28
October
2006
Since getting back from the Whitsundays I’ve had a busy few weeks at work, doing alot of coding for VeWiki (an internal VeCommerce wiki), and also VeVerify, an internet banking application where transfers are authenticated by calling the account owner and using speech verification (and yes, I am aware that the names all start with a ‘Ve’ – they will never tire of that). It’s quite interesting which is a pleasant change. Enough about work though.
Last Thursday was Oktoberfest at uni, which is the biggest unibar party for the year. I had a great night since there were heaps of people there that I knew, some of whom I hadn’t seen for a while. I didn’t get much sleep, so work wasn’t the best, but such is life. I didn’t let the lack of sleep get me down and went round to Smouha’s house on Friday night for drinks, and then Saturday had a quiet day followed by Tania’s farewell in the city. Tania’s going away for 2 years. I’m very jealous especially since she will be staying with Jackie in Santa Barbara in a week! Luckily I had a much needed quiet day at the beach surfing with Louis on Sunday – what a weekend.
I also recently went to the Lawn Party at the races at Randwick Racecourse which was a great day. For those of you that don’t know, the Spring Racing Carnival involves lots of days where everyone gets dressed up to go and watch the horse races. The lawn party is outside by the track as the name suggests, with food and alcohol included. There are also tents set up by the sponsors, with dj’s and stuff. I didn’t actually watch much of the racing with so much else to do, although I did place 2 bets on what I thought were horses that couldn’t lose (based solely on their names – Magic Jet and Bickie Tin Blues). Unfortunately they weren’t as quick as I had hoped! After the races I went to Will’s place for pizza by the sea, then the after party at cargo, then a mexican party at a friend’s place in coogee and finally ended up at the Palace. The next morning I was a little tired, but had a nice relaxing day at Palm Beach with friends. Dan and Cassie were visiting from England so they came too. It was great to see them, although I did have a slightly scary drive with Dan behind the wheel!
Last night a friend had a Halloween Party which was fun. I didn’t really have an organized costume so I was looking a little random. Wearing TK’s tight jeans, and high tops, and a pirate tattoo that said ‘death before dishonor’ on my arm! I felt especially out of place at dinner at Bather’s before hand with the family and Susie and Josh who are visiting from the US. Tess (who was having the party) had gone to alot of effort to make the house look in theme, and most people had dressed up. One standout couple was ‘Peter the Pumpkin Eater’ and his girlfriend (see the photos!).
There are photos of the races,Oktoberfest and the Halloween party in the photo gallery, so have a look. Also, for all those non-mac users out there, have a read of joel’s rant for yet another reason to leave the dark side 
Hope everyone is well. I’m off for a surf since it’s a lovely sunny spring morning!
Ben
Posted: General
3
October
2006
Well, it’s been a busy past couple of weeks for me! I just got back to work after a week off in the Whitsundays with Tom, Menos, Danos (Tom H), Alec and Paul (Tom’s Dad). I’m nice and brown and it’s only 4 days till the weekend thanks to the wonders of public holidays! Make sure to have a look at my photo gallery as there are a couple of new albums.
Firstly, a few weeks ago I went to a White Trash night at the Coogee Palace which was great fun in a wig and a hypercolor singlet, riding the mechanical bull. Louis and Marcus had really gone to alot of effort in their tiny denim shorts, which paid off when they won a $100 bar tab, which unfortunately lasted us about 5 minutes!
Since my last post I have also had my 5 year school reunion. It was actually a really fun night down at the skiff club at Spit bridge, catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a few years. The enjoyment though was in part due to the fact that me and Rory had already had a few drinks (starting with a bbq at 3, followed by Carla’s birthday drinks at Balmoral beach at 4.30!). I had intended not to drink that night since I was doing the 9k Bridge run the following morning (more on that in a minute) but decided that it was worth it for a good night.
Sunday morning I had to get up at 6.30 to head to Milson’s Point for the Bridge run. I was feeling a little rough, but stoic as always, I powered on. The run was from Milson’s Point (North Sydney), across the bridge, through the city and botanic gardens to the water at Wooloomooloo, Then back up to Macquarie St and down to the Opera House so was actually a really pretty run. Once I got going I really enjoyed i although the start was a little punishing 
I finished in 40.45 which I thought was great given how crowded the start was, the hills involved and my training regime
The following Wednesday, NightCATS (The club me, Louis and Alex started) had a ‘Red Hot Latino Fire Party’ at Slip Inn in the city. It was a great fun night with Salsa Dancers, Body Painters, Capoeira Dancers, Fire Twirlers, Free Drinks, a couple of hundred people and custom red cocktails and shots! Great fun although I didn’t plan ahead and got my face painted only to discover in the morning that the blue wouldn’t wash off and I had to go to work with a third of my face bright blue!
Finally, on to the Whitsundays trip. Last week I took the week off (having ‘won a holiday’ ) to go away with the boys to stay on the Pemberton’s boat (Tutto Tranquillo, a 46 ft yacht) in the Whitsundays. For those of you that don’t know, the Whitsunday islands are in Queensland on the barrier reef with warm days and blue waters. Tom, Menos and Paul were already up there, but me, Alec and Danos flew up bright and early Saturday morning (after not much sleep). We arrived to a warm sunny day on Hamilton Island after an exciting landing involving pulling up at the last second and getting a scenic loop around due to some idiot sailing into the flight path! From there, we had a 15 minute walk to the marina, where we hopped on the boat, got some last minute groceries (and beer) and headed off to Whitehaven beach, a long beach with fine white sand on Whitsunday Island. We spent the first 2 nights anchored there spending the days swimming, tanning, and playing cricket and footy on the beach. We also got into the poker, which we kept up over the week. I ended even, although Alec was down $80. Luckily Menos kindly decided not to claim his winnings.
On Monday we headed over to Windy Bay on Haslewood Island for the next 2 nights. Windy bay surprisingly wasn’t too windy at all. The bay stays shallow for quite a way out so we had fun playing cricket in the water and pushing the dinghy into the beach. The bay also had great snorkeling on a little known about reef out at the point, as well as lots of sting rays and sharks that we often saw in the shallows. One morning we walked across the island to Lupton Reef where Paul, Alec and Danos did some successful spearfishing (6 fish for dinner) and attracted lots of reef sharks, after mine and Tom’s rather unsuccessful (apart from the huge fish – not! that Tom caught the previous day) attempts at catching fish for ourselves.
While at windy bay it was Paul’s 60th so we had a bottle of champagne to celebrate at sunset. We also discovered a dice game called Perudo that Alec had brought (and they play on Pirates of the Carribbean, so Menos quickly changed it’s name to Parle). We also had a game of Hotels which is always fun.
From Windy Bay, we headed over to Cataran Bay on Border Island for a snorkel, and then headed on to Manta Ray bay on Hook Island where we spent Wednesday night. The snorkeling in Manta Ray bay was great – we got up close with a friendly turtle, as well as feeding 4 foot long Maori Wrasse from the boat and then swimming with them. A tour boat also showed up and sprinkled some fish food around so we benefited from thousands of fish swimming around. Thursday morning we headed over to Blue Pearl Bay at the back of Hayman Island which is also home to an exclusive 6 star resort. We decided to ignore the ‘No trespassing – hotel guests only’ and ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’ signs to walk across the island to the resort for a complimentary newspaper and glass of water. After an ‘Adismal’ walk discussing ‘Kleidi Hum’ (both Menos comments), we got to the resort where we walked in completely inconspicuously, and luckily avoided prosecution . That night the wind had died right down so I decided to sleep on deck which was nice, although resulted in a very early morning as the sun came up. We had been having early nights and mornings anyway since we often watched an episode of Planet Earth after dinner, and then promptly fell asleep around 10 but that morning I was awake before 6!
Friday Morning we headed back to Hamilton Island and civilization (and all quickly turned our phones on, and Tom waited excitedly hoping to get a messages!) It was great to finally have a shower and shave after a week, and also to use a toilet since on the boat we had become close friends with Doug, the shovel. Getting a berth at Hamilton had involved Paul convincing them that the boat needed repairs and getting us a maintenance berth. Friday night we headed out to the pub after one final dinner on the boat, and had some celebratory drinks, before wandering back to the boat and stopping outside the ‘night club’ on the way for some chips and a random chat – we couldn’t go in since we were all wearing shorts and thongs.
Saturday (our final day!) we had a quiet morning tidying and packing before a game of cricket and footy on the beach at the resort. We then watched the Sydney Swans play the West Coast Eagles in the Footy Grand Finals at the pub. Sydney started badly and the Eagles won a deserved victory, even if it was close at 85-84 at full time. Following the game we had a few beers and then got all doled up (ie tried to find shoes – Menos wore trainers and shorts!) for dinner, intending on going to the club afterwards. Dinner was delicious at the local Chinese Restaurant, Red Emperor, but afterwards we all decided an early night in front of Planet Earth with a beer was much more appealing than a night out.
And that about concludes this EXTREMELY long post, since Sunday morning we headed back to Sydney. Well Done if you made it this far! Anyway, I’m now back at work after a day at the beach yesterday, topping off my tan and having a surf.
Enjoy all the photos!
-Ben
Posted: General, Travel
