Sawadee Kharp

Greetings from Bangkok.

We arrived in BKK at just after 1am Bangkok time. CRAP. Flying East China Airlines was shit. The plane was fine but I was seated right in the middle of a group of about 15 old mainland chinese. Boy was that fun. No only did they not stop talking but the old guys on either side of me were leaning over me the entire flight. One of them even tried to plug the headpone plug into the power socket. That would have been interesting if it'd made contact in the socket.

So anyway we arrived and made our way to the Khoa San road where all the youth hostels are. Being 2am in the morning by the time we got there meant that all the backpackers places were full. CRAP. So it was about 30 degrees and no where to sleep. We ended up going with a TUK TUK driver to some dodgy place down some street. The room was apprently 540 Bhat (just under 20 Aus.) But when we got there those rooms were all full too. We ended up taking an 800 Bhat room. A BIG ROOM, not. There were water sploches on the ceiling and the bathroom was soaking wet. But the A/C did work. We went from 10 degrees in Shanghai to 30 at BKK airport to about 15 again in our room. The next day we check ourselves into a youth hostel for 500Bhat. Room isn't as big but much safer and cleaner.

We've done not much but wonder around shopping places so far. Can't wait to get out of this city. Its just not very interesting. We've organised VISAs for Vietnam and Cambodia. We'll get out of here on Thursday for the South of Thailand. Hopefully we'll get some awesome weather and be able to do some water sports. Can't wait to do that. Only thing I might wanna see her is some Muay Thai. Hopefully it'll be done in the time left.

Oh by the way I managed to convince some guy DJing to let me drop a song in at some youth hostel bar. He had some good funk. We were impressed. However his equipment was 2 discmans and a dodgy mixer. No beatmixing, not even cueing. It was ulgy.


Well thats all for now...
Time about to run out.... Sorry theres no photos. yet... I'll send then when i can get access to one of these damn USB ports..

Later Dudes..

Ni Men Hao

Greetings All,

Just a quick post for now!

So a crap load has happened since my last post. The IRON CHEF came and went with much success. Great effort on EVERYONE's part. Well organised by Qiu-Yi. It was "Hen Hao!" (Very good). Lyndon, Eric and I had our going away. That was fantastic. Thanks to everyone that showed up. Means a lot to us. For anyone that didnt manage to leave me their email, just mail me at jontay@iinet.net.au or jontay@hotmail.com

Currently we are in Shanghai. Its kinda cold. Leaving for Bangkok tonight. Going travelling for a couple of weeks. I've got plenty of pictures so far, just can't get them on the web yet. But will soon i hope.

So much to write... but not now. I'll keep you all posted.

Take care.

PS, the music sucks here....

Start diggin' the groove

Lets talk music... I kinda said that I would put info on music so here it is.

My Music
I did my first gig 1999 for school. I played at our yr 11/12 dance. A couple of us did this with a bunch of MP3s a couple of computers and a sound system to blow clothes off. At the time it was the biggest sound setup the school had hired. This was because we saved money on the DJ. At least that was I recall. But that was not a real DJ gig.
After I graduated I went out and bought a pair of turntables with a crappy little mixer (all which I still have). This will be on eBay as soon as I make it big...may be a while at the rate I'm currently travelling. It was pretty sudden. All I had was a bunch of really cheesy records but hell I made the most of it. Let me tell you, beat mixing bad 80s music to even worse 80s music is a skill mastered by few.
From there on any money I had to spend pretty much went into buying records. I need to make this ECONOMICAL. What's a genre which never fades and everyone enjoys. FUNK! I reckon I have nearly all the James Brown tracks on vinyl. Bobby Bird, Kool & the Gang, Parliament, George Clinton, Bootsy and Funkadelic were my staple. From there it went on to Disco. DISCO!!! Soul Disco, 80s Disco, Disco House any Disco that had some groove. But it had to have GROOVE! Long story short, I have a few records.
My real Djing gigs started in about 2000 I did my first gig at the former Mojo West on Hindley St Adelaide. Paid a full $30 an hour. AWESOME!!! At the time... that 30 went straight into buying another record. Soon I was playing regularly there and the pay went up too.
As I tried to get more gigs I changed my music style and added, hip hop, jazz, soul, house and electro.

I have wide range of music taste. But the common theme across my music taste is the groove. Its either a groove that makes you get up and shake your tail feather or something that sits you back to chill-lax. And intelligent music too. Not doof doof doof, four on the floor with no chords, no backing. Thats not real music in my opinion.

Help me dig that groove
Ok so if you want to hear a few tunes that display my definiton of groove try these:

Bill Withers - Just the 2 of us and Use me
Zhane - Hey Mr DJ
Cerrone - Hooked on you
Ozomatli - Cut Chemist Suite
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
George Benson - In the Ghetto
Jamiroquai - Mr Moon
David Bendeth - Feel the real
James Brown - Funky president
Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
Prince - Money don't matter tonigh
Mr Big - To be with you
Eagles - Hotel California

And it goes ON and ON.. but theres a taste. Most of these are fairly well known ones and pretty easy to find. As you can see, no SPECIFIC genre. Check them out... have a listen if you don't know them. Let me know if you dig that groove.

The big cram! + my email address

Its for real. Tickets are paid for and flights are confirmed. Leave on the 22nd for Sydney, Sydney -> Shanghai 23rd, then at some stage probably early next yr to London, then to Rome then to Sweden, then to Buenos Aires then to Santiago then back. 18months its planned for. So if any of you are overseas and in the area don't hesitate to drop me an email and swing by.

I'll be contactable on my old email address of jontay@hotmail.com. Unless hotmail crashes and explodes in to a million pieces, that email address will always be active. I'm also going to keep my MOBILE active.

So between now and my departure, I will be cramming as much Aussie lifestyle into my days. Fishing, eating western food, catching with as many people as possible before I head off. And drinking aussie beer.

Baby for sale

Here she is in all her glory. My Corolla Sportivo 05 update. 141kw, redlines at just over
8000 rpm, VVT - Li for that extra burn in the top range. Full leather interior, optiron dash, climate control, 6 stacker MP3 CD player, tinted windows, leather and paint protect, 16" alloys, body kit, fog lights, 6 speed manual in sparkling Sterling silver. And shes for sale. Only just 6 months old I have to sell it cos I'm off overseas...incase you hadn't read. How much you ask? Merely $27000. RRP was $31,000 with all the on road costs and upgrades. So get on to it now. While stocks last!!!!

Sink or Swim?

Thursday night Lyndon and I finally got organised and went to the STA to book our tickets. So on the 23rd of Feb we'll be taking off from Adelaide for an estimated 18 months. The majority of the time will be spent in the metropolis of China, Shanghai. None of us have a job, nor any accommodation. I speak a little chinese and Lyndon none. Needless to say we are in DEEP. This is commonly referred to as the SINK or SWIM. We are either going to be able to make something of the time in Shanghai, or we will hate it and be on our way to another continent. In any case its the experience and challenge that counts hey?

Speaking of challenge, IRON CHEF Adelaide has been confirmed for the Sunday 19th Feb. I'll post up the full listing in the next post. This will be a challenge as on the 18th Lyndon, Eric and I are having a combined party for our going away and Eric's birthday. The venue - Rocket Bar. Should be good, so those of you who can make it come along!!! Hopefully I'll be able to eat after the massive night.....

The Fry & Chop!

Ok, so I said the next post was going to be the Pop & Lock. I lied. Its not like anyone was reading it anyway. Instead its going to be the Fry and Chop!

Some where along the line in the last few weeks Qui-Yi came up with the concept of an Iron Chef style cook off. A themed ingredient was to be given to each pair along with a course.
If memory serves me correctly, they were as follows,

Main Course: Olive, Eggplant, Mushroom, Sweet Potato, Pruschuito, Kangaroo, Mussels
Dessert: Peach, Hazelnut, Durian, Vanilla.

So the rules are as follows,

1. You pick a course and then an ingredient at random (Possibly out a hat. That idea always seems novel). Exceptions will be given to vegetarians who pick a meat dish. They may redraw.
2. You and your partner have approximately 1 week to buy and prepare your chosen dish.
3. There are no restrictions as to how many dishes you can make.
4. A $50 limit is given per pair. You must spend as close to $50 as possible.
5. Your ingredient must be the central flavour of your dish.
6. Make enough for everyone to try some, but do not prepare food for an army.
7. Contestants must come dressed either in bad 80s clothing, authentic japanese clothing, or in correlation with their themed ingredient.
8. You must come up with a saying for your ingredient.
9. No boring dishes.

Voting will be on 2 categories, presentation and taste. A Krazi-Chef prize will also be awarded to the most creative dish. On each of the categories there will be 2 votes place, a first and second preference winner. The first will be awarded 2 points and the second 1 point.

If you are unfortunate enough to no know what Iron Chef is then I suggest tuning in to SBS this Saturday at 8:30pm for some classic 80s cluture. If you have a bad memory, you can sms 4876 to this number 1990 0727. It will give you a reminder shortly before the program starts.

We are yet to confirm the date (possibly 19th), venue and who the partners so stay tuned. Get some practice chopping, dicing, boiling and frying because the day draws near! Who will be crowned the IRON CHEF?