a simple thing

I loved sharing stuff (music and movies) with my hosts back in Aus, as I do with my guests here at home. What seems so easy can actually take a while when the sheer amount of data is... huge and spread out through folders and folders. So, when passing stuff from one side to another, every new batch is just passed together with all previous incomplete ones, all through the same "pipe". Baaaaaad! Very bad and stupid how a f**** simple file operation queuing system didn't make its way to any popular OS, Windows, MacOSX or possibly *nix.

After a query to this grand oracle, Google, I stumbled on a couple of possibilities:

• SuperCopier (still in Beta) on SourceForge - had some good promises, but failed to fulfill them when internet access from my browser wasn't possible anymore after installation. Let's treash it and let the next contestant step up!
• TeraCopy - the version for personal use is free and this one at least did not cause any damage when installed. It takes control of file copy/moves and it will just queue one batch operation after the other - it starts the second batch after the first one is done and so on. According to some online comments, this one takes more resources than SuperCopier, but I will stick to it while I can't find anything better.
• CopyHandler - now this one looks reeeeeaaally handy! Download, extract and run it (no installation needed). Right-click the taskbar icon and enable the "Monitor clipboard". Then all is needed is a simple "Ctrl+C" on the files to copy and choose where to put them. This one ranked pretty high on my evaluation because it just needs to be run. Hop, directly into my list of portable apps on my portable disk.

There is also a whole file manager called Frigate that can perform the same tasks and *should* allow to be portable.. but no promises made.

In the end, I am only annoyed that such a queuing system is not OS native. It just makes one of these tools, ONE MORE to have at reach...

===== UPDATE1 BEG =====
And a dear contributor and friend of mine (check comments) just found another promising piece of software:

• http://www.ffprojects.net/ffcopy/ - Windows Queue File Transfer Manager, and they managed to explain its advantage in simple words: FF Copy is a file queue transfer manager for windows networks. It allows you to add files to a copy/move transfer queue which will be downloaded one after another. This increases speed in comparison to transferring multiple files / folders at the same time - "one after another" (good) vs "all at the same time" (bad)

===== UPDATE1 END =====

n.-

PS: My travel after-math post has yet to be written. Getting and incorporating all the stuff I brought just kept my geeky-ish mind busy:)

London

... and I will not use the (oh-so-)usual "London Calling" expression!

Aaaanyway!

So here I am, arriving at the end of my visit to the city. Staying with a friend close to a main subway line is sooo good and I've been out there (almost) every day sightseeing and visiting galleries.

There's absolutely nothing like friends. Once more, the network has been expanding and I had the chance to enjoy Gabi's (friend of a friend) company, a very cool lithuanian girl currently not too busy and available to check out exhibits and landmarks with me. I've actually been graced more than once by meeting people in this fashion and also patient enough to put up with me and my exploration needs.

One of them is Lucy, one of the housemates of the place I am staying at in London. We spent saturday afternoon in Camden Town (mainly at the Lock) just before it got struck by a fire. Luck has been on my side. Not only has the weather been brilliant - cold but sunny - but checking out the Camden Lock was great. That place crawls(ed) with alternative life. There are lots of little stalls that sell everything from indian coths, wooden jewelry to whacky t-shirts, shops like cyberdog - a delight for every trace/psytrance lover. At the Lock, one can pass from one yard to another, then to converted horse stables housing some more shops, food stalls, quiet squares with some nice pubs, a canal hosting water taxis. The place is swarming with people and life, the main street is usually packed and access to the subway requires some patience as the flux of people going in and out is controlled to not overload the platforms. Too bad it burned down but I am sure they will try to get it back up ASAP. Even Pete Doherty is willing to play at a fund-raising beneficiary concert.




Back to Gabi... Following Hedda's recommendation, we went to the largest Hindu temple outside india located in London!!! Walking out of Neasden station, a very elucidative sign greets us "Going to IKEA, Tesco or the Swaminarayan Hindu Temple"...













Being the orderly people we are, we humbly follow the next signs, walk past Tesco... then past IKEA... enter a neighborhood and suddenly, after a 15min walk, at the end of a row of little houses we can see what is a building almost totally out of... context. This whole path and experience was described to me by H but I could not imagine I would still be surprised like that.







I reckon that walking down the street and having the first far glimpse at the building's silhouette is an experience of its own. Once closer, this is what we saw.

The detail on the marble stucture is just too amazing to explain. The story of its construction is quite impressive "Using 5,000 tonnes of Italian Carrara marble and the finest Bulgarian limestone, it was hand-carved into 26,300 pieces by 1,526 skilled craftsmen...". Cameras are unfortunately not allowed inside. Visiting the temple is free of charge, only the "Discover Hinduism" exhibition has a charge, but it's nothing. This place is not known at all, although referenced in the official london tourist guide, it is easily overseen being devoid of any bold note of attention.

There are way too many things to see in London, all that is cultural or artistic is of a huge volume. I managed to check out:

The TATE Modern and its permanent exhibitions. The main hall has a specially commissioned temporary piece called Shibboleth conceived by Doris Salcedo, it's related to racism, but I'd recommend to check the link. The main hall is huge and as the picture depicts it's a crack in the floor crossing the WHOLE hall.

The remaining exhibitions are very good even if I only kept to the free ones.

The previous day I checked out with Gabi and Amy two excellent ones at the Hayward gallery. "Laughing in a foreign language" (this link looks like a good information source too)is specially funny and interventive. It went from modified Jokemaster toys saying things like:
Q. Did you hear about the guy who's a dyslexic-bulimic?
A. He eats, and then he sticks his finger up his ass
... to Barthélémy Toguo and his Transit series from which I remember 2 scenes: he puts on a clean street cleaner outfit, buys a TGV ticket and boards the train. Cutting a long story short, most of the people next to him change seats and soon the wagon is almost empty. Just remember that he's black, and even if the outfit is spanking clean it still is a cleaner's.

The other one is created following his frustration with security checks at border control where his luggage would ALWAYS be checked. He one day flies back from Camroon with luggage-looking wooden blocks... brilliant.

The second exhibition at Hayward is about the russian artist Alexander Rodchenko! Compare picture one, two and three. The first two are his.

One of his quotes: "We as artists have the duty to experiment". I can but imagine if it wasn't for experimenting artists, where we'd be today...

Tomorrow, thursday, is my last full day and again, no rush... I'll calmly see what I feel like I might miss.

I don't feel like I have much more to tell about London (as I saw it). There's lots going on, lots to see, lots to do... I have the sensation that Lisbon, although having "only" an eight of London's population, supplies the same feeling that it will never stop and keep you forever busy.

Yeah, I have some pictures of the London Eye (the ferris wheel), several bridges (among them "Wiggly wobbly", also called "Millennium Bridge"), some interesting signs, places... so I'll just leave this one to say goodbye (You say goodbye I say Hello).

While not totally keeping my eye off Australia, I was eager to see how the Australian apology to the aborigines would be accepted. The whole question is quite bipolar. While some ask why a gov't should ask for forgiveness for something done in the past, others believe this gesture is an example other nations should follow. I personally am in favor of the apology but then comes the extra argument that the gov't should compensate ($$$) for the stolen generations and other racist behaviors. The previous gov't was not the most emigrant-friendly around, judging by the Pacific Solution (I already posted about it I think...). One thing is true, every city I visited had at least one exhibition about the aboriginal people, showing the good and the bad things that were done to them.

n.-

Clap my hands and say yeah

Hey, only now did I notice it's possible to click on the pictures I post and actually open the fully-blown full-resolution original picture located on Blogger! That already made my day:)

n.-

the land of the British

I will remember to buy sleeping pills (because I forgot about it again) next time I take long flights! I flew from Sydney to Brunei on Wednesday noon. Once there, took another flight to Dubai and once there had a little time to stretch my legs before entering the same plane and endure the last 7h flight to London. At least I saw a couple of movies but don't remember any of them, that is how good they were, oh... except for Balls of Fury, a stupid comedy that still made me burst out some good laughs. The story revolves around the comeback of a ping pong prodigy in the underground world of this "exciting" game (really, there is a movie about that!!!).

To start my return, I initiated an update to my calendar with the new concerts in Munich and wow, was I surprised to see QOTSA, Portishead and Hot Chip! Sweeeeet! (the money to attend the venues is another thing). And to celebrate all this, I just added my little Google calendar to the side bar. I do have to find out how to change its color scheme, that baby blue clashes with the general blog color scheme! This is also a good opportunity to use Last.FM and use the "export to calendar" feature. While logged on to gmail, I found the Operator Please concert on Last.fm and choose to export to gmail (I cannot find the button anymore though:S) and gmail asks me if I want to import the event! This is really, really good, even if Google is the devil!

So yes, here I am in London for a second, better and longer time. The jetlag is still killing me, making me wake up at 7h30 each day. Although I landed wednesday, only yesterday did I have a productive tourist day. Along with Becka and Gabby, I strolled down Southbank, visited the From Russia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. I still have a couple of other galleries and exhibits to see, but that should not happen this weekend, crowds are not 100% avoidable here but week days still are better! This last exhibition for example was packed on friday noon, quite hard to see some of the artworks.

Sidenote: I always remember about Provigil when feeling like shit as I am right now. The reports on its usage are to say the least... interesting.

The concert scene in London is incredible. There are just too many of them and it's hard to attend a decent one if tickets were not bought early enough. This is where Munich is actually good. Any concert that is not that from a mainstream or known band is almost guaranteed to happen in a small and cheap venue. I still remember Kashmir and The Rapture, I was 1m away from the band and did not have to arrive early and struggle through the crowd.

In the lack of more inspiration, I'll just leave a picture of yesterday's walk in the cold, dry and sunny London with one of its most emblematic icons.


Today's program includes but is not restricted to Camden Town and a night out somewhere with cool bars. Camden Town is the alternative borough of London where its markets are a good source of fashion articles and god knows I need gloves and a scarf to stand the cold!

n.-

PS: Once (my brain is) fully operational, I'll do a write-up of my travel, as succinct (yesterday's new word) as possible. There were lots of highlights and no real #1 favorite event. The people I met made it all so good.

The Sydney Experience

It is a limited one but still very positive.

I feel as if the whole scenario here has been a progressive return to my previous life, a fade-out of the travel mode into the "back to a cold and rainy winter" one. It's not that bad, really.

Slowly, while walking in the rain, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I realized how good it had been so far and the weather is just part of it, being neither bad or good (it's honestly shit, but I'm trying to be poetical, ok!).

It wasn't easy to get out of Bonnie's place today. I had no motivation whatsoever to put on my crappy thin and leaking rain jacket and get driping wet on my way into town.















My first 3 nights in Sydney were spent with Martin, an austrian guy living on Bondi Beach for 10 years already. I was his first real CSer (being the inagural guest is becoming a habit) and we got along pretty well.

Not only did we thrive on each other's music collection, we also had great Guitar Hero III jamming moments!

It's stupid, but it really made me wish I knew how to play a music instrument. One year ago, I bothered Hazel if she would teach me the piano, if I'd get one first of course... but then I never bought any! CSers and other things got in the way, adding a new occupation to my schedule would make me have to sacrifice another one. But the fact is, I also spent heaps of time playing Counterstrike CS until late at night:P or stupidly browsing the internet for videos and pretty much useless shit. I just had a call with Judd, another reminder that if I'd knew how to play, I could learn with him, he's absolutely great with one!

Martin had a guitar and that reminded me of the time my dad bought me one. I then traded that for an electrical one, worked a summer to buy a nice Marshall amp and ended up selling it all without making any progress. I guess I wasn't ready or motivated. I needed an external influence that would pull me because I was not able to do it by myself. Now, more than just a caprice, I will seriously consider it! A guitar is always something to take with while traveling and then learning/teaching with other people, just like I do with my poi.

Again, while walking on the bridge in the direction of its SE pylon, on the right was the Sydney Opera House. I do have clearer daylight pictures of it, but this one has a special meaning to me. It represents the moment I just thought "I am here, in Sydney".





Not that this city has any particular meaning to me, it's more the moment, the combination of this moody weather, a lone walk, the realisation that I flew to the other side of the world and finally the opera to represent the flag to symbolize the whole adventure.



While here, CS was again a good thing, Mike, the city embassador I had previously met in Munich, incentivated a meet-up.

I don't like to stay more than 3 days at a place, visits are like fish, they smell after that time. So I was REALLY happy to get a positive reply of Bonnie who lives with Eliza and Thomas. They're a good mix of good vibes, chilled out and young folks. Being very new at this (CS), they are still adjusting and doing their best to cope with the wave of people staying here before me. Two of them have this fantastic project, to drive around the world in a solar-powered car. Another guy is Ryota, a japanese traveller improving his english. I just wrote him some essential words on a mirror for him to practice his french (not english?) too:)

It's 9PM, I'm about to reach the end of this post, Bonnie is right now next to me sorting some papers out, we're in the living room (also her room) and if I step out the window, I can walk on this suspended roof with this view.

There are things that really look amazing and totally different from what you could have been experiencing so far but it doesn't mean you'd do it. Bonnie told me about this ConFest, the most awkward festival I ever heard of but very hippie and free-minded. I am not material for this kind of events but I liked the concept. People get together at a specific place in the bushes surrounded by water, take their tents and build an ephemeral town. There is no effective music stage for bands to play, basicly anybody does his thing, plays music, paints and all converse, comunicate and live in that little environment for a week. For anyone interested, it's in March:)

Enough for now. I am flying to London tomorrow and will land around 6AM on Wednesday. I will reach Munich by the 15th and get back to mi casa, where a broken washing machine awaits my care:) (and my cash:( ).

n.-

PS: I sent a postcard to myself, let's see who gets there first. I reckon the postcard has very good odds!

The Gabby mobile adventure

Gabby was my ride from Brisbane to Sydney.

I met her through the Gumtree.com.au ad website, similar to Craigslist but Aus oriented and much better looking.


We were supposed to meet before the travel. It is pretty obvious that a first meeting to evaluate my "psycho killer" factor and determine if I'd be safe to ride with, is part of the process. We ended up meeting when she picked me up. An initial phone call and the links to this blog and my CS profile served as a valid visit card:D


Sitting on the outside bench of the train station we set to meet earlier and sipping on an early morning coke (my easy coffee replacement) I only noticed her when she called me while jumping out of her car, all active, awaken and bubbly. The first impression was good but the 2 day ride was fabulous!


It took us 2 days to drive the 1000km down from Brissy, we stopped a couple of times and overnighted at a motel. She's a Brissy girl which made it quite easy for her to tell me all that sits around the HWY 1 although we did not visit anything, we were on a mission and it was no time to do touristy stuff!




We had heaps of fun on the way but the real treat was to finally meet someone who can literally sing while driving. Most of the people I know (including myself) only sing (scream...) when alone, but she has no problems with an audience! I got an introduction to some aussie and kiwi names, mostly female, but the really fun act was the musical Avenue Q's (wikipedia) soundtrack. How can one not like it? A bunch of puppets (or people dressed up) sing about adult themes, like homosexuality, racism, pornography, etc...

The "internet is for porn" song was one of my favorite ones; while a girl sings about what she uses the internet for, some guy adds "for porn" to every sentence. They are not telling anything new but it's a treat. "... let's grab our dick and double-click... for porn..."

Now imagine a girl happily singing to musical songs like those with a voice perfectly fitting the whole ensemble. It's difficult to find a better travel companion quality than that:) (she was too good to sing "Raindrops are falling on my head" like I did and massacred Heydi with)

On the way, the marvels of RSLs were shown to me by G, a good place to get cheap beer and if the heart is falling for it, have fun with retired people:P I am happy as long as there is no goon around - that stuff is guaranteed headache the morning after. Only members are allowed in such a place, but after writing down an address and a little signature on a detachable piece of document they provide, a temporary membership is obtained. Every day, at a certain time, a little recorded speech in honour of those lost in the war is proclaimed through the speakers. I did not notice until I saw an old woman standing straight and staring silent on the top of the stairs. Fortunately no one got offended by my little accidental lack of respect.

We passed through so many little towns. Although all different, they have the same bases, a pub, a petrol station, a motel... At some point I imagined that aussies don't really "need" to do the poethical-trendy american coast-to-coast car ride. All imaginable kind of sceneries can be found here too, deserts, rain forests, lost-in-time and space little towns... so why bother:)

I actually recorded little time-lapse movies about our arrival to Sydney. They're REALLY short, I promise.







We arrived in Sydney well and sound a little bit after 14. Although I did spend more $$$ than I would have if I'd taken a bus or a plane, making a new friend totally surpasses that thought. I was bedazzled by her smiles, some of the most sincere ones I have ever seen.

It was hard to enter the city, there are lots of suburbs to (slowly) cross before being able to reach the city center!

We said goodbye after she took me to Central Station. I took a train to Bondi to then reach Martin's place, my 1st CSer in Sydney.


Scenes of the next episodes:

• Martin and I rockin hard;
• Sydney's weather has been shit;
• the super cool and lose house where Bonnie, Eliza and Thomas host CSers;
• The Opera House and so on...;
• my first Kangaroo meat experience;

N.-

Why do the tourist when CS is there?

Untold scenes between the ones from the last and the next episode...

• left Townsville after staying with Lana and then Jason;
• Maria traveled to Airlie Beach first and did an initial hostel scouting as I found no available host;
• after doing not much in AB, said goodbye to Maria and take on an 19hr coach ride from there to Brisbane;
  

Mie Yamamoto, a smiley, tiny, cute little japanese girl living in Brisbane was my first host in the city. She lived very close to West End, the hip neighborhood, a tiny version of Melbourne's Brunswick St.

Another guy was aready crashing there, Gabriel, a very, very easy going American who had done a fair bit of traveling and living outside the US. It was real fun to hear him comfortably speak in japanese with Mie, it made me envious:)

I thought I'd take a look of the city, check out the Andy Warhol exhibition at the GoMA and other worthy sightseeings.

Almost none of that happened! I ended up going to the GoMA when it was closing, at 5PM!!!! Djeezus Kreist!!! Are the employees all in a hurry to go down to the pub or what?

Whatever!

After a couple of visits to the state library's free internet access computers, I spotted and joined a CS meeting, a post-Australia day trip to Springbrook. The forum was a bit foggy, it was not confirmed how many people would show up and how many cars would be available to take us.

Beni, one of the most, it not THE most active CSer in Brisbane offered his flat as a place to meet and drive away. Everyone and more showed up, and by the time we reached the beach, we had 20 people in 5 cars!

The beach... I can only think of how awful it must be to have such a white and sensitive skin that any extra ray of sun results in a sunburn. I just say that because, thanks to my origins, I am a tanneable and tanned little man. But rest assured, I sunburned too while snorkeling and eventually, part of the skin on my shoulderblades peeled off already. By the look of the weather forecast for Sydney, I don't think I will get any more sun to remediate that before I leave on Tuesday:(

We had fun at the beach. The silica sand was squeaky. Every hard step in it felt like I had rubber boots:P This was the ideal place and time to get to meet everybody. This is one of the marvels abouts CS and the meetings. Nobody's really judging or restricting contact with other people, joy and fun and easily expressed without any remorse. Buuut... it can happen that I encounter people I (or anyone else) consider really boooring... but this was not the case, not by far!

Megan for example, she's absolute brilliant! Sparky, funny, has a fab laugh and heaps to talk about. I absolutely loved that girl. In her honour, I leave one of my favourite pics of the day where she's the star:)

Earlier last year in Munich, I met Noel at a CS meeting in the OF premises. Brie was the organizer at that time, Noel and his mom were there. He was part of this group and he hadn't changed at all. I like him but now, after how this trip has influenced me to interact, I found it so much easier to talk now. The whole environment was better now, but I believe I was so much more open. Staying too long in the same spot is not good for me...

After the beach, we finally headed out to Springbrook. Beni's plan was to go on a bush walk but there was not enough time for that after our picnic. So we stuck with other plans that sublimely filled our day through the night.

First, the waterfall... a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Let's make a deal, we all agree that pictures never pay real tribute to the real thing, right?

Then, the natural bridge. Water comes down into this cave, the pond it falls into is swimmable and we all decide to take a dip in this freezing water.

This cave is the home of little bats and glow worms. When the night comes, the first ones fly away and the latter do what they are supposed to... they glow:) The most amazing items are actually not the worms, but the mushrooms found on the way. I am sure a junkie would think about taking them trying to make his own eyes glow. It's almost as if they were growing next to Springfield's power plant.

Checking out nature and all its wonders (I am about to shed a tear now) is really great, but the whole day was good because we were a big group and we all got along. I mean, if we'd go for something longer, I am sure, the people's cranky side would show up and conflict... but then again... that's not what this was about.

As always, I carry my toys around, just like kids do. When the night is at its darkest in the middle of a hill between the trees, my LED glowing Poi come into play and do what they do best, entertain and impress. I love them and I love meeting people willing to spin them, even if they are not particularly gifted for it. I am definitely not gifted to spin poi, I can what I do thanks to practice. After a little snack on the road, we ended up at Warren's place in Surfers Paradise, had a beer and left home to sleep!

Most of us met up the following day at a park in Brisbane. Our whole day event went so well that an additional meeting was just a natural thing to happen.

For that occasion, I thought of taking my new host in Brisbane with me, Elizabeth. I had to leave Mie's and it's always good to surf other people's couches and have them integrate the local community if they desire.

Once more and definitely better this time, we had a poi spinning teaching session. The most curious moment in these teaching sessions happened with Sivan, she could do a forward 3 beat weave (low-complexity forward spin), but could not do the most easy thing, spin backwards and do eights:)


I ended my days in Brisbane with a little solo tour on a rainy day, met up with Sivan (a beautiful israeli girl, with a great sense of humour and a very good human touch feeling) and Mie for a last meal, drink and conversation and set myself on the way home to Elizabeth's. The next day I took the bus and met with my next great fun provider, Gabby, to get a ride in her car down to Sydney.


Before moving on, this is all to say that although I did not visit Brisbane per se or as it "should" be done in the regular touristy terms, I had a blast and do not regret not having seen more city things.


My favourite pic of Brisbane... just a bronze man... contemplating...



More about Gabby later on. It's already 18:30, I haven't done much, Martin and I will



N.-

Coming down the coast

Cairns could be called the starting point of the backpack trail along the east coast.

The city itself is not that attractive and the main street, the Esplanade, is filled 50/50 with Tour Agencies and Restaurants/Cafes. Again, not much to see unless you want to book something to do.

Close to the Esplanade is the Lagoon though, a big treated water pool leveled barely above the sea level. The public toilets/showers are better than the ones from the hostel I was staying at (Gilligan's is said to be the best, mine, the Bohemian is not worth the money), so this quickly became my favorite freshen-up spot.

I bought a Greyhound Australia coach ticket in the morning and booked my first trip from here down to Townsville. I came a bit too late and after checking out of the hostel at 9AM, I could then only take the 1PM bus...

This is where the Lagoon shows its value - when there is nothing else to see or do, take a dip in the mild sweet water under the scorching sun and relax in the shade of the surrounding trees.

The sun was already there, combining with the tropical humidity, I hauled my (heavy) stuff to a bench where a couple of swedes were resting, asked them to keep an eye on my bags and splash... here I go for a veeery welcome dive.

As the time to leave got closer, I spent my time chit-chatting with the swedes (not the easiest task in the world I tell you), snacked and prepared to leave.

One thing I haven't said yet, is that the east coast is packed with german backpackers. It's incredible, I feel in Germany here and that is NOT what I was looking for when I decided to travel in Aus!

Oh well, it could be worse... and I'll tell you how when I can think of anything worse...

In the coach, I met Maria, a... german girl:) She's a very happy, bubbly and photogenic girl from Landshut, a place very close to Munich. Worthless to say that we spent the whole ride speaking in german, but it was fun.

Rolling a bit back in time: before leaving Cairns, I searched for some couches in Townsville and hurray, I took two numbers to contact with me. Returning back to the present...

As Maria did not yet book a place ot stay, I proposed her to stay with me at Lana's and her mother's place in Townsville. CS was a total new concept for her, so she was quite... dubious about such an adventure. Not only did I have a bed at Lana's, Jason, who was very keen on hosting, was also offering his place. M did not want to stay at my first offer (Lana) and I wasn't up to quit on Lana so Jason could have been an obvious choice for her. OK, she would be a girl, staying alone in a stranger's place and she'd spend a night (or more) there. In fact, 2 guys live at Jason's... I can only think of what M was thinking "this is getting dodgier by the minute...". In the end, I should be the one with doubts about such an arrangement! In fact, the guys are gay, which means M would be in a perfectly safe haven.

I wish she had accepted the offer, J was a real fab and offering host. I crashed there for my second and last night in TV. He did go out of his way to show us around town, give us the sights and some hints. I hope this little demo about CS and hospitality were enough to convince M to join and give it a try. And here a snapshot of the happy trio high above TV, on Castle Hill.



I ended up staying at J's after his invitation and because he would be able to take me to the coach terminal when driving to work. Lana (and Maxine, her mother) were my hosts for my start in TV.

Drifting a bit aside... My contact with wildlife has been rather scarse for the last times... I actually can't remember the last time I petted/touched a wild animal.

L&M are wildlife care takers. They are part of a small group of people taking care of injured or sick wild animals (not pets). While I was there, they got a call on their 24/7 duty phone - a possum had been attacked by dogs. The lady brought the little animal in but it wasn't too seriously injured. The little fellow was more affected by hunger and thirst than by his injuries. He was about to be put down as he had only one eye, but after a vet call, we got the confirmation that he should be able to learn how to survive like that.

Just imagine holding this 250gr little animal in your hand, he's shaking a bit, everything around him is new and strange, he's been handed from one pair of hands to another but now he's warming up in this towel and somebody is handing him a plastic nipple to suck on for some water. Oh and does he love it! A piece of fruit has the same effect, he grabs it with his 2 tiny long-nailed hands and enjoys evey little bite he takes at it. They agreed that the little had been abandoned by his mother. After being released, he would need to learn to survive on his own and stay away of dogs.

The same night, L, a diplomed zoologist, had to put down 2 birds - they had a virus and the treatment was not able to improve their state. What looks simple and downward fair, an euthanasia performed on two little birds, is just... I don't know how to describe it, but something dies inside you at the sight of the last struggle an animal offers and the fading out laying down of the head.

L looks at me and says "you get used to it with time...", she had noticed the look on my face.

More about the post-TV happenings in a later post.

n.-

Arrived in Sydney, now what?

Wow, it has been a while since I had a moment to sit at a computer and type something more than emails and picture descriptions.

I arrived in Sydney yesterday and as it is so brightly told by the picture on the right, I have many reasons not to want to step out of the house today and visit the city.
I'm staying at Martin's place on Bondi beach (the picture's background IS the ocean).

















I'll start by summing up what happened since my last post (after the pub crawl and the sailing cruise the following morning):

• Booked a hop-on/hop-off coach (Bus) from Cairns to Brisbane and chose Townsville as my first stop;
• stayed for two nights in TV and traveled further down to Airlie Beach where I did not do much, mainly because I had to reconsider costs;
• took a deep breath and enjoyed a last coach ride down to Brisbane;
• in Brisbane (Brissy or Bris Vegas), had a blast with the local CS community until I traveled further down to Sydney;

n.-