The moment of joy:


I've had a couple of pieces of chocolate and I am enjoying such a lovely glass of wine. The novel produced a great 50 000th word 'fuck'. I've also got some other nano facts:

I was the second of my writing buddies to win -nthdraft beat me to it by a considerably long way (much congratulations goes that way)

Total number of days spent behind word count: 15! (eek)

Most wrote in one day: 6724.

Background music/tv show: NCIS


I also know I never want to try Nano when I am travelling and trying to fit in with site seeing. Although I do love the spot under the sink in the bedroom where I've spent my last few days writing

*cheers to Alex and Maverick who have turned out to be such interesting characters to write*

I just went out and bought myself a mini bottle of wine and some Cadbury's favourites. They will sit and taunt me through the last 2000 words. No matter how long they take to write, I won't be online until they are done, I will not drink (apart from caffeine) nor shall I eat, sleep or have a lovely relaxing shower nor tweet nor go online at all until they are written.

See you all on the other side.

The Shovel of Death now tweets:

http://twitter.com/ShovelOfDeath

After spending weeks behind thanks to travelling through Australia I am finally ahead. I am rather excited because the plot that had been trotting along at a steady, not uninteresting way but it exploded with direction two days ago and I am really enjoying writing it.


Auckland is growing on me by the day. I climbed Mount Victoria and saw the city rising out of the mist. Relatives that sprung themselves on me yesterday are really cool and they've invited me up the coast for the next week to enjoy a nature reserve and scuba diving.

This is why I should IMDB favourite actors. There I was putting NCIS on in the background while I determinedly went at Nano (At 37k people!) and well across my screen in a car goes Mischa Collins, playing the bad guy in the episode. Cue much choking.

And when I get started on 24 I am now fore armed thanks to IMDB, he will turn up again there.

Now I am finished sqeeing I am going to try and watch the episode with calmnes

I still can't get used to people around me referring to Flip flops as thongs, it just sounds so wrong. I do get urges to giggle every time someone says it, childish I know.

Anyway I've discovered once you get through the pain of cuts that come between the toes and having scabs a couple of times, they turn out to be the most comfortable things ever. Now my skin is tough there I absolutely adore wearing them and won't take them off my feet now.

I'm having a tough couple of days. First my room mate accuses someone of stealing her money, and she put the finger firmly at me. I know she reported it to the place and keeps waiting for me to confess which I would do if I had done something. Since I hadn't I changed rooms and then my bank freezes my card again and my NZ bank is only getting the money transferred into it on Tuesday so I am spending the day a little broke and pissed off. I should have my frozen bank card sorted again this evening but argh!


*goes back to NCIS which is just awesome*

So I went to the double feature of Twilight and New Moon, with New Moon starting at Midnight on the dot. Seriously if I hadn't read the books I would be all Team Jacob. And the film didn't suck overly, I laughed a lot but some of that was actually at the right points! It was actually lovely and face paced. There wasn't much room for fidgeting.

I can't believe I am saying this but the first cinema trip in three months, it wasn't a bad way to start again.

New Zealand, LOTR I am HERE. I've made it. I seriously nearly cried with happiness when I stepped off the plane. It's 8 years since I saw the first film and swore I'd make it to NZ one day and wow it has happened.

It is my first morning here and I am already spinning in circles working out what to do first, what to see first.

i'll be more coherent later!

I am being targeted because I am a backpacker to get the Swine flu vac. In a couple of mins I will be subjected to it. Lovely how I can get it after I've been through South East Asia.

Nano is stuck awaiting time, but I do have the Write or Die for offline now which is so much better because I don't have to pay and hunt for internet and it will focus me and yeah I am stuck on 14000

I'm in Alice Springs now and it is very very hot. I liked the rain in Cairns. off to get tortured with needles.

Hello one and all! i'm remarkably cheerful for a person who can't get near her nano for another two days.

I spent the night in a fantastic hostel called Backpackers at the Bay. Quiz, sing a long and I got dumped into the pool! It is such a fun place to stay.

I am going sailing around the whitsunday islands for the next two nights, see you on the other side

Fraser Island is a paradise. The whole island is made of sand, the lakes are crystal clear and the sand is white. I could have stayed there a lot longer. I even got to see a dingo there!




Nano is going relatively well. My MC is wiggling around and doing his own thing so I decided to post the first bit to please him.

( River Cruise )

Not bad for the first day. However Alex my MC is determinedly pushing the plot in his own direction now and I am not sure where he is taking me. I know were I am taking him tomorrow though. He is coming with me in a notebook on to a boat and from there to a island made out of sand. I'm sure I'll find some time to deal with him

I've 6 hours to go until it starts! This year I'm in the first flush of people starting. Eek! I've got some mild panic and a vague plan. I'll be writing on buses, planes and trains from midnight. I'm moving up the coast from Sydney to Brisbane. Australia is awesome but anyway if people want to add me for the year click on below!



As much as I am looking forward to New Zealand, Syndey has stolen something from me and demands I love it. For the next two weeks I am writing in between seeing:

Fraiser Island
Sailing around Whitsundays
Great Barrier Reef and Rainforest
Hiking and Camping at Ayers Rock!

I think I may be a little busy for the next while!

Can't believe it but I am off to Australia in less than 7 hours! I'm leaving Indochina behind with sadness.

Anyway some randomly gained knowledge:

McDonalds can and will do delivery to the bedroom hotel door!
The biggest pest in a hotel is an army of mini ants, they get into -everything-
There are no limits to the amount of mosquito bites you can get in one hour
Elephant riding rocks!
You can become a Buddhist monk/nun for any length of time (even one day!)
Vietnam is much cheaper than Thailand for dvds
Thai massages kill at the time but after wow you feel sooooo good.
Australia ETAs take about 1hr 20 mins to get, not minutes

Getting in a giant tractor tire sized ring and floating down the river sounds really relaxing doesn't it? Now add in on this 2km stretch bars 50m a part, dirt cheap drinks, free shots, 'happy' drinks, zip lines on rackety wooden structures and no railings between the bar and the water and sharp rocks in the shallower bits.

Everyone knows somebody here who has ended up in hospital as a result. There are no safety precautions.

Even I'm bruised and I'm really stiff, all I had was three drinks. I adored playing mud volleyball, everyone was covered in mud because it was impossible to stand up and there were large hoses to clean off with afterwards. I did 6 zip lines, all really high and a slide that tossed you out over the river. Don't see any company back home letting me try that. I did lose my grip once and went down suddenly from a great height. The relief that avoided the rocks by a meter.

Yeah, much as I love tubing, I'm not trying it in that kind of environment again

I'm in Capba Island just off Halong Bay for the night and tonight's hotel is minus internet access, woe is me! It's meant venturing into the local internet cafe. Instead of being packed out with tourists which I would have sworn during the day made up the population, I am completely surrounded by local kids. The noise level is horrendous and the ones not using a computer keep standing right behind me and my roommate, practically leaning against our shoulders.

So with little room to move I can't do my picture post. Instead I will tell you what my Vietnamese fortune teller saw for me:

The very first thing she said was that I Would marry a -straight- man in two years time (she was very fierce and firm about that!). He's going to be two years older and I am going to meet him in eight months time. It did creep me out that she said he would be American because I will be in America in 10 months time at the absolute latest. Erm I'll have two kids and live a long happy life.

Mine was a bit bog standard but out of a group of ten, mine was the only one that didn't have something ominous in it.

I'm in a new country again! Seriously the time seems to fly by. It took us 12 hours to get to the capital from Vietnam. The place is sooo very pretty. Not much to report yet apart from the gay bar. Our tour guide took me and my room mate with her when she went to meet her friends. It was so much fun.

Travelling is good for the brain. I've been able to analyse a lot of the past twelve or so months briefly and put them into one hell of perspective.

I wasted a good deal of the year, I should have been away travelling much sooner rather than hanging onto delusions of jobs and friendship. The year looking back was both one of the best and the most miserable. Housemate when I look back was a taker and kept taking, with rare honesty. I would say for definite her girlfriend was more straight forward and truthful. I will never share with a couple in a small house again when there is no room to escape to own space. But until the last months I think we at least kept a measurement of friendship up. I will say then that after the spitefulness that went on for me there was no way I'll be looking them up (even if I -was- owed an email over final money payments) unless there is a miracle of something like time travel and I don't expect them to look me up because I can frankly say I was quite a bitch in that year and didn't know when to stop.

Okay that was a pile of unspecifics but heck I don't think anyone would really believe the full story of the year or really want to know it.

Safe to say though since I came back from England, remet friends and got new ones, and started travelling, the world looks so much brighter. I'm not day dreaming about huge stuff anymore. I'm enjoying each moment as it comes, having the odd bitch, meeting new people, becoming a lot more decisive and looking for things to do instead of sitting around a lot on the internet waiting for them to happen.

Next post: typhoon aftermath and new clothes

We went to visit the tunnels in Vietnam on Monday, the result I got to fire a M16 five times and managed to hit a still target once. It was a pretty exciting and very loud experience!



and today I jumped on the back of a motorcycle and trusted someone to navigate me around the roads. The roads are hair raising there seems to be no laws but I ended up loving it!

Oh and toilets here are referred to as 'Happy Houses', I am slightly weirded out

Love Stephen Fry's tweet: Doctor's gone leaving an anti-inflammatory and some Vicodin - which Gregory House is not getting his mitts on....

Watched the first episode of season 2 of Merlin this morning, my room mate looked rather bizarred out to finding me laughing and awhing. I'm begining to think fandom people don't do long year travels. Hoping someone is going to prove me wrong on that!

There is a sad lack of Tuk tuks in Vietnam. It's back to regular taxis and one person seat bike things which are infinitely more expensive than Cambodia. This mean exploring on foot this morning for a bit and didn't get a huge amount covered (that could be because we got sidetracked by coffee....goooooood coffee)

We've done a little clothes shopping. I was looking at the designs and taking photos to make them up later because then the clothes will fit (XL is like S at home) and will be at least half the price. I think I've got about a week before I get to enjoy that fun in Hoi An.