Reverse Cycle Portable Air Condition on Mobile eBay

With summer coming fast, I'm onto eBay to look for a portable air conditioner. A no-frills portable airconditioner will set you back at least $150. If you opt for the reverse-cycle one, that's usually around $250 or more.

So I find a portable a/c for sale. A closer look at the description says it's a Dimplex DAC-12004RC, which tells me it's actually reverse-cycle. No wonder there's relatively little interest from the bidding public. The item location being in Horseley also helps.

minutes to go before the auction ends, we're still in Westfield. I took out my E75 and went to the mobile eBay site. No HSDPA, only 3G. Started putting in higher and higher bids until I got the winning bid. To prevent a last-minute upset, I upped my max bid some more. Must've put in the wrong number because I ended up bidding $13,500. With only a few seconds to go, it's panic time! It's a good thing 3G is quite slow, so I was able to stop the transaction. Ended up winning the RC portable aircon at $113. Add in a $5 Paypal voucher for not using my 99c free listings last weekend, and I'm a happy camper.

Calming Your Baby

Would've good if I found out about this earlier. After days of having the baby crying on and off, and not knowing how to pacify him, we turned to Google/Wikipedia/YouTube, and found out about the 5S's.

If your baby is always unsettled or crying after a feed, he probably has colic. Now, noboby knows what's the cause of colic, but most people think it's due to stomach gases. Regardless, Dr. Harvey Karp, author of the best-selling The Happiest Baby on the Block, tells us that all babies have a calming reflex. If we know how to trigger this calming reflex, it'll calm the baby immediately. And so I give you the 5S's:

• swaddling - Swaddle the baby tightly to recreate the sensation of being in the womb.
• side or stomach postion - Hold the baby on his side or face down.
• shushing - Constant shush sound or other sources of white noise, like hair dryers or vacuum cleaners
• swinging - A little bit of jiggling of the baby from side to side
• sucking - Breastfeeding or the use of pacifiers

As soon as I learned these techniques, I applied them immediately to Aidan. From my experience, shushing works best, but don't overdo it. This is not some mild, gentle shushing sound. From the video, it's a strong, constant in-your-ear shushing. Very effective though. Not sure whether it's the calming reflex at work, or the shush sound is so overpowering that it paralyzes the baby into inactivity.

Sucking also works, but be careful with pacifiers. I read somewhere that it might cause ear infection. At the very least, too much sucking prevents your baby from having a deep sleep and makes them hungrier faster. Swinging is also quite effective. Again, take care that you don't jiggle baby's brain into mush. Swaddling, my baby doesn't like it. It prevents him from moving his arms around (obviously), which makes him crankier. YMMV.

Project Aidan: The Weekly Report

It's been a week since I took paternity leave from work. I'm finding I have more free time, yet I'm also busy day and night.

I spend the day (and night) bottle-feeding the baby, washing and sterilizing the bottles, boiling water, bringing out the laundry and back, changing nappies and baby clothes, preparing the baby's bath, taking out the trash, and buying stuff from the chemist.

And oh yeah, downloading the Masterchef episodes that we missed.

Hello, Aidan!

Baby Aidan was supposed to make his appearance two weeks later, but he just can't wait. The warm bath in the bathtub pacified him for a bit, but by midnight, he's at it again. At the Canterbury Hospital, Mau was taken to the birthing room and put on the laughing gas. The jokes must be lame because I don't hear her laughing. It did make her forget about her contractions until we were able to find an anesthesiologist awake enough to give her an epidural.

By morning, when everyone is up and awake, the doctor walked in and announced yup, it's time for business. So Mau started pushing. She huffed and she puffed, but she wasn't pushy enough. So out comes the scissors - snip, snip. In goes the forceps. And before you know it, Aidan slid out into the world. 2.49 kilos, 49 cm.

Hello, Aidan!

Oliveto 1st Anniversary

What better way to celebrate the first anniversary than to eat?

For our anniversary lunch, we make a booking at Oliveto Ristorante & Bar, nicely located at the Brays Bay Reserve in Rhodes. It was a sunny day, and we got a table overlooking the bay.

Menu, please:
Primo

• Crispy pork belly, orange, radicchio, snow pea runner salad, apple jam
• King prawns alla diavola, tomato chilli, garlic

Secondi

• Lamb rack, confit truss tomatoes, radicchio, fennel, black olive tapenade
• Confit duck, pearl barley risotto, morello sour cherry sauce

Dolci

• Limoncello souffle, lemon sorbeto
• Hot chocolate
• Cappuccino
  

Vivid Sydney - Macquarie Visions

As part of Vivid Sydney, the whole of Macquarie Street is converted into one big lights and sound show called Macquarie Visions.

This is already the last week, so I decided to take some photographs after work. It was colder that I expected. I had coughing fits, while walking my way to St. Mary's Cathedral. After picking up my complimentary festival torch, I proceeded to watch Designing the Nation, projected onto the facade of St. Mary's. On the way to the Hyde Park Barracks, we pass by the Downer Macquarie Arch, symbolizing the construction of the road over the Blue Mountains by Macquarie.

Next up is Fair Go at Hyde Park Barracks Museum and Common Wealth at The Mint. The Parliament House is featuring Advance Australia, with interviews on inspirational projects. At the State Library of NSW, we see Words on the Street. There's more at the Conservatorium of Music, but it's too far and too cold for me.

At Circular Quay, some of the building nearby also have special lighting turned on.

Premier Seat for the Baby

I'm in the market for a convertible baby car seat. Instead of going to Kmart or BigW or Babies R Us, I went to eBay. The secondhand ones on eBay are definitely cheaper. The only downside is that there are so many brands and models and price ranges, and you're not really sure what condition they are in.

So I find this auction for a Safe-n-Sound Premier baby car seat ending soon. $78 sounds reasonable to me, so I put in my bid at the last minute. Just to test the waters. There were a few interested bidders, so I'm pretty confident someone with increase the bid. I wanted to see how much a Premier really costs. I ended up winning the auction.

Steamed Fish Fillet with Fried Garlic

Ingredients:

• one piece of fish fillet
• 3 cloves of garlic
• ginger slices
• rice wine
• salt
• oyster sauce

Cut fish fillet into small chunks. Marinade fish chunks with salt and a little rice wine for half an hour.
Boil water. Put fish chunks in boiling water together with ginger slices and drain when the meat has changed colour. Pour a little oyster sauce on the fish.
Heat oil on pan. Fry chopped garlic until golden brown. Sprinkle on top of fish. Serve.

Baby and Kids' Market at Lane Cove

Got a last-minute email about a baby and kid's market at St. Ignatius College, Lane Cove. By the time we got there, all possible parking spaces are occupied. Lucky for us, on our third survey of the place, we managed to find one.

$3 entrance fee gives you access to lots and lots of preloved and brand new stuff for babies and little boys and girls. I find the baby clothes and towels and toys a real bargain. Nice cupcakes, too.

Trying out Google Search Stories

Was sort of inspired when the first SearchStory called "Parisian Love" came out. Google Search Story (via YouTube) is about telling a story through search.

Now Google allows you to DIY. Just go to www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories and click on "Create your own". Enter your search terms (up to seven), choose what kind of search you want (normal web search, images, maps, books, product search, blog search, or news), choose an appropriate soundtrack (non-copyrighted, of course), and voila! Your very own SearchStory.
Very easy - just type, select, point and click.

Lost. Money.

I've been paying good money to the local gym, but so far I've only been going there only once a week on average. Today, I decided to get some workout, and what have I to show for my troubles? An empty wallet. Only discovered the crime when I got back to the office. At first, I thought my colleagues were playing a prank on me, as I sometimes leave my wallet on the table. They all look innocent enough. Only other time the wallet is not on me is when I was at the gym earlier. Lucky for me, nothing else was taken.

Third Time Unlucky

Another flat tyre for the Holden Zafira. That's actually the third time that it had happened in recent weeks. First time was the Honda CR-V. Due to our proximity to a taxi garage, street parking in our area is pretty limited, so we parked the CR-V in front of the neighbor's. The first time it had a flat, we thought little of it. Called in Honda roadside assist to put in the spare.

A few days later, another flat for the CR-V. The first one's got a puncture, while the second one is missing the valve pin. As for the Holden Zafira, one of the tyres got deflated and we can't find the valve cover. Looks like somebody doesn't like us parking near his place. (Mind you, we're talking street parking. It's not like we parked in front of his driveway or something.)

Noble House Nights

Been watching Noble House for the past three nights. Based on the book by James Clavell, and produced by the same guy, this 3-CD mini-series sure bring back memories. The movie covers one week of Hong Kong in the 1980s. During this time, there were kidnappings, joint ventures, corporate takeovers, landslides, bank runs, boat fires, secret agent defections, etc.

Been a while since I last read the 1,000-page Noble House, so it was good to be re-acquainted with Ian Dunross, Quillan Gornt, Lincoln Barlett, Casey Tsolok, Four-Finger Wu and his son Paul Choy, Orlando Ramos, etc.

Skype for Symbian

Skype for Symbian officially released about a month ago. Had time to test it only now.

Installed it on the E66 and E75, and it works pretty well. Was able to make mobile-to-mobile calls via WiFI, and also PC-to-mobile calls and vice versa. Free calls!

Pennytel Problems

On a whim, I signed up with this VoIP provider called Pennytel. There's no contract or anything. All you need to do is sign up online and register for a free account with them. Create a wallet and top it up with some funds, either via BPay or credit card. BPay takes three days to clear; credit cards even longer.

So I've created my account, I've topped up my wallet, I've configured the modem/router to talk properly with Pennytel's SIP gateway. I make my first VoIP call and it cuts out at 32 seconds. A couple more calls, and they all terminate at the 32-second mark. I'm sure it's a router config, though I can't seem to find the setting. A check on Whirlpool tells me that I'm not the only one suffering from this. Most of the guys were able to fix this issue by either:

• changing the RTP port to 5100
• increasing the "incoming no answer" to 3600s
  
• disabling the firewall, or
• changing the re-invite expiry

All of which are not applicable to me.

With no other options left (aside from buying a new ADSL2+ wireless modem/router with built-in VoIP and firewall), I decided to flash my firmware. Now, the Open Networks 824RLW only goes up to as high as the Open 5.53 firmware. If I wanted something newer and better, I have to reflash my box to Billion's 5.54b firmware. And I did so at great risk to my box, but in the end, it's still 32-second VoIP calls.

Bummer.

Day Out with AW

So, last week I sent a postcard to my Bavarian friend to let her know that I'm in the country. She's quite mobile, so I sent the postcard to her parent's place to make sure she receives it the next time she visits home. As luck would have it, her sister was home, intercepted the postcard and told her about it. Given that Karlsruhe is not that far, she's spending the weekend in Munich to catch up with her friend and me.

Seven years later after Suomenlinna, we meet again at the hotel lobby. After a long breakfast at Vi Vadi Cucina Italiana catching up, we take the train to Odeonsplatz and headed for the Munich Residenz. Given our limited time, we decided to explore only the Residenz Museum and skip the Treasury. As I paid for our breakfast, AW insisted on paying for the museum entrance fees.

The Residenz Museum is one big museum. Could easily take a day to explore if you use the audio guide for all the rooms. Inside are mainly apartments, ceremonial rooms, and courtyards of the Wittelsbach rulers. A big portion of the palace was destroyed during WWII, so some of the rooms have to be reconstructed. Most memorable for me is the Hall of Antiquities, the Reliquaries Room, and the Ancestral Gallery. The Hall of Antiquities (Antiquarium) was used to house the antique collection of Albert V, which later became a banquet hall. The Reliquaries Room a.k.a. Reliquienkammer. Inside this vault of a room are more than 60 reliquaries, containers specifically crafted to house relics, typically bones of saints and objects associated with them. One of the reliquaries on display is said to contain the severed head of St. John the Baptist. The same claim is made by many other religious parties. The Ancestral Gallery (Ahnengallerie) is a very long corridor where the portraits of the notable members of the Wittelsbach dynasty are set into gilden carved paneling.

By the time we finished the self-guided tour, it's way past lunchtime already and starting to rain. I was surprised to find out my friend is actually vegetarian. Took the train to Sendlinger Tor for lunch at the popular Prinz Myshkin (Hackenstraße 2, 80331 München). I would've liked to take pictures of its high-ceilinged interiors, but didn't anymore. Another long lunch where we made sure our vegetarian food is properly digested. On our way back to the station, we passed by a small church with a striking facade in the Baroque style. It's called the Asamkirche (Asam Church), after the two brothers who designed the church; officially known as St.-Johann-Nepomuk-Kirche (Church of St. Johann Nepomuk). Cosmas Damian Asam and Egid Quirin Asam, who lives next door, intended for the church to be their own private place of worship. The church hierarchy didn't like the idea, and demanded it to be opened to the public. Unfortunately, the church is closed at this time, but we managed to get in and peek through the gates. The church may only be twelve rows of pews long, but the interior is chockfull of statues, sculptures, ornaments, and frescoes. The high altar is surrounded by four twisted columns with a wax figure of the church's namesake within a glass sarcophagus.

It's now 4pm, and we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the Deustches Museum, said to be the world's largest science museum. The bad news is the museum closes at 5pm. The good news is, entrance is free after 4pm. With half an hour to spare, we jumped straight to the exhibits on new technologies. With 55,000 sq. m. and 28,000 objects covering around 50 fields of science and technology, we've merely scratched the tip of the iceberg. By 5pm, all of the parents and their kids came streaming out of the island museum. So this is how German families spend their weekends.

Back at Hauptbahnhof, we killed more time by having a long coffee break at Starbucks, until it was time for AW to take her train back to Karlsruhe. Auf wiedersehen, my Bavarian friend.

St. Paul's Cathedral, Bavaria and Maximilianeum

Another early dismissal. If this goes on further, I'll have to ask for a refund. Not. From the Theresienwiese station, it's just a short walk to St. Paul's Kirche. It's an early Friday afternoon, but I notice a lot of teenagers hanging around the church, preventing me from getting a good shot. Apparently, a student choir/orchestra is about to perform inside the church. Stayed around for a few minutes to enjoy the performance, then left. Took the train to Schwanthalerhohe in search of Bavaria (the statue). I figured it would be pretty big and easy to spot. Not so. I managed to circle the whole Bavariapark before I saw the Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Fame) and iron-cast Bavaria. Quite impressive in size up close. Down below and in front of the Bavaria is this wide open space, which I believe is used for the Oktoberfest celebrations. In the distance, one can clearly see St. Paul's Church.

Next item on the agenda is Max Weber Platz to see the Maximilianeum, home of a gifted students foundation and the Bavarian Landtag (state parliament). Reminds me very much of the Victor Emmanuel Monument in Rome. Took some pictures of the River Isar, then back to base.

Olympiazentrum and Konigsplatz

Another early finish to the day. My classmates (mostly guys) advised the place to visit is the BMW Complex. From the Olympiazentrum, it's a short stroll to the BMW Welt (BMW World). Note that this is NOT the BMW Museum, which is the silver bowl-shaped structure across the road. Beside the BMW Museum is the BMW Tower, which has been the global headquarters of the Bavarian carmaker for over three decades. The BMW HQ is also called BMW-Vierzylinder, literally BMW four-cylinder because of the shape of the building. It consists of four vertical cylinders connected to each other. Interestingly enough, the cylinders do not actually touch the ground, but are supported by a central support tower. Back to the BMW Welt. Entrance is free to the public. It's basically an exhibition facility presenting the current BMW models, a few interactive displays showcasing BMW technology, and a distribution center for BMW cars.

Just across the highway is the Olympiapark, built for the 1972 Summer Olympics. First thing you'll see is the Olypiaturm (Olympic Tower). The 291-m high tower basically functions as a communications tower broadcasting analog and digital radio and TV channels. Aside from the requisite observation deck, the tower also has a revolving restaurant. Just beyond are the Olympic Hall (Olympiahalle) and the Olympic Swim Hall (Olympia Schwimmhalle). At this time, only the Swim Hall is open. Further on is the Olympic Stadium, but decided to cut my tour short and head back.

Off the train at Konigsplatz, I make my way to the wide plaza designed by Karl von Fischer and Leo von Klenze at the command of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. On the west side of the plaza is the Doric memorial gate Propylaea. Walking down Konigsplatz street, there's the Iconic Glyptothek museum on the left and the Corinthian State Museum of Classical Art (Staatliche Antikensammlungen) on the right side. At the end of the avenue is Karolinenplatz, a square/roundabout with a 29m-tall obelisk in the middle. The obelisk was erected in 1833 in memory of 30,000 Bavarian troops who died fighting for Napoleon against the Russians and the Austrians in 1812.

Moving south, I end up at the Alter Botanischer Garten. It's really quite late now, so there's nothing to see in the garden. Beyond the Fountain of Neptune, I find myself along Elisenstrasse with the magnificent Justizpalast. Ten more minutes, and I'm back at my hotel.

Leopoldstrasse, Ludwigstrasse, and Maximilianstrasse

Early dismissal from class today. Instead of going back to the hotel, I took the U3 straight to Giselastrasse. Walking down the wide avenue of Leopoldstrasse, I pass by Siegestor (Victory Gate) in the middle of a big roundabout. The Siegestor is a three-arched gate topped with a sculpture of Bavaria on a chariot being pulled by four lions. Cars were going all around me, while I stood in the middle of the roundabout, in knee-deep snow, taking pictures of the gate. Further on along Ludwigstrasse, I pass by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Ludwigskirche (Catholic Parish and University Church St. Louis), and the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). Too bad I didn't go in Ludwigskirche. Its altar fresco is supposedly the largest in the world.

Walk, walk, walk, I end up again at Odeonsplatz. Last time I was here on Sunday, my camera batteries shut down due to the cold weather, so I wasn't able to take any pictures. Time to explore the Hofgarten again. In the middle of the Court Garden is the Diana pavilion. If you look closely, on top is a replica of the sculpture Bavaria. On one side of the garden is the Festsaalbau of the Munich Residenz. On the eastern end is the Bavarian Staatskanzlei (State Chancellery), which used to be the Army Museum.

I continued along the shopping street Maximilianstrasse with its posh boutiques and luxury shops until I got to Maxmonument, dedicated to King Maximilian II of Bavaria. The statue was sculpted by Kaspar von Zumbusch. I could've pushed on to the palatial Maximilianeum, which is right across river Isar, but I decided to double back. Leave some interesting places to explore next time.

Back at Max-Joesph-Platz, where the royal avenue of Maximilianstrasse started, I loitered around to take more pictures. In the middle of the plaza is a monument called Max-Joseph Denkmal, as a memorial for King Maximilian Joseph. Behind the statue is the Bavarian State Opera. On the left is the Munich Residenz and the Residenz Theatre. Beneath the plaza is a subterranean garage.

With that, I took the train to Marienplatz for more shopping.