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Contemplating life beyond 2000

February 6, 2017 by David Herd

A personal photo collection, not a travel blog.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Contemplating life beyond 2000 after just completing a huge around the world trip with Tony Murphy & John Martin aka Pothole. The fabulous trip began in November 1999 in Los Angeles then on to Miami, Mexico City, Bolivia, San Paulo, Rio di Janeiro, Salavador, Paris, Bangkok & finishing in  Koh Samui. 

Consequently I really expected 2000 to be a bit of a let down, after all how do you recover after a two month trip like that one?

The photo above was in Sydney for Pothole’s 50th birthday on February 1st. That’s our good mate Paul Slaughter with the glasses & the lovely Kathy who was Pothole’s girlfriend at the time. He was punching way above his weight as you can clearly see. 🙂

Sadly I was as well.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Punching above my weight also with an Italian princess I met & fell for in Koh Samui.

What a smile

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Her name was Barbara Manelli, however to me she will always be “Gypsy”.

Consequently in March I headed to Florence to see if there was any future pursuing this gorgeous creature. I soon found out that a brief tropical island fling was soon forgotten back in Italy. 🙂

Italy to Australia via Bangkok

Contemplating life beyond 2000

I figured there was only one way to fix a broken heart & that was a week in Bangkok on the way home. 🙂 

Pothole & I with Ian Rich

Contemplating life beyond 2000

We took my boat over to Main Beach to see Ian’s new condo.

View of Paradise waters from Ian’s condo the Grand Mariner.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

My apologies for the low quality photos, I was using my 1st 1.2 mega pixel digital camera. 🙂

Melbas on the Park

Contemplating life beyond 2000

The usual suspects, John Moon, Jim Bell aka “HO HO”, & John “Secrets” Sinclair. 

John Sinclair aka Secrets at Main Beach.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Here is John with one of the gorgeous Main Beach waitresses.

The dreaded black list.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Over the years Secrets has always had a black list of people who have been guilty of some indiscretion of which he has not approved of. I have been on & off the list a few times over the years, now in February 2017 I am, with quite a few others, most certainly firmly back on the list. Consequently to commemorate this honour I designed a T shirt & Pothole has arranged to have them printed. 🙂

Melbas was our favourite bar.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Owned & run by Paul Allen a larger than life Gold Coast character, passed away far to young in 1013.

Celebrated my birthday at the Boardroom in Southport.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Always a few sexy girls at the Boardroom which was owned & run by Malcolm Pearce.

Always a lot of fun

Contemplating life beyond 2000

As you can clearly see I was being totally dominated here. 🙂

 Skye from Launceston

Contemplating life beyond 2000

What a knockout, here we are having lunch at Melbas.

Let’s go back to Italy

Contemplating life beyond 2000

A flashback to March when my pursuit of the beautiful Gypsy crashed & burned. No that’s not really true, after Samui it never really got off the ground. 🙂

San Gimignano

Contemplating life beyond 2000

We did all the tourist things then I headed south to Rome to hook up with my friend Paul McNeil & Scooter Boy.

The Spanish Steps in Rome

Contemplating life beyond 2000

I hired a car & the 3 of us had a great road trip through Naples, Sorrento, Positano all the way down to Reggio in Southern Italy, the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria.

 Artist at work in Positano.

Contemplating life beyond 2000

We covered a lot of territory including Isle of Capri, this quickly became my favourite part of Italy until 2010 when I discovered the Cinque Terre. 🙂

Xmas lunch

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Tradition dictated we would gather at Melbas each year for a Xmas lunch, here we have Jim “Ho Ho” Bell, John “Secrets” Sinclair, David Herd & Tony Murphy.

Best ever Melbas barmaid

Contemplating life beyond 2000

Her name is Aurora & we all fell in love with her. 🙂

Family & friends come to visit

Contemplating life beyond 2000

My brother Warren & his wife Kerry with my cute little niece Laura. On the left is Chris Lockwood & his partner in happier times.

My best friend Ziggy

Contemplating life beyond 2000

We had lots of fun together, plus he was an excellent guard dog.

At the end of the day 2000 certainly was another good year.

Contemplating life beyond 2000 Contemplating life beyond 2000

Contemplating life beyond 2000 Contemplating life beyond 2000

From the top left is Malvina from Paris, Rush from Thailand, & Kerry & Simone from Australia.

Thanks for visiting my Contemplating life beyond 2000 photo blog.                     

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Counter only started June 16 2020.

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