Author: Kristian Golding

Do not believe Australia Post’s “Guaranteed next day delivery” service. It didn’t work for me when I most needed it. I was keeping track of the progress of the posting of my Visa and passport using the express post tracking number. The US consulate posted the Visa/passport package out a day later than expected. That’s ok – I planned for this and had delayed the outgoing flight by a day. Actually, that plan would have worked quite well if Australia Post could have delivered the package in time (or to the right place). I called up Australia Post five times throughout the day and they said varying things like “It’ll probably arrive at 5 or 6pm” to “It was scanned in this morning at 7:30am” to “It’s been delivered already”. I interpret this as “We don’t actually know where it is”. Actually, a lot of the times they asked “Have you checked your mail?” Well, yes I had. I couldn’t find it because it hadn’t been delivered yet. That’s why I called you. Then I started thinking “Maybe I put the wrong address on the express post envelope” and “Maybe I put my address on the wrong side”. Well, no, I’m pretty darn sure I put the right info down. I can remember checking once, checking again, and checking a third time to be sure. Anyway, the package had made it to my state and to the closest post office sorting facility to my workplace. I don’t know of any other addresses out that side of town either.

Now everything has been re-booked for a day later. I’m tired, generally unwell, exhausted, and no doubt am looking like crap. I’ve been working overtime on my project as it is because Florida was the light at the end of the tunnel. Ok, fair enough, assuming I receive the package tomorrow then heya! I’m going overseas so I should be happy about that and I will seem like a massive whinger. But bloody hell Australia Post, if you have lost my Visa and passport…

The reason I ask this question is that the news’ weather on the plane trip over predicted it to be rainy and 14, but it’s been sunny the whole day. I absolutely love this city, and I still reckon it rocks just as much as the Coldplay concert did here a year ago.

So, the whole point of me being in Melbourne was to visit the consulate to apply for my Visa – and the darn thing has been approved! What a trial. Anyway, I should receive it tomorrow and then I can move on with the rest of the process. I can’t believe I’m leaving this Friday! My feet are absolutely killing me at the moment. I walked from the Spencer St station to the consulate which is located way, way down St Kilda road. I think that was about a 4km walk or something crazy like that. I heard some guys at work mentioning how long the walk was, and I was thinking of cheating and taking the tram, but not when it’s sunny in Melbourne!

Something I found difficult was actually trying to find somewhere to eat. This is heaps easy when you have someone else with you – but when you’re by yourself it’s a whole different challenge. If I was paying for my own meal I’d probably just go somewhere like Subway, but hey, the company is paying for this one so I think I’ll go the $17 pasta for lunch thanks!

What else did I do… ooh, I bought some Armani jeans (reduced in price mind you) which will replace the other jeans I wear almost constantly. I tried looking for an album by a group called “Way out west”. No, it’s not a James Reyne and James Blundell collaboration. It’s a group consisting of Nick Warren and … some other guy. Anyway, they’re signed to the same record label as Hybrid is (Distinctive Records), and I’ve heard some of their stuff and it’s well wicked. It’s music you could still be listening to in a couple of years’ time – and I’m trying to find more of that sort of music that is new sounding, but here for the long run. Speaking of Hybrid, their fan website (http://www.hybrid-group.com) has been down recently. Bugger.

Well, I’m currently running on 4 hours of sleep and 3 coffees. Until I started work for this Florida trip the most coffees I’d ever have was one coffee a fortnight. Now I’m having 2 or 3 a day. This ain’t good, and it has to stop! People have seen what coffee does to me, and I don’t want to permanently act like that lest I be taken to a mental institution.

These Internet cafes are cool. Actually, nearly every cafe down this street has wireless Internet access which is something I haven’t seen in even one cafe in Adelaide yet. Can anyone correct me???

Anyways, I gotta catch a flight back to good ol’ Adelaide now. I’ll be back in Melbourne again this Friday enroute to Los Angeles, so that’s probably when the next post will be… unless I think of something dazzling. Unlikely.

Ok, so the countdown to Friday begins and I decided to take a break from cleaning up and getting everything packed by updating my blog.

I couldn’t help but find what was happening across the road as being a little ironic. You know when you leave primary school or high school and then they build better buildings and generally improve the place, and you’re left thinking “hell, why didn’t they do that while I was there?” Well, I thought my current abode had a pretty good location. There’s a huge supermarket across the road, as well as a video store, chemist, doctor, dentist, chinese takeaway, Domino’s pizza, Chicken takeaway, newsagency, hairdresser and post office/hardware store. This is all a 2 minute walk away. Ooh, not forgetting there is a huge reserve out the back of my place – sort of like a backyard that is maintained by the local council. Well, not being greedy or anything, but I always wished that there was some 24-hour store or something across the road. My wish has come true! A 24-hour servo has recently been built – with hold on – a 24-hour Subway! That is great, but if only they could have built it a little sooner then I could have gotten more use from it. To all those who have to drive anywhere to have such luxuries, I express my deepest sympathies 🙂

I have recently discovered an excellent way to get up in the morning that is a lot less abrupt than the “beep! beep! beep!” on normal radio alarms. The morning shows on two of the local FM radio stations (Triple M and SAFM) are, IMHO, just downright annoying. I find that waking up to people talking is much more calming on the nerves – I don’t think that the sky is falling in due to some cruel beeping alarm – and so I don’t immediately reach for the sleep button. However, I also find that if I listen to what the radio announcers from these stations are saying for more than 10 minutes then I’ll be out of bed ready to smash the radio against a wall. I’ve worked out the middle ground now so that when I start getting slightly annoyed that’s when I get into the shower. It’s worked perfectly so far. Hats off though to Adam Spencer from JJJ claiming the 22nd of July as “International Pi day” (22/7 approximates to the value of Pi). I don’t listen to JJJ in the morning for my wakeup call. I tried that and I ended up lying in bed for nearly 2 hours.

I think I might take some more time off and get into some “light” reading – the 9-11 commission report sounds like a good start.

but if I’m anti-anything, it’s people abusing power. There are likely many examples that do not involve the US, but hey, I couldn’t let this one go by. This is a link to an unclassified document created by the US government in 1962. In it there are various suggestions on how the US Government could justify an invasion of Cuba – by setting up scenarios in where it seemed that Cuba was attacking the US. A snippet:

We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba.

Okaaaaay. Anyway, I wonder if any documents created by the US Government may be released in the future with titles like “Justification for a US invasion of Iraq”. Hmmmm…

And now for something completely different, you may have heard that DJ Sassy has claimed that her posterior is better than Kylie’s. I’ve observed, and it’s my belief that it’s not. Nice publicity stunt however – I now know who you are.

That is all.