Blog Marco

Went to Eastern Creek Go Carts in Western Sydney last weekend. These are my racing cheat notes for their track for the next time I go there. I love how they say on their website that "The circuit has a total of two kilometres of the best quality Bitumen available. The racing surface was produced by Boral and is the finest ever laid on a kart circuit." But in reality, the track has degraded over the years and it really needs resurfacing. My local road has a better surface than their track! Watch out for loose gravel!

When you first hit the track from the pits, just gun it. There is no starting line. The faster you go, the more muscle you need to put into steering your go-kart, lose control and you'll find yourself hitting the kerb or the tyres. Oversteer with too much acceleration around a corner will send you spinning. It takes a little courage to not brake through a curve because it feels like you're going to run into the grass. You'll get faster times when you don't brake around shallow corners and just follow through by releasing the gas a little before the curve then gunning it after you've passed the main curve while completing the turn. For tighter turns, you need to enter the turn wide and brake before, then 50% into the turn start accelerating. You get a printout of your time at the end of the race.

Go Karting at Eastern Creek costs $85 for the 13 HP karts for 2 x 15 minute heats. It gets busy during weekends and holidays so if you can, go on a weekday, otherwise get a group booking so you're only racing with your mates and not some other randoms.

I checked my online Credit Card statement this morning and I found that Sydney City Council double charged my parking in Sydney last week. (unfortunately there were no free parking spots available). So I went on the hunt on how to contact the parking meter department for Sydney City Council. I found their email address as: parkingmeters@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au and contact number: 02 9265 9333. In my email I included as much information as I could as well as all the details of the ticket that the machine gave me on that day.

To my pleasant surprise, Sydney City Council is very efficient, and I got a call an hour later asking about more details about my double charge parking and credit card details. So good work to the City of Sydney for having great Customer Service.

I wonder if a drive by pickup is possible nowadays at Sydney Airport? Ever since the airport has been privatised and owned by Australian stock exchange listed Maquarie Airports (MAP), the airport has made changes to ensure its commercial viability. I remember the old days when you can walk from the customs departure area without having to be forced to walk through the duty free shop. Another major change is the Sydney airport parking. Even if you are picking up someone and staying under half an hour you are still slapped with a $7 fee. The old days with the free pickup zone is over - with the airport changing regulations back in 2006. You simply can't pickup someone at the Sydney airport T1 terminal without having to pay for parking... or can you?

Another alternative is to arrange a drive by pickup at the Sydney International airport departure level. The strategy of the game is this: you wait for your friend at a local airport, or at the nearby Krisy Kreme or McDonald's branch near the Domestic terminal. You wait for a call from your friend telling you that they are there waiting for the drive by pickup. Although nowadays you need to watch out for the "officers" who lay waiting to hand you a parking infringement notice if you attempt to do this: since there are signs posted everywhere that pickups are not allowed. The amusing thing is that there is an "NRMA member pickup" sign towards the start of the ramp. Similar tactic can be employed at the Melbourne Airport: park at the nearby Westfield Shopping Centre and wait for the pickup call.

Haha... just as I blog about the parking situation in Sydney, Fraser Short, a 33 year old millionaire, owner of Gazebo at Kings Cross and Cargo Bar and Bungalow8 at King Street Wharf (via Keystone Hospitality) has been charged with "unlawfully obtained goods". What does this got to do with free parking in Sydney? Well the alleged stolen goods is a stolen visitor's parking permit. There is a black market in Sydney for these permits which are available for Sydney City residents to provide to their friends and family. But some residents abuse the system by selling the free parking permits and then having them replaced by reporting them stolen. The alleged parking permit in possession by Short had been reported stolen five times since 2004.

Another way people have found to scam the parking system in Sydney is to "borrow" someone's disability pass. With this pass displayed prominently on their dashboard, they are eligible for free unlimited parking in the Sydney CBD.

Looking at some SEO jobs in Sydney on Seek.com.au. These people earn quite a high income for what they do. I find the whole SEO industry quite interesting. The industry was started because finding things on a search engine is so important. Businesses take advantage if this so they can influence the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and rank their business higher. But all SEO isn't good - there has been some high profile companies like BMW that was punished by Google because of bad practices. Also small businesses can find their business wiped out if their SERPs rankings fall. All this and more was written about in last weekend's Google Monster article.

About a month ago I wrote a short article about Parramatta parking. Now I'll tackle the more important Sydney car parking. Sydney has really expensive parking. The average cost of parking a car in Sydney's CBD is $733 a month, making it the fifth most expensive city in the world according to property researcher Colliers International's annual parking rate survey. (The City of London was the most expensive at $US1,020 ($A1,281). , followed by London's West End at $US955 ($A1,199) a month and Amsterdam at $US805 ($A1,011). America's most expensive area was Manhattan in New York, with a median monthly rate of $US550 ($A690). Anyway, point is: if you don't plan ahead - parking your car in Sydney can be an expensive experience.

Car Parking in Sydney or Public Transport?

Most office workers choose to catch the train. They park their cars in the morning at the commuter car parks and jump on a train (or use light rail or ferry). If you Park'n'Ride saves petrol, the frustration of getting stuck in Sydney traffic as well as saving you money on the price of parking in the city. So if you have the choice and can forgo the comfort, avoid driving to the city and parking your car there.

For the frugal at heart, parking sucks in Parramatta. Parking is of course a cash-cow for the council and necessary to pay for the services the local citizens use such as the library and as well as the snacks provided for the local council and mayoral chambers. As the council says on their website: "Revenue from parking meters is reinvested back into the community via neighbour revitalisation projects, resources and infrastructure." They want us to come to Parramatta - but not to stay too long: "Parking meters help turn over parking more regularly, making it easier for visitors to find parking and encourage greater patronage in business districts."

Unwired is association with selected cafes, pubs, bars, hotels and libraries (Burwood, Ryde and Sydney City Council Libraries) are offering free internet wifi hotspots around Sydney and Australia. You can view the interactive map of wifi hotspots here.

Besides the unwired uConnect hotspot network there are plenty of other free WiFi around Sydney; McDonald's also offers free internet at selected locations.

You may be wondering what is the minimum wage in Australia: This week, the Fair Pay Commission raised the federal minimum wage in Australia by $21.66 a week, which calculates to $14.31 per hour and the weekly rate to $543.78 (compared to the previous minimum of $13.74 last year or $522.12 per week). This minimum pay scheme in Australia starts from October 2008.

Unleaded petrol prices are rising. And rising fast. Oil prices are at their record heights. Do you know the average price of uleaded petrol in Australia is about AUD$1.46 per Litre for this month (May 2008). In America the monthly average is USD$3.78 per Gallon or just AUD $1.047 per Litre (At todays rate of $1 AUD = 0.954 US cents and there are 3.784L in 1 gallon). I last wrote about petrol prices back in 2005 when petrol hit $1.39 for the first time. Last month in USA the average per gallon of unleaded petrol was $3.39 and least year the average stood at USD$3.10 per Gallon. Analysts predict that if one barrel of oil was to reach US$200, unleaded petrol would be around USD $5 per gallon or AUD $1.38 per litre. Now that price difference between what Americans pay for their Unleaded Petrol and what we Aussies pay is something to think about.

One of Sydney's Western suburbs, Blacktown, is out of phone, internet and EFTPOS services this weekend after vandals cut a Telstra communications cable around 8am this morning (Vandals are awake so early these days?!?!). The vandals severed two fibre optic cables affecting these telecommunication services in Blacktown, Rooty Hill, Erskine Park, Arndell Park and Shalvey. Sort of similar to the very recent episode of SouthPark called "Over Logging" when the whole town lost their Internet. Of course it wasn't from vandals, but rather, the Internet was lost because of too many people using the Internet and the network simply gave up.

Sydney is a great place to live in. And as the survey of 630 Sydneysiders have shown that it is a pleasant place to live in. Out of 8500 respondents to the survey taking place in Alexandria (Egypt), Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Lyon (France), Mexico City, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Sydney, Prague and Tokyo. But Sydney does have it's flaws. One major flaw is the public transport system. It's "okay" to go from anywhere in Sydney to the Sydney CBD. If you're travelling from the fringes of metropolitan Sydney it will take you anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours to travel in. The problem is if you want to travel from north-west to south-west and other combinations as there are no direct routes. The only concession to this was the recent completion of the Sydney orbital road which connects a handful of motorways and freeways together in a circular route around Sydney. Other problems include the class divide: rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer... and minor racial tensions and divide.

This is a calendar of the main annual events in Sydney. If you are looking for specific events in Sydney this page from the City of Sydney will be helpful to you.

January

Sydney Festival
Art, open-air concerts and theatre performances.
Various venues
Website: www.sydneyfestival.com.au

February - March

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The world's largest gay festival, climaxing in a costume parade and an all-night party.
Various venues, parade on Oxford Street
Website: www.mardigras.org.au

Tropfest
February/March
The world's largest short film festival.
The Domain
Website: www.tropfest.com

Royal Easter Show
March/April
Traditional farm show held over 12 days.
Sydney Olympic Park
Website: www.eastershow.com.au

For you guys looking for Free Wifi in Sydney, hopefully this page will be of use to you. Sydney City Council had a trial of free internet hotspots earlier 2008, and plans are that they will have a permanent network by the end of the year. I haven't personally checked or tried all of these but please... if you find a free WiFi hotspot in Sydney or would like to give a review, drop a comment below. Or if you are a Cafe, restaurant or hotel and want to publicize your Free WiFi hotspot feel free to comment below.

Let's start off with central Sydney, a hot tourist place - The Rocks. Here's how you get connected for free:

The service allows anyone located indoors or outdoors within The Rocks’ Wi-Fi hotspot – between Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay – to access the high speed wireless connection for 30 minute blocks.

It’s a perfect way to check up on local dining, entertainment and accommodation options as well as arts and cultural events and local tours in the precinct at The Rocks’ new-look website.

Sydney | Marco's blog | 3 comments | read more »

Submitted by Marco on Mon, 17/03/2008 - 12:31pm.

I was just calculating my M4 M5 Cashback Rebate forms (for the M4 and M5 motorways in Sydney) and I thought some people may want to know how to figure out which component of the toll was the GST component and which can be refunded. The M4 toll is currently at $2.20 and for most people its quite obvious that the GST component is 20 cents (which can't be refunded) and the refundable component with the cashback rebate is $2. For the M5, the toll is currently $3.80, which isn't such a round number to figure out easily the GST component. To find out the GST component you simply divide $3.80 by 11 to find out the GST which turns out to be 34.5454... cents and hence the refundable component is $3.4545... yes it is a repeating value... just figure it into your end calculations. Good luck.