Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!

Joseph (in the picture) from the company I'm doing training for over here took me to a few Hawker Centres today - they're the best thing about Singapore methinks. Before he took me to this one to try the famous Cockles Curry dish, he made sure to check whether I was up to date on my hepatitis shots... as sometimes they aren't cooked completely.

I'll let you know if they weren't.

 

Haircut in Singapore

Singapore for 4 days! Delivering some technology to a transit company here. Shouldn't be too crazy a trip - presuming all the technology works...

One of my tasks this morning was to get a haircut. Found a little place in Little India that did a $10 job. It was a little scary, as every time I tried to tell the guy what I wanted, he berated me. So I was reduced to squinting at the mirror (since I had taken my glasses off) trying to work out what evils he was committing to my hair. It didn't turn out too bad. I should have just trusted him all along...

 

Plaza Singapura

Sometimes Singapore seems to be nothing but these types of places...

(This was put together from 10 randomly taken photos using 'autostitch' (a free program from Univeristy of British Columbia)) 

Bridge to Brizzie!

I never thought I would run 12km in my whole life, let alone all in one go... but I must admit, I actually enjoyed it. If you care about the figures... I came 4128th in a time of 1hr 7 mins 39.783sec. I was actually shooting for 0.002 of a second better than that...

And as a postscript - below is a happy snap from Ben's camera at the Soccer World Cup celebrations - Christel and I enjoying some German ale.

Purchase of the Week

Sometimes you really like something, and then you see a whole heap of it for sale for a cheap price, so you buy lots. Then pretty soon you realise you don't actually like that thing so much anymore...

Well I hope that won't happen with the 2 kg of Haloumi cheese I just bought from the famous fruit shop at Stones Corner. Mmmm Haloumi with bread, with sweet chilli sauce, with ice cream, with coffee...

YAY!

Last weekend Di/me and Ben/Sarah drove south to the TEAR conference at Stanwell Tops just south of Sydney.

Had a fun time and it was interesting/motivating hearing from people working with poor people in various places.

Krispy Kreme donuts were a bonus too.

The photo is near the conference centre, Mark (Ben's Bro-in-law), Jo (Ben's sis), Di, me, Sarah, Chris Martin (AKA Ben)

This one had to be included...

 

See Ya Ev and Mel!!

I went out to Cecil on the weekend to have a final catchup with Ev and Mel Rohde (and Kai, Braithe and their 4 huskis) who are moving up to Atherton in a couple of weeks. Nice to have a bit of a 'mountain biker reunion' too (minus the Canadian Breezo unfortunately). I must say that there are two things that Rohdes do better than anyone - Hungis and Bonfires. We had both on saturday night. All the best Ev, Mel and Family!

Ev 'The Master' Rohde in the front with Jaydy, Gregory, Bradley, Daniel and Screndells along the back.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

'Inmates' being Engineers like me, and 'The Asylum' being the world.

I like whacking a quick review of some of the books I read on my blog. This one definitely falls under the 'nerd' category. However it's the type of book that if more engineers (mainly software engineers) read, would potentially make life a little better for most people!

It basically rips apart the usability of technology and puts together a case for having 'interaction experts' in any organisation that develops technology. This is so that Engineers stop having to be the ones that design interfaces that normal people have to use. the classic example is (of course) how unnecessarily hard it is to program a video recorder.

It was a little demoralising at times, but overall I think good stuff for me as an Engineer to read!

A Canadian Blonde

The brewers are back. We brewed a Coopers 'Canadian Blonde' and named it 'Bunny' after our favourite Woolloongabbian Canadian!

Shown in the piccy is our dedicated brewing headquarters. Or the 'Situation Room' as I like to call it.

Home again

Back in Bris Vegas! The trip home wasn't too bad. Flew from Vancouver to Los Angeles - which was spectacular, the highlight being Mt St Helens (see the photo). It was truly massive and beautiful!


Los Angeles is truly massive as well, and I guess beautiful in it's own way (as Ben Lee would say 'living proof that people need to be together...'). I visited a customer for work, and then did a little shopping and also drove aimlessly around downtown for a while since I had never really done that before. Amazing how one avenue changes from being swanky downtown office blocks to a block with hundreds of homeless people on it in only a mile. The scale of homelessness in some parts of LA is really shocking.

The other major story of the day for me was that I ate donuts from both Tim Hortons (in Canada) and Krispy Kreme (in LA) in the same day. A feat worthy of note methinks.

More Wedding Photos Here!

HERE!

It is DONE!

Yes, Benjamin Peter Briese is married! The day quite possibly the most beautiful day ever seen - SERIOUSLY. Not a cloud in the sky, snow capped mountains in the background - the first beautiful day since I've been in Vancouver! The wedding was fantastic, Ben and Charlene are happy, and perfect for each other and I'll be posting many more photos soon!

Prado

Just hanging at what's become my chill-out / internet catchup place - Prado Cafe on Commercial Drive. Why don't cafes in Brisbane offer free WiFi?? Out of the eight tables occupied here, four of them are people on laptops, one couple of guys playing chess, someone reading a book, a couple of girls hanging out and one freak sitting in the cold outside doing a crossword. Speaking of cold... I went to the dawn service this morning at Trout Lake, near Ben's place. It was outside on the shore of the lake. It must have been hovering near zero degrees, and started raining halfway through the service. Then to top it all of, at the end of the service it started hailing. I haven't been that cold in many years... I'm definitely heading back to MEC to spend some money on warm clothes tomorrow!

Me and Benny!

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.

Coopers in the snow

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.

Mount Seymour

coming down the mountain

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.

This family was pretty lucky they didn't go off the OTHER side of the road

Commercial Drive

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.

The main street near Ben and Charlene's place. Lots of great places to eat, coffee shops with WiFi and bookshops with dogs in them. Love it.

Owen and his favourite Sushi joint.

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.

It's my favourite sushi joint now too... (But not Ben's Mum's favourite sushi joint) I think his Dad likes it. Esepcially the wasabi.

DJ Turtle, Skyping Corrina

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Originally uploaded by luckyforehead.