Archive for the ‘Cyber Gypsy Gear’ Category

Jan
14/09
The Big Banana
Last Updated on Monday, 19 January 2009 02:19
Written by Dominic Reid
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

The east coast of Oz has so many gorgeous places to see, yet one of the most well know crowd pleasers is The Big Banana that sits glaring over the road just outside Coffs Harbour.

Now the problem with having the moniker ‘Big’ before your name is that you expect it to be nothing less than, well, big. The big banana didn’t really live up to it’s bigness in my books, but let’s not get Freudian about that or we’ll be here all day.

Here is a picture of the big banana, admittedly it would fill up your bowl of muesli should you slice it up for breakfast.

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Jan
13/09
Work Beach River Eat
Last Updated on Monday, 19 January 2009 02:22
Written by Dominic Reid
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Well that’s about it right now. I have to prise myself away from this idyll to take a look up country or I’ll have to take up residency here in Bellingen. Now that’s no bad thing and we are considering it as an option, along with half of the rest of the world too. It’s a nice dichotomy to be in, but for now we are up for a trip to the gold coast and some of those little waterfalls with idyllic little pools we have heard about up country.

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Jan
10/09
Jupiters Travels
Last Updated on Saturday, 10 January 2009 01:09
Written by Dominic Reid
Saturday, January 10th, 2009

I once read this wonderful book by Ted Simon called Jupiter’s Travels about his tour on a Triumph around the globe. But one thing that puzzled me was a big gap in the middle where it seems he was gobbled up by cosy living in the hippy hills of the US Eastern seaboard. Ted hung up his boots and tucked into hippy chicks and corn bread for a good long while.

Bellingen has snaffled me up in a similar fashion, it being a little laid back haven luxuriating in it’s emerald green valley whilst it cups you and runs it’s fingers through your hair. I also am lucky enough to have three sisters (well did have, young Nelly has gone back to the UK) who assist the aforementioned Bellinger valley with the baking of cakes and home made bread.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get out of here alive, it’ll turn into a ‘whicker man’ scenario where some vixen like Britt Ekland will try to tempt me away from my monk like life of abstinence with kinky gyrations. I won’t be as foolish as Edward Woodward and will take up the offer for the good of all involved, I’m ready for you Britt though I may lose my virtue in my escape attempt.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I am catching up on some web work after a negligent Christmas of pies and beer. It’s not all sacrifices in 40 ft tall withy geezers around here y’know.

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Dec
27/08
Sydney
Last Updated on Monday, 19 January 2009 02:14
Written by Dominic Reid
Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Australia is a bit more smoke and mirrors than I expected it to be. Maybe this is because over in the UK we think we know about Australia, it crops up in conversation and a good deal of it’s population think of London as a second home, so when I arrived I expected it to be familiar. But no, to be honest Hong Kong feels more like home – not only because I lived there for a year, but because more people seem to speak English than they do in Sydney.

Don’t get me wrong here, I know Australia is a melting pot, I just didn’t expect it to be melting quite as much as it is.

On a practical work front it is difficult to get Internet access too. I found it easier in Cambodia than I do here, which I explain to myself as being the result of Australia having a huge infrastructure to support – but this doesn’t compute.

I do love this city though, we went swimming in the Olympic sized harbour side pool today where you can swim lengths while the harbour bridge stretches above you and over the bay. This is such an outdoor place. I am having to adjust my white skin to the outdoors though as it is hot and humid here, in my 6 weeks across S.E.Asia I haven’t come across heat like this yet.

We have walked everywhere – a bicycle would be better and a canoe better than that, but for now we have walked. The markets over at Balmain and Rozelle were a treat – at Rozelle a jazz quartet played whilst I got my aching shoulders massaged, I was enjoying that melting pot right then as well as when we tucked into a Singapore Laksha at the Darling Harbour food circle.

Sydney is going to take a little longer than I imagined to get the hang of and I’m glad for it, it’s those songs you always learn to love the most isn’t it!

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Dec
23/08
Bizarre
Last Updated on Monday, 19 January 2009 02:09
Written by Dominic Reid
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

I went up to the travellers hostel in the evening to see if any old faces were still arouind and found ‘George’ still living there. He told me that John the Book had died in March of this year and that he hadn’t lived there for a while.

But it was Alan who I met that evening that had the most strange tale to tell.

Alan is on remand at the moment. He is on remand because he was stopped by the police on a routine check, they found a knife and a knuckle duster in his pocket and came back to the hostel to search his room. What they found amazed them – they found a whole armoury including smoke bombs and a batman like outfit.

Alan had taken a disliking to the triads after splitting with his Chinese wife, so he decided to become a vigilanty, getting rid of the scum off of the streets. He is handy with his martial arts so he would dress up in a mask and cape and then pounce on people that were up to no good. \

The police quite like him but they have to do their job and prosecute him.

I doubted the validity of his story until he showed me photocopies of the police report. He also has a video of them searching his room.

It’s all true.

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