The most wonderful time of the year
It’s the end of Australia’s financial year. Tomorrow, many Australians will be receiving the so-called “Stage 3” income tax cuts, and I get to get started on...
Posts by Year
2024
This old house
Spend any time with me and I’ll chew your ear off about the nearly 100 year old house I bought last year. It’s in an amazing location, walking distance from ...
Not doing a thing
Last night I slept twelve uninterrupted hours and today I played videogames all day.
And then it hit me
Aha, there’s the jetlag.
Best sleep in ages
I managed to sleep ten hours, which I haven’t done in a long time. It was broken sleep as the doggo was out of sorts and spent a lot of the night pacing - ou...
DIA->PER
Yeah okay so next time I go to Europe I’m going to try one of these direct flights. I want to go to Italy so maybe Perth to Rome? It’s a mind-numbing 16 hour...
PRG->DIA
Flew from Prague to Doha today. My plan was to try and sleep through the whole flight in an attempt to pre-empt jetlag. I took some melatonin when I got to t...
Homeward bound
Starting the long journey home today. Due to the dual business/personal nature of this trip, we need to head back to Prague to fly out for home. Thankfully i...
No parkrun
I’m sitting in my hotel room, dressed to go to parkrun. I like to be a parkrun tourist when I’m travelling internationally - it often gives me a chance to se...
Art
Today featured visiting two of Vienna’s art galleries - the Albertina and the Albertina Modern.
Another thirty two thousand
Our first day in Vienna marked another thirty two thousand steps (give or take a hundred). I had already made a lunch reservation at Fieglmüller (who claim t...
Traaaaain (redux)
Today was a transit day - Salzburg to Vienna on train (of course). The train arrived late at Salzburg, so we left 20 minutes late. Then there was a switch fa...
Kasknocken
This trip has been a little unlike our usual style.
These stupendous hills
One of my goals for our trip to Austria was to get to the top of a mountain and have a beer. Today I achieved that goal.
How do you solve a problem like poor signage?
For many, Salzburg is the town of Mozart. He was born here, and as you walk through the town you can find his balls everywhere.
Blagging from a traaain
One of my favourite means of travel is by train. This is unfortunate because I don’t live in a city (or even country) that is redolent with train travel. It’...
And that’s a wrap!
Done! PIDfest 2024 is finished. A year of preparation, stress, and organising has paid off with many people telling me how much they enjoyed it. Several peop...
Prague by night
I’m certainly not good at this daily blogging! Daily blagging is much easier. I’m writing on a Saturday but pretending that it’s still Thursday the day after...
When disaster strikes
When you’re travelling and can’t take all your family members with you, you worry for the wellbeing of those you leave behind.
My kingdom for a coffee
It’s 6:51 and I’m in my hotel room. I woke up about an hour ago and have spent much of the past hour trying to work out where I can get a coffee.
Examples of architecture
Someone told me that the reason why Prague is so beautiful is because it was never bombed during the second World War, so many examples of old architecture s...
Death by tourism
Prague is a lovely and beautiful city. Shame about all the tourists.
Thirty-two thousand steps
Today was my first full day in Prague, and boy were my legs not prepared.
DIA-PRG
Now with the power of a laptop, I bring you photos!
PER->DIA
As promised, I’m on a trip - I’m privileged to be the co-chair of a conference taking place in Prague next week.
Jekyll on the go
This website is generated using a system called Jekyll, which takes HTML templates and Markdown content files to create a static website. No fancy gimmicks -...
Endless upgrades
I’m a little irritated at companies that hide software features behind hardware.
Dusting off the passport
In two days I’m flying out with my partner to another country, for the first time since 2018. I’ll be at a conference for a week, but thankfully I get to spe...
When hobbies look too much like work
Earlier this year I became momentarily obsessed with the idea of a side hustle - it never hurts to have a little more money.
If you fail to plan
I’m not great at planning and organising. I rely heavily on automated systems to help me get through my day. I’m not good at keeping fish alive, but my dog i...
False start
Several people I know have, for many years, blogged every day of June.
2023
Hidden settings for the Pedal Comet ebike
The Pedal Comet is an inexpensive ebike from 99 Bikes, a chain of bicycle stores in Australia and New Zealand.
2022
Co-hosting vanity Matrix and Mastodon servers
Quite a few years ago I met a travel agent whose email address was [email protected].
Contributing to science!
I used to be in the habit of uploading my “good” shots to Flickr. Where possible, I’d include the Latin scientific name. I also slap on an open and permissiv...
Default Raspberry Pi OS password deprecated
I just felt like I was beating my head against a brick wall for the past thirty minutes. I wanted to set up a headless Raspberry Pi with a fresh Raspberry Pi...
Where have all the nudibranchs gone?
I used to have a page dedicated to nudibranchs on my website.