Mindless corporate prattle

I don't know about where you live, but here in Washington there are all these ads on buses and things about how oil companies are big on carpooling and such. Chevron has this:

"I will carpool to work. And power a school"

It's even going on in Australia. BP has this website there:

"Talk stopped long ago." (Editor's note 2013: dead link now)

For Americans, it's a completely different story from BP. We Americans are responsible for high oil prices because of our "decades long failure of US energy policy." Yup, high oil prices are all our fault.

I guess it's not really mindless, but it just seems to me like such a transparent charade. Any comments?

Some favorites

Waking Life is one of my favorite movies - here's a little blurb from Youtube -



Then there's Everything But The Girl ... make sure you have Flash before you click ...

Pics from Mount Victoria

Finally uploaded some pix ... these are from a hike V, Supadog, and I did last Saturday 13 September.








Gum Forest, near Mount Victoria, New South Wales









Sandstone Cliff, near Mount Victoria, New South Wales

Back to DC

Landed in DC just a few hours ago - got home a little bit ago after picking up some groceries. Work tomorrow. Not really excited about that, or about being here.

New work from Brian Eno and David Byrne

Found this today ... thanks Chris.

Dinner disaster; lunch more than made up for it

Saturday night we went to Icebergs for dinner, in Bondi Beach. While V's meal was wonderful, mine was pretty bad. First, the waiter got the order wrong; then when it came, the flounder was undercooked. Plus it was immature - not a very sustainable practice. Finally, the waiter had attitude about the whole thing.

A huge contrast was where we had lunch on Monday, at Giotto Art Cafe on Stanley Street in East Sydney. Partner and I went here and had a wonderful meal. I had a grilled barramundi fillet with apple salad. The barramundi was great; the apple salad was sublime. Partner had a chicken burger on Turkish bread; he was quite satisfied as well.

Service was prompt and friendly. Great work.

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains is the local name for the Great Dividing Range, which are a mountain chain nearly hugging the entire eastern coast of Australia. The distance from Sydney to Katoomba, pretty much the heart of the Blue Mountains, is only about 100 km. But between city traffic around Sydney and then the mountainous roads past Penrith, it takes about an hour and a half or more.

Home: first the hike

I arrived in Sydney last Saturday morning around 7:30; picked up a car at the airport from Hertz and drove in. A beautiful morning soon turned into a beautiful day. It was election day - Sydney city council races, and V was in line to vote when I called to let him know I was heading into the city. By the time I got to Darlinghurst, he was already through with voting and waiting out in front of his building. He found a space for me pretty quickly. We went upstairs and while I showered, he made breakfast.

A quick breakfast and then we were on our way to the Blue Mountains. Last time the three of us went (V, Supadog and I), we found out that dogs are not allowed into National parks. This time we did a little planning and found some great hikes where dogs are permitted. We ended up going to Mount Victoria. The hike started in the southern end of the town, which is on a plateau. From near the start of the hike is an outcropping where you get this incredible view of the the mountains and valley below. Here is a pic I found online that is similar to what we saw. When I can load my photos onto my laptop, I will put some here.

The terrain is so different from North America. In the more shaded areas, in the valleys, the place becomes very green, very moist, with giant ferns the predominant undercover. It even smells differently from the other sunnier areas.  Even the soil is richer in these shaded areas.

We saw an echidna. First time ever for me. It's about the size of a rabbit maybe - a fat rabbit - but walks pretty slowly. Thank God Supadog didn't see it. They, like the duck-billed platypus, are monotremes and have some interesting characteristics which you can read about here. 

There were many small streams along the course, so Supadog was fine for water, as she had the chance to drink many times during the hike. While the distance we covered was not so far linearly, it still took us almost three hours. It was extremely hilly, with the hike starting at the top of the plateau and then descending several hundred meters down into the valley, then up again some, then down again, and of course, finally back up again to the town.

It was a great start to my short stay. 

Soon back home again (which home?)

On Thursday the 11th, I leave for Sydney again, arriving on Saturday the 13th. I bought the tickets some time ago; it's the last follow-up checkup for my rotator cuff surgery. Today I reserved a rental car - I've asked Vishnu if we can take Supadog out to the Blue Mountains on the day I get in. The funny thing about Australian national parks: no dogs. We'll have to find a local park that lets them in ... should be doable.