29 October 2007, 22:16 in Out & About
Allure Lawn Party 2007
About a week ago I went to an event at Ascot called Allure Lawn Party which celebrates the start of the horse racing season. I am not into horse racing at all but we got dressed up, there was a good atmosphere, and drinks and food were included in the ticket price, so we were quite merry!
Some more of Michael’s photos are in the gallery.
16 October 2007, 20:58 in Out & About
Spring in the Valley 2007
On the weekend I went to Spring in the Valley, one of Perth’s largest annual food and wine festivals, held in the Swan Valley. Here is a small selection of pics from Michael’s camera…
It was a really fun day!!!
4 October 2007, 00:14 in Out & About
Paintballing for Tak's bucks
On Sunday it was Tak’s bucks, and we got up early to go paintballing at Paintball Skirmish (the Bibra Lakes one next to Adventure World). I’ve wanted to try paintball for a long time so I was looking forward to it. Apparently I looked like I was still asleep when Sinisha and Jason picked me up; I have been a bit of a night owl recently.
The venue provided protective equipment in the form of camo overalls and masks. It was a mild overcast day but wearing jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt, and a groin guard (extra protection!) and with the adrenaline going it felt damn hot!! Some of the safety rules include always keeping your mask on when outside of the building, keeping your gun pointed down at the ground when not in play, and no shooting anyone from within 3 metres. Interestingly, the rules also state that head shots don’t count; I guess this is to stop people shooting each other in the head excessively. I still had fun with plenty of head shots, as the heads or guns of the opposing team was usually all you could see. :)
Most paintball guns, like the ones we were using, use a cylinder of compressed carbon dioxide (CO2) as a power source, to propel little spherical projectiles made from soft plastic which contain water soluble paint. The guns shoot pretty far but are very inaccurate. I got a bit frustrated when a few times I managed to flank an enemy player without them seeing me, yet when I let off a volley of fire, all the paintballs landed all around them, giving them a wake up call and meaning my efforts were wasted.
I learned that it is really important to tighten the strap on your mask so that the gasket seals around your eyes; if you don’t do this your breath will quickly fog up your visor and you won’t be able to see. This happened to me once, and the stage happened to have a lot of long grass and weeds, and being the start of spring, I got a pretty bad hay fever reaction. I was pretty much useless that stage, spending half the time sneezing or clearing my throat and hardly being able to see through a fogged up visor!
The paintballs don’t hurt much when they hit you and break normally. Occasionally a paintball fails to break upon this impact and this stings quite a bit. Having some form of covering on your skin also helps. Emil, who has very short hair, had a few red marks on his head afterwards!
Despite it just being a game, I found that paintball really got my pulse racing and the adrenaline flowing. It took a bit of guts to actually take the initiative to try to gain ground and complete the objective, rather than just sit back defensively in one spot. I noticed that the adrenaline made me a bit clumsy. It also sometimes got a bit confusing regarding who was on what team once people moved around after a bit of time in the game. Communication between team members was also difficult because the masks and overalls made it pretty much impossible to tell who was who, so referring to people by name was not possible. Really good fun overall! It made me realize how much I would hate to be a soldier in a firefight, where one hit can kill or cripple you. Don’t envy those guys at all!
After playing for a few hours we were all exhausted and thirsty… We went back to Iavor’s parents house and had beer and food, and some sort of strong spirit that Sinisha brought along (good stuff!).
Then later on we went to the Brisbane for more drinks and celebrations. Emil spent some time hugging the toilet later that night. I went on to see Mampi Swift & IC3 play at the Aberdeen, and it was good, but I was too tired to go nuts and really get into it.
Cheers for organising the day Iavor, and congratulations to Tak!!!
22 June 2007, 03:22 in Out & About
Birthday drinks
It was my birthday recently so I decided to have some drinks at the Brisbane on Sunday. I rocked up in a t-shirt and it was freezing when we were outside! Other than that had an awesome time.
I brought my camera along but forgot about it for most of the time. A few photos are in the gallery here.
Unfortunately I managed to lose my sunnies. :(
15 March 2007, 03:13 in Out & About
Some out and about photos
I’ve managed to get a few photos off my friends from some times we’ve been out recently.
You can find the rest of the photos in the gallery.
16 February 2007, 21:21 in Out & About
True Live & Macromantics @ Beck's Verandah
Last night some friends and I went to Beck’s Verandah at the Perth Concert Hall with to see True Live and Macromantics. I didn’t know what to expect but had a blast.
To be honest I’d never really heard of True Live before this event. They are a Melbourne ensemble led by singer/rapper/songwriter/producer RHyNO MC and consist of a three piece string section (cello, violin, double bass), drum kit, and keyboards. Defying typical genres, they mix classical music, jazz, and hip hop together and the result is awesome! They really had the crowd rocking with their incredibly varied music. At one stage RHyNO MC asked the audience to suggest five words and then made up a track on the spot with some crazy lyrics incorporating all the words. They are Australian and original and I think a lot of people would like them. I recommend that you check them out if you get the chance.
I don’t normally listen to much hip-hop but have started enjoying it. It seems that there is a pretty broad selection of music that goes under the category, and I think a lot of people dismiss the genre without really giving it a fair go. I had heard Macromantics on Triple J a few times before and thought they were pretty good. As far as I understand it, Macromantics is a female hip-hop rapper and she is normally accompanied by DJ Amy spinning the decks. The duo pumped out some awesome rapping with great lyrics and beats. They have a MySpace page which has some tunes you can listen to.
A lot of Becks beer was consumed. Getting out of bed this morning was a struggle of epic proportions.
28 January 2007, 19:13 in Out & About
Australia Day 2007
This Australia Day a few friends came over in the afternoon for a BBQ. It was one of the hottest days we’ve had in a while at 41 degrees C, so we stayed inside in the air con for most of the time! Let’s just say there was a sufficient supply of alcohol to keep us going for a while! In addition to the chicken I cooked, Lachlan brought a barramundi wrapped in al-foil, which he had prepared with herbs earlier in the day; it turned out delicious on the BBQ!
The plan was to walk down to watch the fireworks from the South Perth foreshore but it was such a hot day and a fairly long walk so we ended up just climbing on the roof and watching the fireworks from there. From where we were, there was a thunderstorm off to the left in the distance which provided additional entertainment, as did the many passers by.
There are some more photos in the gallery.
After the fireworks we went to see Andy C at Metros… we were pretty tired from all the drinking but ended up having a great time… his set was unreal.
14 December 2006, 13:25 in Out & About
Perth Massive 2006
The Perth Massive 2006 was held upstairs at the Brass Monkey on Tuesday night. I got there late but it was great to catch up with some of the people I haven’t seen for a while, including Nick, James, Jason, Tone, Minh, Philip (the other one!), and Myles. Nick did a write up on the OneTwenty Events blog.
The OneTwenty shirts looked good; I particularly liked the red on black design. I might see if I can get one.