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).