HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY to my most giving, generous, talented, amazing, best friend and musical cohort Nathan Leigh Jones and all the incredible Aussies that I have met and have had the pleasure of getting to know over the past few years that my music, travels, and now complete love of you and your country have been bringing me here. Thank you all for your warm welcome, inclusion, overwhelming kindness and support, of me and my music. I wish you, the ones you love, your people and beautiful country, the best - today and always. Enjoy your day!
I’ve discovered that following your heart can be exhausting. One can only hope that if and when you ever catch up to it - as exhilarated as you’ll be, you’ll be able to find the energy to catch your breath, hear it’s beat and enjoy it’s rhythm.
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RED, RED VINES!
So Santa gave me a box of RED VINES for Xmas! Seriously. I waited as long as I could to open them, because I wanted to share them, but I opened them less than 10 mins ago and I’ve already eaten almost the whole box! If you’ve never had a red vine before - RUN to the West Coast and get some. They could be one of the only honest reasons to go to LA. (hehe!) I have to warn you though, you might not ever enjoy a Twizzler again! LOL!
Red Vines taste like red licorice is supposed to taste! Like Red Licorice! :-) Not some Cherry flavored plastic coated pull apart candy!
Seems barely like forever ago - driving from the OC to LA with my music blaring and a red vine dangling from my mouth like a huge toothpick, drawn from the never ending TUB of Red Vines in the back seat of my Beemer. Ah, those were the carefree days!
OMG. Only TWO left! What am I gonna do?!
YUMMMM!! Thank you Santa!
Ok, I’ll shut up now.
I am happy to report that due to flattery and persistent requests from our fans, it seems this might just be the year of a new Xmas mashup from me and my friend Nathan Leigh Jones! We are still awaiting a final report from Santa on how many of you have been naughty or nice but I think it’s safe to say that most of you can expect a special present to be coming your way sometime between now and the 12 days of Xmas! Feeling your giddy childlike anticipation I thought it only appropriate to jump into the Xmas spirit with you and refresh your memories with this now infamous little ditty! Enjoy it standing under the mistletoe!
WELCOME TO HONG KONG!
When I arrived on Monday night. I really wanted my first meal in Hong Kong to be Chinese food. Or as they call it here - food:-)
I was exhausted and a tad bit hungover from drinking in the Qantas Lounge for breakfast, (I got to the airport early for my flight and had Champagne) lunch (my flight was delayed two hours, what could I do but sample the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc) and then lunch again on the flight! (I love a good Adelaide Shiraz!) but I stuck to my guns, dropped my bags off at the friend’s flat I’m staying at and walked immediately down the hill to an authentic little Chinese hole in the wall.
Coming from the young and sometimes pompous country of America, I was shocked to learn that truly authentic menus don’t always come with “English Subtitles” or even pictures!
And that when finding the place to wash your hands at said “authentic Chinese Hole in the Wall” you must always be prepared.. for the “hole in the Floor!”:I wasn’t prepared:-)
I wish I was kidding with this toilet picture.I’m not.
However - Is it appropriate to tell you after showing you that photo, that the food wasn’t that bad? hehe!
During a drive through suburbia on the most gorgeous day since the first day I arrived here in Sydney, My friend suddenly careened off the freeway, flew into a deli and quickly grabbed a few sandwiches. He then jumped back in the car and screeched into a parking lot just a bit further down the road. I thought he just needed a few mins repose from the long drive, we’d grab a snack in the lot.. then scurry back to his busy work day in the city.
He took his shoes off and as he opened the door, motioned for me to do the same. The grassy lawn area in front of the car looked like a perfect place to chill for a bit. But then he headed left and around an embankment of green shrubbery, I ran to catch up with him turned the corner - and there it was…. The beach!
My feet hit the hot sand and I immediately was overwhelmed with that “ow! ow! oh! oh! oo! oo! ahhh…” feeling one gets every year they sense that feeling for the first time.
As we sat in the expanse, staring at the waves, enjoying the surfers and hiding from the one ginormous breasted, middle aged, overweight topless lady sunbather (there’s one on every beach!) who seemed to inch closer to us every time we turned around…
I tell you - Subway tastes even better on the Beach!
Thanks buddy!
I’m a Pepsi fan myself, but I LOVE this new “out for summer” Coke can! Came across this article and thought it was interesting, so I’m sharing this - Brief history of Coke & Pepsi - with you!
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the two most popular and widely recognized beverage brands in the world. Within their lineup of beverages,Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola Classic are the predominant carbonated cola beverages. Coca-Cola is the original cola, while there isn’t a huge difference in taste; Pepsi mirrored their cola after Coke’s, being just different enough in taste to not actually be the same drink. Coca Cola is a much sweeter beverage while Pepsi is recorded to have a more full flavored taste. Great branding contributes to why coke is head over heels much more world widely popular than Pepsi. Depending onwhere each one was made the amount of carbonation in them will be different therefore proving that neither Coca-Cola nor Pepsi have more carbonation than one another. Both drinks are no longer seen as a beverage but mainly as a brand. Both companies commit heavily to sponsoring outdoor music festivals and even charitable projects in third world countries. Pepsi also is an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup. The Coca-Cola also sponsors the FIFA. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi try to market as part of a life-style.Coca-Cola uses phrases such as “Coke side of life” in their website, while Pepsi uses phrases such as “Hot stuff” in their website, to promote the idea that Pepsi is “in sync” with the cool side of life. Pepsi tries to reach out to the younger generation by appealing to pop culture. If you visit their website you will be greeted with flashy pages containing pop music, cars, and fashion. Coca-Cola’s website also has links for music and sports, two arenas in which soda-pop is often consumed; however, Coca-Cola’s is less flashy and uses a classical appeal, most likely because of Coca-Cola’s long history as the standard for cola beverages. Coca-Cola had Christina Aguilera featured in their commercials, while Pepsi had Britney Spears, Keshauntae Brown, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey. Additionally while Pepsi with its younger audience tends to focus solely on pop stars, it was Coca-Cola who is regarded as having one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time, featuring a far more mature pop band Blondie and the enormous hit “Atomic”, the video played the main chorus of the song to the backdrop of professional footballers taking part in genuine competitive World Cup games and thenoise of the crowds with millions of pieces of confetti that was released during the Argentine and Mexican World Cup competitions that occurred previously. This advertisement was to promote Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the upcoming World Cup ‘94 which was hosted in the United States of America; it was shown in over 200 nations across the planet and has garnered fans from across the globe. It is a contender for the coveted title of Greatest Commercial of All Time in many nations. In 1985, Coca-Cola and Pepsi were launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-51-F. The companies had designed special cans (officially the Carbonated Beverage Dispenser Evaluation payload or CBDE) to test packaging and dispensing techniques for use in zero G conditions. The experiment was classified a failure by the shuttle crew, primarily due to the lack of both refrigeration and gravity. The “Coca-Cola Space Dispenser” (Fluids Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus-1, or FGBA-1) was designed to provide astronauts the opportunity to enjoy Coca-Cola and Diet Coke in the weightless environment of space, and to “provide baseline data on changes in astronauts’ taste perception of beverages consumed in microgravity. It held 1.65 liters each of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. An astronaut would dispense the carbonated drink of choice into a “Fluids Transfer Unit” or sealed drinking cup through a quick connect on the dispenser. To save power, the dispenser would chill the liquid on demand via cooling coils between the storage container and the quick connect fitting. The FGBA-1 and 18 of the “Fluid Transfer Units” flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995. Further development led to a Coca-Cola fountain dispenser (Fluids Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus-2 or FGBA-2)intended as “a test bed to determine if carbonated beverages can be produced from separately stored carbon dioxide, water and flavored syrups and determine if the resulting fluids can be made available for consumption without bubble nucleation and resulting foam formation”. This unit flew on STS-77 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1996. STS-51-F’s primary payload was the laboratory module Spacelab-2. A special part of the modular Spacelab system, the “igloo”, which was located at head of a three-pallet train, provided on-site support to instruments mounted on pallets. The main mission objective was to verify performance of Spacelab systems, determine the interface capability of the orbiter, and measure the environment created by the spacecraft. Experiments covered life sciences, plasma physics, astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, solar physics, atmospheric physics and technology research. Despite mission re-planning necessitated by Challenger’s abort to orbit trajectory, the Spacelab mission was declared a success. The flight marked the first time the ESA Instrument Pointing System (IPS) was tested in orbit. This unique pointing instrument was designed with an accuracy of one arc second. Initially, some problems were experienced when it was commanded to track the Sun, but a series of software fixes were made and the problem was corrected. In addition, Tony England became the second amateur radio operator to transmit from space during the mission. The Spacelab Infrared Telescope (IRT) was also flown on the mission. The IRT was a 15.2 cm aperture helium-cooled infrared telescope, observing light between wavelengths of 1.7 to 118 micrometers. The experiment experienced some problems, such as heat emissions from the Shuttle corrupting data, but still returned useful astronomical data. In a heavily-publicized marketing experiment, astronauts aboard STS-51-F enjoyed carbonated beverages from specially-designed cans provided by competitors Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
