J's Unimaginatively Titled Blog

lil rabbit

2010-04-04T19:06:00.001+12:00

DSC_4736, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Cute lil rabbit out Spencerville way. A nice farmy place with a small variety of birds, many running free for you to wander up next to, and a few others (including rabbits) protected by cabins...

2008-12-27T23:11:00.002+13:00

And the tour makes good...

2007-07-27T09:26:00.001+12:00

Since the tests proved successful, this is the first real post from my
phone. A quick shout out to the people at google who made java
versions of google mail and google maps, each of which has proven
invaluable during our trip. Gmail has kept me in touch after i broke
the laptop, and google maps has provided us with destinations for
businesses in places we've been when the printed phone books failed.
Anyway, it's thursday, so we must be in austria. Specifically vienna.
I lay here on the bed in the hotel room, one of the few english
channels on the tv (all english options at this hotel are news) after
our dinner and show.
Classical music has never really floated my boat, for all I appreciate
a good concerto as much as the next man, it's not something I've ever
bought other than as a gift. This show, however, was superb. A nice
selection of plain music, opera, ballet and audience participation.
The dinner which was to set us up for our magical viennese evening
was, to say the least, disappointing, much like the other meals so
far, which have failed to impress, despite individual shining moments
(the dessert of the first one was lovely).
To add to our growing trepidation we arrived late to the venue,
missing (we suspect) the first item. Sat in our seats, which we were
discreetly ushered to during audience applause, we were swiftly caught
up in the enthusiasm of the performers and whisked through a series of
items to an abrupt stop at intermission. The recital which we had
considered skipping was suddenly and disappointingly running out.
We ended up acquiring a cd and programme and an inspired interest in
the style of music.
It will be interesting to see if the cd manages to recreate the
atmosphere and promote the same level of interest that the live show
so marvellously generated.

This is a test :)

2007-07-26T08:48:00.001+12:00

To see if I can make posting via email work...

Test

2007-07-25T17:36:00.001+12:00

This is a test :)

Acadamie National de Musique

2007-07-17T08:06:00.001+12:00

Acadamie National de Musique, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Okay. Another charming picture from Paris. The only thing wrong with the image is that it includes lots of clear blue sky. Our experience suggests that Paris is, in fact, extremely overcast with frequent rain and thunderstorms. Sometimes clears for short periods, and often in the evening, which is good for walking to dinner. Otherwise, grey and wet.

But that's not where we left our heroes. The had, in fact, just successfully run the gauntlet of french customs and immigration and were about to embark (there was lots of embarking on this trip) on their Parisian adventure, starting with calling the shuttle company to say they'd arrived and confirm they wanted to be picked up. A simple step - the instructions even referred to the service desk with a freephone to make the call...

You may recall, however, that the facilities of Terminal 3 were, shall we say, lacklustre. This included a lack of lustre on the Parishuttle desk-with-freephone. Primarily due to the fact there wasn't one. Nor a table, or wall phone. At least, not of the Parishuttle variety. We searched high, and low, and back and forth. No desk. Not even in the train station. So we examined our voucher (so many things worked on vouchers) for a hint as to where we had gone wrong. They had a magic number that you could ring if you needed assistance. We felt that not being able to find our shuttle desk counted, so rang it. Presented with the option of either travelling in the next 48 hours, or not travelling in the next 48 hours, after some consideration, we picked option 1. Got put through to an operator that was as useful as the Parishuttle desk at terminal three was visible. Not the most compelling of starts for the French Experience. We spoke very little French, the trip organisers (well, their helpdesk) had nothing useful to offer, the arrivals building provided no joy, the train station provided no joy, the help/information desk at the terminal waved us towards the doors in answer to our questions about the shuttle (though for all we know that's what she thought we were after). We'd been in the terminal nearly 2 hours at this stage (including queue waiting) it was getting dark, and we were getting hungry.

We hated Paris.

We examined the voucher one last time. Maybe the answer was simply hidden in an anagram of the first letter of each word? Or... perhaps the Parishuttle company could help. Their number was on the voucher, and with the joys of GSM roaming our cell phones worked... At the absolute worst they should be able to tell us where the desk was.
Now, at this point, the alert reader will have noticed that what the instructions actually wanted was for the clients-to-be-shuttled to call the Parishuttle company to confirm their arrival. The magic desk (or Holy Grail, as it might as well have been) was, ultimately, simply a place that provided a phone. Possibly without the user needing to dial anything, but a phone nonetheless.
As absolute travel novices (these vouchers were very foreign to us, much like the French) this completely escaped us. Fortunately, however, the Parishuttle people have been doing this for sometime, so when I rang, explained we had a transfer arranged with Parishuttle to our hotel, and paused for breath, the nice french man on the other end of the phone (who switched to English immediately) simply asked for my name. And found our booking on his computer. And said "Certainly, which terminal are you at?". And checked again, when I told him it was Terminal 3, "You're at Terminal 3?" (I fondly imagine his query was one of disbelief, as he knew there was no desk at Terminal 3 as no one ever arrived there, except, perhaps, whiney brits who feel they deserve superior treatment). We were pleased. Very pleased. So pleased, in fact, that all our clues ran away and hid so it didn't occur to me to ask how long/far away our minibus would be. So when we were still standing outside the entrance 45 minutes later we had no idea whether this was normal, or we'd incorrectly conveyed our location.
You may imagine our relief when a minibus turned up with Parishuttle emblazoned on the front. Swiftly followed by amusement as it turned out that the couple next to us were also expecting a Parishuttle, and that the driver had not been expecting either of us. This was clearly destined to be our chariot, however, as it had exactly 4 seats free. Luggage thrown in the back we set off with a bunch of complete strangers to what we hoped would be our hotel.

Which it was. A while later, after steeling ourselves to the insanity of Parisian driving, we pulled up outside the "Best Western Opera Saint Lazare; 9, rue de Constantinople, Paris 75008, France". Seemed nice enough, very similar forms to those at the Hilton, Singapore, though no one insisting on taking our luggage away. Having dutifully filled out our forms we headed on up to our room, 115. It was hot. The room was a little stuffy. Partly because it was hot. Partly because you couldn't really swing a suitcase all the way around, nevermind a cat (which I always presume you hold by the tail, when swinging for size comparisons). Open windows solved the hot and stuffy issues, and there were actually two places to put suitcases - handy since we had two suitcases. Other than being dimly lit at night, it was a clean, functional room. Not the Hilton (nor at the Hilton price) but it had a TV, shower, toilet (sperate from the shower), phone and a small piece of plastic claiming the entire hotel was alive with WiFi, thanks to SFR.
Even better than that, it turns out it was cheaper than the Hilton and seemingly just as reliable and speedy. The laptop crashed all over the place, but I'm currently blaming that on the Nokia software - I've never managed to successfully use any Nokia software on this laptop. Works fine everywhere else (other laptops, desktops) but not the Acer C100.

Anyway. We were wired (wirelessly) to the internet, we had a servicable room, a comfy bed and a continued dislike of Paris. Braving the Parisian winter, we headed out to find some dinner. Sorry, I mean, Braving the Parisian summer, we headed out to find some dinner. Which we did, at a local place. The first local place that had a menu in the window in english. If their menu was englishable we felt there was a good chance someone in the place spoke enough english to recognise what was on their menu. We were right. In fact, she had a perfectly good grasp of English, and one that put our grasp of French to shame. So we ate. And it was good. And we ate dessert, and it too was good. And we had coffee, this too was good. The the lil dog appeared, and added to the general goodness of the place. We paid, we left, we slept, hoping that tomorrow would be less of a disaster than the previous day. Which, all told, wasn't actually that much of a disaster.

Later, if you're good, I'll tell you the story about our second day in paris...

Eiffel Tower

2007-07-15T23:31:00.001+12:00

Eiffel Tower, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Which, in due course, brings us to Paris - home of the Eiffel Tower.

Not that this is where we started, of course. No trip to a foreign country is complete without first landing, with a budget airline, and getting bussed from the plane to the terminal. Terminal 3, at Charles de Gaull. While there are trains that leave from the terminal, and dedicated shuttle trains to whisk you to and from terminals one and two, Terminal 3 is clearly the runt of the litter. Still seemingly under construction there was little there at all. But we're getting ahead of ourselves in this stunningly detailed drivel. Before I can amuse you with our near-panic we have to cover customs. From the self-centric pom who moaned that the line through immigration was too slow, and that Heathrow knew how to do it properly (listening to him further (nothing else to do) it became apparent that he wasn't actually complaining that the line was slow, but that, since he had a UK, and thus EU, passport, he should be being fast-tracked through the process and anyone else could just suffer) to the two customs women who not only spoke no english (can't hold that against them) but appeared quite disgruntled that we had actually attempted to declare something, didn't speak french and had supporting documentation that was also not in french. I have no idea if we ended up concluding anything, but we were eventually waved on through.

[Lunch time, more later - Ed]

Next stop, London, UK

2007-07-15T22:53:00.001+12:00

Going through customs was an interesting experience on the way out of Singapore. Apart from the usual stuff I was asked to turn my laptop on to demonstrate it was functional (they didn't care about the Navman GPS, or my camera). Fortunately on this occassion I happened to have a laptop with a working battery, so it started up okay. No idea what would have happened if i'd had one of the ones that has a dead battery - the power adaptor and cord were in my already checked luggage! Future plane trips, I decided, I would keep the adaptor in my carry on, along with the laptop itself.
We were on a bigger plane this time. Older, more experienced, wise it was, in the ways of the traveller. Less caring it was, of the well being of the traveller. Seats were less comfortable, screens for in-flight entertainment harder to see. Staff were still brilliant, as you'd expect, and the food, as on the last leg, surprisingly good for something that resembles a "TV dinner".
Feeling much better I'm sure I was less annoying to the passengers around me, which was a bonus :)
Then we get London customs. They weren't so interested in the laptop, but felt the need to run my shoes through the scanner. Lucky it was a Good Foot Day. A quick stop to pick up our baggage and we headed out into the "Arrival Lounge" in the hopes of being able to spot my sister, who was meeting us at the airport to help us find her place where we planned to crash for the night. Despite the throngs of people, we found each other - or at least she spotted us. We then left the Lounge and entered Heathrow Circus proper, headed for the Tube.
Everything in London was dirtier, greyer, slower and more British than in Singapore. They had the same kind of travellator walking thing, but you were far better off walking alongside them - it was quicker, had more bag-swinging room and didn't change speed as much. Singapore's walkythings whisked you along. Heathrow's ones sullenly dragged you.
Still, we made it through the airport, down the stairs (the first of millions) and onto the platform, ticket in hand. After a few minutes milling about, a train arrived, we squeezed on, luggage in tow, and had our first Tube Experience. Interesting place, a tube train. Still grimy, still dirty, still grey, but this time with lights that cut out periodically. Presumably for that added disco effect to clash seamlessly with the voice-over-lady who repeatedly reminded us that we were on a Picadilly Line Service to Cockfosters. We even had the honour of having a train delay due to a "Person under train incident". Apparently very common in the London Underground.
Seemed like a long trip, with us all far enough apart having a conversation was unlikely, and the other sardines next to you peering over your shoulder/arm/head/whatever to read whatever you were doing with your phone. How rude.
We made it, though, to the stop in Vauxhall, and walked the remainder of the way. Even dragging a case along, walking after that long a flight was a breath of fresh air. Or stale, polluted, grey, grimy slow air, as is the case in London. My sister happily explained how everyone who goes to London finds their nose runs for the first few days, due to the extra stuff the air contains, and it tends to "Turn your snot black". You'll be pleased to know she's not in Tourism or Marketing.
She has quite a nice place, aside from it being 80 stories high, with her room on the 91st. Okay, it's 4 and she's on the third, but at this point in the journey it could have been either. Some nibbles, drink, conversation, and a heavenly shower later I noticed the time in Singapore. We'd officially just hit the 24 hours 'awake' mark. Having had little sleep on the plane I crashed. Snore.

We were due to fly out to Paris later the second day in London, so we got up slightly early (9ish) and went in search of breakfast. Apparently 9am on a Sunday is too early for every kind of food establishment in Britain, so the obvious places were closed. So we walked out to some less obvious places, and found one that was open, yay! Well, kind of. It was clearly still far too early for actual food, they didn't start that until 11am. We could have a drink in the meantime, though, if we liked. Realising the insanity of eating at 10:30am, we accepted the offer of a drink. Coffee and OJ (coffee for the girls, OJ for me). I got the feeling the bar, at least, was open, even if the kitchen wasn't. The place had their priorities straight.
Everyone ended up ordering steak and chips for breakfast. Steak. For breakfast. Ahuh. To their credit the food arrived fairly promptly after the appointed hour, and was very enjoyable. If weird.
A quick stroll back to the house to pick up our gear, and a similarly quick taxi ride to the train station had us all ready to buy tickets to the Luton station (since we were flying out of Luton airport). After a few minutes we determined we weren't at quite the right station, legged it (British-styles) down the road a few hundred meters, got to the right station, got a ticket, made it to the platform and hopped on our train. With room. We could all sit, with our bags, next to eacher other. Trains good, Tube bad. Luton station saw us squeeze into the free shuttle bus to the airport itself, and on to the departures board to discover that our flight was in "Last Minute Boarding". A quaint term referring to the 20 minute period before the 40 minute period before the plane actually begins attempting to take-off. Apparently in our rush we missed the Talibanesque Metallica Man, who tried to fly out of Luton that day. But we made our flight. A 1 hour trip across the English Channel in an Ezyjet.
Much fun could be had looking out the window at the exact same landscape that we flew over the day before, on our way into London from Singapore. There's nothing like an efficient well organised travel plan. At least, not on our trip.

Rooftop Pool, Hilton Singapore

2007-07-15T09:53:00.001+12:00

DSC_1493, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Still pretty? :)

Rooftop Pool, Hilton Singapore

2007-07-15T09:51:00.001+12:00

DSC_1490, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Isn't it pretty?

5 days and 4 countries later...

2007-07-15T08:41:00.000+12:00

...and I'm left wondering where all the time went!

I had planned on posting a little more frequently than once in the first 10 days of this most adventurours of trips. But internet access, time and space all conspired against my best wishes. Okay, that's a lie. It's entirely time.

So we're left with the decision between a few closely timed, but specifically named posts, or a single large catchup post that covers everything we've done so far, complete with impressions, opinions, lies and, of course, heartache. No good drama is complete without heartache.
Naturally, I choose option 3, a vague catchup with some follow-up posts with attached pics from the flickr showcase of our visions.

Which brings us to, where we are now.
Ironically, in an internet cafe in Amsterdam (S.R.S@COM, in fact). This is of particular note as, of all the places we've been so far, this is the only one where we've had to resort to an internet cafe to get our fix, and the first time there's been a few spare moments to put fingers to keys (@blogger - pics get uploaded to flickr much more regularly :)

Looking back through the mists of time we can use our (liquid) crystal screen to examine how this quest began...

On the 5th day of July in the Year of Our Lord two thousand and seven we (and another hundred or more hearty souls) entrusted our very lives to the steel, plastic and polyester of that most loved of carriers Singapore Airlines. Crossing our fingers that we didn't end up marooned on a remote island with a bunch of psycho drama-queens, baby snatchers and general weirdness. Instead, and much to our relief, we were delivered in the comfort and attentive style that we now associate with Singapore in general. The flight crew were friendly and helpful, the seats surprisingly comfortable and the in-flight entertainment was, well, entertaining.
Being a virgin traveller (almost) I was dressed appropriately for the weather in my city of departure - Christchurch - where it was drizzling, windy and cold. Damn cold, even. Jeans, shirt, shoes, the usual. I found the flight a touch too warm at times. Then we landed in Singapore proper. Shortly after disembarking, say 30 seconds? I was fondly remembering the slight warmth of the cabin and wilting in the humid 30 degree (celcius) heat that was a regular Singapore evening at 5pm.
After an interminable wait at the Singapore Airlines Stopover counter (about 15-20 minutes) our shuttle appeared to whisk us away to our hotel. Okay, more lies, it arrived to pack us in to a minibus that sounded (and performed) as though it were powerd by a coffee grinder. Oh yes, did I mention I came down with a headcold the day before we left? It was in full swing by the time we boarded our flight, much to the joy of T (and, no doubt, the passengers surrounding us) as I proceeded to blow my nose through the entire 10 hour flight. And then for the hour or so transfer to our hotel. Ah, the joys of the human nose.
Anyway, where were we. That's right, we were grinding our way across the Singaporean high ways. Two things in particular struck me about this trip (beyond the lack of coffee being provided, despite the minibus' drivetrain):

Singapore has signs.
Not, necessarily, earth shattering in and of itself, but they were all in English. Every single one. Road signs, street signs, apartment block numbers, business names. All of them. No sign of the expected culture shock, not even in english.
Singapore is green.
Everywhere. Or almost. The nice road barriers we all know and love that line highways the world-round are still there. Just most of them are covered by some nice pretty plant. Green plants, flowering plants, tree plants. Any sort of plant. There appears to have been a concerted effort to make the utilitarian highways less drab, grey and boring than they really are. From the barriers to the overhead walkways to the sides of fly-overs, most were covered in an attractive shade of nature. A few places had gaps which were likely caused by errant coffee grinders straying off the beans into gravel, but still.
Everything is clean.
Highways were fairly clean. Side-bits were clean. The cars were clean. And unscratched. And undented (indented? No, that's not right...) In the hour long journey I counted exactly two cars that had obvious scratches on them. And zero that had dirt. A few trucks that had the markings of actual use, but ye olde cars were shiny, clean, and fairly modern.

That's two things. Count them again if you don't believe me.
While the trip was interesting, after the 10 hours seated on a plane I really wasn't that enthralled with another hour seated on a minibus. The saving grace of this particular Mr Coffee was air-conditioning. Sitting under the nice cool breeze from the overhead vent was a nice way to begin.

Eventually we arrived at our hotel.
Now, we're not rich. We're not high flyers. We're barely even flyers. But the whole Singapore thing was Singapore Airlines fault, as they offer discounted rates on things if you fly with them to Singapore and take a day or two or three as a mid-journey stop-over. We took two nights on the way out (and two on the way back, as it happens, but the return journey flights mean we get nearly three whole days, rather than the out-bound one whole day) staying at the Hilton Singapore. We like the Hilton Singapore. All the staff are friendly, helpful and seem to genuinely give a damn. If it's an act for the clients, notify the academy 'cause we're sold. From the people who greet you when your minibus grinds to a halt (and take your bags off you - I got the feeling carrying my own stuff up the three steps to reception would have been taken as an insult) to the Reception staff who get you to fill out the random forms all places seem to like to inflict on their guests to the room service people who bring food all the way up to your lazy ass sitting on the bed in your room to the people behind the desk in the gym, everyone is helpful. Even, and this was the one that really impressed me, the guys who (among other things, I'm sure) clean the huge glass doors/wall that encloses the front of the gym after it, and the pool, have closed, are friendly and helpful. We know this as we went up to the pool and hung out for a bit (rooftop pool, at night, lights on, hot day - magic) then came back down to find the elevators didn't work anymore. Fortunately for us the elevators are in front of this glass door to the gym that I mentioned. Equally fortunately, being after hours, these nice guys were there cleaning it. They noticed we were pressing the elevator-call button (to no avail) and not only explained that the elevators were 'off' now (after 10pm) and that we'd need to use the stairs, but actually lead us through to the stairwell and down the flight to the next level (where the elevators worked - I do think this system needs improvement, there's no reason not to let you call the elevator from a closed floor, just not let you choose it once in the elevator. Anyway.)
So, Hilton Singapore: Friendly, helpful and in a genuine way.
It's in a lovely position at the end of Orchard Road, the rooms are air-conditioned and a godsend after the humid heat of the outdoors, they have internet access (wired and wireless, though you have to go wired first) which is responsive and simple, though not cheap - S$35 a day (actually S$0.85 a minute with a cap of S$35 in a 24-hour period). So fairly well spec'd. Unless you're silly enough to want to watch TV. A (to me) strange selection of channels with HBO for movies, a couple of sport channels and other stuff. No pay-per-view or several of the other things that were mentioned in the (supplied) cable listings-magazine. But then why watch TV when you can wander the streets :)

And the streets are good too. Again, clean, and with recycling bins! Lots of rubbish bins, which is good (and helps the lack of litter, I'm sure) but enough recylcing bins that I never had to walk too far with my empty coke bottle before I could deposit it into a sensible place, rather than adding to the landfill nightmare. 7-11s, McCafe/McDonalds every six steps (okay, maybe it was 8) and a whole bunch of labels that caused T to scoff at me when I expressed ignorance as to their significance (we were on Orchard Road). Even the staff in these stores were friendly. Sales reps that pushed their wares (some Clarins stuff, or something) but in a seemingly personable way rather than outright pushy. At least, that's what T tells me. I switched off :)
Spent most of our time there looking about the shops (all air-conditioned, though I assure you that had nothing to do with my entheusiasm about going in to them. No, really.) which was interesting. Not so many photo-ops, though.

Which about wraps up Singapore. Friendly people, I got over the worst of my cold, T got an N76, we approved the Hilton Singapore, I went to my first Hard Rock Cafe, and then we left for the UK stop-over part of our journey. Or at least the first of them.

And that, as they say, is that. At least for now :)

Dolphin in Zoom

2007-01-05T20:11:00.001+13:00

Dolphin in Zoom, originally uploaded by davisonja.

Aren't camera's great? We went on a day trip to Akaroa yesterday. A very last minute decision, we'd planned on a picnic at Orton Bradley Park, but other co-conspiritors weren't available, so we postponed that until Saturday, climbed in the car, and went to Akaroa.
Tanya had a trip a few weeks back with her work, where they went on a dolphin watching cruise. After some great pics and a cool story, we thought we'd give it a go with me in tow :)
Dicey wind and the late-minute-ness of it all meant our chances of being able to go on the 12:45 excursion were fairly low. We turned up at the Akaroa Dolphins cruise store at 11:45 to discover that the boat was already full (for the conditions) but we could be wait-listed for the 12:45, or opt for the 3:15. We took a chance and went for the wait-list, hoping the conditions would improve favourably so we could safely join the lucky 14 or so who'd got in at a sensible time. A few visits later and some prayers to the weather gods saw us signed on and going! The staff at the store were really friendly and helpful, doing what they could to help us get out on the water - within the realms of what they could do, of course, safety on the boat was always the primary concern.
The trip around the harbour took about 90 minutes (their brochure quotes 80, I think, but by the time you've boarded, toured, docked and un-boarded...) stopping off at various interesting sites on the way to the heads. (You can see more pics from the trip in my pictures on Flickr :)
Once we'd reached the heads, and pottered around for a few minutes, hoping to spot some dolphins, a bunch turned up and started playing around the boat. We got to watch them for what felt like ages, and take lots of pics - digital camera's are great! Eventually someone on board decided they were feeling ill, so we had to head back into the harbour and leave our new friends behind. The trip back had similarly interesting sights, including the salmon farm where we found a few seagulls competing with another dolphin for food. No idea what it was they were eating, but the dolphin was swimming about and the seagulls were diving at the water.
The trip included a complimentary drink as we left port and a very nicely timed biscuit on the way back (which sounds a lot cheaper than it is :) great commentary and one of the best excursions we've been on in a long time. I'd defintely recommend anyone in the Christchurch area go and do one of these tours with this company - the boat was comfortable and not overly populated (unlike some of the other options who seem to pack people in with no where to sit!), the staff were excellent and the sights worth far more than the mere 55$ each we paid.

Ah, Christmas Shopping...

2006-12-09T20:33:00.000+13:00

Where only the insanely brave and the foolhardy dare to tread: A Mall.
We drove around one today. Literally. All the way around. Then down side streets. And around again. Parks were, well, full. So we abandond the idea of getting all our present shopping done today, and started to head off to the supermarket (we needed some milk, cereal, cat food and light bulbs - we eventually got everything except the light bulbs, oops)
Just for a laugh we thought we'd see what town was like. Not only was it not as busy, it was pleasant! Shops weren't bursting at the seams with people, shop staff weren't run off their feet and so weary our shopping was a nuisance to them. It was a lovely reminder of what shopping can be like, outside of the silly season.
In contrast to our other recent present-shopping-trips we actually spent more on other people than we did ourselves. Or at least, more on acual presents than stuff for us immediately. We got Tanya's present, and it drags the average back toward us :)

So the moral of the story, at least as far as Christchurch goes:
City Mall - Good
Riccarton Mall - Bad
(Sorry, that's Westfield Shopping Town to all the newer generation)

An Xbox? 360? For me?

2006-11-18T18:47:00.000+13:00

Okay, so I did once say that I'd never get an XBox 360. Why bother when the games aren't compatible with the old version, and nothing is standard. Much better to get a PS3, maintains compatibility with previous games, nice wifi connectivity, and, of course, it's by Sony and not Microsoft.
Of course, that was before getting a 360 was a realistic possibility, and before the PS3 got delayed 8 million times, and then had a projected sale price of 1200 NZD$!
So I've now got a 360. And am selling the old XBox on trademe.
Good buy? Yeah, I'd say so. Wireless controllers are great, though the way they don't give you rechargable batteries with them is not so great. The included "Media Remote" is cool, lets you use much of the xbox that isn't games.
We got ye olde XBox 360 and the additional wireless controller pack. Means we've ended up with a 1 month trial membership to Live, a disc with various 'arcade' games on it (mostly desktop-esqu games) and something else we've not tried.
So, what is there that isn't games? Finally they've included a useful connection to your PC to play music, movies and display pictures. I'm told that it's UPnP, so there's some hope that we can link it up to our linux box as well as our XP desktop. In the meantime, however, we can happily browse our digital camera pics on our TV, right from our armchair! Music works nicely too, but most of our MP3s are on our linux box, so there's not much choice. It also only plays WMV files, which is a bit sucky - we've got few videos as it is, but almost none of them are plain 'ol WMV (at least, only about 3 show up, so I'm guessing they're not WMV) It's a good start though.

The quality of the pics are good too, water in particular looks really cool in the games we've played so far. Which include "Just Cause", "Saints Row" and a uselessly slow game called "Condemned". Speaking of games, it's nice to be able to download demo's from XBox Live. Or even video's for songs - getting a 720p version of an Incubus video was groovy, great quality (though even on Xtra Broadband it took a while!) just a pity that there's not so much actual content on it. It's also a little annoying that you can "buy" things with "Microsoft Points" - I guess we can't expect it all to be free, but having another currency seems a little pointless.

Overall, it's been good so far, but it's only a week old. I'll keep you all up to date :)

Nice plate

2006-10-04T19:36:00.001+13:00

Nice plate, originally uploaded by davisonja.

In an effort to cut down (dare I say, eliminate?) McDonalds from my weekly fare, we've been trying alternatives for lunch during the working week (especially this pair of weeks as it's school holidays).
Yesterday's effort involved the cafe named so elegantly on their plate (pictured). While we, perhaps, should have expected a certain snootiness from an eatery in Merivale, the staff we dealt with seemed unnecessarily short and quite uninterested in us, despite our status as paying customers.
I felt the$8.50 for a fritata and $3.50 for a *390ml* bottle of coke were a little on the high side, too. Though they did offer me a glass to pour what little coke I had into...
Out of 5? 2, only because the food was actually reasonably nice to eat.

But technology doesn't breed content

2006-10-03T18:08:00.000+13:00

Which is why all the funky gadgets in the world (and I do consider the hand-writing recognition of XP Tablet pretty funky) won't make this a more interesting read.

We're well into week 6 of our 12 week challenge, now, and have done the second of the three fitness tests, yeolde beeps again. I've managed to pull my previous 3.1 into a 5, which I'm quite pleased with, though it was still a struggle to get there!

But today's a short entry again, since I'm (attempting!) to cook dinner tonight, and I fear it's burning while I sit here...

The wonders of technology...

2006-09-28T20:31:00.000+12:00

Today's post is brought to you by the letters D,L,i,n,k and g, and the numbers 802 and 11.

For those of you who don't memorize the vast number of standards, that's wifi, or WLAN. In fact these bits are being placed into the wide world of the web by the combination of D-Link wifi gear and the marvels of an acer C100 laptop. With the joys of both wireless freedom and Windows XP Tablet Edition, I can lay here in bed and quite literally write the evenings blog entry. (With thanks to Ben for the higher-gain aerial for the access point which means I can stretch the coverage to the bedroom)

Ah, 5 weeks down!

2006-09-26T19:32:00.000+12:00

Nearly half way through ye olde 12 week challenge, and it's all rainbows! Well, perhaps rainbows isn't quite right. I'm not actually sure what that means - but it's certainly much better than we'd feared.
It's been great working with Paul, who not only has a brilliant attitude (it's about a gradual change into a healthy life style, rather than cold-turkey - my words, not his) but after all these weeks and twice a week each one the workouts have only had one repeated component! That was, of course, boxing since Tanya loves it so much :)
Not only are the workouts fun, but the old stories about more energy and feeling better about things in general are (perhaps not that surprisingly) true. It's even proving to be easier to get up in the morning to take the puppy dog for a walk! So we're all getting happier.
Absolutely recommend fitness in general, and the Les Mills' in Christchurch to everyone. The staff about the place are very friendly, and I've been surprised at how many of them recognised us on sight, after only a few visits (and by on sight, I mean they knew our names!). Great place with nice people. If only they had better music :)
On the topic of music, the absolute best purchase I've made in recent times was a Nokia N91. Not only is it a Nokia phone of usual Nokia quality, but it comes with a 4GB microdrive for storing music on. This has been an absolute godsend in the gym. Never really considered myself a big music/mp3/ogg-player-person, but it's been great to have a wide variety of music in my pocket. Most surprising with the phone has been the quality of the supplied headphones - they sound much better than any of the other headphones I've been given with various Sony portable CD players, PSP and mp3 players. Very pleased. At some point I plan on making an entry on the phone, but we'll see how it goes :)

What do you mean there's no weight on the bar?

2006-09-06T19:16:00.000+12:00

Had our first session with our Personal Trainer today.
After the 5 minute cardio warm-up (ease us nicely into the work out) we headed through to the weights gym.
First up bench press. With the bar. Just the bar. Just the 10kg bar. Man was that enough!
Alternating rep-sets with Tanya made it all just about tolerable, but Paul was helping me out in the last few of each set. There's a wide range of machines with far too much weight attached. We're looking forward to being able to do more than just look at the stack as the top one remains attached for us!
Now at home (after dinner, of course) and everything is still a little sore and shakey. I'm told this wears off after a day or two, but it's really annoying at the moment.

We were, once again, impressed with the staff at the gym, everyone is so friendly and actually seem to remember us, despite the fact we've only been 4 or so times. The general mood is fantastic, from the happy and helpful staff to our fellow masochists quietly pursuing their own lofty athletic goals (mine currently being to do a full 30 on the bike, a 10 on the cross-trainer and a full set of bench weights!). Just need a little air freshener in the mixed weights gym :)

The classes that have been going on around the place as we walk through look interesting too. All seem way out of my league at the moment, but again will be fun when we hit the level to be able to join in for the full hour!

We've been sent away with a few more diet tips and instructions to do lots of cardio between sessions with Paul. So until next week, wednesday at 12:30, cardio it is!

RIP Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin

2006-09-04T20:13:00.000+12:00

A sad day indeed with the departure of the internationally known and loved activist. With his unique approach to presentation and obvious unending love of nature and animals people everywhere were introduced to countless creatures and their issues.
Love him or hate him (and some couldn't stand his approach!) his entheusiasm was utterly undeniable and marvellously infectious.
The only slight, and it is very slight, silver lining is that he died doing what he loved, documenting nature.

He will be missed.

12 Weeks!

2006-08-29T19:44:00.000+12:00

Joined Les Mills gym, City club last friday. Signed ourselves up for their 12-week challenge.
It's a fitness-type course run over, not that surprisingly, 12 weeks. We get weekly seminars educating us on other essentials of fitness such as nutrition, and how exercise impacts on your body.
The absolute first step was the fitness test. I'm (ahem) proud to say I achieved the stunning result of a 3.1 - I flaked on the first lap of level three. The only way is up, as they say.
So far it's all been great. Our first point of contact was (what I call) the account manager Sharon. She showed us around the gym, explained how membership works, what the 12-week challenge involved and helped us with the all-important sign-up and money hand over. Not only was she friendly and helpful, but she remembered who we were the next time we were in - always a good indication of genuinely interested staff.
We've also met up with our personal trainer, Paul, who's another friendly down-to-earth guy. He ran over what he was offering, and the basics of what we were already doing. Which in general wasn't too bad, but lacked exercise and protein. Curiously, we aren't (or weren't) eating enough, or often enough, so we've been sent away with the instruction to eat more regularly through the day. And he's gone away to come up with a good diet plan.
Be interesting to see what he comes up with.

We're both really excited about the lifestyle change we're embarking on and looking forward to all the positive side-effects people keep talking about.
Should please the dog, too, since she's getting her walks every morning now!

MP3 Player? What MP3 Player?

2006-08-16T20:16:00.000+12:00

And well you might ask, for all that you probably didn't.

Since the dawn of car audio, people have pursued the goal of all audio junkies: More, better, louder!
It's no longer enough to have a mere 74 minutes of CD quality audio (and, lets face it, ye olde radio stations tend to be repetitive, or just plain bad), now we want MP3/WMA/OGG/your-format-here encoded discs that can hold hundreds of songs for hours of listening pleasure. And not just a single disc, changers full of them.

Which is all very well for those of us with tiny audio collections. Real music junkies can fill an MP3 changer with the music they bought last week. For real junkies you need an honest-to-goodness harddrive to store your tunes for the 30-minute drive to work. A 100GB Maxtor One Touch III Mini, for example.
To be fair, it's slightly over spec'd for my collection (and we'll completely ignore the fact that a 20-minute drive to work is on a slow day) which totals a mere 31G in around about 9,500 files. We all need room to expand (which is why belts have extra holes in them, but that's another story).

Of course, a harddrive is only part of the solution. We also need something to read the data from the harddrive and decode it from bits into noise. For that I've opted for a Macintosh PowerBook G3 200MHz (Wallstreet, for those who know) with the vast memory size of 64Mb. Not only does it make a lovely MP3 player, it even works well enough to run X and let me write this post.
As may be obvious, it's not running MacOS 9, or X, but instead Debian Sarge with the only downside being it's not new enough to boot directly into linux, instead requiring BootX. More boring details about this are on our website www.davison.org.nz. Consider finding the exact page an exercise for the reader :)

I'm quite impressed at how similar Debian Sarge on the powerbook is to Debian Sarge on a random i386 box. There is little difference between using this powerbook as the core mp3 player and the similar (but obviously different) NEC Versa I've got for the same purpose (two cars, doncha know). A few minor quirks with power management, and the odd package that hasn't been built, but otherwise everything is perfectly transferable.
This, of course, is part of the goal - an in-car MP3 player that is almost entirely generic in terms of hardware. In theory, the mac could die tomorrow and it would be easy to just drop in another laptop that has a serial connection, PCMCIA slot(s) and can run Debian. In practice, of course, the key is that the computer has serial and USB, since the music is actually stored on an external USB drive (if you were really keen, just USB, since you can get USB to serial converters).

The aim is to have the core computer accessible via WiFi and Bluetooth for management and music control (in addition to the headunit interface) and with music updates handled by soundcat and either USB drives (flash or hard) or CD/DVD - still haven't decided whether to connect a DVD drive (probably via USB) or not. Obviously when at home WiFi is perfectly acceptable too :)

I'm somewhat disappointed that (at least in NZ) there aren't a great many really good car headunits that support compressed audio. One of the best I've seen is from Dick Smith, of all places.

And the search for MP3 player components goes on

2006-08-15T20:35:00.000+12:00

My Maxtor One Touch III mini drive arrived yesterday(ish).
Great little drive, swift (via USB 2) and relatively quiet. The only real downside is the fact it won't run off the pcmcia USB2 card I've got for the powerbook :(