remaining in Sheela Inn...they still remember us and wanted to know what everyones doing and when AIESEC is coming back to Agra

Golden temple and me and matt with fully sick Sikh standing in front of it

Border ceremony in attari with overly excited Indians running back and forth with Indian flag. It was just a big we are better than you rally with Pakistan, to see who can yell the loudest, who can stomp the hardest and who ultimately is the best......go India

View of valley in McLeod Ganj right outside of our hotel and sign supporting Tibet to be in 2008 Olympics in China...as McLeod Ganj is a tibetan colony of people (including the Dali Lama) who have fled to safety from Tibet

A view of the water fall we walked to around McLeod Ganj which was a nice 3km hike and me indulging in some Nutella after a mega hike up the hills around McLeod Ganj.

The holy city of Varanasi

Trent — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:13:00 +0000

G'day all, so me and matt are currently in the holy city of varanasi. For both us being not very religious, this trip so far has brought us across some very holy sites to a number of different faiths. For example, in Chennai we went to the church of Saint Thomas, which is aparently one of 3 churches in the whole world that is built on top of the burial place of one of Jesus' deciples, which is an extremely holy place for christians. And on our way to varanasi from Nepal, we stopped by Kushinagar which is the death and cremation place of Buddha, which is a popular pilgrimage place of buddhists, as this place is also only 100 km south of where buddha was born in Nepal, 200 km north of where buddha gave his first speech, and 150 east of where buddha reached enlightment.

So yeah, we are currently sitting in Varanasi, also a very holy place to Hindu's, where alot of people from all over india and the world come to bathe, be blessed by and be cremated along the ganges. All the way along the ganges there are these ghats, which represent different places for different purposes for use by different castes, for washing, bathing and cremation etc.

Over the last couple of days we've spent a bit of time down at the burning ghats watching people being cremated. And its actually quite expensive to be cremated here as cremation is charge per kg of wood and each different wood has a different price, which leads to the differing amounts of wood that is used for each cremation depending on how much money the family has. The bodies that have alot of wood are ok, and burn away happily and don't really smell, but there was one yesterday that had hardly any wood and it stank like a mother fucker, even all the indian's around us were covering their faces to avoid the smell.

And what makes it even more interesting is when the body is quite well burnt, the untouchables who are in charge of the whole thing, move the body around so that the unburnt parts are put onto the fire and are burnt, and one of their finest moves when moving the body around is to smash the skull in, which yesterday they hit this really crispy dude and his brain started bubbling out of his smashed skull. Yes it sounds absolutely disgusting, but its not really.....But I must say that its quite an experience watching someone be cremated, at first i thought it would be just wrong and would just stink, but its definitely something to see.......

So yeah, one more day left here along side the banks of the ganges in Varanasi then we're off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, hopefully if the sky clears up, we'll be able to see it by full moon, which is aparently supposed to be magical....but lets keep our fingers crossed. Until next time..... cheers and beers.

Nepal....

Trent — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:21:00 +0000

So we're currently sitting in Pokhara, which is about 7 hours east of Kathmandu. Its a nice place, but unfortunately its been the place where we've had a number of bad experiences that have really given a bad impression on this place. Well pretty much every single time we go to eat or just go to buy anything in general, someone tries to screw us over.

Yes this is a tourist place, in which I blame all tourists for what happens here, but when you know whats going on and how much something is supposed to cost, then its frustrating. Ok so back in India when you get a bottle of soft drink, the price is printed on the side of the bottle and you can go to 100 shops all beside each other and they'll all charge that price. Yes maybe its different here, but....on the bus from kathmandu to pokhara, we stopped in at some roadside food place and we rocked up to their little shop and we're like, can we have a bottle of fanta, so she gives us the bottle of fanta with N INR 32 written on the side (which means it costs 32 bucks), and she's like thats Rs. 70. And we're like pardon me what? It says Rs. 32 on the bottle and she's like, no thats indian rupees, so we're like, umm, its actually nepalese rupees as it says that on the bottle and even if it were indian rupees then its only Rs. 52 (as the nepalese rupee is pegged to the indian rupee at Rs. 1.6) and she's like umm, arr and then this dude rocks up and he's like no its actually from bhutan....so thats Rs. 70, so we just said thanks and walked off.

and the crappiest thing is that this happens everywhere. Every meal we've sat down for, every place has tried to overcharge on something or give back less change so its taken almost as long to fix the bill as it has to actually eat the meal. So yeah...thats my two cents worth....But unfortunately these small shitty experiences have added up to give me a bad impression of nepal and a real need to get back to India as soon as possible. I'm sure if i came here at some other time, for some other purpose it would be different, but at the moment..........

So yeah, this is a place I want to come back to, but specifically to do a trek and get out of the cities and see the real nepal......cause that is where i really feel the beauty of this country lies.....

well thats it from me, until next time......

Pondicherry until now....Kathmandu

Trent — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:13:00 +0000

So after Pondicherry, I haven't really had an opportunity to update this blog, a little out of laziness and a little out of too much to do. So pretty much what has happened since pondicherry in late june, me and matt continued south where we visited Madurai and Kanyakumari, then up the west coast stopping in Varkala for a few days and a night on a houseboat in Allepey. We then we took a very short 40 hour train ride to kolkata to attend an extremely georgous wedding of Vinay's sister...cheers mate, then up north to darjeeling for a few wet days, then over to where we currently sit here in kathmandu. So here are a few photos of our time in each place.....

blessed by elephant in the temple in madurai

foggy sunrise in Kanyakamari, the very southern tip of India

Sunset in Varkala - we stayed on that cliff edge. And the only place in india so far were we have been billed for "cock" instead of coke ;)

The wedding to end all wedding in Kolkata...absolutely georgeous

clouded view of the himalaya's in Darjeeling and of temple covered in tibetan prayer flags

The Monkey temple and view of Kathmandu valley

So that's about where it all stands currently, 1 month down, 1 and a half to go... until next time, stay tune, same Trent time, same Trent channel.....

In Pondicherry

Trent — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:22:00 +0000

So we're currently in Pondicherry just chilling before heading to Madurai tonight, and I must say this is a pretty nice place. There is still a heavy influence from the French occupation of Pondy and some really nice french/italian/european restaurants. But one thing about this place though is that there's a hippy commune just outside of Pondy, called Auroville (alternatively named by us as oral-ville). Ideally this place sounds awesome, according to their website;

"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

But actually going there and talking with the people who live nearby, it sounds like the theory is a bit different to the actual. Talking to the local pizza restaurant owner, he said that no one from oral-ville ever smiles which is hilarious and seeing them on the oral-ville beach being approached by Indian begger and crap sellers, they look like they have no idea how to operate in India at all, even though they live in India.

And worst of all, when you visit, you have to go to the visitors centre and watch a video which explains oral-ville in order to get a pass to enter their gardens to see the centrepiece of the place, which they have named "Matrimandir" or in english, the giant golden golfball as you can see below

This is what happens when you give hippies money ;) So yeah, that was a bit of pondy, did alot more here but I just had to inform the world of this golden golf ball waste of money and resources.....which they could have used the money to help the Indian community around them...but thats just my opinion....

So till next time, in another Indian city, take care and rock on

The lengths you go to for a cold beer

Trent — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:12:00 +0000

Whats doing all? So the India tour '07 has begun with our arrival in Chennai yesterday. Which we managed to stay with my room mates brother,Thajus, which was cool as he hooked us up big style. He works at the Marriott Chennai so he was like when we get up, come on over for lunch. So we rocked on over to the marriot in boardies and pluggers looking like dead set bludgers and met up with him. He told us if anyone asks, we're from GRT grand and we're looking around the marriott and he'd take care of the rest, which meant, we scored a free buffet lunch at the Marriott....Rock on Thajus.

So after lunch, we went on a mission walk along marina beach then round the city somewhere for bloody ages, till we got lost, tired and needed to rest. So we got in an auto and headed back to the apartment and thought that it would be a nice idea to get some cold beers ready for when the boys came home from work and sit on the roof and drink. So based on my experience in Bangalore, I thought that finding a wine shop would be quite easy, as they're everywhere in Bangalore, but things are different in Chennai.

We headed off down the road asking the locals where the nearest wine shop was, which was only about 1 km back in the direction we just walked from, and when we eventually got there, the guy only had hot beer. So we asked him where the next nearest wine shop was with cold beer and he told us just down the road, at the second signal.

So down the road we go, the second signal comes and no wineshop, so we ask a dude on the street and he's the same, down the road, second signal on the left, so we keep walking and walking through several signals asking people on the way, to which everyone kept saying second signal to the left, so after a few kilometres and sweating like pigs, we finally found the wine shop, in which the guys interpretation of a "cold" beer was a room temperature beer...not cool ........what does a man need to do for a cold beer..... in Chennai, go to the marriott...

So yeah, thats pretty much the excitement so far. We're currently in Mahabalipurum chilling today and tomorrow then heading to Pondicherry on Saturday, which should be fun. So till then, take care and rock on.

Unemployed bum

Trent — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:03:00 +0000

So its official, I've completed my AIESEC traineeship as at June 12, 2007 which means now I'm officially an unemployed bum. Well technically yes, but also a backpacker. Me and matt are starting our national tour of India on Tuesday, beginning this trip by heading to Chennai then round the south of India. Will be a cool trip and I'll try to update this as much as possible about each place we visit and things that happen.

Till then, say hi to your mum for me ;)

And its over....

Trent — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Today marks the end of a journey, one that brought me half way across the world to work for a very well known and respected firm in a country that is home to 1 billion people and is one of the fasted growing countries in the world.

I sit here with a mix of emotions knowing that one great journey has come to an end, yet a number of doors of opportunities are just waiting to be opened.

So happy one year anniversary with KPMG and congrats on finishing my traineeship. The world is once again my oyster and lets see where it takes me.

Cheers and beers

Trenton
Former KPMG audit assistant
Former AIESEC trainee

The final count down....

Trent — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:00:00 +0000

With only 2 days of my traineeship remaining, its just pretty much shits and giggles here in the office as I do "transition" of a former client and also my exit formalities. But I must share something that I was given that has helped me to understand my job as an auditor.......take note, that my position is a staff ;)

/the%20life%20of%20auditing.ppt

well thats about it for now, should get back to "work". But should have reasonable updates from now on, especially when the National India Tour begins....until then,

Cheers and beers
Trent

7 days remaining

Trent — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:26:00 +0000

ahG'day all, hope all is well. So after 11 months and 3 weeks of my traineeship with KPMG in India, I sit here at my desk in the office with a mail from HR regarding my exit formalities.....clearance forms, affidavit for risk matters, alumni registration etc. and its only really starting to hit me know that its actually coming to an end. For so long now I've been counting down the months, weeks and hours till its all over, but as the final day gets closer, I feel like I'm back to where I was before I began this magnificant journey....what next?

To put it blunty, fucks me hey. All I know is that matt is coming over at midnight on my last day at KPMG, then about a week after that, we begin the almight India journey. The plan is to see as much as possible, from Kanyakumari, to Shimla, from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, I want to see as much of this big and beautiful country as I can. But we'll see....

So yeah, after this trip, around end August - start September, I should be back home in Australia, back to where I started 2 years ago.....it just doesn't feel like 2 years away from home....shit hey

well i'm off to one more farewell dinner of a friend, one of the very few things that I dislike about this traineeship....having to continually say farewell to friends......but thats part of the experience, so until next time, take care yeah ;)

Bangkok by name, Bang-kok by nature ;)

Trent — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:01:00 +0000

So yeah, just got back this past Saturday after spending the last week chilling and being a “tourist” in Bangkok. I can’t 100% verify the name of this posting as I politely declined to engage in the local “beautiful and cheap ladies” that were offered to me a number of times, but from what I saw and the number of foreign dudes with thai “girlfriends”, I can confidently say that Bangkok by name, Bang-kok very much by nature….:)

But it was an interesting trip to Bangkok that really left an impression on me. I left Saturday night flying to Bangkok via Colombo, which was cool as I got to see Australia beat Sri Lanka in the cricket world cup final in Sri Lanka….but the most interesting part about the stop over was that our flight got interrupted by the bloody tamil tigers. There was fear among Sri Lankan authorities that the tamil tigers were coming to attack the airport in which the air force base which is attached to the airport, started randomly firing anti-aircraft bullets into the air. What actually happened in outlined in this link;

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070010276

And because of that, we had to evacuate the plane and move to the foyer of the airport and what till it was all over. But when I was leaving the plane, everyone went straight to the main part of the airport to go to the foyer, but wanting to see the cricket, I went left back into the waiting area where the TV was on with the cricket, so I went there and waited a bit with two air host dudes who were also watching the cricket, until I got told to go with everyone else as it wasn't safe there...... I can't really describe it adequately, its just one of those things you had to be there. Like it wasn't all that scary or anything, but some people were panicking while we were evacuating the plane pushing people over and stuff and others just broke down and couldn't handle what was going on.....but I must say it was one interesting experience.

So yeah, that’s about the end of my “war story”, my actual time in Bangkok wasn’t as exciting, just your normal tourist activities, so I’ll leave it there for the time being. So I’ve got 4 weeks left on my traineeship with KPMG then I’m off to travel through out India for a few months with matt.

Will update this thing again when something else interesting happens, hope all is well with everyone and take care yeah, there are some real dickheads out there…..be it tamil tigers or what ever….

Cheers and beers
Trent

I love this country

Trent — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:23:00 +0000

G'day all,

Hope all is well. So yeah, as you can tell, India has grown on me. I swear every week here there is a public holiday or a bandh or some sort of religious festival happening...meaning that I'm working like a 4 day week every fortnight ;)

The latest festival we just had last weekend is Holi. The official explaination of holi is;

Holi (Hindi: होली) or Phagwah (Bhojpuri) is a popular, Hindu spring festival, observed in India, also called the Festival of Colours. In West Bengal, it is known as Dolyatra (Doljatra) or Boshonto Utshob ("spring festival").
On the first day, bonfires are lit at night to signify burning Holika.
On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people spend the day throwing colored powder and water at each other. The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. Thus, the playful throwing of the coloured powders has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors. A special drink called thandai is prepared, sometimes containing bhang (Cannabis sativa). People invite each other to their houses for feasts and celebrations later in the evening.

My definition however, is thats its a day where you get to cover each other in a whole bunch of colourful powder. Here is a photo of us just starting holi in our house. We were mixing the colours with water and putting them in water bombs in preparation to go to the other trainee houses and hammer them.

Although it didn't really work out like that. The other trainee's wouldn't let anyone in their house so we played holi in the street. But we weren't that smart and just went for it inside. So below is a photo of all of us after a day of holi in our house that we sort of trashed and covered in colours.....

Even though we didn't take bhang, and it took until sunday afternoon to get to the pub, overall holi was fun as. It ranks up there with Diwali last year when we got to blow shit up for 3 days straight ;)

So apart from holi, India is rocking at the moment. I've got 3 months 2 days of my traineeship left. I turn 25 on Sunday......in which we're going to Manipal for the weekend to chill out on the beach and on Monday the world cup starts...which pretty much means India will stop every time there is an Indian match on and will all simultaneously be disappointed when Australia beats India at some stage during the world cup.... Car'n the Aussies ;)

Until next time, happy birthday Mum, Dad, Ebonie, Uncle bill and soon to be Brea....and G'day to all at home.....

Cheers and Beers
Trent

Trent — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:29:00 +0000

This is a photo of my bedroom wall which pretty much sums up last year for me. It’s a collection of photos that remind me of how amazing 2006 was. A year that was so close to perfection, it’s not funny. A year that took me across 3 countries. A year that introduced me to a plethora of remarkable people (yeah nice big word hey:)). A year that was……so to summarise 2006;

- Welcomed in the New Year standing on a snow covered hill overlooking the gorgeous city of Prague in -13 degrees Celsius. Thanks Danka and my IC family, an absolutely incredible way to spend a New Years.

- Managed to bring 200 AIESEC Presidents to the Netherlands to attend an amazing and unforgettable International Presidents Meeting 2006. Cheers to the entire CC, Lenny, Ivo, Abdo, Nico, Franky, Ira, and especially my core CC Lieke, Piet, Chris, Suus and of course my roomie Michelle…..we did it, we bloody did it. One amazing conference run by a bloody great bunch of people.

- Enjoyed my first surprise birthday party. Thanks Juana, Kristin, Verena, Cigdem, Michelle and Carolina for that…..I miss you guys…..cheers for making the Netherlands that much more fun.

- Visited Brussels with Matt. A planned 4 days trip that only lasted 2, due to 1 Euro pints of beer at ….I love Belgium beer, well beer in Belgium as it was an Irish pub ;)

- Achieved one of my life goals and traveled to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day with Matt.

- Finally took that next step in AIESEC and became an AIESEC trainee. After 2 months of frustration and waiting, I became a trainee with KPMG India. 7 months later, I’m still here…..

- Met and was fortunate to travel around the south of India with my Indian family. Marc (Champion), Dickhead, Bottrop, Pocket Rocket, Housewife, Dutch girl, Eeling, Padman, Piss-Ed, Lizzy, Nikhil with an H, Hubli and Sadie Face. ITH just isn’t the same without you guys who have left, but I cherish every day that we were able to spend together.

- Finally returned back to Australia after 14 months of being abroad. Same old, same old Brissie, but bloody good to see everyone again. It was really good to see you again Mum and Dad; Ebonie, Matt, Camo, Nanny, Grandpa, blue and meow meow and everyone else I saw back home…..Not sure when I’ll be home again, but…… will let you all know when it will be.

- Spent my second Christmas away from my family, but was able to have Christmas with Lizzy’s family in Coorg. Even santa brought me a present; he brought me a Kurta…thanks Santa.

- Then went to Goa for the 4th time to say farewell to 2006 and welcome in 2007. Prague NYE 2005, Goa NYE 2006….wonder where NYE 2007 will be???

To all the people I met and unfortunately had to wave ‘see you later’ to over the last year…thank you for making an impact on my life. Even though I’m dead set shit house with email updates and phone calls, I’m always thinking of you, especially every time I look at my wall. A wise man nurse once said to me before I went into surgery to have my tonsils out “that it’s never good bye, it’s always see you later”. I truly believe this statement and look forward to seeing you all again sometime in the near future.

So to wave goodbye to the year that was 2006 and to start embracing the coming year of 2007, I have one strange realization. On the way back from Goa I realized that I had welcomed in 2006 the same way as I ended 2006, drinking old monk (which is Indian rum). In Prague after the fireworks I was swigging old monk with Dhruv on the way to the lesbian bar and on the beach in Goa for new years watching the fireworks light up the beach I was also drinking monk……interesting. There is a saying that the first thing you do in the New Year will determine what you do over the coming year. Drinking old monk in Prague and then spending the bulk of 2006 in India….I’m not sure it was a coincidence. To 2007, bring it on bitch, amaze and inspire me above and beyond what 2006 did…..

Thank you and good night!!!!

9 days till I'm back home

Trent — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 07:32:00 +0000

Ok so I've only got 9 days left here in Bangalore before I head home after 1.5 years for a nice 2 week holiday, so I thought I'd post some of my favourite photo's taken here in India.

Goa sunset...georgous

our visit to the orphanage

me and the Nandhi Bull in Mysore

visiting paddy's family and his guru

Me and Stefan (aka dickhead)

when you've gottta go, you've gotta go ;)

rock on Indian sales men....read the sign ;)

So yeah, just a quick insight into the first half of my traineeship here in Bangalore, only 9 days till I'm back in good old brissie ;)

Rock on and see you all soon

I'm still alive....

Trent — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:06:00 +0000

G'day all,

Just a quick update that yes I am still alive, still working, living and partying my arse off in Bangalore and doing alot of travelling around the south of India.

Biggest update is that I'm coming home, back to Brisbane for 2 weeks at the end of november, Nov 26th till Dec 9th. Back to see everyone and renew my visa for India.

So If your gunna be in Brissie during those dates, let me know and we'll catch up for a beer or 10.

Anyway, time to head home from work.....

Cheers and beers
Trent
ps. quick couple photo from my KPMG sponsored training trip to Goa......very tough week ;)

Bank in India again......kajra re

Trent — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:08:00 +0000

Well after being away from this country for a good 9 months, I'm back with avengence. I'm working for KPMG India, in the Bangalore office as an external auditor for the next 1 year. I've settled into one of the trainee houses living in Indiranagar with a german trainee (Stefan), a dutch trainee (Martine), Polish trainee (Ola), Singaporean trainee (Eeling), a Welsh git (Ed), an Indian chick (Venita) and my indian room mate, (Padmanaban, Paddy, Padman or P diddy Paddy). So yeah, my address here is:

458/2 4th Main,
13th Cross,
Indiranagar 2nd Stage 560038
INDIA

My phone number is: +91 988 697 4963.

Me at work. I've been working with the audit team who is auditing Infosys, one of India's biggest IT companies.

My house me and my house mates singing happy birthday to Bob (ex housemate)

Bangalore in all its glory, alot of people, beautiful weather and a hell of a lot of traffic. Bangalore is a beautiful city, the only challenge here is the amount of traffic and the pollution it creates. But hey, its a beatiful city to live in and is my home for the coming 11 months.

So yeah, the adventure has started and there will be stories to come...

My first Indian wedding

Trent — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:48:00 +0000

Last weekend, my room mate Paddy took us all to Erode to see the wedding of one of his friends. It was a very traditional south indian wedding, as in it was very spiritual and traditional in nature and the bride and groom were apart of an arranged marriage. Below is a photo of us outside the hall where the wedding was held, in our traditional indian dress.....Kurtas, lungis and saris.

from back to front, left to right there is:
Paddy, Sebastian, Stefan, me, Martine,
Eeling and Ola.

This is us with the bride and groom the night before the wedding.

After the wedding we headed to a hill station just outside of Salem for a bit of site seeing. It was an absolutely georgous hill station and so green.Anyway, thats just a small snippet of our trip, but the coming weekends are already planned with trips away. So stay tuned for more adventures of me and my house travelling around Southern India.

A dutch walk down memory lane

Trent — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:35:00 +0000

G'day all,

so now I've been here in India for a month and a half now and I thought that to finish off the chapter of my life that was the Netherlands, I thought I'd post a few photos to depict the good old times.

This was home for me for 9 months in the Netherlands. Park Rheyngaerde....it was a 15 minute bike ride from the centre of Utrecht, which in Dutch standards, we lived out in the sticks....literally as there were basically only sheep and cows around our place.

The IPM 2006 (International Presidents Meeting 2006) office.....spent more time there than anywhere else

My bike...I miss you :(

AIESEC NL National Conference 1...3 days after arriving

New years eve in Prague, a NYE that I'll never forget..

Me, michelle and chris in Maastricht

Me and michelle mystified by the windmill

My friends in the Netherlands; Juana, Adam, Alena, Verena, Cigdem, Andrew, Kristin & Carolina

Matt arriving in the netherlands, 5am, 3rd day of the conference

my 3rd time ever iceskating Valentines day with the CC

Congress Committee for IPM 2006......you guys were awesome

looking to the future with Michelle

Our last day together as a team
Thanks for the awesome time
guys, I miss you

International Presidents Meeting 2006, what a success.

Well that's it for me and the Netherlands....for now. I'll be back one day, hopefully soon, but the memories will always be there. For everyone I met with, laughed with, cried with and was with in the Netherlands, cheers for everything

Cheers and beers
Trent

I'm out of here........

Trent — Sun, 21 May 2006 21:33:00 +0000

After spending 8 months and 2 weeks here in the Netherlands (which have been some of the best 8 months of my life), I found out on Thursday that my endless wait to get myself a traineeship has finally ended. I’m heading back to the sub-continent India for a 12 month traineeship with KPMG. In which city, I don’t know yet. When I’ll be starting, also don’t know that yet. All I know is that I’m heading to India sometime soon for a traineeship doing external auditing with KPMG. I don’t know much, but its better than nothing.

This news came with a mixture of feelings and emotions that I’m still exploring each day. I’m relieved on one hand, that I’ve finally managed to get myself a traineeship and start to experience what I’ve been talking about for the last 6 years in AIESEC. I’m happy as larry that I’m heading back to India, the place where my overseas adventures all began with the magnificent IC 2005. I’m excited to get to India and see my friends again from India that I haven’t seen in 9 months and I’m really looking forward to the challenges that this traineeship will bring.

On the other hand, its gunna be hard to leave the Netherlands. A lot has happened in these last 8 months and this country really feels like home. But thats life….love, discovery, adventure and growth and looking back on my time here in the Netherlands I can walk away from this country feeling like I’ve really achieved something.

This isn’t my final post from here in the Netherlands though, I’ve still got at least a week here and I’ve got plenty of things I still want to do before I leave, so until then…….

25.04.06 ANZAC Day 2006 Gallopili, Turkey

Trent — Fri, 12 May 2006 08:40:00 +0000

Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives……
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country
Therefore rest in peace
There is no difference between the Johnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours……
You, the mothers
Who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears,
Your sons are lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land
They have become our sons as well
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1934)

ANZAC Day 2006 was and will always be an ANZAC Day to remember. This year I achieved one of my life goals, ANZAC Day at ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, Turkey, the place where it all happened.

With Matt over here, we decided ages ago that this ANZAC day was one that we had to make the journey that alot of Australians do in Europe, which is to go to the place where the ANZAC legend was created. So on Sunday April 23rd we began our journey to Turkey and ultimately Gallipoli.

After spending a night in Istanbul we made our way to the meeting point at 7am Monday morning to board a our tour bus for the trip to Gallipoli. After a pretty long bus ride to Gallipoli, we began our tour by visiting the War museum. For some reason, every other tour bus decided to visit the museum at the same time as we did. So after we listened to a pretty quick story from our tour guide (which we later read on a wall) we took a few photos then stood in line to enter this museum.

But this was the beginning of what was going to be an unforgettable 24 hours. After the museum we headed to where it all happened, Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair. These two places are the Australian and New Zealand war memorials and the exact places where Australia and New Zealand had the majority of their casualities.

Man what a place. At Lone Pine alone lay more than 3000 Australian, New Zealand, Brittish and Turkish soldiers. The reason why it is named lone pine is depicted in this photo. One Lone Pine Tree stands at the middle of this cemetry. Right in the middle of where the ANZAC and Turkish trenches were, no more than 100 metres apart. It was kind of hard to fathem actually being at this place during the war where they stood and fought no more than 100 metres away from each other.

One our way from Lone Pine to Chunuk Bair, me and matt managed to come across a number of trenches and dug outs just off the side of the road. To start with it didn’t look like much, but then we just ran through all the bushes following the trenches and they just kept going for ages. Below is a photo of one of the trenches we came across. On the one hand very cool, but on the other, could not imagine spending 8 months running around in these small, skinny and shallow trenches while trying to shoot at people and avoid being shot at the same time…….

After checking out Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair, where the two ceremonies would happen on ANZAC day, we headed to ANZAC Cove, where we were to spend the night out, in preparation for the Dawn Service. Sleeping on ANZAC Cove was an experience in itself. It went from a nice and hot day, to a spectacular sun set, to one bloody cold and windy night.

Lying, freezing cold at ANZAC Cove was alot to take in. Initially it was too surreal, thinking that where we were lying , 91 years ago, the whole ANZAC campaign all began. But as the night went on, it started to feel real, which was very cool. Duing the night, on every hour they played a short documentary about ANZAC day and WW1. And in between, we had to entertain ourselves. Alot of the time we just sat around, talked crap with the people around us, and kept warm with tea, coffee and a sleeping bag.

At 4:30am me and matt decided that we would move from where we were lying to get a better place to actually see the dawn service. I think we moved just a bit too soon, as the service didn’t begin till 5:30am (which we would have known if we read the program) but what can you do. But standing there at 4:30am, the exact time when the ANZACs landed at ANZAC Cove, looking out at the water and then back at the huge cliffs behind us, man, the feeling I just can’t describe with words. At exactly 5:30am the service began. The entire cove fell silent, except for the sound of birds.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the vocabulary to adequately describe the service. All I can say is that it is something that you must experience. It was an extremely humbling experience and really hit home to how valuable life actually is and how easily it can be taken away.

So after the dawn service we made our way back to our tour bus to make the journey up the cliffs to the Australian service at Lone Pine. One the way we had a chance to get 10 minutes sleep, to add onto the 30minutes we got the night before. So you can imagine how exhausted and delirious we were at this point.

The Australian service was typically Australian. There was this pre-service entertainment guy, Warren someone, who was bloody hilarious. Before the service started he just went through some house keeping rules, explained a bit about Lone Pine and even managed to take the piss out of the New Zealanders…….bloody top bloke hey.

These 3 photos are pretty much what happened. To start with the lone solder with the Australian flag took position in front of the memorial before the MC began the service. The second photo is of the wreath laying part of the ceremony and the last photo is the last post………thats the point where ANZAC day really hit me, the last post.

So after the service at Lone Pine, we were to walk further up the hill to Chunuk Bair to see the New Zealand Ceremony. But we decided that on the way we would do a bit of site seeing and check out the many war cemetries that are scattered all over gallopoli. The first one had a sign pointing down a hill saying 200 metres, so we thought, 200 metres, not that far away, might as well check it out. But I really think the turkish interpretation of 200 metres, is quite different to the Australian interpretation. But the “200 metre” treck was worth it. We came across this cemetry on the side of a mountain that stood beside a amazing view back down the cliffs towards ANZAC Cove.

The photo of me and matt was was taken on the top of this ridge after we followed some tracks that went behind the cemetry to this ridge. Beyond the ridge and continuing up and down the cliffs, there were also tracks. But we were so not going to follow it as we wanted to avoid getting lost at Gallopoli but these other dick heads that were up there before us, just kept walking. We just waved good luck to them and didn’t see them again. Hopefully they made it back…..;) i’m sure they did……

So we climbed back up the “200 metres” of stairs to continue our trip towards Chunuk Bair the the New Zealand ceremony. But between Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair there is a Turkish memorial. And it happened to be finishing as we, and majority of other people from the Australian ceremony were walking by. And along the side of the road, for what seemed like a good 500 metres, were 1000’s of schools kids all wearing the same school uniform, all wearing the same turkish hat thing, and the majority of them were waiving these huge turkish flags right in our faces and yelling out shit to us in turkish. It was quite an intimidating walk through these kids and we had no idea what they were saying about us and we just couldn’t do anything, because there were cops everywhere as well.

Anyway, we kept walking and eventually made it up the hill to Chunuk Bair, in which instead of trying to cram into the small New Zealand Ceremony, we decided to fall asleep in the sun and add to the total of 40 minutes that we had slept. Was a bright idea to start off with, except we managed to get burnt big style which gave us both big red heads.

So that was ANZAC Day 2006 in Gallipoli, Turkey. A very moving and humbling day that I will never forget.

Cheers
Trent

Trent — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:46:00 +0000

Well I sit here in my room here in Utrecht (thats in the Netherlands by the way:)) on a Friday night at the end of a very long and busy week. I'm sitting here with a mix of feelings and emotions bottled up and waiting for some sort of outlet to be released. This isn't the posting that should outline these feelings, but I will get around to it eventually......Just wanted to say that I'm still alive (since I haven't posted or emailed anyone for a while), still not an alcoholic and actually going pretty well here in the Netherlands.

well its about time that I posted a photo of my team. From left to right, front to back we have:
- Michelle, Canadian and my room mate (Yes have pitty on this girl for having to live with me)
- Pieternel, Dutch and responsible for introducing me to this opportunity of IPM 2006.
- Christian, Dutch, was the only guy on the team until I arrive, and a top bloke
- Lieke, Dutch, CCP, my boss and the one who elected me to come here 2 weeks after getting home from India
- Lastly and right beside me is Suus, Dutch and a really nice girl.

So that's my team and from now on I might actually put in an update with what I've actually been doing here. As each day is a new adventure and just to give you a quick insight to what I have done in the last few weeks;
- I had a dinner date with a very cute and fun Spanish girl.....;)
- We achieved our sponsorship target for IPM of 290,000 euro's on the last working day before christmas.
- I had 4 Dutch Christmas's with each of the Dutch guys on my team, to make up for missing my first ever Christmas back home
- Spent an amazing NYE in Prague with some people from the CC in India
- Ended up in a lesbian bar early New Years morning in the middle of Prague.....woops.
- Came back to my happy house when I returned from Prague and Michelle returned from Canadia.

So yeah, thats about it for my small update. I guess it will be another 2 months till my next update ;) well maybe sooner, i'll have to see.

Till then, everyone who reads this, take care and I hope things are going well for you.

Cheers and beers
Trent

ps. here's a recent photo of me. I'm a quarter of the size I was back in Australia, now only weighing 83kg.