On Friday the Chinese Navy was in town. We could see their two ships parked at the Navy base. The first group we ran into was asking where they could purchase a phone card. A man from the second group was asking where he could find a pay phone. When we were walking up the street after that we saw a third group gathered around a pay phone. Phoning friends and family back home I presume. It was sweet.

Melbourne, Day 2

On the second day we toured around the city. Oh, and my camera broke, the day before we were doing the Great Ocean Road! I couldn’t believe the horrible luck. I managed to pick up a used Nikon FM body in perfect condition to replace my FE. The FM is the mechanical version of the FE from the same time period. I could have probably gotten an auto focus camera new for less, but I had been enjoying the feel of my manual Nikon which hasn’t been getting much of a work out since I moved to Australia.

I shot three rolls of 24 in my new camera around the centre of Melbourne, and I felt like for the first time in ages I had gotten my camera legs back. Whatever that means.

Melbourne, Day 3

The next day we did the Great Ocean Road. It’s pretty. There are lots of flies. If you go you should arm yourself with some bug spray.

Melbourne, Day 4

Our last day in Melbourne was only a half day, so we didn’t do much. First we went to the Melbourne museum, where they had a blue whale skeleton. Actually it was a pigmy blue whale, named on account of it being small for the species. This is kind of funny because it was still enormous. They also had a vast collection of bugs. Some of them still alive even. Cicely came into the bug section to tell us that she wasn’t going to look at the bugs because they creeped her out, but by the time she was in she started looking around and didn’t seem so bugged out.

The computer geek in me enjoyed the CSIRAC, Australia’s first digital computer, and the worlds fifth stored program computer, and the oldest intact computer of either type in the world. Joe commented that “your” calculator probably has more computing power, to which I responded, “your” phone definitely has more computing power.

They also had an IBM PC... the original which was simply called a PC, because that wasn’t a generic term when it was produced. I think the oldest PC I ever used was an XT, which came out about two years later in 1983. The XT’s major innovation was that it had a hard disk, whereas the PC had two low density 5¼” floppy disk drives. In Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, they have a TRS-80. There used to be a whole room full of them at my elementary school. Stuff I used to use is now showing up in museums. What are the museum curators trying to tell me?

For lunch we had Mongolian Barbecue. It was pretty good and all you can eat, so I wasn’t hungry again that day. After that we took a taxi to the airport and flew back to Sydney. When I looked out the window as we were landing, I saw a Tangara, which exists (I believe) only in Sydney and I started feeling oddly nostalgic being back in Sydney. It was really nice being back in Sydney after being away fro a week. It feels like home here.

Sydney, Today

I guess that brings me to today. Brian is off to Fiji. Joe and Cicely are climbing the bridge today and we are meeting later tonight for dinner, along with the girl that I met at Thanksgiving. Joe and Cicely fly back to the states tomorrow, and I’m back to work on Monday.

Picture it now, you are sitting at home on a warm summer day. The weather is beautiful, and the sun is shining. You’d love to go out and have a good time, but there is one problem: You are deathly concerned that your mobile phone might get a sunburn.

Last slide I scanned of Bradstock 2005. Bit Blurry I know.

Eong was up for this trade show for news agents, and she brought back all kinds of goodies for the kids. Mostly pens and glue sticks and things like that. I took a “mock” from the bounty, which is a sock for your mobile phone. “Why?” I can hear you asking. Because it is the most useless thing I can possibly imagine. It is actually a huge nuisance because I have to pull the phone out of the sock in order to answer it, and while the sock does stretch itself around my phone (which is on the large end of the mobile phone scale), it tends to hang on to it when I’m trying to get it out. Here is what it says on the packaging:

“ What are they?
A sock that is specially designed to hold a mobile

Why use it?

• To personalise your mobile
• To help stop your mobile from getting scratched while not in use
• To keep your mobile warm in winter & help stop it getting sunburnt in the summer!

Who can use Mocks?
Anyone – Mocks fit all mobile models – they streatch!

Target Audience

• Anyone looking for a fun way to personalise their mobile

Designs

• Mocks are available in over 60 different designs, with new designs coming out every 3 months.

”

—Mocks packaging

Look for them in a store near you. Or checkout their web site at www.mocks.com.au.