Jef loves kangaroos

Done

2009-06-22T17:25:00.001-07:00

The trip is over. That means that I am done with this blog, over, out. Of course Maxime likes to ramble on about things, so I'll refer you to his blog one last time. Don't believe everything he says about me! Well, that was it...beep.

Headin' home

2009-06-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Abu Dhabi airport: 8.30 am (SYD) - 2.30 am (UAE) - 0.30 am (BE)

2009-05-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Bought a Rubik's Cube for on the road. Heading to Melbourne and Tasmania tomorrow and don't want to waste my brain power on ridiculous conversations with Maxime anymore. I'm having a strong feeling I am going to use this website a lot.

Asia? That's a neighbour of Italy!

2009-04-30T02:16:00.000-07:00

Asian guys check themselves out way too much in 'public mirrors' (especially in the elevator)...just like all those Italian Mr. Vain's I saw shopping at H&M with all their 'homies' in Italy a couple of years ago. Cultural differences anyone?

Welcome to Anglo-Saxia

2009-04-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

For a while I had forgotten I am living in a country with Anglo-Saxon heritage. Until I saw 9 News one hour ago:

First and most important news item of the day - Aussie Rugby star on trial for beating up his girlfriend.

Second and less important news item - Hundreds of people dying from swine flu somewhere else in the world...

From the great nation of Belgium...

2009-04-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Some history class. What most Australians don't know is that their favorite sport was invented by my fellow country men. Yes, I'm talking about cricket. I feel all Aussies should honour me and the other Belgians for that matter with free beer whenever we enter a pub.

So what is the story? Many historians agree that it all started with Flemish wool traders (apparently we were famous for our wool) traveling with their sheep to England where they decided to play some game in which you had to "glance off" a ball with a stick. Yes, we are easily entertained. The word for 'glancing off' is 'ketsen' in Dutch and 'een krik' is another word for a stick. "Met de krik ketsen" or "glancing off with a stick" became "cricket" in English. Thank you Belgium!

Nothing

2009-04-18T02:20:00.001-07:00

No internet at the apartment. The landlord promised it will be fixed soon...I hate internet caffees. End of message.

Chocolate and religion

2009-04-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Easter in Sydney. Maxime just got back from work and he didn't bring chocolate Easter eggs. What a disappointment! No big celebrations, no family parties with good food, no church...

The irony of it all is that I just finished a book about atheism the day before one of the biggest religious holidays of the year. 'God Is Not Great' by Christopher Hitchens ('God is niet groot' in Dutch). I suggest you get a copy as soon as possible, whether you are a religious person or not. It's brain food, and after all we can all use more of that.

I am not going to explain the whole book, you can use Wikipedia for that, but the fact that my Muslim flat mate told me that the book was "bad" without having read one word in it proves many things.

Just one little example from the book:

The author went to Montmartre in Paris to visit the basilica of the Sacre Coeur when he came across a sign showing how during a WWII bombardment on Paris all the bombs missed the basilica. A sign of God! Not one bomb hit His house, instead they all fell on the surrounding neighbourhood...

Good book!

Thank you lord

2009-04-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Although I am an atheist, I want to thank God for internet radio.

Right now we are 20 kilometers away from the finish of 'Flanders' most beautiful'. We, that is the pro cyclists, Flanders' most beautiful that is the Tour of Flanders. Next up is ' the wall', a hill so steep that you probably won't make it up there on a bike. I'm thousands of miles away, the night has fallen hours ago, but it feels like I'm right there in the crowd...thanks to internet radio and my bicycle crazy country.

I hear the motorbikes of the journalists and the photographers in the background, left, right, on the 'Vesten' in the center of Geraardsbergen, now on the "wall". No images, but radio can be even more lyric and heroic. "He bites his teeth"...Stijn Devolder...is he going to be the next king of Belgium? It starts to itch, need to stop writing and get my full attention to the race. It's the one day that I get homesick when I am abroad. The day of "De Ronde" (The Tour). Magic!

The 5th best place to be....check!

2009-04-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

Not going to post this post twice. But hey! Sydney is in there!

He is not only beautiful on the inside

2009-03-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today, I am still recovering from one of my best laughs in years. When we went out for a drink with the flatmates yesterday at Charlie Chans, a little piece of mind boggling information came to our attention. Life will never be the same again.

Two Asian girls told us that Maxime perfectly resembled Edison Chen, a Honk Kong superstar (movie actor, rapper, singer and pop icon according to Wikipedia) who gets all the girls. Now we all know that Maxime will never be Belgium's next top model and we have proof that his singing is best to be kept inside noise canceling walls, but the Asian girls were very sure that Maxime could fill the emptiness that Edison Chen left behind...after a wide spread sex scandal. Their friends thought Maxime was "the most handsome guy they had ever seen". Wow! They ranked him next to Brad Pitt, go figure.

Maxime wrote down the name of the Edison guy in his Moleskine notebook (yes, he is turning in to me) and we both rushed to the Google search bar as soon as we got home. My stomach still hurts from laughing. The resemblance with Edison Chen is utterly shocking at the least. Instantly we decided Maxime should pursue a carreer in China and Taiwan as a DJ or with his own cooking program. The options are endless! Of course you can book him through me, just send me a mail...prices are still very competitive.

Up and down the 28th floor

2009-03-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

A twenty year old short Asian girl pouting her lips in the elevator. Her camera phone in a weird angle to the mirror that covers one side of the panels... the perfect Myspace photo. That is life in my building on Castlereagh. A mix of Irish, French and Asians. I get to see them all on my way up and down the 28th floor. We fit in well I think.

Our food doesn't nearly smell as distinctive as the asian food and we don't leave half a pack of cookies on the elevator floor, but we like to party like the Irish, drink wine like the French and eat sushi as much as we can. The latter, we found out, especially when it comes cheap. A couple of days ago we discovered a sushi stand on George Street that sells out between 7 and 8pm. It makes sense, the fish can't be used the next day anymore. So it seems Maxime and I are adapting our expensive taste in sushi to an inexpensive taste in sushi. 1.50 Dollars for a roll instead of 7, at this rate we can survive here the next five years on sushi and bread.

But we don't have to worry. Our financial situation doesn't look as scary anymore as it looked two weeks ago. After finding Maxime, luck found me...normally it's the other way around. Two freelance jobs landed in my mailbox within four days after my last post. One to pay the bills, another to get some experience on a very nice international brand with a top awarded Sydney based agency. I didn't come here for the money, and it shows, but at least things are falling in place with some room to breath.

With our act in order, Maxime and I decided it was time to arrange the next part of our adventure. Maxime bumped into an incredibly cheap ticket for our flight back to Belgium, there was no way we could let that price pass us by, so we booked. The 23th of june we'll be touching Belgian soil again in Brussels. This time I promise to take the weather with me. The good thing about having a return date set, is that you have to plan everything before that date. It reminds me of that quote that states: "goals are dreams with a deadline". Maxime is pretty much fed up by my quotations by now, and I have to admit, they don't always make sense.

So yes, a deadline. That means that in one breath we also booked our tickets to New Zealand. We'll be hopping on a plane at the end of May and we'll be back in Sydney on a friday, three days before our departure to Belgium. We'll have the weekend for a last Sydney party spree with our buddies. Now the only thing left to do is figure out a time to go to Brisbane and a long weekend/full week to hit Melbourne and Tasmania. I am not leaving this side of the globe without a mountain bike ride on Tasmanian soil. I don't care how bad Maxime's physique is, we will get on that bike. I already found a bike tour that goes all the way downhill...depending on Maxime's confidence we might end up just doing that. My years of competitive cycling have been long gone, so maybe putting it on Maxime's shoulders is just and excuse for myself.

"Anyhow" we're good! And the pictures will follow.

"You drink coffee?"..."Orange juice please" (The agency list)

2009-03-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

week 1: Principals @ The Rocks
week 2: The Seed @ Rushcutters Bay
week 3: Droga5 @ Surry Hills
week 4: Lowe @ The Rocks
week 5: M&C Saatchi @ CBD

All in walking distance...would be perfect!

Gay for a day

2009-03-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

Maxime and I went to take a look at the Mardi Gras parade in the streets of Sydney last saturday. We were not the only ones. 300,000 people were gay for a day (some for longer) and I have to say it was the least boring parade I've ever seen in my life. We tried to shoot some pictures, but apparently we weren't the most creative geniuses on the scene. Photographer Keith Loutit uploaded a little video the next day showing the parade as if it was a miniature stop-motion spectacle. Something with a special camera lens.

I remember once putting my very own little parade together with matchbox cars and Lego dudes. It must have looked something like this. I just don't think the theme was 'gay' back in the day. So, if you didn't get it yet...the people on the video are not miniature figures, they are real. Have a good gay!

Money Making Maxchine

2009-03-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

Maxime found a job today! Congrats! He will be working in one of those outdoor and camping stores, just what he likes. So yes, now I am the only jobless person...together with 10 000 French and Irish kids. There is no money coming in and I have to admit that I've never had that issue in my life before. But I'll be ok. One way or another I always find my way and I always have my fair share of luck. I am just waiting for that one account planning job to come around. If nothing else I'll have to find something in another sector...just like those 10 000 French and Irish kids. Ah oui monsieur,...

Riding the slow train

2009-03-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since my last post. That's ridiculous. Call me a slacker, please. The main reason is that the internet is going so slow these days. So the rare moments that I feel like riding the slow train, I spend my time replying emails and Facebook messages. And uploading pictures...at this speed I can rebuild the Roman Empire faster than uploading one photo album.

But enough excuses. It is monday morning (let's say noon), and I'm sitting 'at home'. One more job interview at M&C Saatchi this week. Same story: "Hey Jef, we would really like to meet you for a coffee, but we have to be honest...at the moment business is going slow." I knew that before I came here and even Maxime makes fun of me for giving up a wonderful job at a great agency in the middle of the biggest financial crisis in decades. "Life rewards the courage ones" I try to believe. And yes, I've been rewarded with sunshine and a lot of time to read interesting books about interesting people. Extra time and motivation to think about a little project that's been laying in my drawer for a while now (more about that later).

In the meantime I am not complaining. I've always believed that this world doesn't belong to the strongest anymore, but to the ones who can adapt and improvise the best. So plans are made already to do some of our traveling now, when the job hunt is going slow. New Zealand and Melbourne are on the charts, but nothing is arranged yet. Would be nice to see the land of my buddy Arthur. He is in England at the moment, so: "come back dude, so we can have a drink!".

All about our travels (or successful job hunts) in a next post.
Time to take a shower!

Everywhere you go

2009-02-23T00:29:00.001-08:00

Everywhere you go...you find free things. I love free things. Just like yesterday night at The Domain, a big stretch of grass in the centre of Sydney. The Aussies took out their picnic baskets on the lawn and enjoyed the biggest short movie festival of the year, Tropfest. Maxime and I took the stroll down and sat with them. Someone offered us a newspaper and a plastic bag to sit on, and that was the beginning of a nice night filled with 16 short movies, awards and a musical act. Little did we know we were about to witness one of the biggest down under acts of the past decades. Tim Finn from Crowded house. Sing with me: "Everywhere you goooooo...Always take the weather with youuuuu! Good night, great craig and lovely people.

We made it!

2009-02-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

The two week mark. Nobody expected we would make it. One or the other would be home in two weeks crying with his mommy. The odds were stacked up against Maxime for breaking first, but I did my best to be nice to him and to make him feel comfortable so far away from home. Keep the good work up Maxime, you can do it!

Sundates

2009-02-20T02:56:00.000-08:00

When there are no regular updates, that means the sun is out...doesn't need further explenation I think. Jihaaaa!

(picture: Bondi Beach)

ASIA/pacific

2009-02-15T03:04:00.000-08:00

Maxime, the cook, is preparing steak. Cheap but good quality steak, from Paddy's Market around the corner. Yesterday we bought two lamb chops for 75 eurocent/piece. China town is cheap, and we are taking advantage of it as much as we can by visiting Paddy's Market at least once a day. Yes, we are like an old couple.

We're pathetic!

2009-02-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

Maxime and I have been here for over a week. We both own fancy digital reflex cameras (yes, Maxime has a better lens), and the total amount of pictures we have taken doesn't exceed 50. Every day we go out, we ask each other: "are you taking your camera".."are you?"..."neeeihh, the weather is too bad"..."ok, I'm not taking mine either". Why did we bring these expensive cameras when we could do with just a cheap disposable camera. Oh well, here are my first aussie pictures.

Room with a view

2009-02-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

Maxime has uploaded a set of pictures from our apartment in the center of Sydney. We are on the 28th floor...I didn't lie.

Just like Belgium...

2009-02-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

If you have a very broad taste in music, you know that this is the title of an Elton John song. If not, don't bother to buy his greatest hits cd because it's probably not on there. Actually Jacques Brel did a much better job in singing about our wonderful flat country...'mon plat pays'.

But 'flat' isn't the issue at the moment. We took a stroll through Surry Hills yesterday and there was some steep climbing to be done to get to a fancy part of the city. Had some cranberry juice on the terrace of an up-scale bar and moved on with exploring the neighborhood...under a grey sky. Yes, just like Belgium. Rainy weather and no sun coming through the clouds the whole day. After 3 days of my grandma's oven temperatures we cooled down again. At least that's what we thought as we hit the streets with a sweatshirt on. When the road went up after 200 meters, the sweatshirt came off. So not like Belgium after all? Just a couple of days of grey skies, but friday promises to be better. Actually, now I'm writing this, it seems like the sky is getting blue again. Summatime!

Everyone has luck, some people just have more of it

2009-02-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday night looking over the city from our balcony on the 28th floor of our new apartment in the heart of Sydney, Maxime started working on his quote skills. "Everyone has luck, some people just have more of it" is as far as he got. Good try though.

It only took us two nights in a youth hostel around the corner to find a place where we can spend the next months or so. We got a little paper strip from an ad hanging against a traffic light, contacted the guy, went on prospection in all three of his wonderful apartments in the central business district and made our choice (the one with the indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, ping pong and gym). Here I am now, while Maxime is doing some volunteering work in the kitchen, sitting in a comfy chair writing a blog post. Pictures will be up later because the internet is not yet fully operational...something with a lost password.

Thing are going great, the housing question was already solved in such a short time, now let's cross fingers for a good job. So the real fun can start 'aye'!

3 aussie dollar for an hour

2009-02-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

The rate for being online at the Travelers Contact Point on George Street in Sydney. Maxime and I arrived yesterday morning, checked in to a hostel for two nights and are now on the hunt for an apartment. Bondi Beach is on the charts and we might stay there for a couple of weeks. Oh and important news! You can take aussie dollar bills for surfing...they'r like plastic! More to come.

Signs of readiness

2009-02-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Got a haircut one day before departure. Women have been using the act of getting a new haircut as a 'good new start' for years. Now it's my turn...short and ready for the Australian summer!

swimmingwithsharks.blogspot.com

2009-01-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, that would have been the initial name of this blog. It was already taken, go figure! Not that I am one of those people who would go for a refreshing dive with sharks without a bullet proof cage around him, I love my life a little bit too much. No, the inspiration for a new blog name came from my mother this time.

As you already know or as you are about to find out, I am leaving for Australia on the 4th of February with some village idiot called Maxime. The plan is to travel around and to get some aussie work experience. Maxime as a bartender and me hopefully as a strategic planner in advertising. Think Tom Cruise in 'Cocktail' and ... euhm, let's just say Brad Pitt. Our little adventures will of course appear here and on Maxime's blog once in a while to keep the home front happy.

Leading up to our departure I've only heard two things from my mom:

. Make sure to use enough sunscreen while you are there!
. Promise me you won't go swimming in the ocean, too many sharks!

After hearing that last quote a little too much lately I came to the conclusion that there are too many nature documentaries on tv filled with shark loving lunatics. Probably one of them already took the blog swimmingwithsharks before me. The simple fact is that I am not one of those adventurous dudes, but I still like my little swim once in a while. So sorry for the extra sleepless nights dear mother, but I promise I won't go too far into the water...maybe till my knees. If I ever would feel like swimming with sharks I'll just give my fellow countryman TinTin a call, sure he'll hitch me a ride in his ultrasonic shark submarine!

Aight Mate!?