But did they really have to show the bags under my eyes and the neck of a giraffe?

BTW: the book cover says: J2ME for Gumbies.

Thanks Paul and Joel!

I had planned to blog on the trip, but we forgot to pack the camera cord for the computer, and the Internet was a bit patchy at most places, especially while we were driving.

We visited Bundaberg, the town of 1770, Rockhampton, myriad of small towns on the way, and of course, Airlie beach and the Whitsundays.

Here are some snaps.

At the town of 1770

At the Capricorn Caves

Not sure where, but it was a terrible motel and the rains were bad and we had a torrid night. We awoke to find these multicolored parrots just outside our door

The Airlie wharf as seen from the hotel window..

And I found a real good piece of block to build a dream home on! Look at the views! And the car looks great in the driveway :)

From Airlie, we went to Hayman Island, a resort right in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef.

On the way to Hayman..

The magnificent pool at Hayman. We were in a room that had direct access to the pool, which suited us just fine..

Considering that I can't swim, I found the salt water pool to be really good for practicing. For the first time, I was able to swim with my head above water. :)

The breakfast, was served right on the beach, and needless to say, I spent a lot of time at the breakfast. Here are some shots to prove that.

I tried my hand at paddling, but fell in straight away. Here is my tumble, and the rescue afterwards.

I fared much better at Catamaran sailing though..

All good things come to an end, and we started home the next day.. One last photograph, of the giant mango near Bowen...

Sure, the Varekai show has its moments, everything that you would expect in a circus presentation, but that was the problem. I just couldn't help thinking that in the end, this was basically a very clever circus show with a great set and a great costume designer. I kept waiting for the 'Wow' moment, which never came. It had several good moments, several ohhh moments, but no moment that would have defined the show for me.

Maybe I am just complaining because having paid an arm and leg to go to the show, I expected magic.

We had great seats as they were always under the shade, although the angle that we were at made eying the ball a bit difficult. Gabba is a great venue for watching cricket and I completely support the recent drive by the Gabba authorities to ban hooligans and trouble makers. The show of strength by the police was completely warranted and welcome. They are only banning and throwing out people who cause trouble, and therefore, if you are there to have fun, enjoy the cricket and not cause any trouble to other people, you have nothing to worry about. Make as much or as little noise as you want.

We were also seated next to the Barmy Army and they provided the most noise and fun during the whole day. I can't believe their stamina in singing. They would chant 'Barmy Army' 'Barmy Army' for ages without running out of breath. Compared to them, the Aussie support group seemed feeble in its attempts to sing back.

Some snaps from the day...

Warne bowling to Pietersen

A view from the stands

A look at the scoreboard

Barmy Army chanting

Real English Gentlemen at the game

I know, I know, its an ugly shot, my teeth look weird in a half smile, half weirdness shot, but that is the best I could do when told to smile and wave. :)

There is a video too somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. If I find it I will post it as well, and you will see that I don't know the Italian cities correctly after all!

But Tripping Over on Ten is an excellent effort. It is very well written, directed, acted and produced and it's a shame that there are only six episodes, making it kinda of a mini-series more than a drama series.

It's a joint Aussie and British series, so that may be some reason for it breaking Aussie stereotypes. There are different stories of 5-6 people who have switched continents (England - Australia) and how their lives evolve after they holiday in Thailand and there is an accident.

Incidentally, Ten also has the locally made comedy Thank God You are here, which is a pretty smash hit and has been sold worldwide. Looks like Ten is on a good thing, as far as home grown entertainment is concerned.

However, what amazed me, was the number of pirated Indian movies on sale! I didn't realize that they were pirated till I got them home and looked at the covers closely. These were being sold brazenly in several stalls and that too at an occasion grazed by Campbell Newman (the Mayor of Brisbane). I should have realized that they were pirated when I only paid $2.99 for a single copy, when a legitimate copy would have been at least $10. I just thought that they were on sale or that this was a special festival pricing.

Oh and there was dances and other cultural shenanigans on stage as well. I can't remember seeing anything over the food. :)

The show started with the supporting act of Joel Ozborne. Funny guy indeed, but his act was interrupted several times by a lady sitting next to the stage who had a laugh like a hyena and kept laughing after everyone else had stopped. It was so embarrassingly obvious that I was convinced that she was art of the act. Joel kept up gamely, and even tried to use her for the laughs, which worked pretty well, thus reinforcing my view that she was part of the act. Nobody could have that kind of laugh and come to a comedy club!

Of course, she wasn't! When Akmal came one, and the lady kept her routine, Akmal tried to use her again for some more laughs. He even got her on the stage to umm.. show her tattoo. By this time, she was too drunk and couldn't contain herself. When she got down, she kept chatting to people around her, in spite of warnings from Akmal (comedic at first, serious later). Eventually, he had to get the owners of the club to get her to go out, which of course, she wasn't happy with (nor the people with her). The whole mood of the place got spoilt while they waited to get her out of the club, which she wasn't doing without kicking and screaming. To his credit, Akmal kept his composure as much as he could, but everyone could see that he had lost his rhythm. The woman's complaint was that the comedians (Joel first, and Akmal later) had used her when they wanted the laughs, but were now throwing her out when she got out of hand.

In spite of all that, the comedic routines were funny, and a good night was had by all (except of course the lady and her friends). Akmal and Joel are highly recommended!

I am sad at his death. He was the best known Aussie and had his own style. He made 'Crikey' a catchphrase and the khaki a fashinable item. He made fierce creatures seem nice and brought conservation into the living rooms of millions of people worldwide.

I am annoyed that I never got a chance to see him in real life. I live less than an hour away from his Australia Zoo, and never in my 5 years here did I make the effort to go see him. It was always on the to do list, but never got done. Should be a lesson in there somewhere... something about never taking things for granted.

We started off with the ferry from Cleveland, which was another first for me. I had never been on one of these ferries that take you and your car. Quite an experience!

We wandered around Shellie's old haunts, including Amity Point and Pt. Lookout and finished with lunch at what seemed like the only hotel (under massive development) on the island. I had the biggest lamb shanks I have ever seen.

The island is basic, untouched by modern development and peaceful. Here are some snaps.

Hand feeding dolphins at Amity Point ...

Looking for the whales Robert (Shellie's Dad) and me ...

Shellie's mum and dad at the place where they would like their house built..

Me and Shell

.. Lost baby due to miscarriage (the primary reason why I lost interest in blogging or doing anything else)
.. Had trouble with a shoddy builder for our new house. Dumped him. Lost money on that. Found new builder, plans get to council stage
.. New book came out (MMAPI book)
.. Craftbits.com moved to a dedicated server, which was a massive job
.. Craftbits.com got a new makeover and then got listed on BoingBoing.com (thrice four times!)
.. Went to see Stomp! (awesome show!)
.. Celebrated getting old
.. Loved Lost

In any sense, South Africa deserve all the praise that they can get. What would have been a pipe dream, became a reality, and ahem, as I have been saying for a long time, Ponting's captaincy is the culprit here as well. He is a fantastic batsman, but his captaincy is knee jerk and his successes have been riding on a successful team. He is going to find it more difficult to win matches, now that the team structure is unravelling, starting with a whittled bowling attack.

But what an astonishing and wonderful game.

So why would you take Lost off the TV screens this week? I have so far resisted the temptation to download it of the Internet (you know it's there, and available for free). Why would you want to break the rhythm of users who are used to a good thing?

This should give you a warning. If the locally produced drama can't bring out compelling entertainment, people are going to look overseas for it. You are the medium for this overseas product. But if you don't deliver it to us in timely fashion, you are going to lose out. One way or other, and it's only a matter of time, people are going to get their dose of entertainment, when it's released anywhere in the world, not when you decide to bring it here.

Don't try to copy what the networks in the US are doing, because there are several less compelling reasons for users over there to download episodes of the Internet. TV networks are smug there, because barring a few exceptions when advance copies of episodes are leaked, they don't need to worry about story lines coming out. It's different here (and the rest of the World I presume), Lost is already eons ahead, the new Survivor is half way, ditto for Apprentice and countless other shows.

So please, don't take Lost off the screens this week. I am resisting so far, but if this continues, I will snap, and will hit the download button and once that happens, you will lose one more viewer. I may be a Man of faith, but I am a Man of Science first (apologies to non-Lost fans).