Yesterday, Thursday 10 January 2008, I flew from Adelaide to Melbourne on Tiger Airways’ first flight for this route.

Tiger Airways is a Singapore-based low-cost airline hoping to become Australia’s third full-scale domestic airline after QANTAS and Virgin Blue. Tiger also flies to many Asian cities from its Singapore hub.

Tiger Airways’ Australian hub is Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine. From Melbourne Airport’s very basic Terminal 4 (T4; see photo at bottom), Tiger flies to several primary and secondary Australian domestic destinations including Adelaide (of course), Alice Springs, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Mackay, Newcastle, Perth, Rockhampton and Sunshine Coast. From Perth and Darwin, one can fly Tiger Airways onward to Singapore. Tiger does not yet fly to Australia’s busiest airport, Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International due to its high landing charges.

Tiger’s Adelaide destination was announced in November 2007. Upon hearing the news on the radio I turned on my laptop and checked their website, discovering fares to and from Melbourne for as low as AUD 9.95 inclusive of all taxes and fuel levies. I booked return flights for an almost unbelievable total of $22.90, including a $3.00 credit card fee.

Checking in at Adelaide Airport was very slow and it was obvious this was not only the airline’s also the check-in staff’s first flight. Beforehand, Tiger Airways had recommended passengers arrive to the airport 2 long hours prior to the scheduled departure time of 12:25.

My seat allocation was 7A, a window seat. I like window seats as I can watch the scenery outside.

After a departure delay caused by onboard computers malfunctioning due to 41 degree centigrade tarmac temperatures the flight eventually left. The inflight conditions were nothing special for people who have flown on low-cost carriers previously:
– Short seat pitch
– No free food and drinks
– No inflight entertainment except magazines to read

Overall, if a prospective passenger can find a flight cheap enough, Tiger Airways is worth flying with. People requiring greater service, later check-in times and more convenience are advised to take an alternative airline. For $22.90 return, I cannot complain.
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In 2007 Kev and Richie, the champion poker players from early morning New Years Day, developed a new search engine based on Google: Givle–the search engine that gives.

The Givle website (as displayed in the screenshot above) uses a black background to save energy.

Givle donates all the revenue it receives from Google Adsense to charity. The more people who use Givle, the greater it can give. Set Givle.com as your homepage and use it just as you would use Google. The search results are the same but with Givle you are helping a worthy cause.

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The following photos are from a very enjoyable and relaxing new years eve with old friends up at Kev and Lucy’s eco-house at Flaxley, near Mount Barker.

After the ladies went to bed, Kev, Dave and Richie schooled me in Texas hold ’em poker. After learning how to play it, I can now see why the game is so popular amongst gamblers and non-gamblers alike.

Dave took me up there in his Sigma station wagon, giving me flashbacks of my old Sigma wagon.

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The end of the year is nigh so it is finally time to get on my backside and post an update. More will come soon, I promise…

I hope everyone had a special bayram or Christmas and wish you all a wonderful new year and healthy and happy 2008.

Christmas this year was my first at home since 2008. I was very lucky to have my grandparents from Mum’s side fly over from Ceduna for the occasion.

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After several months of unofficial and 6 weeks of official electioneering, today, 24 November 2007, Australia finally votes. Thank goodness I have been out of the country for all but the last 6 weeks and I have not had to put up with the constant politicking.

The polls have just closed in some of the Eastern states and they will close soon in my state of South Australia. Tonight I will enjoy a hardcore election evening via both the Internet and television.

I yearn for a change of government. The current Liberal-National Coalition have been corrupted by 11 years of power, control of both houses of parliament and a rodent named John Winston Howard.

The opposition Labor Party (ALP) have been favourites in both the opinion polls and betting markets for months but they are not certainties to win back government. I doubt anybody will be celebrating until the election result is certain.

Both major parties have similar policies in many areas and a common feature of this election campaign is the me-tooism. The Labor Party haven’t wanted to differentiate themselves from the governing parties except for policies that they believe most people support.

Despite their name, the Liberal Party are socially conservative and have increased governmental powers, taxes and spending during their time in power. Unfortunately, their spending decisions were often made in a knee-jerk fashion and not based on evidence, leading to poor outcomes. The Liberal party has campaigned on fear and negativities. Their posters at the polling booth didn’t even mention the party or their leader and instead focused on bad things that might happen if Labor get elected. The Liberals lack a vision.

I did not vote in the last few elections as I lived abroad, mainly in Mersin, Turkey, and years ago my name was taken off the electoral roll.

I am located in the Federal electorate of Hindmarsh, suburban Adelaide. It is currently a marginal Labor seat held by Steve Georganas. The Liberal contestant is Rita Bouras. An interesting side note: both major party candidates are of Greek ancestry.

This morning I voted at the Fulham Gardens Primary School (located in Henley Beach, not the neighbouring suburb Fulham Gardens) election booth. The different party posters were on display and their supporters were handing out how-to-vote (HTV) cards. I refused to take any cards stating I cared for the environment. Instead of following a certain political party’s preferences, I chose my own.

The voter line up extended for about 20 metres. Upon booth entry, I was directed to an electoral roll worker. She asked for my surname and name, asked if I had voted before, and then signed and gave me the Senate and House of Representative ballot papers. The lack of an ID check surprised me.

Because of the honesty and openess portrayed over the years by Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett in his blog I gave the Australian Democrats candidates high preferences on both ballot papers. I placed Coalition and fundamentalist parties like Family First Christian Democratic Party (CDP) and One Nation very low down. I also placed ALP fairly low, although always above the Liberals. This was particularly true for ALP’s lead Senate candidate Don Farrell.

Don was my union boss during the time I worked at Foodland Fulham Gardens. Every Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) newsletter contained 6-15 photos of himself and I did not appreciate his self-promotion. I also am not impressed by his very conservative values. I did appreciate the work done by the SDA though.

Besides the Democrats, I also gave high preferences to the libertarian Liberty and Democracy Party (LDP) and independent candidates.

The South Australian Senate race was made more interesting after Nick Xenophon of No-Pokies fame announced his Senate candidature. As Nick’s grouping received 20% of the upper house vote in the last state election he is expected to gain the 13.4% quota required for a Senate seat.

Let the election night begin!

The ABC with their election guru Antony Green generally has the best election coverage.

As always, wikipedia has a good run-down of the Australian electoral system for those who want to learn more.

PS: I still have many posts about Malaysia and Australia to write and photos to upload. Sorry about the slackness… 🙂

POST-ELECTION UPDATE: The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition has been kicked out and the Labor Party has won the most seats enabling them to form the next government. To my delight, the former Prime Minister John Howard looks highly likely to lose his Bennelong seat to Maxine McKew. Unfortunately, the blogging Andrew Bartlett was not re-elected to the Senate.

Let’s wish for a more accountable and open government and less cynical wedge politics.
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Being able to walk 10 minutes to a clean, white and almost empty sandy beach is brilliant…

I’m back in Adelaide, Australia, staying with my family in Henley Beach.

Coming from Mersin, Turkey, following are a few of the differences I have noticed in Adelaide:
– distances are far greater around the city
– many more people are overweight
– the standard of dress is less formal
– home is so quiet. The loudest noise during the day comes from wild birds squawking and nights are dead quiet. Each night of my first week when going to bed I had ringing in my ears because I was used to a continual background noise.

I returned from Turkey to Australia via 6 wonderful days in Malaysia. I will write more about Malaysia and upload photos from there soon.

For the first time ever I arrived to Adelaide Airport on an international flight. The immigration guy scanned my passport but he did not obviously indicate to the interrogator that I was a “special” case. After passing through, an interrogator asked me to stand aside. She looked through my passport and questioned me where I had come from; how long I was going to stay in Australia; why had I gone to Pakistan; why had I gone to Iran; why I had visited so many Muslim countries; what I did in Turkey; proof of of my stay in Turkey (I showed the traineeship and work visas in my passport); etcetera; and then let me go to the customs line-up. I doubt the official could read Arabic as she did not ask about my multiple Syrian visas.

Even if I didn’t have the Turkish apple tea and duty free chocolates to declare I would have been hauled through the red customs channel anyway. The same interrogator asked me to place my bags on the table and then proceeded to ask me several disclaimer questions before advising me to open my laptop bag for inspection. After putting on the gloves she went through some of my documents, asking more questions on the way. Once satisfied I was not a terrorist threat I was waved on my way.

All through my questioning the official was jovial and calm with a forced smile on her face. I enjoyed the questioning and, as I could justify everything I’ve done, had no problems answering her questions. I’m sure if I visited the USA with the same passport I would face a much tougher time.

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I’m in Ataturk International Airport on Istanbul’s European side. I arrived to Istanbul from Mersin via an overnight Mersin VIF bus ride. My flight to Kuala Lumpur leaves in just over an hour. My 36th Turkish stamp is freshly imprinted in my passport and I’m about to go to the boarding gate.

I was meant to have a baggage limit of 30 kilograms for my flight, 10 kg more than normal because of my Enrich frequent flying membership. However, when checking in, the woman at the Malaysian Airlines desk said she had not received word of this. This is despite me calling earlier the Malaysian Airlines office earlier this week and receiving verbal confirmation of the extra luggage limit. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay for extra luggage but am now dragging around two carry-on bags as opposed to one.

In the last few days I’ve said goodbye to many colleagues and friends in Mersin. Although I’m tired of living there, I hope I get the chance to visit again not too far into the future.

I have to catch up with many emails, replying to comments and sending photos. This may not occur until after I arrive to Australia. Thank you for writing and apologies to those still waiting a reply…
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My legs are still sore from the soccer game I played 2 nights ago. It was my first ever game wearing the flat-soled soccer boots commonly used in Turkey and my first semi-organised game since Gaziantep in 2001. Stuff the soccer for a moment.

The real football begins tomorrow morning, 07:30 am Turkish time, when underdogs Port Adelaide (my team) takes on the overwhelming favourites Geelong in the 2007 AFL Grand Final.

In 2004 I watched Port Adelaide win their first AFL premiership here in Mersin at a local cafe. Last year I saw the grand final at Peter’s place on Fox Sports Turkey. This year I doubt I will have the opportunity to view the game and will have to make do with listening to it over the internet.

According to the AFL official website (pdf warning), Eurosport (a channel available in Turkey through Digiturk) will show the grand final on delay. It is not on tomorrow’s schedule so I don’t know when the game will be shown. Hopefully, it will be worth watching wherever you are with Port getting up in a classic encounter… I will also accept Port winning in a less than classic game 🙂

UPDATE (2007-09-29): Tonight’s Galatasaray-Besiktas match looks interesting doesn’t it? Did I ever tell you how much I loved soccer? 😉

Thank goodness I couldn’t watch the AFL final. The song title that comes to mind is Pure Massacre by Silverchair. Geelong beat Port by a grand final record 119 points (1 point less than 20 goals). At least I can ignore aftermath until I return to Australia in two weeks.

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