Category Archives: Travel

Matt and Alissa picked me up from Zen at around lunch time and we set off for The Entrance. We got to the holiday house first, did some food shopping and started smashing beers before everyone else got in.

We freaked the shit out of Jing with party poppers on entry. He didn’t know we were all going to be there! Eddy’s got a hilarious video of his reaction recordered on a go-pro. I’ll see if he can get it up on youtube (it’s sooo good!).

Jing scored these Y3 boots, and some rad snowboarding gear (he doesn’t snowboard lol) and also a Justin Beiber watch, which was presented in a genuine Bell & Ross watch packaging (lol).

The boys got pretty rowdy and smashed beers, then shots of Sambucca and Hennessy, we then picked up our rods and did a bit of night fishing.

We saw the people next to us pick up a 40cm catfish, weed was all we managed to get though (and we lost quite a few beers which dropped into the ocean, accidentally of-course!).

What’s going on here?!

Dizzy walk back home, empty handed.

When Jing jumped in the shower before bed we ran outside and fucked up his new Audi with eyelashes.

A bonnet scoop.

Front and rear batman badges.

Flashing LED lights and rainbow gay family stickers.

Next morning I was pretty hung over despite dunking a berocca before bed. The bacon ($20 worth of it!) helped though.

Little Ethan, he’s the calmest baby I’ve ever met. Such a rad kid!

A sign on our gate at the house.

Brandon’s EVO. Love the Thule storage box!

Kevin’s Golf GTI Edition 35, Eddie’s new Murano and Jing’s A4 Allroad.

We then went for a fish in a different location.

The boys managed to catch a few baby brims (all of which were let go). Me? I nursed my hangover by sunbathing and burnt the fuck out of my chest (the only place I forgot to put lotion on!).

Jody and Ethan.

Fishing brought on a craving for eating fish and chips so we headed back to the main beach for lunch.

Spotted on the side of the road, what a monster!

Spotted this lovely Hillman in the carpark and gave the owner a thumbs up.

Ethan chilling out in the shade. After lunch we tried a different fishing spot which again saw us catching baby brim.

As expected, everyone had rad cameras!

Sunset out on the deck.

Chilling out before dinner.

BBQ feast!

Later that night we did another spot of night fishing. Eddie pulled up this Mono (quite a popular brackish water aquarium fish).

Brim caught was bigger, but still not legal size.

Oh shit!

Jing and Shirley – The next morning we finished off all our food, cleaned up the house then headed to the driving range for a hit.

Matt – Happy Gilmore!

My first 2 hits were awesome, then I lost it (thinking too much!). PS: The T-Shirt I’m wearing was a $10 impulse buy at the local mall. It reads “Grump Old Man!”. Haha.

Shane’s Supra! We headed back in to town for lunch and spotted at least 30 or so Supras, amongst them Shane’s Gorilla Supra (couldn’t find him anywhere unfortunately).

Seafood platter was delicious.

Got back earlier this afternoon from a great weekend away at The Entrance with the BMU boys (and their partners… I was the 3rd wheel!). Great times, heaps of laughs and many feasts too. I’m super burnt, and I’m starving right now as I’ve got a completely empty fridge! More photos on instagram @justinfoxau

PS: Jing’s pics and the entire trip from his perspective are up on his great blog now. Visit: http://jingers.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/30th/

Liz lives amongst these absolutely amazing mountains (The Glasshouse Mountains). Eleven hills that rise abruptly from the coastal plain on the Sunshine Coast.

This lookout is literally up the road from her place.

So beautiful, and surreal.

Liz’s place. Her awesome retreat and practise on the right, and her house down below.

Some of Liz’s EMBODY products.

Inside her practise.

Her dog Onyx gave us a warm welcome!

He’s so awesome!

I spotted this lovely old scooter in her garage.

The view of Mount Beerwah from Liz’s massive balcony.

Lovely old piano. That night we just chilled out, ate a lovely dinner and enjoyed my fave bottle of red.

Furnace in the lounge room.

Lovely old bath tub.

Party decorations.

Caryn’s baby Honey, her eyes are amazing! Like a porcelain doll.

Nibbles.

The party kicked on into the wee hours.

The morning after; a shot of dreams which everyone at the party the night before had written down, ready to be burnt on Chinese New Years eve.

Caryn’s beautiful present to Liz, a framed drawing of Onyx.

I just got back from a great weekend up north in Sunny QLD where we celebrated my great friend Liz’s B’day, as well as the Chinese and Buddhist New Year. Was so great to catch up with some loved ones and meet lots of great new friends too. Was way too short a trip, feeling a bit bummed being back, especially as I have jury duty tomorrow!!!

Since 1974, nuts right? It’s almost 30 years since Transformers were created.

All generations of toys were on display.

Generation 1 toys… not quite as complete as I was hoping for.

Dinobots!

Masterpiece display.

Unicron! My fave toy of the day by far.

Original artwork (this one ended up being used on the back of the G1 boxes I’m pretty sure).

Comic book original artwork.

OG Movie poster on the left, would love to have this for home, or the garage.

Yonas controlling a fighting robot.

Full size Bumblebee.

Mastergrade toys in the gift store on exit (I had no room left!).

The expo was held at the National Science Education Center, like our own Powerhouse Museum it had fun stuff for kids to play with, like this bicycle in the sky race on ropes.

We then checked out the National Palace Museum.

Chinese tourists by the bus load.

We ate an amazing meal (also our most expensive meal all trip at $33/head). This was the Tai Chi double-flavoured Champion Beef Noodle Soup presented in a huge yin yang like bowl, one side was clear broth, the other marinated. SO GOOD!

Tea set, kinda felt like an Asian version of high tea (we had all sorts of teas to drink, all fantastic).

Day #6 was our last day in Taipei. We went out hard the night before and there was no way all of us were going to check out at noon so Charlie and I opted to pay up for another night to have a late checkout (our flights were at 11pm). Despite being hung over I still managed to check out the Transformers Expo, so glad I did as I geeked out hard once I was inside.

We checked out the National Palace Museum afterwards too, but I was way too wasted at that time to take in all the artifacts, and by the time we got the the airport I was running on reserve. I pretty much crashed once we boarded the plane, and woke up in Sydney! So sweet :)

We hit the Taipei Motor Show.

Merry Christmas!

So hot.

Oh noes.

German Fusion Restaurant!

Charlie loves chilli.

Night markets were amazing (especially if you’re adventurous with your food!). Sorry for the crappy iPhone (3gs) pics, time to get a new iPhone me thinks!

Spotted an aquarium too.

A live nautilus!!!

For realz, a blue ring octopus.

My Humps.

Mos Burger, best thing ever at 5AM in the morning.

Charlie posing with a passed out local.

And David too.

Outside our hotel.

Ximending, a cool young people’s hangout. Heaps of fashion shopping (heaps of fakes…), reminded me a little of Shinjuku.

Nicely modified Taxi.

Slammed Merc.

Crazy Engrish everywhere.

Spotted this beasty scooter at a vinyl wrap and airbrush shop.

And this storm trooper SL.

A rip of a rip of a rip. Quick too as Comme have only just released this red T.

Super detailed figurines.

WALD makes it right.

At this stage, with all the food and alcohol consumption, the days just rolled into one another and to me felt like The Hangover Part III. Crazy fun!!!

$3AUD/dish!

Might as well order everything then!

It’s pretty much a haze from here on.

Love my J Press tie (thanks for the heads up Kanye).

Steve and Zi.

Souvenir take-away photos.

Willy and Charlie scrubbed up nice!

Big Chinese banquet.

Zi and Gloria doing the rounds.

Saying goodbyes on the way out.

The reason why we were in Taiwan was to celebrate Zi and Gloria’s wedding. As it was a lunch time wedding I ended up feeling glad I didn’t go out hard the night before. The wedding lasted just 2 hours before they turned all the house lights on and kicked everyone out! Crazy! I’ve been to a fair few weddings now, none have been anything remotely alike (of-course all of them have been lovely experiences) and Zi and Gloria’s wedding was no exception… but it was the shortest wedding I’ve been to!

Day #2 I woke up feeling pretty queasy and was super close to sleeping in, but ended up getting up. First stop was an electronics arcade as Stevey (James Bond) needed a portable external battery. The guys use whatsapp to keep in touch via phone, my phone was too old for the app unfortunately (time to upgrade my 3gs!).

Charging session, so geeky.

Next stop, 101. Spot the 2nd tallest building in the world in the background.

We were just amazed at how wild the locals drive, and praising them for not having accidents and knowing how to brake, but then we spotted this.

Taipei 101 from street level.

For lunch we smashed Din Tai Fung and ordered 60 dumplings + a billion other dishes, all of which only came to $20AUD each. Ridiculous!

We then went up to the top, was a really hazy day unfortunately.

Spot the kite, crazy right?!

Exit through the gift shop. The hand carved coral is nuts, this particular piece is over the top.

Detail.

Joe from AAI picked us up and drove us out to visit AAI HQ.

The car we were driven in.

Mugen CRZ in progress.

This MKII Golf staff car blew my socks off.

It’s even got Buddy club seats in it.

More AAI staff cars.

AAI.

The first thing that greets you, this amazing Le Mans racer.

So wide so low.

Tom’s Racing Corona (?) race car.

The boss’ new hobby to keep him fit.

Buell.

This chaser was awesome.

Inside.

Got intake?

Trophies EVERYWHERE.

A new project they’re working on. Automatic only though for Taiwan, if you want the manual you’ll have to buy the Subaru.

Some Buddy club Honda race cars.

Massive money spent on this FD.

One in you can’t get out. Nuts!

Race cars lying around everywhere you looked.

Even this now neglected EG up high on the mezzanine.

And this fantastic EK.

AII HQ even has it’s own bar.

Staff bike. Ti frame with old school Campy friction gear on it.

Their $20 simulator was crazy and makes our Forza simulator at Zen look piss weak.

Joe then took us out for some traditional Hakka food.

So so good. Hearty and earthy.

All traffic lights have hook turns for scooters (which dominate traffic) and a countdown to green too (wish we had that!).

Day #2 I got up feeling wasted and vomit sick. I skipped the hotel breakfast (a first for me as there’s nothing I love more than hotel buffet breakfasts!) but I still managed to get up and get on with the day. I was feeling much better by the time we got around to lunch time (where we smashed so much Din Tai Fung it was ridiculous), and visiting AAI was great (Zi, David, Charlie and I used to work for AAI/Buddy club Australia), but I didn’t have enough energy to do it all over and hit the clubs once more come night time (OLD MAN!) so I crashed, lame.