Yes, the tiger is real!

Warren Moore at the Tiger Sanctuary Temple - Kanchanaburi Thailand

This photo was taken during a visit to the Tiger Sanctuary Temple, Sai Yok Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The tigers at the sanctuary are looked after by Buddhist monks. You can only have your photos taken with the Bengal tigers after midday, presumably because they have had their lunch by then!

And I tell you, they are heavy – their head alone feels like 10-15 kilograms on your lap.

Remarkably, there are apparently few problems with tourist safety, although when pushed, our guide told us there had been one problem to do with a tiger taken offence to a camera flash going off.

The sanctuary opened in 1999 to look after young Bengal tigers that had been abandoned by their parents. A visit includes a tour featuring tigers at various ages. The sanctuary is laid out in a manner in which you pass through the younger animals first, before enterting a natural ravine where the adults are kept.

The Red Shirt protest outside our central Bankok hotel room

The Tiger Temple was a highlight of our brief trip to Thailand, particularly because we weren’t able to go far out of our hotel while in Bankok as our time in the city coincided with the protests of the Red Shirts. IN fact, the Thai part of a trip was just one of those times when not everything is going to go your way because we also had problems getting back to Australia because of the flight choas caused by the Icelandish volcano eruption.

The Tiger Temple Sanctuary is about 3 hours from Bankok, and is often taken as a day trip also including the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Thai-Burma Railway Museum. They are also well and truly worth visiting, not just because of the important links with World War II history, but to see how crazy it is that they let anybody walk across the disused bridge. In Western countries just imagine the liability insurance!

The Bridge over the River Kwai

It also shows you how much dramatic license Hollywood used with the movie, The Bridge Over the River Kwai not just with the structure, but with the surrounding area.

As you may have gathered by the historical events of the Red Shirt protest and the volcano eruption, we were in Thailand in April 2010. It was before I relaunched website and I just redescovered the photos so I thought I would put them up.

It was an interesting time to talk to Federal Employment Minister Bill Shorten on 2GB and MTR while filling-in for Chris Smith, given the news that 600 aluminium jobs are at risk at ALCOA’s Geelong smelter.

I was brought up in a town (Kurri Kurri) where aluminium jobs are a vital part of the economy,it’s an issue I strongly relate to.

The company blames the high Australian dollar and other rising costs for the review, but surely the carbon tax isn’t going to help when it is introduced later this year.

Here is the full interview

We’ve had a lot of requests for the Christmas Cake recipe Jackie French described during her Good Tucker segment while I was filling-in for Chris Smith on radio 2GB and MTR.

So here it is:

(Yes, the ingredients are expensive, but trust me- this cake is better than caviar and probably better than any food you can buy. Everyone deserves to eat this cake at least once in their adult lives. NB: you can also make the apple version for the kids, but it is a sophisticated cake, and more suited to adults. )

2 – 4 cups crystalised peaches, finely chopped (can also use crystalised apricots or pineapple or pear
1 cup crystalised cherries, chopped
1 cup sultanas
1 cup currants
2 cups whisky (or very good non alcoholic apple cider, peach juice or ginger cordial)
1 cup sliced almonds
125 gm butter
3 eggs
2 tb golden syrup
half a cup brown sugar
1 level tb instant coffee
1 heaped tb cocoa
3 tb jam or marmalade (I use peach or plum jam; use marmalade if you like a citrus flavour)
1 cup plain flour
1 cup SR flour
Extra
1 cup peeled almonds

Method:

Place fruit in a large bowl. Cover with whisky. Leave overnight or up to three days, securely covered. No need to leave it in the fridge, just make sure the cat can’t get to it. Or the dog. Or the kids.

Line a large tin or several small tins (I use a thick souffle dish, and sometimes make small cakes in thick coffee mugs as gifts) with three layers of baking paper.

Smooth the top of the cake. Press in the whole almonds in an attractive pattern.

Place a thick newspaper in a baking dish. Pour enough water over the paper and dish to wet the paper and leave a finger width of water above it.

Take a saucepan. Melt the butter; stir in the sugar, syrup, coffee and cocoa.

Now mix the eggs into the fruit; add the flours and the butter mix.

Scoop into the tin or tins.

Place tin/ other containers on the wet paper.

Place in an oven at 120 C and bake till the top is firm when you touch it with your finger. This may take 3-4 hours- the smaller the tin, and the shallower, the less time it will take.

DONT HURRY IT- the slow cooking is needed to give a rich flavour and also so that the whisky loses it’s raw burn. The cooking should also evaporate the alcohol from the cake.

If the paper turns dry add another cup of water. You need this water to stop the top of the cake drying out before the inside is cooked, and the layers of papers to stop the sides and bottom of the cake drying out too.

let the cake cool in the tin. It should last for at least six months if well wrapped in alfoil or greased paper in a cool place but is very unlikely to- few can resist several slices.

It’s the best gift I know- and superb for bushwalking or picnics.

One thing I have found during my current stint of co-hosting the Sunday Home Improvements show with Simon Stevenson and 2GB and MTR is that some of the best remedies for cleaning and problem fixing aren’t branded products you buy in the supermarket or hardware store, but simply made remedies.

One in particular that has attracted a huge audience reponse is to do with cleaning windows, particularly external windows.

Our formula came by way of Gil, a professional window cleaner, who rang into the show.

Here it is:

• half a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent
• 1 cup of metholated spirits
• 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of cloudy ammonia
• add 1 litre of water

The reason Gil said this formula works is because the vinegar acts as a cuttinng agent, the detergent lifts of dirt and the cloudy ammonia helps the solution to dry quickly, avoiding streaking and leaving the window squeaky clean.

If you want more of of the soluitions and advice featured on the Home Improvement Show, have a look at Simon’s Painting Australia website.

For most who remember Moving Pictures, it will be through the song, What About Me?, and possibly the album from which it came, Days of Innocence.

Well, to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of that great album which was triple-platinum in the early 80s, the group has reformed for a limited number of performances.

It has been 24 years since any version of Moving Pictures took the the stage, and since 1984 when the full core group of musicians and songwriters were together.

Moving Pictures on stage at the State Theatre, Sydney, July 30, 2011

I got to see the band at the State  Theatre on Saturday, July 30 as part of their reunion. To me it was more than just the music as I had seen the band quiet a few times in their hey days around the pubs and clubs while their were enjoying chart success. So it was a case of reliving youth, as I guess it was for most of the around 2,000 at this gig.

The boys were as tight as ever and it was particularly great to see them reunited with Gary Frost – after all he wrote What About Me. Lead singer Alex Smith is still very much the showman and seemed to be at times a bit overwhelmed by the audience’s reaction and memory, even for the lyrics of the album tracks.

A great night!

As far as red-carpet movie premiere’s in Sydney, this is by far the most biggest I’ve been too in terms of the number of fans who turned out and the shear length of the carpet at 300 metres.

That doesn’t mean it was the classiest movie premiere I’ve been too but that isn’t a reflection on the movie itself, just the hysteria given the teen-fan factor surrounding Twilight star Robert Pattison. There was a similar phenomenon when Zac Efron was in town last year for Charlie St. Cloud.

The class and experience of Reese Witherspoon showed through in handling the media and the onstage component of the May 6 event at the State Theatre  – Pattison was generous with his time with fans outside of the event and with was a good performer with media interviews but didn’t have much to say while introducing the movie.

The movie is great entertainment as a romantic drama set in the golden era of the travelling circus, a tale of two lost souls who are drawn to the circus and the exploitation of a tyrannical owner who was also the husband of Witherspoon’s character.

The elephant Rosie is brought to the circus as a star attraction and the animal’s abuse is key to the two central characters realising their love.

A movie truly worth watching!

Michael Bublé performed three concerts in Sydney in February as part of his 2011 Australian tour. We were lucky enough not only to see the concert on Feburary 14, but also to briefly meet Buble backstage.

His reputation as a personable larrikin was something he lived up to both on and off the stage. We were a group of about 20 people who were invited to meet with him about three hours before he performed at Acer Arena. It was a short encounter, but worthwhile. As it happened the date was not only Valentines Day but also the day he won his latest Grammy Award, about which he seemed decidely underwhelmed, joking that it would be available on Ebay in a couple of hours.

Warren Moore and Warren's wife Kristie with Michael Bublé

After he chatted to the group for about five minutes it was time for some quick snaps before we waited for the gig.

I tell you what was one of the great things about the night and that was the support act. Naturally 7 are the best opening act I have seen and one of the very few that would ever get a standing ovation. They are a full accapella group, including simulating instruments through voice. We will definitely be off to see them on their own Australian tour. They are playing at Sydney’s State Theatre on April 29.

Bublé was all that you would expect, spending a sizeable amount of his 105 minutes on stage chatting and joking with the audience and giving the crows exactly what they wanted, his own mix of standards and original material wonderfully performed.

It was the first night in years my wife and I didn’t enjoy a romantic Valentines evening with just the two of us, but definitely worth it!

The resilience of Australians has been so well documented in the aftermath of the Queensland floods, however the floods have also brought into focus another character attribute; geographical ignorance.

I am lucky enough to be spending the weekend at Palm Cove, just outside Cairns, and the tourism industry is really doing it tough here, in part because the coverage of the floods has resulted in people steering clear of the state without realizing how big this place is and that what has happened in the southeast is a world away- this is a seriously big state.

Our transfer from Cairns Airport to the Peppers Resort (we are here for a wedding) was full of passengers showing they had no idea how far they had flown from Sydney and how far we were from Brisbane or even Rockhampton.

The waters at the beach here are a bit muddy at the moment.

“That must be from Rockhampton!” exclaimed one passenger.

Well, that would mean we truly are in a global disaster seeing Rockhampton is hundreds of kilometres away.

Anyway, the weather is gorgeous here and it is business as usual minus most the customers, although they are keeping a keen eye on Cyclone Anthony lurking off the coast.

Gotta love mother nature.

UPDATE: little did I know when I wrote this that Cyclone Yasi was only a couple of days away.

When it comes to truly Australian cars, there seems to be only one, the Lightburn Zeta!

Now Holden and Ford fans are sure to disagree as the two brands have developed loyal and passionate followers for the models from these manufacturers that are designed for the Australian market and made in Australia.

But when it comes to defining a car as Australian only if it was designed in Australia and made in Australia by an Australian owned company, it seems the Lighburn Zeta stands alone.

The topic has come up on the early morning talkback program I was hosting on radio stations 2GB and MTR.

Most of the information here was put forward by listeners and then we did some research to determine if indeed the information did match up as the cars being Australian.

Most see the birth of the Australian automotive industry being when the Federal Government backed General Motors Holden to make the first Australian designed car, resulting in the FX in 1949 and then the more popular FJ in the 1950s. Not to undermine the significance to Australia of Holdens, but the company had been owned by Americans since 1931. Likewise Ford had always been owned by a United States parent company.

Lightburn Zeta sedan

The Lightburn Zeta however was designed, made and manufactured by Australia appliance company Lightburn. It isn’t a common vehicle and in fact it wasn’t a commercial success, eventually being largely responsible for the company going out of business.

Also worthy of mention amongst the almost forgotten ranks of Australian cars is the Hartnett. These vehicles were made by Laurence Hartnett. He had a couple of attempts at manufacturing automobiles in Australia, but the reason we can’t call them Australian in the purest sense if that while his company was Australia – a point of difference with Holden and Ford – his designs were based on previously existing vehicles from Germany or France.

The Hartnett

None the less, the story and contribution of Laurence Hartnett in the Australian car industry can’t be under-estimated. He saved Holden from financial ruin in the lead-up to their first Australian designed cars and after his short-lived own attempts at vehicle manufacture he was pivotal in first important Datsuns in Australia – the first time Japanese cars were brought in to the country – and then later geting Datsun/Nissan to assemble cars in Australia.

Some other names of cars put forward by listeners were the Australis, the Bonde and the Negarni, but we haven’t been able to find any trace of these. If you know more drop me a line.

Federal Greens leader BOB BROWN has announced his party will formally oppose the merger (or takeover depending on your interpretation) of the Singapore Stock Exchange with the Australian Stock Exchange.

 Now, given we are talking about control of our financial markets, the Greens won’t be alone in their opposition. Already I have spoken to the Ausbuy people who are worried it will make the transparency, or the lack of transparency, about take-overs of Australian companies and brand names even worse.

 There are the worries about the makeup of the new entity having Singorpean control of key positions and that there is the issue of competition.

 On the positive side the argument is it will make us more a part of the Asian economy.

 Where your own opinion lies in all that debate is up to you and they are points worthy of debate, particularly when this still has to get the tick of approval from the Federal Government.

But back to the Greens, this is another issue which shows so clearly how this party has an inability to focus on clear policy priorities and more to the point practicalities of the real world.

 One of the reasons put forward for the Greens opposition to this merger harks back to history. One point made by Senator Brown was that 30 years ago former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew dubbed Australia as ‘the poor white trash of asia’.

 He also harked back to the execution of Australian drug trafficker Van Nyughen a few years ago.

 Capital punishment is wrong and so therefore Singapore was wrong to execute Van Nyughan and surely I don’t even have to tell you my opinion about the former Prime Minister of Singapore’s comments.

 But that was 30 years ago… Just think how much Australia’s opinion of Asia has changed in 30 years…

 What’s more, Bob Brown has taken one comment and tried to make out as if that is what Singapore thinks of Australia. I can tell you, when you go to Singapore and the locals know you are Australian, there is a lot of good will that harks back to World War II.

 Imagine how peeved of we would be if another country made policy decisions based on outdated ideas from another generation.

 If Bob Brown wants to oppose this merger of the ASX with Singapore, who should stick to well thought out financial reasons of the real world, not some ideological miss informed garbage out of a history textbook.