Possum

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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!