I'm leaving on a jet-plane ... My diary by Scott Graham

[Scott Graham]

Hi I'm Scott, you may already know me from the forum as one of the English-team trainers.

Tomorrow I begin my holiday of a lifetime which begins in London for 2 days, then I fly to Brunei where I will stay in The Empire Hotel & Country club for 3 days. The plan here is to relax and wind down in luxurious and tropical surroundings.

Next is a quick flight to Brisbane, I'm staying with my Uncle who runs a SCUBA company on surfers paradise. Of course it goes without saying I will be partaking in a diving course for one week, I mean who would say no for the chance to dive on the magnificent 'Great barrier reef' with all it's glorious splendours. I also plan on taking a road trip to Sydney and to walk over the harbour bridge as well as seeing such things as the 'Opera house'. If I get the chance I will be doing some different extreme sports but you will have to watch this space to find out what!!!

After Australia it'll be time for a few days in awesome Dubai, where again I have a nice hotel to relax in, the only plan I have for here is to go on a desert safari.

The penultimate stop is 'Good 'ole blighty' for 2 days, as well as taking the chance of having a much missed 'Fish 'n' Chip' supper, I intend on doing a little bit of work in connection with the Travel and Learn holidays we have planned.

So I hope that some of you will be interested in this thread and if you have any thing you'd like to ask or add, please feel free.

'Stay tuned'

Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[SkiIucK]

It would be interesting to follow your story.

Have a great time, Scott.

[Scott Graham]

Hi all,

Well the day's finally here, my luggage is all packed and I'm ready to go. I'm flying from Altenburg airport, which in my opinion is one of the easiest airports to fly from due to it being very small. It's also quite exciting because it has a very short runway and the pilot needs to get up to speed and into the air very quickly. Once I arrive in London Stansted airport I'm going to take a bus to Heathrow airport where I've a hotel room overnight. So I won't get much chance to see any of my homeland before I fly at 9:20am to Brunei.

The next time I'm going to update my diary will be Saturday from Brunei.

Stay tuned!!
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Scott Graham]

G'Day here's Scott, down under and ready to make an update on my fabulous trip so far.

It's now 8am, I'm sitting on the computer here in Brisbane and it's already hot. I began my trip last week, after leaving Germany and having a brief stop over in London I arrived in the tropical country Brunei.
It was an amazing experience, I was picked up from the airport and taken to my hotel 'The Empire Hotel and Country club'. The hotel was absolutely amazing with gold trimings everywhere, and the staff couldn't do enough for you. The hotel was built directly onto the beach, and I was very lucky to have a room with a huge balcony which was just a few metres away from the beach and what a view that was especially at sunrise and sunset.
While I was their I was amazed to find English wasn't just the tourist language of the country but also many of the locals used it as their first language. Brunei is a mainly an oil producing country but the second biggest industry is tourism, so everybody must speak English to increase their chances of work. During my stay though I noticed nearly all the marketing and shop 'sign-writing' was also in English as well as packaging on most consumables.
Anyway to sum up I had a very luxurious and relaxing 3 days before I left to come to Brisbane.

I've been here in Brisbane for 3 days, staying with my Uncle just 10 minutes walk to surfers paradise.
This part of Australia, the north east, is a tropical area with a great climate and beautiful landscapes. One thing I really love is the local animals, every morning we are woken by about 50 parrots screaming outside wanting to be fed, they are all amazing colours and for me it's great to see them in there natural habitat. Also in my Uncles garden has been a koala, fruit bat's which are very, very big as well as snakes, frogs and lots of other tropical birds.
My uncle has a SCUBA company here, and he trains people to dive in great locations such as 'The Great Barrier reef'. I have already completed one days training in his purpose built swimming pool in his garden which is 3.5 metres deep. On saturday I'm going for my first sea-dive to a wreck just off surfers which I'm really looking forward to.

Yesterday I went to 'Sea-world' which was a great day out, the park boasts some great things such as aquariums with many different sea-creatures such as sharks, dolphins, rays, star-fish etc. There are also regular shows by the Dolphins and seals which are totally amazing and especially with the dolphins you can see how much they enjoy performing.
Whilst their I also went on some really good extreme rollercoasters and my highlight was to take a helicopter flight around surfers paradise, the best way to see any location.

Today I'm visiting a place called Mount Tamborine' which is an area in the mountains which is untouched rainforest except for the sky walk! The skywalk is a metal construction 200 metres high, built into the rainforest canopy. I'm hoping while I'm their to see a lot of animals, insects, reptiles and of course amazing plants.

So I hope that was of interest to some of you, and as I mentioned before, if you have any questions or even tips for me just post them here on this thread.

Before I go I would just like to say a big "hello" to the Nordhausen group, and I'm looking forward to working with you when I return.

Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Torsten]

Hi Scott,

Great to hear you are alive and kicking as ever. At the moment Noel is doing an excellent job in Nordhausen and I will be there next week, I'll print off your travel diary so we can read it with the group.

Talk to you soon,
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten and other interested parties,

Oh yes I'm alive and kicking and enjoying every second of my fun-packed holiday.

As I mentioned in my last post today I visited the local rainforest which is called 'Mount Tamborine National Park'. It is in an area of Queensland called 'Hinterland' which is obviously taken from the German word 'Hinter', I'm not quite sure why. It's a beautiful unspoilt area on top of a very old, dormant volcano, but the landscape is totally breathtaking. I walked about 18 km's up and down the mountain, and was able to see lots of amazing wildlife including Koalas, kangaroos, reptiles and many exotic birds. I also walked along the 'Skywalk', which is a platform built high up into the canopy of the rainforest which enables you to look down on the rainforest below.

To finish the day I went abseiling down a 75 metre mountain face, it was great for my adrenalin fix.

Tonight I'm getting some rest as tomorrow I'm going SCUBA training for 6 hours and it can be physicaly demanding.

Best regards

Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Scott Graham]

So I'm already two thirds through my holiday and I'm having a blast.

Just to tell you a bit about what I've been up to since my last report here in sunny down-under.

I've completed my first sea-dive, only to 6 metres, but it was still great with lots of marine life to look at including amny different types of fish including clown fish ('Nemo' fish to many), rays, star-fish, sea cucumbers and my highlight was to come up close to a shark!

On Monday I got a cheap flight to Sydney, direct from 'Gold Coast' airport. It was a 1 hour flight with an airline called 'Jetstar', which is the budget part of Quantas. The funny thing was the fact that here in Australia, due to its absolute enormous size, it has many different time zones. To our surprise the Gold coast airport is actually an hour ahead of Brisbane as it's just across the border into New South Wales and no longer Queensland.

Once we arrived in Sydney, we were very lucky to get a Hotel room, virtually on the harbour overlooking the 'Opera house'. I managed to negotiate a very good price, mainly because it's not quite the tourist season as it's still only spring here. But I must say in my opinion this is the best time to visit Oz, as it's low-season, there are no queues anywhere and also a lot of places including bars, boat-trips, restaurants and other tourist attractions have a lot of special deals. As I mentioned it's still only spring, dont let that fool you, it's still been 30 degrees plus everyday.

Whilst I was in Sydney I did quite a lot of sightseeing including such places as The Opera house, Harbour bridge, Rocks area (Old-Sydney) and of course the new part of the city. I also did some extra things such as a jet-boat ride around the harbour, a whale watching boat trip and also a night-time ghost walk.

One more highlight for me was the food, one evening I ate a very nice plate of kangaroo steaks trimmed with Croc' tails smothered in a red wine sauce, very very Yummy!

Yesterday I arrived back here in Surfers Paradise, and today I visited a wildlife park called 'Currumbin Sanctuary'. It was a fantastic day, lots of interaction with local wildlife. Here you can view such things as reptiles and snakes, birds of prey, Dingoes and Amphibians. For me the best thing was the chance to come up close and personal and even feed many of the animals. I was able to hold a Croc, a Koala and I also got the chance to relax with a group of lazy Kangaroos who were quite happy to be stroked and ate food from my hand.

So thats about it for now, tomorrow I'm taking a trip to Byron bay. It's a very well known area as it's the most easterly point of Australia. While Im there, I'm going to go in a Kayak to see the whales and dolphins out at sea.......and maybe the odd shark!!!

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Regards

Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Scott Graham]

Hi all,

Well at this moment I'm sitting in a cyber-cafe in Brunei awaiting my next flight, I'm en route to Dubai where I will be staying for 2 nights.

I had an absolute blast down-under with many great and unforgettable experiences which I will report on in more detail when I return to Germany as I can hopefully add some photographs.

It has been really nice to 'let my hair down', but if I'm really honest I've also missed being in the classroom.

I'm also very excited for my return, as just before my trip I signed the papers to buy a house in Leipzig. It's a listed building with loads of character but also quite of work needed.

So I must go now

Best wishes to you all

Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Torsten]

Hi Scott,

Thanks a lot for keeping us up to date -- if possible please check your english-test.net email account from time to time as I might send you some invites for Nordhausen etc.

Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary