Manly Food and Wine Festival

A hazy Friday night with Vish resulted in the consumption of a large amount of beer and a two am Taxi ride to MacDonald s. The night was planned as a catch up with a mate I met on road trip and turned into a bit of a bender. The night ended up watching a variety of stand up comedians and lying around at home feeling overly bloated and significantly pissed.
The following day was planed to duck into Manly for an all day breakfast at about one in the afternoon. Upon arrival we realised not only that manly Councils parking rates were obscene but that we had chosen the most populated place on the North Shore that day.

Our event clashed with the Manly Food and Wine Festival. The overcast weather did not keep the punters at home, three weeks of monsoonal weather, followed by the first hint of a partially dry day seemed to attract everyone to Manly. Rather then lodge a formal complaint that this event had distorted our planned hangover remedy of scrambled eggs in the early afternoon, we just got into the atmosphere and drunk up. All sorts of Wine samples from across the state were on sample for a small fee along with some fantastic cuisine from local business. Adopting the theory that the longest lines were for the better products we managed to get ourselves a feed of Thai and some somewhat impressive deserts and the long waits were well worth it.
The Festival attracts people from all across the state and the local area of Manly was absolutely packed with people, a brilliant event for the local businesses and as fate would have it we both stumbled across it by accident. I did have a 21st to attend latter that day, It was a very long weekend.

The Ball Keeps Rolling

I'm not one who understands or has the patience for politics. People who argue and state things that they may not actually agree with yet feel the need to state in order to keep favour with the general public are not worth the air they breath in my view. I am well aware of the need for politicians in our society but throughout my time I have had dealings with several over multiple issues in the past and have not once had one come forward with the goods promised. I was pleasantly surprised when the link to this video arrived in my in box. It was titled

"Last night, at 9:15pm, the Act to End Poverty was moved through the House of Representatives!"

Of the hundreds of politicians the road trip came in contact with three seem to have the courage and voiced up for our cause. The video is the three politicians moving the motion (i believe that's the correct terminology) through the house of representatives. After these three finished speaking the motion was passed. The motion has now passed in both houses of parliament. Whilst this does not equal the completion of the campaign it was such a massive steeping stone. Its difficult to lay out in words my feelings right now but as Vishal Sood said to me last night.

"I was an active member in a campaign that was passed through both houses of parliament"

That's got to be worth some form of bragging rights.

The Act to End Poverty is moved through the House of Representatives from Peter Willis on Vimeo.

God Made No Mistakes.

"At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when he brought some people into being."

This statement was made by Friedrich Otto Hertz and I stumbled across it when I was looking for a tittle for this post. The quote struck me for a few reasons. Firstly it is no secret that I am a believer in God but even more so I am a believer that God has absolute and complete control over every tiny and enormous aspect of our lives. The quote backed me up in my already solid belief . All people are equal made and loved by God equally so who are we as mere men to decide that one race or nationality is inferior in any way shape or form. God made as all the way we are and mankind has the nerve to discriminate over such issues. That's why I liked the quote.
So I went looking for the quote because with most of my posts I have pre planned them and this time I planned to introduce to you two awesome people I met on road trip. These two guys were amazing people doing awesome stuff with their lives and I will value them as friends for years to come but the reason they are worthy of blogging is they helped me through an issue I have had in the back of my head for many years.
In my early high school years I had a small issue with racism and fortunately it never became a huge aspect of my life however I never found myself in a friendship with any one from a different race and always questioned myself as to weather I truly did rid myself of my racist streak.
Dilshan and Vishal are two guys from very visually different nationalities and I became good mates with both of them over Road trip. Looking back when I met both of these guys the colour of their skin and where they came from never raised an issue. I became friends with both these guys the same way I had befriended all my mates in the past. I guess a small amount of pride has come into play here, I am proud of who I have become come. I am proud that I gave these guys equal opportunity.
As for the complete uselessness of racism I am blessed to have met these two, they are truly brilliant guys and if racism stepped in it would have been me who lost out.
(top left: dilshan bottom right: Vishal with Robbie)