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Tue, 20 Aug 2002
A teary goodbye ( 10 photos )
Many, many thanks to friends and family alike who came to the airport to wave us off. It was really appreciated - a great memory for us both.
According to the video screen on the seat in front of me, we're travelling at 903km/h, 9753 up, it is -34C outside, and we should arrive in Singapore half an hour ahead of schedule. Not bad at all. It must have a GPS driving it. Mine has trouble tracking satellites up here, so I haven't been able to compare figures.
No real dramas so far - the biggest has been that I couldn't claim the GST back on my camera - I need to send the original receipts to Canberra. Another job for my ever-helpful family!
The food was fantastic - easily the best plane-food I've had. We've just watched Ice Age on our in-flight computer-y thingo. Very nifty. Liz has just started watching Spiderman, and I think I'll join her. Bye!
(Continued in Singapore 1)
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Mon, 19 Aug 2002
Last transmission ( 7 photos )
This is it folks, we're off in about 12 hrs time - I'll be busy sleeping and panicing, so won't do an update until we're in the air.
We're all packed (we think), car is sold (thanks Bryan!), and the flight should be on time (no thanks to a scare from striking Qantas workers who run the Singapore Airlines check-in).
My parents have all sorts of interesting information should you need to contact us about anything in particular, or if there are any affairs which need tidying up.
My suitcase is currently a bit over-weight (must take after it's owner), so I'm either going to have to smile sweetly, pay more, or throw some of it out.
Next log from the plane!
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Sat, 17 Aug 2002
The big noise is over ( 2 photos )
Just a quick one - I'm out of a job, and the leaving celebration was great - an afternoon/evening wandering around The Rocks, sampling some beverages. My crazy (and cashed up, apparently) work mates bought me a Garmin eTrex GPS!! It can successfully navigate us around the block, and we waypointed some of the pubs around the place, so maybe we can use it for some more important things in our travels :)
The party last night was great - thanks to all who made it to say goodbye - we're gonna miss you all. The clean-up wasn't even all that bad. For those who didn't make it, the theme was Aussie Yob, just to remind us of what we're going to miss. There is definately something to be said for a party where the clothes I've been wearing all day for the setting up (complete with ugg boots) are also what you wear at night. Photos to come...
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Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Happy Birthday Mum! ( No photos )
Despite not yet having our bond back, everything is getting rather scary.
We're now about as settled into Margaret's as we're going to be and we have our plane tickets and accommodation vouchers! Many thanks to Kim Bartlett from National World Travel for all your hard work.
Liz today bought an Olympus mju Zoom 140 camera - a nice little 35mm jobby to take "real" photos with. Supposedly weather proof as well, so we might just have to see how true that really is...
I've thrown together a little movie of our experiences so far. Entitled Our World is Changing (8.8MB - you might need QuickTime to view it), it's my first effort using Apple's iMovie software, and I have to say, I'm very impressed with what it can do. My camera can take movies (although without sound), and merged with some pictures, transitions, music and titles, I came up with this little thingy.
Let me know what you think, we might do this now and then to show you what we're up to.
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Tue, 06 Aug 2002
Nail-biting stuff ( No photos )
Everything is now out of the house that's coming out, cleaning is all but done, and the final inspection is in two hours!
It's come up quite well - certainly as good if not better than how we found it. This, coupled with the fact that we saved the Real Estate agent the trouble of finding a new tenant, leads us to believe that we shouldn't have any trouble getting our bond back.
Which is nice, considering I just had to pay $4000 in HECS. Ouch.
We've had a fairly small amount of damage during the move - the major casualty has been my thumb. Ouch again.
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Sun, 04 Aug 2002
I can hear my voice echoing in here... ( No photos )
Well, we're almost out of the house. I write this from Liz's mum Margaret's place, where we slept the night. The bed hasn't quite made it over yet, so we slept (badly) on the fold-out sofa bed.
To my right there is about twenty boxes of our stuff, packed up, and I'd guess that there's still a couple to come before the big stuff (bed, wardrobe, table, etc) can be moved out. Hopefully this will all be finished today, leaving tomorrow for cleaning before the inspection on Tuesday.
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Fri, 02 Aug 2002
As far as the real plans go ( No photos )
Thought I'd split this away from the mega-tech post so that it could actually be noticed.
We've booked eight nights in a Bed and Breakfast in Beckenham, which is apparently a twenty minute train ride from the "real" part of London - enough to be not in the thick of things all the time. With a bit of luck, Meaghan is going to join us for a few of these days before she heads off to Italy for a month or so.
This should be about all our bank accounts can bear, then we head on a train (also booked) up to Carlisle (North England) to meet with Liz's uncle Peter. That's about all we have planned - and it's more than enough for now. Let's keep ourselves guessing.
Also, I'm going to have to work out how to use a "pound" sign, then a "euro" sign on my laptop.
Back home, the phones are signed over to Mr John-Claude Zadro, who is moving into our little house in Penshurst along with Jane and possibly one other. This is because we move out of it tomorrow! It's gone so fast. We have the lease until Tuesday, but we'll have to get everything out this weekend so we can clean and fix up the place for the inspection on Tuesday.
Still yet to work out how we are going to move the wardrobe and the mattress anywhere - they came in a big truck, and they ain't going back that way...
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All tech-ed up, somewhere to go ( No photos )
Well, we're now surrounded with enough tech gear to break into the pentagon.
Last night, I purchased an Olympus C-720. It's a 3MP Digital Camera, with a big 8x zoom. Haven't had much chance to play with it yet, bit it will certainly do the trick. I picked it up at Harvey Norman Caringbah, which was not as painful as expected, along with lots of accompanying gear. Expect lots of photos from it here as we gallavant around the world.
Also arriving yesterday was my Bluetooth Adapter, which allows my laptop and phone to talk to each other. Not very interesting? Think Liz and I, in the middle of Europe somewhere, in the combi with no sign of Internet connectivity anywhere. Except, that is, on the mobile phone network.
My recently purchased Ericsson T39m mobile phone also has Bluetooth, so it fits the bill perfectly. Bianca the iBook will the be able to talk out through the phone to the big wide world, sending and receiving emails, updating this website, etc.
Already, I can move contacts back and forth while my phone is still in my pocket, which is nice in terms of synchronisation and backup, but the real value will come with GPRS-enabled internet connectivity roaming across Europe. Hurrah for technology!
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Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Rolling Along Nicely... ( No photos )
It seems that perhaps most of the hardest stuff is out of the way. This is quite a nice feeling!
Sure, we've still got to organise vehicles, jobs, mobiles, bird cages, cars, music, itinerary, tax and a bas, but we're getting somewhere at least :)
It looks like friends of ours Zadro and Jane will move into our place and take over the looking after of Lucky (pictured left), which is nice of them.
There's also a back up plan, so when they get sick of looking at her and/or dealing with her annoying ways, they can palm her off to some other poor unsuspecting victim. Hooray for choice.
There's a minor problem with our itinerary which I hope to have sorted Real Soon Now, and we still haven't organised accomodation in London. I'm waiting to hear back from some friends who are going to buy a place there, as any money we can save in a city as expensive as London has to be a good thing.
Meeting up with Meaghan again should be good, so that's definately something we're looking forward to, although I suspect I won't get a word in edge-wise as the girls do some hard-core catching up.
Oh, and in a funny twist to last month's bank statement fiasco, guess what arrived in the mail a few days ago? Yes - a very late bank statement, original version. Glad I chased it when I did.
Thats all for now...
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Wed, 26 Jun 2002
Fitzroy Falls ( No photos )
I'm away on the Sydney South East band camp, which is for kids years 5-7 who are pretty good musicians for their age. I'm tutoring sax, which is always lots of fun!
My Visa is back - a fairly good turn around time, all things considered. If only their process could be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th (yes, 20th) century. This means that I now have a Visa (erm, sorry, "Entry Clearance") for my entry into the UK, and a Passport as well! Good stuff.
The only real outstanding as far as I know so far is to find a home for Lucky. If you, or anyone you know is interested in a female Blue Cattle Dog, we have just the one for you!
Cheers.
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Mon, 17 Jun 2002
Sick at home ( No photos )
The nasty flu-thingy has bitten me and I'm spending some time at home today.
Nothing heard back from my Visa application yet (suprise). We've been organising all sorts of little things that need to be organised before we can go away - changing the memory in my laptop, trying to get my phone repaired, buying suitcases and cold-weather gear, etc.
Oh, and I've organised an interview for someone to take over my job at work, which is kinda weird but I went to uni with her, so I know she's capable!
We've almost decided to buy a car for UK, then put off the combi purchase until Europe (ie. February 2003-ish), for the following reasons:
- Side-of-the-road: UK is the same as us here in Australia, most of the rest of Europe is the opposite. One less headache.
- Diesel: I'm yet to see a UK combi that is diesel, whereas quite a few of the European ones seem to be. With Unleaded at $2 a litre, and diesel getting better economy as well as "only" costing $1.20 a litre, it's the better choice.
- Accomodation: we expect to spend most of our time in hostels / friends places around the UK anyway, so the "house-on-our-back" snail-style is probably overkill.
Until next time...
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Fri, 07 Jun 2002
Statement of intent ( No photos )
The bank statement arrived yesterday - not too bad, after all. I've left early to get the Visa stuff sent off. Now, how many more hurdles can I find... ?
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Wed, 05 Jun 2002
Train's the way to go ( No photos )
We're on the train on the way to work, Liz is reading the paper, and I thought I'd throw together a quick rant incase anyone is interested. I'm sure nobody is, but it might make me feel better.
One of the things you need to get a Visa or Entry Clearance into the UK is evidence of how much money you have to get you by. This typically comes in the form of a bank statement.
This would not normally be a problem, except for the fact that my latest bank statement never made it to me. "Fine", I thought, "I'll just go into a branch and get a new one." How naieve I was.
Upon arriving at the branch near work of the bank in question, I went to the admittedly helpful teller (or clerk or Personal Finance Enginner, whatever...), and bestowed upon her my tale of woe. It was then that the first problem came through. Their computer system could, wait for it, only print me out the transactions since my last statement was issued.
How helpful! For the Visa application, you need to show a full month's transactions, which of course this "transaction listing" (not even a statement, and which I was about to be charged $4 for the privilege of recieving) did not.
So, I went home, rang the statement help line, listened to an eternity of on-hold music, and eventually spoke to an operator who informed me that their computer system was just as useless. He offered to send me an "official" version of the same "transaction listing" (ie. less than one month's worth), which I accepted and arrived a few days ago. However, it would take, wait for it, one to two weeks for someone to find my missing statement, and send me a copy, which would be marked "duplicate".
Aaaah, making life easier for the customer. Love it!
So, my Visa application is now waiting for someone at the bank to wander around the place, find my statement (it seems that they can't actually get it out of their computer system, even though their Internet Banking system can go back 100 days), copy it, stamp it and send it to me.
My rant is over, and I'll keep you posted on the application status...
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Sun, 02 Jun 2002
ENG:SWE 0:0 ( No photos )
I've updated the post ordering some more. It was putting months in alphabetical order by month name. This behaviour was interesting, but less than correct.
Also I've fixed the Journal archives when the current month doesn't happen to be 3 characters long, as May was. Doh!
I must remember to submit my changes back to the author of blosxom.
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Watching the world cup ( No photos )
Initially I wanted to get to the world cup on the way to our world trip, but that didn't happen. I'm just watching it all on TV/net instead. Try it!
Back on topic, Liz has all her passport stuff organised, just waiting on her Nursing Registration which she sent off today. I have my passport, but now have to send it off to Canberra to apply for my United Kingdom Visa. Aaah glad to see progress has made life easier!
This wouldn't be so much of a problem if I had all the bits and pieces of stuff you need to organise such a thing, but it seems that the National Bank really wants to help and has managed to loose my statement which I need to send off to prove how much money I have. I'm just glad I started it all early.
Oh, and Liz's nursing registration takes an average of 5 months (yes, months) to process.
Make sure you start these things nice and early.
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Tue, 14 May 2002
Up in Newcastle ( No photos )
I'm "at work", waiting for some servers to arrive that were sent to the wrong place... no real suprises there.
It seems that the
Olympus C-720 may be the camera to get when it launches here in June-July-ish. 3MP, 8x Zoom, not too pricey (hopefully). Otherwise, the C-3020 is a good price but only 3x Zoom.
Time ticks away...
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Wed, 08 May 2002
Hit counter installed / Cameras ( No photos )
I know it's kind of lame and SO 1997, but I've installed a hit counter to keep track of how many people have a look at this site.
Thought I'd add CSS to the whole site while I'm at it. It's such a nice change.
Also of interest are the digital cameras that I'm looking at using to take overseas with us. Here's the current shortlist:
- Nikon CoolPix 885
- Olympus C3020
I've been looking pretty closely at lots of cameras, and slowly whittling down the features that I do and don't need. Richard from work has helped in this process by showing me a Sony 1.3MP camera and also a Canon 4MP (S40). This has helped me to find where in the range I want to go. The Canon is all singing-all dancing, and a large quantity of cash. The Sony is a nice size, but lacking features and picture quality.
Let me know if you have any recommendations.
Tim.
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CSS Added ( No photos )
Well, isn't it pretty. Nice to learn how it works. I don't think I've learnt anything new in html for about 4 years...
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Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Better now? ( No photos )
I've massaged blosxom and its data files - seems to work OK. Imagine that...
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Post ordering ( No photos )
I'm modifying my weblog script to see if I can get the file order and dates to survive the ftp process.
At the moment, they all show up at the remote server with the same "post" time, which is when I actually uploaded them.
Obviously this isn't going to work particularly well for us when overseas, since we're going to go for days/weeks without connectivity, and then upload in batch.
Hope I can get something sorted out. At least it's a good excuse to brush up on my perl skills while I'm away... :)
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Fri, 12 Apr 2002
Updates ( No photos )
Added the Journal Archive and current location, which is a link to Lonelyplanet.
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Access Problems? ( No photos )
There seem to be problems accessing the site from my work, though I suspect that's just some broken proxy server somewhere.
Tim.
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The site is (almost) up! ( No photos )
Well it's 3:30am, and I think that I'm doing quite well to get a website redesign working.
I've just been playing around with getting blosxom integrated into the Europe page, and it seems to do its job quite well, and I almost even understand what the code does. Nice little package.
Enough for now, off to do more site work...
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(customised)