Original Elasticated

Wednesday means my weekly trip down to Coles to trawl up and down the aisles searching high and low for whatever the centre needs. Today the item I struggled to find was vegetarian sausage roll filler. It's actually quite nice, but I sort of feel that it's cheating to eat a meat replacement if you're a vegetarian. I can understand if somebody just doesn't like the taste of meat, but when they are not eating meat because of their conscience, well I just think that that's stupid. I'm okay with religious vegetarians though. When I asked the stock filler where the vegetarian sausage roll filler was she pointed to the box right in front of me. Oh well.

I was lucky enough to stand in line for 15 minutes at the check out today. There was an old lady in front of me who took forever and wanted to keep talking even after she'd given her money over. That's cool though because I get lonely too sometimes.

The other lady in front of me I wasn't so cool with. She had one trolley, but decided to separate her groceries into three different groups which she paid for separately. On 3 different cards. It was painful. Thankfully I was able to listen to a conversation the two girls behind me were having. I wasn't eavesdropping, because that is beneath me, I was merely taking an interest in my surroundings. Anyway, here's the dirt. The two girls worked at another childcare centre, and one of them was talking about how she was so hungover she didn't know what day it was. She was relating the events of the night previous and she went through in detail what her boyfriend had been drinking. It was quite a long list. Apparently he drank that much that when it was time to turn in for the night she went and got a bucket to put next to the bed. The boyfriend had told her that he didn't need the bucket, but she got it anyway. She said that when it comes to the bucket she just doesn't trust him anymore.

I've done some pretty horrible things to people over the years, but I don't think that I've ever spewed on anybody while they slept. I've certainly spewed on myself, but everybody does that at some stage. I guess it just goes to show that when it comes to love people can be very understanding.

Unfortunately when that love is gone people seem to lose that acceptance. This has been illustrated to me recently at the centre by one of the families. They are in the process of divorce, and it's really quite sad. Both parents are telling the child different things and making it extremely confusing. If only they could stop acting like 5 year olds and stop being so selfish. Ego can be a bitch.

Comin' Over

Dude, these past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Things have been picked up, thrown around, blown out the window, tossed aside and re-arranged. It's been crazy and completely unexpected but I like it.

I was thinking about writing how there's been a change in my circumstances over the past month or so, but I realised that it was going to come out sounding really gay, so I've decided not to. I was going to say how I've got a plan for the year. How I've been doing things instead of waiting for things to happen. How I've been not getting enough sleep recently. That's kind of self indulgent though, and though I could bore you with it, I've decided against it.

Instead I will talk about the Kanye West show last night.

It was pretty fucking dope. Loud music, bright lights, pretty girls, glittering diamonds, tight rhymes, tighter jeans, chest vibrating bass, surprise guests, Kanye's huge ego. It really was a great show, and probably one of the best Monday nights I've had for quite some time.

There was quite a few familiar faces at the show. Some expected, others not so. No craziness which is probably for the best. Everyone was throwing their diamonds in the sky. Bopping around. A bit of an interesting crowd. There was, of course, a few of the wigga type dudes in the oversized shirts and jeans. Bizarrely, there was a few emo kids. Some Islanders. A whole heap of middle class white boys. Some serious Kanye lovers. It was a good crowd. Everyone was hyped to see the main event, in fact I don't even know if there was a support act.

Kanye had a few people on strings. A suspicious pair of back up singers, the dude especially had some smooth moves. There was also a World Champion DJ (8trac). Then there were the surprise guests. First he brought out someone to help him represent Chi-Town, so he brought out Common. This was pretty cool, but you know, kind of expected. Even though he's got a fairly healthy opinion of himself, I couldn't really see him doing the entire show by himself. Next, though, he blew quite a few minds when he brought out De La Soul. This was well wicked.

He played all the hits, danced around like a madman, wore some cool sunglasses, made the girls fall in love with him, made all the boys want to be him. It was rad.

To finish off, my favourite song of the night was Addiction. It was alot more aggresive than on the record.

The highlight of my night was, however, after the show had finished.

Back On The Horse

Another weekend and the beginning of another week. I wonder how this one is going to go? It's been reasonable so far. Today was a whole lot less stressful than I thought that it was going to be. We have the validator for our accreditation out at the centre at the moment. She seems like a nice sort of a lady, but one that doesn't say much. She just watches and writes. She looks a little bit like a gargoyle perched on her chair up in the corner. Unobtrusive but observant.

Thankfully nothing went majorly wrong today. One kid dobbed in another for saying "an f word." I'm going to work on the premise that it wasn't "the" f word and in fact a word like frog, friend, foot or I would have even accepted firetruck. Still, when you have someone watching you closely it can be a little unnerving. I found myself second guessing myself. Questioning whether the action I was about to take was the right one. I guess that's fear. It's a bother.

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. There was an early start, especially for a Sunday, but that was pretty fun. After that I finally pushed over that tree which was as fun as I thought it was going to be. Tim even cut it up with a chainsaw! Cool, huh? After that Tim and I went to the dump and then to Sizzlers to show our support for the salad bar. It was a big meal and quite tasty.

On Saturday I almost went swimming, but decided against it. I did go down the coast though which is always fun. Tim and I had a look at some sunglasses and were guided as to which ones we should buy by some shifty coast people. They were all out down there on Saturday afternoon. Some dude who had been in a fight in a carpark. Some other dude who would get the shakes and then grab his table and start shaking it before strutting off without a shirt. A woman sitting at a table in a cafe saying she was waiting for friends but just appearing dodgy, and finally the couple that tried to point Tim and I in the right direction. The dude had no teeth and the woman said that Tim looked rich in one pair. Weird. On the way back we managed to get caught in a traffic jam that added an extra hour onto our trip.

Saturday night was spent at the Purple Olive where I demolished a large pile of baby octopus. It made me feel like a man.

I guess that was how the week ended. It was a fun week. I'm off to see Kanye West tonight. I don't have a suitable Jesus piece though. I'm hanging out for Through the Wire. It should be quite a show. He's got a big ego. These ones on a Monday though?

Kwijibo

All imagination and excitement and uniqueness went out the window last night. I made an incredibly lazy choice and am bitterly disappointed with myself. Well, not that disappointed, but, you know, I could have done better.

So it turned out pretty well and I had a nice time and I think that the girl had a nice time too. My main complaint was with the meal. I had some prawns and they hadn't been peeled. I know I'm uncouth and rude and ill mannered, but I don't like to be reminded of it when I am dining out. Especially when it is because some dickhead chef decides not to peel the prawns. Fucker. Overpriced, uninteresting food that wasn't very well done. It'll be a while before those cocksuckers see me again. Although they did give me a nice rose with the menu which was a nice touch, albeit one that didn't improve the food.

Today has been a bit of a long day. The centre goes through the accreditation process on Monday and Tuesday so final preparations were made today and will continue to be made over the weekend. There's a bit of work involved, it's pretty straight forward though. It's mainly giving examples of putting policy into action. The sort of thing where you can look at a piece of paper and get an idea of what a great and exciting place the centre is to be. Unfortunately I was a tad grumpy today. I blame this on not getting enough sleep last night, although I don't mind the not sleeping part too much.

Even though it's only 8:30 my eyeballs feel as though they are hanging out of my head and my fingertips are a little numb. I think that it's definately time to put my head down.

Do you know what I'm looking forward to tomorrow? I'm going to push a tree over with my bare hands. I can't wait, I've been lining this sucker up all week and tomorrow I'm going to fucking dominate the bitch.

This tree hasn't done anything to offend me, it's just that its time has come and it's going to be ripped from the ground by me.

It's pretty big too. Probably 5 metres or so high, so it's not as though it's a sapling and that I'm beating up on it. This is going to be a fair draw, an even match. I will win though, I will not tolerate its existence any longer.

Pizzeria

Have you seen the new Courier Mail? I have and I think that it is utter shite. What was once an incredibly average newspaper has devolved into something that isn't even worthy of lining a budgie's cage. It's a terrible shame.

I'm not sure when it happened, whether it has been an extremely slow transformation over many years from being a daily paper that delivered the news into something that is probably worse than The Picture magazine. At least The Picture has got boobies in it. Even though Richie Finnila writes for The Courier Mail I can't help but feel that it is letting the people of Brisbane down. Probably all letting all of Queensland down.

I wonder if it was the introduction of colour photographs. The downsizing from the broadsheet has only been the final nail in the coffin. It is no longer easy to separate the different sections of the paper, meaning that I have to wait for my oaf of a father to finish perusing the paper before I can steal a glimpse at it. I don't think that I'll bother anymore. It's really a waste of time.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and while I was waiting in line at the checkout I saw a fella I knew from school. I've seen him down there a few times so it wasn't any big surprise and as always he was looking healthy and was well dressed. I spoke to him while I was waiting to progress in the line. When I did we said farewell and that was supposed to be it. When I stood in front of the checkout lady she asked me how I knew that guy as he was always in there. She asked me what he did for a living, I told her that he's in real estate. She said that she thought it would be something like that as she could tell scum when she saw them. Apparently real estate people, taxi drivers and used car salesman all have a shifty look about them. So there you go.

That's enough of the doom and gloom I think. Time for something more cheerful. Apparently I've managed to line up an evening with a girl tonight and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about fun things to do? I mean, we've done some cool stuff together, but I don't really want to go for the dinner and a movie type thing? Any ideas? Anyone? I've got something in the back of my mind, and I think it would be fun. So, yeah, hit up the comments if you've got something that's fun to do.

Stripes Are Cool

I ended up taking 12 beers to the party. I didn't drink them all though, in fact I even gave one away! You could almost say I was well behaved. I didn't swear too much, didn't smoke. I did lie a little bit, but doesn't everybody? And they were the fun sorts of lies, the ones that don't hurt anybody but do cause a bit of discussion. You know the ones.

So, yeah, it was a party and I had a good time. It's been a while since I've been in a setting where I don't know too many people but I found that I can still hold my own relatively well. There was quite a crowd, maybe 50 people or so. Everyone seemed to be having a good time at the start, but as always as the night wore on some people started to get a bit down.

The first of them was a young fellow. He was the little brother of one of the people in the house. He was in grade 12 so it was always going to be tough for him. He and his brother had been telling everyone that he was 20 so that he could hit on some of the pretty girls in attendance. He mustn't have felt that he wasn't going to be able to pull it off and decided to drink to ease the pain. This was a beginner's mistake as he ended up puking everywhere and there was a very suspicious puddle near him too. He really didn't look too well at the end and I think that his Sunday was going to be very rough.

One of the other casualties wasn't a physical one, but more an emotional casualty. The story goes something like this. There was a boy and a girl at the party, they weren't together but they had been in the past. Well, the boy decided that he'd bring a new girl to this party so he did. He basically showed her off at the start then got drunk. In doing this he managed to piss off not only the old girlfriend but also the new one. The old one was upset with him because he was basically being a dick, and the new one was upset with him because he was basically being a dick. Does that make him basically a dick? I'm not sure. I didn't mind him, but then again...

There was other stuff that happened at the party, but these were the events I wrote about. The night ended up with me seeing some dude's wang and him laughing at my choice in underwear. I really like them, but it appears that no-one else does.

Furious Sail Away

I was driving around in the car yesterday, running a few errands with the radio on, when over the airwaves there came this song. It was a good song. I liked it. It was fun, it broke some rules, it had some driving rhythms, whatever. It was even by an Australian act so that's worth something too isn't it? Anyways, it was a song that brightened up my day, and I could see it brightening up my night were I to ever hear it on a dancefloor somewhere. It's by Lostep, and it's called Because We Can.

I'm not too sure what's been going on, but I've been listening to alot of dance or electronic music recently, and this song is an example of this. Maybe I've just been disappointed by a the latest few releases from the bands out there. Maybe I'm just not listening to the right stuff.

There's this band out there, they're called Sunn 0))). Or something similar. Soundscape sort of stuff. Apparently at live shows they play their music at ear drum bursting levels with bass so loud your entire body vibrates with it. That'd be exciting.

So yeah, there's not a whole lot going on today. I'm just killing a bit of time. I didn't go down the coast today, and I'm thinking that maybe I should have, it would have been a great day down there. What was stopping me was I went out to dinner last night with some people and I've got to go a housewarming type thing tonight. I'm not sure how things are going to go tonight, but we'll see. I'm not worried or anything, but it's never the greatest to go to parties where you don't know many people.

I think that it's actually been quite a while since I've been to a party. I can't recall the last one. It must have been before Christmas... I'm not even sure what I'm going to take to drink. A sixpack is never enough, but anything more and things deteriorate pretty quickly. Such a fine fine line.

This has really been a bit of a dodgy post. In fact the last few have all been a bit dodgy. I need to start saying what's actually going on instead of just talking in sweeping generals. Give this thing a bit of a story. I've got a story, but I won't tell just yet. I'm still waiting to find out what the ending is going to be like.

Don't Be Shy

Wow, what a week it has been, huh? Ups, downs, lefts, rights, wrongs. It's been one of those weeks that makes you wonder what you do to kill time in normal weeks. There's been alot of action.

If you'd been speaking to me last Friday and told me all of the things that would happen to me over the next 7 days I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have believed you. It has been a Jerry Bruckheimer production of a week. And you know what? I don't mind it.

It's been exciting, exhilarating, exhausting and unExpected. (sorry, I couldn't help myself). I've managed to go and fly a kite. Went for a walk along Kangaroo Point cliffs. Saw a really bad movie that a lot of other people in the theatre thought was hilarious. Was sent a slightly disturbing sms from someone up the coast. Got drunk. Ate a big steak. Stayed out til dawn. Got up at dawn. Saw old friends. Made a new friend. Got soundly beaten by some old men at swimming. Got down to the pool a few times. Had some kid bop me one. Had some other kid say, "I love you, Pumpkin," two minutes later. I've broken a computer monitor and fixed a photocopier. As I said, it's been a big week.

I think that tonight I'm going to stay in Brisbane and just sleep. I've gotten up at 5 the past two mornings, and it's taken it's toll. I'm worried that if I try to have a powernap at work they mightn't be able to rouse me. That mightn't be such a bad thing.

Shoot Speed - Kill Light

Man, from the crazy Boot Campers outside my window things just went downhill all day. It has finally started to pick up, and it's about time. Things went really wrong today and caused me and a couple of other people some serious headaches and created alot of confusion. Thankfully I think that it's just about all sorted now, but you never know I guess....

So, yeah, at one point today I was pretty concerned that I was going to be under investigation by the Federal Police for fraud. It really was that messed up.

It all started off with a letter we received at the centre the other day. It was from one of the governing bodies dealing with childcare and childcare payments. In the letter they explained that they would be coming out to check up on a few records of ours and that we were to be prepared for their arrival. This was cool with us, because we'd always done the right thing and had everything that they were going to be looking at. It was decided that we'd better call somebody who had a bit more experience in this side of things to see if there was any way we could better prepare ourselves for what we thought was going to be a routine visit.

The call was made, and before you could say Jack Robinson the proverbial had hit that other proverbial. Next thing I know we're getting calls left, right and centre. One person was saying that the people coming to see us were coming to start auditing us. Somebody else said that the Federal Police were on their way down to start looking for whatever they could find. One of the more senior members of the support team was on her way down to help bolster our defenses. Everyone was freaking the fuck out. Including me.

So there we were, making our game plan, talking strategies, figuring out contingency plans, doing what you do when you think that you're in a bit of trouble, when all of a sudden, one and a half hours early, in waltzes the person that we've been dreading. It turns out that the letter that was sent is only really a formality and that in fact she only wanted to check on one thing. There was a collective sigh of relief. So we asked her a few questions and she helped us with our concerns. It was very much the anticlimax we needed.

It really was pretty crazy there for a little while. It was a combination of misinformation, miscommunication and people making assumptions based on that. It's actually been a pretty good experience because it has clarified alot of the procedures and what is required of the centre. Although we've been good in the past, there's room for improvement so that's something we can work towards.

The other nonsense about somebody breaking their leg from yesterday, well apparently it's not even about a childcare centre, let alone ours. That was some more good news, but I guess we could have done without all of the drama.

One good thing that did happen today was that I saw Adam Lewis at Coles. He works for an insurance broking company. He's a good guy.

N I M B Y

I am the innocent victim of the modern age. Caught up in the cross fire of a Nineties epidemic and a Noughties cure. I've witnessed something cruel and inhuman, and I can't understand how people could fall for it.

It is currently a 6:30am and my morning has already been disrupted, if not ruined. How? Bootcamp. Yes, the new fad in losing weight passed through my neighborhood this morning. Right outside my window in fact. I was woken to a girl screaming at her charges to keep it going, to keep it up. Unfortunately she wasn't calling any of them maggots, nor did she question any of their sexuality, I would have liked this, even enjoyed it.

I'm all for people trying to get fit and whatever, and I'd even thought about Boot Camps because they seem like something kind of fun and something that will get you outside in the fresh air. Plus, apart from your local BDSM Mistress, where else do you pay good money to put yourself through a bit of pain while being yelled at?

So my experience of Boot Camp, what I got to see was a group of about 20 people all wearing the same shirt run up and down a set of stairs for a few minutes whilst being yelled at by two banshees from the top and bottom of the staircase. Some of them were carrying canvas school bags. The ones doing all of the yelling were wearing black coloured shirts.

If it had been a bit later in the day I might have even enjoyed it. I could have gotten myself a cup of tea and some toast and eaten out on the patio. If I'd been really lucky maybe the dog could have terrorised them too.

I almost hope they come back.

Frankie Say

I went kite flying yesterday. It was quite enjoyable, and I think that I'm going to do it again on Thursday. It involved a whole lot more running than I remember last time, but that was quite some time ago.

Apart from the kite flying, quite alot has been going on since Saturday morning when I last posted. I might go through it briefly for you. Or I might not be so brief, I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, so we'll both be surprised I guess.

After all those not so happy thoughts and things on Saturday morning the rest of the day turned out pretty well. A few weeks ago I bought a collection of Roald Dahl books, the ones illustrated by Quentin Blake. These were some of my favourite books from my childhood, and I was able to pick up a heap of them for a very reasonable price. So on Saturday I read a couple of these and had a nap and generally laid pretty low. It was okay because Saturday wasn't very nice weather wise.

Saturday night was alright, but not for fighting. Actually I had a pretty good time. It started off with the Musgrave Posse down at the pub in Balmoral. There was also a few other people there. Alex Corrie is a good looking man, and very nice too. I saw a favourite bartender of mine from long ago. She has some weird aura that seems to put me into a trance-like state. I had a few beers, met a synographer which is something I've never done before.

At about midnight I disappeared to the bathroom for a minute or two then jumped into a cab. Things were kinda hazy for a little while... but I managed to hold it together. I think. Either way, I was happy with how things ended up.

The rest of the night was fun.

Next day I came to face down on my bed with my jeans and shoes still on. I showered and then hopped into the car. Yes, I was okay to drive because I'd stopped drinking about midnight. I went down to the beach and had a very juicy steak with my parents at the Lone Star Saloon. I witnessed the devestation of the beaches by the colossal seas. There wasn't much sand left at Burleigh. There was a whole heap of driftwood washed up though which was pretty gnarly.

That night I stayed at the beach. When I woke up in the morning there was a photo of a beautiful woman on my phone. Lock that one in, Eddie. The drive back from the beach was pretty good, I made great time. It took just under an hour which has been the fastest I've done it on a Monday morning ever.

Work was pretty cool yesterday, nothing too crazy that I can remember. After that I went out to the museum and then I went to the toy store to buy my kite. It looks like an eagle and it has one eye.

Kite flying was great, but perhaps there wasn't enough wind.

Today has been a bit different. Work was normal for the first 8 hours or so. The last couple were I had a few strange things happen. Apparently someone made an anonymous phonecall to the police to say that somebody could break a leg at the centre. I thought that that was pretty random, so did Family Services, but still someone will be out tomorrow to check it out. At first I thought that it was a threat. Why wouldn't you just say something to one of the staff?

Swimming tonight was great. It'd been a little while, so I kind of worked myself over a little bit.

Rock The Choice

It happened again this morning. I was awoken at 6:30 this morning by a phone call. No, not some drunken idiot wanting to fight me, but someone who was coming to do some work at the centre. He wasn't going to be there at 7:00, it was going to be more like 8. That was cool with me, and I rolled over and went back to sleep for a while. Next time I wake up it's time for me to leave so I grab the dog and head out in the car.

I get out there, and I'm talking to the guy when he starts telling me about how he used to be a greenskeeper at the local bowls club. Used to work when he had to, any day of the week. He was married at the time, and his wife worked at an office in town. One day that was like today, pretty wet, he decided that he'd head home to have lunch there rather than at the club. So home he heads, and what does he discover? His wife in bed with another man. Apparently this man was someone that he knew, but not a friend. Not to the man anyway. So he kicked this guy out of his home, pushed him down the front stairs and almost put his wife through a wall. Apparently he'd never hit a woman.

The relationship was over after that. It was a few years ago now, and he's remarried. The other fella stuck with the wife for a few months, then left her.

He still thinks about his old wife. Sometimes still wishes that things could get back to the way they were, but that can't happen anymore, he's got a new wife. He told me that it's very hard to get through this life totally alone, and that sometimes a companion is the best you can hope for. Just someone to hang onto when there's a bit of turmoil. Someone you can rely on when those times come, because they will.

A cheery way to start the weekend isn't it?

I Succumbed To The New Brut, And I Like It

You know how sometimes you're watching a soapie or a teen drama or something like that on television and you think to yourself, "That would never happen in real life!" Well, I believe that some of those things are quite as far fetched as they first seem.

The child care centre exposes to me to a wide cross section of the community. We have families from all sorts of backgrounds in all sorts of situations. Weird shit happens everyday.

The other day I was talking to one of the fathers at the centre. He's a builder/developer type guy, and his relationship with his wife has recently broken down. He was talking to me about his new phone, showing me the screensaver for it and talking about his love of golf. A week before Christmas he kidnapped his two children from his estranged wife and disappeared.

Yesterday one of the mothers was telling me about how she's having trouble finding a new place to call home. Apparently the place she's in has a next door neighbor who is loco. Last night the next door neighbor went bonkos and decided to attack this mother's car with a knife. I saw all the slash marks on the boot and down the side of the car this morning.

Today, one of my co-workers was unable to come in. Her sister was haemorrhaging, she had miscarried her baby. Terrible business.

These sorts of things are an unfortunate part of life, and they do happen to people around all of us everyday. I can sometimes understand why some people are so down on the world, but at the same time, that's life. The world keeps on turning. Life goes on.

Not all of the centre stories are horrible ones. We've had a few new additions, some new kids on the block. They all start off so small, but it doesn't take them too long to be up and about. We've got one little girl at the centre now who wasn't even born when I started there. They've all got definite personalities from the outset too. It's cool stuff.

The Rock Is Still Alive

I was apprehensive at first. My face was a little flushed, my heart was beating a little irregularly. My palms were sweaty and my eyes were darting around the place. I tried to exude a cool and calm exterior, but in reality I was on a rollercoaster ride and I didn't know where the track would end.

At first they seated me. I tried to remain solid. Around me people were whirling around oblivious to my existence, going about their missions. I perused the magazine in front of me. An article on Johnny Cash, it allowed me to regain some composure. This was good.

I was led to a chair up the back, there I was introduced to a girl named Esther. She was to bathe me. The water was warm and soothing. Her fingers worked in concentric circles around my scalp. It felt good.

Again I was led, this time to a chair from which I could gaze upon myself. I didn't really like what I saw, but I was excited about the transformation that was about to be undertaken. A woman strode up to me, offering her name. It was Vicci. She asked me where I would like to be taken to today. I said your the driver. She asked me if I was certain that I wanted to go to her destination, it could be a place where things are not quite what they seem. I responded in the affirmitive. I was ready.

So yeah, I got a haircut and it turned out pretty well. I was very impressed with the hair stylist (they're not hairdressers anymore you know) working off my right shoulder. She reminded me of a backup singer for Gloria Estefan. Some Miami thing. I could tell you why, but you'd think less of me.

I don't know why I got so uptight about getting a hair cut. I think that when I go in there without any expectations, then I can't leave upset. And you know, it's always nice to have someone looking after you. Especially when she's wearing nice clothes and is pleasant and professional and stuff.

I'm not sure if anybody else will like it, but I don't mind it. The back part is a little dodgy, but everybody makes compromises. It's kind of asymetrical which I don't mind, because I feel a little lopsided sometimes.

Head Automatica

You know it's been a great year when in the matter of a few short months you've been lucky to witness both of your parents puking their guts up. Good times, good times. Everyone always feels a whole lot better after a good technicolour yodel. Getting the poison out. It's nice to know that even old fogies feel better after it. The only thing that I'm not so keen about with puking is when you get the thick saliva ropes running off of your chin onto your shirt. They're a real pain to try and explain away. Anyways.

My last few days have been pretty cool. For some reason I could have sworn that today was at least Thursday, but apparently it's only Wednesday. I've managed to get down to the pool a few times this week which has been great. I'll try and get down there again tomorrow. All the rain we've been having has been making the water a little cool initially, but after a lap or two you don't notice anymore. The time in the pool has been going really quickly, and it's been good to see an improvement already in my fitness. When I first went down I was no-where near finishing the program, but yesterday and today it was pretty straight forward. I still don't wear a bathing cap though, because it's pretty hard to look tough in togs and a bathing cap.

I'm thinking about going to get a haircut. I haven't had one since the start of November, and it's getting to the stage where it's necessary. I'm kind of in two minds about it though. I still think about my long hair an awful lot. For some reason I always think that it was a better time, but I'm not so sure. I mean, some people liked it. Some people didn't. It was alot of work though, constantly brushing it, washing it, putting treatments in it, getting it out of my eyes. It was kind of hard work. And really hot. Although this has been Brisbane's hottest summer on record it didn't feel anywhere near as bad as last year. I'm putting this down to the lack of head hair this year. Also, with the long hair there wasn't a whole lot I could do with it. It was either out or up, and when it was up I looked like either a dodgy soccer player (or football player if you prefer) or a Columbian drug dealer. Plus there was the whole Jesus thing.

Still, I liked it. It took a long time to get it to a reasonable length, and then I just cut it all off! And in order to get it long again I've got to go through at least 6 months, probably more, where I need to wear a hat. But I liked it.

Also, when I get a haircut these days I don't know what to ask for. Not that the hairdressers listen to what I say anyway. I don't know what I want. Somebody whose hair I don't mind, and I know this sounds pretty gay but I don't really care, is Tom the Chippies. His is pretty cool. Kinda short and spiky. Kinda chunky up the top near the back. A bit versatile. Hmmm... Suspect....

I think that I'm going to go now, the sounds of vomiting have finished so I think that it's safe. I might go call someone.