The Qantas first class lounge in Sydney Airport's International terminal.

Last week I was in Sydney for most of the week for meetings and a few hours at CeBIT. Having everything I needed to do done, by about lunch time Friday, and not flying home until Sunday night – I had a little bit of time at my disposal.

I decided to fly down to Canberra and see some friends and catch up with the team at AusssieHQ, then fly back to Sydney on Saturday.

When I told a friend (Shaun) of this, he asked me if I wanted to go with him on a “Lounge Crawl” [ my description of it ] on the Saturday.

Here is basically what went down;

Saturday

Sunset @ Melbourne Qantas Business Class Lounge

Breakfast at Qantas Business class lounge, Canberra.
Fly Canberra to Sydney
Transfer from T3 (domestic) to T1 (international) at Sydney.
Lunch at the Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney
Fly an international route from Sydney to Melbourne
Transfer back to Melbourne Domestic
Have Dinner at the Melbourne Business class lounge
Fly back to Sydney that night

Sunday

Head back to Sydney and have afternoon tea / champagne in the business Class lounge,
Fly back to Brisbane
Connect to the Hervey Bay flight

Sunday Session @ The Qantas Business Class Lounge, Sydney before flying home

The highlight of this was of course lunch at the Sydney, Qantas First Class lounge. Having never (and not any time soon) travelled internationally in F (First) class, or be a platinum frequent flyer, this was my first time to the F lounge. I was lucky enough to have a QFF Platinum card holder with me, so this is how I gained access

Lunch was great –  the wine selection alone justified the trip, let alone the 3 course lunch ( and sides ) that followed. I had pork belly as an entrée, then nice steak with brown butter, fries and greens, followed by something that was called a pavlova, but oh my this was superior to a pavlova! I cannot find what it was called, or a photo of it anywhere, but I will try my hardest to track it down.  After a great meal, some very nice champagne, we went over to the reclining chairs, and watched half a dozen A380′s and 747′s all departing (mostly for the states) which was very relaxing and I enjoyed it a lot.

Many thanks to Shaun for letting me tag along, and experience the F-lounge, which was totally incredible.

Axis M1031-W

No secret that Axis make some of the best IP security products around, and this is no exception. We have this, as well as the normal security system at the office, and it sits in the top right of the reception, with a cat5 and power running to it. As well as being incredibly handy to watch the front door if anyone is coming in through a browser, it’s also got great scheduling and recording functions, with it’s PIR detector (similar to that of an alarm system) it can turn on the lights in the building, and start recording the footage, while sending it straight off site through the internet. Very hand and very useful.

Windows 7 + SSD Workstation

This has to be one of the major ones for me – Windows 7 just creams XP, and not comparable to Vista. It really is a great OS from Microsoft, and I’ve loved using it since the betas in 2009. But what has really made my workstation a delight to work on, is the investment in solid state drives (SSD). Some tech you buy, and months later you’ve forgotten about it. I still think, wow, sometimes when I can boot in a few seconds, and then a few more seconds, have everything open and running. Finally a computer that can keep up with me. I just LOVE It. I have a Corsair 120GB SSD, about 275/250mb read/write.

13″ Macbook Pro

I flogged off the old 15″ Macbook Pro and downsized to the 13″. My main reasons for this was the ability to use it more easily in tight places, like planes etc. The 15″ was just to hard to use on a small plane or if the person in front put their seat back. It also has a 6-7hr battery & LED screen which is so epically handy on long days or when it follows me around from meeting to meeting etc.

El Cheapo Astone Media Player

When I do get time at home to watch movies/tv shows, most are recorded on the iMac at home, and I’d normally hunt around for a VGA lead, and hook a laptop up to the plasma, and then connect back to the iMac etc, then plug everything back how it was, which was a pain. I bought one of these $60 astone media players off ShoppingSquare.com.au which plays every codec under the sun, and connects to SMB shares over the Wifi, so I can turn it on, it just scrapes the folders and plays what is there. It doesn’t try and organise stuff – which always annoys me, it’s just a player, and for me, brilliant! Makes life much easier.

iPhone 4

A few weeks after they came out, I traded in the 3GS for a 4. Some terrific improvements I’ve found. Better reception (I’m with Optus), better battery life (I almost get a day and a half now), screen is great and just so much snappier and faster with all the newer, more intensive apps around. There has been a heap of media lately that the back is more prone to cracking than the last one, well, I’m not science teacher, but, GLASS CRACKS EASIER THAN SOFT PLASTIC, what are you expecting? Put it in a case or don’t drop the thing! Wow, Glass cracks when it hits concrete, who knew?!

iPad

This was the tech fail of the year for me. I pre-ordered my iPad, and it arrived at 8am the morning they were released in Australia which was pretty amazing, so kudos to Apple for that. I played with the iPad for a couple of days, and decided that it had no purpose for it. My reasoning is very similar to that of the guys at ZDNet

13″ Macbook Pro with extra WOAAAH

As if I didn’t love the Macbook Pro enough as it is, but the SSD in this little baby has just tripped it’s power. It is so awesome to use, so snappy and responsive, makes life remote just awesome.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

My most recent purchase, and I do love this thing. It does everything the iPad doesn’t. It’s a bit easier to hold and read from. It has a better battery and outdoor screen. I am really happy with the thing. Being able to write an email and attach a word doc, or even open a file and edit and save it again is great. Android has some little quirks about it, but all pretty minor and things you learn after a while.

But, for the last month, I’ve been taking Acai Berry gellcap pill every morning, around 8-10am, doesn’t matter when, and that’s it. 30 days later, I’ve lost just over 9kgs.

There are a whole heap of magical natural ingredients that are meant to do a heap of things, but what it really boils down to, is a hunger suppressant, I am full after about 1/3-1/2 of a meal, and wont eat for about 6-7 hours, and the acai component is full of energy, so with a lowered intake of energy, you’re just as energised, if not more.

At the moment, I drink a can of Diet coke a day, and that’s it. Previously, I could do, on a busy afternoon, my lunchtime diet Coke, and then 2-3 redbull’s, and coffee in the morning, and a tea or two. Now I have no desire or need to have that caffeine fix. It’s quite surreal.

I’ve done absolutely no exercise, if anything, the last month, I’ve been so busy I’ve probably does less than usual, and eaten McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, Chicken Rolls, Chocolate, Bread, everything I normally would, but probably about 1/2 of previously, and not hungry for morning or afternoon tea.

There are some side effects. The first week or so, it’s like a detox almost, you can get hot/cold flushes, and tingling / dizzy feelings, but that doesn’t last long. Other people who’s used the pills woke up every few hours during the night for the first week or two, but after that, not really much different. Occasionally a feeling that’s kind of like a dizzy spell / light headed / drunk too much / tired.

I’m not sure if that’s the pills, or the fact I’ve worked about 60 days straight at the moment, and about 10-15 hours a day, and my brain / body is totally exhausted, which is what I’m thinking.

Only problem, is I’ve now run out, and there seems to be a national shortage. The place I buy them from in Hervey Bay has been waiting for stock for about a month or two, I think I actually bought the last ones.

I found a site, CleanCruising.com.au that has a lot of last minute cruises and at really, really good prices. So about 10 days prior to leaving, we booked P&O’s 7 day trip over to Vanuatu and back, “Week Fantastique”.

I have only been on a cruise once as a young child, so this was really my first cruising experience, and as someone who does get sea sick,
I knew it was going to be an experience.

Stepping onto the Pacific Dawn is an interesting experience – you really don’t know what to expect, and as a cruising virgin, you really don’t know what to do, or expect – but the entire trip was terrific.

We did unfortunately have some pretty rotten weather, due to the massive storms hitting New Zealand – however, that was only for 3 of the days, when we were right in the middle of Australia and the coral islands – in the open ocean. Not having true sea legs, I did feel a bit sea sick. Fortunately I wasn’t physically sick, but not 100% – however the cure for this was lying down and relaxing, which was the purpose of this cruise.

Service was terrific – very impressed. Like-wise with catering, entertainment and things to do. P+O are a family / budget cruising company, and the shows at night did reflect this, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for, so we weren’t dissapointed. You could pay 5x as much and go on the QM2 or QV2 and get gala shows – but that isn’t what we went cruising for. As a new cruiser, I was impressed with the variety of the activities going on practically 24/7.

P+O were very good, in every announcement, be it from the captain David Box, or the cruise director Paul or anyone else, they would alway end by saying “What ever you do today/this morning/this afternoon we hope you have a great day/morning/afternoon” – always driving home the fact, that you can do what ever you like. There isn’t just one thing you’re stuck doing.

Although partially sea sick – both Shannon and I really enjoyed the trip – and would most definitely be doing it again one day in the future.

Telstra have actually released some very attractive plans for this phone, with fair amounts of data and calls, not as far as optus, but still fairly good. The phone can also be bought outright for around the $700 mark.

I was very interested in getting my hands on one of these phones, to give it a try, and see how the Android OS goes, and how the UI / UX compares to Apple. Also very interested in how Android talks with Google Apps for Contacts, Mail etc.

At the Toowoomba Telstra store, I played with one a number of times and my initial thoughts where;

• Wonderful, sharp screen
• Very snappy web browser (based off Chrome engine I’m guessing)
• Responsive touch screen
• Not too big, nor too small

However, after further investigation, talking to some people who own the Desire I don’t think I can justify the device.

The Android is super customisable, so much so, it can become overwhelming for a novice – but that’s not really an issue for me.

The biggest things that would make me consider switching would be;

• Battery, better
• Does it make my life EASIER

Every other aspect of the iPhone 3GS I am happy with. Sure, it drops out here and there, is that to blame Optus or Apple? Both point the finger to each other. Coverage isn’t wonderful, but that’s an optus issue, not an Apple one. I am happy with my OK amount of coverage, as the compromise is 1GB of mobile data for next to nothing, Vs better coverage, but not having the freedom of big amounts of data, lots of calls, etc.

So based on those two criteria, to make me switch, no. The Desire doesn’t do either.

Battery

From mixed reports I’ve heard the battery life is the same, and or is worse than the iPhone, depending on how much you use the thing, and I for one use my iPhone quite heavily.

Make life EASIER

Now, maybe all iPhone / iPod users have played into Apples hands here, but ever since my first iPod, I’ve switched to iTunes as my media player, and would die if I had to move all my media over to a different system, re create play lists, etc.  And I’m not sure if the android has any good iPod killer apps. Nor, the ability to plug in the device via USB so it both charges, displays music on the screen and allows me to change songs via the steering wheel.

One of the biggest draws my iPhone has, is that it’s both my iPod + my iPhone. I sync / charge one device and it’s always current.

What use to drive me insane, back in Nokia days, was buying some new music, but not syncing my iPod as it was in the car, and leaving without the new music, or forgetting the iPod at the office.

Whatever the case, the iPhone has eliviated this problem and made my life much easier.

What’s also great, is that my iPhone syncs music from my office PC, and Syncs my Podcasts from the iMac at home. Not sure if it is meant to, but it does, and I couldn’t be happier.

So, nice work HTC, but I think I’m best waiting for the iPhone 4G. If it has a better battery, I’ll be happy.

I’ve been following Mark Pesce’s dedicated HTC desire blog, which has been quite interesting, in both the pros’ and cons’ of the gadget.