So yea the hotel was nice, and I picked up some rare breed on the way over.

So after that I drove from Sydney to Fraser Island and back, which is about 3000 k’s return. I got to see Guru and Nads before they fucked off to Mauritius.

Fraser was cained by big seas and we couldn’t get to the usual spot up the sandy cape, we did however get a lot of food and drink into us and had a good time…

Soooo.. I’m off to Toronto, Calgary, Hong Kong and Jakarta on Wednesday. If yer lucky and if anyone actually reads this, there might be a post after that. Pics will prolly hit facebook first as they have a nice upload applet.

Travelled Emirates on the way there and they were ok, nice I guess, limousine pickup to the airport. The Sydney business lounge has really good food compared to others. I spent a couple of hours in Dubai airport business lounge which was very average, very crowded, I recommend hassling for a first class lounge pass at Sydney.

I arranged a pickup from the airport with the hotel which was a good idea, the system there is the guy will take your passport, get your visa, walk around the queue at immigration and get your passport stamped, come get you and take you to the car… queue jumping is the goods.

So the first thing you notice is the police, that look more like military, with guns standing around on intersections everywhere, you never know if their guns work, some have ak’s and some have semi automatic shotguns. As you get closer to garden city near where the embassies and hotels are there are a lot more armed police, some armoured vehicles, metal bomb proof screens they sit behind at checkpoints.

Getting to the hotel they take your bags and use a big industrial xray on them, you do the usual airport like metal detector stuff, this is common in most buildings. Although I eventually noticed that people beeped and no one cared, even at the airport on the way out, although you and your luggage get done at the front door as well by a serious looking guy so I guess after that it’s a formality.

The Grand Hyatt Cairo is on the Nile with views to the pyramids, quite nice.

The first day we went to the museum, I don’t think a cent has been spent on that place since the 60’s except for x-ray machines and metal detectors. The displays that do have descriptions have some faded 1960’s typewriting on yellow faded cards. There’s heaps of stuff to look at, you are not supposed to take photo’s but then I think I’d already seen everything in there in photos before anyway. They have a copy of the Rosetta stone that the British sent them in 2005 after the Egyptians demanded it was returned, muahah. It looked pretty much like the real one at the British Museum :) King Tuts treasure is here and it’s worth the visit to see.

The Khan El Khalili bazaar certainly is crowded. One end is more touristy and the other is your usual grotty north African city. Roasted sweet potatos are the local snack, I saw one guy’s cart set up roasting next to a fireworks stall, business as usual for Egyptian safety standards. It’s weird being squished up against the old women and old men, I mean really squashed up, it’s the way things work there, everyone just keeps pushing until it moves again or the stronger side dominates, the same way intersections and traffic direction work on the roads.

On my last day there a colleague drove us to Giza to get a close up of some pyramids. They are big… and old.. umm.. yea…

Next episode, Manila.

So I’ve rented a 2 bedroom house with off street parking at Newtown. Newtown is a lot like the Valley or West End, just 10 times larger than either. There was about 60 people at the inspection and I was luckily (well it wasn’t luck) fully prepared with a completed application with cover letter and written references.

A fellow from our office is packing up and moving back to England, so it was very convenient that he had most all the furniture and white goods I needed for sale.

I decided to drive down the pacific highway rather than the new england. I figured that now there is an hour taken off the leg to Byron it’s probably comparable. It is a more interesting drive, although the little towns that make you drop to 50k’s is a bit over the top, I know they are trying to get some money into their local economy, but screw them for making me slow down, I’ll spend my money somewhere that doesn’t selfishly slow down the the highway. I guess without stopping for a truck that caught fire, it would have been about 11 hours.

So the good news for everybody is I have a spare room and spare bed, a spare key. The house is 320m from Macdonaldtown train station which is 2 stops from central. The nearest pub (excluding the Newtown which closed its doors – and was gay anyway) is the Marlborough which is even closer than the train station at 195m walk.

So there’s no excuse to not visit.

Anyway, next episode is Cairo, I’m here now, more later.

I did catch up with a few touristy things I missed the last time.. the tower bridge and London tower, and the British museum. The museum has probably more of Ancient Greece in it than Greece does, good for me. In true whiny English style there is a flyer explaining how the museum justifies having it all.. whatever.. least the Indigenous Australians had more luck getting their stuff out of the place. I did look but didn’t find any Indigenous Australian content in the museum. I guess the whiny poms are having a sulk.

The next best thing about London, Magners cider can be purchased in 1l and 50cl denominations, as well as the usual 568ml we see in Australia. The 1l variety can be purchased at a servo for around AUD$5.60. And people try to tell me London is expensive.. what a load of crap.

So enough about London, as with the last time, it’s really good while you are there, but when you leave you realise it is actually good to get out. Truth is you can earn more in other less screwed up cities, if you want to live there you really want to be making the most of London itself as the pollution and crap takes a toll on you. You can just go somewhere else in Europe (like Stockholm) and enjoy the travel benefits…

So I’m in Stockholm again.. in only 3 weeks it’s changed a fair bit.. it’s the worst part of the year as it’s in between cold/rain and snow. Snow is a lot nicer as you don’t get wet. If you have kids they are easier to dress (so I’m told by my expat friends) for the snow as it’s not muddy or wet.

A really good day today (3rd day of now live system) and it was event-free, no dramas. I got out early and had time to catch the company bus back into Karlaplan and walk back to Stureplan where I’m staying. I finally found 2 Systembolaget stores. Lets review this.. quote:
Systembolaget, the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly, exists for one reason only: To minimize alcohol-related problems by selling alcohol in a responsible way, without profit motive.

So I guess monopolies are a good thing, saving us from the evils of alcohol-related problems and evil profit motives..

The evils of alcohol are easily tackled by closing bottle shops at 6pm weeknights (seems I managed to get out of the store at 18:04) and 2pm on Saturdays, and just don’t open on Sundays as we all know that’s when the majority of alcohol-related problems occur.

Profit motives are a funny thing, now back home, they have profit motives.. oh I think it’s actually called competition. I can pick up a bottle of whatever for around AUD$30. Luckily without the profit motives of this government owned business I only paid SEK279 for a bottle of Jamos. That’s because the government store does not make profits from the sale of alcohol, just the taxes :) The same stuff costs ₤14.99 in expensive London.. uhh.. right..

I guess Stockholm is OK… but I’m only here for another week when I head to Zagreb, Croatia for a couple of weeks.. rumour is I get to come home to Brisbane for a few days, then back to Sydney to settle..

Even the Swedes tell me Women in Croatia are really good (big call coming from Scandinavia) I challenged that comment and they say they are warmer.. I can believe that.. *cough* stuck up *cough* bitches *cough*.. I guess it’s just too much to have only a conversation in this place.

Stay tuned for a house warming/BBQ in Brisbane.. potential date is Sunday the 2nd of December.

I’m too lazy to look but I know I posted something about my desk in Sydney, I spent all of 2 days there, enough to get this laptop and a phone, fill in some health insurance stuff. I think I left a name badge and a flat panel there, I think maybe squatters will move in, but I won’t be there to stop them anytime soon.

The flight on Qantas was good, usually 21 hours on a plane would shit anyone to tears but I recommend the lie flat skybed if you have the chance. Neil Perry designed meals were not memorable at all, and if you can swing the stop in Singapore rather than Bangers, it’s probably a good thing. Not that Bangers is bad, it just doesn’t feel good to be there. I did spot some 17yr old Wild Turkey aged in sherry casks… which will be pocketed whenever I get on a plane home again.

So, London… Most things people have told me about it being expensive, and the food being bad, is all crap. Surely if the hotel is coming out of your pocket, you’d be staying in some hicksville backslappers, and feeling the strain on your wallet full of Aussie dollars, but that aside if you look a little harder there are good cheap meals and a cheaper ways to get somewhere. In fact if you think London is expensive don’t go to Sweden.

The best thing by far about London, is alcohol. You can drink on the street, on the tube, most anywhere, but there are no toilets on the tube and it looks like it’d be hard to piss between carriages. It’s good that you can go inside the pub and it isn’t crowded as everybody is outside. And even then if theres a problem, there is 3 more within 2 blocks walk in either direction. You can get wine on tap!

Besides booze, there is architecture, for those antipediens from recently settled lands it is novel for about 2 days. Art is big in London but the best art is on the street… always good when you spot some almost fresh banksy!

And London is certainly one place that is better after you leave :) I am however glad to be going back tomorrow… because it is cold here in..

Stockholm.

Famous for women and meatballs. But there are far too many men pushing prams, they try to tell me it is because men get paid maternity leave too, but I really think it is because the women wear the boots. I’ve never seen so many women in tight jeans and FMB’s ever, I think the Swedish massage is all about sore necks and this is probably the outcome of the vikings killing all the ugly ones 1000 years ago.

Alcohol is expensive, expect to pay AUD$9-12 per pint of beer, but there is usually a good selection. Finding a bottle shop is hard as they are all owned by the government, open only until 6pm on weekdays, 3pm on Saturdays and not open at all on Sundays. Some wine is cheapish but I had to pay about AUD$52 for a bottle of JD. Sounds expensive but then AUD$20 for a premium mixed spirit in a nice restaurant bar is going to empty your wallet faster. Any shop appears to sell beer but no stronger than 3.5%, which sounds sucky after time in England, but if you could buy mid strength beer anywhere in Australia, it would be an upgrade. Also worth mentioning is the range of quality ciders produced in Sweden!

Restaurants are also rather expensive but after a while you find some places that are acceptable and you get away under AUD$35. Supermarkets are quite cheap and packed full of tasty European goodies, but alas I don’t have a kitchen at the hotel. At lunch there are a fair few smörgåsbord for AUD$12-15 that are all you can eat, good because the Swedes like a BIG lunch.

Something unique is snus, which is a bag of tobacco that you put under your top lip, I was told they have some sort of glass fragment in them to break the skin so it gets into the blood but I suspect that person was pulling my leg. It is very popular and you see them all over the place like cigarette butts. They even sell them in the office cafeteria, as you can consume nicotine indoors with no smoke, I guess when it’s snowing outside and you are not allowed to smoke inside, they are the go for your fix. If you choose to go outside for a durry most places have courtesy smoking blankets/ponchos to keep you a little warmer.

On a different topic, it is the 1 month anniversary since guru posted on his blog, and Saturday is the 1 year anniversary since munga posted on his…

Off to London again tomorrow, then back here for some snow in November, although it is supposed to snow tonight, as it is currently raining, and it got to -4 last night.

Rate My Steak, Blue Smoke BBQ

I took my parents to Blue Smoke, I was sure I said.. “It’s a ribs place, famous for ribs… ribs.. ribs.. drool”. Mum got the pork belly and Dad got an eye fillet, I went for the classic Texas beef short ribs.

The pork belly looked amazingly good, dry rubbed and really juicy, and if I get to go there again twice, I’ll try it. Twice because I’ll go the beef ribs again as it’s too hard to get past on the menu.
My Dad is pretty serious about his steak and he ordered the fillet blue but warm, which was exactly how it came out, impressive. Meat scored 10/10, it really couldn’t have been done any better.

Mum ordered the pecan pie for dessert which came with some ice cream that was larger than the pie, and it was very win. I wanted a coffee but the coffee machine was out, a few hints to the waiter about getting one from a neighboring shop didn’t sink in and he kept saying we were welcome to get one somewhere else… um… get our own?.. We also did not get any corn bread with honey butter. lose. Service 7/10, he knew what blue but warm meant.

Polished off my last bottle of 1988 Heggies Cabernet, I bought a case of these 15 years ago and I had one stashed in the back of my parents storage cupboard. They found it, and it survived, yay. No doubt the best red wine I’ve ever had.

Overall 8/10.

Rate My Steak, Kingsleys

Just had to try this place after John kept ranting on about it.

Entree’s – The soft shell crab was by far the largest I’d ever seen, looked like a sand crab and tasted incredible. Got a dozen natural oysters which were perfectly fresh.

Mains – I got the Reef and beef rib, I forget what the other guys got now *blush*. Perfect steak but they didn’t de-vein the prawns which let it down a little. The mushroom sauce was by far the best I’ve ever had. Had the grilled artichokes, roasted root vegetables, and potato bake for sides. All very delicious.

After the last bottle of Heggies I chose the 2005 Heggies Merlot which was also memorable, looking for someone with a case for sale, but I’ll have to resume my search when I get back. These guys had a working coffee machine, yay.

Service, they stuffed up one order but were quick off the mark to resolve it, the girl was a bit nervous and dropped a knife on a plate, but handled it well and spoke to us to get off the subject.

Overall 9.5/10. I’m going back. Maybe we can convince John to eat seafood and drink wine next time. I gave them a half point for stocking Heggies wine.

Rate My Stay – Saville Executive Suite, 2 Bond St, Sydney

So I’m a bit of a nomad right now, My home is in Brisbane, primary office in Sydney, secondary offices in London and Stockholm. Due to the circumstances my employer is supplying a studio near work right now.

Very nice, good staff, nice apartment. But.. No foxtel and the restaurant menu could do with some work. I’d stay here again for sure. The guys at the office called this the second choice, wonder what the first choice is?!

Rate My Gig – OMX Sydney

I was lucky enough to score a window seat.

The other side of the building is marginally better as it looks out over North/South head. But I’m not one to complain. Also I’m very happy with my new Lenovo X61 laptop and Blackberry curve phone. Salary is very competitive and conditions are obviously designed so no one will ever complain. The highest global health insurance possible, 10.6% superannuation and a very generous per diem when away from home. 10/10 employer, I’m very happy there.

So I’m off to London and probably Stockholm as well, leaving tomorrow. I guess I’ll have to Rate My Flight, Hotel and Offices over there.

Leaving the wonderful people at VB and Brisbane (well I’ve only half left Brisbane) was a bit sad, but things are going well which takes my mind off it. Looking forward to getting back from Europe already so I can find somewhere to live that isn’t a hotel or executive studio apartment.

A couple of pics from the VB 7th Birthday Party……

We flew Virgin Atlantic, which was by far the best airline I have ever travelled on to date, awesome in every way, although the English hostesses were nice until they opened their whiney mouths, the Asian ones seemed nicer because the whiney English accent wasn’t as obvious to me when they spoke Cantonese.

The hotel we chose was right in the action, smallest room possible, but large enough to crash in, and $85 AUD a night for 2 it was a bargain, smack in the guts of Mong Kok.

There is a serious lack of pubs in Kowloon. You can just go buy some beers at 7-11 and walk around with them, go to a resturant, Karoke bar (beware some are dodgy – we found out.)… but getting a nice seat and downing a few beers watching people walk past isn’t much of a passtime over there. We found a couple of places that were aceptable, but if you want pubs (pubs are a western thing) Wan Chai was the place, just dont make eye contact with the freelance asian (everything except Chinese) hookers everywhere, they’ll still poke your ribs and try to get your attention.. uhhh.. and if yer drunk they will all look about 24/28, but that means they are 40 :P My apologies for the first image here, I was quite drunk, the place is called COCKEYE. buahahaha.

Food was the best thing about Hong Kong, it’s good and cheap, it’s everywhere, and if you like Chinese you’re in luck. Had some bbq goose, which I am struggling to find over here, and some bbq pidgeon, both awesome. The usual assortment of pork and chickens feet, and more pork in several different ways. The scampi we had looked nothing like a prawn or crayfish, and I didn’t get a photo, I hope Whopper did.. but they tasted like bug.

Macau rocks, the Portugese architecture is stunning after spending time in downtown Mong Kok, the place is much cleaner, less crowded. The Casino’s are stunning. The driving is bad, pedestrian crossings are a lure to get you to step onto the road and get run over, it appears they are just there so the ambulance knows where to go. I’ve never seen so many scooters anywhere. There is really no reason to own a car there, cabs are stupidly cheap, and it’s only about 24km² anyway. We had some African Chicken (pictured above) which is a local speciality, and incredible, well worth having if you go, along with some local Macau beer (you’ll need a few to wash it down). The ruins of St Mary were everything you’d expect and a walk around the top of the hill to see the view from the old cannons is well worth it. Overall I’d go for 2-3 days if you can make it, then you’ll be out of options except gambling or eating.

As for the Crown Casino, it’s pretty average compared to Wynns or Sands. Just another casino, also so far from any other action that you may as well find somewhere else to stay. Sorry James.

Here’s before and after shots of Whopper :) This should sum up what 10 days of Honkers will do to you..

My photos are HERE as per usual, I’ll link to Whoppers when I find out where that is.

Boise, Idaho is a unique place and reminds me of Dubbo just with snow.. or like Hobart with less something and more hicks and lots of SUV’s. They have several cool things there besides trailer parks. Idaho has its own air force! Just imagine of they gave Victoria planes with guns. They have e85, 85% ethanol fuel, and most car vendors supply chips for free if you wish to run it. E10 is there if you decide you only want a little bit of ethanol, make you feel better about driving the v8 (or v10!). There is biodiesel and premium biodiesel, I forgot to ask about the difference.

I was busy with the engagements that I missed out on to making it to Cabelas which was sad as it would have been a good place to see some silly 10ft SOA’d pickups in the car park.

After a bender of an evening at the local “edge of town” style of bar and a morning of recovery listening to presentations from my hosts (Sorry I signed a NDA), we headed to the Boise International Airport, were reminded 30 times that the current threat level is Orange via the PA, and jumped on another Canadaair jet off to San Francisco (hooray).

San Franciso was amazing particularly after LAX and Boise it was good to go somewhere that wasn’t backwards. The host (Sorry-NDA) put us in a very nice hotel in the center of the action. Action was not very hard to find but unfortunatly as soon as we spotted man on man tounge action we hit the streets to find somewhere we could excerise a little more personal choice.

The next morning we hit the road to Palo Alto to visit the hosts (Sorry-NDA) labs. On the way we saw the house where lots of Dynasty was filmed, and the longest building of some sort which was actually some massive particle accellerator. Palo Alto is pretty cool but reminded me of the Sunshine Coast without the beach. Lots of relaxed looking university like people walking around or driving Porsches.

So we headed back to San Francisco and headed down to the wharves for a feed, checked out the sea lions next to the resturant, ate and headed over to Alcatraz for a quick tour, and headed back home. Wasn’t there very long but it was good to be home. It’s kinda freaky seeing George W Bush pictures on the walls.

Pics are here

There was the usual amount of kids, dogs, freaks, hippies, yuppies, tourists, bands, market stalls and international cuisine. It seemed to me that it was relatively drug free event as there was only a few people dancing around the tacky techno dj area like they were marionettes. There was a refreshingly green smell in some areas, but drugs don’t grow on trees, right? 

There was the usual amount of kids, dogs, freaks, hippies, yuppies, tourists, bands, market stalls and international cuisine. It seemed to me that it was relatively drug free event as there was only a few people dancing around the tacky techno dj area like they were marionettes. There was a refreshingly green smell in some areas, but drugs don’t grow on trees, right? 

No glass as per usual led us to the question, is it a can or a bottle, or a cottle or a ban? I suppose we will never know, It just tasted good. 

No glass as per usual led us to the question, is it a can or a bottle, or a cottle or a ban? I suppose we will never know, It just tasted good. 

Until next year. 

Until next year. 

We headed up the coast in a few groups, Che5ter, Angry and Foodie and myself headed to Noosa and then up the Freshwater track. We had a few delays with some “controlled burning” which was not very controlled and we were stuck waiting around 30 minutes for a traffic controller guy to flick the sign from STOP to SLOW. That guy is lucky we were just starting holidays because any other day the sign would have been bent around his head by some impatient campers after 10 minutes. Once we got past that it was good to hit the beach and get moving closer to the beers, we had escaped civilization :)

The only obstacle we encountered after the fire was a misguided Rav4 trying to get up a choppy bit of the Freshwater track, which was snatched out impatiently by Foodie. It is funny how many people get out and dig before trying to simply reverse out. While it was a bit of an annoyance it was funny to see the Rav get skull dragged up the hill, the guy had given it enough boot to make a burning smell from the clutch and for it to hit the rev limiter :D His missus didn’t look very happy after the excerise.

Most of us gathered at Inskip Point on Wednesday night to celebrate holidays and the trip with some drinks, we were the first group to arrive so we could see where we were driving, it was entertaining watching everybody get 5m into the camp site and having to air down, lock their hubs and engage 4WD to get any further, maybe we should have warned them… nah.

Fatty gained some ProCamper points early with his erection of an uber hammock-tent hybrid which was above water at high tide. We had a fire (no fires on Fraser) and started removing some of the bulky load of cold beverages from our vehicles. Jenson caught up with us in the morning and we headed over to the Island. Everybody was on time, g00l00 would have been proud.

On the trip we now had Ironpaw, Angry, Foodie, Fatty with Whopper (how appropiate), Old Boy, Povo with Rundle, Che5ter, Jenson and myself.

Once we got off the barge and had some adjustments to our load we were under way and a couple of hours later the first stop was Orchid Beach servo.

Luckily I filled up at Rainbow Beach (Who should be forced to explain why the price of fuel is 11c more a litre for only 100k’s of sealed road further). The price at Orchid is high, but when you consider how far the fuel truck would have to go up the beach and over headlands, who cares, yer on holidays. 

Luckily I filled up at Rainbow Beach (Who should be forced to explain why the price of fuel is 11c more a litre for only 100k’s of sealed road further). The price at Orchid is high, but when you consider how far the fuel truck would have to go up the beach and over headlands, who cares, yer on holidays. From the servo we had the South Ngkala rocks bypass, it was a bit chopped up at the south entrance to the bypass. OldBoys bullbar cut itself a path out of the exit (you’ll have to buy the DVD to see full motion action) which made me a nice smooth ramp which you can see here (free 2mb preview of DVD footage). My car loves me it says so with that sharp grinding sound :)

So after some unblockage of the bypass we all got through and formed a campsite at the Sandy Cape. Hoorah.. 

So after some unblockage of the bypass we all got through and formed a campsite at the Sandy Cape. Hoorah.. 

We all kicked back and set up, surveyed our surroundings and continued the unloading of icy beverages.

End of part one.. Photo’s available. MINE IRONPAWS WHOPPERS