Tag Archives: Trivia

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Long Dresses

Long Dreses and Escalators - Hilton Hotel, Sydney

Long Dreses and Escalators - Hilton Hotel, Sydney

Not being a woman and never having worn a dress – if you exclude some brief experimentation when I was about five in the “Wendy House” at kindergarten – I didn’t know this was a problem.

But last night at the Hilton I actually laughed out loud when I saw this sign on the escalator.

The first thought that went through my mind was “obviously it’s happened to someone”. Clearly, I thought to myself, some poor woman has jumped on the escalator and her dress has gotten caught. And that’s why they’ve had to put up the warning sign, I pondered.

“Did the escalator get stuck?”, I thought to myself. “Or did her dress just get sucked away”, I wondered.

As I’m going to another event at the Hilton next Friday night – with lots of women wearing long-dresses – I’ll keep an eye out for things and report back, I promise.

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Non Travel Post – What Kind Of Wine Am I?

I’m not normally one for these meme thingys, but this one on Cellobella’s blog caught my attention. Maybe it’s because I’m sitting in a youth hostel in Prague uploading photographs and have nothing better than to do with my time. I mean, I am composing a blog in my mind about the fascinating people around me (there’s a Phd in it, I swear), but in the meantime…


You Are Chardonnay


Fresh, spirited, and classic – you have many facets to your personality.
You can be sweet and light. Or deep and complex.
You have a little bit of something to offer everyone… no wonder you’re so popular.
Approachable and never smug, you are easy to get to know (and love!).

Deep down you are: Dependable and modest

Your partying style: Understated and polite

Your company is enjoyed best with: Cold or wild meat

To be honest, this surprised me. I thought I’d be fashionable and cool, but appartently I’m dependable and modest. Boring!

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Test Post

OK, so this is a test post more than anything. I’m keen to look further at the practicalities of mobile blogging during my trip using my fabulous new computer.

So far I’ve taken a pic on my phone and shrunk it accordingly.

My next thing is to upload the pic.

That wasn’t too bad.

Overall that was pretty simple, although I’ve made a few typos along the way.

Mind you, that could be because, like most of the country I’m now classified as a binge drinker!

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Australian Idol Auditions

Australian Idol auditions at Redfern

Australian Idol auditions at Redfern

When I read in the paper yesterday you could go along to the Australian Idol auditions at the Australian Technology Park at Redfern, and it was free, I thought to myself, “Why not?” Although I haven’t regularly followed the program, I thought it could be a bit of fun to see what happened behind the scenes at the audition process. So I jumped off the train one stop early, at Redfern, when coming back from my trip to Eastwood.

As I walked towards the park, I passed a number of groups of young people, mostly late teens and early twenties, carrying guitars looking fairly forlorn. They’d obviously missed out. “I was better than Celine Dione”, I overheard one of them say without any sense of self-awareness or irony, as she walked out defiantly.

And then as I walked towards the shed where auditions were undertaken there were even more, standing around, chatting, smoking, and doing vocal exercises.

Inside, there were hundreds of people sitting around waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting for their 30 to 60 seconds to audition.

Without wishing to over-generalise, these kids were “the arty ones”, “the overweight ones”, “the non-conformists”, the kids I could relate to. If I’d grown up in Sydney twenty years later, I probably would have been there myself!

It must have been a long and emotionally exhausting day for these kids. Good on ‘em, I say, for giving it a go, despite the odds against them.

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Cityrail Complaint

Stupid Sign

Stupid Sign

You know how some people hate trains? They just can’t stand travelling on them. They think they’re dirty and smelly. That, or they hate the timetables, or they don’t go in the right direction. Or they fear for their safety after a certain hour at night. Well, I actually quite like trains. But there’s one thing about the Sydney train system that drives me wild. It’s the fact that Olympic Park remains the #1 choice on the ticket machines.

Since Olympic Park opened in the late 90s, I’d estimate I’ve been there about twenty times. I went to the Olympics and the Paralympics, I go every year for the Royal Easter Show, and I’ve been there for the odd concert. And for these major events is usually pretty fast by train. But aside from these major events, getting to Olympic Park by train is usually quite difficult. Mostly, you have to catch a couple of connecting trains, and even then you often have to sit and wait for up to half an hour for the connection.

So why is Olympic Park still the #1 choice on the ticket machines? Why isn’t it City Circle or something else? The number of times I’ve pressed Olympic Park instead of City Cricle alone would amount to thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

And why does Macdonaldtown get a higher billing than Redfern or Newtown? In all the time I’ve been in Sydney, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get off the train at Macdonaldtown.

It’s pure madness! Mr Iemma and Mr Watkins – please do something about this.

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Pick The Mistake

Inside out, back to front.

Inside out, back to front.

I had a drink tonight with a mate who shall remain nameless.

Used with permission is this photograph of the DOUBLE MISTAKE he made in getting dressed today.

Oddly enough, he only discovered this after a day out and about on the town.

“Why didn’t anyone say anything?”, he asked rhetorically.

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Pink Shirt Thursday

Pink Shirt

Pink Shirt

It’s late in the afternoon and, unfortunately, I can’t leave work just yet. I’d love to be at the pub right now, but I’ve got to hang around until about 6.15 for various reasons. And although I could be doing something productive, I’ve decided to just catch up on my blog. It’s been a busy week and I’m pretty bloody exhausted, to be honest.

In addition to all my usual daily activities, I’ve also been coming in to work early (6am start), and there have been a couple of nights of work-related activities on top of that. It’s no wonder I’m approaching this weekend wondering if I should “everything” or “nothing”, if you know what i mean.

Unquestionably though, the highlight of the week was when I joined the ranks of those who participate in “Pink Shirt Thursday”. Twelve months ago it was all the rage for my fellow bloggers Tom and Monty. It has something to do with the finance industry, apparently. Well, last night, without even thinking about it, and without realising it was Thursday, I wore a pink shirt and a pink tie.

In some ways it’s odd that I bought a pink shirt and pink tie, because I’ve always though pink was a bit of a “poofy” colour. But it’s funny, once you find yourself wearing a pink shirt with a pink tie, you start to notice other people similarly dressed. It’s like a secret society of sorts, I guess. And last night at our “big work dinner”, I suddenly noticed there were four other blokes wearing pink shirts and pink ties. And guess what? They were all poofs! I rest my case!