As I write this, I'm sitting on a flight headed towards New Delhi in India. We left Toronto 10 hours ago and there are still 4 1/2 hours left before we land. Strong headwinds means we've lost almost an hour and the flight will turn out to be almost as long as the one that goes from LA to Sydney. I have to admit though that it hasn't been all that bad as I was able to scam an upgrade to Business Class. Wooohooo !!! Nice food and LEGROOM. Wicked.

It's been a while since I last wrote to a lot of you. I'll try not to write a novel but don't think I'll be very successful...

I was just about to go up the Australian East coast when I last wrote. The trip turned out to be more than I could ever have hoped for. Just one of those trips where you end up meeting amazing people and things just fall into place. Of course all my plans changed while on my trip but that's what travelling is for. The sailing/diving trip aboard the Romance (no kidding) was definitely the highlight as the group on board the boat were just amazing. The diving itself wasn't all that good but we had a great time on board the boat.

After that, I hopped into Jess & Janine's camper van (two Canadian girls from the boat) and we headed up the coast towards Cairns. The cool thing was that we kept crossing paths with 2 other couples all the way up the coast. We stopped at a billabong sanctuary to see some pretty big crocodiles (crickey!!!) and also stayed a few nights on Magnetic Island, just chilling out and making huge dinners. Miss your cooking J&J !!! A few side trips to waterfalls and some whitewater rafting on the Tully river and then we got to Cairns where we had to split up. A few good nights out with the boat people (Dan was faaaawwwwwwwwwwwked ;) and then it was back down the coast to Fraser Island.

Spent 3 full days on the island which was really nice as 10 of us drove around in a rented jeep and camped out at night. It rained a fair bit be we seemed to miss most of the big downpours. At least we already had our tents setup for the night. Caught a bit of a bug on the island, I think it was called JD-Drink-a-sitess which made me go to bed quite early on both nights (no comments from the 3 Daves please). No worries though as we had Dave and Sina to keep the others busy with their antics. T-I-double-guh-ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!! Of course, Yan's cooking remains unsurpassed and there's nothing like cooking steak on an open fire while being surrounded in sand with high winds :)

Sadly, the month up the coast came to an end and it was back to Sydney to find work. I did a 3 month contract for Unisys which was cool. The highlight of those 3 months was definitely living with the wonderful Clare and Mhairi in Manly. What can I say, I miss you two to no end. We'll always have the pictures, "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and our famous Thu night pink bit sessions !!!

I was also incredibly lucky to meet some amazing people while out in Sydney. It was just one of those periods where you meet really interesting people that you keep in touch with. A huge shout out and thanks to Alex/Drew/Emma, Bridgit/Lola, Carl and the Plastic crew, Danny/Giselda and the Adelaide crew (man I miss you guys), Pip for the pool sessions, Stilly for the drinking sessions, Greg for the Trance exchange sessions, Liz/Luke/Adam/Ben for the UNREAL nights out. I quite look forward to a nice session at Sounds when I return to Sydney. Bianca/Eve, don't worry, I'll be back in Adelaide soon enough to visit. Shayne, you don't get any thanks 'cause you're just a crazy bastard :) And finally to all the people I met through PvD, you were missed when I saw him in Toronto in Canada in Oct.

So my contract ended at the beginning of Sep and I decided to go back to Canada for a while to do an IT certification and upgrade my skills for the contract market. So it's been 2 months living at home with my parents and stuffing myself on my mum's cooking. Lovely :) It's been really nice to be home for such a long time as whenever I do visit, it's usually only for a few days and it's a quick visit.

Fortunately for me, the first 2 courses I was suppose to take in Ottawa got cancelled because of a lack of students which meant I had to find somewhere else that was offering the courses I wanted to take. After scouring the 'Net for 3 days solid, my best bet was India and here I am on a plane heading there. I'll be spending 4 1/2 weeks in Delhi taking courses and writing exams. It's full on at 6 days a week (we only get Sundays off) but I'm quite looking forward to it. Once it's done on 08 Dec, I'll be backpacking my way through a bit of India (Lee, can't wait to catch up) and then it's back to Canada on 30 Dec, just in time to celebrate New Years with my family.

After that, as usual, I have no idea. I'll be looking for work in several different countries and who knows where I'll end up. Hopefully somewhere interesting...

I've started re-doing my website but haven't been able to put up too many pictures yet. There are a few so have a look. I'll be putting many more up when I get back from India in January...

That's it for now. Hope everyone has had a great year and all the best for X-Mas and New Years, wherever you may be.

Cheers,
Sylvain

PS - For all of you in the Sydney area, there is a wicked gelato shop that you have to go to. It's delicious. It's called Gelato Messina and there are a few of them around Sydney. There's one in Darlinghurst and there's one that's just opened in Wollstonecraft. It's worth the trip, especially now that summer is there for you !!!