On Vacation

I have been on vacation for over a week now with just a day left. We have been vacationing in Australia, in the state of Queensland. We spent 2 days in the city of Brisbane before heading 2 hours north to our vacation destination Noosa to spend a week there. Our week is almost over and I thought I would post some of the things we did.

Brisbane [Thur - Fri, Jan 17 & 18, 2008]
In Brisbane we explored the South bank area which is much nicer than Melbourne's South bank. There is small rain forest walk, a man-made beach and a lovely walk way along the river. As well an arts precinct featuring the Queensland Art Gallery, Museum, Performing Arts Centre, Theater Company and the State Library.

We also took a Cat Ferry and traveled the length of the river. The ferry service offers cheap and fast service along the river. We were able to see the the downtown city line and all the apartments and houses along the river.

On Friday night we had Lebanese dinner, where there was a Belly Dancer entertaining. The woman asked both Lauren and myself to get up and dance with her. It's quite a workout to belly dance.

Noosa [Sat Jan 19 - Sat Jan 26]
We drove to Noosa late Saturday morning and made a stop just 10km outside of Noosa at Eumundi to stop at the local market. We got there towards the end of the market and wondered around and enjoyed a German Sausage and listened to the music of Oka. We purchased one of their CDs which is very mellow/calming/chill music featuring a didgeridoo. We listed to the CD in our hire car as we headed to Noosa.

When we got to Noosa we checked into our Townhouse accommodation. That evening we went for a walk to Hastings Street which is the main strip for restaurants and shops. The otherside of the Hastings street features the main beach of Noosa.

On Sunday, the people we stayed with in Brisbane came for a visit to Noosa along with their kayak. We went to the beach where we swam and kayaked. I didn't give the kayak a go, but did give the boogey board a try, with not much success. I also got flipped a couple of times with high waves and one time hit my head on the bottom on the beach. I was alright, but the next day my head was a bit sore.

On Monday we layed low in the morning in our Townhouse and then in the afternoon went for a massive walk along Noosa National Park. We did the coastal track walk, which takes us to the otherside of town and to a beach - Sunshine Beach. The 5.7KM walk was good and made us eager to jump into the beach at the end of the walk.

On Tuesday it was overcast and we didn't to do much on this day. We wondered up to the local town area and had qucik lunch of meat pies. Then a relaxing coffee and hot chocolate at a Coffee shop where we sat and read the paper and also browsed the Internet for free.

On Wednesday we hired a car and drove back to Eumundi to visit the market again. This time we explored the market more throughly and this time had foods we wanted to try last time but were to late to do so.

We had a plate of 10 small pancakes with icing sugar and maple syrup(fake). It was sure yummy, then Lauren had gourmet Calamri and I had 2 slices of pizza. We then listed to Oka again and purchased some more of their CDs.

We then headed to Landsborough to visit the Big Kart Race track, we had had 15mins on the track. The cart I had was fast and I was able to zoom around the track quickly. The closest thing I will come to being a race track driver.

The we headed to Coloundra and visited the beach their before heading back to Noosa.

On Thursday we went on a day drip to visit Fraser Island. This was through a tour, we were on a big 4x4 truck which seated 15 people. It took us about 4 hours to get to the island on the beach. Which is a lake, Lake Mckenzie. It is the most beautiful lake/beach in the world. The swallow water has this light blue colour and is so clear and clean. The sand has this white haze to it, almost blinding. It was a great way to cool of after our trip, which involved an 18kM bumpy ride through the sand island.

I will write more about Fraser Island in the future.

That's about it for now. I will write more about our vacation when we return to Melbourne which is tomorrow afternoon. It also happens to be Australia day.

The gift of giving

Over the Christmas holiday’s I downloaded the 2007 Christmas special of Doctor Who – Voyage of the Damned. It only aired in the UK and will not be shown in Australia probably until mid year 2008. I watched it and it was enjoyable, but I have never been a huge Doctor Who fan. The episode was ok, and I was curious to see guest star Kylie Minogue act and see what she would be prancing around in - a maid’s uniform. :)

In early December, Lauren’s work had a Christmas party for staff and family at the Fairfield Boathouse. Lauren and I both took out a boy and girl on the water. Lauren had a row boat and I had canoe. Initially I was with a boy named Thomas in a canoe. Then half way, we switched partners and I had a 12 year old girl named Kako. When she was talking to Lauren, she mentioned she was a Doctor Who fan and even had a Doctor Who party with friends. Lauren mentioned it to me as Kako and I headed off. The past year I have been watching the new Doctor Who series and the last series was quite good and entertaining. Kako also agreed and thought that it was very good. She also mentioned she has watched all the Doctor Who series, back to the Tom Baker years. I remember vaguely watching it back in the mid 80’s when I was 6-8 years old.

So back to the end of December and after watching the Christmas special of Doctor Who, I was reminded of Kako and her devotion to the Doctor. I decided to create a DVD of this episode and give it to her. But I did it anonymously; I wrapped the DVD in gift paper and put a gift tag on it. In the gift tag it simply stated:

To: Kako

Happy Holidays

From: The Doctor

I dropped it in her mailbox the weekend before the New Year. I was anxious to hear if she received it or if the DVD worked. But could not know for sure and I eventually forgot about it.

Fast forward to the evening of January 9th; Lauren and I are in the kitchen preparing dinner. Lauren bursts out she has something to tell me. She then proceeds to tell me about Jackie; Kako’s mother and the DVD of Doctor Who, Kako received. She received it on New Years day, from her father who had retrieved it from the mailbox. They have watched it numerous times with other families coming around to watch it. Jackie has been asking around who did it, without any response. Kako triumphantly said its The Doctor.

I was glad to hear this and that other families and children are getting enjoyment as well. It’s great a show like Doctor Who with is sci-fi/fantasy stories, exploration of new worlds; people and the drama/adventure in Doctor Who can bring families together and experience enjoyment together. It reminds me when I used to watch shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation or Quantum Leap with my family, when I was younger.

Life in Melbourne

Over the past 3+ months I have been posting about my time in Melbourne and hopefully offering a glimpse into life down under. I thought I would try and write about it specifically. Initially I was going to call this entry Life in Australia. But I realized that living in different parts of Oz would be a different experience.

A lot of Australians and I think Canadians say that Australia and Canada are alike. But after living here for over a year now, I can say it is not similar. The only similarities are the countries are former colonies of the British and are now Commonwealth countries with ties to England in government and the Queen being the head of state.

Even though Australia is on the other side of the world, it has very close ties to its English heritage. While Canada as created its own unique culture; even though it is closer to England than Australia.

Climate
Some say that Australia is a tropical version of England. That is true in many respects but Melbourne being so south; during the winter months it is quite cool. It does not have a consistent temperature like Caribbean islands or even other parts of Australia. There are seasons in Melbourne like Canada – summer, fall, winter and spring are the seasons in chronological order. So it is the opposite of Canadian or North American weather.

Location
With Australia being so far away from the rest of the world and also being of a smaller population when compared to the US, UK or even Canada it has a more protectionist view about who should be allowed into Australia. It was probably more so under the rule of the Liberal/Collation government under John Howard. Hopefully now under Kevin Rudd and the Labor gov’t it can be better. But the people of Australia are conservative and concerned about their land, so any government or Prime Minster has to be cautionary about how it handles it borders to the rest of the world.

Due to its location many Aussie travelers both young and old have great access to the South Pacific and Asian Countries.

People
Australian’s are considered all over the world to be the friendliest people around. I have experienced this first hand when I first traveled around Australia. People operating hostels and tours by water and land, were most kind and friendly.

But the Australian people are also a hearty and tough bunch of people. They must get this from their English/Irish/Scottish heritage. Unlike Canadian’s who can sometimes be over polite, Australians don’t necessarily have this. They are more straight forward on how they ask or give service/information/help or just their manner. At times they can be tough, mean and/or rude, and when I say this, it is from an outsiders view. To them this is normal behavior and how they should act. But me being from Canada I view this sometimes as being rude or mean. Sometimes it is exactly that. But they don’t see it as that.

Now I want to state that this is not all people, there are many lovely people in Australia. But I would say all Australians have this to some degree. Some on a low, medium or high level. It is a different culture and how they act. It’s not to be a negative, but as an outsider I must comment on it.

Here are some similarities between England and Australia:

Accent
Both countries have their own unique accent.

Personal Note:
There are times when certain Oz accents, make me cringe and I wish I was def. Example Tracy and Tim, thank goodness Tracy and Tim is off the radio airwaves.

Language
Both countries use similar words like Massive and Brilliant and Whilst. As well as shortening words and slang words. Although I think Oz takes it to the next level in shortening of words. Almost anything can be shortened ending in ER or O.

Personal Note: At first I hated the shortening of words, I have come to tolerate it and even like some of it. I can’t be too critical if I am calling my Blog - Navman’s Adventure.

Sport
Australia and England are both into Cricket. Cricket is a national past time during the summer months in Oz.

Personal Note:
Don’t understand it; don’t find it interesting or fun.

Driving
Both countries drive on the left-side of the road and have right-side drive cars.

Drivers here are not as pedestrian friendly as Toronto, the car has right of way here more so than the pedestrian. And drivers are very aggressive and drive too fast.

Personal Note: Driving of the left side is not that big of a deal, once you get used to it. Although if I am riding my bike down an empty street I will sometimes ride on the right side to be rebellious.

As for the aggressive drivers, I have learned to deal/live with it.

That’s it for now; I think I covered a wide rage of topics. I will discuss more as I come across it.

Warner Bros. goes Blu

I have been following the successor to DVD, high-definition media for a year and a half now. There are 2 high-def formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray battling it out to succeed DVD.

Both of these formats have only attracted the early adopters and some say have hindered it’s acceptance by the mainstream consumer who are aware of its existence. They are waiting for a clear winner to show it self before buying in. It has also affected the DVD market as well. Consumers have been slowing their consumption of DVD movies in hopes of buying it in high definition format. But unable to do so until a clear winner emerged.

The battle between the 2 formats has received a potential knockout. Warner Bros. who has initially supported both formats has dropped support for HD-DVD and is favouring Blu-ray elusively.

This announcement comes a few days before the start of a very important trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES is used a marketing and promotional event by all the major electronic manufactures to announce and show products for the upcoming year. This is a blow to the HD-DVD group, as they have now cancelled their Sunday press event at CES.

Warner is the largest movie studio in Hollywood, joining the Blu-ray camp now means that 70% of content is now potentially available elusively to Blu-ray. The remaining 30% is available through Universal and Paramount / DreamWorks who are both currently HD-DVD elusive.

But with the change by Warner Bros. the momentum has changed drastically in Blu-Ray’s favour. With only 2 out of 8 studios supporting HD-DVD and one major manufacturing (Toshiba) making HD-DVD players. It looks like a death blow to the HD-DVD format.

One of the reasons Warner Bros gave for distributing elusively is stated by Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry”

In other words it was a business decision for Warner Bros. They need to start increasing their global revenue in packaged media. The DVD market is slowing down and they need a new revenue stream. If high-def media does not take off it means a further decline in revenue until another format or way of watching movies (downloads ??) takes off.

I hope over the course of the year the 2 remaining HD-DVD studios at least release on both formats or switch to Blu-ray. Hopefully by November/December of this year the crucial buying season for the holidays, Blu-ray will be considered the winner in the high-def wars and be the only choice consumers choose even if HD-DVD is still around then.

HD-DVDs days are numbered, it just a matter of time.

2007: A look back

Happy New Year

I only started doing this Blog at the end of September 2007 and it has been a great outlet for expressing my thoughts and feelings on life down under.

It’s amazing how quickly time passes and a year is over. It’s a very difficult thing to look back and summarize the year that has been.

All I can say is that 2007 was a good year. It was a year filled with lots of discovery, sightseeing, exploring, eating, learning and living.

Here are some Highlights of the past year:

Lawn Bowling
At the end of January, Lauren and I started playing Lawn Bowls. It was at times both a frustrating and a fun game. Between the months of February to April ourselves along with Lauren’s former housemate and her partner we played Lawn Bowls almost every week. It was always something to look forward to on a Thursday evening.

We have started again in November and I look forward to playing it over the course of the summer of 2008.

CAE Courses
Over the course of the year I took 3 courses through The Centre for Adult Education. For 6 weeks I learned how to operate a radio Console and present a radio show. I also took in a 2 hour lecture in Philosophy and a course on Career Advancement.

The CAE is great organization for further studies and learning a new hobby or job.

Melbourne Radio Stations
In one of my earlier blog entries I mentioned the number and variety of radio station in Melbourne. Over the last 2 months of 2007 I have been really enjoying independent and community radio. Triple R (102.7FM) and PSB (106.7FM) have both provided a great alternative to the commercial Top 40 music you hear all the time.

I have heard really great music I would not have been exposed to otherwise.

Spicks and Specs
My favourite Australian television show has been Spicks and Specs. It’s a fun music comedy quiz show. I enjoyed watching it all year and in December got to see the live show that was touring all around Australia. It met all my needs for great fun and enjoyment (see my previous blog entry).

City of Melbourne and its suburbs
If you had to live anywhere else beside Toronto, Melbourne is pretty good place to live. During the summer months between January to April, either a sporting event or arts/entertainment is happening. It’s filled with many great restaurants, pubs and cafes. Melbournians love to sit outside and drink coffee or eat breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I live in a North East suburb which is 20-30 mins by train (rush hour) or 15mins (off-peak) into the city.

Despite my previous blog entry, slamming the train delays and the bus drivers. Melbourne has a very good transit system of trains, trams (street cars) and buses. A Met card which costs $3.50 allows for 2-4 hours of travel, depending on time of day when bought and validated. But it still needs more trains and fewer cancellations.

Melbourne and its suburbs are filled with many different shops and places to eat. I have not yet explored all of it and look forward to exploring more over the next year.

This is city of outdoor activity and sport. It has many parks, walking and bike paths and trails. I will be using them this summer to get into shape.

Work/Jobs
I entered Australia on a Working Holiday Visa. For 9 out 12 months I worked. I was fortunate enough to be able to work and earn money to pay for the cost of living

Looking back now, working for 9 months of the year isn’t so bad. Hopefully I can do the same in 2008.

The Weather
Living in a warm country isn’t so bad; especially when you can go to the beach on New Years Eve, for a morning dip.

The summers may get a bit over heated but I can’t complain.

I wasn’t expecting the cool winter, but it’s no where as cold as Toronto during the months of Jan-Feb.

2008 onwards
Now that 2007 is over and a new year has begun it's time for me to find another job and continue on my journey of discovery, exploration, learning and living.

With a year of Aussie life and culture under my belt I expect it to be a bit easier, life down under. But I know there's still a lot to learn, explore and discover. As I do, I will post it here.

Have a great 2008!
Navin