SUNDAY, JUNE
28 2009
London (again and again)
by
mike
Hey all,
As you may be aware, Kings has been living in London for the past couple of years and as such m&k.com hasn't really been getting much love of late. But with him (and many other friends) living on this side of the world it gives me the opportunity to occasionally visit (as moving is pretty damn tough!)
So just shy of 2 weeks ago I flew out of cold, wintery Perth into slightly less cold summery London...althought the weather the past 5 days has been outstanding! I think I may have even got a slight tan.
Both Kings and Andy have been working during the week so I've rediscovered my love for London with many long walks all over the city, visited some old favourite spots and caught up with friends. Some highlights so far:
- Funday last Sunday with Dion, Kings, Ayesha & Andy; starting at The Church in Kentish Town at midday before heading to Covent Garden and some Blueshi's action before 2 for 1 cocktails at b@1 and topping it off with a couple shots and more beers and cocktails at the Gen. I think I'm getting too old for 12 hour drinking sessions!
- Catching the tube over to Camden, wandering around (no funky records) for an hour or so then walking all the way down to the Thames (about a 40 minute walk), along Embankment to Westminster & Parliament, past the Abbey, through St James's Park, past Buckingham Palace, through Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, along Tottenham Court Road, down Denmark Street (With all the guitar stores - heaven!), past the British museum, thought Russell Square and back home. That's one hell ass long walk
- Catching the tube to Bank and walking along to London Bridge, up to the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge, all the way along the Thames to the Tate Modern for some lunch, across the Millenium Bridge and up to St Paul's Cathedral, down along Chancery Lane to High Holborn and all the way down Gray's Inn Road back here, a walk i've not ever taken, it was really nice.
- Dinking up at The Big Chill in Kings Cross with Ayesha and meeting up with Jim, my old team mate for Quiz night (and room mate for god knows how long) at the Gen. Kings (and eventually Andy)came and met us and we had dinner at La Porchetta when Scottie, another old Generator mate and quiz parnter met us for a drink. Kings, Andy & Ayesha headed home so the old Gen crowd headed to, where else but the Generator for an old school drink in the bar. Reliving old times, so much fun!
- Dinner, drinks and a quick poker game with former Generator owner, my old boss and good friend, and now professional poker player Louise at her place. We chatted for hours about everything and nothing, London really does feel like coming home again (though unfortunately Louise beat us on the poker front, though not surprising since we are far from professional). She's now in Vegas competing in the World Champs - good luck Lou, kill it!!
But by far the highlight was Friday when I FINALLY made it to Wimbledon. I've wanted to go to SW19 for the Championships since I was about 6 years old, so I woke up nice and early, jumped on the train and made my way to Southfields station and to the ground. Unfortunately, 9187 people thought to do this before I did, so at 9.30am I was the 9188 person in line. We were told initially we'd be in by around 1pm, I thought cool, I can hack that. But 1pm came and went and we'd only moved a little closer, not even inside the grounds. As I was by myself I made friends with those around me and actually had a pretty decent day waiting, listening to the commentary etc.
When we finally made it inside the complex (not the grounds of the championships, just the surrounding) we realised it was still going to be a long wait - there were signs saying "you're now only 600 yards from the turnstills"...and we moved at around 150 yards per hour! But time passed, conversations continued and finally at around 5.30pm, after waiting a little over 9 (yes NINE) hours I made it inside Wimbledon. I'd made friends with Emma (from Sydney) in the line so we decided since her friends had left (at the 6 hour waiting point) and we were both there alone why not hang out for hte evening. We grabbed some Pimms and headed over to watch some of hte outside matches; doubles & a mens singles match before trying to brave it in the 're-sale' line for the main courts.
Basically, when people leave their seats are resold by Wimbledon for 5 pounds, with proceeds going towards tennis charities. And since we got in after 5pm our tickets for ground entry were 6 pounds cheaper so we were still up. We jumped in line for Centre Court, and about 6 minutes later had our tickets, fantastic tickets in fact, about 20 rows back from the court. We grabbed another (I think our third) Pimms and ran into Centre Court to catch the last 2 sets of the Fish vs. Djokovic match (which Djokovic took out 6-4 6-4 6-4).
This was also the last match of the day on Centre Court so headed out to grab a beer and to watch some Mixed Doubles on Court 18 (sitting almost on the Court, it was awesome). That finished up so we bought one more Pimms, walked over to the Hill and watched the Haas vs Cilic match that had been going for about 2 hours. It was slowly getting darker and at 2 sets all, 6-6 they stopped play due to low light. Was so very annoying!
But all in all it was an amazing day, I got to live out a childhood dream and was so happy to have finally done it! Now just to see the other 3 grand slams.
I have a heap of photos that I'll hopefully get around to uploading (probably on facebook.com/traveldeskguy though) but i'll post a note when they're up.
And now we're off for the final Sunday session as I leave for Bali on Tuesday for a couple days then over to Jakarta to visit my sister Em who's living there. Dee & Steve are coming in to London to catch up (also old friends from the Generator) so we're sure to make a good day of it!
But for now it's off from me, I keep saying I'll update this more so maybe I'll give it a crack at a weekly update - there's been a fair bit going on so who knows.
Until then...
mike
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
25 2008
koh chang
by
mike
this is probably the first on-the-road update in a couple years! and will be brief cause i want to get back outside to the beach. kings, andy and i met up last saturday in bangkok and after a long night of drinking caught an early (and long) bus from the capital down to trat before jumping on a ferry over to koh chang where we've spent the week.
back to bangkok on saturday before heading home unfortunately, but it's been a lot of relaxing fun so far.
more from us soon :)
mike
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER
12 2008
Thailand
by
mike
With Kings back in London and me working away here in Perth, not much has been happening here at mikeandkings.com. I keep saying I'll start writing more, yet I seem to be getting pretty slack in that department. So...I'll say it again, I'll TRY to keep this place a little more updated.
Tomorrow, Sept 13th, I'm heading over to Thailand for 2 weeks. The main reason for the trip (according to work anyway) is for the team leader conference on Sept 19th, but the real reason is to have some fun!!
8 of us are heading out a week before the conference to head to Koh Samui and on Sunday to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party - around 10,000 people dancing on the white sand beach. We're spending a couple days around the islands before flying up to Bangkok for the conference, and on Saturday Sept 20th Kings and Andy (who are living together in London...no, not in that way) are flying down from London to meet me up!
We're then going to spend a week drinking and relaxing on the beaches of Koh Chang and the surrounds. I honestly can't wait for this trip - it's only been 3 months since Vietnam (which was fantastic by the way - photos are on facebook if you haven't seen them already, I'll link to it soon) but I'm really looking forward to getting back to Asia.
With any luck I'll actually remember to update the page over the next 2 weeks, but if not I will post photos on facebook (and here if I get around to it) and post any stories that can be told.
If anyone is going to be around thailand in the next 2 weeks shoot me an email, maybe we can cross paths :)
til then...
- mike
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SUNDAY, JUNE
1 2008
On the road again...
by
mike
I'm sitting in the Orchid Club Lounge at the Park Royal Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Yes, folks - I'm back in the world of the travelling! Sure, it's a reasonably short 2 week trip that'll take me from the comfort of the currently not-so-sunny city of Perth, up here to KL and then into the elongated 'S' that is Vietnam.
I'm not doing it alone this time round though - since it's such a short trip, I've employed the help of some travel professionals (apart from myself) to get me there; on Tuesday I'll be starting a 2 week trip with Intrepid from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city taking in all the sites Vientam can throw at me!
I'm only spending today here in KL, and I do plan on making the most of it so will keep this short. This morning was spent relaxing before taking a stroll down to the Starhll Gallery and then over to KLCC at the Petronas Towers. I was here a little over a year ago and have taken in most of the sites but it's still fun to revisit it all.
I'm also in the process of trying to get some more writing done - not of the blog variety, more something in the vain of travel writing, or maybe a book. It's still early days - but I'll try to get this site updated if anything comes of it. After all, it's the stories in these pages that brought it all on.
But more on that later...for now I have to sign off and head over to the spa - it's time for my massage.
Until then...
Mike
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH
12 2008
::Update::
by
mike
OK, so it's been a long time between drinks, but that's what happens when you stop travelling the world. It's also the case when your computer mysteriously blows up one afternoon and you don't get a new one for a few months (yes, my new laptop is arriving in two days, to say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement).
Anyway, this is the first of hopefully a lot more updates, but will be brief. Kings is back in Perth until Saturday so we've managed to catch up a few times. I'm currently in a 12-week health/fitness challenge through my work, depending on results before and after pics MAY be posted in late May - more on this later.
I have tentative plans to jet off again this year, possibly to work in Canada for a year or two. Nothing is set in stone as yet, but I'm thinking September-November to leave and travel for 3-6 months and then figure out what's what.
If anyone is still reading this, drop me a comment below with something :)
til later....
mike
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SUNDAY, JULY
22 2007
By the by, I'm in Dubai
by
Kings
Hello everyone! Hot on the heals of Mike's Dubai post I am also in Dubai but not in the business lounge like Mike. Instead I am sitting on the floor near the gate that I will go though in about 45 minutes on my way to London! The Dubai airport is a little strange, there are a lot of people sleeping on the floors - I am not sure what the deal is with that.
Oh by the way, I'm moving to London again - yeh - I have been pretty slack with the whole mikeandkings thing over the last say two years - but since I am living overseas again perhaps I'll start posting again.
I will get into London at about 12:30pm and about 30 minutes after that Mike will be arriving from Dublin so we're gonna meet up at the tube station and head into London together - just like 4 years ago.
So anyhow, for those of you who still monitor this site - stay tuned over the next few weeks for my adventures of getting a flat, job and all that stuff.
Kings
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FRIDAY, JULY
20 2007
posting from the Emirates Lounge, Dubai
by
mike
hi all,
i'm here in the business class lounge in Dubai. it's about 5am local time and we're cracking into our first beers of the morning...yes, this is going to be one hell of a trip!
in case you don't know, i'm on my way to dublin for the flight centre ltd global ball. my store won our tickets through a 6 month incentive, and received business class tickets with Emirates to get us there. a driver picked me up last night and after check-in i went straight for the lounge in perth to meet up with sean (my manager) and a couple other FCL people.
the flight here was fantastic-i've got some great pics of the food and the cabin. the seats didn't fully recline, but it was the best sleep i've ever had on a plane. the food was amazing! entree followed by mains and desert with wines and beers and ports and...well, you get the idea.
next flight is in a few hours to birmingham and then on to dublin! i'll be in london on sunday afternoon to meet up with kings and andy and start the week of celebrations for andy's birthday.
so that's it for now...i'll try to post some more as the week goes on.
til then...
mike
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FRIDAY, JULY
6 2007
This found on Google Ads
by
mike
 I found this on one of the ads from google at the bottom of this pag. "Own Mrs Mike on DVD" it read, so I just had to click to see what came up. A film from 1949 starring Dick Powell & Evelyn Keyes, "Mrs Mike" is a classic that you just can't afford not to own.
Dick Powell stars as Canadian Mountie Sgt. Mike Flannagan. When Boston-bred Kathy O'Fallon (Evelyn Keyes) marries Mike, she is immediately nicknamed "Mrs. Mike" by her new friends and neighbors. Unprepared for the hardships of life in the Great White North, Mrs. Mike nonetheless perseveres through minor inconveniences and major tragedies, including the death of her child during an epidemic. The film lays on the sentiment rather heavily, but stars Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes manage to cut through the treacle with their first-rate thesping. Based on a true story, Mrs. Mike was adapted from the best-selling novel by Benedict & Nancy Freedman
taken from here
Yes, this is a very random post.
Kings is moving back to london in 2 weeks. I'll be meeting him at heathrow at around 12.30pm on sunday July 22nd, after spending the weekend in Dublin for the Flight Centre Limited Global Ball. From the airport we head into town, dump our bags and make our way to Covent Garden for some good old time Funday action - 2 for 1 Corona's at Blueshi's before heading for B@1 for 2 for 1 cocktails till 10.30pm. Ahhhhhh good times, how I miss those days.
Spending a couple days in London then off to Amsterdam with our good mate Andy to celebrate his birthday, before heading back to London for "Garyoke" at the Generator (where i lived for the better part of 2 years). Hopefully we'll get a game or two of poker in (with my old boss, Gen owner Louise, who is currently in Vegas competing at the World Poker Championships!!) and head out to a few fav spots in 'sunny' London. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone, so if you'll be around London, drop me an email, I'd love to catch up!
I'll be leaving London July 29th to come back to work, and as of August 1st I'll be taking over my shop (Student Flights) as manager. It's going to be a tough ride but should be a lot of fun.
So with Kings moving back to the UK I'll have even more of an excuse to head back over there, not that it's going to be a frequent thing, but maybe some time next year I can pay another visit. I'm still considering what I'll be doing a year from now - Canada, Ireland, Italy, back to the UK? There's a few options, I mean I could even hang around Perth! Kings will (hopefully) be updating this site a little more, but you can always find either of us on our emails, and more recently on Facebook (yes, even Kings has bowed to the pressure of 24 million users).
I'll definitely be updating over the next month or two with more news on Europe, the FCL WA Ball (tomorrow night, should be a heap of fun!) and any other things that come to mind.
But until then...
- Mike
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MONDAY, MAY
28 2007
Phuket
by
mike
since i'm not really travelling that much the updates have become a little less frequent. but this week (thursday night in fact) i'm flying off to phuket for the long weekend.
i'm going over with the 4 guys from my store: sean (our manager), zanda, quentin and mary (who's recently moved to the freo store). we won an incentive back in jan/feb so get to go away for 3 days...where better to spend some time than relaxing around the pool in phuket?
i'll do my best to get some new photos online soon, a lot has happened in the past month or two that i should write about. so be patient, drop me an email, leave a message, and in the meantime let us know what you've been up to :)
cheers!
mike
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TUESDAY, MAY
1 2007
a story...
by
mike
today is my rdo for working last saturday. i've had breakfast, watched 2 eps of lost, gone for a run and workout on the foreshore and i just though what better time to finally get around to adding an update. hi - it's been a while.
and for no good reason apart from my lack of anything of substance to write. i feel like i've been lacking inspiration, stuck in a void of constant sameness, waltzing through the past few weeks without much change. but after thinking about this for a minute i realised that's complete shit and to just write something already.
there are a few things chaning. i'm running and working out more and more which is great - feeling a hell of a lot healthier for it. i'm getting ready to move house in about 3 weeks time - haven't really started packing anything yet, it will probably be a last minute dash of throwing all of my worldly posessions into a sack and attaching it to the back of my mini before hauling the lot back to my mother's place (hi ma, i know you're reading this :P ). i'll be looking after my sisters place (and cat) for about 6 weeks whilst her husband plays around on some mountain and she flys off to the east and the US.
my little car is all fixed and terrorising my neighbours as usual (for such a small car it does make a hell of a lot of noise). i just realised that i never eleborated on the story of my crazy neighbour...so here goes:
a few weeks back i had a party to celebrate andy's departure from this wonderful city as he made tracks for the rarely sunny but always fun times in london. i've been living at my current flat in burswood for about 10 months, have held probably six to eight parties in that time with roughly the same amount of people each time (ten to twenty-ish). this party was no different - there were about 25 of us out in the courtyard by around 9pm, the stereo was on to what seemed a reasonable level (the house is 3 storeys and you couldn't hear the music from the third floor). then at just around 9.15 my guests and i were a little startled.
a woman in her early 50s walked into my house (opened the closed front door and just strolled on in), stormed down the stairs to the ground level (where we were) screaming like a sailor that'd been at sea too long. without offending too many people, her rant went something like "EXCUSE ME!? EXCUSSSSSSSSSSE ME??!!!! WOULD YOU TURN THAT FUCKING MUSIC DOWN! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! TURN THAT FUCKING MUSIC OFF!"
obviously a little taken back (and slightly intoxicated) i walked up to her and asked her as nicely as possible what the hell she thought she was doing, and told her i'd turn the (already pretty quiet) music down a little. to which she said "WELL YOU FUCKING BETTER CAUSE I'LL BE COMPLAING IF I HEAR ANY MORE NOISE".
now, just to make sure you understand - we were having a party, at our own house, at 9.15pm on a friday night. nothing too unusual you would think, right? she had stormed into my house - trepassed - and started abusing us. it was honestly kind of amusing at first. we all had a bit of a laugh, called her a crazy woman, joked about how she was just pissed we didn't invite her over or that she was hopped up on jack daniels and goof balls, and went back to enjoying the evening.
during the course of the night my direct next door neighbout came home, so i told him what was going on - and his response was pretty much "you guys have been here for ages and i've never heard a thing during any of your parties, don't worry about it".
then about half an hour later, the door bell started ringing. so i go upstairs excepting a couple more guests, but no - it's crazy neighbour wearing what can only be described as the worst moo-moo ever made and the biggest sourpuss i've ever seen - hands on hips, face all tight and pissed off - standing there ready with another stream of abuse for me to turn the music down. i'd had a couple more beers by this stage and wasn't really in any mood for her shit, so i threw in my two cents about trespassing, private property, the fact it was 10pm on a weekend etc etc and she buggered off...but of course that wasn't the end of it. no, she came back again, this time ranting about if i don't turn the music off (which by this stage, and i', not exagerating, you could barely hear from our own backyard) then she'd call the cops. to which i yelled FINE! call the fucking cops, i'd like to have a word to them myself about you - and slammed the door in her face.
obviously a little wound up and slightly more drunk than before, i was pretty pissed off by this stage. this woman had pretty much ruined the going away party we'd planned for andy, and i wasn't happy. so being in the confruntation mood that i was, i stormed out my front door (with about 5 people behind me) and knocked on her door. i wanted to know what this music she was complaining about was, becase i couldn't hear anything from my house, and her place is two doors down. she pretty much refused to let me in to hear the noise yelled a bit more and went inside. we're still not sure, but she seemed drugged or drunk or something, the womand was a little crazy.
when i first knocked on her door, kings grabbed his phone and started videoing the argument (which i'll have to get online some time) - it'd pretty funny to watch, i start walking away the run back in the shot arms wailing around all pissed off any angry, it's hillarious.
anyway - after that the night got a little more quite, and it was then that we realised that what she was probably hearing was the sound of the bass carrying from the ruby room (the club at the casino about 600m from our houses), which you can hear every weekend (if only faintly). i haven't see or spoken to her since then, but we're having a leaving party in a couple of weeks so you never know, there might be a reprise of the hillarity in early may.
it's now time for lunch - i'll be at the wembley tonight from about 6pm if anyone's keen, but until then...
- mike
this is a re-post from my myspace blog
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY
27 2007
home time
by
mike
hey gang,
well yes, i'm back home in sunny perth. got back yesterday afternoon after spending the weekend in kuala lumpur. back to work this morning which was pretty tough - sitting and concentrating all day really took it out of me, so i'm just about to crash. i'll start getting some pics online, and will post a whole summary of my trip in the next few days. there's a few pics on my myspace (if you click on 'photos' it hopefully will bring up some, they're they last few on there) but will have more pics up tomorrow night(hopefully).
so till then...
- mike
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY
19 2007
more news
by
mike
hi all,
a really quick message because i've just got off a 12 hour bus ride. will update more later if i can...but, i'm in durban, spent the past 3 days in cintsa, at buccannerrs hostel - possibly one of the best places i've ever stayed, right on the beach, plenty to do. went on a game drive and saw a white male lion (one of only 100 in the world) and lots of zebras, rhino et al. heaps of pics, i'll upload them when i'm home (in only a week!!) sad that this quick trip is already coming to a close.
off to swaziland in the morning, staying on a game reserve, then off to visit arno in jo'burg for a few days before heading off to asia for the last few days of my trip.
hope everyone is great - more from me when i'm slightly more alive :)
- mike
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY
12 2007
and so it goes
by
mike
i think i mentioned in my last post that the hostel in cape town reminded me of funny farm in interlaken. if you were reading this blog back when we first travelled through switzerland (i think september 2003) then you would remember that we intended to stay about 3 or 4 days in interlaken and ended up staying almost 2 weeks. well...funny thing, it's sort of happened again.
i was sitting around the bar last night dreading getting up at 6.30 for the 7.15am bus departure, when i thought, hang on - why can't i stay a few more days in cape town? so i grabbed my itinerary, looked over it, and guess what - i'm still here haha. i haven't really seen everything that i wanted to, so i've decided to stay until wednesday morning. today i'm going to grab some lunch and head up table mountain, and tomorrow will possibly be a wine tour.
in staying here for 2 more days, it sort of throws everything else out a little bit. so, i'll be in port elizabeth on wed night, then 3 nights at cintsa, a night in durban and then swaziland before hitting jo'burgh and (hopefully) meeting up with arno.
so that's the quick update for now...if i get around to it i'll try to get some photos up soon (or when i get back maybe) - but leave me some messages and say hello :)
till later...
- mike
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY
11 2007
cape town
by
mike
hello everyone,
i haven't had a lot of spare time to jump on the computer, not really because i've been living it up here in cape town, but more because i'm a lazy bastard. but here we go.
arrived in cape town after about 23 hours of travelling. the flights were actually pretty decent, i'm not sure if it was because i'm a travel agent or because the flights weren't that busy, but i had 3 seats to myself the whole way, which was great for the almost 14 hour flight to cape town from kuala lumpur.
i was picked up from the airport by angie, the manager at a sunflower stop, the hostel where i'm currently staying. it's a really cool hostel, reminds me a lot of funny farm in interlaken.
anyway, i've been pretty slack with my travelling so far - my first day it was raining pretty much all day, and i didn't really feel much like getting sick, so i only ventured about 45 minutes down the road and back. the first night i got stuck into some beers with a bunch of people, and we all ended up getting a cab to a club, danced the night away until about 4am and headed home.
yesterday i was meant to do the cape peninsula tour but due to the previous evenings events (not just the excessive boozing, a fight broke out when we got back and i jumped in to stop it, and i didn't get to bed till about 6am) i didn't make it. but i did manage to go for a walk with my german room mate (ben) - and we walked down to the waterfront/harbour and then into town.
and last night was a little more quiet, sitting around eating, drinking and watching movies.
tomorrow i head up the coast to port elizabeth (a 17 or so hour bus ride, and i'm only there for one night! haha) and then off to cintsa further up the coast for a few days from tuesday.
so that's about it from me for now...i hope everyone's great wherever you are, i'll try to post some more later this week.
till then...
- mike
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY
8 2007
on the road again
by
mike
yes, i am! HI!! i'm just arrived in kuala lumpur, and i'm waiting here in the airport for my conecting flight in about 3 hours time to take me to cape town (via jo'burgh). the first 5 hours of my trip have been pretty uneventful, i watched 2 movies - one with robin williams (i think it was called man of the year) - it was really good. the other was some fluffy thing with jessica simpson, a few cheap laughs and good way to pass the time.
i'll be trying to update every few days so check back often and leave me some messages! anything, i don't care. oh, and in case you didn't read my myspace (mysapce.com/traveldeskguy) - i got promoted yesterday! as of march 1st i'll be the assistant manager at student flights barrack st. :)
anyway, time for a beer or something so i'll say bye for now. if i get bored enough in the next 3 hours i'll try to jump back online and post something interesting.
till later...
- mike
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY
10 2007
in began in...
by
mike
quick one cause i'm at work...will give some more details on this, but, in about a months time i'll be off to SOUTH AFRICA. well, hopefully...plan is to fly to cape town feb 8th, spend a few days there before travelling the garden route east along the coast and then north up through to jo'burg to visit my good friend arno (who i know from the old days in london) for a week.
still waiting on a waitlist confirmation from malaysian airlines, but if all goes well i'll be spending about 18 days away! :)
more details to follow...if anyone has any suggestions of things to see, drop me a line and let me know.
til later ;
- mL
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SATURDAY, JANUARY
6 2007
2007
by
mike
yes i know, it's already january 6th - but anyways...
HAPPY NEW YEARS - hope everyone celebrated in style and didn't get too messy. me, well i had a few friends over and mixed for a few hours before crashing in bed around 8.30am. good times.
what'd you get up to??
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER
30 2006
perth to exmouth
by
mike
last thursday i took off on a trip with western xposure from perth to exmouth and back. i'm not going in to huge detail tonight, because i'm still tired from such a fantastic trip - in VERY brief summary we stayed in kalbarri, denham, coral bay, exmouth for 2 nights, then the last night at the northbrook farm stay.
i've got heaps of photos to upload and plenty of stories to tell - all of which will hopefully be posted in the next few days. met some fantastic people on the trip, some of whom i'm hopefully catching up with this weekend - also saw some really wonderful things and had an absolute ball. drank more on the trip then i probably have in the past few months, but that's what holidays are for right?? haha
anyway - come back in a day or two and hopefully i'll get around to uploading some of the 230 photos and will have the details of the trip up.
- mike
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MONDAY, OCTOBER
23 2006
quick trip
by
mike
i'm off to auckland this weekend, for 2 nights with work. because i've been here for about a year now, they're flying us over as a bit of a congratulations on finishing your training/staying with the company for a year.\
not really sure what the details are, apart from flying out on friday and back on monday, but it's sure to be a bunch of fun.
i'm also hoping to jump on a trip and head up north to broome in a few weeks. i desperately need a holiday, and haven't taken one (outside of work things) since i started. a break will be good. more on that if/when it gets confirmed.
will post photos of NZ next week some time :)
- mike
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER
5 2006
one of the best trips of my life
by
mike
  i'm back from cambodia. it was only a short 4 day trip, but is very easily one of the greatest trips i've done. it was simply amazing. i'll write more when i'm a little more awake, but for now you can check out some of the 500 photos i took here.
a couple of the highlights were, of course, the temples, ta prohm, bayon and angkor wat, a couple of us also took an elephant ride around the bayon temple on sunday morning (whilst i was still drunk from saturday night) which was great; i've never been that close to an elephant before. we also spent heaps of time in the markets shopping for everything and talking with the locals. the other highlight was our 3 hour transit in singapore; because we had so long, the 4 perth people (justin, gemma, sally and myself) went through customs, jumped in a cab and went out to the raffles for a few singapore slings.
as i said, more later because i'm shattered - we left cambodia at 4.25pm yesterday and arrived in perth at 6.30am today, i haven't really had a chance to catch up on sleep just yet.
let me know what you think of the pics.
- mike
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THURSDAY, AUGUST
31 2006
cambodia
by
mike
it's been a while...sorry, i dont update this site too much. in about 4 hours i'm flying off to cambodia for a quick stint to siem reap. it's my first famil with work, and i'm really looking forward to going.
i still have to pack, so wont write too much...i'm only gone for 4 days, back tuesday morning. hopefully i'll be seeing all that angkor wat has, and i hope to get a couple hundred pics when i'm there. and spend some quality time with some good friends from student flights :)
anyway...i'll write soon i promise.
- mike
ps: i didnt get the 5 takes gig -- apparently i'm not discovery travel and living material...
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SUNDAY, JULY
30 2006
5 Takes, Discovery Travel & Living
by
mike
Over the past few months I've developed a bit of a Sunday routine. I normally sleep in, have some breakfast, get all of my washing together and jump in my car to head to mums place. Why? Well, we still don't have a washing machine here.
When I get to mums I normally chuck on the first load and take the puppies out for a walk. After the walk it's tv time - I don't have Foxtel here so it's always a bit of a treat to watch some new stuff.
I LOVE watching travel shows - the Pilot Guides series, especially watching Ian Wright was a huge push for me to start travelling. So I was watching the travel channel a little while ago and came across this show called "5 Takes"...essentially it's 5 backpackers who have been sent to a region for 12 weeks to live off USD$50 per day. Each week they record their travels and show them to the world. Pretty cool idea for a show!
And I was watching a few weeks ago, and saw they were casting for the next season, but this time they were casting from the Asia Pacific region!! I scribbled down the website as quickly as I could and ran to mums computer to apply straight away. I didn't know how much of a chance I'd have, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't try.
Last week I got an email from them saying "Congratulations! You're through the first round!" OH MY GOD - I was estatic. I've wanted to be a travel journalist for as long as I can remember, and this could be my chance!
The next step was to record a vlog (video log) and write a blog about my travel experiences. Final submission date is tomorrow, and I'm happy to tell you that I have just now submitted my video and blog.
I don't think I can quite describe how happy I would be if I go through to the next stage; this would be a combination of my degree (in media) and my passion for travelling (as you've probably seen here on m&k.com) - pretty much my ideal job.
So keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully I'll be back with some fantastic news soon!
- Mike
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SUNDAY, JULY
2 2006
happy 3rd birthday mikeandkings.com
by
Kings
three years ago today i posted about our last coffee with the group. you can read about it in the the first mikeandkings post.
since then the site has changed in a number of ways - this being the third (and final) version. here's a little history of how the site became what it is today
 | Mike and Kings do Europe (Version 1, July 2003 - November 2003)
Mike and Kings Version 1 was developed in little less than a week while I (Kings) was in Manjimup visiting family. The site laid the foundations for all core features such as the chronological blog-style entries with a ‘where are we’ list and recent photos, the Guestbook, the Media section and the About Us area.
Since neither Mike nor I had travelled anywhere yet the images used at the top of the site were 'borrowed' from online sources and made spiffy Julls. Thanks Julls!
The site wasn’t perfect and a little on the dark and gloomy side but it served its purpose well. |
 | Mike and Kings (Version 2, November 2003 - January 2005)
Version 2 was developed shortly after I arrived in London. There were several limitations which were annoying for Mike and I that were only discovered while on the road and the site really needed a face lift to get rid of the depressing black background.
Several features of the original site were cut, most notably the recent photos and ‘where are we’ list. This was mainly because the site content was about to enter a rather stagnant period while Mike and I settled into London.
During our 3 month tour of Europe we uploaded a little over 1500 pictures onto the site giving us a fantastic opportunity to get rid of the old ‘borrowed’ headers and create some of our own. The result was over 80 unique headers which change with each successive page request, showing a little snapshot of somewhere or something that we’ve seen since we left.
The only other main improvement that people would see involved adding new sub sections to folders within the Media section. About 80% of the re-development focused on getting the media section up to scratch. Moving from a 3 column to a 4 column list with file details moved into tool-tips rather than displayed next to each item. The images and regular files were separated only displaying thumbnails for image files and file names for the rest.
Behind the scenes several improvements allowed us to upload images in bulk. An improved web interface allowed us to upload several images at once and the Windows ‘Image Injector’ application allowed for entire folders to be injected into the database from our PCs.
During one of Mike’s poorer (financially) moments the infamous DONATE link was added to the menu and About Us section. While we never really received any donations it certainly paid for itself in controversy.
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| | Mike and Kings (Version 3, January 2005 - Present Day)
You're using it right now, what do you think?
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so anyhow, happy birthday m&k.com!
kings
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TUESDAY, JUNE
27 2006
myspace
by
mike
i did it - i signed up to myspace on my day off. why? no idea - seemed like something to do at the time, plus i've had fun checking out everyones random rants about everything, and all the pics etc. so if you're bored enough, check out this site.
for your viewing pleasure, what i made for dinner last night - spinach & ricotta canelloni...it's recognised in at least 5 countries as the world's best canelloni. you're hungry now, aren't you? ;)
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THURSDAY, JUNE
8 2006
running
by
mike
so over the past few weeks i've taken up getting fit - running pretty much every day (2-4km), eating better etc and i've got to say, i'm feeling really good for it! i know this isn't really any form of news, but i'm bored so i thought i'd write something.
tomorrow is friday, and is the final student flights buzz night! what's that? well, the buzz night is our monthly awards, drinks, get together, piss up, whatever you want to call it. all of us from the SF world (about 15 or so) get together, drink WAY too much, make complete asses of ourselves, generally do or say somethign that we shouldn't, and then wake up with a hideous hangover the next morning. tomorrow is special as it's the last time all of us in the students world will be together as an area - we've broken off into the flight centre world now, and as such are no longer together.
anyways, so tomorrow will be lots of drinks - we'll start at work at 5.30pm, then make our way to niche bar, where we will have our awards and drinks. last month, i knocked off about 103 emails from our system, and in doin so, won for my area a $300 bar tab! so...after 9pm we'll be tucking into more drinks, and then will probably keep on going into the small hours of the morning.
saturday i'm still not sure what i'm doing (apart from recovering) but we may be having some people over for a few drinks before going out.
anywyas, that's it from me for now, i'll think of soemthign interesing to write some time soon :)
- mike
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TUESDAY, MAY
23 2006
mini mike back on the road
by
mike
my little car is back on the road! she's been a bit sick, missing a clutch (well, almost) so i took her in to MiniCraft to spend some time with Cono. cono is my mechanic, and only works on mini's - and does a fantastic job!
so what was wrong - well, the clutch was playing up for a while, then suddenly pretty much stopped working (ie: i couldn't change gears). the clutch bearing was pretty much completely worn out, and the clutch arm was a complete write off!
a day and 260 bucks later, mini mike was back on the road, running better than ever. and i think that will be the last big thing to get fixed. next, i'd like to install some spots on the front, fix up the interior and maybe get the carbi worked on a bit (but that's a while down the line).
anyways...that's my news of the day. i'll take some pics of my mini in the new garage for you :P
- mike
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THURSDAY, MAY
18 2006
mikeandkings.com is moving
by
mike
 but not online, mike and kings have got a flat! we finally got off our asses and made a decission that we should move out of home and get a place together, and tomorrow afternoon we pick up the keys.
it's a 3 story townhouse in a group of 5 in burswood, just a few minutes from the city centre. here's what the ad said about the place:
Impressive brand new tri level home nestled amongst a quiet and proud group of four others. Designed and constricted to capture the most of our city skyline with views from first and second level.
Three spacious bedrooms with generous built in robes and luxury finishes. Two bathrooms, each with en-suite access and three wc (one on each level) also a study with access to large balcony facing north. Ideally structured to suit a home business.
Highly polished timber floorboards and ceramic tiles throughout living areas, wrought iron balustrading with polished timber hand rail links the home together and creates privacy for all the family at the same time.
Private paved courtyard with low maintenance garden and delightful atrium located on centrally on the second floor.
Double garage with timber door secure and remotely operated and even when closed will still allow for additional parking.
Chefs kitchen with ample storage and gas appliances, gas bayonets throughout home and reverse cycle air conditioning. large linen press and storage room in side the home. This is truly an exclusive residence.
i am pretty happy about the place, it's a really nice flat, it's bloody huge, and should be great for somewhere to live for the next year. i'll take some photos in the next week or so of the move in, and what the flat looks like with all our crap in it, but for now, you can check out how it looks with someone elses stuff here.
let us know what you think!!
- mike
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FRIDAY, MAY
12 2006
weekend
by
mike
hey kids...it's friday, the weekend awaits! this weekend i've got very little planned, and i'm looking forward to relaxing with nothing to do.
tomorrow kings and i are (hopefully) looking at the cool flat in burswood. with any luck we'll love it and they'll accept our application.
tonite, drinks after work and that's about it...
what's going on in your world?
- mike
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TUESDAY, MAY
9 2006
we're back...at least kinda
by
mike
hey people,
well, after a few weeks offline, mikeandkings.com is back. kings was in new zealand and cuoldn't fix whatever problem there was with the site, so when he got back, he reregistered it, and fixed the bug that was stopping the site (and our email) working.
i think the decission has been made to keep the site going for a little while longer - why not eh?
so the news of the minute is that mike and kings might be getting a flat together. seems to make sense to pool our resources and both move out of our parents houses...since we've been back for what, 8 months now? it's probably about time.
so we're scoping out the local perth bachelor pads, and with a little luck, we'll have a new flat in the next week or two :) will of course post some pics when we get a place.
also have some pics from guilderton from the weekend before last, so i'll write somethign about that in the next few days.
mini mike, my wonderful 1978 mini clubman is off the road at the moment, awaiting an appointment at minicraft to have her clutch bearings replaced. so to save completely destroying the gearbox, i've decided to stop driving (and crunching every gear along the way). more on that later.
so to sum up - mikeandkings.com is probably here to stay. i will be trying to make an effort to post more stuff, even if it's boring as all hell, and i'll try to convince kings to post a nice long travel story of his time in new zealand.
but until later...
- mike (from work)
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FRIDAY, APRIL
7 2006
this is the end....
by
mike
my only friend, the end. ah the doors...how i love thee.
hi people,
it's becomming more and more evident that mikeandkings.com is not getting updated nearly enough. mr faulkner pretty much never touches the site now, and i'm getting more and more slack with the updates, which is pretty crappy.
and since we are no longer travelling, i think that kings has made the decission to let the sites rego expire come june or july. so i thought i would give you all a bit of a heads up before we shut our doors.
but with that said, maybe we can go out with a bang. over the next few months (if everything goes well) i'll be putting up a few bits and pieces, a 'best of mikeandkings.com', favourite moments, best photos, best destinations, and that sort of thing.
we are back home in perth now, and have been for about 6 months now. i think kings is looking at heading back over to london any day now (although he's been saying that for the past...well 6 months) and i'd love to get back there, but need to save some more moola for the moment (plus i can't really bring my car over to the uk). so my next move will probably be working for at leat another 9 months (paying off debts, saving etc) and then maybe making a different european city (or a canadian one) my home for a year. it's floating around my mind, anyway.
ok, that's it from me. if you're reading this, post some comments, leave a message in the message board, let us know how you're going.
until next time...
- mike
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY
23 2006
you wasted an hour and a half of my life...and i want it back!
by
mike
dear mr. spielsberg,
although your film 'war of the worlds' is now a few years old, I have only just now got around to watching it. why it's taken so long to watch is due to a few reasons; firstly, i was travelling when it was released and didn't get around to watching it. secondly, it stars tom cruise...need i say more.
however, after sitting and watching what can only be described as the worst film EVER, and i mean in the hundred or so years of cinematic history, of every film, student production, home movies...of all these movies, your film 'war of the worlds' rates as the WORST film ever produced (and i'm including my home version of beverly hills 90210 here).
i can't even begin to describe the flaws in this poor excuse for what could have been one of the classic films of our generation. what happened? did you wake up one morning after a late night of watching 'independance day' and decide "you know what, i should re-hash this film with a different story, replace will smith with tom cruise and ruin one of the greatest sci-fi stories of all time".
where orsen wells failed with this story, you surely succeeded...with continuity errors (the video camera in the first half hour...i thought everything electrical stopped working?), weak acting (cruise's character changed so many times in personality i thought he was playing 3 parts) and a storyline that hardly held itself together.
you used to make such fantastic films - what happened? the only saving grace was cruise's daughter (the actors name escapes me at the moment). whilst her screaming could have been cut a little, she delivered a great performance (especially given the material she had to work with).
as a fan of most things sci-fi, i am bitterly disappointed. i expected so much and you delivered so little. perhaps it's time to go back to your roots, back to the 'story', away from the special effects. get off the computer and find yourself a decent script to work with. maybe then 'war of the worlds' can be given the remake it so rightly deserves.
with regards,
michael long
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY
18 2006
saturday it's a saturday
by
mike
lazy weekend so far...which is nice after a long week of work. i got a hair cut at midday today and haven't done much else so far today. not sure what i'm up to tonite yet, but hopefully something fun.
last night i went to paulie's place for a few beers and some tv. tomorrow, golf is in order, as i've not played in about 3 years. should be a lot of fun!
anyways, enough from me. what's going on with you?
- m
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY
15 2006
bdays, love day;;;;update
by
mike
 yesm, it's been a while...here's what's been going on...
- yesterday kings turned 25. happy bday mate.
- it was also love day yesterday...i did not receive anything :( but did have some good beer and pizza down in freo at little creatures.
- guilderton finally happened last weekend, allbeit with only 3 of us. we'll have to organise another trip soon, pics to come at some point
new pics here!!!
- i have new car seat covers, and new floor mats coming soon (especially made). MINI MIKE plates will be ordered hopefully this week
i cant think of much more at the mo, sorry. but i will. and i'll try to post more :)
ciao
mike
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SUNDAY, JANUARY
8 2006
goings on
by
mike
hey people!
what's been happening? how's everyone's 2006 started out? judging by the activity on the site, not many people are checking up on us too much these days...is it because i'm getting more slack with the updates? well...they will be more frequent this year i can assure you.
right now it's 1.49am. i've had a relaxing day of doing very little - i wash, waxed, and polished my little car today, and that's about it. tomorrow i have no plans - possibly heading down to mandurah for the day, but not sure yet, depends on how hot it is.
i'm off to sydney in 2 weeks time for work - mid-year conference is on, so they're flying us all over there for the weekend (20th-22nd). that weekend also happens to be my 25th birthday - jan 21st. all messages can be sent to my email, send a note for an address to send presents to :P
and being almost 2am, i guess it's as good a time as any to get a wish list of bday presents underway -- this will undoubtedly change/grow over the next few weeks, but here goes:
- full service for my little car
- seat covers for car (red or black)
- floor mats for mini
- car alarm for my little mini
- tv series dvds
: northern exposure season 3 and up
: scrubs (any season, prev all of them)
: lost
: west wing (all of them)
: felicity (season 2 and up)
- 1gb (or more) Mem Stick Duo (for my phone)
...i cant think of anything more at the moment, but as i said, this is a work in progress...so i'll be sure to update it more in the next 2 weeks.
anyways, that's all from me for now. someone post some stuff on here already; when i get a new message i'll put up some new pics from new years and xmas.
until later...
- mike
4 comments.
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TUESDAY, JANUARY
3 2006
hello 2006
by
mike
happy new years people!
with a new year upon us, hopefully mikeandkings.com will still live on, thou kings is trying to shut us down :( we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
hope everyone had a great new years and xmas!! let us know what you all got up to. i'll post some photos of the events here in perth in the next week or so.
- mike
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER
21 2005
"her name is rio and she dances on the sand!"
by
mike
hey all!!! it's been a while, sorry about that. it's that time of year again, when everyone goes a little bit crazy, because we're celebrating the birth of your lord and ruler, santa!
but seriously - happy holidays everyone. i hope you're reading this somewhere special, some nice and warm and toasty like it is here in perth at the moment. we're expecting 28 degrees (c not f) for xmas day, so i'm sure we'll all be in the pool gearing up for the water ballet. there are sure to be thousands of photos, so maybe mikeandkings.com can live a new life in 2006 with our lives here.
i'll be off to sydney in january mainly for work, but also for my birthday. i have a conference on over the weekend of jan 20-22, which also happens to be my 25th bday (jan 21st). so...i'll be partying it up in sydney for a few days to ring in my 25th year.
in other news, i still love my car. she still doesn't have a name, but i almost keep calling her bessie, partly because that was my old car, and partly because she's so cute and looks like a bessie.
anywyas people, happy holidays, and a safe and wondeful new year. i'm moving to south perth tomorrow nite, so my next post will be from casa de hawkins as i begin my house sitting duties.
what are you wanting for xmas? post your lists below in the comments...
for me:
- a car stereo
- seat covers & floor mats for my car
- car alarm
- car service
- anything else for my car
- tv show dvd box sets (lost, west wing, family guy, that 70s show, northern exposure s3+up, felicity s2-4, and thousands of others)
- jeff buckley ltd ed 10th anniversary cd releases
- $$$
- acoustic guitar strings
- clothes
- gift vouchers
- anything you want to get me :)
- anything from here especially the red quality carpet set (i think red carpet in my car would look really cool). plus, the chrome gear shifter (with mini logo), arm rest, noise dampening stuff, front and rear brakes...like i said, anything :P
anyways, time for food. i'll try to post again before xmas if i'm not too lazy! let us know how you are people! i hardly hear from anyone anymore.
- mike
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER
2 2005
it's almost xmas
by
mike
i can't belive it's december already. this time last year i was gearing up for 3 months around the states and canada. i'd almost finished up work at boden in london, was still working at the traveldesk in the gen, and i'd been away from home for about a year and a half. 12 months later, i'm back in perth, just started my new job as a travel agent, have myself a wonderful new car and things are slowly but surely getting back to the normal old grind.
but it's good. i miss travelling and all the friends i have overseas, but i get to see all my old friends here in perth, and i know that i'll see all you other people some time soon.
with only 3 or so weeks till christmas i'm in a reflecting mood - so post some comments about your previous 12 months, let us know what's been going on, where you're at and all that...i'll try to add some more updates to mikeandkings.com this month so you all have something to read.
but until later...
mike
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER
21 2005
i heart my mini
by
mike
today, i got a 1978 mini clubman. my mother and sister drove to bunbury (about 2 hours south of perth) and picked it up for me. i've wanted an old mini forEVER and now i have one to call my very own. oh how i love my mini. here's some pics-
 
i'm still yet to give her a name, if you have any ideas, let me know in the comments :)
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