A welcome addition to the kitchen

We finally gave in and bought a new coffee maker this week.

It's bad enough having a teenager who complains all the time, but it's even worse if he has a job making expresso coffees and then has to come home and drink instant coffee.

Normally I drink plunger coffee, but apparently that is too hard for him.

So we bought a small expresso maker to replace our aging one. It was on special at Aldi's and was a very good buy for the price. It has quite a few interesting features and one strange one. I don't understand the water hardness adjustment - but then our water is pretty pure in Canberra and maybe this is a problem elsewhere.

One ongoing problem that I can forsee is having to make Karyn a cappuccino each morning before I go to work so that she can enjoy it before getting out of bed.

I'm sure that this gadget will get a lot more use than some that are in the cupboards.

New ISP

It feels great to be free from Telstra broadband. We've now switched to TPG.

Despite Telstra Bigpond being the dominant provider in Australia, they seem to offer the worst deals. You can't fault their system reliability, but you certainly pay for it. I was paying around $100/month for 25GB - now with TPG I pay $60/month for 75GB.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when Telstra decided to get rid of personal web pages. Or rather, you could start paying an additional $10/month for the priviledge. All the other providers still allow you a small site for free. I have a site that shows my family genealogy, and I want to keep it to share it with others and to allow other family members to find me. It has worked well for me for many years.

So finally Telstra forced me to look for an alternative supplier. It seems that they are more interested in getting new customers rather than keeping their existing ones. I was genuinely surprised when I called to cancel my service and the operator made no attempt to get me to change my mind. Maybe I was just one of thousands.

But let me tell you, it's hard being without the Internet for a week. It's like having no electricity or no TV. Fortunately Matt's iPhone can be used as a modem, so Karyn could plug it into her laptop to check her email. Lucky Matt has a 1GB download allowance for his phone.

Karyn rang me at work on Monday with joy in her voice as she said that all 3 lights were green on the modem, meaning that we were back online.

Mum's Birthday in Sydney

Last weekend we went to Sydney so see Mum for her birthday.

We now have a love/hate relationship with Sydney - we remember the great time that we had when we lived there, and it's a good place to visit, BUT we're glad we don't live there anymore.

When you visit Sydney, you are struck by the scene of a modern city flanking a beautiful harbour. The main focus of the city is Circular Quay, busy with ferries shuttling people from the rim of the harbour to the centre. Circular Quay is flanked by the Harbour Bridge on the left and the Opera House on the right. It's hard to think of politicians today making the same decisions as those of the past that resulted in such striking landmarks.

But then there's the traffic, and the people. And worst of all are the strange traffic diversions that take you in directions that you don't think that you want to go, which then force you to turn into tunnels that do take you where you want to go. And you have to be so careful to be in just the right lane so that you can take the right exit to move to another lane to take another exit to end up in the right street. Make one wrong turn and you could end up anywhere. And forget your GPS - you have to keep your eyes on the street signs.

We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel at Circular Quay. I would recommend it to anyone. Good rooms, great views, excellent gym, but wi-fi far too expensive for the casual visitor.

On Saturday night we went to Doyles at Circular Quay for dinner with Mum, Richard and Lynne. (I forgot to take a picture of us all). The food was good and the view even better (see photo below). The only problem was that I reckon that they turned off the heading at 9PM to make everyone leave.


On Sunday morning we went for a walk to the street markets at the Rocks (a stone's throw from the Quay) were Karyn bought a new vase/water bowl/decoration-filled-with-water-that-you-float-things-in.


All in all, a very nice weekend.