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...

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...

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.

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!

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!

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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!

Lazy day so far. But feeling much more upbeat about most stuff and that's got to be good news. More later. Probably drunkenly.

Better today. Much. After a lazy morning I went to IKEA and finally got the missing screws for the bed. Back and into town via a play on here. Dragged Garry out to the Oxford, where we had a good flirt with L of D - or Darryl as he's really known. Fun. The on to Garry's work karaoke do.. though I didn't get to sing. Home. Bed. 12.45am. Sleep now. More later. D xx

I am King of the Uneventful. Never has so little been done by one person for so long. Got up. Did nowt. Except visit the toilet too many times. Damn this Beaver Fever! Finally got my act together and showered and shaved and readied myself for a trip downtown. It was at this point that the heavens opened. Great. I had soup. The weather brightened. I went and paid my last rent on this place and then hit the movies. Planet of the Apes. Well it passed a couple of hours. So much for the 'surprise' ending. Saw it a mile off. Home. Shite telly. I mean really shite. I will tell you all about how dull Oz telly is, but maybe not tonight. It's still raining and cold, so tonight it's heater on and an early night. Best news of all is that I've not been to the loo since about 11am. Am very hopeful as I've also done a couple of farts. Believe me, as news goes for the last week, that's a pretty major deal for me!! :o)

Well another very, very uneventful day has passed. Yesterday concluded in dull style. Had tea with Tony and we tried a bit of half-assed clothes shopping. Home to crap telly. Bland chicken and boiled potatoes so I could take my tablets as a cure for the giardia. Watched Boston Public, The Secret Life of Us, spoke to Dad, Karen, Garry and Darren and left messages for Stevie P and Richie and Martyn. Bed around 11pm. Over it all.

Hopes for miracle cure overnight were scuppered by the 7.30am run to the bathroom. All's been OK since 10.30am though, so hopefully I'm over the worst. Sorted through my CDs which has been niggling a while, and tried to install various bits of software on here that I've been meaning to reinstall since I reloading the entire operating system. I think my CD drive is buggered though. Some stuff loads, some doesn't. Annoyingly one of the things that won't load is Microsoft Office - so I can't look at or create any Word or Excel documents. Pain. Think I might have to send the PC away to be fixed which is even more of a pain. May try and coincide it with going into the sun. Still need to sort that. Dull night ahead. More plain chicken and boiled potatoes. Crap telly. Early bed. Can everyone wish for something nice to happen please? Thanks.

Am still not well. Fairly quiet weekend. Friday's joy at feeling better was scuppered by waking with stomach cramps and so on (I'm sure I don't have to go into great detail on here...) early Saturday morning. Friday night was OK though. Saturday had to get out as otherwise I'd have gone mad. Garry and I walked to Newtown and had a look round there. Quite good fun. Back to watch the World Music Awards (dreadful) and then in theory Twelve Monkeys. However we ended up playing on the net and hitting the Oxford and the Shift. Sunday still not right bowel-wise and so stayed here. Garry came round and we messed on the net and drank tea. Met Mat at the Oxford at 6pm-ish and I was home to watch Babe - Pig in the City at 8.30pm. Bed.

Still no better this morning so have been to the doctors. Got giardia apparently, and now have some pills to take for it. Should sort itself out fairly quickly apparently and so fingers crossed. I'll try and eat more as the week progresses and get back to the gym when I'm a bit stronger. Trying to work out the few days in the sun. Talking to Tony about it at the mo - in fact meeting him for coffee (or weak black tea as it will be for me) within the hour. A quiet week I think. I'm so ready to be fit and well. Hey ho.

Thanks to whoever sent me an e-card via CardWish. I can't thank you personally as it won't let me pick up the card. Apparently the sender has violated their terms of service! I'm assuming it either maybe doesn't like rude words, or thinks it's a nuisance card. Or, apparently, you sent more than 30 that day. Please make yourself known to me so I can thank you!!

What a difference a day makes. I feel so much better today. Slept really well last night, and over the course of the day have felt better and better. Going out to meet some of the boys for something to eat. Won't go too mad, but it's nice to feel human again. Yippee. Oh, and congratulations to niece Melissa who got 8 GCSEs yesterday - 6 grade Bs and 2 grade Cs. Mel worked really hard for them so well done :o)

Flu is bad. Not a very happy hedgehog right now. Am actually feeling much perkier than I did this morning, but am over being ill. Heading to bed and seeing if I can finally sleep. Realised I've not actually slept properly for about a week. Not that surprising given all that's been going down, but I could really do with a good night of proper restful sleep. Let's give it a go... nighty night.

It's flu. Feel crap. Have done all day. Bed now. Hardly slept last night. Have dozed on and off all day. Congrats to the quiz boys. More tomorrow.

Hmmm. Weird old day. Slept badly again. Up at 9am. Got a message from Tony asking if I wanted to do lunch. Decided to fix a small problem with the PC. Ended up taking from 11.30am until the last phone call finishing at 8.45pm. Jeez... Interrupted that for what was a nice lunch with Tony in the park. Ate pizza and finally got the PC sorted out. Caught up with everyone's blogs - made for good reading today. Good luck to all the quiz boys (currently having a quick chat with Jon) and thanks to Rob for bringing so many memories of the Tavern flooding back. The answer is 5 by the way Rob! :o) Right, going to bed in a sec as I'm for some reason very shivery, cold and achy. Oh dear. Hope it's not flu :o(

A day of leaving stuff to settle. Chats to Dad, sister Sue, Andy B and Garry. Ringing other sister on Thursday (yes Katty, that means you!) to chat and get my niece Melissa's GCSE results. Other niece Julia got her A level results last week and has got into the Uni she wanted so she's very happy. Well done Jules! Bed for me very soon. See if I can sleep better than last night.

Quick blog as I'm in an internet café as AOL isn't working at home for some reason. Had a great weekend. In short (as I'll blog more later from home) Friday had a lazy coming-to-terms-with-quitting-work day and a drunken night in the Oxford with the boys. Saturday we went 10 pin bowling which was actually a lot of fun. Of the 7, 5 of us went to have food and then Garry and Mat came back to mine. We drank 3 bottles of wine, listened to very trashy music and then went to the Oxford. And then to the Newtown and then to a club called Caesars. Fun. Drag shows a go-go the best of which involved Kylie's new single. Met a nice man called Darren, which was unexpected and fun. Met Garry for brunch at Fez on Victoria Street and then walked down to Woolloomooloo for a beer. To the Oxford and the Peter and Paul had invited me to join them at Milk + Two Sugars back in Woolloomooloo. This to help David P's friend Bruno celebrate his birthday. Kind of OK. People have said good things about 'Milk..' but it wasn't that special. Back to the Occy and finally to the Shift before home. Bed. First day of wondering what to do next. I think a few days in the sun is priority one. My brain will function so much better after that...

OK. People are getting slightly concerned about my blogging and I think also about my state of mind!! Here we go. It's like this - by mutual agreement I've left my job. Been paid until the end of the month but actually didn't go back after lunch yesterday. I feel SO relieved. I've never felt so completely overwhelmed by anything in my life. I mean I know I've moved 12,000 miles away and haven't settled in the flat and the Tony stuff and all, but the job was just too much. The boss did finally agree that maybe it was too much for someone new to the country and two completely different marketplaces, but that's little comfort. It has made me realise I don't want to work long days for big bucks. I kind of knew that already, but the ambition fairy still rears its ugly head now and again. So, what now? Answer: Dunno. I think I'm going to use some frequent flyer miles and head up the coast sometime next week and have a few days in the sun and let my brain un-fry. After that? Temping short term I reckon. Turn up, do stuff that isn't too taxing, go home. Once doing that I'll look for work. Online editing seems to be what would suit me best. The job that reported in to my last job. Oh I did pitch that to the company, but for various reasons it couldn't be done. Anyhoo, suffices to say I'm feeling better about being here than almost any time since I've arrived. Yeah it's all a bit unknown, but that's part of the fun. Oh, and I've still got cold and am coughing a lot. Best head down the pub then.

I am OK though peeps. Really. Thanks for all the messages of support from those of you reading between the lines on the recent (and sorry to say fairly dull) blog entries. Things will pick up again soon. Maybe I will too! :o)

I need a holiday. It looks like I've got the chance to have one :o)

Today's phrase is: I AM BEWILDERED - see below, meaning 2.

Main Entry: be·wil·der
Pronunciation: bi-'wil-d&r
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -wil·dered; be·wil·der·ing /-d(&-)ri[ng]/
Date: 1684
1 : to cause to lose one's bearings
2 : to perplex or confuse especially by a complexity, variety, or multitude of objects or considerations

It's 5.30pm and I've survived the day. I still feel pretty ropey, so I'm going to go home soon and have an early night. I've had a chat to my boss and we're both going to think about work possibilities within the department or within the company, but it looks like we've realised this is too big a deal - certainly for me coming in cold, maybe for one person at all. Nicole has mentioned also me taking a bit of time out to think about what I want - do you know how appealing that is right now? We're meeting again in the morning. I've got to think what I really want to do career-wise. Now considering I've had no real idea for the last 18 years, I'm wondering whether tonight will be any different?!?

Well. Not sure how this day's going to go, but I've a feeling it's not going to be good. I'm full of cold today - what I thought was a hangover yesterday was in part this cold too I now realise. Just read everyone's accounts of Brighton Pride. I miss you guys. Special thanks to Rob, and little Rob too, for mentions above and beyond the call of duty - Rob on his blog dedicating the early part of the RVT as the 'Uncle Hedgehog' session and little Rob in an e-mail where he just said that there was a little section of the dancefloor in the Tavern that people dance around in memory of me. It made me smile. Something I'm not doing as much of as normal.

Work is not enjoyable. What should be this most fantastic opportunity has become way too stressful. Already. And it's only day 2 of week 6. I honestly don't know if I'll make it to week 7. If I leave, then I (hopefully) can temp and survive until I get another job. Dunno. I'm over having to make decisions. I just want to turn up for work, be told what to do, do it, leave on time and do gym and other stuff. I don't want to be arriving at 8.30am, feeling bewildered, stressed and unhappy until 7pm or so every night. I thought I'd be fine once I got going, but no. It's just not working. Watch this space...

Oh, haven't blogged last weekend. In brief:
Fri - down to the Oxford for beers. My mate Phil was in from Melbourne and staying with me, but we didn't actually hook up that night other than giving him the keys. Beers with the boys then meal with Tony and Andy. It was fun, though at the end, when we went back to the Oxford for one last beer, I really just wanted to be going home with Tony. Not to be. Felt a bit low. Fell into bed.
Sat - up very early. At the gym by 8.40am! Ran a bit, did the second half of my program, ran again, had brekky in town and was home by 11.30am!! Met Garry and we went to the Taronga Park Zoo, which was fun. Great views on the ferry over, and from the zoo itself. The weather was spectacularly nice for winter. Dinner with Phil and his mate Dean in a fantastic pizza place in Paddington. Down to the Oxford after that, and then the Barracks. Bed at 2.30am.
Sun - up about 10am. Phil had gone out for brekky so I pottered a bit. Managed to walk into one of the glass doors in the apartment and break my phone. Not happy. I thought the door was open - d'oh! Said bye to Phil and met Garry for lunch on Victoria Street - my old stomping ground. Big Brekky at Una's which was great and then we went for a long walk through Kings Cross and down to the Botanic Gardens. Fantastic. Lovely day too. Ended up back at my place looking for Kylie websites. Like you do!! Down to the Oxford for the Sunday session at about 7pm - Mat and Justin were there, as was Scott and a few others, and we got talking to another guy called Darryl who is very sexy but a possible serial killer. Which was nice. Down the Shift and finally on to the Pheonix which was probably a bit much for a Sunday. But fun...

Right. More later. Probably from home. This afternoon could be very interesting...

Remember this from the other day?

Day. Hell.

Shit. Fan.

You decide.

Today is worse. Much worse.

Monday morning. Hungover. In for an 8.30am meeting with my boss. Who didn't show. Great. More later. Things are OK. Not great, not terrible. Oh, and my mobile's broken. I'll tell you about that later. I'm a div! OK, boss has arrived...

No time to blog, AND I'm going bald. Great.

Too much to do. Maybe. Lots going on. Bad at blogging. Just a quickie until I structure my day. Yesterday I joined the gym. Today I have my workout program organised at 1.30pm. Yikes. OK. More later when I get going...

A better day. Up and to the doctors, though didn't sleep well last night as I was thinking about some overdue work. In the end I tipped up at work and called a meeting with my boss and asked for a bit of time and a bit more help. It was granted! I think she realised it was a tall order. It's now due Thursday last thing. Great. Manageable. Spent the rest of the day doing a list of things to do and then had a good meeting at the end of the day. Home to meet the nice electrician man who has fixed the lights, the oven and a loose power point. Filled in my second census in as many months. Food. Tony called. Feel better generally about that. Play on the net - chat to Danny. Bed now.

Damn. Just realised I said I'd call Scally in realtime mode after chatting online at the weekend. I completely forgot. Sorry matey!

Monday afternoon. Hmm. I'm hungover from last night and desperately need some food. Well the weekend came and went. Friday night was beers in the Oxford with the guys. Tony was there but we didn't really talk much. Saturday was a lovely day. Surfed the net a while, took in laundry, bought gym shoes (finally! still haven't been yet though...), had brekky in town. Wandered around for most of the afternoon just mulling on stuff. Out with Garry to the Oxford and then we decided to venture out of town a bit and go to Newtown. Beers in the Newtown first and then on to the Imperial for dancing. The music in the Newtown was like the Tavern, and we had our first hearing of Your Disco Needs You actually out in a bar! The Imperial was fun too - good music, fun crowd. Mat and Mike joined us and I finally stumbled home around 2.30am. Up quite early Sunday and chatted to a couple of people on the net a bit. Went up to Bondi to see Tony. We went for the most glorious walk along the cliffs and finally to a park with the most amazing views of the city. We also jumped the fence of a house being built and explored - I've not done that since I was a kid! Fun. Back to the beach for ice-cream and more of a talk about us. We're gonna be mates. He hasn't ruled out something more happening but I think in my head I have. For my own sanity. It was nice to spend time with him though. Hey ho. To the Oxford yet again to meet the gang - Garry, Mat, Justin, Mike, Haydn, Phil, Kev, Scott.. fun. Lots of girlie singing - particularly to things like A-ha and S Club 7. Onto the Shift as well... too much beer!!! Home and fell into a drunken stupor.

Today isn't a good day. Feeling low. Work is kind of OK, but I think the next couple of weeks are going to be stressful. I need to get back to the gym and get a routine going for the 5 weeks between now and moving. Tony offered good counsel on that yesterday. He's right too. A bit of regularity might restore some sanity. We'll see. Anyway, time for some lunch. I may blog some more stuff later ...

I refer you all to the archives of these very pages. Remember when I banged on about this? Well the situation has been rectified. We can all now sleep safe in our beds. Thanks for this link goes to Ian.

Well I'm slightly befuddled and really not in the best frames of mind. Can't really remember what I've done since the last entry. Wednesday worked late - until gone 8pm. Home, food, brief chat to Tony. Bed. Yesterday I didn't blog as Blogger was down. Work was OK . Got the content map finished. Left work at a reasonable time and nipped briefly home before meeting Tony to go to the movies. We saw 'You can count on me', which was actually very good. On then to grab some food, bumping into Denis and Justin (Brett's friends from Perth) on the way. Food was good, but less good was 'that' talk that Tony and I had at the end of the meal. He needs time out. From me. Too many things going on for him right now. He's uncertain about where we're headed, but rather than just stop he wants to clear his head of all his other stuff and then see where he's at after that. This probably means that for the next three weeks or so we won't see much of one another and, if we do, it's as friends. I wondered if this was a way of letting me down gently. He assures me it's not. He's not lied so far, so I have to believe him. Not sure I can play the waiting game though. It'll kill me. Hardly slept last night and so am a) exhausted and b) for some reason on the verge of tears. Not a great look for my weekly one on one with my boss. Still. I'll get through. I always do.

I had one of those infamous 'I think I'm a witch' moments this morning. Waiting to board the train to work I decided that if I started playing 'Eurodisco' by Bis (the extended dance mix) as I got on that it would finish as I was getting off. Result? Almost to the second. That means that of my 30 minute or so commute, the actual train ride bit accounts for only 26.67%, or 8 minutes. There's about 17 or 18 minutes walking (12ish from home to Town Hall, 5ish from North Sydney to work) and the rest of the time is spent buying a ticket and a coffee. Just thought you'd like to know!

Pinch, punch, first of the cliché. White Rabbits. Grey Hairs. Etc. Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat? No, but I can pull a hair out of my nose. Oh dear...

Two large lattés and some toasted turkish bread and vegemite (I am SO local) and suddenly the world's a better place. I feel better for the decision to move to Bondi and it being out in the open - I can start to plan at least and know that the time spent in David's place is finite. Work is better today - though this arvo am doing stuff I've not done before. I have to finalise the content map for the new TV Hits site. This has the potential to be one of the biggest sites in the teen marketplace down here and I really need to get it right. I'll let you know how it goes...

Nice to see that people have been reading the blog. Ian kind of sympathises with my unsettled feeling, and Scally is going to be in so much trouble when I get hold of him... it's so not the reason for moving!

Time for bed. Work got much better. I felt like I'd done something and learned quite a lot by the end of today - at last. I'm sure it'll all have disappeared once I've been to sleep but for now...

Home and a takeaway (very nice pumpkin chicken, rice and stir-fry veggies). Nice chats to Jonathan and Scally and then the final episode of Buffy. Also, the decision thing I've been alluding to re the flat? Well I can blog the decision now, as I've spoken to David the landlord. I'm moving. For whatever reason (and to be honest it's hard to put my finger on it) I've not settled here. Maybe it just doesn't feel like home. Maybe I need more of a change of lifestyle. Either way, I've given notice. Of course I've already been plotting. Actually one of the reasons for things not being right here is missing a flatmate. Nick was such fun to live with and it's not been the same without him. However, things kind of seem to have worked out. Charlotte from work is (sadly) splitting up with her boyfriend and their lodger also recently moved out. So, she needs a flatmate. I went to look at the place and, again for no real reason, it felt right. Nice place, nice room, own bathroom and balcony off the bedroom. Affordable. Lifts in to work some of the time with Charlie. And best of all? It's not much more than about a 5 minute walk to the most famous beach in Australia. Fantastic. I think I need to live somewhere that makes me think I've actually moved 12,000 miles around the world, otherwise I might as well have stayed in London.

So boys and girls. Further incentive to come and stay. The beach at the end of the road. Bondi. Available from mid-September...

So, 2½ hours later and the rollercoaster that has taken over my moodswings has me currently back on upward movement... Went out at lunchtime into the sunshine. Ate sushi and feel better. Have meetings for most of the rest of the afternoon, ranging from the not very interesting to the learning how to properly put stuff on the sites. Yippee. At this rate I'll be suicidal again by 4.30pm and in the most fantastic mood by the time I get home!

My strange mood of almost three weeks ago is back. Lethargy. Procrastination. Inability to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Mild despair. Withdrawal from social stuff.

Still think it's a readjustment thing. I've not settled into the flat really, and need to make some decisions about what's best on that front. Work is up and down - some days I feel like I can breeze it, other days I feel like it'll never be within my grasp. Either way, I'm not doing stuff like I should. Lesson for today - lifted from Return of the Jedi I think (read in an old diary the other day): 'Don't try. Either do or don't do.' Hmmm. Gym - still not joined one and the longer that drags on the more I get pissed off with myself. I'm kind of hanging in case I make a dramatic change of plan re the flat. Though there's nothing to stop me going casually. And then there's Tony. Who is lovely. But also going through stuff himself at the moment and I'm maybe taking it all a little too personally rather than being there for him. Just because someone else has things going on, it doesn't automatically follow that they're anything to do with me. But of course I do think that and then that gives me another reason to beat myself up.

The sun is shining today, which can only help to lift my spirits. I really, really need to get off my self-pitying arse and do stuff. 'Don't try. Either do or don't do.' OK. Time to do some of the former. Doing the do. Betty Boo.

OK, so who stole the day? It's gone 5pm already and I've no idea what I've done for the day. Yesterday ended up down in Bondi for a couple of beers with Charlotte and then on to Tony's who served up some fantastic home-made minestrone. We watched The Jackal (where, for the first time ever, I thought Richard Gere was OK as an actor) and then hit the sack. This morning we had a team meeting and the rest of the day's just been spent getting my head around things to do! Sales meeting just finished and now... er, pass. More later.

Well what a weekend this hasn't turned into.Weather from hell. Rain through the end of the week continued into the weekend, with it also turning incredibly windy. Friday night ended up staying in as it was too miserable to do much else. That's the continuing theme of the weekend really. Saturday I managed to take stuff to the laundry, grab brekky out and return to the comfort of the flat. (I say comfort - everything's relative. I've not really settled down here...watch this space for impending news - it's decision time). Did some work in the afternoon - not much mind you - and listened to music. Ultravox, Shakespear's Sister, Right Said Fred (no, really), Sunscreem, Dead or Alive - ahh the memories. Having decided to postpone the Mountains, Tony's thrown himself into work and so not seen anything of him. Wasn't going to go out last night either, but Garry called and so we ended up having a couple in the Oxford and the Barracks. It's now early afternoon Sunday and I think I'm going to do some work for a bit. May give Charlotte a call and wander up to Bondi, and try and hook up with Tony a little later too. It's stopped raining, but it's still incredibly windy and could still be showery at the drop of a cliché. It feels very English and autumnal. 'Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness. Close bosom friend of the maturing sun. Conspiring with him to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatched eaves run.' Or something. You get the idea. More later.

Well today is almost over. Well, the work part. Good-ish day. I think. Lots to read and work on over the weekend. No partying for me. :o(

The *NSYNC thing was pretty much as expected. Beer and sushi. Film on very big screen. Good dancing. Instantly forgettable songs. More beer. More sushi. Wraps. Satay sticks. Home. Bed. Yee-hah.

Up at 6.30am to talk to Nick. We sorted out all the bills and outstanding stuff (finally!) so that was good. Good meeting with boss lady at 9am. At doctors over lunchtime. Have agreed to participate in an asthma study. Get me.

Off home to a lazy night. No plans. Need to get my head round some work stuff at some point over the weekend, but it might not be tonight. See how the mood takes me.

Jive Records Australia and IMAX Theatres Present "the" POP experience.

You and a friend are exclusively invited to the Australian launch party of the brand new album 'Celebrity' AND the premiere of the IMAX film

*NSYNC:Bigger Than Live

Thursday 26 July from 6.30pm sharp!

Hmmm. Wonder what my biorhythms say for today?

Why I oughtta... If I'd have been with the boys at the Transatlantic Blog Meet with Michael, I'd have got Kate Bush before he'd finished the lyric. Here I was this morning shouting it at Internet Explorer like a man possessed. (It remained unmoved.) It may have been in part due to the fact that I was only playing 'The Dreaming' earlier in the week - it being one of the hidden delights of getting several hundred CDs out of storage. Check out the Blogmeet pic that Michael links to too. Michael, you're looking good!! Oh, and Michael, sorry to be such a pedant, but it's 'Sat in your lap'. What he gives, he takes away... Love ya!!

The rest of Monday passed fairly uneventfully until I met Garry in the Oxford. He had a couple of mates here from the UK, and before I knew it I was a little minkered. Minker Lite. Stumbled home, ate and fell into a coma.
Tuesday was day from hell, not helped by waking at 4.40am and not being able to get back to sleep at all. In fact I went onto the net for an hour and spoke to Nick, who thinks the flatmate thing is now sorted in the UK. Fantastic. Into work and the day was just not nice. Lots of bitty things wrong, a couple of things slipped through the net and I had a couple of meetings where I just thought 'Help!' Home, chats to Kaz, Dad and Sue. It was nice to speak to everyone and hear some familiar voices. The cooker finally gave up the ghost on Monday night too, so last night was Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Basil, Microwave-stylee, with some Sweet Chili Sauce. Very nice! Chats to Tony, where I bleated on for ages (bless him!) and then Buffy and bed around 11pm.
I slept! Yay. Woke feeling better and into work. Better day here. Got my head around the Sales operation and what I have to do as E.P. and then we hosted our first live Webchat for K-Zone. The kids come come and chat to the Editor and get all their questions answered about their favourite mag! </end corporate bs>
It was actually a lot of fun and went off really well. Yay! Right, off home now - where I'm going to eat, answer some email (sorry to all of you I've been slow at replying to!) and then do a bit more work. Yes, you heard. Laters... you may get a post-work from home bleary-eyed blog later tonight, but don't hold your breath!

Day. Hell.

Shit. Fan.

You decide.

The weekend passed relatively uneventfully, and all too quickly. Friday night was beers in the Oxford with Garry - and various other protaganists appeared including Tony, though he went off to bed early-ish as he still had a day of the conference. We stumbled down to the Beresford to be joined by Jonny Boswell - great to see him, but I was a bit minkered by this point and can't remember what we talked about. Must ring him this week to find out how he was... oops!
David B was meant to come over Saturday morn to go through the flat stuff, but demurred after throwing coffee down himself. Way to go. He called at 9.10am and I took two headache tablets and slept through until 12.30pm. Garry and I decided a movie was the best option and ended up wandering down by Darling Harbour and up into town before grabbing a coffee and heading to see Bridget Jones's Diary. Good film - very enjoyable, quite funny, very British. Out for more beers with Garry Saturday night - just Oxford and singing to trashy songs on the jukebox. Home around midnight and chats on the net to Nick.
Didn't sleep very well and woke for good at 8am Sunday. Pottered about on the net before getting my act together and sorting out the flat. Think some bits are missing from my bed, so the plan to reassemble that went out the window. Also, it was miserable weather - first prolonged rain since I've been here. I had a haircut, collected laundry and grabbed a Thai curry for scran. Tony came over about 5.30pm and we hit the Oxford. Three beers with the boys then back to mine via a takeaway for Tony. Watched The Mask of Zorro with a bottle of wine and fell into bed around 11pm. Could have done without the fire alarm going off at 4.34am...
Didn't sleep well after that and so consequently I'm a bit tired. Left Tony still asleep, lucky bugger. Right, time to do some work. More later...

OK - the weekend's over and so you don't have to wait any more. It's actually not that exciting, but at least it's made a few people sit up and ask me what I've been up to! The task from last week that I hadn't done for a year or so was, in fact, ironing a shirt. Congratulations to my sister Karen for guessing correctly. However, I'm not going to divulge about which of the other suggestions I have or haven't done... and in fact my statement about having done all but one was in fact false when I actually read the suggestions in more detail!

Michael likes English words, and has a list of them on his site. I'm not sure if it's a particularly English word, but one word I like, and used for the first time in an SMS message today, is foist. Nice! Unsure what it means? Go here.

Am I a bit of a git? You tell me. Things could be worse. I could have made you all look at this...

So, your answers flooded in. Well not so much as a flood as a stream. Actually not so much of a stream as a trickle. Thanks guys and gals. They varied from the sublime to the ridiculous, the innocent to the downright filthy. Cue drum roll and hush amongst the audience. Here are the nominations for the 'What I did the night before last that I hadn't done for a year' category:

Church
Hoovering
Growing an inch taller
Going to bed early
Helping an old lady over the road
Went to the cinema
Sorted out all paperwork and filed it
Painted a wall and watched it dry
Gave myself a pedicure including red nail varnish
Wrote some letters
Did a whole pile of ironing? Even the things at the bottom of the pile that are a) out of season or b) out of fashion or c) don't fit?
Stayed in???!!!!! (Nah. Not possible.)
Took it up the butt. :-0

I'm not sure what to make of the suggestions really. One of you got it right. Excluding the correct answer, I've done all but one of these things within the last year, and I'm working on one of the others. You decide which. And the winner is...
.
.
.
.
.
.
wait for it...
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.
.
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.
.
.
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I'll tell you tomorrow.

He he he.

I did something last night that I haven't done for ages. In fact the last time was probably almost a year ago, maybe more. Oddly enough, I quite enjoyed it though normally I bang on about hating it. What could it be?

If you haven't got your mail client set up, just send a message to daveboyes@hotmail.com, titled 'Last night I think you...'. Best answers blogged tomorrow.

David's responsible for this (though he stole copied the link from elsewhere). It's a Personality Disorder Test. He's an avoidant narcissist; I'm a histrionic, narcissistic obsessive-compulsive. Histrionic? Me? Meeeeeee? MEEEEEEE??????

Disorder : Rating
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: Moderate
Antisocial: Moderate
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: High
Narcissistic: High
Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: High

Click Here To Take The Test

It's a funny old world. There I was, sat on the loo at work here in Sydney when I came across something I'd never even considered before. Above the cubicles, attached to the wall is a box. I hadn't really given it much attention, though I'd occasionally heard an odd noise whilst in the bathroom. No, not that. I started to examine the box a bit more closely and it suddenly dawned on my what it was. The thing is programmed to emit a spray of air freshener every so many minutes to keep the place smelling of roses. What a fantastic idea. All rise in salute to the inventor of the automatic air freshener.

Another thought. What if it's based on how much smell you create as opposed to a certain number of minutes? If not, surely that version won't be long... though it's not included as an application for this.

I found out today that Netscrape users can't the the lovely little title tags I put on my links - that's the bit of text that appears and says something like 'Ooh missus'. I urge everyone to use Internet Explorer to see the site in all its glory! Mind you, it actually only amounts to 8% of you that are using Navigator...

Lunch. Sushi. Yum. Very cheap over here, and good quality too. Big box is $6.60 which equals about 2 and a half of your English pounds. What's more it's good for you! How cool is sushi?

I'm tired. My eyes hurt. Otherwise I'm OK. Testing is dull. Looking at the eighty-seventh revision of an e-card (why can't agencies ever actually read the brief you send?) gets kind of tiresome. I'm away soon. Easy night. Food. Maybe tune in the telly. Laters...

Busy day today. Site template testing on different platforms. Was meant to be having lunch with David B the landlord, but he's cancelled. Stayed up late sorting stuff out and rearranging the furniture and so on last night - finally got to bed some time around 2am! Oddly enough though, I was in early this morning. How does that work? Also, had the worst muffin this morning. Missus. Not happy!!

Initially typed 'finally got to be some time around 2am' in the sentence above. Oh wow, that's so existential! To be or not to be? That is the question - asked about how soft my pencil lead is. Missus. You can take a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead. OK, I'm losing it. Meeting time. More later.

Damn. Considering how good my memory can be, I forgot to mention a couple of things:
Mouse mats (x4)
Cheese grater
Measuring jug

Don't even ask why I bought 4 mouse mats. I said don't ask! Unless you can work out why...

Entry before last saved. Thanks to safe mode - you can go and edit the HTML directly which I needed to as I'd rendered the edit link unreachable!! Of course this will read like I've lost the plot, as everything will appear normal to you guys. Suffices to say there were problems, honest!

Yikes. I've no idea what I've done, but most of my blog entry has suddenly become part of the title of one of my links. D'oh. Don't you just love Blogger? Though it's probably me not closing speech marks or something. I'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

Up later than I wanted to be today. Conscious at around 7am and then felt groggy when I finally woke at 8.07am having failed to set the alarm. The walk down the the station is good for the soul though, particularly on an again gorgeous morning. My walk takes me past Hyde Park and I also get a great view of the AMP Tower (Centrepoint as was), both of which looked great in the morning sun. Big breath. Take in view. Everything seems better.

For some reason today, the last bit of my walk found me singing Rockabilly Rebel by Matchbox. Why? I've no idea. Rebel? Maybe. Rockbilly? With this hair?? I don't think so.

I've yet to work out Sydney Transport's pricing policy. For three days last week it cost me $3.00 for a day return to North Sydney. One of the other days cost me $5.20 and I think (though I may have misheard as it was my first day) another day cost $5.50. I guess it's a peak hour thing, though in all but one of those days I've travelled before 9am. Maybe they change the peak hour time on a daily basis. Maybe not. All I can work out at the moment is that the price seems more expensive after about 8.48am. Maybe I should ask. Maybe I should buy a weekly ticket. But who's to know what price that might be?

Finally for the moment THAT view. The one from the train. The Harbour was incredibly calm this morning in the bright, early sunlight. I had coffee and a ham and cheese croissant nestling contentedly in my rucksack. Perfect.

Weekend synopsis:

Friday: Quiet beers with Tony that kind of escalated. Suddenly there were about 8 of us, and quiet became a bit louder. Tony and I ate at Cafe Comity and then back to mine to crash... and crash we did.

Saturday: Woke at about 10.30am feeling a little worse for wear. Managed to just about get our act together and head off to pick hire car up for noon. Got the car, which smelt of a) cats b) garden centres and c) used jocks, and headed to Bondi for fantastic brekky at Tony's local - Brown Sugar. Green eggs - wonderful! (And no, I'm not referring to this, but to scrambled eggs with pesto - couldn't find a link for the latter!) Left Tony to work and headed to the SupaCentre at Moore Park for a supposed shopping frenzy. Garry and Mat joined me there, but our sum total of purchases were 24 tea light holders and 2 CDs. Home and sorted a bit and then chatted on the net to Danny and Wayne. Headed to Tony's at around 9pm for Thai food and then Tony worked and I watched telly and read a bit. I hit the sack at around 1.15am, Tony finally stopped working around 3.30am.

Sunday: Woke at 9.50am. Meant to be at Ian's at 10am to pick up the telly and CD player! D'oh. Rang but no answer so Tony and I wandered down to the beach and had coffee as it was the most fantastic morning. Winter. 19ºC. Go figure. Ian did then ring so Tony headed back to yet more work and I went down to Darlinghurst. Got my things!! Yay! Finally also met Terry - Ian's other half. They've only been going out together for about two years now... Got everything set up at the house and dropped Ian back on the way back to the SupaCentre. Boy my life is SO rock 'n' roll! This time I held no prisoners. I bought:
Fitted sheet set
Webcam
Plug extensions
Iron*
Ironing board*
Kettle
Bed linen (x2)
Tea towels (x6)
Vase
Lemon squeezer
Coat hangers (x16)
Plastic containers (x5)
Potato peeler
Kitchen scales
Colander
Plastic cups (x6)
Bath mat
Scissor set (x3)

I think that was it. God, it's like playing that game at the end of The Generation Game. No cuddly toy though. Dumped everything back at the ranch, dropped the hire car off, came and showered and shaved and hit the pub. Met up with Garry and Mat again, and got drunk and did lots of girly singing. Hmmm. Not a good look. Home, drunken phone calls and bed. Way to go!

*For guests obviously

Been for lunch with Bel and Charlie to a local-to-work eatery. Nice! Went to the nice deli for coffee afterwards and caught up on all the goss. Feel better generally today... thanks to those of you who sent messages relating to me feeling a bit low. Not sure what the night holds, or the weekend for that matter. Think tonight may just be quiet beers. Saturday is car hire day! May well go on a bit of a shopping spree for those bits not yet bought (possibly with Bel looking for bed linen and doonas - rock 'n' roll!) and then Sunday is the finally pick up the TV and CD player day. Yee-hah. Looking forward to that as the flat will seem much more like home. Can't wait. Need to speak to Nick the UK flatmate to sort out a few things there and I need to do the gym join thing. God, it's just gone 4.30pm and it's starting to get slowly dark. Winter eh? Sheesh.

Thanks to those of you commenting on the spelling of the last post. You know who you are. Tim Johnson. The comments were actually copied from the Harry Potter site. So there. Take it to Warner Bros. Meanwhile, it's finally happened. Grammar and spelling are obsolescent in the light of SMS messaging - it's official.

"Beater practise"

"Wand: Unicorn Hair, Yew, 9 inches!"

"Chaser practise"

"Slither in. Sorry, Slytherin"

No, it's not some new fetish night on the scene here in Sydney. I've been here...

I think I'm a bit sad. Time to go bananas.

"Still on for tonight?"
         "I sent you a message saying I'm gagging for it. Missus."
"Been at clients all arvo. See you later for a session. Madam."
         "Can't wait to get my lips around the first one. Matron."
"It'll slide down your throat a treat. Missus."
         "I like to have one in my hand and one in my mouth. Vicar."

Yes, Garry and I are going out for beers.

Ay ay ay. The times they are a-stranging. Have gone into the most weird mood starting yesterday. Don't know why, but it's here. It's kind of a mix of feeling down, a bit lost and wanting to put my head in the sand and make everything go away. I guess it's not that surprising really, given what I have gone through in the last few weeks. In fact only 3½ weeks ago I moved from the flat in Elephant into Peckham. It seems like aeons ago.

Of course there's absolutely no reason for this feeling. At all. I've moved to a country that I love, I have (what seems like it will be ) a great (but demanding) job, a circle of friends from when I lived here before and some new work colleagues, and the possibility of a partner in Tony. So, why the funk? A period of readjustment? Just getting my head around the fact that I'm actually here? The realisation that now I'm here it's not really any different than London was? Except for going out less...

It is winter though, and the most marked difference here is that this will last only 2 months of the year instead of the summer being over in a nanosecond. I need to sort the flat, get to the gym, eat healthily and focus on work - after all, I have a site to relaunch in under a month.

OK matey, pull yourself together. Show these Aussies what you can do. Guess I'd better go and a) slap myself around a bit, b) get my website producer head on and c) think about what to have for lunch.

SNAP OUT OF IT!!!

Re-read the earlier blog entry and it's a bit dull. Come on Dave, you can do better than that! Sorry, think my brain is overloaded with new stuff. I could tell you about the commute in more detail. I have about a 10 minute walk to the train station, but it's through town and I go past a number of nice little coffee bars which is great for me in terms of sustenance, but bad for me in terms of waistline (if I don't get my arse in gear and do some exercise).

The trains here are different to the tubes in London. They are incredibly regular, reliable and are double decker (how funky is that?). I only go three stops - Town Hall-Wynyard-Milson's Point-North Sydney. The best part of the journey? Crossing the harbour on the bridge. The train emerges from the tunnel and on the left is all of Sydney Harbour laid out to the Blue Mountains in the west - lots of inlets off the harbour, lush greenery, docks and wharfs, catamarans whizzing commuters to work, Luna Park amusement park on the North Side giving a sleazy seaside town feel to things, the swimming pool (even busy at 8.30am with keen athletes).

On the right side (and with a better view on the way home) is Circular Quay, home of the Opera House. Seeing that each morning is the kind of pinch-yourself reminder that you're on the other side of the world. The Quay is also home to a big ferry terminal full of yet more commuters. Oh, and loads of those street type entertainers that dress up as the Statue of Liberty and frighten small children. The harbour opens out as it heads towards the Pacific, with more docks and wharfs cityside now converted into funky apartment buildings and the Taronga Park Zoo and other fantastic things North side.

Then the five or so minute walk to the office where sadly, as already blogged, there are no more views. Not a bad little trip all in all, and a couple of nice deli's this side of the harbour too, to stave off hunger lunchtimes. Right. More tea. Vicar.

Nice night last night. I've no idea where the time went, but go it did. Home about 6.30pm after a swift commute home. Tried to get the fax software sorted on the PC at home. I can fax out OK, but have problems receiving stuff other than doing it manually, which isn't the point really. I think I may have to get another phone line installed in the flat. Went online and chatted to Danny a while, which was fun and nice to catch up with him. Tony called and came over from a late meeting bearing gifts - beers and crisps. We like that. Sat and chatted and then went out for dinner. We couldn't decide what the hell to eat but finally settled on sharing a big risotto and a big salad. Nice. Home and chill. Bed. The flat is definitely cold. Much better for having someone to keep warm with :o)

Lousy host this morning though. Unable to provide brekky,as the contents of my fridge currently run to beers, milk, yoghurt, dips and apple juice. Also, I have no sugar, precluding making of tea for Tony. Also, coz the cooktop is a) electric and b) half knackered, it takes about 300 years for the kettle to boil. We walked downtown and bought coffee and muffins. Sometimes it's for the best! Into work and have been briefing an agency to design screensavers and e-cards. Rock 'n' roll!

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Morning two. It was cold in the flat this morning. I'm not going to get a summer for ever! Here at around 9.15am having managed a coffee on the way but bringing in a ham and cheese brioche. Mmm. Checked mail and arranged lunch with the girls (Charlie and Bel, maybe Helen). Going to read a content plan so that I can be knowledgeable when I have a handover meeting at 11am. Not sure I'm going to get used to this working lark again. Or, more importantly, this winter lark.

I think my brain is full. Next.

OK. It's 2pm on my first day at work. I guess I should be doing something, but I haven't quite worked out what it is yet! So far so good. The best start to my new job? The fire alarm going off at the apartment at 5.50am. I'd not even considered what might happen in the advent of a fire. No one else in the building seemed to be moving, though it was kind of hard to tell. The good news? Within about 5 minutes the fire brigade arrived, and turned off the alarm. The bad news? Within about 10 minutes it went off again. Great. This time I stayed in bed and sure enough the fire truck came back and turned it off again. Hopefully this won't be a regular occurrence! So I tossed and turned a bit and finally got back to sleep with just enough time to fall into a really deep sleep before the alarm went off. Joy. And it was bloody cold when I did finally get out of bed!!

Managed to trough some brekky before leaving the house, and the commute's not too bad. 10 minute walk to train, 10 minutes on the train, 5 minute walk to office. The train goes over the harbour and gives the most incredible views. I can glimpse the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as I walk from train to office, but sadly I have no further views once in work.

Big team meet first thing (every Monday apparently) and then, as the Pet Shop Boys would say, you only tell me you love me when you're drunk. Er I mean I've been left to my own devices. I've located the kitchen to make coffee, I've found the café downstairs to buy coffee and I've had a trip to the local deli (in the rain!) to buy great (but relatively expensive) lunch type stuff - oh and more coffee should I desire it. Ah yes, and the toilets. Found those. To get rid of the coffee.

I now have a laptop, email access (but not to Hotmail! Sniff...) and a phone. I've been through the CMS (Content Management System) with my editor and read a couple of proposals. I need to immerse myself in everything that is Youth Entertainment. Or is that Yoof? I know it'll come with time, but I feel kind of helpless in that I don't know about anything yet. Everyone else does. Don't you just hate that?

Had a quietish weekend otherwise. Beers with the boys Friday night, followed by Indian with Tony and kip at mine. Well tried to. The apartment is quite noisy through the night, just by virtue of being in town. Tony had a big work weekend ahead and needed to kip. He doesn't do noise very well in terms of sleeping. I worried that he wouldn't sleep and so neither one of us slept that well. I was up for brekky with Ian at 8.45am Saturday, which was nice. Great to catch up with him again. Brought Tony coffee back almost 2 hours later and he'd slept. He then went off to do work stuff and I pottered. Walked down to IKEA but decided I couldn't face it, so walked back again to Ian's. Saw his place (lovely!) and saw my TV and CD player for the first time in almost 2 years (even more lovely!!). Headed back to mine and was diverted into the Oxford by Garry. We then did noodles and went and say Moulin Rouge. Great film. I really, really enjoyed it. Camp as hell, good use of contemporary lyrics in a period piece, just all round good entertainment. Dizzy camera work in the opening 15 minutes made me wonder if I was going to enjoy it, but enjoy it I did. Go and see. Big time.

Went to Tony's for cocoa (no, really). No, really. Up Sunday morning and after brekky did manage IKEA. And then did laundry, haircut and headed downtown for other stuff. Teapots and mugs. I know how to have a good time. More beers at the Oxford twixt 6-8pm and then home to merry UK phone calls. Nice to chat to everyone. Bed. Nice weekend though quiet. Most bizarre thing? Realising that as I came into work for the first time here, the Tavern was just closing. How weird is that??

Fantastic! The PC is up and running - and seemingly quite fast! It's amazing what you forget and/or remember about stuff that's been in storage for so long... I spent ages looking for the modem yesterday until my ex-flatmate reminded me that this PC has an internal one... D'oh! Mind you, this is about all I've managed for the day. Still, this does mean that I'm back connected to the outside world. Marvellous.

Things I'd forgotten about in Oz:

Scented toilet paper
Cockroaches

The apartment is taking shape, though slowly. Can't wait to get the TV and, more importantly, the CD player back from Ian's this weekend. Only when I can dance round the living room in my underwear will it really feel like home...

Bought 'Bubbles' the vacuum cleaner yesterday. We are very happy together. Went out for beers with Garry (2 'R's) and Mat (1 'T') last night at the Oxford - fun, though I got incredibly drunk incredibly quickly. Had to leave around 9.45pm before I fell over. Bed by about 10.15pm and didn't wake until 9.30am. Have pottered (tea, muffins, the odd phone call) and am now going back to the flat to sort through more stuff. Today's agenda:
Empty 2 tea chests full of CDs
Re-assemble bed for second bedroom
Fully clean kitchen
Unpack completely
Take washing to laundry
Etc. etc.

It's my last weekend of freedom before work starts in earnest on Monday. Oddly the most minkering thing I feel like doing is having a couple of quiet beers. Having an early brekky with Ian in the morning, pre-IKEA. Charlie has invited me to a party at hers tomorrow for Tracey leaving so I may nip down there. Dunno. What's kind of nice about knowing less people is that there is no pressure to go out - I can do nothing if I so desire. I might just do that...

Well I see it didn't take me long to be replaced at the quiz. Thanks guys. I'm Dave, in case you've forgotten... (sniff).

I have furniture! It's like Christmastime - and I don't just mean the weather (it's bloody cold today!). All this stuff I put into storage in September 1999 - and now I'm opening box after box and thinking 'God, I don't remember that!'. Most bizarre thing I've found so far? A plastic bag full of fridge magnets. Really. Off to plan my day. Doing IKEA on Saturday (I know how to have a good time), so may just head into town and buy linen, a king size doona and a vacuum cleaner. Don't you just love moving 12,000 miles away?

Meeting good. People seem like nice people. Boy will I have a lot to learn starting Monday. OK, so I'm going to enjoy my last few days of freedom. However, I've got to be somewhere 20 minutes out of the city, after having picked up the key to the back entrance of the apartment, by 8am. D'oh. Time for bed methinks.

Right. Web site designs browsed, magazine browsed, off to meet my workmates. Most scary of all on the web site designs was the 'Meet the Crew' page - which will include a picture and profile of everyone involved in bringing the sites to life. Hmmm. My first decision as producer???

Hmm - my act did so not get itself together yesterday. I did organise the removalists, tracked down the key to my storage from Ian, organised to get stuff in the morning and arranged access to the new place with the caretaker. Not bad. I so didn't buy anything. Not a thing. Not even a sniff of a pillow (makes a change!). Ended up back at Tony's watching the tennis whilst he worked.

Am now in an internet cafe going over the designs for one of the magazines I'm going to be working on, as I have my first work related meeting in 2½ hours. In before that to meet everyone then straight in, no messing (no change there then).

Life down under? It's really happening...

Today's the day - to get my act together. Things to do:

Move to Surry Hills.
Phone electricity company.
Phone guy about new cooker top.
Phone storage people.
Phone removal people.
Phone Ian to track down other stuff.
Phone Garry, Phil, Jon, Brett, everyone else...
Go through web designs for tomorrow's work meeting.
Buy quilt (doona), pillows, linen.
Have takeaway.
Resist Tony's kind offer to come back up to his house tonight.
Maybe...

Monday morning going slow... except it's Monday afternoon and I've not long been up. Hmm, thought I'd managed to escape the jetlag - seems there's a little still lurking after all.

It's been a weird weekend. Picked up the keys to the flat on Friday night, as posted, yet I'm still at Tony's. He's been great - very hospitable and also has reintroduced me to the joy of loose leaf tea. No, really. Twining's Irish Breakfast Blend. It's the most tea-like tasting tea I've had in years.

Still can't really believe I'm here. Saturday night went to a party at the invite of Paul and Peter, and it turned out I know one of the guys hosting the party. John. Kiwi guy. And, as it turned out, I knew about 10 other guys at the party. Fantastic. Made me feel right at home. Also, one of the guys, Denis, had moved into the same apartment block as me that very same day. Someone to go and borrow cups of sugar off. Fantastic!! I flagged just after midnight though, and came back here. Sleep.

Sunday was a nice day - another great day weatherwise, and this is winter. Ended up down at Darling Harbour and was persuaded to go bungy-trampolining with Tony and Kelley. No, really. (Can't find a decent link about it either). On then to see Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (which was better than anticipated) and then home. Food and an early-ish night.

Not sure what the rest of the day holds. Should get organised. Got a work meeting on Wednesday, but otherwise just really need to sort out the new flat - get my furniture out of storage, track down Ian (who has my TV, CD player, microwave and PC), get the cooktop fixed, buy some kitchenware, start the flatmate hunt etc. I'll keep you informed.

But I'm here. And oddly, it feels like I've been here for years.