Won

More appropriate for yesterday, perhaps.

Got up about 9:30, after a very strange dream about work. Rang Mogli shortly after, but he was still sleeping.

After having a shower, watched some Seinfeld and had coffee. I purposefully made it more stronger, and hence it wasn't very drinkable.

Watched more Chinatown after that. Very fast paced, really. Better than the Maltese Falcon, in any case.

Went over to Mogli's house about 12:30. He had to go buy cat food at K-Mart, so I took the opportunity to buy batteries for my helicopter, and also a new electric toothbrush - got one for like $15, which was nice. Don't know how good it will be....

Went and got Chicken Treat for lunch, cos there were more vouchers. I got a Coke as well, though, which made it about $5. Can't complain, though.

Went back and watched some football and that, then went and picked out a suitcase from his family's extensive collection. Took this compact little thing - it should be enough.

Then we were flying helicopters, but his house is really just too small. So we tried going to some park, but, even though it wasn't that windy, they just kept getting blown really far away. So that didn't last long....
Left about 2:30.

Watched the rest of Chinatown. I thought the ending was really silly - cos like the case just stops even though he's not the sort of character who would just give up like that. Nyeh.

Watched some more Seinfeld, so I have finished the first disc of season 8. Then I kept on with watching Heroes - up to episode 12.

Watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on TV. Don't know why - they keep showing it and I keep watching it hoping it will be better than it is and of course its not.

Slept about 12.

II

Because I won't be in the office in July until the 23rd, today I turned the page and took the photo of the new Demotivational calender quote. You can wait until the 1st to see it, but how appropriate it was. For July's quote is Demotivation - 'the best way to increase morale is just to fire all the unhappy people'. And today was...
...pay review day.
At least for me. And Mogli. I think the other's had theirs yesterday. Or the day before. Anyway, its my first. Since I didn't get one last year. Needless to say, I'm not happy about that....

Got up about 7. But this is a special casual day cos its Red Nose day - and the last working day of the 2007 year - so I was ready by before 7:30. And left then, cos Mogli was planning to be in early for the helicopter thing. Although he meant 8. Nevermind.

Flew the helicopters for a bit. They didn't crash into each other, but mine started running out of power really early on - I'm sure its cos the batteries are old and cruddy.

Then I had this long discussion with a partner, cos he wanted the client that I do the BAS for to raise some invoices and there were amounts to calculate. When I came back out at 9, all the Red Nose stuff was nearly sold already. I bought a key ring of some red guy. Great.
Mogli got a nose, but it was a foam nose with a velcro option, so he stuck it on his 'Underoath in Sopranos style jumper thing'. Weird.

Then there was morning tea for the end of year. We had chocolate cake and some fancy swiss roll. But the swiss roll had fruit, which I knew and thus mentioned that I didn't like it, which was why they bought the mudcake, which most people ended up eating anyway. So - I win!

And then, surprisingly, I had a pay review. But I had work to do, so I mentioned that it couldn't take very long. But they gave me more money - and it was pretty much what I expected. So that's OK. I suppose I might be able to survive there a little while longer now.

Went with Mogli to get pizzas at 12:30 - another end of year thing - from Dominoes in Northbridge. Couldn't find parking, so I just had to wait around in the car.
Got back at almost 1 precisely, so everyone (who was there) had lunch in the boardroom. And all the old people kept remarking 'another great year in accounting'.
Then I packed up and left.

Went with Mogli and 911 to Epic and got coffee - just takeaway, though. Then I went home - and my ipod transmitter blew the radio fuse again, so its dead.

Started watching Chinatown - which is very un-Chinese. There's some mentions to Chinatown, but it seems rather unrelated to the main story. Supposed to be a red herring, I suppose, since its that film noir type thing. Jack Nicholson is very good in that role, though.

Watched some Seinfeld - have finally started the episodes for season 8, with the great Susan Ross Foundation.
Also took in all my washing progressively, cos I was sure that it would eventually rain. There is a few things that are still a little damp - but it should all be fine.

I was supposed to be at V's house by 7 for the quiz night, so I started dinner about 5:30 so I could leave by 6:30 (straight after The Simpsons). Then, when it was almost done, V rang just before 6 and said that he got the time wrong and I needed to be there by 6:45 instead. So I had to eat in a hurry, and kept watching Seinfeld instead of The Simpsons, since I wouldn't be able to see the end.

Got over there and V and Leo and others were eating dinner, so we didn't actually go for a while after. But by then V was getting really stressed and kept saying that it had started already and we were missing the first few questions and this would be the difference between success and failure. I was trying to tell him that it would start really late - which it did. We were there in plenty of time, really.

So the quiz was on, and, somehow, we managed to reclaim the old form and won the main quiz plus the super round. Actually, the somehow isn't really so somehow - I think the 'birds of a feather flock together' applies well with V - he just knows lots of super knowledgeable types.
So for the super round we got a bag of balls, and I claimed a soccer ball - I'd always been so annoyed in uni when I was hanging around my parents property and I didn't have one - cos they got all that space. From the main hamper I just took some fruit lolly things. Its more the psychological victory; me and V were singing 'We are the Champions' a-capella on the drive back to his house - with pride, too.

Stayed at V's house till a bit after 12, mainly just laughing at our victory. Then he mentioned he had to work, so I left.

Slept about 12:45.

Thr33

Got up at 6:50. After much deliberation, made lunch, even though I suspected that I won't be able to eat it, anyway.

Waited around in the office till about 8:15. Bizarro-yesterday; Mogli brought his helicopter and I left mine at home.

Went down to Mogli's dad's office. Had a discussion with him about helicopters - I think he thinks his son is a little obsessed, but that doesn't matter cos it seems most of their extended family is obsessed as well - and those are adults. Well, more so than Mogli. The 'married with children' type.
Forgot to ask why the radar isn't in use - though I doubt he would know anyway.

Left at 11. Got a small latte from the cafe downstairs; the lady put like so much milk in. Like 9/10, at least. Anyway, so it tasted similar to the kinda ones you get at Wild Bean and that sort. Nuttin' special. But it was only $2.90. But Miss Maud's is cheaper and better. I should've just got one in the city, or something. Next time...

Walked down to the city client. Didn't have lunch - but they gave me a cupcake. Mmm - tasty cupcake.

For some reason, both offices I was in for the whole day smelt really strongly of food - like, hearty winter food. Roast chicken, or stewed beef or something. Irritating.

Got most things that were required to be done done. So that was great. Left at 4:30.
Waited ages for a bus, but got back to the office just before 5. Then left. Yay!

Finished off my Pringles. Then toasted my lunch and ate that. And I was still kinda hungry, but not enough to cook anything else.
Also did two loads of washing, which meant that I had to be up till at least 10:30 to hang it all out.

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother. Watched a bit of Seinfeld in the middle there.

Finally finished Basic Instinct. It was an OK film - the ending got quite good. But the middle was really long and repetitively dull. So that's bad, then.

Watched about half of SVU, cos I was talking to Mogli about the office events of the day - mainly about pay reviews which have apparently started - and he was getting all emotional as usual. Still, hopefully getting both helicopters in tomorrow.

Slept about 11.

4

Got up about 7:15 - probably woke up about 6:20, or so, which is later than normal, so when I went back to sleep I slept right through the end of the alarm mode (cos the radio stays on for an hour from 6-7).

So I was rushing - made lunch, but didn't get to work till after 8. And Mogli was already there, so he was complaining about stuff. Then I had sent him all these messages, the last one being about bringing his helicopter, which he didn't get so he didn't bring it. So he flew mine and broke it again. Actually, it just ran out of batteries while he was flying it. Still....

Did almost no work the entire day, until that BAS file finally came back at about 3 and I was able to lodge May's and start on June's. So the only work I was doing apart from that was helping Mogli with his stuff. Stupid frustrating bank rec stuff, which wasn't helped by Mogli not making sure his excel formulas were right. He's such a rossface sometimes - seriously.

Still, went and got coffee again at lunch. But it was raining slightly, so we had to drive. And we went to Fix, cos I wanted to try the mocha. So we both tried the mocha, even though Mogli vowed sometime ago that he would never go to Fix again. And, soon after trying the mocha, he vowed again. I think its more likely to stick this time - cos, seriously, its no competition to Epic.

Were planning to do some helicopter flying before lunch ended, but I had to charge it again, so that didn't happen - Mogli ended up getting a phone call, anyway.

Left about 5:30.

Watched The Simpsons, then went down to meet church uncle new/old treasurer guy for dinner at Tiamo at 6:30. Amazingly (cos he's Asian) he was already there - and had been for some time, I gather. Anyway, I looked at the specials and wanted to try the ribs, but they were out, so I had the panfried lamb instead. Which was really tasty, but weird, cos it looked like just a pile of salad and the veal was just tossed through it.
Then we had coffee. I wanted a biscuit, but they still had only florentines and anzacs - ew. So I just had a white vienna, which was the really small kind and quite bitter.

Then we went back to my house and went through the final bits and pieces. I was amazed how smoothly everything went, really. And I got rid of everything except my office keys - dang! The only other thing is that he is not a registered signatory, for some reason, so I still had to sign some cheques. But, apart from that....

ITS ALL OVER!

Even my Sunday counting duties have already been seconded (permanently) to the secretary guy. So that is absolutely it. And, just in case I was worried when he said that he'd probably only be doing it for a year, he added that at that stage they'll likely be looking for a proper accounts clerk who will be member of staff. Free...at last!

For my celebration party, I watched Big Brother that I had taped, which also had an episode of The Simpsons after it. Great. What a celebration....

Then I watched a little more Basic Instinct. More of the same, really.

Slept about 10:30. Tried to, anyway. Silly new housemate people were making noise, so I had to turn the fan on to try and drown them out. Ai.

Phyve

Got up about 6:50, as usual. Made lunch. So, great.

Went straight down to city client. Saw a guy that looked like Hiro Nakaumra, without the glasses. Kinda.
Didn't really have anything to do, except end of year stuff, so I spent most of the time trying to reconcile the wages, even though the last payroll hasn't come through yet. Then I discovered that it had been prepared already, so I could put it in for the most part.
Had a meeting with the external auditor guy from Bentleys MRI who is doing the work for the Attorney General. More of these South Africans....

Left at 12, walked outside and there was a bus. So that was nice.

Got back to the office and kept on with the BAS thing. Then it was lunch.

Went and got a coffee with Mogli after eating. Went to Epic, of course. I got the Piccolo latte, then remembered that the reason why I had only got it once before is that its smaller than the regular latte. Whoopsness.

Got the Mogli's helicopter from him, cos its now mine cos he broke mine so that's now his. Also got The Lorax by Dr Seuss from Neco (the eco superstore) cos I got a $10 voucher cos I elected to get my Woolworths dividends sent electronically. But that just gave me free shipping - bah!

Finished that BAS in the afternoon and put it in for review. Then I realised, suddenly, that I had no work. So - there you go. Only 45 minutes left before 5 anyway.

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother. Then there was more Simpsons and more Simpsons. Bah - just watching and just tolerating. I could be doing so much more better things.

Like watching Basic Instinct, which I started doing after. After finishing off all these adjustments and stuff for the accounts before the final meeting tomorrow.
Anyway - seems like an OK film so far. Just lots of sex and that. As you'd expect, I suppose.

Slept about 10:30.

Sux

Well, not really....

Got up at 8:30. Decided to do some more accounts straight away, so didn't finish that till 9:45 or so - there was more than I expected.

Got ready and went down to the post office. Had to pay about $10 to send back some parcel from my stupid mobile phone provider that I didn't want. Ah....
Then went shopping at Woolworths. Spent like $100 - I think its cos of the washing stuff and medicine and that. I guess - I figured I'd be buying less cos I don't want any food around the house at the end of the week. Never mind, I suppose.

So finished about 11:30 and had lunch and made coffee and watched more of Se7en. Then it was time for that fun work stuff.

Passed one of those nonsensical crazy wide cars on the way in to work, and its just outside the window so Mogli is like 'its a hummer, its a hummer' and was rushing around in some kind of a frenzy. Then he just grabbed my camera and took a photo - or 6. Better than just this black on white stuff - why not?

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing more BAS stuff. Great. Its almost done, though. And that will be it.
Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons and most of Big Brother, then most of 1 vs 100. I also saw the first 5 minutes of Torchwood, and decided thats another show I can easily live without.

Then I watched the rest of Se7en. I think Fight Club and The Game are both vastly superior - though it is better than Alien³.

Slept about 10:30.

Se7en

Could it be coincidence that I started watching that movie today, which is also the number of days left prior to me finally getting out of this god forsaken state?
Spokey.

Got up about 9. Got ready, then left about 9:45. I figured it was too early - turns out I was right. Again.

Went and got money, so I got there about 10:15. Maybe a little later. But there wasn't much to do, so I was done about 10:40 and sat around waiting for people who never came. Oh, well.

Had Jesters for lunch. There was no Spud Deluxe, so I got the Nutty Chook and the new Green Chicken Curry - which, well, sucked. Too bad, eh?

Then I started watching Se7en while doing ironing, but I wasn't getting much done, y'know, cos I was watching the film.

So I went upstairs and did some accounts stuff. I have to finish basically everything by Wednesday, so thought I should start, y'know? But there's not much. In a way.

Also watched the rest of The Last King of Scotland. I'm really just, like, so unimpressed. Best actor? Seriously? Everyone else must've really sucked then.

Then I was watching most of Big Brother and the eviction show and the first part of Rove. I turned it off just before Michael Buble, and I skipped most of Paul Rudd and that other guy. But those bits that I saw were kinda funny and stuff. I suppose.

Slept about 11. Tried to. Coughing too much and that, tho.

Its all Greek to me...

Yes, the events of tonight make that saying, um, not so much that saying. As in, it makes more sense, and its not all Greek. Which makes more sense. After the events of tonight.

Now I'm all confused again...

Got up at about 7:30, cos my phone was running out of batteries and beeping annoyingly. So I charged it and went back to bed.

Got woken up at, well, 11:15, by very violently stormy weather. Rang Mogli straight away, cos we were supposed to do something 'in the morning'. He told me to go over at 12:30-12:45.

So I started watching Alien Resurrection. I've definitely seen that one before - more than once, I think - but not the entire thing at once. Maybe. Anyway, I like it. Cos its full of weird people and stuff.

Went to leave at about 12:15 and got a message from Mogli saying I should hurry cos he was hungry. Drove through weather that wasn't that bad, but almost ran into a car that was changing lanes too fast behind me to try and get to an exit on the freeway.

Got to Mogli's house and went straight away to Muzz Buzz on Leach highway near Fremantle (kinda). Their coffee was 20c more than the one on High road. Mogli thought that the flavours were 50c extra, so got a normal latte. Then he saw later that they were free and complained about his coffee being too ordinary.

Then went to KFC and used an entertainment book voucher, so only paid $4 for a burger and fries, which was nice. As in, the price was nice. The food - OK only. But it was cheap. Which was nice.

Watched mainly bad reality TV while Mogli was flying the helicopter and I was trying to take photos of it. But it kept breaking all the time, so that didn't work too well.

Left about 4 or so. The rain was kinda easing off by then.

Finished watching Alien: Resurrection. I really think its the best, which means that each one is better than the last. But, that said, I think all of them underuse the potential by just cutting away and using the 'if you don't see it its more scary' bit. Which I don't think works most of the time. Anyway....

Went for 13's birthday at 7 at Ouza Greek Taverna (or something) in North Perth. Left as late as possible and got there about 5 minutes past, but had to wait about 15 minutes for anyone else to show up. Which was a bit freaky at first, cos the place looks super dodge.
And then the old Greek guy comes round and starts asking (in a non-asking sorta way) if people will be dancing and stuff when they start that stuff at 9. So I just sat there and tried to convince myself that he was only joking.

The food was really weird - and not just cos it was all this weird Greek food. On weekends (apparently) there is no menu, and they just bring out stuff and you just eat it. So I didn't think much of the entree - except the bread was darn tasty. But then the main was skewers of beef, skewers of chicken (some seafood stuff) and some stewed lamb. And, man, the lamb and chicken was really super. I mean, great. But I didn't eat much before being full - I think I ate too much bread.

And then they brought out desserts - but luckily you could order your own coffees. I ordered a latte, but got a cappuccino. But then they brought out the latte - so I drank that. And just as they did...

...the music suddenly got really loud and out came a belly dancer. Can't say that I've seen many of those live. And so began the breaking of the plates. And also the old Greek guy going around to tables and trying convince people to dance with the belly dancer. Nam did for a while. Luckily, I was sitting at the wall end of the table, and I started drinking my coffee really slowly.

After the belly dancer went off, they kept the music loud and started doing normal dancing, with lots more plate breaking. The best part was when they were doing the big long chain one where the music gets faster (Zorba's dance), and the old guy got Nam and o up to join the end of the line. Then as soon as the line turned away o (who was on the end) let go and sat down, while Nam got dragged off with the rest.

Then they brought out a good ol' Cheescake shop White Gold mudcake, with 5 candles that somehow made the number for 13's birthday. Then, because the old guy now knew it was his birthday, they did another Zorba's dance and Nam, o and 13 were all seconded.
Then it was about 10:30, and that was it.

Tried to drive home a different way, but I just ended up going through a lot of twists and turns and coming back to Charles street again. So that didn't work.

Slept about 11:30.

Bart: "The best part was when the buildings fell down!"

Got up about 6:50, again. Oh well.
Its casual day, so I was ready about 7:30 and left straight away.

Mogli brought in the kinda fixed helicopter, so we flew that for a while. Went pretty well, too.

Left about 8:10 with NewGirl (hereafter known as 'Meesh') and 911, cos we were nominated to go to some AE tax update seminar thing. Me and Mogli were directing Meesh who was driving - we disagreed most of the time.
Mogli showed me some newspaper article in the car about The Best Coffee in Perth - Epic got an honourable mention. But I'd never heard of any of the other places - so I think they were all just obscure little places.

Got to Burswood and had to park quite far away, cos there was some work expo going on at The Dome (what doesn't sell coffee) as well as this seminar and goodness knows what else.
Hung around outside the place for a while - well, inside outside (or should that be outside inside?). I almost got tea, then didn't.
Then we went in and there was water with mints. Great. Also got pens and notepaper. Great. I decided it might be useful for Sydney when my internet access is likely to be very limited.

Went through the session from 9 till 10:45. Then there was a break, where we were promised low fat biscuits and instead got little ham and cheese croissants. Which were really tasty, but were in extremely short supply. I got one and advised Mogli not to try, cos you'd only get one and it just made you more hungry cos it was so damn small.
Went back in and had more sessions till 12. There were some dopey people asking silly questions. Coincidentally, one of the silliest won a bottle of wine in an unrelated business card draw, which I forgot to enter - I'm never gonna get to use those things.

Left after that (through rain and crowds of school buses, complete with Muslim girls), so we got back about 12:15, and then it was a tinily short time until lunch and the end of my day. Spent most of it proof-reading June's contribution to the Accru⁺ staff bulletin, which Mogli has been delegated to do each month. But despite his complaining about how hard it is, he does a pretty decent job without really seeming to try - maybe I'm missing something?

By then it was raining pretty hard (actually, by 12:15, cos Mogli was in with the slow talking partner), so we drove to the local shop - like, one street away. Got parking right nearby, but we were planning to eat there, so thought we should get a ticket. And some guy had gone and left heaps of money in the machine, so we got free parking! Yay - Monopoly!
There was slim pickings in the food department, I guess cos every man and his dog was feeling the pinch of the sudden wintry weather. Cliches aside, we got roast beef rolls, cos there was really no other choice. WAB? sat down with us as well, and Meesh and NewSecretary was there, but they disappeared away. Not that that is such a bad thing, or nothing.

Then WAB? went back and me and Mogli went down to Epic. We kept the same ticket, but parked quite far away. But the rain wasn't so bad at that stage. Got a mocha - its a really nice drink, but not like coffee-like. I think I should try a chocolate ristretto, or something, or a normal hot chocolate maybe - but I can't bring myself to risk it. Why change when I have such a good thing going here already?

Got home and the rain was quite steady, so my washing was already too wet to worry about, so I left it out there. And I started on some more.

Finished watching Smokin' Aces. Yeah, the twist was real stupid. Nothing special about the show. Could've been a lot better, etc.

Finished watching Alien³ after that. I would rank it on fairly evenly with 2 - maybe marginally better, which is better than 1, but for different reasons. I think the acting in 3 is a lot better, and the characters are far more interesting and slightly less one dimensional. Anyways....

Went to Cell, and took my washing, so I went earlier, cos I was using 13 & o's dryer, cos the rain still didn't look like letting up the whole weekend.
Ended up leaving a sock behind after....

Slept about 12. The rain was seeming to ease off a bit.

"If you wanna crash and burn you're not alone" - Savage Garden

And it has crashed and burned. The helicopter, that is. Or so Mogli informed me tonight. Yes.
Ta bu shi wo pengyou....
Although he reckons he took it apart and fixed it after. And then it broke again.

Got up about 6:45. So that was something.

I was thus ready by 7:20 - without breakfast. But I had the lunch that I made yesterday. So I left and went down to Toyota in Northbridge.

Dropped the car off and took the courtesy bus back to the office. How nice...

Went straight down to the client in the city. There wasn't much to do there, really - which was nice, cos I needed to be back by lunchtime anyway. So I could pick up my car. Which was done about 10:30 or so.

Got back about 12. It was great, cos as soon as I walked outside there was a bus.

Mogli had to buy lunch, so we went to the local shoppe. He got a chicken schnitzel burger - so he ate that and I had to eat my day old sandwiches with just salami - bleh.

Then four of us drove down to Northbridge - cos I had to get a lift from WAB? and he invited NewSecretary and Mogli came too cos he wanted coffee after. So I got the car, and they didn't charge me anything, which was nice.
Mogli came with me and we went looking for parking near Epic, without success. So he had to get out and buy while I drove around. I found parking like right on the otherside of the block, so I stayed there then realised it was pointless and drove back and he was just coming out.

Got back to the office with only two minutes to spare, so no helicopter flying - though we had done a bit in the morning.

Did no work right up until 4 when I got some stuff through for a BAS, so I was working frantically on that right up till a bit past 5:30 when I left. Let Mogli take the helicopter home....

Got home and started washing, cos they were expecting rain starting Friday afternoon and continuing for pretty much the whole weekend.
Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother. Then I started watching Pirate Master - that didn't last long.
So I started watching Smokin' Aces. And its not good so far. Surprisingly, considering what its about, its really slow moving. Almost....dull.

Watched SVU. It seemed to be another episode out of order, cos I thought Elliot was kinda reconciling with his wife but it was talking about him not wanting to sign divorce papers which I thought he signed already? I donno..... Pretty good episode, tho. Except that it was weird cos I recognised the undercover FBI agent as one, but noone on the show did so I just figured she was just like the same actor playing a different character, or something. Who knows, really.

Kept watching Smokin' Aces after. Probably about halfway through now?

Then I started watching Alien³, which seemed quite familiar to me. In part. Especially that super religious black guy with glasses.

Slept about 11.

"Its been a bad day" - REM

Not so much really nasty, just really, really slow and dull and wearying. And so; bad.

Got up about 7. Too late, again. Made lunch - then realised that I didn't need to, cos I was buying lunch for Mogli (Minty) cos he had passed his first CPA unit. The turkey had also passed its prime, so I had to throw it out. Sigh....

Surprisingly, I had quite a lot of work to do in the morning, but for some reason the time just dragged. And I mean dragged. It was quite insane.

Went for lunch with Mogli to Kome in Subiaco. He had to stop off and get liquor first - I have no idea why. Its quite tasty food, but not very big - I mean, we did get the smaller size, but it was still like $7.50 or something.
Then went to a coffee shop just across the street - Stimulatte. Wasn't too impressive, neither. And we were about 15 minutes too early for happy hour. Oh well.

Got back and had a fly of the helicopter in the boardroom. Funness. Nobody else in the office seems to appreciate it except for us, though - except maybe some of the partners.

If I thought the morning was bad, the afternoon was even worse. And to make it even worser, there was some exceptionally boring and pointless half hour meeting in the middle somewhere. Blech....

Something good at least - my DVDs and CDs from Amazon arrived. Yay!

Left at 5:30. And, man, was that a relief. All I wanted to do was just lie in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Was that gonna happen? Of course not....

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother, which went for an hour, then there were more Simpsons. Bizarre.

Then I kept watching The Last King of Scotland, which proved to be a frustrating exercise in futility. I saw about half an hour, which probably equated to real running time of about 10 minutes, then just gave up. So... great.

Finished watching Aliens. Better than the first one, but still not anything special. I think they're missing a lot of opportunity, really. Given the material, I could've made a scarier show. Sneh.

Slept about 10:30.

"Its a bird, its a plane, no, its.... a helicopter"

Gee, I just can't get up these days. Today it was about 6:50, I think. Had breakfast and made lunch. But only just enough time for that.

Went down to Mogli's dad's place in the morning to do the usual stuff. It was pretty usual.

Got back about 10:30. There was some morning tea on, which was cake - sort of white chocolate mudcake like The Cheescake Shop makes, but with a bit of passionfruit in there. It wasn't bad.

Rest of the morning went pretty fast, although I didn't really have much on. Well, nobody really had much on.

Had lunch, then went down to the post office in Nedlands with Mogli. Got drivethrough coffee from Rocket Fuel on the way, cos Mogli wanted to try it. I tried to tell him it wasn't that good.... but I guess its not that bad either.
Got the helicopter thing, then went back and charged it and flew it for a while. But it wasn't easy to keep it inconspicuous.

Again, nothing going on in the afternoon. Borrowed The Last King of Scotland and Smokin' Aces from Mogli.

Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother. Its still pretty watchable, I guess. Then there was more Simpsons and more Simpsons. Did a bit of flying in the middle there.

Then I watched The Last King of Scotland for about a half an hour. As I stopped it, it was getting very jumpy and stuff. And it was pretty boring, really. And I didn't think much of Forest Whittaker's acting.

Then I watched a bit of Aliens. More of the same, I guess. A bit more exciting, perhaps. Didn't really watch that much of it.

Slept about 10.

"This was supposed to be the summer of George!" - Seinfeld

I'll be honest with you, Lisa - I never did the tests; oh, and that quote doesn't have much to do with today. Its from the 8th season of Seinfeld, which didn't arrive until Wednesday. But I got a better quote for Wednesday, so I moved it to today instead.
Note the prophetic gift.....
Spooky.

Got up about 9, which is a nice time. Thus my shopping was done by about 10 - didn't really buy nothing interesting. Except that they were out of BBQ chickens, so I had to get the turkey instead, which just won't last. And due to the cashews in the salad yesterday, I got Cashew Marsala sauce, which was probably a really bad idea.

Rang the Toyota place, but they said I had to book it in. So I just booked it in at the one in Northbridge, although they can't do it till Thursday. Great....

Started watching Alien - which reminded me of 2001. Or maybe The Shining. Some Stanley Kubrick thing, anyway.

Went to work at 1. There's not much on, really. Not much at all.
Gave Mogli a list of newish films that I wanted to watch, because his dad has some big stash.
Left at 5.

Got a notice that my helicopter had arrived, so will have to pick it up tomorrow at lunch.

Watched The Simpsons, but skipped Big Brother, cos Mogli said it was getting really boring. Discovered though that Jamie won FNL - weirdness.

Watched 1 vs 100 up to the point of the blonde lady quitting. Sigh.... I seriously wonder how she got so far.

Watched the end of Alien. Yeah, it was pretty slow and dull, really. And full of those horror movie cliches. Oh well.

Slept about 10:30.

Sundays....everyday

Ironic, isn't it?

On this real Sunday, got up at the usual time with the alarm. Left nearly straight away, cos I had all those cheques and stuff to finish off.
As it was, I finished in plenty of time.

I should point out here, as well, that, since my radio isn't working, I have to drive in silence, and it really sucks. Thanks.

I was not planning to go to the quiz night, cos I figured its too close to me leaving and I shouldn't crowd my schedule. But V asked me today, I think in response to 13 saying that his team would make a clean sweep again, so I said yes. One must try and keep up the tradition, I suppose...

I should also point out that, perhaps in response to my complaints to the CMC people last night how incredibly non-cold it was, today was a really quite cold day.

Due to the above, I would've thought that Jesters would be crowded, which it quite seemed to be. And yet, still, the pie selection was most cruddy. I got a Footy - which I quite like - and a Pavarotti - which I am not a real fan of. But, they were both pretty tasty. Of course, some others would've been better, but....
It wasn't enough, so I had my leftovers from Sundays Everyday afteray.

Watched some Seinfeld, did some ironing. It was riveting - really.

Watched The Simpsons, then went over to 13 & o's place for dinner for no reason in particular.
Apart from the pasta which was a bit over-oily, the ribs and the steak were really good. I think I enjoyed that steak more than the one on Rottnest, although I wouldn't tell 13 that. Really good salad too - cos of the cashews. And it was a nice dressing.

Then o made mochas, which I was surprised with, cos it had its moments, and I find that even cafes can't make good mochas, left alone trying to get a good one at home.

Then all the other people left and I watched the end of Sliding Doors. Such a great film - despite myself, I like a lot of Gwyneth shows - maybe its cos she married the Coldplay guy?

After that watched a few episodes of Friends. Man, I forget how good that show is. So much better than all these clone shows of it, which all suck.

Left about 11:30.

And slept as soon as I got home. Basically.

"Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant too?" - Icky Thump, The White Stripes

Its amazing for Americans how anti-American they seem to be. Quite refreshing, really.
Yes, today is the official, um, 'coming out' date of The White Stripes' 6th album, titled as the same as that afore quoted lead single. And that is such a damn good song that I feel sure it will be vastly superior to their 5th catastrophe of a record.

Got up about 8:30. Pretty surprising, that.

Did washing. Spent most of the morning updating blog stuff and uploading photos and unzipping the Alien quadrilogy and sorting out the U2 Zoo Tour from Sydney stuff. And watched some more Seinfeld.

Went to Mogli's house about 12. He managed to fix the transmitter thing (which had come apart), but the cigarette lighter and the radio seemed to be getting no power.

Went to Sundays Everyday (a Japanese place???) in Myaree (or something) for lunch. Some nice tasty chicken teriyaki. Like the place in Hampden road, but probably cheaper, cos its more expensive but bigger. I only ate like 3/4 and took the rest.

Went to a Toyota place, but it closed at 12. Dang.

Went to JB HiFi and bought the White Stripes CD for like $21, which was nice and cheap. Had a brief look at cameras, but only briefly. I saw a Panasonic Lumix with 10x zoom for like $399.

Then went to Harvey Norman. They also had a Panasonic Lumix with 10x zoom for like $460 with a bonus memory card, which the guy recommended (the same guy what Mogli talked to about laptops the week before). Anyway, so I told him about JB Hi-Fi, so he agreed to do a price match thing. Which was nice. But I also had to get the memory card and stuff, so it was still about $420 all told. Ah....

So then I dropped Mogli back and went home.

Sat around the house for a while doing stuff. Actually, it was mainly accounts stuff cos its salary day tomorrow. I also charged my camera battery and listened to The White Stripes album. Its nothing special, but has a lot more appeal than the previous one - thank goodness.

Went to Emma's Seafood in Vic Park for dinner, cos it was like a CMC farewell sorta thing. Really tasty food - dang! They even had fried icecream for dessert - although that actually wasn't so great. But the duck and the squid and the pork and stuff - superbness. Not very big portions, though - it was probably rather expensive.

Came back and Hollywood Homicide was on TV. So I watched that while finishing off the salary stuff. It was quite a really bad film. Nuff said, I think.

Slept about 11:30.

I would've liked to take a photo of my camera, but that would be a bit hard. So I took this photo of a branch lying on the kerb across the street, from my room. Pretty impressive, that branch...

Rat's Nest - cos the first people who went to Rottnest thought the Quokkas were rats, so named it that. Lovely....

That's a 'panorama' of two photos to create a full image of the lighthouse - except the most exciting bit, being the top. And, coincidentally, I suppose, there's Mogli standing almost dead centre at the bottom.
I also did a proper panorama of the view from the top (of 7 photos) but there is one join that doesn't quite fit, so..... Its too bad, really, cos the rest of it is seamless.

Got up about 7:45, although I woke up many, many times before that. One of the partners came and told Mogli that breakfast was at 8AM at Dome, no later. So I had to have a 10 minute shower/toilet break. And then we road down there (both of us experiencing extreme pain in the upper inner thigh region - I think those bike seats are a bit too hard), and there was noone there but us. I'd say something about how typical that is, but.....

So I was going to get a normal sized latte, partly because that large one made me feel a little guilty, cos its so insanely oversized. But Mogli was getting large, so, what could I do, really?
It ended up being skinny, cos Mogli ordered his as skinny. But I doubt it tastes any different.
I had pancakes for food, with marscapone, berries and golden syrupy sauce. It all tasted really weird, actually - not my taste at all.

After that, there was supposed to be training, but since the lighthouse tour was only 1.5 hours away (.....), it was rescheduled to free time. So me, Mogli and WAB? went cycling around some more. Wound up at a golf course/country club, eventually. But it was one of those 'natural' golf courses with barely recognisable fairways from roughs and sand greens. Interesting design, too - one had a tee up on top of this hill.

Came back and hung around for a bit. Then walked up to the bus stop. Mogli asked the lady to stop the bus if she saw a quokka so I could take a photo, cos I hadn't as yet - although I'd managed to kick 3 so far.
Went up to the lighthouse, which is apparently on 0.3 metres shorted than the one at Augusta. And its still in operation, though run pretty much autonomously. But it was pretty much just going up, having a look round the top, and going back down again. Mogli kept complaining cos he's scared of heights - I don't think anyone else cared.
On the way back, there was a quokka. So I got my photo. Yay!

Then people were having lunch, but it was only 11:30, and me and Mogli didn't feel hungry, so we just went back to the place. And it was locked. So we went back again and Mogli had a sad at some people. Then we went back again - ai-yoh!
Had more training, which this time was just an 'open forum' about stuff that needs to be done in the firm. And it was really, really boring. Plus I was tired, and needed to go piss for most of it. All in all - ewwness.
Then at the end Mogli thought it necessary to ask permission to go back and buy lunch. Silly boy...

So we went back and got Red Rooster. Sat around there to eat it, which was really irritating, cos, at the height, we had two peacocks and a quokka trying to get my chips. I ended up getting a really good kick on one of those birds. It didn't really like it....
There was one nearby doing the tail-showing-off-thing, but it was some pathetic, scrawny little one and didn't look very impressive.

Then it was time for Rat Around Rotto. Me and Mogli got teamed with The Saint, who did it like he did everything else these two days - at a million miles per hour. Needless to say, we had trouble matching his....enthusiasm. And then the girls team ended up just going to the tourist centre and getting all the answers from there. And arguing with one other team endlessly about who one. I tried to look like I might have cared...

And, finally, it was time to pack up and go. Which we did - but the boat wasn't there. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

It turned up about 15 minutes later, and we were finally away. Unfortunately, it was really crowded so we were obliged to sit with the fun partner. Not that he is, really, bad, away from work - its just uncomfortable. Still, Mogli seemed to have a good conversation with him about stuff. I spent the whole time trying to avoid the sun shining in the back window.

Got back about 5:30, which was the scheduled time, pretty much. Gave Mogli and 911 a lift back to their houses. My radio wasn't working for some strange reason - Mogli suggest we take it into Toyota tomorrow.
I dropped Mogli straight at his girlfriend's house, and had to go in to use the toilet. Damn, some mansion that place. Except for all the bars on the windows....

Got home. Had some dinner. Watched some TV. Did some washing.

Then I watched some more Heroes, up to the Six Months Ago episode. Although I struggled to get there.

Slept just after 10.

You should note that the photos on this page will likely be the last ones you'll ever see from this camera, since I am going with Mogli tomorrow to buy a new one (if everything works out).
Sniff.

Yes.

Grot-ness - an Ali post title, on a totally unrelated subject. But its appropriate, yes?

I read in a bird book that peacocks are found in the 'wild' in only two places in Australia - one being Rottnest and the other some similar island someplace else - like King or some such. Great.

Got up at 7:45, courtesy of a call from Mogli asking me if I had a AC charger for my ipod, which I didn't. Great.

Had orange juice. I decided that since I'm not 100% with the sea journey thing, it is a good idea to not eat anything first.

Picked Mogli up about 9:10, then 911 after that, then drove down to Rous Head in Fremantle to catch the ferry to Rottnest. We were pretty much almost the last ones there, some having arrived at 9. But we still had to hang around about 15 minutes before it was ready to be boarded. Oh well.
Had to pay $12 to park the car there for two days, though Mogli and 911 paid that, anyway.

Sat on the second level of the ferry in some booth with Mogli. He said he was gonna get seasick, but he seemed fine to me. 911, on the other hand....
And that was nice, cos most of the rest of the firm was outside and faraway. And it wasn't too crowded, or nothing. Still, a bit too rocky.

Went straight to Dome. I hadn't had breakfast, so ordered a ham & cheese croissant, with a large vienna. Mogli was the only other one to order a large skinny latte - and they weren't just large. It was insane. Jumbo hardly begins to describe it. And it was only $4.50. OK, so Dome coffee doesn't taste that good, but, I mean, whoa.

Then it was about 12, and the train was supposed to leave at 12:30, but it turned out that it wouldn't be leaving till 1:30. So most of us went for a ride, then people got separated from other people and stuff.
Eventually we all got back and moved our luggage indoors and that. Then we all left and walked down to the train station, buying some water on the way.

Took the train out to Oliver hill - or wateva. It was far more uninteresting than I was expecting. Still, trains are always fun. Except when they're not.
Did the gun tour. Most of which was pretty nyeh, cos there was too much imagination needed to get excited about anything. Plus, of course, even if you could cast your mind back - it had never actually been fired at a proper target. They'd only done about 2 test shots or something and that was it. Bah!
The underground bit was OK, tho - cos I was pretending to freak out about being underground and stuff, and me and Mogli were playing the mischievous kiddies role. Made it more interesting, anyway.

It was then time for lunch, but was about 3:30 or so and everything was closed - at least, the bakery was. And that's just about everything.
So we had to go to this really pathetic little....um....corner shop thing. I got a latte, cos the food looked quite feral. 911 ordered a hot chocolate and when she (finally) got it, it had ants floating in it. Mogli gave up at that point, so we went back to the chalet.

Then it was time for training - yay! But it wasn't as bad as you'd think.
The first part - icebreakers - which actually took considerably longer than the second part - was lead by Mogli who had printed out these psychology tests (like planner vs spontaneous, introvert vs extrovert type thingy) and so we did that then went around the 16 different personality types. I think mine was insanely inaccurate - mainly cos the two guys that got the same as me were quite different from me (and from each other, incidentally).
Then we split into 3 groups, based loosely on people with different personalities, and discussed the vision and mission statement of PKJ - or, more to the point, what it should be. And our group was the only one that came up with a vision statement, although I thought it kinda sucked. Well, not totally, but that it had the wrong perspective. Or something.

Then it was 6 and almost time for pre-dinner drinks. So we all got over there eventually. And, because he always goes on about it, and because I figured that that was a better time than most, I agreed to Mogli's endless requests to try some alcoholic stuff. So, I had a midori with lemonade, which tasted like Demazin cough syrup - but I like Demazin, so that was pretty drinkable. Then I had some pineapple cocktail with lychees, or something. That was not nice. But I drank it anyway.
By then we had moved into the restaurant already. And I wasn't planning to, but everyone else was ordering entrees, so I had the chicken skewers. I was also scared that the steak wouldn't be very big - although they changed it from eye fillet to just fillet.Had three half glasses of red wine over dinner. It was a Cape Mentele, but it tasted quite weak to me. Not as bad as that cocktail, but most unpleasant.
So the chicken skewers came, and, despite the menu description, they had this frightfully hot chili sauce on them. Really, really tasty - but it almost killed me. And most other people at the table (I'd put 'including Mogli' at this point - but he's at best a pseudo-Asian, and it doesn't say that much, really).
Then came the steak. Well, I almost ended up having lamb, cos the first waitress got confused. And I had it medium-well, cos I was scared of it not being cooked right, and not being good quality - but it was fair quality, and it was cooked right, therefore, it wasn't good cos it was too on the dry side. Ai....
So I was absolutely full by that stage, so I didn't listen to the desserts. But I did get an Irish Coffee - which was, to be fair, fabulous - both for alcohol and for coffee. Divine, really. But I imagine it was probably about $10.

So then we left, and we were almost about to head into a bar with karaoke - mainly for that one partner who just loves to sing. But, despite his yearning face, we just walked on by. It looked a bit...um...rough for our crowd.
So we went back to the big unit and played Uno, then Cheat. And I had a glass of Riesling, which was almost as bad as the red. And that was it for my alcohol experiment.

Cards finished at 12. A true highlight of the weekend I think - that was the time where everyone in the firm was at their most relaxed, and it was almost not uncomfortable.
So then WAB?, Mogli, me, NewReceptionist and NewPartner (which was announced at dinner, incidentally) went back to our unit and talked (whinged - it was mainly Mogli) about firm stuff. At about 3 I went to bed and read my book. The others left at about 3:30, and Mogli went and did a one on one with WAB?. That finished about 4, so him and me had a little chat, then tried to sleep. And man, was it bad.....

"Your face! There's a seam opening or something!" - The 'My Name is Earl' guy, Vanilla Sky

Mogli reminded me of that scene today, except that he was being serious, cos my ear had some scab on it that I don't know how it got there. So then when I was trying to see if it was internal, or not, it started bleeding constantly so I had to wear some band aid until lunchtime. It was just some external cut, tho. Have no idea how it happened.

Got up around 7 again. Had some oats and made lunch.

Got an email from V in the morning, confirming the flight, conference and accommodation booking. I was a bit worried about the room at first, cos it was like $24 a night - and that's for the two of us. But Mogli found the place on the web, and it looks OK - even though the name is a bit dodgy (which I think is why V chose it).

Contrarily to yesterday, the morning went really quite very slowly. Not much work on.

There was a bit of morning tea, which helped a bit. There were these choc chip muffins - although rather subdued type ones. And with some caramel sauce. A bit rich for me at that time, really.

Went down to get coffee after lunch with Mogli - um, as if you couldn't guess. BUT - we went to Fix instead! So, there you go. And I saw o sitting there having some thing. So we both got the 'regular' latte (which is really a small). And it was better than the other one I had, but nothing really special. And, since its only 30c cheaper, there's no reason to get it over Epic. However, I figure I'll give their mocha a shot....

Nothing much going on in the afternoon, either. Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons, and Big Brother, which was another hour special, although I don't think it really needed to be.

Then I was happily watching Heroes until 9, when Mogli rang me and told me to watch The Chaser, which I knew wouldn't be that good, and it wasn't. Still - at least I can now confidently miss it in the future.

Then I watched more Heroes until about 10:30, when I decided it might be a good idea to pack some stuff. Yes.

Slept about 11. I set my alarm for 6 (or, more correctly, left it as it was from yesterday) but I don't think I will get up then. I mean, why should I, really?

"Woke up this morning...." - Alabama 3

...and realised that today be the finale of The Sopranos forever, assuming Mogli remembered to bring it in.

Got up about 6:50. Had oats and made lunch.

Got Sopranos from Mogli...

Mogli discovered that Deals Direct was selling the exact same helicopter for $20, with free shipping. So I ordered one from there, and he spent most of the day trying to weasel out of the ebay bidding, even though he had already won. So I agreed to split the difference and pay him a $5 'finders fee' - cos it looks really cool and I wouldn't have known about it if he hadn't gone ahead and bid on ebay. Plus he saved me $20+ on Deadwood last week by telling me it was so much cheaper at BigW than Amazon - and he agreed to venture into such a low-demographic store with me to buy it.

Had training in the morning, which included a surprise Banklink salesman guy giving a presentation - surprising, cos there was only one guy in the firm who knew he was coming, and he's the partner that never comes to training. Anyway, so that went for about an hour, and was, for the most part, irrelevant to most of us.
Then the rest was discussing the Rottnest trip. Great.

At least it made the morning go really fast - it was 1 before we knew it.

Had lunch, then went down to Epic for Mogli to buy me my coffee. He also had to draw money to pay for Entertainment books, and picked up more travel brochures - don't ask me why.
Just got the normal latte thing, takeaway. It didn't taste any better just cos it was free - probably cos the point is not that its free, but its my prize for winning the bet. Mogli didn't seem to understand that its more that the act of him paying represents the victory. Anyway, it was two days ago, so...
It was really warm today - we didn't even need to wear jackets.

Rest of the afternoon was the same old stuff, really. Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother. Then there was more Simpsons, and more Simpsons. Bah. Wasting my time with this bad television....

And then I watched The Sopranos Grand Finale. And, apart from the odd moment, it was, as (I guess) I expected - it wasn't good. The ending was very - actually, ridiculously - open and, therefore, just silly. There is rumour of a film, or something, but, seriously. It was dumb. Really dumb. I think open endings are good sometimes, but only when preceding events suggest that the story is going to go places that will take too long to get to. Not in a long running, fairly slow moving TV series. Such a huge letdown after the last episode.
Mogli rang me to complain, but I had only just started then, so I rang him back to complain.

Kept rewatching Heroes after that. It was SO much better.

Got a message from V really late, asking me for the code on my credit card, cos he was finalising the accommodation. So that's a relief.

Slept about 10:30.

Escape the Daily Grind - Gloria Jeans' logo

Got up just after 9, which was a nice time. Had a shower, then went off to Woolworths in Subiaco to do shopping.

Got a lot of stuff. I was quite sure I had over 12 items, but went through the express lane anyway cos there was only one normal register open and it was full, and there was like nobody else around, anyway. Well, almost nobody. Nyerf.

Got back about 10:30, and left almost straight away to go to Garbo, cos I tried to use my Epic beans on Saturday night (to also quell my munchies) and discovered that my grinder had been full of water for some time and now did work like nothing. Plus Garbo has a Gloria Jeans.....
So I went to Myer and saw the range of grinders, which was the first grinder I had and the second grinder I had. So, naturally, I got the second one again for my third. At least its in stainless steel instead of some shiny grey plastic. And the spoon is a little different. Great! $50, though. I thought it was cheaper last time.
Got a VVL. Ah, great. Nowhere near as good as the last time, though. The first sip tasted a little bitter. Still.... I noticed that they don't have a long macchiato, but they do have the picolo latte. Interesting. But Mogli said they have a caramel macchiato, and I couldn't see that - I think he got it wrong, cos there is a caramel latte, or caramel mocha, or something.
Saw some people selling Citibank credit cards. I figured I have too much credit as it is. But they seem to have more flexible flight options... oh well. Mine is good enough.

Got back about 11:45. I started watching Rat Race, which I downloaded last night cos, like Mean Girls, I taped it some time ago (like 3 years? maybe more) and missed the ending.

Went to work at 1. Not really anything much to do, but I was doing something - can't really remember what.

Mogli was trying to say that cos he bought me that coffee on Saturday that that was the end of the bet, even though I didn't win that till Sunday, cos that's when the game was on. But I think he was just complaining cos he likes to whinge and stuff.

Mogli bid on a toy helicopter - that actually flies - on ebay - it was like $15 plus $15 postage - cos his like kiddy cousin got one for his birthday, or something. I'm thinking of getting one for myself.
Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother, and part of nominations - it was really boring, though. Had leftover pizza for dinner. Mmmm - reheated goo....

Watched a bit of 1 vs 100, but it was some silly blond lady - I couldn't see her getting very far.

Watched the end of Rat Race. Once again, it wasn't worth it. Still - unexpected, I think.

Slept about 10:30.

Homer: "A joke? Hey, I get jokes! Hee hee!"

Got up with my alarm. But I knew there was like no cheques or nothing, so I watched Seinfeld, then went and got money - got to FCC about 10:30.

Went and got Jesters for lunch. They had a large selection this time, so I got the usual Nutty Chook and Spud Deluxe. I wanted to get a Choc Star as well, and should've, in hindsight, cos two wasn't enough.

Watched Seinfeld while doing ironing. Ah, such fun.....

Watched more Heroes, and then the end of Mean Girls. It wasn't worth downloading....

Had Broadway pizza for dinner. Pretty tasty.

Watched The Simpsons, and Big Brother, then the eviction/intrusion show. It was all a bit silly, really.

Then watch Rove. Jimoein's standup about the washing machine was really good - not because it was really funny but that he was able to do a whole 5 or 10 minutes about a washing machine cycle.

Slept about 11:30.

"There has never been anything like what I have become" - Jet Li, The One

Got up at 9, with the alarm. Although I think I woke up at 8:30 and went back to sleep again.

Rang Mogli just before I left. Apparently, the timing of my meeting and his dim sum will work out....

Got a call from Mogli towards the end of the meeting. I think I used some Singlish by accident.

So I went outside at like 12:30 or so and he was waiting by the car. So that was great.

Went to the Big W at Riverton Forum. Mogli kept saying how low demographic it was. And it certainly seemed to be, although I don't think something being 'low demographic' really makes a lot of sense. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, though.
Anyway, I got my Deadwood season 3 for $49, or whatever, after waiting outside the cabinet for someone to find the key for a few hours or so.

Then went to the KFC drivethrough, cos I wanted lunch, although Mogli had already gotten his dim-sum. But he wanted like one piece of chicken, except that the board showed it for like $2.20, or something. But then, when I ordered the 3 piece boneless hotbox, and asked for an extra piece, they said you could get it for like 50c. So we thought its a good idea to order that next time but get like 10 bonus pieces for only $5.....

Then were driving down High Road, and I was trying to show Mogli 'the other' Chan Brothers, and he spotted a Muzz Buzz near that IGA, I think. So we had to stop off there. I just got a standard small latte for $2.80, but he got a skinny peppermint flavoured one. And it comes with a straw - that is really bizarre. I bought his chicken, so he bought my coffee. That's fair, right?
So then I was trying to drink coffee and Mountain Dew. Yummo....

Went back to Mogli's house so I could eat. Then he spent the next hour or so (that's what it felt like) trying to get his laptop to show up on the TV. I tired ringing 13, though apparently Mogli was already doing all that stuff. He ended up having to download some software. Anyway.
So we watched Entourage, which is not a very good show, anyway. However, it was a season finale.... Gee, like you'd know.

Then we went down to the local Harvey Norman, cos I had to by a refill for my shaver cleaner. And Mogli's sister told him to look at vacuum cleaners. He had a really good look, too. Great. Then he looked at laptops. That look was far more thorough - though no less productive.
And then I dropped him home and went back.

And I had no food left in the house. So I didn't eat dinner. And then by 11 or so I was starving. Drat.

Watched Mean Girls, what I taped last night. And, yes, I missed the ending. So I downloaded some really bad copy to watch the last 5 minutes or so. I think I have seen it before. Its good testimony when you don't know if you have or not. Real good...

Then Ocean's 11 was on TV. I think I liked it better the second time. I understood it more. Though now I wonder if I really didn't understand it all the first time - maybe I missed part of it, or something?

Slept about 11:30.

"Yes Kramer - its a sculpture of limitations" - Jerry Seinfeld

Got up just after 7. Oh well. It is casual day, after all.

Not doing much work today. Well, I was doing some stuff up till about 12. Didn't do much in the last hour. Helping Mogli a bit, maybe. Like I care.

Sat around while everyone else ate lunch. That was fun. Mogli gave me one of his pies, which was nice, but then he only had two left for himself, and they weren't that big. I guess he's small enough to survive, anyway.

Then the same 5 as went down on Wednesday went down to Epic. The other 4 got mochas, but I tried the affogato. And it was OK, but at $4.50, it wasn't good enough to get again.

Finished watching Airplane!. No new observations from yesterday, I don't think.

Watched some more Comedy Show stuff, cos I hadn't done that for a while. Its always good.

Started watching Heroes again, from the beginning. Its amazing how different Mohinder's accent is in that first episode....

Watched The Simpsons, and some Seinfeld. Then I put a tape in for Mean Girls, although I suspect that it won't get the ending, as what usually happens. Cos the whole Big Brother thing is in the middle.

Then there was cell. Yep, super. Left about 11.

Slept after 12 - I had to write a few cheques for the meeting tomorrow. I thus set my alarm for 9, cos I'm concerned that I won't wake up...

"Don't call me Shirley" - Leslie Neilson, Airplane!

Got up just before 7. Bah...

Made lunch, but didn't have breakfast again, cos I had to go down to the city and thus didn't really have enough time.

Mogli was just coming in as I was leaving. I told him I wouldn't be long, which I realised just after was probably quite wrong.
The corner of St George's Terrace just outside QV1 was really windy, and the traffic lights took a while to change - my side was got quite numb.

Was doing lots of stuff, and just managed to finish all the important stuff by about 12:45. Then some people there were going to some conference, and my office was on the way, so I got a lift. Which was nice.
So I got back just before lunch time.

Not that I really needed to, cos nobody went anywhere - mainly cos of the bad weather, I guess. Anyway, it was quite boring.

Did more of that BAS stuff for that client in the afternoon. Though, at least, it was for the next month.

Ordered some more stuff from Amazon, including Seinfeld season 8, Deadwood season 3 and Se7en ( the film - which means I now have that director's power trilogy - he did The Game, Se7en and Fight Club all in a row). But then Mogli rang me about 7 or so (oooh....coincidence. Um, or not) and said that Big W was advertising Deadwood for like $20 cheaper than the Amazon price. So I cancelled that part of my order. Which meant that it shipped sooner, cos it is released a week later in the US, for some reason, even though Seinfeld is released earlier and its cheaper. Bizarre...

Left at 5:30.

Watched The Simpsons.
Then I got Hungry Jacks for dinner. I got the Chicken BLT, cos its new (I think - the advertisements are new, at least). I wanted onion rings instead of the fries, so I ordered that, and they thus upped the price by 50c or so. But then when I was really hungry in the car so I decided to start on the onion rings - they were actually fries instead. Great. And it was a very faithful chicken BLT. The country style chicken is too strong, and that's the only flavour you get, really.
Watched Big Brother. And isn't that Emma just so silly? Yes.

Started watching Airplane! then (or Flying High! as it was called in this country - who knows why?). I think, that for the zany type film that it is, its not zany enough. When I was watching the last bit of, what I think was, The Naked Gun 33 1/3, there was so much zany stuff going on - in nearly every scene. But in this, its really limited, and so much more subtle. I think that if I hadn't gone on I.M.D.B. before and read all the funny quotes, I would've missed a lot of the repeated lines and that kinda stuff. Still, there are some great moments:
"Roger, Roger."
"We need clearance, Clarence."
"What's our vector, Victor?"
ah....

Watched My Name is Earl, which was another quite very good episode. A little bit too warm and fuzzy though, perhaps. Like I care.
Then watched SVU, which was also quite good. I mean, compared to the episodes at the start of this season. I suspect they're trying to do something with Elliot, though. Cos the last few episodes have been concentrating on him almost to the exclusion of all others.

Kept watching Airplane!, before I slept about 11. I mean, who cares, right? Its just casual day tomorrow. I also managed to finally read one or two pages in my new book, which is Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien. I had hoped to steer clear of his for a change for a while, but there's nothing else, really.

"Never ask me about my affairs, Kay" - Michael Corleone, The Godfather

Got woken up by a message from Mogli at 7:15. Whoops....

Made lunch, but no time for nothing else. I thus wore specs, too.

Now all the work that I had is definitely over. So I went onto that client whats never there, doing their BAS. And I managed to finish it, really, by lunchtime. Except for the checking, which I had to ask the partner about, since, although I checked the last one, that wasn't my work.

I also handed in my annual leave form, taking three weeks, which, if you add the compulsory leave at Christmas, is just about my whole lot at once. Although, of course, I took about 1.5 weeks last year, so people shouldn't be complaining.

After lunch in the boardroom, the whole crew there (which included NewReceptionist, WAB? and 911 - as well as Mogli, really. But he is always there, anyway, so that's just a token mention. For completeness sake, I suppose. hmmm) went down to Epic. Mogli wanted to go to a travel agent, but didn't, even though he discovered halfway through the session that it was just straight across the road.
We ended up sitting down, outside, even though Mogli had been complaining before we left that it was too wet and then that it was too cold. Thus, he took my Accru+ umbrella.
I got a Piccolo latte, which was about half the size of a regular latte, but more expensive, as I recall. There was some nice foam art on top - you can't see it normally, cos the takeaway cups (apart from being real thin and badly insulated) have a top. Dur.... Anyway, it was OK, but not different enough from a normal latte to warrant getting it again.
Mogli convinced everyone who was there to come back on Friday and try the mocha. Cos that drink is really special.

We got back to the office and it was really, really, unpleasantly warm. I think someone was doing something with the airconditioner - since that seems to happen every second day around here.

Left at 5:30.

Watched The Simpsons, then they had an hour special of Big Brother, cos of some new iceroom. And all housemates have to spend the entire week outside, and trust this week to be the one where the drought broke with a vengeance - hah!

Watched the end of South Pacific. I have to say, that the ending was the best part by far - and not just because it meant the film was over and I could watch something else! But it was too little, too late. Bah - top 100! I donno what this AFI thing is thinking!

The plan was for V to come over at 9 so that we could do all the booking for the whole Sydney thing, but when I got home the internet wasn't working and still wasn't working at 8. So I rang V and gave him my credit card stuff and let him do it all himself. Poor guy. But its feeding his masochistic slant, so I'm sure he didn't mind.

Meanwhile, I watched season 6 part II episode 8 (the second to last - numero duo 'reverso' - penultimate - or whatever) of The Sopranos. And, man, I think it was worth waiting so many quite slow episodes for this; it was brilliant. Although Silvio (probably) and Bobby got whacked, which is sad - although, since the show is finishing, everyone's gonna be gone anyway. But seeing the whole mafia system going on and the heightening tension and just all that built up expectation (on my part, at least) - its beautiful. And there's still that one episode to go..... I'm not expecting anything like Heroes, and I'm bound just to find things I don't like about it, cos its the show has had such great moments and this is the end of all of it. But, compared to the rest of the season, this episode was just such a classic - one of the best of the entire series, really - that I can't help but demand huge things from the finale. Please, David, don't disappoint me. And everybody else.
Now, I know I'll be wrong, but I want to say it just in case I fluke it. I believe Tony will pull a Henry Hill visa vie Goodfellas and rat out everybody to the state and go into the 'Program'. For his family, you know? Cos it can't end in a mob war, really, cos the whole (initial) premise was about Tony's two families, and they marketed it as not just being 'another Godfather show' cos it would focus on Tony's 'real' family much more than most mob movies (mmm mmm mmm mmmm - Crash Test Dummies) do. Although, since season 5 (at least) it hasn't, really. And that's where I believe the show stopped being the classic that it started out with, despite season 5 being far from boring, since it was full of New Yorkers fighting each other.
I was actually thinking, just then, that it seems to be a recurring theme of the show for characters to either commit suicide, die of natural causes, or go insane. So either of those three is certainly a possibility, too. Though, if any of those happen, I will officially register myself as 'gypped'.

Slept about 11:15. I just had to finish that episode....

Homer: "Mmmm.... 54 slices of American cheese!"

Got up about 6:40 and did 10 minutes of exercise. Man, is it worth it....
Bah. Feels like a Monday. Someone even asked me why I was in, cos they forgot it was Tuesday. Tho, that's the guy that never knows where anybody is ever.

Had breakfast and made lunch. As I suspected, that plain oats stuff tastes really, really plain. Plus it doesn't seem to turn out as properly, even though the instructions are the same.

Mogli was finally back at work today. Finally.

I had a rather busy day finishing off stuff, and then finishing it off again. That kinda thing.

The other partner came around and handed everybody an Accru+ umbrella. Of course, they are cheaply made and don't look very good. Still.... free stuff!

After eating lunch in the boardroom, went down to West Perth. I had to draw money. For once.
Got more coffee from Epic. I got a macchiato this time, but, apart from the fact that (since I had it long) I needed to get the medium size instead of the small, it was pretty much exactly the same as the latte, as you could tell from the description - which was exactly the same. Which is odd, cos its not supposed to be like that. But then they have a Piccolo latte, which description more suits what a long mac should be. I also bought some beans, which I kept in the my briefcase, and at the end of the day it really smelled really nice.

Left at 5.

Watched The Simpsons, and a bit of Big Brother, but had to leave at 7:15 cos there was a MLE meeting on. I just realised that they've changed it from Equipping to Envisioning. Great.
It was a really long, and just when you thought it was finishing someone else would get up and say something. Oi.
I really only went to talk to V at the end, and then all we really did was decided to meet at my house tomorrow night to book all the stuff. Still. He looked a little stressed - but everyone probably did after that meeting.

Slept as soon as I got home, about 10:45.

Sherry Bobbins: "Cleaning up can be a game!"

Got up about 10:30. Ai.... bad day of cleaning ahead.

Started off with finishing off my ironing while watching Seinfeld. Comparatively relaxing....

Then like the whole rest of the day was cleaning, with watching more South Pacific and drinking tea and eating lunch and stuff. I've decided cleaning is a very fickle mistress - there are moments when its satisfying cos this really dirty window track is now clean, but then its mainly like "um, c'mon man, its a damn window track - who cares if its dirty? I didn't notice it before, so why bother about it now?" Bah. Then, of cos, there's all those things that just don't get clean - and since this is some badly renovated 30 year old house and its falling apart anyway - who gives a damn that its not dirty too?
The rental agents, apparently....

Watched The Simpsons and Big Brother and then the nominations bit. Interesting. Yeah....

Watched part of 1 vs 100, where the guy almost got somewhere again, but didn't. Sigh.

Then I did dishes and more cleaning. Slept about 10:30. Really tired, as you could imagine.

Lisa: "Area 51? I found Area 51!"

Soldier: "No ma'am. This is Area 51-A."

I was counting money today and there was a $100 bill with 51 written on it, which I thought coincidental cos WH had been going on yesterday about some story where he was imitating a guy saying "51" cos he was saying it in a silly way and he turned around and the guy was standing behind him while he was doing it. Anyways.....

Got up about 9:15 and it was too early, so I watched some Seinfeld till sometime past 10.

And there was nothing to do, so I was still hanging around a lot till the service started.

Stopped off at the same shop as yesterday on the way home. Bought tea and some Nestle hot chocolate stuff - for work. Ah.... tea.

Had Jesters for lunch, but there wasn't much good, so I ended up having to have a Pavarotti, a sausage roll and a Choc Star. There was this real irritating family of people in front who took ridiculously ages.

Watched a bit of Seinfeld, then watched the rest of Children of Men. Saw the like 6.5 minute continuous shot of Clive Owen running through war torn streets - there really was some great camerawork - that guy deserved more recognition. I got a bit confused while I was watching it, cos there was 'blood' splattered on the camera that, apparently, got digitally removed mid sequence. There was also a 9+ minute continuous shot which I didn't spot, but that one was smaller ones edited together - so IMDB says the effects people say.

Watched more Seinfeld while doing ironing. Oh, joy!

Started watching South Pacifc. Nyeh, its not good.

Went out for dinner with parents and aunts family to some Italian place in Morley, which I've been to once before just before my Guatemalan brother became Guatemalan. Had part of a tasting plate, which didn't have much that I liked, and then some risotto that was too cheesy. Then had a melting moment and a vienna, which were both really great. So that was nice. It was too much food, though.

Then went back to aunts place, and got some of my DVDs and olive oil from my mum. Then left almost straight away to go to 13's house cos they were having some GirlyMan party, or something.

Got there just before 10, and I guess they were in the winding down phase - people sitting around a table, really. Though some may have been having dessert; not me, of cos. Someone was talking about some weird theory that the dominant spouse at the time of conception determines the sex of the children. I don't think its true in my family, but....or two others I could think of.
Got a call from V in the middle. We got a little bit closer towards working out some schedule for the Sydney thing. Pretty much finalised that its gonna be about 3 weeks. So, that's sumink, innit?
Then most people left and 13 showed GirlyMan and me his honeymoon photos, mainly of Greece but there was a bit of Italy and London in there as well. Super.
Left a bit after 12.

Slept pretty much straight away.

Apu: "I'm Sergeant Peppers loney hearts club man! I hope you will enjoy....my show!"

I think that's what he says - a misquoting of the lyric.
Anyway, apparently Sergeant Peppers turned 40 yesterday, I believe, and there were thus all these people saying how influential it was, yada yada yada, and such and such.
And then Powderfinger's new album was released today, so I was thinking that if, and I know it won't be, cos I'm sure Powderfinger reached their heights with Internationalist, which was 3 albums ago, and, anyway, the music industry is so overflooded now that new genres and radical statements are pretty much impossible anyway, but if..... I was there. And I bought it on that day. Too bad, I guess.
Still, they're my favourite Australian band, such that no other can compare, and its their new album so I've pretty much gotta have it as soon as possible. The U2 of Australia - not because they sound alike, but, in my opinion, U2 is as far above every other band in the world as Powderfinger is to every one in Australia. Actually, at their best, they're more like Radiohead - this lovely melodic melancholy stuff. And a prime example is Head in the Clouds off their latest album. A delightful surprise, cos, really, Internationalist was the last time I've heard such stuff.

Got up at 9:15. Had a shower, then rushed off to Garbo to buy said CD. And I ended up getting the 'special edition', cos it was only $4 more and had a DVD with 12 of their music videos on, although I didn't know which ones they were - and there was no Day You Come. Dang. Still....
Also got a VVL, of cos. And I was most pleased with the quality - it was great.

Then I was supposed to meet GirlyMan et al for lunch in Vic Park at 11, and it was only 10:30. So I went over to 13's house to meet them all before they left instead.

Went to some dim Dim Sum place - Emma's Seafood - with a total of 8 people. Dewy, who is never late, was 30 minutes late.
I didn't eat very much, cos I wasn't feeling well, or wasn't hungry - not sure which. There was a strange smell around which may've put me off stuff.

Went back to WH and S's house after that, cos they wanted to get rid of chocolate cake. Yes. All these people with their nicer houses than mine - ai. Its cos they own it and so they can do what they want. Had coffee there as well - they had this weird machine which used these weird packets of weird coffee bean types - it was kinda odd, yeah? Anyway, interesting stuff. I think I need to get a better machine, myself. Tho, since I'm no barista, it probably wouldn't help.

Then 13 & o were going to buy stuff, and since I was in their car I decided to do my shopping at IGA in Willetton. Forgot to buy tea.....dang. That shop don't have much selection of stuff - I had to buy plain oats. Ewwww....plain.

Then I went home.

Watched Eragon, which I wanted to watch cos it stars John Malkovitch (although he wasn't in it that much) and Jeremy Irons, what are two actors what I thinks is good. It also has Robert Carlysle as the main evil magician guy, who was also interesting. But the main character and his dragon (voiced by Rachel Weisz, but....) were very irritating, and story was quite slow and silly and it ended waiting for a sequel.

Then I started watching Children of Men, which I wasn't planning to watch, but then V recommended it cos he'd heard it had some really long single flowing camera shot. And I haven't seen that yet, far as I can tell, but its a really great film - nice and apocalyptic. Kinda like V for Vendetta, but, like, way better.

Then The Rage in Placid Lake was on (on SBS....), which I'd wanted to watch for a while, although I didn't realise it was Australian and I certainly didn't realise that Ben Lee was the star. Ben Lee.....
Anyway, it wasn't that bad. A bit too slow and deliberate as most Australian films are, but that was kinda the point in this film, since it was a comedy about how crazy that Placid Lake guy is. And it was pretty funny, in a nicely obscure kinda way. Great.

Slept about 11. Probably. And I skimmed through the rest of that terrible book and thus finished it. Hooray!

Apathy - If we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us

June's entry for the Demotivational calendar.
And I have to say, I certainly try to live by that philosophy. At least for some clients....

Doesn't seem to help, tho.

Really hard getting out of bed today. I'm guessing its cos I'm not drinking tea at night. Got up about 7.
No breakfast and no lunch.

Had morning tea, for some strange reason. But it was like pavlova, or something, so I didn't have any.

Managed to finish off that stuff from yesterday. Although, I'm sure that's not the end of it.
Even managed to start on some other stuff. Which is actually some queries from some stuff that is from ages ago.

Left at 1.
Went straight home to have lunch, although, of cos, I didn't have anything to eat there.

Watched the end of The 40 Year Old Virgin. Yeah, it was really bad.

Drove out to FCC to get the month end stuff. Then I drove back. Fascinating.

Watched Napoleon Dynamite, which is another Mogli recommended film, and turned out to be just as bad as the previous one, although for very different reasons - mainly that it was stoopid, but not in a funny way - just irritating, really.

Went for cell. It was better, cos it was smaller - there was hardly anyone there, really.
Then I was planning to leave after having tea, but 13 said that GirlyMan (courtesy of Mogli) was around with his wife (um.....I knew that....) and would be coming back later. And he did - at like 11:50. So I lay around (no strength to do anything but) chatting to him until about 12:45.

Then I went home. And slept.