Where do poorly made artificial islands and one-hit wonders go to die? We also talk about travel and accommodation options, and maybe get an update on Georgie’s midriff tan, and find out that Geoff has been to a concert he totally forgot about.
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode
Where do poorly made artificial islands and one-hit wonders go to die? We also talk about travel and accommodation options, and maybe get an update on Georgie’s midriff tan, and find out that Geoff has been to a concert he totally forgot about.
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Toast & Roast:
Georgie:
Geoff:
Georgie 0:08
Hey everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I am your co host, Georgie and I’m here with Geoff.
Geoff 0:17
Hello. We’re back.
Georgie 0:20
Yes, I hear you wanted to rant about a continent.
Geoff 0:24
Oh, yeah, yes. So this continent thing, hilarious. I found this out the other day. But do you remember Dubai building their manmade islands?
Georgie 0:36
I don’t remember them building it. But I know that it was a thing.
Geoff 0:39
Yeah, they made they made islands in the shape of palm trees.
Georgie 0:44
Yeah
Geoff 0:45
Yeah. Yeah. So. So what I found out the other day was that they made three of these. They didn’t make one, they made three. And like, or they tried to make three either way, only one of them is populated. And the other two aren’t so finished.
Georgie 1:01
Yeah.
Geoff 1:01
But they also made islands in the shape of the world. Can you see that? Can, can you see that shape of the world? And—
Georgie 1:15
How recent is this?
Geoff 1:18
This is built. These islands that already built and—
Georgie 1:22
How long—
Geoff 1:24
How long ago? Did they do it? Uh, I think two years ago... “archipelago called The World”. When did they do this? Oh, construction be—began in 2003, before being halted due to the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. 60% of the islands were sold to private contractors in 2008. And as of as of 2012, the Lebanon Island was developed and was the only island that had so far been developed commercially, being used for private corporate events and public parties and stuff like that. But the hilarious thing is, the other islands are all completely empty. So just balls of sand.
Blobs.
Blobs of sand in the water. And it’s hilarious. I mean, they spent all that money making these like, what they did, they dredged up the sand from the coast. And then they dumped it over in the, in the middle of the water to make these islands
Georgie 2:33
That’s it?
Geoff 2:34
And like, yeah, that’s it. And—
Georgie 2:37
Wait, wait, I can do that. I can get it, I can just get—
Geoff 2:40
Yeah. And the funny thing is, now environmentalists are like, I’m pretty sure Dubai’s coast is fucked because they dredged so much of the sand. But the the populated one, the—
Georgie 3:02
Yeah, that’s pretty bouje.
Geoff 3:02
The nice country full of people. Yeah, they’re they’re having problems with stagnant water. The ring around it was supposed to protect the palm tree from like the the ocean waves and whatever, but but now not enough fresh water goes in. So all the water is like shit in the, in the, in the middle of the palm tree. But yeah, this is just like the biggest fuckup I think. Apparently Dubai was just super optimistic because they weren’t feeling the financial crisis until they felt the financial crisis, and they’re like, oh shit.
Georgie 3:40
Yeah.
Geoff 3:41
Can’t finish this. Look at this, man made islands. They had more, they had a galaxy planned.
Georgie 3:49
I mean, I mean look this is this is cool and all, and this is a great vision but I’m also—and it’s probably cool to see—but I just, what is the, what is the point. Somebody please tell me, what is—
Geoff 4:01
Yeah.
Georgie 4:02
What is the point.
Geoff 4:03
It’s it’s like I think it was just supposed to be a novelty. Supposed to be really high end so they get rich people coming into the city and stuff like that. But man, they planned it so badly.
Georgie 4:19
But is it one, art? Two, are they inhab—actually inhabitable? Or three, is this just like a scam? I don’t know. Like what am I supposed to make? Like so are they inhabitable? Like can you live on them?
Geoff 4:35
Yes. You can live on the one that’s been built on if—
Georgie 4:39
Yeah, that one but the world one. The one that’s like, it doesn’t look appealing.
Geoff 4:43
The world one, I agree. The world one looks absolutely dogshit. Like if you’re on a boat. And you’re like—
Georgie 4:51
That pic—the picture looks like it’s fucking alphabet soup from where I’m sitting.
Geoff 4:56
Yeah, exactly. You look at it from above and you’re just like, what the eff is this shit, right? Look, it could be inhabitable. They can have private parties on it. But I mean, you’re on a boat, right? Just imagine this. It’s an archipelago, a bunch of islands. You’re on a boat. And you’re riding through between South Africa and South America. And it’s just a bunch, of bunch of coastlines. Right? It doesn’t look like anything. It’s, it’s a... and then you’re going in between them. And all you see is blobs, blobs and blobs and more blobs and you’re like, this looks like this looks like dog food. So you’re right. I don’t, I don’t think it was—it looks appealing. Living there, also not appealing. Imagine you have to dodge through all of these islands just to get to your island.
Georgie 5:52
Why don’t you just swim? Why don’t you walk through the water.
Geoff 5:56
Yeah.
Georgie 5:57
Is that possible?
Geoff 5:58
Why don’t you just have sandbars underneath all of these and just walk. “Hey, neighbour”. They also call it like the Lebanon Island. And like they they have the Paris, Germany, like the France and Germany Island. But it’s so unfinished, it’s not funny. Just a lot of waste of money. Just all of this oil money poured into, poured into these these really stupid things. And no one probably wants... so yeah, this whole continent thing. It’s pretty strange. But I guess rich people do what the rich people do. Have you been to Dubai?
Georgie 6:46
No. But um, we were supposed to go to Greece, like a couple years ago, we’re gonna like pass through there. And stay there for like, a night or two to just check it out. It’s never really been like at the top of my—like, it’s not like I have a list, everybody. But it’s never not been a priority for me to visit the country. That’s, I’m, I’m not against visiting it.
Geoff 7:10
Yeah, we only passed through in the airport.
Georgie 7:14
Yeah.
Geoff 7:16
But I think a friend of mine’s partner, who’s a lawyer, was contacted. And apparently this is really normal. Contacted by someone in Dubai, I think, to do their their, like financial lawyering. It’s a technical term. And, as you may know, their their financial lawyering is probably in the realms of like, unethically protecting their money and assets. In questionable locations. Maybe it wasn’t Dubai, maybe it was, maybe it was Switzerland. Nah, I feel like it was—
Georgie 8:03
Nah, doesn’t sound right.
Geoff 8:06
Yeah. And they were like, yeah, you just get paid tons of money to go over there, just drop everything you got, does doesn’t matter where you are. They’ll pay for everything for you to come over and be their lawyer or their legal for, for like two years or something like that. So you disappear off the face of the earth for two years. And you come back with a bunch of money. Like, is that appealing?
Georgie 8:32
Depends, right, like so when you say disappear off the face of the earth, do you mean like, because you can’t talk to anybody while you’re there?
Geoff 8:40
Oh, no. Because like, I mean, like one day you’re in Sydney and the next day, you’re like in Dubai be paid paid to go out there. All flights, all expenses, accommodation, you get put up in Dubai or wherever it is. Was it Saudi Arabia? Oh, no, sorry. It was Saudi Arabia.
Georgie 8:59
Oh, yeah. Now that makes a little more sense.
Geoff 9:02
Yeah, sorry. Yeah. The the real shady stuff. Saud—Saudi Arabia.
Georgie 9:08
So maybe you do disappear.
Geoff 9:10
Yeah, maybe you do.
Georgie 9:13
Yeah.
Geoff 9:13
Sounded really radical. But apparently a lot of lawyers get these kind of offers. Because it’s obviously fairly lucrative to just grab a bunch of lawyers from some faraway place and bring them into the country to do your taxes and stuff. Do your legal, your lawyering.
Georgie 9:36
Lawyering. Yeah.
Geoff 9:38
But yeah. Yeah, Greece. I’ve always wanted to go just to go to Athens, Athens. I think since they had their Olympics there, I’ve wanted to kind of go.
Georgie 9:55
Mm, yeah, we had, we were gonna go around to a few of the islands and stuff and we were going to go to Athens we’re going to try and check out Olympia and we were going to do this pretty cool hiking trail actually, which I don’t know if you’ve heard of but it’s called the Menalon trail. And it like goes across—it doesn’t, it’s not a loop—I think it’s like I think it’s not a loop it’s but it’s goes through like small towns—
Geoff 10:25
Oh that’s sweet.
Georgie 10:26
Like a whole bunch of, I can’t remember there’s at least like seven and we’re gonna do a little bit of that because to do the whole thing would probably take you maybe, maybe one or two weeks.
Geoff 10:40
We are not backpacking people.
Georgie 10:42
Yeah yeah.
Geoff 10:44
We are glamping people.
Georgie 10:47
Nah I don’t even think I’m a glamping person. Anyway, we, what we, what we had planned was we’re gonna do some parts of it and stay in the little towns that they pass through like saying like two of them, so we were gonna do like part of it. And there’s a lot of information about that, about the, about the Menalon Trail, and each part of it is quite different. Some are more interested in others. Actually, I take that back. There’s not a lot of information actually. Like there are very—like there’s almost like no YouTube videos about this, on this trail. And the ones that are there on YouTube are—absolutely no offense to them at all, but they are like low production someone with their with their handheld camera, kind of like amateur footage. It’s still very use—I actually find that quite usefu on YouTube. And we’ve had this discussion about how everything on YouTube is like really cinematic and the entry, the bar for entry is really, is really high. But I still appreciate those those peeps on YouTube who are posting, even though they have like, not state of the art equipment, but they have something to share that can be useful to other people.
Geoff 11:59
So maybe you’re the one—
Georgie 12:01
I am—no.
Geoff 12:02
Maybe you’re the one to fix this.
Georgie 12:04
Dude, we already corner ourselves into like being like podcast people.
Geoff 12:12
Yeah.
Georgie 12:13
I’m not. I’m not falling for that one again. Next minute she has a YouTube.
Geoff 12:18
Travel, travels with Georgie.
Georgie 12:21
Get me out of here, dude. No, like. Ah, yeah, anyway.
Geoff 12:26
I’m like, I could do a YouTube video on all the shit that I buy and unboxing and stuff like that, but then I’d have to or vlogging but then I’d have to actually do those things. I’d have to start recording everything on the vlog and then editing it, and oh God, never mind. No.
Georgie 12:44
Yeah, yeah, I’ve thought about entertained the idea of starting like a channel about like my minimalist wardrobe and like fashion and style and things. But it’s just the effort that goes into it. That I, I’m just not into that, dude.
Geoff 13:01
Yeah, editing.
Georgie 13:02
I don’t edit this podcast, by the way. But like, I think about, can I, can I do the videos and I’ll just kind of palm off the editing to someone else.
Geoff 13:13
Start off with an editor. Woah, baller.
Georgie 13:17
Yeah, I’ll just ask Nick to do it.
Geoff 13:19
The um, also everything you do ends up taking like three times the time, like the amount of time right? You’re like, oh, I just want to make a cup of tea. But like you got to set up like three different shots of you making tea and you record it all and you’re just like, okay, I just want a, I just want a fucking cup of tea, man. Anyways, you’re talking about the Menalon Trail.
Georgie 13:41
Yeah, yeah. They’re, I think there’s some some parts of the trail that are probably not as interesting because it’s sort of just bush, or like scrub or whatever. But the whole idea is, is kind of cool to me. And I was very keen on on doing that. Because like, I think when you think of Greece, you don’t really think of like doing a hiking trail.
Geoff 14:05
Yeah.
Georgie 14:06
But yeah, we also kind of splurged on like some fancy hotels in Santorini. And we got credit for that, because we had to get that trip refunded. That’s good. They gave us credit that doesn’t seem to expire, because they also sent us a reminder email, like, a year and a half after the fact. “Hey, you still got this credit”. So yeah, hopefully that’ll happen at some point in the next couple of years.
Geoff 14:35
I mean, you said you’re not glamping but I mean, have you have you seen the bubble tents? I mean, like remember, we’re talking about bubble tents.
Georgie 14:43
Yes.
Geoff 14:44
You would you stay in one of them.
Georgie 14:46
Okay, so the thing is, like we’re going to Tasmania soon and we looked at one of them and just like, nah, let’s not worry about this. Let’s just stay in actual like, house or like, yeah, I don’t know. I just don’t, I don’t know if it’s my thing.
Geoff 15:02
So the definition of glamping in my, in my world, I guess, is like, you get to basically stay in an Airbnb or hotel or something. And then and then it’s basically situated in a place where you can go on a hike and then come back, and then use all the facilities and then and then you go for a hike, and then you come back the next day during the day. So you just really do day hikes. And it’s just a well placed hotel of some sort. Like Lane Cove apparently has Lane Cove glamping.
Georgie 15:40
But hang on weren’t, weren’t we like totally like shitting on glamping like five episodes ago, we were saying it was like glorified camping and you would pay $5,000 to stay in a bubble.
Geoff 15:50
Yeah, but like bubble tent is slightly glorified camping.
Georgie 15:54
In the middle of nowhere. It’s like—
Geoff 15:58
Yeah. So I would I would go to the bubble tent. I know. It’s it’s still it’s glorified camping. But I’d still do it. But glamping is the is the art of going to fancy-ass huts and hotel like Airbnb rooms. Which is kind of resort like, and then maybe you do a hike somewhere around it. But but really, it’s yeah, glamorous camping. But all the facilities are there and you’re not really roughing it out at all. You’re just in in the middle of your—look at this shit.
Georgie 16:34
Yeah. I don’t know, man. I feel like it’s, it just feels like one of those things where your money could be better spent having... I don’t know, it seems like a scam to me. You’re paying a lot of money for a glorified camping experience or a more comfortable camping experience.
Geoff 16:55
Yeah.
Georgie 16:55
I totally understand because maybe you just don’t want to go camp—actual camping. Totally fine. But I don’t know, maybe I have a preference of like using that same money to just stay in a nice Airbnb that’s not a tent, or not like a camp, or a nice unique kind of home or even a fancy hotel with some really nice facilities. I don’t know.
Geoff 17:17
Yeah. But like personally, the, if it’s in Lane Cove, which is next to basically, you know, this some, I don’t know what you would call it. Basically suburbs, it’s surrounded by suburbs, and it’s a shopping centre. And they’re like, you can camp in Lane Cove, and I’m like, that’s a waste of money. Like why would you camp in in Lane Cove?
Georgie 17:45
Yeah.
Geoff 17:46
But I I’d be probably down just to I guess experience it. I, I’m not a huge nature person. The... but having said that, I do hikes and stuff. So it might be one of those convenience things for me, right. I want to go do a hike there and I’ll go do a hike there. Seems like there’s an accommodation thing in the middle of them. So why don’t I like get that accommodation? It looks kind of like camping, but it’s not camping. I’m okay with that.
Georgie 18:19
Yeah.
Geoff 18:20
It’s an experience type thing.
Georgie 18:22
I think that some of the facilities, like the one that we spotted in Tasmania was like, the facilities are shared with other people in the other like tents—
Geoff 18:30
Okay, no.
Georgie 18:32
Yeah, like, like, yeah, there’s like a shower block or something. But the tent where you sleep in is obviously around but then you know, there’s the other thing about maybe you’ll hear noise because it’s not like walls, and, to what you were saying about like, maybe there’s a couple of hikes in the same spot that you want to do. Why don’t you just get like a nice little wooden lodge or something? I mean, you know, personal preference. Some people like camping. Like, my personal trainer loves camping. He likes the experience. And that’s like, that’s all well and good. So.
Geoff 19:04
No, I I’d say that it I mean, I wouldn’t even call it camping, to be fair. Like, unless you’re camp—like actually not using a house structure of some sort. It’s not really called camping. Like you said, you can just get an Airbnb, a nice Airbnb nearby, as well, if it’s not an option because the glampers have completely taken over the space. Yeah, the—
Georgie 19:33
So so it’s not it’s not actual camping, unless you’re, one, not posting your photos on Instagram to show everyone how sick your experience is. And two, you have to, you have to be taking a shit in the grass.
Geoff 19:52
A hole.
Georgie 19:52
Like squat style.
Geoff 19:54
You need a hole in the middle of nowhere. Yeah.
Georgie 19:58
Wait, no, don’t even, don’t even make the hole. Just do it on the ground.
Geoff 20:05
If you’re not pitching a tent in a place that, that you shouldn’t be pitching a tent in, then you’re not ca—you’re not camping. Because I was up on the mountain, or not even on top of—I was at Mount Kosciusko
Georgie 20:21
Yeah.
Geoff 20:22
And we were just walking around. It was, it was winter. So we couldn’t, we didn’t go to the summit. But you just saw some people pitch a tent in the middle of like the snowscape. And I was like, what the hell? Like, that’s dangerous. Yeah, I think that’s true camping. You know, when you take a tent, to a place where you’re not supposed to live, and you pitch it like as if you could live there. That’s where, that’s where it’s true camping to me. There’s also this Netflix show called The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals—
Georgie 21:02
Sponsored? By all of the amazing vacation rentals that are in—
Geoff 21:07
Yeah, maybe a little bit. But there’s some pretty interesting ones that they come across. They, so, that like pretty expensive ones, but they also go down to the budget level. But it’s hosted by a bunch like a couple of YouTubers, actually. Megan Batoon, Joe Franca, they have their own YouTube channel. They used to be YouTubers, I guess. And then this Lewis guy, who is a real estate agent, so one is like focused on design, the other one’s focused on travel and the and the guys focus on travel, like being a real estate agent. So you get three different perspectives of the same vacation rental. And instead of, like, typical blog, where they just go and give you a tour of it, and then like they leave, they actually stay there a couple of days. And they kind of, you kind of watch them experience the vacation. So it’s an interesting take, and we watched a couple of episodes so far. And... wait have we been watching season two?
Georgie 22:16
Did they have any like tiny homes in it?
Geoff 22:18
Yeah. Oh, they stayed at a rental where it had only one bedroom and there were three of them. So it’s like the dude slept on the couch.
Georgie 22:30
Yeah.
Geoff 22:31
Yeah. I’m sure they’ll get into some tiny homes as cabin life paranormal places, eco friendly.
Georgie 22:38
Ew.
Geoff 22:39
So I think they’ll definitely get in maybe they might get into tiny homes because that’s that’s the rage. That’s all the rage. But yeah, I think it’s kind of, it’s kind of interesting take on transitioning a YouTube ish very popular YouTube style into like a Netflix series.
Georgie 23:01
It’ll be better than those YouTube things cuz sometimes I just don’t find them that interesting.
Geoff 23:05
Yeah, definitely. They got all the drone shots, they
Georgie 23:10
Yeah.
Geoff 23:11
They kind of have the vlogging style as well because—
Georgie 23:15
I’m not a big fan. It feels like too much posing to me.
Geoff 23:19
Yeah, they get a little more personal because once all the drone shots and stuff disappears during the day they start like living the night, and then, yeah and then they do feed them in the morning and having breakfast and stuff like that so yeah, I say give it, give it a, give it at least the first episode. They do find some interesting places but yeah oh my god we should stop talking about travel because we can’t go anywhere.
Georgie 23:48
Well like we probably can soon but...
Geoff 23:52
Yeah. Are you—
Georgie 23:55
You can go to, you can go to Lane Cove.
Geoff 23:58
You can go to Lane Cove and camp! There’s like some onsen stuff around that I had never known existed in Sydney. Like yeah, so literally in Balmain. There is—
Georgie 24:15
Oh there’s this Japanese like style one in Blue Mountains as well.
Geoff 24:18
Yeah, exactly. So there’s the the one in Blue Mountains, the one in Balmain. What do we call them, it’s not onsen—
Georgie 24:27
The bathhouse?
Geoff 24:29
Japanese. It, but the one Balmain is more like a Japanese hotel of some sort. I can’t remember what it’s called. Oh—
Georgie 24:38
Ryoukan?
Geoff 24:38
Ryoukan, yeah ryoukan. So, Samurai Japanese cafe. No, thanks.
Georgie 24:49
Restaurants?
Geoff 24:49
I don’t know.
Georgie 24:50
I want some sushi now. Thanks.
Geoff 24:54
Maybe I should have Japanese tonight.
Georgie 24:56
Dude, I fucking had Japanese last night. I could eat Japanese all the time.
Geoff 25:00
Yeah. Tempura... sweet stuff. Oh, that’s what the other thing that we’re going to do, maybe Japanese tonight. Um, oh yeah it’s Chinese new year coming up.
Georgie 25:12
Yeah.
Geoff 25:14
I don’t know if I’ve asked but it does your family actually celebrate this?
Georgie 25:18
No, we don’t really do anything.
Geoff 25:19
Ever?
Georgie 25:21
No, I haven’t gotten a single red envelope. Nah, I maybe have, just like not from my parents though, maybe from like relatives like randomly, but we don’t really like celebrate?
Geoff 25:36
Yeah, yeah. The, most of the celebrations I’ve heard like I only know one of like, group of like one friend that celebrates it. They had to cancel obviously for obvious reasons.
Georgie 25:51
Oh okay.
Geoff 25:53
But yeah Chinese New Year, peop—my friend—my family in Perth is of course celebrating as per kind of usual.
Georgie 26:02
Yeah.
Geoff 26:02
Life goes on in Perth.
Georgie 26:05
They just forgot about you, man.
Geoff 26:08
No, still got my red packet. Better than you.
Georgie 26:11
Oh shit, damn. That’s not fair.
Geoff 26:17
Yeah, um, but, but yeah, there’s a ryokan in Balmain. And there’s hot baths in, onsens in Melbourne, Victoria.
Georgie 26:30
Yeah.
Geoff 26:31
There’s also onsens in Victoria. But yeah, I didn’t know that this place existed until recently. And it’s it looks it looks great. Oh, it’s super expensive though.
Georgie 26:39
Yeah, like how much?
Geoff 26:43
Wait, “we offer two types of payment methods: PayPal and gift vouchers”.
Georgie 26:48
Wait, huh? Ah... really?
Geoff 26:51
Pay Pal and gift vouchers.
Georgie 26:53
That’s like so weirdly old school.
Geoff 26:55
Full payments required when booking is made. After we sight all vacc—vaccination certificates, you’ll receive final email. Interesting.
Georgie 27:06
So if you try and book now like is it gonna make you log into... oh, $550 per night? Yeah, that’s expensive but it could be way worse.
Geoff 27:17
It could be way worse. But—
Georgie 27:20
I suppose you’re paying for the experience.
Geoff 27:22
They have packages so, like you can do, there’s some workshops and stuff so origami workshops and—
Georgie 27:31
Yeah.
Geoff 27:32
I think they cancelled all those things recently. Because of course. Breakfast, oh workshops, here we go. So you can do some pretty artistic experience like oh, calligraphy, kimono salon, tamari, man, yeah. Oh, you can even learn to play the, the—
Georgie 27:53
The harp is it?
Geoff 27:54
Harp thing? What’s it called, koto? Traditional stringed instruments. So, in it’s like a harp but on its side.
Georgie 28:04
Yeah.
Geoff 28:05
It’s essentially on a table.
Georgie 28:06
I think I’ve heard it in like, Japanese music, like I know what the I know what it sounds like.
Geoff 28:11
Yeah. So you really go there to do all of these kind of cultural experiences, which is pretty cool.
Georgie 28:21
Yeah.
Geoff 28:22
And then they have a hot bath. I think that’s a private hot bath please. I would love to just go to a Japanese ryokan and have the hot onsen water pumped into my bedroom.
Georgie 28:35
Yeah. Have you been to an onsen? Like in in Japan?
Geoff 28:40
Yeah yeah, I have.
Georgie 28:41
Yeah, have you so you you went to like, are you—
Geoff 28:43
Seen a lot of dick.
Georgie 28:45
Oh so you went to a public one.
Geoff 28:47
Yeah, yeah.
Georgie 28:51
Well, because you were just saying like, you’re just saying—I’m gonna clip that.
Geoff 28:58
Haha, yes, shit.
Georgie 29:02
Yeah, we stayed in one Hakone which was, mind you, pretty overpriced because Hakone is like—
Geoff 29:09
Oh you went to Hakone?
Georgie 29:11
Yeah. We only stayed there for one night, but we had our own like ba—hot bath. And this was like in December ish. So it was quite cold outside. So it’s that kind of hot bath and cold weather kind of cool shit. But we did, we did go to the public one. But I think actually can’t remember if we got access to the public one for like, an hour after hours, like special access. Or if I think we maybe went there quite late at night and there was nobody else there. Maybe there was one person but in the corner so
Geoff 29:47
Yeah, in the corner.
Georgie 29:50
Did not—wait, actually no, wait.
Geoff 29:53
Did you go to a mixed one?
Georgie 29:54
No, that’s what I was gonna say of course I wouldn’t see a lot of dick.
Geoff 29:57
Wouldn’t see a lot of dick, yeah.
Georgie 29:58
Yeah, yeah. It’s it’s gendered.
Geoff 30:00
Yeah.
Georgie 30:00
Right. Yeah.
Geoff 30:01
Normally, yes, you can get mixed ones, but usually only old people go to mixed ones.
Georgie 30:07
Yeah, I also think it’s like in more open ones, they’re mixed. But if it’s owned by some kind of like, even as part of the premises of some hotel.
Geoff 30:17
Yeah, generally.
Georgie 30:18
Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 30:18
Yeah. Generally they’re divided. We went to one that was somewhere around here in Odaiba. I can’t remember where, probably around here, but they closed recently, I think, that’s why it’s not showing up on the map. But essentially, it was kind of like a theme park. Like you go in. And there is like seating areas. There’s food, there’s games, there’s... upstairs, there’s a weird, a weird room with a bunch of recliners and little mini TVs on the recliners and headphones. So you can like sit there, recline and just chill. But you really—you buy a ticket. It’s all inclusive. You go in there, except for the gatcha machines. But you go in there and you kind of enjoy yourself, you go to the onsen, and you come back out and you have fun food, go chill, and then go back into the onsen. So it’s kind of like a no, no worries. Take your time. Do some other stuff besides sitting in a fucking bath, which I find really boring. So that was that was pretty interesting experience. But yes, I saw a lot of dick. You kind of, you kind of just you kind of like a little bit, you kind of like, try not to look down too much. But then, but then you kind of get over it. And you just, so, yeah, everyone, everyone’s got their dick out. So whatever. No, no point being modest in there.
Georgie 31:47
Yeah, I remember going to Odaiba. But we just like looked around at all the, there’s like, what are they called? Like arcades in there as well, right?
Geoff 31:56
Yeah. Yes.
Georgie 31:58
Some restaurants and things. Yeah.
Geoff 32:01
Oh, my God. Just, there’s there’s a shopping center there.
Georgie 32:06
Yeah.
Geoff 32:06
I can’t remember what it’s called... uh, something Venetian something. I’ll look it up. But essentially, you go in there. And it’s like Europe, in a building. They’ve replicated European architecture, but inside a massive warehouse. So you’re walking around all these shops and they’re selling slightly European things. Oh, Venus Fort. There it is. Fuck, man. Okay, I’m gonna
Georgie 32:32
Maybe look up pictures of the inside. Because we did go around. We looked at stuff here but I don’t know if we went in here.
Geoff 32:39
Look at this fountain. Fake sky.
Georgie 32:42
Maybe I hav—I think I have seen this maybe.
Geoff 32:47
The problem here was that we got fucking lost. Like we couldn’t make—we couldn’t get out. Th—like they had this whole market thing. Couldn’t get out for like, out of like an hour and a half. We were just like, we need to exit. How the hell do we get out of here? Everything then—
Georgie 33:03
Is it only one way?
Geoff 33:05
We don’t know. Everything just looked the same. Like there weren’t any clear exit signs. It was just, it was just some, like a crazy place to be in. But you can kind of see... very strange. They had fake skies and everything. So you couldn’t tell what time it was outside.
Georgie 33:26
Yeah, this makes me think of—gave you been to Las Vegas?
Geoff 33:30
Oh, no, I haven’t been to Las Vegas, no.
Georgie 33:31
Ah, there’s the building. It’s a lot like this actually the inside, like, you can’t tell.
Geoff 33:38
Yeah.
Georgie 33:39
Yeah, and then there’s the fountain and there’s actually a river inside—
Geoff 33:43
A river?
Georgie 33:44
Ride, yeah, you can ride a gondola.
Geoff 33:48
Oh, Venice.
Georgie 33:49
Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 33:49
Yeah The Venetian. I think they actually call the place the Venetian, the Venetian resort Las Vegas.
Georgie 33:55
Yeah, and it’s exactly the same but you don’t know what it’s like outside because the ceilings are like just painted sky and stuff.
Geoff 34:02
That’s crazy. Oh yeah, yeah, the rides.
Georgie 34:06
It’s yeah, it’s a bit of a trip, but I mean.
Geoff 34:09
“It’s always daytime in the Venetian resort”. I think Dorinda was talking about this today actually.
Georgie 34:16
Yeah.
Geoff 34:17
It’s really cool inside it looks really cool.
Georgie 34:20
Yeah.
Geoff 34:22
I was gonna sneeze but nevermind. But yeah, you are you until the whole pools and spas and stuff
Georgie 34:30
Just like when travelling, or just generally?
Geoff 34:33
Yeah, I mean when just when traveling or I guess normally do you get spa treatments?
Georgie 34:39
Oh like the spa yeah, the spa treatments and the messages Yeah. Like fuck yeah splurge. But I don’t do it all the time. But it’s a nice it’s like a treat yourself kind of relax sort of thing.
Geoff 34:53
Yeah.
Georgie 34:54
As for like just pools at places I don’t really care because as we have discussed I don’t like the beach, so by extension not really into swimming. I mean, I don’t mind like sitting in the pool and stuff but—
Geoff 35:07
Yeah.
Georgie 35:08
Well, it’s like you’re saying with the onsen and the bath like sitting in the bath is boring. Sitting in a pool is boring and I don’t care too much for swimming. Just like go in the water for like 10 minutes and I’m like I’m done. This is enough.
Geoff 35:24
Yeah, for me I gotta have a pool—when I go to the pool. It’s got to be for like, an express reason. And pools. You do laps. So if I go to a pool and I can’t do the lab, so there’s no point going to a pool. Yes, sitting around it. What’s what’s the point? Unless you’re sunbaking I guess? But again don’t need to—
Georgie 35:47
I don’t even care about that. I mean, I don’t want to care about that.
Geoff 35:50
But you and your midriff tan, you don’t wanna bring it back?
Georgie 35:53
No? I’m not I’m not into tanning. Like it just so happens that I tan because I go outside.
Geoff 36:00
Yeah.
Georgie 36:00
But I would not deliberately tan so I’m also not interested in sitting by the pool.
Geoff 36:07
Did you get a slight shit like darker shade today?
Georgie 36:11
I probably did. I haven’t checked.
Geoff 36:15
Check it out. But yeah, I don’t. Yeah, hotel pools don’t seem very cool to me. Because yeah, can’t lap. That’s too many people. Oh, actually, the other the other day, when we were at Cremorne Point. There’s like a rock pool that’s been there since 1920. And they had like, obviously made it a modern pool by now. But apparently used to be like a natural full rock pool. And then they turned it into a real pool. And then like a bunch of people going down there but clearly not enough space for the amount of people going there.
Georgie 36:50
Oh.
Geoff 36:51
Yeah, there was like two people in the in the in the pool. And then like everyone was just sitting around on the edge. And it’s like, man, what why?
Georgie 37:01
Why? Why are you interested in sitting there now that there’s so many people there?
Geoff 37:05
Yeah. Just constantly people walking past us and then going down to the pool. I’m like, that’s a tiny ass pool. Woah, Weird Al plays at the Venetian.
Georgie 37:17
It might be, he might have like a residency until a certain date because like that’s what happens in Las Vegas. They have like artists who play there for like, a certain amount of time, like extended amount of time.
Geoff 37:28
Yeah, actually, I think I think I remember finding out that yeah, that exactly that people like—not Madonna—Celine Dion. Right?
Georgie 37:39
Yeah.
Geoff 37:39
She has a regular Vegas show. And it’s kind of like pretty cushy right? It’s like the cushy end game for for musicians getting—
Georgie 37:50
No dude, no, I—
Geoff 37:53
Retirement. Right? It’s like you go there you get a you get a paycheck at the end of every week or month you get the same paycheck it’s like stability for—
Georgie 38:03
Yes but, but like that is yeah, you’re right that is cushy. But you know what the actual like reality is, you’re not that big of a star. You start playing RSL clubs in fucking Narrabeen and Toowoomba like—
Geoff 38:17
Or get a stage like Celine Dion.
Georgie 38:20
I know, but you know, do you know, do you know that like in rando, rando suburban RSLs like out in Western Sydney, out like, outside of the CBD. The some some like old 90s, I would say even like 70s 80s bands, Australian bands, will have residency at like some RSL which is not in Sydney. It’s like outside of Sydney, it’s like in fuckin Penrith or something.
Geoff 38:46
Yeah.
Georgie 38:47
Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s a thing. And I remember because I was looking up this band—
Geoff 38:54
Wait how is this relevant to getting a cushy paycheck from Las Vegas—
Georgie 38:59
Because, because you’re saying it’s like they retire and then, or they like, go to the end. It’s towards the end of their career. They’ve been there for a while and then they just get a residency in Las Vegas.
Geoff 39:10
Yeah.
Georgie 39:10
But what actually what, that’s, that’s America. In Australia if you’re not an international star, and you’ve had like a you know, some popular Australian like you know, like Cold Chisel?
Geoff 39:23
ICEHOUSE is the only one that I know.
Georgie 39:26
Yeah, that you know? Yeah like I don’t know maybe type ICEHOUSE RSL and see if they played an RSL recently, but that is like, when they, basically those musicians who were around like 30, 40 years ago, and they’re no longer making new music, but they still want to entertain people, they end up at the RSL. And it’s like, no shade, but that is just what happens in Australia.
Geoff 39:51
Cushy RSL life, you know? Yeah, but I remember—
Georgie 39:57
Good song though.
Geoff 39:59
Yeah. I remember this one particularly because when I got my first job out in Newcastle I worked with, you know, people in this ICEHOUSE era, ICEHOUSE era,
Georgie 40:16
People who are like 10 years older than us or something.
Geoff 40:19
Yeah. Oh how old is ICEHOUSE? ICEHOUSE. Oh my god they’re still playing. Um, 1977. Formed in 1977. Anyways, so for one of the Christmas parties or whatever... was it one, was it the Christmas party?
Georgie 40:40
Dude, you got ICEHOUSE—
Geoff 40:42
They, they got us tickets to ICEHOUSE—the whole company of like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Like 12 of us went to an RSL in Newcastle and watched ICEHOUSE. And watched ICEHOUSE. And I’m like, why am I here? Like this is like a decade, two decades, earlier than my than my music knowledge.
Georgie 41:11
That’s funny because like personally I would have thought that was pretty sick because my music knowledge—my music knowledge is like, is like a decade before I was born. For some reason.
Geoff 41:21
Yeah, I’m well I have two older sisters so my music taste is actually the 90s. Even though I was growing up in the 90s.
Georgie 41:29
Oh yeah, yeah.
Geoff 41:31
So, so yeah, we all go down to the thing and ICEHOUSE comes, I’m like, oh my god what’s happening? And then they start playing Electric Blue and everyone like so hyped, they were, aaa, Electric Blue—
Georgie 41:44
I’d be fucking hyped. I am like, I’m actually surprised that you fucking saw them. I’m like. What the fuck. You’ve seen fucking ICEHOUSE.
Geoff 41:46
I forgot that that was a live concert. I like wiped it from my memory. So anyone talks about live concerts and which ones we’d be into.
Georgie 42:03
Maybe because it was an RSL you’re just like, doesn’t count. I just had like chickens schnitty.
Geoff 42:09
It’s the only thing I can rely on RSLs to get correct, okay? Chicken schnitties.
Georgie 42:13
Yeah alright. Yeah, actually, yeah, no judgment, no judgment. I was actually talking to someone at work recently about just this notion of places having RSL vibes.
Geoff 42:24
Yeah, RSL vibes.
Georgie 42:26
Actually wait, for full—wait.
Geoff 42:27
Yeah, we have to explain what RSL is.
Georgie 42:29
We need to explain what RSL is. Is it something service—
Geoff 42:35
Returns Service League of Australia.
Georgie 42:40
Yeah. Okay. So I don’t even know how... what are they designed for? Because basically the vibe of an RSL. It’s like a, it’s a Leagues Club, essentially. And there’s usually a bistro inside, it tends to attract, like older people, like middle aged people. Sometimes there are like, local shows there. And sometimes there are like bigger artists, but never like, you know, there’s not going to be like Lady Gaga or something.
Geoff 43:08
Yeah, I think generally, they are comprised of a couple of event rooms, a membership, some pokies, or as we call it, but I think other people—
Georgie 43:20
Slot machines.
Geoff 43:20
Yeah, slot machines, yeah, slot machines is the term. And, or, like, bingo, maybe a TAB, which is Australia’s main gambling conglomerate, are hanging around. And yeah, they generally that’s like I think it’s basically for retirees to go spend their time you know, with their friends in a little food court. They usually have a food court.
Georgie 43:48
Yeah, it’s it’s a food court vibe.
Geoff 43:50
Yeah.
Georgie 43:50
And food for some reason. It’s usually like there’s a lot of carpet. Like—
Geoff 43:54
Yeah.
Georgie 43:55
Dated.
Geoff 43:56
Dated carpet. Okay.
Georgie 43:58
Yeah.
Geoff 44:03
But, um, yeah, so this is the end of, this is the end of end of life, career, for like, bands in Australia. It seems right. They go play these places.
Georgie 44:15
Yeah.
Geoff 44:16
But I mean, I didn’t even know that RSLs were a thing until I came over to Sydney. I don’t think they’re particularly popular in Perth.
Georgie 44:25
Yeah?
Geoff 44:26
Yeah, I don’t think so. Either that or we generally don’t hang out there because we’re just too young.
Georgie 44:35
Yeah, there’s that as well.
Geoff 44:38
One. Just one RSL in the whole of WA.
Georgie 44:42
In the whole of Western Australia, there’s one RSL? That can’t be right. Dude, that can’t be freaking right.
Geoff 44:49
That’s how small, that’s how small Perth is man, you only need one RSL. But more pubs, everyone kind of hangs out the pubs and rather than RSLs.
Georgie 45:00
Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 45:02
So yeah, I went to an RSL, saw ICEHOUSE. I saw—bowling, not Bowling For Soup. My Ch—not My Chemical Romance. What’s the other one? Oh, starts with an F. Is it F?
Georgie 45:19
F... oh shit. Faith No—
Geoff 45:22
Not faith. Rock band, rock band. Shit.
Georgie 45:27
Like a, like an emo one right?
Geoff 45:28
Yeah, the kinda emo name.
Georgie 45:30
Does it have like four words in the name? It’s like—
Geoff 45:32
Black Fingernails, Red Wine.
Georgie 45:34
Oh Eskimo Joe.
Geoff 45:35
Eskimo Joe, no F in it.
Georgie 45:41
I think you told me you went to Eskimo Joe—
Geoff 45:44
Was an RSL way out.
Georgie 45:46
Oh was it an RSL? I thought you said that you were like the only Asian people there.
Geoff 45:50
There were no Asian people there, yeah. There was all Caucasians I think it was an RSL? Maybe it was an actual real venue. But anyways, went all the way out there. And I remember going, huh. This is pretty—I mean of course I know the the band, but I learned a lot of their songs that day. I told one of my Perth friends about this, oh yeah, I went to Eskimo Joe. And they said—I said, “for the first time”—so apparently I had been before with that friend in Perth.
Georgie 46:25
Oh shit.
Geoff 46:28
So I was like... Oh, yeah.
Georgie 46:30
You erased, erased all your like music gigs from your memory.
Geoff 46:36
Yeah. Yeah. I mean.
Georgie 46:39
Yeah. Maybe I could fool you into saying we saw like Adele last year.
Geoff 46:45
I think I’m—the thing is, I want to go see like something really unique. Like I can it’s more of an experience rather than just seeing them sing. So I’d probably go see Acca Dacca. They’re probably a bit of an experience. Lady Gaga apparently is crazy.
Georgie 47:04
Nick has seen, Nick has seen ACDC.
Geoff 47:07
Yeah?
Georgie 47:08
Yeah, he enjoyed it. I think it was. I don’t know if was maybe his first first concert. But I mean, like, unpopular opinion, most of their songs sound the same?
Geoff 47:19
Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. And I know all them.
Georgie 47:22
It’s about the energy and shit cuz you watch them just videos and stuff.
Geoff 47:27
Yeah.
Georgie 47:27
They put on a good show. You want to watch somebody who also puts on a good show doesn’t like just sing.
Geoff 47:32
Yeah. We got—apparently maybe Pink one is good. Beyonce.
Georgie 47:38
See, I don’t I don’t listen to a lot of Pink but of I know a bunch of her songs. And from what I’ve heard, I just feel like I would enjoy watching one of her concerts.
Geoff 47:46
Yes.
Georgie 47:47
Sounds sick.
Geoff 47:48
But the thing is like, I would have to watch one of their concerts first and then I would have spoiled the concert and then I wouldn’t go
Georgie 47:56
They might do it differently. You never know.
Geoff 47:58
Yeah, maybe maybe. But I do remember when I went to Linkin Park and the very first opening, the light show for the for the opening was actually really good. And it was, it was like a memorable thing, moment, that probably amplified by that atmosphere. But, you know, like I said in the dub—www, When We Were Young.
Georgie 48:25
Yeah.
Geoff 48:26
I yeah, my I might actually go to that one if it ever existed. I love it. I’ve seen some tweets recently.
Georgie 48:33
It might be a scam Geoff.
Geoff 48:35
Yeah.
Georgie 48:36
That’s the whole thing that’s going around.
Geoff 48:39
I saw a tweet about it recently. And they were saying like, I don’t understand how people can still stand by this. This party of festival. Because if you know anything about festivals, you know you can’t fit this many fucking bands in this time, right?
Georgie 48:59
Yeah, that’s that’s the shit that I’ve read. Like, logistically, it’s just like, ha—that’s not viable.
Geoff 49:06
Yeah. That’s—
Georgie 49:09
But I don’t know. I mean, I’m not like, dying to go. It’d be cool.
Geoff 49:17
Yeah.
Georgie 49:17
But, but I also like, if it’s that it’s gonna be that risky in that it might be not a cool time. Then I’m okay to miss that. No. FOMO man, it’s not FOMO unless you make it.
Geoff 49:31
Exactly. And you know, you, won’t you won’t feel any FOMO after this podcast ends soon. That was the worst one.
Georgie 49:42
Horrible.
Geoff 49:43
I forgot what FOMO like, you won’t... You won’t miss out on the next episode... Yeah, I’m gonna leave this one alone. Right? Yeah. You can follow us on @toastroastpod, Instagram and Twitter. We’re posting clips on Instagram these days. Or audio clips.
Georgie 50:04
Woohoo. No FOMO for you. And you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the big alphabet soup in Dubai. I’m sorry.
Geoff 50:16
Oh God, that was terrible, wasn’t it. And new episodes every Monday so we’ll see you next week.
Georgie 50:23
See you next week.
Geoff 50:24
Bye.
