royby.com | Home

royby.com

Subscribe to Feeds

Browse by Category

Latest from - a weblog about weblogging

category - back in oz

Page 1 of 3 pages 1 2 3 >

in search of the perfect cappuccino

Posted 10/03/2010 under back in oz • other stuff •

Now this my friends could be the best ever home made cappuccino (for me at any rate). Just look at that milk foam!!

(0) Comments • Permalink

Asian gang skims $50m via EFTPOS

Posted 22/01/2010 under back in oz • other stuff •

Skimming is the common term for credit/debit card fraud and amazingly, in recent weeks a gang from, “a particular part of Asia” has skimmed approx. A$50million from Australian bank accounts. Westpac bank have blocked over 10,000 of their customers cards while police involved in the investigation say it’s the biggest attack of this type they have seen.

Amazingly, the gang has been able to target the EFTPOS machines of fast food retailers, particularly McDonald’s. According to reports, gang members have been able to enter McDonald’s stores, steal their counter-top EFTPOS machines, take them outside, insert a chip and return it to the store counter. Then it’s just a matter of receiving the card information via bluetooth to a laptop close by and viola! No money left in your bank account. But how in hell have gang members been able to temporarily steal the machines without being noticed?

One thing’s for sure, when I get back to Australia later this year I won’t be using my cards anywhere, especially fast food outlets. I’ll be drawing cash from the bank and using that thanks very much.

Here’s some links to articles relating to this scam:

Big whopper: A costly burger
Gangs skim $50m from EFTPOS machines
Westpac blocks 10,000 skimmed cards in NSW

(0) Comments • Permalink

spending time with my family

Posted 04/02/2008 under back in oz •

Jay and Grandad

Four generations of Hornsby’s

(0) Comments • Permalink

Jay’s early morning walk

Posted 18/01/2008 under back in oz •

In Townsville, Nth Qld, going for a walk along The Strand, Jay is wearing some of the bright new gear I brought him from Sai Gon.

(0) Comments • Permalink

Ducklings live to quack another day - UQ update

Posted 23/04/2007 under back in oz •

This is the sort of article that just makes me feel good all over

Eight one-day-old ducklings were safely rescued on April 14 by Wormalds University contract fire technician Dave Peebles and School of Integrative Biology PhD student Beth Symonds. The ducklings fell down a deep drain near the St Lucia campus bus stop while walking with their parents. While Ms Symonds made duck calls, Mr Peebles collected the ducklings from the drain. After a 90-minute rescue, the ducklings and anxious parents were safely reunited. Staff or students noticing wildlife in need of help should contact Security section, ext. 51234. Mr Peebles noted that Security was looking forward to more calls, but “are a little hesitant about snakes.”

(0) Comments • Permalink

shit

Posted 04/03/2007 under back in oz •

shit, Thorpey’s dead at 60. Haven’t had the time to think about it since I read the news a few days ago, but it was his funeral service today at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and about 7,000 people turned up. If I was in Sydney I would have been tempted to go along myself.

Today listening to ABC radio playing some old Thorpey hits I became quite emotional, after all, he’s gone, and with him just a small portion of my youth has crept away, making me realise my own mortality once again.

I think back to when I was 18, Thorpey and the Aztecs in the beer garden of the Lorne Hotel. Thorpe punching out the hard, loud brand of rock that he was famous for, fingers attacking his guitar and mouth attacking the microphone with that typical Thorpey “fuck you” attitude, he looked some young heckler right in the eye and without missing a beat asked him, “what would you know punk?”. Lobby Lloyd next to him, cigarette burning away shoved into the upper reaches of his guitar. That day they blew two sets of amps and I can remember feeling their music pass right through me.

shit!

(0) Comments • Permalink

royby.com - something to drool over

Posted 11/02/2007 under back in oz •

Need I say more!

(0) Comments • Permalink

learning more than just the language

Posted 10/02/2007 under back in oz •

A few months before we left Viet Nam I had finally begun learning the Vietnamese language with the Friendship School on Vo Thi Sau St, and it was my intention to continue learning Vietnamese when I returned to Australia. Subsequently I enrolled in the VN language course at Queensland University, but sadly, it was cancelled due to a lack of numbers.

I have several different self learning books accompanied by either tape or CD’s and have been stumbling along at home teaching myself, but self learning is difficult at the best of times and even more so when you have things like PhD theses on your mind, so I have not been giving it my best shot. The 3 months I spent back in Viet Nam late last year certainly helped my language skills, but I realised that if I didn’t find another way of learning while back in Australia, there was a likelihood that my meagre skills would rapidly evaporate. That is why, this morning, I found myself sitting in a classroom with Vietnamese children of primary school age, stretching my brain to keep up with what was going on around me.

This all started when the Trung Nguyen coffee in our pantry began to run out and our sources of supply at both West End and Fortitude Valley dried up. Fortunately the importers phone number was on the last remaining box and when I rang, he suggested I should try a store at the Brisbane suburb of Inala called Thai Hoa. Thai Hoa certainly does have a good stock of coffee, and Inala shopping centre was a great eye opener, as the Vietnamese Diaspora have made the area their own and the shops carry an abundance of Vietnamese produce.

Last Sunday, after sitting with Milton and Ping and eating a banh mi thit heo (pork bread roll) washed down with a good strong Ca Phe Da (and to hell with the high blood pressure), I asked Minh at Thai Hoa if she knew where I could take VN language lessons and she told me she would try to find out. Sure enough, not 5 minutes later I was introduced to another lady, Thu, who said that her children took lessons every Saturday morning at the local Catholic primary school, St Marks.

I reasoned that primary school level Vietnamese was just what I needed, so this morning I met Thu at St Marks, enrolled in my course, and trooped into the classroom alongside my fellow students, most of whom barely come up to my chest level. (At least though I was spared the indignity of lining up with them on the parade ground and being marched up to the room

The whole experience this morning was excellent, although there are a couple of things that I didn’t anticipate. For starters, the lesson is run completely in Vietnamese as are the text books, not English. I think that this will be beneficial for me, but it means that I miss some of the context of what is happening and of course I have to concentrate very hard, but that’s good.

The second fascination is that my class mates all speak excellent Australian/English as most were born here and for me, that seems really strange. They all speak Vietnamese, but have trouble reading or writing it and don’t have much of a vocabulary, hence they spend every Saturday morning from 9 to 12 taking these classes. It is weird when they talk to me using very Aussie vernacular and then struggle to remember how to spell simple Vietnamese words and many told me how difficult it is for them to learn. I’ll be interested to know if any of them have ever been to Viet Nam. I would wager that not many have and I find if fascinating to speculate that I possibly have a more intimate knowledge of their country then they.

Our teacher is a Catholic nun from Ha Noi who has been in Australia for over two years learning English so that she can teach it when she returns home. She is very friendly (as are all the people I have encountered there) and is willing to spend time giving me some extra help, on the proviso that I correct her English when she makes mistakes.

My fellow students were a little incredulous when I first turned up this morning, but said they thought it was “cool” that I was wanting to learn Vietnamese and are eager to help me when they can. The young guy beside me was constantly translating into English and advising me on what I should be doing and a young girl from another group kept coming over to check on my work and point out any mistakes. “Cool” indeed.

I think I will enjoy my lessons at this school, and I’m looking forward to my next class. I’d better ensure that all of my homework is completed though, as Sister Den looks as though she could be a bit of a hard task mistress.

Yet again, the hospitality and overwhelming friendliness of the Vietnamese people shines through. Thu came and checked on me after class and when I thanked her for going to so much trouble on my account she told me, “No problem, you go to Vietnam and teach our people, no trouble for me to help you now. You need any more help, you just call me”. Just so typical.

To be continued…

(2) Comments • Permalink

test cricket

Posted 06/01/2007 under back in oz •

Could there ever possibly be another test cricket series with as much to offer as the one that finished yesterday? Somehow I doubt it.

(0) Comments • Permalink

cabbies, same old battle, different approach

Posted 23/12/2006 under back in oz •

Despite my previous article about the oddities of how you must enter the R E Hotel at Toowong and my lament about baggage allowance on aircraft I don’t believe that I have become a Grumpy Old Bastard (GOB), but I just hate it when stupidity seems to rule the day. So here is another stupidity, but I can see some humour in it, so I really can’t be a GOB can I?

This is a cabbie story and I could fill page after page with cabbie stories as I’ve no doubt many people could. Wednesday evening I rang Black & White Cabs in Brisbane and booked a taxi for 5 am the next morning to take us to the airport. At 10 minutes to 5 Thursday morning I walked out the front of our house to put some rubbish in the bin and saw the taxi arriving. I gave the driver a wave, indicated that we would be about 5 minutes and went back inside to finish locking up.

At 3 minutes to 5 we had the luggage in the boot and were in the cab heading for the airport and I happened to notice that the meter was showing $8.80. In fact it ticked over to $9.00 as we got to the end of the street and I asked the driver what the normal flag fall was. He replied that it was normally $5.80 but that “These days we start the meter from the time you ask us to wait. But if you don’t want to pay the extra $3.00 it is up to you, no problems”.

I was not sure what he meant and asked for clarification but the long and short of it is that, because I just happened to be at the front of my house and indicated I would be there in a minute, he started the meter. I asked that, considering I had ordered the cab for 5 am, what would have happened if he had arrived and not seen me. “Oh, I would have waited until 5 am and then sounded the horn to let you know I was here”. “But would you have turned the meter on while you waited?” “No”.

So it seems that because we saw each other he saw fit to start the meter early. I’m sorry, but this sounds like a blatant attempt by the driver to rip a few extra dollars out of the passenger. I wasn’t too impressed and told him so but he assured me that I needn’t pay it if I didn’t want to. I didn’t.

As we neared the airport I noticed that the normal fare of around $37-39 was up to $45 with some distance still to go and enquired with the driver why this was so. Well, it turns out that the flag fall between 12 midnight and 5 am is $5.80 but from 5 am onwards it’s $3.30. Not wishing to appear pedantic I pointed out once again that I had booked the cab from 5 am, inferring of course that the flag fall should be at the cheaper rate. The driver gave a shrug.

When I finally came to paying the fare the driver offered me the $3 off, which I took, then added the $1.10 booking fee, the $4.25 bank fee for paying by credit card plus the $0.43 GST on the bank service fee. Total fare $50.18 less the $3, this on a fare that B&W Cabs estimate will run around $39. And, as I commented to the driver who I don’t believe understood what I meant, “and they say that Ned Kelly is dead mate!”

Next time I book a cab I’ll make the time for 5 minutes past 5 am, hide inside the house until that time (I dare not make eye contact with the driver), check that the meter is zeroed when I get in and make sure I have the cash on me to cover the fare.

Cabbies, you’ve just gotta love em!

(0) Comments • Permalink

Page 1 of 3 pages 1 2 3 >