The other Time Lord

After a reasonably short delay (for us) we managed to watch the first part of the latest Doctor Who episode The End of Time. Timothy Dalton's appearance confirmed something I've long suspected: there is another Time Lord on Earth and he is not The Doctor or The Master. His name is Bond, James Bond.

I wonder if his TARDIS is disguised as an Aston Martin.

Music of Wild China

A much fruitless searching previously, I finally found the Barnaby Taylor's soundtrack to the BBC documentary series of Wild China. What's more, it was available for purchase and download from 7digital. The main theme never fails to send chills down my spine with its beauty.

Wild China was the first Blu-ray disc in our (currently two disc) collection and is an amazing documentary series about the natural environment and animals of China. I do wonder if its constantly upbeat evaluation of China's environmental future is an artefact of their local production partner. We saw much to depress us during our visit to the country, though there were certainly swathes of natural beauty as well.

Unreal estate

That's the view from the streetside in front of our house, looking directly down towards Sydney's central business district. Of course it's not the view from the house itself. The only water we can see is that of swimming pools.

After almost a week now since moving house I'm gradually starting to recover from the ordeal. It was horrible, as horrible as I imagined it could be. We were still shifting bits and pieces long after settlement time on our property and even managed to leave a few items behind. At least our removalists seemed okay, but there were so many scattered items that they couldn't move because we had not packed them.

I remember the joy of moving into our other house on Christmas Eve, of escaping from parents and into our very own home. We had hardly any possessions then and little need to move them quickly from the in-laws.

It was so different to this move. The first few days I loathed our new house. All my memories of where stuff is located, how to use the home, it was all defunct. Alex kept hurting himself, jamming fingers, falling down stairs.

We couldn't work out how to disable the child lock on the stove that first night, so a pasta sauce turned into an electric frypan cooking topping for rice cooked in an electric cooker. The next night the circuit breaker tripped on the house lights. There are ants everywhere.
I had so little sleep the nights before this move, a combination of packing late, working late and a disturbed Alex who looked to me, only me, for comfort. I was exhausted beyond my tolerance levels, no idea how I functioned.

I did manage to get the automatic pool cleaner working and actually had a swim with Alex yesterday, pushing our dog Kita into the water as well. We walked to the local shops, a longer walk with less and more expensive choices at the end of it than what I was used to.

Less and less do I feel the need for a house for everyday living. The concept of a hotel, where your life is stored in a suitcase seems so attractive now. A few clothes, a notebook computer, digital music (if only all my books, magazines and lecture notes were digitised!) what more do you need most days of the week?

I love the memories inherent in many of our possessions, the knicknacks, the books, the old computer software. You never know when they will come in handy - they usually do - but I so rarely need to see them that it doesn't feel worthwhile unpacking them. I'd like my own little museum that I could visit now and then, but could safely ignore the rest of the time.

Though this is the first home with my name on the title, I don't really feel like it's my house yet. Right now it feels like a temporary pad. Ask me again in another week.

To here

So much stuff to move. Endless packing and shipping from one house to another. Now endless unpacking awaits.

No more simultaneous settlements ever again, skimping on packing materials or trying to move with a young kid.

Horrible sticky weather for a move, rain and thunder. Too exhausted to be excited. Snuggling next to Alex on the futon as his cot is still in pieces. Goodnight!

From here

iPads, the Avatar soundtrack and other bits

One week now until we move house. Scary.

Listening to James Horner's Avatar soundtrack and enjoying it. Sure a lot of themes are derivative of his other works amongst others, but that's what you get with Horner. The music makes me want to see the movie, but I don't feel like leaving Alex in the hands of a babysitter at the moment, what with so much of his time at childcare. Plus he is extra cute. Maybe I'll wait to the blu-ray version is out. Could probably do without the 3D headaches right now.

I've cut down to a 4 day week in order to look after Alex when he's not in childcare. It's great spending time with him.

Not particularly excited about Apple's iPad tablet. The only Apple stuff I own is a ex-work Apple Mac LC II that I brought home for the university memories and an Apple Airport Express that sometimes provides me with wireless access in hotels with ethernet ports. Not even an iPod, because I have other devices to play mp3's and watch video and I hate the annoying iTunes client. Not an iPhone because, in the end, I wanted a phone first (though I am listening to the Avatar soundtrack on my phone right now) and my Sony Ericsson W705 is the right size.

The iPad isn't anything particularly innovative (but what Apple products are?). It's a tablet computer and not a particularly attractive one at that. It looks like a cheap digital photoframe so far as I can see. Give me widescreen as well, not 1024 x 768 pixels. Hopefully someone comes out with a highly portable keyboard for fast typing on the go. I wouldn't like to write one of my travel blog entries on a virtual keyboard.

I think I would be more interested in the Android tablets when/if they come out, considering how much of my stuff is web based and uses Google technologies. I rather like the cloud stuff, so long as I can work offline as well.

Anyway, I'm sure there are enough rabid Mac fanboys and girls out there that the Church of Steve Jobs doesn't need to worry about my opinion.

Australia Day 2009

I could rant and rave over the jingoistic nationalism that has spoiled the Australian flag (and that dreadful Union Jack in the top left corner), but I'm not going to this time. But I'm not going to.

Apropriate for Australia Day, while cleaning out a wardrobe yesterday we discovered a couple of Australian flags purchased for the Sydney Olympics. Our little Assembled in Australia From a Mixture of Local and Imported Ingredients loved waving them around.

In the evening we drove down to a local oval where they had stalls and performances celebrating the day. Alex stroked guinea pigs, goats and rabbits at the mini farm while our solicitor's daughter sang up on stage. We gave Alex a little bit of sausage sanger before returning home for our real dinner.

For the last time we stood at a rear window of our house watched the fireworks explode into the sky.