bioneural.net » wellington

An OS X player for More FM Wellington

Bruce — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:29:13 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Good radio stations can be hard to come by. My personal preference is for a mix of older and contemporary tracks, with a healthy dose of variety but nothing too far outside mainstream. One such radio station is Wellington's More FM, to which you can listen live using your web browser. I'm not keen on Internet radio delivered via a browser window because I usually end up closing the tab/ window by mistake! This Saturday morning project produced an OS X app to keep in the Dock for when the urge to listen to More FM strikes; it opens a network stream and commences automatic playback, using either of the VLC or QuickTime players. Tested under Mac OS X 10.5.6 using VLC 0.9.9 (Intel) and QT 7.6. A browser-based player Windows Media Player 10 content as streamed by More FM won't playback via your Mac within Safari unless you have downloaded and installed both Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X and Windows Media® Components for QuickTime from Microsoft: A VLC-based player This Automator application for OS X uses the Play Movie from URL automator action by Jason Prell, available from Apple here. You'll need to have installed this action and of course the veritable VLC to use it: If Play Movie from URL is not pre-installed you'll see an error: A QuickTime-based player QuickTime is installed with Mac OS X by default. This app uses the default Run AppleScript action included with Automator, but QuickTime needs the help of Flip4Mac WMV to handle the WMA2 audio ...

Back in Britain

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:56:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Our year abroad started in China and finished in Australia. In between we spent most of our time living and working in Wellington, the City at the Heart of the Edge of the World and the capital of New Zealand. Having written our last post from New Zealand we've now returned to our previous address in Chesterfield (near Sheffield, in the Midlands) where we've found that some things have changed, and some things never change. For all intents and purposes Project Koru has run its course, although we would like to think the essence of our experience will endure. A brief recap It's been an eventful year travelling to, living in, and returning from New Zealand. Here's a recap, 12 images spanning 12 months: This YouTube video requires Adobe Flash Player. Arrival It was a chilly and damp day, with that oh-so-familiar grey sky, when we arrived into Manchester Airport. We return to some beautiful scenery, and look forward to re-acquainting ourselves with old favourites such as Curbar Edge. Simone anticipates bearing witness once more to the dramatic change in seasons that she missed in NZ. Simone's mum had made arrangements with the neighbours to leave a colourful pot of pansies on the doorstep. Said neighbours left a chill-bag containing basic supplies at the back door. Our friends in Matlock got the Smart MOT'd, taxed, gassed-up and parked outside the house ready for use. Our house minder had catalogued all our post, and our intermittent house guest had done a good clean. Thanks everyone; it was ...

Last post from New Zealand

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:46:27 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We've left Wellington and will shortly leave New Zealand and begin our journey back to the UK via Australia. Project Koru, our "year out" from life in the UK, has essentially run its course. Watching Wellington's harbour disappear from the rear view mirror as we turned into the Ngauranga Gorge for the last time was a sad moment for both of us. Wherever we go next, we'll always be Wellingtonians, as the city at the heart of the world's edge has left a permanent impression upon us. We'll miss Wellington, we've no doubts about that. We had hoped to stay, as Wellington seemed to hold reasonable answers to a few of life's basic questions. What to do? One of the primary reasons for embarking on Project Koru was to allow Bruce to make a difficult decision concerning his career. Would general practice (GP) in New Zealand be a viable alternative to the same in the UK? Should he re-train in a non-clinical discipline such as public health, or leave medicine for IT (where everyone we know personally seems to be under high pressure). The opportunity to try out GP here helped Bruce be clear about his desire to move away from clinical work, and in this respect Project Koru was an unqualified success. Bruce decided on public health as a new career path, complementary to his experience in primary care and medical informatics. Simone was quite happy to continuing working in her chosen speciality of family planning and reproductive healthcare. Where to work? Bruce applied ...

Eating out in Wellington

Bruce — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:50:13 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Sure, you can eat in and eat well, but there's good food to be had if you choose to eat out in Wellington. We hear that there are more cafés and restaurants per head of population in Wellington than in any other city worldwide. If you're taking in an event and need a quick bite, or in the City specifically to go menu shopping, the difficult thing is being confronted by too much choice. You can find reviews in magazines or online, but here's a quick summary of our dining out experience. One of the first places we discovered was the Leuven Belgian Beer Café on Featherston Street. We've eaten there a few times, if you count just desert! For example two glasses of dark Belgian beer ("Leffe Dark", on sale in New World at 1/3rd price, and "Forbidden Fruits") with a generous portion of bread & butter pudding and a serving of triple brownie can be had for close to $40. It's a nice but noisy environment, with a decent breakfast menu if you fancy brunch. Coyote Street Bar & Restaurant on Courtenay Place do pretty well for a chain: a glass of Matua Gewürztraminer and a half-pint of Tui, with a burrito (plus aioli & fries) and steak sandwich, cost a reasonable $47.50. Tui is a malty & sweet darkish beer—quite drinkable for those not ordinarily too keen on beer! The jazz music did seem a little incongruous, however, in the overtly Mexican-themed setting. Zibibbo on Taranaki Street do a ...

Lower North Island sightseeing

Bruce — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:05:49 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We've been a bit slack lately, not doing much in the way of walking (previous Wellington walks here and here). We did, however, take the ferry to Somes Island and managed the City to Sea Walk. We also visited Wanganui National Park and Havelock North/ Napier. Somes Island Click thumbnail to enlarge imageWellington City from Somes Island Somes Island (a.k.a Matiu) is a pest-free island in the middle of Wellington Harbour. A former quarantine station, internment camp, and defence installation, the island is now a sanctuary for native plants, birds, reptiles and invertebrates such as weta. It's reached by ferry from Queens Wharf or Days Bay, requiring a bag inspection on landing. There are a number of tracks, and the island circuit takes on 45 minutes. The Monument affords good views of the City, and the harbour entrance can best be appreciated from the WWII gun emplacements. There's more scrub than bush, which during our visit was almost devoid of bird life compared to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary or Kapiti Island. Still, it's a good place for a day trip: take a packed lunch. City to Sea Walk Click thumbnail to enlarge imageView from Tawatawa Ridge on the City to Sea Walkway The City to Sea Walkway is a 12km trek from the CBD to Island Bay. We started in Te Aro (since we live there) and it took us about 3 hours. The walkway is well-signed but manages to avoid shops until the end so take water and snacks. There's a lot of up and down, ...

Singing the Internet's praises

Bruce — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:43:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Our "new" car is a used Japanese import, so we wanted to be sure of the vehicle's history before going to the expense of a pre-purchase inspection. After purchase we noted that the fitted BMW Business radio could not tune into local radio stations and nor was there an instruction manual for it in the glove compartment. The Internet came through, addressing all three concerns. Before arranging a pre-purchase AA inspection (a physical exam arranged in conjunction with the seller), we were able to check online whether the car in question was a lemon—via AA LemonCheck. Requiring the licence plate number, this vehicle history check resulted in a comprehensive report detailing the known facts about the vehicle, registration details, ownership trail, odometer readings (taken at each Warrant of Fitness), and security interest details. This gave us the VIN, providing additional details via the BMW VIN decoder. After our purchase we realised that although it had been driven in New Zealand for the past 18 months the radio was set to Japanese frequencies (70–90FM), meaning it couldn't receive Wellington's More FM (100FM). The Internet came through for us again, as via Google I found an article describing how to re-program the world tuner to NZ frequencies without needing to buy an FM band expander. For my future reference, the steps were: Turn the radio on (no. 1 below); Within 10 seconds press and hold down the 'm' button (no. 9) until the serial number appears in the display (no. 13); Use the + or - buttons ...

Positively Wellington, Heart of the Edge

Bruce — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:07:15 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

There's lots to like about living in Wellington. Indeed, there's lots to like about living in New Zealand (e.g. the scenery, no tipping, enjoying a smokefree meal). It's a great city to explore on foot armed with a map, perhaps with an audio guide on your iPod. The weather is often scorned: you'll need a brolly (if there's no wind), but a jacket with hood is better (there's always wind) and sunglasses are good for any weather in The Windy City (they keep out bright sun as well as flying dirt!). Positively living in Wellington A Trek Through Wellington. Used with permission of Julian Knap #. Aside from the personal opportunities Wellington has brought to us both, there are a number of more general reasons why we like living here: It's a compact (180,000 residents), knowable city you can easily explore on foot; As a city it's more like Frankfurt than Chesterfield, so Simone can get her culture; We have both found work here—Project Koru hinged on the offer of work for Simone; It isn't the back of beyond; Bruce wanted to work in a city with a major hospital, vs. delivering babies on the back of a Toyota pick-up in the far reaches of some sheep station; There are good walkways, some of which we've explored; It's halfway between the attractions of North Island and South Island; The bottom half of North Island is an area we had previously bypassed, offering lots to explore; It's clean—you're not always stepping into chewing gum or dog poo; You can dine out and enjoy ...

Rugby, anthems and patriotism

Bruce — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 05:12:38 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Inspired by seeing Wellington's Hurricanes win against South Africa's Bulls, and in fulfilment of Simone's wish to see the All Blacks perform the haka live, we went to see New Zealand face France last night. I'm not a rugby fan, but I sure felt patriotic and shared in the excitement of seeing the national team thrash France 61 to 10. Here is a short movie (2min 46sec) showing the All Blacks entering the stadium, the singing of the national anthem, the haka (Ka Mate), the first try, and a Mexican wave: All Blacks v France video download (8.6 MB H.264-encoded movie, zip archive) You can read about the game here. If you need a French translation of the haka, watch this. There's a very energetic Italian ad featuring the haka here. To support the home team lots of folk waved flags bearing the silver fern (not the Union Jack). All we need now is a new national flag. New Zealand's national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, was something I was taught at school. Well, the first verse anyway. This is often sung twice, once in Maori and once in English: E Ihoã Atua, O ngã iwi mãtou rã ãta whaka rongona; Me aroha noa Kia hua ko te pai; Kia tau tõ atawhai; Manaakitia mai Aotearoa God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet, Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star From the shafts of strife and war, Make her praises heard afar, God defend New Zealand. The tune has been played often on TV recently as part ...

Driving in New Zealand

Bruce — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:10:11 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

A few brief notes on cars, fuel prices, parking, licensing, road code, the driving experience, and insurance. Getting a car Second hand cars are supposed to comparatively cheap in New Zealand; we're not so sure. We were exceptionally lucky in that Bruce's parents had a spare Mazda hatchback which we were able to borrow for the duration of our year in NZ. New car prices can be reviewed here. Prices for second-hand cars can be found here or here. Another option is to import a car. The cost of fuel Compared to filling the tank in the UK, petrol is cheap—although Kiwis don't seem to think so. According to PriceWatch, as of this writing 91 octane petrol costs $NZ1.57 (£0.60) per litre in Wellington. This compares well to £0.97 per litre in the UK if you don't take into account lower NZ salaries. Parking As previously noted, initially we rented a car-parking space in the CBD for $NZ276.24 per month. When we moved to our current flat we had access to a private underground park as part of our tenancy. In Wellington Residents' Parking Permits cost $NZ90 per annum, allowing you to park in coupon parking zones as well as residents parking areas within your suburb. Pay-and-display/ metered on-street parking in the CBD costs from $NZ1.50 to $NZ4.00 per hour on weekdays. Our street is one of those having coupon parking; the first 2 hours are free but for longer periods a coupon ($NZ5 per day or $NZ80 per month) must be displayed, and these are ...

Eating at home in Wellington

Bruce — Sat, 05 May 2007 09:41:24 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

It is said that Wellington has more cafés and eateries per head of population than any other city in the world. But what can you buy to eat in, how good is it, and is it value-for-money? Well, we're eating very well thank you. Not only does Simone have good access to German comforts, but our local New World offers an impressive range of local favourites (kumara, yams, tamarillo, feijoa, Vegemite, etc.) and international (especially Asian) treats. It goes without saying that some imported foods are more expensive. Basic foods will also vary in price and quality depending on where you shop (and where you shop can offer quite a different consumer experience!). In general we spend approximately the same per week on groceries as we did in the UK, maintaining a similar diet—the difference being that it is relatively harder to earn the $NZ to pay for it. We could easily continue to eat healthily but more frugally, but chose not to. Moore Wilson at the corner of Tory and College Street is good for fresh produce at wholesale prices. They mainly serve trade customers so many displayed prices are exclusive of GST (tax on goods and service), and those customers get preference at the checkouts. Both vegetables and meats are worthy of interest, as is the large selection of New Zealand wines. Commonsense Organics on Wakefield Street are good for home-made muesli ingredients, and offer a good range of raw foodstuffs and some processed foods. Meat On Tory is a butchery-cum-deli café ...