Monday, October 30, 2006

Sunday Lunch on Cairns' Esplanade

Mr MB came second in his spearfishing tournament on Saturday and won a one hundred dollar voucher for a meal at Villa Romana. MB immediately booked in for a late lunch on Sunday. After seeing "The Wind that shakes the Barley", a two hour epic of the brutality of the English occupation of Ireland just prior to the Truce, MDR & MB met the offspring at Villa Romana.
This restaurant is one of those "places to be seen" establishments in a superb location on the strip that is now riddled with tourists and "Made in China" Aussie souvenir shops. Lunch for the four of us was over $200 and honestly was very mediocre. Our meals were reasonable but lacked really fresh ingredients and imagination, the pasta in particular was very disappointing.
Villa Romana looks and feels good but the food is nowhere near the standard of some of the little "value" South Melbourne cafes MB & MDR dined in when last in Melbourne.
MB is pleased to report Baby Eljay was on his best behaviour, he sat up in his high chair as if he belonged there, munching on calamari and bread, and hardly a squeak from him for 2 hours.

Loud Failure

MB received her new super silent power supply during the week and proceeded with immediate installation, which was very straightforward. Once the PC was re-assembled it was switched on and yes it is extremely quiet, however after about 3 minutes the CPU fan started up. MB has now discovered the CPU fan is the main culprit, it can be heard quite clearly even in other rooms. More Googling has turned up some quiet fans which are quite reasonably priced, under $30. However MB has to open the case again to measure the existing fan, for which she is awaiting some more motivation. MB hears the dual core processors don't require cooling devices as they don' t heat up as much, is this a good enough excuse to upgrade?

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Silence aint Cheap

MB enjoys quietness and to this end has decided to do something about her very noisy PC which sounds like an aircraft engine. For some unknown reason it becomes even louder the longer it's been running, the noise is due to a cheap power supply which MB's local yokel supplier claimed was very quiet. Google to the rescue, there is actually an American website for quiet pc design, amazing, it's not just MB with a noise problem!
MB has decided on the Seasonic S12, it has a very low Db rating and even uses less power. This is one of the better power supplies that can be bought in Australia (according to MB's research anyway). $199 for a power supply is pretty expensive but after two years of being worn down by the present one MB would pay just about anything for peace. After placing an order online with a pc parts supplier (and paying) MB realised she hadn't checked on Ebay for one, sure enough some of the exact same model (new) for sale in Oz, sellers asking for $221. "Well shopped!" says MB as she contorts herself for a self applied pat on the back.
On a completely different tack; did you know that Mynah birds eat their dead relations? MB discovered a dead Mynah bird in her backyard this morning and is psyching herself up for disposal thereof. She is having evil thoughts about a "gift" for the howling dog next door. All day long other Mynah birds have been dropping in and feasting on their poor, dead relation.
Must go, the lawnmowing beckons....Mr MB, the gun lawn mower is over in London, dammit.