Nathan's new missus.

Salmon: bacon of the sea?

So the other day Lauren and I were invited round to her friend Hannah's place to have a quiet Sunday brunch with her boyfriend, Neil. The Morning started uneventfully enough with a quiet stroll down my street in North Fitzroy.


Fortunately, Hannah is a mere stones throw from my house, and it was only a 5 minute walk before we were sitting in her lounge and playing with her cat while She and Neil prepared a delicious breakfast... Just enough exercise to get the appetite up.


Distracted as I was by the fun with the cat, I failed to notice what new treat Hannah had in store for me. I eat a fair amount of food, and have a varied diet to boot. But for some reason I'd never had Salmon for breakfast.... Oh what an epiphany! To make things easier I have decided to extol the virtues of salmon as a breakfast ingredient in point form:

1. It's cool. Non-hippie types will really appreciate the fact that you eat raw meat that's been harvested fresh from the sea.
2. It's good for you. Apparently it is low in Saturated fat, while being high in Protein and Omega-3. I'm not too sure what omega-3 does.... presumably as much as omega-2 and Omega-1 combined.
3. It won't leave bacon fat splattered on your pans, walls, mouth or bib.
4. It won't leave the aforementioned fat clogging your arteries like a bunch of nerds trying to squeeze into EBgames on the night of a console launch.
5. It tastes pretty damn good with scrambled eggs.

After the delicious salmon meal we drank tea played with Hannah's cat 'veronica' for a bit:

Then we had a leisurely walk back to my place, content in the knowledge that we hadn't abused our bodies with the usual cocktail of meat pies, bacon, fried potato, sauce, cider and fudge that has become all too common for Lauren and I to eat on a lazy Sunday morning.

My salmon experience had such a profound effect on me that I decided to throw it down, 'net stylez' for everyone else to read about. Next time I'm at the supermarket ordering my usual 500g of bacon, I'll be sure to consider adding it's aquatic cousin to my basket instead.

My "Gears" Part I

I'm at home from work today, and I thought I'd start up a new entry . Since I have a dearth of interesting subjects on which to write I thought I'd talk about the gadgets that I can't live without, and the poor gadget-related choices I've made on the way here (Which have, incidentally, left me with a stack of credit card debt). I always seem to gravitate back to certain types of gadgets after all the flashy hype has died down, and I've sold my new toys on Ebay.


My Nokia 6230i
What makes it so good?


This is my fifth phone in two years, and by far the best. (Nokia 6610 > NEC 313 > Sony Z800i > Nokia 7610 > Nokia 6230i) There is nothing particularly amazing about this phone, but the fact that it can make calls and send messages with a minimum of fuss is an advantage. The operating system moves at light-speed. The bright (But tiny) screen is a joy to behold.Before I purchased this beauty I was struggling with one of those symbian 'smart-phones' from Nokia, which could run cool games, and applications, but always felt as slow as a pig in mud for more pedestrian tasks like navigating the contacts folder, or opening a new text message.


I've always had a theory that products targeted towards the business market are by far the best choice for any tech-savvy consumer;Although these products do not offer the best features, nor the lowest price, they very rarely fall short when it comes to reliability or performance. Style wise, business-orientated products don't really stand out from the crowd, but they aren't designed to! (This can be a bonus when your friends lime-green laptop starts looking awfully 20th century)
My phone also has the stock-standard business features, that many consumer phones (Even in 2006!) lack. Bluetooth, a camera, MP3 player. Basically stuff that I hardly ever use, but am glad to have when I need it.




My Original Ipod Shuffle 1G
What makes it so good?


This is my fourth Ipod in two years (3rd Gen Ipod > Ipod Shuffle 512mb > Ipod with Video > Ipod Shuffle 1gig) And was actually given to me for free by a workmate who purchased an aluminium-encased Ipod Nano. This is my second Ipod Shuffle, and I find myself falling in love with the small form factor, screen-less control and apparent disposability of the unit all over again. I can carry ten albums around in my hip pocket, on an Mp3 player that weighs nothing, can be controlled through the material of my jeans, and costs dollars to replace if the unthinkable happens! Neat design features include:

• The color changing LED that represents the remaining battery charge.
• The USB plug built in to the unit.
• The 12-hour battery life.
• The ability to use as a plug and play USB drive.
• The ridiculously low price that you can pick these up for.

If you're one of those people that thinks they don't need a portable audio player, just go and get one of these to try it out, the worst case scenario would involve you reselling it on Ebay. (Actually, the worst case scenario would involve you being approached by a mugger, having been noticed because of your shiny white headphones during a nigh time jog, only to receive the bashing of your life when the aforementioned mugger realises you're only toting around a AU $90 Mp3 player.)

Derby Day '06

Seeing as it is my last opportunity to enjoy the Spring racing festival before I head back to Auckland, I went with Lauren and her friends to the 'Derby day' races here in Melbourne. I even went to the trouble of buying a special tie just for the occasion. I was a little disappointed with the photographs, mainly because I look like a fat chancho in most of them:

The day was pretty good, Although I was amazed at the drunken revellers all falling over one another and ruining their lovely dresses and suits. I've never seen so many well-dressed people behave so badly!

I'm writing this almost two weeks after the fact, so excuse me if the details are a little hazy, perhaps if I wrote a list in bullet point form?

The Highlights included:

• Everyone smuggling insane amounts of liquor in every type of vessel possible, we saw people bringing in hollowed out bags of bread, fake crisp packets (with bags of wine inside), eskys...
• Liberal flashing of naughty bits from almost every girl on the racecourse. This was both a good and a bad thing.
• The drunken dancing when everyone got back to the apartment. Someday I'll upload the video to Youtube. I promise.
• The massive headache that forced me into premature retirement at only 7pm.

I'm going to stop writing now because I'm doing the entire day a terrible injustice, for the real scoop, head on over to my photo gallery at:

www.picasaweb.google.com/victor.jones