We arrived back in Sydney this evening after a week with my family in Rockhampton. When we touched down I saw the temperature display on the billboard outside Sydney airport read 19 degrees, a huge relief after the relentless heat of Central Queensland. Apparently Sydney has also been experiencing a heatwave, but I am certain it has not been as bad as in CQ.
It is also a relief to return to my own computers and broadband internet connection. My sister’s PC was “girl germ” riddled (adware, spyware, virusware, and MSN Messenger) and I spent a large portion of time reinstalling everything and setting up extra security software. That’s quite difficult to do when you can’t quickly download the latest versions of everything. Did I ever use a 56 kbps modem before, let alone a 2.4 kbps? It all seems so long ago!
That said, I think I will get a compact flash card modem soon for the Zaurus. I greatly missed using Linux while in CQ and being able to connect in using my own machine. A Lindows4 demo CD worked for a while, but then the CD drive on my sister’s computer broke. One of the last things I did in CQ was replace it. Lindows was okay, at least it had ssh, Mozilla (kept crashing on smh.com.au – old version) and OpenOffice.org, but I suffered from not having a memory key with me – another thing to buy.
I tried applying over the Net for jobs while in CQ, but I just couldn’t think straight in the heat and humidity, especially when many of the selection criteria were rephrasing the same questions. It’s a wonder I ever got anything done in the seven years I lived there!
It wasn’t all bad. It was good to see my family again and view my brother’s new house. I already miss Tiffany (Tiffy), the 11 year old German Shepherd dog. She is wonderfully affectionate and loyal. I think she still remembers me, despite my infrequent visits. We took her for a swim in the ocean, something she loves to do. Tiffy came back all tired and sore, her arthritic legs complaining about climbing into the car, but very happy.
I’ll have photos up tomorrow from our trip.