20 000 Visitors!

Today I hit 20 000 page views!

Its time to do a lazy sitcom special and have a look at some of our previous episodes along with some of my favourite photos:

Great Ocean Road - Touring Aus.

Most popular blog entry: Uro Levu - Sexy Gorgeous (Korovou).

This was about Fiji, and people may want to know how to say Sexy Gorgeous in Fijian do I can udnerstand. In fact, many of my Fiji articles are above the 200 mark.

Questacon Photo Shoot - the 2007 Science Circus with our truck. Yeah baby yeah!

Interesting note that My entry about Milan is catching up quick. Ironically, this is probably one of my most boring entries - I just did not do too much there, and frankly, I did not find it all that interesting.

The kegarator entry is also getting a crap load of hits. After I posted that little bite of info my daily page visits skyrocketed to 50+.

A gorgeous view of the Appenzell Alps, Switzerland. This photo still seems a little surreal

A couple of my sporting entries also get a inordinate amount of visits, and just wish I knew what the individual was actually searching for: Sports Weekend - Saturday, Most sports require only one ball, and an entry about Road Relay (honestly, it is a shit-boring event. I'm a runner and I spent every year trying not to be in the team). Sports Weekend Saturday is funny because it has over 230 visits, yet the Sports Weekend Sunday, literally the next entry about the very next day, has 5. Nope, I can't figure that one out.

A random Thursday night out with the Fenner Five! We five men...

 I also have an entry called Final Days - it has over 180 hits. Are people looking for a head's up in Armageddon? It is just about my last formal dinner at Fenner...

 Goof and I drinking beer on the Great Wall of China in the snow.

Overall I get the most visits from USA IP addresses (>5500), followed by Australia (nearly 4500), and the UK (approx. 1500).

The Ninja Turtles attend Toga New Years at Coggee Beach

Recently though I have received a lot from Romania and the Ukraine. I do wonder if this is due to kegarators again. There is every chance that Ukrainians are just checking out my own entries on their country or on my visit to Russia.

Sarah and I after winning the Australian University Rogaining Championship

Another interesting trend; of late there is an unexpected interest in my entry about the Wodonga Races; a horse race held on Boxing Day. The entry itself just shows a women (presumably a Hen) wearing a giant penis as a fascinator.

 The MotoCrew - Tarago for lunch and beers.

A final note, I have found a site references my blog! Trail Running Solo uses one of my photos, directly quotes my blog entry and links to my first entry on the North Face 100.

Soon, very soon, I will be famous!

Fun in Leicester

Well, I've been in Leicester for about 10 months now, and while it is just a regular town and not too special, there is one thing it seems to do well...festivals.

Dancing! Its not a festival without dancing

Every second week there seems to be another festival: Caribbean, Gay Pride, music, comedy, beer, bonfires and fireworks, Diwali...the list goes on.

My idea of a festival may be a bit different to yours...

Admittedly Gemma and I have not got to many, BUT, we have made an effort to get to some of the more kooky ones.

 Picrtured: Kooky.

 The first cab of the rank is the Leicetser Sasuage and Cider festival. It was an awesome day in early summer, with a variety of sausages available to try and heaps of different types of cider. We pretty much just lazed in the sun all day. There was live music and it was held on a sporting field, so there was heaps of space for kiddies to run around and be annoying.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you realise you've stumbled across a winner!

Not soon after we found ourselves at the Leicester Riverside Festival. Pretty much a weekend of weird and wonderful activities in the castle gardens and Bede Park. After been thoroughly disappointed with the maypole dancing while sipping coconut juice from coconut husks we listened to a brass band that was floating up and down the canal on a boat.

Floating musicians.

The afternoon was made complete by watching a chainsaw sculptor ply his trade, a small rock garden put together by a local rock balancer, and small non-petting zoo. It was non-petting zoo as it had snakes, spiders, and other assorted reptiles.

Chainsaw sculptor at work.

The final, and by far the coolest, festival was a day trip Gemma and I spent on the local steam train during their 1940s wartime weekend.

The steam powered 40s.

The 40s were well and truly alive; people dressed up, there were mock battles from WWII, fly pasts of spitfires, live music, and lots and lots of war machines and weapons.

Sadly, this is one of the most romantic photos we have.

We bought a ticket on the steam train that went up and down the Grand Central Railway visiting the different stops.

All aboard! Next stop, WWII Germany.

Each stop was themed differently; notably there was one themed as Britain, one as Nazi Germany, and one as the US.

He does not look intimidated.

All in all it has been a fun year and I am looking forward to seeing what other festivals I can get to in the upcoming year.

The Kegerator that Phill Built

Now, I can't lay claim to coming up with this idea all by myself; in fact, it's a blatant rip off of my good mate Pinko's system. However, that said, my latest little project (along side my computer and bicycle) may be the best yet!

How is this a bad idea!

While expensive, its not too difficult to convert a fridge into a dream dispensing machine. First I consulted a How-To guide by micromatic, a US based home brew company (for US readers they also sell full fridge conversion kits).

 It turns out taking a lid of a keg is not intuitive. I had to look that up too.

Then I sourced a CO² cylinder. This was much harder than expected in the UK. After visiting multiple forums I finally found out that you can get them aquarium/fish stores and so I hit up Ocean Commotion, a Leicester local aquarium store, for their largest cylinder - 3.0 L (or 5 pounds).

Still don't know what all those dials means

After that it was just a matter of buying the parts outlined in MicroMatics How-To Guide from BrewUK, an online brew store. From them I could get an AEB keg (just like a corn keg, except Italian), a tap and shank, disconnects, the regulator pictured above, hoses, and, of course, actual beer making equipment.

I know exactly where I want to put this.

Next, I drilled a hole in the cheapest fridge I could find (£ 20!!!!).

This is as much fun as it looks.

And, then it was ready for a my first batch of beer.

Weissbeer - verdict: awesome

It was all pretty simple; two biggest issues I faced were drilling the hole in the fridge (those suckers are tough) and figuring out how the regulator actually works. It turns out that finger tight is not air tight...

These babies, disconnects, lock onto the keg - the grey lets gas in and the black lets beer out.

All up it cost waaaaaaay more than I expected - mostly because the cylinder (£ 135) and keg (£ 90) are quite pricey. But hey, have a gander at the picture below and try to convince yourself it is not worth it.

 'Tis a thing of beauty!

Easter Break

Much to my amazement, work gives me six days for the Easter holiday. Gemma and I decided to use this opportunity to visit the cultural centre that is Liverpool work a brief visit to Chester. 

If you can pick who this is, you know where this is going...

Now, my knowledge of Liverpool is entirely based on British comedians providing entertaining commentary on the social activities of inhabitants of said city, which you can imagine is not to flattering.

  Hilarious narrowboats - Liverpool does have sense of humour - also, another hint...

So I was somewhat surprised when Gemma suggested we spend the better part of a week there. Those of you more musically savvy than myself (i.e. everyone) will recognise the cultural significance of the area, particularly the unearthing of a somewhat popular rock n roll band in the sixties; the Beatles.  And thus my learning experience began.

Learning!

Well, actually - the learning experience began with science, because, well...I like science. OUr trip to Liverpool took us past Jordell Bank Observatory so we stopped off for a quick gander at the 76 m Lovell radio telescope. The discovery centre was a little out of date but the telescope was HUGE! There was also a walking garden there that was severely lacking in anything even remotely floral.

My science appetite sated onwards to Liverpool we went. It is a really cool place. As expected lots of Beatles focus - and we pretty much bee-lined to the Cavern Club; the nightclub that is considered the their birthplace.

 A replica of the Beatles stage from the Cavern Club in the Beatles museum. My photos inside the club were not spectacular.

 Not surprisingly we were greeted by a the overtures of a Beatles cover band. We found our way to a few other attractions including the Beatles Museum, which was really good and followed the trail of the band's development and unearthing through each of the band members careers after splitting. We wandered around Albert dock, and took in the sites from the Radio City Tower. 

 View of Liverpool from the Radiotower. The big building is a cathedral.

I managed to find a comedy show which was not particularly funny; I decided this is because the comedians were not able to make fun of Liverpool and its inhabitants...I also insisted on visiting the museum because it had dinosaurs AND mummies. We also spent our entire time stalking Super Lambananas. These look exactly as the name suggests and I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Gemma caught one and put it in a cage because she hates lambs and bananas. Also animals, she just hates animals.

After a couple of days flaking around Liverpool we made our way to Crosby Beach, currently home to the Another Place Sculptures. Another Place is a fascinating beach installation in which there were heaps of cast-iron, life-size statues scattered across the beach and in the ocean. Apparently they were amde from molds of the artist, Antony Gormley. 

That ain't a poor man drowning (penis not shown).

The installation has been moved all over Europe before becoming permanently based at Crosby Beach. Interestingly, there has been some outrage as the statues to have a crude penis; a bit like the Simpsons with Michelangelo's David.

I had to subtly remind Gemma to reach for only his hand.

From the beach drowning men we headed towards Chester. Due to its location we crossed into Wales once or twice on our journeys. We visited the Easter food and drink festival where I ate a zebra burger. Other than that we wandered around the town. 

The river Dee and me on the City Walls

We only really dropped by as it has some old roman gardens and a cool city wall that the Romans built some of and the Normans expanded into a proper medieval city. The main city area was mostly filled with he medieval-style black and white two story buildings that I seem to come across every now and then (I believe York had it too).

Eastgate street in Chester

Best snooker house in Leicester!

This next article is so full of awesomeness I just had to skip the timeline (and some pretty cool stuff has happened between February and now).

So, I kinda really like pool/snooker as demonstrated previously here and here and elsewhere. Hence, I had to get a table. This posed some problems:

Problem 1: you need a really big living area to fit one.
Solution: by disregarding cost of rent when looking for my new flat.

Problem 2: They're expensive (like £1200 expensive + delivery)
Solution: Ebay - found an great table for £100 and some delivery blokes for £160 on UHaul

The courier blokes were good to, they delivered it and helped me carry it upstairs. It was then left in my bedroom because...

Problem 3: My Hallway is really tiny; too tiny to maneuver it into my living space

At first I thought I was going to have to dismantle it...

Solution: Mathematics, and testing with string and slate sized cardboard and a little but of faith (the apartment blocks stairwell is tiny too).

Creating angles by leaving the Bathroom door open helped

Problem 4: The slate weighs 200 kgs and I am only one man
Solution: I may be Hercules. Yup, I moved it myself because I do not have a pre-existing back injury already

Baiky, as usual, just watched.

Problem 5: It was in pieces, I do not own any tools, and I failed all design and tech courses in school. What can I say? I'm a scientist not an engineer.
Solution: Gemma, however, designs stuff for a living, and aced all tech courses at school.

 I would have helped but I was busy preparing dinner.

Problem 6: 200 kgs of slate is really, really heavy (see Problem 4)

That's right,  Hercules was Greek not Maltese.

Solution: Call on friends who do not have flippers to assist (Shane not pictured), and Viola...

 I am now the most annoying neighbour on my floor!

Gemma's Birthday: Nottingham

Everybody; say hi to Gemma.

 

Hi Gemma! Ignore the bloke with the bow and the way he looks at her.

Gemma and I traipsed off to Nottingham for her Birthday. I would love to provide a date, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is. This will not bode well in 12 months time...I'm going to go with early February and pray that Facebook helps me out in time.

Nottingham! From the Palace Gardens. In the distance you can just make out the Nottingham cathedral.

It was a fun little day - I was a teeny bit late on the train and ended up catching a different train to her, but despite that hiccup we met up at the Nottingham station and meandered off to see some sights.

The Palace, an example of a sight.We got lost in the museum when I insisted we visit the Robin Hood exhibition.

We found a pub built into a city wall (or was it a palace wall?), sauntered through the palace gardens, and found a statue of Robin Hood (see above).

The palace again, because it was either this or another one of the Robin Hood statue.

We finished our evening with dinner and then smashing a couple of cocktails because we're super classy!

Scotland the Second: Christmas and New Years

With my first Christmas and New Years since I left Aus on its way it was time to think of something special. It wasn't tough to come to a decision though when the organiser to Toga New Years was running a Hostel in Scotland!

Amanda and Goof kicking it in The North.

So without too much fuss Amanda, Goof, and I jumped into the smallest car I could hire and drove back to The North.

 

This is how you know you're back in Scotland, hanging out with William Wallace in a Kilt (Baiky looks waaaay to comfortable down there).

We arrived on Christmas Eve just in time to party with the newest hostel guests and staff. A special guest had also arrived. Nathan, one of Alison's best friends from school also joined us as he was finishing off a Europe trip.

Nathan points off the the distance while Good, Alison, Willy Wall, and I do the correct thing. This was Chrstmas, you can tell as we are still semi lucid.

Christmas day saw us all open little presents, drink some beer, eat an AMAZING Christmas lunch that we all pitched in the cook, and even follow the old Aussie tradition of playing some sports (no matter what the weather). 

Nathan kicks the ball like a true Victorian, that is to say not at a building

Unfortunately, while trying to teach some of the Europeans the finer aspects of kicking a Aussie Rules Footy Goof managed to kick onto the roof of a building. 

Becky bowls to Goof, unbelievably bowling him out before the ball leaves her hand

Cricket was similarly cursed as the extreme winds would often send the ball back towards the bowler before it had reached the batter, although more concerning was Eva's continual, and effective, sledging...

Football lasted longer than both our other attempts at sport. Perhaps that is why the Europeans are so fascinated with the sport - it just works for their climate,

We spent the intervening days between Christmas and New Years traveling through some nearby sites visiting neolithic stones, cairns, and graveyards. 

Baiky in the Nether Largie at Kilmartin desperately trying to escape.

My camera was not working at the time so my photos are limited, but we did find some large stones set up to catch the sun on the solstices as well as some mad sun dials that also marked months of the year.

More Big rocks. It seems all they have here is bad weather, castles, and big rocks.

New Years was pretty much the same as Christmas eve...except with absinthe and dancing in the street. 

Just say the word absinthe and Baiky comes a-runnin'.

Oban had a cool party in town that we joined for the countdown before we headed out to a nearby pub to drink until the kicked us out. I was feeling somewhat lazy by this stage and so I went out in my slippers. It was awesome!

The Hostelliers out on New Years!