Blood pressure

I am making a concerted attempt to get it down. I am taking drugs and Chinese medicine, and now have a graph of the data. I will see how it goes over the next few months.

Penrith Shutter Bugs

I went down to the Penrith Shutterbugs a few times. On the whole they are a great group of people who I get along with very well. But there is one man who is harassing me. He is Chris, otherwise known as goodmorningaustralia.

Here are some of the things Chris has done so far (over three meetings up till jan 2008):

1. said that I would not want to be unhappy like those goths. I happen to like goths and some of my favorite people in Melbourne are goths.
2. said that now that he was here at the meeting, he will send his mates around to my house. (to do some unspecified and probably nasty things).
3. said that he had come to the meeting only because he knew I would be there.
4. tired to work out what my email messages to my self were about, when I was sending messages about dishwashers.
5. that nobody in Sydney likes people who generously offer to pay for something like a meal. This shows just how much of an anti-chinese culture racist some people can be.
6. that he used to work for the police force. he once parked the police bus outside a brothel while he went to get a kebab and how that was a mistake because some (I think bigoted) people would think that he went into the brothel.
7. that he was working on a advertising scheme where he would place TV's in high traffic zones. But I was left with the implication that there would be the ability to record video surveillance in these units.
8. Apparently some adds for dogs on local notice boards, really are adds for dogs.
9. he made a weird statement about not liking road kill.
   

There was much more. This is just what I remember, but I will add more as I remember them.

Marrickville Crime

Well the numbers really are not good (they are per 100,000 units).

Steal From a Motor Vehicle

4

North Sydney

2866.7

5

Marrickville

2377.7

6

Woolahra

2240.2

6

Motor Vehicle Theft

3

Campbelltown

1525.4

4

Marrickville

1479.0

5

Liverpool

1472.0

Break and Enter Dwelling

8

Gilgandra

1941.7

9

Marrickville

1844.0

10

Wollongong

1836.3

Westmead does not appear in the top 15 in the state for any of these. Also, this is Marrickville LGA. I need to see if I can get a finer break down. For instance in Holroyd Westmead is also not in the to 5 and the top 5 count for 80% off all the crime.

Here is another page.

twitter meeting

Well I went to the first twitter meeting in Sydney at Pier 26. It was an interesting night and I met lots of new people. A very geeky crowd.

Click To Play

if only they had said!

Well, we were talking over yum cha the other day about the Japanese language. After I had been there for about a week I had worked out that there seemed to be two methods of pronouncing the Kanji. I was very very annoyed. Over lunch some friends mentioned that this was because there was the Japanese pronunciation and the Chinese one. I was surprised and annoyed at myself. I should have been able to work this out. Since traveling in Japan I have been to Korea and it is the same there, though they tend to use Hanji rather than Kanji.

For example Da4 in mandarin is: 大. In Japanese Chinese it is Dai as in Daimaru the big circle department store and in Japanese it is O as in Osaka. Interestingly in the south of China in the mountains behind Kunming there is a minority called the Dai People (Big People).

If only I had know this I could have done what I did in Korea which is to focus on working out which words I already knew through transliteration and ramped up my vocabulary much more quickly.

Back at lunch they said - well you never asked!

sydney camera market and yum cha

Well I went to my first Sydney Camera Market. I resisted the urge to by a manual 50mm 1.4 lens as I am trying not to spend too much money before the place I still have not signed a contract for is settled. I braved yum cha, having turned down a free feed at the same place on Friday, and was only a little sick once. I think that the octopus came too close to some prawns at some stage. But I recovered very quickly and I did not spit it back out.

"the aftermath" by Akida [?]

"billy mamiya" by james m [?]

"bones" by yewenyi [?]

SPB Photo Walk 11

Well, I finally made it to one, and there was only James and myself. It was good. We walked from Mosman Warf to Balmoral via the coast, then caught the bus back to Mosman and then down to Mosman Warf. Along the way we had an unexpectedly good and reasonably priced lunch and avoided going into the zoo.

"drying the wings" by yewenyi [?]

"take a seat" by james m [?]

dinner with the SPB

had dinner at the grand hotel, the first time we have been there. it is a very nice hotel. the food was ok. I actually do not remember the meal so it must have been plain and OK. I'd remember it if it was bad or good.

"bangers and mash" by james m [?]

catching up

Well, I started off using computers in 1975, playing games on a teletype over a 300 baud line, long before this internet thing came along. Today I played a little catch up and purchased an album through i-tunes. This could become addictive and I need to be careful not to spend too much. The album is Torn Apart from Area-7.

P.S. The album continues in the tradition of really good stuff from this band. Great music and better lyrics.

SPB day trip 1

Well today we went on my first SPB day trip. Organized by me to travel to the Jenolan Caves and Lithgow. Three of us went - James and Aeonmouse.

"metal rods" by yewenyi [?]

"sunset at 100 km/h" by james m [?]

"" by aeonmouse [?]

no house hunting saturday

Well it's not over yet. But I put in an offer. I am waiting for the finance to sort out itself. I still have forms to sign and email. I am putting my current place on the market. Need to clean it up.

Dinner at Saap Thai

We had dinner at Saap Thai. It was not as good as I-San City, only 3 out of 5 stars for this one. But afterwards, and after mutch badgering, we had durian on the street outside the restaurant. One was sweet, one was creamy and one bitter. The first two were two of the best durian I have had.

Durian fruit, originally uploaded by Morgan Carpenter.

"Deep-fried morning glory salad" by AugustusGloop [?]

musings on house hunting

I need integration. The house listings need to be available in iCal format with full address details. This can be searched and dragged into my calendar. This synches to the mobile. The mobile supplies directions using the gps.

Dinner at Zo Zo Restaurant

We just picked a random place while walking along the street. It was nice, the service good. We had mushroom hot pot, which included black and white fungus and some seafood sticks and pancakes.

"mushroom hot pot" by yewenyi [?]


"condiments" by yewenyi [?]

SPB Meet number 69

Was held at the I-San city restaurant. Gun ordered an excellent meal including the catfish dish below. It was flossy like flossy pork is flossy.

"flossy cat fish" by yewenyi [?]


"SPBers" by yewenyi [?]


"SPBers" by yewenyi [?]

blood pressure

For the first time in years, the diastolic pressure is below 100 at 98. Still way to high, but heading in the right direction and certainly better than in the 140's. So at the moment it is 130/98 which is still way above 120/80 which is the recommended maximum pressure.

Looking for a new place to live: III

Well I am getting better at searching:

1. Log into a free web site (I am currently using domain).
2. do a query, they are slowly getting more complex.
3. sift through the query one item at a time to find the ones that are open for public inspection.
4. use google maps to determine the distance from town and paddington from all of these suburbs I have never heard of.
5. if the place is open and close enough, add it to my handwritten page of places to look at.