Jason In AU

My plane arrived in Sydney yesterday am at 6:40am. It was a lovely flight. As lovely as a 15 hour flight can be. Happily for me, jet lag was not so bad this time around as due in part to the fact that I was able to get a a bit sleep on the plane, and i am placing faith in a my "no jet lag" tablets. I have no idea if it works but i felt like it worked so that just as good.

Being that it is winter here in the Southern Hemisphere I was expecting the weather to be much worse. Grey skies, rainy, cold....but in fact the opposite is true. it has been blue skies in the high 60s or low 70s both days and it is forecasted to be more of the same all week. Cool.

Looking towards downtown Sydney.

Most of us onsite here are booked into rental apartments in a building about a mile away. It's bland, but pretty nice as far as accommodations go. For this length of stay its is very convenient. I have a full kitchen and a laundry machine right in the apartment. Eating every meal out, and having to wear dirty clothes, starts to ware on you after a bit. I have bought a bike here so it doesn't take long to get to and fro'.

Here is picture of Paul Mackay taking the bike for a spin on show site.

Speaking of the show site, here is a shot of the Fox studios tower. It has quite a majestic spire.

Here are a few photos of the events stage taken at various points of progress over the last few days.

I had big ideas for this blog.... but..... long days and a 14 hour time zone shift have more then slightly sapped my zest for witty blog updates. I will however try and do a pictorial week in review in no chronological order replete with pithy, witty, clever, or just plain obvious captioning.

Ali suggested we have one of these ice cream bars. He says it is a bit of an Australian institution. They had a very famous strap line that read: "You can't have a gay time alone." The ice cream bar was delicious.

Ali and and Andy going over creative ideas for revealing the U357 over some nibbles.

Cool tree lined path in the park i walk through on my way into the Melbourne office. No idea what kind of trees they are but they look like the kind of trees that would have existed in the days of the dinosaurs. They are also a roosting spot for some kind of Australian bird that has a persistent and incredibly, loud annoying call.

A bit of a view of the Melbourne skyline from my desk in the office.

Official looking city building from 1897. very historic and photogenic.

so photogenic that i took another pic from farther down the road so as not to crop any of its olde world architectural charm.

Ford Falcon El camino. The Australians seem to LOVEEEEEEE the el camino style. Business in the rear and Klassy comfort up front.

Across the street from the stately and historic city building is the police station in an oddly spanish hacienda style building. note the police cars out front. The blue and white checker flag motif seems too happy for a police car. i think i like prefer my law enforcement vehicle graphics to be a bit more stern and sober.

i wandered into a resale shop at lunch today and found this on a shelf. the unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan. I would not think Australians would have a real thirst for tell all unauthorized biographies of former first ladies, but what do i know. Then again it is a second hand store for 50 cents.

i used to own this bike. not this exact bike of course, but the exact same model. i miss that bike.

Ladies and gentlemen i give you the first installment of Australian "Feats of Strength." Paper airplane making and then flying them to see whose plane flies furthest. Good times. we didn't actually get competitive with our distances. We took an "everyone wins" philosophy and the mere participation was everyones reward!

This is what i see through the peep hole of my hotel room. A strange, disembodied painting. kind of creepy. NO, not kinda. its really creepy.

The creative reuse of pallets is sweeping the world apparently. Phil is on the cutting edge.

I thought phil might appreciate this restaurants name. "Lamb on Chapel"

ahhh the Colonel.... Always staring at me with his wee beady eyes.

As i was walking down the street i looked up admiringly at this cool converted loft building. nice architecture, large walls of windows, super high ceilings, and Everybody Loves Raymond. Money can't buy taste.

I cant think in metric temperature. I woke up and the room was freezing. 20 degrees seemed cold. i bumped it up to 25. came back from work it was boiling. apparently 25C is like 85F. Stupid metric system.

This is the cutlery and condiment pack that came with my inflight meal on Quantas Airlines. Salt and Pepper. Check. Sugar Pack. Check. Knife and Fork. Check, check. Cocaine spoon. Check.

Snapped this crappy picture on one of my morning runs. Running by the river is fun, and very scenic. Except when it rains and the river overflows depositing a thick layer of river mud over the running path that you can not see in the pitch black. Oh well mud washes off but the memory lives on.

This is the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my hotel room door. It is already packed into my suitcase. cheers.

This is an apartment building under consstruction. This must have been the architects big break. He threw everything he had at it. there is so much going on on this building that it will surely when the award for most design elements per square meter award.

Totally should have bought this.

Saw these in a lot of shops. odd.

More putting birds on things. This time a pillow.

So stupid. yet so funny.

Andy and i going over ideas at breakfast last Saturday.

Some dude had a 1968 Camaro Super Sport. Is it even legal for him to have this here?

This had to have been some kind of clever guerrilla marketing by jeep. the jeep was literally covered in mud. every inch of it. The mud coverage could not have been art directed any better. the driver had c only cleaned little squares to see out of on the side windows. There were vines hanging off of the frame and dragging under the vehicle. He was driving it down the street of a super trendy shopping district in stop and go traffic. Everyone was taking pictures.

Sooooo damn ugly its cool.

Fame at Last for the Bros!!! They were long overdue.

There was a display case chock full of these strange asian wooden pin dolls. They were jammed into the case and looked as if they were being held captive. Some of them were pretty neat looking i considered buying some of them and setting them free. The one i looked at was $79. I wish the captive dolls the best.

Found an old Mobil station map of Detroit in the resale joint. what are the chances?

Me trying on sungalasses at a resale shop. I look like an idiot. glad i didn't buy them. ( they were really for my wife but they were not the perfect wrap arounds so i left them for someone else who is longing for used non perfect wrap around glasses.)

Australians like to put birds on this too. This would have otherwise been a boring old tote bag. Put a bird on it and suddenly its exciting and wroth $40.

Cool cardboard cut out Lamb. Not $89.95 cool though.

This was an odd looking woman who was wearing a back pack that housed a parrot. I of course googled this and come to find out that it has a built in perch, a water dish, a feed dish, and a mirror. Why? why on earth would you take your parrot out shopping with you? This is a lonely person.

Mini Paceman pop up store. i tried to take pictures inside but the hipster shop boy wasn't having it. The inside was lame anyhow.

this is a building across form the Sydney Imagination office.

The Sydney office is in an old shipping warehouse dock building. this is the road that goes through the building.

Cool old Jaugar parked on the street.

Sydney office reception.

Sydney Harbor bridge as seen from the dock at the office. It's an ok view. I will give them that. but they cant see a Ben e hanna form their window like i can.