Friday night some of us went down to Thai Nesia and had a really good Thai meal although some of it smelt funny. We then went to Dragonfly in Kings Cross which was a cool club but the DJ was the worse ever, he told Mike “we only do house” and couldn’t actually mix anything together.
Saturday we were all down at Matt’s house party where we listened to DJ Deep Child spin some tunes and stole some Vodka (someone had drunk my Corona without permission so the guilt level was low). I also had what felt like a 3 hour debate with Faisel about surfing paddling techniques. Faisel and myself then tried to get into Dragonfly but they wouldn’t let the two of us in. Funny how the night before they seemed to welcome Mike and myself with open arms when you bring three girls along with you!!
So Sunday arrived and I was shattered, not even able to go surfing (although the waves are really small now). However, we went down to Tropfest on Sunday night which is a short film festival broadcast to outdoor event locations in Australia. One of these is obviously Sydney, so we went down to the Domain along with thousands of other people. The basic history of Tropfest is that the festival started off in the Tropicana Caffe in Darlinghurst (that on a side note does a terrible breakfast – go to the place across the road it’s much better) . Tropfest went from a small coffee shop to a corporate backed massive festival in the space of ten years.
So the sixteen films they showed were all really cool. My favourites were ‘A family legacy‘, ‘too far‘, ‘garbage man‘. The one that actually won was ‘Australian Summer‘ which was a video of two homeless guys imagining they were on the beach surfing a huge wave, rather than living on the cold streets which was the reality of their situation.
Here is the setup, everyone sits around the screens that are in the centre of the park -
Lots of people!
In true Short Film Festival style I have decided to put together a little video of my own. Unfortunately the contents aren’t THAT exciting because I have not really filmed anything since Queensland. So here is a small video of a Kookaburra at Seal Rocks, Matt and myself in Stanwell Park preparing to surf and our crowd of mainly French people at Tropfest.
Camping/Surfing trip this weekend down South somewhere to hopefully catch some ‘gnarly’ waves…dude.
On a separate note I’ve just finished reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It is my favourite book of 2005 which isn’t really saying much seeing as it is February but it really is great. It is the story of a boy who is on a life boat with some zoo animals, one of them being a bengal tiger. I cried my eyes out felt sad at the end of the book, it has a brilliant ending, a really good read.
Jorid (Tagjinda) returned from Norway after a very long holiday and to celebrate Tag had a BBQ and supplied all the food! It was the first time that I have eaten Kangaroo burger and it tasted really good I must say. We were also treated to an impromptu Bhang Lassi good which was cool.
Delane and Andrew BBQ’ing Kangaroo
That’s it for the time being.
Andy and myself watched Shrek in 3D for about 2 minutes but it was rubbish so we stopped doing it.
Watching Shrek 3D on the Projector was rubbish
Literally ‘fell’ off the front of a 4ft (read 6ft) wave at Manly today, I paddled in, got going, stood up, forced myself over the edge waiting for the bottom turn and then there was no wave below me, just air in to which I fell into the breaking/dumping wave. I was a little embarrased when George, the Mexican surfer said “I got in the pipe today, how did you do?” and my reply was “Got out the back once and got wiped out on my first wave”. Oh well practice makes perfect.
I have a new 6’4″ curvaceous girlfriend. She is so beautiful, I took her out in the sea today and I got on her three times. Here is a picure of her -
6’4″ – 19 1/4 – 2 1/2
For sale: 7’6″ Mini-Mal and 6’7″ Dalhberg Shortboard. Enquires to the usual email address.
Surf surf surfing – that is all I write about now, oh well.
Went surfing with Matt yesterday at a place called Stanwell Park on the Coal Coast. I was a bit nervous to be honest, it was all very onshore and a beach we passed had ‘locals only’ written on the road – I could just see myself dropping in on one of these crazy south coast ozzies with tattoos and getting beaten to a pulp. Nervousness and surfing don’t really mix so I was not too good out in the surf. I actually only caught one wave and that was the one back to the beach, where I watched Matt rip it up. There were no beginners out there. I have to say though this was probably one of the most beautiful surfing spots I’ve ever been to. Here is Stanwell Park Beach from a high, you can see the sets rolling in from the ocean -
Here is some of that crazy shorebreak in action on Stanwell Park beach (not taken by me but found at wannasurf.com) -
Went for a surf at Manly today but it was there was a strong NE blowing which means Bluebottles were already on the beach although we still went out, if only on the mal. I found my next surfboard today in Manly, it is a Rodney Dahlberg 6’4″ beauty, although I am going to shop around for it as Manly is tourist paradise and I am sure it is marked up.
Went to Seal Rocks/Treachery for a surfing extravaganza this week but ended up coming back a day early, the surfboards had not left the roof of the car. A number of reasons brought it on but the main one being red algae at Seal Rocks beach and Treachery Beach being messy and virtually flat, which is unheard of! A let down 
Tere, Nancy and myself on camp and not surfing
Going to head down to Coledale tomorrow with Matt to try and find a wave, I actually hope it’s not too big; all the beaches down there apart from Austinmer are reef breaks. You won’t find me surfing Headlands tomorrow!!
I was in Bondi Junction Westfield supermarket tonight and notice a sign on the floor that said ‘Cereal Dating – Mondays at 7pm, ask at information desk for details’. It clearly has something to do with meeting people in supermarkets so me and the information desk – never the twain shall meet. So naturally I rushed home and put it into Google and found this.
The basic premise is that you go to the supermarket at around 7pm and then get a trolley/basket and head to the cereal section, where you put a box of cereal in your trolley upside down. The type of cereal you pick lets the other people know what you are into. So if you want a quirky nutter then you choose ‘Fruit Loops’ or ‘Crunchy Nut’. ‘Nutrigrain’ for outdoor types, ‘Special K’ for career orientated people.
A crazy PR stunt if ever I seen one but interesting, I’d love to go down there at 7pm and just see what sort of people were doing it!!
Thanks to Magnus I am a big fan of Rufus Wainwright, on my mp3 player at the moment I have the following artists -
Smashing Pumpkins (split up)
Elliot Smith (suicide)
Jeff Buckley (drowned)
Rufus Wainwright (alive and doing gigs!)
So last night Andrew and myself went down to The Basement in Sydney to see him. He played 23 songs in total, including some of my favourites, ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk’, ‘The Art Teacher’. He also told the story about how he met Jeff Buckley in NYC once and how he could tell ‘he didn’t have long left’, he then played ‘Memphis Skyline’ and rolled straight into ‘Hallelujah’ which was an excellent tribute.
Listen to some of Rufus’ music here
I also got my signed CD from Jimmy Chamberlin yesterday! Better than a valentines day card any day!!!!
This morning, in the blaze of a hang over from last nights gig at the East Village to see Gypsy/Punk/Jazz band Waiting for Guinness I worked out that I have approximately 80 days left in Australia. That is woefully not enough surfing time to prepare for Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters!!! Anyway, 80 days reminded me of Jules Verne’s 1872 publication “Around the World in 80 Days” (read it here). So today I booked a round the world ticket -
May 3rd 2005 – Sydney – Tokyo, May 9th 2005 – Tokyo – Vancouver, May 23rd 2005 – Vancouver – Halifax, June 6th 2005 – Halifax – London, Jan 6th 2006 – London – Singapore, Jan 9th 2006 – Singapore – Sydney – 28125 miles
I thought I would share a few of my favourite places to go on the internet -
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I feel this one was a little obvious. All its main features are excellent and more useful than anything else out there – web/images/news/groups http://google.com. |
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Deviant Art is an art community. Everyone is an artist, I put all the pictures I take that I think are worth other people seeing here. You can browse the site and days will pass without you realising – http://deviantart.com / http://garazy.deviantart.com |
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Kinja aggregates your favourite blog sites and then puts them into a nice format for you to read, you could call it a ‘portal’. You can also share your blog list. http://kinja.com / http://kinja.com/user/garazy |
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Last FM is a plugin for Windows Media/Winamp that uploads the titles of the music you are listening to on your computer. Based on these names it keeps track of what you are listening to, recommends other artists and puts you in contact with your musical ‘neighbours’ who listen to similar sort of music you do. http://last.fm / http://www.last.fm/user/garazy |
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It is a bit geeky but I like it. /. is ‘news for nerds’. http://slashdot.org |
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This website won’t apply soon but for the moment it makes / breaks my day. Live webcams from most of Australia’s surfing locations – what a great idea. http://www.coastalwatch.com.au |
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Pictures of aircraft sent in by people. Again a bit geeky but I find it interesting. http://www.airliners.net |
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This website simply RULES!! I go here all the time to see what this guy is up to. It is crammed full of pictures/video and useful links! http://g2007.com |
There’s loads more I am sure
