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Beaches, Aussies and Christmas

It's been a little quiet here, as things were a little busy towards the end of November, and now I am away on a short trip to Australia visiting my family, relaxing and sun-bathing on fantastic beaches of Queensland, while sipping overpriced Jameson whiskey :)

Australian Christmas is in full effect, with enormous pines towering over hot beaches fully decorated in typical X-Mas crap, while in the former hippie town Byron Bay pines are dressed with shiny peace signs.

Australians just had an election, where labor party (a weak parallel of US Democratic party) have won -- a welcome change of government after 11 years of Liberals and John Howard (smart, but creepy suck-up to George Bush). The new power has immediately ratified Kyoto protocol in their first week "at the wheel". It's refreshing to see reusable green bags at the supermarkets here, just as they are becoming a norm in San Francisco.

A weird fact discovered today -- capitalism does not mean the demand is satisfied with supply. Beach mats are not heard of in Byron Bay - a beach town with $50 beach towels. There's a few things Australia can learn from third world Thailand, where beach mats were everywhere.

Signing off for now, but stay tuned, as I'm planning a PostgreSQL performance tuning post in a few weeks. This seems like a subject not well covered widely, not sure why.

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