I went shopping today - and bought a couple of shirts and a couple of ties. Fantastic stuff. MCM Studio is a very cool shop, although it is expensive! I managed to get the shirts for 50%, so not too expensive.
Funky as!
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
grrr
it's more bullshit support work for me. I'm glad the interview went so well. I will have to chase up how the approval process is going for that too. I am so keen to jump ship. grrr.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Vale Paul Hester...
I'm sure a lot of people are affected by the death of Paul Hester, former drummer for Crowded House.
I was lucky enough to have met him, and played basketball with him at a Youth Suicide Prevention charity match (talk about ironic). He was hyper on that day, and we could hardly concentrate on the game, he was making us laugh so hard. Not a bad basketball player, for a drummer! :)
It's a sad sad day.
I was lucky enough to have met him, and played basketball with him at a Youth Suicide Prevention charity match (talk about ironic). He was hyper on that day, and we could hardly concentrate on the game, he was making us laugh so hard. Not a bad basketball player, for a drummer! :)
It's a sad sad day.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Footy is back...
and I'm excited as hell! :)
I've again joined the BTC crew, and am coaching a side which I was unlucky enough to get, without making any selections directly. Looks pretty good at the moment, but so do a lot of the teams!
I'm also in 3 footy tipping comps, I figure that i've got to win one of them.
We will see how it goes...
I've again joined the BTC crew, and am coaching a side which I was unlucky enough to get, without making any selections directly. Looks pretty good at the moment, but so do a lot of the teams!
I'm also in 3 footy tipping comps, I figure that i've got to win one of them.
We will see how it goes...
Friday, March 18, 2005
Cruise Day 11
Arrival back in Sydney. I woke up this morning at 7am, and we were parked at Darling Harbour. How good is that. A nice easy shower, brekky and gathering of the last bits and pieces allowed us to wait around for the call of our tickets. Allegedly we were in the first group because of our flights to Melbourne. Slightly dissapointed to hear that another 2 groups managed to escape the boat first. Not too worry.
Customs was a joke (they didnt even bother with the bag checking!), and we were kicking ourselves that we didnt bring back another couple of cartons.. but what can you do eh?
We ended up at the airport at 9am! After asking about changing to an earlier flight (which could have cost us at least a couple of hundred dollars, we decided against it. A couple of hours spent in the airport, and specifically the Virgin Blue lounge (only $10 for the both of us, and fantastically quiet and relaxing, with papers and a playstation!). Luckily we didn't have to lug our bag around, which was good.
Uneventful flight back to Melbourne - it is good to be home.
Customs was a joke (they didnt even bother with the bag checking!), and we were kicking ourselves that we didnt bring back another couple of cartons.. but what can you do eh?
We ended up at the airport at 9am! After asking about changing to an earlier flight (which could have cost us at least a couple of hundred dollars, we decided against it. A couple of hours spent in the airport, and specifically the Virgin Blue lounge (only $10 for the both of us, and fantastically quiet and relaxing, with papers and a playstation!). Luckily we didn't have to lug our bag around, which was good.
Uneventful flight back to Melbourne - it is good to be home.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Cruise Day 10
Nearly Home!
I spent the whole day playing blackjack. Seriously. The. Whole. Day.
There really wasn't anything else to do, and the weather turned foul when we woke up - I glanced over from my seat at the blackjack table, and couldn't work out where the sea and the sky separated, it was pretty awful.
Rach ended up winning enough money for a new watch ($180), and I played all day on the $50 i started with - and ended up with $170 for my troubles. We had heaps of fun with punters and the 'Wheel of Madness' - If you put your money on the little wheel of madness thing, and you get blackjack - you get to spin the wheel of madness - and you win whatever you spin, multiplied by whatever you bet up to 500 x your bet.
The dealer (Karl) egged us on to scam everyone else in the casino - when anyone had a chance to spin the wheel, everyone around had to cheer and yell like they'd won the 500 x your bet. I couldn't stop laughing, and we were all loving it!
Otherwise, pretty quiet afternoon.
I spent the whole day playing blackjack. Seriously. The. Whole. Day.
There really wasn't anything else to do, and the weather turned foul when we woke up - I glanced over from my seat at the blackjack table, and couldn't work out where the sea and the sky separated, it was pretty awful.
Rach ended up winning enough money for a new watch ($180), and I played all day on the $50 i started with - and ended up with $170 for my troubles. We had heaps of fun with punters and the 'Wheel of Madness' - If you put your money on the little wheel of madness thing, and you get blackjack - you get to spin the wheel of madness - and you win whatever you spin, multiplied by whatever you bet up to 500 x your bet.
The dealer (Karl) egged us on to scam everyone else in the casino - when anyone had a chance to spin the wheel, everyone around had to cheer and yell like they'd won the 500 x your bet. I couldn't stop laughing, and we were all loving it!
Otherwise, pretty quiet afternoon.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Cruise Day 9
Leaving for Home.
Today was probably the most boring day of the trip - We played bingo, and saw a first timer win $3000. How good is that? :)
I think we watched a couple of movies, I read a book about diving, Rach slept. It was a pretty good day all in all.
Otherwise, spent the time playing connect-4, scrabble, and doing a jigsaw.
Today was probably the most boring day of the trip - We played bingo, and saw a first timer win $3000. How good is that? :)
I think we watched a couple of movies, I read a book about diving, Rach slept. It was a pretty good day all in all.
Otherwise, spent the time playing connect-4, scrabble, and doing a jigsaw.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Cruise Day 8
Noumea, New Caledonia
Walking Tour of Noumea
This place is traditional French outpost. We just decided to get off the boat, and wander around - originally we really wanted to go on the 'Le Petite Train', but unfortnately if you didnt book it through the boat ($50 per head!), instead of the standard $20 per head, you couldnt go. Bummer.
We got over that pretty quickly, wandered up towards the centre of the city, and found a really nice park. Wandering further up the hill away from the port, we found a walking trail (which happened to be also marked on our tourist maps!). We followed that around a lot of the older parts of the city, which seemed to be big around mid 1800's. We found a fantastic bag store, which had leather satchells for around $300 - that being said, the woman was sitting in the shop making them, and they had some of the most fantastic soft leather I've seen in a bag.
Tjibaou Cultural Centre
We finally tired of wandering aimlessly, managed to buy ourselves a drink (in french!), and tried to find the number 2 bus. It wasnt too hard, and we ran into a couple of people from our boat - and we all decided that it would be much easier to all go on the bus together! After a short wait, the aforementioned bus arrived, and 25 minutes later, we were out at the Cultural Centre.
There was a fantastic amount of stuff out there, lots of the aborinal art works, and sculpture. We also managed to order a coffee, and chicken sandwich (in french!). Very cool. Who ever said that year 10 French was a waste time?! ;)
Pacific Sun Debacle
We saw the sister ship to ours sitting at the docks in Noumea - and noticed that it was a bit strange. We ran into some of the passengers, who told us that they'd been stuck there for a day already - the ship had broken down. We later found out that the ship was repaired, went to Isle of Pines, and broke down. It was then towed back to Noumea, and everyone sent home. Bugger.
$50 jumper
In the afternoon, we rested, and ventured back out to Noumea - to see the other half of the city we didnt see in the morning. Wandered through Chinatown, and saw chinese people speaking French. Weird. We found a fancy kids clothing shop, which had woollen jumpers (in the tropics?). We converted, and the prices were pretty expensive, but found a bunch of sale items, marked as 50% off. Luckily we picked up a really nice woollen jumper for Jude for $25 (which is still expensive!).
Walking Tour of Noumea
This place is traditional French outpost. We just decided to get off the boat, and wander around - originally we really wanted to go on the 'Le Petite Train', but unfortnately if you didnt book it through the boat ($50 per head!), instead of the standard $20 per head, you couldnt go. Bummer.
We got over that pretty quickly, wandered up towards the centre of the city, and found a really nice park. Wandering further up the hill away from the port, we found a walking trail (which happened to be also marked on our tourist maps!). We followed that around a lot of the older parts of the city, which seemed to be big around mid 1800's. We found a fantastic bag store, which had leather satchells for around $300 - that being said, the woman was sitting in the shop making them, and they had some of the most fantastic soft leather I've seen in a bag.
Tjibaou Cultural Centre
We finally tired of wandering aimlessly, managed to buy ourselves a drink (in french!), and tried to find the number 2 bus. It wasnt too hard, and we ran into a couple of people from our boat - and we all decided that it would be much easier to all go on the bus together! After a short wait, the aforementioned bus arrived, and 25 minutes later, we were out at the Cultural Centre.
There was a fantastic amount of stuff out there, lots of the aborinal art works, and sculpture. We also managed to order a coffee, and chicken sandwich (in french!). Very cool. Who ever said that year 10 French was a waste time?! ;)
Pacific Sun Debacle
We saw the sister ship to ours sitting at the docks in Noumea - and noticed that it was a bit strange. We ran into some of the passengers, who told us that they'd been stuck there for a day already - the ship had broken down. We later found out that the ship was repaired, went to Isle of Pines, and broke down. It was then towed back to Noumea, and everyone sent home. Bugger.
$50 jumper
In the afternoon, we rested, and ventured back out to Noumea - to see the other half of the city we didnt see in the morning. Wandered through Chinatown, and saw chinese people speaking French. Weird. We found a fancy kids clothing shop, which had woollen jumpers (in the tropics?). We converted, and the prices were pretty expensive, but found a bunch of sale items, marked as 50% off. Luckily we picked up a really nice woollen jumper for Jude for $25 (which is still expensive!).
Monday, March 14, 2005
Cruise Day 7
Lifou Island
We decided to spend the day on the boat. After having 2 full on days in the sun, we kind of needed the break!
After lunch, we gave in, and tried to call home. Unfortunately we went over to the island, and forgot to take the lonely planet guide. Which was a real bummer, because it contained a critical piece of information: The international direct dial code. We went back to the boat a bit unhappy, but we did send a little email so that he knew we were good.
We decided to spend the day on the boat. After having 2 full on days in the sun, we kind of needed the break!
After lunch, we gave in, and tried to call home. Unfortunately we went over to the island, and forgot to take the lonely planet guide. Which was a real bummer, because it contained a critical piece of information: The international direct dial code. We went back to the boat a bit unhappy, but we did send a little email so that he knew we were good.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Cruise Day 6
Port Vila
Snorkeling AM
Fish Feeding, resting, Kayaking, resting. Not much going on, but got on a really nice boat, sailed around harbour to a nice little reef - and saw the rusting hulk of a russian freighter which had apparently washed up during the last cyclone that hit the place. Rach and I pondered whether we could deal with living on a boat on a south pacific island.. We both agreed that it wouldn't be too hard to make the change!
Shopping for lunch
Went to an Asian duty free store, and managed to score 2 cartons of smokes for $44. Yes, that's right, 16 packets for $44. I think a full price carton here in Melbourne costs around $78, and the imported ones don't have those shitty white bars of warnings on them. sweeet!
Scuba PM for me, Shopping for Rach
Exciting stuff, first scuba dive. Somewhat hard to equalise, but after a few goes at it, got it fine. Had some issues with positive buoyancy (yes, I'm carrying a bit!), but after another 2 lumps of lead, we got that sorted out. Ended up doing (successfully!) a backflip, while 9 metres underwater, and it was all good until the 2 extra lead weights fell out of my bc. Instructor grabbed me before I went flying up to the surface, which is a good thing! :)
Lots to see down there, although with the water that warm, there was some cloudiness due to spawning stuff in the water.
Rach bought some bags and some statue things, one of which is going into the garden, and one of which is due to go to Rach's parents...
Snorkeling AM
Fish Feeding, resting, Kayaking, resting. Not much going on, but got on a really nice boat, sailed around harbour to a nice little reef - and saw the rusting hulk of a russian freighter which had apparently washed up during the last cyclone that hit the place. Rach and I pondered whether we could deal with living on a boat on a south pacific island.. We both agreed that it wouldn't be too hard to make the change!
Shopping for lunch
Went to an Asian duty free store, and managed to score 2 cartons of smokes for $44. Yes, that's right, 16 packets for $44. I think a full price carton here in Melbourne costs around $78, and the imported ones don't have those shitty white bars of warnings on them. sweeet!
Scuba PM for me, Shopping for Rach
Exciting stuff, first scuba dive. Somewhat hard to equalise, but after a few goes at it, got it fine. Had some issues with positive buoyancy (yes, I'm carrying a bit!), but after another 2 lumps of lead, we got that sorted out. Ended up doing (successfully!) a backflip, while 9 metres underwater, and it was all good until the 2 extra lead weights fell out of my bc. Instructor grabbed me before I went flying up to the surface, which is a good thing! :)
Lots to see down there, although with the water that warm, there was some cloudiness due to spawning stuff in the water.
Rach bought some bags and some statue things, one of which is going into the garden, and one of which is due to go to Rach's parents...
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Cruise Day 5
Mystery Island
Snorkelling, South Side AM
We again managed to get ourselves on the first tender boat over to Mystery Island - it is a tiny island (maybe 100 meters across by about 2 k's long?) - and it's just made of sand. There wasnt much there, other than huts, and a large shopping area for tourists. I imagine that there are a number of criuse ships which land here, so they make a reasonable amount of cash. We did a bit of snorkelling, but there wasn't a heap to see.
A few sea slugs, and a couple of fish were all I could find. We got hungry pretty quickly, so took a tender back to the boat around 11am.
Snorkelling, North Side PM
We at our lunch, relaxed for a while, and ventured back to the island. There was a guy sitting on the pier holding his face - he'd been stung by a jellyfish, on the face, and was not in a good way. (we later found out they had to fly him off, due to anaphylactic shock!).
We decided that we'd have a look at the reefs on the north side of the island, where the water was protected from the wind (and hopefully from the jellyfish).
It turned out to be a good call, and there was some fantastic things to look at. The most curious thing was when we were sitting in the shallows, keeping cool - I had a tiny little fish who kept swimming right next to me. I tried to pick him up a couple of times, but he managed to escape - but he just wouldn'd leave! :)
Snorkelling, South Side AM
We again managed to get ourselves on the first tender boat over to Mystery Island - it is a tiny island (maybe 100 meters across by about 2 k's long?) - and it's just made of sand. There wasnt much there, other than huts, and a large shopping area for tourists. I imagine that there are a number of criuse ships which land here, so they make a reasonable amount of cash. We did a bit of snorkelling, but there wasn't a heap to see.
A few sea slugs, and a couple of fish were all I could find. We got hungry pretty quickly, so took a tender back to the boat around 11am.
Snorkelling, North Side PM
We at our lunch, relaxed for a while, and ventured back to the island. There was a guy sitting on the pier holding his face - he'd been stung by a jellyfish, on the face, and was not in a good way. (we later found out they had to fly him off, due to anaphylactic shock!).
We decided that we'd have a look at the reefs on the north side of the island, where the water was protected from the wind (and hopefully from the jellyfish).
It turned out to be a good call, and there was some fantastic things to look at. The most curious thing was when we were sitting in the shallows, keeping cool - I had a tiny little fish who kept swimming right next to me. I tried to pick him up a couple of times, but he managed to escape - but he just wouldn'd leave! :)
Friday, March 11, 2005
Cruise Day 4
Isle of Pines
What a beautiful place. We decided that we had to get off the boat, so we waited in line from straight after breakfast. Got on the first tender boat - which was nice and calm
What a beautiful place. We decided that we had to get off the boat, so we waited in line from straight after breakfast. Got on the first tender boat - which was nice and calm
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Cruise Day 3
Day at Sea
Didn't do too much today, except eat! :) We managed to get down to the bingo, which was veryhotly contested. I've not been to a bingo night before, so i was amazed at the commitment to the causesome of our senior citizens put into this!
Didn't do too much today, except eat! :) We managed to get down to the bingo, which was veryhotly contested. I've not been to a bingo night before, so i was amazed at the commitment to the causesome of our senior citizens put into this!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Cruise Day 2
Day at Sea - Won the trivia content, and a flash new Pacific Sun Pen! :) Not really much else happeningon board today.
although, we did learn that a Dork is a whale's penis. There you go.
Nothing much else to do, but I think I watched a movie. Could have been this, or this. cant remember! Both were pretty average though.
although, we did learn that a Dork is a whale's penis. There you go.
Nothing much else to do, but I think I watched a movie. Could have been this, or this. cant remember! Both were pretty average though.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Cruise Day 1
We got up at sparrow fart to get 9:30 flight to Sydney. Thanks to Darryl for getting up early and driving us out there. Nothing much to do but check in (at the front of the plane, thank you!), and wander around the airport seeing whats happening. Not much apparently. :P Sydney airport was the usual - busy, although we didn't have to wait in the line for a cab (nightmare!), our tour bus was packed to the rafters by the time we got going to Darling Harbour.
A long outdoor line greeted us, but as soon as passengers started loading, it was quite quick to get everyone on board. We shoved our stuff into the room (which was nice!), and wandered up for some food. A couple of steak, bacon and cheese pies later, and we were heading for the decks at the back of the boat in preparation for the departure sail out of Sydney harbour.
Finally sailed at 16:30, and got some great pictures of people walking over the Harbour Bridge. I've got tosay, I'm not a fan of Sydney, what with it's narrow roads, and lots of traffic and people around all the time but it's a bloody pretty place to visit. Got some nice photos of Luna Park, and the Opera House too.
A long outdoor line greeted us, but as soon as passengers started loading, it was quite quick to get everyone on board. We shoved our stuff into the room (which was nice!), and wandered up for some food. A couple of steak, bacon and cheese pies later, and we were heading for the decks at the back of the boat in preparation for the departure sail out of Sydney harbour.
Finally sailed at 16:30, and got some great pictures of people walking over the Harbour Bridge. I've got tosay, I'm not a fan of Sydney, what with it's narrow roads, and lots of traffic and people around all the time but it's a bloody pretty place to visit. Got some nice photos of Luna Park, and the Opera House too.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Signed up to Uni
Signed up at Open University, to complete my uni degree. I rang RMIT, but they told me I could only get credit for subjects completed in the last 10 years, which counts out what I did at RMIT, unfortunately. I read all of the requirements, and they seem to be fairly straightforward, all of the subjects I am happy that I'll be able to tackle, the only one which might give me some problems are the Discrete Maths one(maybe), and the Assembler programming. I should be able to muddle through it. The rest should be a doddle though! I'm looking forward to studying again, it really gets the juices flowing!
More about this here.
Off on holidays tomorrow, I was a bit worried that we weren't going to go - Rach is concerned about leaving little with her parents, more specifically, her mum. Big trouble if they go anywhere near my family.
More about this here.
Off on holidays tomorrow, I was a bit worried that we weren't going to go - Rach is concerned about leaving little with her parents, more specifically, her mum. Big trouble if they go anywhere near my family.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Getting into the swing of holidays..
already - Spent the day watching the Melbourne Grand Prix. Webber did really well, very encouraging performancefrom the Williams, which Frank Williams and Mark Webber spent the 2 weeks before talking down.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Went to the hospital...
for the normal check on the little guy. All is well aparently, which is good. Grand Prix qualifying this afternoon, part one anyway. Very exciting!
Friday, March 04, 2005
Interview with the big T...
All went well, they want someone to train as a Solaris Admin, and DBA. Perfect! :) I also asked for 85k package, which I think is rather nice. Especially if I can get a hold of the training. I might just bite the bullet and go get the study guides myself, it's only going to be a few hundred dollars, and it's interesting stuff regardless if I get the job or not. If I don't, I'll just go sit the exams independently.
I managed to explain to current job how I arrived at the client site so quickly when there was a problem. It's lucky I was 'having lunch nearby' wasn't it!? ;)
I managed to explain to current job how I arrived at the client site so quickly when there was a problem. It's lucky I was 'having lunch nearby' wasn't it!? ;)
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