...and Christmas is getting loose

So we like apple martinis...

Christmas!

Currently at the Four Seasons Hotel smashing Bellinis with the other Bangkok 'orphans'...

The 'Australia Post are useless' post

I'm really, really pissed off with Australia Post right now.

I sent a Christmas package last week to my family in Australia, paying a fair bit of cash to have it sent express delivery so it would get there with a 4-5 day buffer.

Thailand Post did their bit - they had it processed and out of the country within 8hrs.

Australia Post however are too busy bludging to do anything about it. The package has been sitting somewhere between Sydney airport and its final destination now for a week. A week! Useless.

I'm bang up for workers rights, making sure all is fair and equitable, but really, a week to get a parcel delivered from the airport is ridiculous.

Workers pay a lot of money each year to be a member of a union. Why then, does it so often get to this point in Australia - where striking "is the only option"? Are the people negotiating at the top of the union food chain doing their job properly?

Striking is not a form of negotiation. Striking is a last resort because your negotiations have collapsed, for whatever reason. In this case, at Christmas, the union knew it had extra power, and decided to wield it - they didn't strike at New Years. They didn't decide to strike in the middle of January. They are holding a helpless public at ransom, because their leaders have been too useless to pull their heads out of their asses and figure out a constructive solution.

Jeez I'm pissed off right now.

Christmas 2008

Clare and I spent Christmas and Boxing Day with a couple of friends down south this year, my first away from home. We chose Khao Lak, a town on the Western (Andaman) coast of Thailand, roughly 90 minutes north of Phuket. Khao Lak was the area worst hit area in Thailand by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, with water reaching 4km inland, hundreds of people dead, and years of tourist development lost.

Previously famed for diving, at Christmas the area still had a distinct lack of tourists, except for a busload of Frenchies bunking down at a French-themed resort down the road. Many hotels are still slowly being developed, as tourist dollars drip back into the area.

Despite no one really being there, we still had a killer time. We stayed at a pimping resort with two swim-up bars (yes, Angus and Willis, TWO). Unfortunately there was no strict dresscode for 65-year old German female bathers, so Clare and I copped quite a saggy eyeful.

The resort had a whole heap of stuff for hire including a windsurfer (my first time, great fun), bikes, table tennis etc. It was a relaxing antidote to a very stressful last couple of months at work.

Right: Clare relaxes by the pool...

Left: Our friends Kate and Clint exhalt after remembering they were on holiday with Clare and I.

Below: Batman's longtail boat. Note the boat's bow.

Workin hard for the money, honey

...sorry I've not posted much in a while.

Have had a fair bit happening at work with tainted milk crises, 2009 planning, launching mobile internet banking and website restructuring - all on top of the usual trials of negotiating my way through two different working cultures...Arab and Asian!!!

Have a bit of time off coming up over Christmas, so will post some stuff up soon. To keep you entertained in the meantime, here's something that Willis shared with me on facebook:



No one epitomises the Christmas spirit more than John Rambo.

Cricket, catches, crimson sunsets and a couple of days in the car

So you've probably already seen my Christmas post. So, so much more went on. The days at home were quite strenuous - cyclically spent lying on the couch, watching the cricket, sleeping, getting some exercise walking to the fridge for some nourishment, watching the cricket...

When that wasn't happening, I was playing cricket with the fam on Dad's beautifully prepared (mowed) pitch. As you can see from the picture, Mum has most definitely mastered the sweep/hook/on-drive combination. Dad didn't do much, as Mum was pounding Cass' thunderbolts to every corner of the yard. Meils simply resembled a smurf.

Dad and I also went fishing - we bagged two beautiful flatheads and a ripper afternoon in the boat. We ended up BBQing the two flatties the next day. I also caught a flounder, but we won't speak of it.

Let's just say that it's kind of like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore: too wrong - too young.


Alas, all good things must eventually come to an end - it became time for the sun to set on my holiday in Coffs. Get it - there's a picture of a Coffs Harbour sunset from my parent's balcony!

So we left Coffs and the road trip continued (see the red below):

The five of us - bundled up and on our way to Nan & Pa's in Central Western NSW, approximately 750kms away. What a trip - thank Christ for iPods! But seriously, I really enjoyed (if not lamented) seeing the different life and landscapes along the way: from the seemingly endless waterfalls in the mountains near Dorrigo, through to the patchy wheat crops and lanky, shrunken cattle around the Tamworth and Quirindi areas; not to mention the dry gum-leaf enshrouded roads along the Bell River from Wellington to Cumnock.

Below: A picture of one of the paddock's adjacent to Nan and Pa's residence.

Once finally there, it was just so great to see the rels. After a couple of days of BBQ's, cups of tea and catching up with all and sundry, we headed back to Sydney, where New Years awaited...

So this is Christmas...

Ho ho ho - and I'm not talking about Paris Hilton.

I came up home to Mum and Dad's at Coffs to celebrate Christmas. In my family, Christmas isn't a time for giving. Hell no. It's a time for consuming. That is, enough seafood, fruit, meat, vegetables and piss to sink a small 16th century Chinese sea-trade vessel.

The day started for me at around 6:30am, preparing the ingredients for a prawn dish I was responsible for at lunch time.

Cass had been bouncing off the walls since 3am and Meils struggled with the concept of daylight, being dragged out of bed at a very un rock 'n roll hour of 8am (see pic below).

Absolute corker of a day - blue skies, beautiful Aussie weather. After opening our gifts, we went down to Woolgoolga Beach in the morning for a swim. We then came back to the homestead, prepared a beautiful brunch, sat on the couch, hit the piss again during the 5 o'clock happy hour with pina coladas, then enjoyed another smashing meal prepared by my gorgeous mother and two voracious sisters.

All in all, a ripper of a day. But back to the pressies - I received:

• A white shirt with textured pink squares with french cuffs
• A new pair of boardshorts, dress shorts and belt
• Frisbee
• A few puzzles and intellectual paraphernalia
• A moose that shits jelly beans
• A new white bonds wife-beater
• Wine and bar goods
• Kitchen items.