Be Content: my favourite piece of local graffiti

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2010

Linux in the lounge room

.. Now with even more fresh zeroes and ones!




Since moving back to Australia and buying a tv, we have been using an old desktop computer of mine as our poor man's 'home theatre PC'.

While it has been functional, it's also really been a bit of a piece of crap, the fan is really noisy for at least the first 15 minutes of turning it on, if you reboot rather than shutting it down it can't find the harddrive, that sort of stuff.

We actually have been using it quite a lot, the standard nightly mealtime conversation usually incorporating a 'what to watch' component, along with the more standard 'what to eat'.

After the recent untimely death of my laptop and nicer than usual tax return, I decided to give my wife a new computer (she's been using my old gateway 9300 which is a p3 600 with 256mb ram), and hating it... and fix our media centre situation at the same time.

On the recommendation of a friend from work I went down to Bestone computers on Victoria Rd one afternoon and got us some new toys. It's pretty amazing what $550 gets you nowadays. I know I'm going to look back on this and laugh, but Core2 duo 2.6, 2gb ram, 160gb hdd, certainly enough juice for the job.

For Peilin's pc I added a Acer 23 inch LCD which looks awesome, and for the htpc (home theatre pc - that's the lingo), I added a HDMI video card, figuring the tv supports it, so may as well.

From a software point of view I put Ubuntu 9.04 on Peilin's machine (we ended up with too many toolbars of unknown origin when we had xp), and initially mythbuntu on the htpc.

I ended up ditching Mythbuntu and using a standard Ubuntu 9.04 install with X-box media centre (xmbc) for linux on top, simply because we don't really need anything other than a tool to allow us to watch downloaded shows on the tv, no recording, no remote servers etc.

Also we were familiar with the xbmc interface as we used the windows version on the old noisy xp box.






Besides a crystal clear display and a 45 second boot time, another advantage is that our generic htpc remote ($14.95 from Ebay, delivered) works almost entirely out of the box.



I'll look at doing a little tweaking as things like the shutdown button on the remote no longer actually shuts down, but I've found some info on editing the control info here.

Isn't it great when things just work?

Fresh zero's and one's...

My faithfull, trusty Dell lattitide D620 laptop of the last 3 and a half years died suddenly the other night while I was checking my bank account to see if I had enough money to buy a new computer. Some say it was a broken heart, but I say that just doesn't make any sense. Perhaps it was the irony that killed it.

Anyways, here is it's replacement.. something something quad core, 4gb ram, 24 inch screen. Successfully accessing internet, plays mp3z, even at the same time. Incredible, I know.

Spring is coming.. can you feel it?

What a nice sunny weekend. In a strange twist we actually managed to get out in it a bit.

Friday night we went out for dinner at Billus, an Indian restaurant in Epping to celebrate one of my wife's colleagues birthdays.



Saturday we caught the train into the city and had a poke around Market city and also Glebe Market. Glebe markets was excellent as usual, this was the first time that I've been there since returning from overseas. It was my wifes first Glebe market experience, and I'm happy to report she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

It must have been good, because I've stupidly completely forgotten to take any photos of it for this blog entry. Guess we're going back again soon...

In the meantime, here's a photo of a busker outside Market city playing drums and tunes on beer bottles.

We had lunch at Xiclo, one of my favourite Vietnamese noodle bars in the city.
I'd heard of spring rolls before, but I admit I didn't realise that there were also winter, summer & autumn rolls too. Makes sense after the fact, was a complete surprise at the time though.



Today we tended out balcony garden and bought a vacuum cleaner.. woohoo!
It seriously was about time, we were starting to lose sight of the carpet in places.

Presenting the Sanyo Sc136r - 'Dirt Hunter'
It's not hunting much dirt yet on it's own.. for some reason I have to push it everywhere..

Not much else new to report. Still pretty damn cold at night. Work has been pretty challenging, but I'd much rather that than be bored.

Random pics from the last fortnight...

Dinner in progress ..

.. Mask fridge magnets

. Dried fish .

.. lovely incense

.. Easy way to remember the train timetable? Camera phone!

expeditions to the Chinese supermarkets in Eastwood part 1 ..

.. part 2

part 3 ..

.. part 4

Birthday Yum Cha

Last weekend it was Pei Lin's birthday.

We went out for yum cha at The China Grand Restaurant, Market City (in the city) and then went to see Star Trek in a cinema that wasn't very far far away (right Chris?) :)

.. Great Yum Cha, highly recommended.

Thanks very much to Cobb, Lina, Brian Chris and Veronica for coming to help us celebrate.

.. Hope you had a lovely day sweetheart.

Durian, Possums & mediacentres in Sydney

Hey all you Malaysians..
.. look: I told you we could buy durian in Australian supermarkets :)

(not that we do buy them)

All is going well here, we're all setup in our little place, Pei Lin is settling in nicely and starts work 2moro, so that's all very exciting.

Also the other night there was a brushtailed possum on the fence outside our balcony:

Cute little fella isn't (s)he?

I have been nerding it up a bit too.. almost used all my monthly peak time download allowance already, and it's only been 5 days. We've also got our voip all set up, so Peilin can call home whenever she wants without me tapping my foot and tapping my watch at her :).

I've downloaded Mythbuntu, but sadly it doesn't support my video card on my old pc straight out of the box, and I don't have another screen to plug in so can't see what I'm doing. I already had xp on the machine, so I've downloaded Mediaportal instead, it's a free mediacentre that runs on top of windows.





It's designed to be plugged into your tv from there you can access all your media. I'm very impressed at the moment.

last Sunday Nishan and Louna took us out for a nice chinese lunch in Eastwood, and Tuesday night we went to our local with Nick & Hanna & Mark & Serena & Lenny & Justin, a couple of Nick's mates and had the $13 cook-it-yourself steaks there, that was delicious. A good night.

Not much else is news I think.. Oh, I've got a bit of a cold at the moment.. I hope I can shake it before work 2moro. Sniffle Snort. Sniffle Snort.

..of stolen wifi and furniture workouts

Greetings dear reader,
I must first apologise for the sparseness of this post, you see, I don't get the internet connected in this, my new place, for another week or so, which is simply horrible for a internet addict such as I am, but this is only made worse by the fact that I also have no television as of yet either. That's right, tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1989.

How is he sending this here email then, the more astute amongst you may ask, well, joy of small joys that it is, I have discovered that a car dealership just down the road from my house appears to have a severely restricted, but still lovingly unsecured wireless network within range of my shiny new coffee table.

The range of sites I can get to without soliciting a message recommending me contact the administrator to continue is apparently very small, but I can connect to IM, access smh.com.au and also my gmail and google calendar (but strangely not blogger, another google service). No facebook or youtube alas, but not really that much of a surprise.
What IS a bit of a surprise is that the ports for bittorrent are not blocked, so even though I cannot get to any bittorrent search engine, I can download torrents I already have the torrent files for. I can also download the torrent file using my 3.5g phone and then copy it across to my laptop, as I have just done in order to get the latest 'animal collective' album. Whimsy, persistence & the requirement for new tunes are the mothers of invention.

.. And I have a shiny new coffee table too. On saturday previous, after scouring through the catelogue, I packed my little backpack, ready for the journey down to Rhodes, the suburb two train stops away where Ikea lives. My tightass technique was to carry everything back on the train and then assemble it in my loungeroom, once I recovered.

On the way I passed a little pine funiture shop though, and while I thought they'd be too expensive, I dropped in anyway to check out their range, because if I managed to find something, it was only a block's walk back to my place.

Lo and behold they were not only reasonably priced, but midly stylish too, so I bought a raw pine wood coffee table for $160 and carted it home, then went back to the hardware store nearby and bought a stain and varnish and spent the afternoon staining my new acquisition (and my balcony and hands too).

The instructions said to wait 24 hrs between coats, but I sensibly ignore the instructions and therefore managed to have 4 coats of stain and varnish completed in about 18 hrs. I'm thinking it looks pretty good too. It certainly seems to be upholding its side of the bargain and keeping my coffee mug off the carpet.

In substantially more important news, my wife arrives from Malaysia in the morning, which is going to be brilliant. I have the day off work and a couple of bottles of wine in the fridge to celebrate.

.. Hope this finds you, and finds you well.
... More soon.

Signing the new lease and buying stuff..

Thursday was a very busy day. I took the day off work to do lots of new house stuff. I signed the lease and got the keys for our new place in West Ryde, Sydney and then ran around buying stuff to put in it. I had no furniture at all after returning from Malaysia, so something needed to be done.

I actually wasn't thinking too straight that early in the morning, so caught the bus to the suburb the unit is in (West Ryde), rather than the suburb the real estate is in (Eastwood), so I had to catch the train again between the two, no matter it's only 2 stations. Whoops.

After that I caught the train again into the city and then back out to Newtown where I bought a nice futon bed and ate a beef and mushroom pie for lunch before catching the train again to Strathfield then changed to go to Clyde, near where 2nd's World is.

After walking for over a km in in the wrong direction, I sought directions, walked all the way back, and actually found the place. Glad I found it, these guys have heaps of electrical goods with small defects or damaged boxes etc, all with full manufacturers warranty.

I bought a nice big fridge, a 37 inch samsung lcd tv, and a washing machine. The naked DSL internet connection with VOIP gets connected on the 24th and the wifey arrives a few days before that.

So everything is pretty much in place. I think all I need to buy yet are a table and chairs, a couch and a heater.

Sydney, week 3: units, gumboots and missed buses..

.. the view from what will hopefully be my new kitchen window ..

Ok, I guess it's time to report in after relocating to Sydney 3 weeks ago.
Some great news, my wife's spouse visa has been granted! I'm very impressed that the whole process from interview to approval took only about 6 weeks. She's currently still back in Malaysia, so this means she'll be able to join me in Australia very soon.

Yesterday I went looking for a unit to rent, my friend Brian very kindly offered to drive me around, in return I bought him lunch (roast duck laksa from 'wok n roll' at Carlingford Court).

We looked at three places, but the 2nd two had about 15 other ppl also looking at them too, so as I kinda need a place asap, I decided to apply for the first place we looked at, even though it's not quite in the area I was looking at initially, it's still pretty close.

It also satisfies my top 5 list of requirements:

1. not on the ground floor (more security higher up)
2. has a balcony
3. built-in wardrobe in the main bedroom
4. walking distance to supermarket and train station
   
5. security door (you can open the main door and let the air in in summer, y'see..)
   

The real estate said that I should find out as early as 2moro afternoon if I've got the place or not. Fingers crossed. I think I'm in with a good chance. We've got the easter long weekend coming up this weekend coming, so that's Friday and Monday off work. Would be perfect moving time.

I've caught a couple of wrong buses on my way home over the last couple of weeks, resulting in a total walking time (so far) of an hour and a half to get home. I'm memorised the bus numbers I can catch now.. so that shouldn't happen again. Thankfully I had google maps and gps on my phone.


It rained every day last week and I've noticed an interesting fashion change in Sydney since I last lived here.. fashion gumboots. Yep, that's right, the humble wellington boot has moved out of the paddock and into Oxford Street.


I've seen two women wearing these in the last week. Both were aged in their mid-twenties, the first went for the standard classly black model gumboot, the 2nd decided to go for a more avant-garde marbled red green and brown number. I wish I'd taken photos, but I thought it would probably get me into trouble to be caught photographing womens legs on the bus. I've found some examples online though:




Pretty funky. There are even forums on them on vogue.com.au here and here. So they must be very cool ladies.




Not much else to report really. Life is pretty back to basics at the moment, today the only news I have is that I've bought a clothes rack and an ironing board. Whoop-de-doo.


Also have been watching lots of 'Flight of the Conchords' .. did I mention that previously? If you haven't seen it, check it out.

first week back in Sydney

Well, it's been a week since I've moved back to Sydney from Malaysia, so I guess that would mean it's certainly time for a post.

What have I been up to? Well, I worked from Tuesday to Friday at our office on Sussex street in the city, having taken Monday off as a recharge day. So far the people in the office seem great, and I'm really enjoying working with them. On Friday night we adjourned to the nearby Slip Inn for a chat and a couple of beers.

I'm staying with a friend in Gladesville, so after beers I successfully managed to miss my bus stop on the way home and took about an hour to walk home. Note to self: try to take more attention next time.



This weekend I've done absolutely nothing, and it's been everything I could hope it would be :). I figure I've got to save about $6500 in order to be able to move into my own place. That's for rent, bond, fridge, bed, desk, chair & washing machine.

... So that's going to keep me busy doing nothing for a while, dutifully packing my lunch for work every night :).

But all things considered, life is fine. The weather here in Sydney has been amazing & I'm hoping my lovely girl will be able to join me soon.



I've successfully negotiated the supermarket, and the public transport into the city, I think I've got the washing machine sorted out, (it's on in the laundry as I type this and it's sounding like it's trying to launch into orbit. Hope it doesn't wake my housemate).




Anyway, that's about all from me.
More soon.

.. Just married, then back to Australia for me

..more photos..

Last week was a big week! :

My lovely girlfriend and I were married last Wednesday morning at Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registration Centre) @ Putrajaya.

An exciting day! I can't believe it finally happened, Pei Lin is probably even more surprised than I am that she managed to actually get me there. It was amazing how much cooler the suit felt after the ceremony too. I didn't feel too stressed, but I guess I must have been a bit eh.

We spent about 8 hrs the next day doing our official photography, which was exhausting, but the results look really great. Thanks to Alex from La Casamia "De Casamia" (thanks for the correction honey).

Saturday night I left KL, where I'd been living for the last 2 and a half years, and moved to Sydney. I'll certainly miss KL and the many great people there, at the same time though, it's sure nice to be back on home turf.

My lovely wife (wow, still can't believe I'm saying .. 'wife' hehe) is staying in Malaysia for a month or so while I'm getting settled here, and her visa is getting sorted there.

Almost..

Okay, all the pieces are falling into place :).

We've applied for a spouse visa for the girl (which they let us apply for even though we aren't married yet, and therefore don't have a wedding certificate), we've booked the wedding registration and paid for the photography, just need to finalise the flight and freight for the belongings and all systems are go go go.

I've decided to go with excessBaggage.com for the freight, it's about $1400 AUD for 8 x 60cm x 41cm x 34cm boxes, sent via air & door to door, so while it's pricey, it's also very convenient.
No need to hire vans and deliver or pick stuff up from an airport.

The registration is on the 11th March at Putrajaya, and most likely I will fly out to Australia on the 14th. The lovely lady will probably stay in Malaysia for a few weeks while I set up camp in Sydney a bit, you know, do novel things like find a place to live and buy a bed and a fridge etc. (..and television and internet connection and couch and 'a table').

When we had our interview with the good people at the Australian High Commission, they thought that there was a chance that the visa could be quite quick to approve, given that Peilin has a job offer in Sydney and our application was quite complete. If she stays in KL for a little it will also give that a chance too.

Who knows, maybe it's going to take longer that they suggested (it can take up to 6 months), if so she can come to Australia whenever she's ready and we can fly to New Zealand for the weekend when it comes time for the visa (the final part of the approval process is entering the new country, even if you're already there, you've got to do it again).

Sure, it could easily be argued that flights and freight are the most important part of moving internationally, but considering all the things we've achieved so far, that stuff seems ridiculously trivial.


It's been months of gathering documents and getting them legally certified, and while I'm expecting to have to redo a couple of things, I think we're mostly there.
It's been a stressful few months too! I'll be glad not to have to do something like this again for a while. And it should be a while too, unless I decided to start in import business of Asian wives. Hmm..

Where was I? oh yes..
I'm also getting a couple of suits tailored from the excellent Page Shop, in Sungei Wang. I can actually get one tailored here for about the same price as I could walk into a shop in Australia and buy one ready-made, so it's money well spent. Not that I'm a big suit wearer, but whenever the opportunity comes up, I'm going to be so ready for it. So ready.

I'm getting one in a charcoal grey, and one pinstripe blue, and two shirts made as well. For both the suits and the shirts you can choose from a wide range of materials and colours. It's costing me 2400MYR, which is about $1000 AUD for the lot. Not sure which to wear for the registration..

I've included the contact details for The Page Shop below, in case anyone wants them. Highly recommended. They even gave me beer while having my measurement done. C'mon, THAT's service :) .



Page Shop
Lot No. 100, 1st Floor, Sungei Wang Plaza,
Jalan Sultan Ismail,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Ph: 603-2148 8168.

Chinese New Year in the Office

Groovey, I've always suspected it, glad to have it confirmed :)

Things has been very, very busy of late. Workwise, I've been moving back towards a development role, which is good. On the home front, we're trying hard to organise all the various odd & ends for Pei Lin's visa application for the impending move to Australia.

I can understand why all the paperwork is required, but it only slightly helps to have a glimmer of this understanding when we're wading through it.

Last week I was overjoyed to receive my 'certificate of single status' from Australia (which will allow me to get married in Malaysia), but the joy was short-lived, they'd spelt my name incorrectly, and rather than just a hurried phone call to get another reissued, I find out that I need to return the incorrect one first. CrapCrapCrap! More unnecessary delays. Head office will no be pleased. Are already not pleased.

So I spend another 75RM express mailing the incorrect certificate back to Sydney, along with another form detailing the very basic concept of checking the spelling on someone's name.

I keep telling myself that in 3 months from now, everything will be settled.
.. I can't wait till then.

.. and back from Sydney

My girlie and I recently flew back to Sydney to spend xmas and (gwei-lo) new years with my friends and family. It was her first trip to Oz, and as we're planning on moving back there in a couple of months time, it was also the 'sell the city to the girl' trip. :)

.. I think it was successful.

We :

• walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
• Caught the ferry to Manly & went to the beach
• Ate meat pies
• Drank Australian beers
• Had nice coffee in the CBD
• Went to Chinatown for dinner
• Caught Sydney trains
• Caught Sydney buses
• Caught Sydney taxi's
• Lunch and clothes shopping in Newtown
• Roamed around the Rocks markets

.. The only thing I can think of offhand that we didn't get to do was go to Glebe markets, which is one of my alltime favourite Sydney rituals. Ever since I was at university in sunny Wagga Wagga, the two or three times a year that I was able to trek across to Sydney and go to the Glebe markets was the epitomy of Sydney cosmopolitanism for me.

I'm pretty sure that says more about me than it does about Sydney =)

Anyhoo, here's a few pics.

inside the ritzy sactum of the QVB


Jet coffeee is goood coffeee


QVB's indigenous tile design


Delish Turkey Xmas dinner at my sisters house..


Pei Lin in tropical Eastwood


obligatory Harbour bridge pic


on the ferry to Manly


Speed chess is a spectator sport, (or was it cleavage?)


Down & out on Elizabeth st (bum on seat)


looking from the Opera house back to the city


Australian Chinese food - lunch in Eastwood.
Top right is not Char Kway Teow, despite what the menu says.


:)


out


in


transit 1


transit 2


transit 3


Town Hall stn escalator detail


train detail (yes, we caught a lot if trains)


Building detail on Elizabeth street

I wasn't sure about the prospect of moving back, would I be bored with everything being so familiar?
Nope. I'm looking forward to it.

It's not about 'there's no place like home' ~ I'm not originally from Sydney but from a small town in South Central NSW ... and sorry to say, but I don't really miss that place at all. Home is where the heart is. I've always loved city life. There may be a time when I move away from it, but I will always enjoy returning.

Sydney is a lovely city, sometimes we need to step away to see things more clearly :)