It takes just a few hours to fly from Australia to New Zealand. I’ve even commuted there for work. This begs the question, why have we never bothered to go to New Zealand for a holiday? Well, wonder no more. It’s not that I intend to answer that question. It’s just that now we have made the trip, it’s no longer a valid question to ask. A valid question now may be, why did it take so long? The answer [...]
In keeping with my continuing attempts to save the planet by recycling wherever possible, I’ve once again chosen to recycle e-mails sent while on holiday in the United States rather than burn precious energy trying to come up with new material. In a further effort to minimise greenhouse gasses, I have chosen to recycle Greig’s e-mails under the assumption that Greig operates more efficiently than I do. In doing so, I hope to do my little bit to preserve what’s [...]
Now, whenever I go on a long overseas jaunt, I always write up a nice long page of my adventures. What with all the talk of global warming and saving the environment for our children (Children? How the fuck am I gonna have children?), this time I thought I’d do the responsible thing. So, in the interests of recycling, I’m republishing my “emails to home”. Please don’t see this as simply a cheap ploy to save me having to come [...]
Now, we bought me new car and due to an absolute freak of accounting, we ended up with money left over for a couple of return plane tickets to Europe. Don’t ask how this freak of accounting occurred, just accept that it did. So, on the last Thursday of September 2005, we ended up sitting in the “rich bastards” lounge at Sydney Airport, waiting for our flight to be called, trying to resist the temptation to get absolutely plastered on [...]
I was kidnapped! Kidnapped, I tell you! Lunch-time. Friday January 24, 2003 (the eve of my birthday). I’m sitting at my desk at work taking a support call. I hang up and the phone instantly rings again. It’s Greig. “Get home and pack a bag.” “This is it”, I think to myself, “I’m being thrown out on the street to fend for myself. All because of one indiscretion with that boy and let’s face it, he was begging for it [...]
Sydney, September 2000. The Australian government relinquishes power to a South American leader with somewhat dubious underworld connections. The army is given the power to fire on civilians. Police stations close. “Undesirables” start to disappear from the streets mysteriously. Once-public roads are closed to the public and people who have not been issued with papers find it more and more difficult to move. Elite armies of “Super-Humans” are assembled in vast barracks in the city suburbs. Government representatives sit back [...]
Star date: Around May, 1999. 3pm(ish) Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney. Rocky sits in the departure lounge with his faithful traveling companion, Trevor – a small light brown teddy bear. It is Trevor who first spies the Air New Zealand jet that will whisk them away to the New World. Trevor nudges Rocky gently not wanting to startle him from his dozing. The plane is now boarding. Would all passengers in “cattle class” please move to the departure gates. So, here [...]