Que?

God. I sound so wanky in my blogs. I've just got in from the pub (Bank Hotel, Newtown) and decided to add to this thing and decided to read the old stuff. Shit. I sound like a public schoolboy. Where did this come from? Next I'll be talking about lashings of lemonade....

This has to stop. Need to type like I talk. Rhyl high School, not Oxbridge.

So, one of those rare Fridays I decide to stay in. Got quite settled. Bag of peanut M&M's Glass of Milk. Simple tastes.

Mr Haygarth calls and demands I go out. Mr pushover here agress and meets a couple of piss heads at the Bank. Manage to look after him and his mate Gwen and get them off in a cab. Bloody hard work. Sobred me up for sure.

Pet Shop Boys and Groove Armarda tomorrow. Lots of fun I reckon. Report to follow.

PS Mand is booking her flights tomorrow. ETA Mid May.

The knee

It still ain't fixed.
I have physio tomorrow so I'm going to attempt a couple of kms tonight. It's been a week and a half since my last run. The half marathon is only 9 weeks away. I don't really fancy my chances of running it now. Isn't old age cruel??? :-(

Par-tay

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So the weekend up the coast with the married couples got cancelled which is a shame because I haven't seen Heidi and Kurt in ages. As a result Bec and Craig were going to come to the party too but they bailed and had sex all night instead...party poopers. So here we are at Mark and Dylans apartment. They threw an excellent party which started out quite well behaved. This pic is me with L-R Nathan, Nina and Gwen. Nina with the big knockers is my house mate. Gwen works with Mark and is going to teach me how to swim freestyle like a champ.

The party finished at sunrise which is always a good sign and multiple tickets for the V festival were bought on line so we can repeat the performance all over again this coming Saturday. Lateness also explains the look on Mark's face. (Pic to the right)

Needless to say, Sunday was spent lazing about doing sweet F.A.

I am sailing

Yesterday was very cool. I've never sailed before in my life. Not a proper yacht anyway.
So in the morning we had a team bonding session. Due to the nature of my work I don't tend to mix with my team mates too much, even though we sit very close to each other. I've been head down for the last 6 months and despite being a friendly kind of guy haven't really spent any time getting to know my colleagues. So this was a good opportunity to correct that.

I'd say we got on pretty well. The day started off with a psycho test. Luckily I am not one, but it was kind of scary how spot on the results were about me. Apparently I love numbers and enjoy getting lost in analysis. So there you go....I am officially a geek. I'm sure my buddies will be shocked at this being the irresponsible piss head that I am of a weekend. But it's all true. Also I have zero patience with people who can't stick to the point and go off in tangents.....Sometimes I swear people catch me when I'm rolling my eyes at another one of their bloody anecdotes when I have twelvty million deadlines to meet in 3 hours time.

So....back to the sailing. I steered across Sydney harbour twice without capsizing us. I mucked about with the rope thingies, soaked up the sun. Had a really nice time and hopefully got to know my work mates a little better. Special mention goes to May, who at 20 yrs old is definitely a future leader of industry. A spunky young lady with bags of confidence without being cocky who has lots of sensible shit to say. Terrible at steering a boat mind. But that's women for you. We were out in the harbour for about 3 hours. And although you don't feel like you are doing a massive amount of work it can get pretty tiring. I would definitely do this again with a bunch of friends for the day.

Friday night saw me and Jon go out for a sensible dinner in Newtown to catch up. Early hours Saturday morning saw us getting refused entry into Arq because we were too inebriated. Shameful!

Spanish Film

Been a bit quiet on the blogging front this week.

It's been a mad week in work so far. Went to the gym a couple of times. Took Kel and Ian out for dinner to 12 on King Street on Wednesday night to pay them back for all the breakfasts they've cooked for me over the years. Tonight I met up with Daz and we went to see Pan's Labrynth. Excellent film. Not quite what I expected. Bit gory in parts but a great story and brilliant characters Very pleased I caught it at the movies. It's a big screen kind of film.

Ready for the weekend. Have a team bulding day tomorrow and get to sail for the very first time. It's been on my to do list since I moved to Sydney all those years ago. Very much looking forward to it. Have a morning of touchy feely team bonding in the morning. I say roll on the free bar at 5pm. And thanks very much to my employer for the cab charges!

Date for the diary

7th May, 2007

Can't wait.

"Musical innovator Björk releases her next studio album ‘Volta’ on May 7th 2007.‘Volta’ is Björk's sixth studio album and follows the release of ‘Medúlla’ in 2004.Featuring ten new and original tracks, ‘Volta’ is written and produced by Björk, with three tracks co-produced with Timbaland and Mark Bell.

Am I too old for this?

2 years ago I spent an amazing couple of hours in the Boiler Room at big day out dancing my pants off to Carl Cox.
Up until this point I'd never understood the hero worship some dj's enjoy. Surely these people just played records in a certain order with a fair amount of skill involved in making the transition from one track to another relatively seemless. On this day, however, I understood why these people are so revered. These guys read the crowd so well and pump them into a frenzy. Carl Cox to me did this perfectly. He mixed the familiar with the new and the sweaty crowd whooped in ectasy. Hmm
So this is the background of how I came to be at the Future music festival at Randwick on Saturday. That and the fact that Colin sold it so well to me.
So there was myself, Colin, Danny and Pip. As soon as the cab pulled up at Randwick it suddenly dawned on us that we were probably the oldest people there. Quick age check amongst ourselves told me that I was the oldest of us lot......brilliant. (I need to find a way of dyeing this grey in my beard). The age thing was painfully obvious to me at least for the first hour or so. (When did luminous clothing come back into fashion?) But as the Smirnoff Black began to kick in I suddenly didn't care.
The whole set up was pretty well done. Most of the spaces were under cover. I guess most fun was had during Carl Cox and Ferry Corsten. But the whole day was great. Good attitude, great friends and cool music. Pics to follow for sure.

The Doctor

Sometimes you meet someone and there is an attraction but nothing comes of it.
Then you run into them again and they look sooooo attractive and you feel like you've missed out?

I don't. Usually. But I did tonight. I like to think I'm not so shallow. But evidently I am. I think I need to go away and have a think about this one.

Erm, this isn't actually him. This is Ross Kemp. Hmmm. But he looks very much like this.

Hump Day

So today had been a pretty good one as far as things go.
Got through a tonne of stuff in work. Signed off a big task that has taken 2 months off and on. Glad to see that behind me.....BW extractor test....don't ask. Was all set to go to the gym but got invited out for George's birthday. (Pics to follow).
I think he had a good night. Won't give away he age. Let's just say I think it was a lie when he claimed to be 24 again. Wasn't that hungry but managed to shovel a massive plate of pasta down my gob. Need to recommend Citrus in Newtown on King Street. I lurrrve the Mexican burger which I have ordered way too many times. Opted for pasta with pesto chicken tonight and wasn't disappointed. Finished the night off with a couple of beers at the Newtown Hotel.

Dan and Sean joined us and is very proud of his Mardi Gras press coverage. He was dressed as Boy George and his group went through the parade cleaning the streets in parody of his New York community service experience. He was on the organising committee and very positive about his experience. Maybe I should use my logistical and supply chain skills to help out in some way next year. (Does that mean I have to stay clean and sober for the week? I think, then, we could have a problem)

Happy Birthday George. I hope you had a nice day.

Not Boy George. The other George. (I have no idea when Boy George's birthday is. I suppose I could google it but I need sleep now). Nos da.

Cured

Now I'm not going to bore you about my ailments, but the foot miraculously cured itself. Saw the physio today and had accupuncture for the first time. I'm no fan of needles and it wasn't exactly pleasant having them go in, but once they're in it's fine. Think I could handle it again. Apparently I have a gammy knee and my running style had changed slightly to compensate. Hence the foot went into spasm. Boring huh?


So following the cure by Sunday lunch time I went to meet Fraser at Bondi for an afternoon in the sun. Sea was gorgeous, just the right temp and a nice breeze cooling you down. So lucky living in Sydney being so close to the water. Love my house in Newtown but I think I have to try living at the beach while I'm living in this gorgeous country. This was followed by a few social beers at the Bank hotel with Mark and Dylan. Love the new Bank - so much outdoor space, exactly what we needed in Newtown...... but all this just makes it that much harder to move. Watch this space....

Happy 30th Birthday Kurt

I'm poorly so I'm going to miss your big night. I hope it was a good one.

First post - sore foot

Most weekends (not every one coz Dave likes a beer or two on the odd Friday night) I run with some of these people (Kelly, Ian, Allan, Buzzy etc) from Coogee to North Bondi and back. It's approximately 14kms mainly along the coastal path.

I was two thirds through my usual Saturday morning run today and I noticed a bit of pain in my left foot. I was feeling a little fatigued so I told the others to go on and I would see them at the end.

By the time I get to Clovelly I am in agony and can hardly walk. I know there is something quite wrong. At this point I would like to say a big thank you to the swine of a taxi driver who refused to take me to Coogee despite seeing me limp along because the fare wasn't big enough. (I hope you drove around for hours before making a pathetic little fare).

A friendly cab driver eventually stopped, took me back. And now it's Saturday evening and I am bed ridden.

I can't even make it down the stairs. I hope I don't need an amputation.

Karl is kindly coming round with a bottle of wine and some food later. Unfortunately this means I am missing Kurt's 30th tonight. And it means 2 weekend nights in a row of me staying in. This is torture!