Melbourne and Sydney/Bondi

Tassie was my real vacation treat, but I enjoyed other days, weekends mostly while down under.

I was with a work colleague in Melbourne for Australia Day (national day for BBQing :D ) and we grabbed the chance to get tickets to the Australian Open, quarter finals, for a Nadal-Murray game ... cool huh? my first tennis game live ever ... and then goes Nadal and gets injured and retires :( Oh, we also drove a couple laps around the Albert Park F1 circuit ... how cool is that! :)

[Me inside the Australian Open space]

[Celebrating Australia Day during the match]

[Nadal got injured and retired ... would have lost anyway]

[Albert Park F1 Circuit, pit lane]

On another day we went to Philip Island, a couple hours drive from Melbourne ... beach destination for city people (we had a "swim" in the south pacific! what a surf!); host of the Moto GP championship (also check, visited :D ) and most touristic of all, home of the Penguin Parade. Though in other places (like Tassie, New Zealand, ...) you can get maybe closer and even make pictures, here you get really looots of penguins. An average night, some 1000 penguins may come out of the water at sunset and go "home" for a sleep. We didn't see that many, but a good 400, in big groups of 60 or so ... nice cute little penguins :) Tip: don't go for the cheap general admission ... pay extra and get a private tour, you'll sure see more and much closer.

[Here we had a swim ... ]

[The Penguin Parade ... not my photo, you are not allowed - they say penguins go blind with the flash]

Last I wanted to get some Bondi beach surf experience ... the famous surfing beach just outside Sydney. Had everything ... a hotel next to the beach, a full weekend, summer ... except for the leftovers of hurricane "Olga", which dropped in a day more than half the water expected for the whole month, including horrible winds. So, not much done. Next time better ... next time

[Bondi Beach ... after the storm, next day]

[Bondi's Ocean Pool and Bondi's Surf and Rescue :)]

Cesc

Tasmania in 4 days

Tassie ... mainland aussie make it the target for jokes about the "little island" and "double headed people", but it is a beautiful place and with lovely people.

I was there for barely 4 days, so had time to do the highlights on the east cost ... which means lots of kilometers through [tasmanian style] highways (that means sometimes one lane roads with no markings :D ). So, if you are gonna do it ... don't count on doing 110Km/h on average ... it is more like barely 80.

So, my diary:

• Day 1: Hobart aiport to Port Arthur, the convict station ... nice place, creepy place. But it is real aussie history, from when british convicts were sent down under to serve time.
  

[Convict suit for the most dangerous ... up to two years without speaking and in solitude!!]

On the way back, I went to see Tasmanian Devils ... very different from the Warner Bros cartoon character. Strange marsupial, though. Seeing them being feed was quite a show .. Don't miss either on the spectacular cliffs and caves around ... look for the "Remarkable Cave", and if lucky to be there during low-tide, you can walk all the way under it :)

Manage to sleep in nowhere's town (Sorell), just convinient for quick sleep (Pembrooke Hotel) on the way to Freycinet.

[Tassie Devils being fed]

• Day 2: From Sorell to Feycinet National Park, to see among other things Wineglass Bay ... amazing paradisiac beach! 2 hours return walk up a steep track. Totally worth it though! Managed to drive all the way to Launceston.

[Wineglass Bay beach from the lookout ... 1 hour return]

[At Wineglass Bay beach ... 1 hour return, from the lookout. Water was on the cold side :)]

Mental note: all over australia, never let your fuel tank go below half full ... or you could end up sleeping in the middle of the bush. For me, I could spare 20km range when I got to the gas station, but came veeery close :)

• Day 3: Launceston - Craddle Mountain - Launceston ... it is a very nice place ... if you can see the mountains :) I got a really foggy windy day ... anyway, the walk up to Marion Lookout is worth it (and you can say you made the start of the Overlander Track :D ), if not just for some excercise.

[Lake Dove, on the way down from Marions Lookout]

• Day 4: Launceston to Hobart ... Tassie's capital. Nice cute little town. Again a foggy day, though I was lucky I got 10 minutes of clear weather up in Mount Wellington for amazing views.

Next time ... the west coast.

[Hobart bay view from Mount Wellington]

It was short but fun ... next time I'm there, the west coast.

Cesc

Australia, repairing damage from the past ...

It was not always surf, sun & fun in Australia. At least, not for everyone.
Some gruesome stories from the near past, fortunately being partially repaired. Saying "I'm sorry" is a good step, we would all hope that this happened more often in all our countries and lifes.

Read about "The stolen generation"

Read about the "Forgotten australians"

Wolfskamerloop - 5Km in 24:00 ... not too bad

Just run today my first "competitive" 5Km.

24 minutes. Not too bad, given my goal was under 25 (see result sheet attached).

And also given all the messed up stuff I went through with all the
time changing during the night (damn, remember that Nokia phones
update the time automatically, thus you don't need to do it again :D), which included me falling down a flight of stairs
... so, I got to the start line just 2 minutes before the start, with no time to warm up.

Next goal is either beat my own time or go for the 10km ... But it may
have to wait till spring, it gets cold and rainy here in NL, not best
to go for a run. But today was a really nice warm sunny day.

Oh, our company was one of the main sponsors ... so a group of
colleagues joined, though most did the 10Km.

[above: The Thales Team]

[below: look for line 40 ... that's me]

How developed is your country? (according to the UN)

The UN Development Program just released another "Quality of Life" index list. You can look for your own country ... and if you don't like where it is placed ... then you can go live to a beter one :) [you can try also complaining to Mr President Ban Ki-moon ... ]

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#2009_report

Justice - What's the right thing to do?

Suppose you could save five lives by taking one - what would be the correct thing to do?

Link to "Justice", a series of lectures from Hardvard professor Michael Sandel.

Lay back and listen, you may learn something ... :)

The Great Ocean Road

Tot el finde conduint, uns 1200km que han valgut molt la pena.
La ruta comença oficialment a Torquay o Anglesea, però per mi la sortida va ser desde Melbourne, via Geelong, i cap avall i cap a l´oest. La carretera, que voreja la costa, en alguns moments al costat del penya-segat, deixa imatges espectaculars. Son uns 200km fins a Warrnambool.

A l´estiu és un bullici de turistes, peró ara a l´hivern és molt relaxat. Avis: conta amb unes bones 8 hores de conduir per fer tot el trajecte, entre parades, visites i tal. Jo vaig fer nit a Port Campbell, un poblet turistic molt convienient per al turista amb presses ... les vistes més famoses es troben a un radi de 10 Kms.

Després, i com la ruta per tornar al poble on estc treballant em venia ¨més o menys de camí¨, vaig passar pel Grampians Natural Park ... peró va ser tard i rápid ... fa molt bona pinta. M´ho apunto per la próxima vegada. Per cert ... els cangurs se´m creuaven pel mig de la carretera!

Cesc

The Twelve Apostles (els 12 Apóstols)

The Arch

The London Bridge

The Footy - Australian Rules Football

Aahh ... quin gran esport! Super actiu, puntuacions estratosfèriques ... Us recomano que intenteu veure'n un partit, segur que us enganxa.
És com un derivat del rugby, barrejat amb futbol, futbol americà ... però millor :) Reparteixen unes bones lleques (tackles, com al rubgy), juguen amb una pilota similar al rugby, però en un camp rodó (com al cricket, 150 metres de diametre) ...

Jo vaig anar amb uns amics de la feina, al Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG, o ¨The G¨ pels amics), amb capacitat per 110.000. El partit, Essendon - Carlton, tots dos de Melbourne (la capital del Footy (així l´anomenen per aquí). Va anar tot rodat, ja que els companys eren de l´Essendon, que va guanyar de pallissa, per 11 gols de diferencia (21 a 10, amb un total de mes de 130 punts :O ).

Adjunto unes fotos ... la majoria no són meves, peró es que la càmara del telèfon va mooolt malament :((

Cesc

Melbourne City

Un finde a la capital de l'estat de Victoria.

Curiosament, fan l'exposició més gran mai feta a Australia sobre Salvador Dalí. Vam anar amb uns amics ... estava a reventar. Els cartells informatius ... en anglés, castellà i català. Premi!

La resta, Melbourne molt maca ... més habitable que Sydney. Cada una amb els seus encants.

PS - Sabieu que l´Australian Open (tennis), es juga a Melbourne?

PS - Melbourne és el centre neurálgic de l´esport més típicament australià: el ¨footy¨, o ¨Australian Football Rules¨. La setmana que vé anirem a un partit :)

Australian Wildlife

De moment, tot i els multiples senyals de carretera advertint el perill de cangurs i d'altres bèsties, ens hem de conformar en anar a una espècie de zoo per veure els animalons típics de per aquí ¨down under¨. La avantatge? que els veus de prop i els pots tocar :)
Per cert ... els koales ... moníssims ... llastima que dormen 20 hores al día i están desperts de nit. Que dura és la vida :)

Cesc (15-Juny-2009)
PS - el lloc es diu ¨Featherdale Wildlife Park¨, a les afores de Sydney.

Un koala sobant ... el tio ni s´inmuta!

Un cangur! Aquests són inofensius ...

Els "emus" aquests fán més por ... mantindrem la distància ¨por si aca¨

Un cangur ... en posició cangurial ...

Sydney weekend

Oops, m'havia oblidat de penjar algunes fotos típiques de Sydney. Vam ser-hi un cap de setmana sencer, de fet, el primer de la meva visita a Australia.
Preciós, i a més, un temps perfecte ... 22 graus amb sol ... no ta mal, per ser l´hivern :)
Nota: molt recomanable agafar el ferry des de Circular Quay cap a Manly, que et porta per uns 4euros a (obviament) Manly, que dóna a ambdós cantons de la bahía (interior i exterior). A més, passa per davant del Harbor bridge i el teatre de la ópera. Bones fotos!

Cesc

El teatre de l´Opera i el Harbor Bridge, des dels Botanic Gardens.

Circular Quay, des del Harbor Bridge

Nokia ... synchronizing your contacts, calendar, SMSs, images ...

Just got a new Nokia N79. Quite an upgrade from the old 6600, 5 years old. But 5 years gives for a lot of accumulated info, which I needed to transfer.
I tried with the PC Suite from both phones, with limited success: some numbers don't get transfered/synched, birthdays get lost, multiple mobile numbers under the same contact are not accepted by any program (Windows Address Book WBA, Lotus, etc). It can be done, but it is work ... a lot of work.
There are some tools out there to export contacts to VCF format ... as above, they work, but in a limited way.

Until I was snuffling around in the phone, and hidden in the Menu->Tools->Utilities->Switch ... I found THE TOOL.
It works for Nokia to Nokia transfers. It automatically installs, via Bluetooth, an application on the other phone and allows you to retrieve ALL contacts and calendar items, all SMSs, images and videos!
It is not perfect perfect, but much better than the PC Suite.
And, once the stuff is on the newer phone, the PC Suite synchronization does work better ...

Now, work is just begun. All my gmail and work contacts need to be entered ... that may take just a few more weeks :)

Holland on Ice

The last days/weeks its been cold ... very cold in the here, the Netherlands.
Nice weather (sunny, no rain), but cold (all day below zero). And fortunately I'm not in the south ... they are getting a lot of snow and as low as -17!

So ... cold weather + water = ICE!
And dutch people are crazy for ice skating. Last time it was posible on "natural" ice was some 10 years ago, so they were all expecting it. A pitty the most tradition "elfsteden tocht", a very long ice circuit in the north of the netherlands, could not be setup. It was not cold enough :)

Some pictures of Loosdrecht lakes, all turned into ice :)