"One big happy ******* family" - Frost, Blade

Got up at 8. Actually woke up a few times and went back to sleep. Had a dream about going to church....I think it screwed me a bit, cos then I had to go to church, and I was getting all this deja vu stuff.

Had to go and get money first, even though I thought it was a bit too late as it was. But I ended up finishing all the cheques and that in plenty of time.

V came to the service, although I think he was late as usual. And Ali showed up too, so there you go.
V gave me my big plant afterwards, so that was great.

Went to Broadway to get my garbage bags, cos I really can't live without them. Also got tissues.

Went to Jesters and got lunch - the usual two pies and a Vanilla Coke.

Watched the final episodes of Deadwood season 1. Some good and some bad points.

Did some accounts.

Watched The Mummy, while doing a bit of ironing and drinking coffee. It still doesn't taste anywhere as good as good coffee, though - ie, GJ's VVL.

Watched The Simpsons.

Then I got a call from V, who, apparently, wasn't doing as much for new year as I thought he led me and Si to believe. So we went to dinner at Nandos (which only took us about 15 minutes to decide on, and driving past it a few times down Albany highway) and watched Casino Royale at Carousel.
We got there just at the time it was about to start, and there was a quite ridiculously long line. Waited in line for 20 minutes, while talking about what we were gonna do when we get to the end and find that its full. They also had allocated seating for the first time, so we brought our tickets separately, so I had to go to the lady who was selling V his ticket and get mine changed. But we still got in before the actual movie started (or only just) and there was plenty of free seats, so we just sat someplace else.
It was a pretty exciting thing for the most part (especially the chase near the start - that guy running on stuff was sensational), but after the actual bit at Casino Royale it got a bit stupid with all these new levels of bad guys....

Went to bed at 11:30, but didn't sleep till after 12. Finished Learning in War Time, from The Weight of Glory.

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal." - CS Lewis

Got up about 10:15. I had planned to get up considerably earlier. Too bad, I guess.

Went shopping at Coles, and there were still plenty of spaces. So that was OK, then. The thing I really needed was garbage bags, and I couldn't find any. The situation is really getting rather desperate. My total bill was about $53, and I had the two vouchers there, so I picked one - and it was the $30 one. So I just paid the rest with AMEX, cos I need it for Myer, anyway, really. Even though it, um, doesn't actually make any difference. But still....its the principle of the thing.

Watched another episode of Deadwood, which was episode 8. It was about 55 minutes long, so it meant that I left later than I had planned.

Went to Sizzler for lunch, with my parents and grandmother. I said last time that I would get salad bar only (with drinks bar), because getting that AND a meal isn't good value, and the salad bar is enough to be filled. I was feeling rather hungry, I thought....but I just had two plates of stuff, plus desert, and two refills, and some tea. So I think I got pretty good value. Also got my toothbrush back, since I had left it behind. So now I can clean my teeth again - hooray.

Watched another episode of Deadwood, which was episode 9. The last episode that I have seen. So, its all new territory from here.

Did about half of Mandarin lesson 7. It was pretty easy, so I'm moving on to lesson 8 next time. Whenever that will be.

Finished The Weight of Glory, in The Weight of Glory. Now up to Learning in War Time.

Watched Deadwood episode 10, which was the first I hadn't seen before. It was OK. Pretty racist people, them is. As if I couldn't have guessed.

Watched The Simpsons.

Did some accounts stuff. Trying to prepare for tomorrow. Not really very successfully.

Watched The Last Communist, finally. Some interestingly weird stuff, that was. The songs were great - really funny. I think they were supposed to be. I think. As a documentary about that Communist Party leader guy, it wasn't very impressive - cos most of it was just these sentences printed on the screen that could've come from anywhere, and then these random people talking about random stuff. Then they finally got the communists - yeah, they were pretty crazy.

Slept about 11, after some more accounts stuff.

"..remember that the....most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which you would be strongly tempted to worship" - CS Lewis

Got up about 9:30.

Watched some more Deadwood, up to the end of episode 4 - but I've seen all these ones before.

Spoke to Si on MSN for quite a while; we both had nothing better to do, I guess.

Watched some more Deadwood, up to the end of episode 6. Still nothing new.

Started reading The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis - a collection of 'lectures' written down, which was recommended by my lecturer from this time (about) last year. I finished the introduction....

Spoke to V, finally. We were talking mainly about concert stuff, cos Roger Waters and Eric Clapton are coming in February. Though, V said that Roger Waters wouldn't be singing much Pink Floyd stuff....so there goes that idea.

Watched Seinfeld on TV. Ah, great. Well, OK, anyway.

Got KFC for dinner, since I didn't have any food in the house. The service was really slow, which it usually is, but this time it was with the taking orders, not preparing orders. There was some guy there who was obviously very new - I knew more about the menu than he did. He reminded me a bit of Borat, and a bit of that loser Bennie guy from The Mummy.

Watched The Simpsons, well, most of it. My drive through KFC expedition to Subi took more than the half hour between Seinfeld and The Simpsons, so I missed the start.

Watched another episode of Deadwood after that, that's episode 7. Then I watched Entrapment on TV. For some reason, Catherine Zeta-Jones' acting stood out as being a lot worse than I remember.

Spoke to Si on MSN again.

Slept just before 12.

Dr Hibbert: "Playing around with novelties is no laughing matter; he he he."

Got up about 8:30. I had already packed a bit, so I was ready to leave by 9:45.

Went the long way past Dunsborough, cos I wanted to get petrol. But it was ridiculously crowded, considering that it is in no way prepared for that kind of traffic. So I skipped that.
Got petrol at the next station about halfway to Busselton - there weren't many cars there at all. Came out and checked my phone, cos I figured I'd finally have some reception. Had about 5 messages from Mogli, so I called him back and arranged to go straight to his house.

It was a really boring drive; just like every other time.

Got to Mogli's house about 1. Watched a little bit of cricket. Somehow, England had managed to bowl Australia out, and were now batting - but were like 5/80, or something. Sigh.....

Went to the local computer shop, and, it was closed! Mogli had to buy vegetables, so went to a Chinese shop, then to the ANZ bank, so I finally managed to deposit my cheque from 2 weeks ago.
Got Mcnuggets for lunch. Went back to Mogli's house and watched more cricket, plus a bit of Foxtel, but there wasn't nothing on.

Saw England get to 9 down, so went and played cricket at his local nets. I had a had time doing a fast ball with thongs, so I took them off and burnt my feet on the damn cement stuff. Great.

Left about 4:30 and finally went back home, where I discovered that one of my lights had blown, and my kettle is on the blink.

Did a bit of unpacking and also quite a bit of washing. Watched the rest of the extras for Seinfeld season 7.

Then Seinfeld was on TV, so I watched that. And The Simpsons.

Then I watched another episode of Deadwood, which was episode 2.

Then the Daily Show wasn't on, but the Cowboy Bebop movie was on after where it would have been. And since I'd tried to watch it before, but without success cos it was too late on a work day, I watched it this time. It was pretty good, but a little bit too normal for an anime...which is good, in a way.

Slept about 12:30.

'The crucifix ain't a baseball bat, Tell me what kind of god is that, Ain't nothing more godless than a war, What are we fighting for?' - Live

Got up about 9.

Installed the video camera for the computer, what my mum gave my dad for Christmas. It wanted to download some software update, which took quite a long time.

Watched the cricket, first in the lounge room with a fan, but then we had move to the air-con room with a small TV, cos it was very hot.

I started and finished The Magic Pudding, because its not a very long book, and the cricket was quite boring, so I was just reading that for most of the time.

Tested the computer video with a call to my brother in Brisbane. It worked pretty great, except that it slowed the computer right down, with patchy video and the voice too, at times.

The thermometer outside showed about 37 or 38 degrees as the maximum, though my mum reckoned it topped 40.

Dad came home from work in the mid afternoon, and no-one dared to venture outside of the air-con room. So we played poker and blackjack with the hold'em set, and then Rage, which is like my favourite card game, even though I normally lose. Like this time.

Watched an episode of Futurama; well, most of it. It wasn't very good - at least, as far as I could see.

Sat outside after dinner, cos it was still 30 degrees at 8pm.
Had a bit of Bailey's. I didn't like it as much as port; a little too strongly sweet. Or something.

Slept at about 11:30, cos I was trying to teach my mum to burn an MP3 CD, in the air-con room, although it didn't really seem to help much with the temperature - I think it was set too high.

Maude: "They say your folks can't pay the rent, so we're watching you by act of government"

Ned: "Well, I don't know if the allegations are true, but you got us and, baby, we got you"
Both: "Babe. We got you babe"

I am including that quote, cos my mum gave my dad (for his birthday some months ago) these singing dogs, what sing the proper version of that song. Anyway....

Got up about 9, after sleeping surprisingly OK. Had a bit of breakfast, but had to have coffee, cos the tea was only in leaf form, and it is weird tasting tea.

Watched a bit of cricket, but it was mainly rained out. In the meantime, saw the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. That was real exciting.

Saw Warne's 700th wicket. Sent a message to Mogli - cos, y'know it was, like, just so fantastic.

Grandma came to lunch again. Unfortunately, there were no presents to open this time....

When my dad was taking here home, I finally had tea. It was OK, considering it was that nasty stuff - I had it nice and weak, so it didn't taste so bad.

We left to go back down about 2:30, after I saw the clip to U2's The Saints are Coming on Video Hits - how fantastic.

Got home about 5, which my parents were saying was real fast and that, even though they took the inland road. The house was pretty warm.

Went down and looked at the chickens. Maude had 2 more eggs hatched, and was off the nest, so that's a total of 5.

Watched 4 episodes of the Goodies, what I gave my dad for Christmas, although he went to bed after 3.

Slept about 10:30, but getting to sleep wasn't easy - there was a stupid bug, and it was fairly hot.

'On Dasher on Dancer on Prancer on Vixen. On Comet on Cupid on Donner on Blitzen' - The Night Before Christmas

I am using the line from A Night Before Christmas, because the names of the reindeer where continuously popping up in a Christmas crossword that my mother was doing, and it caused us considerable pains thinking of the names (that rhymes....).

Got up about 6:30 (as if I needed to worry about sleeping in).

Went down and checked the Maude chickens and there was one more (almost jet black), so we figured we had a Christmas chick.

Left the house about 7:45, and had a really boring drive up. I was evidently still tired, cos I found myself almost nodding off up to about Bunbury.

When we got there, went straight into the room with air-con (the lounge room) and turned the air-con on. Then my dad went to pick up my grandma.

So when she came, we started opening presents. Got through about 2/3, then my cousin Mat came over, so we stopped and had lunch and that.

Opened the rest of the presents after desert. I got my mother's usual political shirts, some socks, some chocolates, some scratchies (winning nothing, of cos), another Myer voucher and a frying pan. Plus there were a few other odd things in there, I think.

Despite the fact that she says she doesn't think much of it, my grandma seemed pretty keen to get back to the 'retirement community' (where seniors are inspired, and inspiring), so dad took her back at about 3.

Finished reading the Wind in the Willows. What a great book. Much better than that 12 Ordinary Men one, anyway.
There wasn't much else lying around there, so I read a bit of some 'Political Speak' book, which was a very humorous look at the Australian political environment - from about 10 years ago. Anyway, I thought it was just a book of funny quotes, but there was a lot of just writing by this guy, so I skipped most of it. The dictionary of political words was pretty funny - I think.

Had more leftover meat for dinner - cold. Watched a double episode of the Simpsons, which were loosely Christmas themed. Ahhh...double episodes. Sweet metropolitan TV....
Watched The Panel after that. It was pretty good. It was great to see them advertise very obviously for sponsors, but do it in an almost sarcastic and funny way. Yay.

Slept about 10 - there was bad TV on, a kinda fictional view of the Gallagher brothers' (aka, those Oasis guys) childhood.

'Ding dong merrily on high' OR 'The idiot is happy on the top floor' - courtesy of Sam, my brother

Got up about 8:15. Don't know why I can't sleep in no more.

The hen that was sitting yesterday (Maude....) hatched two new chickens sometime in the middle of the day. We are hoping that we'll get a Christmas chicken, like what happened last year (or the year before).........though it may not be easy to tell, since we won't be there past 8am or so.

It was pretty warm, so we went into the air-con room to play some games and that. Played more Texas Hold'em, then Blackjack and normal Poker, still with the Texas Hold'em set. Then we played Scrabble. After that, me and my dad tried Mastermind.

I finally finished that 12 Ordinary Men book. Actually, I started the last chapter (on Judas), but it really was just too terrible, so I skipped most of it. And what a relief that is!
Therefore, I started reading Wind in the Willows, since the selection of books down there is fairly limited. And I can't start anything that will take too long.

Watched The Simpsons. Such limited, limited TV.... And channel 10 has got all these fairly OK movies on. It really is just too bad.

Had Christmas dinner, starting at about 8, cos mum went to her catholic church service thingy. We had turkey and pork, both of which were really tasty. The pork was especially surprising.

Sat outside for a bit after that, since it was still fairly warm. Saw some brushtail possums, which weren't hard to find, since they were fighting. Took photos of them, and managed to get really close to one.

Slept about 10:30, in anticipation of getting up at 7:30 tomorrow.

'God rest ye, merry gentlemen' OR 'May the Almighty smite you drunken guys!' - courtesy of me

Got up about 8:30.

Went down and saw the new chickens. A highly successful operation going on there. And another hen is broody, and has been sitting for quite a few weeks now.

Watched Thing from Another World, an old Howard Hawks film, although he only took production credits. It was not great, as you'd expect. Actually, I was reading a bit of that '1000 movies you must see before you die' book, so I missed part of it. It was that dull. And bad. But, apparently, its a great experiment in loneliness and creepiness. Alrighty, then.

Walked around the block with mum, looking at the stuff. There was nothing really new. Summer's just not a great time, cos its hot and sunny and everything is brown and uninteresting. However, despite the lack of rain and the heat, there wasn't much that had died naturally. There are those plants that my parents are trying to kill, though, of course. Though they were fairly not dead, as well. Took some photos of some flowers.

Played some games in the middle of the afternoon with mum. We used the Texas Hold'em set that Mogli got for secret Santa, and he figured he'd never use it, so swapped it with me for a vegetarian cookbook (which I couldn't think of any immediate use for). Then we used the normal card and played memory, strip jack and sevens. Then we played some scrabble, with mum using all those words you've never heard of - 'hake' and 'wen' for instance. Dad was at golf for the whole day - and I thought Thursday was the day.

Watched The Simpsons at night. But there's not much else on country TV.

When dad came back we played some more Texas Hold'em, while waiting for more good TV to come on. It was pretty fruitless, of cos.

Watched Rockwiz, but it was just a highlight show. And I'd seen quite a few of those highlights before, even though I'd seen all of three episodes (at the most).

Slept about 10:30.

"The native Indians will keep all of Hard Rock's memorabilia, from The Who to Pearl Jam to Korn, or, as they call it, maize...." - Jon Stewart

Got up about 6:15. Going on a boat today, and its the last day of work before the break, so got to wear shorts and thongs - hooray! Thus (maybe), I was ready by 6:45, which was way too early, so watched more Seinfeld highlights. Feeling pretty tired, though.

Went for breakfast at Subiaco McDonalds with Mogli, as a sort of last day thing. Had latte and hotcakes, which were pretty OK, but put me off food for most of the rest of the day, including morning tea, which was some leftover boat food, apparently - failed experiments, maybe.
We talked mainly about my discussion with the partner from yesterday; but that's all over now.

Didn't do much at work, but did do a little bit of work. Then played some indoor cricket, and cleaned my desk. Installed my new calendar. Meanwhile, listened to a bit of OK Computer (cos I brought the CD cos Mogli wanted to borrow it), and also some Wolfmother (which he streamed).

Left at about 11:30. I was driving, and took Mogli, W& and MD. We had to go to Dalkeith IGA first, cos they had forgot to get sweet chili sauce for some of the entrees, and Mogli volunteered his (or, rather, my) services. And then he complains that such people treat him as their friend and talk to him all the time.....

Got to jetty just before 12:30. Had to wait around a while, cos the boat wasn't there. And then it arrived, but there were other boats there so it couldn't dock.

It was a pretty interesting trip, though we had brought the beach cricket set, with Mogli getting everyone revved up to play, and it didn't happen. The trip down was pretty interesting, seeing all the houses and the scenery looking very different from the river. I mainly ate these chicken sausage roll things, which were technically entree. And using that sweet chili sauce....
I drank Mountain Doo (which Mogli went on and on about, cos I had requested it - just to say something) and water. Went down as far as Matilda Bay (like, the only part of the river I know, cept for the bit around the city) and anchored there.
Got secret Santa presents. Nothing much interesting.
While we were anchored there, saw a mother duck with six ducklings, which were fed so they hung around. There was also vast swarms of octopi.
The sea breeze finally came in about 3, and thus the trip back to Fremantle was pretty ruff and splashy. Someones hat got blown into the river, and a wine glass got blown off the table and broke on the deck.

Got back about 5:30. We actually reached the jetty about 5:15, but, again, had to wait for other boats to move.
Gave Mogli a lift back to his house. Actually, we went to the cricket nets near his house first for a while, since we had missed out going on the boat. We were both fairly tired, so didn't stay there that long. Then some father with his two sons was there, so Mogli bowled a few to him - and like got hit for four off each. Heh. We were there till 6:30.

Went straight down after that. Incredibly, there was practically no traffic; it was almost as empty as I've ever seen it. I wonder what on earth was going on, cos the past few times its been quite insanely ridiculous.
Had a short call from V, but I was driving so couldn't really talk - so hes back then.

Arrived about 9:15. Had a little bit of dinner, which was a bit of everything - sausages and tomato chicken. Slept about 11.

Homer: "What I'm saying is, all we have to do is go down to the pound and get you a new jazzman"

Got up about 6:45. Made lunch. No breakfast, mainly cos I was a little late.

Had morning tea, because some work guy had promised to make it - but it was fruit mince pies, so I only had a small bit of rocky road; the marshmallows and that were fairly sickly.

Watched Shane Warne's retirement press conference - a bit, anyway. Most people (who were interested, and not busy) went straight into the boardroom after morning tea to watch the TV, but I streamed it on my computer. He said 'its just my time' a lot.....

Played cricket at lunchtime with Mogli, that manager guy and MD came again - he was still bowling like MD. I managed to hit a shot which went through the fence thing out the back into the bushes, and as MD was looking for it he found a more professional looking ball - but it was soaked and fairly worn down. We took it anyway. It was getting rather hot towards the end again, but not as depleting as last time.

Not much going on at work. With about 15 minutes to go the partner decided to be irritating again - less said the better.

Made bibix, at last. It tasted OK, but was too sticky - I think the reason was that it turned out I had no vanilla essence, so I used the Gloria Jeans vanilla syrup instead, and I over compensated cos I figured it wouldn't be as strong as proper vanilla essence - so that may've been the reason, anyway..

Watched The Simpsons, the bits of Help Me Help You. The bits where they had the sessions and that dealt with the session people were OK, but a lot of it was about his character's life, and most of that wasn't very good.

Watched the final two episodes of Nip/Tuck. It was really weird stuff. Really, really weird.

Watched the start of the extra bits of Seinfeld season 7 - basically, everything from the first two discs. So there's two discs worth of stuff to go.

Watched The Daily Show, which was really good, as per usual. Except for the interview, which was with some, like, unknown actor, and wasn't very interesting at all.

Finally got around to my packing after that, and I still had some presents to wrap. Managed to finish everything at about 11:30.

Slept just before 12.

Lisa: "I'm losing my perspicacity!"

Homer: "Well, its always in the last place you look"

Got up at 6:30. Had breakfast, made lunch.

Had morning tea, which was these really sweet roll things. But the food was incidental - it was mainly to serve as a forum for the firm Christmas presents, which consisted of three bottles of wine and a Coles Myer voucher - stock-standard stuff from accounting firms, it seems.

Got latte with 1.5 from coffee guy. Cos me and Mogli were planning to go to the city; I think it makes me look more sophisticated. Even though it was probably a little warm for it.

Went to city. Went to David Jones, cos people had mentioned that they had a great food section. But, in terms of hampers, it wasn't really any better than Myer, and I didn't feel at all inspired. So I went and looked at their chocolates instead, and ended up getting a large box of fancy Lindor stuff. I think I had that idea from like January, or something...

Did a little work in afternoon. Its Wednesday already - just one day left, really.

Left at 5.

Went to 13s house and swam. There wasn't really anything on Foxtel that I could see, and, anyway, I had to watch DVDs at my house.

Went back home to eat dinner. Watched another two episodes of Nip/Tuck, so there's still two left which I have to watch tomorrow night. Its getting a little bit more interesting and different. But they're still all way too weird. Which is why its interesting and different, I guess.

Slept about 10. I think I've left myself too much to do tomorrow night.....

Homer: "A box....my boy's a box. Damn you! A box!"

Got up about 6:45. Made lunch, had breakfast.

Had the usual training, cept that the usual guy that coordinates the training wasn't there. The Webb Martin presentation was done by W&, and it was pretty stock-standard stuff. Except that he mentioned the Raffles hotel for some reason, and pronounced it 'Raff-les' Hotel. I thought it was funny/coincidental, since Mogli had been going on about Singaporeans pronouncing Charles as Char-les. Anyway.... Great highlights of the day, etc.

Went down to a clients office after that to do the final stuff before the break. Mogli had already said that he was going out for lunch, so I didn't rush and instead tried to prepare things better so that it will take less time in the future. Also had some of their morning tea, which I guess was some sort of end of year thingy. Or something.

Had lunch late, as a result - I started at 1:40. Yep. At least it made the afternoon go quicker. Maybe.

That client was in Dumas House, and I decided during the afternoon that its probably pronounced 'Dumah', as in the same as that French guy that wrote The Count of Monte Cristo (not dum-ass, as in the Shawshank Redemption). I searched for it on the internet for a while (its not as if there was any work to do), but all I found was that it was named after some Sir Dumas,
who was the head of the government department that built it back in the 70s - DPI, I think. Maybe not.

Left at 5, since I have to go on this boat ride which won't finish until 5 on Friday, and I don't normally work Friday afternoons.....heh.

Watched The Simpsons, more Simpsons and Futurama.
The watched Once Upon a Time in China. It was the same old Jet Li stuff, so it was good. The dubbing, though, was really, really, really bad, so I watched most of it in Chinese (although I think it was Cantonese or something, dang - unlike Fearless which was in Mandarin). Not as much a classic as my friends led me to believe, though.

Slept about 10:30.

'One time.....this one time, I'll let you ask me about my affairs" - Michael Corleone

Got up at 9. So, that plan worked, then.

Went shopping. Once again, it was nice and empty. I was hardly buying anything, though, so that felt like a bit of a letdown.

Watched some more Nip/Tuck, while doing a little bit more ironing - up to episode 12, now. Its really been more of the same since episode 9. Which is frustrating, mainly.

Went to work. It was really great. Really. Why can't it be Friday yet?

Watched Fearless, supposedly Jet Li's final martial arts epic. It was OK - the fighting was good, but nothing new. Easy to watch than the likes of Hero, Crouching Tiger of Flying Daggers, but not as fun as Tai Chi Master of Fist of Legend. It had a nice ending, though, were the invading fighters recognised his skill and were good sports about it. Pity that he died, really, but it worked out well. So, yeah.

Watched The Simpsons, then the rest of the Godfather. That final scene really is great. As is all that violence just before it. And, indeed, most of the rest of the film. There isn't much of it that I think shouldn't be there. Such genius.... What happened with 2, seriously?

Slept about 11. Which is too late, I know.

"My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse" - Michael Corleone

Got up at 8, cos of my alarm. Went to church and did the normal stuff beforehand. Not much today - hooray!

Saw Si (ex-Canberra) as I was coming out of 93 and going to FCC proper. He said he only got in last night (for holidays, I guess), so I must've been pretty much the first non-family member to see him, who knew him. Fantastic.

Ps Yoy was singing some praise song (I donno the name), and got the two parts of the chorus mixed up. So the start of the first part goes 'today today its all or nothing' and the start of the second part is 'today today I live for one thing' so he sang the most of the start of the second part then changed to the first part, so it went 'today today I live for nothing'....I thought it was pretty funny, anyway.

Went and got takeaway KFC for lunch, and took it to 13's house.
Watched some more Foxtel, which was mainly Premium Blend, some stand-up comedy thingy. I hadn't had good experiences with it in the past, but this time it was pretty good. There was about 3 in a row, or something.

Then I swam for a little bit, but it was a very little bit. I was thinking that I needed to get home and do my ironing, since I wouldn't have time tomorrow, since I needed to do my grocery shopping then.

Watched some more Foxtel after, since I was waiting for my bathers and that to dry. My Best Friend's Wedding was on, and there's bits of that I like, so I watched most of it. I guess.

Left about 3:30.
Watched some more Nip/Tuck up to episode 10, while I did part of my ironing - some of my clothes were still in the washing - actually, being washed at that time. There was some promise in about episode 8, but now its just more of the same blah.

Then that neighbour guy, who is some sort of landlord thingy, or something, for the group of units - I think hes Indian or some such, came around. I had to help him lift a new vacuum from his car to his house. So I did that. How interesting. Had some sort of discussion about cricket, since it was watching it. I mentioned my injury from Thursday.

Tried making my coffee with the vanilla syrup. It was OK, but nothing real special. As you'd expect, really. I mean, come on. What was I thinking it was gonna be like?

Watched The Simpsons. Then there was nothing on (I mean, dur. It is non-ratings season, after all), so I rewatched The Godfather. Most of it. It is quite a long show.

Did some accounts stuff after that. But not much.

Slept about 11, trying to tell myself that I needed to get up fairly early tomorrow.

"Can you imagine how famous Jesus would've been if he had a guitar?" - Colour (sic) Me Kubrick

Got up about 8. Stepped out of the air conditioned bedroom into a rather warm house.

Watched some Foxtel before I swam - there was a Simpsons medley on. Unbelievable, one episode was that same one that I saw on Saturday and Sunday last week!

Had a short swim. The water level was below the blue line - crazy - so I had to start filling it up, and I also had to turn off the pump cos there wasn't enough water for it to suck properly.

Watched Colour Me Kubrick after that. There were parts that were OK, cept there was too much gay stuff going on - like every second scene. And the people were too dumb to believe that it was actually real - but apparently it was. Maybe.
My favourite bits were where they used Kubrick film moments in the film. There were only two I really recognised, though - where he is doing laundry at the laundromat while Also Sprach Zarathustra (from 2001) is playing - quite funny, really. And near the end when he's in a mental institution, he tries to tell the nurse that he is Kubrick, then all the other patients are like 'I'm Kubrick' 'No, I'm Kubrick' (from Spartacus, and also Life of Brian - heh).
There was also a good bit where Alan (the fake Kubrick) is talking about the actors that hes supposedly thinking about casting, and he makes a reference to John Malkovitch - which is the actor playing him. Confusing, eh?

Went to meet Mogli at 12:30. It was quite insanely hot.

Went to Bunnings first, cos Mogli had to buy some secret Santa thing for his family - yeah, go figure. He got some sort of Swiss army pliers. Or something.
There was a sausage sizzle outside. Mogli got food, but I just got Pepsi, cos it was so damn hot. And, man, it was pretty sweet!
Walked over to Supa Cheap Auto then. I got a purplish visor for my dad, and also was inspired by the weather to get a normal silver one for myself, cos V had one on his car and it was such an incredible difference - cos I borrowed it in January last year. Or this year. Whatever.
Went to the new JB after that, which was its opening day. As you can imagine, the traffic was rather crazy, since the roads weren't planned very well, or not finished - whatever. Got a rather simple webcam; another present for my dad. I know that they can't use complicated computer stuff, anyway. Waited in line for a while. Saw a bit of cricket. Australia finally had some wickets fall, but were still only 3 for about 250. England got no chance - ai.

Went back to Mogli's house, then. We were planning to play cricket later, but it was just too insanely hot. So we just lounged about at his place and watched cricket instead. I finally met the rest of his family, so that was great.

Left at 4:45, cos of stuff. Went to 13's house and pulled the hose out of the pool just as it was overflowing, kinda. Yep.

Got back home about 5:30. Didn't do much, again. Cos, again, like yesterday, not that much time till dinner. When I left at the same time - 6:30. Freaky.

Went to dinner with mainly rellos at 3rd Avenue Cafe - there was one guy who was the boyfriend or something of one of my cousins, but the rest was family. It was my parents, and my mothers two sisters, and their husbands, and two of one of their children, and that guy.
The restaurant was fairly hot, and I wasn't that hungry as a result. Drank quite a bit of Coke and water. Had chicken again, since I had like steak related products last night.
Got back home about 10, after watching some bad carols on channel 7.

Went to 13's house again, cos it was still hot. Watched Foxtel, and there was some stuff on. Watched about 4 episodes of Friends & then a few of SVU. But I had to sleep, cos of church and that.

Slept about 1.

Marge: "Well, I don't care if I'm cool. And that's what makes me cool, right? Not caring?"

Got up at about 6:45. Had breakfast.

Got latte with 1.5 from coffee guy in the morning. Just for a change.

Not much happening at work, so left at 12:30.

Went to Carlisle Hotel for lunch with my parents and grandma. Took a little while to find it, cos I think the map online lied to me, and I went the wrong way off Oats street. Anyway, so I was there not too late. Had some chicken, which was nice and big. Tasted OK.
Gave my mother Fiddler on the Roof and The Great Dictator - just as a loan.

Then my dad had to take my grandmother to get some papers signed, but my mother needed to go to Carousel, so I drove her there. We took the road next to the main road, and, of course, had trouble crossing the railway line, so had to go up and then back again.
Got a VVL, and also, finally, bought a bottle of the vanilla syrup. Also went into KMart, but couldn't find the Thank God You're Here DVD - I suspect that it is sold out.

Drove my mum back to Armadale after that. Passed a Jaycar on the way, so I got my secret Santa present.
Watched a bit of cricket. Saw Langer get out for a golden duck on the first ball of Australia's second innings - that was great. But that was it. Left abut 5:30.

Got back home about 6. Didn't do much.

Went to Hippo Creek with Mogli, W& and MD. I had ribs, which weren't very meaty. They tasted OK, but it wasn't as good as I remember. Nuttin special, etc.

Went to 13's house after, cos it was pretty darn warm. Watched some Foxtel, but there wasn't much on - kinda surprising, since it was like 10pm on a Friday.
Watched The Da Vinci Code instead. It started off quite suspenseful, and that, but then it got a lot slower and rather predictable. So, yeah - nothing to write home about. So I didn't.

Slept about 1. Actually, it was more like 12:30, but then Nam came along and woke me up. At 1. Cos he had mail. Or something. Anyway......

Homer: "Who am I clowning? I have no business being a clown! I'm leaving the clowning business to all the other clowns in the clowning business"

Got up at 7. Didn't really have time to make lunch, but then I didn't have to cos I still had the one I made yesterday.

Had to wait for Mogli to come in so he could put his cricket stuff in my car. Then I had to promise to leave the keys, just in case I wasn't back.

Went to a clients office down in the city. Was half expecting that it would take a long time, cos they were gonna produce all this other invoice stuff - but I was all done by 12.

Went down to Rosalie Park to play cricket with Mogli and the audit manager guy, who's going to watch the Ashes tomorrow. There was that other guy who was supposed to come, but he went kitchen shopping (!!). And MD ended up going to the city, or something.
It was a much nicer facility than Parliament house, but there was no shade so it got pretty hot. Then Mogli did some stupid fast ball with caught my thumb on the bat with the hard white ball - so the top of it is all bruised black and unusable, and it looks like the nail is gonna die, or something.

Watched the Lake House. It was fairly formulaic, but it was kinda redeemed by the ending - which was predictable, I guess, but nice.

Watched the Daily Show. Definitely my favourite show on TV at the moment - though it don't have much to compete with.

Slept about 10:45.

Homer: "I got the job, so tomorrow we're going house-hunting"

Marge: "Doesn't your new job start tomorrow?"
Homer: "Oh, someone will punch in for me"

Got up about 6:30. Had breakfast, made lunch.

Ran out of work in the middle of the morning. It was all pretty boring, really.

As you would've seen yesterday, decided to rename Indonesian work guy MD, as initials for Muriel's Durian, as a play on words for Murilithiran, which is pronounced Murili-Duran by one of the commentators, cos last Friday when we went down to Parliament house to play cricket, it was that Indonesian guy's first time, and so, of course, he couldn't bowl properly and was throwing instead. Oooooh.....

Went to Harbourtown at lunchtime, with Mogli and W&. Went to Jim Kidd to get cricket balls, cos we'd rung around a few places and they had the cheapest ones. Got a practice one for about $6 and a white proper one for about $17. Then I got a VVL. Mogli got a kebab, and was complaining about how expensive it was and how small it was. Then he ate it and was saying that it was like so amazingly good....ai.
Went to Strathfield after that, to drop off the speaker from my sound system which has stopped working. We were informed by our friend there that they'd have to send it away, and it would be back in a few weeks. Or something.

Went down to Michael Page after work. Had a great interview. It was really great. Yeah. Expecting lots of great things from them. Just like the previous two times....

Ate more tacos for dinner.
Watched The Simpsons. Then watched The Killing - an old Stanley Kubrick film, called The Killing because they are planning to make a killing on some deal. And, of course, it all goes pear shaped. It was good, but too old to really enjoy. Plus the nerdy guy and his obviously evil wife were so frustrating. Lucky he shot her in the end.

Slept about 10:30.

Marge: "I'll just sit here, but I'm going to think about products I might like to purchase"

Got up at 6:30. Didn't sleep at all well, due to me not being real well. Or something. Had breakfast and made lunch.

MD not here today....Mogli etc were complaining cos the firm would have to pay for him to attend the training, cos he said he was going....I told him that they is all crazy.

Got coffee from the coffee guy at lunch - the usual. Drank most of it, but me and Mogli went to the city at lunch, and it was quite warm outside, so I through the rest away beforehand.
Went to Target, cos Mogli was getting some DVD for his girlfriend - I won't say what, cos I don't want to be associated with such things. Anyway, I was planning to try and do a bit of my Christmas shopping while we were there - but the shop was insanely crowded and the registers had ridiculously long lines. I looked for the Thank God You're Here DVD for a while, but in that section there was some camera which was incessantly beeping, and it drove me quite crazy.

Went to Webb Martin for the usual training. We had the funny guy, what we have had before. But it was still pretty boring. Still, its still better than doing work.
I've seen it before but forgot to mention - the lift in Bentley's MRI was made or whatever by a company called Schindler Lifts. I find that really funny.

Got call from Mubina (??) from Michael Page. It was just a message, and she said that Thursday was now no good, so we had to change to some early time or Wednesday. So I sent an email saying Wednesday.

Watched The Simpsons, The Simpsons and Futurama. Then I watched the rest of A History of Violence. It was more of the same as the start, really. So quite a bit of violence, but no clues to the history. It was just stuff that happened and that, for no real reason. Great....

Slept about 10:30.

Don Vitorio: "Ah, you have brought joy to this old Italian stereotype"

Got up at 8:30, cos I didn't sleep real well. It was too hot - or too cold. Too something, anyway.

Went shopping after watching an episode of Friends - that red sweater one, again. I wanted to be sure the shop was open and had stocks of bread and chicken.
There was plenty of parking down Rockeby, so I stopped and got the proper contact lens solution from the optometrist.
Went to normal shopping. Brought a lot - taco stuff, wrapping paper (which I never expected to find. Then I saw Christmas wrapping paper later, so I should've got that instead....), and what should be the final few ingredients to make bibbix - eggs, and hundreds and thousands for the icing. Also brought quite a lot of personal hygiene stuff, mainly toothpaste cos I'm almost running out. And, for the first time, I didn't get Colgate - got Sensodyne instead. Frankly, I'm not impressed with Colgate's power to do anything, really. Also got some expensive hair wax, kinda on impulse, cos I still got a lot of the other stuff left.

Checked out Rosalie Park on the way back, cos that's where they're planning to move the cricket stuff to, cos that one at Parliament house really sucked. Anyway, so there appears to be a few nets there, and they're nicely carpeted the full length and width. Looks like quite a high quality facility - but what do I know?

Got call from Nam, re: the appointment with Michael Page, which has to happen this week, now. Settled on Thursday about 5:15.

Watched a bit more Nip/Tuck, while I had a coffee (my grinder is working again - hooray!) and ate lunch. The last episode I saw (which must be about 8 or 9 out of about 15) was finally interesting, although a large part of it was having a go at religion - ai. Find something new already. Anyway, so that Shaun guy finally did something interesting, by kicking out his wife and punching his best friend. Super.

Went to work - not much happening. Mogli said that there was the plan to play cricket again at the nets at Rosalie Park (cos that other work guy had already gone and looked) on Thursday, since he was actually going to watch the Ashes on Friday.

Left at 5.

Went almost straight to 13's house and swam for a little while. The water was pretty cold, but it didn't take long to get used to it.

Watched some Foxtel after that. Saw most of Just Shoot Me, Seinfeld, The Daily Show and Friends. It appeared that Just Shoot Me was like its first episode, cos it was all bout Mia coming on board. I'm guessing it was the first episode, anyway.

Got KFC for dinner at 7. Even though it was seven, it seemed about 3 judging on the height of the sun. And there was no one in the drivethrough - it has always been full before when I go there for dinner. I thus think that the food I got was leftover from lunch, or had been sitting around for a while. The bacon was pretty crispy, for starters....

Left at 8:30.
Watched the first part of History of Violence, although it doesn't seem like there is that long to go. It was alright, but there was not enough buildup towards anything, really. Ed Harris had about 3 monologues before he was shot - the preview led you to believe it was some intense psychological thriller visa-vie A Beautiful Mind (but real) or something - not at all. But there was some nicely violent deaths, so that was OK.

Slept about 10:30 - I wasn't feeling well, and going to bed didn't help. I blame that suspect KFC.

Homer: "Fugu me!"

Got up at 8. Left as soon as possible, cos I knew there'd be a lot to do.

So, I was planning to go to Garbo in the hour between the end of service and the CMC meeting. In the morning, when contemplating the number of cheques I had to prepare, I realised that I wasn't going to have time for shopping. So, instead, since 13 had already left, I planned to get lunch and go to his house. Then, as I was preparing huge amounts of cheques up until 12 after service, I resolved just to pop across the road to get sushi or whatever and bring it back to the office. And just as I was leaving to do that, the first person for the meeting arrived, cos it was 12:30 already.
The meeting finished, then I had a few more cheques left and finally left at 2:30.

I had also planned to do a bit of shopping, for like milk and that, at Broadway, but I was so starving cos it was about 3 by the time I got back. So I just went to Jesters. Got the usual Nutty Chook, Stockmans and Vanilla Coke. I also decided to try the white choc macadamia cookie, cos I knew I wouldn't be full and I missed the opportunity last time.

Watched some more of Nip/Tuck. This second season is really pretty lame compared to the first (CSLame). And there's lots of people being really stupid - like the wife getting angry that her husband is taking too many risks with his life - because he orders the blowfish at a Japanese restaurant.

Which reminds me - there were two fairly surreal Simpsons moments today. The first is that episode of Nip/Tuck, which was an almost exact parallel of when The Simpsons go to that Sushi restaurant. It really was very similar, in more ways than one.
Then, The Simpsons episode on today was the same one what I saw part of on Foxtel yesterday. So I was able to see the end of it. And that was really great - I forget it now. Oh yeah, the crayon in the brain thingy. Great.

Finished watching The Great Dictator. Yep. Still good, I guess. Good.

Watched Sopranos Season 6 Part I Episode 12, the last episode of Part I, cos I figured Mogli probably watched it over the weekend, assuming his tape worked. It was pretty dull, except for a firebomb at the start. Most of it was just about people and their girlfriends. Ai.... Anyway, all these people complaining that there are too many open plot lines at the end - I thought there weren't enough open plot lines. The only thing that's really in the open is Christopher's reinstated drug problem, what Tony don't know about. Hmmm.....

Slept about 11. Cos I set my alarm for 8 tomorrow. Didn't get to sleep for a while, anyway.

Telephone: "Please say the name of your stock"

Homer: "Animotion"
Telephone: "Animotion - up 3 3/4"
Homer: "Yahoo!"
Telephone: "Yahoo - up 7 1/2"
Homer: "Huh? What is this crap?"
Telephone: "Fox Broadcasting - down 8"

Got up at 10 - it was thus too late to go shopping. I was then planning to go to Garbo and do Christmas etc shopping, but looked on the website and discovered that they're open tomorrow (the first day of Christmas Sunday trading), so decided to go then, in between the service and the CMC meeting.

Watched two episodes of Nip/Tuck. Its not as good as season 1 - they can't surprise me anymore.

Went to 13's place about 12:30. o was not there - she'd begun her holiday already. 13 said he was leaving like tomorrow, so...yeah. The whole Italy thing. And the US straight after - its like a month away.

Nam came over and we all had lunch - quite a lot of leftovers, cos 13 needed to clear all his house food. It ended up being way too much, but I had to swim, cos there was a new pump and the pool was so very nice and crystal blue. However, it was quite cold. Especially with the wind....but it was alright after a while.

Watched some Foxtel after that: a bit of The UK Weakest Link, then Just Shoot Me, then Robots, which had some good voices (namely Robin Williams), and a few good "robots in human situations" jokes, but was just a predictable kiddie movie in the end.
Then watched a bit of The Simpsons and a bit of the X-Files, then most of Saving Private Ryan, which is such a much better film than that Clint Eastwood one. Oh, well. I guess Clinty can't win em all.

Then 13 and Nam had to go to a Hawaiian beach themed party, so we went to Bullcreek Hawker and had 3 meat rice. Then the guy came out and said that 1 of them would be only 2 meat rice. But then they were all 3 meat rice, anyway.

Went straight home after that. Had to do the accounts for the CMC meeting tomorrow, and then begin preparing the salaries. I left most of it for tomorrow, but that will mean an awful lot of cheques to prepare.

Slept about 11 - I just couldn't stay up any longer.

"Mother, should I trust the government?" - Pink Floyd

Got up about 6:30. Didn't have breakfast - I didn't really feel like it, but even if I did it wouldn't have mattered, cos I didn't have any milk.
I was feeling like a coffee as I walked in, and it was about the right time but the coffee guy wasn't there. I tried to walk as slowly as possible, but he didn't show up.

Work pretty slow. Played some games and that; new Yeti games, and a little bit of some Ashes game.

Went to Parliament house at lunchtime (I got to change, unlike the others. Hah!) with Mogli and three other work people, including one Indonesian who had never played before, cos they had some cricket net there. And they did, but it was just a lump of cement surrounded by a fence in the middle of the lawn. Anyway, so we did some stuff for a bit. While one of them was bowling to me, he kinda looped it over onto the tennis court next door, which was locked. So some other guy had to climb over - Mogli took a video of it.

I left after that. Went down to the ANZ bank to deposit a cheque and withdraw money. Then went straight back up Thomas street and over to ? street to drop back the DVDs for the Harvest West thingy - probably the last time I'll go there, for the time being at least. Oh, the humanity!
Went to FCC, cos it was on the way, and picked up stuff. Didn't stay long. Cos I was in a hurry, really.

Went to Armadale. It was very crowded - the like main shopping district was, anyway. Drove around for about 15 minutes, although just once around one circle, looking for a spot. I passed Gloria Jeans on the way (it was about the first shop) and it was lucky I was looking there, cos a few shops down was For Eyes (not Four or 4, as my parents had said). Anyway, that section was really crowded, so I resigned myself to having to park a long way away. Then I found a spot relatively near, so that was alright.
Got a VVL, then my grandma's glasses. Had to pay $33, and they had to send the receipt down to Yallingup.

Went to grandma's place. She insisted paying back the $33. Stayed there from about 4:30 till 5, when she had dinner. She went through quite a lot of cigarettes, but didn't seem to smoke that many.

Got back home about 6. Had leftovers for dinner, then did some accounts stuff, but not much, really.

Watched The Wall while I did some ironing. Discovered that my right back speaker was not working; so that was just great. Thus, I didn't get the full Wall experience - but it was good enough.

Slept about 12.

Non-Ra-tings Sea-son: N. a good time for watching DVDs. See; Before Prime Time, Bad Reception Areas, Dampier/Yallingup

Got up about 7, and that was a struggle, cos I was very tired from last night. Then I had to hurry, cos I needed to go down to a client in the city, and I walk down and need to leave the office about 7:45 to get there in time.

Was down there nearly all day; got back at 4. Then I didn't do much until 5, when I left.

Watched All About Eve. It was another very long classic film - and people rave about how unpredictable it is that Eve will turn out to be insane - but, really, if there's someone who goes to every single show of an actress and is so obsessed that she seems to get her own identity from someones stage presence - surely that should set off some alarm bells.
Anyway, it was fairly dull for most of it. There was some good acting in there, but, generally, it was predictable and unrealistic. Also, like Sunset Boulevard, it was a movie about movies (although more about the theatre) and it had a narrator right from the start.

Went to bed almost straight after that when it was only about 9. I guess I was still tired from yesterday.

Homer: "You know how bashful I am - I can't even say 'titmouse' without giggling like a schoolgirl. Teeheehee!"

I should've mentioned it before, cos its been going on for some time now, but I guess I forgot until just then when I remembered and thought I should mention it - I'm using Blogger Beta now. Which, again, looks just the same to all you. But the mechanics behind the scenes are more....better. I guess.

Got up at 6:30. Made lunch, but didn't have breakfast, cos it was a little late. Anyway.

Got a latte with 1.5 from the coffee guy. I probably shouldn't have, cos we were going to KFC for lunch, which we did, so I had to throw most of it away - again.
Went with Mogli, W& and the newish Indonesian girl. Had the two piece feed - which was too much. I was gonna have the three piece boneless combo - I think that would've been a better idea, size wise. But Mogli ordered before me and got the two piece feed, which I saw was only $7 compared to, like $9, and for less. So..... also, the pieces I got were a lot bigger than his. Ironic, really. I think.

Not much happening in the afternoon. Just the usual work stuff. Which is pretty sucky most of the time, today being no exception. Left at 5.

Watched Sunset Boulevard, which wasn't what I expected. Ironically, it is what I would've expected had I just known it was an old film on the AFI 100 list, which is all I did known up until about 2 weeks ago. Then, I read a review which said something like comical look at death, and I foolishly assumed that it was gonna be like Death Become Her, where Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn take some immortality pill, but they're bodies start falling apart due to a shotgun through the chest, and a fall down the stairs. And general other stuff.
But, it turned out to be a perfectly normal film about some delusional eccentric ex-silent films actress. The last scene was classic, though - where she walks downstairs after murdering our beloved narrator, thinking she was in a Cecil B Mille film, but actually being arrested. Oh, well. All these classic films seem very long, too.

And so to the Concert Hall to see Russell Peters. Its certainly an impressive piece of architecture. I was actually thinking, while waiting for Mogli and his girlfriend, that it would be a good scene for some dramatic scene - like the train station shootout in The Untouchables, for instance. It was a nice wide empty open space with good visuals due to the levels. And the building was nicely contrasted cos it was all filled with white light.....anyway.
So I think it started pretty much on time - maybe even early. There was some Greek guy who came on first, who me and Mogli had seen on that Montreal International Comedy Festival on TV on Tuesday, and he did some of the same jokes.
Then Russell Peters came on. I thought the first half was generally better, cos later on he went too much into graphic sexual jokes, which I don't have a high opinion of, cos its too easy to get people to laugh at that sort of thing. His responses to the audience, which weren't exactly hilariously funny, were very quick - a little too quick if you ask me.....but maybe it was sound delay.
Was expecting it to take a long time to get out, cos I saw the line to the ticket machine coming in. But I got down about 11:15 and was home by 11:45, so. There was no problems with traffic, at least.

Slept almost straight away, as you could guess.

"Would you like to go out sometime? Well, I've got my fiance's funeral tomorrow, but my weekend is pretty free....hello? Hello?" - George

Got up at about 6:35. Hard to get out of bed - this is why I should sleep earlier.... Its also possibly cos its so dark now, since the sun rises past 6am. I don't know how we're gonna keep this up till March - that's a bit insane.
Had breakfast and made lunch, and it was pretty late by then.

Got the usual from the coffee guy. I just can't resist.

Watched cricket at lunchtime, cos me and Mogli were following the live updates of the scores, and England were having a collapse. So we saw them get two more out, which left 9 for something. Then we had to go back to work, and two overs later it was all over. Then we kept looking at scores the whole rest of the day - not much work being done, of course. Some of the managers and partners were going into the boardroom to watch. And England lost the unlosable match. Sigh.

Started Mandarin unit 10, but it was too hard. So went back to unit 8, but couldn't understand most of that either. So went back and did about half of unit 6. Which was OK.

Got my first three DVD's from my free trial of Bigpond movies in the mail - War of the Worlds, All about Eve and Sunset Boulevard. The latter two are classics on the AFI top 100 list (see previous post), while the first I am wary of due to my fondness for the double CD musical version and what I feel is HG Well's novel, although it probably isn't really that faithful.
And I watched that one first. And maybe it was just my new sound system (in 6 channel DTS), but from the moment Morgan Freeman (as the narrator) began reading a close enough summary of the first sentences in the book and on the CD, I was hooked. Although I had to stop it halfway to watch The Simpsons, The Simpsons and Futurama (none of which were that good - especially Futurama - it was just a bunch of random crap that finished like a load of pointlessness).... The sound felt like there was an earthquake right in my house. The visuals were impressive - I would've loved to see that bit with the bridge getting flipped over in a cinema. And there were moments of great directorness. And parts (actually, most of the film) were genuinely thrilling - and I never knew Steven Spielberg as a thriller/suspense type director. As far as I could tell, the movie borrowed parts from Signs, Independence Day and The Day after Tomorrow (as a start) - and it topped all three. Well and truly. Great film - 4 stars. At least. One gripe - some of the acting. The three main characters were probably its greatest downer. Though some of the other actors were good.

Slept about 10:45. Found it hard to get to bed again.

"Now I know what I've been looking for all these years - myself! I've been waiting for me to come along! And now I've swept me off my feet!" - Jerry

Got up at 9:30, which was OK. I guess.

Watched the rest of Seinfeld, partly while finishing off my ironing. The last episode is really great, and there's some other good ones around there. So....finished on a high, yeah? Great.

Didn't really eat anything. Which was weird, but I didn't feel hungry. Then I got to work and felt hungry. Ahh..... And most of the biscuits were crappy.

Before I got to actual work, had to drive Mogli down like one block to a post box - and I thought the closest one was down on Hay Street. Sigh....

The computers and the phones were still on normal time. Apparently, there was some problem with changing the computer time, because it has to be changed on the server cos its got some fail safe if the computers are different by such-and-such amount of minutes. Anyway....
So we had to all turn off at 4:30 to install this patch on the server which required it to be reset. Then we all got back on at 4:50, and nothing had changed. Ah.

Left at 5. Did Mandarin unit 5, which was still very easy, so I'm gonna skip ahead to unit 10 tomorrow. Its good now that The Simpsons has moved from 6, so I don't have anything to watch until 7.

Made dinner at 6:30, so it was ready by 7. Then did some accounts till 8:30. Then watched SVU - such a great show. I can hardly find an episode where it goes wrong, although I have my favourites, of cos. I can't believe, especially, how much better it is than normal Law & Order or Criminal Intent. Or that other one about the Jury bit, although that had better, more modernised theme music.

I guess partly cos it was daylight savings, I was planning to go to bed by 10:15 but just wasn't feeling tired. I managed to force myself, eventually, but it was like 10:45 by then, and I think it was more of a conscious 'it really is quite late' sorta thing. I wanted to keep proof-reading my story, cos I'm worried that when writing just a page straight I'm ignoring flow. But I only got through the first page, which I'd been through many times before, I think.

But I'm getting back that feeling that there is something I should be doing - some sort of purpose to my life. I have this gnawing sense of anticipation nearly all the time, for something. And it doesn't feel like something bad. Till later, though, I guess. I mean, I've had it at times before, and its never eventuated into anything. Mainly cos I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do about it.

Waking up at 8 - Going to bed at 12 = 7 hours sleep???

Yes.....hello Daylight Savings. Its 8pm and barely dusk.....

After normal church was AGM. Yeah, that was fun.

Had Jesters for lunch, and it was still only 1:30 or so, so that was OK. Was almost gonna get a white choc macadamia cookie......but I didn't. And I regretted it. Cos I don't have any sweet stuff for afters, cept plain Cadbury, so I ate Pringles instead, which was a bit weird....

Got The Great Dictator and The Last Communist from LH from FD (yep). If I needed further proof that FD is weird....
The Great Dictator is a Charlie Chaplin film (his first full talkie) made in 1940, and I watched it before and I think FD knows that I liked it.
But The Last Communist....its a 2006 Malaysian Musical/Documentary about the exiled leader of the Malaysian Communist Party, which is illegal in Malaysia and thus the movie was banned. I can only guess that FD got it cos its got an amusing green smiley face on the cover.... I had never heard of it before LH told me yesterday.

So I watched part of The Great Dictator, and some more Seinfeld. Did a little more ironing.

Did some church accounts after that. Spent about 2 hours on it. Ai....missed The Simpsons. I blame daylight savings....my internal clock didn't think it would be on so early.

There was nothing on TV, so watched more Seinfeld. Super.

Slept about 11. Was planning not to sleep in so much tomorrow and get more done....though what, I donno.....

"I'll have you know, I've decided to give most of it to charity" - Jerry Seinfeld

Kramer: "Really!?!?"
Jerry: "No"

Got up about 10.

Watched more Seinfeld - up to about episode 9 or so while doing some ironing. I remembered that there's still some good episodes to go that must be in later seasons, so I probably will buy them. I mean, why not? Oh yeah, the whole money thing....

Went shopping around 3. Saw Katty, briefly. Tried to buy ingredients for Bibix, with partial success. I found a small tin of cocoa (there was only one choice) and a small packet of icing sugar. I couldn't find sprinkles. And I forgot to get eggs, although I only need one.
Also bought a box of Tacos, but not planning to make them till later, so I didn't check for any extra ingredients.
Also forgot to get blutak again. Ai....

Had a bit of lunch (the chicken) and watched some more Seinfeld. Then it was about 5:15, so I left.

Got to 13 & o's house, and went more or less straight away to FCC's (although it wasn't really touted as such) Carols in the Quad at Willetton SHS. Bought $10 worth of raffle tickets. I had green F 23-27......green F 29 won something. So that was great.
The time passed pretty quick, I suppose. Counted some money, then some more money. Had to carry it home, which was pretty heavy with the $500+ in coins.

Slept about 12. Pretty tired, too.....


The final amusing Singapore photo taken by Mogli.

Berchibald T Barlow: "Monty, we are ahead of you! If you'll just open that door you'll see the next mayor of Springfield!"

Everybody: "Ooohhh!"
Ranier Wolfcastle: "I like very much"
Berchibald T Barlow: "No [not the water cooler]....Bob!"
Dr Hibbert: "Well he's even better"

Got up past 6:30. Ate breakfast - those rice bubbles really aren't very filling.

Got to work and was all set to get morning tea, cos Mogli had that plan from Wednesday. Then at 8:30 it turns out I have to go to Mogli's dad's office to do the stuff, so I ended up missing out, cept I got a piece of chocolate cake when I got back at 12.

Watched a bit of cricket at lunch, but it finished almost as soon as we turned it on. Walked down to the corner shop cos Mogli was getting chips, but I left straight after that.

Went to have my lunch and the bread was mouldy. So I just heated up my chicken - but there wasn't much left. Ate some chocolate, which was almost the entire end of the food in the house. It was enough till dinner - I guess.

Watched three episodes of Seinfeld season 7. It seems this is a fairly weak season - except for the Soup Nazi and where Susan dies from licking the envelopes, but that won't happen till the very last episode. I'm not sure if I'll bother with getting the other seasons - though I probably will.

I had started my washing, but it was still going by 4 and had quite a bit left. So I just left.

Went to FCC - did a bit of stuff. Left about 5:15.

Went to V's house. He had already said he wouldn't be there, but luckily Ali was so I didn't have to, quote, "just leave it in the backyard". So, The Queen can blame them if anything is missing....

Went to my grandma's house then cos my parents were there again. Had casserole thingy with those dumplings. It was very nice, but I was very hungry, so I had two helpings and then it was all gone but I wasn't completely full.

Got a call from V re: the stuff. He obviously didn't take me seriously when I said it was like half a person. So he had to look inside, and we concluded that shes part of some sort of smuggling ring, or something. Tax fraud, most likely. Or not.

Watched The Castle, which was nowhere near as funny as I remember. Then I left. Got home about 11. Watched about one more episode of Seinfeld. Then I went to bed. Guess it was about 12.

Another amusing Singapore picture, courtesy of Mogli.