Sculpture by the Sea

Until the 2nd of November, the coast line from Bondi to Tamarama will be littered with colours and shapes, forming the one of the largest outdoor sculpture displays in the world. Best of all, it's free. I went to Sculpture by the Sea today, even though the weather could have been more kind. A few of my favourite this year included the anatomically correct farm animals, and the huge needle pulling thread on the hill. There were a few more abstract ones that also caught my attention, and the butterfly-globe was also very striking. Here are some of photos from the day trip, definitely worth a visit!

Night Noodle Markets and World Bar

October is Good Food Month and last Friday was the last night the Noodle Markets were held. at Hyde Park, and I went to check it out. The atmosphere was amazing, the north side of the park packed with people chatting, drinking, eating. Musing blaring in the background and an array of coloured lighting transformed the trees and walkways.

The food on offer was pretty good too. The best part? The fact that I went at 8.30pm. The stalls all close at 9.30pm, and it's the time to flog off whatever they had left. This means shorter queues, and cheaper food. I also got to try out the Citi VIP area. The area is just a small barricaded area in the middle of everything, and it had a private bar, and some candle lit tables draped with red table cloth. It gave a very intimate feel to the area. The noodle markets were very well carried out, and I'll be back next year for sure.

After the noodle markets, I headed to World Bar with some friends. For a bar right in the heart of the Cross, we were told that we would only get in if we were casual and not business attire. One of my friends had to go buy a t-shirt from a near by shop after he turned up in a dressy shirt. The bar was pretty packed and a live band was playing. The trademark for the bar though had to be their teapots. Several cocktails - Long Island Iced Tea,  Tropicana, etc, are served in teapots you would find at a Yum Cha restaurant. One pot is about 7 shots, which is pretty awesome!

ViewSonic VA1928wm

There was a sale of sorts at Harvey Norman today. I've been eyeing an upgrade for computer monitors for my parents' PC for a while now, and thought I might try my luck there. The budget is not high, around $200. But, anything will be better than what they were on before - an LG 17" flat CRT.

This is what I ended up with the ViewSonic VA1928wm. I got this baby for $197. There are several shops around that sell 20" screens in the low $200 mark, and they all have superior resolution - 1650 x 1080. The VA1928wm only have a resolution of 1440 x 900. But resolution wasn't the biggest concern, since the higher res. 20 inchers have a finer pitch, therefore smaller lettering on screen. That would in fact make it harder and not easier for my parent to use.

So for my dough, what do I get? An easy-to-install, non-tilt-height-adjustable hard-to-tilt, super bright screen, with in-built speakers connected to my PC via standard VGA and audio cable. The design looks a little dated, but sleek non-the-less, with a silver bezel on the bottom. The power button in the middle of five buttons glows a bright blue when turned on. 

The amount of physical desk real estate saved is amazing. The screen is also more bright than my 20" iMac and I'm thoroughly impressed. The specs boast a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and I have no reason to complain. I haven't tested out the response time for the screen, but that will be less critical for my parents' usage. Overall, very happy with my purchase.

Petrol Prices

As the financial crisis hit, oil prices have come down a long way since the highs experienced earlier in the year. The Aussie Dollar has also come down sharply against the Greenback. With these factors, should the price at the pump have fallen? Yesterday, as a silly protest, a petrol station in Blacktown started subsidising petrol, and sold Unleaded at 94.9c a litre for a while. According to 2Day FM, they were subsidising more than 30c off their wholesale price, which means, the petrol stations really don't make that much profit - all the profits goes to the petrol companies. 

I will attempt to post some figures every Wednesday morning from now on and compare the price at the pump, crude oil, and exchange rates. This will hopefully give us a good idea of what is actually happening and how much we're being ripped off.

Unleaded: 140.9c / L

Exchange Rate: 0.6882 USD

Crude: 72.18 USD (104.88 AUD) / Barrel

The price of Unleaded petrol the Shell in North Ryde on Lane Cove Road.
The exchange rate according to Google.
The price for Crude is  from Nymex Crude Future according to Bloomberg.

Are you with ANZ?

Last night I was given a task, that should have been a lot simpler than it turned out to be. I needed to transfer some money into an ANZ account by midnight. If I transferred from another bank, it would take a couple of days to clear. This meant that the money had to come from another ANZ account, one that I don't have. Without thinking, I started messaging my MSN list to see who have an ANZ account. ANZ being one of the big four banks in Australia, I figured this would be easy.

After about 15 minutes and talking to countless people, I finally found one person with an ANZ account. But this person didn't even have any money in that account! The search went on for another 30 minutes, and eventually I managed to find a source, and here I say my thanks. What amazed me though, was that even a future employee of ANZ did not have an account with them. So much for being one of the big four.

Vote for which bank you use on the right!

ATO's Callback Feature Bug

As a result of high interest online savings accounts, many people have earned plenty of interest last financial year. Apparently I did enough to be billed for Pay As You Go instalments for this financial year, even though I won't be earning must interest any more.

So I called up the ATO to vary my PAYG amount down to zero. The automated system took my call and placed me in the queue. To save caller frustration, the ATO have implemented a call back system, whereby, you leave your number, and they call you back when you have reached the front of the queue. They even give you a prediction of how long it will take to reach you. When I got the call back however, I was again placed in the queue, although I only had to wait another two minutes or so. Maybe they should rename it the call-back-and-wait system.

Royal National Park Ride

Today, the City of Sydney Spring Cycle event was held. But I decided to instead go for a ride in the Royal National Park with some friends. We started out from Sutherland, and rode down to Otford, via Lady Carrington Drive. According to Google maps, this is a 27.6km ride.

Unfortunately, one of the team started cramping early in the day, so we had to fight hard, and I'm sure he pushed through several pain barriers. But in the end, we reached our destination. We started out at 11.30am, and finished by 3pm, with an average speed of 8 km/h.

A 1.5 hour wait at Otford station ensued, as we sent out scout for some much needed Coke and water. The view at Otford lookout along with the ocean breeze provided much satisfaction for all.

Mobile upload not working

Well, blogger supports mobile uploads, so I thought I'd give it a try. But after a few battles with 3G reception, I received this in the email: 

Your carrier is not supported by Blogger Mobile. Please try using Mail-to-Blogger or visit http://www.blogger.com/mobile-request for more information.

So I'm back on the computer, at least I don't have to worry about predictive text going haywire. Last night I went to Hogs Breath in Cronulla, and had my latest brush with fame. I looked up from my steak and there they were - Terri and Bindi Irwin. Before I could whip out the camera though, they were gone. I wondered what they were doing in Sydney, and what they thought of these caged animals.

Apple Recycling Weekend

Apple has just released some sweet new computers this week, although they are priced in the stratosphere. Nevertheless, some people will be able to afford it, and need to dispose of their old wares. In case you needed to do the same, or just want to get rid of that computer sitting in the corner of your room taking up valuable real estate space gathering dust, then you're in luck if you live in Sydney. Apple is carrying out a recycling event this weekend, and you can bring all your unwanted goods. That could potentially free up some space, and be rented out to an international student!

Ride to Work Day

Today was National Ride To Work Day. The idea is to encourage people to lead a healthier lifestyle by riding to work instead of driving. This is beneficial not only to the rider but also the environment and the hip pocket. I started cycling to work a few months ago, my daily commute is about 11 km one way and takes approximately 45 minutes. That burns about 2000 kilojoules of energy for me, which is about the amount contained in a McDonald's Big Mac. It will also save me approximately $1.50 on petrol and approximately 2 kg of CO₂. All of that might not seem much, but if I cycled twice a week, in a year, I will have saved over $300, and 400 kg of CO₂ not to mention the health benefits I'd receive.

There are a few things that can make cycling less enjoyable. In particular drivers that really don't give any respect to cyclists. On my way to work today, I saw an ambulance at an accident scene involving two cycles and a car.I guess it is frustrating sitting in morning traffic, and having to continually go pass cyclists only to be overtaken by them. There are dedicated cycling lanes and paths in some areas, but they're far too inadequate and puts out a mixed message. Often the path is shared with pedestrians or end abruptly and forces a cyclist to join the road again. There are pros and cons for cycling with traffic or cycling on dedicated paths, but I find its very counterproductive to force cyclists to have to do both.

Other than traffic dangers, when riding in spring time in Australia, magpies do attack riders. These birds are highly territorial, and there are not many ways to avoid being attacked. Some suggestions to help avert attacks include putting elaborate devices on the helmet. This has to be carefully considered - in the event of an accident, the contraption must not affect the helmet's purpose to protect your head. One suggestion from my colleague was to use cable ties and stick the pointy end away from your helmet, although I have yet to try this out. If you could, it would be best to avoid where they nest and use an alternate route if possible. A map of magpie attacks is being compiled.

Fortunately, there is good camaraderie between cyclists. Often I will cycle pass another cyclists and we will acknowledge each other with a nod or a wave. So next time you cycle, don't forget to say hello to your fellow cyclists!