Welcome to Erk Pod 2.0! This website contains show notes and articles related to Erk's new daily 5 minute podcast "Erk Pod Mini: 365 days of Erk" as well as the weekly podcast "Erk Pod" produced in Sydney, Australia. Hosted by Erk & Drue, Erk Pod is sometimes serious, sometimes funny & sometimes totally down the wrong track but it is always entertaining.
Photo: Summer means drag racing at the Western Sydney International Dragway
Saturday marks the proper start of summer here in Australia. School kids only have 2-3 weeks before going on their Christmas/New Year holidays and it is under a month to go until Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that some people have started going to Christmas parties already. The next 3 weeks will be chaotic in the lead up to Christmas. As I spoke about in Erk Pod 58, shopping hours will increase and for a few centres, there may be the 36 hour shopping marathon.
The weather has been strange here in Sydney. You'll see a couple of days of rain, a couple days of heat, a couple of middle of the road days. There have been a couple of really hot days but obviously more is to come. Daylight saving is pretty cool so there is an extra hour's daylight at the end of the day
And while I'm here, I thought I'd give the site a bit of a colour change. I hope you like it!
Earlier on in the week I posted about Emma Clarke (the voice of the London Underground) getting punted (at least partly) because of her spoof underground announcements. I speak more about this on Erk Pod episode 59 that is currently being uploaded.
The story has grown and has gone global. The website went into meltdown going from a normal day of around 3000 visitors a day to 330 000 per day before it was shut down. It is now Thursday morning (Sydney time) and the website is now back up and running complete with information from the woman herself about the events of the last few days. It seems as though my prediction was right when I said earlier in the week that it could work out well for Emma in the end with more work offerings heading her way.
As usually is the case, there is a Facebook group that has been set up and also there is a You Tube video as well that someone posted (see below) about the issue as well. Somehow though, I don't think that this guy will be getting a TV gig like Chris Crocker. He made a pro-Britney Spears You Tube video where he says "leave Britney alone!"
Let's hope that LU see sense. They need to talk to Emma and sort it out (one way or the other!) and then they need to get back to work and the bigger issues like...... I don't know ......... running trains ......... or something!
It's also a handy reminder not to believe everything you read in the media!
Erk Pod episode 58 - 38 minutes Photo: One of several entrances to Westiefield at Penrith.
Another Road Cast. Go Ambos! Motorway Madness. Federal Election Review
Welcome to Erk Pod 58. It is another road-cast edition of Erk Pod recorded live in his Subaru Forester on his way to work as "Mr Shed" (insert Leigh singing the Mr Shed song *here*)
In this episode:
* Erk sees a Ambulance driver doing a good job at getting through the traffic.
* Erk talks about road safety and a recent study that says that the M4 Motorway (Western Motorway) in Sydney is Sydney's worst stretch of road in terms of accidents. Erk wonders if this is the case.
* Erk talks Christmas Shopping including 36 hour shopping marathons at selected Westiefields.
* Erk sums up the Federal Election that was held here in Australia on Saturday and talks about the TV coverage despite the fact that he slept throughout the whole coverage.
* Are you playing "Erk Pod Bingo"? More info in Erk Pod episode 59 coming soon.
Photo - Please stand behind the yellow line. Yellow line? What yellow line?
As some of you may be aware, I have a soft spot for the London Underground system despite having never been on it.
Over the last couple of days, I have been reading some blogs and other websites based on life on the Tube and comparing it to things here in Sydney.
One such blog is the London Underground Tube blog. I was reading the website on Monday and I was reading about Emma Clarke who is the voice of London Underground. Apart from doing announcements for LU, Emma does other voice-over work as you can see and hear on her website. She also has a few short podcast episodes.
Anyhoo, apart from the usual serious stuff on the website including show reels and other examples of her work, Emma also has a fun page on her site where you can hear various other pieces of audio that are not serious. Indeed, she has called them "spoof announcements" delivered in the style of her LU announcements.
Then at work this evening (Monday), I read the free newspaper Mx (the afternoon freebie version of the Terrorgraph) that mentions Emma and these announcements. After I get home, I read on the LU blog that I mentioned above and it says that LU aren't happy with Emma and her spoof announcements and according to Metro, she has been sacked. In other words, Emma has been canceled or in Australian TV parlance, boned. The ironic thing in all of this is that the Transport for London spokesman who is speaking in relation to the spoof announcements admitted that some of them are funny. But in circumstances like this, there is always a big BUT and the big "but" here is that LU doesn't like their "voice" being critical of them.
However, will this derailment lead to more work for the voice-over artist? I am presuming that many people will view her website to download the announcements and there must be some people who want to hire her. I can't imagine that recording LU announcements would take up much time in terms of total work but it would be a big contract nonetheless.
This situation actually reminds me of what happened with the then voice of CityRail here in Sydney, Grant Goldman. Apart from being a previous voice of CityRail's recorded announcements, you will recognise Grant's voice from TV, radio and being the ground announcement at Stadium Australia and Brookvale Oval among others. After being the voice of CityRail for many years, Grant quit after getting fed up with being associated with the transport operator. This was especially when CityRail started to get negative press and to many people, Grant Goldman WAS CityRail.
This may not have been helped with the spoof announcement that unknown person/s created after copying and pasting various Goldman words and phrases. Spoof announcements such as "the next train does not stop at this platform. Customers may join this train by running down the platform. Doors may not be open" or "Owing to a defective driver, trains are running late and out of timetabled order. CityRail apologizes......" blah blah blah. Announcements such as this even made it to national radio programs and Goldman was not happy.
So maybe while LU might not be happy with Emma Clarke, she might have actually got onto the front foot by recording her own spoof announcements, putting them on her website and having some control of them before someone else does it for her. And if it leads to extra work on a regular basis, could it be a master stroke?
UPDATE: Emma's website has had so many hits since the story has been reported in the mainstream media that it can not keep up with demand. She suggests on the site to check back in a day or two.
I like railway station signs. So here are some random examples that I have photographed which gives you an idea of the range of station signs around on the CityRail system here in Sydney.
Left - Blue & white sign at Campbelltown. This is the newest style of station sign. In the background there is an Endeavour train used in regional areas.
Left - Granville station sign. One advantage of the new style of sign is the amount of information that can be placed on it including interchange, way finding and Easy Access information. There is no colour coding, though.
Left - Original style station sign and bench at St James on the City Circle.
Below - Station signs at Museum on the City Circle. For some reason, St James has been colour coded green and Museum has been colour coded brown. Despite being upgraded, both of these stations retain the old style feel.
Left - Colour coded station sign at Minto (or as it is pronounced by locals "Minno"). This type of sign is being replaced. The line under the station name shows the line colour on system maps but the maps and the line colours have been changed.
Below - mixture of colour coded and old style station signs at Leightonfield station.
Left - old style sign at Riverstone in western Sydney.
Here are some things that are at the very least mildly annoying me at the moment.
* Having to wait for ages in the drive-thru at KFC. The car ahead of me (see pic) was at the speaker for at least 5 minutes! This is not to mention the cars that were ahead of this car.
* People who write my driver diagram and who seemingly don't know that it is pointless to spend 40 minutes in a helicopter to drive a train for 20 minutes. Basically, they have given me 38 minutes to get from Point A to Point B for a 20 minute trip without giving me a train to ride or drive on. Then on the way back, they have given me one hour to have something to eat and get back from Point B to Point A. Again, there is no train for me to ride or drive back.
* Super duper early mornings
* Adjusting from super duper early mornings to super duper late afternoons
Apart from that, everything's going not too badly. I may record Erk Pod episode 58 tonight after work.
Photo: Museum station in Sydney is one station that I think would be the equalivant of a London Underground station.
I'm still surfing the interweb on Sunday afternoon before work. I've just found a great blog called "The Man Who Fell Asleep". I especially like the section called "Tube Gossip" that lists things that people say on Tube trains in London. I imagine that some of the statements would be unique to the English but I could also hear some things like these here in Sydney. There is a lot to read as the Tube Gossip archive goes back to 2002.
I'm looking at You Tube videos and I found this one that I'd never be able to repeat. According to the comments, this was done on purpose and the train crew knew about it and it was done at low speed. I'd never thought of doing this but then again, I've never driven (or am likely to) drive a train in snow.
It's been a while since "Merrick & Rosso Unplanned" but the boys have a new DVD out called "Merrick and Rosso - Live! & Totally Wrong!" and was filmed at the Dubbo RSL. Their few live shows usually sell out pretty quickly and I've never seen them live myself. They can be very funny even when they are on the bus to Wrong Town. I haven't got the DVD yet (it's on my to-do list) but in the meantime, here's their DVD trailer. And here are Merrick and Rosso dancing.
Thanks to Kram at his new blog "The Pierian Puddle", here's a funny You Tube video called "Human Space Invaders". It is amazing what some people put onto You Tube and it is amazing to see what some people think of doing. So without any further ado, give me 20 cents (do you remember when Space Invaders would have cost 20 cents?) and I'll put it in the slot for you.
Yesterday, Australia was voting in a new Parliament and a new Prime Minister. Although having said that, I have said before that we the Australian people were not voting for the Prime Minister directly despite the media campaign.
So what did I do while most of the free-to-air TV stations went through the night with the results of the vote counting and Channel 10 were showing "The Empire Strikes Back"? If you haven't gone and clicked on the very funny You Tube video I put in my last post, do it now! It is very funny.
That's right, I went to sleep at about 6pm and I did not wake up until 8.30am Sunday morning. 14 and a half hours sleep later (fatigue management has done it again!), I woke up with no idea who had won or who had lost the election.
When I did wake up, I went to the News Limited website and read that Labour has won the election and that Kevin Rudd will be our next Prime Minister. It also looks like my prediction of (now) former Prime Minister John Howard losing his seat in Bennelong in Sydney was correct as well but final counting will confirm that. It will be interesting to see how long the promised changes will take to occur but due to all the behind the scenes stuff happening in relation to confirming results, deciding who will be Cabinet members and swearing in of new people, don't expect to wake up in a totally new world tomorrow where we are all speaking Chinese. But while you are waiting for Australia's new Operating System to fire up, go and have a read of Natalie's blog. She's a journo (not that I'll hold that against her!) with an interesting look behind the scenes of the media and politics in this country.
Now it is time for everyone to get back to work with a new bloke in the hot seat.
It is just after 2pm Eastern Summer Time on the day of the Federal Election and I must admit that I am so over the whole thing, even though I have watched so little TV and listened to so little Australian radio. Podcasts on the other hand..........
Anyhoo, I got directed to the following You Tube video. Whoever made this has done an outstanding job! Who said that political coverage (yes, I am looking at you, Australian media!) has to be boring?
And I had to laugh at a line in the Terrorgraph this morning which said (my paraphrasing) that the only place that you can write your only election result blog is on their website! To quote Homer Simpson "they have the internet on computers now?" Oh that's right, the only people who blog have a column in a newspaper! How stupid of me, I must be sleep deprived! I wonder how Blogger handles sarcasm tags?
Today is Saturday and it is the last day of my fortnight of super duper early mornings. It's not the work that I don't like but it is the going to bed early and the getting up early that isn't me. There are some people who love the early morning shifts and good luck to them. They are obviously used to them but I am SO not a morning person!
Anyhoo, tonight I was going to go to the speedway to watch amongst other things, a Demolition Derby. The demo derbies are a lot of fun but unfortunately for me (but fortunately for the environment!), it has been raining all day today on and off. It is a gray old day outside at the moment.
I was going to have a nanna nap when I got home from work in order to go to the speedway but seeing as though I'm not going unless there is a massive change in the weather, I'll stay awake for as long as possible. Tomorrow I start a fortnight of late afternoons. Whatever I do, I know that I will not be watching the various election coverages tonight.
Who would know that it is almost summer here? Then again, we do need the rain.
I am almost due to record another episode of Erk Pod which will be episode 58. I may record the episode tomorrow (Sunday), after work early in the morning during the week or on my next day off on Friday. I have not decided yet. I know though that I definately will not be recording one this afternoon unless you want to hear me snore or sound very flat.........
After a long 6 weeks of campaigning that some people would say was really 12 months, tomorrow Australia goes to the ballot box to vote for the next government.
Despite the media led presidential style campaigning, the majority of the Australian population won't be actually voting for the new Prime Minister. You'd be forgiven for thinking this, though.
As I said in Erk Pod episode 56, it is a real possibility that the current Prime Minster, John Howard, could lose his Sydney seat. And if he does, he will not be a member of Parliament and if he isn't a member of Parliament, he can't be Prime Minister.
Would it be good to have the Prime Minister as your local member of Parliament? Especially in John Howard's case, I'd have to say no. He would be spending so much time being the Prime Minister that he probably would not spend the same amount of time during local member stuff as a backbencher would.
If somehow the Labour Party does not get over the line and Kevin 07 doesn't move into The Lodge, I will be very shocked. If that doesn't happen (ie the Liberals win) and John Howard gets his local seat, how long will he stay Prime Minister? Having said that, of course he is not automatically made Prime Minister just because he was in the seat before the election. The party would still have to decide on who will be in the big chair after the election anyway. Will Howard return to his chair at the head of the table for a while or will he hand over the reins to Peter Costello (current Treasurer) sometime in the future? Or will Costello be sitting in the big chair by this time next week?
In today's Terrorgraph, the journos and editors were having fun reading various things into various other things to try and tell the result of the election. For instance, there was a photo of Prime Minister John Howard under a gray sky and have used polls to say that he is doomed.
So what can I tell from this photo of the campaign office of my local Liberal candidate? Her building is the blue building. On the left is a boutique that is closed and then there is a rug store on the right that is having a clearance sale. Not a good sign, is it?
How many people get confused about the various issues? How many people whinge about local or state issues when a Federal Election is on that have nothing to do with the Federal Government? The same applies in the opposite direction. Having said that, how many times do the Feds kick in for things that they don't have to but they do it to improve their chances of re-election?
Do we have too many layers of government? At the most basic level, there is the local government. Then there are the state government and then there is the federal government overseeing everything.
However, there have been council mergers here in NSW with the aim of keeping local council services local but instead of having 4 adjacent councils in the one area, there might be 1 or 2. Another example is in Brisbane where the Brisbane City Council covers a lot of the Brisbane metropolitan area and indeed operates things like bus services throughout a wide area in Brisbane. Where is the line in the sand in relation to major state and national assets such as interstate highway networks?
Of course, the battle for the top job isn't the only thing of interest for people who are interested. Across Australia, there are many battles going on for a seat in Parliament House. It actually reminds me of a long distance motor race.
You have your cashed up mega teams who unless something drastic happens, should be at the finish line at the end. For these teams, money is no object, the sky is the limit and resources are plentiful. In this case, think of Labour and Liberal.
Then you have the second tier teams. They don't have the profile, the coin or the resources of the teams ahead of them on the starting grid. However depending on what happens, they may be there towards the end of the race. In some cases they'll be on the top step of the podium spraying champagne but most of the time they'll be back at the bar drinking domestic beer. Think of the Greens and the Democrats now.
And finally you have the privateers running around at the back of the field just running around for their enjoyment. Unless they have been in the sport for a long time and have a high profile, they might get lucky if it rains or if there is a huge accident and everyone bunches up behind the Safety Car. People question why privateers run but they do it for the enjoyment and they try their best with what they have.
I pre-voted today (Friday) and entering the pre-polling place is like running a gauntlet. Because the place was a erstwhile empty office, the door was only standard size and not shop sized. Of course, the "how to vote card handerouterors" (to quote Reality Cast's Kram in his new blog "The Pierian Puddle") were out in force to harass people going into to the polling place. In his post giving an inside look at how to vote cards here, Kram said that there was 5 different categories of people and how they react to the handerouterors, who in my case were extremely on the serious side and it isn't even election day. According to his list, I used to be a type 4 (take everything) but I am now a type 1 (take nothing, get in as quick as possible). If I'd abuse people, I'd be a type 2.
So I went past the handerouterors with a short shake of the head, a small "no thanks" wave and a short and sharp "no thanks". I must say that the Terrorgraph has been keeping track of the amount of CO2 used by John Howard and Kevin Rudd in their presidential style campaigns but I think they must have only been counting the air travel involved. They obviously weren't counting all the election propaganda sent to me (and everyone else) within the past 6 weeks or so and all the how to vote cards that the handerouterers are handing out. How many people will actually read them? I know that I opened all mine (just to make sure that it wasn't non election mail) and then without reading them, they got recycled. With all of the technology like the interweb and the saturation media coverage, is it a waste of time sending out propaganda and handing out the how to vote cards at the booths?
Anyhoo, I have now voted. I was nice to the lady who took my vote and even (for reasons unknown to me) I even tried a bit of comedy gear on her including suggesting that people make aeroplanes out of their Senate ballot papers and that I'll see her in four years. If only we had fixed political terms but that is the subject of another post that I touch on in Erk Pod episode 56.
And what will I be doing tomorrow night when all of the votes are being counted and the media is saturated with media coverage? Channels 2, 7 & 9 are showing basically the same sort of coverage with different talking heads and SBS and 10 are having brief updates. Me, I'll be at Parramatta City Speedway watching a Demolition Derby. Quite appropriate really, considering that Kevin 07 will be demolishing Little Johnny 1967 (in my opinion).
Photo - Old habits die hard, super duper early morning Erk!
I've noticed that during my podcasts that I tend to use a lot of the same expressions and phrases. So in order to improve, I've decided to list some of these terms to try to stop using them or at least cut down on their use. So feel free to play Erk Pod Bingo with me and during each episode, let's see how many of these expressions you hear. If you hear one, cross it off your list. Some of these things (example, the website address) will have to stay, though!
In no order here is the list of words or phrases you are listening out for:
Anyhoo
Basically
"That will be interesting"
"I'll be interested to see"
"Cart it up" (me saying it, not Fifi and Marty)
Website address
Email
My Skype number
Squeak
BJ
"All Erk, all the time"
Interesting
Anyway
Super duper early mornings
"Did I mention that I hate super duper early mornings?"
Erk Pod
Podsafe Music Network
Podshow
Can you think of any more? If so, comment here. If you cross off every one of those things during the same episode, please let me know! It's all in fun..........
Photo (left) - My new speaker case for my iPod. It is very small!
Yesterday (Wednesday) I went to Westiefield at Penrith. One of the things I was looking for was a speaker case for my iPod. One of the blokes at work the other day saw me with my iPod around my neck and he showed me a small speaker case where you put the iPod into it and connect it to a cable and then play the iPod as normal. The sound was good and so was the size. He told me that he got his speaker case from Paddy's Markets.
Photo left - The open case containing the space to put your iPod and the batteries for the speaker. The case suits any MP3 player that has a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is a cable from the headphone jack into the speaker.
So I thought I'd try to get one at Westiefield. First stop of course was JB-Hifi, Erk's second home in Westiefield and the home of some hottie chicks behind the counter. It looks like a funky place to work but the only funny thing about their store is that the front counter is actually at the side.
Anyhoo, I spoke to one of the resident hotties and she said that they didn't have what I wanted but it was a good idea. I also got myself a wireless router while I was there. Then I went to one of those mobile phone cover places that set themselves up in the centre of an aisle and the hottie there told me to try this other guy who just set up shop near Target.
So I did check out the store and found what I was after and yes, that was the company at Paddy's Markets. The guy demonstrated it for me and I thought that it was a great price. Not that I had to, but I went back to JB and the mobile phone lady to show them what I brought and everyone agreed that was a good deal and a good idea.
I went back to my regular photo shop in Riley Street (Penrith Instant Photo) and they now have Bluetooth compatible machines so I got some pics printed. I showed the guy there my phone and the photos from it and he was amazed by them. He was even more amazed when he saw the print quality.
Photo (left) - one of my Fire Engine photos taken back in the day where I used to photograph fires and other emergencies.
Then when I was walking around, I walked past one of those temporary calendar shops and I saw a nice looking calendar of fire trucks with a ladder truck from New York on the front. I thought that it was going to be American only but I turned the calendar over and there was a NSW fire engine. When I saw it, I thought there could be only one bloke who could have taken that so I called him and he told me that it was his photo. We don't ring each other all the time any more but it was just like I was talking to him yesterday. I said that we'll have to get together for coffee and get him to autograph the calendar.
So overall, it was a good day at the shops for me! I took my speaker case to work today and it worked fine. Because it is smaller than other speakers I have, I am more likely to use them at work. You can see the size of them in the photos and when the case is closed, you can't see the iPod in there.
And in unrelated news, I am going back onto lovely afternoon shifts from Sunday so that will be great! Did I mention that I hate super duper early mornings?
I like funny t-shirts. I have quite a t-shirt collection myself. I might put some examples up. I found this shirt on an ad on urbandictionary.com and I got a laugh out of it. Good stuff! And the funny thing is, in some ways, it the shirt is right! Funny but clever, too!
So then I went to the website and found this next example which was based on the "Don't tase me bro" incident that I dealt with in Erk Pod episodes 56 and 57.
For more shirts like this, go to Busted Tees here.
In the Australian Rally Championship, rules were changed at the start of this season to allow the car number stickers to be changed to a new style. The car on the left is flying through the air in the 2006 Rally of Melbourne and shows the old style door sticker (car 16, in this case).
As you might be able to guess, I like getting shots of rally cars jumping and at speed, your timing has to be pretty good to get the best shot.
Now it is possible in the Australian Championship to have the type of car number sticker like the rally photo above or the WRC style car number as seen in the example here of Petter Solberg flying at Rally Australia 2006. The WRC has had these type of car numbers for a while. While the Subaru World Rally Team doesn't run big ads on their cars, they do have the 5 Subaru stars and the big yellow swirl. If the car number was the old style, most of the yellow swirl on the front door would be hidden.
But the biggest advantage for most teams other than Subaru is that the smaller numbers allow more space for advertising. Another theory with the smaller number is that the larger numbers spent a lot of time under mud and dust anyway so they might as well replace them with smaller numbers and allow more advertising if they keep the car clean.
Here's a pic (left) of the late & great Colin McRae in action in the 2005 Rally Australia illustrating my point perfectly. Unfortunately earlier this year, Colin was killed in a helicopter crash but he was one of world rallying's superstars and this particular event was typical McRae. He was driving for the unfashionable and under-resourced Skoda team and he drove like a demon. Unlike some other stars who had issues (Seb Loeb crashed into a tree, Marcus Gronholm had a mechanical failure and Petter Solberg hit a kangaroo at warp factor 5), Colin stayed on the road and out of trouble while still being quick and was heading towards a podium finish. On the final day he had some gearbox and clutch issues and his team did some work on it at the final service but they didn't get it done in time and Colin was out.
And then last year, Colin didn't have a regular WRC drive but got a gig after Seb Loeb went mountain biking and broke his arm. Colin competed in the rally prior to Australia where his team make some bad tyre choices and he suffered a mechanical failure. The team decided that despite Colin's experience in Australia and his special drive in the Skoda the year before, he didn't get the drive last year in Australia. Xevi Pons (when did he change from Xavier to Xevi, by the way?) got the ride instead to my disappointment but to be fair to Xevi, he did come fourth in the event.
Digressioning slightly but on a similar theme, there is one thing that most of the various "Insert Name here" Subaru Rally Teams that is pretty constant. The cars are painted in what I called "World Rally Car Blue" with the yellow swirl and stars. So you can tell pretty easy that the car is part of the official Subaru factory team, despite the fact that there are many WRX's in rallying at WRC, National, State and Club level rallying. The photo on the left of car 61 was at the 2005 Rally Australia with multiple Australian and APRC winner Cody Crocker piloting his Subaru Rally Team Australia entry for the last time. That was a sad moment in Australian rallying when SRTA pulled out.
Another example of the same colour scheme was the Toshi Arai Subaru Rally Team Japan version (pictured here in the 2005 Rally Australia also). Toshi usually is right at the top of the PWRC but with Petter Solberg and Australian Chris Atkinson on the WRC stage, Toshi is seemingly stuck in PWRC or APRC.Speaking of the APRC, I heard the other day via The Dogbox that the APRC will be split into two divisions for people who aren't doing the entire APRC championship.
For the last two seasons, Cody Crocker (another Aussie rally star doing the J-O-B overseas) has dominated the APRC but not everyone might want to do the whole APRC so there will be an Pacific Cup and an Asia cup in addition to the entire championship. The Pacific Cup would consist of rallies in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia. The Asia Cup would consist of events in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and China. It will be good to see more APRC cars in Australia for the Rally of Canberra as well.
So in theory if there was no clash between the WRC and the APRC (one could hope!) and someone like Chris Atkinson (photos - jumping in 2006, cornering in 2005) wanted more seat time (and Subaru wanted more testing time), he could do either part of the APRC in addition to the WRC.Imagine an APRC with people like Chris Atkinson, Cody Crocker, Simon Evans (it would be good to see Simon go overseas for an event or two!) Toshi Arai and possibly the most enthusiastic person I've seen at a rally, Ryo Funaki, thrown into the mix. Maybe it is time to forget about PWRC and promote the various regional championships like the APRC.
I'll always remember Ryo's angle parking effort on the finishing ramp at the 2006 Rally Australia (photo left). By the time he arrived as car 82, most of the spectators had left but I hung around as long as possible as it was the last Rally Australia in Perth (stupid Western Australian Government!).
Now the idea is to stop at the top of the ramp and the MC talks to the driver or the navigator and then they drive off. But not Mr Funaki! He went over the top of the ramp and angle parked it. So instead of reversing the car, the MC went to the car halfway down the ramp! Classic stuff!
Preparing this article I went over some of my pics and it brought back memories of the two Rally Australia events I went to. Then there are shots like this one where I wanted to show cars coming and going from the service park like this Petter Solberg pic (left). Note the motorcycle cop in the background. I don't think that I noticed him in the background but imagine the cop pulling Petter over and asking something like "who do you think you are, Petter Solberg?" and Petter saying in his accent "well actually, I am." I hope that the SWRT have a better year next year. Chris is coming along nicely but SWRT will want to see some results from him and Petter has had a couple of frustrating years and you can see his frustration. I'm going to miss the WRX WRC shape. I don't want the car to look like a Focus or a C4!
The Sunday morning during Rally Australia last year was really short (as usual) and I'd be only able to see one complete pass and then maybe the top few WRC cars before going back to Perth for the podium and presentation. I decided to have a sleep in and then head to the service park. I got a good range of shots like Petter (above) and some damage to Chris Atkinson's car (left) and some car washing shots as well. It also allowed me to get some repeat shots of cars at low speed without having to move far! Plus it shows the barely photographed transports.
It is sad that it left Perth and won't be held next year either. Hopefully, 2009 might be the year. Next year I might go to New Zealand and kill two birds with the one stone. I haven't been overseas before and during my Indy/Rally Australia trip last year, it was actually quicker to fly from Brisbane to New Zealand than my trip from Brisbane to Perth. However, the Perth/WA trip was a good one. I'd like to spend a few weeks in Kiwiland and I've heard that the NZ round of the WRC is a special one.
But do they have any water splashes like this one at Perth last year? Here's 2006 Rally Australia winner Mikko Hirvonen (top) and a PWRC car (left and bottom) going through a water splash. It was a favourite spot of mine except that for the WRC guys it got super crowded and you had to get there a lot earlier. When the WRC guys leave, so do a lot of the spectators and then I'm free to move around to another spot to get different angles. All of these water splash shots were taken at the same place albeit from different angles.
I love this shot of one of the Argentinean PWRC cars sideways (left) in the water splash and being totally surrounded by water. Once the top WRC crews went by, it was good to see some cars attacking the water with gusto. The section of the stage was really interesting, actually. The section was based on a large hill. At the top was the infamous Bunnings Jumps which is where the Rally Australia jumping shots were taken. It was a massive walk up the hill but so worth it. I've put in a You Tube video (see below) from a very wet 1996 that shows the section perfectly.
So I'd go up there first in the morning while I had the energy and stay up there for the first pass through. Then when the stage was repeated, I'd be at the bottom of the hill at the water splash. From the bottom of the hill at the water splash, you could see the jumps and then there would be a couple of corners and then through the water splash and then immediately go through a boggy left hander and the mud would fly. And because the event was the last one in Perth, I thought I'd get some different angles of the cars but also I got some shots of the cars with the Perth advertising banners in the background. You can see the mud flying here at the left hander with Aussie John Murray Junior driving with his window open. At the top of the hill prior to this shot, Murray Junior did the biggest jump that I saw at Bunnings that day. I jokingly thought at the time that he'd have to call Air Traffic Control for permission to land.
Speaking of Australia, congratulations to Simon & Sue Evans who won the Australian Drivers and Co-Driver championships for the second year in a row. The team (Toyota Racing Development) won the Manufacturer championship again.
Using their Group N (P) car from 2006 (pictured here at the 2006 Rally of South Australia), Simon and Sue dominated the 2007 Australian Rally Championship. They won all 6 rallies and won all 12 heats. An outstanding effort by the crew and the TRD team. It is believed that next year, Simon will be driving a S2000 car so it will be interesting to see how he goes there. I hope that the Ford team sort out their dramas and it would be good to see Mitsubishi back as well. And will anyone else join Toyota and Ford with S2000 cars?
Going through some photos brings back from great memories from the event and rallying in general in such a short time of me going to events. It is only just over 2 years since I went to my first event and since then I've been a spectator, photographer, navigator, starter and other official jobs. There may be one more event that I am going to this year (Rally de Femmes in December) and then there will be a break before 2008 and everything starts again.
So while I never had official photographer accreditation like the lady struggling to stay out of the water in 2005 (left), I am quite happy with my shots nonetheless. You can see more shots on my website here. If you enjoyed reading this article and seeing the pics as much as I enjoyed putting it together, please comment!
Photo: The Commonwealth Bank used to be an Australian Government owned bank but was sold off. This sign I saw in Perth seems to say that Australians can't go to this particular branch in the centre of the city.
On Monday I went out for a drive with my mate Drue (waves) and we were walking through Westiefield at Mt Druitt. Now I am used to walking through Westiefield at Penrith, Westiepoint at Blacktown and on occasions Westiefield at Parramatta but I usually avoid the one at Mt Druitt. It's more of a Mt Druitt thing more than anything. I was actually surprised but the limited part of the centre we walked through was nice. I've only been there a couple of times. Come to think of it, the last time I walked through there, it wasn't even a Westiefield.
Anyhoo, I like stores that have a cute name or a play on words. I also like interesting and unusual signs or where I can work a sign's subject and its surroundings into the photo. The airline Virgin Blue are infamous for it. The photo on the left is one such example from the Sunshine Coast Airport in Queensland.
One such place with a cute name we walked past was called "Hairport" which was a hairdressing salon. Everything was airline themed. For instance, their price list was called an "In Flight Menu". The frame of the mirror had "Hairport" and also "fasten your seatbelts" written around the mirror. There could have been more but we didn't have time to look.
Then we were driving back to Erk HQ when we were at the traffic lights at the Colyton Hotel (incidentally, the car park where I took my first Forester photos) and next to us we saw that in the next lane, there was an L plater in something like a Hyundai Excel. Nothing too strange about that but on the rear driver's side door, they had sticky taped an L plate to the door! That's right, an L plate was sticky taped to the door! You only have to put one L plate on the back and one on the front of the car (motorcycles rear only).
Sometimes you see cars with more than one L plate on the back but more often than not this is with driving school cars. But I have never seen someone sticky tape an L plate to a side door! It would not look so strange on a race or a rally car that has stickers everywhere but on a normal road car, it does!
I thought I'd have to get a photo to prove this and I didn't have long to get a shot. But by the time I got my phone out and the lens cover open and aimed, the car was about to take off and I took a nice photo of my thumb! Damm! So what I did was to do something in a cheaper (but still good!) version of Photoshop showing what the photo might have been like to show you how strange it looked and here it is.
Erk (right) is the creator, producer & anchor of Erk Pod after commencing podcasting in May 2007. He is 33 years old and lives in western Sydney in Australia. In December 2007, Erk commenced a separate podcast called "Erk to the Diary Room". He works as a passenger train driver. In his spare time he volunteers for the NSW Rural Fire Service as a Communications Centre Supervisor (or what would probably be a Dispatch Supervisor in the US).
Drue (left) joined Erk Pod as Erk's co-host in December 2007 and is also co-hosting "Erk to the Diary Room". He is 23 years old and also lives in western Sydney in Australia.
Check out our other podcast & website "Erk to the Diary Room". ETTDR is a personal look at the Australian version of reality TV program "Big Brother".
Welcome to Erk Pod
Welcome to Erk Pod 2.0!
Erk Pod is a personal podcast produced in Sydney each week that features news, sport, entertainment, music and more. Each episode has Show Notes that you can view on this site which gives you a guide to each episode as well. Also, Show Notes for some episodes feature some content (pictures and/or video) that you can't see on a podcast.
There are two styles of Erk Pod episodes and you can choose to listen to one or both of them here.
If you have limited time, you can listen to Erk Pod Mini. Erk Pod Mini is a new project where Erk decided that you may like a smaller podcast limited to 5 minutes (which will be a challenge in itself!) in length and is released daily (another challenge!). From the 1st of January 2008, the goal is to record and release an episode of Erk Pod Mini daily regardless of where I am and what I am doing. Erk Pod Mini will give you a brief insight into life Erk style, Erk Pod & Erk to the Diary Room episodes.
However you will probably want to listen to the original format of Erk Pod as well. Erk Pod is produced usually on a weekly basis and runs between 45 and 90 minutes and contains news, entertainment, talking and more. Erk Pod is sometimes serious, sometimes funny, sometimes totally down the wrong track but is always entertaining (WE HOPE!) and is hosted by Erk & new co-host Drue (from episode 65).
Regular segments on Erk Pod (not Erk Pod Mini) include but is not limited to:
* "Erk to the Diary Room" - ETTDR was Erk's Big Brother coverage for 2007 and will be bigger and better in 2008. A seperate podcast and website is now online. Visit the ETTDR website
* Erk in Tech - Erk leads a discussion on technology
* "Erk Gets Serious" - Erk & Drue talks about various serious news items - but will they stay serious?
* "Housekeeping" - Information about the podcast and updates from topics discussed on previous episodes.
* "DVD Watch" - News about upcoming and recent DVD releases
* "Time for a Song" - some episodes feature at least 1 song from the Podsafe Music Network. There is usually a running theme or genre for each episode.
* "Ipodding Across the Universe" - Featuring a review of a podcast that Erk or Drue listens to. Also features podcast & related community news, Ipod and Apple stories
* "Erk Podding Across the Podosphere" - from episode 55, this segment will deal with feedback to and from Erk Pod and other podcasts and other podcasters in what has been labeled the "Podosphere". Some of this feedback features in Erk Pod and/or the other mentioned podcast.
* "In the Ghetto" - Erk & Drue discuss some weird and wacky expressions in the ghetto of urbandictionary.com and also what could be the Australian version here.
* "Say What?" - Erk & Drue discuss weird and wacky stories from the interweb. Sometimes audio is featured that might lead you to ask "Say What?"
"Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home" - upcoming Erk events, preview of future episodes. Naturally, it will be the last segment of the episode. As Cartman from South Park would say: "Screw you guys, I'm going home". In my case, of course, I mean it in the nicest possible way!
Photo: Summer means drag racing at the Western Sydney International Dragway
