As for me, with my small and fragile built body, I will stick to easier sport.  Maybe I will take up lawn bowling. 

I have tried a few sports myself – bowling, cycling, badminton, basketball, running, tennis, swimming, and not that I am good at any of it.
However when my son Jonah says he wants to try Parkour, I blankly asked “What is it?”

After a quick and simple Internet search, I realised Parkour is moving from a spot to another spot efficiently and in a shortest amount of time.  This includes ‘freerunning’, lots of jumping and for the advance, aerial rotations and spinning.  Wow, that’s is really exciting.  I think I have seen it in a James Bond movie.  I will go with him and see this new exciting sports.

Tomorrow is the last F1 race of the year in Abu Dhabi.  Good luck to Mark Webber and best wishes to him winning the F1 championship.  Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi…

I forgot how many lemons I have cleaned off the ground.  There are still ‘expired’ lemons on the trees.  Eventually I will find time to get rid of them.
Not to mention the amount of fallen gum tree leaves I have swept.  Those rotting leaves can probably fill a few rubbish trucks.

I have already concreted the back yard, so there is no more lawn mowing. 
What else can I do to make my life easier so I have more time for other interesting hobbies?

I was driving home the other day and I saw a shop selling artificial flowers, artificial trees and some other fake plants.  What a great idea!
I need to check out this shop soon to see if they have any artificial trees and plants to blend nicely in my concrete garden.  hahaha 

This is my 1st blog.  A couple of mates went camping last weekend.  Four Disco’s met at the BP outside Pakenham at about Friday 7:30pm.  Another friend Ian was due in the morning.  Got to the Thomson Dam wall at 9pm. Turned left at the intersection then right onto Trig track.  The track was moist but no problems.  Approaching the camp we were greeted by a large campfire that Paul had going for us.  Chose our tent spots and then settled down for dinner. We had a very clear night.

Saturday morning was looking to be a great day.  Breakfast then just kicked back until Ian rolled up.  As soon as Paul P(PP) and his friend got back from fishing (Raman 20  PP 1) we set of for our drive. Covered a couple of tracks that we’ve done before on our way to do two of the Deep Creek tracks. Ian had mechanical issues due to incorrectly fitted front wheel bearings. And he paid them to do it to! That was a good break as we had a BBQ for lunch. Highlight of the day was Deep Creek 1 track.
Back to camp for dinner and drink. PP set up a cocktail bar and Kee had some very nice meat cooking.

Sunday morning, all had a casual breakfast and packed up. The plan was to cover one more Deep Creek track and home via Walhalla. We took Trig track with all its switch backs out of camp. On top of the hill I had a mechanical problem. Every one assisted and I was back on the road in about an hour but in two wheel drive. Deep Creek 5 was left for next time. Stopped in the beautifully township of Walhalla for coffee. We got back on the road for home after 4pm. Some of us stopped in Moe to wash the cars while the others kept going and head home. Ian, Kee, Paul M, James and myself had a break at the Moe playground.

There are so many digital cameras on the market and new ones keep appearing quite frequently. It is so difficult to decide which one to buy.
So I have made a list of criteria before buying my next compact digital camera.

1.  Battery life.
This is the most important factor for me. I travel quite a fair bit. I need a camera to take at least a day’s worth of photos before the battery runs flat. I can carry a spare battery but I prefer not to. Unfortunately we cannot judge how long the camera will last at the camera shop. Check the web for reviews where users have left feedback on battery life and speak to friends to see if they have bought anything lately.

2.  Memory storage.
Majority are now SD/SDHC memory card. I will choose cameras which use this type of format and not the proprietary type. It will cheaper to buy and easier to locate when you need a new memory card.

3.  Megapixels.
The higher the better? Not really. Majority of photographers are casual and family snappers. Unless you are printing photos larger than A4 size, any camera with 6 megapixels is sufficient.

4.  Zoom.
Stick with optical if zooming is required. Having said that, a camera with any digital zoom is better than none. There will also be some sort of image stabilisation in modern cameras to compensate for shaky hands. For my casual snapshots, zooming is not really that important, any kind of zoom will do me.

5.  Looks and colour.
This is purely aesthetics. Everyone has a different taste. For me I will pick a bright pink camera.

6.  Cost.

Don’t think that the most expensive camera is the best camera on the market.  New and cheaper ones with new technology get released very quickly.  Get a camera you can afford without breaking the bank.  You might upgrade to a new camera in no time.

This year, I am lucky enough to be going to KL to watch Thomas Cup and hopefully see my idol Lee Chong Wei in action, pictured on the right.  One of my friends in Malaysia managed to grab some tickets from an online website. Another expat friend I met here is also going back next month and is kind enough to offer us very cheap accommodation. That’s what friends are for. Thanks a lot mates.

Countries that have qualified for the final stages are:-
Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru & Poland.

Group A : China, South Korea, Peru
Group B : Malaysia, Japan, Nigeria
Group C : Denmark, Germany, Poland
Group D : Indonesia, India, Australia

Each country will be represented by 3 singles and 2 doubles teams.

Firstly, in the round robin, countries in each group will play each other in that group.  2 top teams from each group will advance to the quarter finals which will be a knock-out phase from there on.

As much as I want Malaysia and Australia to win, but I think my money will be on China to win this year as they have won the last three Thomas Cups. But I could be wrong, Malaysia boleh…!!!

One of my friends does gliding and I think this kind of hobby is too risky for me. I prefer to stay on the ground.
One does archery, a few do boating and fishing, one builds lego city from plastic bricks and another works as a slave on the weekends.

We all need some sort of relaxation activities to keep us saint from the hectic work life.

For me, it’s four wheel driving(4wd) and camping. A few of my 4wd mates and I hit the bush whenever we can. It can be a long rocky and muddy drive to the campsite but it’s all fun and exciting.  At the campsite, we all relax and chat about the drive and basically just do nothing.  Kids often come along and they like the freedom of roaming around the wide-open land, picking up sticks and having fun at the river.  During the night, the sky is so clear that we can see all kinds of stars and man-made satellites zooming across the night sky.  Oh, I nearly forget to mention about the fresh air and fresh snow in winter too.

Below is a video of crazy me attempting to go through a mud hole from our last trip.

What was I thinking?!