Local And Loving It

On Tuesday afternoon I went back to Carindale home to waste some time. While I was there I saw my brother, David. He didn't see me though, well, not clearly. You see David has conjunctivitis at the moment, which isn't very nice. His eyes are red and irritated, and on Tuesday they looked especially gunky. I soon found out why.

You see David has some cream, and he had my sister Erin put some of the cream on for him. He then fell asleep on the couch for an hour or so. When he woke up, he wasn't able to open his eyes properly, so he felt around on the coffee table for the cream. Except he didn't find the cream. He found a tube the same shape and size of the cream, but it was in fact superglue. David then applied this to one of his eyelashes.

Immediately he knew that something wasn't right, and didn't persist with his course of action. He put down the glue, and he told me it took him the next 30 minutes to get his eye open. Unfortunately there were still big gobs of glue stuck to his lusciously long eyelashes. It was not a pretty sight.

When I got there he was trying to figure out what to do. I said that he may have to cut the glue out with his scissors. He was a bit worried that they wouldn't grow back. I think that they will. Still, he might look a little bit silly for a little while.

This afternoon I am going to go and buy a pair of running shoes. I have many pairs of shoes, but apparently no running shoes. I can't actually remember the last pair I did have. Probably back when I was doing removals. Hmm.

Tomorrow morning I start moving the stuff into the new place. I'm pretty exxcited. I hope that the managers are reasonably easy going. Ria's a bit worried that they're going to be super anal. I think she's worried about a few things.

Women In Voice

Who'd have thought that moving out of home could be so expensive? I have no idea how I managed to do it all those years ago. I guess moving into a furnished apartment was a big help. And having no bond was a big one (I almost wrote no bong there, but that wouldn't be quite true). And not having to pay two weeks rent up front probably didn't hurt either. Still, money is disappearing from my bank account in great puffs of purchasing.

So on Saturday Ria and I went to have a look at getting some appliances. We were able to secure a bed, a washer, a fridge and a microwave. This was all done at Harvey Norman, who were kind enough to give us a 40 months interest free loan. How kind of them. What I found to be disturbing, though, was how easily they gave us the money. I handed them my driver's license, they asked me 5 questions. Whereabouts did I work? How long had I been there? How much is my weekly take home pay? What is my credit limit on my cards? And how much do I owe? 2 minutes later they approved me for up to $6000. It was crazy! I could have made all of the answers and they wouldn't know. People could get themselves into all sorts of trouble if they don't think about what they are doing. And the other scary thing was the interest rate after the 40 months. It was up around 25%. That's scary.

The purchasing of the appliances took a couple of hours, and we had a look at a few couches for an hour or so. It was actually a little bit exciting. Unfortunately Ria and I could not really remember the size of the apartment, so we're holding off on buying couches and things like that until we get in there again. We did buy some cutlery though.

In the afternoon on Saturday we went to an Indian Bazaar. It was a festival, a little bit like Paniyiri, but nowhere near as good. The food at my friend Kapila's store was easily the best. The rest was very average. We hung out there for an hour, ate too much food, then retired back to the house to digest it all. We were tired from eating and shopping.

There was an accident outside the Lord Stanley on Saturday night. I didn't want to go and stickybeak, I didn't want to be one of those people. But there was a loud BANG and then 20 minutes later the fire brigade turned up. Then some tow trucks. Then the police. Then the ambulance. When I drove past there the next morning there was a little bit of glass on the street, not much.

Sunday morning I was up and at 'em early. I was heading down the coast for a row with the boys. The weather was a little bit chilly to start off with, and the conditions in the surf were not very clean. Still I had a good time, we caught a few waves and it was a good start to the day. I managed to get a nice blue bruise on my thigh, I don't know how. And at some point I managed to get my wrist into a very awkward position. It is weak now.

Last night Ria and I signed the lease on the new place. We were given a copy of the by-laws. They seem pretty strict. If I have some time I might put them up here. They don't bring much mirth.

Now I'm going to try and get some power and gas accounts. That'll be more money. And I'm looking for a TV. I would like to get an LCD one, so we'll see what happens. Boys need their toys don't they? Other things I need to buy soon are a laptop, a couple of couches, some stools, a table, some glasses, some mugs, maybe a rug, a toaster, an iron, a frame and some other stuff. I've been looking at graysonline for the television. Does anybody know of anywhere else?

Oh, I had a pair of jeans arrive. I'm not buying anymore pants online.

Time's A-Wastin'

I don't think that I ever finished that post about that weekend. I'm sorry. I think that it was a good time. A busy time, but a good time.

I feel pretty bad about my poor blogging abilities recently. Everytime I've been on the computer recently it has been to look for a house. Or do my tax. Or waste time on that social utility that connects you with the people around you and helps you waste hours of time on a dial-up connection. It's really pretty nasty.

So yeah, the past few weeks Ria and I have been looking for a place to live in. We searched high and we searched low. We looked at nice places, and places that weren't so nice. In the end we found somewhere and it's on Love Street in Bulimba. I'm looking forward to being able to say that the relationship Ria and I have is on Love Street.

In the end I found the hunt for a home pretty frustrating and exhausting. There were times when my spirits were down and when I could not bring myself to type www.realestate.com.au in as the url again. It didn't take me long to have an intimate knowledge of a few places that are available. Some of them still are. For a long time I had my heart set on getting a house. Then time started to run out and so we reconsidered our options. We've ended up with an apartment.

On the way home from our final inspection we did a little bit of driving around Norman Park (one of the areas where we were searching). There we discovered a house that had not been listed on the all mighty realesate.com.au . It's a 2 bedroom house with a landscaped back yard, on a quiet street with plenty of space. I would have liked to have had a shot at that one, but with the way the timing went we didn't. That's okay though, Ria and I probably don't have enough furniture to fit out a house. In fact, at the moment we wouldn't have enough furniture to fit out one bedroom.

So that's what we are going to do today. We're going to sign the lease, then embark on an adventure for furniture. And a tv. I did my tax this morning so I know I've got a bit of cash to play with. Let's see what we can get! Usual suspects here I come!

Electric Kitchen

So in all, a pretty busy weekend.

I guess you would be right in saying that my weekend actually began last Wednesday night. I went to see Datarock with Jonesy. I haven't been out like that on a school night for such a long time. We got pretty drunk. Datarock were great. Matching tracksuits, matching sunglasses, matching accents. They were really rocking out at the end. It was terrific.

After the concert Jonesy and I went to a few different bars. At one I thought Luke was going to get into a fight. He didn't which is just as well. His face is too pretty to be ruined in a fight. We ended up in Uber and stayed there for a while. It's been such a long time between midweek drinks that I'd forgotten that other people get into it all the time. It was weird being in a packed nightclub at 2am on a Thursday morning. Too weird for me, so I went home.

(That's not the real reason that I went home. I went home because I'd been up since 4am the day before and had drunk too much and was ready to pass out)

Apparently when I came home I did some funny stuff when I was sleep walking. Who knows?

The next morning I was woken bright and early by an excessively cheerful Ria. She was off to do some stuff, and wanted me to do some stuff while she was out. I surprised myself and was able to complete the tasks.

Ria came in at about 11:30 that day, and then we had to head out again. We're looking for somewhere to live at the moment, and we had an appointment to inspect an apartment at Greenslopes. It didn't go down too well.

We should have known from the moment that the real estate agent got out of the car. She was wearing some horrible red, black and white ensemble. Her car was an accessory. Her shoes were painful. She was not pleasant.

The walk up the driveway was terrifying because of the beast next door. The stairs were twisty and the apartment itself was locked up like Fort Knox. I don't know why, as the apartment was so small you couldn't fit anything in there worth stealing. Needless to say this was a very disappointing development. Disappointing and depressing. We both needed some cheering up so we went to Baalbeck and had a kebab.

It was a great kebab and before you can say Jack Robinson Ria and I were smiling again.

The rest of that Thursday was spent driving, surfing, ringing and shopping. We had burgers that night. Home made ones. With guests. Not on the burgers, but helping us eat them, and stopping us from being lonely.

Friday morning and Ria and I were heading out to Lamington National Park. This was really an amazing trip and very reccommended to people wanting to get away for a day or two. The birdlife was astounding, the views were breathtaking and the bushwalks were invigorating. The only downside was that you really need to take in some of your own food, as the dining hall option is fairly expensive. Still, it was a very nice break. Our room had a spa next to a large window with views out over the valley. It was a westerly facing room, so it was quite nice being in the spa watching the sun go down. Some people might have even said that it was romantic.

I could go on and on about how great O'Reilly's was, but unfortunately I'm running out of time. Damn that Facebook and it's time wasting capabilities.

I'll try and get through the rest of the weekend later. It was also action packed.

Never Ever Land

This morning I woke up very early. 4 o'clock. I went rowing with the boys.

Last night when it was pouring with rain, I was kind of hoping that it would be called off. Being up at that time, in the cold, in the wet, wearing nothing but a pair of dick stickers is not really my idea of fun. It wasn't called off, and I spent the night watching the clock tick down to 4.

At 4am I jumped out of bed and got myself ready. I pulled on my togs, found a singlet, grabbed a towel and covered myself with a flanno. I was ready. I spent a minute trying to remember if my sunglasses were in the car, then I realised that I'd be back home before the sun got up.

I hit the road and got there in good time, there was no traffic. I waited a couple of minutes and then everybody else showed up. We got the boat ready, stripped off and headed out into the river.

Thankfully the rain had stopped on the drive over. I was worried that it was going to be an unpleasant experience. But it wasn't. It was very peaceful and enjoyable. I felt pretty good. The exercise will do me good.

Last night I had to let a friend of mine down. I feel horrible about doing it. Breaking the plans. But I can't see a way around it. It's not kind of sucky. It is sucky.

The other night I was at Woolworths with Ria. We were buying some groceries. One of the items on the list was some salmon from the deli. When it was wrapped up, the sticker machine printed onto two stickers instead of one. When we got to the checkout, the girl behind the counter looked like she had been there for a long time. She looked like she didn't want to be there anymore, and was more interested in talking to her friend in the aisle across from us than greeting Ria and I.

At first I was put out by this. I thought that she was pretty rude. But then, when it came time to swipe the salmon through, it wouldn't scan for her. She tried once. Twice. Then a third time. Then she looked at it, shrugged her shoulders and put into the bag. She knew that I saw her, and wouldn't look at me after that. I couldn't help but smile. I guess it had been a long day, and what's $13 to a company like Woolworths anyway?

Holy Moly Moly

I'm pretty excited at the moment. I've just found out that Daft Punk are coming to town. I've loved their work for a long time, and to see them at the Riverstage on a hot Brisbane summer night will be fantastic. They're not a group who plays alot of shows, certainly not outside of Europe so this will be a pretty special evening. I will do everything in my power to get some tickets.

In other news the weekend was a good one. Friday night I had a burger then went to bed. I was tired. I watched a documentary about the F word. It was interesting. I guess it changed my attitude to the word a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. And no, it's not, and never has been, an acronym.

Saturday was a pretty busy morning. Ria and I went to Carindale for a little bit of time as I had to line up and get something from the post office, and Ria had to line up and deposit a cheque at the bank. All up, what should have been a short and sharp visit, ended up taking an hour and a half.

Afterwards we went back to Carindale home and had a look at some properties online. This is the last of the housesitting, and we are keen to get a place of our own.

After the online house hunting we headed down to my favourite shop, Mia's, to get a gift for Nigel and Elita. We ended up choosing a lovely tea set. I liked it, Ria liked it, I hope Nigel and Elita liked it.

After having the gift wrapped we had another burger, then came home.

I wasn't back for long, just long enough to get changed. I was heading back out, I had a ticket to a play. Ying Tong. It's about the Goon Show, and specifically Spike Milligan's breakdown that resulted in the end of the show. It was interesting, and funny, but I probably haven't heard enough of the real Goon Show to appreciate it fully. Still, it was enjoyable.

Afterwards we had to crawl through the traffic created by RiverFire in order to get home. It took a little while.

As soon as I walked in the door it was time for another costume change. The engagement party was starting early, and we needed to get there. The cab took a little while to arrive. I had a beer.

At the party things went well. Ria remembered the envelope for the card, but not the card itself. I don't think that it was a big deal, although it was a nice card. We saw some people, spoke about some stuff, drank a couple of beers, watched a plane do a dump and burn, then it was time to go.

Getting a cab home was tough, so we walked to Reece's house and played with his dog Benson for a while. He was only a pup, but he was a cool dog. Reece had a trick where he pointed his fingers at him like a gun, then said "Bang!" Benson would then roll over and play dead. Not every time though.

Eventually a cab came, and I bought a pie from the servo across the road. It was around midnight and time for me to go to bed. I had an early start.

Sunday morning and I was up and at 'em pretty early. Well, early for a Sunday. 6:40. I had some toast and a drink of water then waited for Jimmy to come and get me. We headed down the coast together and went out in the boats a few times. It was fun. The weather cleared up and it was a beautiful day.

Southport seems to have a much better atmosphere thank Kurrawa. Everyone is alot more friendly, and they don't look down on you simply because you don't live on the coast. It's nice. Unfortunately I don't have a crew, but I'm not too upset. I still get to do the fun stuff on the Sunday, and not have to worry about 4:30 training sessions. But we'll see what happens.

After the surf sessions we all had a burger then came back to Brisbane. I was pretty much exhausted by this time. Very tired. It had been a big morning. But a fun one.

Yesterday was a good day at work. Louise is back and things are on track. Kapila is back too, which is exciting. From the sounds of it, things are going to be very different at the centre next year. I'm not too upset that I'm not going to be there.