Well, what a weekend! Oscar had his summer range launch on Thursday night, which he had been working on for over a month. I had taken Friday and Monday off, as I knew Thursday would be big and it also meant I could stay away with Kat for an extra day.
The launch was great, Kat and Nugget came to that and left at a respectful time so they would be able to get up the next day, pick Darryl and Steve up from the AirPort and make it down to Wilsons Prom. I however did not.
After a trashy event and then going out, I was in no state to get up in time, then I went to another Fashion show, so I missed all the rides down to the Prom. Oscar offered me the use of his car so I invited him down. Saturday afternoon when we woke up, we jumped in the car and took off towards the Prom, armed only with a zoomed out Google Map's map.
I think that a WhereIs map would have been better as Google Maps are notorious for sending you the wrong way down a one way street. Combine that with the blonde nature of Oscar and Myself and we had a recipe for distraction.
It took us 6 hours to do a 2 hour trip. We missed freeway turn offs, took the long way round and then passed where we were supposed to be and drove all the way through to the point of Wilsons Prom.
We finally made it to the house at about 8. We even drove straight past Steve who was waiting outside the house waving to us.
The place was fantastic the front was all glass and offered amazing sea views. Pip and Phil cooked an amazing meal with a Mango salad and a Duck salad... hmmm
We spent the next day exploring the Prom, then crashed on the couch for idol with a couple of drinks we passed out (as per normal) on the couch.
The drive back wasn't quite as long but we did miss quite a few of the off ramps again...
Happy birthday Kat... x
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Blockbuster dissapointment
Now I have been wanting to see Spiderman 3 and Transformers for a while now, especially with all the hype behind them.
I liked the previous Spiderman movies and Transformers were a childhood favourite of mine; I thought I was in for a treat when I hired them.
When we were hiring them I bumped into Hamish, a workmate, who was hiring something a little more 'high brow' and less commercial. I joked about the tackiness of our choices but I didn't care, I thought I was going to enjoy them.
Now the special effects in both movies were outstanding, and I'm sure that if I had seen them on the big screen they would have been fantastic. But special effects alone don't make a movie.
Spiderman: Now the story line was okay and very cliché. I knew there would be some soppy saccharine love storylines between Peter Parker and MJ, but at some stages I thought I was going to vomit. The villains kept appearing, it was like the whole cast was nearly against him at one stage.
The piece de la resistance which put the final nail in the coffin was the script. An average story line, with a terrible script that created tacky meaningless interactions between the characters totally overshadowed the special effects and made a hard to watch 3 hour monster! Now I do like to watch mindless crap, more often than not; so it’s a shock that I can look back at this and think it was 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Transformers: I am a fan of SciFi or as my flatmates call it Mark TV, so I had very high hopes.
I remember when I first saw Independence Day many years ago, it was one of the first movies where aliens came to earth and started wreaking havoc blowing up the world’s most famous monuments. It was a movie where when the stakes were down the American people got together, stood up against the invaders, fought back and won. The movie shocked you with the destruction of Big Ben and the White House as the aliens demonstrated their awesome power and then welled up the emotion of pride as the human race showed their resilience when pushed into a corner.
I guess I’m trying to say that I’d seen it all before. This was another movie with a mediocre story line and a terrible script, loosely modelled off previously successful hits. I understand that this movie had to be appropriate for younger viewers to see, but so does The Simpsons and they manage to produce a clever and simple script week after week. Sickening feel good scenes with love scenes which made me glad I’m gay topped off what I classify as another disappointing waste of time.
It was definitely one of the worse nights on the couch I’ve had in a long time, it’s made me think that maybe I don’t appreciate the commercial blockbusters as much as I had thought.
And maybe they should start paying the writers more, well the ones that didn’t write these scripts. Check out Batman Returns, that was an incredibly well written movie.
I liked the previous Spiderman movies and Transformers were a childhood favourite of mine; I thought I was in for a treat when I hired them.
When we were hiring them I bumped into Hamish, a workmate, who was hiring something a little more 'high brow' and less commercial. I joked about the tackiness of our choices but I didn't care, I thought I was going to enjoy them.
Now the special effects in both movies were outstanding, and I'm sure that if I had seen them on the big screen they would have been fantastic. But special effects alone don't make a movie.
Spiderman: Now the story line was okay and very cliché. I knew there would be some soppy saccharine love storylines between Peter Parker and MJ, but at some stages I thought I was going to vomit. The villains kept appearing, it was like the whole cast was nearly against him at one stage.
The piece de la resistance which put the final nail in the coffin was the script. An average story line, with a terrible script that created tacky meaningless interactions between the characters totally overshadowed the special effects and made a hard to watch 3 hour monster! Now I do like to watch mindless crap, more often than not; so it’s a shock that I can look back at this and think it was 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Transformers: I am a fan of SciFi or as my flatmates call it Mark TV, so I had very high hopes.
I remember when I first saw Independence Day many years ago, it was one of the first movies where aliens came to earth and started wreaking havoc blowing up the world’s most famous monuments. It was a movie where when the stakes were down the American people got together, stood up against the invaders, fought back and won. The movie shocked you with the destruction of Big Ben and the White House as the aliens demonstrated their awesome power and then welled up the emotion of pride as the human race showed their resilience when pushed into a corner.
I guess I’m trying to say that I’d seen it all before. This was another movie with a mediocre story line and a terrible script, loosely modelled off previously successful hits. I understand that this movie had to be appropriate for younger viewers to see, but so does The Simpsons and they manage to produce a clever and simple script week after week. Sickening feel good scenes with love scenes which made me glad I’m gay topped off what I classify as another disappointing waste of time.
It was definitely one of the worse nights on the couch I’ve had in a long time, it’s made me think that maybe I don’t appreciate the commercial blockbusters as much as I had thought.
And maybe they should start paying the writers more, well the ones that didn’t write these scripts. Check out Batman Returns, that was an incredibly well written movie.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Babel
We got out a couple of movies to watch, one of them was Babel. We got them home and a friend of Oscar’s, Niko, mentioned he had seen Babel and it was good, but deep and not humourous.
What a shock we were in for… A fantastic movie that I recommend everyone see. Amazing story line, fantastic acting and a deep message that leaves you with the realisation that one event can have repercussions that affect and flow through so many peoples lives.
One of the recurrent themes was impaired communication. From foreign language to deafness, the characters found themselves trying to communicate with those who didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand.
An amazing touching movie that left me upset as I felt so much for the characters. In my book a response like that to a movie signals a success.
What a shock we were in for… A fantastic movie that I recommend everyone see. Amazing story line, fantastic acting and a deep message that leaves you with the realisation that one event can have repercussions that affect and flow through so many peoples lives.
One of the recurrent themes was impaired communication. From foreign language to deafness, the characters found themselves trying to communicate with those who didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand.
An amazing touching movie that left me upset as I felt so much for the characters. In my book a response like that to a movie signals a success.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I Just Ate It
I've just created a new blog. It's about what I eat and where I eat it.
I find that my meals tend to have a story and I felt like sharing it with the world.
I want it to be funny and I want it to have some reviews that will help people decide where to eat and where not to eat.
So be warned my friends, if you have me over for dinner you will no doubtly end up in my blog and your efforts will be reviewed and commented upon. If I'm gonna slag the meal, I'll dicuss it with you and if you don't like what I'm going to say I'll be polite and make it a short post.
I wonder if this means people with think twice about inviting me over for dinner... Or will it mean that you will take up the challenge and throw invites my way ;)
All this blogging... I don't think I've ever written this much before in my life.
Eat up.
I find that my meals tend to have a story and I felt like sharing it with the world.
I want it to be funny and I want it to have some reviews that will help people decide where to eat and where not to eat.
So be warned my friends, if you have me over for dinner you will no doubtly end up in my blog and your efforts will be reviewed and commented upon. If I'm gonna slag the meal, I'll dicuss it with you and if you don't like what I'm going to say I'll be polite and make it a short post.
I wonder if this means people with think twice about inviting me over for dinner... Or will it mean that you will take up the challenge and throw invites my way ;)
All this blogging... I don't think I've ever written this much before in my life.
Eat up.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Mr Moon you walk upon the water...
I'm sure there have been a million blog posts written tonight about the eclipse of the Moon tonight, so I thought I'd add mine to the list.
As I walked home, the moon was very bright and there were clouds hanging around, it looked like it was going to be a no show for the moon... ha ha ha
After calls from Mum and messages from Juz I finally got off my butt and went out and check out the eclipse. It was amazing, all red and not really there. It really brings home the concept of these huge objects floating around in space (The earth, sun and moon).
The thoughts going through my head were memories of the Solar eclipse I saw a couple of years back and the Headless Chickens' song Mr Moon.
Go Moon!
As I walked home, the moon was very bright and there were clouds hanging around, it looked like it was going to be a no show for the moon... ha ha ha
After calls from Mum and messages from Juz I finally got off my butt and went out and check out the eclipse. It was amazing, all red and not really there. It really brings home the concept of these huge objects floating around in space (The earth, sun and moon).
The thoughts going through my head were memories of the Solar eclipse I saw a couple of years back and the Headless Chickens' song Mr Moon.
Go Moon!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Fuck you McAfee!
Oh My God!
I just spent the last bloody hour trying to get my computer online! Now I'm not a computer novice by any description and I was ready to throw my laptop through the nearest window. But instead I've uninstalled McAfee and I'm venting by writing this blog post abusing their stupid unusable software!
So last November I got my brand new Dell M1210 laptop, I was a little disappointed that it came with an 18 month McAfee subscription and not a Norton one but hey, I thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and use it.
So, for the last 9 months or so, I've been really happy with McAfee. More than happy! It had been non-intrusive, there had been this nifty feature which identified safe sites returned in Google searches, the spam filtering in Outlook had been working really well.
I've had friends who had Norton and they had experienced no end of trouble with it being to agressive and I have friends who have Trend which had stopped all of their outbound emails... ha I had thought, thank god I had McAfee...
Tonight it all changed! Looking back there had been times when my internet connection just wasn't connecting so I had reboot the lappy and the router and eventually it had come up. But after doing that a couple of times tonight and not being able to surf the net, download emails or sign into MSN or Skype!
Okay, problem solving time... I could ping URL's so it meant that domain names were being resolved and I was connected to the internet. So I thought, well could be the firewall... I opened up the McAfee control panel and tried to turn it off, but it just didn't like that, there is no OFF switch, there is no OFF switch... Do you know how annoying that is? It's my PC when I say off I mean OFF! I know they say it's for saftey, feels more like they don't want their software turned off... So I opened up task manager and started hacking at the McAfee services and turning them off...
Woah... All of a sudden my MSN had connected... I connected to a site... Cripes... what was that... then all of a sudden everything crapped out again... I continued hacking at the services, hang on, didn't I kill you? The bloody things were regenerating and reloading! I'm sure that is for safety but it's bloody anoying!
So that was it, I uninstalled it, by now I was less than impressed... What had happened? I was online this morning, I hadn't turned the lappy on all day and then it wouldn't go tonight! I'm sure it's a combo of Vista and McAfee, but McAfee is easier to ditch than Vista is so see ya later and good riddence!
I just spent the last bloody hour trying to get my computer online! Now I'm not a computer novice by any description and I was ready to throw my laptop through the nearest window. But instead I've uninstalled McAfee and I'm venting by writing this blog post abusing their stupid unusable software!
So last November I got my brand new Dell M1210 laptop, I was a little disappointed that it came with an 18 month McAfee subscription and not a Norton one but hey, I thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and use it.
So, for the last 9 months or so, I've been really happy with McAfee. More than happy! It had been non-intrusive, there had been this nifty feature which identified safe sites returned in Google searches, the spam filtering in Outlook had been working really well.
I've had friends who had Norton and they had experienced no end of trouble with it being to agressive and I have friends who have Trend which had stopped all of their outbound emails... ha I had thought, thank god I had McAfee...
Tonight it all changed! Looking back there had been times when my internet connection just wasn't connecting so I had reboot the lappy and the router and eventually it had come up. But after doing that a couple of times tonight and not being able to surf the net, download emails or sign into MSN or Skype!
Okay, problem solving time... I could ping URL's so it meant that domain names were being resolved and I was connected to the internet. So I thought, well could be the firewall... I opened up the McAfee control panel and tried to turn it off, but it just didn't like that, there is no OFF switch, there is no OFF switch... Do you know how annoying that is? It's my PC when I say off I mean OFF! I know they say it's for saftey, feels more like they don't want their software turned off... So I opened up task manager and started hacking at the McAfee services and turning them off...
Woah... All of a sudden my MSN had connected... I connected to a site... Cripes... what was that... then all of a sudden everything crapped out again... I continued hacking at the services, hang on, didn't I kill you? The bloody things were regenerating and reloading! I'm sure that is for safety but it's bloody anoying!
So that was it, I uninstalled it, by now I was less than impressed... What had happened? I was online this morning, I hadn't turned the lappy on all day and then it wouldn't go tonight! I'm sure it's a combo of Vista and McAfee, but McAfee is easier to ditch than Vista is so see ya later and good riddence!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Plug: radar.net
So my latest addiciton is facebook... Can't remember if I've posted about this before or not, so this could be a bit of a repeat sentence...
Alas, I started with MySpace... It was fun for a while but sort of lacked some usability and just didn't keep my attention in the end, I found it frustrating... In comes facebook, I had signed up to both at about the same time and had focused on my MySpace profile. After getting bored with MySpace and the sudden take up of facebook in Australia I changed my focus. I find facebook better in the fact that your home page lists all the updates for your friends and yourself in one useable page. If you want to see more detail about someone's activities it's easy to view their profile. The layout is cleaner and there is no chance of someone creating some monstrosity!
The reason for this post is to mention radar.net, I was looking at facebook applications to add to my page and came across this... It's not like it's never been done before, but you email photos to an address and they are uploaded into your radar profile/account. The facebook application shows the photos and makes an announcement as to what you are doing and shows your photo with it.
I've just started using it and it's easy, there is even a java application that you can install on your phone to view the photos and edit the comments... very cool... I'd better watch how much traffic I put through on my phone, this could become an expensive hobby :)
Alas, I started with MySpace... It was fun for a while but sort of lacked some usability and just didn't keep my attention in the end, I found it frustrating... In comes facebook, I had signed up to both at about the same time and had focused on my MySpace profile. After getting bored with MySpace and the sudden take up of facebook in Australia I changed my focus. I find facebook better in the fact that your home page lists all the updates for your friends and yourself in one useable page. If you want to see more detail about someone's activities it's easy to view their profile. The layout is cleaner and there is no chance of someone creating some monstrosity!
The reason for this post is to mention radar.net, I was looking at facebook applications to add to my page and came across this... It's not like it's never been done before, but you email photos to an address and they are uploaded into your radar profile/account. The facebook application shows the photos and makes an announcement as to what you are doing and shows your photo with it.
I've just started using it and it's easy, there is even a java application that you can install on your phone to view the photos and edit the comments... very cool... I'd better watch how much traffic I put through on my phone, this could become an expensive hobby :)
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The Amazing Human Body...
Today I went to The Amazing Human Body" Exhibition... I'd heard about this exhibition which was all these preserved and cut up human bodies... I'd heard story of one body which had been skinned and was setup as if he was holding it (the skin that is)...
People had called it grotesque when I had told them about it, I wasn't sure how I would find it...
The two words I'd use to describe it are fascinating and gross! The vertical and horizontal slices of the body has to be seen, If you've ever seen the Cell with Jennifer Lopez (one of her best) it's something similar to what is done to the horse!
So I didn't see a body holding it's skin, but there was an exhibit of a person's skin. It's perspex cover had no base and so it was just sitting over the skin and moved when pushed... Well the skin was just touching all the sides so I gave the lid a little push to see what the texture of the skin would be... I thought it would be all dry and hard... But it wasn't it was springy... errr gross...
Any way... it was amazing... deffinitely a must see... but it was still gross...
People had called it grotesque when I had told them about it, I wasn't sure how I would find it...
The two words I'd use to describe it are fascinating and gross! The vertical and horizontal slices of the body has to be seen, If you've ever seen the Cell with Jennifer Lopez (one of her best) it's something similar to what is done to the horse!
So I didn't see a body holding it's skin, but there was an exhibit of a person's skin. It's perspex cover had no base and so it was just sitting over the skin and moved when pushed... Well the skin was just touching all the sides so I gave the lid a little push to see what the texture of the skin would be... I thought it would be all dry and hard... But it wasn't it was springy... errr gross...
Any way... it was amazing... deffinitely a must see... but it was still gross...
Friday, August 03, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
My Flickr account
I've just started my first Flickr album...
Seems okay... I've yet to make a decision wether it is better than the Google one.
Seems okay... I've yet to make a decision wether it is better than the Google one.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
That's it Myspace! Your on the outta... Hello Facebook
Ok, I'm fed up with the chronic proliferation of bad design and poor usability!
So I'm hanging up the keys to MySpace and moving my attention to Facebook. The layout is much better, the design is much cleaner and it's a hell of a lot easier and more logical to use!
I've been on there for quite a while, but lately it's just taken off and it's just going nuts! Oh, if you join check out the photo tagging...
So I'm hanging up the keys to MySpace and moving my attention to Facebook. The layout is much better, the design is much cleaner and it's a hell of a lot easier and more logical to use!
I've been on there for quite a while, but lately it's just taken off and it's just going nuts! Oh, if you join check out the photo tagging...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
fuckmeimfamous.com
So I finally added fuckmeimfamous.com as one of the URL's for my blog... I do have plans for the site, but it will take me a while to build it and some favours too :)
It's one of my longest owned domains and definitely one of my favourites! Very sentimental.
It's one of my longest owned domains and definitely one of my favourites! Very sentimental.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Glutton for punishment...
On Monday night I did a pump class, I thought the instructor's technique was suffering due to the excessive weights she was doing! I think that she has no problem doing those weights in a normal class but when you are taking a class, taking and having to remember the moves you are doing that you need to take your weights down!
So she was throwing the bar, rocking and doing the things that she was saying you shouldn't do... Flick wasn't there unfortunately, so in protest, I made sure that my technique was as perfect as I could get it... That did mean that the work out was intense!
So Tuesday night I'm in bed sleeping and it's about 3 in the morning and I wake up in absolute pain! My arms are aching from the bicep curls and it's excrutiating to stretch them out... I'm half asleep which doesn't help and straigtening my arms and lying on them...
The next day, we had scheduled a massive rearrangement at the office... 25 odd people over 6 floors in two buildings... As I'm the tech grunt, it was my job to coordinate it and where needed carry computer equipment... 20,000 steps, cos as you know I'm doing the Global Corporate Challenge... I was totally shattered when I got home.
Then today, I did my normal Thursday lunch time Pilates, only to find out that it was the instructor Zac's last class... You won't understand this but when you have an instructor that you click with it makes the class.... and if they leave it's devestating...
Anyhow... Oscar has also joined the gym and wanted to do a work out tonight too... So I had said yes and are not one to pike out normally... First off... 10 minutes running on the tread mill... Halfway through my thighs were starting to ache...
I can say that now I am totally shattered... and I have to get up early tomoz... Shite...
Oh well... buff for summer... buff for summer... my new mantra!
Wish me luck!
PS. if you want a gym in Fitzroy, I totally recomend Time for Fitness... Just tell them I sent you!
So she was throwing the bar, rocking and doing the things that she was saying you shouldn't do... Flick wasn't there unfortunately, so in protest, I made sure that my technique was as perfect as I could get it... That did mean that the work out was intense!
So Tuesday night I'm in bed sleeping and it's about 3 in the morning and I wake up in absolute pain! My arms are aching from the bicep curls and it's excrutiating to stretch them out... I'm half asleep which doesn't help and straigtening my arms and lying on them...
The next day, we had scheduled a massive rearrangement at the office... 25 odd people over 6 floors in two buildings... As I'm the tech grunt, it was my job to coordinate it and where needed carry computer equipment... 20,000 steps, cos as you know I'm doing the Global Corporate Challenge... I was totally shattered when I got home.
Then today, I did my normal Thursday lunch time Pilates, only to find out that it was the instructor Zac's last class... You won't understand this but when you have an instructor that you click with it makes the class.... and if they leave it's devestating...
Anyhow... Oscar has also joined the gym and wanted to do a work out tonight too... So I had said yes and are not one to pike out normally... First off... 10 minutes running on the tread mill... Halfway through my thighs were starting to ache...
I can say that now I am totally shattered... and I have to get up early tomoz... Shite...
Oh well... buff for summer... buff for summer... my new mantra!
Wish me luck!
PS. if you want a gym in Fitzroy, I totally recomend Time for Fitness... Just tell them I sent you!
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Butt it out....
So Victoria has finally caught up with the rest of the planet... No more smoking inside licensed venues!
Finally the politicians are looking after our best interests and standing up to the tobacco companies! Bout frikin time!
The ban came in to place at 12:00am 1st of July... This morning....
We were meant to go out for 'last ciggarettes' but in the end the couch and TV were too enticing!
Kick it in the butt today!
Finally the politicians are looking after our best interests and standing up to the tobacco companies! Bout frikin time!
The ban came in to place at 12:00am 1st of July... This morning....
We were meant to go out for 'last ciggarettes' but in the end the couch and TV were too enticing!
Kick it in the butt today!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Leigh's birthday party
I woke up at midday, very hung over, I must learn to drink less! For the first time I was the last one to get up.
I spent the day lazing on the couch, watching the 2 first Bourne movies...
It's Leigh's birthday going out for drinks night was tonight... Feeling a little seedy from the launch it was going to be relatively quiet for me...
Started off with drinks at Leigh's with Jess and Sharon, probably didn't need to open the last bottle, but we did anyway. Probably didn't need to buy Martini's at the bar... Probably didn't need to buy more Martini's... But hey by now my judgement had gone out the window...
I somehow managed to leave and go home around 1:30ish... Thank god... A very reasonable time! I was very drunk, I tripped over in the lounge and smashed one of the ornaments on the table... I then when and woke up Chris by feeding him burger rings while he was sleeping!
I spent the day lazing on the couch, watching the 2 first Bourne movies...
It's Leigh's birthday going out for drinks night was tonight... Feeling a little seedy from the launch it was going to be relatively quiet for me...
Started off with drinks at Leigh's with Jess and Sharon, probably didn't need to open the last bottle, but we did anyway. Probably didn't need to buy Martini's at the bar... Probably didn't need to buy more Martini's... But hey by now my judgement had gone out the window...
I somehow managed to leave and go home around 1:30ish... Thank god... A very reasonable time! I was very drunk, I tripped over in the lounge and smashed one of the ornaments on the table... I then when and woke up Chris by feeding him burger rings while he was sleeping!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Oscar Calvo - The launch
Before the event
Today's the day, over a month in the making, everything will come together and there will be no problems or stress... Well here's hoping...
I took half the day off to help out... Organising a party is very remniscent of the club days...
So the invite said 6:30 for a 7:00 start, the models will do their thing around 7:30 - 8:00, there will be drinks and food served all night and the after party is at the Glasshouse, conveniently just round the corner...
After the event
The launch was a success... There were around 100 people through over the night, there was lots of drink, the music was great, everyone had a good time and the models looked hot..
It was a bit of a stress leading up to the start, there was lots to do and I didn't finish setting it all up until 7:00pm...
So, there were 6 shapped trees along the foot path with fairy lights, there were out door heaters spread out among the trees, a red carpet was run along the front of the shop window and bollards roped it off, creating the entrance into the shop...
The night went off with out many hitches, shite loads of wine glasses were destroyed, the show bags were in hot demand and everyone loved the shop.
We headed out to the Glasshouse for a couple of drinks, then off to the Peel...
While I was out the police were dispatched to our house as one of the neighbours complained about the noise... Someone found the cordless mic turned the PA on and started calling out for a price check on aisle 5, a total pisser, I would have been in hysterics... Being 3 or 4 in the morning, I can under stand why the neighbours were a little cranky, especially being a school night and all...
Well it will be nice and quiet around our place for a while... Nice..
Today's the day, over a month in the making, everything will come together and there will be no problems or stress... Well here's hoping...
I took half the day off to help out... Organising a party is very remniscent of the club days...
So the invite said 6:30 for a 7:00 start, the models will do their thing around 7:30 - 8:00, there will be drinks and food served all night and the after party is at the Glasshouse, conveniently just round the corner...
After the event
The launch was a success... There were around 100 people through over the night, there was lots of drink, the music was great, everyone had a good time and the models looked hot..
It was a bit of a stress leading up to the start, there was lots to do and I didn't finish setting it all up until 7:00pm...
So, there were 6 shapped trees along the foot path with fairy lights, there were out door heaters spread out among the trees, a red carpet was run along the front of the shop window and bollards roped it off, creating the entrance into the shop...
The night went off with out many hitches, shite loads of wine glasses were destroyed, the show bags were in hot demand and everyone loved the shop.
We headed out to the Glasshouse for a couple of drinks, then off to the Peel...
While I was out the police were dispatched to our house as one of the neighbours complained about the noise... Someone found the cordless mic turned the PA on and started calling out for a price check on aisle 5, a total pisser, I would have been in hysterics... Being 3 or 4 in the morning, I can under stand why the neighbours were a little cranky, especially being a school night and all...
Well it will be nice and quiet around our place for a while... Nice..
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Beaucoup Fish
7 more fish have been added to the bowl... all ranging in sizes between my tiny White Clouds and the Ginormous Moor fish... I think that all these extra fish will help the White Clouds stay safely away from the clutches of the predatory monstors...
It's the day before the Oscar Calvo shop launch. Lots of finishing touches being put on the preparations. Tomorrow is going to be very exciting/stressful...
It's the day before the Oscar Calvo shop launch. Lots of finishing touches being put on the preparations. Tomorrow is going to be very exciting/stressful...
Monday, June 25, 2007
I tell you... it's a hard life
So A and K are still in the bowl... I reckon they'll last for a while...
I think I'm in the right place, the launch of Oscar's shop is this Thursday night. All the sponsors stuff is arriving, the auditions are being help and it's all go go go...
It will be a great night and there'll be great photos all round...
I think I'm in the right place, the launch of Oscar's shop is this Thursday night. All the sponsors stuff is arriving, the auditions are being help and it's all go go go...
It will be a great night and there'll be great photos all round...
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Fish...
Oscar got a fish tank for the shop yesterday, he got 2 large orange Moor fish, Oscar and Chris (O and C). I got 4 little White Clouds and called them M, A, R and K.
O and C are quite large and there is a very high chance that they will eat M, A, R and K... There is one Missing already, I think it was M.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I'm an action hero...
There is this site by Verizon called Action Hero... You upload a photo of your face and mark out a couple of reference points.
After choosig a storyline and sound track the site goes away and renders a movie with your face mapped on to the heroes...
It's very cool... check out my movie
After choosig a storyline and sound track the site goes away and renders a movie with your face mapped on to the heroes...
It's very cool... check out my movie
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Happy Birthday Jess...
Today was Jess's Birthday.
We trekked out to Sunshine for Cucumber (not) Sandwiches and lots of Champers Pats...
We had lots of fun drinking into the late hours of the evening... Jules is flying out tomorrow for England...
We were also celebrating the engagement of Jules and Jess... He proposed when they were recently in Thailand... I am proud to say that I set them up...
We trekked out to Sunshine for Cucumber (not) Sandwiches and lots of Champers Pats...
We had lots of fun drinking into the late hours of the evening... Jules is flying out tomorrow for England...
We were also celebrating the engagement of Jules and Jess... He proposed when they were recently in Thailand... I am proud to say that I set them up...
 |
| Jess's Birthday |
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Zora's birthday
So for her birthday, Zora had a fancy dress party and the theme was 'What the fuck are you wearing?'
It was thown at my/our place... Then we all went out to the Peel afterwards...
So much fun, just check out the photos....
It was thown at my/our place... Then we all went out to the Peel afterwards...
So much fun, just check out the photos....
 |
| What the fuck are you wearing? |
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Global Corporate Challenge
So I'm entered into this walk round the world called Global Corporate Challenge...
It's this site where corporates are encouraged to walk and record their number of steps per day then enter them into this site.
The site is designed by Reactive uses Google maps and looks fantastic!
Go and check out the demo.
Global Corporate Challenge 2007
It's this site where corporates are encouraged to walk and record their number of steps per day then enter them into this site.
The site is designed by Reactive uses Google maps and looks fantastic!
Go and check out the demo.
Global Corporate Challenge 2007
The funniest thing just happened....
My flatmate somehow started an MSN video chat with someone who was getting their gear off and getting a bit amorous at the same time...
When this happens you need to make sure they have started a webcam and not a video call... The difference is, a webcam will show you their camera only, a video call will show you their webcam and also share voice back and forth...
Funnily enough the guy had started a video call and while we were giving Oscar instructions he could hear everything we were saying...
Needless to say the webcam ended with the guy saying, if you were alone it would have been great! Goodbye!
When this happens you need to make sure they have started a webcam and not a video call... The difference is, a webcam will show you their camera only, a video call will show you their webcam and also share voice back and forth...
Funnily enough the guy had started a video call and while we were giving Oscar instructions he could hear everything we were saying...
Needless to say the webcam ended with the guy saying, if you were alone it would have been great! Goodbye!
I'm useless...
Okay, I'm useless at keeping this up to date...
Well every time I let it slip I delay trying to catch up, so I'm not gonna worry about catching up I'm just gonna let bit's slip...
Here are photos that a friend of mine, Brooke, took for her photography course...
It was taken at Hares and Hyena's in Fitzroy...
Well every time I let it slip I delay trying to catch up, so I'm not gonna worry about catching up I'm just gonna let bit's slip...
Here are photos that a friend of mine, Brooke, took for her photography course...
 |
| Brooke photo shoot |
It was taken at Hares and Hyena's in Fitzroy...
Friday, March 30, 2007
Oscar and Chris
So today I popped in to meet the potential flatmates and see the place...
Oscar is setting up a shop and the appartment is behind and above it.
The room is smaller than my current one and there are no windows except a skylight, but I never really spend heaps of time in there so I reckon I can work it.
The living area is comfortable, open plan, with the kitchen looking straight at the TV, perfect!
I expressed my interest and now I just have to wait!
Oscar is setting up a shop and the appartment is behind and above it.
The room is smaller than my current one and there are no windows except a skylight, but I never really spend heaps of time in there so I reckon I can work it.
The living area is comfortable, open plan, with the kitchen looking straight at the TV, perfect!
I expressed my interest and now I just have to wait!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The lines out, not many bites
So I've been looking for a week or so now, haven't really found anything that takes my fancy...
I've made contact with this guy who's a fashion designer and the place is above his shop in collingwood... Sounds good I'm gonna make contact...
I've made contact with this guy who's a fashion designer and the place is above his shop in collingwood... Sounds good I'm gonna make contact...
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I need to live closer to the city!
So I currently live in Sunshine.
A couple of years ago I was living in Fitzroy on Napier Street with Stephen and Mark. I got involved in some crazy plan to move my friend Jason's shite half way across the country in a car that was lucky to get from one side of the city to the other... (don't tell him I said that)...
Anyway, I had a plans to be out of town for about 2 months then go back to NZ for a month, so I moved out of the place in Fitzroy and put all my stuff in storage. Many times later I regretted moving out of there... but hey if I had I wouldn't be here!
Any hoo... when I got back from my galavanting around the country, Jess who I was working with at the time offered me a room at her house in Sunshine until I found a place. It was a good thing, it meant I was away from the city and would help me dry out... lol...
So three years later I'm still in Sunshine! It is deffinitely a testament to the home that Jess created.
So, I'm over the travel and my social life is starting to kick back in so I need to live some where more convenient. Convenience I've decided is my mantra for my 31st year.
My plan is to sign up to gayshare.com.au! Last time I had to find somewhere to live I paid someone $35 to find compatable places and setup interviews, it worked out well so I'm sure this will too.
Wish me luck.
A couple of years ago I was living in Fitzroy on Napier Street with Stephen and Mark. I got involved in some crazy plan to move my friend Jason's shite half way across the country in a car that was lucky to get from one side of the city to the other... (don't tell him I said that)...
Anyway, I had a plans to be out of town for about 2 months then go back to NZ for a month, so I moved out of the place in Fitzroy and put all my stuff in storage. Many times later I regretted moving out of there... but hey if I had I wouldn't be here!
Any hoo... when I got back from my galavanting around the country, Jess who I was working with at the time offered me a room at her house in Sunshine until I found a place. It was a good thing, it meant I was away from the city and would help me dry out... lol...
So three years later I'm still in Sunshine! It is deffinitely a testament to the home that Jess created.
So, I'm over the travel and my social life is starting to kick back in so I need to live some where more convenient. Convenience I've decided is my mantra for my 31st year.
My plan is to sign up to gayshare.com.au! Last time I had to find somewhere to live I paid someone $35 to find compatable places and setup interviews, it worked out well so I'm sure this will too.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Wedding after party
A splendid afternoon was hosted for us the day after the wedding. We headed out to one of James and Katrina's favourite pubs and ate snacks and drank booze for hours.
We then went out for some authentic italian pizzas...
A great day, thanks :)
We then went out for some authentic italian pizzas...
A great day, thanks :)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
James and Trina's Wedding.
Ahhh the day of the wedding… I woke up and though to myself that I had better try on the suit that I had borrowed… hmm leaving it to the last minute you might think….surely you can see the pattern forming… So I tried it on and it was a little tight and way too uncomfortable, it was about now that I realized that I had forgotten my belt…. Hmmm. Oh well, I had a nice shirt, I just had to go and get some pants. Hell, I still had to go and get the present, surely you’re not surprised?
I found a great pair of pants in the first place I looked, the sales assistant was a blast, this wog chick… crazy as… I described the people from Frankston as bogans and then to my surprise she asked me what a bogan was… hmmm I tried, then I gave up, I should have just point to the mirror.
I got a voucher and card from House (a kitchenware shop). I scored the card for free, the Sydney mo’s came through for me again… The sales assistant obviously liked the look of me… battering of the eyelids didn’t go astray… James and Trina, if you’re reading this, don’t see it as me getting your card for free…. See it as me having to sell myself…. Actually, I’m not sure which is worse…?
I fluffed around Sydney’s Newtown with Brett and Lauren, then headed back to their place to start getting ready. In doing so I left the present and card in Lauren’s bag… No surprise, so no stress…
I got back, got ready, grabbed my camera, grabbed the batteries, then Brett and Lauren arrived back, saved the day and I got to take the present. I left grabbed a taxi and headed in to the city. Unfortunately I forgot the bloody sim card for my camera! Luckily I found an open technology shop in the city and grabbed another memory stick… I’ve gotta stop doing that I’ve got more than my fair share already!
I caught up with Alex, Brooke, Sacha and Mark for a drink in the city and then headed to the ceremony.
We got there and out of the taxi, to bump into Jurgen and Karen, who I hadn’t seen for about 4 years…
A great day for a reunion or two…
Well the list of super stars from my life kept pouring out of the wood work… Matt and Filipa made the way over from London, Dan and Bonnie, Rach and Todd, John and Helen… hmmm lot’s of they’s :)
It was a great wedding, Katrina, like most brides, looked stunning! I met lots of great people, got trashed and took hundreds of photos of myself…
I ended up going out all night down Oxford Street. I got back to Brett and Lauren’s place at about 8 in the morning and then crashed…
I found a great pair of pants in the first place I looked, the sales assistant was a blast, this wog chick… crazy as… I described the people from Frankston as bogans and then to my surprise she asked me what a bogan was… hmmm I tried, then I gave up, I should have just point to the mirror.
I got a voucher and card from House (a kitchenware shop). I scored the card for free, the Sydney mo’s came through for me again… The sales assistant obviously liked the look of me… battering of the eyelids didn’t go astray… James and Trina, if you’re reading this, don’t see it as me getting your card for free…. See it as me having to sell myself…. Actually, I’m not sure which is worse…?
I fluffed around Sydney’s Newtown with Brett and Lauren, then headed back to their place to start getting ready. In doing so I left the present and card in Lauren’s bag… No surprise, so no stress…
I got back, got ready, grabbed my camera, grabbed the batteries, then Brett and Lauren arrived back, saved the day and I got to take the present. I left grabbed a taxi and headed in to the city. Unfortunately I forgot the bloody sim card for my camera! Luckily I found an open technology shop in the city and grabbed another memory stick… I’ve gotta stop doing that I’ve got more than my fair share already!
I caught up with Alex, Brooke, Sacha and Mark for a drink in the city and then headed to the ceremony.
We got there and out of the taxi, to bump into Jurgen and Karen, who I hadn’t seen for about 4 years…
A great day for a reunion or two…
Well the list of super stars from my life kept pouring out of the wood work… Matt and Filipa made the way over from London, Dan and Bonnie, Rach and Todd, John and Helen… hmmm lot’s of they’s :)
It was a great wedding, Katrina, like most brides, looked stunning! I met lots of great people, got trashed and took hundreds of photos of myself…
I ended up going out all night down Oxford Street. I got back to Brett and Lauren’s place at about 8 in the morning and then crashed…
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tripping to Sydney.
Well I must say that as I age I don’t get better at traveling, you might say I’m completely useless…
I was flying out at 8:15pm I had thought it was 8:30 until I checked my flight details this afternoon, oh well, what’s 15 minutes huh? If I left work at the beginning of Beer and (the newly added) Soft drink O’clock I would have enough time to get to the train station, train home, get ready, get a lift to the airport (thanks Jess), check in and fly out… The fact that I hadn’t packed was a minor issue and completely normal. You would think I liked running around like a crazed headless chook.
I made the plane, with enough time to check out all the talent getting on the plane. I got an emergency exit row, window seat. Fantastic I thought… lots of leg room…
Yeah bloody fantastic until this misshapen, top heavy woman sat next to me… Yep, another nightmare plane story… Now arm rest politics on a plane can be tricky, especially back there in peasant class… Usually you try and work out who will have their arm forward and who’s will be at the back. Since I had a window seat I though I’d be submissive (yes I can play that role) and give her the first choice… Little did I know that she would take up enough room to monopolise both front and back… Grrr… oh well, I’m broad, but I’m small so I thought fine, have the arm rest… like I had a choice…
Now I have my personal space and I don’t like people getting into it. Quite frankly don’t touch me. There are only few people I don’t mind getting that close…
So how I see it, I paid for the space on the plane that my seat occupies. I see the arm rest as no persons land, but don’t even think about letting your volumous arm encroach on my space… Well grrr on herrr… I couldn’t help myself, I think she got the message, I was practically climbing up the wall to get away from her.
Not my worse plane experience, I’ll tell that in a minute…
So, I flew Qantas and was treated to dinner, well if you can call bread sticks and salsa dinner…
Gosh I love to bitch about air travel huh? In actual fact I love flying :)
I got to Sydney airport and one of the first things that I noticed were all the mo’s hanging around… Oh I do like to visit Sydney…
I got a taxi out to Glebe (love the sound of that word). I’m staying with Brett and Lauren, dear I say it, newly engaged. Bloody breeders just can’t help themselves, we all know what comes next!
Brett and Lauren had just moved out from near central station to their new place in Glebe, it was a ‘grand’ terrace at some stage, but the landlord had converted it to multiple apartments, splitting each floor into it’s own place. As Lauren put it, Uni living at non-Uni prices… The housing market in Sydney is F**ked.
I just saw on the news that currently three quarters of the baby boomers, which are aged between 45 and 65, own something like a third of the houses in Australia… Cripes, when they croak the housing market is gonna crash…
Any hows, we went out for a couple of drinks, got pizza, more drinks and sat in the lounge and gossiped…
I was flying out at 8:15pm I had thought it was 8:30 until I checked my flight details this afternoon, oh well, what’s 15 minutes huh? If I left work at the beginning of Beer and (the newly added) Soft drink O’clock I would have enough time to get to the train station, train home, get ready, get a lift to the airport (thanks Jess), check in and fly out… The fact that I hadn’t packed was a minor issue and completely normal. You would think I liked running around like a crazed headless chook.
I made the plane, with enough time to check out all the talent getting on the plane. I got an emergency exit row, window seat. Fantastic I thought… lots of leg room…
Yeah bloody fantastic until this misshapen, top heavy woman sat next to me… Yep, another nightmare plane story… Now arm rest politics on a plane can be tricky, especially back there in peasant class… Usually you try and work out who will have their arm forward and who’s will be at the back. Since I had a window seat I though I’d be submissive (yes I can play that role) and give her the first choice… Little did I know that she would take up enough room to monopolise both front and back… Grrr… oh well, I’m broad, but I’m small so I thought fine, have the arm rest… like I had a choice…
Now I have my personal space and I don’t like people getting into it. Quite frankly don’t touch me. There are only few people I don’t mind getting that close…
So how I see it, I paid for the space on the plane that my seat occupies. I see the arm rest as no persons land, but don’t even think about letting your volumous arm encroach on my space… Well grrr on herrr… I couldn’t help myself, I think she got the message, I was practically climbing up the wall to get away from her.
Not my worse plane experience, I’ll tell that in a minute…
So, I flew Qantas and was treated to dinner, well if you can call bread sticks and salsa dinner…
Gosh I love to bitch about air travel huh? In actual fact I love flying :)
I got to Sydney airport and one of the first things that I noticed were all the mo’s hanging around… Oh I do like to visit Sydney…
I got a taxi out to Glebe (love the sound of that word). I’m staying with Brett and Lauren, dear I say it, newly engaged. Bloody breeders just can’t help themselves, we all know what comes next!
Brett and Lauren had just moved out from near central station to their new place in Glebe, it was a ‘grand’ terrace at some stage, but the landlord had converted it to multiple apartments, splitting each floor into it’s own place. As Lauren put it, Uni living at non-Uni prices… The housing market in Sydney is F**ked.
I just saw on the news that currently three quarters of the baby boomers, which are aged between 45 and 65, own something like a third of the houses in Australia… Cripes, when they croak the housing market is gonna crash…
Any hows, we went out for a couple of drinks, got pizza, more drinks and sat in the lounge and gossiped…
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Another wedding...
At the risk of turning this into a wedding blog… James and Trina’s wedding is this weekend in Sydney…
It will be a great weekend, school friends are coming from New Zealand to Europe and I’m sure I will meet some lots of interesting people ;)
It will be a great weekend, school friends are coming from New Zealand to Europe and I’m sure I will meet some lots of interesting people ;)
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
10 Years in Australia!
Well today is the 10 year anniversary of when I moved to Australia for the first time.
Ten years ago today, a young and innocent, Marky Mark and his high school mate Alex Evans jumped on a plane and moved to Melbourne to live with Ange and Wayne...
Who could have seen the crazy adventures that laid ahead of me?
I'd been to Melbourne 6 months earlier to spend New Years with Wayne, my old flat mate and high school friend, and his girl friend Angela Westerby (now Angela McKellar). I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to live there. Much to Ange's horror Wayne invited Alex and I to move over and live with them... Well it didn't turn out too bad as now Ange is one of my best friends!
It has been a fantastic 10 years and I've experienced things that not many people ever experience in 10 life times. The only downside is that I've spent ten years away from my family. Lets hope in the next ten years we all spend more time crossing the Tasman. We'll have to plant a lot of trees to become carbon neutral...
Heres to the last ten and heres to the next ten!
Ten years ago today, a young and innocent, Marky Mark and his high school mate Alex Evans jumped on a plane and moved to Melbourne to live with Ange and Wayne...
Who could have seen the crazy adventures that laid ahead of me?
I'd been to Melbourne 6 months earlier to spend New Years with Wayne, my old flat mate and high school friend, and his girl friend Angela Westerby (now Angela McKellar). I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to live there. Much to Ange's horror Wayne invited Alex and I to move over and live with them... Well it didn't turn out too bad as now Ange is one of my best friends!
It has been a fantastic 10 years and I've experienced things that not many people ever experience in 10 life times. The only downside is that I've spent ten years away from my family. Lets hope in the next ten years we all spend more time crossing the Tasman. We'll have to plant a lot of trees to become carbon neutral...
Heres to the last ten and heres to the next ten!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
My first site...
I recently made a site for a friend, it's my first site... Check out the dancemakers site.
MySpace part 2
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
MySpace
Everyone, well anyone with taste, hates MySpace and the terrible pages that people post. What the great unwashed have done to the web through MySpace is really unforgivable!
I am taking it upon myself as my challenge to make my MySpace page of decent design and not distasteful to the pallet of my friends of the design persuasion!
It will take me some time to get it right, so have patience... but I will bring taste to MySpace!
http://www.myspace.com/mark_moynihan
I am taking it upon myself as my challenge to make my MySpace page of decent design and not distasteful to the pallet of my friends of the design persuasion!
It will take me some time to get it right, so have patience... but I will bring taste to MySpace!
http://www.myspace.com/mark_moynihan
Heroes
Ok, this isn't going to be a big post, but I just have to state that Heroes is the best tv show I've ever seen, ever... and I've been a tv junkie in my time...
Heroes rocks!
Oh, so does Milo Ventimiglia... First saw him on Gilmore girls, now he's on Heroes... Very hot!
Heroes rocks!
Oh, so does Milo Ventimiglia... First saw him on Gilmore girls, now he's on Heroes... Very hot!
Zune
I went to a Microsoft event on hosting providers today...
They were giving away a Zune at the end of it... I hide my iPod Nano as I walked in and said my mantra's...
Then at the end, I won it :)
Okay... so it's like one of the first ones in Australia... so should I sell it on eBay? Christ... hard descision... It's not really my style to get rid of things... I'll probably keep it for while, never use it cos' my nano is smaller and then just give it to my brother Tony.... Don't count your chickens to early Tony, I might just like it... :) Well I suppose in that case you'll get the Nano...
Installing it at the moment...
Hmmm... Damn, if I sold it I could use the money to buy a new bike... damn...
Software installed....
Zune connected...
Firmware updating...
Syncing... blah blah blah... I'll let you know how it goes later...
They were giving away a Zune at the end of it... I hide my iPod Nano as I walked in and said my mantra's...
Then at the end, I won it :)
Okay... so it's like one of the first ones in Australia... so should I sell it on eBay? Christ... hard descision... It's not really my style to get rid of things... I'll probably keep it for while, never use it cos' my nano is smaller and then just give it to my brother Tony.... Don't count your chickens to early Tony, I might just like it... :) Well I suppose in that case you'll get the Nano...
Installing it at the moment...
Hmmm... Damn, if I sold it I could use the money to buy a new bike... damn...
Software installed....
Zune connected...
Firmware updating...
Syncing... blah blah blah... I'll let you know how it goes later...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bicycles and Vista
Well I finally got my hands on Vista at work today. Still waiting for it for my lappy, but at least I get to have a play. It installed fine, took a couple of attempts to join it to the domain, I don't think it liked having the same name as my poota's previous incarnation... Opps... :)
When it installed it came up with the right video driver, but no sound driver... a couple of minutes later I started to hear clicks and beeps... The bloody thing had gone out, found them and installed them! Did the same when I plugged in my web cam too... Huh! So much for the skeptics that said there were no drivers and all that crap :)
The repair work on my bike didn't go down as well as my Vista install, there was no self repair... bugger... The back wheel is better, but there is still some clunking... I'll have to take it out for a test ride... Throw it about and see if it stays in one piece :)
When it installed it came up with the right video driver, but no sound driver... a couple of minutes later I started to hear clicks and beeps... The bloody thing had gone out, found them and installed them! Did the same when I plugged in my web cam too... Huh! So much for the skeptics that said there were no drivers and all that crap :)
The repair work on my bike didn't go down as well as my Vista install, there was no self repair... bugger... The back wheel is better, but there is still some clunking... I'll have to take it out for a test ride... Throw it about and see if it stays in one piece :)
Monday, February 19, 2007
My take on 2007...
I cancelled my gym membership in December, I always find that I never go during December and January as I'm always off doing other things or not in town. I started riding my bike in from Sunshine to work every day... This way I get to do my exercise and travelling at the same time, it was a great optimisation of time and talk about great exercise...
Each way is about 16km, takes about 40minutes and burns off 500 calories, 35% of which are from fat!!! Only problem is my beloved bike which is very old and done me well for many many kilometers is definitely on it's last legs. I went out on it tonight and the rear hub is loose and needs some tlc... or maybe I should just replace it... hmm just the wheel or maybe the whole bike...
Actually, I really want to move back into the city, Sunshine is just a bit too far out of the city for my social life. I need to be a bit closer, getting home late at night is way too expensive and totally inconvenient. And living close to work would be very nice... Walking to work would be a dream, then I wouldn't need to get a new bike so I'm going to just try and fix the wheel and put up with it until I can save up for a new one (most probably after I pay off my laptop).
So the main things I have planned so far are:
Each way is about 16km, takes about 40minutes and burns off 500 calories, 35% of which are from fat!!! Only problem is my beloved bike which is very old and done me well for many many kilometers is definitely on it's last legs. I went out on it tonight and the rear hub is loose and needs some tlc... or maybe I should just replace it... hmm just the wheel or maybe the whole bike...
Actually, I really want to move back into the city, Sunshine is just a bit too far out of the city for my social life. I need to be a bit closer, getting home late at night is way too expensive and totally inconvenient. And living close to work would be very nice... Walking to work would be a dream, then I wouldn't need to get a new bike so I'm going to just try and fix the wheel and put up with it until I can save up for a new one (most probably after I pay off my laptop).
So the main things I have planned so far are:
- James and Trin's wedding in Sydney
- Move into the city
- Finish paying off the laptop
- Get a new pushy
2006 wrap-up
The end of 2006 was not short of drama's...
Granny had a couple of bad turns and I took off to New Zealand for a surprise weekend trip... That was emotionally and physically draining. She ended up pulling through...
I lost my phone again, it being a 3 phone I couldn't swap it for one of my spares... Talk about being one of the most painful things that's happened to me...
The year ended and I lived through it, what more can I ask for?
I went back to NZ again for xmas for a couple of days, ended up being searched by customs on the way into NZ. I was fine coming back into Australia, one point Oz, one less point NZ!
Granny had a couple of bad turns and I took off to New Zealand for a surprise weekend trip... That was emotionally and physically draining. She ended up pulling through...
I lost my phone again, it being a 3 phone I couldn't swap it for one of my spares... Talk about being one of the most painful things that's happened to me...
The year ended and I lived through it, what more can I ask for?
I went back to NZ again for xmas for a couple of days, ended up being searched by customs on the way into NZ. I was fine coming back into Australia, one point Oz, one less point NZ!
Europe wrap up...
Well I thought I had better make a post that finished of the Europe trip so I could try and get this blog up to date... Otherwise I'll always be behind ...
So, Tim and Amber arrived in Barcelona and we stayed at this great apartment which over looked la Rambla. The apartment had cooking facilities, nice shower, was clean and the closest thing to a home that I had been in for nearly a month.
The four of us (Tim, Amber, Wayne and I) hung out in Barcelona, checking out the sites, shopping, eating and drinking.
Things to do:
So, Tim and Amber arrived in Barcelona and we stayed at this great apartment which over looked la Rambla. The apartment had cooking facilities, nice shower, was clean and the closest thing to a home that I had been in for nearly a month.
The four of us (Tim, Amber, Wayne and I) hung out in Barcelona, checking out the sites, shopping, eating and drinking.
Things to do:
- Check out all the Goudy stuff you can
- Hire push bikes and ride around the maze of the Barri Gotic and La Ribera
- Eat as much tapas as you can
- Drink as much wine as you can
- Deffinitely check out the hunks on the beach :)
If you look around there are some great places to eat. I had the best meals on my holiday in Barcelona.
La Rambla was always alive with people, during the day it's full of con-artists and buskers, or busking con-artists... It's supposed to be a place where you have to look after you wallet, but I never lost mine. During the night la Rambla is full of prostitutes... As I was walking along that would come out grab my arm and try and drag me aside to sell me their wares... After a while I started telling them I was gay and that just encited them to start grabbing my butt and have a feel... Can't win...
We were out walking one night, trying to find a bar we had heard about that sold Absinthe. We knew it was in the El Raval area (dodgy and to the west of La Rambla), so we were walking around and turned down this street... there were no lights and as we started down the street very scary looking people started to step out of the shadows and onto the street... we very quickly turned around and took off... The next day when we were out on the push bikes exploring some how I ended up leading us through this building site and onto the dodgy street. If we had gone down the street in the dark there would have been no way out... Stay away from dark places and keep your eyes open!
Anyway we had a great time in Barcelona and were sad to leave.
I then headed back to London with Tim and Amber, I broke my suit case on the way by using the extendable handle to lift it... a big no no for the suitcases with wheels... d'oh.
London
Back in London I got to go out and do a bit of exploring by myself... When you are out there walking around chosing your own direction you really get a better sense of where things are. I ended up jumping on the underground and getting off at random stations and then walking around. I love Soho, but that's no surprise as it's the city's gay precinct :)
Some of the highlights were:
- The london eye - I went on this with Tim and Ange, Ange who hates heights will never forgive us for talking her into going on it :)
- Heaven night club - after going out for dinner we went bar hopping and ended up at Heaven night club, we got searched and put through metal detectors to get in which had happened everywhere so it just gave you more of a sense of saftey. I loved Heaven... I'll definitely go there next time I go back to London and make a night of it.
- Oxo tower - we had dinner at the Oxo tower bistro, very nice. It was a great meal, but you would want to be earning the pound if you eat there.
- Buckingham Castle - I went on a tour of Buckingham castle, I've become fascinated with the english Royal family... the histroy, the power and more recently the loss of power.
- Cathcing up with Mark, a friend from NZ that I hadn't seen in ages...
Hasta la vista Europe
So I left for the airport and thought I had given myself lots of spare time but I arrived with not much time to spare and at what felt like the end of the queue for my flight. I would have to say that Heathrow Airport would have to be the worst airport I had been through, small cramped, crowded and slow... You would think for the worlds busiest Airport they would have facilities to cope... I guess the whole security thing made it all a lot worse...
I got on the plane and was sitting next to this cool chick who seemed to like drinking as much as I did... So I had the Stewardess's make up for the rude behaviour of the Stewardess I had on the way over.
I got to Singaport Airport and hunted for showers that I had heard of, I was feeling crappy as London had been hot and muggy, a shower would have been great, but I ran out of time. So by the time I got back on the plane I was well and truely ready to get home...
Anyway I arrived home and then went out clubbing... christ what was I thinking?
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Barcelona and Goudy...
After a relaxing morning, hiding from the rain and watching spanish DVD's we headed out to see a bit of Barcelona and la Sagrada Familia.
The main tourist centre of Barcelona is called les Ramblas, it's a kilometer long plaza which houses buskers through the day and protitutes through the night. On the east side of Les Ramblas is the Barique Gothic which is as the name suggest 'Gothic' the buildings are very 'churchy' in design. Quite tall buildings which make up a maze of alley ways. They would hose down the streets every night, but all the dogs which ran wild thorough the streets made sure there was enough urine to make it smell. On the west side of Les Ramblas is El Raval, the poorest and dodgiest part to central Barcelona, a couple of good bars and restaurants here and also one of the scariest streets...
La Sagrada Familia is the largest construction project currently underway on the planet and it truely is the most amazing. I have never seen a building that is more awe-inspiring than this. You have to go and see it for yourselves as words cannot do it justice. Even though it's a church and I don't do the whole church thing this is deffinitely a must see.
We finished the day with an amazing meal at an organic vegetarian restaurant, one of the best meals I'd had on my whole trip!
The main tourist centre of Barcelona is called les Ramblas, it's a kilometer long plaza which houses buskers through the day and protitutes through the night. On the east side of Les Ramblas is the Barique Gothic which is as the name suggest 'Gothic' the buildings are very 'churchy' in design. Quite tall buildings which make up a maze of alley ways. They would hose down the streets every night, but all the dogs which ran wild thorough the streets made sure there was enough urine to make it smell. On the west side of Les Ramblas is El Raval, the poorest and dodgiest part to central Barcelona, a couple of good bars and restaurants here and also one of the scariest streets...
La Sagrada Familia is the largest construction project currently underway on the planet and it truely is the most amazing. I have never seen a building that is more awe-inspiring than this. You have to go and see it for yourselves as words cannot do it justice. Even though it's a church and I don't do the whole church thing this is deffinitely a must see.
We finished the day with an amazing meal at an organic vegetarian restaurant, one of the best meals I'd had on my whole trip!
Get me to Barcelona
Again, I woke up hungover…
To be make sure our trip to
So we go back to the hostel, pack our stuff and head off to the train station we arrived at. Important thing to note here is that we didn’t check our tickets to see where we departed from!
Relaxed and with plenty of time up our sleeves we caught the underground out to the, or should I say one of the, train station(s)… When we got there, we couldn’t find our train on any of the departure boards, suddenly it dawned on us that we hadn’t checked what station we were departing from… A horrible feeling welled up inside us as we realised that we should be at the other station, on the other side of town.
With an hour till our train left and about that amount of travel to get to it, we started running… So much for being early and having a relaxing trip…
We just made it, I was sweating like a pig, having had to run with my suitcase, thank god it had wheels and a handle…
We got to
At the train station we had the option of catching the underground or getting a Taxi. Mark had advised us to get a taxi. However being the underground veterans that we thought we were and add to that the huge queue for taxi’s we decided that the underground was for us!
Not knowing exactly where Mark lived and not having a map ended up being more of an issue than we thought it would be.
We got the underground to a station which was in the suburb Mark lived in, as we were leaving the station hordes of people were entering the station, it was pandemonium.
Safe, dry sigh…
Saturday, February 10, 2007
9-11
James dropped us off at the train station in the morning and then headed back to Lisbon where he started his journey back to Australia. I wouldn't have picked that day to fly, I don't think James thought about it when he booked his flights.
We had a relaxing, uneventful train ride to Madrid.
When we got to Madrid we decided that we would just go straight to Barcelona... Little did we know, but September the 11th is the aniversary of the conquering of Catalonia by the Spanish in 1714. Aparantly the Catalonian's fought valiantly but lost, they celebrate the day anyway. This being the case, all transport to Barcelona from Madrid was fully booked out. Opps... We booked tickets on the express train to Barcelona, leaving the next day.
We were in Madrid for the night! Excellent, it was a good excuse to check out a new city. We booked into a hostel called Cats, if you are in Madrid and looking for a Hostel, it's deffinitely the place to go. Great facilities and a bar underneath with well priced drinks.
After we checked into Cats, we explored Madrid for a couple of hours. It was very hot and dry.... Very developed too, lots of stone and concrete, everywhere. Early evening we went to the bar at Cats, it was great, we met up with people from all over the world and before too long everyone in the room was hanging out and swapping stories. We all got progressively drunker and then went out dancing at some of the local clubs...
We had a relaxing, uneventful train ride to Madrid.
When we got to Madrid we decided that we would just go straight to Barcelona... Little did we know, but September the 11th is the aniversary of the conquering of Catalonia by the Spanish in 1714. Aparantly the Catalonian's fought valiantly but lost, they celebrate the day anyway. This being the case, all transport to Barcelona from Madrid was fully booked out. Opps... We booked tickets on the express train to Barcelona, leaving the next day.
We were in Madrid for the night! Excellent, it was a good excuse to check out a new city. We booked into a hostel called Cats, if you are in Madrid and looking for a Hostel, it's deffinitely the place to go. Great facilities and a bar underneath with well priced drinks.
After we checked into Cats, we explored Madrid for a couple of hours. It was very hot and dry.... Very developed too, lots of stone and concrete, everywhere. Early evening we went to the bar at Cats, it was great, we met up with people from all over the world and before too long everyone in the room was hanging out and swapping stories. We all got progressively drunker and then went out dancing at some of the local clubs...
A whole day in Salamanca...
We crawled out of bed at about midday... Suffering from the night before...
Over heating, we got in the air conditioned car and drove... James was departing the next day so Wayne and I got train tickets to Madrid, we decided to get the tickets to Barcelona when we got to Madrid, just in case we wanted to check out the sites.
We then found the pool, but as we got there, the sun decided to go and hide behind the clouds. Regardless we went to the pool and finally got some time in the water. To get in the pool, you had to shower, which isn't too weird, but you couldn't take towels, shirts, glasses in to the pool area. Nothing.... nada... and the life guards enforced these rules...
Over heating, we got in the air conditioned car and drove... James was departing the next day so Wayne and I got train tickets to Madrid, we decided to get the tickets to Barcelona when we got to Madrid, just in case we wanted to check out the sites.
We then found the pool, but as we got there, the sun decided to go and hide behind the clouds. Regardless we went to the pool and finally got some time in the water. To get in the pool, you had to shower, which isn't too weird, but you couldn't take towels, shirts, glasses in to the pool area. Nothing.... nada... and the life guards enforced these rules...
Party Time in Salamanca
So we ate and got ready to check out a Spanish festival...
The family in the appartment across from our room all decided to strip off and get changed. Was an interesting show, but started to get disturbing when granny decided to join in... ug...
The town was packed, there were shit loads of students partying like students do ie. drinking cheap beer and eating crap food... There were familys out watching fireworks... There were even crowds of old people spontaneously breaking out into dance... And this was all around midnight...
These people party late!
So we started our rounds of the local clubs... Total Uni town... Jesus another one... They were all what you would expect from a Uni town.
We were pleasantly rewarded on the way back to our accomodation... We walked passed and subsequently went into a club called Karamello. There weren't many people in there, which did worry us as this usually is a sign that a place isn't that great. We danced to a couple of cheesey 80's songs which is always fun, then we decided to splash out on a shot of liquer... The drinks that night had been ultra expensive, not too bad if the currency was the Ozzy Peso, but it wasn't. Anyway, we ordered shot's of tequila and were only charged 2 Euros each...
We couldn't help but polish off serveral drinks, especially when they were at such reasonable prices.
We met the barman Jacobo, or James in the anglasised version, who practiced his english with us.
The family in the appartment across from our room all decided to strip off and get changed. Was an interesting show, but started to get disturbing when granny decided to join in... ug...
The town was packed, there were shit loads of students partying like students do ie. drinking cheap beer and eating crap food... There were familys out watching fireworks... There were even crowds of old people spontaneously breaking out into dance... And this was all around midnight...
These people party late!
So we started our rounds of the local clubs... Total Uni town... Jesus another one... They were all what you would expect from a Uni town.
We were pleasantly rewarded on the way back to our accomodation... We walked passed and subsequently went into a club called Karamello. There weren't many people in there, which did worry us as this usually is a sign that a place isn't that great. We danced to a couple of cheesey 80's songs which is always fun, then we decided to splash out on a shot of liquer... The drinks that night had been ultra expensive, not too bad if the currency was the Ozzy Peso, but it wasn't. Anyway, we ordered shot's of tequila and were only charged 2 Euros each...
We couldn't help but polish off serveral drinks, especially when they were at such reasonable prices.
We met the barman Jacobo, or James in the anglasised version, who practiced his english with us.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Welcome 2007 and Happy Birthday...
2007 started with a bang...
I spent New Years with Tim and Ange at Tim's brothers place in Barwon heads... Was a bbq and tashy party. Caught the train back to Melb the next day.
Two weeks later it was my birthday, to true Marky style I celebrated... I organised a get together at Riverland, a bar by the river next to Fed square. I was supposed to have a quiet friday night and then head down to Riverland about midday... I went out on friday night and didn't make it home till 11 in the morning. Totally dishevelled, I managed to somehow make myself presentable and arrive at Riverland at about 1 in the arvo. After a bottle of french champagne things started to feel a bit better.
The day was great and friends came, went and some stayed for the long hall... We then started another night of bar hopping... I knew I should have taken the first work day after my birthday off... From this day forward I will!
On my actual birthday I passed out in the back yard in the sun, I woke up a whole lot browner... :) some people say it was red, but I'm choosing to ignore that.
I spent New Years with Tim and Ange at Tim's brothers place in Barwon heads... Was a bbq and tashy party. Caught the train back to Melb the next day.
Two weeks later it was my birthday, to true Marky style I celebrated... I organised a get together at Riverland, a bar by the river next to Fed square. I was supposed to have a quiet friday night and then head down to Riverland about midday... I went out on friday night and didn't make it home till 11 in the morning. Totally dishevelled, I managed to somehow make myself presentable and arrive at Riverland at about 1 in the arvo. After a bottle of french champagne things started to feel a bit better.
The day was great and friends came, went and some stayed for the long hall... We then started another night of bar hopping... I knew I should have taken the first work day after my birthday off... From this day forward I will!
On my actual birthday I passed out in the back yard in the sun, I woke up a whole lot browner... :) some people say it was red, but I'm choosing to ignore that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)