Includes all Bills and Rice

World Tower Apartment
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

I like reading the notices for student accommodation that you see stuck on poles around Sydney - particularly around the central station end of Pitt St.

I thought the classic was one which advertised a 2BR flat with sauna, pool, access to gym - and all in a city location for $100 per week. The catch? You were sharing with 5 other people.

My student life was luxury compared to this.

But last night I saw one of much better value. A World Tower apartment. Weekly rent includes all bills and rice!

Interested? Email me and I'll send you the number.

Orange Grove Organic Markets

bikemap
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

Thought I should get back to the original intention of this blog. Which was to write about discovering things in Sydney.

Now... even though the Schapelle Corby post did grow my readership by 25% overnight (hi Russel Allan - thanks for the comment, and yes, you are worth more than one dollar!), I will resist the urge to actually write about something so interesting that it touches a pop culture nerve and crashes the Blogger servers (sorry... I'm fantasizing).

Yesterday I ended up going for a bit of an explore on my bike. Since coming to Sydney I've been trying to find a decent place to buy organic food and after 6 months have had no luck. So far it's been really expensive and crap.

Instead I have been shopping at the Fox Studios Farmers Market and there is some good quality stuff there but I haven't bought from the organic stall because I don't like shopping at places where the prices aren't clearly displayed. And also - when I've been able to decipher the handwriting on the blackboard behind the stall I've thought it's too expensive.

Instead I've been going to one of the conventional stalls which has some pretty good stuff. The problem with Fox Studios is it feels like your shopping inside some Gold Coast property developers wet dream. It's just SO clean!

Anyway, someone I met told me that there is one organic stall at the Glebe Markets (which is better know for it's trash, treasure, crafts etc). So I rode out there yesterday using my new Central Sydney Bicycle Map (which I picked up at the Surry Hills Festival a couple of weeks back). At the markets I found the vege stall but it wasn't clear whether the food was organic or conventional and it didn't look that great. So I went across the street to the healthfood shop that's been there for at least 10 years but in recent times has been taken over by that vitamin mutinational GNC (I thought of hotlinking to their site but anyone that uses the term "health and wellness" doesn't deserve the time).

They claim to be running the shop as it always has been but I have to say that I have never seen such tired looking vegetables since the morning after my two inebriated female flatmates bought some guys home who later decided that it would be sensible to piss in the fridge. This happened back in 1990. And if you're wondering - we washed the vegetables and made a soup. We were poor students.

So I decided to go check out the market at Orange Grove Public School which is on the corner of Perry St and Balmain Rd in Leichhardt/Rozelle. One of my readers had recommended this place sometime back. After consulting my bike map I managed to find my way there. It was a lot of fun riding over the ANZAC bridge 'cause you get a great view of planes taking off over Newtown on the left hand side and the harbour on the right hand side. And I LOVE planes and water - so perfect for me.

And I can really recommend that bike route from the city out to Rozelle (it keeps going to Olympic Park I think). RTA also have maps if you are interested. Actually I was thinking how different it is to cycle around Sydney (compared to Melbourne) having to follow these bizarre routes but I guess it's the same with driving in the two cities. Melbourne is full of straight lines, Sydney just doesn't have the landscape for that kind of simplicity.

Anyway. This market was really fantastic. It has three really great organic stalls, one of which was quite huge. And really cheap. In fact, dare I say, I think they were cheaper than organics at Vic Market in Melbourne.

I also discovered this amazing Guatemalan Coffee Stall. One thing I've learnt about Sydney is that if there is a queue then it must be something worth queing for. And there was a queue for this place. While waiting we were urged by a fairly steretypical middle aged Rozelle dwelling anglo saxon do gooder (female) to donate to a fund which educates Guatemalan kids. She was kind of hanging about in the back ground while the two real-life Guatemalans that she'd (no doubt) imported directly from South America did the coffee making.

After waiting for 10 minutes I found out why this place is so popular. The guy at the counter made me sniff two types of coffee before making a selection. He then asked Do you eat chilli? When I nodded, he said OK. Now we are going to give you a new experience, and proceeded to mix dried chilli seeds in with the coffee. My neighbours in the queue assured me that I was about to have a positive experience. And they were right. Chilli expresso just has a bit of a kick. I might even try it at home.

Schapelle Corby - The Next Intruder on Big Brother

Funny. Never thought I end up agreeing with Darren Hynch, but he has recently copped a bit of flack for suggesting that Schapelle Corby might be less than innocent.

Not that I necessarily feel that she is guilty but I do feel that the whole thing is rather bizarre. We accuse the Indonesians of not giving her a fair trial but the Australian attempts to convince them otherwise have been all based on hearsay. First we send over a prisoner who'd heard some gossip in the cells, then we get our government to write a half hearted letter to say that it might have been a baggage handler.

If you were looking at this whole sorry episode from somewhere far removed - like Uzbekistan - who would you believe: Indonesian justice or trial by Australian media?

I think that Darren's correct when he says that the only reason 92% of Channel 9 viewers think she's innocent is because "...she is young, white, pretty and has big boobs."

Channel 7 viewers wouldn't know anything because they watch Today Tonight.

And most Channel 10 viewers are probably wondering which number they need to SMS for her eviction.

Meanwhile ABC and SBS viewers are reminding themselves that perhaps Tahiti will make a good holiday destination this winter.

And does anyone know what happened (or even care) to Wenhao Zhao?

The Great Sydney Urban Myth

I've decided to tackle one of those great Sydney urban myths.

I've been lamenting the fact that Sydney doesn't have the bar scene that Melbourne has and I just reckon it is because people in Sydney would rather be at an RSL.

But every single Sydney person that I've ever met has said Oh it's just that our licensing laws are so much more expensive... that's why you don't get those small groovy bars here that you find in Melbourne.

I didn't believe them so I did some research and this is what I found:

It costs $526.80 to apply for a general liquor licence in Victoria and then $158.10 to renew each year. You need to add $979.90 per year to get some decent trading hours between Monday and Saturday plus an extra $979.90 to trade late on Sundays.

So from my reading of the rules you could open a small bar in Melbourne and trade fairly late Monday to Saturday for $1,506.70 in the first year and then $1,138 each year after.

Now lets try this in NSW.

I've read the pdfs on the government website and I can't see why you couldn't run a bar in Sydney with a Hotel license which costs $2,500 per year with an application fee of $500 (which is refunded if you are successful). Depending on the licensing court this will let you trade up to 24 hours per day.

OK. So this is twice as much as Victoria but I've calculated the following

• Sydney Bar $2,500 per year
• Melbourne Bar $1,138 per year
• Difference of $1,362

If you were to trade 6 nights a week this would be 312 nights a year.

All you would need to do is sell an extra stubby of Boags Premium each night at $6 each to make $1,872. Take out the cost of the beer and you have your extra dollars.

Now the problem might be that if you get classed as a night club in the City of Sydney you will have to fork out $60,000!

From everything I've read I can't see that a small bar would be classed as a Nightclub but maybe I'm missing something here. But I guess that explains why Sydney nightclubs are huge - they have to be.

If I can be bothered one day I might telephone the liquor licensing court to confirm the facts, because it is odd that little bars don't seem to exist here.

As a side note I discovered one interesting point about Victorian licensing laws: You'll have a lot of trouble getting a glass of beer after the Dawn Service unless you find a bar that's paid the additional $526.80 per year to open from 7am on ANZAC day and Good Friday.

This doesn't seem to be a problem in NSW.

Story time

I'd like to thank the other two thirds of my readership who say that they found my post
Do you feel sorry for Michael Jackson? to be quite interesting. And a message to one-third of my demographic who question my stats:

No. I'm not counting myself in my stats...

But I do appreciate feedback.

So anyway. Promise to get back to the serious art of blogging soon. By the way did you hear about the guys in Sydney that stole a bus? They weren't quite as in to it as the kid in Melbourne that stole the tram. They didn't actually pick up passengers. I think it was a drunken incident rather than planned...Sydney siders have no class.

Feedback from my extensive readership

I thought I'd share some of my reader feedback:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Natasha
Date: 10 May 2005 7:30:37 AM
To: rodp
Subject: Sydders: Do you feel sorry for Michael Jackson

Natasha has sent you a link to a weblog:

Simon says (!) that in England Casey Kasem was actually on TV and that CK is actually the voice of Shaggy in Scooby Doo!

In Melbourne it was on Sunday nights and I used to listen to it on the headphones so my mum wouldn't know!

15,000 songs? It's not enough if you're a DJ, believe you me!

-------------------

Sometimes it's nice to know that people read my blog

Cockroach

Cockroach
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

You might not realise this but I do extensive research on the demographic of my readership.

I've discovered that 33% of my readership found my last blog entry BORING!

So just to satisfy her I'm going to write about something she finds interesting.. (and now she's telling me how many dots to put at the end of my sentences).

COCKROACHES...

Living in Sydders you just have to get use them - or that's what Sydney siders say. A bit like they all say you can't have good bars in Sydney like you do in Melbourne because the liquor licences are too expensive. I reckon that this is a bullshit excuse... If I had a dollar for every one that's told me that Sydney liquor licences are too expensive I could open my own bar!

But I've probably lost some of my audience by now - so back to cockroaches. I bought some cockroach bait tonight and was interested to read:

Step 1
Cockroaches are attracted to eat the ... bait

Step 2
After eating the bait the cockroaches return to where they hide and die.

Step 3
As cockroaches ... partake in cannibalisation of cockroaches killed by the poison, they will also go on to die.


Now it seems to me that it's no wonder cockroaches have such a bad name for themselves. They scuttle about and hangout inside the toaster but if that wasn't bad enough they also EAT EACH OTHER.

I think cockroaches need to get some media training. A good press officer to coach them on how to be more acceptable to human kind. Then they could send out press releases to tell us how great they are.

And then we'd stop trying to kill them. Who knows - we might even vote for them....

Do you feel sorry for Michael Jackson?

jackson
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

It seems that iTunes Australia is imminent. It was Russell Crowe that spilled the beans when he said on radio that his latest grunt (sorry - song) will be available soon on the Australian iTunes. Which got me to thinking about the whole thing of buying songs off the internet for 99 cents. Why the hell would any one want to do that?

When I was a kid we just taped stuff off Casey Kasem's American Top 40. I think it was on Sunday mornings on 7LA where I grew up near Launceston, Tasmania. I guess this shows my age - but then I've done research on my demographic and I know that the average age of my blog reader is in the early 30s so I'm not that far ahead of you.

So anyway - there were heaps of songs that I use to listen to which either had Casey's voice breaking in at the end or the first sentence from some advertisement for a car yard. I think this added charm to the whole experience. But the best thing was that they were free and if we'd liked them enough not to tape over them the following Sunday we might actually buy a copy of the whole album.

Anyway, I know this has been said before but the iPod kills the whole experience that we use to enjoy. From carefully taking the album out of it's cover and blowing off the dust to sitting on the floor studying the lyric sheet while you listen to the song. CDs removed some of this pleasure but at least you still got a little booklet to read even if you couldn't get the damn thing back in the case without bending it in half.

I just had a look at the iPod site and the latest colour model can store 15,000 songs. Now. Tell me this. Who on this planet has 15,000 songs that they care enough about to want to have them with them where ever they go?

I'd have trouble finding 30...

But maybe that's why I haven't got an iPod. Maybe I'm missing something here.

And they've also cottoned on to one of my complaints so now you can store the Album Artwork on the thing. But nuh. I say. That just doesn't cut it. Anyone who's owned a copy of Michael Jackson's Thriller will know that the experience of unfolding the cover to it's full 90cm landscaped length to find a picture of your favorite pedophile lounging in a white suit stroking a real tiger was one of those defining childhood moments. It just wouldn't work on a 5cm LCD iPod.

Maybe that's why Michael doesn't sell as many records as he use to...