The book has finally arrived!

After waiting nearly a month, my text book, Health Promotion: principles and practice in an Australian setting, has arrived. I ordered it a month ago through Fishpond.com.au and it was supposed to arrive on the 10th. It certainly wasn't quick. I received books from the UK that I ordered after this one, before it arrived. Still, at least I can start my uni (or at the very least look for another excuse).

Counting the votes

Today was the day of the Federal Election for 2010. Currently I’m sitting in the Lingiari electorate. The sitting member is currently Warren Snowdon. I met old Warren on one occasion when I attended one of their fundraisers (after being strongly requested to by my housemate). He appeared to me to be your typical politician. Kind of slimy, only really interested in making you like him. That was enough for me not to vote for him and so today when I cast my vote, I didn’t. Apparently I’m sitting in a strong Labor seat with a large enough margin not to worry him. The Liberals candidate was surrounded in controversy with him allegedly breaching a restraining order. Currently across Australia the Liberals have about 43% of the primary vote with Labor at around 38%. Labour is still expected to win however on preferences. The Greens have around 11% of the primary vote.

Voting signs out the front of Gillen Primary School where I cast my ballot.

I voted for the Greens for both the House of Representatives and the Senate. My preferences around the independents and other minor parties. Neither of the major parties were going to get my vote as I believe that both the major parties are out of touch with the real world. Across Australia it looks like the final result will be pretty close although currently the ALP is in the lead (ALP – 64 and L/NP 56 with 3 independents). We’ll have to see how it goes. Julia or Tony?

Uni by distance

The third week of uni has now been and gone. It went so fast I hardly even realised. Things start being due at the end of next week so I've got quite a bit to do to catch up. If I wasn't working then it would be so much easier as I don't seem to have any time at the moment. This weekend my plan was to work on my stakeholder plan and my EH governance exercise this weekend. In the end I managed to get quite a bit done on the governance exercise (even though I'm still not too sure what I'm really supposed to be doing). I've still got to choose an organisation to do my stakeholder analysis but I'm going to get that done by Friday. Hopefully...

New Bike

Last week I became the proud owner of a new Southern Star 'Apogee' 18 speed mountain bike. It has all the trimmings including 'grip shift' gears and front fork suspension. I was in two minds whether to get it or go for a more expensive one from a proper bike shop. This one I actually bought from K-Mart. It was a bargain price of $99 or around $350 for another one through a proper bike shop. I've ridden the bike once and already I'm thinking I should have spend a bit more. That one ride flattened the front tyre, the seat (despite being too thin for my bum) won't stay in place and keeps slipping forward or back, no matter how tight I tighten it. I could go on about the stiff gears, the unaligned brakes and gears, etc, etc. But I won't. Well, not any more than that anyway. Of course I can quite easily fix these things with a spanner and a bit of money but that's just it. I wouldn't have had to do these things if I just bought one from a proper bike shop rather than just a shop that sells bikes. Of course, all things considered I've still saved myself about $200 so I guess I can't complain. I'll just have to see how it does in the future. I'm looking forward to getting out in it and going for a ride again.

I'm an uncle, again!

I’ve just heard some great news. I had a text from Lewis not 10 minutes ago saying that Naomi has just had a “full term female infant by caesarean section at 2105 hours”. With those no nonsense words a smile spread across my face. I’m an uncle again!

Lewis, Naomi and their new little girl.

Regulation Workshop

As soon as I arrived in Brisbane from Melbourne I was once again up the coast and sitting in class once again. As part of my final semester I had to attend a 3 day intensive workshop on regulation and Queensland legislation. It certainly was interesting, if not a little dull. Still, when I’m qualified that’s what I’ll be doing for the first couple of years at least. Applying the legislation to real life. First of all I’ve just got to learn the legislation!

Emergency?

Fire Engines, originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

We were sitting around with a cup of tea this evening when I heard sirens outside. I went out onto the balcony to have a look and was surprised to see that they stopped right outside my sister's flat. The first fire engine turned up and the guys got out and ran into the building. Then the second engine arrived. By this time I was wondering if they knew something that we didn't. Either way I stayed outside watching. Then another engine turned up. This time they firemen didn't rush inside so I figured there was no need to worry and went back to my cup of tea.

Wet and windy Melbourne

My first day in Melbourne visiting my sister and her husband. And of course my new (or at least 6 month old) nephew, Max. This morning we left the house. It was a typical winter day, windy and overcast. We head to the Studley Park Boathouse for lunch. It was picturesque little house at one of the many bends of the Yarra River. Unfortunately just as we sat down it started to rain. With the wind as well, it was cold. Still, we had a nice lunch before we went for a drive around Melbourne in order to settle down max and put him to sleep. It seemed to work wonders. It rained for the rest of the day so we couldn't really get out and about.

The next day however, Laura, Max and I walked into the city (well, Max was in the pram). First of all we had breakfast at a place called the 'Auction Rooms'. I'm not used to all of these trendy cafes that are dotted around Melbourne. It's quite nice to just go for a wander and then being able to stop at a little cafe. After breakfast we went to a group called 'Songbirds'. In which all the adults in the group sang songs in order to entertain the babies and infants present. The kids seemed to enjoy it as they were clapping and singing away. I held Max during the session and he seemed to be enjoying it. Whether he understood it I'm not sure but he certainly enjoyed the music. After that we did a bit of shopping in the city before walking back home. We did a bit of walking. All up it must have been around 7 km and we had a breeze blowing at us from every angle as we walked down the streets. My feet are sore now but it was a nice day for walking. Tomorrow I'm heading back to Brisbane and back to a week of uni.

Heading to Melbourne

I've just arrived in Melbourne. I flew on Tiger Airways from Alice Springs arriving in Melbourne around 10 o'clock. The flight was alright. The Tiger staff were not unfriendly, but then again not as friendly as those on other airlines. They looked like they had all had a long day. Inside the plane everyone was crammed in like sardines. I was so glad to have a window seat that way I could have a bit more room as I leaned over to the window. I needed this extra room as there was a guy sitting in the middle who was built like a brick... outhouse. I could also see the lights of Melbourne twinkling below as we came closer to land. From my view above the city, the sprawling streets below went off into the distance until they were just a blur. Whether this was to do with the rain or the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses I do not know. Either way, the city looked big. Streets of orange, yellow and white lights ranged off in every direction. We flew over this mass of light for about 20 minutes. Before getting gradually closer and closer to the ground. Before I knew it we were on the ground and taxiing to the terminal.

The terminal reminded me of cattle being loaded onto a truck. We were herded across the tarmac and down a walkway with fences on either side. There were security guards sanding on the other side of the fence (some even leaning on the fence) ushering us down towards the terminal. The terminal was itself a big shed where the passengers milled around, waiting for their bags. Having only hand luggage I walked straight out and in 5 minutes Paul had picked me up and I was on my way to Laura and Paul's house.

My first impression of Melbourne is that it is cold. There is a cool breeze blowing and my thin jacket wasn't much protection. I would have liked to have brought my big, thick, windproof one that I had in England but unfortunately I only had hand luggage and that was full with my computer, camera, papers and a few clothes. I should have had a bigger bag but by the time I'd packed in on the morning I was to leave, I didn't have enough time. As you can see, I was really prepared. I'll be in Melbourne a couple of days before heading off to Brisbane and then back up the Sunshine Coast to attend a regulation workshop as part of my uni course. Maybe I'll have to do a bit of shopping as well. Get myself another jumper.

Mixed results

Today the results for semester one of 2010 came out and I had both good and bad results. The good were very good, but the bad were quite perplexing. I really thought that I'd get a better make for the SRP. I'm phoned up the supervisor of the subject to ask where I went wrong. She didn't mark it so she didn't know. Instead it was marked by another teacher. I'm going to have to ask him as I'd really like to know. I'll just have to see what he says.

My results for the first semester 2010.

As for the rest, I can see why I didn't get a good mark for epidemiology as it was a tough subject. I had a great group for my Integrated Environmental Management class so getting a HD was not impossible and I'm totally amazed that I got a HD for GIS. Even now I only know the very basics and still am unsure as to what exactly metadata is. All up the results were okay and I'm quite pleased but I'm just amazed that I didn't do as well as I thought for the SRP, especially as each assignment took twice as long and had twice the amount of work than any of the others did. It's especially bad as I took my final report to the teacher to look over it in order to get the best mark that I could. Obviously that plan backfired.