Life is so good, it gets better every day

2004

I listened to some Counting Crows this morning, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I think I want to tell something so amazingly meaningful, but I think my smile is enough.

Post Mortem

Christmas was a blast, if a little odd at times – I guess there’s no good substitution for snow. Santa came for the kids, and managed to find me too. Lots of presents mixed up with beach, oysters, lobster, prawns and washed down with a few cold beers and some chardonnay. The weather was a rather unpleasant 32+ degrees. Nice to see how the other side lives though.

Christmas

Go wild.

I Come From A Land Down Under

In a word, Sydney is awesome. I like it here, and could really see myself staying on for a year or two. It’s so incredibly chilled out, much like New Zealand – if a little bit more cosmopolitan. I’m staying with my Aunt, Uncle and kids about 20 minutes ferry ride north in Neutral bay. This whole ferry thing is rocking. Go into town, have a few drinks, get the ferry home. Only in Sydney.

Spent part of the day at Balmoral beach, swimming in the beautiful blue water, and playing amongst the sandstone boulders. We haven’t really done the sea in New Zealand, so it’s been a nice change. Finding being woken up by the kids at 7am pretty difficult, and they’ve totally walked all over me, in terms of finding my Christmas presents and sneaking looks through the now giant sized holes in the wrapping paper.

Hopefully heading back to the indoor climbing wall tomorrow – I visited about 2 years ago, and seem to remember this huge overhung bouldering wall. It’s been a while since I’ve climbed, and looking forward to cranking some plastic.

Met up with Jeff tonight for a few beers and some food. For all the intelligence that he seems to portray, he is really just a geek wannabie who plays Xbox and can’t figure out how to sms with any amount of proficiency. He still wears purple laces.

Half Breed 20

Hard pulling to get through the roof, and up the arete at the left end of The Alcove. Climb the easy face to a steepening exit beside the bush, with surprisingly tricky moves on the slopers to top out. Five bolts and anchor rings.

Pretty psyched about climbing at the moment. Britten crag is really an awesome place, with good friction on overhanging basalt rock. It’s a bit like Muckross in some ways, with lots of pretty good flat holds, and with enough muscle the overhangs are pretty enjoyable. Climbed 2 19s and a 20 today, and felt slightly disappointed to have to leave the crag as the sun went down. I’m totally going to give the 23 in the cave a go next time, it looks like a cracker of a route.

This entry was specifically for the climbers who complain about having to wade through dull work stuff to get to the juicy climbing bits.

Just Another Manic Monday

Had a pretty awesome weekend with lots of climbing in Britten crag, while the weather was sweet. Climbed 2 21’s which the guidebook says is about French 6c – didn’t get them clean, although really felt I should have. They felt easy enough though once I worked out the moves, so looking forward to pushing 7a when I get back from Christmas vacation.

Noticed that GNOME 2.5.1 had been released so started to kick arse on porting JDS to the new tarballs. Went well, although some of the patches were a pain, since there were patches patching patches – lots of effing and blinding. Think I’ve managed to get past the more troublesome modules, and into the home straight with the applications. 31 down, 40 odd to go. Think an unstable JDS might make a good Christmas present 😉

The windscreen guy came to fix the cracks in the car. It was pretty awesome to see him at work – almost like keyhole surgery as he drilled through the glass and filled it with reisin. Hopefully it’ll be enough for the car to pass, providing we get the breaks checked out.

Booked a nice little appointment with the medical center to get my vaacinations for India. Arvind pointed me at Linux Asia 2004, a conference in Dehli happening while I’m out in Bangalore. Thinking about getting a flight up [or down] there and perhaps giving a talk. That’s if there isn’t already a group of Indian GNOME hackers running the show! Let me know your plans.

Lord of the Rings on Thursday. Should be entertaining, although really less hype than I was expecting over here.

Panel Applets

Mark wrote a nifty little script to add new applets to a given panel from the command line. Although it’s not hugely useful from a usability point of view, it might encourage a small project for something better –

  gman@slipstream:~> gnome-panel-applet --list         	clock         	dictionary         	battery_monitor         	.... gman@slipstream:~> gnome-panel-applet --add --panel=bottom --applet=clock gman@slipstream:~> gnome-panel-applet --remove clock  

Some food for thought.

The Corona Strikes Back

So, the mechanics didn’t turn off the lights when they were testing the car, and since I drove back in daylight I failed to notice. The next morning we had a nice flat battery. Fortunately we were able to find a nice couple, Greg and Astrid, to help us jump start the car, and everything was okay after that.

Had a pretty productive day at Britten crag – mostly still climbing 18s, 19s and now 20s. The grades are definitely easier than Wanaka, and it’s really hard to get a feel for what the standard grade is.

We bought a bottle of wine to bring over to our new helpful neighbours, who were going to refuse it unless we sat down with them to share it. We stayed, and got fed some nice lamb mignons from the bbq, some excellent dessert and a glass or two of red wine. What kind people.

Stupid WOF

So, the car didn’t pass, and they failed us on the crack on the windscreen which is minute, and a crack in the left rear break block or something. So we have 30 days to get that all fixed up before the next test. Hopefully the work won’t cost too much.

La Bella Vita

Until it is gone. Ettore, you will be missed. The Ximan guys have been through tough times, and no one should have to deal with this.