God complex

Wee fat men who've seen better days, wearing tracksuits and sporting mullets, getting off planes from Spain - not an unusual sight at Glasgow airport, and if he had been cluctching a duty free carrier bag and a massive hangover (as well as third degree sunburn) he might have slipped unoticed onto the coach... then again, as the reports mention, he did cheat Engand out of the opportunity to crash out of the '86 world cup one round closer than they did, and that's always going to be celebrated by Scotsmen who care less for the upholding of the beautiful game's good name.

GAAHHHN YURSELL BIG YIN!

Movember

I've got an obvious reminder that I've been here a year now: it's Movember again. When I got here last year I thought the whole gaff had gone Hoxton when everyone was kicking about in shockin' mowsers. It was about two weeks before I learnt it was a charity thing. A charity thing which unfortunately gets hijacked by all the whoppers and numpties, so it gets a swerve.

Invicta rules the world

First thing, apologies for the slackness, got back straight into the new job, and with two seasons of The Wire on the go an'all something was going to suffer...

It means unvanquished in Latin, and apparently there's a bus company in Melbourne called Invicta, but as it's mainly the motto of Kent, along with the white horse of Kent on the flag, it's weird to see this across the road from my new office. It's the entrance to the old Fosters brewery (on Broadway in Ultimo, near Central Station), which they've recently flattened and the ground is currently one big demolition/building site (it's pretty much in the centre of town and presumably the land's worth a ton more as something other than a brewery, probably sexy offices, the 21st-century equivalent of a factory).

I saw it for the first time last year when I was down at the uni (UTS) for a job interview and thought I was seeing things.

I'm guessing Fosters have some link to Kent? Whatever it is, it's a nice reminder that I have plenty of links with the garden of England too.

UPDATE: I've found the reason - it's on this wikipedia page

MD30

Oooossshh-ah!

A lad at my work took this picture on Monday morning, this truck was seen scudding round the CBD ushering in a cheerful start to the week for the ex-pat community in Sydney. There's slightly less of them here than there are arsed-off Aussies, which made it all the funnier. (click on the pic to get a bigger version, this was taken on the corner of George Street and Bridge Street). The story's on The Current's website here

Big licks & scissor kicks

Went to see Paul Weller at the Enmore Theatre last night and he was stunning. Best gig I've been to in a long time, which ain't saying as much as it used to as I ain't been to tons since Arcade Fire at the same place in January, but he banged out the classics and the gaff was going potty. Played That's Entertainment, Eton Rifles, Shout To The Top and Town Called Malice as well as all the solo staples, of which Whirlpool's End was probably my pick.
Needless to say the place was 80% British lads, and when I say lads obviously I was one of the youngest there. The last time he was in Australia was 23 years ago so there were quite a few Aussies who'd never seen him before. As an experience of British culture it was better than going to the football on Saturday, the mighty A-League starting with the 'big' Sydney vs Melbourne clash. Needless to say it was 0-0 and a dire match, but there was a bit of aggro both in and outside the ground before the match, so things are slowly improving! 16,000 ain't a terrible crowd either considering the Swans were playing at home against top of the table Geelong at the same time in the Aussie Rules.

DB31