SurfiOnline

I’ve decided i’m going to write about my holiday to Lake Conjola this year in a few parts, mainly because there are approximately 50 or so pictures I want to get up here and I don’t want one huuuge long entry. Part I, this part, is about the trip down, a bit of information about the area and a few photos of the area too.

Lake Conjola is situated on the South East Cost of New South Wales Australia. It is approximately 220km from Sydney, Australia. Lake Conjola is a water wonderland of crystal clear waters open to the ocean. The lake stretches on for miles and is encompassed by the Conjola National Park on the Northern and Southern sides.

So the day before and way in to the night before we left we were well in to packing and getting everything ready. The sun rose and by about 10:30am on the 16th of January we were all packed and ready to go. We took two cars (our Toyota Land Cruiser to tow the boat, and my brothers Holden Commodore). I went in the Land Cruiser with my father and little brother whilst my brother and my mother went in the Commodore. For those interested, the boat is a Campion Allante 615 (Canadian import - 1998). It is 21foot (6.15m) and is powered by a Mercruiser V8 engine with a five blade stainless steel propeller, classed as a ‘Luxury Sports Cruiser’.

Being on the road for three hours is always a barrel of fun (NOT!). Blake, my youngest brother managed to entertain himself for the most part by watching a movie on the laptop I took down. Meanwhile i’m in the front seat stuffing about with my iPod and digital camera..

The south coast of Australia is a spectacular place to see and explore with so many ‘Kodak moments’ and impressive landscapes. About half an hour in to the trip we hit some pretty heavy fog (just look at the pictures!) but that eventually cleared up as we reached Wollongong. By then we were about a 1/3 in to our trip down to Conjola.

Another 2 hours and we arrived and our destination: Conjola Lakeside Van Park. We checked in and drove down to our cabin on the water. At that stage only one of the other families that were stayed with us had arrived. We unpacked a bit and reversed the boat beside our cabin. Once my brother arrived one of the other families who were staying with us arrived. On the first day of arrival we had three families currently occupying the four cabins we had rented out.

Eventually we all were unpacked and settled in… Stay tuned for the next part!

Okay, well I’m back from my little holiday. I have lots to write about it and around about 50 or so pictures so over the coming days I will probably post a bit every now and then. It was so much fun, the weather was decent for the most part and f#$#ing hell - I WISH I WAS STILL DOWN THERE.

Anyway, got lots of unpacking and sorting out to do so give me a while and i’ll write a bit about it.

(I do have a sprained wrist so it may take a while for me to type as it is very uncomfortable. Biscuitting accident yesterday :()

Anyway kids,

I’m finally off for Lake Conjola tomorrow morning. I’ll be there until the 28th and I expect you to have fun without me. I hope to take lots of pictures and I will post them when I get back - you may even, if I have time - see some entries blogged via my phone at some stage (assuming its still working).

Cya!

I don’t know what else to say, apart from i’m upset and have lost a part of me. Pako has been our family dog for as long as I remember. I remember the day when we picked him up when he was just a baby - the white ball of fluff that looked like a sheep. I was only tiny back then, it was well over 10 years ago. I remember the days in our old house where we used to lose him and he would bee found under one of the beds, the times when he protected my littest brother when he was a baby, from us two (other brothers). An incredible dog who had the will to live.

Rest in peace, Paky. You’ll forever be in our hearts.

~ The Boulton’s.

A recent post by Michael Heilemann on the BinaryBonsai, led me to think about those “oh so necessary” features that Mac’s are missing:
[quote]I wrote previously about the many useful features Apple notebooks lack, such as 6-in-1 media readers, dedicated multimedia buttons, and dual headphone jacks.[/quote]

I’m a PC user. I always have been. I’ve used Mac’s before and would like to own one at some stage.

Multimedia keyboards? They’re on every keyboard I currently use in this house and it is only on the rarest of occassions that I will actually use buttons on the multimedia keyboard. I prefer to do it the manual way.

They don’t make things easier. Infact, the multimedia keyboard I currently have attached to my laptop (It’s a Belkin Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Combo) does not even function properly with Winamp. Winamp is my primary application for listening to music, i’m not going to change to Windows Media Player just so I can use a multimedia keyboard. Just for the sake of it I am also developing a program which will allow me to use my multimedia keys with Winamp. A good reason not for multimedia keys to become a standardised thing and a requirement? I believe so. They’re never going to be compatible with every piece of software.

Okay, the card reader. I recently purchased an 8 in 1 USB card reader (It was only $15). My fathers new laptop (on which I currently am writing) has a built in 8 in 1 card reader. That is another thing I don’t find as being a necessity to have. I’ve used it a total of about 1 time. Considering hooking my camera up to the computer has the same effect, I don’t bother taking the memory card out, then finding the little slot to stick it in. Sure, it’s a nice thing to have because you can read cards that will not fit in a camera you own, or you don’t have to own a camera to be able to read memory cards, but I wouldn’t call it a necessity!

Dual headphone jacks? Now tell me, what majority of the PC users actually make use of dual headphone jacks (that’s if their PC has them to start off with). I myself use a splitter running out of my laptop as I like to have two sets of speakers running but the amount of people who would do something like that is proably a minority. One standard jack is enough for most, for the others you can just buy a splitter for around $5AU.

Paul also mentions about how Apple “copied” their iPod layout applying it to the iMac. Wow. Cool.