Ben - Luck!

I've been pretty lucky the last couple of days. Yesterday, I saw an eight year old voluntarily reading Mark Twain. This morning, the camera shop called to tell me that they've finally fixed my camera. And this afternoon, I won a raffle. Not a bad couple of days.

Kit is Music Spree

Went on a CD impulse spending spree. New jjj hottest 100 album (volume 15?), kate nash, and the Big Day Out Compiliations 2005-2006 (latter two from redeyerecords in town).
BDO2005 is not to my taste, or at least not-suitable-for-work moods.

Evelyn, Tancred, Jaime, Shannon - Off to Glasgow

Off to see arty type stuff, cathedrally type stuff and high-tea at the Macintosh tearooms.

falsedan - 'Golden Brown' is a song about cooking a turkey

According to the Virgin video-on-demand notes… the music on demand channel is great! It's like I have my own personal programming slot on Rage, except with a special focus on Take That and Sugababes videos.

Also I have spent the last few days programming perl and reading about boardgames and apparently that justifies a raise—woo hoo extra £2000

Becstarr : Burning down the highway!

What a great day! I got a heaping heap of things done!
I got to Medicare before work and got a card (I haven't had one in about 3y).
I went to the Post Office and lodged my application at last (thanks Anna for going guarantor).
I finished two pieces of documentation and 3/5ths of another.
I popped up to the quad to celebrate YL's graduation as a doctor - huzzah!
And now pub pub pub.... and I deserve it! :)

Kit: Somewhere along the road ...

On the Olympic Highway, between Ilabo and Junee, there is a road called "Bunnies Gate Way".

Becstarr : Excel and me

Excel is my new best friend. Every morning its friendly, informative green face each morning reminds me where I'm up to with everything, and that I am actually making progress, despite often not feeling like it.

(Yes, I can hear what you're thinking and yes, the precious info is backed up! :).

Bwahahahahaha

Everyone is out of the house - I get to rearrange everything. Everything, I tell you!

YL - Victoria Room & Graduation

The Victoria Room in Darlinghurst is my new favourite place. Went there for supper and drinks with Katie in pre-celebration of our upcoming graduation. Cocktail = Bellini = gorgeous!

Graduation is Fri 2pm. Will be out in Main Quad when it's over. I will be the overly happy one waving her degree around.

Evelyn - weird stasis

Its a bit odd starting a new job in the middle of a site move, when no one has any time to show you anything but its not really appropriate to do nothing.

YL - city lights below

I watched from my plane window as the twisting winding orange lines of lights of Sydney city faded in and out of view as we streamed through crowds. The city is like a living creature spreading its tentacles and pressing ever outwards edges brimming with growth. What a massive city, how daunting the size!

Jaime - Deux ordinateur pour demi heure

Using a computer for half an hour should be fun. Will blog proper when we get to Dusseldorf. Paris was awesome! French keyboqrds suck!

Mushrooms!

It has rained so much over the past two weeks, that mushrooms have started sprouting in the paddock.

Becstarr : Sleeping in Spanish

After last night's late game finish, slept in this morning and got to work late, but feeling great! The game has reminded me how great the Gladiator soundtrack is.

Still working hard at Spanish. This morning learnt that a toilet is called "el inodoro"... which is actually quite funny.

Becstarr : Seduced by stats

Discovered a few new reports in FlexSIS today (student records) in the Faculty category. Did you know that Arts has 1001 uos in session 2 this year? I would have guessed more like 600-700.

I highly recommend the FlexSIS reporting portal (FRP - call the FlexSIS guys to arrange access) to anyone trying to plan anything at all at the uni. Hurray for wonderful reports that someone else has set up!

Shoshe - Spring!

This past Thursday the trees decided that it was spring! There are many green little buds, and even some little leaves. And some little flower-ish-things on a tree outside my office that are apparently yummy if you're a squirrel.

Only three and a half weeks to the average last frost date.

Jen - Home sick

Oh how I've longed for a day off at home with no children to look after. It has been a very, very long time since I last did this.

Except that I am sick as a dog (a sick dog) and have spent the better part of the day wallowing in bed.

Stupid catching the tummy bug that the boys had last week. Either that or food poisoning.

Dan - the mountains

Took the lads up to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days - it was awesomely foggy and dismally soggy. The boys had a grand time, though were were all a little cranky today after sharing a room in a B&B in Wentworth falls (Monique's - I recommend it). Everyone managed to wake up everyone else all through the night. Went on the Scenic Railway and all that business. Poor little Atty had slippery shoes on and kept falling on his bum and getting cold and wet. Came home to a Very Ill Jen.

Ben - Steam and Steel

Went to an event that was the diametric opposite of the Sustainability festival Bec went to last week. The Maitland Steamfest! There were all sorts of steam trains, tractors and steamrollers and such, as well as old engines running pumps, generators and corn mills. There was smoke and steam everywhere, it was brilliant! There were also stalls, and I bought a bottle of chilli sauce called "The Widow Maker"

falsedan - reeling in ealing

I have migrated from the sainsbury savannahs to the plains of tesco: we have moved from Shepherds Bush to Ealing



1 Waldegrave Road
LONDON
W5 3HT

Hello internet stalkers! I am poor and a biter and like meeing new people!

I reckon we get about 80% zombie resistance if we collapse the railway bridges to the north and south.

Ealing has a large number of Japanese immigrants and the council flats are done up to look like little Tudor houses.

Jaime - Blog Post of the Beast

Yes, my distraction was a cheap ploy so that I could get the 666th post on Hive One Sentence Journal. After you groan at my antics, be happy, 'cause we're on Holidays!

Jaime - A distraction

Jaime - Almost there

Can hardly concentrate at work today, only one more sleep until our trip begins. Hurry up damnit!

Kit - Bye-bye wheel

By keeping my bike obsessively locked on the balcony, I've somehow managed to break the little disc-y thing that all the spokes are connected to. Bye bye wheel. :-(

Ben - Tasty soup

Fairly quiet holidays so far. Made a big pot of sarma, a Hungarian dish consisting of pork, bacon, sauerkraut and paprika and therefore qualifying as the most Hungarian dish it is physically possible to make.

Also very tasty.

Jaime - I want to be a Jugger

Simply put, I would like to be a Jugger after I found that Europe, North America and Australia have Jugging leagues.

Dan: Torrential!

In the space of 24 hours yesterday and today, we've dealt with:

• 2 poos in the bath (yesterday and today's bath)
  
• 1 huge vomit on the carpet at the top of the stairs
• 1 bucket of vomity water accidentally kicked down the stairs onto all the stuff that's under the stairs (by a certain father (who we won't name) of the above vomity child, after we'd cleaned up)
  
• 1 nappy that leaked poo out both sides
• 1 pair of wet pants and undies

Have kids, everybody! They're delightful!

Jaime - You can't catch me

I'm the ginger bread man! Also, Frisky Dingo is quite amusing, but only quite.

Master Cylinder!

Shannon: an extravagance

Splashed out bought myself an early birthday present: the Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens. I mean, it could be some time before I'm back in Europe. Would hate to be there going, "gee, I wish I'd bought that lens".

Anna : So Lazy!

I had another very quiet weekend, got to work on leaving the house more, but I did have my first go at home made booze-infusions! Now I just have to find some saps to drink it ... bring on the 500 night!

Becstarr : Marrickville rain biking

Biked to the Sustainability festival in Steel Park, Marrickville (just on the Cooks River) twice... once on Saturday, a day early (oops) and then for real on Sunday. Plenty of manageable hills, so I guess it was good exercise at least!

The festival was small (clearly in its first few years), which suited me fine. No chai tent (wha?) but there was an indigenous food stand with kangaroo & croc burgers. Plenty of families and various freebies and workshops. Unfortunately the rain then hit and our attempt to bike home between showers was a wetter venture than I was hoping for. Urgh!

Jaime - Bedroom Eyes

God damn you falsedan, god damn you! I foolishly ignored falsedan's advice and looked at google images for "bedroom eyes" ... please scrub my brain out.

Becstarr : Enterprise bargaining begins, childcare support ahoy?

Today the union had the first EB (enterprise bargaining) meeting to start to establish a Log of Claims about things the membership would like included. Plenty of issues were raised, and one I spoke about was (with Dan's advice) childcare support. Quite a number of people were interested in family-friendly policies and practices (parental and carer leave, flexible hours, improved return-to-work etc). Dan's suggested a discussion-lunch soon for interested parties, so mail me if you want in or have ideas!

YL - First Doctor-y Pay

Woot! I got my first pay as a doctor yesterday! And I'm working my first weekend as one ... hmmmm ... praying for a calm.

Ben - Nearly There

Almost all my pre-holiday work done, having just handed in my HSIE assignment. Basically, we were making HSIE resources - some of them looked really good. Mine doesn't look that great, but people have been complementing me on it, so who knows?

Now all I have is one German test between me and the holidays.

Yay, holidays in rainy Newcastle!

Oh, well, I can finally take the time to write an Uncyclopedia article about Uncle Remus, or Grape Nehi or something.

Becstarr : Rolling along and gathering speed

Since last I wrote, I've finished my glorious two weeks' leave and, to beat those end-of-leave blues, booked my next holiday. We fly out on May 28 and back in on June 30. We'll mainly be in Mexico & Cuba, with a few days in San Francisco on either side. I am finding myself mostly extremely excited (like when planning a picnic on the Xochimilco Canals) and fighting a griping Fear (like when I read travel insurance product disclosure statements and realise that I have 6.5 weeks to learn a lot more Spanish and get all my Semester 2 sites ready).

Dang Hippy

My biodynamic organic purple garlic was infested with weevils. The weevils started to escape and run amok and I had to bin the yummy garlic. Sad.

Decisions, decisions

Do I get up early before drving to work tomorrow to go geocaching, or to get my one decent coffee of the week?

Dan: MovieFest

Inspired by Eugene's last post, I went and saw Brain Dead at the Dendy Horror Festival. It was all that they promised and more. It was also not the Brain Dead you're thinking of, but a different one. Followed it up with Be Kind Rewind, and 10,000 BC. The Verdict: See Brain Dead if you like Schlock Horror. See Be Kind Rewind. Don't see 10,000 BC if you've ever read anything tangentially about ancient history or palaeontology or have a passing interest in either. Otherwise, it's a fun ride.

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.