Monthly Archives: October 2009

I’ve decided, on a whim, to re-upload my old blog. I started it back in 1998 (pre-blogger). You can check it out here, it’s pretty juicy.

Dianne has put up her pics from last weeks Tortilla night on Be The Foodie.com

Gah I just saw this pic… my old S2000, spotted last night in Homebush. I miss it all of a sudden!!! :(

I put off owning a mobile phone for years but eventually I was forced to use one, now I’ve been thrust into Twitter.

The new Australian INfront will go live soon and due to technical issues the old site was torn down today and a new INfront twitter feed has been created to keep everyone informed on the progress.

PS: MC Cyclery are now on Twitter and FaceBook too.

We’ve just featured 2 more members rides on JDMST. Wilch’s R33 GTST & FRPilot’s Mark II Tourer V JZX100. Enjoy!

With the help of people with big hearts I’ve managed to raise $335 so far for this weekends Sydney to Gong ride. I’ve had no preparation at all for the 90km ride but the vibe on the day will be awesome and that alone should see me reach the finish line.

My good buddy Sean Torstensson was recently diagnosed with MS, it has made the Gong ride all the more relevant to me now. If you’d like to sponsor me, please click here (you know, stock up on that good karma baby).

Last Friday I visited Mark at Coral Sea Aquariums in The Spot, Randwick. I hadn’t visited him in a year or so, maybe more. We had a chat for a while, always great, he’s a nice guy who has run the shop for 40 years.

In all those years he’s seen The Spot change so much, from what was such a great little community of diverse little shops to basically a “Little Thailand” (nearly every shop there is a Thai restaurant now).

The sad news is that the old couple who had been renting the shop to him for the past 40 years have recently sold the building to a developer. This developer has already kicked out the post office and the chiropractor next door and if Mark wants to keep running his aquarium shop he’ll have to pay 3 times his rent when his lease runs out early next year.

When the developer first met Mark he already mentioned that he didn’t like the idea of an Aquarium shop in his building and that he would have prefered a restaurant instead (he already has one Thai restaurant in the corner shop). Of-course Mark can’t afford to pay 3 times the rent, it’s simply a way of telling him to get out.

Mark is not sure if he’s got it in him to start a new business and despite running the shop for 40 years he’s never seen himself as a business man. He started out young, and had a telent for keeping fish and shared that through his shop. Like my Uncle John (who also runs an Aquarium shop), running the shop is his life.

A sad conversation I suppose. Mark is obviously very upset but I told him to look at the positives, that running the shop for 40 years was massive, a huge achievement. On leaving the shop we joked about him most likely not being there if I dropped in again to say hi in a years time.

Mark had a few Peppermint Shrimp which I grabbed (I need them as they eat pest anemones), he had a hard time trying to catch them as they were in a display tank (not to mention his eyesight is pretty bad too!). He ended up having to take out all the rockwork and when he took out one particular piece we heard a huge loud cracking noise. Mantis Shrimp we both said! Turns out it was this guy, what looks like a Tiger Pistol Shrimp (the largest one I’ve seen in real life). Mark, like many aquarists, didn’t want him (and would have killed him most likely) but I think they’re harmless and damn interesting creatures so I took him.

Whilst I’m on aquariums. I also bought this Blue Starfish (linckia laevigata) earlier. I also have a couple more interesting star fishes now. I’ll get pics of them some time soon.

What’s with the rain?!

Christina, Felix, Dianne, Jamie, Richie and I are off to Melbourne next month and so we got together for a meal on Friday night to sort out what we’re going to be doing when we’re there. I forgot my camera but Di took a couple of pics which she might end up plugging on her blog.

On Saturday Christina and I checked out the Danks Street Festival which was totally rained out. Danks St in Waterloo has become the new yuppie place to be for fine fresh foods + designer furniture.

Lined with food stalls selling amazing stuff which we were itching to try.

The weather held up for all of 15 minutes though and then it started pouring.

Instead of eating outside (kinda the whole point of the Festival) we ate at Fratelli Fresh instead. Such a cool concept store which is basically a warehouse in which you have to walk through the loading dock to get to the fresh food supermarket and then go up industrial staircases to get to the hidden cafe.

Advan have just updated their web site with some photos from their industry night. Some funny pics in there for sure!

LOL Nads.

Charles and I

What’s so funny?

Mark wins the door prize.

More pictures on the Advan Site

I’ve just finished this logo design for Australian Photographer and friend Mark Pakula.

I love designing logos more than anything else when it comes to design, maybe because they’re more about form, playing with letters, symbols and shapes not to mention they’re super challenging as they have to represent others.

I always start in black and white first as working with colours too early can get kinda messy, especially when the client hates a colour you’re using in the mock-ups. Working in black and white also assures that the logo can be photocopied or faxed.

Mark’s logo came about fairly easy. I had the music up loud and I was having fun with it. We went through a few refinements and in the end we have 2 logos which we’re both happy with (it’s a great place to be when you’ve met a client half way and both parties are happy with the end product).

Be sure to check out Mark’s Blog here. Next up is his site which I also get to work on so stay tuned!