New Radioblog, Old Songs

Found out recently that radio.blog has a new version out (v3.1.8). I've stuck with v2.5 for quite some time because one, it works, and two, I'm not too sure if the new version works in the non-PHP mode. Only one way to find out. There's a few UI enhancements like new layout and support for playlists. Still the same old songs though. Ripway is only giving me 30MB of online storage space and 150MB of bandwidth per day, so I can't really put up more songs.

I guess it's also time to look for a better webhosting service. When I first set up my radio.blog, the best I can find is Ripway. This time, I found ZendURL, which gives you 100MB of space, gigs of bandwidth, PHP/Perl/CGI/SSI/MySQL support, FTP, POP, etc. All for free. My only complaint so far is that it's a bit buggy and tend to be offline from time to time. I've already integrated the new radio.blog to Blogger, though it might not show up if ZendURL is down. If you prefer the old player, go here:

http://aching.50webs.com

Roasted Duck, Smokeless Star City

So nice to have a free hotel lunch now and then. My colleague received a $30 lunch voucher from Star City, so the three of us went to make good use of it.

First thing I noticed when I first stepped into the casino is the clean, clear air. My colleague tells me that a total smoking ban went into effect in NSW starting July. That would explain why there's a lack of cigarette smoke and punters on the tables. The Trophies Food Court is packed though. Love that roast duck rice and the $6.50 meals (including soft drinks).

So Many Toys, So Little Time

First was the Microsoft Xbox. A few hacks and modifications later, it became a full-fledged multimedia center. During my recent trip to Manila, I came back with a Magic Sing karaoke system. You gotta give it to those Koreans. Literally thousands of songs (actually MIDIs) built right into the microphone. When my sisters came back from Manila, they brought with them an MP4 player with karaoke functions. Works quite well with the MP4 DVDs I brought before. Chalk one up for good compression codecs - thousands of minus-one videos on one DVD. Our latest acquisition? A Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) PC game complete with a Topway dance pad. Sure brings back memories of weekends at the arcade (watching, not dancing).

Asian Cup 2007: Australia vs. Japan in Little Portugal

Went to Little Portugal along Marrickville Road for dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday this week. We got there 5 minutes into extra time of the Australia-Japan match in the Asian Cup 2007. The actual game played out yesterday night in Hanoi, but since I haven't read the news, it's still an exciting game to watch.

After 30 minutes of extra-time play, the score is still tied at 1-1. Japan could've closed off the match with some promising attempts, but Mark Schwarzer managed to block the balls. The game went into penalty shootout. Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi turned out to be the better man, denying Harry Kewell's and Lucas Neill's penalty kicks. Despite Schwarzer's valiant attempts, Japan won the game on penalties 4-3 to move on to the semi-finals. Such a sorry ending, but the food was great though.

From the street, Little Portugal looks like a take-away shop. Don't mind that, just walk straight in and you'll find the (small) dining area. We ordered a whole Portuguese chicken and large chips, which were served almost immediately (after the complimentary bread and butter). My first time to try Portuguese chicken - quite a distinctive taste. And the chips is at par with McDonald's. (That's a compliment.) Our other dishes took a while to come out, so they must be freshly prepared. We had diced pork with potato chunks and pipis and another dish called Bifina (beef steak, bacon and egg, served with wafer thin potato chips, pickles and rice). The servings were so generous we didn't get to finish everything. So no dessert or coffee for us.

Bankstown Bites and Badminton

Bankstown Council is again hosting Bankstown Bites for the third year. This year's highlight are cooking demonstrations and book signings from celebrity chef Iain 'Huey' Hewitson. There are also eight food tours to choose from running at 10:30am, 12:30pm, and 2:30pm.

I got to the Bankstown City Plaza around 10am. Since I'm relatively early, I get a free shopping bag filled with brochures and other goodies. The food tours have interesting names such as Wok It Up, European Eats, Tantalizing Tea, Sweet Treats, Little Lebanon, Know Your Noodle, etc.

I'm a sucker for desserts, so I signed up my friend and me for the Sweet Treats tour. First stop is a Lebanese sweets shop a few block from the town center. The place is basically one long gallery of all kinds of sweets. They also make their own ice cream. The shop owner is pretty generous - everyone gets 2-3 scoops of ice cream and 2-3 kinds of sweets of your choice. We moved on to the cake shop on the next block. There's free hot chocolate for everyone, pastries, and a mini-takeaway package for everyone. Back at the town centre, we visited two more Chinese bakeries where they just plied us with cakes and cookies and pastries. My friend already gave up after the cake shop.

We loitered around and watched Huey do a cooking demonstration. Had a quick lunch of fried rice and Filipino BBQ, then off to badminton.

Movie 2007.07.15 - Priceless (a.k.a. Hors de prix)

The story is about knowing what you want and getting it at all cost. However, once you get it, you might realize that it's not what you want after all. Audrey Tautou plays sophisticated gold digger Irène, who's in search for the richest guy around who can set her up for life. Gad Elmaleh plays Jean, a hapless hotel waiter and bartender, who fell in love with Irène, and later becomes a boy toy to keep up with her luxurious lifestyle.

Have to admire Jean's commitment and dedication to Irène. He used up all his life savings, bonds, shares, and pension money in a day and a night, just to humour her, spend time with her, buy her things - knowing all well that it will lead to nothing. In the end, he spent his last euro just to take one final look of her face for 10 seconds. And just when he found himself a cushy benefactor, he had to give it all away again, just to help out Irene ensare her old sugar daddy. When Irene is getting ready for the kill, she realizes that she doesn't want the Chanels and the Guccis. All she wants is to ride the scooter with Jean and spend a nice afternoon at the bay.

I'm surprised Jean put up with her for so long. He knows she's a professional gold digger and simply toying with him. Anyway, that's true love for you. Instead of berating her and nagging her to see the error of her ways, he puts with her until she blunders again and again, and realizes that she got her priorities all wrong, and eventually comes back to him.

Favourite scene? The first time Jean and Irène meet at the hotel bar. He puts on "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" while expertly mixing up a cocktail drink for her. And she just sits there with her cigarette admiring his skill.

Want a Charge with That?

Seems like selected outlets of Burger King in Manila are offering customers free charging of their mobile phones with every order. This being in the Philippines, I'm pretty sure people will be standing beside the charging station munching on their burgers and fries while waiting for the phones to charge up. If you're not careful and blink your eyes, you'll lose your phone.

(Just looking at the picture, it's obvious that Nokia is the market leader. Go, Nokia!)

Update: A colleague wrote in to say that mobile charging stations can also be found in selected McDonald's and Wendy's outlets and Ayala Cinemas.

Movie 2007.07.06 - Transformers

Have to say this movie could've been done better. It's classic Michael Bay, and that guy sure knows how to build excitement. Still, the Transformers end up a bit one-dimensional. They should've just done an all-out Autobots vs. Decepticons showdown, instead of involving humans with their silly jokes and petty emotions. The transformation sequences and the action scenes are very nicely-rendered though. Sure with my Nokia could also transform like the one in the movie.

Rail Jam at Harbour Bridge, Inferno at Broadway

The one day when I have to meet up with a friend in Burwood and have a nice dinner. Right around 4:30pm, I got an internal email saying that there are problems with the North Shore line on the Harbour Bridge, and people are advised to seek alternative means of transport if going to the city. I figured I'll leave the office (relatively) early at 5pm and just take the many buses going to the city. Wrong. I went down to the North Sydney station to check things out and found a huge throng of people still confused as to why no trains are coming. Outside the station, there's people everywhere waiting for buses and flagging taxis. There's not even a proper queue anymore. A CityRail officer came by with a megaphone and announced that there are buses waiting along Walker Street. I rushed off to find this long long queue going around the corner and stretching all the way down the road. It's a cold winter night and the wind is blowing hard. Not a good time to wait for buses. Took me an hour to reach the head of the line;15 minutes to get to the Circular Quay by bus.

Good thing my friend is nice enough to offer to drive to the city and meet me at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Still, that's a long walk from Circular Quay to Chinatown, I tell you. To get away from the cold, we ducked into Broadway Shopping Centre and had pizza and calamari at Inferno Cafe, then hot chocolate at Gloria Jean's to cap a long day.