Box guy: "This room looks just like the other rooms, except for one important difference! Oh, they took that out. It is just like the other rooms."

Ushering again....

Finally had a week where we didn't need to rush back by two, but V had a meeting at three, and wanted time inbetween anyway. So, we ended up going to Nandos over near Southlands. Rather expensive, considering the portions. Luckily I wasn't very hungry. And we finished at only just past 2, anyway.

Did lots of accounts stuff, cos its the end of the month.

Watched my Peter Cook and Dudley More video. Funny, hah hah.

Watched most of Whale Rider. Obviously, the riding of whales at the end has to be real and not metaphorical, despite what my mother says. But thats all a bit silly..........

Watched MI2. Realised that I haven't seen any John Woo that I've noticed since then. Strange, since Broken Arrow and then Face Off were like really well received. I was thinking that if you're talking directors with easily identifiable styles, then Mr Slow-Motion Juxtopostion would have to be one of the easiest to spot. Though, I suspect, he's had lots of people copy him.

It finished at like 1:30. Hence it was bedtime by then.

Homer: "Mmmm - open faced club sand wedge"

Woke up about 10 after kinda just staying in bed for a bit.

Did my washing from about 11 till 1:30 by going back and forth to LH's house, though she wasn't there and I was contacting SC as per last week. And she like wasn't awake neither.....

Played a bit more CivII. Did about 2 hours of accounts rather sporadically.

Watched some more Seinfeld.

Got a few more songs off itunes - mainly Coldplay. I got the two extra songs from the Fix You single, and, interestingly (I guess), itunes had the names switched around - and one of the names was incomplete, anyway.

Went shopping at about 2:30. Bought very little - only $16 worth, due to the large amount of shopping last week.

Had KFC for 'lunch', even though it was about 3. Had the sweet chilli toasted twister meal (normal size), and apart from some tea, some water, some pills and some chocolate, that was all I ate all day. And I'm really not feeling very hungry.

Watched 'The Jackal' again....well, most of it. I skipped the last bit cos its stoopid. And quite a lot of other bits are stoopid too, but, what do you expect?

Now my nose is permanently blocked (at least, one side is), no matter how many times I blow it, which is a lot. And thus my ears are half blocked too, due to the air pressure being unable to be released since it comes out into the nasal passage somewhere.....

Ushering again tommorrow. Yippee.

"More than a face in a crowd" - Kosheen

Prayed about 10 minutes I guess.

The parking bays were I park in a bay were completely roped off....so I parked in someone elses bay which someone else said I could have, which apparently I couldn't actually have.
And who knows what will happen from now on....

Went for lunch at the guild - it was just me and V again. He said he was gonna do his thesis until he had to supervise some exam at 3:30. But, I got the feeling he didn't really want to do any thesis stuff, so we just had a 2.5 hour lunch instead. It wasn't as if I had anything to do....

And I didn't - played some more CivII while listening to more itunes tunes. Found some more Coldplay stuff which seemeth pretty OK. But, I donno....

Watched another episode of Seinfeld - about a massuse.....or however you spell it.

Against my better judgement, went to the Friday Night Life thing - mainly cos I was on ushering. Ended up just like standing near a door for a while, and that was it.

It was a lot quicker this time, only 2 hours. But I was really tired and queazy, so.....whatever.

Stopped by MacDonalds and got nuggets cos I wasn't paying attention and suddenly had to order. I wanted to try the burger with bacon, but......oh well.

Now I want to sleep. So goodnight.

"For that brief moment, I was a marine biologist" - George

Had the same praying experience as yesterday - the 15 minute alarm thing. Though maybe it only lasted 10 minutes this time.

Got a coffee in the morning, cos I had to walk down Kings Park road and it was insanely freezing - I could see my breath.

Was out of the office all day - great!

Played a bit more CivII. Wiped out the Spanish and the Germans (again), but they only had 3 cities between them.

Watched some more Sienfeld. Still haven't found what I'm looking for....

Watched Samurai Champloo - still not very good. Had some whole ridiculous Brokeback Mountain thing going on......less said the better, I think.

Now I got the beginnings of a cold.....so its all good.

Superintendant Chalmers: "Did that boy just say 'whats a battle'?"

Principal Skinner: "No, he said 'whats that rattle'. Its the air-ducts."
Superintendant Chalmers: "Sounded like battle"
Principal Skinner: "Well, I've got a cold, so...."
Superintendant Chalmers: "So you would hear 'r's as 'b's"
Principal Skinner: "Mmm."
Superintendant Chalmers: "I understand."

Prayed for about 10 minutes. Had to stop cos someone's alarm went off and didn't stop for 15 minutes or so.....

It was raining, so had to use my umbrella walking from the carpark to work. And since I had to carry both my case and a box of tissues - it was inconvenient....

Had a latte. Tasted considerably better than normal - I think cos he made it more milky cos I wanted milk but there was none. Or something.

Had my first little picnic for lunch. Hooray!

Got an SMS from V, just to make Friday night even better. Yay, yay, yay!

Listened to the single from the new Pearl Jam albumn (self-titled), called World Wide Suicide. Not at all impressed.

Have a long line of DVDs to buy from EzyDVD - all under $20 and two under $10. But still thinking about it.....

Played a little more CivII.

Watched my new favourite show and, while maybe not being quite as good as last week, was still brilliant in places. My favourite by far was the lady doing the film star interview....but she only got a dis-honourable mention for sending back an African adoptee child cos it had three arms, instead of the usual two.
Or the guy with the fancy French restaurant cheese platter:
"And whats your favourite"
"Kraft Singles"

Watched some more Seinfeld - actually, it was some of the extras. Trying to find the one where they do an impersonation of Regis and Kathy-Lee.....but I couldn't find it. Still, some nice extras. Yeah.

Auction Guy: "How much am I bid for Krusty's plane - the Im-Onna-Rolla-Gay"

Had 'the Im-Onna-Rolla-Gay' randomly going through my head for a large portion of the time. No idea why....

Woke up about 10:30. Throughout the day, watched lectures 2 & 3 for BSM from week 6 and lectures 1 & 2 for Intro to Theol.

Played some more CivII.

Didn't have lunch - mainly cos I had breakfast very late.

Tried again to make a proper coffee - it didn't work. The water boiled too fast and came out to spurty, like. So I ended up with a pretty nice coffee - but only 1/4 cup full.

Waited for a break in the rain, then walked to post letters. Fun.

Spent most of the rest of the day waiting for my clothes to dry - via heater.

Went out with my 'cell' for dinner - but it was only me, V, Ali and Marf. We went to Hong Kong BBQ - my wonderful suggestion. We drove past first and it seemed both open and with space. So we went and parked in the multi-storey - level 2. Saw some girl eating an icecream, which begged the question:

1. where did she get it from and
2. why was she eating it - the temperature was not exactly hot

Anyway, so we walked the 1 block or so to HKBBQ, and there was like no space. So we went in, anyway, cos it was cold. And they gave us the reserved table.....so there you go.
Ordered too much food, and it was just enough. Heh.

Decided to go for a movie after that. We worked out that there was nothing worth watching, but went anyway. We tried the cinema in the city on Murray street - it was shut. So we went to the one right next door on Hay street - but their selection was very limited. The only option was to wait 50 minutes for 'Failure to Launch'.....not an entirely capitivating prospect.
Went for some random walk - found an Australian souvenir shop that was open at 8:45pm on ANZAC day.....

Drove to my house to check times. Took 15 minutes languishing over the fact that there was nothing on. Eventually V, in typical V fashion (the masochist that he is) decided to flip a coin between 'Ice Age 2' and 'Failure to Launch' and, of course, 'Failure to Launch' won. So - the coin had decided - we left for Garbo to watch that.
V went in my car and fiddled with my ipod. Surprise, surprise - he just mainly listened to Pink Floydd, what CD he has already, in fact my songs I got from him. And we were both left with Comfortably Numb in our brains - which was good cos the film was gonna suck.

Well, maybe Ali was having an attack of conscience, or whatever, cos suddenly she didn't really care about 'Failure to Lauch' now....and after another 5 minutes or so, we just went and saw 'Ice Age 2'.

There was a good dung beetle joke - what is unsuitable for kiddies. And the vulture parody of Oliver Twist was nicely done....a lot of the rest was, typical sequel, disjointed, predictable and so 'been-there-done-that' type stuff.

Hard to say if it was better than the first one - they both kinda sucked.

Went straight home and to sleep - it was like 11:30.

"If every instinct you've had is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right" - Jerry Seinfeld

Didn't sleep in very well. Was too hot, or something. Plus, I kept thinking it was a lot later than it was - it turned out to be like just past 9 when I finally got out of bed.

Watched an episode of Seinfeld, then went to a friend's house and did part of my washing. Went back and watched another episode (mostly), then went back but it wasn't done. So I stayed there and watched some Grey's Anatomy. Thus doing two loads and also hanging it on their line cos mine was kinda full.

It was about 12:30 at that stage, so I did my shopping. Bought a lot of a lot of stuff - $120 worth. Hopefully it will last me a few days. I managed to get everything on my list, including an air freshner, a (nother) window cleaner for my car and some diet supplements - though, like that Centrum stuff, it probably won't make any difference.

Got some KFC for lunch - a toasted sweet chilli twister. And the smell near drove me to insanity - it was after 1:30 at this stage, and I hadn't eaten anything all day.

Got a rental inspection notice for 5th May. Hooray!

After eating lunch (and watching more Sienfeld) I left to go to Garbo - about 2:30.

Went to Just Jeans - I seemed to be about the only guy in the place, the rest were all mothers and teenage girls. I thus only bought 1 pair of obviously male chinos, cos the denim scene has too much variety and I figured I might wander into the wrong area.

Was inexorably drawn towards Gloria Jeans and got a VVL. I'm only human after all.....

Went to Harmony - was planning to go to Sanity, but it wasn't in the place I thought it was. Got Songs from Black Mountain - which, despite what V might say, has nothing to do with a certain recent film.....

Drove back into the beautiful, but disturbingly ominous, black rolling rainclouds. Saw it pouring off somewhere up behind Kings Park - a considerable distance behind, I'm sure.

So after I got home and ripped the Live thingy, I went over to pick up my washing....and it was already raining. Heavy, but light, if you know what I mean.

Spread the washing out in the laundry, cos there wasn't much point putting it outside - esp. since it was almost dark and would inevitably rain sometime before I awake tommorrow.
However, most of the ironing stuff I just put with the ironing board already, since it was only damp and could be ironed dry.

Watched some more Seinfeld, played some more CivII, did some more accounts, watched episode 9 of Ghost in the Shell - a very good one about the Laughing Man, but its really just a bunch of people talking in a room. The 'host' for the chatroom, who I believe is a pseudo-character of the laughing man, seems very similar to Quentin Tarrantino....

Got the new Red Hot Chilli Peppers single - Dani California - off itunes, cos it seems pretty nice. Also, Exit Music (for a Film) by Radiohead as interpreted by Christopher O'Reiley - and I think its the same version of the song that was used on Unfaithful.

Don't RHCP use 'California' like way too much?

Just discovered today that my favourite pair of shorts is has a hole (make that two) when the pocket joins on in the middle on the butt. Which means I'm more or less back to two pairs, if that, which means more money spending....but hopefully now it can wait until about October when it starts being warm again......

Now, a picture of a bus.

Homer's brain: "Keep looking shocked, and move slowly towards the cake"

Because I hadn't been to church for all of....1 week, my brain kinda short-circuited such that I thought I had to be there at 9 - so I left my alarm for its altered setting (from 2 Sundays ago when I went to the airport) at 8. Thus, I had an hour to kill in the morning. That was alright, though, cos I watched some more Sienfeld.

Went for lunch at Foo Wah with V and Shin, cos the parking near Taurus etc was overly full, and I mentioned Foo Wah is very much faster. Which it was.

Had my wedding cake from last night - turned out to be white mudcake instead of that fruitcake stuff. Was encrusted with edible paper type stuff, and had the icing with a large silver ball on the top - absolutely delicious! Such a pleasant surprise, too; I was expecting to hate it.

Did about half an hour of account stuff after playing a little CivII. Then I was too tired, but my bed was full of junk, so I went downstairs and watched more Seinfeld.

Watched a bit of the Big Brother lauch show, but, as usual, theres nothing special. So...thats that, then. Made coffee after dinner, but I wasn't watching the machine so the espresso over poured and became weak. But the milk worked really well, and it end result was nowhere near as bad as it looked like it would be - the espresso was still strong enough.

Did some more accounts.

Rang The Bennefactor, cos hes leaving pretty much permanently tommorrow morning. Was gonna go to the airport, but I think he just wants to go quietly, so....besides, I need to do my washing ASAP, cos the weather is dodgy.

Plus, I'm tired, so I want to sleep. Then I also need to do my grocery shopping, as well as my special shopping. Yeah.....

Rev. Lovejoy: "It never would've happened if the wedding had been in the church with God instead of out here in the cheap showyness of nature"

Woke up at 8. Went for wedding at Sunken Garden - lucky I could just walk there.

Took a few photos, but they were of peoples backs.

The food was pretty nice....

Watched two more episodes of Seinfeld - or was that three?

Found the instruction book for my coffee machine so I could clean the steam nozzle properly. Actually, it had a big section on just that, since, apparently, the nozzle has to be cleaned each time you use it, and it had never been done. So, needless to say, when I took the cover off, there was lots of solidified gunk on the thing. Scraped some of it off. The imporant thing was that I unscrewed the head and made sure that was fine. Then I boiled some water and made sure that it worked, which it did. So hopefully its OK now.

Played lots more of CivII - too much. Destroyed all civilisations pretty easily, and started another game. Doing....OK.

Did another hour of accounts. STILL haven't finished with all the salaries. But almost.

Went to the wedding dinner at Burswood, from 7 till 11:30. Took lots of photos, but they were all blurry.

I could probably say more, but I'm tired. So heres a photo at the wedding of non-wedding people.

Adios.

Homer: "Woo-hoo, four day weekend!"

Prayed for all of 3 seconds....

Went to eat hot cross buns, cos I was sick of cereal. And....they were all mouldy. So I had to eat the cereal what I was sick of. Yech.

Read a bit more of my book. Starting to get a bit weird. As in, more so.

Got a hot chocolate from the coffee guy. So thats that then.

Lady from the other charity box (the small cheap ones) finally came in and refilled lots of picnics. Lots, but not enough. Resisted for the moment.

Had half a sausage roll for lunch. Didn't eat the other half cos it tasted really weird. Had some rolls cos I was still hungry, but they're all gone now.

Some guy came over to install a new showerhead.
"Low flow? I don't like the sound of that"
He didn't fix the washing machine. So who knows whats going on there.

Watched two more episodes of Ghost in the Shell. I'd seen them both before. When I was reading my old blog, it said that I was really looking forward to it one week cos I'd missed two weeks in a row. Which must've been episodes 5&6 - a sort of continuation one all about the laughing man.

Did about an hour of accounts. Still got quite a bit more to do - theses salary things just take so long.....blah.

Played a lot of CivII. Just wiped out the Japanes, the Greeks have only 1 city left but I can't find it, the Vikings have never had more than 1 city, but I can't find that either. At the moment, I'm encroaching on the Americans at minimum 3 cities per turn. They won't last long....

Tried making coffee, but I don't really know how. Anyway, the steam nozzle seemed to not be working, so the milk was cold, then I had to nuke it which I think made it bad. The coffee bit was nice and strong, though. Also, of course, my beans are fairly old now.

As a break from anime, I watched The Boyfriend episode from season 3 of Seinfeld - an hour long one. Its got the bit where they spoof JFK. Yeah....

Have to get up in 8 hours and go to a wedding - "the process of removing weeds from ones garden". So be it.

Bart: "Helloooooo Mr Bush!"

Prayed for 15 minutes......yeah, right. More like 5.

Ran out of staples, so was going through my drawer looking for some loose ones, and I couldn't find any, cos I had already gone through the drawer sometime last week when I ran out last time and just found a small lot. So I went to the cupboard and got another box, and took it back to put it in the drawer, and there was like a whole box there already. Dur....

Wanted a coffee from the coffee guy, but I was having some interview at the time he came. So, no luck there.

Was still hungry after lunch, so got a macadamia biscuit from the charity thing. Tasted damn good - much better than the other ones I've had from there. Of course, now its gone so I'll have to wait till they fill it again. Was still pretty hungry, though....

Got a phone call from the optometrist, who informed me, as I had suspected was told contrarily by the reception person, that the contacts he gave me before were, while disposable, still usable for a month, not just a day. So....I hurriedly dumped solution on them as soon as I got home so I can wear them tommorrow - yay! Evil glasses need to go now.

Someone parked in my spot again....

I have quite a bit to do tommorrow afternoon, and more time since Uni is not on so there is no lunch. But I'm thinking I should just go Garbo to buy jeans and the Live CD.....

I've read another chapter or so of the CS Lewis book - Till we have Faces - and, I have to say, its getting very much 'cannot put it down' type thing. Of course, given the fact that I'm reading it at work, the 'putting it down' bit is pretty much a given. But, if not, I'd just keep reading it. He said it was his favourite fiction work; at present, I'm inclined to agree.

Watched The Simpsons, then remembered that I had to do my ironing so was forced a bit of Neighbours. Ironed my shirt by 6:45, then I had to go to 13 & o's pre-wedding gathering thingy.

Was shocked by the sheer number of cars, and, hence, people inside, the vast majority of which I had absolutely no idea who they were or why they were there - a lot of them were quite old. The food was pretty nice....

Left at 9:30. Ironed my pants while watching Samurai Champloo. I must admit - the theme song is growing on me. But the story is still pretty bland. A bit different this week - partly told from the point of view of some policeman. And a few more slightly interesting characters. But it is so low compared to Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion....seriously.

"We'll be dancing in the dark, walking through the park and reminiscing"

Prayed for about ten minutes.....most of that time, anyway.

Was still feeling hungry after lunch, so ate some twisties.

Tried to cancel my old phone which was stolen, without success.

Made an appointment for my contacts, but can only get May 1! Rang the optometrist guy to try and confirm if I need to go in at all - wasn't there.

Played some more CivII.

Read a tiny bit more of my CS Lewis book. Story is kinda beginning to go somewhere.

Had Dominos for dinner. Pretty nice, I guess.

Watched Tintin on ABC2. He really does have an irritating voice....

Found a new favourite show, even though I've seen only 1 episode - Thank God You're Hear. Featuring lots of impromptu comedy - I was laughing very muchly.

Almost watched Prison Break, but didn't.

Am thinking of buying Fight Club, as well as Fiddler on the Roof, cos there are special offers on both of them.

Listened to samples of the whole of the new Live CD on iTunes. Doesn't seem that impressive, but is still OK.

And I almost forgot - the reason for the title. Recently I've been looking over my old posts and acting all nostalgic about it......
ah.....

Patty: "I've got two and a half words for you, Marge - Gulp 'n' Blow."

Prayed for about 10 minutes, I guess.....

Left the house at about 7, cos I didn't have to make lunch and I only had a few hot cross buns for breakfast, so being my lack of food situation.

Very slow day......

No coffee guy - on holiday till Thursday, or so he said.

Got a hot beef roll and a giant sandwich for lunch. Yummy! - but not cheap.

Had to go for training, so didn't finish till 6. Was surprised at the darkness when I got outside.

Played some more CivII - lots of conquering going on. And I just changed to a fundamentalist system of government, so suddenly getting lots of money and everything is going super! Had to lower my tax rate to about 30% from 60, which means my civilisation can advance a lot faster. Still mainly focussing on the Japanese, but when I get bored I attack the Greeks for a bit too.

Saw an ad on the TV for a new Live CD - which really irritates me, cos Amazon never mentioned anything about it - and I just ordered Mental Jewellery a week or so ago.....
Don't know how I'm gonna get it now, cos no time and shop is far away from work so I can't go during lunch.

Watched episode 5 of Ghost in the Shell. An episode I hadn't seen before, and it was only the second featuring the laughing man, so it helped fill in a few blanks, which was nice. Unfortunately, it was a two-parter, so there was like no conclusion.

Tired, but too much to do..... still need to put washing away and that.

"We're all going on a....summer holiday"

Friday

Someone had a crazy idea of leaving at a very crazy time, so I woke up at 6 and we left at 6:40. I withdrew money first, cos I figured there would be a lot of spending.

Went to 13's house, and left as a two car convoy - I was in some BMW thingy. Stopped off at good old Bunbury and had breakfast - $8 for a ham and cheese croissant, but it was nice.

After hanging round the house for a bit and unpacking and what-not, went to Flutes at Brookland Valley for lunch. The plan was to use the entertainment books to get a discount, and instead it was a public holiday, so they couldn't use them, and there was an addition 15% surcharge on top of the normal prices. So, yeah.... I had some lamb shank thing, which was good. But not cheap, as you could imagine.

Went back home, cos some more people had arrived. Hung around a bit, then went to Simmos for icecream. I had some mars bar one - wasn't exactly very reminiscient of a mars bar, actually.

Went to Meelup beach after that. The water looked cold, so we just stayed sitting around and sent VC in to check. He stayed out a while, then wandered back saying "its really nice, actually". Well, of course, it wasn't - actually, it was really freezing.

Went back home and I tried to fix some computer stuff while others were starting dinner and making fire. Managed to get the Atari console working - very easy. But the power kept flicking off, so I stopped and went downstairs. I figured there might be a blackout, so I made sure I knew where the candles were. Then there was a blackout.

Played some bridge, which worked pretty well and helped pass the time - about 2 hours.

Played the murderer game after dinner, then played it a few more times. Finally slept about 1:30.

Saturday

Tried to sleep in. Didn't really work. Was deliberately woken up at around 9. Ate a few scones for breakfast.

Went to the Chcolate Factory first. I had a coffee - didn't really help, but it was quite a good one.

Then went to the Cheese Factory. I stayed outside mainly, cos it was crowded.

Went to Margaret River next, cos apparently they wanted to do shopping. It was very crowded, so it took a while to find parking, and then it was far away from the shops. Bought some uninteresting stuff.

Went to the Berryfarm next. Attempted to book, but only half an hour's notice, so didn't really help. I got to sit down at a table anyway. Had a beef pie that was $19. And, no, it wasn't that big. The sauce was nice, but there wasn't much beef. Anyway....

Went to Leuwin and Voyager after that. Yeah, wine....Great.

Then went to Lake Cave. A few people went in, and the rest of us stayed outside. I drank coffee and played bridge.

Back home, I went and fed the chickens. Then I did some more computer stuff, and resolved that the headphones must be faulty.

Had BBQ for dinner. The Perera boys were hanging around, so I tried to convince them that my chickens were invisible at nighttime and walked around the house. Then the oldest told me lots of stories involving his pets dying or killing other animals.

It was time for the proper Bucks and Hens stuff after that. Now, obviously, this is SMB, so I'll have to be a little hazy on the details. Needless to say, 13 was wearing some clothing which he seemed to like but shouldn't, and did a lot of walking.

Went to Busselton and managed to find some pub that was open, but fairly quiet. They all sculled a middie of beer at the end, and so I don't drink I was given Coke - but it was a pint. Still, managed to get about 4/5 way through. And thus did the Apu 'I thought I was a humingbird of some kind' along the street afterwards.

Went to the Busselton jetty afterwards, cos VC had this idea that it was a 'right of passage', or some sort. I think there was some deep meaning behind it, but noone else could figure it out. We all had some cigars just before, but there were cigarette sized very cheap ones. Tasted absolutely foul, like eating a bonfire, or something. I needed to take someones Corona to wash away the taste.

We went back after that. Since 13 was walking at the time, we had to wait until he came back.

Was forced by Pereras to play twister. But I managed to beat VC, so thats OK.

13 managed to make 3kms in about half an hour. But than o kinda spoiled it by unlocking the doors.....

Slept about 2.

Sunday

Woke up around 10.

Filled the birdbaths, and went with Pereras to see chickens and fill their water.

Then went with their whole family, plus o and her friend from overseas on some random drive. Eventually ended up at the Candy Cow in Cowaramup. Unfortunately, they'd moved their candy making facilities to Perth somewhere....but at least we saw them making fairy floss.

We arranged lunch then. The original plan was to go to Bootleg, but it was insanely crowded as I thought it would be. We thus decided to go to Wicked Ale, which ended up being a 50 minute wait for food (and not too fancy food, neither) out in the freezing cold and sometimes raining. Still, the food wasn't bad when it arrived....

Played some game like pictionary but with playdoh - I wasn't that good with making pictures, but we staged a big comeback at the end by using the doh as a prop instead.

Went to Seafood Grill in Dunsborough for dinner. I had ribs (?). They were very good size-wise, but I thought they could've done with more sauce - it was a bit dry.

We went to Busselton afterwards, cos o's friend needed to get out more. Went to McDonalds to buy icecream - I had a caramel sundae cos I thought it would be warmish (it wasn't) then to the Busselton jetty again (never then twice in two days). I walked the full length this time - very tiring.

Went back after that and I went to bed almost straight away. Slept with the lights and my glasses on at about 11:30.

Monday

Woke up at around 10:30, thus making it about 11 hours sleep. Don't know if it really helped, though.

Had a big cooked breakfast thing to try and use up the food - sausages, bacon, mushrooms, pancakes, etc.

Cleaned the house, then went down to Watershed for lunch. It was crowded, so we had to sit outside - which was freezing. I got a hot chocolate and some pasta. Luckily, it didn't take anywhere near as long as Wicked Ale, so I didn't have to wait too long and thus die of cold.

Popped across to Voyager (again). Perera kids had lots of fun ringing the bell, much to the annoyance of everyone else there.

Drove home after that. Left at 5 and got to 13's house at 8. I went home after that, cos I was tired and not hungry.

Unpacked, did washing, etc. Went to bed by 10:30.

Homer: "Lets never fight again..." [hugs TV]

Woke up at 6. Turned my alarm off and stayed in bed. Woke up again at 7:30. Needless to say, quick shower, no prayer, no breakfast and no making lunch. Still managed to get to work by 8.

Day went loony slow, as predicted. Didn't really do that much work, neither. Someone brought in hot cross buns, but waited until about 10:30 to open them - I'd had about 5 biscuits by that time but was still starving. Unfortunately, they were like super-extra-fruity ones, so I could only barely manage to eat one, and was still starving.

Got a hot chocolate from the the coffee guy.

Went to the local shop with WorkM2 to buy lunch. On the advice of both WorkMs, got the hot beef roll - the dregs of the beef, as well. It was pretty nice - but $5.50? Still was not full. Lucky the charity food guy (but the bad, expensive charity) came round and filled up the stuff, so I resisted for about 3 hours, then bought the picnic. It was pretty good, but I was still hungry.

We were ordered to stop work at 5, so I got off half an hour early - hooray!

Brought in my washing and did ironing so I'm ready for Tuesday and Wednesday next week (bar like foodwise). Watched episode 2 of Ghost in the Shell. Then went to watch the Simpsons and - shock, horror - the antenna had been fixed! There was a whole new hole and everything. It had been connected up wrong, so I switched it to the box and watched The Simpsons with lovely digital reception - oooh, baby!

I then spent a while trying to get the favourites thing to work, but I couldn't figure out how to select the channels I wanted. So gave up and went to Garbo.

Was surprised how dark it was at like 6:45.....

Was planning to look in Jeans West or some related place, but it was all a bit too crowded, so I just did what I had to do and left. Cept that I got a VVL on the way - I'm only human, after all....

Was tempted to get Maccas on the way back, but all I wanted was nuggets, and I figured 10 wouldn't be enough and 20 (the next size up) would be too much. Besides, I had all those leftovers to eat.....

Got back and played more CivII - I'm doing so well, cept that I keep running out of money. But my conquering is good. Remembered at about 8:45 that I should be eating.

So I made dinner and ate it while watching another two episodes of Ghost in the Shell - thats the end of disc 1, then.

It was then time for Samurai Champloo. And, really, the digital reception didn't help much - in that, I'm still not very impressed. This was a slightly better episode, but still needlessly drawn out with pointless conversations. Still very low level plotlines, etc. And theres way too much needless profanity.

Played some more CivII, but forced myself to stop, cos I need to pack, plus wake up tommorrow at 6!!!!!!!

And now its almost 12. I'm pretty much done packing - really, its just clothes - and feeling pretty tired.
And I'm not gonna get a chance for someone to return that book that shouldn't have been borrowed in the first place......

Dr Riviera: "Just rub it against a piece of paper. If the paper turns clear, its your window to weight gain!"

Woke up very tired.

Prayed for about 12 minutes, but only 5 really - did I mention I was tired?

It was cold when I was walking to work, so I got a Mocha. Then I stepped in the front door and it was so not cold anymore....

Went for a short walk down to the local shop with WorkM and WorkM2. They were bitching about other work people. I found it pretty amusing, actually....

Got a chocolate muffin from the coffee guy. It was really very nice, and I didn't have to pay for it. Unfortunately, it kinda spoiled my lunch, cos I just couldn't eat my horrible dry sandwiches...

Thus, by about 4:30, I was really starving.

Watched episode 1 of Ghost in the Shell. Much to my surprise, it was the first episode I saw when it was on TV - although the bit at the very start was not familiar. So much better on DVD - both sound and picture.....

Played a lot of Civ II, cos I was finally making some inroads. It took me about an hour to capture San Fransisco, so I made peace with the Americans after that. Then I discovered the Romans who had only 4 cities, so wiped them out with not much trouble. Then I had advanced some more, so I started amassing troops and attacked the Greeks, while at the same time attacking the Japanese at the other end of the same land mass. I captured three Greek cities without too much trouble, including Athens. I then made peace with them and broke it again after they committed espionage. So mainly focussing on the Japanese at the moment - not having too many problems there.

Did my washing, cos otherwise I will have problems over the weekend. I'm planning to do at least some ironing tommorrow night - though I may not have time with the packing and the shopping.

Read about half a page of Truth Aflame last night.....

Am progressing little by little through CS Lewis. It seems strange that the Cupid character hasn't been introduced yet, and it seems about half way through - though that may be wrong.

Apu: "I learned to tolerate others and not force my beliefs on them. Its like Paul's song - live and let live"

Paul McCartney: "Actually, it was live and let die"
Apu: "Well, whatever, it had a good rhythm"

Very bad praying sess.

Woke up pretty tired. Maybe thats why....

Waited around for a staff meeting. It didn't happen. Then it still didn't happen, so I went to the client's place anyway.

Stayed there till about 11:45. Wasn't anywhere nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be all weekend.....I could say something about that, but I won't.

I ate my usual lunch, but I was still starving afterwards, so got some hedgehog thing from the charity box of stuff. WorkM said it would be bad - and it pretty much was. Pretty dry and crumbly.

But - my Ghost in the Shell had been delivered and dumped on my desk just before, so how could I be unhappy? Yay! Of course, I'm never gonna have time to watch it.....

Finally got some work done. Kind of.

Watched too many Simpsons episodes - there were 5 on tonight. And most of them were newer, and hence crappier ones. Though Liam Neeson starred in one, and I picked the voice almost straight away. Though, I'm guessing, I must know his voice pretty well, cos I picked it as Aslan in Narnia pretty early on too.

Watched the final episode of The Sopranos season 5 intermittently during ads - cos after The Simpsons I watched a bit of Rove. So thats all of it....on an impulse I checked the HBO website last night - and the US is up to episode 7 of season 6 already.....so jealous. I'm hoping Phil Leotardo is gonna get something soon - don't like that guy. Not as bad as Richie Aprile or even Feech, but theres a fine line.

Tried to keep reading Truth Aflame last night - but, once again, got through all of 2 pages. Almost.

Moe: "Ah, seems no-one wants to hang out in a dank pit no more"

Karl: "You aren't thinking of getting rid of the dank are you Moe?"
Moe: "Maybe I am"
Karl: "But Moe! The dank. The dank!"

Didn't sleep well last night. And woke up too early - about 6:30. Stayed in bed till 7:30, but I doubt it helped. Its now like 9:30, and I am so ready for sleep....

LH was already ready, so was able to get to the car place by about 8:10. The guy got the time wrong - he said it would be ready by 2:30. But, hey, earlier is better than later, right? Yeah, we'll see.....

It was kinda cold, too.

Got back at 8:30, and didn't have access to my room. So had breakfast and finished watching The Usual Suspects until 10.

I then continued with my assignment - as in, actually beginning to write the thing. It got to about 12:30, and I decided that it was half done, and the hard part was over already, so I played some Civ II until about 1.

Got a call from the car people about 11 telling me they were having to do a wheel balance. Great, so?

Then went to Student Cafe and got lunch for $3.50, withdrew some money and posted letters.

Continued writing assignment stuff until 2:30. I had almost finished by then, but my car should've been ready and I hadn't got the call. Tried ringing the place, but was always transferred to an answering maching (!!). So resolved to go anyway, and then complain if it wasn't done. Was just about to leave the house at 2:50, and I got the call. So....

Nothing much different about the car - cept that it had been cleaned. That was nice. Felt kinda weird to drive, actually.....

Got back and finished my assignment by about 3:45. Not really very happy with it - the summary section is too vague, and the specific section is too specific. Anyway....

Drove out to Harvest West and dropped the thing off. Long way for not much - but at least it was better than Friday....

Played a little more Civ II till just after 5. Then watched some more Sopranos - saw episode 12 of season 5; the shocking one where Adrianna goes for a permanent walk in the woods.

Little else.

Police Chief Wiggum: "You don't become police officers overnight. It takes a whole weekend to earn that badge"

Woke up before my alarm, but stayed in bed cos I was tired.

Ate the rest of my hot cross buns (bar 1) much to my digust - they were supposed to last longer. Also, they kinda burned a little bit. Watched a bit of Sopranos season 5 episode 11 - the big weird long dream one. But not up to the dream bit - missed it by about 2 minutes.

Left at 9 to go to the international airport to see FD fly away. "We had coffee" - I had a Vienna again. V, Ali and their younger sister were there - they decided to skip church due to 'family committments'. LH was there as well - hence the photo.
So he left at 10:30, and that was that...

I went straight from there to FCC and got there about 5 minutes early.
Now, I don't really know the reason for this, but there is something about being confronted with One who is forever faithful (a key theme in the worship) that somehow heightens emotions one is feeling about others. I'm not suggesting that FD is somehow betraying us or being unfaithful by leaving, but, I guess, it is since we are slaves to circumstances, and that we all have an agenda where, due to limited resources, we just cannot please or suit everyone. And then comparing that with One who, no matter how busy He is, He can always give you His full attention. And also, maybe, knowing that He is also watching over your friend, despite the distance?
Anyway, whatever the reason, I found the whole of worship a rather...emotional experience. I was barely able to speak a word, and even forced to kneel at one point. Just hearing a phrase like 'Your plan stands firm forever' caused my arm (which I was leaning on for most of the time) to start quivering.
Well, what can you do?

Went for lunch with Ps Yoy - cos we both had to be back by 2, and I was rather late leaving due to me having to give him cheques for a mission trip to East Timor. Went to Foo Wah - I had good old black pepper beef. We got there at 1:15, and I was done by about 1:40 - pretty impressive service, unlike some other places I could mention.
"There are a lot of things that I could say right now that I am NOT gonna say" etc

Had CMC meeting - finished just after 4. Borrowed a book from the FCC library which had a large section on sin - hooray! Actually, it seems to be set out very similarly to the textbook - I suspect plaigarism. Of course, its so obvious that it cannot be so. Anyway, actually, it turns out that the book is not supposed to be removed from the library - "so we'll have to be quiet".

Did accounts, which took about 1 and a half hours. Got the Passion albumn off Pseudo-Unreal, and listened to that. There are some great songs - Matt Redman does the best one, and theres also a modern version of How Marvelous!, which is a hymn I love. But theres three quite weird tracks, which is just a lot of shouting and stuff. And theres a version of 'Our God Reigns' by Delirious?, but its just the chorus, so.... But I rated about 4 songs 4 stars, just on the first listen, which is enough for me to buy it. But I won't rush out and do it tommorrow - unless I find I have stacks of time, which is very unlikely. Notwithstanding buying the CD, I was planning to go straight to FCC from Harvest West to return the book - but I doubt there'd be anyone there at that time anyway.

Watched the rest of The Sopranos season 5 episode 11. Strangely, I actually understand most of what is happening in the dream, and it really is an amazing episode that it could be like that but still be both entertaining and meaningful. It wouldn't work well at all as a stand alone episode, though. Stand Alone - damn! Why can't my DVD be here??????
"Its my problem - I'll deal with it"

Continued with a little bit of my assignment. Am having trouble formulating well my argument of pride as the original sin, as opposed to idolatry, which say both Erickson and Hart. But CS Lewis is on my side - or could it be that I'm on his? Yes, I believe its the latter.

And now its 12, and I have to send my car in tommorrow at 8 - lets hope LH is awake.....

Martin: "No study area is complete without adequate plant life"

Woke up fairly early and was rather hot, but also tired, so I stayed in bed until 9:30.

It was thusly too late to go shopping cos the carpark would be pretty full, so I decided to leave it till afternoon. And I was too tired to seriously concentrate on study, or anything.

So, after bringing in my washing, I did ironing. And now that The Wall has gone AWOL, I decided to watch my Moby DVD instead. I was just gonna watch the live 'bit', but I decided I wanted to see the music videos, and to do that one needs to watch the entire sequence, which has Moby doing a lot of very weird type random stuff, most of it is him trying to be funny. Anyway, so I drunk tea while watching the first bit, then did ironing for the rest. And I was finished by the end of the DVD - about 12.

So straight after, I watched lecture 2 of week 5 of Intro to Theol. No video - but I was forewarned by a 'with comp' slip, so....what can you do?

That finished at 1, so I wrote some email and stored some clothes, then went for a haircut. Finally, I got the good lady - who apart from being able to cut my hair the way I like it, is also the most chatty - and a Christian too (as far as I can gather), so we mainly talked about my procrastination re: the assignment due Monday.

Got back at 2. Changed my shirt and splashed some water on my shoulders to try and get rid of the itchy hair thingy. I realised that I had neglected (as is often the case) to mention that I needed the semi-sideburns removed, so I kinda did it myself using the trimmer function on my shaver - and it worked pretty well, though its not particularly neat.

Did my shopping then. Neglected to buy a picnic - which is good, cos I saved a bit of money...but it would've been nice, cos I hadn't eaten anything since coffee last night - about 17 hours of fasting. Practice for the 40 hour thing, in a way, though thats not even halfway, of course.

Had a choc-chip hot cross bun (which was too hot - it only needed 30 seconds) and resolved to never go back to the fruit ones again. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll have the choice. I then went through lecture 3 of week 5 of Intro to Theol. Still no video.

Watched some more of Ray after that. Also ate some chicken and bread. Then I played some more Civ II till about 6:30.

I was feeling kinda weird - brain not really working - so I watched lecture 1 of week 6 for BSM - didn't really need to think. Had to stop it almost straight away and print the notes. It was rather frustrating on the whole - cos there were so many questions (which mostly weren't neccessary) and the microphone was hardly used anyway, so I had difficulty knowing what was going on.

I did a little church accounts stuff after that, while listening to some Pink Floydd, since there were insanely loud girls talking from some nearby house. I listened to some old faves first, then moved on to Wish You Were Here, which I've had from V's ipod (as well as plenty of other stuff) since January, but haven't got round to it. Of the 5 tracks, the middle three are OK only. But the outside tracks, Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts I-IV then V-IX (about 15 minutes each) are very nice and good. The first one is better than the second - and it really is too long, but apart from that....it would be nice if I could seperate the singing bit for my ipod, but I can't, so I put the whole track on instead.

I started doing a little bit of my assignment - only focussing on the pride vs idolatry as the 'original' and 'greatest' sin at present. I think its pride, and I've got CS Lewis on my side. But the author thinks its idolatry - although his argument points (as in, vs pride) are not strong. So I will win - hah!

Just read the Koorong catalouge which came on Thursday, or earlier - and the Passion 06 albumn has been released, and I didn't know! Hopefully, I'll have time on Monday....else, what can I do?

Probably gonna watch some more Ray now, since I'm not tired. Though I have to get up an hour earlier than usual tommorrow......

Shelbyvillian 1: "Sounds like Springfield's...got a discipline problem"

Shelbyvillian 2: "Maybe thats why we beat them at football nearly half the time, huh?"
[Shelbyvillians laugh]

Prayed only 5 minutes or so - and even then, not very focussed.

Got to work at 7:30, so I could walk down Kings Park road to the Governor Stirling building. Which I did - took me 25 minutes.

Left at 11:45. Waited 10 minutes or so for a bus, so didn't leave work until about 12:10. Overheard some person on the way trying to get to Monash avenue, so tried to give them directions - but they had no clue about anything around that area, so they probably ended up getting lost...

Went to Subiaco to get new contact lenses. Actually, they're disposables, and theres only two sets. Unwisely, I wore 1 today - cos it was really only for half a day. But even as I write this, I think they're beginning to be usuable....
Generally, vision is much better though. I can see the computer writing without having to squint. But my double vision seems to happen a lot more.

Went for so-called cell lunch - just me and V again. I had the usual - with a vanilla coke. Its nice - but $8.10 for that, a hotdog (with sauce and thats it) and small wedges? Crazy!
V got fish, but had to get crumbed instead of battered, so he wasn't happy.

Arranged a haircut for tommorrow, and to get my car serviced on Monday. Then drove out to Harvest West to get a book for my assignment - and it was closed! This is very bad, cos it means I essentially cannot get a textbook - since I won't have a car on Monday anymore, till the afternoon when it will be too late - thats for handing it in. I am praying that FCC has something. Either a general scholarly book on sin, which is unlikely, or a commentary on Romans, which is slightly more probably. Maybe.

Watched some more Sopranos - up to episode 10 of season 5. That means just 3 left - and one of them is the kooky episode where practically the whole thing is a dream. And one that doesn't really mean much, unlike the great one from season 2 (I think) which ends up with Pussy 'sleeping with the fishes'.

Started watching 'Ray', cos my parents gave me a bad version of it. Actually, its not too bad. And I think I appreciate the film a little more the second time, although its certainly not a favourite of mine. Give me Collateral any day - as in, talking Jamie Foxx.

Went for coffee at Dome Northbridge for an FD farewell thingy. It was gonna be in place of us going to the airport, since V had to work and couldn't go. But now the flight has changed to Sunday, so we're just gonna skip church instead.....
Anyway, so I got a Vienna, which is always great. It doesn't need sugar, either. Just good strong coffee. Like the Wolfe likes it - cept without the 'lots of sugar' bit.

Gonna keep, catching that butterfly....
sorry, Verve song.
Actually, gonna keep watching Ray now.

Bart: "This whole thing [trying to find lemons] is as useless as that lemon shaped rock over there. Wait a minute! Theres a lemon behind that rock!"

Prayed for 10 minutes, but not very effective....again.

Finished the sin chapter in my textbook yesterday. So its full steam ahead to the essay!

yeah....

Was out of the office all day. So it was from like 15 minutes walking to 5 hours sitting to 30 minutes walking to 3 hours sitting to 15 minutes walking......I was walking like the tinman by the end of it - my legs would just not bend.

Got lunch from Dumas House cafe - it was pretty nice, actually. While I was waiting, they were playing 'Something' by Lasgo - really took me back.....

Did my month end accounting stuff, inc BAS. As if I wasn't sick enough of it already.........

Finally got through practically all my songs on itunes, so the links are right. But now, theres still some which have gone back to being incorrect attributes - like titles with capitals, or years after them, or changing the genre to 'religious'.....ew......

Watched a little of Sopranos season 5 episode 8.

Watched Samurai Champloo again, but I have pretty much resolved that it is definitely not must see TV. Too much like Yugioh, or those other animes designed for kids. Just too 1 dimensional, and thus predictable and repetitive.

On a related note - I finally got a confirmation from DeVoTeD that my Ghost in the Shell shipped today! So it should be here in a week - or maybe 2. Or maybe more....
Randomly, the theme song (on my ipod) played as I was driving home.....makes me so sad, cos I miss it so. And my Major doll keeps wanting to fall over......

Homer: "Tute on, son! Tute on!"

Prayed about 10 minutes, but very, very bad. Ran out of words to say and like kinda sleeped.

Had a mocha at lunchtime, cos I really felt like coffee (as in caffeine). It was OK - I had it with marshmallows which made it better. But what I really want is like flavoured coffee, and the guy doesn't offer it. Or even better - an iced coffee, but hot. If you understand.....

Was supposed to go to a clients office today, but the guy wasn't there. So we rescheduled for tommorrow, but that probably won't give me enough time, cos I have to go to another client in the morning. So I should be out all day, which should be a welcome change. I won't say it will be nice, cos I don't think I quite know what to do properly. Yeah.....

Had a meeting from 3 - 5 - just based on what sort of referencing for workpapers we should use. I think we got to a result which could prove positive - but will the partners roll over (essentially) and let us do it? There were some example workpaper referencing systems from other firms ('sister' firms, so called). They showed us the most basic one first, which was like primary school type level, and this was a new and improved version. Somebody mentioned that it surely came from Tasmania......

Finished watching episode 7 of Sopranos season 5. Still haven't finished my leftovers from Monday - tis good! Not the flavour - I mean that I don't have to prepare.

Went for coffee at Tiamo's at (around) 8. Had a Vienna - which was good (my new favourite type of coffee), but the cream was a little weird. I think it was just because it was like a fake kind - though it may also have been a little past its prime.

Went to FD & CO's graduation after that. Didn't see CO for most of the time - getting cert framed, or whatever. Took some photos, but the main group one turned out way too dark. Pity. My camera battery was also dying - again. It must run down just cos it feels like it.

Now its 11:30 - not good. Need to keep reading textbook, and need even more so to sleep.

Bill Cosby: "So they don't know what the jazz....is all about! Y'see, jazz is like jello pudding, pop. No, wait, jazz is like kodak film. No....."

Prayed for about 10 minutes. It was all good.

Didn't really feel tired, for once. Got to work really early - like 7:15 - but still couldn't start work till about 8:30 or so cos of all the internet stuff I had to catch up on. Well, its finally working now, so.....

Had a hot chocolate at lunchtime, cos I didn't feel tired. It almost put me back into a state of tiredness, but not really.

Continued reading my textbook at lunchtime. Probably about halfway through the chapter on sin now - well, maybe not.

Watched The Simpsons, then a bit of Sopranos episode 7 of season 5. Ate leftovers.

Went to the MLE meeting. Saw some hour long video of Bill Hybels. It was good in the sense of entertainment, and that he probably knew what he was talking about, but not really applicable to me, since I'm not one of these leadertypes, in any case.

Bah.....