Flip Top Bin

Go Better? Better go somewhere else...

2011-09-22T00:02:00.002+01:00

So Mel's Barina was in for a 30,000 km service the other day. Just recently (in the last few weeks) it has started leaking a bit of oil from near the radiator I think. It has left some oil stains on the concrete. It's not cooling fluid, it is oil.

The car is only 2 years old this month. 2009 Barina. 30,000 kms.

So into Heartland Holden in Parramatta - we had to take it back there because that's where we (stupidly) bought it so they "include" an extra 3 year warranty if we get it serviced there. I think they actually charge you for the extended warranty but just include it in the price.

The car was a bad deal in the first place. The guy didn't tell us that they were about to release the promotion where you get a Barina with free sunroof the following week at a lower cost as well. We got the last of the normal ones at a shit price.

So anyway... I put it in for a service and tell the guy "It has an oil leak". He writes it on the form and away I go. I get a phone call saying "It needs new brake pads and rotors" New rotors after 30,000 kms? It doesn't get driven hard. It shouldn't need new rotors. And $500! Just for the front.

So anyway after getting stung I thought at least they would fix the leak. Nope. Still leaking oil. Oh and another $400 for the 30K service.

I'm going to take it to a different holden dealer for a second opinion and make them put it up on the hoist so I can have a look.

Depending on how that goes I don't think I will ever go back to Heartland and it has left a really sour taste in my mouth about Holden overall. I was considering buying one of those new Holden Cruze sri-v 's as well. Australian made, turbo 1.4, fuel efficient and lots of toys.

I went to one dealer and drove one and he said "I haven't got any in stock, but you can order one and have it by the end of the year..." I was thinking about it and deciding if I could live with the tremendous turbo lag, until I went to take Mel's car in for a service and saw one (exactly the spec that I was after) sitting in the showroom.

So rather than the other dealer (not Heartland) say "I can have a look at other dealers for you" they just said "We haven't got any until the end of the year". What he should have said is "This dealership has sold its allocation. You should phone another dealership and see if they have any in stock".

Shit service. Shit sales. I'm going to buy something else and will never buy another Holden.

Anyone want to buy a Barina? Still a year to go on the new car warranty.... apparently.

Townsville Great Barrier Reef scuba diving on the Yongala

2011-07-10T11:21:00.063+01:00

Mel and I headed up to Townsville for the first week of the school holidays so that Mel could earn her PADI Open Water qualification. I already did this same course in (cough) 2000 but haven't been able to do much diving since. So it was a bit of a refresher for me as well as another chance to dive the beautiful Great Barrier Reef and also the wreck of the SS Yongala.

So we headed out early Saturday morning with a flight to Brisbane that got us there about 8am. We then had 12 hours to check out Brisbane before our flight up to Townsville later that night due to a bit of a booking stuff up by me (I thought it said "Arrive Townsville 9am not 9pm!) But Brisbane is a cool city and we enjoyed our impromptu stopover.

As always you can click the photos to see bigger versions of them...

This is a "Beach" that they have constructed along the "South Bank" of the river in Brisbane. It's not natural at all but it would be a great place in the summer. Too cold when we were there.

It's a really pretty spot, this is also the last known photo of that hat before it met it's municipal demise.

This whole area was wiped out in the floods that happened early this year. They have done a great job of rebuilding.

.This is the boat that Jessica Watson sailed solo around the world on, as a 16 year old! The youngest person to ever do that. The boat is not much bigger than a VW Kombi!

Coincidentally it was "Tartan Day" in Brisbane! So Mel couldn't resist the Irn Bru.

We spent the afternoon drinking by the river which reminded us both of a slower paced River Thames and the summer evenings we spent together when we first met. Then we headed back to the airport and on to Townsville.

Can you see the green tree frog on the back deck at Mum and Dad's?

So Mel's PADI training began in this pool:

It's at a place called Adrenalin Dive in Townsville. It's a purpose built pool with portholes in the shop that you can see into the pool! The training here was brilliant with 2 mornings in the classroom and 2 afternoons in the pool. Some officials arrived late on the first day to declare this pool the coldest place on earth. There was a little ceremony.

Mel made me delete the photo that was here of her in the pool but I will email it to you if you want!

This was our little group that graduated from the pool and theory lessons. Me, Mel, Cordelia (from Townsville) and Dorit and Dan from Germany. As well as us there were 9 other people on the boat and 5 crew. 8 of the other divers had a lot of experience and some of them were using Nitrox (a special mix for longer deep dives) on the wreck of the SS Yongala.

We boarded the mighty MV Sea-Esta with all of our diving gear...

All of our tanks and gear (you can see the nitrox in a special crate on the right hand side of this photo).

So we set off on the MV Sea-Esta on the Tuesday night about 9pm (I didn't take the photo below) for the 6 or so hour trip out to the reef.

We woke up the next morning to this...

Pure Blue water. Like some sort of blue crystal. It was about 15 metres deep and you could see the bottom clearly from the surface. Oh, and unlike the pool, the temperature of the water was between 20 and 23 celcius.

A nice cup of ginger tea to ward off sea sickness - not that it was needed as it was this calm the whole time! Like a lake.

The first place that we stopped was called Wheeler Reef.

View Larger Map

It's a small Reef located about 38 miles or so off Townsville. If you click the "minus" symbol on that map you can see how far away it is... and it also puts into perspective how massive the Great Barrier Reef is. If you click this link it might help more

Our first dive was in a very strong current and Mel thought she was going to get washed away. She felt better when we swam back to the boat and some of the really experienced divers had to be picked up in the tender because they had been carried off in the strong current.

We saw a few cool fish on this dive though. A Lion fish, a barracuda, and some great coral.

I didn't take this picture of the lion fish but they are beautiful. I seemed to have an eye for them as Mel and I were the only ones on the boat to spot them on this dive and then I found another one the next day! Oh, and yes they are extremely poisonous!

The second dive we did was a "drift dive" so we all jumped in the water with a marker float and just drifted through the coral with the current. This was a brilliant dive! We saw so much because we could move quite swiftly through the reef. I saw a chinese footballer cod, loads of fish and some great coral. Mel's confidence was restored!

After the drift dive we moved a short distance to the other side of the reef. We needed a fairly long surface interval (in order to avoid decompression sickness) after the two morning dives so we had some time for a bit of snorkelling.

I used a case for my iPhone that can go underwater for up to about 5 metres to take the underwater photos. It's actually a really good case and for only about $20 beats the expensive underwater gear you can get. We couldn't take it on the suba dives, it was only good for snorkelling on the surface.

So me and Dan headed out for a snorkel in between dives. You can see the coral cay in the top corner of this photo.

The water was beautiful and clear with lots of life even in the shallows.

They call that soccer ball shaped coral a "brain coral". If you zoom in it looks like a brain!

I thought I could hear the whales singing to each other in the background as we snorkelled along.

Wheeler Reef has a perfect Sand Cay. It's the ultimate deserted island surrounded by beautiful coral.

Gallagher, the ships mate, was good enough to take us over to the Sand Cay in the tender.

Boats! That's the MV Sea-Esta in the background, the "mother-ship".

The surface was covered in coral (and bird shit!) - Wheeler Reef is a Green Zone though so no souvenirs from here! You are not allowed to take ANYTHING out of the green zones.

When we got back to the boat, me and Gallagher went for another snorkel as well.

A few folk on the boat were impressed that I took that photo with my iPhone!
Dorit and Dan swotted up on their theory as we moved to our next dive spot!

So as we geared up for an afternoon dive, two whales popped up about 5 metres from the boat! They were too quick for our cameras this time though! The next dive was great as we saw some big Coral Trout, some clown fish in their anenomes and a big cod. As well as some coral that had been damaged by the recent Cyclone Yasi. The reef has already begun to recover though.

Here's a picture of a coral trout (I didn't take this photo but I thought I should include it as they are beautiful!):

Our next dive was the fourth and last dive for the day at dusk. We saw some more great fish and coral as well as a huge Moray Eel that Luke, our instructor found.

The more experienced divers on board had a night dive after this while we watched from on board.

But they missed this sunset while they were underwater!

The Sea was just so calm.

They also missed out on first dibs to dinner!

The food on the boat was plentiful and good. There was food after every dive which was great.

Overnight we moved to a new reef called Davies Reef. This reef is a yellow zone which means you are allowed to fish! Not that we had any fishing gear on board and actually diving this reef makes you wonder how people are allowed to fish because it is beautiful. Not many coral trout here though as they must have all been caught. :(

Here's a map showing the two reefs that we visited at the top (both circled) and the wreck of the SS Yongala circled at the bottom as well as the different coloured zones.

The Sunrise out there is just amazing.
I was usually the first one up in the morning.

Big schools of fish swam under the boat.

So we stopped on a big bommie on Davies Reef they call The Lions Den. It's supposed to have lots of Lion fish but nobody on the boat saw one! We did see a massive Manta Ray as we were descending as well as another Chinese Footballer Cod (a different coloured one this time) some awesome coral swim throughs and a few big potato cod near the bottom.

The Chinese Footballer Fish or Blue Spot Cod as some people call it is an awesome fish. They change from being white and yellow and black banded (Chinese Footballer colours) to be red with blue spots a lot like the coral trout. They also change sex as they get older from females when they are young to males when they get to about 40cm.

If you can imagine this bommie is like a mountain of coral, the top of the mountain is about 5m below the surface and maybe 10m diameter and the bottom of the mountain spreads out and goes as deep as 50m or more. We went "down" the mountain about 19m to a couple of big cracks and crevices that have formed.

There were some parrot fish and some clown fish here too. Here's someone elses picture of clown fish...

We then moved to another spot on the same reef. This was a really nice dive. We saw the most enormous giant clam (I think it was this one)

It was as big as me!

After this dive we headed to a place on Davies Reef that they call "The Maze". This was our favourite dive I think because there was just so much to see.

Here is someone elses picture of the maze:

It's absolutely covered in life and is a huge collection of different coral bommies and caves and swim throughs. Such a wide variety. We had been in the water about 30 seconds when I spotted another Lion fish and pointed it out to everyone else in our group (who had just swum right over it!). This one was a juvenile though so it was black not orange like the other one.

Mel really liked these blue starfish which are big - about as big as my head...

We also saw a Barramundi Cod ... (not my photo)

Probably my favourite thing was the shrimp fish... These fish swim vertically! They were in this piece of coral that looked like a tree and at first they just looked like leaves on a tree, swaying in the current. A closer look revealed that they were actually fish!! Here's a photo of them at the maze and below someone elses video of them swimming in a tank...

and here is a video of them swimming in a tank. They swim in such a funny way...

We were all buzzing after this dive. Absolutely my favourite spot. So we waited a few hours and we had a night dive at about 6pm. Mel wasn't up for it and it was a little difficult to see so she didn't miss much. I saw a really nice painted crayfish and a couple of cat sharks. It's also good fun to turn your torch off when you are 15m underwater and it becomes pitch black!

So that was the last of our dives on the reefs. We then started the 6 hour slog to the Yongala. The weather was good though so we had a bite to eat and went straight to sleep. I was so anxious to get to the Yongala I kept waking up every hour and thinking "Can I get up yet?". About 5am I decided I had waited long enough and went up to the deck.

I had a cup of coffee on the back of the boat and as I peered into the dark water I could see the ghostly outlines of MASSIVE GT's (Giant Trevally) in the light of the boat.

Here's a photo from the top deck of the boat looking down into the water to the wreck below. You can make out a couple of GT's and some big Bat Fish.

They really looked like sharks and I asked Luke, the divemaster and Instructor, what they were, just to be sure! It was still dark and as we were talking on the back of the boat we could hear a whale surface and breath and it sounded close! It must have only been 5 metres away and the adrenalin started going! We could just make out the shape as the sun slowly rose through the fog.

There was a rush among everyone on board to get our scuba gear on and get into the water!

There is a danger marker on the wreck of the Yongala which shows its location because it could be a shipping hazard. Underwater, it's about 16m to the top of the wreck and 28-30m to the sandy bottom. Because a lot of people dive this wreck they have installed permanent mooring lines, which means that boats don't have to anchor and run the risk of damaging the wreck. The orange buoy on the right of the photo above is from our boat (the MV Sea-Esta) and that is tied on to a line that runs down to the wreck. This makes it easy to go from the boat, along the line to the buoy and then down the line to the wreck. It also makes a great back scratcher for the Humpback Whales to try and get rid of their barnacles!

Because the wreck is in the middle of nowhere (no reefs around and just open water really) a lot of the larger creatures use it as a cleaning station. They swim in and all the little fish eat the parasites and other things that gather and grow on their skin and scales.

I don't know how Mel always manages to take the best pictures of the whales. Here is one that she took from the boat at the Yongala...

And here is a quick video compilation that I made. Some of the whales and some of me just dropping my phone off the back of the boat and seeing what was under there!

So our first dive at the Yongala wreck was amazing. As we descended the line the wreck appears out of the darkness and there are just so many fish and creatures. We saw lots of big GT's on the way down. Massive schools of fish ... a cobia... a sea snake or two... some more lion fish and then a beautiful sea turtle like the one pictured below...

(not my photo) he was just cruising along the wreck checking things out. Didn't seemed bothered by us at all. As we were looking at the turtle Luke signalled to us and then took off swimming really fast. We quickly followed and then realised what he was in a hurry for. The humpback had come down to swim with us. It was all a bit too much to take in. It was huge, and just turned gracefully over underwater and looked me right in the eye... it was probably only 5 metres away from us all... just amazing.

I don't have a photo and can't even begin to describe how awesome this experience was. Literally breathtaking as I then started to run low on air! So we ascended shortly after...

This photo (not mine) goes a little way to picture what it was like...

This is a photo of a picture of the Yongala which is in the Maritime Museum in Townsville...

And here is an illustration of the wreck as it lies on the bottom... It's 110m long!

The ships bell was recovered and we saw it in the Maritime Museum the next day...

All souls were lost when it went down... 122 people (and a racehorse called "Moonshine" and a champion Bull).

We waited an hour or so before our second dive. In that time the whale had headed off. The second dive was great because we saw a MASSIVE Queensland Groper and did a full tour of the wreck - right up the hull and back down the deck. We also saw a resident Moray Eel and lots of other smaller gropers and a lion fish. Also the Bat fish turn pure white and point upwards when they want the smaller cleaner wrasse to clean them. We saw one doing this... then it changed back to it's normal colour and swam away!

That was it... three nights and three days aboard were over and it was time to make the 6 hour trip back to Townsville. We saw a couple of dolphins on the way back as well just cruising along.

Liz and Mel went scavenger hunting for coral when we got back to Townsville.

We were buzzing all the way back to Sydney... and Mel was planning the next adventure!

Jenolan Caves

2010-07-09T02:27:00.010+01:00

Yesterday we went to Jenolan Caves. They are just west of the Blue Mountains, so the scenery was beautiful. The caves themselves have been dated to over 340 million years old!

The Grand Arch below is the entrance to the caves and it actually has a road running through it.

This is Caves House where we stayed for the night. It is literally right on the doorstep of the caves (just through the arch).

The water really was this blue. Nik was in explorer mode and so he went out early to go platypus hunting. . . he came back excitedly saying the only two living things he had seen so far that day were me . . . and a platypus!

I thought, "He's probably just seen a duck!". . . . but then I went hunting too, and there it was!

It was just floating motionless on the surface of the water, then it would dive down and come up again shortly after for air.

The river flowing from the blue pool was just like something you'd find in England. The trees were covered in hairy lichen. . . . fabulous fresh air!

The first cave tour we did was quite tough, we went up and down steep steps and ladders, but saw enormous stalagmites and stalagtites and sheets and shawls of calcite.

The caves are made of limestone (Compacted remains of shellfish from a sea bed millions of years ago). The stalagmites and tites are created when water seeps and drips into the caves. The slightly acidic water picks up calcium carbonate from the limestone and then it is deposited as calcite.

If the water drips slowly, stalagtites develop from the roof of the cave. If the water drips faster, stalgamites grow from the floor. Sometimes they meet up to form columns.

The lighting inside the caves was amazing - the second cave tour we did to "The Temple of Baal" cave was incredible. Inside this cave they turned all the lights out and it was absolute darkness . . I was so fascinated at this point that I couldn't take my eyes off the caves to get my camera out. . . so if you click on the link above you should see some images from the Jenolan Caves website.

If we go back within 12 months we get half price tickets . . . . . Yes I am referring to the Blair Tribe. We can send the boys off on a tiring adventure tour and us girls can take a leisurely walk through The Imperial cave. . . .Tempted?

Bundeena to Otford

2010-06-20T00:49:00.022+01:00

Yesterday Mel and I drove to Cronulla and caught the ferry over to Bundeena - then walked the length of the national park to Otford and caught the train back to Cronulla! It was a long day - but worth it!

Here's a map (you can click on it to move it around) :

View Larger Map

It was a mission (about 26km walk) but well worth it.

Some pictures (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger - then just press "back" to go back to the other pictures!)

The ferry from Cronulla leaving us behind at Bundeena.

This is the start of the walk, at Bundeena, looking south down the coast.

Thar she blows! The first whale of the day, a fair way out:

We kept walking and I admired the beauty while Mel admired the view!

These white cliff's are cool

This is before we got to Marley.

Mel spotted these whales (not sure how many- maybe 5?) coming towards us! You can see them just over her shoulder.

At this spot there were at least three groups that came past in less than an hour. 3 or 4 in one group, maybe 5 in the next group and then two - which we thought at first was just one. !

It was like these whales were heading straight for us! We were right above them on the cliff.

This one did a massive tail flick - just missed it with the camera but you can see the splash!

And then Mel took this great photo!

And I got these great videos (If you click the "arrow box" on the right hand corner it goes full screen - just in case you didn't know!):

So after the excitement of the whales we pressed on - aware that we had wasted a lot of time and daylight was against us!

We reached a great little river:

Mel took this photo of me from where she is standing ^

Then we saw an awesome Eagle:

Then we saw an awesome rock that looked like an Eagle!

We walked and climbed and carried on a bit further... You can see in this photo all the hills we still had to climb:

When daylight finally beat us:

We walked for about 9 hours all up (with a few stops) and 2 of those hours were in the dark - with our small lights we barely had 3 metres visibility through the Burning Palms Jungle and up the Burg ridge. When I say up, it's 300 metres high and virtually straight up!

This terrain map shows it pretty well:

View Larger Map

UPHILL, in the dark, through the jungle, with tiny torches. It was awesome!!

Here is someone elses photo showing what part of the track looks like during the day! Try walking through there with your eyes closed!

It was a shame we couldn't see all the palms and jungle (Having to walk through here in pitch black - we did lose the track a few times as well!)

We finally got to Otford, and could hear the train coming - but in our weary state managed to miss it by less than a minute and then had to wait 2 hours for the next one (and it was cold)!!!

We contemplated lighting a fire, but opted for the hobo look instead:

What goes through your mind when someone asks: "Do you want to go for a drink?"

2009-01-15T23:47:00.001Z

Three mobile customer service?

2008-12-17T05:14:00.008Z

So I bought a mobile for my girlfriend for Christmas. I bought it online. I already have a phone through Three and have had for a while. Frankly they are rude. There is no customer service.

Anyway, I signed up on the 4th of December to this new phone. It was free on a $49 cap. I thought it was ok value. The thing that really sold it to me was that you get $50 credit if you buy online AND on the same page it says that if you are a 3 customer you also get 1/2 price on your cap for the first three months.

Screen shots from their website are at the bottom.

Now i've received my first bill. Here is a screenshot:

So they've charged me the full whack on my cap.

The first line is the new phone. they charged me $8.05 from the 5th of December to the 9th of December.
The second line is my current phone. It used to be on a $29 cap, but i've recently upped it.
The third line is my current phone and current plan.

(i've blurred out my name and number)

Now i've called their customer service department and said that there is obviously a mistake and that they have not included the half price.

I called yesterday and after explaining everything to the customer service person she was vague, put me on hold for long periods of time saying "do you mind if I put you on hold for a minute while i check something" and said (lied?) that her computer was not working and could she call me back? Obviously this was in the too hard basket for her. I said - ok. Of course, no call.

So I called again today and spoke to someone (I didn't get his name) who told me that I got the $50 credit - but don't get the 1/2 price. I explained it was still on their website, talked him through where to find it. Then he claimed he couldn't see the offer on the website! He just plain lied that where the offer was, on his screen it was just blank!

Then (again after several long periods on hold) he said that the deal was only started 3 days ago!!! I explained - this is the reason I signed up for the phone in the first place - it has been on their website for a lot longer than 3 days because I noticed it months ago when I was looking at phones.

So I asked to speak to his manager. He said "certainly i'll connect you" put me on hold for ages. Then came back and said "you are not eligible for the 1/2 price plan because you got the $50 plan" I said - I would like to speak to your manager. So (ages on hold) puts me through to someone called:

Sunila Namviar

Interaction ID: 59269714

Customer Care Department Manager

Who claimed to be the manager of their customer care department and said the same thing as the guy before. Except this time the deal only started "2 days ago"

So I asked to speak to her manager. She put me on hold for ages. Then came back on the line and said that she is the manager. I said I want to speak to the person she is responsible to. Again, on hold for ages - she came back on the line and gave me a different name (it was clearly the same person) I said what is your job title and she just said "I am the manager"

Have a look on their website.

http://store.three.com.au/mobiles/Nokia-6210-Navigator-49-Cap

Check out the offer. (This is the exact phone I bought)

Three are such a rip off - I can't believe how frustrating their customer service department is.

I'm sending this blog link to The Consumerist (great website!) and some friends at trading standards.

UPDATE: So after kicking up a stink yesterday (Thanks Reddit!) I had a phone call from the Customer Relations department based in Brisbane this morning. This guy was awesome and what you would expect from a business that does business in Australia.

They have more than made up for my frustration and offered to do the half price for the duration of the contract!! More than the three months that I signed up for, but i'll wait until the next problem with 3 to decide if it's still worth it.

If I had spoken to this guy in the first place, i'm sure my problem would have been sorted out!

ASDA Lunchbox boxes

2008-12-12T04:23:00.003Z

Designer Emma Smarts created these awesome sandwich boxes for the UK supermarket chain ASDA. They fold out into a dinky little place setting! Pretty cool huh!?

The day i lost control

2008-10-28T00:12:00.002Z

Don't underestimate a red back spider!

2008-04-29T00:50:00.001+01:00

The good old aussie redback……………

An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.
Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm , came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.
The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.
Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web.

It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night.
But it did not take the spider long to bite it.
A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.
Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on
Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it.
She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.
Even a fly that accidentally landed on the snake was chased off aggressively.......

The best thing since sliced bread!? Sliced bread!

2008-03-30T07:15:00.006+01:00

I went to the local bakery the other day and asked for a half loaf. The girl at the counter said "I haven't got a half loaf, but i've got this one that I sliced the wrong way for a customer, you can have it for half price."

I've been making the best Peanut Butter on toast....

And sausage sandwiches I could only dream of before! I'm going to ask that nice girl to mess up the cutting machine from now on!