Wait For The Spring

Here!

2008-03-02T08:03:00.002+10:00

So I'm going to India. I'm actually halfway there now. I haven't been feeling the best for the past few months, and I don't think that I really had too much to write about. The times with Ria were good, the bits in between maybe not so much. I don't think that anybody really needs to hear about how I was feeling when I was feeling sad. So I'll keep it to myself.

Anyways, I'm writing here to say that I hope to keep another blog up for my trip. It can be found here.

http://robbtime.blogspot.com

I decided not to send my family and stuff to this one as I don't really want them going back over all my stuff. Yes I am that vain.

It's time to eat!

Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery

2008-01-14T15:40:00.000+10:00

My phone has been missing for the past few days. I know that it's in the home here somewhere, but I can't be sure where. It's still turned on, but unfortunately it is on silent. So while I may ring it, I won't hear that ring. I feel kind of bad about not knowing where it is. I think that I feel kind of bad about a lot of things at the moment though.

So this not working thing is actually pretty crap. When you've got nothing to do, having something to do just seems too hard. It's like I've fallen and I can't get up.

Today I walked the dog again. He liked it. I liked it too. Even though it was raining and the tide was out. We paddled in the water. Reg was very happy. I think that he's getting to be an old dog.

I'm going to my grandmother's tomorrow. I'm going to do some gardening for her. I've also got to head over to the centre to pay a roof guy. Apparently there's been some big changes inside the building. The new director is now the old director, having left after less than a month. The new new director is someone who is qualified, but probably not quality. There has been a re-shuffling of some of the other staff. They are changes that I probably would not have made. NMPA.

Last week I watched a whole lot of movies and read a few books. I don't think that I'll get the chance to do that this week. This week I need to start thinking about packing up all of my belongings here. I need to put my life into various sized boxes. What will happen with these boxes? I don't have a plan for that.

I am keen to see a movie this week. I would like to seeAmerican Gangster. I also want to watch Cloverfield. Do you know what the monster is? Me neither.

Yesterday I spent a bit of time looking at some stuff on BME. Some of the work there is terrifyingly intense. Nullo!

I also listened to some podcasts from the guys who paddled across the Tasman. Mainly the ones about sharks.

Last week I watched a whole heap of interviews with Gallows.

I ate all the biscuits.

I listened to a radio program about natural and caesarean births.

The Life Hermetic

2008-01-08T14:10:00.000+10:00

A new year! Happy New Year! I had a firework free new years. Not by choice. I was down the coast. The weather down there was atrocious. There was a low pressure system off the coast somewhere making conditions not very nice. The beach was closed the whole time I was down there. It rained every day. I was down there with Ria, my Aunt, my Grandmother, my Dad and my Dad's lady friend. It wasn't too bad. There were times when it was excruciating, but that's what time with Family can be at times. The fact that I couldn't escape to the beach did make it particularly difficult. As did sleeping in the living room with people who like to wake up at 5:30 every day.

I managed to get pretty drunk most nights and I think that helped.

While I was down the coast I had a patrol on down at Southport. Even though the beach was closed it was action packed. Having the red flag up didn't really deter too many people. They were dangerous conditions though. So we had our work cut out for us. There was even a brown snake that I had to keep people away from! Excitement plus! And a kite boarder who almost drowned! I managed to get caught up in his kite strings. I now have what could be a scar around my ankle where the line bit into me! Good times! Actually, it was pretty fun. It got me out of the apartment for a while too.

On New Year's Day I came back to Brisbane. On the way Ria and I stopped in at the Strawberry Farm. Laura stopped there too. We fed the goats. They were hungry. We also fed ourselves. We were not as hungry. I bought some hot sauce there. Smoke damaged hot sauce. It's called Blurter Hurter. I could have chosen a Ring Stinger or an Aussie Back Burner. I liked the sound of the Blurter Hurter though. After trying it though, it's not really that extreme.

Being back in Brisbane has been okay. I have been bored at times. And I fell off the radar there for a little while. I actually went a little bit hay wire at Christmas time as well. Just disappeared. I'm back now. Or at least I hope so.

This past weekend was interesting. I had some Grill'd on Saturday, which was good. I then proceeded to get drunk. Real drunk. I think that I actually drank about 3/4 of a bottle of off wine. I had a real thirst. I then went out with Tony and Emmett and Adam and a guy called Dukey. It was a good time. There were many Italians at the Sun Bar.

Sunday was an interesting day. I was reasonably hung over, but a functioning hung over. I had breakfast at Sushi Train with Tony and Emmett. Then I was dropped off during a torrential downpour in town. I saw No Country for Old Men with Joshua. It was good. Very tense though. There was a period where I couldn't watch the screen. I blame this on the hang over (but we all know that's no excuse). After the movie I came home and had some discussions with Ria.

Yesterday was Monday and today is Tuesday. We've had some people through looking at the apartment. I'm moving out in just under two weeks. I will miss this place. The rent is going up to 340/week. Ria and I took the dog for a walk this morning. He was very excited to see us. We went to Manly. He liked it there. He was able to go for a swim. It was nice. The sun was shining very brightly though. I had to buy some sunscreen. The dog made many good shits. They were different colours. Red. Orange. Brown. Black. I was proud of him.

Where We'll Be

2007-12-15T09:01:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was the day that the contract on the centre settled. It happened at about a quarter past four. I got the call just on 4:20. I blazed up. Or not.

It was a bit of a surreal day yesterday. I cleared out some of my stuff. I took a couple of pictures off the walls. There weren't any more tears yesterday, but there were times when I felt sad. I still feel sad. It's a shame. I had a good talk to quite a few of the parents and they had some very kind words to say to me about their family's time at the centre. Stories of when my mother was around. Stuff like that. It was good.

I've been eating a lot of biscuits and chocolates at work this week. Leftovers from the Christmas concert and also gifts from families. I've had to remember to drink lots of water, otherwise I start to feel a bit ill from all of the sugary foods.

So yesterday afternoon I stuck around til the last child had left. It was just on 5:30, which is extremely early for a Friday. It was a very strange feeling to walk away from something that has been such a big part of my life, not only for the past 4 years when I've worked there, but from the 8 years before then when my mother was working there. And now it's not mine anymore. It's someone else's concern.

All sorts of things are starting to break there at the moment too. There's a fan that only goes in one direction. There's some guttering that needs to be fixed up. A kid jumped on a plastic bench seat and cracked it at a quarter past five. The usual sort of things. They're not things I need to worry about anymore. They're for somebody else. Oh well.

Today is the staff Christmas party. We're going to Mowbray Park and then heading over to the East Brisbane Bowls Club for some barefoot bowls. It should be fun. Pretty casual. I don't really want to get too wasted too early. Kapila doesn't need to see me like that. I don't think that she'd approve.

I need to go and buy some stuff to eat soon. I hope that Stuart turns up with the car soon. He said that he'd be over in half an hour an hour ago. We were at Nanna's last night for David's going away dinner. We had lamb. It was awesome. I had a few drinks. I didn't abuse anybody this time. Well, not vocally. I was wearing some pretty obscene shorts.

Bicycle Pump

2007-12-12T20:04:00.000+10:00

It has been a bit of a slow week. Not slow as in there hasn't been much going down. More slow as in it feels like Thursday night, when it's only Wednesday. In fact it's been so slow that it felt like Thursday on Tuesday.

On Monday my Dad came down to the centre and told everybody that they were going to have some new bosses from next week. Some people were surprised, some people weren't. There has been a few clues. Back at the start of the process when we had those real estate agents coming through. Men in suits. Then a few weeks back when Louise and I did an inventory. There was also the guy who came through to do an appraisal on the centre. He's going to Furano with his wife this season, then onto Canada for the Olympics with his kids for 2010. There's also been all of the out of the ordinary phone calls I've been receiving. And apparently I haven't been myself for the last little while. Anyways, there were some hints, but it was still a bit of a shock to some.

So yesterday was a bit of a weird day. Talking to the staff about what's going on, trying to start tying up some of the many loose strings, liasing with the incoming owners. Ha! Liasing.

Anyways, it was a pretty long day. I was up early with rowing. We were training at Southbank, on Kodak Beach. Or is it Streets Beach these days? Either way they've only just re-opened it. The sand already had that great cat poo and bleach smell about it. It was awesome. Still, it was nice for a change, and there were some interesting specimens of the human species around Southbank at 5 in the morning.

On Tuesday evening my grandmother and my aunt came over. We had a frittata. It was pretty awesome. While I was picking up the ingredients for the frittata I ran into someone that I hadn't seen for a long time. In my mind I had rehearsed what I was going to greet him the next time I saw him. In the end I decided against punching him in the face and crash tackling him to the ground while yelling obscenities at him. It was the fruit and veg section of Woolworths after all. Still, I did kind of yell an obscenity. It was a very strange meeting. Like meeting a ghost.

The dinner went well.

Today has been a bit of a rough sort of a day. I think that I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I will be unemployed very soon and I have no idea what I am going to do. I am also coming to terms with the fact that the centre where I really enjoy what I do is going to someone else. It is making me sad. And cranky.

Today I had to write the letter informing the families at the centre about the changes. Writing it took me about an hour and made me sad. I didn't know what to say, or how to say it. I didn't want to be too doom and gloom because I am sure that the new owners will continue to provide high quality child care. Still, I guess it is the end of an era. The letter made some of the staff cry and a couple of the parents too. It may have been my wonderful way with words, but I doubt it.

So I guess the next couple of days I've got some more questions to answer. It should be a fun time. I've just about got the spiel down pat.

This afternoon with the afterschool care the children gave Kapila and I a lovely tribute. It involved singing and some dancing. And some speeches. Kapila cried the whole time, which in turn set off a few of the kids. It was pretty emotional. Still, a nice moment. I think that Kapila was a bit sad all day. I thought that she was cutting up onions for afternoon tea, because I kept hearing this sniffing noise. When I went to see what we were having, there wasn't any onions. She was just sad. I was sad, too. Sad that we weren't having onions for afternoon tea. Just kidding!

Oh. Have I said anything about David spewing on himself in a cab on the weekend? No? He did! And I went on an hour long rant using extreme language about people and situations that I really shouldn't have been discussing at that late hour. Good times!

Brown Eyes - Hypnotise

2007-12-06T07:55:00.000+10:00

I did something a little bit silly this morning. Actually, I've been doing a few silly things over the last few days. I haven't been engaging my brain before I've been acting. This morning it was something reasonably minor. I was going for a run for rowing over at Kangaroo Point. We start off at the stairs near the TAFE, then head over to Southbank, over the Goodwill Bridge, through the Botanical Gardens, along the water at Riverfront Place, through the shadow of Admiralty Towers, up the steep hill of Ivory Street, over the Story Bridge and then back down onto walkpath at Kangaroo Point. We finish up by racing up the stairs to bring us back up to where the cars are.

That's the usual routine, but today I was unable to participate. I had brought the wrong shoes. In the early morning gloom I'd picked up Ria's shoes by mistake. I had to turn around and go home. This was okay though, as I was able to wake Ria up and we went for a walk together. I ran up the hill at Main Ave a few times. Afterwards I was very sweaty. It's a nice view from up there though.

The other day I was driving home from work. I've been having a bit of a dilemma about which way I should go home, there's a way that's probably a couple of minutes quicker, but you need to be a little bit lucky with the traffic. The other way, down Cavendish Road and then along Stanley Street cutting back up near the Norman Park train station to Lytton Road, is probably more sensible, but you can get stuck at the lights and also at the rail crossing. The quicker alternative is from Leicester Street, making the difficult crossing of Old Cleveland Road and then up Bennetts has been my way of choice recently, but after a recent incident I'm going to miss it I think.

The incident in question involved a Subary stationwagon and myself to start off with. Then it involved a whole other line of traffic. I'm not going to lay blame, partly because I put myself in a dumb position, but the stationwagon in front of me wasn't playing the game properly and tried to change the rules. The stationwagon saw a bit of a gap, went for it, then chickened out halfway across the road. I had also seen the same gap, decided that there was enough room for me too (which there definitely was) and followed them. When the stationwagon stopped in the middle of the road to take stock of their position, I was left hanging out with my bum in the wind. I ended up having to go right around the stationwagon. There was a motorcycle rider who was not very impressed with me.

The sale of the centre is going ahead. Apparently next Friday is going to be the day. I've had to fend off a few questions the last couple of days about the future of the centre. The questions were from the staff, who haven't known about the sale. I might have to tell them today. I feel pretty bad about leading them up the garden path, but I haven't been able to tell them about it before now. It's just starting to dawn on me what these changes are going to mean. It's making me a bit sad.

Tomorrow is the Christmas party for the children. I'm not worried about it this year. I'll be making the sandwiches tomorrow morning.

In The Belly Of A Shark

2007-12-04T07:47:00.000+10:00

Ria's got a job in Broken Hill. She's pretty excited about it. I'm not quite as excited. I'm probably just being a pussy. Time for me to grab my nuts and get out there.

So she's moving down there halfway through January. Her job will be writing and reading the news with 2BH. It should be a pretty interesting time. I don't think that I'll be going down straight away. I've got commitments with rowing for the next few months. After that I'll get down there. Anybody got any ideas with what I can do with my life for the next little while? I've got some. I don't know how keen on them I am though. I kind of like the life I've got at the moment.

So that's probably my biggest thing. I really like what's happening at the moment. Sure, I will be unemployed soon, maybe even as soon as next week, but I'm happy. I really love the apartment here. I really like that it's all set up now. I really like where it is and how I can walk to the supermarket and the cinemas and things. I really like that there's a place that has just opened up where I can get a burger (Grill'd). I really like rowing. I really like the pool. I really like the gym. I really like work. I really like the people I work with. And now that's all going. So much for choices.

I had a pretty good weekend. It started off with a haggis on Friday night for St Andrew's day. I enjoyed it. There was also cranachan for dessert. That was also rad. Unfortunately I left a cooler bag behind. I've got a bad habit of doing that. I've never really owned a cooler bag before, and just in the past couple of months I've picked up a couple. And now I've lost them both. It was short and sweet.

Saturday was a day of auctions. They were interesting. The first one I thought was going to be go off with a real bang, but it was a fizzer. The second one had a bit of more action. And some quality Alf posters. And nicotine stained walls.

On Sunday morning I managed to pass my proficiency down at the club. I'm now able to rescue people again. I've got some patrols coming up. I might even get down there Saturday and Sunday.

When I returned from the coast I was pretty tired. So I had some hamburgers. I only wanted one, but there was some confusion in the store. So they gave me two. But neither was really the burger I wanted. Then later they brought out the one that I did want. But I'd already eaten the other two. I couldn't face another. I'd also eaten a burger at Off The Wall on Saturday, so I was kind of burgered out by that point. Still, they were all great burgers. And not terribly unhealthy ones. They chips may have been.

I had some training this morning. It was good. My muscles are a bit sore now, but it's that good sort of sore. I need to do a bit more upper body work though, as I'm not strong enough there yet.

Anyways. It's time for work now. This Friday is the kid's Christmas party. It's traditionally a pretty rocking time. This year should be no different. Louise the director informed the staff yesterday that she's going to be finishing up. I haven't told them about the sale yet. The contract hasn't gone exclusive yet. It will, but I don't know when. And the settlement may be as soon as the 14th. I wouldn't mind if it was the 21st.

Gift

2007-11-27T08:01:00.000+10:00

I've been having a bit of a hard time getting back into the swing of the blog. I mean I've got the time to do it. I've got plenty to write about. I just don't seem to have the drive to get it done. I'm not too sure why. Perhaps it's because this is a time of great change.

So I had a really nice weekend. Ria and I went down the coast and stayed at the apartment down there. It's a great place, with lots of room, although maybe if there's more than 2 people there I might need some breathing space.

Basically all Ria and I did was get drunk in the evenings and then wake up early to have breakfast, then go for a walk and have a swim. The water was beautiful. So clear. It was lovely. I'm still amazed every time I see the beaces of Kirra, Coolangatta and Rainbow Bay. They are so different to what I remember as a boy. I guess the sand pumping from the Tweed means that they will be a permanent change, but still, it's weird.

I had a pretty disappointing meal at the surf club on Saturday night. I had the fish. It was very dry. Maybe I should have gone for the steak, but even that didn't taste quite right. Maybe I was just being difficult. Ria won $9 on the pokies.

The moon was full and bright over the weekend. Ria and I took a walk on the beach after dinner. It was almost romantic.

Okay, well I guess Time is up and I need to get to work. Hopefully I'll be able to do some more blogging soon.

The Blog is B(l)ack!

2007-11-13T07:45:00.000+10:00

So it's been a while, and there's been lots going on. I guess it could have been forgivable if I hadn't written because there hasn't been anything going on, but that's just not the case. I can't even remember where I was up to with the last one. It was a long time ago.

Anyways, I'm well. I'm loving living on Love street. It's great.

I'm loving getting up early and exercising. Whether it's with Ria or if it's with the boys for rowing.

I'm kind of enjoying work, but at the same time not so much as well. A contract has been signed and we are currently in the due diligence period. Once it goes exclusive then I'll only have 3 or so weeks before I'm out of a job. So that should be interesting. None of the staff know yet.

My sister has been giving me shits again. She moved out of home and decided that there wasn't any real need to tell anybody what she's doing. She's delusional.

My Dad is also a bit delusional. He's got a girlfriend. Or maybe just a girl who's a friend. I think that there may have been an actual girlfriend girlfriend, but apparently he gave her the flick. She still calls though. He hides from her.

Dirty Dave is getting ready to go to Canada. He's also been shredding on Guitar Hero 3 a bit. I haven't played it yet, but I saw an ad for it on the tele last night. It looks pretty awesome. I think that you can verse Slash. I don't know if that's quite right though, because how could anyone possibly beat him? The fact that you'd need a half smoked cigarette dangling from your mouth for the whole song would be quite a deterrant.

I went to a couple of gigs last night. The first one was Van She and Operator Please. It was a good time. I was pretty tired from rowing and then a debacle involving a sewer blockage at the centre, but it was still a good time. Operator Please are a bit of a guilty pleasure. I'm not sure why they're a guilty pleasure, they should just be a pleasure, but that's the way I feel about them.

On Friday night I saw Cut Copy. I was pretty drunk and did some disturbing stuff later on in the evening, so we'll skip over that one. I had a pretty good time.

Saturday saw Ria and I finally get the outside furniture sorted out. It also saw me sorted out with 17 Ikea meatballs. They were good.

The Good Food and Wine show was a Sunday afternoon adventure. It was good. I got a little bit drunk and ate a lot of rich food. My stomach felt a little queasy afterwards. It was an enjoyable afternoon. We even ran into Tony!

This morning I went for a run with the boys. I was a sweating mess by the end of it, but I felt good. I also picked up a parcel from the post office. It had something inside that made me happy. It has been a good day so far.

I hope that this is a return to our scheduled programming.

You've Gotta Work It Out

2007-10-02T17:03:00.000+10:00

The past few days have been an intense period in my life. There has been a lot going on, and I've been getting it done. It's been exciting, and exhausting.

I'm a veteran of many moves. Or I thought that I was. It seems that moving other people is only really a warm up, a training session for the endurance even that is moving yourself. It's taken a few days now, but it feels like home. An empty home, but still home.

There have been plenty of other distractions as well. Ria had her graduation on Thursday. I bought a couch. David helped me move it. We went out to dinner for Ria's sister's birthday. I got pretty drunk.

Oh! I'd forgotten about the most intense physical training I have done in over 5 years! I was up and down the stairs at Kangaroo Point cliffs with the other boys a few times. They were looking fit. I was looking shit. It was full on. I seriously thought that I was going to pass out at a couple of points, my brain just wasn't getting enough oxygen. My muscles were leeching it all. There was also some backwards running, and a bit of a fright at the end. Everyone had put their keys in Dave's car, but then he lost his keys. Thankfully they weren't lost for too long and we were all able to get out of there. It took me a little while to get my strength back. I also managed to twist my ankle on the warm up, and it swelled to double its size for a while, which was a neat party trick.

So that was Thursday. It was a big day. I haven't really done it justice at all. It was an epic day. A great day. A hot, humid day. A day of high achievement. I haven't even spoken about the ratios during the graduation ceremony. I haven't spoken about the delivery men breaking my fridge. So many details, swallowed by the sands of time.

Friday was another busy day. I was all over the shop again. Buying a kitchen's worth of utensils and some stools. Ria was getting together an application for an ABC job. In the afternoon we ventured out to Ikea with Ria's family. I finally had some Swedish meatballs. They were good. I liked them. Ikea was an interesting place. Just the sheer size of the place is impressive. And the've got just about everything covered in there. Ria was getting the shits a little bit by this point, and I can empathise. Being "helped" by parents can be frustrating. They have good intentions, but some mistakes must be personal ones.

After returning triumphantly from Ikea, we set about unpacking a lot of the things in the apartment. Ria's family were a big help. This was the first time I'd been there in the afternoon, and having a beer watching the sun go down was nice. We had a few beers and some Thai food. It was great.

Saturday morning was a bit of a stressful time. Ria and I had a lot of work to get done that day, and unfortunately we were behind time a little bit. It didn't help when Ria's brother clogged the toilet. It must have been the Thai food. Ria and I bade her family farewell and then set about cleaning up Stanley Street.

The cleaning was good. Therapeutic. We had to lock the dog outside. She's messy. I was allowed to stay.

Once the carpet had been vaccuumed and the floors mopped Ria had a manicure. I bought a dinner shirt and a bow tie. We had a wedding on that afternoon.

After eating a burger for sustenance I left Ria at Stanley Street and headed off to Manly, via Carindale for a new watch battery, where I picked up Lil. It was lucky I picked up Lil as I had washed the new dinner shirt, and it needed to be ironed. Al is indeed lucky to be going out with Lil as she is an excellent shirt ironer. (Just kidding, he's lucky for many more reasons than that)

And that's all I'm going to talk about now.

I think that I just won a television. We'll see how it goes.

Local And Loving It

2007-09-26T07:48:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-25T07:31:00.001+10:00

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'

2007-09-22T08:23:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-10T07:45:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-05T07:36:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-04T07:48:00.000+10:00

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.

Kilt Dress

2007-08-30T07:14:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was a massive day. It was also a Wednesday. It was the day after a lunar eclipse.

So the buildup to the massive day was nice. Tony came over. We had some pizza. Watched Australian Idol and checked out the red moon in the ad breaks. It was good.

Wednesday morning and things were going well. I had a couple of meetings coming up during the day, but I was able to get most of the work done that I wanted.

I headed out at 10:30 to drop off some accounts, do the shopping and have a talk with my Dad. I was kept waiting for a while, but I managed to drop off the accounts and talk with my Dad. The talk went okay. Apparently when he says that he'll support me with any choice I make, he actually means any choice that I make that he agrees with. I don't think that he realises that there is a difference.

I missed out on doing the shopping, but that's okay, there's plenty of stuff in the cupboard for the schoolies to have for afternoon tea.

Lunch time came, lunch time went. No lunch. Bummer. I did get my hands on some sandwiches later on though, and they were good.

In the afternoon I was attending a meeting with the Department of Child Safety. It was a pretty heavy meeting. I don't think that I'd like to have a job with them. Trying to figure out action plans and things like that is not much fun. I guess there would be a reward. But I don't think that it's for me. It was a very heavy atmosphere.

After the meeting I returned to the centre. It was still standing, but things had gone a little hay wire. There was a little girl who were looking after for just the afternoon who started dropping f bombs. Apparently she was dropping them from a great height as well. I had no idea. Every time I've spoken to her she has always seemed like such a sweet little thing. When I was talking with her later in the day she was her usual self. I couldn't believe it.

Getting staff together has also been a tough task this week. We had originally organised someone from an temping agency to come for about 3 weeks. Then one week into it I thought that I had found a permanent employee. So I told the agency person not to come in. Then the person that I had tried to employ stiffed me. She gave me some bullshit reasons.

The really annoying thing here is that she rang me looking for a job. I was doing her a favour.

And yeah, Wednesday was a big day.

Probably the icing on the top was that I cooked for Ria for the first time in our 18 month relationship. I gave it a solid C+. It could have been better, it could also have been much much worse. I mean, it could have had some kransky in there!

Suffer This

2007-08-28T07:43:00.000+10:00

Friday night's drive up the coast was pretty epic. We managed to make a pretty early get away, 5 o'clock, toughed it out in traffic for a while, then hit the open road. That's when the weather turned really bad. There were times when it was actually pretty scary. David drank some beers to calm his nerves. Stuart did a good job though, and the car stayed on the road and we made reasonable time. With the wind and the rain, it was a bit of a nightmare trip. We passed a semi-trailer that had fallen off the road and into a ditch. There was also a landslide that blocked half the highway.

Brody's in Gympie was good. At least I thought it was. Apparently everyone else wasn't that impressed. Which is a shame. Because I really like it. The pineapple fritters are terrific. I think that the Brody's gave some of the others some pretty bad gas, which then tainted their experience. I guess their digestive systems just aren't up to it.

Arriving in Hervey Bay was good, finding where we were staying was a little tricky. We did make one wrong turn, but it was okay, because it took us past a bottle-o where I could buy some big Woodies.

There was also a creek crossing that was a bit exciting. It was during the return creek crossing that David said what is the funniest line he has ever said.

Saturday morning everyone was up early so we could be picked up by the bus. Whale watching was unbelievable. I highly reccommend it. It was amazing. They stopped the boat about a hundred metres away from the whales then told us to start making some noise and wave our arms around. I thought that it was a wind-up. Why on Earth would some whales be attracted to a boat by some noise and a bit of hand waving?

Well, I don't know why on Earth they were, but they were. They swam over to us and were with us for over an hour. It was unbelievable. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. There were times when you could almost reach out and touch them. The water was so clear, and so blue, and here were these immense creatures looking up at us, and snorting and groaning and covering us with their snot less than 3 metres away. It was amazing.

Coolest thing that I have seen in a long time. Fantastic.

There were also some dolphins and turtles.

The rest of the Saturday was pretty crap. It was frustrating. Very pointless.

Saturday night was a different story. I caught up with Rowan at the Bayswater hotel. It was a good time, except I had to keep blowing my nose. It was interesting being with Rowan as there were at least three people in the pub that he'd "done". People that he'd arrested. One was an even a guy that had tried to escape his arrest. Rowan got him though. He was pretty big.

Saturday night was a good time.

Sunday morning was my Grandmother's birthday. We had a breakfast to celebrate. It was also a good time. Except for when my Dad didn't have the patience to wait for his breakfast quietly and felt the need to feed a sparrow with Ria's toast. To be fair it was a pretty long wait. But Dad should probably have waited to use his own toast for crumbs.

Then at the end of the breakfast there was going to be one last photo. But Dad dropped his dopod off the boardwalk and into the water below. Whoops!

I drove home on Sunday. We made good time.

This is my last week of being alone in the office at work. I'm looking forward to the return of my co-workers next week.

Yesterday I had a ten minute conversation with a delivery driver who told me about how he likes to push his van to its limits when he's making deliveries. Apparently he used to drive up Mt Tamborine regularly. Had a few near misses. Used to get it sideways all the time. Loved it. Taught himself to drive. When he was seventeen. Been driving since then.

This guy was a dropkick.

Face Space

2007-08-22T07:05:00.000+10:00

I've been feeling a little bit frustrated with my family recently and I don't really know what to do about it.

Recently certain members of my family have been taking it upon themselves to organise things that are then compulsory to attend. I know, I know. How can things be compulsory when you're fucking 25? Well, I don't know. I guess I'm just a little pussy who doesn't want to rock the boat.

Yesterday was Ria's birthday. I bought her a voucher for a hot air balloon so that she'll be able to keep me company when I go.

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday. I bought him a jug to replace the one that I bought at Christmas time which is now gone. This one is metal. And pink.

So last week when we everyone was together we spoke about when we should have the family dinner thing for the joint birthdays. Ria and I said that we'd be going out to dinner on the Tuesday. Nanna said that was good, because she plays bowls on a Tuesday and it's a bit much to play bowls and then make a roast. So we decided that it wouldn't be Tuesday.

While my phone was down last week I received a message from my Aunt to say that the dinner was to be on the Tuesday. My father had obviously been upset that things weren't going his way and thrown a bit of a tantrum.

This weekend we are all going away en masse. For the whole weekend. Friday night. Saturday. Saturday night. Sunday. We're going to watch the whales frolick in the waters off Hervey Bay.

There's a couple of reasons for this trip. The first is that it's something that Mum always wanted to do, and ran out of time. The second is that Dad wants to have a family meeting, one where he's able to unveil his grand family legacy. Apparently it's all he's been working on recently. I was given a copy of it last night. It's 70 pages long. I haven't been game to read it. I think that it'll just make me angry.

So once we arrive in Hervey Bay everything will be timetabled. I think that the plan is for "drinks and nibbles" on the Friday night. Saturday morning it's up and at 'em pretty early for the whales. After the whale watching there will be a short break, followed by a lecture from Dr Robb (Managing Director Musgrave Financial Group) where he will go through his manifesto. I can't fucking wait.

The plan from there is for a barbecue with some more drinks. I'm going to fuck off at that point because I'll have had enough. I've got a mate who lives up in Hervey Bay, so Ria and I will go and see him. Dr Robb was saying last night that my friend should come to the barbecue. It's not going to happen.

Sunday is actually my grandmother's birthday. That should be nice. I think that a family breakfast has been pencilled in. After that we are free to make our own way home.

So the thing is, I don't know how to react to this sort of stuff. It was pointed out to me that my current approach of acting out is a bit juvenile. But I guess that's how I feel. As though my opinion doesn't count and as though what I want doesn't count. I think that I'll need to be clearer in future. Let people know that when they make plans without including me, then there's a good chance that I won't be involved in them. I'm sick of being told what I am going to do, instead of being asked what I would like to do.

Fuck. This shit really pisses me off. I'm not 15 anymore.

Don't Stop Pushing

2007-08-20T07:34:00.000+10:00

I've been having some troubles with mobile phones recently. Firstly there was the one that was lost at Splendour. Then I received my replacement one, which was good, apart from needing to find all the old phone numbers. Finally, last week sonmething else happened to the new phone. Now, I'm not blaming anybody. But somebody left their hair straightener on after they'd finished using it. And then that hair straightener melted my new phone charger. Really, we were lucky that was the only thing that melted. It could have been the whole house. With us in it! And that would have been horrible.

So the past few days I've been without a phone again as it has run out of juice. I've got it charging up again now on an old charger, but it was out of action for a few days.

It was actually kind of nice. The only thing that I didn't really like about it was that it wasn't there when I wanted to use it. And it's very handy for keeping numbers. The whole ringing thing though, well, I could probably do without that. I mean, nine times out of ten it's somebody on the other end that I want to speak to. But occasionally it will be somebody that I don't really want to talk to. Somebody who is going to be telling (not asking) me what I am going to be doing. It's very frustrating. You can have all these plans, and then some dickhead who is related to you decides that they're not happy with what's going on and stuffs everything up. Oh well.

So this past weekend was good. Saturday was a quiet day, I think that I was pretty worn out from work. Even though it was only a four day week, I was pretty zonked. I'm feeling much better this week, so hopefully I'll be able to maintain the rage for five days straight, but we'll see what happens.

Saturday night was spent in a bar. It was good. I held things together pretty well. I had jaegerbomb right at the end. I left soon after. Ria told me that when I got home I decided to get naked in the kitchen. Then I put all my clothes back on again because the dog was getting a bit excited.

Sunday morning I was up and at 'em bright and early to head down the coast with the boys. We were going rowing. It was great. There was abundant use of the c-bomb. It was used in many different contexts. Negative. Positive. Neutral. I think that it was even used as a verb at one point, which was impressive.

The weather was a bit shitty. And the conditions on the water weren't the best. But it was a lot of fun. I was up in the bow and was thrown around a bit. I think that I'll have some nice bruises. I guess I just need a bit more time in the boat, in the surf. Get a bit of the mongrel about me again.

I drove out to Ferny Hills yesterday. It's a long way away.

Airbrush Set

2007-08-16T07:33:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was a public holiday and for that I am very thankful. It is nice to have the week broken up by a fairly random holiday, and it's been a little while since the last one. Unfortunately it will be a little while before the next one. Which is Christmas.

Tuesday was a hectic day at work. I was running pretty late in the afternoon, but I managed to pick up all of the children that I needed to. I almost forgot some cakes, but I had left them on the front seat of the car, so when I went to leave in the evening I saw them and was able to make sure that they got to their respective homes.

In the morning on Tuesday I found a beetle. It had some amazing colours. Very pretty. A deep blue, an azure I guess, with a vivd red pattern on it. It was very beautiful. I tried to take a photo of it, but I couldn't get it in focus. I took it with me up to the school, and when I was up there I gave it to the prep teacher. She was very excited, but then again Mrs Klonakis is very excitable. One of the mothers told me that it was a harlequin beetle, but after looking at a few pictures of harlequin beetles on the internet, I think that she is wrong. It certainly was amazing, and it brightened up my morning to no end.

I've recently had to make a decision about employing somebody. We have a vacancy at the centre currently, and we are using an agency as a replacement until Louise gets back. I received a phone call from a lady that I know, saying that she is looking for work. She has experience and all the necessary paperwork and stuff, the only thing is that she is a single mother with a child. The reason that she is leaving her current job is because they have cut her hours back. They have cut her hours back because she has been taking a lot of time off work to look after family issues. I hope that she doesn't need to take too much time off when she's working for us. Her parents get back from Italy next month, so hopefully they'll be able to help.

Anyways, time for work now. Again. I'm glad that it's Thursday. Thursdays can be tough, but I can pretty much do Fridays with my eyes closed.

Bulk Meat

2007-08-14T06:50:00.000+10:00

My weekend was not a particularly nice one. It definitely wasn't very exciting. (Did you see that I just spelled definitely the right way!) I didn't feel very well for much of the weekend, and neither did Ria. Ria probably feels sick because I have been coughing on her for the past week. It might be something else, but I doubt it. She has no doubts.

So I had a big weekend of movies and coughing and spluttering. Friday night it was Pan's Labyrinth with Japanese food. That night's sleep was particularly disrupted.

Saturday was a big day. Ria and I had a discussion over how she ended up being sick and then I went out. I went to the Carindale home where I was able to pick up my replacement phone. I also spoke to David whilst there. He had a sweet Wallabies shirt that was given to him at work by a XXXX representative.

Next up I headed over to Carindale shops where I saw Tony. While I was with Tony I picked up a new sim card for myself, and a new sim card for the centre. Tony and I spoke about several things, then we went our separate ways. When I arrived at the car I remembered that I needed to buy Auntie Susan a pair of Crocs. I bought her a light blue pair. From Rebel Sport.

After completing the shopping I drove to my Grandmother's house where I participated in a working bee. There wasn't actually too much for me to do, but I did what I was asked. One of the tasks was to empty a drum that had some 20 year old horse manure in it. The manure had been kept fresh by some rainwater, and I believe that the plants I fertilised with this mixture will grow extremely quickly and robustly. Nanna thinks that it will kill them.

Saturday night I returned to my Grandmother's for Auntie Susan's birthday celebrations. I was not much fun as I kept coughing my heart out. It was not very nice. The food was lovely though, and we made pretty good time on the washing up, so that is a plus.

Somewhere during the day I managed to slip in Idiocracy. It was enjoyable. Some parts were a little silly.

Sunday was a day of rest. I watched a few movies. First up was Perfume. Then there was some Hungry Jacks. Ria had the Ultimate Double Whopper. It was a very large burger. It looked good, but I don't really like bacon, so I just had a regular double whopper. Then we watched Dreamgirls. The final movie for the night was Ten Canoes. It was my pick of the Sunday viewing. I think that I cried at the end of Dreamgirls, but that's nothing new.

On the crying front, yesterday wasn't a bad day. It was a very busy day at work, so there wasn't any time for moping around. I went home last night and saw the rest of the family. We had fish and chips. I think that I ate some sweetlip and some flake. And a pineapple fritter. It was good.

I am anticipating another busy day at work today, but tomorrow is a public holiday and I am excited about that. I just want to rest and get back to being fighting fit. I am sick of being sick. It sucks. The only good thing is when I cough up a massive green loogie in the shower and it sticks to the tiles before slowly sliding down the drain. That's pretty much the only good thing.

Ant In My Tea

2007-08-10T17:24:00.000+10:00

It's been quite a big week this week. Not a tear your hair out kind of week. Not a get wasted every night kind of week. Just a big week of work. The fact that I had a bit of a relapse and have felt like death warmed up hasn't exactly helped. The fact that there are a lot of people out there who feel exactly the same way that I do hasn't helped much either. It's been a shit week, but it's over now, and I am thankful for that.

So the director at work, Louise, is away at the moment. She is in New York for her cousin's wedding, then she is heading over to the UK for some sightseeing with her mum. It should be a good trip. I've been left in charge, which is very exciting. Well, not really. It's not very exciting, it's pretty much business as usual. Except I haven't got someone else to help with the boring stuff like answering the phones. So it's been an interesting week, and I have found it difficult on occasion to have the time to do everything. The afternoons, in particular, can find me trying to be in a couple of different places at once. The fact that I lost my phone over the weekend certainly hasn't helped.

But now the week is over, I am feeling much better and a new phone is in the post. Next week will be a much better week.

I'm now living in someone else's house again. It's on Stanley st this time, next to the house that I was in last time. It's a bigger house than the last one, and most would say that it's a nicer house, but I kind of prefer the other one. Sure, it was cold, had no bench space and you could hear everything that was happening in the housing commission flats across the road, but I liked it. It had a certain charm.

This place has charm, it's just that I am yet to find it. We're looking after a dog here. Her name is Jess. She is really friendly and has lots of energy. She is sort of a replacement child for the couple whose house it is. She's a bitsa and Ria and I are both fairly sure there is some dingo in her somewhere. She has that dingo look, and that dingo walk. She's a very bright girl, and pretty well behaved. It's just that she leaves a lot of hair everywhere, and I'm constantly worried that I'm not doing enough with her.

There is some other cool stuff here in the house. There's a pool table. There's a nice barbecue area. There's a projection screen television. There's a pinball machine. There's a bar. The kitchen is fairly modern, and Ria and I have our own room downstairs. It's just not the same. Maybe it's just that I haven't gotten used to it yet. Maybe it's just that I've been too busy to enjoy it properly yet. Maybe it's just that I'm a whinger. Whatever. I'm sure that I will change my tune.

I've been pretty bummed about losing my phone. I've been a bit lost without it. The new one is on it's way, and once it arrives I'll have to get a new sim and things, but finding all those old numbers is going to be a pain. I feel that some of them may be gone forever. And all the photos. There were some sweet photos on there. Lots of them are here on the blog, but there were lots that never made it up here, and that makes me sad.

Another thing that has been making me sad recently is that this weekend is the one year anniversary of my mother's death. Everytime I think about it I start tearing up. It's not that I feel down about it or anything, it's just when I remember it I feel sad. I guess I just really miss her and realise that she won't be coming back. This makes me sad.

It's pretty bad. Last night I was watching the news, and there was the story about how the Labor party has been going to the senior's homes and putting on shows for them, followed by a half hour of political grand standing. There were these two little old ladies on the screen, sitting side by side, and I don't know what it was about them, but just the vision of them sitting there was enough to get the tears going. Ria had some friends upstairs, and I was worried that they'd come down and find me watching the news with tears coming down my face. It didn't happen, but it would have been a bit weird.

I originally thought that this was going to be a pretty quiet weekend. Just hanging out with Ria and going for a row on Sunday morning down the coast. That all changed with one phone call yesterday. I was at work, during the afternoon rush, when somebody came and told me that my grandmother was on the phone. She was ringing to inform me that there was a working bee and a dinner at her house this Saturday. Then I found out that there was a party that I will be going to on Saturday night. All of a sudden a relaxing weekend of nothing has gone down the drain. Oh well. It'll probably be for the best. I don't think that I'll be drinking though. I don't think that I'll be drinking for a while. Last weekend has sorted me out for a while.

Reckless Behaviour

2007-08-07T07:00:00.000+10:00

This past weekend saw me venture down to beautiful Byron Bay to take part in the Splendour In The Grass festivities. It was ripping.

I was down there from Friday night enjoying the clean air, the fresh breezes and the festival atmosphere in town. I was surprised as to how much the show takes over the town, everyone you see down there is getting ready to go to the show. I was amazed.

I was fortunate enough to be staying with Stuart's girlfriend's friends. We had a top level apartment opposite the beach. It was very nice. Apparently the place is for sale, with a $5 million price tag. Tell em they're dreaming.

So I had packed my swag and the first night I only had a couple of Big Woodys so that I would be feeling reasonably fresh. The sun seemed to come up awfully early down there, so I did a little bit of reading while the rest of the house woke up. Eventually I went for a swim, which was nice.

The weather wasn't the best to start off with. The day was very grey, there was even a light sprinkle. I'd heard horror stories of the mud at Splendour and had packed some wellingtons just in case. Seeing as it was raining, I thought it would be a good time to put them on. So I did.

From here my behaviour became a little bit reckless. I was with Stuart and this other guy who likes to be called Tickle. He was a pretty loose cannon. We walked through town, past the atm, past the bottle shop (where we were given some great beanies) and out of town. As we were passing an Ampol service station someone yelled out to Tickle. There was an apartment above the service station, and we went in there for a little while. There were more people exhibiting reckless behaviour in the apartment, so we left.

It was around this time that I discovered something wasn't quite right inside of me. I don't know if it was the excitement of the coming day, an undercooked breakfast chop or some other ailment, but there was something inside of me trying to break loose. Seeing as I was to be using port-a-loos all day this was a concern.

Well, I wasn't really all that concerned. By this stage I was a little bit drunk, so I was more excited than anything else.

After lining up for a while, and being concerned about some of Tickle's behaviour we were in. We bought some drink tickets and then some drinks and that's about it.

I wish I could say more about the day, but to tell you the truth, I don't really know. There was some reckless behaviour. There was some careless behaviour. I know that I saw some friends, and I hope that I didn't see some other people. I know that when I "came to" Lily Allen was about to take the stage, so the day wasn't a complete write off. I did lose my phone though, and that is a major bummer. I'm normally pretty good with phones and things, this is the first one I've ever lost. I am pretty annoyed that it's gone. It had some great photos on it.

After Lily Allen finished up I walked back into town. It seemed to take a long time. I'm glad that I was alone at this point, or otherwise I may have whinged about what a long time it was taking to get in. When I got back to the apartment I pretty much crashed out straight away.

The next morning the sun was up early again, and this meant that so was I. I wasn't feeling too bad, just not too good. My earlier stomach problems had been sorted out the day before, and I'd been drinking plenty of water and things. I picked myself up and headed out for another swim. The weather was much better on this Sunday morning. The water was beautiful. I stayed in there for a while. When I came out of the ocean I was feeling rejuvenated. Fresh even. So I had a beer.

The Sunday was a much more successful day personally. I had a great time. I was able to see all of the bands that I wanted to. I was feeling good about myself. I managed to hold onto all of my personal possessions. It was great. Airbourne where an early stand out. Those guys were just rocking as hard as the could. The singer was even rocking out from 2 levels above the stage, which was pretty reckless. He was holding on with just one arm and a foot. If he'd fallen it would not have been pretty.

Also up on the Sunday were the Midnight Juggernaughts, Cut Copy, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys. These groups were all great. Arctic Monkeys were pretty tight. It was a great way to finish things off.

At the end of the show I went to use a bin, and who was using that bin at the same time? Coco. I hadn't seen him all weekend and was pretty excited to see him at this point. We walked back into town together. It took a long time. I wasn't as tired as the night before though, so no whinging.

I went and hung out with Coco for a while, from the state of his house it looked like there had been lots of reckless behaviour there, then I rugged up against the cold and felt my way home through the back streets of Byron. I got there in the end, and fell asleep quickly.

Monday wasn't a great day. I felt pretty fragile. Frail even. We cleaned up, and packed up, then hit the road. I couldn't even face any breakfast Red Rooster. It was shameful.

Getting back to Brisbane was nice, it seemed like the weekend was already a long time ago. I was pretty excited to see Ria. She wasn't excited to see me. This made me sad.

RickRoll'd

2007-08-03T17:26:00.000+10:00

All I really needed was a good night's sleep. While that isn't quite true, it is partly. I was finally able to get more than 2 hours deep sleep on Wednesday night and I felt a million times better Thursday. So I went to work. It was okay. The place hadn't fallen in on itself. The doors had still opened and everything had run smoothly. Here I was laying at home feeling guilty because I wasn't at work and worrying that they wouldn't be able to cope without me, when I didn't need to. They were fine.

So now it's Friday afternoon and I'm wasting a bit of time. Why? Because I'm a dick. I should be packing my bags and packing the car up so that I can get out of here and get down to Byron. Splendour is on this weekend and I'm pretty pumped. I was just looking at the timetable, and it looks like it should be fun. Getting loose as a goose will be great. Unless I get too loose and I get sick again. Especially if this happens on the Saturday. I will need to show a bit of restraint.

The sun is just about down now. I should go. Maybe I need a list?

I'll pack some jumpers, a jacket. A sleeping bag or two. A pair of sunglasses. Clean underpants. Clean socks. Gumboots. A drink bottle. A back pack. Hmm. A magazine. Some headache tablets. Some cold and flu tablets. I should probably take down something to eat. I don't know. I've never done this before. Last week I was thinking about taking down some big woodies to drink in the car. That was if Stuart was driving, of course. But now I'm driving and I just want to keep my head down. So that's what I am going to do.

I'm going to go now. I've wasted enough time. It's despicable.