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.