Tag: Australia

  • B’Jour Melbourne

    If Sydney was a city of personal trainers, Melbourne was one giant cafĂ© – a place clearly designed by a comittee of switched on 27 year olds. Most people work in bars, are grafitti artists or jazz musicians. I am not completely positive how anyone actually makes a living, but the place is marvellous as a result … Like looking at Britain through a 35 degree celsius lens.

    The original reason for coming out to Melbourne was to see Beto – a great friend I met while learning to dive in Guatemala at the Iguana Perdida hostel. It was really amazing to see him – and always amusing when you meet people again after seeing them while travelling. Always neater and less tanned… in most cases. Beto, however, was exactly the same. And exactly as amazing!

    Contrasting the tourist profile of Sydney, in Melbourne I took pleasure in floating along in the social current. Beto seems to know anyone that thinks they are anyone, especially in the music business, and this meant that I had four days of free entry to the town’s best bars and clubs, and by the end seemed to be cultivating my own friendship circle. It was that frantic. And a real pleasure to get some self-generating urban culture flavours.

    Similar to my last trip to Hing Kong, I also seemed to have hook ups with people from all over the world, drafted from different stages of my life. Joannie – one of my old friends from Glasgow, her friend Fiona, Grace – gf of Nick here in Taipei, plus Nelson and Christina from Taipei were all around. It was quite strange but very natural to hook up with Joannie and Fiona. The vibe in Melbourne is very similar to Glasgow, and I seemed to slip into the old routine quite quickly of sitting outside enjoying the sun… the difference was, well, about twenty degrees celsius.

    Note to self. Move to Melbourne.


    Bird Strike


    De rigeur Havaiianas


    Beach huts, Aussie style


    Rollin’ – the great outdoors really is just that in Australia


    Spooky!


    Suzie, Beto, a very drunk Jean Pierre and me, narrowly avoiding aesphyxiation (spelling????!)


    Grace and I dodge the camera


    7-11 – comfort zone

  • Sydney – Widescreen

    Click for a bigger view
  • Sydney

    Against several self-imposed raised odds of not making it to Australia, here I am … G’day!

    Sydney is fantastic, and justifiably feels proud of itself, but without being smug. The cityscape is ever changing, giving you chance glances of the Sydney Harbour bridge through vintage Ned Kelley tenaments and crystalline high rises. The Opera House is simply EPIC and takes your breath away in its form and thoughtful detailing. And the food mixes masculline meat pies with white wine and oysters – a theme that defines the city somewhat.

    It’s certainly very ‘Californian’ – everyone looks like they are a personal trainer, or at least running during lunch break. You can understand why they are so blinking good at sport!

    I’m hanging out with Richard and Claerwen – Rich was a colleague from the Web-Imps days of 1999 – and I am feeling pretty blessed again that I was able to meet up with several more friends from Taipei and Canada in the evening.

    I’m impressed with Sydney. Another city has been added to the list of those that I would love to live in or raise a family – which is exactly what Richard and Claerwen chose to do.


    Brunch of Champions – oysters and white wine at the fish market kicked off the day nicely


    Approaching Sydney Harbour Bridge on the ferry – Keep Clear


    Engineering Details


    Approaching the Opera House on foot, and about 500 Mb of photo opportunities


    In the middle of being blown away… I was surprised how fantastic the building was, especially as it is so old


    Exploring…


    Infinity


    Internal details, lifted straight from NASA


    The Max Power ‘Utes’ were just fantastic. Deeply cool, and unforgivably crass at the same time


    Cheers to Sydney!

  • HK -> Sydney

    Here I am in Hong Kong once again after a bit of a scary trip to the airport, with a taxi driver that had clearly never driven on the motorway before.

    A bit more relaxed now…. and ready for the leg to Australia!

  • Guns and Roses London Fan Club

    Guns and Roses London Fan Club

    The old days in London! I’ll be seeing you rockers in the new year.

    “Slippery When Wet”