Festimagik

A bit of time off meant an opportunity for a party in the Tapis Rouge!
Bruno and I decided to get into the fun.

Everyone was there!

Cirque du Soleil seems to bring the fun out of everyone.
Ushers galore!

How much do I love Cirque du Soleil?

So much that I'm moonlighting with them.

"Dralion" is in Sydney, and I'm working for them at nights and on weekends.

Kristina and Anderson strike a pose!

And then Kristina by herself.

While Michael demonstrates his powers as "Cirque du Soleil Man".
This really is the greatest job in the world!!!

Stuff this whole lawyer gig, I want to run away with the Cirque!

Working to the top

It's probably going to take me longer before I actually reach the top.

However, at the moment I'm fairly close in a literal sense. I'm sitting on the top floor of the building after all.
The views of Sydney are a nice distraction for when I pull my head up from the computer.

No One

Whoo!!!

I'm going to the Alicia Keys concert!!!
It may be like 4 months away... but who cares!? I'm going!!!!

Timmy's Birthday

Tim turned 21 the other day.

As is customary, a 21st b'day present was in order.

I was completely stumped though. I couldn't thinking of anything fitting for him.

That is until I stumbled onto a nice little serving tray that I found at a market.
It was perfect!

After all, it's shiny, nice looking and pays homage to Tim's alcoholism and love of gin!

The Olympics

I find it difficult to describe the level of disdain I have for the Olympics.

As an event and spectacle, I don't think it matches the ideals that it was originally created for. Rather it has become another large scale corporate event.

What I find most disturbing of all is the amount of money that many countries will spend on hosting the Olympics. They will throw billions of dollars towards the constructions of sporting facilities that very often go to waste once the games are finished (Sydney and it's "white water rafting" facilities spring to mind....) whilst other things such as health, education and basic public infrastructure are allowed to continually decay.

So every Olympic year, I personally boycott watching or caring about anything to do with the Olympics.

However, this year things were complicated by the presence of a friend who would be competing.... so a slight exception would have to be made when they raced.....

Even more disturbing was that I found myself watching the Opening Ceremony.

.... what a terrible waste.....

I tend to think that what the great Stephen Colbert had to say about the Olympics seems to ring increasingly true:

"The Olympics began in perversion: greased up naked men slapping hot sweaty body parts against one another's taut and hairless flesh in pursuit on victory, like Chippendale's dancers at an after-hours party. And the tradition of perversion continues - because as an international athletic competition, the Olympics are a warped, watered-down version of the only worthy contest between nations: war."

Know your onion

I think city living is starting to get to me.

A few weeks ago, I was doing a clean out of the kitchen when I found that one of the onions had sprouted.

.... so I decided to plant it.

Now, I was lacking a garden to plant my onion.

But thankfully, Peter's previous attempts at horticulture had failed. The wollomi pine sapling he had been given had failed to thrive on our balcony.

I decided that this pot would be perfect for my onion.
.... I wonder when I'll be harvesting.....

Buzzzzzz

I love the letters I get from Connie!

It's always great to hear about how she, Kev and little Kaela are doing in Canada, but it's also fantastic to see the cool and funky ways she decides to send the letters.
This time it came in bee form.

World Youth Day '08

Pilgrims.... so many pilgrims.... pilgrims everywhere.....
Whilst many in Sydney were complaining about the disruptions caused on their day to day lives, I have to say that I found their presence to be really uplifting.

Even walking to work, I'm cheered by their happiness and singing!
Phil and I decided to go out and have a look at the opening of the festivities at Darling Harbour.
Whilst walking around, we managed to make our way to the Cathedral.
Both of us jumped for joy!
Walking around Hyde Park, we found the merchandise shop!
How cool are the hats!!!!
Whooooooo!!!!!

World Youth Day!!!!!!!

Mid-Year Hilarity

It really doesn't seem even remotely possible that I have been a working schlub for almost half a year....

And yet here I find myself.

.... one of the masses.

.... another member of the great horde.

Thankfully, my position at work comes with some perks.

One of which was a nice trip to meet the other national new starters for some mid-year training.

We were all placed in a nice hotel and told to be nice to one another whilst learning how to be better at what it is we do... whatever that may be....

Three days in Cronulla.

Three days in THE SHIRE!

The first thing we did after arriving at the hotel was head off on a nice cruise around the region.

It was lovely way for us all to mingle and get in some of the sights. The sun was shining and the temperatures were up.
From our hotel room balconies, we had a stunning view of the sun setting off in the distance.

The Western Australians would later comment that these hotel rooms were particularly nice for them as they had never seen the sun rise over the ocean!
As the days' training dragged on, most of us looked forward to the night. Then we would be allowed to let loose a bit and have a bit of fun.

The local club "Northies" would be very useful in helping us achieve this goal.

.... and as the night wore on, we felt the need to protect ourselves from the paparazzi.

Now I'm a LAWYER

It was a big day for me.

It was a VERY big day (not just because it was the 4th of July)!

Six years in the coming really.....

I was being admitted to the Courts as a legal practitioner.

It was the day I became a lawyer!!!

My brother thought it would be hilarious to take a photo of me posing next to where many believe the legal profession belongs.

But soon the whole family was all lined up smiling before we entered into the Banco Court for my admission ceremony.

The ceremony was quickly over though and I soon found myself feeling different, feeling as though I had somehow grown up a little (at least in the eyes of the law....)

I headed downstairs to sign the roll.

Glancing down the list of names, I noticed that I was still very much one of the younger people being admitted.
My brother was clearly becoming bored of his role as the designated cameraman for the day.

He decided that a more "abstract" look at the day was more appropriate.
Hmmmm....
The boredom wasn't subsiding.
But eventually all of the formalities were over and we all found ourselves outside of the Court on a rainy Sydney day.
I was now a LAWYER!

Ghanananahhhhh

It was a while ago, but a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to the friendly between Australia and Ghana.

My friend Christian had come up from Canberra to watch the game and had a spare ticket!

Australia v Ghana!!!!
The game was fun to watch with Australia winning 1-0!

However, it was the Ghana fans that gave us the most entertainment with their singing and dancing. Even though they were heavily outnumbered by the Australian fans, the Ghana fans produced far more noise!

The game was fun to watch and it was great to see Christian again!

Gordon F&%#ING Ramsay!!!

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, I met up with Jenn from work and headed off to the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show.

This was a HUGE show, with displays and stalls covering the entire floor of the Sydney Exhibition Centre! No small feat at all.

Jenn and I managed to get our tickets online, so we were in the doors early whilst other people had to wait to buy their tickets in the increasingly long lines.

The show was genuinely enormous. I was amazed by how many stalls there were and how many freebies were on offer! Food, products, drinks! Everything you could hope for was on display.

Most surprising of all was an old favourite of mine....

BIONADE!!!!

Bionade was finally in Australia!!!! Felix introduced me to this fantastic and all natural drink in Germany and I absolutely loved it. Now that it has an Australian distributor, it shouldn't be be too hard to get a hold of.

Now.... if only I could get my hands on German style muesli as well....

The biggest thrill of the day would come a little bit later though.

Jenn and I were wandering through the hall when we suddenly came across a large throng of people fighting to take photos of someone.

It was GORDON RAMSAY!!!!!
God I love watching Ramsay!!!

Somehow, we managed to push ourselves to the front of the crowd and there we were given a nice and unobstructed view of the fiery Scot in person.

It was a bit odd to see him there signing all of the books. He was so happy and calm. There wasn't even a hint of the explosiveness that I knew lurked only slightly beneath the surface.
Everywhere I wandered, there were people bustling around.

Everyone was so happy, in search of more to drink and eat.
I wasn't one to not join in and I plunged into both the food and the wine tasting as quickly as I could!

Later in the day, we went off to the "Cooking Theatre" to watching some recipes being demonstrated. Rather than pay a fortune to go to watch Gordon Ramsay, I decided that I wanted to see Ben O'Donohue. I was a fan of Ben from his days with "Surfing the Menu".
I wasn't disappointed as he demonstrated five fantastic recipes on the BBQ.
Having arrived at the Show at about 10:30am... I worked out that by the time I left (at the close of the show at 6:00pm) that I had been drinking fairly consistently for about 7 hours.
There was just so much wine.... and I wanted to try it all.....

I hate Durian

Well my camera may be currently missing, but that doesn't mean that other people don't have cameras!

Work was long and tiring... so I decided to go and get some dinner with Pete, Rosa and Meng.

Now the dinner itself was fine, but I had personal objections to the dessert that was chosen.

.... durian and sticky rice.
I hate durian.

Years spent living in Singapore, all the time travelling through Malaysia and Thailand.... none of it could change my attitudes towards this horrifying fruit. No matter how many times I tried it, no matter how much of it I tried, I still found even the smell of it overpowering.

Camera-less

My mother "borrowed" my camera to go and take snaps on her trip to Canada and I still don't have it back yet....

I need my camera.

I've become far too used to documenting the events of my life using images.

Casual Projects!!!

A few weeks ago I was wandering through Martin Place at lunchtime.

I came across a "Canberra Tourism Fair". Now I found this to be a bit too scary considering I was still trying to escape the whole Canberran issues that I still had.

However, the brochures about the ski fields were a bit too much to pass up.....

And it was lucky that I wandered passed. Because I found myself standing in front of the stage where a increasingly famous Canberra 8-piece was playing!

The CASUAL PROJECTS!

This fantastic multi-instrumental group mixes a huge range of music to produce a very unique sound. Standing there listening to their music, I couldn't help but be drawn in by their catchy sounds and the energy they threw into the performance.

CHECK THEM OUT HERE!

Of course... my feelings about the band are probably ever so slightly influenced by the fact that I went to school with one of the MCs in the group, Patrick Lillicrap.... but hey, I still think they're good.

Vote for them if you get the chance on the Jack Daniel's Set as well!

The IRONY of it all....

Leaving Canberra was a big change. A very big change. I was saying goodbye to what I had known for along time. I was also confident that I was saying goodbye to certain people for the last time. After all, as much as you promise yourself that you will keep in touch with people when you move, the realities are that in many if not most cases the goodbyes you make will be the final ones.

Even with this in mind, when I left Canberra, I felt nothing but a sense of relief and happiness. I didn't want to be in Canberra any more. I wanted to start exploring new places and creating new experiences. As far as I was concerned, it was time for a new chapter in my life. I reasoned in my mind that my trip to Europe and the Middle East would be a way for me to create a clean break with the past.

However, nagging at the back of my thoughts was Lawrence of Arabia.

I wanted to go across to the other side of the world to see the places that Lawrence had travelled through, to see the places that he changed and that changed him.

.... and to a large extent, I felt I did much of what I had hoped to do.

I had gone to Damascus, I had sat in Baron's Hotel in Aleppo, I walked the streets of Jerusalem, I climbed to the top of Krak de Chivaliers, I wandered through the deserts in Wadi Rum, I had sat and drank mint tea in Aqaba.

So with all of this in mind, I was quite shocked when my brother told me of the exhibition that had been unveiled back in Canberra not too long after I had left.

A LAWRENCE OF ARABIA EXHIBITION!

Yes, that's correct.

Back in the place that I had run away from was exactly what I had run in search of.

My brother went to the exhibition and the reports he emailed me were glowing in praise.

It was with a slightly heavy heart that I found myself on the bus from Sydney to Canberra.

I couldn't miss this. TE Lawrence had been my hero since I was a child and in this exhibition were some of the artefacts most closely associated with him.

Early on Saturday morning, Tim and I drove out to the Australian War Memorial and I began to walk through this amazing exhibition.

Tim was correct. I was not to be disappointed at all.
Lawrence's robes were on full display.
As was his GUN!!! His name was even etched into the butt of the rifle.
And then my jaw nearly fell off in awe as I found myself standing in front of his ceremonial dagger. His famous golden ceremonial dagger that was presented to him by the Bedouin sheiks.

The sound of Peter O'Toole's voice circled through my head with the screams of "NO PRISONERS!" I could almost imagine seeing the dagger being used as the Turkish column outside of Dera'a was massacred.

I walked into the exhibition with a smile on my face.

And I definitely walked out with a smile on face.
Tim and I decided to walk through some of the other parts of the War Memorial as well. Major refurbishments had been completed since I last visited.

The place looked great.

The tributes to the soldiers who had fought in the post-WWII conflicts were sharp and well done.

Tim decided he wanted to have a bit of fun in the hands on section, re-enacting some soldiers dismounting off of a helicopter used in the Vietnam War.
So.... Canberra.... I found myself in the city once more.

It was a good lesson to me that plans never seem to last very long when they are subjected to the light of reality.