Another Day in the Antz Farm

1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Munich, Germany
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Zurich, Switzerland
5. Helsinki, Finland
6. Vienna, Austria
7. Stockholm, Sweden
8. Vancouver, Canada
9. Melbourne, Australia
10. Paris, France
11. Sydney, Australia
12. Honolulu, Hawaii
13. Madrid, Spain
14. Berlin, Germany
15. Barcelona, Spain
16. Montreal, Canada
17. Fukuoka, Japan
18. Amsterdam, Netherlands
19. Minneapolis, United States
20. Kyoto, Japan

Key: Green - City I visited, Blue - City I wish to visit one day

Analysis
I’m surprised to see no mention of any east coast cities like Boston. Also there is a heavy gearing towards European cities but not totally without merit. Good to see Australia retained two spots within the list through Melbourne (#9) and Sydney (#11). With such survey, the devil is in the details (ranking methodology). My top concerns for these two cities to retain it’s liveable status are the housing affordability and the state of public infrastructure.

Related link: A Singaporean reporter response to this listing (mypaper, SPH)
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Monocle is my current fav mag read after I discovered it in Melbourne in Mar 08. The articles are original, well read and offers a diverse coverage within affairs, business, culture, design and excellent editoral (most important component to me). I also appreciate it’s compact size and excellent colour print.

A truly well made magazine. Check out the distribution link to see if it is distributed in your country.

This picture was taken on Boxing Day 2007 in the evening. I like to share it with everyone because I think it is quite special. Please click on the image to view the original version.

In Mar 08, while I was back in Microsoft Australia office, I noticed a concerted effort by the management to make positive environmental changes. Well done! Some of the awesome changes include:

• Providing a choice of post-consumer printer paper
• Encouraging people to reuse their drinking bottles by providing sturdy high quality reusable attractive water bottles
• Individual recycle trash bins - to faciliate staff to sort out their individual recycleable bits from the main pile
• Introduction of additional instant filtered water in the pantry
• Transport rebate for staff who use public transport to work

Unfortunately, not all staff could particpate fully in these measures. Resourceful contingent staff can always find their own ingenious green contributions at their work area.

Related links

• QUICK FIXES - 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
• Quiz: Are you a Green-collar worker?
• Green Guru: Green at Work (Q & A for all those typical green office improvement opportunities)

Today, the Iemma Government commenced talks on the new North West metro link. The north-western suburbs require a reliable train service to connect them to Sydney CBD. But is this another case of hot air and incomplete and expensive plans by Macquarie Street quick fix PR response?

I lived in Sydney from 2006-2007 and parts of 2008 and Sydney’s public transport is woeful. The service is expensive (a 1-2 stops train journey cost A$2.60) and very unreliable (no train service on almost every alternate weekend due to “planned track works” But we still hear train disruptions almost every month.

The State Government is spending large amount of money airing ads public education about the North West line, when the line is only scheduled to run in 2017 (more than 9 years away!). Ads do not resolve transport problems, funded scheduled services do!

This is the same succession of government that failed to deliver an integrated ticketing solution (more than 8 years late and now abandoned) and still running late to deliver the Epping-Chatswood line which new trains cannot run on.

Oh, the Sydney city free wifi project announced in Nov 2006 has just been cancelled too. How many badly initiated public projects does Sydneysiders have to put up? Sometimes I wish there is a “Rudd” guy in the NSW government to demonstrate some leadership.

Related link

• Metro throws Sydney’s big plan on its head ( SMH dated 7 May 08 )
• Free city broadband quietly shelved ( SMH 10 May 08 )

Last month, I went back Australia to facilitate my manager’s return to work. It was good opportunity to spend some time with my key academics, good friends in DPE, took part in the Balmoral Ocean swim, Boy Charlton Biathlon series, Canberra 10k and caught up with my uni mates.

During that time, I had several opportunities to engage in leisure outdoor sports due to the cool early autumn weather (which typically includes flashes of SUMMER too! Yippe!).

Below are links to the different sets of photos taken during this trip.

Next time if you are conducting business travel in Australia, I would recommend Astra Apartments (serviced apartment between Sydney and Melbourne) and Fat Free Fone Company (mobile broadband internet) services.

Astra Apartment (Chatswood)
During my recent stint back in Australia, I stayed in their Chatswood apartment. The location was close to Microsoft office (North Ryde/ Macquarie Park) area and conveniently located among the Chatswood shops. The apartment was generally well maintained and decorated in a sensible and modern fashion. Their charges were reasonable (compared to long term hotel rates) and staff member was generally responsive and helpful.

Fat Free Fone Company

Fat Free Fone Company offers fixed line, mobile phone and mobile broadband rental services in Australia.

I needed Internet access after office hours and during inter-state trips and found their services fairly reliable. It cost 200 AUD p/ month for 4GB of data (caveat: upstream and downstream usage INCLUSIVE) per month. It works out just under $7 p/day, much cheaper compared to hotel internet charges, accompanied with the flexibility of a short term nationwide mobile broadband rental.

I am not in any commercial arrangement with the above mentioned companies. These are my personal comments and should not be transmitted beyond my blog.

Australia Daylight Saving ends 6 Apr 2008. Are your laptops, mobile phones and PCs ready for daylight saving changes?

Daylight saving ends on 6 April in NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS and SA, a week later than in previous years. It recommences on 5 October 2008.

All Windows Mobile, desktop and server systems need to be updated by 30 March to reflect these new dates and future events such as Outlook calendar entries and scheduled tasks need to be checked after updates are applied. Windows Mobile devices will require an update to ensure they continue to operate correctly.

A web site was has been launched to help everyone prepare for the changes. Visit http://www.microsoft.com.au/daylightsaving to learn more.

Following last year’s Manly Ocean Swim attempt, I took part in the 2008 Balmoral Swim for Cancer and achieved an improved timing - 24:40. I’m started to look beyond half marathon and beginning to pick up swimming. Ocean/ open sea swim is a new challenge to me and I want to get better at it while I am still able to do so.

Balmoral swim is a 1km sea swim situated at Balmoral beach. It is a great event to get started with open sea swim because the water there is generally calm as it is protected by the harbour and the several inlands. It is a small community, very family event situated on the lower north shore which makes it easy for me to get there compared to Manly, or the eastern suburbs beaches. Mums, dads, nippers and even grandparents took in the swim which I thought was very admirable. A great day out, indeed.

(wiki)

A report by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (University of Canberra) has shown that income has failed to match the pace of growing house prices, which jumped 400 per cent between 1986 and 2007 while income increased just 120 per cent.

According to the report “Wherever I lay my debt, that’s my home” (pdf), Australian households needed 7.5 times their annual disposable income to buy a typical house in 2006, up 53 per cent from 1996 when households needed five times annual disposable income. The report key findings include the following startling facts:

• Australia has one of the least affordable housing market
  Out of all English speaking industrialised countries, Australia has one of the least affordable housing markets, with nearly 90 per cent of areas surveyed considered severely unaffordable.Western Australia’s Mandurah is one of the most unaffordable places surveyed, ranked sixth, behind centres such as Los Angeles and San Diego. Gold Coast and Sydney are both ranked 11th.

  “Quite extraordinarily, it’s actually more expensive now to live in Sydney than in New York, relative to income.” — Professor Ann Harding

• Home ownership drops across all ages
  Over the past decade outright home ownership dropped from 42.9 per cent to 34.3 per cent. The most dramatic home ownership decline occurred for those aged 45-59.

• Housing stress highest for Gen Y
  In 2006, Gen Y (15-29 years) households had the highest levels of housing stress at 35.3 per cent, while 31.8 per cent of Gen X (30-44 years) households were in housing stress compared to just 18.8 per cent of baby boomers (45-59 years) and 9.5 per cent of builders (over 60 years).

Related links

• Housing crisis is real: industry (ABC News)
• Sydney more expensive to live than NY: report (ABC News)
• It’s a city of great dividing ranges (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Housing stress creating homelessness: PM (The Age)
• Great Australian Dream (wiki)

The Overseas Singaporean Unit organises a distinguished business leaders series around the world and the next event is in Sydney - 14 Mar 2008.

The guest speaker is Mr Alan Chan, who wears multiple hats in the Singapore commercial sector as CEO of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Board Member of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Singapore Power (SP). Mr Chan will talk about SPH’s transformation from a print to multimedia company, URA development plans for Singapore and SP’s business plans for Australia and Singapore.

Click here for more information and registration.