Should I be driving automatic cars?

I've long been a fan of manual cars. I understand that automatics are easier to drive, especially in heavy traffic, but overall, I'd prefer to have a manual. Part of the reason for this is that I've had experience with horrible automatic gearboxes in the past that changed gears at stupid times, such as when going up hills, and part of the reason is that I like driving and I enjoy driving manuals. A friend, who has only got an automatic licence, recently pointed out that this doesn't really fit with my project and my studies. After all, my project has been all about automation. Is it strange for me to pursue a career path in automation, yet dislike automatics?

Polar 2

Here's the result for those of you who don't have access to Matlab.

Polar Bear

This is cool (found here):

function polarbear
% plots a polar bear in Matlab

function ec(h,k,a,b,ang)
% (h,k) is the center of the ellipse or circle
xp=a*cos(ang);
yp=b*sin(ang);
plot(h+xp,k+yp,'LineWidth',3,'Color','blue');hold on
end

% First plot curves that use theta between 0 and 2pi
ang=0:0.01:2*pi;
ec(5,0,2,2,ang),ec(-5,0,2,2,ang) % plot the feet
ec(2,0,1,1,ang),ec(-2,0,1,1,ang) % plot the hands
ec(0,9,4,3,ang) % plot the head
ec(1,10,0.25,0.25,ang),ec(-1,10,0.25,0.25,ang) % plot the eyes
ec(0,8,1,0.5,ang) % plot the nose

% Plot remaining curves for specific theta
ang=0:0.01:pi/2+3*pi/180; ec(5,0,2,5,ang) % plot the right legs
ang=pi/2-3*pi/180:0.01:pi; ec(-5,0,2,5,ang) % plot the left legs
ang1=pi:0.01:240*pi/180; ang2=-60*pi/180:0.01:0; ec(0,4,3,3.60,ang1),ec(0,4,3,3.60,ang2) % plot the arms
ang1=-24*pi/180:0.01:45*pi/180; ang2=pi-45*pi/180:0.01:pi+24*pi/180; ang3=254*pi/180:0.01:286*pi/180; ec(0,4,5,5,ang1),ec(0,4,5,5,ang2),ec(0,4,5,5,ang3) % plot the body
ang=0:0.01:155*pi/180; ec(2,11,1,2,ang) % plot the right inside ear
ang=26*pi/180:0.01:pi; ec(-2,11,1,2,ang) % plot the left inside ear
ang=-5*pi/180:0.01:156*pi/180; ec(2,11,1.25,2.25,ang) % plot the right outside ear
ang=25*pi/180:0.01:185*pi/180; ec(-2,11,1.25,2.25,ang) % plot the left outside ear
ang=pi/4:0.01:pi/2; ec(1,10,1,1,ang) % plot the right eyebrow
ang=pi/2:0.01:135*pi/180; ec(-1,10,1,1,ang) % plot the left eyebrow
ang=119*pi/180:0.01:2*pi+61*pi/180; ec(0,7,2,1,ang) % plot the mouth
ang=200*pi/180:0.01:320*pi/180; ec(0.75,8,0.75,1.5,ang) % plot the right smile
ang=220*pi/180:0.01:340*pi/180; ec(-0.75,8,0.75,1.5,ang) % plot the left smile
end

Bookmarking

I'm currently sat on a bus, on my way home, and I've just witnessed a woman fold over the corner of the page in the book she was reading. I wanted to tell her to refrain from such ghastly book defacing, but I restrained myself, and instead I'm just ranting on my blog. Books deserve better treatment.

Nuts with extras

I felt a bit peckish so I wandered over to the fruit cart thingo at uni and bought a small plastic container of cashews. After eating all of them, I noticed a small insect in the bottom of the container. I didn't ask for cashews with insect when I bought them, it was just a free added surprise. I didn't eat the insect, in case you were wondering.
In other news, I wasn't shortlisted for the dsto job that had a ludicrously long set of selection criteria that took ages to complete. How annoying. This means I'm going to be unemployed, at least initially, when I graduate. I hope it doesn't take too long to find a job, and I'd consider implementing a time limit in this country, except that foreign economies aren't going very well and it might be hard to find a job in europe.

Pain perdu

I want to try French toast (pain perdu) with doughnuts. I think it'd work.

Swipe card

My swipe card has locked me out of the lab I work in because I left the lab to get lunch but the card decided to stay on my desk in the lab. Very inconvenient, especially as most of the other people I know who use the same lab don't seem to be around at the moment.

Ouch

I really hate mouth ulcers. I've had this one for several days now, and it's not a welcome feature in my mouth. It's on my tongue and is in a spot that seems to frequently rub against my teeth.

Free travel

Today seems to be a day of free public transport, at least for me. The go-card readers on my morning and afternoon buses were broken. Free is nice.

Ulcers

Ulcers aren't fun. I don't think that statement will elicit many arguments. I have a painful one on my tongue at the moment, and I was sensible enough to avoid putting balsamic vinegar on my salad this evening. That certainly wouldn't have been a pleasant experience.
Applying ulcer medication is another unpleasant experience. It stings for about a minute or so, but the longer term benefit is definitely worth it.
The specific stuff that I've been using lately isn't, as far as I'm aware, available in Australia, which is frustrating as it's a lot more effective than anything else I've ever tried. I'll have to visit France again to top up my supplies when the current bottle runs out.
I bring back boring souvenirs from France; ulcer medication and deodorant (I can't get the deodorant I like here either).

Social networks

I am currently logged in on 3 social networks; facebook, google plus, and diaspora. Combine these with blogging and keeping up with other people's blogs (via google reader), and I've got quite an active online social presence/obligation. I'm starting to wonder if one day I'll cease to have time for an offline social presence.

Red pen

My red pen stopped working today while I was marking prac reports. I always mark the pracs in red, but I was forced to change to marking in purple mid-report. I'll have to remember to replace marking red before my next prac session. Marking red has served me well. I've always used this same pen for these pracs, and it's a shame it didn't last out the semester as this will most likely be my last semester of tutoring.

Voting

It's student union election week this week. As usual, there are lots of people around trying to convince people to vote (preferably for whatever group is on their tshirt).
Thankfully, it's friday and so the voting crap should be over by now, and next week will be back to normal.

Śpiący

Jestem bardzo śpiący ale jeszcze nie śpię. Muszę iść spać wkrótce.jestem w pokoju.

Język

Teraz piszę po polsku z listami polskich. Nie mogę pisać dużo bo mój polski nie jest bardzo dobry. Też, jestem na uniwersytetu i chciałbym jechać do pubu trivii.
Nie wiem co chcę jeść na obiad, ale wiem, oczywiście, że ja chcę jeść coś smaczne.

Les dictionnaires

J'ai beaucoup de choix sur ma portable quand je veux choisir une dictionnaire; anglaise, française, allemande, polonaise, néerlandaise, espagnole, italienne, portugaise, turque, et coréenne. La dernière choix est un peu loin des autres et je ne pense pas que j'aille l'utiliser. Mais, je suis très content que je peux écrire en anglais, français ou polonais.
Il me reste une heure de mon td mais je croix que j'ai fait assez ici et je veux partir.
On est mercredi, donc ça veux dire que je vais au pub trivia ce soir.
Demain, je vais à la plage avec les chiens.

Uni computers

The computers in the lab at uni are all new and shiny, with bigger screens than last semester. Now, if only they'd fix the air-conditioning system in this windowless room, it could actually be a pleasant place to work.

Bus etiquette

A girl sitting two rows in front of me decided to mind the seat next to her for her friend. As this bus is full and a lot of people got on before her friend, she had to tell them that it was reserved because, understandably, they saw a vacant seat and wanted to sit.
I felt that her friend should have been on the bus earlier if he'd wanted a seat and it should be first in, first served when it comes to bus seating (except for injured, disabled, elderly or pregnant people, of course). I was hoping that one of the passengers would sit there anyway and say that he should have arrived earlier at the bus stop if he'd wanted a seat.
Is it possible to reserve seats on public transport for friends? Especially when some of those the girl rejected looked to be full-fare passengers and this girl and her friend are more than likely on concession fares.

Hello

Coffee and podcasts. This part of the morning is good, but I will have to do some work today and hopefully it will be productive. I need to work out what it is that I actually need to do and how to do it. And before that, what out of the things I need to do have already actually been done.
But, for the moment, coffee and podcasts.

P.S. It might be stating the obvious, but sometimes I can't think of anything to write in the subject lines of these posts.

Good news for my project

After several frustrating weeks of trying to work out how to get something to work that was working 6 weeks ago, I finally solved the last problem today (thanks to some help). Now the computer that I need to work on is willing to talk to the microscope. This means that I can finally start testing some new code and then writing and testing more code. This new code will undoubtedly cause more pain and frustration, but I'm in a better position now than I was last week.

Free!

I'm just after eating a twix. It was extra delicious because it was free!

Ouchie

I have a small paper cut in the joint crease of my right pinkie. It's a tiny cut, but because of its location, it's occasionally painful; like when I dry my hands after washing them and the towel's friction pulls the wound apart.
I collected this injury while handing out tutorial worksheets while tutoring. This means it happened at work. Am I eligible for workers' comp?

Książki itd

I've bought some books online and they're currently on their way to Germany.
In completely unrelated news, je me trouve chez la coiffeuse pour me couper les cheveux. I teraz, piszę po polsku.

Watchless moles

This is now my fifth day without a watch. Sure, I can check the time on my phone, but I like wearing a watch and it's easier to look at the time on it rather than extract my phone from my pocket and press a button to wake it up just to see the time. I also dislike leaving home without my phone, keys, watch and wallet. Leaving just one of those behind makes me feel as though I've forgotten something.
I've just got on a bus - I typed the paragraph above while waiting at the bus stop. The gocard things aren't working on this bus, so I've scored a free ride to uni. In other good news, I visited a doctor this morning to have some moles checked and they're all good; no need to have them lopped off.

More updates

I forgot to mention in that last post that my watch battery is still flat because I haven't had a chance to have a replacement installed. I will have to get around to it soon though, as I don't like not wearing a watch.
More news: I like my new mp3 player. I bought a new one because it was becoming increasingly difficult to read the display on my old one, which made it frustrating to read the menu, or see what was actually being selected. My new one is a creative zen x-fi2. My only complaint with it so far is that the touch screen requires more pressure than what I'm used to, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Updates

I still need a haircut, as I haven't been to the hairdresser since I write that last post about needing to visit one.
I also need to visit a doctor to have some moles checked out, just to make sure that they're not evil ones, or to chop them off if they are. I have an appointment for that tomorrow morning.
I still haven't found the book that went missing some time ago, which is rather annoying because I would like to know where it is and I'd like to finish reading it. I need to buy more annales du disque-monde*.
Haigh's orange pastilles are delicious.
I haven't gotten around to reading a french version of dangerous liaisons that I've been lent. I wonder if it's as good as the original english. :-)
Lastly, I really need to finish writing a job application that I started ages ago and have put off quite a lot. It's a painful process.

*discworld in french.

Fryzjera

Myślę że muszę jechać do fryzjera wkrótce.

Coffee

As an addition to the last post, the coffee was delicious. One of the best I've had in a long time.

Python

I'm technically now two weeks into my project. I've done nothing of note. The first week was spent gaining access to the lab and the computer on which I need to work. So far this week, I've managed to find the files that I need to work on, which required updating some software, which in turn required getting admin privileges on that computer.
Now, I've got the privileges, updated the tortoise svn software, and found the files. I got to uni this morning thinking I could spend some time testing some python code that I wanted to test last week, only to find that there are issues getting the python commands to work. I've worked out a way around this problem, though it's somewhat inconvenient, but at least I should be able to test the code.
The code isn't working, which shouldn't be too surprising except that an older version that I knew was working also now returns errors and I have no idea why.
So, I've left the computer and installed myself at the nearest coffee establishment, where I'm writing this post.

Morning coffee

I purchased my morning coffee at Mr Beans today. Normally the quality is fairly high, but today it wasn't as good as usual. It wasn't a bad coffee, but it just wasn't up to their usual high standards, unfortunately.

Assessment

First day at uni for the semester and I'm already reading through a paper that I need for a piece of assessment due on Wednesday. It's a strange assignment that seems unrelated to the actual course and as far as I can tell, the only point of it is to convince us that the lecture method used in this course is more effective than other methods of instruction; the assignment is on teaching and learning methods. The subject is biomedical instrumentation.

Le Semestre Commence

Today is the first day of the uni semester. This semester, as with the rest of this degree, I'm doing two subjects and a lot of tutoring. My earliest class this semester starts at the early hour of 10am, but one of my subjects is a project-research subject, so it doesn't have set classes, but it will require spending a significant amount of time at uni between classes, so I wouldn't be surprised if my timetable ends up being a lot fuller in practice than it looks on paper.

Other news

In other news, eating a meal while wearing glasses is strange. I don't do it very often, so I'm not sure if it's something I'm likely to get used to any time soon.

New words

Apparently a female loup-garou is a louve-garou and a female nain is a naine.
The second one makes sense, but is a female loup really a louve?
These words have recently entered my vocabulary. (I knew loup but not loup-garou.)

Job applications

I'm in the middle of writing another job application. This one is taking ages and I once again wish I could be honest and answer "because I want a job" in response to the question "why should we hire you?".

Chocolate

I made my own hot chocolate today using powder that I bought at San Churro. It's definitely no where near as good as the hot chocs you get when you visit a store, but it's good enough to quell the cravings, and better than the hot chocs you get at regular cafes, which are usually little more than weak hot cocoa. Next time I make one (probably the last considering how much powder I have left), I'll have to add a scoop of ice-cream.

Lack of chocolate

I didn't have a hot chocolate today, and it was definitely missed. I could have made one myself, but I didn't get around to it, and it wouldn't be quite the same. I might have to make one tomorrow though to quell these cravings.
I think I could live quite comfortably in Melbourne, with frequent hot chocs.

The Tan

Last Tuesday, I found myself in the city's botanic gardens, locally known as the "Tan". I took a few photos in the gardens, but most of them with my camera. The pics included with this post are the few I took with my phone.

More lego photos

I thought I'd upload some more pics from the Lego exhibition.

More lego photos

I thought I'd upload some more pics from the Lego exhibition.

Another chocolate shop

Current evidence suggests that I'll have to return to Melbourne in order to complete my chocolate comparisons.

Nique la magasin

This shop's name amused me when I first saw it 2 years ago, and I still think it's funny that a shop exists with this name.
The first time I noticed it was when I was walking up the street with a group of frenchies.

Lego exhibition

I went to the lego exhibition today, and there were a few interesting pieces, but overall I was disappointed because the gallery and display were very small. I definitely didn't feel a though I got value out of the $15 entry fee.
Anyway, I've added a couple of pics of some of the better exhibits.

Chocolate Photos

Here are the rest of the chocolate post's pics.

Chocolate

I thought I'd send a few photos to consolidate my chocolate tests over
the past week.
I've added the attachments in reverse chronological order, but I have
no idea at this stage what order they'll appear in once the blog post
has been posted.
* My first attempt at posting this came up with an error because there
were too many pics attached, so I'll post this one and send another
with with the other photos.

Test post

I'm writing this to test to see if I  can still post to my blog via an email.
I know I haven't written a post in a very long time. I haven't forgotten about the blog, but I just haven't gotten around to writing anything, and it's definitely suffering from shorter posts appearing as facebook status updates instead of blog posts.

Je suis toujours étudiant...

I'm at uni again, working on an assignment, which isn't too surprising considering that it's the second last day of the semester's teaching period, and it's relatively common to have assignments due on the last day. The current assignment involves a lot of research and writing, and I'm not exactly sure of what else to write. I'm fairly certain that I need to add a few more things, but the problem is that the sections in which I could add more easily are already at, or near, their individual word limits. I don't think the word limit is all that strict though, so I could probably go over without any repercussions.

I teraz, chciałbym pisać coś w języku polskim. Nie wiem dlaczego. Może bo mogę. Ale, nie mogę pisać dużo bo nie znam dużo słowy, szkoda. Też, nie pamiętam dużo słowy polski że wiedziałem kiedy mówiłem częściej po polsku (kiedy mieszkałem w polsce, na pewno, i musiałem mówić po polsku wszystki dzien).

Ok, I'd better get back to writing this assignment, as it's not going to complete itself, unfortunately, and I don't want to go home today until it's all done, as I won't have a lot of time tomorrow to work on it between lectures and tutoring. Also, I need to restart my computer in order for updates to take effect.

Over a month?

I'm having a very slack year as far as this blog is concerned. Until I checked the post that I wrote last night, I hadn't realised that it'd been over a month since my last post. I knew it had been a while, but not that long. I'll try to remember that the blog exists and post from time to time, but as a friend recently pointed out, a lot of the things that we once would have posted to our blogs now get posted instead to facebook.

The last post, about the book, was also the 666th post on this blog.

Book?

Has anyone seen my copy of La Huitième Sortilège? I haven't read much of it since I returned from my holiday at the start of the year. The main reason for not having read much of it is that I don't actually know where it is. It's rather annoying because I'm part way through it and I'd like to finish it. I usually like to read before going to sleep at night but I've been doing sudoku puzzles instead because I had a book of them near my bed, but I've now finished all of the puzzles that are hard enough to bother with. I want my book.
In other book-related topics, I have only now realised that I forgot to go to fnac while in France in order to buy more annales du disque-monde. Merde.
If I had my book, I wouldn't have written this blog post, so I guess my loyal readers are grateful for its temporary geographical uncertainty.

Boulot

Je viens de faire une application pour un boulot qui commencerait en janvier ou fevrier l'année prochaine. C'est un peu bizarre d'ecrire une application maitenant pour une telle longue commencement; tous mes autres boulots ont commencé la semaine après ou peut-etre deux semaines. On m'a dit qu'il y a beaucoup de travaux pour mon métier. J'espère qu'on a raison. Fin, je n'ai besoin de trouver qu'un boulot, donc la chose la plus importante, c'est qu'il y aura un boulot pour moi.

merde

Je suis à la fac et on est dimanche. J'était ici hier pendant plusiers heures. Je n'aime pas passer tout le weekend en faisant des devoirs, mais je ne crois pas que j'aie le choix. Il faut les finir, et il y a trop de choses chez moi qui m'empêchent de les faire. Il ne me reste que 7 ou 8 mois d'etudes, à priori, et j'attends le fin avec impatience. Je voudrais bien avoir un boulot où je vais pendant la semaine comme presque tout le monde, et où je peux faire n'importe quoi pendant les weekends.

Bon. Je dois finir ce devoir pour que je puisse commencer un autre...

Ouch

I've learnt something tonight. If you develop a small blister on your foot because you wore rubber thongs and then wear socks with shoes the following day, don't just rip the sock off quickly in order to access an itchy area on your foot just in case the small blister has decided at some point to weep and/or ooze, and form a scab that is intimately attached to the sock. Ouch.

USB key

You'll all be relieved to know that I have found my usb memory stick. It was in my cow mug. I use the mug as a place to temporarily store small objects, like usb keys, because it's a cool mug but it's not a very practical shape for drinking out of, especially with the bell hanging from its neck.

Lift etiquette

If you're only going up or down one floor, why take the lift? Especially in a busy building with only 2 slow lifts. It's just lazy and annoying. In the case of the building I'm referring to, it's usually much quicker to walk up the stairs 1 or 2 floors than to wait for the lift.

Of course, exceptions exist if you happen to have a disability, or you have large, bulky, or heavy objects to transport, or there are not any nearby stairs, such as in the building R lives in.

Text

I'm just after hearing an Iranian at uni say "text" but pronounced as "teck-us". Do speakers of Persian generally have trouble with consonant clusters at the ends of words or is it just the 'xt' combination?
I haven't had a lot of experience with Persianophones* but I know that they rarely (if ever) begin a word with a consonant.




* It's a word now.

People

People irritate me. Especially the general public. I seem to have spent some time recently behind slow people, either driving or in queues or simply walking on footpaths. Why must they get in my way? Why is there an unwritten social rule that requires me to be polite? The woman in the queue in front of me in ties servo this afternoon took ages deciding which packet of cigarettes to buy. Not deciding on a type of brand but whether she should get the 20 or 30 pack! Gah! It's not a difficult decision and there's no reason why she should take up valuable moments of my time!

At Uni

I'm at uni for the first time this semester, and also the first time since the recent floods. Not a lot has changed since last year, aside from a change in the shape of the river banks. But, one of the computer labs that I've spent a lot of time in has been filled with macs! The real computers have gone! Gah!

2 years

Exactly 2 years ago today I landed in Australia after a long stint away. Back then, my plan was to complete the 3 years ahead of me at uni and then return, as soon as possible, to France. Towards the end of last year, I was starting to feel that maybe I'd be content with living here and just visiting France/Europe for the odd holiday every couple of years, however, now, after returning again, I'm back at the stage where my relocation to France can't come soon enough.
I hope there are decent jobs there for my chosen field. I definitely do not feel like working there again in the ESL industry (it's an acceptable industry in other lands, but it is horrible in France).
The awful and expensive public transport system in Brisbane that I'm currently a passenger on isn't helping matters. I think it's even more expensive than the public transport system in London, especially when compared to other costs in both cities.

J'étais où?

I used my phone's GPS today, in Brisbane, and was amused to see the last location on the screen. When the system's first switched on, the screen shows the last location for a few moments until it finds the satellites and updates the display. Well, when I switched it on, the last location was Casablanca.

Movement

Either the train is moving or the world is moving around the train.
Either way, I'm glad I'm facing forwards.

The Monument & Wimbledon

I'm on the train now.

While in London, I climbed the stairs to the top of The Monument. As far as I can tell, that's its official name. It's the monument to the London fire, and its height is the distance from the base to the point were the fire started. I can't remember exactly how tall it is, but it's 311 stairs to the top. I received a certificate to prove that I managed to make it all the way to the top. The view was nice from the top and I took some photos, but I wish they'd equipped the viewing balcony with thicker, solid posts so that I wouldn't imagine plummeting to my grisly death.
For those in London, it's located near the tube station called 'monument'.

I spent yesterday afternoon at Wimbledon, a part of London I'd never been to before. It seems like a nice area. We went to an all-you-can-eat Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Italian restaurant. Quite a combination of cuisines! The place was run by Indians and, unsurprisingly, the Indian section was the best.
I saw quite a lot of the common from a balcony on the 12th floor, but I was unable to spot any Wombles.

Leaving England

I'm at Pancreas station in London, waiting for the boarding to start for my train to Paris. I've enjoyed my short sojourn in England; London and Cambridge.
On negative point is the crap I had to endure yesterday evening in my attempt to get home on the tube. I've never been a huge fan of the tube, as I feel it's slow and inefficient at the best of times, but yesterday, out of the 3 lines I could catch home, 2 were completely shut down due to a trespasser on the tracks and the other was delayed due to signaling problems. All this in peak hour.
Off to board now.

In Cambridge today

I arrived in Cambridge yesterday evening by train. The train was comfortable and fast; it took only 45 minutes. I feel that the ticket price of 20 pounds each way is a bit steep. I haven't had a chance to explore the town yet, but that's on the agenda for today.
I spent yesterday (until my train here, of course) in London where I looked around at the Barbican centre, which surprised me by not actually having a barbican at all, and then I went down to The Monument and I climbed the 311 stairs to the top and received a certificate certifying that I'd done so. (actually, as far as I'm aware, there was no actual verification process to check if you'd made it to the top or just turned back halfway; the certificate was handed to you upon exit.)

I was fairly lazy during my last few days in Paris because I got sick. I still caught up with a few friends over those days but I didn't explore many places or wander around the city as much as I'd planned to.

A l'aéroport de Cracovie

I'm currently waiting near the gate assigned to my flight. It was scheduled to take off at 10.40am (it's currently 10am here) but it's been delayed until 11.30am. The delay has been on the screen for some time, and I hope it doesn't follow the fates of 3 earlier flights which were cancelled. The reason for these problems is poor visibility, and it's hard to see anything outside from the windows here.
In other news, I went to a restaurant last night called 'U Aniolów' in Ustron, a resto known for its pirogi. I had pirogi ze szpinakiem, oliwkami i feta (pirogi with spinach, olives and feta). It was delicious, so I know why it's a well-known resto.
Well, I'd better finish there. I have some waiting to do.

Herbaciarnia

I'm currently sitting in a tea room in Gliwice. It didn't exist when I lived here. In fact, there have been quite a few changes here. There's a new shopping centre. It's not huge, but a decent size for this city, and it's clean and the toilets are free (a novelty in Europe, especially the east).
As well as this tea room, there's a vegetarian restaurant, where I had a delicious meal yesterday (Zloty Osiol), so the city seems to be becoming slightly more alternative. The guy running this tea room has long hair and a shaggy beard, and the girl in the vegie resto had a flower tattoo covering most of her back. This is quite a big step forward compared to my memories of this town.
The shopping centre even has a H&M. It used to be necessary to travel to Wroclaw or Kraków if you wanted to shop there. One thing I found odd though was the chocolate shop in this new shopping centre: it sells delicious hot chocolates and other chocolate-related products, and generally portrays itself as a fine Belgian chocolaterie, but it's called 'Mount Blanc'. I realise that one can call one's shop whatever one wants, but I usually don't think 'ah, Belgian chocolate' when I see/hear 'Mount Blanc'. Maybe that's just me though.
Today's my last day in Gliwice as I'm going to Bielsko-Biala this evening (via Sosnowiec). Tak, ten wieczor, jade do Bielska-Bialej, przez Sosnowca. Poniedzialek, musze jechac do Krakowa bo bede jechac do Paryzia na samolocie.

Updates

As I left the cafe, I heard the unmistakable introduction of the venga bus.
Aussi, j'ai acheté un billet pour Wroclaw. Je prends le bus.

Cafes with free wifi are good

I'm currently sitting in a cafe with free wifi, hence the number of recent posts. The song being played at the moment is YMCA.

Skiing update

The name of the place just south of Vienna where I went skiing is 'Stuhleck'. The place seems to have a canine mascot who strongly resembles a beagle.

Wroclaw-Breslau

Je pars bientot à Wroclaw. Je ne sais pas comment j'y vais parce que je pourrais prendre l'autobus ou le train. Le train est plus chèr, prend 2 heures en plus et me ferait changer au milieu. Donc le bus est préféré mais on ne sait pas s'il y a une siège disponible et la départ du bus arrive à 3h du matin, donc on ne veut pas aller à la station sans un billet reservé.
Donc je vais à Wroclaw mais je ne sais pas comment. On verra.
Aussi, à cause d'être à Vienne, je souhaite que je parlais allemand.
À la station du ski où je me trouvais hier, il y avait une pancarte qui disait 'Single-Spur' (ou peut-être c'était 'Singel-Spur'). J'y était avec un ami viennois et je lui ai demandé, 'Single-Spur veut dire quoi?'. Il ne m'a pas compris car je l'avait prononcé comme le mot 'spur' en anglais. Il a rigolé quand je lui ai montré les mots écrits. En fait, cette histoire veut dire qu'il ne comprend pas mon dialect unique.

Time stamp

Just a note to point out that all the posts that I've so far posted from Europe have actually been sent 9 hours earlier than the time marked on the blog post. This is because I'm in Europe, but my blog's timezone is GMT+10, and I can't be bothered changing the settings.

Skiing

I like skiing. I'm not particularly good at it, which isn't helped by the huge amount of time between my opportunities to go skiing, but I enjoy it.
I went skiing today in a place called Stahlek or something like that. It definitely started with an S and contained an H, along with some other letters.
It was a nice place, and the view from the top of the mountain was fantastic. I'd attach a photo but I forgot to take my camera with me.
I managed to acquire an impressive bruise on each of my upper thighs after some (many) arguments with gravity, all of which gravity won. The one on my left thigh is bigger than the right, and both are more like raised welts than mere bruises.
In spite of these injuries, I want to go skiing again.

Et maintenant...

... je pense que je devrais écrire un message en français après quelque jours en France.
Je savais que j'avais oublié pas mal de mots et que mon niveau avait baissé un peu mais je suis allé à une crêperie avec des amis et c'était très difficile à comprendre et à suivre la conversation. Je faisais mieux à la fête pour sylvestre.
Quand je reviens en Australie, je dois pratiquer cette langue plus souvent.

In Austria now, and other stuff

I'm in Austria at the moment. Tomorrow should involve skiing, and today was spent in Vienna. I don't actually know where the skiing will take place other than somewhere just south of Vienna, but as I'll be travelling with an Austrian friend, I don't really need to know the details exactly. Reminds me of my skiing experiences in France. I don't know the names of either of the two places there where I went skiing, only that a place called Sept Laux was near the second, but not where we went.

So far I've been in Europe for a week, and I'm enjoying my time here. It's been fantastic catching up with friends around the place, and it's reaffirmed my desire to live here again. I don't know when that will happen, but I'm determined to make it a 'when' and not an 'if'.

I'd been in Europe just over 12 hours when I received a suggestion for a change in my itinerary; namely adding Nice and three cities in Morocco to my plan. I thought about it for a day or so, and decided to accept the change, so now I've got flights to incorporate these 4 cities into my trip. I've never been to any of them before so it'll be great to see somewhere new, and I'll be travelling with a Moroccan friend, so I'll have a personal guide.