Saltwater... take two

Just in Case

Just in case you missed it, this is one brilliant tune.  Kasabian Fire, Live...

& while we're at it, Bloc Party I still Remember, from a few years back, just in case you missed it.  Weird lyrics, awesome song.  Fact.

Standing... Corrected

A bit of tuneage for the day, including a bit of a shoutout to the Triple J Hottest 100, 2009 which took place on Australia Day as always:

• The Temper Trap Fader (also well known for their tune Sweet Disposition doing the rounds at the moment)
• Ultra Flirt The Time is Now 2009 (Bonebox Remix)
• Simian Mobile Disco Audacity of Huge
• Miami Horror Sometimes
• Kasabian Fire

So how wrong I was about the Australian Open... turns out that Nadal chap has retired hurt - or maybe he just needs to harden the @#$% up a bit - and the UK's favorite Scot Englishman has just won through to the next round.  he's currently on tv being being interviewed by that massive knob, Jim Courier, reminding why I do hate tennis so much.

Speaking of knobs, how's this guy's parking?  Got even better when the roof car park at the local westfield filled up later on that day, and this clown was taking up two spots.

Things about the Australian Open that shit me # 27:  the sponsor list.  Seriously... check it out.  They even have an official supplier of "prestige furniture", giving me even more proof that the whole event is nothing more than one high velocity wankfest from start to finish.

All Aboard

Happy Australia Day to everyone.  A great day to throw a few lamb chops on the barbie, watch the cricket, and generally celebrate Australian-ness.  Only downside is its on a Tuesday this year so the holiday will be short lived.  Except the half a million or so that chucked a sickie yesterday to make it a four weekend.  And the hundred thousand or so that will take tomorrow off too and go for the jackpot, five day weekend.  God bless.

This end of January in Australia of course means we get bombarded with coverage of the Australian Open Tennis, and its all aboard the bandwagon as it lurches and moans towards an epic finale, that like all tennis, is about as predictable as a hangover after a few too many beers.  Typical Aussies get right behind our local heartthrob Lleyton Hewitt, until he invariably gets booted out just before the finals (no problem there last night), before switching allegiances to either of the Fed Express (cool nickname - not) or that Nadal chap.  Yawn.

As for us last night, we went off to see Groove Armada Live, just down the road.  Which was also a bit of a yawn.  Hate it when bands insist on playing all their new crap instead of their old stuff.  Even worse is when they start playing old stuff then cut it off half way through to play new rubbish instead.  So to make myself feel better thsi morning I've been watching....

Groove Armada - Chicago - Live (2004)

Let's Hear it for NZ

I'm quite enjoying a quiet weekend back in Sydney, with no weddings to attend to, and no hangover.  Its been five days since my last drink - last night would have been the first Friday night in a while I've gone without at least a bottle of red - and feeling better by the day. 

Massive sunburn.  Four day hangover.  Baby steps!

Feeling a bit reflective so I've put together some quintessential pics from NZ's South Island

Driving down the main north-south Highway, following a logging truck:

Freebies in the chicks mags - Jandals!!! 

Queenstown.  No joke here, just a really beautiful part of the World.

And at a town in the Deep South, where if you need head into town to get the milk, why drive a car when you can drive a...

 

Not Happy, Jan

Following on my post last week about Mr Murdoch and his ridiculous pay-per-read plan, I'd now like to nominate the following groups for services to the Australian community who can also go and get stuffed...

First up its our Australian-Croatian and Australian-Serbian friends, who year after year see it fit to show everyone just how unwell the two groups get along, at no less than the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne.  hey if you're going to do it, why not do it on the World stage?

This lot will throw flares at each other (a very European tradition, their parents must be so proud), start fights with each other, hurl disgusting chants at each other when there are women and children present just trying to watch the tennis, and generally behave like massive dickheads.  All so they can further the tradition of a war that happened thousands of kilometers away, in an area most of them have probably never visited, for reasons they'll never comprehend. 

Still, Australia has been a fairly race-violence free place until now, so I salute you for bringing your hatred towards each other over here.

Next up its our Australian "Yobbo" mates.  Don't get me wrong, I'm about as Australian as the next guy (as in if you trace my family tree three generations back you'll find yourself somewhere in Europe), I love to cook lamb chops on the barbie, going for swims down the beach, getting excited whenever I see a ute driving down the street, and wearing thongs / flip-flops / jandals everywhere, but there's a new breed of the Australian Yobbo that's taken the thing to a whole new level.

I am of course referring to the lot that tattoo the Southern Cross all over them like some kind of Aussie-Nazi swastika salute, and head out on Australia Day - next Tuesday - not to celebrate or reflect on what it means to be Australian, but to get as boozed up as possible and start fights with anyone and everyone - preferably anyone of Middle Eastern origin, such as the Cronulla Riots several years ago.

Hats (sunnies) off to you gentlemen, for taking what used to be a proud day in our national calendar, and twisting it around so much nobody wants to leave the house anymore. 

And just as a side-topic on that one, police last week requested that bottle shops and bars serve only low-strength booze all day, to stem the recent spike in alcohol related violence on our streets.  Naturally there was uproar.  Heaven forbid, only low strength beer all day!  I just think if we can't celebrate our national day without getting as boozed up as possible, we need to sit down and have a bit of a think about where we're going.

Last but not least, share a thought for our Indian friends in Melbourne, who have suffered through some terrible violence recently.  A couple of weeks ago an Indian graduate was stabbed to death outside his work, just last night an Indian cab driver was stabbed in the leg by a passenger, and yet a day goes by we don't hear some new horror story about something bad happening to someone.  As expected, the Indian press are having kittens about the whole thing, but let me assure you if it was Australians in the same boat over there, the reaction from our press would be far, far worse. 

Come on everybody... how a bit of peace, love, unity and respect?  Peace out, and get over it.  Let's not ruin this country like so many others in the World have been ruined before us.

Wee Bit Tired

Let me get this straight...

Thursday:  leaving drinks for a friend moving to Singapore.  Home by midnight so only spent a few hours at the pub, but man did we go hard while we were out.

Friday:  flight to New Zealand, and cocktail evening and wee town in the Deep South.  Met a nice lady called Windy, who I'm pretty sure would be called Wendy over here.  Had a few beers, and off to sleep in a single bed.

Saturday:  day of the wedding, where getting boozed is all part of the programme, to the point that 120 guests went through 90 bottles of sparkling wine and double the bar tab any "normal" wedding would go through.  We did well.  Also managed to get a massive sunburn that's still peeling today, so have really outdone myself with this one.

Sunday:  backyard bbq, loads more beer and wine, followed by an impromptu trip out to the pub.  Got there just in time, the guy was about to close, which was just as well for the owner as we must have pumped thousands into that place in the four short hours we were there.

Monday:  dropped the Rav 4 we'd hired back at Avis and endured one of the most hungover flights ever experienced, back to Sydney and reality.

Tuesday:  back to work with a stinging headache and some of the worst sunburn ever, walking around Sydney looking like a sun burnt tourist and promising myself I won't be drinking for a while.

Hangovers started hurting about ten years ago, so if they're like this now, I hate to think what they'll feel like in another ten years. 

News Just In...

Just in case you missed it, news just in from the Murdoch press about a bikini model left "shocked' and "horrified" after a conversation she thought was private ended up being aired on the radio, after she was questioned about her relationship with a media tycoon:

"I'm not with him anymore - I went on a couple of dates with [Sydney nightclub owner] Justin Hemmes and I sort of preferred Ryan, but things didn't work out" she goes on to say.

Seriously can someone please tell me how this equates to "news"?  And more worringly, why is this the most viewed story on Rupert's main Australian news website, news.com.au today?  I kid you not...

Talk about a dumbing down of society.  Its sometimes easy to think mankind has peaked, and will be living back in the trees sooner rather than later if things keep going the way they are.

Even more worrying are ongoing threats that Rupert will soon make us all pay to access his news sites online.  Which leads me to my point... if he thinks for one minute people will fork out bucks to read crap like this, he's got another thing coming.  There are many more free news websites out there, and almost all of them offer better quality reporting.  Still it looks like he's full steam ahead with it, good luck to him, I'm sure we'll all be entertained by the results.

With Friends Like These...

Another bout of quality YouTube action... with friends like these, who needs enemies?

Smile Like You Mean It

If I were a betting man, I'd be putting money on this making you smile.  Paul McCartney, Magical Mystery Tour, live from Paris

End of the Naughties

Happy Boxing Day everybody, the day we celebrate at least eleven months until we have to listen to Wham's "Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart", and a selected handful of other really crap carols, over and over and over while we fork out megabucks at the local department store.

Christmas being over of course lends itself to the idea that New Years must be just around the corner, which is always a great time for newspaper editors as they can bunk off and just publish "stories you clicked on most this year" or "highs and lows of 2009" rather than having to report any real news (not that there is much this time of year anyhow).

And of course, the eds have struck paydirt this year, because its not only the end of the year, but a quick check of the calendar also reveals its the end of the decade too, which means they get to dig through TEN years of old stories, thereby increasing their productivity ten fold in the process while they sit around doing bugger all.

As for me, I agree with the Queen about this years news... 2009 is a year best left forgotten.

I've decided to get in on the act also, so scrummaged around the photo albums for five minutes and found a selection of pictures I'd rate as my favourites of the naughties (not counting the ones that were lost when my external hard drive died - may they RIP)

So here we go, my favourite pics of the naughties...

First up, and in no particular order, we have Pignatius, taken on the spot in Bath, England

Next up, its the train from Krakow to Prague...

Moving right along we have the home end at England v USA at Wembley last year:

Next up its the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and how people always get those really original photos where it looks like they're holding it up:

Couple more travel pics now, good old Amsterdam...

And probably the best town in NZ, Queenstown...

Time for a change of scene now as we get into a bit of Pete Tong at Eden, Ibiza

Need to get a local pic in the mix somewhere, so let's try this one for size:

And last but my no means least, that Cathedral in Barcelona (Church La Sagrada Familia I think its called)

Bad Joke

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, government, healthcare, real estate prices, the stock market, the federal deficit, Iraq, Afghanistan, global warming, my savings, Social Security, credit card debt……..I called the Suicide Hotline. … I got a call center in Pakistan ……told them I was suicidal. They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

Awesome Awesome Awesome

Went off to see Avatar last night.  Seriously, get out and see this movie, and preferably in 3D, as soon as possible.  It is simply awesome.  Sure the story line is a bit thin, but the special effects and imagination that have gone into creating a new world are better than anything done previously.  I cannot wait to see it again.

Early Contender

Still way too early to call, but the dark horse from January may just end up being the personal favourite track of the year...

Avatar Worthy

In a sign of massive geekery I'm off to see Avatar (3D) tomorrow, opening night here in Sydney.  Does this mean I'm a massive geek or what?

Speaking of geekery, how about those internet forums?  One of my favourits has always been inthemix, an Aussie clubbing website, and whenever I'm feeling a bit down, I always love checking this one out, from their classic thread archive

My amp blew up and burnt two children.  Whats wrong with my amp?

Comedy.  GOLD.

Zombieland

Against my better judgement, I went off to see Zombieland last Thursday.  It sounded a little bit too random, and while I have Shawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later and Hot Fuzz on DVD, it still never occurred to me I might actually enjoy this one.

Seriously underestimated on my part.  This is one seriously funny movie, and well recommended - by me, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD too, where its going straight to the pool room.  Go and see this, if you haven't already, even if its only for the (absolutely brilliant) cameo...

Bridge Building

Aaaaah Summer in Sydney.  There's nothing like it, except for the nights where its still 30 degrees at two in the morning and there's no air conditioning.  Finishing work at 5.30, home just after 6, get changed for a walk down to the beach and home by 7.  Decent food & bottle of wine to wash down with, and life is good.  Then there's the weekends, where with a beach fifteen minutes walk away its more like being on holiday than in the city.  Until the bus back into the city on a Monday morning (still just as gloomy as the London tube on a Morning)

Tune for the day, an oldie but a goodie:  Randy Katana, In Silence (Txitxarro Mix)

Some decent bridges from an email doing the rounds:

Kintaikyo, Iwakuni , Japan

 

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge , Brasilia , Brazil

Beipanjiang River Railroad Bridge , Guizhou , China

Henderson Waves, Southern Ridges, Singapore

And my personal favourite, Anzac Bridge, Sydney

Classic

This one's been around for years now, but in case you missed it the first time...

Poetry

Word has it the guy from Black Eyed Peas spent some time in Melbourne prior to the release of the new album, undertaking some "research".  Which pretty much equates to going out and getting munted and listening to electro music every weekend.  Still, Melbourne had Tiger Woods last weekend, and the operation to separate the conjoined twins on Monday, and lots of other things, its really happening down there you know.

So here we are, all your favourite lyrics from the Black Eyed Peas to help pass a few hours.

The Cat

Here we go, a couple of pictures of our cat, Ruby.  A female black & white short haired thing we got from the RSPCA a couple of months back.  We think she must be about five months old now, and already she has a very bad attitude.

 

Home

I'm at home today, taking a bit of sick leave after getting all four wisdom teeth out on Saturday morning.  Which explains the sudden flurry of activity on the blog (last login < May, yep).  Its only been two days since the "op" but I'm already sick of yoghurt, ice cream, soup and macaroni & cheese.  Just want to sink my (remaining) teeth into an enormous steak and down a glass of red or two and I'll be a happy man again.

Anyhow life back in Sydney is going much better than that last post, I now have a better job, the flat's coming along nicely, and we have a black & white kitten, Ruby, to keep us company.  Living where we do along the coast, in between Randwick and Coogee, means we get to do some brilliant walks after work and on the weekends.  These are some of sights 'round our way, starting at Bondi (about an hour to walk to), down towards Coogee (about fifteen minutes away).  All this and the bus into town still only takes us 20 minutes.

Bondi Beach

Bronte Beach

 

Tamarama Beach:

 

Through Waverley Cemetery:

Clovelly Beach:

 

Gordon's Bay:

 

And last stop, Coogee Beach

Only in Russia

What's Happening? 2009 Version

Once again I've let several months pass without updating the blog, which is just more of the same I suppose.  A fair bit has been happening since Feb, we're now well on our way to settling into Sydney, even if it has turned out slightly different to what I expected.  So 2009, what's been happening?

Been Drinking...

Lots of Aussie beer.  And wine.  Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde beer to be precise, and lots of it.  And lots of good Aussie reds we get for $5 a bottle down at the booze supermarket.  And lots of those too.

Been Living...

With my Mum and her now husband on the Northern Beaches, and more recently in our own digs at Randwick (finally!), in a nice spot where I can sit and type this and see Coogee Bay and the Pacific Ocean out the window.

Been Working...

Plan A over here, to get a decent job in banking, doesn't seem to be going very well far so have had to resort to temporary plan B, working in a pub.  Yep, I'm officially a barman, oh the irony!  Its not all its cracked up to be over here, for every beer you pour there is a glass to clean or table to wipe down, and I don't see my girlfriend much during the week, but at least its something different, and at the moment, at least its something.

Been Listening To...

Lots of stuff, actually.  One of the upsides not working in an office is that music is always around.  I've really been getting into:
Green Day    21 Guns
The Presets    Talk Like That
The Killers    The World we Live in
Eskimo Joe    Foreign Land
Cut Copy    Hearts on Fire
and one awesome dance tune... Blank & Jones v Martin Roth    California Sunset

And Generally Been...

Rediscovering some of Sydney's better pubs, like this one at The Rocks that does some nice gourmet pizzas (including a surf n turf - very nice!)

 

And sightseeing generally.  Sydney City really is pretty when you get it from a good angle on a good day

We've also been down the South Coast a couple of times.  Instead of having say Paris or Rome 90 minuets away, we have beaches like this instead

Werri Beach at Gerringong

or Seven Mile beach at Gerroa

and the lighthouse at Kiama

And also heading out to see a bit of sport.  So far we've seen 20/20 cricket and Super 15 Rugby at the old Olympic Stadium, and Sydney v Carlton at the SCG

More updates soon now we finally have broadband in the flat.

Queen Mary 2

The Queen Mary 2visited Sydney yesterday, arriving just after 7am and leaving just after 1am this morning.  That's a fairly briefvisit, but we still had time to head down to Garden Island for a look.  Being the World's largest ocean liner (as opposed to largest cruise ship, which is held by one of those floating bricks that goes around the Caribbean), it was too big to berth at Circular Quay where they put most of the cruise ships, so instead it spent the day at the Navy Base at Garden Island.

 

 

Slumdog Millionaire

In keeping with our recent free time theme, we recently went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the Cinema.  As far as I'm concerned, all the hype and all seven Oscars it won were well deserved.  Its an eye-opener for India, anyone who's ever used a call centre, and all fans of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  Well recommended to anyone that hasn't seen it yet (although it is closing in Australia at the moment).

As a side note, on the way out I spotted a poster for another new movie, starring none other than our own Eric Bana with a guest spot by Jeremy Clarkson, word is its a car comedy titled Love the Beast, so will be looking out for that one in a couple of months.

Australia

This blog is slightly out of date now, I'm no longer an Aussie in London, I'm now just another Aussie in Australia who's done the overseas thing for a few years and returned home, just like everyone else.

Its hard to believe we've been back for more than a month already, the time really flies down here and we've been keeping busy spending Christmas with my girlfriend's parents in New Zealand, enjoying the sun in Sydney, and currently in Victoria visiting my family. 

Since we've been back I've realised living in London does soften you up a bit - so far I've had blistered feet and savage sunburn, my advice to anyone returning to Australia after a couple of years in England - you'll need to harden the hell up, because the conditions back home are tough, just like in Crocodile Dundee.

As part of moving home we've opted for a major lifestyle change:

• Join the gym, go to body pump classes as often as possible and stop eating so much rubbish.
• Quit our jobs in London and look for something new over here.
• Not missing London too much, especially in Summer, and spending holidays closer to home. 

The fly in the ointment at the moment seems to be the quitting our jobs thing.  Working in investment banking (albeit in settlements, where things do still occasionally happen) it was never going to be a good time to look for something new, even if the economy in Australia is looking much, much stronger than the UK.  So it might take a couple of months to find something which means I'm effectively unemployed for the first time in my working life. 

Its not as bad as I thought it might be... we have time to go bargain hunting at the supermarket during the day, watch a shitload of Mythbusters on Discovery Channel, head to the gym for the morning sessions with all the stay-at-home mothers and unemployed bankers whenever we feel like it, or watch long, epic movies we'd never otherwise see, like Australia with Nicole Kidman and that Hugh Jackman chap, which was actually worth a look and nowhere near as bad as some critics have made out.  Four stars.

Things I'll Miss About England - Part II

Back for another installment of things I'll miss most about England, and a topic I hold very dear to my heart, pubs.  As someone that loves a drink or two, London's my kind of town.  There really is a pub on every corner, and being so inebriated one can hardly stand is a medal of honor rather than something one should be ashamed of.  Once you're in there you find wonderful things to keep you amused... friendly locals, the English Premier League on tv, and even pool tables for the "quiet times".

But I am writing with bad news... mas much as pubs are an institution over here, they're a dying breed, with news that thirty-six are shutting their doors every week as the recession bites.

  

And where I live in London is no different.  In March 2006 when I moved to the Willesden High Road it was possible to do a decent pub crawl along the length of the thing, stopping at no less than fifteen pubs.  That number is much, much less now, among those that have gone...

The Spotted Dog - RIP - had many a messy evening / morning / afternoon in here, the big screen never worked, the beer was horrible and you could see the cellar through the holes in the floorboards, but my word it had character.

The Koz Bar / Liquid - RIP - we found a rat in an wine bucket once, so little wonder.

The Green- RIP - (now a gastropub frequented by the likes of the Sugarbabes, whoever they are)

The Willesden Crown - RIP - the worst carpet you've ever seen but still a good place for a beer.

The Basket and Brief - RIP - although now re-opened as a Romanian restaurant.

Its been a shame to see them all go, one by one, and all were within a fifteen minute walk from my flat, which goes to show how many there were, and how many we've lost in our area alone.  Somehow a franchised, soulless pub at Canary Wharf just doesn't feel the same.

Things I'll Miss About England - Part I

At risk of becoming homesick before I even set foot on the plane out of here (I actually cannot wait to be on a plane somewhere warmer, to a country that hasn't yet talked its way into a recession), or being labled another whining Australian, I thought it might be time to start some posts on things I'll miss most about England, and what better place to start today than the huge number of quality newspapers on offer for the long, delayed tube rides every day.

The Newspapers.

As the country that invented the English language (hence the name England), you'd expect a large number of quality newspapers, and England certainly delivers.  Among my favorites:

The Independent (or the Indy, as they like to call themselves).  Sure it costs £1, quite a lot for a newspaper, and recently the amount of advertising has increased so much it feels like you're reading a Woolworth's catalogue rather than a newspaper, but the tone is always professional, edgy, "independent", and above all I've got a lot of time for a newspaper that gives away tickets to dance music festivals instead of the latest Mozart recital.

The Times... a definite bargain at just £0.80, and with its Australian editor there is always room for a story or two about how the homeland is going in the cricket, or the rugby, or the league, or whatever other sport we're getting beaten at the moment.

The Sun... Another one of Mr Murdoch's stable, the working mans paper and an absolute bargain at only 30p (up from 20p earlier this year!).  The page three girls are always worth a look, just not when you're sitting next to a respectful elderly lady on the way home.

The Guardian... a decent read, but being closer to the broadsheet style, not quite the right size to be reading in a crowded train carriage.

The Daily Mail... insert stereotype here, close the borders, cancel the welfare payments, and make me a cup of tea.  I only ever read this a couple of times, and they were due to poor available selection when boarding various aircraft.  The only paper in the land that features Fred Basset in the cartoon section, which I think says it all about this one.

And among others...

On top of the daily quality papers are the Sunday editions, the redhead to look out for will always be The Sun's Sunday cousin News of the World, never known for backing away from a controversial story... just yesterday they almost single handedly ruined Gordon Ramsay's Christmas, garnering attention from other news outlets all around the World... if this paper were a sportsperson it would be a heavyweight boxer.

Then there are the evening papers, including thelondonpaper and The London Lite, both free and readily available outside Underground stations every afternoon, stopping hoards of commuters in their tracks.  Add to this the 50p London Evening Standard, stubborn as it is in criticizing anyone Australian (especially Australian retail developers), anyone from NW2, and basically anyone that doesn't live within zone one, and its high praise for the Tottenham Football Club.

Last but not least special mention goes to My Free Sport, not technically a newspaper, but distributed free every Friday morning and the bible for sport coverage over the weekend, with some decent interviews thrown in.

I'll miss the news here,  in Sydney the only press is the Sydney Morning Herald (the quality paper), and the Daily Telegraph (another of Mr Murdoch's stable, in the same vain as The Sun), along with the national newspaper, The Australian.  I may need to revert to books for the trip home.

Calling it Quits

Wow I've gone since January without updating this thing once.  To be honest I would be quite surprised if anyone that used to read it even slightly regularly still drops by anymore, but I will try and start updating it a bit more from now on.

Not having updated it since January means its missed lots of happenings like the big trip me & the girlfriend did in February and March to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco and back to England in time for the Summer festivities.  Festivities which included two days of 02 Wireless Festival including Fat Boy Slim & Powderfinger, South West Four with Armin Van Buuren and Carl Cox, trips away to Amsterdam, Brussels, Poland again for a wedding, and last weekend, Ibiza (which for the record, has the best clubs ever - I could never go to a club again, happy in the knowledge I've seen Amnesia).  So we've ticked a lot of the stuff to do off the to-do list...

Back to work on Wednesday and did the deed by resigning, looking to head back to Australia with the girlfriend in December and getting away from the English Winter.  Working in banking its not the best time to be leaving, but the credit crunch is biting London hard and for what its worth, I'd rather be on a beach in the Sun enjoying Christmas at home than sticking it out here.  So there you go, the great overseas adventure is coming to a close.

In the Nick of Time

For a January post.  Thanks to everyone for checking by, sorry about the lack of updates lately but by the look of things I've just got a January post in before the closing bell.

I've been sending links to things to my hotmail for ages but haven't got around posting them until now, firstly our suburb was in the London free newspaper thelondonpaper, So You Want to Live at Willesden Green?  And remember that bus that left London for Sydney a few months back?  Well it made it, eventually, and there are some sob stories from the trip to be had here.

Since I left off on here, the rest of December was eventful as they always are, every weekend there were leaving parties, birthday parties, Christmas parties or something else too keep us busy, I got to play records at Turnmills, but alas it was the upstairs bar for a friend's leaving party and not the main room!

Christmas was a quiet affair with a few drinks the night before and a lunch put on at a friend's place down the road.  People were asking why there are no Tubes or Buses on the day given that London is so multicultural now, but its nice being "forced" to stay around home anyway. 

New Years was one of the quietest on record, we stayed at home with a bottle of wine to watch the fireworks, then called it a night as soon as they'd finished for a change.

The weekend just gone was Australia Day, and in true stereotypical fashion we celebrated at the Walkabout, got into the snakebites and don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the day.

The big news at the moment is the holiday my girlfriend and myself have booked.  We both have to head home to Australia and New Zealand for family birthday parties in March so thought we'd take an extended trip, work came to the party with leave without pay for a bit which is almost unheard of where I work, but with the markets the way they are last year was VERY busy and they realised I need a break.

So we're off to Thailand for a week, followed by a couple of days in Adelaide and Melbourne, couple of weeks in my hometown, Sydney (and my Grandma's 80th Birthday), then off to New Zealand for a couple of weeks to visit my girlfriend's family, and back to London via San Francisco for a couple of nights.  The Round the World ticket costs a bit more than a standard return to say, Sydney, but we're really looking to some time out.  And getting back to London in the Spring.

Coming to You This Weekend From...

Paris, after giving the new Eurostar connection out of London a go yesterday to celebrate my Girlfriend's Birthday. 

The new setup is bloody brilliant if you ask me, the new station has the longest Champagne bar in Europe but they still seem to be doing a lot of testing, loads of hoardings still up around the place and they insisted on testing the fire alarm every five minutes, which never goes down well when you're hungover as a newt.

Paris is alright, has been raining cats & dogs all day but we're staying closer to Notre Dame this time so there's a bit more to see outside the hotel.  The last time I was here was in January this year, so I wouldn't mind seeing it in Summer when the trees are green some time.

Italy

Just back to London after a one week tour around the North of Italy, absolutely buggered after what feels like the equivalent of walking halfway around the World while we were there, but loved every bit of it.

First things first, news back home of Mr Howard's thumping in the Australian elections (including him loosing his own seat) reached us as we set off, which is of course good news for this blog because it means Mr Midnight Oil himself, and now Labour MP Peter Garrett, is one step closer to becoming our future Prime Minister.  I'd be back there in a flash if he ever does, would love to see the first PM in the World to deliver policy speeches with a backing band.  On the downside, we need to deal with a PM named "Kevin" for the time being.

So back to Italy, we arrived in Rome a week ago and left Milan earlier today, sadly one week is scarcely enough but is all we had, so we made the most of it.  Rome is an amazing city, hard to describe but it certainly wasn't built in a day (apologies for that one) and does feel like the Capital of the World.  Then by train to Florence for a few nights and a day trip to Pisa.  Florence really is a wonderful area with its food, wine & galleries (including Michaelangelo's David), and then off to Venice for a few more nights.

In Venice its bloody hard to find anything, very expensive and no cars anywhere so I went in thinking it was overrated but as time goes by you get the feeling you've travelled back in time and it eventually wins you over.  Then onto Milan last night for a quick look, and thats that, back to London today.  Ideally I would love to have had time for a trip to the vineyards in Florence or two and stopovers in Bologna and Verona, but its only two hours away so there's always next time. 

I feel a lot better about the World knowing Italy is part of it.

Repeat After Me

We did not move here for the weather.
We did not move here for the weather.
We did not move here for the weather.
We did not move here for the weather.
We did not move here for the weather.

Right.  One of those weeks in London town, Northern Rock looks like its gone belly-up, the personal data of half the country’s gone walkabout and the national football team can’t even beat Croatia.  Come on guys, even Australiamanaged a draw against that lot.

This Winter’s got a lot more bite than the last one, but all is well because I’m off to Italy for a week tomorrow visiting Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan.  Can’t wait… I’m actually so keen to get there I got a crash Italian course on cd, that needs to find its way onto my iPod sometime between now and tomorrow morning when I set off.  Good luck with that one.  Back at work for three weeks, then off “somewhere else” for a surprise trip for my girlfriend’s birthday, which has the unfortunate timing of being the day after her birthday drinks.  Which has the unfortunate timing of being the day after the work Christmas party.  Might be a messy week.

Meanwhile Australia goes off to the polls tomorrow, and it looks like sayonara Mr Howard.  Not that I’ll be voting mind you.

The London Eye

Come to London and do a round on the London Eye - check.  Off the Tube at Westminster and dealing with the throngs of tourists around Big Ben, telling ourselves the tourists that get in the way around Big Ben are much more annoying than we ever are when we go visiting overseas. 

The thing is actually pretty tall, and you do get some great views of London when you're up there.  Check these out:

Sleepwalking

Aaaargh Winter's starting to set in here, the central heating's on for a good chunk of the dark and its dark at 5 o'clock at night.  This is the time of year when those of us that have decided to stay in the UK over the Winter begin to question our decision making ability, knowing its going to be a crap few months weather-wise.

I had the pleasure of going to a Champions League match at Highbury the week before last,  I'm not a Gooners fan but am always up for watching them play.  It was another night out among many recently, is it just me or is it beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Arsenal vs Slavia Prague at the Emirates, five minutes before kick-off and the place isn't exactly jumping -

The game got underway and the place filled up pretty quickly.  It turned out to be a 7 - 0 thrashing, not something you see every day and a real pleasure to be there because its a wonderful stadium and the local crowd were in good form -

Bitter

See what happens when you go on holiday and don't tend the Facebook thing every day?  FFS, if I wanted to be a vampire I'd bloody well ask!

So... an Aussie in London living through the Rugby World Cup after our defeat to England last week.  What rugby?  Honestly I'm glad we didn't win, we were rubbish and the better team won.  I'm not bitter at all...

"The Wallabies are out for a training run and first the coach tells everyone to assume their normal position.  So they all go and stand behind they goalposts and wait for the conversion".

The situation was kind of helped by the fact I flew out to Poland on the Sunday after the game, thus avoiding the need to sit at work for a week and listen to the English telling us how long we'll need to wait for another crack at the Cup, which is of course, for more years.  Thanks George.

I really need to stop having benders before I fly anywhere, this time in Poland it was off to Krakow for a few nights, beautiful place with a massive town square and most of the buildings still intact (unfortunately most of Warsaw was flattened during the War) and three course meals for £20.

We also made time for a short trip to Oswiecim, better known as Auschwitz for a rather solemn day trip to a former concentration camp.  Its a humbling experience, eerily quiet, absolutely massive and entirely impossible to comprehend what went on there.

Next stop was Prague after a seven hour train ride through the Polish countryside...

And the discovery of one of Europe's hidden gems, Prague, with its hundreds of American tour groups, centuries old bridge and castle perched on the hill like something out of a cartoon. 

Somewhere in Prague I realised what life's all about, hanging out at an Irish bar in the Czech Republic with the Kiwi girlfriend, drinking Aussie beer while watching Scotland and the Ukraine play football with Mexican food on the menu.

So, tune in next time for more pictures and another non-rugby related update from the land of the humble sporting victory.

Trains 'n Planes

Tune of the day - The Sunlight "Breakfast".  Nice bit of progressive trance there that has completely made my day.

Having had my Mum here I've spent more than my fare share of the last few weeks on trains and at the Airport, so I thought it was fitting for a similarly themed post.

More so because there's been a lot of news on these topics at the moment, for example unused spare parts from the Concorde being sold off at auction (including one toilet seat, never used).  The Concorde thing always gets me thinking, if the aeronautical engineers had kept things going in the same direction, we'd be flying from London to Sydney in two hours flat these days.  So how about a new supersonic plane, surely there's still a market to fly from London to New York in two hours? 

Unfortunately it'll probably never happen, I can't imagine any plane that could do that would be the most environmentally friendly thing.

Also in the news is British Airways decision to splurge out on some new planes - £4 billion worth in fact.  And just to keep the peace, they've split their order between Boeing and Airbus.  That still hasn't stopped the British National Pride coming out in force, as per today's Times "British Airways is a benchmark for the global aviation industry... [and] could therefore trigger a landslide of other A380 purchases [by other airlines]".  As a side note, it also helps sustain 20,000 jobs in the UK.

Speaking of sustaining jobs in the UK, unfortunately it seems the long-awaited Crossrail project for London is stuck up on blocks, awaiting "just a few hundred million more pounds" of funding before it gets the go ahead.  For anyone that isn't familiar with Crossrail it will link Heathrow with the City of London and Canary Wharf, easing pressure from existing Tube lines.  As someone who's seen the Jubilee Line's crowding worsen by the day first hand, I can only hope this one goes ahead, even if chances are I'll be out of here before I ever get to set foot on the thing.

And last but not least Eurostar's move to St Pancras International isn't far away now - as of 14 November trains will no longer stop at Waterloo, much to the delight of the French.  As someone that got stuck at a station in South London earlier this week and had to stand well back from the yellow line while a Eurostar train trundled through (all fourteen carriages of it), it's about time these things had their own line.  The 20 minute time saving to the Continent is just an added bonus.

Death of an Inspiration

Sad news this week with the death of French mime artist, Marcel Marceau.  I've taken the news particularly badly, Marcel was always an inspiration for me after a few too many turboshandies when I decided the normal dance moves just didn't let me express myself enough, and it was time to launch into something different.  My favourites were always the breaststroke, backstroke, mowing the lawn, doing the grocery shopping and hanging the washing out.  Sure everybody else in the pub thinks I'm a complete dickhead, but hey we all need to express ourselves somehow. 

Couple of tunes worth checking out that have been doing the rounds lately:

• Hard-Fi Suburban Knights
• The Kaiser Chiefs We are the Angry Mob
• The Prodigy Smack My Bitch Up (The Thrillseekers Remix)

My Life Rated - the 2007 Remix

I took the My Life Rated quiz a few years back, as I said at the time it was pity about the romance bit,  luckily everything else was looking good:

Fast forward a few years and and I've revisited the thing, things are a bit different now.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.8
Mind:	7.5
Body:	7.8
Spirit:	7.1
Friends/Family:	5.9
Love:	6.9
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Elsewhere one of the pluses of living in a city like London is the amount of stuff to go out and see, from concerts to festivals to museums there's always something to do, unfortunately though there are that many twenty-somethings here that tickets to any half decent concert normally get snapped up within minutes of going on sale. 

So I was more than happy to track down some tickets to a band I've like for years, the Dandy Warhols, playing at Camden Town next week. 

The Dandy Warhols - Bohemium Like You Lyrics:

So what do you do?
Oh yeah, I wait tables too.
No I haven't heard your band
Cause you guys are pretty new.
But if you dig, I’m big in food.
Well come over to my work
I'll have them cook you something that you'll really love.

I love songs everyone can sing along to after a couple of beers.

Also, my Mum's here at the moment so to say thanks for keeping me company last weekend while the girlfriend was away we're off to Billy Elliot on Tuesday.  Not sure why but I'm really looking forward to that, it starts in Sydney in December so she could well see it there, but anyone that's been to the theatre here will agree its the quintessential London experience:

• A few drinks & dinner out before the show - check.
• Gin & tonics with at least 60% of the cup being gin - check
• The show itself - a few tunes and good acting - check
• Couple of nightcaps at a pub after the show - check
• Drunken tube ride - check
• Home in time before the Tubes turn into Pumpkins - check.

But more about that later.

September

Right, time for a bit less of this

And a bit more of this

Loveshack by the B52s at Lovebox a few months back.  Nice work.  Note the blue sky, it had been crap weather all week and even on the way in, but as soon as the girlfriend & I got there the clouds parted and the Sun shone through.  That kind of thing seems to happen a lot for us, but thats a whole other story.

September's a bit of a weird month for me, loads going on at once with work being busy, people going away and my Mum being here all packed into a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile the Rugby World Cup is in full swing, great to see England being taught a bit of a football lesson last night, just a shame it was by the Springboks.  We're playing Wales later today, in Wales, which might be tricky for us so fingers and toes crossed there.

Lastly today the electoral race for the Mayor of London is heating up, and in case you don't know him already I'd like to introduce you to Borris Johnson.  The man is a legend and would have my vote if I was registered here... he's a bit of a character, and isn't afraid to say what he really thinks:

"what to do about the scourge of some obstreperous kids, who are abusing the privilege of free travel for the under-16s and making life miserable for the other passengers, sometimes turning the buses into glorified getaway cars for their criminal escapades."

Well said.

End of Summer

Not much of a Summer, but still way too much on to be at home for more than five minutes at a time nonetheless.  This thing's suffered a bit, more than a month since the last post (can't believe Cardiff was more than a month ago already) and there's loads of stuff to report.

Its probably easiest to start with the most recent long weekend while the iron's still hot, and what probably went down as the busiest long weekend ever:

Friday night went out to the Hoodoo Gurus, an Aussie surf band at Hammersmith with a bunch of other Aussies, along with Kiwis, English, and God knows who else.

Saturday went to SouthWestFour at Clapham, twenty thousand people dancing in the Sun and a sea of people going off to the likes of Paul Van Dyk and Ferry Corsten.

Sunday didn't call for much, was meant to head to the Church but there's no way we were up for that after Saturday's antics.  Did however make it to the Redback for a decent session and a turbo shandy or two.

Monday was a Bank Holiday so we went in to check out the Notting Hill Carnival.  Not quite what I expected, even if I did expect it to be very crowded... and very loud. 

And also had the Tuesday off, took it easy at home, slept in but made it out that night to see Avenue Q in the West End.  Not a bad show, but did hammer the Gin & Tonics a bit too hard so Wednesday was a struggle. 

So only tomorrow to go, booking in the three day was an inspired decision, this weekend our local tube station is shut so I'm using it as excuse to do bugger all and recover from the last one.  Will tap out what else I've been up to and post some pics shortly, until then its bye for now.