Category Archives: Travel

Sonny & Mina


Beautiful Mina walking down the isle.


The deed is done!


Best food I’ve ever had at a wedding, hands down. Cooked to perfection, insanely mind blowing!


The photobooth was an AWESOME idea!


Christina and I stayed in the Gibraltar Hotel Bowral – so nice, so clean, very modern, perfect!

Had the privilege of being invited to Sonny and Mina’s wedding in Bowral this weekend. Christina and I drove up on the Saturday morning and decided to stay the night knowing how much of a party animal Son can be!

The wedding was lovely, casual… loose even! The MC was a nutter, the speeches were so heart felt I almost cried and the party had nearly everyone intoxicated!

Matthew Mead was the photographer too, looking forward to his pics!

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More photos from VR05 WOMAN in Melbourne

Many more on INfront’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AustralianINfront

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INfront VR05 @ Melbourne – Day 2


Andrew, Christina and I rolled out of bed late and hit Atomica on Brunswick.


I had the El Gringo Eggs, what you can’t see buried under all that badass goodness was a huge smoked potato rosti, so so so good.


Spotted on Brunswick. About as cool as a postie bike can get.


We headed to my hotel for lunch with Jeremy as well as Toby and Pete.


Jeremy smashed (skulled!) 2 coffee’s in a row.


Jeremy’s electronic cigarette.


Lightning bolt straw. Many more beers than intended were consumed. Was just so nice up on the roof top, time flew by.


Psycho bike spotted on the way back to the apartments.


I’ve got a thing for macarons now, can’t resist them.


Later that night we checked out Naked For Satan.


The interior and graphic design is whack. Love it.


Loved their food concept too. An honesty based system where you just keep your toothpicks and pay $2/toothpick at the end of the night.

Despite the absolutely freezing cold, we had a great time in Melbourne. I’m crazy tired, and I feel very dehydrated from all the beer (and lack of water!), also bloated from all the fantastic food. No stopping though. Steve’s B’day dinner at Rengaya in 20 minutes, time to jet!

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INfront VR05 @ Melbourne – Day 1


INfront put us up at the Tyrian serviced apartments on Johnston St. in Fitzroy, right in the middle of all the action, only a short walk away from The Compound Interest too.


The apartments were very nice, very new.


We headed down to The Compound Interest to start setting up the exhibit. I stopped in my tracks when I saw this outside.


1973 Honda CB350 Twin. What a beauty.


Modern Motor Cycle Company operates from The Compound Interest.


More bikes inside.


Myself and Damien. After I was done gawking at the bikes, we got started setting up.


The “woman” posters we had pinned up around Melbourne thanks to many helping hands.


Sonny from We Buy Your Kids, Zann and Damien setting up the prints.


Sonny, Biddy and Andrew did an awesome job with laying out the top 20 on show.


Jeremy’s pup!


The sponsors who helped to make our show happen.


Tiger Beer were our beers sponsors!


We were so busy setting up we skipped lunch, at 2.30PM Lorena saved us all with some awesome toasted sandwiches from CIBI next door.


Next thing we knew it was 6PM and on the dot people started rocking up to check out the show.


We were lucky to have Simon Winkler from RRR busting out great tunes for the night.


Our bar guy Menake had a mad rush from 6-7PM.


We were all happy with the great turnout, it was a huge space to fill!


Unfortunately at 7PM all the beer had run out!


At 8PM we called it a night and hot a local pub.


Damien, Alicia and Lorena.


Pie + peas + mash. Absolutely smashed it.


Andrew from Kindred was our room mate, great guy to hang out with for sure.


Yes it’s been said before, Melbourne Graff kicks Sydney graff, hard.

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Melbourne Trip – Day 2


In the morning we made a beeline straight for Degraves for brekkie. Middle Eastern Eggs with spicy meatballs and Spanish Eggs – delish!

Christina continued her shopping spree on Brunswick St. (during my meeting she did well on Chapel the day before), and for lunch we dropped into St Jude’s Cellars which looked really welcoming from the outside. We went all out and went for their $35 lunch special (2 choices + wine).


Love how the logo becomes the filler mark on their wine glasses.


Rabbit chips.


Pappardelle Lamb ragout was beautiful, so homely, such awesome comfort food.


Christina’s rigatoni, much like above was just so hearty and homely.


So much eating means more walking so we checked out the Rose St. Markets which are tucked away behind Brunswick St.


Later that night we had a quick drink in a lane we stumbled into off Little Collins St. This live Jazz trio were killing it. I love Melbourne, lots. Soon after this we got picked up by Kyne who put his hand up to take us to the [VIC] JDMST End Of Month Meet (EOMM).

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Melbourne Trip – Day 1


Christina chose to put us up at The Novotel on Collins Street and I think it’s the best place we’ve stayed at so far as it’s right in the thick of the city’s best spots. This was the view out our window, into the mall!

The meeting I had with the Cycling Express guys (see previous post below) almost killed me. A combination of not getting enough sleep the night before, catching a plane first thing in the morning then taking a crazy long cab drive out to the warehouse (which was out of town) for a 3hr meeting.

Despite being tired we both managed to check out the Tutankhamun exhibition which is now on at the Melbourne Museum.

The exhibit was pretty rad as far as these things go, some of the items on display from Tutankhamun’s tomb are over 3000 years old. The only thing that bothered me was that these belongings were dug out and put on display (these goods were buried with him so he could take them with him to the afterlife after all), that and the insane amount of bad consumer goods in the shop on exit, but if you do manage to catch it be sure to get the audio tour, well worth it.


CHINCHIN on Flinders Lane.


Drinks menu – nice graphic design language throughout the space.


The Mandarin Duck was awesome.


Roti.


They gave us the bug for free.


Liz, her guy Jan was too shy for pics, saying he even hates mirrors haha!

Later that night we caught up with Christina’s friends Liz and Jan who both now live in Melbourne. The initial plan was to go to MoVida, a much respected Spanish restaurant in Hosier lane (my fave Melbourne graffiti covered lane), but they were packed out. We ended up at CHINCHIN. We had no idea whether or not the food was going to be good (Asian with a focus on Thai) but the place was buzzing so we gave it a go.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, and once we were sat down we were moved onto a better table, but then we were getting orders which were not ours (I assume from a table of people who were moved elsewhere). Some of the dishes we ordered had sold out too, which was a little disappointing, but the entree’s came out fast and they were excellent. It was a bit of a wait for the mains and with all the stuff ups they decided to give us a free dish which was awesome (we weren’t even thinking about complaining as the food was so damn good!).

It turns out that they’ve only been open for 2 days (which explains all the cuffaful). I highly recommend the place though, what a killer find!

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Melbourne Trip – Day 1 – Cycling Express


Got warehouse?


Goods on display in the showroom.


Verite concept bike (1 of 3).


Weird and wonderful.


I always pay respect to Reynolds tubing.


Intense power meetings call for serious fuel.

Around about 5 months ago I had a meeting with a couple of guys who were planning to launch a new Australian online bicycle shop to rival 2 of the largest International online bicycle shops in the world: Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles.

These 2 shops buy in bulk to pass the discounts on to online shoppers world wide. Their warehouses are massive. I’ve heard first hand from local Australian bike shop owners that they’re selling goods for what Aussie shops buy at. IE: There’s no way for local bike shops to compete.

Initially I was a little pessimistic about the idea of an Australian online shop being able to come anywhere near Wiggle and CRC prices but after last weekend all doubts I ever had about how serious these guys are have totally been put to rest.

The guys flew me to Melbourne last Friday for a meeting. I was given a tour around the warehouse which is already starting to hold some stock. I got to meet more of their team and over 3 hours or so we shared a lot of ideas. They’d like me to look after the social media side of the business and it’s looking like everyone’s on the same page. I’ve got to submit a proposal (I’ll be working from Sydney) and also a technical outline of functions I’d like to have in order to run it right.

I’m excited. It’s not going to be easy work (getting new businesses off the ground is rarely easy) but I’ve decided that so long as we meet eye to eye on a retainer I’m happy with I’m determined to give it 100%, and with that I’m confident that I’ll help them succeed.

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VWGolf.net.au Tasmania Roadtrip 2011


Video by Cameron Curle.

Cam’s just uploaded a great video of the recent VWGolf.net.au Tasmania Roadtrip. If you’ve got fat pipes, be sure to watch it in HD!

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Targa Tasmania 2011 – Longford Township Stage


Cam just uploaded a video of the Longford stage which captures the sounds of Targa quite nicely. We got there early and chose this corner of all corners, we were right at the front of the barrier too.

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Tassie Trip – Day 8


The rain came down hard, and it was freezing cold on our last day in Tasmania.


We headed to the Cadbury factory and spotted this in the carpark. Hilarious! I always think of a sirloin steak when I see a Sirion!


I had visions of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate factory, but as Nath suggested earlier, the Cadbury Factory is basically a shop and a DVD. Still fun though and we bought a LOT of chocolate to bring home as pressies.


Our beds on the Spirit of Tasmania. We didn’t take Travel Calm tablets this time and we both felt and slept a lot better.


Cam on the other hand took 2 and damn he was wasted!


Spotted on the highway home, the very Zoomer that a guy on email I’ve been conversing with is shipping over by truck, how strange is that?!

I have to admit I was a little worried about a 10 day holiday initially, but damn it was an epic trip. So much fun! I’m feeling a little tired today but I’ve got so many goodies in the mail to play with. I weighed myself last night thinking I’ve gained at least 2-3kg’s but in truth I’ve only gained half a kilo. I was missing little Mia a lot, she’s sitting with me now, semi on my keyboard as usual, she’s acting extra sookey though which is nice. :) I’m just about to launch my email application for the first time in 10 days, it’s going to take me all day to catch up I’m sure!

PS: You can view all these pictures in high res if you like.

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