Slow

Kylie Minogue; Acer Arena, Sydney-Homebush.

What are the first few things you knew in your lifetime about Australia? Some people might answer; Didgeredo's, Kangeroos, The Great Barrier Reef, Koalas, The Sydney Opera House.

These would also be true for me, but I would also add 2 more on the list. Rolf Harris and Kylie Minogue. Having seen everything else I've written about here already; it was time to see the final one. So Lauren and I scuttled on over to the Olympic showgrounds on a Tuesday night to go see the showgirl herself. Kylie. Quite an odd show really, an arena full of people, not many of them moving very much, not many kids like I thought there might be, plenty of gays but an awesome light show and sound spectacle to see when you looked past the thousands sat in front; and we had "Gold" seats.

I couldn't possibly compare this gig to anything I'd normally go to, cos it's nothing like those. In it's own right it was awesome, though I could only do it once in a very blue moon. Like the Spice Girls in 1998, I'm glad I've seen another of the living worlds most famous stars perform.


Without snobbery toward the dated songs that made her famous, she performed I Should be so Lucky, Better the Devil You Know and Step Back in Time

The stage went off like some of the best bits of a Daft Punk gig , some of the glamour of a Kanye West show, and the acoustics of a U2 show. All in all, well impressive. Nice work Kylie. Except next time - try making the tickets a little cheaper, it's the most I've ever paid for a single act concert here or in the UK. Did someone say Economic Crisis!?

Ding Dong Merrily on High

The 12 Pubs of Christmas Episode III.

If you're a regular reader of this blog - I think there might still be one or two out there - mum? dad? You'll remember the format of the 12 pubs of Christmas pub crawl. A route of 12 pubs - all attendees generally wearing something Christmassy, and each drinking one drink at each pub before moving on about 40-50minutes later.

The first year we started in Paddington and made our way into and through the city.

The second year we hit up the Rocks and then looped back into the city.

This year, we ventured out to Balmain, and then after about 5 pubs, made our way into the city and toward the Metropolitan Hotel, the finish line of the 12 Pubs of Christmas.

Needless to say, I feel honoured and proud to have sunk 36 (+) beers over the past 3 Christmasses, although this was a little different not having one of the Chambers brothers in the party with us... some excuse about moving interstate to Victoria or something...

This year was also a first for me... as it later transpired to having had one of the most unhealthy days eating ever too... I think the final count was one KFC, one o'Portos, and two Subways... I don't recall if it was two foot longs or not but even still...

So again, the memories side of things - not good... I do remember having a lot of fun, a lot of laughs... and know I didn't get lost this year between pubs. I do remember not finishing at the magic 12... and sinking around another 3-4 beers, and the obligatory Jaegor Bomb or 3, and maybe a Jack n coke for good measure... it's not particularly surprising what happened out the taxi window on the journey back home through Sydneys Eastern Distributor. I blamed the drivers driving at the time... hilariously.

A huge congratulations and thankyou goes out to Kevin Hussey, for whom these crawls would not have been possible - as well as to the 100-200 patrons that have joined us over the last 3 years... I wonder if I'll be starting a spin-off series in London - next year - I do know, that 12 pints would scare me.

Right as Rain

BlueBottle and new Toys...

So I experienced 2 things new this week or two... first, was a lot more pleasent than the the second...

After a media storm kicked off the life of Canons new 5D Mark ii... I managed to get lucky and get one of the very small consignment that made it into Australia. So I have been living up the joy of having a full frame DigiSLR with a monster 21mega-pixel sensor, and full 1080 High Def video recording capabilities... nice.

Then yesterday, I went for a swim after work... and got stung. I dived face first into an oncoming wave - something I'd do quite usually... a sensation I'd not felt before hit me. It felt like coarse sea-weed swiping from my collarbone, up across my face to the ear on the other side of my face. Luckily my eyes were closed, as I'd just been zapped by a blue-bottle (jelly-fish). I had 1hour of what I can quite certainly describe as the worst pain I've ever endured at the hands of an animal on Earth.

The lifeguard put me in a hot shower and I had to suck up the pain until it eventually subsided. Nice. Just what I needed, another water-phobia!
(Edit: a couple months on, and I'm no happy once again back in the water - though I always think twice - and quite often put both hands out in front of me when diving now.)

(Picture from an exhibit at the Australian Natural History museum- click on it for a bit more info).

Crack the Shutters

Camping - Bouddi National Park

So a weekend of being away from Sydney was ahead of us... Not too far mind, right on the southern tip of the Central Coast, not too far from Gosford.

Destination Bouddi National Park. Matty, Si, Michelle, Loz and a few others all drove over before midday and set about hiking down hill to a secluded little beach called Maitland Bay (I think!). Here we had the entire beach to ourselves (almost), and bathed, explored and ate a picnic lunch. An older couple drove their boat in to shore before the man, comically stood atop his vessell cooking a BBQ in nothing but Speedos, had the wife in the water scrubbing the hull for barnicles and algae... it was like something from a Carry-on movie!

We packed up shortly after and hiked the long uphill back to the cars. From here we drove around to Bouddi National Park and once again hiked downhill to the campsite awaiting our arrival. Another abandoned beach with only one other group of people in site. Some awesome rolling waves coupled with beers (don't try this at home kids) saw us messing about for the afternoon drinking the Saturday afternoon away before dusk.

Wedgie & Alison arrived, and soon we were awaiting one of Mattys famous camp stews for dinner. After said meal, things got a little hazy and the high-jinx stretched into the night...

Banquet

Bloc Party - Hordern Pavillion

So here we are. Sorry - had to start with that... Bloc Party, one of my favourite bands of recent times, out in Oz, and I managed to get tickets this time, albeit to the second spillover show after the first sold out in less than 5minutes.

I took my camera along, as I have been to a few gigs of late, and planned to sneak it in, the body with no lens under my jacket, and a 100mm lens cunningly wrapped in a sock and placed in Laurens bag... the doormen waved me thru, and searched Laurens bag - a little panicked, I was almost laughing out loud when he aked her to removed the "socks" so he could check out what else was in the bag!

And so we went in, drank some beers and anticipated the band. The last time I saw these guys, was at Glastonbury, they absolutely went off... this time however, they just seemed plain jet-lagged, tired and over it. The pitfalls of being a mainstream act too, meant the idiot ratio was higher than I'd like at a gig too... though with negativity aside, they played Banquet and everything was fine in the world.

I split from Lauren to go and try to get some close-up shots of the band but struggled in the density of the crowd. I resigned myself to some average shots and then returned to the seated area with Lauren with about 4 songs of the gig to go... then, a bouncer spotted my camera. I had the torch of shame pointed at me, and was then escorted out the back exit of the Hordern Pavillion - not before I'd whipped the memory card from my camera... they were quite good about it really, and we just listened to the last couple of songs from the entrance of the Hordern thus beating the crowd home...

I won't bother seeing them again... sour grapes? me? never!

Kids

Movember & Paintballing

Another November, another dodgy Mo - this year I opted to grow some super dodgy handlebars off the end of mine. I was, once again extrememly happy to lose it.

As a final Mo foray, a group of us headed out to the killing fields... the paintballing killing fields that is for a day of firing Body Shop Bath balls at each other and getting quite dirty... and welted. The usual cheap option was soon surpassed as the organisers showed us the standard weaponry that we would get for our $40 - and everyone upgraded their weapons to shoot about 10 or more paintballs per second... if required... I managed to go most of the day before feeling the brunt of several of these rapid fire little doo-hickys as they sprayed the back side of my right leg... nice. I made up for it during the day with a couple of awesome little shots.

Poor Lauren copped one to the head in the first game despite her fool proof plan of staying at the base for the entire match. She bowed out a few games later and surrendered her ammo to me - which was nice :)

I'm on a Beach

Australian Rental Property #2 , Maroubra - New South Wales, Australia.

November 1, It was time to move to my second longish term home in Australia. One suburb away from my old home in Randwick, is Maroubra. Famed for it's slightly rough past, the "Bra Boys" have caused some fights in their time, and maybe, just maybe, kept the prime beach front property prices that bit lower than all the other Eastern beaches. Thanks boys.

So a Saturday spent moving stuff from one house to another, the Sunday spent getting things straight, and then the following week nights, having to zip back and forth to the old place to get things finalised for our bond... and then the following weekend - SWEET SWEET NOTHING. A relaxing weekend at the beach. A year of weekend holidays at the beach starts here.

I'll leave you with some random shots from the surrounding areas...