The Ravenous Pigeon Digest

Bangkok

2011-11-11T11:53:00.011Z

Originally a stop in Thailand on the way out of Australia seemed like a good idea. Then on the news we could see the floods getting worse and worse and we tried to cancel the few days we'd booked in Bangkok to no avail. We'd be allowed to re-schedule for a later date but couldn't cancel. So with the prospect of just losing money we decided to go ahead anyway, especially after having read various accounts on the web that the newspapers, as typically happens, were exaggerating the extent of how bad things were in the city.

Then a week before going Thai airways changed the time of day of the flight, meaning we'd have to go the next day and lost out on a day anyway.

Maybe I'd just forgot in the time since I'd last visited, but the heat, noise and garbage came as a bit of shock. Mothers and babies begging next to skytrain escalators across the road from 5-star hotels. It was no hotter than in Cairns but with the humidity and concrete it just felt hotter. And though there was no flooding in the city we could see, there were sandbags everywhere just waiting for the water to come, and we saw plenty of flooded areas as we landed.

With our three days there we couldn't take a day trip to Autthaya because the trains weren't running. And we couldn't take a ferry on the river because they weren't running either. On the upside, maybe due to all the cancellations, the hotel gave us a free upgrade to a big room, and they had a rooftop swimming pool with a great view of the city.

This was K's first chance to see South East Asia (and who knows if I'll ever get a chance to come back here) so we did manage to squeeze in a few of the tourist spots - from the Reclining Buddha, Jim Thompson's house and we walked around the Palace in the afternoon heat like complete amateurs before collapsing at some crappy cafe on the Khao San Road with heat stroke.

We had arrived into Bankgok in time for the Loi Krathong festival, which normally would have been a really cool site, seeing thousands of candles and lanterns floating on the rivers and lakes everywhere. But I think the locals were rightly pissed off with any spirits responsible for the waters and the night was pretty quiet. We went to one large city park with a lake and, judging from all the tat sellers on the ground at the entrance, thought it would be crowded and there would be floating lanterns everywhere. But there were hardly any, and their flames went out faster than any new ones were lit.

We got a chance to sample the delights of meals and beer for $2 on Sukhumvit Soi 38, the guidemap's recommended spot for street food. And it was exactly as advertised - cheap beer, fried rice, noodles and general surrounds that would make restaurant health inspectors speechless. It was only after walking around that I realised it was the same street that I'd stayed in a hostel that last time I was here.

Palm Cove

2011-11-10T10:51:00.016Z

We couldn't really leave Australia without some sort of visit to the Great Barrier Reef. That was the one place I wanted to visit more than any place in the bush

I was slightly worried on the flight up that I might experience some pain on the decent as I'd recently had a cold and had trouble like this before. Unfortunately I was right. My forehead exploded in pain shortly after our decent into Cairns. It really felt like my head was being torn in two from the inside. It was agony. I was surprised to find myself still alive when the plane landed and I seemed to be ok twenty minutes later. Thankfully It turns out to be a real complaint and not some sort of stroke.

We were staying in Palm Cove, a small hamlet on the beach half an hour up the road from Cairns that almost gives the appearance of one single private resort. We had a hotel room in a self catering place with a pool which was just as well as there was certainly no chance of swimming in the ocean thanks to the jellyfish and crocodiles.

The weather was a constant 30+ degrees the whole time, and 10 minutes parked in the sunshine was enough to turn the car steering wheel to molten rubber. But despite everything burning in the sun the weather was perfect almost the whole time.

Before our day trip to the Barrier Reef we had a couple of days to drive through plenty of tropical rainforest, both in the Daintree further north and Kuranda right next door. The countryside was a huge chain from Sydney and only familiar to me from movies; I either expected to see helicopters dropping napalm onto fields of sugar cane or gorillas among the forested hills beyond. We bought fresh mangoes from the roadside and I even ate my first crocodile burger (yes, like chicken). We were promised plenty of wildlife, or at least there were enough signs warning us on the way. Unfortunately the only wildlife we actually saw was confined to Bird World. However, in fairness to Bird World it was class. Every single parrot you could imagine and all cheeky enough to hop on your shoulders looking for any loose threads or buttons to nibble.

On our final day we went to Port Douglas further up the coast an hour for our day out to the Barrier Reef. Despite being a Monday in the low season the tour was full and we were given free cups of tea and biscuits to munch on while we cruised the 45 minutes out to the reef. We had signed up for the basic tour but there were a million extras offered for a price - from scuba lessons to marine biology courses to helicopter rides. All of these extra which were advertised over and over gave the trip a bit of a sour commercial taste to it. However once out there, in the water and in our full length lycra suits to protect from any stringers, it was great. And though It was my first time snorkeling no amount of swallowed sea water (and there was a lot) took away from the experience of seeing, swimming with, all the fish and coral and giant clams. Unfortunately the day was almost over as quick as it began - leaving the reef at 3ish left time only for lunch, a quick spin on the glass bottomed boat and one good swim in the water. And that just left me hungry for more.

Won't Miss about Sydney #6: Roaches

2011-10-30T23:07:00.002Z

I should have mentioned this first. But I was only reminded by one particularly big roach coming in the window the other day and running behind the TV. Before coming to Australia I would have always associated cockroaches with filth but here you can see them running around on pavements outside at night anywhere. And plenty of times we've left windows slightly (or completely) open on hot summer nights only to have these thumb sized unwanted guests.

Won't miss about Sydney #5: Plastic Bags

2011-10-29T04:50:00.004+01:00

They still give plastic bags away everywhere, to the extent that I collected then faster than I could get rid of them. It's not just plastic bags though; plastic food cartons and boxes are used way too much and most of it just goes in the bin.

Will miss about Sydney #12: Gelato

2011-10-29T00:22:00.008+01:00

This is probably another one of those things that goes hand in hand with a nice climate. Lots of places selling mountains of gelato. As opposed to frozen blocks of ice cream.

Finished Work

2011-10-29T00:13:00.008+01:00

Last day in work yesterday. Surprisingly, I've lasted longer in this job than in any previous ones. So to me it felt like a bigger goodbye. But part of that was undoubtedly that I'm just not going to "see you around" or have a chance to catch up to see how peoples career's are going; I'll probably never see any of these people again. So that feels a little strange. Also in the back of my mind is a constant reminder that I'm freely giving up a good job in a country with a good economic situation to move somewhere where there's neither.

We've been lucky to get somewhere to stay for the two weeks since moving out of our old place. Moving out was threatening to be a disaster as the vacuum cleaner keeled over and died literally the night we were cleaning up and left us with no other choice than to clean the carpet with our hands. We've shipped as much crap as possible, thrown out tonnes of perfectly good clothes and towels and kitchen utensils just because we can't fit them into the one suitcase each the the airlines so generously allow us. But spending the last couple of weeks back in our old haunt was worth the short move. It's so much nicer here, the weather has turned all summery, as if the place is trying to get us to reconsider leaving.

We have actually being trying to change our travel plans as we'd booked a few days in Bangkok on the way out but that's now impossible with all the flooding. This is the first time that I've used a travel agent to go anywhere and the first time to get full travel insurance so that's got to count for something.

Anyway now that I'm finished work I've got a few more days to take those last photos of places I'm unlikely to visit again. It's not like I'm can casually drop by anytime soon.

Will miss about Sydney #11: Food Beepers

2011-10-22T00:44:00.007+01:00

In almost every pub/bar and in many cheat-eats places once you've ordered your food your given a beeper to take to your table which then buzzes and beeps when your food is ready for collection. Why isn't this everywhere?

Won't Miss about Sydney #5: Retail Security

2011-10-22T00:37:00.006+01:00

I was pretty surprised to be hassled by security guards leaving a shop when I first got here, asking me to open my bag so they could check I wasn't shoplifting. When there's someone standing sentry at the door to a store you can be pretty sure he'll be stopping everyone leaving and having a look in their bags.

I didn't think shoplifting is such a big problem over here. But the hassle of it all has been enough to make me think twice about entering somewhere just to browse if I have a bag on my back.

Will miss about Sydney #10: Schnitzel

2011-10-22T00:24:00.014+01:00

I was surprised to see that schiztel was a popular food here (maybe something to do with wartime immigrants?). Anyway, while probably not as large as those from more germanic speaking locales, I will miss being able to order a giant wiener-schitzel for a reasonable price.

Will miss about Sydney #9: Schooners

2011-10-22T00:22:00.006+01:00

Good idea for cold beer in a hot climate. And still comes in a manly pint-style glass. Also will miss: twist top beer bottles - simple and saves a lot of dental wear and tear. And also on the topic of beer, I will miss Coopers.

Will miss about Sydney #8: Bundaberg Ginger Beer

2011-10-17T10:45:00.004+01:00

Complete with ye olde' time squat bottle and ring pull cap, this certainly does his the spot on a hot summer afternoon of which there are many.

Will miss about Sydney #7: Pie Face

2011-10-15T09:08:00.005+01:00

I know meat pies are originally from the UK, but before coming here I'd hardly every had one and I'm pretty sure you can't get them at all in Ireland. But whatever about their origins they're firmly established in Australian culture and this particular chain (popping up absolutely everywhere in Sydney recently) has been pretty good to me on lunchtimes..

Won't Miss about Sydney #3: Road Rules

2011-10-15T09:04:00.004+01:00

Having spent most of my time as a predestrian, I absolutely won't miss the ability of cars to turn across junctions during a green pedestrian light. This results in car traffic creeping closer and closer to people walking across junctions to intimidate them to run to the other side. I've had cars honking at me because I was apparently walking to slowly across the road even though I'd barely stepped onto the road for 30 seconds. Stupid rule and stupid drivers.

Will miss about Sydney #6: Dual Flush Toilets

2011-10-15T09:02:00.004+01:00

This probably comes as a necessity in water-scarce Australia but they're a simple addition to the humble loo and save tonnes of water.

Will miss about Sydney #5: Retail Friendliness

2011-10-11T13:46:00.003+01:00

I was a little surprised by the level of courtesy you can generally expect in any shop and department store here from retail staff. Plenty of "How are you going?" (not How is IT going) pleasantness and a genuine friendliness that I initially thought was just an Aussie automated "Have a nice day", but soon realised was a little more when I started observing customers having a real chat with staff all the time. Staff genuinely seem to treat customers with something other than contempt, which something I probably won't get much of where I'm going..

Will miss about Sydney #4: Easily available Asian Food

2011-10-09T10:54:00.005+01:00

I was originally going to write that I'll miss having food courts everywhere. They serve huge portions, are found in most major buildings in the city, usually underground, providing a million different places to eat. Having been here three and a half years now though, the novelty has worn off (especially for the $5 boxed lunches that consist of fried rice cooked that morning and are barely edible). When I go to the one in the shopping centre next to my office for lunch its hard not to think they all share a huge kitchen out the back from which every similar-tasting meal is served.'

But what I will miss is the easy access to Asian food many of these places provide. I can pretty much walk in to any food court or down a restaurant-line street in Sydney and be guaranteed the availability of a bowl of Laksa, Bibimbap, Pho, Ramen, Gyudon or a million other dishes I haven't had the guts to try to pronounce yet alone order. The quality will vary a lot but it's easy to find a place serving the best of it.

Won't Miss about Sydney #2: Flip Flops

2011-10-04T13:46:00.003+01:00

Thongs as they're called here. Worn as just regular footwear, 365-days a year by plenty of Sydney residents, regardless of the weather. How do they not mess us they're feet badly?

Will miss about Sydney #3: Birds

2011-10-02T07:09:00.007+01:00

No, not sheila's. Birds. And Aussie birds are the best - even the ones who ruined a full months sleep. Kookaburras, Lorikeets, Ibis(s?), Galah's, Cockatoos, Lyrebirds...they're all class. So many crazy looking parrots with every possible colour. And the ones that just look brown and boring have the most amazing songs or cackles. Even the common-as-a-pigeon Aussie magpie sounds great.

There're plenty I've only ever been able to hear, and listening to some Whipbird or Kookaburra with the strong smell of eucalyptus in the air after the rain makes Australia feel so authentically exotic.

Won't Miss about Sydney #1: TV

2011-10-01T08:11:00.006+01:00

This is more specifically about the main commercial networks here. The ABC and SBS networks are actually pretty good; they show international news, good programming from the UK sometimes, and less mainstream movies. But the more popular channels - 7 and 9 in particular are just awful.

They compete with each other for the worst kind of sensationalistic tabloid "news" magazine shows (even copying the theme music from American counterparts) - Today Tonight and A Current Affair are the worst - "what YOU need to know about welfare cheats!..and the NASA designed bra that can make you look 10-years younger!"

The non-news content consists of showing either one of a long list of reality-TV derivatives (Australia's Got X-Factor Talent MasterChef Home Renovator!, or one of the versions of NCIS/Law&Order/Criminal Minds over and over and over. On the odd occasion they show a movie I'd actually like to watch the deliberately start it 10minutes late! All the feckin time.

Update: An ad for Today Tonight that somewhat shows what I'm talking about. And an article in the Sydney Morning Herald that agrees with me

Will miss about Sydney #2: Café Life

2011-09-30T14:12:00.016+01:00

I must have drunk more coffee in the last four years than I did in all previous years combined. Coffee is a big thing here, much more so than back home. As I'm sure I mentioned before, in our previous neighbourhood I could count more than 30 cafes off the top of my head within 500m of our apartment, and only one of them was a chain. Two of them stayed open until 10pm every night.

The very fact that Australians know their coffee and cafes was one of the main reasons Starbucks had such a hard time here, having had to close most of their outlets.

I used to wonder how, with so many cafes competing with each other, they could all stay in business. But walking around in the Saturday morning sunshine you can easily find all of them bustling; plates of breakfast and coffee served to tables on wide terraces, people reading newspapers or with families and friends.

Lingering as long as I wanted over a perfect flat white, under a big parasol on a warm afternoon is something I doubt I'll have much chance to enjoy again and is something I will sorely miss from Sydney.

Will miss about Sydney #1: The Harbour

2011-09-25T07:37:00.012+01:00

Now that we're committed to leaving Sydney and Australia, and it's beginning to sink in, thoughts start to come around to what I'll miss about living here. So in same vein as other blogs I'm going to compile a list of some of the things I'll miss and won't miss about living in Sydney. Some things will no doubt be common to living in such a warm climate, but seeing as I'm heading back to northern Europe the points still stand.

So to start things off, the first thing I'm going to miss is

Sydney Harbour and Circular Quay.

Just recently I had the good fortune to enjoy a Sunday afternoon beer in near perfect Sunshine at the Opera Bar just metres from the Opera House. Backing on to the water and with the Sydney skyline and Harbour Bridge as a backdrop.

It's been mentioned in plenty of guidebooks that Sydney has the best harbour in the world and while I'm not sure I'd go that far (how many harbours have I been too?), it certainly is something I'll miss. I've take countless photos from Circular Quay, sat out on plenty of warm summer evenings at harbourside cafes and not felt a chill at 10 o'clock at night. I won't be able to do that any more.

And Back To Sydney

2011-09-09T03:50:00.010+01:00

Armidale was freezing. Not quite freezing but very cold. It'd been pushing 22C degrees in Sydney in the days up to our trip and to be faced with 5C instead was a bit unwelcome. Despite being so much further north than Sydney it's 1000m above sea level and, as the Armidale tourist website likes to point out, is the highest city in Australia.

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I acclimatised by drinking a coffee the size of my head for breakfast.

Seeing as we'd left a really long drive to the end, we didn't have much time to see anything in Armidale itself, except for a few kangaroos who didn't seem to mind the cold. And just like the emus and horses together before I was surprised to come across camels at one stage.

The drive back promised to be nice enough, away from the main highway and through more farming countryside, down a scenic drive excitingly called Thunderbolts Way. We stopped at the best lookout point along the way but instead of a grand view we got..

It's hard not to feel a little cheated as one look on flickr and you can find plenty of evidence that on a nice day the view is great.

To Armidale

2011-09-03T07:16:00.021+01:00

To continue the abandoned theme, our hotel in Coffs Harbour turned out to be a huge resort style place which upon checking in looked like we had all to ourselves. The huge reception area opened onto cheesy fountains that led down steps to a huge floor to ceiling view of the private garden and beach beyond. But looking out at the stormy sea and then seeing no one bar the staff behind the check-in desk, it felt like the place was being evacuated for a hurricane.

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The next day wasn't much better. We tried a quick visit to the tropical botanic gardens. We walked down the pier and watched the sea breach over the stone barriers at the mouth of the harbour. But that was it. Despite all the leaflets advertising dolphin shows, whale watching, horse riding, and of course the Big Banana, on that wet and windy day there didn't look much to do.

The next town was much nicer though. Our drive was to take us from Coffs Harbour through Waterfall Way, a drive through the scenic "New England Highway" that promised plenty of waterfalls and rolling pasture as far as Armidale a few hours west. The first stop on the way was Bellingen, another town promoted by NSW tourism, this time for its well preserved architecture. And it was a great little town. But it wasn't until we were having our third coffee for our third sit-down (a cafe with floor to ceiling random crap like broken food processors and antique typewriters) that we really noticed the locals were dressing just a little bit different. Even the toddlers were dressed as hippies. I guess we were the last to know that far from just being some well preserved Victorian display piece, the town was home to a population of artists and musicians and general alternative folk. Definitely not what we were expecting after the Big Banana.

When we occasionally got lucky with the weather and got to see some beautiful countryside; great views down onto farm fields turned silver by the winter with solitary trees scattered about that looked straight out of a painting. You really could be forgiven you were somewhere in rural France were it not for the times when the forest would close up on the road and you'd instantly be driving through Australian woodland with great strips of bark peeling off gum trees. Or pulling over at the side of the road to find that beyond the fence were horses and emus.

We continued on to Dorrigo National Park, somewhere worth spending a few days if we weren't afraid of scratching the paint off our rented hatchback. Places like that are a good reminder why so many people here drive SUV's. The park had an elevated walkway over the rainforest and a series of walks down through it. And as if on cue as soon as we started walking the rain came back. But a rainforest is a perfect for rain so it didn't ruin anything. There were signs dotted about teasing us with the possibility of seeing such exotic animals as a Lyre Bird, but all we saw was another brush turkey

We were still a couple of hours outside of Armidale but wanted to stop at the biggest waterfall along the way even if it was raining. And it was pretty cool.

But then I made the most novice of mistakes for drivers in Australia and forgot to stop for petrol. The dial was perilously close to E. I felt relieved to find there was a petrol station marked on the map at the next town which looked about twenty minutes down the road. So it was with some dread that we arrived there, at this tiny "town" off the main road with one closed shop and a single out-of-order petrol pump, the fuel dial in the car sitting at E and there being a good 45-minutes to our destination, Armidale. I had a vision of having to pull off in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, and having to thumb a lift to the next town while leaving my wife in the car at the side of the road. In the movies, one or the other is always gruesomely killed right? So I turned off the radio, stopped using the break and tried to coast as much as I could. The dial can always go way past empty right? I certainly found out because with my heart in my mouth we coasted into Armidale on petrol fumes an hour later.

To Coffs Harbour

2011-08-27T01:49:00.014+01:00

We tried to extract all the funness we could in the morning before setting off for Coffs Harbour. The driving rain that greeted us the night before had mostly blown out and we could almost see the attraction of the place from atop a nearby lookout (complete with decommisioned canon) looking out onto stormy seas.

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We were taking the scenic route to Coffs Harbour, stopping in the small town of South West Rocks about half way along for lunch. This was voted one of the best towns in NSW according to another tourist website so I thought that it would at least warrant a short coffee break.

The driving there was mostly through now flooded farmland, dotted with cows being groomed by big white birds perched on their backs. But South West Rocks was a major disappointment. There were plenty of caravans raised up on blocks to indicate this was somewhere worthy of attention, but that afternoon I just couldn't see it. It was too windy to enjoy sitting at the beach and the rain kept threatening. The only major attraction was the old "Gaol" just outside town, perched atop a hill. It was probably the oldest structure for hundreds of miles, built in the 1800's to house prisoners who were responsible for building a wharf for ships passing through the treacherous waters. I got that from the sign outside. We got there less than half an hour before closing and one look at the outside of the building was enough to persuade me against paying the huge entrance fee.

We got back onto the main road quickly and made our way straight to Coffs Harbour to catch the Big Banana before sundown. This is the cities major attraction and sort of the whole reason we came (I'm only sort of joking on both counts).

In the winter on a Sunday afternoon though, the closed Big Banana (plantation? fairground?) looked more like a Japanese abandoned fairground, with faded signs advertising rides and displays that looked like they'd long since seen their last customer. Even the banana trees themselves looked tired and worn out. The only other people there were tourists in a similar state of bewilderment realising like us that of course it would be closed this late on a Sunday.

However, we did our duty, posed below the giant banana out front, and thus was our whole trip worthwhile. Then the rain came back

To Port Maquarie

2011-08-24T13:12:00.011+01:00

It was suitable that I sat down at lunch the other day in the middle of a heated discussion about banana prices. Because our weekend trip was taking us to Coffs Harbour, the only place in NSW that can grow bananas and, and only one of the few growing regions undamaged by last season's cyclones.

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Seeing as plans are firming up to leave Oz for good soon (gasp!) we thought it would be good to get in another driving trip. This turned out to be our longest by far and my first 1000km+ journey with me behind the wheel.

The first day consisted of a drive up to Port Maquarie, a small seaside resort six hours up the coast. This would normally have been quite scenic but we managed to choose one of the worst weekends to do it. We drove through countless bursts of torrential rain (heavy enough so that we could barely see 10 metres in front of the car) and not much sunshine. Port Maquarie didn't look it's best in winter either, and arriving in the rain, in the evening, looking for something to eat and only finding a few signs written in a classic 1970's style wedge-shaped font promising "Chinese" food was a bit discouraging.

We did find a Thai place that looked ok but was a little surprised to find, for the first time, not to see a single Asian person (staff or customers) in a place that serves Australia's favourite takeaway. But maybe that was just a sign we'd left Sydney.

City 2 Surf 2011

2011-08-18T14:28:00.009+01:00

This years attempt at exercise was to enter the 41st annual Sydney City2Surf race. 14kms from Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach. I'd actually intended to do it last year with some people from work, but to organise something of this magnitude a mere 3 months in advance proved impossible, so I entered the Harbour Bridge run instead. This year though I entered with K and instead of trying to work up towards running the 14kms made do with a mixture of jogging, walking and shuffling to get to the end. Not that there was really much opportunity to do anything else. They weren't exaggerating when they said its the biggest run in the world this year, with more than 75,000 participants.

As we slowly made our way towards the start line it kept threatening to rain and it eventually did half way through the course. This was not the sparkling sunshine filled day that shined on 39 of the previous 40 races. This was more like a summer day in the west of Ireland. Clothes were discarded along the way; sweaters that had been keeping people warm at the beginning were dumped in wet puddles all along the route (and apparently later donated to charity). Not to mention all the plastic cups..

There were plenty of people in costumes - lego people and pacman with ghosts, elmo, the beetles and drunk smurfs:

Butter in a Jar

2011-07-28T11:05:00.006+01:00

The post title is pretty accurate. I've made my own butter! By hand! In a Jar.

Before:

(5 minutes shaking later)

After:

I can report that it's quite tasty. That is all

Wooden Phone

2011-07-17T13:23:00.004+01:00

The phone that this commercial is advertising is a lot less impressive looking than the commercial itself (wooden phone, really?) Managing to chain together hundreds of wooden steps to play classical music is quite impressive. Reminds me slightly of the Rube Goldberg style Honda commercial from a few years ago. Timing the fall of the ball to the notes in the music its not bad, not bad at all.

via Tokyomango

Aussie Carbon Tax

2011-07-11T11:06:00.010+01:00

I'm impressed that the Aussie government has actually decided to press ahead with a carbon tax. In response to complaints that it was too complicated to explain, I think they've done a good job in summing it up in two minutes:

Less impressive was the near unanimous opposition to it at the lunch table from all my colleagues in work. A lot of people just seemed it was just creating more bureaucracy. And the idea of paying for pollution didn't seem to come in to it. Nobody seemed to think that climate change was much of a pressing problem, if at all. Which kind of comes back to the main point. If you don't think climate change is a problem then of course you're going to think any carbon tax is completely unjust. Debating about it's implementation, who's going to be affected and who's going to be compensated is a distraction. If the government were introducing a new tax to pay for some universally recognised impending catastrophe then people wouldn't be outraged to the same degree at all.

How much of a chance it has of sticking is unclear. The present government has record low support and the prime minister even said initially they wouldn't introduce a tax. But if it can actually be passed, and not get repealed by an opposition bent on doing just that as soon as they can force an election, then maybe there's some glimmer of hope for reform in the US. Actually, that's probably a bit optimistic.

Space Beer

2011-06-26T13:52:00.014+01:00

I meant to post this a while ago but the worlds first Space Beer (or perhaps the galaxy's) is going to be a local Sydney brew. Specially designed for space and intended for tourists when the Virgin Galactic trips start to get going, it's the first beer designed for zero gravity ..apparently. The design process was not without issues.

Another issue is the lack of gravity to separate air and liquid in the stomach, which Mitchell explained could cause "wet burps" in space..

When you're on Earth, the gravity actually separates the air and the liquid such that if you burp, you burp the air, whereas when you're just floating around in space you can do what's called wet burps, which are little suspended balls of liquid just hovering around," he said.

Yuk.

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Tiny Japanese Food in Tiny Japanese Kitchen

2011-06-22T14:02:00.003+01:00

via boingboing

Vivid Sydney III

2011-06-11T02:47:00.005+01:00

Third time around for the Vivid festival, when they light up the Opera House and other random night sculptures. This time they did something slightly more interesting by lighting up the Customs House with 3D projectors. Intel makes it very clear that they're the sponsor, but I wonder if it's done by the same people who lit up the famous clock in Prague. The 3D effect is quite cool on the building and its clock, especially when it crumbles.

Lorikeets

2011-06-05T09:24:00.008+01:00

Ok, I owe the rats an apology. It seems they haven't been scurrying around the attic at 5am every morning, chewing on wood, waking us up and causing us to gradually go insane. This is despite a pest control company having come out on site and setting up rat bait traps.

We asked them whether it could have been other animals, having noticed holes in the eaves of the roof from outside. But they assured us that the traps would help the situation, and that the rats were probably coming inside during the coldest part of the night for warmth.

Well now it turns out it was the birds! The feckin birds...

These guys are in every tree in the neighbourhood and make up for their noisy cries by looking amazing. The sit sunning themselves on the building tops in the mornings and have no problem relaxing on balconies and our drying clothes.

The pest control company spoke to some bird experts and I'm not sure exactly what happened but we came home the other day, saw that the roof hole was covered, and we've been sleeping through the night since. What a joy to sleep through the night.

Having Moved

2011-05-28T05:52:00.003+01:00

I was wrong. The worst thing about moving (this time anyway) was not the stupid IKEA furniture. There are so many things to choose from that could be considered the worse.

Was it the disconnected electricity that prevented us moving in for a full week after signing the lease? Or the filthy new apartment complete with cupboard filled insect droppings and grease from a thousand fry pans. Or maybe its the rats in the attic which wake us up at 5am every morning with their gnawing and scratching. Then there's the leaky taps, etc...

And all that is without mentioning the cleaners who I'd been forced to hire (after a mean, mean letting agent threatened to keep our deposit) turned out to be drug addicts.

I've also been without internet for the last month. It should only have been a week but the internet provider forgot to ask me for some details, left my application on hold and I only found out after I called up to complain. So I've had to apply to a different, more expensive place to have a hope of getting an internet connection soon.

It really would be nice to buy a house next time.

Moving

2011-04-28T14:50:00.009+01:00

Well we've finally had enough of paying through the nose for our current place and we're moving down the road by about half an hour drive. Much closer to work and much cheaper rent. On the other hand, much much grubbier apartment.

The worst part of moving is the disassembling of the bloody IKEA furniture. Patiently unscrewing every bolt with the tiny allen key, trying not to breath in two years worth of dust from crevices that haven't seen daylight since then, knowing that in 24 hours I'll have to do the whole thing in reverse.

Coming a close second to that is spending literally hours and hours on hold, during work and on my mobile, to various utilities to tell them I'm moving, only to have them inform me of the $50 moving fee or disconnection and reconnection fee, or of the 10 business days it will take to setup or whatever.

We're definitely going to miss living near Crows Nest. So many nice cafes and restaurants open all hours right at your feet. Plenty of amenities, parks, and a really nice trains station equipped with it's own plaza and outdoor dining. The closest thing to scangers we usually saw were the magpies that would try and steal your food.

Borders Close Down

2011-04-17T07:59:00.005+01:00

I knew the Borders chain in Australia were going to be shutting down soon, but even as recently as a week ago I asked one of that staff at a big branch whether they'd be closing and the girl reassured me they definitely weren't closing down. So even the staff didn't know. All the big Westfield shopping centres in Sydney will be left with huge gashes in them, probably to be filled with horrible temporary displays of Christmas decorations or discount storage.

Borders was the only chain of book shops that maintained a large enough stock on shelves to have a good chance of finding what you're looking for (not to mention plenty of those huge coffee table Design and Architecture books with all the cool photos), especially in the suburbs . There are quite a few independent stores if you live in the right "indie" areas. In the city centre there's Kinokuniya (probably the best remaining big book shop) and the main Dymocks branch (the ones in the shopping centres are all very small) but out in the suburbs Borders was the only real choice. And now it's gone.

All that's left is a 30-40% off sale to get rid of remaining stock, which will be followed by a clearance sale to get rid of all the shelving and furniture. Still, seeing that the huge sale they're having is only now coming close to the price you'd pay buying it on the UK Amazon (including delivery) it's not hard to see how they couldn't compete. And I'm sure that's the reason the sister chain in the UK and Ireland closed down too. Even with Gloria Jeans cafe's to get people to stay, they just go home and buy it online.

I'm convinced there's still a market for bookshops though, and big ones, even if most people start downloading their reading material to tablets. Borders was always full of people who didn't buy anything. People like browsing leisurely around book shops, maybe getting a coffee, and taking their time (like a really nice library). I think you could almost stop selling the books themselves and start charging $1 or something just to enter and stay as long as you want. They'd make more money that way than through selling anything.

Game & Watch

2011-04-16T13:54:00.007+01:00

Prior to seeing this website I had only the vaguest of memories of having had a few Game & Watch's when I was a nipper. Now I know that it wasn't some weird dream and that I really did play Donkey Kong Jr. on a small monochrome LCD screen. And now I can play it again online! Looking at it now I'm amazed it held my attention for more than 10 seconds. I'm sure there was another one involving penguins or something but I couldn't find it here.

Seeing the state of handheld games like this back in the early 80's just reminds me what a huge deal it was when the Gameboy came out. Swappable games! Actual pixels! Man how mindblowing was that.

via boingboing

Long Now

2011-04-09T07:28:00.009+01:00

I'm currently wading my way through Anathem, a book I bought over a year ago the last time I was in Japan (how crazy is it that English language paperbacks are cheaper in Osaka than Sydney) and which has been gathering dust on my shelf due to its having a glossary at the back, the fact of which makes it both interesting and maddening to read at the same time.

One backdrop in the story consists of a huge clock that keeps the time over thousands of years, an idea influenced by the real Long Now organisation, which I found are trying to build a real clock for just such a purpose. There's a TED talk from one of the founders of the organisation/charity detailing the considerations in choosing a site that could last 10,000 years

Now apart from the intrinsic coolness of it all (can't really explain why) the organisation is also responsible for the Rosetta project, something I had heard of before. This is a project to preserve all of the worlds languages and one aim is to produce a glass sphere which you could buy that would have a tiny piece of engraved nickel metal enscribed with a portion of text translated into all the worlds languages. How cool would that be to have on your shelf.

Magic Scoop

2011-04-07T23:46:00.005+01:00

I'm not really sure I believe what I'm seeing in this video. Because it really does just look like a piece of plastic pushing against a spill. And I can't figure out how the hell its picking everything up!

Maybe it has more to do with the surface it's on. I'd like to see it work its magic on a carpet..

via pinktentacle

Japan Disaster

2011-03-20T04:56:00.008Z

There are some amazing photos and footage to have come out of Japan since the earthquake/tsunami. That's probably the main difference between this disaster and previous ones like the Asian 2004 tsunami - the amount of video take while it was occurring, particularly all those live shots taken from helicopters as the waves crashed in. Then all the videos taken by local news crew or crazy video camera owners who watched as the waves swamped around their feet.

That photo shows a house having floated out to sea..

The level of destruction to north-east Japan means the blanket coverage of the Nuclear power plant is something of a distraction (at least at the moment).

But what hasn't been mentioned so much in relation to the power plants is the huge strain on Japan's power generating capacity that this disaster has caused. Spike Japan gives a great run down of the implications - the prospect of continuous power cuts throughout Japan's main island for years to come.

Expensive Sydney

2011-03-12T06:30:00.005Z

"Aussie home prices world's most-overpriced: survey"

More confirmation (if any was needed) that living in Sydney seems to be getting more and more expensive - this time from the Economist. When I first got here I thought things were a little cheaper than back home, if more expensive compared to other places in Oz. Now it's just feckin' expensive plain and simple.

We're currently apartment hunting again because they just keep jacking up the rent here by $20 a week every 6 months (and because of the horribly loud construction site outside). The way things are going I could never imagine being able to afford somewhere that wasn't a 3 hour commute from everywhere.

Smithfield Horse Show

2011-03-08T10:02:00.007Z

I remember the Smithfield Horse show with less than fondness. Once a month we'd be woken on Sunday mornings to the noise of hundreds of horses out in the square below our apartment. And then all the crap (literally) left over after they went. I really liked living there but it was always such a crazy situation to have this in the middle of a huge apartment complex and two hotels.

So it was a little embarrassing to hear about the recent shooting there during the Horse market and not the kind of thing I want to show my wife to persuade her to visit her old home again.

As is fitting for a classy newspaper like the Dail Mail, they labelled it a "Big fat gypsy shoot-out".

It was of course on the local news. I think I'll skip mentioning it to the guys at work.

Weeks Off

2011-03-08T10:01:00.009Z

I've been pretty lax in checking in here because the mother superior was over for a few weeks on her first visit/inspection down under. I took a couple of those weeks off work and donned my best tour guide cap to show her around. We went to the beach, the blue mountains, the fish market, the Hunter Valley - basically all the places I went to after coming here. If it hadn't been for the fact that almost everywhere we ate out had awful service (is that just bad luck or the result of having 3 at a table instead of 2??) she would have been well impressed.

The one new place we got to visit was Jervis Bay, south of Sydney about 3 hours. We stayed overnight in a shabby motel at Huskisson town by the beach looking forward to the area's famed white sands the next day. Of course it was raining. Again. (I took about 100 photos during the 5-minutes of sunshine in the whole day). But the break and the drive south was really nice and I saw my first wallaby in the wild!

However, it's just as well she only stayed for three weeks though, because any longer and we would have seriously run out of things to do. As nice as Sydney is, there's only so much to see without getting bored of the beach or coffee, and especially without a car permanently at your disposal.

Too Hot

2011-02-05T07:43:00.012Z

This week has been hot. Waay too hot. Last Tuesday it was 33C at midnight and today it just hung around 41C for most of the afternoon and evening (it was still 35 at midnight!). I thought I'd experienced this sort of thing last year but it seems that this week's run of 30+ days has broken some 150 year record for Sydney.

With all the flooding in the rest of Australia and the huge Cyclone this week the weather is truly crazy here. 75% of Australia's banana crop has been wiped out and already the prices have double in the supermarket. Thankfully the prices aren't quite what they've been advertised in work..

Update: ok that's a huge change in the space of 24 hours! It started out in the mid 30's this afternoon when we went to a shopping centre to abuse their air-con (just like everyone else) but when we came out literally a couple of hours later it was 20! Thats a whopping 21-degree drop in 24 hours..

Exotic Drinks

2011-01-31T07:47:00.007Z

Wandering into a Chinese supermarket here recently (and there are loads of 'em) it's nice to see that you can find the sort of strange food that I used to find all the time in Japan. Stuff like drinks that look like they consist of frogs eggs:

Or even drinks that can't decide if they're cans or bottles:

Outside Cinema II

2011-01-22T09:34:00.009Z

Before Christmas we managed to grab a couple of tickets to see an outdoor movie recently in the Botanic Gardens. Tried to do this last year but all the tickets for all the showings sold out in 45mins. This year I was prepared and got them just after they went on sale. The screen is actually in the water, and you get to watch the film with the city and opera house in the background.

It was pretty cool and the weather was perfect, but I actually preferred last years one. It was much more rough and ready (just and inflatable screen on a cricket pitch and everybody brought they're own chairs). We arrived this year prepared, with extra clothes in case it got cold and snacks and dressed for a Saturday morning.

However when we got there were loads of people dressed up for the night, people were eating and drinking at a wine bar set up for the occasion (I think some people stayed there for the movie too) and the seats were packed in together. Lots of people looked like they'd just stepped out of their high-flying financial jobs in their 30th floor offices. When we arrived early I thought there were lots of empty seats but practically all of them had been reserved - one person would just reserve 10 seats for his friend and in such a way there was almost no where to sit.

The movie itself was pretty good (black swan) apart from the audience busting out laughing at one or two bits that I don't think were supposed to be funny.

Schooner

2011-01-06T07:12:00.004Z

In an unprecedented move of Australo-philia it seems that they're going to introduce that slightly more modest drinking vessel, the Schooner, into British pubs. I kind of liked them when I first arrived here because it let you get away with ordering less than a pint without ending up with one of those skinny curved glasses that back home would have been laughed at.

But I thought the original reason for having them here was to make sure beer was never lingering in a glass long enough to get warm. There's absolutely no chance of that happening in the UK these days.

link

English Teacher Robots

2011-01-02T09:26:00.008Z

When I was teaching English in Japan there definitely came a point in time where, having taught the same lesson for the millionth time, I thought that our jobs could have been done by robots.

Well it seems some folks in Korea have been having the exact same idea. Instead of employing idle westerners to parrot English they really are going to use robots..

via arbroath

Proper Phone

2010-12-18T23:11:00.015Z

I finally committed myself to a new phone last week and thus consign my trusty ol' PDA and tiny screen nokia to a dusty shelf. Had my eye on this, the HTC Desire HD, for a while after seeing it was finally a phone with a big fat screen running something other than the old Windows mobile.

This phone replaces my nokia 1650 which was the cheapest one I could find at the time and which itself replaces a nokia 1110 that I bought in duty free when I arrived here and which, despite it's tiny green screen, was stolen on a bus last year! (this in a city where every last person seems to spend every second of travel looking at their expensive iPhones)

After my brief stint in Japan I just couldn't bare to pay lots of money for a supposed top end phone in Ireland with a crap tiny colour screen, even if it was 3G, compared to the amazing phones I'd seen in Japan, and even the relatively modest one I'd bought there had email straight away and a vastly superior screen to anything back in Ireland.

So instead of buying an expensive phone with a tiny screen, I went and got an Acer PDA, which let me watch videos (I think I must have watched most of season 2 of the Wire on it), one they were reduced in resolution and sound quality, browse the web with a stylus whenever some generous cafe had internet access. I even managed to use google maps to find my hotel and play old nintendo games when travelling.

So despite not really having used it as a store for contacts or appointments it's been in my bag practically every day. And all the time I thought how if there was just a phone attachment or something it would be perfect.

Now with this phone I have that device. It does everything the Acer did (I don't have to squeeze down the videos), the screen is as big (widescreen now), I can use the internet without a stylus, don't have to rely on the wireless in a cafe, and install tonnes of apps. It even has a camera! A camera in a phone! Genius. Sure the iPhone has been out for a few years now, but with its smaller screen I'd hate watching video on it.

But there are downsides, oh yes. You have to recharge it almost every day. Every bleedin' day! My nokia goes a full week without charging and even my PDA would last a few days of constant use. And if I was to consider carrying this on my body instead of in a bag I'd be reduced to wearing cargo trousers from 1997 with huge pockers. So in my bag it'll stay.

Oprah in Australia

2010-12-12T07:59:00.008Z

I was ready to write how the doting and obsessing on Oprah Winfrey's current trip to Australia is so embarassing, bordering on the pathetic. But perhaps if she had decided to go to Ireland instead (bringing with her the studio audience) I can't really say that the Irish tourist industry wouldn't do the same thing. And already all the money the government here has spent on the whole exercise has already been recouped in advertising exposure in America and everywhere else where Oprah is a star.

But it's amazing the extent to which every last thing she's done and visited here so far has been headline news, wiping this weeks Wikileaks and Julian Assange news off the front pages of some newspapers. Flagpoles that usually hang banners for arts festivals or other events now have big flags with Oprah on them instead.

Gold Coast

2010-11-27T00:04:00.005Z

Finally had a chance to make use of a hotel voucher we'd received as a present by going on a weekend away to the Gold Coast a few weeks ago. Considering neither of us is made of beach-goer material, it's not somewhere we'd ever thought of visiting in Australia, but given that we had the voucher and the plane tickets were cheap we thought what the hell.

The flight from Sydney is only an hour and a half and our room looked out from the 19th floor onto Southbeach, one of the main beaches that make up the long strip of sand hugging resorts that adds up to Gold Coast city, just across the border in Queensland and about an hour's drive south of Brisbane. The main resort, Surfers Paradise, was about 10-minutes down the road and easily made out by its skyscrapers.

We lucked out on the weather; still early enough in the summer not to be absolutely roasting. We drove up to Brisbane just to say we've been there before (seems nice enough) and then on our last morning drove to a place west of the Gold Coast called Tamborine Mountain, where we walked through the rainforest on a raised walkway and saw a Scrub Turkey which was kinda cool.

Surfers Paradise happened to feature on the news the weekend after we got back though, and watching it I immediately realised we'd barely avoided a disasterous holiday and the worst time of the year to go to the Gold Coast. It turned out to be schoolies week, where recent high-school graduates go on the rampage or a vacation. All you could see were hoards and hoards of drunk teenagers thronging the beach day and night, the swarm broken only by police picking off the worst of the bunch, slamming them on the ground and whipping handcuffs on them.

State Theatre

2010-11-25T11:01:00.005Z

A few weeks ago we were in town to have a look around the rebuilt Centre Point complex which sits at the base of Sydney tower, right slap bang in the middle of the city. While walking around we noticed a lot of seniors strolling around with brochures of some sort and queuing up outside certain buildings. It turned out to be an open day for Sydney buildings, the one day out of the year that the public can go in a view some of Sydneys more interesting architectural relics.

So it was a pretty happy coincidence to walk by the State Theatre on the one day of the year its open to the public , 30 minutes before it was due to close. I'd never consider buying a ticket to see anything there so it was probably the only time I'll ever see it. And its a pretty nice example inside of art deco overload.

If we don't, remember me

2010-11-08T11:34:00.007Z

Very cool blog full of just a couple of frames from movies shown as goold ol' animated gifs, giving this weird almost 3d effect. Lots more like the Dude below here

via mefi

Louis Vuitton in Africa

2010-10-30T06:25:00.009+01:00

I saw the photo below on the back of a magazine recently and something about it didn't look quite right. One of the more exclusive and expensive brands advertising itself with a photo in one of the world's poorest places? And Bono (and his wife) as the models. There seems to be some charity angle to it at least, not to mention an ego angle ("Bono is launching an African-inspired clothing range")

But from only looking at the back of a magazine (and not seeing the fine print) it just looks so out of touch.

Sydney Mortgage Prices

2010-10-21T09:42:00.013+01:00

Proof, as if any was needed, that Sydney is now one of the most expensive cities in the world (at least in terms of property). According to this recent article:

"A survey of global cities put Sydney at the top when it came to the percentage of income spent on mortgages."

The Sydney Morning Herald was mentioning this back in January too:

''The average household would be required to pay more than 50 per cent of its income to service a new mortgage on the median-priced house in Sydney or Melbourne"

Just another reason why I doubt I'll be buying a house in Sydney, just like so many other people in work too..

Irish Kangaroo

2010-10-21T09:42:00.011+01:00

Seeing how there's a tenuous Aussie connection, I just have to mention this story from last week where a wallaby of all things was taken out at a disco party in a hotel in Dublin last week and died as a result of ingesting ecstacy and alcohol. Obviously the deep, deep recession hasn't knocked any sense into some people back there.

New Zealand

2010-10-09T10:55:00.013+01:00

I'm recently back from a too-short trip to New Zealand to visit a couple of mates from the old country. Though I didn't stay long enough to take part in any adventure or outdoorsy stuff I was there long enough to see just how much more like back home the place is, especially compared to Sydney. So much so in fact that getting off the plane in Christchurch and seeing a vista of green and treeless hills and fields, lots of green farms and then a road sign pointing for Belfast, caused me to do a double take. Any huge similarity to Ireland starts to fade though once you get to the city and see the streets laid out in a nice grid with individual bungalows stretching off in all directions.

Christchurch centre itself is fairly small for a city of its size and seems to be centred around the Cathedral (which didn't get a break the entire time I was there from the cameras of Asian tourists). There was a lot less damage from the big earthquake than I was expecting; isolated buildings like pubs and restaurants had either collapsed or had been subsequently pulled down but by and large the visible damage seemed to be confined to collapsed chimneys, toppled masonry, and outer walls that had to be supported by metal beams.

Got to drive up the hills that back on to the city the next day, up very tight roads hugging the sides of steep mountain sides which had absolutely no barrier most of the way. Seeing as I've become more of a scaredy cat in my old age I had to concentrate on not closing my eyes as we drove up. Almost as surprising was seeing how many cyclists were up doing the same thing as us - actually, I saw a huge number of people out cycling and running while there. From that top, with Christchurch spread out below you can see a long like of alpine mountains in the distance, the sort of mountains that filled so many background shots in Lord of the Rings, and the sort of mountains you just can't find here. The next day we took a day trip up into them, to "Arthurs Pass". It was a great drive, across huge stoney river beds, past lots of weird rock formations (including one where they filmed the first Narnia movie) and eventually up high enough to see snow at the edge of the road. Along the way we got to see quite a few Kea birds, the only alpine parrot - quite big, unafraid of people and happy to chomp down on anything, including rubber seals on car doors.

Ronan flew down from Wellington while I was in Christchurch and we then drove back up, catching a ferry to the North Island from Picton. On the way we stopped for a night in a small town called Kaikoura, famous for whale watching. I was a little reluctant to go fork out the cash for it again after the experience in Sydney, but this time round was a better experience. The snow capped mountains provided a great back drop, the seas were calm (despite a confusing warning of sea sickness - surely a scam to sell sea-sickness pills!), and we were allowed get much closer to the whales - close enough to actually see them this time!

Wellingon despite being around the same size as Christchurch definitely felt more like a big city, probably because of all the government business, its got a great museum with a Maori name - Te Papa - and is squeezed up the hillsides overlooking a nice harbour. We also got to drive out for one day of wine tasting in the Martinborough region northeast of the city, and then crash into a duck on our way back (I was NOT driving).

It was great to catch up with my fellow expats in the antipodeas, just too bad I didn't get a chance to see and fjords or volcanos or see the haka or perform any suicidal bungee jumps..

Harbour Bridge Run

2010-09-23T11:00:00.011+01:00

I ran my first 10km race last weekend, though 'ran' seems a little generous - more like stumbled continuously. It's one of the only times when the Sydney Harbour Bridge is closed to traffic and open for crazy pedestrians. Held as part of the Sydney Running festival the whole day consists of a Marathon, Half marathon, Bridge Run and Family Fun run. I think some of the people in the latter must have got confused because for most of my run I was behind a family pushing a stroller; mother and father taking turns pushing an oblivious child.

Last week we picked up our running packs from the sponsor, consisting of our t-shirt number, timing tag (to tie to our shoes and let us check our finishing time on the web later), and little biscuit bar that I guess we were to save until the 7km mark.

It was pretty cool actually to run across the bridge, looking back briefly to see thousands of people behind you. Unfortunately, not having a fancy phone, I couldn't take any photos of what it was like (unlike all those iPhone people) but I did manage to find a photo from a previous run which shows what it was like (courtesy flickr user besiblaskantis)

I felt pretty good at the end, having finished without stopping, but any satisfaction dripped away as I watched all the 50+ year olds finishing the marathon after 4hours while I recovered with a meat pie.

Timelapse Tokyo Two

2010-09-13T13:04:00.004+01:00

More timelapse video gorgeousness from Tokyo. This one really deserves to be seen full screen instead of a tiny little wussey blog window. The planes landing are really cool.

inter // states from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

via pinktentacle

Wild Animus

2010-09-06T13:21:00.016+01:00

Crossing the road on the way to the shops for lunch today, there were a couple of young ladies opening big cardboard boxes and handing out smaller packages to passers by. Never one to pass up anything free I positioned myself in the crowd to grab one as I was walking by. From a distance the package looked like the kind of box you'd get a video game in and looked far more interesting than the huge cans of disgustingly flavoured energy drink that usually gets passed out.

When I had the chance to glance at my prize however I still couldn't figure out what it was. There box said there were CD's and a book inside, and passing by the middle aged gentleman holding placards reminding us of Jesus I started to wonder whether it wasn't some Christian promotional material or scientology stuff.

But the reality was somewhat weirder. I opened the box over lunch and all of my colleagues were left to scratch their heads and guess at what it might be. How could someone affort to give away a book for free, and 3 CD's for that matter? The production of everything looked high quality, with vaguely fantasy or Native American themes with the design.

I still haven't read any of the book or decided whether I should, but the little note within promises a lot

With the music you have before you, Wild Animus is complete

Unfortunately the reviews on Amazon seem to say it doesn't live up to the promise..

This is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. It's difficult to believe that a publisher can have read this manuscript and thought it was publishable. Why, wait a minute! The publishing house, Too Far, was founded by this book's author, Richard Shapero! Well, that explains the lack of serious editing or promotion.

Very short wiki on the author. He seems to have published the whole thing from his own pocket.

This link provides some nice background to this. It seems like this book has been handed out free over the past few years at various universities, and I happen to work right next to one in Sydney. Handing out this book also seems to have caused a bomb scare at Yale university.

Eat, Pray, Retch

2010-09-02T11:45:00.005+01:00

Seeing as how I tired of seeing posters everywhere of Julia Roberts with an ice cream spoon in her mouth, here's a nice snarky review of Eat, Pray, Love here, and how bad people would think it is if was actually written by a guy..

link

I'm glad to know the movie is as bad (or worse) than I imagined it would be.

Spiderman in Sydney

2010-08-30T14:35:00.008+01:00

I saw this guy when I passed through Hong Kong on the way here, and today he was in Sydney. Not sure why he chose this particular building to climb, directly above a KFC in the city centre. I was more surprised to hear the building is actually 57 stories; it doesn't look that tall.

link

Actually it seems he's been here before

Election 2010, II

2010-08-21T03:29:00.001+01:00

Australian election is today. From talking to people on Friday in work it seems most people aren't too enthused about having to go out and vote today. Every ad in newspapers and TV is focused on just how bad and untrustworthy the other party is. It really is negative stuff. This BBC blog from Sydney seems to be pretty accurate as far as I can tell..

Certainly, it has been a very insular campaign, with hardly any focus on the rest of the region or the rest of the planet..The relationship with China; the ongoing mission in Afghanistan; where Australia fits in with what looks like being the Asian Century or, if not, the Asia-Pacific Century. None of these topics has been the subject of serious or prolonged discussion. Even "the boat people" have felt like an abstraction, rather than real people from real countries.

That seems pretty true when items such as internet access gets a lot more coverage than the war in Afghanistan. Speaking of boat people, just in contrast to Tony Abott's ads, here's a graph showing the number of "boats" in relation to all Australian immigration (it's the tiny bit of green at the bottom):

And SBS news provides statistics that show "Australia was 68th on a per-capita basis and 91st relative to national wealth." in the ranking of which countries take the most refugees.

Anyway nobody in work seems to happy to have to vote for either prospective leader.

Finland Storm

2010-08-12T10:29:00.013+01:00

Incredible footage of an approaching storm on a beach in Finland of all places. Its hard to believe a storm can actually movie this fast. I thought this would have turned out to be special effects but there's other photos of it on the intertubes.

via boingboing

Election 2010

2010-08-11T10:09:00.010+01:00

Well the federal election here is going to be held on the 21st August. Right now it seems pretty tight in the polls but there isn't much in the way of election fever on the street. Certainly the lack of election posters hanging from lamp posts (and prospect of being left to rot in the rain in the following weeks) makes everything feel a little more subdued, but even so I think there's a general disinterest this time around.

Australia has mandatory voting, something which has always struck me as a good idea, but lunchtime chats recently have sometimes consisted of ways people could get out of voting, like people trying to avoid Jury duty. Given the charisma of the two party leaders perhaps that's understandable.

There have been plenty of tv ads for both parties (the Green party also exists but they're pretty much non-existent outside of the Senate) recently, mostly consisting of listing all the broken promises the other candidate has made.

The liberal party leader and opposition candidate for Prime Minister is Tony Abott. An iromman competitor at 52 years old, he's a former seminarian and could be said to be one of those in the party very skeptical of those fancy scientists and their "theories" on Global Warming. In fact one of the main reasons he became leader last year was because the previous liberal leader was too supportive of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Their party's tv spot is pretty poor, or maybe its just a poor reflection on Australia that their 4th most important policy point is "Stop the boats". I guess from the regular news coverage you could be forgiven sometimes for thinking the country is being swamped by "boat people". But considering that the total number of refugees arriving this way compared to those who just fly in and overstay their visas is just a drop the issue seems a little hyped.

The Labour party on the other hand, with Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has just made the election promise of finally building a new rail link that would provide an alternative route from the big population centre of Paramatta, in Sydney's west, to the city centre. It all feels very familiar when I think of what they've been promising for years in Dublin. They've been proposing this link for more than 20 years, keep promising to build it every few years (along with several grand plans for metros and tram lines in the city that keep getting cancelled because they'd be too expensive or cause too much disruption) and no doubt people are taking it with a pinch of salt a week and a bit from election day.

The ETS scheme, or the failure to implement one, is also said to be one of the reasons Kevin Rudd's popularity dropped so severely and, along with the whole mining tax issue, let to him being shafted after less than three years, despite the huge popularity he had to begin with.

But listening to politician's views on climate change here in general is depressing stuff. According to ABC news here this evening it seems that only 56% of politicians trust the IPCC (only 44% of liberal party politicians have their views informed by scientists). And maybe worst of all it seems 40% of all politicians are ok with a 4C degree rise in global temperature, while some are even ok with a 6C degree wise. Needless to say we're all fecked if that happens.

Guess the real headline

2010-08-03T12:33:00.008+01:00

Out of the following three headlines, guess which one is real:

Blackberry ban in Gulf States averted with agreement to distribute "Blackberry burqas"

Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts

Budget Cuts Force British Government To Shut Down Mysterious Seaside Village

It would have been too easy if I'd replaced the last one with a headline that started off "Area man.."

The real headline via mefi

Port Stephens

2010-06-29T13:23:00.010+01:00

A few weeks ago the long weekend (and Australia has so few of those) provided us with the first chance to use my new license by renting a car and going for a drive. So on the Saturday I picked up a car from a rental place locally and we did a big car-sized shopping at the supermarket - what a revelation it was not having to worry how much we could fit into one bag, buying all those heavy items (read: mega packs of toilet roll) that we couldn't normally carry in our arms on the bus on train.

On the Sunday morning we set off for Port Stephens, about a three hour drive north of Sydney. Everything went really smoothly and the traffic wasn't too bad; the scenery is pretty nice as you travel on motorway cut through the hills and over the forrests of Ku Ring Gai national park.

Then things went a little awry when, after picking up a tourist brochure at a rest stop we decided to take a scenic detour. Unfortunately we didn't realise that we were much further north than we thought we were on the map, and instead of travelling this road from south to north we went north to south (seeing all the sights), only eventually noticing we were going in the wrong direction when we started to see signs showing the number of km's to Sydney.

We got to Newcastle a couple of hours late on a deserted Sunday afternoon with barely a shop open and the city not exactly advertising itself to tourists. After a late lunch we drove the rest of the way and soon reached open country side and christian rock radio stations.

Arrived at Port Stephens in late afternoon, too late to actually find somewhere nice to stay thanks to the Country music festival that was on. The cashier at the restaurant later pointed a finger at her head like a pistol as she told us this was the reason why everywhere was full up for dinner.

The next day we got to see huge sand dunes, huge pelicans and drove through Myall Lakes national park in a tiny car, over what turned out to be 20km drive through loose gravel with no way back, a "road" meant only for huge 4x4 "ute's". Ended up driving at about 5km/h and by the time we got back onto a normal road I was panicking that all the paint from the side of the car would be gone from a million pebble strikes. So lucky the rental place didn't notice any marks!

World Cup Screen

2010-06-24T12:27:00.006+01:00

Sydney seems to be one of the locations for the official FIFA outdoor big screens thingy to watch the world cup. We went down there on Saturday night to watch Japan v. Netherlands in the bitter (by Sydney standards) cold. Unfortunately, the Japanese just don't do crazy in terms of football fans, but at least there were a few Dutch who put in the effort. The place filled up quickly but I think it was mostly Aussies getting in early for the 4am game between Australia and Ghana.

New PM

2010-06-24T12:24:00.003+01:00

Dumping the Prime Minister less than three years after steering the place through the financial crisis and any before even one election!? Guess the bloody mining companies really do run this country..

Kicking Kompetition

2010-06-12T08:03:00.005+01:00

Just in time for the World Cup starting, the company decided to have a South African themed BBQ for lunch this week and set up a kicking competition in the courtyard behind the office. I imagined this was a chance to fire shots at the cardboard cutouts of management that had been in reception all week, dressed in football shirts and shorts. However it turned out to be a big wall with three holes to try and kick a ball through and a radar gun to measure your kicking speed. I'm pretty sure the last time I even touched a football was during the previous millenium so having signed on to a team of three with a couple of co-workers I was just going to concentrate on finishing the contest with some dignity intact, hopefully avoiding falling on my arse having spectacularly missed the ball.

Well whaddaya know, didn't I get two out of my three shots through the holes and, more importantly, got one through the hole near the top - maximum points! I won a replica football for my efforts and also our team won best overall because of it too. Later on there was an off-key band playing to an empty floor and awkwardly quiet staff standing in the corners sipping lite beers, worthy of the most cringing moments from an Office episode, but hey, I won a football!

Kopi Lewak

2010-06-09T13:00:00.009+01:00

A couple of weeks ago in the weekend newspaper there was an article on Sydney-siders getting increasingly diverse/snooty with their coffee tastes and it mentioned that there were a few places now serving Kopi Lewak. One of those places happened to be a cafe/restaurant next to the train station where I go to work. After another article appeared in the free train newspaper featuring this particular cafe (complete with a guy contorting his face at having tried the aforementioned brew) I decided I'd have to go and try it.

This stuff is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world, and at $9 for an espresso they weren't feckin joking. Or maybe that was for the lemon "palette cleanser" at the start. I don't usually drink espresso either but the waiter recommended that it was the best way to "appreciate its rich and subtle flavours". Yet desipte the beans having been delicately roasted after being eaten and passing through the digestive tract of a small asian mammal, I couldn't taste anything different at all, and kind of wished I'd just drank it with milk (blasphemy!).

The presentation was pretty though.

World's Biggest Burger

2010-06-08T11:33:00.003+01:00

"Just flipping the patty was the main challenge for us, but it all went well," Iman El-Ajouz said.

link

Volcano Timelapse

2010-05-20T23:30:00.007+01:00

I'm a sucker for timelapse videos and this is another cool one; this time of that troublesome, hard to pronounce volcano. A few bits seem to linger on regular shots of a cold looking landscape, but seeing the ash and steam billow out of the vent is class and the Sigur Ros track is appropriate

via mefi

Hail Stones

2010-05-19T13:49:00.004+01:00

Didn't see anything about this on the news here, but in this following video I can forgive the guy for one or two "oh my god"s and "that's insane". Things get pretty incredible at around the 1 minute mark..

Poladroid

2010-05-17T11:31:00.018+01:00

Nice little utility - Turn any photo into a polaroid.

link

World Fair

2010-05-06T14:06:00.027+01:00

Very cool British pavilion at the Shanghai expo..

via bigpicture

Back in Sydney

2010-04-27T13:55:00.006+01:00

A spectacular sunrise greeted us when we finally got back

And below, a cool video showing flight paths, or lack of them, over Europe for the third week in April. When London and Amsterdam get going, the whole map goes crazy..

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo

via mefi

Grounded 3

2010-04-21T22:35:00.007+01:00

Seems we might just catch our flight tomorrow. Planes are now taking off and landing regularly and today's version of our flight took off (8 hours late though).

And Etihad were nice enough to publish a full page ad in the newspaper apologising for the situation..

Grounded 2

2010-04-17T13:30:00.012+01:00

This is pretty bizarre now. Almost all flights out of Europe have been cancelled. And as each day passes, the next days flights get cancelled.

We only just managed to get through to our airline yesterday. We'd already re-booked (i.e. bought new) tickets twice. First to Saturday night, and when that was cancelled I followed the airline's website instructions to book again; the earliest we could get was next Thursday! With frustration growing and no word from the airline on how we were going to get refunds for our cancelled flights we went out to the airport yesterday just to try and talk to someone.

The airport was mostly deserted, bar a long snaking line around ticket desks for Aer Lingus and Ryanair. The food court upstairs was deserted except for stranded passengers asleep on couches and overpriced sandwiches and snacks going bad on the shelves.

When we found the desk for our airline the guy we talked to wasn't even from the airline - he was the public face for a number of them - and offered little sympathy. Instead he told us that we shouldn't have re-booked our flights, that we should have come to the airport or called the airline because now we've multiple different tickets instead of one booking that could be re-scheduled. This made my blood boil, not least because the website suggested just re-booking the ticket there, and trying to call the airline only left us on hold for 20 minutes before disconnecting. But mostly because had we waited to go to the airport before trying to get a ticket, all the flights would've been sold out and we'd have never got a seat! And they keep saying on the news not to go to the airport!

Thankfully, we got a call from the airline yesterday and they agreed to clean up our little ticketing mess and confirm our booking out of here on Thursday. But is that too early? Every few hours they seem to extend the flight ban and they're already talking about all of next week being cancelled. What to do then?

Grounded

2010-04-15T17:21:00.010+01:00

What are the chances that a volcano would erupt grounding most flights through Europe one day before I'm due to fly back to Sydney? Higher than I thought it seems.

Everything had been going *grand* since we came back the other week. The sun came out for the first time this year in Ireland, we did our whole getting-married thing for the last time, I passed!! my driving test just yesterday, and I'm even an uncle again (and one month early!). Alas, but now it looks like we're stuck here indefinitely.

The airport is closed until at least tomorrow morning, so even if it opens then all the people who've had their flights cancelled today will have to get flights first and we might not even get a flight tomorrow. Not to mention any connection from Abu Dabi. Of course not a peep out of the airline beyond the usual automated message on the phone.

I'm told the last time this volcano erupted it was over 100 years ago, before flight, and that it kept erupting for a couple of months. I really don't want to take a boat back to Australia.

Driving Test

2010-03-31T14:13:00.005+01:00

Through a lot of hassle it looks like I may just be finally able to do my driving test and, fingers crossed, finally get my license (only 10 years overdue!)

Having a car in Australia is pretty much essential for getting around the city, never mind actually seeing any of the country outside of Sydney. I thought when I arrived I'd be able to do a test immediately but it turns out you need 120 hours practice in a car with a fully licensed driver next to you. I have no car, or car parking space, or fully licensed driver who's going to sit with me for 120 hours. This has been a huge pain the backside for me.

We're heading back to Ireland tomorrow for the last leg of our matrimonial duties, and I've had it in mind for ages to try and arrange to do my test while I was back. Considering there's a waiting list of at least a month, and that my old license had expired, and that (technically) you have to be a resident in the country to get a license, this was going to be quite a feat.

After checking all the details on line, I tried to apply for a new license (having to post passport photos and the application back home so that someone from my family could post it locally) only to find out that I needed proof that I'd already applied for a test before I could renew it. So I tried to apply online for the test itself only to find that I needed to have a valid license already to apply online. Feckin' typical kafkaesque bureaucracy..

I was just about to give up completely when, after emailing the transport agency they told me to enter my first and middle name in the box reserved for my first name and, voila, it worked.

And just the other day I received a mail saying I'd been given an appointment for my test for a day while I'll actually be in the country! What are the chances of that!

Hopefully less than the chances of passing the test...

Orpheum

2010-03-13T23:23:00.006Z

Sydney has managed to hang on to plenty of nice art deco buildings, be they pubs or hotels or cinemas. The latter have lasted much longer and better than their counter parts in Ireland, where if they haven't been torn down, they're now bingo halls or warehouses.

I got a chance to go to one of them on the north side called the Orpheum; pretty classy joint with statues holding torches, interiors looking like 1950's cadillac's and actual curtains in front of the screens.

Queen Mary II

2010-03-11T10:37:00.004Z

The ~~largest~~ second largest cruise ship in the world docked in Sydney the other day. Big enough in fact that it had to dock next to the navy base on the opposite side of the Botanic gardens instead of at the usual spot in Circular Quay. Big enough to have all the local television news helicopters doing fly pasts.

It was definitely huge but still small enough that I could imagine it getting tossed around like a toy in a big storm. And it must have been moving at about 0.5km/h as it came into the harbour which meant I was standing there for half an hour on top of the bridge getting my face burned by the wind before I realised I'd be there for another hour before it docked.

The people on the other docked ship must have been pretty jealous, standing out on their own tiny deck looking at it come in, stopping and turning around to show off to everyone..

Эдуард Хиль

2010-03-05T11:11:00.007Z

That's gold Jerry, gold!

Man, I can't believe that's real. Just awesome..Here's the real background

via almost everywhere recently

Flat White

2010-03-01T08:38:00.011Z

One of the first little differences I noticed after arriving in Sydney were Flat White's - I actually thought that they were just cups of brewed coffee with frothy milk, but the difference between a Flat White and a latte is actually much smaller than that.

One thing you're almost guaranteed whenever you get a one of these is a nice presentation, and compared to the slop served in Insomnia or one of the chains back home that passes for good coffee its far nicer.

So now it seems that it's moved beyond these shores and instead of just being a curious local coffee, its made it all the way to Starbucks in London and other faffy coffee places.

"The flat white comes from Australian and New Zealand and is served by a few independent coffee shops in London where many antipodeans work. It is an espresso-based drink but has less milk, and the milk is less frothy, than a cappuccino or latte."

Can't believe they're actually charging more for it though. Its usually the cheaper coffee here!

via mefi

Extra Seats

2010-02-20T03:50:00.003Z

Mostly for reasons of leg-room, I hate flying. So I'm disgusted, but not exactly surprised to see Qantas are taking their new, relatively roomy A380 planes and stuffing them with 100 extra economy seats.

At least we're going back to Dublin in April with a different airline, one that won't stop twice along the way and hopefully with a little more room.

Outdoor Cinema

2010-02-20T03:49:00.004Z

I've never gone to a drive-in movie, or watched a film outside for that matter, so it was pretty cool to sit out under the stars (and the awakening bats) and watch Sherlock Holmes in a cricket ground in North Sydney. Back in December I tried to book tickets for this but they sold out within an hour of going on sale. Just as with the New Years fireworks, we arrived completely unprepared, whereas the locals were packing fancy picnic baskets and expensive fold-away chairs. There was plenty of BBQ food sizzling away and on sale anyway so it didn't really matter that we didn't bring anything.

And though the backdrop was perhaps not as spectacular without Opera House and the Harbour bridge, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Chinese New Year

2010-02-13T11:12:00.002Z

Origami style Tigers outside Sydney Custom house for Chinese New Year

Ipad

2010-01-31T07:29:00.006Z

This article says pretty much what I think about Apple's latest contraption. In case the thought of reading one more article about the iPad is one too many let me just summarise some points:

The fact that it's going to run the same OS as an iPhone means that, just like an iPhone, you won't be able to install any software on it without it first being pre-approved by an Apple store and then paid for via that same store. That's a first for something that will look and feel a lot more like a computer than a mobile phone.

With the iPad, gone are any messy notions about "Files" and "Folders" and "Menus" that confuse many people over a certain age..you just click on what you want to do. You'll be able to use it to browse the web, send email, listen to music and watch video. And for a lot of people that's all computers are used for. So having your computer software limited to what you can get from an Apple store won't bother a lot of people.

As the article says "Its an attempt to get people used to this closed type of system by means of a more computer looking device."

So I think this might just sell lots and lots, will be used by kids (in school and out) and older people who hate fiddling with windows. And in the process, the idea of having a computer that you have full control of, that you can organise, that you can install software without corporate permission first, will become less and less popular. You wouldn't be able to install software to read books or watch video or read newspapers unless it's the official software from the official store that will make sure you pay what they demand.

"General purpose computing is too complicated for most people anyway, and the iPad’s descendants along with similar competing products from other companies will offer an enticing alternative. So I see the death of the traditional, open personal computer as a likely occurrence."

That might be a bit much, but you could certainly argue that's the way Apple would like things.

News Style

2010-01-29T08:17:00.004Z

Charlie Brooker absolutely nails BBC style news here. And Irish news for that matter. Even still this fake report is leagues ahead of the dreggs from Channel 7 and 9 here.

via boingboing

Australia Day

2010-01-26T12:22:00.005Z

Went down to the harbour to try and catch a glimpse of the Australia Day fireworks. Instead I watched some muffled flashes behind firework smoke while I got mercilessly bitten by mosquitoes.

Kobe

2009-12-30T12:04:00.010Z

Took the chance to visit my old neighbourhood today. Mostly the same but the Korean International goodwill centre had been replaced by an apartment building and there was a Ramen place that I remembered opening next to my old apartment had also just shut down.

Seeing As I'd missed out on viewing the huge Gundam statue in Tokyo, the next best thing was to visit the giant statue of Tetsujin 28 Go..aka Gigantor..in Kobe.

The original animator was from here and by the looks of things it's been put up in one of the most earthquake devastated areas of the city as part of a regeneration project. And in order to promote the whole thing subway trains and vending machines and plenty of other places have gigantor crap plastered all over them.

Back to Osaka

2009-12-29T01:37:00.020Z

On our last day in Tokyo we went we went looking for a particular Izakaya that I'd seen recommended. It was a perfect lesson in the strange way Japanese addresses are constructed. We only had the address which I'd quickly jotted down in very bad Japanese and we didn't have a chance to find a map on the internet in the hotel thanks to its expense.

Wikipedia gives a fuller explanation but suffice it to say that it's more or less described using smaller and smaller boxes, starting from the Prefecture name down. Street names are rarely used and you're lucky if you have a building number. We had a small Shibuya area tourist map and the address, trying to use landmarks like department stores and train stations to find our way. It was freezing cold and after about 20 minutes we were ready to completely give up when we amazingly stumbled upon the basement entrance down one of a million side streets, under a million neon signs, all with guys outside holding menus.

The place was pretty cool, even though most of the staff looked like they were young enough to still be in school. And they even gave us a free souvenir when we left.

The next day we got the Shinkansen to Osaka and were to pass by Mt. Fuji during a clear winter afternoon. We got a great view from the train.

Osaka was almost how I remembered it - except a whole load of buildings had been torn down and rebuilt, perhaps twice.

Kamakura

2009-12-29T01:37:00.012Z

Our one day trip while in Tokyo was to Kamakura, a town famous for its giant bronze Buddha, which I'd never managed to visit despite it being one of the biggest tourist draws in Japan (excluding Disneyland obviously).

It was an hour on a local suburban train from Tokyo. At least a suburban train by Japanese standards - it stopped only a few times to drop off commuters and sped through to Yokohama at break neck speed.

As well as being famous for its giant Buddha, it was also the capital of Japan at one stage and is full of enough temples and shrines to reflect its heritage. Thanks to the power of the intertubes we knew in advance which one to visit, complete which atmospheric bamboo garden..

We also had lunch at a BBQ eel place which was pretty tasty..

Tokyo Christmas Day

2009-12-24T23:36:00.013Z

Today we did a shuttlestop tour around Shinjuku, Shibuya and Odaiba and saw Tokyo Tower up close for the first time.

We've voluntarily given ourselves a tight budget, meaning every meal we've had so far has been eaten alongside all the dour and over-burdened "salarymen" in train station basements. That sounds worse than it is though - train station vending machine places are cheap and very cheerful, even if by the end of the day my lips felt like I'd swallowed a weeks worth of salt.

Every train we took everywhere was busy, at all times of the day. The train at 11.30 tonight was full of people who were just leaving work - or at least work drinks.

We popped into a Big Camera electronics shop to eye up all the super flat, high resolution screened (and now solar powered) mobile phones. Surprised at how many iPhones i saw on the trains.

I saw less half a dozen foreign faces like my own for the whole day.

In the evening we went to see the Christmas/Winter lights in Roppongi and Tokyo Midtown. Christmas may not mean much here, but they certainly know how to put on a light display. Its hard to explain to someone back home what the point of Christmas here is though. There's Christmas music playing everywhere, there's Christmas lights up in a lot of places - and in most cases a lot nicer than back home - but that's about the extent of it. And its a couples thing rather than having any family focus.

We went to the observation deck on top of Mori tower which offered a very nice (and very expensive) view of the Tokyo skyline.

Japan Again

2009-12-24T23:28:00.005Z

Well we're back in Tokyo. My first time here in five years.

We landed late at Narita airport and it took over an hour on the express train to the city so we didn't actually get to collapse into our hotel until pretty late. Yet despite dragging our suitcases through the cold to the hotel (being in Sydney I'd almost forgot what real winter was) before the day was up I'd bought myself a weird Japanese Pepsi, ate a pork rice bowl at a fast food counter place (while the surrounding Japanese gave me double-takes every time they noticed the foreigner sitting on a neighbouring stool) and bought a few convenience store onigiri.

The hotel we're staying at is this huge wonderfully dated place - fit for a James bond villian perhaps. Outside each room is a personal metal gate, painted cream to match the fading floral walls. Inside there's a cheesy Chandelier, blindingly patterned wallpaper and curtains, and wafer thin walls.

Prisencolinensinainciusol

2009-12-18T12:50:00.014Z

This funky gibberish from 1972 is a nice example of fake English..

It's like the lyrics are just out of reach when listening but there are real words there somewhere.

via boingboing

Vaccination

2009-12-09T22:39:00.009Z

Seeing as we'll be spending the New Year in the Northern Hemisphere and traveling through airports thought it might be a good idea to get the Swine flu vaccination before going. It's free to everyone here but because we're not Aussies we had to pay the full doctors consulation fee. What this "consultation" consisted of was asking me why I wanted to get the vaccine and filling out a name and address form.

After the "consultation" we were handed over to a nurse who sat us down in separate chairs, asked us to read a Swine flu vaccination risks form (listing lots of scary things that happened only to 1 out of a million people who got the injection) and sign at the bottom saying we didn't mind.

The injection was not something I was dreading but the nurse carried out the task in the careful and measured manner of a McDonalds cashier during the lunchtime rush - alcohol wipe, injection, band-aid (in no particular order). Our suspicions rose when, while standing at reception later, we noticed the missus' arm had a spot of blood on it and that the nurse had evidently put the band-aid over a freckle instead!

At this stage I was really starting to feel like maybe we hadn't got value for money. I somehow managed to convince my body of this because I started to feel very faint (dang, not again) and had to be rushed back into the room with the beds. All the beds were occupied so the nurse kindly kicked out an elderly lady who was lying down in the nearest one and let me lie down until my blood pressure climbed back to normal. And I got to chew on a couple of jelly babies too. Finally, value for money.

JLPT

2009-12-06T12:47:00.009Z

Well I finally tried my hand at my first Japanese exam on Sunday - and I'm pretty it was waay beyond me. There weren't even any letters - it was just full of squiggly lines all over the place. I won't find out the actual results until March but I can guess what it will be.

There were 80 or so other students taking the test at my level as well, most of them Asian meaning they were taking a test for their third language. A couple of other students were 10 years old max which I found amazing because the test included questions with some pie charts and graphs, none of which I would have understood when I was that age even if they'd been in English.

The test is only held once a year so I'll have to wait until then to try again. Anyway thankfully the whole thing is multi-choice so I'm almost guaranteed, statistically at least, to have got something right.

Le Hand of Whatever

2009-11-20T12:37:00.005Z

The match wasn't shown on tv here, but the controversy managed to make it all the way. Still, Keane is always entertaining..

on the bbc

How many facebook groups have been set up to lambaste Tierry Henry. I guess that's what it's for I suppose