Living Nerdy in Sydney

Social media is part of most of our lives. Most of us have a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account for our personal lives. For our professional lives, one might have Linkedin. Most of these accounts have an option to share where we work. Society has also become more comfortable sharing conversations especially with groups of family and friends online. However most of our workplace have a bunch of policies, rules and regulations of how we should be using social media in our personal lives. Most of the rules are around not divulging corporate non-public material, but there are also rules around not bringing bad reputation to the company we work for. The line becomes blurry, especially for public servants, when employees are both staff and customer. Employees have been fired for complaining about bosses or their company on Facebook. But what happens for public servants, say a public school teacher with a child in the school he teaches at? Parents talk close to anything online. It...

Tim Ho Wan is a import from its main restaurant in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. It's main branch is renowned for being the most affordable Michelin star restaurant in the world. In recent years, Tim Ho Wan has been opening branches across Asia. Its new branch in Chatswood has been a much awaited opening in Australia. We visited Tim Ho Wan (Chatswood) on a Sunday around 12 noon. The restaurant was filled to capacity with a sizable queue. We were pleasantly surprised that the line was fairly fast moving and the queue control was excellent. We were able to view the menu and fill in the order form while waiting in line. Within 40 minutes we were shown to our tables. Menu Menu (Click to Enlarge) The menu at Tim Ho Wan is a very traditional Hong Kong dim sum menu. My family from Hong Kong wouldn't find the menu a problem at all. However that said, I would almost say that the menu has not been geared towards an Australian crowd, lacking the typical roast meats and variet...

With soaring power bills, heating in winter is fast becoming a luxury. In cities like Sydney or Melbourne where winter low temperature hovers at just above freezing, room heating can become an optional extra. It is also very unlikely that pipes will freeze in winter in Sydney. By learning a  little about Thermodynamics you can learn the science behind saving on heating bills this winter. For more about related Thermodynamics, click here . Quick Fixes Flannel Bed sheets (Source: Bed and Bath) 1. Consider using heavier bed linen. Thermodynamics: Insulation  By changing your summer cotton bed sheets to flannel or microfiber, you will find yourself much warmer. Also, consider instead of using a four-season or synthetic quilt, to use a heavy wool or a down and feather quilt. The higher the percentage of down in the quilt, the warmer it will be. 2. Wear flannel pyjamas. Thermodynamics: Insulation By wearing long sleeved flannel pyjamas to bed, you will be...

With soaring power bills, heating in winter is fast becoming a luxury. In cities like Sydney or Melbourne where winter low temperature hovers at just above freezing, room heating can become an optional extra. It is also very unlikely that pipes will freeze in winter in Sydney. By learning a  little about Thermodynamics you can learn the science behind saving on heating bills this winter. Thermodynamics is the study of heat and temperature and its relation with energy and work. Most of us would have learnt bits and pieces in Science or Physics class while in school.  Here are 3 basic concepts. 1. Heat moves by 3 ways - Conduction, Convection and Radiation. Conduction (Source: Climate Science Investigations) Conduction is the movement of heat without the movement of particles. A good example would be heat moving from the bottom of your pot when you heat it to the top of the pot. The pot material itself does not move, but the heat moves. Conduction always happen fr...

This post is dedicated to my girl friends on World of Warcraft. To Jojo (the bunny slayer), Amanda (my companion healer), Norice, Canaan, Tonya, Kindall (who we lost this week)... World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively online role playing game (MMORPG) which was first released in 2004. 11 years and 5 expansions later still active till today. I'm pretty proud to admit I'm a vanilla WoW player. I've seen the glories (and glorious lags) of the 40 man raid and the original Naxxaramas. I've raided in every WoW expansion, killed every raid boss in Burning Crusade. I’ve been decked out in T3 and T6 gear at the end of Vanilla and BC respectively. And till today, I'm a 1-toon player! (Okay, I admit I switched toons in the Burning Crusade expansion). But today, I'm not going to talk about all the fantastic achievements on WoW I've been a part of, but rather celebrating the friendships I've made over these 11 years. 11 years ago, a female player on a...

Sushi Fusion is a Japanese Sushi Train restaurant on Belmore Road, Randwick. Setting As with most sushi trains, seating is at counters around the area where sushi chef prepare their sushi. Seating at Sushi Fusion is fairly cramped. It can be quite challenging to bring young children as there is no table seating. Food On the train, there are most standard sushi - nigiri, ship and rolls. Standard variations of prawns, salmon, squid, tuna, scallops, tamago (egg), cucumber, avocado, etc are available on the train. More interesting dishes include seared beef, prawn and salmon, and seared scallops with cheese. All sushi were well constructed and well sliced. Clockwise: Prawn and Salmon, Seared Beef, Squid, Prawn Tempura, Tuna, Chicken Katsu and Avacado Roll. Clockwise: Raw Salmon, Seared Scallops, Seared Salmon, Tamago (Egg) Seared scallop with cheese on rice : The creaminess of the cheese and the smokiness, made the dish very delicious. Kaarage Chi...

One of ways to make money with your roadside stand on Hay Day is to sell crops you grow. Different crops have different grow times and max sell price. Based on typical quick sale price for a stack of 10 (most of them are max sell price, except wheat where it is hard to sell at 36 gold), the following are the potential gold per minute of land use. Typical Quick Sell Price Time to Produce Gold per Minute of Land Use Wheat 10 2 5.0 Corn 72 5 14.4 Carrots 72 10 7.2 Soybean 108 20 5.4 Cane 144 30 4.8 Indigo 252 120 2.1 Pumpkin 324 180 1.8 Chili 360 240 1.5 Tomato 432 360 1.2 Cotton 288 210 1.4 Strawberry 504 480 1.1 Potato 360 220 1.6 Good luck growing crops!

Mother’s Day is widely celebrated across many countries in the world. Today, when we celebrate Mother’s Day, we celebrate it as a thanksgiving to our mothers.  However, this hasn’t always been the case in history. This is reflected by the different days we celebrate Mother’s Day across the world. Let’s see how Mother’s Day have been celebrated across history. Approximately 250 BC The Romans celebrate Mother’s Day in celebration of the mother goddess, Cybele. Then Mother’s Day was known as Hilaria, which lasted for 3 days. It was celebrated with parades, games and masquerades. About the same time, Greeks honoured Rhea, wife of Cronus and mother of the gods and goddess of Greek mythology. 1600s The English started celebrating Mother’s Day on the 4 th Sunday of Lent. Till today, Mother’s Day is still celebrated on that day in the United Kingdom. Mother’s Day is known as Mothering Sunday there, and is a celebration to honour the Virgin Mary. It was also a ce...

Immunisation has the great potential to eradicate deadly infectious diseases. Diseases such as the highly contagious and deadly smallpox has been eradicated as a result of immunisation. Vaccination not only protects your child from infectious diseases, but also if a large proportion of the general population is vaccinated, children who are unable to be vaccinated are protected through herd immunity. The Australian Federal Government supports immunisation through funding vaccination as in accordance to the National Immunisation Program Schedule. Vaccines are also provided free if on the National Immunisation Program Schedule. You can get your child vaccinated at: ·        Your General Practitioner (GP) ·        Aboriginal Medical Services ·        Some local councils ·        Some community health centres If you are unsure about what services are av...

A down side with a long Royal Caribbean cruise is the pricing of the laundry service. There is no self-serve laundromat on any of their vessels, hence cruisers on long cruises might find themselves in the predicament of paying the hotel pricing for laundry service on board.  The current price list as on May 2015 is here . Here are some creative ways to cope with the issue of laundry. 1. Use a basic hand wash kit. Pegless Clothes Line You will need to bring some laundry detergent, a wash line and pegs.  Most of us with a washing machine would rarely hand wash these days. If you need tips on how to hand wash check out WikiHow . The most convenient way of hanging out your laundry would be using a laundry line which does not require pegs. You should be able to hang your laundry in your bathroom or balcony. You can use your chairs in the balcony hide the laundry from view. Chairs are also handy as support ends for your clothes line, however you might need to put some wei...

Panadol (Tylenol) is readily available as an over the counter medication in most countries and used as a pain reliever and for reducing fevers. Panadol, also known as Paracetamol, Tylenol, Acetaminophen or as it's scientific name - N-acetyl-p-aminophenol. A more extensive list of brand names can be found on  Wikipedia . However readily available, Panadol isn't without its risks. In fact, there have been cases of people who have died taking the drug. To make things more complicated, Panadol is often also found as a combination of other cold and flu or pain medications. If such a cold and flu tablet is taken with Panadol, it's additive effect can lead to poisoning.  Examples of Panadol containing Medicines Panadol itself doesn't cause toxicity to the body. However, when it is broken down in the body, it forms N-acetylimidoquinone, which causes liver damage. When taken in small quantities, the liver has an amazing ability to regenerate. However, when taken in ...