eC's Chillout Lounge

It was drizzling in the morning when we woke up. Oh no!

Good thing that the rain stopped at the right time and gave us this beautiful shot of the rainbow just before we board the plane to Parkes.



The weather was prefect when we touched down.

All these little airports in the country all look alike. So cute.



We picked up our rental car and headed straight to the hotel. The receptionist was really nice and told us the place has just be opened for a couple of days, so we are amongst the first to live there.

How cool is that?



The room was totally exceeded our imagination, with LCD TV and designer furniture.

There is even a smell of a new home, which is rare in a hotel room setting.

Nice.



We went for lunch at a hotel (more like a pub to me) where the locals hang out, apparently.

Food was reasonable, better than the Singapore hawker centre's western food, at least.



You've never been to Parkes if you haven't gone to see the famous "Dish" at the Parkes Observatory.

It is best known as the dish which sent images of the first moon landing to the rest of the world.



We had an excellent guide, John who showed us around the facility.

We were lost in his talk most of the time because too much scientific jargon was used. But it was all good, still.

He would explain how the telescope has an alt azimuth mount and is guided by a small mock-telescope placed within the structure at the same rotational axes as the dish, but with an equatorial mount.

Or something like that.

Get it?



We got to go into many sensitive places where most people have no access too.

This IT room looked so 1960s if you ask me.



Oh, and John kept talking this movie that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

It was the top grossing film in Australia in 2000.

So when we left for our hotel, we stopped over at Video Ezy in the city and rented the DVD to watch.



You mean the residents of Parkes only got to use Nokia now?

Can't be, right?



We got some nice seafood pizza for dinner. Eagle Boys are good at this, seriously.

You must have a try.



What a beautiful view to end the day.