As a Developer there isn’t a day that goes by without making use of a name, acronym or phrase that doesn’t have an interesting history. Whilst we’re familiar with the usage of web technologies and concepts, not everyone knows much about their respective etymologies. I’ve looked up a few of them, and listed the more interesting ones here.

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Yesterday evening I planned to ignore the weather warnings and go and see Laura up in Newcastle. I arrived at Central station, just missing the 5:45 direct train, and read the various travel delay notices weighing up whether I should get on a train or not. Figuring what the heck, since I had no plans for the evening anyway and could do with an adventure too I got on the train leaving from platform 14 altered to platform 5 and running late. A sign of things to come.
At about the same time Laura was waiting for a bus from Muswellbrook to Newcastle, although when it finally arrived it went in the wrong direction so it could approach Newcastle on a road that wasn’t flooded.

Here’s the basic facts:

• I made it as far as Morrisset before being told I should turn round and go back to Sydney as Newcastle is completely flooded.
• The entire journey involved 5 trains and 5 buses in 8.5 hours, with my final drop off point by the last bus I was on ultimately being a 2 minute walk from where I got on the first train. The list of methods of transportation goes: train, train, long wait, bus, train, bus, train, bus, long wait, train, bus, long wait, bus, bus.
• Starving hungry, I put my last coin into a vending machine at Gosford station at 11:30pm, to have it swallow my money and not give me anything. This was not a pleasant evening.
• Laura didn’t make it to Newcastle, instead the bus turned round and took her back to Muswellbrook. On the bright side she didn’t have to change transportation once.
• ‘This is a train line not a bloody airline,’ said the man working at the station at Wyong when I asked if they were going to help people find accommodation after he told me they won’t take me to Newcastle and I can’t get back to Sydney either. I hope he’s still standing in the rain as I write this.
• I was seriously weighing up advice I was given by another passenger to sleep on the train for the night and work things out from wherever I woke up in the morning.
• Although a lot of the staff in the stations were doing the best they could, the remainder were arse holes and it was pretty much impossible to find out what was going on, and when I could find out what was going on, what was going on was not going to help me at all.
• The NSW government declared the storms a natural disaster, but of course to most people stuck in the rain it seemed like more of a personal one.

Arriving home wet, tired and hungry at 2:30am this morning; I can say I’ve had better evenings, although most of which are far less memorable. I guess there isn’t an easy way to prove Marcel Proust was right all along.

It’s a pretty good way to spend a Saturday morning: bouncing around on a very long rope on the side of a cliff 60 metres from the ground, a long way away from the nearest hospital.

I went with Laura on a day adventure in the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately my camera broke when we were sandboarding up in Newcastle.

We started the day with a quick lesson: stick your thumb up your bum to stop yourself from falling. Whatever you do, do not let go of the rope because you’ll die. A couple of people had a go on a 2-metre high surface, but everyone else who felt more confident about where to shove their thumbs went straight for cliff-face number one, at 15 metres.

Abseiling’s fantastic fun. It’s the going back up that sucks. A 15 metre hill climb is nothing for what came after.

We had a small lunch before having another go on a slightly bigger descent: this time somewhere just short of 30 metres. This was easy, except for Sagi who managed to go head-over-heals. Apparently hanging head first down the side of a cliff and still remembering not to let go of the rope takes a calm and collected mind. Figures.

Laura managed to take to it straight away, having already abseiled down Table Mountain in South Africa. The guide had a bit of trouble keeping the support rope slack for her. I’d have only just have beaten her if I jumped down the cliff like a lemming.

Straight afterwards was a short walk to the big cliff. With trees stretched out along the valley below and our heads literally in the clouds we stuck the rope in the harness and started the big descent.

Due to the unfortunate set up of my harness between my legs, it was a painful 60 metres going down but pausing to take in the view, dangling from a rope with the mountains cascading into the horizon in all direction worked as a pretty good sedative. Laura and I walked back up to the top (it’s serious hill climbing) where we thought we’d have another go.

Below is a shot of me just started my last descent.