Jae and I had breakfast with her Dad and stepmom, who are (separately) visiting Australia and New Zealand. The Westin breakfast, while pricey, was unbelievable, with more types of eggs, sausage, fruit and drinks than I thought existed. After two hours of gorging ourselves, we wished our guests adieu and rolled out of the building.

We headed to Darling Harbour, which in the late 1980s was reclaimed and rebuilt. It now has the National Maritime Museum, an IMAX theater, the Convention Center, shops and restaurants, and the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World. Our original intent was just to hit the Aquarium, but you can pick up a discount bundle pass for the Aquarium and Wildlife World that’s good for a single admission anytime for three months. Turns out that it was a good idea, as we managed both in just under four hours with a short break for lunch.

Both the Aquarium and Wildlife World were worth the price of admissions, with the highlights being the shark tank in the Aquarium and the koala and kangaroo exhibits at the Wildlife World. I’d give them both an 8/10. They’re no Zoo but can easily be done in an afternoon.

After the animals, we walked through the rest of Darling Harbour and headed into Chinatown’s Paddy Market (not to be confused with Paddington Markets). Paddy Market is on the other end of the shopping spectrum from the QVB. Hundreds of stalls with mostly oriental owners hawking every kind of food and every kind of knockoff good possible (LeBron James “replica” jerseys for AUD$10). After wandering through the markets, we headed back to the hotel to pack for Melbourne.

Food:
Nothing to really write about. A lot of munching on whatever was at hand from whatever stall was close by. Paddy Market is full of them. Dinner was at the sushi bar at the hotel.

What I learned today:
• Sydney flies are vicious. Makes you want to carry a flyswatter to chase them off.
• Male platypus are venemous
• Koalas are dumb. Really dumb

Photos:
• Sydney Aquarium
• Sydney Wildlife World

Shopping was the name of the game today. Sydney’s downtown shopping centers are linked through tunnels making for some massive shopping malls, with food courts, subway stations and various stalls thrown in.

The highlight of the day was the Queen Victoria Building, with its great shops and architecture. Photos from walking around the building are here. After six hours spent wandering the stores and buying up the best (and worst) of what was on sale, we came back to the hotel and then headed out to dinner.

Food:

Lunch was a chicken teryaki box grabbed from a stall by Wynard Station

Dinner was at Guillame At Bennelong located in one of the shells of the Sydney Opera House. Australian Gourmet Traveller ranks it as the #8 restaurant in the country. We chose the degustation (tasting) menu, with the wine pairing. The courses were as follow:
• Yellowfin Tuna basil infused with soy and mustard seed vinaigrette. Paired with a 2006 Paul Kubler Breitenberg Riesling from Alsace
• Royale of Asparagus with spanner crab and truffle. Paired with a 2008 Domaine Pichot Coteau de la Biche Chenin Blanc from Vouvray
• Tortellini of Peas with fresh chanterelies, broad beans and light tarragon butter. Paired with a 2007 Chateau Bouscasse Petit Corbu from Pacherenc
• Turban of Scampi with spaghettini and a warm lemon and Sterling caviar sauce. Paired with a 2006 Denis Pommier Chablis from Burgundy
• Blue Eye Trevalla roasted on a etuve of baby spring vegetables. Paired with a 2007 Spring Vale Pinot Noir from Tasmania
• Deboned Rib Eye of Tajima Wagyu Beef with a tombe of field mushrooms, baby spinach, confit of shallot, merlot sauce. Paired with a 2006 Torbeck / Shiraz from the Barossa Valley of Australia
• Soup of Seasonal Fruit with lime marshmallows and pineapple sorbet. The soup was an infused pomegranate base
• Vanila Bean Creme Brule with green apple jelly, green aplle sorbet and doughnut.

All in all, this wasn’t a standout meal or a standout restaurant. The location and the chef are impressive, but that’s about it. The space is way too open and with tables positioned to make the best of the (impressive) views of the harbour, you have this feeling that there is a gigantic restaurant behind you with no intimacy (to say nothing of the austere hard concrete floors and the less than comfortable seating). The only memorable dish of the night was the Soup of Seasonal Fruit, which was very good, but it says a lot when that’s it. Service was slow, with wine courses often arriving well into the course. And the loudness of the space made it very difficult to hear the staff. All in all, not worth the time or the cost.

Well, okay Day 2 really, but yesterday was a wash getting oriented and over jet lag and travel issues.

Day 1 activities:
• Museum of Sydney – A fairly diverse set of exhibits including art and history of Sydney going back to its founding and almost to the current day. Fairly small and easy to do in a couple of hours. I’d give it a 7/10.
• Walked through Circular Quay to the Rocks – a 10 minute walk with spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
• Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art – I will never understand contemporary art. That’s just me. 2/10
• Walked through the Rocks to Observation Point – Passed by various old haunts of mine, like the Hero of Waterloo pub, on the way to Observation Point. Great views of North Sydney and the west part of Sydney Harbour from there
• Walked back to Martin Place, went grocery shopping Australian style

What I learned today
• Captain William Bligh wasn’t very, um, good. After the mutiny on the HMS Bounty, he went on to be Governor of New South Wales, where he was deposed in a bloodless coup here.
• Give way to hordes of Aussie schoolkids. Otherwise they’ll just run you over
• While it may be impossible to find sugar-free stuff here in restaurants (other than Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, which are everywhere), gluten-free is pervasive.

Pics from today
• Museum of Sydney
• Walking from Circular Quay to Observation Point

…and the Food
• Lunch: Noodle Box at MLC Center. Cheap, yummy, spicy. Must go back
• Dinner: Room Service at the Westin. Still not quite on Australia time, we were too exhausted to go out

So, long story short, I lost a bet yesterday and had to find a place that would shave my head. Sounded pretty simple, but after quite a few phone calls to places around where I work, I discovered that while everyone was willing to do it “clippers only” no one was willing to do it with a razor. And to truly get your head shaved, you need to do it with a razor.

Some google searching and forum board reading later, I came across The Gentlemen’s Quarters in Alexandria. Great find. Old school style barber shop, with a few modern men’s grooming services thrown in. Great place, great people, great feel to it. So, unsolicited plug – if you’re looking for a great haircut (or head shave), try this place out.

For a long time, I have used SSH port forwarding to access a lot of my home files and services, but I’ve found myself hitting the limits of usefulness. So I decided to try and create a VPN. This isn’t a true VPN – it’s NAT over SSH with tun. Good enough for me.
Read the rest of this entry »

Video shot from a Flip Minio HD from our vacation in St. Kitts and Nevis. More photos, etc. to come.

If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can move files onto the iPhone for use in the Kindle reader. The reader stores data in /User/Applications/[App ID]/Documents/eBooks. You’ll need to figure out the correct App ID for the Kindle app on your phone (you can probably figure it out by looking at the date associated with the directory).

I have tested this with an unsecured .prc file (similar to what I have loaded onto my Kindle via USB) and the reader opens the document just fine. You may need to relaunch the application to get it to update the available books on the Home screen. Whispernet syncing will obviously not work.

I’m not exactly in line with his politics, but I have become an avid reader of the War Nerd (at Exiled). His commentary is almost always insightful, and he does a good job at connecting the dots. His coverage of the Russia-Georgia war and the Mumbai terrorist attacks have been excellent. Some NSFW language.

A few years back, a guy tried this, lost the gun, and wandered into LAX airspace.
From snopes.com

Now, there’s a guy trying it for real to go from central Oregon to Idaho (let’s hope there’s no restricted airspace near him): Yahoo story

These have been around for a while, but I never spent the time to find the whole list. Basically Eddie Izzard skits acted out in stop motion using legos. As I love the original stand-up comedy, the legos are an added (but well executed) bonus.

Warning: NSFW language

Eddie Izzard Lego Skits on YouTube