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Working Holiday 1996-1997 Samuel Murray

Well, the name basically says it all. I went on a working holiday to the United Kingdom during 1996 and 1997. These are my experiences and the tips I intended to write in 1998... by now probably dangerously outdated.

Please note! Let wel!
This site is a work in progress. Only the following pages have content: Home Page, Prehistory, Travel Route, Squattings and Culture Shock. Werf tans in aanbou. Slegs die gemelde seksies is al voltooi.

Home page / Tuisblad

Die werf is tweetalig, en sommige dele is hoofsaaklik in Engels. The site is bilingual, and some parts are written mainly in Afrikaans.

Toe die web nog jonk was en ek my eerste webwerf ontwikkel het, sou 'n afdeling oor die Working Holiday deel daarvan gevorm het. Ek was nog vars en het baie dinge geleer. Baie dinge wat ek met liefde aan enige iemand sou oordra.

However, the world has changed and things may be a little different nowadays. If I go London now and say "Dee Cooper" no one will know what I'm talking about, but in the mid-nineties she was the best person to call for all-found jobs in the platteland. Oh wait - correction everyone - I just found her page on the Internet: livein-jobs.co.uk.

And I guess tips like "learn to use e-mail" to give you the edge, is all but superfluous now. Maar toemaar, dalk geniet iemand daarbuite dié tydkapsule en veeg 'n traan van heimwee saam met my. Kom ons kyk na wat alles in dié werf is:

Prehistory / Vooraf gebeur

The prehistory section tells how I came to the idea of doing the working holiday thing. I find it interesting. You may find it boring. But if the god didn't make all these pre-stuff happen, I prolly would've ended up in a boring office job instead of bearing the title "world traveller".

Travel route / My reisroete

A traveller fresh from Heathrow is indeed very, very fresh. But after a while the geography of the new digs make better sense. Here's a quick overview of all the spots that I've smelled. Again, I find it fascinating. It'll give you a nice overview of my two years in Rooinek land.

Squattings / Afsaalplekke

Obviously having stayed over at some places for a month or more gives me a little insider's insight to the digs. These are the places where I worked and lived during my working holiday: London (1 month), Iona (2 months), Lochmaddy (3 months), Edinburgh (around 7 months in total) and Pitlochry (6 months). I've also had sleepovers in Berlin, Öhringen, Ullapool area, Tobermory area, and Hurstburne Tarrant.

Culture shock / Kultuurskok

Britain is different from South Africa. Surprise! Well, some things are more shocking than others. In this section I'll detail or mention some of the weird habits of these rooinekke and their bonnie counterparts. Much of it is oversimplified stereotyping. If I offended you or if you know better, then let me know.

Trench tips / Wenke vir jou

So I've been there, done it and bought the straight-jacket t-shirt. Much of my tips will be out dated. Some of it may actually be completely wrong because I took the one train and you'll prolly catch the next one, and I was there on Monday and you'll be there on Wednesday (met permissie, die Coast to Coast boekie sê ook so). But hey, dalk leer jy nog iets nuuts hierso.

Retro blog / Terugskouings

From time to time I'll write to the blog. But unlike a conventional blog, this one deals with what I can remember from my days in the UK and over there in general. Or I may even write something completely irrelevant. Parts of it may actually be topical instead of chronological.

Articles / Artikels

No doubt some unt from anywhere in the world will try to have his say, and this is the place to do it. If you have been abroad (or abloke) in Britain or elsewhere on a working holiday or black, and if you have something to say, then write an article and I will host it from here. Traveller stories welcome.

Links / Skakels

The obligatory links section. I will link any site about working holidays, traveller stories, anything which might help green antipods get their piece of cake, etc. You link me and I'll link you. Okay? Hell, if your site is exceptional I might actually link you regardless.

Site map / Werfkaart

The sitemap section also contains a guest book, a mail form, my contact details and a picture of me. Do sign the guestbook. Plaas jou poot in my gasteboek, op met die hotklou.

Rasionaal

Just in case I get questions about the design of this web site, here goes the disclaimer. Why do I use the Winnie G-string flag instead of the nice Oranje-Blanje-Blou? Want ek dink Madiba is 'n cool ou. Why do I use the St Andrews flag instead of the Prancing Pony? Want ek kon nie 'n regte Skotse vlag in dié formaat opspoor nie. Why do I use the Scottish flag at all? Want my trippie na Engeland was maar 'n klein deeltjie van my working holiday ervaring. Why do I use nested tables, font face tags and nested font tags? Want ek is lus. And because I don't really want to control what you see... WYSIUTYB (what you see is up to your browser).

(c) Samuel Murray-Smit, 2002 (meant to be 1998). http://users.demented.org/~leuce/index.html. afrikaans@websurfer.co.za.

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Tuisblad

Vooraf gebeur

My reisroete

Afsaalplekke

Kultuurskok

Wenke vir jou

Terugskouings

Artikels

Skakels

Werfkaart