I managed to get away on Friday to see the second day of the Australian Open at the Royal Sydney Golf Club in Rose Bay, Sydney. Now... normally the goal would be to take advantage of a beautiful day to get away from work to play golf, but this day was different... The Shark - Greg Norman - was in town and it was most likely our last chance to see him playing in an event in Australia.

First off, what a fantastic location for a golf course - just next to Rose Bay, home of hundreds of luxury yachts and cruisers, mini mansions which pass as houses, and a place where a car needs European heritage or all the other cars on the block tease it for being "common".

But the main draw of the day was a chance to watch the legend Greg Norman in action on a golf course, and we managed to watch him for about 13 holes. It was quite incredible to see the gallery following him around, just happy to be in the same space as the great man... whenever he stood and considered his next shot, a hush would fall over the gallery as they anxiously waited for his next shot.

It must be tough to only play a few times and have the expectation of a nation on your shoulders, but his game certainly improved over the days of the event. There were moments of greatness - an eagle on the par 5 seventh and hitting a monster drive and onto the green in two.. awesome stuff.. unfortunately followed up by a bogey and double-bogey only a few holes later.

I managed to get a couple of photos during the day



oh... and the sweet irony of one of my recent posts regarding tourists sitting in the sun crackling like bacon wasn't lost on me when I got there and realised that I hadn't packed a hat or sunscreen for the day (we were in the middle of an unseasonable cold snap)... here's a picture of me at the end of the day -> my face

and the result? Well, unfortunately Norman was unable to get back to his previous days (despite landing some legend-worthy shots in front of the big crowds which followed him every step of the way), however another Queenslander stepped up to claim the Stonehaven Cup -

"Queenslander John Senden has stormed home with the round of the tournament to claim the MFS Australian Open by a stroke from US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy at Royal Sydney."
Australian Open Web Site

News today that the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) has won a legal battle against Buffalo Technology which confirms a patent from 1996 which apparently forms the basis to 802.11a/g wifi technology.

"The patent, granted to CSIRO in 1996, encompasses elements of the 802.11a/g wireless technology that is now an industry standard.

It stems from a system developed by CSIRO in the early '90s, "to exchange large amounts of information wirelessly at high speed, within environments such as offices and homes", said a CSIRO spokeswoman."
CSIRO wins landmark legal battle - Wireless & BroadBand - Connectivity

Following this court case, the CSIRO have to back up and face the same challenges against Intel, Dell, Microsoft, HP and Netgear but could end up scoring a royalty against any wifi device that utilises 802.11a/g.

I guess it will give them more money to develop things like the "Air Guitar Shirt" - yep - it's true... a shirt that reacts to your air strumming to "create" the music associated with your "freakin' flicks"!

so.. everyone knows about summer in Sydney right? heading off to Bondi Beach to hang out in the 30+ degree heat, the faint smell of bacon in the air as the sun scorches down on varying levels of the unprotected skin of tourists with nothing better to do than sit by the surf...

umm... well.. yeah... today - not so much...

"This morning's recorded low temperature of 8.3 degrees is the coldest November minimum in more than a century."
Sydney shivers with record low - National - smh.com.au

Welcome to Australia in Summer today - freezing temperatures, icy winds, snow and hail... oh... don't worry.. we still have a couple of bushfires marching on - all within a couple of hundred kilometres of each other! Nevermind though, it will all be back to usual on the weekend - edging back towards the high 20's and maybe a 30-degree day on Sunday...

usual service will have been restored...

Friday night of last week Laurette and myself (well.. Laurette, myself, and babyRynne on the way) joined a couple of friends and went to the first U2 concert in Sydney for something like nine years.

and here's a picture ... U2 - live from Sydney - November 2006

It was my third U2 concert - two in Sydney, one in London - each has been very different, but each has been quite fantastic... In a nutshell - this one rocked - as good as a U2 concert should be - after the massiveness of the PopMart tour it was interesting to see them downsize the use of technology so that it was really all about the music and the message rather than the awesome sight of a 50 foot mirrorball lemon making it's way across the front of the stage with the band inside (which was my highlight from PopMart).... yeah.. this one was less of that, and full of just great music - big screens were utilised to give a better view of the band, and also to show some mini-filmclips during the sets but it was essentially all about the music.

We had some rain at the start of the session, which quickly dissipated once the magic of "Beautiful Day" made it's way around the site of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. During 2 hours of music the guys played some new stuff, some old stuff, some stuff I'd forgotten about, some stuff which made me leap out of my seat and some stuff that brought back memories of floating through the 90's - all in all it was a great night.

This is my third U2 concert - each has been very different from the last but each was fulfilling - I've enjoyed every one in a different way.