Travel

(Long exposure photo courtesy of George G’s Nikon D90)

It was year 2003 when I saw the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ which featured the Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. I dreamed one day of visiting Sydney and look for nemo! But that dream is now a reality only that I haven’t found Nemo yet. I now live and work in Sydney with our office located in the 32nd floor of the Deustche Bank Plaza overlooking the Opera House. I’m planning of buying a binocular to spot Nemo during breaktime.

Here are more of Sydney…

Darling Harbour Bridge overlooking the central business district.

The Monorail..

View from the office..

The ANZ stadium used for the year 2000 Olympics. The largest Olympic stadium ever built.

Watching Australian football at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a match between the Sydney Swans and Saint Kilda. Too bad Sydney lost by 1 point!

Hi everyone, it has been a while since my last post on 21 Wilson Street. The author has been into a hibernation stage for some reason!

To commemorate the come back of 21 Wilson Street, I want to share these pictures of beautiful tulips taken from Araluen Botanical Park as a symbol of resurrection. Tulips only blossom during springtime in Perth. Enjoy!

Last weekend, my friends and I went on a 2-day road trip from Sydney to the Snowy Mountain Range! The idea of this adventure began three days before I was suppose to fly back to my home city of Perth after spending 3 weeks in Sydney.

The Snowy Mountains are the highest mountain range in mainland Australia where large snows fall every winter. It is the only part of the mainland Australia where constant snowfalls happen every winter season.

A breakfast stopover at Wollongong City 2.5hours from Sydney. It’s name means “songs of the seas” in the Aboriginal language!

The journey continues with a climb to the mountains from the beautiful beaches of Wollongong with the company of our great friend “Tomtom” the satellite navigation device. Without Tomtom we would not be able to reach our destination!

A long and winding road.

At 7pm, after a one day of driving we finally reached our final destination – Perisher Blue – Australia’s biggest ski resort! It was a long day but it was worth the time and effort after experiencing the first glance of snow fall in the freezing cold night!

And now time for a ski!

I would like to recommend to everyone to visit the Australia’s Snowy Mountains and experience the skiing adventure. It should be on your list of things to do before you reach the age of 30!

Last week I went to Melbourne for a 3-day business trip. I consider myself lucky as the day after I flew, Qantas Engineers had a strike causing massive delays of all Qantas flights and stranding thousands of passengers all around Australia. I will be flying again next week to Sydney and there’s a rumour that another strike will strike again. Fingers crossed that this won’t happen as I don’t want to be delayed and also there are a lot of people travelling to Sydney for the World Youth Day who will be affected.

In general, strikes are costly to both the companies and workers as they represent lost of income to both parties. The longer the strike, the more costly to both parties. This occurs because negotiations do not always run so smoothly. There is also an element of misunderstanding between the interest of both parties. Unions might believe that the company does not appreciate their effort and value to the firm. Management might believe that unions do not appreciate the willingness of the owners to earn high profits.

There’s a debate between economists whether unions are good or bad for the economy as a whole. Unions are a solution to the market power of the firms that hire workers. In the absence of unions, companies use its market power to pay lower wages and offer worse working conditions. In this case, a union balances the firm’s market power and protection to workers from being at the mercy of the owners.

On the other hand, if the wages demanded by unions rise above the competitive market level, companies would limit hiring workers causing some workers to be unemployed. This also results to decrease in wages in the rest of the economy and decrease in the business activities resulting to lower output. In some companies, successful unions benefits only union members at the expense of non-union members and other employees in other companies.

In the end, is there really a consensus whether unions are good or bad for the economy? I just don’t care as long as my flight next week will fly as high as this Qantas 747-476 plane on time!

This is the Saint Paul’s Cathedral - a famous landmark of London, England. This is an Anglican Cathedral built in the 17th century which, at the present, is considered one of London’s most visited sites.

The church is open to the public with a charge of 15 pounds entrance fee to non-worshipping visitors. The interesting part of visiting the place is its famous 530 narrow steps to the “Golden Gallery” area which is the topmost portion that you can see in the above picture. At the pinnacle you will be able to go around the circular open space where there is an excellent view of the City of London.

I visited the Cathedral in February this year and the experience was very superb. The climb was very tiring but once you reach the peak you will experience the feeling of relief and sense of achievement. Halfway through you can rest at the “Whispering Gallery” which is around 260 steps from the ground. It is the huge dome that you can see in the middle of the building. At the “Whispering Gallery”, you will be amused because your whisper against the wall can be heard by a listener whose ear is held to the wall at the other side or at any other point around the gallery. Remember only a whisper is audible. A shout or a normal voice cannot be heard! It’s amazing!

My friend who accompanied me to visit the Cathedral felt so tired enough to continue to climb up to the “Golden Gallery” and decided to just stay and wait for me a the “Whispering Gallery”. There are separate stairs on the way up and on the way down as the steps are so narrow that only one person at any point in time can fit.

There are very nice architectural works inside the Cathedral and also at the basement. However, picture taking is prohibited inside, thus, I’m only showing you the photos I have taken from outside the Cathedral and at the “Golden Gallery”.

The facade of the Cathedral

View from the “Golden Gallery” overlooking the Thames River, London Eye and the Millenium Bridge.

Another view from the top but from the opposite side.

Side view of the Cathedral:

Put a visit to the Cathedral in your list of the places to see if you happen to visit London!

Have you ever been to the most isolated capital city in the world where it takes more than 4 hours to fly to the next foreign capital city and around 3.5 hours to fly to the next state capital city? That’s how remote the location of the City of Perth, the capital city of the State of Western Australia. The nearest foreign capital city that I’m referring to earlier is Jakarta, Indonesia and the nearest state capital is Adelaide, the capital of the State of South Australia.

I saw another article about Honolulu, Hawaii being considered as well as the most isolated capital city in the world as it’s in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! It takes around 4 to 5 hours to fly to California. Well, that title is not really a big deal! Let’s just see more pictures of Perth..

Can you believe that underneath this magnificent body of water lives a monster? This place is called Loch Ness located in Scotland. The monster derived its name from the place and is known as the Loch Ness Monster!

The Loch Ness Monster gained popularity in the 1930s when a British man first saw the animal while motoring in the Loch and was reported in the news articles. He described the animal as something like a dragon. The first photograph of the monster spreaded in the UK and afterward the international.

There were several scientific studies and investigations conducted to prove the existence of the monster but no conclusive results and evidence that came up. At the moment the Loch Ness Monster is among the most popular Scottish legends ever told.

Out of curiousity, I went to visit the Loch Ness place in Scotland and took the 45-minute Loch Ness Cruise costing 10 pounds. Unfortunately, the Monster did not appear. Let’s check again closely if there’s really a monster!

There’s a website dedicated about the Loch Ness Monster and they call the monster as “Nessie”. You can go and check this out on your own. http://www.nessie.co.uk/

Can you imagine a place wherever you go you will see red crawling organisms around? They’re around your house, around your office, in the shops and on the roads! Whenever you drive you can’t avoid but crush them and feel your tyres squashing them down the concrete and hear the eerie sound! Yes folks you heard it right and I’m talking about “crabs”. See them coming.. (more…)

Driving in Melbourne CBD can be quite stressfull because you share the road with the trams. If you’re not very careful enough you may bump into one of them in the intersection and the effect can be very bad because of the momentum. Having said that, a special traffic control system is implemented in intersections to give way to trams and also to improve traffic flow. This special traffic method is called the “hook turn”. You do a hook turn when you’re turning right and you need to wait in the left lane to go around instead on the right. You can only turn around right when the traffic light turns red. The hook turn procedures keep the middle of the road free for cars going straight and of course for trams. Here’s the Hook Turn road sign taken in one of the intersections.

Another hook turn sign..

And here is the tram coming.

And more trams..

And watch out for the trams..

Cars making a hook turn..

Just wondering, can we call the cars making a hook turn “hookers”? 

Jersey is one of the islands found in the English Channel collectively known as the Channel Islands. The English channel is the body of water that separates England from the mainland Europe. Jersey is technically not part of the United Kingdom but its defence and international representations are the responsibility of the UK. The head of the state is the Queen and the capital city is Saint Helier. Jersey is one of the leading offshore financial centres in Europe like Bermuda and Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

I was given the opportunity to explore the island for three months and discovered the wonders that it brings to visitors and to the rest of the world. 

 This is the Corbiere Lighthouse – the most photographed landmark in Jersey.

The Elizabeth Castle built in the 16th century to protect island invaders. The castle was named after Queen Elizabeth I and was the official residence of the Jersey governor during that time.

And finally the Saint Thomas Catholic Church in Saint Helier.

Everyone who visits the island can hop on to the island explorer buses that go around the island’s famous tourist destinations for just one pound per trip. The tour can be completed in two days and I would recommend everyone to pay a visit to the island when you happened to visit Europe.