Older single women seeking men

Yesterday my neighbour rang me in the middle of a customer meeting, to invite me for drinks at her place together with some other women that live in the building. I eventually arrived about 1 hour later than the rest, and by then they had finished several bottles of champagne between them. It turned out to be 5 older women between 65 and 92. Almost all they could talk about was how hard it was to find suitable single men. Most of them were widowed a long time, and every time their daughters had a date, they would ask them to check if he had a suitable father for them. It was really amusing.
This sort of shows that we women really should go out with younger men, rather than, as we usually do, older ones. At least if we do not want to end up deserted at old age ;-)

Hunter Valley

My friend Chaia invited me to go tho Hunter Vally this weekend. As Hunter Valley is one of the major wine district in Australia and the main activity normally travelling around the Vineyards, wine tasting, I was easily persuaded. I signed up to stay with her friends in a small cottage at a vineyard and was looking forward to a weekend of sampling delicious beverages.
How wrong I can be!
The main event for the weekend was running! There were 4 categories, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 6.25k. It was just to choose. Having not done much running in the past 18 years I had to go for the 6.25k one, but even that is not easy being terribly unfit. We did have some fun first. Friday evening we drove up from Sydney, had dinner in a pub and then watched cricket and drank beer at the cottage. On Saturday we fit in 3 vineyards before registering for our races. There were 7 of us staying at the cottage and we had 2 x Marathon, 2 x half marathon, 2 x 10k and me at 6.25, so a fair mix. In the evening we carbo-loaded with pasta and beer and watched more cricket. A very nice day!
So Sunday, race day... I had found my old running shoes, bought a pair of shorts and was lent a "Woodstock Runners" singlet. We headed up early as the Marathon runners started at 8.00 am. Then they all took off at various times in the morning until it was my turn at 10.00. I set off way too fast, so when I came to the first hill there was nothing left. I walked up the hill and then set up at a more moderate speed for an unfit Sissi, around 8 min/km. I kept this average speed. Running probably at 6 min/km and walking up the hills. When I came to the last hill I was overtaken by Brendan, who was just finishing his Marathon! But, I finished in 49 min, 41st place out of 71 and although I hurt in many places now - it felt quite good. May well go with them again...

1 year in Oz - Blog Break

After 1 year in Oz I need to do some thinking. I do not know if I like it here and what I will do going forward.
There will be a break in blogging while I am thinking.
Thanking those who were interested in what I had to say up to now.
Sissi

A nice initiative

Having lunch at a pub with free WiFi so decided I could do some writing whilst waiting for my food (ham, cheese and pineapple melt on Turkish bread).
In my local supermarket, which is very nice, apart from that they only sell food, they have a customer service competition amongst the people who works on the tills. You cast a vote for someone who has treated you nicely, and don't if it is nothing special. They are quite service minded anyway normally, but this is quite a nice initiative. They always pack your bags for you, but you can see they are taking extra care what they put in each bag, fruit and veg in one, meat in one, not too heavy etc. The guy that served me yesterday had an A4 paper explaining who he is. It has a picture of himself in uniform, so that you can see it is him. It also have a picture of what I think may be his wedding. He answers questions like: What do I like to do when not working (playing cricket), what food do I like best (any Asian) etc. By the time it is your turn (they never have more than one person waiting at a time), you feel you know him, and then if he is nice, you vote for him. They even have league tables on the walls for individuals and teams.

Tomorrow is another food & Wine festival in Manly. Seems a lot bigger than last time!

More Winter

So, finally it is officially Winter in Manly. Last year when I arrived here, I happily went out in shorts and a sweatshirt most days. I did not really look for a jacket until we had a particularly horrible day.

The first real winter storm happened last weekend and washed away a lot of the sand from our lovely beach. The poles that hold up the nets for the beach-volleyball courses were washed away and a lot of the sand is missing. We have been told the sand normally come back - guess we will see.

Also, Manly is feeling less like a tourist town. There are not many people swimming (but the surfers are still in the water) although I am told the water is still warm, probably 20-22 degrees, but as the air is cool you don't really need to go for a swim to cool down.

Many restaurants are closing for renovations, including the favourite Fish Cafe. Yesterday was the last day so went there to say thanks for many great meals. They ended up thanking us for being good customers. We did ring in advance and they saved us half of our usual table (it is a table for 4 and two other people were already eating at it when we rang to book, but the moved it apart a little bit), the last 2 lobster tails and the last bottle of our favourite wine. They gave us free garlic bread for starters and extra side orders with the lobster. I think they are hoping we will be back after the holidays. They were really busy, looked like all their regulars were coming on the last day!

Today we had 15 degrees and I was wearing my denim jacket with thick white fluffy lining and was wishing for a scarf on the ferry. The pubs are advertising roaring open fires and everyone look miserable and cold. But really it isn't that bad.

The flu is here of course, both variants. I am pretty sure I had the normal stuff, but there are nearly 100 cases of confirmed swine flu in Sydney and every cruise ship that are visiting gets checked after they manage to let someone infected out on Sydney's streets a week or so ago.

So, all in all, winter here is like regular Swedish summer, but it feels worse for some reason.

Spoilt with fish

I am getting very spoilt on the food front. When I moved to Sydney I was very happy eating Barramundi, which probably has the same status and similar texture as Cod in Europe. I used to order Barramundi whenever I could. Over the year I have migrated to John Dory, which is a very delicious white fish, with thick flaky meat. I usually have my John Dory at our weekly lunch at the Manly Fish Cafe. However, the last couple of weeks they have had some absolutely great lobster tails with garlic and ginger. But recently picked up some fish at the Market. The John Dory's were to large so got some Barramundi. I thought it would be fine. Unfortunately when I finally got to eat it I was very disappointed. I am sure it was not the cooking, but just me getting used to the nice stuff.

Not very well

I am stuck with the cough from hell. I don't have a fever or sore throat - I just cough if I try to talk & and have a very silly voice, and it is not very pleasant. Fortunately I have managed to work from home most of this week, but that still means work. Telling people to e-mail or SMS instead of calling is not working and I myself get frustrated when I e-mail and then realise whoever is off site and I have to call anyway if I need a quick answer. Today revelation hit me - there is medication stuff. Not even considering a pharmacy I headed off to the corner shop for some Coke and throat thingys. Bought a packet of Strepsils. It said on the package suck on one every 2-3 hours. However - I found out they only last for 15-20 min, so you end up taking 2-3 for each hour. They give a great relief so it is hard not to take one every time you have to talk to someone. As a result - I could talk without coughing at the end of the day - but I do feel a bit light-headed & groggy. I have read the back of the package but am not sure exactly if I am in any danger of anything.
To ensure my absence of coughing during the evening and reduce the risk of "Strepsil- poisoning" I found a "bin-end" quite cheap bottle of red wine called Cock & Bull and it absolutely works. One little sip and cough is gone, but you have to continue sipping... What I really would like is some Swedish Blossa Glogg with Rum (hot wine and spices, but IKEA has no licence to sell it here). Guess I really should get some cough medicine, but have no idea about how to go about to get the real stuff over here (I am talking Swedish brand names Coccilana and Mollipect) which has been the only stuff working for me. Ideally taken together (not allowed - and makes your heart go funny - but works!). I tried to get it in England but they do not do prescription cough medicine in any circumstances - and I guess in any case not one that contains morphine ;-(
I really would like to just take tomorrow off sick, but really can't. Nobody at work will care if I don't work tomorrow, but shit will hit the fan if I do not deliver my current project on time, and tomorrow I have several serious issues to solve. Any one of them not solved, may cause a delay and I might be sent back to Europe quicker than expected...

Lawn Bowling

The GFC (Global Financial Crisis) has not hit our entertainment budget yet. A couple of weeks ago we had a Project Management seminar, with around 50 PMs and a very pleasant dinner in the evening, with a pub-crawl to follow. I now know how much it costs to take a taxi home from the city ($50).
Last week we did lawn bowling. This is a boule-like sport which is played with large, unbalanced balls. Around 70 had accepted, but only around 10 showed up at the start. Personally I blamed the secretary who sent out the agenda after people responded. Before the fun - we had to endure an hour's lecture on Operational Health and Safety. The presenter must be credited for at least trying to make it a bit fun and interesting. Another 15 dropped in over the next hour.
Afterwards we got a crash-course in how to play the game, free bar & nice finger food. I would have posted a picture of Sissi-in-action, but sadly I can't find the camera cable.

Clean Teeth

One of my benefits for working here is a private healtcare plan, which means everything gets paid for by my private insurance, paid by my employer. This include a dentist check-up a year (plus all treatment I need - if any), and as it runs yearly and I joined in June, I booked a time at the dentist which operates on the ground floor of our office building, with the cool name of Duang Hong.
I haven't been for around 6 years and either things have moved on pretty swiftly - or I just visited one of the gadget mad dentists. This one had an x-ray machine that looked like one of those new airport body-scanners. Swished around me at various angles and playing a tune as well. It took pictures of all my teeth which got uploaded to a computer screen in full colour and was the main basis of how the dentist did his investigation. He also did take a couple of the old-fashion x-rays as well. Then it was time for the cleaning part, and I got ear-phones with a choice of music, and sun-glasses to protect me against the bright light.
All-in-all I was in the clear. He found a filling that could do with replacing, but nothing urgent. Not too bad after 6 years!

Table for all

We are now the proud owners of a new dining table. All are welcome for a meal when you have the opportunity. with winter arriving (maybe it is already here - hard to say) it is way to cold to sit on the balcony unless the sun is shining. Otherwise there are no good news. Work is taking all my time and blogging is behind as I don't have time to do things - and it would be too boring to write about work every day.
Truth is that I am responsible for upgrading the alarm system at one of the Australian telecom operators. I have a fixed deadline, but delays outside of my control and a lack of resources is making it near impossible. It does not help all the HW has either been delayed or re-routed somewhere inconvenient. It is interlinked with projects that need to be done before (that are late) and projects coming after - which I will get in a lot of trouble for delaying, so I spend most of my time "fire-fighting" and re-scheduling. Not given up though - I usually find a way ;-)

Here I come

Just booked tickets to Europe.
I will be in Stockholm the weekend 4-5th July (hopefully seeing Karin & Ove, Anna & Magnus), leaving on the Monday afternoon from Skavsta to Liverpool (Lars and Mia - can do lunch in Nyköping perhaps if you are around and fancy an outing - or maybe we can come down to Linköping). I will then be in England until Saturday 11th mid-day, leaving for Copenhagen. Helsingborg should be Saturday afternoon (Hi to Brita, Agneta, Marie & Emily I hope) and then the over-night coach to Stockholm, as there were no suitable flights or trains. Sunday the 12th I am flying back to Australia, landing Monday evening.
So, if you are around and like to meet up - please let me know where and when.

Not the recession

We have a building site next door, and in the beginning it was a bit irritating to hear the starting of hammering early in the morning on Saturdays and on WorkFromHome days. However, recently it has been quiet and as I was WFH all day I noticed that there was really no work going on. They recently announced the sale of the two penthouses for AUD 13M (79M SEK & 6.4M GBP), so I did not think they had run out of money.
Fortunately, senile me, forgot to press "2" in the lift, so got chatting to the guy who lives on "15". He told me the builder had been fired and the council had told the developer he was not allowed to let the purchaser of the two pent-houses knock them into one.
I have a feeling it will be quiet for a long time (which is good for us) as the developer is struggling to hire a new builder because they do not want to take on a half-finished job (which is bad for the developer). Anyway - I will have several more long sleeps on Saturdays coming up.

Food & Wine

Mudgee wine producers arranged the Manly Food & Wine festival on Sunday. It was a very pleasant way of spending an afternoon. You start off buying a tasting-glass and a bunch of coupons. Then you wonder around the stalls and exchange the coupons for half a standard glass of wine. They also had cheese and seafood stalls. We found a sunny spot and took turns in finding interesting wines to taste. We also had some excellent deep-fried calamari, garlic prawns and an interesting cheese I don't remember the name of. It was a cross between a brie and a Cheddar... I bought 3 bottles of a very nice Semillion which I took home for later. They were $22 each, way more than I normally spend, so they will have to wait for some extra special occasion or at least until I have run out of the cheaper stuff...

Anzac Day

25th April is Anzac day and all the shops are closed in the morning, so that people will go and watch the ANZAC Day parade (as there is nothing else to do). I was going to a friend in Balmain in the afternoon so walked off to the ferry just in time for the Manly Anzac Day Parade. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and was initially to honor the those who fought in Turkey during World War I. Now it honors all those who served & serves in military operations for Australia and New Zealand. So the parade was basically of people who are war veterans and current serving in the military. In Manly they added scouts and Surf Life Saving Club members as well for some reason...
When I got into the city it was all closed off and there were thousands of people marching throughout the city. It was very tricky to move around but thanks to underpasses in various places I finally managed to get to a bus stop with a bus.
The afternoon was pleasant with cake at my friend's place.

Trip to Canberra

We went to visit Australia's little known Capital of Canberra over the weekend. I have never been there and my friend Charissa was running the Canberra Marathon. For this excursion we rented a car as the old Mazda was too risky and uncomfortable and is really a horrible car.
Picked up Charissa and Terry around 9 am and set off to Canberra. Unfortunately we did not wait for the SatNav to decide which route we would take until after we set off, which caused some initial trouble. Apparently it was set to "shortest route" rather than "fastest route" and we got to see some parts of Sydney we would not normally have driven trough… Eventually we made it onto the high way and after around 3 hours of nothing we entered Canberra. It really was nothing. We set off a game of "I Spy with my little I, something beginning with x", but after having done Car, Road, Sky, Cloud & Tree - we gave up. After 2h Terry spotted "wire" at the edge of the road!
If you look at the attached map - you'll see it is really in the middle of nowhere!
http://www.google.com.au/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Eurobin+Ave,+Manly+NSW+2095,+Australia&daddr=terry+street,+rozelle+to:canberra&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=-33.785781,151.282553&sspn=0.009309,0.012145&ie=UTF8&z=8
Our initial plan was to drop our stuff off at the hotel and then have lunch. However it looked like there was nothing in the area - so we went back into the CBD and found an open pub. Afterwards we then walked to the park where the 5km fun run that Terry was doing was to start. Canberra is very strange. Huge boulevards with no traffic and no people. Monuments and museums, but really nothing else. Very empty and odd. When we got there we found out he had missed the 5km run and he now had to do 10km, which he had never done before. But not to worry, Terry did very well. He passed us 5 times and we all cheered on him.
In the evening we went out to a seafood restaurant where they had great lobsters.
Sunday we went to cheer on Charissa at 25km, 27km, 38km and finish. They started at 7 am and run that part in the mountains - so too much trouble to start earlier. Charissa finished at 3:56h.
While Charissa recovered with a shower we did sightseeing (The old bus depot market, glass works and railway museum - closed), then we met up for lunch. Charissa, who has not been drinking for weeks in her Marathon preparation was downing the beers at the speed of light!

Drive home was long and boring and weather bad, but we got to go on a new route and pay toll charges on the Eastern Distributor, which was different!

Not easy spending money on Good Friday

NSW has funny Easter Holiday opening hours, even stranger than the UK. On Good Friday Department stores, Supermarkets, Furniture, Clothing and Electrical Stores have to be closed. However small businesses, for example takeaway food, chemists & newsagents can be open. Unless you are in Central Sydney, then there are no restitrictions, as it is the Sydney Business District and has to be kept open.

In Manly, The book store was closed, as well as the larger clothes stores, but the the chemist which also sells clothes and the newsagent which also sells both books & clothes, maybe even as many as the book store, is open, but they cannot sell lottery tickets…
The restaurants do not open until 12, unless they serve breakfast, and the same goes for pubs. However we did finally manage to get to one of our favourites, the North Steyn Hotel roof terrace!

A rocking boat

We went to see "the Boat that Rocked" on the Manly cinema yesterday. It is not a great cinema, but if we do not support it we'll have to go into the city, which is hard work. The movie was good though. It is about 1966 in the UK. The BBC was the only legal radio station, and they did not think it was suitable to play rock-music. The result was that many pirate radio stations, based on ships that were anchored around the UK coast transmitted this music instead. This was not entirely legal, but not entirely illegal either until a BBC boss decided to make it properly illegal both for them to transmit and for people to listen. There is a lot of great music, and although it is all acting, it could well have been true. One of my favourite British DJs Johnnie Walker, started out as a DJ on Radio Caroline, which was based on a ship in the North Sea. After the ending of Pirate Radio Johnnie and most of the others got their own channel at BBC and many are still there.

New books - where do they go?

I've been waiting ages for the latest Lee Child book to be released in Australia. We were having a post-work beer at the Bavarian Beir Cafe on Manly Wharf and a girl walked in with it. Wow, I set off to Warringah Mall to buy it the following morning, and next to it was the new James Patterson book and both were on special offer. Great! Books are expensive in Australia. There is some law that states books have to be printed locally and they also add VAT.
However, back home I am wondering where to put them. All my bookcases are full and most double-stacked. I could go to IKEA to buy some new ones, but no use, the IKEA web-site told me that the oak veneer finish I have my bookcases in is not sold in Australia... so I can buy one in a completely different wood, or wait until oak becomes popular here... or possible take a car ferry to New Zealand and take on back from there.

Happy Easter - don't work too hard!

Work has been an actual nightmare for the past couple of weeks with more problems coming in than possible to resolve in such a short time, and with me setting out in the morning to cut down the amount of e-mail in my in-box, but I still have 200 more in the evening. Thursday I was seriously concerned I would have to work all weekend to clear things up. However miraculously I left at 4 pm on Thursday, had an hours conference call in the care and finished the work-week feeling I would probably be able to relax a bit. Don't take me wrong, I like being busy, but for a while now I have been bit bit snowed under.
Good Friday I relaxed. Watched my favourite episode of "Grand Designs" in bed in the morning (a British couple converting an old waterworks into a home), leisurely breakfast, walk to Shelley beach where I read my book (James Patterson - 8th confession), back into into Manly and a few beers at the North Steyne Hotel, roof-top bar and another movie in the afternoon. I made pancakes and popcorn and fell asleep in-front of the telly.
Unfortunately today I logged on to work e-mail, as I abruptly ended a discussion of weekend meet-up with a friend and was not sure if she had sent something after I left. She had, and I also had a whole page of e-mails, some quite urgent stating one of my products did not work. I texted 3 colleagues who could help solve the problems, and at 10am on Easter Saturday I got two responses within 3 minutes. Great guys! We spent the morning sorting out the problems and customer called at lunchtime - thankful. So now, I am re-starting watching a movie and getting on with being relaxed.
Happy Easter everyone, and try not to look at your work-mail ;=)

Beach Closed

We have had an amazing storm the past 18 hours or so. They said on the news the waves were up to 9m between Sydney and Manly, and I am both happy and a bit disappointed I worked from home yesterday and thus did not get to take the ferry. I did take it in today though and it was lots of fun. I could not resist sitting outside at the front, as I wanted to take a picture of the one going the other way, but misjudged the waves and got very wet, this is me sitting on the top floor. There were lots of people filming etc.
The beach has been closed as well, and theoretically there should be no surfers, but I think maybe a few did show up anyway. The roar from the surf is so high I had to close the balcony door to sleep, but it has been fun. We have enough sunny days to appreciate a few of these every now and then.

A Few Disadvantages

I have found at least three disadvantages to living in a sunny country near the sea:
1) Everything not rust-proof will rust, and very quickly.
2) The strong UV light bleaches very quickly.
3) When the weather is bad (fortunately not very often) the noise from the waves is very loud.

Chain Thriller

I am reading a chain thriller on-line, sponsored by Borders Australia. Borders is one of my favourite bookstores and I have all James Patterson books he has ever written, so a good combination. James wrote the first chapter about a week ago, after selecting 30 people to write a new chapter each day, and he will then write the last chapter. It is surprisingly good and quite scary. It helps that it is set in Sydney. If anyone is interested click here: http://www.borders.com.au/chain-thriller/home.asp It would be nice to know what my reading friends think about it. The chapters are short enough to fit in while the pasta is boiling or similar. We are now up to chapter 11.

No Wind

This morning I drove Little Car to Pittwater. I had a sailing voucher from the boat show to redeem and was hoping to get some sailing done. Parking was a problem as usual. Where are you supposed to put the ticket when you do not have a roof? I found some tape, but it doesn't stop anyone from taking the ticket off.
I got on a boat, but unfortunately there was not much wind, so we basically sat on the boat for 2.5h and all we managed to do, was motor out to the main water, sail around Scotland Island at near standing still speed and then get back. However, decided to join the club anyway, so now I can sail anytime I like from Friday to Monday.
I did bring the camera, but it was on the wrong setting and all pictures came out fuzzy, so will take new ones next time.

Fixer-upper

We went to look at an apartment for sale: see Details here There were so many people there during the 15 min or so of open viewing, we have a feeling it will be gone long before we have even investigated the process for getting approval by the Foreign National Investment Board to buy it. But it was exciting. It need all floors and walls re-done, a new kitchen (if allowed) a wall knocked down and a few more things, but it does have a view and is on the next street from our current place. It is obviously not as big as where we are now, but it does have 3 bedrooms and I might be able to squeeze in most of my books.

Sunset over Sydney

I was working late, so managed to take the attached picture of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge at Sunset, on my way back home on the ferry.
It is a bit irritating they let so many tourists on the ferries during commuting hours, but at least you know when a picture is worth taking.
There is a bit of wind today so the salt-water spray from the sea is making the keys on my keyboard a bit sticky.
Work is back to being what it should be (hard), but at least I get a relaxing trip home on the ferry.
I am doing a sailing course on Sunday, 3 hours of introduction to sailing. The weather is still supposed to be good. Hope to drive Little Car up to Pittwater. Whilst eating lunch today I read in the Midget & Sprite club magazine that someone had driven a frog-eye AH Sprite along route 66. Perhaps I can drive Little Car across Australia at some point...

Fishy

Somehow I managed to persuade colleague Richard that came down from Melbourne, to go back via Manly the other day - so we took him out for beer and dinner (actually he paid hmm ;-0 - thanks Richard, let me know if Trevor has any concerns). Not sure where to go - we eventually settled for Garfish after "decent sized beers (0.5 litre)" at the Bavarian Beer Cafe. Garfish had changed their menu so I did not have anything exciting, but a reliable Ocean Trout. Richard on the other hand had a whole Barramundi! with bones and eyes and everything!

Better to check first

I walked all the way into central Manly (around 20 minutes) to buy some "smoked pancetta" that I really like. I have the normal problem of trying to buy Swedish/Danish style, thin sliced streaky bacon. All they have here is the British style "back bacon" or if you are lucky all of it in one go, back+streaky, but those are 45 cm long and still too thick to be nice and crispy. However I did find some of the smoked pancetta in the fridge on Tuesday and was trying to remember where I bought it. I thought Coles in Manly as I could not think of any other place so I hiked out there this morning to buy some more for lunch. Unfortunately I could not find any.
I bought some other stuff I cannot get locally on the north side of the beach, but was a bit disappointed.
When I got home I checked out the packet with what was left from Tuesday and it clearly states "Made for Aldi" at the back. So, it pays to do your research before you go and using the famous Swedish saying "vad man inte har i huvudet får man ha i benen" i.e. if you do not think things through - your legs will suffer" - I now have a choice. I can go back again in 32+ degrees with tired legs - or I can have something else for lunch!

Thoughts on the Ferry

(Written off-line on Monday evening on the Ferry home - and then forgotten)

I will probably regret writing this, but 2.5 months into an extremely busy start of the year, things are quieting down to something manageable.
I have around 3.5 days of chargeable work a week and with bits and pieces I will make it to the required 85%. My OSS Project came around at a nice time, and although it will be a lot of trouble to get through, it is steady work until mid July at least. I am not really supposed to work on it, as it belongs to a different division, but being a small office I am happy to chip in anywhere I may be needed.
I am also working out a nice routine of going to the office on Mondays only. Tuesdays and Fridays I work from home, Wednesday & Thursday I see the customer.
This week my colleague Richard is here from Melbourne holding a training course and took me out for dinner tonight at the pub where we normally go for lunch if I am in the office. It was nice seeing him as we don't meet much and he updated me on the Melbourne gossip. Tomorrow& Wednesday he will train my customer Optus on the Traffic Management stuff. I will try to attend part of the afternoon session on Wednesday as I am out there anyway.
Currently it is just before 9pm and I am sitting outside on the back of the ferry going home. It is a temperature where just wearing a business shirt, whilst sitting on a seafaring vessel feels just on the edge of being too little, so probably around 18. But it is a nice evening and the neon lights of Sydney and North Sydney are disappearing in the background. The Harbour bridge need some light bulbs replaced but still looks good. There is no wind. The harbour waters are almost flat.
All in all a good start of the week.

Culinary experiences

After a disappointing dinner at the Italian on Thursday - (I usually only go on a Friday as the Friday waiter is so much nicer). He is American so has probably service built into his genes.

Saturday was Derek & Helen's house-cooling party. They are moving from a large 3-bed apartment with an astonishing view of the Pacific Ocean and large terrace, to a much smaller 2-bed unit in need of refurbishment. But they are buying the new one and have finally managed to get into the Australian housing market. Due to Australia laws on foreign nationals buying property and also how the tax deduction is calculated for temporary residents I cannot buy a property at this point, but have to wait until if/when I become Permanent resident. But nothing stops me looking ;-).

Anyway it was a very nice party and Helen cooked Salt & pepper squid among other things. This prompted me into having it at the usual Sunday visit to the Manly Fish Cafe for lunch (see picture).

I also managed to extend the weekend's culinary experience with a bottle of Magner's Irish Cider. Due to extreme import duties they are around 15 dollars each (7 pounds / 75 kr) - so it is nothing I would do everyday. However it was such a nice day sitting at the Steyne Hotel rooftop bar that I could not resist the temptation.

Quite a nice morning

Early this morning around 8-ish I struggled into my wetsuit jumper and I headed off to Shelley beach for some snorkeling. The water is not cold but if you plan to stay in for a while it is good to be protected.

It was really nice. I saw quite a few large Groupers (see picture) - the bright blue ones are male and the females are greenish along with another 20 or so varieties of fish. It is no wonder there are so many sharks about, there are thousands of fish in that little bay alone. The groupers are large, more than a meter long but not threatening. I really liked swimming alongside it seeing what it was doing.

After an hour or so I headed back into Manly and had breakfast at the Whitewater cafe. The service was crap, but my pancakes with ice cream and strawberries were not bad (some extra strawberry jam would have been nice).

All in all a nice Saturday morning.

Tonight I am off to Helen and Derek for their "moving-out-party". Luckily they live 10 min walk away!

Autumn is here

Autumn officially started on 1st March. It is actually much more pleasant. The weather is close to European summer. 25-ish instead of humid 30+ and it makes a big difference, especially walking to work with a heavy computer bag.
I am pretty sure what to expect of March, after all it was the holiday here two years ago in March that made me end up here... and it was a very nice holiday! However April and May, I am not sure about. Judging from what it was like arriving here in June, makes me think - that is when we need to go on Holiday somewhere else.
Writing this, I realise I have been here for 9 months now - and not really left Sydney. That is the reality of working rather than being on holiday. When the weekend arrives - we are really too tired to go anywhere.

Seafood Feast

Saturday I got invited to Charissa's where Terry was cooking a seafood feast!
We had deep-fried squid, oven-baked Red Snapper, Steamed Lobster & Octopus, with Chips & Salad. Very, very nice!
Afterwards we went into Sydney to watch the Mardi-Gras parade, stopped at a pub for a beer - and got stuck there. I left after quite a few and went home, but heard that my host couple stayed on and missed the parade as well.

Comedy

We went to a comedy event in support of the Victorian bush-fire victims and the Queens land flood-victims. There were 18 comedians doing roughly 10 minutes of stand up comedy each, for free. The theatre venue was donated for free and all proceeds from the bars, plus of course 100% of the ticket price were donated.

The show was quite OK. Some were very good (even I understood the jokes) and some were less good, but that is what you get. There were comedians from Australia, the UK and also a guy from the US.

It took about 3 hours all in all and we had to walk very fast to catch the last ferry home. Derek thought it was at 11.30, but luckily it was 11:45. Apparently there is a bus after that, but I have not found out yet - I am too old to stay out late on a work night ;-)

Invaded by cruise ships

Sydney is being invaded by cruise ships. There are 28 scheduled this month! This weekend the Queen Mary II arrived, but was too large to dock at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, so they had to stay at Garden Island. Along her, there were two other ships when I came into Circular quay this morning. One was anchored in the middle of the harbour and one at the terminal. They have built a new larger docking area for cruise ships, but did not think far enough. Most of them are too big to go under the Harbour Bridge.

I think it would be nice to go on one. But not a long cruise. I think they do none from Sydney to Brisbane or something over a weekend - that could be fun!

A Jellyfish lunch

Had lunch with Derek from work at Jellyfish today, as we were both "working from home" and he lives near me. I had some fairly spicy pasta with salmon and chillies. I know it did say chillies, but I was not prepared. Anyhow turned out to be OK.
We did talk some work, as apparently the big boss in APAC, has gone out with a message saying to rate any employee over "solid" needs written approval from two line managers above each other. We were both quite un-happy with that as we both had "excellent" previously. Given the 2 days to get the performance reviews done, there were not much time to argue. Apparently it has something to do with no pay-rises being given this year, and if anyone had documented evidence that they were doing very well, there could be too much pressure. So neither of us were very happy and agreed "what is the point of this process then"?
At the table next to us were two people having lunch "together", each one working on their own Laptop...
Did not manage to do much catching up as day was very busy outside lunch. Still have 35 un-read e-mails and it is time to wind down ;-(

Brand New Train

Today I took the new train from North Ryde to Chatswood. It opened on Monday, 3 years late.
As trains go, it was quite nice. It was very deep, 2 long escalators down, which is needed as it goes under a river. They have had lots of problems with it but for me it will be quite useful going between Optus & Vodafone on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Sunday outing to Rozelle

I have been taking the new Fast Ferry to work recently. A touch of luxury, with A/C and news on TVs. It also only takes 18 minutes compared to the 30 minutes the Manly Ferry takes. This means I can get the 7.10 fast ferry and still arrive at circular quay before the 7.00 regular one. It does cost a bit more but so far it is worth it.

However the fast ferry only runs weekdays during rush hours, so yesterday when we were invited to Charissa for Filipino lunch we went on the normal one. It is very exciting taking it on weekends as it has to navigate all the sailing boats, and sometimes it is very close. Picture above is of the ferry going the other way.

There are some great shots of the Manly ferry during the winter storms last year on Youtube - see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQeGxFnyCA

In any case lunch at Charissa's was great! We ate so much there was no need for Dinner when we finally got home, and we had a great time. I had no idea what to expect, but we started out with soup that had pieces of pork in it (she also did a variant of this with Salmon in). I also got a dish with mixed chicken and pork pieces cooked in soy sauce and vinegar, but the best part was mixed beef & pork mince with spices wrapped in filo pastry and fried in oil. With this we consumed a good mix of Amber Ale, Champagne, a white and a red bottle of Cape Mentelle Marmaduke and a bottle of Chardonnay. An excellent Sunday afternoon.

Retail Therapy

Work is still hard, so I spent yesterday recovering by doing some shoe shopping. I have been after new deck shoes in brown leather, but they have been hard to find. Most ladies ones are pink or white or blue. However by chance wondered by a boating store and they had a pair. I am not sure they are the right size so wandering around the flat with them. I hope it rains later on today so that they can adapt to my feet. I have also been mourning the loss of my favourite Nike sandals. As they do not sell them here, and I don't remember what size they were I can't get them replaced on the Internet. Many friends of mine are big fans of Teva's so I got a replacement pair yesterday and hopefully they will do the job.

I am invited for a Filipino lunch which I am looking forward to. I have no idea what to expect. I have been to the Philippines once about 13 years ago, so don't remember much. BTW is anyone missing a T-Shirt that says "Cebu" on it? Cebu is a place in the Philippines, but I did not go there (I went to Boracay), and I definitely did not buy a T-shirt saying Cebu, however it did appear in one of the boxes I un-packed after moving here...

Congratulations Ove!

Ove was my 1,000th visitor and he will get free accommodation and some meals in Manly, next time he passes by (family included). Considering he lives in Sweden it is likely it will not be next week, so offer is extended to number 1,001 and all others by request.

I am quite amazed that so many of you actually bother to read my ramblings ;-) 

I have made 120+ posts over 209 days, which means several of you visit every day. 

Thank You!

Fridge Magnets

In 1993 when we moved out of London, I collected all the Fridge Magnets words in a jar that used to contain some kind of baby food (that visiting friends left behind). During the 4+ years we lived in Stony I did not manage to either break into the jar or smash it to pieces to get the words out.

I just unpacked it again in the new flat and thought of what tool might help me open it and suddenly came across a can opener, and thought why not?

It worked fine, and now all of them are on the fridge waiting for visitors to write funny sentences. I found some words that seemed to be from a different set, and first could not get it. Finally I made out they were from a pack of Baccardi Breezers and had words like flavour, melon, spirit, % etc. They will be a great compliment to the other ones.

Welcome to create!

(for distanced friends I could write a list of the words and you could post your sentences as comments to this. Does that sound like a good idea?)

Fish & Millionaire

We have had some storms with high winds and horizontal rain recently so going to the beach was not on the cards today. Instead went out for lunch at lovely Manly Fish Cafe. They remembered us from last week, so decided to set expectations for the future by modifying the meny & continue moving the furniture around.

I have been there a few times now and always have the same table, where I move the chair to get a better view. Today I asked them to swap the Garlic Prawns that came on top of the Silver Dory for the Garlic Crayfish Tails that normally come with the Ocean Trout. They happily agreed, so now I will think of how to modify the menu for next week ;-). In a place like Manly where there are many tourists and day-trippers, it is good to go more than once to the same place so they understand you live here.

Afterwards the weather was still bad so went to see the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". It is about an Indian boy from the slums that goes on "How to be a Millionaire" to get back in touch with a girl he lost touch with. For various (and not very nice) reasons he answers the first questions correctly and the movie starts with him being questions by the police for cheating, when they broke for the evening, with one question left for the next day. It was good, worth seeing if you have nothing better to do, but not absolutely brilliant. It is made by the same guy who made "Trainspotting" although they are completely different movies.

993

Today I noticed I have had 993 readers. Please let me know who is number 1,000? The counter is on top of the list of headings!

No email tonight - Need some sleep!

I have decided not to read my email tonight. I did check at 3.45 before going to my last meeting, but I am too tired. Also, I don't sleep very well when I spend my evenings in front of the TV doing work mail.
Last night I dreamt about CDRs - all night!. CDRs are Call Data Records and records the calls you make on your mobile so that the operator knows how much to charge you. They are not very exciting to look at - just rows of letters and digits. How exciting is it to dream about that? - Reason most likely as we had to do some work on the Vodafone Charging Gateway test-lab today and I then had a meeting with Vodafone. But in the end Charissa did an excellent job with help from Paulus in Jakarta and the Customer meeting went well.
The night before I dreamt about Project Plans and Project Schedules with every line colour coded. One in "Teal" do they even to that colour in Microsoft Project? That was also driven by work requirements. I kept waking up and every time I closed my eyes I saw project plans infront of me.
So - tonight I am not reading my work mail (if it is urgent they can call - I won't go as far as turning off the phone, but maybe screening calls...) . After all I left home before 7 am and just got back (7 pm).
Am I being bad?

A bit Decadent for a Tuesday?

I made it up to the 5th floor for a very reluctant but necessary meeting finishing at 5.30 pm today. However the meeting was useful and the Customer Team Head commented on there being un-opened bottles of wine sitting around (yes - in the office and openly on someone's desk), along with an apparent lack of glasses. He organised his PA to get some glasses and offered everyone red / white or beer to end the evening. I guess the "white or beer" must have been pre-planned in the fridge though... (and if it was put there too early someone would have consumed it with their lunch...)
I would have thought a Tuesday evening was a bit over-the-top even for the sales guys, but who am I to complain - 2 glasses of red later?
On top of that the Account Manager told me I was doing a good job and my friend who sits next to me offered me a lift home.
I am still extremely tired working 10-12 hours a day for the past few weeks, but a bit of appreciation goes very far ;-)

UK vs Sydney

Today we have one of the hottest days of the year. In the west of Sydney it is predicted 43 degrees. However, we are on the east benefiting from the sea breeze.
At the same time I hear that they have had the worst week ever in the UK with more snow than anyone can imagine. I really wish I would have been there, SMS'ing my boss that I would not be able to go to work as it is snowing. Imagine how that would affect companies in Sweden or Finland. They would have to close down for 6 month each year.
It does remind me of going to Helsinki to visit Nokia in February 2007. The plane was delayed at LHR due to bad weather there, but we both landed and took off at Helsinki with lots of snow and below ZERO degrees without incident. Same things applies to trains. When in Helsinki I took the train to work every day for a week ( lots of snow and below zero degrees). They were on time and very pleasant.
Anyway - Our really nice neighbour Sarah, has just returned and I need to prepare in case she shows up for a pre-dinner G&T!

What's in Peanuts?

Just poured some peanuts into a bowl to take on to the balcony. As I was doing this I read the ingredients label which says: INGREDIENTS: Peanuts, Cotton Seed Oil (whatever that is?), Sea Salt AND "may contain traces of peanuts and other nuts".
Well, I did not buy them because they may contain traces of peanuts, I actually wanted real peanuts.
I have every respect for people being allergic, but if it said "SALTED PEANUTS" on the bag, is that not indication enough that there may be peanuts inside?

Realxing after a hard week

The past two weeks have been absolutely mad work-wise. I have got some new projects that all have had their share of problems and management escalation. Fortunately Friday evening ended slightly more positive than the other days, so feel a little bit more relaxed and have not done any work today, not even checked my mail. Instead I took Little Car out.

We were really just going to the market down the road and to get some drinks, but ended up driving north along the east coast all the way to Narrabeen and then turned around. Given that is is forecasted to be around 40 degrees today it was best to do it fairly early. After loading up a few cases of beer and wine, we realised that Little Car really is very small. You can't fit much in the little space behind the seats and as we had to stop at the marked to pick up food we could not really put the beer on the luggage rack. It was a nice drive though, but quite sweaty.

I am playing Tetrison Facebook and got beaten by one of my friends last week, but the keyboard on my other laptop could not keep up, so this morning I have caught up and now I am ahead again in all variants of the game.

Now I am off to cook pasta with prawns, smoked salmon and cream.

The lemon effect

I went to Garfish for lunch, which is a nice restaurant on the harbour side of Manly. Their concept is quite simple and suits me. You choose your fish (in my case John Dory , then you choose how you want it cooked (grilled) and finally you choose what you like to have with it (chips). With that I had a bottle of Margaret river Verdelho. The fish was great and came with 1/2 a lemon on the side.

As I spend more time indoors that outdoors my hair is not keeping blond as easily than if I was on holiday (when you spend all your time in the sun and in salt water) so I recalled what Karin said a few months ago (use lemon). I asked to keep the lemon and then squeezed it over my hair after leaving. I wondered back with very sticky and wet hair and when I got back it had a funny colour - which was several shades darker than normal. Finally I washed it out and today I noticed it is much lighter - in places. It does look quite funny as the lemon squeezing was quite random.

Today is another sunny day with 30+ degrees, so guess I will make it across the road to the beach at some point.

New old technology finally working

Not wanting to wait to investigate all the different ways to save my old VHS tapes on a suitable new media I went away and bought a stand-alone VCR and a stand-alone DVD/VCD player. The DVD/VCD player does play UK and Australian DVDs as well as fake copies of VCDs. It also has a USB interface and I hope to be able to play all the movies a friend from work supplies me from his HDD.
Connecting the DVD player was straight forward, but it was a long time since I connected a stand-alone VCR. Our previous one was a combined VCR/DVD player and just plugged in and the one before was built into the TV, but eventually I remembered and it now works. I imagine they will not sell them much longer, so just wanted to get one before they disappear.

... and helicopters

Got woken up around 1 am as there was a police helicopter (with blue & red lights flashing) shining a very bright light at the sea, flying up and down the beach, searching for something. Wonder if it was another shark warning, or if one of the surfer-buys had not come home on time?

I finally put out some wild bird seeds, but so far no parrots have made it for either dinner or breakfast. Maybe I have to put up some kind of sign?

Shark Alert

Yesterday, just back after swimming there was a loud alarm going off on the beach and everyone kept running up from the water. It was a shark alarm and the life guards went out in boats to locate the shark. I did not hear if they found one, but it will most likely be in the Manly daily on Monday. I am not too scared though.

Thunderstorm

We are having the most amazing thunderstorm. It is thunder and lightning and the rain pours down. The air is so heavy I feel it sits on my shoulders and it is almost hard to breathe.
I really hope it clears the air before bedtime. Normally we get the sea breeze through the apartment, but tonight there is no wind going though, just heavy still air. But watching the lightning over the sea is very very nice.
I wonder if the parrots will still come and sleep in the trees, or just come and stay on my balcony instead so that they don't get wet ;-)
I am just sitting here watching the lightning and drinking a glass of "DM2" from South eastern Australia, recovering from another hard day's work.

Bush-fire delay home-coming

However hard I try it is near impossible to leave work at 4pm (so far this year I have managed twice). Today I tried to tell someone to speak with me tomorrow morning instead of 10 to five as I had to catch the bus, but he did not get it, and I left after 5. That is bad, as the bus into the city then takes longer than walking (so I should have walked but was too lazy). Then the bus from the city gets stuck in traffic as there is no bus-lane north on the harbour bridge. However it was Cremorne - Mossman - Balmoral stretch that just took forever. It turned out there was a bush-fire, on the hill just when you go down towards the Spit Bridge. As usual it was on the other side of the road and all due to "rubber-necking". It took more than 1.5h door to door. I should really take the ferry.

Boss made a run for it?

I took our Melbourne visitor to lunch at the Harlequin (favourite pub for lunch) and when I went to order my meal, the manager told me he had been waiting for me. I do go there quite often, but not everyday, so got a bit surprised by his comment. He then explained that when my boss took the whole department there for lunch last week - he did not pay! As I had to leave that lunch early to go to a customer meeting - I had no idea what was going on and my boss was not answering his phone. I texted him and he rang me back and explained he really had tried to pay, but none of the staff knew where the bill was. He asked me to pay and I now have to do my expenses, which he knows I hate doing...
Whilst waiting for the food the manager came out with some free fish-cakes (I think he felt a bit sorry to have to ask me) but it was a nice gesture.

Little Car goes to the beach

Little Car and I celebrated him having got his new numberplates and having been cleaned and polished, by taking a trip to Curl Curl beach. We had a great run, listening to the soundtrack from Shrek 2, but managed to get lost on the way back - which is a bit surprising as it is not very far.

Cooking for 7

I invited some friends from work for lunch on Sunday. It turned out to be a very late lunch that finished around 10pm, and I am still recovering from it.
The cooking should have been easy, I did two dishes that I can cook in my sleep (a Thai curry and a dish with Chilli & Peanuts), however got slightly complicated by the fact that I had to make a vegetarian version of each as well. Having a nrmal sized hob, it was not possible to cook all 4 dishes in one go and it took a lot longer than expected. Hwever, I think we probably managed to eat around 4pm. We then played some Wii and drank enough wine to ensure a good night's sleep for everyone. Charissa took it out in advance and fell asleep on the bus home, which was not so good.

Old enough for a wine fridge?

I read in a book once that you do not need a wine rack until you are 30, as you can't normally afford enough bottles to fill it up. And if you do happen to buy enough bottles to go on the wine-rack you are likely to drink them all in one go anyway.

So, at 40, am I old enough for a 34-bottle wine fridge? I am not sure. I can afford to buy enough bottles to fill it up with, but it is quite clear that if you have the bottles at home - you drink them rather quickly.

I have been experimenting with "Cleanskins". Cleanskins are according to Wikipedia:

In Australia, cleanskin wine is a term for bottled wine that does not carry a label or any other identifying marks. Cleanskin wines are sold in sealed cartons of six or twelve bottles and the carton must display a label that meets the minimum legal requirements as defined by Australian law.
Cleanskin wines have been sold in Australia since at least the early 1960's but are generally only popular during periods of imbalance in the Australian domestic wine market. Wineries will sell cleanskins to dump excess or unwanted wine stocks and do so to avoid the negative consequences of discounting their existing brands. This form of dumping often has very little to do with the quality of the wine and consumers can benefit greatly however there is always an element of risk when purchasing cleanskins.

Basically it only states the grape and sometimes the region. Never what winery it is from. We have this huge discount bottle shop close to where we live, so went over there and bought 2 bottles of each one of them. I have now found some I like, like "Chardonnay AP2" and buy them in cases of 12 for $45 or so. Not bad, but they will probably be changed for something else shortly and I have to re-do the exercise.

A free ride

This morning I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus to the city when an un-known guy pulled up at the bus stop asking if any of us were going to the city. Quite surprised by this I was wondering why a stranger would just pick people up at a bus stop. I quickly got an explanation. He was stopping at this stop to pick up a friend anyway, and if they have three people in the car, they can go in the bus-lane.
They looked like normal business people, and as my bus had not arrived, I decided to give it a go.
I was in the city in 15-20 minutes. A very comfortable ride, A/C and nice radio.
At the office I mentioned this strange experience to one of my colleagues. He told me it is very common. Anyone from the Northern Beaches going into the city in the morning needing extra people for the Transit lanes usually offer free rides. It is still school holidays, so the traffic is lighter than normal, but when the schools start again at the end of this month it gets more important and is very valuable to the drivers. Supposedly if I am at the same stop at the same time every day, I might never have to take the bus again...

A nice relaxing day

We went to Manly Fish-market for lunch and it was really nice. Not as touristy as the Sydney fish-market, but very pleasant. Adjacent to the real market place, but getting all their fish from there. I had Silver Dory (cousin to the John Dory, but a slightly different shape) with Garlic giant prawns and Martin had Ocean Trout with Lobster tails. We had a great meal, service was up to scratch and at least one of us had a nice view.
After lunch we walked to Shelley beach, which is the south-eastern tip of Manly. I do understand the name as it is not fine sand, but finely crushed shells. The posh restaurant "Le Kiosk" did not have a genuinely tempting menu, but there was at least another nice place out there.
We went swimming, but had not brought snorkeling gear. Shelly beach has nice fiskies, but no waves, so when you can't play you get a bit bored. However there was this nice old lady (80+ is my guess) who was submerged into the water wearing a very large hat and large (sun)glasses. She was just sitting there admiring the view and the cool (surfer dudes), I assume.
Martin went for a longer swim and then made me stop at every potential swimming place along the way back.
During the evening I have tried to take pictures of the parrots, but they are so quick I just can't do it with my camera.

Stuck in the past and learning about modern stuff

Because we have thick-ish carpets (who thought that was a good idea in a hot climate?) our book cases are not stable. We have solved this by putting pieces of chipboard / MDF under some of them which has helped. This morning we went to buy some more so that I can unpack some more boxes of books. It surprises me that I still have to spend my weekend visiting DIY stores.

Martin suggested that as we were at the shopping centre already we would buy some new movie watching stuff. Our combined DVD/VCR has packed in after only a year or two. It was a Philips and I am starting to feel that the Asian makes (Samsung, LG etc.) has served us better, although not very highly thought of. What I really need is a new VCR as I suspect they will go out of fashion shortly (like the Record Players) and I will be stuck with hundreds of tapes I cannot watch. I think that is top of the list as a stand-alone player.
Then we will look into what DVD player to get at a later stage (until we get a new one we can watch them on the PCs). They have all sorts of cool ones now, I am specifically interested in getting one with a USB port (so I can watch all the movies I have on my external HDD), but there are also some which comes with HDD so that I can watch a VHS tape on the telly, then record it onto the DVD HDD and save my precious tapes. There is a lot to learn and it will take me a while.
We'll see, but I'll try to get a new VCR tomorrow in any case.

Working from home

I am working from home after four days of commuting. It is hard work this bus-taking and stuff. I tried the ferry home one evening but it really takes too long (now during the holiday season the bus does not get stuck in traffic). I have tried several different ways and there are a few more to try next week. However four days in a row in the office is hard work and I have a lot to catch up on. Doing it with a nice view and the roar from the sea in the background is not a bad way.
I also went in to Manly council to get a parking permit for potential visitors - so just come along when you feel like it. On the same note - the guest room is now functioning and is free of boxes. It got the same view as the laptop (above).
Plans for the weekend are unpacking some more boxes in search of my 2006 binder, which hopefully holds a document with my UK Tax-Return password.

Papegojas coming home to sleep

Outside our apartment, between us and the beach are a few funny looking pine trees. The trees provide a place to sleep for little parrots (papegoja in Swedish) who arrive around quarter past 8 every evening, in pairs. Probably a 100 or so of them sleep there and they are really cute. They are really noisy when they arrive, but quiet down within 10 minutes when they have sorted out who sleeps where and with whom? They are really hard to take a picture of as they are the same colour as the tree and arrive really quickly, but I have some "Wild Bird Seed" which I will put out on the balcony over the weekend and see if they pay any attention.

Beach or Cricket?

The weather was perfect for a day on the beach so we decided to go and watch the cricket, as there will be many more opportunities for a nice day on the beach, but not to go to the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) and watch an International Test-match. We got tickets for Day 2 of the Australia - South Africa third test.

Transport was easy. They ran shuttle buses and queues were manageable. Charissa from work and her friend Terry joined us as well, which was great fun. The beer was cold and free flowing and we had good seats in the shade, although a little bit too far up for my liking. We watched Australia play very well. It took them 4 hours to loose the four remaining wickets. South Africa were a bit slow getting going. Smith broke one of his fingers, which was a bit unlucky and they lost a late wicket after we left.

In the evening Kerry-Anne and Peter came to visit. They are travelling around Australia so we had drinks on the balcony and then went to eat at the Italian. Overall a nice and relaxing day.

AZ 88 RI - Little Car is Home

So, after a drive to Dural (1 hour), waiting time at the RTA (30 Min), discussion with the RTA and presentation of enough paperwork to make even the most experienced bureaucrat confused we now have Little Car registered for the next 12 months. Colin, the star mechanic from the Midget & Sprite Club did most of the talking. The problem I ran into on Wednesday was not spotted, but a couple of other hurdles were eventually passed. We got the number plates after another 45 minutes and then set off to Colin's to attach them to Little Car. I am just back from haven driven home without major incident (I did some emergency breaking, I went slightly the wrong route and Martin may have run a red light or two to keep up with me).
However he is now safely tucked up in our large garage.

New Year's Day 2009

Woke up early and went for a morning swim. It was supposed to be a run, but seemed too much hard work. Asa stayed over so we were quiet until she woke up then we had breakfast on the balcony and then another swim. In the afternoon Charissa & Terry came over and after a quickly prepared late lunch consisting of pasta with leek, red pepper, garlic, bacon and Alfredo Sauce, we went for another swim, jumping in the waves. The lifeguards kept telling us to "swim between the flags" which is a tiny area that they control, but there were too many people with body boards, so we moved a bit down the beach anyway and got caught in the current. It was hard swimming and you did not get anywhere, so Martin came and towed me into safety. I guess they had a point.
Kerry-Anne finally managed to get in touch but I am not sure we will be able to meet up as they are going to the zoo tomorrow and Saturday is Martin's Birthday and Sunday we are probably going to watch the cricket (Australia - South Africa), but I hope we manage to sort things out.

New Year's Eve 2008

During the day of New Year's Eve Martin worked and my mission was to get number plates for Little Car. I had the previous day managed to get Insurance and armed with that I went off to get the CTP (Compulsory Third Party), also called Green Slip, Insurance, which covers injuries to people. It was not easy. 1961 MGs never did exist in Australia. They were imported as Austin Healy Sprite Mk II. So, they do not exists in their computer system. I finally managed to get my Green slip. I then went to the RTA (Road Traffic Authority) to get Registration done. It felt like what I can imagine being old 1960's unemployment offices. Take a ticket, wait, be called forward, be inspected and then denied.
The first time I did not get as far as to speak with anyone as I did not have the required sets of ID (I have already written a piece of Australia's obsession with ID). I had brought my Driving Licence (as proof of who I am) and my Rental agreement (as proof of address), but that was not enough. I needed my passport, a credit card and my rental agreement. So when I came back and queued for another hour, I was told that the Chassis number on the Import permit was not identical to the chassis number on the car. The problem is that in Sweden they only care about the number (in my case 1004), but on the car is whole code, in my case (GAN1L1004) and they said it could not be registered unless they are the same, asked me to get back to Canberra and change the Import application. However, I cannot do that as on the Swedish Registration document it only states 1004. So I rang up Colin, the car mechanic who has been looking after Little Car and he asked us to get over there on Friday and he will take us to his local RTA. Will see how it goes.

In the evening Asa came over and we had cheese, biscuits and wine on the balcony, overlooking Manly beach and the Pacific Ocean. Very pleasant. At 9pm we went up on the 16th floor roof terrace and watched the pre-fireworks. There were a pack of teenagers misbehaving and throwing their glass over the edge, but the fireworks were very nice. After steak & chips we went back up at midnight to the real stuff in Sydney. Considering we are around 15 km (10 miles) outside we had quite a nice view. I got a text from a UK friend around 1 am and rang her up and we had a nice chat, but went to bed around 2 am, which is pretty good for me (Martin came an hour later or so).