AJ Hacketts Bungy Jumping Cairns

   In the late 1980s - early 1990s I decided the one adventure activity I really wanted to try was "bungy jumping." Aware it was launching at Birkenhead Point in NSW I looked forward to the chance until I tore a posterior cruciate ligament just as the opportunity arose and then a model was doing a promo jump as a duo and the cable was incorrectly attached so she hit her head (just) on the bottom of the river. I believe "bunny jumping is still banned in NSW.

   A little while later we enjoyed a QANTAS mystery flight to Cairns and the opportunity arose to take a trip and try the 70m drop over a small pond and it was aaaamazing! They hiked as they set up the gear, ribbed me about my rugby player size and told ne to jump on 1 counting back from 5... I knew if they got to 1 and I was frozen I wouldn't jump ever... I am pretty sure I went between 3 and 2 and the sensation is the most frightened I've ever been. A couple of seconds of total free fall, causing my guttural yell and slowly the bungy takes up like a rubber band and the bounce is nearly as high as the jump. Some get their hair wet in the pond but I suspect the rope was wound back a bit for me! It was exhilarating and a nightmare all at once!

 

"Powderworker"

   It's been a while since I posted but there have been a few purchases and gifts worth sharing!! The campaigns to 'get the Oils back together' are what led me to find the long legendary Midnight Oil punters group known as "Powderworker" as represented by a long running Yahoo E-group taking it's name/ID from the first track of the Oils self titled 'Blue Meanie' album!!
   Then came the related Facebook presence fuelled by some fans with close contacts with the band and the same passion for the Oils!!The 'Powderworkers' Facebook group has the usual FB mix of earnest fandom, new and treasured friends, fellow punters from The Great Circle, shared videos and audio and some time filling distractions... but it's all connected to simply being blown away by the message and the music of the Oils!! Even better the purpose made t-shirts were available in age-ing fan sizes!! Hence the "Powderworkers" t-shirt complete with anti Australia Card, anti US intelligence, anti- establishment bar code...

U2 that band who polarise people

   It's been a crazy busy few months so I'm back with plenty of t-shirts yet to feature!! U2 are a favourite but their music and swagger tend to polarise people [no!!!] They frustrate the heck out of me for the hype and nonsense but their music has had a shaping influence on my outlook and values!!

   This is a U2 t-shirt you have when only a fan would know... symbols circa Popmart and 'got any blacker?' black. I do hope the latest I&E Tour makes it here next year or 2017 as the video screen, messages and themes are spectacular from what I've seen and heard!! I really like the acoustic reworking of their latest record and I find an hour of U2 listening a complete escape, a spiritual experience and an introverts paradise!!

Wanderers 2015 Training T-Shirt

This photo is a challenge... that training t-shirt doesn't fit me, I look like a bag of marshmallows in it and I need to change that... in the next 10-12 weeks it's one measure of my goal to get back to regular exercise for which I have let myself be too busy and this time of year I get that 'on the edge of a virus' feeling and so choose not to fully exhaust myself unless it should come true!! I need to catch up on sleep, get to the pool and I have just joined a multiple gym membership scheme to access treadmills at Uni and a local 24hr gym... holy crap!! If I get back to the pool 3 times in a week I will allow myself to get my needed new goggles and get a photochromatic pair... if not, then that purchase will wait!!

'ADIDAS'

   A simple recognisable sporting brand, with quite a story between two brothers in dispute, that also led to the creation of PUMA!! This split a village and local families as to those who worked for each factory... all because of shoes!!
   In this case another great example of how a company gets to put it's logo on your t-shirt and you pay them for the privilege of advertising their brand... and for some people, the feeling your associating and enhancing your own... well, not in this case, it's redbubble t-shirt in a variety of colours and it helps me remember that's one I wear when exercising, rather than wrecking a whole array of other new t-shirts too fast!! The black and brown versions have been ordered to arrive soon as well!!

"blogito ergo sum"

   Out of t-shirts? No way, just very busy... so here's my latest purchase. I reckon it'll be good for wearing as a multimedia workshop leader... there is one with the latin [not in my size]!! Ever since it's inspiration "I think, therefore I am?" the western world has been on a downward path to the primacy of the individual, selfishness, consumerism and finally perhaps global climate destruction... Oh well, better get back to saving the planet, one blog post at a time!!

"Sheldon Cooper"

   I was wearing the test pattern before Sheldon but my black t-shirt had a smaller frame of colours. In this new addition to the collection I've relented and chosen the larger design and as part of my latest effort to not just buy black t-shirts. I've chosen what redbubble now offer as a deeper brown colour than the one they used to sell. These are 'no sweat shop' online t's in their hundreds of thousands... there are always new designs tempting me to buy in...
   I like the monitor test pattern [and the TV version] because lots of kids I work with have no idea what it is... they've seen blue screen on a Windows computer [who hasn't] but don't know where this comes from. Anyhow, I just like the colour!!
I think this is my 60th t-shirt of the week post... nowhere near done yet!!

Apple "Genius"

 
   No, I haven't taken up a job at the Apple Store at Charlestown, but it might be fun to wear this in there one day!! This is one of my summer 2015 additions to the collection though it's not the same thick woven fabric as the authentic variety I think it'd be fun to go in answering customers questions with a range of less than helpful replies...

'Blue Sky Mining' 2

   Sometimes it seemed excessive to buy two or more of the alternative t-shirt designs at an 'Oils' show BUT this time around I was very glad I had when I stupidly hung the black version of this on the clothesline way too close to the public street... and predictably had it stolen during the day!! This album was huge follow up to 'Diesel & Dust' and we all queued in a huge crowd inside the old Workers Club in the afternoon for tickets to the Oils two nights of concerts held soon after... there were so many people they began distributing raffle tickets and calling batches of fifty to the counter... as my mates left they whispered that nobody was checking the ticket when you got to the front... I did have to get to Uni so I slowly chatted with heaps of people I knew as I sidled up the desk about 700 earlier than I should have... sorry!!
   I saw this gig at the Sydney Entertainment Centre as well... which is where this shirt came from... I travelled back down and went with a bunch of Sydney devotees...
   It was also a significant album because as a back up to D&D this could have propelled the Oils into U2 territory... but it's been well written about that the band instead took a year off to spend time with family and to set off the round about... the Oils doing what they do... deciding as a band and sticking to that!!

'21' The Most Premierships by any of the Clubs

    One of my favourite stories from this year's NRL Rugby League Grand Final was the tactic of the Bulldogs coach Des Hasler to hold back his team for minutes to leave the South Sydney Rabbitohs out on the field, to have time to reflect on the pressure of expectation that it had been 43 years and some very dark days since the last Souths premiership.
   Instead of this, the faithful and all supporters in the crowd embraced the team, cheered rapturously and both they and the team soaked up the atmosphere of opportunity instead of fear... it was actually palpable at home in the lounge room on the TV and evident in the players faces... even better, after the fact, the Bulldogs copped a fine from the NRL for breaking the rules...
   This t-shirt makes a nice compliment to my 20 premierships one from the Centenary of Rugby League collection a few years ago... Souths may or may not go back to back or win 2 of the next four years BUT this was a special year and special day... the last time I watched this club win was on black and white TV in the lounge room in East Maitland as a ten year old!! Next year's playing jersey will have 21 hoops of alternatively red and green as a celebration!!