Finally some time at home

I had a short trip to Adelaide this week, which is ending in some welcome time at home for the first time in a little over 3 weeks. I've got 6 days in a row in Brisbane which hasn't happened since at least Christmas and some time in June before that. As a result I've tried to cram about 6 weeks worth of catch up in one weekend so there isn't going to be too much time for relaxing but it will be great to see everyone.

There have been a few more HD DVD sales this week, not least of all the EzyDVD beat the bomb sale this week which saw a few more titles make their way into my collection.

I've still be on the look out for a new DS but I haven't really made many inroads. There are a few new colours around Japan and the US that I'd like to get my hands on but none of them have turned up here. In fact most places here have been sold out (or offering pink models).

Back on the Adelaide trip for a bit, last night I went out for dinner and stumbled across a noodle
place that would do traditional Malay or Thai dishes with Kangaroo meat. I was determined to have something with the 'Roo so I asked for a recommended style. They came back with the Mango Coconut and it was fantastic. I'd never thought of having Kangaroo in a stirfry dish but it was great.

A very cold day at the cricket

It was a very bumpy ride in to both Melbourne and Hobart last night. I also had to run between gates once my flight landed (45 mins late) from Sydney. The ride was so bumpy it's the first time I've ever felt sick on a plane.

The other fun part was the rain in Hobart and the long walk to the terminal, with no aerobridge.

Today we went to watch the Domestic One Day Cricket final in Hobart between Tasmania and Victoria. It didn't really feel like a summers day in the cricket, despite the 35+ temperatures in Brisbane we were lucky to break 15 in Hobart, the wind was a bit of killer as well.

There was some good cricket, lots of wickets falling made for an exciting morning session. There was a bit of rain in the second session and when it came to the big rain delay we called it quits and headed home to watch the end of play

Cricket in Hobart

The game came down to the wire with rain shortened rules and wickets falling very fast with the wet pitch.

Only 3 off the last 2 overs seemed an easy target but 2 quick wickets made it a nail biter. But the number 11 survived to put Birt on strike for the final over and edge the first ball to win.

My HD-DVD collection is also growing with Valavien tracking down a HD sale at Video Ezy and picking up some more cheap titles.

This is just getting silly now...

My week seems to have started as it began with BSDs... not just in my Laptop but now in my VMs as well...

I think my Dell is not long for this world... As previous mentioned, I would like something that is a bit more of a roadwarrior that my current 15" beast (it's hardly friendly on my back) . My first choice is a Mac Book Air but there are some infrastructure issues related with that... The Thinkpad X300 though looks like it might be a contender.

I'm back in my second home again the Virgin Lounge awaiting my flight to Melbourne and then on to Hobart.

It's over, RIP HD-DVD

After a wave of rumours, the Toshiba camp came out this week and said it was over for HD-DVD. Good news for some and not so for others. Most of the Film companies have continued their support for movies up until at least May while Toshiba phases out the players.

From my point of view I was counting on one side winning sooner rather than later so I could pick up some cheap titles from the losing format. Amazon have started their sellout with up to 57% of some HD-DVD and 50% of others. It's not quite time yet to back up the truck and fill it with titles as most of the bigger titles like Bourne and 300 are still upwards of $25.

LG also came out with some good news for HD supports with their pledge to continue supporting the dual format bandwagon.

I've got a couple of orders heading in from Amazon but all were kicked off before the demise and nothing has really dropped enough anymore that it was last week.

Here in Australia most retailers are yet to put much on the HD-DVD is over yet with JB and Harveys still having big HD-DVD displays pushing the format. the next few weeks should be interesting.

The big test will be to see if Sony can pick up the ball and run with it now, rather than continuing to hurt their supporters with continued format updates. They have had a history of being a little arrogant with their formats.

If only I had a fish eye lens!

While I was in Spain, there were one or two (or possibly more according to reports) times that I wanted a wide angle lense...

Very kindly for my birthday Mandy and Tom got me the lomo fish eye camera. This weekend was it's first outting. It wasn't too bad for a first run, a little hard to work out the end result from the view finder but gives me a lot more ideas now the shots are back.

FishEye

Not the best start to the day...

Possibly not the best start I could have had today, especially when I was working on a document... which is now corrupt....

Also I'm of to training again today, it's been a little less helpful than anticipated so my motivation levels are a little low....

Friday night at the airport.

Tonight I've got another trip to the airport but this time with a difference. Ness is on her way down for a weekend in sydney! We're aiming for a bit of a relax with no home duties on the agenda. It feels like forever since I saw her not helped with Hallmark day this week.

It's been a fairly uneventful week Sydneywise and I don't have a lot to report game wise. Work has been quite hectic but has been good never the less.

In my new found jump into the HD arena there has been some good news with Amazon have a 50% off deal on HD-DVD running in conjunction with a buy two HD DVDs or Blu-ray discs and get a third from the same list for free. This does make jumping on the HD bandwagon a bit easier. HD-DVDs have no region so buying from Amazon is a no brainer, Blu-ray is a bit more complicated. Fortunately the helpful people at the DTV Forum have posted a list of all the region free Blu-ray titles. Of course most of the bigger name titles that I want are region coded but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Happy Hallmark Day from Sydney

Tonight, with the absence of a Valentine, I took a wander through the City and took a few shots through dusk and the night.

Some of the photos came out ok but generally it was a nice night just wondering around and being a bit touristy.

It was quite obviously Valentines day with every second person with a bunch of flowers.

Ness is heading down tomorrow and we're going to continue the tourist theme through the weekend.

Valentines Day in Sydney

Studio 54 Gold Class: Now in HD for your viewing pleasure

Well I'm back in Sydney, my flight was delayed (unusual I know) and I've got a few things to finalise before tomorrow so it's just a quick update:

• The LG Super Blue player has made it's way into the home theatre, I was surprised at the increase in picture quality.
  
• Saw the Roar beat Sydney FC to get closer to the A League Final (took my camera but forgot to check that the batteries were charged
  
• Watched Transformers in HD on Saturday morning, the image transfer is just spectacular.
• Took another trip to the motor show with Tom, he took some great shots with the new camera
• Had a gaming day with a PS3, again more HD picture impressiveness
• My DS finally Died

I've got 3 weeks away straight away (not flying back for the next couple of weekends), but I'm gaming less for the moment so I've brought my camera, might try and take some touristy shots of Sydney while I'm away this time.

Another wet day in Sydney

Today has been a horribly wet day in Sydney. I got completely soaked on the way home. The whole place is a wet shade of grey. The wind is really strong as well it's been blowing so hard the whole balcony of the apartment is soaked.

The weather was particularly bad at lunch. Everyone was trying to keep out of the rain so the cafe's in the building were packed and out of food, without an umbrella I resorted to the vending machine in the office. Fortunately tonight I didn't have to venture too far to get some good Thai food.

The weekend was great, I made it back for some of the 20/20 cricket although the match was all but over by the end of the Indian innings. I headed to Freestyle to meet Ness at the tail end of a birthday party.

Saturday Dad and I headed to the Motorshow. There weren't a few missing big names like Porsche and Lambo. Still a good show lots of nice car. Also ran into Mick and Brad while they were waiting for Craig Lowndes to sign autographs at the Ford stand.

Saturday night Ness and I had a night out to Tonic and to watch Juno. Tonic was ok, the food was really good but the service (for the price) was very ordinary. Juno was a good movie and even though I didn't have the same wait to see it as Mandy it's definately worth seeing.

Sunday a few people came over for lunch and some Wii time. A great lunch, both thanks to Ness's great Spanish style food and some of the best Wii Tennis points ever. Tom took some great shots of the Wii Zapper action and the lunch.

This week has it's another week in Sydney but I'm going to be back in time on Friday to head to the A League Semi final.

Oh and in some tech news I put a Dual Format High Def player on hold with the idea of jumping into the next gen HD media format war without picking a side. The other advantage is that I can take advantage of some other big sales at Amazon, probably more news on that to come soon.

Sydney. The week in review.

This week was one of the most social working weeks I've had is a
while. I caught up with Amaya a couple of times and ran in too quite a
few unexpected people. That combined with a few nights of
gaming/working and limited internet meant no posts during the week.
Amaya lent me some ratchet and clank two which is now one of the very
few non nintendo platformers that I've played. I also played some more
GTA 3 and after a few goes found a working PS memory so i can play
through NFL blitz.
I've been continuing to talk myself into a new high def media player.
The duel format player that I found on discount seems to be the way to
go at the moment. I've found a site with 1080p high def trailers that
play on the 360 so at least i can see the resolution benefit (even if
the 360's video handling isn't the best). Lets just say the pictures
are very very pretty.
I had to sing unexpectedly this morning so I had to postpone the trip
to the motor show I had planned by a few hours. The social engagements
continue all weekend and don't have much free time before i head to
sydney again tomorrow.

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