Posts made during April, 2010
BYO sub machine gun.
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Yesterday I risked life (and losing my Spanish omelette breakfast) by flying upside down in a 1942 Tiger Moth biplane. My 30 minute joy flight (with ‘mild’ acrobatics) left from the Point Cook RAAF base and skirted the city before climbing above Port Phillip Bay for ‘more than mild’ acrobatics. I almost wet my pants and vomited at the same time on the first loop-de-loop. It really is rather disconcerting to be upside down with only a 70 year old seat belt from stopping you falling out. And just when I thought I was safe… (read more)
The gentle art of persuasion.
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Last night I went to the program launch for the 2010 Emerging Writers’ Festival at the Wheeler Centre. I did feel a little out of place, though. And it wasn’t because I am already an ‘established writer’. Emerging writers are very cool – there was lots of groovy facial hair and hipster clothes going on. I hadn’t been to the Wheeler Centre before (it only opened earlier this year), and I was very impressed. The Wheeler Centre (named after Tony and Maureen of Lonely Planet fame) is the centrepiece of Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature Initiative and as well as hosting literary events is also home to the Victorian Writers’ Centre, Melbourne Writers Festival, Australian Poetry Centre and something called SPUNC… (read more)
Flights for $3 (inclusive of taxes and toilets)
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
I’m off to Bali next month with my girlfriend Beth and I started looking at flights today. And being somewhat frugal I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the cheapest way to get there. After way too much time searching around I did find a cheap way, but it does mean detouring quite a bit. If we fly to KL with Air Asia (for $139 one way from Melbourne) we can get a flight from KL to Bali for $35. I’m not sure If we’ll do it because we’d have to pay for accommodation in KL and it does seem a lot of mucking about when we can fly direct to Bali in 6 hours, but boy wouldn’t it be fun being an ex-pat in KL. I’d be going to a different country every weekend if I worked in Malaysia. You could fly from KL to Singapore for $10, Krabi for $20 and Ho Chi Minh City for $25… (read more)
The Great Crash of 2010.
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Well, it’s been a while since I last blogged but that’s because the hard drive on my computer crashed. As in died. As in gone and all my data gone and never to be seen again gone. I had backed up all my photos and music (thankfully), but not, well, everything else. I lost all my manuscripts (at least I have the finished books!) and. worst of all, I lost the current manuscript I’m working on. YES, I KNOW – why wasn’t I backing it up? That’s because I’m a dumbass. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I do have all my notes, so not all is lost. Anyway, I have a new hard drive and… (read more)