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Hi

No doubt you've googled "melbourne" and "collingwood", and arrived here by mistake. First off, yes, I have the same name, and yes, I'm in the same city, but this website has absolutely nothing to do with the pies. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's continue.........

Right, You've landed in my world. I am Frank Collingwood, youngest son of John and Pat, brother of Chris, Gerard, Pete and Teri, father of Chris, Jason and Marc. Now a resident of Melbourne (Australia, not Florida), but previously of Auckland (NZ), Frankfurt a.M. (Germany), Stone Cross (UK), Stevenage (UK), London (UK, not Ontario), Johannesburg (SA), Durban (SA), Pietermaritzburg (SA) and Bulawayo (Rhodesia). My two favourite passtimes are scuba diving and flying, with flying taking the front seat at the moment.

I moved here permanently in Jan 2004, after seperating from my ex-wife. I wasn't new to Melbourne though, having been over since May of the previous year, flying back to NZ for weekends. Now to confuse some more.......I'm not a sheepshagger, and was only in NZ because the company I was working for in Germany went bust. I'm not German either, but was in Frankfurt because my skills were needed there, and the UK Telecoms industry was a bit wobbly. But.......I'm not British either (Well, I am, we'll get to that later), having arrived in the UK as a backpacker from Seth Efrika just over 10 years ago. I'm not South African either, having been born in a little country called Rhodesia.

"Where?", I hear you ask

Rhodesia. A country which doesn't exist anymore. So, seeing as the only passport I have is British, and the place which really played the major part in forming me as I am today was England, I consider myself to be English. Simple.

Update: I've been back in Auckland since Jan 2005, it was just all too hard being so far away from the boys. I'm enjoying the contact with them and look forward to the weekends I have them.

UPDATE 17/10/2006: Some spammer scumbag has been sending out spam with forged headers showing the sender as being from the collingwood.me.uk domain.

NO SPAM ORIGINATES FROM COLLINGWOOD.ME.UK
NO SPAM HAS EVER ORIGINATED FROM COLLINGWOOD.ME.UK
NO SPAM WILL EVER ORIGINATE FROM COLLINGWOOD.ME.UK

Now that I've got that off my chest, if you are receiving spam that seems to come from an address on my domain, please check very carefully the IP address where it actually originated from, that is where you will find the culprit, and where you need to complain. If you don't know how to read email headers, just google it, there's plenty of information out there on the web.

::: Sunday August 29, 2004 :::

Perfect end to the Weekend

Chilled out at Beths. Met Kylie (Beths daughter), Socks (Aged battle-cat), and Bella (Kylie and Tristans turbo-rat).

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::: Saturday August 28, 2004 :::

What We Did Last Saturday

Went to PJ's. Got pissed. Went home.

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::: Friday August 27, 2004 :::

Hazy Nights

Hmmmmmm.....everything seems quiet now that the project from hell is over.

Met up with Nick at the European Bier Cafe after work, first time there on a Friday night, not bad women, if a little pretentious. Then, as it was Helens birthday, down to Retro, camera in tow. Now this is where things start getting hazy.......I've got some very revealing photos, and I seem to recall someone by the name of Megan hitting on me, but I'm sure I sent her home with her boyfriend (I don't play around with attached women). Now, it looks like Mark, myself, and a bunch of other Retro Goths also went on to Pony after the 4:00am Retro closing time. Pony only closes at 7:00am, so what on earth was going on, I ask myself.

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::: Thursday August 26, 2004 :::

Work......
GRUMP

almost...........

been...........

a...............

bad.................

week...................

Until the vendors crap software was beaten into submission!!!!!!!!
It only took two months over the project projection (Which I warned was a realistic time scale), and cost us, but F**K IT! , it's done! No more 22 hour days working on two projects at once, I can now kick back and relax - only 16 hours a day required!

Bugger, forgot to take time off for my birthday, so we're going to have to hightail it back to Melbourne from the beach house next Sunday.......This is, of course, assuming I'm going to be in a fit state to drive Fugly by then, after a weekend alone with B.............BTW, Fugly now has the towbar fitted, the roof rails and Bogan Bars, otherwise known as 'Roo bars, are on order. Seriously toying with the idea of getting the mad Icelandic kit for the car, which will give it some insane ground clearance, and turn it into a true rock scorpion. However, then I will need to buy the Porsche, as Fugly will then only be fit for off-road, and nothing else.

Been a superb week, we are back to the kind of weather where we don't need jackets or coats anymore, been about 21 degrees AVG the last few days!

Roll on the beautiful Melbourne Spring and Summer!

Which, of course, means the beautiful Melbourne women will be getting most of their kit off again! God, I love this city!

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::: Monday August 23, 2004 :::

Work......
GRUMP

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::: Sunday August 22, 2004 :::

Circuits

Had breakfast in Cheltenham, then up to Essendon for my flight. Discovered that Peter had "overslept" and missed his flight. Took UWR off runway 17 after a 45 minute delay due to weather. Interesting conditions, a very wet runway. Strange thing was, once out of the ground turbulence, the air was flat as a pancake. Made good time out to Point Cook, checked out the windsocks, and decided runway 22 was the best as far as wind direction went, joined the downwind leg of the ciruit, perfect level turn onto base and dumped 20 degrees of flap. Turned onto final on profile, and brought her in to a perfect landing. While rolling, John brought the flaps up and killed the carb heat, I applied full throttle and we had rotation at 55 knots, less than halfway down the runway. That was the only perfect circuit of the day.........Got clearance back into Essendon on runway 35 (Same as runway 17, only the opposite end), so in the hour and a quarter we were away, the wind had shifted 180 degrees. Nice one, Melbourne weather!

Joined Teri and Paul at the folks for dinner.

Uniform Whiskey Romeo - Preflighting UWR
Uniform Whiskey Romeo - "My" baby Preflighting UWR
More preflighting UWR Relaxing with Teri, Paul and Frankie, after a stressful flight.
More preflighting UWR. Relaxing with Teri, Paul and Frankie, after a stressful training flight.

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::: Saturday August 21, 2004 :::

Out and About Again

Went out to Brighton again for breakfast, then back up to the city to go and work. Finished up about 18:00, chilled out, then met Peter, Dan and Reese at Bear Brass around 21:30. Had a few pints, then on to PJs. Peter and I got incredibly drunk, and Peter sort of forgot about his 11:00 flight the next morning. I can't remember what time Peter sloped off back home, but by that stage neither of us were very stable. I carried on for a while, and then got hit on again, at which point I decided that the beer goggles were probably on, and that maybe I should go home. I'm making a point these days of not picking up women in bars (Or lately, getting picked up), as the last time that happened, it made me marginally happy for only three years, but very unhappy for five.

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::: Friday August 20, 2004 :::

Out to Play

Went off to PJs (AGAIN!), crossed the river to the city side at about 22:45, went to Retro, back to PJs again at about 1:00am. It's getting boring now, every time I go to PJs I get hit on by some or other woman! On second thoughts........!

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::: Thursday August 19, 2004 :::

Catastrophe

Don't know what happened, the site went down, and lost a whole lot of crap. Oh well........

Here are the St Kilda photos from the new camera. Can't remember the date

Sunset over Port Philip Bay Flying Boat
Sunset over Port Philip Bay Flying Boat
Melbourne Skyline Down the Yarra River from the St Kilda Rd. bridge
Melbourne Skyline Down the Yarra River from the St Kilda Rd. bridge
Melbourne Skyline
Getting loved up by Frankie

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