Weekend away

Posted on August 31, 2009

Although my weekend snow trip was enjoyable overall, a few things didn’t quite go according to plan. First off, we weren’t able to leave the office on time as there were some final touches on the next issue of ASM that needed to be redone, which meant we were stuck in peak hour traffic.

Friday night traffic is always bad, but this was ridiculous. All up around two hours was added to our journey thanks to a car accident which jammed up the M5 Motorway. An Audi A3, pottering along in the overtaking lane at half the speed limit, also caused a kilometre-long train of cars. Silly, silly drivers. Most of us were pretty exhausted during the drive but these little shots of concentrated Red Bull helped us!

Stayed in a house in East Jindabyne. Here’s the view from the lounge room. Although the weather looked fabulous here, the conditions at Perisher were the complete opposite.

During the early hours of Saturday morning I fell ill, probably from food poisoning. I awoke in a cold sweat and had to throw up the (dodgy) chicken I ate for dinner. I felt better in the afternoon, so I ventured over to the slopes. Just as William and I had put all our gear on and locked the car, a hail storm struck. We quickly ran back to the car and waited for it to subside. We killed the time by watching some movies!

Because of the storm, all of the lifts were shut down meaning there was no point venturing out into the cold. That night however, the slopes were reopened until 8pm so that people could get their snow fix. I’ve never snowboarded under lights before and it was a very cool experience.

Everyone woke up a bit late on Sunday morning meaning there was a mad rush to pack up all of our stuff before heading out for more action. Although the sun would only make a brief appearance, we were all happy that the rain from yesterday had subsided.

Crammed up inside of the Jazz with snowboards wedged into every conceivable space.

Planning our day’s activities was done by Tracy, who mapped out a cool route that would take us through various slopes.

Those who regularly read the blogs listed on my ‘About’ page may have seen a few posts about Avalunch Cafe, which is located away from the main slopes. Everyone raves about their hot chocolates so I had to give it a go.

Definitely met my expectations! It was so delicious I was tempted to grab a second cup.

View from Avalunch Cafe’s outdoor benches. Visibility was poor on all of the mountains, and on some runs I couldn’t see more than 20 metres in front of me. There were some really icy parts too, which meant my butt received quite a few bruises!

From left to right: Papz, Angie, Val, Garth, Tracy. All up there were 12 of us.

Trekking through the mountains is a lot more fun than staying on the main areas, and often we had slopes all to ourselves. We were all absolutely exhausted by 5pm so we caught the skitube train back to Perisher.

Since it was snowing non-stop all day, our cars were glazed in ice. Luckily we didn’t have to put snow-chains on as no one particularly wanted to get down on their hands and knees to fit them!

Long drives are super boring, so I often find myself playing little games to keep myself occupied. On the way home I set myself a target of dropping the fuel consumption average to mid-6L while always maintaining a speed of at least 105km/h. Before I knew it, I was back in Sydney!

Maccas

Posted on August 27, 2009

Every now and then I give in to temptation and go on a junk food binge. Being super lazy today, I popped through a Maccas drive-thru for lunch and chose their new ‘Grand Angus’ burger. Much to my surprise, it was actually half decent!

R & R

Posted on August 27, 2009

Whenever it’s the end of the month, posts on here tend to dry up. The reason, as mentioned many a time, is the increased workload that comes with looming (and often clashing) deadlines. After a handful of all-nighters at the office this week, I’m really looking forward to getting away from Sydney for the weekend. And so I’ll be heading to Perisher after work tomorrow to hit the slopes!

There’s quite a few of us going, and since we’re using my place as the meeting point, my store room is currently filled to the brim with snowboards and boots. It’s been a year - almost to the day - since I’ve been to the snow, so I’m sure I’ll be spending the next couple of hours trying to find all of my gear! Now where the hell did I leave my gloves?

The best pork roll?

Posted on August 26, 2009

Looking for something to eat that’s cheap, filling and tasty? Then look no further than the humble Vietnamese pork roll. While first-timers are often taken aback by the strangely coloured, processed sheets of meat, I’ve yet to encounter someone who didn’t fall in love with them after a couple of bites.

Given that I was raised in Sydney’s west, it’s unsurprising I’ve been eating pork rolls since I was a little kid. It didn’t matter which suburb you were in: from Homebush to Cabramatta you could pretty much find them on every corner. But when I moved to the opposite end of Sydney many years ago, I discovered that Vietnamese bread stores were few and far between. And this was a problem, because being in my early twenties and having to pay rent meant I often had to live off coins. Luckily my housemate at the time came to the rescue, pointing me to a small store in Mascot called Hong Ha.

Hong Ha wil never win any awards for its decor, but boy do I rate their pork rolls. I’ve had countless lunches from there over the years, and each time I’m met with a queue that snakes out onto the street. I guess I’m not the only one who thinks these are the best pork rolls in Sydney!

The (not so) super sub

Posted on August 22, 2009

Following Felipe Massa’s freak accident at the Hungarian GP, it was announced that Michael Schumacher would come out of retirement to take over the #3 Ferrari while the Brazilian recovered. While I was never the biggest Schumacher fan during his dominance of F1, the news of his return was nothing short of mouth watering. Unfortunately it turns out that Schumacher was nursing his own injuries (which he sustained during a motorcycle race) which would force him to withdraw from participating in this weekend’s European GP at Valencia. So Ferrari announced that in place of Schumacher would be their test driver, Luca Badoer.

Those who followed F1 during the Nineties will know that Badoer was often referred to as ‘the mobile chicane’, in reference to his slow pace which would see him lapped numerous times during a race. And while much of that was to blame on the slow Forti he was driving at the time, Badoer won’t have that excuse now that he’s in a scarlet Ferrari. Shame then that after today’s qualifying session he’ll line up on the grid in last position, well off the pace of team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Nail biter

Posted on August 20, 2009

Tonight we lost our indoor soccer game 6-5, with the opposing team scoring in the last few minutes. It was pretty disappointing for us, as we had sustained periods where they were constantly chasing the ball. We were one man down for the opening five minutes - during which they scored two goals - but once we were five a side possession swung our way. We haven’t won a game for a few weeks now, so we’re certainly amped to change that around!

Snow White

Posted on August 19, 2009

White cars dominated ASM’s car park today, including Hons’ new daily driver. Since his S2000 is hardly the easiest car to live with on a day to day basis, Hons has been looking for a beater since January. Initially he was going to buy a stock EG - which would have been the sensible thing to do - but instead he turned up with this white example, complete with all the modifiying bells and whistles. There’s a K-series motor beneath the hood too.

Also spotted was this brand new Maserati Granturismo. I hadn’t seen one in white before, and I must say it’s pretty stunning!

Kick off

Posted on August 14, 2009

After what was a gruelling wait, the new English Premier League season kicks off this weekend. Although the off season break is a lot shorter than other sports, it seems like an eternity since I last stayed up to watch my favourite team Arsenal play.

While last season Arsenal finished in the top four of the EPL and reached the semi-finals of both the Champions League and FA Cup, most Gunners fans were left disappointed. Indeed, many followers feel that the current squad - filled with young talent rather than proven stars due to the huge loan taken out to build Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium - is a mere shadow of the 03/04 team that were unbeaten for an entire season.

There’s no denying that manager Arsene Wenger has kept the purse close to his chest (by the looks of it, Manchester United’s subs bench costs more than Arsenal’s starting XI), but I don’t think this is the culprit for their lack of silverware. Instead, I think its their terrible misfortune. For the past couple of seasons Arsenal has experienced major setbacks with injuries to key players. I’ve always felt that a full strength Arsenal, in spite of the fact that most of the players are under 22 years of age, have what it takes to become champions.

Sadly it looks like the bad luck will continue, with a whopping six players already ruled out with injuries before the season has even begun. Regardless, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and place some bets on them coming out on top in the EPL and Champions League! Hmm, I think I said something similar at the beginning of last season…

Crash city

Posted on August 11, 2009

During recent weeks I’ve been noticing an insane amount of car accidents in Alexandria, the suburb where our office is located. I don’t know if it’s because of the high number of trucks (it’s an industrial area), the crappy road surface (caused by aforementioned trucks), or because people are rushing to the nearby Sydney airport, but I see almost one accident a week. Crazy.

The pie experiment

Posted on August 11, 2009

Never made pies before, so I gave it go over the weekend. What a pain the ass. The mess I made in the kitchen was absolutely frightening. On various cooking shows I had seen this technique to evenly dust flour, but my attempts had it flying everywhere except for the bench. At least the pies turned out great though! I think the secret is to brush a lot of egg yolk and melted butter on the pastry (both inside and out) so that it becomes super flaky.

Also made a few small ones to take to work for lunch (rent’s due you see) but I’ve forgotten them for the past two days. Oops! I better stick a Post-It note somewhere where I’ll notice it when I wake up. Like my forehead.

ASM #78

Posted on August 10, 2009

Received advanced copies of the latest issue.

What I initially thought would be a short and concise editorial column turned into an 1800 word explosion!

Here’s the opener of the Ferrari shoot I showed a teaser of a while back. This has to be one of the scariest rig shots we’ve ever done. Mounting metal poles to a $600k Ferrari is a recipe for disaster, but thankfully it all went to plan. The three cars had to travel close together, which was difficult as you can’t see the nose of the F430.

Over the past few years we’ve been working on the concept of a Japan tour tailored specifically at car fanatics. Logistically it’s harder than you imagine, but everything is all set for the tour to get underway in January 2010. Perhaps this will be the start of a new career as a tour guide: I can already picture myself on the top of that double-decker bus, megaphone in hand! Click here for more details.

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