dr. Yvo's Blog

Last post

2009-08-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hi,

sadly I am not on a holiday right now, so this blog is discontinued.

You can find me at www.yvopluymakers.com if you are interested. Ciao!

Keep your fingers crossed...

2008-08-03T01:42:00.000-07:00

Quantas does not seem to be doing so well these (in Dutch) days. Keep your fingers crossed for QF009 tonight. :)

Leaving Singapore

2008-08-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

A big Aloha to you! from Singapore. I arrived here this morning on the nighttrain from Kuala Lumpur and am now in my familiar hostel - Inncrowd, very nice - to upload some pictures and have a shower. Tonight I will be flying back home, it will be a bit strange to be back in the Netherlands again. Hope the weather is any good.

Yesterday I said goodbye to Anna in Kuala Lumpur and then left for Singapore. We had a really cool time travelling through Malaysia. From Kota Bahru we left for the Perentian Island. It was a pleasant drive along the coast for about an hour and a half and then a 40 min boat ride to the island. The island itself was really really nice. We had a small hut near the beach, inhabited by a lizard, a frog, a spider, some mosquitos and us. The first day we spend on the beach, the second we went snorkeling. The snorkling was awesome. The reef was inhabited by many colourful fish, turtles and some sharks. We had a small boat with 5 other tourists to shuttle us around and we stopped at 5 locations for some swimming and the weather was so good.

After that, sadly, it was time to be heading home. We took a plane back to KL (30 euros - 1 hour) instead of the train (4 euros - 12 hours), which was pleasant. In KL we did some shopping and a lot of eating and that was about it. Now its time to go home

I will leave tonight on QF009 to London where I will have 5 hours and 15 of spare time. After that I will be arriving at Amsterdam Airport at 12.55 on BD105. Hope to see you soon...

Oh, photos on Flickr.

Kota Bharu

2008-07-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

Aloha! This time from Kota Bharu in the North of Malaysia. The weather is really good: sunny and hot. I met up with Anna a few days ago in Kuala Lumpur and from there we took the bus into the Jungle at Taman Negara. We stayed there on the riverside for 2 nights and the forest was really awesome. We did a couple of walks through the jungle and up the mountains. On the downside, we had some rain and that is when the leeches come out. Bleh. When we stopped to check my feet were bleeding, I had 8 bites and 3 of the things still hanging around in my socks. Bleh! The Germans next to us seemed not entirely at ease with it and neither was I actually. Anna was spared for reasons unknown. The next day we decided to skip the walking at took a boat through the jungle back to civilization. When we arrived we took a long train through the jungle up North, where we are now. This morning we visited some markets and had lunch now we will try to find where they make the traditional kites. Hope we will find 'm.

Kuala Lumpur report

2008-07-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

Aloha! So here I am: KL. I got up this morning at 5.30 to get myself to the trainstation in time and I found it and I made it. Got on the train and the trip was really cool. Nice jungle style views from my window and the weather seemed to get getter the further I got. At some point I did start to get a bit worried as the train was already supposed to be there, but was not. After an hour I was wondering wether I might have missed the stop, but figured that KL should be big enough that you would notice stopping there. An hour later we arrived and the train apologized for the delay.

Kuala Lumpur seems a nice place. It is less tidy then Singapore and a bit more smelly. But I do not mind. I seems really busy, hustling and bustling and really Asian. I think I like it here. I took a walk through Chinatown where people tried to sell me all kinds of fake Adidas and Rolexes. After that I went to this Thai place that served a really good red curry with the biggest pile of shrimp I have ever seen on a plate. Tomorrow I will go and see the sights and have dinner with Anna to come up with a travelplan for saturday.

No pictures sadly, the computer has no usb and there is no Wifi. - No Wifi?!, yes no Wifi. I am staying at the Green Hut hostel. No Wifi. Keep that in mind, otherwise it seems alright. - Ciao!

Kuala Lumpur

2008-07-22T06:39:00.001-07:00

For those of you who do not know about Kuala Lumpur, here is a strange song. Ciao!

Singapore

2008-07-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

So, Singapore. It is big. It has many shopping malls. Its seems to consist mainly of shopping malls actually and that makes it a bit of a strange place. Yesterday was my first day here and it was quite rainy. I went outside took look for the trainstation and I got rained upon. A lot, as it rains a lot here. What is amazing is that all the sidewalk here are covered in a kind of bathroomtiles that get slippery when they get wet. This made it difficult to get around .

It was also rather difficult to find the trainstation, I did not succeed yesterday. I also could not really find a tourist information with a staff member occupieing it. This meant I had to make do with the made that I got from the counter. The map shows a few interesting things, but mainly shopping malls. This also seems the main thing that people do here in Singapore. Singapore is excellent for shopping for either clothes or electronics. I have never in my life seen such large and so many malls.

What I like about Singapore is that there are many really nicely coloured buildings. Both big and small. The high rise buildings are made of cubic shapes stacked very creatively which reminds me of soviet buildings, but their colourfull paint makes them look very happy. It is also a very green place, plants seem to grow every where and the city smells remarkalby nice. Oo, and very nice food, everywhere.

In the end I did find the trainstation and got me a ticket to Kuala Lumpur. I am leaving tomorrow at 7.40hrs and will be interested in what I find, I hope. Also, some photos are now online.

Report from Australia

2008-07-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

Hi there, now that I have some spare time I would like to fill you in on my what I have been up to in my last weeks in Australia. I did not really get round to it before. So here we go. As you might have understood I went up to Cairns for a week. I was not really in the mood for travelling, but I really wanted to see the rainforest and the great barrier reef, so I took the easy way out and got myself a fairly expensive plane ticket to Cairns. The trip takes about three hours -2000 km- and then you are there. Cairns.

I assumed that Cairn would be a nice and big city with heaps of stuff to do, but that was a bit of a disappointment. It is small and it is there for tourists. There is not much to do on your own, so you will have to take a organised tour. So thats what I did. The first day I went snorkling on a massive catamaran that speeds out to the reef in about 1.5 hours. The snorkling was awesome, sadly I did not take any photos of fish as my camera is not waterproof. After that lunch is served and you are taken to a second, also nice, snorkling spot. The second and third days I went up to the Daintree rainforst at Cape Tribulation. This is where the rainforest meets the sea and there are some stunning beaches and trees. No swimming though as all the waters are inhabited by crocodiles. Most people that die of crodile attacks are Germans, closely followed by the Japanese. On the route from Cairn to the rainforest we stopped a several interesting locations: a jungle walk - pretty neat, a nice wooden walkway to keep you comfortable -, a river filled with crocodiles - we saw only 2 crodiles and they did not seem that fierce -, a viewpoint from where you could see the spot where Steve Irwin died and Port Douglas - I do not recommend going there -. All in all a nice trip.

When I got back I did not really feel like staying in Cairns for the reasons stated above. I thus decided to go to Magnetic Island near Townsville. The Island I really nice with forests and beaches where you can actually swim. I visited a Koala village and also managed to see some Koalas hanging from the trees. After that it was time to get back to Sydney again. When I got back there I met up with Megan for a weekend in Port Stephens. Port Stephens I a nice and quiet village about 3 hours North of Sydney by bus. It has some nice beaches and walks through the forests. Supposedly it is possible to spot dolpins and whales at Port Stephens, which is something I would have liked. This is either a lie, or I just had bad luck, I did not see any. It was a pretty nice getaway anyway.

The last days in Sydney were a bit sad, as I spend most of my time saying goodbye to many nice people. I have also been looking for a graduation project to start graduating when I get back home which is starting to get somewhere.

See some photoos on flickr

In Singapore

2008-07-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hi! Arrived in Singapore last night in the middle of the night. The flight from Australia to here was good and I think I will miss Sydney. I will now go and explore Singapore and hope to upload some photoos, also from Cairns one of these days. Ciao!

To Cairns and beyond...

2008-07-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

After many days of bumming
around Sydney I am finally
moving again. This time up North,
next friday, as they are saying
it will start raining in Sydney.
I will fly with my trusted
Quantas airways to see
the Great Barrier reef and the
Daintree rainforest. I'll try to
take some photos for you
 people at home. Details below. 

YOUR ITINERARY AND TRAVEL DETAILS:

QANTAS AIRWAYS          QF0167  ECONOMY CLASS   (M)  CONFIRMED
  DEPART     04JUL08   SYDNEY                             0805
  ARRIVE     04JUL08   CAIRNS                             1110
  DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1
  ARRIVES AT:  TERMINAL I
                         NVA 31DEC
 BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE: 20 KILO
-----------------------------------------------------------------
QANTAS AIRWAYS          QF0921  ECONOMY CLASS   (S)  CONFIRMED
  DEPART     11JUL08   CAIRNS                             0545
  ARRIVE     11JUL08   SYDNEY                             0845
  DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL D
  ARRIVES AT:  TERMINAL 3
                         NVA 31DEC
 BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE: 20 KILO
-----------------------------------------------------------------

And in Sydney?

2008-06-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

It is nice to be back in Sydney. I met up with some friends from university for a birth celebration on thursday and went to see the Sydney Biennale with Megan yesterday. Both were really nice. The Biennale is an fairly large arts event in the city and yesterday we checked out one location: Cockatoo Island. Getting there by a free ferry was fun and the Island in itself was an awesome place to visit. It used to be a Australian navy base, but has been abandoned since and now hosts the arts festival. It has cool cranes, buildings and tunnels all over the place and the art was quite nice as well. In the evening we went to see a theatre show in Surry Hills, which although I am not much into theatre, I must admit was very cool to see.

In my house in Leichhardt things are becoming quiet as most kids are now leaving for their parents for the winterholidays. This is a bit sad have come to enjoy living with them. Today or tomorrow I hope to come up with a plan to travel around Australia a bit more (North is warm) and I will let you know where I am going asap. See you!

Ah, and there should be photos on Flickr yet again.

Melbourne report

2008-06-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, for those who were wondering what I was up to in Melbourne: here is a short report, to keep you up to date. As mentioned before I went down to Melbourne with Guido, my Italian friend from across the hall. Sonja cooked us a nice dinner and dropped us off at the busstop from where we took the nightbus. Though the night bus was cheap, the ride was hell. The ride was long (8hours) and uncomfortable. In the middle of the night we had a short stop at a rather depressing truck stop.

At 8 am in the morning we finally arrived exhausted in the city. We took up residence in the All Nations backpackers. A typical dodgy backpackers that would do fine for a couple of days. We decided to explore the city by the free circle line tram and after we went for wine in the Black Cat in Fitzroy. During the week the Black Cat turned into our favorite midnight hangout and their Cabernet Merlot turned into our drug of choice.

Melbourne is a very cool place to visit. Everything is closer together then back here in Sydney and the shopping is ridiculously good. Got myself a new pair of Onitsuka Tigers and trousers. There are a lot of arty things to see, but the nicest thing about Melbourne would be the bumming around in the many coffee and wine bars. Good times were had right there.

Should you be around you should definetely visit the Victoria National Gallery, maybe the best arts museum in Australia?, Federation Square - lots going on there, we saw the GAME ON video game expostion at the ACMI - and the Royal Botannical Gardens were quite awesome as well. We also went to see a game of Aussie Rules Football, a combination of rugby, soccer, basket and volleyball at the MCG, but that did not quite work for me. Could not figure out the game, but seeing it was an experience in its own.

See the photoos on Flickr.

Melbourne photoos online

2008-06-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

Hi there, just uploaded a set of photoos of my trip to Melbourne. Check m out if you like it on Flickr. Details might follow tomorrow...

Back from Melbourne

2008-06-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hi there! It has been a while and a lot has been going on. University ended two weeks ago and I think everything was handed in succesfully, so I should be fine. Now I need to get started on looking for my graduation project, as all courses have been completed. It is a strange thought.

Just as I was enjoying my sparetime and considering finally backing up my pictures and documents, my computer crashed last week. The thing got stuck in a vicious Windows update loop. It keept booting, configuring 0% and restart - shutting down and again. It could not be persuaded to stop doing this so I has to bring out a linux boot cd to rescue my documents and now I have got a brand new Vista running on a otherwise empty harddisk.

When the Vista ordeal was over I went to Melbourne with Guido, the Italian from across the hallway. We took a cheap night bus to get there and that took 8 misrable hours. Once there Melbourne was pretty pretty cool. It has nice and big centre and exels in shopping, coffee - and wine drinking facilities. We also saw some cool expositions in the ACMI: GAME ON a retrospective on videogame design and the National Gallery of Victoria was showing the works of Alfred Stieglitz and Otto Dix among many other things. I'll try to get some photos and maybe more stories online soon, but now I have to go and check on my laundry. See you soon...

Cardboard house

2008-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Ha! Here yet again a story from Sydney. This months posts on my blog are definitely going better than last month. As promised I have been spending a lot of time at university this week and some progress at meeting the deadlines is being made. 1.5 week left to go.

Last Monday I handed in my architecture model which turned out quite nice. It is a cardboard house showing my plan for a pavilion in the park next to the Central station here in Sydney. The pavilion should provide shade and water for visitors and has a small pond in the middle of the structure. I made it like a big wall so it can be used to separate the park from a big road and a nasty looking parking lot. And night it should be illuminated by light coming from the pond. See for yourself below.

The whole thing took the most of the previous weekend to make and is about 110x60x30 cm big. While I was taking it to uni on the bus a guy almost stepped on it. Holy crapola. But in the end all was well and it got me a "high distinction". Which is nice. The grades here in Australia are different, they range from fail, to pass, to credit, to distinction, to high distinction.

Besides that I went to the world press photo on Wednesday, which was awesome and in the evening I watched "the State of Origin", which seems to be the biggest Aussie Rules footy match in the year. It is similar to rugby. New South Wales (where I live) played Queensland (neighbours to the North) and won. Good times. See you again soon!

From the News...

2008-05-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, here again, live from Sydney. I do not read the newspaper much here in Australia, but when I accidentally do there is usually something good. This week I got hold off the Daily Telegraph and I found a bit on the second page which I would like to share with you. And I quote:

"Chair sniffer denies quokka abuse"

"CHAIR-sniffing Liberal leader Troy Buswell says there is "absolutely no substance" to report he once did something inappropriate to a quokka. Mr Buswell, who has admitted to sniffing the chair of a former Liberal Party colleague and snapping the bra of a Labor staffer, was questioned on the rumours yesterday. ... Asked if he had done anything inappropriate to a quokka, Mr Buswell replied: "No". ..."
Taken from the Daily Telegraph, thanks Daily Telegraph, on the 15th of May.

Should you wonder what i quokka is: it is a small furry creature, a bit like a very small kangaroo. They can be considered cute and I do hope nothing inappropriate has happened to any of them. I regret that we do not often have these stories on politics in the newspapers at home.

Besides this there is not much to report from this faraway country right now. I celebrated my birthday with my house last Thursday with pizzas and some drinks. Besides that all I have is a lot of deadlines coming up and I will be spending a lot of time getting them sorted out. After that all will be good again with the winter holidays coming up.

Itinerary update

2008-05-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today I changed my flight back home. My return to the Netherlands will be a bit later than previously planned. I am staying in Australia for a bit longer, and will go to Malaysia for about two weeks. Because I am not allowed (?! Damn you, Qantas and British Airways) to go to Kuala Lumpur directly, I will be stopping over in Singapore. From there I am planning to take, a hopefully scenic, railway into Malaysia. I will be back in Delft on the 4th of August. My new flight schedule is listed below. So, I will you in a few months...

Sydney - Singapore: Qantas flight QF31 on the 20th of July 16.55, arriving the 20th 22.45

Singapore - London: Qantas flight QF9 on the 3rd of August 23.05, arriving the 4th 5.25

London - Amsterdam: British Midland flight BD105 on the 4th of August 10.4o, arriving the 4th 12.55

Cars Go By...

2008-05-12T01:31:00.001-07:00

Hi! I was just playing with my roadtrip photos in this program called "Photoshop". I like the result, as the gray has now gone from my photos. Nice! See you around, maybe.

Goldcoast

2008-05-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

Aloha, yesterday I got back from the trip to Sonja's parents. They live in Tweed Heads on the Goldcoast. Sonja wanted to visit for mothersday and Guido, the Italian, and I could come along. In a straight line the trip would have been 650 km, thank you Google Earth, but on the road it comes down to about 850. That's quite a trip.

We left on Friday after lunch and arrived at Tweeds Heads round 01.00 at night. Trip was pretty long, about 12 hours. If you want to compare: from Amsterdam to Berlin would be 570 km, Amsterdam to Paris would be 430. Driving this long in Europe would get you from Amsterdam: either half way through France, or to Switzerland or maybe just to the Czech Republic. Here in Australia it gets you to your parents' house.

The trip was really cool to do though. Not only does it put travel in Europe into perspective, we also got to see a lot of Australia that I had not seen before. We stopped at some beaches and had a nice Subway sandwich. When it got dark we passed the Big Banana and the Big Prawn. Australia makes up what is lacks in culture in two ways: 1) Sports, 2) Making Big "things" and putting dodgy entertainments in them. Or so it seems. Because it was dark I can't show you any photo's of my own, but follow the links to check 'm out.

On Saturday we had some time to spend on the Goldcoast. In the morning we went to the beach and after that we went for lunch twice. Nice. After that we went up the coast stopping at some nice beaches and enjoying the weather. It is always nice and warm on the Goldcoast. We went up to Surfers Paradise, which was a bit of a let down. It consist of mostly big and nasty flats on the beach and a massive mall. When we got back we went for dinner with Sonja's parents, which was good.

Sunday we had to go back to Sydney, but went shopping first. We went to a Australian mall outside of the town. While Sonja was being outfitted by her mum, I got myself a new pair of trousers, a pair of new Hawaianas and a new wallet. I am quite happy about that. On our way back we stopped at Byron Bay where there were no whales about, but we did see some kangaroos in the sunset later on. We arrived at home in Leichhardt at 1.30. Quite the trip, for some pictures go to my Flickr site by clicking here.

Possum

2008-05-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hi! So what's new? Not much, but I did see a possum yesterday night. I say one in the zoo the other day, but now it was in the "wild". Or in the city actually. I just sat there when I walked out of the rowing club. At first I thought it to be a cat, but then I noticed its awkward shape, small paws and big pink nose. It did not seem interested in me as I walked up to it, even when I got close. I thought about picking it up, but remembered people telling me that they are mean and vicious, will not hesitate to bite you and smell bad. So I decided not to.

Besides that I have been to the NSW Art Gallery where there was a Bill Viola show on accompanied with at talk by the head curator which was was pretty nice. The curator man did not tell me much more than I had already seen as he was just describing the work, but I least I had seen it right. I also had a Cold Rock icecream, which seems to be quite something around these parts. The concept is that you can choose you ice and you can choose your add ons (sweets, candybars, fruits, nuts, etc) which will then be thrown on a cold board and crushed and mixed together. It was good.

So I am supposed to be off in the car, going up North to the Gold Coast. I'll try to take some pictures for the folks at home. See ya!

Koninginnedag en meer, from Sydney

2008-05-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Aloha from Sydney again. It has been busy the past weeks with a lot of university work deadlines last week. On Tuesday I had to hand in an Animatic, a rough version of my animation in Maya and on Wednesday I had a report due for a interior redesign for a bus.

Creating the animation thingy was rather more difficult than I expected. Besides animating the whole thing using Maya I needed to stitch the frames together in Fcheck and the clips needed editing and adding sounds using Final Cut. Of both of which I know absolutely nothing, so I took me some extra time. All in all it was fun to do and if I ever manage to compress it sufficiently I will put it on youtube. Untill then you'll just have to imagine how good it was.

The bus thing had to be handed in the day later and was subsequently under prepared. This resulted in me working till late to finish the stuff and thus oversleeping in the morning. Awaking in panic, I only made the deadline just in time.

After a afternoon of recovery in the park I went out to celebrate Koninginnedag (Queensday, the national holiday in the Netherlands celebrating the Queens birthday) at the reception organized by the Dutch Embassy in Sydney. I arrived rather undressed at this 3 part suit orange tie party, but was admitted anyway. Sadly I missed the accordion player, although I suspect he might not have showed up. Luckily there was a lot of Heineken, herring and cheese goodness to make up for that. The afterparty was in a nice terrace house in Surrey Hills where about 100 Dutch people made life miserable for the Australians, so we got kicked out at 1.30, but good times were had all in all.

The weekend has been easy going for me. Went out to party with the people living on my house on Friday getting home at 5.30 in the morning, which was late, but nice. I took the ferry to Manly beach on Sunday which was really nice. It takes about half an hour through the harbour from the city to Manly, and the sun was out. Pretty darn good.

Next weekend we, me and some other people from my house, will be going to the Goldcoast, 10 hours North, visiting the parents of someone in my house. I think it is going to be fun, but I'll let you know. Bye!

Sydney update...

2008-04-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hi! For those who were wondering what has been going on. My parents have left for the Netherlands again and life is back to normal. It was nice that they were here. Before they left we visited the zoo and the aquarium too see all the animals that could not be bothered too show themselves while we were travelling and that was nice. We also had some pretty nice dinners.

Since my parents left I have been celebrating my refound freedom by going out in the city. On friday with some Dutch people and a Canadian - Andre Hazes still lives in Sydney and I can recommend the disco ceiling at the Iguano bar - and yesterday I went to Spectrum with some girls from university. Spectrum is a nice Indie bar kind of thing where we went to see a band. I had a pretty good time.

Now I am looking forward to a nice nights sleep and getting rid of a remarkably high pile of homework tomorrow, hoping to salvage something of my holidays...

dr. Yvo on Facebook

2008-04-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

Aloha! My journey though the newfangled electronic world has brought me to Facebook. There is not much too see. It is better on this here BloggerBlog. But, should you take an interest, you can now find me there. I am hoping to meet many pages of new electronic friends.

Back in Sydney

2008-04-15T08:34:00.001-07:00

Hi! Today I got back in Sydney from my trip with my parents. As you might have read before they are visiting me in Australia for a few weeks. The past days we have been driving down the coast in a rented car and it was nice. We took the car down Wollongong, Nowra, Ulladulla and Narooma and back up through the mountains past Cooma, Canberra and Goulburn.

We stopped to visit parks and beaches. It took us a while to find some kangaroos but in the end we did it. There was a group of 'm lying about and eating grass at Pebbly Beach near Ulladulla. We could walk up close to them, and they did not seem scared. The beach was also pretty good. For more pictures of the trip see my flickr site.

Trip to the South

2008-04-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hi! Here is quick update on my visiting parents. I left you the previous week when we were in the Blue mountains. We had a good time there, but despite all of the effort we did not manage to see much wildlife. Kangaroos are apparently too lazy to hop up the mountains. Or maybe they booked a charter to Thailand as the weather was not that good, it coldest weekend so far. On the leaves of the trees here you can see that autumn is coming, but luckily the temperature is still above 20 degrees.

After we went of the Skyride (a kind of of ski lift) in Katoomba we went to Mount Victoria where we stayed in the oldest hotel of Australia: the Imperial. Or so they claim anyway. There is some very nice walking in Mount Victoria, but still no kangaroos, nor wombats, nor possums. On our way home we stopped at the Wentworth falls, which are pretty awesome.

On Monday I had to be at university again so we had to get back. But Friday we took off again to the south in a rented car (of the No Birds… company, strange name). We want to see some beaches, wildlife parks and maybe some more animals. Friday afternoon we finally saw the first kangaroo jumping across the road, which led to a lot of excitement and optimism about our expedition. But so far that’s the only one.

We did see a lot of birds (yes birds) though: Pelikans, Cockatoos (White, Black, Red, Green, Pink) Kookaburras and more of which I do not know the names. The beaches are also very nice and strangely empty. I’ll try to keep you posted on the animals. Bye!

Visiting parents

2008-04-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

Aloha! How are you? Me, I am fine. My parents, Vincent and Rianne, have come to visit me. They arrived past Sundaynight from Kuala Lumpur at Sydney International Airport, where I picked them up and brought them to their hotel. I still have uni going on so on Monday and Tuesday we have gone for dinner and today we went to see the Blue Mountains. The trip in the train was alright and the hotel is okay. We are now staying at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge, which is not great, but okay. It looks a lot like a mountain lodge with a lot of wooden panels on the walls. After we arrived we went to see the Three Sisters and then for dinner at Niche Nosh, a great vegetarian restaurant.

Not really sure what we will do tomorrow as the weather predictions are not that good. I will let you know. Besides all that I have gotten my first Australian grades. 2 D's. I was not really sure what a D was but apperently it is good. D stands for distincion. Ratings go from Fail, to Pass, to Credit, to Distincition to Double Distinction. Or something. Hope to write more soon, now I am tired. Bye!

Sydney update: garagesale

2008-03-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! What's up? Here everything seems fine. I have got a cold that won't go away, I think it is due to excessive rowing at intolerable hours. So I have decided to take a few days off and have been spending the time on some shopping. I now have two new pairs of shorts. Pairs , yes. And a very nice Nintendo tshirt with a Super Mario cartridge on it.

Today I have been to two garage sales, which were nice with lots of junk. Not nice enough to buy though. I was hoping to find a nice lamp for my room. Now I only have a TLlamp which is very domination when on. On the walk to the garage sales I had a very nice view of the CBD, see above. Below you can the street corner I pass most and where I spend ridiculous amounts of time waiting for traffic lights. Below that is a palm tree with electricity wire which I also like. Partly due to the minimalistic cloud free sky. Hope you like it to.

That is about it. Do not forget to watch the boatrace (17.15u?). I have not yet figured out how I am to watch it as it does not seem to be on TV and it will be in the middle of the night. Tomorrow evening my parents will arrive to see what I am doing. I will try to pick them up at the airport. Houdoe!

1668575834,20 cm

2008-03-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

Aloha! I have just calculated that I am now 1668575834,20 cm away from home using Google earth. Quite amazing. It is quite some distance and quite impresive that I now know how many cm's (cm's!) + 2 decimals (2!) I am away my house in the Netherlands. Door to door even. I used to think is was further, 20000 km, so I just received a 3300 km discount.
This morning I have been rowing in a boat, at LRC (Leichhardt Rowing Club). I was nice to be out there again and a lot better than the rowing machine I used yesterday. I am happy that I did not see any sharks, but I did see some jelly fish, which I also do not like. After that I have been to school and when that was done I took a look at Glebe.
Glebe is a nice and green neighbourhood which I pass everyday going to uni. Today a took some time to ride down Glebe point road to the waterside. There are a lot of tearooms and organic food stores it seems, and the mood was nice. The waterside had a nice park and a great view. Only too bad that it was raining, but the rain does make me feel more at home somehow.
I also dropped by my favorite motorbike and bicycle store: Deus ex Machina. They've got a very cool collection on classic and custom build motorbikes and do some extremely nice custom bicycles as well. Check m out: here.

LRC

2008-03-24T03:08:00.000-07:00

Hi, I decided that I would try to write a little more often and a little shorter. So here is an update. Generally I am still fine, but I have seem to have caught a cold Easter was a bit slow, now the house is getting full again as everyone returns from their parents, which is nice.
To battle the cold I have some throaties. See also the picture below.

The packaging looks awesome, as you can see. Al least I think so. But the taste, is a bit awkward. The butter menthol ones are pretty okay, in awkward, slightly addictive way, but the throaties are bad. But luckily you are only allowed three boxes (!) a day. Also interesting to note is the -ies extension, which is an Australian way of shortening words. This can be used in several ways such as sunnies (sunglasses) or shorties (shorts, although it is not shorter).

Besides al this I have been rowing on the ergometer for the first time today. 2 x 20 minutes. It was not easy, but I made it. I hope to start working out on a daily basis from now. I will try to get some pictures of the club soon and I will upload them, as well as some other pictures, as soon as I can presuade flickr to give me a pro account.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T00:17:00.001-07:00

Yes, easter! The feast with the eggs and rabbits. And a happy one to all. This morning I found a chocolate egg on my door, for which I am very thankful. It was nice, and very tasty. After that I had breakfast and I tried to explain easter to the Indian from across the hall. "You celebrate Christ?" Yes. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, who was hanged from the cross three days ago. "And what do the rabbit and the eggs have to do with it?"
It is strange to explain a feast if that you have always taken for granted. The rabbits and eggs are old pagan fertility symbols. And apparently the eggs symbolizes the spark of new life that Jesus got today. The rabbits got into easter thanks to their prolific breeding habbits. It am not entirely sure what this has to do with Jesus.
Below are my eggs, that I decorated for the occasion, to make sure that Y could eat them.

Besides that nothing much is going on. I was hoping that I might go on a nice trip, but apparently I didn't. Most people in my house are visiting their parents, so its a bit quiet. I am trying to get my portfolio together, which is something long overdue. And I have been looking at graduation projects. The portfolio is a bit difficult because I seem to have very few images of my work, so I am working on that. I hope it will become very nice, ill show you when it is done.

Now I will go and bake an easter pizza. Should you happen to run into good graduation projects, do let me know.

Easter Update

2008-03-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Hi to all! This week has been ranging from really busy, to really slow. I haven't had the time to do anymore surfing, maybe next week again. I had "heaps" of homework. Heaps is the local word to express "a lot", it can also be used for "very much" by making it "heaps and heaps" and for very very much, the correct sentence would be "heaps and heaps and heaps". Etc. So I spend most of the previous weekend on assignments that were due on Monday and Wednesday.

On Monday I had my architecture course again, it is still a lot of fun. We started out drawing an animals movement on A2 and I am making a frog. Jumping. This week we had to try and capture that movement in 3 dimensions using wires. I think it turned out pretty well, it is only too bad that I do not (yet) have any good pictures of the stuff I am doing here. For next week we will have to get the movement into a 3D solid model. Only after that we might need to turn into anything that anything to do with architecture.

On Tuesday I went to the Maya animation course. This one is going pretty fast, and I am going to have to put in some extra time to get better at Maya. The course is only 3 hrs and not so much homework but it is racing through all Maya's applications, so I will have to do a little extra practice. I am also making a scenario for my short movie. Not yet really sure what it is going to be a about.

On Wednesday my first assignment for the Human Environment was due. It was a small ergonomics project which I did on record store displays. Because I wanted to drop this subject and had not put in much effort before, so that meant heaps of work in the weekend and on Tuesday. But I think it turned out pretty well.

After handing in the project I went to a journalism masterclass by two Dutch reporters: Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong. They did some very impressive photography and interviewing on a few nuclear disaster areas in Russia. The work was very impressive, but the motivation was a bit strange. They presented themselves as objective reporters, but their work carries a huge anti-nuclear bias and was paid for by Greenpeace. For journalists they did not seem very objective, and I found that odd. As artists they were very good.
Next I went to take a look at a exhibition in the library of 10 UTS Architecture students. This was cool, but the exposition a bit short. So I walked along Circular Quay to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The MCA was hosting a very nice exhibition of Fiona Hall 's work. She has been exploring the intersection between nature and culture for the past 4 decades and uses a wide variety of media. Very nice. The top floor of the museum hosted an Aboriginal Bark Painting expostion, showing the Arnott's (see TimTams) Collection. Bark Paintings are drawings made on pieces of bark, depicting all kinds of Aboriginal themes, such as kangaroos. I am not really into this, but if you like kangaroos: check 'm out.

As you might gather from the story above I have been doing a lot of walking, during which I tried to take pictures of the biggest and ugliest buildings I could find. These pictures are now on Flickr and you can check m out by clicking here. To finish this very culturally productive day I went to have s few beers at the Abercrombie Hotel. The bar smelled almost as bad as Wolbodo at home, and they were have a small art exhibition where the hotel used to be. Nice.

As the story I already very long, I will not bother much longer. But, should you be in Holland and if you happen to be going to Motel Mozaique (11 april?), go and see Pivot. I saw them yesterday at the Oxford Art Factory and it was good.

Today I have been relaxing. It is a bit quiet now, as most of my housemates have gone to their parents for easter. So, I am not really sure what I am going to do now. Bye!

Pi day & Surf Succes!

2008-03-14T02:39:00.000-07:00

Hi! and a happy Pi day to all! Today has been a very nice Pi day for me with two joyfull occasions: 1: I had the privilige to surf on a very yellow board today - nice - and 2: I managed to stand up on my board for distances up to 30 meters. So, a good day it was.

Due to some technical dificulties with the ridiculously bad internet I will have keep this post a bit short. Even here at the university pub, the internetspeed and quality is ridiculous. The good news is that all Australians apologize for it when you mention it and Australia is constructing a new cable to Guam (?!), which will, in the future, connect Australia to America which will make life better. So, untill next time!

Surf!

2008-03-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Aloha! As promised I have been surfing this morning and it was fun. I tried to get up at a quarter past six this morning to meet Maarten at the Sydney Central bus stop at seven, but failed. This meant that we missed the bus and had to wait 15 mins for the next bus that took an agonizing long time to get us to Maroubra.

We arrived only just in time to sign the paper saying the surf school in not responsible in the case that we: would be bitten by sea creatures, would be poisoned by sea creatures, would be dragged into the sea by the rip currents, would brake bones or get hurt otherwise by being thrown on the beach by the surf, would get hurt by surfboards smashing into us, would get sick from pollution or any other nasty things. Then we had to write down who to contact in case we would get hurt and sign that we were a) able to swim at least 50 meters and b) were fit enough for at least 2 hours of surfing.

After all that was done Luke handed us our wetsuits. After we got changed we went to sit in a circle with the other 3 novice surfers. We did some introductions: who we were, where we were from, what we did, what our goals for the day were and what we could learn the other people. After that we needed to do some stretching and finally we were handed the boards. We dragged them to the sea where Luke explained the basics: get into the water, wait for the wave, paddle, stand.

We got into the water, which was nice, warm and blue. The surfing was not the grand success I had been hoping for, but still a lot of fun. Sadly I did not yet manage to stand up on the board. Every time I tried to get more than halfway up I fell off. I am gonna try again tomorrow.

Maroubra is a very nice beach. It's a long way from the city but there are also not that many people there. Especially at eight in the morning. I have told that trying to surf there is much better for my surf cred than going to Bondi, where we were last week. There were a lot of people out there doing some pretty nice surfing, while at Bondi I did not see anyone who was able to do more than just standing up and gliding for about 25 mtrs. Maroubra: surfers, Bondi: backpackers.

I have no pictures of my and the board as the camera was in the locker, but I did take some pictures afterwards, see them by clicking here.

This week...

2008-03-12T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hi! How are you? I am quite fine. Having a bit of bad luck lately it seems, but applying the "no worries" mentality and solving the problems later, seems to be working fine. My third e-request to change my course got denied, so I have decided to stick with the courses I have got. Then I got an email that my application for a travel scholarship has gotten lost, so I will have to apply again for that. This is not so nice, as it involves quite sum of money. I hope. Also the the rear wheel of my bike broke some spokes. But I got that fixed quite nicely, as the shop where I got it decided to replace the entire wheel. While waiting I saw the nice big spider below.

So the wheel got fixed and the boring course seems to be getting better. Now just to get the money sorted and start looking for a graduation project. If you have a nice one, let me know!

I also went rowing yesterday. This was quite an experience as the rowing took place at 5.15. In the morning, that is before the suns comes up. It was pretty cool: rowing in the dark with lights on the boat, into the sunrise. Maybe I will pick it up again. When I got back some told me that boats on the river occasionally get attacked by sharks. And I will have to consider the time.

Tomorrow I will try surfing, so stay tuned and I'll let you know how that works out!

Whats going on in Sydney?

2008-03-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

Aloha! Sorry about the lack of posts lately. If you were wondering: I am still alive, posting just was not on my mind. Just did not feel like it. The previous weekend it was a bit down, because everything here in Australia just seems too go so slow. Long waits for reply’s, long waits at traffic lights, long waits for trains, long waits in the supermarket, long waits for everything. Aaaargh. Also, UTS rowing club told me after three weeks of trying to reach them that there was no rowing for me, school was still boring and I got an email from university the course I wanted to change could not be changed. Crap.

But I have been feeling a lot better since Monday morning. As the introductions for everything are over University seems to be getting more interesting, I contacted another rowing club and have put in a new e-request to change my course. Things seem to be going somewhere again and I have found some peace with the laid-back Australian attitude. It takes some getting used to. Long waits at traffic lights, long waits for trains, long waits, long waits; No worries mate.

The weather has been great. The Monday (Architecture) and Tuesday (Maya) classes were good, and I tried an extra course, Design for Theatre, which seems nice. And on Wednesday the class I wanted to change got a little better, which was good because on Thursday my e-request got rejected again. We also tried to go surfing on Thursday, but because the surf school was fully booked, we have to wait, yet again, until next Thursday. So we spend the day on the beach and going to a party.

On Saturday I went to take a look at the Australian National Rowing Championships on the Sydney 2000 Olympic race course. The race course is really cool with 9 lines, and lies sheltered against the mountains. Next to the race course is a warm up lake. Nice. The Nationals are a bit different then in the Netherlands, because they’re spread out over the entire week so athletes can compete in all boat types. What was also very cool was that every club had brought their own tent, which gave the spectator area a cheerful look. Today I had an appointment at Leichhardt Rowing Club to see what they are doing. It is a civilian club, it is not so big but it seemed nice. Maybe a bit expdensive. I am going to give it a try next Tuesday. At 5.15 am.

Pictures will follow when internet is a little faster then today. Cheers!

TimTam: the Australian Cookie

2008-03-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to tell you something about the TimTams. The TimTams are apparently THE cookie of Australia. First only the backpackers told me, but now also the Australians are telling me so. “You should try some, they’re yummy good.” And as I see them everywhere, I wondered what are they all about?

To find out, I have just been to the supermarket, where I bought the largest pack that they had. I am now the proud owner of 200 grammes of Arnott’s TimTam original: The most irresistible chocolate biscuit. 200 grammes comes down to 11 TimTams and will set you back about 3 Dollars. Ingredients: Sugar, Wheat flour, Vegetable oil, Milk solids, Cocoa butter, Cocoa mass, Golden Syrup and some blahblahblah. Do not purchase if packet is open or torn.

The cookie is made out of 2 layers of chocolate biscuit with chocolate cream in between and covered in chocolate. Just the thing you need if you’re in the mood for some chocolate cookies. I think they are quite tasty, but maybe a bit too much of chocolate in one cookie for my taste. Just 5 TimTams left.

Arnott’s TM – Made in Australia, exporting to the world.

Besides Cricket...

2008-02-25T23:44:00.000-08:00

For who are wondering how I am doing and are not interested in the marvellous game of cricket, I'll tell you shortly about that as well. In general I am doing fine. School, "uni", in Australian is just starting, so that's nice.
Yesterday I was at Architecture: Thinking Making Inhabiting introduction and that seems very promising. I think were are going to design a small house which would be very cool. We will also be using Rhino, what would also be cool to learn. Today I had an introduction in Advanced Computer Animation, which is a course about animating in Maya, which can make movies such as Shrek and Monsters Inc. Tomorrow there is The Human Environment on interior design, which might also be good. I am hoping to get enrolled into another course on animation, and maybe I would like to to a course on designing for theatre productions which looks very promising. But than I will have to swap it for something else, so I am not sure yet.
I am also trying to get into the rowing club, which would be very cool, but that is not very successful yet as the head coach does not return my phone calls for some reason. I'll keep you posted...

Cricket

2008-02-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend I watched cricket on the TV. Australia was playing India, so that was quite an interesting match as I am in Australia and I have just visited India. In the end Australia won by 18 runs: Australia had 317 runs vs India's 299. They were supposed to win, because they are the current favourites and India currently ranks about fourth, I am told.

I tried watching cricket before in Australia when India was playing Pakistan but I did not understand a thing, partly because I did not know the rules and partly because all the comments were in Hindi. This time it was more fun however, as I had internet and a Pakistani to explain the rules to me. As I like the game and it is serious part of Australian sports culture, I will try to explain the rules to you briefly.

In cricket there are two teams playing. One team is batting and the other bowling (throwing) and fielding (catching).The batting team in in the position to score runs. A run is scored when both batsmen (there are two, on opposite sides of the pitch, the one in use seems to be called the striker) succesfully move to the opposite ends of the pitch. Every time they cross the pitch counts a run. A run can also be scored by hitting the ball over the edge of the boundary without hitting the ground. This scores six points and there is no need to do any running.

The team that is fielding and bowling will try to minimize the number of runs the batting team can make by trying to get the batsmen out. The striker is out when the ball it caught before it has hit the ground. Both batsmen can get out if the two bails are thrown from the three poles behind them. The combination of the bails and the poles is called a wicket. The fielding team can throw the ball at the poles as long as the batsmen are running. I think.

The game goes one for quite some time. First one team plays does the batting, until their batsmen are out and then the other team plays batting. In the classic game, now played in testmatches, it goes until both teams are out of batsman. There is a maximum of five days for the entire game. But today's matches are played with 60 overs. An over consist of 6 legitimate bowles (throws), and after an over the game is reversed. That's why each side of the pitch must have a batsman, which means that there will be one, lonely batsman left when the game is over. There is also a new, extra short version of cricket: 20-20s, in which each teams gets 20 overs. This last for only three hours and is thus easier to watch.

Should you like to do some more reading on this marvellous game, start by checking wikipedia by clicking here. They also have a very nice 4 min video that explains it better than I do. Thanks for reading anyway. Bye!

the Blue Mountains

2008-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hi! Yesterday and today I have been to the Blue Mountains. I was a nice trip, good to get out of the city but I haven't found out why they are called the Blue mountains. Very few blue things about them. Me and my bicycle took the train to Katoomba, a cool name for a place, where the hostel was full, but I could still rent a hostel tent. So I did, see below.

Nice eh? When I got the tent sorted out I took my bike to check out the Blue Mountains. I took a trip along the cliff road from where you easily stop at several viewpoints. The views were really good, but I found the "three sisters" a bit of a disappointment: not as cool as the books say they would be. Next I went to Leura, where you can see some cascades, which was nice. After that I called it a day and went to my tent.

Today I went to see Evans Lookout in Blackheat. The view was similar, but there was a very nice walk that took me into the canyon where a kind of rainforest grows. The trip was about 2 hours with a lot of stairs but is was very very cool. After that I went on to Victoria Falls, where the landscape was much dryer and totally different, but still nice. When I got to the Victoria Falls lookout a sign said that the falls could not be seen from there, and seeing the falls would take another 4 hour walk. Slightly confused, I decided to go home.

The pictures will be on my Flickr account if you are interested. I am however not allowed to make any more sets, - until I upgrade my free account, which I might - so they are not in a tidy set. Yet. Sorry.

Newsflash: dying bugs in room

2008-02-21T03:54:00.000-08:00

Hi! I just found the first cockroach in my room. It was in the drawer and already dying. I was amazed at how few bugs there are in my house, but I have been told that the house has just been fumigated this summer: this means sealed off for and filled with poison for a few days, or something. The only bugs you will find now, are dying ones. Nice, as outside on the street you can find them up to 8 cm long. This effect will last for another 2 to 3 months, after which the bugs might return. Less nice. Besides the picture below, I have also got a nice movie of it which I will share with you as soon as I get youtube sorted out. Bye!

New things...

2008-02-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

Hi! Yesterday I moved to a new place: my own room, next to a church. The room is not that big, but also not that small. It has a lot of cupboards. It is nice and it is quiet and I like that. The house is located in a new neighbourhood: also quiet with a lot of Italians and trees. I have never seen so many pizzaria's in one street. Nice.

Also, I bought a new bike to get around. It is not so big, has 26 inch wheels, a shockbreaker and 21 gears. And I have got a new helmet to go with that. I do not like helmets, but the fine is 200 dollars for not having one.

If you like, you can check these new things - including the helmet - out on my Flickr account.

This afternoon I took my new bike out for a testdrive and it was nice. I really missed cycling and I really hate going by bus. Cycling here is pretty cool. Everything goes up and down all the time and can be pretty steep, so the downhill part is great. On your bike you are allowed to use both the road and the sidewalk: this is pretty nice as it helps to avoid a lot of traffic lights and makes the riding a very dynamic experience. I did not like the shockbreaker at first, but it does come in handy going up and down the sidewalk all the time. So, if you are in Sydney for a while: get a bike! And below: the view from a bridge.

Today: Tropfest

2008-02-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

So, maybe you were wondering what I have been up to? The answer: not much. The whole week was a bit slow, I expected more from the university introduction which was very short, and was left with a lot of spare time. I have been hanging around in the Botanical Garden, reading a bit and visiting a few museums.

Today was pretty okay though because I went to visit Tropfest: a short film festival. It was held on the Domain, which is a large piece of grass next to the Botanical Garden. In the middle of the field there was a large triangular stage with screens on three sides. It started in the afternoon; there was not much to do yet, but you could have a picknick on the field which created a nice and easy going atmosphere.

Around 6 things started to get going with a band - Von She, or something - which was acceptable. After that the directors came in and after that, at long last the movies started. They screened 16 short film finalists (rules: première movie and max 7 minutes). I liked the ones on the mouseracing and the Japanese most. Sadly I left early, after seeing 8, because it started to rain, which I did not like. I will try to get the DVD next week and watch the other 8. All in all, a cool and easy going festival.

If you are interested, visit the Tropfest website by clicking here. Bye!

Bats

2008-02-15T05:21:00.001-08:00

Hi! I have just seen a lot of bats flying through the city tonight. They look very cool and they move in large groups. Below you see them hanging in the tree in the Royal Botanical Garden. They sleep and hang during the day and go look for food at night. When they fly they have a cool batman silhouette against the night sky. Luckily they only eat fruit. I think. A cool site on bats is sydneybats.org.au, read their article by clicking here.

To get you started, here are some quotes from sydneybats.org.au:

"Flying-foxes groom their fur frequently with their claws and lick their wings. They urinate on themselves to wash and in the summer they urinate on themselves, then fan their wings to cool down."

"Do flying-foxes drink? Yes. They swoop down to belly-dip in rivers and dams. They then land on trees and lick the water from their belly fur."

"Can I have one as a pet? No."

Homebrand... mmm...

2008-02-14T22:43:00.000-08:00

Hi! I haven't done much today, I think I might even have been lazy. Just read some books and articles and went to the supermarket. At Woolworths they've got a very cool brand: Homebrand. This brand offers value for money and, most of all, stunning graphic design. Check out the Tomato Soup below. For more pictures go to Flickr by clicking here.

A house in Sydney...

2008-02-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Here some more on how I am doing in Australia. First of all, I just found a room, which is nice. I will be moving out of my hostel and into my room on Monday. The room in located in Leichhard, an Italian neighbourhood about 10 minutes from the city centre and university by bus. For 150 dollars a week I will have a small room in a student housing facility. It comes with a bed, a desk, a closet, internet and breakfast: just about everything you need. It was formerly run by the academy of music, but now by the church next door. Because of the fact that it is ran by the church you are not allowed to drink alcohol on the premises, but I can live with that as it is clean, quiet and relatively cheap.

Besides looking for a room I visited the NSW gallery, the botanical gardens and the Opera House. The gallery was good: located in the park and with no entry fee it is definitely worth a visit. They show a collection of modern art from the European renaissance up to contemporary Australian. While the European renaissance collection was not as nice as you can find in Europe, the contemporary Australian collection had a few surprisingly good artists.

The Royal Botanical Gardens were very cool. The gardens are large, with great greens, very cool Australian plants, great views of the city skyline and harbour There were also some cool birds flying around and big bats hanging in the trees. The Opera House is located at the end of the botanical gardens. It was nice to see, but I found that it looks better from afar than up close.

More pictures will follow on my Flickr account, listed and linked below, in a while. Cheers!

India photos on Flickr!

2008-02-14T01:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I just created an Flickr account and I put the photos I took in India online there. If you are interested, go visit my Flickr account by clicking here. I hope you like it...

New Number in Sydney

2008-02-12T02:44:00.000-08:00

Hi! I have got a Australian sim in my mobile now, which means you can no longer reach me on my Dutch number. I will be using that again in the Netherlands. The number I am using in Australia is: +61 (0) 450 454 352. So, now you know.

Sydney update: UTS and Living

2008-02-11T22:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the introduction to the university at UTS. In a series of long talks we were welcomed about 1000 times and explained the does and don't of university life. Most seemed more suitable for first year students but all in all it was okay. I now know where to get a student pass (discount on the publictransport and zoo: nice!), I know where the library and psyciatric help can be found (both seemed equally important at UTS) and that if someone asks you for coffee, they might not mean "just" coffee. Hmm.

I also met some other Dutch people in Sydney as well as some other foreigners, which is nice. Below, a picture of the UTS main tower, voted last year to be Sydneys most ugly building. My faculty is to the right of it and connected by a footbridge. So this is where I will be studying.

Today has been a slow day. I am trying to find a house, which is difficult as there are not many of them. It seems rather expensive and also far away. You pay per week and it starts at 120 to 150 dollar a week. In my hostel I pay 120 a week and that includes breakfast, wifi and free (powdered) coffee all day. But then, I have 9 other people sleeping in the same room.

Living in a hostel is a bit strange. It is always very busy and you seem to have a few distinct groups of people here. I have been thinking on this and now I can divide them in 3 main species. Those with work: they either sleep or work and do nothing else (mostly from France and Germany). Those without work: they complain about not having work, do nothing all day and go drinking heavilly at night (mostly from England or Sweden). The third group are the Surfers. They are either out surfing or in front of the TV. These are most mysterious as I do not hear them talking and they seem to eat very little (only warm up noodles). I have yet to discover how they communicate and where they are from.

This afternoon I wanted to go the Bondi beach which seemed to be going really well, but just as I set foot on the sand the first drops of rain started falling. It seems to rain a lot here in Sydney, which is not common for this time of year. Next time I will have check with the weathergods before going outside. I just managed to take a picture before the weather went really bad. So, here it is.

See you next time!

Chinese newyear in Sydney

2008-02-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hi, today is the Chinese Newyear celebration here in Sydney. We are now entering the year of the rat and because of that there was a parade through town. It is organised by the Chinese community, but it seemed that a large part of the population came to watch. The parade had carts with all kinds of animals, dragons, marching bands and a lot of dressed up Chinese people.

After watching the parade we went for lunch in the park and then went see the Chinese garden. This was a very feng shui like thing with nice ponds and waterfalls in it. The garden was larger then I expected and had a lot of tourists in it.

To finallize my sightseeing I went for a walk along the harbour bridge. This is the largest bridge in Sydney and was quite impressive and nicely built. From it I had my first view of the famous Sydney Opera House, which was about time as I've already been here for three days.

Tomorrow the introduction at UTS will start. I hope that it wont last to long, because I would like to go to the beach.

Sydney, the second day.

2008-02-09T03:07:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Today the second day. I slept really well tonight, when I woke up it was already past noon. After breakfast I went to running and found out that it was raining, and raining good. My first plan was to go to the beach today, but because of the rain I decided not to.

Instead I tried to find the UTS rowing club today. When I got to the train station the train were not running so I walked. It is quite some distance to the rowing club, about 10km, but the walk was good. From my hostel you go thought the city centre, past the university and then you follow Parramatta road. This is a long road all the way through town from east to west. It has a strange combination of buildings on it: houses, stores, factories and collapsing things. At some point I had to take a right towards the bay. That road took my through a living neighbourhood with small houses that all had verandas and nice well kept gardens. At the end of that there was the bay and the rowing club.

Oddly enough there was nobody rowing at the club when I arrived. On top of the club was a some sort of bar where I went to take a look. Inside I found many middle aged men drinking large quantities of beer. As this was not what I was expecting I decided to ask the lady behind the bar. She told me that the rowers were not in at the moment, and told me maybe to come back on Monday. So, more on that some other time.

a Picture special! from Ahmenabad

2008-02-08T01:07:00.000-08:00

Just because there have been so few pictures: especially for you: a Picture special! I hope to create a flickr album for my photos soon, so stay tuned.

But for now, may I present to you:

Squirrels!

And, the best picture we took with us on it:

Made in Ahmenabad, India.

Comments!

2008-02-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just found out that you can leave me comments. It is nice to read someting from the Netherlands. Thanks for those of you who did, sorry that I did not find out earlier. This makes the whole blogging very 2 dimensional. Nice.

For people who like to chat: the time difference between here and the Netherlands it quite big. Now its almost 20.00hrs here, and almost 10.00hrs in the Netherlands. That's 10hrs difference. So if you would like to talk: your best chances are between 10.00 and 12.00 (Dutch time).

First day in Sydney

2008-02-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

Hi, as you might have read in the header, today was my first day in Sydney. The weather was better than yesterday: no rain, but clouds and in the end of the afternoon there was some sun. It is not cold though, about 22 degrees Celsius.

I am staying in a hostel here: the Palms hostel, which is quite okay. It's located in near Kings Cross and has a lot of trees around it. I am sleeping in a room with 9 other people and all of them seem nice. This morning I woke up because the manager came to clean out the bedbugs (did not know we had any, but the girl sleeping below was covered in bites) and now everything smells a bit weird. Good riddance to them.

After that was done went to take a look at the city. I took the train to the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which is housed in a array of not so nice concrete buildings. It is located next to Central Station, which is very convenient. When I found my faculty it seemed that they were redecorating because there were no students present, just a pile of dust and some construction workers. I had hoped for a little more than that.

Next I took a walk through the city. I started in China town and moved on towards the center of town. Sydney is rather big, with a lot of high-rise buildings. It is also surprisingly steep. While walking around you keep going up and keep going down, and vice versa. I visited an department store that had exits to the street divided over three different floors.

I really did not feel like taking photos today, so I only took 1 and it is not so good. But you will have to do with it for now, so here it is:

Bye!

Sydney!

2008-02-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hi! I just arrived safely in Sydney. The flight with Quantas was very pleasant. The weather here is bad: rain and a lot of wind. I just looked up the adress of my hostel on this here free internet booth, as I forget to bring it along. Now I will attempt to find it! See you later...

Back in Bombay

2008-02-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

Hello to all my readers! I am now back in Mumbai and have found a place with internet acces. Yesterday evening I arrived by plane from Delhi. Tommorow night I will be going on to Australia, from where I hope to maintain my blog a little better.

We had a short trip through India, which was very pleasant, although I only managed to visit a few places: Amhnebad, Jodhpur and Delhi. Distances between are very big, so I flew back from Delhi, the other option was a 29hr train ride.

As you might have read before, Ahmnebad was great. From there we took another night train to visit Jodhpur: the blue city. Jodhpur is reletively small (600.000) and it's main feature is a very nice and very big palace/castle on top of the hill. In the castle we took the audiotour, which was suprisingly good, although we looked ridiculous. Pictures will follow. Due to the fact that we had a very nice hotel which served cold beers on the rooftop terrace our trip was delayed for a few days.

In Delhi we visited the red fort, which was a bit of a disappointment, although it was extremly huge. It was not near as nice a the thing in Jodhpur. The disappointment did not stop there, because all in all we did not like Delhi much. The people seemed less friendly then anywhere else we had been and the whole place was dirty a smoggy. In the evening we went to see a Bollywood movie "Sunday" with 3 very friendly girls from Austria, whom we had met on the train. The movie was very good: nice songs and dancing with colourfull shots of Delhi. All in all very nice to look at, eventhough we could not understand a word that was said. It was also very nice to have some other people to talk about things here in India.

While I am now leaving - to my regret, it would be very nice to see more of India -, Thijs and Remy are still on holiday. They are now in Chandigrath to enjoy the architecture and will probably go on to Shimla in the mountains.

Next time from Australia, bye!

Short post

2008-01-30T04:34:00.000-08:00

Aloha from Ahmenabad! This is actually a pretty big city. There is a lot less traffic, but still a lot more than at home. We have met Thijs friend Yasser who is showing us the town, which is really nice. We have seen a lot of temples and mosques. The old town is really big with extremely small street and many great shops. Tell you more in a few days as Yassers battery is now low. Bye!

Day 7: Leaving Mumbai

2008-01-28T03:31:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Tonight we will be leaving Mumbai for a trip to the North. We are spending the day packing at a leisurely pace. I can drop most of my stuff at some friends of Thijs, which is very pleasant. I still want to arrange for a hotel for when I will be flying to Australia. We have seen a lot of aspects of Mumbai: we have walked through the slums, visited the museum, we have drunk tea in the most expensive places and in the cheapest, we have been in overcrowded trains and enjoyed spectacular views. I am looking forward to seeing more of India and Ahmedabad will be an interesting change as there are only 4 million people living there instead of the 18 million in Mumbai. Nice and quiet probably.

Yesterday we visited, among other things, the Mumbai music festival in the Tata theatre which was pretty impressive. The Tata theatre is the most prestigious venue in town. It was funded with by the Tata family, who are the owners of the largest industrial company in India, they make about everything you can buy in India from tea to trucks. The theatre is usually not so easily accessible for normal people, but for the festival the admission was free. We went there to visit Japanese musicians who were playing a kind of guitar. The music they made ranged from very cool to very annoying but it was a great experience.
The Tata theatre consists of several large music/theatre halls and was built in the seventies using a lot of concrete. In its own way it is a beautiful building and most of all extremely large. In Mumbai there are many very Impressive buildings from this age and if you like concrete you should definitely visit the business district some day. It is too bad that were not allowed to take any photographs inside the Tate theatre. Other architecture in the city is also very nice, but badly maintainted. Before going to the theatre we visited the former Prince of Wales museum, which is build in an Arabic/Victorian style in a similar neighbourhood, also a good recommendation for visitors. Around there districts we also walked through the old colonial neighbourhoods.

The most impressive thing about Mumbai is probably that these thing can exist so closely to the slums. There are very people living next to very rich ones. Now it seems we are leaving. Hope to write soon, bye!

Cats and Dogs

2008-01-26T12:25:00.001-08:00

Ah, there are many dogs on the streets. And today there were some very cute cats! See below...

Day 5: Preparing for travel

2008-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hi! Today we wanted to get things sorted to do some travelling through India. So we went to pick up some laundry for Remy and Thijs. On our way we visited a small but nice vegetable and fish market. The trousers that we picked up at the laundry shop were impressively clean.Next we went to get some train tickets. After waiting in line for a long time we found that on Sunday there were only 2 tourist quota tickets available. Now we will be travelling on Monday. We are going to Ahmedabad in Gujurat and travel onwards from there, maybe to Jodhpur.

Once we got the train tickets sorted we went for a walk along Marine Drive to Chowpatty Beach, where many people were enjoying Republic day. Republic day is a national holiday to celebrate the Republic. It does not seem to be celebrated elaborately but many people have the day off. After the beach we took a stroll up Malabar Hill were we had a great view of the bay and the city from the hanging gardens. After a quick dinner (pani puri and pav bhaji) we visited the TRI continental film festival where we watched “A Jihad for Love”, which I would recommend if you are either muslim or gay or both or like watching movies in general. All in all I had a nice day again. www.ajihadforlove.com

Special News Report: coldest day!!!

2008-01-25T20:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went out and found the streets nicely cool for the first time since we arrived. It can get pretty hot in Mumbai, especially in the city itself.
Yesterday however was the coldest day in 10 years: 11.4 degrees at 8.30 AM in the morning. This is five degrees below normal. The low temperature was due to strong winds from the North. The lowest temperature ever was 7.4 degrees on January 22, 1962.

Day 4: cooking and eating.

2008-01-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

Our fourth day in Mumbai was rather unproductive. We had a nice and long sleep which has done us very well. We were woken by the housekeeper that came to clean, cook and do our laundry. We watched her do some Indian cooking for us, which she did very nicely and was very interesting. Having a housekeeper is great.
We tried to get some train tickets for a short trip into the North. We have stood in several lines for the better part of an hour, but sadly there were already 221 people on the waiting list for reservations that might be dropped. This means that our chances for a regular train ticket are very slim. Tomorrow we will try to get some tourist quota tickets.After a cup of coffee with a piece of pie at the Gaylords (?) we set off to have dinner with Nutan. Nutan translates for Thijs. The journey took about one and a half hours by train. She also showed us how the Indian cuisine is prepared and told us many new things about living in India. We had a very nice dinner with her, her husband and her daughter Nikki. We had a nice and easy going day.

Day 3: Tea and Dance

2008-01-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today has been a rather uneventful day here in Mumbai. After three short night we decided to get some extra sleep. In the afternoon we went looking for some nice silk fabric to make a sleeping bag for Thijs and maybe a shirt for Remy. On our way we bought some other stuff and then Thijs went for a shave at a local barber shop. Remy and I decided to go for some tea on the other side of the road. Just as we were about to order the boss and three friend picked up the entire shop and ran off. This was rather awkward, amazed and confused Remy and I were left there standing, without the desired tea.

In the evening we went to see a dance performance at the Mumbai festival. The dance was very impressive and located in a park with view of Mumbai over the bay by night. The festival was a long drive from our house, first by a rush hour train and then by rickshaw. The rickshaw driving style is very impressive. The roads are overcrowded as there are 18 million people living in a city just twice the size of Amsterdam. The drivers cope with this by speeding up and slowing down rapidly and using both sides of the road whenever possible. This makes using them a very interesting experience, luckily the rickshaws are rather cheap: an average trip will set you back about 15 rupees, which is about 30 eurocents. Now I hope to get me a gin-tonic. Bye!

Day 2: Mumbai

2008-01-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

This night we picked up Remy at the airport. As it was very early we got there in just fifteen minutes, during the day this trip can take more than an hour due to the traffic. Remy brought cheese, schippersbitter and a very nice Turkish Airways blanket with him.
Today Thijs had to go working again and Remy and me went to see Bombay. We started with a walk through the neighbourhood where we found many holy cows and a few goats. In the sea a few men were performing a kind of religious ritual, which was odd because the sewers also end up in there. Next we took a walk through some medium slums. When we got back to the city we found that many people were living on the sidewalks. This is troublesome as this leaves no sidewalk to walk on.

Next we took the train and visited Mumbai’s main tourists attractions: Marine Road, the Gateway to India and the Victoria Station. At Victoria station I used to scales to check my weight for a fair price of 1 rupee. The card I got from the machine said: 72 Indian kilos. Nice! It also told me : “You love freedom, experiment and investigating”. You learn so many things about yourself in this very spiritual country.

When we tried to get home by train we encountered a real Indian rush hour. When we tried to reach the door about 5 mins before we reached our destination. We could only get within two metres of it and there were still about 30 people between us and the door. When the train stopped people rushed out, people rushed in and it was impossible to get out. The people here call travelling on the train “a free body massage”.
We got out on the next station. When we tried walking home we got lost in one of the worst slums in Mumbai. Although the people live about 1,5 meters from the railway tracks they seemed very cheerful. After a while we decide to take out the map. While we were looking at it a policeman on a motorbike showed up. The man seemed worried. After a while we had a chat with him and he wanted to help us. He could not tell us where we were, but he did seemed worried that we were in that neighbourhood and would not leave until we took a taxi home. As we did not know where we were we decided to take the advice and thus got home quickly.

Remy has arrived

2008-01-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

I am happy to inform you that Remy has arrived. We just picked him up and he seems to be okay. Very nice. Bye now.

2008-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hello! yesterday night I finally arrived safely in India. After a 14 hours delay I walked out of the airport and where found Thijs and very many Indians. After a few attempts we found a taxi that could take us to Thijs's house and the gin-tonics.

In the morning I went with Thijs to see what work he is doing here in India. We took a train to Malad where we met Nutan, our translator. Next we took a bus to the Northern suburbs where many people live in slums. There we tried to find some people who are willing to talk to Thijs to get some insight in their economical situation, as he is trying to verify a research on poverty. The people were friendly fishermen who lived in houses made from sticks, plastic and rope: this was pretty impressive. Next we had tea and visited a small orphanage and then returned to Mumbai.

In Mumbai we first went for refreshments: smoothie, hooka and a very nice chocolate pie, which I hope to put on youtube soon. Next we took a riksja to the better part of town where we took a stroll and bought some very nice Indian shirts to pick up Remy in style tomorrow night at the airport at 04.20hrs. After all this we had some gin-tonics and went for dinner. Now I will go to sleep as I only have 4hrs sleep left before we leave for the airport. See you in the morning! Yvo

dr. Yvo stranded in London

2008-01-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Here is an update on my traveling already: I just got stuck in London. Not knowing what to do now I decided to tell the world, by means of your favourite blog! British Airways was kind enough to put me up in a nice Holiday Inn, pictures will follow as it is very nice, yet impossible to find: take the train: no train, take the bus: bus just stopped. In the end I found the place by taking a red bus: the London kind. Tomorrow I will be flying on BA139 (I think) to Mumbai, where Thijs will pick me up at 0040hrs. Now I am going to do watch my very fancy TV or take a bath or watch rugby in the lobby. Hmm.

For who cares: I got stuck here because it seems very windy: to windy to take off or land, and Heathrow just had a very almost crash blocking the runway which resulted in many delays, exept for the plane going to Mumbai...

As you can see this blog is very up to date. Nice!

Plane today

2008-01-20T05:51:00.000-08:00

Hi, I am taking the plane to Mumbai today. I leave Schiphol Airport at 19.15 local time and will be in Mumbai at 11.45 local time ( = 9.15 Dutch time). Nice.

Toothbrush in bottle

2008-01-15T13:21:00.001-08:00

Hi, I just came up with this in the race for many deadlines. It is a new packaging for toothbrushes: now packed in a small cylindrical bottle, much like a testtube. It opens by unscrewing, in stead of the always very annoying blister packaging. When done brushing, just put it back in. Comes in handy when going on holiday.

If anyone happens to be in possession of a toothbrush factory; please create this package. Let me know when and where I can buy this. Although this picture looks a bit crappy, better pictures are in production.

departure

2008-01-15T05:17:00.001-08:00

Aloha: Here a post on departure: I will be leaving you next Sunday on BA0441 for Bombay at 19.15hrs. Checkin at 17.15hrs. See you in Bombay?

Post with picture: met oprechte deelneming

2008-01-15T04:57:00.000-08:00

Hi! I found this card in the supermarket, it comes in a 5-pack. The cards say "Met Oprechte Deelneming". This means a much as "my sincerest condolances". I was quite amazed by them as are sold 5 at a time at the checkout with the batteries, candy and magazine. The print is done in a extra large pixel quality. Although the card seems a bit pessimistic to me, I will put it here anyway and see if i can get picture posted as well. Bye now!

My first post

2008-01-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, this is the first of a series of posts. I hope. If all goes well, I can show you pictures of my soon to start vacation to India, among other things... Nice! Cheers, Yvo.