Archive for the 'Life' Category

Moving to Australia – Part 2

Published
by
Dilantha
on October 30, 2009
in How To, Life and Sri Lanka
. 0 Comments

Catch up and read part 1 of this guide where I’m documenting my experience of moving to Gold Coast Australia from Sri Lanka.

Now that you are settling in you need stuff for your place. eBay and IKEA are your friends. Also keep an eye out for weekend garage sales.

The Gold Coast City Council website has a ton of information about parks, markets, events etc.

When you get tired of popping burgers those markets come in handy to find curry leaves etc ;) Also its much cheaper than supermarkets for fruits and veggies.

Daily needs is a great online shop for buying Sri Lankan food.

One critical thing I should have mentioned in the first post was getting a mobile phone. I recommend Virgin Mobile pre-paid. If you bought a GSM mobile from Sri Lanka just buy a SIM from almost any phone or news stand and top-up on the site.

Virgin Mobile is the only operator that will let you use all your bonus minutes to talk to Sri Lanka. Everyone else has a limit before the full cap amount.

If you are looking to buy a phone try All Phones. There are cheap pre-paid phones you can unlock later or just buy one outright.

Moving to Australia – Part 1

Published
by
Dilantha
on October 25, 2009
in How To, Life and Sri Lanka
. 4 Comments

I moved to Aussie just over an year ago from Sri Lanka. Since then I’ve had quite a few Sri Lankans ask me about the move and other information about this place. I’ve tried to help them out where I can. I thought of sharing this information here so it might help out some newly migrating folks.

There was a very real-world blog post on Kottu sometime back about moving here and how it really was as opposed to what migration seems like from a Sri Lankan perspective. If you know about it please comment with the link and I’ll add it as a related post.

Here goes nothing, as with any advice take it with a pinch of salt. Some things are more relevant to the Gold Coast where I live.

Australia is definitely a good place to move to if you are planning to move somewhere. I’ve considered Canada and New Zealand and I think this was the better bet.

Continue reading ‘Moving to Australia – Part 1′

Breaking the ice

Published
by
Dilantha
on October 3, 2009
in Life and Personal
. 0 Comments

I’m not really a writer. I prefer to code 100 lines than actually put down a sentence. But the blog thing was hot and I’m glad I jumped in the bandwagon at the time. I was once introduced as;

a fellow blogger that blogs now and then

and that fits me.

I’ve seen more than a few people fold up and shutdown their blogs in the last year or so. I’ve thought about it too but this thing costs me next to nothing to keep and so what if I don’t blog as often.

It’s good for a cubicle code monkey like me to have a public channel, even though only 12 Kottu visitors read me sometimes :)

A lot has changed for me in the last year or so. I’ve moved to Australia, and we had our first born here. Well thats 2 things if I say it like that, but its a world of change.

So I think its fair that I didn’t have the time to put down some words in a while, but anyway I’m back.

The Calm Before The Blast

Published
by
Dilantha
on May 26, 2008
in Life and Sri Lanka
. 0 Comments

Had a weird feeling this Monday morning when not many cars were out and about. Something was not right. Got some sms last night to be alert today. Never got those before. Was almost done getting through the day when we heard the blast in Dehiwala. It was faint and we didn’t think much of it at the time. 5 minutes later we got the news.

Another sad day in Sri Lanka with no end in sight.

Things to do on Earth Day and Beyond

Published
by
Dilantha
on April 20, 2008
in Consumer, Green, How To, Ideas, Life, Sri Lanka and Technology
. 0 Comments

April 22 is Earth Day so I thought of spending my lazy Sunday morning looking at how to save the world! Here is what I came up with.

Lighting
Change to CFL bulbs for long running locations. I’ve noticed they bust sooner for short running lights like in the store room and bathroom. I’ve switched to 90% CFL. The units are down but the bill keeps going up (only in Sri Lanka).

Buy CFL’s at an electrical shop rather than a supermarket. They will advise you better on which ones are better and where they will fit.

Consider motion sensors and timing units for lighting where appropriate. I have a motion sensor spot light at a dark corner of the garden and an automatic water pump system. I’m waiting for LED home lighting but I guess it’ll be a while more till we get them down here.

Make use of daylight as much as possible. Move desks around knock down walls if needed. :)

Heating and cooling
That last point helps with ventilation and cuts down on running fans all day.

Look at overall air flow in the house, use an exhaust fan where needed. Consider running the exhaust fan on a solar panel directly. When the heat is up the sun is up, use the free energy falling from the sky.

If you need heated water consider solar heating. If you have a electric water heater turn it down to the bare minimum you need.

Water
If you have space and a garden look at rain water harvesting. At least to water the garden. You can also filter it and use it to flush the toilet.

In the bathroom change to a low-flow shower head and a dual flush toilet. Use faucet aerators for kitchen and bathroom taps.

Electronics
We love our gadgets, but do they have to be on all the time? Stand by power still uses some power. Turn it off from the wall if you are not using it.

According to this a LCD TV is better than a Plasma. My aging CRT is close to a LCD so it’ll do for the time being.

Reality
The cost of solar even CFL’s are not cheap. Living in a third world country some of these things are not available to buy even if you have money. But press on, do what you can. Influence local government, inspire business to notice these things.

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