Wed, 29 Aug 2007
Tuesday night was warm and cloudless. That made for perfect conditions to watch the lunar eclipse, especially since the eclipse conveniently happened in Australian prime-time - 8pm to 9pm was the peak.
We walked over to St Leonards Park in North Sydney, to watch the eclipse over the eastern suburbs and the harbour. It wasn't overly packed, but a lot of amateur photographers taking the opportunity to capture the blood red moon, and even some groups who'd made a picnic out of the event!
Photo taken from Sydney Observatory
Mon, 27 Aug 2007
The Smoking Gun has a bunch of mugshots of arrested people with ironic t-shirts, given their situation.
Better than the real Olympics, it's the Hipster Olympics.
The film clip from Kisschasy's song Opinions Won't Keep You Warm At Night is a classic with John Howard as the uninvited third wheel on a date between George Bush and Tony Blair.
Sun, 26 Aug 2007
The Sydney Swans match against the Hawthorn Hawks on 2 September has sold out. The Sydney Swans thank you for your support in Season 2007.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Mon, 20 Aug 2007
On Sunday, we were visiting Lu in Hurstville to get Kathleen's bridesmaid dress fitted. The six of us (me, Kathleen, Lu, Steph & Eva and Ed) went to The Meridian Hotel for lunch.
The Meridian is the strangest setting for Vietnamese food that I have ever encountered. Since the majority of the Hurtsville shopping strip is Chinese, the pub now caters mostly for an Asian clientele. A concession to its roots remains - the hideous pub carpet, pub keno, Sky channel and the gee-gees on the TAB channel - but the traditional pub counter lunch menu has been replaced by Vietnamese beef noodles.
So it was weird to be munching on noodles with a beer, watching the replay of the footy from the night before on the big screen tv, with a mostly Asian clientele ignoring the pub setting and focussing on the food.
Definitely not your usual Sydney pub.
Sun, 19 Aug 2007
On Saturday, we went down to the Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour to do a run-through of Lu and Denzil's upcoming wedding.
Ha, Denzil, less than a month away now!! Don't be too nervous!!
Vi stood in as father of the bride to give Lu away.
Lu, Denzil and Best Man Steph get some instruction from the celebrant.
Hey! No editorial from people in the background, thanks!
The father of the bride?!
Sometimes, even though we miss the sakura in spring in Japan, there is just enough of a hint of the changing seasons here in Australia.
This week, the blossoms started to appear, even though the grey skies and temperature still said winter.
Sat, 18 Aug 2007
Walking back from doing the shopping up at Crowies, we're waiting to cross the lights at the Pac Highway. Suddenly, a commotion of beeping from the road where a car has suddenly decided he wants to turn left into Falcon St from the middle lane. All the people behind him start honking and yelling, a cab swings out into the right hand lane, pulls up to the car in the wrong and unleashes a torrent of abuse before planting his foot onto the accelerator to rush through on the orange. The passenger in the transgressing car stares obliviously out her window behind her oversized sunglasses.
We're crossing Sinclair St, past the church on the corner. A firie from the fire station across the road is doing his chivalrous deed for the day, refilling the water tank of a car, as the female owner is waiting nearby. I don't know whether I've ever seen a firefighter put out a fire, but seeing them do small heroics like these for people seems to be in their job description, too.
Finally, we're waiting for the green man on the lights on River Rd. One car coming up the hill is a fraction of a second too slow after the light turns green, and the bloke in the 4WD behind her plants his hand on the horn. The driver of the car in front casually leans her arm out the window, balls a fist and slowly raises her middle finger at him.
Just another minute on Sydney's crazy, angry roads.
Sat, 11 Aug 2007
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
...
Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Sounds like interesting times ahead given the recent heavy losses in the Australian stockmarket.
When we were in China recently, the US Secretary of the Treasury was in Beijing trying to get China to re-value the yuan, which the US claimed was far too undervalued, helping to create a massive trade imbalance. In China's favour.
Although the tone of reporting in the newspapers was neutral and colourless, it didn't take someone knowledgeable in finance and economics to understand that China's response was essentially the big middle finger.
Sinking almost $500,000,000,000 into a foreign war with no end in sight probably doesn't help the US' financial shape much, either.
Last weekend, we had to take a break from Sydney, and escape up the coast for a sunny winter weekend.
We went to Shoal Bay, since Kathleen had passed through nearby Nelson Bay for work a few weeks earlier and developed a bit of a soft side for the picturesque little seaside town.
We walked over from Shoal Bay to Nelson Bay (which seemed a lot closer on the map!!), had hot fish and chips from a little takeaway shop, walked along the marina, had some little chocolate samples and espresso from a shop on the waterfront, waited in vain for a bus back to Shoal Bay, ate tea (more fish and chips), hiked up to the top of Tomaree Lookout, went and saw the Nelson Head Lighthouse, were blown off the beach at Stockton Beach (and saw the amazing sand dunes there, drove back via Darby Street in Newcastle and re-joined the throng of Sydneysiders returning back to the city on the Pac Highway.
I think we might have found a great place for a summer holiday, too!
I posted some photos of the weekend to Flickr.
