Ben - and the living is easy.

Not been up to much. Reading, cooking, cycling, beach. Recomend a book called Stiff by Mary Roach about human cadavers and their various uses and 1688: a Global History by John E Wills about most of the world in the year 1688.

David - Oh Yeah - This is Going Well...

I. So. Love. My. Life.

Have been in the Portsmouth Hilton since 7 Jan - and don't think I will leave until 16 Feb. Then I will be in the Trafalgar Hilton (woot) from 16 Feb to 7 March. At least they normally give me a suite overlooking Trafalgar Square (can you say travel wanker?). Of course that is this weeks plan.

Went head to head with the CIO for an hour today. I think she blinked before I did. One of those weird moments of realising that technically I have power... just so long as no one calls my bluff. Like being the Devil in that Piers Anthony book (that's a Guy shout out).

Otherwise - still waiting for Godot.

Becstarr : Negotiating dates

Contracts, meetings and phone calls as I negotiate which job I will be in in a few weeks' time. It's a bit stressy, but necessary. I'm going to be happy when it's sorted!

Anna : You're just too hip baby ... uh huh huh

As I walked home last night the "cool" people seemed to be out in force. A Voltron black lion t-shirt, several shamelessly hip tattoos and me, filthy and smelly from boxing in a 35 degree room ... luckily I had my Bec-approved asymmetrical 'do!

Other news, our sink has become electrified and the blackouts are now daily so something's awry in the state of Yorga.

Evelyn - there's got to be another hall?

New venue for ceroc, only room for about a third of the people on the dance floor at any one time. Got my ankles painfully stepped on on four different occasions.

David - Losing My Composure

So. Still in New Hampshire. IT still saying that we will be ready 'tomorrow'. Kind of like the Annie song - you know - "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'll love you tomorrow - its only a day away."

On the plus side my 'frustration level' (business speak for 'pissed off') has reached the point that I used the phrase "f*cking ludicrous that we continue to believe this bollocks" with a very senior manager today. A first in 'inappropriate, non-diplomatic speak' for me.

It may get my point across...

Shannon: Snow-ronic

Well the lovely dump of snow we were hoping for has finally arrived. But its so sad to see all this snow on the ground saying "play with me" when all the unis and schools are closed BUT UBC, so it's off to work for me :(

Becstarr : Holidays and a haircut

Had an SDO on Friday and went for a haircut with Anna at Furr. Like most haircuts, it took some getting used to (to be honest, I was coveting the Annazon Funk Factor, with her asymmetric Irish cut!), but it's settling in well now. :)

Picnicked in the park with Karinne for Australia Day, rested on Monday, and went out to spend the evening with Jj and Mum on Tuesday. Jess is into her final week with us now, so it's all farewell drinks and last family gatherings!

Anna : You have so much to teach me grasshopper!

What happened to the clever little ant who spent two days cooking and preparing food to put in the freezer and pull out over the next fortnight? Midnight power failure.

Evelyn - you mean exercise hurts

One month late, I've started my must exercise more routine. Believed Stumptuous when she said squats are important. Paying for it today.

Also, ceroc dancing after drinking too much the night before - lots of dizzy!

Aussie Day: Sunburnt shoulders

Meant to head down to Point Perpendicular near Nowra for some climbing. Got stuck in traffic just past Wollongong, so did a u-turn and went to the beach instead.

Accidently got sunburnt at Windang beach.

Bumped into Surly at Bowral on Monday, who was doing the first coffee run of the day at 1pm or so.

David - Yeap. Thats' some weather right there...

Still in New Hampshire. Snowing all day so we have an additional 2 feet of snow on the ground. Today is my 22nd consecutive day in the office working. Political warfare all over the shop.

So you can imagine that I am one Very. Happy. Vegemite.

On the plus side - new episode of The Wire tonight. More than a little disturbing that this episode and last Sundays' Patriots game (grid iron) have been the highlight of my week. I so very need to get out of here.

Dan - long long weekend, and birthday antics

Took friday off to round out a 4 day long weekend. Went out on Saturday night to see Billy Bragg (We went out! Me and Jen! All by ourselves!). The kids were looked after by Bec, my ma, and Jen's ma. Sunday morning was tennis (and at one point we all panicked as we realized Atty and Lori had gone missing - they'd let themselves out of the gate, and walked down to tennis by themselves. Those two specialize in mischief). Sunday afternoon was Atty's birthday, with all the uncles and aunties and cousins over to celebrate. Much food was eaten, and the kids had lots of fun in the pool. Today is a Quiet Day for us all, in preparation for the full week ahead. It's mid-afternoon, and only Dante and I are awake. The rest of the week will have us all at childcare, school, and work.

Back on my game

So I went to soccer today for the first time in a year and half. Was vastly relieved to find my foot was fine for both running and kicking the ball. Ballet has kept my muscles nicely in shape but my poor lungs didn't know what happened! All that cardio = hack, hack, hack. And as usual there was the full compliment of members from the Eastern European Misogynists Club, so hardly anyone passed me the ball. Still, it was a great achievement for me.

YL - Lock your car doors!

Waiting at a red light to turn at Cleveland & Abercrombie St at 1.15am today, random man comes up to my brother's passenger front door - opens it and attempts to grab whatever was in the seat. Had my large woolen shawl over my handbag. I was shocked, grabbed my things back, looked him right in the face and swore "you fucker" vehemently at him. Fortunately for me, he ran away. No weapons, no threatening words.

I've made a police report. Fingerprints to be taken later/Tue. If they catch they guy, I can probably ID him. *swears*

So Lock Your Car Doors When Driving and keep valuables safe. Try not to drive with windows down, handbags in easy reach on passenger seats.

This could have been ugly. Children might have been hurt/traumatised. I heard of this kind of thing happening before but first time it's happened to me. So just be careful out there guys.

Guy - Aus. Day-ish

You know the kind of day where you watch one episode of Rome. Then, being hard to top, you watch another, then another, then it's midnight?

It's kind of Australian, isn't it?

David - Bloody Ripper Mate

Turns out that an easy way to confuse the locals up here is to print 20 colour copies of the Australian flag, write a bunch of slang on them and whack em up around the office in honour of Australia Day. Sure its not sitting in the back of Rose St with your feet in the paddling pool, but at least it is SOMETHING non-US of A! Of course you then have to explain what a prawn is, just why you wouldn't want to be a galah and who the bloody hell decided that eating Vegemite was a good thing.

Oh - and it turns out that a 25 minute walk in -10 degrees celsius weather feels a darn sight longer. Especially when that wind kicks up. Of course after the first ten minutes you can't feel your face anyways.

PS: shout out to Joe in thanks for the Stop Petto Being Bored Foundation. Speaking of which - finally got Dawn of War: Dark Crusade working in my Bootcamp partition. Minor amounts of dancing around my hotel room involved in celebration.

Happy Haggis Day

Yesterday was Burns Day - Robbie Burns. And to celebrate my work had a Burns night featuring such highlights as the Selkirk Grace, Piping in the Haggis, The Address to the Haggis, eating of the Haggis, a recitation of a Man's a man for aw that, The Toast to the Lassies, The reply to the toast to the Lassies and much alcohol.

Evelyn - Groove is Back!

Last week at ceroc everyone kept running into me, stepping on me, hitting me in the head. Till, at last, had to concede it wasn't them - it was me.

But woohoo, I'm back with my follow-savant skills. No stopping me now!

David - Still Waiting for Godot

Yep. Still here in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Still waiting for a system to be built so I can fly to London and spend a month in another hotel. I think I will wander back down to the main street and see if someone has parked at a funny angle again.

My the exciting life of an international business traveller.

Am getting funny looks in the bar because I am reading "The God Delusion". By way of perspective - the guide book in my hotel room lists 2 pages worth of "Local places of worship".

Tancred - Thursday stuffs

I could not work out what was different about my trip to work today, then i realised it was not dark. The sun was almost up! One great thing about being this far north is, if it's clear I can see the sunrise after i get to work.

Halfway to work Edinburgh was hit by a blizzard. Thick heavy snow blown into your face and visibility of about 8-10 metres, but in true Scottyland style it was too wet to settle :(

Once at work I had a D'oh moment. Switch port security requires TWO Mac address's to work with VoIP, not one.

Becstarr : Interviewed!

Went for my first job interview in a long time today! It was very friendly and I feel like it went well. Next stop - home for roast chicken!

Dan - it never rains...

I'm now joining the over-stressed club. All major projects seem to have some big change of requirements or other snag, I've got two staff going and it'll be hard to replace them, and we're being kicked out of our nice office, and the kids are all ratbaggy (see Jen's various blog posts). At least I got to see the Blair Godzilla Project tonight (thanks to delightful Jen letting me have the evening off). 'twas a good movie.

Shoshe - Band (and uni)

We've got a band! B's on bass, C's on vocals, Dan (another one)'s lead guitar, and I play the drums. We've got the PR firm, so if we can get 80,000 more fans we can play in Sydney.

The semester started yesterday, so we're not gonna have a chance to "practice" for a while. Unless we head over to C and D's place after our Australia Day party...

PS: Astrophysical Processes scares me :(

Anna : Yeah, I know what you mean

Ken (not Kenneth, Ken ... I think he was in the engineering review) pointed a accusing finger at me yesterday as he wandered off to do his last shift at the Access Labs before uni starts up again. "I'm still there!" he cried, with a bit of a sad / manic look in his eyes. I shrugged and indicated the halls of ICT, hoping that said "As am I!"

YL - cant shake the access labs

It has been approx 5 years since I worked in the access labs. However, today on the bus back from RPA, SOMEONE recognised me and said "hey I know you, from the computer labs. You used to work there in the early 2000s. You've grown fatter!" *insert his pat on my arm*

Just imagine a much older tallish Chinese guy with black Einstein hair. And wispy whiskers. You get my drift. He was a little too familiar for comfort.

After he questioned me on what I was doing now, he then wanted my card so he could come and see me as a patient!! I explained, that unfortunately I dont have a card. No no, I'm not a GP. That takes another 5 years of training. No no, I'm just a lowly intern at the hospital.

This conversation took place in 1 bus stop travel time! Thank god I could get off the bus. Now I have to shower. A lot.

Gah. Why do all the strange ones want to keep talking to me ...... ..... help!

Becstarr : Making friends with the sofa

Spent three days straight at home sick on the sofa.

Shannon - Samurai Film Festival begins!

We checked out Samurai Rebellion. OMG, Toshiro Mifune is awesome!

Jen - Almost back at work

Elora's first day at child care today. I spent the majority of the time in there with her. She did well. Just need to work on sleeping in a new bed.

Anna : Must. Deal. With. Stress. Better!

I've been feeling very stressed. Just before holidays my hands broke out in this "bubbling skin thing" which I was getting quite regularly in the final months at SBS. I'm eating more than I should, tried to go without drinking in January and lasted two weeks and today my chest is all tight. I got a book out on managing stress and it suggested :

* Walk to work rather than driving (check)
* Watch what you're eating (uh huh)
* Try to drink less (yeah, that went really well)
* Regular exercise, especially yoga (doing that)

Which leaves :

* Try to breathe deeper throughout the day (it's a good time to do this, office mate is away so I won't get called on what can sound like constant sighing)
* Get a massage (I have still never had a massage, maybe it's time)

Also don't have a full week of work for 3 weeks running due to training, public holidays and SDO's ... that'll help right?

Jaime - Running in terror

Saw Cloverfield and actually liked it.

falsedan - nah don't get me a kebab

Just saw a dude on the street on the phone, with the tell-tall erratic walk: "yeah I'll be at yours in just a minute … nah don't get me a kebab … nah don't get me a kebab!"

Saw Charlie Wilson's War on Thursday; greyhounds and a cat and Hinds and ludicrous special-effects of Hinds shooting stuff and then getting blown up. I would not have like to see it as part of a TV series, but I'm looking forward to more movies written by West Wing alumni.

Channel Four has a cooking series called The Big Food Fight, involving Jaime oliver, Gordon Ramsey and some other guy called Hugh. Hugh's contribution was running a chicken farm, half free-range and half 'standard' birds, to show living conditions of chickens raised for meat. Jaime did a show which was half dinner gala and half current-affair-type exposé of the poultry industry (including sitting the RSPCA rep next to the poultry farmers' spokesman. Gordon Ramsey had done a 3-hour cookalong >:|

Evelyn

Wire Season 2, hooked again. Waiting for the last two episodes to download.

Eugene - ART!

It has been a weekend of Sydney Festival for Kim and I. Started yesterday with a free event at Darling Harbour called Water Fools. Being free we were early to get good seats. Being raining, we also got wet. So sitting for 2 hours plus for the delayed show to start did not left us in the best mood but the show was fun and impressive nonetheless and the weather was nice enough to give us no rain for the duration of the performance.

This morning we got up extra early to trek out to Martin Place to see if we could score some Tix for Nix, a promotion Sydney Festival has on to encourage more people attending these things rather than paying the $50-80 prices that is standard for each show. We rock up about half hour before the booking office opens and line was already quite extensive such that, by the time it got to us, everything was sold out down to our 4th (and last) choice, Mortal Engine.

So have just got back from that and have got to recommend those still in Sydney to go see it. It is a contemporary dance piece but the visual and audio elements were amazing and were much more engaging than the usual subjective chaos that is contemporary dance. Signal and noise; light and shadow - amazing show.

Guy - Is it safe?

I'm all out of painkillers and the world is a scary place. If someone recommends having your wisdom teeth out as a good idea for a holiday, don't listen to them. 

David - Waiting for Godot...

So, here I am - still sitting in Portsmouth waiting for my IT dept. to actually deliver the application so I can get involved in testing and hopefully fly to London at some point in the next decade.

Ho hum...

Becstarr : Grandaddy and his glory

Work was suX0r, but I worked off the agression with a run at the gym and after a restorative burgerlicious (zorba wrap, recommended!) was able to get into the character creation evening for Joe's upcoming Pendragon game. I've got the remarkably bearlike pagan knight Ursul to start with; still need to find a good name for dad and grandaddy.

YL - back in Sydney & intern orientation

Made it through 2 days of non stop lectures from 8am-5pm complete with 30min talks on handwashing and 1 hr on disaster training (so to speak). But I think I know how to fill in the complex national medication chart now!

Also met some lovely new people & hopefully new friends. All UNSW people. God knows the USyd ones keep to their own groups. Lol. 2 more days of lectures to go. Is it a consolation that one is getting paid?

My ID badge picture is great! And it says "Dr" and "Medical Officer" *beam* 7 weeks to go to full validity! Woot.

Becstarr : Finally, the Harbour seems beautiful

Caught the Jellie's wonderful news and headed off in high spirits for an overdue catchup with Dave. Big walk from his place in Darlo down to Mrs Macquarie's Chair. I've never really understood the thing most people have about the harbour being beautiful (I prefer a less developed skyline myself :), but this particular evening was dark and quiet and lovely. I got it. :)

Kit - Stress Relief

Stress relief antidote to working long hours? Head home and spend an hour or so brewing up some pumpkin soup.

Anna : Another Brick in the Wall

Was _definitively_ productive today. Trying to catch up and clean up after the busy shambles I became at the end of last year running after my big ITIL vs ICT Training Project.

Highlight of the day was this morning in yoga class when I made the transition between Child's Pose with arms stretched forward and Cobra Pose without face planting OR belly flopping!

Link of the day! (Mostly SFW but does contain underwear clad bottoms) : http://www.supernaturale.com/articles.html?id=70

Anna : Breathe!

I think I got a lot of work done today ... or maybe I just artfully procrastinated ... not sure. I had a large coffee earlier in the day and now I feel a bit panicky. Thankfully boxing starts up again today, boxing solves all ills!

Also, cooked a lamb and red lentil dhal over the weekend and the lid coming off the paprika bottle was a very delicious accident!

Shannon: Ballet + Flamenco = Ouch

So yesterday I went back to my first flamenco class since the Christmas break. I have also enrolled for the Dancer Training class (essentially ballet+ sit-ups, weights) immediately before the flamenco class. So I got a solid two hour work out, which was awesome. But today I woke up this morning to find out that all my muscles have sent me a manifesto demanding that they get to ache and throb for another day before they'll go back to work.

Jaime - Feeling through the weather

I must have caught whatever Evelyn has when we talked to her the other week, cause thanks to my throat being crapulent, Shannon accuses me of having Evelyn's squeaky voice (I swear, I was only borrowing it).

Jaime - Feeling through the weather

I must have caught whatever Evelyn has when we talked to her the other week, cause thanks to my throat being crapulent, Shannon accuses me of having Evelyn's squeaky voice (I swear, I was only borrowing it).

Becstarr : Job abbloblication

Muggy day, catchup with cousin Andrew and still-new wife Linda, then home for what feels like hours and hours writing YA last-minute job app. I hates them.... but at least it keeps my hand in. I think I should at least get an interview. Thanks to G&A for pointing this one out!

Evelyn - Sick Days

Just spent two days home sick (seems there are at least two viruses sweeping the country), so now I'm addicted to Dexter. Damn, will the next episode hurry up and download!

Becstarr : So many others!

Spent all Friday in a conference room at very schmancy Shangri-La down at the Rocks at a vendor-sponsored APAC Users' Group for Blackboard. I wasn't sure how if it was going to be worth it (we haven't been involved before), but it definitely was! 20+ other unis / TAFEs represented. Very little hype, as far as I could tell. Met the support people. Next one in April.

Becstarr : Back to a seam-bulging office

Back to work, with a bunch of new people and returnees (from secondments etc). The office feels much fuller than other Januaries! Brain slowly coming out of holiday-mode, and it feels OK.... though I have started booking my next few breaks already (and discovered my contract is up on Jan 31st in the process! Yikes!).

Anna : Trying to forget the taste of chocolate ...

... apparently it can be done, if you don't have chocolate for long enough. Also trying not to be too jealous of Mr. McCulloch's extended summer holiday.

David - Leadership for a New Tomorrow

Back in New Hampshire continuing my ongoing theme of not spending time in New York! The tele is wall to wall New Hampshire Primary ads. Thank heavens they vote today and the insanity should alleviate until a Presidential candidate is picked. Still an outside chance I will be in London by the weekend.

YL - 2008 already?

Had a great time relaxing in Berlin. An actual holiday instead of a working one with my grandma. I'm pleased to be finished with 2008. Hopefully we can all look forward to an equally interesting/better year?

Evelyn - GoodReads

Think I'm catching Tancred's cold, so spent the weekend at home on the web - started a bookshelf at GoodReads in an attempt to read more (and spend less time pfaffing around on the web).

Becstarr : Peaches for breakfast

Well, peaches for brunch actually, and choose-your-own-adventure omelettes. Karinne and I put on brunch for some fine people including Hugh, KC and the fantastic Mr Sheely, back over from UWA for the holidays. Catching up with Stephen was a very wonderful, and on reflection, was the best possible way to get myself mentally ready to return to work the next day. Feels like 2008 is starting to get into gear...

Back from the Snowies

Back from the road trip down to the Snowy mountains. Did the Blue Lake - Hedley Tarn walk, via Mount Carruthers. It was hot, and oh the march flies had a bit of a feast on me. But very beautiful and the flowers were out in bloom.

Dan - last weekend at home

My holidays are ending and I can't say I'm enthused about going back to work. Elora's still got fever (apparently it's probably roseola infantum) so we're all busy dealing with a sick baby rather than sipping daiquiris on the beach like we should be during the summer holidays. Atty officially finished his anticonvulsant meds yesterday - after more than a year of them he's finally medication-free. We're waiting to see how it goes.

Jaime - Conquering computers Chandraratnam style

Shans computer died on Christmas day, but thanks to Dave, a distro of Ubuntu and skype, we fixed the problem. Thanks Dave, you rock (darn, 2 sentences).

Becstarr : By the time we get to Tempe

Visited the Tempe Garden Centre spotted from the train yesterday and ended up gardening all day, even though we only bought four plants! The jungle-y-ness of the cage area is definitely up by at least 50%, and the purple potato vine has been given an escape route to the roof. Pizza and Conchords = sweet reward!

Jen - New Year laziness

Haven't done much so far in '08. Got the Xmas cards sent yesterday! Elora's got a fever again. Dante's at his cousin's place for a sleepover tonight. Atticus got a haircut today.

Becstarr : Burning Palms walk

Trained it out to Otford and walked for 4-5 hours: a big loop through palmy rainforest up to Burning Palms for a welcome swim and lunch, then up the mountain and back to Otford station. Made it home about 9:30, Indonesian in hand from the new place on the other side of Redfern station (recommended!). We were so tired that even the Conchords didn't seem very funny! But the walk and the quiet were totally worth it.

Snow!

Back at work again after Hogmany - and it snowed! Now I'm not annoyed that I didn't get to sleep through the morning.

Back to work - Shannon

So these past two weeks of eating, sleeping, playing games and just general relaxing have been totally awesome. Totally recharged the batteries. I hope it lasts; there are no long weekends until Easter.

Happy Two Thousand and Great

Back at work already ;_;

Jen - Last day of the year

Can't believe the year's over already. Worried about what the new year will bring. Unhappy to be going back to work. Watching the fireworks on TV at home while the kids sleep.

Hope everyone has a good night!

Jaime - Countdown

Hey Y'all. You guys got 3 hours to go. Wishing you all a happy new year. MD if your reading this, don't call us at 4 in the morning, we will be asleep. If you do, we're taking Dingus Diamond Dave back and you'll have to foist it on someone else.

Happy new year all, don't get too drunk.

Everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, we're just a bit behind on the new years, catch up real soon ;)

Hugs,
J

Becstarr : Blue and green

Went to Coogee to ride the waves - along with a large chunk of the Sydney population, it seems! The queue for the changerooms went halfway around the block at times! (Tip: Use the Coogee Bay Hotel toilets instead). Water was lovely and fish and chips afterwards were just right. Came home and planted out the peas and beans we got the other day, digging up an ancient rusted foxtrap in the process (!).

PROTIP: listen to the I'm Not There soundtrack

Saw I'm Not There; bit weird but good music and I want Richard Gere's boots.

Becstarr : Pickernicker

Annual Guy & Joe -fest in the park, which included saber fights, Coke chicken, skittles knocked over with footies, manifold frisbees, international and intersuburban guests, one baby out and one on the way, and a giant patchwork of quilts. Hurrah!

Ipod!

I got my new ipod yesterday. Its a shiny silver Classic (80gb). Which means it plays video so no longer will I see those listings of video podcasts and be constrained to watch them at my desk. And if I could get my calendar to actually export its contents instead of just a 0kb vcal file, I could synch that on my Ipod too.

Did I mention how shiny it is?

Xmas Holidays

My company decided to be very nice and give everyone Monday off (without charging us a days hols), and I won an ipod at the company xmas party raffle.

Tancred is sick, so have spent the last two days at home not being a particularly good nurse (can't quite get the hang of Age of Empires), watching Arrested Development, and eating too much (great roast beef, a little over-cooked roast pork but damn that was some fine crackling).

Jen - Merry Xmas y'all

Things have been busy hectic and chaotic... even more so than usual, combined with illness coming and going. Having a quiet day after a December filled with parties.

W00t - A Snowy Christmas!

We had a little Christmas miracle here with snow falling in the middle of Christmas Day. We went out and had a little wander round in the snow before it turned to rain. Had a nice, relaxing Christmas. Only the second time I've ever cooked turkey but it turned out great (brining is the secret!).

Dan - Xmas hijinks

Roaring, howling maelstroms of Xmas fun rolled over our house as we had a Burn (yesterday) and then a Wong(today) Xmas. Lots of kids had too much sugar and too much excitement, and so they haven't been sleeping. Since Atty's illness a couple of weeks ago, and since we've been weaning him off his anticonvulsants, he's been shockingly cranky all the time. Pretty much seem that by 10am he's over it all and ready for bed again. I'm hoping he'll be better soon.

Anyways, lots of awesome presents all round - Dante got RC cars (that's right, 2 of them), the boys got walkie talkies and a big cubby house, Jen got a DS game, and I got Lego.

Kit - Viewing the Christmas Lights

Drove out and around the 'burbs, viewing the Christmas lights. The Daily Terror had mentioned one particular street out west that was good: it was just one house, with mini nativity scenes, moving reindeer/donkey, mini house light up with lights in one window, and a snow scene in another. We thought that was quite good, until by chance we came upon a whole street's worth. There were many milling people, and three ice cream/snowcone/mr whippy vans ready to capitalise on small children.

Becstarr : It's a go-slow and I think I like it

Saw off the Tarlings with an early start for the big drive up to Bellingen, and after that big rush of departure, everything suddenly fell quiet. Spent the day getting used to going slower (soon I may even stop apologising for it!) and was happy to have made it to lunch with Ann, Rob and baby Bella (almost crawling now) and to Mum's for dinner with extended family guests. I could have easily fallen asleep at 3pm but it's good to spend Christmas in at least a little bit of a crowd!

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….

Dan - another week passes

So, I haven't been posting here much, reading too many RSSes to remember to post. Did lots of work stuff this week, got a bunch of long-overdue stuff done. Took yesterday off, and am now 65% done with Xmas shopping (helped by the various No-Xmas-Present pacts I'm involved in). Busy weekend ahead, lots of work to do before Xmas.

Anna : 500

This is post 500! Well done all! Beach this morning, huge waves that made the first morning beach of the summer feel a bit EXTREME!! Got to try out the cars new stereophonic music magic-a-nator and listened to Triple J on the way home!

Sun gone

Really not one sentence but...

After most of the snow went away yesterday, I decided to actually wear shoes instead of snowboots today. Fortunately, I looked outside before I left -- everything was white! The sky, the cars, the trees, the ground, the falling flakes...

My bus got to uni early enough for me to go to Coffee Hour. I usually just drink tea, but because I had been up until around 4am grading papers, I decided to try the caffeinated hot chocolate that I'd bought for the office. Big mistake. I don't know how much caffeine you absorb from that compared to coffee, but it's way more than I normally get from tea. Unpleasantly so. I'd recovered enough to do some work by around 2pm.

Then at 2:30 we got an email saying that the head of department said we should go home because of the snow. I didn't think the snow looked too bad, but all of the staff -- the people who've lived here for years -- thought it was bad. That was worrying. And I'd just missed my bus (we now live around 15-20 minutes away from uni by bus, and our bus comes once an hour). So I waited there, the only person on the whole floor, for almost an hour. Spooky. I got to watch people with a cherry-picker and a huge (pool?) brush try to keep wiping the snow off the building across from my window though. It's having structural issues, and apparently if more than 3 inches of snow accumulate on the roof it might collapse.

The bus came late but made it home okay (a friend of mine reassured me by saying "the buses here are tough as fuck, as are the drivers. I don't think they've ever shut down due to weather"). Now we're sitting on our couch with a fire in the fireplace, and I'm trying to finish grading my students' papers.

It was a weird day.

Ouch

I just figured out that the reason the sun coming through the window is hurting my eyes so much is because there's sun.

Just 20 more papers to grade and one paper to write. Yesterday I made a numerical model of the Earth's interior!

Shoshe -- getting there

Mineralogy is done (yay!), the seminar is done, and now there's just a term paper, a problem from a way overdue problem set (but I've handed the rest of it in), and grading 30 8-10-page papers.

Our snow is starting to melt. It's weird when the temperature goes above freezing.

Oh yeah -- the other day, first I realised that it wasn't snowing. Then I realised that there weren't any clouds. Then I realised that the sky was blue. It's funny how fast you can acclimatise.

Breaking glass

I broke the kitchen window trying to get a fly that was buzzing around indoors.

I chose a bad weekend to do so.

Yesterday, there were largish hailstones raining down in a summer storm. Pretty much every windscreen I saw afterwards was either cracked or missing.

I got the fly though!

Another Year Older

Wiser, hmm? A work xmas party provided free alcohol for the day, good. No snow, bad. (although we did get a few flakes on Saturday night)

David - Snow, Glorious Snow

I am back in Portsmouth New Hampshire for the week. This is about a 4 hour train ride north of New York. And it has been snowing. In fact the day I got here they had a mini-blizzard in my honour. You don't know quiet until you are walking back to the hotel from a pub down the way - no cars in sight, its the weee hours of the morning and there is snow falling around you muffling the few noises that are being made in the town.

Jaime - I'm a rock star

So apparently I am now "famous". Or at least thats what the cool kids say when your on youtube.



This was done for our christmas party. If only everyday was like this ;)

YL - Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

Yeap there is no escape now. We will HURT more bunnies!!

[Wii is releasing Rayman Raving Rabbids 2. Also, an Official Rabbid Site with bunny related news & videos.]

Anna : Yay Punching!

Too many people and too few bags has meant weeks without punching something. Well that all changed yesterday! 12 x 1 minute rounds with 6 rounds of 8 pushups and 6 rounds of 8 situps and about 35 seconds rest between each set. Finish it off with some punching above the head and 2 x 30 seconds on the bags and you a recipe for KICKING ARSE! I do believe I may STILL be high on the endorphins :)

Ben - Lazin' Around

Fourth day of hols, and relaxation is juuuust starting to turn to boredom. Weather clearing up quicker than expected; might make the beach before the weekend, if lucky.

falsedan - I got a parka from H&M

YL - just one more day

Yeah I have been telling myself that for weeks, nay months, nay years. And finally in terms of exams, it is just one (and three) more days. Written on Mon, practical on Wed. omg when will this be over? *insert pained cry* *shakes fist*

I will just say I am very ranty about a lot of things right now. still being a medical student, other medical students in the new 4th year, people who suggest that I was unsure about doing medicine (*shakes fist*), people who look down on me that it took +3 years to do this degree (hey my reasons were genuine compared to the person who had to repeat a year cos the person slept with a patient and came back to tell others about it!!) and random assortment of things - some completely unrelated to med.

omg please let this be over soon. I cant bear to do the dance of sucking up and placid smiles and purported interest anymore. I suck at being a medical student but I'm going to make a helluva better doctor than half this crowd. *gestures with frustration*

David - Dangerous Statistic

I found out tonight that if the subway gods are smiling on me it is a 60 minute trip from the front door of my apartment to the Apple store and back again.  This is of particular interest when you consider the fact that the NY Apple store is open 24/7.

I left my apartment at 8pm this evening, ran uptown, purchased an iPhone for a colleague in Australia and was back in my apartment by 9.10pm.  We all know how easily seduced I am by the shiny - this could get spectacularly dangerous.

Shannon - SNOW!

It's snowing, it's snowing, it's snowing!!! YAY!!!