whew...

Finally finished all my reports on the Sydney trip, only a week after getting back. I was able to get over the trip by having a 3 day weekend and went back to work last Monday. From there it was downhill all week. I had a terrible week, had a couple of bad nights sleep, that seemed to catch up with me by mid day making the afternoons drag on and on. Plus I started later from Wednesday to Friday and so I didn't finish until after 6 on Wednesday and Thursday. As soon my time sheet ticked over 38 hours at about 4:15 on Friday afternoon I was outta there. I must get a good night's sleep tonight, it set s the whole week up really.

On Saturday I got the train to the City, and went to see Star Trek at my favourite cinema, Greater Union Russel Street. It's the only old school cinema left, by old school, I mean it reminds me of school holidays when I was 10. Village and Hoyts in Bourke Street are now gone, and while Hoyts at Melbourne Central is nice and modern, I still like the run down old cinema in Russell Street. When I first went in the sit I sat down in had two wobbly arm rests (and no cup holders), I moved along the row until I found some stable ones. What was surprising was the reasonable crowd in the theatre with me, normally the audiences are very small.

The movie itself is fantastic. While I wouldn't count myself as a Trekkie (always more in the Star Wars camp), I have always been a bit of a an. It's not a hardcore fan film at all, there is enough there to get anyone interested in. The thing I like is that the film is more or less a prequell to the original TV series from the 60's. One by one the film introduces the main characters. They are all there, Kirk, Ohura, Bones, Sulu, Scotty, Checkov (complete with "nuclear wessels" style "v"s) and everybody's favourite Vulcan, Spock. I can't fault the casting of the crew at all. Leonard Nimoy even makes a cameo as Spock's future self. As with all Star Trek series and films there are a lot of laughs throughout, even a number of in jokes that I have to admit I didn't always get. Laughter from others in the theatre told me they were there though. Eric Bana also stars as the main nemesis to the crew of the Enterprise, I can't say I thought he was very good, maybe it was the character he played but there seemed to be something missing.

Overall Star Trek is a great movie I recommend that people go and see it.

Quaking

Well, earth tremor really. I actually felt this one, the last one I didn't even notice. I was sitting at my desk when I started bouncing up and down. This went on for a few seconds before it subsided. My immediate thought was that it was the train that happened to be going past at the time (trains pass my workplace just above window level of the floor we are on), but it was more than the normal train rattle that I sometimes notice. When I looked up everyone else was looking up too. Everyone was pretty sure it was an earthquake. It was pretty cool though.

Latter when I managed to get through to the Geoscience Australia website, I took the screen grab at the top of this post. It seems it was centred on a similar location and was the same magnitude, 4.6, as the last tremor 2 weeks ago. Is a gaping hole about to open up? Are we about to have "the big one"?

Not lost and other situations.

Well I made it home the same day as my last post. I was surprised at the relative comfort of the Jetstar flight. At around 2 hours I had no discomfort, apart from the battle for the arm rest with the person next to me. They were sitting in my window seat when I boarded and I made them move, so I guess they were getting me back. No safety issues either. I Wouldn't hesitate to fly with Jetstar again in the future.

On Friday night Mum's TV blew up. Not really, but it stopped working and started making funny noises. Saturday was spent searching electrical shops for a good deal. Prices have gone up since before Christmas that's for sure. Stores kept trying to sell us a Samsung, ended up picking a Panasonic, that seemed like a good deal at Dick Smith. We went back on Sunday morning and walked out with a Sony Bravia for the same price (missed the really cheap Sony Bravia 37" run out model at K Mart by a few days. It's a 32" model and utterly briliant. Just fits the existing TV stand perfectly. Makes my 26" widescreen CRT look really bad.

At work we are getting new computers, the whole company is getting laptops for some reason. I will never take my work computer home so I can't see the point, but I guess it's all about consistency. At the same time the company is taking the leap to Vista, but not my department because much of the software we use is incompatible. So we are sticking with XP. I was going to get mine today, but the IT department loaded Vista by mistake. For some reason there is also a bug with the XP installation that they are going to try and iron out on my machine. I Should have it on my desk by Friday.

Clocking Off

It was a real pain and yet so easy to get to work today. I didn't have to worry about buying/validating tickets, and there was hardly anyone around. Thanks for the free ride Mrs Kosky that was a nice present. I felt like I was going to work on a Saturday, as the street where my workplace is was unusually quiet. The only crowds I noticed were at the fish shop, where everyone seemed to be buying prawns.

I only ended up doing about an hour and halfs worth of work, but we were told to charge a full day in our timesheets anyway, no complaints there. At 11:30 we had an informal lunch with chicken and salads, unfortunately it ran out all too quickly and many people who turned up late missed out altogether. Someone came to the rescue and ordered Pizzas.

I spent about half an hour playing a game on the computer after lunch. I was playing Portal: the flash version which is quite a good version of the full PC version of Portal. Eventually I decided enough was enough and I left work for the last time this year, but still filled in a days worth of time in my time sheet. (naughty? No we were instructed to do so. Who am I to argue?)

On the way home I finished off my Christmas shopping at Westfield Doncaster, and found it strangely relaxed. No one was really in a hurry or in much of a frenzy, it was good to see. While there I bought my last present, for my mum. I aslo bought myself a small present. Need for Speed Undercover for the Wii. I also bought 2 six packs of imitation Corona from Safeway, and four limes. The limes were unusually cheap, the ticketed price was 99 cents each, but they turned out at 50 cents each. Looking at my docket, I think the fruit shop I went to must give out random discounts. I was lucky.

From there I got the bus home and have just finished wrapping all the presents for tommorow. I think I will now go and play with the present from myself, before wrapping it up and giving it to myself again tommorow.

Festivus Drinks

I am actually amazed /ashamed I can remember so much. I only nearly vommited once....

Friday night was Christmas drinks with some of the people from work. Only six of us made it, well not everyone was invited, it's a bit of an exclusive club actually. One went early leaving 5 of us. We started upstairs at the Corner in Richmond. That was an interesting place, and for a while I thought I had violated the dress code for not wearing my cowboy hat, fairy wings or checked shirt (in any combination). There must be a tear in the fabric of space and time at this place, because pretty soon there was a line for the men's toilets, but there was none for the women's, it was really strange.

Hopping in a taxi in Swan Street we made our way to the Imperial in Spring Street, me and my mates traditional pre/post footy pub. More general drinking antics occurred. There we found people parading around a cardboard cut out of their company's CEO, I got to shake his hand. The only bad thing to happen was someone knocked a beer over onto the chips, so there were soggy beer flavoured.

At some point we left and headed down Bourke towards that fake brittish pub on the corner of Exhibition. It was full and they wouldn't let us in, or somethign like that. So instead we went to the Portland Hotel in Russel Street. It was here that I revealed to my colleagues just how bad I am at pool, even sober I'm no good, but this was just embarrassing.

On the way home I stopped off for some much needed late night nourishment at Hungry Jacks and still managed to make it to Flinders Street in time for the train, which was waiting patiently for me. I found a nice quiet seat on my own and proceded to listen my iPod. Then out of nowhere a large group of very happy, yet very drunk people descended on my oasis. AF ew of them were very rowdy, singing "Let's dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats (the rest looked rather under the weather). It was at this stage that one of the girls commented to me "you can write about this in your blog". Unless she reads my blog and recognised me from my photo on my blog, she doesn't know how correct she was. After they all got off at Westgarth, it went quiet again.

So there you go you go girl on the train, you got a mention on my blog.

Green for the company

The company I work for has recently gone "green", they created a series of "webinars" for staff on climate change and various other environmental issues. A further part of this drive has been to change all the screen savers on company computers to be a blank screen, and to encourage people to turn screens and computers off overnight. I admit that I used to leave my computer on overnight and just turn the screen off, at weekends I used to turn it off. Now it gets turned off every night. I think most people do turn their machines off every night, except if they need to run a process overnight, which in my area does happen quite frequently.

Soon all PCs are to be replaced with laptops, or so I gather from the questionnaire that was circulated recently. Sure they are more energy efficient, but I actually chose a desktop. The current desktops we have seem to struggle (well mine does) and I doubt a laptop will be much better. I suspect I will get one anyway due to the companies one size fits all IT policy. Either way it doesn't bother me.

The thing is, I see so many things wrong in my workplace in terms of energy wastage (and wastage in general) it's not funny. The building I work in heats up too much, in both Winter and Summer. There is something seriously wrong with the air conditioning and no matter how many times they fix it, it never gets any better. Being a modern (probably mid-late 1990s) glass and concrete building I suspect it is not properly insulated or ventilated either. On our floor we have large floor to ceiling windows facing north and west, which are definitely tinted, but I'm not sure if they are double glazed. Either way, it gets really hot and bright in the warmer part of the year. The only covering are some flimsy Venetian blinds to that have very poor insulating properties. What would make the biggest difference in my opinion is better insulating blinds and the ability to open windows for some natural ventilation.

As for water wastage, we have toilet cisterns that continually run even though a plumber has been in to change the washers and things. Some kind person printed out some signs telling us how to flush them so they don't run. Of course these instructions don't work, and I usually end up fiddling around until it stops. Most people just walk out without checking. On one occasion I resorted to turning off in one of the cubicles. Soon enough our sign writter had put a sign up saying there was no water and that a plumber was on the way. I think I went too far, but surely the tap is the first thing you would check if there is no water?

Really the whole building needs better maintenance, and even renovation as it is quite poorly designed.

Pop Songs

By pop songs I mean songs that pop into your head for no apparent reason. This happened to me the other week at work. A colleague a few desks away on the other side of the partition has a clock radio that I can sometimes hear. For one instant I thought I heard a song I haven't heard for years, but I soon realised it was actually a different newer song. in that instant I was gone and I had that older song stuck in my head. I couldn't recall the name, or the band, I only had some of the tune and a line of the lyrics.

"they could see the road that they walked on was paved in gold"

So I typed the lyrics into Google, and sure enough I discovered other people wanted to know the same thing. It turned out that the song is called "The Way" by a band called Fastball. I finally got around to finding it on YouTube. It's funny because I've heard the newer different song a few times since and it still makes me think of "The Way" even though it actually sounds nothing like it.

I still have no idea what the newer song is or who sings it, all I know is that Mix play at least twice each workday between 9 AM and 5 PM...

Functions

As is usual for this time of year it's all about attending functions, mostly to do with work. For the record I did not attend the work Christmas party. The main reason for my absence was the fact that I am a contractor and therefore had to pay $120 for the privilege of attending, and an extra $120 if I'd asked someone to come along. Of course I could have gone as a guest of or in place of a permanent (the term rusted on comes to mind) employee, but it's the principal of the thing.

There have been a few more functions at work this week including a breakfast on Wednesday and a lunch (rather well and truly rained out) on Friday. After work on Friday I went to the London Tavern in Richmond with some co workers. Had a great time and got to know some people at work a bit better (the department I work in is a bit anti-social compared to others).

The family stuff is saved for Christmas day. We will be having lunch with the extended family at my cousin's house, followed by dinner at my brother's house.

Bonnie Doon

The "Kerrigan" House at Bonnie Doon, September 2006

A work colleague recently expressed his delight after finding out that Bonnie Doon is a real place. Being from New Zealand, he didn't realise that Bonnie Doon was a real place until traveling through it on the way to Mansfield.

As you can see I found the kerrigan house when we went to Bonnie Doon and Mansfield last year on fathers day. It was really easy to find, just look for the powerlines. The lake? Well that's a bit harder to find at the moment...

Touching Base

God I hate that term. I over hear it used at work sometimes. Thankfully no one says it to me, if they did I'd punch them in the nose. I assume the term is of American origin, talking about touching bases in a baseball game. Perhaps not?

Anyway just "touching base" with another general update...

On Friday night I went to a play put on by one of the local amateur theater companies. It was called Silvia and was about a man finding a stray dog called Silvia in the park and taking her home. Basically he fell in love with the dog making his wife jealous. Silvia (the dog remember) was played by a person, and was almost too convincing in the role. As was said in they play, she really did have a cute butt, especially when she came back from the dog groomers in the frilly French knickers (ooh la la!).

One of the actors ( a man) played three roles, another male dog owner in the park, a female friend of the wife, and a gender bending psychiatrist. As he/she put it in the play, "am I a man pretending to be a woman or a woman pretending to be a man". By far the best of this trio was the female friend, who had trouble walking in high heels, an alcohol problem and who seemed to attract much attention from the dog. This resulted in more than a glimpse of suspenders and stockings from under her dress, and the audience in stitches. One observation I made of some of the older men in the audience at this point was that they didn't seem too keen on the idea of a man in drag, in fact they looked a bit uncomfortable if not threatened, the women however loved it.

Saturday, I went to the football. In the end Collingwood beat Carlton, I was very happy, we are now third on the ladder. Afterwards we went to the (new for this year) usual pub, the Imperial on the corner of Bourke Street and Spring Street. That place is bride central on Saturday afternoon, I reckon I saw at least 5 or 6 on the walk there. The other thing we saw on the walk from the 'G' was a pair of international students (they were Asian, and I assume that all young Asian people I see in the city are international students) throwing a tennis ball to each other in the Fitzroy Gardens. Not so strange, except that they were putting very little effort into their throws and showing almost no facial expression.

After a pint at the pub (happy hour!), we made our way down Little Bourke street looking for a feed. We ended up in a little place in Heffernan Lane called Kum Den (no I kid you not, almost as good as hung long video). For the price, the food was exceptional. Although, I was a bit concerned about the upside down Barramundi swimming around in the fish tank (there were at leas two of them), I made mental note not to order any fish dishes...

Sunday was of course mothers day. We took mum out for lunch to a nursery/cafe in Yarrambat. The food was pretty good, especially the mud cake I had for dessert. Later in the afternoon we went around to my brothers house for a barbecue which was also good. For mothers day this year I gave mum a DVD of Sweet Charity and Thoroughly Modern Milly (she likes old musicals) and some Belgian Sea Shel Chocolates, she seemed quite pleased.

From my eldest brother in Northern NSW mum didn't get a present, but instead the news that he is in the process of leaving his wife, which is not really the worst news in the world because we all (Mum, my brother in Melbourne, his wife and myself) think she is a bitch have seen it coming for years. Even my eldest niece (she's 10), daughter of eldest brother thinks it's a good thing that they get separated. The marriage was quite literally at the behest of a farmer with a shotgun not quite 11 years ago (you do the calculations). So far, it seems like an amicable separation...