Posts Tagged ‘australia’

Those of you who did computing with me at Leeds will no doubt remember Jack Kelly, also known as Aussie Jack. He spent August doing a world tour to catch up with friends and dropped my Leeds for some food or conversation.

Having had my wallet battered by a week of Finland we ended up having lunch at the Cuthbert Brodrick. A place where you can buy a meal cheaper than you can buy a pint in Helsinki. We ended up having lunch at Wetherspoon’s again the next day – this time at the train station – to meet up with Sarann and Chris. Some might worry this would give off the impression that we’re just alcohols that spend all our time at ‘Spoons. However, Jack was here for a year, so probably had us down that way anyway.

In the evening we held a small gathering. I managed to cook a reasonable amount of food (as opposed to way, way too much) and a good time was had by all. I even went out of my way to not be a grumpy bastard and joined in the card game, Love Letters, which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Last weekend saw the start of the 2012 Formula One series.

I wasn’t quite prepared for just how disappointing it was to not be able to watch it live. While the BBC’s extended highlights were pretty good, there just isn’t the magic of watching it live as it happens.

Never the less, it was a good race. It will be interesting to see how the season pans out – I hope that it doesn’t turn into a bunch of cars following two McLarens round a track, though Vettel’s strong performance suggests it won’t, and the rise of Mercedes looks promising too.

Recently, I’ve been watching Nothing to Declare (aka Border Security: Australia’s Front Line). It’s about customs officers working at Australia’s airports and seaports. It’s pretty similar to UK Border Security, except that I actually find it interesting.

I use the term I because ultimately it’s trash TV. There is no real intellectual merit to either TV show but for some reason I find Nothing to Declare entertaining, while I find UK Border Security quite dull.

Indeed, we’ve been getting into it so much that last week I set a reminder in our calendars about it. Why is it so addictive?

The story gets stranger though. I randomly got an email from Gijsbert entitled “Nothing to Declare” with a message saying I’ve been watching loads of Nothing to Declare recently. Why do intelligent people, including myself, watch this rubbish?

It’s a fascinating question. It’s so predictable – it’s just people getting caught with cocaine on them and people trying to sneak into the country with the intention of working on their tourist visa, episode after episode. But we’re all addicted to it. Why?

It’s also interesting that both we, and Weili picked up on the fact that the show opens with the title caption “thousands of people dedicate their lives to protecting Australia’s border.” Not just work there – dedicate their lives.

Went to The Original Oak for lunch on Friday as usual. But unlike normal, we never came back 😀 .

First off it was a bit of a celebration as Imran is heading off to Egypt today to get married (to a woman he has met before – once 😉 ) to we sent him on his way with a rather nice gift, some champagne flutes that Holly had picked up for him despite the fact he doesn’t drink 😀 .

Secondly, Stu who manages BetOptions which is the Australian office of our company was over on a flying visit so it ended up with almost the entire office heading out to the pub. Our food was a bit delayed too so by the time we had finished eating Rob told us we could take the afternoon off. Fantastic!