Palegoldenrod

I had to go into work today because we were moving office (just to a bigger one on the same floor in our building). Our office is right in the CBD of Newcastle, with a nice view of the beach� – and the Pasha bulker as well, lately

From Thursday the police have blocked off key roads to Newcastle East, restricting access to Nobby’s where the ship has beached itself. That hasn’t deterred either the vehicular or pedestrian traffic in the area. We had to get past the road blocks to get in and move our office today, and its lucky we got in early. When I stepped outside to pick up lunch I was surprised by throngs of people, our street full of parked cars (even though you had to get through the road blocks to get into it – or violate a few one-way traffic signs).

Many people are still driving in and parking – well, trying to park – in the CBD so they can walk up to the ship for a final look before it is moved. Those that don’t drive in are catching the train, as the Newcastle train station is only about 10 minutes walk from the ship and there are trains directly from Sydney through the Central Coast to that station. Some of the others helping with the move know people who are coming up from Sydney for the day just to see the ship.

The funny thing is, it was only for a very short time after the ship ran aground that you could get up to the beach itself. The beach has since been fenced off – I think they have even pushed that fencing back to keep people even further away than before. The reason for this is firstly I guess to ensure the security of the ship and the beach property, but I think mostly because of the safety of the public.� The cables they are using to try and turn the bulker can snap – in the past other incidents have included people being cut in half, or having their legs amputated mid shin by these types of cables that have snapped under stress.

When you think about the lengths of the cables and the weight of the ship they are trying to move, if one of them does snap I imagine it could do damage to something quite a long distance away.

Anyway, even though this has been great for local businesses (the Newcastle CBD cafes and restaurants have probably never had so much business in such a short time!) if you are thinking of coming in I’d probably stay at home and have a peek at the webcam of the ship instead.

So I discovered Popfly last night, and got access to the alpha this morning (muahahaha).

For those that don’t know, Popfly is a Microsoft Silverlight project, where people from non-development backgrounds can create mini sites and mashups without having to write code.

lol. I can see the look on your face. “Popfly?Silverlight? Mash… up? Is this just more Micro$oft jargon that really doesn’t mean anything?”. Well for once I can say no, it does actually mean something. But it may not mean as much as you think

To simplify it for you, the closest known thing to Silverlight is probably Adobe’s/Macromedia’s Flash. Its a means of bringing rich media and interactivity to the web environment in a predictable fashion.

Popfly uses Silverlight to technologies. Popfly, an alpha only at the moment, is a place for non-developers to take advantage of the rich interface to do some things they may not normally do. OK, build a website without writing code – big deal. WYSIWYG editing is nothing new. But creating Mashups without code – well, mashups are new, and being able to create them without code is kewl.

I’ve gazed into my amazing crystal ball of phuture-ness and I declare that mashups will be the next craze. Why? Because they are the way to a lazy man’s instant website, and everyone is lazy. Want to build your site which actually just has stuff from other sites? Thats what a mashup is.

What if your site is really just made up of blocks of information that can be sourced from elsewhere: your RSS feed from bloglines, your photo set form Flickr, your character profile from Warcraft and a few other bits and pieces… Well, some enterprising young developers have written some bits and pieces of code that will do each of these for you.� All you need to do is put them together, and Popfly even makes that easy and fun.. you have a list of available “Blocks”, which you can just drag and drop into your working space.

For example, I might drag in the Flickr block and the Photo Slideshow block. I tell the Flickr block where to find my photos, and then I link the Flickr block to my Slideshow block (by drawing a line between the two). So now I have a nice pretty slideshow to put on my site, which is displaying photos from my Flickr collection. Awesome, wot. You can even develop your own blocks, but this actually requires some coding to occur (hey, you’ve got to start somewhere).

OK, so its not like “O.M.G. that is sooo coool!!!1111 one.” But it is sorta cool – probably not something I will lose an awful lot of time using, but it is interesting to look at and use – partly because it uses Silverlight, partly because it will be non-developers who will be using this, and its always interesting to see how us developers are slowly being made obsolete, hehehe. At least they still need us to build the blocks, huh.

The biggest surprise for me when I logged into Popfly was that Silverlight installed and ran on my Mac (yes, Safari even). After being frustrated with one other cool Microsoft product which not only demanded that I be using IE7, but that I also run Vista (nooooo!), this was great to see.

I’ll follow up shortly with some screenshots of what this all actually looks like… It won’t be that Flickr example, thanks to my ongoing issues with Yahoo and flickr (I’ll save that rant for another post).

Anyway, as I said, I’ve only had access to this as of this morning, and haven’t had much time to play with it after work. I’ll play around a bit more and put together some examples for you so you can see what I am on about.

If you are playing with the Popfly alpha too I’d be interested in hearing your comments on it, as I’m sure some other readers are too

(See, told you it was sorta a real post. So ner).

OK, this is gonna be a short post. I am too lazy tonight to post anything too long. d’oh.

Well, lazy isn’t accurate I guess. I’ve finally gotten my little hands on the texts for the MCTS Web course, and I want to get the jump on it asap.

I guess I just wanted to put a quick post up to say the following:

• I’ve started the MCTS Web course, which you already know.
  
• I am learning how to use Macromedia Fireworks, a vector graphics editor. My friend and colleague Matt Stow is giving me endless pointers – I am fortunate to work with such a master of the woiks. Thanks, Matt!
• I am using my fledgling graphics skills to create merch in my shiny new cafepress store! yay!

I’ll put a permanent link to the storefront around here some time this week. Or maybe the weekend

I don’t think I really expect anyone to buy anything – its more a place for me to play and maybe make some stuff for myself. Nothing too serious.

Umm, what else? I am slowly getting better at playing my violin. When I am feeling especially cocky I’ll put a recording up for you all to laugh at. Hahahaha.

OK, enough rambling. I’ll post a proper post for y’all tomorrow night. Its even on a real topic and everything

Carly

We got through to Branxton with few issues.

We decided to avoid Hexham just in case, so we went through Wallsend to the Link Road, then on the F3 to Beresfield – then the New England Highway through Maitland, Lochinvar and Greta.

No problems along any of these (and we were able to find fuel in Mayfield before we left – surprisingly there wasn’t even price gouging).

The water is very close to the road at Maitland between the Maitland Train Station and the Private Treszcinski (sp?) bridge – it was probably across the road overnight. The flats near the airport at Rutherford also looked like they were flooded over the road at one point, but the path is clear now. And the view from Harpers Hill between Lochinvar and Greta is pretty impressive – thats a fair bit of water.

There are also a lot of gawkers – Harpers Hill was pretty packed, and slow moving sight seers in Maitland were holding up what would otherwise have been free traffic.

Branxton itself has some roads that are pretty muddy, wet and littered with debris. The Elderslie Road entrance at the highway is marked as a closed road, but the water has come down. There is a bit of sludge and watermelons (hehehe) on the road – people are driving around the road closure barricade and getting through, albeit carefully.

The RTA has noted heavy traffic blocking the CBD in Newcastle because of people going to see the Pasher Bulker. Gees, guys… there are still people trying to get in there to clear roads and fix houses. Don’t go in there to sight see. According to the RTA note they are sending the cops down there – hopefully they will block off parts of the city except for essential traffic. Its just ridiculous.

Umm, ok. So its back to the office tomorrow morning… hopefully all is well up there. Our server is still responding, which is a good sign

OK, inner Maitland (within the levee) has been given the all clear to return to their homes and businesses – the water didn’t rise as far as predicted, which is great.

Outside the levee, lower lying areas are still at risk and the flood peak is moving down towards Hexham and Raymond Terrace.

The weather is fairly clear and there is pretty much no wind so all is looking good there.

My sister and I are trying to figure out if we can get through to Branxton to get her home. Apparently the highway at Maitland is allowing through traffic, and my brother reports his home is safe and the Anvil Creek bridge at Branxton is now clear and allowing traffic along the New England Highway.

We’re gonna see if we can find some fuel and get through to Branxton – we might have to avoid the Hexham area and instead go via the freeway – we’ll see how we go. We have to find fuel first!

Catch you all later. See my previous posts for the best sources of information on the situation down here – ABC 1233AM is still the best one.

Carly

A lot of you are coming here in search of information about the floods. I can give you some that might help:

Mayfield, Mayfield East, Newcastle CBD, Hamilton are pretty much back to normal. Darby street and Beaumont street have working coffee machines, restaurants and cafes. Some other suburbs are still having some power and water issues (eg Wallsend and Toronto) but generally things are returning to normal. Most areas have power (it is possible to have scattered power in some suburbs – a few houses on my street still don’t have power).

Buses are running, but maybe not all routes. I’m not sure about the trains, but you can go to the transport infoline or City Rail sites for that info.

Most roads around Newcastle are open as the flash flooding is pretty much disappearing – I had little trouble getting through Mayfield to the shops (Woolworths is open and stocked as usual, which has made a big difference to all this) and also over to Merewether via King Street and back via the Pacific Highway. There is some debris on the road, and some abandoned cars restrict flow here and there, but otherwise traffic is moving smoothly. There are some patches without power, resulting in a few sets of lights out still. We could see the SES, Energy Australia and council workers clearing fallen trees and power lines in some side streets. I guess my warning would be to go slowly and be careful.

My neighbour’s daughter left to return to Sydney early this afternoon by car and apparently made it home safely, so that seems to indicate that there is some way to get through – I’m guessing its the F3 but I’m not sure.

The fuel station close to my home is still without power, but as the rest of Mayfield is powered and running as usual (and almost-normal traffic has resumed, I’m guessing there must be some fuel nearby). I hear there is congestion in Newcastle CBD but more because of the gawking at the beached Pasha Bulker.

As far as I know landline phone services remained fairly unaffected through most of this, but mobile phone coverage was interrupted for some carriers… mine has since returned but you may still have trouble getting to some people in the area.

Last I heard the Hunter River flood peak had moved past Greta and was starting to hit Maitland. I’m not sure what is going on down there at the moment, but people have been given plenty of warning (all day today) to shift out of the area either to friends and family locations, or one of the community shelters that have been set up. Hopefully that warning (and the door-knocking by the SES) has minimised the incidents that will occur tonight, and everyone will be safe.

The best source of information is to tune in (either with an actual radio or streaming) to ABC’s 1233AM – their site can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle. They have been broadcasting only public info and emergency reports for over 40 hours, but now I think they are starting to alternate public information with regular programs as the urgency of the situation begins to die down.� Even having said that, they are still the best source of info – during the event, in fact, they were the only source of info – TV and other radio stations (even local ones) still seemed to be on regular commercial mode during it all, which was… uurgh, I can’t even pick a word that has all of my feelings in it.

If you want to find out about a loved one, I think you are meant to go via the emergency services – have a look at http://www.ses.nsw.gov.au

As I am a little removed from the situation now, thats really all I can give you for the moment. My brother has moved his family up to our parents place on a hill overlooking Branxton – he might be able to give me an idea of the situation there tomorrow morning. I’d imagine the water would have started going down by then and the roads might have started to open up.

For an first hand idea of what was going on, check out this guys youtube videos – they are the best I have found: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=loosecanonfilms

Apparently the worst of the flooding is over at Singleton – water levels have peaked and are very slowly on the way down.

My brother Nathan is still in the floodplains at Branxton – a few blocks from Anvil Creek which has broken its banks. He is preparing to move his wife and young son to higher ground (up to our parents on the hill a few kilometres away). When I spoke to him earlier today he said that the Anvil Creek bridge is closed (which divides Branxton in two) and Elderslie road is cut, but at last check you could still get out to the back of Elderslie road via McMullins road and Rusty Lane.

He went out to check the water at the Hunter River at Elderslie Bridge, and the water is not far from touching the bottom of the bridge. And that was this morning – even though Singleton is receding, all that water is making its way down past Branxton to Maitland, so I suspect that the Elderslie Bridge will go under (if it hasn’t already).

ABC’s 1233AM radio is broadcasting that access to Branxton through Maitland and Singleton are both cut due to flood waters, so I think old Branxton is a little isolated at the moment.

Maitland has had properties inside the first levee evacuated. The first levee is at 11.35m, and peak is expected to be 11.3m. It is going to be very close, and I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of that levee are breached. Louth park and low lying areas of Gilleston Heights have been evacuated. I’m wondering how Telarah, and the lower parts of Rutherford are – and Lorn.

Paterson is also having an interesting time of it – farmers that were just a week or two ago struggling to deal with drought are now looking at the possibility of having crops and feed – even stock and their homes – under water.

I think Maitland is going to be hit fairly badly, so hopefully the warning we have had is sufficient. At least with the slow rising floods we have a chance to get in and evacuate – the flash flooding didn’t really give anyone warning around here.

The rain and wind has stopped (at least in Newcastle itself) so fingers crossed that we can manage the Maitland floods (and what happens when all that water comes further downstream) – no more surprises please.

Some photos of the flooding (including some from Maitland and Branxton) can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1947168.htm

Hi all

Firstly, sorry for the delay – power has just come back and I’ve needed to take care of a few things to help neighbours and family.

Warning Signs?

OK, on my way down to Sydney on Tuesday I had to change trains twice – the first time because there was a fault with the wheel (we had to change trains at around Hawkesbury station), the second time at Strathfield because the replacement train’s brakes were overheating. It took me over four hours to get to Sydney. Ah well.

The Derailment

On my way back to Newcastle from Sydney on Friday afternoon, I rushed to catch the 4.45 train from Central Station. I had been with clients all day, and hadn’t had much contact with the media – I had heard about a beached ship and a bit of flooding, but some areas of Newcastle are notorious for minor flooding in times of heavy rain, and there didn’t appear to be any particular warnings at the train station for people heading north. To be honest I didn’t really have an appreciation of the severity of the situation when I boarded the train.

Just after Hawkesbury station the train was moving very slowly, then lost power and stopped fairly quickly. About 30 seconds later the power came back on and a few minutes after that the driver informed us that the train had hit a “very large rock” and derailed, and that it we were “going to be here a while”.

It was interesting to see that as soon as the announcement as made, conversation erupted throughout the whole train – people who normally wouldn’t say a word to each other began engaging others around them. Maybe because we were all stuck in the same situation, and had something in common to discuss, I don’t know. Such is the Australian character

I was in a carriage somewhere towards the middle of the train I think. Given that I didn’t feel too much of a jolt, or hear any loud sounds or cries from passengers, I assumed that the derailment was fairly minor.

After a while passengers from the front started moving towards the back of the train – they said they had been told to move to the rear four cars, so everyone followed suit. We sat for about an hour with no further info.

The train was located in an area where the Hawkesbury river was very close to one side of the tracks – and the track was fairly low.� After a while we saw some lights out on the water, which came closer. This turned out to be a Police dispatch – the fact that they were communicating with the train guards on shore let us know that there were obviously some communication issues as well.

One other thing started to become clear – the boat was being knocked around quite a bit, and the waves were white capped. This is on an enclosed, fairly protected body of water. Everyone around me was exclaiming that they had never seen the Hawkesbury like this before.

Shortly after, some police and ambulance officers boarded our still stationary train – by the way the police boat kept trying to come ashore I assume that they leapt from the boat into the water, as I doubt it could have gotten close enough.

Someone (I assume a police officer) commandeered the train’s speaker system and let us know that a landslide had occurred and that were were going to be heading back to the Hawkesbury station where alternative travel arrangements would be made for us.

The Derailment Continues

We waited longer. The voice came on again and informed us of some more bad news – while trying to clear the tracks to make way for us to get back to Hawkesbury station, they were moving a train from our track to the other, and it has failed on the switch, blocking both tracks. He also, interestingly finished with “And to those people who rang the Premiers department, thanks – they now have a direct line into our situation”. I interpreted that as being sarcastic, but I’m not entirely sure… I’m not sure what to make of it. It was an unexpected comment. I guess maybe someone from Premiers may have been giving these guys a hard time or something. Who knows?

Communication Issues

The police officer jumps on the mic again and gives us an update (very little new info). He asks for patience, and for a favor – it turns out that��� the only contact they have are a few mobile phones, and can the passengers help by relaying messages along the train between officers and train guards at each end?

More waiting. Finally the voice told us apologetically that all traffic northbound was now blocked, and that when we arrived at Hawkesbury we would most likely jump on another train or buses, and be taken back to Hornsby RSL� where hot drinks and warm blankets and clothing awaited, and we would most likely be spending the night.

Clearance

We finally got moving – very slowly. We had to stop a few times for the train guards to place detonators on the rails. Someone might correct me, but I believe they place these on the tracks as a warning so that approaching vehicles know the line is blocked.

We came to a stop and waited some more. We were told we were waiting for clearance to enter the Hawkesbury section of the track (I assume it was confirmation that the other train had been shifted successfully). More and more waiting.

We arrived at Hawkesbury station and the train stopped but the doors didn’t open. After a few moments the voice declared the good news that were were going straight through to Hornsby and we got moving. On the way there the voice also called out to the train guards that confirmation had been received that we were the only ones on the line and we had straight through access to Hornsby – we were away, and quickly!

The Confusion

Several times on the way to Hornsby the voice told us that we would be spending the night at the Hornsby RSL, and they had hot food and drinks etc waiting for us.

When we arrived at the station however, no one knew what to do – there were several loudspeakered voices drowning each other out, and no one visually indicating where we should go – no gesturing or pointing. After asking some questions the first group of us got told where to go, only to be stopped by police taking down our details. No one knew why.

Almost every single person asked why, and were told it was in case we were injured or thought we might be injured. For most of us, all it did was hold up the movement of people.

There were police out on the street, but we had to ask to figure out where we needed to go. When we arrived at the RSL there were some buses… all the talk of the tea and hot food was lost – you had to ask where it was (there was no one tell us). The initial rush for buses was not pretty (there were only 2 buses for… what, maybe 200-300 people, probably more).

When the first buses left, a police officer with a loudspeaker asked all travellers to Gosford to line up at a certain point (where the 2nd bus was), but when the buses pulled up, declared that the first bus was the one going to Gosford. As all the people who weren’t lined up got on the bus, and all the people who were lined up missed out, this caused some backlash – a few of the more tipsy (or just angry?) travellers had some special words with police and other passengers. In one case there was a but of a scuffle which was quickly broken up.

After milling around a bit I finally got close enough to hear that to get to Newcastle I could get a Gosford bus, then train from there. And so I did. I got the last seat on the Gosford bus – yes, there were standing travellers, the poor things. I tried to give one woman my seat (because I could sit in the aisle on one of my bags) but she wouldn’t have a bar of it. ah well.

Gosford

Gosford was confusing – they told us over the loadspeaker to go to platform 3. And once we got there we were told to go to platform 1. No real worries – once the train arrived there was plenty of room to stretch out and relax. As the train waited a while (about a half hour) for other buses to arrive, there was a chance to use the vending machines etc.

Unbelievable Public

Heavy rain at Wyong station – a few officials (cityrail – no police or other emergency workers) were standing where the buses would arrive. They were answering individual questions but not informing everyone.

This (and the fact that the elevator was broken) was “unacceptable” to some travellers, who proceeded to declare to one of the men that they had “been on a derailed train for four hours and wanted to go home”. Several women had stern discussions with one poor man who handled it with enormous patience. The ladies didn’t seem to realise that this person had probably been working all day, and then had been brought back to the station that night and had probably been dealing with the uglier side of people all that time. He may even have his own problems� with transport, or safety of family.

The funniest thing was that while they berated this man for not providing information and for “not knowing anything”, I learnt exactly what they needed to know just by being quiet and keeping my ears open for five minutes.

Hamilton and Broadmeadow stations were under water, and much of the city was inaccessible – we would be traveling by bus north but no guarantees could be given as to whether we would even get through to Newcastle.

Understandable – its not like cityrail can control the flood levels, right? and the situation would be changing a fair bit, right? Wrong – the ladies continued to give this guy a hard time about not being able to guarantee that they would get home. Gees.

The Last Leg

Ok, the bus driver was awesome. On the way up he told us as much as he could about the situation – that a few buses had tried to get in and gotten stuck, that some areas were still inaccessible. Part way along he received a report from another bus about an update, which he passed on to us.

We tried to get through to Cardiff which required some driving through a lot of water, crossing the median strip and other skullduggery to do so. We passed cars that had water draining out of their doors, and others still half covered in water that had obviously been shunted around by strong currents.

We got to Cardiff and then Waratah with little incident. I was worried that this was the closest I could get to my house – a 30-40 minute walk with 2 back packs in heavy wind and rain with no wet weather gear. After a quick discussion with the driver he decided to change his route a little to swing much closer to my house – within 2 blocks in fact!

I can’t believe how lucky I was to have arrived in Newcastle at all, let alone find a bus driver willing to come closer to my house (which lies between 2 lower areas, prone to minor flooding at times) and then lucky again to have actually gotten through.

After all that I only had to walk a few blocks to gratefully enter my house dripping wet cold.

I had just enough time to contact a few people, post quickly on palegoldenrod, and just in the shower. As soon as I put my hands to my torch (“just in case”) we lost power.

The Current Situation

Power was still off this morning -� I dispensed some gas cooking gear to my neighbour (whose daughter was expecting big issues feeding her baby without cooking gear), got my sister to my house (it had flooded where she was, and was being evacuated) and looked to my supplies of food and water. Then I spent the afternoon getting in contact with others and playing my fiddle near a small fire in my courtyard as the rain had stopped (for a while, at least). Yeehaw.

I hear the water has subsided in most places in Newcastle, and power is being restored although there are some areas still without power, water or road access. Its getting better down here, anyway.

If you are in Newcastle and need anything (including information about the Hamilton and Mayfield areas), feel free to let me know – I’ll see what I can do. Or if you know me and need help, feel free to even turn up at my house. I have room and bedding for you if you need it.

BTW – Tune in to 1233AM for all the info, or go to http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle – these are the only real source of info for what is going on in the Lower Hunter.

Word up to:

• my brother in the Branxton’s flood plains. Hope you are still ok out there. Go to the church hall if things turn bad – I hear they are ready for people.
  
• my parents who managed to get through to the north by some miracle. Nicely done – good to know you are away and clear to sunny Queensland.
• Mitch, Jeremy, Trish and Kellie� – glad you are all (finally) home and safe, you guys had some close calls, goddamn! Head up here if the waters come up again. I’m ready for you.
  
• Llew – are you ok out there? I don’t have any contact numbers for you at your new place. Are you being evacuated? Hope you’re safe!
• Stowy – man, can you get in contact with Mitch or me please. We can’t catch you and want to make sure you made it home ok. Thats if your home hasn’t become an aquarium.
• Strongy – glad you finally got clear of all this, and did it safely. I think you might be staying at Tamworth for a few days though, hehehe. You won’t be able to get back.
• Waydo – glad you and the family are safe and clear in Taree.
• Ilona – unlucky on the car, d’oh. Did you go and get it today, or is it totalled/missing/unsalvageable? Let me know if you need any help.
• CJ – no, I don’t want to hear “You should have stayed in Sydney”. Shhh
• Chris and the Owens – I hope you guys are all ok. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Anyone – feel free to ping me here to let me know you are ok.

If tonight doesn’t bring new issues (apparently there is a second storm front coming?), then all we need to contend with tomorrow will be the slow-rise flooding of the Hunter River and the damage left over from the flash flooding and winds.

I hope you are all safe and well, even if you might not be able to read this!

Carly

For those of you trying to contact me, or who have been contacting me, yes, I was in the derailed train near Hawkesbury this afternoon/evening, yes I am in Newcastle and the floods, and yes I am safe and home now (even if the trip from Sydney took 7 or 8 hours instead of 3, hahaha). Aside from being exhausted, drenched and cold, I am also in good health – Nothing a nice hot shower won’t fix

For those of you who don’t know what is going on, tomorrow I’ll write a proper post about my most amazing week. For now, you can have a look at some of this:

Premier Iemma declares Natural Disaster
7 missing after road collapse – news.com.au
Wild Weather Keeps SES Busy – ABC News
9 People missing in Floods – ABC News
Four swept to their deaths – SMH
More than 200 evacuated from Newcastle – news.com.au

Even though I was in some of this I still really have little idea of what is going on, other than its bad and its affecting a lot of people. I am just now in the process of catching up, only having arrived home recently. I’ll try and post tomorrow, providing I have power

Carly

So I am in sunny Sydney for the week (with work). The hotel I am at has interwebs (I am on it now) but their rates are ridiculous so its not likely that I’ll be posting much for a few days.

Let me briefly leave you some rant excerpts, for later:
Firstly, thanks to Flickr for selling out to Yahoo, who have just disabled my Yahoo account (so no flickr access) because I didn’t access my Yahoo Mail for a while. Note that I don’t actually consume Yahoo mail services. To complicate the issue: it took me ages to get into such a state (via logins, help and password request screens) before the system actually told me it was deactived; it took me 4 emails to support (replying) to get them to answer me with instructions on how I could get into my Yahoo ID again (grrr); when following their instructions I need my password, which I either can’t remember OR their instructions are wrong. So, now I am stuck between my damn stinky Yahoo account being locked (so I can just upload some pics to Flickr, for gods sake) and not being able to unlock it thanks to both limited Yahoo meanness and an incompetent and/or uncaring help desk. sigh. I’ll look into it further when I get home.

Secondly, thanks to the hotel I am at for charging for web access by the minute. Nice work.

Thirdly, thanks to the universe for sending me to a place without good interwebs the day after I topped up my WoW subscription. I can almost hear it ticking away. Noooo!

Fourthly, thanks to City Rail for entertaining me on my way to Sydney. The acts were as follows: trackwork, one broken down train (swap to replacement train) then a broken down replacement train too. Awethome. It took me over 4 hours to get from Newcastle to Sydney – its about a 2 hour car ride. (Note that the CityRail employees dealing with the public handled the situation very well, but omg on the infrastructure / maintenance part).

OK, catch you all in a few days.