Wow.
What can I say, I am very impressed. I have just returned from a 3 day trip to Forster, on the New South Wales mid/central coast region. A friend of mine has a house there that they rent out and can book for owner use periods (essentially it's a holiday rental property).
The place is ~300km North of Sydney, and takes about 3.5 hours drive to get there as the speed limits and traffic changes from 60 to 110 km/h zones in the trip. And that's going the short way as there is also a scenic method that takes longer.
The air is beautiful, the water at the beach is clear, blue and crisp, even with lots of seaweed and rough seas. Food prices are good and the people are extremely friendly.
The only downside of the place is you have a bit of a drive between places, but that's ok because the speed limit is like 80km/h, so it's a 2 minute drive to the bakers down the road... but it's at 80km/h LOL.
We went to the beach, a small carnival (ooh the carnies....and their small hands...) went to the RSL and played some pokies and had a RSL dinner.
I think the only bizzare thing about the place, even though it's the country so it's not that bizzare, was the fact that practically, there are no asians.....
Chatting about the place, for buying a house there, currently prices are ~$200 000 AUD for a duplex (as in it's a house split into two houses....) but the house is still huge with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, modern kitchen, living room and dining, with a small courtyard and patio and a double lock up garage...That's really good value, and as a rental property, they go for ~$1000/week rental during peak season and ~$200/week offpeak. Peak season being of course summer.
So, if I have money one day, it's something I'd consider investing into by far.
Came back today, so it's been a little tiring having a long drive like that.
But, yeah, Happy Chinese New Year!!
Sunday 29 January 2006
Tuesday 17 January 2006
It's been a while since my last post, and quite a large number of things has happened.
In summary, I went to India, I survived India, I returned to Cat sit, I survived Christmas and New Years, I went home. I went back to uni to discover my experiments are out of array and inconclusive. I have a abstract accepted, and I'm about to go away for a holiday.
To break things down.
December 12th - 17th : I went to the Asia Pacific Drying Conference 05 (ADC05). It was hosted in Kolkata, otherwise also known by people as Calcutta, or the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Let me say, it was a experience and a half. The place is a total mess, very smelly, smoke smog and generally a brown and grey place. Overpopulated, slums, street folk. Very poor, beggers, and other general things.
On the conference side of things, it was a pretty poor quality of conference. The things presented weren't exactly great in terms of advancements in my area. Most of the Indian presenters really need to learn some presentation skills.... like... REALLY.
The food at the conference was my own problem on the trip as it gave me stomach problems while food I ate everywhere else was just fine.....
Food was pretty cheap, for $5 Australian, I ate really well, like 3 course meal type of thing. The exchange rate of $1 AUD to 33 Rupees really helped LOL.
The final downside of it all, besides a massive amount of hassle at the airport that I won't go into (but will mention included the military with a .50 calibre machine gun, assault rifles, and exchange of money from me to them) was having to carry a massive weight of conference proceedings back home.
I took with me 19.1kg of stuff INCLUDING 6kg of water. I drank all the water, and still ended up bring back 14kg of stuff, bringing my total to 27kg of luggage home.
December 18th - January 1st: I was house sitting in Redfern looking after Jellica the cat again. Pretty good except for the bit about having to go to uni each day for internet. They had air conditioning and fans so I was kept pretty cool. And having a well equipped kitchen is always excellent.
Christmas was fine, nothing special, didn't do anything, didn't go anywhere.
I got a wallet from Kirsten, a Turtle and some Vietnamese candy from her mother, a book from her sister, and a DVD of a movie I already had from Julian. Tim came back from Japan and gave me a really cool Japanese charm. It's a rope cutting arrow that had been blessed as a bad omen ward. Essentially (as my father read the sheet in japanese that came with it) when bad spirits and omens approach the house, they are repelled by the charm and therefore those in the house are protected by it. Similar to the Katana I brought back from Japan when I went.
So, it was pretty good.
Kirsten also gave me a Leatherman Charge XTi for our anniversary, while I gave her some perfume and a Pixar DVD set with the Incredibles, Bug's Life, Monsters Inc and Ants.
New Years Eve was fun, being at Tim's house. Took a bunch of photos, ate a lot of food, played poker, Mahjong, Popstar on the PS2 and Soul Calibur 3. We also went into the park for some cricket, and I bummed by the side of the pool while people swam.
January 2nd - January 3rd: Came home and cleaned my room some. Nothing exciting, but the place was insanely hot, with 45 Celcius recorded in my room........
January 4th - January 12th: Back Jellica looking after. On the Monday, Anna-Marie and Caroline came back from their holiday home at Coffs Harbour, so I cooked dinner and had them over with Adrian, Pei and James. We had a Asparagus and Pirucetto on Mayonaise starter, Greek style lamb and potato stew, and a Trifle for dessert. Then afterwards we chatted and played Mahjong. Pretty good night.
The rest of the period was pretty uneventful.
January 13th - Now: Nothing much really. Went to do an experiment to discover that the cleaning needle on the spray dryer was broken. Darn undergraduate students had broken it without knowing so. $91 + $9.1 GST and 4 weeks is what the replacement costs will be as it has to come from Switzerland. Damn. So, I've got a stack of other work to do that is fairly non experimental for now.
My work is alright for now. I submitted an abstract for the Internation Drying Symposium (IDS 06) in August, in Budapest, Hungary. The abstract has been accepted, and I have until the 15th March to complete the paper and submit it. If it's accepted, then I get to go to Hungary from the 20th to the 23rd. I'm also hoping to take some time and travel to Holland to the Hague and visit my old time friend (who I have never met in person) Hannah that I met online at the Wheel of Time roleplaying site that doesn't exist anymore.
And there is now a push to get my ADC paper into a full paper to be published in the Journal of Food Engineering. Some work will have to go into that, but I don't think it will be a extremely difficult task if I apply myself firmly to the task.
And that is mostly it for now.
In summary, I went to India, I survived India, I returned to Cat sit, I survived Christmas and New Years, I went home. I went back to uni to discover my experiments are out of array and inconclusive. I have a abstract accepted, and I'm about to go away for a holiday.
To break things down.
December 12th - 17th : I went to the Asia Pacific Drying Conference 05 (ADC05). It was hosted in Kolkata, otherwise also known by people as Calcutta, or the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Let me say, it was a experience and a half. The place is a total mess, very smelly, smoke smog and generally a brown and grey place. Overpopulated, slums, street folk. Very poor, beggers, and other general things.
On the conference side of things, it was a pretty poor quality of conference. The things presented weren't exactly great in terms of advancements in my area. Most of the Indian presenters really need to learn some presentation skills.... like... REALLY.
The food at the conference was my own problem on the trip as it gave me stomach problems while food I ate everywhere else was just fine.....
Food was pretty cheap, for $5 Australian, I ate really well, like 3 course meal type of thing. The exchange rate of $1 AUD to 33 Rupees really helped LOL.
The final downside of it all, besides a massive amount of hassle at the airport that I won't go into (but will mention included the military with a .50 calibre machine gun, assault rifles, and exchange of money from me to them) was having to carry a massive weight of conference proceedings back home.
I took with me 19.1kg of stuff INCLUDING 6kg of water. I drank all the water, and still ended up bring back 14kg of stuff, bringing my total to 27kg of luggage home.
December 18th - January 1st: I was house sitting in Redfern looking after Jellica the cat again. Pretty good except for the bit about having to go to uni each day for internet. They had air conditioning and fans so I was kept pretty cool. And having a well equipped kitchen is always excellent.
Christmas was fine, nothing special, didn't do anything, didn't go anywhere.
I got a wallet from Kirsten, a Turtle and some Vietnamese candy from her mother, a book from her sister, and a DVD of a movie I already had from Julian. Tim came back from Japan and gave me a really cool Japanese charm. It's a rope cutting arrow that had been blessed as a bad omen ward. Essentially (as my father read the sheet in japanese that came with it) when bad spirits and omens approach the house, they are repelled by the charm and therefore those in the house are protected by it. Similar to the Katana I brought back from Japan when I went.
So, it was pretty good.
Kirsten also gave me a Leatherman Charge XTi for our anniversary, while I gave her some perfume and a Pixar DVD set with the Incredibles, Bug's Life, Monsters Inc and Ants.
New Years Eve was fun, being at Tim's house. Took a bunch of photos, ate a lot of food, played poker, Mahjong, Popstar on the PS2 and Soul Calibur 3. We also went into the park for some cricket, and I bummed by the side of the pool while people swam.
January 2nd - January 3rd: Came home and cleaned my room some. Nothing exciting, but the place was insanely hot, with 45 Celcius recorded in my room........
January 4th - January 12th: Back Jellica looking after. On the Monday, Anna-Marie and Caroline came back from their holiday home at Coffs Harbour, so I cooked dinner and had them over with Adrian, Pei and James. We had a Asparagus and Pirucetto on Mayonaise starter, Greek style lamb and potato stew, and a Trifle for dessert. Then afterwards we chatted and played Mahjong. Pretty good night.
The rest of the period was pretty uneventful.
January 13th - Now: Nothing much really. Went to do an experiment to discover that the cleaning needle on the spray dryer was broken. Darn undergraduate students had broken it without knowing so. $91 + $9.1 GST and 4 weeks is what the replacement costs will be as it has to come from Switzerland. Damn. So, I've got a stack of other work to do that is fairly non experimental for now.
My work is alright for now. I submitted an abstract for the Internation Drying Symposium (IDS 06) in August, in Budapest, Hungary. The abstract has been accepted, and I have until the 15th March to complete the paper and submit it. If it's accepted, then I get to go to Hungary from the 20th to the 23rd. I'm also hoping to take some time and travel to Holland to the Hague and visit my old time friend (who I have never met in person) Hannah that I met online at the Wheel of Time roleplaying site that doesn't exist anymore.
And there is now a push to get my ADC paper into a full paper to be published in the Journal of Food Engineering. Some work will have to go into that, but I don't think it will be a extremely difficult task if I apply myself firmly to the task.
And that is mostly it for now.
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