It's going to be massive. Bigger than Baryshnikov.
I've just got back from a trip to Vietnam and Thailand with Willis, so over the next few days I'll pull together a bit of a pictorial display of Willis and my 'Tour of Duty'.
I sent a few emails home whilst I was away, so apologies to my family who may have already heard some of these stories...
Confusion abounds tonight.
I just flew back into Australia from a 2-week tour of Vietnam and Thailand...both wonderous countries in their own unique ways...but more about that later this weekend.
Right now, I can't sleep. It's bloody-well 11.30pm, I've slept about 4 hours in the last 41, and I still can't get my mind to rest with my family, love, mates, career and musings of what fate has in store for me all bouncing around my head like a dusty old pinball machine on overdrive.
As Bob Dylan once sang, the times are indeed a'changin...
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
Sure, the rest of the song was a bit of a period catch-cry for the disgruntled youth of the mid-1960's at the state of the US Administration and social establishment, and Dylan was probably likening the Administration to the water, but what-ev.
I kind of like this verse...it says to me that sometimes you just need to be decisive when the waters of opportunity start to rise up.
Whatever lay ahead, I hope I get absolutely drenched. The next few months is going to be a very interesting time...
Do I have seaweed in my teeth?
Our beautiful breakfast...Clare's pancakes and my greaseman's feast - a very happy man!
Ok, Ok...so my birthday has been and gone, and this post is now about as newsworthy as Keating overthrowing Hawke in '91 for the role of Captain Australia. But as the man once said, "this is the blog post we had to have".
All in all, I had an absolutely perfect weekend with friends and family, all rolled into one extravaganza!
I called my sister Cass in Ireland pretty much as soon as I woke up, unwrapping the first of my presents for the day. A cracker of a pressie, Cass gifted me Peter Fitzsimons' Great Australian Sports Champions, which is shaping up to be a very enjoyable and informative read.
Strangely though, I couldn't find myself in the index.
It was about 6am after I thumbed through the back of the book a few times, so I threw on my smugglers ready for a morning of 'tubular' action...
Firstly, my apologies for posting the poor language. I made it one of my rules when I started the blog that I would not use any profane language.
However, this time I had to make an exception.
Before you read on, I can assure you that this isn't a hardcore post about Australian politics. It's all about the link between nutrition and technology, unwittingly being promoted by a bloke who may well become Australia's next Prime Minister...
As the political pontificating begins to take full flight, I am wondering why healthcare hasn't been of a bigger concern? So far, we've only heard a bitty from Tony Abbott yesterday about how he is going to give $400 to women who have had to undergo a mastectomy and require a prosthetic breast. In response, Labor offered their typical 'me too'.
Which leads me to this question:
If Kevin Rudd is instilled as PM, and delivers on his party's plan to provide Australia with a world class national broadband network, what possible benefit will the policy have on the state of the nation's health?? Is there any usefull crossover???
Perhaps the answer is in this YouTube video...(watch Rudd seated on the left)
Yep, K-Rudd will be able to 'wax lyrical' about tips like this - and others - to the kids of Australia at rapid speed!!!
...and now it's started. I just received this package from my sister Cass and her boyfriend Cossie. As I mentioned in my thankyou email to them, the package is now sitting on my desk, teasing me like a hamburger just out of a fat kid's reach - I won't be able to open it until Saturday!
Saturday is looking to shape up as an absolute cracker, with an ex-CSU student pub crawl planned by Weens, spanning a number of pubs throughout the Surry Hills region.
By the way, a hefty reward for anyone willing to divulge some valuable intel on what Clare has planned for my birthday this Friday/Saturday.
A few pics from when Clare and I decided to go for a walk down to Kiribilli for calamari, chips and beer.
Enjoying yet another gorgeous spring day, I couldn't help but notice a busload of Japanese school kids. Strangely, I began to feel this uncanny extra-sensory demand from my Burbery Yoda (who chooses not to blog, might I add) to go down and make relations.
But not the kind of relations Bill Clinton would promote - more like how a 40 year-old woman would mob Aerosmith for his photo, and in the same breath reminisce about good times gone by.
So this is me with Suki and 'Yoko' (I can't remember the second one's name).
They were great - language was a slight problem, but I ended up being a bit of a hit, being asked to pose for many, many more photos with some of the other 400 kids in their group. They'll probably go home and tell their parents the story about how they got a photo with this weird Aussie guy who insisted they include bunny ears.
And this is an attempted art shot encompassing the best of the day (although Clare isn't in shot).
What a time to celebrate! A day of perennial excitement, children across the world are salivating at the thought of omlettes, quiches and mayonaise.
Today, friends, is World Egg Day. A day of protein and nutritional benefit for all!
To celebrate, below are two photos of a poached egg-off Willis and I had last weekend. On the right-hand side of the page, you will find a poll...feel free to vote - left or right - which egg you'd most like to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
The eggs in full form.
Exposing the yolk.
Well, it's been emotional. This is my 100th blog post since Hotel Bell's inception back on 4 November 2006!!!!
In January of this year, I set up a Google Analytics account to track what content people are finding most appealing, which randoms are reading my blog and from which countries, as well as to immerse myself in a web-world I've never encountered, from a general education perspective.
In celebration of the 100th, I thought I'd take a stroll through some of the quirky, questionable and quixotic results from my Analytics account:
Basic stats (since 23 Jan 2007)
Languages & countries (in order of usage)
Top 6 traffic sources
Key words/phrases people used in Google to find my blog
...and my favourite:
"cleaning bat faeces off cars"
I have always set out for Hotel Bell to be like a bi-weekly gift for my friends and family overseas, up the coast or around the corner - in the hope that they can have a bit of a chuckle for at least a couple of minutes of their day.
Looking forward to another 100 posts!
A couple of weeks ago we trialled a new flatmate named Dan. A funny story actually - we found him down on his luck and sitting out the front of our building, left to rot by his previous flatmates.
He passed the trial with flying colours and now resides in our living room. He's a really top bloke - always a cool customer, and whilst not being overly conversational, he's often the first to give you a nice coldy after work.
As the past few weekends have shown, he can also hold his piss remarkably well.
What is bloody going on in SE Asia?!
In about 7 weeks, Willis & I will be flying into Ho Chi Minh city for a two-week tour of SE Asia. Despite the fact that we're no strangers to danger (Willis looks amazingly like Chuck Norris, and I like Mr T.), we've been wondering whether we should be raising the premiums on our life insurance policies. I'll explain:
28 September - Burma
Check this letter to the editor out!
Some dude caught this fish off the jetty in Chowder Bay. A trip to Uzbekistan for anyone who can tell me what it is...
Having fun in the sun @ Chowder Bay...check out the colours of the water and contrast as the jetty stretches out to the harbour!
Clare and I get a bit of shade - note the cafe we visited in the background and then Vaucluse further out into the distance. Beautiful!
...and just before some pooch humped my leg.So the season ends for one of the season's best performers - here's a mini-movie I made to mark the occasion...
One of the biggest stereotypes of my profession is that I wear Versace and attend numerous launches, openings or A-list after-parties. After nearly 2 years in the industry, I finally got an invite for myself and a partner to live the stereotype and attend the opening of a new Strike Bowling Bar down in King Street Wharf.
I thought considering it was his birthday the day before, I'd ask my good mate Jonnie to come along to knock over the odd pin and schooner.
There was free pool, free drinks and finger food, a DJ, disco-style bowling and a whole host of corporate leaches like myself.
But the highlight of the night? Kicking back with a mate I seldom see enough of - gold.
It's kind of like doing the Paso Doble, only with a 6kg piece of polished stone.
Some strong form on the evening, George Frilingos will be shitting himself if Jonnie goes pro.
So work's been holding me by the grundle for a while now - frequent blogging has been forced to take a back seat. This is why I'm posting about Amelia's birthday 14 days after the event.
The Wish top we got Meils. Apparently she likes the brand, according to my #1 partner in crime.
The matching platter and salad bowl with the same flower that blooms at the time of Amelia's birthday.
Some midget who tried to get the party started early with a few lines of coke.
The Harbourview Hotel! Note the gorgeous day and bridge in the background.
Two hotties at the pub.
Two more hotties. 
Handmade pastries in the foreground, Laura works hard to serve up one of the most delectable brunches of 2007!
Weens' bagels...note the fresh dill. 
The colour! Nothing signals the start of spring more than the blend of some freshly cut fruit.
Enough to feed an Ethiopian tribe.
More shots of the fruit salad, as well as the side of eschalots to accompany the egg and bacon wraps....and here is a picture of the beautiful flowers that Clare gave me - starting to open up and look to be really great quality.
I just got flowers at work from my gorgeous girlfriend!!!
Today marks four years since we first met on that brisk September Sunday morning.
As Paff would say, "I love, love".
Mike Bailey and Senator John Faulkner give me the inside word on the best strip clubs to visit whilst in the US.
Willis and I went down to our local to take part in our first ever political party fundraiser. Mike Bailey - former ABC TV weather man, full-time amateur comedian, and now Labor candidate for the Federal seat of North Sydney - was having a bit of a trivia night.
I've blogged about Mike's race to Canberra before and with an election likely for late November, Mike needs all the support he can get (we're on a first name basis now by the way). There were a heap of people there - 38 tables in fact - a mixture of old stodgy Labor hardcores, and new-wave filthy socialist university arts students. And Willis & I. He's stodgy and I'm in the filthy socialist camp.
Willis and I settled into a few schooners, introducing ourselves to our table - a trivia master, a chemist, a man with anger-management problems, his wife, a super-intelligent woman who thought she was playing 'Fast Money' all night and her unassuming husband who secretly wanted to pants Ricky Ponting.
Highlights include:
Our table was extremely competitive, leading for most of the night, only to come second to Table 27 in the final round. At the height of the frustration, two members from my table staged a protest with Senator Faulkner over when the most recent King of England was crowned. Apparently he was announced King in 1936, but was crowned the following year...contentious stuff. Here's a video of the incident:
I've just sent off a friend request to Joe Hockey on Facebook, asking whether he'll be holding any fundraising evenings as part of his campaign. Willis and I will also be looking to attend an event from each of the different candidates for our electorate in the lead-up to the election.
The wonders of capitalist democracy!
