My Luck Must Be A-Changing

Yesterday was a bit wet on the way to work. I had that awful feeling that there was a hole in my shoe as I approached the office as I could feel that one of my socks was wet. Shoes are an expensive item and my Hush Puppies cost me $140 about five or six years ago. A princely sum indeed but they were the nicest pair available at the time. I've had the soles replaced for $55 so the return hasn't been too bad. But, they aren't in good shape at the moment with the soles becoming loose again. The stitching isn't holding up.

We had to go shopping last night for milk and bread and Miky suggested dropping in to Myer as they had a shoe sale on. Could it be true? A man is in need of some shoes and a shop is having a shoe sale? Never! But it was true. Myer had Hush Puppies, the same, comfortable brand I owned, on sale for $80. Yes, $80. That's less than a woman pays for a flimsy few pieces of leather that rub like hell and remove half of the heel area. Yes, that did happen last night too. Miky was unable to walk back to where I'd parked the car due to a huge blister from her new shoes. We men are lucky as we get far more material in our far more comfortable shoes for a far more comfortable price.

I bought two pairs of shoes - one black and one tan. That should keep me out of the shoe department for the next ten years. Except if I require another pair of sneakers. I couldn't believe my luck though and it must certainly be a-changing. Things are looking up, baby.

Trip To Victoria - Day Three

Thought that I would feel better today but my stomach and head still felt awful. Stayed in bed until nearly 11 before we headed down to St Kilda. It was supposed to be 30 degrees in Melbourne so it was quite warm by the time we arrived. St Kilda is the place where all the posers, women with great cleavage, druggies and alkies gather and if you really want to be in the in crowd you have to have a small dog with you.

We ventured up and down Ackland St looking at the cake shops and clothing stores. Needless to say but Yu-Jin was very bored. After a $4 gingerbread man (nothing special), a $4.50 slice of Blackforest cake (delicious) and a $5.50 strawberry-flavoured drink with icecream, Miky and Yu-Jin had some sushi. I didn't feel like eating too much at all. Following that I took the boy down to St Kilda Beach, just behind Luna Park. The beach sand didn't appear to be very clean and was full of shells. A typical bay beach, so I was informed later.

Groovy shop roof on Ackland St in St Kilda.

Luna Park entrance in St Kilda.

St Kilda beach.

While on Ackland St I had a drunk almost yelling at me, very slowly mind you, and telling me that he was trying to make ten dollars. He cleared off immediately when I told him that I wasn't interested and he bothered someone else with the same story.

Back to the hotel for a sleep. Miky was quite crook by this stage also. Yu-Jin watched TV, ate some fruit, biscuits and other junk food, and was enjoying his holiday.

Just before 5pm Yu-Jin and I caught the free City Circle Tram that encircles the city and informs its passengers about the landmarks that are in the vicinity. The boy fell asleep halfway through.

Cool building in the Docklands.

Telstra Dome - where Essendon play their smaller-venue home games.

Almost the oldest orginal building in Melbourne - dates back to 1851 or 1853.

A Melbourne tram.

Celtic Hotel.

Yu-Jin catching flies on our trip around the city.

Hotel Windsor in the city.

The Mercure Hotel had a nice piece of artwork out the front.

After taking him back to the hotel I went hunting for tea. Miky wanted udon and the numerous sushi shops only sell miso soup in addition to the sushi, if you're lucky. I journeyed all the way back to Korea Palace, on the other side of the city, and they made the order especially as on the menu they had udon and tempura but neither of us would have been able to stomach the fried food. Bought a burger and chips for Yu-Jin on the way back. Hey, the boy is on holiday.

Cool shop name.

Flinders St Station.

Whilst waiting to cross the road a German tourist asked me for directions to the Grand Chancellor Hotel. After telling me that it was on a street starting with "L" I managed to locate it on my map and give him directions. It doesn't matter where you go on holidays, someone always seems to ask you for directions. When I pulled out my map he said, "You're organised." I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was a tourist myself.

After tea Yu-Jin and I went to the Rialto Observation Deck. It's situated some 235m above street level in a 253m building. Fabulous view at night time, I must say. Most enjoyable. Saw a 20 min movie about Victoria afterwards. Luckily the lookout was only five minutes walk from our hotel as it was nearly 10pm when we finished and the boy had had a big day.

Telstra Dome from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

BHP Building from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Melbourne City from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Melbourne from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Crown Casino from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Crown Casino again from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Flinders St Station and some strange, tall building from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Bolte Bridge from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

BHP Building again from the Rialto Building Observation Deck.

Miky, who earlier in the day had been telling me how much stronger and healthier a person she was than me, was quite ill by the time we returned.

Trip To Victoria – Day Two

I did a bit of quick reconnaissance at the train station in the morning to find info about getting us to Essendon to visit Windy Hill.

We had a bit of confusion regarding tram times and couldn’t get an adult 2 hour ticket from 7-Eleven. Miky started moaning about waiting so we caught another tram – the same one that she caught, incidentally. Together we walked through Flagstaff Gardens on the way to the Queen Victoria Markets. Bought some bananas for the first time pretty much all year and they were $8/kg. And boy did they taste nice. There was a little café nearby and we bought pizza, focaccia and calzone before Miky went shopping in the city and Yu-Jin and I went to the Old Melbourne Jail, where Ned Kelly was hanged, followed by the Melbourne Museum. I rang a former work colleague, Dave, after the museum to organise meeting up and going out for tea.

Some 135 people were hanged at the Old Melbourne Jail in the time that it was open. Only the main cells, three storeys high, remain. The rest of the building has been demolished. On display were several castings of the heads of the hanged men and from these they conducted some phrenology. We ate our lunch in the yard at the jail and I purchased some thumbcuffs for Yu-Jin to play with.

Junior Ned Kelly.

A prisoner mask which was designed so that the prisoners were unable to talk to one another. I didn't see any of them available in the gift shop to take home.

The external walls don't seem too pleasant but it was worse inside.

The beautiful Melbourne Exhibition Building - World Heritage listed I believe.

This is a piece of art out the front of Melbourne's Exhibition Building.

The Melbourne Museum had a marine display that caught Yu-Jin’s attention, along with a few dinosaurs on show but his favourite part was about the human body and what happens to your food in your stomach once you eat it. There was a button to press which made a sound for what occurs at the end of the line, if you know what I mean.

Some big bones on display.

Now here's a funny face you don't see every day.

Yu-Jin and I caught a train to go to Windy Hill – the home of the Essendon Bombers. The only part that was open was the Hall of Fame and the Bomber Shop. I purchased an Essendon guernsey to make him shut up about the bloody West Coast Eagles who had won the premiership this year. He is a classic case of a bandwagon-jumpereronerer. It soon stopped all that bullshit. Bought a polo shirt for myself.

The Hall of Fame was very nicely laid out but they wouldn’t allow you to take photos. The premiership trophies were on display and there was a separate James Hird display.

Essendon Football Club's home ground - Windy Hill.

Essendon Football Club's home ground - Windy Hill.

Lovely terrace houses in Essendon.

Melbourne trains are clean, convenient and on time. Not too many dreadied, music-blowing, loose-shoed, feet-on-seat yobbos. Thankfully.

Caught up with Dave and his colleague Mike for tea and we went to the Korea Palace in Chinatown. Our meal was a very nice BBQ of beef and chicken but I didn't feel too well and hardly ate anything. The most disappointing aspect of that was that Dave's company was paying for the meal. Mike was quite keen on the young waitress there but she didn't speak much English and she didn't understand my Korean at all so there probably wasn't a lot of hope for him. Dave was quite an entertaining bloke and he's been to Korea before with some interesting stories to tell.

Korean BBQ at Korea Palace.


After the meal we went our separate ways and we had a bit of an emergency - Yu-Jin needed to go to the toilet. I found a shopping centre on the Bourke Street Mall but no toilets. When I asked the security guard about the toilets he said that the toilets were closed but he asked if it was for Yu-Jin and he needed to do bigs or littles. Seeing as it was for the boy and, although he could get into trouble, he unlocked the door leading up to the toilets for us.

Downtown Melbourne with St Paul's Cathedral in the foreground.

My stomach ache was quite bad by this stage so I went back to the hotel room first whilst Miky purchased some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. I bought some Eno and Panadol but the only decision to be made was to throw up. And after a meal had been purchased for me too.

Trip To Victoria - Day One

We had an early start to the day getting up at 3:30 to make kimbap (sushi) to take with us on the flight as we were travelling with Virgin Blue and they don't provide anything. They truly are a budget airline. Our flight left at six so we caught a taxi at 4:30. Our driver was Mika, a Tongan, and he is almost the only driver I've seen to use blinkers. He couldn't shut up though.

On the flight we were seated next to a family of five - in only three seats. They had two babies who cryed nearly all the way. What fun.

The funniest thing that the flight attendant asked us was, "Would you like to buy something from the menu?" Four dollars for some Pringles that you could fit into the palm of your hand is a bit rich for me. Interestingly the flight attendants wore blue gloves when collecting the rubbish. I guess there is a health and safety issue there. And what happened to all of the pretty flight attendants that they advertise? We had one who looked a bit like a bulldog.

Yu-Jin was all excited on the plane and fairly well behaved but do you think he would go to sleep? No. As soon as we arrived in Melbourne and caught the very handy Skybus to Southern Cross Station, formerly known as Spencer St Station, Yu-Jin promptly fell asleep. The station was just across the road from our hotel. When I went to check in the online booking hadn't indicated that there were three of us, even though the price I paid included two adults and one child, so they had to upgrade us to a courtyard room. And it was not a nice room.

We left our stuff and headed off into the tourist sunset. Miky was able to remember where the shops were even though she hadn't been to Melbourne for seven years. Wow. But she became more and more upset about the room we had been allocated as it wasn't conducive to relaxing. I rang the hotel and spoke to Stuart who agreed to upgrade our room, at our expense, to one that was a bit more comfortable.

One of our first ports of call was the Fitzroy Gardens where we saw the Conservatory, Captain Cook's Cottage, the Fairies Tree and the Tudor Village. I got Yu-Jin a lovely little replica of Cook's ship the HM Bark Endeavour.

The Rialto Building in Melbourne.

Inside the Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens.

Inside Captain Cook's Cottage.

Captain Cook's Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne.

The Tudor Village in Fitzroy Gardens.

Back to the hotel and we changed rooms. You know how I mentioned that Miky was able to remember where the shops were even though she hadn't been to Melbourne for seven years? Well, she couldn't remember our original room after less than four hours. What a difference. Our superior twin deluxe, or whatever it was called, was excellent. Miky could now relax so we headed to Chinatown to have tea. Our restaurant of choice was Yuriya, a Japanese restaurant, and their tempura is great.

The first thing that struck me about Melbourne was the cigarette smoke. Melbourne must be the smokers' capital or somesuch. And Melbourne was also full of Koreans and West Coast Eagles fans who had just won the AFL grand final and were continually parading themselves around in uniform. We'd come to Melbourne to get away from Perthites not be amongst them.

The Melbourne trams held some fascination for Yu-Jin and he couldn't wait to ride one. Once on board he said something along the lines of, "This is the way to travel."

It was most unusual to see cars pull to the left when they want to turn right and wait for the lights to change red if they wished to cross in front of a tram line. But, it is necessary to avoid colliding with trams. They call it a hook turn.

Krispy Kreme doughnut shop had opened its first store in Australia a week previous to our arrival and was just around the corner from our hotel. Earlier in the day there was a queue of some 50 people out the door waiting to be served. At about 8:30 tonight there was still a lineup of about 20 people.

Couple Of Interesting Licence Plates

Maybe some of these guys are related:

BEER DIET - some green car. Nothing over the top.
D TOX - I think this was on a black ute.
G3TRUCKED - very much lowered ute.
UH HUH - On a silver BWM. Show off.

Yu-Jin Passed His 6th Gup Grading

Yu-Jin had taekwondo grading today to move up to blue belt. And he was successful. Mind you, he did forget the movements in Taeguk 3 for about 10-15 seconds and just stood there until he remembered. I videoed the whole grading, which goes for some 24 minutes and 150MB but, as he was close to the front, he disappeared several times behind the examiners' table. Plus he was too far away. When I downloaded the video to my computer all that came up was a white screen. I don't know what is going on but if I convert the .mov file to a .wmv then the picture shows up properly. Thank goodness for that.

Spring Must Be Here

Managed to get a photo of a butterfly yesterday. I'm assuming that it was just after emerging from its chrysalis as it was warming itself in the sun.

New butterfly.

Must be new and warming itself in the sun to allow me to get this close.

All Your Emails In One

On Friday night I decided to start using Outlook on my computer at home. It was a very useful tool at work and I know that you can aggregate free email accounts. I have Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail accounts and it can be a pain to log on to all of them individually. So, I bit the bullet and set up Outlook such that all my emails would be in one place.

Hotmail was pretty straightforward as Outlook has it in mind specifically. You go to Tools/Email Accounts/Add a new email account. From here you choose HTTP Mail Service Provider as Hotmail and type in your logon details.

Yahoo! was more problematic. It has a POP/SMTP interface with standard ports of
110 and 25. Try as I might, and with hair being seriously pulled, it just wouldn't set up successfully. I found a most helpful setup page on the Web. The SMTP port required was 587, as it turned out. Once I'd changed this setting it worked fine.

Gmail has a rather helpful page to help you install the Gmail account on Outlook. Firstly, remember to enable POP then you configure the email client using the steps linked here.

It certainly makes life easier. I should have done it years ago.

Now, the next step is to import contacts from your free Web-based email accounts. Hotmail doesn't make it easy for you. I'll tackle this later as I haven't found anything that works easily. I guess that I'll be doing most of it by hand.

Friday Was My Last Day

As of Friday afternoon I'm unemployed. Not really, I guess, as I start a new job on Monday week. We'll be heading to Melbourne tomorrow for a holiday so he blog will be offline for a week.

About half an hour before knock-off time everybody in the office gathers at reception, there are drinks and munchies, and a few nice words are spoken about the person who is departing. I received a large card that everyone who was available had signed and it made me feel like a million dollars to see what was written in it. I was also presented with a huge atlas. Not a bad departure gift at all.

The funniest thing was a comment made by my replacement. He has been with the company for two weeks and I've been training him intensely for my role. He said, "I'm sorry to see you go." The three of us who heard the comment immediately thought, and said as much, "You wouldn't have a job if he wasn't leaving so you shouldn't feel sorry."

I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet that I've finished up after nearly three years. When I look back at what I've learnt it's a bit scary to see how much I've crammed into my head. And there is so much more that I could have learnt as well.

Perhaps the nicest comment came from the general manager who said, "It is great to see how much you have grown since you started but you've outgrown the company."

If I'd had a few more comments like that whilst I worked they maybe I would have stayed. Ha ha.