Nike Eskilstuna Drafting Table

Earlier this evening, I came across the following video on Facebook of a 1950's vintage architect's drafting desk - apparently manufactured by "Nike Eskilstuna" from Sweden.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2626640980856219

 

Wow! This is so freaking awesome! TBH, if I had the floorspace, I'd probably get one for my office-space / living room, especially if I got hold of one with wheels for easier moving! 😍

Blasts from the Past - Reminders and Remnants of Different Times

Sometimes you just cannot make these things up!  Either that, or "The Algorithms" pervading our lives these days are getting much better at juxtapositioning contrasting but related things together. Anyway, I digress.  Tonight's impromptu post is inspired by the following 2 snippets that popped up across my various feeds this evening:

   1)  Local newspaper had an article saying that a *third* building at my former High School had just been deemed "quake prone" - with all three buildings having been built either shortly before my time there, or during my time there, and all having been places I'd spent a bit of time in.

   2)  An old clip of Bill Gates giving a demo of Visual Basic back in 1991

 It's funny how these things go sometimes, isn't it...

 

Thoughts on Plumbing and House Design

The past few months have been an (unwanted) deep dive into the world of household plumbing, and the various issues around it. Here are some things I've learned.

1) Debugging complex legacy plumbing and debugging complex legacy codebases are equally hard

 

2) At some point, you're going to need to check ALL the pipes

 

3) Most home designs make access to pipes HARD. Especially new/modern builds! 

For example:
    - Downpipe inspection panels hidden behind a wall. To access these, you must first drill + cut various wall panels to reveal the pipe, in order to find where the panel sits... then, when all is said and done, you then need to call in a builder, plasterer, and finally painter (complete with multiple rounds of sanding, phone calls, and time away from work/life waiting)

    - In contrast, older houses here at least have an underfloor crawl space, that can typically be accessed through some removable panel (similar to manhole covers). That said, in many cases, you end up needing to remove carpet to get to it, which does still mess things up a bit.

 

4) Some plumbers come better equipped than others. As a result, I've come up with a list of the neatest bits of equipment I've seen that IMO it'd be nice to have on hand, so they can do their jobs easier.  (see later) 

Saturday Photowalk - Recent changes around the Arts Centre...

With fine sunny weather today (sandwiched between two days of chilly, showery, wintery weather) it was a great day to get out and about, and away from my desk for a few hours. It ended up being a nice afternoon to take a walk around the Arts Centre for the first time in ages - between the first wave of Omicron, and our very own "Camp Covid" from the rabid "Freedumbs" crowd just around the corner, it's been a while since I've been to this part of town. 

 

Here are some highlights from the afternoon. Unfortunately, I only had my phone with me today, though things turned out relatively ok in the end I guess...

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's that time of the year again! Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. As you may have guessed from the video above, it's the year of the monkey this year (following on from the year of the sheep).  Who knows, this may well be another very awesome year for Blender ;)

For fun, I put together a little short greeting video this afternoon using Grease Pencil. I'm still quite terrible at doing 2D animation - keeping characters on model, drawing them from more than a few "easy" angles, timing, drawing using a tablet, etc. - but I'm quite pleased with how this turned out!

Christchurch CBD - Signs of Rebuild

This weekend was a long weekend (Queen's Birthday weekend) here, and an eventful one at that. Yesterday (Sunday) saw the old central police station tower "imploded" (I've got before and after photos for this to come in a later post), followed by some nice warm weather today (20 degrees for the first day of winter!). Here are some photos I took during an impromptu trip late this afternoon  to check out the rubble from the implosion...

Christchurch Airport - Regional Lounge

Here are some shots from the regional/turboprops area of Christchurch Airport, taken last week.

HKTrip13 - Day 1

This installment covers some highlights of Day 1, including a visit to the Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Aberdeen.
 

HKTrip13 - Inside the MTR

One of the things that impressed me the most on my previous visits to Hong Kong was the MTR system.

Whether it was the grand scale of the architecture, the novelty of the facilities (i.e. trains behind automated barrier doors, standing-room only transport, an interconnected underground network for getting from nearly one place to another without having to face the wind and the rain), or the brutal efficiency of the whole system as hordes of people are carted off in waves up and down escalators, on and off carriages, and in and out of the city in general. I also lamented at the time not really getting any shots of any of it - partly out of being unsure whether photography was allowed down there, but also since the speed that the crowds moved at made hauling a camera out slightly hazardous. Not this time though!

HKTrip13 - Harbour Grand Kowloon

This time, we stayed at the Harbour Grand Kowloon hotel in Hung Hom. Having made a short trip there last year to visit a friend who was staying there for a few days, I decided that it this the next time I visited Hong Kong I was going to stay there, and finally experience living in a "real" hotel (i.e. one that looks and feels like one, complete with whatever other services/utilities). It was more than worth it :)

HKTrip12 - The Full Series

So, some 6 months (due to various delays and things which got in the way) after I first started writing a series of posts about my trip to Hong Kong in November 2012, I've finally completed this writeup project!

HKTrip12: Day 6.1 - Walkabout in Sydney

This twelfth episode covers a daytrip walkabout in Sydney on a stopover between an overnight flight from Hong Kong early in the morning, to a flight home in the evening.

HKTrip12: Day 5.5 - Leaving Hong Kong (or the Longest Short Night)

This tenth installment covers the overnight flight from Hong Kong to Sydney, a spot of aerial photography, and Char Leong.

HKTrip12: Day 5 - Last Day in HK

After a bit of a long hiatus, here are the remaining few episodes from my trip to Hong Kong in late November 2012.

This ninth installment covers the last day spent in Hong Kong. It includes ramblings about the Airport Express Service, Times Square, Cyberport, and visiting ancestors at the cemetery.

HKTrip12: Day 4 Back in Hong Kong

This eighth installment covers the fourth day back in Hong Kong. It includes ramblings about the Goldfish Street, Peak Tram, and Central District (including The Landmark) during rush hour.

HKTrip12: Day 3 Macau - Part 2

This seventh installment covers the afternoon part of a day trip to Macau. Read on for ramblings about the old Macau (small village life and also the tourist mecca central area), MGM, historic pawn shops, and the sailing back to Hong Kong.

HKTrip12: Day 3 Macau - Part 1

This sixth installment covers the first half of a day trip to Macau. Read on for ramblings about the ferry ride over, The Venetian, and lunch at Fernandos.

HKTrip12: Day 2 in Hong Kong - Part 2

This fifth installment covers the second half of Day 2 ("night-time"). We revisit some of the harbourfront locations, whose character has now been transformed with the onset of night.