It took a bit of getting used to.  The interface may be pretty but it's not that intuitive (or maybe that's just me - I never like interfaces that you have to explore, I like nice simple menus).  So figured out how to get it tracking when we picked up the hire car a week and a half ago.  

It works as well as the iPhone GPS does  - which is of course a little crappy - but for driving this isn't too much of an issue (except on city lanes where sometimes it records you a street over).  

The biggest problem I've had using it is that *any* app that uses the GPS just chews through iPhone batteries like you can replace them.  The only way to use it safely is to have it plugged into power all the time.  Which is ok when driving and you have a spare cigarette lighter handy.  Fortunately our hire car has two!  So one for the GPS, one for the iPhone, and a USB port for Stu's iPod.  Have I ever mentioned that battery life on the iPhone is utterly pitiful and whoever designed it this way should be shot?  So haven't been using it for walking around, just for the driving.

The biggest win for this app however is the ability to cache maps (at least Open Maps anyway, haven't tried Google maps - it seemed to have trouble showing you where you were on those maps).  So if you have internet access in your hotel, you can go to all the locations you want to go to in advance, zoom in to the level you want in certain areas etc.  Then when you're out and about (and you can't afford to pay $20000/gigabyte in data roaming charges) all the maps still work and you can see where you are as you're travelling.  Win!!

And it just works!

You drag images you want to merge into it, and it automagically creates panoramas with no fuss and does a pretty decent job of it too (except with water - where it sort of draws a straight line down where it can't match.  This could maybe be done better by trying to smoosh the water a bit, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad).

In a few hours I created 33 panoramas from pictures taken mostly this year, and 53 from our Europe trip.  

This morning I did 17 from our Japan trip.  The best ones of these are on the Japan blog. Check them out!

More will end up on conspiracy eventually, but here's one from our Melbourne trip.

I squealed over this photo - http://www.flickr.com/photos/phonakins/4726479801/in/set-72157624203111858/ quite simply because I'd seen it.. well.. sort of.  Actually we never did get to see much of Frankfurt in person, however we did see it at Legoland...

Look at the detail!  Look how accurate it is!  (Look at the cross-hatching of that middle building - there's a bit of asymmetry on the second-top floor, which is actually like that in real life!!)

Very squee :) 

Found a recipe online, and adapted it slightly (used more potatoes, and added tasty and parmesan cheese to the mix).

Mix the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients in a greased mug (I didn't do the greasing, that was too hard)

Microwave on high for three minutes

Serving suggestion:  serve with ice cream (which the sweetie did)

We used wholemeal sr-flour - which gave it a bit of a rough texture - probably would have been improved with refined sr-flour.

But it was pretty darned nomm for so little effort :)

And while we're here... two years ago today we flew across the wilds of Siberia and ended up in Frankfurt Germany..

Except I spent the first hour and a half dealing with *crap* and basically had a couple of meltdowns.

After that I was all "screw this" and had some dinner and a decent amount of wine.  

I've decided it should be my mission in life to get a job that doesn't have on call.  Dunno how since sysadmin is what I *do* .. 

Epic *sigh*

PS .. did see the ISS flying over, and then disappearing into the Earth's shadow .. waved at @Astro_Soichi .. was very cool ..

So then I read the forward to "The First Four Years" which talks about how the book came to be (Laura's daughter Rose had a copy of the unfinished manuscript, and after Rose died a close personal friend of hers decided to have it published).  So this book had a bit of a different feel to it, split into four sections for the first four years of their marriage.  This book had a lot of hardships in it and you wondered if they *ever* managed to make a living off the land (which of course is where wikipedia comes to rescue to fill in the rest of the story :) )

So all in all a very enjoyable series of books.

Wandered up Centre Place/Way so we could go to Haigh's.  I've never even heard of it (go figure!!)  (oh, this was after walking past the Lindt shop on the way to breakfast and being very disappointed they didn't have lime Lindt.  Seems we are going to have to stock up on them next time we go to Europe!)  

Continued wandering up Elizabeth St.  Stu stopped for a coffee while N&A and I checked out Bernard's Magic Shop.

Carried on walking past La Trobe St.  The old City Circle trams are very cute.

Finally we made it to Queen Victoria markets, where we spent a couple of hours wandering up and down looking at stuff.  I bought a photomosaic jigsaw and some beer stubby holders and was very tempted by some wooden landmarks like Tower Bridge etc.  But decided to be good and not get any heh.

I liked the big slabs of butter they had in this store.

Eventually wandered back towards the city, stopping in at the Shot Tower cone in Melbourne Central.

Carried on wandering down.. (skipping a browse through Myer because Stu was tired)

And went into Minotaur for a good while.

At this point Stu went back to the hotel, and Nat and Andrew and I went down to Flinders St to catch the City Circle tram out to docklands.

None of the docklands stuff existed last time I was in Melbourne so it was amazing to see how much stuff is out there now.  Now it's labelled the "entertainment and lifestyle precinct".  

Of course we were there to play at Glowgolf..

Which had some very pretty murals in some of the rooms

Andrew won and I got par so was all a bit of fun.

Then we hopped on another tram and went back to the hotel.

Picked up the sweetie then headed out again to find dinner.  If we'd had more time we would have gone to Lygon St, but in the end we just went to Tono Italian Restaurant on Bourke/Russell St.  Watched suicidal skateboarders while sharing some wine and enjoying some nice chicken.

Didn't have time to go back to the hotel, so went straight to the Regent Theatre to see Cats!

(this photo was taken the night before when the theatre was still in session)

I sneaked this photo in right at the end of the show.  I *loved* the hundreds festoon lights they had all around the theatre.

The show itself was ok.. not one of the better musicals I've ever seen.  It was well done and all, it just didn't have a *point*.  And I only knew two songs from the whole production.  So it was a bit meh.  Got to scritch a kitty .. Nat was so jealous :):)

Then we just went back to the hotel and crashed.

Real life pretty much imitated the dream.  Abandoned any hope of getting any "real" work done quite early in the day.

I did have a productive hour when I got home from work, but then discovered that the girl guppy I bought a week ago was dead :(  I swear I am utterly cursed buying guppies.  I've never once bought a guppy and had it survive more than a week or two.  Here I am trying to diversify my gene pool, but these stoopid little fish don't want to be in it.  

Epic *sigh*

I'd like a better day tomorrow please? Thx.