Saltwater... take two

The DeeJay Thread

I'm still recovering from a weekend away with a few of the Singapore gang up in Phuket last weekend where more than a few drinks were had.  Didn't make for a very pleasant week back at work, especially being the first full five day week I've done since early April-ish.

Next weekend a friend is having a 'barbie' and has asked me along to belt out a few choons, on a friends' CD decks which should be good fun.  Haven't played in a long time so may be a bit rusty, haven't even been out since about March when we went to see Laurent Garnier, of Man With the Red Face fame.  And the time before that was early February when I went to check out Gareth Emery, then had to fly to India the next day which is not something I would recommend to anyone (flying to India I mean, not Gareth Emery, he's bloody good)...

To be honest I'm a bit gutted about the whole DJ thing at the moment as two of the three I'd like to see most seem to have something against me:

Deadmau5:  Played in Singapore a few weeks ago.  Had to throw out the cannot lah as was on a plane to Phuket that night.

Fatboy Slim:  Playing week after next, and alas, cannot lah again as will be on a plane to Bangkok. 

Dammit.  Its almost like these DJs are waiting for me to book a trip away before committing to play over here...

So all this talk of DJs got me thinking about great DJs of our time, and maybe its a sign of getting old but at the moment I can't get past Wolfman Jack, of American Graffiti fame:

Such a good movie.  And deemed so important it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry.  This was the Fatboy Slim or Deadmau5 moment of our parents (or maybe their parents) generation, and there is so much to like about the story:

• The station depicted in the film, XERB, was known as a 'Border Buster' and broadcast from Mexico into the USA with so much power one could drive from New York to LA and 'never lose signal' (Wiki)
• This movie launched the careers of Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and Harrison Ford, among many others
• With a budget of $777,000 resulting in over $140 million in revenue, percentage-wise American Graffiti is the 9th most profitable film of all time
• Directed by George Lucas, American Graffiti should not be overlooked by fans of other genres: the return on his investment in this film allowed him to fire up his Space Opera project, which later became the Star Wars project
• In terms of the soundtrack, few films can compete with deals struck with most of the major record labels of the day, with the exception of RCA.  There is therefore no Elvis Presley on the soundtrack.

Not sure about you, but I'm off to HMV to try and get my hands on a copy (it has been on HBO recently, but I want this one on dvd).

So to round this one off, still on the idea of DJs and Radio Stations, here's probably the least favourite, damn right scary station out there.  Some say its a Russian dead hand system... or maybe they're just reserving the frequency for later, all we know is its called UVB-76: The Buzzer.  And it broadcasts this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and has been doing so for many years now...

 

Lock up your children.  In Soviet Russia the radio turns YOU off!

New Photo Page

I've set up another page on this thing for photos, and am planning to add some pics of trips, walks, family and friends. You may even find a couple of yours truly in there, so check out: http://saltwater.typepad.com/pictures/

Let's Hear it for Tie-Land

Thank God for Thailand.  Living in Singapore we're blessed with a large number cheap airlines including Tiger, Jetstar, Air Asia etc, that can whisk us away to the likes of Phuket in 90 minutes (not much longer than it takes to get the ferry to Bintan, and no silly visas that take up a whole page of the passport), and Bangkok in just under two hours.  It also helps being able to go through Changi, which is one of the world's better airports on the way through...

I was in Phuket last weekend, heading up again for a boys weekend next weekend, then in early June its a cheeky weekend away in Bangkok, followed by another trip up to Phuket in early July.  Yep if you're onto a good thing, stick to it.

A few pictures from last weekend's effort...

Dodgy power lines, girly bars, you know you've made it to Bangla Road when...

Awesome food, this was at a restaurant literally on the beach.  Where better to try a bit of sweet & sour fish...

Ad-hoc booze bus... compared to Singapore the beer is so cheap in Thailand that on a recent trip, I almost returned with a small profit...

And the beaches, so many beautiful beaches...

This is the Phuket coast line...

And of course, the beautiful sunsets...

A Wee Walk

Four day weekend for me this time round, with the additional day off to show my Dad around town on Friday and May Day holiday tomorrow.  We were not quite organised enough to book a trip away for this one, so its Sunday afternoon and we're starting to crack from lack of things to do. 

So to help pass some of the time I can at least update a bit of this, with some pictures from a walk we did a couple of weeks back.

First things first, a quick check of the weather on the day:

Yep, nice and hot all year round.  33 degrees C that day to be exact and was sweating up a storm right next to the resevoir, so if you're planning visiting Singapore any time soon I'd hold off drinking the tap water for a bit.

Here we are, at the map of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.  Note the yellow trail:  12km in total, plus the treetop walk.  Why build up to these things when you can just give the hardest one a crack on the first go?

Walking for a while, mainly through the rainforst canopy was actually not bad and was almost nice and cool...

Closer to the lake again and we found a rowing course.  Now walking in this heat is one thing, but rowing must be a whole new world of pain. Respect.

Moving along, and the fauna came into abundance.  Monkeys everywhere.  And they were all rooting like rabbits all over the place, as if that's all they ever do.  Again, respect to them.

Don't ask me what that other thing coming out of its backside is.  Continuing, we made it past the halfway point (after which there was no turning back), and solidered onto the treetop walk.  Which was really scenic, trees as far as the eye could see and hard to believe we were so close to town.  Unfortunately what goes up, must come down...

By this point the legs had been absolutely pulverised, but still we walked...

And onto the home stretch, until finally the MacRitchie Resevoir Dam itself came into view.  Job done.

And there we have it, one entire loop completed on time, and on budget. 

On a sidenote, we got a cab out to the start of the walk thinking it was going to be a good half hour drive from our place.  It actually turned out to be less than five minutes and five dollars away, which is maybe a little too close for comfort.  Maybe next time we head out there we'll check the weather to make sure its not going to be a belter before embarking on a 14km walk in the tropical head.  Regardless, its a decent walk and was good to get out of the apartment for a few hours.  I give it 4.5 chefs hats.