Globetrotter Postcards: April 2008

22 April 2008

The price of sentimental value

Hearing:

My lovely, beautiful, easy-to-use, convienient Western Digital MyBook 500GB external hard drive has turned into a vicious monster and ripped my heart out.

It has died and taken all my flying/travel photos and small video clips with it. I spent the whole weekend just researching on the net of ways i could get it to work and trying everything i could...no luck. The only thing that can work at this stage is professional data recovery which attracts one hell of a price tag. Yesterday i was quoted $3500. And yes i did cry.

I just dont have that kind of money. It would take me close to a year to save up that much. That seems to be the price of photos with sentimental value. And to all those who are just itching to say "you should have made back ups" let me just say screw you! Dont you think i know that? The external WAS my back up and even so i had bought some blank dvds during the week to back it up this weekend.

Ahem. Sorry. Clearly im still upset about it. Its not easy. I have some earlier photos on cds but the past year of flying and travel are just on the external and frankly it hurts a lot. And the data recovery people cant guarantee that they can get everything back cuz the topple might have caused the heads to go out of alignment and scratch the surface. Its really depressing and some people might not understand, yeah you have your memories but a photo is really worth so much. Some of my favourites are on there including one of me in the engine of one of my ex-companies aircrafts.

Im now looking at another company which might cost a bit less and they can at least tell me if my photos survived before i fork out. I still have to wait to save a bit though otherwise they charge me for keeping my data with them if i cant pay the full amount up front.

*sigh*

The price of sentimental value... :(

VP

13 April 2008

Red Bull Flugtag in Sydney!

Hearing: Low – Flo Rider

Red Bull Flugtag – First time in Australia and Sydney plays host from Mrs Maquarie Chair (opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens). What more could you ask for on a sunny Autumn Sunday afternoon than to watch people dive off a 6 meter platform into cold water for fun, fame and fortune??

The atmopshere was buzzing with families, tourists and friends out to enjoy the day. My brother and i winded our way through the massive crowds that had congregated around the edges of the water to get a better view looking for our own one on higher ground. We eventually found a good spot after walking past the marshalling areas, several large screen TVs, food stalls, showers (yes portable showers!) and loos.

We had so much fun. We could hear the commentary, see the competitors and a large screen for a more close up view. The only thing was we had 3 palms in our way which wasnt such a pain execpt for when i was trying to record little clips on my camera of the jumps. All in all, it was such a fun day, everyone was in good spirts, the kind where strangers just strike up conversations and kids throw around a beach ball and the whole crowd gets into it. I really enjoyed myself – the dives and the pre-dive 'shows were hilarious! Hope they hold it again next year!

So enjoy the photos! And now that Blogger has video – i might post up one of a spectacular dive (though dont count on it being too clear – my cameras zoom only goes so far!)

How crowded is it!!

Not a bad backdrop..

Walking past the Marshalling area...below - Team Mullet actually managed to get quite far and one of their guys landed without getting wet (see clip below)

They had several of these screens everywhere so people could still see what was going on even if they didnt have a good view. Also some shots of competitors before taking the dive...

Four Men and a Butterfly - you cant get funnier then old men dressed in bright pink tutus chasing one of their team members with large bright fluro yellow nets.

Every time a team dived boats standing by would zoom in to pick up the wet teams and their soggy crafts to make way for the next flyers/divers....

No there is nothing wrong with your eyes, its a sausage, a bottle of ketchup and cutlery...these guys actually did really well (see clip below) - their pre-dive was pretty good too - the knife and fork chased a sausage till the ketchup came to the rescue LOL!