http://www.piotrzurek.net Fri, 02 May 2008 00:59:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A few weeks ago I have noticed a lot of traffic on the Psycho website. A quick look at referring sites showed me that it's all coming from the Gnome page of Google Summer of Code ideas. Some kind soul has mentioned Psycho in the mind mapping proposal. Turns out ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2008/05/02/back-to-work-on-psycho/ Happy 2008 Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. Note to self: Remember, it's never so bad that it can't get any worse... :-) http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/12/31/happy-2008/ I've read it somewhere on the Internet a few days ago. Somebody was saying that Apple was looking at buying Autodesk and switching all their products to Mac OS only. It's obviously a ridiculous speculation and I really don't believe it could happen. EVER! Nevertheless I've let my ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/12/19/apple-is-buying-autodesk-yeah-right/ Recently I have been seeing a lot of dark themed screenshots and I think I could get used to that. But you know what I could get used to even easier - not coming to the office every morning to start my Windows machine. Somebody put me out of that ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/12/06/psycho-in-a-dark-themed-gnome/ Wow! I have just noticed that the "Hybrid" button in Google Maps was replaced with a "Terrain" button. So when I use it on my Google Maps default location it looks like that: View Larger Map Of course there are better things to look at than your own neighborhood. Like for example ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/11/28/terrain-view-in-google-maps/ Over the weekend I've felt a sudden urge to listen to one of Ben Harper's records. I went to iTunes to check the price and availability - $17.99NZ for a DRM-ed version. Ahem... A bit pricey compared to what I've seen in Amazon MP3 downloads - $8.99US for unrestricted MP3 ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/10/08/no-no-i-am-sorry-that-you-didnt-want-my-money/ It's up to you - that's what Radiohead say when you ask how much is their latest album. The album is released in 2 versions: as download and as discbox. The discbox is basically £40 worth of goodies which is a bit pricey, however the download version costs... as much ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/10/03/its-up-to-you/ I use Google Spreadsheets to let everyone interested how my blood test results look from week to week. It's so cool that you can just publish them for everyone to see. Today I have been playing with charts and as a result of that, you can see how my white ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/10/03/google-docs/ Amazon selling DRM-less mp3 Good on ya, Amazon! I have gone straight in and bought an Elvis Costello's album (which I highly recommend) with songs that I already owned on CDs but didn't bring them over from Poland. It will be nice to listen to them again. I have ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/09/26/all-sorts-of-things/ I have received the first installment of Glivec today. It's this supposedly amazing drug that targets tyrosine kinase and prevents uncontrolled production of white blood cells. A week from now I go for a blood test to see if there's any change although it's more likely to show first signs ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/08/28/first-day-on-glivec/ Since my last post I've received a great deal of support from a lot of people but also a lot of questions about what's exactly going on. How does CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) work and how do you get it? Of course, it's almost impossible to say what causes it ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/08/25/damn-you-philadelphia-chromosome/ Over three weeks ago, after long procrastinating, I decided to get my act together and complete all documents needed for my residency application. One of the things that I needed was the medical and chest x-ray certificate. So, on Friday I have taken a day off and went to a ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/08/21/bad-news/ I have just discovered what seems to be a problem with Flickr's GPS data interpretation. Some time ago I have noticed that some of my pictures are slightly misplaced on my Flickr map. At first I thought it is just the limited accuracy of my GPS receiver. So, I checked ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/08/05/gps-data-problem-on-flickr/ This week's weather was pretty good again which gave us a few really foggy mornings. And a lot of opportunities for photo shooting. One day I managed to get out with the camera before work and take a few shots on the marina. All geotagged of course... :-) City on a misty ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/06/02/city-on-a-misty-morning/ ...I just didn't have a good reason. Now I do. Some dicks using that creepy service have used my pictures as the background of their MySpace websites. The problem is that they didn't simply download the picture and put it up on MySpace - which I'm perfectly OK with. They ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/06/01/i-knew-i-hate-myspace/ So yesterday I blogged about how I don't understand why Picasa doesn't offer geotagging functionality and today Google is announcing the purchase of Panoramio - the service that allows for viewing geotagged photos in Google Maps and exporting Google Earth files. I'm probably not going to take too much risk ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/31/i-guess-it-makes-even-more-sense-now/ PhotoMapper goodness Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. PhotoMapper is a nice little free (GPL) application that allows you to geotag your photos and export them in a .kmz file for use in Google Earth. It's all cool but if you import previously geotagged photos it rounds up the coordinates and loses the ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/30/photomapper-goodness/ I guess, if you're not a very quick bug and you see something like that, your life flashes before your eyes. It's pretty amazing how fearless those creatures are. In this picture she is actually trying to push the camera away. Mantis again Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/27/a-look-that-can-kill/  So, I've just uploaded some of my first geotagged photos to Flickr. Truns out it's also pretty easy to see them in Google Maps - thanks to Google's support of free and open standards, in this case GeoRSS. Here's a link to my Flickr photostream in Google Maps. That's how ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/21/my-first-geotagged-photos/ I've got it and quick! I'm very nicely surprised with the delivery speed. It was ordered on Friday and I got it on Monday morning. Well done FedEx! The online tracking is pretty cool too: First impressions on the N2 di-GPS mini? Very small and lightweight - why doesn't Nikon put ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/21/n2-di-gps-mini/ I just got a FedEx tracking number... My new toy is on the way! So, very soon all new pictures on Flickr will be geotagged. Yay! I was actually thinking about something more universal that I could use for navigation and not with just one camera but that thing is ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/05/19/geotagged/ Last week, we've had a couple of really warm days and relatively cold night. Coming from Poland, nights in New Zealand get "relatively cold" at most, never "very cold". :-) Anyway, that combination of temperatures resulted in a few really misty mornings. On one of them I got out to ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/04/30/misty-morning-photos/ Map layouts a kind of working... Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. Looks like I'm finally getting somewhere with map layouts. I can already place them on both sides of the central topic. There are still some quirks to iron out but I'm getting there. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/04/17/map-layouts-a-kind-of-working/ On Saturday, I finally managed to migrate Psycho repository from Novell Forge SVN to Google Code SVN. It took a couple of hours and a lot of server errors and so on but it's done and that's what counts. So if you're interested you can check out the source code ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/04/02/goodbye-novell-forge/ A few weeks after my last post, it turned out that RHCP is coming to Auckland to play 2 concerts. Great! No need to fly, just a short walk from home. Well, that would be too easy. Tickets have been sold out within 20 minutes and 1 person got killed ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/03/30/too-hot-chili-peppers/ A couple of weeks ago Red Hot Chili Peppers announced a concert in Poland. Well, not only in Poland but also in the city where I used to live. To top all of that - it's on my birthday! Fabulous, right!? Not quite... I don't live there any more. In fact, I ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/02/11/fabulously-crappy-birthday/ You can't sink a rainbow! Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. The last couple of weeks Esperanza - the biggest Greenpeace vessel, has been docked to Princess Wharf in Auckland. Around a year ago Le Grand Bleu that was docked in exactly the same place. It was really sad to see how poor ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/01/24/you-cant-sink-a-rainbow/ I went to the barber on Saturday morning. It is the same barber since a year and 7 months and I visit him every 4-5 weeks. I always go there on a Saturday morning. I'm usually there by 7.50-8.00 am, so I am almost always the first client that day. ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2007/01/22/beware-of-a-forgetful-barber/ So, we went to the Tawharanui and it was beautiful. I feel rather lonely this Christmas Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. We've also overheard an interesting discussion: "Hey man! Haven't you heard that this year the color of your arm band should match your lipstick and your eye shadow?" - says that ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/25/christmas-how-about-a-beach-2/ Probably the first screenshot of Feisty running on VMware Fusion to hit the web. The whole experience of installing Feisty on VMware Fusion was nothing short of impressive. When you first start Fusion, it gives you a possibility to create a new virtual machine, for which you can obviously choose a ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/23/ubuntu-feisty-running-on-mac-using-vmware-fusion/ Wow! Two reasons to count the day as a nice one the first person (except me) managed to display the map So far a few people got to the Outline View but nobody was actually able to display the map and that is a kind of important in mind mapping software. the first ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/11/goooooood-day/ Finally a png file Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. As of yesterday I can finally produce a nice png drawing of my map. The next thing I will have to complete ASAP is Styles functionality and Property View that will allow modifying looks of each topic separately. I wish there ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/11/finally-a-png-file/ I managed to implement three basic layouts of topics. The next thing I'll work on, in the immediate future will be distributing all topics around the central topic so that it finally is central. I already have a idea how to do that - just no time to dress it in ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/08/one-step-closer/ Two pictures taken a few seconds from each other with different polarizer rotation. Amazing difference. Playing with the polarizer Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. Playing with the polarizer Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/12/06/playing-with-the-polarizer/ A small picture from our office: strong, technical discussion between Chinese developers. A lot of waiving hands and loudly expressed disagreements. The only words I can catch are "object" and "property". Suddenly a Frenchman enters the room and says: "I agree! Bruce Lee could easily kick Jet Li's ass!". http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/11/24/we-start-our-weekend-much-earlier/ Yay! I can select topics using mouse. That is very handy since I don't have to switch to outline view to change the current topic or use those stupid navigation buttons. A screencast can be found here. Is that great or what!? http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/11/23/click-click-and-away/ A lunch at the office kitchen. A English, French, Slovakian and Polish seating and talking about how funny different languages sound (what else...). Eng: Portuguese sounds weird. Fra: Yeah. It sounds like Brazilian. Oh really? You don't say! :-)  http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/11/16/kitchen-talk/ Some time ago I managed to get Psycho running on Linux again but yesterday I made a small change in the drawing methods and now all lines are crisp and sharp. It's all still a bit slow but that's not the priority for me, at least for now... Back to Linux Originally ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/11/08/running-on-linux-again/ Crappy fireworks display, and a lot of noise in the night. I tried to take some shots from the other side of the harbour but only those two came out reasonably good. Overall disappointment... Guy Fawkes Day Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. Guy Fawkes Day Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/11/06/guy-fawkes-day-2/ Every once in a while a day like yesterday happens and I feel like shooting someone in the knee to share my pain! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to get the DrawingArea scroll nicely inside a ScrolledWindow. With absolutely no luck of course. I ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/10/18/92/ So, the problem with slow drawing was indeed my fault. The calculation of every topic's position was repeated through all previous topic on all higher levels. Now I calculate it just once for every topic and I can draw hundreds of topics in a blink of an eye. Another ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/10/11/i-nailed-the-sucker/ So, it's all coming together quite nicely, but the problem with the speed of drawing is killing me. I'm (almost) sure that it's not a cairo related memory leak. I .Destroy() everything I can. It must be just something with my drawing procedures that iterate back and forth through the ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/10/06/not-a-memory-leak/ I've got an ugly memory leak somewhere in drawing procedures. At the moment I draw four elements: background, topic frame, topic text and connections between topics. Background is fine - there is not much I could have done wrong there. Topic frames and texts are slow to draw but they ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/09/28/memory-leak/ So, I decided not to blog about Psycho, until I have something to show. Now it looks like I finally have. That screenshot presents all the basic shapes of topics and connection lines. Click to enlarge: http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/09/27/take-a-glance/ This is just a test of blogging from inside the Flock. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/05/02/discovering-flock/ Dolphins again Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. Sunday was a dolphin day again. Bay of Islands is a very reliable spot. Not only for dophins apparently... Australian Gannet Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/04/30/dolphins-again/ Driving down the 90-mile beach Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. On Saturday we went all the way up to Cape Reigna and on our way back we've taken the route down the Te Paki stream and then around 60 km down the 90-mile beach. Driving through the river bed is awsome ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/04/29/driving-down-the-90-mile-beach/ We just had a short discussion about buttons on phones. The IP terminals in our office have a DND button, but when You come to the office on your day off and the phone starts ringing that button should be called F... Off And Die. Well, at least one Pom ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/04/24/foad/ Sometimes there comes a day when You decide to buy something expensive, say camera. In order to make a good decision You google around, read lots of reviews, compare prices, technical specifications and so on and so forth. And what? You come to a clear conclusion that You have not ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/04/21/canon-is-gay/ Camera test Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. It's nice to have a decent camera with exchangable lenses... It is also very nice of Nikon that I can still use my old lens with the latest camera. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/04/18/camera-test/ Website visit statistics Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. And that's the way it should be! http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/03/23/website-visit-statistics/ Dolphin swimming Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. So, this weekend we headed north, to Bay of Islands. Going there, thereis one thing You have to do. Go for a dolphin watching/swimming cruise.This time we haven't been so lucky during the swimming part (no underwater pictures) but the watching was just perfect. ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/03/13/dolphin-swimming/ Office on fire Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. ...and on Monday we have come to the office and there was no office any more. One of the appliances caught fire. The funny part is that it was not a cooker or a ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/28/office-on-fire/ Raglan Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. On the way back from Rotorua we have dropped by to Raglan to see the famous surfing spot in NZ. Well, as for surfing we didn't find it that exciting as the sea was very calm, but we had a really nice breakfast at "Tonque&Groove". http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/26/raglan/ Rotorua Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. A nice trip to Rotorua again. The Sulfur-City name of that place is well deserved. Champagne Pool was producing so much steam that it was really hard to take a good shot. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/25/rotorua/ IMG0122 Originally uploaded by piotr zurek. That is the first photo "blogged" straight from Flickr. Seems like getting a PRO account on Flickr is the only right way to use it. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/10/my-flickr-gallery/ They have to do better then that: http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/10/google-censorship-in-china/ We have just taken my bosses' boat for a spin around the Auckland Harbour and we have seen one cute little peguin. Cool... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/02/06/penguin-in-auckland/ A trip to Karekare, know as "The Piano" beach as well. It is so cool to have sucha place just a short drive from home. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/01/14/karekare/ Day 1 - Auckland-Wellington We have left Auckland on the Dec 25th. Mt Ruapehu above Lake Taupo. Wellington was a dead city on the Christmas Day evening. Day 2 - Wellington-Picton-Nelson The first view on the South Island Day 3 - Abel Tasman National Park Day 4 - Nelson-Punakaiki-Fox Glacier Pancakes Rocks Mt Tasman and Mt Cook seen from ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2006/01/05/south-island-trip/ Todays NZ Herald: Best letter to the editor ever: The October issue of Vanity Fair included a profile of Paris Hilton, including a chat with her younger sister Nicky, who asked the following question: "I'm 21 years old, I run two multimillion-dollar companies, I work my ass off. Like, what were ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/11/23/so-fking-important/ So finally we can see the $100 laptop in the real life. Green and running. The impact that it will have on the future education may be huge. An army of kids running computers with an easy to learn and use development environment (Mono?). Programming should be taught like ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/11/18/100-future/ Some say that home is where the heart is. No way! Home is where the bed is. Your own bed. After 4 weeks away from my bed I finally feel like home. That was a really intense and "short" month for me but on the other hand it is a ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/11/07/back-to-auckland/ So, in Singapore again. Good to be on the way to spring, sea and a kind of home... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/11/05/half-way-home/ A 48 hours trip Up and of at 4am, back at 4 a.m. 2 days later. Everything in between: 24 hours in the car Should be less but we have wasted a few hours in the traffic jam at Autobahn 2060 km in total Katowice-Kreuztal-Hanau-Katowice 6 hours sleep Just a bit of rest in the middle 190 km/h ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/29/murder-by-numbers/ I hate winter even more than I hate Frankfurt airport. Today the temerature fell below 0 deg. Cels. It will be really nice to be back in Auckland in some 3 weeks. It will be late spring and temperatures should be around 20 deg. Cels. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/19/brrr-the-winter-is-comming/ So I am back to Poland for around two weeks. It was quite a surprise for a few people. Some luck today - I got my camera back. I'll try not to sink that one. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/17/back-to-poland/ Did I already mention that I hate this airport? Can't they really afford enough seats for all the people waiting for their flights? http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/17/frankfurt-again/ That week in Italy was just amaizing.Thank You all for worm and freindly reception. It was really nice to meet You guys. Mille gracie Leonardo! http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/16/arrivederci-tutti/ A small walk and a big pizza. Both very nice... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/15/a-night-in-treviso/ Well, a sort off... I have been sitting all the day under two big hot lights - just like the chicken in the farm. At the end of the day I got outside and it was not that warm any more. So I got a flu and I can have ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/13/i-have-the-bird-flu/ Ive been very lucky, visiting a lot of really cool places lately. Venice is definitely one of them. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/10/venice-is-a-cool-place/ I have been complaining about no free wi-fi access in Singapore, but there were at least terminals with free internet access. In Frankfurt not only have You pay for it (1€/10min !!!) but also You have to use some crappy bulletproof terminal that is really pain to ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/10/frankfurt-is-the-worst/ So, I am in Singapore. No camera, no free wi-fi internet (at least I couldn't find it). It is just the first stop on my way to Venice and I already feel like after 3-day journey. I hope that No-Jet-Lag will start working soon. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/09/singapore/ I went to buy a new camera. Again... Of course I didn't buy it because they have sold the last one yesterday. That is really bad luck as I go for a long trip with a lot of things to photograph. Shit happens... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/10/07/my-kind-of-luck-i-mean-bad-luck/ Finally! During the breakfast at Ambassador hotel (sounds better then actually is) in Hamilton, I received a call from a lady from the New Zealand Immigration Serviced. After a long and stressful wait my work visa application got finally approved. I would have to leave New Zealand in a week if ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/09/21/work-visa-application-approved/ This is the last picture taken with my camera. It is the last because the camera is dead. Sunken actually... I've been looking for a perfect spot to take the photo of the cave and I got washed off the rock by a big wave. The funny part is that I ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/09/06/the-last-picture/ Just to answer some questions: Yes - I made those pictures myself. Thanks to my Coolpix 7900 and WP-CP4. Yes - these are real free dolphins living in the ocean. Yes - You can touch them if they want You to. I actually managed to do it just once. Dolphins It was a trip in ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/09/04/due-north/ Just two nice (IMHO) shots of Sky Tower. One day I have to go to the top, but it has to be a completely cloudless day to enjoy the views fully... One undirect view... and a very direct one... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/31/sky-tower-shots/ Awsome! All this trip was just amazing. The first view of Mt Ruapehu. It looks a little strange in the middle of totally flat area. Something for Lord of the Rings maniacs - the view of Mt Ngauruhoe which appeared in the movie as Mt Doom. All those mountains are actually volcanos (some ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/28/whakapapa-snowboarding/ Today we're going for a ski weekend to Whakapapa Ski Area on Mt Ruapehu. For me it is actually going to be a snowboard weekend... Anyway, it seems like a lot of fun especially that Mt Ruapehu is New Zealand's largest active volcano and the last eruption took place in ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/26/whakapapa-here-we-come/ Some guys seem to have too much time... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/26/cyborg-name-generator/ The last 15 hours were the worst time I have spent in New Zealand so far. Within that time I have spent 4,5h standing on bus stops or traveling on the bus. Yesterday I have missed the last "proper" bus to the city. "No worries!" I thought... I got on www.maxx.co.nz, ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/24/what-the-fuck/ I just got iFolder running and I am really happy about it. It looks quite nice, but makes sens only if You can make it accesible from internet - unfortunately I can't right now. For our company it would be a perfect solution for providing clients with software updates. Much easier ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/08/02/ifolder/ Another Sunday, another trip. Seems like it becomes a custom. Anyway, today I have gone to Coromandel Peninsula. Well, actually it was one place in Coromandel Peninsula - Hot Water Beach. The plan was to see a little more then just that beach but my camera's battery went dead so I ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/24/coromandel-peninsula/ That is one nice Kiwi custom... That is what left from English five o'clock tea time. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/22/beer-oclock/ Thanks to the fact that I could use a car I was able to have nice trip to Goat Island Marine Reserve. The first stop on the road was a beach in Orewa. Cool place, but that was just a beginning... Finally in Goat Island Reserve. These are my first days ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/17/goat-island-trip/ Auckland CBD seen from Notrhcote Point Auckland Harbour Bridge A little later. Pictures taken from the other side of the bridge. Westhaven Marina http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/16/auckland-by-nite/ Linux generaly is great and Ubuntu is even better, but why did it have to format the wrong hard drive? As You can see on the "screen shot" below, the drive that was supposed to be formated was sbd, my external USB drive. Of course Ubuntu partitioner didn't keep his ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/15/thank-you-ubuntu/ A few looks at my nearest neigborhood. That is what I see when I turn right after getting on the street. These is my home beach. Actually it is even called Home Beach... The stairs up from the beach to the Wallace Road. Our local piece of bush. Walace Road from bottom to top Walace ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/14/my-new-neigborhood/ I had a really nice time living with Sabine, Shannon, Briege, Jenny, Hans and Liquorice (or maybe Licorice) but today I moved to a rented flat and I am really happy about it. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/10/on-my-own-again/ Looks like a big and powerful toy! And that it is... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/10/cool-hobby/ A sunny Saturady morning is a nice invitation for a walk around the Auckland City. That is a ferry terminal. Someting like a bus stop in other cities. There is a ferry coming/leaving every few minutes. A view from Princess Wharf toward the City Tower This is the yacht that was supposed to ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/09/city-walk/ Well, it's Friday night so a visit in Liquor World seems to be the right thing to do. Don't worry, that all is not just some warm beer standing in the middle of shop. It is a huge, walk-in fridge. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/08/friday-night/ There are a few really wacky pedestrian crossings on the Auckland's Queen street. Not only walk the people from all sides at the same time but also they walk diagonally through the crossing. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/06/queen-street-crossing/ Auckland vs Lions 13-17. Been there, seen that. A look on the stadium. Quite an experience, I must say. I started innocently enough... Those guys are fit! American futbol is a after-pedicure-gay-relaxation-game when You compare that to rugby. For me, the most exciting part of this game was the fact that Sir Edmund Hillary was ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/05/my-first-rugby-match/ Today we had a trip to Piha - best surfing beach in the Auckland area. It is only 40 min. drive away and the road there goes through a chain of hills. Great views. I am still fascinated with the NZ climate. Surfing in the middle of winter? No problem! I have ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/03/winter-surfing/ Idiot detector: if somebody ever tells You that New Zealand winter is just like in most of the Europe, You know it is an idiot You are talking to. Evidence. http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/07/02/auckland-winter/ Last moments touching the homeland. I'm leaving without too much regret. I wonder when I am going to start feeling homesick, if at all... That's cool... It is a strange feeling when You can see the reflection of your car while driving in front of a big window pane. It is ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/06/30/journey-report/ On the night before my take off to Kiwiland, Barbara and Jo dropped by for a short visit. I mean that it was short when You consider the effort that was made to meet. They flew from Kreuztal to Berlin and then rented a car and drove all the way ... http://www.piotrzurek.net/2005/06/28/that-was-a-quickie/