Hola! my Aussie and international friends. I hope you are all having a fabulous Tuesday/Wednesday. I just watched a Jon Olsson vlog while having my lunch and now I really want to fly somewhere in Emirates First Class. Probably not gonna happen today though. For starters, I have to get this team update out. 

Also, how nice is that photo? Credit to @intrepidphotos. It was taken in Wollombi Valley, NSW, and is only a few days old. Upvote it here.  

The battle of the states is on!

Well, there's been progress since last week with Sydney AND Perth getting their shit together and coming through with actual dates, times and venues for their meet-ups. They've decided to go head-to-head with Melbourne and Brisbane just to make it a bit more exciting. I notice no one wants to go up against Adelaide and that's fair enough. My money is definitely on the mallsballers to win in terms of the best turn out.

Here's the latest updates in case you missed them

• Adelaide. Thursday 22 February, Jade Monkey from 6:00 PM. Details here.
• Melbourne. Sunday 25 February, Father's Office bar from 3:00 PM. Details here.
• Sydney. Sunday 25 February, the Bavarian at World Square from 3:00 PM. Details here. 
• Brisbane. Sunday 4 March, Southbank Beer Garden from 2:00–4:00 PM. Details here. 
• Perth. Sunday 4 March, Whiteman Park (on the Whiteman Park Pool Playground) from 2:00 PM. Details here.

The usual community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising and rewarding Aussie creativity by curating quality content.

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. 

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP project off the ground. 

Lastly, if you're feeling generous, you can delegate SP to the Team Australia upvote bots @centerlink and/or @mrsquiggle (or any other bot you like) using Vessel. You can delegate to any of the MSP bots using this link.    

Candidate 1

Name and bio

@foles09 is from Brisbane and likes beaches, sports, cold beers, travelling, playing rugby, and good times.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Once I had a shark swim directly under me and then circle and swim off."

Depending on the size of the shark, that is both cool and scary. Unless it was just @juicy-shark.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@cjsound is a musician, vegan (woo!), and @thetinykitchen's husband. They currently live in New Zealand but are moving back to Melbourne in March. 

Intro post here.  

Fun fact

"I met Ana (@thetinykitchen) through a friend's tinder date."

Hmm, we need more information about this. Nine words are not enough. A lot of questions remain unanswered. 

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@virtalch is a diesel technician from Mildura who's into custom building Freightliner trucks and restoring motorbikes. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I have two kids, but don't get to see them much, struggling to find a new direction, and to sort my shit. Not really having much fun at all at the moment."

Mate! This is a terrible fun fact. In fact, I think you're the new winner of the worst fun fact submitted.  

Shakes head.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@nathankaye lives in Melbourne and is @benleemusic's friend. He's a professional musician, film actor, music producer, and vegan (another woo!). He was in Muriel's Wedding and Home and Away! 

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"Golden Globe nominated actor, Joel Edgerton texted me a couple of years ago to ask if it was ok if he started dating a girl I used to date (sorry for the name drop). I told him that wasn't at all necessary, but thanks for the very gentlemanly gesture. We've known each other a very long time and he's always been a good bloke."

See, now this is an AWESOME fun fact. And of course you should name drop. That just makes it even more interesting! 

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@coachmelleow is a leadership coach and motivational speaker. He has lived in Melbourne for nine years but works mostly in Asia still. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I took my ex-girlfriend to my first U2 concert back in 1992. Then when I got married to another girl, the only thing that I did not achieve with her was to bring her to a U2 concert! Thank God that has been ticked when I brought her to the Joshua Tree 30-Year Anniversary Concert last year in Brussels."

Hmm, did you only date women who were also into U2? I'm leaning towards yes on this.

Candidate 6

Name and bio

@neddykelly lives in Toowoomba and also Yeppoon. He's into health and wellness alternatives, but it's unclear whether or not he's a bushranger.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I like the outdoors, hiking and fishing; love a weekend camping adventure." 

Oh God! That's like the trifecta of things I would not like to do on the weekend. But each to their own. 👍 

Candidate 7

Name and bio

@halfhead is from Sydney. Among other things, he's a photographer, videographer, artist, writer, musician, podcaster, and comedian. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I am an adventurer of both physical and mental space. I NEED to learn more, and LOVE to educate."

Er, I'm unsure of how one becomes an adventurer of a mental space, but good for you. Carry on.

Candidate 8

Name and bio

@bobaphet is from Melbourne. He's into of yoga with a shamanic flavour, having participated in numerous Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies. He also has a sweet-looking veggie patch.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I like to rap and love a good cypher."

Oh, you should rap battle it out with @bulleth in the rap-battle-royale room in PAL Discord. That man has some rhymes.

Candidate 9

Name and bio

@lostdomium is from Melbourne (I think) and is into BDSM and growing cannabis plants. He's a professional smoker (is this a job?) and an amateur grower.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"We have seven kids between us. Five of them born in March two days apart in different years, the other two were born on the same day in November in different years."

That is pretty cool. If they were all yours (together) that would make me wonder what's going on in March and July of each year!

Candidate 10

Name and bio

@positiveninja is from Brisbane. He is into spirituality, essential oils (you should talk to @benleemusic), music, photography and videography. He's currently training for his first marathon.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I once swam in a 400m freestyle race against former Olympian Grant Hackett at University Games. He lapped me, but I competed against an Olympic swimmer. And I'm happy to say my life is looking a whole lot more 'together' than Grant's these days. Poor guy."

Well, if you're going to get humiliated by someone in the pool it's best if they've got an Olympic gold medal—or three—behind them. 

Also, do you know all the Australian elite swimmers? (Michael Klim for those not in the know.)

Candidate 11

Name and bio

@youareyourowngod is a friend of @headlessjess. Originally from England, he now lives in Margaret River. God is into yoga, surfing and football.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I don't really have anything fun to tell, although once I shook a cocktail so hard I went back in time. Now I'm a 28-year-old single male with two 30-year-old kids."

Lol! I don't know how to respond to this, so I'm just going to screen capture the original conversation since @tomekkk's response pretty much sums it up. 

Congratulations everyone, you're now part of Team Australia.

 

The rules for joining Team Australia

If you’re not yet a member and want to be, this is what you need to do:

1. Vote here for our resident steemit witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank.
2. Send me your introduction post so I can find out a bit about you. If you’re new to steemit you'll have to write one so use the introduceyourself and teamaustralia tags to help boost your following. Use this handy guide by @teamsteem if you don't know what to write.
3. If it’s not mentioned in your introductory post, tell me which city and country you’re in, cos let's face it, a lot of us live in Australia's fourth largest city—London. You need to have a connection to Australia to join.
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you have eight kids and three dogs, or you rode your bike across America, or you won the blue ribbon for javelin throwing at sports day back in high school, or Toadie came into the pub you work at one day and you served him a beer, or, maybe you can fit 55 maltesers in your mouth like Ed Sheeran can. It doesn’t matter what it is, I want a fun fact about you! The more fun, the better.
5. Regularly check the Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote/follow the content you like. You can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in steemauto. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me in PAL-Discord that you want to join.

Once I receive this information I will try my best to write a good introductory paragraph about you for the official Team Australia membership updates. So the better your information is, the better I can make you sound. Where relevant, please use the teamaustralia and australia tags to promote your work. I will try and post weekly updates. 

Are you an Aussie? Introduce yourself in the MSP teamaustralia chat!   

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas