Newington Armory

Visited Newington Armory area for the first time. Close to Olympic Park and Bicentennial Park, but not sure exactly where it is. It's a very nice place, I must say. The Blaxland Riverside Park has ample parking spaces with bike paths and fountains and BBQ facilities. There's the Armory Wharf Cafe with indoor and outdoor dining areas. There's the actual wharf with the cranes still standing. Bike hire is $15 per hour. Nearby is the Newington Armory, which used to be a naval depot. A few hundred meters away is Armory Gallery (Building 18). At 500sqm, the building is the largest single room gallery with uninterrupted wall space in Australia. It hosts ArtExpress, currently featuring Art of Darkness with works from 2008 HSC Visual Arts students.

2-for-1 at LG IMAX Theater

We knew Monsters vs Aliens 3D is a very popular movie, so we bought our tickets way in advance. An hour early to be exact. While waiting outside the theater, we saw people going in already. Might as well go in early and get some good seats, right? By the time we went in, the place is half-full. Some ads were being shown, a few trailers for upcoming movies. Then there's this long trailer for Under the Sea 3D. The trailer has been going on for more than half an hour already, so I jokingly told WHQ maybe we went to the wrong movie session. After the trailer, everyone started standing up and leaving the theater. Uh-oh, did we just watch the wrong movie. Well, we showed our tickets to the door lady and she didn't say anything. Anyway, we lined up again for the real show. We do have valid tickets, and if the door staff objects, we'll just buy new tickets. We got to the head of the queue. The guy didn't even look at our used tickets, and waved us in. Probably figured we came out to buy popcorn and drinks.

I found Monsters vs Aliens quite funny. Earth is having an alien problem, so General W. R. Monger brings out his collection of monsters (each sold separately) to fight them off. You've got Dr. Cockroach, blobby B.O.B, The Missing Link, Insectisaurus, and supersized Susan/Ginormica. Obviously, Susan is the main character here. Due to a freak chance encounter with a meteorite, she becomes a giant, and now her fiance doesn't want her anymore. Realizing that she's now big and strong (literally), she ditches her loser fiance, and goes on to become a full-time monster.

Photoshoot at The Rocks

Funny how things work out in the end. We're supposed to have this 9am photoshoot at The Rocks with Fotoexpression. As it is ANZAC Day, I thought of just parking in the office, then taking the bus through the city to Circular Quay. First, I woke up later than I wanted. On my way to WHQ's unit, I find Beamish Street blocked in preparation for the local ANZAC Day parade. I take to the small side streets, and even some of them are blocked. Then WHQ calls up asking if I can bring along a few of my shirts, so she can decide what to wear. That means I gotta go back home. By the time I got to her unit, her sister's still getting ready. We quickly drove to the city (within speed limits, of course), and got on the bus just in time.

Photoshoot went pretty well. The sun was out. There's a light breeze, but not too cold. I thought we were gonna take pictues with the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop, but apparently not. Right beside the Argyle Stores (corner of Argyle and Harrington Streets) is a quaint red phone booth. That's the starting point of the photo shoot. Moving up the road, more pictures outside the front door of Argyle Venues, then along sections of Cambridge Street, all the way to Susannah Place. The whole e-session took about an hour, and by then we're both tired from smiling and hugging and pretending to be models. :-)

Easter Wedding Rings

Went to Mt. Pritchard to attend an Easter party. Left early and went to the city because WHQ's sister has to attend a meeting there.

Since we're already in the vicinity, we dropped by Ricco Ricco to take a look at their wedding bands. Naturally, we looked for 18k white gold bands that matches WHQ's engagement ring. Each one costs from $700 to $1000. We selected a pair, and the manager is offering us something like 50% off. Either the manager really likes me, or the store is having a massive sale, or maybe this is just Marketing 101. He's even willing to throw in free engraving. Personally, I'd rather check out a few more shops to make sure the price is within range, but this guy is really pushy. So I took his best price, shaved off $50, and asked him if he could give me that price. He laughed out loud and said to me, "That's not how you negotiate." Anyway, he played around with his abacus, I mean, calculator, and we came to a middle ground. As I always say, ask and ye shall receive.

Went back to the unit to find that the phone line is still not working. Worse, even the DSL service is busted. It definitely was working before. Checked the phone box outside and found the cover lying on the ground. Someone definitely fiddled with the wires.

247tint

247tint.com is running a special on their car windows tinting services. The blurb goes "Any car, any darkness - $130!!!" Given that they normally charge $190 for sedans and $220 for wagons and 4WDs, that's a pretty good deal.

So I drop by 20 Consett Street around 8am for my appointment. Turns out it's a home business. No complaints about the work though. I left the car with Boyd, and by the time I came back at 11am (after McDonald's and Bunnings), it's all done.

Minnamurra Rainforest

For the long Easter break, the family decided to go to Minnamurra Rainforest, just west of Jamberoo. Been a while since the whole family went out on a trip. Stopped by Nan Tien Temple in Berkeley, Wollongong as the brother hasn't been there before. Took the Grand Pacific Drive through the Royal National Park to Stanwell Park through the Sea Cliff Bridge.

Today being a Christian holiday, I was confused to find so many people at Nan Tien Temple. The parking lots are almost full. Aside from the pagoda and the shrines, don't forget to visit the exhibition halls with paintings on display and the museum, which can be found inside the gift shop. After a hearty vegetarian meal at the dining hall, we proceeded to Minnamurra Reserve. From Princess Highway, take a right at Illawarra Highway, follow Terry Street, which become Jamberoo Road. Take a right at Jamberoo Mountain Road, then another right at Minnnamurra Falls Road.

Minnamurra Reserve is actually part of the Budderoo National Park. Vehicle entry fee is $11. Should've bought a truck next time. From the Visitor Centre, you start off with the Rainforest Loop Walk. It's 1.6kms and takes about an hour to complete. There's an elevated boardwalk that runs through the rainforest and a couple of suspension bridges here and there. Some sections of the wooden boardwalk have been replaced with specially designed non-slip ripple sole concrete pavers for better traction. To see the falls, you'll have to make a detour and take the 4.2km Falls Walk, which is another extra hour or so. The path is pretty steep and NOT recommended for people who get easily tired. At the end of the Falls Walk, you'll get to a viewing platform where you can enjoy the Minnamurra Falls. Worth the walk.

Birthday Surprise

Two hours into my birthday (read: 2am), I got a call from a colleague saying that the planned CPU upgrade didn't go too well. The CPU upgrade for one node went ok, but the other node got disconnected from the DB cluster. In the middle of our recovery, the whole thing just rebooted itself. Next, we started getting disk errors and read failures. A couple of volumes are in RESYNC mode. Looks like the sync process is gonna take more than 24 hours at the rate it's going. Not able to wait that long, we decided to fire up the application. Good thing everything came up properly.

Birthday dinner at Stir Crazy Thai at Erskinville. Food's all right, not as good as I was expecting. Service is quite good though. We brought along a cake, and the staff served it nicely with sparklers.

Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo

Got some free tickets to the Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo at Sydney Exhibition Centre. Attendance was pretty good. Must be the global economic crisis. In these uncertain times, people are on the lookout for plan B. Oven cleaning, lawn moving, blind/curtain cleaning, coffee shop, vending machines, bookkeeping, cookies and ice cream, fruit juices, muffins, etc.

Sydney Ute Hire

Moving day today. Instead of trying to cram the bed(s) and mattresses and cabinet into the Zafira and making multiple trips, we decided to just rent a ute. You can normally rent one from most petrol stations. The one across the villa is charging $40 for a minimum of two hours. We went with that because of proximity. You write down your personal details and put up a bond just in case something happens to the ute. The clerk brings you to the ute, shows you that the tank is full, and makes a round of inspection with you. And off you go.

I thought of asking the guy if he can reduce the time/fee. Good thing I didn't, as two hours is just right. Loading up the ute already took almost an hour, not to mention the unloading part. Then there's the travel time from the petrol station to home to unit and back to the station. I returned the key, and the guy asked if I had refilled the tank. I go, Huh? Do I have to? It's just a few kilometers. Anyway, I filled up the tank, and paid for a few dollars worth of petrol to make the guy happy.

House Wine

Discovered StripGenerator today. It's an online service and you use it to create comic strips. There are other comic-strip creators out there, like Bitstrips and stripcreator, but I like this one better. Simple and effective.

The Couch, the TV Stand, and the Not-So-TV Stand

Went to Parramatta to pick up the Freedom couch and the small TV stand. The couch was longer than I thought and the TV stand much heavier than I expected. Fortunately, we were able to cram the couch inside the Zafira. The frame was literally centimeters away from the headrest. No hard braking, please.

Had lunch at Se Joung (right outside Woolworths Campsie). Just the starters are enough to make me mildly full. The barbequed scotch fillet and chicken fillet are very good. Back at the unit, we set up the couch and TV stand we picked up earlier. Assembled the Besta TV stand, which is not going to be a TV stand.

Christening in Plumpton

Went to Plumpton for Lana's christening. WHQ is the official godmother, which makes me the unofficial godfather. The event is pretty low-key. Just the parents and Lana, the godparents (and their partners), and a couple of friends. And the officiating priest, of course.

Back at Ropes Crossing, the grandparents are still busy preparing the feast for the guests. I only sampled half of the foods on offer, and I got full already - fried spring rolls, crispy pata, fried chicken, fruit salad, puto, etc. Spend the rest of the afternoon talking with the hosts and watching Foxtel. People started leaving around 4pm, so we followed suit.

Dropped by Ikea to see what good stuff we could buy. Saw this nice walnut-effect Besta TV stand that WHQ liked. We won't be using it as a TV stand though. Since we're just a stone's throw from AS, we passed by Liberty Grove to give her a visit. Over fried spring rolls, we went through the musical program for the wedding and the married lives of some friends. It's true that marriage is not the answer. It's a question. And you'll probably find the rest of your life figuring out the answer. Some will think that they've learned their lesson, and that the second time around will be better. Maybe so, maybe not. Some might think that as long as the couple has a strong religious foundation, things will work themselves out in the long run. Maybe so, maybe not. As I always say, you never know a person until you've seen him/her angry.

Star City Trophies Lunch

Been a while since we went to Trophies Food Court for lunch. That's because it's been a while since GDG got a $50 voucher from Star City. He used to get a lot of vouchers from the establishment, but not anymore. Maybe he's not gambling as much.

We noticed that there's a promo ongoing called Cash Lab. Basically, you swipe your Total Rewards membership card at one of the promo kiosks to get a raffle ticket for the draw of the day. If you're lucky enough, you get an instant prize that you claim on stage. If you're feeling lucky, you can pull a lever for a chance to double your prize. My instant prize is a $10 free bet. A pull of the lever made it $20.

Today must be our lucky day. GDG forgot to bring his membership card, so the Trophies staff swiped her card when we placed our food order. Turns out the staff discount is 50%, so effectively we got all our food for half-price. We ordered BBQ pork, roast pork, fried pork chop noodle, Caesar's salad, Greek salad, spring rolls, and black forest cake for everyone. All for only $44 (at 50% off). We didn't even use up the voucher. Had to pack away the eight spring rolls because we're too full already.

Becoming One

Part two of the Becoming One marriage preparation course at St. Michael's Lane Cove. Unlike the Thursday night session which runs from 7pm to 10pm, this one's from 11am till 6pm. Lunch is not included. WHQ and I had to drive to the town centre to get our lunch.

Spent most of the day watching videos of real-life couples arguing, analyzing what they did wrong, and discussing how they can improve. Later in the afternoon, we had a lady talk to us about family planning, then a priest talk about the marriage sacrament.

Have to say I expected more from the course, considering the amount of money we paid, but it's not too bad. Learned a few important things on keeping a positive outlook, not jumping to conclusions, learning to empathize, focusing on the issue and not on the person, etc. Have to say I now know a lot more about birth control methods.

Swordfish at Australia

Swordfish is one bad movie. When I say bad, I mean not good. Hugh Jackman as a hacker is just unconvincing. Halle Berry might look hot, but she can't act. As for John Travolta, you can take him out of Face Off or Pulp Fiction, dump him straight into this movie, and you wouldn't know the difference. The scriptwriters tried to spice up the plot with double crosses and sudden change of plans, but it's all too contrived. Halle Berry claims to be an undercover DEA agent, and was later killed off by John Travolta. There's no need to do this as Hugh Jackman never trusted her anyway. And Hugh Jackman can't possibly crack a secure code in 60 seconds given that he was using a stranger's laptop with a gun on his head and a woman's mouth on his other head.

The only nice part of the movie was John Travolta's escape from the bank. His gang gets on a bus on their way to the airport, and all the cops are on their tail. A helicopter swoops down and airlifts the bus to the rooftop of a skyscraper, where they make their escape using another helicopter. Hugh Jackman gets there in time and shoots down the helicopter using a bazooka which happens to be there. End of story. Or is it?

In keeping with the Hugh Jackman theme, we watched Australia at WHQ's place. It was so bad even WHQ was bored. This is definitely not the story of Australia. If this movie is supposed to be the saviour of the Australian tourism industry, then we're in deep trouble. The problem with the movie is that everything's so superficial and the plot too mixed-up. You have King Carney stealing Sarah Ashley's cattle and sabotaging her, so she'll be forced to sell Faraway Downs to him. Nullah's grandfather King George was being blamed for the murder of Sarah's husband, but it was actually someone else. Sarah and Drover and company were driving 1500 cattle across the outback when they had a stampede and later a water shortage. The Japanese attacked Darwin and Drover had to go and save the kids "adopted" by the mission. Then there's the romance angle between Sarah and Dover. So predictable!

Sunday Agent

Another day, another property manager. Anthony Trees First National first checked out the Chatham property on Tuesday. Elders came on Friday to take a look. Today, it's the turn of the director of First National West Ryde. The guys differ in their opinion whether the rental market is going up or down, but they all agree on the target rental price - nothing beyond $500 per week.

Valentine's Day 2009

Valentine's Day 2009 turned out to be an ordinary day just like the rest. Think of it this way, if you do it right, every day can be Valentine's Day.

Woke up early in the morning, and my brother and I started moving the dinner table set and washing machine to the Frederick unit. Easier said than done. Just hauling the front loader to the car took us half an hour already. After that, we went to West Ryde to do some cleaning up. WHQ dropped by to help out. It started to rain, so we didn't get to do much. Off to Bing Lee at Rhodes Shopping Centre to check out some appliances. Didn't know that the rest of the family was at Ikea to buy some curtains.

Had Valentine's dinner at Rhodes Phoenix for three hours. Not that we ordered a lot. Good conversation beats good food any day. We originally planned to attend the Love Music concert by Sydney Symphony at the Olympic Park Overflow, but didn't go anymore because of the rain. Movies is another option, but were a bit tired from all that talking.

Medicare Claim

My first time to claim from Medicare. Working from home today, so had the chance to go to Westfield Burwood in the morning. Got a good-sized crowd when I got there at 10am. From the $330 that I paid to my doctor, I got back $211. In cash. Without filling up any forms. Not bad at all.

Australian National Wedding Exhibition

Went to see the Australian National Wedding Expo at the Olympic Park Sports Centre. Not much stuff to see. I would say 80% of the exhibitors are photographers. The rest are jewelers, make-up studios, car hire, cakes, formalwear hire, 1 caterer, etc. No wonder entry is free.

Lunch at Dooley's. The cool airconditioning inside is welcome relief from the extreme heat outside. We noticed most of the patrons are getting some bread and cake with their orders. Must be free to members or something. Signed up to be a member for 4 years. Costs only $11 compared to annual membership of $5.

Went to the unit afterwards to do a bit of cleaning up. Switch the lighbulbs to energy-saving CFLs, changed one of the locketsets (darn difficult), sealed some gaps in the corner floorboards, etc.