Becstarr : Holiday farts

Slept in until 7:14am, thereby missing the early morning Spongebob Squarepants Movie that Joel entertained our young guests with. Farewelled the Craigs and was farted on in return (Ruby: "You're a palm tree, Bec! *climb climb* Goodbye! I farted on you!"). It was a very silly morning.

The rest of the day was far more cruisy, and included a GIANT MANGO for afternoon tea. P.S: GNC Glebe (aka Russells) is closing!! No!!!

Becstarr : Nailhold until last hour of workity work

Gritted teeth and held on til last hour of workity work at 3:30 on 21/12. Work requests in til last few hours. Productivity ragged but made it across the line and staved off a an incipient argument with a colleague. I am slowly learning just to let some things go.... especially when I'm about to go on two weeks of holidays!

Pub as usual with SJ and Al, no Petto but plus Bez & Shoshe, Dan & Dante, and MD and JT. Hooray! Festivities continued with Matt, Liz and the girls for dinner in Chinatown. Note to self: LEAVE OUT some of the details when explaining things to kids, e.g. why it's important to stand behind the yellow line on the train station. Don't illustrate with the interesting story about the autistic kid who was playing on the tracks a few weeks ago. Their imaginations are very vivid!

YL - It's the moon. And bunnies.

I've caught the skiing bug and more importantly for the first time, taken to the sport like a duck to freezing water! I am proud to be able to say that I skiied on the glacier by myself in the Austrian Alps! Ok blue beginner slope but wow for only 10 hrs total of Ski School over 3 days that's really not bad. Only pain I had was from my flat feet.

There are no trees up at 3000m and it really looks like the moon. Flickr pictures to come.

Who wants to go skiing in Australia next year?

Also, I will be learning bunny jokes in German. My friend Andrea died laughing the other night .... rabbit = kanichien. I am also attempting to learn some German but it is strangely harder than Italian.

I have a theory that people who understand my bunny jokes will make good friends. Anyone want to test this hypothesis? We can try in various languages. "Tu Zi Tu Zi!!!" Also, she has a doona cover from Ikea that is supposed to be wiggly heart shapes but seriously, it looks like BUNNIES!!

Evelyn - Staff Drinkies

The trouble with forgetting that staff drinkies is on is that when you do turn up you forget things like sensible consumption and keeping the water levels high. Double-decker buses seem to move a lot when going around corners.

Shoshe - Done!

The grades are in, as are my problem sets, presentations and term papers. We fly out on Wednesday!

Anna : Middling Sickness

Been feeling slightly iffy for about a week now, the stresses of the last 3 months walking my body slowly towards flu town. A sneeze here, a long tired afternoon there, and everyday it gets harder to get out of bed.

My question for the week is : How can Doug Liman films be so good yet so absolutely forgettable at the same time? I'm looking at you "Bourne Identity"

Tancred - It's far too hot today!

It was -8° when I headed off to work today. Once at work the lazy bum of a sun finally come up over the horizon and raised the temperature to an almost balmy -7°. Everywhere there is a thick 1-2cm of frost and ice along with black ice lying in wait on the footpaths. No idea where the gritters were this morning.

What has made the day truly special is that last night the server room A/C froze up and now one of the chillers has a large crack in the side. No cold air for us :( At the moment it’s 45° in the server room and the rest of the building has no heating. If only we had a window in the server room to open.

Cocktails in Glasgow

Spent Saturday night drinking cocktails in a lovely Art Deco bar in Glasgow in celebration of Kane's birthday. Then discovered that the party season means its impossible to get a bus or taxi home. Well almost, turns out you can skip the non-moving queue when a cab's booked ride doesn't answer and you promise them a big tip.

Overestimated my fitness

Did the adventure race on Saturday in the Avoca Beach/Terrigal/Central Coast area. 4.6km on the kayak, 8.5km on foot and 17.6 on the bike. Totally underestimated my fitness. Walked most of the running legs. Bloody Kincumber Mountain - Pushing bike up the narrow steep & rocky track up to the Wariwari look out - painful and disheartening. Compunded unhappiness because the mozzies hovered, ready to devour you if you paused for a rest. Hot. Got dehydrated. Still sore. Did I have fun? Ummmm….