Posts made during July, 2009
Vegemite and Ox Penis.
Monday, July 27th, 2009
I stumbled upon a website that listed the most disgusting foods in the world (by country) and amongst the camel’s feet, tiger’s testicles, pork uterus, ox penis, cow urine and maggot-cheese was Vegemite. Come on. Vegemite is not disgusting. Yes, it doesn’t look the most appetising, but it fair dinkum tastes good on ya toast in the morning. Also under the ‘Australia’ list were witchety grubs and beetroot! The ‘American’ list of disgusting foods was just as strange (as in strange that they made the list)…
Karaoke World Tour – Switzerland
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
They didn’t have yodelling on the karaoke list in Switzerland, but they did have songs about asparagus and breasts. It’s Chapter Seven of Brian’s Karaoke World Tour and this time we’re off to the Swiss Alps. I know Swiss karaoke bars pretty well because I must have gone to the same karaoke bar in Wengen, Switzerland at least fifty times. I was working in a ski resort for a tour company as a ski guide and we would take the ‘clients’ up to Sina’s Bar in Wengen every single Monday night for karaoke…
Happy Birthday to my blog.
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
I began the blogging caper one year ago today! So thank you blogees for reading my somewhat regular blogs. And the stats haven’t been too bad either. In my first year of blogging (with 72 blog posts) my site had 33,461 hits. And while I’m stat-ing away here I can tell you that my most visited blog was The biggest snowman ever in this world! with 1,236 hits. It’s my most visited blog because ‘the world’s biggest snowman’ is also one of the biggest search engine terms used to get to my site (which means that they are after stories about big snowmen and have very little interest in a travel writer from Australia). There has been some very worrying search… (read more)
I’m on the wireless this Saturday.
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
I’m joining Greg, Jodie and Macca on the Detours Travel show at JOY 94.9 FM this Saturday (and not be confused with JOY FM a Christian radio station in Sarasota which features Bible teaching programs and Contemporary Christian music). I’ll be talking about my latest trip travelling around South East Asia using the original 1975 Lonely Planet ‘South East Asia on a Shoestring’. You can tune in or listen to it online anywhere in the world at www.joy.org.au The show is on from 12.00 to 1.00pm Melbourne time (or 4.00am in Warsaw, 8.00am in Karachi or 9.00pm Friday night in Minneapolis)… (read more)
Karaoke World Tour – THE WHOLE WORLD!
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
I’ve crossed the line. Yes, I do love karaoke and I do try and hunt down karaoke bars around the world, but now I’ve got karaoke on demand on my computer whenever I want and I’m well and truly hooked. I was contacted by the lovely Teresa Lang from The Karaoke Channel Online asking if they could do a blog about my Karaoke World Tour and when I checked out their website I just had to join. So, I’ve been a ‘member’ for a couple of weeks now and I can’t seem to drag myself away from the site – particularly when I should be doing work. It’s a great website with over 5,000 songs to croon along to. And, as well as singing along you can also record… (read more)
Happy Birthday to me.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
I’m spending my birthday today in wintry Melbourne going ice-skating with my daughter Jasmine followed by dinner at a Teppanyaki restaurant (Jasmine just loves it when the chef throws food at her). I actually figured out yesterday that I’ve only had six birthdays in Melbourne in the past 20 years with ten of them being overseas (I also figured that because I wasn’t in the country then I didn’t technically have a birthday as such so I’m actually ten years younger!)…
Happy Jool-eye Fourth!
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
A few years back I went to the US of A to celebrate July 4th for my book The Naked Man Festival. I chose to celebrate the holiday in the town of Capitan, New Mexico because I didn’t want the anonymity of a large city. I wanted a small town parade followed by a great big small town party. I stumbled upon Capitan by typing in ‘July 4th parade’ on Google and, on page 37 of my search, found the ‘Village of Capitan’ website with pictures of their Annual Fourth of July Smokey Bear Parade. The parade seemed to be entirely made up of fat people sitting on the backs of trucks waving American flags. It was absolutely perfect. That was exactly the Independence Day experience I was after…
Karaoke World Tour – Philippines
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
It’s Chapter Six of Brian’s Karaoke World Tour and this time I’m in the Philippines. I was in Manila ‘couch surfing’ for my book Sleeping Around when my host suggested that we do what all good Filipinos do. Go to karaoke. We went to a small karaoke bar and when I told Jude that I was going to sing ‘My Way’ he said, ‘You can’t sing that. You’ll get killed!’ Only the week before a man had been shot dead in a karaoke bar for singing My Way. He was halfway through the song when the bar’s security guard yelled at him for singing out of tune. He ignored him and kept singing, so the guard pulled out a thirty-eight-calibre pistol and shot him dead…