pen died

Time is up for this Hero 6021. I think I put the lid on and caught the tip. Oh well.

My Nexus Holiday - 5 A sour ending

Day 6
Herbal medicines... great. Everyone loves hearing about how they're on the cusp of death. And how they can cheat death if they just take a few of these overpriced musty roots for a few months.
I say avoid answering questions clearly – try on their cold reading skills. They probably have profiles of common, plausible but difficult to disprove ailments for certain age groups.

The attraction for today was some pavilion. The highlight of that leg was a Chinese old guy taking photo of Caucasian baby. The mother was not pleased and forced him to delete the photos.

Later there was a 2.5 hour shopping stop at silk road. Same deal as usual - find something to do. Maybe sit down at Maccas. Go change money at a bank.
Lastly there was the optional show at Happy Valley. My mother and I didn't go in. Instead we had a walk through Tesco. Tesco bags up your bag inside a larger cloth bag and tags it with some sort of technology. This method reduces the need for lockers.
Anyway, there was some crazy traffic outside.

Oh where shall I sit?

 












Fully dimmable sun.

Chaos in turning lanes. The third and sixth from left are lanes for left turning. Lanes four and five are for through traffic. Good planning... Not!

Day 7
The most appalling day of the week. We were on a coach for most of the day, getting to and from Chengde. Basically we visited a paddock. There was an unannounced cost of 50 yuan for the electric 'bus'. Some had flat tyres.

The 'guest' tour guide for today - some local woman - said it would take about 2 hours to walk and that those not interested in taking the bus should walk directly to the exit. Well, the hour spent in there only took us 2km. I think Chinese people don't like walking. Or something.
There was a temple at the top of a really steep road. Not much there either.
Stackage (this was actually on the main highway in the morning):

Appalling
Anyway, we were on the road since 1530 and encountered some traffic jams getting back to Beijing. We ended up disembarking the coach at 1945, but not for dinner. Instead we go for an 'absolutely free' foot massage. Of course there has to be some catch. People start coming out and try to peddle more herbal medicines. I get my laptop out and do a bit of programming on my MSP430 launchpad. One of the girls, dressed up in a lab coat, asked what I was doing. Strangely she was actually interested and didn't want to kick me out. Hmm.
Now another thought was why these highly regarded herbal doctors/professors would stay until 2100 to receive us. Surely if we missed the schedule, they'd just go home. We're not that important. Plus the group has a track record of being stingy. Ah, I suppose it's all in the headcounts. But both parties could have called it off. I don't think anyone was in any state to buy things.
Finally at 2105 we leave for dinner. There were chipped crockery and bugs too. Dinner takes an hour and we're bussed back.

The tour guide said give him the AUD10 per day tips based on however many days you think you should. Well definitely don't give for eight days, as I heard one man complain about but still submitted. I think the USD tips were slightly better value due to the exchange rate.

Food:
I had a bit of a laugh one morning to do with breakfast jams. I came up to the table where the toast is and take two small packets. Then a guy turns around and tells me that they're his. Whoops! It turns out he had made a bit of a collection and I mistook his plate for the main one, which was concealed by his torso. Hoarder! Well, I suppose it's representative of the kind of person who would go on a tour like this.

My Nexus Holiday - 4

Day 5

Mostly at Tianji. There was a touristy shopping strip that seemed a bit dead.

Lunch at 11AM. Good on the tour guide. More tourist shopping after lunch.

Today was when the tour guide advised of an optional performance. Some people were not prepared for the 350 yuan per person fee. It did cause some anxiety with the other travellers. My mum and I decided not to go.

It would have otherwise have been a waste except for the second jade outlet visited on this trip. The girls tried presenting first but found that the group was a bit more difficult than normal. One of them found the manager who was surprised to find that the group had such a diverse background. He then proceeded to use some good psych while talking a lot!

Hatred of Japanese - not quite forgiven following WW2, he jokes about making enough money from the Japanese with ridiculous mark-up earlier on this day.

Self-deprecation - he claims that he can't do business and has been in trouble particularly after the lack of Japanese travellers following the tsunami.

Global experience - he has done business and travelled in many countries, some of which overlap with the fellow tourists.

Sympathy for need for connections - apparently making his business more difficult to run.

Reveals some figures in the cost of doing business. There's no way to tell for sure how much jade costs for him at his mine. However, if he's happy to sell things at 'cost price' and the sales staff don't have any hesitation, then it's probably rehearsed.

He goes for reverse psychology in telling people not to buy. That he has made enough from the Japanese.

Revealing ‘secrets’ about a variety of topics including picking good quality jade. Good fun all round - just try not to spend any of your money in the process.


Food:
By this stage, lunch and dinner are looking rather similar to each other and to every other day. Spicy, salty variations of cucumber. It is worthwhile finding a supermarket during the off-peak to stock up on some palatable food. 
Protip: Keep your airplane knife for use with fruit. Beijing subway can be a pain for carrying even a fruit knife around, due to the entry security check. The staff will usually tell you off and let you be on your way.

My Nexus Holiday - 3

Day 4

The first stop of the day was a jade outlet/manufactory. This was very dodgy as this is a good time of the day to enjoy some of the sights – before the heat of the day really kicks in. But perhaps the tour guide was thinking that the tourists would be too tired to make purchases after sightseeing. Nevertheless, it was a pretty slow sales session with most people creeping out to the bus and staying there waiting for the tour guide.

The emperor’s tomb wasn’t much of a sight. There was some silly security checks though. Camera bags were exempt. People didn’t have to be scanned. I’m not really whether it’s useful to have those people there.

After lunch (which was back at the jade outlet) it was sightseeing at the Great Wall. Not much to report on except that there is an abrupt end to the walking trail, and wall for that matter. At the bottom there’s a rope on the ground that somehow is meant to stop vehicles from passing. The security guards on the end of the rope are something to look at. They sit on plastic chairs all day and don’t really have to move. But they still do that noisy whock-spit! So there’s spittle on the ground bunched up quiet neatly.

China is assembling electric power wind farms somewhere on the other side of the Great Wall.

I though the Dr Tea session went quite poorly. Some of the fellow tourists led the sales people on in exclaiming how good the sample teas were. They were also the first to leave saying that they had enough tea at home. The staff even started saying how they had strategies for Tian Qi flower products to beat customs and quarantine of certain countries. Sales were poor enough for the sales girls to badger people outside, next to the coach. No need to sit anywhere strategic or even to feign a toilet break. Just walk out of the room when you've had enough.

The day ended with looking at the night scenery at Olympic stadiums. Notable: silly security bag-only check. 

My Nexus Holiday - 2

Day 2This consisted of a few obligatory Beijing sights - Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and an acrobatic performance in the evening.
The tour guide talked a bit about the background of the tour and why it was so cheap. He said a lot of things and the horn-friendly motorists of Beijing didn't help with clarity. I think he was trying to say that there wasn't any government subsidy and that it was all sponsored by businesses. He didn't say whether they were government-owned businesses though. The fact that he said part of the tour was to show the Chinese diaspora that China had become great and developed sounded suspicious. No business would want to do that… Surely that's the role of government.
There's daily 'fines' of USD99 for non attendance as his paymasters require a headcount through the stores. Also if you 'borrow' an entry ticket to one of the sights for whatever reason, he requires you to return it.
Protip: choose the right side of the bus – the legroom can be better due to the different pitch to accommodate the rear door.

Day 3
The day started off with sightseeing at the Summer Palace. Which essentially means take photos.

There was an unannounced but compulsory CNY10 fee for the boat ride across. Compulsory because of time constraints and the logistics of keeping the group together.
Silk quilts were interesting…

We stayed there for quite some time. Sales were slow and people were quick to return to the coach. It looked like the tour guide was copping some behind-his-back criticism about the stinginess of his group.
After lunch there was 'fashion shopping district' for a whole two hours, twenty minutes. Hiding out at McDonalds meant there was a seat and table to use. The highlight of the day was seeing a coach attempt a U-turn on an undivided main road, here:
They turned that bus around after 75 seconds of hearing horns and three-point turn (maybe more points).

Last for the day was Wangfujing. I swear those metal plates on the road were there last time I went, six years ago. Makes a huge racket when the buses drive over them.
Tip: Bring something to keep you occupied. About three hours' worth of stuff should do it for this day.

My Nexus Holiday - 1

Have you seen one of those ultra-cheap tour packages for Beijing and wondered what you really get for $99?
TL;DR? Although the trip is supported by excessively-long shopping sections, you can still be a winner in terms of value. The shopping sections can be a waste of time for some depending on how you value your time abroad.
Day 1
The hotel was a total pain to find. Beijing addresses still have a long way to go. It's rather inappropriate to have an address on the ring road when that chunk of land has been subdivided into little neighbourhoods, and the taxi drivers are themselves unsure of how to get there. Something like suburbs might also be useful, rather than huge districts that only give you a feel for which side of town you should be looking at.
Protip: look it up on Google Maps first. Leave the page open on your laptop in case you want to refer to it while underway.

The Maya Island Hotel
I have a few thoughts about this place. Mainly that it's a good try. Why is it a good try and not a success?

• Poor location in being in the middle of a business park with no metro station nearby.
• Poor build with some strange decisions made.
• Trying too hard with the theme rather than making the hotel work.

The staff were good. There was a lot of 'stuff' in the room for keeping - but I think some of these were replaced too often. One does not need new soap or slippers everyday. Bath lotion, shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser and a two-blade disposable razor with tube of shaving cream were notable extras. The shower/bath had some design flaws which meant that water pooled on the ledge and could not drain properly, making the floor wet.
Protip: sacrifice a small towel to act as a plug.
There's mention of saving the environment by indicating that you don't need towels replaced. To do this one is supposed to hang the towels on the towel rack. A towel rack is notably absent from the bathroom fitout. Black tea bags are absent from the table. There are only enough ingredients to make (sweet) black coffee.
The rest of the hotel seems under-utilised. The gym was not in use at the times I walked past. There's also some massage parlour and spa that seemed rather quiet. A restaurant on level two provided breakfast each day. Differences from day-to-day seemed to be on what was unavailable rather than what other dishes were added. Management seemed to be learning how best to fry eggs during the week and shifted from cooked-to-order to undercooked in a tray.

Still, not a bad deal when bundled in that package. Normally there'd be no reason to live in a hotel out that way though.

Question

How can there be a smoking room at the gate at an airport? Everyone is supposed to have been security-screened and not allowed to take lighters beyond that point. Yet the smoking room is too full and people are overflowing into the corridor.

China Southern Hilarity

This was just a rolling commentary:

Preflight
Old people keep getting up and walking - screws around with the flight attendants' counting.
There's only shared monitors. I suppose this reduces the computational load and then they don't have to license as many films. I think it's just cheap - not really related to politics. haha
Lots of other passengers attempting to flaunt status symbols. it doesn't work if everyone has an LV patterned accessory of some sort.
China Southern were nice enough to provide a small bag with earplugs, folding comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, eyemask and socks. The earplugs were very useful.

Underway

• 2232 - push off
• 2245 - people using toilets during taxi. Flight attendants telling them to hurry. Is this part of the Chinese way of expressing freedom - through petty acts potentially resulting in chaos?
• 2246 - too late: the plane is on the runway and taking its time getting airborne. It's an A330. The flight attendants told them to stay inside the toilet.
• 2250 - it turned out to be an old man
• 2303 - An old lady came back having refilled her bottle. WTH. How did she get that past security screening? What if you took a coffee mug through? What if it didn't have a lid and had a photo on the side? hmm
• 2308 - Communal monitors are rolling advertisements. This is the new China with glorified motor vehicle ownership.
• 2312 - Flight attendants struggled a bit with moving the cart. One spilled juice.

Interestingly, the beverages were mostly Chinese. Just Juice was the only Australian brand I could see. Coca Cola and Sprite were Chinese versions. None of the drinks were chilled. Why would anyone want to drink Chinese milk? Odd. Also, there's not enough hot water for tea. That's quite bad.

There was too much film lag so I didn't watch the whole film. Something about a USAAF officer called Robert in China having crashed. He fancies a lass called Yangshuo. There's in some rural area and people ride around on horses with bolt-action rifles. Artificial romance ensues even though there's a bit of a language barrier.

Guangzhou Airport
Now this part really was crazy. The international to domestic transfer security screening had only one frame scanner. Everyone had to be pat down even after going through. There were plenty of queue-jumpers due to the prolonged process. The airport is too big so there were electric vehicles to shuttle us to the terminal. Kind of like oversized golf-buggies.

Domestic Flight
There was way too much plastic packaging on all the food. The food itself was rather ordinary, but expected.

Additional hilarity provided by a lady trying to help herself to food on the card, pissing off the flight attendant who rebuffed her attempts with measured words.


Another good one is the sound tubes. The sound is actually produced in the armrest, where one plugs the contraption in (you can hear it if you put your ear up against the hole). Wasn't much use again as there was really only advertisements and a laggy film running. Seems like a good idea for being cheap and nasty.

TRS Madness

Departing Australia was a bit more chaotic than usual. We had to turn back as mum forgot her address book. This lost us a bit of time. However, the most annoying part was the queue for the Tourist Refund Scheme. It clearly hasn't kept pace with its success. There were many disappointed and angry travellers, mainly Chinese and on our flight, who were told to board as the departure time was nearing and the claims wouldn't be processed in time. The queue was in excess of thirty minutes and there were only three staff processing claims. Perhaps a lack of communications caused the excessive delay [a la "not food; sweets" lady on Border Security].
Anyway, I don't think the scheme is a good use of resources. $300 is probably a bit low, compared to the postal declaration limit of $1000. There must be a better way to encourage spending locally while avoiding such excessive processing. It's a bit like Woolworths Dickson though. There's no incentive to add staff at Dickson since there's no real alternatives to the queues there for inner Canberra. In the same light, you must queue for TRS as it's the only way to get your money back.
Oh, I also managed to lose my phone's battery cover with integrated antenna. Lameness.
Awaiting Sam's comments...

Bike light phase 1

Finding the right combination of price, brightness and battery configuration can be difficult for a bicycle light. I started off with one from here:
http://www.buyincoins.com/details/white-led-head-bike-bicycle-light-flashlight-w-mounting-access-02-product-379.html

It came with a pretty useless reflector and LED.
My next step was to replace the LED with a Cree XM-L. It's a bit excessive but oh well.

I had read about the epoxy layer being too thick on the board so I followed some steps to make the thermal interface more direct. My tubes of Arctic Silver thermal epoxy had gummed up so it was a bit of trouble gluing it down!

Running off three rechargeable AAA cells directly, the LED draws around 350mA. I'd say this is about the minimum I'd go with for now, with about 1W output. I'll take the XM-L module to phase two and swap in an older module for this torch... I think I still have an XR-C somewhere that I haven't blown up yet.

signs of an affluent city

One time, while walking with friend to his car after dinner I was greeted by the nice sight of free money. There were shopping trolleys abandoned on ANU grounds. All I had to do was push the trolley to the other side of the road, to the other cluster of trolleys, and I'd get a dollar out of it. However, I was greeted by the sight of a two-dollar coin in another trolley. The trolley cluster was otherwise pretty messy with trolleys facing opposite directions and chained together. After reversing the order, I managed to get two-dollars out of the endeavour.

Later on there was a dollar in a trolley on Northbourne but no other trolleys nearby. Obviously there's too much money in that city for people to bother - even for students.

follow up image to quality of sleep

Quite a lot of metal peeled back here. Fun times.

quality of sleep

Hmm
Can't sleep. There's a truck outside my house being repaired after taking out most of its load section with the help of a tree. All of the noises, hammering, metal sheets flapping about etc are quite annoying. I will have to try get some photos in the morning and see if I can find somewhere more peaceful in the meantime.
Damn, I had good sleep in Canberra.

newspaper articles

 

Surely if proceedings had progressed that far, it's not merely attempted rape... unless he was waving his appendages around beforehand.

BOT

Just in case anybody has been wondering, I've been thinking, allowing those thoughts to mature through its gestation period and finally manifest into some fanciful electromechanical action that might be considered a robot (barely).



Week 11 end from Jason Phong on Vimeo.

After setting the scene with the black box obstacles, things happen at 2:45 and 5:00.

"...flee into Africa"

http://www.theage.com.au/world/door-ajar-for-gaddafi-to-escape-into-exile-20110329-1ceqw.html

XPT... closest thing to long distance train commuting in Australia

Although it's been over a month since I made the Melbourne to Albury journey by XPT, I thought I'd share a few of the things I noticed about the journey. With a day service and a night service each day, there's not much of a service. Also, without the Vline subsidy I probably wouldn't have taken the journey because Countrylink is quite the ripoff.

The train seems a bit dirtier than I expected.

 
The carriages labelled incorrectly inside (perhaps an additional carriage was added).

Crew announcements seemed to be rather excessive. They mentioned all the normal things about smoking,  food at the kiosk etc. They even spelled out which part of the journey would be serviced by the on-board food and the running schedule. Just when you thought it was all over, the guy comes back on and apologises for interrupting the announcement to answer the phone and continues rambling.

The seats all face the same direction - apparently they are rotated at the end of the journey. There's heaps of legroom. In fact, probably a bit too much because the tray was a bit wobbly at full extension. The top controls and air vents didn't quite align with the seats.

After a short while, the announcements fire up again.

Devonshire tea ready for collection at the kiosk in the middle of the train, for those who had ordered earlier.
And that the milk, sugar and stirrers were next to the kiosk. This point was emphasised repeatedly.

Seymour station had a nice collection of old carriages, but it's too near Melbourne. It would be a crappy journey to travel the rest of the distance [to Canberra] by coach, which was the schedule for weekdays.

Apart from all that, I liked the automatic sliding doors between carriages and the toilets were better than those on my Vline service to Bairnsdale.

Not much to talk about in regards to the coach leg from Albury to Canberra. The only bag that I took was my Ortlieb pannier so it was off the coach and on the bike from the secure basement at work.

cheap public transport

I've had a good run this week - about half of my trips have been free due to the transitional period between Myki and Metcard. Sometimes the bus driver only just switched on the bus so the system isn't ready by the time passengers start boarding. This can be the case even at my preferred stop, 1 kilometre in.

The other, more common way, is from Metcard validator failure. With no more money flowing into the maintenance of that system, I've seen a lot more out-of-order validators. Boarding is especially quick.

sentiments on return

Melbourne is

• windy
• cold
• bad/stale in terms of air in Monash ECSE laboratories

Missing:

• flex time
• Canberra peak buses filled to a comfortable capacity
• avoiding traffic
• relatively flat land
• sleeping in a quiet street
• single level house (makes for going outside so much quicker)
• continuous on-road bike lanes with no parked cars (bike paths are crap due to pedestrians)

young and mobile

My manager told me not to shun job opportunities in other cities, citing that I'm young and mobile (and proven to myself that it can be done). As another interpretation, I'm seeing that as meaning I should cut down on the amount of crap that I hoard. Having so much of this crap (repairable or not and possibly of little use) takes up space and causes more thought when deciding what to take when moving (and how to prevent parents from throwing it out while away).

I think I had similar thoughts after my exchange but now it's looking a bit more serious as a permanent job might indeed take me away from 'home'.

Hopefully some of it can be sold. hehe

Edit: I have at least five convention card holders. These:

10% of the way to a box.

good flight choice

This was a semi-serious attempt at getting from Canberra to Melbourne cheaply.

Tiger delayed as usual. Qantas cancelled - I didn't expect that. In fact I was going to buy a seat on that flight. But Virgin Blue ended up cheaper.
I got to the airport using the Airliner bus. I was hoping to get off at Brindabella Business Park and save over half the fare but the driver said that due to some territory issues, they were kicked out of there by the local bus company.There were four people on the bus.

My flight, DJ286, departed on time. The seats were comfortable and they give free earphones which aren't required to be returned.
Breakdown of flight:
Measurements taken from TI ez430 Chronos wristwatch and gives an indication of cabin pressurisation.

• 1937 push off from terminal 620m
• 1944 runway rush 580m
• 2014 begin descent 2680m
• 2040 landing gear down 1680m (screen reports 290m)
• 2044 runway rush 129m
• 2050 terminal 150m (screen reports 127m)
• 2054 outside terminal
• 2100 caught 901 bus

The bus driver was quite nice. He advised me not to follow my journey planner which originally suggested changing at Broadmeadows for a train. So I ended up changing at The Pines for a 286 bus. That meant that I didn't go into zone 1 at all, saving a bit of money. The driver of the 286 bus had a masters in accounting. We caught up to the 901 bus again at Blackburn and exchanged greetings. I got home at around 2310.

foods

I think I've found a kind of sliced bread that makes sandwiches more than tolerable again. For some reason Buttercup Country Split seems to go down well. Though it might be because there's not much of it - not being very dense. I think the more expensive breads put me off bread. Another 20 more cans of tuna until I am released from my burden. I have about 30 business days left in my internship so that means about 10 days allocated to tuna-sandwich-free lunches.

As an aside, Black and Gold (IGA's home brand) chocolate covered ice cream sticks seem quite good value. The ice cream seems a bit airy though.

Perhaps it's a common theme. o.O

...and journeying back

Well, not the best start to my journey back to Canberra. Firstly, I thought I was cutting it fine by arriving at Southern Cross less than 10 minutes before scheduled departure. Second, I didn't realise platform 13 was a regular Metropolitan platform. It didn't matter - a faulty radio meant a new engine had to be sourced with a 45 minute delay. Furthermore, a stopping all stations Vlocity service departed first.

I think it was an N-class loco plus five carriages. There was plenty of leg-room and the ride was superb. Not much noise at all, even while braking. The toilets all seemed to be backed up though.

Being a 'guaranteed-connection' the coach waited in the nice bus shelter at Bairnsdale. I think the bus shelter is quite decent, providing actual shelter!


View Larger Map

The coach barely fit in between the rumble strips. At times the driver was using the shoulder to ensure the safety of vehicles going in the other direction.
Lakes Entrance looks nice as ever. An old man tried to turn across the path of the coach. Tsk tsk.

Orbost was a hole.
210 acres for $198k near Coopracambra National Park.
Near the turnoff for Mila, heading towards Bombala there were some nice plains.
Bombala itself had nice old buildings and a river running through it.

I liked how Cooma unfolded as a hill town. It was impressive to see companies like Subway and Aldi there, and also the Chinese-Malaysians have invaded this far.

Australian mountains look half decent here.

The coach journey was a little uncomfortable as my feet did not touch the floor.



Total journey: 11.5 hours
Total cost:  $23.66 end-to-end

A long journey home

I had the goal of returning to Melbourne on Christmas Eve at minimal cost. Finishing the work day at noon, I cycled home and managed to fill up the garbage bin with more branches, made some sandwiches from the remaining ingredients and set out to the airport by public transport. Not wanting to pay for the comparatively expensive Airliner service which arrives at the terminal, I boarded the second-last #10 service.
As an aside, when walking around Canberra streets, I notice a lot of alcohol bottles discarded. The difference here is that they're often not empty. They must be too rich to care.
The #10 winds through some interesting places which don't normally necessitate a visit. The War Memorial - fair enough. The next half hour involved going through ADFA, winding back for Campbell defence offices, Majura business park but not the Brand Depot etc... I got off at Brindabella business park and walked the last kilometre to the terminal. At most there were three passengers and that was near the start of the ride.
Well, that meant I arrived ridiculously early for my flight. That was alright though - I could kill some time by writing up part of my internship report. Well, things turned out differently.

I probably could have gotten home faster using surface transport. Indeed there were two empty seats on the actual flight - perhaps those two found alternative arrangements. It was also nice to catch up with a former Phonetec employee who happened to be seated across the aisle from me. Funnily enough, his other half doesn't approve of Tiger flights and how it affects her waiting at the airport.
Getting out on the other side was a joke. Terminal 4 Melbourne Airport is just a shed. Found my parents waiting at the regular terminal... one that actually looks like a building. And that was 0130 Christmas Day. I was originally planning to take the 901 Smartbus to Blackburn.

Total journey ~ 11 hours.
Transport expenditure $91.21 plus parents' petrol.