Hola! Time again for the annual holiday, well, those who know me, most of the year is a holiday anyway. Either way, theme here was more or less a “meet the family” (of Roxy), which would mean less travel, and more eating and drinking (as in, more Argentinean steaks with Argentinean red wines, YEAH!). Early morning rise, and a grand (and cold) sunrise over Melbourne left us in a chaotic Qantas check in queue, think we had about 30 mins left after check in to get to the plane….. and with separate seats on the 12hour Sydney to BA leg…. “They’ll fix that in Sydney for you”, of course. In Sydney, service desk assistant A had a confused look on his face, and on hold on the phone to get it fixed. An older service desk ... read more

OK, no excuses, slack arse reporting back here after many months of delay! Happy new year to all !! Story and pics from that trip are to follow (hopefully soon). So, here goes, in management summary, 4 races in spring here in Melbourne, a little while ago: - Philip Island MotoGP, again, like last year, with Serge and his mates. - Opening race at Caulfield, Guiness stake day (I believe) with Roxana and her friends (I shaved, just for the record). - Polo match in Werribee Mansion (west of Melbourne). - Melbourne Cup, thi time enjoyed on the big screen on Fed Square here in Melbourne. That's an awful lot of horses (and horse power) crammed into 2 months or so, but all good fun. Philip Island was good fun again, Stoner taking the win again ... read more

As crazy as it may sound, probably the flight from Dusseldorf to London took longer than the last leg from Singapore to Melbourne! Why? Well, thunderstorms had closed down Heathrow, and the plane I was supposed to leave on from Duss. hadn’t even left London when I said my goodbyes to mum and dad….. and wasn’t about to leave soon either. Shame really, could have had tea at the airport with the folks, rather than walking in and out of the security zone at Duss International Airport (it’s actually bigger than you think, but nowhere near big enough to make it interesting as an airport). 4 Hours late we boarded….. didn’t get to Heathrow till 11pm UK time. So that meant I missed dinner with John and Nathalie, even though John was still good enough of ... read more

Quite unexpectedly, for people who know me, I've moved again.... think this is my 9th place of residence since moving to Oz (not counting friends' sofas, hostels, hotels etc etc). url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=334+princes+st+port+melbourne+vic&daddr=111+ross+st+port+melbourne+vic&sll=-37.83477,144.9398&sspn=0.00455,0.008293&ie=UTF8&ll=-37.834768,144.939816&spn=0.00455,0.008293&z=17THIS is how far I've moved, all of 500 meters according to Google maps.... But for a change, I did decide to throw a little do to Christen the place. Well, it had JUST been renovated before I moved in, so it's only right that we'd try hard to replace the smell of fresh paint with that of good alcohol and bad snackfood ! All good and well, it's winter here, so a "warming" of any house is desparately needed anyway. The place is great, quiet spot, but because of the way ... read more

One of those things with moving to another city (or country), is getting your friends/family to visit you. I've been quite creative in the past, even forceful (I'm not saying blackmailing here, but I could be blamed for that as well). A little triumph again this time, getting Anthony across from Sydney.... "How about going to Ballarat and surrounds".... which has a lot of history revolving around the victorian gold rush. With Anthony being a history buff, it was a straight bullseye ! Anthony organised a great weekend away to northern Victoria in 2001 right after I'd moved over to Sydney. We stayed in a small village called url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Yackandandah+VIC,+Australia&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,-36.312970,146.837903&ll=-36.208823,146.837769&spn=0.793373,1.870422&z=9Yackandandah, yes, that is an actual village name. It was a great weekend all up, so the bar f... read more