Friday, November 25, 2005

It has all come to this

Well, it's almost a bit anti-climactic. The last 5 or so months of my workling life led up to today. For today, the designed/redeveloped QUT web site went live. As is often the case with these type of things, we were still tinkering just before the sote actually went live. Not that the site is 100% perfect (no site is), but it's definately in good enough shape to be on display to the rest of the world. But my next couple of weeks I know will involve much geeky-type stuff such as optimising CSS code, addressing minor cross-browser compatibility issues, getting rid of as many tables as possible (at least on the home page), etc... Also for those web geeks among you, it was brought to my attention that the page is HTML 4.01 Transitional, and not shiny new XHTML 1.0 Strict. Well yes it is. I don't have too much of a choice about that. We are still (sort-of) trying to support browsers as old as IE 4 and Netscape 4, and XHTML support is a little less than 100% in Netscape 4 at least. Plus, the support for CSS at that time was very limited. We are going to be making a move to XHTML and CSS 2.0 at some point, but when exactly I don't know. For know though, HTML 4.01 is a standard, and since the home page at least has the correct DOCTYPE declaration, it puts the browser into standards-compliance mode. As for the rest of the site, well, " I have a dream..."

Back to the launch of the site, it went live at just after 4:00 PM, EST, but didn't start showing up in browsers till closer to 5:00 (since the site moved physical servers, there was a delay for DNS change propagation). And now people can see it :) A few of us went out for a couple of glasses of bubbly to celebrate the culmination of 5 (or more for some people) months of blood, sweat, and tears (or something like that). On a sentimental note, I feel rather proud to have worked on such a visible project, and that my work is being used and appreciated by thousands of people (I'm particularly pleased with who the Services & support index turned out). Now onwards and upwards to futher QUT challenges!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Our Anniversary Weekend Away

I know I wrote recently that if you want to read about what's going on in our lives, you should read Kirsten's blog, and I'll just take care of trying to be funny. Well, this time I really wanted to write about our trip away this last weekend to celebrate our sixth anniversary (which we'll have to start renumbering soon once we get married) together.

Kirsten was searching on the Internet for places for us to go away to for our anniversary, and came across Ninderry Manor. What caught Kirsten's eye were two things: the breakfasts on the menu, and the 'Oriental Experiences' package that is offered. The former for obvious reasons (who doesn't like great food!?), and the latter because Kirsten knows I like just about everything to do with Japan. Kirsten booked us in and we eagerly awaited the day we would leave. Eventually, Friday came around (I had taken the day off work so that I could get everything ready, go and pick Kirsten up from work as soon as she finished work, and head straight off to the Manor) and soon we were on our way to a fantastic weekend. Ninderry is just a short drive from Yandina (Coolum and Noosa are also in the same general area) in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. We were worried we might not get there in time for dinner, but even with a petrol station stop and some pretty bad traffic in several places on the way, we still got there in just over two hours.

Ninderry Manor is run by a wonderfully friendly couple, Miyuki and Aki Kitabatake. Click the banner below and check out the photo galleries for pictures of the Manor and surrounds, as well as Miyuki and Aki.



Miyuki welcomed us and showed as around, introducing as to Aki on the way. We had a little bit of time until dinner so we sat in our room and looked at the wonderful view out over the mountains. We were scheduled to be out in the dining room around 6:00, so we came out a little early - and were asked by Miyuki to feed the kookaburras! In fact there were about four of them. And a couple of magpies, a crow, and a butcher bird. I had a little plastic container of finely chopped fish meat which I got some out of and threw to the birds. The kookaburras were particularly tame - I was able to go right up to them and they ate out of the container. Once that was over, it was inside for sunset cocktails (yum!) and nibbles (also yum!). This also gave a chance to chat with the other couples who were staying there. One couple in particular we got talking to quite a bit - they were a young couple like us, he was a games developer working in the Valley, she was a primary school teacher. What is it about IT Guy/Primary School Teacher couples??? We seem to know a few...

This night was also our night to do our Japanese cooking lesson, which was included in part of the package. Aki took us through the process for making sushi (tuck, don't roll hard!), tempura, and beef teriyaki. All the dishes were suprisingly easy to make, however sushi making does require some skill in the application of the correct technique. Kirsten outdid me there (though I still can cut the rolls better!). Apparently we didn't do too badly - Aki was full of praise, and the other two couples who were dining in that night didn't complain either :) It was a delicious and filling meal - two kinds of sushi (shiitake mushroom and California rolls), tempura vegetables and prawns, beef teriyaki with salad, *and* ice-cream and sweet bean paste. Plus a bottle of wine that we brought with us. After all the food and wine, it was time for some well needed sleep.

Saturday was a fairly lazy day for us. Most of the time when people go away on holiday, they are so focused on doing *something* while they are away that they forget to *relax*. So we had a nice easy day. Starting off with with a big breakfast: watermelon juice with mint, toast and coffee! So filling - so very nice! As we were so full, we decided to just go back to our room and sit and admire the view while we read some of the books that were in the room. This was a pleasant experience in itself. After a while, breakfast had digested sufficiently that we felt like going for a swim. So we did. The pool also had a spa built in - which was very powerful. It was a nice way to cool off, but then somehow we felt a little hungry again, so we decided it was time for lunch. We didn't want to have too much, as we knew we would probably be having a big dinner again, so after drying off and getting changed, we hopped in the car and drove about 5 minutes to a restaurant called Picnic at the Rocks. We both decided upon crocodiles wantons for lunch. Neither of us had had crocodile meat before, but had been told that it was like a cross between chicken and fish. Well, I can confirm that, and I'd say chicken is the more dominant flavour. The wantons were very nice, and not too filling.

We headed back, as we were scheduled for a Japanese calligraphy lesson with Miyuki at 3:00. Our 'mirror' couple had also booked in for the lesson as well. First we had to make ink, and so about 5 minutes and many sore forearms later, we had ink. Next we had to choose what we wanted to write. Kirsten chose 'love', I picked 'friendship'. We all had a number of tries at writing our selected characters. I think we did OK for absolute beginners. After the lesson, we were both a bit tired, so we went and had a nap for a while before dinner.

At 6:00 it was sunset cocktails and nibbles again, much to our delight. As Aki had complete control over the kitchen this night, we had some time between cocktails and dinner, so we played one of the boardgames that were available with our newfound Ninderry friends (the IT/Teacher couple). Soon enough, it was time for dinner, and tonight it was French cuisine. For entree, salmon and salad; main course was steak in brandy cream sauce with vegetables; dessert was boysenberry ice cream with chocolate flakes and cherry brandy. We also took with us our bottle of '97 Rosemount Cabernet Sauvignon that Nat bought us for our engagement present (thanks Nat, it was great!). Somehow we managed to make our way through all the fantastic food, and after dinner we retired to the blue lounge (there is also a yellow lounge) to watch Iron Chef (our friends also watched with us and got plenty of laughs from the dubbing and Chairman Kaga). Once it was over, we continued our boardgame from before. After losing to the other guys, none of were really tired yet, so we sat and chatted for a few hours over tea and coffee. Strangely enough, teaching seemed to be the dominant topic... :) It was almost midnight, and we decided to call it a night.

Sunday started with another tour-de-force culinary experience. Pineapple juice with mint; poached pear compote; cheese souffle with wavy bacon; and of course, toast, coffee and tea. We ate so much food during our stay, it's amazing we managed to eat it all! But we really had no choice, as it was all so delicious :)

And then it was time to go. We packed out bags, signed the guestbook, and were ready. Before we left, Aki took a Polaroid picture of us standing in front of the entrance to the Manor, which we were given as a nice reminder of our stay. To top it off, we got hugs and handshakes from Miyuki and Aki - I've never had that at a B&B before! We really felt welcome at Ninderry Manor, and we didn't want to leave. Miyuki and Aki, if you are reading this, thank you both so very much for helping to make our anniversary weekend away so wonderful! We're looking forward to coming back again :)

Keep checking back as I'll be updating this post with some pictures in the next few days.

Now it's over to Kirsten, to tell you about our Sunday excursion...