Succulence

Goodbye brain cells!

2009-01-21T23:28:00.000+11:00

20th January 2009 is a very good day. For a start, we’re finally rid of the most idiotic American President & welcomed in a new, ‘black’ President who incessantly borrows Bob the Builder’s catchphrase ‘Yes we can’. Nonetheless, to have a coloured President sends out so much hope, not just to Americans to people the world over. It gives hope to hard work and intelligence. It gives hope of equality, that we, at last, are judged no longer by the colour of our skin but by the very content of our characters as dreamt by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. And it gives hope to the underpriviledged and the marginalised to reach out and achieve what they set out to achieve.

A man is not a man until he is able and willing to accept his own vision of the world, no matter now radically this vision departs from that of others. [James Baldwin]

Then, 'psychic Tim' asked me if I was a Dr yet. Without checking my emails I answered no because the final examiner's report was not due until Friday 23rd Jan. No sooner had I sent off the msg on FB & checked my email did I find out that I passed!!! With flying colours!! I was actually notified by my supervisor (in confidence) the week before that the American examiner loved my thesis, would like to keep a copy, and had given me a 1!!! (For those not in the know, the Australian PhD marking system is divided into 4 grades - 1: pass without changes, 2: pass with minor changes, 3: pass with major changes, 4: fail. At present there is still no oral defence requirement.) Almost a week had passed until I heard further news. Not expecting the final report to return until the end of the week I went a couple of days without checking my emails. Until ‘psychic Tim’ asked me about my results actually. It so happened that the final report that been returned a week early & by Monday Kev (my supervisor) had already been notified of my results & passed on the good word! My final grades are 1, 1 and 1!! That means I don’t have to make any changes whatsoever, and they can’t make me!!!! That’s the most satisfying feeling after toiling over the damn thing for more than 5 years! Celebrations will no doubt drag on, I having popped the first bottle of Chandon already today. There are only 6 more bottles to go :D I in truth was not very confident of the results after having almost forced my supervisor to sign the supervisory certificate by way of an OS-trip attached deadline. To tell the truth I would have been happy with 2s but onesies are SOOOO much better. Now I’m free to be who I want to be and do what I want to do. All I need now is a career & to win the lotto to complete the trifacta!

In the end, what matters is not crossing the finish line before anybody else but just making sure you do cross it. [Jason Zweig]

It's the new dawn of a new world.

2008: A funeral & 4 weddings

2009-01-04T23:35:00.001+11:00

Another year has come and gone. 2008 had been a year of 2 parts for me personally. It started out not so well with the passing of old Mr Look, and thus my first attendance of a funeral in the digital age (who knew funerals can be so hi-tech these days?). Before you know it, Feb came around & the Dell that I had been carrying around for the last 3 years decided to call it quits. Luckily it gave enough warning shots with its ‘blue screen of death’ prior to karking it, otherwise my PhD would have been ‘colder than ice water’ (凍過冷水). As a result, I promptly switched to a widescreen though Vista-ridden ASUS. This big heavy thing has served me well, first as a processor for the remaining of my doctoral and now as my own personal entertainment unit after I plugged in the subwoofer & dual speakers.

The year progressed slowly as the burden of the thesis got heavier & heavier, until a point where my ‘original’ deadline of end of Aug was fast running beyond the realm of possibility. July & August has to be the darkest months of 2008 with the thesis still no end in sight, my supervisor ignoring my numerous email & phone bombardments (he said he was ‘busy’ setting up new courses after his move to a different uni in May). This got to its lowest point when I considered chucking away 5½ years of hard work just to keep my own sanity in check. The final push came when I decided to drag it through right up until the day before my post-submission European trip (25 September). As of right now, I’m still awaiting to results to arrive. Prelim feedback that I’ve gotten so far is ‘positive’, whatever that means. Fingers & whatever else limbs that I have are all crossed, together with the Japanese 合格 headband that I have hanging over my bed.

The post-submission European trip was no doubt the highlight of 2008. It was a hectic trip, no less because I wanted to go as far away as possible after the submission but also to my own decision that the next few trips that I take would focus on E Asia rather than the western world. As such, I needed to squeeze out as much as possible of this last European trip in a little while. And boy, did we squeeze it out. After a gruelling 33-hour stretch that involved 2 transfers (Bangkok & London) I finally arrived in Helsinki to meet up with the 3 others who travelled direct from HK. We continued our journey onto other national capitals of the Baltic (Tallinn in Estonia; Riga in Latvia) & Eastern Europe (Praha in Czech Republic; Wien in Austria; Bratislava in Slovak Republic) as well as other regional cities/town (Rovaniemi in Finland; Salzburg in Austria) before finally parting ways after 2 excitement-filled weeks. I continued on my way through Deutschland (München; Hamburg; Bremen; Berlin) where I drowned my solitude in local beer & würst as well as visited Wendy for a couple of days. The trip rounded out with a week in Oslo (including a drive to Årjang in Sverige) followed by a week family & shopping in HK (OK, that’s not really Europe, but it was part of the trip).

Aside from the trip, 2008 was also highlighted by 4 wedding invitations (thus rounding out the title of this entry). First there was Vera’s wedding to Warren at the end of September which I couldn’t attend (it was in Helsinki at the other end of the world), followed by Robbo & Rachel’s 2 weeks after I returned, with Nat & Paul’s another month after that. The year of 4 weddings was rounded out with Fai’s wedding in HK (I was already back home in Sydney). Just when I though I would get another year off wedding comes the invitation to Jo’s wedding to Jayme in HK in Nov. Being the travel addict that I am I might just be tempted to attend & fit in a side trip to Taiwan afterwards. If little Anne get that job in 大板 (Osaka) I must fit Japan in as well :P

Looking ahead into 2009 there are a few things to look forward to. No doubt the most exciting & biggest relief would be finishing off the damn PhD. Following close behind is of course landing a ‘real’ job & buying my own place. Let’s hope the interview at U Sydney in a couple of week’s time works out so I can stop searching! Being a child of the 70s (just scraped in in 1979) I’d also be turning the big three-O. There had been a few ideas floating around on how to celebrate such a momentous occasion, from a big-ish bash at Banjo Paterson’s Cottage in Gladesville, to a small intimate gig on a houseboat on the Nepean or a lighthouse at Seal Rock. We’re still months away but I’m already making guest list, stuff to bring, menu …

Berlin

2008-10-18T11:13:00.008+11:00

Berlin, with a population of just 3.5 million, is not a big city in international terms. Despite this relatively 'small' population the city has witnessed (as well as played a tremendous part in) contemporary world history. My guide told me that more than 90% of the city was destroyed at the end of WWII. Reconstruction was halted or diverted by the division between E & W Germany (and thus E & W Berlin). The two halves of the city have/had thus taken on vastly different characteristics. For most of my time in Berlin I stayed within the East, crossing over to the West (luckily no longer life-risking) on less than a hand-full of occasions, including my 'airlift' out of Tegel.

Here are the points for Berlin:

1 point goes to Gendermenmarkt. Regarded as Berlin's most beautiful markt/square, the East Berlin Concert Hall sits in the middle of the square. This was guarded on both sides by 2 identical churches - one French and one German. Unfortunately I failed to see the greatness of this markt/square. I was even there at twilight.

2 points go to Hitler's bunker. It was only recently (late 80s or early 90s) confirmed as THE bunker that Hitler hid during his final weeks and ultimately committed suicide, it is now just an insignificant carpark. My guide told me that the concrete walls and ceilings of the bunker was so well-built that it could have survived a direct nuclear bomb hit. So needless to say both the Soviets and then the Germans failed to destroy and remove the bunker in order to reclaim the land. Former site of Himmler's bunker, however, is now part of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (see points).

3 points go to Checkpoint Charlie. It is actually a recreation of what the Checkpoint used to look like at the very beginning of the East/West division. The photos of the American & Russian soldiers are even the real pictures that were featured. My guide told me that it was just some recent art project. Anywho, the museum nearby show the evolvement of the Checkpoint and the Berlin Wall. It is well worth a look.

4 points go to the Reichstag. Only reopened as the German Parliament House and open for public's visit in recent years, the newer glass dome actually fits the old building very well. The spiral inside the dome is a must visit attration for most tourists. Unfortunately it was closed for the whole of October for some refurbishment so I couldn't get in.

5 points go to the Humboldt University. Once a highly regarded university in the world, Albert Einstein taught here prior to WWII. It was also the first modern university in the world that introduced the "teaching as well as research" mode for academics. Thanks a lot!

6 points go to the New Synagogue. Not really new anymore and it doesn't actually work as a synagogue either, the New Syngogue however retains its golden exterior. This is a reflection of its former glory pre-WWII. Right now, its facade was restored post-reunification as a memorial to the Holocaust and Kristallnacht, the night when this beautiful former synagogue was burnt to the ground for the Jewish pogrom.

7 points go to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) and the adjoining Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden). It is a beautiful looking Cathedral and garden. This Dom, however, is built on the site of a former church that stood on the same grounds until it was pulled down some decades ago. Remnants of this old church can be seen within the grounds of the Dom. It is also across the road form the former site of the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic), which served as the Parliament House during the times of East Germany.

8 points go to the Neue Wache (new guard house). It has gone through several re-dedications but it was never far from being a memorial to war. Since the reunification it is a meorial to the victims of war and tyranny. The hole above the statue exposes it to all natural elements.

9 points go to Alexanderplatz. It is filled with stalls selling würst and souvenirs. It is also surrounded with shopping centres and within walking distance to the Fernsehturm.

10 points go to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Often mistaken as a memorial to the Holocaust, it is actually just one of Berlin's several memorials to the Holocaust. The memorial to the homosexual victims, for example, is just across the the road, while the memorial to the gypsies are still to be completed. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also has a museum below ground which you can look through the atrocities the Jewish people went through.

And finally,12 points go to the Ampelmann. During the times of East Germany, East Berlin had its own set of traffic lights. Since reunifications, the residents had fought ceaselessly to keep these little things. Right now, they are the symbol of Berlin.

That's all folks! Next I head back to the familiar cities of Oslo & HK so I probably won't blog again until I get home. Catch you later!

Hamburg

2008-10-15T23:05:00.007+11:00

Hamburg, the second busiest port in Europe. All in all, it looked unravished by the World Wars. The continued success of its port, however, has given the people of Hamburg the second highest average pay in Europe. Being a port city you're also not short of water views, especially with the Alster lakes that they'd dug inland.

Here are the points for Hamburg:

1 point goes to St Nicholaikirche (St Nicholas' Church). It was meant to be a church with a rather beautiful exterior but it is currently undergoing refurbishment so it was all scaffolded up. The unscaffolded bits, however, looked very old-style European (read: dark & grimy looking). There is apparently a lift that you can take up to the tip bits of its bell tower for a good look of town though.

2 points go to the Kramerentswonhungen (I'm not sure if I'm spelling this right). These were former Almshaus built to house widows. They are now cafes and museums.

3 points go to the Chilehaus. It is meant to be a great example of Expressionist architecture. Maybe it is my failed appreciation of the Expressionist style to garner it this low score. It is, however, rather large. There were also similar Expressionist buildings adjacent to the Chilehaus.

4 points go to the Flughafen (airport). It is a reasonably dated airport. There is also no rail access to city centre, but given its proximity that wasn't really a big issue. You can catch the Airport Express bus instead for 5 euros (8 euros return).

5 points go to the Hauptbahnhof. It is centrally located (well, my hotel was right next to it so it was VERY centrally located for me) with easy access to the local shopping strip and the Kunsthalle (Art Hall). You can also catch an array of regional trains and local S- and U-bahn at the 1 station.

6 points go to the Rathaus (Town Hall). It is in one of those impressive (neo-gothic?) styles. There is also a large square in front of it was ample seating for you to ponder where to head next (as I did). It is also within walking distance to Hamburg's high streets, one being Gänsemarkt (see 7 points).

7 points go the Gänsemarkt. One of Hamburg's high streets with Guccis and LVs and whatnot shops literally littering the street & its surrounding neighbours, there are also a few lovely canals that run through the area.

8 points go to Landungsbrücken. Right on the embankment of the Elbe river, you can witness the second busiest European port first hand. There are a few 'attractions' like the 2 ships Rikmer Rikmers and Cape San Diego which the guide books pick out but me not being fans of watching ships I gave them a miss. Guide books also recommend taking the No.62 ferry to Finkenwerder for a cheap tour of the Elbe River and look at Hamburg's architecture. It was late & gloomy looking when we got there so we gave that a miss too. This area is also within walking distance to the old warehouse district of Nicolaifleet and HafenCity (see 10 points).

9 points go to Jergfernstieg. A shopping & restaurent district of Hamburg, you're bound to find something you fancy in this area. Probably for the younger crowd than the retirement crowd although there is an entire store of Nivea...

10 points go to HafenCity. The odl warehouse district of Hamburg, this area is filled with amazing old buildings, many of which have been or are in the process of being converted for modern day uses. There was, for example, this cafe situated inside a working roastery where they also offer tours. Towards the southern side of the area new office blocks and apartment buildings are also being built. Wendy told me that they plan to house 1/4 of the city's population in this area in the future.

And finally, 12 points go to the night view of Binnenalster. This is the smaller section of Hamburg's inland lakes. We took this photo while walking back to Hauptbahnhof after dinner.

I'm ending my Germany week by bus-ing over to history-filled Berlin for 3 days. See you there.

Bremen

2008-10-13T22:30:00.005+11:00

Bremen, a small-ish regional 'city' in northwestern Germany. Just an hour by train from Hamburg it seemed the perfect spot for a day trip. So that's exactly what I did once I finally managed to meet up with Wendy after arriving in Hamburg.

Here are the points for Bremen:

1 point goes to Martinianleger (St Martin's quay). It was listed on the free map that I got from the Tourist Information centre as one of Bremen's attractions. On the embankment of the river Weser just to the south of the main part of town, it was sadly unremarkable. Both Wendy & I thought we were looking at the wrong spot but no. There was no hustle & bustle of tourists as the thing described.

2 points go to Hoetger's glockenspiel. It was actually only a few rows of small bells on top of the building. I failed the see the significance or attractions of this 'tourist attraction'. It is meant to go off at 12noon, 3pm and 6pm daily. We didn't stick around for the 6pm 'show'.

3 points go to the Bremen Rathaus (Town Hall). It didn't look anywhere as glorified as in the tourist brochure. It just looked like a boring very of a retro town hall.

4 points go to the statue of Roland. For a highlight of the town/city, it was remarkably small. The surrounding buildings also didn't serve as a good background for any photo-taking.

5 points go to the Beck Brauerei. It sits just to the other side of the river Weser at the western end of Bremen. You can take tours of the brewery and sample. It was, however, closed on the day we visited (Monday) so no luck.

6 points go to its proximity to Hamburg. I originally thought Bremen would be a good short-distance location for a day trip from Hamburg, so sadly its 'full list' (bar the Becks brauerei) of attractions only lasted us TWO hours. It was good thing that it was so close to Hamburg that, after a quick gelato stop, we trained back to Hamburg for dinner in its hip area.

7 points go to the western side of the Rathaus Platz (Town Hall Square). It is nowhere near as beautiful as the town hall squares of many other European cities, but due to the city's relative lack of attractions this still made the list at 7 points.

8 points go to Hoetger's 'Bringer of Light'. This is a golden artwork by Hoetger and located at the entrance gate to Böttcherstraβe just south of Rathaus Platz. It depicts the archangel Michael fighting and killing a three-headed serpent. What a peaceful religion.

9 points go to Schnoor. Schnoor is Bremen's oldest district, and you can most certainly tell with the narrow & winding streets that weren't designed for car use. There are, however, plenty of quirky little shops and cafes. The winding streets though would make the tourist guide's recommendation of 'sit and watch the world go by' a tad difficult.

10 points go to the Bremer Stadtmusikanten (Bremen Town Musicians). It is only a small statue but very touchable. It is also the best-known landmark of Bremen, dating from 1951. A local told us that for good luck you should grab both of the donkey's front ankles.

And finally, 12 points go to Mühle am Wall (Windmill). Not only was it beautiful to look at, it was also functional. It spun about a bit when we were walking closer to it. Better still, it is very easy to get to. Only a short walk from the Bahnhof.

Back to Hamburg next. See you at the second busiest port in Europe.

München

2008-10-12T23:48:00.005+11:00

München, also named Munich in English. Aside from being the beer capital of the world, it also saw some of the very key moments in world history. At the same time, it is also only a small city in the south of Germany & very accessible on foot if you know where to 'live'.

Here are the points for München:

1 point goes to the Misukoshi (三越). It was tiny (3 levels of 1/2 floors) & very well hidden (on Platzl 2). My main reason for finding it was that the 1 in HK had closed, but when I finally found it I was grossly disappointed.

2 points go to the Ostbahnhof. It was small & unremarkable. Not a very good first impression of München after I travelled from the picturesque Salzburg. The Haputbahnhof was also a bit disorganised, contrary to the stereotypical German precisions. Maybe everyone was still recovering from Oktoberfest which finished the weekend prior.

3 points go to the tourist information centre at Marienplatz. The first time I went there (Saturday lunch-time-ish, then again a couple of hours later) there were at least 30 people queuing outside its doors. By the time I finally got in (I went back the following morning for the Free Tour, incidentally NOT offered nor advertised by the tourist information) there was hardly any good information to be taken from them. Mostly flyers of local exhibitions, with no free map in sight.

4 points go to the weißwürste (white sausage). As many people would know by now, I'm a fan of the sausage. I've bought many different types of sausages at home, as well as had others (thanks Nat!) bought special, German sausages for me from The Shire. Unfortunately, the weißwürste that I had in München was only ordinary. The sweet mustard that accompanied the würste, however, was excellent!

5 points go to the Hofbraühaus. Yes, this might sound very un-Australian dissing a drinking pithole, and such an important one too. But when I was in there (mid-afternoon, not even 4) it was choc-filled with people/drinkers. I tried to escape the people (and with European translation: smoke) filled room to go out to the back courtyard it was even smokier!! I ended up drinking in another biergarten. No Hofbraü, but still a local beer (Paulaner. I thought it said Paul Anker for some reasons, and that was BEFORE I started drinking).

6 points go to the Viktualienmarkt. One of München's many drinking holes, it was also interspersed with fresh food stalls and sellers of other small things like fresh flowers & souvenirs. This was where I ended up consuming my weißwürste and Paul Anker, though I found out from my tour guide later that the markt do charge about twice as much as other places (read: tourist trap). In reality, it was a little pricier than other cafes and stuff but nowhere near twice as much as far as the food goes. At least you can get everything in the one place.

7 points go to Hofgarten and the Bayerische Staatskanzlei (State Chancellory). The Hofgarten was picturesque little garden just to the north of city centre and right at the end of it was the very high-tech looking State Chancellory. In the Hofgarten you could also find a memorial to the victims of WWII as well as one of München's several memorials to the weiße rose.

8 points go to Dallmayer delicatessen. Some of the guide books would direct you to this delicatessen on Dienerstraße off Marienplatz. It is one of the up-scale delicatessen in town but it is very large and sells pretty much anything edible - from fresh fruit, baked goods, jams & confectionary, to chocolate, coffee beans, tea, smoked meat... ... There are of course other things like the Dallmayer teddy (at 45 euros a pop for 1 the size of my palm) and a cafe/bistro up on level 1.

9 points go to Marienplatz, but especially the glockenspiele on the Neue Rathaus (New Town Hall). After seeing the rather unremarkable one in Praha, this was most certainly a breath of fresh air. The show goes on ar approximately 11am, 12noon and 5pm everyday. I say approximately because my guide told me that it is not an automated show buy someone is actually paid to climb up the stairs at 11, 12 and 5 everyday to press the button which starts the show. One day last year there were no shows because the guy was sick! So much for German punctuality. The show itself, however, is fairly long. Music plays for about 5 minutes before the movable parts start moving. That goes on for another 5 minutes before the show is ended with yet another 5 minutes of bell dingings. Pick a good spot & sit tight I'd say.

10 points go to the Ludwig-Maximillian Universitat. This university's significance lies mostly in the role it played in the Resistance to the Third Reich during WWII. This resistance movement, known as the weiße rose, is now proudly remembered in the form of 2 indoor memorials (one of all the weiße rose members (left forground) while the other was of Sophie Scholl (right background), one on the front entrance that resembled the anti-Nazi pamphlets that the weiße rose members distributed and eventually executed for, as well as a room dedicated to the weiße rose movement (open, however, only during weekdays). There is also a separate memorial in the Hofgarten while the grave sites of Sophie, Hans Scholl and Christophe Prosbt are also noted in the Perlach-am-Friedhof a little outside of main town.

And finally, 12 points go to the new europe Free Tour. Well, ok, it's not really free. There are no sign up fees or ticket prices, true, but you are 'reminded' to tip appropriately at the end of the walking tour as the guide only works freelance. Anything from coins to small notes would suffice. Their guides, however, are very entertaining & energetic but most of all informative. They can pretty much answer anything, most of which are native English speakers (or Spanish if you want to take the Spanish tour) now living in München. My guide, for example, was a small Scotsman (not a leprechaun, those are Irish) with a Münchener fiance. The tour lasts for about 3 hours and take you to all the major (and some minor or lesser known) sites of München. The guides would also be able to tell you lesser known facts of the area/building/whatever you happen to be seeing.

Travelling north to the regional town of Bremen next.

Salzburg

2008-10-12T22:25:00.000+11:00

Salzburg, a small city in the western end of Austria, famous for its very musical former residents. For fans of the classical, you can go past mentioning Salzburg being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For those with more of a contemporary (some, particularly the locals, say cheesy), folksy palette, it was also where the Von Trapp family singers, whose lives the musical theatre and movie The Sound Of Music were based, originated. The four of us made this the final destination of our 2-week sojourn by catching a 3-hour train west from the capital Wien.

Here are the points for Salzburg:

1 point goes to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station). This main station was reasonably old looking and in need of some repair work. It is only a small station, however, so it is difficult to get lost. You can catch international, intercity and suburban (S-bahn) trains from here. There is also a tourist information on one of the platforms where you can get free maps and other information of Salzburg.

2 points go to Mozartplatz. You can find a statue of Mozart here. This is also the start of Judengasse which leads directly to Getreidegasse (see 8 points) where you would see other Mozart-related museums and shops. To its south is the Dom Kirche where Mozart was baptised.

3 points go to the catacombs of St Peter Cathedral. Easily accessed through Kapitelpltaz, there is a waterwheel just outside St Peter’s. Its adjoining cemetery features many old tombs, some I saw dated from the 18th century. The most interesting part of this cemetery is its catacombs, which inspired Robert Wise to reproduce as a set for the scene where the Von Trapps hid behind tombstones while trying to escapes the Nazis in The Sound Of Music.

4 points go to Stift Nonnberg (Nonnberg Abbey). Located directly to the east of Festung Hohensalzburg (see 5 points), this was the actual abbey where Mario Augusta Kutschera resided before being sent to the Von Trapps as a governess and becoming the Captain’s second wife. The abbey itself is not very large and respect is requested when entering. You can, however, get a great south view of suburban Salzburg from just outside the abbey. It is also here where fans of The Sound Of Music would recognise the location for the final car chase scenes of the movie.

5 points go to Festung Hohensalzburg (High Salzburg Fortress). This is one of the largest fortress in Europe and sits atop the hill just to the south of the altstadt (old town). It features a mix of gothic carvings and torture implements. There is also an exhibition of the golden stube. Under ‘normal’ circumstances its north view apparently is to die for. Unfortunately when we were up there it was rather foggy so we couldn’t actually see that far, but we still got a pretty decent view of the altstadt. Though at 542m high, you can reach the festung by hoofing up flights of stairs that you can find on all sides of the hill. Alternatively you can pay €3-return and ride the festungbahn (fortress furnicular) from Hasengrabenbastei, though the ride literally only lasts for 30 seconds each way.

6 points go to Schloß Leopoldskron. This is one of a few filing locations for The Sound Of Music. Fans would no doubt recognise the huge man-made lake to the back of the house as well as the small pier and backyard of the house. It is, as it was during filming, a private property owned by Salzburg Global Seminar where entry is by invitation. The area surrounding the man-made lake is very pleasant for a leisurely stroll.

7 points go to Hellbrunn. This park and castle complex is a little outside of the city centre but is a stop for the Hop On Hop Off bus tour (see 10 points). Fans of TThe Sound Of Music would be directed to the glass gazebo where Ralf and Liesl sang ‘Sixteen going on seventeen’ and the Captain and Maria sang ‘Something good’. The gazebo was relocated here from Schloß Leopoldskron (see 6 points) when tourist numbers became too much.The rest of the park is also interesting, though the trick fountain requires an entry fee. There is also a zoo nearby.

8 points go to Getreidegasse. This is a very famous shopping street of Salzburg, situated in the altstadt part of the city. You can find all sorts of souvenir shops, antique shops, boutiques and eateries, with wrought-iron guild signs made to convey a sense of yester-era. You can also find the Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart’s birthplace) at #9.

9 points go to Schloß Mirabell (Mirabell Palace). Pretty much the only tourist attraction north of the River Salzach, it is a small-ish palace with an amazing garden attached. This is also where they shot several key scenes for The Sound Of Music, including the steps scene during Do-Re-Mi. Across the street you can find the stalls for the Panorama Tour and Salzburg Sightseeing Tour, both of with offer ‘Sound of Music’ packages. You can also find the Mozartuem and Marionettentheater (they provided the marionette for the ‘Lonely goatherd’ scenes of The Sound Of Music) to the south of the garden.

10 points go to the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour. There are many bus tours that do the tourist attractions of and around Salzburg, such as the 4-hour Sound of Music tours by Panorama as well as Salzburg Sightseeing. Most of these are guided tour that run around town in huge 50-seat buses and cost upwards from €40. The Hop On, Hop Off bus tour, though still go to the same attractions, allow you to literally hop on and hop off at your own leisure (at the designated stops of course). Each bus departs Mirabellplatz hourly and there are 11 stops all up, including out-of-towners like Schloß Leopoldskron where its backyard and the man-made lake featured prominently in The Sound Of Music (see 6 points). There is also an audio guide on board with 7 different languages to choose from so you wouldn’t miss a beat. For a 24-hour pass, it only cost us €20! (The cheapest was the 2-hour pass at €15, but that only equates to 1 stop) Every time you hop off, however, you’d have to wait an hour before the next one comes, though generally there is enough to see at each stop that an hour might not even seem enough at times.

And finally, 12 points go to Villa Trapp. No link to the movie The Sound Of Music whatsoever, this was the actual house where the real Von Trapp lived and grew up! Since fleeing OS during WWII, this house had undergone a few different uses, including as a regional Nazi headquarter. Post-WWII though, it was used by a missionary service and only until recently it was sold, renovated and opened as a boutique hotel. There are some original furniture and fittings like the staircase, but most had been given away during the post-war period. The owners of the hotel, however, are more than happy to give you a tour of the house, telling you stories about the Von Trapps and each room. One of our rooms, for example, was the bedroom of son #2, Werner. The hotel is a bit out of the way (in the suburb of Aigen, 5 S-bahn stops from Hauptbahnhof) but the local area is picturesque for short strolls or even a hike up the Alps!

Salzburg is a nice little boutique city where there are actually loads to see for a weekend trip. Next, I continue my post-submission escapade by venturing further into the Germanic sphere - in the beer capital of the world and the land of the sausage - München, Germany.

Bratislava

2008-10-10T19:09:00.000+11:00

Bratislava, together with Wien, are the two closest national capitals (in terms of proximity) in the world at just 57km apart. For this very reason we hopped on a train from Wien and came over for a quick (& bargain. The return ticket on cost €14 each and included all public transport in Bratislava!) day trip. It became the capital of the Slovak Republic after it divorced from the Czech Republic (together they made the former Czechoslovakia). On the exterior, Bratislava looks like a poor cousin of the cultural power houses of Praha & Wien. This is true to the extent that a large part of the city is reasonably run-down or undergoing extensive refurbishment, but who knows what would happen with the introduction of the Euro in 2009.

Here are the points for Bratislava:

1 point goes to the Bratislava Hlavná stanica (Main Railway Station). This is a very run-down main railway station with only a handful (literally) of platforms. Signage is also not very clear, with the tourist information centre (see 4 points) well hidden to the side of the building. To get to the main tourist attractions, you need to catch tram #18 all the way down to the Dunaj (see 3 points).

2 points go to the Redoutengebäude (Reduta). This neo-baroque building from the early 20th century continue to host balls and concerts. It also serves as the home of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. Sadly the exterior is not what it is cracked up to be in the guide books…

3 points go to the Dunaj (Danube). Ah, the blue Danube. Blue it was, that is true. But whether it was just that section of the river or if it was where we were standing (just outside of the hrad), the river stank of sewerage. The view on the other/southern side of the river was also not very attractive.

4 points go to the tourist information centre at Hlavná stanica. It is a little bit well hidden. First of all, signage was not great at the station. This was compounded by the fact that the tourist information centre was a small window-office to the side of the left corridor. But the attendant there was very helpful and she gave us a bunch of useful maps & brochures. You can find the same maps & brochures on this website.

5 points go to the Novy most (New Bridge). Listed as one of the main attractions of the city, this new bridge, completed in 1972, is just a simple suspension bridge with a dish-like observation deck. You’d probably get a better view of Staré Mésto from the hrad, however.

6 points go to the Bratislavský hrad (Bratislava Castle). Still undergoing refurbishment, only a small part of the hrad has been re-opened for public access. While we were there, it was playing host to a contemporary art exhibition. The main hrad building itself was covered by large piece of cloth, with side banners reminding the introduction of the Euro to the Slovak Republic in January 2009. This main building has 3 gates (Sigimund in the SE, Vienna in the SW and Nicolas in the NE) & 1 bastion (Lugiland, near Nicholas’ Gate). There should also be a Treasure Chamber displaying the Venus of Moravany, a small statue made of mammoth ivory from 22,800 BC but we couldn’t find the Chamber.

7 points go to the Kostol svätej Alžbety (Church of St. Elisabeth). Also known as Modrý kostolík (the Blue Church) because of its blue, art nouveau exterior, this church sits east of the main city centre of Bratislava. It is only a very small church and you can’t go beyond the main entrance unless you are worshippers. Its look, however, is vastly different to anything in this city (or most other parts of Europe too) so it is worth that little bit of exercise eastwards.

8 points go to Dom U dobrého pastiera (the House of “The Good Shepherd”). This tiny yellow house sits right next to the busy street of Staromestská and you would pass by it as you make your way up to the hrad from the Old Town. Built in the Rococo style, it is now the Museum of Clocks, exhibiting clocks mostly by local clockmakers from the 17th to late 19th century.

9 points go to Michaliská Brána (Michael’s Gate). The only medieval fortification left in the entire city, the tall white tower of this gate is highly visible from most part of the Staré Mésto. There is the Museum of Weapons and observation deck within (for a small $$ of course). The most interesting thing about this gate was situated smack bang in the middle of it – a brass ring with directions & distances to other major cities of the world. Who knew home/Sydney was only a ‘short’ km away? Bratislava’s narrowest house, at just 1.8m wide, is also right next to this Gate.

10 points go to Hlavné námestie (Main Square). Some very interesting buildings surround this main square in the middle of Old Town, including Stará radnica (Old TownHall), various embassies, as well as Rolandova fontána (the Roland Fountain). Guidebook that you get from the tourist information centre would tell you the interesting things that are left on the exterior of the Stará radnica like the measuring stick & picture of the ghost. You can also find a couple of Bratislava’s famous street art/statues in this square (see 12 points).

And finally, 12 points go to the street arts the Bratislava. For a small city, there are loads of street art dotted throughout for tourists and locals alike to enjoy and have fun with. The more notable ones are the peeper/rubberneck, the Frenchman/Napolean’s soldier, the photographer, and the taunter. There are also loads of others inserted into the ground as part of the pavement surrounding the Rococo Mirbach Palast (Mirbach Palace). You can find a full list of these street arts and their locations by getting a guide from the tourist information centre (see 4 points) or download beforehand from this website.

Next, we head back to Austria and across to the west of the country where the hills are alive in Salzburg!

Wien

2008-10-09T19:12:00.002+11:00

Wien, the capital of Austria and the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian & Habsburg Empires, is only a short train ride from the Velvet capital of Praha (well, 3 hours). It is a city decorated with glitz & gild as well as serving as a regional transport hub. We spent 3 days in Wien soaking in (& trying to scrap off so gild) culture & glitz.

Here are the points for Wien:

1 points goes to Freyung. Known as one of Wien’s shopping area, it only had a handful of high-end shops & boutiques. The daily market that my guide books directed me to also did not exist. At least it is very close to the main shopping streets of Graben and Kohlmarkt (see 5 points).

2 points go to Schönbrunn. Let me explain this low scoring for Schönbrunn. Tauted as a graceful palace with a beautiful garden, we actually didn’t visit Schönbrunn even though it is only a short u-bahn ride on U4. The reason for this was that one of us had already been to Wien before and didn’t think that Schönbrunn was worth a second visit. This low score only reflects the lack of interest by said friend & our non-visit.

3 points go to the Sigmund Freud Museum. A little further away from the main tourist attraction sites, this was the actual clinic of Sigmund Freud. We did not have time for a visit, but from the travel shows that I had seen this museum is quite well disguised amongst other residential buildings. The closest u-bahn stations (Schottentor or Rossaur Lände) are also 10-15 minutes walk away.

4 points go to Schwarzenbergerplatz. This is a reasonably attractive square with a water fountain that puts on a light show at night. Its closest u-bahn station, however, is Karlsplatz 10 minutes walk away, and the naschmarkt (see 6 points) that guide books directed me to did not exist. The Unteres Belvedere (see 10 points) is just a short walk down Rennweg then Prinz Eugen Straße.

5 points go to Graben & Kohlmarkt. Known for their antique shops and galleries (particularly Kohlmarkt), these 2 streets in the middle of the city are also now filled with a mix of high-end shops (like Louis Vuitton), souvenir shops and eateries. You can also find the Pestsäule (Memorial to the Plague) towards the southern end. At the end of Graben you can find the Stepheansdom cathedral (see 7 points).

6 points go to the Naschmarkt (food market). Most guide books would direct you to the naschmarkts of Wien. My searches listed 3 – Schottengaße 1, Mariahilfer Straße 85 and Schwarzenbergerpltaz. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the ones at Schottengaße or Shcwarzenbergerplatz. Half of the stalls at Mariahilfer Straße were also closed. There were quite a few seafood restaurants that looked to be rather popular, but we ended up picking a fusion place & had some very nice wraps. The organic beer was, however, like all other organic beer that I have had – not even a buzz after ½L.

7 points go to Stephansdom. Currently undergoing a facelift (the grime of its exterior is being blasted off), this Catholic cathedral is located in the middle of the city, right above its very own u-bahn station (Stephansplatz). Entry into the cathedral is free, where the interior is extremely dark. You are also stopped by steel gates at the end of the seating rows so that only worshippers are allowed further. To the side there is a shop selling everything from rosary beads to books about the cathedral.

8 points go to Hohermarkt. This is a short street hidden in the middle of the Jewish quarter. There is an interesting white marble & gold plated statue on the central divider but what is more interesting is the glöckenspiel that is just to its north. This glockenspiel is featured on both sides of the short footbridge that connects the 2 buildings. There is also a stone carving of a lion on the bottom of the bridge. Wien’s Jewish quarter, however, is not as beautiful as the one in Praha.

9 points go to the Secession. The Secession was a rebel art movement that broke away from the main Austrian art scene at the end of the 19th century. Major artists included Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser & a whole bunch of others. A special building was also built for this breakaway art movement, and you can find it at Friedrichstraße 12 within walking distance from the Naschmarkt (see 6 points). The main hall houses the Beethovenfries (Beethoven Frieze) by Klimt. The gilded dome is also well worth a sighting. The Museum-quartier is also close by.

10 points go to the Belvedere. It takes a little effort to get to (we took the u-bahn then walked for 15-20 minutes before getting there), the Belvedere comprises of 4 museums and a spectacular garden. The Oberes Belvedere (Upper Belvedere) houses permanent exhibitions, normally including the world famous Der Kuss by Gustav Klimt, while the Unteres Belvedere (Lower Belvedere) houses special exhibitions. You can purchase separate tickets (€9.50) or a combined ticket (€12.50). The combined ticket or single ticket for the Unteres Belvedere also gives you access to the Orangerie to the side of the Unteres Belvedere. It was exhibiting some punk and contemporary art projects at the time of our visit.

And finally, 12 points go to Hofburg palace. The Hofburg is a large palatial complex smack bang in the middle of the city. Many of its former palatial buildings now serve as government departments, including the current Austrian Parliament. The main section of the Hofburg, however, houses some museums, the more famous are the Sisi museum, Kaiserappartements (Royal apartments) and the Silberkammer (Silver room). It is interesting how most of the stuff in the Silberkammer were gold!?! For a small entry fee (well, by European standards €9 per person is relatively ‘small’) you can end up spending hours, like we did, in just these 3 museums alone. The ticket price also includes an audio guide which you can carry along & punch in the corresponding numbers as you reach the locations. Outside these museum buildings, you can also find the open Heldonplatz (Heroes’ Plaza) where locals & tourists alike sit & enjoy the day/lunch.

Next, we head across the border and visit the closest capital city to Wien – Bratislava in Slovakia!

Praha

2008-10-06T08:09:00.004+11:00

Praha, for so long a cultural centre of Europe, it had since bore the front of the Holocaust, witnessed communism, as well as becoming the very place where the Velvet Revolution took place. Through all of these, it remains a city full of beautiful architecture and a very strong cultural sense with daily concerts happening in all parts of the city. The four of us were there for a glorious weekend.

Here are the points for Praha:

1 point goes to the Praha-hlavní nádraží (Prague Main Train Station). This main station was only very close to you accommodation, but whether it was because it is currently undergoing extensive refurbishment or if it is just plain old, it simply didn’t look very safe to us. The fact that strange young men were loitering (yes, loitering) around the stairs that connect the ground (being refurbished) floor with the lower, main floor also didn’t help. All it lacked were Gypsy beggars and muggers to complete the picture of destitute.

2 points go to Vaclavské nám (Wencelas Square). For a Square dedicated to the ‘Good King’, this strip has become a hanging ground for teenagers, thanks no less to the numerous fast food joints, restaurants, pubs and clubs that line both sides of the square. Needless to say litter, noise & cigarette smoke are the main issues here. But then again, when is cigarette smoke not an issue through Europe?

3 points go to Town Hall Astronomical Clock. Most guide books would direct you to the hourly show that happens around Town Hall Square, and undoubtedly you would find hoards of tourists gathering in front of the clock from around 10, 15 minutes to the hour. Sadly the ‘show’ is a bit of a disappointment, with less than a handful of the clock’s figures actually move, the bell-ringing skeleton being 1. The whole ‘show’ is also over in just a couple of minutes. You can, however, see all the different star signs towards the bottom of the clock. For a different view, you can climb up the Town Hall’s town and look back down at all the tourists as they wait for the show.

4 points go to Kampa Island. Tauted as an artistic district of Praha, the architecture in this district was supposed to be reasonably different (more nouveau & pastelly) to the rest of the city (Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-renaissance, Kubist, etc), but with the rest of the city so beautiful this district just paled (only a bit though) in comparison.

5 points go to Karlúv most (Charles Bridge). A famous bridge in Praha, it is decorated with loads of stone statues on both sides of the bridge. Sadly it is currently undergoing refurbishment so we couldn’t see it in full glory/effect. It, however, still has a pretty good view of the Vltava, Staré Město, the district of Kampa, and back up to the hrad.

6 points go to Staromeské nám (Old Town Hall Square). This is a beautiful square surrounded by historical and/or religious buildings. Týn Church to the west, for example, has a gold-plated Virgin Mary high up its front façade, with the view of the square and the fountain is also great from in front of this church. There are loads of souvenir shops, glassware shops & eateries around and in the nearby Týnská.

7 points go to the Jewish quarter. Easily the most beautiful residential area of the whole of Praha, it is amazing how it managed to survive through/been painstakingly restored since WWII. There are several museums and synagogues within this district, such as the ‘Museum of an extinct race’ which display Nazi artefacts from Bohemia and Moravia. All of these cost $$ to enter. You can buy tickets from pretty much any of the synagogues or Jewish community centres in the area. You can also find the statue of Kafka in the Jewish quarter.

8 points go to Havelský Market. This daily market is situated on Havelská west of the Vltava and very close to the tourist attractions of the Staréměsto nám and St Nicolas’ Church. Stalls sell a whole array of things, from touristy souvenirs like beautifully crafted wooden Christmas decorations, to food and fresh fruits, to some vintage gear like this old Russian soldier’s hat that I got. Things are also cheap and you can easily spend hours just gawking and awing at stuff.

9 points go to the Pražský hrad (Praha Castle). Sitting high on a hill east of the Vltava, the Pražský hrad is quite a large complex that now incorporates a bunch of museums (most of which require entry fees). You can buy different ticket options at the information centres. Guide books would direct you to the Golden Lane, south gardens (Garden of Ramparts) and Bohemian crown jewels. Apparently ticket option B covers all of these attractions. For non-payers, however, there are still plenty to see, such as the medieval armour dress-up, the cathedral, as well as the hourly changing of the guards.

10 points go to the Wallenstein Palace & Garden. Though opened on weekends only and cost €3 entry, it offers a great short cut up from the banks of the Vltava up to the Pražský hrad. We were there in the midst of autumn and there were still plenty in flower. You can easily spend more than ½ hour in the gardens just wondering every nook & cranny, taking action shots at the windows, ledges, & of Staré Město. Guide books would also direct you to the statue of Hercules.

And finally, 12 points go to cheap foods. Praha easily offered to best and cheapest meals we have had so far on the trip. Our sit-down meals for 4 generally only went for around CZK750, which is a tremendous bargain by European standards (OK, it is Eastern Europe, but still it’s cheap!). The quality was also very excellent, that includes the local brew (we only sampled in-house brew or beer brewed locally within Praha), ‘dumpling’, fried cheese, pork knuckles, guláš & all.

Praha is simply a beautiful city with so much to see. It is yet another city that I can keep going back time and time again and not tire of. Next, we train down south to the Austrian capital of Wien.

Riga

2008-10-04T04:04:00.006+10:00

Hello from Riga, the Paris of the north. It is also meant to be the most beautiful capital of the Baltic states, filled with Art Nouveau architectures that guide book after guide book advise walking around with a travel pillow permanently attached to your neck. We're only here for 1 ½ days so the itinerary is very compact. But given the small size of the Vecrīga (Old Town) you should have no trouble fitting in most of the attractions in a very short time.

Here are the points from Riga:

1 point goes to the cobblestone streets. Though very pretty to look at, they are a pain to walk on & drag your luggage around. I guess that's the same with most European cities?

2 points go to Rigas Pils (Riga Castle). The exterior looked very good from Pilslaukums but that's pretty much it. You're not allowed to enter and the exterior from the river side is also only so so. My friends passed it without paying too much notice. It, however, houses the Museum of Latvian History & the Museum of Foreign Arts for the culture-vulture types.

3 points go to the Three Brothers (Mazā Pils 17, 19 & 21). Essentially the Riga-equivalent of the Tallinn Three Sisters, they're just a trio of old houses.

4 points go to the Laima Clock. Most guide books will lead you to the Laima Clock situated to the southwest of the Freedom Monument (see points), especially when it is illuminated at night. We, however, managed to pass it ½ dozen times without even noticing its existence. For those wanting to sight this clock must keep their eyes wide open.

5 points go to the Zviedru varti (Swedish Gate). If you're expecting a drandious structure like a Chinese pailau you'd be bitterly disappointed. It literally is just a passageway by the side of Torna iela. If it wasn't for my keen observant eyes I'd passed it without notice.

6 points go to the Centrāltirgus (Central Market). It's a 5-hall market selling everything from fresh meat, fresh cheese, fresh produce, fresh baked goods (catch the drift?), some souvenirs, daily goods (manchester) & a couple of bargain supermarkets. The foods in there are incredibly cheap (especially having just came down south from Scandinavia, see 10 points) but like most market halls the security can be a bit of an issue. Keep you wallets & valuables close.

7 points go to the Freedom Monument. It is quite an impressive monument, especially set to a clear blue sky. You can practically see it from forever away along Kalku iela.

8 points go to Sv. John & Sv. Pētera luterānu baznica (St John & St Peter Basilicas). The exterior of St Peter is quite stunning, though if you don't pay attention it can be easily mistaken for the Doma luterānu baznica down the street. You can also catch the statue of Roland outside St Peter.

9 points go to the Cat House (Mneistaru iela 19). It's a famous landmark here in Riga and you can see the cat on the roof but the yellow building itself is actually quite spectacular. Managing to photograph it all in one go can, however, be quite a challenge.

10 points go to Riga's cheap eats. Food is such a bargain here. These palmieres form the Central market, for example, were only 0.16, 0.17, 0.18 Lats each. We managed to get a full set of breakfast (4 palmieres, a cake & a danish) for less than 1 Lat.

And finally, 12 points go to the whole Old Town itself. The buildings are truly spectacular and you'll never be short of a photo-op. Literally every corner that you take you'd find a new, spectacular building to gaze up & photograph. The Kronvalda park is also very spectacular.

Next stop is Praha so I'll 'Czech' you later, ha ha :D

Rovaniemi

2008-10-02T03:55:00.003+10:00

Rovaniemi – a town of 10,000 in northern Finland, most famous for its proximity to the Arctic Circle and the home of St Nick himself. Degree of rurality – 2 Chinese restaurants.

Here are the points:

1 point goes to the temperature. Well, I guess this goes down to timing more than anything. We're here in early October & the daily high for the 1st day was 2'C and 2nd day an incredibly tepid 5'c!! Needless to say there were sub-zero mornings.

2 points go to the Alvar Aalto buildings. Practically very guide book/website you come across talking about Rovaniemi popints out the greatworks of Alvar Aalto, the local examples being the City Hall, Provincial library, and the Lappin House. Unfortunately I (along with the rest of my trip mates) failed to appreciate the greatness of such architecture.

3 points go to the lack of attractions. For those who know me you'd have witnessed my stacks of A3 printed street maps of places that I'm travelling too. The lack of general information on Rovaniemi is best summed in my inability to find a digital copy of a street map online or from any guide books. I had to resort to stitching together 4 maps that I screen-grabbed from Google Maps. Further still, this map only had 7 things highlighted – the 3 abovesaid Alvar Aalto buildings, the railway station, bus terminal, the Jätkänkynttilä Bridge with its eternal flame, Artikum (the Arctic Centre), the world's most northern McDonald's, and, off the map, Santa Claus Village. It is definitley more than en0uogh to cover all these within a 24-hour period. We had 36.

4 points o to Artikum, the Arctic Centre. For those who are not fortunate enough to catch the real Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) this Centre is probably the next best thing. With a 12Euro entry fee you're free to roam around all 2 floors of exhibitions. There are plenty to see – traditional life of the Sami people, traditional costumes, and of course, a (fake) Northern Light show that goes on a loop every 5 minutes or so. It looks pretty real (but what do I know, I've never seen the real thing) apart from the fox-like creature running around and the Sami people kicking the Lights around.

5 points go to Santa Claus Village. Ok, so it takes a bit of travelling to (the hourly No.8 bus takes you right to the door of the Village. Return ticket: 6.4Euros. Journey time: approx. ½ hour) and it is mostly devoid of people/visitors (we were there for about 5 hours and there were only about a dozen visitors or so) and it's pretty kitchy in terms of the stuff on offer and the photo-op with Santa is a big cash cow, all in all it is still pretty cool. Entry to the Village is free though most of the buildings there were souvenir shops. Santa was nice (as you'd expect) and the prices of the postcards (.80euro each big or small, plus another .80Euro per stamp) and official photos were not exorbitant (the 4 of us are splitting a set of 5 4R with cards for 25Euros). The food situation, however, was a bit dire. The cafes on site were pretty empty (ie food was probably not fresh) so we ventured across the highway and ate at the petrol station instead (see 9 points).

6 points go to the long train rides. For our Helsinki-Rovaniemie return trips we took 2 overnight trains. The 1st train up was in absolute luxury. Not only we had our own ensuite cabins, the toilet-shower conversion was so much fun that we even made our own amatuer instruction video for it (sorry, no nude shots). So they were a bit long (roughly 12 hours each way) but with some sleep and the prospect of Aurora Borealis the time simply flies. I guess playing Uno also helped a great deal.

7 points go to the world's northern most McDonald's. I'm not sure if it's a Finland-wide thing or if it was just that particular McD (I'm guessing the former) but they had some different burgers (on special promo I think. My Finnish is not quite up to scratch). The most special thing was of course the “I've visited the northest McDonald's in the world” postcard that I managed to from behind the counter and posters of the same effects that literally littered the place. Not that I eat Meccas much these days but still it was a pretty cool highlight. The shopping centre across the road also lights up to the effects of the Aurora Borealis at night.

8 points go to seeing the Aurora Borealis, or more acurately, the prospect of seeing it. I've read somewhere that on average the northern part of Scandinavia have around 200 lights shows of the Aurora Borealis every year, with March, April, Spetmber & October being the peak seasons (why do you think we're here at this time of the year?). Even in the middle of town in Rovaniemi it averages a light show every other day. Unfortunately we didn't experience any on our only night there but catching a simulation (see 4 points) was pretty close. Here's hoping we manage to catch some on our train trip back down (yes, I typed this while on the train trip back down to Helsinki).

9 points go to the lunch we had at the petrol station across the highway from Santa Claus Village. Aside from the fact that we were cold and hungry, the food was actually rather good. We had our regular Kanacaesarsalaati, followed up with Pasta Bolognese and the local dish of poron (yes, we ate Rudolf). The poron on mash potatoes were absolutely delicious – it encaptured tenderness and juciness all in one. Oh my God, I'm drooling again...

Unfortauntely the points only go up to 9 for Rovaniemi. There simply isn't any more to blog about/award points for. We'll see you in Art Nouveau-central - Riga, Latvia - next.

Tallinn

2008-09-29T04:00:00.004+10:00

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia and only a short ferry ride from Finland's capital, Helsinki. We pre-booked our ferry tickets, and during September we ferried back & forth for a special price of just 18Euros. Here are the points:

1 point goes to the ferry ride. Yes, it was a bargain, but whether it was due to the unclement weather or if it was just normal, but the sea was very rough. Poor Caesar puked 2 bags full in the short 1.5-hour ride. The ferry itself wasn't bad though. It resembled the catamarans between HK & Macau (although it was actually a trimaran), only the rough seas.

2 points go to Kiek-in-de-kök. Literally it means Peep into the kitchen, it is meant to be a tower where you can walk up a flight of stairs and look down into the Lower Town, but the Tower was closed and the view from the bottom itself wasn't really that great.

3 points go to the Toompea castle gates. They are meant to be pretty spectacular but they were quite hard to find. Even with the instructions from many guide books, they're not easy to find, especially the tower of Lühike Jalg (Short leg).

4 points go to the Tallinn Town Walls. They were actually relatively easy to find, but the view from ground level was not that great. From above, however, the 4 towers of Pikk Jalg (Long Leg) are quite spectacular.

5 points go to Paks Magareeta (Fat Magaret). It is a pretty rotund harbour-side bastion, so it is a pretty accurate description. The exterior was pretty battered and you can't actually go inside. Aside from the photo-ops there isn't really anything spectacular.

6 points go to Raekoja Plats (Town Hall Square). The surrondings pastel buildings are pretty, well, 'pretty'. The Town Hall itself is pretty strange looking, with 2 gargoyles of green snakes sticking out the front of the building. One of its main attractions, the weathervane Old Thomas, sits all the way up in the sky (I guess that's where weathervanes should sit) but it's so tiny that you can hardly photograph it.

7 points go to the 11th century Dominican Monastery. Its main attractions are the stone carvings and they are actually very accessible. They're giant tablets that are fastened to the one side of building. Most of the are quite weathered and some broken into quite a few pieces. They are also down a side street so if you're not a very observant traveller it's pretty much blink & you'll miss it.

8 points go to Pühavaimu Kirik (the Holy Spirit Church). It is one of the oldest church in Tallinn, with its tower bell dating back to 1433. its wooden altarpiece was also from 1483. Its clock is also the oldest clock in Tallinn, although it's just a clock face painted to the front of the church. No spectacular mechanics like those in Venice or elsewhere.

9 points go to Pikk Hermann (Tall Hermann Tower). It's a tall tower that sits next to the pink Baroque Parliament House. Although you can't go in por climb up, the view from its base (in the castle courtyard) towards the suburbs is excellent.

10 points go to Oliveste Kirik. Don't be fooled by the exterior of this church. Outwardly it looks rather shabby, but if you pay the 10EEK (2Euros) entry fee for its observation deck, I guarantee you the view of Tallinn Old Town is well worth it. The climb up to the 60m deck is a bit of a chore but you can make games out if it by stopping to pose at every/every other turn or the fold down seats. The stone carvings of the adjoining Chapel of Our Lady was also meant to be an attraction but it was quite well-worn so they resembled more like cut stabs more than anything these days.

And finally, 12 points go to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It is situated to the east of Toompea Plats. The exterior is quite spectacular but the real gem is its Lutheran interiors. No photos or videos allowed, however, so you'd have it see it for yourself.
If you take the time to wonder around the side-streets of Old Town, there are actually quite a few surprises like the boot-shaped gutter downpipe.

See you in Rovaniemi, back in Finland.

Helsinki

2008-09-28T14:08:00.002+10:00

Hello from Helsinki! Here are the votes:

1 point goes to shopping on a Sunday. It's so strange but practically nothing is open on Sunday. We dragged out jet-lagged selves out of the hotel & down to the harbour a little after 6am & again down that way after a bit of sightseeing but no shops were opened! The only things that seemed to be opened were the odd supermarket, Chinese restaurant, kebab shops & the fish/souvenir market.

2 points go to searching for dinner on a Sunday night (see 1 point above).

3 points go to the cobblestone streets of Helsinki. Guess that's pretty much the go all throughout Europe, but those cobblestone streets were a pain to drag our luggage around from transport to accommodation. Unless you spring for a taxi, of course.

4 points go to the Helsinki Rautatientori (Central Railway station). Aside from its very Communist/Soviet exterior, it also lacked essential seating for those waiting for trains. Its choice of shops were also quite limited.

5 points go to Tuomiokirkko (Helsinki Cathedral). It looks very much like the Vor Frue Kirken in Copenhagen.

6 points go to the Moominshop in Kamp Galleria. Choc-full of everything to do with Moomin. If you have time & patience though, you might find the same products in other shops that are cheaper (like the cake tin that I bought). Variety, however, is bound to be better at the Moominshop.

7 points go to eating ice-cream at the Karl Fazer cafe. Not only was the ice-cream delicious, the setting of the whole shop was also exquisite. It looks more like the David Jones food hall in Sydney than just any old chocolate specialty shop.

8 points go to the Kauppatori (Market Square). The food stalls open very early (we were there before 6:30 hoping to catch the sunrise & a couple were already opened with a couple more just setting up) while the souvenir shops of mink hats, wooden things & spectorlite were all opened by the time we got there again 10-ish.

9 points go to the Wanha Kauppahalli (Old Market Hall), perpendicular to the current Kauppatori (see 9 points above). It was closed when we were there (Sunday) but its charms lie in its exterior. It was dated 1888 and adorned with beautiful brick works.

10 points go to the Uspenskin katedraali (Uspenski Cathedral). It sits a few stone steps above the Helsinki harbourside and like Sacre Coeur of Paris you can get a good view of the city from many angles around the Cathedral. Although you're not allowed to take pictures/videos inside the Cathedral itself, it's well worth a peek into it and see all the beautiful interior decorations, especially those directly above your head!

And finally, 12 points go to seaside walk along Merisatamanranta. We were there in the morning and not only was it a relaxin walk but the views were also excellent from many angles.

See you in Tallinn, Estonia!

Hello from (jet-lagged) Helsinki!

2008-09-27T21:05:00.003+10:00

Hello & welcome to Helsinki! Well, welcome for me anyways :P After a very long flight marathon (Syd-Bangkok: 8:30 hrs; Bangkok-Heathrow: 12 hrs; being shipped from one end of Heathrow to another: 4 hrs; Heathrow-Helsinki: 2.5 hrs plus 1 hr delay; the numbness of jet-lag: head spinning) I finally arrived at Helsinki to meet up with everyone. Flight schedules actually worked out pretty well & despite the delay I was only behind the HK group for about 45 minutes. The journey to find our hotel was a bit of an adventure itself. Taking a bus from Vantaa airport we dropped ourselves off at what we thought was our hotel (our hotel is Hotel Anna so we quickly jumped off the bus when we saw the big pink sign of Anna by the side of a big plaza) but instead it was still 4 subway stations & 10 mins walk away!! Anyways, after jurling stuff out in the hotel room for a little while we struggled to find somewhere to grab a bite (it's Saturday night but most shops & eateries were closed by 6??). Stay tuned for more posts to come. (I've decided to do this blog Eurovision style. I'll give you the 'scores' after some real sightseeing)

Done & dusted

2008-09-25T23:54:00.003+10:00

Yay, I submitted! After a printing marathon at WESTIR in the morning I trottled into UNSW to submit the 4 bricks worth of the thesis. From then on it was just long chats with friends & an even longer bus trip over to USyd for another catch-up & then some booze&food. Heading off for the big U trip very soon! See you around the corners of the earth very soon everyone :D

Good news everyone!

2008-08-01T16:42:00.002+10:00

Well, maybe not everyone, but most certainly to HP fans! Bloomsbury is publishing The Tales of Beedle the Bard!!! Must search the net high and low to see if it actually gets published here in Aus or if, according to the SMG report, it is only published in the UK & the US. In that case, will need someone who'll be in Europe in Dec (*wink wink* Wendy!) to get it for me. Very exciting!

Chubb & Chubbier

2008-07-25T16:32:00.004+10:00

Just read this on news.com.au: former Australian Opposition leader Kim Beazley has been confirmed by the currenty vice-chancellor of Australian National University, Dr Ian Chubb, as their new Chancellor. Even if you don't know what the Beaz looks like (front) it's still pretty obvious what the title of this post is pointing at, right? :P

Bye-bye birdy

2008-07-25T15:52:00.003+10:00

Well, it's not really a birdy but a car. After exactly 13 years we've decided to part with the little ol' red Ford Laser. It still runs ok but seeing that we don't really have a need for a third car, compounded by the expensive rego, insurance & ever-increasing petrol prices, it simply makes no sense to keep it anymore. Unfortunately many others are also getting rid of their older, used cars, leading to a glut so that the parts guy wouldn't even buy little Ada. Needless to say used car dealers wouldn't take it either (it was already down to $500 3 years ago). If I had any say I'd trade in the petrol-guzzler Tarago before it gets too old to have any reasonable re-sale value and/or parts need replacing for a smaller car. But who'd listen to me for car tips?

Dark Knight

2008-07-22T15:43:00.003+10:00

Just saw The Dark Knight and it is a REALLY good. film. Again, I went to watch it on the GMax which is far more comfortable than 'normal' cinema. The crowd in my session, however, was less than comfortable. Who knew an action thriller like The Dark Knight could get so many people laughing? Worse is, it's the first day back after school holidays, yet there were still these kids around to watch movies on a Tuesday (me still waiting for sups' comments on final draft) and laugh at hostages being shot or hand-grenaded? Is Sydney the new Gotham morality? Anyways, a bit of a departure to base Gotham at Chicago than the usual NYC. Having not read/listened to anything about the movie before hand that most certainly surprised a little. Though it was a very enjoyable movie, the super-length of the movie was still very apparent. Just when I thought it was coming to an end (though it would have been a pretty cop-out ending if it did end at that point), a quick look at the watch told me that there were still 45 minutes to go! The 25 minutes of adverts & previews didn't help either of course.

This is a pretty good bridging story to link up Batman Begins with the previous lots of 'sequels'. We learn of the beginnings of one of the future villains, though the fate of Rachel Dawes was a bit puzzling. Maybe because I never studied the other Batmen close enough to notice the link?

Like I said on Facebook, Ledger was superb, but no Oscar I believe. Bale was a bit wooden and Echkart was struggling especially in the first half of the film. Overall, still a very good film but definitely not for kids. Well, unless you can deal with a few nightmares or pay for their furthered delinquincies.

Do ppl even blog anymore?

2008-07-11T09:54:00.001+10:00

Water footprint

2008-07-04T16:19:00.004+10:00

I've always found it difficult to calculate my carbon footprint. This is probably because I don't really know what type of electricity/gas plan we have at home (but seeing that I'm east Australian it's most likely coal...).

Was out shopping for a carry-on bag for my trip & saw this new freebie magazine Sprinkla. It is a community-based quarterly magazine that specialises in sustainability issues. The current issue (Issue 02/March 08) is on water, with a particular link to calculating your water footprint. In it there is a short article on water-wise food. I've always known that it takes a lot more energy to grow meat than fruit & vegebut never knew exact numbers. The water-wsie food article gave a listing of how much water is required to grow the following foods:

100g of orange: 50L
100g apples: 70L
250ml beer: 75L
125ml wine: 120L
125ml coffee: 140L
200g potato crisps: 185L
200ml milk: 200L
1kg rice: 3,400L

And the grand-daddy of them all - 1kg beef: 16,000L. 16,000L!!!! No wonder we're regularly in drought!

I'm so glad I don't really eat much meat!

Right on my GMax spot

2008-07-01T18:47:00.003+10:00

Finally sent off my final draft to the supervisory team this morning & now have probably a couple of weeks to float around before the final push weighs down on me. So I decided to go watch Get Smart after fiddling around wtih airline tickets & hotel bookings at work. Seeing I was at Parra already I went & watched it there. Unfortunately the movie was only showing on the 2 big theatres of the GU here - Gold Class or GMax. Being a poor little student that I am, I chose the cheaper option (GMax), & seeing it is Tuesday it was only $10 (normal Tuesday price is $8.50). The interiors look like Oslo's Coliseum Theatre which is of course very large. The seats are, however, very roomy & have armrests for every seat. There are also flat, wooden mini-tables & cupholders to put all your crap. There is also more leg room. Seriously, it's the only way to watch a movie from now on. If only they have GMax near home...

Anyways, Get Smart. It was quite a funny movie, lots of gags, but the deliveries of the "missed it by that much" jokes were flat & fell well short of the original series. The 'twist' on the baddy was also very easily picked from the get go so definitely not a brainy movie. In fact, it was the perfect remedy to uncoil the knots in my head after slaving through the final draft these past couple of months. ***1/2

Toes

2008-06-25T16:31:00.002+10:00

After nearly 2 months of WiiFit training, I'm finally flexible enough to touch my own toes!! Before WiiFit, I was about 6 inches away & today I finally got close enough to touch my own toes while doing the sun salutation pose, well, the WiiFIt version of it anyway.

Up all night | Is it just me?

2008-06-08T10:40:00.003+10:00

Been staying up late this past week (till 1:30, 2am) but not doing anything in particular. Usually just from watching tennis till late-ish (maybe 1am) then surfing (the net) a bit. Up late again last night of course to watch the women's final of the French, where Ana Ivanovic def. Marat's lil' sis Dinara Safina 6-4 6-3. BTW, is it just me of does Ivanovic's trainer Scott Byrnes look exactly like Take That's Gary Barlow?

Happy 1st anniversary to Games Night Spectacular!!

More new HP

2008-05-29T14:35:00.001+10:00

How come no one has pirated these yet so I can have a read as well? So selfish...

Celebrity spotting

2008-05-28T15:26:00.003+10:00

It's been a while since I lunched at Ichiban Boshi so I decided head down that end today. On my way back south for a meeting at UTS I saw Andrew O'Keefe, dressed in a sky-blue jumper, much like his usual suave on-screen styles, & carrying his little daughter in his arms just along George Street. Then I decided to stop into this buddhist shop at Central & saw Ohad Rein (aka Old Man River) sculking around the shop! I actually didn't know who he was, just that he looked kinda odd in a creative way if you know what I mean. Alas that was it for the day & it was head back down talking about analysing surveys & making stuff up for the PhD...

The emperor's new clothes

2008-05-23T09:18:00.004+10:00

I'ts nearing the end of May & we're getting sub-10'C night temps so it's time to thicken up for hibernation. Last winter was a particularly cold one for Sydney so I made a vest like thingy using some scraps for the dog but the elastic is now gone & bits of it is torn also from rolling around, so this past weekend I spent a morning making a new one using a more durable material & a free pattern that I found online. It is now off-white poly-vinyl with a snazzy cyan-blue velcro from neck-snap & buckle around the waist, very stylish. The padding, however, is quite bulky so now B looks more like a Merino sheep than a dog when he has it on. You can see his other photos here.

* Yay, even the titanium ring has arrived!

Mails galore

2008-05-22T09:16:00.004+10:00

It's been mails galore these 3 days. First there was the pasta machine. My pasta machine broke a few months ago & last month I finally called the warranty people to see how to have it repaired. They told me to send it in, reply-paid; so I did, not thinking that I'd hear from them again. But out of the blue, someone rang the door bell late Tuesday arvo & it was a courier guy sending back my pasta maker! Well, a replacement. I haven't had time to try it out yet, but it looks brand new so I'd need to dough-clean it again before using it for real. Yay, fresh pasta for Games Night Spectacular Anniversary Party!!

For my up-coming trip towards the end of the year I need to renew my passport as my old one expired last Nov. They said 2 weeks but on Monday I got an email confirmation that it had already been done after just 1 week!! Yippy! So I got my new passport yesterday & quickly put the new details on my claim form to get my free tickets before my frequent flyer points expire in Aug. Ah, when are those freebies gonna come?

Finally found the Ray Ban Wayfarers that I had been looking for at a good price & it was FedExed to my office on Tuesday. But as I only 'work' Thurs & Fri I had to wait until just now to get my hands on them (chucked in a pair of Aviator in gun metal to take advantage of the sale!! :P). They are just as I had imagined but only better. Can't wait to try them out if not for being couped up indoors all day & the cloudy forecast...

Now only the titanium ring to come.

18.65

2008-05-09T10:34:00.003+10:00

I was told that I haven't been blogging for a little while (which is true) so here goes...

Yay, WiiFit is finally released here in Aus!! Needless to say I pre-ordered it, which I guess was kinda a mistake. Not to say that it's not a good game, not at all. It was a mistkae simply because I originally ordered it online at JB which later notified me of a delivery delay so of course I promptly cancelled that order & placed another order at Dick Smith for the same price (A$134 minus the delivery fee). I actually shopped around for quite a bit before, with no one was able to tell me how much they would be selling the game for (Toys 'R' Us for example had a A$20 voucher rebate but didn't say if they were selling it at the RRP of A$150 or not). On Wednesday (day before release) all the new junk mail started coming in & I saw both K-Mart & Big W were selling it for just $119!!! I'm never doing pre-orders again! But that aside, WiiFit is great, & hard! I only tried it out for about 30min yesterday evening & I was struggling with the yoga & muscle workout sections. I wasn't even any good with some of the games like slalom & the headbuding. At least I got my weight measured & BMI calculated. Coming from a 13% body fat early last year I of course wasn't holding out for a 'normal' BMI. I think 1 time I calculated myself to be 15 or something which needless to say was sub/abnormal. To my surprise that the Balance Board actually measured me to be just a tick under 60kg & a BMI of 18.65 (based on my guestimate height of 178cm of course). For those who have tried out the WiiFit already you'd know that it puts you straight to work. After measruing my BMI it immediately asked me to set a goal for improvement (I set a measely 19.0 BMI in 2 weeks) & sent me to exercises. So far my left balance is better than my right which is I guess strange for a righty (even though I often play WiiTennis as a lefty & also sweep left-handed in real life). Speaking of tennis, can't wait for TopSpin3 to come out on Wii, which is scheduled for end of this month. After this there's only Bomberman!! Hmm, I wonder if it's online on the Wii Shop Channel already...

Chuckies

2008-04-03T11:34:00.002+11:00

I had my usual Wednesday morning tuts @ UTS yesterday & unlike my nomral habit of having lunch then hiding in the library to try & do some PHD work I decided I simply couldn't be bothered to drag the laptop with me. Instead I would catach an earlier train home & hitch a ride with mum from Parra. On the way to work in hte morning though we drove past one of the branches of Paul's Warehouse & mum heard from a friend that it is closing down for good so I decided to make a quick stop on the way home. Was originally going in to look for shoes that I could use while travelling in the great north later this year because I nearly frozen my toes off the last time I was in anywhere that cold. Alas, they only had some uggo hiking boots that I couldn't care less about. What I did find though are Converse Chuck Taylors in my size!! They've advertised on numerous occasions Chuck Taylors on the cheap & though I usually found styles that I like there were never any in my size. So it was kinda a huge surprise that I found styles that I like AND in my size this time round. Naturally I stocked up, especially when I found the red-plaid one that I've been eyeing since my Taipei trip 16 months ago. An because they're on the cheap, I got a second pair also (olive/orange plaid). Ah, Chuckies... It's not like I didn't get time to do my work at home either. I managed to finish off the section that I was working on the night before (until 2am!!) to keep myself on track for finishing the chapter by end of week (only 1 more section to go) before having a yum cha/Opera bar saturday for Dan's bday. Such is a posh life.

Shangri-La la la

2008-03-28T23:45:00.003+11:00

We booked a buffet dinner at the Shangri-La tonight & each of the 8 of us made separate ways to the city for the feast (it was the buy 4 pay for 3 promotion). Pity the restaurant/cafe was on the 1st floor so we didn't really get a Harbour view (we were on the wrong side of the restaurant & away from the f-t-c windows anyway). At least the seafood got replenished regularly. I had never been so full. In the 2 hours & a bit that we were there, I managed to scoff down 2 halves of the lobster/crayfish, 2 halves of the bugs, 1 1/2 dz of fresh oysters, a handful of prawns, probably 1/2 dz of their guava yogurt drink thingy (yum!), a salad (don't know why I was wasting stomach space with greenery), chesse & crackers, sushi, BBQ octopus, & what looked like 3 million desserts. The others didn't fare too badly either. The quality of the food though was not quite up to scratch so it was only a so so night. At least the oysters & guava yogurt drink thingys were good.

破戒

2008-03-22T22:39:00.004+11:00

Some of you might know but I quit tuna about 7 years ago because the harvesting processes are quite harmful to many seabirds, including one of my favourites - the albatross. Anywho, so since quitting seabirds I've only ever eaten tuna when there was absolutely no other choice, i.e., when tuna casserole was the only thing on offer when dinner-ing at a friend's. So far, I’ve managed to be force fed it about 4 times in the last 7 years, & the last time I ate tuna was probably 2 years ago. If you could read the headlines then you probably would've guessed what I did - yes, I ate tuna, not once but twice this week. Here's the story: after my usual UTS class Wednesday morning I head to lunch before going off to do my various things. Because I was heading back to UNSW to pick-up/drop-off a few things I didn't have my laptop with me. Otherwise I'd just eat & then hide in the UTS library for the rest of the afternoon (why the heck am I still not able to connect to the UTS wireless???) Anyways, so I headed up Market City & because it was quite a hot day I needed a cool lunch - sushi. Bought my sushi box & then I found it - a cooked tuna roll hidden in the middle of it all. Too hungry, so I ate it & quickly washed it down with some Powerade. Then yesterday we came back from a big shop at Flemington &, what was for lunch you say? Prawns, rolls, & tuna sashimi. I seriously wasn't going to eat the sashimi so the thoughts just raced thru my mind - it's bad for the birds, but they're not farmed so they're healthier fish than salmon, etc - before deciding to, yes, eat it. They're nothing like I remembered (mind you, I haven't had tuna sashimi for like 9-10 years). Maybe it just wasn't that terrific grade toro that I last had (this 1 was more pink-ish than maroon) so it was relatively tasteless & the flesh was rather, umm, 'coarse'. Nowhere near as soft & oily as salmon. What are the implications for all these then? The last few times that I ate tuna (& veal) I would donate some $$ to WSPA to kinda wash the 'guilt' away so I guess I'll be looking up what one off donation projects they have in the next few days & figure that 1 out.

More on breaking rules. Was at Flemington Markets yesterday & to my surprise I saw a few plants of water hyacinth on sale at the pet stall. I actually looked all over for it when I was setting up the backyard water feature & hunting for plants to populate it. All I managed to find was websites that says water hyacinth are prohibitied from sale in most Australian states despite I found many healthy specimens floating on the water feature outside the McLeish vineyard in the Hunters. Apparently they are considered weeds because they can grow out of control quite easily --> smother our waterways etc. But as my water feature is very self-contained & not lead to any aqua thoroughfare I think it's pretty safe to have them. Their purple flowers are simply amazing. I saw them in bloom outside 中正紀念堂 when I was in Taipei. Let's see how mine will now do.

Meanwhile, Easter Games Nite is tomorrow!! I have my bunny ears ready & all though the idea of games nite is getting a bit tired & old seeing that the 1 with the new game (PS3) may not even show up. What to do, what to do, what to do?

Bargain hunting

2008-03-15T22:29:00.003+11:00

Went down to the shops for my habitual Saturday morning 'walk' which consists of a quick stop @ the library, browse thru the shops @ Towers & quickly buy whatever that I absolutely needed to buy. All these usually only take about 2 hours max. Today was of course no exception. Got my books, CDs & DVDs from the library (ooh, this books has a short project on making a hammock seat!) & toured the shops. There were quite a few bargains to be had. There were a few stacks of clothes at Myer that were 75% off the marked (i.e., already reduced) price which meant that I got a white tuxedo shirt & a 100% cotton dress shirt for just $12.50 EACH!! Bargain! Then I moved along to DJ & found even better stuff! OK, so I didn't end up buying this scrumptious Ben Sherman, satin-lined long coat which fitted me perfectly (it was still $250 or something after reduction... sigh...), I did, however, get a new set of wireless keyboard & mouse for just $19.95 (reduced from $149. How ridiculous is that?? It was makred 'XP Entertainment Pack but all I needed to do was download the appropriate exe files from Microsoft for Vista). They're a great replacement for the old wired Dell keyboards & mouse. Am quite determined to rid all traces of that Dell from my life. Now having new keyboards & all, I can drop every old things back to UNSW when I head that way Wednesday. Pity there is no Borders at Towers 'cos otherwise I would've spent that 40% off voucher on more books. Have already scooped a hardcover Tintin & a colour Peanuts comic. Will scoop another hardcover Tintin when I next get near a Borders.

My birthday is in March??

2008-03-12T16:50:00.004+11:00

Ms Dufty is now officially a Dr Rae (well, not quite 'officially' as she's yet to do the ceremony but you get the gist) so we headed out for some food & drinks Sat night when she was in town. For a change the group headed west to Parra instead of me going east & we ate chilli crab, Hainan chicken etc at Temasek. Oh, sweet sweet crab... Anyway, it also doubled as a birthday thing for Robbo (who didn't bother to do a birthday thing this yr) as well as for me (yes, my birthday is/was in July, but who's to stop me from celebrating MY birthday any time of the yr I want. In any case, this was a celebration for my LAST birthday so I have another 1 to look forward to in just 4 short months :P). Afterwards we skipped into Roxy. None of us has ever been in & I for a start was kinda surprised by the mish-mash of styles there (the converted old theatre with a new, contemporary looking bar, hip-hip musik pumping with the occasional 80s track...). Another month before the next outing. Oh wait, there's of course the Easter Games Night. Now where the heck are my bunny ears?

It's been 3 months but our broken fence has finally been fixed. So I've spent hours over the wkend & Monday redoing the bits of garden that it trashed & finally it now looks presentable. B is of course now let out of solitary confinement & released back into the bigger enclosure.

2008-02-27T16:55:00.003+11:00

Good news everyone

Finally got my old laptop back today & whatever that had been recovered from the hard discs. The good news is the 2 days of chapter work that I did but didn't have a chance to back up are there!! Luckily I didn't spend the last couple of days trying to recreate those few pages and instead worked on the Acknowledgment & Abstract. The bad news is my EndNote files are not there, which means I don't actually have a full list of all my references even though I do have what I used at the end of each chapter. I guess something is better than nothing.

Olive, oy!

2008-02-25T20:00:00.003+11:00

I'm such a sucker for the "pls donate to this very worthy cause", particularly if there are pictures of animals included in pack. So it was not surprise that I succumbed to this plea from Seeing Eye Dogs Australia to sponsor the training of seeing eye puppies. I did that a couple of weeks ago & given my recent computer troubles I have completely forgotten that I had done it. To my surprise a packet arrived today with paw prints (printed ones, not real ones) all over it & addressed to me. Inside is my new puppy! Well, not a real puppy but a picture of it/her & progress of training thus far anyway. Here she is, Olive, stuck behind the magnetic picture frame that came with the packet. I'm told I'd get a picture update every 3 months so I'll keep y'all up to date :)

Olive now has her own Dogbook if you're on Facebook

Is a step back the remedy for a set back?

2008-02-21T16:15:00.002+11:00

It's the Year of the Rat & for the Sheeps/Goats, as far as what I've read, it's gonna be another crappy new year ahead (when is it not ?!?!) Work sucks, love life sucks, health sucks, wealth & fortune ... all suck. It's not even 2 weeks into the new year & things are already starting to fall apart. After almost 3 years, the uni-prescribed laptop has finally died. Before it went kaput, though, it did give me enough warning on Saturday night to do a big back-up that took hours. This means that when it did die Monday night I've only lost 2 days of work (5-10 pages). Didn't think of backing up my music to the external HD even after burning the compressed files onto CDs failed (probably more a problem with the laptop in general than the CD-Rs themselves). Now I have to redo a fair few music from borrowed stuff. I think my lists of things are gone also (DVDs/CDs/books I have, budgeting things, etc) so I'm a bit lost with how much/what I've been spending in the last few days. The biggest thing was, of course, the new ASUS laptop that I got yesterday which I still haven't finished installing everything that I need (eg, camera software, camcorder software, etc) but most are on now. The old laptop got sent to recovery & I'm told C: is toast (ie lost music) but D: appears ok (yes, might be able to recover the lost 2 days' work!) but won't get anything back until early/mid next week. All of these come on top of the broken keyboard drawer & broken strings on my racquet. Hopefully all these bad stuff is gonna ride out soon otherwise I might find myself at the bottom of the ocean while on my way to icy Russia... (knock on wood)

2007/2008

2008-01-24T11:54:00.000+11:00

Can't believe it's already 2008. Not that 2007 was a particularly good year. I STILL haven't finished my PhD, thought I'm closer now than before (but that's what I said this time last yr also before the whole new abject thing came into play...). STILL at the same job after not getting offered not 1 but 2 positions I was interviewed for. STILL living at home because I don't have a job that would allow me to get a mortgage (though that might not be a bad thing seeing the interest rates are still going up constantly). Hopefully a new year would bring in fresh ideas and new wind for a change of scene.

Meanwhile, Tassie trip is now officially off after having been postponed twice already. Which is just as well, I guess, now that I'm on a bit of a streak with editing & all. Only need to cut down conclusion & Ch6 is done, well, for this time round at least! The hard task of combining 7 & 8 is still to come though... Sigh... At least I've got Russia/Finland to look forward to in Oct. Must ask again about the new Moscow-Sydney flight via HK that Transaero announced a couple of wks ago. That would mean fewer transfers (Star Alliance would be Singapore/Bangkok then Frankfurt or KLM would be Kuala Lumpur then Amsterdam) & shorter hours. If only they'd bloody answer me @_@

2nd fiddle

2007-12-21T10:51:00.000+11:00

I just realised, this is the 3rd yr in a row that I went for a job interview around this time of yr. Suffice to say I didn't get the 1st 2, though I was the 'spare' for the 1 last yr. Last week I went for yet another interview, & again I have come secopnd fiddle. At least this time they said that the person has yet to take the offer & that there is a second post which I might be interested in. Ah well, let's just wait & see.

Writer's block weekend

2007-11-26T10:44:00.000+11:00

I was having a writer's block weekend. I simply could not write anything proper for the whole weekend. My plan was to finish editing this particular section to leave me the rest of the week to finish the chapter (1 section + 1 conclusion) but my stupid head simply didn't allow me to do that (have I used 'simply' too many times already?). I had grand plans for this writing so much so that I had my first coffee (strong, 3 scoops of coffee beans opposed to the normal 2) in weeks on Sunday morning. All that did, alas, was to send me in a caffeine-induced spin, leaving me to do everything but write for the rest of the day. I moved the pots that we moved for the roof guys to clean back to original place (plus some re-arranging) after the roof guys have been gone a week or so. I planted out some stuff, fiddled around the dog, tidied up my room. I even went so far as doing some experimental planting. Here's what I did.

Once upon a time (meaning about 3-4 years ago) I went to Ikea & bought a pod seat. I sat on it a little too hard 1 time & it cracked. Ever since it's been pushed aside to upstairs & not get sat on much. I thought, rather than just chucking it into recycling, I would use it to grow stuff! It just so happens that I had some sweet potatoes around that were just starting to have green shoots, so 1 + 1 I used it to grow sweet potatoes! It's all experimental of course seeing that I've never been successful with growing sweet potatoes (I think they always got too went), but here it is anyway, pics that show I did at least try... (1) (2) (3) (4)

Kevin'07

2007-11-24T23:51:00.000+11:00

It’s been a long time coming, but the long-awaited change has finally arrived. It has been an absolutely immaculate campaign that Kevin Rudd has run. From his policies, personality, down to the ad campaigns, it has been absolutely immaculate. He was the Teflon guy – nothing bad would stick. The earwax snacking didn’t stick. Nothing would stick. The self-professed nerd won!. It has also been a tremendous Rudd-slide. Needing a massive 16-seat swing to win back the Government, victory was ready to be called just 2.5 hrs after polls closed in the eastern states. We didn’t even need WA!! Once again I underestimated my fellow countrymen. I was merely looking to a marginal win, maybe a 77-73 balance, but right now it’s looking like 85-65. I thought many wouldn’t be able to see past the strong economy we’ve been running with has nothing to do with the policies of Howard. I thought people would be more interested in preserving the present economic prosperity than investing in our future. I thought people are stupid, but I’ve been proven wrong, which strangely is a very nice feeling. I believe our 3rd fatality in the War on Terror (all coming in the last 2 months) was the final nail in Howards' coffin. Howard wanted history & history he got. He's the 2nd longest serving Australian Prime Miniters at 11.5 years, but he also the 2nd reigning Prime Minister to lose his own seat. No wonder he wanted Australian history to feature more prominently in our school curriculum.

With a Rudd Government we can look forward to a cleaner, greener future. With a Rudd Government we can look forward to distancing ourselves from the non-sensical military/’security’ arrangements with the US. With a Rudd Government we can look forward to stronger political and economic ties with Asia, particularly China, instead of the US. EAST is the way we secure our economic future. It has truly been an emphatic win. I’ve personally never been this invested in an election, but this has been a very interesting election to witness indeed. I look forward to Kevin’08.

"A short time ago, Mr Howard called me to offer his congratulations. I thank him for that and the dignity with which he extended those congratulations.

We should celebrate and honour the way in which we conduct this great Australian democracy of ours, and it’s been on display again tonight.

I want to acknowledge now for the entire Australian nation and publicly recognise Mr Howard’s extensive contribution to public service in Australia. There are big differences between us but we share a common pride in this great nation of ours, Australia. And I want to wish Mr and Mrs Howard and their family all the very best for the future.

Today Australia has looked to the future. Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward to plan for the future, to prepare for the future, to embrace the future and together, as Australians, to unite and write a new page in our nation’s history to make this great country of ours, Australia, even greater.

Today many people across Australia have voted Labor for the very first time. Today many people across Australia have voted Labor for the first time in a long, long time and I want to thank all those people in Australia who have placed their trust in me and my team.

And I say tonight to the nation, I will never take their sacred trust for granted. I understand that this is a great privilege and I will do everything to honour the trust which has been extended to me.

I also understand there is a great responsibility involved in national leadership and I stand ready to accept that responsibility. I am determined to honour the confidence which has been extended to us by the people of our great land. And I say to all of those who have voted for us today, I say to each and every one of them, that I will be a Prime Minister for all Australians.

A Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians; Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar and have contributed to the great diversity that is our nation, Australia. A Prime Minister for our cities and our towns; a Prime Minister for rural Australia, which right now is experiencing the worst drought our country has known; for our men and women in uniform, serving in difficult and dangerous environments around the world; for all our States and Territories of this great nation and Commonwealth of ours.

I will be Prime Minister for all Australians. And I make this solemn pledge to the nation: I will always govern in the national interest. And my door will always be open to men and women of goodwill who want to participate in making our country even greater in the future.

Friends, tomorrow the work begins. Australia’s long-term challenges demand a new consensus across our country. I’m determined to use the Office of Prime Minister to forge that consensus. It is necessary for us to embrace the future as a nation united, forged with a common vision.

I want to put aside the old battles of the past, the old battles between business and unions, the old battles between growth and the environment, the old and tired battles between Federal and State, the old battles between public and private.

It’s time for a new page to be written in our nation’s history. The future is too important for us not to work together to embrace the challenges of the future and to carve out our nation’s destiny.

We have put before the Australian people a plan: it’s our agenda for work. And you know something? Everything I have said through this election campaign, and in the year leading up to it, is our agenda for work.

To start building a world class education system.
To embrace the long-term funding needs of our public hospital system
To act, and act with urgency, on the great challenges of climate change and water.
To build a 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century economy.
And to get the balance right between fairness and flexibility in the workplaces of the nation.
And to ensure by that and by other practical assistance to working families in Australia that the great Australian fair go has a future and not just a past.

And through all this to make sure we keep our economy strong but make sure it delivers for working families as well.

And this task as well; to remain ever vigilant in the defence of our nation’s national security. The task ahead will not be an easy one. I understand that, I grasp that. But this government that I will lead will work with energy and determination and vigour and with fresh ideas to embrace each of these challenges and to prosecute this agenda for work for the nation.

I also say this on this national occasion to our friends and allies around the world that I look forward, as the next Prime Minister of Australia, to working with them in dealing with the great challenges which our world now faces.

I extend our greetings tonight to our great friend and ally, the United States, to our great friends and partners across Asia and the Pacific and to our great friends and partners in Europe and beyond, we look forward to working in partnership with all those nations.

And now to say some thank yous. I begin by thanking the people of Brisbane south-side who have done me the great honour again of returning me as their Member of Parliament, the Member for Griffith. My local community is the rock upon which all other things are built and I thank them again for the trust they’ve extended to me.

I also want to thank the great Australian Labor Party. This Party that I joined 25 years ago, this Party which embraces the great mission of how we can build prosperity for our nation without ever throwing the fair go out the back door. I want to thank the members and supporters of our Party for the work they have put in right across this nation today.

Each and every one of them. Each of those volunteers. Every electorate contest across the breadth of Australia. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. For you have kept the faith in good times and in bad and I admire your contribution, your patience, your perseverance, and the blood, sweat and tears you’ve dedicated to this election victory today.

I also want to make special mention tonight of Bernie Banton. Bernie, a fighter for the victims of asbestos who is gravely ill in hospital in Sydney tonight. I say to Bernie, if he is watching this broadcast, mate, you’re not going to be forgotten in this place.

The values for which you have stood and fought and the fact that you have been supported in your fight by the great Australian trade union movement, when so many others were prepared to simply cast you to one side, Bernie, you stand out as a beacon and clarion call to us all about what is decent and necessary in life and mate, I salute you.

I want to thank my Deputy, Julia Gillard. Julia, I know you’re not in Queensland tonight but you got a fantastic reception from a Queensland audience. She has been fantastic as the Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party. She’ll be fantastic as the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

I want to thank all my Shadow Ministers, led by Wayne Swan here in Queensland. You can take the boys out of Nambour but you can’t take Nambour out of the boys.

I would like to thank also, all members of my parliamentary team across Australia, and all those candidates who have gone out there and held high the flag of our Party on this election day ‘07. I thank them one and all.

To our Party President, John Faulkner, who has been with me throughout this campaign, and whose job on Senate Estimates will be of a different type now. To the national campaign team led by our fantastic National Secretary, Tim Gartrell. And to my great friend in New South Wales, Mark Arbib, and the great support right across the machinery of our Party to deliver this election outcome today, I thank you one and all.

To my staff, my fantastic staff, I think you are just remarkable. The work you have done, the blood, sweat and tears that have been poured out, I just couldn’t ask for better from any of you. Thank you one and all.

To David Epstein, my Chief of Staff, thanks David. To Alister Jordan, my Deputy Chief of Staff, thank you, Alister. He’s had to put up with me for five years. Gina Tilley and Nev Conway from my Electorate Office. And they are a fantastic local team, and I thank them one and all.

I would also want tonight to thank my life partner, Therese. I joined this Party 25 years ago. We were married twenty six years ago. She has been an extraordinary support to me. And you know something? Therese has had a tough year as well. I cannot speak more highly of the great support and the great love and encouragement she’s extended to me in this political career upon which I’ve embarked. Darling, I really appreciate it.

To each of my wonderful kids, Marcus, to Nicolas, to Jessica and her husband, Albert, I just say this family means everything to me. I also honour my wider family, my brothers Malcolm and Greg and my sister Loree, who have been great supports for me for a long period of time.

And tonight I would also honour the memory of my mum and dad. Dad died nearly 40 years ago. He’d be surprised about tonight, particularly as he was in the Country Party. And mum who died the day before the last election. I honour their memory and I salute the values they delivered to this, their son.

Because you know something? Without family we are nothing.

Friends, history has given our generation the opportunity to shape a new future for this nation of ours, Australia. Let us be the generation that seizes the opportunities of today to invest in the Australia of tomorrow. That’s the mission statement we have as the next Government of this country. But I want to do it by us all working together as one.

Tomorrow, and I say this to the team, we roll up our sleeves, we’re ready for hard work. We’re ready for the long haul. You can have a strong cup of tea if you want in the meantime; even an iced Vo Vo on the way through, for the celebrations should stop there.

We have a job of work to do. It’s time, friends, for us, together as a nation, to bind together to write this new page in our great nation’s history. I thank the nation."

If I was a Pom...

2007-11-23T13:13:00.001+11:00

I would surely be winning this competition and on my way to international super-stardom. But alas...

Birthing babies once again

2007-11-19T14:49:00.000+11:00

As some of you would know, I kept a tank for livebearers for a couple of yrs. Well, until a few months ago anyway. Livebearers are notoriously easy to breed. All you have to do is make sure that there's at least a male & a female of the same species (better to have more than 1 female) and whuala Bob's your uncle. Sometimes it doesn't even take 2 of the same species as I've had success with crossing swordtails & platies. Anyways, that's all in the past now. When I tried to accommodate some siamese fighting fish I started another tropical rank, this time just the fighting fish (now deceased. must be all spun out from the behavioural experiment they were put under) & neon tetras. When I ordered some stuff for my outside pond I ordered a bag of ramshorn snails & I chucked a couple of them in the tropical tank just for cleaning etc. Who knew that they were actually a male/female pair (or are they unisexed?) & now they've birthed several times! There are tiny snails all over the tank. They're of different sizes too so I can only guess they were born at different times. Might need to move them/give them again if they keep doing that! Will try & make good pics later. They're so small there's no way of getting a gd pic right now.

Organica

2007-11-13T22:11:00.000+11:00

Queen's 1981 Montreal 'We Will Rock You' concert is finally released here!!!! I of course went & snapped it up from JB today. Have already watched the entire Disc 2 of the 85 Live Aid set, rehearsal, interviews, etc. Will have to save the 'We Will Rock You' Disc 1 till later. Maybe I'll watch it during my morning recovery session? Anyways, while at Hornsby picking up the DVD from JB & Peanuts book from Borders today I had a bit of a walk around & I found that directly below JB there's a whlefoods store that which sells mostly organic stuff. I haven't been to 1 since Washington DC more than 2 years ago so I went in to have a snoop. As expected, most of the stuff are quite expensive (it's just so funny you'd have to pay more to buy products that give you less) but there were quite a few things that were rather reasonably priced. Their organic bananas for a start was not that much more expensive than 'normal' bananas (though the don't taste any different). Yogurt are the usual brand that you get from 'normal' supermarket so didn't bother (although the organic yogurt that I have in Missassauga is still the best yogurt that I've ever had). There are all sorts of other stuff & I picked a pack of organic (& vegetarian) sausages & had them for lunch (together with a glass of organic low fat milk :P). Chilli they were, but I guess no different to non-organic vegetarian sausage. Washed all of them down with a dorayaki :)

Meanwhile, is the Federer Express sharing a stylist with the Tennis Masters Cup ball kids?

A lesson on eating and exercising

2007-11-10T15:35:00.001+11:00

Here's a lesson for us all:

I usually feed my dog a lot of leftovers - veg, scraps from soup, etc. And last night was no exception. We had guests (like usual), so B had his snack later than the wkday usual of 7-ish. It was 8 until I got around to giving him leftover lebanese bread. He quicked wolfed down the 5 pieces of leb bread that I shredded & scattered all over the paved area. Meanwhile we also had some soup left (pork belly with 腐竹白果), so I diluted that 4 to 1 (4 parts water 1 part soup) & he wolfed that down too. While we were busy watching TV he went & played with his toys by himself. He jumped up & down on his chicken thigh, newspaper & rubber ducky so much that he eventually puked a puddle of white stuff. Lesson for us all is, don't eat so full & definitely don't exercise right after eating.

Meanwhile. dog being dog, after walking around for about 30sec B of course returned & slurped the puke up like there was no tomorrow.

A clean bill of health ... for some (a.k.a. Stupid AmmoLock!)

2007-11-01T16:20:00.000+11:00

I went & had my bi/tri-annual bllod test last saturday & got the results of them couple days after.
Some years ago my doctor suggested that, because my family has a string of high cholesterol/diabetes sufferers I should have mine checked every 2-3 years also. So I did. So far this was my 3rd test in 7 yrs, & once again I've come back with a clean bill of health. Cholesterol is normal. blood sugar is normal, triglycerine is below normal which is even better, prostate ok, liver ok (must not be drinking enough :P), everything ok.

Meanwhile, I was cleanig my tv-quarium again & there was so much poop (because of the ginormous school of fish that lived there) that I decided to put in some AmmoLock to lock up some of the ammonia. In case you don't know, I put AmmoLock in right before I lost my previous tropical tank as suggested by the aquarium shop person. I thought goldfish are a lot more resilient (which they are, as proven by the dozen that live in the outside pond) so there shouldn't be any problem with them. Boy was I wrong. They all got sick again & now only 1 yabby & 1 zebra danio are left in the tv-quarium. So angry that I'm tipping the rest of the AmmoLock out & consider making a complaint!?!?!?!

Last saturday night was also the Games Night Spectacular Food Fest! We had so much food, & so much fun of course. Haven't played UNO in so long. Right now am wondering if Wendy is ever good at playing any games - UNO, wii rally, wii sport, cooking mama, Rayman raving rabbid...

Slumming it

2007-10-26T22:48:00.001+10:00

The interviewing phase of the Shed evaluation has finally arrived. We've been led around the horn during the surveying phase so many times that I don't even know ... (ooh, shiny object!) As the Shed's client base is mostly in the Mt Druitt area, even though we're only interviewing the service providers (that God we've got someone else doing the clinets interviews for us) they still mostly are located at the slums of Mt Druitt. Today, interview no.1, was at the delapidated Mt Druitt Hospital. It's quite interesting to get back on that horse (conducting interviews I mean, instead of being interviewed). It's been a few good years since I've done them. There were a few technical problems that we needed to resolve prior, but the hospital guy didn't want to be recorded so we didn't get to test it out. Ended up practising my mic technique when we got back to the office (unfortunately the song that was stuck in my head at the time was Delta Goodrem's In This Life, now promptly been replaced by Oasis's Don't Look Back In Anger). Got 2 more coming up next week & at least a couple more after that so all the mic practice won't be wasted. Only down side is that we can't get a student placement to come in & do the transcribing for us ... ... Who says Work Choices is not good for nothin'?!?!?!

The King's sandwich

2007-10-23T22:41:00.000+10:00

Came home from watching Stardust 1:37-ish so I decided to keep lunch simple. Grabbed a few slices of italian bread & schmeared on some health food store peanut butter so it's a healthy, wholesome meal while watching something (what I can't remember) on TV. Then it hit me - I'm only taking carbs, fats & nuts. Must balance out with some vegetation. So I poured myself a glass of OJ-mango, & peeled a banana & promptly washed it down. Then I thought, "if I have a handful of prescription drugs this'd be Elvis' midnigth snack!" Alas, no prescription in the house, so I had to settle for fish oil & glucosamine capsules instead. But I still felt like a King nonetheless! :)

A day of 3 seasons

2007-10-17T14:08:00.000+10:00

Well, ok, not quite a day, but definitely within a 24-hour period. Yesterday was my last day of teaching (probably ever) & I had my usual 4 straight hours of 1st year tutorials. (Sad day, more because I lost my Kiwi carved bone pendant :'( I had it around my neck still when I arrived at uni & half way thru my classes I realised it was gone. Five years & not even a goodbye, how rude!) All I have now is 1 more 3rd year online tutorial then marking & we’re done for another year. Hopefully by the start of the next academic year I’d have buried the beast & gotten a real job. Anyways, back to topic. It was a bloody hot day yesterday. It was already mid-20s when we left the house before 8am & hit low 30s by the time my classes started (10am). It was also very windy throughout the day so it wasn’t very pleasant at all (not that it affected me seeing that I was indoors during those hours). I stayed at uni much later than usual because I was meeting Anne for dinner at the Night Noodle Markets down at Hype Park & when I finally left at quarter past 5 it was still gusting & down to below 20s. Little old me only had a short-sleeve shirt, Bauhaus shorts & thongs on & not a jacket in the bag. More still, Anne was late stuck in traffic, so I was out in the element an extra ½ hour waiting for her. I was so cold I had to find tents to hide behind! I think it was below 15 when we were finally sitting down to eat. Anne settled down with a duck fried noodles while I went off theme & went for Thai entrees & Japancake (okonomiyaki) instead. The food helped with ‘heating’ a bit, but as soon as we were done eating we went straight for the underground (to get warm & to get away from the crowds so we could hear each other. Man, the queues were long!) Luckily I was going home via tennis so at least I had the very tight tights (they were one of those “stop you from pulling a muscle” type tights) & hit for almost an hour to give me back some body heat. It cooled down so much that I needed to plug the heater back in for my upstairs tank (I got 2 freebie Siamese fighting fish from uni people Monday). Today was cool again (mid-teens) but a pleasant cool when we went outlet walking. Well, not so much walking but shopping. Finally found myself pointy black leather shoes (plus some more of course). Need to hunker down & restraint myself a bit now, except for Anne’s bday present to get tomorrow, pay for my new Yonex, some fresh veg, the Ponting signing at Towers next thurs, games night… Oops…

Starting from scratch

2007-10-04T09:03:00.000+10:00

Was on a cooking buzz yesterday so I made my whole lunch from scratch (well, almost the whole lunch). It started with picking my home-grown portobello mushrooms from my kit, rolling out my own fettucini (with added parsley for gd health :P), shredded bacon (this is where the 'from scratch' part ended), before slurping them all together in a creamy white sauce made from hi cal milk & butter. Hmm, delish...

Lacked total concentration. Only did 1 paragraph yesterday... Sigh...

From the smallest to the biggest

2007-09-30T21:59:00.000+10:00

It was the big football finals long wkend (well, we're actually still in the middle of it as it's public holiday monday tomorrow). This year we have the minor premeirs taking on No 2 in both the AFL & the NRL Grand Finals, with the minor premiers (Geelong & Melbourne) heavy favorites. I personally don't really care that much anymore because (1) after the Swans falling at the 1st hurdle of the finals there really was not point in watching the rest of the finals series, with the exception of hoping & praying that Collingwood doesn't win (they didn't :D), (2) have not been into league (NRL) for quite a few years, but I did have a soft spot for the Storms way back when. So, here's a quite recap:

Last year we (Swans) lost a nail-biter to the bloody Eagles by 1 point (after pipping them to the post the year earlier by 4, but still, the 1 pointer hurts so much more than it would've had it been the other way 'round). It was only the 2nd time in 100+ yr history that a Grand Final was decided by 1 point, ie the smallest winning margin. This yr, however, with both Swans & Eagles not making the Grand Final (no 2 teams have made 3 successive Grand Finals ever) there was no history to be made there. Anyways, 2007 has really been Geelong's yr. Not only have they nabbed the most All-Australian spots ever (9 out of 22, compared to the previoous high of 6), the minor premeirship (by a mile), the 1st 200+ games in a few years, the Brownlow to Jimmy Bartel, now the biggest winning margin in VFL/AFL Grand Final history (by 119 points. That's 20 more goals than the runner-up. 20!!!) & the Norm Smith medal to boot. The display of form in the Grand Final was simply too awesome to contain even though Port Adelaide didn't play that badly at all (well, they weren't actually given any opportunity to play let alone play 'badly'). I guess the Premiership cup has to return to Victoria every now & then (1st time since 2000 that any Victorian team has won the premiership, even though it's supposed to be 'their' game. Ha, suck on that Melbournians~!)

Meanwhile, the NRl Grand Final today was also a bit of a shut-out, with Storms taking it out 34-8. Not flawless like the Post thumping by Geelong, but still Manly was really given any chances at all. I guess knocking Brett Stewart out cold in the 1st half helped also. That's pretty much all I can say about the game 'cos I only watched it p-in-p while also watchign Idol :P

Giving myself until the end of tomorrow to finish this section of the chapter (cutting from 8 pages down to 6) then it's only 13 more pages. Should be done by end of wk. Yes!

BTW, moon festival gathering last night at the Mo's & I my home-made strawberry ice-cream totally killed (not literally of course, 'cos if I did I'd be writing this from prison or the big beyond right now). Have already made another batch 'cos we currently have an overload of strawberries in the fridge (tray of 15 for just $5, how crazy is that!?!?)

Strange way to dragon boat

2007-09-23T17:59:00.001+10:00

It was the Dragon Boat World Championship at the Penrith Regatta Centre & I was invited to go along & cheer on by Becks. I happily agreed since (1) I've never watched a dragon boat race live, and (2) I've never been to the Penrith Regatta Centre. 2 new birds in 1 stone, fantastique! It was slo free bar the parking! Was prepared early & baked a whole bunch of food to bring alone & feed the hungry. What I wasn't prepared for was the overcast & cool day. It's been mighty fine & warm up until that end of this past wk so it really was a bit of a shock to the system. What was even a bigger shock to the system was the fact that the majority of the competitors & spectators at the World Champs (yesterday at least) were not Chinese! I've been brought up (by TV) with the idea that dragon boats are paddled by Chinese-men & consumed (as ini 'watched') by Chinese-men. The abundance of non-Chiinese ppl, particularly White ppl, at the World Champs was a bit different. No good or bad, just different. A lot of them must be ring-ins from other paddling/rowing sports 'cos Anne who came up to the mountains with me (yes, we went UP a mountain to watch a water sport) recognised that 1 of the Canadians was an Olympic rower or somethin'. Anyways, so Becks managed to win a bronze while I was there & she told me she got another bronze from earlier. She even got 3rd in the Women's 200m heats when I was watching also! (smelling a trend here...) Didn't manage to snatch the bronze off her neck & pretend it was mine. Instead have to settle for her bf delivering the medal to her mum & brother & me snapping a Kodak moment, even though I was using a Canon digicam.

Cottage food

2007-09-20T09:32:00.001+10:00

Heading to dragon boat world champs this Sat so I thought I'd better make something to bring along. Have been listening to the Essential Simon & Garfunkel & since Anne will be joining me I thought what a great opportunity for some herb cookies again! So I ended up making 'Simon & Garfunkel' cookies, which of course were 4 types of herb cookies (parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme) all bagged into 1. After that I thought we'd need some 'lunch-y' food, so popped came the lavender muffins! I've only had a taste of 1 thyme cookie. It only tasted like normal butter cookies. Thyme was not strong enough, even though I put in a fair bit. Rosemary might be ok though seeing it's such a strong herb.

Banana-peeling dog?

2007-09-17T17:05:00.000+10:00

After a gruelling wkend of 1st yr field trip, I settled down to a day of Emmys, finishign chapter & writing job application. In between though we tried a little experiment on the dog:

It loves fruit. Well, food, but he eats almost anything, including lots of fruit. Sometimes he even goes & pick his own (from our strawberry patch, tomato vine, & peach blossom). We also feed him a lot of fruit & veg, like carrots & apples & stuff. When bananas are cheap enough we'd give him an occasional bite also. But the thing is, he only eats these things when they've been peeled. No picking off the mandarin tree, only when it's been properly de-skinned. How precious! So, the experiment was to see if he can successfully peel his own banana. Well, here's the result. Check it out for yourself.

Choca-block sporting long weekend

2007-09-10T15:08:00.000+10:00

APEC was in town so we Sydneysiders got a free long wkend just past. Not that it made a tremendous difference to my usual work week apart from getting Friday off 'work' work. The city was apparently chaotic with the uber-expensive fence/cage & road closures to 'protect' Dubya (and the other whoevers). Naturally non-political me (apart from quietly listening to the Dixie Chicks at home) I stayed very well away from the city & protests. Which was just as well because it was a choca-block sporting long weekend. Got up early Sat morning to watch the Venus vs Henin semi-final. It wasn't great but good enough. And as expected, much better than the final. Sat night was of course the Swans' Elimination Final away at Collingwood. A good fight back towards half time but we simply faded away in the 3rd & final quarters. The lost means finishing 7th for the season & no (boooooo!!!!!!) Grand Final for the 1st time since 2004. This AFL season just seems so short now that I don't give a toss who wins anymore (it looks like a Geelong yr).

Quick few hours sleep after a bit of work Sat night & it was time for the Henin-Kuznetsova final Sun morning. Didn't (want to) get up for the men's semis (bloody 2am in the morning!!) but from what I heard they were great matches anyway so didn't miss much at all. Women's final was, of course, a boilover so I went pottering about in the garden & the dog before settling down for some work & a night of TV (Enstein Factor, Idol, Rove, W&G....). Got up early again to watch the R-Fed vs Djoker final which was quite entertaining. Why didn't the Djoker imitate Sharapova again at the end of the match? What a waste, with her already in his supporter box.

1st Yr fieldtrip coming around again this coming wkend, & next wkend is the Dragon Boat World Championship at Penrith with I promised to go so no wkends for me for a couple of wks. At least I planted out my stuff this past wkend in time for spring-y weather.

Clinically depressed

2007-09-01T17:47:00.001+10:00

Work has died down a bit at work while we wait for the new Census stuff to arrive, so I had a few minutes to spare to look up stuff & just basically bum around. According to the July 2007 issue of Australian Men's Health, apparently I'm clinically depressed (I scored a very even 0). I know I haven't been at my happiest, but who knew!?!! Now I get legit excuses to bum around in order to 'recover', ha :D So, are you depressed?

Lunar eclipse

2007-08-30T16:02:00.000+10:00

It was the lunar eclipse a couple of days ago on Tuesday. It was the 1st time that we in eastern Aust have been able to see in a little while, so it garnered a bit of interest. I tried taking some photos but even with a steady hand & the nite mode it didn't really turn out good. It also never turned red as it promised to do, just a very faint hazy livery colour. If you see red lunar eclipse, all I can say is PHOTOSHOPPED!! Hee, no, they just have much better cameras then my 7MP... sigh...

Meanwhile, have been playing with SMH's APEC dress-up. I love dress-up, hee hee hee :D

Sick as a cat

2007-08-17T15:29:00.000+10:00

There's a killer flu 'epidemic' (& I use the term loosely) running around at the moment. So far about 10 people have died. I, myself, picked up some virus lunch time yesterday & am now sick as a cat (I like dogs & not cats, ergo, sick as a 'cat'). My sneezing fit has stopped after some incessant pill-popping (alas, Herron only). Must stop by supermarket to get some Strepsils to quell the sore throat (the Vicks is simply not doing its trick) & the germs. Head is splitting. Argh.... Having distant relos staying with you doesn't help either, particularly if they have a couple of rather annoying kids. I mean, under 'normal' circumstances I have pretty low tolerance for children in any case, so when they are actually staying with you, plus the fact that they run up & down the stairs 10 million times a day, fling around bean bags, leave toys all over the place... That's just the Ace of Spade in my deck of Annoyance. Luckily they're being sent out to the snow for 2 nights from tonight & not return until Sunday night (thank God! A whole wkend of peace & quiet!) & then gone again on farm stay from monday to wednesday (hooray!) I can take my time looking up my tutoring courses, go watch the Simpsons Movie on GU weekly special, sleep in, watch Swans beat the Lions, look up travel info ......

Great use of public funds

2007-08-07T23:28:00.000+10:00

Was stuck in traffic for a little while this morning because some truck spilled gravel along our main road so they closed 1 side of the road (2 lanes) & have two-way on my side of the 2 lanes instead. As we drove by we saw 5 police (men & women, mostly young-ish) standing around with their arms crossed, some leaning on the 1 police car that's right next to them, while 1 (yes ONE!) worker in fluro-yellow vest swept the dumped gravel to get cleared out. No surprise it took them forever to clean up that mess (about a 30-40m stretch of road) - I stopped listening to the radio when I got out of the car & didn't hear any progress afterwards, yet it was still congested (ie, cleaning up) about 1/2 hour after we drove past. What plumb job being a police in my area is - just standing around & watch others work. What a great use of public funds! No pics as I'm still stuck in the 'no camera on phone' age.

Meanwhile, bought some 'expendable' (as various websites have suggested) feeder fish on my way home to put some movements in the tank. So far I think all of them have survived (kinda hard to count with them being so small (1-2cm) & hiding behind fake plants & all).

Simpsonised!

2007-08-05T23:08:00.001+10:00

I was listening to the radio yesterday & they were doing a review of the Simpsons Movie. At the very end they alluded to a website (simpsonizeme.com) that, if you upload a pic of urself you can have urself drawn as a Simpsons character! So, here's me Simpsonised!

Super busy at work so my studying have suffered a little, yet again. Will definitely have to start on the intro tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I finally got those yabbies last Thursday & they (3 of them) now live happily in the tv-quarium, getting fed (so far) bloodworms every 2-3 days. The websites that I found also said potatoes & zucchini so I'd have to dump those in also. I can't actually put any fish in because (unbeknowst to me before hand) that yabbies & fish can't go together! There goes my idea of having some pretty goldfishes swimming around in that tank again! Will try & find other suitable co-inhabitants but so far I only saw freshwater crabs in 1 store & they're $17 ea! They ain't even the size of my Powerade bottle cap!

Cooking Papa

2007-08-04T00:49:00.000+10:00

Recently I had my 20-something-th birthday. Those who know me knows that I am quite good at spending $$ (both in terms of the amount I spend as well as the types of 'bargains' that I accumulate) and so it would be no surprise that I took full advantage of 'my own birthday' as an excuse to buy myself a little som'in' som'in'. I ended up buying this pasta machine after my quadtriple tut this past Tuesday. I didn't have chance to play with it until tonight because I was working hard at work. There was not the usual Friday nite family dinner tonite so I decided to pull the thing out & play with it. It (the instructions) looked simple enough and after a little cleaning the machine was ready for use. Being very new to this pasta making business it was kinda hard for me to judge exactly how moist/dry the dough should be, so getting the kneading right along took me more than an hour! Then there was getting the flattening part right. I tried pressing it this way & then perpendicularly (is that even a word?) & keep swapping but still it didn't resemble a 'regular shape' which is what the instructions said. Took me quite a few tries (& a couple more hours) before finally finishing the 1st batch using the fettucini extension. I'm pretty sure I got the proportions right at 250g & 1/2 glass of water (I guess taking the water option over the egg option means that it's not technically pasta but just noodles...) for 3 ppl, yet I resulted in this HUGE batch that looks like it couple easier feed 5 or 6! So I lowered the 'dosage' & made a second batch, 1) so I could try out the angel hair extension, & 2) to have something for tomorrow's lunch (fettu is for tomoro's dinner :P). I cut it down to 200g & some water. Didn't knead extensively this time round so the entire batch only took an hr & a half! If that rate of 'improvement' is anything to go by, technically I can be making batches of pasta in NO TIME AT ALL!! But back to reality, alas that won't be the case. It's good arm exercise, but simply too time consuming. let's save it for special occasions only...

2007-08-04T00:09:00.000+10:00

OK, so the link to pics on Facebook doesn't work. It's gone.

National Tree Day

2007-07-29T16:21:00.000+10:00

Today was Natioanl Tree Day. I've only 'officially' participated once some years ago. It wasn't that big a deal, just a few trees lying around with a couple of (what I assume to be) volunteers waiting for participants to come & plant them. I haven't driven pass that particular stretch of road much lately so I have no idea if that/those tree(s) are still there or not. Anyways, I digress. For this year, I just planted out some of what I already have at home into the ground. Since we lopped down the 2 dead/dying eucalyptus some months ago, there are gaps in our backyard that just makes it look kinda weird. So this yr I planted out one of the yuccas that got damaged during the lopping out front & in its old spot (the yucca basically snapped into 2 detached pieces that have since been potted up in plastic pots & rooted. I don't think there anything of the yucca is left in its originaly site) I planted out some of my chestnut saplings. Chestnuts are supposed to grow to quite big (10m I think) & I need them to be at that spot & block out the setting sun (if they survive long enought o be that big. They're only, like, a foot high or so).

Meanwhile, have refitted my tv-quarium & will go & buy some hardier specimens tomorrow. So far I have 3 yabbies in mind. Will find some cheapo goldfish to fill in the gaps later.

One foul day

2007-07-23T21:40:00.000+10:00

Lightnings don’t strike twice, but tragedies most certainly can. Almost 2 years ago, my beloved tv-quarium suffered its first tragedy when there was a mass fungus outbreak that literally killed all my goldfish overnight. You probably could’ve guess what I’m about to say – yes, another fungus outbreak has claimed my ENTIRE tv-quarium, barring the plants. I don’t know if that was from the new fish that I introduced a week or so ago or if it was something more inherent, but pretty much all of my fish just died with a white puss surrounding them over the course of 1 day. Here’s how it went down. I bought 4 more fish Thursday last to add a bit more colour (1 silver shark to keep the remaining silver shark company, & 3 giant danios to inject some blue into the tank). Everyone looked very happy, & then on Sunday (ie 3 days later) the 1^st of the giant danios died. It didn’t look sick or anything. It just died as if it had starved to death except it didn’t look thin or anything. I went back to the store to ask what the f & they asked me to bring in a water sample. So I did. They tested pH (which I also did at home, 6.5, 7-ish) and a couple of other stuff which I didn’t have the equipment for & concluded that my water was too acidic (it was a 4 or something according to their test) with a high level of ammonia. So I asked how did that come about when I tested pH on Monday & it was 6, 7-ish? The guy explained maybe I’ve been overfeeding & the leftover (plus the poopies) is producing too much ammonia. As such, I should feed over every other day & put some ammo lock in. So I did. That was Friday. Not long after I put in all the stuff & stopped feeding for a day did stuff start to go wrong. Another danio died, & then the normally resilient serpaes started looking puss-y. Tested pH again & still acidic despite putting in pH-remedy. Another danio died Sunday morning with the swordtails & platies started looking off. Over the course of the day I had to remove 12 (yes, a full dozen) dead fish including the very, very resilient bristlenose catfish that had been in that tank from the very beginning. The clown loaches were looking normal, swimming happily foraging for food scraps 1 minute & the next they were just lying dead, sideways. By the end of last night there were only the 2 silver sharks (with the older/larger 1 looking rather puss-y) & 1 serape (which was beginning to look better again) left. All of which died overnight & were just laying motionless by the time I got up this morning. It took me hours just to take out all the water of the 100L tank, & after a brief trip down to get a parcel from the post office, more hours spend washing the decorations, rehousing the water plants, washing out the gravel & deciding what to do with the tank. The last time this happened I left the cleared-out tank along for a month or so. I don’t know what to do just yet this time round, but am thinking of putting in yabbies instead. Not right away of course. Will need to have the whole tank washed out a few times to make sure whatever was in there is thoroughly, well, washed out. That would take more days. Great. Visitors coming in 2 weeks. Wonder if I’d have it re-populated by then.

Meanwhile, the new/7^th/final HP was released over the weekend & I’m slowly working my way through it. Me, a notorious sufferer of the slow reader syndrome (I think HP6 took me on & off 3 months to finish) I’ve only covered 11 chapters in 2 & ½ days. Considering most of today was spent doing the tv-quarium that is actually not too bad an effort seeing I was in the middle of Ch8 when I went to bed last night/this morning. Don’t really know if I should just finish it off quickly & start on my PhD chapters again or to drag it out & interweave reading with re-writing chapters. Shall see. But of course, needless to say most of my MSN contacts have conveniently disappeared since Saturday, a few of which I know were/are buried under HP7. never a fast reader, I cheated by looking up the plot on wikipedia on Saturday. I did guess a few things right, but many things are most certainly surprising. Despite knowing the plot, the gory details of all fights scenes are still very entertaining & exciting. Some sentence structures are a bit tedious though, eg explaining what stupefy is when everyone reading the book would most likely know it by heart that the hell that spell does! Argh, it’s chamber of secrets all over again! Although the general, overall quality of Deathly Hallows is much better.

HP5 | wii-explosion

2007-07-18T17:03:00.000+10:00

No, my wii has not exploded. As some of you may know, it's end of financial yr sales here in Oz so me being me naturally I stocked up on many things. Well, by most things I mean wii games & some plants. After playing just sport & play for 4 months, my wii games collection grew exponentially in the last month or so, first with World Poker Series, Cooking Mama, Pirates' At World's End, Rapala fishing, Wario Smooth Move, & yesterday Harry Potter 7. How can you beat half price? (Well, I guess 'less than half price' would beat it) My brother Ben also bought Rayman & Tiger Woods 2007. He's thinking about Mario Party 8 but I'd wait for Mario/Sonic Olympics. Ooh, so much fun!!

Meanwhile I went & watched Harry Potter 5 yesterday. We booked the tickets late last week thinking that it's the 1st day back at school after the winter break there wouldn't be any kids around yet there were still quite a few school-aged kids around. Them tardis! That aside, the movie wasn't as good as expected. The flight scenes were cool & all, but the book was simply too long & by cutting out so much it just looked a bit disjointed. Still, can't wait until the final book comes out (not that I have time to read it soon). My bet is on Voldermort (duh!) & HP to die, with HP killing V & either Neville or Ginny to kill HP. More likely Neville. What do you think?

Do I look like a chum to you?

2007-07-11T14:57:00.000+10:00

I happens to me ALL THE TIME. No matter where I am, I always get asked direction. It's ok if I know the place (say, here in Sydney) but not if literally I get asked EVERYWHERE. Why am I bringing this up now? 'Cos I got asked again, not once but twice, today. First time was when I was walking from where I parked to work. It wasn't so much getting asked directions but an old lady asked me to bring her wheely bin back from the side of the road. Not that I minded terribly, but senile old her didn't remember which bin was hers (there were 4 there) so I had to bring all of them back in before she realised that the 1st 1 was actually hers. Never mind that. The 2nd time was just now, on my way back from lunch this new migrant asked me while pointing to a (small) church if that was the railway station. Granted, she looked like a recent migrant who spoke in a very heavy (south american) accent so she probably hadn't much idea of what Parramatta station is supposed to look like (it was another 2 minutes walk away), but a church? Anywho, that brings me back into think all the times that I have been asked directions, & in odd places. Like 'recently' when I was in Taipei, I was in 西門町 & was asked by (in Mandarin) a man for directions. I hadn't even been in the city for 2 days by that stage!! SanFran, HK (who'd think I know how to give directions there wouldn't you...), NY... Been asked, been asked, been asked, and needless to say, wouldn't have a clue where to tell them to go (If I was any ruder I'd have somewhere to tell them to go to, but I'm not :P). Story of my life, always a shepherd (who doesn't know his own way, ha ha!). That brings me to the question then, do I look like a chum to you? For those who don't know/remember what I look like, a recent photo may help answer that question.

2007-07-11T09:45:00.000+10:00

Here are the before and after shots of my library updating efforts. The soft, brown, cotton tapes are to help the boxes slip out of the compactus easier (by stopping my fingers getting wedged in almost every time) while soft on the hands. Always looking out for softness, yes... There are 'only' 200 or so dusty boxes to do... x_x

Should I start treating my Facebook more seriously?

2007-07-06T13:34:00.000+10:00

Clearly I'm very bored at work, 2 posts in 2 days. So, naturally I was surfing the net for new publications/news/etc & I came across this article. Never knew Facebook is that popular here in the land of Aus, even though my cousins have been adding me to their lists in the past 2-3 wks. I don't even remember when/why I signed up for Facebook. Seriously, I actually forgot that I have already signed up until my hotmail keeps receiving msgs from Facebook asking for confirmations from ppl that I don't have a clue about who they are. And they're from western Canada for crying out loud! Really, who'd want to befriend west Canadian? (J/K!! A friend of mine is actually back teaching in NW Canadia, although she's not on Facebook I don't think) Anyways. So naturally I've not used Facebook to any great effect (or any effect for that matter) except receiving confirmation requests and snide comments about my mandarins (no dirty snickerings pls. I'm referring to those you pick from trees). So I'm considering making better use of it & start with uploading whatever photos I have on this computer. (ooh, free exercise plan from the Marketplace! So watching Knocked Up). Crap, only have 8 photos! Must upload more when back at home...

Still alive | Second-hand smoke

2007-07-05T14:07:00.000+10:00

My recent lack of postings doesn't mean that I've dropped off the radar (or earth's surface). There simply hasn't been anything particularly interesting to blog about. Apart from the end of financial year sales (which led to my purchasing of several Wii games), there was much house cleaning - vacuuming, stove scrubbing... Sent in my summary of abject theory nearly 2 wks now & still no comments from Kev. Must chase up AGAIN. So meanwhile, we've been having some Iron Chef-style Cooking Mama cook-offs at home, or pretending to be a Carribbean pirate (don't be fooled by the 5 rating. It promises superb swordfights - which it delivers - except I'm not dexterious enough to carry out the commands. Or remember them for that matter...). Ben just got Rayman earlier this week, so we spent last night whacking rabbids & dancing to the tunes.

At work: updating the WESTIR library. One-third of the way thru. Will have enough material to do maybe another 1/4. Will have to wait until my order arrives, probably next week. No one else in today (sick person, sick wife, dead cat, & Gold Coast their respective 'reasonings') so I'm left to my own devices. Pics to come on what I'm doing :P (BTW, does anyone know if animals can get cancer from second-hand smoke??)

Waiting for HP5 (the movie) & HP7 (the book) to come out.

Hello sailor!

2007-06-16T14:44:00.000+10:00

Got a new rubber ducky today (again). Can't help it because it is gigantic and 75% off (i.e., just $9!!!) Unfortunately my shelf has run out of room so it needs to sit on top of my mini stereo for now until room opens up (magically of course). Anyways, the rubber ducky came with a sailor hat which I don't really like & doesn't really fit the duck's hat. So instead I decided to put it on my dog instead. Here are a couple of the end results, hee hee hee... :D

Still marking assignments...

More ducks

2007-06-15T09:05:00.000+10:00

I didn't know rubber duckies can be so popular. So here's a pic of what I bought in Taipei back in November. ;) Saw something similar today at Socrates but they were monkey heads. I think it was $9. My ducky ones cost only NT$90 (less than A$5!!)

Long weekend: sleep late, get up later

2007-06-11T15:25:00.000+10:00

It's the Queen's birthday long weekend here in Aus. Saturday was also the night of my wii/dinner/games small-scale party. I've been preparing for this party for a little bit, cleaning & shopping all week long to get ready the house (like cleaning out my bookcase & changing the displays from softtoys to rubber duckies which used to hide in my wardrobe), games & food. I had to make last minute changes (from salad to roast veg) too as the forecast was downpour & cold (which it was). Ppl filed in from 5-ish (after the Swans win!) & the long games-feast lasted till half past midnight. It was great fun. We played wii for hours , chowed down on home-made pizzas, risottos, roast veg & soup (I forgot to take pics...) & then finished the night with pictionary (I won of course, ha ha). The house is still smelling like daffodils & jonquils from my flower displays. Hmm, spring... I've prepared so much food we're still eating leftovers almost 2 days later.

It was also the French Open finals weekend & needless to say we stayed up to watch. How can you not when such histories were on the line? We only caught the last game of the women's final because we were playing pictionary but the men's final we watched every point from start to finish. As (I) predicted it was a close 4 sets win to Nadal. Federer was simply too inconsistent & stubborn for this match. The history probably also got to him a bit too I suspect. He may have a better chance next year, but I think it'd have to come at a cost of not just not winning the US Open this yr but not making the US final also. Why not the US you ask? At present he is already setting records left & right for most consecutive grand slam finals, & with Wimbledon just around the corner that record no doubt will be stretched to 9 in a roll (& very likley 5th straight title). If he is to go on to win the calendar grand slam in 2008, it would mean 14 finals in a roll. Simply too much historic pressure. Having missed the US final, however, would mean a clean fresh start in 2008. By that time he should also have settled into the new coaching arrangements whatever they may be. So, that's my prediction. Let's see how that play out. I did get the women's final wrong though - I thought it would be 2 close sets to Henin rather than 2 easy ones.

Finishing my readings today & will start on assignments marking this week. Need to write out how I plan to inject exclusion/abjection theories into my thesis also... sigh...

Wii Mario

2007-06-07T15:47:00.001+10:00

Walked by a video games shop today at lunch & they were having big sale. Some were half off, some were $30 off. Not that I bought anything because, (1) I've already been spending too much, and (2) the Mario games for Wii were not on sale or yet to be released. I found out that there are actually 2 Mario games soon to be released PLUS the Mario vs Sonic 1 that is to be released later this yr!! How excitement! I'm more inclined towards the Super Mario Galaxy (which is more old style Mario) than the Mario Strikers Charged Football. I'm afraid my puny little brain just won't be able to work out how the football 1 is played. There's apparently a Mario Party 8 but no release date in sight. Same with Super Paper Mario which is the oldest version but in 3D. the Mario vs Sonic 1 doesn't even get a mention in the aust'n Nintendo site!?!?! Fat chance getting that released here then I suppose!

Wii/mahjongg/poker/dinner party this saturday after the Swans game.

Cross breeding

2007-06-04T17:21:00.001+10:00

platy swordtail x
Originally uploaded by ragde2507

As most people would know livebearers are pretty easy to breed. I was at this aquarium shop some time ago & the guy told me that it is actually very rare that swordtails & platies cross-breed. Having had both for quite a while, mine cross-breed all the time. A couple of weeks ago I finally managed to find a suitable subtray for my TV-quarium and yesterday I actually put it to use & installed it. I also reorganised the (real & plastic) plants & bubble screen. So, I decided to take more photos & this time focus on the cross-breeds. The 1 shown here is a red swordtail x yellow platy (more photos here). I've had the same cross before but they came out more yellow that than red. That 1 also didn't live as long as its parents (maybe 6-9 months. Can't really remember). The only thing I need now is a more powerful air pump since my current 1 isn't strong enough to work both the airated subtry & my bubble screen (thus lack of bubbles in this pic >_<). I need to go find a cleaner/catfish for the pond out back anyways...

Physical therapy

2007-05-14T19:49:00.000+10:00

These past few days I've taken up physical therapy. No, I haven't been injure & am not in need of some form of medical & physio treatment. I'm taking 'physical therapy' much in the same way peopl take 'retail therapy', but instead of shopping to clear my head, I exhaust myself by doing physical labour. Yes, construction. No, I'm not cash-strapped, and in any case this construction 'job' that I've been doing doesn't actually pay. I, in fact, have to shell out the cost of all material PLUS put in my own labour. So here's the story:

A long time ago my father bought a pond set (water feature plus liner) and a few months ago while taking a week of annual leave he decided to put that in use. But my father being my father, instead of doing it properly, he simply dug a hole, put the liner on, & weighed it down with some loose bricks & pot plants. I've never liked that look, so I decided what while they're gone I'd redo that pond completely with bricks & mortor. After dabbling in with a couple of hand-drawn designs I finalised it with a digitised version & order the bricks. I was told the bricks were supposed to arrive on Thursday so I waited & waited, until 10:30 (am) or so when my phone rang, telling me that the day's delivery was cancelled because of a light drizzle & will call again to tell me when the actual delivery would be. Fuming! I switched my work days & all! So, 5-ish & they called again, saying that the bricks would be delivered Friday instea. Great, need to call in 'sick'. But at least the bricks finally arrived. I already had a couple of bags of brick layer mortor mix ready so after spending a couple of hours Thursday preparing the site (tipping out water, flattening ground, washing liner, etc...) I began shifting the bricks (all 288 of them!!) from the front to the back yard. That alone took hours & by the end of all the shifting I was buggered! Still, I managed to try my hand in brick laying & mixed a little mortor mix to start on the foundation. Then, I carried on for about 3-4 hours on Saturday (with some help from my brother, digging & stuff) before we ran out of mortor mix 4-ish when the bricks were only about 2-layer tall (I designed the pond side to be 3-layer tall & the plant side 5-layer tall). Sent brother out to get 3 more bags of mortor when he went out for tennis Sunday morning, & then spent another couple of hours in the afternoon laying more bricks, carpeting the pond size (old carpet as pond underlay), filling it with water to weigh it down & get the best fit, & leaving for Beck's b'day dinner. Then, it was a full-day of brick-laying, tipping out water again because too much muck (soil & mortor) dropped in, refilling the pond, & planting out. In the end, 3-layer was simply not deep enough so the pond side ended up being 4-layer tall, & I ran out of mortor again so 3/4 of the plant side was 5-layer tall, with the pond-plant common wall 4-layer tall. But now it's all done, & I'm quite tired, & my finger tips ratchet from the mortor seeping thru the gloves. Changed the planting scheme a little too & got rid of the side over-hang which was to cover up the gap between side wall & house wall. Now, onto the next challenge. Well, not so much 'next' but on-going - the old dreaded PhD. More books to borrow tomorrow, if they've been returned that is (even though I request that THREE weeks ago.....!!!!)

Capping off Holocaust Awareness week with a day of Auschwitz

2007-05-05T23:29:00.000+10:00

It was Holocaust Awareness Week and because of this I wore a paperclip on my shirt (well, for half a day anyway). To cap the week off, I spent a day of Auschwitz. (I said 'of', not 'at', although I'd really like to go some day). But first, here's a re-cap of the weekend so far:

Friday | Decided to go to Flemington Market to stock up on less-perishable but still fresh produce. After some housework at home I set off, 1st to the library for a quick return-&-borrow, then Flemington. I got most of what I wanted to get - celery, tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes instead of bland fleshy things, a sack of potatoes, carrots, zuccinis... & some other things that I didn't plan on buying. For instance, I didn't realise the plants section at Flemington sell, well, plants that are SO much cheaper that at nurseries & other places. I, thus, bought a big pot of white cyclamen for a small $8 which normally it would cost somewhere in the $20 vicinity in other places. Bargain. All that at Flemington only took an hour, so I proceeded to go to the nearby DFO which I also haven't been in quite a while. I knew that the Oroton outlet at Market City looks like closing down because the other week when I tried to go there for fresh produce I saw them having extra 30% off of a much depleted stock & I saw this square sterling silver ring again which I 1st found at DFO some months ago. It was $99 down to $69. Didn't buy it of course, because I thought I remember it being just $29 at DFO all those months ago. This time at DFO, however, I saw the same square ring again, & indeed it was $29 so, like usual, I quickly snapped it up. I walked around for a bit more, looking at things here & there & buying absolutely nothing more, that is, until Jag which is 2 stores down from Oroton but because I went the other direction, completely at the end of my, umm, walk. Fabulous crocodile leather shoes reduced from $140 to just $40!!! I know I was actually looking for replacement of BLACK leather shoes, but since Aquila chooses to remain so damn expensive even at its outlet stores, I had to settle for the dark brown, very pointy, crocodile leather slip-ons instead (no lace-ups please, too lazy for that!). Quick lunch at home, some cooking (soup mainly) & putting away the produce it was time a quick half-hour work-out before dinner at the Fung's. Naturally we followed that up with 4 rounds of mahjongg (lost about 1/3 but who cares 'cos we never play with real money :P). 2 hours of Wii before finally going to bed at 1:30 even though I was already quite buggered by 12.

Saturday | Because of Wii I didn't end up getting up until 11 this morning. What I had planned as a day of catching up with my reading ended up being a day of TV, & here's where the day of Auschwitz comes in. 2 back-to-back episodes of Oprah was on Auschwitz, 1st with Dr Elie Wiesel then the winners of the Oprah essay competition discussing the impact of the Wiesel book 'Night'. There were many footages of Auschitz in the snow, plus some of other, more recent genocides like Rwanda, Bosnia, & Darfur. There was, of course, a very well scheduled (manipulated?) reunion of a Rwandan refugee with parents & younger siblings which she's not seen or contacted in 12 years. That was my 1st 'of' of Auschwitz. After lunch I settled down to watch 5 episodes of the Amazing Race All Stars, 1 leg of which the teams travelled from Warsaw to Krakow via Auschwitz-Birkenau. The task for to light candles & have a minute of silence. Rather daunting. That was my 2nd 'of' of Auschwitz. My 3rd 'of' of my day of Auschwitz was just now. Having been forced to read up on abjection as part of the 'dressin gup' of my thesis I turned to Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror. Not 5 pages into her explanation of abjection there pops Auschwitz again as an example of 1 of her explanations of abjection - morbid fascination. It just seems I can't escape Auschwitz today.

Tomorrow onwards | More reading. 3 chapters of Kristeva to go thru in total & then there are probably 20 other articles on various things. Luckily I've already finished my readiing for this coming week's lab. Oh crap, dental on monday, & during the day. Great, need to make special trip down @&%#^&@

BTW, it was 'no' & no' from the 2 jobs that I applied a few weeks back, so no moving down to Melbourne any time soon.

A sure sign of aging...

2007-05-01T14:50:00.001+10:00

On my way to the library just now I passed by a couple of Asian students, with the guy looking into the girl's phone. As I was passing by them I heard the guy said "that's actually a pretty good picture of a camel toe". Taken aback, I had another think about what I thought I heard before quickly realising that he actually said "that's actually pretty good picture for a camera phone"!! This of course got me thinking some more - is my hearing going that badly? I know bad hearing is a hereditary trait in my family, but surely not (way :P) before the age of 30? Am I really wearing a giant paperclip on my shirt? (Wait, how did I jumpt to that topic all of a sudden?) So many questions. (BTW, the paperclip is apparently a thing for Holocaust Awareness Week. This guy passed me a flyer with a paperclip on it which reads:

By wearing a paperclip during Holocaust Awareness Week, you are creating a link in the chain of awareness about the Holocaust and genocide around the world past & present.

Because I'm such a good Jew (& invalid & political prisoner & homo & Gypsy & Jehovah's Witness) I'm therefore wearing the paperclip. For the week anyways...

Ripping --> Muzzle

2007-04-22T16:12:00.000+10:00

It's been a bad weekend thru & thru. I went & saw 300 yesterday which was not as bad as I expected. Why did I go & see it then, you ask? I bought this voucher booklet some time ago & the last 1 expires at the end of the month. I checked the release schedule a couple days back & realised that there is absolutely nothing interesting coming out until 1st wk of May, so I HAD to pick something just so the last remaining voucher doesn't get wasted (not like the drunken frat boy kind of wasted but you know what I mean). Seeing that I've already watched everything that I wanted to watch & is still in cinema (speaks so much for the lack of quality movies seeing that the booklet was only 5-voucher thick & I've had that for 2, maybe even 3 months) I had to pick something that is remotely interesting. 300 seemed 'interesting enough' at the time, rating higher than Mr Bean 2 & Are We Done Yet on my scale so I went & spent what I wanted to be a pretty quiet weekend before putting my head down again on the next chapter of editing. Afterwards I had a casual stroll around a nursery ('plants & pots' kind, not the 'baby' kind) before coming home & pottering around in the garden for the rest of the afternoon. Then it started turning bad. The Swans played like crap for pretty much the entire match, & then I lost hugh points on Wii Tennis because the computer partnered me up with lowly ranked Mii's!!

Then today I walked the dog out to the shopping centre to buy newspaper & as usual I tied him to the tap next to the rubbish bin on the side entrance which not that many people use. When I came back out not 3 minutes later there were 3 people standing around & after a brief chat I was told that B 'attacked' the young man & ripped the side pocket of his cargo pants & put a hole in his hoodie. I've never had that happened to me before, so after a bit of a talk obviously i offered to compensate for the damages & we agreed that I'd pay for a new pair of pants & a hoodie. The young man came buy around lunch time & handed me a bill of $170 to cover the damages. I of course got him to sign a piece of paper saying he received payment for the damages & that's the end of the matter. Luckily he was also quite understanding to not make a big deal out of it. Meanwhile, the $170 is coming out of your allowance, B! But then again that would be pretty hard to do seeing that he doesn't actually get an allowance... Anyways, he's now muzzled up, as a bit of a punishment for now & from now on when he gets his walk. No more shopping for you either!!

Speech of the day - I Have A Dream

2007-04-18T10:03:00.000+10:00

I feel it's time for another Speech of the Day. Maybe it's because I left a file at home & now I can't the results on SPSS. This is my all time favourite speech, I Have A Dream, so enjoy.

Meanwhile, my Will is almost done. Just need to decide on a couple more things and it'll be ready for print, sign & file :)

Martin Luther King, from the steps of the Lincoln memorial, Washington DC, 28 August 1963

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check – a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of Democracy.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children.

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads unto the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with the little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning

My country, ‘tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims’ pride,

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvacious peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!’

Will

2007-04-17T12:38:00.000+10:00

What was supposed to be another normal working day turned out to be quite tragic. No doubt the shooting is a bit out of the blue (but then again, it's America, & these kind of things seem to happen quite regularly. At least that's the feeling I get from hearing them on the news.) Anywho, having just finished editing a chapter, I decided that it is definitely time to finally write the will that I have been wanting to write for a couple of years. Not that I'm planning to die any time soon, but me being me (all rigid and pedantic) I would like to know how my things are/will be distributed when I die. Seeing that I've already had more than 2 years to think about how/where things will go, this process of actually writing a will should not take too long. I will be back on chapter-editing duties in no time. First step, though, is to find online a suitable template to copy. Luckily with constant Internet connection these are pretty easy to find (ha! who says the Internet needs a complete overhaul!!). Unfortunately, the Internet being the Internet most of these (free) samples are very American-oriented (there are free, state-by-state templates online) but how exactly will these apply to our Aussie context is a bit of a question mark. Anyways, I'll just list my requests first an see how that goes. As far as I know they don't necessarily have to be notified. Any kind of written document will suffice, i.e. no longer classified as intestate. It doesn't really matter if it is legal anyways just so I know there's a list somewhere of my wishes (I already have Excel lists of my books, CDs, DVDs, and current budget. Pedantic much, right?). Let's see how I go today. [Great, found a site with sample wills for all occasions, except it charges a hell of a lot membership fees! Sticking to the freebies)

Meanwhile, parents going away for 3 months (12 weeks) from next Monday. Will try & have a dinner/games party later next month to kill boredem.

Happy Easter everybody!

2007-04-10T11:01:00.000+10:00

It's Easter again which means 4 days straight of public holiday. It doesn't/didn't actually make that big a difference to me seeing I usually I spend Mondays & Fridays at home 'working' anyway. The only difference was that there were actual ppl home to distract me even more. I spent Easter Friday marking assignments & then the rest of the wkend playing, thinking, more playing, thinking about working, bday dinner for Gekko, TV, and then finally some work last night. It was much easier than I thought it would go. My relatively lacklustre wkend allowed/forced me to stay awake until very early this morning, which meant that I had some time to think about ow else to change/improve the thesis. I now have a much clearer view of what to do & hopefully can get it off my back soon. Still no sign of a joint meeting with Kev & Scott though. Wonder when is Kev flying off to San Fran...

Meanwhile, applied for 2 jobs last wk while bored at, funnily enough, work. Don't think I'll have a chance with 1 of them, & given my time contraint (no full time work until at least late June) I doubt that the other would wait around for that long either. Let's just wait & see.

This week's procrastinations

2007-04-01T23:23:00.000+10:00

Yes, still doing the PhD thing. Should really be finishing it off, but as per usual (& so many others) there are plenty of other things that serve as distractions. Even thought TV is on an Easter hiatus (well, some shows like Ugly Betty & Grey's Anatomy & Lost), there are still plenty of other contenders. For this week, the procrastinations have been:

Still Wii-playing
The Sydney Swans vs West Coast Eagles match, as part of the 3-match Telstra pass (damn 1-point loss again!)
watching The Departed just now
More reading (this kinda helps actually, seeing that I'm including most of these articles in my to-be revamped versions of the PhD)
There wasn't much happening at 'work' work either so I bummed around by looking up jobs all over the place. Also looked up avenues of working in the UK. Can't believe the only way that I can work there legally (barring the working holiday visa which only allows me to work up to 1 yr out of the 2-yr stay) is to pay ₤331 application fee & pretend that I'm moving there permanently!
Oh yeah, & writing this blog :P

OMG, how excitment!

2007-03-29T13:26:00.000+10:00

I'm even happier that I bought the now! I just read on SMH that they're going to be a new release that have both Mario & Sonic in the same game!!! I'm so getting that when it comes out! How excitement!!

Plan of action

2007-03-27T15:55:00.000+10:00

Ok, have devised a plan of action on how to tackel my substandard thesis :

change wordings on some resutls chapters to make it sound more, umm, rounded
another sentence or 2 on justification of field sites.
probably need to defend choice of research material more also seeing that co-sup have 'Googled' research that counter my arguments.
add in a couple more definitions
cut back on concluding sections in the result chapters (3 pages each does sound a bit much. No wonder I'm already over the word limit with a couple of sections still MIA...)

There, sounds much better. Sound be out of here in 5 or 10

Ooh, tennis tonight

24

2007-03-25T15:48:00.000+10:00

Finally got my WiiFitness age down to my, umm, 'real' age (well, it was real to me not so long ago). All those crunches & push-ups has really paid off. Can't wait to try out my new consolidated core on actual tennis this coming tuesday seeing that last week was rained out. Must cut back on Wii, however, because there's much work ahead with fixing my supposedly substandard thesis.

2007-03-22T22:59:00.000+11:00

OK, I've had time to mull over it and it's not as big a deal as I first thought. I agree on some points about the analyses (which I knew was a bit of a problem before hand that I just hadn't gotten around to fixing yet) but the criticisms on my theory & literature I can't really see his grounds. Will not totally ignore them, but not many changes. Same with the field site justifications. Just need a couple more explanations and they should be done. The only puzzling comment is the 'substandard expression'. Still no idea where is Scott pointing that at...

*************************************************************************************************

Damn it! Still need to get memory cards for . How much more do I have to shell out for accessories??

Apparently I still care

2007-03-22T15:31:00.000+11:00

I was my cousin Christins's graduation this past Tuesday so obviously when I turned up the conversation naturally drifts off to when will I get graduating. My stock answer is, of course, some time this semester. I was asked the same question last night by my town planner cousin Becks when I needed to ask her something work-related. Needless to say, stock answer. But apparently, my stock answer could very well be wrong.

Finally recevied comments from my new co-supervisor on my chapters this morning and they can only be described by 2 words - not good. I knew that there are some revisions that need to be done but had no idea (according to Scott) that I am THIS far behind. According to Scott (new co-sup), my chapters are nowhere need submitable state, for either PhD or Master (!!). The list of problems goes on & on (naive analyses, he doesn't buy my major concept, issues with fieldwork not addressed, expressions "substandard", ...). Like I said, I knew of some minor problems (eg, change some wordings so that the findings don't look so naive/one-dimensional) but not to his extent. But then again, I'm pretty sure 2 of my chosen markers would be pretty sympathetic towards my thesis, so the 'substandard' of my thesis is not as disastrous as one would think. Nonetheless, this process taught me 1 thing - that apparently I still care about the stupid PhD. I thought, after all these time, & especially since towards the end of 2nd year, I was way over this whole process of post-grad studies (& thoughts of discontinuing were never far away). Put simply, I thought I was ambivalent towards the outcome of this. But reading these negative comments, I realised that I actually still care about the outcome, and obviously not wanting to walk away (after 4 years) with (i) an outright fail, or (ii) an incomplete thesis. Many tweakings ahead. Many tweakings ahead indeed. Sigh......

Hah!

2007-03-19T20:34:00.000+11:00

28! Suck on that Wii Fitness! Only a few more years to go then :P

I'm not bloody 45!!!

2007-03-18T23:46:00.000+11:00

I recently (last friday) bought a Nintendo Wii. It's EXTREMELY fun to play even though I only have 2 game discs so far. It's also my 1st venture back into video gaming in probably 18 yrs. well, I've played but not bought, let's put it that way. The old Nintendo Family Computer died a few yrs back but for some reasons still sit in our upstairs lounge. Meanwhile the old GameBoy, which also died a couple yrs back, have already been chucked. The mystery. Anywho, so, venturing in Wii land. it's a motion-sensitive game, & with the WiiSport disc that comes with the console, it's a VERY fun way of working out (well, light workout anyways). Apart from the 5 sports (tennis, baseball, bowling, golf & boxing) there is also 1 training & 1 fitness section. The fitness section, in particular, is a random selection of 3 of the 15 training sessions played in succession to test your physical fitness & then gives you a fitness age. The 1st time that I played it (saturday) i tested 45. 45!!! Unbelievable! I'm not bloody 45!!! (Oh wait, I already said that in the title) Worse still, it only allows you to test your fitness age once a day (well, once for each Mii character) so I couldn't avenge until today, which fortunately was 32. Still not my real age but much closer. I'm sure the next time I test I'd go WAY lower again. Into the teens probably, which is only just a pinch younger than my real age (oh shut up! Don't go giving me evils!)

Another 1 bites the dust

2007-03-13T15:34:00.000+11:00

Dang it! Just had coffee with the 2 Dans & bloody Robson is ready to submit his thesis!?!?!? He started a year after I did & his is now ready to go in & under word limit! Meanwhile I'm still unmotivated, i.e. doing it very slowly & very sporadically. Also need to cut some parts because at the moment it looks to be about 20,000 words over the 'limit' (it's more like a guideline really, but 120,000 words does sound a bit much. Maybe I should move the field site descriptions to Appendix? I don't really have an Appendix at the moment...). Anyways, really should settle & put my head down. But still, Anne is more likely to be the next to submit. Oh gawd, I'm being passed by so many others!?!?!

Speech of the day

2007-03-10T23:26:00.000+11:00

Went & watched Bobby today & was slightly disappointed (the 2 women who were sniggering at everything didn't help. What could have been so funny about freckly Lindsay Lohan getting her nails done??). I thought some of the storylines dragged on a bit & some were pretty pointless (the 2 youngies tripping out with Ashton Kutcher's drug den operation at the hotel for example) but it did get me back into reading speeches again (I have 2 books on speeches - the Penguin Book Of Twentieth-Century Speeches, and Speeches That Changes The World, both of which I haven yet to finish). There was only 1 RFK speech in Penguin so I had to go digging on the Internet a bit. The 1 below is the speech that was played during the ending of the movie, & the 1st few paragraphs were rather good. No Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' but still good. Also, did not realise what a big year 1968 was in terms of assassinations - Warhol, King & RFK!

The Mindless Menace of Violence
Robert Francis Kennedy, City Club of Cleveland, Ohio, 5th April, 1968

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again, which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

2007-03-05T13:37:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago we had 2 (dead) trees chopped down. Even now the backyard is still looking a mess, with some of the other, lower plants trampled by the loggers or flattened by the fallen trees. Those trees have been romoved now, of course, but there are still many branches lying around doing nothing (I guess that means they're lazy branches then ). Our dog has also taken a liking into sleeping in/under some of these leafy branches, & yesterday he got stuck. See link for a video of what happened. Unfortunately like most animals they freeze when they see a camera, so not much movement happening in the video. It ran away as soon as the video timed out needless to say

Mickey Mouse

2007-02-22T22:17:00.001+11:00

Bought new fish on my way home from work today. I've been meaning to add to my tv-quarium for a while, but it's always the same old things that you see at the aquarium shops. Worse still, they're usually red, which my tank is dominated by. I went to a different shop today, at Baulkham Hills, because I know they have the more unusual stuff & a great variety. I wasn't disappointed. As my tv-quairum houses only livebearers (bar the 2 silversharks & a bristlenose cleaner) I wanted only to add more livebearers. This shop at BH have a lot of varieties of livebearers, saltwater fish, rarer goldfishes, parrots, rabbits, spiders, & even a snake. I ended up buying a pair of platies that I've never seen before - they're called the Mickey Mouse platies, because if you look at their tails from the side they look just like MM's head! I also bought 3 golden swordtails just to balance out the colours a bit more. Videos still uploading... (1) (2)

Shall try & upload some 'smaller' videos from my trips when I'm at a faster connection next wk.

Rustic framing

2007-02-19T10:37:00.000+11:00

Having another day-off at home to, umm, 'work' on my thesis. And of course, during stressful times like these 1 has to find ways of unwinding and relaxing. A couple weeks back I finished doing up the classic poster series of a Casablanca jigsaw puzzle & of course have backed it up with backing paper & cardboard. Now it's stiff as. And with the passionfruit vine torn down there are extra lattice lying around in our backyard, & I though what better way to complement the classic poster series than with a rustic frame!?! At first I was just going to go to the shops & buy a frame then 'rustic' it up, but there are any that are big enough. So not to chop down the jigsaw puzzle, I resorted to making 1 up myself. A quick stop at the hardware store to get a mitre box & it's an hour or so in the backyard sawing, staping & nailing up my new frame:

It fits like a glove but alas the rustic look doesn't fit all that well. Now I've painted it sandy yellow with a golden top layer (& a crackling layer in between so the sandy yellow would still come through) to sort of match up with the bought 1 that I have for my Gustav Klimt 'Kiss' jigsaw puzzle which I still have yet to finish doing up. Hmm, project, project...

新年快樂

2007-02-18T10:35:00.000+11:00

恭喜發財 & 新年快樂 to everyone!!

NO apols to anyone who can't read traditional Chinese. Tough!

Oh how I love you how I love you ...

2007-02-15T22:27:00.000+11:00

For starters, that is the song from a Sydney Swans commercial from a few years back, kind of a retro-link to a Jolson song. And yes, I DO love them heaps. can you imagine anything more exciting than a good-ol' game of AFL (watching of course, I can't play it for peanuts!), particularly a Swans game?? I've been to a few over the years, and like last year we're buying the Telstra package again this year, only this time minus the SCG game (but cheaper!!) Here are my beloved Swannies doing a fan-fest thing at my local shopping centre today. F-ing hell, so many people! I could only get 3 autographs of the 6 that were there the lines were so long! Granted I was there a little later than they had arrived because I was at work. But still, oh Swannies!!!

Electric explosion

2007-02-15T13:42:00.000+11:00

The electric substation of the building next to us (at work, not at home) threw a bit of a hissy fit last Thursday. I guess it might be a bit old & it was a bit of a humid day, but soon after lunch (1:30-ish) when Barb came back from lunch she told us that there were black smoke coming out of a roller door downstairs (we didn't know what is/was behind that roller door at that stage), & out of curiosity Faye (who is also our floor's fire warden) when downstairs (to take a ciggy break of all thing!?!?!) & checked things out. By that stage the fire trucks had already arrived & they told Faye that we better start packing 'cause they were evacuating us soon. We did as such, & not 5 minutes the alarm sounded & we were scuttled downstairs, cross the closed-off road, went around the building & went to the assembly area 5 minutes or so away. We're on the 4th floor so naturally be bump into people from lower floors as we went down. By the time we got to the ground floor & crossed the road, the 'thing' behind the roller door start exploding (not like nuclear bomb, mushroom cloud explosion, but loud bangs in quick successions. Much like chinese fire crackers but not as quick in succession). After waiting for a while we were told not to expect to get back in that afternoon, so we all went our separate ways. SOme went home (actually most went home) while I, who is without a ride until 5pm, had plenty of time to kill. Did the library, window shopped, & finally sat down & had a haircut instead. 4-ish & I decided to sneak by to see if there's anyway of going back to the office & surf the net, & the fire trucks were all gone & doors wide open. Great! Spent the rest of the time surfing the net. Lesson of this incident is, while we were praised for our prompt respond to the evacuation alarm, DON'T complain about having to WALK DOWN 4 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!! Can you actually believe someone complained about having to walk down some stairs!?!?! My typical sarcastic respond was of course, "well then, jump!" No, really.

Meanwhile, the substation is still being fixed. I walked by at least 4 times yesterday. 8:30 - arriving at worl. No one was working on it. 12:30 - out to lunch. Workmen standing by it talking about something electrical. 1:30 - back from lunch. More workmen turned up to sit around the burnt substation having coffee & snack. 4:30 - going to post office on way home. All workmen, including the van, were gone. Roller door pulled down, presumably so that can't tell if any work had been done on the substation. Today (1 week post-explosion) - roller door area still cordoned off, no sign of workmen, again.

Good night out, good work-out

2007-02-11T15:24:00.000+11:00

The made-up holiday of Valentine's Day is coming up yet again which means that Robson's birthday is also near. This year we went to a favorite haunt of ours - the Heritage Belgian Beer Cafe down at the Rocks - this past friday. It was a great night out as I decided not to do anything during the day either except clean up bits and pieces & clear out some stuff from my hard disc to DVDs. I bus-ed in early to the city to have a bit of a walk around, window-shopped at the Rocks & took some photos (which I still haven't downloaded onto my laptop...). The beer, food & company were al very good, & we stuck around for 5 hours! Well, I stuck around about 5 hours. Some stayed on after I'd left to catch my bus home at 11:30.

The following day it was time for a good work out. Physical work out. I've been planning this for months and now it's finally the right time. The trellis that my passionfruit plant has been leaning on for the last few yrs is/was all brittle & keeps falling over, so yesterday morning (after sleeping in, naturally) I spent a couple of hours collecting the remaining fruits & chopping the whole plant back to its barest. A quick stop for lunch, then it was building the new metal arches that it now climbs over, forking out compost, sugarcane mulching, & some power composting (lawn-mower over the passionfruit vines that I chopped down, pressed down by a heavy layer of chicken shit). I was thoroughly soaked through halfway through that work out (we're unseasonably humid at the moment). Now it's looking all bare & naked. Hopefully it'll fruit again at the end of the year (1 vines produces about 100 fruits a season, which is more than we can handle in this household. I've had to resolve to making passionfruit muffins & cookies before they spoil!). Still no flowers on my guava trees though...

Chinese New Year dinners this coming friday & saturday.

How excitement!

2007-02-08T23:06:00.000+11:00

It’s been a bit of a strange week so far & today I took a turn for an even stranger ending to the week. Locked myself in the house for both Sunday & Monday to finish rewriting Ch 6 before a day at uni on Tuesday. Tennis as usual that night & didn’t play well. Back again at uni on Wednesday which threw me off pattern a bit seeing that I haven’t spent that much time at uni in any week for a very long time. I was there to meet an academic who is based in ADFA (Canberra) but was travelling up that day for his own meetings. He squeezed me into his schedule to talk a bit about finishing off my thesis (unfortunately not ‘for me’, but more like ‘help me finish it’ kinda thing). Kev (supervisor) & I had talked about bringing him on board as a co-supervisor also so the more reason to meet with him. Now the end is finally very near. There’s just some paperwork to do next week to sign on the new co-supervisor & get on with it. The worst bit, though, is that I still haven’t had from someone who had they were going to give me an answer about 3 weeks back & I don’t know where I would be/how much time I would have in the next few months for the thesis. It’s simply unsettling. Hassled the guy again on Tuesday via email but still no reply. Is he off his nuts or just ignoring me & put me on the blocked list? Must investigate more next week.

Meanwhile, after pretending to be sick (mentally, obviously) so I could go to uni yesterday (some strange logic here, but it’ll make sense if you read on) I returned to WESTIR today for ‘work’ work. Still no word from freaking Penrith Council, i.e. can’t start on the new project --> sitting around without much to do. That part of my life has turned out to be a real boring drag, ‘cause you see there are only so many relevant websites & report that one can visit and, more importantly, endure. Without the go-ahead for this new project, we don’t have much to go on because the new Census data won’t come out for another 8 months. But luckily, as far as I can tell we’d get some answers from Council early next week & start delegation immediately. Have not been this eager to be given work in a long time.

But just as we were all settling back into the mundane boredom after lunch today an unexpected excitement came along. Barb was coming back from lunch & she saw black smoke coming out of a roller door next to out building’s entrance. Soon after the fire brigade arrived & Faye, who was taking a ciggy break at the time, was told by the firemen to get ready for an evacuation. Evacuation! Not a pretend 1, but a real thing! Haven’t had that for a long time! The smell of the smoke was not very pleasant anyway so it was better to be out than in. The alarm finally sounded & we made our way down the fire stairs & out the building. Stupid thing was that roller door wasn’t that far from our fire stair exit (probably about 20m, 25m max) & the smell of that smoke was just overwhelmingly intense as we exited & were rushed to the left (roller door on right). We haven’t even been out of the building 5 minutes, & needless to say haven’t even half finished joking about the situation (eg, “must be some disgruntled fatties trying to bomb Jenny Craig”) (Jenny Craig was the 1^st shop next to the roller door) than the roller door started exploding!! OK, so it wasn’t like the-plane-crashed-into-the-World-Trade-Centre kind of exploding, but a more like a quick succession of loud pops that went on for maybe 3-5 minutes. We were of course hurried off by the fire brigade to get away. The floor fire wardens stuck around to find out what was happening & we were told we wouldn’t be able to get back into the building for an hour or 2 (mind you, this was only ¼ past 2 even after all that excitement. It’s taking me longer to type this up than to live through the whole thing!). We decided it wasn’t worth it to wait around so an early mark for everybody! Yippy! Seeing that my ride wasn’t getting off work until 5, I had a bit of time to kill. I checked out stuff at Westfield, went to the library, checked out stuff at the mall, I even had time for a hair cut before finally decided to go pass the office again at ¼ past 4 to see if it was safe to sneak back in (It was). Oh my beloved Internet, how I missed you! Thus ended the excitement of the day.

Curtains.

The end.