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Weekly notes 40/2025

·604 words·3 mins

Thumbnail image: These brightly coloured bikes are the handiwork of Warren, known fondly as the Flower Bike Man. Warren began bike-decorating began when his wife couldn’t find her bike at Amsterdam Central.

What’s been happening #

Ah, a rare vacation week. Raylen’s wedding was over the weekend and I had some free time to relax. While most people returned by Sunday, I had another 5 days to kill. I don’t know why I booked for a week though. I guess when I applied for Schengen visa, I had created a weeklong itinerary as it was supposed to be for tourism. And since the visa came through pretty late, I didn’t want to change it around.

I must admit on Sunday I was feeling incredibly guilty that I have a week-long vacation, especially since that Jo was back home and working. She, however, convinced me to enjoy and have fun in Amsterdam. So I did - I met a few folks from all walks of life - people from Chip forums, Digit forums, a chance meet with a friend I’d known from hi5 (remember that?). I had a wonderful time chatting with them all. And of course, through the week I also met Raylen several times, having a nice beer and some long conversations.

I also got an amazing tour of Amsterdam Science Park and the University of Amsterdam thanks to another friend. I’ll have a separate post on Amsterdam but many many steps were taken.

My flight back was okay. The return flight path was Amsterdam - Dubai - Sydney. The flight from Amsterdam to Dubai was on a Boeing 777-300ER and I thought it would be more cramped than the A380 but turns out it was quite similar. I actually played on my Steam Deck (playing some Hades 2 and Civilization VII) throughout the first leg - something which I have never tried before. It was pretty good. Having an in-seat power plug that accepted an Australian plug meant hat I didn’t need to add any fiddly socket adapters and I could play without any pain.

I was back in Sydney on Saturday evening. I unpacked my clothes, got a nice hot shower, had early dinner, played for a little bit and went to sleep early.

On Sunday, I went for a nice walk to Kirribilli lookout and was glad to be back at one of my favourite places. It’s really nice to sit down and just look at the Opera House. I stopped by BTB for a quick coffee/breakfast and spent the rest of the day doing some grocery shopping and laundry.

What I’ve been playing #

Hades II - Hades II was officially released last week, after being in early access for about a year. I had written some thoughts about Early Access last year, and I played a little bit more and slowly getting the hang of it. I’ll reserve my thoughts for now and will have a write up once I have played more.

Music of the Week #

“Trippin’ on You” is the first single from John Butler’s latest album, “Prism” and is a very catchy, upbeat song.

Highly recommend listening to the entire album is it is simply marvelous.

Saow has a great YouTube video on Sydney’s popular tourist traps and I agree with every single one of the venues covered!

Thanks for reading. #

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead.

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