The trip started well, when Jetstar put me in an exit row for the flight out. Smooth flight, clean aircraft, helpful staff - just the thing to get a holiday off on the right foot.

Unfortunately, that was dampened when, upon landing, I discovered that my mobile had died. I was worried that it was on its way out after my trip home to Melbourne, and this suspicion was confirmed when it stubbornly refused to boot up. Not an ideal state of affairs - thankfully, I had my phone book backed up, but a nuisance nonetheless.

Upon arriving in the CBD and checking in at the YHA hostel (conveniently located right next to Central Station), I decided to sort out the "no mobile" predicament, and headed down Pitt Street. The 3 shop I came across ended up making me a deal - I got one of their Skype phones for nothing, in exchange for a 12-month contract. Oddly (but pleasantly) enough, this 12 months will run concurrently with my existing contract, so I effectively agreed to a 5 month contract extension for a new phone. It almost makes up for the fact that I really don't like the phone itself... Ah well, it's functional, I suppose.

Anyhow, I digress. Most of Saturday afternoon was spent meandering around the city, exploring QVB, Circular Quay, and of course the Apple Store!

I was glad to catch up with a new friend of mine in the afternoon - she wasn't feeling very well at all (and had missed exams because of it) so we just hung out and chatted for an hour or so. Good times :)

But the biggest highlight of Saturday was the miniSTUB in Glebe. Enjoyed some good food and great company - thanks Ali, Luke, Jodie, Linda, Matt, Pong, Stilgherrian, and Robyn! Thai food + chocolate affogatos + James Squire + good live music = WIN :)

It's based on WebKit, attempts to fill an interesting niche: that of presentations. a few browsers have some form of full-screen mode, and some even have "Kiosk mode". Plainview, however, is full-screen by default. While this in itself isn't particularly remarkable, it does have one really nice feature: presentation mode.

Presentation mode allows you to build up a queue of sites, much like you would slides for a Powerpoint/Keynote presentation. You can then move between these "slides" by the use of hotkeys, removing showstoppers like typing URLs, or pausing to load bookmarks. I guess it's similar to that of tabbed browsing, but without all the clutter.

The marketing blurb on the site seems to place more emphasis on the full-screen part, and the presentation mode is presented more as an afterthought. Also, their screenshots don't do much to recommend the product from a visual standpoint. However, for what appears to be more of a proof-of-concept app than anything serious (for now, at least), it looks like a great idea, and one worth following.

It looks like a pretty interesting list - some of them I've already read (like 1984, Call of the Wild, Swiss Family Robinson, etc), others were authors I've been meaning to read (like Ayn Rand, Kurt Vonnegut, Aldous Huxley, and Dostoevsky), and some that I'd never heard of before (which I won't mention to cover my ignorance!)

I'll have to start reading properly again, and this list looks like a good place to start...

Saturday morning was mainly taken up with domestic duties: catching up with ironing, then spending time in the garden. It never ceases to amaze just how grass ends up where it does - and its network of roots is nothing short of insidious. Big nuisance when it starts growing through mulch. Grr.

After that, I took a drive through the beautiful Adelaide hills, up to Gumeracha. It was a stunningly beautiful trip - although I was frustrated at the lack of places to pull over on the road. There were many occasions when I would have loved to stop and take a snap, only to be foiled by the absence of a shoulder or verge of any sort. Most unfortunate.

I did, however, get a few nice photos of the Gumeracha Medieval Fair - the reason I was headed that way in the first place. There were quite a few re-enactment groups present, providing much entertainment in the form of music, dance, food, craftsmanship, and of course, fighting!

After spending an enjoyable couple of hours watching people party like it was 1499, I drove back into the city to say farewell to one of my newer Adelaide friends, who is on her way overseas for 5 months! That ended up going a bit later than I anticipated, so I didn't get home until around 11:30PM!

After church on Sunday morning, I went down to North Adelaide, and enjoyed a Turkish coffee and delicious cupcake at Cikolatté on Melbourne St. After that, I went along to a training/info day for a friend's Ultimate Frisbee team. Throughly enjoyable, although jeans don't really make athletic endeavours easy or comfortable! Enjoyed another great church service at night, and then hung out at Najjar's for a while, chewing the fat and just idling in general. A perfect end to a great weekend.

Needless to say, after all the activity, I found being productive tough going today :-)

&.

P.S. Oh, photos from the fair, etc, can be found in my Flickr photostream.

Came across this from Fake Steve Jobs, loved it, had to repost...