I am a thirty something married gay boy living in Sydney, almost on top of the gay scene but not in it!
Why Sometimes blue?, because I love blue, but also I am sometimes blue :)
more about drew
I am paying for the weekend's (and last weekend's) exertions today. My body is telling me I need some rest by giving me a sore throat and a very slight head cold.
So unless the sore throat goes away today I will miss Yoga tonight!
On a totally unrelated note a mate called me this morning to say he had been knocked off his motorbike last night, he's OK but get this the car who knocked him didn't stop!
But it gets better too, no one stopped all the other cars just simply drove around him as he lay there on the road!
The boy tells me this is normal, people just don't want to get involved. I am amazed though, you see someone obviously in pain and just been in an accident and you just drive around them and pretend it didn't happen?
I am having a real struggle this Tuesday, I simply do not have the motivation to get things done and have had to really push myself along.
The weekend was trashy yet again, but oh so much fun!
I managed to get myself int the office yesterday at a reasonable time, whilst the boy 'worked from home', but though I am not tired I just lack motivation.
There is so much always to be done with work (the joys of running your own business) but sometimes it would be nice not to have the constant stress and anxiety of it all and just be an employee.
Mind you then I would probably complain that I wanted to be more in control hahahah
Anyway I am off to the gym tonight for the first time in ages (well since Finland actually), I promised myself last week that I would go but I was working my butt off and was tired constantly from all the stress.
Contrary to popular belief I am alive and kicking.
Last week was a big one with a new product soft launch and vereything that goes along with that. This week is mopping up the pieces from last week and recovering from another huge weekend.
We had meant to have a quiet weekend, catch up on things, do some work and some chores around the house.
On Saturday I did finally manage to paint the long wall in our downstairs living area, and boy was I surprised that two coats of paint took almost 6 litres of paint!
On Saturday night we went with some other friends to a mate's pre Halloween party way out in the suburbs (about 45 minutes out of the city on the freeway). I seriously though I had entered an alternate universe it felt so much like I was 17 and at someone from school's back yard party!
It was freaky but loads and loads of fun.
We had meant to have an earlyish night and g home sleep etc so I could work the next day.
But NO, what do we do? We end up staying there all night, and then in the morning went to Arq nightclub and then to a friend of friend's recovery party.
OMG talk about trash bags! And the poor puppy was not happy at being left at home either, poor thing was all sulky.
I had a bit of a stress attack this morning with one of my largest clients. Their eCommerce site seemed to be skipping orders in the back end and customers were getting seriously shitty.
An hour and a half spent wading through server logs and code finally discovered that the back up envoironment was used on Wednesday for a few hours and all the orders went to the backup server.
A major pain in the ass but at least it's all fixed now.
I have a headache today anyway from far too much to drink, we had a couple of friends over for dinner includingthe illustrious Margeaux who had never actually been to ours!
So not suprisingly after downing a large amount of wine and then some vodka last night I have a headache this morning. Oh well I will just have to make sure I drink large amounts of water today to compensate.
The hot AFL star Ben Cousins was arrested avernight for drug posession. There is just something about a bad boy that looks like this muscle stud which really gets us all going!
Poor bastard though, he looks like he is totaly munted in these pictures, but I suppose that's what you get if you put yourself in the public's eye and subsequently do something indiscrete (and stupid by driving under the influence).
I uploaded a new image gallery to the site this morning of Christian Bale, he is looking hot! Apart from that I am snowed under by work since I got back and even though I promised myself that I would go straight back to the gym since I have not been reguarly this year at all.
But that promise has gone by the way as I try and get on top of the workload again!
Mind you much better being busy than sitting here doing nothing and wishing I was back on holidays LOL!
It's back to semi normalcy now with things almost straight back to the grind of work and normal life. I am really suffering from jet lag this time round and am having a hell of a problem getting properly into the time zone.
I am falling asleep early at night and waking early, it is getting better so I am not all that concerned over it.
I had wanted to make some comments about my time in San Francisco and my trip over all so I am going to do a bit of that today, and be warned I am in a slightly bitchy mood triggered by some stuff with work.
Every time I go to San Francisco I am reminded just how much I love the place. We almost ended up moving there earlier this year for work but that didn't come through. We both love LA a lot and would probably move to either city given the chance.
Although as the boy says LA is better because it has more sun (like 365 days a year LOL). But for me LA would involve one small issue ... I would have to drive again something I have not actually done in about three and a half years.
But I am starting to think I want to start driving again and we have even been talking about next year getting a second car (one which I did not work about scratching LOL).
But back to San Francisco, The weather was perfect for our stay this time, beautiful sunny skies and really nice weather. We only had one night and a full day in the city but we made the most of it.
We had dinner with a friend who has moved to SF from Sydney and ended up of all the strange places an newly opened Australian / New Zealand Wine Bar in SOMA, go figure that one!
The next day our flight was not till almost eleven PM so we used the day for some shopping in town then we went to Sausilito for lunch and essentially drove the entire round the bay and across all the bridges.
You can't help wondering sometimes as you are on all these bridges just how strong and earthquake proof they are, but that's just my general strange anxiousness.
Travel Observations on Airlines
This is the bitchy part - I have to say that after travelling on Finnair Business Class for most of the trip having to get back on to one of the old QANTAS 747s was a huge shock. Whilst it is not uncomfortable as such and it's still above cattle class it did not come up to the standard of other flights.
The aircraft was probably a few years shy of my age and it certainly showed and sounded it's age. I flew one of the new QANTAS A330's to Tokyo at the start of the trip and the service and difference was extreme.
Talking about this with some people I discovered that the Tokyo flights are considered 'regional' and as such the staff are not actually employed by QANTAS but are contractors, Subsequently they are younger, fresher and more into helping and serving.
The crew on the SF to Sydney router were by contrast considerably older and less inclined to provide the same kind of service.
Overall though I have to take my hat off to Finnair and say just how amazing their service and aircraft were. If you have a chance to fly with Finnair I would say do it.
On the other hand my flight from New York to LA with American Airlines in Business Class was very ordinary.
Bottom Line on Round the World Travel
I did a total round the world fare in just over three weeks, which was probably a bit too much or too many countries. By the end of the second week I was over the travel and I think I would have liked to have come home. I also left some important business meetings right till the end of the trip, whereas I should have done these at the beginning. But we live and learn right!
Don't use facebook at Work!
I have to make this comment it's been bugging me for weeks now LOL. I share an office with another start up company and a lot of the staff are quite young and inexperienced. Like all good gen Y's they use Facebook constantly, and they are always sending messages, adding comments, applications and tagging images.
Problem is you can see exactly what and when they were doing this on their profile. Now for someone who runs a small business and has staff if I could see on a staff members profile that twenty times a day they were doing something on Facebook DURING BUSINESS hours I would be significantly concerned. Especially since they state they are 'really busy' with work.
You can add up just how much time a day someone spends on Facebook during the time they should be working and it's only a matter of time before bosses get wise to this and start cracking down.
Anyway I need to get my ass into gear and get to the office and get my day started!
San Jose is smack bam in the middle of Silicon Valley which means there are people living, working and commuting with serious money.
One of the most visible outcomes are the sheer numbers of private jets that are constantly landing at San Jose Airport. Since our hotel has the perfect view of the jets coming in in line with the room I have been amazed at the numbers!
I have a real love of private jets and totally understand how in the USA where commercial air travel is becoming more and more difficult, with increased security, queues, over booking and the aircraft invariably never running on time. Large corporations do not want their senior executives wasting half a day just to fly an hours flight from LA to SF.
Coupled with the much reduced cost, increased safety and time effectiveness corporations are using companies such as Flexjet, Netjet etc to buy either fractional ownership or to buy time in an aircraft.
We know a few people who own their own private jets in the states, but by far the most popular way to is to buy a time share.
We just don't really have the market for this in Australia, it's the tyranny of distance which means that short routes like Sydney to Melbourne etc are well served by the commercial airlines, whilst the longer haul routes to Asia and beyond are generally not cost effective. At somewhere between 10 - 50 thousand dollars an hour for a jet that can do Sydney LA non stop (the Gulfstream 550) it is pretty much out of the the average corporation's pockets in Australia.
But over here it is simply a way of life and if you have serious money you do not fly commercial. Instead you fly fro one of the small local airports to another small local airport. No queues and no rude staff.
Every time I have flown in the states commercially I have always had problems. A few years ago on a United flight from LA to Chicago a passenger fell ill on the flight and collapsed near the crew bulkhead. Unfortunately for the poor guy he was 'of middle eastern appearance' and rather than provide immediate medical care the crew took up defensive positions on the aircraft and we made a very fast emergency landing into Colorado Springs.
This even after the flight had been delayed two hours and I was almost bumped anyway! The crew were unhelpful as we were forced to wait at Colorado Springs in the aircraft for three hours while they did whatever was required.
Again this last weekend my experience with American was troubled. We were almost 'wait listed' off of our flight to San Jose and put on a flight two hours later. While that may sound OK to some it was already 7 O'clock at night and we both had meetings in the morning, so a late night was not what we wanted. We have learnt though in America and especially LA you pull rank or do whatever you can do to get something done. In this case the boy is an uber level Frequent Flyer which means airline staff are usually extra helpful, and in this case just the foot tapping and simple pointing out of the level of Frequent Flyer was enough to sort the problem out.
Anyway this afternoon we are driving to San Francisco where the boy is working this afternoon then we are having a drink(s) with a friend who now lives here! Then tomorrow it's a day of final shopping with the amazingly ridiculously high Australian dollar and a very late night flight back to Sydney and my puppy dog!
And just to remind you what my beagle looks like...
As you can see from the picture I am in San Jose CA (well OK maybe the song was a giveaway). The heart of Silicon Valley the home of companies such as Adobe who I visited this morning. The hotel we are staying at is right in the heart of downtown, but one of the cool things is the airport is right nearby and the flight path is literally right outside the building.
Ah how I love the dulcet tones of a Burt Bacharach song!
Yesterday we spent our last day in LA travelling up to Long Beach to have a look at the Queen Mary which was totally craptacular. OMG it was dreadful, not the least of which because of the idiotic American tourists.
But a highlight of the day was finally meeting my provider of forbidden pleasures (also known as Hershey Bars) Bryan from My firstimpre55ion which was fantastic although very short. By the time Bryan arrived we were running dangerously late to get back to LA grab our bags and speed off to the airport.
But even short time is good time and it was great to finally meet him!
Every time I go to LA and stay with the boys leaving is so difficult! It's amazing how friendships develop and even though you don't see people very often the friendship just seems to take off from where you last were 15 months later! Much like the girls in Finland, even though it had been five years since I last saw them.
I do love LA a lot, it's a fun place to visit, unwind and of course shop LOL...
The boys think that we are total shopaholics because we also end up shopping like crazy when we are in the US. But although we do tend to do a lot of shopping it's mainly because we don't shop when we are in Australia.
And let's not forget the clothes are far cheaper in the US and the Australian dollar is over 90c USD which makes a pair of $150 Levis in Australia less then $50 in the US.
The video was taken in the Abercrombie and Fitch superstore in The Grove LA, and contrary to what Benjamin Nicholas may think an old 35 year old fart like me can wear A&F without looking totally stupid LOL (well I hope so anyway).
So we are of to San Francisco tomorrow and then we leave late at night on Wednesday night back to Sydney where we will see our puppy dog!
I am seriously obsessed with the Apple iPhone, I want one so badly after playing with it. We have been into every apple store in our days of shopping and i have been playing my mates here too.
I want one even though back in Australia it would be a waste as the hacks are being 'patched' each time by Apple, GRRRRRRR
Mind you as the boy says too it needs to have:
Bigger Memory;
Better Camera;
3G;
Full Flash integration
and then it would be not just the bomb but the ultimate in cool all in one devices. Fuck I have a vision for the future that these sorts of devices are revolutionising so much!
I want one!
I am obsessed now really obsessed and I am even considering just getting an apple iTouch ipod just till the phone comes out!
I am on a very limited connection at LA which keeps on dropping in and out so this will be quite brief.
WE are astying with good friends who we alsways stay with and so far have been having a blast!
We hit the Abercrombie and Fitch store yesterday where we spent a fortune on making sure our wardrobe had enough new A&F clothes. Talking of which the new fitout of the A&F store at the Grove is way cool! Three floors of dark very groovy clothes, furniture and quite homoerotic art work is very cool!
I ended up going from the train from Exeter direct to my hotel and crashing for a couple of hours, as I was dreadfully hung over from the night before. But then I did get back into London and had a fantatsitc dinner with a friend and then we went out to a cool hole in the wall night club / bar in Notting Hill.
I must say that I really now want to go back to London and spend some time there after that night, as I said in previous posts my tastes has really changed and one of these things is my far more interest in the bigger the better cities.
anyway so only a short two more days in LA which is a huge shame as I would like to spend more time with the boys.
Off to San Jose tomorrow night for a day and a half and the San francisco!
Oh and the picture above is of the hottest guy I have seen in years, that's his hot perky ass at the grove LOL
Oh and one of my friends here has an Apple iPhone, I am so in love with it! IT is the best phone / device I have sen in a long time and I so want one!
Quite seriously there is a peacock in the backyard!
apparently it has lived in the tree behind the house for the last two years. How weird I don't think I have ever seen a real peacock and to have one on the backyard of the house I am staying is just plain weird!
When I lived in the UK nine / ten years ago I used to love the beautiful green countryside and I glossed over the fact that I disliked the standard dreary sameness of the houses.
This time round though things have very much changed. I came down to Exeter knowing that everyone bar the one friend had moved on, but subconsciously still expecting things to be the same. IE having friends here spending hours doing lunch and sitting in pubs and drinking.
But things have moved on, people have moved on and I have moved on.
It's funny, my time in the South West of the UK was both great fun and also clouded by much fighting and anger.
I can see now just how far I have come in the last ten years, how much my tastes have changed and just how much I have grown. My friend asked me whether I wanted to revisit old haunts while I was here and some I do, the beautiful gardens around the old castle, the old House that moved and the old city walls are all places I visited yesterday.
Whilst it was nice to wander through there was no emotional response to these places no clearing of the mind.
The other places I used to hang round with friends? Well I could go but it would not be all that interesting as it was the friends that made the places exciting! And the friends are no longer here they are spread out all over the world.
I must admit that I am looking forward to getting out of here, I am finding it quite depressing, the people are just sad the dreary grey weather is depressing and I have totally moved on from being here!
I am going to leave first thing in the morning and head up to London and find some vibrant life, I have a very early flight on Thursday morning and I am staying out near the airport so I will have to behave myself and make sure I get back to my hotel at a reasonable hour and I am not too shattered LOL.
It will be a bit annoying since I will have to either store my bags at the railway station for a few hours while I do some of London or I will have to go to the hotel check in and then get back to London.
Or if I am feeling particularly boring I can check into the Hotel and stay there.
Whatever way I go, I don't really know many people in London anymore so I will do some alone wandering.
Mind you I have a 7 am flight to Helsinki on Thursday morning and then a flight to New York and then after a four hour wait a flight to LA UGH! It is going to be one very very nasty day of travel!
Interestingly in retrospect I should have stayed down here only for two nights and gone to London today to have a full day and night in London, sigh we do live and learn!
So anyway off to have brunch and read the newspapers and have a laugh.
I am still totally flabbergasted by the total lack of service and inability to organise a piss up in a brewery by the Parisians.
Correct me if I am wrong, but when a city wins a major event like say the Rugby World Cup, the city would make sure the main tourist attractions were all open. This includes such silly places like the Eiffel Tower having all of it's lifts working and not making people queue for several hours to get up the tower.
While I am also at it this means that the airport (you know that's the place where people go to move from check in to their plane smoothly) is not under major and I mean MAJOR renovations to the point that you were walking through a building site trying to find the check in counter.
*sigh*
Whilst I understand the need for increased security and can understand waiting for your turn to go through the security check points, the state of the airport was laughable especially as Paris and France are hosting the World Cup.
At least on a good note the final full day in Paris was not without enormous merit. We finally got to the Modern Art Museum the Georges Pompidou Centre.
It has pretty much confirmed to me that I am a modernist and love my modern art and architecture. The collection was fantastic and we loved wandering through the gallery, but by far the most fantastic surprise was the restaurant at the top of the museum.
This was certainly not your regular fare at a museum but a culinary masterpiece of modern delicious food. The actual restaurant itself was amazing a sort of modern wonderland with groups of small rooms in fluid tunnels almost like being inside a brightly coloured sea anemone.
I have a theory that people only ever go to Paris once, see the sights and never return, so the people of Paris essentially hate the sight of all the tourists. Mind you I could be totally wrong and just have got the busiest time of the year.
Anyway onto the UK I have come and I am now in the south west in a small city called Exeter which is in Devon. This is the third time I have been back here since I lived in a nearby town late last century and I daresay this will be my last.
I am staying with a friend who I have know for about ten years which is great to see him and spend time with him.
It's quite amazing just how much a place can change in six years! Most of the people I used to hang round with have all moved on to other places, London, Plymouth and further afield. So this part of my trip is all about relaxing and revisiting places I have been in the past.
So far I have been shown the new shopping centre which has basically taken over the high street and made the whole area substantially different.
It's early morning here (well nine am) and I am trying to work out what I want to do today.