Melbourne Loft

I have my friend Bill from Ohio staying with me this week.  I love it when Americans come to Australia for the first time.  It gives me so much power!  I feel like I could almost tell him anything and he would believe it.   On Day 1 we hot the ground running as I started to fill him in on some of Australia’s culture.   So we started off with a stop at Federation Square and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).   He Bill meets the robot Dexter from the TV dating show “Perfect Match”.

Please be patient as we complete the renovations.   Tyson has been helping me remodel MelbourneLoft into a more of a webcam/blog type of experience.   The tagboard and all of the other features will be back soon.   I am also working on the machine that will bring the webcam back to being live again.

As I was walking home from the gym this morning I saw the crowds and media gathering along Bourke Street for the annual Myer Santa Claus parade.   Of course the David Jones Santa Claus arrived last week via helicopter.   So not to be out done Myer and channel 7 put together a huge parade marketing the department store and all it’s brands…  oh.. and Santa Claus too.   The parade is always fun with all the kids going crazy.   But at 34 degrees today (96 fahrenheit) it was a very hot wait for the parade to arrive.   I was really impressed with some of the floats and the large that it drew.   It really is a fun time to be in Melbourne now.

Last weekend I decided to test how far I could in one weekend.   So I booked myself on to a 6am flight to Auckland, New Zealand.   Now I didn’t realise at the time that this meant checking in at 4.30am.   So I woke at 3am to prepare to go to the airport.   The taxi ride proved that I was unprepared as we turned around and headed home to get my passport.
I was actually outside the Qantas Club waiting for it to open at 4.30am.  I never thought I would vere be at an airport at this time.  The shot below shows just how empty the place was at that time of the morning.

I really think Qantas Club is one of the best airline lounges going round.  I can always be found spending way too long lathering up with their Molton Brown products in the bathroom.   And with the lounge so empty I did wonder for a moment how well attached those bottles were to the wall.

I was really happy to have scored a ride on one of Qantas’ new Boeing 737-800s.   And exit row seats on both directions!  And the seats are the new seats found on the new Airbus A380 with the widescreens in every seat and on demand TV and movies.  I really like this brand spanking new plane.   The flight from Melbourne to Auckland is just 3 1/2 hours.


In New Zealand I got a great deal at the beautiful Westin Hotel on the Viaduct Harbour.   It’s a fairly new development with loads of new buildings built right on the docks.   The Westin itself is built in such a shape that boats can moor right in the courtyard of the hotel!   And most of the rooms therefore have a water view.
My room was great!  Huge in size, a massive bath room and bath tub, cable TV and a huge min bar.   I could almost live in this room!



There were some really beautiful cruisers moored in the harbour, but check out the colour of that water!
I really liked Auckland.  The city is quite beautiful and the people are really friendly.   Even though I was only there for 24 hours I learnt quite a lot about our Kiwi neighbours.  Next time I will stay a little longer.

I’m reading Tim Ferris’ book “4 Hour Work Week” at the moment.   I am looking for inspiration for my next move.   Since going back to work 2 weeks ago I have been wondering about what I am doing now…  and can I keep doing it?   I had planned to retire from my day job in another 10 years.   But I’m not sure I can wait that long.
Tim rides on a high of a successful business venture in his 20’s so there’s a lot of hype about success in his book.  But he does raise quite a few good points.  I’m also enjoying his tips on his blog.
I have a few ideas about what I want to do.   I am just working through the financials and logistics of making it happen.

I just heard about this today.   Virgin Blue (the Australian subsidiary of Virgin Airlines) has teamed with the Black Eyed Peas for a special event on Friday.   They will be hosting a karaoke party on board a 737 flying from Sydney to Perth.  Apparently the aircraft has been reformatted to take just over 100 passengers, plus the group, plus the equipment.
Now it’s between a 4 and 5 hour flight across Australia.   Imagine if you had just by chance gotten on that flight and did not like the Black Eyed Peas?   I suspect though that the passengers all won some competition to be on board this special flight.  I wouldn’t imagine it could be forced on normal travellers.   Sounds like fun anyway.   I hope they televise some of it.

I love this stuff!   This guy is buying the luggage lost or left at airports at auctions and then putting them up on his website to see if he can find the owners.   I wonder if he has had any success?

After 7 years of shooting and posting I finally decided to close down the Private Room today.   Just like Loft Radio I no longer have the time to put into it anymore.   At the time of closing the Private room was sporting 276 galleries and almost 500 videos.  I have all my mates to thank for modelling for me.   Instead I am working on another business venture where I can put my talents and business expertise to good use.
If you run a successful website or blog and would like to make money via your site write drop me an email and I can help you.  It’s fun and it’s easy.   Just write me at wasteofspace@melbourneloft.com.

I’m bloody slow with these updates now that I’m back at home.   But we are almost there.   The last European destination in the RTW trip was actually 3 locations through Italy.    We started by flying from Barcelona to Palermo (Sicily) via Madrid.   I know…  it was the long way around.   The trip took all day.
Going to Sicily was quite an experience.  I had no expectations of Italy at all.   In fact we were going off the beaten track a little to find the towns and the houses in which Frank’s parents were born in.  So after a quick 2 night stop in Palermo we boarded the ferry to head out to Lipari on the Aeolian Islands.   The 4 hour ferry ride was long but it was fun seeing all the islands along the way.  Palermo had great pizza and pasta but Lipari (or the town of Canneto where we stayed) had the delicious gelato and Brioche combinations.   I also loved the Cannolis there.   I hope I’m getting the spelling right.
The best day on the islands had to be when we went on a little boat tour (pictured below) around all the islands.   It was more of a boat ride with lots of swimming in the sea.   The water was amazingly clear and I was swimming with hundreds of tropical fish.   This comes close to being the best day of the whole vacation.   I was jumping off the boat and floating around look for all sorts of sea life.   They even cooked us a pasta meal on the little boat for lunch!
The trip from the islands to Rome was long.  A 7 hour ferry ride to Naples followed by a 2 hour train trip to Rome.   We were not happy campers by the time we arrived in Rome.   The hotel messed us around a little and the city was a little dirtier than we had expected.   But we had a nice time walking about, seeing the sites, eating loads and shopping, shopping, shopping.   Another great day was when we caught the train to Formia to see where Frank’s Dad lived.  Much of his family were killed in the house that we saw.  Sitting in the quiet little square near the house was quite a surreal moment.   It felt strange for us to be there and not his Dad who may never see it again.   I took a hundred photos and a video so hopefully he can enjoy it through my eyes.
Photos:  Above is the jet that took us from Madrid to Palermo.

That’s Frank’s suitcase…   I had suitcase size envy for most of the trip…   except when steep stairs were involved.

Posing in front of some old building in Rome.  I see an apartment development.

Resting on the Spanish Steps in Rome.

The view from our hotel in Canneto (Aeolian Islands)

Waiting for the boat tour to start at Canneto

Swimming in the Mediteranean Sea during the boat tour

Frank and I on the back of the boat after a refreshing dip in the sea.  I was the only person who did not understand Italian on the boat.   The only english I heard was when the boat owner told me to swim out and untie the boat from the rocks and pull in the anchor.  I think I was the deckhand for the day.



The mud baths at the town of Vulcano.  Where you can also see the Volcano.   I didn’t go in because it was all a bit stinky.

And this was our tour boat moored at Canneto.   The boat was ran by the owner Davideh.   He was taking a group of women out shopping to another island the next day.   The town of Canneto really is a magical place.   I’m sure that after our 3 day stop there everyone knew us.   Frank was running over and hugging old ladies as if they were his long lost granny!   He loved it there…  I on the other hand am more suspicious.
We had a nice stay in Canneto except we were sent packing from our hotel after the owner demanded we pay more money than we had booked for.   So in the heat of our last afternoon there we packed our suitcases and fleed!  To another hotel of course.   It was kinda fun now that I think back about it.   Of course we may never be allowed back in Canneto again.

After seeing a Robbie Williams video clip today I started to look for the airplane graveyard where the video was filmed.  I found Pinal Air Park in Arizona (I do not know if this is where the clip was filmed).  And I was surprised to find on JetPhotos.net a large number of old Qantas planes parked there.   I guess they go somewhere when they are dead, but this was bizzare seeing them all broken up.   Above in the top corner is the latest delivery of the Qantas Boeing 747-300 which I was lucky to get a ride on last year before it was retired.   Also pictured are the older 747-238’s and 767’s.
I think it would be cool to visit this place sometime.   I would also like to see the Qantas museum in Longreach QLD where apparently a 747-238 has been preserved.