I'll admit I've been tempted in the past

but to actually go through with it seems pretty mean.

Swans in the Finals

Swans vs. Carlton for the first round of the finals. Sunday the 5th at 2:40pm @ANZ stadium. Shooting for the $45 tickets.

Let me know if you're in asap as tickets go on sale tuesday at noon. don't want to miss out!

Geography lesson

So in the past, there may have been a bit of swagger about glamorous Pacific work trips where I breakfast by the pool with honeymooners and tidy my notes at happy hour from a sunlounge on the beach, but even my travel agent gave me a blank look when I mentioned my next destination. So it looks like I’ll be a long way from the cabana bar this time.

What you don't really need to know about Tarawa Atoll

This Micronesian island in Kiribati (pronounced Kiri-bass) is home to approximately 40,000 people on just 15.76 square kms of sandy coral mass.

The International Date Line does a big dogleg to keep the island nation on our side of time, despite it’s being due south of Hawaii.

Over 30% of our Cost of Living basket is unavailable. I’ll be pricing 85 items at just 7 outlets, including the garage and the post office. There is no pharmacy on Tarawa.

Expats on Tarawa receive the same ‘hardship’ premium as those in Addis Ababa, Port Moresby, Harare and Kolkata. While personal security scores fairly low (ie, low level of risk) just about everything else we assess is near the maximum. Except air pollution.

They get two planes a week, which is how I'll be getting in and out, overnighting in Nadi each way.

There is one hotel, the government run Otintaai hotel, described independently as “hopelessly dilapidated” where the “reception looked as though it had been the scene of a gunbattle”. This is where I’ll be enjoying 5 night’s sleep and many meals of fish.



Or maybe I’ll take a sleeping bag and a box of muesli bars down to the Parliament building instead:

Tourists sites are limited to a scattering of old Japanese artillery, relics from a famously bloody US victory in WWII.

An American journalist won the 1944 Pulitzer prize for this photo of the aftermath:

Although Lonely Planet doesn’t cover Tarawa, Wikitravel recommends "The Sex Lives of Cannibals" by J Maarten Troost for pre-travel reading.

Despite the lack of Pina Coladas, I think Tarawa shall make a refreshing change from the office.

Happy Birthday John!

Do you really need to buy this book? You gotta ask yourself one question: Are you going to be ready when the sh*t goes down? Here is a quick checklist:

1. Have you dug up your wife's rose garden and built a fallout shelter, equipped with a prison where you can lock up annoying family members?

2. Have you mapped out an escape route to your safe zone?

3. Is there a vehicle of death sitting in your garage?

4. Have you filled your go bag with all the needed instruments, including waterproof matches, postapocalyptic goggles, and at least one sexual party favor?

5. Have you learned how to milk various types of animals, including a giraffe?

As you can see, you need this book more than you even know. Without it, you're roadkill. Lucky for you, Forrest Griffin is the perfect apocalyptic chaperon. When he was in the womb, his mother had visions that the world would soon crumble, and Forrest would be the messiah of all mankind. He learned of these "visions" at the age of ten, and although they led him to believe that his mom had just been watching Mad Max and eating bad Mexican food, nevertheless he began his postapocalyptic training—a part of which involved his becoming a proud member of the Webelos, which is just one step below Boy Scout. And you know what the Boy Scout motto is. (Well, I hope you do, because Forrest doesn't have a clue). Another part involved hoarding ketchup packets, which he sucked down in the darkness of his room while listening to Nine Inch Nails. Hey, don't judge . . . hoarders are survivors. Just look at squirrels, they have been around longer than sharks.

If you want to survive the end of the world, and then avoid ending up in a government holding pen suffering from a bunch of diseases and listening to crying babies, you've got some skills to master. But don't worry—Forrest has you covered. From spotting the signs of the global downfall, to alienating your loved onesnow so they don't come looking for you after, to hot-wiring a car to starting a religion in your own image, he provides you with all the hot knowledge you need to survive the downfall of civilization. Simply put, this is the most important book about the apocalypse that you will ever read by a UFC fighter from Georgia.

http://www.forrestgriffin.net/news/?jid=60

Something is wrong here

Sydney Latin American Film Festival

Hi chaps. I thought that some of you, especially those who have recently returned from the area in question, may be interested in seeing some films as part of the Sydney Latin American Film Festival.

I've browsed through the program and I'm interested in these flicks -- let me know if you'd like to join me.

CHASING CHE
Fri 3 Sept 5.15pm Dendy Opera Quays
Documentary abouy a four-year odyssey through Latin America and Europe following the legacy of Che Guevara.

COOKING UP DREAMS
Sun 5 Sept 1.45pm Dendy Opera Quays
A 'foodie' film about Peruvian cuisine.

THE GENERAL
Sun 5 Sept 8pm Dendy Opera Quays
Doco by the daughter of a revolutionary general who became Mexico's president, but was exiled as a dictator. She examines her father's legacy on Mexico as well as his story.

CROSSING
Tue 7 Sept 8.15pm Dendy Opera Quays
Madcap border crossing road movie about two Mexican no-hopers trying to cross the border to the US.

cx

Austro-Chicagoan Dance Party