kjp
Got up at the crack of dawn, and slept most of the way down to the Gold Coast. We went to South Stradbroke Island: parking at The Spit and swimming across the Gold Coast Seaway (it's about 250 metres across, with a breakwall on either side). You don't need to worry about the distance, the current, the water, any sharks, the big rocks you scramble over to get down and up to the water. But the boats and jetskis that hoon by make things a bit dodgy for people in the water.
We walked north a bit up the southern tip of South Stradbroke Island - to a free spot on the beach. There is a sand outlet that spurts out sand / sludge that has been taken from the bay on the western side of the island. Apparently this helps in the creation of a decent break. I wasn't out for all of that long (compared to the other two) - I too cold. But I did catch a few good waves. I did something to my left calf muscle (twisted ?), and it is still sore. Great. But, it's a lot more fun than just catching the waves when just swimming - lots more speed. On the way home we stopped by the Yatala pie place - very very yummy, especially after a good dose of exercise. It's just off the highway to Brisbane near the northern exit to Yatala.
There's a few things for me to sort out / get if I want to do more bodyboarding:
Well, I've got my new fins: going body boarding at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Am vaguely excited; but a bit nervous - have done very little of it in the past. When at the beach I usually just swim. Tomorrow should be fun though...
No, nothing major has happened. Not much of anything has happened. Just feel good.
Smile! :)
Boy how time flies. It was just a moment or two ago that I was moving up here.
Recently things have changed with my (future) housing arrangements. The original plan was for me to stay with my sister while her 'best friend' was away in the parts of the first and second halves of this year. But it looks like that they may (both) be going for good (O/S and then down south) in October (??) some time. Which means that either I buy a place between now and October (ie: in August or September) or find a place to rent in September some time...
On the big money front a girl from a real estate company came and talked to me about it a little while back. It seems that there's no problem with me getting a sufficient loan; but the question is whether I want to be paying that much per week to the bank, and committing myself to paying something like $150,000 in interest over 20 or 30 years (although I would probably pay it back quicker than that - I hope). $150,000 interest over 25 years = $16 per day - ouch. Incidently, the money lender person had all funky graphs of how long it would take to repay the loan, how you pay it off quicker if you pay fortnightly, etc, but no details on the total amount of money paid back (ie: the total amount of interest paid).... hmmmm.... Yesterday I found out (from people who live in Clayfield) that rent is cheaper than what I have expected. This puts things in favour of renting for a bit to save up a bit more dosh for a deposit. It will probably be good for me to rent for a bit, I think.
So, in a few months I'll be moving - to where, I don't know yet. It will be a pity really - it's pretty cool here: very good company; good place to live. I suppose all good things must come to an end (as they say). Which brings me on to how I've coped with moving up here. It's been really fortunate that two of my family up here... Go figure.
Well it's happened again.
Last year (almost exactly - hmmm, that's odd) in July my hard drive went stupid for no apparent reason. I got a second hard drive, and recovered most of the stuff from my broken hard drive. I reformatted the broken disk, and afterwards it seemed fine. So I have been using it as a backup disk. A script runs regularily (daily) that makes sure that the backup drive is synchronized with the main disk drive. Additionally, it has been the location of my web cache (which probably could be considered too big; cough).
Anyhow, yesterday it went stupid again. It was not recognised when the system started up. I turned the box off, took out the power and IDE cable, put them back in, and started the box up. The disk was recognised, but had errors, which Windows tried to correct. Windows started up, but was slow, and the first (of three) partition on the drive was marked as empty / "needs to be formatted". I've since been able to get some of the files off, but none of the file structure / file names.
The information doesn't really matter that much: it was mostly just backing up my primary hard drive. But it means that my confidence in it has reduced. So, I'm thinking of backup options. Hmmmm. CD burner looks like the go. Can get a basic burner for $60 or so (need to do more research / price hunting). This could be good, I think.
Probably the worst thing is that my web cache is no longer available. I had been using Smart Cache (now defunct with possible problems??). It was pretty good, I thought.. But I may try squid. hmmm.
I want to change the name of this website. "Justification" is stupid and annoying. The new name has to be shortish - able to easily fit into one of the buttons up there ("Home" is too boring).
Ho hum.
Yesterday I went up north and did a bit of bushwalking in and around the Glasshouse Mountains.
The Glass House Mountains are located north of Brisbane, just inland from the Sunshine Coast, in the Beerburrum / Beerwah area. They're a series of mountains that jut (quite strikingly) out of the surrounding landscape. They were formed as the lava plugs within volcanic cores: the surrounding country has been weathered way over millions of years. There's information about the mountains on the Environmental Protection Agency / Queensland Parks And Wildlife Service website in the brochure: Glass House Mountains visitor information (481 kB, pdf file). The vegetation ranges from a couple of patches of semi tropical bush, Eucalyptus, and Pine plantation. The whole area is divided into eight national parks, with farming / Pine plantations surrounding. The drive up there is fairly short: closer than any of the surf beaches at the Sunshine Cost / Gold Coast (from Brisbane).
There are several photos of the trip available. For most of the morning the weather wasn't particularly kind for taking good photos: there was a lot of cloud / mist / fog around, giving a fairly strong diffuse light. So it was hard to get the detail of the dark areas / areas in shadows without getting excessive highlights. But I suppose I'm not a pro photographer... It cleared up a bit by the early, so the later images are better.
Anyhow, I first went up Mount Beerburrum (one of the most Southerly of the mountains). The drive from the road to the parking area was fairly steep and rocky. There's a concreted path up to the top (where there is a fire lookout station). It was a short walk - but quite steep at times. There seemed to be a lot of tourists going up this one: it's fairly accessible to the general public.
After Mount Beerburrum I went to the central tourist lookout area. It's fairly central and there's no walking required so there was quite a few people here. Subsequently I went on the Trachyte circuit - a 5.8 km walk that meanders between Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Tibberoowuccum. I went up Tibberoowuccum and a few others (Ngungun, Coochin and Beerburrum) when I was up in Brisbane last year. Trachyte is a type of igneous rock, which along with Rhyolite constitute some of the underlying geology. From the picnic area at the base of Mount Tibrogargan there is a lookout track that goes up the side of that hill, giving some decent views.
There's another group of mountains further north than the Glass House Mountains - heading towards Noosa way. They are more disperse than the Glass House Mountains, but some look like they will be good to go up...
This is the western face of Mount Tibrogargan. It was taken just at the exit of the Trachyte circuit carparking area.
Mount Tibberoowuccum from below (on the Trachyte circuit)
Mount Tibrogargan looking from (approximately) the south.
Just a (shallow) gully on the walk. Nice countryside.
This is the view from the Jack Ferris Lookout. This lookout is a bit under 2 km from the Trachyte circuit car parking area. According to the information board at the lookout Jack Ferris was a pioneer of this district, who turned 100 in 2001 (Centenary of Federation).
The main mountain that is visible (in the middle of the image) is Mount Tibberoowuccum, on the right is Mount Tibrogargan. In the background there is Mount Beerwah and Mount Ngungan.
Mount Coonowrin would have to be the most striking of all of the Glass House Mountains. It seems to be for Rock Climbers only - very steep to vertical on all sides.
Taken from the main Glass House Mountains lookout area - looking South. Mounts Tunbubudla (East and West) are also known as the Twins. The one on the left (East) is the taller, at 338 metres, while the one on the right (West) is 294 or 296 metres (I saw two signs giving different heights). The hill in the background on the right is Mount Mikdgddbumulgrai (199 metres above sea level).
Taken from the fire tower at the top of Mount Beerburrum, looking north-west. In the distance just to the left of centre is Mount Beerwah. To the right of centre is Mount Coonowrin, with Mount Tibberoowuccum in front of it. In the foreground on the left is the hill where the Glass House Mountains lookup is located.
Mount Beerwah, taken from Mount Beerburrum (facing North West).
I've been a nerd today: spent most of it on Kiseido or at Sensei's Library (a website on Go) which I've just found. It's a Wiki, but seems to be both very broad and in depth. It's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be going back there...
Anyhow, top of my list of things to go through are:
I've recently found out about The Centre for Independent Studies's website. I've come across two interesting articles from their "Policy" magazine.
The first, Australia's Older and Wealthier Future, is all about the ageing population of Australia, any affects on living standards, and having equitable tax systems between generations.
The second, Punching Above Our Weight, is all about Australia's (declining) power, and how it can be increased through population and economic growth.
Work's kept me pretty busy lately (during the week). It's good, but tiring... Anyhow, I seem to have no time on the weekends as well :( This is annoying. Although I'm free for the rest of this afternoon and this evening.
Yesterday and last Saturday I was out looking for somewhere to live (ie: buying a unit / townhouse type place). On each of the days there was really only one place I liked. But each of those there were problems. The best place last weekend had a fair bit of smoke (although this would clear), but was too close to a main road. If it were hot and I wanted a breeze through the place in the evening, then it would get noisy. The best place yesterday would be good if it were just me in it. It was fairly small - designed for one person (or maybe a couple). I want to have at least two rooms, and aim to rent one of them out (so that I can get a bit of extra money to help with the mortgage).
That's the big thing though: it's going to cost heaps of money. In the area that I'm looking, basic two bedroom units / townhouses are from $200,000. And if you want something decent (like I do), you're looking at $230k - $250k. Ouch ouch ouch. I'm not planing to buy just yet: I'll probably be staying where I am for most of the remainder of this year. Towards the end of this year I'll need to sort out something. Maybe I'll rent for a bit, and try and save up a bit more. Hmmm. Maybe the market won't go up too much before then?? I have no idea of the timing of it though... It's pretty daunting really. I've never been in debt for any significant amount of money. I don't think that I'll like owing someone (the bank) a whole lot of dosh.
The other thing is: do I really want to buy a place?? I think that I do. Well; I do, eventually at least. I think that I'd like the permanence / security of a place of my own. The major concern is that it is a big risk: if a few things in life went pear-shaped (eg: got fired!? and major downturn in housing market) I could be in the poo.
I don't know: it's all a big mess in my head.
On Monday night a money / mortgage guy from one of the real estate companies is coming over to talk to me about mortgages, how much I can borrow, etc. Wow, that's tomorrow - this weekend has flown by. Hopefully things will be a bit clearer after that.
A few other things for the record:
Friday night I saw "Underworld" at J's place with a few of his group "the boys". The evening was pretty good. The movie was ok (not great): was all about vampires vs werewolves. Yesterday I dropped W & L off at the airport: they're over in Perth / South-West WA for a couple of weeks: the house is mine!