In less than one hour counting starts to find who is going to be our Prime Minister for the next 3 years.   I kinda hope that our first female Prime Minister will be re-elected.  Not sure about their policies…   but I like Julia a lot more than the sleazy looking Tony Abbott.

Here we go!   After much discussion and planning we finally decided on Europe for our October vacation this year.   I will be travelling with my mate Chris to London, Paris and Berlin before heading home via Frankfurt.   We were originally meant to visit South America but amazingly it ended up being cheaper to travel much further to Europe.   I’m really looking forward to seeing all these 3 cities again.  I have not been to for almost 10 years.   So far we have booked all the the accommodation except Paris.   Paris is proving to be a little more complicated than I had thought.   But I’m sure I will find something soon.   In the meantime…  bring on October!

Back in May this year I met famous German photographer Henning Von Berg.   I had exchanged messages with him some years ago.   He shares his time between various cities.  And this year it turned out that we were both in San Francisco at the same time.   Henning had seen my photography and thinks that I might have a chance at having my own coffee table photo book.   That would be so cool!   It would be like one of those male physique books that you see in the book stores.    Well the submission went off to the publisher today so let’s see how it goes.

I know I go on about it, but work has been pretty crazy lately.   I spent another week split between Sydney and Melbourne this.  Meetings, workshops, night calls…  it’s all been happening.   I’m starting to get a bit tired of doing work travels.   It’s no where near as much fun as vacation travels.

This is the inside of our new office at Docklands in Melbourne.   It’s very big and bright.   I like ending up here at the end of the week.  It seems to be the only place I can go where I don’t have to go to meetings.

One of the benefits I do have with my job is that I can work from home.   This meant that I could go visit my family in QLD last week without actually having to use up my vacation time.   My dad got out of hospital last week after having a hip replacement operation.  So I went up there to help them out for a few days while he was getting used to walking again.   It turned out that he was actually getting around fine.  Just the boredom of not being able to do much is killing him.   It was my mum who needed emergency medical attention over the weekend, so I was glad I was there to sit with her over night in hospital.    They are both okay now and looking after themselves.

I’ve been working some pretty silly hours at the office and at night at home lately.  My boss wants us to work covering more jobs than just our normal job.   A couple of months ago I was asked to do some work at a recuiting company that my company owns for 2 or 3 days a week…  whilst still doing my own job.  It’s been a bit stressful because the quality of work at my normal job has dropped significantly.   The company wants me to start selling my time to other parts of the business.   They say that we are not cost cutting…  but it feels like it is.   I’m hoping the situation of having to work long hours will stop soon.   It’s driving me a little bit crazy.

I treated myself to a stay in the beautiful Olsen Hotel on Chapel Street in South Yarra this weekend.   It is a part of the Art Series of hotels.   The artist in this case being John Olsen.   His works are on the walls everywhere throughout the hotel, even on the glass box that encases the bathrooms in the rooms.    This really is a cool hotel.  I have just finished writing a review for it on TripAdvisor (hence all these photos).   My room actually had a 5 person hot jacuzzi on the private terrace outside my room.  Pity it was so cold and rainy during my stay.  I didn’t get a chance to hop into it.   I also liked the fact that the hotel rents Smart Cars ($10 an hour or $55 a day) and borrows bikes to it’s guests.   The hotel also has a very nice gym, glass bottomed lap pool and a sun deck which would make you think you were in Miami…  in summer.

The lap pool with a partial glass bottom overlooking the recption area.

My private jacuzzi.   Covered over to keep it nice and hot.

My room.  A standard sized suite.

I love the LED lighting in the shower.

The hotel gym.  Mostly cardio equipment.   Very functional.

The sun deck.  This place is gonna be rocking on summer weekends.

Push bikes for guests to borrow.

The larger deluxe suite.  This is the room Chris stayed in.

The floor plan of level one.  The square boxes are the jacuzzis.

So my scooter finally got it’s first ride to work.   I waited till casual day (Friday) so I could ride my scooter to work in jeans.   I wouldn’t like to ride my scooter in my flimsy suit pants in case I come off.   Funnily enough that it took almost longer than the tram ride to get to the office.   I’m going to try riding it each Friday to the office…   save on tram fares etc.   And it’s nice to be getting out on the bike a bit more regularly.

I love that the RACV has gotten together with the Melbourne City Council to introduce our very own bike share arrangement around the city.   This is fantastic!   Soon there will be 50 stations around the city where you will be able to pick up and drop off bikes.  You can take a bike for up to 30 minutes before you are charged extra.  You play either $2.50 a day, $8 a week or $50 a year for the privelege.   I first spotted the idea in Barcelona last year.   In Barcelona there must be thousands of the bikes because everyone is riding them!    There will only be 600 initially in Melbourne.    It has been reported that the take up here has not been that great,  but this could be blamed on the fact that it is winter, we have had a lot of rain, and you must had a bike helmet with you to be able to ride the bikes….   or face a fine.   Well done Melbourne!   Another reason why I love this city!

It was a very quick and rushed trip to New York.  It seems that I never have enough time there to do everything that I would like to do.   I had a great time hanging out with my mate Jim there and running around Manhattan.   I included New York in this trip for what some would say was a bit of a silly reason.  I wanted one last ride on the Qantas 747 before they stop it’s service between LAX and JFK airports in July.   It will be replaced with a smaller A330 plane (a continuation service from New Zealand).   These 747s are getting quite old now and I would imagine that Qantas will start getting rid of them soon.   This was the last 747 service from LA to New York.   Sadly the crew operating this service were not a happy bunch.

Now that I am at home and back at work I am trying to work out how I can getting another long break to travel the world.   I have very few holidays left at work, so I may have to be a little creative.