http://blog.mmayer.net The Austrian in Vancouver Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:28:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Looks like our friendly southern neighbour has yet another hurdle improvement in mind when it comes to travelling. Starting January 2009, all citizens of visa waiver countries (yep, that includes me) will have to register with the US government online three days prior (!) to travel. The site is already online, ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/08/15/protection-from-terrorist-europeans/ Yum! :-) And yes, that’s tours as in “more than one”. It’s great times when upcoming vacations are getting close enough to book cool stuff to do. We are already practiced winery visitors (see the Napa adventure, the Victoria adventure, as well as the Niagara adventure). It’s still fun doing it, ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/08/12/wine-tours-booked/ It’s been a couple of busy weeks, but now everything is finally done. The old condo has been emptied (finally), the keys handed over, we are settled Downtown (for a month and a half now), our storage locker is full to the brim (and there’s still tons of stuff ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/08/11/all-sold-and-out/ Yep, a week from now, our condo on Fraser Street will be pretty empty. The movers are scheduled to come at 9am next Saturday. And they’ll take everything that’s still left (other than our clothes) and take it to our storage locker. We’ve already taken quite a bit of stuff ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/07/26/last-week/ I guess I am an early bird this time around. I upgraded to WordPress 2.6 only three days after it was released. Let’s hope there are no major security holes in this release. Normally, I wait a few weeks, preferably till the x.1 release comes out. However, I liked the revision ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/07/17/early-bird/ A month from today, the buyer of our condo will take possession. That’s pretty darn soon. ;-) On the other hand, we’ll be moving out of the condo even sooner! Moving day is August 2. That’s three weeks and a few days. We are — sort of — trying to take ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/07/09/downtown-living/ Time for a change. The theme stayed the same (Gemini-Plus), but the blog colours and the photo up top changed. I took the previous picture showing the Downtown skyline from Stanley Park in May 2002. Yep, that was quite a while ago. The new picture, showing Downtown Vancouver from Locarno Beach, ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/07/08/new-colours/ Everybody is writing about Rogers and their ridiculous iPhone plans these days. I will, too, but with the slight twist of comparing Roger’s plans to the plans available in Austria rather than the US. The situation in Austria is different in the sense that the iPhone is offered by two cell ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/07/02/iphone_in_canada/ This is starting to get lame. Here we are, trying to look at temporary accommodation for August and September, and it doesn’t seem to want to work out. On Wednesday, we had an appointment at 6pm to see a condo one block east of Beatty, between Georgia and Dunsmuir (in those ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/06/28/two-out-of-two/ It’s been almost a week — yes, I am slow updating the blog — since we got the good news from our real estate agent. Our first buyer (see previous post) removed her conditions, which means that our place is now officially SOLD!!!!. That is Cool StuffTM, because it’s one ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/06/24/sold/ …means exciting times. But also stressful and anxious times. Currently, we are going through the latter. It’s also a bit like playing poker. With a lot of money. :-) We got another offer today and just put in a counter. Unlike the first offer (the seller just walked away in the ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/06/10/selling-a-house/ I didn’t mean to post another weather related rant, but this fact deserves mentioning. Yellowknife in the North West Territories (Canada’s “Great White North”) is actually warmer and sunnier than Vancouver, BC. Vancouver Current Conditions: Light Rain, 11 °C Observed at: Vancouver Int’l Airport Date: 10:00 AM PDT Monday 9 June 2008 Yellowknife Current Conditions: Partly ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/06/09/yellowknife-is-warmer/ Two weeks ago, when we got home from our vacation, I thought summer (or late spring at the very least) had finally arrived. Particularly, since it was so hot the weekend we got back. Fortunately it cooled off a bit soon thereafter, because that weekend was a little too “warm” for ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/06/03/summer-hello-summer/ …and with lots of time to spare. That’s nice. We’ll go for lunch in an hour, hang out in the lounge for a bit and then take the shuttle bus to Kowloon train station. Then, onto the Airport Express and to the airport. The only thing neither one of us is ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/16/all-packed/ The morning of the last day was spent checking out the Tsing Ma Bridge. A visitor centre and a viewing platform were created to allow visitors easy access to the bridge and to learn about its construction. Unfortunately, one doesn’t get to see as much of the bridge as I ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/16/last-full-day/ Thursday we spent in Macau. In order to get there, we took the TurboJet ferry from Hong Kong Island. The trip there was a bit bumpy at times and lasted about 70 minutes. Once there, we first explored Fisherman’s Wharf. Parts of it were cheesy (the amusement park section), parts were ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/15/macau/ We made a trip to the island of Lantau today. To get there, we took a ferry from Hong Kong Island to Mui Wo on Lantau, followed by an adventurous bus ride to Ngong Ping: narrow, winding road with a speed limit of 70 km/h (at least in some spots). On ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/13/lantau/ It’s been a few days since my last post, and not surprisingly, we have seen and experienced a few more things since then. We went shopping, Brigette mainly looking for stuff for herself, and ended up buying two shirts for me. The story of our lives. lol We rode the traditional ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/10/symphony-of-lights-and-other-experiences/ We started our day by crossing the harbour in a ferry rather than via subway. The wind made the ride fairly “bumpy” (no comparison to crossing Burrard Inlet :-), and the views were impressive. Then we made our way up to the highest point of Hong Kong today: the Peak. We ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/06/the-peak/ Two things come to mind: exciting and humid. Exciting, because there’s lots of interesting stuff to see and humid, because it’s, well, freaking warm and humid. :-) Like sit around, do nothing and sweat like crazy humid. — Not that I expected otherwise, but it’s even a little more extreme ... http://blog.mmayer.net/2008/05/05/first-impressions/