Saturday, June 7, 2008

AMRE 2008

Today I went to Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition 2008. Eventhough I already knew about it 6 months ago and thought about it 3 or 4 weeks ago as well I would have completely missed it if it wasn't for Gavin telling me about it after he heard about it on local radio!

Thanks Gav! :-)

The exhibition is held yearly and has lots of displays and a section for shops selling second hand and new stuff. I actually managed to score a Dutch passenger car for only $20 (€13) which is a bargain.

Here are some pictures I made while walking around.



In Australia people are more interested in Australian and American trains. I don't like those.

Little village.

This was a really nicely done section showing a little canyon with a waterfall and river.

Typical Australian landscape.

The above photo and the next three photo's are from a small LGB track layout. That's G-scale track (the big stuff) which is generally 22.5 times smaller than real trains. It was really nice and very well done with great detail.







Australian layout.

American layout.

This shows how big some layouts can get. They are usually built from modules so they can be easily taken apart.

Right side view of the exhibition.

Left side view of the exhibition.





The second smallest scale is Z-gauge. This scale is 220 times smaller than the real thing. This small track is build in a guitar.



In the evening we had dinner at Karin and Gav's place. BBQ. I had a fantastic steak, garlic bread and key lime pie. Here we see (l.t.r) Rhys, Nicole and Ash.

Here's Gav finishing the leftovers.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Doughnuts and darkness

Arriving at work this morning.

Mark and I bought doughnuts after lunch. The one in the top right is the BEST. It's filled with caramel.

The view across the street while waiting for my coffee to be made.

I went for a few drinks with some colleagues after work and we played some eight ball (I think...). Justin on the left and Dale on the right. Mark is kind of invisible behind Justin. At some point I became really good all of the sudden and potted 5 balls in a row. And guess what? Dale potted 6 right after and ended up winning...

Then we went down to P.J. O'Brien's for some food. After eating for 10 minutes someone came over telling us that the table was actually reserved for a private party and that they would like us to move out of the designated area within 15 minutes. I guess they've never seen those little "Reserved" signs that you can place on tables before...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

VirtualBox

I didn't make any photo's today, sorry. In the evening I researched new software though. This particular software is called VirtualBox. It allows you to run a computer operating system like MS Windows or Linux inside a virtual machine (a program that acts like a computer). This virtual machine could be run on an Apple Mac computer like my iMac for example.

In this screenshot I'm setting up Windows Vista.

The set up went quick and without any trouble. Windows Vista runs nicely. Hardware acceleration and 3D seem to be troublesome for other major virtual machines like Parallels and VM Ware too. Check out this comparison sheet.

I think I regret paying money for Parallels now because VirtualBox is for free...

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Hoon driving

On the way to work we were behind, next to and in front of this car often. Two young males behind the wheel, P plates on the windshields and driving like absolute c*nts at some point almost losing control of the car.

Until we were right behind them and I made this photo and made sure they knew I was taking it. They started driving reasonably civil after that...

I tried this juice in the morning but it's not as nice as Nippy unsweetened.

For lunch I went to an Indian place with my colleague Luke. I bought Beef Masala and it was alright.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Thai long bean

On my way to work I passed the Thai place in the City Cross (CX) but nothing was going on yet.

It was a different story when I was ordering my "Thai long bean" lunch there.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Monday night, pub night / new desk

The day we have al been waiting for is here!

My desk arrived!

Work makes hungry though so we had lunch outside in the burning sun.

Magically enough my chair had also arrived and pieces of it were scattered around the coffee machine while putting it together.

The end result: my new chair.

And here we go: my new desk and my new chair (which is actually Mark's old one that I swapped with the really new one because mine didn't have arm rests).

What can I say? It's definitely a step up :-)

After work we parked the car in the EZI car park in From street.

EZI.

We went to P.J. O'Brien's for a drink and a bite.

My phone can't handle dimmed light well so it looks really dark but it was OK really.

Nicole in front of the window.

The lights on the ceiling.

My beloved pint of Guinness.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Winter cake

In the morning I worked on my wheelbarrow a little bit. I shaved an edge off the small panel so it would fit better. I think it starts to look nice.

Yes, my friends. Today winter has started in Australia. Not quite like the winter in The NL!

Nicole made 3 cakes for our cake-date with friends today. This is the torta Barozzi on the right and a baked ricotta cheese cake with raspberries and lavender petals on the left.

The third cake is a poppy-seed cake.

We had a lovely afternoon with (clock-wise) Richard, Debby, Gianna, Nicole and Anna (Gianna's mum). The cakes were fantastic.