Salzburg

Some pictures from Salzburg.

If you like The Sound of Music you might recognize some of the filming locations. We also climbed the Untersberg.

Hope to go back to that area some day. Still a lot to see, Eagles Nest, Ice Caves and Salt Mines.

We missed out on the music hall though, closed for rehearsals for the Salzburg Music Festival.

One Massive Update

Boy has a lot happened since I last added a blog.

Work at Aspiren is awesome! I first starting fixing bugs on one of the products, but that changed to implemented reporting services in the application. As part of that task, I wrote an application to release reports and data sources with a click of a button. Did a release of all that one month later, but ran into permission problems because of different environment settings. The day after we figured out what the problem was and released it the night after. No complaints so far, only more work with reporting services.

The Christmas parties with Aspiren was awesome! We where taken to Bristol to join the parent companies Christmas party, there were theme park games, dancers and a casino. I won a little teddy bear from the hammer thing. We also had a Christmas party in London and there was drinking and eating. :)

I spent Christmas in Rome and the food is awesome. The coffee, pizza and gelati was soooo good. The best place to get pizza is Naples and there are a few big gelati stores near the patheon. Saw all the usual sites like the Colosseum, Fontana di Trevi, Spanish Steps, San Pietro and of course Cheppella Sistina. The paintings of the Sistine Chapel is a must see. I am not a big fan of paintings, but I could not help but stare at these paintings. It seems like some of it pops out of the wall when you know it is flat. I guess that is the brilliance of Michelangelo.

Also Howan and I discovered a more efficient way of travelling. Without any check in luggage! We did the entire Rome trips with just back packs that is small enough to take on the plane with us. The amount of time we saved is great and we didn't have to take this massive suitcase around with us.

I also started dragon boating in London. I am caught in trying to decide which team to join. Raging Dragons or the Thames Dragons. Choices! Either one, I will be trying out for the GB team once I am fit again.

January has been a pretty busy month at work. Made version 2.0 of the report services deployment app and also learnt ExtJS. Also found out on the 16th of January that I was to stop at India before heading back to London from Hong Kong.

Shopping is always great in HK, especially cameras and accessories and small electronics. The bank account took a hit this trip:
1. Canon Telephoto Lens 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L - $13000 hkd
2. Shure SE530 - $3000 hkd
3. PSP Slim + 4gb memory card - $1800 hkd
4. Maglite LED Torch - $185 hkd
5. Nintendo Wii - $2300 hkd

Total damage = 20285 hkd or in gbp

I had the opportunity to take some photos with the new lens at my cousins wedding (Congratulations Joyce and Eric!) and I am very happy with the results. I am glad I spent the extra money on the Image Stabilizer version of the lens, because without it, I am sure all my photos at 200mm will be blurry. The only downside is that it is heavy and another thing to carry when I go on holidays. Oh well, at least I will have awesome photos now.

Shure SE530 is steep in price, but I have justified it because I use it everyday at work (mmm, or a poor excuse to buy the best headphones). The sound that comes out of this thing is awesome. The bass is clear, the highs are crisp and the mids are very defined. I guess thats what you get with three different speakers in the headphones and plus the sound isolation feature, you can't go wrong. The only problem is that I now hear imperfection in any mp3s below 192kbps. You can hear where the highs are chopped off. I will now have to encode all my CD's in 320kbps and above.

Which brings me to India, where I am sitting in my hotel room digesting all the fantastic food that I've already had in the last 2 days I've been here.

I was supposed to work on the brand new interface for one of the products, but it was decided back in London that it will not be included in this version and will be included in the next version. So now I am implementing reporting services into this product to replace what the product currently uses.

Life goes on......

Brunei, Day 2

There is no order in Brunei. I'd thought that I wake up early to queue up and see the Sultan, but that didn't go according to plan. Luckily the taxi driver asked one of the cops what time the queue started, but the cop said I couldn't go in because I wasn't properly dressed. So I went back to the hotel, and put jeans and a shirt on. That is crazy.

When I finally got to the queue, it all seemed good some order not much pushing, but then all of a sudden everyone started pushing forwards! What! There was no queue, it was a matter of who can push who aside! Luckily, I had experience in situations like this and shoved everyone off. haha!

Once in, it was an amazing palace, the 2 rooms I saw. The first hall is a massive place where they served us food for free. It was all very nice food too and I am guessing its a selection of tradition Brunei cuisines, but I can tell you its not healthy. Lots of deep fried stuff, but what the hell, I have sweat so much that I needed it and I was enjoying it, but that is when it all changed.

I am a fairly fast eater and finished my plat of food in record time and went to the next queue. This queue was the worse in the world! They make you wait until the entire army, air force and navy, over 10000 of them, have gone to see the Sultan before they let you see him. This in itself is a 5 hour wait! Lesson learnt, do not go on the first day.

Once the military finally finished filtering through and as they let more citizen through. They didn't follow the order any more. They just let all the people at the back of the queue go first, what the hell is going on here! The cops can't even get it right, no wonder why these people push and shove.

Alright once I got to the next room, which I might add is absolutely amazing, there is another queue. When I got there the military just finished leaving that room, and it took 45mins from the last military to leave the last room before I entered the next. I thought, this must be the dumbest system I have ever seen. The crap thing is I had to check out at the hotel at 2pm and it took one hour to get back. So I left after only seen that one room. So no, I didn't get to shake hands with the Sultan.

On the way out, I had to walk all the way around and queue up to leave! What crap is that! They made you accept a present from them and that took another 30mins. I was like, I don't care about it, just let me leave damn it! The answer was no. AARRGGHH!!

Summary of Brunei, its the most boring place I've been to. No clubs, alcohol is banned, shops close heaps early, and the capital is smaller then Woden.

If I ever go back, it will be straight to the rain forest!

Brunei, Day 1

The day started off with a trip to the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque where hundreds of people were praying. Mostly men actually. Strange, but I guess that is the tradition. The other strange thing is that they broadcast their hymns on a really really loud loudspeaker. I heard it as soon as I walked outside of the hotel, which is at least 3 blocks away.

Didn't want to walk through the gates at that time so I asked one of the policeman that was guarding the parking lot where Istana Nurul Iman was. He said it was too far. I asked how many kilometres and he said about 4. I thought, I have walked this easily, so I started my journey.

Speaking of which, Brunei Airlines plays a hymn, as we were taxiing to the runway, to bless the plane for a safe journey, almost like Catholic's when they are about to eat. This blessing must have gone on for 5 minutes. I hope they don't do that when they drive their car.

Was it a hard walk! The humidity is really bad here, I couldn't stop sweating. I got to about halfway and got really thirsty and faint and with no shops open, I had to admit defeat and head back. Luckily though, it wasn't even open today. It is going to open on the second day of Hari Raya. So when morning breaks, I will be there by taxi or bus.

Had a little rest in the hotel and off again. This time back to Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque where I took my shoes and through the doors. As soon as I went through someone stopped me and told me it was closed. Damn, but from the brief glimpse of the inside of the mosque, it was amazing! I saw gold on all the edges of the wall the ground is completely carpeted.

I was really disappointed after that, so went back to buy a packet of chips to eat. Were the chips good! It was a cross between prawn and potato chips with some sort of sweet chilli sauce. Thinking about it makes me want more. yummy!

Now that I was full of energy, I did a bit of shopping in the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Foundation Complex. Nothing special here, but they seem to sell heaps of fake stuff. Seems expensive too for the fake stuff, so I left it alone. The shopping complex also sells mod chips for all consoles and copied games. It seems to be legal here, as everyone just goes in and buys it.

I was also very tempted to buy the Nokia 6120 Classic as it only costed $333 AUD. Only get that price on ebay and that doesn't even include postage. The only problem is that it doesn't have international warranty, so I pulled the plug.

After visiting the same shops a few times (thats how small Brunei CBD is) I headed back to the hotel to rest. This was only 2pm and I had gone around Brunei so many times already.

After deciding that the hotel room was even more boring I went for another walk. This time I went towards the market next to the hotel, but they were closed so I walked towards the river. I saw so many speed boats on the river. Apparently they are just taxis's to get to and from the water villages, but it looked like suicide bathtubs with a big engine! These things are fast! Being the crazy person that I am, I found one and jumped on it. Initially the driver asked for $20bnd for a half hour ride around the villages. I heard that and said forget it. He quickly said $15bnd and I said $10bnd and the deal was done.

I can see why they call this place the Venice of the east. Everything was on water. The houses, the schools, the police station and even the petrol station. What a great ride on the speed boat, the driver was nice enough to slow down when I wanted to take photos. As I headed back, the driver somehow new I wanted him to go faster and find waves to bounce on. He did it all, awesome! I gave him a little tip for doing an awesome job.

The day slowly came to an end and I went to some Indian place around the corner to get some take away (no A/C in the restaurant) and that was real nice but wasn't enough. So I went to get some desert. Found a little restaurant next to the river and and a massive coconut. I think there would have been about 1 litre of juice and there was heaps of coconut meat inside. All this for $2bnd, amazing!

And now I find myself at the lobby of the hotel where the Internet is free and the air is cool, and getting ready for the long wait at Istana Nurul Iman.

Meroo Point, Jervis Bay

What an awesome labour day long weekend. I got to camp and laze about on the beach where the sand is white! Eat marsh mellows and had some of the best pies! The best one I've had on this trip is of course Rainbow Pie Shop on the princess highway. Thai chicken, chilli beef... mmm I want more! It puts the pie shop in perisher to shame.

An esky is a must for a camping trip. The possiums found our food and ate a large packet of chips and all four bananas! There goes my unhealty breakfast. One good thing is that we got to see a possium in close up. This one wasn't even scared of us.

Howan and I went for a nice morning walk along the meroo point beach and it was nice. Made a sand wall to block the water coming through but that failed. Have to remember to bring a shovel next time.

The day ended in a nice drive back from Jervis Bay while watching Stephen Chow's movies.

What a great way to relax.

Skiing Season Over

Once again, the skiing season has come to an end. Snowboarding skills a little better. Can do the toe edges a lot better then before. I thing I have to remember is to relax the knees so that I can go over the bumps. I also discovered that shifting my body weight helps with steep slopes.

Ended up going 6 times (all at perisher) this season and on the last time Iggy and I discovered the best fun we could have without any equipment! Find a slope that is about 85 degrees and just slide down with your body... My god was it fun.

It was a great season, with Howan learning to ski and ski very well for a beginner. Iggy going like a cannonball down the mountain where it almost seems like he has no control. Phong, Lewis and Matt stacking while attempted to do jumps.

Can't wait to do it again!