NomadsNirvana.com » Travel

Sydney fireworks show NYE 2011

Christopher Stobbs — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:27:16 +0000

Grab a cup of coffee, put your legs up and enjoy.
P.S the video does not do the live show justice, but I’m sure you get the idea

You can watch the HD version by clicking here

Rubik’s Cube

Christopher Stobbs — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:05:45 +0000

I’ve always been a fan of what some might consider the world’s most frustrating toy.
I first solved the cube back in 1996 thanks to a gift from my Mom, thanks Mom.

Back then I would never have thought that one day I’d get the chance to sit down and chat with the Rubik’s cube World Record Holder.

That’s right this year I meet up with Australia’s Feliks Zemdegs who currently holds 15 cube records the most coveted being the Rubik’s 3×3 single with a time of 5.66 seconds.
You can witness this madness here:

Here is the edited Rubik’s TV interview that I did:

The cubing world had better watch this space because I’m getting close to that World Record:

Can you solve the cube or does it drive you nuts?

Venice – Moments like these…

Christopher Stobbs — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:43:38 +0000

I’ve a travelled a fair bit in my short life. I’m often asked “What do you love about travelling?”. The answer normally involves something about ancient civilisations, different cultures, beautiful people, amazing surroundings and food.

I recently did some backpacking in Italy, and one day in particular in Venice made me think of this question. It wasn’t because this day involved all of the above:
Beauty
Culture
People
and Food.

It was because of what happened before this photo was taken:

What started out as simple a pit stop for water with three newly made friends, (from different parts of the world, USA, Aus, Chile) end up in a chaotic water fight in the middle of this beautiful old court yard:

Run Dale Run

Watch our Q she’s coming
Nicole you looking drenched">
Nicole you looking drenched

So to answer the question.
Sometimes it’s just a random event on a random day

Green is Gold – An Awesome Project

Christopher Stobbs — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:27:40 +0000

As a self-confessed tree hugger and lover of nature, I was filled with great joy this afternoon when I came across what can only be called a brilliant idea.

It’s simple all you have to do is follow the instructions in the image: Coffee, Cup, Potting Mix, Seed, Plant, Cover, Place

Over time you’ll have your own plant in the city like this:

The Project is called Green is Gold aka GIG which is supported by Street Works.

The idea of Street Works is to transform unused space in public areas into something useful/vibrant.

The idea behind GIG is that Australian’s discard 1.5billion non-recyclable paper cups per year. Very scary. The Project hopes to drive awareness around non-biodegradable coffee cups and environmental awareness.
So if you in Sydney and you just finished your coffee then pop past Barrack Street (map) get involved and get planting!

So from the bottom of heart big THANKS to everyone who was involved in putting this together you made my day ?

Post makes people smile

Christopher Stobbs — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:45 +0000

This was all inspired by the lovely @HannahDeMilta and her blog post “30 Day Challenge postcards from my travels”.

I’ve always loved putting pen to paper, be it writing journals or sending letters to friends/penpals. I made a friend travelling in Guatemala 11 years ago, she currently lives in Canadian and over the last 8 years or so our only form of communication is via postcards:-)

So let’s just say I was super excited when I saw the following tweet.

One thing lead to another and we exchanged postal addresses ?

Walking home that night I felt super inspired by what Hannah was doing and knew that when I got her postcard I would be over the moon (it’s the small things in life) so what could I do to make her smile.

This is what I came up with:(click to enlarge)

What better way to see your blog post touch some than in the physical world.

and then it was my turn, it arrived…

my response

she smiled I smiled we all smile thanks to the simplicity of putting pen to paper…

World’s Largest Corkscrew by Rob Higgs

Christopher Stobbs — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:54:31 +0000

For anyone into wine, sculptor, engineering art, and just anything that is different will really enjoy this video below.

I was at Taste of London 2011 when I came across this master piece of a creation. The worlds largest Corkscrew. It was created by a mechanical sculptor called Rob Higgs and was launched by ONEOFONEHUNDRED LIMITED and officially unveiled by the Prince Albert of Monaco

Here is my video from Taste of London:

Here is another video I found on youtube which goes behind the man who made it and the official launch:

Dimensions & Weight: Stand alone Height: 65″ (1651mm), Width: 60″ (1510mm), Depth: 23″ (588mm), Weight: 771 pound (350kg). On Plinth Height: (105″) (2670mm), Width: 60″ (1524mm), Depth: 30″ (762mm), Weight: pounds/kg varies. There is a full service agreement to support The Corkscrew.

Giant Lego in Sydney

Christopher Stobbs — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:08:01 +0000

Being a man with a big child inside that loves LEGO, I became very excited when it was announced that there would be GIANT mythical characters created out of LEGO and placed in the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Wildlife World.

Not only did I manage to see some awe-inspiring creations I also saw some things that were out of this universe.

Can you see what I saw?

The ‘event’ was very popular and drew in some giant queues luckily I managed to jump all of them with my Unlimited Pass and I highly recommend getting one if you live in Sydney or if you decide to visit this beautiful city.

The people behind all of this really took the time to think about how they could make this exciting for children. Outside they had a huge model and kids (and adults like me) could use the LEGO to build whatever it was that ones imagination came up with.

This is all I came up with (left) But I think this kid definitely trumped me don’t you? (right)

Once inside your world is transformed, you no longer only see the worlds most dangerous snakes and birds,

Inland Taipan (left), Cassowary (right)

you now see mythical creatures and scenes from all around the world. The details of each creature and mural took my breath away and the small touches that the organisers put in place such as the LEGO facts,

and the children’s playroom really make this experience complete.

Now comes the kicker. Instead of THEM just building something that makes people go WOW, they allowed US to build a MEGA MYSTERY MURAL that will make everyone go WOW. For 5 days you could go and collect a small colour coded square and place coloured 1×1 LEGO pieces on.

You then recorded the number of your squares, here are ours:

Now the mural is complete you can go to the MEGA MYSTERY MURAL site and see where your piece is.

Here are some of the images I took (view all images on flickr)

lego on the loose

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The best part of this whole campaign is that if you get your child a pass, they will give you a free LEGO minifig. YES I did ask for one and they said NO. We all know I don’t give up that easy. I wrote to the Sydney Wildlife World and mentioned that I would really love to have a minifig and to my suprise one arrived in the post

So get out the house and see LEGO like you’ve never seen it before.

No Pants Subway Ride – Sydney

Christopher Stobbs — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 07:17:05 +0000

“Can I take a picture of your ASS?”

This is not something I find myself saying often, in fact ever and to my surprise the response was “yeah sure go ahead!”

What am I talking about? Well today was the 10th Anniversary of No Pants Subway/Train Ride day. Initially started in New York on 10th Jan 2002 by a group called Improve Every ( @ImprovEvery ) which started out as a silly idea to see if they could get a few giggles out of your everyday commuter. Lets just say that tiny idea has now grown into a huge annual event. In 2010 it ran in over 45 cities across 16 countries around the world
In New York Today they had over 3500 people drop their pants see here for video and images.

Why do it you ask?
For this:

TO MAKE PEOPLE SMILE, as simple as that.

I attended the Sydney event organised by Damien Budd (Pictured on the left) we may not have had as many as 3500 but I think at least 60 and who knows what we will have next year.

We created more than a good few smiles through out the morning and even had a few ladies approach me to find out what on earth was going on, my explanation put them in hysterics to which they replied “If only I was wearing my good undies today I would join you!”

(I wasn’t stalking this girl she is my girlfriend)
All in all it was a wonderful morning out. It made the papers in Sydney and I’m sure you will find loads of stories on the net from around the world.

Here is a short video:

The twitter hash tag was #NPSR if you want to see some of the banter from the day.
Below is a sample slide show from my Flickr set. Click here for the full set of images

no pants day in Sydney

no pants #NPSR

You can also find more information, videos, photos and stories from the links below:
Daily Telegraph

Sydney FB page
Sydney Main Page
Official Page of improv everywhere
(I will update the post when new links come in)

Would I do it again YES!, would I encourage others to do it YES!
WHY? Because the world could do with more smiles ?

Elephant Parade London – hunt 2

Christopher Stobbs — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:21:51 +0000

A few weeks after the first Elephant experience my partner and I decided to get our cameras out and go on hunt number too.

Below you will find loads more images of some of the amazing art we saw on this great adventure.

The Elephant Parade has now come to an end, however if you are still interested in buying some miniature elephants you can do so at Foubert’s Place until the 23rd July or Selfridges until the end of August.

The event seems to have been a great success with the main website saying the following with regards to the money raised.

From all of us at Elephant Family we thank, honour and salute you for your astonishing generosity.

Elephant Parade put a smile on your faces, but not half as big a smile as you have put on the faces of endangered Asian elephants.

We DOUBLED our target – a staggering total of 4 MILLION pounds!!!

You are the generation that have helped return the forests to the elephants – a true gesture of grace in perpetuity.

So sit back and enjoy the wild life.

I one thing I loved about this little adventure was that we also got to take in some of London’s wonderful sites.

As you can see above on the left that I managed to find the rare Green African Elephant

nothing like home chicken salad to to give you that energy boost that we need.

Hi Madeba

what better to do when you hot than to take a “shower” :-)

And finally ended the day with a lovely meal at http://www.busaba.com/

Which Elephant was your favourite?

Elephant Parade London – hunt 1

Christopher Stobbs — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:16:06 +0000

Today was a very exciting and fun day out with my other half.

We decided to spend the day hunting elephants all around London. As part of the Elephant Parade in London 258 brighlty painted elephants have been placed all across London in the hope that people will become more aware of the problem that Asian Elephants are now facing.

Each elephant was painted by either a different celeb or artist with their own inspiration and ideas. All the elephants will be auctioned off at the end of the conservation event between the dates of 24th June – 4July at the Royal Hospital Chelsea so up and get out there. If you love the elephants as much as I have you might even want to buy some miniture ones which can be done from this site.

Before setting off you on your big hunt, be sure to plan your route carefully, because as we found the time seems to fly away, and the elephants aren’t always that easy to find. #

Here is a map to help you get started.

Finally here is a link to artists involved, and may I say what a wonderful job you have done

I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took of the elephants we managed to find on day 1.

(All images have been taken with my N900 mobile device)

(Lunch in Hyde Park was yummy)

Please also be sure to head over to Flickr and see what others have found on their adventures: Elephant Parade Search on Flickr