Just before Christmas I got to meet some of my relatives for the first time in quite a while. My aunt(-in-law) Gem and my cousin Justin were in town for a few days. Hadn’t seen Justin in almost 20 years… both of us were much younger than at present, and while I barely remember it (my sister and I visited them in Brisbane for Expo ‘88, when I was 18) he would have been about 4, and remembers absolutely nothing about it.

He’s a fully-fledged ABC (Australian-born Chinese), while I’m half-a-one. I was slightly amused to see that at 22 he had started to get grey hair, and I mentioned I’d started going grey about the same age, then pointed to my own very streaky-grey hair and said to him “This is your future!” He laughed.

They live in Perth, and said we’d be welcome to stay if we went over. I’d like to see Perth, but it’s a long way away, so I don’t know if I’ll see them again any time soon.

Indeed, talking to them, and looking through some old family photos, it reinforced to me that despite this age of instant and cheap communications, the various arms of relatives of my extended don’t really keep in very good contact with one another. And that it’s almost shameful how little we know about our ancestors and distant relatives.

Christmas was the usual combination of family, presents, and too much food.

After a day or two of recovery, we headed off for the Melbourne Aquarium yesterday. So did half the city, apparently. It was crowded — perhaps too crowded to be really enjoyable, in fact.

But it was spectacular, particularly the “Fish Bowl” and Oceanarium.

I hadn’t been before, and enjoyed the exhibits that weren’t overrun with crowds. I was a little surprised there was no ban on flash photography, something regularly contravened at the Penguin Parade, leading to a total ban on photography there. Maybe fish and other sea-creatures aren’t sensitive to flashes of light like penguins are?

All in all, very enjoyable. Try not to go in school holidays though.

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OK, I admit it, I’m getting a little stressed about Christmas. After a good start, the shopping has all fallen in a heap over the last few weeks. I’ve still got numerous things to buy, both known and unknown. The way it’s looking, this Christmas it won’t quite be gift vouchers at twenty paces, but it might come close.

A bunch of stuff ordered online for the kids hasn’t arrived yet, and if it’s not there at the post office when I drop past this afternoon, the spot underneath the tree might look a bit barren on Sunday night. I might never order anything online to a deadline again.

Meanwhile out there in Retail Land the shops are steadily getting more, as my sister puts it, feral.

Surely the season of joy and goodwill isn’t meant to be like this?

It’s funny, ‘cos with many of us in the family now having mortgages, there was a plan (formulated straight after last Christmas) for adults not to exchange presents. Somehow that’s fallen by the wayside.

Maybe as a compromise we should all convert to Orthodox Christianity and have Christmas on January 7th, so at least we can get all the presents at the post-Christmas sales.

Update 4pm. All the parcels arrived. My faith in online shopping is restored. The children won’t go hungry this Christmas.

To the readers of my blog, a Merry Christmas to you all!

(Moved off the front page so people don’t get the singing when they don’t want it!) (more…)

On Monday…

Deposited my tax return, which was twice as much as I expected.

Work gave me a big basket of Christmas goodies. (Nice change from the Gold Class cinema tickets I never get around to using until the last month before expiry).

A new food court is opening in my building. They came through with free muffin and biscuit samples.

And I had a killer idea (the fruits of which you will see soon).

In Christmassy terms, I had a very successful couple of days — on Friday I managed to get my Christmas cards (and annual letter) to UK relatives into the mail. I’ve gradually reduced the number of cards I send every year as more people get email. I’ll do some kind of email card in the next couple of days to most of my remaining relatives, but most of the UK ones remain steadfastly offline. With a bit of luck, the paper cards will reach them all in time.

On Saturday I braved the fray at Southland. I didn’t actually find of the presents I’d gone looking for, but did find a couple of things for various people.

And I found something for me. It seems an almost inevitable part of Christmas shopping that I’ll find more cool stuff that I want than for anybody else.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to track down a magazine, an air-lifted obscure one. The distributor’s web site said it was available through only a few newsagents around Melbourne, and the CBD ones quoted were all sold out. They listed one in Charman Road, but at the time I couldn’t recall where that was, so decided to forget about it.

But I found myself in Charman Road, Cheltenham on Saturday while I was walking from the station to Southland, and saw a newsagent — the very one listed. Doubting they’d still have the mag (apparently it sold very well, and very quickly) I nevertheless nipped in to check. They still had three copies. Apparently, despite their stocking of obscure overseas airlifted magazines, they don’t sell all that well in the burbs. Score!

The mag? A retrospective issue of Edge, the videogame culture magazine. Why had I wanted it? Because I’m regaining my interest in games, and this particular issue, flashing-back to 1993-94, goes back to about the point I started to lose interest post-uni, so it serves as a nice catch-up.

Edge is an inestimably cool magazine. The format, the quality paper and printing, the research, the articles, the whole package. It ain’t a straight review of games, like its predecessor the much-loved ACE. It goes deeper, into the culture and creation of gaming. In the past I haven’t bought it often, maybe once a year, but it’s always had interesting stuff in it.

Imagine my surprise when, on the way home, reading the article therein about the founding of the magazine, I discovered one of those who was heavily involved in creating Edge, the founding publisher, a bloke called Steve, is someone I know through my sister.

Freaky.

As you may have spotted, I’m not much of a fan of cars. Oh sure, modern western society relies on them, but far too much. But even in my version of suburban utopia, they’d be there by neccessity for some people and some trips.

So given they’ll always be around, it makes sense for them to be as economical as possible. To leave the lightest footprint possible.

The poster-child for the new breed of hybrid cars is the Toyota Prius. A friend just got one (company car) and I got to take it for a quick drive this morning. It seemed surprisingly roomy inside given its size, which is probably down to the much reduced space taken by the mechanics. And while some have complained about the Prius’s performance, I found it pretty zoomy, better than my aging 15-year-old Magna, and probably on par with most newer “non-high-performance” vehicles.

(”High performance” seems like a misnomer, when they use so much more fuel to get from A to B. I guess they’re really good at producing noise and pollution; that’s what makes them “high performance”.)

The controls are a bit freaky: key that works like an access card; a computer-like power button; a handbrake that’s operated by your foot; a joystick-like gearstick (but no Fire button, alas). There’s various touch-screens and digital read-outs to control it all.

How quiet it is when you’re not moving is freakily-quiet, too. That’s because it doesn’t bother wasting energy standing still, unlike the rest of the cars on the road.

And it’s got a cool distinctive design that says “Hey all you petrol slurpers! Suffer in your jocks paying $60 to fill your tank! Behold, my Prius!”

I really enjoyed the short spin. I reckon it’s a great idea for anybody who does the bulk of their driving in the city, especially in heavy traffic. Cars like this don’t help with congestion, but they do go some way to reducing emissions.

And then I took my own car to the petrol station. And paid $60 to fill up the tank.

“So why don’t you get one, Daniel?” you might ask. “Since you’re so into pushing sustainable transport.”

The cost, that’s why. These things cost $37K or more new. Given how little driving I do, I can’t justify or afford it.

Give it 5 or 10 years, when the technology’s even more efficient, and cheap (and my own car starts to fall apart) and it may be the way to go.

Then again, I may be getting around exclusively by bicycle, foot and Metcard by then.

Two great blog posts I’ve read recently:

If you’ve ever worked in a service industry, and been on the receiving end of someone’s arseholedness, have a read of this — Nice consumer takes-on Nasty. I don’t recall ever encountering people of the moronic calibre when I was working in a shop. Either I was lucky, or they predominantly live in America.

What happens to your body if you drink a Coke. Hmm, I do like the occasional Coke, but maybe I’ll stick to tea for my caffeine injections from now on.