Road Trip, 10k Run and Cube

Not massively eventful this week. Last weekend the running gang went down to Canberra to run the marathon eve 10k run.
The knee seems to be holding up well now after a decent amount of physio. I just need to build up my quads and do more stretching. Managed to run it in 54 minutes which I was pretty pleased about.

Had a very nice meal in downtown Canberra. Met up with Bec and Craig who were just starting their one week holiday and hit Canberra's answer to Palms! Interesting. Drinking. Dancing. Mooning. 7ft lesbians. Glow sticks. Post club deep drunken conversations. No sleep. Fierce hangover. Incredibly grumpy mood. Bad overpriced breakfast.

But......brilliant company, and lots of fun.

APO

Advanced Planning Optimiser.

This will mean nothing to anyone who reads this. But to a Supply Chain nerd like me this was to be the next major step on my career and my ticket to better things.

I'm a bit down this afternoon. I've just been told that I am not going to be on the implementation team. Means if I am going to stay here I have to remain as the IT account mgr for warehouses and shit. I've been doing that for the last 6 months and it's not fun anymore. I'm a project kinda person - big stress, looming deadlines, steep learning curves etc.

I'm going for a good long run tonight to process this correctly in my head. There is a lot to weigh up.

At least my knee is bahaving of late. I've managed a few 5-7km runs. So it's not ALL doom and gloom.

Easter Weekend

So it was my annual trip to Boomerang Beach. managed to get an early dart from work and was on the road with Anne at 4pm. We must have picked the worst night of the year to drive 300 plus kilometers. Bad heavy rain. But we made it eventually just a few minuted behind Mark and Dylan. Julie-Anne and Fraser arrived on the Friday afternoon, and Karl made it up on the Saturday in a pretty stressed state but that's our Karl.

The weather was pretty shitty but that didn't really matter too much. We got one afternoon on the beach. Everyone got on really well and we managed to pass the time watching DVD's, chilling to music, taking afternoon naps. Dylan caught up on some free lance design work. I finally got round to learning how to use Garageband on the Mac and wrote a not half bad tune for a first go.
Fraser watched Mile High on his laptop. And we all had a good go at Table Tennis, Poker, Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit.

There were 3 highlights of the weekend for me;

1. Dylan's cooking. We all had a go at cooking a nice meal. Mine was a Sunday Roast on Easter Sunday. It was ok but I've done better. Those that couldn't cook washed up. Dylan threw together some great stuff and did some amazing things with Lamb. Mmm

2. The house. Not as close to the beach as we'd have liked but had everything we needed. A massive deck for hanging out. Sleeping space for 7 people. 3 toilets. What more could you ask for?

3. Modified Pictionary.....with one man down (Anne) on Friday night we were left with odd numbers for Pictionary. I volunteered myself for games master. After years of playing this game we've modified the rules a bit and can now make the players act out the word rather than just draw it. One team were racing away with the lead so I had to balance things out a bit. So it's about 1am. We're all pissed and stoned and the next word to come up for miming is "Chequered Flag". It was far too tempting to not have some fun with so I made them do it with their hands behind their back. (See pic 8 below)

Now they might have not seen the funny side of it but I was pissing myself laughing so much I think I had a leakage.

Boomerang Pics

Pic 1 Boomerang Beach
Pic 2 Boomerang Beach
Pic 3 The holiday house. "Hill-Side"
Pic 4 Some handsome young man (Slightly monged)
Pic 5 Caramelised Balsamic Lamb cutlets with Roast Potatoes and Tomatoes
Pic 6 Roulette (Fairly drunk by now)
Pic 7 The Rizzla Game (Stoned by now)
Pic 8 Pictionary (Modified Rules) - See highlights above
Pic 9 The mighty Ping Pong tournament

Earth Intruders

I've just downloaded the new Bjork single from iTunes.
As with many new things Bjork like I don't always like them on first play. Then a few months later have an attack of autism and can barely bring myself to listen to anything else.

This is one of those tracks too. I like the fact that it's a new sound for her. Slightly but not overly impressed with the Timbaland beats. There's a hint of Goldfrapp influence with the elecronic cello type sound. But I'm not bowled over. Hmmmmm Still looking forward to the album though.

Canon IXUS 70

Treated myself today to this little retro looking thing. I dropped my last one (a big clunky sony from about 5 years ago) in the ocean when I went kayacking about 6 months ago. I think this blog is lacking pictures plus I've a few holidays to get through this year so I thought it was a good time to make the investment.

It looks very cool and does loads of nifty things. I like getting new toys.

So it's Wednesday night. I've done my packing. I'm off up the coast straight after work tomorrow. Going to Boomerang Beach for the 3rd year running. Now I know that sounds a little autistic going to the same place over and over again but we're kind of scared of going anywhere else in case it isn't as good. The food, alcohol and weed shopping is done. Anne is fitting roof rack with surf board tomorrow while I'm in work then I'm hoping for an early dart at 4pm. Not looked a the weather forecast. As long as I'm not in work and out of Sydney with good company it's going to be a good weekend.

Work has been a bit of a nightmare this week. Things not going to plan for me. I need to manipulate a few things in my favour if I'm going to keep my interest here. Hoping the boss comes through and puts me on the right project. We'll see I guess.

Stay tuned for lots more pics on this site from now on.

V Festival

What a brilliant day. One of the advantages of having an injured knee means that I don't feel guilty about having a Saturday lie in since I can't go running.
So the lie in was nice. Got loads of house work done. (Actually feels nice to be on top of that for a change). Did a leisurely round of King Street and a coffee from my favourite barista at Urban Bites.
Myself, Hamo, Helen and Nathan congregated at Mark and Dylan's place in Surry Hills. Then we walked over to Centennial Park at around 2.30pm. The crowds were already massive and we instantly lost each other just getting through the entrance. Me being the seasoned festival goer that I am started getting bossy almost straight away and allocated meeting points for the rest of the day.
First priority of the day was to get myself in the bar queue. So far so good.
However, the logistics of the bars and the toilets was a complete nightmare a few hours later. It must have been hell for the girls as it's a bit more difficult to hide behind a bin or a skip and relieve yourself without bothering with the queue. Virgin, you let the crowds down badly here. There were not nearly enough facilities.

Anyway, on to the show. Phoenix were a French rock band. And even though they sang in English you could tell from some of the harmonies and progressions that they were definitely French. A new find for me and pleased I did. Will be looking out for their stuff in the future. After this there was lots of wondering around. Lots of losing each other. Lots of finding each other and peeing and waiting for the headliners.

Gnarls Barkley were excellent. Dressed in Tennis uniforms and accompanied by a string section (which always gets me going). The singer whose name I don't know had an amazing voice and looks like you wouldn't want to meet him down a dark alley. He's a big guy and covered in tattoos. We all enjoyed this part I think. Everyone had a go at singing along to Crazy and Smiling Faces.

Then there was Groove Armada. I wasn't expecting too much from these. I thought it would be chilled and not too exciting a show. They ended up being the highlight of the day. Darkness descended. The volume went right up and everyone seemed to hit their peak at the same time. Awesome. Lots of ass shaking was going on and plenty of friendly hugs........"I see you baby"

Pet Shop Boys were last and was a bit of a surreal experience. They are quite comical to watch. The talking bits seem a little bit weird but it was brilliant to hear the classics. Both Pet Shop Boys and Groove Armada treated their show like a greatest hits. We weren't bored with new material, it was the golden oldies. I remember buying Please well over 20 years ago. Doubt I have listened to it for over 15 but still knew all the words. I was in shock myself. Brilliant and fun.

The day finished at 10. Off we trotted to the bottle shop to carry on the party. 6am I got home.....there's a trend here. I'm going to post pics as soon as I get them.