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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 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.

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

What a smile

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

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

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.

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

Melbas on the Park

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

John Sinclair aka Secrets at Main Beach.

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

The dreaded black list.

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.

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.

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

Always a lot of fun

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

Skye from Launceston

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

Let’s go back to Italy

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Family & friends come to visit

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

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.

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.

Here are some more posts to check out

Life 2015 Family history Life 1982

Adelaide 1972 Iron Bar Freddy Sydney 2006

Thailand 2008 Gold Coast Babes World trip 2003

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A-One hotel on Beach Road

For a great room rate at the A-One hotel opposite the beach just book through THIS LINK.

Brazil Hotels

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Check out these great photo blogs.

Rio beach babes

Florianopolis Brazil

Bangkok river ferry

Fabulous HCMC

Amazing World Food

Lyme Regis Jurassic coast

Hiroshima Japan

Sydney Harbour

Lake Como Lake Garda Italy

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Brazil Italy Thailand Adventure 2006

April 16, 2015 by David Herd

Another magic world trip

Brazil Italy Thailand Adventure

Brazil Italy Thailand Adventure 2006, once again my journey began with a flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney in October 2006, before arriving in Rio de Janeiro.

I flew to Teresina to meet a friend and her family then continued on to Forteleza and Belem. After Brazil I flew to Italy hired a car and headed for Portofino, San Gimignano, Vinci and Florence.

A friend in Sydney hosted a dinner at his hotel with several friends, great food and 2 very sexy waitresses.

This it not part of my travel blog, just part of my personal photo & travel history from 2006. Mainly revolving around the many people who helped make it another memorable year.

Freeway Hotel Crayfish

Crayfish? I can’t see any Crayfish. 🙂

Peter plays it cool

The following day I missed my Qantas flight to Rio through a mix up with the airline. I had to purchase another ticket, luckily a couple of months later Qantas reimbursed my original ticket.

A terrific night

GREAT FOOD, GOOD WINE & HOT BABES, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

Copacabana Beach Rio de Janeiro, say no more.

These two look like they mean business.

Alan Austin and his wife Renata

Alan & I met in Rio and became very good friends, unfortunately the following year he ran into some problems with the English authorities and I now visit him every year in various English prisons.

Shenanigans Ipanema

Monday nights here there are lots of specials and the place gets really crowded. The guy in the red shirt is Alan’s Las Vegas friend Jay.

The girl from Copacabana

I was relaxing on the beach when this vision appeared in front of me. I have never been one to let a golden opportunity pass so I brushed up on my social skills and introduced myself. Her name was Mel and she came from neighbouring Niteroi. Lo & behold within an hour we were in my apartment making mad passionate love. This certainly was one on the best days of my trip. 🙂

Mel from Niteroi

Mel is around 6′ tall with amazing green eyes, a total knock out. It is 2015 and I still have her photo on a shelf in my condo. 🙂

John, an Aussie guy who owned “The Office” restaurant.

John was an Aussie guy from Sydney and we swapped many stories about people we knew and knew of, mainly well known Sydney gangsters. 🙂 The following year John in fact was abducted by Brazilian gangsters who forced him to go to his home in Angra Dos Rios and pen his safe which they cleaned out.

Cabo Frio

Here is my friend Renilda, she lives at Cabo Frio near Buzios with her son and lots of pet dogs. We met in 1999 on Copacabana beach and have had a lot of fun together. I have not seen her since I took this photo in 2006 but I hope we meet again one day.

Sueli and Silmarinha Oliveira

I actually met Sueli online so on my way to Fortaleza I decided to stop at Teresina to meet her and her lovely family.

The whole family in Terisina

Here is the lovely family.

Fortaleza on the north Coast

Fortaleza is in the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.3 million (metropolitan region over 3.4 million), Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. Fortaleza is one of the three leading cities in the Northeast region together with Recife and Salvador. The city will be one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, for which Brazil is the host nation.

Brazil Italy Thailand Adventure

164 kilometers from Fortaleza is Canoa Quebrada.

Canoa Quebrada

We rode in a beach buggy along the beautiful long beaches and wandered through the amazing coloured sands of Canoa Quebrada.

Belem at the mouth of the mighty Amazon

Such a beautiful face, (of course I mean the girl) these two were dancers on a cruise I took on the Amazon.

The catch of the day

Belem is at the mouth of the Amazon river which represents more than half the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. Founded in 1616 by the Kingdom of Portugal, Belém was the first European colony on the Amazon but did not become part of Brazil until 1775. The newer part of the city has modern buildings and skyscrapers. The colonial portion retains the charm of tree-filled squares, churches and traditional blue tiles. The city has a rich history and architecture from colonial times. Recently it witnessed a skyscraper boom.

Old man of the sea

By now his skin must be like leather.

2.30 am flight Belem to Rio

Ah! Copacabana I have missed you so much. 🙂

Lets not forget Ipanema.

Ipanema is even more beautiful than Copacabana.

Lets have one last look at Mel

This is the photo I still have in my room today in 2016.

Transit at Madrid

Changing planes in Madrid on my my to Italy.

Francesca in Florence

Here is my friend Francesca, I was lucky enough to be able to crash on her couch for a few days.

The Old Bridge Florence

Certainly one of the most famous landmarks in this great city.

Great Pizza in Florence

People queue every night to get into this tiny restaurant in Florence, the chef is from Naples and only has 3 choices on the menu, all magnificent.

Ines from Rio de Janeiro

Ines is the daughter of my friend Reni from Cabo Frio, she was in Florence at the same time as I was. Francesca cooked dinner while we chatted about old times in Rio.

Beautiful San Gimignano

San Gimignano is famous for its Medieval village architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses, which, with its hilltop setting and encircling walls form “an unforgettable skyline”

San Gimignano

What a wonderful Italian village.

Lunch in Portofino

When you visit Portofino make sure you have your credit card, seafood soup 26 Euros. Maybe they charged me extra because I was dressed so upmarket. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Fabulous cheeky Portofino

If you own a nice boat the babes will come. 🙂

Club Med yacht.

Club Med 2 is a five-masted computer-controlled sailing ship owned and operated by Club Med and operated as a cruise ship. It combines the power of seven computer-operated sails with more traditional diesel-electric power, having four diesel generators that power two electric motors.