When the Cheshire emerges...

I was meant to make the trip to Penrith in Sydney's outer west yesterday which from Dubbo is about five hours away.

I was planning to present myself with a filled-out application form for Big Brother auditions.

But as I'm talking in a negative tense, I didn't go.

Excited to hear Big Brother Australia was coming back from a significant hiatus (although on a different channel with a host many aren't happy about), it was finally my chance to be eligible.

But filling out the form, I didn't feel as positive about the idea as I thought I would. I'm stable in life and live in a much smaller place where the repurcussions would be more sorely felt. Not that I would do anything really stupid, but people easily create rumours and negative innuendo and my work would be affected. And I really didn't want to miss out on my soccer game if I was doing it half-heartedly.

The perfect years for me to apply were those it had left Australian screens.

I was a bit disappointed because I've always wanted to go on this show over anything else on TV. I consider the concept the ultimate social experiment and I think I'd be an amazing BB contestant. At least, I've told I would be.

I will watch this year's season with interest to see how differently it's handled. I'm more comfortable going into this with a bit more wisdom and confidence under my belt, if I ever decide to get to an audition.

A year ago today I was at London, England to witness the prelude to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

At the time in an overview post I wrote the following:
"After Turkey, the Royal Wedding was amazing. Stood for 12 hours straight outside W. Abbey with a family I'd latched onto... saw Kate and Wills both go in. It was mental. Second camp-out in a week was okay. Not sleeping for 40 hours... not so much by the time I got on the plane to Cairo."

That was all I had time to write some time after the event because this was such a whirlwind. With three days in between finishing my time in Turkey and arriving in Cairo for my Egypt tour I had decided to make the cross-Europe journey to London for the big day (somewhat late to miss out on extremely cheap tickets for one leg).

I was in London for something like 30 hours... got there late in the afternoon of the 28th, and the plan was to suss out the route about midway because I didn't think I had any chance of getting near either Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey. However, deciding to try and walk that route from the final destination would mean I never got there. Thankfully.

I met two mothers with their kids who were schoolfriends from just outside Suffolk who had travelled for the day. They had no idea where they were going either and I decided to tag along with them to suss out the crowds. It was just insane. Took forever to get 100 metres down the road, the path was often stalled, and then when they got to their chosen spot I wasn't sure what my plan was.

They camped out in a corner hidden from the main view on the presumption others would be asked to put up the tents and they would pounce. Decent plan. They offered to let me camp with them, and the kids liked me so that was a bonus. Figured I'd give it a shot, but there was a small problem. I was only checked in for a night at my hostel.

Fighting the crowds once more, I got back to my base, got my essentials, checked out and put my luggage in storage and off I went. I paid $AUD30 to have someone hold my luggage. But well before the clock struck 12 I got back on the Tube and managed to find them again. Miracle.



The night was interesting. In the one wander I could take I found a Scandinavian journalist who wanted to interview the American lady I'd been chatting to because she'd been there the longest and was a Royal Wedding veteran (number four I think this was). I randomly got to hold his camera for a minute which was cool, I so should've done a runner. But I didn't - I went back and found they'd gone. WITH MY BAG.

I found them. But my heart was still pounding. My PASSPORT was in there. EVERYTHING. I was so lucky they were such good people.

After 10 hours of standing, they came. We didn't see the celebs but when William showed the screams were intense. And then after he went in the chants of 'Kate, Kate' grew stronger and stronger. Seeing her come out was even more crazy. The people in front of me had moved around so my view was ruined. But I still got my money shot.

Just a quick comment I want to make: my friend pointed out that Loki as depicted by Marvel is nothing like her knowledge of the character from Norse mythology, and as such she was a bit disappointed. I can't say to know anything about the myths but found it an interesting concept that if that's true there mustn't have been anyone else worthy to Stan Lee and co. in filling that void...

For the film as a whole, such huge hype has preceded this event and it held up to expectation. Plus I was excited to see Tom Hiddleston in such an extensive role (because authenticity or not, Loki's a great character) after he couldn't tell me much when I interviewed him for Thor :)

Blog exclusive: Personal opinion: the two hottest Chris' in the universe.

Rating: 4/5

*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 28/4/2012

MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEW? See what I thought of The Lucky One.

I can't decide on my shoe of the week. They're all equally tacky. If anyone has any ideas of what they think is their favourite, for ANY reason at all (open forum people) then go for it, I'd love some outside input.

A year ago today I was at Gallipoli, Turkey, for the Anzac Day Dawn Service.

While I delved a little into the week I'd spent around Istanbul at the time, reflecting on it now I know just how wonderful the experience was. I made some amazing friends on my six-day tour which definitely makes it all the richer, and we were all there for the right reasons. Going to Gallipoli was one of, if not THE most, sombre experiences of my life. And it wasn't just the service, it's also the walk you make back up to Lone Pine, seeing the service there, then the uphill climb to the highest point at Chunuk Bair for the Kiwis. Seeing the Turkish at their own service along the way was a surprise that I should've expected but it helped sink in that there were two sides to this conflict that still feel the effects generations on.

We got to feel a small part of what they had to deal with, the night just bearable but the day growing colder and colder as it went on. I don't remember being so cold for so long, probably ever in my life. Thankfully there was no rain.

Lone Pine

Istanbul was possibly the biggest surprise of my entire trip because I had no idea what to expect from it and I walked away only feeling like I was done with Istanbul because I was sick and just generally over being sick.

That never translated to being over Turkey.

Here are a few more photos to sum up my Topdeck tour:

Getting to know tourmates over a good ol' smoke-up

Galata Tower. Unfortunately I failed to go in...

Inside the Blue Mosque

The Hagia Sophia

The winding streets were crazy enough compared to inside the Grand Bazaar!

It's great to play a soccer match with support on and off the pitch, and you want your resting teammates to know they're in comfortable and safe surroundings. But I've never seen that comfort for the benched players reach this extreme. Maybe it's a regional thing?

Thought I would just share the visual of this from a Dubbo game on the weekend as a random snap. Feel free to share it around :D

WHY do I have to be tempted to travel all the time? And WHY does it have to come to me in the form of a physical letter which I can't just 'delete'?

American Express have an alliance with Qantas Frequent Flyer to present what they see as the ultimate membership credit card, and the letter telling me this is still lying on my kitchen table.

I've never had a credit card. The only reason I even have a Debit card is to purchase things online, but nevertheless it's still my own money. If I had a credit card I would turn into someone fairly nasty as well as terrible with financial management I imagine.

But it's still there. And I've really considered crossing that line.

Leaving a capital city reminds you of what you usually take for granted. There you have access to cheaper flights where Qantas doesn't even cross your mind as a first choice. Living regional where the only options are Qantas and Rex, getting those points - for whatever purpose - becomes a much higher priority.

The thought of earning more excites me, although deep down I know I'll be waiting at least another year before they're able to be used on a flight. Now I'm just wishfully thinking of where I would go...

No, I have to throw this out. Right now.

That was meant to be my last cake for a while, but I needed to use up ingredients. After this I should stop or I'll make people fat.

Straight off the top, I'm a bit of a Zac Efron fan. I think he looked incredibly hot in this film but that was really the best thing about it (which as a film critic is unfortunately not enough)... if you agree, or disagree, with my thoughts please voice them here!

The Lucky One (M)

Perhaps it's meant to be. Logan (Zac Efron) serves three terms in Iraq as a US Marine, surviving bomb attacks and raids after his best friend is killed in combat. He believes a photo he found of Beth (Taylor Schilling) brought him good luck, and on returning home he sets out to find her and give his thanks.

But life, in his circumstance, is never that simple. Logan struggles to explain about his time in warfare and why he's appeared in Beth's life, and hangs around to befriend her, son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart) and her grandmother Ellie (Blythe Danner). To Beth's ex-husband Keith (Jay R. Ferguson), Logan is a threat and does his best to get him to leave.

Adelaide director Hicks seems an odd choice to helm this sort of offering, Sparks adaptations having the critics that they do. The formula of troubled souls that come together to find romance remains, with small-town pettiness from people or situations appearing as the obstacle to finding true love.
Walking into a Nicholas Sparks adaptation brings along a certain level of expectation, just as much as any superhero or other franchise. The all-American romantic fare he creates screams 'movie potential' to production companies targeting a soppy audience, but Scott Hicks makes it clear that this isn't a huge tearjerker.

It also comes as a warning to parents that Zac Efron's not the boy from High School Musical anymore. While his star continues to rise it's not from this, his performance not exciting and relying on those (gorgeous) blue eyes of his to try and seal the deal. He can't even catch a break off-screen, the premieres in Australia arguably overshadowed by the arrival of those boys from One Direction.

The initial impression of a young boy entering the 'real' world with 'real' problems sticks around, and while returning from war would indeed throw you off how to be normal it doesn't make for comfortable viewing. Schilling as Beth disappointingly never makes a comfortable or believable fit as someone Logan's age, but thankfully Danner as Ellie provides some normality and a little bit of humour to help this one along.

Finding love takes time, and this plods along happily until the climatic and somewhat unnecessarily dramatic ending. Hicks has done well with the content to make it an easy watch, but the lack of interesting characters doesn't make it memorable. The exception is Stewart as Ben, who at 8 can play violin, baseball and chess with impressive skill. He's really the lucky one in this story.
Rating: 2.5

*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 21/4/2012

Post #150, boo-yah! Momentous occasion #justsayin'

TGIF, I finished this off at work while I'm waiting to be assigned things to do. Again I've been asking myself today whether something's wrong with me for actually liking a shoe this week on my calendar...

With a simple black dress, fitted jacket and tights I think these could look really funky. Or am I totally off the mark?

***

To other shoe news: I got a pair from home sent to me! Yay!

Today has been a poignant date for me in the 2012 calendar, marking a huge milestone in my life.

A year ago today was a very special time for me - leaving Australia for Singapore and then Europe for the first time by myself.

It was an emotional morning after a 4:30am rise. I was worried I'd packed too much (as always), worried I'd forgotten something, and then after all that had major self-doubts about the 15 weeks I was about to embark on. I'd been unsure of the direction I wanted to take in life after failing to find a 'career' job post-university and felt guilty for wanting to experience Europe a second time... all sorts of things were going through my head.

I cried for most of the way from Adelaide to Melbourne. Then stepping on the connection to Singapore breathed new life into me and I was excited. I remember the amazing feeling I had walking through Changi Airport on arrival so vividly still, and then in the shuttle into Singapore City...

My first photo off the plane, from the shuttle.

First song I heard on the radio: Wonderwall by Oasis. A foreshadow of the epic events that were about to take place.

***

I heard Wonderwall today as I hopped in the car for a five-minute trip. Fancy that... I remembered how HAPPY I was in that moment a whole year ago, hearing that song and looking out the window to this and more greenery. Rushing towards me was a feeling of every possibility opening up to you and wanting to grab everything with open arms, the good and the bad. I'd had that experience in 2010 with my friends but now I was going it alone. And the thought of becoming a true solo traveller thrilled me.

I'm going to be posting a bunch of A year ago today... posts over the next few months to make up for my lack of picture blogging during the trip itself. And also to act as a bit of catharsis because I can't believe that much time has already passed. The last 12 months have been truly life-changing, during that trip and the events following.

***

In those 12 months I was lucky enough to have my 2012 adventure across the ditch. I loved the two weeks I spent in New Zealand and it clearly wasn't enough. I've just written a series on my time there; I hope those who saw my entries enjoyed reading about my experiences as much as I've loved reliving them!

The series in full, if you want to go back all over again too:

New Zealand makes you: test your limits
New Zealand makes you: buy vintage and not buy shoes
New Zealand makes you: spend all your money and then some
New Zealand makes you: thankful for the Australian summer
New Zealand makes you: discover their sweet as confectionery
New Zealand makes you: too busy to record your thoughts
New Zealand makes you: realise they're not Australian
New Zealand makes you: laugh at misfortune
New Zealand makes you: dress up as an elf
New Zealand makes you: try McDonalds

Like the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Australia and New Zealand have similar menus. I hadn't visited an Aussie Maccas in some time before heading over the ditch so I remain unaware if the Chicken Scorcher was also a limited edition burger at home. This came after a four-hour bus trip and I was grateful for it.

New Zealand really made itself known on the Hollywood scale after the likes of The Piano but really it was a trilogy by Peter Jackson that caused an explosion and formed a decent part of the reason for me wanting to visit.

In Wellington I got myself on a Lord of the Rings full-day tour. EPIC.

Me as Legolas in Rivendell.

Not one of my finest moments but it was fun...

This tree was actually never in the film, merely for the famous promotional picture of Legolas ahead of Fellowship of the Ring.

Other highlights:

Hiding from the evil forces as we left Hobbiton.


*I remain in touch with Frodo (left) and the Black Rider. Good times.

Visiting Weta Cave.


 And actually seeing something on The Hobbit set from outside Stonestreet Studios.

As I said in my previous NZ post, the Kiwis have the right sort of attitude for life. As such, they've definitely had to rely on it in times of hardship in the last year.

The visit to Christchurch was terribly saddening because of the destruction that still remains after the big earthquakes. I was shocked to see that there was just that much left to clean up still and had destroyed not only buildings but the routine of life - work, socialising...

But the lovely people of the city seem to be doing much better than anyone's giving them credit for. Laughing in the face of misfortune #1:

How could they be laughing at themselves like this? Another one was "It's considered normal to have a drop hole in the backyard." (I was told by my friend later that was because the sewerage was wrecked in a large part of the city). I look around incredulously and the assistant just said to me "It's good, isn't it?" I replied that I thought it was so great they can see the situation as such and she shrugged and said:

"You just have to laugh at it, what else are you going to do?"
"Some days are hard but you keep going."

Amazing spirit from these people all around. I really should have bought the book.

***

I had my own slight New Zealand misfortune in the idyllic Bay of Islands as I was about to head to the beach. My tiny orange padlock (and I mean tiny) was stuffing up on me and decided to lock all my stuff in the hostel room locker after snapping the key clean in half. It was already late afternoon so I was on limited time for good sun. Bolt cutters were missing on site, and then the lovely Mexican receptionist went everywhere hunting for them. What he found were garden shears.

Laughing at misfortune #3

After being watched by my German and Dutch roommates not having much luck, I enlisted their help to pull the lock as I tried to crush the loop bit. Mr Mexican Man had to attend to customers... he came back a few minutes after we'd reduced the tiny lock to this.


Needless to say, I didn't get to the beach. That waited another day.

Being of Greek heritage, I celebrate Easter in the Orthodox tradition and follow the old calendar, which this year fell a year behind the Christian Easter. As such, I've done the church rounds this past week.

For those who have never been in a Greek Orthodox church, it's adorned with icons of the saints considered important in the history of the faith.

There's a lot of chandeliers, the women (traditionally) sit on the left and the men on the right, and most wear black.

I thought I would put up a couple of photos I originally took for the purpose of showing my mum (who wasn't around with me) to show those of you who haven't seen the inside of one of our churches!

I went on Palm Sunday to mark the beginning of the week, which also signified the start of my fast off meat as I do for Easter every year. I thought the palms we were given by the priest were beautiful.

Good Friday is the prettiest you will ever see a Greek church though, with a particular centrepiece adorned with flowers to mark the mourning.



Dubbo's Our Lady of Myrtidiotissa

We call Jesus' coffin the epitafio, which is carried around the block outside during the service. In Dubbo's case it just goes around the outside of the church itself because there's room, and it was lovely.

Last night I attended the midnight mass when Jesus was said to rise and stayed on after the service to enjoy some soup as is tradition. Met some people in the community and also tried magiritsa for the first time. I stupidly didn't mark this occasion with a photo but I should've. It's a soup with the liver, lungs, heart and intestines of a young lamb.

A photo I found so you get the idea.


I managed to eat about half a bowl.

***

Being by myself celebrating, I bought my Sunday lunch from a nice pub as reward for the week. Angus Sirloin steak. Yum. Goodness me I love meat.

Χριστός Ανέστη!

Battleship (M)

The people over at Hasbro HQ will be sitting in their chairs gloating over their latest money-spinner. As they evolve their interest in Hollywood from making films out of games-turned-TV-shows up to just making films straight from games, it seems to be working. But the buck stops there, with the premise of their latest enterprise throwing too much in to fill such a vastly empty (plot) hole.

The Transformers films have enjoyed success because of the toys’ original longevity, which brought along a TV show that developed the characters so they were loved or hated. With boats it’s a bit harder to achieve that unless you inject characters into the mix, but while the characters in this film are given time to develop there’s no sense of connection. For either side, being that the bad guys are aliens.

Hopper fights a war with himself as he battles the enemy and shows weak character, proving quickly as someone you don’t want to sympathise with. In short, the guy is an idiot, and while Kitsch goes by what he’s given it’s a bad handling of the lead guy as an underdog from director Peter Berg (Hancock).

Enough said yet again. The shoes on my calendar this week were all pretty bad but this design is disgusting. And a few days after the weekend page's style tip from Helen Mirren too. Fail.


To other better shoe-related things, I bought some heels last weekend! These Miss Shop (Myer) black suede-type pumps were $36.15 down from $49 and I couldn't resist. I have similar shoes, but they have never been comfortable (for Mollini that's deplorable) so I thought these would serve me better. They've been tested out in the office today and are looking pretty good. They're higher than most of my other work pairs so not feeling so great, but still bearable. For the price, a worthy investment.



I'm back on reviewing this week, so check in tomorrow night for my thoughts on Battleship.

But at the same time I think they kind of are...

Putting things into context, I always had the idea that the Kiwis were similar to Australians, which they definitely are in their laidback atttiude. But among other things, sampling the best of the sweet stuff in New Zealand made me realise that they do have their differences.

Except for when it comes their news.

While a story of how one parent was petitioning for bail laws to be changed was worthy of nationwide news and a lead, it fell second best all day to showing Australian reports of Julia Gillard going head-to-head with Kevin Rudd for the leadership (again). They do have their own political parties don't they?!

Of course they do.

What I'm really getting at here is that sometimes, just sometimes I think they DO want our approval and to be connected to us.

We have rivalries, yes. They pay us Aussies out like there's no tomorrow, yes. And we give them a bit of a stickling too. But we help them. They WANT us there. We are brothers.

***

In totally unrelated, and now slightly untimely, news, I have to mention the madness that was what they dubbed 1D-Day. One Direction hitting Sydney yesterday was absolutely ridiculous. I'm six hours away and thought they were screaming right in my ear. I, like everyone else in my workplace, just don't get it. Perhaps if I was 14 again...

The time you spend on overseas trips should be amazing. It's a time where you forget about everything you know and just roll with what you want to see and do.
(Okay, you can't forget your bankcard details and how to say 'hello, how are you' in any given language...)

Writing for a living now, I expected that a three-week holiday wouldn't present any problems in keeping up to date with my thoughts. The two weeks in New Zealand particularly were meant to be very relaxed.

But as I discovered once again, I'm notorious for not being able to keep up to speed.

Edinburgh, 2011

In New Zealand and on my European trips, I loved sitting in a cafe and just wiling away a couple of hours over decent sweets and processing my recent experiences. Sitting in JK Rowling's seat at The Elephant House writing as she did for Harry Potter was pretty awe-inspiring to say the least.

But all in all, my European travels were bad. For trip one (2010) I wrote about 30,000 words after coming home, which I think took the better part of two weeks, or months maybe. Trip two last year is even worse. Yes, IS.

I'm still trying to recount events.

From as early as April when I left. IT'S APRIL AGAIN NOW. Let's just say I've had a huge weight on my shoulders for some time.

Queenstown, 2012

Back on New Zealand, I had too good a time to be writing to myself every night. It was more chilled overall but I still wandered around places more than expected. So instead of writing a blog for my lovely readers last night (whoever you may be, make yourselves known one day and say hi :D ), I focused on finishing the latest thing that I'd started. And at 11:58pm I was DONE.

A massive wave of relief came over me, as well as a blistered finger and cramped arm. Yes, I hand-wrote it all. And that was only for a three-week trip.

I've been working on and off on collecting Europe 2011 thoughts for some time, but with this achievement (and a welcome change in working hours) I think I'm on a roll. The sense of achievement I'll feel when this is done will be UN.BE.LEIVE.A.BLE, because I AM going to do it.

DO you have a bad record with diary entries on holidays? I feel like I'm the worst in the world so I'd love to hear what anyone thinks!

Turns out it even has its own Facebook page. I'm torn between what is right and wrong with the mullet and so am yet to join it. The mystery for me continues as it gives no explanation as to why he has grown it as such.

To Collingwood and briefly on a better note, Dale Thomas' hair is looking good cropped after his shave for charity. This was news to me, I didn't recognise him lol.


Then there's Dane Swan, who continues to take me by surprise. I'm not a fan of Collingwood by any means, but I appreciate this guy's talent. It's just a shame to see him go from this unassuming humble guy to wanting to stand out with all the tattoos and a new military-style do that makes him look like a skinhead from the 80s. Sorry man.




This combination does nothing for Swan whatsoever. He was one of the first to really bring the tattoo sleeve to the game (not a good thing in my opinion), and now he's going full pelt. Yes he plays for Collingwood, but even with that shame on him it's still a bit much. I kept thinking I was watching a game from 1982 in HD or something with all of these elements combined.

I have mixed opinions on the whole tattoo thing, but focusing on the game and its obvious explosion of tattooed players, Swan (and Dayne Beames among others) have singlehandedly brought the overdone pointless tattoos back. Look at the hand tattoos on Swan now, and LEG tattoos (for me the worst). He's putting them on places that scream 'bikie!!!' and disappointingly it distracts you (well me at least) from the game/talent.

What I don't like the most about his bogan revival is that there's no real reason for it. He said so in an SMH article published yesterday. Seriously dude, you won a Brownlow and that's cool, but you've clearly let it get to your head. Stop now before you regret it. Please. And Maric, your locks have to go.