More Melbourne Pictures

Federation Square: Surrounded by by some buildings with amazing architecture, it lies in the centre of Melbourne.

Flinders Street Railway Station: At the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, it is the oldest city station in Australia (built in 1854). Just 2 more stops to South Yarra

A nice mix of new and old buildings.

The place to get your curry powder and tofu. Near Queen Victoria Market.

There is a China Town in almost every big city and Melbourne is no Exception.

I love the pedestrian friendly sidewalks.

Trams still run in Melbourne. A good way to get across the city and see it as well.

TAGS: Australia Melbourne Pictures Trams

About Melbourne

Just a quick update from Melbourne airport.

I have been really busy with last minute preparations for my sister's wedding and didn't have the time to access the net.

However, I now have about 30 mintues to kill before I get onto my flight back to Malaysia. Saw an internet cafe. Hmmmm. Got myself a 20 minutes internet access card for $4 and a latte and I am ready to go.

Well it has been a very hectic week and I wish I had more time to explore the city. Maybe next time.

When I first got here the place was chilly. My sister had told us that the temperature of the place was around 40 degree and I didn't pack and warm clothing. The temperature has been fluctuating between 20 and 24 degrees. I was even caught in a heavy downpour the day before yesterday while roaming around the city with my dad. A few minutes later the clouds vanished and the sun was up. That's Melbourne.

What do I like about Melbourne?
A lot of things really. But here are the top 3 things....

1. The fact that I can drink straight from the tap. Don't laugh. After years of getting muddy water on the tap in Malaysia, this is something amazing.
2. Pedestrian friendliness. You can walk to almost everywhere in the city.
3. The lovely parks. I liked the Royal Botanic Gardens by the Yarra the most.

What I don't like about Melbourne?
Not that many.

1. Almost all shops close after 5pm. Definitely no roadside teh tarik stalls like in Malaysia where you can grap a cup of tea after midnight.
2. Everything (well almost everything) is so bloody expensive. Yes! The Malaysian Ringitt doesn't go much.

More updates including something about the wedding later. Till then...

TAGS: Australia Melbourne

Some Pictures From Melbourne

Royal Botanic Gardens

By the Yarra River

Royal Botanic Garden

To Melbourne

Melbourne City

TAGS: Australia Garden Melbourne Pictures Yarra

Greetings From Australia

Just a short update from the land 'Down Under'.

Yeah! I am typing this from my sister's apartment in Melbourne. I am here for her wedding with the rest of our family.

I am really missing my wife and Rahil who could not make it. My wife is several months pregnant with our second baby and is in no condition to travel.

Will try to post up some pics with my next post. As the locals say.... Good day mate!

Happy Chinese Year

Wishing all visitors to my blog

GONG XI FA CHAI

Getting Hot

The past few days have been so damn hot. Saw some clouds but the rains didn’t come. Yesterday, I was feeling so thirsty I downed a couple of cold drinks including my favourite 'teh-o-ais-limau' (iced lemon tea).

And in the evening I had a sore throat and a slight headache. I was worried because that is usually the symptoms before I have fever. And I definitly don't want to have fever when I am due to go for a trip overseas soon. So at night, I took all the necessary precautions. Gargle with warm salt water. Ingested 2 paracetamol tablets + 2 Vitamin C tablets. I am feeling much better today but still have a sore throat.

Some people can argue all they want but there is no denying that the Earth is gradually heating up. And I believe that the main reason for this is the loss of our forests. Massive deforestation is taking place all around the World. Malaysia is no exception.



This week, we noted the non-stop movement of huge timber-laden trucks all day along the north-south highway coming from somewhere on the Malaysian-Thai border. I don’t doubt that the logging activity is legal, otherwise these trucks won’t be traveling on the highway during daytime.

Though unusually heavy rains were the cause of the recent floods in northern parts of Malaysia including Kedah where I stay. Read my older posts here and here.

I am of the opinion that deforestation in these parts contributed to the sudden rise in water levels. Without vegetation cover to absorb the rainwater, they quickly poured down the hills, carrying with it the top soil into already heavily silted-up steams and rivers (some of which resemble drains). It's no wonder they overflowed.

During my undergraduate day in India, I was led to believe that there is such a thing as sustainable Forest management.

The PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) defines it as forestry “based on environmentally, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests for present and future generations”.

On the other hand, sustainable forestry is defined by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) as “working with nature to ensure the future of the nation's forests for generations to come”.

Sounds nice doesn’t it. The problem is that companies often look at forestry as a pure commercial activity and timber as a renewable valuable product. We are not taking into consideration the other flora and fauna that exist among the trees.

I am not sure whether, Malaysian timber companies are following sustainable forestry practices or even whether they are replanting the trees in place of those they cut down.

And the Earth is getting hotter.

UPDATE:
Just read in the Star that Malaysia was ranked 9th out of of 133 countries in terms of Environment conservation (19 places ahead of the US) in a study called the 2006 Environment Performance Index which was carried out jointly by the joint effort by Yale and Columbia Universities.

TAGS: Environment Flood Forestry

Spicing Up My Blog

I have been a loyal Blogger fan for quite some time now (since 2003) but I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been tempted to get my own Wordpress powered blog (henceforth referred to as WPPB). Don’t get me wrong, Blogger is great but it lacks some of the bells and whistles that Wordpress and others provide.

However, I am too busy/lazy to go ahead. At the same time Blogger just gets better and better. This includes the ability to add adsense links directly into the template through a few clicks.

From time to time I found some great ways to spice up my blog. I think new bloggers might find this useful.

Lets take it from the start. I modified the generic template provided by Blogger. Some of my older friends complained that the previous font size and font colour was hard to read. So I increased the font size. I also increased the overall margin as I felt that too much space was left unused.

I was also really envious of the way that WPPB allows visitors (and the owners) to view the latest comments on their blogs. This problem was solved when I found out two great hacks – one for the Haloscan comments and another for comments on Blogger, which I promptly added to my blog template.

The problem of spam comments has reduced drastically ever since I implemented the word verification system provided by blogger

Adding and deleting links using the Blogger template was such a hassle and sometimes I would delete some links by mistake. This problem was finally solved when I signed up with Blogrolling. Now I can add (or delete) links with just a few clicks.

One particular feature of WPPB, which I really wanted was the ability to group posts into categories. One day I noticed that a blog using the feature provided by del.icio.us. And as they say, "the rest is history".

A blog comes alive with pictures. Looking around, I noticed that there were several sites where I could put up my pictures (for free) and link back from my blog.

I don’t believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. Therefore, I am using, Textamerica, Flickr, as well as Blogger itself. I really like the small Flash panel (on the right side column), which shows my most recent pictures posted up on Textamerica.

If you were a regular visitor to my blog, you would have realized that instead of the boring grey space on top, I now have a banner made up of my Flickr photostream. I noticed that some WPPB used a plugin, which allows them to display a Flickr badge of the latest pictures. I just modified this code and that’s what you see right up there.

Now, my Blog is fully powered up (well almost).

TAGS: Blogger Blogs del.icio.us Flickr Hacks new look textamerica