Malcom In The Middle...of ATL

If that really was @frankiemuniz I just spoke to in P.F. Chang's at ATL airport...sorry I butchered your last name. Still good to see you. #frankiemuniz

Bums in the subway...

Will the REAL Taz please...um, sit and drink water....

There's Always Something Happening...

I can't believe I missed the whole thing...

Time for Timer...

In case you're too tired to do the math, you can see what time it is for me in all my likely scenarios by looking at this page...

V For Venial...

...venial, in that the movie "V for Vendetta" was bad, but not unforgiveably so. I decided to pop into the local cinema and watch it. It had action, popcorn, bad acting and heavy melodrama. Read my review: Blinded by preconceptions

Maybe Soupy Sales And White Fang Run This Store...

...but since that old story is just an urban myth, maybe I'd better leave it alone:

Pat and Vanna they ain't...

Catching up...

Yeah, so it's been a busy week at work. I've now driven a total of four times in Australia. The first was the white-knuckled trip from the airport to the hotel on my FIRST trip out here, and the second was a slightly-less white-knuckled trip from the hotel to airport on my SECOND trip out here.

My third and fourth ventures were work-related; I had to drive out to a co-workers house in the suburbs, and meet up with them for another trip down to Canberra. They trusted me to get there - but then insisted on doing all the driving to and from Canberra (in MY rental car - but I can't say that I blame them). Once we returned from Canberra, I was allowed to drive my rental car back to the hotel that evening - oh, goody.

I did do a little walking around the city this week. I spent some time walking around the Darling Harbor area, and snapped a few photos.

Déjà Tragique... (also: NOT Sophie's Choice)

When I left Australia over a week ago, the breaking news was about three miners in Tasmania that had been trapped. When I returned yesterday, they were STILL in the news. I had to check the date and make sure that the last ten days had really happened. Two of the three were still alive, but STILL trapped. Amazing.

Speaking of déjà vu, the CURRENT breaking news has a heartbreaking example of it. A little 5 year old girl named Sophie, recovering from horrendous injuries she sustained in 2003 when a car plowed into her daycare center, was injured again yesterday when she was struck by a car. She was being pushed in a stroller through a crosswalk when a driver carelessly tried to pass another vehicle that was STOPPED at the crosswalk. Amazing.

UPDATE:

In case you hadn't heard, the Tasmanian miners were rescued in relatively good health, and it appears that little Sophie Delezio may pull through this latest catastrophe.

Non-Australian Sport Centered Around Rednecks...

So, after 30 hours of traveling, and then heading straight to the office, I crash HARD once I hit the hotel. I'm entitled, right? I closed my eyes around 7pm, and never opened them again until 8am.

Maybe I crashed TOO hard. I open my eyes, and turn on the TV. It's on Fox Sports 2, which usually shows things like rugby, cricket, Australian rules football, etc. However, THIS is what I see:

I had to run to the window and look outside, to make sure where I REALLY was...
	So, I come back in time to see the end of the race...but when it was time to show the winner's circle,..."
...they cut away to an Australian Rules Football match, and then I was sure where I was again:

Where In The World Is Cartman's Winnebago?

As some of you have figured out, my brief hiatus from posting was due to a somewhat untimely return back to Va. It started as a personal trip, quickly became a business trip, and I'm now sitting in LA awaiting the flight back to Sydney. A kind fellow traveler clued me that United uses their Red Carpet Club as a lounge for international business class travelers - so I'm enjoying a nice cold complementary beverage as I endure my 5 hour layover...

If You Give A Cop A Doughnut Then He'll Want a Cup Of Tea...

So, I had heard a rumor that Krispy Kreme indeed had a store in Sydney, somewhere near the Wynyard train station. Since I was already out walking around while watching the parades, I thought I'd hunt for it.

Unfortunately, I was having no luck. However, since some of the streets were still roped off from the parade, I decided to test the theory of the "universal doughnut detector". Yep, I asked a couple of cops who were working the parade - and they gave me concise directions to the Krispy Kreme two blocks away.


As a token of my appreciation, I brought a couple of hot doughnuts back for them. Obligatory Note To Police Captain: Though they graciously agreed to pose with the doughnuts in the photo, they certainly did not improperly accept any sort of gratuity. Why, that would be a violation of protocol, and everyone who knows me knows that I would certainly never encourge anyone to violate protocol. Not me. Never. Unh unh. No way.

As an aside, the dougnuts are wicked expensive there. Though they taste the same as back home, expect to pay $2AUS per doughnut, or $12.90AUS for a dozen glazed. Yikes! I guess when you're that expensive, it justifies this pre-order form.

ANZAC Day

Every year, ANZAC Day is observed in Australia. What started as a commemoration of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps after the arduous and costly Gallipoli campaign has now grown into a national commemoration of all those Australians who have died in military operations. Across the nation (and even in Gallipoli, Turkey), services are held at dawn at the time of the original landing. Later in the day, veterans, children of veterans, active duty personnel, and military and school bands join in marches through cities across the nation. (In Sydney alone this year there were approximately 20,000 marchers).


In the US, I don't think our Memorial Day and Veteran's Day commemorations come anywhere near the scale of ANZAC Day - and while July 4th does, I don't think it approaches the sincerity with which the Aussies observe ANZAC Day.


Much was made of the fact that this is the first ANZAC that no WWI veterans were alive to participate. However, tradition holds that relatives of veterans (of ANY war) may participate and wear their medals in their stead. Here, we see both WWII veterans and children of veterans marching:

More WWII marchers...

The reason nobody is watching the band is because an old WWII bomber is flying over the city.

And yes, the Navy marches too...

The Manly man of Manly...

I decided to take a ferry ride Sunday out to Manly, a suburb up near Syndey's Northern Beaches. It's an easy train trip to Circular Quay station, where you can catch the ferries.

On the way out, I got some nice views of the opera house.

Once in Manly, I stopped for fish and chips at the Blue Water Cafe, which had a nice view of the beach.

Now - for the ladies. I think that I shall never see, a lifeguard more Manly than he:

On the trip back, I could see a nice silhouette of the Sydney skyline:

Tom Cruise Won't Get Off The Telly

Crikey! Even out here, I face an incessant barrage of ScienTOMogy. Every newscast seems to feature Tom talking about the baby...are the Aussie newscasters really interested, or are they just doing it to rub it in Nicole Kidman's face?

There's no critical reporting of the Tom/Katie debacle, either...nothing like in the States, where David Spade was heard to say "...on May 3, Mission Impossible 3 will be released...and Katie Holmes WON'T be."

Eating Skippy (and I don't mean peanut butter)

I have a new food fantasy - which can never become reality, since Robert Mitchum is dead. I long to hear him do a voice-over for a new television ad where, with triumphant Aaron Copland music in the background, he says, "Kangaroo - it's what's for dinner." MMMMMMM...tasty!

Some folks from work took me out to James Squire Brewery...good for its beverages in its own right.
However, something on the menu caught my eye, and I felt compelled to try it.

I wasn't disappointed. 'Roo tastes like fine, tender, lean steak. Why the heck doesn't Outback Steakhouse serve THAT?

Different Sameness...

Even things American look somehow different here...

Office Space...

I must say, there are worse views to be had from an office window. Here's the view from the conference room...

Wombat Blues

I saw three dead wombats today. I've been in Australia barely 24 hours, and already, I'm faced with this unspeakable horror. I saw their bloated road-kill bodies while on the road from Sydney to Canberra. Despite assurances from the song, they were NOT leading "a life, that's like, free of strife", and each seemed to be "one hell of a DEAD marsupial".

I can only take solace in the fact that I didn't kill them myself. Otherwise, it easily could have happened yesterday when I let my sleep-deprived self jump into a car with the steering wheel on the right, and drove from the Sydney airport to my hotel in the city during rush hour traffic, never before having driven in a country where left-lane driving is the norm.

Of course, I wasn't as disturbed by my rental car experience on Wednesday as I was by my cabbie experience on Thursday. After the long ride to/from Canberra with my Aussie work mates, I took a cab back into the city. From my Pakistani cab driver, I learned: that Bill Clinton was the best American president ever, that John Kerry would have been even better, that George Bush orchestrated the Bali bombing to fool the Aussies into supporting America on Iraq (and will have Musharraf murdered if Pakistan doesn't continue to back America), and 9/11 was a conspiracy by the JOOOOOOOOZZZZ. He also said that all Muslims around the world (apparently including himself) would rise up and conduct "the final war" if America attacked Iran. I gave him an extra-large tip, hoping he would bomb MY hotel LAST.

Eventually...

Okay, so until I get beez.com properly rehosted (yes, it's taking me a while), I'll use this as a temporary hosting facility for ...whatever.