Keir_in_Oxford

Phantom Bogger

2006-12-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this happens in other peoples offices but we have the phantom bogger on our floor at work.

Basically, I would say, 2 out of three days, at some point in the day [it can be quite random] someone just let's it all out in the gents toilets. Honestly, when you can smell it in the hall it's bad; when you open the door though, you're eyes start watering; by the end of your piss, you start wondering if this is what agent orange is like.

I don't know who he is. Actually I have a decent clue but it's hard to prove. You can't really hang outside the loos and then at just the right time, burst in through the door and go "AH HAH!!!"

What would I do if I did catch them? Force feed them a sh*t load of fibre for a VERY long time.

Honestly, it's really not a fun thing to put up with at work.

2006-12-04T05:19:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOD. CHRISTMAS IS IN THREE WEEKS!!!!

ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!

Thank god for internet shopping. Why brave town centres when I can just do it all from the comfort of my desk at work. phew.

Still. Three weeks. It feels like it's gone from 3 months to three weeks in the blink of an eye. Crazy. The nights are starting to fill up with some good times to be had. hehehe. Rock on.

Change in Music

2006-12-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

It's funny, I would say that I'm very heavily influenced on my musical tastes by my friends. I do listen to the radio a bit but not too much. Generally though, I'll be at a friends house, listen to a new cd they've picked up and then get a copy of it myself.

It's pretty much always been that way.

That said, I find that with all software like UseNet, Kazzaa and Limewire I've managed to download thousands of songs that I've always been unable to buy on cd. These are accoustic recordings. For me nothing seems as deep or as quality as listening to a band perform their well known songs [or covers] with it all stripped back and "unplugged". Quality stuff.

I have thousands of these songs that I've managed to get my hands a hold of and they're great listening material.

However, once again my tastes have changed due to my surroundings. Initially influencedby Ms X and then by going clubbing in London I find myself yearning to hear some heavy base and phat beats. Last night I got myself a copy of Creams Anthems 2007. I've only listened to the first cd and it's got all the tracks that I've been shaking my ass to at the Cross and the Egg in london. The tunes are quality. It's hard not to turn the stereo up and groove along to.

While I love my accoustic stuff, it's the kind of music you'd listen to at the end of the night. Fire you up, it does not. It's certainly not the stuff you'd listen to on the way into town for a big night. Now I've got lots of tunes the tunes for that. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Time to increase my music collection in a new direction I think.

2006-11-30T04:21:00.000-08:00

Took my folks out last night for dinner.

It was my first time out .. .. at night .. .. in Wantage. I've only lived there for 11 months. My god that place has a lot of pubs. honestly, there are pubs EVERYWHERE!! Who would have thought.

I took them for a thai meal. It was in a pokey little converted house made for people my height. With me towering over my parents at 5"6, it was not big.

The food was great. We had: ginger beancurd, chilli beeg and beef in long green beans. To be honest, I didn't find the beancurd very gingery, the beef didn't have much chilli and there was only a meagre amount of beans in the last dish. It didn't stop it tasting stunning though. Mix that up with some Pud Thai which must be my favourite thai dish and a couple of Changs and oh my god it was lush.

It's been a long time since I've gone out for regular meals. Expensive habit to keep, but oh so worth it. The company was wonderful and the food was great. Think I'll be back but there are plenty of other places to try.

Might even give a pub in wantage a go one evening. Crazy I know. ;- )

2006-11-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

I'ts 10 past 5, and I have about 15 minutes until I leave for my weekly game of badminton so I thought I'd drop a line.

It's been a decent start to the week.

Comparing this to my life two months ago, there have been several big changes. I'm definately a lot calmer these days and less prone to going a little crazy at people. Funny how less drugs do that :- ). I'm trying to change who I see after work. There used to be a core set of people I'd hang out with and have a smoke with. Obviously this isn't the best of plans. Now all of these people are lovely. Genuinely. They're all professionals and it's not like their lives were a mess and pulling me down. However, at the moment, it's just not in my best interest to see them twice/three times a week, watching them get f*cked while I sip on a cup of tea and chat merrily.

I've had a couple of nights in with my folks which I haven't done in god knows how long. And you know? It's really good. It's nothing crazy but I'm surprised at how much we talk. It's something I know I'll miss when they move out. How many kids can say that these days?

I'm hitting the gym pretty hard these days. I have to admit, while losing a sh8t load of weight rapidly due to stress is really not a great idea, I've made the most of it by running a lot and doing a fair amount of weights. I don't think I've been this stacked before and it gives you a fair amount of confidence. yay. I'm going about 5 times a week at the moment mostly during lunch. I tend to have a cheeky extra 15 minutes but considering I work until half 5 most nights, I figure it's not too much of an issue. At the moment, I do about 20-30 minutes of running [while watching neighbours of course :- )] and then 20-30 minutes of weights [just on the arms] and situps. Overall, it's not bad. There's a guy at work who does a lot of break dancing, Chris. Really sound bloke. Bit of an inspiration really [but f*ck don't tell him that!!!]. He's cut-to-f*ck and I know that I can get there if I keep working out.

Don't worry, one day you'll see me on the cover of some guys health magazine with a stomach like a wash board :- )

Went down to London on the weekend. I've recently gotten into going clubbing down there. I've only been in England for 4 and half years and NOW I discover the clubs :- ). Makes it easier when you know people who go regularly. A place called the Egg is my current venue of choice. They tend to play a lot of funky-house. Hard to describe except that it's PHAT beats thats a little bit .. .. well .. .. funky. Very easy to shake your ass to. Good times in general. I love chatting to people in the chill out area of the clubs. Being london, you get to meet some very intersting people. Some are simply fruit loops and the conversations lasts 30 seconds, or they could be stunning young girls from Glasgow that could last like an hour [erm, like saturday]. All in all, good times to be had really.

Lots and LOTS of things are going well in my life.

There's only one thing that's not quite right [if you've read earlier entries, then you know what I mean]. Funny how it seems to dominate my thoughts generally but I know that while the pain will pretty much always be there, it'll dull over time. I know I've got a shed load of other stuff to look forward to. I'm just starting to apreciate all I've got now.

sweet as.

TFI Friday

2006-11-24T01:29:00.000-08:00

Thank f*ck it's friday.

it's 9:30 and this is what's gone right this morning:

1] I got paid, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
2] Australia are d*cking all over England in the Ashes. Yeahyeah, first test and all, but it's a great start.
3] The working day is going to end in a company meeting followed by an hour of free booze. Last time I tackeld 3 pints and three doubles in that time, I reckon I can easily top it.
4] I've actually found my belt so my pants aren't hanging around my ankles any more

Things that have gone bad this morning:

1] nowt

Hehehe nice.

I'm in my fifth day being nicoteine and THC free and there are no bodies to be buried. I've been surprisingly lucid about it. In the past, by the 2nd day I'm ready to kill someone, not this time. Always a good sign. So things are on the up. I do genuinely feel different and when i say different, I mean better. I think I'm a lot closer to how I was 6 months ago which was definately a birghter happier keir.

Thanks for the comments from people as well. It's really appreciated!! Over the last two weeks, I've had the support of so many beaufitul people. I forgot how much I like a hug. Not overly butch but f*ck it, when it feels good just go with it. Only a couple of people know of this website, so I will thank others individually. I've been so caught up in my own mind that I just didn't realise how lucky I am to have as many wonderful people around me as I do.

I have to say as well that I don't hold Ms X in disregard either. I have a better understanding now. I've had five smoke-free days to ponder. Both of us made some stupid STUPID mistakes. I certainly didn't act like myself around her and that's a big mistake. If you're not yourself around someone then it'll never be right. I have to say as well that she was honest from the start. I can't say that about many people. She never said we were together, in my mind we acted like it but she let me know what her feelings were. I'm just the optimistic type that just thought it would all come good. We were great friends and it was me that pushed it for more. I took a gamble on our friendship for something more speical and lost. hey ho. I would have regretted far more if I hadn't tried something.

And that's all there is to it. I have to adjust to my thinking of Ms X.

She feels she's lost a best friend and I feel I've lost alot more than that. It explains our actions over the last week. I can understand it better now. I'm not saying I have to like it but understanding makes it far more manageable.

So now I'm "back" on the single scene, not like I ever left really, I can go flirt and go crazy. hehehehehe, let the good times roll.

2006-11-21T02:15:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a month since my last post, and what a chirpy number it was.

I'd like to say a lot has happened, but to be honest all I've done is spiral down into a more miserable life than I've had .. .. .. well ever.

But I'm not here to drown in my own sorrow any more.

I went to sh*t a month ago because of a girl, Ms X. What else right? hehe. She and I basically had a very large misunderstanding in that: I thought we were great together and an item; she thought we were amazing together and "just" friends. Classic right? Of course summing it up over two sentences really doesn't do it justice considering this has actually been spread over the last 6 months.

6 f8cking months. It only went t*ts up 4-5weeks ago.

Over the last month, I have done some rediculously stupid things at work, home and out and about because I just didn't give a monkeys. I mean. I'm 27 and I'm genuinely acting like a 5 year old spiralling out of control I couldn't really get myself out of it.

However, I went to the gym, and in the space of a month have managed to lose 9.5 kilos. That in itself is actually pretty scary. i'm not a big guy to start with so that's not so good.

I think the real turn around happened last friday night. It was a works do and everyone was going including Ms X. Things were always going to be a little bit on the precious side but hey, drinks numb the pain .. .. .. .. .. .. .. or make you a little bit to tired and emotional on an empty stomach. doh. I could see Ms X lining up her catch for the night [erm, no not me if you're wondering :- ) ]and decided that you know what, if things didn't work out between me and her, that's fine, it's a sh*t but fine. But things are still a little fresh in my mind to have flaunted in my face with someone else.

A sharp exit was made. I'm happy to say that no fuss was made or anything, at least from what I gather not by me, and not until much later.

For me the worst was to come.

I have a very special girl-friend [yes the hyphen is deliberate]. Her name is Bubba C. We've known each other for about three years. She is a genuinely wonderful beautiful person. It started of with us meeting; me liking her; her putting her foot down saying it wasn't going to happen and then going from there. Another classic hey? While my sister hasn't been here, she has kind of taken on that role oflooking out for me.

Anyhoo. I was a bit pissed up and ended up catching up with her. She took me under her wings knowing that I was in a state. And that was it. I don't really remember much. I got up the next morning, picked up my car at a mates place, narrowly missing Ms X who had statyed there [just don't ask and it's besides the point].

Got back to Bubba C's place for a warm cup of tea and she's just emerged from her room.

Now I've done some seriously offensive stuff in my time. Pretty much it's all be on the humourous [in my eyes at least] and while if's offensive, I never ever mean to actually cause offense. I've read and reread that last line but don't know how to put it any better. I'm sure you, the read, get the gist of it.

Well, Bubba C couldn't look me in the eye. I asked what's wrong, she asked if I remembered last night after joining her? I said no and she then told me not to worry about it. Still not looking me in the eye. I went to hug her when I left and she practically recoiled from my touch. She was genuinely mortified at my behaviour last night.

And there you have it. A wake up call. I've got to the point of being so down now with Ms X that I'm hurting the people I care most about in this world around me. So it's time to sort my sh8t out. It's time I take a step back from everything and everyone and just sort my head out for a bit as it's really not in a good way. Keeping off the drugs, doing some exercise and seeing the right people is what I need. Should be a change as that's exactly what I've NOT done in like 6 months.

it's a new day. By the end of the week, I hope my smile will actually touch my eyes.

2006-10-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

nice guys don't win. fact.

I hate it. I hate it!! I hate that I try and always be polite. I hate that I put others first. I hate that I'm the sensible one in the group.

Being kind, polite and charming is a nice way of saying boring, bland and sensible.

It does you no favours. It's not popular in modern society. Badness gives a bit of edge. Selfishness adds attitude. Arrogance shows character. All of these put together a personality that is more populare and acceptable now.

F*ck it. I can't win. Does it sound conceited that I think I'm a Mr Nice Guy?

I've locked myself in my own hell, it's all in my head and I just don't know how to get out.

euuugh

2006-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've managed to clock up my third consecutive month with 40 hours overtime. Euuugh. Too much work means that Keir starts losing the plot.

Fortunately Ive still managed to fit in all my fun time but something's got to give. Generally that's sleep. Burning the candle at both ends is the expression I know my parents would use. I think my generation has more "Work Hard, Play Hard" attitude.

I'm off to the movies tonight with Jen to go and see Pirates of the Caribbean. I read that this is the fastest grossing film to crack $300M. Should be entertaining. I think the girls win out with having both Orlando and Johnny to perv on while the boys just get Keira Knightly. And let's face it, as lovely as she is [and she is luuuuuuuuuuuurvely] there really isn't much to her to enjoy. You could ties a string to her leg and send her up in the air as a kite.

The weekend was nothing too crazy. I managed to clean the house to a respectable state for when my parents return after their two week jaunt through Germany, Finland and Estonia. I'm sure they had an absolutely amazing time. Knowing them though, they'll need a good couple of days to recover. Mum's not a huge fan of flying which means lots of trains and ferry's. If you've got the time and the will, I'm sure they're fine. I think I'd rather fly and sleep with Prince Valium.

My biggest highlight this weekend was the reservation of my new tele!! I had a problem with my credit card. It's now chip and pinned, noone accepts signatures anymore now. I'm an IT guy living in the stone age. So until I get my card sorted out, I've reserved a 37" flat LCD screen for my living room.

Oh baby it looks good. mmmmmmmmmmmm

And the best thing I'll be watching on it will be Young Ones and Family Guy. hehehe.

A new Week

2006-07-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this at just gone 7 in the morning. I've pulled about 16 hours this weekend to migrate all the data from one server to another. A mission, but it seems to have gone well. You can never really tell until the users jump on and try to break the applications as is a trained monkey's want. Just johsin people, you know I love you all.

So it's been a fairly hectic weekend at work. However, all was not lost. Beautiful Jen organised a free punt on sunday. I went with her and was joined by Ross and Nia for an idylic punt down the Isis from Lady Margaret College. Well, Ross and I punted while Nia and Jen gave us moral support. Well, not even that to be honest, they were quite content with just the pims and lazing a foot over teh side. I'd only ever been punting once before about two years previously and I was rubbish, fortunately, my lack of practise seems to have honed my skills as I wasn't nearly so bad this time. Happy Days. So an hour of punting, then a quick break at the Victoria Arms pub which is handily located on the river bank and then another hour of dawdlng back.

Just what the Doctor ordered after too much overtime. Absolutely sweeeet.

Another week of work awaits however.

I'm supposed to be having a barbeque tonight. I might have been to optimistic thinking that I'll be free after work if all these changes haven't worked properly, but that's just being pessimistic I guess.

And the worst point of the weekend? Wasting two and half hours finding a bug in the latest verison of Oracle. You'll love this. Oracle 10.2.1 falls over if youre computer names starts with a "U". I sh*t you not. two and half hours of my life wasted picking up that bit of trivia. It's hardly something I'm going to forget :- ).

Back Again

2006-07-12T00:49:00.000-07:00

Wow.

It's been a while. 6 months really. Wow how the time has flown.

Where have I been I hear you all cry out? Well, if there's anyone still here reading this blog after 6 months of no updates then you should count yourself a person with lots of perseverence.

Ever thought of climbing Everest?

I will try and update a little more regularly, than bi-annual now. If I'm good, it might be bi-weekly. WooHoo!

So to sum up my life in the last six months? Well, I'm in England still which means I got my VISA!!! Yay!! After the initial debacle of it being turned down because I sent it a week too early, it came through after a 13 week wait. Thirteen weeks. THIRTEEN LONG LONG WEEKS.

Finally, my passport arrived and it was all a bit of an anti-climax as work was just so busy, I didn't get the chance to celebrate in any meaningful way. That was about 5 weeks ago and I still haven't celebrated in any official way yet.

My parents have now been living with me for the last 6 months as well. It's been a great time. After 4 years away and the only knowing them as the voice down the end of the line every saturday morning, having them in the flesh is great. It's hard to beat close family. My sister is here too and achieving an unbelievably successful life in London. Kudos to her. She's done more in the six months she's been here, than I have in 4 years. Crazy stuff. Great to have her here.

So the whole clan is here. Happy Days!

I'll make this entry short as I don't want to bore you, the reader too much. It's nice to be back blogging again though. Hopefully, I'll be able to make more of an effort!

2006-01-12T00:43:00.000-08:00

I had my first real meal in my house last night. I didn't cook it though. No, my mum did it. You know what, nothing beats a mum's cooking. Especially my mum and especially in my new house :- ). The setting was excellent, they've done heaps to it and it's starting to look really cosey. I'm quite excited at moving in and providing the finishing touches like pictures on the walls etc..

--
Just had a quick look on ebay then at some Contemporary art. Affordable but you need to look around as I don't want to get anything too tacky. I've always wanted to own some original art though. Very cool.
--

My sister has been in London for a few days now. It's good to know she's here. I think as siblings we've managed to miss a lot of each growing up due to her being in Canberra and then me moving to England. I hope we can catch up and renew our bonds now that she's just down the road. I talked to her on the first night she got to London just to make sure she was fine. I'll leave her for a couple more days and check up on her.

Still find it hard to believe that the whole clan are here. Will take a little bit of time to adjust still.

Overwhelming

2006-01-11T00:59:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to find motivation for a blog entry because there's simply too much going on that you don't know where to start. Do I start at point a, b or c? I could mention d along the way, and [oh for god's sake] don't forget about e, f and g.

So, I'm simply going to have to cut out certiain items with the optimistic intent of mentioning them later.

Well the folks are in the new house. What can I say? They're absolute demons at DIY. I'm not just saying, yeah they get to it. They work longer hours on the house then I do at work! Absolutely fiendish.

They were here in England for three weeks staying at Kingfisher Barns in Abingdon. In this time, they stayed, relaxed and simply adjusted to the british way of life. For mum, this entailed simply realising that it gets dark bloody early at the moment.

For dad, it meant Ale is a natural way of life. He seems to have adjusted to english beer like a fish to water. Dad and I continuoulsy found ourselves in one of the local pubs sampling some local amber necter when he arrived. I suspect this will continue for quite a while.

However, that finished all two weeks ago and now they're in my house. In this time, they've been quietly doing more DIY jobs intermixed with finding out more where they're now living. It takes time to settle into a new house, especially if the house is in a new county .. country .. hemisphere. So I'm hoping they're taking the time to enjoy themselves.

We've got the majority of the "must haves" for the house and will slowly be picking up the rest of everything else on the way. I have been exceptionally lucky with my friends and what they've given me for free. So far I've managed to aquire:
a coffee table
a bed side table
a dining table with four chairs
two high back cushioned chairs
a nice stereo
a futon

To be honest, that's a pretty amazing amount of things and the generosity of my friends has just astounded me. So thank you all for the donations along the way!!

Happy New Year!!

2006-01-06T01:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody!! I hope you all managed to have a great time over the christmas and new years period!! Being in England is a much nicer time for christmas than Australia. Sure I don't get the chance to play cricket on the beach [which I didn't anyway] nor have a barbeque for lunch [nor that either] but it's nice and cold and it feels more like christmas!

For the first time in four years I had all my family together at the one dinner table for christmas. It was amazing. We were a pretty well behaved bunch as well. No real arguements, the occasional snap back between the two chief cooks of mum and my sister but hey, all in all, it was pretty mild.

We were joined by an old school/uni friend, Luke who had just come spending several weeks in Canada then Cube. I suspect the climate was a little different to what he adjusted to and that he was bitterly disapointed with his first chance of getting back under a democratic shower. Our shower at least, as the best it can do at the moment is swing between f*cking freezing and f*cking hot. There is an inbetween of kinda tepid but isn't the bees knees at the moment.

An old family friend Ben also joined us. He's a top bloke who is living in london as a lawyer. Always a handy kind of guy to know. I don't think I've ever seen him so animated as to when Singing in the Rain came on tele, christmas afternoon. He was singing away just as much as mum and Dany were.

The food for christmas was, as always, exceptional. Smoked salmon with scrambled eggs for breakfast with a couple of glasses of Kia Royale. Lunch was a 14 pound turkey, a foot of pork loin with a mound of roast veges, yorkshire puds and some token greens [no NO brussel sprouts].

Dinner was pretty much the same just colder served while watching the christmas special of Doctor Who. It was all pretty much happy days.

It's great being with the family again. There' splenty to catch up on.

I'll try and be good this year with blogs, but no promises.

2005-12-15T03:26:00.000-08:00

Been a while. Okay, I'm on holiday at the moment, things have been hectic and right now my heart just isn't in the blog. I've purchased the house and it's all going through. I pick up my keys on saturday. yay!! I'm going to have to wait until march for the f*cking visa stuff to come out but I'm sure it'll be fine. [fingers crossed]. My parents arrive on sunday and my sister on thursday so things are going to get even crazier. Nothing but happy days is on the way!!

I'm only making this entry as a request from "Saucy Mim" to fill out these questions about me:

Seven things to do before I die:

Have a family of my own
Buy and Convert a church
get an extension on my visa?
own several houses
learn to be actually good on the guitar
write a book
get a six pack [2 down four to go!!]

Seven things I cannot do:

touch my elbows together [see my sister for a scary party trick]
write more than 1000 words elloquently
relax when hosting a dinner party
look after papers nearly as well as the rest of my family
stop swearing, honestly I've tried
perform miracles although some of the requests I get at work, you'd think otherwise.
stop enjoying food

Seven things that attract me to my spouse: Doesn't apply at the moment but in an idela world:

Her smile
Her sense of humour
Her honesty mixed with a good dose of tact
.. .. .. actually that's about it. Nothing too crazy I guess.

But on the "would be nice list":

legs up to her ears
earns 10 times what I do [or at least be part of a mega ritch family]
yep. that does it as well.

Seven things I say most often:

f*ck [it/off/you/-ing hell/what the .....etc]
pint of kroney please
xxxx - tastic
Hi Mim, is there another problem with Stracker?
Jaimie, you want me to do what to Stracker?
Did I mention I've bought a house?
Yes it will be my first family christmas in like 4 years

Seven Books I love:I don't do books as much as series of books. Yay fantasy stuff. So it's more about the authors really

Douglas Adams
Raymond E Feist
Terry Pratchett
Terry Brooks
Terry Goodkind
David Eddings
Robert Jordan

Seven Movies I would watch over and over again:

Labrynth
Beetlejuice
The Breakfast Club
Ninja Scroll
Lord of the Rings
Matrix
Star wars trilogy

That's about it. So there you go. Lots of new things that you never knew about me before.

I'm not sure when I'll next write again. Don't worry though. I will come back, I'm just taking a nice earned break from realisty for the next fortnight, I hope everyone reading this ahs a very merry chrsitmas and a happy new year.

None of this Happy Holidays Sh*t either. I mean a good christmas. Whatever faith, I'm sure that people still enjoy themselves due to the break that all commercial companies would give them.

world crashing down around me

2005-12-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

There have been four moments in my life where I have properly lost the plot and freaked out into a pasty shaking mess.

The first was when I was 16 and ran some dodgy software [accidently] on my machine that wiped the entire harddrive. This was three days after my sister had handed in her thesis for her degree.

The second was when I had just moved to England. I was doing some maintenance work online at work and managed to delete not only the live database but the backup as well. I only got out of it because there was another back up that I didn't know about.

The third was just over a year ago when I got a phone call from a friend in Australia to say that a very good school mate, Mark, who I went to school and Uni with as well as being my first friend to meet up in London had passed away [of natural causes] the previous day.

And then there's today.

Things have been going well in my life. I love my job, it's good fun and productive. I'm seeing a lovely lady who I really like. My friends couldn't be better. I'm about to buy a house which I'm totally in love with and my entire family is coming here for christmas.

And to think I was wondering if anything could go wrong. Silly Boy.

I got a letter today to say that my visa application for an extension has failed.

Can you believe it. Everything I've worked to achieve in the last four years came crashing down around me. It's pretty tough not to simply curl up and cry.

The reason? After I got my visa in 2001, it took me three months to leave my job and sort out plane tickets etc and land in Enlgand. But apparently it makes it 3 months too late. To apply for right of abode, I have to be here for 4 years non stop. So when I applied I was in effect three months to early even though my visa runs out in a fortnight.

I have two pieces of A4 paper saying that my form was rejected. It cost me £500 for those two sheets. F*cking great.

However all is not lost. I've been granted residency until 16th of March. I've spoken with the Home Office and it appears that I can then reapply for Right of Abode [for another bargain £500].

No stress. I'm only f*cking signing papers for my house on monday!!

Sigh.

Quick trip to London

2005-11-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday at work was pretty uneventful. Nothing too crazy to talk about. A database broke, I fixed it yadda yadda yadda. The good times [as always] were after work.

I left it a bit early in order to catch a train to London. The reason was, I was seeing a bloke I had not seen for 11 years! I was going to meet a guy called Thamer. He went out with my sister a long time ago. Well, 11 years really as I'm sure you can guess. He and my sister met when they were in germany and I was spending my first, last and only year in boarding school [shudder]. He popped over to Adelaide once which was pretty much the only time I met him.

We got on very well and have [very sporadically] kept in touch since.

He's now a Pilot for a very large and well respected airline company. He texted me saying that he was flying to london and would I be able to meet him for a drink?

Hell Yeah.

Fortunately he was staying at the Hilton Metropole which is within walking distance of paddington station. So no underground transport for me, sweet as. We met up and within seconds were shaking hands and laughing. We went for a quiet drink which basically involved Thamer watching me get battered while he sipped on his coke. Last time he saw me, I wasn't able to drink so I was making up for lost time.

It was great talking. He hosted me to a lovely meal at the Hilton where we continued chatting. Before I knew it, 4 hours had gone by and I needed to get back to try and catch one of the last trains. It was delayed which was a nice reminder why I now live out of London.

I didn't get back home until just after 12 where I just collapsed into bed.

I woke up this morning with a smile. Mmmmmm, sunday mornings are the best .. .. .. .. .. hang on, why would I set my alarm ona sunday morning? .. .. .. . oh crap I'm late for work .. .. .. sigh.

I need some more sleep. But it was worth it last night for catching up with Thamer.

DIY-tastic

2005-11-23T02:13:00.000-08:00

It's all DIY tastic at the moment. A friend of mine, JD, is putting his place up for sale in the next month. It's a nice large semi-detached in steventon.

He's done a lot to it but the last thing it needs now is just some paint .. .. .. everywhere. So that's been our job for the last week or so. I've been racking up brownie points by helping painting windows, walls, banisters and doors. Not bad. I'm not the best painter in the world but I get a fair amount done. So it's all good there I guess.

I'm hoping that I can do the practise work on JD's place and then that'll give me the chance to actually do ok on my own house.

Speaking of which, the house is slowly coming along. I recieved the reports from the building survey on my new pad and it passed with pretty much flying colours. They suggested some insulation but that's pretty much it. Can't go too wrong.

The mortgage company have also had their own evaluation performed and have given me the thumbs up. So I'm waiting for the official offer and a HUGE cheque. I'm waiting on insurances and then I can get to the official handover date.

Can't believe it's going to be happening so soon. Yay!

Back from a break

2005-11-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back from a week off. phew.

I never thought that I would become anything like a work-a-holic. Certainly when I first started work in Australia, I would leave work behind me as soon as it was 5 each day. Not a care in the world. As my work load and responsibility has increased, so has my stress.

I had my first full week off in a year. I couldn't stop myself from logging in remotely to work until thursday. How terrible is that?! Not quite the chilled out relaxed Ozzie that I thought I was. Oh well. It was a great week off. By the end of it, I had finally caught onto the act of sleeping in. Mmmm. sleeping in until 10 most mornings was fab! I didn't really do to much. An afternoon kip here, a spot of shopping there, good times all around really.

The real good news though is that my folks have now left Australia! Crazy. They've now landed safely in singapore and are going to spend the next month eating and sweating a great deal.

They had to call me, at work, to let me know that not only were they safe but that they had just eaten at THE BEST CURRY HOUSE in the world. Komla Villas is a little place in singapore run by some die hard vegan hindus. Any kinda of real curry they'll knock up for you, but the real treat is the mini banquet. Basically, it comes out, not on a plate, but on a large banana leaf. You'll have your 5+ different curries, a few roti parathas and some rice. Not only that, but some nice old gentlemen will come around and top up anything running low.

So yeah. Being told that they were full on top notch curry did NOT make my morning.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get them back. I'm sure I can come up with something nice and cheeky :- ).

getting older

2005-11-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

Honestly, my body is just losing the plot when it comes to alcohol.

last night I went out for a couple of drinks. It turns into about 6 pints. I was nice and happily drunk. It's a fair amount to have on a school night but I'm allowed to with a week off coming up. Went home and had a big pint of water and still woke up with a killer headache this morning.

It was gone by midday but only after I had a brie/bacon and salad baguette with all of it's oily goodness. Sigh. Need to work on my tolerance level.

Otherwise, I'm just thankful that I've got a whole week off coming up!! Two weeks ago my boss came to me saying that I have 21 days leave and I need to take as much of it as possible by the end of the year. As tempting as having 3 day weeks for the rest of the year would be, my boss wasn't too impressed. So I've got a week off now, two weeks just before christmas and am able to carry a week over to next year.

Have no idea what I'm going to do. Catching up on sleep sounds like a fabuloso plan though!!

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to keep up this blog in that time, so apologies for any delay.

Music in my life

2005-11-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

Last week was spent listening to two different albums, Suzanne Vega's 99.9 Degrees Fahrenheit and David Bowie's Changes.

One is a classic early 90's chilled album, the other is all about glam rock. Both are excellent. As I tend to walk about an hour a day between home and work, there's a fair amount of listening time. I'm still using my trusty old sony discman that I picked up before coming to england. God, that means it's almost four years old now! Crazy. I'm sure I'll pick up an ipod or something smaller preferably but only when the discman gives out completely.

I never understood why people want such big ipods. Having 10 gig of space is just ludicrous. You'll spend forever dialling for a single song that's somewhere on there! I quite like the ipod shuffle, but I know nothing actually about it. I'm just vain enough to like the look of it :- ).

At the moment, I've picked up Missy Higgin's Sound of White. Haven't heard it for a while. God Australia can put out some decent musicians now. Her voice is truly ocker but mmmmmm so sexy. All that and a great piano plpayer as well. Happy Days.

To go with that, I've recently got myself the collection of Harry Potter potter books read by Stephen Fry. I of course already had these and I've just purchased a back up set at I had no way to do so prior :- ).

Don't worry, I've read the books, but when you have a million tedious jobs at work, it's nice just to plug yourself in and listen to a story being told. I have to admit Stephen fry is EXCELLENT as a story teller. You may remember him as the mad general from "Blackadder goes Fourth". He has an excellent voice and can do several accents very well. His impersonation of Hagrid is almost identical to Robbie Coltrane [who plays Hagrid]. Brilliant stuff.

What a weekend

2005-11-08T00:51:00.000-08:00

I could go into horrid detail of all the little antics of the last weekend, but instead I'll just go over Saturday.

On Saturday, I went to watch two wonderful people get married. Miriam is a lovely woman I work with and Adam, her new husband, I've met several times and will always have time for. These are two people that no one would ever have anything bad to say about them.

Saturday they tied the knot. No jokes, they looked absolutely stunning. They were married in a very cute little church in Cote by Faaaaaaringdon. No combine harvesters anywhere near them. She was all in white and Adam with a decadent black and grey suit with purple cravat. I'm comfortable with myself enough that I could say he looked pretty damn dashing as well.

When Mim was walking up the aisle, you could hear everyone take a breath. Mim is a very pretty woman anyway, but chuck her in a wedding dress and f*ck me, she looked stunning!!

The reception was held at a nearby conference centre.

After a couple of hours for the photos and serveral hundred cups of tea later we were led in for dinner. There's always the suspence of who you're going to sit with during this meal. I don't doubt that this would probably be one of the most stressful parts of actually planning a wedding. Well I was chuffed to find myself next to Jaimie and his fiancee, Vicki, Ross and Nia and others from my work. We launched into the red wine and conversation.

Dinner was a buffet where we were granted some chicken and gammon and then a huge platter of different salads. Right at the end of this was several jugs of gravy. Perfect on the chicken in which I thoroughly drowned it. Getting back to the table, we all sat down and started eating.

Poor Nia. She was sitting opposite me and I nearly spat my first mouthful all over her. It seemed that there was a reason the gravy was at the other end of the buffet to the meat. It wasn't f*cking gravy, it was salad dressing!! That was one of the worst surprises I've had this year I think. Which isn't too bad I guess, but at the time, the only way to get the bitter taste out of my mouth was with a full glass of wine. Tough life hey?

After smearing my salad all over the plate to soak up the dressing it turned out to be a lovely meal followed by THE best desert int he world. Banofee Pie. Yeah baby, what a round off.

By this time everyone was very merry and we were all looking forward to the speeches. There were three of them all up:

The brides father. Mim's dad is a minister himself who got barred from having anything to do with the service but you could see how proud he was of her daughter and how much he respected Adam. I think he was struggling to come up with any dirt on his daughter which was particularly sweet.
The Groom: Adam was visibly shaking when he got up on stage. He's a pretty quietish character when I've met him and talking in front of a crowd is not his forte. However, once he got his first laugh he was fine and I think he did an amazing job. I was certainly pissing myself. He's the kind of guy that will think carefully about what to say and then say it [like the total opposite of me] so his speech was incredibly deep, sweet and funny.
The Best Man: Adam's uni friend. I didn't catch his name, but his speech like the two before it was filled with respect for the married couple and was very well written. It had all of us in hysterics by the end.

I thought the speeches were of an amazingly high standard and would have been very funny before the booze. As were a bit tiddly however, I think everyone was practically wiping tears from their eyes they laughed so hard.

The night was rounded off by a display of fireworks. It was the 5th of November of course [Guy Fawkes in which anything combustable is taken into a field and blown up night to the non-uk people]. So we had our own private display! It was amazing too, going for about 10 minutes which is a loooong time for a private function. We were about 50 metres away and we were showered with grit after each big bang. I guess i never thought that there would be anything like this associated with fireworks but instead of retracting from the enjoyment it improved it. How much closer can you be to celebrations and fireworks if you're not getting stuff dumped on you? Honestly. Happy Days.

By the end, the couple had made their quiet farewells to their families and left.

I believe they're now bigging it up in the Maldives the lucky b*satards. I hope they're having as lovely a time as they deserve.

So Jaimie, Vick, Ross, Nia and myself came back to abingdon and went to the tap for the end of the night. It was just after 10 but fortunately a lock in meant that we left at about quater to one a lot merrier.

But not the next morning. I haven't had a red wine hangover in years. My god, I felt terrible. What was I thinking, of going to bed without water? It probably wouldn't have been nearly so bad if mother hadn't woken me up with a text at 8 IN THE MORNING saying that it was 10 years ago that we all went and saw Billy Conolly in Adelaide.

Not quite what I wanted to hear. But it's a mothers priority to make sure they're kids suffer properly during a hangover I guess. It was definitive day of veging in front of the tv watching music videos and football. I also had my first McDonalds since new years that day.

And you know what? The best thing about it was the diet coke :- ).

Aches and Pains

2005-11-02T01:15:00.000-08:00

I played Badminton for the first time in about a month. Dear me, I wasn't terrible but I was pretty rusty. No jokes, I managed to crack MYSELF in the head with my raquet.

Just take a second to think about this.

Even I don't know how I managed it. Badminton raquets are a lot tougher than I originally give them credit for though .. .. .. .. and so is my head.

Otherwise, on today's agenda is me sending off an application to now extend my Visa. I can't believe it was 4 years ago I received Ancestry Visa. Bloody hell, how time has flown.

Hopefully it will just be a formality [as well as £400] to update my visa to "Right of Abode". That means that this time next year, I will be applying for actual citizenship! Crazy. But you know, it's not like I could use the 400 notes for anything else, erm .. .. .. car service, structural survey on the house, holiday .. .. ..mmmm holiday, new carpets, a shed load of dvds. But all in all, I guess I'd rather live in this country so 400 quid it is. Sigh.

Knackered

2005-11-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

So I managed to clock up about 18 hours of work over the weekend. I spent it updating the Oracle version in the company from 8i to 10G. Geeky I know, but someone out there maybe interested :- ).

A couple of hiccups for the last two mornings but overall, things are looking good. I like it when things are running smoothly at work, it gives me a chance to actually do some real work as opposed to fire fighting the whole time.

Actually, the last week has been pretty hectic all around, I had mentally prepared a list earlier today but of course, by the time I write anything, I've forgotten all of what I was going to say.

The house is going, if ever so slowly. The mortgage forms are in and I have had the environmental survey back and it's all good. I have yet to organise a strucutral survey but will sort that out by the end of the week. Hopefully by then we'll be in full swing to get the place of my dreams .. .. .. .. well, the first step to it anyway.

I'm a bit tired now. It was Nia's birthday on the weekend and we had a birthday/halloween dinner for her last night. Debb did ALL the cooking, Paul and I sat on our arses and drank, tough for some right? Debbs did her signature dish of chicken stuffed with Roulade, wrapped in bacon. Simple and stunning. Can't go wrong with that. So yeah, drinking into the wee hours and a school night as well. Shammmme.

Speaking of night, the clocks have changed again. My god, has it made a difference!! It is now sunset JUST when it's gone 5. I suspect by the end of the week, it will be pitch black by the time I leave work. It was when I left at half five last night. Honestly, that's just bloody terrible. I hate the darkness, does my head in.

It's cooling down a lot over the last month as well. While this doesn't really bother me too much, it just means Christmas is on it's way. A little less than two months now actually. Happy Days.

I've just read all of the above. I am tired by the looks of it. What a bunch of random sentences thrown together. Oh well. I never claimed to be Douglas Adam/Jane Austin

Christmas is coming

2005-10-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

Not only is it starting to get really dark in the morning now, Tescos have started selling Mr Kipling Mince Pies.

I guess, it's not too bad considering that November is nearly here. Still, I'm one of those people that only get excited about christmas in december. Trust me, by then I'll be fired up.

In the mean time, I have to contend with it being nearly pitch black when I get up in the morning. Sigh. it makes it REALLY hard to get up. You feel like you're getting up early in the morning. I think there's a change of clocks this weekend, but it's going to be a while until we see the sun for any decent period again.

No more barbequeus at home with Paul and Debbs, that's for sure. Shame, but we'll have plenty of them next year at our respective houses. Good times, nonetheless.

I'm going around Ross' tonight for a movie. Kung-Fu-Hussle. It's the classic Romantic Comedy/feel good movie that we don't get the chance to see with girls around. Should be a good laugh. A bit disconerting how it managed to miss the movies entirely but I'm sure it'll be entertaining in that mindless violence kind of way.

Happy Days.

Apologies for those leaving comments. I've turned on word verification as I can't be arsed having people spamming the comments of a blog. Seems like a pretty lame thing to do. All it does is piss people off, so sorry about that to those three people that leave comments.

Jack Johnson Boo Hoo

2005-10-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

So it was football on friday night. This was my first game of 11 a side on grass. It was brilliant as well. I didn't play a full game, I subd myself off after half an hour as I was having problems breathing. Honestly, I just don't exercise at all anymore. Really felt the pain that night. I have a tendency to not do anything half arsed and will sprint everywhere.

Hence the feeling of slowly dying during a game.

Still. We won! Paul and Matt each scored and we were definately the better team on the night. I think I played pretty well for a first timer. I played most of the second half as well so was pretty knackered by the end.

In fact we went for celebratory drinks and by the end of my second pint I was really starting to feel it.

In fact, I'm feeling it this morning. My hamstrings are killing me. I just need to get out and about more.

Sigh.

On a heavier note I tried to get my hands on some Jack Johnson tickets on saturday. A friend of mine told me that he's touring Europe! I went online and found out that the tickets were available on saturday, 12 noon. So between 11:59 and 2 o'cklock saturday, I spent every thirty seconds calling up to get an engaged ring tone.

Those tickets were just not meant to be mine.

They were going for £22 each. Pairs are now going on ebay for £130 +

god it's annoying.

Charity Match

2005-10-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight, my company are playing a rival company [that is friendly at the worker lever] in a charity football match. We're taking donations for Children in Need and having a raffle.

My participation has been threatning people with GBH for raffle tickets and then this afternoon will be key in our teams crushing defeat as a mid/forward winger.

I've never played a 90 minute game before. I suspect I could be in a LOT of trouble. Oh well. It's for the kids right? Should be some good craic.

I'm going to be working ALL weekend which will be annoying. We're rolling out some new software and this weekend will be testing the rollout so that I can do it next weekend. Oh the joy.

OH well. Overtime is always a good thing.

Did I mention that .....

2005-10-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

I passed my exams? Hehehehehe. Still loving the fact that I actually have made it through. No jokes, it's been a loooooong buildup to taking this bloody thing. Glad it's behind me and I can move onto something else.

Like the house for starters. Unfortunately, it's all relying on me right now. I used my last cheque about 18 months ago and I've just been asked by the lawyers for a cheque to do a land search [you know, to make sure it's still there]. So I've gone to the bank and it'll take a week to get it out to me, oooops.

I've also got a massive wad of paper from the mortgage people. Bugger me, there's a lot to read, fill out and sign. I'll get through it eventually. It's moments like this I really wish my dad was here to look over my shoulder. Being an ex-accountant/beauracrat, he has an affiliation with forms that not many other people do. Oh well, first step in man hood, filling out those damn documents.

On other notes, I'm growing a beard or at least part of one. A couple of weeks ago when I went to Pru's in London, I was a little bit hairy. I hadn't shaved for a couple of days and was a little rough. I also forgot to take a razor with me so I meant to get one while in london. Unfortunately, that never happened so by the time I got back to Abingdon, the fluff was turning quite itchy. I've let it go nearly another two weeks on and I definately have a mo on the way. Unfrotunately, I can't grow any hair on my cheeks, just jaw and neck. Oh so sexy. So i've cleaned up the neck and trimmed the jaw. It doesn't look to bad I think. Not sure about the mo. Bit odd. Feels like there's something permanently resting on my lip [beside hair].

See how it goes.

I PASSED!!!

2005-10-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

I've waited almost three years to finally take my Oracle exam and today I did. I had to train it over to Reading to take my two hour/75 question exam this morning.

Yes it was multiple choice but bugger me that doesn't make the questions any easier. When you're talking about a couple of words difference per choice, it makes the difference in the answers very subtle and the decision much more complex.

I'm not complaining as I passed!! WOOHOO!! I'm now hold an Oracle Certification of Association. It kinda means I've heard about an Oracle Database. You'd think they could come up with a better term than Association. Next exam will be OC of Profesionalism. I won't be waiting 3 years for that one though. We'll see how I am next year , hopfully I'll be able to take it then.

I think tonight, a celebration is in order!

Gidee up and get in!

Wallace and Gromit Warning!

2005-10-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

Another weekend come and gone. And a day on either side since I last wrote.

I ended up taking a half day on friday so I could make it to the annual Oxford CamRA[Campaign for Real Ale] Beer Festival. What can I say? 120 cask ales being drunk in the town hall which is likely to be older than Australia. Pretty good experience really. I went with my friend Adam at lunch and then people from work [Neil, Dangerous, Mike, Ross and Phil] joined us afterwards. Was top fun all around. I think I managed to get through about 14 halves before I was getting into trouble. I tried some amazing beers [some amazingly good, some specacularly bad]. Unfortunately, the "Liquid Lobotomy" had sold out by the time I got there. At 8% you knew it was going to be a decent drink however it tasted.

Ross, Phil and I chipped off early to get some food. For Ross that was a baguette. For me it was small chips and curry sauce. For phil it involved an extra large special donna kebab with the lot, chips, a pot of rice wrapped in vine leaves and an extra naan bread. No he didn't finish all of it. Bloody hell it was a lot of food.

Saturday was spent on my arse watching the entire fourth series of southpark [TiMMy!!!]

Sunday was spent at work [as usual] and then joining Bubba Claire to go and see Wallace and Gromit. Class fun. BUT BE WARNED!! There is a small movie before it. Neither of us was prepared for it. So when a computer animation story about penguins come up, don't worry, it's all part of the show.

Neither of us knew this so about a minute in, when we realised it wasn't a preview, I volunteered Claire to go out and check with someone [she was closer to the aisle afterall]. So she went out and demanded to know of one of the quality cinema staff if there were penguins in wallace and gromit :- ). Apparently Not but they ARE in the short story just before the main movie.

Oh.

Once informed, we sat back and enjoyed the show. Definate thumbs up, was class fun and I was giggling an awful lot.

After the movie, Claire and I retired back to Phil and Hayleys place for a nightcap. Unfortunately no tea as they ran out of milk, but the rhubarb pie and custard was more than enough to make up for it.

We were watching the end of Spiderman which was on tv when Phil came out with a cracker:

"Did you realise that if Spiderman were anatomically correct, he'd be firing that gunk out his arse?"

F*cking genius.

More tax

2005-10-13T03:14:00.000-07:00

Who would have ever thought that there would be so many websites for home decoration and ideas on DIY hey? I've had to create a whole new favourites list on my web browser for home improvement. I'm getting older and mature. Sigh. Don't worry, it's not a total transition, I still have my links to Magic Sites, Computer Game Reviews and Blog sites.

Now that I'm on the move with the house, I've been introduced to a whole new world that I never thought existed. The world of house helpers. People to offer any advice of what you can do to your house for only a nominal fee. Sweet Jesus what some people what to do to their houses is bad enough that they want to do it to mine as well?? Some of the places I inspected were odd enough but, as always, you can always find something more extreme on the net.

A hammock just off the kitchen? Okay, that's odd.
A super large novelty chess set in the living room? You gotta be kidding.

It does make me feel good though that no matter what I end up doing to my house, it will look better than some of the sh*t that's out there.

I have now spoken with my lawyer to handle contracts who is a nice enough bloke. He certainly talks the talk and comes highly recomended. Hopefully he can walk the walk as well.

I'm still pissed off that I have to pay a stamp duty tax on the property. For those of you outside the UK, this is the 1% [of property price] tax that has to be paid when paying for a house. What does it go towards? Who Bloody knows. Could be anything, most likely Tony's war on Iraq which is just where I want my f*cking cash to go. £1500 is a lot to dish out when you don't see a single thing for it. I have much better ways of totally pissing that up against the wall, but no I have to leave it with the government and their "safe" hands. Sigh.

I'm sure it won't be the last time I have to fork out a large some of money for asbolutely nothing.

Offer Accepted!!

2005-10-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

Howdy All,

been a while but I was away in london all last week on a course. Big thanks to Pru for putting me up for a week. What a grand host, cooking dinner for me and a quality drinking buddy whenever we were out. Happy Days.

It was good to be back in london. There was definately a vibe there. But bugger me was it busy. Didn't miss that at all. My course was in the heart of the financial district on liverpool street. Come lunch time, hordes of bankers in their suits are looking for a good feed. I hate being snubbed and being disdained by some twat in a pin stripe was the norm for lunch. Oh well. Bothered.

I've been back at work for a couple of days catching up on a mountain of work that everyone left me while I was away, thanks guys.

However, I had to write as I have some great news!! I've taken my first step on becoming a home owner!! I've had an offer on a house accepted!! Oh Happy Days! It's in a place called Grove which is further away from Oxford. What I miss out on proximity to civilisation, I more than make up for with size. Being three bedrooms means that there is LOADS of space. Two toilets .. .. TWO. No more 2 in the morning dealings with stairs now. WooHoo!!

So I've sorted out a lawyer who is now on the case. I'll get the mortgage on the go as well and it should be great.

I'm hoping to move in after new years. I would like my folks to see/stay in my current house. They'll get a chance to see where I've spent the last 3 years of my life and they get to meet my flat mates which I know they want as well.

YAY!!

A Plobber Speical

2005-09-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

It's friday afternoon and I'm buggered. Been a busy day. Mal, Jen and myself went to the Broadface for a pub lunch. Had a HUGE thai chicken door stopper sandwhich. Was lush but am shattered now.

I'd like to think that I'm off home for an early night but I know I'll be out in oxford with a couple of people for drinks later. Oh well.

Anyhoo, not in the mood for detailing my life today so I figure I'd give you a quote. As you may have read over my blogs I have a friend called Phil. Cracking guy. He probably gives some of the best one liners around. If I find that I can't write anything, let me just share these lines with you.

You have to imagine, this was six months ago. There was 6 of us waiting to tee up on a golf course. We'd been there for half an hour and there was still people in front of us and queuing behind. We're running short on temper and just want to get on with the bloody game.

We're waiting for the couple in front to move. The old guy raises his club to swing and Phil comes out with:

"You know I never trusted this game ever since they let women on the fairway." loud enough to be heard back at the club house.

We all fell about pissing ourselves.

F*cking classic.

Tim Tam Slam

2005-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Funny how somtimes, I'll be walking home from work or shopping in Tescos and I'll come up with something to talk about in the blog. Something insightful or humourous [at least I think so] and by the time it comes to sitting in front of a machine and typing it up, it's gone like dew on a summer's morning [like that metaphor?].

So instead I tend to be left with what I did last night to write about.

Incidently, that was getting conned into watching a boring-as-sh*t game between Chelsea and Liverpool [Champions League match] by jenny at the pub where I got a little battered. Fortunately Ross was there to lean on and carry me home. yay

So today's agenda involved something a little different. A small cultural exchange if you like.

I taught my office co-workers what a TimTam slam is! The local tescos sells timtams much to my delight and I showed everyone here how to do a timtam slam. For those non australians, what this basically means is taking a timtam [like a penguin biscuit but infinately tastier], nibbling opposing corners and sucking tea or coffee through it until the timtam is infused with it. Then you quickly stuff it in your mouth where it self implodes with choclatey goodness.

Predictably both Jen and John didn't realise how quickly you needed to pop the timtam in their mouth and it disintigrated into their tea. Oh well. It happens to EVERYONE the first time. Still, they got the hang of it by the second go and did agree that it was pretty good.

This got elevated to Exceptionally good with the look I then gave them :- )

House viewing

2005-09-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

So I saw this house in Grove on monday.

People had mentioned to me when looking at houses, that the one you end up buying is the one you love as soon as you walk in the door. You instinctively just "know" that this is the house for you. Personally, I thought this sounded a little too cliche for my me. But then it happened. Sigh. I hate falling for cliches. I really REALLY like the place I saw on monday. It had everything that I wanted going for it:

-Big open plan kitchen
-TWO toliets
-A window in the bathroom, honestly you have no idea how many places I've seen JUST have an extractor fan!!
-The bedrooms are big as well [there are 3 of them]

So it looks good. I'm getting as much advice of my friends as I can with relevent questions I can ask so I can suss everything out. I have an apointment with a mortgage advisor today and everything goes well, then I will be booking another apointment to view it. WooHoo!!

In the interim, I've just talked my boss into sending me on an Oracle course in London next week! I've only been doing this work for 5 years and this will be the first course that is actually relevent to me. I'm really looking forward to it. Who would have ever thought I would be so fired up to learn more? Happy Days

Another start

2005-09-26T02:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been home alone for a week. It's been pretty cool actually.

Well, to be honest, I've hardly been home and if I have, I'm either asleep or with company. I do miss having Paul and Debbs around. I mean who doesn't miss their best friends right? But I'm content with knowing that they're probably having the time of their life.

Last night I had bubba Claire around for dinner and a movie. I'd spent the say at work and wasn't up for much so invited her for a meal and chill out session. Can't go wrong. We had some thai red curry followed by some super-duper-self-saucing-chocolate-pudding. Class.

And the movie? Well, I've borrowed quite a few dvds off friends and so there was quite a selection. I gave Claire the choice of:
-Azumi - the 18 year old japanese girl assasin who can kill anyone [and in style]
-South Park Series - Chef's Chocoalte Salty Balls special
-The mighty Boosh - Zany English Wackiness
-Spirited Away - Abeautiful Japanese Fantasy Animation that is sweet and surreal
-----It's all a little bit too blokey for Claire by this time so I tried a different tact:
-Amelie - The award winning french movie with possible the most beautiful woman in the world, Audrey Tatou [After my mother and sister of course :- )]

Which one did she choose?

Well she wanted something funny with a little action and romance? So I pulled out the big guns. "The Princess' Bride"

I haven't seen this movie in ages. It has aged surprisngly well. It's just as corny, sweet and funny as before. I loved it. Claire was pissing herself half the time. I don't think she expected it to be that good but it went straight into her top 10 apparently [up there with armageddon though, so who knows if that's good]

So nice to view some old vintage movies [well, '87 is vintage enough for me]

The rest of the weekend was spent playing cards, working and recovering from going out on friday night. A group of us from IT went to Mario's in Oxford for some lovely Italian. Some white bait followed by tortellini was scrumptious. A couple of beers and the Kazbah and then a boogie listening to live Salsa at the Zodiac afterwards. All up, a pretty good night and weekend in general.

Chester is moving his things out tonight from our study. He and his girlfriend have managed to aquire a hell of a lot of posessions in his few years in England and pretty much took up the whole study,floor to ceiling. Fortunately, we get it back tonight when he comes and takes it away. So we now have a spare bedroom for dossers again. Yay.

The last working week for some

2005-09-23T02:03:00.000-07:00

So that's it. I spoke with my dad after work today. He was having a cuppa coffee with mum in the central market.

Actually, I tried to ring him at work. The answering machine I got was:

"G'day. You've reached the phone of Graham Blah. I'm now retired .. .. .." There was a pause and I swear to god I thought he was going to continue with " And I don't give a rat's arse any more" but unfortunately it was just contact numbers. It did crack me up though. You know he's relaxed if he's going to be recorded as saying "G'day" on a work phone.

But he sounded good. I think it hadn't quite settled in. I remember when I finished school, it took a week to settle in that I didn't need to go back. So it will probably take a little bit for it to settle in him to. My parents leave Adelaide tomorrow for who knows how long. Should be great fun.

Gonna be tricky to actually talk to them while they're on the go, but with mobiles we can at least text each other to find out how they're going.

Happy Days.

On another note, I have another house to view this coming monday. This time, it's in Grove just outside [or actually a part of] Wantage. The house looks lovely and the price isn't bad. If the place looks as good in real life as it does in paper then a cheeky offer may well be on the way. In the mean time I'll continue to scrape a deposit together. Sigh. So much money, all to go on accomodation :- )

2005-09-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Izzy and myself, both steaming, at the "Far from the maddening crowd" pub. Summer party was gooooooood

2005-09-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Ross, Debb and Paul at the Head of the River after the summer Barbeque starting to get primed

2005-09-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

Myself posing with Phil and Dan who might be just a little too tall to hug comfortably.

Bonus

2005-09-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

My God.

I just saw my sisters holiday photos. Bloody hell. First of all, you have to understand that as much as I love my sister [and I do a lot], we're very different people. How we came out so different is beyond me.

I'm a "next" kind of guy.
She's a "Tiffanies" kind of girl.

I drove a micra for a few years.
She drives a Rav4 beast

I'm chilled and sloppy.
She is tres sophisticated and debonaire [sp].

Bugger me though, she outdid herself on this holiday. It looked AMAZING. She went with an old-olf school friend to brisbane/queensland for two weeks. It was a mixture of: snorkling for a few days off a privavtely hired yacht; staying at the versace hotel, Brisbane; relaxing for several days in massive treehuts in a rainforrest overlooking the ocean. Like this looked AMAZING!!

And last time she was up here, I showed her the white horse of Oxfordshire .. . ... damn! Might need to work it up a little next time :- ). Good on her though. She needed a well earned break and it did look simply amazing. I'm sure she'll enjoy the city breaks to barcelona and paris when she gets up here though :- ).

Honestly. She's suave but very cool.

Last Week

2005-09-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

Had yesterday off ill. Didn't feel super flash so decided to flake and doze in front of the tele while watching the entries second series of south park. I can think of worse ways to get through a day.

But it's wednesday now and I'm back int he saddle. Happy Days.

Well, not as happy as my folks are. This week is my dad's last week at work. He retires this friday. On the following day my parents will be leaving adealaide for a fair time as they travel about Australia for a bit and then come up to the UK. They'll settle down here for a little bit in the UK and then set it up base and do some travelling around the main land.

Don't tell me that doesn't float your boat! Everyone around here whom I have told are dead jealous. It gives you a real reason to work hard until you retire. To just travel for a year or three doing exactly what you want. Note I mean travelling and not backpacking. The difference is comfort. So yeah. I'm really happy for them.

I think Dad's a little nervous with no work to do. He'll be fine I'm sure given a little time to settle in and the sleep ins will take him no time to adjust to. A hobby should sort him out otherwise. I can't see him as a stamps kinda guy. But I do see him as the retired market investore making squillions from the privacy of his own study. Get in.

Monday-itis

2005-09-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

Euuugh.

It's midday and I still have a hangover. Honestly. Drinking on sunday nights is not a good plan. I went out to the Fox'n'Hound pub with Adam for some cards and a couple of beers. Well, a couple turned into more as the beer was cheap. Fox'N'Hound is nice but it's a bit too piky-ish for my liking. I just had a flash back of chips'n'curry sauce. So I know I had it at some point in time, but I can't seem to fit it into the actual events for that night which is a little scary.

Oh well.

From today I'm by myself in the house. Paul and Debbs are off to Corfu for a fortnight, lucky buggers! Should be great fun for them. They haven't had a decent holiday together and by themselves in a hell of a long time so it should be good for them. As for me, well the search for a holiday continues. Actually, it's more of a search for someone to go with. I'm not so fussed where I go but I'm not a huge fan of traveling by myself now. So if there are any buxom young ladies out there who would like to do a city break to somewhere on the main land then please leave your details and measurments in the comments tab.

I've taken a fair amount of photos recently so I will try and put them up online. I've recently started sprucing my hair up. A bit trendy/chic to the point that I've actually had a few people comment and say it looks good. Haven't had that before so I must be onto a good thing. Mum has been hassling me for the last 10 years to put some gel in my hair and of course now that I've tried it, it's a good thing. Sorry Ma, you were right all along :- )

Viruses and Ashes

2005-09-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

Bloody Viruses!! Or trojans in this case. Sigh. I've been quiet of late as my machine picked up a trojan and decided to close any window I opened after thirty seconds. Pretty tricky if you want to do any work really. Nigh impossible if you want to find and clear out the trojan. So I've spent the last day and half rebuilding my machine and another day and half catching up on all the work I missed.

Oh well. It's all kosher now.

Well
..
..
Apart from the cricket of course.

So Kudos to England for finally winning the ashes, both men and women. I have to admit, it was THE most exciting series of cricket I think I had ever seen. Cracking stuff. Shame we lost, but hey ho, the better team won on the day.

I gotta admit though, it was really good to see the respect between the two teams. On the last day, when Pieterson scored 100 his first century for England and pretty much ensuring a victory, Brett Lee came up and shook his hand. That's pretty good really. You wouldn't see anything like that in Football. No way.

Unfortunately, being an Australian in England does mean that I get a fair amount of shit. Oh well, like the the Rugby World Cup, it looks like this is just something else I'm going to have to put up with for the next couple of years.

house viewing

2005-09-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

I went and saw a few houses yesterday in Didcot.

I saw three houses on the same estate. Essentially this means that they're identical structurally but what some people do inside is quite ...... interesting. For example, in one place, they had taped up the windows in the living room to give it a medievil panel glass theme. What it looked like was bloody horrible and with no light. The windows would have to be replaced. Others had disgusting colour schemes. Peach and poweder blue does NOT float my boat.

There was one house that was quite nice. I wasn't a fan of the wall colours but that's nothing but a weekend of painting to fix. It was structurally sound with a decent garden. The only downside is that it's very close to the train line and some MASSIVE power cables. After all, I'm looking at living in the English equivalent of Springfield with it's massive power station. Something I can put up with though.

The prices they're looking at is around 150K which is pretty much top end of anything that I can afford by myself.

Think I'll take it slowly. Buying a house is a bit sh*t scary and stressful.

Holidays

2005-09-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

Hmmm.

Paul and Debbs have got the second half of this month off to go to Korfu for a fortnight. Lucky b*stards. That would be lush. Two weeks being away from everything would be absolutely fantastic!

This year I've had several long weekends, but that's it. I haven't had a full week off. I haven't had that time off since november last year when I went back to Australia. A break would be good. God knows what I'd do with myself though. Where would I go?

- Eastern Europe?
- Cuba?
- Egypt?

I remember when I first got to the UK, I was stunned at just how easy it was to do some travelling. In my second year here, I went all over the place, it was absolutely brilliant. I think I've become a bit blase now about travelling which is a shame. Saving up for a deposit on a house REALLY doesn't help much either.

I think I'm missing someone to go with as well. Last year, I travelled across the states for two weeks by myself. I met some amazing people and some of the things I did do I probably couldn't have done if I was there with some else there [wink wink]. It's just not the same as travelling with a friend or partner though.

So the search continues for good times, good friends and now a good holiday somewhere.

Houses Houses Everywhere

2005-09-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

I've been house hunting for the last several months. Nothing too crazy, just looking about and showing more interest than usual.

I've stepped it up a notch in the last week to actually viewing a few properties. It's all a bit of a leap in responsibility really. To be honest I don't think I'm going super duper fussed about the mortgage. Sort it out properly at the start but otherwise it's just lots of rent. Pay it as soon as your paid and then survive on the rest. Pretty much what I do now.

I never really saw myself as a home owner. Those kinds of details never really came up when I was a kid. I knew I'd be rich and famous. .. .. .. who thought I would live somewhere though?

Unfortunately the prices for houses in and around Oxford are to put it in a word, Obscene [with a capital O]. My parent sold they're massive, MASSIVE house in Australia at a bargain, they sold their 4 bed, 3 bathroom bungalow [massive backyard [read:MASSIVE]] for the equivalent of a 2/3 bedroom mid terrace house close[ish] to the city centre. Crazy. So being single I can't really get anywhere too flash.

The things I'm looking for are:
- Two bedroom. I'd like three but that's unlikely to get. A tenant is definately a plan to help with the mortgage and to stop me talking to myself and the microwave
- House. I'm now down with the lingos. I'm not keen on a flat and a maisonette is pretty much the same thing. The idea of being surrounds on both walls is annoying but expected. Having neighbours above AND below you really bites though so a house it is.
- A decent garden. The key word is decent. Garden's are easy. Finding something with grass that hasn't been tarmacked over is a much harder. I do like sitting with my feet in the grass on a summers day.
- Gas. After cooking with electricty for the last three years I can tell you one thing. I'm SICK OF IT!! It's bloody horrible. I look longingly at friends places when they just effortlessly boil water in a pan. I'm sick of preplanning a meal by 20 minutes so i can get the elements at the right temperature!!

These are all fairly modest requests I would have thought but they up the price of the house with each point. So I'm looking at houses a little outside of Abingdon. Tomorrow I'm viewing some properties in Didcot, about 5 miles away. Should be interesting. I'll let you all know.

Again!!

2005-09-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

For the THIRD time in a year, I have received a particular letter. It's not from the bank, it's not from friends, it's from the metropoliton police and it's a court summons.

For the third time in a year, "I" have been caught speeding and need to go to court for a review/fine.

And for the third time in a year, I am going to have to write back stating that the car they have accused me of speeding in was actually sold close to 18 months ago!

Sigh. I've contacted the DVLA [Department of Vehicle Licencing and something...] to say that I don't own the car, they should have received all my forms. But to no avail.

Grrrrrr.

The mobile Phone Dilemma

2005-09-01T02:19:00.000-07:00

So after a month of faffing about with O2, I've finally got myself a new phone. Honeslty, I've NEVER had so much hassle with getting a phone delivered. Apparently getting it delivered to my house was too much of an issue for O2. If they didn't deliver to the wrong address outright, they took it to someone, got it signed off and accused me of stealing it and all kinds of bollocks.

Grrrrr.

Dealing with retards on the end of the phone doesn't help. Sometimes being polite doesn't cut the mustard with these people. Oh well. Doesn't matter, I have my new Nokia 6230i now and it's pretty sexy. It's go the normal camera, blue tooth .. .. yadda yadda yadda. The thing that really does it for me is it plays mp3s. If it plays mp3s, then you can set your ringtone to something much cooler.

So there in is the dilemma. What do I use as my ringtone? The latest tune in the charts? A bit of old nostalgia? There are a lot of decisions. Ringtones are kind of like shoes. The type you have DOES reflect your personality. And you know what, I've got it. Probably one of the coolest ringtones around. Actually, I've got two depending on who you are. They're both tv theme tunes. But nothing cheesy like Red Dwarf or Black adder or something.

Nope.

My ringtones are: The Goodies and Fat Albert.

Oh yeah. Now that is class. I was tempted to see if I could find the inspector gadget or even HeMan tunes somewhere, but that might be venturing from the land of cool into the realm of Uber-Geek. So as it is, I'm content.

I still get some wry smiles when my phone goes off. Cracks me up every time.

Goodie-Goodie-Yum-Yum

Movies Galore

2005-08-31T01:09:00.000-07:00

A group of us have worked out a devious little plan over the last month. When Deb wishes to get with her girly friends for some girl chats, it's fair enough that I [and all other boys] shouldn't be around. Once a week, Hayley, Debs, Nia and any other girls get together at one of their houses.

Unfortnately this tends to uproot the man of the house and he tends to be chased out and not to come back until all gossip has been relayed.

Us boys have got together and come up with the perfect plan. We'll just have a boys night in as well. So while the girls are talking girly goodness, the boys get together and have a couple of beers and watch movies that they wouldn't normally get the chance to see. You guessed it, no romantic comedies within half a mile of us.

All movies must contain at least one if not a combination of
-Guns
-Boobs
-Ninjas
-Titties
-Swords
-Tanks
-Aliens
-Fanny
-Bare Knuckle Fighting

With a list like that, you can't go too wrong. Ross and I have watched several movies over the last couple of weeks:
- House of Flying Daggers which I've been meaning to see for age. Classic Chinese hit'em up with the cutest chinese chic EVER [she was in Crouching Tiger as well]
- Bang-Ok. A thai Muay-Thai master takes revenge on theives who stole a budha's head from his village
- Constantine. Keanau Reeves is a man who lost his soul and is trying to get it back by sending demons back to hell.

So can you catch a theme yet? Yep. Definately boy time. Class fun.

I also got around to seeing The Island with Bubba Claire on saturday night. Would have been an allright movie if the product placement wasn't so hideously obvious. Honestly, when people are making phone cals in "MSN Search" booths, it s little too in your face. Entertaining/leave your brain at the door kind of stuff though

a small break

2005-08-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

Howdy All,

Okay, for the benefit of my sister who is now sending me daily threats to keep her in the know for what's happening, I will continue to update my blog.

I've been through a small period of what's known in the buisness as "Can't-be-arsed-ism". I've been busy, but not busy enough to stop me from writing. Just busy enough to take out the motivation to write. I know that within a couple of days, I'll be back to it.

My problem is that I have great ideas of things to write about during the day. Either stuff that's going on around me or ideas of how the world works. But by the time I sit in front of my machine, that's it, I forgotten them. All I can think of is what I had to eat last night [Chicken Salad with Peanut Sauce ala Phil and Hayley actually]. I could really do with a little black book for ideas. Or even better, one of those little tape machines to record thoughts. Yep. That would definately freak some people out.

Anyway, the break from writing has cleared out some of the deluge in my brain so I can write anew.

I'll start small and just say that I spent the weekend glued to the tele watching the cricket. This has to be one of the best ashes tests I think I've ever seen. No side can really bury the other. Just when you think England have creamed us, they then go and shoot themselves in the foot with some apalling batting. England are ahead 2-1 in the series with one game left. Australia HAVE to win this match to get a draw and to keep the ashes.

I'm torn whom I want to win. Naturally, I do want Australia to win. However, it's been so long since England have had this much of a chance that I think Australia could do with a very healthy kick up the arse/reality check if they lost. I know that if they DID lose it, then Australia would probably decimate England in the series for the next 10 years just for revenge.

But to be honest as long as the standard is as good as it is then who'se to complain. You know you're enjoying yourself if you're yelling at the tele at the top of your voice for some to "Pull their finger out".

Lost

2005-08-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

So I saw the new "BIG" tv series to hit America last night.

It's called Lost.

BBC gave us a double whammy of it. Two one hour episodes broken up with a Big Brother eviction inbetween. Honestly, the fun never stops in our house.

As for Lost. Well, I'm happy to say that the second episode was a lot better than the first. It stars Pippin [or is it Merry] from Lord of the rings as a bit of a crack fiend and a group of other people who have crash landed. The main character, Jack, is a bit Doctor/Surgeon who dabbles in flying and being super Macho Tough [Don't we all at some point?]. To be honest, there's a lot of cheese in this show but as crappy american shows go. It could do worse. Then again, it could give it a bit less cheese and work on an actual story and not lots of stereotypes such as:
- The musician who is a crackhead
- The japanese couple where the Husband has total control and the woman is trying to find independence
- The Father having problems connecting with his son
- The only nice guy happens to be the ugly, fat, huge guy where everyone else is just beautiful
- The Iraquee who actually fought in the war [for iraq] and is trying to find himself

God. What did the writers do, roll a dice for the character and just follow the formula?

sigh. I shouldn't be enjoying it as much as I do.

Music

2005-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

This week I've been listening to Radiohead's OK Computer on the way into work. A great album. When listening on the discman, it's hard not to fit in a little air guitar or air drums in while walking. And if you get stared at? Bugger 'em.

I've been thinking though. I've got several hundred albums that i've been collecting over the years. They're all on MP3 thankfully as I simply wouldn't have space for the cases otherwise. Being on MP3 makes it very easy to browse through all the lists I have.

If anyone asked me who was my favourite band five years ago, I would have said "The Cure" without a shadow of doubt. Two years ago, I'm no so sure. When I first came to England I wasn't so fussed by the music.

However, I have to sing the praises of two bands/albums that I believe/hope will be timeless.

For me, the best artist of the decade would have to be Jack Johnson. He's a New Zealander that went pro with surfing, injured himself so became a film maker and finally settled on writing music. His first album, Brushfire fairytailes, is just amazing. His style, is a relaxed acoustic with very chilled rhythms. His voice is almost childishly high but soothing all the same. I fell in love with his first album so much. I was terrified of listening to his second album, On & On, when it came out because I couldn't bare listening to it if it wasn't up to scratch of his first. I finally did the other day. Can you believe it's even better?!? It's amazing. I'm already on to learning several of the songs on there.

As for the best album. Well, probably one of the best albums of this decade would have to be Keane's Hopes and Fears. It's amazing what a three piece band can do. Especially when they only have a piano and drums. This is more new age-indie. Definately the best to have come out of Britain.

So if there's any albums you were thinking of buying for yourself in the next month. Don't get it, get one of the above albums, you won't regret it.

A Happy Birthday!!

2005-08-09T06:41:00.001-07:00

Today is my mum's 60th!! Happy Birthday ma. Gotta love ya!!

I did the morning chat with her as well as sending a couple of text messages to make sure that she is well and looking after herself. She sounded perky and great[as all mothers do] and it was really nice to chat.

My mum and dad are staying with some family friends at the moment, Teresa and Joe. Teresa was in fact my mum's brides maid and has been one of our closest family friends for like forever. So if there's someone to celebrate with my folks, it's these guys. It will be lovely. They are old school Italian. You know the type. So genuinely nice, sweet and forgiving it almost puts you on edge. And definately the type where you're not allowed to leave the table until you've had your fourth helping of bread/pasta/pizza/gnochi/carbs. So wonderful.

To coincide with mum's birthday is the day that they finally move as well. So I say goodbye [from afar] to the house that I spent the most of my stable life in. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there. I don't think I would have liked seeing the empty rooms. Mum said they were full of conversations remembered from another time. A good analogy.

It's moments like this that I do get homesick. I would love to spend the time with my parent's on their birthdays and to help them move house when they need it. Oh well. I've gotten used to sending happy vibes from this far, why stop now.

A Happy Birthday!!

2005-08-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

GBBF

2005-08-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

How is it that long weekends seem to go JUST as fast as a normal weekend? Crazy.

I took last friday off and went to the Great British Beer Festival in London. What can I say? Brilliant. They offered around 4000 different types of beer. Well, Ale really. You will only find lager from one of the foreign bars there otherwise it's a WHOLE lot of ale to be had. I met up with a good friend who live in London, Kerry, my best mate in Oxford, Adam and his brother and a couple of other mates. There was a small group of us that decided to go around and taste everything. It was bloody lush. So many different beers. Next time, I'm going to take a little pad and pen though as I can only remember a handful of all the different beers that I tried.

While there, I saw an Australian flag and asked what australian beers they had. My pulse raced when they broke out a couple of coopers bottles. Unfortunately, there was no Pale. It was either Sparkling or Stout. I haven't actually tried a sparkling ale in probably 5 years so it was nice to try again. It's still not my coopers of choice .. .. .. by a long way. But it was nice to crunch on after so long.

The night was spent dossing at Kerry's Girlfrineds house. Her name is Elarye. Or at least I think that might possibly be how it's spelled phonetically. No promises though. She was very sweet and it was nice to just chill out with Kerry before midnight as normally we'd be clubbing or god knows what until midday the next day.

As for expenses. Well believe it or not, I spent £40 on the whole day's drinking. not bad. It's when you take into account the spaz factor that things got expensive.

Tally:
-Petrol into london £15
-Tube ride for friday and saturday £10
-Entry to the Beer festival £7
-Getting cash at the ATM £50
-Getting another load of cash at the atm because you ACTUALLY walked away after removing your card and only realise when getting your FIRST beer!!! £50
- Beer £30
- Going back to the car to find that it's got a ticket - £40

So all in all, the weekend could have been a lot cheaper. Oh well. Pay attention next time I guess!!

Movie Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2005-08-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

I finally got off my arse and went to see the new Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie last night. I was accompanied by the luuuurvly Bubba Claire and her friend Jules. We had a quick drink beforehand which meant that by the time we went to take our seats, the place was packed and we had to take individual seats.

Joy.

However, that didn't stop me from enjoying myself immensely. I'm a huge fan of the original movie and would put it in my top5 movies of all time. Gene Wilder was an absolute genius.

Tim Burton does bring a new feel to this movie though. It's definately darker and the story has been remodelled quite differently to the original. Unfortunately, I've never read the original Roald Dahl book so I'm not sure which movie is closer to the story. Either way though, it's a great film. Johnny Depp is brilliant in portraing Willy Wonka not as a crazy eccentric man [ala Gene Wilder] but as Twisted and Warped child within a mans body.

And of course there the Oompa Loompas. This was the only downer of the film. I see in the credits the lyrics were done by Roald Dahl so I assume they're original but the songs themselves were done pretty averagly and after the second one, I just turned off and watched the special effects. I suspect everyone pretty much did that.

If you get the chance though, go see it. You can't go too far wrong.

So quick

2005-08-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it's 4:45 on wednesday afteernoon. Where the hell has this week gone? Crazy.

It has been absolute bedlam at work. I barely have time to fit in lunch. We have new versions of inhouse software coming out and by default I'm looking after it all.

OH yeah. Fun and games.

I'm also recovering from a busy weekend.

Friday started by me staying at work until half eight that night thus being late for work curry night that I helped organise! Bugger. Oh well. I caught up on eveyone's drinking. Honestly, I don't think a beer has ever tasted so good after working late and being stressed.

Saturday started with being at work and then picking up Prudence for the weekend!! Always a happy occasion and usually involves alcohol of some description. We had dinner of Coriander Chicken skewers, Red Thai Beef Curry, chapatis and prawn crackers. It was a bit allright no jokes. After dinner we then went into Oxford for possibly the shortest of visits ever. We got to Chequers club at 10:15. Met Bubba Claire and Helay and 45 minutes [2 pints] later we got kicked out again and so went home. Weird

Sunday was spent talking Pru into joining me for a charity football match for a friend Katherine. She's off to Nepal on a trek and needed funds to help her. So she organised 10 teams [6 a side] to play. We played three games at 13 minutes. Tough work when you're sprinting pretty mcuh the whole time. The rules were taht we had to have a female on the whole time. Pru was a trooper and was the only person not to come off. Champion. We didn't actually win but it was good craic.

We then made it beck home for one of Paul and Deb's roasts. Mmm.m Chicken with the lot and home made brad and butter pudding to follow.

I must be said, I used to HATE bread and butter pudding. I loathed it as a desert. Now that I have tried Paul's however, I must admit that it tastes pretty sensational.

By the time desert was finished, it was already 9 o'clock and I had to get Pru to the coach station. Honestly, the days just blurred.

Thank god I've got friday off. I'm off to the GBBF, Great British Beer Festival. Should be absolute class.

Bubba

2005-07-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

You might have heard me mention a bloke knownly among us as "Bubba". Bit of a scottish character. We've head butted each other. He's called me a "Wee Ozzie Puuuuf" and I've called him a Scottish Twat plenty of times. We have a fun history.

He has recently taken a trip to Thailand as a holiday between jobs. Pauline just got a text of him:

'havin beer in sunshine with a gorgeous thai bird and she aint got a dick b4 you ask... this place is awesome"

Classic.

Curry and Humour

2005-07-28T02:11:00.000-07:00

It was Ross' Birthday curry bash last night. A few beers at the Brewery Tap and then we moved on to the Dil Raj for a very lovely curry. Everyone grabbed an entree, poppadoms and a main. Nothing too outlandish.

I had some fish cutlets for my entree whick were small but nice and a chicken Dilkush for my main. I've never tried a dilkush before. It's a creamy coriander, chilly and ginger curry. Very nice as well. So good times were had by all, particularly Ross which is what we all went out for.

Felt a bit fuzzy this morning though. I've definately lost any drinking tolerance I've had. 5 pints and I was off my tree last night. I've got a pair of new Banglar glasses to add to the collection as well. Gold rimmed pints glasses add a touch of a class that a Stein can't in all it's size.

This morning I was greeted by one of the funniest emails I've seen in a while. It was from my sister, a friend of hers was travellling the underground in London and came across a sign for the public to make note of. Keep in mind, this is inlight of the bombings that have been going on over the last month.

It said:

"Notice to All Passengers
Please do not run on the platforms or concourses. Especially if you are carrying a rucksack, wearing a big coat or look a bit foreign.
This notice if for your own safety.

Thankyou."

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. You can't make up stuff like that.

Absolute gold.

Working out for Food

2005-07-27T01:15:00.000-07:00

Well I'm continuing to exercise really well and eat, well, kind allright.

I'm not snacking which is good and the majority of my meals are very healthy. Every now and then I'm entitled to something alittle bit on the naughty side. A little giftie every now and then is well deserved.

Football has come to a close at the moment which is a shame. There aren't any games on for the next couple of weeks as seasons end between all the little leagues that I'm part of. Badminton is still going strong with three games a week and I try to fit at least 3 visits to the gym in there as well. God, with all this work out you'd expect for some weight loss to show. Sigh. Eventually. I have a six month plan. I'll keep going how I am over six months, and then if nothing well. Bugger it, I'll jsut keep going I guess.

Today is a really good friend, Ross's, birthday. We're all out for a curry in the Dil Raj in Abingdon. I say We without knowing who will be going. I'm assuming it will be Ross and Nia, Paul and Debs, Myself, Phil and Haley. I think Dangerous and JD are coming along as well. Should be some good times.

Will need to be on the bike and running for a little while before that. I can never get enough curry you know. It's just so good. MSG-tastic I guess.

So curry and a run tonight sounds like it's on the plan. Should be cracking fun.

Current Food and Music

2005-07-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

Went home for lunch for the first time in a couple of weeks. Of late, I've tended to be too busy either playing badminton or doing odd jobs that I simply haven't had the chance.

Today though, I went home and just veged in front of the tele for an hour. Well, maybe not veged. I did actually make myself some beautiful soup. It took me a full fifteen minutes and tastes lush.

Nigella/Gordon/Jaimie, move over for a real Cook.

1]Lightly fry some cumin seeds 'til they pop and then add some onion and garlic roughly chopped
2]Cooky the lot until onion is translucent bordering on brown. Adding small amounts of water speeds up the process
3]Add a [drained] can of chick peas or [even better] fresh chcick peas that have been soaking over night. Also add some dried coriander and any other seasoning you may like.
4]When cooked all around add 200mls of stock [your choice, surprise yourself].
5]Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then blend the lot

Honestly, it was pretty damn nice. I think if you add some coriander and lemon it might be even better. Another day perhaps. Good times. As for dinner tonight. I believe it's a beef mince curry with peas ala Deborah. Should be a treat.

For this weeks walk into work, I've been listening to Something for Kate's "Echolalia". This album came out the week I left for England [over three years ago]. I still look at is, as cutting edge :- ). It's a fantastic album and I'm sure I've scared many an old lady by walking passed her and breaking into a chorus.

Tonights agenda will involve a game of Badminton with John [no Jenny, she's in Norway] and then a trip to the gym. Might chill out the rest of the evening.

The Mighty Boosh

2005-07-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last nice was the end of a very chilled weekend.

We had a barbeque at our place as it had been so long since we had done anything. A decent affair with about 15 people coming over and getting battered. Very sociable and cool.

It got a bit geeky at the end when everyone went home except the boys and we got together to play some Risk as it had been several months since the last game. I won. Again. I had to kill Phil off in order to win. He hasn't talked to me since :- ).

Saturday involved going to work and watching tv. Pretty much nothing else. I caught up with Bubba Claire as well at Tescos for a quick chat. Always nice to see her.

Sunday was the same with the gym thrown in and then football at the end. I'm getting better at football but I'm still nothing spesh. I can hold my own and I have the fitness to keep going. We were playing five a side indoors and were down a goalie. I volunteered for the second half as no one else was game. I think that was the start AND the end of my football goalie career in one foul swoop. 6 goals I lets in! Not to good really. Oh well. I never claimed to be a good goalie.

Anyway. That night I was veging in front of the tele too tired to go to bed [come on, you've all been there] when I saw an add for the second series of The Mighty Boosh comng on tuesday night!!

The Mighty Boosh was a radio series put out about 3 years ago. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. It's a set of very VERY bizarre stories revolving around two zoo keepers and their unbalanced boss. Absolutely hilarious. I saw one episode on tv accidently about 9 months ago which was very brilliante. Since then I bought the radio series and listen to an episode every couple of days. So I'm fired up about a second series. I checked and the firest series is coming out on DVD. I've already pre booked a copy. Class :- )

Sad but so much fun. If you get a chance, watch/listen to it. You'll never regret it.

Come on Aussie, Come on, Come on

2005-07-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

It's on!! The Ashes are being played right now!

Yesterday was the start of the 5 day series and it began with my managing director coming in and stating that we didn't have a chance in hell of winning.

Very tough to come up with anything decent as a comeback to your MD without actually getting fired.

It was risky enough telling him to "Blow it out your arse, I have a wooden spoon sitting here for you in 5 days." That was a seriously edited version of what the words running through my mind were.

Anyways, Australia went into bat and were getting absolutely smashed. When it was about 60/4, I was getting emails, phone calls, text messages and people coming in to ask if I had seen the score. Being the only Australian around, I get this attention when any sport we're involved with goes pear shaped.

Of course, being the true Ocker, I wouldn't stand down and said wait to the English come in to bat.

They finished yesteray with 92/7 which was faaaaaar worse that us. Phew. You'd be amazed at the producitivy levels at work yesterday. While Australia was batting, noone had anything to do but pester me but when England started to crumble, everyone suddenly found something to keep themselves occupied.

Amazing isn't it.

I note that my MD has been very quiet even though I've sent him the reminder email of a wooden spoon sitting on my desk. Might leave it at that.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Oi

Oi

Oi

Peeling like a fiend

2005-07-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

I have nearly recovered from the weekend.

It was my longest holiday this year with a five day weekend. WooHoo!!

Myself, Paul, his mate Paul, JD, Bubba, Dangerous Dave and Not so Dangerous Dave decided to go on a road trip and went down to Newquay for the weekend. It's located in the south west of the country in Cornwall. For those of you unaware, Newquay is supposed to be England's best surfing destination with unparalleled beeches anywhere else.

I can already here the Australians smirking.

Honestly, it was pretty good.

We took two cars and the journey is about 220 odd miles [350kms]. So it's a bit of a treck. But we did it in under four hours which is pretty good. We got to our camp site just outside of the town and pitched up. This place was HEAVING, it was like a music festival, there were tents EVERYWHERE. It was supposed to be 18-30 year olds, but it was more like 16-19. Honestly, I felt positively ancient while I was there. I guess I shouldn't complain but there's young and then there's Chav young. That's positively filthy young. Euuugh.

We had two tents, a 3 man [for DD, NsD and JD] and a 6 man tent for P,P,B and me. We needed the extra space just for Bubba's bowels.

Honestly, he's got a Chenobyl Anus. Fiendish.

Our days were spent with a wake up call at 5 in the morning with seagulls spreading their love [literally] on the roofs of our tents for 15 minutes. Falling back asleep waking up at 9 or so; scratch ourselves for an hour; have a shower and then wonder into town. We'd laze on the beech for a couple of hours; have a pasty [we're in Corwnall after all]; then head back to the campsite; get changed and go back into town for drinking.

Honestly, it was 5 days of that and it was great.

Things to mention:
- Going to a surfing festival and feeling totally out of place as we were surround 6 foot, tanned, lean, dreadlocked, tattooed surfers. I can't relate to a single one of those features. We didn't last long before getting bored and chipping off.
- Playing beach cricket, football and frisbee action in the water was fantatstic.
- I forgot my pillow and people who think a towel is a suitable substitute [Douglas Adams I'm talking to you] are full of sh*t.
- Getting absolutely fried for the first time in England. Even though I did put on factor 30, it was waaaaaay to late and I am now peeling all over my desk. Tres Chic.
- While the showers at the campsite were great, the toilets were absolutely filthy, so we would all cross our legs and do our ablutions when we got to JD Weatherspoons in town who happened to have the Cheapest beer AND nicest toilets :- ).
- On our very last night we saw a group of youths dack one of their mates who didn't seem to fussed to now walk around with pants between his ankles. Fine, whatever. It was when, in front of a crowd of forty drunk people waiting for a bus, he went to take a crap on the pavement on the other side of the road AND one of his mates went to catch it in a bag that things got a bit gross. I kid you not. They were welsh boys if it explains anything.

So that was it. Brilliant fun but over too quickly as normal.

So back at work and thinking that I need some more kip.

2005-07-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

Pauline [copping a feel], JD and myself at the Walkabout [of all places] for a quiet beer after lazing in the sun.

2005-07-20T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Boys on Tour: JD, Pauline, Dangerous Dave, Paul, Bubba and Not So Dangerous Dave

2005-07-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

Paul and I overlooking the Beach at Newquay

The Big Chop

2005-07-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

The last week has been the most glorious weather. It's been high 20's/low 30's. Lots of sun, no clouds and plenty of ozone layer.

Abingdon is beautiful in Summer and I've been really enjoying myself. The only thing out of place was my hair. I had really let it go a bit. When the sideburns start curling, you know it's time for a bit of a cut.

Well in this case, it was lot more than "a bit". I had about 3 inches off. Short back and sides and it's now gel on top for a more spikey look. Got to admit, I look a damn site better as well. I'm never going to be modelling but the mess of hair didn't do me any favours either.

So I'm now looking much trendier and ready for a weekend of gallavanting down at Newquey for the next 5 days with the boys. Happy Days.

Phone Calls

2005-07-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

As I said yesterday, I had some great phone calls over the weekend.

Talking with my folks is always great. They are so supportive of anything I do and love to hear what I'm doing. Equally, I like to know what's going on back home and I'm still a child in that I know things are allright when I hear the sound of my parents voices. Happily, these things don't change.

I also spoke with my sister which was very cool as well. I hadn't spoken with her for a couple of weeks. We ended up playing phone tag where we just leave messages on each others phone. Fortunately we did manage to catch up and it was really nice to find out how she's going. It looks to be good. Could be better but it could be a hell of a lot worse. She's waaay cool to hear though.

Then there was my chat with Bel. Well, an hour and half isn't really a chat. She's one of those people that when she gets going, there's no stopping. I haven't spoken to her for a couple of months. She left Australia around the same time I did to become a croupier on cruise ships. She's done really well for herslef I'm happy to say. She's a great person to listen to. Lots of stories, couple of cracking comments in there as well. Half the time I was pissing myself laughing, the other half .. .. .. ..

We caught up on the weekend and spoke about how we were going and then the inevitable discussion of our friends that we left in Australia.

I've thought about our words spoken and, three days on, I'm just as f*cking angry.

Like me, she doesn't get to go home very regularly so it's a special time to catch up with family and friends in the flesh.

Like me, she will cruise along and try to fit in with other people's schedules so as not to cause a nuisance.

And like me, she finds that her closest friends are the ones that simply don't have any time for her.

Earlier this year, her Ex got with my Ex and have been happy ever since. Coolio. I'm cool with that, if a bit weirded out. Only natural right? Bel is cool with and less weirded out than I am. Just shows she's a little bit more open minded than me. It's nothing that a little bit of time and work can't sort out. I know that after a less recent ex got with a friend of mine, I was devastated. I was 21 and didn't know what hit me. A year later though I was really happy for them. Two years after that he popped the question, they got married and I can genuinely say from the bottom of my heart that I couldn't be more pleased for them.

So I know from experience all it take is a bit of work and everything will be peachy keen.

Apparently though, that bit of work is too much for some.

Sigh.

How I get annoyed with people 20,000 kms away pisses me of just as much.

I know, I know. It's got nothing to do with me.

Good times over the weekend

2005-07-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

What a lazy, lovely weekend. It was nothing but happy days.

Sure I have to come in to do some work, but hey, I look at it as extra cash.

The sun was out, it was low thirties the whole way and not a cloud in the sky. I took my pasty white flesh out and tried to soak up some rays. Absolutely brilliant fun.

I went out for a couple of drinks in town on friday night with just a couple of the girls from work. Ross joined us later as he was already in town to sure up the testosterone numbers. Andy, louisa's other half, was also there and we chatted about Glastonbury, Bombings and Nipples being coloured in with Felt tip.
..
No not mine.
..
..
Thank God.

Saturday morning was spent by me getting up and having a hankering for computer games. So I launched in Baldur's Gate II [what a classic] and started hacking at decoms. The music wasn't very inspiring so I put on Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers extended edition to play in the background and before I knew it . . . BANG! It was already mid afternoon.

I spoke with my parents, my sister and Bel all back home which was great. Really REALLY nice.

After that I went to the gym for a work out, had a walk in the sun and then joined Adam for dinner at his placed.

We had chargrilled squid mixed with a greek salad.

It was even better than what it sounded.

I joined the boys that evening but decided to drive in and be the designated boring sober person as I really did get battered on friday.

I woke up really early on Sunday but it was natural [as opposed to alarm induced] and I felt great so I decided to walk to the gym [half an hour], get a work out and then walk back. The weather was stunning. I went into work at midmorning and came out again in the early afternoon.

This was just in time to get with everyone and go down to the Abbey park for a bbq. The setting a huge green pasture that is on the Thames/Isis river. It's 30 degrees. There s a group of pasty, moonlit tanned people [Debs, Paul, Myself, Ross, Nia, Dangerous Dave, JD and Ali] sitting down and having drinks and a barbeque. We didn't move for about 5 hours. The boys had their tops off showing off nothing but white. Such an english tradition.

I managed to pick up some colour but still not get burned! Gotta love an Ozone layer.

So that brings me up to this week which will be nice and short as I'm off camping this weekend.

Gidee up.

Losing Weight

2005-07-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

Okay,

So I'm back once again on the health train this week. I've kind of derailed over the last month with indulging myself in food. I've just gone through the massive box of sweets my folks sent me two months ago. Honestly, there was soooo much in there! I'm now down to two packs of violet crumbles and a large pack of samboy barbeque chips. I've been saving the best 'til last.

They can wait however. For the moment, I need to lose a little bit. At the moment, my work mate Jon is my inspiration/motivation.

This guy has lost two stone over the last 6 months and is looking f*cking good! The secret? Regular exercise [Yoga] and eating healthy. What else? I figure if he can do it, so can I. Just some hard work and keeping myself motivated.

I've been doing regular exercise in playing badminton and football. I'll get to the gym this weekend to do some light weights as well for an all round toning effect. I've been eating pretty very healthily with no snacking [of crap food] and everything I've eaten has been made fresh. I'm trying not to eat past 8 o'clock at night as I don't want anything heavy in my stomach when I go to bed.

My only problem is drinking. Having the occasional beer is fine. Going on a bender is not so flash. Next week I'm going on a five day rampage with the boys in Newquay [south east in Cornwall]. Something like that's not going to do me any favours. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be great fun, but I don't want to blow all the work I've been doing. Take it as it comes. I'm not going to not have a good time because of this. I just need be a bit more restrained.

I've set myself a goal of two stone. I've definately got enough of that to lose. It will take me a while. Hopefully I will keep up the motivation to do it.

Bombings

2005-07-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so I've spent half the morning on the BBC website monitoring what's going on in London.

I tend to gave over the news in the morning just to see what's going on in the world. First thing I saw was an article stating that there was a power surge halting all London Underground.

Within half an hour this had been updated to possible bombings.

An hour later it had been confirmed that a bus had been targeted as well.

F*ck me. What's going on in the world. I guess I've always wondered if London will be targeted by terrorists. Looks like it's happened. Terrifying that this could happen.

I've already got in contact with the people I know who are in London. Fortunately all got back to me and are well. Thank god.

I'm glad I moved out of London.

London 2012

2005-07-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

I was in Australia for the Sydney olympics in 200, I wonder if I'll be in England when the Olympics come to London? Don't know.

Seven years is a hell of a long time to think about. I'm happy to see that London got it. I think there will need to be sooooo much work done first and seven years isn't a long time when you think about red-tape/city planning. At the moment, the underground can't cope with the amount of people living there let alone when over a million people will descend for the games. Oh well. Good times.

I'm sure that London getting the games will do wonders for the rift between France and England.

As for my sporting skills at the moment, well I've been a little machine this week. It's only thursday and I've had 4 games of badminton and two games of football already. I'm bloody knackered too. I've had a bit of a cough of late and my sleep has been shot.

So overall I'm pushing my body a little too hard when I know all I need is some R&R. No rest for the wicked though. I'll be going to work [again] this weekend to catch up on some jobs and will hopefully fit in a quiet trip to the gym as well. Nothing too crazy, just a bike ride and some light weights. What I need is to find someone with a jacuzzi.

Preferably a 12 person Jacuzzi.

Well.. .. ..

Really, a 1 guy, 11 girl kind of jacuzzi. That would be just perfect.

Daydreaming can be fun somtimes.

I just don't understand

2005-07-06T04:32:00.000-07:00

One of the guys that I play football at work with is Richard. He's a nice enough guy. We work at seperate sites and only get to see each other at football. I've shared a beer with him now and again and he's pretty sound.

On saturday night he and his brother was walking through a park in Peachcroft which is an area in Abingdon.

There was a group of youths [15-17 year olds] there who asked Rich if he had any booze or cigarettes. Understandably Rich said sorry and continued walking. They got about 15 metres before one of the little f*cks thought it would be funny if they threw a bottle at his brothers head. Fortunately it missed but Rich, understandably, took a bit of exception at this and told the youths to leave him and his brother alone. Their response? The little c*nts linched him and his brother.

He came out of hospital yesterday with a metal plate and two pins in his jaw.

What the f8ck is going on in the world today when people can get away with that? Mob mentality is an awful thing. Statements have been taken by the police but I don't know what can be done.

God it makes me angry. I'd love to be able to get a group of boys together, go down there and do exactly the same thing to those sh8ts. Then I'm stuck in a cliche, I'm no better than they are.

It just makes me so angry.

Grrrrr

Live8

2005-07-04T01:27:00.000-07:00

So like 100s of other bloggers I may as well talk about how amazing Live 8 was.

I started my saturday by going to work and tinkering with databases. Not number 1 on my list of ways to spend a saturday morning but hey, overtime is nice. Unfortunately things kicked on a whole lot longer than I was expecting and I didn't get home until 4 that afternoon.

The good news was that I was able to get onto the BBC website and listen to the start of the concert live online.

I must admit, that I was a bit blase with regard to U2 and Paul McCartney starting off the show. But let's face it, Sgt Peppers lonely hearts club is an AMAZING song. I thought they did a great rendition of it. Pretty hard not to sing along. I was stunned to hear later that McCartney was nervous becuase he had never actually sung it live before! Crazy.

So yeah, everyone who played was class. Particular outstanding acts had to be:
Snow Patrol, Razor light [or at leas the first half of the set [what's with the f*cking hat??]], madonna [long live the queen] and Robbie Williams.

But they were nothing compared to .. .. .. .. The Floyd!! After not playing with each other for 15 years, Pink Floyd finally came together!! Looking old and dishevelled they were still amazing and broke out all the tunes people wanted to hear. Wish you were here was particularly amazing.

Our house hosted a barbeque and sat down to watch the whole thing. Great entertainment. Paul, Debbs and I were joined by Bubba Claire, her friend Jules, Dangerous Dave and Ross. Everyone had a great time singing along to the songs we knew. Happy Days.

I spoke with my parents the next day. I asked them if they had seen any of it in Australia. It would have been on through the night so I wouldn't have expected too much to have been seen. They said that on the the news they showed a single highlight of the show. Can you believe what it was?? They could have shown ANY of the above bands as well as ColdPlay, u2, Velvet Revolver but No. They showed f*cking Bob Geldof do a sh*thouse rendition of "I don't like Mondays'". Midge Ure described it best when interviewed right after the song with "That was bloody horrible."

Rock on Midge.

Sore Cheeks

2005-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I played my first singles match in Badmington.

I played against resident champion, Jenny. She's a four foot ginger. And you know what? She f*cking owned me on the badmington court.

Losting 15-1, 15-3, 15-2 is a somewhat comprehensive pounding.

Oh well. Got to start somewhere right?

We played at lunch and were joined by Hugh and Jin who played in the court next to us. We had a coulpe of games of doubles. First it was boys vs girls. We got slammed 15-8. Then The Gingers vs The World and we won 17-15!! Yay. So I finally get to win even if I'm sharing the glory. WooHoo!! Could this be the start of a professional badmington-er or am I just holding on to Jen's cape? Hmm, I wonder.

Still. Good times .. .. .. .. .. .. but a very sore arse.

After work, I think I'll just go bury my bum in a bucket of deep heat.

Australian or England

2005-07-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

So I recently went to Barcelona.

It's amazing. If you get the chance to go, do it. Something about mixing culture with Sangria = good times.

Anyway, I was waiting in the customs line on the way back just idly looking at my visa to find that in expires in 6 months! oh my god. Who would have thought that I got it 4 years ago!!

I remember the day I got it. I thought to myself, "This is it, it's actually going to happen", then I went shopping with my girlfriend for overseas stuff and it was very cool.

But it's four years on. A shed load of stuff has happened, and 6 months really doesn't seem like a long time compared ot the amount of red tape I'm going to have to go through. So have sent of a couple of emails regarding more information for permanent residency which I should be able to apply for [hopefully].

So I'm now looking at being 18 months away from becoming English!!

As long as I can pass the freakin English test. Can you believe I'll have to take one!! Gutting.

I'm alive

2005-06-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a whole two weeks off is a bit much.

I'm sorry, my bad.

I've always done my blogs at work, either lunch time or try to fit it in between the jobs I'mdoing at the time.

Work has, unfortunately, gone up yet another pace and I'm just about keeping up. Wat happens though is that I have no real break to write anything down during the day. The idea of looking at a computer screen outside of work doesn't really turn me on so I've been fairly quiet.

But I'll start with a new regime of trying to get something out before 9 each morning. A bit of order is all I need.

So what wild and crazy things have happened in the last forntight for the hero?

Well I guess my biggest news is that I'm single. Becks and I have gone our seperate ways. So that's been a bit of a f*cker. I can't say I've been savouring the single scene at all because I tend to work late nights and have sports otherwise so haven't had a great deal of time to myself. Probably a good thing though. No brooding of being by myself :-/.

Onto better things. I managed to catch up with young Lady Prudence on the weekend. I joined her in London for the first time since she moved there. In fact, it was my first time to London that year could you believe! It was great catching up, she looks to be settling in really well. Her flat mates seem pretty cool. We started the evening with the innocent intention of going to see some bands play in [London's very own] Faaaaaaaringdon. However, I hadn't had a drink in a fortnight and I was hankering for a brew.

So, on the walk to the tube stop we manage to walk into about 6 different pubs sampling their ales. Actually, their lagers, something about london seems to scare off all the ale pubs. So it was john smiths all the way. By the time we walked out of the 6th pub I had certainly forgotten about the band but Pru was adament that we could still make it
..
..
..
then we found a Thai restaurant

Game over

After sveral spring rolls and a plate of ginger something and something else with black bean sauce we were both just about ready for bed.

We managed to wind our way back to Pru's place and promptly passed out.

We greeted the mid morning with a cup of tea and some pru's delightful carrot cake. The rest of the morning was spent sight seeing in a very loose sense of the word.

Basically we wandered about with a rough destination in mind but we never got there. Between losing our way [though not ever getting lost] and the places we wanted to go [a market] being completely shut, it was a fairly non eventful morning. However that didn't make it less fun with just chilling out and talking crap with Pru.

I left early afternoon and managed to get back to Oxford just in time for a card game at a pub that I was supposed to be running, phew. And here we are with another weekend drawing close.

Will try to be good and update you all in the future with news.

The Big Man takes a break

2005-06-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

I was going to write today about my amazing weekend away in the beautiful city of Barcelona but that's now been derailed as I have received some amazing news from back home.

My dad, after decades of working his fingers to the grindstone has finally declared his innings. He has retired after forty years in the work force! To me this is a big deal. After all, it's not often that your dad gets to retire. True, he took a break several years ago but he wasn't ready for the peace and quiet just yet so launched back into the workforce and became the branch leader of a very respectable arm of the Australian Government.

No jokes. My dad is tops.

He started off as a bloke who was simply a hard worker and good with numbers. He did taxes. He was very good at it. In fact, he was that good at just about anything he applied himself to that after several years he found himself in the dimplomatic corp of the government whisking his family to strange and exotic new countries.

Not bad for humble man who had to work up the ladder the hard way from nothing. I always admired the fact that he started and finished uni while working full time purely by doing night school. Working an 8 - 10 hour day then studying at night day in and day out for years is something that I just couldn't do. Honestly, could you?

But it's come to an end. I'm not 100% sure what his plans are now. Hopefully do a bit of pottering about Europe. It would be great if he came up here and I could show him my life and what I've achieved over the last three years. We shall see.

Gotta love and respect the Big Man.

Jumping on the Band Wagon

2005-06-08T03:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the books I tend to read are normally epics that span over 5 books.

They usually have a guy with a huge sword, a damsel with looks and who can look after herself through a means of secretly secreted knives and an old guy with a staff that says "ZAP" alot.

Call me a geek if you will, but fantasy books tend to keep me much more interested than anything else.

Imagine my surprise when I start reading the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown . Not only am I reading it though, I'm really enjoying it! It's my first non-fantasy novel I've read that is very vcompelling reading. Okay, it's nothing flash in story line, but the way is written is that something happens at the end of EVERY chapter that just makes you want to turn the page. Cheap trick, but hey, it works.

The reason I got onto this was I'd heard all the hype and Becks has just finished reading it. So I've borrowed her copy and am reading it now. I don't doubt for a second that I'll have it finished by the time we get to Barcelona. I'm notorious for reading a lot on flights.

Flying back to Australia usually means I need to stock up on books before the flight .. .. .. .. .. unless they have super nintendo already installed on the in-flight entertainment system :- ).

So for any of those few people who HAVEN'T gotten around to reading the Da Vinci Code, I recommend it. Or at least, up until chapter 8 as it's pretty gripping until then :- ).

A nice quiet day at work today. Becks and I are off to Barcelona tomorrow morning [read three in the morning start] so I'm not going to take any sh*t at work and the holiday can start at the pub .. .. .. at lunch. Happy Days.

Talk to you all when I come back with a tan and a Sangria dependency.

Thank god, a holiday

2005-06-07T01:46:00.000-07:00

Thank god. It's tuesday morning but in effect it's like wednesday afternoon. My last day of the week is tomorrow!! Get in!

For Becks birthday, I got her a trip to Barcelona. She's never done a city break before so I thought now would be a good time. Truth be told, the holiday is as much for me as it is for her. This will be my first trip outside of England since going back to OZ in November. It's a break well warranted.

Should be cracking fun. As usual the problem is always the flights. I got good deals but unfortunately it will involve me driving to Stansted at 3 in the morning on thursday. Oh well. It's just going to make the sangria taste all that sweeter that night.

I have no plans what so ever for when we get there. I'm planning on getting a book and making the majority of plans on the plane on the way over. To be honest, as long as I see lots of gaudi stuff, a few markets and eat lots of tapas then this is going to be just a fab break!! Will let you all know.

I also went and took Becks to see Sin City at the movies over the weekend. It's just recently come out. It's base on the graphic comic book of the same name. People, this is not a romantic comedy. I have seen some pretty far out movies in my time. But I have NEVER seen ANYTHING as violent as this. You name the boday part and it either gets shot off; pulled out; hacked off; sliced off or blown off. The fact the movie is in black and white means the gore is down played which is good because there is ALOT of it.

Personally I liked it a lot. Very violent, but the story keeps it interesting.

I think I have a lot of making up to do with Becks though. :- ). Definately not a chick flick in any description.

Tomorrow is wednesday. Pub lunch I feel, then an early night and it will be all "Hola Serniorita" with a little "Andelay Andelay, Ariba, Ariba, Yihaaaa!!!" to go :- ).

Badmington

2005-06-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been slack as in updating this blog site. It's a mixture of being busy and slack though. When I do get those rare free moments at work, I tend to read the BBC website or catch up on some emails. Generally, I just try and find out what the hell is going on in the world.

My motivation for work has gone down a bit. This is probably due to my physical state at the moment. I haven't been down the gym for at least a month which is terrible.

However, I've now taken up badmington as a regular weekly game. A few of us from work, Mall, Jen and John go down at lunch for an hour and have a go. Great fun. Okay, so I've just started and I'm pretty crap. But, I'm not as unfit as I thought I was and my reactions are much faster than everyone elses.

But they're all still better than me :- ). Oh well. It's definately something to do as opposed to go home for lunch.

It's funny how theraputic it is to hit a shuttlecock as hard as you can and then feel downcast at the fact that you could really only bang it 10 meters.

It's a funny old game. hehe

Music Madness

2005-05-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Another jam this week with John and Kim. Believe it or not we're actually coming together pretty well. It's quite scary.

It's funny, I've been playing guitar for ages. I'm nothing flash, it's just something I enjoy. Playing by yourself and playing with a group are two different things.

Sense of timing is probably the largest. When you're by yourself, you've got the beat in your head and you can go your own speed. On the otherhand, with other people you have to all play at the same speed. Trust me that breaking into a solo when someone else is singing does you no favours whatsoever.

Still. It's been a great learning experience anf I think we're all having a bit of fun to.

John is a bit of a music guru. He used to play in pubs quite a bit several years ago. He's got all the equipment at his place which is where we tend to play. We managed to actually record a couple of songs!

We recorded covers of:
Snow Patrol - Run
RHCP - Californication
Cure - Lovecats

Overall we sound pretty good. It's a bit weird listening to your own music played back to you. A bit like your own voice. "Is that really me??" You ask. The rhythm sounds alot different when played back. Good times though.

Who knows. If I ever work out a way, I may put a link on here so you can download your own copy.

We're still working on a name for us as well.

For some reason noone liked "Keir and the Scum" nor "The KH Trio".

Oh well. You've got to try right?

Unfortunately "Monkey Knife" Fight has already been patented as well.

Gutted.

Any suggestions for band names would be much appreciated.

Becks birthday just gone

2005-05-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Got a lot on my mind at the moment. Lots of things are happening in different parts of my life. I find it hard to concentrate on just one thing at any one time.

Beside being a sociable kind'a'guy, there's house buying, birthday organising, studying [or lack of], parental welfare, sisterly welfare, girlfriend welfare, looking af ther club and all kinds of zany things to keep my day dreaming/wondering/pondering full of ideas for the next several months.

But instead of going through any of these, I thought I would at least tell you about my weekend.

Or rather, Rebecca's as it was her 24th this weekend!

It was on Friday and we both took the day off to celebrate it.

It all started on Thursday night by getting a group of us out to see the Star Wars: revenge of the Sith.

Short aside -
It's good, go see it, it's SOOOOOOooo much better than the first two. Bit grim at places but
it's what the original moveis should have been like.
- End of Short Aside

Saturday was initially going to be down in Bournemouth at the beach but the weather was so dicey that we changed our plans and went to Cotswald WildLife park for the morning. Very cool. Just loads of animals in sealed off areas, not exactly caged but unable to escape. Love the Rhinos. Bloody huge things!

Spent most of the trip giggling to be honest. I saw Giant [ and I mean HUGE] gerbels shagging. Also saw, Penguins, Frogs and dogs doing the same thing. You knew spring was in the air. Honestly, I giggled like a 5 year old. Somethings just make me a child again. [happy sigh]

We then went for a quick bite which turned into a massive meal at 3 o'clock. The pub we went to [Hungry Horse] doesn't do small snacks. It does larges meals with a salad bar apparently. No warning on that one.

Of course by the time we left, we were full [as two fleas] and decided to head home and go to bed.

We get up a couple of hours later, just in time to get ready and go for dinner. Makes you smile. We were ridiculously full still, but that would stop neither of us from having a lovely meal.

We went to Fishers restaurant in Oxford [St Clements rd on the way to South Park].

They do a speciality in [unsurprisingly] Fish.

For starters we had:
Becks: King Prawns crumbed with a honey mustard Sauce.
Keir: Deep Fried White bait with Sea Salt and Lemon
Mains:
Becks: Prawn and Shrimp Kidgeree [think rice with fish flavouring]
Keir: Yellow Fin Tuna steak on a bed of Aubugine/Eggplant
Desert:
Becks: Sticky Toffee Pudding
Keir: Banoffee Pie [get in!]

All up, the meal was just stunning. The flavours were beautiful and succulent. The fish was fresh and exquisite. Definately will try and do that again.

Saturday was also spent celebrating. Nice to have it over two days :- ). The girls took her for drinks in the afternoon while I semi watched the FA-Cup and prepared dinner.

I made a menu for a 12 person sit down dinner. No jokes. I did a good job. We all had
Basmati rice
Onion Bhaji [my god, they came out well]
Chapatis
Bombay Potato
Beef Kofta [Nia doesn't eat Lamb]
Karahi Chicken [think Yogurt and Onion base sauce]
Chicken Korma [Becks' favourite]

Not bad. All of this was done from scratch 100%!! It was bloody tasty as well. I could have gone a bit heavier on the spices but I know for next time.

Desert was bloody good as well. Nia and Debbs got together and put together
Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Fondue
and
Dark Chocolate Fondue with Rum and Raisins.
Mix this with strawberrys, oranges, bananas, apples and croissants and that the perfect wrap uo for the evening.

It was as good as it sounded. I'd never had Fondue before. Happy to do that again!! We got toasted.

Sunday? Well that was spent at a magic tournament. Saviour's Prerelease. I lost my first round but won the remaining 6 to come equal first in points [6-1] but fourth in tie breaks. Sigh. Oh well. Better luck next time I'm sure.

A well deserved break

2005-05-19T04:13:00.000-07:00

Oh Happy Days.

My parents have finally sold their house!! Nothing but good times! I've already talked to them and given them my heartiest congratulations.

As happy as I am for them, it's just as sad as I will never be in that house again. We moved into this house when my family moved back from Germany. That was about '94.

-I finished school in this house.
-I started and completed University in this house.
-I started and and finished my first job in this house.
-I fell in love for the first time when I was in that house.

It was a special house for me with very speical memories. And it's now gone.

But hey ho,I've moved on and happily so have my folks.

They have decided to downsize their house. Unfortunately, they had made this decision 6 months ago and have been trying to seel it since then.

That's a long time to be on the market.

Particulalry if you know how beautiful the house is. My parents put every bit of imagination and thought into it's design. With their experience over their traveling in the last 20 years, that's a massive amount of experience at their finger tips, and they used it perfectly.

S0 I don't know what their plan is now. But I hope it will be much more stressfree life for them now on.

Happy Days.

2005-05-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Becks and I last friday after one [or 3] drinks at the company meeting.

Sporty Spice

2005-05-18T04:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was pretty entertaining.

After spending a morning chewing very slowly and appreciatinlgy on my newly received Polywaffle [chocolate and marshamallowwrapped in a bar]. I tried to do as much work as possible to stem the tied of crap that flows my way.

Fortunately I got some great relief at lunch time.

For the first time ever I went and played Badmington with a couple of people from work. Out of four of us, three have never really played before. The fourth player is a new starter for us, Jenny the Ginger. She's 5 foot nothing, with fiery red hair and very cool and sweet. She also plays a bloody mean drop shot with a shuttle cock. Surprsingly after an hour of banging about I actually worked up quite a sweat. Happy Days. I'm hoping we're going to turn it into a regular weekly fixture as that's something to look forward to!

My forearm isn't half stiff now though. It's amazing how these things just flare up. Who would have thought o warm up your forearm first hey? Crazy.

I also sat down with a few boys last night for some poker. Normal Texas Hold'em with 7 cards. Good, honest fun with the Boys. It was with Chris, Maurine, Hugh, Miles and myself. It was a pot of £50 and I managed to walk away with half of that so I wasn't too upset.

All in all a good day. We're one step closer now to the new Star Wars movie and I'm getting pretty damned excited! Bring on Darth vader.

Crap Food is the way of the future

2005-05-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was planning on talking about my weekend as I had a pretty good one, but then I got tied up with work and never got the chance to write anything.

Which is fine BUT I have something even better to talk about!!

Food. How good is food. How great is having crap food!?!

How great is it to have crap food from your teens that you haven't had in the last 5 years because of being in another country!

Oh yeeeeeeaaaaaaah.

Yesterday, I got a parcel from my folks packed full of goodies from back home in Adelaide.

In true Kiddy style I got:
redskins
sherbert
chokito bars
pollywaffles
star bursts
violet crumble [the best just food in the world]
samboy chips [barbeque flavour, what else!]
minties and all kinds of other goodness.

Highlights have to be the Haigh's frogs and rockky road!!! SOOooo GOOOood.

In true motherly fashion I also got
2 packs of colgate toothpaste
and 1 of those clips that measure the amount of steps you take each day.

Obviously a bit worried about how much I'm going to eat at once. I'm now under strict rationing as I would just mow through it in several days otherwise.

I also got some footy sox, a new stubby holder and a video.

Gotta love watching proper australalian TV again as well. The only time I hear an australian accent here is if Debbs is watching neighbours. And that's pretty washed out. I think they make it a bit more tolerable for the English market.

Let me say that's nothing compared to watching "The Footy Show" where everyone gives each other sh*t in true Austraaaaaaalian style. e.g. "What the hell are these cheap sh*t chinese ties we've been given John-o? I see you've got some fancy italian silk number but you give us the hong-kong 4 for a dollar pieces of crap. Don't know about you John-o but I don't know how you can sleep at night."

You just can't get anything like that on tele here. Absolute Genius

Also is a tv show called Rock-Quiz or something. Nothing too speical but this particular episode has Paul Hester as a participant. Very eary to watch as Paul hung himself in Melbourne about a month ago. This couldn't have been filmed to much prior to then. Quite Weird.

So I'm on a sugar high at the mo and have managed to aquire a whole group of friends who would like to try all this Australian Goodness I have aquired.

F*ck 'em, it's mine. :- )

MP3-Tastic

2005-05-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I recently bought myself an mp3 stereo for the silver bullet. Amazingly I got really bored of playing the radio and having only a tape in the car. So I invested some cash on bringing up the sound system to scratch.

It's just soooooooo good!! Being able to fit 11 maybe 12 albums on a cd and just cycling through them is brilliang fun. And it's SOOoooo much better than having a tape.

Of course, it's never smooth sailing. once the system was installed, the "professionals" didn't hook my radio back up so I can no longer listen to ANY radio whatsoever. Not that I normally do, especially with the huge array of music now at my fingertipps, but now I can't even listen to the news or traffic reports. Sigh. Will hopefully get it sorted this weekend.

In the mean time, I'm having great fun just now putting mp3 collections in the car ready for a road trip. Good times.

Back from the Dead

2005-05-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, it’s been a WHOLE while since I’ve last logged in and put anything down on this site. Apologies to those of you who just didn’t realise how much you relied on this website to make it through the day.Don’t worry though. I’m back and all is good.

I had a particularly bad week in my last update. Things weren’t going according to plan, and I felt a bit lost with no guide. But hey, these things happen. Everyone goes a period like this right? There’s nothing like a healthy dose of paranoia to bring someone down. Nor is there anything like getting a few phone calls from friends genuinely concerned for your well being to bring you right back up to scratch.So big thanks go out to my family and friends in paricular Pru, Bel and Neil who wanted to check that I was actually still breathing. You guys are the biz!

So all is going well at the moment. I’ll try and sum up things I’ve done in the last two weeks that are definitely pluses in my life.

1] Tearing down a house.
Not just any house. My bosses house! How many people can say that they’ve not only taken a sledge hammer to their bosses house, but actually been in a digger and torn down a wall!! Not only that, but to be given a barbeque and a round of beers as a thank you is pretty tough to beat!! Yes, my boss got a new plot of land and is going to rebuild the house on there so the former need waylaying. Oh the theraputic fun of tearing up walls with hydraulic claws. Bob the Builder? Try Keir the decimater.
Bring it on.

2] I went and saw Kylie.
Oh yeah. I’m in touch with my feminine side. Probably not as much as the amount of guys there though. Honestly, I must have been one of a about 10 in 30,000 people who had actually slept with a woman! You were either gay or a girl.
Still. The show was fab! Becks and I were singing are little hearts out. Kylie’s fine, not the person I go out of my way to listen to, but I’ll give her this: She knows how to make one hell of a show!! She did all the songs I wanted to hear, as well as some that I’d rather forget.
Anyone care for “I still love you, je ne sais pa pour quoi”. Fiendishly bad, but enjoyable none the less.

3] After waiting for nearly two decades, last night I got to see the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy film!! And honestly, it was pretty good. I don’t know what it would be like if you had never read the books. Probably pretty weird. If you had enjoyed the tv show in all it’s eccentric “Dr Who special effects” style though, this is definitely the movie for you. I will be getting this baby on dvd as I’m sure there’s probably quite a lot that I missed out.

4] I’ve been to a whole host of barbeques. Yep, summer is definitely on the way!! It’s been bbq-tastic at the moment with long weekends being held around whoever can hold the barbeque! There is NOTHING like sitting in the sun drinking some cold lager and tending the bbq almost hoping that you’ll get sunburnt. Honestly, you only EVER get a feeling so intense if you’ve had to go through such a crap winter.

I’ve also managed to get a recipe for THE nicest homemade burgers in the world!! Happy Days. Will be happy to break the recipe out for those of you interested.

5] I’ve been kept occupied with a fairly busy social agenda with regular going out with Becks; guitar practise; football; magic tournaments; drinking and anything else that happens to be going.

I’m a happy man when I’m a busy man I’ve decided. Or at least, when I’ve got something to look forward to of an evening.
Tonight for example will be football followed by cooking the lovely Becks a curry and having some red wine .. .. .. .. .. .. while catching up on the last Dr Who episode. Okay, so I’ve got fit SOME geekness in there don’t I?

A break

2005-04-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

I need a break.

Desperately.

Motivation: Gone.
Optimism: Lagging.
Inspiration: In Tatters.
Enthusiasm: Shot.

Any Particular Reason? Several.

Am I going to go into them? Of course not. Too much effort.

[sigh]

Not a good day in general.

Cookies, Vegemite and Bovril

2005-04-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

Another year goes by and I find myself working on Anzac Day. Sigh. Once again my boss refuses to give me the day off. One day I'll get it off. Just not to-day I guess.

Technically I should have made some anzac cookies yesterday to bring them in for today. But I got caught up last night with Becks and a guitar session with John and only managed to do the house shopping at 10:30 last night.

So tonight, I'm going to go play some football and then I'm going to show Becks how to make some quality Anzac biscuits. Then we're going to gorge ourselves while watching the apprentice. Good times.

To go with my biscuits, I may have a cup of tea. Or try something different.

When I've been to Goodisan Park to watch Everton play football, I go to the canteens there for a drink. Normally it's beer. However they aslo have the ONLY selection of meat pies I've seen in this country and other "delicacy's". One of these is Bovril. It's like hot tea.

Kinda.

In fact what it is is more of a beef stock. I must admit, it's quite tasty what they serve it up and it's absolutely perfect for the cold weather. So our house thought we might give it a whirl. We found some bovril cubes and jars to try. I was reading the packagin when a couple of realisations struck home.

1] Bovril is actually stock, hence the "stock" cubes. It's not LIKE stock. It bloody IS stock. So if I cook it down enough it's like drinking gravy. nice. Not quite so salty thank goodness.

2] The jarred Bovril is in fact a Yeast Extract.

If you ask any Australian who knows his salt to name a classic Australian food product which is made of yeast, then they would [without pausing] say "Beer". If you then poked them with a stick and pointed them in the direction of something edible and spread on toast, then they would say "Vegemite". So yes, just recently I sampled a steaming hot cup of vegemite equivalent.

Interesting.

We haven't managed to get the equivalent of what they make at Goodisan Park, but I think I'll leave it at that. There's just something fundamentally wrong about drinking vegemite. If you can spread it on toast, then it was never to be drunk.

Another Weekend Gone

2005-04-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Another monday greeted blearily and early.

Hey Ho. At least that means it's only four days to the weekend.

So what happened on the weekend?

Well, on friday we found out at work that everyone in the company got a 3% pay rise and a 1% bonus. Or in fact, it's actually a 1% "Award". Managers get bonuses, the others get Awards. Thankyou america. Does it make a rats arse bit of difference to what it's called? Not in the least.

This wasn't too much when compared to last year, but you know what? It's something. The news is all about how Range Rover, the car company, has gone under and that there are 5000 people who have lost their jobs. I'm not going to complain about a 3% pay rise. It beat inflation.

Some people weren't happy at all. Unlucky for them. They don't like it, then there's always the option of another job I guess.

So friday night was spent at mine with Becks, Phil, Ross and Chris D drinking beer, talking bollocks and eventually watching Beatlejuice the movie. I bought it a couple of weeks ago, but this was my first chance to watch it. God it's good. I think the music is one of the best things about it. Creepy but compelling.

Saturday was spent going from pub to pub with Becks. A couple of nice ales in the afternoon. By about 6 we found ourselves back at home with Paul and Debbs. None of us had any plans, so we thoughts we would have the night in. Something none of us have done in a LOoooooong time. I volunteered my services to cook up a curry and did:

Coriander and Onion Chicken
Beef Madras
Curried Cauliflower [NOT with curry poweder I'd like to add]
Bombay Potatos.

If I had more time I would have tried making fesh Naan, but I needed time for the yeast to rise. Overall, it came out amazingly well and we all got battered.

It was a wonderful evening as I sat down with my closest friends and we managed to just talk until the early hours where the solid drinking of 12 hours managed to catch up.

Can you believe that we slept in until 12 the next day!! Crazy. I don't the last time I did that!

I then spent the afternoon at work and the evening tinkering at home. When I say tinkering, I mean reading, playing cards, watching DVD's etc .. .. . I think it's something my dad would call classic "Fart Arsing about" something I was quite comeptent at doing in University apparently :- ).

But it's monday so I'll play a bit of golf this afternoon and practise some guitar for tomorrows jam with John. Happy Days.

Spring is Here

2005-04-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

It's official now. Spring is here. It's the only time that I will be up at three in the morning with a feeling of unease and then proceed to have a hayfever attack for twenty minutes. Honestly, it's bloody terrible. Laying in bed, not being able to breathe properly and dribbling snot everywhere is really no way to get a good nights rest.

Oh well. Think it's about time for the annual visit to the doctor for a subscription to Anti-Hystamene city. Sigh.

On a lighter not, I scored my first goal of football yesterday!! WOOHOO!!! Crazy. We had 17 people yesterday for football which was a bit crazy. So we split into three teams. It's definately done something for my fitness, I'm still wheezing, but I'm running the majority of the time which is good. I'm still average, but I'm a little more adept. So good times.

How did I treat myself? I finished off a tub of Ben&Jerry's Chocolate Fudge ice cream while whatching the Apprentice. Just brilliant.

Conversion Completed

2005-04-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty sweet as weekends go.

Becks and I had our first meal alone at my place. It was nice. neither of us didn't actually realise we hadn't done this until Debb mentioned that she and paul wouldn't be there. So it was a special meal of .. .. .. steak and roasties followed by some chocolate self saucing pudding. It was lovely. After all this we sat down and watched the Incredibles on the big screen and it was a very cool relaxing evening.

For those of you who haven't seen the Incredibles. It's pretty good. I wouldn't rave from the roof tops about it, but it's pretty enjoyable.

Saturday was spent picking up the Dolarable Pru who has come to live in London. It's been a while since we last saw each other, so catching up was fantastic. The day was wonderfully sunny but very windy, so we spent the afternoon down the pubs as I introduced Pru too all the local Ales and left over Chocoalte Self Saucing Pudding.

Saturday night was spent at Checkers in town and more drinks. I met one of Becks best friends .. .. .. ..Becks which was damn handy considering we'd been drinking for a long time by this stage. The night ended as all good drinking nights do .. .. .. ..with some chips and curry sauce.

Unfortunately, I left my camera at work and so didn't get to take any photos which is really annoying. Oh well. I've got my camera now and won't be making that mistake a gain.

I also have finally I managed to convert all my cd's to MP3s!!

Phew. This whole process took me over a month of mucking about. It's been something I've been meaning to do for ages. So some good times there. I had about 250 or so albums kicking about the place, which I had no idea. I've now got over 2800 songs off albums and 2000 singles. Just crazy. This doesn't include what I've taken off other people either.

Geeze. Oh well, it's a lot of songs to keep me listening for the moment.

British Weather and Prices

2005-04-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so two random things.

I started the day by Wearing Shorts. I would like to stress that this is NOT normal for April weather in this country. Honestly though, when I got up the sky was blue, no clouds and the birds were singing.

People. I'm australian, and god knows I know what shorts weather is like and this was it.

Of course, it was pissing down by lunchtime.

People. I'm in England and I don't have a f*cking clue about the weather here.

Not only that, I got blamed for the bad weather because I "Taunted God with my shorts". Apparently he couldn't have that so we all got drenched. Sigh. I'll never understand the weather in this country.

On another note, a house has gone for sale on our street. I'm not actively lookig for a house but I thought I'd have a look on a couple of websites for it. I managed to find it. It's about the same size as our house, i.e. 3 bedrrom [one mastre, two small]. A little back yard; combined dining room/living room; singlet toilet .. .. etc. So, cosy, quite livable but nothing speciale. The only noticable difference is that this is a semi detached house as opposed to a terraced house

The price?

..

..

..

£410,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right. Over a million Australian Dollars for this thing. I nearly fell out of my chair! Buying a house is just becoming a more and more stupid Idea. Honestly. It's crazy prices at the moment!!

Bollocks to it. It's the weekend. WooHoo!!

Oh and on an Aside. Lots of Kudos to Dany and Ben who were the "true" driving force behind me getting back on to finding the Hilltop Hoods. Without them asking for a copy, I would have just forgotten about looking. Thanks guys. :- )

Hilltop Hoods

2005-04-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up at Highschool I went through a big gangster Rap phase. I had really found any genre of music that I liked before hand, but at the time, all I could do was listeng to somehting that involved Phat Beats, with some like Tupac, Snoop, Rhazel etc. .. .. busting rhymes.

Soon after school finished though, I slipped into more mellow music like Ben Harper and the Cure. Weird, but it's what I like. I listen to hip-hop still but I'm not actively looking for what's new and out in England.

While I was back in Australia, I managed to hear a little of a Band called the "Hilltop Hoods". They're an Australia hip hop band. Australian HipHop isn't the best on the earth but that's only when I compare it to it's home in America. But that's like comparing Australian Basketball to American.

We've done a cracking job but it's got a bit to go yet.

That said, it's come along way and there is a big gap between the Hoods and anyone else that I've heard.

My only personal dislike ot Australian hiphop is that the ozzie accent REALLY comes out really strong in it and not in the best way. Still. It's got a kind of twang I like.

I didn't get into it enough to get a cd while I was there, but I listened to them more on JJJ radio [online] when I came back to England.

Recently, I've FINALLY managed to find them on Kazaa and got a couple of songs that I'm just listening to it again and again. I might order myself some CDs when I get the chance.

Honestly, if you haven't heard them, do yourself a favour, especially the song Nosebleed Section. Absolutely genius.

Just another Tuesday

2005-04-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

I catch myself thinking of what I’m going to add to my blog at odd times. Sometimes I have great ideas at the oddest times and wish I could write them down. I could really scare my friends if I had a Dictaphone and would whip out and make some idle remarks on it before whisking it back into my pocket. God, that would be frightening.
This morning in the shower was one of those moments.

Paul and Debbs went shopping last night and got a new brand of shower gel. Some Imperial Leather Ice Blue or some such. Guaranteed to clean thoroughly. Honestly, the only thing that it really cleared out was my sinuses. I smell like a bloody tic tac with minty freshness.

Oh well. Anything to stay hygienic right? If only I could show people who play magic how to do it!

I’m going to have a nice relaxing night tonight. I’m trying to stick to a budget this month. I don’t know whether I’ll do it, but I’m trying. So instead of going to the movies with Becks tonight, we’ll stay in and watch my new Wallace & Gromit DVD on the projector. Should be class.

A nice walk after work sounds like a plan. It might help my back. I went down the driving range last night by myself for some theraputic swings. Funny, if you can latch onto the golf ball, it feels really good, if you can’t it’s the mmost frustrating thing in the world!!

Between that and swimming this morning I’ve tweaked my back a little. I’m sure it’s nothing that a good healthy walk after work can’t sort out.

I’ve managed to finally get some sleep as well. Who would have thought. I might have FINALLY pulled through another batch of bad sleeping. Good Times.

My name is Who, Doctor Who.

2005-04-04T03:28:00.000-07:00

So the weekend was pretty chilled.
I went to Bath on Saturday to play cards all day. As is the case, whenever I plan on playing cards for the day, the weather is glorious. This was no exception, with nothing but a blue sky to see out of the window while I’m facing a player with dubious hygene.
Honestly, I swear that there is a massive untapped market here for Lynx Deodorant. I should have a word and see if they can maybe do me a deal if I let them know.

I finished 20th out of 105 which isn’t bad but it’s not great either. I got back to Abingdon at about 9:30-10pm which was about as fashionably late as I can be to a friend’s birthday party.

It was Louisa’s 26th. She was having a mini school disco. Unfortunately my old school uniform is a hemisphere away; I had forgotten and I was tired, so by the time I got there I was uniformless. When I was greeted at the door by a group of girls with mini-skirts, pigtails and shirts tied at the midriff, I just said I was the local PE teacher and managed to get away with it. Honestly, I never went to school with girls like that. Gutting.

Sunday was spent at work during the day, and the afternoon was spent walking between beer gardens with Beck which was lovely. When the suns out, it’s stunning, when it’s not [like today], it’s not so flash. Oh well. You appreciate it all the more.

Last night, I finally got the chance to sit down and on the big screen [read: projector] I watched a double episode of Dr Who!! It’s been on the last two weeks on Saturday night, and I’ve managed to miss both episodes as, surprisingly, I’ve been out. However, Becks taped me one episode, and another friend taped me the first one.
Good times. Okay, so what are they like? First of all, I must admit that I’m not so impressed with the cast. Christopher Eccleston is alright as the Doctor. He’s not as eccentric as I believe he could/should be, but otherwise he’s not bad.

I’m not a fan of Billie Piper. Too much going on with her face to be attractive [High Cheekbones, big eyes, puffy lips, sharp eyebrows, long fringe – What do you focus on?????] and she hasn’t done anything to inspire confidence in me just yet. But it’s early days so I’ll stick with it.
The first episode wasn’t too flash but it’s always going to be tricky in order to introduce the characters. It’s a 45 minute episode. That’s 30 minutes to set up the characters for the show and 15 minutes to fit in a story. Nothing to yell from the roof tops about.
The second episode was much better. As long as people are dying and Dr Who is saving small groups of random people he’s never met before, then I’m content. I’m glad that they’re focusing more on the story as opposed to just trying to blag it with cheesy special effects. The effects are good, but it’s obvious that they’re focussing on the story.

Over all, I was pretty impressed. I’ve seen the preview of next week and it looks good. So happy days.

The Doctor is back baby!