Australia 2001 / 2002
Friday, September 28, 2001
Wooohey, it is Friday and a long weekend lays ahead of us as Monday is Labour Day. The forecast says that it is going to be about 30 degrees celsius and this just kicks arse. :-)
We are going to some party in Newtown tonight. Let's see. It is a birthday party and we have no real clue about what it is going to be like...
Well, work was just fine during the last days. I fixed some bugs for the HP release of Singularity, but I don't expect that anybody know what this really means. la la la
Oh, and David left for a week and headed back to Victoria, might be still on the car as it is a ten hours drive.
Get the groove, baby. :-))
posted at 01:47
Wednesday, September 19, 2001
I was on the bus today when we drove past a carpet shop. There was a man on the roof who painted over the sign on top of his shop. You could still read "ghan Nomadic Carpets". Take a guess what the first two letters used to be...:-(
posted at 02:55
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
We've been to the cinema tonight. Nothing special you would say. But actually it was a special one. It is an All-You-Can-Eat cinema. No, not popcorn! :-)
The place is called Govinda's and that might give you a hint. It is a Krishna restaurant with really great food. Served in buffet-style, you can eat as much as you can.
At 19:30 the movie starts. We went upstairs to the movie room and were really surprised that there were no chairs! Just sofas! :-) You more or less lied on the floor - had to take off your shoes - with pillows all over the place. It was really comfortable and we just waited for the dances to come in... which didn't came.
Instead we saw Memento. It is about a guy who's wife was murdered and he lost the capability to make new memories in this incident. So he has to take a lot of polaroids and actually tatoo's the important facts on his body. Reminded me a bit of Fight Club (Hi Bjoern.) - as I said a really cool movie.
Oh, and I passed an Indian restaurant today while on the bus. It is called DADA DA DHABA. :-) Perhaps this makes actually sense in some language.
posted at 06:45
Saturday, September 15, 2001
What a nice weekend. :-)
Most important, the word is still around which surprises me every morning these days. But let's see what will happen next.
We've been out on Friday night and toured some pubs before we went to the Blink Club. It is a really cool place. And althought I've already been there the Friday before, it seemed to me like a months ago - so many things are happening at the moment that I really lack the time to write them down.
Well, Saturday started not too good. I was barely at home because I left early to catch a train to Homebush. We wanted to meet at the station at four o'clock. After I finally made it to Homebush, it turned out that we actually wanted to be at the Olympic Park. To make a really long story short: it took me over two and a half hours to travel for about 15 km's.
But when I was finally there is, it was pure luck that I found the other guys in the thousands of spectators. We then enjoyed a nice show for the first anniversary of the 20th Olympic Games in Sydney. Actually, this was just the first night. There are more shows today and the next two weekends. I reckon that they just want to make some money and don't really know what to do with the Olympic Park. However, it was a really nice show. An Aboriginal group performed an impressive dance when they ignited the Olympic Fire again. It is a really great mixture of water and fire! Later the Australian Chamber Orchestra played while there was a massive firework going on.
You can find some photos on my second photos page.
posted at 22:45
Thursday, September 13, 2001
Wow, I finally made it. The first photos are online. Check them out by clicking on photos at the end of this page.
By the way, the timestamp that is displayed with each post, is CET eg. Germany, I believe. Not sure though. Don't care about this - as I don't either.
And now enjoy the photos. :-)
posted at 05:57
Yesterday (Or the day before? Depends on your timezone and when I actually post this.) was the day of the Attach on America. It is unbelievable what happened there. Four planes got hijacked and then crashed into New York and Pentagon. The World Trade Center collapsed and a huge part of the Pentagon was destroyed.
Friends from Germany actually woke me up when they sent me loads of SMS during the night. I was up since five in the morning to watch the news. I just keep my fingers crossed that the USA will find an apropriate reaction to this terrorist attack.
Beside this, you might be able to finally seen the first photos online later today.
posted at 03:17
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Well, I thought that this would happen. I didn't update this blogger for days - well, actually weeks? - but I will do so now. I just have to cut it a bit short because I'm already here for about three weeks.
Departure in Germany
Everything goes fine. Absolutely no problems at all and I'm quite surprised about this because I just closed my suitcase when I left. My father takes me to the airport at 14:00 and we arrive in Frankfurt three hours later. As boarding time is 19:30 we have some time to spend and walk around the airport.
Take off is at 21:00 and I'm sitting next to a really great old man from New Zealand. He did a backpacking tour through Europe and he tells me some interesting stories.
After 12 hours and 10290 km later, we arrive in Singapore. I have to say that Singapore Airlines is absolutely great! Each seat has its own video screen and you can choose from a number of different channels and watch some of the latest movies. And even while asleep they place food on the free seat in between us. Yeah, there is a free seat in the middle! Room enough to relax and enjoy the flight. Absolutely great!
Singapore
Although, I nearly spend six hours in Singapore and I'm not able to do a Free New Asia Tour as I planned it. The tour is already completely booked. Well, perhaps I can do this on my way back again. Let's see.
I walk around in the airport for a while and really like it. It is a nice and quiet airport. I only left the air-conditioned part for a few minutes, but that is enough to give me an impression of the climate in Singapore? about 35 degrees Celsius and 98 percent humidity. Nice?
Finally, I am able to find the swimming pool. (It is in terminal two and you have to ask at the hotel reception.) And I can relax for some hours. It's only a small pool, but it's a great thing to do when you are traveling for such a long time.
Flight to Sydney
I leave Singapore at 14:00 CET - so I'm already traveling for 24 hours and I'm up since 29 hours. This flight is really relaxed. We take off at 20:30 local time and after about seven hours or 6500 km I arrive in Sydney! The only noticeable event is when we passed the equator. For the first time in my life: Southern Hemisphere! Yeah!
The arrival in Sydney is at 05:30 in the morning. Now it is Friday and I left Germany on Wednesday. Okay, there is a time difference of eight hours at the moment. The controls are okay. The officers are very friendly and I don't have to open my suitcase or anything like that. Actually, I'm really happy that I have my suitcase with me because I waited for over forty minutes at the baggage collection. This is the first time that I am a bit nervous, but not really worried.
I take the train to Eastwood where Pauline catches me and we meet with her husband and my new boss, Quy, and later drive to the office in Castle Hill. I am awake now for about fifty hours and I am really happy that I can stay at Ivan's place for the first few days.
Saturday, August 25, 2001
Quy and his family catch me at eight in the morning and we spend the day in the Blue Mountains. A really fantastic scenery! I could stand there for hours and just enjoy the great view. Well, I didn't bring the second battery for my digital camera so I'm not able to take more than one photo. (And this is not even a photo of the scenery?) I won't forget this again!
We continue to drive to the Jenolan Caves. Yupp, Australia has a great nature! I don't know the words to express this view because it is a really really nice place.
At 23:00 we are back and I continue to look for a shared accommodation.
My parents told me that I got a letter today and won't have to go to the army. Yeah!
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Ivan and me drive around and take a look at different "accommodations"? wow? I mean, I don't know how to describe these places? you literally stayed in the garden and everything was really dirty? I don't need a villa or luxury, but I want a roof and I want to be kinda close to public transport.
First days in Sydney
I spend Monday in Sydney because I am waiting for an answer from a guy in Parramatta whether I can move in there. I don't have a real idea or plan what to do in Sydney. I just walk around to get a general feeling of this city - and I very much like it! It's a wonderful place although it is raining a lot. I cross the Harbor Bridge, take a look at the Opera House, Darling Harbor and the city center.
I can move to Parramatta. David just called and I can be there on Saturday. Yeah! Until then I will stay in the Central Youth Hostel. I am really happy! Things are turning out great and the hostel is really cool. They have great facilities and the people are really friendly there. I'm sharing a room with three other people.
I go out on Wednesday night, go to BLEACH and to EP1/BLINK/CARWASH. (It's a bit confusing because each night they have a different name.) This night is okay, have some nice smalltalks and I'm sure that will come to these places often as they play great music.
Since Thursday, Jayant and me share a room in the Hostel. He's really cool and we go out this night. Just drink some beer at the Buddha bar in KingsCross and later go to the opening party of Release club. This is actually the first time that I went to a real trance / house club. :-)
On Friday afternoon I try to figure out the way to Bondi Beach. The problem is that this exceeds my city center maps and I end up walking for about three hours. :-) Bondi Bay is actually a lot smaller than I expected it to be. It is a very nice place though.
In the evening, Jayant and me join the Hostel's Pub Crawl. It is really great fun. We are a group of about twenty to thrity people from all over the world. Some are just arriving, others have travelled through Australia for the last months and will leave the next day. It's really interesting and we have heaps of fun. This is the night of my first Strongbow Draught. A really nice beer. However, we have Tennesse Whiskey with two American students, too, and a Guiness with some people from the UK.
My apartment and Parramatta
I move in on Saturday and I am surprised that the apartment is even way cooler than I first thought it would be.
My room is not that big, but I have everything in there I need. David and me both have our own bathroom. Mine even has a shower and a bathtube seperately. Sweet. The living and dining room is really big. There is kinda bar in there, too. Although, it is the bird's place. We have a nice kitchen with everyting in there, like mircowave, oven and things like that. Then there is a small room for the launderary and kinda wintergarden that houses David's AMPs and some unused loudspeakers. The third bedroom is used as a computer room. David also places his keyboard and other music thingies in there. Around the apartment - which is on the corner of the seventh floor - is a balcony. David places some stuff there, too. Actually, he has tons of stuff. :-)
We can access a barbeque area on the roof, use a tiny gym in the basement and last but not least swim in a pool in a small building attached to the apartment house. There is a sauna in there, too.
As I said, a really cool place, and it is even only a ten minutes walk to the Westfield shopping center (the biggest shopping center in the southern hemisphere as they claim) and about twelve minutes to the Parramatta station. Sweet.
Parramatta has about 170000 inhabitans and is the second central business district (Sydney is the first one). By train I can reach Sydney's Central Station in about half an hour. What bothers me a lot is that most of the stores close at five o'clock. There are some grocercy stores that are still open when I come from work. And of course, I can go shopping on Thursday when the shops are open till eight or nine o'clock or I do the shopping on Saturday or Sunday because most of the shops are open till six o'clock on these days.
My work
This is just the beginning of my work at Tuxia Pty Ltd in Castle Hill, so I can't really tell. However, I very much like it so far. There are about twenty people in the office and they are really friendly. As most of them are from India, Japan or China, I can understand them without major problems - not like David who is from Victoria and I still have a hard time to understand him. :-) We can play tabletennis and Dart in the office. There is also a kitchen where we eat lunch together.
In Australia (They have an office in Germany and the USA, too.), Tuxia develops Internet software. They are highly involved in the Mozilla project and are also a Linux-only company. This is really exciting to me and I'm sure I will learn a lot of cool things there. During the first days, I took a look at XUL - the XML based User interface Language - that enables you to layout and also programm the functionality of a Mozilla based product. Then I played around with the FLTK. This is toolkit to easily programm interfaces in C++. One project uses this to develop software for the Compaq iPaq which is a very nice PDA. However, I don't want to go into further details, just let me say that the things they do are really exciting. :-)
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
The weekend has been great. I've been to BLINK club on Friday. Vicky - a girl from the youth hostel - and Thomas - a German student, too - came along. There was a System Of A Down CD release party and if you know SOAD than you will know what kind of music they usually play there. I very much like it. :-)
On Saturday we went to BLEACH club. They had a Nirvana night and although they hardly played a lot of Nirvana songs, it was a funny night. However, as I still wasn't really well from the Friday night, I left early. But the Nightride bus service actually prevented that I was home early, too... was funny bus trip, though, and someday I might figure out how the Nightride bus service works.
Finally, I met three other German students on Sunday. We went to a pub and talked about our experiences so far. I am really happy that we were actually able to meet. Perhaps we are going to some anniversary party in the Olympic Park this weekend. They are going to relight the fire and there is a massive show program for the coming three weekends. Let's see.
Actually, I am really happy that I was finally able to write this report about my first weeks down under. I hope to update this more frequent now. (No, this is not a promise.)
posted at 23:05