Culture Diving courses now available...

Kickboxing on Thursday night. Teddy on the bridge on the River Kwai and myself with a killing machine at the Tiger Temple(both Friday).

Since Thursday night Sab and I have gone deep diving into the Thai culture. On our various other trips to Thailand, Bangkok has been a transit stop between Hong Kong and Koh Samui. Seen that this was going to be the last time that either of us will travel here (but you never know) we thought we would see a few things that we didn't get around to last time either because we were tired or hungover.

Yesterday we traveled to the Bridge on the River Kwai. Now I enjoy reading about war and history. I have picked up these traits from my father along with a passion for sport and slightly blue humor (thanks to the BBC and the 'Carry On' for the last one). So I was really excited to see this piece of history that has a major influence on the Second World War. We were up just after 6 and at 7 were sleep walking into our van that had a capacity of 15.

On the bus there were Sab, myself and 13 Asians.

Now before you all raise the flag and say "hey that's a bit much there with that Asian call" you have to understand that Asians in general have an amazing capacity to fall asleep the second a vehicle starts moving. Not only do they sleep but they almost waltz around the cabin with a deft ablilty to suddenly straighten up (but continue sleeping) when their head comes into contact with any other person.]

This was our life for two hours yesterday. Not only were the other passengers waltzing away but our driver was having a serious crack at knocking Michael the Shoemaker off his perch at Ferrari. Add ot the fact it was raining and not all the speedos work in cars over here, i have no idea how fast we were going. If i had to guess i wouldn't be far off if i said we were travelling at Mach 1.7.

On our way to the bridge we stopped by the major war cemetary honouring mainly Australian and British soldiers who died on the railway. It was a very humbling experience to read the tombstones of the soldiers and see that even boys as young as 20 were being treated like dogs in this god awful environment. The cemetary was beautiful but the one tihng that runied it was an Asian family taking a group picture doing the stupid 'V' thing with their hands. To me it showed no respect for the men who are buried there.

By the time we reached the War Museum the sence of occasion was coming over me so i headed straight to the illegal DVD seller and purchased a copy of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert to get me back on track. The adjoining War Museum looked more like my uncles old garage with a few more pictures hung up. It was musty and had old Jeeps and an old train cart showing how the prisinors were kept locked up during their time there. You really got the feeling that the Japanese were bastards and with the theory that "for every sleeper on the railway one person died" you can understand why it's called the "Death Railway."

The bridge itself is still in remarkable condition and is still used by the Thai Railways. Walking along it was a bit tricky as there was only a single track and people everywhere taking pictures and trying to remember why this bridge is so important. Walking along the bridge I really wished that i could have had my dad there with me as he would have loved to have been here.

After the bridge we went back into the van and blasted our way down to a floating restaurant out of town. Now the lunch was "buffet" style but this so called "buffet" considered on steamed rice and the choice of chicken with one freaky vegetable or chicken with an even more freaky vegetable. Sab and i felt that heartburn we gained in Myanmar come back for an encore as we had no other choice but to eat this food.

Afterwards we were ferried to a waterfall to have a bit of a play around but with the rain coming back it wasn't the best idea.

So i jumped in anyway. For a while no one else jumped in and i thought "umm is anyone going to join me?" Sab was out as she gained a cold in Singapore and the other western tourists seemed not to want to join me. I thought bugger it and swam around like a million dollar mermaid and had a bit of the climb up the rocks to the waterfall itself. It was amazing to be standing under these falls and letting the water flow all over you. I really really liked that.

Once again we were back on the bus and this time we had some westerners which made the trip less boring but we were on our way to the 'Tiger Temple' whereby Sab's smile couldn't be hidden. This was her highlight of the day where as mine was the Bridge. Sab loves tigers and even carries a little white one around with her called Kimba (it's her version of Teddy Richards) so to be up close and personal with these beasts of the jungle was going to be memorable.

I was taken by the hand by a large Thai guy and asked to sit behind the tiger and pat it. Now besides the whole taking me by the hand thing which took me by surprise but understandable as i would have skipped with him if it not meant getting eaten alive, I had to sit down and start stroking these beasts. Their fur was so smooth and you culd feel thier bones and muscles underneat, it felt wrong but right at the same time. Before we knew it i was ferried around the other tigers for more photos and two minutes after it started was finished.

We walked around hte grounds and saw peacocks, cows, pigs and horses just roaming free and easy and not disturbing the visitors at all. By the time we finished we were all pretty stuffed so we hopped on a train and then back into the van for another two hour busride back to Bangers. After we reached Kho Sahn Road we had some dinner and quickly checked our emails to see if Fiona (another teacher from Tin Shui Wai) had made it into town and quite possibly catch up. We had no luck with our emails but as we were walking back we ran into her which was fantastic. She had been on holidays with her sister and was going back to Honkers the next morning so we didn't really have a chance to sit down and chat as the three of us were stuffed. Hopefully we will catch up with her in Honkers.

Thursday night saw Elsee and Reg (the names we have given ourselves as we go to bed these days at the same time as grandparents) shuffle their way down to the Ratchadamoen Stadium fro some traditional Muay Thai Kickboxing. Now this arena is the "Madison Square Garden of Kickboxing: so we just had to go and see it. Sure it wasn't the Christmas Night 2004 Spectacle of Kickboxing we saw previously but there is something strange at the sight of teenage boys kicking each others heads in with the half capacity crowd hooting and cheering for more.

Sab and i watched it from the cheap seats which cost 1000 Baht which was a ripoff and a complete sham if you are a westerner as if you are a local you probably paid 300 or 400 baht for the same thing. Besides the high prices we watched the matches from behind a wire fence which immediatley took me back to the spectacle of "Mad Max 3 - Beyond Thunderdome." I was close to screaming "two men enter one man leaves" but i didn't decide to go through with it. After four fights and what seemed like an eternity our stomachs got the better of us and he headed back to the hotel where we ended up on our beds eating take-away and watching "Flashdance" on our DVD player.

Later today we areoff to Chiang Mai where the both of us are really looking forward to doing a 3 day Thai Massage course...as long as we don't have to massage each other because that would be gross.

On the lighter side of life...

It seems i have found a blast from my Thai past.

Hello once again from Bangkok or known by its other name as the "City of Angels."

Sab and i are not cool. Sorry to dissapoint you all but we aren't. How did we come across this revelation? Well from our hotel to get to Kho Sahn Road we have to go through the 'United Travellers Connection' which contains uber-cool Europeans with dark brown skin (mostly Israeli's). As we walk through it we feel as Sab put it "like the nerdy kids walking past the cool group." Now Sab and I are a couple of happy-go-lucky little Vegemites who have no interest in getting our hairbraided, going on treks, taking recreational drugs or hanging out with people of the same race. It's like being in Grade 6 all over again. You know the feeling (unless you were one of the cool kids then you would never know what it's like) of "Hey i'm an alright sort of a person but what do they have that i don't?" The answer - A better exchange rate and culture coming out of every pore of their sun drenched skin. So while they talk about something they got for 2 pounds, Sab and i with our Hong Kong Dollar would have to pay the equivalent of 10 pounds for the same thing.

So the United Travellers Connection is a hotbed of European action where as Sab and I know how to kick it by staying in our room and watching an illegal copy of "The Break Up" on our little portable DVD player. Who's cool now you Eurotrash snobs?!

Last night as i was cleaning out my backpack i came across a little notepad from Tropical Murphy's on Koh Samui. In it there are a number of jokes that myself, Sabrina and Candace made up over various beverages last Easter. In a former Tin Shui Wai Update i mentioned a few of these. Since there is nothing new to update for you today here is the complete list of the silly European jokes we made up. Most of these are taking the mickey out of the Swedes. Any Sweden lovers avert your eyes now...

Though we do to have a small crack at the French so that makes up for it.


Here they are:

- What is the favourite song of a Swedish Elvis fan? Blue Swede Shoes

- What do you get when you cross the Beatles with a Swedish Car? A Saab Days Night

- What do you call a Swede who has found Christ? A Born a Sven Christian

- What do you get when you cross a Swede with the Flintstones? Abba Dabba Doo!!

- What do Swedes call a flash of inspiration? A good Ikea.

- What do you get when you cross a Swede with a Chinese? Sweden Sour.

- Whats a Swedish Guns and Roses fans favourite song? Swede Child O' Mine.

- What did the Swedish mum say to her child at the supermarket? Don't forget to take the Stockholm.

- What did the Dutch guy say to his girlfriend as they were making out? I'm all Hans.

- What did the Russian man say to his wife afer she laughed at him for falling over? You wipe that Smirnoff your face.

- What did the French Kid say after he fell over? ' Mama Eiffel! '

- What did the frenchman say to the check out chick when she was bagging his food? Baguette!

- What did the Finn say when he locked himself out of the house? 'I have Nokia.'

- What did the Danish lady say to the guy trying to steal her bag? 'Lego!'

and finally:

- What did the Finn say when he couldn't eaet anymore? "I'm Finnish.'

As a member of the free press...

Yes thats me and yes i am now a distinguished representative of the worlds press. I got one just for laughs or in the insane attempt to gain access as part of the media scrum to major sporting events around the world.

Welcome to Bangkok where a fake press pass,student card or university degree is only 15 minutes away. We are back at our favourite stomping ground Kho San Road which is the epicentre for backpackers who are making their own journeys around South East Asia. We arrived late last night as our plane was delayed from Manila but rest assured Sab and I found a bed at our local hotel we stay at here. Our room is across from the room we stayed at the first time in Bangkok in 2004.

For anyone who doesn't know Room 415 holds plenty of memories for Sab and I. It was the room where our former work colleauge Mel who travelled with us to Samui got some action with a Pommy backpacker on New Years Eve and decided to tell Sab the whole story about it the next morning. It happened on the bed that Sab had to share with Mel..gross.

Anyway Bangkok is still the same. Its big, dirty,charming and full of energy. We checked in last night and this morning organised a tour to the Bridge on the River Kwai and also our visa to Laos. We are also going to see some Thai Kickboxing at Bangkok's version of Madison Square Garden tomorrow night.

Besides organising we did a little shopping. I purchased a couple pairs of long board shorts and some DVD movies to carry us over on our trip to watch. So tonight we are just going to take it easy and watch another movie in our room. We are over temples and we have been here before so there isn't anything new to see here.

So that's about it and as all journalists say ...

"This is Mark Pepper in Bangkok reporting for 'Peps Place.'"

Hehe..i like the sound of that.

Cat Stevens and Normal Tea...What The??!!

Well if you are like my good friend Sabrina Gabrielle (thats her confirmation name because as i found out recently..when the Archbishop of Melbourne asked her when he presided over her confirmation why she chose that name, a youthful Sab looked up with her big brown eyes and said 'Becasue i want to be like the angel Gabriel') Mileto then the concept of 'Normal' tea is anything from the Twinings Tea Selection Box. More on this later.

We are back in Singapore once again and after our two weeks in Myanmar which from know on will be known as "The Spiritual Freedom Peace Train Tour 2006" (come on the Peace Train!) its fantastic to be surrounded by such delicacies such as high speed internet, fantastically fresh Indian Food and strawberry Big M's!

We are only here for the one night as tomorrow we are flying to Bangkok where we will spend about three days running around seeing the things that well...we haven't seen yet. I'll update everyone from Bangers tomorrow.

Back to the 'Normal Tea' thing, Sabrina loves her tea...loves it. In fact i think that one of Sab's dream jobs would be to write for a magazine called "Tea Leaf Life" where she could debate the virtues of English Breakfast over Earl Grey. This morning on the way back from Yangon, meals were being served by the staff on Jetstar. I know Jetstar don't serve meals usually but this flight was in conjunction with Myanmar Airways so that explains the poor poor choice of fish or pork to eat.

After the barely edible meal, tea and coffee were served. I chose the coffee and Sab then asked "Do you have any normal tea?" Well i burst into laughter and i mean the whole snorting and shoulder movement thing as the question just astounded me. To Asia in general, Green Tea is 'normal tea' where as black tea would be 'not normal tea' yet this is not how its supposed to be according to Sab and who am i to argue? Shes in striking distance so ill keep my mouth shut.

So from Singers to Bangers we go and i'll update you all from there.

Gees Singapore is brilliant!

Myanmar - Temples, Chickens and Blokes in Skirts

Yes that's me in local costume and that's Teddy outside the biggest temple in Yangon.

Howdy strangers or as we say in Myanmar "Me la la Nook Nook."
That's not Myanmar language by the way, it's just me being a dickhead.

At last Sabrina and i have the opportunity to update our audience of the delights of the past two weeks here in this Socialist country. We are back in Yangon which in Myanmar means "Death to the Enemy" which just screams out 'Welcome to our country' doesn't it? Here are 10 facts about this exciting little Asian country.

1 - There are 227 rules and regulations to follow if you want to be a monk.
2 - Myanmar is roughly the size of Texas.
3 - I think we visited about 50-60 temples these past two weeks.
4 - Myanmar in the local language means "Land of The Quick and Swift"
5 - Myanmar internet access, unlike the country is not quick and swift.
6 - The people here are the freindliest we've seen on our travels.
7 - When your tour guide says "Lets share a beer" you will always pay for it.
8 - There is no such thing as a sex industry in Myanmar according to our guide.
9 - You can eat amazing custard with Banana at the 7 Sisters Restaurant in Kalaw.
10- The local Catholic preist in Kalaw think Sab and i are idiots.

For a more detailed description of where we went check out Sabrinas blog at spaces.msn.com/sabszone30. Just click on the title of this blog.

Amazing you say! Why haven't we packed the kids in the car and traveled here earlier? In hindsight our tour of this place has been pretty good. I wouldn't say it was excellent because as we found out besides Temples and Chinese Restaurants, our tour guide Myo never really took us to anything else. I know we were on a tour and we have agendas to follow but seriously, how many times can you fake interst in seeing a Bhuddist Temple? To be fair on our guide he was flexible in his thinking an adapted the tour to our needs. Instead of seeing a temple we can go and see a floating market. Brilliant we tought.

We floated right past it in our boat.

For two days we were staying on Inlay Lake (which by the way is 22km long and 11 km wide and during the rainy season is 9 meters deep) and when i mean on the lake, we were on the lake! (can i make it anymore clearer?) Now it's a lovely place for romance but no offence to my buddy Sab, it's doesn't exactly suit our needs as the pants off department is strictly taboo. Lord knows i've tried! ...Just Kidding everyone!

Earlier in the week we visited Bagan which is home for over 2000 temples built from the 11 to the 13th centuries. It is an amazing sight to see these temples..when you first get there but after a while Sab was completly turned off by seeing another temple. I myself was really getting into it. 'Yeah!' i thought 'This temple is certainly a late period templeswhere as the one before was an early age temple. The difference is in the number of entrances and the detailing of the stucco on the exterior.' I don't know if i was going cuckoo but maybe it was my failed attempt at being an architect that inspired me to enjoy seeing temples over and over and over again.

Bagan also teased us by having a swimming pool at our hotel where i decided to get sunburnt big time and even five days after i got burnt, i'm still red and yes mum i did put sunscreen on!

But what about the local delicacy you say? Well in Myanmar you have the choice of Myanmar food (basically fish and vegetables) or Chinese food and that's it. Sab and i have eaten so much Chinese food and Myanmar food that i can't eat anymore. My heart feels likes its been marinaded in MSG and its slowly cooking itself into a delicious heart attack but seriously we couldn't eat anything else becasue there was nothing else! I did have the fourtune to try bamboo shoots which smell and taste like cow shit. It really does, our guide Myo thought it was hilarious, my tastebuds disagreed with him.

Other highlights included

- Mandaly Hill. Mandaly is the cultural capital of this country and one of the 5 ancient capitals of the country. The view was supurb and was the numerous hand weaving and stone carving galleries we saw in Mandalay.

- Sab and i crossed the worlds longest wooden bridge. It's 1.2 km long and we crossed it twice as we had to get back to the car to go and see the local pottery barn.

- The devotion to religon here is amazing. The people are so devout here that it puts most Catholics to shame. Speaking of Catholics, fact number 10 said that priest thought Sab and i were idiots. In Kalaw, Sab, Myo and i went for a walk around the town where we stumbled across a Catholic church. It wasn't a temple so we decided to have a look. Whilst inside we ran into the local preist who we were invited to sit down and have a chat to. Whilst asking him such questions as "How long have you been here?" , "When did you want to become a priest", "Did you meet Pope John Paul?" eventually the hard hitting questions that we have wanted to ask a man of the cloth came out of our mouths...

"Have you seen the Da Vinci Code?"
"No..what is it?"
"Its a movie" (feeling like right idiots now as we have barely seen any DVD players in this country)

Our conversation turned into a slanging match between the preist and two Aussies wanting to debunk the history of the Catholic Church. Having not seen the film, our arguments to the priest were being taken at face value and judging by the look on the preists face..he thought we were morons.

"Well its in the bible. It's written text. Its been criticised and analised and its still here."
Sab chipped in with a question "but how do you know what was written was the truth"
Gotcha now buddy!
"Well how do you know what Shakespeare wrote plays?"
Me - "Well its in books"
Preist - "So you believe that Shakespeare wrote plays because its in a book so if its the bible must be right because its in a book too right?"
My thought - "Damn it, he snookered us"
Shifty Priest!

Well after our audience with the preist we were satisfied with getting the hard questions off our chest.

I could write so much more but ill leave that to Sab...hehe. Check out her blog for all the adventures we got up to.

Overall Myanmar was great to see and we are both glad we came but we are both looking forward to seeing different aspects of Southeast Asia and experiencing new adventures and observing other cultures.

Tomorrow we are back to Singapore and civilisation.

Speak to you all soon.

It's pronounced "Me-anne-mar"

Hello everyone from the city of Mandalay.

I'm actually quite lucky to get access to Blogger as the internet access in Myanmar is quite well...crap. Nevertheless the whole point of travelling to countries such as the one Sab and i are currently invading is to get away from such dependence on technology that i am using right now.

With what little time i have to write before our tour guide picks us up i have to say that Myanmar is brilliant. We landed in Yangon and were greeted with a sign at the airport with both our names on it just like in the movies. In all honesty i've always wanted to be greeted with a sign at the airport.

Sab and i have done well as it's only the two of us in the tour group so we are getting a personal two week tour of this place. Our guide Myo is a really great guy and loves all things Italian (hehe be careful Sab). We are staying in nice hotels and being driven around everywhere...this is so out of our league.

There's so much more to write but its time to go. i'll try and get a pic up here in teh next couple of days. We've been to so many temples but unlike China, they are all a work of art. So much history and the people...my god they are so friendly. We went to a pottery village yesterday outside of Yangon and the ride took an hour over the bumpiest road we have been on. Both Sabs and my boobs were bouncing all over the back of the jeep. Everything here is hand made and with tools so bare is amazing how they can create such masterpeices of art.

Gotta go, so far Myanmar is soooo good.

In late breaking news

Sabrina is having trouble with her phone card she purchased from 7-11 10 minutes ago.

Not only does she have to type in about 30 numbers before the phone rings but she just found out that she has to put coins in the phone first and then she can use the phonecard.

I thought these cards were supposed to make things easier.

That's one strike against you Singapore.

Here's a pic of my PLI class from friday morning. I'm going to miss those kids..except Carlos. He's a little shit that luckily isn't in this picture.

As i finish typing this 10 minutes after i started, Sab still can't get this thing to work.

Life in the Fast Lane!

Speed..Speed..give me what i need!

Yes that's me earlier this afternoon at Sentosa Island racing down the hill on the Sentosa Luge. No it wasn't a race between me and Sab, i was just trying to go as fast as i can and not use the brakes at all. I mean that's the whole point of these things right?

To wind the clock back, just after our last update, Sab and i had a delightful meal of bread, garlic cheese topped with vegemite. Sure it's no Beijing Duck but the combination was surprisingly flavoursome. It was a quiet night as well as we decided to stay in and have a quiet beer (yes...Sab had a James Boags . That's her favourite) and also a quick game of pool out the back as well. The place where we are staying hasa very hostelian vibe that i enjoy. The crowd here seems to be a bit less welcoming to people as in other places though. The two nights that we've been here there have just been clumps of groups around the place. Do we not know something about this place or do Sab and i just smell?

Anyways this morning after half my scrambled eggs fell off my plate at brekky time, we decided to head down to the market. On the way we stopped into 7-11 where i gazed upon something close to liquid gold...Strawberry Big M's! Oh the sweet sweet taste of the Strawb took me back to the Norwood Drive Milk Bar after a hard day at St. Peters Primary School. we havent had one since 2004! At the market it was time for me to purchase a new toiletries bag as my other one was on its last legs.Well i saw this bag that was the right size to squeeze into my backpack...and it was a Superman bag too! So now the Man of Steel is looking after my soap and shaving stuff..lord help him!

Today we ventured on the efficient subway system to Sentosa Island which is Singapores answer to Brisbanes South Bank. Whilst the man made beaches are fantastic and the water blue as the sky above, the greatest thing about this place is that you actually feel like you are out of the city. The people are so relaxed and friendly that leaving this place is getting harder and harder as time passes.

Also on Sentosa we ventured to the Southermost Point of Continental Asia. Sure a rocky outcrop would not appeal to many people (including the person sitting next to me at this internet cafe) but Teddy Richards and Sabrina's Mascot Kimba got their picture togeter on tihs historical well...rock.

So tonight we are taking it easy as we have an early flight to Myanmar tomorrow and depending on internet access ill try to keep this posted as up to date as i can.

Gees Singapore is great.

Singapore just keeps getting better...seriously a lot better.

Right now i feel like i'm on top of the world.

That's me earlier today 150 meters in the air inside Singapores latest observation sensation, the DHL hot air balloon. The day so far has seen us eat Roti (oh my god that stuff is sensational) and make our traditional Singaporean trek down to Suntec City Shopping Centre. Yet after the happy yet tearful farewell at Topkids Kindergarten yesterday afternoon i was wondering wether or not how will we survive outside of Hong Kong.

After saying our goodbyes to Porpoise Spit (sorry i meant Tin Shui Wai) Sab and i are back in the city-state we love the most. The more i come to Singapore the more i fall for this place. It's so different to Hong Kong that it's hard to imagine how we ever survived in Honkers for a tad under two years.

Don't get me wrong, Hong Kong is a great city and i'll have some fantastic memories of my time there but Singapore is more modern, safe, freindly and by a huge margin liveable city to reside in. Sure i may be talking it up now as we have only spent snippets of time here but Sab and i grabbed a copy of the local rag just to have a squiz at the jobs section. We saw a couple and we are going to apply, you never know what could happen.

Yet we are taking the next couple of days to relax. We have been on the go packing, cleaning, going to dinners and getting ready to say goodbye that we need a couple of days here just to recharge the batteries, then again if a job offer came our way it may be a little longer than a couple of days!

Ahhh ya gotta love your family

The weekend that had just past played centre stage to me meeting my parents in Sngapore. The last time i saw my parents was last october but i didn't have any time to actually sit down with them and actually have a decent chat about life and other things.

For a couple of weeks leading up to the holiday i was a little nervous about meeting my mum and dad. Crazy i know seeing that they are my parents and they have known me since minus nine months old but this was the first time that i had seen them outside of well...East Keilor.

Friday morning i made my way to Hong Kong airport and was counting down the minutes till my flight when all of a sudden a lady from the Hong Kong Airport pulled me aside to participate in a survey. She started this survey about five minutes before my flight and i was so pissed that i ended up at the back of the queue to get onto the plane. Besides that the flight was very nice and before i knew it i was on my way into Singapore.

When i made my way into the Pheonix Hotel my dad greeted me with a great big hug but compared to the rib crusher mum gave me a few minutes later, thre was no contest. Mum was constantly hugging me and was 'just making sure' i was really here. The weekend saw myself participate in a few tours ranging from the fantastic Night Safari to having breakfast with the oragutangs at the Singapore Zoo. Then again it was like having brekky with the extended relatives.

Whilst in Singapore i left my camera at the backpacker hosteland i had to lag my ass across town to pick it up. I also took in Superman Returns which was pretty good i think. Sure it's no 'Superman IV - The Quest for Peace' but it was great to see the man of steel bound place back on the big screen. Though Honh Kong is an exciting city in its own way, Singapore is such a vibrant, green and easy to get around that it is the best city in Asia by far.

Yet the main highlight was spending quality time with Dana and Trevor. It was brilliant to sit down with mum and dad and just talk about anything and everything (well almost everything) Spending a Sunday morning sitting in an outdoor cafe with a severe thunderstorm pelting down around us and watching the World Cup final with my dad was just fantastic.

Thanks for having me guys and i can't wait to see you again in Feburary.

JetStar Asia flight to Singapore now boarding...

The one thing i love about Hong Kong Airport is the free internet access. It's about 20 mins before boarding time.

I'm really looking forward to seeing mum and dad again. We didn't get much of a chance to spend some time together the last time i was home so i am looking forward to having a nice long chat with the both of them. I've missed that.

Anyways i'll try and keep everyone posted on here during the weekend.

Ciao for now!!

Stupid Picture of the Day

Bruce Lee is Hong Kong's idol.

Then two Aussies that look like tools come past and do something stupid like this.

Yeah..we are class all the way.

Another Day, Another iPod

Seems that i am a sucker for punishment.

Some people like whips and chains or watching any sitcom featuring Charlie Sheen but for me, i just had to get another iPod. I purchased my new iPod video yesterday.

This is number 3. Well if you count all the iPods that i got through the Apple Service centre to replace the faulty ones, i think its number 8.

I started off with the white iPod that froze its way through 4 replacement iPods. It would freeze whilst i was testing its engineering limits by undertaking extreme actions such as...walking.

My final white Ipod was stolen from me when i took it into a computer shop in Vietnam where the English guy behind the counter said he could give it back to me good as new the following morning after it shit itself and deleted all my songs.

He never came back the following morning to give it to me. I had to catch a bus that morning to a town three hours away. When i called him to find out what happened he said "Well you come back here and get it." Dirty English Bastard.

Then i purchased an iPod mini. It was a great little number until Christmas time in Thailand when i was walking along the beach and just as i walked past a rock on the water a wave crashed over the top of it and completly drenched me and thus my iPod froze.

Its replacement was another little champion that barely froze or skipped...until it fell out of my pocket on a transfer bus heading towards Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I only realised it was missing when i got home.

Well i'll be keeping an eye on this iPod like its my own baby. They are great little things and its going to be handy listening to some music during our upcoming holiday but i just hope my bad luck with the Apple Computer Company has come to an end.

What have i been doing?

Hi everyone.

Check out the links on the right hand side to find out what have i been up to this past month and a half.

From Melton to Mongkok

A great family friend Mel who I have know as long as I can remember came over a little while ago to visit Hong Kong for a week. She’s such a lovely person and Sab and I really enjoyed having her over here. Not only did I get to spend some time with her but the girls made me sit down and watch “Dirty Dancing” from start to finish.

There was a funny moment where Sab and Mel were both singing the words from one of the songs and I was on the floor just watching them watching the screen singing. I understood that this was a huge chick flick but I didn’t understand how big until I saw the reaction on their faces when Patrick Swayze says “No-one leaves Baby in the corner.” It was like they were watching it for the first time. It was a good flick but give me Predator any day of the week. I called my dad just before I watched it and he wished me well. I wish the same for any guy who has to watch that film.

We also checked out the market districts in Mong Kok and I went with Mel to Victoria Peak plus Ocean Park and Sab went with Mel to Disneyland. The biggest adventure I had with her was at the local electronics store where she purchased a surround sound system. For a couple hours she wasn’t too sure what she wanted but when she finally decided on the LG system, just getting this bastard of a box home was comedy in itself. We had this pissy little nonno trolley and the box just kept falling over and over. Before we knew it her time was up and she was on her way back home to Melton.

It was great seeing you again Mel and I’ll see you soon :)

The 13th Graduation Ceremony

This is how sadistic our lives have become. Sabrina and I have agreed that whoever dies first that the other will have to play the Rocky Horror Picture Shows “Time Warp” at the the funeral. Since mid March Sab, myself and another teacher Fiona have been practicing the “Time Warp” with a mix of students from each of our classes.

Now the Time Warp is a pretty easy dance. Jump to the left, step to the right, hands on your hips, knees in tight. Pretty simple stuff...how wrong we were. Sab and I are convinced that western kids would be able to nail the dance at a quicker speed then our kids. For two months they killed us every morning and afternoon by jumping too early or turning the wrong way. Now the sympathizers our there would say “well they are only in kindergarten” but wait, a visit by a former Brazilian soccer player recently confirmed our theory when he clearly stated in the local paper that Hong Kong kids have no co-ordination at a young age as they are only concerned about school and don’t practice enough sports.

So every morning and afternoon we jumped to the left and stepped to the right. There were about 30 kids in this dance and as the days to graduation grew closer our confidence in the kids ability was growing steadily and the three of us were looking forward to graduation. Then about 6 weeks ago our lizard of a boss Anna said that the theme of the graduation ceremony was “International.” She tells us this after we picked our song and dance and now its international? What bloody country does the Time Warp?

The first country that popped into our heads was … India.

Yes I know, the land of Roti and fanatical cricket fans has nothing to do with transsexual goth movies but hey…you gotta give us credit for not picking a country like Thailand where the boys could dress up like ladyboys and wear makeup. Actually that happens anyway in these ceremonies. The boys look like hores.

The past month the kids had hit their peak and the dance wasn’t going to get any better. So with that the school decided that they would make the costumes. When we put forward our idea of while linen pants and long white linen shirts it was casually put aside and in stepped these disgusting bright “gay Aladdin” pants and green sequined tops...that was for the boys. The girls were all dressed in gold so they looked gorgeous.

Sab, Fiona and myself decided to get into the act and join the kids on stage decked out in fully authentic Indian gear thanks to one of our kids parents. So the big day came last Wednesday and well the kids were fantastic, they barely put a foot wrong and they genuinely enjoyed being on stage. The energy from the crowd helped, especially when the three teachers came out. I don’t think the parents had seen anything like it before. We love our kids and we all had a great time jumping to the left and stepping to the right. One of my kids (his name is Long Long but he’s really short short) had a “wardrobe malfunction” and his Aladdin pants fell down a bit on stage.

All in all the audience loved it and while I was getting changed back into my shirt and tie (I was co-hosting again) I could hear the audience applause for the other acts from the Chinese kindergarten…needless to say we shit it in!

School Stuff

Outside the logistical nightmare that is the pointless graduation ceremony, school has been fine. The kids in my class are great and I am really going to miss most of them. Some fell through the cracks of my interest a long time ago but in general, the kids really have come into their own from the start of the year. I have been teaching take away recently (thank god its not algebra...just kidding…that comes when they are 6) and getting kids to use their fingers is a nightmare as the Chinese have their own system for using fingers for numbers. Example – when I ask for the number six most kids give me a hand that looks like something from the archives of “Ridgey Didge.” For the non – Australians in the crowd, its like a “cowabunga” finger gesture. Are you lost yet?

These subtle differences make teaching a nightmare sometimes but I balance it our by teaching the kids the words to the Kingsmen’s hit “Louie Louie.”

Last week Sab and i gave our kids vegemite on toast as the theme was "Healthy Food." Most of the kids liked it which was surprising and we did get some pictures but i have to get them from the school.

School has been great this week as the previously mentioned lizard of a boss Anna hasn’t been at school this week. When she isn’t there the place is great. Teachers feel relaxed and don’t have to look over their shoulders for her. Anna just has no idea how to communicate to the western teachers so she scolds the Chinese teachers instead. Three kids in my class are going to another school next year and the main reason is the parents just don’t like her.

As a parting gift I’m going to give her a parting gift of one of my books. The book is about the Fish guys at Pikes Place Market in Seattle. I’m sure most have you have heard about them. She’s on a power trip and you can’t get a straight answer out of her. One of my kids parents asked me out for dinner a couple of weeks ago so I went with my co-teacher. Sometime between the waiter taking away the poor excuse of a steak and waiting for the insipid cheesecake I thought to myself “Funny…now im the teacher instead of the student asking my teacher over for dinner.” Yes parents I still have vivid memories of roast lamb, Richard Clayderman playing on the stereo, chocolate mousse and seeing the teacher the next day. A surreal moment.

Tin Shui Wai - The Place to Be

The walls that are the apartment buildings are starting to feel like they are closing in on me. I can’t distinguish anymore downtown from Tin Shui Wai. I really need a different headspace. As nice as it is out here I can’t kick a footy as there is no space to do it. Actually the only place you can do it is the soccer pitch on the athletics track but you have to pay 150 HK dollars for an hour. I don’t swim at the pool anymore as everytime I look out the window of my room all I can see is bodies in the pool. That’s from 7.30am to 10pm, just bodies floating in the pool and most Asians look like whales when they swim. I’m no Ian Thorpe but at least I can go in a straight line.

A couple of weeks ago some of the Chinese teachers and the Western teachers went out for a seafood dinner in the neighboring village on the water. Over the other side of the pond is Shenzhen which these days has its own Eiffel Tower! I could make out the shape of it across the bay. There is a bridge that will be opening soon from Tin Shui Wai to Shenzhen and its a shame it didn’t open earlier, I would like to have seen the recently completed Shenzhen Eiffel Tower.

Also late last month was the long awaited opening of the Wetlands Park just up the road from our place. I have been waiting for this place to open since we first got here and the main reason was that they may actually have some decent food there. How wrong I was. Sab and I spent 63 minutes walking around a place that looked like any part of Melbourne before its subdivided for residential usage. Supposidly there are migrations of birds to this part of Hong Kong but we only saw 2 birds for the whole day. Add to the fact it was raining and the place was packed and well I thought it would have more then just a few little streams of fish (which was nice). Plus there was no coffee at the café!

The best thing was it took us 10 minutes to get home which included waiting for the ice cream from the Mr Softee van outside the park.

Michael Flatley plays the Flute!!

A couple of Friday nights ago Sab and I made our way down to the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre to see world renowned Irish dancer and love making machine (if you believe the stories) Michael Flatley and his new blockbuster show “Celtic Tiger.”

Having seen the shugga-dugging (my term for Irish dancing as in the sound the shoes make on the stage) only on TV I was excited to see it live. Sure it isn’t the extravaganza of “Riverdance” but the Flats man was “Lord of the Dance” in his heyday and all Sab and I wanted to see 2 hours of shugga-duggin with the Flats man going around in a Pat Cash inspired headband front and centre.

The venue was rubbish for starters. It felt as if you were watching a performance in a big shed and being the economic powerhouses that Sab and I are, we sat in the second last row. Thank God we had a big screen though it wasn’t needed as even from as far back as we were, Mickey boy was sucking the gut in and to me was definelty in his “fat Elvis” period of the career.

Here’s an interesting stat. Michael Flatley nearly spent 33 percent of his stage time (all in all about 20-25 mins out of 120) playing the flute. Now this is not what shugga-dugging is supposed to be. I didn’t spend my cash to see him play the flute! Here he was fluting away like he was playing something off an old K-Tel record where all we wanted to see was dancing. Granted there were parts of the show were the dancing was brilliant by the cast and the part where all the female dancers were wearing skimpy costumes made me lament not paying 800 bucks to get a closer view but all in all the show made no sence.

For starters its called “Celtic Tiger.” I know there were no tigers in Ireland so Sab and I thought it was a nickname for the exodus of Irish to America over the years. Nope, Flats thought that naming a new stage show after a boom in the Irish economy in the 90’s was a great idea.

Then there was the show itself. The first half of the show was basically a history is Ireland. It had great moments such as when the English came to town and burned the place up and there were moments where the girls were dressed like butterflies for whatever god forsaken reason. The second half of the show was the biggest propaganda machine I’ve seen since “Triumph of the Will” It was so American that it has no continuity from the first half of the show. There were big American flags, a stewardess stripping and ending up in an American bikini (once again...I lament) and it felt wrong. Sitting there reminded me of the time Sab and I saw the Harlem Globetrotters and thinking “I can’t wait for this to be over so we can go.”

Finally there was Flats himself. As I said he’s in his Fat Elvis period and he was barely on stage and yeah he’s got a few moves left below the hips but he just looked like an overweight boxer the way he moved around the stage. He was a real disappointment and it only made me want to go out and see “Riverdance” some time soon.

World Cup Fever!!

I’ve had too many Chicken parmas and beers this month but hey it’s the World Cup and the Aussie Pub in Wanchai has been my second home some nights. I was there for the Brazil game and the tragedy that was the Italy game. The place was packed both times and I was pumped and excited to see our boys fight it out on the world stage. One night included staying out till 6am in Wanchai watching the Italians and Americans try to kill each other.

Luckily I have been able to watch games on the internet through a program that picks up ESPN America . So some nights I’ve stayed up way way too late to watch games and hear American commentate soccer like its gridiron. When I watch soccer I want my commentators to be a little boring, not jumping around like they just got some the night before. It’s a small price to pay when you are watching games illegally online.
Hong Kong has been going nuts this past month and its great to see all the nationalities represented by the locals especially the countries of Beckham and Ronaldihno. As for all the Italians who think they are deserving of that win and the penalty kick was there, well i think that's really pathetic stuff.

In General Business

With 2 weeks to go the search continues for a new job. The Myanmar Governemt screwed Sab around a bit when it came to getting visas for us but all was settled last Friday so we are good to go to Myanmar. Taiwan is stil our best bet but Malaysia and Singapore are still on the radar but all things being equal, Taiwan will be our home for the next year. After September 07, I am going to go to Europe no matter what. I have to get there. I just need one year of saving as much as I can to so that.

Generally I’m well. The weather here is so humid that the airconditioning is on inside and its shocking outside so I’ve had the flu for about a month now.

The Dees are playing beautiful beautiful football and I’m not there to see it. Bastard!

I’ve donated some of my books to the local library and started throwing out clothes and things that I don’t need. My god has it nearly been 2 years already? Don’t worry Norwood Drive, there will be some books coming your way soon 

I’m catching up with mum and dad in Singapore this week and I cannot wait to see them again. I didn’t have a chance to sit down and have a chat with them last time I was home so I’m looking forward to this weekend having a really good chat with them. It’s been way way too long.

My brother is getting married in mid feb next year which is perfect timing as the Chinese New Year starts the day of his wedding so if we are going to Taiwan ‘ll be home for Chinese New Year next year. If not working in Taiwan, then I’ll be home at that time anyway for the pre season competition… oh yeah and the wedding as well!

Yes ladies…I’m still single.

Hey now hey now, Goodbye old Mac

I finally bit the bullet a month ago and just a few days before my warranty ran out, I was the proud owner of a new Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. I finally got rid of my fantastic in software but pointless in hardware iBook and came back to the PC world. Everything was going great for the first two days. Then my enter key fell off my keyboard. It fell right off and onto the floor. I was in shock to say the least.

Less than 48 hours old and the bloody key fell off. I couldn’t believe my luck. Why does this happen to me? Am I not supposed to have electronics in my life? So after calling Dell they told me that if I couldn’t find the missing key then I would have to pay for a new one! I have never been so angry on the phone in my life and I couldn’t believe what they were saying. Needless to say a few words that sound like “truck” were said to the representative on the phone.

A couple of days later a tech from Dell came out to Tin Shui Wai (rather than me jumping on the bus for an hour and a half to Causeway Bay) and replaced the entire keyboard in 5 minutes. Now that’s service. Since then I have had no problems then again I didn’t have any troubles with the iBook for the first 6 months. We’ll just wait and see.

I'm back

Hi everyone, in the next couple of days ill be filling you in on everything that i have been up to in the past month.

It will be a long post!!

So long everyone

By the way, i'm now writing this on my gorgeous Dell Inspiron 6400 PC laptop :)

That's right, the Apple is no more :)

Malaysian Adventures and other stuff

I'm still here everyone :)

Sorry for the delay between messages. Honestly i couldn't be bothered sitting down and writing about the rest of our trip. It was a fantastic week and to sum it up in a couple of sentences, the island of Penang was very nice. We stayed in a hostel in Georgetown and we were the only people staying there!

Actually writing this i can't be bothered writing it. I just don't have the blog vibe today.

If you want to read about our holiday head over to Sabs Blog at spaces.msn.com/sabszone30

KL comes alive!!

There are objects of natural beauty like Mt Everest or Heidi Klum.

There are objects that are man made that are awe-inspiring such as the Great Wall of China or Pamela Anderson.

Then there are objects that just rise above anything you could imagine..

I'm talking about the Petronas Towers.

When i first laid eyes on them i couldn't believe how big these towers were. I've seen them in books, tv and even in film ('Entrapment' with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones) and here i was looking at these two 452 m high steel and glass giants dominate the Kuala Lumpar skyline. I couldn't take enough pictures.

Following our adventure getting here, the towers were the first thing (and the reason for coming here) that we wanted to see in KL. The sky was a beautiful blue which you cannot get in Hong Kong anymore and the weather though slightly warm, was perfect for exploring the city. After making our way down to the concourse we found out that the limited number of tickets to gain access to the Skybridge (the bridge that connects the towers) were all sold out.

Luckily in the gift shop Sab found a guy who had two spare tickets for the upcoming tour and he was nice enough to give them to us. So we made our way up to the bridge and the view was amazing. This whole building is amazing. Not only are there 2 towers over 450 tall connected by the worlds only skybridge, there is also a 6 level shopping centre at the base of the tower and an 850 concert hall. Sab and i had a little peek inside the hall and wer enjoying a free afternoon organ recital but our hunger pains were calling us to get food.

So we headed to the shopping centre food court whereby we ate the best kebab i have had in a very long time followed by 6 donuts from Dunkin' Donuts (there are no donut shops in Honkers so we had to take advantage of the situation)and followed that up with a quick visit to the PC fair being staged across the park. I'm looking at buying a PC in the next couple of months so there was a little browsing that was being done by i fully knowing i won't be going back to a mac ever again!

We spent most of the afternoon around the Petronas Towers whereby we enjoyed something all to common but all to rare in Hong Kong; sitting under a tree lying on the grass. I had found copies of Wheels and Motor magazines so i purchased all the bookstores copies and started reading in the shade the delights of the new Toyota Aurion V6..oh the bliss of it all! :)

Our journey took us back to the hostel and then onto Little India whereby it started to rain..actually i take that back. It pissed down like no tomorrow and Sab was doing her best not to look like an entrant in a wet t-shirt competition. At Little India we found goods galore ranging from silks to scarves and all things Indian..even Bollywood Films (we picked up a couple). We also had some gorgeous Indian street food ranging from Roti to a very nice vegetable curry.

With the rain still pouring down it was time to go back to the hostel and end what was a very long yet enjoyable first up day in KL. We spent the night watching 'Crash' and then fell into bed.

It was a great day yesterday..everything went right for us.

Forget Good..try Great Friday!!

"Why do it the right way when you can do it the fun way"

This is our new moto in life these days. It came about after we got lost on a walk and the philosophy still rings true today. Though it did get tense at times.

Yesterday Sab and I had the bigest travel nightmare we had ever come across. Yes even bigger than Tiger Leaping Gorge! Yesterday was the bigest comedy of errors and rather than throwing you more cliche's let me get to the story.

Yesterday morning we left Tin Shui Wai about 10am on our way to Macau to catch a 2.45pm flight from Macau. This time around we took the Macau option as the prices for the ticket were a lot more competitve then flying straight from Hong Kong. We have been looking forward to this trip for a few months now and our spirits were high as we rode the 969 into Central.

After getting to the Macau Ferry Terminal we found a massive line of people. Now this is where the "fun" starts. I thought being a Catholic holday there would be no real need to book tickets beforehand for the ferry, boy was i wrong. There was a bloody big line of people waiting to get to Macau to gamble their lives away and it seemed every minute that went by another ferry was sold out.

By the time we got to the ticket window the next avaliable ferry was at 12.30 and it takes about an hour to get to Macau and it was cutting it too fine, then we came across Heli Express.

Being the spontaneous (well not really) kids we are, we thought lets spend 1800 dollars on a 15 minute helicopter ride rather than prebook a 150 dollar ferry ride. Sure the price was steep but the views over Hong Kong were the best we had ever seen plus it was Sabs first time in ahelicopter and she had a big big smile on her face. The trip was put in the "you only live once" category.

We got to Macau 15 minutes later and headed straight to the airport. It's about 10-15 drive from the city so we got there with time to spare. We walked straight up to the check in window ready to start our adventure......"You have missed your flight."

"Excuse me?"
"You have missed it. It was at 2.45AM this morning"
"Shit"

Yeah we stuffed up big time. We managed to miss out flight bu about 10 hours and even though we both triple triple checked all the details, even the night before, somehow we missed the fact that 0245 is not 2.45PM. Even typing this i still cant figure out how we stuffed this up but we did. Even still who uses 24 hour time in daily life? I sure as hell don't and if i asked for the time i don't expect a reply of "Yeah, it's quarter past twenty one."

So six hours we spent at Macau Airport before we checked in and of all the airports to be stuck in, we had to pick the airport that had nothing..nothing!! at all to do. At least if we got stuck at Singapore or Hong Kong you can do things to pass the time. Macau had only a buffet restaurant open so we sat there for about 5 hours.

This Good Friday was turning into Very Very Very Bad Friday.

After check in we had to wait another 2 hours for our flight which was not only delayed but th aiport changed our departure gate without any announcement, we were lucky enough to see it on the departures screen an hour before we left. Macau airport is by far the worst airport i have come across and our gate was actually right next door to another gate so there were two flights full of passengers waiting in the same area. It was packed and tensions were getting high.

After Air Asia finally decided to arrive in Macau we had to wait even further for the plane to be cleaned. During this time passengers for flights that were supposed to leave 30 minutes earlier were still checking in and walking right past us. One kid said "This is the worst airport in the world" and Sab agreed with me.

Finally we got into the air about 8pm. About 16 hours late but after our flight we got to the hostel in KL about 2am this morning. We had a fantastic day out at the Petronas Towers and tonight we are off to Little India for some great street food.

So as i said earlier, if we did it the right way..then we wouldn't have had another little adventure.

Why can't things just go right for us once in a while?

Easter in Malaysia

It's a very good Friday indeed.

Sab and I are about to leave the house for a weeks sightseeing in Malaysia. We are actually flying through Macau this time around as its a lot cheaper then flying through Hong Kong.

We are spending Friday to Tuesday in Kuala Lumpar and then we are going up north for three days to the island of Penang.

I'll update Peps Place while we are there and we'll be taking plenty of pictures.

Take care everyone and have a fantastic easter.

Time to Walk the Walk

For a long time now Sabrina and myself have been a bit lazy when it comes to seeing the sights of Hong Kong. The reason? We have been here so long that rather than thinking of this place as a pitstop on our journey of life, it became home.

The winter months made me feel very lazy in terms of being fit and getting motivated. So last Wednesday Sab, myself and our friend Kate decided to take advantage of the public holiday we had and decided to go out into nature and discover some of the natural beauty of Hong Kong.

We decided to do the Dragons Back Walk, which was voted the best walk in Asia in Time Magazine (2004). It was a fine and humid day in town yet the three of us went ahead with our walk and well before we even started we were in trouble. We actually started our walk at the finishing point and after about 30 mins, lost the trail that we were supposed to be on. We found ourselves on the side of a mountain high above the city walking in dense vegetation up the side of a mountain following a dirt trail.

Sabrina purchased herself a video camera for her birthday and we took it its test run and it was fast developing into a “Blair Witch Project’ situation. The humidity made my t-shirt stick to my skin and the hike was fast developing into a comedy of errors. After climbing half and hour up the side of a mountain we came across a path which we found out later was the path we should have taken if we actually started at the start and not the end…confused? So were we.

After another hour we made it to our starting point only to find out that the walk we though we were doing (the Dragons Back) wasn’t that walk at all! We had spent three hours on a walk, getting lost and going the wrong way around only to find out that we weren’t even on the right walk. All of this was captured on Sabrina’s camera too.

After an afternoon down at Stanley Market, it was just the day I needed to feel good again and with our newfound enthusiasm, Sab and I went for another walk yesterday armed with her trusty camera. This time around we stayed in town and decided to do the Hong Kong Heritage trail, which took us to all the older, meaningful buildings that this vibrant city’s past was built on.

Our three hour tour took about four and a half as we decided to amble around the streets and take a quick trip up to Victoria Peak. If you haven’t been to Hong Kong you just have to go to the peak as it is the best view of a city anywhere in the world. The great thing about this the tour is that you really get a sense of the history of this place and we didn’t get lost and also we had another great walk. I picked up an authentic Bruce Lee movie poster from a little back street antique shop as well! With two big walks in half a week Sab and I are determined to walk as much of Hong Kong as possible before we leave.

By the way, Sab and I are off to Malaysia for a week on Friday. Yeppo, we are off to Kuala Lumpur and Penang which is at the north of the country. We are both really looking forward to this trip and if this new found enthusiasm I have continues past Malaysia, its going to be a hectic three months in Hong Kong. It’s nice to get back the feeling that at the end of the day I’m here to take part in new experiences and learn from them.

Sometimes you really do have to stop and smell the roses.

You Tube Classics : Volume One

Here is a classic from our friends at YouTube.com

Enjoy the modern classic "Brokeback to the Future"

Sabrina's 27th Birthday Celebration

She had a bloody ripper.

Hong Kong turned out a humid night and combined with the hysteria of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament being played the city was awash with colourful costumes and a party atmosphere.

The night started at Gary's house whereby Candace, Gary, Sabrina, Kate and yours truely shared numerous mudshakes and laughs. Sabrina was a bit toey during the week as i reminded her that she had to complete her birthday dares. During the week she said "so stripping and no kissing women" which takes the fun out of it considering i got my boosies out on the dancefloor at my celebration.

We then ventured down to a lovely "Australian Fusion" restaurant called Jaspas which is one of the city's favourite eateries. My rack of lamb was cooked to perfection and considering the prices i ate every last thing on my plate (including the broccoli which to anyone who knows me , thats a fair effort) and then managed to destroy a delightful blueberry and apple crumble.

The party atmosphere took us to Lan Kwai Fong which was packed with rugby revellers and anyone else who embraced the party spirit of the weekend. Sabrinas dares were complete which included "doing the brokeback" with a guy dressed as a penguin and dancing like a homosexual Mexican. For anyone who has seen the show 'arrested development' well seeing Sab dance like a chicken was very funny stuff. When the DJ plastered her face across the screens of the pub her reaction was to clock me in the jaw and scream. In fact she did a lot of screaming and dancing which is great to see.

The party continued into the night where once again i caught up with the two Irish girls Fiona and Nicola. They are on their way to taking over the partying title from Cassidy and Amy. It great to see those girls out and they had their little group of friends there as well so we all blended into one big group whilst Sab was dancing away and living up the evening to the max.

It all ended up about 3am with that lovely hour bus ride back to Tin Shui Wai and all in all Sab had a fantastic birthday and i had a great night out as well.

Happy Birthday Sab

Feeling a little under the weather

Honestly i'm feeling seedy this morning.

Right now my stomach feels like a volcano about to erupt and my eyes are hanging out of their sockets due to lack of sleep.

Last night i started out in Causeway Bay catching up with Gary and Candace at quiz night. I hadn't been for a couple of months and it was nice to be back eating proper pub food and enjoying the surrounds. The quiz finished up at about 11 and then i was off to Wan Chai to catch up with the two new Irish girls who are working here, Fiona and Nicola.

Needless to say the night just flew by and before i knew it it was 5am.

I got up at 7.30 this morning and i am not one of those people who can survive on less than 7 hours sleep.

I'm just waiting for lunch to get a Filet O' Fish and a coffee.

Tick tock..tick...tock

Peps Place Movie Review: 'V for Vendetta'

Not since a punchup during the screening of "Kindergarten Cop" has the cinema experience equalled the action on screen.

Last Saturday, Sab and I ventured 2 hours to Festival Walk to catch up with Kate to see the new Wachowsk Brothers film. You know the Wachowsk's, those crazy brothers who stayed inside watching cartoons and grew up to make the groundbreaking "Matrix' films. Who says watching TV is bad for you huh?

So Sab and I made it to Festival Walk where the film was being played. After meeting up with Kate and a couple of her freinds from her workplace, the group of us settled into the theatre. In short 'V for Vendetta' is an enjoyable action-adventure movie starring Hugo Weaving as the mysterious 'V' and Natalie Portman who plays the damsal in distress 'Evey'. By the way her English accent is pretty darn good. The movie is set in the near future in England where a 'Big Brother' style of government has made jolly old England a pretty stale place to live.

Enter 'V' who is so bitter about the way England is that he decides to blow up Parliament House. Crazy idea? Not really as it was attempted by Guy Fawkes in 1605. What made 'V for Vendetta' enjoyable is the first hour whereby you are trying to figure out what this film is all about. Then the off screen drama started...

Around this time Kate decided that she had to go to the toilet. So she made her way to the end of the aisle and towards the front exits of the cinema which by design are usually used in emergencies. A few minutes later there was a knocking coming from the door somewhere. It was figured that the knocking was coming from the emergency exit and Kate couldn't get back into the cinema. The knocking continued which started to drown out the picture and was heard all around the cinema. Sab and I were embarrased so much we sunk in our seats and thanks to another member of the audience Kate was let back into the cinema.

Towards the end of the movie which was turning out to be a pretty run of the mill flick for me. There was a banging sound from the side of the cinema. The cleaner was starting his working during the end of the film and the bloody nerve too. Sab got a bit concerned. I knew she felt that way after she said "Is there a bomb in there?" There being a big green garbage bin at the front left of the cinema. To top it off as soon as the movie finished and the credits rolled, the cinema lights went up and the cleaner was barking at the crowd to get out!

After another 2 hours to get back home Sab and I were stuffed and in shock. For one the action off screen action matched the on screen action. The movie was pretty good even though we missed the major plot point as Kate was banging on the emergency doors at the time. So all in Hugo Weaving played a great leading character and the movie had an edge to it little seen in cinema these days. even though it was fictional it could easily be mistaken for the real world.

So 'V for Vendetta' gets 3 out of 5.

AMC cinemas gets 0 out of 5 for a poor cinema experience.

I'm still standing! Yeah yeah Yeah!

Don't worry everyone... i'm back!

My Apple died again. The logic board packed up again and thanks to Apple, there is only one repair shop in town and i've pretty much got my own seat waiting for me...well i should have one for me considering the amount of time i have spent there.

Rather than going through everything that i have been up to the past three weeks here is a point by point rundown.

- Works the same. The kids are still alright
- I have no respect for the administraion of the school anymore due to a very disgraceful piece of firing by the school
- Saw Brokeback Mountain with Sab and liked it 4.5 out of 5.
- Saw Capote with Sab and Kate 3.5 out of 5.
- Back on a health kick and back at the gym.
- Celebrated Candace's birthday with a tram ride around Hong Kong which was very cool.
- Two new Irish girls, Nicola and Fiona started at the school. They are both quite lovely.
- Followed the Demons progress in the Football up until we got creamed by the Crows.
-Collected my video award i won a few weeks ago
- Sabs class won best drama in their year level so the school won $1500 worth of books which are sorely needed.
- Watched a lot of 'Frasier' episodes with Sab.
- Installed FIFA 2004 on the schools computers so i can play it at lunchtime.


That's about it really.

Well now that i'm back with a new logic board and wireless card, i'll be back to update you all more often. I'm just waiting for the logic board to pack up again. By all estimates it should be late May or early June.

56 Minutes of Fun!

Last night we were in bed by 10.15.

Last night we stayed at the Outback Grill for 56 minutes.

Last night we were completely stuffed.

Talk about celebrating in style. Last night Sabrina and i dressed up to celebrate our 2nd anniversary of being away from Australia. Last year we celebrated by going to the Outback Steakhouse so this year we decided to visit its little cousin in Wan Chai. Earlier in the day we both ventured into Shenzhen for another DVD Run.

These flying visits to China remind us all that is horrible about the world's largest nation. It's ugly, smelly and dirty and thats just the people! Seriously these DVD runs are an adventure in themselves. We usually end up going through a restaurant following a shady character whereby we are led into a small room accessed only by a steel garage door. This is the 5th time i have been to shenzhen and everytime i come back to Tin Shui Wai i appreciate what the Brits did in HongKong.

After the door is slammed shut, the dodgy characters give us old tatty folders full of the latest realeases. This time around i packed a book called "1001 Films you must see before you die" which as it turned out to be a waste of time as the older movies that i wanted to get weren't there. So after picking up new movies such as "Munich" "Syriana" and "Brokeback Mountain" and the 8th season of Frasier we made our way back home to a Special Administrative Reigion .

Later in the day we made our way into town where our planned evening of a nice dinner and a few laughs was acutally compacted into less that an hour. The bus ride into town was the coldest i've ever been on and for anyone who has been on buses in Hong Kong, it was bloody freezing. By the time we arrived at 7.55 pm we had arrived in just enough time to order a couple of drinks at happy hour. We sat down on the table and we both felt stuffed. We didn't want to be there as we had both started to fall ill during the day.

The night sunk faster than the Titanic due to the fact that all we wanted to do was get into bed and try and shake off this little flu that started to go around the school. So here i am, on the couch watching "Frasier" and its where i want to be.

Needless to say, it was a great night out, all 56 minutes of it.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

How time flies. Have a look at these two crazy kids!

It was 2 years ago today that Sab and I boarded Flight OF179 to Tokyo on our way to teach in a city we had never heard of in a country we knew only little bits about. Just after this photo was taken we were off on an adventure that so far has been abolutely amazing and eye opening.

So we are going to celebrate by going to the Outback Steakhouse on Saturday night and have a few laughs and reflect on the great times we've had.

You like me! You really really like me!!

I won an award!

I won an award for a video i made with my Upper Kindergarten Class which in all honesty was pathetic to say the least.

How this all came about was just before Chirstmas our supervisior Anna told Sab and I that our classes were entered into another competition. This time around the competition was based on a book that the class had to dramatise. The book was called "Oink Oink" and the story was based on a dirty pig who ran around the farm being chased by the frustrated famer and other animals. I had 9 boys to work with and these boys i can tell you aren't the best behaved bunch.

After practising for a few weeks we came to the day of the shoot. Well the day of the shoot was actually just under an hour and Anna in all honesty had no idea how to shoot. There was a little bit of dialouge (as i found out later, too little compared to Sab's Middle Level kids) I wanted to have the camera closer to the kids as you could hear them better but she filmed them from the other side of the room so two weekeds ago, Sab and I had to edit our films and hand them in Monday.

I thought great, i can jump on iMovie and get some special effects, subtitles and music together and make a fun little film. That didn't work out as it took 6 hours to move about 30 minutes of film from the camera to the computer so i bit the bullet and jumped on Sabs laptop. Her program is totally different to mine so it took a while to get the feel right which caused Sab to huff and puff a little watching me take my time.

So eventually i did a piss take on Star Wars called "Farm Wars" and it turned out as best as i could get it. The footage of the kids was terrible. They were too quiet, too loud, laughing too much or talking in the background. So i cobbled together a film and was happy to see the back of it.

Late last week Anna told Sab and I that Sabrinas Class had won through to the Final Four and they will have to perform on stage in mid March and i have to go and pick up an award for my crappy film as well.

What dissapointed me the most was that the best movie of the three from my Lower Kindergarten Class didn't get an award. I'll upload that film here in the next couple of days as it was far more deserving of an award.

Keep you all posted on the awards celebration.

What's the Story?

How did i end up at an Oasis concert in Hong Kong?

Whilst celebrating my birthday at a lovely Chicago-esque Bar and Grille the topic of the upcoming Oasis concert was mentioned. Gary, Candace's boyfriend mentioned that he wanted to go and i thought i might as well tag along.

Now anyone who knows me knows that Oasis isn't exactly being repeated on my iPod. In fact up until the time i got home last night, i had no Oasis songs on my iPod. They are a band whose music i have only sung on occasions where alcohol has lowered my inhibitions and find myself mumbling my way through the verses of "Wonderwall" or "Champagne Supernova" but i know most of the chorus.

After an hour and a half travelling on the ultra efficient trnasport system, i met up with Gary and his dad Lee who was in town on business. We met up just outside the arena whereby i ate the worst hamburger i have ever tasted. The meat was this light grey colour and it wasnt even cooked. Whoever cooked the burger somehow forgot to cook the main ingredient but that was ok as the burger, cheese and bread were fused together in a way that it looked like it just survived a nuclear blast.

As the countdown to the concert was heating up the brand spanking new arena was half empty. Our seats were on the lower deck facing the stage but just before the start of the concert there was a mass rush to the vacant seats that were stage left and right. So all the people that paid 750 HK found themselves sitting next to people that paid 400 bucks whose seats were next to ours. The three of us decided to move to the walkway which allowed us to stand about 20 meters from the side of the stage.

I didn't know what to make of it and i was very very surprised that the 13000 arena wasn't packed to the rafters with Brits deperate to hear the world's biggest pub rock band. Was it a case of bad promoting or the downhill slide of a once graet Brit rock band? Regardless the concert started and i had no idea of any of the songs though the rest of the crowd did. The band were playing very very tight and the Gallagher brothers were on song with their behaviour in terms of the crowd especially when lead singer Liam asked the crowd "Is there anyone from England here?" Pockets of the crowd scream..."Why are you still here?"

The band soon enough let loose "Wonderwall" , "What's the story morning glory" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" and i found myself singing to these songs as well as i could possibly remember them. The crowd was fantastic especially the Pommy guy who screamed "sing Champagne Supernova you Manc bastard!"

And soon enough they did.

Just under two hours later and with a brilliant cover of The Who's "My Generation" to send the crowd on its way home, i came home with the mission of downloading as many Oasis songs as possible. I may be 10 years late to the party but i'm looking forward to listening to what they have to offer.

Peps Place Movie Review: 'Gone with the Wind

Finally i now know why Scarlett O'Hara is such a bitch and why a womans scorn is compared to hers.

Last night from 6.30pm to 10.30pm Sabrina and I parked our asses on the couch and finally sat down to watch what has been described as one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

No it wasn't Weekend at Bernies but the classic ...Gone with the Wind.

It was the first time that either of us had seen it and boy what an experience we had. First if all the pirated DVD we paid a dollar for kept stuffing up every 15 minutes so Sab and i in turns had to crouch down to the DVD player, eject the disc and just blow inside the player to get the disc working again.

Boy this film was fantastic! The time actually flew and with the numerous amounts of chocolate and biscuits to keep our stomachs happy we were on the edge of our seats especially in the final minutes of the film where Scarlett realises her feelings for Rhett after screwing him around for years. She is so mean and horrible and will do anything to get her way. She's amazing!

The basic story revolves around Scarlett O'Hara (played to perfection by Viven Leigh) who loves the dapper but quite frankly wanky Ashley. Scarlett though has captured the attention of the devislish Rhett (Clarke Gable) even though Scarlett just wants to be with the wanky softy Ash. With the American Civil War heating up and the old ways of the South coming to an end there is all sorts of confusio goin' on in lil' ol' Gerorgia.

This movie was the original soap opera. Fires, Births and even a dodgy horseriding accident couldn't stop this juggernaut from taking its place amoung the best films i've ever seen. The sweeping vistas of the Ol' South and the accompaning music were just perfect. It was so good that we sat though the film freezing up about 12 times. Is it too much to ask these days that your pirated DVD's have optimum audio and video? I think not.

This film gets my first 5 out of 5 even though Sab and I were screaming "Nooooo" at the TV when it froze just before the immortal line "Frankly my dear, i don't give a damn"

Ouite frankly, i'm glad i sat through it even if my ass was going into a coma.

I

Shoot Him! Shoot Him Now!!

If there is one thing in life that i believe in its this.

It doesn't matter where you come from, how old you are or what you do nothing is as funny as Daffy Duck getting his blown off by Elmer Fudd.

So tonight Sab and I decided to suscribe to the aptly named "Boomerang Channel" which has all the classic Looney Tunes, Jetsons, Flinstones and Wacky Races you can muster.

So with that i'd better get back to Pepe Le Pew acting like the stud that he is. He is the real Love Machine.

Peps Place Movie Review: 'Munich'

This is my first movie review for the blog so i hope you like it. To kick off preceedings its time to review 'Munich'

Steven Spielberg has been slowly making the transition from blockbusters to brainbuster films over the past 10 years. Sure his early work tinkered at the subject of human emotions but up until "The Colour Purple" all we saw from Steve was sharks, aliens and a sober Drew Barrymore (granted she was 5 years old at the time).

So earlier this afternoon Sabrina and i decided to head into town to watch Steve's latest film. Now from what i have read of the reviews so far there has been a lot of emphasis on the politics of the film rather than judging the film on its merits. It has been a sensitive topic for over 30 years (so sensitive that the International Olympic Committee has made no official memorial or statement about the matter) so with all the history behind this film has Steve finally made the transition from shorts to the big boys pants for good?

He certainly has.

'Munich' succeeds because not only of the usual Speilberg magic but of one element rarely seen in movies today...emotion.

For the three hours you are watching this film the screen pulls you into a world where a terrorists cause and a nations suffering are intersected by a group of five men determined to extract revenge. The leader of the group Avner (played brillantly by Melbourne boy Eric Bana) slowly self destructs when the machine of revenge starts to take over his thinking. It is a classic interpretation of a man thrust into a position out of loyalty to his country yet at odds with the loyalty to his young family. His 4 other team members each bring strength and strong character to the screen.

The look of the film is beautiful as there is a slight grainly 1970's feel to most of the picture which allows the audience to step back in time and be surrounded by the plight that stopped the world one september day in 1972. Before seeing this film i had purchased a copy of the Academy Award winning documentary 'One Day in September' to get myself pumped up to see this film. After watching the documentary, seeing the film and reading about the Munich massacre at various times during my life i can honestly say that i appreciate a hell of a lot more that im Australian. That may sound slighty selfish but in all honesty 'Munich' made me realise that here are no winners when it comes to ideology, religion or revenge.

During the film there are flashbacks to the actual kidnapping and holding of the hostages which Spielberg has tweaked to get your emotional pulses racing. I'm not a big fan of the words "Based on a True Story" or "Based on Real Events" as it gives directors the chance to flex too much artistic creativity rather than stick to the boundaries of the story but in 'Munich' Spielberg has delicately thread the needle of story telling again and ended up with a film though slighty drawn out makes you walk out of the theatre thinking about the world you live in.

That's a feeling that is rare in movies these days.

So on my scale i give 'Munich' 4 out of 5

Celebrate good times C'Mon!

Yeah i'm 27 now and i with this i have gained a new found sense of maturity...not.

My 27th birthday was a celebatory weekend filled with quiet moments and also crazy dares. Well considering i have never had dares to accomplish on my birthday i thought it was a crazy thing to do. The above picture was part of a series of dares that i had to accomplish but more on that later.

My birthday (which was last Friday) started out with a call from my Aunty Rhonda at 6.15am. Now my family is known for their early early morning phone calls so i was quite lucky that i got to sleep in till 6.15!

After a morning of phone calls which included mum and dad, i made my way to school where my morning kids wished me a happy birthday. Well it wasn't much a of a surprise as i reminded them all week that my birthday was on Friday. Anyways in the afternoon Sabrina and th afternoon kids surprised me with a birthday card and a cake which was really sweet. It was the best birthday i have celebrated ever!* (* = in a workplace situation)

Friday night Sab and i sat on the couch and destroyed all the chocolates sent to me as a present by Aunty Rhonda. I would also like to say a big thank you to Gran, Aunty Di & Aunty Loz for their presents (and they all fit thank you very much!) Also i would like to thank Louise for your lovely birthday card.

So Saturday rolls around and after a lovely lunch with some of my Chinese teachers it was out to dinner in the city with Sab and a few friends. After a lovely meal it was time to go out for a few drinks and also it was time to complete my birthday dares. Its a tradition in Hong Kong in our little group of friends to do some dares on your birthday. The dares that i had to accomplish were:

1. Get a condom off a woman - This took half an hour as it seemed that all the woman in Lan Kwai Fong suddenly became quiet. I finally got one off a drunk English girl.

2. Get three telephone numbers off women - Luckily the three Philipino ladies near the bar were nice enough to give me theirs.

3. Expose my chest (boobs and all) on the dancefloor. The above photo says it all

4. Walk out of the toilet with 2ft of toilet paper out of my jeans and go up to a woman and say "I had a good sh*t"

5. Go up to the largest guy i the room and ask him "Where can i meet men around here?" The guy was nice enough to tell me to "Propaganda. Up the hill and on the left" I was lucky to come out of that with my teeth and testicles.

6. Get to a bar and say "Who is the birthday Ho? I am! I am the birthday Ho!"

7. Go up to an attractive woman (yeah i know) and say "Whats up Doc? Hows your cock? Nothing wrong. Long and strong."

Needless to say i completed all these tasks and the night ended up at a Karaoke bar singing away till about 4am.

It was a lovely birthday and i'm thinking that next year i'd like to keep my shirt on.

And yes Dad, i remember what happened otherwise this blog wouldn't have been possible. I appreciate the sentiment though.

Have a great Valentines Day everyone or as it is known here at school "Friendship Day"

I'm going to Disneyland!!!

There are certain days during the year that have a special signifigance. For me they range from the solemn ANZAC Day to the silliness of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Today was Superbowl Sunday..well actually due to the time difference it was Mark Misses the Superbowl Monday. It still gets me every year and it's one event that i would love to experience live.

Now i'm not a huge fan of American Football but i have to tune into the telecast of the event that sums up all that is the good ol' USA. I love playing gridiron on the PlayStation back in Australia and i really enjoy watching the old NFL Films due to the slow motion footage and the voice of the guy who narrates them. He sounds like a slow motion car accident.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers who i have a close connection to. Well i play them on the PlayStation so in reality its not that special.

As i'm writing this the last minute of the game is being replayed on ESPN. The usual celebrations have started and i'm waiting for the Gatorade dunk on the coach. Now as huge as an even the Superbowl is, i do have five issues with the event.

1. The game goes on for too long. With 15 minute quarters how does a game go for nearly 4 hours?
2. Coming from a country whose national code of football has tackles all the time, why do i have to see (Ok the coach has been dunked) big guys in pads almost Riverdance after smacking into an opposition player.
3. I believe God does not take sides on Gamedays. I don't think God woke up this morning and thought 'I'd have twenty on the Steelers.'
4. Why do famous overseas acts play the halftime show? If it is Americas premier sports event then i wouldn't allow bands like U2 and the Rolling Stones play and i would have chosen good home grown bands like Poison or even New Kids on the Block.

And why do all the players want to go to Disneyland? Go to a strip place or an all you can eat salad bar.

I come from a country where we don't have Disneyland so if i ever won a SuperBowl and the ESPN Commentator asked me where i was going to go after winning the SuperBowl i would pause for a second..clear my throat and say ......
"I'm gonna go the pub and destroy a Chicken Parma!"





Now

Thomas gets Tanked

Hi everyone

I did this one night when i was fiddling around with Apples iMovie program last year. I forgot all about it until i found it on my hard drive.

I think i've been working at a kindergarten too long.

What might have been...

Kong Hei Fat Choi!

No thats not the name of a new Asian action star but it literally means "have a successful year" in Cantonese. A couple nights ago Sab and I decided to go down to the harbourfront to watch the fireworks. I have always enjoyed a good fireworks show. Growing up i would always look forward to the fireworks show at the end of the night. When i was younger i used to go to see the Triple M Skyshow over Albert Park Lake. I loved walking to the lake, sitting down on the blanket and watching a fireworks display that was usually sychronised with the music of the day.

Then again saying that you loved watching a fireworks display with Def Leppard's "Rocket" playing in the background not only show my age but it could also be seen as a sign of sadness.

But i'm the bigger man here and as i found out, the only one who likes fireworks. Sabrina hates them. She can't see what all the fuss is about seeing coloured explosions in the air. I was surprised a little in the passion she had for not wanting to be there.

Anyways we were going to meet Candace and her boyfriend Gary and watch the fireworks together. Roads were blocked off and there were thousands of people everywhere so we had no chance to find them. The police would not allow us to get closer to the harbourfront which made us a little bit frustrated. Sab and I found ourselves stuck behind a subway entrance about 300 meters up the road. We found ourselves no where near the water and surrounded by thousands of people. This really made the experience of watching fireworks over the harbour really really shite.

The fireworks started and we could see bugger all. About 10 minutes in even i had to fly the white flag and so we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and watch the fireworks whilst downing very very yummy food. A few minutes later Candace called as we were going ot meet them at the Hard Rock. Sabrina took the call and Candace was saying "we are here" we could not find them but they were there..sitting at the table next to us for the past 15 minutes and we didn't see them..they didn't see us.

So all in all it wasn't the best experience but luckily the new English teacher Fuji was also at the fireworks and got some great video and pictures. I'll upload the video when i get it next week off her.