Monthly Archives: December 2010

2010 in review

Posted on by Brad Heap

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I don’t like quoting from books I have not read. However, this well known quote sums up my past year near perfectly.

This past year has been many things, and without being too cliché, it has been a year of growth, change and challenge. The main challenge of my past year has been settling down in a new country.

At the start of 2010 I rather naively jumped at the opportunity to research at a top university in Sydney. It is not something I regret doing, however, moving countries has been much harder at a mental level than I ever expected.

Looking back at my blog postings they provide a reflection of my mood as the months went by:

  • January – I was still in Auckland, and commenting on politics, politics and politics. Life was fairly normal, except for trying to sort out the move to Sydney.
  • February – My first month in Sydney. I was like an overenthusiastic kid who had eaten too much sugar. Life was good as I explored my new environment.
  • March – This was the first month where the changes in my life began to hit. The main challenge during this month was at a religious level. Having come out of a smallish but very post-modern church I was visiting a large mega-church and simply couldn’t cope with the change in theology. These differences were striking at the core of my soul and I blogged a few times on the theological and spiritual dilemma I was facing. Since March I have not been attending church on a regular basis as I have not found somewhere that I feel I belong or agree with.
  • April – Over the later half of the year I have been trying to block out memories of April through July. This period of time was a rather hideous one for me as most things in my life came apart in a way that I had not experience before. The highlight of April was a weekend away at Byron Bay with one of my best friends.
  • May – By the time May rolled around I was not in a good state. I can sum up the month in one word: anger. I had got to a state where I was not happy with myself, or the world. I felt the entire world was against me and I was not a pleasant person to be around. Having said that I did get a week’s escape in beautiful Cairns to try and shake things off.
  • June – However, I was not able to shake off the depression that was wrapping around my life, and as June rolled around I was continuing to be a miserable buffoon. It also seemed like my negativity was rubbing off on my friends, while hiking in the Blue Mountains I had to phone for a helicopter after one of my close friends was bitten by a red back spider and feel very ill.
  • July – As the darkness continued into the fourth month I became more determined to find a way out. I spent the last week of the month back home in New Zealand and seeing a lot of friends for the first time in six months really helped me out.
  • August – When I returned to Australia in August I declared silently to myself that I was going to turn things around. I did this by what I describe as “humming” - getting myself into a life pattern where things were regular. Regular patterns and simplicity in life allows me to control my emotions.
  • September – During September I continued the pattern of “humming” and it was such a boring month that I can’t remember what happened. At university I had a major report due that consumed a lot of my time.
  • October – The highlight of October was one of my best friends from New Zealand coming to Australia and over four days we road tripped from Brisbane down to Sydney. Being able to escape for a while and see a little bit of rural Australia was a nice change of scenary.
  • November – I continued to define more of my new self during November. It would be the first month where I would say I had finally felt settled in Sydney. This month had two highlights a day trip with seven friends to Kiama on the New South Wales South Coast. And two weeks spent back in New Zealand with friends.
  • December – And finally we get to the end of the year. This month has continued on with the positivity of November. I am settled, I am comfortable and most things in life are going well. I still miss my friends in New Zealand a lot, however, I now have a good, albeit small, group of close friends in Sydney and I am looking forward to 2011.

Overall, overcoming the mental challenges of loneliness, depression, and isolation has taken a lot of time and effort during the past twelve months. I am really thankful to the people who have become my friends and helped me settle in my new city. I am also really thankful to those back in Auckland who have listened to me as I have moaned and moaned and moaned via twitter, facebook, email, gtalk, msn, and skype.

I promise you all that I plan for 2011 to be a lot more positive year. I will blog on my goals for 2011 tomorrow.

This is why Auckland has no trains over Christmas

Posted on by Brad Heap

Hat tip AKT

Yesterday the NZ Herald’s Editorial claimed that Auckland didn’t need trains because the entire network can be shut down for three weeks and chaos doesn’t happen. I really can’t be bothered arguing with idiots, but AKT does a little bit of it here.

However, as the photo above shows, there is no possible way trains could be running over the next few weeks. There are no tracks, and entire platforms are being rebuilt.

The closedown of the Auckland rail network over the quietest time of the year is one of the best things that can happen. It allows as much work to be done as possible, over a period of typically good weather, without major disruption to most commuters as many of them are holiday. Buses are replacing trains so it isn’t exactly like there is no service at all. And once all these upgrades are complete Auckland will have a train service that it should have had 20 years ago. It may take another 20 years to get to the level it should have today – CBD tunnel, North Shore rail, airport rail.

And isn’t it nice to finally see some power masts appear, it will be two more years before they carry live power.

Boxing Day sales madness in Sydney – animal instincts at their best

Posted on by Brad Heap

Bondi Junction Mall

Yesterday was Boxing Day. In Australia and New Zealand that is code for sales. New Zealand malls can get pretty crazy during Boxing Day sales, for instance, it is not unusual for the Albany Mega-centre carpark to be full before 9am. However, in Sydney the craziness went to a whole ‘nother level.

The two big department stores – Myer and David Jones opened their flagship stores at 5am. I am not so desperate to get up that early so instead I headed to Bondi Junction at 8am. Bondi Junction was surprising not as busy as I expected I manage to even get into the fitting rooms at Myer and bought some clothes relatively pain free.

However, heading back into the city to face the chaos at Pitt Street Mall was probably not the best move. At the best of times Pitt Street is busy but this was like trying to exit a rock concert. Police, and security was trying to keep the crowds flowing but ultimately it was just a giant scrum to get into Myer.

Inside Sydney City Myer was a crowd that made The Warehouse on a busy day look empty. Getting between levels of the store required you to stand in a queue as security opened and closed escalators to control the crowd. Once on the level you wanted it was just shoulder to shoulder people where you didn’t have a chance to browse over clothes instead you just had to glance at the mess of piles of abandoned clothes hunting for the right size and then hanging onto it for dear life as you decide if you actually want to buy it or not.

Shopping and especially sales brings out the most interesting primordial behaviour in people. It is quite literally every man, woman and child for themselves. Also it is consumerism at its worst. I saw families with shopping trolleys overflowing with clothes. Sure the sales are a good way of getting good stuff at a good price, however, seeing the behaviour of some people reminded me of just how animal we are. Continue reading →

Things that matter to Tweeple on Christmas

Posted on by Brad Heap

I think the current trending topics list on Twitter is quite apt for how Christmas Eve/Day is celebrated around the world.

We have English, French, Spanish, Portuguese all trending Christmas greetings.  And then the American’s are shopping at their holy temple of commercialism: Wal-Mart.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

UN Joint Statement On Wikileaks

Posted on by Brad Heap

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression yesterday released a joint statement on Wikileaks.

The full text is at the link above, however, of particular note is points 4 and 5 (emphasis added):

4. Direct or indirect government interference in or pressure exerted upon any expression or information transmitted through any means of oral, written, artistic, visual or electronic communication must be prohibited by law when it is aimed at influencing content. Such illegitimate interference includes politically motivated legal cases brought against journalists and independent media, and blocking of websites and web domains on political grounds. Calls by public officials for illegitimate retributive action are not acceptable.

5. Filtering systems which are not end-user controlled – whether imposed by a government or commercial service provider – are a form of prior censorship and cannot be justified. Corporations that provide Internet services should make an effort to ensure that they respect the rights of their clients to use the Internet without arbitrary interference.

These two statements are important well beyond the realm of Wikileaks. Essentially the New Zealand DIA DNS-based porn filter and the Australian Government’s proposed filter both violate international law. This news is not new, but it is nice to see it reinforced by the UN.

NSW Labor’s Public Transport Solution – Paint All Buses Blue

Posted on by Brad Heap

The SMH today reports that the state government wants to paint all private buses blue and white, the same livery used on STA buses. The government will pay for the repainting of the buses arguing that it will make buses easier to identify.

Metrobus in sydney

Labor Red Metrobus

Sydney Buses, PMC bodied Mercedes-Benz O405 (Mark 5)

Liberal Blue STA Bus

Buses being different colours depending on location actually makes sense and is used in many different cities around the world. If you see a yellow bus you will know it is most likely going to Castle Hill for instance. Painting them all one colour means you have to stare at the small location display of every bus going by. This isn’t easier, it is in fact a lot harder to identify a bus.

There are some days I wish that NSW Labor was just a comedy group like The Chaser and real governance happened somewhere else. However, these clowns are actually in government and are extremely good at wasting money on silly ideas.

Painting all the buses the same colour will do nothing to improve public transport. Spending money on more buses, bus-lanes, and integrated ticketing will.

The cynic in me wonders if NSW Labor is working with a genius marketer to paint all the buses blue and white to subliminally represent the opposition Liberal Coalition. While the new, flash, and fast state-run Metrobus network has bright Labor red buses.

Commercials in the Domain

Posted on by Brad Heap

Last night was the annual Carols in the Domain in Sydney. I was going to go in person but ended up watching the TV broadcast from home because this weekend I seem to have become a nigel-no-mates as everyone has gone out of town for the holiday.

The carols, the show, the broadcast, etc was really well done and ran without a glitch. However, the one comment that everyone was making on twitter, and driving me nuts, was the over the top product placement.

These days you expect ads and sponsorship at events. However, what I don’t expect is Jack Black singing an altered version of Little Drummer Boy with lyrics advertising his latest movie flop, or a group of children emailing Santa via a Samsung Galaxy Tab through Telstra which the kids informing us Telstra gives us a little more giftness.

These two examples were probably the worst of it, but every time one of the MCs spoke they name dropped a sponsor be it Woolworths, MLC, NSW Government, etc.

Maybe my blogging and moaning about it the following day shows that the advertising worked, I remember the names and I have been no so subliminally informed about them. But once upon a time Christmas wasn’t just all about commercialism, especially carols!

Then again the modern revival of Santa Claus was sparked by Coca Cola so maybe advertising really is the reason for the season.

On a lighter note the start of the show right on sunset shows the size of the crowd and parts of the beautiful city I live in: