High tech warfare.

This is the logo from an item of hand luggage that I bought in Koh Samui a year ago for $20. It has been extremely handy, having travelled to the UK, France, Singapore and New Zealand since then - it even survived being 'misplaced' en route to London (thanks Emirates!) and seems to cheerfully handle the ongoing trials and tribulations involved in being an international bag of mystery.

I credit this value for money and all round robustness to the fact that it is called 'Combat'. It is clearly a high tech, cutting edge, hardcore item of luggage of mass destruction - something the logo leaves the viewer in no doubt about.


Yay for incongruous branding - it makes life that little bit brighter :-)

Merry mutant!

I thought I should perhaps make at least a cursory nod to the festive season, seeing as I have been accused of being somewhat 'bah humbug-ish' this year.

So - here goes.

May I present a festive illustration from the side of the 'Luxury Christmas Crackers' that set me back $3.50* in the Footscray 'misc-crap-that-you-really-have-to-have' store. These luxury babies were Australian themed and made in Indonesia.

Now far be it from me to cast aspersions as to the typical Indonesian christmas cracker illustrator's knowledge of Australia's indigenous animals, or Australia in general for that matter ... but my guests and I were reasonably certain that Australian Emus don't have four legs ... although possibly the Indonesian ones do?



The map of Australia on the box also had dinosaurs in Western Australia - but we thought best not to be too pedantic at xmas ... in fact, from what I understand, the addition of a few dinosaurs could potentially be a significant improvement for WA ... perhaps they should seek the advice from the makers of my xmas crackers?

Merry festiveness y'all ;-)


*And no, I didn't win even one of the crackers I pulled.
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The power of bun!

Back in Melbourne town now - settling back in and answering approximately 4.26 million emails per day from the lovely but occasionally confused students that I was teaching in Singapore.

Thought I'd post up another memento of my Singapore sojourn, this one from the food kiosk outside the Underwater World on Sentosa 'Island'. The Underwater World itself wasn't too bad but the sign below was what impressed me most - never underestimate the power of bun!

Useful signage.

Just a quickie, so to speak, for this post.

This is a picture snapped on Thursday while boarding the free bus that takes tourists around Sentosa 'Island'. Sentosa is a rather curious tourist trap, literally 300 metres away from Singapore, that includes a 'magical musical fountain' and large ugly statue of a MerLion (some sort of mythical concrete animal mostly sighted in its natural habitat of Singaporean corporate logos), resplendent with mobile phone receiver sticking from the top of its head.



Not sure if this sign is any relation to the nightclub concept of a 'door whore' but it made the bus trip, while crammed in with approximately 3.2 million pushy Indian tourists, that little bit more pleasant :-)