Great song for you! Happy New Years

Happy New Years......gotta be better than the old one ;)

Evil looking building i found in Sydney yesturday.

Well its been fun kiddies - but 2008 is gone. May it rest in peace.
So lets list the top of the top for 2008.

Best viral advertising campaign for a vehicle for 2008 - Lotus Evora
Worst.... - Audi

Saddest moment of 2008 - Fixing up my lovely fazer 1000.....only to get an offer overseas and to have to sell it again
Happiest.... - Having Yuqi on the back of the bike for the ride home after i proposed to her.

Sit down and have a coffee on me. Big shout out to Mark (the evil looking one) and Jane who can now officially hate each other now that they are married (i still beat you lol).

Longest queue for 2008 - The one going into the opera house park yesturday morning (yes the gates were open).....looking to be about a 1000 people waiting in a line in the morning sun.
Shortest.... - The one handing out money to the US auto industry.

Biggest let down for 2008 - finding out how much THE SAME BANKS in Aus rip off people in comparision to NZ.
Biggest bonus for 2008 - finding out im not as stupid as i look

Britomart train station - still the nicest train station in Australasia

Slowest thing in 2008 - My ford laser POS auto
Fastest... - getting engage, married, changing countries, changing cities.....good god what the hell is comming next?

Right best i run off folks, my water/alcohol ratio is not doing so good after last night

Rockpool and Fail

Well guys, turns out i failed to read the tide times, so this means that i turned up to see a rock pool that only exists in low tide.....at high tide.
Will have to get a film of the sealife in the super-mega-amazing-newcastle rockpool later for you guys

Mazda Furai claims king of the supercar mountain for 2008

Supercars.net has named the Mazda Furai top supercar for 2008.
Told you guys this car was something special.
I was supprised not to see the Fisker in there somewhere - but mabey next year as it is not officially a full production model yet.

Merrry Xmas and all the Trappings!

Sorry guys i had no internet, thanks to Virgin's System getting totally F'ed up.
Wireless Broadband go by-by.
After V harrassed them for about 2 hours they gave in and gave us a $20 top-up.......while my $100 topup still sits in limbo.
In other news toyota made its first loss this year......so these are grim days.
Still this could have all been avoided if they build this....

Or even something that looked remotely like the old supra.......

But that is too much to ask for a car company to actually build cars people that people want.....that people actually want to drive. Honda have cancelled their NSX program. Porsche are designing cars for soccer mums. The big american 3 had to ask for a hand from George so they can build economical cars (and the australian 2 for that matter.....). Grim indeed.
Of course this could have all be avoided if the richest people in the world didn't invest in the poorest people in the world who have no idea of how to manage money. Blind leading the Stupid really. Or is this as Ayn Rand predicted? I think not as the smart and hardworking seem to get hurt just as bad.
But that is enough doom and gloom from me for now, im just depressed because the weather is FANTASTIC in Newcastle.....and i don't have a bike to ride.

On the upside V got a snorkel and mask for Xmas - so we shot of down to the water yestuday so i could teach her the basics.
What we found has to be Newcastle's best kept secret.
A man made rock pool, with a diameter of about 30 meters.......but it was inside that was amazing.
SEALIFE!!!!.................. with the water less than 1 meter deep, and no predators it was the best snorkelling i have had in my life. Tropical fish, Tropical coral, Mini-Schools of what looked to be baby trevelley (sp?), baby puffer fish, neons........1000's of fish in a mini tank. Better than any aqurium i have ever been into in my life......
I will take the waterproof camera down with me tomorrow and see if i can get a film. That place is truly magic.
Right best i go do some reading and relax - will keep you posted

New HOLDEN HERO MINI concept

Holden Aus, is planning (thanks to a few million from the govt) to build a small car.
Completely pointless when you think about the fact that they import 4 models already in the small car market.
But the concept image looks cool
(fyi : the "HERO" name has not been released yet - so don't tell anyone ;) )

Why trendy is not always good and some more Newcastle photos

I'm sorry but i just don't like it...
And no convincing me that anyone who would own a normal car would buy the apple iMO (or is that eMO).
However apple if you release this i would be happy to Beta test it....i have good offroad tracks where i am.
Its like a segway for really fat ugly people.......there are so many things wrong with it.

I also have some photos here of a fort i went to on one of my last trips to Newcastle.
'
There is just something peaceful about a 6 inch on the beach.....don't you think.
They were used once to scare a Japanese sub out of the harbour, during WWII.
The fort was a fully operational barracks until the 1970's.

Also here is a GB500 i found it Sydney........isn't she cute.
Would hate to guess how much the owner paid for her - as imported bikes are really expensive. And something like this was probably imported from New Zealand i imagine.

The Cake is a lie!

Hi all best i touch base again....
Looks like move no. 4356 (and man am i sick of moving - im starting to feel like bedouin) is about to happen in the next few weeks with both V and i moving to a studio apartment in Ashfield in Sydney....... will keep you posted as always. As it stands i am still paying rent in Newcastle and all my stuff is still here. So if you know anyone wanting to rent in Newy let me know. Shame really as i quite like it here.
In other news Volvo just released a new image of the new s60 concept, using their new design language.....and i have to admit i think this will be one tasty car. Its good to see an angro ovlov for once.


Its seems that FUJI Heavy Industries has shifted some funds into Subaru's design department in the last few months with some very tasty concepts for the legacy and the mysterious Subaru/Toyota Coupe' (RWD FTW!) poping up for 2010.

Right i should leave it like that for a short time.....check back later this week when i tell you why XP sucks over Vista (yes i did get that the right way around - i found something in XP that really irritates me now.....and is fixed in Vista)
Adios Amigo's

Aw shucks guys.......thanks :)

http://www.hvpower.co.nz/newsletter/nov08.html

Betty is down! New Bioshock! Auto Industry Bailout! And James May is the Stig!

Hi all,
Sad, happy, and confusing news for you today. I'm killing some time before i go catch my train to Sydney (again). So i figure i should update you all on worldy events.
Sadly 50's pinup model Betty Page died recently.
She forever be on film, in the prime of her life.
On other news...
Bioshock 2 IS CONFIRMED FOR LATE 2009!!!!
I'm excited allready


Auto industry bailout...
I don't get it - if the tax system saves and PRIVATE industry, does that mean tax payers get cheaper cars? If a multinational company can not weather an international storm then what good are they? Imagine if Microsoft said they needed a bailout package?
Time for the American Auto Makers to grow up and stop crying back to mummy when they fail.

Now for a bitch session....
Aussies!! you guys are getting completelely screwed by the banks here. When living in NZ i used the exact same banks as i am in Aussie in comparison the exact same accounts are costing me a minimum of $3/month PER ACCOUNT. The credit card services are crap and expensive......
How come??? Becuase no one has complained is why.
In NZ, using exactly the same bank corp. I had not paid a single fee (pre-moving to Aus) since 2000........
Not only that but my credit card only cost me $20/year and had a good points redemtion system included.
Its Bullshit what banks charge here - there are more customers here. The average cost should be LOWER!!!!
And the service is just not there. I have had more assistance from Police officers giving me tickets. Buck up you ideas Aussie banks, before Kiwi Bank makes it over here and you lose ALL of your customers.

Jo and Tab....buddies forever

I thought this was a nice photo of you 2.....

Currently in the MP3 player

Battle of the Coupe' design concepts

Well recently we have had a surge into the market of coupe's and design concepts based around the 2+2 variant.
With VW releasing its latest concept on the world (full pics and stories here)
There has also been a release from Kia along the same lines (but probably 1/10th the pricetag)
The Kia Kee, looks to be an interesting concept, lets hope to see it go into production. As it would compete for the same ground as the Hyundai Genesis.

Reinventing the wheel, tagger style

Now i'm not a fan of tagging at all, infact up intil now.....i figured all are complete morons. But when i moved to Newcastle, i found something that grabbed my attention, it was unique, it was not i some text that only a retard with cross eyes could read, and it had a simple message....Empathy.



While i do not 100% support this tagging, and i still think that this is bad as its permanent, and has no consent. I found it interesting that clearly someone who has talent, and knowledge is displaying it in this matter.....and i like the message. Just not the medium.
Turns out this is not the origin however.....that was started by this guy a long time ago using chalk (a better alternative in my mind)

Now there is some class, however i still prefer the term "Empathy" as we all need this wake up call shown to us sometimes - as the world can be cold place.
It's like those t-shirts that told everyone to :)
Is there a tag in the world telling people to smile somewhere?

PS: Taggers who write their names or what ever they like to be called, do this as they never progressed passed kindergarten (explains how they form what they call letters). And just like 5 year olds should get arse kicked for being stupid little morons.

Handy hint for the day

I just undocked my pc, now i couldn't find any of my windows.
The solution is here (thanks to onetipaday.com)

"I just found an easy solution for moving application windows that have somehow ended up off-screen back to the middle of a monitor where you can see it. It was such a nice fix, I just had to share it!

Alt-tab to get the offending application as the active application in windows
Go to the taskbar and right click on the application and choose ‘Move’
You cursor will now changes shape to one with arrows at each corner. Now just use your arrow keys to move the hidden app to where you can see it, and the problem is solved!
With some applications there isn’t a Move option in Windows. Don’t worry, because for these applications just do 1, but use ‘ALT+SPACE+M’ to activate Windows Move option.

"

Welcome to intermission!

Hi Guys, figure you all need an intermission, 5 mins to do stuff all.
So chill out for 5 mins and check out this music video. Great Song

Gears of War Theme

http://www.mediafire.com/?gyjvjiygz5z

More Newcastle photos

finally found the card adapter for the phone camera.
Sorry i f'ed up some of the panoramas