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Tuesday, May 4. 2010Europe 2002-3 Blog Fixed
The link over to the left goes to the almost-daily blog and pictures we kept during our Europe 2002-3 trip. When I moved webhosts I neglected to quality check it and have only just fixed a few little issues which were stopping the blog from working.
Also, the "Time Machine" which provides a quick link to a certain number of years ago today is fixed so that we can re-live our trip each day, but in a much cheaper fashion. This is all custom code and today (or even when we went again for our Honeymoon in 2006) I'd do it quite differently, using flickr and/or one of the many online travel blogging services which did not exist in any form in 2002.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Blogging, Europe 2002-3, Site News
at
22:23
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Saturday, March 3. 2007Catchup Blogging
OK, News time. It's been a while.
I've uploaded some photos to my Flickr account which have titles showing a pictorial version of what we've been doing recently. There's some from Adelaide (1 2 3 4), some from our recent weekend back up to the Hunter Valley to celebrate our wedding anniversary (yep, it's been over a year now...) (1 2), and even an ugly product of our veggie patch. Margaret's house has been on the market for a while and is now sold, she's looking for a place to buy and has a few in mind. She may be moving in with us during the change-over period. So we've re-organised the house a bit. We've now got a separate (small) room devoted to music. It's good to have everything out and in the one place, and I've been inspired to do some recording, helped out with a computer audio interface I found cheap on eBay. Still trying to decide what software I want to use with it though. The junk that used to be in that room has now sort-of migrated to the spare room, but it could be consolidated to make room for Margaret should the need arise. Around the house, I've been cleaning out gutters and getting things organised in preparation for the arrival of our water tanks. The fact that it's been raining a lot recently has been annoying us, thinking of the wastage. It looks like we'd have to vote capital-L Liberal to get the government to do something about water recycling, so becoming as detached as possible from it all is appealing. Put some of the wine from our Hunter trip (came back with three cases!) under the house in a sort-of cellar arrangement. The conditions are good but it's hard to get to. Should be good for medium-long-term storage though. We headed off to the Whiskey Experience again a few days ago - a great fun evening which we figure is just to raise brand awareness. Not that many people around us were aware of things around themselves by the end of proceedings! One of Liz's birthday celebrations this year was a trip to the Löwenbräu Keller, something I haven't done for years and an evening we thoroughly enjoyed. The band there seems to do the same show every night, but it's very entertaining. Plus we get to drink great beer and practice our German. ... Which is good, because Sebastian Schnelle (whom we stayed with at least three times in Europe 2002-3 and caught up with again early last year) is back in the country to do his PhD in Brisbane. He and his girlfriend Jana flew into Sydney last week and we caught up a few times. She's still in learn-English mode, so we had a few conversations with me speaking German and her English, and my lack of skill there seemed to give her more confidence. Oh, and I buggered my knee badly about a month ago, which is the worst it's ever been. I've had plenty of days working from home and far less cycling. I have a specialist appointment next week, so hopefully I can get something done about it. Another Jersey Kerb gig happened last Friday - the first with Jono playing keyboards and me back on bass after Ed left for England. We played pretty well I thought, but the crowd was both thin and lacking energy. I think we have a job for our manager to get us sorted in a new venue or with some more aggressive advertising. Still great fun though. Surely that's enough topic-hopping for now. Congratulations if you made it this far!
Posted by Alison Gould
in Cycling, Deutschland, Europe 2002-3, Europe 2006, Hardware, Jersey Kerb, Music, Real Life, Software, Sydney
at
07:46
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Tuesday, February 13. 2007We're Inspiring!
Looks like our travels through Norway may have inspired someone else to do the same, if the title of their post is to be believed.
There's three pictures we took, and the heading "Why I'm in Norway" links to all the Norway pictures we took. Apparently Francesca is a female architecture student in Norway, but she posts in Spanish. Wednesday, November 8. 2006U kno wot I mean?
This SMH story immediately took me back to my time spent working in London (part 1 part 2).
Tales of the East End (and not much at all like EastEnders) will always have a place close to my heart after spending months wandering the back streets around the area, working in the old Truman Brewery, following the footsteps of Jack the Ripper, and generally being in the heart of a constantly pulsing city. The area is similar in some respects to parts of Sydney where I work now - a once shady part of town that plenty of people will still "never go there" but if you give it a chance you'll find a revitalized friendly vibe. I never once felt unsafe wandering around Brick Lane late after closing time looking for a curry, but I guess if you pick the wrong street at the wrong time there are conceivably bad areas still. No different in Sydney or any other city around the place though. I'd be back there in a heartbeat. Oh to have two lives, one here and another over in London. Actually, three would be nice - love Munich also. And maybe a fourth, just randomly wandering the world on someone else's money. Wednesday, September 27. 2006More EU members
I'm glad we made it to Bulgaria at least before they and Romania join the EU. We visited Czech before and after they joined and the difference was quite visible - more money, less culture as a quick summary.
On the plus side, perhaps the worst standard of roads we have ever driven on will now be drivable by people who own their own cars (ours was leased so it didn't worry us too much!) And yes I know there's not much Eastern Europe blog online yet - it's on the list of things to get done :( Monday, August 28. 2006It's a New Car!
OK, so I've used that title once or twice before, but this time we mean it.
We've never owned a new car before, but yesterday, after lots and lots of research, saving, and deliberating, we went out and plonked down a deposit on a shiny new Volkswagen Polo TDi, ticking plenty of option boxes. (Reviews: #1 #2 #3) This is a small-medium car, plenty big enough for us for a while, crazily economical (6-7 l/100km around the city or 4-5 on the open road), and it's capable of towing our soon-to-be-back-in-the-water boat. The last two items on that list above come courtesy of the fact that it is a diesel car. We've loved both Percy the Peugeot and more recently Schnee Three the Citroën, both of which have been diesel powered, and finally you can get good enough diesel in Australia to make buying one here a sensible move. The fact that you can run these cars on biodiesel is a great plus for the environment. We can even create our own fuel out of waste oil from local take-aways should we so choose! Otherwise, either our local servo carries B50 (meaning 50% biodiesel) or we can buy B100 (100% biodiesel) from The Biodiesel Station in Marrickville (possibly closed at the moment). As for towing, being a diesel means that this little car actually has more towing power (ie. torque) than a Subaru Forester, while using about half the fuel when you aren't towing - making it the perfect dual-purpose car for us. I should talk a little about the Prius here, as we have mentioned several times we were thinking about one of those. The big killer was that the manufacturers don't want you to tow with them at all. Perhaps as the technology gets a little more mature, we could have a biodiesel-powered hybrid which the manufacturers supported towing with. So it's still a little while until delivery, giving us time to save up the remaining cash, but it's done now - too late to change our minds! A quick last note here that yes, we do need a car living in suburban Sydney. I'd love to say that wasn't the case, but the buses are of little use, the trains pretty good from our station but don't go everywhere you want, and it's pretty hilly for cycling. Getting across suburbs to my grandparents' place or Liz's mum's place is not really possible with any of the above options (except cycling, which I have done on occasions, but isn't possible with lots of gear, a dog, gifts, instruments, etc.)
Posted by Alison Gould
in Cycling, Environment, Europe 2002-3, Europe 2006
at
09:08
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Wednesday, December 28. 2005Life under flightpath K
I'm sitting out in the back yard sipping on a nice glass of rosé, having just taken Alina for a nice long walk. It's pretty hot here, which I'm not a big fan of but Liz is. Although since she's working nights right now, sleeping during the day when it's thirty plus is challening even her love of the hot weather.
One of the things that Liz's Uncle Peter asked about the other day when he came around was did we get a discount on the house because it is under the flight path? Well, this got me thinking. And googling. First up, the astute reader may remember this Uncle Peter from all the time we spent with him at his place in northern England. That means that he doesn't normally live here. So, to get here he could have swum, taken a boat, or, like most of us would have done, taken a plane. He chose the latter and arrived a couple of days before Christmas. Business class, actually, which sure would have beaten swimming. Unlike many better thought-out cities, the airport in Sydney is smack-bang in the middle. Well, the middle of the coast-line anyway. (Aside: We turned down a flight to Europe stopping over in Japan this time because even though the airport is called Tokyo, it is actually three hours away from the city itself. In that case we as the travellers, not residents, wanted to be close to the city quickly). So, this means that unless every single flight is to take off over the water (thereby ignoring the vast majority of the runways' capacity), a reasonable number of people are going to be living under the flight paths. A fair bit of googling later, I arrived at this Air Services Australia site where there are some truly useful reports. There's also the community forum with useful information. However, let me summarise the points as they apply to us:
When we came to meet the previous owners of the house, we had a chat and a beer and watched a plane came over then. It was a little alarming, but we still thoroughly stand by our decision. We got a great deal on this place and it's "only a stepping stone", so who knows where we will be in a few years time.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Real Life, Sydney, Travel
at
11:14
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Friday, December 23. 2005Google Earth + GPS = Bliss
Google Earth really rocks our world. It is the killer app - especially since I stumbled across a non-official Mac version :)
Before Liz and I left for our trip to Europe last time, my over-kind work mates gave me GPS. This was a fun toy to carry around the place, but the true value has only just been made apparent to me. You see, anywhere we were, we could make a waypoint, kind of a "we were here" mark in space. Now, many years later, I managed to get my brain in gear enough to work out how to get those waypoints over to the ultra-fantastic tool that is Google Earth. The results are totally engrossing - witness here the original photo of where Liz and I sat on top of Mount Errigal in Ireland, and as we had enough fore-thought to make a waypoint to prove that we actually made it, here's how it looks in Google Earth (kmz). Homework for the reader - use that kmz link (which should load in Google Earth), and fly around, comparing it to pictures before and after the one of Liz and I linked above (use the arrows above each picture). Remember that the highest-resolution data isn't even available for this particular location - others look far better. We can do this for so many places we stayed, climbed, visited or just wanted to remember that it is now amazing seeing this information overlayed on the planet. Edit: Sorry, comments disabled on this post due to spam. I guess that's the price of being noticed...
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Mobile Devices, Net, Photography, Technology
at
08:08
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Sunday, September 25. 2005Steam Trains Pt I
Yesterday Liz and I (and a few others, it turns out) had Fun Day Out On A Steam Train, Part I.
This was part of the 150 Years of NSW Railways celebrations, which means that pseudo-Trainspotters like me have lots of things to look at. For Part I of our celebrations, Liz and I took in a relatively tame Steam Shuttle from Central to Hurstville. Of course, living one station South of Hurstville meant that we had to get a slow slow Cityrail train in to Central first, then the shuttle back almost to Penshurst (it went a bit further past Hurstville, to the end of the third track) then into Central again. It was great fun, and the best part was the looks on people's faces as we steamed and tooted past them - both the older members of society who would remember when this was a normal occurrence and also the younger members who would never have seen such a beast outside of Thomas the Tank Engine. Around Central there was a static display of lots of trains and rail cars and things which we had a wander looking at. Ross that I work with was there also, snapping away like myself and so many other people. From Skyping them in the evening we found out Jono and Penny were wandering around the place also. There were also some old busses on display, which we rode around the city a bit past the Powerhouse museum and on to Mortuary station - another relic of a bygone era. We had a quick look around there before wandering up to Surry Hills to the Porterhouse for the best Sunday Roast with pints since we had many many of them all around the UK. A long lazy afternoon was spent sipping, reading and trying to convince our stomachs that the huge piles of food we had just thrown at them should be processed. Interesting observations:
There's a few photos of this adventure on my Flickr photostream, which you can also see to the left of this post. If you're a RSS user, put this in your reader to see new pictures when I upload them. Part II is a day-trip to Robertson at the end of November, which we hope to have a few friends along for as well.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Photography, Real Life, Sydney, Travel
at
23:57
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Monday, August 1. 2005Unbelievablyparanoid States of America
Those who know us should know that Liz and I like to travel. There was the year and a half we spent in Europe, we're going back again next year and have tentative plans for other largish trips to other places after that.
But there's one country we won't be going to any time soon. The U.S. of A.. I've never been super-keen on it anyway, due to the fact that our country's media and government policy pretty makes us the 51st state so what's the point, but their latest plan is just icing on the cake. Don't people get it? Terrorists will always find their way around this stuff. Or they will be from inside your own country. Liz and I have tourist dollars to spend (or will do, after our wedding, honeymoon and months more frantic saving), yet America is far from welcoming us with open arms. As a matter of interest, rough list of places we'd like to get to in the next five years:
Thursday, July 28. 2005Europe tidy-ups
Just finished some tidying up of the Europe 2002-3 section, since plenty of places seem to link to it. Yes, I know it's now closer to our next Europe trip than that one, but oh well.
I've switched to static rendering of pages that haven't changed since we got home, so it should be a bit snappier. I'm basically waiting for dual-layer DVDs to become cheaper (I have a burner already), and then I should be in a position to burn off copies of the high-res images for those who would like them. Friday, July 8. 2005London Blasts
After living there on and off for a year or so, I feel somehow attached to London. Many Aussies and indeed people world-wide do also.
Edgeware Road is literally just down the road from our place in Cricklewood (although we never used that station we drove and walked past it many times), we changed at and drove past Kings Cross several times, and Mooregate/Liverpool Street was where I got off for work every day for six months. So Londoners, I feel for you. At the same time, the best media summary I have found so far is here. Lets stop jumping to conclusions and get some facts. The Wikipedia story was better than the TV as I took them both in simultaneously last night. Similarly for the Guardian Newsblog and the Joe-public contributed Flickr photo pool. Monday, June 27. 2005Google Maps
If you love maps and want to loose huge amounts of your free time, check out Google Maps.
Satellite images of the entire world are now online, and depending on where you are the resolution can be good enough to spot the gazebo in your back yard. Like for our house, for example. Liz and I spent a few hours locating interesting landmarks of our trip, such as the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, our places in London, Istanbul, etc. There's cars on the road and planes at the airports. I just keep think it's like SimCity all over again, except it's real out there somewhere. Slashdot has some good finds to get you started. Or how about all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Net, Sydney, Technology
at
10:49
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Thursday, June 9. 2005Newcastle Again
I was up at RTA's Call Centre in Newcastle (no, not the one -Upon-Tyne) for a couple of days attempting to sort through things, just got back last night.
Although work had paid for a night's accommodation, I still feel a bit ripped off since the things I went up there to sort out didn't work, through no fault of mine. Avoiding the extended rant about work, let me quickly add a big "thanks" to CityRail for yet again having trackwork, meaning my trips up there and back were interrupted by changes to buses. Not fun at all. I managed to find some time to wander around Newcastle a bit - it's quite scenic around the harbour, and the old streets have a bit of character as you wander up the hill. Would like to give it more of a chance at some point in the future. One thing that really stood out, even more than the couple of previous times I've been there and noticed the same is that all along Hunter street (the main road in/out), what used to be interesting little shops and entertainment venues are now derelict, with notices of intended development (ie. knocking down and replacing with apartment blocks) everywhere you look. That makes the road an interesting look forward into the future that the government's plan for 7000 more apartment blocks in Sydney would look like - just substitute Hunter Street for Parramatta Road, and multiply many many times.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Sydney, Travel, Work
at
07:59
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Wednesday, May 11. 2005I'm still here
If you want to find out whether people read your blog, stop writing it. I've lost count of how many people have asked me when I am going to blog again. I guess I'll take that as a compliment.
Stumbling across this site where you can create a customised map of the world highlighting certain countries, I went on to update my "Me" page showing where I've been and also the main Europe 2002-3 page with a Europe map showing where we went. On that topic, it's now pretty much decided that after the wedding on 18th Feb 2006, we will head over to Europe for 2-3 months to sort of fill in the gaps of bits and pieces we missed out on last time. Some other random news in point-form:
That's enough for this post, I'll try and do it a bit more regularly. Maybe.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Bands, Europe 2002-3, Site News, Sydney, Travel, Wedding, Work
at
01:16
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