kjp

I spent easter in Canberra - taking off two days either side of the already long weekend. Was a good break. Maybe more later. For now, I've put up a few photos of the countryside surrounding Canberra. They were taken from the bushland neighbouring the southern edge of Belconnen on an early morning job. They mostly look out over the Mount Stromlo area (bare since the pine forests were burnt out) and on to the Brindabellas.

I should be packing at this moment: I need to wake up at 4.45 am or a bit later to catch my flight back to Brissy tomorrow morning. I've been in Canberra for the past few days - just cruising around with the family. Took a day's leave either side of the already long weekend to make it into quite a long weekend.

Good fun. Tomorrow - back to reality...

Oh, my new pack is going swimingly :).

Early morning countryside around Canberra.

Early morning countryside around Canberra.

Early morning countryside around Canberra.

OK, a bunch of things I need to remember to take to China:
(just a few ideas that I should write down and add to later).

* Small diary and pen to take notes
* Guidebook, phrase book, etc
* Travellers medikit --> antigastric --> Gastrolyte
* Knife, fork and spoon
* Swiss Army Knife
* Spare cables for my pack ??
* Dishwashing liquid??

* Cap / Hat (need to get this - don't want to take my good Akubra)
* 2 x locks for my pack
* A dodgy wallet with just a little bit of money in it to throw away if things get tight
* Small towel. Big enough to go around my waist
* Clothesline + pegs?
* A couple of water bottles. If I get sick want to be able to boil and fill them up.

* Shoes -
- Sandals
- Boots or a pair of walking shoes?
* Ear plugs for the flight
* Camera, batteries, charger, adaptor, memory cards
* Music player for the boring flights
* Toiletries
* Travellers cheques in US$ - as small as denominators as possible.

Don't take:
* Tshirts - buy over there
* Jeans - too heavy, take ages to dry when I wash them (so I'll need to get some pants that are right for the job).

To do:
* Tell my credit card company that I'm going overseas. Apparently these days they don't allow transactions to proceed if they're in a different country and they haven't been told I'm travelling.
* If I get sick over there.
* Never let my credit card out of site
* Learn enough Mandarin to negotiate / barter down the price. Be able to direct a taxi, ask for directions.

I should post again on Second Storey by the Art of Fighting. It's a particularily excellent album. I think that 8 of the tracks on the album are fantastic, with just 2 of them (Two Rivers and Real Time) not quite resonating with me.

Someday soonish I'll get Wires.

The other day we saw Hitch at the movies. Not bad. Funny in a few places, but for a bloke it's just another "rom-com".

The message "Floppy disk(s) fail (40)" has stopped appearing when I boot up my computer. Disconnecting the IDE cable from the drive didn't help. Disconnecting the cable from the motherboard didn't help. Presumably there's a problem with the connector on the board. So I disabled the drive in BIOS. No more annoying message requiring F1 to continue.

It's no big loss - its been ages since I've used it. These days if I want to shift files around I email or burn onto a CD with an unfinished session (my Bits and Pieces CD).

At some point in the future I'll be getting a USB flash based memory stick with a music player on it.

The first single from Garbage's upcoming album Bleed Like Me is on the radio. I first heard it on Radio 1. Apparently the album will move towards their original sound (less like beautifulgarbage) - a good move, I think. And Mr Grohl is playing drums on a few of the tracks. Excellent.

There's an interesting documentary about the history of credit cards in USA available here. It seems that some pretty dodgy stuff is going on. The docos done by PBS's Frontline program.

Also, I've just found a whole heap of other docos available here.

Great.

I'll be spending today stuffing around the house. Sleeping, reading, doing bludgy things. Because I slept really porrly last night. Throat feels feral. Expect a few more posts today as I clear the backlog.

Fantastic.

I'd like to be better before tomorrrow so I can go swimming / walking then (besides, bigger swell is forecast for tomorrow :). But I can deal without it (although if I were sick tomorrow I'd probably miss band).

Being trapped inside the house sucks when its a great day outside :(

I am going to be better by Monday and definitely have a good throat and voice by Tuesday.

OK, so here goes for the past while:

The end of summer has seen the nights cool down a bit - needing a blanket. Over the past two nights I have been cold with that - so my "good" blanket will be coming out. I think I'm starting to get sick. This is bad and annoying at the best of times. It's particularly annoying as next week I'll be starting a few things. One of which is a Mandarin course (Level 1) at the Institute of Modern Languages. I'm shifting my body clock a bit for this - getting up 1/2 an hour earlier to be able to leave work to get there on time. I also don't won't to be sick for Tuesday (need my voice)...

This Tuesday (just past) was pretty cool fun. I shifted my RDO to let me go to Wet'n'Wild with a couple of people. Was good fun. Although it probably would have been better with a few more people. 6 would seem to be the ideal group size - lets you easily go on the 1, 2, 3 and 6 person rides.

I haven't been to Go in about 3 or 4 weeks. Staring next week it's doubtful that I'll be able to go at all for a while...

If you need to tune something and have a microphone plugged into your computer, then check out AP Tuner

Last Sunday I got my pack - Wilderness Equipment Frontier 2 (2003 model). It seems to be a very good pack - a good fit for me (especially considering my back length), comfortable, and have everything that I need. I'm planning to take it for a bit of a walk tomorrow (although it is a travel pack it should be fine for a bit of a bush walk or two). I need to remember the (suggested) order for putting the pack on:
* Make sure all of the straps are loose
* Put the pack on
* Position the lumbar pad to the correct position by doing the shoulder straps up
* Do the hip belt up
* Tighten the belt
* Tighten the hip stabilizers
* Loosen the shoulder straps. The weight of the pack should be on the hips now.
* Ensure that the shoulder straps are close to the shoulder by tightening up the top (shoulder) stabilizers.
* Do the chest clip up and adjust.

There's a good list of how to fit a backpack here and here. There's also an interesting article on Modern Backpack Design.

I need to remember to pack it so that heavier things are as high up as possible in the pack (counter to what I previously thought). It helps concentrate the weight through the frame to the hips - not onto the shoulders.

Last Sunday I checked out the "Backyard Photography" (Lord Mayor's photographic awards) at the Museum of Brisbane. I thought that the images weren't bad; but a lot of them seemed to be pretty similar - nice clean backyards with mum / dad and the kids and dogs. So, I put in a vote for one of the "dirtier" images.

Sunburn is becoming a bit of an issue for me. I was at the beach again this morning (flat, as was predicted, but hey, I felt like a swim). Several layers of sunburn cream (a different type to the previously used cream) and I still got burnt. Great.

The next time out it will be zinc on my nose, upper cheeks, maybe forehead next time. Has to be - it's getting ridiculous.

Oh, for the record, Coastal Watch has been revamped. Contains wave height predictions (like swellnet), plus some other nifty charts of the swell / wave height, etc.

I have a few gmail accounts if you want one.

Recently - not eating, sleeping properly. For ages (really): not living properly.

I ***have*** to change the way I go about life.
(No other option would seem to be acceptable.)

But this has to be permanent...

Personal systemic issues. Great.