Hi All

am back from Scotland, and Gay Paree. Am putting together a blog for that right now, but some news whilst pple are waiting: Alex is on the road again, this time with Andy & Marcel, the German cyclists we met in Iran and cycled thru Pakistan with. check out his trip so far at www.painisonlytemporary.com

got interviewed by ST today. i think i scared her.

jo

-from a card sent to the Mattingley family-

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile that she has lived

You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all she has left

Your heart can be empty because you cannot see her
Or you can be full of the love you shared

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

You can remember her only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on

You can cry and close your mind
Be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want
Smile, open your eyes, love, and go on.

its 430pm, the sun goes down ever so slowly in this part of the world. Tons of people are at the house, and we're being introduced to people we won't remember the name of in a few seconds. Laughing, joking, memories regurgitated, people talking about Alison like she's just in the next room.

it feels more like a wedding than a funeral,

and that's how she'd have wanted it to be.

The setting: a blustery cold scottish night, we're having tea after Tea - apprently in the Queen's Land, Tea is at dinnertime - and Careth pipes up:

so BigJoe, how do you keep your head so shiny?

ROTFL

Hi Everybody! (Hi Doctor Nick!)

ok only Simpsons fans will get that one.

anyway i've refurbished my website, and the crowning glory is a whole new photo gallery, with many new photos to keep people with short attention spans interested. ah, the MTV generation. i like.anyway, check it out www.joetheman.net

cheers!

untitled

I spent the afternoon looking at houses. Diligently I followed a real estate
girl as she walked from kitchen to dining room to balcony to bedroom. Chic
compressed marble tiling, Bosch kitchen & Electrolux appliances come
standard. There's a gym, lap pool & sauna. All fittings included, and yes,
its cool how the shower's sunken like that. If you confirm by this Monday
there's a Bose system and Loewe television thrown in, that's worth $12,000.
The artists' impressions showed buff young men chatting with slinky ladies
amidst 'water features' in front of a luxurious glass-fronted clubhouse. I
was suitably impressed.

I walked out of the showflat dreaming of snazzy soirees, how it would feel
as you jump from steam room to pool, kicking back with a camomile in front
of the Loewe. And I walked through the Atrium at Orchard with the
Singaporean Dream oozing out of my ears when a mass of plywood came out of
nowhere.

There were words on it. "Be Strong" "We're with you" in garbled handwriting.
Interested. I walk closer to find a photo exhibition on the effects of the
Tsunami, and Singapore's efforts, put up by Mercy Relief. A simple
exhibition area of plywood and hoarding betrayed the complicated messages of
loss and suffering inside. I has seen enough of these, seen enough of loss
and pain in my years of living, travelling, policing, to last me several
lifetimes. I look at the pictures with desensitised shock, with the eyes of
a photographer; lighting, composition, blinding myself to the content. A
room sheltered by black cloaks at the end, the entrance says 'images in this
section may be disturbing'. Rows of bloated bodies. Children with no faces.
Corpses with no features. Death had a busy day indeed. A pamphlet at the
doorway. I pick it up, and open a random page.

"Do not forget us" an SMS from Pak Ali, a school principal to Singapore
volunteers.

I turn around to face the images. Why. Why do some people have a hard time
deciding which kind of coffee to take and others live with no fresh water.
Some guys wonder how to get laid and some wonder how to feed the 3 kids and
the sick wife. Some people quabble about how to live when some have no say
in how to die. The world isn't a fair place. It never will be. To me its all
I can do to make it a little less inequal, a little more fair. We all live
in this world together. If we do not help one another, what better then are
we than animals?

The moment we become an adult is when we start living with questions more
than answers. And most questions don't have an answer. Do we live with that?
Do we look for answers? Do we change the questions?

I try not to forget them. People like Pak Ali. The smiling kids playing in
the mud in Cambodia. The homeless guy who chatted to me in Toronto. I will
never know, but I hope I do enough.

I turn around and walk away.

check it out! the picture i took above is in a competition! so if you're free and/or REALLY bored, do go down to Epson Imaging Gallery @ 3rd floor, Wheelock Place and vote for my picture. actually, normally i would say go and vote for whichever picture you think is the best, but i DON'T CARE. I WANT TO WIN. c'mon, i never win. i'm such a loser they used me as a template for Gilligan. Steve Urkle had my posters on his wall. please? just once. man those people look like ants from here.

oh voters get to go at a lucky draw or a lucky dip or something. but i don't care about that, cos i wanna WIN!

peace out

Of book titles and Aceh rebuilding...

Hi all,

Sorry I've been away for so long, had to see about a girl.

Anyway, the CLEAR RUNAWAY winner of the title of the book, unsurprisingly,
was 'No Punctures, Please'. So I guess Alex gets a free book. Not like he
wasn't going to get one anyway :)

I have to say though, that when we were in Istanbul, and I was explaining to
Alex about needing a title for our website, when he said, "my first choice
is 'no punctures, please!'", I nearly choked on my turkish tea. But a year
and a half on, it just seemed so natural. Alex is wise in many a weird way
:)

He's off soon to cycle around central Asia, btw. Good luck bro! stay away
from the dogs!

On a more current note, we all know and are saddened by the earthquakes on
Boxing Day last year that caused one of the greatest losses of human life in
recent history. My friend and I are leading a team to Aceh (Sumatra) in
April to help the local communities there, and we are looking for people to
join our team, and also for donations. Please go to
www.joetheman.net/aceh_home.htm for more information.

Thanks in advance.

Hm, this is the unfunniest post I've ever had in my entire blog. Must stop.

jo

If i had to live ANYWHERE...

A depressed young woman from a Manhattan finishing school was so desperate that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the ocean.

When she went down to the docks, a handsome young sailor noticed her tears, took pity on her and said, Look, you've got a lot to live for. I'm off to Europe in the morning, and if you like, I can stow you away on my ship. I'll take care of you and bring you food every day. Moving closer, he slipped his arm around her shoulder and added, I'll keep you happy, and you'll keep me happy. The girl nodded. What did she have to lose?

That night, the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat.
From then on, every night he brought her three sandwiches and a piece of fruit, and they made passionate love until dawn.

Three weeks later, during a routine search, she was discovered by the captain. What are you doing here? he asked. I had an arrangement with one of the sailors, she explained. He's taking me to Europe, and every night he comes and screws me.

He sure did, lady, said the captain. This is the Staten Island Ferry.