Posts from ‘Tell Them to Get Lost’
And the winner is…
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Well, there’s two actually, and after a random pick of some great photos the winners are…. …. drum roll please…
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Crazy shorts and gumboots.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
There’s only one week to go to WIN one of TWO signed copies of Tell Them to Get Lost. All you have to do is to ‘Like’ the Brian Thacker Travel Writer Facebook page and post a pic of yourself on your first ever trip overseas. I’ll pick out two random winners on November 21st, sign a book for you then pop it in the post. It’s that easy. And just to embarrass myself a little further I’m posting a few more photos from my first big trip OS. Although the pic on the right was taken almost three years after I left Australia (it took me that long to get home so it’s technically still my first trip… (read more)
WIN a signed copy of Tell Them to Get Lost!
Monday, November 7th, 2011
I’m giving away TWO signed copies of Tell Them to Get Lost. All you have to do is like me. Oh, and show me a potentially embarrasing photo of yourself. Just ‘Like’ the Brian Thacker Travel Writer Facebook page (you’ll find the Facebook link on my blog page) and post a pic of yourself on your first ever trip overseas (all the photos I’ve seen of those hippies in 1974 with their bell-bottom pants inspired me). That’s me on the left back in 1987 on my first trip overseas at Madam Tussauds in London. I’m not quite sure why I’m dancing with the Pope, but I do have very nice high pants… (read more)
I’m off to the sunny smile isle.
Friday, October 21st, 2011
I’m just about to jump on a plane to Singapore for the weekend. I’m doing three sessions/panels/talks at the Singapore Writer’s Festival where I’ll be waffling on about travel writing and my new book Tell Them to Get Lost. I’ve got a, what could be interesting/wacky session talking about travel and philosophy with Julian Baggini, plus a panel with a couple of local travel writers including Wee Cheng, who makes me look like a travel novice. He has been to 206 countries and territories over the last two decades and is is listed in the 2008 Book of Singapore Records as the most well-travelled Singaporean. And I finish off with a very 1974 slide show about my travels for Tell Them to Get Lost. It was in Singapore… (read more)
Magical Ubud.
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
The last two weeks have been tough. I just got back yesterday from the fabulous Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali and before that I was staying with my brother in Queensland for a week (who just happens to have a holiday house on Fraser Island). I love the Ubud Writer’s Festival. It really is one of the best writer’s festivals in the world (okay Janet, it IS the best!). There was the usual abundance of great authors and speakers accompanied by large and appreciative crowds all taking place in one of the most beautiful settings in the world. And of course I do have quite the soft spot for Ubud and the writer’s festival because… (read more)
Grasshopper, Abigail and other 1974 TV hits.
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
When Tony and Maureen Wheeler set off at the beginning of 1974 for a year to research South East Asia on a Shoestring (which was the inspiration for my book Tell Them to Get Lost) they would have missed watching such classic TV shows as The Ernie Sigley Show, The Box, Happy Days and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Then again, leaving the country wasn’t a bad idea after all. 1974 saw the premier of quite a few long-standing TV shows including Happy Days (1974–1984), Little House on the Prairie and Molly Meldrum’s Countdown (1974–1987). 1974 also saw the end of… (read more)
Baby you can drive my 1974 car.
Sunday, September 18th, 2011
When Tony Wheeler set off to research South east Asia on a Shoestring in 1974 (which was the inspiration for my book Tell Them to Get Lost) he owned an old Austin-Healy Sprite (which he picked up for only $350 because it didn’t have second gear). But I bet he daydreamed about having a Ford Gran Torino. Cue Starsky and Hutch opening music. One of my favourite cars of all time was the 1974 Ford Gran Torino (driven by David Starsky). I so wanted that ’striped tomato’ (as Hutch dubbed it). And I so wanted Starsky’s big white woolen jacket… (read more)
Air travel (and mini skirts) in 1974.
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
When the Wheelers flew to South East Asia to research South east Asia on a Shoestring in 1974 (which was the inspiration for my book Tell Them to Get Lost) they flew TAA and wore bell-bottom jeans and floral shirts. The non-hippies in the 1970s, however, would often dress up in their Sunday best for a flight – men wore suits with ties and women would don their best dresses (even kids wore suits!). Air travel was still a novelty back then and in 1974, only 207 million well-dressed folks took to the skies… (read more)
My Coo Ca Choo and other hits from 1974.
Sunday, September 11th, 2011
When Tony and Maureen travelled for a year through South East Asia in 1974 (which was the inspiration for my new book Tell Them to get Lost) the only music they would have had the chance to listen to would have been the odd LP playing in a bar or a local radio station. There wasn’t even a Walkman to listen to (the first Walkman didn’t come out till 1979). Mind you, they probably would have been better off not listening to any current music anyway – particularly if they were playing the big hits of 1974. Those hits included the number-one selling song ‘My Coo Ca Choo’ by Alvin Stardust plus… (read more)
McFried Grasshoppers and other photos.
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
There is a new addition to my website. The Tell Them to Get Lost mini-site is up and running (just click on the book over there in the bottom right hand corner). On the site you will find the blurb for the book, an extract, links to some of the old hotels and restaurants in the book, a link to buy the book or ebook online (feel free use that one as often as you like!) and my photo album page with over 100 photos from my journey following Tony and Maureen Wheeler’s trip around South East Asia using the original 1974 South East Asia on a Shoestring as my only guidebook. Amongst the pics you will find… (read more)