Well, I’m sitting here on the Eurostar, about to enter the tunnel on the way to Lille. The experience is a little underwhelming, partly because it’s dark outside, so, coupled with a lit carriage, it’s impossible to see the landscape speeding by, and at this stage I’ve been travelling non-stop for about 39 hours with only a fitful four hours of sleep within that period. I’m trying to keep myself awake!

The trip was relatively plain sailing: Sydney – Melbourne – Hong Kong – London. We’d lost some time between Melbourne and Hong Kong, but we’d made it up by the time we were over France, only to have air traffic control in London tell us to do a pointless loop to kill time. It just so happened that we were almost over Lille, my final destination, when the instruction came through. If I’d had a parachute I could have cut about 10 hours off my journey.

Landed in Heathrow, now 40 mins late, only to find out that the bay we’d been given still had a plane in it. Had to wait a further 30 mins out on the tarmac until they got their shit together. Not what I wanted after a 13 hour flight. London decided to lay on the charm by pissing rain while we were sitting there. Finally got off the plane, waited for my baggage and jumped on the Heathrow Express to Paddington. That ran like clockwork, so my worries about missing the Eurostar were unfounded.

Dumped my snowboard stuff in the left luggage office so I didn’t have to lug it around for the next few days then jumped on the tube to Waterloo only to find that there was a delay because there was a problem on the track behind us??? Who gives a shit – we’re not going in reverse! Couldn’t figure that one out. Had two hours to kill so picked up my ticket and then just loitered around the terminal watching the world go by.

No insightful observations; I’d just forgotten how busy London is, with non-stop heavy foot traffic between 3 and 6, and for an hour or two after that as well I’m sure. One thing that did strike me is how much more dull and drab London is than Sydney. It’s like a painter took the palette used for Sydney and dunked it in muddy brown water before going to work on London. I love the fact that there’s so much history around every corner, and the historical architecture is a big plus over Sydney, but I’d probably end up depressed if I lived here for a significant period of time. Dublin has a similar problem, though on a smaller scale.

Anyway, I’ve just made my first trip through the Chunnel in complete darkness and am now in France. I meet a heavily pregnant Kate in 25 mins plus partner Sebastien, and am looking forward to a good coffee, a shower and bed. I will undoubtedly be useless company until tomorrow. Bloody exhausted.

U2 finally came to town last Saturday night. I’d got tickets for the original April gigs, which were then cancelled due to a serious illness affecting one of The Edge’s family members. I wasn’t sure whether they’d get back here before I left for Canada, so when they announced November dates it was a big relief.

Jacqui decided not to go as it was Anna’s 30th on the same night, but as I hadn’t seen them live before and it’s probably the last time they’d come to Oz, I was definitely going. I headed out to Stadium Australia with John, Sarah and a whole gang of their mates nice and early, hoping to avoid the crowds. It was still pretty busy, but we had a couple of hours to kill once we got there.

Kanye West was the support act, which was a bit odd. If you look at the support bands for Europe and the US, they’re all bands that fit pretty well with U2 – The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Thrills, Kings of Leon… how Kanye West fits in with that lot is beyond me. Anyway, we’d no interest in seeing him but were inside the stadium while he was on stage and he was crap. The sound was pretty awful, presumably because the acoustic setup for a bass-heavy hip-hop artist is markedly different from a rock band’s requirements? Anyway, he was only on stage for 40 minutes or so, which was a relief.

Once U2 came on stage everything changed. It was dark, almost 80,000 people waited expectantly, the stadium lights went down and it was on! The atmosphere was incredible! I’m not a regular concert goer, but I’ve been to Robbie Williams with Jacqui before, which was a pretty big concert, but this was a whole other league and just underlines how massive U2 really are. Even Kylie, who’s playing Sydney right now as well, only fills the Entertainment Centre with a capacity of 21,000. I can’t think of another rock band who could comfortably fill an 80,000 seat stadium three nights in a row in Sydney. No-one else even comes close.

The night’s song list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Until The End of the World
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Sometimes
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
The Saints Are Coming
Desire
Kite

A good mix there, and not too biased towards the more recent stuff, which was something I was a bit concerned about. Nevertheless, myself, John & Sarah sang our heads off and I for one ended the night almost hoarse.

Overall an amazing night and well worth the wait. My only regret was that I took the “No Cameras” warning on the ticket seriously and left mine at home. I saw at least one punter taking pictures with a good camera, so I’d love to have had mine there, however, I certainly didn’t want to arrive at the gates with my Canon 350D and be told I couldn’t go in with it!

The U.S’s big three car makers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, had a meeting with Bush yesterday at which they asked for assistance “in fending off Japanese competition and in shifting vehicles towards environmentally friendly forms of fuel.”,1),
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These are the same car manufacturers who lobbied the US Government to make it tax efficient to drive monster trucke, lobbied so that they would not advocate for fuel-efficient cars, and then sued California when that state mandated lower emissions.

To ram home the point that they intend to shift away from petrol, Mr Mulally and Mr Wagoner arrived for the meeting in hybrid fuel vehicles.

You hypocritical bastards. It’s a pity you only saw the writing on the wall when you’re about to crash into it ;-)

Myself, Marc, Kevin and Billy had signed up for The Gong Ride on Sunday morning, so I had to cut the Budgie 100 celebrations short and get to bed early to try and avoid a hangover. Sunday was another day of shit weather, though pulling out of the race wasn’t an option as I knew Marc would ride regardless and it was also the 25th Anniversary ride.

This didn’t deter Billy, who phoned in from his warm bed to say he wouldn’t be getting up. We found out later that day that he’d just got engaged (and Lisa pregnant – not that morning obviously) so while people might construe that as an excuse, his prior form would indicate that he’d have stayed in bed regardless.

Out the door at 5.30am, drive to Centennial Park to meet Marc, get the bike out of the boot and ride to the start of the event. Kev showed up a little later and we were ready to start around 7am. The target was to ride the 90km in under four hours, so we needed an average pace of 22.5km/h. With the numbers of people doing the event estimated at up to 10,000 there was always going to be some congestion en route, and it turned into a pretty slow start until we got out past Cronulla and things thinned out a bit.

It was raining on and off, and the wind was in our face the whole way, so the four hour target didn’t look feasible. I was tempted by the muffin stop at Loftus Oval, but Marc was determined to break four hours and didn’t want to stop. The event held personal significance for him as his Dad has MS, so I was more than happy to have him set the pace. Shortly after Loftus Oval we were joined by those who had signed up for the 56km option and the pace dropped off again as we tried weaving through the crowds.

We entered the National Park at Waterfall and had to wait for a motorcycle escort down the steep hill into the park. There’d been accidents on this stretch in previous years, so everyone was forced to slow down. Once at the bottom we had plenty of climbing ahead of us until we exited the park at Otford. Despite having done the ride with Kev last year, I was suprised when we arrived at Otford without too much climbing at all. My memory had obviously exaggerated the severity of the climbs!

We were now out on the exposed coast road and the wind & rain were still present. We got held up again waiting for a police motorcycle to escort us down Bald Hill to Stanwell Park, but once that was over it was a realtively flat run to Woollongong. By the 15km marker I was getting pretty fed up with the day as the weather was starting to piss me off, so I decided to leave Marc and Kev behind and get the final 15km over with as quickly as possible.

By this time we were riding on a bike path instead of the road, so our speeds were down a bit, but I found a big mountain biker to draft off for a few kilometres and then was on my own for the remainder. The finish seemed to take an age to reach and once it was finally in sight I rounded a corner only to find one final hill to climb and after that it was all over!

A quick massage later and we were off to find a pub and reward ourselves with beer and food. The total time for me was 4h12m, but once stoppages had been removed it was 3h50. Both Kev and Marc also made it under four hours, coming in at 3h57 and 3h58 respectively.

Marc’s Photos

Well it was an active & eventful weekend!

Saturday saw the running of the inaugural Budgie 100 down at Iceberg’s Pool. It all started a few months ago…

A whole gang of us were around in Mikey’s place having a poker night, we were hammered and Goz turned to me and challenged me to a swimming race, specifically a 100m Free. I agreed and thought no more of it, partially because I just assumed it was drunk talk and partially because I really didn’t want to race as that would mean I’d have to do some swim training and I couldn’t be arsed.

All was well for a month or two until Graeme, who had overheard the challenge, resurrected it, christened it the Budgie 100 and started organising. The race was on, and there was only one rule: you had to wear budgie smugglers, or Speedos to you non-Aussies. We had about six weeks to get organised, which is why I started doing some lunch-time swim squads a few weeks ago.

Anyway, Saturday comes around, it’s cold and raining and the pool is outdoors and not heated. Not very appealing, but there’s no going back now. Graeme had hired two lanes at Icebergs, organised a trophy and got some sponsorship prizes! I wandered down to the pool with my support crew (Jacqui, Denise, Mark & Alannah), arriving just as the first heat got going. Bit of a panic as I thought I’d have 20 minutes to get organised. A quick stretch and it was my turn, with the fastest time so far being a 1:07. I dived in, my goggles came off and I couldn’t really see where I was going, as I was trying to keep my contacts from falling out. Not an auspicious start, but I finished in 1:06 to be fastest qualifier for the final.

I borrowed Graeme’s goggles for the final as I was taking no chances. Thankfully this time they stayed on and it made a huge difference. Managed a 1:03 in the final to win the inaugural Budgie 100 and walk away with $50 in prize money, a trophy which will have my name engraved on it, and a Nike laptop bag! Not bad at all. Goz finished in second and John came third.

The ladies followed up with a 50m Breastroke which was won by Helen, a fact that disturbed the Aussies no end, as it meant that “northern monkeys” had won both races. The men’s race finished Ireland, South Africa, South Africa with Jason as best Aussie in 4th ;-)

So, an excellent day despite the weather. The first year was a resounding success and it looks like I’ll have to phone in a result from Canada next November! Better start training.

PS: Great organising effort Reidy!

Stuart’s Flickr Set

Windows really is a POS!

Called over to a mate’s house on the way home from work to help him set up his new PC. Had tried to get him to buy an iMac but he’d already got a HP by the time my calls got through to him. Had to set him up with Unwired as well and figured it couldn’t be too bad. It took FOUR hours! Yes, FOUR!

OS was already installed, so just had to do some basic configuration (time, dat, langauge, etc). Had a quick look around to see that there was loads of junk installed – about 20 shite games and sign-ups for Telstra, Dodo, IPrimus and some other ISP too. Removed all those.

Installed Office 2003.

Installed Office 2003 SP2.

Got Unwired up and running. It’s crap! Despite good signal strength & quality it started off downloading Firefox at 4KB/s! Dumped the connection & tried again: 17KB/s. On a 512/128 plan!

Setup & configured the HP Printer/Scanner/Fax.

Deleted the demo version of Norton Security which came with the machine.

Installed the Trend Micro Security package he’d paid for.

Set up a schedule to check for updates.

Set up a schedule to scan for viruses.

Set up a schedule to scan for spyware.

Set up the firewall.

Thought I was nearly done, but no, I had yet to meet Windows Update. Fired that up, and it told me it needed to update itself. That done, it told me I needed to download 51 critical & highly recommended patches!!! 51! Took an hour to do that.

I came in towards the end and figured I’d set up a limited user for his day to day use. Fast user switching! Great, I’ll do that. Switched out of admin & did some configuration in his user account. Finished that, logged out and back in to Admin to see that Windows Update had refused to install the updates it had spent the last hour downloading!

You know that adage about the watched kettle never boiling? Turns out this Windows PC is the inverse: it will only do stuff if you sit there and watch it. Told it to do it again and thankfully it realised it had already done the downloads, so I left it installing update 13 of 51 and went home.

My conclusion: using Windows is what I imagine it would be like if you were looking after an ageing relative with mild Alzheimer’s; it’s fully functional, but gives the impression of never really being sure of what’s going on, and is liable to drive you insane.

BTW, XP Pro on a 3.0GHz Pentium D: slow! Lots of pregnant pauses if you tried to do two things at once.

Monique got us tickets for the Australia vs Bahrain Asian Cup Qualifier. Australia had already qualified, so there was nothing riding on the game, but since Bresciano, Cahill, Neill & Schwarzer were home from Europe pride was at stake, especially since it’s the first time they’d played in Sydney since the World Cup.

Photos here.

Jacqui got free accommodation in Kiama through work, so herself, myself, Anna and Nathan headed down last weekend for a relaxing weekend by the beach. The accommodation was right on a beach, which was great. John & Goz came down for the day on Saturday, so we chilled out on the beach, played some frisbee and went for a swim. The water’s not too cold, which was a bonus, as I normally don’t bother going for a swim until December when the water temperature is usually around 20C or so.

The plan for Sunday was to get breakfast in Gerringong and then head down to Seven Mile Beach for the day, but by the time we had breakfast the weather had changed; the wind had picked up and the temperatures were down quite a bit, so it was no longer a beach day. We opted to head to Minimiurra Falls instead and do the rainforest walk which turned out to be quite interesting, though the falls weren’t as spectacular as I’d hoped!

Here’s my photos.

After my disastrous round of golf last week, where I shot a 120, this week was much better. Last week was exacerbated by the fact that I hadn’t played at all in 9 months, and a full 18 holes in as many months, and I’d never played at Hurstville before. A quick trip to the driving range to refamiliarise myself with my swing didn’t really help either.

So, after signing up for another round with Simon, Danny, Clyde & Chris this week, I hit the driving range twice this week to get my 3,4 & 5 irons dialled in. It worked pretty well, and this week I managed a 108, which is about normal for me. More importantly, I also got my first birdie on a full-size course. With a following wind, I hit a pitching wedge around 120m, getting a creat bounce and leaving it about 3m from the pin. Hit a sweet putt and got the distance just right, the ball teetering on the edge before dropping in. Gotta happy with that ;-)

I’m tempted to play a few more times before I leave for Canada to see if I can improve more and maybe get closer to 100, but there’s not much point really. Might as well wait until I get back, on until summer rolls around in Vancouver.

80GB of music & video playing goodness ;-)

I’ve just installed GeoPress so I can now add Google maps to any of my posts. Here’s my current location.

INSERT_MAP

This will be brilliant when I head off to Canada next year!

At least there was an upside to all the rain last week.

The Royal Society has just made its entire archive digital, and it’s online, and free until December. You can read original proceedings as far back as 1665, containing reports of all sorts of stuff.

Check these out:

A report on Mozart, from when he was 8.

Crick’s original DNA paper

Franklin’s account of lying a kite in a lightning storm

Hook’s account (from 1667) of trying to keep a dog alive by inflating its lungs with a bellows

Cook’s account of his method of keeping his crew healthy during the voyage on which he discovered Australia

Basically, if you have any interest in science at all, you’ve 3 months to wade through and look at our acquisition of knowledge in progress before it becomes pay-per-view (at something like 5000 pounds sterling ;-)

As you will gather if you read my ramblings on a regular basis, I’ve been harping on about global warming for a while. Two weeks ago I finished reading The Weathermakers by Tim Flannery, which outlines the current state of the global warming debate. It’s not pretty, and he agrees with NASA’s James Hansen’s comment that we have ten years left to start making a serious difference to greenhouse gas levels, otherwise we will have reached a point where serious consequences are unavoidable.

So, with all that in mind, I decided it was time for me to make an effort. Since I don’t own my own home there’s not a lot I can do structurally, like install solar panels etc. so I opted to make the few changes I could, and offset those I couldn’t. It just so happened that a few weeks ago, just before I started reading Flannery’s book, I came across two separate stands in the CBD, on two separate days, at which energy companies were giving away free energy-efficient light bulbs and water-efficient shower heads. You had to provide proof-of-address, presumably so they can spam you, but I figured it was worth it. I walked away with 11 light bulbs and a shower head, went home and installed them and that was the hardest part of the whole exercise!

Next up was to ring our electricity provider, Energy Australia and tell them we wanted to switch to their PureEnergy package, where they guarantee that for every kWh you buy from them, they will source the same amount from government accredited green, renewable sources. We had to pay a 25% premium, which, based on our typical energy use, works out at about $200 per annum.

Finally, it was time to offset what was left over, namely the travel component. I wanted to offset my car usage, and all the air travel I’ve booked for my trip to Canada. There are a few companies around the world who guarantee to offset tonnes of CO₂ for a price, but I decided on ClimateFriendly.com, mainly because they agree to invest the money in developing renewable sources rather than just planting trees as other operations do. The fact that it’s an Australian operation helped too. So, I went on to their website and started using their calculators to see what I was in for:

If you exclude the air travel, which is a one off and not representative of my annual air travel, then I can offset almost all my greenhouse emissions for approximately $200 per year (given that the electricity bill is split with Jacqui) which is a pretty small price to pay if you ask me.

It’s been a big week for the dope-busters! Having watching Floyd Landis reclaim the yellow jersey on Stage 17 of the Tour de France, after falling apart the prevous day, I was a little suspicious, but I opted to downplay my usual cynicism when it comes to extraordinary sporting performances and give him the benefit of the doubt. I shouldn’t have bothered really. My general maxim still stands: if a sporting performace seems too good to be true, it probably is.

His B sample is due for testing today, but rumours abound that a second, more specific test on the A sample has detected exogenous testosterone, meaning it came from outside his body and was not generated naturally. If this is the case, then he’s screwed.

Hot on the heels of Landis’s case we hear that Justin Gatlin, the ’world’s fastest man’ at 9.77 for 100m, has tested positive for testosterone as well. Looks like he’s screwed too as he had a previous positive for amphetamines caused by a treatment for ADD.

I still maintain that Ben Johnson was the greatest ever! Drugged or not, it’s almost 20 years since he ran 9.79 in Seoul and they’ve only shaved 0.02secs off that, and one of those two was also on the gear.

This is brilliant! ;-)

Watch this:

Then watch this:

I’ve been engrossed in the World Cup over the last two weeks, deciding that, since Ireland didn’t qualify and I’m in the process of applying for residency, I’d support Australia. I went out and bought myself an official jersey and got used to staying up late, or rising early, to watch games live from Germany.

As Australia have progressed through the tournament the general public has been getting more and more involved, which is a good sign in a country in which cricket, rugby union, rugby league and Aussie rules dominate the sporting landscape. We played Japan off the pitch, contained Brazil quite well, and managed a well-deserved draw against Croatia to see us through to the knockout stages.

That game was last night against Italy. Well, 1am this morning here! It was a disaster. Went to bed early, got up at 12:30am and settled in front of the TV. We started well, playing good football and dealing with the Italian threats in an efficient manner. Luca Toni had a couple of snapped shots on goal, but he wasn’t given the time or the space to get organised and Schwarzer was able to save. At half-time it was 0-0 and things were looking good. The ref was playing well, allowing the game to flow and restricting his use of the whistle to when it was really warranted.

A few minutes into the second half, he made his first mistake, sending Materazzi off when he should probably only have received a yellow. Italy immediately switched into defensive mode and looked to a few counter-attacks to seal the game, but nothing came of it. We were constantly pressuring them, but with Kewell injured on the bench, we lacked the necessary incisiveness to slot one home. 3 minutes of injury time were indicated and it looked like we were heading for extra time and probably then to penalties.

Then, it was all over. Grasso brushed off a challenge from Bresciano outside our penalty area, then Lucas Neill tackled him inside the box, playing the ball and not touching Grasso at all. However, he ended up prostrate in front of him, whereupon Grasso prompty tripped over him and the ref blew for a penalty with 20 seconds remaining. Totti fired past Schwarzer and the dream was over. What a shit way to exit the World Cup!

No-one would have minded if Neill had screwed up, but the guy was far and away our best player of the tournament and he was spot on with this challenge too. It should never have been a penalty. With the score level, and only 20 seconds to play, the referee should be absolutely certain that a penalty is warranted, and there’s no way he could have been last night.

Out of the four games played in this tournament, Australia have been the recipient of some shocking refereeing decisions. Japan were awarded their only goal after their defender took out Schwarzer, preventing him from making the save, a fact later acknowledged when the referee apologised for his error. Croatia got away with two deliberate handballs in the penalty area, and one of their players received THREE yellow cards! Even the least controversial game against Brazil saw the fouls stacked 25-9 in their favour although it didn’t appear to be a physical game at all. Then to top it off we get last night!

Sure, it all sounds like sour grapes and there’s certainly an element of disappointment tinging my analysis, but I’ve watched enough games of football in my time to be able to distinguish clear screw-ups from grey areas and there were definitely more of the former than the latter. Still, for a team who were labelled as “easy beats”, we did pretty well, and certainly far better than most, including the average Australian, expected. For that, the team can be proud.

Just ordered my new MacBook Pro.

:-)

Just got an e-mail this morning confirming that I’ve been granted a one-year working visa for Canada. Woooo hooo! There’s lots of snowboarding in my future ;-)

The Macbook Pro is shaping up to be the perfect computer. My existing Powerbook is bloody good: fast, stable, no malware and extremely well designed, but I occasionally have to run VirtualPC to test out some Windows stuff in work, and that’s a pain in the arse. However, with the announcement of Boot Camp yesterday, the MacBookPro can dual-boot WinXP and there are a number of native-speed virtualisation products out there, and rumours that OS X 10.5 will have virtualisation built-in to the OS, meaning that the days of scratching my arse while waiting for VirtualPC to do something prrocessor-intensive are over. Tom ordered his yesterday, but I’m going to wait until just before the end of the tax year to get mine. Only two months to go ;-)