Marcus Wilson’s Blog

In mid 2009 my employer, the ABC, decided to make some changes to the department I work in. Instead of trying to explain the changes myself, here are a few excerpts from the email that was sent to all staff.

“The media sector is in the midst of an unprecedented shift in the way it interacts with its consumers.  The ABC is adapting to the changing media landscape, not only in what we deliver to consumers, but in how we deliver it.

Today we are announcing a major change in the TV Presentation and Master Control functions of the ABC.

Television Presentation is where all of our programming is consolidated for distribution, either via satellite, cable or transmitter.  It includes the program material as well as station identity, watermarking, captioning, promotions and program classifications.  Master Control facilitates and manages the switching, monitoring and quality control of the various signals in, out and around the networks.

This work has been done largely the same way since television was introduced in Australia.  It involves the use of major network infrastructure and staff in Sydney with smaller infrastructure and staffing in each capital city for local events.

With the Presentation infrastructure due for replacement, advances in technology have created opportunities that will significantly enhance our ability to deliver programming to Australian audiences.  As a result the ABC is proposing a change in infrastructure that will lower our technology and running costs, while increasing the capability and capacity for television now and into the future.

In seeking to meet our desire to be the country’s ‘Town Square’, where communities can exchange information on what affects them directly, the ABC must devise new services and an efficient way to deliver them.

The ABC will be partnering with WIN Television Network Pty Ltd in a joint venture, to build a custom designed play-out facility for our television requirements.  By working with another broadcaster to defray the costs, the benefits that can be delivered through file based digital production technologies will be another step forward in the evolving media landscape.”

So… our department, Broadcast Operations is more or less being privatised. Without going into a lot of boring details…. 99% of us will be made redundent.

At first I was pissed off, but since then I have seen it as an opportunity. As previoulsy noted in my blog, I feel the need to move to Tasmania…. and the redundency pay out I get from the ABC will facilitate this move. I’ll be able to pay out my debt, get a bike and move my life to Hobart. I have been excited about this for a long time… but as the time of the move gets closer, the more excited I get. The only thing that does worry me just a tiny bit is gaining employment in Tassie. I am confident about finding work, but having no income for X amount of time… it does scare me just a little.

I also have another reason to move to Tassie…. not previously mentioned on this blog. More on that next time

I’ve been a fan of Kate Miller-Heidke since I heard her song Make It Last.

Her latest release is a song titled ‘Caught in the Crowd’. I totally adore it.

Take the time to listen to this song, and take note of the lyrics.

There was a guy at my school when I was in high school
We’d ride side by side in the morning on our bicycles
Never even spoken or faced each other
But on the last hill we’d race each other

When we reached the racks we’d each go our own way
I wasn’t in his classes, I didn’t know his name
When we finally got to speak he just stared at his feet
And mumbled a sentence that ended with ‘James’

I was young and caught in the crowd
I didn’t know then what I know now
I was dumb, and I was proud
And I’m sorry
If I could go back do it again
I’d be someone you could call friend
Please please believe that I’m sorry

Well he was quite a big guy, kinda shy and quiet
When the kids called him weird he didn’t try to deny it
Every lunchtime he’d spend walking by himself
Round the boundary of the grounds til he heard the bell

Well one day I found him, joined him on his walk
We were silent for a while until we started to talk
I told him my family were fighting in court
He said his step-dad and him always fought

We talked about music, he was into punk
Told me all the bands that I liked were junk
I said I’d never heard the songs the sex pistols sang
I laughed back at him and then the bell rang

I was young and caught in the crowd
I didn’t know then what I know now
I was dumb, and I was proud
And I’m sorry
If I could go back do it again
I’d be someone you could call friend
Please please believe that I’m sorry

It was after school in the afternoon
The corridors were crowded as we came out of the rooms
Three guys I knew pushed him into the cement
Threw away his bag and said he had no friends

He yelled that he did and he looked around
Tried getting up but they pushed him on down
That’s when he saw me, called out my name
And I turned my back, and just walked away
Yeah i turned my back, and just walked away

I was young and caught in the crowd
I didn’t know then what i know now
I was dumb, and i was proud
And I’m sorry
If I could go back, do it again
I’d be someone you could call friend
Please please, believe that I’m sorry.

I recently had reason to list my Top 10 Foods, so in no particular order, here they are…

1. Pumpkin Soup (with sour cream & crunchy croutons)
2. French Toast
3. Roast Lamb Dinner (with mint sauce, crunchy roast potato, roast sweet potato, roast pumpkin & gravy)
4. Roast Pork Dinner (with apple cause, crunchy roast potato, roast sweet potato, roast pumpkin & gravy)
5. Green Curries
6. Bacon & Egg Roll’s
7. Home made hamburgers/pizzas
8. Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese
9. My home made Chicken Boscaiola
10. Mums Chicken Hawaiian

Cold, Filthy & Dirty… this is a reasonably accurate description of my reason jaunt south to Tassie.

It was my birthday and I share this Kristy, one of my new friends in Tassie. David’s girlfriend Emmas’ birthday is just 4 days after, so what better excuse is there to head to Tassie for 4 days and paartaay!!

I figured it was time to catch up with best mate Shaun who has been in Adelaide for a few years, so the invite went out for him to join me in Tassie and assist with the celebrations. Thankfully he was more than happy to fly in from Adelaide and join in.

I decided to spend as much time in Tassie as possible, so I took two days off work and made it a Fri-Mon long weekend.

I booked myself on the 6.25 am flight out of Sydney that arrived in Hobart about 8.10am. My friend Steve (aka Smack) picked me up from the airport (thanx Smack!!) and dropped me at Davids place so I could pick up the Zook!!

I then proceed to find myself some breaky at Hungary Jacks and sourced some supplies for the weekend at Eastlands shopping centre. It was then time to head back to the airport to pick up Shaun. His flight arrived at 12.15pm.

We both then headed directly to Mt Wellington. I knew it was going to be cold and windy…. but I was not expecting snow!!! It had snowed earlier in the week, but it did not stay around long… so to witness it snowing on Mt Wellington was an unexpected bonus.

After enduring the cold of Mt Wellington we headed to the Cascade Brewery at the base of Mt Wellington for a tour of the factory. I had been wanting to do this tour for may years. It was fascinating, however it was a bit disappointing that it was the monthly Rosterd Day Off for the factory, so not a lot was going on, it fact the place was very quite. I would like to go back and do the tour on a working day to see everything in action. After the tour we are given three tokens each so that we can sample three beers. The area where you meet for the tours is very nice, set in beautiful gardens. The gift shop has lots of very cool Cascade stuff. Shaun & I settled for a stubby holder each.

It was then time to head to town, find a park near the Ocean Child, where we are meeting the others for dinner. I wanted to show Shaun ‘Joe’s Garage’, which rightly calls itself the most unique bar in Australia. It’s on old car mechanics workshop, transformed into a very cool drinking facility. There are all kinds of motoring related paraphernalia attached to the walls, ceiling and floor. A very cool place to visit and have a beer.

 We then walked back to the Oceans Child were we found a good portion of the gang had already arrived. Time for introductions and another beer. A good time was had, and of course the food was out standing… I had prawns, wrapped in chicken, wrapped in bacon covered in a wonderfully creamy light mustard sauce. Pure heaven!!!!

After dinner Shaun & I made our way to Eaglehawk Neck for a much deserved good nights sleep.

On the Saturday I took Shaun on a tour of the Tasman Peninsular, having lunch at Nubeena. I wont go into too much detail, but he got to see a few of the sites, and Shaun now has a taste for the area. I’m sure he’ll be bringing his family back for a holiday.

We arrived back at Dads place in time for festivities to begin for the impending night of drinking & fun. It truly was a top night… I’ll let a few pictures tell the story.

On the Sunday we started with bacon & egg rolls , and then a few hours of 4WD’ing was planned. Cousin Leigh arrived in his Landcrusier, and Shaun & I followed in the Zook, just 10 mins up the road to Murdunna. As Leigh had other commitments that afternoon, we could not play for long. But we had a few hours to get the Zook very bogged and very dirty!!! It was alot of fun.

That afternoon we just chilled for a few hours, and then had dinner with Dad & Maz. After dinner Shaun & I chatted for hours before hitting the sack.

The following day was home time for Shaun & I. Shaun’s flight left at 1230 so we left kind of early so we could take the scenic route thru Primrose Sands, Carlton & Dodges Ferry. I dropped Shaun of at the airport and then had to occupy myself for the afternoon. First stop was a car wash to give the Zook a hose down…. she looked so good with all the mud… but it had to come off. Then I headed to Sorell where I picked up a Chips & Gravy from ‘Legs n Breasts’, which I shared with some friendly ducks at a park in Sorell.

I then had a drive around Midway Point, and a beer at the local Tavern and headed out to Richmond where I put the new camera to good use, taking some pics of the Richmond Bridge…and more ducks!!I had a snooze in the Zook… and soon enough it was time to meet up with David and head off to dinner at the China Diner before he dropped me off at the airport for an 8.30pm flight back to Sydney.

It was certainly a top weekend, made even better by catching up with Shaun.

I am now much more certain that my impending move to Tassie is the right thing to do…. bring it on!!

As a member of the Suzuki 4WD Club of NSW, I’m fortunate enough to be able to engage in a wide scope of activities. One of these became available on the of the 16th & 17th May. Our club was invited by the Sydney branch of the Land Drover Owners Club (LROC) of Australia to attend their yearly ‘Khanafari’ event. It had been a while since I had participated in some friendly 4WD competition, so I decided to pack the swag and go along.

The Khanafari was held on private property near Bathurst and included some basic 4WD events, as well as a couple of more challenging courses to navigate. Unfortunately I did not take my camera, so I have no pictures, however I did find this video of the event on YouTube as posted by a member of LROC.

I had a lot of fun on the weekend… catching up with Suzuki Club members and well as making new acquaintances with LROC members. The banter around the camp fire was particularly humerus

After completing the fun events on each day, I decided to take the Zook through the ‘difficult’ courses. As the courses were designed to be ‘more challenging’ for the larger Land Rover vehicles, it was a stroll in the park for the little red Zook!!! However I was amazed at the amount of comments I received about how surprised people were that the little stock Vitara conquered the 2 difficult courses with ease.

The only down side to the weekend…. on the way home crossing the mountains, the clutch decided to die. So it was a very slow drive the rest of the way home.

On a positive note, at the following club meeting I was presented a trophy… First Place Suzuki @ Khanafari 2009…. nice!

First Place @ LROC Khanafari.

It’s well past the time for a blog update….

Since my last update relating to my trip to the Victorian High Country with friend Kim, I have been to Tassie again, attended a 4WD event at Bathurst, been 4WD’ing at Lithgow and visited cousins near Newcastle…. and all hell has broken out at work!!!!

Let the blogging begin!!!

I woke with surprisingly no hang over, yet still alot of pain. Was time to unfortunately end this trip, head home and get to the dentist.

We packed up our stuff, left the dollars for the hotel owner we never saw and headed towards Cooma to find some brekky.

Just for something different we had Macca’s for brekky at Cooma and decided it was time to head our separate ways.

At this point I would like to thank Kim for coming on the trip…. yes it was cut short, however we did get to do some memorable 4WD’ing. Next time we’ll be able to get to these areas we missed out on this time. Thanx again

As I was in a fair amount of pain, I decided to take my time to get home and take a different route, just to mix it up a little.

I headed towards Canberra, but diverted off the Monaro Highway at Michelago and headed up Burra Road to see what I could see.

Was a nice diversion, great scenery, cows on road etc etc.

Eventually got to the Old Cooma Road and headed towards Queanbeyan. Got on the Kings Highway at Queanbeyan and headed towards Tarago and then onto Braidwood Road and headed strait for Goulburn.

I wanted to see where they moved the Big Merino too… I found it, got a couple of pies and a can on ‘V’ for lunch and had a break.

Continued towards Sydney on the Hume Highway, but only got as far as Marulan… and I needed to stop for a sleep. 4 hours later it was time to make the last stretch home… which was uneventful.

This concludes this epic adventure. Only thing left to say is…. the next day I had root canal therapy!!

The night was VERY cool, and we both regretted the decision to not put a tarp over the swags. A frost had descended on the valley during the night and everything was frozen. Opening the swag was like bending cardboard. Getting the fire going was a challenge, but there was one cool element. As we had breakfast and watched the sunlight slowly come into the valley, we witnessed steam rise from all that was frozen… the swags, the Zook & the Jeep… very cool to watch.

Frozen Jeep!

Frozen Grass!

To be honest, I did not have a good night. My tooth was killing me… the pain was extreme…. pain killers where no longer working. I was more frustrated than pissed off.

I was using a bit more fuel than I had anticipated and I was just a little concerned about making the whole trip on one tank. So I suggested to Kim we head out to get some fuel. The plans that were in place we scrapped and we decided to see where the road takes us.

We waited a little while for our swags to dry out, then packed up and left the Poplars. I don’t think I’ll return.

We started to make our way to Suggan Buggan, where we thought there was some fuel.

On the the way to Suggan Buggan

On the way to Suggan Buggan

Awesome tracks in the Victorian High Country!

The trip to Suggan Buggan was uneventful (accept for my bloody tooth ache). We arrived to find no fuel. I must have got my wires crossed. Kim then had the outstanding idea of continuing to Jindabyne, find some cheap accommodation, find out what the weather forecast was like and make plans from there… awesome idea!!! We were both in need of a shower and a good nights sleep.

Along the road to Jindabyne which more or less followed the Snowy River we came across a great lookout to have some lunch… and more of that awesome Blue Tongue Ginger Beer.

View of Snowy River from lunch stop on Snowy River Road.

We continued to Jindabyne, stopping at another lookout which had information about the 2003 fires which devastated the area.

The view from Snowy River Rd, somewhere between Suggan Buggan & Jindabyne.

Some locals on the way to Jindabyne

On arrival in Jindabyne we topped up on fuel and endeavoured to find some cheap accommodation. We had no luck, it was not the ski season so the places we drove past at East Jindabyne were all closed. Kim suggested we continue to Berridale, we might have better luck there.

On arrival at Berridale we come across this small motel with a note on the office door. We first tried the B&B next door, but they did not answer. So I rang the number that was on the office door of the hotel. The owner was in Sydney, but said the keys to room one should be in the door. We could have that, just leave $65.00 in the room when you leave….. I could not believe that. How trusting!!!!… and it was cheap!!!

The room had 4 single bunks and a double bed. Kim was kind enough to take one of the bunks and left me the bed (Thanx Kim!). The room had basic facilities… tea & coffee, TV, heater and and big shower!!

We both got ourselves all cleaned up (after 3 days without one, the shower was awesome!!)… but we continued the camping element by heating up dinner on the gas cooker. We uploaded our photos to my laptop and had a look at those.

I we saw the weather outlook for the next week… and it was not good. Nothing but rain was forecast for the coast. We decided we should quite while we were ahead and head home the next day. If it was not for my tooth, I would have suggested we find something to do for the next couple of days…. but I needed to get to a dentist, I was in agony.

I then got stuck into the Cowboy cask I bought for the trip, and Kim got stuck into a bottle of red wine. Not to long after I was on the pissed side of tipsy, and the pain from the tooth ache was less annoying.

I don’t remember much after that

…………to be continued.

I first woke… I’m guessing at about 5am. The bladder was not happy, so I stumbled my way out of the swag… and what a gorgeous site I found.

I hate mornings

This is the 'early in the morning, sick of the rain' version of Kim.

A slightly damp camp on the morning of Day 3

Stunning views... but very, very naughty of us to drive on this grass, I found out afterwards.

I think this is the crossing at Charlies Creek.

A collection of wood for the nights stay at The Poplars.

Waiting for the Bendigo 4WD Club to go by... a 13 vehicle convoy.

The shitter at The Poplars... say 'Hi' Kim!! (yes, she was in there!!)

Camp site at The Poplars

Enjoying a few cold ones before dinner.