Old friends, old haunts

Posted on July 31, 2009

Henry and Danny are two brothers that worked at Auto Salon many years ago. We forged a good friendship, so when they moved to Indonesia to run a TV production company I was sad to see them go but happy for them as well. They’ve proven quite successful, with their programs airing on everything from ESPN to Discovery channel.

A couple days ago I received a BBM from Danny saying they were in Sydney for a short period. Although they were here for sad reasons, we caught up just before he had to fly to Malaysia. Back then we used to hang out a lot at Dee Bee’s, a small cafe in Double Bay, and so we headed their tonight to relive the good old days. I even ordered the same thing I did years ago: their open beef burger monstrosity, which is covered in a mountain of onion rings.

Weird request

Posted on July 31, 2009

Today I received a call asking if we were able to modify an ATV to promote an upcoming video game. The brief was that it had to look exactly like a vehicle in the game, but obviously scaled down in size. They also needed it ready in two weeks. Since I’ve never played around with ATVs, we dropped by a motorcycle store in the city to examine one up close. It’s an interesting project, but I don’t know if we’ll take it up because of the time frame.

Special treat

Posted on July 29, 2009

After so many trying weeks at work (I haven’t done that many hours a week since the Issue 29-31 days), I can finally have a moment’s respite before things get busy again. As a treat to myself, I popped by a small store in Queens Park known as ‘We Take the Cake’. Although I drive past it every day on the way to work, this was the first time I’ve gone in. As the name suggests, they specialise in cakes: cupcakes.

They have a dozen or so variations, and I was tempted to buy a whole box to try each of them. But at $4 a pop, I decided on just two: chocolate and strawberry. I ended up having to share with Papz and Kula, and we all agreed that the strawberry cupcake was delicious!

Can’t wait

Posted on July 25, 2009

Recently it was announced that Daft Punk will be doing the score for the remake of Tron, which immediately made me giddy with excitement (I’m a massive Daft Punk groupie you see). Apparently the duo have already completed 24 new tracks for the movie and I’m dying to hear them all.

During Comic-con one of their new tracks was playing at the rather nifty Tron Legacy display and I’m glad to say it’s still unmistakably Daft Punk. The tempo might have taken a hit of Valium but so far so good (listen here *link fixed, sorry!*). I can’t wait!

Kick start

Posted on July 25, 2009

Second Saturday in a row I’ve had to wake early. While last week was for a wedding, today was to go into work. It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks with plenty of late nights, and when I woke up this morning I was really feeling exhausted. I needed coffee.

Headed down to Pastelaria Caravela, a small cafe in Bondi Junction I’ve heard good things about. Their specialty are Portuguese tarts and they were pretty damn good - right up there with the ones I had years ago in Macau. There’s a hint of cinnamon and the pastry is extremely flaky. I’ll be back again for sure!

FOB style

Posted on July 24, 2009

There can be a lot of downtime during photoshoots, especially when a workshop’s running a bit late and finishing off the final touches on the car. Sometimes we’ll be in a remote location twiddling our thumbs, but sometimes we find ways to entertain ourselves. A pack of cards, an overturned box and some, err, squatting creates makeshift entertainment.

P.S. Yeah I know it’s a bad suckout!

Super-size

Posted on July 21, 2009

“That’s not a tripod, THIS is a tripod!”

De ja vu

Posted on July 20, 2009

Hearing of the recent hotel bombings in Jakarta brought plenty of memories flooding back. Back in 2003, when I was Auto Salon’s head judge, I was scheduled to fly over to our Jakarta event. Also heading over from Australia was Jarrett Pinksterboer, who judged alongside me for five years. I like to think that the two of us made a pretty good team, and during our tenure we judged over 10,000 cars. Having already been to events around Australia and New Zealand, we were both pretty excited to be sent over to Indonesia. We had heard stories about how crazy their cars were, and now we had the opportunity to see them in person.

Then around two weeks before the event, the J.W. Marriott hotel (which was targeted again) was bombed. With numerous travel warnings immediately issued by the Australian government, we were obviously very concerned. The fact that the hotel was located just down the road from our venue didn’t help things either. Jarrett’s wife Sandy was quite vocal with her opinion; we were both insane if we went right into ground zero to do something as trivial as judging a car show.

However, with our flights paid for and work visas already organised, we eventually decided to continue with the trip. The local organisers scrambled and changed our accommodation from an American-managed hotel to another which, apparently, was owned by the Indonesian mafia. That certainly raised my eyebrows (mobster hoteliers? Who would’ve thought…), but it did give us a bit of comfort considering the extremists seemed to be targeting Western establishments.

Although expected, being on a near empty 747 made for a sombre flight. Had we made a grave error?

As we were driven from the Jakarta airport to the venue we passed many hotels, all of which were barricaded by armed security (the Hilton hotel even had a military tank – no shit – parked at the entrance) and every entering car was inspected and swept for bombs. Similar checkpoints were also implemented at all of the major shopping centres.

Even the show cars were inspected before being allowed into the exhibition centre. However I was rather upset to find that the office we’d been assigned for judging was lined with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the side of the road (before the venue’s security checkpoint); hardly the kind of protection you’d hope for.

Thankfully the event went off without a hitch, and for several years Jarrett and I continued judging car shows in Indonesia. We’d fly to Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali and we’d visit places like Malang and Bandung. Each and every time was a memorable experience. And while the security measures were still enforced, over the years it became apparent that the checkpoints were becoming more of a formality – a nuisance tolerated because it appeased guests – rather than an effective terrorist deterrent. The security would give each car a quick once over rather than carefully inspect with mirrors and metal detectors.

These latest terrorist attacks are an absolute tragedy for Indonesia, especially considering the two affected hotels were considered impenetrable. After slowly rebuilding from the tsunamis, the attack on the Australian embassy as well as the Jakarta and Bali bombings, this is the last thing their country needed. Will they be able to recover? Hopefully so.

Jimmy & Karen

Posted on July 18, 2009

Today two close friends, Jimmy and Karen, tied the knot. I first met Karen when I was 13, and then I met Jimmy in Year 9 after he transferred to my high schoool. The two of them wouldn’t meet until a few years later, but ever since then we all knew that they were bound to get married.

Their wedding was held at Taronga Zoo overlooking Sydney harbour.

Perfect winter weather.

Taronga Zoo is actually an awesome venue for a wedding.

Angeline and Vivienne were the flower girls. Aren’t they cute!

Karen, looking gorgeous, walking down the aisle.

Roaming peacock.

Reception was at the opposite end of Sydney in Cabramatta.

There were so many tables that it took me a good five minutes to find my seat.

Time to throw the bouquet.

The Victoria Room

Posted on July 18, 2009

Steve’s just turned 25 and to celebrate his bday he booked the lounge at the Victoria Room. Being in Darlinghurst meant that parking was a nightmare, with Will and I doing many laps to no avail. Eventually we parked in an alley a few blocks away, which meant we had to run the gauntlet of junkies, drunks and 50 year old hookers. I don’t think either of us had been that engrossed in our shoes before.

I was surprised by how big the Victoria Room is (the photos on their website aren’t that flattering) and the lounge setup was pretty cool. I hadn’t eaten all day and so the alcohol hit me pretty quick; but that’s what makes it fun right?

Sushi depends on sleep

Posted on July 14, 2009

Tapping into my infinite wisdom, I decided to make sushi for dinner even though I was exhausted and just back from a soccer game. By the time I had a shower, prepared the ingredients and cooked the rice (not all at the same time mind you) I was pretty tired. So tired in fact that on my second roll I forgot all about needing a sheet of seaweed and was instead squishing the rice straight into the mat. Luckily I noticed before I put all the other things in and had started rolling. By the time I had finally finished and was ready to eat - yep, you guessed it - I wasn’t hungry anymore. So guess what I’m having for lunch tomorrow?

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