I never thought I'd miss Chris

When Chris Evans took over Drive-Time from Johnny Walker in 2006 I was not best pleased, having listened to Johnny for years driving home from work. However presented with no other suitable alternative I grew to like him and I miss his shows. So, this afternoon (working from home as the Intranet & e-mail was down in the office) I decided to "listen again" to yesterday's show and I am really enjoying it.
I still wonder how we would survive without the Internet?

Today was the hottest day since March 2007, around 37 degrees. Within the next hour the temperature is forecasted to fall at least 15 degrees in 5 minutes with a thunderstorm following. I really hope Martin will make it home from work in time. The weather here really cannot decide what it wants to do.

Looking forward to meeting Lotta & family this weekend.

A Mad Week

This has been a completely mad week. My project is nearing completion and we have been doing Acceptance Testing with the Customer. It has been hard work, even though I did not do any of it myself (thanks to Dave, Nishant, Richard 7 Bonny).
Now Friday late afternoon I think everything is back on track and I will try to come up with something nice for dinner.
We are going back to Manly tomorrow to look at some alternative apartments and we'll see if we find something nice.

ID-Mad Place

I thought Sweden was the worst place in the world when it comes to ask for ID in various situations, however Australia is close or even worse. You can still buy things on your own credit card without ID, but you can't:
- Get a pre-paid SIM card for your mobile
- Post a parcel, however small, abroad.

Today I had to go home and get my Passport in order to send a parcel consisting of a pair of slippers and a birthday card...

Christmas - No Way yet

I went off to the Broadway shopping centre (30 min walk) as Martin had hurt his foot and I needed new swim-wear. It is funny, we have now unpacked absolutely everything, but I cannot find any swimming gear apart from what I brought in my hand-luggage flying over. So, here I am looking for a new swim suit, really hot after half an hour walk in 30+ degrees, walking into a totally re-decorated shopping with Christmas stuff everywhere. It really does not make sense.
Lars & Mia, any suggestions for X-mas Day? Bondi sounds a bit tacky... but maybe it is something you should do at least once before you get too old?
Could not find anything that fit me so bought some "boarders" which are surfer trousers (ladies not boys ones) and 2 x swimming T-shirts with sun-factor 50+ built in (one for me and one for Martin).

Visiting time

Saturday Martin drove me in the borrowed little Mazda 121 all the way to Penrith, half way to the Blue Mountains to visit Little Car. It was great to see him again and he was not half as bad as I expected him to be. There were a few new rust patches and a the floor panels were a bit damaged, but overall the main problem seem to be Australian regulations. A part of it seems to be that the company he got sent to have very high standards and will not do anything less than perfect. They finally quoted me AUD $26k+GST for the bits of work they could see and told me there would be more they could not see at the moment.

Since then I have been in touch with the Sprite & Midget Club, who have sent me a nice e-mail and seem happy to help. We'll see what happends next week. Please spare a thought for Little car if you have any spare.

Lord Nelson Hotel

Friday night we went for a very long walk. all the way to 19 Kent street (we live on 355), all because Martin wanted to visit some fancy pub he had heard of, called the Lord Nelson (hotel). Hotel is a bit misgiving as all pubs here are called hotels whether or not they have any accommodation. It was a bit bad timing though - we ended up with the after-work crowds and first did not get in. We were told that it was full, but two people just left, so they let us in. It was not an understatement, it was completely packed. But they do serve a wide variety of beer in pint glasses and they brew their own beer on site in the cellar. I had Quale Ale and Martin had a Trafalgar Pale Ale. We decided to go back mid week next time - Charissa, would you like to join us?

Wrong Language

I am reading an Ian Rankin novel in Swedish, that was given to me by a well-meaning Swedish lady I met a few weeks ago. I normally do not read translations and it is really confusing. I keep translating each sentence back into English.
Today was the coldest ever 22 October ever recorded. I think around 11 degrees.
I am on cooking duty - so off to create a masterpiece Thai red curry with chicken (and some vegetables for Martin). As it is Wednesday we will stick with Banrock Station Semillion-Chardonnay with that, and save the fancy stuff for the weekend.
Have made an appointment to visit Little Car on Saturday.

Wo Shi Bu Hao

Falling apart

My family consists of me, Martin, Little Car and Kent (the penguin).

I have just heard from the Classic Car restorer that Little car is completely falling apart and will cost at least AUD 20k to pass the Australian regulations. That is not to make him perfect, just to register him. We are talking SEK 105k and GBP 8.5k. He is worth a lot less than that in money, but to me he is part of my family and worth a lot to me. I have no idea what to do.

On top of it all, my favourite penguin is loosing his head.

Help - any advice is appreciated.

New Toy - Finally

I finally got my mobile phone. You can't really believe it when you work for a company called Nokia Siemens Networks and it takes you 4.5 months to get a phone, especially as you are walking around using a SonyEricsson one infront of customers. But, it arrived today - a Nokia E66, which probably have more functionality than I ever figure out to use.
So far I have made calls, received calls, sent & received text messages and synchronised it with outlook.

Odd Measurements

Today we went to Coogee. why? Well we did not know where to go so I told Martin to pick a page in the guide book and he chose the one with Coogee mentioned. Not great - too touristy.

The great confusion / realisation today is Australian beer sizes. Since we arrived we have not understood them. What we normally get when we order a beer is a "Schooner" which is 425 ml in NSW (New South Wales). This is too small, but most restaurants will not serve pints. I found out yesterday that you can order pitchers. The guys behind the bar looked at bit odd when I ordered it, so today I asked for a jug instead and that was easier. Question is - how much is a Jug/Pitcher? well, according to the measurement line it stated 1140 ml. What sort of measurement is that? Well I started to think about it and a pint is 57 cl, which makes a jug 2 pints = 570*2 = 1140. So Australia is not really metric, they just pretend to, to fit with some new legislation.
However, back home I did some more investigations and beer glass sizes are really different in each state - you should read the description below and then compare it to (Pint / half pint):
http://www.australianbeers.com/pubs/ordering/ordering.htm

Watson's Bay

Today we ventured to Watson's Bay, which is the North-east corner of Sydney (without crossing the Harbour Bridge). We took the ferry from Circular Quay (which is not circular at all) and it took around 30 minutes to get there. Watson's Bay has the first original Doyle's Restaurant, but we could not get a table. They are only open for lunch between 12-3pm which seems a bit short when they are fully booked. Instead we had a beer at the pub next door and then went for a walk to explore. Unfortunately we found a beach almost immediately, so it was just to settle down for a delay while Martin went swimming ;-). Then we walked to the South Point Head and it had a great view over the sea and passed another beach, which had nude swimming which did not stop Martin, but I managed to persuade him to wait (as I was too shy to sit at the beach and wait for him while he was swimming). After another swimming stop (at a normal beach) we had lunch at the pub. Wagyu beef burgers which were OK. Then we explored a bit more and Martin had another swim.
Watson's Bay has lots of very nice houses overlooking the harbour and see, but I have a feeling they are all over budget.
Pictures will be published shortly on the usual site.

In my eagerness to get my hair as blond as possible as quickly as possible I have managed to burn my head. I thought the hair would work as sunscreen, but not very well apparently
so I may have to wear a hat tomorrow!

Off to buy some cheese for eating on the balcony this evening with some nice wine.

In Recovery mode

Today is the day after the team-building event at Teregal beach. We started off with laser-taging, which was pretty silly. I have previously played indoors wearing a vest so that you can feel when you get shot, but this time you had some funny sensors on your head, and crawling around in the forest which was not much fun.
The afternoon was spent more pleasantly. We played lawn bowling, which is a bit like boule and then it was time for the wine appreciation and cocktail making course. Wine appreciation included tasting of 3 different wine, and then a competition. The wines were the worst possible, all the ones I really would not choose (a Sauvignon Blanc, an Oaked Chardonnay and a Merlot). The competition was guess that wine, which turned out to be a Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon from 2007. During Cocktailmaking we learnt to make a Cosmopolitan and a Summer Blizz, both tasted OK and I am now an expert at filling a Martini glass exactly.
Afterwards I had, what was supposed to be a relaxing massage, but it hurt quite badly and still hurts :-(.
The evening was OK-ish, not great. We did get unlimited free drinks, but it was not that fun. They shipped us back to the office around lunchtime today and most of us decided to work from home in the afternoon for some reason...

Drive Testing

Today I went out Drive Testing with the radio guys. We had a laptop connected to a GPS which showed a map of Sydney, where we were, the location of the 3G base stations and the proposed routes. we also had 3 mobile phones connecting to the laptop. One was locked to 3G, one was locked to 2G and one was free to choose. Then we made the 3G phone call the 2G phone continously and the 3rd phone was calling a landline. We then started driving around counting the hand-overs the phones made between base stations and also when the "free one" went from 3G to 2G. All very much fun, but I got a bit car sick as looking mainly on the computer and not on the road.

Tomorrow is the beach-party so off to do some packing ;-)

Remedial advice - how things change

One of my younger readers has advised me that it is no longer a fashion faux-pas to wear socks with sandals, just like other things that are so popular with the youth nowadays and was totally unacceptable when I was young, like showing off your underwear in public. He suggests I wear socks in my sandlas to aviod my feet being stripy, so I attempted to try it out on the balcony after work. However, it defeats the purpose of sandals. My feet get very hot, and I actually like the stripes.

It is interesting how quickly things change. When I grew up "wicked" meant bad (i. e. evil, like witch or the wicked robot in Transformers), not cool as it is being used today.

Looking forward to Thursday - company beach event. Among the activities are: "Taste that wine", make your own cocktail, SPA treatment, surfing lessons and finishing off with a fancy dress party with a beach theme (not taking part, but will wear my wet-suit jumper in case someone tries to throw me into the sea).

Working on Stripy Feet

Today did not go as planned.
The weather forecast this morning said cloudy, thunderstorms and 15-20 degrees. As there is nothing to do in the city when the weather is bad we decided to go to Manly to see if it was more fun there in bad weather. As usual the weather forecasters got it wrong. Arriving Manly dressed in Jeans and Hoddie we immediately got too hot as it was around 30 degrees, sunny and no cloud in sight. However we had 2 properties to look at today, one townhouse which was a bit grotty, as being inhabited by 3 x sets of surfer dudes and 1 3 bed apartment which had a great view but the building was not great. Don't think we will go for either but we shopped new shorts and decided to remember to always bring swimming gear, short and sandals whatever the weather forecast is.
Martin went swimming 3 times during our Manly trip but I still think the water is too cold and working hard on getting my stripy feet in order ;=)

Little Car is not well

Just off the phone after having talked to the mechanic who was going to make sure Little Car made it safetly through the Australian import jungle and he tells me he will not pass. Apparently there is too much rust and they are much more worried about that here. He will send Little Car to someone he knows to see if anything can be done and how much it will cost - but told me not to keep my hopes up.

I am really sad.

My first visitor

Help, I am having a visitor to our chaotic flat!.
I am off tonight to an evening arranged by "Swedish women in Sydney" where we are meant to exchange books and magazines with each other and then eat dinner at one of the pubs. I thought I'd ask Asa fram work who is also Swedish and she wanted to come along, but it does not start till 7pm so I suggested a glass of wine on my balcony after work, as I live between work and the bus stop - She happily agreed with the plan, but now I have to do tidying!
At least I have cleared a path from the front door to the balcony, but the flat is still pretty much full of too much stuff. We really need a bigger place (or less things - but that is not an option).
Anyhow, I hope it does not scare her too much.
I am bringing the lastest issue of Privata Affarer, a book called Mosippan and the complete "Berts Betraktelser" for someones kids and whatever other books I can find in Swedish that may interest someone and I hope to gain something interesting as well as manage to speak Swedish for a whole evening, which is not as easy as it sounds...

Now you can comment - I hope

I think I have finally managed to change my settings so that I can receive comments from anyone now. Please try ;-)

WALL-E etc.

As the weather was not so good we went to the cinema to see Wall-E, I assume it is around back in Europe. It is about a robot who is left on earth cleaning up the rubbish who falls in love with another robot visiting earth to check if it is getting more habitable... It was quite sweet.

I am now reading the latest Faye Kellerman book called "Cold Case". Sheila - you can borrow it when I see you next ;-)

Martin os cooking Risotto with Chicken, Bacon and prawns and I am drinking a South Australian Semillion called Barossa by Peter Lehman wines with that.

Wii - playing is going forward and I am mastering new games every day.

Enjoyable shopping

Had another go at having lunch at David Jones food hall. we thought we'd try the noodle bar this time, but there was a long queue so went back to the grill bar. It was not as good this time, but it never is, is it? Still enjoyed the grocery shopping afterwards: Free range pork fillets )I do like eating pigs who have been living outside), Free range chicken thighs and large prawns for the risotto Martin will cook tonight, 2 types of cheese, Tzatziki, Humous and a baugette and some interesting wine for the afternoon balcony rest finished things off.

On the way home I got the Da Vinci code DVD as I have now finished the book, so I guess that will have to provide the evening's entertainment as Australian free telly is not much fun. Unfortunately they only had region 4 - so will have to watch it on the HP.

Clocks goes back here

Just chatting on-line to a friend in the UK, waiting for her to come on-line on my work comuter - as work chat only works on work computer....
Next week it will get worse, as we move another hour away from Europe - and then when you guys in Europe move your clocks it will be even worse....
So going to be a bit detached for on-line stuff for the next 6 months or so. You can always get me on e-mail or Yahoo!

The Da Vinci Code

I have resisted to read the Da Vinci Code until now. When it came out there was so much hype about it that I really could not be bothered. I like to pick my own books for my own reason. I also did not see the movie. However, I have now given in.
Faced with having lunch on my own and wanting to go out somewhere I needed something to read, so went to our little kitchen for a magazine of some sort. The only thing I could find was an old copy of this book, so I thought I'd give it a go over lunch. Now, lunchtime the day after, I am half way through - and I did not even take it home with me yesterday.
Oh well, guess I'll finish it over the weekend and then watch the movie...

No Rain or?

It is interesting watching the weather forecast on telly. No rain is a big Negative! I moved here 'cause I liked the idea of sunshine. Tomorrow's forecast is 33 degrees and a chance of a thunderstorm, which seems to be good news to the weather reporter but I will get wet walking back from work.

Martin has cooked fish stew with prawns, calamari and salmon with cream and saffron, served with rice and white wine... so off to dinner

Too late & too hot

We were not fast enough to get the house in Curl Curl. We'll have a look at some other ones this weekend.
Also, this country is too hot! Thanks Lars for recommending A/C, however the one in our apartment can't cope and it is only early spring!