Melbourne Loft

I love this site full of awkward family moments.   Check it out.

You know I love planning a big trip.   Well this one still won’t quite crack the 3 month vacation I took in 2005 but it’s still pretty good!   Frank and I are heading out on a round the world trip!   Most likely starting in August the catch the end of the northern hemisphere’s summer and miss the end of our winter.   It’s important that I cut my winter’s short.
So here’s the plan.  I have been accumulating points for a very long time so it’s time to start spending them.   So Qantas is oing to cough up 2 free tickets so we can fly for up to 35,000 miles around the world.   That’s quite some distance and I reckon we can do it in 40 days.
Late last year after Qantas received their first A380 airbus they started to fly the older Boeing 747’s non-stop from Sydney to Buenos Aires in Argentina.   Roughly it’s a 13 hour flight.   I love the idea of being connected to Argentina by one flight.   So our first flight will be from Melbourne to Sydney to Argentina.  Qantas flies to the beautiful South American city 3 times per week.   I’m just planning the leave from work now and then I’ll be getting the gorgeous Qantas staff to book us in!
The picture below was taken in Buenos Aires in 2005.   I am standing in front of the burial place of Eva Peron in Recoleta.

I miss San Francisco!   It has to be one of my most favourite cities in the world.   This was my 6th visit to the “City by the Bay”.   But this time it was fun seeing it with someone who hadn’t seen it before.   Strangely it was the first time I have gotten to ride the historical cable cars and the Muni Subway.   It’s so much quicker to get from Castro Street to downtown on the subway rather than catching the street trolleys.   We also managed some free time to meet some models while we were there.  This is Joe who dropped by to visit us.

I’ve spent a lot of time at home the past few days while I’ve been trying to shake a cold.   And I’ve been watching a whole lot of telly.   Annoyingly I am into a whole lot of TV shows at the moment rather than obsessing over one series.   Over the weekend I watched all of series 1 of Lipstick Jungle.   I really liked it.  And now I’m wondering if there was a series 2.
But the real stand out was “Rick and Steve”, the happiest gay couple in the world.  It’s really quite funny…  maybe a little politically incorrect…   but very funny.   Chris pointed it out to me while we were in the US and last night I found it on Torrents.   You really should check it out.  I see that they have done 2 series of it already.   The Desperate Housewives “baby pheatus” in the cookie jar was very funny…  but so wrong.

I’m noticing that my friends are taking nicer photos than me lately.   The shot above was taken by my Frank and the one below was taken by Chris.   I’m not sure if it is the quality of the photo or that I did not think of posing a model like that.   Whatever it is I had better sort it out quickly.   The bookstore chain in the US where I eventually want to do my first photo-book signing is now down to it’s last store in San Francisco.

I always get a little bored and depressed after coming back from a vacation.  And the best remedy is to quickly find a new project.   I’m thinking of re-organising MelbourneLoft.   Earlier this year the automated webcam stopped working (and I still have not worked out whether it is the camera or the software that has the problem) and then it was downhill from there.   I was just on the site that motivated me to start MelbourneLoft in 2002 and I see they they have changed and have a fresh new look.    So it’s time to update!

It’s about time I gave a little update on my trip to California.   Whiel I was away I had trouble getting onto my blog.  But it all seems to be fixed now.
Chris decided back in March to head off to Los Angeles and San Francisco.  And being the envious type I invited myself along.   It was all quickly organised and we got a great deal on Qantas and American Airlines.   We were all set for 10 days in California.

Apart from looking forward to doing a load of shopping in the US again we were also prepared to do a whole lot of touring of the two cities.   We started with a tour of Los Angeles and the stars homes.  And later they dropped us off at Universal Studios.   It was kinda cool seeing the Hollywood hills again and the papparazzi camped outside the house where Michael Jackson is staying.

I really like Abercrombie’s idea of parking topless models in their front doors.   It got us in there shopping…   every time!   I noticed that they did not do it in San Francisco though.  Maybe it was too chilly there.   This Abercrombie store was in the trendy Grove shopping complex in LA.

We pretty much ate in diners the whole time…  explains my new waistline.   But one of our favourites had to be Hooters on Hollywood Boulevarde.   What a fun place!   Oh boy…  and cheese fries!   I had no idea such a thing existed!   I pretty much ate burgers every day.

Oh…  and I forgot to mention that Qantas gave us a free upgrade to Premium Economy class on the way over the Pacific.    How nice was that!   It really made it a very comfortable trip.   The flight attendants on board were great too!
Los Angeles was a little cooler than I expected.  But the sunny days were nice.   I also got to catch up with my old mate Joe from San Diego while I was there.
The trip across was so nice and easy.  I’m actually thinking I might do it again this year.  I love flying and I love going to the US.

I have been unable to log into my blog for a couple of weeks now. And at the worst time too!

But it appears to be okay now. So I can start writing about my current trip here in California.

I’m taking 3 vacations this year.  The first one was last week when I took off mid week and jetted up to Wollongong to meet Frank.   He lives at a great beachside suburb.  We spent a lot of the time hanging out, eating and lying on the beach.   I took my cameras along too so we could do some shooting up there.  The weather was so perfect so I was really happy to find the guys were available to come along and model for us.
Vacation number 2 starts in April with a quick trip across to California.   Thanks for the global economic meltdown Qantas is flying Aussies to the US for next to nothing!

And guess who was on the lead float in Sydney last night.    The parade photos looks great!   Go to Flickr.com and search on “Sydney Mardi Gras” and change results to Most Recent.   It looks like it was a lot of fun.  Wish I’d been there!