jeremy.id.au

The other day I was getting a box of Christmas decorations out of the garage, something fell onto my head and I brushed it off quickly thinking it was a spider. Though my sister thought it was a lizard. I wondered how a little skink could get up there in the rafters, well perhaps now that becomes clearer.

This evening I walked into the kitchen and through the corner of my eye I thought I saw a huntsman creeping across the wall. Nope, it was a gecko. Most people think of geckos as little green things, but no this one was brown; most likely a Southern Marbled Gecko. I never really would have thought there would be geckos in Melbourne, though these things are apparently quite common. However, they are apparently nocturnal creatures and as such, quite shy of the light.

Even if it is a bit creepy, at least it’s keeping the spider population down. In fact it’s probably feasting on some right now.

Edit: After all the rain and storms we’ve had, it may well have been looking for somewhere dry rather than being a regular inhabitant of our kitchen.

Update (27th Dec 2007): Our gecko friend was spotted again last night, above the same cupboards that he retreated towards last time. So seems he has made his home there! Being incredibly shy of the light, he only comes out when the lights are out and if the lights are turned on, he retreats back to his hiding place behind the cupboards. I suspect he also feasts on the introduced American Cockroach, which is at least nice to think.

Yeah I know, this blog has faced a bit of neglect over the last couple of months. Though now that I have a little more time, hopefully it’ll get some attention over the summer.

Speaking of summer, we decided to get a couple of portable air conditioners. One for my bedroom and another for the living room. However, these portable air conditioners come with a giant hose (or ‘elephant trunk’) in order to vent the hot air out through a window. Unfortunately the brackets they come with are no good with wind out windows (rather, they are designed for sliding windows) and it takes a lot of messing around to fill in the holes. Obviously they figure it’s too hard to have one size that fits all with these wind out windows, even though these windows probably make up 50% of household windows these days.

After a lot of messing around, we finally found a solution; Perspex. After getting a couple of sheets cut to size (one for each room), my brother cut out some holes with the jigsaw to match the bracket on the vent hose and lined the edges with an adhesive seal. The perspex just slots in place where the fly screen normally goes. As you can see in the photo below, you can hardly see it’s there, except for the trunk hanging from nowhere. While there may be some minor gaps around the edges, it’s not significant enough to pose any problem. Though if it is a concern, you could jam something in to seal up the gap completely.

It was a nice sunny 18˚C in Melbourne today. We’ve had warmer in the last couple of weeks, none the less, it is the first day of spring and what better way to celebrate than spending some time in the outdoors. A lot of people were out walking their dogs, others kicking soccer balls around at the local park and I happened to be out on my bike.

Riding along, enjoying the fresh (well most likely polluted) city air, when suddenly I was hit from behind by a terrorising magpie. Normally it is rather trivial matter being swooped while cycling; more of a nuisance that is. Bike helmets may not do much to protect cyclists from the menace of cars (some say they actually create more danger), though they usually prove quite effective in the defence against swooping magpies in the springtime. This time, however, the magpie bypassed the defence of my helmet by going for the back of my neck, attacking at the weakest point of contact.

Fortunately, however, I got off lightly. Although it hurt for a while, it left no signs of damage. Some people describe the experience of magpies more accurately as this:

‘Trivial and humorous’ is definitely not how many people now regard aggressive magpies. For them, the advent of spring is a time of daily terror and anguish, of real fear and th ever-present feeling of imminent danger.

Well I certainly won’t take this extreme and to me they are still something more of a nuisance… though they certainly seem to be increasing their terrorism tactics. The worst day I had for bird attacks on my bike was actually way back in September 2000 when I got swooped several in one day. Fortunately they all attacked on the helmet that day, rather than my neck.

Almost three years ago, I was coerced into buying the Applecare Protection Plan for my iBook G4 at the last minute by the reseller. I still don’t agree with his tactics today, springing it on me when I went in to pickup my built to order machine that I had ordered weeks early. Resellers should be open and frank with their customers about these options from the beginning, if they don’t want to be considered by their customers to be dodgy. Neither did he tell me that I had to buy it then and there on the spot, but that I had up to twelve months to do so. However, the fact that reseller margins are slim on computers but much juicier on these plans probably explains it a little.

I later learnt that you can also withdraw from the AppleCare plan at anytime within the first 12 months without incurring any costs other than any phone support and perhaps a cancellation fee. Though I decided to keep it anyway. Two years in, however, and I was beginning to wonder whether it had been worthwhile as I never use the support and nothing had gone wrong. I enquired with Apple about having the keyboard replaced, as it was seriously fading and starting to lose some letters. They informed me that I had to take it into an Authorised Service Centre which seemed like a bit of effort for something relatively minor (except when you try to have non-touch typists use your computer) with no guaranteed outcome. Though I promised myself that I’d at least attempt it before the three year warranty plan expired. The keyboard became worse with time so it was on my mind to do something about it sooner rather than later.

Until suddenly last week, I got into uni to find that my iBook wouldn’t wake up nor even boot. No boot up sound or anything, just the fans going crazy along with a blank screen. Straight away I knew there was something seriously wrong with my iBook. Though I felt assured that I still had two to three months left under warranty. While in the corner of my mind I hoped that Apple would just replace it with a MacBook, I knew that wouldn’t happen. So I dropped it into a service centre near my uni where I also asked them to look into the keyboard. It seemed strange to be dropping it off for repair so soon after it had happened. Certainly, it was almost felt depressing to come home with an empty laptop bag.

Getting by for a week without a laptop, with only an iMac G3 to use, was rather painful. Being chained to the back wall of the study certainly doesn’t have that sense of freedom as a laptop on wireless. Six days elapsed before I decided I would give the service centre a call to see what the go was. As it turns out the Logic Board (motherboard) had died and there was no hesitation in replacing the keyboard. It certainly seems that the AppleCare had been worthwhile (and lucky that it happened now rather than after the AppleCare had expired). The cost of paying for such replacements myself probably wouldn’t be insignificant. After only waiting a week I was able to pick my laptop up yesterday.

Now while it may seem dubious to pay a considerable amount to keep an obsolete machine working so many years later, it’s certainly much better than being forced into making a two grand on the spot purchase. Possibly even waiting several weeks to receive a built to order system. It means I can defer such a MacBook purchase until later on when I really need it (and yes this time I’ll be planning to get AppleCare from the outset). Plus I’ll still have this machine as a backup or if that’s not necessary I may be able to get a bit of cash for it.

Well it’s nice to have my iBook back now with its nice shiny new keyboard.

Update: Seems I spoke too soon. Only four days after the first repair, I had the misfortune of having my iBook die again. Finally after another week without a laptop, I got it back and all appears to be well for the time being.

This blog almost faces neglect these days. Though I did get through Semester 1 of uni in the end. It was a bit of an effort with the house moving, etc. I got two disctinctions and a credit. Took 3-4 weeks for ADSL2+ to be connected properly (and pretty painful to endure dialup for all that time but such is life when dealing with Telstra). Back at uni full time this semester.

Well we have just moved from the house that I’ve been living in for the last five and half years (since dad died), which is also the house that I grew up in. Though five and a half years is nothing; Mum had been living there for over thirty-three years!

Needless to say it has been a mammoth effort, with over a week of shuffling backwards and forwards. Emptying of the old house being only completed today. So goodbye to my childhood home and the house that I’ve spent almost twenty years of my life living in.

While now I endure the pain of dialup, as I wait to have broadband reconnected. So far ‘rejected’ by Telstra, though ‘correctable’. Also, many boxes remain unpacked. Though we have moved to an area that is greener and possibly more prestigious, it appears to lack the life that the old area had. Let alone, the selection of take away food and restaurants we had.

Sydney was great. Probably ended up spending more time catching up with various friends and contacts than sight seeing. Which is probably better anyway as sight seeing tends to not be as interesting as people. Spent the rest of the time cruising around on the ferries and that kind of thing. Though unfortunately the weather was quite wet for most of the time with rain heavier than any I’ve seen for years. After two nights of staying with a friend in Marrickville, I went to stay with some other people in Birchgrove. Having just missed a ferry that afternoon, I had to catch a bus into the city. However, being a Sunday afternoon the ferries were finishing up and I caught the last bus that run down to Birchgrove so I had no idea how I would get back.

So while in the city I went o an internet cafe so I could look up a bus timetable and maps! I also downloaded some other ferry timetables and a zip file with the entire set of CityRail train timetables to my laptop. So having figured out how to get back, I had a little to eat then decided to return to Birchgrove. While crossing the Anzac Bridge on the bus, I noticed some rain in the distance. This very rain turned out to be bad news, as it wasn’t just a light shower but pouring rain. Though as I got off the bus in Balmain, it seemed to be easing up and I decided to make a dash for it. Though with a 20 minute walk ahead of me and no shelter in sight, the odds of keeping dry didn’t turn out to be in my favour. I got back to Birchgrove drenched from head to toe. Everything on my backpack was drenched, except fortunately my laptop managed to stay dry in its extra layer of protection.

The wet weather continued the very next day though fortunately I was able to borrow an umbrella from my host. Meeting up with muttox at Circular Quay, someone who I’ve spoken to for quite some time on Jabber, we decided to catch a ferry up the Parramatta River. However, it didn’t succeed as the weir was overflowing and instead the ferry terminated at Rydlemere. Nothing much was to be seen at Rydlemere, with heavy rain pouring down off the roof of the ferry and over the windows. At least we did finish the day with some rather tasty dumplings; that was at least more successful.

After all that, it was nice to return home. Though it’s hard to believe that I’ve now been home for a week and a half.

Well okay, I didn’t actually get lost. However, Canberra’s bus network is not at all visitor friendly; perhaps not even all that friendly to its regular users. I was originally going to cycle though the bike provided to me by my host was not quite up to scratch. Couldn’t get the saddle up so wouldn’t have been much fun when it came time to climb back up the hills of Belconnen. No problem though, I was happy to experiment with the buses.

So my first morning there, having arrived the previous afternoon (and had a bit of a look around the city without actually going into any attractions). Having failed with the bike, I found I had just missed the hourly bus servicing the suburb of Aranda. Knowing that the frequent buses run along Belconnen Way, I thought I’d walk up that way. Though it wasn’t another 300 metres around the corner that I actually found a bus stop outside a hospital. However, I then made the mistake of not transferring to another bus at the city interchange to get to Parliament House. Although there is a stop within walkable distance, I was hoping for another stop that was closer. Instead, the bus took me all the way out to Woden out in the suburbs of Canberra. I finally took a bus back to the city and then out to Parliament House (both old and new).

Day three and I finally had everything under control. I figured out that bus stops are indicated as white dots on the bus maps, of which knowing this made quite a difference (though didn’t make up for bus stops being quite sparse in some areas). I managed to get out to the High Court and the National Gallery of Australia before taking a bus back to the other side of the lake to get a ferry. Timing was all good until I decided I wanted to go to the War Memorial, only that I had just missed the early bus to there. Constitutional Ave goes close enough though the buses for this are dispersed all over the city interchange. Finally I asked the information people who gave me the time and bus bay for the next bus along this road fairly quickly. Visited the war memorial then when it was time to get back, it was not clear where the closer bus stopped. Missed the bus before I realised which stop it was leaving from, so had to walk the 10 minutes back down to Constitutional Ave again.

The final day I didn’t use any buses. Instead I walked up Black Mountain to the Telecom Tower, passing a wallaby on the way up. While at the top of the tower, I fielded a phone call from a journalist at a local paper back home about our own public transport woes. I gave Canberra one last look over, before making the descent back down to Aranda, where I saw an Echidna when I was almost near the bottom.

Left Canberra by train, headed for Sydney. The trip was actually far more scenic than I had expected with plenty of bush and deep cuttings through the rock. Takes a bit longer than by bus, though trains tend to be far more comfortable with more leg room, etc.

Photos of Canberra to come.

Was sitting inside at around 4pm today enjoying our lovely evaporative cooling and suddenly the sound of air pouring out of the vents just stopped. I thought it was odd because evaporative cooling doesn’t usually turn off like that, so I looked around the room and sure enough all appliances had gone off. Not to mention it’s strange when you’re using a laptop and the power goes as the computer just continues running on battery and web pages stop loading before the wireless network drops out.

Thought I’d be smart and drive down to the supermarket to do some shopping that needed to be done. Though along the way, not a single set of traffic lights were working and Safeway too was without power. Fortunately I managed to get in there while the building was still cool and they were running the store on emergency lighting and minimal power for the cash registers (without the conveyor belts or any of the displays). Though the checkout guy said they’d be closing it as soon as it gets hot. Went home still no power, so went over to Chadstone which still had power. Came back home to cook dinner and fortunately the power came on not long after.

Thought it may have been caused by the load placed on the electricity system from refrigerative cooling systems (as opposed to more energy efficient evaporative coolers), though as it turns out it was caused by bushfires taking out a main transmission line. In total, we lost two gigawatts of power out of the state total of nine gigawatts. Radio reports were saying that over a thousand sets of traffic lights were out, so needless to say, police were very scarce and the roads were chaotic.

Well I’m glad we have our power back!

I’m once again delayed in keeping this journal/blog updated. Christmas this year was practically an icy one here in Melbourne. We had rain, hail and the coldest Christmas in 70 years, just no snow. Though there was snow in Victoria, up in the alps. These are the same alps that had been burning fiercely for weeks in the lead up to Christmas, so fiercely that Melbourne had been blanketed in smoke on at least several different days. Though the fires continue, the cooler weather brought much relief.

It was a quiet new years eve for this year, pretty much just spent in front of the telly. Though it was made up for by going down to Mornington on new years day with my brother Ben, his girlfriend Pip and my sister Catherine to catch up with mum and her boyfriend Darryl for lunch.

Will hopefully get away for a holiday or two this January and keep up much of the cycling.

Melbourne in smoke: