A good weekend

While Sydney was arresting comedians (The Chasers War on Everything guys who pulled a hillarious stunt which proved that the only thing the police were interested in was arresting protesters) and the police were pushing over female photographers (*mental note* must look for that on Youtube), we went inland to visit an Aussie Icon landmark that I've wanted to see ever since we moved here. No, not the big banana though that would be cool to see. No, we went to Parkes to see the Radio Telescope!

It's not sad I tell you, since the film "The Dish" (which is an excellent movie and well worth a watch) the Radio Telescope at Parkes has turned into a major tourist attraction. They say it is the most beautiful radio telescope and they don't lie, there is something about it that is beautiful. It is also HUGE!
Parkes Radio Telescope aka The Dish

After nosing around the visitor center for a while and enjoying a refreshing cup of tea in the Dish Cafe we decided that we would head for Dubbo and go to the Western Plains Zoo.
I've been to Taronga Zoo in Sydney four times now and I absolutely love it there and as the two Zoo's are affiliated I was sure that I was going to enjoy an afternoon at a different Zoo. And different it is! Unlike Taronga which has high fencing around the animals, Western Plains was designed to be a type of Safari Park and as such is built quite uniquely by having the animals below road height. A bit hard to explain, but basically you can drive your car, hire a bike or walk around the 6km circuit. We opted for walking. When you stop to view the animals you find that you are higher than them because of the banking that surrounds them. They are still fenced in but it isn't in your face and they seem to have much more room to roam about. I liked it! It was nice to have a walk too as we had spent an hour in the car getting to the Zoo plus the day before we had made the four and a half hour journey in country.

On the Sunday we detored to a lovely old town called Forbes. A truly stunning place that is very clean and tidy with some beautiful old architecture. It was due to the older buildings that Forbes was chosen rather than Parkes for the Town shots in "The Dish". As it was a Sunday there wasn't much open so after a few snaps with the camera we headed back home.
Forbes Town Hall

Forbes Post Office

Although we were going to head to Adelaide for the Weekend, I was glad that we opted to see more of the NSW countryside. We haven't pushed adelaide of the list, just postponed the trip. We're now looking at combining it with a trip to Melbourne to catch up with friends there before we leave. I'm looking forward to it :-)

APEC

I wish they would all piss off to where they should be - CANBERRA!

That is the Country's Capital, that is where Parliament is, so why in the name of God did the powers that be decide that Sydney would be a better venue. If I'm feeling hard done by than I can only imagine what the tourists must feel like.
But, of course we have messages telling us that we won't be disrupted too much and if you believe that you'll believe anything!
Mr M and I had planned to go to Adelaide that weekend just to get ourselves outside of Sydney, but of course we now hear that travel to and from the airport will be restircted due to the delegates. They shouldn't even be in Sydney they should be in bloody Canberra.

I have to admit that Canberra is not the most exciting place in the world but it came about for a purpose and it serves that purpose well. Just a shame the government doesn't utilise properly.

Packing police

So, we of course keep up to date as much as we can, with UK news. There has been yet another shooting leaving a biker dead. I'm not going into the why he was shot but it does make be question why the UK police force itself is against arming themselves with guns.

I've heard other ex-pats say that they feel unsafe here because the police are packing - you know what, I've actually felt safer. The police in Australia actually HAVE powers! Gee, there's a concept, the Police having the power to bring a criminal to justice rather than the crim taking the police to court because "he/she touched me!" Boo Hoo.

I have a huge respect for the Police force worldwide, I don't care in which country. To me they are the people that I turn to when I need help, if my car gets broken into or my house has a window smashed etc. All the Police I have dealt with over the years, both in the UK and here in Aus have been lovely. They have been helpfull and courteous and as stated before they have my full respect. I know that I could never do their job, particularly the UK police because their powers are so limited. If I was ever allowed to join the UK police force and let out on beat I'd be had for brutality because I would not be able to control myself against the idiots out there that know that the law is on their side! What justice is that! Nope, I'd be making sure that they had punishment, legal or not. And that is the biggest reason today that I have the utmost respect for the Police, because they know where they stand and just what they can do.

But back to guns - I'd like to know why the UK Police don't want to carry them. The amount of gun crime and more importantly killing, is on the increase, so to me it is only logical that the Poilce should arm themselves.
If the UK Police aren't happy with that, can we at least get some Aussie coppers across that are?
They can fly home with me in November for I shall miss them :-(

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Excellent use of treadmills!

We were in a pub in Sydney the other night when this came on the TV. I had only seen it once before but it mesmerised me and I had to get Mr M and our friends to watch it, so I interrupted the conversation. Sure enough they were engrossed for the entire length of the video and so confirmed to me that it is on of the best music videos, at least to me.


So I thought I would share my list of favourite music vids:

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (fantastic vid from the 80's, excellent use of animation)

Blur - Coffee & TV (another with good animation because I really love the milk carton, it's so cute!)

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of choice (Christopher Walken dancing - need I say more?)

OK Go - Here it goes again (I love the use of the treadmills, and the choreography)


Of course there are other music videos that are very good, Thriller is always at the top on programmes that compile these lists, but as much as I do like Thriller it doesn't grab me enough to make my personal list. The videos that have made my list are quite simple in comparison but sometimes the simple ones are best. I was also tempted to include Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity as I do really like that video as it always has me wondering how it was done but but the insects in it are a huge turn off. Eugh!

So while my list isn't very long it is very exclusive and I'm sure I will find others along the years that will take their own place there.

Anyway, a completely pointless post really but I just felt like it. For one thing it has taken my mind of packing!

It's oh so firken freezing!!!!

It's so damn cold that I have gloves on, which makes it quite difficult to type. I'm wearing so many layers that I look like I've ballooned two dress sizes since getting up this morning and if that isn't enough, I've actually started to wear my big black duvet jacket that I brought with me from the UK!

Then you get the smart alecs that tell you that you've finally aclimatised to Aussie weather - bullshit! Listen to the weather reports, this winter is bloody cold! Even the energy companies are struggling to keep up with the demand as we all try to stay warm. There is some things that don't understand about Aussie houses - they don't seem to have any insulation (hell, our house doesn't even have lining in the roof to stop the rain coming through! But fortunately the tiles to a good enough job unless one slips) and they don't have double glazing. Maybe they have more money than sense or maybe it's because not only am I used to it from the UK but it also makes financial sense - you can practically halve your energy bills. Even in the summer, it would help to keep places cool.

But apart from my whining about the weather and freezing my bits off (thank god for padded bra's, at least I can keep some things warm!) I've been doing very well with reading LOTR. In fact, I'm immensily enjoying it! I'm now on book 4, also known as half way through The Two Towers. As I finished the Fellowship of The Ring I decided to re-watch the film again and was surpried at how true to the book they had managed to get it, including some of Gandalfs words that were literally straight out of the book! Amazing! Once I've finished The Two Towers I will re-watch that film as well. The only thing I will say is that the book is no good to read after having a skinfull but what book is? LOL I've done that twice now as I've been so eager to continue with it. I also love the fact the book is really old and musty - it smells of so much history. Mum reckons it was probably read by quite a few sailors as my brother took it on ship with him. It might sound daft, but to me the book is almost like some part of family history and is the only thing of my brother's that I have. It's nice to think that I have something of his now that I live so far away. I really miss my big brother.

I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth...

Though it probably seems that way. Not had that much to say and have had other things taking up my attention.

Of course I have been studying hard with the photography course, which is coming along very nicely! I had my result for my fourth assignment back today and I was pleasantly surprised just like with previous assignments - the mark was good but I was actually more pleased with the comments from my tutor which made me realise why I'm deserving of good marks :-)

As well as keeping busy with study I have been going through a bit of a reading blip. I enjoy reading but I find every now and then I go through a phase of reading one book after another until I'm burnt out and fed up of reading again. I'm not sure whether I've got to the burnt out stage yet or not.
It started about 2-3 weeks ago when Mr M and I went to Chatswood for shopping as we hadn't been there for a while. We popped into Dymocks and as usual he headed straight for the PC/Telecoms books. I milled about and went to find him just as he was heading towards me, we decided we'd seen enough and headed for the door. And there it was on the table looking up at me saying "I'm here! Buy me! Look at me! I'm here waiting for you", of course it was Paulo Coelho's new book!
I gasped upon seeing it then picked it up and hugged it before rushing to the counter to make sure that it was mine.
Then I realised that I hadn't been keeping up to date with his work as I usually know when his new books are out by frequenting his website, someting I hadn't done in about two years. I felt terrible that I had somehow betrayed my favourite author, particulalry when I realised that he had realsed another book before hand of short stories (I've still yet to go and track theat one down in the bookstore). But the reason I hadn't been so interested in his website was because the last book of his that i read, The Zahir just didn't thrill me they way that so much of his work had done in the past. Don't missunderstand, the Zahir is not a bad book as it is the story of Paulo Coelho of things that he has experienced in his life. But that book didn't give me the spiritual uplift that I love his books for. I much prefer his books where he is the storyteller rather than the subject.
The Witch of Portobello, his latest book, was very enjoyable but I didn't find that I was able to bond with the main characters that well, they weren't in depth enough for me. Or maybe it is that I have become a more cynical person and found the story harder to believe in than I would of a few years ago? All I do know is that I loved his books such as The Fifth Mountain (which was the first Paulo Coelho book I read), The Valkyries, Veronika Decided to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Pilgrimage and of course The Alchemist (of which I have mixed feelings about it being turned into a film), pretty much his whole works! But if you are reading this and you know of his works that you may have noticed that I missed out the Manual of the Warrior of the Light. Again, a good book in it's own right but not for me.
And of course I don't have listed his book of short stories, Like the Flowing River. Only because I haven't read it yet.
Generally and for the most part I am a huge fan of him as an author.

After finishing the Witch of Portobello, I saw on the bookshelf a book that I bought the same time as when I bought Valantino Rossi's Autobiography, and of course that was more important to read! So I picked it up and started to read that. It had me gripped from the start and had so much action in it that I had a real film going on in my head, something that you would have expected to see the likes of Bruce Willis or maybe Mel Gibson in. It was called Vanish by Tess Gerritson. One hell of a page turner was that!
After I had finished that book (which didn't take me long at all), I decided to read Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe, another book that has been sat on the shelf that I've been meaning to read for a few years. I have previously read the Wilt series (just found out that a new one was released in 2004 and I haven't read that) which was laugh out loud funny and Porterhouse Blue, I'm glad to say also brought on the tears of laughter. Although I found the first Wilt book the funniest of all of the Sharpe stuff I have read. There is also Grantchester Grind on the bookcase that I haven't read bbut I may delay that as sometimes reading the next one straight away is not the best thing to do.

So after reading three books pretty much in succession I looked at what else I had but hadn't read yet. There it was sat on teh shelf gloating at me - The Lord of the Rings. The book is actually my brothers and he loved it. He also has the Hobbit and I thought it would be best if I read that first. Oh, did that book get the better of me, I don't even think I got to the end of the first Chapter and if I did it was an uphill struggle. I mentioned this years ago to my brother and he said that he struggled with the Hobbit and never finished the book but that the LOTR was much better. I tried reading LOTR about a year ago now but got bogged down by the prologue and other such stuff before you even get to start the first chapter. This morning I picked up the book again and flicked to the begining of the first chapter and marked the page with my bookmark. That is where I shall start my journey, and I may even start it tonight! Wish me luck!

New Zealand Part Two - South Island

Day 7 – Christchurch to Oamaru 03.05.07

We headed for the car hire company and picked up another Diahatsu Sirion as it suited us perfectly, a small car that was big enough for our two cases and was extremely economical on petrol. In essence, all you need for a road trip.
We didn’t see much of Christchurch but that was ok as we were heading back there to fly back to Sydney, we’d be back.
The drive from Christchurch to Oamaru was the most uninspiring of our journey. Maybe it is because the European Settlers decided to turn most of the natural landscape into agrable land on the South Island, but it was very boring. The trip to Oamaru was approximately 3 hours and I fell in love with the place as soon as we reached the town.
Oamaru is a town that has some lovely sandstone buildings and I was pleased to find the one and only motel that we were stopping in for the entire trip was extremely nice. Our host at the motel was very friendly and asked if we were here to see the Penguins. Penguins? We were actually stopping at Oamaru to go and see the Moreaki Boulders but Penguins are good! She showed us on the town map where we could watch the Blue Penguin colony which you had to pay to enter as well as where the rare Yellow Eyed Penguins were which we could watch for free. I still don’t understand why there is a reserve which does its best to look after the preservation of the Blue penguins and yet the Yellow Eyed, which is dying out has nothing. Hey ho.
We decided to head for the Moreaki Boulders first as that was the main thing we wanted to see and when we arrived Mr M was not impressed! You see the Moreaki Boulders are exactly that, Boulders. They are all spherical and the majority of them are in the sea, gracefully poking out. I loved it but the weather could have done with being a bit warmer and brighter. I took quite a few photos of the boulders but it was a struggle as my hands were absolutely freezing! I found the whole experience of seeing the Boulders quite spiritual but all Mr M could say was that I took him to see some rocks. However, he was quite intrigued that they were all round.
After literally freezing certain body parts off, we headed back into town to book in for the Blue Penguin colony watching before heading to the beach to watch the Yellow Eyed Penguins come in at dusk. We waited and watched the sea along with many others to see if we would be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the rare Yellow Eyed. I had my camera primed ready and took a few pictures of the beach from the cliff top we were waiting on. Then I turned the lens to the 300mm max and looked at the beach in closer detail. Sure enough I spotted something. There camofalaged in amongst the seaweed and driftwood was a seal! I excitedly tapped Mr M’s arm and showed him, then I scanned some more of the beach and saw another! I love seals.
We stood shivering from the cold when suddenly someone said that they could see a Yellow Eyed in the sea about to come in. We watched patiently and scanned with our cameras, sure enough, there it was. After a little bit of time swimming around it came onto the beach and headed for its nest. It was so cool to see such a beautiful and now rare species of penguin. Happy that we had seen one we decided to head back and warm up before the early evening event of watching the Blue Penguins.
I was so cold that I called into a shop in the town to buy gloves and a beanie and a beanie as well for Mr M. After making our purchase we headed to the colony and drank warm tea while we waited for the penguins to arrive. I looked out to the rocky shore that the penguins would climb up and saw…. another seal! We sat down in the seated area while the guide told us about the penguins and that they will be unsure about climbing up as the seal was there. Fortunately for them, the seal was a fur seal and not the leopard seal that will kill them in the wild. We waited for the night sky to come over and then I saw what would have been the most amazing shot, the moon was out and full, we had the rocks to the left and the sea lapping onto them. It was so gorgeous and I would have loved to have captured that scene. It wasn’t to be. The penguin colony asks you not to use cameras, so we left ours in the motel. Gutted!
Never mind, we were here to witness the penguins coming home. Our first sighting of a Blue Penguin though wasn’t coming home but heading down to the sea. It was clearly unsure what to do with the seal there but soon hopped down the rocks, tentatively passed the seal and happily hopped on down to the sea. With that we saw some more penguins come from the sea. A group of them looked up the rocks and saw the seal and then it looked like they were talking to each other, trying to work out if it was safe or not and who should go first. More penguins arrived and also stopped, then two decided that they wanted to get home and ventured up the rocks. They got closer to the seal and then stopped, almost as if to have a chat. “How was your day?” “ Awful, I was stuck in a meeting most of the day. Yours?” “Not as bad as yours by the sound of it. Well, best get on home. The missus will have a fit if I’m late again. Fancy catching up for a beer later?” “I’ll let you know. See you.” And with that off the one waddles up the rocks, slowly past the seal and then across the road to head for its nest.
The group by this time had decided to give it a go. The started up the rocks and then stopped before one braved it and carried on going. When I was watching them I had the tune to Mission Impossible in my head LOL It really was like that. In the end all the group managed to get up past the seal and head home. After seeing one group get back we decided that we too would head back as even though we had beanies and I also had gloves, we were still freezing and my backside was going numb from the cold.
That evening we headed to Fat Sally’s in town for food. It was recommended by our host at the motel so we thought we would give it a go. It was a pub/restaurant that had a great atmosphere that you could feel as soon as you entered. Everyone was happy and friendly and it was nice and warm! We were seated at a table and given the menu. The one thing both of wanted to have while in NZ was lamb. We ordered two lamb dishes as our mains and I had a starter of oven baked Camembert and Plum jam. The starter was sooo good and I hoped the main would be equally as nice. The dishes came out and my eyes nearly popped from my head, the plates were huge! We had been told that the servings were generous and that it was good hearty food and the lady at the Motel was spot on. We tucked in and the first mouthful was enough. It was absolutely stunning! The lamb had been done in a sort of mint breadcrumb and the mash was so creamy. If that wasn’t made with NZ butter I’ll be very surprised. I’ve since had cravings for Anchor Butter LOL
Even though the starter was very good, it was the best choice that I made as it meant that I couldn’t finish my main meal but Mr M made sure it didn’t go to waste J
With our stomachs full with delicious food (which was the best value and best tasting NZ tucker of the whole trip) we headed back for bed.


Day 8 – Oamaru to Lake Wanaka 04.05.07

Another early morning start to head off to our next destination. Fortunatley, the drive to Wanaka was much more pleasant than the one from Christchurch to Oamaru and we arrived in Wanaka for the early afternoon. The hotel we were staying in was on Mount Aspiring Road and looked like it was quite a new development. The room was spacious and very nice, with wood panelling on the one wall and ceiling. Plus it had the extra bonus of a radiator. Mmmm, snugly!
We headed down to the Lake to take some pictures before deciding to take a drive to Mount Aspiring. We headed off and got about half the way there when the road conditions changed and we saw the sign that pretty much said if you don’t have a 4x4 you’re screwed! Bugger! We had no choice but to turn back. I looked at one of the brochures I picked up and realised that we weren’t that far from Queenstown, which we had wanted to go and see but to have stayed there would have meant doubling back on ourselves to continue on with the rest of our trip. We considered driving to Queenstown and headed back to the room to get the touring atlas. We guesstimated that it would take probably 3 hours each way and while we had the time that we could have pushed it into we instead opted for a well deserved kip. It was about quarter to three in the afternoon and we were tucked up in bed fast asleep.
We awoke around six thirty and freshened ourselves up before heading to the hotel bar and restaurant. It was a combined room and it was all done out in wood panelling and has a lovely open wood fire. It was gorgeous and It was as good as the Swiss Chalet that I have had pictured in my head for many years. For some reason, I would love to do Christmas in a wood chalet with a real fire and snow outside, doesn’t necessarily have to be in Switzerland. This hotel bar and restaurant was the closest I had come to and all I needed was snow outside but you can’t have everything.


Day 9 – Lake Wanaka to Fox Glacier 05.05.07

The drive to Fox was very nice and I spotted something on our touring atlas that sounded very intriguing that we were going to travel through – The Gates of Hasst!
I’m not sure what I was expecting but what we got was an Iron bridge over some fast rapid water running over a lot of rocks. It was actually very impressive and we stopped to walk under the bridge to take some photos and then up onto the bridge to take more. It had started to rain and by the time we got back to the car both of us and our cameras were quite wet. We turned the heating up in the car to warm up and dry off and continued our journey on to Fox Glacier.
We were staying at the Fox Lodge and I was pleased to see that it was all timber. We were shown to our room and it was another wood chalet style – I loved it! We dropped the bags off before heading into town to take a look around. Fox is a very small township that is very quaint and the town is pretty much on the main road in a blink and you’ll miss it style. But the main reason we were there was to see the glacier.
We had already agreed that we were going to do a hike on the ice but it was a question of which one. I had never been in a helicopter before so we opted to do the Heli-Hike.
We called into the guiding lodge and asked about booking for the next day. The weather wasn’t very nice so I didn’t get my hopes too high as the weather could stop us in our tracks. We booked on the 9am Heli-Hike and provisionally booked on the 1pm in case the weather was bad for the morning. As a back up from that we considered doing the half day hike in the afternoon should the 1pm Heli-Hike get called off due to the weather.
Now all we could do was wait until morning to see what the weather would give us.
It was a nice day but we headed down to Lake Matheson for a look around. We didn’t get far when we realised that we could get very wet as the drizzle was threatening to turn into full blown rain. We headed back to town and bought some rain proof jackets. Now we were cooking with gas.
We decided that even though we had protection from the rain, we would give the Lake a skip as it was very over cast and instead would head to the Glacier for a look.
We parked the car in the car park provided and walked the track to the terminal face. We hadn’t long left the car park when we reached the top of a hill and there, in front of us, was the biggest piece of ice I have seen with my own eyes. I was aghast at the sheer enormity of it, there in the valley was what looked like a huge river of water that was heading straight for us but had been frozen in time.
When you drive up to the car park, you see signs that tell you that the ice was this far down in such a year. It’s incredible to see how far it has receded and then you learn that it is now advancing. The ice is always moving as there is running water underneath that is the Fox river. At the terminal face we could hear the ice cracking and breaking off which is why there is a barrier for peoples safety and warning signs to tell you not to go beyond unless you are with a guide.
We took more photos of yet another natural wonder and headed back to the car. We decided to drive to Franz Josef which is the next town over from Fox which also has a glacier. As we reached a twisty corner section of road we saw a crane winching a coach from the drop of the corner. We wondered if there had been anyone hurt, how it happened and what those poor people must have gone through. We carried on our journey and headed for the Franz glacier terminal face. You might think that once you’ve seen one, why go to another but the glaciers, though essentially the same are very unique. They have different forms and the terminal face of Franz is a lot further to walk to. As time was getting on we opted to head for the viewing platform instead as it was nearer. What I noticed about the town of Franz Josef and the glacier there, was that it is much more touristy than Fox. I was glad we opted for the latter.
We headed back to Fox and passed the steep twisty corner which was now clear. When we reached town we asked at the local store if they had any information and I was surprised to learn that the accident had happened several weeks ago. The reason the coach was only now being pulled up was because they had to get a crane from Christchurch. We also learned that fortunately, no one had been seriously injured.
We decided to go for another drive and this time drove past Lake Matheson to head for Gillespies Beach. It wasn’t really the right weather for the beach but when we got there we realised that it wasn’t a real beach. As in, not one you would go and sun bake on. The beach was covered in large pebbles and huge chunks of driftwood and the cloudy, windy weather was churning up the waves. It was actually very nice.
That evening we headed to the local bar for food and beer.


Day 10 – Fox Glacier 06.05.07

We headed down to the guiding lodge to hear if we would be flying. The clouds were low but it was a much nicer day. After much deliberation we finally heard that the pilot was happy with conditions and we were good to go.
We headed through the back to get waterproof trousers and jacket before heading on to the quaint old bus to be taken to the heli-pad. Once there we were given hiking boots and thick socks before being given a briefing on helicopter dos & don’ts. One last check with the pilot and we were confirmed for the final and last time that we would be taking off. We were split into two groups and the first group headed for the helicopter and then left for the glacier. In the meantime we were arranged in to a seating plan and I was given the one seat in the front because I’m short – woo hoo!
I was so excited to be in a helicopter and I had a grin from ear to ear that made me look like the Cheshire Cat. The ride to the ice was amazing and then came the really fun part, walking on the ice in hiking boots. I got out and walked across to where the first group was waiting and just as I got there I did my Bambi impression – legs everywhere! Fortunately one of the girls grabbed my arm and I didn’t fall. Once we were all grouped together again we were given crampons to attach to our hiking boots. I managed to get myself in a right knot with those but fortunately the guide could see I was struggling and gave me a hand. Once we had those on we all felt much better as we now had more grip on the ice. Then we grabbed a stick with a metal spike at the bottom to give us extra grip and stability when walking and off we went in single file following our expert guide.
Hiking on the ice was one hell of an experience and I did end up on my backside, it was inevitable really. It wasn’t too bad, just a small slip really. The guide had used his pick to make steps in the ice for us to get down this one small hill and I thought my crampon had gripped but it hadn’t. My foot slipped and I ended up sat on one of the steps. All I could do was laugh!
We were guided to two stunning ice caves that we went into. They had a spectacular blue colour to them and we were all in awe at their beauty. We then carried on our hike and Mr M out did me on the fall as he also didn’t get a sure footing with his crampon and slipped. Unfortunately, he fell on his side in a puddle of muddy water but was thankfully ok but slightly dirty. The next incident involved the girl who had saved me from my Bambi moment, she had got some ice in her eye from the pick and was suffering from blurred vision. It turned out that she was a nurse but her eye was still giving her trouble when we arrived back into town. I hope she recovered ok.
We changed and headed out to the local bar to drink and recount our experience before heading to a little restaurant not far from our lodge and then going to bed.


Day 11 – Fox to Greymouth 07.05.07

We headed back to the guiding lodge in the morning to buy a few souvenirs including some Fox’s Glacier Mints which were attached to a little poem to raise money for a local community centre. I just couldn’t resist them! As it was a nice morning we headed back to Lake Matheson and walked around the Lake. We had hoped to be able to see Mount Cook and Mount Tasman reflecting in the Lake but we still has cloud cover L We did manage to get some nice shots of the glacier from the Lake though. We were both a bit disappointed in Lake Matheson because for most of the walk around the lake you don’t actually see it, instead the pathway guides you through the rain forest and gives you sneak peaks at what you are missing. That aside, it was a pleasant mornings walk even though my left thigh was hurting from my slip on the ice.
We left the lake to make it to Greymouth in time for the early afternoon and soon set about heading for the attraction that was on our list to see – Pancake Rock Geysers!
It was a little drive out from the town of Greymouth but we eventually got there. The rocks were like ant hills and between the rocks you could see the sea. The sea waves would push it into the rocks and explode out of some of the holes and craters. Sometimes with a lot of force and other times just giving a slight spray. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we headed back to Greymouth to have food before turning in for the night.
We looked around the town at the restaurants trying to decide what we wanted to eat. We decided to go for Indian and went to Priya. I saw on the menu that they had shrimp as well as doing Korma curry. I asked if it would be possible to get a shrimp korma and after the waiter checked with the chef I was told it wouldn’t be a problem. My curry was totally stunning and Mr M thoroughly enjoyed his as well. We’ve never had such a good curry in Australia or during our time in New Zealand until this one. It turned out that they also had a restaurant in Franz Josef and they also have one in Timaru, a town before Oamaru. At least we managed to find one of their magnificent restaurants and had a curry that was good enough to rival back home in the UK. How I miss a good prawn korma!


Day 12 – Greymouth to Christchurch 08.05.07

Off we went on the last leg of our journey back to Christchurch. The drive took us through Arthurs Pass where we saw a cloud on the floor! It was a beautiful clear blue sky but there was a big, long, fluffy white cloud that looked like it was on the valley floor. It really isn’t surprising that the Maori call New Zealand Aotearoa as it means land of the long white cloud!
We got in to Christchurch around midday and checked in to the hotel before jumping back in the car to go to the gondola which was just out of town. We took the ride up to the top of the mountain and looked out over Christchurch before heading back down and checking out the city. We went on the tram and saw loads of different sculptures. I like art cities, probably why I also like Melbourne. There’s always so much to see, well there is if you like art.


Day 13 – Christchurch to Sydney 09.05.07

We had the morning to look around some more and buy a few essential purchases such as All Blacks tops and more importantly my birthday pressie. I had nothing in mind for a birthday present and was happy just to have my birthday in NZ but Mr M had other ideas when he saw my face light up at the sight of a NZ blue pearl necklace. Of course I liked it, it was blue but it had so many other colours also shimmering away and was set so lovely in a silver twisted pendant, I liked it because it was so different. We didn’t have much time and it wasn’t long before we had to go to the airport. Our holiday adventure in New Zealand was over, it was time to go back to Sydney.

New Zealand Part One - North Island

Day 1 – Arrive in Auckland 27.04.07

Auckland was, I must admit, a bit of a disappointment. No offence to people who live in Auckland, but the city just didn’t do anything for me. It was ok but it felt like I could be anywhere, it had no real personality. It probably didn’t help that on the first night we ate at a place called The Loaded Hog down by the waterfront. I’d previously seen the menu and the food sounded good but I should have realised why no one else was eating there. The food was the worst I’ve ever experienced in my entire life, no word of a lie! We both ordered steak at about $28NZ each with wasn’t cheap. It looked very fancy when it came out but the test was in the tasting. The amount of meat you got was quite a chunk but then you realise that most of it is fat and gristle, and for a medium to well steak it was looking closer to being medium to rare. In short, the meat was terrible so I decided to just eat the pumpkin and kumara mash and the wilted spinach. OMG! I can someone fuck up that as well! All I could taste was oil. I love pumpkin, it’s probably my favourite veg along with fresh broad beans and I’ve enjoyed sweet potato before as well as spinach, yet it all tasted so revolting. I couldn’t eat it. Mr M managed to swallow some of it down but he clearly didn’t enjoy it either. I ended up at Burger King having large fries – Yum!
However, although the food was bad the people can be very friendly. After an afternoon walk and getting our bearings, we called into a pub which I think was called The Red Lion. It was Friday after work so it was a bit busy but we managed to get a small table that was big enough for just the two of us. It wasn’t too long before a strapping guy in what I remember was an All Blacks top, came and parked his beer on our table. After a while we made eye contact and exchanged pleasantries before nattering away about our trip and where we were going. He was a lovely and friendly young man who happened to work in the travel industry and gave us a few suggestions on things to see and more importantly taught me how to pronounce Rotorua. I do like to be able to pronounce names correctly, particularly when in a foreign land.


Day 2 – Auckland 28.04.07

It was my birthday and after the disaster of the night before with food, we wondered what was best to have for a birthday meal. In the end we opted for an Italian, it has been known that you can fuck up a good Italian meal but it is very rare. We went back to the waterfront to a lovely restaurant which had good food and excellent wine. In all a good night.
During the day we went to the Sky Tower to gaze upon Auckland. It’s quite cool as the clouds in NZ are amazing so as well as good views you get to see some lovely cloud formations. We saw the Museum from the tower and decided to head for that next.
What a walk! The Museum is a fair trek out from the City centre and there are probably easier ways to walk there instead of the very steep street that we chose to hike up. We finally reached The Domain, grounds which the museum is in and headed towards a map to figure out where we had to walk to now. The map looked to be taking us a long way round so we opted to go over the grass hill. There are the two of us hiking up this hill and when we reach the top, we see the Museum straight ahead – hoorah! Then comes the part of getting down the hill, fortunately it wasn’t to steep and the grass wasn’t too damp so I didn’t end up falling on my behind even though I thought it would happen. Across another field, and there is our goal of the Museum. The field was a little muddy and it wasn’t until we reached the other side that we saw the notice that said they had sprayed Round-Up on there. Oh well, not going get any weeds growing on our shoes then!
The Museum was very good and I could have spent much longer in there but time was running short. They had a lovely section on Maori history along with artefacts as well as a beautiful memorial for the soldiers on the top floor and when the sun hit the glass stained windows the pictures on them jumped in to life with glorious colour. It really is a fantastic Museum and with hindsight, there must have been a bus service going out there. It is well worth a visit if you are in Auckland.
We walked back down to the City, stopping at a pub to refresh ourselves with a well earned beer. Which reminds me to look and see if I can get Tui here in Sydney as that was a lovely drop of ale.


Day 3 – Travel to Rotorua 29.04.07

The drive from Auckland to Rotorua was very picturesque even though it wasn’t a particularly nice day. We made good time and got to Rotorua around 1pm. The main thing we wanted to see was the thermal waters and the nice young chap who we met at the pub in Auckland told us to go to Hells Gate! Intriguing!
But first we headed to the thermal waters of Waimangu. A lovely park area where you could spend hours walking around. The steam coming off the waters was very impressing as was their warmth when I put my fingers into a little stream. The one section has a body of water that looked like a bright blue lagoon. It made you want to go in but the fear of knowing you’d burn you skin off was enough to banish that notion at first thought. We had hoped to walk to the 3rd and final bus stop but time was against us again so we headed back early so that we could also get to Hells Gate.
So why go to two parks offering the same thing I hear you ask? Well, there is actually quite a big difference in these to parks. Waimangu is government owned and operated and is very much like walking around a national park, only there are bodies of lovely thermal waters everywhere that you just can’t help but be amazed by. Hells Gate on the other hand is Maori owned and has more Maori traditions involved, every day at about 1pm they give a demonstration of cooking with the thermal waters where you can actually eat the food. I would have adored to have tried some traditionally cooked Maori food but unfortunately we didn’t get to the park until about 4.30pm. Hells Gate was given its name by George Bernard Shaw although the real name for the area is Tikitere. After visiting Hells Gate, I can see why Shaw named it so. Maybe it was the fact that it was very overcast and late in the afternoon but it did seem eerie and yet peaceful. I still wouldn’t fancy walking around there on my own though. But we were happy with our Hells Gate experience plus we got to see some boiling mud! If you are into Spa’s and getting pampered and happen to be in Rotorua, you could pop into Hells for a nice mud spa. Something I would have loved to have tried but sadly didn’t have the time L At least I managed bring a face pack of Mud back with me, although I haven’t tried it yet.


Day 4 – Travel to Wellington 30.04.07

We got up very early as we had a 6 hour drive to the Windy City of Wellies, sorry, Wellington. The drive was surprisingly nice and we were making excellent time. We went over or through Lindis Pass, past Lake Taupo and we had hoped to see Ruapehu but the weather wasn’t nice. We were heading down hill on State Highway 1 towards the little village of Waiouru, then Mr M notices flashing lights in the mirror. Should we be like Thelma and Louise and try to out run him? We were in a rented Daihatsu Sirion, I don’t think we would have got very far. We did the proper thing you should do in such a scenario and pulled over. And then I realise why we have been making such good time, we had been speeding! 125Kph in a 100Kph zone – Busted! Please sign here, please deposit $230NZ to the nearest Westpac within x amount of days. What made me chuckle though, was when the policeman realised we were Brits he said “I had a feeling you would be, it’s usually you guys who we do for speeding here, I think your speed limits are higher than ours”. Mr Plod was actually very nice and pleasant and we first thought that the fine was to be paid on the spot. I delved into my bag for my purse so Mr M and I could put funds together and pay it, when the nice Mr Plod said that we could pay it at the bank as they weren’t allowed to take cash. To which I said that it was a shame as it would have made good beer money. Then thought I probably shouldn’t have said that but he had a sense of humour, laughed and sent us on our merry way reminding us to keep to the speed limits as we had a lot more driving to be doing in NZ. We stopped at the petrol station in the town when Mr M said to look behind. It thought it was going to be the policeman again but instead the clouds had lifted just enough to see a snow capped mountain that looked remarkably like Ruapehu! Turns out it was.
After a few more hours of driving, we made it into Wellington for early afternoon and spent the rest of the day getting our bearings for the next day and having a general look around. Unfortunately, it was raining but we found an Indian restaurant and decided to go there for dinner as it wasn’t very far.


Day 5 – Wellington 01.05.07

One of the main things I wanted to see in the lovely City of Wellington was the Fur Seal reserve. We drove to the Quarry which was by the beach front and took a look around to find out what the score was here. Hmmm, a sign that says it’s a 3 hour walk there and back and that there was no cars allowed beyond that point. Ok, so we should take water. There is nothing near the start of this walk apart from sea and houses so trying to find a shop was out and I didn’t want to waste time in heading back. Luckily we had several water bottles in the car of which some still had water in. After pouring it all into one bottle we had almost 500ml of water. That should do us. We pulled our fleece jackets on, grabbed the camera bags and set off. It was looking doubtful that we would see and seals as the season is May – September if I remember rightly, and it was literally just the beginning of May. I had hope that I would see a seal but also had the realisation that I wouldn’t. Nevertheless, it was a lovely walk around the shoreline and very quiet, We finally saw two other people who were heading towards us, they had already made it to the reserve area and told us that there were two out there. I was so excited! We headed up the hill and stopped at the crest to look out and see if we could spot them. It wasn’t long before Mr M said that he’d seen one and pointed me in the right direction. There on a rock was a wild fur seal sunbaking! It was such a thrill to see and I eagerly snapped away with the camera. After walking around and awing at the natural beauty we were witnessing, we headed back up the crest of the hill we were stopped to see of we could see any that side. At first Mr M was sure that there wasn’t any there and started walking down, I kept looking and sure enough spotted another one! I showed Mr M where it was and again the cameras started clicking away. I’m sure I don’t need 30+ images of seals but I just couldn’t resist it.
We walked back around the shoreline to the car satisfied that we had came and seen what we wanted.
We still had the afternoon and went into the City to look for the cable car. As we had walked a fair distance we stopped for a bite to eat to keep us going before arriving at the Cable Car. It’s kind of like a funicular railway that stops at the University before carrying up the hill to the Botanic Gardens. It’s not a long journey but it is very pleasant but it was getting late and the light was fading so we headed back down to the City.
We walked back to the hotel and noticed that the Welsh Bar, which we had seen the night before but was closed, had lights on and appeared to be open. We, couldn’t not go in could we. It was incredible! It turned out that they are closed on Mondays so it was lucky that we had two nights in Wellington. I noticed the food menu and drooled at the thought of Faggots & Peas and then I saw it, never before I have I seen it on a menu this side of the world – Curry & Chips! The Welsh Bar must be heaven on the other side of the world. That was it, food was sorted for that night. Unfortunately, the lad behind the bar wasn’t too keen on cooking so I was left gutted that I couldn’t have my taste of home L We had no choice but to go elsewhere for food but we decided that we’d go back for one last drink later and to sign the guest book. We headed for a Chinese restaurant across the road, but by the time I ordered I was feeling awful with major stomach cramps. I’m still not sure what caused me to be ill but I hardly touched my food, even though it was nice, and ended up in bed my 10.30pm. And then I was gutted again as I really wanted to go back to the Welsh bar, but it was pretty obvious to look at me that I wasn’t going anywhere.


Day 6 – Wellington to Christchurch 02.05.07

We had an early evening flight to Christchurch and I still wasn’t feeling very well. Mr M suggested that we fly back to Sydney but I was adamant that we weren’t going to miss our holiday. I headed for the chemist and after popping a tablet, started to feel a little better. Due to my illness, I didn’t want to do anything strenuous, actually all I wanted to do was sleep, so we spent the day driving around the outskirts of the City and making sure we knew our way to the airport. We stumbled across a reserve park and parked up to go for a walk, we saw a nice winding road on the bottom of the hill where we where and decided to try and find it. After driving through a lot of housing estates we decided to head back towards the City and just drive about. Sure enough we stumbled on to the lovely windy ocean road that we had seen and drove along that twice, taken in the beauty and splendour of the outskirts of Wellington before we had to head for the airport.
Our flight to Christchurch was delayed and by the time we reached the hotel we had enough time for a quick snack and a glass of wine before heading to bed. Tomorrow we had to be back on the road!

There are not enough swear words...

... for what happened this afternoon.

It was my own stupid mistake, which makes me even more frustrated. I went to my External Hard Drive to grab a few photos only to find that my collection of foldered photos were no longer there, all I had was four semi-recent folders. Everything was gone! I started panicing (not like me!), I couldn't breath properly, my head was spinning and i felt as if I was going to pass out. Then came the tears. I was in such a state that I couldn't even phone Mr M because my brain wasn't functioning properly and I couldn't remember his mobile. Fortunately he phoned me (must have had his spidey senses going) and it was just as well it was him and not some cold caller 'cos all they would have got was a crying hello.

As you know I had updated my OS a few months ago and put all of the photos onto the external hard drive as well as saving them on my laptop and on Mr M's computer. Thank fuck for that at least. Trouble was earlier on I was having problems finding them on my laptop as I was too busy trying to breath rather than logically think where they would be saved. As I started to calm down with the aid of a rather large glass of 42 Below (best Vodka in the world!), I managed to find the files on my laptop. Hugh sigh of relief! The only problem is that the files I lost were all in order and had been named correctly and were neat and lovely and... you get the idea. But that said, I am sooooo happy that I at least have not so tidy copies of them. I'm currently having them swished over to my Mac from Mr M's PC via SAMBA - what a great invention!

So, what happened? How did I manage to fuck up so royally? Well, after I copied all of my photos to my external hard drive I loaded on the new OS from scratch and so wiped everything that was on the Mac. Not a problem, all my photos were stored on the ext HD. Then when I had new folders of photos that I had taken recently that I wanted to back up on the ext HD I copied the main folder across to the same location, thinking, wrongly, that it would realise that I wanted to add the folders inside to the existing ones on the ext HD. But instead what happened was in overwrote the original main file meaning tha it was bye-bye to the original 20 odd folders and hello to the 4 new ones instead of there now being 24 folders.
The reason for my stupidity is that I still don't understand how to use the Western Digital External hard Drive properly and thought it would just update the original main pictures folder and not overwrite the damn thing. Lesson painfully learned!

So once I have the old photos back on my Mac an not on the ext HD, and after re-filing them all nicely my next few days are going to be taken up with buying a shed load of DVDs to burn my photos on and have an old fashioned way of storing them as well. It's something I've been meaning to start doing for awhile and this has proved to me that I need to do it sooner rather than later for fear of losing my photos completely. Yes, I could print them out as well but the cost of doing that would be phenomenal. Just on a recent holiday to NZ I took 3GB of photos and had another 3GB of memory to use as well. I enjoy snapping :-)

And that is also the reason why I haven't blogged for ages. First there was the planning of the NZ trip and then the trip itself. As soon as i can i shall do a 2 part blog of our adventures in New Zealand, but for now all I will say is WOW!



EDIT: After copying across the files and renaming and organising them, I have just started to back them up on the Ext HD only to find that what I thought I had lost I hadn't! I noticed that the scroll bar was longer than usual and after scrolling past nothingness for quite sometime, I finally come across all of my photos. Bloody thing had decided it didn't like the way that I had them set out and his jigged them around into what can only describe as a mess. But they are all there and tomorrow I will start to burn them onto DVD. Damn technology scaring the living jeebies out of me. GRRRRRR! and PHEW! :-D

I'm happy with the life I have thanks

I'm sure I must be missing something, but I just don't understand people's obsession with gaming. That's gaming and not gambling, at least I understand why people would gamble. I know people that spend hours on end playing various computer games and then there are others that have a virtual life. Yes, if you don't like you real life, just go get yourself a virtual one!

I think it's called Second Life or something and then there is also Haribo Hotel. I was not very happy to find out that there was no sweets involved as I like haribo's. Anyway.... the whole gaming, virtual worlds thing got me wondering, do people really have nothing better to do? I mean, do they have any other interests? Go to the pub with REAL friends have any REAL hobbies? And I figured maybe they don't. And then I felt sad for them.

It was interesting as there was a doco on SBS last night about the Yamakasi in Paris who created "the moving-style" where they jump off buildings and sort of bounce around and jump over a flight of stairs to reach the bottom rather than walking. It's incredible to see. I've seen it used in adverts and things like that but I never knew where it came from. It was fascinating to see that it came from a group pf people living in a poor housing estate. It fascinated me because what they were doing was incredible. They could have just hung around the streets terrorising the neighbours, turned into drug addicts or alcoholics but instead they decided to create their own entertainment to escape their everyday lives. They created something beautiful and very artisitic. They were so physically fit that they glided around poles and the moves the made were so elegant, what they do is truly art in a pure form.
I admired them for creating something out of nothing for giving people with no money and possibly no hopes, something to do, something to live for. To do Moving-Style requires great discipline and focus. It was interesting that they didn't lose themself in a game to cope with the real world or to entertain them, they used the real world for their entertainment.

So why do people get sucked in to gaming? Why is having a virtual life so important to them? I have enough trouble with a real life let alone a virtual one. Think I'll stick to having one life thanks!

Woohoo!

Last night my friend and I went to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Initially Mr M and I were going to go but he said he wasn't that fussed on them so my friend came with me instead. I had been looking forward to last night for ages and my friend was also excited about us going concerting. And it was well worth the wait!

After waiting in the queue for merchandise then waiting again for food, we finally made it to our seats to watch the support act.
What we saw was the funniest thing I'd seen in ages, I nearly choked on my burger and was almost put off my food completely. The guy threw his shirt in to the mosh pit only to get it thrown back at him but undeterred he then took of his trousers and continued to perform in his pants and socks. This guy loved himself so much it was hilarious, my friend didn't think a lot of him though and wasn't very impressed. I actually thought he was quite good considering other support acts I have seen, at least the guy could sing. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to think that the only people worth watching are the group you came to see and boo at anything else, regardless of if they are good or not. Kaiser Chiefs is a casing point when they were supporting the Foo's. I adored the Kaisers, as a support act they were wasted and I would love to see them tour in their own right. They have excellent stage presence and boy can they rock! But still they got booed and for no reason whatsoever. I'd like to add that Mr M and I were cheering/screaming and clapping when they finished because they were really good. When they left the stage you could see they were pissed off with the crowd and it was such a shame.
Last night's support act was the same. Okay, so not everyone wants to be subjected to an almost nude, out of shape guy parading on a stage but he was funny for that reason. Due to the bad reaction of the crowd he retorted with vulgar language which I really didn't need or want to hear, but he reacted to the crowd and maybe he shouldn't have. Someone from the crowd threw a water bottle at him and caught him good, must admit to laughing my head of at that, it was a good shot.

Even so, I admire people who are willing to have a go. I wouldn't have the confidence to go on stage, I also don't have talent so I wouldn't even try. As I said, the guy could sing and to put you out of your misery it was Har Mar Superstar!

But onto RHCP.... I've liked them for quite some time now but this was the first time I had seen them live. I was blown away. The way that Flea and John played was just incredible and for the first time ever I actually thought that this group is better live than on studio album. On the albums you just don't get the guitars coming through enough but they make up for it live.
In one part Flea was playing a solo and the lights were dimmed with just a bit of light directed on him, with his bare torso on show and his fingers strumming all I could think at that breathtaking moment was "that would make such a nice black and white shot". This is normal isn't it?

Now don't be disillusioned, I don't fancy Flea it was purely an artistic moment. I regularly see things and think "wow, that would make such a nice picture" and it always happens when I don't have my camera with me. I don't think they would have allowed my camera into the the arena though as I use a DSLR and from the seat I would have had to have used my 70-300mm lens and my point and shoot just wouldn't have cut the mustard on it anyway. Of my lenses my 70-300 is my favourite as it helps when I can't get close and it has a fixed F5.6 aperture which proved fantastic at Taronga Zoo on Sunday afternoon. Which reminds me that I need to pull my finger out and get assignment 3 completed soon...

Bugger!

So I stuffed up before Easter which meant that we were car-less (or rather Ka-less) over the Easter break. We had intended to go driving over the Easter weekend up to Newcastle and the Hunter Valley as we have yet to see these wonderful places. All was good, I bought a new green slip and headed off to the RTA to re-register the car.
Nice chappy at the counter looks at my reg papers and asks "pink slip?" BUGGER! And there it was clear as day at the bottom of the paper work, a pink slip was needed in order to re-register. I still don't know how I missed it apart from it must have been in my blindspot. I looked at the reg paper several times before going to the RTA and I did not see that I needed a pink slip. I had also stuffed up with the due date as I thought I read the 8th April when it was actually the 1st! Must get my eyes checked LOL
The worse thing is, I had to get one last year as well because my car is over 3 years old, but it still didn't cross my mind this year. Lesson learnt!

So this morning she was booked in for the yearly tyre kicking routine that is the pink slip. We dropped her off at 8am and Ford would phone me when she was ready. About half an hour ago I decided to call Ford as I hadn't heard from them. All day I kept my mobile by my side, waiting for the call. Nothing, squat, zip, nada. So I phone Ford only when I tried to call my mobile froze dead, I couldn't do anything, couldn't even switch it off. Only one thing for it, take the battery out. Put it back and my phone jumped to life and I tried to phone Ford again. De, De, De.... De, De, De... you know that sound of the number is disconnected. I checked the time and knew that the garage closed at 5pm, it was a quarter to. Have the unplugged the phone so they can bugger off early I wondered. Next thing I know I get a text message come through saying that I have a new voicemail. Strange, my phone hasn't been switched off for long, talk about timing. Sure enough it was Ford telling me the car was ready but this message was left at 10.57am! I was certain I hadn't missed the call, the phone was always by my side. Still, I checked the missed call list to double check and sure enough there was no call! WTF? Sometimes I really despair of technology.

I have had my Sony Ericsson K300i phone for over two years and this isn't the first time the thing has frozen on me but it is the first time I've 'lost' a call. I previously had a T68i, I like Sony Ericissons and I loved that phone. It was blue and it was curvy, exactly my requirements! I loved the way it sat in my hand, it was small but because of it's shape you never felt like you were going to drop it. I did manage to slip it too quickly out of my bag one day though and broke half of the clip on the back. I could have bought a new back but it wasn't the integrated battery back that broke, it was the clip on the case, a little spring loaded thing. I was gutted! It still worked okay but the back was always a little loose after that where it wasn't clipping in properly. For some reason I could never send picture SMS from that phone even though it had the capability and I never have found out why. So the time had come to look for a new phone and the main requirement (apart from being able to make and recieve calls and SMS) was that it had to be blue! I can tell you that in a world where you can now get everything in pink as standard, trying to find a blue phone was not easy. I liked the K300i because it came in blue all be it a darker blue than I would have preferred and it was a Sony Ericsson. But given the choice, I'd rather have bought a brand new version of my old T68i.

They just don't make them like they used to.

It's officially Autumn in Sydney, in can only mean one thing....

...It's time for Sydney women to bring out their scarfs!

Seriously, today is a lovely sunny 23degreesC and I saw a woman wearing a scarf. Not a silk scarf or anything flashy, just a pink wollen (actually it's probably synthetic) winter scarf. I don't know whether it's a Sydney thing or an Australian thing but as soon as Autumn is officially announced, they are out on the streets wearing their scarfs. It's not cold, in fact today has been quite warm but the scarfs are out. They are worn almost like a normal person would wear a necklace, being tied around the neck as decoration rather than for purpose. But the fact is, scarfs are warm.

There are no coats or jackets worn, just standard casual tops with a scarf around the neck. It's very bizarre and a sight anyone visiting Sydney should look out for.

All this talk of keeping warm is making me feel like a nice cold beer :-)

Music, the answer to all the problems

So climate change is the new topic of conversation from the worlds governments to people waiting for the bus. I'm already bored of it! Yes, we know we've fucked up the Earth but some scientists have also stated that what we are seeing is normal and that we are just going through the Worlds natural cycle. Anyone remember the Ice Age?
But what really annoys me is that everyone wants to be seen as doing the right thing and forcing those views on to us. I have a small 1.3L car which is very economical on petrol but we're constantly told how bad cars are for the environment, well sorry but I'm still going to drive my car. The other alternative is you give me a horse and cart, I don't mind. We're told we HAVE to recycle with councils forcing us to do so and yet cutting the rubbish collection to every other week (in the UK). NO! I want my rubbish picked up EVERY WEEK. As tax payers we have a right to stand up to the people we elected to power and tell them we aren't happy.

I'm sick of being told what to do. I'm old enough and ugly enough to make my own mind up and live with my own choices. If I want to eat meat and wear leather and wool and hell, even fur, then that is my choice and not for someone else and their beliefs to force me not to. PETA don't care about animals they just care about grabbing headlines, I'll stick to supporting charities that DO CARE about the animals, such as the RSPCA.

Back to the issue of Climate Change.... The latest I've read and heard on the news is that there will be concerts held around the world to bring awareness to the issue. Many famous people such as Madonna have signed up to perform, but they would wouldn't they. A chance to be in the public eye again, to show how much they care. And of course, who came up with the idea of these concerts? None other than the Saint himself, Bob Geldof. And how much does he cream from this idea I wonder. Sorry, that's right, he's all for charity and helping the third world. Sick of hearing it Bob. When they held the first Live Aid concerts why didn't the hold back some of the money and put it into high interest accounts to get more money to help the needy? And where does the money go? All the money that people gave for the victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami, where did it go? We see the pictures on our TV sets and, oh look, nothing has changed yet they had millions of dollars in aid. Corupt governments and politicians! Let's help the fat cats get fatter shall we.
But money aside, these new concerts are to raise awarness to Climate Change, to tell us to use less electricity. So why haven't I heard that these concerts will be played accoustically? What does it matter, lets throw a concert so celebs and musicians can be seen to be doing the right thing and boost their popularity, we'll have one big party.

Bring out the party poppers boys, it should be a good one.

Shut up, my head hurts!

We went out last night to a local pub for some drinks and food with friends. It was a good night with much laughter and I must have had a good five glasses of sparkling wine. I was already quite drunk when we got home so why did I open that bottle of red wine? Why?

This morning when the alarm when off it was like someone was hitting my head with a hammer. I fumbled around for the headache tablets and gulped down water to try and get rid of the dryness, it felt like my mouth had been turned into the desert. And every move I made was slow and bending down was a no-no, so the bottle top off the water could just stay on the floor. Of course it was inevitable that I would end being on the porcelain phone to God! And then back to bed to sleep some more.
Even now, after managing some toast and a cup of tea, I still don't feel quite human and tonight we have arranged to go out with some other friends to a Mexican. I really don't feel up to it but this was arranged last week, unlike last night which was arranged yesterday.

Oh, I feel like shit! I'd love to crawl back under the duvet but I have stuff that needs to be done today, such as getting the greenslip for the car and renewing the rego. It's not up until the 8th but that falls over the easter weekend so it's highly unlikely that the RTA will be open, so today it is! I also need to go grocery shopping and I'd ideally like to finish my assignment as I only have a little more to do on it. Of course, if I had the time, energy and didn't feel so rough, I'd also like to install Adobe's Creative Suite which I told myself I couldn't do unless I finished my 2nd assignment. But chances are i won't have the time today.

On a brighter note, I've got the gig RAM module installed and I can't believe the difference in my Mac. The other day I had five apps open which included iTunes and Photoshop Elements. Before the upgrade and I was using both apps, the iTunes would briefly skip while Elements went to work but this time It all worked smoothly. It was great!

Goodbye March, Hello April

The weekend was rather good! Went out with friends on Saturday and yesterday I finally managed to take some more photo's for my assignment. I still feel like a right idiot when out using a tripod but fortunately Mr M kept me company. I got some lovely dusk/night shots of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. That is, they are lovely to me. Other people might not think so which is why they won't be appearing on here. I'm still not comfortable about people, particularly strangers, seeing my photo's yet. I still have a couple more to take for my 2nd assignment and then I need to do some tweaking so that it's all laid out correctly before submitting. At least I feel like I'm getting somewhere now!

The other reason why the weekend was good was beacuse the Rabbitoh's and the Storm won their matches :-)

And today I finally got my RAM module! Hopefully get that fitted this evening, I can't wait to see the difference. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

I read today that blogger Original Mel is jetting off to Europe today. Time flies doesn't it? Hopefully Mel will settle in quickly and get back to her blogging duties. I, like many others, are looking forward to reading about her adventures in Europe.

And that's about it for now as I need to keep it short and sweet and knuckle down to some studying!
Which reminds me "BEKI! GET WRITING THAT NOVEL, 379 WORDS IS NOT ENOUGH" But I hope it's going well ;-)

I forgot!

To say that I watched my first ever English Super League match today :-)

It was surprisingy good and was a very close game between the Wakefield Wildcats and the Warrington Wolves. The only thing I did notice was that the English League is not as elegant as the NRL here, if you can use such a word as elegant to describe rugby! And I still think that British players look more weedy that the NRL players with the exception of a few who weren't British born and had the usual rugby player physique - that's what I'm talking about! You know, the big thighs and broad shoulders which make them better for tackling. You seem them go for the ball and you know they will put the opposition on it's arse with ease! Proper rugby players.

At one point though it did look like there may be a punch up going to start, but it never came to fuition :-( I love good rugby punch up!

Roll on 8pm :-) :-) :-)

Knock, Knock

Only that's the problem! Due to the design of the houses in our estate/cul de sac we don't have door knockers but a buzzer intercom thingy. You can only hear the buzzer intercom thingy when you are downstairs and due to the design of the house you are never far away from the front door when you are downstairs. There are no corridors and it's all open plan. The only doors down stairs apart from the obvious front door are - back door, door to garage, door to downstairs toilet and from there is the door to the laundry. The front door leads straight into the front room and the buzzer intercom thingy handset is on the wall to the left of the sofa, if you are downstairs you can hear it just fine. We also have a buzzer thingy handset upstairs on the landing but that one doesn't make any noise and I don't know if it was ever supposed to and it's broke or whether it has never made a noise.

Door knockers are much easier! Anyway, I realised this afternoon when I looked at the tracking of my parcel, that I had missed them this morning and I blame the stupid intercom thingy. It wouldn't have happened with a proper door knocker!
I should have been installing my 1GB of RAM today had I heard the door. Thought I probably would have chickened out of installing it my own and waited until tomorrow and got Mr M to help/actually fit it LOL But instead I know have to wait until they re-deliver it on Monday, I don't even get an option to call them and go to their depot to pick it up, I just have to wait until Monday. I'm so gutted that I didn't hear the door this morning :-(

My Adobe Creative Suite software has been sat on the floor for a about a month while I sorted out getting my Mac to the correct spec to install it and all I want to do is have a play with it. I'm hoping that once installed and I've had a good go at it that I will become more inspired to get on with my photography studies, which have come to a grinding halt. I'm hoping to go out over the weekend and get some night shots of Sydney for my assignment. This will probably have to take place on Sunday though as tomorrow night we have Earth Hour where everyone is supposed to turn their lights off, though it may make for interesting photos! I wonder if Luna Park will turn all of it's lights off? Weird!

When I was first told of Earth Hour, it was said that it was happening tonight and I didn't get the lights bit, I thought you had to turn everyting off. This of course led me to shout "I'm not turning everything off! Don't the realise that there's footy on!" I was then reassured that it was only the lights and not everything so I could still watch the Friday night footy. Of course it helps that it's happening on Saturday instead of tonight. I'm not too sure what to make of the idea, I appreciate that we need to help the environment but I don't think turning off the lights for an hour will make that much difference in the grand scheme of things. It would be much more beneficially if the Aussie government signed up to the Kyoto agreement, I don't understand why they don't.

I have also often wondered why the governments weren't interested in the planet years ago, why the change of heart all of a sudden? I also don't think that countries make the most of solar power, hydro and wind power. Though, I must say, the last time I was in Leichardt I noticed that some of the street lights had solar panels on them and that Leichardt Council are trying to use more solar power. Good on 'em! It's about time it was looked at more seriously, now all we need is for other local councils to catch on.


Anyway, in other news...... I went to Woolies this afternoon to buy stuff for tonights dinner and I was so happy to find Italian Parmesan! Proper imported Italian Parmesan! Hoorah! This may seem very bizarre to some of you but I love Italian Parmesan and I usually have to travel to Leichardt to buy it due to supermarkets usually only stocking cheese made in Australia. Oh, and if you love cheese as much as I do and you want to know the best State for tasty Aussie cheese - Tasmania! YUM! :-)

The First Dance

Even though Mr M and I aren't getting married until we go back to the UK, I watch and see things that start me wondering about our wedding. So far I can see the biggest headache being 'The First Dance' with cries of "do I have to?". Mr M isn't a dancer and the only times that we have danced together have been in the house when i have some music playing and alcohol has been consumed.

Aside from the actual dancing, you have to choose the song to dance to. OMG! Do you know how difficult that is going to be. I'm not a fan of soppy love songs and Mr M is more inclined to go with The Clash than Celine Dion. Which is a good thing becuase I couldn't stand having Celine Dion warbling on our wedding day. In fact *mental note to self - make sure that no Celine Dion gets played on wedding day*

So, perhaps we could go for something different. Here's my alternate list of songs so far:
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Green Day - Stuck With Me
Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less & Less
OPM - Heaven Is A Halfpipe
Foo Fighters - No Way Back
The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Weezer - Keep Fishin'

Just a select few for now!

I had better add that the list above is only a joke and will not be our first song. I'm actually thinking of scraping the first song idea anyway, I don't see why we have to use a tradition if we don't want to. It's a radical idea but something that many people are ditching, infact when we went to Mr M's best mates wedding last year, they didn't have a first dance. They did have a harp playing thought the afternoon which was lovely.
I'm also thinking of charging per head for people who want to come along, why should we pay for them to eat? (semi-joking, that thought really has crossed my mind but we will opt for fewer guests instead. And maybe still charge them....)

It's no wonder people say weddings are stressful. Someone remind me why we even bother? Maybe there is some tax break for married people or is that only if you have sprogs these days?
Tax break would be good, and make it worthwhile and maybe then we could pay for all the food LOL




NOTE: On a serious note, we won't be inviting any children. If any guests have sprogs they'd better get a babysitter because the people who know me, know that I am not child friendly and have a zero policy when it comes to them.








Edit: As much as I personally, do not like children and do not want any of my own, I would not see any harm come to a child. Most of them annoy the crap out of me but there are a few little cheeky angels out there who occassionally melt my heart, however, these are very few and far between. I believe in discipline and feel that this is lacking in most people parenting skills, the evidence is in the way their children behave. There is nothing wrong with smacking children to teach them right from wrong, if you do it right you will only ever need to smack them once, the threat of a smack the next time they do domething wrong will be good enough. I appreciate that some people don't understand the difference between smacking and child cruelty - smacking involves using force on the bottom and I don't mean a light tap. I do not believe in hitting children, or cliping them over the head; that is cruel. But when they do something wrong they need to understand there and then and not when 'Daddy get's home', by that time they will have forgotton what they did.
If I see you smacking your child in public, I will not give you dirty looks but let you carry on with your disciplining. I only give dirty looks to parents who can't control they're screaming and annoying brats.
And if you are looking for evidence that discipline through smacking works, then take a look at the animal kingdom. Watch a mother with it's young and you will see that she let's them get so far and then smacks them. It works!

Accidents Happen

Unfortunatley.

Heard on the news yesterday about a car crash in Kogarah in South Sydney. The car went onto the pavement and caused injury to nine people, one of whom has since died.
The scene shown was awful and I can't imagine what the people at the bustop where the crash happened must have been thinking when the saw the car heading straight for them.

Of course, as with any car accident the first thing people start shouting about is speed! I have always maintained that it is not speed that kills but people inability to control it. Heck, how slow are we gonna have to start driving? And of course there are a number of ways to reduce speed, the most widely used being the speed bump. Those things are a menace and I personally believe that they can cause serious harm to people. For example, if someone is in the back of an ambulance with certain injuries and they go over a speed bump they could actually kill that person. Okay, it's a bit dramatic but it could happen.
More often it is people with other injuries that suffer, such as those with bad backs. You try going over a speed bump as slow as you want with a bad back and it will still cause pain! I occassionally get severe neck pain and I despise going over those things when I am already suffering as it makes it much worse. I know that speeding is a major issue but why can't they just put in more speed camera's?
I'm just waiting for the first person to take a council to court for injuries suffered/made worse from speed bumps. It will happen one day and then I can rejoice in them all being taken up :-)

But back to that terrible accident...
By all accounts the driver was a 42 year old woman and her instructor was with her in the car. The poor woman was, understandably in shock and I can't imagine what she must be going through. I very much doubt that she will ever get behind the wheel of a car again. The brother of the instructor said on the radio today that he thought that she probably put her foot on the accelerator rather than the brake. This was something that I thought when I heard about the accident last night. I remember when I was learning to drive, I made the silly mistake of having my brother teach me to drive, and that saying about family and teaching is completely true! My big bro' was a qualified driving instructor with a well known driving school in the UK. I was a 17 year old nervous wreck! Made worse by my bro'. However, he did say that there are too instincts when it comes to fear, flight and fight. Well, I was clearly flight! This means that when you panic you basically shut down, it takes over you and you let it. Fight, obviously means that you fight through the fear and control it, your mind stays focussed on the job in hand. Problem is, I've never responded well to being shouted at. That aside, and after many years of being fearful of driving, I realised that I had a major problem, I was more than normal scared. I was having panic attacks when I climbed into the drivers seat of a stationary vehicle!

I overcame this by learning to drive with a female instructor. I told her about my past history and she booked me in for a lesson the following morning, so that it gave me less time to worry about it. I never looked back. But I remember that all of the cars I drove when I was learning had dual controls. It was something that I was insistent on, because if I did something wrong or if I got too out of control with fear, I knew that the instructor could take control of the vehicle. It made me feel safer. And I wondered with that accident if dual controls were fitted, and I would guess with the outcome that they weren't.
I don't think it is legal to have dual controls fitted in learner cars, it's certainly not in people's cars that get used to learn to drive in. But I think if your profession is as a driving instructor you should have your own vehicle and it should be fitted with dual controls. Rather than blaming speed, why don;t we look at other ways that the accident could have been avoided, with the instructor taking control. I'm not blaming the instructor, no one is to blame, it was just a tragic accident. But surely the instructor knew that she was no longer in control of the car and as such could have taken control of the vehicle IF it had dual controls.

There is no right or wrong here only considerations and sadness that such a terrible accident happened :-(

Eat an Apple or look out of the Windows

I converted to Apple around 2002. I bought an iMac flat panel, you know the one where the screen is attached to the dome base by a shiny metal and movable neck. I loved it from the moment I saw it on the TV Adverts and found it very easy to use.
As mentioned in a previous post, I have, until recently, still been using the original OS that came with the machine. Now that I have updated the OS to the latest load I have been wondering whether I converted to a bad Apple.

You see, I have had many problems since updating the OS but I can accept that it's just change and I have to get used to it. It has better security than my old OS, which is a good thing even though it was a pain in the arse to figure out. With the new OS came a new version of iTunes and this has to be the biggest pain in the arse to date.

I have a 3rd Gen 20gb iPod. Bless, the little thing has been serving me well and the only sign of problems and age is with the remote control unit that plugs into the headphone jack. It's great for using while training as I can skip through songs and unjust the volume without having to look at my iPod. Recently, it has started cutting out on the left earplug but comes back when I jiggle the wire. So I know it's a connect fault and need to by a new remote control unit.

I've put loads of albums on to iTunes recently that I haven't got on my iPod, so yesterday I upload a couple of those albums. Initialy, as in for seconds, it was ok but then went in to scanning for "gapless playback". It would get stuck doing this and freeze my iTunes and lock up my iPod which meant that I had to pull him from the dock because he wouldn't eject properly. Today I have had both crash on me and my poor little iPod went into scan disk mode to check the HD is was alright. Fortunately, he gave me the tick of approval. However, I had to force my iTunes to quit twice before it actually did.

I'm so annoyed!

My iPod doesn't have "gapless playback" so why does it go through the process everytime I move songs to my iPod? AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

I wonder if it's a ploy by Apple to make us buy the latest and greatest iPod which actual does support "gapless". I've been through the Apple disscussions forum and many other people are suffering the same problem as I am. And it seems like we're all pissed off about it. But how long before we have a fix? God only knows! And should you happen to see God, could you ask him for me please? Thanks :-)

I just read...

a blog by a stranger that I love reading everyday http://youlooklikeafrog.blogspot.com/
Original Mel put what colour her blog should be in her recent post, so I decided to take a look at the quiz and see what mine would be

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Hehe, it's blue! My fave colour. Couldn't give a shit about what it says, i was more concerned with what colour it would give me :-)



Hmmm, I really should learn how to do this blog thing properly. Particularly linking blogs that I frequent regularly such as http://beki.typepad.co.uk/
Had to find a way of putting it in somewhere!

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

No, not my hair but that of Melbourne Storms Matt King.

For those of you who aren't aware just yet, I am now very much enjoying the Rugby League! Being Welsh I should enjoy rugby but in the past in has been a game that I had very little enthusiasm for but since coming to Australia I have been swept up and away with the NRL - It's great!

Of course, as I have a soft spot for Melbourne (despite living in Sydney) one of the teams I support is the Melbourne Storm and who wouldn't support a team that has a player that looks like Sideshow Bob :-) I took great delight last Friday shouting "Go Bob!" everytime Matt King had possession of the ball. Tonight they were playing the Canberra Raiders and won - yay! But while I was watching I couldn't find "Bob" on the pitch. I frantically played a game of "Where's Bob?" while cheering and screaming at the TV. I finally caught a glimpse of a guy that.... no wait... that... that is "Bob"! But the "Bob" on my screen was no longer.
Yes, Matt King has shaved off his hair.
I couldn't believe it, I was in shock and I could no longer shout "Go Bob" because without the hair he's just, well, too normal.
Fortunately, Kingy was a good chap and shaved it all off for The Worlds Greatest Shave to help the fight against Lukeamia.
At least he had a good reason to lose the trademark 'fro.

I have scoured the net but so far I haven't found any pics of hairless Matt but I will edit this post and add one when I find one.

Today, I've been mainly....

Putting yet More music into my iTunes. Not only mine but Mr M's as well seeing how he lost his library and is building/deleting/adding from mine which I managed to copy over for him.

Today, I have added:
The Who - Then & Now
Mattafix - Signs of a struggle
Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
Panic! At The Disco - A fever you can't sweat out
Eminem - Curtain Call
Various - Sound of the Suburbs
The Clash - The story of the Clash
The John Butler Trio - Sunrise over sea
The Jam - Greatest Hits
Guns N Roses - Greatest Hits
Various - Music from The Long Way Round
Peter Gabriel - Shaking the tree
Dolly Parton - A life in Music (Thanks to Beki for her comment on MySpace which reminded me that I hadn't put Dolly on)
Patrizio Buanne - The Italian
Savage Garden - Truly madly completely
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Bag of hits
Simon & Garfunkel - Tales from New York
Tori Amos - Tales of a librarian
Robert Palmer - At his very best
Chris Rea - Old light through new windows
Lighthouse Family - Postcards from heaven

From this latest offering you can probably tell that the rest of my iTunes collection is just as eclectic. I love listening to music while at the computer which is why I have so many of my CDs stored on it. Only problem is the last time I copied my library back over I had to re-do all my playlists. When I copied the library over to Mr M's PC I remembered to put the XML file into the right folder which meant that it kept the playlists. Only problem is that it doesn't remember which songs go into the playlists, so I had to manually move them all about which meant that some albums aren't showing the track list in the right order. I'll have to take a look to see if there is any way or preserving the order as I'm going to have to go through the same issue the next time I load a new OS (probably around Christmas unless I succumb and buy it earlier, like when they releas it!) as I like to do a fresh install rather than just upgrading. Only because I think you have less problems with a clean install though you do have to reload all other software.... hmmm. No, even with all the hassles I still would do a clean install for a new OS.

My current iTunes library is sitting at 3266 songs, 8.8 days, 13.63 GB!!