Mick's top 5 Beers

The last few months for me have been dominated with Australia's favourite pastime, sinking beers so I thought I would rate my top 5 favourite beers.



5th. Coopers Sparling Ale: A solid brew, very drinkable, nothing outstanding but the memories of abusing this beer in my early years in Byron Bay makes this beer sneak into my top 5. It's not very sparkling as this brew pours a very cloudy old gold with a lot of sediment (if you choose to decant with the sediment). A slight head forms but quickly disappears, aroma is apples, pears and prunes. Taste is smooth and refreshing, pears and plums shine through.






4th. Guiness: Only the Irish could bring us this Guinness drink of black perfection and God bless them for it. Although considered an acquired taste, I recommend you stick at it until you've acquired it. No more problems of bloating like you have with lager, and like my gran used to say, "it's good for you cause its full of iron". Well, if that's the case, I can never swim again cause I must weigh a metric ton. There are plenty of better beers to consume but considering I was born March 18 i tend to go overboard on St Paddy's day so this beer makes my top five because to me it is the champagne of beers.









3rd. Redoak Baltic Porter: A pitch black beer with a disappearing brown head. The aroma is sweet with strong notes of caramel and roasted malt as well as light notes of alcohol. The flavor is very sweet with medium notes of roasted malt and chocolate, as well as light notes of whiskey, leading to a dry roasted finish. The alcohol leaves a slight burn in the cheeks.




2nd. Little Creatures Pale Ale:Pours an orangish golden color with a decent amount of white foamy head that sticks around. Smells like cascade hops, nice and tropical (lychees) and a little floral.(rose petals) Also tastes like cascade hops with a good amount of bitterness behind it. I don't taste a whole lot of maltiness, but there is some sweetness to balance the bitterness out. The mouthfeel is a little tingly and heavy, but not too much of either, very nice. Overall, it's a great and tasty pale ale. The only place I have seen this beer on tap is Oxford 152 in Bulimba, so get down and check it out.

1st. Knappstein Reseve Lager: My favourite beer at the moment is the Knappstein Reserve Lager produced from the Lion Nathan Company.

The beer is of a Bavarian lager style. Made from Australia’s finest malt and unique sauvin hops delivers a beer with fruity malt and hop aromas, a gentle warming palate, with a dramatic bitter finish. Crafted to reflect wine characteristics in style, structure and complexity, the ‘reserve lager’ is crisp, aromatic and pale in colour and is a perfect accompaniment to fine dining.

Would like to here some of your opinions of your favourite beers.
hope you try and enjoy the beers you may not have tried from my top 5.

mickus

Bear 2007 Champ!

Well the preliminary rounds of the NRL have been completed which means the footy tipping competition is over for another year.
With one of the most dominant displays ever witnessed Bear Skin Rug took out the 2007 Tipping comp and gets his name engraved on the revered plate. Second place went to the ever consistent Coltrain.
What makes both their performances all the more impressive was they probably didn't get to see any matches from over soccer mad London.
Congrats to the both of you. I really missed you guys during the footy season, it wasn't quite the same without you.
hope you enjoy the Rugby World Cup starting in a few days time.

Enjoy the highlights package, and Bear give me an address so I can send you The Plate for the off season.

Well Done Mungus.

check out the chillis

our very first meal on tour in Hongkers....... We found a restaurant and asked for the special - schezwan spicy fish. fair enough she did try to warn us that it was hot but I would have never of thought that many chillis would be put into the one dish....

funny enough it wasn't the chillis that produced the heat. those little pepercorn balls you see are the babies that packed the punch.....

back at base

Calling all vegas crew!!!

We have returned from foriegn places hanging with similar faces and the news is good. All foriegn based fixers are good (bloody great in fact - miss them already).

We have a couple of pics we'll post soon. Just have to downsize them so they dont take so farken long to download....

Anywaste a crew catch up in the near future is warranted so be on the look out for an excuse....

CUPPLA SITES

G'Day Kiddos,

It's been a tad quiet on this site of recent. I guess that's because there are a cuppla other sights worth checking out:

FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/
Most of you are on it but if you're not then get with the picture and get into it. Its loads of fun and of course the opportunity of touching base with someone you thought was lost from your spectrum of being.

LAST - http://www.last.fm/
This really is a fascinating site - especially for all you musak buffs. The programme attaches to your iTunes and keeps an eye on what your listening to. You can then head to your profile and get recomendations and playlists from other users who are into the same thing as you. For those of you who dont keep musak on the computer you can still make up a profile, type in a group/record etc and get recomendations on other musak. A great source.... and loads of fun for the cyber surfer.... Bear, Mickus, Markus & Hound, dont waste time boys - get into it

Most importantly: rule number 1

These emergency instructions were written on the back of the seats on a ferry Bluey and I took in Croatia. You've got to love a country that has its priorities so well in hand.

A bit of Paul Kelly Magic..

For all those who've travelled, are travelling or may just like Paul Kelly..
Here's the Lyrics for his song "Every F#*king City" from Triple J's Hottest 100, 2000

We argued on the channel train to Paris
The vin rouge helped us make it sweet again
But by the time that we got down to Lyon
Everything I said was wrong and you cursed me in the rain
We split up for a while in Barcelona
We met up six days later in Madrid
I was hoping that the break would make things go a little better for us
And for a little while it almost did
Now I'm in a bar in Copenhagen
And i'm trying hard to forget your name
And I'm staring at the label on a bottle of cerveza
And every fucking city feels the same

You said to call you when I got to London
A French girl told me that you'd left a note
I said to her "I like your accent" and she thought I sounded funny
So we ended up drinking in Soho
Foolishly I followed you to Dublin
Like a ghost I walked the streets of Temple Bar
And all the bright young things were throwing up their Guinness in the gutters
And once I thought I saw you from afar
Now I'm in a nightclub in Helsinki
And they're playing La Vida Loca once again
And I can't believe I'm dancing to this crap but I'm a chance here
And every fucking city sounds the same

At a cafe in the port of Amsterdam
An E-mail from you said you'd gone to Rome
For a minute I thought maybe but my funds were running low
And anyway it sounded like you weren't alone
So I headed north until I got to Hamburg
A chilly city suits a troubled soul
And on the Reeperbahn I paid a woman far too much
To kick me out before I'd even reached my goal
Now I'm in a restaurant in Stockholm
And the waiter here wants me to know his name
And I can order sandwiches in seven different languages
But every fucking city looks the same
Arriverderci, au revoir, aufwiedersen, hasta la vista baby
Yeah, every fucking city's just the same

Brisvegas Free Hugs

she said...... YES!!!

On my 37th birthday on the 17th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of 2000 in the 7th hour of the evening just after a candle lit dinner I asked Sally McSweeney to marry me.....

And she said YES........

Happy Birtday Borgus

Happy Birthday Borgus Erectus

Thinking of you on this special day.

More Music in Mumbai

Nothing worse than being short for music and not being able to keep up with whats happening in the scene.
For news in Australia try the following links

In The Mix
Spraci

For live streaming radio over the internet try

1ClubFM
Virgin


Reviews and tips for cool music

UK Tunes



Have more sites to publish but have to start work now will update this post tonight.

Hope this helps with the wine.

Life Lessons

A teacher gave her class of 11 year olds an assignment:
To get their parents to tell them a story with a moral
at the end of it.

The next day the kids came back and one by one began
to tell their stories.

Ashley said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of
egg laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to
market in a basket on the front seat of the car when we
hit a big bump in the road and all the eggs got broken.

"What's the moral of that story?" asked the teacher.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"

"Very good," said the teacher.

Next little Sarah raised her hand and said, "Our family
farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market.
One day we had a dozen eggs, but when they hatched
we only got ten live chicks, and the moral to this story
is, 'Don't count your chickens before they're hatched'."

"That was a fine story Sarah."

Michael, do you have a story to share?"

"Yes. My daddy told me this story about my Aunty Sharon.
Aunty Sharon was a flight engineer on a plane in the
Gulf War and her plane got hit.

She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had
was a bottle of whisky, a machine gun and a machete.

She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't
break and then she landed right in the middle of 100
enemy troops.

She killed seventy of them with the machine gun
until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more
with the machete until the blade broke. And then she
killed the last ten with her bare hands."

"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of
moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?"

"Stay the f*** away from Aunty Sharon when she's been drinking."

Music News

It's a rainy day in Mumbai with dark, low clouds encouraging us to stay in and enjoy a bottle of red and some tunes.
Our iTunes library of over 4000 songs is regularly put to the test but today Paul Weller and his album "Days of Speed" has risen to the top and is keeping us entertained as the streets fill with water and the bottle of red is slowly emptied.

We're a bit short on music news in Mumbai so if anyone has any tips for tunes past or present, throw in a comment or better yet, a blog to let us know your music news...

We all know what she's thinkin....

I wonder what she's reading????

Shagga, you got competition....

The Eco VIllage - Currumbin valley

G'Day Folks,

I have been a little lazy of late just posting pics but thought I would introduce all you overseas folks to land that Sal and I recently purchased in the Currumbin Valley.

The actual property is 990 m(sq) and extends from Sally to the dirt road behind her (this is actually greenway not road which was used as an access point for heavy vehicles in preliminary ground work). If you then follow the tree line behind her diagonally up (you may see a fence line in the background) you will get a good glimpse of the actual property. One side of the property actually ends in acres of Hoop Pine forest that are desingated to be left in its natural state which we considered to be a big pull in our purchase.

Anyway that's about it at present. Our designer has finally started on our project so we are eagerly awaiting butter sketches which we hope to have before our vacation.

Hope it gives you some idea of we we are getting ourselves into.........

How many horses do you see?

How many people do you see?

Anyone in Mumbai next weekend....?

If you are then drop in...!
If not, then find a tele, get a beer in yer hand and cheer on the Wallabies against the Kiwis!!

Namaste

Hello - quick note to Mickus - is it possible to add the mumbai-maddness blog to the fix contacts?
Hope all is well to all fellow fixers, Mumbai is raining, yet the monsoon has not hit us as yet. (so we're told)
Shagga and I went down to Sth Bombay today and Indian Gate was saturated, the sea water went up and over the fence, onto the road, up to the Taj Hotel, sweeping some locals off their feet right on the road. We even saw a motorbike get swept away. (pretty cool)

Will get some photo's soon.

Rumour

Rumour has it that the Bear Skin Rug has cut off all his dreads... Is this true?? Does someone have a picture???

Massive news in the Fixer's circles.... We need evidence.....

Only when the last tree has been cut down,

Only when the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten..

Cree Indian Prophecy

interesting

Submit All Your NSW Jokes

If you put a big condom on a big c*ck, a medium condom on a medium c*ck and a small condom on a small c*ck, what do you put on a soft c*ck?

A BLUE JERSEY!

State Verses State, Mate Verses Mate!!!

Well what a match..... One that I was so glad to have been a part of.... Burger, Si, Kymbo, Paul, Sal and myself were amongst the 52,000 lucky people to be at the game last night (the biggest crowd at Suncorp EVER).. A great Queensland come back of fairy tale proportions.

I could of kicked myself when I murmured to the person next to me that Tate was about to go in for a try right on half time. His kick and chase went Pete Tong and the rest is history. Queensland down 18 -6 with 40 to go. But you know what, being a person who has watched many a game and believes he actually gets as nervous as the players on the day I would rather be down at half time then defending a lead as we always do better with our backs against the wall. And the boys didnt dissappoint. The buzz at Suncorp was that apparent that I could'nt talk to the person next to me the roar was so loud.

The Blues didnt even score a point in the second half. Mal's half time talk must have been inspirational as we absolutely demolished the Blues not giving them an inch at any point in the second half. I was a proud Queenlsander and my 5 partners in crime were all beaming at the end of the game. Sally actually had to calm me down as I was getting a little cocky on the way home feeling the need to rub the win into any Blues supporter's face that happened to pass by.

Lastly Steven Price take a bow. You're a farken legend mate and have been inducted in my personal hall of fame along with the other Queenslanders I have personaly admired in my time. He epitomised the pride that goes along with wearing a Maroon Jersey. I was in awe of his passion last night. He was inspirational and the best on the field in my opinion. You're a farken legend Pricey... When I think of last night's game in the future I will remember it as the game you stood tall for Queensland (do you think he will read this??).

MATE VERSES MATE...... STATE VERSES STATE...

QUEENSLAND ONE UP.

BRING ON GAME TWO!!!

one nil, one nil, one nil, one nil, one nil, one nil, one nilllllll!!!

Yeeee Farh kinnn harrrrrhh!!!!!! Aight...

Two Tribes Go To War

Just received some photos of the new Wembley Stadium the second best stadium in the world, not bad.

Mel or anyone else who would like to become a contributor to the fix please email me so I can reply with the invite. Click on Mickus and it will take you to an address for me.

Oh yeah about Jamesy's parteeee, I was only taking the piss, pretty low key this year.

Bear & Col missing you heaps around the holiest time of the year, State of Origin isn't the same without two of the Mightiest Maroons to grace this earth.

Big Mal called me the other day looking for you Mungus he was hoping you would give the boys a pep talk before they took to the field. I told him you would be available for Game III.

Civil War is almost upon us and the butterflies are settling in so good luck to all you Mighty Maroons where ever you may be.

Jamesy's State of Origin Parteeeeeeeeeeeeee

One more sleep before the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Virgin Mary,all pull resources to deliver the world the greatest of miracles, The Mighty Maroons.

In keeping with tradition good ol' Jamesy will be hosting festivities at Cane Toad Central, rumour has it he is going all out for this one.

The game will be broadcast on a 3m X 6m screen, dinner will include a full roast pig on the spit, don't bring any alcohol as Jamesy has ordered a keg of the Lord's finest amber as well as a carton of that alcoholic lollie water for the NSW supporters. Half time entertainment has also been provided by Jamesy, though I have no idea of its nature.

Cost of the party is $200.00 for each NSW supporter, Queenslanders free.

Please rsvp to Jamesy's mobile. :-)

PICK THE SCORE - STATE OF ORIGIN

Well its that time again. State of Origin!! GO THE MAROONS...

Righto... Step right up... Pick the score..... Everyone's a winner.... I think its going to be a close game.... High scoring..

28 Qld - 24 NSW

Post a comment with your predicition and let's see who takes out Game 1!!

STATE OF ORIGIN

**UP THE MAROONS**

**GO QUEENSLAND**

CONGRATULATIONS ELLIE!!

CONGRATULATIONS Ellie!! Yesterday you officially became an Australian Citizen and all Fixers are quite proud of you. I look forward to the next time I hear the Australian anthem and have you standing next to me. We'll sing it loud and strong together!!

There's a jar of vegemite coming your way!!

A night at Narcissus with Paul Oakenfold

Woody and i thought that seeing as we left Australia as VIP's (thanks very much Met Bar) we'd continue on in the fashion we'd become accostumed to. Mr Oakenfold was playing in Bangkok and we thought we'd check him out so we hooked up with friends who live in Bangkok, Marcus, n May. First we had an amazing dinner at a funky hotel where every room is decorated in a differernt bizarre style - bit like picasso. So we had dinner by the pool in a place you'd need to know someone in Bangkok to find and already we were feeling lucky. Woody was very happy when the staff brought out a cake with candles for his 30th birthday. Imagine when we rolled up to the club Oakenfold was playing at - we felt pure rock star as it was like a huge, white palace. We wo wo wo wah. We were very essite. We got great pole position just above the DJ box and the place was pumping! The feeling was amazing and crazy being in such an ultra electrifying club. Then Okenfold arrived. The crowd loved him. Woody leant over and said "hey paul, over here - we're a friend of Josie James, the Josie James" .. That was our portal in and one thing lead to another which was that several hours later there we were having a bit of a laugh and joke post set with Mr Okenfold in a palatial hotel. He was quite down to earth bloke, happy to have have a genuine chat and give us some words of wisdom based on his travels in the area. He'd just walked off playing to a crowd of heaving thousands and there he was telling us "yes, so I was just saying to my mum the other day 'Who'd a thought i'd get to see the world with a crate of records'" ... bless him .. It was all very nice... So we were pretty stoked as we found our way back to Kho Sanh Rd. And a message to Josie: a big hello from Paul Oakenfold....

ps look very carefully in pics ->Where's Woody?

Help Nardine!!

Nardine unfortunately had her purse stolen on the weekend. BUMMER!! In her purse was her phone and she has had to purchase a new phone and now has no numbers. Can everyone please text her their number??? 0437 442 658 Don't forget to put your name on the text!!

New Vegas Recruits....

Welcome Jason & Ane... Formally Sydney siders they have seen the light and come up to play!!

TWISTED MONG....shagga style....

The Weekend in Review

Woody and Sally celebrated their brithdays on the weekend and quite a large crowd turned out to let their hair down.... We started at Garuvas squeezing approximately 26 people into seating for 20. There are a couple of points I need to highlight about this venue - most importantly the food is expensive and crap - don't ever go there if your wanting a half decent meal because no one enjoyed their meal (yes all 26 peeps). Point two - don't meet friends pre dinner in the bar if you want to chat as the band is so loud you will go hoarse before you eat crap food. All in all we had a good time because of the people but will not be going back there again..... Pity as it does have a good ambience...

We then moved on to 'The Met' a couple of hundred metres up the road and all managed to score VIP lounge entrance. This was where it all went to pippys and the mutants came out to play. We had an absolute ball and despite the gifts going missing (found two days later) and Nardine's purse being stolen (presently not found) the smiles were abundant. A few of the mutants ended up at Hazlewood street and Jamesy kindly served up a special after club treat (thanks mate).

To all involved thanks for turning up as it meant a lot to Woody and Sal and despite the "one night party, three days recovery" that comes with age I know if we had the chance we would do it all again... and again..... and again......

Special thanks to the interstate travelers in Shagga and Sami.... nice one.... Thank you also to Kymbo (you know why)....

Enjoy the pics........

Mong on Baby!