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    10/21/2009

    The Wifes’ Cooking

    We hang out with a lot of (read: a few) Americans. One big difference between Americans & Australians is that they eat Mexican more frequently (read: a lot more frequently).

    Zoe recently made some burritos(?). I was so proud I took a photo:

    Burrito Something

    The local beer in the background is liquan (漓泉). Not pronounced “Lick-you-en”, more like “leech-wan”. Its nice enough & cheap!

    .sam

    Zach Galifianakis vs Kanye West

    Stumbled across this video.

    Its a Kanye West rap so there are some swears

     

    .sam
    10/2/2009

    More Chinglish to get us started

    Here’s a classic from a year ago. Its that time of year again and this particular shopping mall is at it again,

    TTs_big_day_out_ 005

    Being a “show off” is a concept hasn’t crossed my neurones since primary school.   (“show-offy”)

    This new apartment development is advertising an “American uptown culture life…”

    TTs_big_day_out_ 034  ….judging from the banjos and cowboy hats these good old boys are straight from 1862!

    More apartment developent sites. Lots of commercials around town use English catch phrases to inspire customers, its just I haven’t heard of any of these catch phrases…

    TTs_big_day_out_ 035  ?

    TTs_big_day_out_ 036 ????

    …as always saving the best for last:

    TTs_big_day_out_ 039

    How far is the futureyou say? “Its approaching!”  smile_confused 

    what did you just say? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome that statement was….

    *sam

    Unintended Unattention

    Haven't updated anything in a while....Confused

    ...soon...

    sam
    9/28/2008

    "If you are not in fashion..."

    Most of you are probably familiar with the concept of Chinglish. For those of you who aren't; Signs, billboards, labels, T-shirts, with english text that are designed by a non-english speakers often produces hilarious results. China probably has the highest proportion of it around and hence where the name comes from, Chinese + English = Chinglish. The following is my own foray into bringing to light more Chinglish

    This came from the label on a briefcase I just bought. Transcribed it reads:

    " simple of beautiful
    Art produces ugly things
    which frequently
    become more beautiful with time.
    Fashion, on the other hand,
    produces beautiful
    things which
    always become ugly with time.
    IF YOU ARE NOT IN
    FASHION, YOU ARE NOBODY.
    It is a new fancy rather than
    taste which produces
    so many new fashions.
    Beauty of style
    and harmony and grace
    and good rhythm
    depend on simplicity."

    Hmmm words of wisdom from the suitcase label.
    I have my theories on how this kind of mind-meld-poetry comes from (mostly the internet), but that can wait till another day.
    My favourtie part is the middle: harsh words from a suitcase label... that kind of thing could ruin your day!

    till next time,
    sam
    5/13/2008

    Bread in China

    Howdy,

    Cab't get sane bread here. Once I was served a burger on a pineapple bun. For those who don't know, a pineapple bun is sweet bread (like a cream bun) frosted with sugar and pineapple powder (i think). Does that make you shudder? Mind you thats probably less suger than a McDonalds burger! Baguettes from Walmart don't burn in the toaster; they caramelise, there's that much sugar in them...

    So, mum had a bread maker (in Australia), they're no good for big families (like mine) cause the loaf is gone in 4 (Stewart-boy) slices. We got it over here and between us its perfect. Hot and Fresh.. pictures to prove it..

    fr sam

    Japanese Gameshoe Hilarity

    Unbelievable,.... i laughed very very hard!

    The gallery has some of the highlights.

     

    fr sam
    11/15/2007

    Youtube enabled

    I've got a backlog of videos to upload, in the meantime here's the latest one, starring some of the young guys from our home in carlingford


     


    fr sam
    10/21/2007

    Busily Scurrying along.

    Currently working like ferret-meerkat-superants for departure in January 08.

    We have some training courses coming, we'll post some photos in the coming weeks.

    In the meantime, we took a camping holiday to Thredbo when we got back at the beginning of September. It was freezing cold! The scenery was superb!

    Stay in Touch,

    fr sam (& zoe)
    6/23/2007

    We are irrelevant...

    This post is a bit of an experiment...
     
    here goes,
     
     
     
    the title of this post is about the nature of slamball, the hype makes me laugh, looks like fun, but these too elements combined silently screams " We play slamball! We are irrelevant! ". Adds a tinge of black humour to the whole affair...
     
    hope the embedded video works
     
    sam
    5/23/2007

    London Bridge

    Sam:
     
    "New gallery, including the spectacular london bridge and twelve apostles.
     
    Sam's first visit to the great ocean road, Zoe's previous visit was when the london bridge was complete and uncollapsed.
     
    Our May newsletter is out, if you haven't recieved it (and would like to) drop us an email"
    5/12/2007

    Melbourne Dreaming

    " Oh No! I left the pot on the boil again!
     
    Replace the word 'pot' with the word 'blog', and replace the word 'boil' with the word 'didn't-update'.. and then rearrange the sentence so it actually makes sense!
     
    We were recently down in Melbourne for (amoungst other things) meetings re: CHINA. Lots of news to fill in, we'll have a newsletter out soon!
     
    Till then, checkout the gallery with photos of the street art around Brunswick Street. This place oozes with creativity! "
     
    fr sam
    2/15/2007

    Forster Spear Fishing

    " Couple ' O ' Weekends back we got our friend Carl to take us to his parents place in Forster for the weekend. He's a mad spear-fisherman so he taught me some of the ropes and I had a go. Highlights include,
     
    * Filming over 2 hours of underwater footage with my Dad's camera (thanks Dad). "Life Aquatic" type movie to come later, so stay tuned...
    * Killing Fish
    * Eating those Fish
    * Sand boarding
    * Teasing Azadeh (one of Zoe's girlfriends)
     
    I'm still experimenting with this blog format so the photos are in the gallery, or click the link below, and see the comments for further comments from me... muhahaha"
     
     
    sam

    Thredbo in Summer

    " Between Christmas and New Years we travelled down to southern NSW, stayed a couple of nights in Thredbo and had a 'walking' holiday (meaning, the main activity of the holiday was walking around the national park, boring huh?)
     
    This was my first time to thredbo in the summer and I had been fed all Zoe's stories about how great it was, that we had to go do it, the country side is so beautiful etc... Well all her stories were true... it was spectacular! I loved it!
     
    I did a bit of bouldering whilst we were there, we went to Blue Lake (which was amazing) and enjoyed picnic lunches everyday... itsa nice!
     
    If you've skied thredbo before you'll probably recognise some of the terrain... sans la niege"
     
    sam
    2/10/2007

    FINALLY UPDATED!!!!!!

     
    ****!!!!****!!!!****
     
    Finally got some time to update our blog! (2 new galleries and 3 new posts)
     
    I'd put more up but apparently I've reached my "monthly upload quota"... bah!
     
    check back soon and comment!!! :) please :)
     
    sam
     
    ****!!!!****!!!!****

    Christmas Day

    " I got my brother some punching gloves for christmas...
     
    our Grandad was impressed... "
     
    sam

    Walking in the Neighbourhood

    Another post on how lucky we are to live in Sydney... sorry...
     
    Have a look at the gallery, one day in November last year we walked from Rush Cutters Bay Park around to Lady Macquarie's Chair (If you don't know what this means don't worry, neither do I)...
     
    The photo below is from Rushcutter's Bay Park, The Church Tower at the top centre is St Marks, across from it to the right is the "robot head" of a boxy building. This is where we live (no we don't live on the top floor and no we don't live in a giant robot, although that would be cool)
     
    Two Lessons from this photo...
    1) We should go walking more often
    2) He is good, cause none of this is our doing!
     
    fr sam

    Paddington Street Art

    Just up the hill from where we live is the Sydney suburb of paddington.
     
    Its a groovy cafe/arty/fashion area (i.e. too cool for us), lots of fun to walk around, visit bookshops etc and have a coffee...
     
    One trip (back in Oct last year) we had our camera and we took some photos of the local graffiti/stencil/street art around this area. Some pretty awesome stuff... All of these pieces are now gone, buffed away, and only this gallery as a lasting capsule of urban art... will anyone see it now??
     
    fr sam
    10/17/2006

    Big Mountain Madness...

    Sam:
     
    "A couple of weekends back we did a (dry) canyon in the near Kanangra Walls called Kalang. To get there you travel through the Jenolan Caves. The trip in is pretty cool; you drive your car into the actual cave through to the other side... not to mention the winding roads around that area... AND about 20km of dirt road = drift-city! (just kidding)
     
    A night under stars at a nearby campsite before setting off the next day, made for nice serenity ('ah the serenity')
     
    The walk to the top of Kalang wasn't too bad and the and the 7 or 8 abseils were 30 to 60m long: advanced but not very strenuous and we were finished by about 1pm... Then the pain began; 3 hours of gruiling scree climbing out i.e. scrambling up a dirt hill in dense scrub... BUT I think it was all worth it... see the picture gallery and decide for yourself... "
    9/19/2006

    Holidays and Weddings...

    Sam:
     
    "Three weekends back headed up the North Coast of New South Wales to for a camping break.
     
    We stayed in the Bundjalung national park, at the Woody Heads camping ground. It was 'car camping' so we had the luxuries out in force, fresh roasted coffee every morning, bacon and eggs, melting chocolate with fresh strawberries...
     
    After a few days we headed further up the coast to Byron Bay where Zoe's good friend Lis got married (9th Sept 06). An awesome time, the weather dryed up nicely for the wedding weekend, and then two days later proceeded to bucket down for our 10hr drive back to Sydney...
     
    thus ended our interlude and last week we returned to the reality working life and the fun and games that it entails..."