Friday, September 28, 2001

One day before Sleaze. I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it. Actually I love it!! Quiet beers last night post coffee with Adrian and a quick trip to see Pete and Paul. Me and Garry met up with L of D, the Steven's, and bumped into Phil and Dean (not Pearl). We also finally spoke to Blueybluey68 off gaydar, having threatened (both of us) to talk to him ages ago. Nice guy. Goes by the slightly more normal name of Colin. Home after a quick bite at around 10pm. Quick chat to Charlie then bed.

Up and gym. Haircut. I am the proud owner of a Mohican for the second time in my life. This one is longer and more effective. It gets launched on Sydney for Sleaze - tonight I'm wearing a cap! Home for lunch and stuff and in a while I'm going to meet Adrian for coffee and something to eat and will join the boys at 7pm in the pub. The weekend starts here...

Thursday, September 27, 2001

May try and move Minkered... onto the domain the guys kindly got me as my leaving pressie. So, if there's a gap in communications, you'll know why...

And, no it won't be coz it's Sleaze weekend and we're all minker la-la. Oh no...
Just realised I'm way behind with the blog again. How is it that when I'm working I blog almost constantly, and when I'm not I go for days between posts. Weird. Or just that I manage to do things with my day away from the PC when not working, whereas when I am I'm almost tied to it. Anyhoo...

Thursday just afternoon. I left you Sunday morning (4 bloody days ago!!). I did indeed take a walk along the cliffs between Bondi and Bronte. And back. Shirt off. Got a little colour. Met Garry in town and we hit Adrian and Fred's for the BBQ. Nice people, nice time, beers and good food. Garry's first BBQ in Oz ever. 4 months? That must be some sort of record. After that we hit the Oxford and met the tennis boys. Fun. Drunken. Shift. Bag dramas. Pedro saved the day. Home around midnight.

No gym Monday. No way. Can't remember what I did. Some half-hearted job hunting (let's face it, I'm not going to throw myself into it until after the big party long weekend in now only 2 days time!). Some laundry. Finally into town to meet someone off the internet for a beer. Or three. Nice, but... Home, watched some telly with Charlie and then bed.

Tuesday. More strange sleeping patterns. Woke at 6am, but managed to get back to sleep so didn't gym with Charlie. But gym I did, later. Picked up Sleaze tickets from Peter and Paul, then had dinner with Adrian and Phil, who's up in town from Melbourne on business for a week. Home, telly, bed.

Wednesday. Up early and to the gym at 8.30am. Into town d'après and after brekky went shorts shopping. You have no idea how much trouble I've had working out what to wear for Sleaze. It sounds camp and queeny, but... I wanted a pair that were comfortable, had pockets, weren't too long, weren't too short, and went OK with a blue singlet. Easy you'd think. Oh no... All the surf type shorts are huge. I could fit inside one leg and they'd be down to my ankles. Not a good look. I looked at smarter shorts, rugby shorts, trunks, you name it. Finally I hit the children's section of both big department stores - David Jones and Grace Brothers (ooh my pussy etc. No, it's really called that). A revelation. Firstly the shorts fit - scarily for one with elasticated waists I can fit in a boy's size 8 or 10, and for none-elasticated waists a boy's size 12. Now I'm not that small - they must breed their boys big over here. Secondly there is a lot of really nice stuff I can buy - trousers and shirts and tee's included - and they don't have the Government Sales Tax applied as they're for kids! Bargain! Anyway, I'm now sorted. With my boy's size 8 Adidas shorts. Woo-hoo!!

Home where I'd agreed to do dinner for Charlie, Garry and Mat again. Decided on homemade crostini with smoked cheese, prosciutto/salami and cherry tomatoes drizzled with olive oil to start. Next was coriander roasted vegetables in balsamic vinegar, chicken stuffed with roasted red pepper, rocket and mozzerella and home made gnocci in tomato sauce. Finally dessert was raspberry and mango sorbet, served with a shot of vodka poured over the top. Seemed to go down very well. The others joked about employing me full time to cook. I'd love to! Anyway much minkering was had and continued, as we ended up dancing around the living room to Kylie, Sclub and Samantha Mumbler!! Bed around midnight.

Up again and to the gym. Weird dream last night about drowning. Was with Charlie, and Sue and Kev (sister and bro-in-law) amongst others. Sue had won some SMS pop quiz by spotting the connection between 3 songs (the connection being that they were all anagrams of the same letters. One was Oscar, making the reality of anything else being able to be made out those letters very hard, and I've never heard of a song called Oscar, but... that's why these things are dreams!!). I'd dropped my money near a car and the money had split in half and was mixed in with my old stamp collection. Then we were suddenly on a boat, backed into a quay. The bow of the ship was almost underwater, and people were swimming around chatting to us. I suddenly had the realisation that if the bow went under, we'd sink. One of the swimmers leant on the bow and sure enough, it started to go. Me and Charlie looked at one another. "This is it, we're dead" I said. I started to fell the boat sink and the pull of the water start to take us... and woke up. Urgh. Didn't like that. 6am. Started to go back to sleep and went back into the dream. Woke again. Had another dream about the pop quiz - I'd got 29 out of 30 (odd as it's never out of 30!) and thought I'd won. Wendy checked my answers and saw I'd mis-marked one and it was a 5-way tie. Then I was stood round a corner and didn't know the tie-break had started and so came late into it. We had to memorise a page with bands that had been playing at some festival - none of them famous. The one who could remember the most would win. One of the bands had a very long name and I started to try and memorise it, suddenly realising it would make more sense to remember more of the shorter named bands. Then I woke. Odd.

Back to the flat. Email and blog. Job stuff. Meeting Adrian for coffee later and then maybe a quick beer. Nothing too mad as we're saving ourselves for the weekend. Yeah right...

Sunday, September 23, 2001

Up early. Again. Coffee. Left Adrian to do his thing and hit Oxford Street for a banana smoothie. Phil ended up joining me by chance, as he happened to be walking by. Garry finally joined us too. All this by 9.45am. Toast and coffee and then me and Garry hit Paddington and met Claire. We hired roller-blades and Charlotte joined us in Centennial Park. Fun, fun, fun!! We togged up near the car, which meant we had to negotiate the downhill road to the blading path. Whilst doing this we were passed (in cars) by not one but two Elvis impersonators. Strange. We finally made it to the path, just in time to see the Elvises (Elvi?) getting out of their cars and start to walk around. One Elvis only got as far as bellowing out "You ain't nothing but..." before one girl, unsteady on her blades, shrieked in fright, lost her balance and fell into a crumpled heap. Never seen anyone Hound-dogged to the floor before. Blading was great. Charlie is a pro, I've been once before and neither Garry nor Claire had bladed before. All got the hang of it, though Claire did manage to drag Charlie down with her when attempting a hill and bottling out, throwing herself to the floor to stop herself. Claire sustained a broken boot buckle, Charlie scraped her elbows. It was great fun, the weather was fantastic, the park not too busy - something definitely to be repeated.

One sweaty hour and a half later, Charlie and I hit Bondi to change and I met Garry and Claire back at the pub. From there we hit Fox Studios for a wander and some food, then we walked to Moore Park to watch some of the boys playing tennis (Mat, Haydn, Andy). That got a bit dull so we headed back to Oxford Street in the sun and after a bit of a wander had coffee. Suddenly it was 6pm and we were in the pub. Lots of beer, trashy songs etc. The tennis boys joined us. A few others were about. Olympic Yeeros for pizza. The Shift. A cab home with Claire. A cashpoint when I realised I had no money. Bed. And here I am, Sunday now 8.30am. Toast and tea and maybe a walk on the beach. Fantastic. BBQ at Adrian and Fred's later this arvo. And they've so much booze left over from the last party they won't let us take any. Shame...
Friday I did the gym again. Good for me. Back to Bondi where I made a half-hearted attempt at job hunting. Must do that big time next week. Finally went back to town and hit Adrian's around 6pm. We went and got some food and then back to his for a video. Adrian quite likes sci-fi stuff (as do I) so we wanted something along those lines. I half remembered someone (Danny?) telling me about a film where people crash land on a planet and then get attacked by things when it gets dark. I could vaguely remember the title being short either one or two words of one syllable. I searched, not hoping for success. I stumbled on Pitch Black. Yippee. We rented it... and both really enjoyed it. The plot is as described, though the crash also frees a murderer who the people also have to protect themselves against. It's one of the most effectively shot films I've seen in a while - good use of colour and filters to illustrate when the planet's red sun or blue sun is providing the light. It's very much in the vein of Alien, but well worth a look. Early to bed after that. Me, Adrian and the mosquitoes.

Right then. Sunday morning, 8am. I've been up for about an hour and a half. Again. For some reason, I'm not sleeping much beyond about 6am. Don't feel particularly stressed or anything, so not sure what it's all about. Bondi is quiet, the room doesn't get overly light. I do remember from living here before though that I always woke reasonably early. Maybe that's how it's going to be! And I've been gymming a lot, so it's not as though I'm not physically tiring myself out.

OK, dreams from the other day. Would have been better had I blogged them fresh, but hey... life's like that. Tuesday night's dreams after the meal with Tony. First one about Tony - no surprises there. Except for him having dyed his hair blond in the dream in a lovely bowl shape halfway down his head. We'd gone to get pizza, but the pizza place's oven was broken and the pizza wasn't cooked so we had to take it to his place and cook it there. Dream two. Me and Andrew Fordy (a guy I was at school with and not heard hide nor hair from or about for some 19 years) having pizza in what seemed to be a Pizza Express but with much more foliage than normal. We were discussing detentions. Kay and Tara (Nick's ex-flatmates) were trying to catch a canary with a fish net. When they did they were dismayed to find it not moving. On further inspection it turned out to be stuffed, and on little castors. Third dream. I'd gone to join a gym somewhere. Seemingly just off Wandsworth Bridge Road. In a library. I got up some stairs to find a crèche, and lots of people in a jacuzzi having cocktails with straws. Bizarre.

Wednesday night's dream featured Kay and Tara again. This time having a go at my friend Katrina. They were all out (with Jo - Kat's partner) and Kay and Tara asked Kat's opinion of some girl. Kat said that she didn't think she was very attractive. Kay and Tara flew into a rage and said that Kat shouldn't judge someone by their physical appearance and that it was all about what sort of person she was. I then had to take Kat to one side and go through it with her again, so that she got the message. Not really sure who that message was for! Odd.

Thursday, September 20, 2001

Not the full Monty. Not even half a Monty. I'm tired and heading for my bed. In brief: Did the gym early. Ran 6K. Upped weights and reps. Got a credit card with a $7,000 limit. Yippee. Danger Will Robinson. Headed back to Bondi. Hit the beach. Burnt a bit. Finally met Garry at the Oxford and then to Mat's for dinner. Too much red wine and carbonara. Yum. Home at 9.30am as I was knackered. Bed by about 10.15pm. Strange dreams - more about that tomorrow. Also, strange dreams the night before that. All will be revealed.

Today: Didn't sleep well so was up around 7.10am. Tea. To the gym again. Rowed. Upped weights and reps on the other part of my program. Back to Bondi. Did stuff here. Ate. Ate more. Met Adrian at 4pm for coffee as it was his birthday. Back to his for "coffee". To the pub to meet the boys - everyone there. L of D, Steven, Gary (Boo), David ex landlord, Richard... but no Garry. Shame. Home via local pizza takeaway. Hawaiian. Yum. Bed as up for the gym again at 7am or so. I'm sure there'll be more dreams for analysis by tomorrow. Nighty night!

Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Time for bed. No sleeping yesterday afternoon after all. Wandered out and bought The Stand by Stephen King second hand for $8. Bargain. Back here and sat on the daybed. Charlie arrived home and made dinner. We watched some TV (Boston Public, The Secret Life of Us) and then I went to bed and read a while. Slept until 9.30am today and feel much, much better. Did a job application after brekky, sorted some stuff, met Garry, Mat and Gary for lunch, went to the gym, had my sunglasses bent back into shape and headed back here. Tidied my room some more and then Tony arrived to have a look at the flat. We had a lovely dinner over the road at No Name's (tuna, salad, potato wedges) and a couple of beers. The most relaxed evening I've spent with Tony since we split. Home and a quick chat to Andy B who still might be coming out for Sleaze. Hope so. Brief telly watch and now bed. Meant to be getting up to do the gym at 7.30am. We'll see!

Monday, September 17, 2001

Adrian called to see if I wanted to meet for coffee with Paul, Pete and Fred. So I did. Forced some raisin toast down me (barf!) and then me and Adrian wandered around here and there enjoying the day - both days were beautiful weather. Finally I joined Garry, Mat, Mike and Haydn at the Oxford and then another Adrian joined us as did Andy and Tony. Me and Garry decided to go to the Shift, which was OK. Not as good as the last couple of weeks, but I did snog Richard again - one of the guys from the other week! Tart. Home at around 10pm and bed. Much needed sleep.

Today's been odd. Not a good night's sleep. Weird dreams again. Another one about fuseboxes and torches - what's that all about? Also, I dreamt that someone I know died, which was horrible. Not saying who. Nasty. So woke before first light, and didn't really sleep well again at all. Up at 7.45am, feeling very ropey indeed. Diarrhoea back in full effect, so not happy about that. Have pottered, done lots of washing, posted some stuff, got some more information about a job that sounds good, bought some bits and eaten dry toast. Felt ropey all day and still not back to normal. A quiet night I think. Going to sort some more stuff now and maybe kip on the daybed for a while. Laters...
Monday afternoon. Another weekend of shenanigans! Must have a quiet weekend this coming one, as it's Sleaze Ball the following week and we don't want to peak too early now do we!

Friday I didn't make it to the gym as it took me too long to get into town. I need to remember I'm in Bondi now, and a good half hour bus ride from the city as opposed to a quick walk. Went to Adrian's as arranged and we walked down to Fox Studios to the movies there. Weird seeing it on a normal weekend - it's the place where they hold Mardi Gras and Sleaze and so it's normally teeming with semi-naked men. Not on Friday though. Curses. We decided to see A.I. Bad move. I've just reread Jonathon's review and I have to agree. Except that overall I'm not sure if I was that entertained. It's a long film and it maybe tries to cover off too many issues in one. Basic themes though are having someone to love, belonging and going in search of your dreams. Now for some reason all of that put me in a most sombre and pensive frame of mind after the movie had finished. Great for the date! Actually it was OK, as Adrian and I spent a while talking afterwards and over dinner. Think it was all a bit too soon for me having come here and having the flat/job/Tony stuff going on. Hey ho. Early to bed at Adrian's and no alcohol! Shock horror!

Up at 8 o'clock! Crikey. Said my fond farewells and headed for the gym. The trains over to the North Shore were cancelled (thanks!), so I had brekky and then headed back to Bondi. Garry came over and we went for a walk down to the beach and on the rocks at the north end. Frozen yoghurt and then back here to watch the most surreal film on ABC (the Aussie equivalent of the BBC). Filmed in the 70s it was probably best described as a film about a glam rock band and their groupies, but in a most Ealing/Carry On vein. I can't find any links on the Net to it, but it was so trashy it was entertaining, and best for me, Garry and Charlie to name the actors and actresses. Richard Beckinsale, Paul Nicholas, Roy Kinnear, Arthur Mullard, Hattie Jacques and others. Best of all when Nicholas Young came on (who used to be in the Tomorrow People) Charlotte nearly wet herself - as he's married to one of her best mates back in the UK and she went to their wedding! Fantastic.

We had some chicken and rice and then me and Garry headed to his before meeting Mat at the Oxford. Brad had called and so we met up with him after nipping out for a slice of pizza. So rock 'n' roll. From there we went to Palms, which is small and camp and had a dance floor playing trashy music. We loved it! And soon were equally as trashy. The need for more minkering manifested itself and soon we were at the Pheonix again. Lordy. Horny, hairy men and good music made us feel very happy indeed! Eventually one by one the boys departed, leaving me wondering where to go at 5.15am on a Sunday morning. I won't give you all the details, but I decided to walk home to Bondi at 7.30am. It took an hour, which isn't bad considering it's half an hour on the bus! Sleep from 9am until 2pm...

Friday, September 14, 2001

Yesterday up early and the gym again. Adrian called and I ended up over there for a snoggle about 11am. We grabbed a sandwich later and went for a walk and a coffee.He's a nice man indeed. Off to the opticians for me at 5.30pm and then to the Oxford. Big L of D flirt night. Garry joined us, and L of D's mate Steven there too. I ended up with a nickname of Sigourney. Don't ask. Me and Garry grabbed pizza and then had one in the Shift. Pedro the sexy barman gave me him number. I must be giving off pheromones or something. Home.

Today's been lazy. Not done much. Gym now and then to the movies with Adrian and then dinner. Think it's like a date. Wow!
Tuesday did very little. Sorted bits out here. Cooked chicken and pasta primavera for me and Charlie. Lazy night, bottle of wine. Earlyish night. Up with Charlie Wednesday and got a lift into the gym early. Into town for early lunch then met a mate John very briefly. Back to Bondi and went shopping for that night's meal for Garry and Mat. Back here to cook. Managed a very nice Prosciutto, Courgette and Petit Pois soup (pea and ham to you mate), followed by green rice, chicken for Garry, seared tuna for Mat, Charlotte and me and a pawpaw salsa. Big vodkas. White wine. The joys of a dishwasher. Trashy music and singing. Fab night all round!
The best news of all week is that all the friends I know in NYC are safe and well. Alan, Michael and Nick (and hopefully all their friends) now have the unenviable task of trying to cope with what's happened. It's affecting us all but if you live there it must be so much more.. I don't know - personal. Michael said he was starting to get angry. I guess that's going to be a natural reaction. Let's hope the powers that be over there don't do anything rash though. Glad everyone's safe. Lots of love to you all. I know Karen and Mel were worried about you too, and thanks to Karen for forwarding the emails. It's an incredibly tragic sequence of events and anyone that's been to NYC will take it that bit more personally. Suddenly being here feels isolated. Good in some respects, but it would be good to be with everyone right now.

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Jesus. I'm with Ian on this one - I can't believe what I'm seeing either. Incredible. The second tower of the WTC has just collapsed. What's next? Incidentally I'm getting better reports from Ian's blog than Australian TV...
Just watching the World Trade Centre and Pentagon stuff on the news. Incredible. Mad. Sad. Hope the people in NYC that I know are all OK. Can't begin to think what it must be like to be there right now. Ugh.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Monday set the computer up and that was about it. Managed to get down to the old flat and clean. Got my haircut and hit the gym. Am planning to have a mohican again for Sleaze so didn't have the hair cut too short. Those of you who remember the mohican from last year should know the look I'm after. But maybe without the gold hair mascara this time... Back to meet David at the old place and sign forms and so on. Back here and cooked steak and salad for me and Charlotte. Chat to Garry on the phone. Bed at 11pm. Today not much. This mega blog entry. Now it's time to get on with the day. More later kiddies.

Oh nearly forgot. Field of dreams last night. Dream one - being in a rowing boat drifting across a sea that was a luminous ochre colour with big completed noughts and crosses boards almost carved out of it. Can't remember much more about that now. Dream two - going to see Little Roger in a clinic in South America somewhere as he'd had plastic surgery. His face was red raw and Scally was there but can't really remember much more about it in the cold night of afternoon. Very odd. Finally a weird slightly more sexual dream involving being able to see into lots of other people's rooms across a large courtyard and know what was going on. Danny was with me but that's all I can remember. Must check what was in the salad!!
Snuggle. Cuddle. Snoggle. Think I just made that last word up. Adrian very kindly let me sleep a bit later as him and Fred cleared up. More snoggling. Think I like that word. I finally got home at 6pm. Showered and changed and back into town for Andy's birthday drinks. Ay caramba. Lots of people out, including Richard from Thursday and Darren, who was minker majeure as it was also his birthday. Me, Garry, Andy, Tony, Adrian, Ed and the other guy who's name always escapes me nipped out for a quick bite at Saigon Palace and then down to the Shift. A few nice people there. Martin from last week. Garth. Lots of singing and drinking had by all. Stevie P called in the midst of it all. Ended up heading off to find a taxi around midnight. Well deserved and needed sleep!
Saturday was a long day. And also a fantastic one. Up at 7am. Had said a fond farewell to Darren, packed the rest of the stuff, got a coffee from a local café and was ready for the removalists at 8am. Jesus! It was the one of the guys I'd used to move me into Surry Hills, but working with a different guy. However he walked into the flat, recognised half my furniture and it turned out he used to work for another company and had moved my stuff into storage 2 years ago. Comme c'est bizarre. As they say in Wales. Having been organised for once in my life we were actually done here in Bondi by 10.30am! Crikey. Unpacked a bit and then me and Charlotte had brunch in our local café - 'Love in a cup'. Much better than the name suggests! Back here and Garry and Mat came over and helped me fix up the telly and CD player and so on.

Went here for some beers. They serve beer in pints like the UK whereas the traditional Aussie serve of beers is a schooner - which is two-thirds of a pint. 3 pints of Stella later... we came back here for champagne, wine and trashy music. Oh, and toast and chocolate! Finally headed back into town to the Oxford, and Mat headed off. Garry and I had a quick beer or two and then we'd been invited to a party courtesy of Paul and Peter. So we tipped up at this place with beers and basically just said to the hosts 'You don't know us, we're friends of Paul and Peter and we have beer'. They welcomed us in like long lost friends. I know a few people there from when I lived here before and the party was great. It was Fred's 50th birthday and at his and his ex Adrian's place. The punch had a quick effect and considering the hosts didn't really know us they kind of adopted us. Lots of fun. Also, Adrian is very cute...

Minker la-la. On to the Pheonix to continue the partying. I'd been a couple of times before but never seen it in full swing. Small place but busy and with atmosphere. Also good music. Lots of cute men and flirting. Adrian was getting flirtier and flirtier... Garry disappeared some time around 3am before he fell over. Paul and Peter made their excuses. Adrian and Fred took me along to Arq - Sydney's main club. Oddly enough it opened as I left last time so had never been. It was fun, from what I remember!! Fred left me and Adrian to it about 6am and we finally left at around 7.30am. Back to Adrians...
OK. Almost a week since the last blog. A combination of minkering, moving and the odd Blogger problem have conspired against me, but now we're back (from outer space).

I was last ranting about Howard Jones's lyrics (maybe he was an early 80s version of Bridget?), my inability to do much and a bit of general malaise. Well, all change. Thursday I got myself a bit more organised and did some sort of organisation at least. I'd arranged my fitness assessment at the gym at 10am and an interview with a temp agency at 2pm. That kind of filled my day and so felt a bit better about everything. Gym felt good to be back. Interview went pretty well and they seem hopeful of being able to place me. Fingers crossed. We'll see. Beers with Garry that night and no sooner had we hit the Oxford than we bumped into both L of D (Darryl - nickname because of a t-shirt not dissimilar to this one) and Brad, a mate of Danny's who came a spent a minkered weekend with us a few months ago. Flirting and being friendly seemed to be the order of the evening and various people came and went through the group. We grabbed some pizza and were joined by Richard, a guy Garry met a while back and who we see out from time to time. Well, one thing lead to another and soon me and Richard made a move to leave...

Friday was a good day. I had made another gym appointment and stuck to it. Garry had a day off and we had brunch and then hit my place. Garry helped me dissemble the telly and packed up the kitchen for me whilst I packed as much else as I could. Soon though it was 6pm and time to hit the Oxford. The gang eventually all turned up - Mat, Tony, Andy, L of D and his boyf Gary (who knew Tony and none of us had made the connection), and minkerers various. Darren (see 3 weeks ago) had messaged me to see if I wanted to catch up and so he joined us too. We hit the Beresford after some scran and then me and Darren slipped away...

Wednesday, September 05, 2001

HUMAN'S LIB

Sometimes I'd like to
Go to bed with a
Hundred women or men and
Lose my mind in
Lust and drink and to
Hit some people into feeling good, oh

Sometimes I'd like to
Dance in the street
Don't wanna go to work
Just wanna lay in bed all day

Why don't you then
Why don't you then

Life just seems oh so
Meaningless and who can
Blame us for wanting these things
But you just try being
Free my friend everyone will
Hate your guts
I only want to be free
Haven't listened to the Howard Jones album in a long while. It's a real find again. Songs that were once familiar being heard again with fresh ears. Had never really listened to the lyrics before. Think Howard must have been having a bad time when he wrote some of this stuff. Bless him. Oh, and I've changed my posts so that they are chronologically sorted within days. Seems to flow better. Lemme know if you prefer it the other way. Missus.
Except of course I didn't. Off the list after today?

Booked removalists.

Don't hold your breath for anything else. Couldn't get going today. Diarrhoea back so hoping it's not the giardia resurfacing. Managed to find out that the online specialist recruitment company called in the receivers in May. Thanks. Found an extra temp agency so three to call tomorrow. Didn't gym as was too tired. Headed to the pictures (Tuesday is cheap cinema prices all over Oz) and watched Final Fantasy. The animation is incredible, and I found the film highly watchable. I was in the mood for little intellectual stimulation, but it really held my attention.

Over to Garry's for noodles and then we took a long walk to Circular Quay and a couple of beers at the Paragon. Nice. Home. Chats to Danny online.

Oh yes. Moulin Rouge opens there this week. Go see it. I really, really enjoyed it. A true 'spectacle'. And camp as all hell.

Tuesday, September 04, 2001

Strange day already. And it's only 10.30am. Ended up reading Bruno's book until gone 3am last night. Then woke at 5.28am having had a weird dream about hallucinating and seeing people in this apartment, the lights fusing, me being unable to change the fuses, Garry arriving, this place being in a different building and being told there was going to be torrents of running water flooding through the ceiling, me having a torch that I kept forgetting about. Weird. At 7.15am I woke again, and this time it was with lingering dream memories of being pursued by two guys in a semi-menacing way. I lived in a round building with lots of glass and I was trying to hide from them. Odd. Was awake and so finished Bruno's book - I do read quickly. Not sure I warmed 100% to his writing style, but I did quite enjoy it. Bits were quite moving.

I also decided to check out the website that I was working on before I left work. It's finally up. Really odd seeing it there and now no longer being a part of it. Strange to see things I've written and tested and proofed actually existing. It's quite thrown me.

So now it's time to get up off my arse and do stuff. Lots going on - see last night's list. Let's get to it.

Monday, September 03, 2001

Blogger lag. Lagger blog. Either way I've been remiss. I left you Friday afternoon. All in all the weekend's been a better one - mainly because I've actually felt properly better for the first time since I actually arrived in this bloody country! Friday night was the usual - drinks with the boys down the Oxford. Me, Garry and Mat - the Three Musketeers. Or should the be the Three MinkeredBeers? Down to the Beresford for bears night and then the Shift and stumbled home.

Saturday had a slow start to the day. Watched Video Hits and then I'd planned to catch up with Darren (the nice guy I met a couple of weeks ago). However, he had to work and so I joined Garry and Mat down at the IMAX cinema. We rather stupidly (in retrospect) went for the double movie deal as it was only $5 more. After a lovely healthy McDonald's it was time for Cyberworld. Fun. Essentially a number of short animated pieces linked very loosely with a bad plot, but the 3D effects are fantastic. After that we saw Alien Adventure, which isn't so good. Also because of the size of the screen and the whole 3D thing going on you feel quite queasy, and the second feature was based around a theme park. We walked out of their quite green! Retired to Garry's place then couldn't resist the lure of the Oxford once more. We planned to go to Newtown, but in the end couldn't be arsed.

Sunday I arranged to meet Darren at 3pm, so that gave me enough time to meet Garry and Claire (from his work who I'd met on Thursday) for brunch. We went to one of my old haunts in Victoria Street and had eggs and bacon. Darren arrived here at 3pm. We'd arranged coffee, but I wasn't sure whether it was coffee, or "coffee". Turns out he wasn't sure either. Fortunately it was "coffee" so a good result all round. He's a nice guy, and I think will end up a good mate. I joined Garry, Mat and Scotty in the Oxford about 7.30pm and for some reason it was a much better night than either Friday or Saturday. Maybe coz I had a spring in my step! We headed to the Shift, which was surprisingly packed and a hoot. Lots of cute men and girly music. Finally home about midnight.

Today's been the lazy day to end all lazy days. Lots to organise for moving and phone calls to make and letters to write and so on. So I did nothing. But I do have to go on public record to say I love Scally. I've been having problems loading Office on to my PC and he sent me a possible way of fixing it. It worked! I now have Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access. Good to brush up on for possible temping work, so thanks once again matey! Oh, and I was meant to go to the gym again today, but knocked it on the head coz of hungoverness. I made rice and chicken and peas. Still trying to eat plainish food to keep the giardia at bay. Rang Paul and Pete and met them in time for Bruno's book launch. My first ever one. Not quite as entertaining as the scene from Bridget Jones, but enjoyable and a smattering of lovelies to admire. Joined P and P for dinner near here and it was really nice to catch up with them again. Must do that more often. They're trying to make me go out with them this weekend. Think I will. Be good to do something different for a change. Came home and got a call from Tim Red Shoes and we gassed for an hour. It was nice to hear a friendly voice, and a reminder that I've not actually spoken properly to mates from home for a while. Emailing and instant messaging is all well and good but as BT once said, it's good to talk.

Bed soon. Tomorrow is the start of the doing stuff. On the list is:
Book removal men
Gym
Haircut
Phone 2 temp agencies and 1 recruitment company
Sort out bills
Sort out tax stuff
Laundry
Start packing
Etc.

You get the idea. Not only do I need lists, but I need to then cross the things off them. Oh, and Charlotte the new flatmate's back from the UK tomorrow, so need to catch up with her. So far I don't think she know's I've resigned! It's also cheap night at the movies, so might go and see Blow. Check back tomorrow and see how much I actually did!