We all know and love round the clock on the pool table. It’s simple, fun, and challenging at times. But, today, whilst in the pub, we decided to add a drinking twist to it. And I thought I’d share our idea with you. Feel free to comment and let me know of any changes you’d make.

So here goes… The usual rules for round the clock is pot the balls in order, striking the balls in order. Our drinking variation is this:

• Miss the ball your meant to hit, 1 finger of beer
• Foul – e.g. sink the wrong ball or the white – drink two fingers
• Pot the ball you’re going for, everyone else drinks a finger
• Do something stupid – this is discretionary one, but you’ll work out how to use it – drink one or two fingers

And that’s it. Simple eh? And it does the trick. One word of warning though, you’ll be refilling your glasses frequently! It was a tough afternoon in the bar.

For the record, we were trying out our new local, the Bat And Ball in Redfern.

Yesterday – Saturday 27th October – must have been one of the most perfect spring days in Sydney since I’ve been here. It was around 30degrees, clear sky and a very light wind to keep it pretty much perfect.

It was Dave’s stag do, so we figured a day at the races followed by dinner at Churrasco’s in Coogee was of the order.

Everyone was dressed up to the nine’s, and it was really nice to see everyone looking so smart. Was really classy till later in the day when everyone was drunk and mildly sunburnt. A few of us were still feeling the previous night’s effects on our body, but thankfully, that age old tradition of hair of the dog seemed to do the trick.

As for the racing, well… Lets just say that there’s a few bookmakers that are better off than me now. The horses just didn’t seem to be in my favour. I had several place wins, but as everyone knows, they very rarely pay the bills.

But it was great fun, if a little costly. Such a great atmosphere, and if you’re here for the Randwick Spring Carnival, it’s highly recommended as a fun day – apart from trying to get a cab afterwards.

So from there, we headed down to Coogee – via Steve’s for a top up – to eat at Churrasco in Coogee. It’s a Brazilian style BBQ where you pay a set amount – $35 – and they keep topping up your plate.

They wander round with a selection of Pork, Steak (beef), chicken, lamb and pineapple (surprisingly good when barbecued!). Naturally, the rice and potatoes are ignored as the meat is so tender and well cooked that it seems to just melt in your mouth. I made it through 14 or 15 servings. Steve somehow managed 20. Good effort!

The atmosphere was great, with everyone sitting around wooden benches, and chatting. In true Brazilian style, everyone was very friendly, including the staff (most of them). Good food, great wine, great atmosphere. I’d definitely say give it a try. It’s a 7 out of 10.

I was tagged by Cheb 2.0 to write 8 little things about me. The meme is basically defined with the following rules: Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So, this is the 2nd year I’ve been in Australia for Anzac day, and this year, I decided to do it properly. For those that don’t know about ANZAC day, I suggest you read the article on Wikipedia. In summary, it was the first major military action in the first world war by the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and this day celebrates the pride of these countries in this corp. It’s celebrated all over the country, and the services start as early as 4am.

One of the games that was invented by them was 2-up and the only day you can legally play it in Australia is on Anzac day. The principal behind it is to flip 3 coins off a wooden paddle, and whichever 2 sides match is the winner, hence “two-up“. There are some rules though: You have to get a good flip on the coins – if they don’t spin enough when you through them up, it’s a no-throw. Likewise, they have to get a good height – but not too high or hit the ceiling. And on hitting the ground, they have to all stay with the defined boundaries.

Now that sounds pretty dull in essence, but it’s a actually a blast! The reason being that you bet other people in the audience, and everyone – I mean everyone – gets involved. You can shout out a bet of say $10 on heads, and someone will say I’ll call you tails. The person who calls heads looks after the bet until the result is known. Then if they win, they keep it, and if they lose – tails – they give the money to the other person. You’d think people would try to cheat the system, but they don’t. The spirit is absolutely amazing! Everybody has great fun and chats and laughs and you just can’t imagine how much fun it is. It’s just a shame that it only happens once a year.

We spent an impressive 5 hours in the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel that afternoon, but not playing that all day. All in all it was a great day, and next year I’ll make sure I’m up for the dawn service.

I have a new found love and respect for Emperor Penguins after watching March of the Penguins. Something that everyone will be touched by, and should try to watch.

For the first time this month, my website’s had more than 10,000 visitors in a month. Actually, it passed 12,000 too (If anyone cares for precision, it was 12,478). Ok, so all my friends are now groaning, but to me, that’s a pretty impressive number for a personal website that’s not selling anything.

So why do i think this happened? Partly due to re-writing the code of the site to be more search engine friendly. Partly re-writing the content to be more relevant – and to those who keep pointing it out, one day I will fill in the gaps. Posting articles and comments on forums and news sites around the web. And I’ve been updating the site a lot more regularly. Writing blogs, uploading images, just trying to keep the site fresh and interesting to those that follow, and perhaps a few out there just randomly wandering the web.

So, what’s next for www.gregorybrine.com? Well, when I get time, I’m starting to re-write it in Microsoft’s Asp .NET. As part of that, the galleries are getting an overhaul, and some friends are interested in combining sites – that could be interesting and fun. Oh, and I might move it to new, cheaper hosting… We’ll see. It’s all about having time, and a desire to finish at work, then sit in front of a computer doing more of the same… Hmmm… Let me think about that… I think I just heard the pub calling….

My second Christmas away from home, and my first in Australia. I headed down to Melbourne to visit friends, but I didn’t expect it to be quite as Christmasy as it was. It snowed just outside the city on Christmas day, and we had a log fire lit all day.

I’ve been away from home for over a year now, and it’s just hit home with a slight twinge of home sickness.

As many of you know, I’ve been is Sydney for over 7 months now, and for most of that time, I’ve been living in one place in what we’ve come to describe as a very ‘transient’ house. People usually only stay here for 2 to 3 months and move on. However, 2 of us have been here for a lot longer than that. Until now…

Unfortunately, Sarah has now gone back to her family in the USA, leaving me here, pondering my future in the Lavender House – that’s our other name for it. During her time here. we’ve become very good friends, and have made each other’s experience’s here something that we’ll remember forever.

I admit. we have had our ups and downs, but whenever we’ve needed someone to talk to, we’ve always turned to each other. It’s kind of strange not having her here now, and I half expect (hope) that she’ll walk through the door any day now. But, despite all my trying, I don’t think that will happen. You see, here experiences of Sydney have been slightly jaded by her university, that seems to have gone out of it’s way to take money from her, make it as difficult as possible for her to get anything done. Then there’s the fact that it’s an hour from the CBD – so 3 hours of traveling for her a day.

Then there’s the weather. I’m going to let out a little secret here… The weather in Sydney’s not as great as the brochure’s let on. It’s been very cold at times, with the biggest temperature swings) I’ve ever know. It can be 30 degrees one day, then 14 the next (it went to 8 once).

But, the times we’ve had here have been some of the best of my life. We’ve had many parties in the house – and it stayed intact. We started cooking together, and I think we’re now both much better in the kitchen for it – although there was my incident with chocolate powder re-decorating the kitchen, and she does still occasionally burn things. Our wanderings around town, and the close group of friends we’ve been lucky enough to make.

So, it’s with a tear in my eye that I finish this blog, and say farewell to a very close friend. I hope we’ll always stay close, and get the chance to live together again in the future. Thank you Sarah.

Links
Sarah’s leaving present

It’s always been a dream of mine to see U2 live in concert. And, when they announced they were playing an extra night at Sydney’s Telstra Stadium, I managed to get hold of some tickets. My dream was coming true.

So, accompanied by my friend Heather, we went and saw the most amazing show I’ve ever seen! Kanye West was the supporting act – I will confess, Heather had to tell me who he was… But when he started singing, I instantly recognized the songs. I did think that he was a slightly odd artist to start the performance, but he a big supporter of the make poverty history movement.

And then U2 came on… Wow! They lived up to all my expectations! And the light show was simply phenomenal. Well, if you can call it a light show. It was more like a giant TV screen, dancing to the music, showing the band members and other imagery.

But the highlight was the music. The new stuff was great, but when the all time classics such as “Where the streets have no name” and “With or without you came on”, you just felt a tingle run through your body! It was a night neither of use will forget in a hurry!

If you ever get the chance to see U2 live, do not turn it down!

Links
Make Poverty History
Official U2 Website