Groove-Sucka

Great (Fire)Wall of China

2007-07-27T12:03:00.000+09:30

So I've been trying to access this damn blog on and off for a while. But due to the fricken Firewall that china have up here in china stops me from viewing it. Althought I don't write much, I guess I might move my further posts up on my MSN Spaces site. ...

Quick update while I'm here then.

Been to Phillippines and back. That was great. Beautiful beaches. Great change from the concrete landscape of Shanghai.

Some changes in the job happening soon. Company is merging with another. Not sure what will happen with my position as yet. But we'll see.

New Pad

2007-06-23T10:58:00.000+09:30

Over a year has passed and behold I'm still standing. The rollercoaster ride has just come to a stop....time for the next carnival ride. Question is, the safe and familiar carousel ride or the outrageous tumble-dryer ride.

So I've moved apartments lately. (Pictures are on my MSN space) House warming was last week. Not really sure how big it was going to be but the turn out was not too bad I guess. (Seeing as we didn't really invite people.) The new place is bigger. 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining, lounge and balcony. We are taking bookings now for those planning to visit. Just email our friendly staff. But it is on the 13th floor..... It really not that far from the old place, 3 streets back. Means I have to walk an extra 10 mins to the Metro station. The walk doesn't sound too bad but in the STINKING HUMID heat at the moment it not very pleasant, for me nor my co-workers.

Work wise, my project is finished. I'm on a kinda break where I'm not doing much at work for the next 2 weeks.. YAY. Time for some getaway. Philippines is the destination of choice. Hopefully the weather isn't rainy cos I'm dying for the sun and surf.

Congratulations!!! Happy Birthday!!

2007-02-10T11:40:00.000+10:30

Big-ups to one of my best friends and parents to my godson Lucas. They have just had their second child. Always appreciate good news. Alexander Wee arrived on the 29th January, 4:25pm Adelaide time and weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 7oz. Thats right they sure grow them big. I'm disappointed I'm not able to be there for this, but I wish Kev, Rhey and Lucas all the best and good health for their new family member.

Happy birthday to little Alex.

Why?? 为什么??

2007-01-23T15:49:00.000+10:30

Life is strange isn't it? Just when you think everything is going just fine and all happy, life throws something to completely screw you up. Why me you ask? Maybe there is a reason? Maybe you screwed up and now its your turn to get screwed over. What goes around comes around? Maybe its what you did in a previous life and you are now paying for the wrongs in this life. Maybe you cheated on your partner or treated them like shit in the last life and now you have no right arm.

I guess no one really knows. I always look for reasons. I need the answer to why? I've tried looking through Wikipedia and whilst it has answers to almost everything else, it cannot give the ones I'm looking for now.

Catholics say that God tests you. He throws you tests every and then, keeps you on your toes? I don't despise the lord nor those who worship his words. There are many truths in his words. I just hate the fact that I have to go through this crap and try and find a reason when clearly I cannot find it.

Does everything happen for a reason? Some people say that all things happen for a reason. Sir Isaac Newton said that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And Hanson said “Mmmm-bop, dip-a-dop. I doo-op.” (I'm sad to say I remember that.) So with all this in mind we set out within the laws of physics to the teeny-bopper beat of a family boyband, in search of the big WHY? Why do things happen.... why when you are struggling to do everything that it can all go wrong.

Why are we alive? I don't and can't claim to know because I simply don't. Or you would all hail me and then God would be a DJ. (..keepin you alive with the jive.) I don't even know if there is a real purpose to life. What I do believe is that the aim in life should be happiness. If you were to draw a graph and plot your happiness level, I think you should at least aim for a median of 75% happiness. Lets call it this“piness-meter.” Or maybe not. Obviously its not possible to be happy all the time. Some things are just plain out of your control you have no choice. But what I can't understand even more is why when someone is happy that they would go and change all of this to make themselves completely unhappy. And they do this knowing that they are making the people around them suffer. It doesn't make sense....not to me....

This is will probably read as one of the most disjointed entries I've written but I have my reasons. The conclusion is that life is a bitch. You can't predict it, you can't control it. Some people think they can, but you only control your actions. You can choose whether to make people happy or to cause them grief. But you can't choose what people do to you...

I don't really have an appropriate song... I mean unless some wrist-slashing Navirna takes to your liking. But not me... I should probably listen to some nice jazz. So whip out your favourite jazz cd and play me a track......

A man of action!

2006-10-22T15:45:00.000+09:30

After writing that last entry on my blog, I though I'd take the bull by the horns! I said to myself, "You know the problem, its within your control. So do something about it."
So I gathered a couple of friends who were also stranded in Shanghai for the week, and WANTED to go some where and made rough plans to head out. First plan was Hangzhou. Apparently a very nice city and not too far from Shanghai.

We left for the train station and arrived only to discover we had missed the train. (story of my life...) So we'll take the next best thing, the bus. Bus we discovered was going to take way too long to get there and we didn't really have enough time. So off to Suzhou it was.

Suzhou is a nice city, small in China terms. Think the taxi driver said it had 7 million people? I could be completely wrong. We visited several gardens, all of which I cannot remember the name of. There is probably value in taking more note to detail druing my travels.

Some of these gardens were quite nice. Within was beautiful architecture and landscapes. Because we went during the public holiday time, there were quite a number of people around. On a quiet day these gardens would be a fantastic place to just get away from it all.
I've always had great respect for customs and cultures. Though you may not share the same beliefs, it is only appropriate that you treat it with a certain level of respect. Walking through these gardens you got an idea of the way of life and that these people would have had. What I liked most was the furniture and architecture. Imagine having a lovely home built with an old style chinese tiled roof, hand carved wooden doors, carved fringing, a centre courtyard and pond. Inside you'd have all wooden furniture and round archways. Your windows would also have carved wooden surroundings. Your lounge room would have a sunken floor. I'm not sure whether this is traditional, but I'd put it in. Then I'd put in plasmas, in floor heating, A/C, a theatre room and through the house I would have a Linn Knekt system running. As I drive home my Aston Martin, I drive over my chinese style lounge bridge and park it under the pagoda. But thats a way off yet.... lot of hard work between now and then.

When I meet people here in China, I decide whether I want them to know I speak Chinese or not. Its quite a fun game to play. (Although my chinese is still very poor.) On this occasion we were getting on to a boat to head up and down some canal. The 3 of us wanted a boat to ourselves, however the operator said (in chinese) to my english speaking friends, "the boat will leave only when we have more people." Of course after he realised that they didn't understand he turned to me, the chinese looking guy. I replied, "Sorry, I don't speak chinese." Pointed at the boat and said, "Lets go." We did this lovely exercise about 6 times before others arrived and eventually 5 of us got on the boat. The old lady who was rowing looked at me in great disbelief because I was speaking english. She spoke some dialect, and was saying to me, "You understand chinese. You are chinese! You speak chinese." I begged to differ and said, "Wo Bu Dong." (我不懂), in the most foriegn accent I could. Sounded more like "War booo dong" and smiled. Meanwhile Zelah and Tomas (my travelling companions) were laughing away. Zelah said to her, in her foreign chinese accent, "He is from Singapore."
On the way back we saw the entrance and Tomas suggested to me to ask the lady to stop the boat there so we could leave the park easier. No problem, except I now didn't know how to speak chinese. Great....... When we got off, I really wanted to say to her in chinese, thank you and I really don't know how to speak chinese. But bit my tongue.

Lunch was at some small local restaurant. I decided I was going to speak chinese here, otherwise we'd never get any food. It ended up that the owner ordered some dishes for us. I just told her how many dishes and it has to taste good. So out came 3 dishes including sweet and sour pork. She specifically announced it saying that foreigners LOVE it. Not the case here. It wasn't very good sweet and sour pork. Bill time came and the waitress called the here for the bill. Without looking at the order she said 50RMB (under $10 Australian). I gave her the money but also challenged her. I said there was no way it was that much and told her that if she could show me the dishes on the menu and they added up to 50 RMB I would give her 100RMB. If not the bill should be free cos she was trying to cheat me. Now 50RMB is dirt cheap, but its the fricken principle and I HATE being lied to and cheated. So I kicked up a fuss and she was trying to squeeze out of it by saying that she gave us more so charged us more and so on. Load of Shit really but gave it to her anyway. I hate being taken advantage of and sometimes China becomes so tiring that you are constantly thinking, "Are they lying to me?". I hope that China doesn't take away my ability to trust.

Later on we were walking around the city streets and stumbled on some parade. Basically we were walking up the street and the street turned in to red carpet and there were people taking photos of us. It clicked after the police officer directed me off the carpet. I quickly blended into the crowd, pulled out my camera and waited for royality or some superstar. I had NO idea what was going on. Some foreigners walked up accompanied by some chinese officials and several cars. It was weird.

Trip back to Shanghai took around an hour via train. Suprisingly the train was much cheaper than the bus, half the price. I really want to do more trips around China. I guess the only factor is TIME. There just isn't enough time to do everything.

Song for the moment: Laytrx - Lady don't tek no. An old favourite song that scratch djs like to drop in their scratch routines. Nice simple beat and bassline. Nothing to do with my blog entry, just a song that I was listening to.

Apparently Golden week..

2006-10-05T02:23:00.000+09:30

Stepping back a couple of weeks, Marty came to visit. FOR HIS BIRTHDAY THAT I FORGOT AND HE LACKED TO MENTION! FOOL! (BOTH ME & HIM). We visited a museum of something. The one in people's square (人民广场）here. Nice little exhibits, can't remember the name of the exhibition. Then we went to Barbarossa. (Seen in the background of the picture.) Showed Marty some of the rush and masses of people around and then after a quick tour of my apartment, we had some food. All in all, there wasn't much of a birthday celebration, more of a catch up drink. We should have consumed at least 5 times the alcohol.

So its public holiday week here in China. Don't get me wrong, I love holidays. Especially because I'm going to be really busy when work starts again. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to even write this blog once my projects start rolling for work. (Lets just say initiative is not a strong point here.)

This week I basically am going to waste away in Shanghai. Many reasons why I haven't gone anywhere... I'll regret it. I've had fun spending time with people this week, and not having to go to work, but its not really a holiday as such. Basically my wish to see China, is just not happening... I will have to do something about this soon. Work gives me a measly 7 days off per year, which is nothing short of a joke. So really I need to make the most of my time as well as negotiate more time off. Things that are seemingly so simply, are always so complicated.... and I don't even know why.

How depressing....

2006-09-24T14:27:00.000+09:30

Yesterday was a depressing day. It started wrong when I had to get up early that morning after going to sleep at 4 or so. Our satallite lost reception, so I couldn't watch the finals game. So after wondering around Shanghai looking for a bar with the match we finally found one, who incidentally had Coopers Pale Ale. Then this was multiplied by the shocking loss and drop out of the finals run for the Adelaide Crows. Then after that it was other bad news during the day...
Needless to say I wasn't in th best of moods. But I put on my best social face and headed out to DJ for a party. It was fine, took my mind off things. I really didn't feel like going out, but really didn't feel like going home. So after my gig, it was off to Bollywood to meet the rest of the gang.

A Club called Snatch hosted a BOLLYWOOD night. So whole bunch of Indians, a few locals and expats in a club dancing as only the indian know how. The dance floor seemed to be having a good time. Those who weren't indian jumping about though just look well.... extremely camp. I wasn't even going to try. If I'd had a few drinks, then maybe... but at that time no...

Song for the moment: Punjabi MC - Bhangra Knights

China - test your morals...

2006-09-19T18:30:00.000+09:30

So its been a few months in China now and in that time I've seen and experienced a many new things. Some of which have been great, others which I guess can be put down as good life experience.

Culture in China is without a doubt different. Amongst the mass of local people, each province and region carries its own sub-chinese culture. Throw in the concoction of foreigners and you have a cocktail only available here. There is no way someone can agree with every culture, just not possible. So I agree with some of the ideals and some of the ways that people think here, and some of which I don't. I'm not usually someone who is out to change the world, but I've tried discussing with some of the Chinese people the topics that I have different opinions about. Much of which is met with "but this is China."
So that makes for a huge percentage of the world who accepts these things. Does it make it right? Of course not, but when there are 17 or so billion people in one city and the large majority do it, one becomes somewhat desensitized. Let me give you an example. I'm usually very patient and I would also consider polite. We line up for things in Australia, "take a ticket, get in line." I work in a 40 story building that has 8 elevators. At around 9am the lobby is completely packed. I started out just standing in line waiting for the mass to slowly make their way to the daily grind. Meanwhile the Chinese people arriving behind squeeze their way forward past me as if I was a statue. As a result getting up to work can literally take you 15-20 minutes. After about a week of this, I had just about had it and it was on for young and old. I'm bigger than the majority of Chinese people here which helps. So muscle in there now and BOX OUT, then stand there with a "don't push me, push a push-pop" look. Not too aggressive, but they know not to mess around. Then shove my way through, even when people are getting out of the elevator, I'm following the rest shoving them back so I can make sure I get on.
China is a great test of ones character, and that’s probably the most light hearted example I could think of. Shanghai is a unique place but its definitely the sin city of the east. You learn a lot about yourself and who you are here. It tests one's self control, will power, morals and values, patients, tolerance and ability to adapt. This spans through from simple daily activities, to work life to social life and relationships. I have learnt a lot since coming here and I'm pretty sure I'll be a changed person from this experience. One can only hope that its change for the better...

Song for the moment: There could only be one and only, Michael Jackson & Friends - We are the world. (shut-up.. I like that song)

Mmmm.. fermented yak's milk.

2006-09-10T15:13:00.000+09:30

Everynow and then you get this "right, I need to leave" feeling. It was that time. Enough of the 17 million people and needed to go to some wide open spaces. So what did we do, Mongolia. Outer mongolia - UlaanBaatar. So Thursday late afternoon, I left work a little early to get packed, then off to Beijing. We (Lyndon, Julien and I ) pretty much got there at Midnight. We packed into the hotel and then off to Sambal Bar (Malaysian or Indonesian). Really nice quaint bar set in the Hutong area. The area is filled with houses which are shared by 5 or so families, not exactally Shangrila. The bar was really nice though. Not nice in a everything is new way but nice because it was old, had the chinese style tiled roof, wooden doors and chinese furniture. Old style chinese beds were placed around the bar, the kind you see the emperor with his 3 mistresses in behind a curtain. Sitting in the courtyard we had a few mojitos and nibbled on some springrolls and curry puffs. Great start to the weekend.

Early morning flight, we left Beijing headed for UlaanBaatar the capital of Mongolia. I thought RMB was annoyingly worthless, but Mongolian Togrog is worse. Under Julien's advice and mathematical calculations we each too out 15000 Tugrog and headed for a taxi. After asking what the price was to get to our guest house, he said 10000 Tugrog. Nice... he was either ripping us off big time, or Julien forgot to carry the 1. Turns out Julien is no mathelete.

Julien had organised the trip and basically was our negotiator. He spoke to the guide and got us the entire tour for the 3 days for $120 Aud. Great work I thought. The plan was to leave UlaanBaator later that afternoon and head south west toward the Gobi Dessert. That afternoon we saw a temple.. nice but after Thailand I'm done with temples for a while. We headed for the centre of town. The city is very communist, almost Russian. There isn't really anything in UB. I think I would last a week.

Being IN Mongolia, Lyndon and I found it necessary to have, you guessed it...all-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ. To me mongolian bbq is always a case of the thought was much better than the actual meal. Because of this BBQ we were later for departure on our wonderful jouney. by at least 1.5 hours.

Food is, as advised by many, is shit is Mongolia. There is nothing to like about it. Mutton is not supposed to be eaten. No its not. Lard is not oil. And yak's milk is not supposed to be fermented. Stuff is not ok to cook eat when its dropped on the floor which has been walked all over by boots covered in crap. Lucky for us we brought a little emergency supply.

Our first day we drove and drove. The less than luxurious russian built van that we were travelling had an average speed of probably 40km/h. It must have weighed a tonne, most likely made of cast iron or something.

That night we drove till maybe 3am and stopped at some a friend of the guide's house. Our guide was pretty useless. Slept on the floor on some rugs. Wasn't comfortable but at least we were no longer sitting in the van and blood was able to flow to my arse again.

We woke up the next morning and our kind host, had prepared a lovely breakfast. Mutton, potatoes, carrots and rice. We were also asked to try some lovely dairy products, which were hard as rock and tasted like dried yogurt. (Its on the big plate in the picture.)

After that we were off to spend some time with the nomad family. For those who don't know, the nomads live in yurts. Tents essentially. It was a family of 4 living in a tent with 2 boys. Total floor space was about 3m radius, around 28m sq. Our whole intention was to spend some time with the nomad family and ride horses.

Most families have some horses. This family had a few.. only thing was they were a bit wild. My horse wouldn't do anything I wanted it to. Lyndons just wanted to eat grass and Julien's wanted him off its back. Mongolian saddles are made of wood. I was in pain after about 5 mins. The horses are so small that my knees were in a painful angle and my groin was screaming.

After our lovely ride around the fringe of the Gobi, we proceeded to get to know the family. Nescafe always helps conversation, but being in Mongolia it wasn't available. Instead we used vodka, a great encourager of bonding. I got rightly jolly, Julien wasn't far behind but Lyndon took lead. This was probably the best part of the trip. I'm sure we were great entertainment for the locals. (I tried to hot wire our russian van cos during this time, cos I really wanted to drive it.)

The next day we made tracks for the national park. Our intention was to ride some horses around the park and see the wildlife too. So after hours of driving at a snail's pace we finally made it to the park. However, it wasn't all good news. Out dodgy guide was trying to get us in and out of the park as quick as possible. We saw some wild horses and that was it. Our guide, tried to tell us that there were no deer because it wasn't the right season. So after driving miles we spent about 10 minutes actually looking at wildlife. In our protest, we decided we were going to get out of the van and hang around the park for a couple of hours, make life a little hard for our guide. After sunset, we headed back for UB. It was getting cold, we needed a shower and a bed. Next morning was the trip back to Shanghai.

Mongolia was a good experience. It wasn't comfortable, but its one of those places where you have to go. One to tick of on the list....

PS, we tried our hardest to get our guide fired after getting back. There is a lot I didn't write about, but she was a biiiiatch.

Shen-me? (What-the?)

2006-08-19T18:24:00.000+09:30

Theres plenty of weird stuff in China. There are probably plenty of websites and blogs documenting this too. Here is mine. Its probably no where near as good as some of the other out there... but this one has my name to it.

Here it is people... www.shen-me.blogspot.com

Shen Me is what in Chinese (mandarin). shén me. (shen... as is and mer with a soft r.)

The end of an era

2006-08-11T22:40:00.000+09:30

So last week I came to the conclusion that the was a shit place to work. The club is nice, but for the purpose of work and work as a resident DJ, its crap. Not only do you not have any say or play in the style of music but the hours suck. As a first experience of residency in Shanghai it was good. I met plenty of DJs and some really cool people. Anyway, I quit. I'm no chinese slave worker, I'm about quality of life as well as fun. And there was no fun. So I won't be seeing this view in the photo for a while.

So what next? There are a couple of things in the works. I won't say for now.. but its in negotiations... of course you'll have to stay tuned.

Just a short one for now... will update you all soon!

Song for the moment : Zhane - Hey Mr DJ

Hot and tired

2006-07-04T20:40:00.000+09:30

So I've started work. My office is about a 10 min metro ride from our apartment. The station is across the street from here and stops directly under my office building. Couldn't get much more convenient that that! Work starts at 9am, but I get there around 8:30am and leave half hour early (5:30pm). Then I come home, cook, have a shower, eat and head off to DJ. 8:30pm till 11pm. Go home sleep and get up to do the whole thing over again. I'm stuffed... This will continue till next monday when I will basically quit DJing unless they cut back my hours.

The weather here is hot as shit. HOT and HUMID as hell. Sleep is impossible with out regular blasts of A/C. Add the smog to this and going outside during the day is self torture. Apparently it gets worse in the next few months, can't wait.

I work with a whole bunch of locals and 4 expats. 2 Dutch, 1 Aussie and a Kiwi. Kinda good cos I get to practice my chinese while I do most of my official work in english. Everything seems fair enough at work, but I remember thinking that working at Electroboard. You never know when the greek senile hag of a boss combined with the incompetent "acting branch manager" will jump out from behind their masks. (No I'm not bitter at all.)

Further news, I'm warming up for Sandy Riviera this Saturday. MOS DJ. Hopefully it'll be good.

Fricken Hell

2006-06-23T16:54:00.000+09:30

I finish work at around 4:00am most nights. On this night we had consumed some alcohol. Lyndon and I find ourselves at the noodle place downstairs after escaping a trip to the spa with the rest of the guys. (We were way too tired). I reach into my pocket and realise that its missing a WALLET! F*$#%. So my heart rate is pushing 2000 beats per minute while I am frantically looking around on the floor for any signs. Nothing! I start up the street towards where we got off from the cab. Nothing. I was sure i'd left it in the cab. There are a million cabs in Shanghai, I couldn't remember a single detail about it. You are supposed to get a receipt from the driver when you pay, of course I didn't have that.
So after dicking around and stopping random people, well Lyndon did anyway, I gave up hope. (One of those random people was this chick who offered to give me her food!) Several phone calls later I'd canceled my credit cards. I made a trip to the police station a day later and reported it lost. Try doing that in chinese!
Anyway just yesterday, I get a call from Jane (one of the real estate agents we were using) saying that she had my wallet! It was nuts. The money was gone... of course, but my mutual community card, drivers licence and several other cards were still there. I'd already canceled my credit cards but they were still about.
Lesson to be learnt here, put your address and details in your wallet so they can contact you!

Wynn or Lose

2006-06-10T16:56:00.000+09:30

So I've started work as a DJ in Shanghai. New club called WynnWin. I'll leave the name alone shall I. The club is in the shopping centre Plaza 66, real top end stuff. LV, Armani, Boss, blah blah blah. The club is PLUSH. All white, and massive sound system (although technically there are problems with it). Thursday night opening night. 8th of June. HUGE crowd. They sold out of all stock spirits. (And drinks are real expensive, over 100 AUD for a bottle of Vodka.) All tables were booked. In China, you book tables, and each table has a fee or a minimum spend tab. I'm not sure what it is but if you want a table start saving your pennies.
The owner likes Progressive house. Thats fine. But I'm not sure he knows what progressive house IS! So, apparently he has hated all the DJs that have played so far. not sure what he thinks about me, but I don't really care. I found out last night that I can make the same amount of money I make in a month but doing a few nights work for a DJ agency. Thats an eighth of the work for the same money. Wynn or Lose? Lose the residency at Shanghai's most exclusive, Wynn much better pay for less work? Leaning toward the money....:)
More photos if you click on one of the photo links on the right. unfinished and finished versions.

Cornfields and Soybeans

2006-06-06T13:21:00.000+09:30

Most people think of Chicago when they hear Illinois. But theres more! Travel south of Chicago and you get miles and miles of cornfields and soybeans. And I mean MILES of it. Theres the occasional town or two in between, but by and large its farm land. But its the richest farm land around. I swear.

Illinois in 10
1. Abraham Lincoln's birthplace
2. Krispy Kreme factory that supplies everything besides the east coast of the States
3. Birthplace of the Rotary International Foundation
4. Everyone south of Chicago either lives on a golf course, has a lake, lives on a farm or has a combination of the 3.
5. Oprah is shot in Chicago.
6. Cornfields and Soybeans.
7. People are really friendly. Really, they are.
8. Did I mention Krispy Kreme? Everything in the factory is automated. They had SHELVES AND SHELVES of mix. All I needed was 1 bag. Each bag was, I think 15 kilos, maybe 20 and made 1000 fluffly wholesome rings of delights.
9. The great Quincy Jones was born in Chicago. Cindy Crawford in DeKalb. Walt Disney in Chicago too.
10. FLAT. Its flat for kilometres. Far as the eye can see, central Illinois is completely flat. FLAT!

The whole point of me going to Illinois was for Rotary International Exchange. A vocational experience whereby you get to expereince your vocation in another country. So I visited software firms, business development companies as well as some of the other people's vocations. There was also alot of Rotary Meetings. It was like Groundhog day the movie cos every meeting you hand to reintroduce yourself. I got my photo into 2 newspapers and went to 1 television interview.
We did get to visit things like museums, went to see a baseball game and I even went fishing. All and all it was a good experience. One thing to be noted people eat REAL unhealthy there. Salad was equal parts salad dressing and vegetables.

You may have seen the photo of Chi-Hoong and I. That was in a MAC store on Michigan avenue. I managed to catch up with him and Su-Yin. Here is us eating at Mike Ditka's grill restaurant. Really nice steaks. (No thats not a handbag.)

Right in the thick of it!

2006-06-04T19:59:00.000+09:30

Yo!

Well, we've moved. Hopefully never again, well at least for a while. Try ringing for a moving van when you don't know how to say the address of where you are going, or how to say moving van? I managed to get the door guy at our old apartment to help me out and call one. We somehow had HEAPS of stuff. (Adelaidians use 'HEAPS'....ahhh.. heaps.) I would have taken a picture but the camera was packed in somewhere. The whole move was a stealth operation, it didn't have a name then but I'm calling it 'Shanghai suprise'. You see our landlord was showing people around our apartment while I was in the states. Lyndon didn't know what was going on and so apparently quite a few people came walking through. Quite concerning. We suspected that they were going to sell...great! I mean that in a good way cos we wanted to move and if we did, we would break our contract! Well we ended up finding this place in 3 days, and we shipped all our stuff out on a Sunday. The landlord was coming on Monday to collect more rent. :) Come monday, SUPRISE!!!! Bad as it sounds no one was upset about any of it. They were quite ok about it in the end.
So now we are right in the thick of it. Next to a Metro line, walking distance from clubs, restaurants and shopping. Conveniant.

The picture is the view from my room window. The arrow is pointing at a road. Just off to the left is one of Shanghai's main roads. Nan Jing Road.

Good bye GuBei

2006-05-28T09:08:00.001+09:30

During my last days of Chicago and Illinois I discovered that the landlord could be moving us out, or at least selling the place. We really didn't care, we were happy to move out. Its too far from central Shanghai. After some hunting around using several agents and contacts from friends we finally found another apartment downtown! Woohoo! its in a district called Jin'An and is right in town. Awesome! building is old but the apartment is pretty modern. Some old chinese style furniture, 2bedrooms, 2bathrooms, kitchen, lounge and dining. Only downside is that the building is used for offices on the bottom half. I don't have a problem cos our place is on the 24th.
So we are moving out today. The landlord doesn't know yet. :) We have a feeling he is trying to screw us over so we are just going to jump ship. It means losing deposit, but at least we are out of there!

Well next post will be from downtown.

The story so far..

2006-05-24T08:43:00.000+09:30

This whole blog thing is quite a responsibility. I keep falling behind in posts so its time to do some catch up. South East Asia, lets just finish that.

Last time I left you all we were just finishing up Vietnam. That was fun. From here we headed back toward Thailand and the south islands. Unfortunately the only way we were going to be able to head down to the south was via Bangkok. Not happy Jan. The next town would have to be Phenom Phen. The thought was to take the next available bus out or cab it to Bangkok with 2 sweedish guys. Unfortunately the problem was the border crossing would be closed. So we stayed the night. After a night of sleep at a drain smelling hot hole, we headed for BKK. With a 5:30am start it took us a straight across to BKK and then we caught the next bus and ferry to Koh Phangan. In total the trip was over 28hours of travel on a FRICKEN BUS!!!! Naturally we were dying to get in the water.

Koh Phangan - home of the Full Moon party. Along this bus ride we met Jon, a canadian who was travelling SE Asia too. He was meeting 2 other sweedish girls there and suggested we follow him to look for accomodation. The population almost of the island increases about 10 times during the week of this festival and he said we may have some trouble finding a place. After some wondering around we finally ended up at a guest house which was cheap and close to the beach.

The beach. Picture a stretch of beach with 23 degrees water, white sand, beautiful sunshine and chicks. Topless ones. Sun bathing, swimming, drinking even playing volleyball and racket ball. Sorry, I didnt get any photos so you'll just have to believe me. Topeless is almost a rule on the beach. Kindly just about every one abides.

During the days leading up to the fullmoon party there is constant partying going on. There was music during the day but seeing as almost everyone was hungover it wasnt too loud. At around 8-9pm however it was cranked up to ear bleeding levels, and beach activities turned into drunken dancing. Like they say - 'when in rome...' The nights we were there, there were anywhere up to 10,000 people on the beach. It was mayhem. Most people drank buckets. Thai spirits (undisclosed amount of alcohol content) with either coke or red bull, depending on how tired you were from the previous night. At around $8 AUD for a half litre, its not hard to imagine how people look the next morning. Fullmoon night was massive. THOUSANDS flocked and all sorts came out of the woodwork.

Aside from the partying, there was the snorkling. 23 degrees water and coral makes for great snorkling. We all bought some snorkling equipment and decided we would explore ourselves instead of taking a tour. AWESOME. Enough cucumber to satisfy any chinese, tropical fish, coral and crabs. All this was just off the beach! We spent several days snorkling around in between partying. As a result I got a huge shorts tan and lyndon was pretty damn burnt. All worth it.

After the party we headed for an island called Koh Tao on the way back to BKK. Another beautiful place. Here we met two Dutch chicks who decide to come snorkling with us. We headed for an island call Shark Island. How inviting... Literally 20m from shore you were able to see reef sharks swimming around. Kinda freaky at first then you realise that even if you wanted to get close they wouldn't let you. This was just off shore, shark island was still quite some distance. In fact it was a good 15min swim from shore and through waters where you couldn't see the bottom. (Duh its the sea) 3 of us swam across without actually thinking much and it wasn't till later that I realised it may not have been the greatest idea in the world. Needless to say it was a fantastic day.

The bus ride back to BKK was the least painful. Massive bus that had plenty of room. We arrived in BKK with some shopping in mind, and to pick up our suit. Both of us ended buying another suit at quite a good price. We bought some house items and before you know it we were ready for SH. Of course no thailand trip would be complete without a thai boxing competition and some ping pong.

I left out some stories here and there but thers just too much to write and I really wanted to finish the whole SE Asia thing! So now its done!!!
Phew!!

Soooo behind

2006-05-21T10:26:00.000+09:30

Greetings... so i've spent the last month in Illinois. What have I done? Rotary associated activities. I'm currently in a MAC store in Chicago with Chi-Hoong and thought i'd update my blog. This being so I'll have to keep this pretty brief. I'm in Chicago for a day because the flight back to SH was full!!! Gladly I stayed. United Air paid for hotel, and transfers.

Well I'll be heading back to SH tomorrow and i'll have more to post when i get back to my PC.

PS I need one of these Macs.

Chicago here we come...

2006-04-19T01:50:00.000+09:30

You know how people say its not what you know but who you know? True. Me knowing someone in a significant position and perhaps some luck in the current position I am in has allowed me a trip to the US for the next 4 weeks as of Friday. I won't go in to too much detail, mainly because I don't know much of the details, but lets just say that this whole overseas thing has opened up doors that would have never even be thought of back home. True again that I'm really yet to establish myself here in Shanghai despite of all these "doors", but its definitely something that I won't be forgetting for the rest of my life. So I guess the next post will be from the country of stars and stripes. I've never had much ambition to go to the states, but surely am looking forward to it.

Before I close this one off, here are a couple of songs that you might want to check out.

House tunes or dance tunes are often remakes. Some guy/girl stealing a 16 bar riff from a song written 20 years ago. There are those who do it well and those who are just boring. What you can be sure of though is that if the new release song was a hit, then the old one would be sheer genius. These songs have been stolen by various artists over the years, check them out. See if you recognise them in their original form.

1. Midnight Ryeders - Evil Vibrations (AWESOME track)
2. George Duke - I love you more (Cheesy as ALL hell, but that riff is great.)
3. Bolivar - Merengue
4. Taana Gardner - Heartbeat (little harder to tell what song stole the beat.)
5. Diana Ross - I'm coming out (suspicious title but you definitely recognise it and its damn funky)

Let me know if you want the names of the remixed songs...

South East Asia - Vietnam & the Malaysian gay community.

2006-04-16T23:12:00.000+09:30

Last time I left the SE asia story we were in Cambodia. The last night there was drunk. We ended up drinking with a couple Canadian and English. They were pretty funny. However the next morning we almost missed our bus. 5:30 we get a slamming on the door telling us bus was ready to go! So after being ripped off for the room and tab for drinks (I swear we didn't drink that much, honest!) We scrambled on to the bus headed for Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnam was nice. It was cleaner than Cambodia and people seemed nicer. Both Cambodia and Vietnam work in US dollars. Better to use the local currency but travelling like we were it was easier to just carry the one currency. Our guest house was $12 US a night and was clean WITH A/C. Upon arrival we booked a tour the next day for the Mekong.
Turtle, Pheonix, Dragon, Unicorn. No its not some Captain Planet summoning spell. These were the 4 main islands that we visited on the tour.
Dragon was about fruit markets with LOADS of tropical fruits and that includes the king of fruits - Durian (Sorry its hard to see but its the green things in the baskets).
For those who don't know, its been described to smell like hell and taste like heaven.
Turtle was a Longan farm, we had lunch here (pretty average really).
Unicorn was a coconut island. There we had some coconut candy and bought this $1US bananna moonshine. Heavy stuff.
Pheonix was a canal ride with 2 really old ladies doing all the rowing. Felt kinda bad. They went non-stop for a couple of kilometres.

That night we to the local markets back at Ho Chi Minh for some bargains. Picked up some stuff for a friend here in Shanghai who has helped us enormously. I ate some coconut prawns which was pretty tasty. (The previous night we had PHO.) Then it was clubbing! We went to a place called Apocolypse Now. It was alright. The vietnamese girls are quite pretty. But the shocking part night was, aside from the music, the malaysian guys we had met from our Mekong tour. You see they were there too and had seen us walk in. A friendly wave later we found ourselves standing at their table surround by a bunch of guys who were into well, guys. I didn't really have a problem cos it was pretty funny. I wasn't sure of it until one of them started telling me that I should hang around a couple more days for the mardigra. I said in the exact words, "but I'm not gay." In hindsight is should have said "But I not gay wan!"

We found our way back via a tricycle that had seats in front with some old guy pedaling at the back. Now in our slightly intoxicated state, Lyndon decided he was going to do the riding for the guy. So there I was sitting wedged in this seat with this guy while Lyndon pedaled us to sure death. He kept veering into traffic, which was halarious at the time. Ofcourse we long rode past our hotel when we decided to get off. It all worked out because we found an all night Pho shop! Only problem was that we didn't have enough money for 2 bowls. So we had to share. I love spicy food so it HAD to be the spicy Pho. This was maybe the nicest Pho I'd EVER eaten. Well it was at least until I couldn't feel the insides of my mouth cos there was so much chilli in there.

It was shortly back to bed and ready ourselves for the trip back across cambodia in search for the beaches of Thailand and the Full Moon Festival. I'd had enough of cities and wanted large bodies of water.

Our next stop, Thailand Koh Phangan. Full Moon Party March '06. The promise of thousands of people on the one beach partying for 48 hours.

Still Groovin'?

2006-04-09T12:29:00.000+09:30

So previously I gave you some of my personal song recommendations. Don't know whether anyone listened to them but I'll keep going with it anyway. This time we are going to take a more modern approach. Dimitri from Paris is one of the great DJs of our time. Not only does he DJ well technically, but he knows what music is about. The soul, the groove. His speciality is disco edits. The frenchman has quite a skill in finding gold amongst the one hit wonders and well... crap that formed the Disco era. He then adds his own little touches, lifts the kick (beat), EQs it, drops a few filters and effects and TA DA!!!! Most importantly though, he manages to do this while still leaving the essence of the songs untouched. I've made it sound a little easier than it is so don't under estimate the man's talents. Savvy Bar about 3 years ago, I had the pleasure of listening to one of his sets. This was not long after his "A night after the Playboy Mansion" release. Needless to say he was mind blowing.

His albums include

1996 Sacrebleu

1997 -Monsieur Dimitri's De-Luxe House of Funk

2000 - A night at the Playboy Mansion

2000 - Disco Forever

2001 - My Salsoul

2002 - A night After the Playboy Mansion

2003 - Cruising Attitude

2004 - In the House

2006 - Super Disco Friends
2006 - In the house of Love

Honestly I haven't heard them ALL yet. But its probably a pretty safe bet if you are into your vocal house, disco or even french house. If you don't know him already then check it out.

Our TV...

2006-04-05T23:39:00.000+09:30

Here is a picture our our tv in our lounge room... its a toshiba rear projection. Its huge.... just see for yourself... I thought it was worth an entire post of its own...

Jia You!! Jia You!!!

2006-04-05T23:36:00.000+09:30

JIA YOU!! JIA YOU!! Thats what chinese say when they are cheering a team on. So when Yao Ming is playing or when you see table tennis matches on the CCTV's sports channel thats what you hear. Not "CARRNN THE CROWS!!!" its "JIA YOU!!! JIA YOU!!!"

So in light of the Crows first win of their 2006 Premiership season..

JIA YOU CROWS!! JIA YOU CROWS!!!

In case you haven't noticed, we have managed to find Crows games on the internet. Ahhh.... the internet. Back to it then... JIA YOU! JIA YOU!!

BLOG IS BACK!!!!......

2006-04-05T23:32:00.000+09:30

The blog is back.. don't ask how... don't ask why. Anyway I've moved my posts from the other site here. There are photos up at the other site, so I may just still use it unless I can find another way of hosting a photo album for free. Well, carry on then.....

So we arrived in Angkor Wat at maybe 11pm at night. The bus driver was obviously told to drive to a specific guest house, which I'm sure he got a cut for. So what would you do? Get off the bus after a slaughtering ride and you are standing right outside a guest house. Its late, there are freakin mosquitos everywhere and it hot...

Our room was alright. Not really much to look at. All we knew was it had 2 beds and a toilet. I presume it the same at every guest house around the area, but there were scooter drivers waiting on the ground looking to strike a deal with you. Our guy, who was for some reason named Sunrise, was pretty cool. He spoke enough english and seemed like an alright guy. Of the choices of tours 1, 2 or 3 day tours, we thankfully took the 1 day option. This of couse meant covering quite an area. All together I think there are 9 main temple sights to visit. Each unique and enormous. So CRACK OF DAWN, 5:30am we were woken up by our driver Sunrise, no pun intended, and his mate (Doch). The area where the temples were locate was national park and entry was $20US to get in! Of course Sunrise was omitted this in his sales pitch the night before.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - the main temple was quite amazing. It was shit early and there were hundreds of people around all waiting for their kodak moment. After that it was off to Bayon (another temple). I guess the names don't mean much to you guys, actually to be honest they don't mean much to me either. You see we were on a self guided tour, meaning we were tightarsed. So we didn't get many facts or figures, but the place is big. Its huge. And every last bit of it is made from stone of some kind. Different temples were made from different materials. And its all so detailed. Walls are carved with patterns, there are buddah faces everywhere and theres just so much of it.

So we went from temple to temple for the ENTIRE DAY. Climbing UP and DOWN stairs some of which were greater than a 45degree slope. Seriously. Any still there are hundreds of people including crazy middle age japanese ladies climbing it. We covered 7 of the 9 temples which was nuts. We had walkded so much on so little sleep that we asked to head back to the guest house for a power nap before carrying on. But it was worth it. Its gotta be done. I can sit here and try and describe the grandure of it all, but you have to see it to believe it.

That night we had dinner with our drivers. We said to take us to a local place for food. The guest house served food but it was expensive and even Sunrise wasn't sure what it was like. Loc Lark. Thats the name of the dish. It was stewed pork served with a fried egg.. sunny side up. Doesn't sound like much but it was fantastic. We ended up walking the streets after dinner. (Apparently thats not a safe thing to do. Good thing I know kung fu...)

We were out of there the next day. Headed for Phenon Phen. There we stayed at a Lakeside guest house. Now before I left, I had come vaccinations, including Yellow Fever. (inside joke..) What I opted out on was malaria tablets. You just had to keep taking those things. So the doctor said you should be fine just stay away from large bodies of fresh water. Lakeside guest house it was, didn't really make the connection at the time we checked in. That same day we visited the War crimes museum. Its a former school which had been turned into a prison. Anywhere up to 5000 people were in this tiny place. We walked around ourselves and it was just erie. Hard to describe, but the air was thick. Didn't smell of anything in particular, just thick. Everything was so still and you just couldn't smile the whole time you were there. There were beds that people had obviously died on with photos of their bodies on the walls. It was 4 3 story buildings that had about 4 or 5 classrooms on each floor. Some rooms were left for mass detention while other were split into smaller holding cells. Either way they all had the same feeling. At the end there was a video interviewing some guy who was actually there. He tell a story of being forced to club people in the back of the head so they and how soildiers tied children to trees and beat them to death. Not cool. I'm glad I went but sorry to see what it was all about.

Next Blog: Vietnam and the Malaysian gay community.

BLOG moved!!!

2006-04-03T20:18:00.000+09:30

Hey all,

Ok there seems to be some firewall or proxy filtering on my side. The result is me not being able to see my blog. I'm able to post up stuff... but can view it. So its moving. The new blog address is digthatgroove.blog.com

The next post is up there.
Cheers

The rest of the SE Asia trip.

2006-03-31T12:08:00.000+10:30

So we finally setup internet in our apartment and I figure great! Now I can keep my blog up to date. However, upon trying to view my blog, it dawned on me where I was. Well, I have nothing to substantiate that my blog has been blocked. For all I know it could be my inability to configure my firewall or proxy correctly, but thats no where near as controversial so I'm sticking with the first story.

Now where were we? ....AHH yes the delights of South East Asia and its ongoing plight to bargain EVERYTHING. In case you didn't know, nearly everything in South East Asia is negotiable. Sounds great right, you get a great deal on everything. But when you take in to account the time needed to negotiate EVERYTHING, it becomes quite a uneconomical not to mention a down right pain in the arse. Why can't they just give you a reasonable fixed price and we pay it. (This is what a months worth of bargaining does to you.)

So reviewing it all... the trip started in Thailand. Bangkok, the only international airport in Thailand. We landed there with the intention of staying a day or two and then leave for Cambodia. Didn't work. Our visas for Cambodia and Vietnam took 5 grueling days. Apparently one day extra was due to fighting at the embassy, theres a comforting thought. In the mean time we stayed at our youth hostel and ventured the streets of Khao San, the chinatown of backpackers. Every major city has one and its full of backpackers. During this time we managed to get measured up for a suit and an overcoat plus 3 shirts and extra pants. Again, we were bargaining for about 45mins trying to get a "good" price. The stereotypical indian taylor assured us he was not making much profit on this sale and that he did it because we were "friends". Bitter as that may sound it wasn't too bad. We picked the best materials and our overcoat was made from this gourgeous soft, warm and light material. Worth every penny.

We finally left for Siam Reap, Cambodia. Travelling by bus was quite the experience. From bangkok to the border was fine. Well aside from the rear tyre blow out and one of the girls saying last time this happened the bus couldn't brake. The border to Siam Reap however was crazy. Picture a mini bus PACKED full of people and bags. Now, its not a NEW bus... take that bus and stick it in the outback for a couple of years, throw in a few dents, some weird smells and remove some of the interior and you have something similar to what we had. Now if the bus were travelling on a sealed road, that would still be quite passable. But no, this is Cambodia. The main road from the Bangkok border to Siam Reap (home of Angkor Wat) was unsealed. Now not only was it unsealed, it was uneven and unlit not to mention full of buses and cars and bikes. Some parts were only just wide enough for 2 buses. We travelled during the night so looking out the front windscreen all you could see was the haze of dust the headlights lit up. Some how the bus driver managed to manouver past holes in the ground, boulders, cyclists, scooters with no lights, other buses an cars not to mention the crazy predestrians. The ironic part is that upon reaching Siam Reap, the first sight you see is MASSIVE hotels that can cost you anywhere up to $1500 US a night. Go figure?!? What happened to infrastructure....?

Next blog: Cambodia - the enormity of Angkor Wat. (Picture on left is the Cambodian border.)

Oh by the way people... we have an apartment in Shanghai now. In the GuBei District. We have internet and the apartment is furnished. It even came with a 120cm toshiba TV?! Now we are just starting to look for jobs. More on all this later. Catch you all then. One more thing, I managed to get around that firewall issue for those still reading at this point... :)

A Picture paints 1000 words...no need for much explaination.

2006-03-02T19:59:00.000+10:30

Rocket going away + Ez Bday

Below is this fatty pork dish we ordered from MBK Shopping centre. TASTY!!

Lyndon eating grasshopper.

Me eating grasshopper.... tastes like crunchy.

More photos to come As soon as i can be bothered resizing them.

The night before last we met a couple of english chicks. Not only did I manage to teach them the locking handshake (Poon you'll know what I'm talking about), but I managed to get them to say " Yor marder soooo fhet, dhhaaaaaaaat when she jarm for joy, she gort starck!"

It was HEAPS FUNNY. And Lyndon got it on video too. We'll upload it somewhere as soon as I've figured out my ftp url. :)

Ok people... thats it for now. I've still got photos of Iron Chef and china we havent uploaded yet. So stay tuned and do not attempt to adjust your stereo!!!

Sawadee Kharp

2006-02-28T02:54:00.000+10:30

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

2006-02-25T19:20:00.000+10:30

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

2006-02-10T11:51:00.000+10:30

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

2006-02-10T10:45:00.000+10:30

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

2006-02-07T12:53:00.000+10:30

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?

2006-02-06T02:16:00.000+10:30

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!

2006-02-02T10:41:00.000+10:30

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,

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.
You and your partner have approximately 1 week to buy and prepare your chosen dish.
There are no restrictions as to how many dishes you can make.
A $50 limit is given per pair. You must spend as close to $50 as possible.
Your ingredient must be the central flavour of your dish.
Make enough for everyone to try some, but do not prepare food for an army.
Contestants must come dressed either in bad 80s clothing, authentic japanese clothing, or in correlation with their themed ingredient.
You must come up with a saying for your ingredient.
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?

Do not attempt to adjust your stereo...

2006-01-12T14:05:00.000+10:30

Okay so I'm unemloyed and have absolutely nothing to do, at least nothing pressing. Hey, what the hell, lets start a blog. Its the fashionable thing to do and its easier than a webpage to build. The other purpose is of course so I can keep you all posted while on my travels to the mother country. At least I guess its my mother country. I think being chinese defaults your mother country to China, unless otherwise specified.
I will of course include my recommendations to the funk and everything that goes with it because "The funk not only moves, it can remove!" -George Clinton. So do not attempt to adjust your stereos and stay tuned.

Next time on Groove-Sucka: The pop and lock