With all that Wallaby love and support gathering speed as we rapidly approach the start of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, it seems our cousins across the pond (New Zealand) and their supporters around the world are feeling a little left out and on a number of occasions on Twitter I’ve been asked to throw together a few designs for the All Blacks.

A comment left on my Wallabies designs page yesterday by Chris “@priceyruns” Price was, I guess, the last push I needed and… voila the following are now available for download.

While I only have the Tri-Nations teams covered so far, if you’d like designs done for any of the other teams in the tournament, leave me a message in the comments section below and I’ll see what I can do for you.

GO WALLABIES!!!

Despite the foul weather forecasted, I, for one, will be in the stands tonight for the game and I’m hoping for a result that will both clinch the Tri-Nations title for the Wallabies, and also put the All-Blacks on notice that they are going to have a fight on their hands for the RWC in October!

You can start showing your support of the Wallabies right now by grabbing one of the following iPhone Wallpapers I put together this morning! Share this page with your friends and fellow Wallabies supporters, and I’ll see you tonight at the game!

GO WALLABIES!!

Keeping us all breathless until the last round of jumps, ultimately the gorgeous Lydia Lassila landed one of her trademark jumps, a difficult triple-flipping, triple-twisting maneuver that had gave her a total score of 214.74, just 7 points ahead of her nearest Chinese opponent and securing Australia’s second gold!

Taking Australia’s overall tally to three 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic medals (2x gold, 1x silver), it represents Australia’s most successful Winter Olympic performance in history and provided Lydia with more than enough ammunition to push the need for better home-soil facilities (reducing the need for athletes to be based outside of Australia full-time for training) and funding for the sport when she spoke with Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

I’m really proud of Lydia and also Jacqui, who finished a olympic-best 5th place, and Liz (12th). The girls were outstanding and ensured that Australia’s historical dominance of the women’s circuit for aerial skiing is maintained!

Since day one when Gretzky carried the torch down Vancouver’s Waterfront Road to the outdoor cauldron, I had made no secret of my support and high hopes for 23 year old Aussie sensation, Torah Bright, in the women’s snowboarding half pipe.

When it came to the much anticipated final up at Cypress Mountain this evening, the blonde haired, sun kissed beauty with the irresistible smile (check out the press photos below and tell me I’m wrong), gave all of Australia a huge fright when she bombed her first run. However, with a technically impressive second run which included a tough “switchback 720″, Torah impressed the judges enough to pick up a score of 45.0 out of a possible 50 – a score that would not be bettered, not even by the squad of talented US ladies.

Personally, I was all fired up to see Torah pull out a “double cork”, a move that her male counterparts find difficult at the best of times (with the exception of the incomparable Shaun White perhaps). It wasn’t to be on this occasion, but she did tell reporters to, “stay tuned.”

A MASSIVE congratulations to Torah and the entire Bright family including her brother and coach Ben Bright. A mighty effort which is going to be celebrated by Aussies up at Whistler and back at home for a long time to come.

A special mention also for fellow Aussie competitor Holly Crawford who came in 8th, and Canadians Mercedes Nicoll (6th), Sarah Conrad (12th) and young Palmer Taylor (26th). Well done ladies.

Having been up there once before myself, I knew what we were in for – a mix of relaxing times, and many encounters with some of Australia’s most beautiful examples of native flora and fauna.

After about a 3-hour drive north-west from Brisbane, we made it (I napped a bit along the way) up to the Bunya Mountains recreational area. We soon settled in at Pitta Place, our preferred accommodation property, before setting up on the back deck for a glass of wine and some nibbles while birds of all kinds descended onto the rails and table to feed on some seed we brought up with us.

With the temperature matching the suns descent at dusk, we built a fire to keep the cabin warm before digging into a yummy lamb casserole for dinner. Carmen and I then took on Mum & Dad at a game of Scatttegories. Dad and I tussled it out intensely through to the final couple of rounds when I finally managed to get ahead and take out the game!

Yesterday (Tuesday) involved a lot of relaxing, a lot of bird feeding and a lot of wildlife viewing in the immediate area (Wallabies, Kookaburras and more). Carmen took the opportunity to get her hands on a digital SLR and start snapping away madly. The results of her shots (see below) blew me away as she certainly proved that she’s definitely got some talent when it comes to photography.

This morning we had time for a quick bush walk along a small mountain ridge before we headed back to Brisbane doing a little more site-seeing along the way. All-in-all a really fun few days away with Mum and Dad and I think (hope) that Carmen really enjoyed it.

The following is a gallery of the best images that Carmen and I took during our sweet time up in the mountains:

Last week, a new $40m campaign featuring two polished TVCs and a series of press ads based around the theme of Australia providing life changing experiences, kicked off on British screens with 21 other countries to follow.

Enlisting the services of Aussie creative movie genius Baz Luhrman, the mini films “Billabong” and “Boab” feature young Aboriginal actor Brandon Walters who, coincidentally is also one of the stars of Baz Luhrman’s forthcoming epic movie – “Australia”.

Placing emphasis on the words “arrived” and “departed”, the press ads feature attractive images from locations around Australia suggesting that a trip Down Under will replace a stressful everyday life with a holiday that promises that a traveler will return home a new person. You can view all the press ads by clicking on the icons below.

I think the direction Australia Tourism have taken here is a good one. The “Walkabout” ads are colourful, emotional, believable and move away from the tacky use of slang and all other cliches which for my mind can only be a good thing. You can learn a whole lot more about the campaign by visiting the Australian Tourism website.

At the same time as all this was going on, there’s been plenty of noise and discussion being made about alternative flag designs all obviously with one noticeable exclusion – the Union Jack.

It seems while largely fascinated by all things “Royal Family” which is about as iconic as British symbols get, we Aussies also like to jump the fence at the drop of a hat and bag the Brits at any chance we can (Cricket is totally understandable and acceptable though).
Anyway… I’m getting to something here believe it or not.

Today my attention was drawn to a new website dedicated to the promotion and distribution of a supposed new Australian National song titled “Under Southern Stars”. Penned by the constantly annoying Senator Amanda Vanstone, the song, which makes no direct acknowledgment of the Queen (or Commonwealth for that matter) is a 5 verse lyric set to the tune of – wait for this – “Land of Hope and Glory” from “Pomp and Circumstance”. Is it just me or is that one of the biggest contradictions EVER! Write the Brits out of the Lyrics then set them to the tune of a song they sing en mass at every major Soccer international they play, shortly before losing and rioting in the streets.

I’ve read the lyrics through a good few times now and I have to say they’re not terrible. I do have to say, however, that for how “intelligently simple” they are, I’m kind of scratching my head over why it reportedly took six years for “Mandy” to write them? If we break that down that’s less than a verse finished per year. At best she was producing one and a half words a month?!?!

Ok, so I’m just having a dig now. When all is said and done what I’m trying to say here is the song isn’t all bad, but the tune is horrendous. Somebody do us all a favour and please come up with something equally Grand in presentation, but for goodness sake make it original! And that doesn’t mean everyone go out and try like crazy to make it fit to a Chisel classic like “Khe San” – it’s been done before people!

Here’s the lyrics you have to work with, including lyrical explanations as we go:

Under Southern Stars

(We all know how to find the Southern Cross, we are the “land from down under”. Being “down under” is an important part of our psyche.)

Home to first Australians,
Joined from near and far,
Shining light for freedom,
Under southern stars.

(Indigenous Australians were here first. We’re an immigration nation and we enjoy unparalleled freedoms.)

Nation made of many,
Bound in hope as one,
Building for the future,
Under southern sun.

(Other than full blood indigenous Australians, the rest of us have migrant blood in our veins. Migrants are always working with hope for a better future.)

Free and friendly nation,
Born of our own hand,
Peace our greatest virtue,
Mighty southern land.

(In 1901 when the English Colonies decided to come together and form a nation it was quite a remarkable event. Few nations have been formed so harmoniously and by agreement, and subsequently enjoyed so much peace.)

Valiant into battle,
Courage to the end,
Standing firm for freedom,
Loyal southern friend.

(We are proud of the ANZAC spirit. We see that spirit all around us, for example when fighting bushfires and floods. We’ll take on difficult tasks, face them bravely and not flinch in the face of that difficulty. We have never gone to war to take. We have only gone in the defence and pursuit of freedom.)

Nature’s earthly heaven,
Glory for our eyes,
Ours alone these treasures,
Under southern skies.
Shining light for freedom
Under southern stars.

(“My Country”, Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem highlights the special beauty that is peculiar to Australia. We have a large number of geographic formations, flora and fauna that are unique to Australia. Where else can you see a crimson rosella, a platypus, the Bungle Bungles or Uluru?)

Goodness knows why you’d want to, but if you want to hear the song sung reasonably well to that less than reasonable tune, rock along to the “Under Southern Stars” website at www.undersouthernstars.com, and let me know what you think by voting and commenting at your leisure!

Take Our Poll

Don’t know if any of you are interested or have travel insurance needs coming up, but I just thought I would let you know about it just in case! That website again: www.1cover.com.au

As if it wasn’t the intended outcome anyway, with the help of a little BBC publicity, this decision has played right into the hands of the Australian Tourism Commission with something like 100,000 new hits on their official website that hosts the uncensored version of the ad in full screen “Vividas” glory.

All of this, of course, will be a complete waste of time and $6million in campaign research funding unless QANTAS and other carriers to the “Land Down Under” start reporting an increase in tourist “bums on seats”. No matter how beautiful our country is, the problem has always been that people have always viewed Australia as being too far away and therefore too much trouble and too expensive to get to.

I was just thinking about this mental barrier and it dawned on me that this may also be the explanation for why young Aussies (like me) are spread so far and wide on this big blue planet of ours. We have no choice but to travel a long way to go anywhere! We thought about it, got over it and now enjoy adventures all over the place!

In Other News…

…the sun decided to come out and play today so I quickly ran to the waterfront and started snapping away. With no work keeping me occupied anymore, you can expect a hell of a lot more photography out of me in the coming weeks. It’s FREE and it keeps me out of mischief… bargain!

The cherry blossoms are springing out all over the place downtown at the moment hence the first pic below.

If you haven’t heard about it already, Canadian-born Aussie (what a fantastic combination) Dale Begg-Smith turned on a flawless performance in the Men’s Mogul competition last night to capture Australia’s first medal in the Torino games. I was lucky enough to watch the final from start to finish and after seeing some pretty awesome aerials and skiing by the other medalists I was a little skeptical as to how Dale, who was the last one flung down the hill, was going to go. But in true Aussie style he came through with the goods and gave us all the opportunity to see, probably for the only time this games, the Southern Cross hoisted up above all other nations in Torino’s town square.

A quick scan of news articles this morning regarding Dale’s efforts have revealed that the poor fella’s efforts have been well and truly overshadowed by his life away from the mountains. It seems he’s a self-made IT millionaire dealing in online advertising. As the story goes, he’s made his millions and financed his Olympic campaign through pop-up spam advertising which, annoying in nature, probably accounts for why there is so much hoo-ha going on right now.

Anyhow… with all the excitement I’m dead set pumped about heading up to Cypress Mountain tonight with all the gang for my first “night snowboarding” experience. Yeeha!