Depends how you look at musical past…. On Saturday there was a Cold Chisel tribute album released. Supposed to be quite good and I would love to listen to the whole thing - the Paul Kelly take on Khe Sanh is quite masterful; brought back a song that has become despised… Anyway, it has prompted me to dig out the ol’ vinyl, and I tells ya I’m having a fine time singing along to Barking Spiders and Breakfast at Sweethearts.

Apparently the worst drivers in the world can be found in Saudi, Dubai and Oman (you have to get extra insurance to drive to Oman from Dubai). Fluke that I hit two of those places in three days and 1,674kms??

Funny, Tim and Ness left it ’til I got back from my mad adventure to tell me this. 

My wee car

I tried my best to run over a herd of goats – on a major highway. Tried to drown the car in the tiny flooded backstreets of Muttrah (they don’t get a lot of rain there). Took wrong roads – lost a reasonable amount of time and k’s. Nearly couldn’t get the car out of a strange residential oasis (and I had a tiny car with a great turning circle) – several young soccer playing boys directed me out (and prob thought I was a freak).

Not the goats I nearly hit

On the way back, I was an hour or so later hitting the border than I had intended but all was still well. Until I took a Dubai exit that finished up being a road-in-progress that onice you were on there were no exits off and it led you waaaayyyy past Dubai. And then getting back to where I wanted to be took me on to every single road and roundabout-of-death that Tim had warned me to avoid – joy!

You are warned about the camels

Word on the street is if you hit a camel… Do not pass go. Go directly to the airport and get on the first plane out. However if you hit and kill a person it is god’s will and you might get three months. 

There’s still a lotta building going on in Dubai… They want to have the biggest and the best of everything (but you still stuggle to buy a beer). So we have a 180 floor building – see it here at 100 – and while at the mo you can visit the third biggest shopping mall in the world, the biggest is under construction. BIG IS BEST!

So I’ve been hanging in Dubai with bro, sis-in-law and the two littlies.

Gorgeous wee three-month-old Isabel Kenzie. Born and bred in UAE (and that’s what she has to deal with on official docs for the rest of her life – Aus citizenship or not!)

Squirmy smiley little thing… I predict walking at 10 months.

Then we have mad and crazy Chloe. Typical two year old. From smiles to tears in the space of a minute. Fave trick of the mo is getting nude and swimming in whatever water is available.

Luke made me into a Southpark character

Hi guys,

just a quick update to let you know what we will be up to in the next few months.

The move to London has begun in earnest. Lisa is already there weekdays, and I am over a few weekend in the next month, on the hunt to buy a car, and find a house to live in. For those who know greater London, we are looking at 2 areas at the moment, the first around Maidenhead, and the second around Amersham. Both are outside the M25, and on fast train access to the city.

All things going to plan, we will have a new place by mid-Feb, early March, and we have to be out of the place in Brussels by the end of March.

I will continue to work in Brussels until mid-year, and will work 1 day from home, and commute into Brussels for 3 nights a week.

In more fun news, we hope to fit a weekend to Oslo in during Feb (hopefully get to see some Winter, that has eluded us this year in Brussels to date), and I am heading the Honkers in April to watch some rugby 7’s and see Thommo and Tiff (providing Thommo is not going to be on a global marketing binge fest). Then my folks will be in Europe for 6-8 weeks from mid-May, but they have only allocated about 4 days to see us!

After this, summer should be just around the corner, and after that, all eyes are on the world cup (speaking of that, what the heck are we doing for that - Dave? Thommo? Dan? anyone?)

In wine related news, we have a London friend who likes his wine a lot, and often goes to tasting events and dinners with some wine society, so Lisa and I plan to hook into that, and I suspect we may be able to twist Dave and Mel’s collective arm, to come along to the odd quaffing event as well.

All of this means if any of you are heading for Europe, you will find Lisa, myself and the mutt in the rural back-blocks of greater London, by mid-March sometime at the latest, and as always, you are all welcome.

Hope you are all well, and had a great silly season.

KC & Lisa 

 

Hi there guys, hope you all had a fab Xmas and are gearing up for a great New Year as well.

We have really enjoyed this festive season in Brussels, except for the unseasonably warm weather, wrecking any chance of snow for the big day. We have had Xmas markets, Xmas beers, and a huge Xmas day with friends here.

The season here really starts 4 weeks out from Xmas day. The decorations go up, the Xmas markets start, and people start to have nightly bookings for Xmas events. The brewers here, who have obvoiously decided that there is not enough beer choice for the rest of the year, also release a range of Xmas beers. These tend to be dark, very rich and tasty, and generally over 10% alcohol, just to get that warm winter feeling. I know Dan Barnett will have fond memories of his “Bush” beer experience in Brussels, so he will be pleased to know, that Bush are one of the good people that do a Xmas beer, called “Bush Noel”. It might as well be called “Goodnight Nurse” because if you have more than a couple, it is all over.

Anyway, the Xmas markets in Germany are legendary in this part of Europe (Thommo and Tiff will no doubt attest to that), and for us, Aachen is the closest point in Germany, so we headed there on the weekend of the 2nd of December, with Sarah-Louise and David, friends from the UK, and Dan & Marz, Patty and John, Australian friends from Brussels.

The markets in Aachen are very pretty, set in the square and streets around the wonderful cathederal, where 17 kings of Germany were crowned. There are hundreds of stalls, selling decorations, gifts, food and beverages. Of course the star of the show is the Gluhwein and there is plenty of it about, and being consumed.

Here we are in Aachan, with the Cathederal in the background behind Lisa. The Gluhwein here was the first of the day, before we realised every other stall sold them in ceramic boots! The following pictures give a better idea of what I am talking about, needless to say, we have a huge ceramic boot collection at home now….

This slightly blurry picture is of the Grand Place in Brussels, the place looked amazing this Christmas, they had a huge tree set up, a nativity scene with sheep and goats running around, and an amazing lights and music show highlighting the beautiful buildings.Anyway, this gives you some idea about our build up to Christmas this year.

For Xmas Day, Lisa and I decided to host a lunch, for some of our friends here, who were not heading off to family, or other holiday locations. At lunch we had our friends Sinead (Irish) and Fred (Belgian), as well as Dan & Marz (Australian), and Navin (Malaysian). Jordan was there of course, and her present unwrapping ability was one of the highlights of the day when she was included in the Kris Kringle event. We had Champagne and finger food, Turkey, 2 types of stuffing, roast veggies, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, cranberry sauce, gravy, white wine and red wine. This was followed by herbal schnapps and a short break. Kris Kringle followed (with Lisa playing santa), and then dessert. Home made steamed Xmas pudding, brandy custard, and a demi-sec champagne, followed by more schapps, and some of that Italian lemon digestive drink. After another delay we had coffee, a lemon tart, and more drinks, followed by a cheese course!

The entire eating event took 10 hours, we consumed about 5 bottles of bubbly, 6 bottles of red, 2 of white, and a bottle of schnapps, as well as assorted servings of whiskey, tequila, ammeretto, and port.

Here are some of the special moments!

Boys in the kitchen: Navin, Dan, KC

What a great looking Bird!!!

Let the feasting begin…. Sinead, Fred, Navin, Dan, Marz, Lisa

Time for a rest break….

Santa got lots of attention from the kids…

Tis the season of brotherly love

Santa and the chair take a big risk!

The puppy loves getting presents

And unwrapping them all herself….

time for pudding

long day, great fun

That’s about it folks, I meant to write down the names of the wine bottles, to try to make it sound official for the Wine Club website, but we have taken the recycling away, so I missed out. Suffice to say, they were all French wines, from 1999 to 2004 for the reds, and Alsace whites from 2005. Champage was Verve Brut and then Verve Demi-Sec with dessert.

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures, there are more at http://picasaweb.google.com/keirancampbell

Bye!

KC & Lisa (and Jordan)

Went to the Queenscliff Music Festival a couple of weeks back. Saw the Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers collaboration TNT. In solo things and in various bands I’ve seen each of these boys run the gamut from appalling to brilliant. This gig was more towards the latter. Good form, good voice, good banter. And, have you ever checked out the lyrics for Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s the night‘? Positively sleazy and hilarious done by Tex.