Meeting the Twelve Apostels - Victorian style

G'day folks!

Once again I'd like to share a few pictures with you, this time around from the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The GOR is an over 200km long coast strip situated west of Melbourne, which has been listed as an Australian National Heritage. Many interesting rock formations adorn this continent border, including a group of limestone stacks known as The Twelve Apostels. These rocks were not always so popular amongst sightseers because they were originally known as Sow and Piglets. Soon after being renamed with a much more myth-enshrouded name involving the disciples of a certain god's son popularity of the sight grew drastically. Nowadays the twelve apostels represent one of the geological highlights of the state.

There is an interesting story about a three tourists who once were walking across a natural bridge which existed between two of these apostels. As luck would have it, just as the group crossed the bridge to the outlying limestone formation the bridge collapsed behind them leaving the tourists trapped. A driver who was passing by the place called for help. The only way to save the isolated married couple and the single man was to evacuate them via helicopter. The nearest available gyroplane belonged to a TV news crew who did not want this opportunity of action news slip by. So when they picked up the three stranded tourists naturally they wanted to interview them. Oddly enough the people behaved very camera shy and reluctant to allow interviews. The reason for this was revealed later. As it turned out, none of them were supposed to be out there that day. The single man was supposed to be at work but had taken the day off being reported as sick. As for the couple, although married, they were not married with each other. Naturally national publicity was the least thing these three people had hoped for that fateful day. Talk about karma!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

Snow in August!

Greetings dear reader,

first off I'd like to apologize for the blatant lack of new entries, but on the bright side I've got a couple of things saved up to share with you guys (this being the first).
As you most assuredly are well aware, it is currently winter in Australia and now and then snow falls in higher altitudes within the state of Victoria. So as a birthday treat I allowed myself a tobogganing trip to Lake Mountain, a small skiing resort close to Melbourne. The resort is situated near Marysvville, a small town which was badly hurt during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Only one building, the bakery (picture) survived the flames.
The trip was university-organized, and there were about 30 fellow international students (and one family with child) indulging in the sledding. Unfortunately there was no fresh snow, so most of the sliding happened on icy remnants of artificial snowmaking, but it was a joyous experience none the less. The sleighs are not your typical wood-made christmas-type childhood sleighs (which were very popular when I was a kid), but instead more like flat plastic slide boards.

Although tobogganing is fun, it does not quite capture the same thrill of actual skiing which is why I might return next winter for some proper downhill activity (provided I saved enough money to afford the ridiculously high lift pass prices). That's it for now folks, catch you later!

Cheers
Jan

Melbourne shaken, not stirred

A few hours ago, just before 9pm an earthquake with a Body-Wave (mb) magnitude of 5.3 occurred ca. 120km ESE of Melbourne. According to the webpage of the Sydney Morning Herald the biggest quake in a century rocks Victoria.
Here the data as being released by the GEOFON Program GFZ Potsdam:

Region:	Near SE Coast of Australia
Time:	2012-06-19 10:53:30.2 UTC
Magnitude:	5.3 (mb)
Epicenter:	146.20°E 38.26°S
Depth:	10 km
Status:	M - manually revised

After the initial uneasiness, we soon realized that all was fine and no real damage had been done, but it was an interesting experience to say the least. Alright, enough action for the night, time to go sleeping.

See ya (hopefully)!

God save the ... holidays!

G'day everyone! Although technically the Queen of England's date of birth is on April 26, every second Monday in June each year within Australia (except for Western Australia and Queensland)has celebrated as a holiday in compliment to her majestys' birthday since 1788 (and for 111 years of independence). Furthermore this year Qu. Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee as monarch just one week before June 11th.

Fortunately this year's long June weekend had some really nice weather on Monday, which is a rare sight during winter in Melbourne (generally a very cloudy sky). The result — pictures:

Top left to bottom right: (1) Swanston Street in Melbourne Central with tram (usually loaded with people during rush hour), (2) Yarra river (viewing westward), (3) Part of Melbourne Skyline (looking NE), (4) St. Pauls Cathedral, (5) Flinders Street (train) Station, (6) State library of Victoria.

In other news the first poll is done and seeing as there is a general desire for a'couple more infos, I'll try my best posting some more in the near future. Hope you're all well. Have an awesome weekend!
Cheers
Jan

How would you make Melbourne a better place?

Found this on an internet forum the other day, and just had to share it:

(source:  www.reddit.com/r/funny)

Mozart meets Jazz

Hi Y'all,

Iwaki Auditorium in Melbourne
(source: http://www.whitehat.com.au)

The Melbourne Iwaki Auditorium, named after a former Japanese conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, holds a free concert every other weekend which is broadcasted live on ABC Melbourne on the radio.

Joe and Zoe performing at Iwaki Auditorium
(source: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/)

Last week pianist Joe Chindamo and violinist Zoe Black performed a few Jazzy arrangements of classic pieces such as J.S.Bach's Air on G string. It was a lovely performance, and if you want to check it out just click the link here and it will send you to the episode on ABC's website.

You might have noticed a few changes on the right hand side of the blog - amongst other things I now have added a poll! This seemed to be an applicable way to get some feedback from you (my dear readers), as your imput matters to me. If you have specific requests or want to talk something away you can always leave a comment below every entry.

Have a good Geek Pride Day!
Jan

Come by, say hi

Greetings everyone,

just wanted to give a quick update on my new home in Melbourne. It is a two-floor house fairly close to campus (about 30mins via public transport, which in Melbourne terms is close) in the district of Kensington. I live there with two befriending Chinese people: one of them working, the second one studying as an accountant at RMIT university (the other university in Melbourne).

The Pictures above show (top left to bottom right): (1) Apartment from outside, (2) my room, (3) the living room, (4) the kitchen, (5) the garden behind the house, (6) the owners' chicken. I'll introduce my roommates another time. Have a good Sunday!,

Cheers
Jan

Earth Day 2012!

Hello everyone,

it is Earth Day once again (also known as International Mother Earth Day since 2009), making it the 42nd anniversary of increasing environmental awareness around the world.
I'd like to share this link with you showing an Earth Day entry on The Big Picture, the photo blog of The Boston Globe. Enjoy!

-Jan

And in todays episode of "Fun with Flags" ...

... we have the Melbourne city flag!

Melbourne, nowadays the capital of the state of Victoria, Australia was established in 1835 by John Batman (yes Batman, an identically named suburb still exists today).

Four images representing the main activities of mid19th century Melbourne grouped around the red Saint Goerge cross (a Christian martyr and patron of England). The Cross contains a red-golden crown symbolising the city's monarchal affiliation to the English royal dynasty.
The four images (starting from the top left and proceeding clockwise) are a fleece hanging from a ring (wool shearing), a bull (livestock breeding), a three mast-ship (shipping) and a whale (if you hadn't already guessed, it is whaling). The flag reoccurs within the city's coat of arms. Until next Time!

Cheers
Jan

See you later Aligator!

G'Day to all of you!

So the day of departure finally arrived last Friday, and thus my ~30 hours journey to the Southern Hemisphere began. Almost 12h of flight to the city-state Singapur, a 4h break at Airport, 7 more hours to Sydney, where every outsider (and locals alike) needs to pass thorough quarantine checks until allowed to proceed his or her jouney, 4 more hours of wait before the final flight to Melboune (short hop of 2h). When travelling to Australia its best not to bring anything organic beside yourself, otherwhise fines can be charged up to AUD $1000 and in severe cases you might be put into jail. So it is probably for the best to leave those muddy shoes and the original Rembrandt with the fancy wooden picture frame at home (foreign wood worms are considered a threat to the Australian ecosystem).

Although well into the fall season, to be greeted by 25 degrees Celsius and sunshine in Mid March is not too uncommon in Melbourne. Too bad I literally fell straight into bed as soon as arriving at the hostel, but no need to hurry, as Melbourne can be found on the same latitude as Santa Cruz County (California). Anyhow, as this small blog entry concludes, I'd like to my best wishes to all of you, especially to the ones I hadn't had the chance to see off in person. Take care and hopefully you'll stick around, as there are more entries on their way. Cheers!

-Jan

Era of the kangaroos

Welcome back everyone!

It's been quite some time since I last blogged here. But the radio silence is about to end, as I will be travelling to the Australian continent in the foreseeable future. More infos will follow soon, so stay tuned! :D

-Jan