Monday, May 31, 2004

The best news I've had all year - Beer can be good for you.

"MODERATE consumption of beer helped protect the liver from cirrhosis and other diseases, a Spanish researcher said yesterday.Susana Martinez from the University of Leon spoke at a conference of nutrition experts in Barcelona, Spain.Beer contained anti-oxidants called flavonoids which helped to protect the liver from inflammatory processes, Ms Martinez said.A moderate consumption amounted to 33 centilitres for women and twice that amount for men daily."

It gets better;

Cancer risk from using condoms
"MOST condoms contained a chemical that causes cancer, German scientists said yesterday. Researchers at the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Institute in Stuttgart said it found the carcinogen N-Nitrosamine in 29 of 32 types of condoms it tested. "It is one of the most carcinogenic substances," they said. When the rubber material comes in contact with human bodily fluids it can release traces of N-Nitrosamine."

My question is - why aren't Australian institutions doing this sort of research? I want some egghead from Monash to find that eating meatpies makes you sexy and watching telly makes you live longer.


Sunday, May 30, 2004

There is now a Kids Day. There wasn't a kids day when I was a kid. Whenever I had the cheek to ask on mothers day or fathers day why there wasn't a kids day, my mum or dad would angrily tell me "because every day is kids day!"

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Have I been hiding under a rock? I've looked at the news and I can't seem to understand any of the stories.

"MALAYSIA has arrested an alleged middleman in the international nuclear black market scandal surrounding Pakistan's disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan." Wha?

"...Gerry Gleeson...was making a courtesy call only, to say the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, the government body he chairs, was poised to make an extraordinary multimillion-dollar bid for the beleaguered SuperDome." Eh?

"BANKS to Telstra's troubled Hong Kong joint venture, Reach, yesterday angrily rejected its lowball offer to buy them out of their $US1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) debt at a mere 20c in the dollar." Huh?

For some reason I don't understand any of these stories -I have not the faintest clue what they are about. What scandal? Superdome? Who's buying what now?

OK, I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to financial stuff, I don't have a clue. The financial report on the news could be spoken in a foreign language and I probably wouldn't notice. "Oh, the footsie wootsie went down and the hang seng deng xiao peng went up and the david jones index went sideways. Here's the weather." But it's disturbing to me to read the front page and feel like I've just returned from the moon. Now I know how all those space monkeys felt.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

The question recently came up over what koalas taste like. Now seeing as how all they eat is eucalyptus leaves, the concensus was (backed up by historical documents) that they do, indeed, taste like eucalyptus. So if you had a cold, instead of a vicks vapodrop, you could have a quick koala kebab. Mmmmmm, eucalyptastic!

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Who the hell do I know in Israel?

Monday, May 24, 2004


Circuits today. Takeoff, left, left, ,left, left, land, wash, rinse, repeat.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Apparently, I've just won the "GLOBAL EMAIL LOTTERY BALLOT." Bugger me, I don't even remember entering. Fortunately "ROGER VESTALL ,GLOBAL-AFRO Zonal Co-ordinator" emailed me on my ilikeigiveafuck.com email address. How appropriate. I won "due to the mix up of number" and scored "total sum of US$1,000,000.00 (One Million United States Dollars) in cheque." Woo-hoo! I don't even remember entering but it turns out I was "selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system." That explains it. I'm not really supposed to tell, this is "part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscurpulous elements." Like the unscurpulous elements in Nigeria who sent me the email. Scumbags.

Friday, May 21, 2004

Another two band titles;

Six pound baby,
The Job with No Name.

Oh - this sort of thing makes me chuckle. It's sick, I know, just don't take it seriously. Mmmmkay?

Pssst...don't mention the war.

Godwin's Law

"Godwin's Law prov. [Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful. "

Thursday, May 20, 2004

I saw an awesome name for a band today - Iron Aviary. Their first album is entitled "this Double Wall." They're a sort of modern rock with a bit of funk mixed in - maybe a cross between Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead. And Flatt, Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys for variation. Triple J will no doubt soon be playing their latest single "Intersection," a title which does not appear in the lyrics, nor related to the content in any way. They are expected to tour later this year, just in time for the "Big Day Out."

Oh, yes, I made the whole thing up. Plausible, ain't it?

Sunday, May 16, 2004

I met up with Stu and Michelle last night, we gobbled down some EXCELLENT marinaded beef ribs with steamed vegies. Stu and Michelle weren't sure if I was a vegetarian or not and checked to make sure I wasn't eating the beef ribs to be polite. Trust me, if a vego were to wolf down ribs like I did I'd say he should readjust his philosophy. Stu and I then went out on the tiles to meet up with some Pommy mates of his at the Zanzibar in Newtown where all the 'hip' young people like to 'hang out.' As is quite common with these events it started out quite normal and got progressively weirder as the night went on. I drank an alcoholic beverage identical in flavour to Dr Pepper, which I love, and I now have only the vaguest recollection of what was in it, although I'm fairly sure beer was key ingredient. Stu and I had to explain and to a degree defend the Australian greeting "howyagoin?" to an unconvinced English girl who doubted the sincerity of the question. Soon after I pretended to be Danish when requesting a song from a DJ with a very dodgy Avid Merriam accent. Returning to the Zanzibar we spotted a girl looked the spitting image of Emma Thompson. It took us ten minutes to think of Emma Thompson's name. I went over to remark on the curious similarity and was taken aback at the purest of Oz accents flowing from her mouth. Like hearing Prince Phillip say "howyagoin?" The night ended up with me declaring my undying love of flight and explaining that I had started to prefer planes to girls. That might have been drunk talk. Everywhere we stumbled to it turned out to be five minutes before closing time as if the barman had seen us coming but taken pity on us enough to serve us one last drink. Eventually I put my indefatigable beer sandals on and staggered off in the direction of home before flagging down a taxi for a $10 cab ride home with a driver who asked my if I knew the way, when I wasn't sure if I knew my own name. I really hope my liver specialist isn't reading this.

Friday, May 14, 2004

I've been asked to take some aerial shots, so here we are.
The flight was a quick one for a bit of fun and to reinforce all the general handling stuff.

The light house on Barrenjoey Head.

At last - an action shot. Rod and I with the sun in our eyes.

The Mighty Hawkesbury with sun effect.

Pretty dark by the time we got back in WWM.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

I was standing at the checkout at Franklins while the jingle played "...you don't waste time, waiting in line," and I noticed a display holder/box/container type thingy (technical description) for leftover Easter Eggs. Should Easter Eggs be capitalised? Probably not. Anywho, aforementioned cardboard-box-with-hole-in-front was decorated with rabbits wearing clothes in Hobbiton. It struck me that the adornment didn't create itself, an artist had to draw that fantasia of rustic anthropomorphism. What sort of drugs do you have to take to come up with that stuff?

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

I just got an email from Stu and Michelle who gave me a place to stay and showed me around London. They gave me their phone number but it is too late to call so I will call them tomorrow night. If you're reading this - G'day, I'll speak to you soon.

I am told the 'it's too late to call' thing is an Australian thing. Then call me a proud Australian.

If you're talking to a member of the opposite sex and they say something you find...odd, chances are you'll nod your head and murmur, "hmmm, interesting." If they're REAALLY attractive they could say something that makes you want to jump from the nearest window and you'll still say, "you murdered your whole family cos you were having a bad day? Yeah, heh, been there."

Saturday, May 08, 2004



Turning lesson - lot's of smoke and haze from burning off down south so the horizon was barely visible. On the plus side, I can taxi like no one's business now.

General Flying Progress.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Satisfaction while eating KFC - 100%.

Dissatisfaction and self loathing whilst attempting to digest KFC - 100%.

Sunday, May 02, 2004

The answers to the perennial question "I wonder what they taste like?" is contained here

Saturday, May 01, 2004

More penguin smacking here