2006 - "The Year of the Reality Check"

It's coming up to 6:00pm here in Melbourne on December 31 and i can finally sit down and reflect on the year that has passed before me at light speed. All in all 2006 will go down in history for me as "the year of the reality check."

Coming out of 2005 i was flying. Work was great, i was feeling the healthiest in a long time, i was enjoying work and i still had Martine on my mind. 2006 was going to be a year where what momentum i had built up in my life since March 2004 was going to continue to build and take me to places i would never have thought possible. Throughout the start of the year my life had a rough idea but no plans. I liked that a lot.

Throughout the early months of the year i had a birthday that turned into a slurring karaoke party, my plans to visit Martine were scuttled and the prospect of teaching 30 Chinese kids the "Time Warp" started to make life a bit frustrating yet with my positivity (or what could be diagnosed as naiveity) i kept thinking that it will all steer back on course and things will work out fine. Well as the time to finish our contract came up on me like a freight train the urgency to tie up loose ends and make plans seemed to be the overwhelming objective. There were places to visit in Hong Kong and there were people to say goodbye to. The saga with Martine and the "will they/ wont they" storyline was confirmed as a "won't they" yet i don't hold any regrets about the events that took place. It took me a long time to realise that someone who i cared for and loved dearly would be going off on another adventure and that i wouldn't be there to share in it.

The final day of school looking back was the closing of one chapter of my life that was the highlight of my time on this planet thus far. The friends i had made and the adventures that i had will always be with me and i hope that one day i will able to see you all again and express how much your lives made an impact on me. The "Time Warp" was a major success and standing on that stage and seeing the parents just loving the fact that some teachers actually gave a shit about them and wanted to not only teach but entertain was something that will always stay with me. I know deep down that teaching is not my career of choice but i loved entertaining the kids and seeing them smile. I loved teaching, it was my best job ever.

2006 also saw me visit Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and Burma. Each of these countries has its own unique charm and the adventures ranged from the silly (being hungover at sunrise at Angkor Wat) to the absolute diabolical (the disaster of Taiwan) yet through all of these was Sab and with her decision to go to the otherside of the country to start her longwaited teaching degree fills me with the double emotions of happiness in her finding her way and sadness of not having her to bitch and moan to. Her friendship is the strongest i have with anyone and that will continue no matter where the next stage of our lives will take us. The year also saw my lovely friend Mel come over and stay for a few days. It also took me to a Queen tribute concert, a potential drowning in Laos, a solemn experience in Cambodia and a massage course in Thailand. They were just some of the adventures of the year.

Back to Taiwan for a minute. To say that it was an unmitigated monumental disaster is the understatemnt of the year. The impact of the events there is only know to Sab and myself. It wasn't just a job offer that went awry but it seemed that the adventures we were building up to were in an instant imploding and sending our lives on a totally different journey. It severly shook our confidence in all things and the decision to come home was the right one considering our options. It has taken me from mid september to now to realise the impact the choice has made but i'm a job i know won't be a career because i don't want it to. I'm in a city that has only family and freinds here but it's not enough. I'm in a place right now where at the start of the year i thought i would never be. I'm back at home and back in Melbourne back in the environemt that caused me to leave in the first place.

Life now is all about going to work and sitting in front of a monitor for 8 hours. Life now is getting over the depression that has plauged not only my mind but body. Life now is living back at home but knowing deep down it's not where i want to be. I have the travel bug! With Sab going to Western Australia in two weeks, it closes a chapter in my life where we shared adventures, laughs and tears. I know its not the end of our special friendship but its just an evolution of it. The next time i leave home i'll be doing it on my own and that is an exciting and scary prospect in itself. I wouldn't have it any other way. I have goals in 2007 and rather than "talking the talk" its time to "walk the walk."

It's time to get serious. It's time to get real.

As i said this year was the "Year of the Reality Check"

I wouldn't have it any other way. How can I?

Love to All and Happy New Year :)

Someone to Watch over Me

Call it fate. Call it circumstance. Call it luck but someone may be watching over me.

How so? Well let me explain.

Sab and I were going to go to Phi Phi Island for Christmas 2004 as we were going to catch up with our Canadian freinds Gordy and Aletha. We met them when we worked in Dalian and were really loooking forward to seeing them again and enjoy some beachside action in some of natures most beautiful surroundings. Whilst in the midst of our planning for that trip a teacher at our kindergarten (Byron) talked up the benefits of going to Koh Samui which is on the opposite side of Thailand (in the Gulf). The more he talked about it the nicer it sounded so we decided to change our plans at the last minute and take Byrons advice and enjoy Koh Samui instead.

Come the 26th of December i was hungover due to a great Christmas night of watching ladies kickboxing. It was only when i made my way into the main street of Lamai that i found out about the tsunami that had ravaged Thailand and various other countries. I sat in a bar and was watching BBC World for updates when news was filtering through about what happened earlier that day and how Phuket and Phi Phi were severly damaged. Aletha was swept out of her building and into the sea and only survived because she is a naturally strong swimmer. Gordy was in the water at the time and described it as "being in a huge washing machine."

Come later that week and it was the famous Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan (i know i've spelt that wrong). After a fantastic night of dancing away with 8000 revellers on the beach, i took a speedboat back to Samui as it was only 20 minutes to get there instead of the usual hour on the slow boat. 1 month later 5 people were killed doing exactly the same thing.

After the disaster that was Taiwan my mum has kept mentioning that "there's a reason for you to be home" and maybe the events of this week were the reason. In case you (the "you" being the 2 or 3 people who only read this blog) there was a massive earthquake off the southern coast of Taiwan. Sab and I were going to work in a city called Tainan which was affected by the earthquake. I couldn't beleive it when i read about that. Were we screwed over because somehow some being not of this world decided that we weren't supposed to be there because somehow our lives would be affected because of this earthquake?

Or can you just put it down to circumstance?

Christmas 2006

My last two December 25th's were spent a world away from last minute shopping, family members stressing over the correct amount of bacon needed in recipies or wether or not the Christmas lights are turned on before we leave the house. I loved the fact that i didn't have to rush to get ready to get to a relatives house and that my biggest concern was that wether or not i felt like a spring roll from the spring roll lady. I liked the fact that i could go for a swim and just read a book and let Christmas be celebrated around me. In short i was happy to be off the Christmas radar for a while.

So this year being back at home seems out of the ordinary. I knew what to expect on Christmas day with our family. A lot of banter, Grans Christmas Pudding full of coins from 60 years ago which is followed up with Dad's little victory jig if he find a coin in his slice, too much food and the task of splitting it up at the end of the night and also my yearly present from Gran. About 15 years ago i mentioned to Gran (thats my dads mum for those outside of the know of my family structure) that i would like the Guiness Book of Records as a gift. It seemed that one year has turned into 15 as i now have every edition from 1989 onwards and also one that was donated from friends of the family that was dated 1978.

Thanks Gran. That's Number 18!

With that my Christmas Eve was dominated by Table Tennis. It was celebrated at my Aunty Lyn and Uncle Johns (thats my mums brother) house in the beautiful suburb of Yarraville. It was also my little cousin '10th birthday so between birthday cake blowing out and Christmas Mass it seemed i spent most of my time hunched over the table tennis table playing either my cousins or my brother. The highlight of the night would have to have been the mad dash from the church back to my uncles place to make it home in time for the start of "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" and seen that the mass finished at 6.50 and we were on the couch at 6.58 that really shows my families spirit of Christmas.

Also i must say that Melbourne's Carols by Candlelight totally destroys Sydney's poor excuse of an event. Melbourne's ability to stage events that have a certain class and ceremony to it can only be seen as another example of the difference between the two titan town on this continent. The Sydney carols seem to have more "celebrities" and a few singers plugged onto the end of it whereas Melbourne take the totally opposite idea. It's about the music, not the people singing it.

Which leads to yesterday and lucklily the annual U.N Summit (my name for our family Christmas Party) was being held at home so i had the home ground get shitfaced advantage but i was a very good boy and also as the weather was totally out of season it changed my beverage consumption habits dramatically. It seems that mother nature had forgotten to take her Valium because the weather in Melbourne has been all over the shop. In the space of week the weather went from 35 degrees and major bushfires in the state to 15 degrees yesterday and snow falling on the mountains! It really is a game of Russian Roulette when it comes to Melbournes weather and even the Russians have better odds than us. They only have one season anyway...really really really cold! Add to the fact that everyone i purchased presents for all received different coloured Beerlao t-shirts continued the tradition i started last year (with the Vietnamese Hats) of bulk buying presents which saves me a lot of stress. I'm hoping that next year at Christmas i'll be sending back gifts from somewhere in the world but that is a long time away and i'm not thinking about that for a while..well at least until Chris gets married in Feburary.

Still unseasonal weather aside, Christmas Day at home was celebrated the way our family knows how...lots of laughs. As i have stated before i am very lucky to have a family that has nothing but the deepest love and respect for each other. My afternoon was full of kids running around the house, the sound of wrapping paper being ripped to shreds, the desserts never being eaten due to full tummies all around the table and just the smiles on everyones faces. The memories of Christmas' past came flooding back and even though the desire to travel and see more of the world still burns inside me, this was one day where i was glad to be back home.

I left my life in Sabs Bag....i didn't miss it at all.

The past 5 days i have had a a weight lifted off my shoulders and no it's not my own weight, that happens after Christmas.

Last Sunday at Olympic Park where Sab and I were watching the soccer i put my mobile phone in Sabs bag for the duration of the match as my pockets were full. Well so were my hands thanks to the disgusting Lamb Souvlaki but that's another story. It was only when i got home that i had realised that i had left it in Sabs bag and considering that i was working 12:30 to 9pm all week i wouldn't get the chance to drive up to Sabs house to pickup the phone. It's amazing how attached i am to my phone. Though i don't have the social network of a Hollywood celebrity i would still look every 30 mins at my phone to see if anyone had messaged me yet this week i grew not to need my mobile phone. I used it all the time to pay golf on the bus from Tin Shui Wai into Central and even though my phone has a camera (which has about 10 pictures from my time in Hong Kong on it at that's all) and Bluetooth i barely used it yet i couldn't live without it.


I use it as my alarm clock but it seems that is all its good for. I felt 10 years old again. If someone wanted to contact me they had to call home and they couldn't get into contact with me. I was off the grid much in the same way as John Connor in Terminator 3 welll without some crazy broad trying to kill me. No one could know my location (unless someone was monitoring the CCTV camears of Melbourne) and i wasn't a slave to my phone. I woke up when i wanted to and after Tuesday i had no desire to use my phone ever again well when i say never again i mean i'm now not waiting with bated breath for a new msg to reinforce the view that someone out there is thinking of me and was nice enough to msg me on my phone. Technology has become such a part of my life that i'm beginning to realise that maybe i have too much technology around me. I sit at a computer at work all day then i come home and surf the web, update the blog or chat to people online at night. My iPod is my lifeblood and my digital camera has taken over my function of memory as a place to store images. I have too much technology in my life.

So when Sab came around with my phone i put it under my bed to charge and i haven't gone near it since.

It's only a phone...right?

My Christmas Poem

Good Tidings to you all
From wherever you roam
Good Tidings to you
To you and your home
Yet our home is one that we all share
And our home needs our love and care

We all need love and at Christmas we get it
Yet for those without love we should not forget
For Christmas is not just about that shiny red bike
It's about a spirit of brotherhood for we're all alike

Yet nations are fighting and people are dying
For what end i will never understand
Yet we cannot forget them
we must lend a guiding hand

For Christmas is a celebration of our capacity for good
And sometimes that message gets lost
Between the desire for the perfume or the watch
Yet Santa shouldn't be the person who supplies the joy
It must come from every living girl and boy

My christmas wish is not for material things
Its not about what carols carolers sing
My wish is that we all dare to dream
And that the christmas spirit will always be seen

My words will not be enough to start a trend
Yet the christmas spirit should never end
So i ask of you all who read this to pause
And sign up to my Christmas Cause

For why should we all celebrate something
that has a natural end?
This spirit should turn enemies into friends
This spirit must continue throughout the year
It must overcome trepidation and fear

It all starts with yourself
So live life to the best of your ability
Lets all live in peace
Cause' theres only one humanity

Seasons Greetings

Kris Kringle Konfusion

No it's not the name of a new genre crossing soft rock band, it's actually what happened today at work.

Early last week everyone on the floor where i work (well techically we work at desks) was given a red envelope which included the name of the person they were Kris Kringle to. Luckily i got the name of the guy sitting next to me so the task of finding a present for him wasn't too hard. His name is Sean and he's a top bloke who has a dry sence of humour so on the weekend i made my way to the local DVD store to pick up a copy of a comedy golf DVD for 15 dollars. As 15 bucks was the limit i thought i had picked up a pretty good present.

Today, Santa came to work and looked exactly like one of the other team leaders whose name i don't know nor even want to get to know. She handed out the presents for each team and mine was passed over. I wasn't sure why. I thought because i had forgotten to stick the official name tag on the gift but as the day went on i kept looking at my gift to see wether or not Sean will actually get it.

Later this evening when most of the office had left for the night (i was on the late shift) i ventured over to the tree only to see that my gift was going to someone in my team called Ryan! I have no idea who he is and due to an admin stuff-up my gift for Sean is now not going to mean anything to this guy Ryan.

The perils of office life.

The Victory is Coming!!!

Not my best angle by far but still...just excited to be here!

Soccer in Australia has undergone a dramatic change in the past 2 years. Before 2004 Australian soccer was basically a second rate league with teams based on ethnic differences and the game was run by an administration full of dickheads who had no idea how to promote the sport. With our brilliant muilticultural background, there has always been an undercurrent of support for the game yet it was always treated as an understudy to the major sports of Aussie Rules, Cricket and both Rugbys.

Not anymore.

Australian soccer (oh i'm sorry...football) has been transformed since we qualified for the 2006 World Cup and since then the local competition has been scrapped and rebooted to an 8 team competition and thankfully rather than 2 or 3 teams in Melbourne, there is only one. With that move, ethnic tensions have been wiped clean and the whole of this sports mad city is behind the Melbourne Victory. It was my first time to a local league soccer match in my life and Sab wanted to come. Sure we were hoping for some crowd and flare action but although the top of the table Victory were playing the bottom of the table and in financial dire straits New Zealand Knights, i was looking forward not only to a show on the field but mainly off it as well.

The crowd built up slowly and by the looks of it it was going to be the last football game at the spiritual home of soccer in Melbourne, Olympic Park. In a way it was fitting as it could be said that the sport is moving onto bigger and better times as construction of a 25,000 seat stadium for rugby and soccer is starting soon but due to the popularity of the Victory, there are calls of increasing the capacity to 30,000.

I didn't take the pic of course but it shows the passion Melbourne has for their team.

As the match started the Victory seemed a little hesitant to stamp their authority on the match. Considering that half the New Zealand team had to stay home due to stuffed up flights from out of Auckland, the Melbourne boys should have pressed the issue earlier but there was a sense that the floodgates were going to open sometime and boy they opened big time! In the space in 10 minutes the game changed from a 0-0 snoozefest to a 4-0 massacre. The crowd came alive and Olympic Park was rocking and 45 minutes after we didn't know what to expect, we were converted. After the half time whistle the focus of the night switched to the crowd and even though the game had 15,000 fans, it would have had 30,000 fans if it wasn't for Robbie Williams shaking his bootay across town at the Telstra Dome.


The crowd was electric and i have never been in an atmosphere like i was tonight. Everyone at the ground was shouting from which part of the ground they were from, they were giving crap to the Kiwis and supporting their own. The stadium was rocking and when the final whistle went the whole joint was jumping. Sab and I are now Victory fans for life and with Melbourne wrapping up the minor premiership the rest of the season is all about getting ready for the finals which start in Feburary. Yet if Melbourne makes the Grand Final and it's played at home i can't go because Chris is getting married that day. Whoever thought i'd get dissapointed at the prospect at missing a soccer match...how times have changed.

The Office Christmas Party Review

Fix Bar, location for the Christmas Party. I didn't sit down all night.

I have now been at Fosters for just under two months and have had the chance to form some friendships within the company, mostly with the other members if my team. Considering the work I do can sometimes get repetitive, the group around me is great and we keep each other entertained throughout the day with conversations about general rubbish and general office talk. This week was the first week that I had settled into a good routine so the timing of the Christmas party was perfect. Sufficed to say as the night wore on my status in the company as one of the “rookies” was coming into the fore as I found myself floating in and out of conversations and really having no idea what to talk about with other people.

This is one of the traps of the staff Christmas Party, it is a event where work related conversations are en masse that if you don’t have sufficient stories to keep the night going on then what else do you talk about? Unless you are talking about work related social events no one really wants to know who you are or what makes you tick. That’s what I don’t like about Christmas parties as I think it’s a chance to get to know your workmates better but you never really get the chance do you? There was one girl who I’d never seen before who asked me what I did before Fosters and the look of astonishment on her face when I told her that I was a kindergarten teacher in Hong Kong actually showed that she wanted to talk about something other than “then this customer wanted the 04’ vintage but all we had was the 05’ and boy were they pissed” yet I lost her in the crowd after she had to 'excuse herself to go to the bathroom' which i took as 'i'm not interested in that so bye'.

Also it seems most people know me by my last name then my first which is great for them as “Pepper” is a pretty easy name to remember but when someone shouts out “Pepper!!!” at the top of their voice and I turn and have no idea it makes me look silly.Yet they are entitled to belt out my last name in the same way that people who have known me since primary school can. Perfect example, the office hottie was working beautifully on the bar with a few of her colleagues and I was walking past when she shrieked “Pepper!!” Considering she hasn’t spoken a word to me at all since I started I was surprised that she actually knew my name. So I naturally stopped and was waiting for her follow up which was this "that's such a funny last name" as she giggled and slightly lost her footing off one leg which i out down to the number of empty shot glasses on the bar. I get that sentence all the time when other people are pissed. I think I should change my last name to “Captain Fantastic.”

Also with staff Christmas parties is the certainty that when “finger food” is provided, you usually end up eating your own finger because you are bloody starving. I have never liked finger food because with my tendency to enjoy food until I’m full I just can’t nibble on two party pies and call that an adequate snack. So if I reach in and take a few items off the tray fully knowing that it won’t come around again for the rest of the night does that make me look like a pig in front of the other staff? It’s these and other things that make most Christmas parties either a success or a failure. Our big boss of the department came along and I decided to stay right away from her as I knew the “so how have you settled in?” chat would have been bought out to play. As the night wore on at Fix, the beverages kept coming and I was starting to get bored talking about work stuff so I decided to go to another companies Christmas Party in the next partition and say hi. Considering I spent half the night between the two parties shows that not only were the people from the Product Makers (they make flavors) very nice but the people who I work with just didn’t fill my interest quota from the night.

I was walking around the bar as groups of employees were talking away about stuff I couldn’t be bothered with and I knew that they were going to kick on afterwards but considering the Docks were on “my” side of town I was going to go home from there. I decided to have one bourbon and cola before going home. I had had beer all night so when I put my glass down on the table and turned back to someone to finish a sentence I turned back and between me and the table was a guy so I reached around him and had a sip as my….ewwww it was tequila. I had picked up the wrong drink. Needless to say it had an immediate impact and I had to get out of the party. It was a nice night but it was just a run of the mill event and i called Sab as I was staggering along the waterfront because I wanted to talk to her. Even I have my limits of verbal conversation in an office environment and I just wanted to have a good (though now I was mildy pissed thanks to the tequila) conversation.

I called Sab saying I had another revelation and that was “Melbourne is a great city to live in as it has everything but it’s not a city to find yourself in.” The taxi ride home felt like an eternity but Saturday morning I wasn’t feeling the best but thanks to Panadol and a large Bacon Double Burger meal at Hungry Jacks I was feeling pretty good in the afternoon. It’s now Sunday morning and I’m in bed writing about Friday nights events and I’m looking back thinking “did I have a good time?” The office Christmas Party is a unique event as it’s not really social yet it’s not strictly business so you can have a good time but not let loose. Still if they had karaoke there, I would have given “Living on a Prayer” a very good crack, luckily they didn’t otherwise I’d hear about it Monday morning. Then again I would have bought the house down in the process!

Christmas Poem

I'm trying to think of a christmas poem to post here. I'll have one done by the end of the week.

Christmas East Keilor Style

I enjoy Christmas but i think the rest of my family and neighbours enjoy it more. Here's why.

Peps Place Mini Movie Review - Casino Royale

In short, i've been waiting 4 years and i've saw it twice in 24 hours. It's that good. Here's the proof.

The Promise

It may have cost $5 but it's worth so much more

I'm not adjusting well back in Australia. It's been three months and i have a job that keeps me busy during the week. The people at work are great and i've been slowly catching up with freinds. My room back at home now has some trinkets of the past two and a half years on display and the city of Melbourne is looking fantastic at this time of year. Christmas is just around the corner and so why do i feel like shit? I'm not as happy as i chould be being back at home and i've figured out the reason why...i failed myself.

How so you say?

Well because i promised myself that i wouldn't work at a call centre again EVER!! and here i am back in the environment that caused me so much distress and depression that professionally i'm back at square one. I failed myself but due to the fact that the disaster in Taiwan gave us limited options n terms of contingency i am going to do my darndest to make the time at home as positive as possible.

Last week i puchased a book called "The Promise of Bruce Springsteen" for $5 at a discount book store. I have been reading it at lunchtime at work and enjoying the sharp, unbiased critique of his career when i came across a paragraph that hit me square between the eyes. The paragraph was talking about the time between he released "Born to Run" (when he was 25) and "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (when he was 28).


The paragraph says:

Springsteen admitted that he had undergone "a big awakening" during this period, during which he "realised a lot of things about his past." Twenty-eight years old, he discovered that the running and just running some more so idealised on Born to Run was no answer. "Where were these two people going?" he finally asked himself. "I didn't know myself." From that moment on, Bruce Springsteen began to construct his own story line.

It hit me so square between the eyes i highlighted it!

That line in bold hit me square between the eyes for thats exactly how i feel!! I was in shock. I left Australia when i was 25 and loved every second away from home. I did realise many things about myself and i did have a big awakening. I was free...on the road..i was running but now i'm back home and with my 28th birthday in feb next year i feel like Bruce did nearly 30 years ago. I'm running somewhere but i don't know where. The difference from 3 years ago is that the journey was about self discovery and my ability to adapt in different condition and live outside my "comfort zone" and now that i'm back home in the "zone" i'm finding that the zest and sence of direction is unravelling because i don't know where i want to run to next.

I promised myself call centres were out, i promised myself that i would make the best of my time at home but i'm struggling because there is no purpose for me to be at home. I'm not wanting to go back to Hong Kong because i am finished with that place. The memories are beautiful but that part of my life is over.

I want control right now and all i know in my heart is that i want to run.

Broken Down Blues

Last Wednesday night after work i made my way to the airport to farewell Dr. Michael Wong on his two month work related Ireland adventure. I was there with his girlfriend Beth and after he went through the departure gates, Beth and i said bye to each other and i made my way home. So far this blog has some exciting images doesnt it?

The happy couple just before Mike makes his way to Galway..hehe have fun buddy!

Well after driving to my local supermarket to pick up some stuff for lunch the day after. I got back on the car and started it up when in the process i high pitched wheezing sound came out of the engine. I thought to myself "ohh that doesnt sound good" so i tried to start the car again still with no success. Now the car is a 1990 Nissan Skyline that has been the family stalward for over 15 years and its a great car that has done many thousands of kilometers but why was it the night before i was going to see "Casino Royale?" that the car had to konk it? I was shattered not for the car but for the fact that i would have to wait one more night to finally see the first Bond film in 4 years.

I called dad who came down and lambasted me for not having petrol in the car even though i told him the gauge was between a quarter tank and empty. The roadside assistance man came finally and was gone in two minutes. He looked like an Indian version of "Cigar Man" from the X-Files and did what all guys do when trting to look impressive with cars and thats just fiddle with a few bits and then he just said "Compression, you need a tow truck." Then he left!



Dad and I were shocked that he didn't really have a good look at this so he called the RACV and complained and said can they send another guy out. The RACV sent the same guy out again.

So Cigar Man was back and this time he had a really good look and then explained that the injectors were ok but it wasn't kicking over because the part that does the compressing of the fuel was broken so we weren't going anywhere. Between the visits from the RACV dad wanted me to get some petrol for the car so i went to the service station which was about 50 meters away and picked up a can and filled it with 6 bucks worth of gas. I gave the guy behind he counter and he gave me no change. When i asked why he said "the can is worth 14 dollars!" So with this i went back to dad and the car cheesed off and now with another problem of getting the petrol in the can to the car we needed a hose and a funnel. I went inside the supermarket and after finding a cheap funnel and a pet shower head with hose i came back out of the supermarket proud of my Macguyver idea.

Funnel $1.50,Pet Shower Hose $3.50, Idea...well you know the rest

So fter getting the petrol in the car thanks to the above contraption the tow truck finally came and then it was on the way to the garage that the car has now become a hall of famer. I rode in the tow truck and all the driver was talking about was how he hated hotted up Skylines as they are a bitch to tow and how he was glad that our Skyline was just a plain old sedan. Oh that and how many hot chicks he saw that day. Well after a bumpy 10 minute ride we made it to Ultra Tune and the car was locked up and that's when dad called. "Mark the indicators are stuffed on the Astra. Can you beleive it two cars breaking down on the same night!" Luckily the nearest Astra dealer was just down the road and still open and dad was able to get the last spare part needed for the indicators.

Meanwhile my canneloni frozen dinner had thawed out and it was 2 and a half hours since this all started. I got home at about 11 and just went to bed. The problem with the car is that one of the bolts in the engine sheared off! But EDY (thats the cars name and letters on the number plate) is back where he belongs and that's spick and span in our driveway.

I got freaked out today

Whilst on holidays in Cambodia in the pretty nice beachside town of Sihanoukville, Sab and I found our way into another quiz night. During my time at quiz nights over Asia i have pulled out some bullshit answers to questions such as to the question "How old was William Shakespeare when he died?" I had no idea and the first number that came into my head was 52 which was the correct answer or when i answered "What was the name of the city that Wyatt Earp made well known?" For some reason i could only think of Dodge City. So when a question along the lines of "Which Ronnie dominated the sport of snooker in the 1990's" i pulled a name out of the air. The correct answer was Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The name i came up with was "Rocket" Ronnie Stevens.

Sab and I had a huge laugh and the name has stuck with me ever since. This was back in September and whenever i think of the fake name of "Rocket" Ronnie Stevens it reminded me of not only my ability to pull a truckload of shizzit from the back passage but my enjoyment of quiz nights.

Until today.

I was reading the paper at morning break when i was making my way from the sports section at the back to the comics and daily quiz in the middle when one of the obituaries stopped me in my tracks.


There was an actual Ronnie Stevens. Sure you might be thinking that his first and last name are pretty common and there would have to be a few Ronnnie Stevens on this planet but i was in shock. My fake Ronnie Stevens was a famous British pool player yet the real Ronnie Stevens was an actual film star who according to the obituary in todays Herald Sun - starred in 70 films!
Am i channeling the spirit world or do i just have a sixth sence or quite possibly an abilty to make unreal lives and events become real? When i was in high school i wrote a story about a chemical fire in India. It happened not too long later. I kept both the story and the article.

So rest in peace real Ronnie Stevens. Even though i pulled your name out of a back passage one night at a dinky dodgy faux British pub on the Cambodian Coast for a laugh, you freaked me out at work today!!

Scavenger of the Century!

The cover of the book i "liberated" from the front of the Salvation Army Shop.

I'm re-writing this entry as i wanted to get into more detail.

Yesterday afternoon my help was summoned to my brothers fiance's sisters house. She had an old couch that was going to be donated to the salvation Army. So dad, Chris and I made tracks to Keilor Park and loaded up this 1980's couch that looked straight out of the pages of the Fussy Furniture Fellow catalouge and made our way down to the Salvo shop.

After swerving at about 60kmh to miss an oncoming cushion that fell off the trailer i was following we finally made it to the front of the Salvo shop. Now i'm a cheap bastard and always on the lookout for something that entertains me at low low prices. An example of that would be some miscellanious shoe throwing by persons under the influence (hehe..you know who you are) or an under the radar remark in the style of "Are you being served." Whislt at the store i came across a book sitting on top of a crappy old desk was the autobiography of Australias favourite quiz master Tony Barber.

Australia's favourite Quiz Master

So i decided to pick the book up and keep it for future reading. I grew up with the work of Tony and loved watching "Sale of the Century" each night. I actually saw the show taped live once on a grade six excursion to Channel Nine in Bendigo Street. Seeing the show taped live was great fun even though the set looked a lot smaller live then on TV plus the lovely models that would always show the latest wears from Commodore Computer were so far away i couldn't get a glimpse at them. What i also liked was that before most episodes before he was announced he would do this jig / jog to his little lecturn on the set which many comedy shows have taken the piss out of.

After a long run on "Sale" Tony found himself hosting another popular quiz show "Wheel of Fortune" which caused a sensation as he took over from a very popular host and the management tinkered with the show my actually tilting the wheel on an angle rather than having it flat. It wasn't all smooth sailing for Tony as the public went off the new format and numbers for the show went downward very very quickly.

Tony was given the butt for the shows failure and then managed to find himself hosting a short lived Australian production of "Jeopardy." I mean i've always wanted to see a game show of two families playing tenpin bowling for cash or just people playing paper, rock, scissors for prizes and if i can get Tony away from local club venues where he belts out another classic from his albums them i'm sure he would be interested.

Election Day but not Groundhog Day

So many choices. Hmm does my vote really count?

Today was state election day in Victoria and like every other election day in Victoria the Pepper home was divided on who to vote for. Now our family isn't overtly political. I have grown up in a family that taught me to value the freedoms of our great nation but not one of us has a desire to participate in the operations that keep those freedoms from extinguishing. I have always liked election days whether it be state or national because it always meant three things:

1. Dad gets the chance to ride his political high horse and proudly tell us he will not tell us who he voted for. In all the time i can remember my dad has been very protective on who he has voted for and if i even try and get an answer out of him, i'm greeted with a swift "that's none of your business." I have never ever found out who he has voted for in any election.

2. My local election day booth is my old primary school so a feeling of nostalgia kicks in everytime i have to vote and i usually run into someone i used to go to primary school with and chat to them for 20 minutes. Plus i run into a few locals and chat to them as well.

3. There has always been a sausage sizzle and cake stall at the primary school as well.

These three things have become election day necessities for me yet being away from home since March 2004 has seen some changes in election day mentality. Dad once again told me "its none of your business" when i asked him who i voted for. Mum was more open when she told me she voted Liberal. I voted Liberal too though i didn't really feel my voice was being heard in this election as i didn't feel strongly about any of the candidates. How could !? I wasn't here!

The feeling of community that i used to get whilst at the primary school was gone this year. I didn't have to wait to vote and there was so cake stall or sausage sizzle. This was sacrelidge in my book as election day turned into one of the few chances to experience what life was like growing up here. People knew each other and stopped to say hi. The mothers committee ran the sausage sizzle and the cake stall to raise funds for the school. There's a buzz of anticipation walking up to the volunteers from the various parties and trying to avoid them ramming "how to vote" cards down your throat. The silence before voting still remains but that seems to be the only correlation i have between all the election days i've been to.

I felt like i had lost something today.

What a week its been!!

This week at work has been pretty busy, actually its been crazy and i cannot believe that its friday already. As most people know when it comes to updates on pepspalce i like to try and make them as entertainnig as i can so i need time to think about what i want to write but seriously this past week has flown so i'm at work going to write about my week. I like my blog and want to continue updating it as much as i can, this week though i have been sadly lacking. So here's my week starting from last Friday.

Friday night after work. I stayed back for a few beverages and was having a pretty good chinwag with the guys. One of the guys who was knocking back some i used to work with at Salesforce four years ago. So we started a'talkin bout the old days and a name came up the i haven't heard in a long time, Clifford Barnes. Now seen that its been 4 years since i left i think enough time has gone by to open up the wider world the myth that is Cliffy. Now Cliff had only three loves in his life..his muscles...his car and his fascinastion for Asian women. Cliffy was a happy go luck sort of guy who from memory would only talk about his body..his car or his fascination for Asian women.

Cliffy earlier this year

Now being a St. Albans boy (i'm not taking the pisstake` of out St. Albanites) Cliff's intelligence was channeled into the three areas above at an expense to other areas. For example..one day after getting back his prized VL Commodore with added extras he decided to show it off to the rest of the gang so we all logged off the phones and went outside the front of work. Cliff revs the engine and manages to fishy the back end out of the VL and basically missing everyone on the kerb by half a metre. People were diving everywhere to avoid Cliffy who by the time most of us looked around was already half way up the street turbo roaring away. Cliffy also misunderstood the concept of "single use only" condoms while on holiday in Thailand a few years ago. He thought single use meant you use it one one chick as many times as you want. So when the condom broke after the third time and came running out of the hotel bathroom pants around his ankles after picking up a Thai hooker earlier that night, the sheer fright on his face masked the fact he had no idea what "single use only" really meant. Well that's enough about Cliffy. Nice bloke though, a genuine laugh.

Later that night i was out to a local club called "The Cubby House" which used to be "The Baby Grand" which used to be the local over 28's venue. It still is but i was told that the band there on friday nights plays the best 80's music ever. Now as you all know, i love 80's music and in the two months i have been home the mentionings of "you should go to Cubby" have been numerous so i decided to find out for myself. i ventured down with Adam (who i used to work with at Safeway), Michael and his new squeeze Beth. So as usual i introduced myself to Beth in a subtle way by carrying 4 Pure Blonde Beers and 2 Cougar Bourbon and Colas in a little bucket and being sidetracked by Michaels DVD rental of Sylvester Stallones "Over the Top" playing on his TV.

We ventured down to "da Cubby" to be met by a wall of over 28's sprinkled with a few under 28's whose appreciation for classics such as "Hungry like the Wolf" or "Don't you want me Baby" would be rewarded during the night. Quite honestly it was the greatest live set of 80's music since Sab and i ventured to Rod Laver Arena a few years ago to see Kim Wilde, Mondo Rock, 1927, Human League and Belinda Carlisle play live. I was going off and just stoked at the classics the band was belting out after each other. I was working beautifully on the dance floor (well i was just trying not to get my drink knocked over or spiked so i was doing a sort of stationary Tony Barber at the start of Sale of the Century dance) and we all had a great night. Before i knew it it was 2am and time to go home. I think i'm back there tonight and i'm taking Sab there next week. She'll love it.

Saturday was pretty mundane. i was going to wash the car but everytime i went past the car wash it was busy. I decided to go to JB Hi-Fi and do some browsing and came across a Steve McQueen movie for $12 so i bought it and watched it. Saturday night was my cousin Leah\'s engagment party which was held on the other side of town. For those of you who dont live in Melbourne that means travelling from one end point of the Milky Way to the other. It was a lovely night and i caught up with some of the extended family who i hadn't seen since i got back. My little second cousins Robbie and Mikhala have grown up sooo much as have my first cousins Stephanie and Courtney. I\'m very very lucky to have such a fantastic family and we all get along so well. Later in the night i got a msg from Sab from the U2 concert but all i could hear was noise still i was curious about U2 from that moment.

My Melbourne Print i picked up at a City Market

Sunday morning i was in bed when dad came into my room saying "C'mon get out of bed it's a beautiful day out there!" i felt like saying something along the lines of "F*ck Off" and quickly thought back to similar yet rare days in Hong Kong where if i wanted to get out of bed at 1 in the afternoon i would. Ahh the joys of being at home. I was meeting Sab in the city for lunch and a stroll around town for another chance to bitch about being in Melbourne but it really was a pleasant day. We had lunch on the river and the city was looking fantastic. The Arts Centre has a Sunday market and i purchased a lovely print of Melbourne to go with the other things i've picked up around the world. I needed something to remind me of how nice Melbourne is and this print was just the ticket. Later on we ventured down to the Exhibition Centre to see the "Melbourne 50 Years On" exhibition. It was celebrating 50 years since the Melbourne Olympics and what i thought would be a chance to really see how our city has changed was just a flimsy excuse for companies to flog their goods under the banner of "we are part of Melbourne." What i thought would be filled with photos, clothes and a real sence of nostalgia was in fact a chance for Jayco caravans to advertise their newest creation. We were very dissapointed.

Sab told me that the U2 concert was mind-blowing and she had to go past the Telstra Dome to say hi to the people she went to the concert with. She went with two guys who she met through our friend Kate on a music website called lastfm. It's a long story but she promised she would see them so i thought "fine i need the walk." As we got to the Dome i was curious to see if there were tickets left. I had heard both shows were sold out but you never know and i have always wanted to see U2 and i thought "this is my best chance" so i said to Sab "do you wanna go to U2 tonight?" After a little time we decieded to go and boy was it worth it. It was the greatest live experience i have ever seen. The band was just awesome and the light show was mind-blowing. Sure i didn't know all their songs but i didn't care as man..they were just sooo good. Bono weaved his way through songs, statements and monolouges and even though we were 200 meters away, the concert had the intimacy of a pub gig..well with 60,000 people at the pub. Telstra Dome was shaking and the crowd was deafning i'm gettnig chills as i'm writing this. it certainly was one of the best snap decisions in my life ever.

Bono just being Bono

Monday morning i was feeling well below my best. I had picked up a cold as it was an open air gig at the Dome and i didn't take a top and my voice was very rusty from belting out 'Vertigo" "Angel of Harlem" and various other U2 hits. In fact Monday to Wednesday was the same; still recovering from the weekend. i was infomed Wednesday that my James Bond pack that i had won off the radio had arrived. So on morning break i powered walked two streets down Kings Way to 3AW and picked up my movies. They weren't in any special box but i do have an old sort of cool 20 disc DVD holder which are now my new home of James Bond films. Wednesday night and last night i watched the first movie "Dr. No" and the difference is amazing. It looks like a movie that was filmed today but set over 40 years ago. On the DVD they talked abuot how the process take 100 hours to scan one hour of film. Multiply that by 20 films that run on average just over two hours and it really was a massive restoration effort.

So that's been my week. Work has been pretty busy and i've had some ripper curly wurly situations come up and had no idea what to do. Lucky for me everyone is very helpful here and paitient with all my questions. On wednesday i found out that someone else i used to work with at Salesforce's (hi Katie by the way!) ex colleague started here last week. It's a very small world.

Last night i had the strangest dream. Sab and I were in a cab in Taipei (yeah i know) and we were driving past Taipei 101. I looked out the window and there was a small fire coming from the observation deck. I thought "holy shiite! we were there two months ago" as we drove away the fire got bigger and bigger, more parts of the building started to burn as we saw people falling to their deaths sept-11 esque. We stopped about 20 kms away where we got a view of the full building and the whole tower was on fire, i've never seen a fire like it in my life. 500 meters of vertical fire and sirens and screaming going off everywhere.