Wednesday 30 June 2010

Books! Audible and Book Depository

I just discovered a great way to get Audio Books. www.audible.com

I'd been looking into this because my job takes me on a lot of long drives . . . between 90 minutes and 3 hours, often there and back in a day. Staying awake through 6 hours of driving in one day can be hard, even with a trusty can of Red Bull in the car. The best way I've found to stay awake has been listening to audio books.

The first thing I started off with was the BBC Radio play of the Lord of the Rings. That somehow let me drive a lot further without getting bored or tired.

After developing a taste for the audio books, I started trying to find out how other people were buying them, rather than just going to iTunes (which is definitely the most convenient). Audible popped up instantly, with a lot of good reviews and cheap prices. I've signed up for a "too good to be true" deal, which is a 3 month subscription for about $8 a month which gives you one free audio book a month plus a discount on any others you may want to buy.

If books on paper is more your thing, there's bookdepository.co.uk This site sells books in GBP, which when converted to Australian dollars makes them super cheap . . . and to top it off, they have free worldwide shipping. If only someone in Australia could actually compete with those prices . . .

Monday 28 June 2010

I am a homeowner

This is still a shock and still scares me . . . but it's happened.

I signed a contract that will put me in debt for the next 20 years or so and I just handed in a cheque worth most of my life's savings :P

It's a huge step, but then, we've been househunting for a few months now anyway, so in a way, I'm glad it's over. We're still going through the official legal wrangling and the financial settlement details, but once that's done, I'll be the proud owner of a nice little 2 bedroom apartment in Maroubra.

It's been a tiring, anxious and exhilarating experience . . . but at the end of it, Yvonne and I have an awesome place to live that we can really make our own :)

I think we'll be moving in in about a month's time . . . and I'll have to say goodbye to the Bra House, the awesome old massive party house that I've been in for 6 years now.

I should probably throw some kind of gigantic party . . .

Tuesday 22 June 2010

New York, New York!

A quick question . . . is it "Up to you New York, New York" or is it "New York, New York, it's a wonderful town"?

For me, it's the city that doesn't sleep.

I just got home about about a week ago from a trip to New York and Toronto. It was a blast. New York is a crazy town . . . it was full of bustle and it nearly seems like everyone there's wired up just little bit more tightly than everywhere else in the world. Slightly overwhelming. Toronto on the other hand, was much more fitting to our Australian sensibilities. Everyone was nice and pretty chilled out . . . it could also have been the amount of pot they smoke over there . . . every second street corner had a random person puffing on a doobie :P

Here's the obligatory photo of Times Square:

Toronto had awesome shopping . . . a lot of rare and random little bits and pieces. I drooled over this particular shop:

We checked out Niagara Falls also. I'd show you a photo of that but well . . . you could just google for something taken by a far better photographer than me. Instead, I give you a glimpse of the best poker machine ever made: