Head in the clouds

It's 6.30am and for the first time in quite a while, I've woken up to the morning reverie of wild birds.

What makes it even more significant is that the closest Clare and I get to nature these days in Bangkok is in caring for our little struggler of a baby frangipani tree.

We flew up yesterday morning to Chiang Rai, in the mountainous north of Thailand, near the borders of Myanmar and Laos. We decided to brave the Thai roads and hire a little 4-door Honda Jazz - an absolute winner of an idea from Clare - spending most of yesterday driving along the back roads, checking out (modernised) tribal villages, cloud-swept mountain landscapes, postcard-perfect rice paddies and enjoying the cool air!

Until now, I had thought the authenticity of Thailand's cultural and ethnic heritage had been sold out to opportunistic travel operators. Not so in the north, with a modern tribal co-op system still working among the villages, embracing the advent of the new world, while seemingly keeping many of the traditions and cultural markers of their forepeople. The opium trade has challenged this in the past (and still), however I understand there to have been a significant shift away from the golden days of the Golden Triangle (more about this later).

We stayed last night on Doi Tung (Mt Tung), atop which the Queen Mother used to live. There's also a botanic garden here, which we hope to be able to visit today. Pictured above is the view we've just woken up to - so lucky!

For Karla - the government has worked to replace opium with coffee bean production as a means of resident income in the area, meaning some delicious fresh coffee available everywhere! You'd love it!!

(Apologies for the grainy mobile photo...will blog some decent ones when I get back!)

With Karla

Karla just flew into Bangkok for a rock star tour.

This is a picture of her and an elephant at a street bar on Sukhumvit.

Classic moment. God I miss my friends...

THE wedding

Firstly, my apologies for not posting this up sooner. I have been recuperating from the aftermath of such a shit-hot weekend.

Getting there

I was packing darkies as Clare and I headed up the F3 freeway with rain pelting toward us from seemingly unimaginable angles. I was thinking of how Penny must be feeling, with the irony of that annoying Alanis Morrisette song beating about in her head.

With the rains clearing, Clare and I decended upon Maitland McDonalds to get changed - below is a picture of Clare walking back to the car in some wooly attire. The guy in the brown t-shirt was like, "WTF?".

We managed to get to the church a little early, yet still only scoring the last of the seats. With half an hour until the main action was due to start, I tried to relieve my pent up excitement by inspecting Clare's ear canal.

Clare looked absolutely gorgeous on the day. And the hat! Stunning!!

The wedding

But 'stunning' would be an understatement when speaking about Penny. Wow. She looked like an absolute angel, beaming like a snow flake floating its way across a crystalline Tasmanian mountain.

Here's a quick video snapshot of the wedding:

Millgate and Sar un'veil' their cheeky sides.

The reception

Penny and Josh arrive by horse and cart. What an entrance!

The Evans'


To quote Paff at this exact moment: "Oh! I love love!!". Also note the small child reaching for an early piece of cake.

The gang.

There is a distinct question to be asked in the above photo. Why is Millgate making a move on Clare? He looks kind-of into it, but Clare...well, slightly confused. Please explain.

One for the photo album. Did I mention that our outfits matched on the day?

Willis & Weens: Watch out Daryl Somers and the Dancing With The Stars crew!

Late-night hot chips and sauce from Gresford - thanks to Willis and Weens "The Carbohydrate Express".

Millgate and Dani cut up the dancefloor. Hot dress Posty!


Considering Millgate's earlier advances, I'm really not sure what to say about this photo. It was fun though.

"I need answers"

This particular photo was taken at 3am after Tim couldn't find a nestful of individual easter eggs he had strategically placed around the farm. Perhaps those late night cookies were throwing his radar slightly off course?

The morning after

Ezre finds said easter eggs the morning after.


Karla's trashbag feet.



Willis & Weens slept in their car. The full-length nightsuit Weens is wearing - I've no idea either!

And also in the news...

Who's the particular blonde-haired young lass who ventured over to Western Australian on yet another PR junket, only to leave the place in a cyclonic mess???

See here.

Paff gleens with Mr. Bean

So between marching in the 2007 Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, travelling to Singapore for some PR junket, and being a general all-round hottie, Paff was recently the face of Australian surf life saving, with an appearance alongside 'Mr. Bean' at Bondi Beach.

See below:



Go Paff!!!

MARDI GRAS!!!

Karla & Tim - a swirl of excitement as Mardi Gras reaches full swing. Watch out for the shark guys.

Well, it's a bit of a gay-a-thon tonight, after my little post about Anthony Callea below. Two of the best - Karla and Millgate - marched in this year's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. They danced and wooed the crowds as part of the inaugural Surf Life Saving float - an absolute hit with the crowd!

However, there is a school of thought that the zeal shown by the crowd may have been directly proportional to the lack of clothing worn by some of the male patrons of the parade. Either way, great show!

My highlights:

• Being proud as punch, seeing Millgate in his first ever Mardi Gras. Respect!
• Seeing so many happy people buzz by my eyes for over 2.5 hours.
• For one night of the year, where the collective voice of hundreds of thousands of people drowned out the homophobic bullshit that resonates too often in this country.
• As a bloke, there is nothing more satisfying than coming home and sitting on the couch in your underwear. I can't imagine what it would be like to be wandering up Oxford street, dancing and carrying on like an idiot in nothing but - your underwear.

Check out the SLS group blog here for even more photos and descriptions of the lead up to the event.

Other random observations

The night started with Clare & I jumping off the bus at Wynyard Station to be confronted by an astounding array of side-shows - each peeling back a new layer of incredulity for a night still amazingly so young. In chronological order:

• A group of 16 year old young ladies (and I say that with quiet reservations) dressed in french knickers at Wynyard, drinking UDL's. Knickers. UDLs. Seriously, nothing but their polyester undies, garters and PVC boots. Britany Spears has a lot to answer for - they can vote in about 2 years.
• More 16 year olds guzzling goon in Wynyard Park. This, I'm not too worried about. At least they had their clothes on. And it was goon! Oh, the good old days...
• Even more 16 year olds carrying cases of beer down Elizabeth St toward the night's glittered festival-like carnage of Darlinghurst.
• The chick on an acid trip standing in the front window of Sax's House of Leather on Oxford St, flashing her tits at the hoards of pedestrians walking by.
• The corresponding excitement for many of the men in the crowd as the Dykes on Bikes roared into full view.
• The bogan young men, who, after the conclusion of such a wonderful celebration of love and sexuality, still persisted with homophobic comments directed toward a gay couple - would love to see some of the more built members of the parade give them a bit of a dust up for their trouble.

The floats

Below are a few photos of some of my favourite floats from this year's parade.

Poignant...

Blokes on a float, some dressed up a women, some dressed up in...well...not much at all. Crowd favourite - check out our position...right in front of the Columbian.

Hopefully these Trojans don't embed nasty viruses inside of you.
(That's an IT joke for Willis)

No idea what float this one is, but it's a pretty cool crowd shot with some great colours. I'm up in a tree for this pic. Great angles - check out the leaves. And the guy out the front left with the gargantuan arms.

Again, no idea who these guys are, but they were well-rehearsed, got some great reactions from the crowd, and wowed Clare with their oiled chests.

Scenes of the crowd after the parade. Party time.

People

A wide range of people at this year's event. Here's a small selection:

Obviously animal rights didn't get much of a look-in on the night.

This guy wasn't wearing any pants. I don't know why.

Clare and I trying to find a place to watch the parade. Why wasn't I born a 7'8" monster? Or maybe I should have worn a mega pair of wedges. We ended up buying and standing on a couple of stools similar to the green ones featuring in the photo with Clare.

This chick was definitely on the wrong side of the fence. She should have been on a motorised stage, headed east on Oxford Street dancing to George Michael.

Why do it?

Well, with one short of thirty notches to have been marked on the Mardi Gras belt over the years, the Mardi Gras represents to me a time when people can come together to celebrate the universal, undiscriminating and pink-strobed voltage of love. Whilst it's something most definitely in need of immediate support, I hope the need to protest for equal gay rights eventually dissolves as we move toward an unseen level of equality and national acceptance.

Well done to all participants, especially my two favourite life savers!!!!

Freedom is walking down one of Sydney's main streets in your grundles.

Was the F-Word appropriate?

On Tuesday night, Jules Heaton, Millgate, Karla and myself went to some random restaurant in Woolloomooloo for the filiming of a new Channel 7 reality TV show. Further to my post about setting goals, this was my first exercise to get on every commercial TV station in Australia by year's end. At the very least, I'll be in the background of a conversation between Evan and Bella from My Restaurant Rules' Pink Salt.

The producers were even so kind to move our table so that the camera men could have better access to the 'star' couple. Either way, we had an unobscured view of the kitchen (as you can see above).

Aside from Jules, Millgate and Karla, other stars in attendance included Anthony Callea and Wil Traval (Dr Quade from All Saints). Elton John was busy.

The show is modelled on Gordon Ramsey's UK version, The F-Word, where three amateur chefs cook for a restaurant of 50 people. In our episode there were three butchers.

Chef Matt Moran (not the Slavic soul-party vibraphonist-composer) needed seven takes just to high five his team of three amateur chefs for a job well done. Regular TV, shit talent, or just a 1st class wanker? I'll take votes.

The menu...

Entree - Salt & Chilli Squid w Bok Choy

Mum, you would have loved this one.

In my opinion, the squid was beautifully cooked, perhaps a little overwhelmed by its sweet ginger and chilli sauce - a personal taste, but I would have liked a little more chilli to balance out the strong sweet ginger flavours. The baby bok choy was of a high quality and had the right snap/soft textural balance. After this one, I was thinking that this dynamic could really work for TV and we were in for a night of great taste.

Main - Pork w Kifler Potatoes, Honey Baby Pears, Broccolini & Caper Butter

Unispiring, yes. The pork cut was just divine though.

As I mentioned to my table, when the caper butter resting over your broccolini hasn't even begun to melt, you know there must be something wrong with the vegetable kitchen-plate-table process...a little too cold, considering we were 2.5 metres from the kitchen. Perhaps a group of Iraqi insurgents disrupted the convoy? I don't know.

The pork cut though - sweet mother - amazing. Loved it! There was some consternation at the level of cooking it had had, however in my mind, its medium-medium rare tenderness and texture proved an absolute hit with my tastebuds. The 'crackling' was about 25 minutes undercooked - quite chewy really. But that's not really Moran's fault. He only showed up 5 minutes before filming started.

I was one of only 20 out of the 50 patrons who agreed to pay for the pork. Yeah, sure the vegetables were sub-standard, but a cut of meat like that, which Matt Moran later told us was Kurobuta Pork, was truly a unique experience.

Another diner/blogger suggests that the reason it may not have scored very highly was because not many people dig pork. Seems like Australian Pork Limited still have a bit of work to do...

Desert - White Chocolate Pannacotta w Citrus Salad

This dish was a little like a trip to the Western NSW wheatbelt. Simple, refreshing and a little grainy.

It was simple because I felt, again, the dish was relatively uninspiring. I just wasn't excited when they plonked it down in front of me. In saying that, it would be a great dish if you had kids with you - the jelly wobble of the pannacotta and the simple fruit flavours would have been a hoot for any 5 year-old.

Refreshing for a few reasons. Firstly because I have never experienced a rose water/citrus combination like this. And what about the oregano garnish - now that's novel. Lastly, I couldn't agree more with Millgate's comment that the pannacotta proved to be a wonderful complement to some rich flavours experienced in the entree and main courses.

And grainy - the pannacotta, whilst its flavour proved a treat, its consistency and texture was somewhat disappointing.

Verdict

All in all, it was a great experience. I loved the company, with 3/4 of my table trying to make eyes with buff camera men, tanned waiters and Tony Callea. Sitting down for 5 hours nearly gave me DVT - I think we could have done with about another four bottles of wine.

Would I go again? Probably not. The thrill really was in seeing the magic of TV and having the excitement of a sound man's boom hovering over your face whilst you discuss the different elements of the food. I think I'd rather take Clare out for a pasta, icecream and romantic stroll down woolloomoo wharf for $40.

Shiny, happy people laughing...

BINGAY!

Sixteen, one-six. Legal age for boys and girls, sixteen...

Sixty-nine, six-nine. Dinner for two, sixty-nine...

Eighty-eight, eight-eight. Two fat ladies - it's lonely in the sidecar...

Clare, Amelia, Karla, Clare's mate Whitey, Chris, Malin, Millgate, myself and some random Canadian guy looking for boy-love went to Bingay at the Imperial Hotel on Tuesday.

For those uninitiated, it's basically regular bingo run by Mitzi MacIntosh, one of Australia's favourite drag queens and her sidekick dyke, Naomi. Once your numbers are all called out, you have to yell 'BINGAY!!'. If you call 'Bing-O', you have to wear a penis-hat. Quite simple, really.

The best thing about it is that all prizes are donated and money raised from the games goes to the AIDS Council of NSW.

So anyway, we went to Bingay, had a fabulous time, darling, and won a few things along the way. Millgate won a topless garden gnome, some condoms, chocolate and some tickets to Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Karla won a Natio beauty gift pack and Clare won a meat tray and a copy of Mission Impossible III on DVD. Yes, that's right, a meat tray. Eight lamb chops, six thick snags, two slabs of rump steak and a mutton leg.

Booty-shak'n roadtrip

The trip back from the engagement party was a bit subdued - it seemed the night's festivities were quite taxing on the girls' REM cycles. Karla and Dani may have also been suffering from the effects of late night hypothermia.

So beyond talking cricket and how amazing our mos were looking toward the end of the month, Willis & I decided we'd get some booty shak'n happening, just to keep the roadtrip back to Old Sydney Town kicking along.



He taught Beyonce everything she knows...

Here comes the bride...

Nice outfits - scared the shit out of us.

Congrats to Penny and her soon-to-be husband Josh.

The crew went for a bit of a road trip up to Newcastle to celebrate the lovers' engagement. The party was a great opportunity to meet some more of Josh's mates, eat chops stacked 3-high on platters as big as Newy surfboards and of course, get pissy with the Batho kids. Here's a few photos (there may or may not be some more colourful ones on another site - for those in the know, they're hot. Thanks to Tim M.):

Karla and Dani getting ready. They'd make a fabulous pair of Charlie's Angels.

Crare and Ezre.

That's what mates are for. I had a bit of lamb chop stuck in my beard. Check out our mos.

Penny & I...

She's off and racing

That's right folks, my good uni friend Beth has decided to head overseas in search of adventure, a bloody great big frost, and a hot Canadian to teach her how to snowboard (or something).

So we (Beth, Posty, Millgate, Ezre, Kelly, Karla, Bonnie, Digi, Crump, Deako and a heap of Beth's other mates and family) went to the races to farewell the filly, enjoying a glorious Saturday in the sun. We also went to Bondi the next day, but I was too tired from the previous night's festivities to lift a camera.

Check out my mo. Hot.