Discontinuing Blog

I am considering discontinuing this blog due to change of focus, and too much attention drawn to it. May be I will join a developer blog where I can blend in with others.

PS: After a few years of talking to Google I regained control of the content here via mail redirect. I have been busy writing in the gap, the content here except this post are mirrored.

Back in Adelaide battling Trojans

This seems to be the story of my life when returning from conferences - things are in a mess.

Otherwise this post was going to be about the magnificent trans-Bali trip to Mt. Batur and back. Since all the photos are somewhere in Germany I have more niggling issues that has to wait. I passed the citizenship test by the way, glad that's out of the way.

I am going to discontinue this blog due to ... cold and flu for a while.

Exploring Semniyak - Dining on the beach

Today I caught up with Marieka who could not get a flight out and is stuck here till Sunday. So I at least have some quality company for a few days. I got to introduce her to Kelapa Muda which she apparently had never had before.We occupied a gazebo for dinner near the beach and planned an outing to Ubud tomorrow.
Then I hot the classy Hu'u bar in Semniyak and indulged in some Lychee martini's and a sisha.

After conference - Life in Kuta

So after nearly 4 days of hard conferencing I have settled in Kuta to relax for a few days. If you can call partying all night relaxing. I am staying in a small beach side hotel called Melasti , it has nice old buildings and garden and a couple of pools. The beach is a stone's throw away as is the mall. The nightlife is a short taxi ride and you can stagger your outing properly to hit the right spot at the right time.

I started with dining on the beach while watching the sunset and moved onto Poppy's and Bounty. Big aussie crowd here - not hard to make friends and across the road there was a band playing. Most of the time was spent dancing in front of the air-con and fan for position. When Poppy's died down I headed to MBarGo and ran across a few familiar faces seeming to have a lot of fun with the locals.

When I ran out of steam a short cab ride dumped me right on my bed.

At the Intercontinental Resort in Bali

So I have finally arrived at the conference. The balcony has a superb view over the garden. The rooms are quite stylish too. Here are a few photos to whet your appetite.
The long-long queue at the airport was definitely worth it. I again got into trouble over my dog-eared passport, can't wait to get a new one.

Off to Bali

Stealing a minute .. boarding flight to Denpasar in Perth. See you on the other side.

Box seat at the Tour Down Under

So I caught too early a bus out of Adelaide after doing my test. Since there are like 6 buses to Woodside per day I have to wait for an hour for my connection. By the way the test went well the only thing I am unsure about is who has the right to free speech in Australia, Australian citizens only or everyone.

Meanwhile sitting on the dirt by the roadside I have prime view of the tour down under. All the peletons going past for the steep and windy hill climb just ahead. So found a shady spot and settled in for the wait. May be I will capture a bike pile-up, fingers crossed.

Still waiting to have an Australianity check

After all the hard reading for weeks, I can recite the Australian Citizenship book by heart. So, ask me anything .... When did Abel Tasman visit Van Diemen's Land ? When was the Eureka Rebellion ?

Unfortuanately I cannot do the test, I have been waiting for an hour or so, the Australia wide testing server is down. Surprise, surprise they do not have a backup hardcopy test. So I will spend a fair bit of time here waiting and getting hungry for lunch, till I cannot think anymore. May be its their strategy to make the test more difficult, frustrating your attempts at doing it. Leave alone a paper based test, why cannot they have a fail-over server ? Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. I keep asking them to take the book and ask me questions, they would not take up on the offer ... DIMIA ....

On the brighter side apart for some legal hassles my PhD enrollment seems to be going through, I have also got my P2 licence so I do not have to carry those ugly red P's around.

Hopefully it will be ready today, otherwise it will be a day wasted.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

So the holiday season is finally here, but I have burnt up all my leave and my spare cash going to Kenya and buying a car. So time to sit tight and haunt people's houses for free meals which they will gladly provide in this time of the year when generosity and goodwill rule their thoughts, otherwise the ghost of Christmas will haunt them every year instead of just me. Not that I can't cook, with sites like Cooking for Engineers to help me, it is not hard. Tonight's special was Prawn Jalfrezi, with prawns you have to be careful not to overcook them or they become tough like hard boiled eggs.

I am still studying for my Australian Citizenship Test. Paul if you are so eager you can do this one here, it has answers unlike mine where I am too mean to provide answers. Only the question about which is the political party currently in power needs the answer to be revised since Kevin Andrews is no longer holding down that particular plum job. All hail the separation of power now that the Federal Court has reinstated the Haneef visa. I hope they have a question about how arms of the government tangle with each other.

Also test drove RAT TerraSAR-X Driver and INSAR capability, it was a breeze producing unwrapped phase. Just need to quantify the baseline and extension to spaceborne platform position information to allow accurate DEM generation.