One of the cool new toys we are taking to Bali

I thought I would just whack a couple of photos from our new Olympus iu725 camera up here. This one is of Max. I got him to jump off his board and go underwater. So I could see the results. Not bad eh?



Here is one shot across the water at Max sitting on his board. Great angle. Gabi made a wrist band from an old legrope and an old camera strap I had laying around. The camera sits in the palm of your hand and you can just swim with it. Or paddle. Will have to experiment with it on the board.

More of these later, especially from bali.

But first here is one more shot of me in the turn, shot from a different camera. Gabi was on shore with my Nikon D70.
The wind had come in and was getting a tad lumpy but a lot of fun was had by one and all.

The time is right. For all good children to have an adventure. And me too!!

Had a happy festive season so far?, Our's was quiet. Surfing after breakfast, that's me on Xmas day out at Maroubra our local beach for two more weeks. As you can see with the wetsuit it has been a mild summer til now. Although the weather did clear up later on to a beautiful 26 degree day and plenty of sunshine.

Boxing day was very literal for us this year as the shelves were fitted into cartons in readiness for our move to the Indo ilse of Bali. With less than two weeks to go, it's all getting a little exciting.

One of the hardest things is to distil ones life down to a 30kg luggage allowance. Luck for me there are 4 of us! My computers and monitors eat one allowance then and there. Our surfboards (I am having to ship some of them) eat half of another, the Espresso machine the other half. Some where in there we have to take clothes, shoes, medicines and other essential items. We box and weigh everything.

We are shipping another 100+ kilos but this is stuff we will not need straight away. Things we can get by for a week without. Pity I cant ship the boys! Only joking!

So the next time I update this blog we will be EXPATS. Might get some shirts made.

We have a house all rented, lovely place with a guest house in the bottom of the yard. We needed something to entice family
and friends to come and visit. It's working! 4 bookings so far.

On the right is a calender for the bookings we have taken for the guest house. So if your going to come up to visit email us with your dates, or ring.

To have a look at the house go to the site we set up
http://web.mac.com/anomac

More soon.

Peace!

Bali or bust.

Tis the season to pack up the family and move.

Too much time and tide has been settling over us and I feel that the family as a unit needs and adventure, a task to trully align ourselves. We are four souls who swim in the one fish bowl but are more often than not at battle with each other over purely egoistic items. I think a splattering of 'out of country' quandries will sort that out and have us acting as a proper family unit. One with a singulaity of purpose and function.

I am hoping that a move to bali will stimulate and gel the attention of the boys, Max (Now 10) an Oscar (5 in Dec) Not to mention Gabi and myself.

Working as an event designer who delivers everything digitally through the mediums of 2D & 3D programs allows me a certain freedom in respect to workplace location. 2007 is the year we are taking the full advantage of this.

I am ramping up my hardware and my software to offset the geographical issues some of my clients may have with the move.

Mind you most who I have spoken to are in awe of the project. Am starting to realise that we may have to have 'workshops' up there for them.

So you can expect this blog to liven up in the coming months as we start to sell all the crap that inhabits our lives and we make way for the bare necessities. Such as my quiver of surfboards.

Why is it my wife doesn't understand that this is so? I suppose it's the same as me not understanding why she wants to take a sewing machine with her up there.

Anyway it should be different and I will try to be slightly more diligent in keeping a proper record of it here.

Off we go... Yipee!

peace

So we are now a nation of Soccer fans!

Since Australia won a place in this years World cup we are seeing some strange rumblings back home.

SBS one of the 5 national TV stations it's the multicultural channel and has long enjoyed an association with the leather But it gets a pittance from the government so it's the most budget conscious. Well they must have spent half their yearly operating budget to secure the rights for the World Cup, Then you have to have a brand new groovy set, I pitched on the design & production of it but lost (Bugger!) and a plethora of hosts. There is about 6 of them.

Now don't get me wrong, i love the game, in fact I will drive my son MAx to soccer in the morning tomorrow and then again over to the club rooms in the afternoon for the team photos. No i am not one to be jumping on the band wagon at this late date, I had already added our game dates to all my calendars.

But the win in the friendly against Greece last night has sent a wave of Ozzie-ness through the community. People are driving around with the tacky little flags the Sun Herald gave out with last Sundays newspaper. Once staunch rugby fans are softening their stance on 'other' codes of football. The wave has hit but the tide is still low. It will be an interesting one to watch in the coming months.

Go Ozzie go. Oy oy oy

peace.

One door closes and another opens. Oh look, It's a nice wood one this time!

Been a while and a billion gallons of water has passed under my personal bridge. That's a happy (sic) snap of me on the left outside the Summer Palace in Beijing, mind you it's the middle of winter!

10 years ago I started an Exhibit Design company with an old friend, TV. On May 1 this year I sold my shares in the companies and have just started my new vehicle, Blue Sky Design Australia Pty Ltd. I am now an event designer. The difference may seem subtle to the untrained observer. Let me tell you without the long winded explanation that nothing is further from the truth.

Gone are the 12 full time employees, now it's just my wife Gabi & I. Millions of dollars turnover also go to be replaced with (hopefully) hundreds of thousands. The weight that seems to have lifted from my shoulders, although I had partners I tended to take on the overall burden, is amazing, mind you I am already finding that I am overworked now I have to do all the designing myself.

The release from the burden has given us a broader horizon. We're starting to look at the world differently. More importantly how why and where we live differently. At this point in our lives, (we have two boys in primary school) we have a window of opportunity where we can get out there. Where we can experience another culture, maybe even learn part of another language. So we are now planning the sabbatical for a year or so at the end of the year (End of the Australian school year)

Bali seems to be the go even though I receive peoples misgivings everytime i mention it. Perhaps the perceived danger of terrorism makes it a new frontier. Personally I think we have more to worry about with Bird Flu. Either way we are all excited about the idea. The ability to live amongst a beautiful race, learn there customs, go surfing, learn Bahasa, go surfing, and generally travel around the region makes it a wonderful base.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, did I mention going surfing?

Anyway, watch this space for news and updates as we make the SEA change.

Peace

HiJacked! Comments that link to some damn Loan & Pay site.

I have had to start to moderate my Blog. Hmm, I don;'t get enough time to write anything here, now I have to find time to moderate it from Comments posted by robots. Argh! The cycle spins out of contol yet again.

Well we are now living metres away from Maroubraq beach, I went surfing twice yesterday, it was fantastic, although my body is feeling it today. 42 isn't the age to start surfing at that sort of level. But it was fantastic. 4 foot and glassy. A light offshore breeze, blue skys and aqua water.

I will get some photos tied to the site somehow, must speak to my brother how he does it. Check out his hole int he ground, see link to his blog at right. Tis almost a pool!

Will have to come west to try it out.

Peace.

Broom broom!

Well it's that time of the year again. Silly season for us as we ramp up for the big annual Microsoft Event, Tech·Ed.

One of the things that will keep delegates amused this year during the breaks is racing 1/10 scale cars around a track. Doesn't sound that different does it, however if you look at Chuck's blog, clicking the heading will take you there, the cars are controlled by BlueTooth iPaqs.

Should prove an interesting interface.

We were called upon to brand the cars as well as the area and design the track. We left the hard stuff up to Chuck.

Tech·Ed is the largest single event we design from the ground up.

We do the sets, the booths for exhibition, the signage and the look and feel around the venue.

It is exhausting when you think that there is over a kilometre of system walls, more than 150 pieces of signage, 700 powerpoints that need to be run and over 7km's of cat 5 cable that goes into it.

Can't wait for it to be over again for another year.

Moving on. The selling of 42 Amy St Erskineville.

The times are a changing. This week saw us sell our house, nay, it is our home.

For the last 7 years we have nurtured a once haven for hippies into an open light domain of laughter and leisure. But we were obviously getting bored and needed to go off and sharpen our teeth, so just before we put the finishing touches to it, someone made us an offer to good to refuse and thus have been cast into no mans land.

Gabi, my wife, and I do have strong ideas though and a definate direction, the fact that we don't agree on the finer points though is neither here or there. Or is it.

We both agree on the basics, we need a City pad, albeit down near the beach and a country pad. Acreage in the Byron hinterland. What more could a couple with two young boys want or need. A foot in both camps. The idea is so exhilarating I can't wait to embark on the next chapter of our lives. Anyway now the papers are signed we have decided to take the easy option first. The city pad.

Easy, did I say easy. Firstly the two camps. There's me in one corner and I want to to invest more time and less money by building, or should I say rebuilding a flat near the beach. In the other corner is darling wife and she would like one finished with a ribbon on it. Nothing to do but move in.

Me, I like the idea of putting our touches on something as well as being the ones that will reap the gains of the value adding. Essentially Gabi is over the whole renovation gig, especially after 42 Amy St, so I can't blame her but I want to make something, even though I hardly have the time to do so.

We shall see what happens on that front. Stay turned.

The most exciting and harder aspect of all this I feel is the move north. Every year we bundle our boys in into the car and embark on the drive to Mullum, Byron, Bangalow etc. We drive the area, surf the beaches, drink at the pub and basically have the best time. Each year the drive around involves looking at properties that are ont he market, each time we see more of what we like and it gets us that bit closer to taking our boys, and ourselves out of the rat race and into an area that has the most amazing mix or rural and urban. A place where you can get a soya latte and 5 minutes later be riding horses or surfing in some of the most beautiful waters in the world.

The temrate climate is neither to hot nor to cold. Tis the stuff of dreams and what a childhood it would give the two devils we call our sons. Motorbikes, horses, surfing, skating, nearly every possible distraction. Why wouldn't you.

Me, I get to have a second childhood. What better way to stave off mid life crisis.

Speaking of crisis, Heckle and Jeckle have returned. To work. Peace.

The New Pool

Just been peruseing my brothers Blog. Check out the hole in the ground, if he posts it here

741 North

741 North
Friends have poped one out and it does stir the ol' soul when you see these things happening to others, my time is past, with two sons that have now entered the Child worlld from the baby one.

Good to see and I wish them well.

smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald

smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald

Every day my when I launch my browser, Safari, it loads and I am faced with the Sydney Newspaper homepage. Today I am faced with 35 Egyptians dead in a resort blast and the countries treasurer is being asked to table an apology by the opposition party.I really have to find a much better home page me thinks.

Maybe it should be Jib Jab!

My country is one day away from the federal election which could see the horrible little lying man once more elected into the top seat and the only opposition we can muster is a bloke from Sydneys western suburbs who looks like he only started wearing long trousers last week. To paraphrase Doctor Smith...."Oh the pain, the pain.."

I think it is time we stopped thinking about what the parties can do for us, personally and start to think with a little more longevity. What can the parties do for the earth. As we see ice shelves disappearing in the antartic we need to think about the glaciers melting and the eventual rise of the sea. (My suggestion is not to buy water front property!) The little man is more worried about a couple of hundred jobs that saving the old growth forrests of Tasmania. The entire Murray basin is stuffed through land mismanagement as farmers take as much as they can from the earth and they are now wondering why it's dying on them.

We are a country that lives on our agricultural products yet we are unable to treat the source of these products with the care and respect that it needs.

We can't even ratify the Kyoto accord. The shame, the shame!

Anyway, going against the grain I will not be voting for either of the major parties. I will be differing to the Greens in the hope that we may be able to shift the balance of power their way in the senate.

I hope all out there do the same and that we think about the planet for a change and not about our selves.

Come on people it's for our kids!

Peace.

Back to the grindstone

Some time has past since I had the time or inclination to sprout on about things that happen in my little corner of the universe. Work has been pretty heavy. What we thought would be a nice slow run down towards Christmas has turned into a frantic race as companies throw last minute jobs at us. It’s not that I’m complaining about the work, I get to do a lot of the things I love, it would just be a lot easier if we had the info further out so as to negate this panic like frenzy to design projects which really deserve more time and thought.

Not all are rushed, I was briefed on a job in Macau next June. So that one has more than enough time for research and the odd moment of ponder.

On top of this we are moving our office to where we have our factory so we don’t keep losing people in the black hole that is the streets between the two. I am not overly happy, as I like them separate but I also do believe the move has to happen. But with all such moves there is a plethora of items that must be done. We have taken the opportunity to freshen up our corporate look and when I finish this little ramble I will back up to my ears in website.

Have a look at the old site and look. I will post again when the new site goes live and those who read this can sit as judge,

www.proj-x.com.au

Well I should either do so work or take the boys up the park for a run. This is fun but time is scarce. Take care all you ether readers and stay tuned for more exciting mumbles.

Live long and prosper.

Back from the edge

Sunshine Coast Hotels: Hyatt Regency Coolum, Sunshine Coast, Australia
It's not a bad place to slum it for a week or so.

We were up there doing a gig for MS. Their ANZ Partner Conference.

We built an exhibition and branded the entire place. We also got to ride around in stretch golf carts, ride bycyles through the dark and drink a little more than we needed or as sense should have told us. But it had to be done and we stepped up to the plate.

We were put up in an unassuming little place that we liked to refer to as the 'rock n roll suite' We gave the room(sic) it's name after finding out that Mick Jagger stayed there, if your more than a little curious it's number is 711.

Now the term 'room' is used very losely and only in a hotle sence. For you see it was actually it's own free standing villa placed at the other end of the 18th fairway from the club house of this internationally reknown golf course. Swaddled in the exclusive little area called the Ambassadors Club, it was actually a 2 storey, three bedroom, 3 bathroom, 5 toilet palace. The entrance hall was complete with chandelier and curved staircase. Which I now know one needs for the all important entrance.

The roof boasted it's own kitchenette, and of course the obligatory spa! we filled it one night/morning. But I think I put a few drops too many of bubble bath and we were waste deep in bubbles. They detached themselves from the main body when the win blew and launch high into the sky creating multiple avaiation hazards.

But enough of the accommodation though, as I will put you to sleep. We've all stayed in places with their own tennis courts and pools. Suffice to say it was comfortable.

Tomorrow 12 of my family arrive and we will make a pilgrimage on Sunday up to the snow. These guys have never seen it before. My other Brother Damien and I have seen a fair bit in our lives so it should be pretty funny seeing them slip and slide for the first few days.

My main man Max (my eldest son) will be coming along. The little guy Oscar is not quite three so he is staying in Sydney with his mother this time. Next year mate.

So I am thinking the plan of attack is thus. Day one, going mad, perhaps even Day two. I will book him into the explorers club for that day /thise days and then when my legs go I will slow down and the two of us can have some time to bond. Should be great.

So don't expect any updates this week but do wait for the tall tales of adventure I come back with. Hope to upload some fotos and give your eyes a rest from the dribble here.

Mum is also coming over from Perth with the tribe. She won't come to the snow either, opting to stay with yet another brother (I come from a big family) and his wife and kids. He has 5 of them!!

Ok, time for bed, could be a big one tommorrow night.

Now where did I leave my beany and goggles!

OH, that little chestnut

A mate of mine, lets call him Bob, is opening a bar in Japan. The last few days we have been chatting about names for the bar and I thought I would throw it up here in the vain attempt that someone will happen past and give me that Gem of the idea, that name that evades us. I have already supplied a smorgasborg of names. A veritable plethora of groovy names yet I don't seem to have moved my friend, his girlfriend Yuki yes, but Bob is unfased, see his latest mail to me.

Thanks for the names mate. Yuki really liked them.

We expect that many of our customers will be English speakers, and their
Japanese English students...Japs who are interested in learning English, or
who want to bonk a foreigner to see what that Gaijin sausage is really like.
We hope to sell a little Australian wine there.

We have a couple of hukahs, an oxygen bar, a couple of internet hookups
etc...

If you think of any other names let me know. Short is good. Imagine people
saying "I'm going to the .......," or "I'll meet you at the ......."

See what I mean! Bastard!

What names I hear you ask, well I should include my original mail to him so you can follow this thread in true style.

>What’s in a name eh?
>
>Alright, I agree, Babel is a bit to esoteric, even for English speakers, to
>elaborate I think you would be dating yourself. Old farts like us do not go
>out. We have kids and stuff. It’s the youth market that you want to
>attract,
>the ones with the disposable income. Add to the fact that it is a non
>English speaking country then I think you should go for words they might
>know. Here is my short list of names which could be used.
>
>* Home
>* Frame
>* Couch
>* Elements
>* Disc
>* Studio
>* Etc
>* Spinifex
>* Think out side the square
>* Hole, Box & Dice
>* Roo Bar
>* Billabong
>* Tsunami
>* Kasbah
>* The Orient
>* Taxi or Taxxi
>* Oxygen
>* Tonic
>* Baja
>
>Now you may think I’m on drugs but hey, I’m still at work so there isn’t
>any
>chance of that, maybe later.
>
>Let me know what you think or maybe these spur the ol’ grey mater into
>activity and you come up with the one you like.
>
>A good thing to do is give people the names and ask them which one they
>like, the cream should rise to the top.

Gems! Pearls! Everyone of them.

Some times I think that my friends lack any foresight.

Anyway, I am calling upon you, the maddening crowd to deposit at my doorstep the name that will stun my friend, Bob.

Take me to the highs I use to go to before i had kids.

Peace.

Made me wanna laugh

The funniest Take I've seen on the games so far!

What the animation lacks in caricature style is made up ten fold in wit. I had several hearty chuckles while viewing this and am bound to go back again for second helping.

After a day full of trials and tribulations, from working on 2D graphics through to building 3D models,not to forget the ever necessary chatting to clients and staff it's great to be introduced (thanks Mike) to an oasis on the web, a corner of unassuming humour. Boy this is great.

I feel I am ready for another 10 hours.

Thanks Marco. You made my evening.

Thorpe and Hackett go gold, silver in brilliant first day

Thorpe and Hackett go gold, silver in brilliant first day - Swimming -
So they did it. Managed to pull off the old one two in the pool.

It always surprises me how well the Aussies do in these games. The medal tally at the moment has Australia in second place behind China, America is 4th. Not that I am overly competitive but I will stand and bask in the glow of the reflected glory of these modern day olympians.

I met my wife in the Greek Isles. It was one of those typical tales of romace. An Aussie boy and his back pack. A young German Fraulein and her...well her blonde hair. Short version is I chased her and she ran away.

Now according to her, she even hid. The audacity of it!

Then I got bored with this fruitless chase, bit like the dog who has sucked out all the marobone jelly out of his bone, you turn you attention to tastier morsels and wander off.

She felt the hole it had left. She had survived on running and hiding. Just like those old American nuclear bomb adverts, Duck and Cover, it had kept her going. Without her knowing I had become important to her. Geez there mustn't have been a lot to do on the islands back then and she soon changed her coarse and persued me.

Needless to say she got me. Now 15 years later we are seeing travelogues, interdispersed with snippets of sport, from the once centre of the then known universe and it does bring back more than a small pang of nostalgia.

To be young and fit again and running around in Greece. What a life!

Yasou!

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub....

Now wouldn't that be nice. A house in the country. Who would like to make the run from the city to a place, not to far from civilisation. Somewhere where you still get broadband and cable. A couple of miles away they have cafe lattes and news from the big city with coloured liftout.

Yes if you are going to move you have to take some of it with you. But fret not, baristas, telecom technicians, hair stylists and even people like me, designers are weighing up the cost of commute. Paring down their exposure in the city with a quick flight home to huddle for a week before making the pilgrimage again.

Why not when you see houses with whole suburbs of lush tropical forest attached for the same price as a semi in the inner suburbs.

My latest yearning.

Our Property Pages :: RURAL: "Designated high conservation value, this 10 acre rainforest property boasts absolute peace, only 7 mins from Mullumbimby. The 4 separate s/c dwellings are a duplex-style family home - 2 adjacent pavilion-style dwellings, each with 2 bedrooms & 1 bathroom; plus 2 completely separate income-generating cabins. Private swimming hole in Wilsons River.

Changed: 07/14/04.
Contains: 8 items.
Viewed: 166 times"

When you see something like that you wonder what draws us to and traps us within the deadly jaws of the city.

Time to bust down the gates.

Enjoy!

ano

ano,
originally uploaded by anomac.

Ok, here is a photo firstly of me. This should make it's way onto my Blog. I have far too much time invested in this now. After that I am going to pen the help section of Flickr. While they have the information, I need a couple more depths to make things clear. Actually I should be thanking them for hosting my photos, bnot bagging them out.

Peace

oNe day I will connect the dots

Still trying to get photos shown on my blog. I really should forget about it. The real reason I start this whole thing was to write, not create a slide show, besides I do enough of that type of thing at work. I will not be beat though. Mark my words.

Well the opening of yet another Olympics has come and gone. I would have loved to have seen the actual ceremony, but as it was at 3AM in the morning and the only repeat of it was at 11AM this morning, and I was at work, there seems little or no chance to do this. I cant keep thinking how pathetic it is. Anyway, I will just wait until it comes out on DVD.

Life is frantic at the moment. We have shows for MS, HP, Lexmark, Aristocrat and a couple of others all happening in the next week or so. August is always like this. I see my family in photos and would be better off if I checked into a hotel so as to avoid the embarrassing moments when a two and a half year old has you in a full nelson as you drag his little body towards the door in a vain effort to just slip out the back quietly on a Saturday or Sunday morning without them noticing.

Well off to find out how to attach the now uploaded photo onto the site.

Ano

Too Hard

I have now spent the best part of a hour trying to get a free hosting for some images I wanted to add to theis blog. Do you think I could?

Well it's time to go to bed. Tomorrow holds a pandoras box of meetings. From dire ones in the morning to creative ones in the afternoon (around Wine-O-Clock) good thing the weekend is here, bring it on!