In brief.

Seems its been quite some time since I made an entry, however I guess what with Twitter and Facebook and all i’ve felt like my movements have been sufficiently documented.

Since my last post Marika and I have made a few trips away. Most notably we’ve visited Tasmania, Wilsons Prom and recently a little bit of Western Australia too. Yeah, I guess we’ve got it pretty good. I’m starting up my new job tomorrow which i’m nervous and excited about, one of the many perks is that I will be getting a car as part of my package so hopefully this means M and I can make more camping trips around Victoria (we have new sleeping bags to try out after all!).

Also, after more years than i’d care to admit it looks like I might finally be finished my Youth Work degree. I have completed all my assessments and submitted my recognition of prior learning application so now I cross my fingers till I get the last of my results back. It’s been great going back and getting it done but I sure am ready to take a break from studying, i’m certainly not a great student (this has been obvious for quite some time now) so I am pretty happy that i’ve made it through.

In other news i’ve stacked on about 5kg over xmas and have been a little slack in my exercise regime so am trying to get my ass back into shape, i’m signing up to do another run (8km this time) which is good as it gives me a goal to set my mind to. Also i’m taking a little time away from my good friend beer, we’ve been enjoying each others company quite a lot this last month and I think we both need a little space. No need for concern, i’m not inking up the ‘X’ any day soon, just a little detox is all.

All cliche resolutions aside, on with the show.
Happy 2010 everyone.

Eat until you puke, then eat some more

Well actually i’m happy to report that I didn’t puke at all this weekend, not once. I did however eat a whole lot. Because my little brother was in town we took on the the task of taking him on a bit of a gastronomical tour of Melbourne. Sounds a little strange and all, considering that he lives in the worlds largest city metropolis. Melbourne is pretty amazing as far as foodie cities go though, even with a fraction of the population of the big cities.

Don’t worry, i’m not about to get all ‘critic’ on you. I’ll save my rating system for another time…

Places we ate and drank:

• Rue Bebelons
• Mecca Bah
• Cumulus Inc.
• Brother Baba Budan
• Corner Hotel
• Pudence
• Hellenic Republic

Yeah, not bad for just a few days.

It was great to have Gabe around, even if I do get a bit emotional sometimes. It’s just that i’m very proud of him and do enjoy hanging out together. He’s my bro!

Guess that means we’ll have to take that trip back to Japan again soon eh?

Gabe, special.

Best get back to packing for our NZ jaunt, off on Thursday morning.
Did I mentioned how freaking excited I am!

16, 45, 150.

What to do on a Sunday eh?

Sleep in? Drink some coffees? Read the paper?

Not today, we were determined to have an adventure.

Firstly we got up reasonably early and drove on down the highway to Geelong (sure are a lot of fast-food places there eh?), we parked the car and jumped on the bikes. We had our sights set on doing the ‘Bellarine Rail Trail‘, a 32km stretch of trail running from South Geelong down to Queenscliff. Strangely enough it follows the historic railway line, the first half of which is no longer there but when you make it down to Drysdale you can jump on an old steam-train and travel at a leisurely pace for the remaining portion of the journey.

After a relaxing train journey we adjourned for a spot of lunch and a couple of coffees before jumping back on the bikes for the return leg. Luckily for us we were blessed with a gusty head-wind for the first 15km which made it tough going indeed! We still were only 5 minutes behind the train though getting back to Drysdale. After a quick rest and and some more snacks we soldiered on with the last part of the ride, I think the thought of being on the finishing stretch gave us both a second burst of energy (that and the distinct lack of head-wind!) which pushed us through back to Geelong.

So in summing up, today we managed to:

• Drive 150km
• Ride 45km
• Train (steam variety) 16km

Not bad for a Sunday outing eh?

Well, as most of my blogs tend to, this one will also end with me drinking a beer.

I’m going to be sore tomorrow.

Two fantastic things that happened this week

The Flaming Lips, still the most amazing live show i’ve seen by a long way.

The Fancy Boys, always makes me happy to see these guys live.

Ok, I need to be alone with my hangover now.

Cass Fresh: Sound of Vitality

A not so delicious Korean beer I sampled  last night, however my opinion could be tainted by the fact that the label is clearly derivative of all those horrible, watery American beers. The taste wasn’t too different either.

We took my mum and some friends out to Goshen Korean restaurant on Smith st, it was fantastic once again. Perhaps I have simple tastes but I really enjoy getting a noisy, sizzling hot-pot served to your table and then smashed up with a spoon by your waitress. Yeah, simple tastes. The dumpling soup and kimchi pizza are both pretty special too.

Highly recommended, no matter what Matt Preston may say.

Run, run, run.

Can’t type, too tired. Bare facts must suffice.

• Ran, hard and long.
• Made 5km without stopping (which was my goal) in 26:21.
• Suitably impressed with my time until I discovered the winner did it in 15:36!
• I got a medal, first in my life I think?
• Ok, second if you count the Bicentennial medal which went to all school-aged children in 1988.
• Commenced rehydration straight away post-race, by time of blogging i’m sure i’ve actually consumed twice as many calories as i’ve burned today.
• Exercise? Bah!

The crowd before us

Across the line!

Winners!

My time

Thanks to Daniel and David as I unashamedly stole their photos.

iTunes Genius playlists – Sometimes are.

Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely

1. Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely / Husker Du 3:29

2. I Am The Owl / Dead Kennedys 4:52

3. Knowledge / Operation Ivy 1:42

4. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) / MC5 5:42

5. Six Pack / Black Flag 2:20

6. Nervous Breakdown / Black Flag 2:10

7. The Hardest Walk / The Jesus and Mary Chain 2:40

8. Three Girl Rhumba / Wire 1:24

9. Cut Your Hair / Pavement 3:07

10. Takin A Ride / Replacements, The 2:23

11. Somebody Got Murdered / The Clash 3:34

12. Been There All The Time / Dinosaur Jr 3:41

13. if i cant change your mind / Sugar 6:16

14. Chemical Warfare / Dead Kennedys 2:58

15. Dot Dash / Wire 2:26

16. Taste of Cindy / The Jesus and Mary Chain 1:42

17. The Sun Smells Too Loud / Mogwai 6:58

18. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues / The Gaslight Anthem 3:31

19. White Minority / Black Flag 1:03

20. Youth Against Facism / Sonic Youth 3:37

21. The Man With The Dogs / Dead Kennedys 3:02

22. No Money / The Evens 4:00

23. Bad Town / Operation Ivy 2:36

24. Love You More / The Buzzcocks 1:51

Going out for a few beers and some music trivia tonight at the White Rabbit Record Bar, should be a bit of fun.

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EDIT: We came 3rd, not bad for first timers! We even won a vinyl version of Dean Martin’s ‘Greatest Hits Volume 1′ and some mix CDR’s!

30 km’s, coffee, beer and snow.

David and his amazing new bike. And yes, it rides as nicely as it looks!

Portobello mushrooms, sage and feta on toast courtesy of Cafe Racer.

Melbourne weather, now featuring snow!

Umm, how else do you cap off a great bike ride?

Here’s the route we took, had a bit of an adventure on the way home seeing parts of Melbourne I had no idea even existed. Riding bikes with friends, if there’s a nicer way to spend a weekend day i’d like to know about it.

Two things that make wintertime ok.

The first is this snappy new snowboard jacket I bought, quite nice I think.
Hold up, I can already hear you thinking, “oh Khan, snowboarding is just too darned expensive for me!”. Well Get this! This is just another in a long line of purchases from that magical placed called Aldi. When I found out that in addition to cheap groceries they also sold beer I raised an eyebrow, impressive.
When I picked up a Johnny Cash box-set from them for under $10 I was pretty chuffed to say the least.
After their sale on cycling products I was super-stoked.
Now this, snowboarding gear? Unbelievable!
If they ever venture into selling punk-rock records and memorabilia i’ll be a total convert!
So the jacket cost a meagre $80 which is pretty awesome for this kind of thing, sure it’ll probably fall apart after about 10 days of wear but hey, that’s all the time I need it for! Our NZ holiday is rapidly approaching and i’m getting really freaking excited about it. Sure, my employment is not exactly stable at the moment but hey, snowboarding holiday!
Yeah, I guess this isn’t something i’ve really gone into too much detail about in this forum but let it just be said that I am becoming increasingly more uncertain about where I will be working come July 1. Something good will come up, i’m sure of that…and in the meantime I can curtail my anxiety with increased consumption of wintertime fun item number two!

Shock horror of horrors, it’s beer! And quite a delicious beer in fact, I don’t have the language to describe in in any kind of terms that would do it justice so let me say that it is ‘bloody beautiful’ and I will leave it at that.
They on the other hand would say the following:

MONTETIH’S DOPPELBOCK WINTER ALE is a robust brew, faithful to its Bavarian origins. It was first brewed in the early 1600’s to provide nourishment during the traditional German fasting periods. Doppelbock Winter Ale’s full-malty flavour is due to the crafting of four premium malts, delivering a voluptuous beer with a firey red hue.

Uh, yeah! Khan like beer! Beer good!

Now I think about it my last few blogs sound like some kind of infomercial, truly I have become quite the consumer haven’t I? Gone are my salad days of smashing the state and sticking it to the man! Unless Aldi produces some kind of all-in-one political activism kit I think i’m destined to be relegated to the ranks of the ‘latte-left’. Oh well, I guess I can look forward to one day being able to own a Prius eh?

So contrary to what you probably think this post has NOT been brought to you by the good people at Aldi™ Supermarkets but rather the following:

• Mark Sultan – the Sultanic verses
• King Khan & the Shrines – What is?! (C’mon, if there was an awesome band with the same name as you you’d love ‘em too!)
• The Ergs – Hindsight is 20/20 my friend
• The delicious coffee and lemon slice from the nice people at Social Roasting Company in Flemington.

Well, that’s all we have time for today on BrandPower, tune in next time where we will road-test the latest in non-stick cookware.
Goodnight!