Australia

Visiting Port Arthur in Tasmania? Stop off in Doo Town (Eaglehawk Neck), in part to check out their blowhole. We visited on a whim (and because we were amused by the Navigon's pronunciation of “blaew-hole”), but soon discovered the real reason to visit is probably to see a tiny town with a healthy sense of rivalry and humour…

Ghost towns have always piqued my interest. There's something interesting about how a large number of people can gather together to build a town, or even a city, only to have some unforeseeable event render the area deserted.

Because of the Victorian Gold Rush, I'm familiar with quite a few ghost towns from an Australian perspective, however sadly there's not much left due to the Australian Government's policy of destroying them.

Submarine cables have always fascinated me, initially from the sheer length of some of these cables, or from the sheer number of them, but also from the fact that the concept was commercially proven as long ago as 1850!

Of course, back then the cables were simple copper wires wrapped in gutta-percha (a kind of latex) and couldn't compete with today's fancy multi-strand fibre optic self-healing rings.

Curiously, PIPE have formally opened a blog that follows the installation of their new PPC-1 cable between Guam and Australia, which is set to be quite interesting.

I'm flying home today, surrendering the fantastically warm and sunny weather here in Melbourne and returning to the gloomy, miserable, cold weather in Brussels.

This also means psyching myself up to return to the office: Urgh.

Sadly I missed out on seeing a few of my friends, but maybe you lot can come over to Brussels at some stage!

So long Melbourne; I'll be back!

Continuing the theme of tourism in my home town, my father and I visited Eureka Tower, tallest building in Melbourne, Australia, and the world's tallest residential building (if you disregard spires). This building is 91-stories high, at 297.3 metres, and officially opened on October 11, 2006.

Whilst in Melbourne, a trip to Luna Park^[RCDB] was inevitable for me. This is the park that introduced me to the buzz of amusement rides in 1986, by way of the Gravitron (which was unfortunately removed from the park in 2004). Naturally I was horrendously ill after the ride, and vowed (rather unconvincingly) never to do that ever again!

Four Gs is a bit much for a five year old, but never-the-less it was not long until I took up the challenge on all Wittingslow (now Amusements Australia) rides at Moomba, the Melbourne Show, Hobart Regatta, and the Hobart Show. Needless to say, both the Gravitron and Luna Park have significant sentimental value to me.

Today I took my nieces, Neve and Millie, to visit this tiny but amazingly historic little park.

Being back in Melbourne feels weird. It's been two years since I was last here, but this time around I feel like a tourist in my own home town. Melbourne is a city that has always grown fairly rapidly, and much has changed — new structures and the conversion of many shops into yuppie fruit-shake bars being the most prevalent.

At the end of the day though, is it the city that's changed, or have I changed?

For me, a real Christmas is one spent in nice warm weather in a relaxed atmosphere. The word cold should be applied only to the food and drink, and not the weather; Snow should never enter the equation, unless it's fake.

In quite an atmospheric contrast to last year's Christmas in Bristol with friends, my Christmas this year has been spent baking in the Australian sun. Oddly, this year could have possibly been the most relaxing family Christmas on record, being a simple barbecue over at my sister's house.

˙ʇsǝɹ ǝɯos ʎΙΙnɟǝdoɥ puɐ uns ǝɯos qɐɹɓ oʇ ǝɔuɐɥɔ ɐ
— sɹɐǝʎ-ʍǝu puɐ sɐɯʇsᴉɹɥƆ ɹoɟ suoᴉʇdɐɹʇuoɔ ǝqnʇ ɓuᴉʎΙɟ
Ιɐʇǝɯ snoᴉɹnxnΙΙᴉ puɐ ǝΙqɐɹǝsᴉɯ ǝsoɥʇ ɟo ǝuo uᴉ ʞɔnʇs
„‘pΙɹoʍ ǝɥʇ ɟo puǝ-ǝsɹɐ„ ǝɥʇ oʇ ʞɔɐq ʎɐʍ ʎɯ uo ɯ,I ‘ʎɐʍʎu∀

˙sɹǝuǝɥʇɹoN ʎpooΙq noʎ ‘ʇᴉ ɹǝʌo ʇǝ⅁

¡pɐoɹ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝpᴉs „ɓuoɹʍ„ ǝɥʇ uo ǝʌᴉɹp
ǝʍ ʍoɥ ʇnoqɐ ɓuᴉuɐoɯ ɟo ʇuᴉod ǝɥʇ oʇ uǝʌǝ
‘ʎΙsnoᴉɹǝS ˙spɹɐʍʞɔɐq ʇsɐǝΙ ʇɐ ɹo ‘uʍop-ǝpᴉsdn
ɓuᴉɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ op suɐᴉΙɐɹʇsn∀ sn ‘ǝɹǝɥsᴉɯǝH
-uɹǝɥʇɹoN ǝɥʇ uᴉ ǝΙdoǝd ʇsoɯ oʇ ɓuᴉpɹoɔɔ∀

After eleven years and four terms in office, Australians finally decided today to say goodbye to Mr. Sheen, and replace him with the hopefully more sensible Milky Bar Kid. In fact, it was such a resounding victory for Rudd that Howard may even become the second P.M. in Australian history to completely lose his seat.

Once again this proves that democracy can bring down the destructive “axis of evil” between George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard — Two down, one more to go!

I'm a proud brother today after my sister wound up appearing on various national news programs in Australia doing a press conference for ARBIAS. I managed to catch the story on the SBS World News Australia snippets released online, which even features a cameo from my Dad (a.k.a. Rent-A-Crowd).

Before arriving in Belgium, I was somewhat news obsessed. I'd listen to ABC NewsRadio on a regular basis (with the exception of when they were broadcasting from Parliament). I'd even go to bed and listen to the news from the BBC (naturally being retransmitted via NewsRadio).

Sitting on my own in my new and baron apartment in Brussels a feeling somewhat lonely (amplified somewhat by the time of year), I tuned into NewsRadio over the Internet for a news-fix and to see what was going on around the world. To my surprise, NewsRadio would cheer me up and make the world feel small again for me in no time.