Its been a while - but I have excuses!

First off, I've been ultra busy at work. And not in a bad way either, the stuff I'm doing is fun and challanging and it's all on super tight deadlines. Nothing like a bit of pressure.

Secondly, a week or so ago I spent time in New Zealand, and no it wasn't a holiday, for reasons stated above. I went to see my sisters first baby, my new nephew, Leo.

I'm super proud of him and super stoked to be an Uncle for the first time too. Definitely a new experience.

Was good to be back in Wellington, having just beaten my previous record of living away from the city of 3 months 1 day by another 4 days! I guess I will beat that easily next time since the next expected stop over back in the city is October.

The place is still colder than over here, but the weather while I was there was awesome. Still, its bloody cold and you can't get past that.

Catching up with a bunch of mates was really good, and I'm really gratefull that theres still a good base of pals back in my hometown, what with a good smattering of us around the world now. It was almost a little frantic trying to catch up with EVERYONE - but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Anyway, till next time.

The weekend just passed saw a major milestone for my wife, she grew a decade older. Not all in one weekend, but it just so happened that she passed from the 20's to the 30's. I still love her, even if she is a 30 something robbing my 20 something cradle! Oh well, I'm not far behind I guess.

To celebrate the momentus occasion, ourselves and a bunch of friends went along to North Stradbroke Island, a sand island off the coast of Brisbane, QLD.

It was a really good weekend. It was a long weekend thanks to the ANZAC day commemorations, which almost scuttled some plans of ours as we had to take a mad detour around a parade to get to our ferry. But we made it, and we made the most of the weather, which was to be frank, perfect. Hardly any wind. Nice and hot, but not too hot. And not too cool at night.

Anywhooo....if you wish to see some pics of the place, then head along to my flickr page, as per usual. Chur.

Crazy thing the other day, woke up and lo-and-behold, there's a boat docked on our units jetty. Not so amazing you may think, and neither did I, but I though't I share that with you and use the aforementioned fact to segue into my next point - we now own a car.

Yes, I haven't dubbed it anything yet, but its blue, and round, and its smallish. Bit of a nana car, but no way near as nanaish as a certain persons Joinus - the most nana car I think I have seen, and the fact that one of my most petrol head friends had it as his only transport for a while, is like the icing on some cake made of glee.

So yeah, to fire off some specs - its a Daewoo Lanos, 3 door, 1.5 litre, 0-100 in god knows, with some sweet factory wheels accesorised by some scratched up hubcaps (them 10's not 20's).

But yeah, we got transport that we're happy to take on the motorway now, so it means we can get out and about a bit more. Looking forward to that.

Till next time...

A few pics of our place. It's pretty rad. Sweet view of the river and a good size. We're about 30 mins walk from town, and only 10 from the center of West End, which is the suburb we are in. In the middle of West End are plenty of cafes, shops, bars and theres all the things you need like banks, the post office and a shopping center. It's all good!





Theres more in my flickr set.

Since arriving in Brisbane, Clare and I haven't had a car. Occasionally we have had use of a car thanks to some generous work mates, and occasionally we have had generous work mates or generous new friends drive us to places. But on the whole, the amount of car use between Clare and I over the last two months is virtually nil.

Until recently that is, as we have now been lent a scooter by our boss. Oh yeah, thats right, I have my own toned down version of my childhood dream machine, a CBR250, in the form of a Kymo 49cc 'red dragon' (thats my nickname for it).

It doesn't start with the ignition each time so requires a kick start, but once you get the wind on your chest as you hoon at 50-60km (30-40 uphill), you forget all about that slight annoyance.

She'll easily fit Clare on the back, and thats good, cause we have two helmets on loan as well.

I must say, it's totally awesome. As I alluded to above, a motorbike was a childhood dream of mine, and when I got older, and more realistic with money/danger, I always thought a scooter would be pretty handy and heaps of fun too. But one problem with scooters and Wellington is the weather - and I can tell you categorically that there's no problem with that aspect in Brisbane.

And if the weather god does decide to send down the rains, its not accompanied with 100km winds, or 5 degrees celcius temperatures. So, who cares if you get a little wet.

I must say when I have to give this back to my boss in 5 weeks, I'll be a little disappointed, but we will probably have a car by then so maybe not. That said - I'll be keeping an eye out on eBay for some good deals.

Heres the red dragon: (click to go to flickr page):

It's crazy to think how common computers are in everyday life now, when you remember back to the early 80's when computers were only ever found in schools (if they had any sense) and homes that could afford them, which wasn't too many.

I still remember the day my dad told me my grandparents had decided to buy us a computer. I remember the excitment and joy, but most of all I remember the gratitude, as I learnt they weren't buying one for themselves also, it was just a gift to us, and by us I guess I mean me. Because as soon as that sucker was plugged in, from until we sold it (to the ginge), I think I had been responsible for 99% of its use.

But yeah, the Commodore 64 - what a gem. Back then it was coined a Micro Computer, and there were plenty of other Micro Computers out in the market around that time too. Due to school, or friends, by the time I had used my first IBM PC, I had used (played games on) an Apple II, an Amstrad CPC6128 (complete with 3" disks!), a few variations on the ZX Spectrum, a couple of BBC micros, a Commodore Vic20 and the amazing Commodore Amiga (which I thought was probably the best computer about until I got an IBM 386).

Some of my mates will know the sort of nostalgia I'm feeling when I talk about these boxes of delight, and some wont. It wasn't until the internet became cool and playstations came out in the mid nineties that most people even decided to get involved with personal computing technology, and I can see why.

Going through youtube, I found some uploads of an old BBC program that talked about Mircro Computers. And when you look at the applications and people using them, you realise, shit back then was ULTRA geeky. But not only that, but shit back then was cutting edge, and it's all stuff we see every day in PCs and applications.

Anyway, thought I would share these with you, they really are a good watch. All have something funny and/or interesting in them - and all speak about a NEW development in micro personal computers that we all take for granted these days;

Computer Generated Images - check this for the dude obviously gutted he doesnt have the latest technology, and for the Pixar animation, that was LEAGUES ahead of anything else.

First hack live on TV - haha, well it sounded like he had a 2 character password so his bad.

Flight Sim geeks - They made it hard for normal people to use it and they know it.

Sound Sequencing - Actually pretty advanced stuff, and the introduction of Midi!

Mutlitasking OS - how novel - go the amiga.

As a footnote, the image of the disk shown is of GEOS, which was my first experience with a windows system ever. All on one 5.25" disk (well there was another one that had some extenstion programs on it!).

Muahaha, bet you all thought I had given up on this blog once again. Well no sir. In fact I have no less than 2 draft posts waiting in the wings to be published, just had to get to work to grab my USB to mini USB cable, so I could get some pics off my camera to accompany them.

Oh man, its hard shifting to a new country and not having all your usual nicks and nacks and cables. Luckily Jaycar isn't far away.

Stay tuned!