Then home, did some photo sorting, and this jigsaw of Yokohama Bay Bridge in an hour and a quarter:

Also did some thinking about and planning for my next trip.  Getting excited :)

Another little Eee PC (the first one we got three and a half years ago between our wedding and our honeymoon).  While the first one was adorable, it was too underpowered to work with the photos off my new camera, getting photos off it was a pain (you had to do a cp -p to preserve the timestamps on the files), the screen was *tiny* and difficult to use Firefox on, and the final nail in the coffin - it runs Linux, but I need Windows or MacOS to run my GPS software.  

I wanted an SSD for it, but they're really hard to get in netbooks (apparently people want more space so they can use them for downloading holiday photos).  The Macbook Air certainly looked pretty swishy, but at three times the price, and the pain of me having to learn a whole new OS and find replacement applications put me off.  I decided I just wanted something reasonably cheap that wouldn't be the end of the world if anything happened to it while travelling.

JB HiFi had the R051PX for $397, Dick Smith had it for $399.  So Phil looked up MSY and they had it for $299.  So out to Fyshwick I trekked this afternoon :)

Haven't played with it much yet, just doing lots of updates.

Not sure what we'll do with the old one (which we paid $500 for - ouch!!), maybe give it to the kids for Christmas or something..??  

And I still have that old 98 laptop too - and it even still boots!  But couldn't get the GPS software working on that either - it installed ok but then wouldn't actually run :(

Pedestrian crossing buttons - presumably American crossings don't have buttons at all and you just have to wait.  Although I read somewhere that they don't really do anything in Australia.  Unless I suppose it's a dedicated pedestrian crossing where the lights will only change if you press the button.

No 1 and 2 cent pieces - omigosh this is so true!  I *hate* these coins and having to use them overseas - you end up with piles of the stoopid things because they're completely useless!  New Zealand has gone one step further and taken away 5 cent pieces as well.

Stop signs, or lack thereof - in America most minor intersections have Stop signs.  In Australia we have Give Way signs.  Which means you don't actually have to stop, but just need to make sure nothing is coming.  Sooo much better on a quiet intersection!

Number plate laws - not sure what I meant by this?

Toilet seats - again not sure what I meant by this.  Although I do think American toilets are weird with their huge bowls of water so that everything floats around - gross!!

Know how much you're paying - in Australia the GST (goods and services tax) is included in the price tag.  In America (at least the states that add sales tax) you never know how much something is going to cost until they ring it up at the cash register.

Minimum wage/tipping - in Australia people in the service industry are paid sooo much better than those in America.  They don't need tips to survive.  I figured tipping was basically like a service tax that went straight to the service staff, rather than the government.

Orange blinkers - I think in America a lot of blinker lights are red (or white).  In Australia they're always orange, so don't get mixed up with brake lights.

Metric - enough said

Seat belts - not sure what I meant by this

Footpaths - Americans don't believe in pedestrians.  They don't think they exist.  They assume everyone uses a car to cross a road.  At one point we were at this open-style mall with carparks and stores on either side of a busy road.  We wanted to get across to the other side.  We would have been safer getting in the car and crossing to the other side that way than to try and walk across like we did.

Self service service stations - presumably a lot of service stations in America have full service.  I *hate* that!  I never know what I'm supposed to do.  Just let me pump my own petrol!

Street sign labelling - in general street signs are much better in America (or at least better than Sydney!)

Freeway exit labelling - these are relatively decent in Australia now

Bags in supermarkets - not sure what I meant by this.  Maybe I meant the whole issue of taking backpacks into stores.  In America they'd never dare violate your personal rights by asking to search your bag on the way out of stores like they do in Australia.  In Canada they're a bit more forceful about not letting you take bags in at all, so I didn't even go in some stores.  As an honest shopper, I prefer the American way - I hate being made to feel like a criminal by having to open my bag on the way out.

Right turn on red after stopping - this is a given on just about all lighted intersections in America.  In Australia it's pretty rare, but should definitely be more common.

I'll have a bit of fun with some maps at some point, but here's a starter to show why my last day took about a week to geotag.  This was about thirty hours of travelling, around 18000km (slight deviations around China).

Source: Great Circle Mapper.

Ok so this is really old news now: Mid July the little brother came down with his German tourist friend Conny in tow (he'd met her a few days earlier on Town Hall steps and they'd been doing the tourist thing with her).  They stayed with us the Saturday night after the booze train run, and Conny did touristy stuff on the Sunday while David worked on the train.  So Sunday night we put on a lamb roast (I mean what else are you going to serve international guests? :) ) and after dinner played some card games.  Monday night we had leftovers and Conny made a tiramisu for us for dessert.  And since there was leftover egg whites, we made meringues as well :)

A year ago today we decided to escape the Japan heat and travel around the Kii peninsula by train.  It took us a lot longer than we thought it would but did get to see a lot of the coast which was really nice, and escaped the heat for most of the day, which was the point!

My reaction: meh.

I mean, I blog.  I tweet.  What use would another app have that was basically just a combination of the two? So I used it all of three or four times.  I quickly added quite a few people to various circles.  But really the only people using it were people I haven't seen in forever talking about things that really have no meaning for me.  And not just their original comments, but all the ongoing conversations they have with their own friends.  Completely boring!  To filter them out I'd have to put them in their own circle, and only read the other circles regularly.  Pointless.

But whatever.

The thing that really turned me off however is their "real name" policy.  Which I simply don't want to use.  I have my online persona thankyouverymuch, I don't need them dictating that I need to use my real name online.  

There were two problems.  

1. I didn't know what other Google services would be affected by me using my real name.  This is not explained anywhere.  Would my YouTube videos suddenly have my real name?  Blogger comments?  Noone could tell me.

2. If they catch you, they don't just suspend your Google+ account - they suspend just about *everything*.  Now you have to understand, I am entirely dependant on my Google services.  I mean just look at the list:

The biggest things of course being my calendar (I *really* couldn't live without this), Reader (that'd be an epic pain in the butt to switch to something else), Gmail for some mailing lists to make some things easier to manage, Analytics for my blog, Maps for various travel maps I've done, as well as a profile for commenting on people's blogs, chat which is the only chat program left that I use with any sort of regularity, and YouTube which I have a few videos but could live without.  

So you can understand my fear of being suspended.

And then there are stories like this (and other Australians in the past few days as well) and so I decided to delete my Google+ account.  Just like that.  All gone.  Never even miss it.

This morning was up at a very uncivilised hour (that is a shock coming from me ;) ) to get to Scope at Mt Stromlo by 9am.  Coppins Crossing road was closed for a cycling event, but we didn't see the sign til it was too late, and ended up having to continue 5km out of the way before we could turn around legally, and then back again to go the other way.  Epic grunt.  So ended up arriving ten minutes late.  And nearly got blown off the mountain by the wind - it was insane!!

So we went to Scope to meet up with Fiona (aka @phonakins aka The Little Lioness) and Rish, Lisa (aka @bakebikeblog aka Bake Bike Blog) and Chris (aka @chrispycon), who turned out to be an ex colleague of Stu's from Queensland!  It was a great little twitter/blogger meetup.  We talked about various topics, mostly things like Canberra life, food, travel etc.  

I had their eggs benedict which was pretty decent

Scope has a fantastic location, it'd be nice to go back in weather that was good enough to sit outside and enjoy the view.  And plenty of gluten-free options which made Fiona and Lisa very happy :)

Popped into town to pick up Stu's car which had been there since Friday night, then did our food shopping, then came home.

Having a busy afternoon catching up with stuff.

I separated the jigsaw into its six identical 999-piece sections and stacked them up so they don't take up as much space, to give me room for other things I want to do.

Planning a roast dinner tonight, and hopefully an early night!

We decided to go to Courgette in Civic.

I even wore a blouse .. *gasp* !

That didn't make me feel any less like I didn't belong there.  I'm just not a fancy restaurant kind of person (not that I wouldn't like to be - I do like nice food, I just feel out of my depth).  

Please excuse the crappy iphone photos.  It would just have been too weird to pull out my real camera, and it wouldn't have focussed on my meal anyway without standing up from the table.  Maybe I should have stolen Dave's camera heh.

We ordered a pre-dinner cocktail (Kir Royal) each, which was a blackcurrant flavoured champagne.

They also brought out these mini cups of crab and seafood bisque with a prawn foam - really really tasty!

We ordered a bottle of Southern Highlands Wines Pinot Gris which amazed Stu.  Will have to find some more for him :)

For entrées, Stu had the "Hand picked mud crab and rare yellow fin tuna sausage, wasabi mayonnaise, crisp rice wafer".  This was cold which surprised me.

And I had "Prosciutto wrapped pan seared scallops, confit chicken wings, pea purée, lemon olive oil, balsamic reduction" which was delicious and tender, although I don't recall seeing any actual prosciutto.

For mains Stu had the "Roasted corn fed chicken, sautéed livers with apple and sherry vinegar, braised lentils, Jerusalem artichoke crème, truffle brioche, brandy jus".  The chicken was delicious but I didn't try any of the chicken livers (should have saved one for Nat ;) )

And I had "Sticky pork belly with roasted loin, caramelised apple pear gallette, celeriac mash, pomegranate seed, white balsamic and cider vinegar split jus" which was pretty awesome except that the big two pork pieces in the middle were actually a bit tough to cut through - I almost had to hack my way through it with the knife when cutting it up.  That would be the only complaint I had for the whole evening.

There was a group of six people on a nearby table, and I swear one of the girls looked naked.  All I could see out of the corner of my eye was flesh..

While thinking about dessert, they brought out some watermelon sorbet which was *amazing*!

We ordered desserts, as well as a glass of Penfolds Grandfather Fine Old Tawny port.

We both had the "Vanilla crème brulee with seasonal mixed berries and short bread finger".  Yumm yumm yumm. Real vanilla, crunchy top, super awesome.

And the sweetie got a coffee as well

So all in all an expensive but lovely night out.

Our wedding anniversary is the same date as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  In the past couple of weeks, in the lead up to the 25th anniversary, there's been a heap of articles on English Russia, and other places as well.  For some reason this disaster totally captivates me.  No idea why.  Silly really.  I even wrote a time travel story in high school that mentioned it.  I was in year 12 at the time.  It was about a girl who suddenly woke up in April 1986 - she'd gone back in time five years.  She remembered that April 1986 was when the Chernobyl disaster happened and was trying to warn people.  But of course noone believed her (except her older brother who realised she couldn't suddenly know calculus overnight unless it were true).  The disaster happened and she went into hiding because suddenly everyone wanted to talk to her.  A month later she woke up back in her own time.  I actually scanned that story (and some others) before I threw out all my school work before leaving Sydney.

So not a bad year all up :)

Let's see.  Where to begin.

The year started with me away from the sweetie - I was visiting old Sydney friends.  First year since we met that we weren't together on New Years, which was a bit sad.

Did a fair bit of other travelling during the year.  

The big trip of course was to Japan and the UK in September.  It wasn't the best holiday I've ever been on.  Japan was 34C for five days in a row, and I didn't have shorts.  And the UK was grey and/or raining for a good chunk of the time we were there, plus we missed out on going to Legoland which was pretty devastating for me.  But on the plus side, everything "worked" in terms of bookings.  We didn't get robbed.  We didn't crash the car.  We didn't miss any planes or trains.  We did see heaps of cool stuff.  So really I can't complain too much heh.

Had quite a few smaller trips as well.  Spent a couple of days in January at the coast with all of Stu's family.  Would have been better if I'd brought stuff to entertain myself with heh.  Went to Mogo Zoo then.  There was a quick trip to Sydney for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary.  Went down the coast to DaveC's house three times in March, August over my birthday and October where we had a great whale sighting.  Went to Melbourne over the Easter weekend to see Cats with Nat&Andrew.  That was a cool weekend, we'd love to go back and do more Melbourney things.  In July we went to Queensland for a long weekend to visit Chay and David.  Decided that July/August is definitely the time to go to Brisbane, so will probably do that again this year.  And another quick visit to Sydney on Boxing Day. 

Had a very busy year at work.  Rolled out new proxies at the beginning of the year, but they were fraught with problems from the start and it was very stressful.  After several patches during the year, they finally settled down, only to have the upstream proxies start playing up.  Blah!   

Semi work-related were a ball in March where I managed to squeeze into a ten year old dress, but only just barely!   I also made a slightly drunken bet that I'd wear a dress to a Melbourne Cup lunch if all the boys wore suits.  Our director unfortunately decided to take it seriously and made all the boys wear suits.  Reluctantly I had to go buy a dress and wear it.  We also ran a trivia night that I think went really well.  And attended work drinks pretty much every week I was in the country ;)

One of the big projects at work took several months and was so stressful I'm sure it led to a high blood pressure reading in July.  I've been working on relaxing at work (and at home) and subsequent readings have been a lot more normal.

Otherwise healthwise I had a great year - just a cold early in the year but nothing else.

Spent a lot of time with Nat and Andrew during the year.  Those guys are always so much fun to be around, we really enjoy their company.  Also did a few Singstar nights with Windy and DaveO and saw Damien and Amanda a few times as well.  JamesC came to visit a few times, and the whole family stayed with us a couple of weeks ago.  The Hokins clan came to visit, as did the parents a couple of times and the little brother a few times.  We've spent a lot more time with DaveC in the second half of this year.  Seems I get on with him a whole lot better now that we're not working together heh.  

Had another heat wave early in the year which meant us putting quite a bit of ice into the four foot tank to try and keep the temperature down.  Seemed to work and we didn't lose any fish from it.  I'd moved the danios downstairs so they wouldn't overheat, and found a couple of months later some baby danios that had been surviving quite happily unattented.  When I later moved the danios back upstairs, there were more babies in the downstairs tank.  Win!  Stu got a colony of duboisis for the four foot, which are great fun, and will follow you around when you go to look at them in hopes that you'll feed them!  Stu's also gotten back into killifish and has been diligent at looking after his fish again.  We're back up to fourteen habitated fish tanks now!

On the opposite end of the weather spectrum, we had a very cold winter.  This year the pool froze over probably a dozen times (it only froze over twice last year).  One of the days the ice was a full 3mm thick in places!  We even had snow in October.  Go figure!

On the Lego front, a whole stack of Toy Story Lego was released so had to get all of that.  And six new Harry Potter sets as well, although really only one of those is "new".  There's a few other cool sets I want to get too.  Went to BrickExpo in August which was very cool, and made me wonder if I should put anything in one of these years.

Other toys included an iPhone for me, a Blackberry for Stu, a video camera for Stu, a Canon 500D for me and a PS3.  

So I've had the 500D for four and a bit months and have already taken 15000 photos on it!  The majority of those in the UK of course ;)  I still haven't sorted my UK photos *at all*.  I did however manage to sort enough of our Japan 2009 and Europe 2008 photos to get the highlights into the blog entries.  One of my next projects will be making photo books of those trips.  I did make a photo book of our wedding as a Christmas present for parents.  Having seen the finished result (which I was stoked with) there's a few little changes I want to make and need to fix up some of the images before we get our copy printed.

Around the house, we bought a whole stack of bookshelves for the downstairs room and set those up.  So that room is quite well setup now.  The garden has gone slightly feral though, especially with all the rain we've had recently.

Shows seen this year:

Movies seen this year:

Books read this year:

And a few other bits and pieces:

Phewf.  Yup, busy year :)  I'm actually amazed I got this thing written *before* the end of the year - that never happens!! :)

Six hours to go.  Have a great 2011 peoples!  Happy New Year!!