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Posted by Mike on 20 October 2008

New flat!!

We've found a new flat, and today had our application approved! Victoria Street, potts point, check it out

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Posted by Mike on 20 October 2008

Jervis dating service

If the last few weeks are anything to go by, we're in for a scorching summer this year. It's been hot hot hot, apart from a minor blip a few weekends ago. We headed down to Jervis bay the same weekend that Hurricane Katrina seemed to pass through the East coast (well, south of Sydney at any rate!) Dan was caught speeding on the way down, doing 117kph in an 80 area thinking it was a 110 zone. He gave the police his UK license but they checked on their systems and discovered he had a NSW license. That led to a nice lecture, followed by a $600 fine and the loss of his license: double demerits weekend and he'd already lost 3points. He only loses it for 3 months, but still not the best start to the weekend.

We'd booked two big 10 person houses next door to each other, a skanky one and a newly renovated plush one. Half the group came down on Friday night and the rest arrived the next morning. A few of us went for a rainy flat surf in Culburra, freezing cold but some good banter. And then we got on it - a good feed in the nice house, with the theme "Tight" being taken seriously by some and ignored by others, then on to the other house for the "after party"! There was plenty of scandal, as you'd expect from 16 single people partying until the early hours.

The next morning the weather was slightly improved so we set up the volleyball net and played some very social volley, then threw the rugby ball round, continued the drinking and got in the mood for the League grand final. We headed to the local RSL to watch it, an amusing crowd of local people there, a few of whom came over to meet us and had invited us to come on their boat anytime we liked after speaking to us for about 5 minutes!

The party kicked off again back at the house, with a similar amount of scandal and a touch of the Sleaze ball being brought to Jervis with the rugby boys getting their shirts off. Some very homoerotic photos, you'll be pleased to hear that all the scandal was strictly heterosexual!!!

Great weekend away, some very funny stories that aren't blog-friendly, bring on the next one!

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Posted by Mike on 3 October 2008

Russell's kid

Russ just sent me a cute picture of his 10 month old boy Ozei. Some people have grown up at least....

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Posted by Mike on 25 September 2008

Life, the Ivy, and everything

Lots to update on, but so little time! It's a lovely 30degree Friday, Alexis is in town visiting and the Opera bar is looming. Just a quick update on my life. Last weekend was fun packed: I went to watch the 3rds play in the morning, then headed to the races to see Cleo presenting the Fashions on the Fields award. Saw Miss Australia 2008, but not too impressed. It was a scorcher of a day and I wore my new Ralph Lauren 3 piece suit: complete overkill considering the races were out west, even more overkill when I wore it to the pub with the rugby boys later, then on to Lady Lux! I had every opportunity to change, but was loving the attention too much!!

I met up with Juliana, the new lady in my life who's a lovely Brazilian girl living in Double Bay. I romantically met her in the bottle shop of the Golden Sheaf, where you meet all the best girls of course! I got her number because we were both going to house parties near each other - turned out we were going to the same party (I got the location of mine wrong) and so we met up later. This was the artist's warehouse party the night before the City to Surf, where I pushed on through and spent a drunken Sunday lying to everyone I saw about how well I had done in the race!

Anyway, blah blah blah, we went on a date a few weekends ago, but I rather unromantically arranged it in the pub with the rugby boys, as it was the night after we had lost our final. A few of them tried to ruin it for me, but I managed to exercise damage control! Since then, we've been seeing each other quite a lot, and I met up with her before going to Lux last weekend. Sadly I lost my camera that night, possibly someone lifted it out of my suit jacket, such is life.

The next day was Ivy's first birthday party, where we went with a few of the crew from Rafters. It started with some champers in our garden, then I took a great photo of Jess and Hugh in front of a billboard,

then on to the Ivy. It was the standard model crowd, I had my SLR camera so was the "official Ivy photographer" for the night!

I made it home about 10pm after a long weekend of drinking, hoping to have an easier week. But Wednesday was a work beer tasting event at James Squires brewery so that turned predicatably drunken. Just me and 5 much more senior English guys, playing drinking games and talking through rugby songs: all incredibly mature.

Last weekend included a drunken Presentation Night for Colleagues, followed by a scorching weekend and lots of volleyball on Tama: good to be back! I went to Hugos on the Saturday with Crispin, Imran and Juliana and I heard they were handing out membership so went and hounded the girl. She said "You have to be selected, sorry. Your girlfriend can sign up though" (Juliana was next to me)
She then followed up with "Only joking, you can sign up too" - I'm still not sure if she actually was joking though, I think Juliana was the clincher (ego re-adjustment!!)

Anyway, the funny bit is that they sent me an email to sign up, I just clicked on the link, and you have to submit a photo to be eligible for membership!! Good ol' Hugoslavia, non-discrimantory policies optional!!

And now it's Friday, the weekend is coming and the plan is to head to the Blue Mountains tomorrow with Slex. We're viewing a flat tomorrow morning which looks great, fingers crossed....

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Posted by Mike on 25 September 2008

Get Out!

Crystal has been to Mexico and Hawaii with her "Bikini travel Show" Get Out. I though it only polite to share the photos she's been sending me back: keep em coming Crystal!! You may notice the lovely Megan in a couple of the shots...

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Posted by Mike on 12 September 2008

End of an era

We've received our 60 day eviction notice: nothing to do with us fortunately, the landlord just wants to renovate. Apparently they plan to move into it themselves, and seeing as they already live in the two flats above, and own our neighbouring flat, we're thinking they're going to create one big super-flat (they've just had a baby, so makes sense.) It'll be one hell of a pad, very jealous.

Anyway, fortunately they've given us plenty of time to find a new place so we're on the hunt.

Tuesday night was Episode 3 of Packed to the Rafters, and we had two of the cast around: Jess Marais who plays Hugh's sister Rebecca, and Jess Mac who plays Angus's wife. Was very amusing, with Jess Marais drinking her way through a bottle of Jack Daniels with her boyfriend, and her character on the show getting smashed and told off by her mum on the show: as this happens, Jess grabs all her glasses and says "You're not going to tell me I can't drink!"

Last weekend we lost in the Final against Knox in the muddiest game of all time. Twice I had to be led off the field, as I had too much grit in my eyes to open them. A quick splash of water and wipe of the towel, and back to the filth!

We lost by 5 points, I scored a try in the first half which was a run from pretty far out, and as I got close to the line two or three of them started to wrap me up. I did a dive, very early, hoping to slide and fortunately just made it across the line - would have been v.embarrassing if I'd fallen short! The second half we dominated, because of the wind, but failed to turn territory into points on a few key occasions. Luke kicked a goal with 4 minutes to go, and one last dash to the line saw a potential try disallowed and one of our guys taken out. We were awarded a penalty, some think it should have been a penalty try, and took the wrong option of kicking for the lineout. Our lineouts had been inconsistent, so no surprises when we lost it and the game was over. So sad.

I went to the hand clinic today to start the process of thumb surgery - but the waitlist will be up to a year, with very little control over it. The operation is complicated and the recovery long, it's all just one big mess: gutted I didn't sort it properly the first time.

And now it's Friday night, a big weekend to look forward to: watching the 3rds in the grand final tomorrow, then a trip to the races where the Cheese (Cleo) is judging Fashions on the Field after winning it last year; then Sunday we're off to Ivy for the 1 year birthday. Let's not think too much about Monday....

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Posted by Mike on 3 September 2008

Viva Las Vegas

What a ridiculous week, this is going to take quite some write up. I guess considering the mixed readership I get on this blog, I'll spare lots of details!

Chicago

So I flew out of Sydney last Saturday lunch time and hit Chicago about 6pm. I didn't have anyone to play with, so checked into my hotel then headed down to a local sports bar for a burger and beer. I headed to quite a few bars before ending up in an Irish type pub / club with a load of hen parties and a pretty drunk crowd. I met quite a few people including a couple of guys from the Navy, a 23 year old girl who was married with a 3 year old child, a sweet nurse from Wrigglyfield (where the cubs play) and a few of the hen parties. One of the brides to be came up and said

"If you give me a dollar, you can give me a kiss" to which I replied "If you give ME a dollar, you can give me a kiss."

"What makes you think you're worth a dollar?"

"I'm worth a lot more than that, I'll just drop it to a dollar for you!" She didn't seem to appreciate my attempt at humour so stormed off to tell her mate what I'd said. How not to make friends....!

I stumbled home about 5ish, (I'm sure it helped the jetlag!) then I was up at midday spending stupid money in the shops. Chicago is a cool place, and I imagine a whole lot better if you have people to show you around. I managed to buy a tailor adjusted Ralph Lauren suit for $330 which they sent to the conference center for me after adjusting it ? not sure if I needed it but just too good a deal to turn down!

I headed to the Q center that evening, checked in and had an early night. The course over the next week was relatively painless, some boring parts and a whole afternoon where I didn?t take in a single thing. But on the whole it was much less intense than Consultant School, more listening and less presentations / group work. The highlight for me was social styles, where they define whether you are 1 of 4 distinct social styles: Driving, Analytical, Expressive, Amiable. It turns out I'm Driving / amiable, although I had myself down as Expressive / driving. One amusing moment happened as we walked into one of the corners of the room, representing the style we thought we were. As the faculty was counting numbers in the Driving corner, a girl enters through the door into the midst of the group and is wrongly counted. One of the Drivers says loudly "She's not one of the drivers" and pushes her out of the group! Meanwhile the amiable people over the other side of the room are beckoning her to join them and be their friend! Then the Faculty says something cynical about the drivers and one of them in a low monotone voice replies ?Don?t make me get Expressive on you!? Good example of the styles in practice....!

Overall the course was much more low key than last year, less drinking and hence bonding, although there was a big night in Cadillac ranch on the Thursday night and I met a great crew from Melbourne (mainly English though!!) I also went up to a "special" looking local with a party hat and enthusiastically told her it was my birthday too - a lovely photo of the two of us below!! The night ended at about 6am for me, but I did manage to make the morning class this time! (i.e. up at 7.45, yikes)

I also met a nice French crowd, analysts with whom I played volleyball every night for an hour after work. The weather on the whole was great, the perfect time to come to Chicago. I left Friday lunchtime to meet Henry in Vegas, pretty tired but did manage a good sleep on the plane. Combined with the excitement of my first time in Vegas, I was ready...

Las Vegas

I arrived first and checked into the Hard Rock hotel. I lost a quick $20 on Blackjack before Henry arrived, probably the best start as I'm sure a big win early up would spell long term trouble! The Hard Rock is a really fun hotel, quite a young crowd, all the barmaids in tight tops with fake boobs on full display, loud music and fun croupiers. They have everything you need there: an amazing swimming pool, several restaurants, nightclubs, music venues, and obviously a choice of bars and the full range of casino games. When Henry arrived we went for a bite to eat in their Mexican restaurant, and then onto the G Love & Special Sauce concert in a venue within the Hardrock. This was mainly to see John Butler Trio, for which Tim had sorted us guestlist. He was great, really worked up the crowd who weren't there specifically to see him so always an achievement. Then G Love came on and the pace slowed, Henry went for a gamble and I went and found him not long after. He had just won $1500, drinks on him!!

I had also sweet talked guestlist for the Hard Rock club "Body English" from the Concierge. The club was impressive and I chatted to a few random strangers including a guy called Brian who was raving about a pool party on Sunday in the hard rock ? it captured my interest. Henry was starting to get far too drunk and kept wandering off. We'd met our neighbours earlier who had had a disaster with one of their friends leaving his ID at home. I let them borrow my driver?s license on the condition they came to Body English with us, which they did. However after seeing them briefly inside, when we tried to meet up later so that we could head off, the girl was being very evasive. We wanted to go to another club, so I gave up on them and we moved on to LAX at the Luxor. The Luxor is a hotel shaped like a pyramid, and as we walked into the club Henry pointed out it looked like Revolution, a terrible club in Edinburgh. It was a huge open dancefloor with maybe a couple of thousand people on it, and then bars around the side. He was hammered, and as I started talking to people he drifted away. I lost him pretty quickly, I think he wandered home and I stayed out for a while longer before calling it about 5.30. I woke up in a bit of a drivers license related panic at 9.30am, knowing we had to check out at 10am, so knocked on our neighbour's door but no reply. I called security and explained what happened, he just knocked louder and more persistently until the girl appeared at the door and apologetically gave me back my license (I gave her a well deserved lecture!).

We checked out and headed over to the Palms where we were staying on the Saturday night, then Henry had arranged dune buggies so off we went into the desert. We joined a group of guys on their stag party, who were a very entertaining bunch of New Yorkers. The buggies were great fun, we went off for about an hour and a half through the desert, following the leader as it's very easy to get lost and also to go over terrain that would flip the buggy. We drove over sand dunes and dirt tracks, I'm sure over the odd buried body as well! There were others out there on Quad bikes and motorcross bikes, and you could see that this was Redneck territory - close to a Nascar track with motorhomes scattered around the place. Great fun, thanks to Henry for that.

We headed back to the Palms, got cleaned up and hit the Strip. I wanted to see some of the main hotels, so we went to the Wynn first. This is probably the poshest hotel, a really smart casino with high stakes, way out of my league so we headed to the bar and had a drink by a little man-made lake. Henry had stayed here with Rose on their honeymoon, and had unwittingly sat next to Steve Wynn at a table who had asked him what he thought of the casino. Henry had said he thought it was great, but had heard a new casino was being built that was going to kick its ass. He only found out it was Steve Wynn after he left the table! We continued down the Strip, Henry pointed out you never need to leave Vegas to see the world: they have the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Colloseum, the pyramids, New York New York with the sky scrapers (clearly built after 9/11!), the Venetian complete with waterways and gondolas: a whistlestop tour of the world! Part of the strip is really tacky, it reminded me of places like Benidorm with grotty casinos, cheap bars, women handing out cards of Escort girls with t-shirts saying "Girls direct to your door", and a pretty dirty crowd. We visited several of the smarter casinos, a kind of up-market bar crawl, and ended up in the Bellagio. We found a $15 table (lowest we could find) and the croupier proceeded to take $400 of Henry and $100 off me. I was getting quite good cards and doing okay, but she just kept getting better - a 5 on a 16 always hurts when you have 20! So we went for some dinner in a really nice restaurant there, I had beef carpaccio and some mini-burgers, served by a girl with the biggest fake boobs so far! The queue for a cab outside was huge so we walked past the lake and as we were in front of the hotel, the water show started. This was fantastic, it lasts a couple of minutes to classical music and is incredibly choreographed.

As we continued our walk, this gorgeous girl stops us in the street and asks us how to get to such and such a hotel. She asked if we were hockey players (!), she was Canadian hence the random question. Henry and I were immediately in love, we suggested she came to the Palms with us but she was leaving at 4am for her flight home. We figured there was no point in pursuing, and left slightly confused by the whole interaction. She was clearly a bit odd as she'd said she had come to Vegas for her 21st birthday on her own, but we don't like to judge!! Anyway, with frustration brewing, we headed back to our hotel and had a quick gamble. Again, I lost $100 but this time with ruthless efficiency, hardly winning a single hand. $200 down, I decided that was sufficient. Henry was also losing, but then got 3 good hands in a row and had doubled each time, so won $1500 on the third. Great, drinks on him again!! We had a drink in a smart bar there, with incredible waitresses to keep you entertained, then changed for Paul Oakenfold who was playing at the club Rain in the Palms. This was seriously disappointing, there was a fun start when they did a bit of a show and blew out some big flames from the ceiling, but Oakenfold was very average: the music was just stock standard Ministry of Sound, hard to dance to and repetitive. We spent most of the time outside, but didn't meet anyone particularly interesting. There was one guy out there who was pretty ugly with a haircut that looked like a pineapple, but he had girls hanging off him. He was clearly the guy to know, so I went up and found his name out, then sent Henry in to try and sort out guest list for the pool party on Sunday. Henry had a genius stroke, and went up as a BBC correspondent who was out covering the Labor Day weekend. The guy was completely into it, offering his name and number and to hook him up for any of the clubs including Studio 54 later. We headed out and hit a blackjack table, Henry wanted to gamble some more and if you are betting you are brought drinks, so I happily sat down and watched him lose. We were on a fun table with some other youngsters and Henry was on great form, asking each of the croupiers for a joke as they started on the table (only one obliged.) One of the croupiers was really grumpy and refused to even say what the book says you should do for various hands, so we cheered when she left the table and told the manager we thought she should be fired! There was a lovely blonde girl on the table who was getting most of my attention, and soon I found myself as her "harlot" - you know how the big rollers always have a hot girl hanging over their shoulder to bring them luck: I was that ?hot girl?! It was slightly emasculating, but she was winning big with me there and I was happy to hang with her! Anyway, I went for a couple of drinks after the gambling, she was sweet Caroline from Dallas, here on a hen party and around until Monday. I had been thinking about changing my flight so that I could go to the pool party at the Hard Rock (party was called Rehab!) and this was the clincher: I went up to the front desk and extended my room for 24 hours.

So I woke up about 10am (after a 7.30am sleep; I counted 8 hours sleep in the last 3 days, ouch), knowing I needed to get to Rehab early as it's a very popular event. I got there about 12ish, the line was massive (about a 2-3hr wait) so I went up and asked where the guestlist was. I was asked "whose list?" which obviously flummoxed me. A girl in the queue whispered to me "say Terry's", and the door girl fortunately didn't hear, so I confidently said Terry's list and she directed me out of the door and around the side. The next obstacle was a guy with a clipboard. He asked if anyone had booked a cabana (minimum $5k spend!), I said that I had and he asked my name. Amazingly it wasn't on the list (!), but I insisted that Terry would have put it on. He asked where my crew were, I said not here yet which made him seriously doubt me. He dealt with others for a while then came back to me - I reinforced and he let me through. Not there yet, there was another guy with a clipboard. I tagged onto a group who were getting a cabana, made friends with one of them who let me through with him. One final barrier, but the cabana group didn't let me join their group through this one, and the final list looked hard to penetrate, so I joined the paying queue as it was right at the front. I paid $100 for entry, it was $30 for girls and even though I said "One girl please", she didn't oblige! The party was manic, an incredibly large swimming pool area with loud music, drinking, dancing and general carnage. The problem was it was a rough crowd, lots of muscle men and girls in Stilletos and bikinis, not exactly an OC / Entourage pool party!

With my 2 hours sleep, I was feeling pretty special and wandered round in a bit of a daze: after several hours, I decided to find food as I was about to collapse with weakness. I headed up to a slightly isolated pool area and asked the waitress there. She said hang by the pool and she'd bring me a burger, so I sat down and looked around. I realised I'd wandered into a VIP area, lucky timing as the guy on the barrier had obviously left it unattended momentarily. There was one of the most beautiful girls I'd seen so far hanging by the pool, so I went over and asked if I could have a pic with her and her friends. We started chatting (I guess my accent helped) and before long she (Brooke) and her friend Crystal were happily talking to me. Brooke is a girl on Deal Or No Deal, as well as a bikini Travel show called Get Out - she has apparently also been in 2 episodes of Entourage, one where she's hit on by Vince, another where she's a flight attendant. Crystal is the producer for Get Out, she's half Vietnamese and used to like her beauty pageants, winning Miss Vietnam USA 2006! They're both from LA and really nice girls, Crystal is pretty driven and successful having worked hard to get to where she is. They offered to show me round LA, and I told them that I might take them up on that offer as I was flying through on my way home.

I headed back to the Palms at about 6pm (the party had turned pretty dirty owing to the type of crowd alcohol), and had a relaxed evening checking email etc. Crystal had added me as a friend of facebook so I asked her if her offer of LA was genuine. She said I should definitely change my flight and hang with her, so I called my travel agent and made the change. Plan Deviation #2, I was going to LA! Then I met up with sweet Caroline for a drink and she wanted to play some more blackjack. Even though I had promised not to gamble any more, I didn't want to be the harlot again, so I put $50 down and lost it in 4 hands. Awesome! So I resumed my position, brought her great luck and she left the table happy. We exchanged details, such a sweet girl, I now have a friend in Dallas if ever I want to go there!

Los Angeles

I was picked up at midday outside the airport by Crystal and Brooke in Crystal's convertible red Audi. They drove me to Beverley Hills where we had lunch in a funky little cafe called Earth, then cruised down Rodeo drive, and up into the Hollywood hills. There was a pool party in the M Hotel, very exclusive and a real Hollywood posh crowd (apparently). We met up with Brooke's boyfriend Orlando, who looked like Matt Damon, and headed in - Crystal pointed out that I would have recognised the pool from Entourage as they'd filmed here before. It was a beautiful crowd, still plenty of fakeness and the odd pair of stilettos and bikinis, but on the whole much more class.

We stayed for a couple of hours, then headed to their boss's house up in the hills to pick up some stuff. This was a stunning 3 floor, 4 bedroom house overlooking LA, which he hardly ever uses and the bottom floor isn't even renovated. Such a waste, I generously offered to occupy it! We cruised Sunset Boulevard (apparently you're not allowed to drive up and down it more than 3 times, as some people do just to show off their cars!) Then on to Hermosa beach which is a cool area next to Manhattan Beach. Jess's friend Kevin works in the Meditteraneo restaurant there, so we went and said hello to him and had dinner there. We had a nice tapas meal, then called it a night early as energy levels had dropped. I was staying in a house that Crystal was crashing at, belonging to another of the girls on Deal or No Deal. Actually it was owned by her Sugar daddy, a married man who had bought this house and let her stay there; he hardly ever visited and apparently the wife knew about the affair and would even call this girl and ask her to leave her husband alone! Good ol' LA.

We got up early the next morning for a surf, although the waves were small and I didn't have a wetsuit: the water wasn't too cold but I still gave up after 20 minutes. Then on to breakfast with Brooke and her friend Megan, another Deal girl - this was love at first sight (one way of course!) She's Hawaaiin and just gorgeous, no photos so click here to see what I mean. I had to try my hardest not to just stare!

I spent the rest of the day with Crystal and a couple of her friends, mainly at her office although we finished up in Santa Monica. There's a touristy pier where we rode the rollercoaster, then did some shopping just off Santa Monica Boulevard. Then it was time for my flight home, where I'm writing this blog after a mammoth 13 hour sleep. I had been microsleeping throughout the day, so was fairly sure sleeping on the plane would be a breeze (especially in business class!) So that's my adventure over, an unforgettable trip that may take a while to pay off! Money shmoney....

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Posted by Mike on 7 August 2008

What goes in Thredbo...

unfortunately nothing needs to stay in Thredbo, although I probably wouldn't mind if a few of the lawyers did. I've never had a lawyer prejudice before, because of dad of course!, but after meeting a few really special characters at the snow I may now begin. It's a massive lawyer ski weekend where they organise a corporate games, and because of Otty we met up with them all in the bar on the Friday night. Otty was in some altercation when we arrived, and within 10 minutes someone had had a go at me. The Saturday turned really special when I spoke to a girl who was friends with Kirsten, that I'd been introduced to minutes earlier. I'd managed to engineer a little break dancing circle with their group and pushed Kirsten in the middle; she then tagged her friend who did a little lame dance then came out and stood next to me. I said along the lines of "so how did you think your performance was in there?" to which she replied really agressively "Are you mental? Are you completely nuts? Do you think you're Nigel Lythgoe from So You Think You Can Dance or something?" I was stunned into silence, just couldn't believe how she could turn some harmless banter into an agressive exchange.

Anyway, apart from that side!, it was a great weekend - blizzards came in on the Friday, and the snow was really wet so after a couple of hours we were soaked through and decided to give up. The snow was falling very heavily, and as we drove to pick up the keys Sophie skidded and smashed into a truck - completely the truck's fault, and unfortunately a fair bit of damage to the flank of her car, although it was all in slow motion so nobody hurt. Apparently that night some car on the way up to Thredbo came off the road and someone was killed, and I also heard of some spot between jyndabyne and canberra where 20 cars were off the road and smashed into trees.

But then it all cleared for Saturday and we got an incredible weekend's skiing - as good a conditions as Thredbo can get with some nice fresh powder and clear blue skies. It was still windy and very cold, at the top the visibility wasn't great but all in all we were pretty lucky. The drive home on the Sunday night was much easier than I was expecting, taking about 6 hours and not falling asleep behind the wheel once!

Looking forward to the rugby at the weekend, and then a big Saturday night in a warehouse party in Redfern. Back into the swing!

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Posted by Mike on 6 August 2008

Puppies

Mum's sent some new dog photos - how cute?!

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Posted by Mike on 6 August 2008

Dressage

Laura Bechtolsheimer's off to the Olympics, representing Britain in Dressage. Here's a BBC news clip, best of luck to her

Bechtolsheimer heads to Beijing

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Posted by Mike on 25 July 2008

Time to go home pilgrims

It's been a quiet few weeks, Sydney seems to shut down in Winter as everyone goes into hibernation, so there hasn't been a huge amount of exciting news to report.

Khalia's cat died yesterday, was sadly hit by a car and of course she's very upset. She'd disappeared a few weeks ago, and I was convinced then that she must have died, but 4 days later appeared a few streets away - the trouble is they live by a busy main road, so it was always a high risk. I found out the news late last night while out with the rugby boys: an amusing night starting in the Four in Hand for a team dinner, where Paps showed us his incredible lateral thinking in a game of subjects. Then on to Paddo Inn where I had to give the bouncer some chat to get everyone in, as we were "too many boys", but after convincing him that they sponsor us he changed his mind. Then Chris and I ended up in World Bar before I got the call from Khalia.

Wednesday I went with George to Cirque du Soleil, their new Drallion performance. It was good fun and some amazing acts, but a few too many appearances by the not-very-funny clowns and not quiet as spectacular overall as I was expecting. Still, some amazingly bendy people and always fun to spend an evening with George.

We'd also had a night out on Saturday with the full gang, a kind of Culburra reunion but extended to a few others that were invited to Culburra but couldn't make it. We went to Harry's Chilli Crab Cafe over in Surry Hills, a fun place where you get given a plastic apron on arrival and they help choose you a buffet menu based on your budget. Harry was quite a character and assumed it was my birthday, but I told him we were there because I was getting married, to my wife George. He immediately ordered us a bottle of sparkling, which we drunk guiltily. Later one of the guys told a waiter it was my birthday and they brought me a piece of cake with a sparkler in it, and shots for everyone! To offset the guilt, we left a suitably big tip. The night then took a few twists and turns, from Will & Toby's (average) to Ruby Rabbit's (quiet) to Oxford Arts Factory (cheesy and emo) and then ending in Lux of course. I HAVE to stop ending up there!

I was in the mood for a big night after a cracking game of rugby where we beat Iggies 45-7, I scored a hatrick and between me and Carl (the IC), we racked up 5 including a special try where he broke through, and as he got tackled by two guys either side he somehow got a pass away to me trailing behind him. The old Colleagues supporters were overjoyed, lots of handshakes and pats on the back afterwards, and I got given 3 points by the ref and 2 points by the team - Carl deservedly collecting the 3.

The other key thing over the last few weeks was the Pilgrims in town for World Youth Day - they were all over the place for about a week, ending with half a million of them camped out in Randwick racecourse last weekend. They've been walking around in big groups with their bright yellow backpacks, waving their flags of origin (lots of stars and stripes of course), spontaneously bursting into song and just generally being far too happy!! Rumours are that escort agencies have had a 300% increase in business while they've been here! Here's a great joke about the pope:

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, and He doesn't travel light, the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the curb

'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver,

'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'

'Well, to tell you the truth,' says the Pope, 'they never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today.'

'I'm sorry but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?' protests the driver, wishing he'd
never gone to work that morning.

'There might be something extra in it for you,' says the Pope.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting
the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 105 mph.

'Please slow down, Your Holiness!!!' pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens. 'Oh, dear God,
I'm gonna lose my license,' moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes Back to his motorcycle, and gets on
the radio.

'I need to talk to the Chief,' he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five.

'So bust him,' says the Chief.

'I don't think we want to do that - he's really important,' said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed, 'All the more reason!'

'No, I mean really important,' said the cop.

The Chief then asked, 'Who have you got there, the Mayor?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'Governor?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

'Well,' said the Chief, 'Who is it?'

Cop: 'I think it's God!'

Chief: 'What makes you think it's God?'

----

wait for it

---

Cop: 'He's got the f**ing Pope as a chauffeur!'

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Posted by Mike on 3 July 2008

Oops

Looks like that video of Guy and Bongo broke my website.

Right, update. Things are pretty quiet, very much so at work, lots of rugby although we were beaten again at the weekend with a poor backs' performance against Knox Old Boys. I'm back to playing Outside Center for the 1sts, and was awarded a prize for hit of the round a couple of weeks ago. The newsletter extract:

Scope Lending Hit of the Round

Mike Langford

Once again Will Jeffrey smashed his opposite number. But the hit of the round that wins it was a Will Jeffrey and then Mike Langford tackle in the same play. Forest ran the ball inside their 22 and Will smashed their 12 just after he passed the ball only for Langers to destroy their 13 just as he caught it. Because Will got the prize last week, we are going to give it to Langers this time. Perhaps the 2 of you can hold hands whilst you get your one hour deep tissue massage with Ross Doherty Massage in Bondi Junction - Phone 0416 308 583?

Be the judge yourself - To see video footage of the hits go to this site
hits of the round 21 june 2008

i.e. I kind of got it through default! I admit, not exactly Chabal.

Last Saturday was supposed to be quiet but I ended up getting home at 5am, not quite sure where it went wrong! I met up with Imran at about 3am who was dressed as a ghostbuster, a very drunk one at that, having been to a superheros dress-up party. He was getting plenty of attention, despite the fact he couldn't talk much sense, we think he should buy the costume and wear it out regularly!

James Eagle's girlfriend came into town last week and I got her and her two friends around for dinner. They were really good fun, all turned up a little drunk which helped make it a relaxed dinner, and highly entertaining. Dan and I took them to World Bar for a couple of Tuesday night drinks, but it literally finished at a couple: Tuesday is not the easiest night to go out on! They have headed onwards to Thailand where they meet up with James.

And this weekend is Hugh's birthday drinks at Ivy: the weather has turned miserable so I'm gearing up for a big one: no need to feel guilty lying in bed on Sunday morning!

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Posted by Mike on 30 June 2008

Guy and Bongo

A quick video of the wedding party having just signed the register.

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Posted by Mike on 18 June 2008

Holiday finished until December!

Half an hour to landing in Sydney, happy to return but sad to leave everyone behind. It's been an epic three weeks, with two fantastic weddings, two drunken and amusing stags, and some nice relaxing time spent at home. I caught up with old Deloitte friends last Wednesday, Pete Black, Anthony and Pete Shannon, meeting in the Last and crawling to China Whites of all places (Sam sorted the guest list so it seemed rude not to.) It was a bit R&B in there for our liking, but we entertained ourselves by playing scissor paper stone where the loser has to do something embarrassing. Jermaine Defoe was in the club, and when I lost I had to go ask for his autograph (I also had to ask which one he was!) I took up a train ticket for him to sign, just to demean the whole thing, but it was still suitably humiliating. I ended up on Anthony's couch in Brixton, and a long trip home the next day!

Other week nights were spent catching up with family, including a nice meal with cousin Alice and hubby Graeme, Sue and Paddy, down in Southbank. I managed to work from home during the week, with plenty to do on trying to sell our next piece of work which meant I didn?t have to charge holiday. Then on Friday I headed to Guy's for the wedding. On the Tuesday I left early for Nice, meeting VK at the airport, and on arrival discovered that the guys on the stag had got bored of St Tropez so had decided to race a Ferrari, a jet boat and a helicopter to Monaco. The Ferrari broke down as Max reversed it with the handbrake up, blowing the gearbox, and so his journey took 6 hours! He had a 15k Euro excess on it, but I think he would have been okay as he went on the offensive saying that it was just unreliable!

The helicopter easily won, and the boys spent the night in the Hotel De Paris, having a high class night by the sounds. So when we arrived, they asked us to pick them up from Monaco but we couldn't get a car big enough, so they helicoptered back to St Tropez, picked up their hire cars and met us in Cannes. We were staying in a pretty flash hotel overlooking the sea with a swimming pool on a roof terrace, the perfect setting for some early evening cocktails. Then onwards to a "fashion" restaurant (as described by the concierge) where the cheapest bottle of wine was 50euros: and so the expense begun. I won't grumble about it, I had a fantastic time and everyone was extremely generous, but as you can tell from the Ferrari / helicopter story, I was a little over my head. Cannes was quite quiet, so we went from place to place trying to find somewhere lively but without much luck: Goetz, Will and Lucan arrived at 1am, and I stumbled home about 2am. The next morning we drove to St Jouen Les Pains, a pleasant little town just up the coast. The cheap hotel we had booked was apparently terrible, so we upgraded to a 4* beachside hotel with a decent beach bar and restaurant. A lazy day in the sun, then I managed a run as far as a hotel called Eden Roc (no relation to the Bechtol?s) - 5* luxury that the previous concierge believed was the best hotel in the world! It did look very impressive, apparently a suite would set us back 2.5k a night, and fortunately I think Monaco had worn down the boys' cash stores!

That night we headed to a beach restaurant, then onwards to a vodka bar that was very white, with dancers on raised platforms. At the end of the night, Goetz managed to climb up there and do a little dance to the cheers of the crowd: it went down particularly well with a couple of young ladies, and there was so nearly a Goetz success story... but not quite! Nuff said. The boys ended up in the casino, there were winners and losers, I gather Henry was the big winner which seemed appropriate.

Then the long drive to Lugano where we were dropping off the cars, it took 5 and a half hours and I shared my journey with Max and VK. The roads were very clear and fast, but I didn't push it much more than 140 while Lucan in the car ahead flew along at 200: they got there an hour before us but then had to wait for us to arrive, still shaking from some scary driving by all accounts. We arrived in a rainy Ascona at about 5pm, the water was too choppy for a wakeboard so we went for dinner in the hotel restaurant where we were joined by a few new and very friendly faces. A storm kicked off, so by the time we left things weren't looking great for the weekend. But Friday morning was clear, I was up early and pestering Goetz awake so that we could go for a ski. I think we ended up being about 30 mins too late, as the wind started to pick up and the lake became a little choppy. I found it tough work but great fun to be back on the water. The sun was shining, and Goetz had organised a little boat trip with 25 of us for the afternoon. This was predominantly Uni friends and it really was great to have such an awesome crowd of friends back together, the biggest gathering since Alicante. The boat came complete with fine wine and nibbles, and we headed down the lake into Italy, then on to a derelict castle on an island that we could climb and jump off. A few of the gang ended up with very red faces, Macca?s goggle marks the clear winner!

Back by 6pm and off to a restaurant in the hills for a great dinner, now up to 35 people with new arrivals appearing all the time. It was a drunken late one, ending up in the club La Riviera until too late O'Clock and a nasty hangover for the wedding. But the body is good at adapting, and by ko time I was ready and raring. 10 of us headed to the Ushers lunch in a pizzeria in the Piaza, and Henry entered with a short, rotund man. All week we'd been threatening to handcuff him to a smurf, and when he arrived with this guy his introduction was "Boys, this isn't what you think he is. This is Barry the photographer!" Hilarious. Apparently when Barry had approached Henry the day before and asked if he was the groom, Henry had thought he was something else and hid his wrists behind his back so that he couldn't get handcuffed to him!!! We had a few drinks over lunch but most of us paced ourselves, while a couple downed their beers. One of the ushers, by the time he arrived at the church, was hammered and kept falling asleep in the church. At one point I had to have a stern word, as he was becoming a liability and Goetz's grandmother was sitting in front of him.

The church was beautiful, in a piaza just up from the water, and John and I greeted guests at the door. A crowd started to gather, apparently word of the impressive flower arrangements in the church had spread through the town and the church had to be locked up in the morning to stop randoms from entering. Our morning suits had attracted a number of stares, and people gathering had cameras poised, expecting a grand entrance from the bride. They weren't disappointed, as a clip clop signaled the approach of bride in carriage. It was an incredible entrance that blew me away, and I could see Rose was overwhelmed when the bystanders burst into spontaneous applause.

The service had its moments, with the vicar (who looked like Lucan) setting himself on fire by a candle and Henry having to stamp him out, then saying that Rose should be a "submissive wife...but not in that way!"

We then headed back to the Eden Roc for the drinks reception by the water on the decking, followed by dinner in the big ballroom.

The food was great (including shavings of black truffle!), but it was the service that really set it apart. If you left your chair, a waiter would immediately appear to fold the napkin and put it on the side of the chair. The waiters would arrive at each table in procession, then time the placement of the dishes simultaneously with a nod of the head. When dishes arrived with bell covers, they were removed simultaneously. At one point, I got the boys on our table to pick up our desserts and make a procession over to another table of mates that had yet to be served dessert: we did the nod and simultaneous dessert placement (not quite as slick), and 2 minutes later they returned the favour (albeit we'd lost two desserts as we'd foolishly chosen Max's table!!) The speeches went well, apart from Henry forgetting the name of the father of the bride (oops!), but there was one unforgettable moment when Henry announced that Rose was pregnant. Emotional moment #2! (he explained that this was the reason for her bigger boobs and not plastic surgery as some had recently accused him of paying for!) Then into the garden for the cutting of the cake, and as the knife went in the fireworks exploded. Again, entirely unexpected, the first set were impressive and everyone assumed that was that. Then a second set outdid the first, and finally a third session just for good measure. An incredible display, Henry really has now set the standard!

The night continued with the usual drunken dancing, then I called it a night when the reception finished and people headed to the worst club in Switzerland.

The last couple of days were sadly very rainy, although there was a let up and a moment of calm that allowed us to get the boat out and have a ski. The water was really flat and I was on much better form, very pleased that it had all come together! A long journey home, sharing the first part with Pete: we left at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, and I'm now arriving at 8am Thursday morning. Feeling fine and ready for work, but know that rugby training tonight will be very tough: jetlag likely to kick in at about 4pm. I reasoned today that I'm quite happy coming back to Sydney, despite it being the start of winter, and compared to a return from hols to England in December / January, it really is a better option, for now at least. Just really sad to leave everyone, already missing mum and la famille, lots of love to all xxx

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Posted by Mike on 8 June 2008

Wedding fever hits the UK

England is in the grips of a wedding epidemic, with friends falling all around. I understand it's very contagious, with exposure to weddings significantly increasing the chances of people catching the marriage bug. Latest victims (in addition to the ridiculously long list in my last entry) include the long anticipated Lil and Dave engagement, and the very exciting Harry Waff engagement that may lead to a wedding in Brasil. Congrats to both.

On top of that, Miss Bongo Tweed is now Mrs Bongo Harrison, and Miss Jo Micklem has become Mrs Jo Edwards.

It's been a fantastic weekend, all starting on Friday night in a curry house in Sudbury where the ushers, bridesmaids and direct family gathered together for a pre-Harrison-Tweed wedding dinner. A fine curry was followed by sampling some of the local Suffolk (SLASH Essex!) nightlife, an extremely scary experience. Within 2 minutes of being in there, someone had been stabbed in the leg (not one of our group thankfully) and 15 minutes later the police arrived (not strippers as some of the guys initially thought!) There was a very aggressive vibe in the club, perfectly summed up by the Punch bag machine as you walked in, where you're scored on how hard you can hit a punch bag. So all the meatheads hang around each other trying to out macho each other - nice. Guy at one point exclaimed "This wasn't how I envisaged spending the night before my wedding" so before we attracted any violence we made our exit and headed home.

The big day started with an ushers' lunch in the pub next to the church; when Guy and Justin arrived, Justin sans shirt, Ed shouted out "Well done for getting the best man here Guy!" It was unfortunately a rainy day in Suffolk, so ushering duties involved walking the guests under umbrellas to the church. We were sitting in the choir stands, a great view of the wedding with Guy and Bongo facing us through the whole service. We put in a sterling performance in Bread of Heaven, although this was slightly outshadowed by the opera singer hitting some impressive notes!!

Then up to the marquee for a great reception, all the big names there, good speeches, great food, plenty of booze, and some superb dancefloor action. Guy and Bongo's first dance was "It's not unusual" by Tom Jones, performed outstandingly (I can only assume choreographed by Ewing), and then various break dancing manoeuvres through the night including some raw knees from me as I slid across the dancefloor to Bon Jovi. Well, it wouldn't be a proper wedding without hurting myself. Fantastic to see everyone in such good form, and gutting when the lights came on and we headed home.

Router had left his key in reception, and as we sat drinking wine out of a bottle with Dan and the Current Mrs Caunt (hilarious couple), suddenly we hear a smash. Olly has taken his shoe off and "popped" the window to allow him and his wife a night's sleep! He obviously fessed up and paid for the damage, very amusing end to the night!

Then up and off to Buckinghamshire for Jo and Berkeley's post wedding lunch. Gutted to have missed the main event, but very happy that they organised a great lunch with all of the schoolies still there except John Athers who had to rush off to Ibiza for a stag! Everyone again was in cracking form, the marquee looked great and by all accounts I missed a superb wedding. Jo looked gorgeous and Berkeley a very happy man, I hope they have a great honeymoon in France. Guy and the drum are off to Bali and Lombok, it's a secret but I believe they're en route now so safe to tell! I'm sure they can't fail to love it.

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Posted by Mike on 30 May 2008

Heading home

This update comes from the Upper Deck of the A380, en route to London Heathrow. I'm heading home for a cluster of weddings and stags, 2 of each in fact, with the first starting tonight: gulp! Up to Edinburgh for Guy's, joining the 2pm Stella Express from Kings Cross. Then a week recovering at home, followed by Guy's wedding in Suffolk, Jo Micklem's post wedding lunch on Sunday, Henry's stag in the South of France from Tuesday to Thursday, then his wedding in Ascona the following weekend. It's quite a schedule that doesn't leave any time for friends that won't be at weddings, so I haven't widely advertised my return.

I'm actually missing Tom Mason & Sophie Pellew's wedding because of Henry's, and of course Jo Micklem's because of Guy's. Another recent announcement, congrats to Olly Hargrove and Natalie. Just heard last night, awesome news.

Others that I'll be missing this year, just to prove it really is the year of the weddings:
Amy Walker and Warren
Lucan Toh and Sophie
Adam Strachan and Fi
Pete Black and Lucy
Pete Shannon and Emma
Ed Watts and Sylvia
Gen Symons and George
Jenny Owen and Craig
Paul Shaw and Becs
plus having already missed Olivia's.

No annoucement from Steve yet, sure that's just round the corner...

The last few weeks have been lots of fun although I don't think anything spectacular has happened. Work is a little all over the place with a piece of work that we haven't sold to the client, which is dragging on. I'm concerned that if this doesn't work out, I'll be off the project which could then mean down to Telstra in Melbourne. Gulp. However I've been assured by some that this is very unlikely. Sydney is turning cold, people are starting to go into hibernation, a good time to go back to the UK and catch up with everyone. Not quite sure if my liver is ready yet though....

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Posted by Mike on 19 May 2008

Win at last

The season hasn't got off to the ideal start. Two weeks ago we took on Iggies: I was playing OC for the 1s due to an injury, and Iggies 1sts hadn't won in 22 months. Their captain was Trevor Leota, who played for years for Wasps and is cited in Wikipedia as

"Trevor Leota (born 8 February 1975) is a Samoan rugby union footballer. He is a hooker and has been widely recognised as one of the hardest tacklers in the game..... For two weeks prior to the 2004 Heineken Cup final, he was famously assigned a round-the-clock minder by the Wasps management, in order that he could be prevented from indulging his passion for buckets of KFC"

The man was huge, he apparently has a 22" neck, and he found an opportunity to smash into me head on head. I didn't see it coming, thought maybe a train had derailed and come onto the pitch, only to look up into his ugly mug!

I had a fair bit of ball, some big hits up and the referee gave me two points; but we lost, a miserable result. Went home battered and disheartened, but picked myself up to go to Lee's engagement party in North Sydney. It was in the Firehouse, went with Dan and Imran and we had an entertaining evening that ended up in the Piano Bar. I met Hugh's girlfriend on Packed to the Rafters (TV series coming out in August), a gorgeous girl called Zoe Ventoura who was nominated for a couple of logies two weeks ago. She lost out to Bindi Irwin, never stood a chance against the 8 year old with the sympathy vote!!

Anyway, back to the rugby. So we went into last Saturday with 4 out of 5 losses, lots of talks from senior club members to instil some pride and try and get things back on track. The 1sts were 2nd bottom on the table, I was playing on the wing and we were up against UNSW, at the bottom of the table. Tim, Cleo, mini coops and Dan came to watch, and the pressure was most definitely on: things started well, I scored the first try and a few more followed to put us 22-0 up after 30 mins. Then things started to go horribly wrong: we found ourselves down 23-22 with 10 minutes to go, everyone started to get very nervous (a few tries in my corner as well, so hero to zero.) But then the ball came through the hands, a cunning M2 that got me the ball in some space and around I went into Colleagues corner for the winning try. Happy days! We held on to the lead for a well needed victory - messy but got there in the end. This was then followed by a great night in Jimmy Liks, a mighty fine Saturday!

I've been helping a friend create a site, it's now ready: www.gameofhot.com or can be reached off this site game of hot

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Posted by Mike on 4 May 2008

Feeling the age

We headed to Drummoyne on Saturday to take on the league leaders; it's a beautiful ground right by the water, impressive oval with banks all around and a nice sunny day. I was starting for the 2nds at Outside Center, and we had a pretty strong side out - with only 1 win out of 3, we needed it! Unfortunately it was not to be, we worked hard to stay in the game, I think we were actually ahead about 45 mins in, but they wore us down and scored a couple of late tries. Their inside center was a huge islander who kept running straight at me: every tackle hurt, and even more so the next morning! It was mainly a defensive game for me, we weren't getting clean set phase ball out in the backs so I received scraps and did little with it. Then as I'm recovering, watching the 1sts, i get a call up for an injury. I came on with 20 mins to go, they had also brought on my islander friend as my opposite number (6'4" and 130kgs), so some more tacking, more pain. We lost that as well, 2 in a row definitely made me The Biggest Loser.

I had to pick myself up to go to a "What the f*#ck is that Jacket" party in Tamarama: Hugh had sourced me possibly the least tasteful jacket in jacket history. The house holding the party was amazing, overlooking the beach, big garden out the back and balcony out front, loud music and lots of beautiful people. Good ol' Eastern Suburbs! It closed down about 11pm and I headed home for an early one: I gather Disco and Jono went back to Disco's house, where Clarkey started abusing the guests!

Seriously still feeling the pain now from the rugby. Yesterday was Tim's little brother's bucks party: quite civilised, at least the bit I attended was, over to SFS for the AFL and then on to the Grand National for a couple of drinks. I had to head off, so not quite sure how messy it became, but I did get a worried call from Cleo later asking if I knew where Tim was! Apparently his phone went swimming in his beer.

Last week was fashion week, and Hugh invited me to a Jimmy Choo launch in Hemisphere, the flash restaurant above Establishment. There were lots of Australian-famous people there, I only recognised Jennifer Hawkins and Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings.) It took a while, and a few champagnes, to get the courage up to talk to Jennifer H (couldn't let the opportunity go) but finally did, introduced myself and we had a decent chat - turns out she lives in Potts Point, so I'm hoping to bump into her in Woolworths at some point soon.. Stunning girl, Miss Universe 2004 for all those Brits that have no idea who I'm talking about, unfortunately the photo John took was terrible but maybe I'll get my chance again. I did tell a slight lie - she asked what I did, and the truth is so boring so I told her I was in a TV show called Packed to the Rafters, seeing as I was there with Hugh. It gave me the opportunity to introduce Hugh, and when she found out it was Channel 7 I got a high five as that's her channel. I was amused by how many people have told me she has a boyfriend, as if I stand a chance... seriously though, he better watch out! Hugh later quizzed me: "Jennifer Hawkins says that you work on the same show as me, what's that all about?!" I think he understood the reason for the lie...

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Posted by Mike on 29 April 2008

Live on radio

I woke up this morning to a phone-in on Nova about "things you've accidentally stolen" - it just seemed too perfect, so I called them up and managed to get straight through. I told the story of stealing the red Mazda last year (see 7th March 2007 blog.) They loved it, letting me tell the whole story despite it taking a while: lots of airtime!! Slightly embarrassing that guys at work heard it: in particular one of the guys that works in the same room as the big bosses, and he had told all, so I am now well known as the (accidental) car thief that I am!

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Posted by Mike on 29 April 2008

re: Live on radio

Just got home to hear Jess chatting on the phone: apparently she went into work and heard her colleague telling the story. She asked them if they had been listening to Nova, and then explained that it was her flatmate who had stolen the car. I'd mentioned my flatmate had also borrowed it and taken it to Ikea, so they worked out that was her and all were suitably amused.

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Posted by Mike on 29 April 2008

Anzac Weekend

Another public holiday, another excuse for binge drinking. Except this one was also accompanied by (unsuccessful) gambling - it's a good thing they don't come round too often. Imran's birthday is conveniently located the day before the public day (his email read "so you all have an excuse to not come drinking." Not quite what he meant!) We headed to Establishment which has always been famous for its Thursday nights but it was a bit of a disappointment. The night inevitably ended up drunken in the Cross, but we still managed to drag ourselves to the Light Brigade pub for 1pm. Two-up was in full flow, Imran managed to go down $80 within half an hour, I was up a fine $10! His luck got worse as he dropped down to $300, mine followed and I went down $100 - I was telling everyone beforehand that seeing as I won $100 last year, and the odds are 50:50, I'm likely to lose it this year! Sure enough...

Hugh managed to sort out tickets for the races at Randwick for the next day, and a sunny day was forecast (after 3 weeks of rain!) so we put on the glad rags, hastily worked through a champagne breakfast in our garden, and headed off to Randwick. Again the luck wasn't with me, but it was a fun day and a great group of mates. We saw the lawn party crowd looking as Westy as ever, and pretty messy on the way out - although not quite like last year when the heavy rain streaked the fake tan and ruined the heels (not mine!!)

We headed to Hugh's after the races for some drinks on his balcony, and then the night took a random twist when we ended up at the designer Peter Morrissey's flat. The '45 year old bald poof with a 35" waist' (his exact words) took a shine to the wrong man and I spent the night repelling his advances (although I'm sure they were in jest considering his boyfriend was there.) I have a great photo of me abusing his teddy bear, to follow...

Sunday the sun continued to shine, so I hauled myself to the beach for a surf with Dan, Alex and Imran, and some beach volleyball with the usual Tama lot. A very pleasant long weekend, but a serious liver and wallet recovery required.

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Posted by Mike on 18 April 2008

Random

A couple of random moments recently. A few weeks ago i was in The Lincoln for Dan's birthday and this girl came up to me "Excuse me, can i ask you a question? Were you on a flight from Hong Kong to London on October 4th last year?" Pretty scary, especially as my response was "Yes!" - she had sat next to me apparently, and even remembered that my thumb was in a cast and asked if it hadn't healed yet - I explained it was my other thumb! I think she felt suitably stalkerish so moved on quickly! Then last weekend I walked into Lady Lux and this guy came up to me and asked if I used to go out with Khalia Hill. He was a work friend of hers from a couple of years ago, and recognised my pic from Facebook. Again, scary!!

John's birthday was on Monday so we had a quiet dinner which I cooked, and secretly invited Bachar and Pete. He was pretty chuffed, thinking it would just be me, him and Hugh, and he had a few presents from everyone that made it a happy day! Hugh brought round a birthday cake that had cost him $65!!!

Then last night I went to the FHM launch party with Tim, Cleo and Aymie. I was getting very (over)excited about it, but it turned out to just be a relaunch party, with nobody famous or beautiful there, in fact lots of boys expecting models! Still, it was free booze and we still had a good time. I ended up in a new Piano Bar in the Cross next to Trademark with a guy I vaguely know from rugby and a girl whose job it is to determine the Top 100 men for GQ!

I also engaged Tim in some serious Island hiring conversation for my 30th - hoping he can sort out the latest HOT band for me. 17th January 2009 falls on a Saturday - how perfect?!

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Posted by Mike on 15 April 2008

Not mended

Bad news on the thumb - it hasn't fixed at all so my month in plaster was a complete waste of time. It's now been 8 weeks, so the verdict is that it won't fix on its own, reconstructive surgery required. This means another month in plaster and a further 2 months recovery. I'm mainly annoyed at my bad decision not to get it fixed first time; all caused by my stubbornness in getting back quickly to rugby despie advice to the contrary.

Anyway, on the plus side I can go back to sport, playing this weekend after a tough fitness session tonight. As long as it's strapped up, I'm fine to play - will need to get the confidence in it up, and need to decide when to get it fixed (can't leave it too long otherwise I'll get arthiritus later in life.)

So to celebrate back to sport, I had a weekend of wakeboarding (again!), beach volleyball and surfing! Great to be back to the vball, just some relaxed games with Bernard, Jack and Leon, easing back into it. Friday night was Alex and Dan's birthday: we started in a restaurant near the rocks, on to The Loft where Aymie was on the door. It was pretty quiet in there, Imran got stuck into ordering the shots, then on to Lady Lux. Another late one, then up earlyish for the Seafood Bbq cooking course that Steve and Nina had bought for my birthday. It was up at Centennial Park, Nicola came with me and of course we were a little late. There were about 30 people there, of which about 27 were men, and they were going round asking each why they had signed up - one guy said "Apparently I should be a crematorium operator", mine was "Something to impress the ladies"! We had a good laugh, it was a fun and interesting course that will make me the prawn barbecuing king for years to come! Nics and I thought it would be really amusing to explain to everyone we spoke to that we weren't together - they looked confused as to why we would point that out! We're planning to show our skills to some mates next Sunday - bring on the snapper!

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Posted by Mike on 11 April 2008

Easter Ivy

Time to kill waiting for the hand specialist - if only they had frequent flyer miles for hospital visits, I'd be sitting in the Gold Class lounge right now! Splint came off last week which was a huge relief, such a pain to not be able to swim, go to the beach or even really do any exercise as the sweating made life pretty unpleasant! I've now started rugby training again, fitness only and I'm hoping for the big comeback on the first weekend of May.

So going from my last blog entry, I rushed back from Melbourne to Hugh's house - last minute he'd sorted us tickets to OneDay, VIP baby! To be honest, it wouldn't have been worth going if you had to pay for your ticket, $85 entry and you don't get anything!! Dan, Tim and Cleo joined us, and we hung in the vip area most of the day (it actually started at 1pm, we got there about 4), and from there the day turned in to night, sober Mike turned into drunk Mike, attractive girls turned into stunning girls! There was some breakdancing act on the stage, although none of them seemed to injure themselves!, and as expeted lots of beautiful women (and lots of foundation & fake tan!) Hugh managed to steal a construcion hat from upstairs (they're still building the Ivy) and near the end of the night I thought it would be funny to put my phone under the hat ontop his head, then ring it. Soon after we decided to leave along with Amber, we walked out and I suddenly remembered I needed to say good bye to someone. By the time I returned they'd gone, so I reached in my pocket for my phone to discover that it was still on Hugh's head! I asked Justin (big cheese owner of Ivy) if he could call Amber for me, explaining what had happened, but he claimed he didn't have his phone on him. I finally tracked someone down with her number, but her phone was off, so i went to Lady Lux as the door girl is a friend of Hugh's. He answered, was back in his flat, and when I walked in there he was with Amber, both in their underwear. It was entirely innocent, but the only reason I believe that is knowing he's gay! Very amusing, if not slightly bizarre! So the night ended about 4.30am, a shadow of my former self, and very upset to have to get up and work the next day. The things I do for Acn!

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Posted by Mike on 23 March 2008

Culburra

Another couple of week's news to catch up on, and plenty of it. I/m just returning from Melbourne after a few days spent with little Jimmy Warner: bit of a mess up on my behalf, i booked to go down before checking that he'd be there, and he was actually due to be out of the country with work. He cut short his US trip to fly back for me and John, then is off to Shanghai tomorrow. i tried to convince him that Australia was on the way to Shanghai from LAX but he was having none of it! Jimmy's currently staying with a friend in St Kilda, so we went out there on the first night and saw a very cool band in the Espy that have a well known song in the charts. Saturday i went house hunting with jimmy, he's looking to buy in Richmond, then Saturday night we met up with Clare Dempster, friend of Lizzie's from home, and her boyfriend, along with a mate of Jimmy's from Shanghai - a fun night drinking, although John and i were horrified to get initially rejected from the door of a bar called Cookie. The guy changed his mind, but it silenced me and John for the next hour!

Now dashing back to a big party at The Ivy, Hugh has got us on guest list which is a mighty feat as it's a $80 party! In other news, last weekend we had our house in Culburra down on the South Coast. A beautiful beach house overlooking the sea, 11 mighty fine friends although Cath could unfortunately only stay on Friday night and quite a few of the group came down on the Saturday. It was a great weekend, everything went smoothly and we had a monumental house party on the Saturday night. One of Tim's friends had a putt putt boat on the water, and took us out waterskiing on the Saturday - I had to waterproof my arm with the aid of a kitchen glove, some clingfilm, a bin liner and gaffer tape - it was about 95% waterproof, only mildly damp after, and most importantly a very hot look! Everyone waited on a little beach while he took me off waterskiing, and at the end I built up some speed and tried to ski onto the beach, but took it a bit fast and ended up full on somersaulting onto the beach - very smooth! The boat then took Dan out and halfway through the engine cut and would not start again. They rowed to shore, tried for another half an hour, then gave up and had to row to the launch ramp, about 1km downstream! Tim and Dan rowed, the skipper sat back and drank!

The weather was great, the surf non-existent which suited me seeing as I couldn't go surfing anyway, and we had a lazy sunday speaking rubbish on the terrace while soaking up the sun. Then on the way home Tim had organised some tickets to a John Butler Trio mini-festival in the Botanic Gardens in the Gong. JBT was very cool, a little bit peace and love and harmony man, but incredible guitarist and top performer. We made it home about 11pm and crumpled into a mass of exhaustion - great weekend!

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Posted by Mike on 13 March 2008

Weekend away

We're off to Culburra tomorrow for the weekend, have rented a house just north of Jervis bay. the original point was meant to be a surfing weekend, but the plaster cast has put paid to those plans. At least the weather is hot and sunny at the moment (over 30degs today!) and we're in for a good weekend.

Last weekend was future music, the last of the music festivals for me for 08. It was out at Randwick, we met Nics beforehand at a flat in Paddo then walked across Centemnnial park to the event, arriving stress free at about 3pm. Just in time for the Potbellez who did a great set; apparently they were at Mardi Gras and apparently i saw them, but it was obviously during one of my blank out phases! After that there were a number of other djs, the overall setup was impressive with about 6 stages over a huge area, but the crowd was a very dirty westy one! (I'm an eastern suburbs princess remember.) The highlight in the afternoon was playing on the bouncy castle (apparently called a jumping castle in Aus!), not sure how advisable the somersaults were in a plaster cast but hey, who said i was sensible? Then the day ended with Chemical Brothers who were suberb - Imran and I had to leave half an hour from the end to beat the rush and get back into town for Dan's 30th drinks. We met him at Bayswater Brasserie, I hadn't drunk all day and it was a bit of a fall going from the height of Chemical Bros to the tranquility of bayswater brasserie! But i got back on it, we continued to the Lincoln which was good only for it's dance pole, Dan's girlfriend Frances showing her stuff, then ending at Lux. The bouncer now knows me, and although we got sent straight in, we still had to negotiate for reduced entry - and John was in there, working the doorgirl who's a good friend of Hugh's! They're unreal!! Anyway the night ended at 4am, I think my legs went to bed at midnight but figure it was a stirling effort - 16 hours on my feet!

Hoping for a bit of R&R this week....

Oh, and here's a pic of Goetz from NYE - he told me the story that him and his bro got superhero costumes made for their early morning NYE race, then a mate came and joined them in Arosa last minute. So he fedex'd out a hotdog costume! After a night on the tiles in costume, it gets to 5 am, the race is looming, and their friend announces "I don't want to be a hotdog anymore!" and goes to bed. Love it!

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Posted by Mike on 5 March 2008

Skiing

Mum, dad and AJ are off in Lech at the moment, that's the Swiss resort - at least I don't think they've headed up to Scotland for a week! They sent me through these pics, love the one of dad looking at the map - standard Langford family holiday!

Mum also sent one of me from when I was a super-speed skiier... so cool!

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Posted by Mike on 3 March 2008

Mardi Gras and thumbs

Friday proved to be an unexpected shocker. After 5 hours in A&E on Monday to get an xray on my thumb, i eventually got a referral to the hand clinic. I never even saw a doctor, after 3 hours i discovered i was still 11th on the list and everyone was jumping in front of me, as to be expected. A nurse looked at my xray and compared it to an old xray of my thumb they had on file - i had to point out that was the other thumb that I broke last year, didn't inspire me with confidence! So eventually I saw a physio who said it didn't look like there was a fracture but wanted to refer me to a GP - I pleaded my case to get sent to the hand clinic, and went down there Friday. I was hoping it was nothing, but it proved to be a complete ligament tear ideally needing surgery. Again time to plead, I told them I just wanted to get back to rugby asap at which point the doctor agreed to a cast - rugby would just rip open the surgery repair if I didn't rest it long enough; I may need some further down the line, but for now my rugby season is saved. So they put my arm in an old school full plaster cast, down to my elbow, for 4 weeks, then a splint for 4 weeks. Sounds like I can be back to rugby a couple of weeks into the season. The biggest bummer is the weekend down south we have booked - no surfing for me...

Saturday was Mardi Gras and after many complications getting me a ticket for the afterparty, Imran came up trumps. First was Blossom's farewell bbq at Tama, the weather was surprisingly good despite forecasts, and a decent crowd turned up. About 15 English and 1 Aussie, good work Bloss! Then onwards to the parade, I headed to Q Bar to get my ticket and meet Dan and Co, but Dan got caught up on the wrong end of Oxford St so I stayed for a quick drink with Amber then moved on to Will and Toby's bar. We'd covered my arm with fluro tape, and armed with a pen I set off in my quest: messages from girls only! Didn't watch much of the parade, we headed to Fox Studios for the afterparty about 11pm and queued for a while to get in, but then all was good. It was a fun night, a little too gay for my liking (not sure what I was expecting!), about 90% men and plenty of the remaining 10% was gay, but the remaining straight girls were very approachable - guards were down! I walked past one girl and as I looked at her she pointed at me and yelled "you're straight!!" Very amusing.

I was with only 2 straight guys plus John's gay hareem, they're a good crowd and we had a laugh. The music was not so good, but the setup is incredible: about 6 different venues, two of which are vast, and a crowd of about 20,000 people. The acts were Olivia Newton John, although she only did one song, and Cydni Lauper at 8am singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun to 5000 homos jumping up and down and singing along! Hilarious. I met a nice group of straight girls who were there to see off two of their good gay friends, heading to London. They were generally a pretty crazy bunch but lots of fun, I stayed with them until the end then headed home in the rain, a sorry state. I found out today one of the rugby guys spotted me leaving the area - I assume he was driving past as it was 8.30am. I'm worried that a rumour will spread (I won't be there to defend myself for another few weeks), although think I was surrounded by the girls at the time so hopefully it didn't look bad!

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Posted by Mike on 27 February 2008

Edinburgh nightlife

Cousin Alina is heading to Edinburgh and asked my advice on places to go. Took a trip down memory lane trying to remember all the hot places (and used a website to help) but thought I should save it on my blog for future reference:

My memory's a bit scratchy, and I'm also worried I'm a bit out of touch now, but I used this site to try and remember some of the old names: http://www.itchyedinburgh.co.uk

It kind of depends where you're staying for where you should go, recommened you check a map against the places I recommend and see which suit.

For food, Room in a Town, Appartment on Barclay Place, Fishers in the City on Thistle St, La Petite Folie on Randolph Place, Oloroso on Castle St (very expensive but amazing views), The Outstider (Favourite of mine) on George IV Bridge, or if you head to Leith for cool bars and restaurants, I recommend Fishers.

As for bars, Opal Lounge on George St is a bar / club open late, very cool, Grand Cru was an old favourite, on Hanover St, The Dome, George St is big and flash. It's also worth heading to Cowgate / Grassmarket which is near the Royal Mile, it's full of bars and clubs; Three Sisters is worth a look, very big and normally good fun.

Other stuff is a bit tricky - Royal Mile and the Castle are definitely worth visiting, a fun night out is going to the Stand Comedy Club, shopping down Princes St / George St, and there are a few galleries but as you can imagine, I didn't visit them a great deal. If the weather's nice, it's worth heading to Arthurs seat, an extinct volcano that makes a nice walk - it's right by our old halls of residence, 20 min walk from Royal Mile area.

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Posted by Mike on 21 February 2008

Coming home!

The sun's out, my car's fixed, the weekend's approaching...it's all looking up! In other good news, mum, dad and AJ have booked to come out for a couple of weeks over Christmas; very exciting planning what to do and sooo many options. I have also booked to go back for Guy's and Henry's weddings, they aren't marrying each other but are conveniently holding them in successive weekends. The sad thing is I'll miss Tom and Sophie's, along with Jo and Bentley's the next weekend - talk about almighty clash!

I'm heading back on May 30th, straight off to Guy's stag do (likely Edinburgh.) Then a week in London town, followed by Henry's stag probably in Europe somewhere. There's talk of a car rally, I'm hoping that's not going to materialise. And ending at Goetz's in Ascona for Henry and Rose's wedding, staying on a couple of extra days. SO it's a fair old trip, hoping to work in the first week to save hols.

Work has been going well, it's eased off slightly although there are continual problems. I'm still managing a release for the client, my team is about 40 strong although most are over in Singapore and Manila. It'll run through to the end of March and then there's a bit of uncertaintly about next steps. Hoping to stay here otherwise there's a fair chance I'll get sent to Canberra or Woollongong - seriously wouldn't want that!! Monday we had a great day: golf up on a Links course called Long Reef, followed by dinner in Wildfire in CIrcular Quay. Serious amount of meat, enough to bring on stomach cramps! I'd also played golf on Saturday with Dan, and then about 6 hours of voleyball on Sunday after a pretty massive Saturday night. And then last night i went to my first rugby training session of the new year, early pre-season still but need to work on some fitness. Actually I got up early yesterday morning and went for a run up to the Opera house and back through the botanic gardens. Beauuuutiful....

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Posted by Mike on 13 February 2008

Bondi Tens

And so it continued, rain rain rain. The tens started on Friday lunchtime, we were the opening match on Pitch 1 and the rain actually took the afternoon off. We were a strong team, especially thanks to the ringers that Alex pulled in: Ben who plays 1sts for Easts, Jamie a tough scrum half that plays a lot of league but obviously plenty of union too; and Carl a fly half. We had three pretty easy pool matches, the last one against the Bali Legends that I played for last year: it was our toughest match but we won 3 tries to 1 without too many problems.

That night we had a few at the Sheaf but everyone was keen to put in a top performance against Tattersall's the next day in the Cup Quarters; they were boasting some good players including former wallabies, and had also breezed their pool matches. The day came along with the rain, and by the time we came to play it was torrential. It was a tough match (all 14 mins of it!) that could have gone either way: we were 7 points up, but ended up going down 14-7. Gutting to get knocked out so soon, but the rain continued for another few hours so part of me was happy to head home and dry off.

I spent the afternoon with Dan and Imran psyching up (watched Any Given Sunday on DVD!) and a bit of Fitness Corner before dressing as school kids and heading to the after party. It was in Bondi Junction in the old Cock 'n Bull, we had a kangaroo court session in The Eastern first before being kicked out for being too rowdy. Then a mosh at the Tea Gardens where a band was kicking out some HEAVY rock tunes, then finally the party. Great night, it was like being back at Uni knowing so many people, everyone dressed up, drunk and happy. I kept it together though, concerned how much memory loss I'd sustained the weekend before!

Then on to the Cross with Ben and Jamie (don't know how he was still going!) and Jules. Still dressed as school kids, my expectations were low, and Jamie's failed attempt to get us into Lux was valiant but proved my concerns correct. Then Ben had a go at Trademark, knowing the bouncer, and managed to get us in and for free! We were stupid for a few more hours before I eventually stumbled home at 5am - I wish these clubs would close a bit earlier!!! Sunday I managed to get up and play some volleyball, although I forgot my suncream and stayed out a wee bit too long. The skin is starting to peel which is clearly a great look!

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Posted by Mike on 8 February 2008

Sharking

Shark Island came around again in the middle of our rainy summer, and didn't disappoint. The rain was thumping down on the Friday, and people were pulling out, the Goonies sending messages of "It will be on no matter what" and effectively "dry your eyes", my lot were remaining positive but everyone praying for sun. Then Saturday came around, we arrived at Rose Bay at 11.30 to a down pour, and then... it all started to clear. There was no shortage of celebration as the grey clouds drew away and slowly blue sky appeared. The theme was 1983 America's Cup After Party, and everyone had made a great 80's effort. The organisers had managed a ratio in favour of the boys, the island just wasn't like real life. Very beautiful crowd, as is always the way with the Goonies' events, and I had lots of the big names there to keep me company! Khalia was there, great to see her but I'm not sure if she would say the same about me. A group of us swum out to the lighthouse and jumped off, it's a fair leap and not allowed so when John swam back out with someone else he was stopped by the police and given a serious warning!

(many thanks to Aunty Sue for my new shorts!)

Looking back through the photos, I realise that my memory started to go an hour or so before sunset, I do remember using the sun in the sky as a timer for how much fun I had left! The sun sets, and the party finishes, a very sad moment. But then onwards to Nicola's party at Melt, a fancy dress Popstars theme with us dressed up as a boyband, me, John, Dan and Imran. No routine though! Unfortunately now the memory becomes very patchy, but suffice to say it was a very fun night, onwards briefly to Favella where the official shark island after party was, incredibly managing to talk our way in despite the costumes! Very late to bed and then up at 10.30 to play rugby in the pouring rain! It was incredible how lucky they were with the weather:
Friday Rain
Saturday Sun
Sunday Rain
Monday Torrential Rain
Tuesday Rain
It's just been relentless, apparantly a La Nina year, it's rained for the last 3 weeks and due to continue for quite a bit longer. Feels like home!

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Posted by Mike on 30 January 2008

Magic moments

Congratulations to Lizzie and Dickon Johnstone, who have had a beautiful baby boy Alfred Crocker.

And Aunty Sue has sent me pics of Cousin Alice's wedding, great to see them looking so happy, such a shame to miss it.

And finally, Richard and Catherine have had a baby girl called Tana, delivered by dad at home in the bedroom (not planned)! No pics of this one!!!

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Posted by Mike on 27 January 2008

Weekend Away

A delightful weekend in the country. Nicola booked a house up in Copacabana, close to Terrigal about an hour and a half North of Sydney. The house is amazing, up on a cliff overlooking the sea.

The first night was rainy but the sun came out for the weekend. I organised a game of ring of fire, a great way to get to know people quickly. It resulted in one of the funniest photos I think i've ever taken, don't remember taking it and neither Fred nor Carry remember the event, but very funny!! I think Fred's saying "so what do you reckon?" and Carry's just looking confused by the whole thing. She's engaged to Jeremy, so I think there have to be serious discussions over whether the marriage goes ahead!

I managed some surfing, albeit I was hopeless and 60 year old men weighing 150 lbs were catching them easily. Very frustrating. We had a big night out in the local Terrigal Club Key Largo, apparently the Central Coast hotspot. Saturday was Australia day, so there were lots of very drunk yobos around causing trouble. The general vibe of the place was one of aggression, people bumping into you then turning around as if "You got a problem with that" (bouncers too!!) Three of us stayed until the end, I was playing a game with randoms asking which Steve they preferred, it was 3-2 to Steve but the Steve with 2 got the hotter one. So everyone was happy! (kind of)

It's now rainy monday and I'm going to head home, try and get some afternoon volley in.

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Posted by Mike on 24 January 2008

Teeth and Cars

It's not been a great couple of weeks for the bank account. First shocker was my car a/c packing in. I also needed a service, so into the garage and I'm told I need new brakes ($700) and the a/c unit is $2200 plus fitting (about $800.) Awesome. Then I crashed my car.

I went into the back of someone on the highway outside my work - stop start traffic, something flicked across my windscreen and hit the car on my outside that happened to be Dickie's bright yellow porsche boxter. This distracted me sufficiently to smash into the back of the BMW in front, not particularly fast but hard enough to crush my crumple zone. She got away with scratches on her bumper, my car limped to the garage and is under assessment by the friendly Car insurance people. Hmmmm.

Then yesterday a trip to the dentist to sort out my root canal, another $1400 plus the crown which comes in at $1800. I've done the maths, and basically no eating or drinking until 2010!

Other than that, all good!!! Will Pesquali and his girlfriend Sarah have been staying over the last few days, they're driving up the coast in a clapped out Station Wagon, sleeping in a mattress in the back! They arrived Sunday avo so I met them and John having a barbie at the back of Coogee, the weather had finally turned okay. Various meals out, they went to the open air cinema on Tuesday while I sorted my car and then the final night we had a barbie in our garden.

Saturday night George had organised an event called Safari, basically 12 girls are split into 3 houses. Each house cooks a starter, main course and dessert. The 12 boys, also split into 3 groups, go and have one course in each house. At the end you all end up in a club, we started in Iguana but it was pretty painful, and managed to move everyone to Lux. Unfortunately Lux does not close until far too late, so I think we left at 5ish and stumbled home (John and Hugh had also lasted to the end, Hugh being John's "trick"!) Som