Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ten Year jump in the Time Machine





Not a lot changes in 10 years, we all stand the same in the same order with the same stupid looks on our faces but by god we look older and of course wiser. In the first photo we are celebrating Rowey's 21st Birthday, in the second we are celebrating the marriage of Simon and Elisabeth over ten years later. From our very early twenties to our early to mid thirties, I can't wait to see the photo from somebodies 40th, which scarily is only 5 years away. In our early twenties we were 100% bullet proof, without a care in the world spending every Monday night and most of the weekend at the pub, at the beginning of our careers, with girlfriends not wives and living with our folks. In the second photo we are older in our thirties, working full time in jobs that some of us have been doing for some time and are considered senior staff with greater responsibilities, getting to the pub is becoming harder to achieve, and even if we had a night free to go to the pub we are all to weary and knackered to go. Some of us are married and some of us have kids and all of us have crushing debilitating mortgages causing grey hair, no hair and crushing central chest pain. But I'm sure none of us would change it for the world.
It is rather uncanny that these 2 photos are almost identical in their structure right down to the black tie and smiles, flicking through my old photo albums I have come across many photos of the boys that I will attempt to place on the blog for all to see. If any of you guys have any photos and reminiscent stories to accompany them please send them to me and I'll post them on the blog, I think they look great. Cheers Dazza.


Sunday, October 7, 2007

Street Commodores 'Cruise for Charity'


On the 18th August 2007 Cathy, Harry, Jack and myself took part in the first Street Commodores cruise for charity. Starting at Cheltenham Racecourse we travelled into the city, down to glenelg along to Semaphore out to the Holden factory at Elizabeth. A quick squirt to Virginia until we reached our final destination of City Dismantlers at Gepps Cross. The cruise including a short stop for lunch took almost 3 and a half hours but was awesome. It was packed full of hot commodores, just over 400!, which is pretty impressive for our first foray into the cruising scene. It was for a very good cause, the Starlight foundation for kids, and the commodore cruisers in Adelaide raised well over $17,000 an awesome effort if I do say so myself. The cruise was held throughout Australia over about 6 consecutive weekends in 6 states, with a total of 3427 commodores taking part, raising a staggering $116,904.30 for the Starlight foundation. It was a full day an we loved it, can't wait for next year let's hope it's bigger and better.

Cheltenham racecourse was great and thankfully there was a playground there for the boys because it took almost two hours for all the cars to arrive and spill into the grassed area, by the time they opened the gates to commence the cruise it was bursting at the seams. When they opened the gates the sounds and smells were wicked. Just imagine over 400 naturally aspirated, supercharged, or turbocharged v6s and V8s starting simultaneously, it made the earth rumble and the sleepy Sunday morning was well and truly woken out of it's slumber. The next hurdle was getting the same 400 commodores out of one gate which was wide enough for one car at a time, but no-one seemed worried, we all just sat there idling and rumbling admiring the scenery and slowly edging toward the gate, the cruise had begun.

I don't think you can appreciate until you have taken part in such a cruise just how much fun it is, cruising down Anzac Highway surrounded by hundreds of like minded Holden men and women enjoying a cruise. Thankfully everyone behaved themselves which was just as well considering we had the cooperation of the boys and girls in blue, who kindly helped with the traffic flow when leaving the racecourse, and very thoughtfully arrived in two brand new VE commodore police cars, which didn't look half bad.

The cruise took us all the way to Elizabeth for a photo opportunity at the Holden factory then on to City Dismantlers. The boys were so well behaved but by mid afternoon they were beginning to ask are we there yet, so we skipped the Virginia leg and went straight to the City Dismantlers for the show n shine and the sausage sizzle. It was actually fortunate that we got there early to gain access, as the organizers had not expected such a big turnout, and only two thirds of the cars could fit in the car park. So some poor mug had to stand at the gate and tell each driver that the car park was full and they would have to park across the main road and walk back. This made for some rather angry commodore drivers, which resulted in some great footage on my video cam, because every time someone was told this they would open it up big time which sounded goood.

A few trophy were awarded, a few sausages were sizzled and a few knuckle head tools decided to leave the venue in a cloud of smoke, and screach of tyres and cheers from some of the boys that had been passengers all day. In the spur of the moment all well and good a burn out is a wonderfull thing, but when you have registered with the organizers left your details with organizers and the police are down the road, well lets say they were plain stupid. Apart from that we had a fantastic day, bring on next year, let's hope fro 800 cars.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Sydney trip for Nigel & Merilyn's Wedding


It's amazing how fast time has passed since Nigel & Merilyn's wedding, April 2005, over 2 and a half years ago, Unfortunately I haven't got any wedding photos to post on the blog but hopefully Rowey could send some to me so I can share them with you all. It was a wonderful day and the setting for the reception was breathtaking, it almost makes you want to take up golf. It was fantastic and probably the last time that we were all together at the same time. It was the first time that Cathy and I left the boys with Nanna and Diddi, and the first night we spent away from our boys, we survived but it wasn't easy. But now the Rowes are an old married couple like us, not there is anything wrong with that, just means we are all getting old. A more suited couple I am yet to discover, they looked very happy on the day, we need more of our mates to tie the knot so we can all get together. Cathy and I feel like the really old married couple as we have just celebrated our ninth anniversary, and have been together for fifteen years. Next year is the big tenth anniversary which I think is clay or paper mache or HSV, not sure hopefully the later. Anyway congratulations to Nigel & Merilyn, and the photo accompanying this spiel was taken at the airport on our arrival home from Sydney after 2 nights away. Notice the boys are holding on tight and not letting go..

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Coming Soon - Under construction

Stay tuned for the most awaited entry on Dazza's Mates, a number of photos need to be scanned and published, some of the highlights will be as follows:

  1. Nigel & Merilyns Wedding

  2. Simon & Elisabeth's Wedding

  3. The Fellas

  4. 28th September Birthday phenomonom Me, Merilyn & Shirley.

  5. Matt's upcoming nuptials

  6. Photos from when we were young, dumb and had lots of hair

  7. holiday snaps eg Tintinarra, QLD, Singapore.
  8. The Adventures of Harry & Jack.

Stay tuned and stay awake Dazz



Peter Brock



Coming up to Bathurst is always an emotional time for Holden fans let alone Peter Brock fans. With the passing of a Motoring legend Peter Brock hitting even harder on the one year anniversary of his untimely death we need to take time to reflect on other losses from within the motor sport arena. Bazza, or Barry Sheene, even though he chose to ride the two wheeled donor cycle to victory I would still consider him a legend, the job he did as a commentator and ambassador for the V8 supercars was outstanding. And he always gave a wave and acknowledged the crowd when they shouted Bazza, or the monotone repetitive drone from the fans on pit straight 'Barry, Barry, Barry, Barry'. We loved Barry even though we were taking the piss, he deserves to be remembered on Dazza's Mates Blog.

I suppose I should also mention the mad men of dog box gear boxes, broken suspension, dust, gravel, mud and snow. The men who spent a good proportion of their lives extremely sideways. I speak of course of the legendary Rally drivers who have met with an untimely death Possum Bourn, and Colin McRae. Both losing their lives in tragic circumstances resulting in an expansive void in the world of Rally.

I have been a fan of Peter Brock for as long as a can remember, Back in primary school, Maitland Area school to be precise. I remember we had a fancy dress day, people went as animals, super heroes, fairies, or a table (my sister), I mean why would you go as a table with a box around your neck plates stuck to the top of the box, a bread basket on your head and a long table cloth, anyway a digress. My costume was by far the most outstanding, blue pants, denim shirt, blue bomber jacket, and my blue open face motorcycle helmet and a 05 sticker on the back. People kept asking are you a parachutist, evil kenevil etc, etc. I would turn to them stare coldly into their eyes and mutter three words 'I AM BROCKY'. A wave of calm, idyllic recognition and familiarity would wash over them, and they would smile and nod knowingly, wink pat me on the shoulder and say. "Of course you are mate, good job". This was just the beginning of my journey as a loyal fan of Peter Brock.

To this day the Peter Brock die-cast model of his 1997 VS touring car remains sealed and unopened as the day it was created, which coincides with the last time Peter Brock drove around the legendary Mallala track, which I witnessed with Cathy & Rowey, unforgettable. And the poster of Peter signed by the man himself takes pride of place in my shed, with four words etched on the surface for ever, 'DARREN, CHEERS, PETER BROCK', need I say anymore..

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Dazza's Family

Introducing the John's family, Dazza's clan. This photo was taken at Dads 60th birthday, you can tell he is very proud of his brood. Dazza's family has had many celebrations in the last 5 to 10 years. Starting with the oldies, well Dad retired and turned 60 two pretty big milestones. Dad bought his beloved Toyota Prado and Caravan and he and Mum have circumnavigated this wide brown land quite a few times already. Even when Cathy, Me and the boys set off on our three month tour of SA it was great that Nanna and Diddi could travel to meet us at Coffin Bay and Port Lincoln. They also met up with us at Robe along with Cathy's parents and then all the John's (& McIver's) spent Christmas 2005 in Port Hughes. Mum and Dad have also done some renovating as they have decided to stay in Wattle park. A new bathroom and second loo for the two of them, even after surviving 15 years with all five of us with one toilet. Dad has put in another pool and turned my old 'room' into a gym and play room for the kids. Dad has spent a lot of time working with Roger, so much you could almost say he needs to give back his retirement presents. Mum has been very busy working almost as many hours as Dad in the capacity of Nanna, yet still finding time for cross-stitching and sketching portraits, two such portraits (of Harry & Jack) are quite spectacular and are hanging pride of place in our Dinning room.

Tanya and Roger have had three children Cameron (8) Lachlan (6) Sarah (4) 2 nephews and a niece, I asked Tanya to name Sarah Denise but she declined (you know Denise daNiece). Roger's business is keeping them very busy, and Tanya has started working part time in a nursing home. They have also been busy wheeling and dealing and renovating houses and briefly had a beach house at Moonta but unfortunately after three different sports and other weekend activities they could never find the time to use it so they sold it, but Roger still has his boat.

Pete & Georgie, bought a three bedroom townhouse in Payneham South very nice everything is modern and new, and Pete has his media centre downstairs and his Poker parlour upstairs. The biggest milestone for them however was their wedding, for which I was privileged enough to be one of the Groomsmen and little Harry was the page boy with his cousin Sarah as the flower girl. The ceremony took place at Montifiorie hill (spelt wrong) you know up there with Colonel Light. Then the reception took place in the Dinning room at Adelaide oval, a wonderful day. Then they spent their honeymoon in Las Vegas and Hawaii. This coming Christmas Pete & Georgie will be travelling again, spending Christmas in San Fransisco and New Year's Eve in Las Vegas (their 4th visit to Las Vegas).

Also in the photo is My beautiful wife Cathy and our 2 little boys Harry (5) and Jack, Other places in this blog you will find many stories about my 2 little mates.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Don't Fret we Love you Brett

I must say it is good to have Brett back on home soil after an extended time away in Bangladesh. It seems like only yesterday that we were sitting outside Pam's filling an empty stubbie with beer bottle lids. Or celebrating the new Millennium in Blanch Harbour with our nearest and dearest, drinking, boating HA, and watching a beta version of 'The Money Pit'. Not to mention foraging for the heaviest firewood possible in the backyards of Beachport and attempting to teach each other a lesson, for which Brett you are still my student. I am happy to see that you are enjoying your new job, because it is amazing what you can find on the Internet, like this photo. I look forward to picking up where we left off on Australia Day, and hope to catch up soon. Brett Mahoney welcome to Dazza's Mates Blogger.