I Want

I've been salivating after the iPhone ever since I first read about it. Thing is, it's been available in oz for a while now and I still haven't gotten myself one.

First off, I'm a tightwad and I don't want to pay a ridiculous sum of money for a phone. Even one that's as cool as that. And I didn't want to be swept along with the hype.

Also, I wanted them to fix all the bugs first before I got one so that I don't have the headaches the excited ones got.

But now, I think I've waited long enough and it's high time I got myself one (or someone else, hint hint. too bad D doesn't read this blog). I've been looking at the options on offer by the big telcos and the offers don't look too daunting. Some actually seem downright affordable. Now I just need to read the fine print...

Update:
I now have a headache from reading the fine print. There are 4 telcos offering the iPhone but it seems like they're all on post-paid.

[There's a great debate about Optus still offering pre-paid phones for sale at this geek site (which I love because of it's utter geekiness) but in the unlikely event that I go find a store that sells them (too lazy) it still costs over $800 for the 16gb which I will not likely fork over.]

So, after pouring through the details of 3 of the 4 (Telstra's the devil so I didn't even bother), I am still nowhere closer to making a decision. Correction, I am closer to a decision but that decision is to wait until next year because there is no way I will have the patience to try and make sense of the gobbledygook again this year. I even tried this nifty spreadsheet, link courtesy of the geek site, but it made my head hurt even more.

Oh well, my phone still works and so does my iPod. I guess it'll have to wait. Meanwhile, I need to lie down to get rid of this headache.

Happy Anniversary!

Today's our second wedding anniversary. Time sure does fly.

Last weekend, D had the best idea for our anniversary weekend (well, Saturday anyway) which was to go have brunch at the restaurant where we had our wedding reception then walk through the Treasury Gardens, where we had our wedding photos taken.

It was Grand Final day but we don't follow AFL at all so it had no bearing on our plans. We just had to make sure we weren't in the city too late that we caught the post-game crowd.

The weather cooperated, which was very generous for Melbourne in spring. I guess the AFL gods were feeling benevolent at the time.

Society has had a complete revamp since our wedding luncheon. It looks and feels very different and although it's more modern and contemporary now, I think it's lost some of its charm in the process.

The menu's changed and the prices have been jacked up but at least breakfast was still good value for money. Coffee wasn't bad either.

However, if I had walked into the restaurant as it is now, looking for a reception venue, I don't think Society would've been in my top 5. It's way too posh and just a tad charmless for me.

This is the section we had our reception then

This is what it looks like now

It's a bit hard to compare I know since I was too shy to walk through and take pictures of the section.

Even the signage and facade are different. And maybe I'm biased but I liked the old one better.

Old

New

One good thing about the renovation was the bathrooms. They're heaps better. The old ones were really dingy and just a tad gross.

No then pictures to compare (un)fortunately.

After brunch, we walked through Treasury Gardens which wasn't as colourful as it was during our wedding day. I think it's because this year, winter's hung on for longer than usual and so most of the flowers aren't in bloom yet.

Those pictures will have to come later (and might be a series in the postcards blog) as this entry is way too long now.

Tonight, D's taking me out to Donovans. We've been meaning to go (I mean, c'mon, the name alone would get us there) and were just waiting for a good enough reason (it's not exactly cheap). So, yey, I'm excited!

Twilight: What a Load of Crap

I found out about this book because it was on the cover of some magazine I was reading. Actually, the actors from the movie based on the book was on the cover of the magazine. It's called Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. The novel was all hyped up in the article and so I was intrigued enough to borrow it from the library.

I knew it was a young adult novel when I picked it up but, boy, did I not expect the amount of bullshit the author managed to cram into one book. And, I didn't even read the entire book!

I read the first 20 pages, hoping it was going to turn into something interesting, skimmed through the next 100, read a few more pages to see if it had become readable, skimmed through the rest and then read the last 10 pages.

Even with the cursory run through, I couldn't miss the bad writing.

*spoilers ahead. just in case you're thinking of reading it. which i highly recommend not doing.*

So, the premise of this novel is young girl moves to dad the sheriff's small town, meets a drop dead gorgeous vampire and promptly fall in love with him. Vampire (who has sworn off humans, sorta like a vegan vampire but instead of eating veggies, drinks the blood of animals instead) tries to control his feelings for the girl but can't help himself and now they're a couple. He keeps saving her life because, apparently, she's very very clumsy and attracts trouble wherever she goes. Lots of really bad conversation in between. And nonsensical ramblings of the girl's mind (yes, you are subjected to her thoughts as it's written in first person). Something happens (I think it was a bad vampire or something) and girl almost dies but gets rescued by, guess who, the gorgeous vampire. I think it ends with vampire still trying to tell girl to forget about him but girl insists she will love him forever and makes him promise to not ever leave her. But it doesn't end there. Because there are THREE more books after this and the author just keeps churning them out.

So, having read (well, at least tried to) this book, it boggles my mind that the series has become a runaway hit. So much so, that they've even made a movie out of it. Utterly bizarre. Apparently, it's the vampire version of Harry Potter (which I liked, btw), with rabid fans galore.

What's even more bizarre is the idea that a 90-year old vampire would fall in love (and risk everything for) a clumsy, ordinary (in her eyes anyway) 17-year old girl. I mean, having lived that long, wouldn't you find it utterly boring to converse with an inane (no, she's not even smart) teenager?

Clearly, I am not the target audience.

License to Travel

One of the drawbacks of being pinoy is we need a visa to travel most anywhere (other than South East Asia of course and Morocco!). Other than the hassle of providing documentation, I've hardly had any trouble getting a visa (if you exclude the bleeping USA, that is).

My European visa was surprisingly easy to get, given that when I applied I was an unemployed design student. My Australian tourist visa was easy enough to get as well when I first applied for it about 5 years ago.

So imagine my surprise when it took almost FOUR WEEKS to get my visa from NZ. Four freaking weeks. When their average turnaround time is 7 working days. No reason given at all for the delay.

I was ready to call the NZ visa office (or whatever they're called) to follow up and ask what the hold up was. I was also about ready to tell them to forget about it and just cancel all our travel arrangements to NZ(which would've been a pain but doable). I was going to give them until Monday next week before I rang. Thank goodness my passport arrived today stamped with my new NZ visa. A limited one-time entry visa at that.

I'm still excited to travel to NZ for our holiday but given the grief I went through getting a visa, I don't think I'll be travelling back there any time soon. Until I get my oz permanent residency that is.

Btw, out of interest, it doesn't cost Filipinos anything to apply for an NZ tourist visa. Some reciprocal agreement between our governments, I think. Just be prepared to wait if you do apply.

YoungMe NowMe

My sister turned me onto this site where people submit pictures of their old selves and similar pics of their new ones.

It's really cute and now I want to do it. I especially want to do it with my sisters and my sis and I were chatting on which baby pics would be the funniest.

I'm getting her to scan me photos and we'll see how we go. I might have to wait for her to come here for us to do our together ones... More reason for her to come here now!