Concerts

I am a big music fan and always have been. There is a recording of me singing ABBA when I was only 3 years old.

Over the years I’ve had the chance to go to some great concerts and see some great bands. Here is a list of the ones I can remember (dates might not be exact…) :

Crowded House / Split Enz - The Spit, Gold Coast, Australia 1990
Hunters & Collectors - The Spit, Gold Coast, Australia 1990
Midnight Oil – The Spit, Gold Coast, Australia 1991
Nirvana – Fisherman’s Wharf, Gold Coast, Australia 1991
Hoodoo Gurus – Fisherman’s Wharf, Gold Coast, Australia 1991
Hoodoo Gurus – Fisherman’s Wharf, Gold Coast, Australia 1992
Tripping Daisy – (Local Dallas band) Dallas, USA 1993
Silverchair – Dallas, USA 1996
You Am I – London 1997
Silverchair – London 1997
Chemical Brothers – Big Day Out, Sydney Australia 2000
Magic Dirt & Jebediah - Sydney Australia 2001
Sonicanimation - Homebake, Sydney Australia 2001
Chemical Brothers – Hordern Pavillion, Sydney Australia 2002
Powderfinger – Hordern Pavillion, Sydney Australia 2002
iOTA – 10 times, best was at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Australia 2002
The Rolling Stones – Enmore Theatre (only 2,200 people!) Sydney, 2002
Tim Rogers - Sydney Opera House, Sydney Australia 2003
U2 – QEII Stadium, Brisbane, Australia 2006


Out of all of those, the 3 best would be :
1. Chemical Brothers @ Big Day Out – just AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME! One of the highlights of my life!
2. Rolling Stones – at the Enmore Theatre that seats only 2,200 people. The ticket agency received 550,000 phone calls trying to buy tickets! And I was one of the lucky ones.
3. U2 – I have been a massive fan since 1989 and never got the chance to see them until last year.


What are some of your highlights?

Text me, text me now....

As regular voyeurs of this blog will know, I’m not afraid of a bit of kiwi-bashing. In fact, I’d go so far as saying that I enjoy it.

And when something like this happens, I just love it.

This morning, the following test messages occurred :

Anonymous (from an overseas phone number that started +64) : Hi
SC : Who’s this?
Anon : Looking for Jim. I may have the wrong number. Sonny.
SC : Yep I think you have the wrong number.
Anon: It seems strange that your message comes back with “Jim” at the top?
SC : Probably because you have MY number stored in your phone under the name “Jim”.
Anon : Umm, yes, I think you might be right.

I had my suspicions, and checked the internet to see what country code +64 was.

Yep, you guessed it – our sheep-lovin cuzzie bro’s to the east, New Zulland.

Caption Time

See who can come up with the funniest caption for this photo.

T.F.I.F. !

How I'm feeling today....

T.F.I.F.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Double Post.

1. CSI Miami – Did anyone watch CSI Miami last night?

I normally don’t because it’s so predictable it's boring, but I couldn’t sleep, so I watched.

If you did see it, did you pick up that the name of the “baddie” was Wayne King??

(For anybody who doesn’t get this, say “Wayne King” together and it sounds like “wanking”, which in most countries means “guy masturbating”)

2. Dear Ungrateful Lesbians,

I hear you were successful using IVF but are now planning on suing because you only wanted one child and you are now getting two.

Well you ungrateful bitches, I personally know about a dozen couples who are trying desperately, and have done for a while now, to get pregnant through IVF and are willing to have ANYTHING – one child, two children, a football team. As long as they have something!

They would do anything to be in your situation, and all you can do is bitch about it. I’d be thanking myself lucky if I were you, not everyone can get pregnant, you’ve achieved it, be happy and move on.

I guess you’ll also try and sue if the children grow up to be ugly or fat.

Oh and by the way, this is not an attack on Lesbians at all, I would be saying the exact same thing if it were a gay or straight couple doing this.

Dear Channel 10,

You are complete IDIOTS!

On Sunday, while recovering on the couch, I was watching on Channel 10 the replay of the Wallabies v Wales game from the night before.

About 30 mins into the replay, Channel 10 has a news update. They mention various news items and the last item they showed – “Australia celebrates it’s big win over Wales in the Rugby World Cup”.

Thank you very much Channel 10 for ruining the outcome the game that you are replaying on your own channel.

I hope many people, now hearing the result of the game they were watching, switched off the TV and Channel 10 lost lots of money in advertising revenue.

How about next time you are replaying something that everyone is interested in, you wait until after it’s over before telling everyone the final score.

Morons!

Another one over....

Well another birthday over and done with.

I do love celebrating my birthday, to the point where I am almost telling strangers in the street that it’s my birthday.

But they get fairly meaningless once you’ve done 18, 20, 21 and 30.

I guess the next big one is 40 and that’s still a long way off.

Saturday was a perfect day here and I was (gladly) woken by the Monkey at 7am with a hand-made birthday card for me. Hand-made cards are the best type of birthday and Christmas cards.

Pancakes at home, then Coffee at my favourite coffee shop – told them it was my birthday – free coffee!

Lunch at a pub with the Pink Mafia and the Monkey. Then about 20 or so friends joined us for many many many beers.

Then out for dinner for more beers and great Fijian-Indian food.

Got home in time to watch the Wallabies play Wales in the World Cup.

Watched the kick off…. and then woke up as the players walked off the field at full-time..

Sunday – recovery.

Happy Birthday to Me

It’s SurferCam’s birthday tomorrow (15th September), and if you were one of the lucky people to receive an invite to my party, you’d know that it’s “The 12^th Anniversary of my 21^st Birthday”.

Other notables born on 15 September :

- Prince Harry

- Author - Agatha Christie

- Actor - Oliver Stone

- Actor - Tommy Lee Jones

- Actor / Model and daughter of Roald - Sophie Dahl

- NFL Star Quarterback – Dan Marino

- and porn-star - Tawnee, whose movies included Very Dirty Dancing, Muffy the Vampire Layer and The Beverly Thrillbillies.

If Men Wrote Advice Columns

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO READ IT MORE CLEARLY!

Californication

On Monday night I had the absolute pleasure of watching David Duchovy’s (from X-Files) new show called Californication.

What an awesome show!

I think someone dubbed it as Sex in the City for blokes – and they’re not far off it. There was nudity, sex, fights, comedy, drama, stealing people’s pets and artwork, and they dropped the ‘fuck’ word like it was the ‘the’ word.

One thing that did piss me off was the television station’s constant plug about ‘watching the show at the same time as it’s being screened in the U.S.’.

Well after living in the States for many years and knowing about something called ‘time zones’, I thought I’d check up on this so-called being screened at the same time as in the U.S.

In most places in Australia, Californication was on at 9.30pm.
So what time would that be in America :
- Los Angeles – 4.30am
- New York – 7.30am

Yeah, not sure a brand new show, with tits and arse and swearing, with a star like David Duchovy is going to be aired at 4am or 7am in the US.

Nice try.

Dust them off Ladies...

Garage Sale

On the weekend, we cleared out the house and had a Garage Sale.

What I’ve learnt (there may be some gross generalisations here, but I think I’m about 99% right, as always…).

Garage Sales :

- It is THE best way to get rid of all the crap in your house.
- And a great way to make some cash - $600 for the day.
- 'People' will buy the weirdest shit.
- Most people that come to garage sales are weird.
- If you advertise that it starts at 8am, people will turn up at 6.40am
- When you tell them to “fuck off and come back at 8am”, they will!
- People will haggle over $1.
- I do not give in.
- More Kiwis (New Zealanders) turned up than Aussies.
- Kiwis were charged more!
- Little old ladies were given discounts.
- Weirdest item I tried to sell – Macy Gray CD, without the actual CD in the case… (a) No idea why I would have her crap CD anyway. (b) No it didn’t sell.
- Favourite item I parted with – a key-chain hipflask that holds about 3 shots of whatever booze you like. Sold for $1.
- People get really offended by items they think are too highly priced.

What a great time of the year!

Girls, don’t bother reading on.

All us blokes should just move out of home and start a commune in a big hall somewhere with plasma screen TV’s, beer wenches, strippers and booze on tap.

Why?

Because over the two months or so, the following sporting events are on :

- Rugby Union World Cup
- Aussie Rules Finals and Grand Final
- Rugby League Finals and Grand Final
- Twenty20 Cricket World Cup (yes it’s not real cricket but it’s sport so don’t complain)
- Indy Grand Prix
- Bathurst 1000 Car Racing
- Spring Carnival Horse Racing
- Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix

And then, to top it off, there is the Melbourne Cup in November and the cricket season starts.

Oh I love living in a country that is sports mad!

Fiji Surf Trip

A mate of mine had put me in touch with an Aussie guy, Brian McDonald, who has built and owns a fabulous eco-resort in Fiji, called Matanivusi Surf Resort.
It was 40 mins from my hotel so I decided to hire a car.

After the woman from the car rental agency at the hotel tried to rip me off, I went next door and rented a car off the local Fiji-Indians. $80 Fijian Dollars per day, unlimited kilometres, no insurance required, no deposit required, CD Player (complete with Indian music CD’s) and room for my surfboard. Nice.

After an hour of driving I decided I was lost and called to find out how to get to Matanivusi. With new directions I set off again. And got lost again. With the aid of a local villager, he pointed me in the right direction and after making a few decisions – do I take the road to the left or the right – I finally made it to the beautiful and VERY secluded Matanivusi Resort.



I barely got the keys out of the ignition when I was whisked away by boat over the clearest bluest water, to our surfing destination – a reef about 15 minutes off shore.

Sitting in the crystal clear water waiting for swell, I could see tropical fish swimming under my board, and the coral reef less than 3 feet below me.

We surfed and snorkeled and then returned to Matanivusi.

The resort is amazing – the bures are five star and the bar area is fantastic. If you don’t want to go surfing, the view from the pool will keep you entertained all day.



If you’re looking for a great escape, I highly recommend staying here.
And please note, it’s not just for surfers either.

Check out more info and pics on Brian’s website : www.surfingfiji.com

Book

If anybody is looking for a great book to read, that is bloody entertaining and completely shocking, have a read of Anthony Kiedis’ Scar Tissue.



For those not in the know, Anthony is the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Can anyone suggest any good books for me to read?

Please don’t mention Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or any books that are political, or soppy love stories…

Random Notes on Fiji :

- Most ironic sight was seeing a very poor young boy about 12 years old, without shoes, torn shorts but wearing a t-shirt with a massive Chanel logo on the front of it.

- Things I had to stop for or swerve to miss while driving in Fiji – 4 piglets, 1 cow, an old man, a horse, chickens, dogs, kids, buses, trucks, cars.

- Funniest quote of the trip. My four year old daughter, after watching the local villagers perform an awesome dance routine, asks : “Mum, Dad, can you become black, so I can become black, so that I can then dance with the other black people from Fiji?”

- Dumbest quote of the trip. “Sir, would you like another Fiji Gold (beer)?”

- The one and only thing I missed while being away from Australia – a really good coffee.

- The things I miss about Fiji now that I am back in Australia – warm weather, laying by the pool all day, fantastic people, Fiji Gold (beer), wearing nothing but boardies and thongs, not shaving every day, champagne at 6pm and night-caps at 8pm, someone making my bed every morning and turning it down every night, fresh towels every day, and waking up each morning without a care in the world and nothing to do but swim, sunbathe, eat and drink!

- 3 Best parts of the trip :
1. Arriving at the resort - knowing I had 10 more days of doing nothing.
2. Snorkeling off Robin Crusoe Island – blew me away!
3. First beer after my surfing trip – liquid heaven!

- 3 worst parts of the trip :
1. Getting the flu with 2 days to go.
2. Leaving.
3. Flight delayed from leaving Fiji.

Bula!

After 10 days in beautiful Fiji, I am now back in the office and depressed as hell!

Had an awesome time in Fiji laying by the pool, snorkelling, surfing, swimming, kayaking, drinking and eating.

Stayed at a great resort in our own bure and at 6pm each night our butler would come and deliver glasses of champagne and canapés. After dinner we’d return to the bure to find some desserts and liqueur or port.
Something I really got used to….

Oh well, back to the real world now…