My 1980's - Bros - Owe you Nothing

For my second video pick from the 1980's - I have chosen Bros.

Yup, the Brit Pop meets Boyband "Bros" were huge in the late 80's and had several hits. Two of their biggest being "I owe you nothing" and "When will I be famous".

When I dug this video clip up on YouTube I was in hysterics looking back at the dance style of these 80's heart-throb's - but Bros certainly rocked the 80's and were one of my favourite bands of the time.

I actually found out that the lead singer from Bros - Matt Goss, has started recording again and has done some slow mainstream stuff out of the UK. You can find some of his new work by searching for "Matt Goss" on Youtube. Enjoy!

Turn up the volume for this one, "I owe you nothing!" By Bros

Ferrari 312 Hand Made Replica

I got onto this super cool video tonight from my favourite hunting ground Viral Video Chart website. An amazing story of a man who hand made his own Ferrari 312 Replica over many, many years. A fully working model with engine, gearbox and full working drive-train was the result.

This video will have you gobsmacked by the dedication and ability shown to craft such a thing:

My 80's Music Flashback Week

Can you remember some of the big songs from the 1980's? I was searching YouTube the other day and found most of my favourite clips from the 80's are there in all their glory. Man, it can bring back some memories and is a great idea for a flashback party!

So I have decided to do a 1980's Music Video week here at 30 Day Man! I will play Blogging DJ and load up some of my favourites from the 80's and embed the YouTube video here in each daily post.

I'll kick it off with Milli Vanilli today! Yes, the lyrical David Copperfield's were huge back in the late 80's and proceeded to implode when the truth hit the streets that they were really wannabe dancers that didn't actually sing and simply lip synced the music.

I was 11 years old at the time, and was fairly devastated when the news broke that Milli Vanilli were fakers! Sitting there in my hypercolor shirt and my hammer pants (or where they called clown pants?) I shed a few tears as I played games on my Commodore 64 like Paperboy, Strider, Shinobi and The Last Ninja! (Such good times!)

With Milli Vanilli up first, who knows where I will go to next - tune in tomorrow for more 80's stuff and feel free to reply to this post with your favourite big hits from the 80's!

Bristol Arms Retro Sydney Bites

If you are visiting Sydney, Australia anytime soon and are looking for some nightlife. Let me tell you one place you DON'T want to visit - The Bristol Arms Retro Hotel on Sussex St. (Building Photo Left)

I was with a friend and 2 relatives last night and we decided to head into the city and check out the Bristol Arms Retro club.

(I've been there a few times before and the multi-story club plays music from several era's on each of their multi-story floors. So you can pickup the 70's, 80's, 90's and the latest stuff to listen or dance to. The crowds usually consist of a fair amount of visitors / tourists and overall the club isn't one with modern decor or new facilities. It's in an old building, and certainly doesn't have the 'VIP' or Studio 54 feel that you might expect from the major clubs in your home city)

Anyway, what happened when we arrived simply blew me away. As we walked towards the entry, we noticed the place was fairly quiet and there was no queue outside to gain entry. As we approached security, they played the old 'fake line' trick - where they make you lineup and they stall you as much as possible, so the public / passing traffic think the place is busy and happening.

My friend in his 30's and myself (29) got through security and headed in. As my relatives (in their 40's) approached, security did their best to intimidate them (which we thought was extremely strange and had us scratching our heads).

As my relatives got to the second security checkpoint where they wave the metal detecting wand over you, the security guard again gave them attitude and said "Sorry, you can't come in - you've had too much to drink!"

We thought this was quite strange, seeing that none of us had actually drunk any alcohol yet and as we all walked away confused - we finally realised that the club simply didn't want visitors in their 40's.

So it seems the first security guard was actually trying to intimidate us; and hoping we would make a scene ourselves - so he could reject us more easily.

I understand that the most trendy clubs in town do adhere to their strict entry policies and may only let beautiful, wealthy or VIP people in and they do well to get around the 'discrimination' laws. However, in this case at the Bristol Arms Retro Hotel - it's a an old rundown and basic nightspot. It's certainly not a majorly popular venue or one that attracts the big name socialites of Sydney town.

So if you're thinking about checking out some clubs next time you're in Sydney, forget visiting the Bristol Arms Retro on Sussex Street. They don't deserve your business and the culling process isn't worth the reward of entry.

Hows the door checking process in your part of the world? Do you have many clubs that filter their entry age, image and social status of their clients?

Google Pagerank Update - More Pain

All the major blogs are talking about it, grown bloggers and kiddie bloggers alike are crying in the streets. Its as if a major hurricane has ripped through their houses.

Their Google PageRank has been cut down by big daddy Google. The once 'nerdish' and free spirited Google is now a mean fighting machine, just like Microsoft and IBM - Google is now a big boy and carries plenty of clout.

The likes of Matt Cutts are there to try and give Google a 'public face' or a 'friendly look' but seriously - it's all just attempted PR and image control. Google control the internet, like it or not.

I think Mark over at 45n5 has the best advice; simply build your blog as though Google didn't exist. Do this through RSS subscription generation and smart linking from majorly traffic'ed Blogs.

When you look at the continued fallout form the Google PageRank update, a lot of the cuts are justified. We've mentioned him before, but the likes of Abdylas Tynyshov and his formerly PR7 Blog (AdesBlog) really didn't deserve his ranking - as he was a regular link seller and operated shady backlink competitions to improve the ranking of his color picker software site.

The case for John Chow is a little different. The big man also got slapped about, but his link trading was a little more subtle and he can probably consider himself unlucky.

Over at Shoemoney and ProBlogger - these guys too were probably even a little more unlucky. No doubt these guys will recover, they are pretty upfront with their advertisements and don't blatantly pimp their spaces.

The interesting part is, regardless of all these rankings drops - all the sites Ive just mentioned still rank highly for various terms. So despite their slappings, they haven't lost a lot of their page positions within Googles database.

Reports and rumors are doing the rounds that Google is currently working on a new rankings systems and complete overhaul of the PR system. We wait with interest; or at least some of us do.

Hey Shoey, Im Your Vegas Boy!

Goddam, how cool is this? Shoey, the man behind the world famous ShoeMoney blog (yes you know the guy!) is offering a free ticket to Vegas to party with his crew and the rest of the PubCon gang - for what should be a monster conference!

With the backing of Unique Blog Designs and the crew at SureHits - Shoey is offering the ticket of a lifetime and I WANT IN! This HAS to be mine! I was over in Vegas in 2005 with a company conference, back in the days when I worked for Avaya and boy was Vegas the ABSOLUTE bomb.

See Shoey, my experience is valuable here. I did the whole party to 3am thing and had to be up bright and early for the conference chatter and networking day ahead. (Doing this for 5 days straight is bad for the health, but hey I survived it!). What was worse, was that my mofo bosses and colleagues were in bed by like 9pm after their lame visits to 'family based' Vegas variety shows - but I still charged on, even alone some nights into the Vegas furnace. It was sensational!!!!

Yes, I was an Australian unleashed into Vegas and I wasn't going to disappoint. Us Aussies know how to party and this uber nerd was doing his Duke Nukem best in the land of love... Ok I am getting carried away now, but seriously - SHOEY - THIS TRIP IS FOR ME! I AM YOUR MAN. I AM THE BEST WINGMAN, THINK MAVERICK AND GOOSE.. (Hang on, Goose died!) Ok, think ICEMAN and JESTER! - I will be your Wingman SHOEY!!!!

Shoemoney, put your trust in JT Marlin and I'll never have to ask for it again! :)

Consider this an entry!

Moving in with the Parents

At 29 years of age, you would think the times of living with your parents are long gone, right?

Well, I thought so too - but due to circumstances, I've had to bunk back at the family home as my place is now rented out and I have a few weeks to kill before I relocate overseas. (With my wife and little one already overseas, time has seemed to stand still! I can't wait to see how my little girl is doing just after her 1st birthday)

In the meantime, it's mom's cooking and the good old lectures coming thick and fast. Yup, nothing has changed. At least the folks haven't complained about my server equipment, wireless networking gear and webcams - yet!

Why is it that parents continue to give lectures and advice on subjects they have no idea about? Seriously, at 29 years old - you've got a good idea of how the world works.

I suppose I just have to switch off and simply enjoy the good cooking, free boarding and having my clothes washed and ironed. But goddam it's hard.

I just need to write all this down, so when my little girl is grown up - she can refer to this blog post and say "See Dad, your parents annoyed you too!" (Let's hope it doesn't get to that)

(I've been trying to organize a web conference with my wife and little one, but the time difference has been a problem - so here is my video message to you Sez!)

The Future for Link Brokerage

Link Brokerage is big business. As Google continues to reshape the way it looks at backlinks and how they relate to PageRank; link trading companies need to move quickly and keep at the cutting edge to ensure their business is viable and they are able to provide a reliable service to their clients.

Buying links is something most webmasters have to address at some stage. New blogs and existing blogs alike trying to climb the ranking ladder need to buy good link juice from high PR sites.

As TLA (Text Link Ads) continues it's war with Google (Text Link Ads are no longer listed in Googles directory!) - many webmasters are looking to alternatives - this is where TNX comes in.

TNX has developed a new model for link buying and selling; a setup where the traditional link trading is combined with a credit based currency system similar to the BlogWidget: Blogrush. TNX have built in an affiliate program to add some additional attractiveness to their offering.

Upon signing up, you are provided bonus points and from their you can buy additional credits and setup multiple campaigns (you can create, target, assign credits and monitor them).

At present the set price for buying credits is: $1.14 per 1,000 credits. There is also the option to trade credits to other users or back to TNX. Things could get very interesting here, as the credits have the power of currency - where users can trade them back and forth.

TNX offers a nice referral bonus, bringing a new webmaster on board will earn you 13.3% commission of all TNX points generated by your new downline. On top of that, you also get a nice 5% bonus of all payments made by the referred webmaster.

At present, new referrals are earning extra credits of upto 7,000 credit points, and an additional 5,000 credits for each site that is approved. So people joining the program early are sure to see more benefits.

The TNX widget for your website uses PHP code and is fairly straight forward to setup. Finally webmasters have a new alternative in the link trading world! For accessing links on a large scale or simply accessing a batch of 5000 free links. TNX is the place to visit.

Blogging Suicide

Just a short sweet trip out of town for a week and suddenly you have 100's of blog posts you have to read and the volume can be scarily daunting. I mean it can really play on your mind, and drive you nuts.

I am a day or so away from coming home from my Gold Coast trip, and while my personal blog posts have been scarce - what scares me more is the fact I have heaps of posts from the likes of John Chow, Shoemoney, Darren Rowse and John Cow to catch up on.

Fortunately I will use the power of bloglines, some local caching and will try and filter through the posts while I am on the plane. Even still I will try and really filter out as many posts as possible so my reading time is reduced.

In other news, I am sitting here beside the pool in utter sun burnt redness. I have been slammed by the sun so hard I am getting worried about blisters. I coud be the star of a new series - Uber Nerd does Baywatch.

The Indy 300 racing has been top notch, the main even was finally run and won today and even though Will Power and Team Australia failed to take first prize; it's been a quality even and received record crowd attendances here in Queensland, Australia.

The US Based Indy / Champ Car series is winning the war in Australia against Formua One product - as both compete for the hearts and minds of the Aussie market.

More photo's below; and I look forward to getting back to the normal posting schedule when I return to Sydney on Tuesday night.

The view from our seats on Lexmark Turn

Here's a photo of me with the Vodafone Ford V8 Supercar

2 Gorgeous Beauties (The Girls)

The Police play Good Sports for once.

Indy 300 Racing on Gold Coast

It's happening! I jetted into the Gold Coast on Wednesday to once again experience the Indy 300 Street Circuit and the sensational night life in Australia's most prominent party state: Gold Coast, Queensland.

After arriving, it was a quick freshen up, a nice seafood meal at the local Surf Club and then onto the Conrad Jupiters Casino. An official venue of the Indy 300 weekend, the Casino was a hive of activity - with plenty of North American tourists hitting the tables as they flew in from the US for the American born series.

After a good run on roulette, some slots ate up my bank roll - so I decided to turn in for the night at about 2am and prepare for the day ahead.

A nice big breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms and beans before hitting the race circuit was heaven sent. Washed down with a choclate milkshake - it was the perfect start to the day.

The racing today was pretty impressive, the Indy Cars probably only did a few circuits of practise, but the V8 and Porsche support races were in full swing. The noise and atmosphere was awesome, the Blackhawk Helicopters adding to the environment as the continued to fly-by and buzz the street circuit which is nestled between plenty of high rise apartments.

After a good day today, it was a quick afternoon nap to prepare for the big night ahead. A big meal then onto the night spots to find the action tonight. Will try and get some good action shots from tonights adventures!

eBay Rape!

I am hurting and angry. You ever been caught up in an eBay mess before?

Well I am a bit of an eBay freak, I sell and buy frequently .. I suppose you must expect a problem when you take on so many transactions.

I advertised some expensive business grade Wireless AP's (mostly suited to VoIP telephony systems) and as usual, I offered the product to the world. I rarely limit my auctions to just my home country (Australia).

So anyway, bidding gets underway and the item is won by some guy in Spain. The buyer quickly sent through payment through PayPal so it was all going swimmingly.

When sending the item, I don't usually put tracking on international parcels (purely due to high costs) - however what a mistake this was.

So about a month and a half later I get a PayPal email saying the buyer has lodged a complaint saying "Item not arrived" - well it was in Spanish, so it read something like "Hey homie, no conseguí el gato de usted." Go and translate that in Babel Fish ok!

Anyway, fortunately I still had a copy of the receipt from when I lodged the item for dispatch. So a copy of this has kept PayPal at bay for now. Time will tell.

So yeah, lesson learned. Track all your international parcels and maybe limit transactions to the major countries of the world. Sorry Spaniards!

In other news, I have finished packing up my house for relocation! (72 Boxes / Parcels boxed and sent for shipping today) hopefully it all arrives in one piece. I was nearly in tears when my Plasma TV was wrapped and boxed, I just know it will be thrown around the loading docks and oceans waves!

Oh and remember folks, Fav me on Technorati! Send me an email when you do asutcliffe@gmail.com and I will gladly give your blog or product a mini review.

Best PPC Blog Post in Years

Do you get sick of wading through tonnes of worthless Blog posts each day? Thankfully RSS readers have made our lives easier, but every now and then you see a brilliant post that is full of value and gives you plenty of free information.

Today I spotted one of those. Zac Johnson was the author, the famous Super Affiliate Blogger has written up a gold mine for everyone to tap into. It's the Complete Guide to PPC Marketing. It's well worth a read, so visit his blog today and make sure you save the post. It's valuable stuff. (Thanks for such a good post Zac, I will be going through it in more detail soon and putting some of the tips into action!)

Getting back to my original point, even some of the big name Bloggers can be guilty of publishing some filler or wafer articles. I noticed Shoemoney was dropping his quality a bit around the time he went on holidays (probably due to the fact he was on auto-pilot and dishing up outdated or predated posts) - but Shoey has bounced back well in the past few days with some real world, straight from the mouth posts... Absolutely Love it! (Especially his Hummer story!)

It also reinforces my thinking on the value of a personality behind the blog. Even some of the blogs with average posts or generalist information can sustain or grow their blog following through exposing their personal lives and allowing the readers to 'get to know them' up close, through photos, videos or similar mediums.

Thats my ramble for today; it's 5pm Saturday night here in Sydney and I am just about to get out and hit the town for the night. Music, Drinks and a Good Night for sure!

Rich from Milking a Cow

Many hundreds of folks out there desperately try to copy the formula of John Chow hoping to turn some decent profits from their blogs. Heck, even the Chow haters regularly talk about the guy - he is rarely out of the spotlight in the blogging world!

One copy cat that continues to amaze me is the John Cow site. Along comes a guy, registers the name JohnCow.Com (a domain name as close as possible to the original Chow man domain, with a moo moo thrown in) and then proceeds to even use the original John Chow blog template (This has just actually been redesigned and looks a little more unique). Then somehow, this wannabe wise-guy starts getting hordes of traffic as he continues a humorous copy of the original Chow site.

The Cow site now gets mentions even on John Chows site (is this sounding confusing?) and to his credit, the Cow seems to be growing rapidly. The start-up blog now attracting over 500 RSS subscribers. Again following in the footsteps of the Chow, the Cow has pimped his advertisement space and maximized his earning potential through his ad placements and availability.

Not content with the new earner, the guy behind the Cow used his smarts again and kicked-off the Million Euro Wiki startup a few months ago. This time it was a copy-cat of the Million Dollar Wiki page; which itself was a variant of the original Million Dollar Homepage. Man this is getting really confusing now. Proving his nous again, this Cow man sold the Million Euro Wiki as rumors arose about a heavy Google slap and negative press. Seems the Cow cashed out at the right time.

Well, it seems as the Cow follows the cash - we should all follow the Cow. As there is money to made with a good clone and some smart improvements. So don't worry, you don't need a million dollar idea - if you think someone else has the idea, copy it and improve it. Booya!

TECHNORATI TALK: Ok folks, help me out by adding this Blog to your Technorati Favorites! Click here to tag my Blog in Technorati. If you have tagged me in Technorati, shoot me an email at asutcliffe@gmail.com and let me know, I will happily tag you back or write a mini-review of your blog or website if you leave me the details.

Pimp My Blog Baby

Finally, I have done the housework I've wanted to do for ages. A new banner and background for the Blog. Pimp my blog baby, yeah!

I called in a favor and got a new header banner made for the Blog (Photoshop Special) - it didn't take me long to think of the pictures I wanted in the header. As a lover of fine cars, the Porsche was first to go in. Then my next thought was of high stakes casino action, so enter the dice. (I did want to put in a sexy and scantily clad babe - but my wife might have a problem with that. I'm married, so thinking of hot babes is taboo isn't it?) So anyway, enter the new 30 Day Man banner!

Couple of things I want to do this week; get rolling with a big technorati promotion. For you technorati freaks, feel free to fav this blog and help me boost it up the charts. I generally focus attention on the RSS base and Digg traffic and Technorati has actually never been in focus for me. Time to change that.

Another thing I will be doing in the week ahead is a blog review or blog watch. I will more than likely shoot a video discussing the main blogs I follow and why. I'll touch on their good, bad and downright ugly points; so lookout John Chow, Shoemoney, Darren Rowse and Co - the cannon is loaded.

This will be bigger than AdSense!

I just got a glimpse of a new advertising program that will surely be an AdSense killer in the months ahead. For the majority of blogs, the ease of install and simplicity of AdSenses' content matching engine made it the advertising method of choice.

Throw in the easier widget install on Blogger blogs and the quick payout process; you can then understand why AdSense is easily the biggest at the moment. (The backing and advertising reach of Google helps the cause, by bringing in more Advertisers to the network)

When you look at some of the competitors, Yahoo Publishing, Azoogle, Adbrite and others like WidgetBucks - apart from not having the large database of advertisers, these competitors make signups and payouts and absolute nightmare. After you have jumped through 10 hoops and finally got onboard, you then need to manage the relationship with multiple networks! (Not fun!)

Now, it looks like The Rubicon Project has solved all these woes.

The Rubicon Project is an all in one solution; where you simply signup, add their code and they manage many, many networks for you! So they get in touch with AdSense, Yahoo and all the others and not only will Rubicon display ads from multiple networks, they also detect location by IP address and display relevant ads for language or geographic origin of the vistor! This is a huge advancement; you can now tap into Asian, Hispanic or European markets that you could previously not reach.

To top it all off, Rubicon manages all your payouts and sends you the payment in the form of one check or PayPal transfer. Sound good? You bet. It means more advertising reach, simpler management and simple payout.

Rubicon is in beta testing at present and full release should be happening in a matter of weeks.

John Chow Protege Climbing Blog Charts

How much traffic does John Chow get?

If you haven't been hiding under a Blog Rock - then you would know that Chow gets a tonne of traffic each day and has a long line of RSS Subscribers watching his work. When Chow reviews a website for $400 the result is usually a massive traffic spike for the blog being reviewed, so what happens when Chow takes a fellow blogger under his wing and gives his site some backing?

It means a pretty handy head start!

The blogger I am talking about is Bob Buskirk. I found Buskirk through Chow's site and have been keeping an eye on his blog over the past few weeks. It has a clean template and design, and a very catchy Flickr profile on the right hand side. The Flickr profile displaying random snaps of Buskirks' life and his very easy on the eyes girlfriend.

It made me realise how some powerful components can come together to make a blog interesting and rammed home the point of what makes a blog inviting and worth subscribing too.

1. A good base: the Blog has a smooth and well designed template. Instantly putting the visitor at ease.

2. Promotion: as powerful as possible, with little spent. Getting John Chow to give you some free plugs and then getting the Chow man to advertise on your site is pretty darn impressive. The massive traffic spike, then flow on effect from Chow's site will prop the Blog up - but judging by Buskirks stats, the traffic is staying and growing. He's capitalized well on the new visitors!

3. Personality: And finally the most important ingredient to a successful blog. (Where's the content you say?) Well some of the most popular blogs on-line have only average content, but have worked up a great personality that web visitors love to follow. (So maybe we could say the personality is the content!) Buskirk seems to be fitting into this category nicely, some regular blog posts and photos showing off Buskirks' life keep it interesting. The formula invites the reader back and is a great way to capture all the new traffic.

Keep it up Bobby, you've got a great setup over there!

How much is WidgetBux making?

WidgetBucks has been running for 3-4 days now, so I checked in to see what the results were. A little saddened I was!

Well over 100 impressions from WidgetBucks on my site; but not even a single click through.

Ouch!

Maybe relevancy is a problem? I might try and change the ad category to see if things change!!

• AdSense has been back for a few days too for me, CTR ratio is above 2% for earnings of $2 bux... Not great, but when compared to WidgetBux at $0 per day, the $2 bux from AdSense looks good. (If relevancy isnt the key, it just shows text links for advertising are really more attractive these days)

WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks arrives!

I have been noticing a tonne of blog posts about WidgetBucks and some reputable bloggers have been singing it's praises.

I ducked over to WidgetBucks tonight to have a look and it seems the design, reporting and functionality of the widget is pretty darn slick. Install was painless, the actual widget looks clean and is certainly easy on the eyes.

The reporting interface looks simple and uncluttered; the only thing I am waiting to see the outcome of is the quality of the bot crawl to match the advertisements to the blog's content.

WidgetBucks gives you an option to either pre-select the advertisement categories that would suit your blog, or simply have their crawler check out your sites content and allocate relevant advertisements. (I chose the bot crawl, so hopefully the ads available are vast enough to suit my content)

I have had AuctionAds running for some time with little result, so I've ditched AuctionAds for WidgetBucks to see if there is any improvement. I have also re-added Google AdSense to above the blog posts - as the content matching seems to be running OK for AdSense at present. (Hopefully Google have tweaked the domain matching glitch and I keep getting relevant Adverts)

So far so good, if you want to start earning $$$ with WidgetBucks then click here!

Immediate Edge Review

Today's quick video discusses my recent acceptance into the Azoogle Program (after a long wait and plenty of discussions with account managers! Problems related to an IP range that was banned; obviously someone using my ISP had caused problems in the past).

I also give a quick Immediate Edge review - I recently pulled out of the Edge program and was given a refund by Dan Raine and Ed Dale; I touch on the reasons why. Finally, I am getting ready to head up to the Indy 500 on the Gold Coast in the next week and a half! Bring it on! Stay tuned for videos from the race track and the night life!

Best Times to Blog

When is your best time to blog?

If you're like me, you get a great idea for a blog post or a shot in the arm of motivation - but you're no where near the PC....

It can happen in the funniest of places. I am not necessarily talking about being miles from home, I get an idea or an urge for a blog post whilst in the bath (generally my best thinking time! hahaha) or it might be while watching TV. Ok, so that's not too far from the laptop or the desktop PC - but sometimes getting the total motivation to hit the keyboard can be daunting.

It was a problem for me regularly, but I have devised an plan that has helped me get around the problem. I now carry a small notebook with me almost everywhere and have also started using my mobile / cell phone's camera more often. When something catches my attention I simply snap a picture and even if I don't jot down some notes - the picture is a good cue for the idea or topic I wish to blog about.

What have I been up to recently besides Oktoberfest?

* A recent Google Adwords Campaign (Paid Advertising); which returned only an average affiliate profit. I am trying to get involved with Azoogle advertising but for some reason their sign up process is very Nazi like. I have been put on hold because of a problematic IP address that is blacklisted somewhere. Pretty bizare considering I use a DHCP based address?

* Dental work. I have been in pain for sometime with a massive cavity that was left unchecked for a long time. The pain got so intense, my wife pushed me into getting emergency dental work. In agony I visited the dentist and got the first session of root canal work. 2 more to go! It actually was quite painless! I had happy gas given to me on arrival and a funky pair of headphones were given to me to numb the pain even more. 30 minutes later I was leaving numb, but pain free!

* More packing. With my overseas relocation only 4 weeks away, we are boxing and preparing everything for our big move from Australia to New Zealand. (Still plenty more to do, including my short holiday to the Indy 500 on the Gold Coast, Australia! YESSSSSSS!)

* And finally more adhoc work here and there for some cash payment! Its all been labour intensive, so its been good for the fitness levels! Trading in my keyboard for the tools has been interesting to say the least. (The only hard part is the heckling from the true tradesmen and blue collar gang as they mock my nerdy attempts at hard labour! - But heck, there is still time goddam it!)

Drunk Man Standing

Well only just....

I made my annual visit to the local Oktoberfest activities in my home town (Fairfield, NSW, Australia) - where around 20,000 people converge on a fairground and celebrate all things German and quite a few beers!

It's a long and enjoyable day; good friends, good food and continuous beer. DAB Beer was the drink of choice and it kept coming by the stein-load.

I kicked off the drinking at around midday and was finished by midnight, however continuous eating saw me not completely drunk and only blow 0.02 in the free alcohol breath test machines just before leaving. Not a bad effort after a full day of drinking, there would have been around 16 stein size glasses consumed by me during the whole day I think.

The food kept coming, I gobbled through 3 giant size corn on the cobs, 2 x Dagwood Dogs (Hotdog on a stick), 2 x large Schnitzel Rolls and 2 x servings of German hash browns (extra large). Not good for the health side of things, but certainly a saviour from certain rolling drunkness by nights end.

So after packing my German braces away for another year, the night wouldn't have been complete until we hung one of my friends up by the coat hanger! See photo above.

Now its time to start working off the excess food intake!