Anna : Adam Curtis is trying to make me cry!

Watched episode one of The Trap last night and all of The Century of the Self last week. I think next Adam Curtis should make a documentary telling us how to fix all these insidious social controls that he's discovered.

Anna : Guy has a fuzzy head

Guy had his head shaved for charity. It looked pretty wrong for the first two weeks but now it has reached the lovely fuzzy stage and the poor man is submitting very gracefully to frequent head rubs.

YL - Survived Week 1

Being a secretary & organiser of events & paperwork is not tricky. However, thinking & knowing what to do is! Good thing I got thrown in the deep end with working in Emergency first up. =) So far so good. I will use the reason of "this is my first ____ (insert duration) as a doctor" for as long as I can!

Current motto : Try not to make stupid mistakes. Do/Learn something new everyday.

Be back in Sydney Anzac long weekend (drinkies?) & weekend after for my Graduation Ceremony at Sydney Uni on 2nd May at 2pm. Wooot!

Eugene: Opening Night of the "A Night of Horror Film Festival"

Have just gotten back from Newtown Dendy which is holding an International Horror Film Festival over the dext week and a half. Only really found out about it via the Dendy Weekly mailout so mailed back in for some free tickets. Strangely enough, I got them and since my tickets were the only ones blu-tacked onto the counter when I picked them up an hour before the film, my guess is that not too many people entered the competition.

Anyway, first film was "Flick", an English film about a ghoul powered by rock music in order to bring revenge upon those who wronged him. Not particularly orginal but fun nonetheless. Highlights include an incredibly botox'd Faye Dunaway as a one armed ex-prom queen Police detective and Ghoul view which looked at most things as they were 40 years ago. Nice use of comic books as exposition and speed the plot along and fun rockabilly music.

Definitely considering seeing more of the festival.

Ben - Damn apathetic kids!

Yesterday, I actually had to remind some ten year olds that it was April Fools Day.

Can you believe that shit?

Dan: I wanna be in the Bedford Cat Gang

Recent events in Casa Burn:

1. the boys stocked up on Pokemon cards from the cheapy shop in Campsie ($2 for 30 cards, way cheaper than the price for proper cards)
2. Dante passed his entrance test for Extension classes, which are some saturday classes about ancient history and science for bright kids.
   
3. Guy and Anna visited, and were told what to do by Dante and Atticus.
4. Tried Wardriving this morning on the way in to work, as Wiggles tickets went on sale while we were driving in. Had no luck, as it's hard to join a network with a 20m radius when Jen's driving like Brocky. I'm intrigued, though, by the existence of a wireless point called "Bedford Cat Gang". Something either very cool, or perilous to humanity, is going down on Bedford St.
   

Kit starts Geocaching

Kids arrived from Melbourne late on Friday night, and I thought that a good way to get them interested in doing outdoors stuff is to get them into a 'treasure hunt', or geocaching.

We found our first treasure in Homebush Bicentennial Park, and we took on the heavy responsibility of taking a geocoin on the first leg of its journey around the world.

Jen - Extension classes for Dante

Sat: Took Dante to get an assessment to see if he's eligible for "Gifted and Talented" Extension Classes on Saturday afternoons. He is! He'll start next term - Ancient History (mummification!) and "Super Science" classes. Went to the $2 shop in the afternoon and the boys got $2 packs of knock-off Pokemon cards. I got $2 balls of crocheting cotton. Got the kids to bed by 8pm 'cause of the Earth Hour thingy. Dante went without complaint, even though it was half an hour earlier than usual. Yay!

Sun: Quiet day playing in the back yard, mostly. Had a nice visit from Guy and Anna for which I made banana cake.

Jaime - Falsedan thinks he's funny but he's not

We'll fine, I was going to shortly blag about Ministry last night but since my "attitude" is "appreciated" by "Falsedan", I'll just blog about it on my own blog, where the internet can truly appreciate "it".

P.S Ministry was AWESOME!

falsedan - jaime posted twice in a row so I'm getting one in before he posts again

Jaime I approve of your posting attitude FYI

Jaime - It's frikkin snowing

Right now, it is snowing outside. It's 2°, almost April and its SNOWING! WTH?!

Jaime - I got a library card

I feel a bit dirty as I just got a Library card and now have to "share" my books. Currently I am waiting on an Archeology lecture which is downstairs.

Long weekend drenching

Long weekend. Weather report said "showers for fri-sat, fine on monday". Okay. Try to miss the traffic by leaving on Sunday. Head to Kanangra-Boyd National park, out the back of the Blue Mountains.
Walk out to Cottage Boulder, or at least to coal-seam cave (Easy 9km return). Wait awhile in the cave because its raining. It appears to let up, so start heading back to the car.
I got drenched. I was wearing goretex on top, and then jeans underneath. My jeans got soaked, and then the water started creeping upwards underneath the goretex on my t-shirt. The rain was torrential. Walking across Kanangra plateau with the thunder and lighting going on directly overhead thinking very very short thoughts!

Jen - so tired

The busy weekend finally caught up with me last night and I am struggling at work today.

Tancred - Zombie Jesus weekend in Scottyland

Scottyland does not seem to do Zombie Jesus weekend so I have been working on Friday and Monday. It's odd. The Uni is open though we have no lectures on. Thus we have no Academics at work and no students. It's just the support staff, ready to support people who are not in. On the up side I run the firewall, and I have my laptop so I plan to spend the afternoon grinding motes of water for my Shadoweave epics :)

In other news spring started last week but we are still getting flurys on snow and sleet. Hey it's snowing again right now!

falsedan - it snowed this morning so I made salsa

Jen - Crazy birthday weekend

That eldest son of ours got a weekend of birthday parties instead of just one (as well as candles and cake on his actual birthday, and a pre-birthday shopping-trip visit from Grandma the previous weekend). I don't think we could have spread out the birthday goodness any more if we tried.

Good Friday: trip to the cemetary followed by two brothers and their families over for lunch.
Easter Saturday: Birthday Party! 13 kids aging 13m, 2-3yr, 5yr, 7yr, and 8-9yr; the majority in the 7yr group and mostly hyperactive boys high on superhero action and sugar. Imagine a calm blue ocean... and INVERT IT! ack. We had 3 Ben 10s and one Captain Underpants.
Easter Sunday: Tennis as usual, followed by family birthday lunch (minus a few). Elora scoffed a huge piece of chocolate cake with glee (and mess, of course).
Tomorrow: R&R for us all.

We've also had my niece sleepover since Sat (and my bro and his son stayed next door).

Dan and I calculated that we will have entertained/fed a total of 46 people over the weekend (i.e. the number of people each day, totaled. 10 on Fri, x kazillion on Sat (that's what it felt like, anyway), 17 today etc...). Exhausting.

a Week in London

Took the train a week ago to London. Stayed with David in a lovely apartment at Canary Wharf and got to meet up with Jo, V and FD - but never FD's imaginary girlfriend, strange that :) Managed to see the Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum (queued from 8:30 to get tickets), Vortex (Noel Coward play staring Felicity Kendell) and the Tutankhamen exhibition at the 02 (what used to be called the Millennium Dome, then why did we build that?).

Ben - Takin' Care of Business

The down side of suddenly having some spare cash is I now realise just how many things I've been putting off. My broken camera, for example; marginally cheaper to get it fixed than to get a new one. Marginally. And shirts, I need proper shirts with buttons and no pictures of Aquaman. And lights for my bicycle. And power tools for... well, for doing manly things, I guess.

Man, it was cheaper being broke.

Becstarr : A great lazy start!

Spent my first day of leave mostly sleeping and reading Thursday Next / Jasper Fforde. Fan-frickin'-tastic!

After an attack from the dentist, managed to cook dinner (incl. banana pikelets!) for Marina and Karinne while K packed for 3 weeks' holiday in Europe. What am I going to do without my flatmate for so long? :)

Adventures in Stationery

I bought a gold pencil to colour in stuff (schedules/gantt charts) at work. I also discovered the existence of a double ended highlighter pen that highlights on one end, and erases highlighted stuff on the other end. How neat is that!?

Ben - Th' Reinforcin' o' th' Stereotypes

Stroke of luck; forgot St. Pat's day, but by chance wore a green shirt anyway. Depressingly, that's the most interesting thing likely to happen to me today.

Jen - Friday at last

My part-time hours are good but we're still exhausted by Friday. Tonight Atti had a huge tantrum over dinner and had to be put to bed. The other two did well, though - Elora played chasies with Goong-goong and Dante practised his scales (on the piano).

YL - New York New York!

Luck = empty seats on plane + 18 hr flight reduced by 1 hr = good flight. Grandma travelled well and we're settled into our temporary abode in a NY hotel. Looking forward to shopping, eating and just being in the US again. And still basking in the very simple joy of finishing my degree. *happy dance*

Kit: What would you do?

So it's breakfast time, and you settle down to read a good book with a cup of tea and your toast in the toaster.

It's a pretty good read, so you're totally engrossed in it.

Then you wonder why your toast is taking so long to pop up.

Turn around: and somehow the toast has caught fire, and the toaster is in flames.

Do you
a) stop to take a picture?
b) put the fire out?

Becstarr : Chalk up one more office

Got a seat in Merewether and will now be there most mornings and in Mungo most afternoons. The downside is yet another phone & still more moving. The upside is that I'm finally located in the same building as the key groups I'm supposed to be looking after (Govt & Political Economy). Actually, being close to the gym and Ellas again will be nice, too. :)

Anna : Teeth

Four wisdom teeth out on Sunday. Good news is I have strong bones, bad news is that meant it was a fight to get the two impacted ones out (apparently usually people's bones have a bit more "give" to them).

Slowly getting better, cheeks still chipmunky, tongue tastes like old sock. Lying around at home watching Drop the Dead Donkey, Dexter and Murder Rooms.

Jen - First part-time Monday

A good day. Happy children in the morning, cake at morning tea, visit from Dave, chocolate brownie at lunch, boys not too rowdy on the way to gymnastics after school, quick dinner and relatively painless bedtime (not too much screaming).

Cringing at the thought of Dante reading "Where Did I Come From?" tonight.

Becstarr : Portuguese crush

Tried to go to Petersham's "Bairro Portugues" street fair on Sunday. Way too crowded for me! Should have been around a local oval or something. For my money, fairs & festivals need lots of lawn and space for people to mill around. Otherwise, it just ends up being people stew!

All sixes and sevens.

Last week, I climbed with someone with no fingers*.

Today I am having one of those almost everything goes wrong type days. You know, the message pops up "Are you you sure you wish to erase your hard drive, and replace with random 1's and 0's?", and you accidently click the wrong button.

* Well, he had mostly first-knuckles only. And one full thumb. I think it was frostbite, but I was too embarrassed to ask. Bloody good climber though. On the reds/blacks, for those in the know.

Jen - Recovery Sunday

Sunday morning tennis - three tired and grumpy kids. Showed off Elora's walking to everyone (including Grandma who made a special trip over to see). Spot of late night grocery shopping.

Guy - Brain Dump

Erm, news eh? Gotta get into the mindset that my news is interesting.

Back at Burwood, they're keeping me busy. I'm now the Business Studies expert *nods*. But all the classes are pretty good, and I'm having fun.

I marched in Mardi Gras last weekend with a school group. It was well worth doing, but not as fun as watching the parade.

Friday night was drinks and karaoke with Dr. Lim. She's a doctor, a medical doctor. I think my best song this time would have been Minnie the Moocher. More spoken than sung you see. When you've got the impediments that I have you have to think of these things.

Currently looking after Anna, who's just had all four wisdom teeth out. She'll confirm, but I think she was in the chair for 75+mins. Ouch.

Dr YL - yup it's official

I wouldnt have believed it if I wasnt there myself. I actually made it. It's totally surreal.

Now that I'm a doctor ... ... *grin* ... ...

Jen - Walkies!

Huzzah. I am silent here no longer.

Dante's piano lesson this morning, a quick cup of tea with our next door neighbours (not my parents), tiny bit of sewing (by hand, alas - the machine is playing up), dinner at Dante's friend's place. Elora must have been influenced by the 9 year old sister - she took her first solo steps! Back and forth between Dan and me :) Home very late with poor tired children (10:45pm).

Becstarr : Night navigation

It's a long while since I posted, so here are the main things that have happened in the interim:

* I went to the Redfern Community Centre [pic] to hear Kevin Rudd give the official apology. I'll be honest: I thought there was a good chance I'd get beaten up. Not only was I wrong, but the whole thing was done just fantastically. There was a great mixed crowd, all listening intently. Yes, follow-up will make it real, but this was an important start.

* I finished up at eLearning and moved to eLearning. That is, from central to Arts, and from Link J13 (over in Eng) to Mungo A18 (adjoining the Quad). Also from a team of 17 to a team of 3, and an office of 14 to an office of.... 1. I'm still in withdrawal from the constant buzz of an open office. I'm amazed to find myself saying it, but I think it's actually become my preferred way to work, at least in the day-to-day.

* Between the flu and the demands of starting a new job, I'm currently feeling fairly disoriented. I realise this has a lot to do with my preference for being one of the "big kids" rather than the clueless newb. I'm gradually finding out about the history, priorities, people, politics, shorthand and so on of my new area, but in the meantime I feel a little bit like I'm navigating blind...

Jaime - Movie watching

So don't you hate it when your watching a movie and about halfway through you wonder "What the hell has that guy been saying in a guttural tone, its almost like it means something" and then you realise that the bloody thing has forgotten to have the subtitles added?! I guess its not as bad as the time I watched Babel only to find at the end that there was supposed to be subtitles through the whole thing and that they weren't just making a point.

YL - Making headway ...

You know you're getting somewhere when the Prof says to you for the 2nd time "And we'd love to have you back working with us ..." You smile and thank him appreciatively since surely he's just saying it to be nice.

Then he says "No I'm serious. You can use me or any of the Professors here as your referee in the future."

Then your jaw just drops. Omg.

2 days to go!

Shoshe - How does it do that?!

Last night when I went to bed (around 2am) it was 10C out. This morning when I woke up (around 8:45) it was snowing, with 1cm of accumulation. What the hell?

falsedan - sunny and warm

Very bright today in London, compared to my weekend in Latvia. Played Settlers of Catan with Aija's brother-in-law, met her dad and ate way too much of her mum's food.

Ben - Hippying it up

Went working for the Conservation Volunteers on the weekend. Quite a lot of fun, tromping through the forest and ripping up lantana and privet.

Interesting aside - the Firefox spell checker doesn't like the word "lantana", and thinks I mean Santana.

Anna : The dishes are done man!

Training project is OVER!!!! About 170 people from ICT booked into and attended the 3.5 hour training course over 17 days. In the end we had only 4 training manuals left so it was lucky that more people didn't attend. Next week I'm helping out on other projects and then the week after that I'm getting all four wisdom teeth removed and will be sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself.

Does anyone else remember when this trailer was on the beginning of _every_ movie you rented from the video shop?

And speaking of trailers the guy who made "The Cell" + Don Draper from Mad Men + Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies = SHINEY SHINEY

Shoshe - Snow

Yesterday+today was the first real snowstorm we've had. We've had snow, but this was the first decent fall -- probably about 20cm or so. Last night was beautiful. Everything was white (including the sky, even though the full moon was a week ago). But the snow removal was much worse than it's been -- the little uni snowplows hadn't been through by the time I left choir practice (about 9:30pm), and they haven't done much salting at all.

In other news, my classmates and I are trying to be good about going to the gym. We call it FAATS: Fabulous Astronomy Athletic Training and Science (we read journal articles so we don't feel like we're wasting time that could be spent studying). If you're a student here, it only costs $145 per year to join the gym (including access to all facilities and classes)! I tried the rowing machine for the first time yesterday -- it hurt a little to breathe today because my lungs and diaphragm are trying to let me inhale, but my abdominal muscles don't think anyone has any business making them move (it feels remotely like having cracked ribs).

...Getting there

..... Almost... about ... to ... place .... a contract.... for my project.

Jeez, the process is long, drawn-out and painful.

Have returned from Melbourne full of yummy food.
Saturday night: "A taste of slow" dinner at a restaurant in Federation Square. Sunday night was yummo vegetarian banquet at the Morroccan Soup Bar.
Monday lunch was risotto at Piadina Slow Food.
Finally, chai at Well-Connected to settle the stomach on Monday night.

Ben - wet

There is no cover between the Uni train station and any of the uni buildings.

YL - misc stuff

(1) Coffs Harbour = pretty & restful. Almost like going home. (2) Violin teacher in Coffs = nice & was amazed at what I was able to do in 1 month of learning the violin. (3) Hospital provided accomodation = basic but clean. (4) Yoshi Jones current & sale stock = nothing that was suitable for me. (5) New haircut last Sat = very pretty. Yay.

Manipulative / overly self-important / unnecessarily bad tempered people / people who are yelling at you for no fault of your own = bad. very bad.

Evelyn - Dancing all the time!

Another ceroc class night, and after being called out on my puppy dog routine (look pitiful and hope someone asks me to dance) at the party on Saturday, decided I had to do a much better job of asking people to dance. And I did - and no one said no :)

Guy - Sick Day

Being locked in a room with 30 teenagers is difficult, more so when you've got the lurgy.
I failed to talk a student out of dumping Studies in Religion because "it is boring" and switching to Business Studies. I don't feel that I'm making the subject very interesting. Oh well.
In Oscar tipping I got 8 out of 25, and for the record I work hard to be that wrong.
Took a sick day to recover, ended up doing piles of small jobs which had been building up. I'll sleep when I'm dead?

Dan: Sport-o-rama

Had an uncharacteristically sporty day - tennis in the morning, swimming with the kids this afternoon. We went to the pool at Olympic park - it's got a water slide and a "rapid river" thing, which was pretty nifty. The kids had an absolute ball. Atty drank about half the pool, and we had to send him out into the park afterwards to drain it all out. I'm feeling rather sunstrokey now.

Happy Days

Looking forward to a long weekend in Melbourne, and lots of food & wine festival events. Expect to come back looking like a stuffed piglet.

Went past the deli on the way to work. Bought 4 coffees, and had 2 spare. I almost was, tempted to auction them off, but wouldn't have survived the scrum.

Dan - end of a long week

Spent today catching up on all the stuff I hadn't done throughout the week. Got one staff member finishing up next Wednesday, on going part time (10hrs) as of today; made a semi-job-offer yesterday; argued about Active Directory across the Uni, and whether Macs should be allowed on the network. Glad to have a weekend; annoyed it's not going to be warm.

Anna : Tired

Awesome boxing session on Wednesday (Paul brought torso sized pads and for the last round we paired up and then put our shoulders together and PUSHED!) and an early start on Thursday let me feeling pretty tired. My boss caught me having a big old yawn and commented that I looked exhausted. By 10.30 I had come down with chronic presentee-ism and decided that I might as well go home sick and catch some "ZZZ"s. Three hour nap and then a follow up 10 hours has left me feeling only vaguely human.

Let's hear it for Friday!

YL - 2 weeks to go & markets

And more importantly, even though it was WAY after hours, and I dont get paid ... I think I made a difference today. Actually I definitely made a difference on Tue and again today. The long hard slog has indeed been worth it.

Anyone wants to go to the markets on Sat? Like Paddington market? I bought a pale yellow dial phone today at the RPA market! I feel the urge to shop for beautiful things.

YL - coffee and strings

Blah. Got confirmation for trial violin lesson in Coffs on Mon evening but snapped my A string trying to tune it tonight! Grrrr. Need shop to fix it. Must travel to Chatswood.

Learned today that there's decent free coffee at Blacktown Hospital!! And 2 new doctor/friends who I spent "working" day with, took time to ask about my past over lunch. Then marvelled & complimented me. Oh awww.

Dan - Indiana Jones Lego

Took the day off work because I spent half of last night coughing (Joe was right; I should've been a smoker - I'd feel more justified in having lungs like this). Went in to pick up the kids this afternoon, and found on the way in that Indiana Jones Lego was in the shops. And 15% off. Got this and this. Also, the gadget shop in burwood has a closing down sale going on, and I got a dog shaped webcam for $3 (among other silly things). Haven't made it work yet, though. Will need to find drivers. Interviewing potential new staff tomorrow.

Coffee drought

Coffee drought endures. People here are wilting. There was a tone of outrage this morning when my boss asked me "Where did you get your coffee from?", and I had to admit that I stopped in at Maccas en-route to work.

Ben - New Job

Yesterday I went for what I thought was a job interview; instead they handed me an apron and told me to get started. Just kitchenhanding, 12 hours pw, but even after taxes this should come close to doubling my income. On the down side, I will no longer to use poverty as an excuse for not wearing any pants.

Dan - lots o' coughing

The cough I was whining about last week is still here. The good news is that we got through our first full week of everyone managing to go to work and school and childcare! No Rubella (did I mention Elora had Rubella?). No random vomiting in the car, nothing - everyone went to all their appointed school and work appointments. Maybe next week we can even get there on time.

Elora's turning 1 on tuesday, so we had a small Yum Cha today to celebrate. She figured out how to blow a kiss today, but she does it like she actually kisses - with mouth wide open and tongue out. Which is kind of creepy.

Hurrah for a Sorry at last too. Finally a government that doesn't make me feel ashamed to be Australian.

Ben - Back to work

It's been a dull last couple of weeks of holidays, what with the weather keeping me from the beach. Back to Uni tomorrow.

David - Charge!!!!!!

I finally recalled the perfect poem for how my job is right now...

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell

The Charge of the Light Brigade! Pretty much what we are doing in going to London right now.

Oh - and the winner is me - I now have the record for the longest stay at the New York Millennium Hilton and the Portsmouth Garden Inn Hilton. 48 & 41 days respectively.

Anna : Give it a rest

After a long week of early starts and constant fussing, Friday became "give yourself a break" day, bit of a sleep in, bit of a long lunch, bit of a chin wag with a co-worker, a couple of meetings that went very well and now off for a bit of a beer!

David - Waiting for the Miracle...

You know you are in trouble when Leonard Cohen songs strike you as upbeat.

Still in Portsmouth - but pretty sure that I will be in London by Sunday night. No matter what happens we are getting on that plane. Even if the system melts down when you hit the "go" button.

YL - More fires, gym class, making new friends is kinda bizzare

Ok well everyone knows Broadway shopping center caught on fire. Big news at the hospital. Everyone looked at me and went "will you be able to go home this time"? Lol. Hilarious. I swear I am in fight/flight mode still. Half expecting the world to come crashing down in a physical sense.

Back at the gym now. Still dont think I can do 6.30am classes (kudos Kim) or boxing (kudos Anna & Joe). But working on it. Attended BodyPump which was good. Went to BodyJam and was totally 2 left footed for half of it. Also went swimming at Coogee Sun afternoon after dropping parents off at airport, planning another beach thing this weekend.

Making new friends is kind of bizzare. Especially doctor ones. You guys know a fair bit of the stuff I've been through. We've got history together. You guys know I'm crazy. These new people ... dont know me. Should / Can I hide this craziness? Is it even possible anyway. Maybe it's too late. I dont think I could be anything else but what I am ... and what I am ... is it a bad thing anyway? Maybe they're just normal people. Is that also even possible? I'm sure you guys dont judge me ... do you? will they? Questions without answers.

But hey at least they arent looking at me sideways like the med school students! Or looking down on me. Well not that I can tell ...

falsedan - frost is killing all the flowers that sprung early because it was warm and they though it was spring

It's my dad's birthday today, I think he is 200 or something.

Shoshe - Trivia, grading and COLD

This weekend my officemate (who conveniently lives around the corner) roped a bunch of us in to a 50-hour trivia competition. It was crazy and fun, and B and I made it through about 15 hours over two days. I tried to do some of my uni work over the weekend, but it feels like all I've accomplished is grading. And right now it's 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15.5C)! Yesterday it was a few degrees above freezing. Weather here confuses me.

Withdrawal bites hard

Stinking coffee truck is still a no-show. That's 4 working days without it. Had to make a break for it at lunchtime, and head for the deli (15km round trip) to get some caffienated nectar.

Adventures in Time

Turns out the highlight of my day was wrestling with a clock - and if you care enough you can read the over long version at my blog.

It now appears that our IT strategy is to hope that the pixies at the bottom of the garden are going to sprinkle pixie dust and make everything better.

In other news it has been snowing for 3 days now and I have taken tomorrow off to build a snow fort, or throw snowballs. Or something. Anything that doesn't involve the phrases "Information Technology", "Insurance" or "Lunatics".

David - Insert Something Witty Here

Sill in New Hampshire. Have spent the entire week battling rampant insanity, my only weapons being logic and the unholy power of a pissed off COO. The next politician I meet wot says private companies are more efficient is getting a punch in the face.

Expecting worse next week now that the enemy has figured out I am serious. Which of course means that we will go back to playing "you don't need to know that" games. On the plus side I am so pissed off right now that I have broken through to the other side and am capable of maintaining rational thought - relatively speaking.

In other news I am exhausted and may be going to London on Tuesday. For 2 days. Sorry Fasledan - maybe we can catch up at the end of Feb when I am over for more than 2 days.

Shoshe - Car! and snow

We got my car back this afternoon! It's been in the shop since the end of November. I do not recommend the body shop we used, but the insurance people (not the national free-call people, but the people down the road from my parents who we've been with at least since I got my licence) kicked some body shop arse in the end (I have a new fender! It replaces the one that the body shop scraped up).

It's been above freezing for days now, and our snow actually disappeared (almost completely and by melting, instead of slowly and through sublimation). But it was back below freezing today and it snowed all day, so it's okay. Except that my right snowboot seems to have a leak.

Dan - week of eatin ' and illin'

So in addition to Elora's immunological antics (third week of childcare and she's already got Rubella! It'll be the Black Plague before the year is out!), I've got both a throat thing and a gut thing going on this week, which don't seem to be going away. Of course, it's Chinese New Year (Gong Hei Fatt Choi, y'all), and the necessary overeating that accompanied that didn't agree with me at all the other night.

Also, we got moved to a new office with less windows. On the bright side, it's got good aircon, so breathing is a whole lot easier than it used to be. And work is interesting and not too arduous at the moment, which is a pleasant change.

Anna : I left high school right?

I went for a swim yesterday at Noel Martin. While I was treading water at the deep end about to head off for a another lap I hear a small voice say "Excuse me ..." and turn and see there's a 10 or 11 year old girl hanging on the lane rope next to me.

Girl : "Do you go to Sceggs?"
Anna : "Sorry?!?"
Girl : "Do you go to Sceggs Darlinghurst?"
Anna : "Um no, I really don't ..."
Girl : "Cause you look like someone who goes there ..."
Anna : "Nope, that's not me"

Does high school really never end?

Withdrawal

The coffee truck didn't make it to work today. Normally you can tell the city-office refugees, by the enmasse rising from seats as soon as the horn toots its merry tune.

Instead, there were a lot of suffering people.

Pub on Friday?

Becstarr : Progressions

Gave Jj a family send-off at Sydney Airport, bound for London. She will be most of the way there by now.
Tim got his VP promotion at Deutsche - congrats T!
Ursul (Wed night game) got a random wife from the Earl and had a son - both doing well after the first year, though still unnamed.
Handover at work proceeds apace, with a new LMS Admin learning the ropes while there are still 3 of us to share the teaching.

Tired, and then a biscuit

Spending too many, too long hours at work recently. Actually asked a guy on the phone today whether or not they really wanted us to pass on their offer, and give the contract to someone else. Pull your finger out guys!

Climbed at the gym (1 hr - too short), then big dinner, and an arnott's scotch finger. Mmm, shortbread.

David - A Moment

Sometimes life just gives you a moment. One of those precious - yet small - moments that make you grin. Remind you how good your life would be if you could just get out from under whatever piece of shite happens to be raining down on you.

I thought mine had arrived last Friday when due to an office move, I got to spend the afternoon in a delightful local brewery, enjoying a nice drop with a roaring fire. And then it started to gently snow. A lovely Portsmouth winter afternoon.

But it turns out that was just the opening act. I am sitting in the bar at the Hilton. And 4 sailors in dress black uniforms have just walked in. Now if you will excuse me - I have work to do.

Anna : Do the Hustle!

Anyone up for a global Hive Hustle Off!

Get dancing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TsRdkrxl4g

Jaime - Man I want to learn Kendo again

Went and saw Seven Samurai tonight and it was sooooo cool, seeing these movies at the Samurai festival are making me want to take up Kendo again.

Anna : Worst Case Scenario

Well the power in our house continued to be up and down all last week. The electrician came in on Friday, left a "tradesman trail" all through the house and ripped my parasol but declared that nothing was wrong. But when Guy touched the sink he was still getting shocks. So we waited to see whether the power would go out again, hoping against hope that it wouldn't go out on Sunday night after the hair dressers had closed ... 3.54pm *pop* down goes the power. We rush downstairs but not a hairdresser to be found ... *sigh* so Guy and I went out for a late lunch / early dinner and then sat about reading by candle light and then put on extra PJ's to sleep in our slowly cooling bed.

YL - It went boom. And now I'm sitting in a computer lab.

Sitting in the UTS computer lab reminds me of the old days when we worked in Fisher/Carslaw/Engineering.

1am - Loud explosion sound that shook the whole building I live in. And you know how big the building is.

Turns out, a gas pipe/something exploded destroying the whole bottom floor of the section on the opposite side from my lift lobby across the courtyard. Glass had shattered everywhere. Everyone ran out from the whole U shaped building. There was at least 1 injured bleeding person. I assessed that he was not in immediate danger and rang the ambos. Fortunately police & fireys had already turned up.

Magical chaos.

Now I'm hiding out in UTS in my PJs. Apparently fierys may not be letting us back in until the morning. It's 2.15am now. I still have to go into work.

Will my home be there in a few hours? Hmmm.

Becstarr : Grass rustling

What a strange weekend.
Lots of family time including lunch with Mum and her younger sister, an aunt who I used to see heaps of as a child, but whom I've barely seen since I was about 12. Re-meeting relatives as an adult can be a very odd experience that makes one re-evaluate past situations.

Also jumped the back wall at J's over to the abandoned Sydney Korean Ethnic School (so says the sign in the courtyard) and co-opted a large amount of grass growing between their bricks. The big bare patch in the lawn has been turned, forked, and composted and replanted with the rustled greenery!

Jaime - Europe is go

We have purchased our tickets for our April/May Europe trip, which is both exciting and terrifying

YL - meeting people & gym

Like Evelyn, I've rejoined the gym. Managed to fanagle some deal which suits so yay. John at Noel Martin rocks. Went to Pump today. Dave was his usual energetic self! I'm not up to doing 2 classes back to back like the old days. Ugh. Achey.

Orbit Lounge, lvl 47, Australia Square = rotates + awesome view. Glad I went to the "welcoming interns to Westmead" drinks thing. Re-met some people from orientation. Rubbed shoulders & tried to find out means to further my future career. Met some fun people. Turns out, Westmead doctors know how to party. So drinks over, went to Jacksons on George for dancing lol. New experiences I must say. Stayed out till 5am. Hmm.

Evelyn: one step forward, two steps back

So belatedly healthy new year - joined the gym last night. However my supposed gym buddy encouraged us to celebrate the fact by not using the gym and instead eating hot chocolate brownies with vanilla ice-cream.

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.