Preparing for Perth

The countdown began for real today - my last Monday morning at work for a good six weeks! This time next week, I shall be on the other side of the world, and discovering what it is actually like to be called Steve in England or Klaus in Germany i.e. turning my head every 30 seconds in a crowd when somebody calls out my name. We'll see!

Too much going on at the moment to have time to blog it all. I think everybody I spoke to at work to day had a good weekend, with two days of lovely "Indan summer" 20oC temperatures. We had another classic weekend, managing to fit in canoeing, playing on the beach, out on our bikes, and even a last visit this season to the Kinderzoo (with a kiss from Beny!), concluded by a lovely evening (with homemade Singaporean curry) with friends in Zurich.

Today I was given the confirmation that my iBook would be repaired by Apple. This restored most of the faith I have in this excellent firm. To celebrate, I purchased a digital camera tonight (as I now don't have the looming cost of a new computer to think about).

After some discussion along with some very constructive advice from both friends and family (a special thanks to Pat!). I decided on the Konica Minolta X60. While the battery is charging, here is a photo of the camera itself! The woman in the shop described it as (very rough translation) "a small thing with a big punch" ...



...I can't wait to give it a good field test!