Self Indulged
  • example-03
  • example-03
  • example-13
  • example-05
  • example-06
  • example-07
  • example-08
  • example-09
  • example-10
  • Featured Content

  • January21st

    2 Comments

    Anytime…anyplace!

    Posted in: Blog update, Self Indulged Magazine


    The publishing site ISSUU has recently released a mobile app for Android users (Apple users will have to wait a little longer I’m afraid) which means that now you can read Self Indulged at will. How exciting is that! Just type m.issuu.com in your mobile phone browser and follow the prompts to download the app for free. Once you have the app search for Selfindulged (all one word) and you can download all of the issues to your mobile phone to read anytime, anyplace without having to be online. Double click on the text to bring it up on your phone for easy reading.
    Next time you’re waiting for a bus or on the train to work, Self Indulged will keep you company…and what’s even better is it’s all for free! 

  • December31st

    5 Comments

    2012 ::HAPPY NEW YEAR::

    Posted in: Travel & Landscapes

    Cube-Gifograph

    It’s New Year in Australia! Here in Latvia, 2011 is still lingering and we’re having a quiet beer before we head out to Freedom Square to celebrate with the locals.

    2011 has been a great year for Self Indulged Online Magazine. The magazine has been read by over 130,000 people, we’ve accumulated close to 7000 followers on Twitter along with over 3000 Facebook fans and subscribers and we’ve enjoyed the sponsorship support of some of the best in the photographic and travel business.

    Special thanks to Lonely Planet, Manfrotto, Kata Bags, 1Cover Travel Insurance and Visit Finland for coming along for the ride now…and into 2012. And a huge personal thanks to everyone who has commented, read, subscribed, liked and followed in 2011.

    Travel highlights of 2011 include:

    Australia Day on the True North – will miss that in 2012!

    Swimming in the Beijing Olympic Water Cube (the image above is the waterpark inside)

    Shooting the Northern Lights in Northern Norway

    Floating on an inner tube down the Li River in Yangshou, China – being careful to avoid the poop of water buffalo cooling off in the shallows (I know I haven’t written about that yet…I’m guessing this will be eagerly awaited?)

    Trying out our trusty tent for the first time in Outer Mongolia.

    Shooting pink lightening!

    Eating rancid fish in Sweden…well, it wasn’t really a highlight, more of a ‘mission accomplished’.

    Reaching the Golden Summit after climbing 68,000 steps in Mt Emei, China.

    Driving through 4 countries in 2 days. UK to The Netherlands (UK-France-Belgium-The Netherlands) OK, we caught the ferry for the UK to France bit…but it still counts.

    Catching up with family and friends in London after being away for 6 years.

    Seeing snow in Lapland…and cross-country skiing – we were rubbish at it!

    Sleeping in a glass igloo.

    Bobsledding in Latvia…my spine is still recovering from the G-forces!

    Surviving the Chinese high speed rail system.

    Surviving the Chinese rail system in general!!

    Visiting Pandora. (Zhangjiajie National Park in China)

    Camping at Tintagel.

    The transiberian train ride from Beijing to Ulaan Bataar….stuck in customs for 4 hours. We were locked inside while the train was taken away to have the undercarriage changed. We were however allowed to drink beer while we waited. I challenge you to tell me where else in the world customs officials will allow you to drink openly while being ‘processed’.

    Tianmenshan Mountain – everything about it was a ‘highlight’

    Experiencing a local Nadaam celebration in Mongolia.

    Eating cheap street food in Beijing with a crazy Canadian.

    Always enjoying the company of other travellers, particularly in Chengdu where our RTW journey began. Especially the company of Bec & Zac who braved the Sichuan hot pot with us and Gernot who has been involved in his own EPIC adventure.

    Swimming in the slimy algal waters of Qingdao…and not getting sick!

    Enjoying Amsterdam for everything ‘other than’ it’s infamous coffee shops.

    Swimming in the warm waters of the Andaman Sea – Langkawi

    24 hours in Feng Huang

    Patting a reindeer – it was real, not stuffed.

    We’re hoping that 2012 will bring many more travel adventures…and hopefully some great images. We leave for Lithuania in the new year. The Hill of Crosses is first on the agenda…I can see it being on the list of 2012 highlights already. Wishing you all a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012…hoping you stick around for the ride.

    Issue 6 will be out on the 14th of January 2012, subscribe HERE to join us….until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

  • December24th

    2 Comments

    The BIGGEST Gingerbread Church…in the world!

    Posted in: Blog update, Travel & Landscapes

    Tallinn St Johns by Sandra Herd

    Two nights ago we saw the biggest gingerbread church in the world.

    We watched as the church was decorated with yellow and blue icing…and then we watched in delight as huge ‘bites’ were taken out of it.

    We were witnessing an unusual light display put together by video mapping artist, Taavi Varm. His canvas was St John’s Church in Tallinn’s Freedom Square. For nearly twenty minutes the church morphed from one spectacular light display to another as images and lights projected onto the church facade delighted us, and the thousands of others who had come to watch the closing display to celebrate Tallinn as European Capital of Culture 2011.

    The light show was accompanied by ten churches around the city filling the Old Town with the sound of their bells, ringing in harmony and complimenting the light show.

    The ‘grand finale’ was the setting alight of a huge 2011 ‘sculpture’ which you can see in the foreground, creatively called, ‘2011’. Unfortunately there was only one can of lighter fluid and one man with a match! By the time the ‘1’s were alight the 2 and the 0 were nearly extinguished which made us giggle. The highlight though was the fantastic work of Taavi Varm, it was a beautiful display and a real treat for us as we’d only heard about it the day before. By the time we arrived for the show there were thousands of people already in the square. Luckily I found a spot on the hill to position the tripod and get some shots off. The shot above is, of course, the gingerbread church.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

  • December3rd

    2 Comments

    STUCK in limbo…

    Posted in: Blog update, Travel & Landscapes

    Norway Sandra Herd

    The has car died.

    Last night we should have been watching the Northern Lights through the dome of a glass igloo at the wonderfully picturesque Hotel Kakslauttanen. Right now we should be on a date with a reindeer, sliding through the snow on an open sleigh…on my way to Santa’s resort with a good meal and log fire awaiting my return. Instead, we are stranded in a hotel in the dark days at Lakselv, Norway.

    Where, you ask? Exactly.

    I’ve been wanting to get to these glass igloos for months. We re-scheduled because of our emergency rush home to Oz and had the dates locked in for this weekend. We were driving to Finland from Honningsvag down the E6 when we lost power to the wheels. Engine still running – car going nowhere. Thankfully we were only about 40kms north of Lakselv. We called the emergency breakdown service (who have been fantastic) 5 hours, two episodes of Stargate (on the laptop) and one tuna and sweet corn sandwich later, we were picked up by the tow-truck and our injured team member was towed to a cold and lonely carpark to await a diagnosis. It will be a long wait… the repair shop is closed over the weekend.

    And so we are stuck…not in the middle of nowhere but close to it. Yes, we’re lucky the car didn’t conk out on the mountain pass a few days ago (pictured above) where the outside temperature was -16o and yes, we’re happy to be safe and well but we’re so, so sad to be missing out, once again, on the great plans we had at Hotel Kakslauttanen.

    Dear Santa,

    Please arrange for our car to be OK…or send us a new Jeep!

    Cheers

    Sandy x

  • November27th

    8 Comments

    One big tick for the bucket list

    Posted in: Travel & Landscapes

    EUROPE-3005-Edit

    We haven’t had much sleep over the past two nights….we’ve been hunting. Chasing the light. And we found it.

    On Friday night we drove for 2 hours out of Tromso chasing a glimmer of the illusive aurora borealis.  We did get a glimmer but only a small one, at midnight we gave up and drove through the sleet and rain for another 2 hours back to Tromso. Last night was wonderfully clear. We drove 20km out of town and were treated to a striking sky show from about 11pm to 1am. Granted, it’s the not the greatest aurora photo of all time but it’s hopefully the first of many while we’re in the arctic circle.  It’s also the shot that means I can put a BIG TICK next to #2 on my bucket list – “See & shoot the aurora borealis”

    Tick!

  • November20th

    3 Comments

    Back in the saddle!

    Posted in: Blog update

    SwedishTradition

    The good news…Dave’s Mum has made a full recovery.

    More good news…we’re BACK on the road again.

    The bad news?

    It was -2◦c when we landed in Sweden.

    We spent the week with our friends Nic and Jess who deserve a huge thank-you for allowing us to dump our stuff (and the car) when we had to rush back to Perth over two months ago. We kitted out the car with ‘winter’ tyres (got a good deal on some second hand tyres and had them fitted a day later), anti-freeze and an ice scraper for good measure. Dave also managed to pick up a Star Wars advent calendar while he was shopping for car products???

    ‘Dibs’ on Yoda dressed as Santa, I have put.

    Anyway. Enough of this. Back to the story at hand….

    We’d been threatened during our stay with a traditional Swedish dish of Surströmming which, translated, means ‘soured herring’ which, to you and me, means rancid fish! On our last night in Stockholm Nic and Jess (well, mostly Nic actually, Jess couldn’t stand the smell and waited safely in the corner of the garden) very kindly –ahem – made a traditional meal for us of rancid fish served with tunnbröd (thin bread) boiled potatoes, raw onion and whipped cream.

    The fermented fish bubbled and sprayed from the can as Nic opened it up outside. And then the smell hit. Luckily ten weeks through China had prepared us and, although we’d smelled worse things in China we’d never actually had to eat the source of the smell. Apparently a Japanese study has shown that the smell of a newly opened can of surströmming is the most putrid smell of food in the world. Mmmm-m.

    To be fair, if you can get past the wiff, the fish isn’t too bad at all but you do need a big blob of the whipped cream to help tone down the rancid saltiness. Of course, once it’s washed down with a bottle of schnapps and a few beers you forget the whole thing ever happened.

    Until you wake up the next day with a stonking hangover and get a fresh wiff of leftover rancid fish.

    Want to know more about Surströmming? I can’t imagine why but you can find out HERE 

    Pick up a tin at your local Ikea Smile

  • September29th

    11 Comments

    Pink Lightning

    Posted in: Travel & Landscapes

    Sandra Herd_Mongolia

    I’m busy trying to get the magazine out on time which may be a big call just at the moment but I’m giving it a shot! I’m running a feature on Mongolia and just wanted to put this image up on the blog…it’s one of my favourites from the trip and is 100% ridgey digde real. You probably can’t see in this small jpeg but the thing I just love about it is the tiny red light on the the camera resting on the the tyre that tells me the guy in the left got a shot off too. Magic! Shortly after this shot was taken we were pelted in the storm and took cover under a small canvas shelter just 5 meters from the ger. Dave and I had our tent pitched that night for the first time on the trip and we didn’t feel a single drop even though the thunder seemed to roll on all night.  Again, it’s a little hard to see here but the lightening was bright pink….something to do with the haze in the air I would’ve loved to have kept shooting but in the deluge it was near impossible.

    Also, I have since found out (courtesy of Google) that the odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 3000….probably more when you’re standing in Eastern Mongolian steppe with not a single tree for miles, holding a brolly with a metal tip!

  • September26th

    8 Comments

    The Fast Flight Home

    Posted in: Blog update

    Last week we were in Stockholm. Today we are home in Perth.

    When I logged on to my laptop last Friday there were emails, skype messages and facebook notifications to call home urgently. Dave’s Mum was in hospital after having a stroke and the prognosis did not look good. Luckily we were staying with friends in Sweden and within two hours we’d called home, spoken to the hospital, cleared out the car, packed up our bags and had arranged for a taxi to take us to Arlanda airport. Our boots, our tent, our camping gear and a little bit of our sanity was all left with our friends as we rushed to the airport hoping to catch a flight back to Australia.  We arrived at the airport at 3pm and by 8pm we were on a Finnair flight home via Helsinki and Singapore.

    In just over 24 hours we were home. 

    The good news is that since we’ve been back, his mum has made a remarkable recovery. Dave’s sister also flew in from the Eastern States and I think having her kids around has made a huge difference to her making her way back to us. When we first arrived she was unable to speak or even recognise who we were but this past week she has astounded the doctors by being able to walk (slowly), eat, and talk.  There’s a lot of rehabilitation to be done to strengthen the muscles in her right side (arm and leg) and lots of ‘homework’ to stimulate the brain and make sure that it’s functioning the way it did before she had the stroke.  We’ll be hanging around for a while to make sure that everything here is ok.

    Taxi to the airport $80

    Flights from Stockholm to Perth $4000

    Seeing the look of recognition on Dave’s mums face when she woke up on Tuesday…..PRICELESS! Smile

  • September1st

    3 Comments

    Happy Birthday Dave!

    Posted in: Blog update

    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam – 1 Dave – 0

    I feel like I am currently trapped in an episode of Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure. We’ve pitched up camp at Camp Zeeburg, about 20 minutes out of Amsterdam city centre. As I write this the car next to me has run into the front concrete barrier of the car park, the two guys in the RV opposite me have taken 14 minutes to put out 2 camp chairs and a camping table and on the way to the shower block I had to dodge bodies, laying ‘peacefully’ on the grass soaking up the sunshine. There’s something in the air here….

    I felt kind of strange taking this photo….the ‘cafes’ are dark day and night and are full of people who are either stoned, in the process of getting stoned or asleep…this shot is a little bit ‘soft’, handheld…. I didn’t want to use the flash and start ‘freaking people out man!’ but did want to capture the wide range of pot that is available to the cannabis connoisseur. This particular selection includes, Neville’s Haze, Cheese (sounds tempting) and Amnesia Haze.  I chose the Carlsberg…pint of!

    The kebab shops in Amsterdam do a roaring trade.

  • August30th

    5 Comments

    Stage 2…The European Adventure Begins

    Posted in: Blog update, Travel & Landscapes

    Brugge_Sandra Herd

    For the last 3 weeks we’ve been in the UK. We left China and spent a week in Langkawi before landing in good old Blighty. Since then we’ve been catching up with family and friends and have been just generally ‘hanging around’. We did however get some stuff done…we bought a car. A Citreon Xsara Picasso who we have named Citreon Sam. We didn’t start out looking for this particular car (and when you look at  the photo you’ll see why….it’s not the sexiest of machines) however we made the choice on this one because it was within our price range (900 quid), it has stacks of room for our bags (we will be living/camping out of it for 3 months!) and it seems reliable (the exhaust dropped off on our drive down to Cornwall).  So all in all a reasonable good buy….once the exhaust was repaired – ahem.

    We caught the Dover to Dunkirk ferry yesterday morning and within 2 hours we’d sailed to an entirely new country…France. And almost as soon as we arrived we drove back out again, I don’t have anything against France it’s just that we’re on a schedule and, for the moment we have to stick to it. The plan, you see, is to reach the artic circle by the time September’s new moon comes around in the hope of glimpsing the Northern lights and ticking off the thing that has been on my bucket list the longest.

    Crossing the border from Fance into Belgium was a little bit of a none event. I spotted a blue EU sign on the side of the road with a B for Belgium and that was it…3 countries in one day…not a bad effort.

    So now we’re with Sam in Brugge. For those who don’t know and can’t be bothered looking it up, it’s a beautiful and historic town in Belgium and tonight we intend to sample it’s wares…..namely beer!



    Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

« Previous Entries
Return to the Homepage