Ouch!

Wednesday afternoon just before lunch. Strange mood today. Listless. May go for walk to clear my head. Slight Michael fog. Wish I could get him out of my head more quickly than I am doing. Hey ho. My bedroom roof leaked again last night. Great. Waiting for the real estate guy to call me back. Went to the gym last night and then Rich and Russ had me over for dinner, bless 'em. More gym tonight and no real other plans save gym all week actually. Got a few things to buy and sort ready for the weekend away. Right. That was possibly the dullest entry on record. More later if I feel a little more inspired.

It's Tuesday already. How did that happen? Good weekend, though I'm a bit stiff and sore at the moment... to find out why and where (and it's not what you think!) read on...

Friday night was good. Decided not to do the gym as I had the 10K race on Sunday. Instead went home and prepared dinner and left it cooking whilst I went and met Tony for a swift couple of drinks. We were joined briefly by Richard and Pete and eventually Rich came and we hit our place for dinner and the Matrix on DVD. I had every intention of going out for a couple more beers but after some red wine decided against it. Early-ish bed!

Up early Saturday morning and hit Fox Studios via GoGos for coffee. Picked up all my race pack and headed back home. Couldn't decide what to do and so went and bought new trainers which I'd been coveting for a week or so. Ended up having a slobby day - more coffee with Adrian and (his) Michael, Rich and Russ etc. and then was at a loose end come Saturday night. I was hanging to go out, knowing that I couldn't coz of the race. Ended up having pasta and watching Pleasantville on DVD - highly recommended. In bed before 11pm.

Woke around 5.25am and forced some brekky down and headed to North Sydney. Met up with Tony and Pete and before long we were waiting at the start of the 10K Bridge Run from North Sydney to Fox Studios over the Harbour Bridge. Fanastic day - not too warm at 7.30am. I was aiming for a time of between 50 and 55 minutes based on my time for the 14K City to Surf back in August. I was hoping I might break 50 mins. In the end I came in at around 46 minutes (official time still to come!) so very happy about that. Walked home with Pete and then Garry and I did brekky at Una's as I was starving. Pottered about a bit and finally met Tony and Pete for celebatory meal at Tropicana before heading down to the Green Park for the usual Sunday session. Fun night. Got very drunk in the end. We did the Palace and back to the GP and were joined at various time by the usual suspects. Finally bed around 10.30pm having resisted the urge to kick on with Rich and Russ.

Very sore legs yesterday and blistered ankle (though not from the race!). Night off from the gym and instead rang and chatted to Dad and then for ages to Karen. Lovely to speak to sis again.. it's been a while! Less sore today. Going to brave the gym tonight as only 4 more sleeps until Melbourne. Have a feeling there'll be stories to tell come Monday afternoon...

Friday lunchtime at work. Still madly busy, so here's a very quick update.

Wednesday night caught up with Michael for dinner, having worked myself into a lather by 8pm when he didn't call to confirm. I rang him and he'd forgotten! Great. Anyway we did catch up and it was OK, though a little forced. I think I'd benefit from not seeing him for a while and I think that'll happen as he's in Melbourne this weekend and then I am next weekend, so a chance to take stock.

Yesterday work went mad as previously described and so I didn't get home until almost 7pm. It wouldn't have done me any good to get home earlier anyway, having left my keys my jeans pocket on the floor of my bedroom - doh! Forced myself to the gym and then came home and ate and played on the net until bed. Rich is coming over to dinner tonight as Russ has to work until 10pm and that's about the extent of the weekend plans to date. What else was I going to blog the other morning? Ah yes... a couple of throw away things.

When I log into my PC at work, it comes up with the message 'Reading tree information'. I half expect it to come back and say that I'm out of mine.

Electronic music - good for the brain when it's in over-analytical mode. Well it works for me - the more white noise the better. Sometimes. To that end I bought the Bomfunk MC's album In Stereo. It's perfect for letting your ears be assaulted. I was always a fan of Freestyler - I used to groove around the offices at Chrysalis doing very strange dances to it, much to the amusement of Amanda in particular I seem to remember. Anyway, suffices to say it's great - if you break it down it's kind of awful, but at the same time it works. Anyway - it'll be staying on my discman a while...

Doh. Had lots of things to blog from work today and then the day went and got busy and that was that. Time for bed now - well in a minute. Just catching up with old flatmate Nick in Bangkok - finally! It's nice to chat again, even if it is only online. I'm plotting a long weekend there after my flight concessions kick in mid November :o)

Wednesday afternoon at work. About to go for a walk up to Mascot - the nearest town from work. It's not ideally placed for much round here to be honest, and I kind of wish I worked in the city so I could catch up with mates for lunch. Never mind.

Slept very badly again last night. Not sure what's going on - maybe just me settling down after all that's been going on. Up for Liz the personal trainer and at the gym by 7am this morning and am a little achy it has to be said! Decided to bin Mascot and so must munching on a tuna sarnie. Beautiful day outside again. Trying to work out ways of doing something that's a good use of time at lunchtime. There's no real gym or stuff. Hmm - any suggestions anyone?

OK, so I started this once and then managed to turn my keyboard Chinese or something and ended up deleting everything! Not recommended. In short, as it's late and I need some sleep:

Felt better Friday after dinner at R 'n' R's. To Beresford and then Barracks and then home at 2am. Sleep.
Up 10am Saturday to watch Video Hits and have brekky. Decided to finally take a nice walk down to Broadway to do some shopping as it was warm and sunny and that's about 25 minutes walk. Big mistake. Having time alone suddenly brought all the Michael stuff on again and so I ended up buying nothing and coming back here. Met Adrian and (his) Michael and Rich and Russ for coffee and felt much better. Home, changed, dinner and then watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on DVD bought after coffee in a moment of need. Fantastic. Set me up for the night! To R 'n' R's and then down to the Shift for the Ruby Party. It was very busy and the music quite trance-y and before long all thoughts of Michael were gone as I danced the night away surrounded by lots of sexy men. Actually the crowd was a good mix and we had a good time. Finally, around about 7am it all ended and off we went back to R 'n' R's to shower and change before going to Allan and Ian's. Naturally we'd turned down an orgy invitation by this time. No, really. With a big strapping hairy American couple. (Don't ask me why we said no!)

We arrived at the party around 9am with a bottle of gin and the desire to carry on minkering. Oh, and boy did we. We just listened to music and chatted and recovered. People came and went, Michael phoned which was something, and finally we decided to make a move and hit the Palace and then the Green Park. Rich went home, me and Russ had a beer in each but I was very tired at this point having not slept. And it being 8.30pm! Spoke to Michael for a little while. Home. Finally. Decided to call Michael, but he was falling asleep and I was tired and emotional, so not the best of moves. Asleep by 9.45am.

And awake through the night, mind racing. Got up about 3.30am and played on the net. Finally into work as normal, very tired. Somehow got through Monday not feeling too bad. Home. Forced myself to go to the gym. Home, food, called Michael to apologise for giving him a hard time the night before. The usual stuff really! Net. Bed. 1am. Awake by 4am. Tired today.

Into work and had a review sprung on me. I'm glad I did!! It would appear that Qantas is very happy with me so far. I started on a Level 6 job with the potential to progress up to Level 9 in a rough given timescale of around 18 months - roughly 6 months at each level. However I've been re-graded staight to a Level 8 after 3½ months. Go Davie! Very happy with that and the extra money it'll give me. Spent the rest of the day very happy indeed. Remarkable. Home and to the gym to run (7½K in preparation for Sunday's 10K Fun Run). Back here and then to R 'n' R's for dinner and chats and tea and chocolate. Marvellous. Home. And time for bed.

Friday afternoon and I'm having a bad day. Just the whole Michael thing. It'll pass. Managed to speak to sister Sue and niece Julia today for the first time in ages. I woke early and so managed to catch them before bed. Nice to speak to them both. Jules seems fine, and Sue - consdering she's been through much more than I have of late - seems to be coping OK too. Fingers crossed for the flat purchase to go through unhindered...

Not really looking forward to the weekend, as it's going to be the first one in about 10 that's not been with Michael. What did I ever used to do before?? Tonight I'm going to have coffee with Phil post-gym, before going to Rich and Russ's for pasta. Probably head down to the Beresford for a beer or two. Actually did that last night with Martin and Garry. It just reminded me how vile the scene can be. Think that's maybe partly to blame for the mood today - I really don't want to have to hang around smoky bars full of nasty queens. Tomorrow - no plans. Might go clothes shopping as I desperately need to, then tomorrow night it's Pank's party; the Ruby Party at the Shift and then recovery at Allan and Ian's. Probably tip up at the Palace/Green Park on Sunday afternoon. Sounds in theory like quite a nice weekend. Only problem is, when you've just stopped seeing someone, you acquire the Klingon Cloaking Device. You know - you go out to bars/clubs and see nice looking men to whom you are completely invisible. What is it with that? Can anyone explain? (Actually maybe I should change that to the Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak so that I appear a little more au courant!)

And after all, things could be much worse...

It's amazing. No matter how badly things seem, nor how badly people (or should that be one certain person) has treated you of late, things seem so much better when the sun is shining. Today and yesterday have been glorious spring days - warm and bright from early on, nice breeze, balmy evenings... the whole thing's got an estival feel to it. I guess that's one of the reasons why I moved here (for the weather, not to be treated badly).

Great news is that Jason Harding is going to be here for a weekend soon too (mid-October). And then Scally soon after. Yay for visitors from home! (Though technically Jason is Australian, so he's hardly a visitor. This is home for him. All clear??)

Today’s theme (and probably this month too actually) is out with the old, and in with the new.

Out goes Michael, weekends in Erskineville and wondering if he’s a nice bloke (he’s not). In comes more gym, healthy eating and proper catch ups with friends rather than the snatched phone calls and hellos of recent (Michael based) weeks.

I tried to talk to Michael last weekend to no avail. Tried this week but due to various commitments we could only do Friday and he’d had such a big day I left it. We agreed to talk Sunday. However, after ignoring me for most of Saturday night it was obvious he was going to go home with someone else – so we had a few words and I left the club. I then went on to Arq, various other places and finally arrived home at 2.30pm. Joy. Spoke to Michael briefly Sunday and he dropped some of my stuff off and picked up his jacket. We ended up at the same pub Sunday night, and much as I want to I can’t hate him. Problem is, I want to help him change – which isn’t healthy. Nor does he want to (well I think he kind of does, but not now so there’s no point trying to make him think of anyone else other than himself). Anyway, I’ve left things with him. If he wants to try and be a mate then he’s got to make one hell of an effort. We’ll see if he’s prepared to. Otherwise if he continues to treat people this way he’s going to end up old and lonely. I did everything I could and that’s why I’m (so far) relatively OK about it. It’s a shame. I think there’s the potential for a nice bloke underneath it all, but he’s not prepared to make any effort to free him. Onwards and upwards.

Had nice dinners with Phil and Adrian last week, and even the weekend wasn’t too bad – a mate’s 40th birthday party on the weekend prior to the Michael debacle and a few drinks Sunday. Made the gym 7am yesterday and intend to go again before dinner with Tony tonight. There’s a Ruby party at the Shift Saturday night and so I’m probably going to end up there, and Allan from work is having a house party recovery on Sunday straight afterwards so that should be good. Haven’t been to a decent house recovery in ages.

OK – that’s it for the time being. I’m sure there’ll be more soon!

Another few days over, another blog devoid of content! Sneaking a quickie here from work - still not sure if I should be blogging from here or not, but until they stop me I'll have an odd 5 minutes here and there.

Things pretty much as was, though the Michael situation has worsened in that I don't think I can cope with his lack of commitment any more. I just think we're in different spaces which is so frustrating as he could be someone I'd like to really develop a relationship with. We're 'talking' on Friday night. Wish me luck...

In other news - got hideously drunk on both Saturday and Sunday nights - Saturday prompted words with Michael, Sunday was wine at lunch and then beer at the pub. Apparently I told one cute guy that a certain part of his anatomy would look good in a certain part of mine (or words to that effect); I was stroking someone else's forearms (nicely furry as they are) and we had dinner of which I remember nothing. Oops. Made the gym Monday at 7am somehow...

Had Rich and Russ over for dinner last night; at Phil's tonight for dinner; out with Adrian for dinner Thursday and to Michael's on Friday. Another week flies by!

I think I need to seriously reasses the time I spend on Minkered. It used to be so fantastic - all surreal links and stuff and now it's just a tawdry trawl though what's been happening in my life in increasingly tinier snippets. Still, it's been a while since I used the word snippets, so that's got to be a bonus.

Since the last (short) entry, things haven't really moved on. I've been going to the gym on a regular basis and am running lots too. Ran over 11K last Saturday just for fun - Am I mad? Well actually I was - in a bad mood that is, but either way it's all good. I've entered another Fun Run for 15 September - this one starts in North Sydney and the we run across the Harbour Bridge and then end up at Fox Studios. Been gymming every day this week so far and due there again tonight before dinner at Michael's I think. We're still seeing each other, in that non-committal non-official way that's driving me slowly bananas. He's under a lot of work pressure at the moment, but I just wish I could get something a little more concrete out of him. We'll see. More news as it breaks...

Work is going pretty well at the moment - no complaints there. Got a weekend coming up in the mountains fairly soon I hope, and then a weekend in Melbourne for a party called Beyond which should be fun. A couple of weeks later it's Sleaze Ball and then a month later the Gay Games kick in. Looking forward to seeing Scally and Jonathan and Mark.

OK - will try and get this think back on track very soon!!!

Yikes. In short. Work, Michael, running. George the Dog's birthday party, Kylie, Bad Dog party. City to Surf 14K Fun Run in 75 minutes. Back at the gym. Think the eye infection maybe trying to return. Bugger.

Well I said it was going to be in short. More later.

Aagh. Again. As seemingly ever these days. Fruits was OK almost 2 weeks ago now, and I can't really remember what's been happening! I know I spent all of that next weekend at Michaels and we watched videos (La Spagnola, Enigma and Hedwig) and sorted his house out (hanging paintings, re-wiring doorbells, stereos, televisions etc). Michael made soup. We did the Green Park on that Sunday night and then back to his. Had a full week at work out on the floor - still going strong and loving it. Oh, except I had Friday off as one of my rostered days off. Filed my citizenship papers so fingers crossed that all comes through OK. Went to the movies with Rich and Russ and then had nice food and a couple of beers and home. Michael went home to see his Mum for the weekend so I took things easy. Lazy day Saturday save the 7½K run in preparation for the City to Surf, then beers with Garry and Gary. Early bed so Sunday was up and about early. Coffee with Adrian for 3 hours in beautiful winter sunshine. Came home and made curtains for the apartment (no, really). Green Park which was fun as ever though a little strange without Michael as we've been the last 4 weeks together. Then up for the gym at 7am Monday and then over to Michael's last night on his return. I had an excuse as we had some rain for the first time in about 6 weeks and I've got a leak in my bedroom ceiling. Hopefully that'll be fixed tomorrow though. In training all week so early finishes for me. Ran another 7½K after work tonight and did loads of bank and bills related calls. Gotta like that. Right, bed. More later...

All OK to do the odd post from work I think, as long as I keep it clean!! Not much to report as yet since last blog... Monday you already heard about; Tuesday was gym after work, food and chats to Russ and Michael. Tonight is gym again and then out for something to eat with Adrian, Rich and Russ. Tomorrow is Fruits in Suits (or Bananas in Pyjamas.. or the best one Homos in Kimonos) which should be fun. Meeting up with Michael and Dean and whoever else we can drag along for some fun and frolics. Or just drinking and flirting as it turns out. Oh, and coz everyone wears a name badge it's a chance to find out who those man are whom you've always lusted after. You never know when it might be prudent to drop someone's name into the conversation. Actually it turns out like a Gaydar meet! We thought last time that people should have those IDs on their name badges too...

Isn't that just typical? Australian TV is pretty naff on the whole, but for about 15 minutes tonight on 4 different channels, we had Sex and the City, Buffy, Queer as Folk (US version) and the Simpsons. Any of which I'd settle for on a normal day. And all of this without a video recorder. Doh!

OK, this is a bit of a test blog from work. Not sure if I'm meant to be going onto certain sites from work, but I guess I'll soon find out. Here's a brief resumé of last week:
Mon - training at work, gym, dinner at Russ's.
Tue - training at work, coffee with Adrian and Russ, gym, dinner at home.
Wed - on the floor at work, no gym, dinner at home.
Thu - training at work, gym, dinner/stay over at Michael's.
Fri - training at work, no gym, I cooked dinner at Russ's, beers at Beresford/Barracks.
Sat - up and slob a while, bit of a sort out, coffee with Adrian and Russ, made and hung curtains for my bedroom, gym, over to Michael's for dinner, out to Pheonix, back to his around 6am! Sleep around 10am.
Sun - think we eventually woke around 12.30pm. Brekky then put up a tea towel rail in the kitchen and then a heated towel rail, a cabinet and a toothbrush holder in the bathroom. Snack and to the Green Park. Fun. Burgerman for nosh and then back to Michael's around 11pm.

All in all, a really nice weekend. More please! Right, let's see if I get away with updating from my desk...

More excuses and it's bedtime for Davie. At least I've managed to update the pic on the left to reflect more of a Corporate Davie having been swallowed up at Qantas. I have to say that I'm loving it there currently, which is great. Going through lots of training and realising that they've got a nice bunch of people. It's already been two months since I started almost, and those cheap flights in November are looking nearer and nearer! In other news, the apartment is still fun, and although it's a little noisy it doesn't really affect my sleeping so can't be too bad, and it's incredibly convenient. Only taking me 20-30 minutes commute, train dependant, so that's great too. Have been out and about a bit of late and have met some wonderful people, and it's astonishing that I've been here a year now. It's just flown. In other news.. met a nice guy recently and seeing how that one goes - I'll keep you informed! Otherwise my only grouch is that I'm still broke! It'll be a while until I can save again but in the meantime I've enough to get by and it's an incentive to do cheap healthy stuff like gym and so on. I've signed up for a 14k run - City to Surf - so I've got to get some training in! Watch this space. Right, more later. It should be a quiet weekend and I'm hoping to update a lot of stuff on here. We'll see!

OK. I know. Enough excuses already. If there's not a big update this weekend then I'll fly you all out here for a minkered weekend... Watch this space. And probably I'd start packing if I were you..

OK. it's Friday and it's late. It's so late it's very early Saturday. However this day cannot go unnoticed. One year ago I arrived back in Oz slightly bleary-eyed, wondering what the next few months would have in store. Little did I know...

More tomorrow on the year thing. Suffices to say I'm having a great time. Oh yeah. Laters....

So long overdue... Hello everyone. Two weekends have passed and it's already halfway through the next one. Bad Davie...

Have been hanging out with Rich and Russ a lot lately, and have also had some fun with Garry again, so all is well. Two weekends ago. Indulgence at the Shift - great night, lots of very sexy, hairy men. The Sunday brought Frisky, which was a little disappointing, then back to the Shift again, which was fantastic! Lots and lots of fun. Alan and Murray. Very sexy. On the 'to do' list! Back to R'n'R's for tea. Sleeeep. Green Park again on the Sunday. Fun, fun, fun.

Week - er, Craig was staying here. Couple of drunken fun nights. Particularly one with Rich :o) He he he.

Weekend just gone. Drinks Friday Beresford, Barracks. Fun. Sat night. Pheonix with Rich and Russ. So many sexy hairy men. Love it. Arq with Rich. Fun x3. Long dance with Kiwi Daddy Jon. Hated that! Back to R'n'R's for tea. Back here and chats to Garry and trashy music. Relaxing time. Shift in the night time to see Craig off. Which we did again with dinner Monday. Lovely dinner at R'n'R's last night though Russ is away. Steve and Anthony were there too and we watched Charmed, projected onto their lounge wall à la big screen. Nice night. Quiet one tonight. Waiting for Garry to get home then it's either Moulin Rouge, Mars Attacks or the Wizard of Oz on DVD. Fantastic!!

Help! Too much is happening. I can't cope. It's all fun though!

Ay caramba. What a weekend! Fun times a go-go. More later when I'm a bit more with it. For now though, sleeeeeeeeeep.

Oh, and a big hello to Jason Harding. Hey you... I will send you a long email soon!! You're one of the few people I can track on the weblog stats... Watch this space!!

Oops. Too long has passed since the last entry - I must get back on top of this (as the actress said to the cliché). A few things to report. Work is going great guns. Still mixing on the floor training with classroom training and all going well. It looks like I'll be controlling some of the flights based around either Brisbane or Cairns, though exactly which hasn't been finalised just yet. Expect full update next week, after the Queen's Birthday long weekend here. Still enjoying short days and lots of learning. Yippee!

Last weekend... hmmm. Ah yes. Arranged dinner with Andy for Friday night, but popped round with beers to Russ and Rich's to warm their new apartment. One beer led to another, then we had dinner and suddenly we were all a bit drunk. Andy headed home and Russ and I braved the Beresford and then the Barracks. I ended up hitting that 'I have to go to bed, NOW!' wall at around 1am, and so I did. Evil hangover Saturday, and didn't get out of bed until late. Did very little and eventually headed to Andy's about 5pm with a lift from Wayne. We had a nice BBQ and so on and hit bed. It was however time for that talk. Andy is a lovely man, and we get on very well, but there's not that spark to maintain things as a relationship. So we're friends. Which is fine. It'll be better that way. Still, missing the cuddles! Anyway...

Sunday we had brekky and then I came here. Went over to Russ and Rich's and we hit IKEA for a look-see. Back to theirs and Russ made some scones whilst Rich did ironing and I chose lots of 80's music. That's what Sunday afternoons are for! We decided to hit the Green Park again (the only place to go on a Sunday these days) before feeling a bit mischevious and heading to the Pheonix. Well me, Rich and Strati did - Russ was good and went home as he had to be up early. The Pheonix was surprising full for a Sunday and much fun was had! I didn't get enough sleep that night...

This week's been good at work. Nice quiet nights too. We had a rostered day off yesterday as there were some systems problems and I was ill all day - typical! Not sure what or why, but didn't really sleep well, finally dragged myself up around 1pm with a headache and watched DVDs all day. Ugh. Back pretty much to normal today though, so no idea what was going on there! Over to Andy's tonight for another BBQ and then I think a half day tomorrow and the long weekend ahead. Fantastic!

Midweek again. Well Monday night was as described - lazy and with someone else cooking. Marvellous. Tuesday was another shortish day at work followed by, as it turned out, a fairly sociable evening. Wasn't seeing Andy (as originally I was meant to be helping Garry with a pop quiz) and so settled down for a quiet one in front of the telly. With that Sally (from Borders) arrived for a cuppa and so we had a bit of a natter. Off she toddled only for Tony (Dr Darren's ex) to ring and see if he could come over for a cuppa as he's headed back to Blighty today. And so all in all it was lovely! Bed and the work today for the exam on the systems for overbooking of the flights. Managed a rather girlie swot 98%, so was quite happy with that! We got the the afternoon off, and I had every intention of doing some paperwork. However Gary (of Gary and Max) was online and so we arranged coffee which was much more preferable. We then went and bought him a kettle and an interview shirt before heading back up Oxford Street for more coffee! Back here and we finally did Garry's pop quiz tonight instead of yesterday. Spoke to Andy, who's not feeling very well bless him, then updated this and then time for bed. We're actually out on the floor at work tomorrow meeting our teams. I'll find out which routes I'm looking after too... all I know so far is that I'm either doing domestic or regional - more tomorrow!

Where oh where does the time go? Another week's beginning and I realise (yet again) that I've not really updated you peeps about the last one. Suffices to say I've been very quiet on most fronts - the eye infection and antibiotics kind of scuppered everything else, and I'm broke until I actually get paid by Qantas (see celebrations and much eating and drinking, sometime around 4 June!). There were two things of note from the weekend before the one just gone...

Andy was away up the coast with his friend Fahmi, and so I spent a lot of the weekend with Russ and Rich, and the culmination of the weekend's activities was me getting my nipple pierced, having my first beers in 3 weeks at the Green Park Hotel last Sunday and then us lot all piling down to Arq and dancing the night away until some 4.30am! And yes, I did have to be up at 6.30am for work. Joy. I wasn't in the best of spirits last Monday morning and ended up forgetting my Qantas ID and locking myself out of the house. Great! Thanks to Russ for saving me with tea and sympathy and a sofa to sit on until Andy came and got me! Rest of the week was better though, but I was in a foul mood as I realised how little money I currently have, and I also missed a credit card in the UK, which has been piling up with interest quite nicely thank you. Doh. Had quiet Friday and Saturday nights and did the Green Park again last night, but not Arq. Much more sensible.

Good job too, as we did lots of maths today - working out all the maths behind the availability calculations for the overbooking systems. Geek that I am I really enjoyed it! More tomorrow and an exam on Wednesday. This training malarky is great - we're currently starting at 8.30am but getting done by 3.30pm. Fantastic! Off to Andy's tonight as Andrew and Wayne are cooking. Nice lazy times. Joy.

Quiet weekend. Ish. Until Sunday. Oops. Will expand more later. Monday was not good! Rest of week quiet to date. Short days in Qantas training. Passed first exam. All going well so far...

Time for bed, Thursday night. Eyes are still not right and back to the eye hospital for me in the morning. Work after that. Had first day of systems training at Qantas today. Most freaky thing? Hardly a thing has changed in 12 years, down to the sign-in screen for the overbooking system being identical to how it used to be. Scary. Home early in time for the most spectacular storm. Went a bit crazy with the digital camera! Hopefully going to post the results up over the next day or so, and may well do what David's done and put a page of my favourite digi-cam shots. Meantime, I'll leave you with this. The sky really was this colour. Beautiful. I think it looks like a Turner painting...

Yesterday was Day 2 at Qantas. Or at least it should have been. Instead, it was a morning at the eye hospital and then home. Basically, my eye infection has spread to my other eye, and I might be allergic to the eye drops they gave me which could be exacerbating the problem. I'm now on my 4th lot of antibiotics. First they gave me these ones...


Pretty, huh? Then it was these ones...



Actually I've had two lots of these ones. And now I'm on these ones too.



That's how they look to me right now. Actually, yesterday I looked something like this.



Not a pretty sight!

Twas the night before Qantas, and all round the flat
Nothing was stirring, not Garry or Mat
(who's been staying whilst he finds new digs).

Tomorrow's the big day. Staying over at Andy's tonight, then back here for ironing, shoe cleaning, shaving etc.etc. Am starting to get a bit excited. Still feels a bit weird though. Had a nice weekend - very quiet and consequently just what I needed. Think these antibiotics are knocking me out a bit, as all I want to do is sleep. Friday night was a quiet one at Andy's with the lie-in we'd promised ourselves on Saturday. We hit Paddington Markets on Saturday afternoon and Andy bought a new ring (insert appropriate joke here). Saturday night we did a bit of a pub crawl but hated it and so came home early and I drove Andy's car back to his place as I wasn't drinking. Sunday was another lie-in, brunch at Andy's Mum's, a lie down, dinner and a James Bond movie on the box. Sleep and lots of it. Bliss.

Today started off with finding $20 in the street so treated myself to brekky! Sorted stuff out then bought work shirts, went to the doc's again (chance I might have to have a little lump cut out of my eyelid - more later), went into Borders and got my leaving card and pressie, went to the bank, had lunch, met Phil for coffee and back here for a chill! Wow. I'm tired just thinking about it. More news after the Qantas start tomorrow!

And lo, the coffee was brought on. Friday afternoon. Another glorious day and so I'm just about to head out and enjoy some of it. Yesterday's schedule was pretty much accurate, though Gary and Max joined Adrian and me for lunch and I ended up cooking dinner later as Andy's Mum wasn't feeling so good. Another nice early night over at Andy's place. Lots of cuddles :o)

Brekky today with Andrew at GoGo's after we dropped Andy off at work. Here and slob a while, before finishing off all the CDs, having a good old clean and a shower and so on. Another lazy night ahead - frankly I'm not going out with an eye like I have and whilst on antibiotics. The eye seems a little better, though it's hard to tell. I've decided to see how it goes over the weekend. Hopefully it'll be clearing by the time I start at Qantas on Tuesday. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile I think the weekend will entail lots of nothing, starting with a long lie-in with Andy tomorrow. It's stuff like that you really miss when you're not seeing anyone.

Today's busy schedule involves alphabetizing my CDs, having lunch with Adrian, coffee with Gary and later, dinner at Andy's Mum's. Nice and social, not too full on. Oh, and wearing dark glasses a lot :o) Yesterday ended up a social day too. After the doctors I started sorting the CDs but finally got bored, so went out for coffee. Martin phoned as he was on his way into town so he joined me. By then Pete had stopped by to say hi, Russ did the same, and once back at the house Rod called for a quick chat. Nice. I'm meant to be doing life admin stuff and so on, but honestly, feeling like I do, that ain't gonna happen. Bring on the coffee!!

Thursday morning, and no real change on the eye front. I'm over it now - I just manage to shake off cold/flu symptoms that were hanging around for ages and now this. Hoping it all clears up for the Qantas start on Tuesday. Waiting for a second lot of antibiotics to kick in - the first ones didn't seem to do anything. If there's no change by tomorrow morning it might well be into the Sydney Eye Hospital for me for some intravenous antibiotics. Joy to the world. I'll keep you informed.

Well, I'm not going to give you chance to comment on the posting below, as it's time to share with you, in graphic detail, just what I was on about!

That's gotta hurt!

Eye eye eye!!

Eye-sore!

Off to the doc's in a moment. Hopefully this will get better soon!

Q: What am I? I'm swollen, purple coloured, throbbing, oozing slightly and a little sore... Answers in the comments please!

Ah. That'll be 6th May already then. Where did the last week go? I've no idea. Well that's not true, I do have some idea.

Wed 1 May: Eye gunked over on awakening. Also still full of cold. Phoned in sick. Went to doctors. Had a day of sorting all Oz admin. Fantastic. Over to Andy's for dinner with Andrew and Wayne. Fun. Sausages and mash. Yum. Early bed.

Thu 2 May: Late shift at work. Andy picked me up after and back to his. Dinner for more of Andy's friends and bed around 11pm as Andy was falling asleep.

Fri 3 May: Finished at 4.30pm from work and came home and vegged. Invited for impromptu dinner at Russ and Rich's, which was really nice. Good company (as Andrew and Wayne and Triple F Steve there too), good food and wine and all in all a nice night. Back to Andy's for much needed sleep.

Sat 4 May: Worked until 5pm. Andy came here and we got a DVD and some pasta from the supermarket. However, having eaten and drunk 3 beers we were knackered and feel asleep on the daybad! Bed at 9.45pm. So very rock 'n' roll for a Saturday night...

Sun 5 May: First sleep in with Andy for ages. Bliss. Eventually up for brekky at Roobar (won't be going back, too expensive and not that nice) and then to Andy's Mum's to help clear out her gutters. Matron. Back to Andy's for, erm, a rest :o) Back to town as Pete was delivering us some bookcases, bless him. Then to Steve L's place for his 40th birthday drinks which was fun, then a quick drink at the Palace and 3 games of pool before coming back here and watching Return of the Jedi. Bed 10.30pm. Nice, quiet, normal weekend. Yay for Davie.

Today 6 May: Andy left for work at just gone 7am after some early morning cuddles. Brekky part one. I dragged myself to the gym to see Liz and felt much better after a workout. Home, brekky part two. Phil called in and we went for coffee, and then it was such a beautiful day that I went for a long walk down town and then through the Botanical Gardens. Beautiful sunshine and lovely autumn light. Fantastic. Home and then update of this. Meeting Andy for coffee in an hour or so then having a night apart! Shock horror! Doctors again in the morning and then just two more shifts at Borders.

More news as it happens from a settling down Davie...

Tuesday night and time for bed. A knackered Uncle Hedgehog here. Yesterday day passed in a relatively uneventful haze. Lunch with Russ which was a good bit, and then all I could do was watch the Matrix on DVD and then fall asleep for a bit. Ventured out shopping and came back and made soup - Courgette, Pea and Prosciutto (that's posh pea and ham to you!). Andy picked me up and we had the soup at his then hit the sack early and cuddled ourselves to sleep. Nice.

Up this morning and back here. Personal training session with Liz. I was so weak it wasn't true. Still trying to shake off this cold and I now have a very attractive sty on my eye. Thanks. Run down? Me?? The quiet life that I lead??? Back and fell asleep on the couch. Soup remnants for lunch then into work for 2pm for the slowest shift ever. I so don't want to be there! Mind you, only 6 more shifts... Finished work an hour ago at 10.30pm and now going to bed as I'm in again in the morning at 8am. Joy.

Well what a fantastic few days. It's been lovely for two main reasons - getting to spend quite a bit of time with Andy and starting to get to know him better, and having David and Brett here from the UK. Caught up with the boys on Tuesday night for pizza and a few beers with Bruno and Chris. Wednesday night met up with David and Brett and went for Thai with Denis and Justin before meeting Andy and joining Russ and Rich and Andrew and Wayne at Arq. It was surprisingly busy as it was a Public Holiday on the Thursday. Good music too. Andy didn't feel so hot so I brought him home and looked after him sometime after 2am. Sleeeeeeeeep. Lazy brekky then Andy drove us up to Palm Beach where we just had a long walk and chatted. Fish and chips on the way home. A real day at the seaside!

Thursday night was drinks at Bruno and Chris's place as another welcome to the boys and it was nice to catch up with Pete and Paul and Denis (again). Takeaway curry and more sleeeeeep. Brekky with Andy and Andrew and a bit of shopping before it all got too much. Gym and a sunbed for me, then round tp Pete and Paul's before heading out to Arq again (no rest for the wicked). It was decidedly empty this time round, but didn't stop us all staying out until about 5.45am Saturday! Ay caramba. Andy had been a good boy and stayed in, so he rang me at 9am to try and coax me into breakfast. I fell back asleep and didn't wake again until about 10.40am. Oops. Met David and Brett for coffee later with Andy and Andrew (are you starting to notice some sort of ritual behaviour showing through here??). Said fond farewells to David and Brett who were flying out that night. It was great to catch up with them and further proof that they are two of the loveliest men I know. Bless.

Then things took a turn for the (even more) hedonistic. Saturday night was Inquisition - a big leather dance party held at Fox Studios. Probably the third biggest party event of the gay calendar here in Sydney after Mardi Gras and Sleaze. I'd managed to score the leather bargain of the year by buying a pair of shorts for only $45 from a closing down sale opposite the flat. Marvellous. Although somewhat skimpy. So, regaled in all our finery we hit Adrian and Fred's for pre-drinks and finally scooted off the the party proper, arriving around 11pm. Everyone I'd ever met in Sydney seemed to be there. We'd picked up Adrian Y and Tony on the way through, as well as Russ and Rich and Andrew and Wayne and it was nice to spend more time with them all. The party was great fun - good music, incredibly friendly atmosphere and a very sexy crowd. What more could you want? It was nice to be there with Andy too - it's been a while since I'd gone to a major party with someone. I'd forgotten how much I like it. Come 7am we'd given our best. What else to do but head home, shower and sleep a wee while. Until getting up and hitting the Barracks for recovery from midday! The usual crowd were there too, and it kept us all amused until 5pm. Coffee. Home. Shower. Tea. Bed.

So nice to spend time with Andy. Lovely man. More please.

Currently Monday 9am. Ugh.

Yay - 5 days off. It's Wednesday night and I'm not back in work until 2pm Tuesday. Bliss. Inquisition in the middle of all this and David and Brett are here too. Yippee!

Sydney has more than its fair share of mad people. Oxford Street where we live is so full of them that Garry and I have rechristened it Madison Avenue. People asking for money, people chatting to lamp-posts, people shouting at the breeze... and this morning a quite attractive young woman singing into a hairbrush and dancing, playing to the audience that was her own reflection in a shop window. And it's not even time for the next round of auditions for Popstars. Mad.

Ahhh... an update after a nice weekend. Odd in parts, but nice. Ended up having a quiet night in on Friday. Andy texted me later than he thought he'd be and I'd already gone to bed. Still, an early night probably did me the world of good. I was working early Saturday too, but not a normal day in the book store for me, oh no. I was working at a science fiction convention called Supernova (for which I can find no link) for my sins. What a weird day. An incredible amount of people whose first language was 'geek'. Lots of greasy hair and body odour issues. I know it's all a bit stereotypical, but if the anorak fits...

Highlight (if that's the right word) was two Klingons in front of me in the food stall queue ordering calamari. It just didn't fit right somehow! And in a more telling moment afterwards... I texted Garry the flatmate to tell him of the above and how it just wasn't right. Strangely enough the predictive texting on my phone recognised the word klingon, but didn't recognise the word calamari!! Does this mean that geeks program the phone dictionaries or what? Hey ho. But it really made me grin.

Oh, and I also was attempted to be picked up by (probably) the only other two gay people at the convention... a couple who were there to promote their sci-fi film week. Nice enough guys but... does this sort of thing only happen the moment you start to see someone? Anyway the whole thing was just a bit too surreal and I was glad to leave and get home ready for my two days off.

Of course it was Saturday night, and for a change we were actually going out for a meal as it was Anthony's birthday. So, soon we were in the Lord Roberts and then on to a mexican restaurant called Café Pacifico. It was a good night though I was very tired. Beer and margaritas didn't really help, so I stopped drinking and sobered up long enough to make it on to someone else's birthday bash around the corner! That was also fun as lots of the gang were there. Finally home and bed for me at just after 1am.

Sunday arrived unannounced around 9am. Garry and Ant zipped off the the Blue Mountains but I'd arranged to meet up with Andy later in the day so I eased myself gently into the day with toast and coffee with Adrian. Hooked up with Andy and Fami for more coffee at Go-go's and then we hit the Forbes Street Leather Fair to see what was happening. As it turned out, not much was so we went for beers and came back later. Much more enjoyable then! Caught up with lots of mates and had more beer and just generally milled and mooched. Hit Foodgame for food and then the Palace for another beer or two with Steve Mac and his new man and then it was time for home. Well, Andy's. Shower, bed and The Empire Strikes Back. Perfect!

Today's been a productive day too. Brekky, gym with the personal trainer and a sunbed all before 11am. Lunch with Phil. Tidied the bedroom finally during the rest of the day now that I have furniture (limited) post IKEA trip. Managed to break my necklace, smash my lamp and break the toe off the glass clown that was my Mum's today too. At least that's three, so no more I hope! The flat's looking really good now. Actually, the Tales of the City thing is about to happen - hot apartment, hot job and hot boyfriend. Well in three weeks it will. I jokingly mentioned it to Andy at the weekend and said he's only got three weeks left! I was joking!!! Hopefully I'll get chance to enjoy all three for a while. Right. Bedtime now. Just having a wee MSN Messenger chat to Wayne and then it's away with me...

Friday night's all right...

Home from work and it's almost the weekend (except for me working tomorrow, obviously). Meant to hit the gym yesterday, but decided to sleep in. Probably a wise decision as I felt very tired. Work. Home. Andy picked me up and we hit his place for dinner and relax. Perfect. Good food, nice bottle of wine. Up this morning and Andy dropped me within about 5 minutes of work. Had time for coffee. Fun day at work - pub at lunch and I managed to give my Anzac day shift away (that's 25th April for you non-Aussies) meaning I've got 5 days off in a row next week and have time to spend with Brett and David whilst they're here. Oh, and in other news... Andy gave me a toothbrush for him to leave at my apartment. Guess that means we're officially an item :o)

Not sure what the plans are for tonight. I could go to the gym. I should go to the gym. I probably won't go to the gym! Andy's out for dinner and we're meant to be hooking up later for coffee. May go out for a beer with Garry - we don't seem to have gone out together for ages! Watch this space...

Wednesday night, and not an entry blogged. Oops. Here goes... Sat night was one of those impromptu nights that just gathers its own momentum and before you know it... We (we being Andy and I, Andrew and Wayne and Russ) started off in Newtown at a house party (and a very nice house it was too), then went to the Newtown Hotel and then the Imperial as it wasn't too busy. However, it was less busy there and so we went back to the Newtown until the Imperial opened its downstairs. However, by about 2am me, Andy and Russ hit Arq because we could! And a good choice it was too. Fun night, ending in me and Andy finally ending up here at 8.30am Sunday morning. Ay ay ay. Slept until lunchtime and vegged. Out to meet Adrian and Strati for coffee at about 6pm, then on to the new Sunday afternoon/evening thing at the Palace Hotel. An encouraging turnout - will this be the replacement for the Beauchamp?? Beers with Russ and Triple F Steve (remind me to tell you about Triple F if I haven't already) and then a quickie at the Shift before home and bed.

If it's Monday, it must be IKEA (the trip postponed from Sunday). Well, after a session with Liz the trainer anyhow. Phil very kindly drove me there, and I bought chairs, a desk, a chest of drawers, glasses, a laundry basket, towels, a toaster, a blender... sigh. Home eh? Came home and started to get sorted. Eventually however Andy called me to an impromptu (the work du jour, natch!) barbie at Russ's - just the 7 of us then! Actually it was really nice and 3 beers and good nosh later Andy and I were here watching Sex and the City. Marvellous. He finally headed home and I hit the sack. Tuesday back at work and I launched myself back in by almost knocking myself out by hitting my head on a locker door. Ouch. However the ensuing headache did mean I left a bit early! More sorting last night and finally got the flat almost back to normal. Today I was meant to hit the gym after work but didn't. Dinner with Martin, which was great, and then coffee with Andy and Andrew and Wayne. I do love living so close to everything! Home. This. Bed. Soon.

When I left university (117 years ago), I joined British Airways on one of their graduate I.T. programs. It was meant to be a cross between a business and I.T. role, providing I.T. solutions to business problems. Great I thought. However, one thing BA failed to mention was that you had to program solidly for a full two years before you were let loose in any sort of consultancy role. Hmmm. So, ever the shy, retiring type, I complained. To their credit, they upheld my complaint and gave me 6 months to find another job within BA whilst giving me project work. I was offered a job in Inventory Management, overbooking flights to Africa. It was a great department to work in - as part of your normal job you allocated staff travel seats so everyone wanted to be your friend. The work had a nice mix of everyday stuff and ad hoc stuff and used lots of different systems (and brain power!). I moved on to setting all the group and tour operator rates for the Caribbean, whilst providing analysis support for the whole of BA's Rest of the World region (basically everything excuding Europe and North America). It was almost the perfect job - the people being a good mix and a good laugh. So why did I leave? At the time, raw ambition. I wanted to move on within the company, and in that department no-one was moving (as they realised they were onto a good thing!). I moved out into a different analysis job and then out of the company altogether, wanting to change the world (as you do). I have looked back at that time since and wondered if I should move back into it. I even approached Qantas when I first came over here (4 years ago) but there was no external recruitment planned at that time. Hey ho.

Cut to the end of January 2002. For the first (and only) time this year, I scanned the employment section of the Sunday paper. Lo and behold, an ad for Inventory Analysts for Qantas - no experience necessary. Immediately I sent in an application and heard nothing for well over a month. Finally I got a call to attend psychometric tests in early March. Verbal reasoning, numeracy and a personality test.. all 206 questions therein! Nothing more for a week and a half and then finally a call for interview on March 26th. It went pretty well but you never really know. Anyway, I took a call yesterday afternoon from one of the women that interviewed me... and I start in mid-May. Yippee!! I resigned from Borders immediately but will work about 3 more weeks then have a few days off before embarking on a 3 month training program. I can't wait. The chance to use my brain again, new people, a great company and an industry I've always been interested in. What more could you ask for? More money? Yup, and a structured development plan which sounds great. How about cheap flights? Ah yes, those. They kick in after a qualifying period (of which I'm not sure how long yet), but it's there. So, people in the UK, be very afraid. I maybe dropping into the Tavern for that surprise visit when you least expect it. Either way, I'm really really excited again about work for the first time in ages. Wish me luck please!! :o)

Tuesday night. Ohmigod, two posts on the same day? A first for a while I think. Also think I'm coming down with a cold. Boo hoo. Another day of work over and done with, then out for coffee with Andy. We do live on the most social street in Sydney. Walked over the road to see Adrian and Fred, coming back from dinner with Kevin and Craig, talking to Craig and Kev (yes, that's two Craig's and two Kevin's). Then Andrew joined me and Andy (yes, that's two etc.) and finally Richard joined Andrew as Andy and I left. I'd earlier bumped into Richard and Andy had previously bumped into Strati (no, there's only one of him). Anyway, we all had a good natter and finally back here for a quick snack, talk to my Dad and catch up on email etc. Bed now (10.45pm) as in work for 8am tomorrow. Sleep. Tight. Bugs. Etc.

Tuesday morning at 9.30am. Slept a little later than usual today (8.30am) though I don't have to be in work until 11am. Decided not to do the gym today. Was going to throw in an extra session, but am going tomorrow afternoon and Liz (who was actually sick yesterday) will throw me around on Thursday so that's plenty. Intention is to try and sort a few things out here this morning. I did go to the gym yesterday, even though Liz cancelled. Swopped shifts so worked yesterday - my first Monday since the shop opened I think! The downside was that I only had one day off - the upside is that I get a 3 day weekend coming up. Sat, Sun, Mon. In fact I finish at 4.30pm Friday and don't actually have to be in again until 11am Tuesday. Gotta like that. IKEA somewhere in the middle hopefully. I so need some furniture!! Seeing Andy tomorrow and Friday... it seems to becoming more of a regular thing :o) The weather this morning is lovely. Clear blue sky. Sunshine. Weird it'll be dark by 6pm, but that's autumn for you...

So, what have I done since my birthday? Well a bit of this, and a bit of that. Birthday day I read a book and took a lovely walk before heading out for beers later in the day. Tuesday went to Andy's (dentist) for dinner and stayed. Very nice. Wednesday did the gym. Thursday did Liz the personal trainer then work from 2pm. Friday work and gym then Andy came here. I cooked then Shrek on DVD. Early to bed. Sat worked and then me and Garry went to Gary and Max's in Balmain for dinner. Fab. We took a ferry out there (15 mins) but it felt like we'd gone on holiday! Lots of wine, lots of chat, roast beef and yorkshire puddings etc. Sixth Sense on DVD followed by part of Bug's Life before crashing out. Slept like a baby in very quiet Balmain. Up this morning to bacon sarnies. Gary and Max were the perfect hosts. We need to do stuff like that more! Home and watched the Matrix then met Tony (Dr. Darren's ex) for coffee. Home again then went to the gym. Good for me. Back and eat, chat to Andy, then over to the Shift to join Garry and Craig. Back here to watch the end of Star Wars Phantom Menace then now off to bed. I have Liz the personal trainer again at 9am, so need some sleep. She'll kill me!! More as it happens...

Oh, probably one of the reasons I didn't go clubbing last night was because I can't remember going clubbing on Saturday night. The meal at Craig's was nice and drunken with lots of silly singing and dancing. Then apparently we went to the Shift. Apparently Andy was there and we all danced a while. Apparently one of the speakers blew and the music stopped. Apparently Andy brought me home and put me to bed! Oops. Minker me!

Yay. It's my birthday on both sides of the world. That means I'm old everywhere. Bah humbug. It's 9am on my birthday morning and for some reason I'm up and about. And not too hungover. Had a party here last night which was fun and decided (probably wisely) not to go clubbing after all! Of course now I'm at a loose end. Matron.

So, here we are again. It's coming up to 6.15pm Saturday night, and it's the start of Davie's birthday weekend. Yippee! Firstly advance birthday wishes to the lovely Stevie P and Richie Bean. It's weird not celebrating to a greater or lesser extent with them... particularly as Steve and I had a joint party last year. Anyway I gather the London boys will be Fridge-ing and RVTing and LA3ing. Sigh. Wish I could be there. Meantime, I'm having a party on the roof tomorrow, and then stumbling off to Arq, the only real club for Sundays. It's not the RVT, but we've had some good times there so far.

What else is new? I've kind of seen Andy the dentist a few times, which has been nice, and we're hopefully hooking up again later tonight and maybe going to the Midnight Shift. Craig over the road is cooking dinner tonight too, so I'm being nicely spoilt! Other than that, a bit of work, a coffee here, dinner there, the usual stuff. In awe of the Playstation 2 too, and trying to work out what games to buy. Recommedations please - I particularly like platform games. Ta. Charlie's Angels DVD came with the PS2, and I've bought the Matrix and Garry's bought Kylie Live in Sydney. Well we had to. I sense a few quieter night coming on...

More news as it happens. Easter wishes from a soon to be older Davie!

Oh. And I've finally got round to buying a Playstation 2. Yippee!!

I'm a very tired Davie. Bed now. Things are good. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...

I did post something last night, but Blogger ate it. Sigh. Reported much gym and eating activity. Work. That's about all. Out for a date with Andrew last night which was lovely. Couple of drinks and then Vietnamese. Back here so he could sober up a little before driving home. Honest! :o) He's seemingly a lovely man, and he's very sexy and tactile. We like that. We're hopefully doing it all again tomorrow. Had nice feelings about it all day. Watch this space. Worked 2-10.30pm today. It's a long day. Managed to use the paging system without thinking whilst some famous Aussie poet was doing a reading downstairs. Oops. We got some free wine at the end of the shift, so 6 of us went and sat in the park in the rain and sculled it whilst nattering about life etc. Haven't done something like that since I was probably 16.Nice feeling. Off to bed now as on an early start tomorrow. Urgh. But going to bed smiling. Night night.

Well that was the weekend that was...

Friday night was a couple of drinks down at the Oxford with Gregg and we were joined by Martin. From there we hit the Beresford and caught up with a few people down there. On to the Barracks where I was very sensible and left reasonably early as I had to be in work on Saturday.

Saturday night finished work and came home to doze on the day bed a while. Eventually went out to grab some fast food and ended up just seeing who was in the Oxford :o) Martin was there with some mates and so I tagged on in and we hit the Barracks. Martin was v. drunk (you'd never catch me in that state, honest) so I caught up with Richard (no Russell though) and we finally all legged it down to the very heaving Pheonix. Fun. Russell was there and the boys introduced me to their friend Andrew. Very nice. Indeed. We left about 2 or 3am, I've no idea. Up we went onto the roof. Most pleasant on an evening when it's still about 23C. And you're doing what we were :o)

Sunday. Andrew left early and I stayed in bed. Brunch with Adrian and then Pete dropped round the dining table that they've so kindly given us. Bless 'em. Then a few people were going down to the Green Park Hotel for some beers. I joined them. It was great! Almost like the olden days of the Beauchamp. Think RVT with less dancing. Lots of nice looking men being very sociable. Lovely. David Bassett was there and Gary J, John and Andrew, Little Ian, Mark, Adelaide... fun. Went to join Garry at the Shift but it wasn't the same. Home and made some phone calls as I promised myself I would once the UK boys had gone home. So, spoke to Stevie P, Big Steve, Darryl and Nick. Lovely to hear them all. More phone calls over the next weeks. You could be the lucky recipient!!

Today's been a lovely day too. Slept until 9.45am and had a leisurely breakfast. Phil (who's just recently moved back here from Melbourne) dropped in unexpectedly and so we arranged a late lunch after I'd been to the gym. I did that, which was great... I've got no excuses not to really give this a go this time. Fixed hours, more time in the day than I've ever had, the gym just down the road. I'll be like Schwarzenegger by Christmas. Yeah right!! Went for a huge chicken salad in a café in Victoria Street that I'd forgotten about. Cheap and fantastic. Coffee in Stanley Street which I'd also forgotten is a great place to watch the world go by. Back here to chill a while, and then Martin called to drop in some CDs and we ended up going for coffee too. Or a milkshake as it turned out. And then back here to update this. And Andew called to see if I want to do dinner on Wednesday. Of course I do. That's like a date then :o) Off to the supermarket now to find something for dinner and then a relatively early night I think. Yes indeedy.

All is well with the world. I live in possibly the most beautiful city in the world, and today the sun was shining. I went for a walk in my lunch hour and got all shivery with the fact I live here. Marvellous.

Things have calmed down, you'll be pleased to hear.

Oh, but it didn't stop there. I worked Tuesday and then had a lovely meal with Darren that night. We ate then just stood up on the roof drinking wine and taking in the view. I had such a great time with him. Hopefully a good friendship will come from that. Bless him. Wednesday was quieter and I worked both then and Thursday. Thursday night me and Darryl hit the town for his last night. Oh dear. We hit the Oxford and Stonewall and then followed a pack of sexy men to Arq. It was great fun. Chatted to Triple F Steve for the first time properly and danced and danced and looked at the lovely men. Think we finally left around 7am. I called in sick. Oops. Finally Darryl had to go to the airport and for the first time in around 3 weeks I was back with no English mates here. Felt very strange. Still great to be here and sharing with Garry and so on, but if felt so natural to have more mates around. Hey ho. It made me realise how much I do miss everyone from home.
So, left alone I did what any good gay man would. Went on the prowl :o) So, that was Friday afternoon taken care of :o) Drinks Friday night with the boys. Worked Saturday and then me and Garry had a good old style Saturday night. Until I met up with Alan and John who I spent the night with in October showed up. Suddenly there was a change of plan and we were in a cab...
Into work Sunday with a spring in my step. Home, changed and to the Shift and caught up with the gang and Glenn & Rick from the States. Realised that Wayne G was going to be playing at Arq and so that was my next decision made as I had the Monday off. Hit there and had a ball. Good music, spent time with Rich and Russ and also to Chris. Stories there, but more stories to follow as he finally left here at about 2pm Monday after dancing, flirting, snogging, drinks in the Oxford etc. Etc. Slept until about 6pm, had more noodles from Thai downstairs (can anyone see a pattern here??), and then went onto the computer to see what was going on. Steve, Rich and Russ's flatmate ended up here with 2 bottles of wine which we had on the roof... and he finally went home on Tuesday. Oh dear. I am that trashy bitch :o)

Ay ay ay. So, another year another Mardi Gras mad time. It was so fantastic to see the boys here. I hope they had a good time - it looked like they were having a great time! We did almost constant minkering for 3 whole weeks. Darryl was a bit ill for the first week which in retrospect was probably for the best as we couldn't have done the whole time at such a frenetic pace! Almost too many highlights. The events went something like this.

i) Darryl arrived. Minkered as reported, then we had a few days off.

ii) Harbour Party as reported. Incredible. Arq. Fantastic. Dr Darren. Also fantastic.

iii) Woof on the Thursday. Great too. Good music, good venue. I so wasn't going, but hooked up with the boys who had a spare ticket and suddenly... there I was at City Live! Great crowd, good music and a lot of fun. I left the boys to it as I had to work the next day :o(

iv) Quieter night on the Friday. Beresford and Barracks I think. Didn't overdo it.

v) Mardi Gras day. We had invited everyone here for a drinks party and to watch the Parade, what with the views of Oxford Street from the apartment and the roof. People started arriving at 3pm ish and it became a steady flow the longer the night went on. The straight couple at number 2 had a party too, so we just all combined on the roof and in fact spread along all the rooves as we're the only residential one! I think everyone had a good time - the view was fantastic. We shifted heaps of booze too. Lots of bottles to clear afterwards! From there to the party which was fun. Only gripe was I lost everyone quite early on apart from Darren and Darryl. I wasn't complaining too much :o) But I hardly saw any of the aussie guys and only hooked up with Garry again at 7am! Deborah Cox was the first show and she was fantastic. It all gets a little blurry after that, but we danced mostly in the Dome, with forays into the Hordern and the RHI. Decided not to wait for Alcazar as Paul & Alan were over it. Apparently they were very camp. Alcazar, Not P&A! Back here to shower and then on to the Barracks. Well me, D & D. It was fun. Dancy, cruisy, fun.Think we stayed until about 12.30pm and finally everyone went their separate ways. Slept until about 6pm then up and pottered. Noodles from Thai Panic (shop below the apartment!).

vi) Showered and changed and hit ICE at City Live. P&A already there, Darren meant to join us, Darryl bottled out. It was great. Music was good, people very sexy. Spent time with P&A, David Bassett, Rod & Tony and saw Rich, Russ & Steve there at the end. Got the fairy bus to Bay33 at 2.30am to continue the party. Spent time with David and Peter and Paul and Darren failed to show. The music got a bit harder. Gonzalo and Rachel Auburn finished it off, but we decided to leave a bit before the end as Rachel was getting a bit 'pots & pans'.

vii)Arq. Absolutely great. Only problem was that P&A had to leave for their flight at 8.30am. I dutifully carried on until about 12.30pm when I finally thought I should call it a day. Came home to chill but Darryl and Darren had other ideas. We ended up having coffee and I forced some potato wedges down my neck. Then we hit the pub. We drank and drank and eventually I left them all to it about 9pm. Finally crashed at about 10pm, having had only 4 hours sleep in the preceding 60. Ay caramba.

I know it's been a long time. Will update all the Mardi Gras action after the boys have finally gone. It's been fantastic and I'm going to be so sad by the weekend. More later.

Jesus. Minker major. It's Monday evening and I'm still recovering from the most incredible weekend. More details soon, but last night was the last ever Harbour Party (well at least in its original guise). Imagine the music of the Vauxhall Tavern, but with an open air harbour setting with views of the Bridge and the Opera House and 5000 sexy men. Ay caramba. Just incredible. I haven't really got the words to do it justice, it was one of those 'you had to be there' things. Wayne G played a blinder and it was great to have some UK people there with me - Darryl, and Paul and Alan and the lovely Dr. Darren all the way from Misty Moor. Plus Aussie mates too. All in all an incredible experience, akin to something almost religious. Recovery at Arq which continued being fantastic. Sydney really comes into its own at Mardi Gras time. Less than a week until the party. Yeehah!

Urgh. Feel a bit rough. Bit of a minker last night. Darryl has arrived safe and well, yesterday morning. We went and had brekky and then I signed up properly at the gym and am going back next Monday to get a program sorted. Also getting a trainer once a week, so I've no excuses. None. Oops! Met Adrian for coffee and it all got a bit social as loads of the guys were out too. Then we went for one beer... and I don't really have to tell you what happened next! Met loads of people from London - one of whom I haven't seen for about 6 years! Today's been spent doing very little other than vegging. Back into work at 8am in the morning. Bed time now...

Happy birthday to my sister Sue. I'll ring later tonight! Oh, and I missed blogging sister Karen's birthday on the 2nd. And Michael's on the 12th. Happy bidet one and all!

Not a great deal has happened since I left you last, other than work. Wednesday met Adrian and Russell for coffee after work and then had a lazy night in front of the telly. Thursday managed to drag myself to the gym after work and then Martin popped in for a glass of the old vino and a natter. Last night I got in and made an omelette with the last of the roasted veggies and then slumped in front of My Best Friend's Wedding. The perfect thing. Garry came in and tried to drag me out, but I was too tired. Maybe I'm just getting old. Great news yesterday though - Garry's got another permanent job - and if he passes his probation will get sponsored! Yippee - it means he's be able to stay sharing the apartment here, which is great news. This morning (Sat) I'm again off to work. They've been pretty good with my request for days off over Mardi Gras. I've got Harbour Party day off and the Monday after, then I've got Mardi Gras weekend off and hopefully (as this roster isn't out yet) the Monday as well. That means I can go to ICE and not really care how minkered I get... Darryl arrives on Monday at 8am and it'll be great to see him. Paul and Alan and Dr. Darren arrive a week today so it's all happening! It's going to start and get busy out and about too as people start to filter in. We're having a big Mardi Gras party here, what with the view and everything from the apartment. I'll try and take some digi-cam pics so you know what on earth I'm on about! Right. Brekky. Oh, and you'll be pleased to know my diet has become way healthier since settling in here. Now if only I could maybe drink a little less. It would help me afford some furniture too!

Well I've had a pretty good couple of days, let me tell you. I went and priced and measured everything at IKEA, then got depressed as I realised I can't afford to buy anything for ages... and I so want to buy some nice stuff for this place. All in good time I guess... I ditched the gym as I couldn't be bothered, so I did what I often do in these sort of situations... I cooked! Made roast lamb with potatoes dauphinois and felt better. Garry and I had a slobby evening in front of the telly and then I had a really good night's sleep. Today was a good day. Up and had healthy brekky. Tidied and sorted room and took laundry to be washed. There's a communal machine here but I needed the time! Went and bought some bits, some food and then hit the gym. Finally. For the first time since September! Yippee. Felt good about that. Came home and went and picked up some Harbour Party tickets for Paul and Alan, then came home and cooked again. Just call me Nigella Smith-Oliver. Loads of roasted veggies and pasta, and then went the whole hog and made some feta cheese and rosemary bread. Fabulous! I guess this means I'm feeling very settled in my new home. Gotta love that. Darryl arrives on Monday too, which is going to be fantastic. Just hope all the days off I requested from work have come through OK. Will know more tomorrow...

A year has passed since I wrote my note...

Well not quite, but it's a week since I put fingers to keyboard. Most of that week has passed in an alcoholic haze. People keep dropping in to see the new apartment with bottles of wine and it's rude not to drink them. And then go and buy more. And then fall out of the front door into the nearest bar. Almost literally. The early part of last week held the moving/leaking dramas, but that's all sorted now. Work's been fine - had my review and they're happy with me. Had a long chat with the boss about some marketing ideas I'd had and he seems quite impressed. Other than that, the weather's not been up to much so no sunbathing or anything. Today is the start of the new regime for me - been already eating better here just because I'm more settled than the recent limbo-waiting-to-move weeks. Trial week at the gym later today and have two days to sort out admin stuff. Yay. May also go quite mad and treat myself to something nice. Like a DVD player. Watch this space...

Oh, and in the move I missed the Minkered... one year anniversary. Those were the days. I'd do the odd interesting post then...

In the new place. Great. Apart from the leaking ceiling in my bedroom, the light fitting full of water, the fused lights and the ceaseless rain the last two days. Joy.

Nice couple of days. Work's been a bit odd - our manager's a bit of a nutter and so it's been a bit strange. More on that another time. Lovely meal with Pete and Paul last night for Pete's 40th. Lots of nice people there - Adrian, Fred, Andrew and John, Adam, Adelaide, David Bassett. Nice Lebanese restaurant. *Lovely*

Lazy night tonight - job application and bit of a slob. Going to cut my hair now and then bed. Oh, but new address email first. Anyone reading this and not receiving an email update and wants one, please let me know!

It's ten past midnight and I should be in bed. Weekend was fun but worked Sat/Sun. Date on Friday was nice, but not sure it's heading anywhere. Nice guy, just no oomph between us. Got keys to the new apartment and crashed there over the weekend. Will move properly on Monday. Yay. Lazy day yesterday, admin stuff today. Been remiss at keeping this up to date and being in touch generally. All that changes very soon. New address email tomorrow. OK, time for bed for now.

My day could be worse:

Heading off in a moment to sign the lease on the fab new apartment.
Work 11am-8pm.
Date :o)

More later (I hope!)

Well. Billy MacKenzie will be turning, nay spinning, in his grave. There I was at work, minding my own business, when a strangely familiar haunting tune came over the music system at work. It took me a little while to work out what the song was, but eventually I placed Gloomy Sunday - me being familiar with the Associates version from Sulk (and what a fantastic album that is, boys and girls). I then realised that the song was actually being murdered rather horribly, and you can imagine my surprise (nay horror!) when I checked the clever little digital display we have at our information desk so we can tell people what was playing.

La Luna - Ssara Brightman (that was their spelling, not mine)

Sarah Brightman. Sarah Brightman!!! I was agog, and then aghast. Furthermore, on the album she goes on to murder several other well known tunes - This Love by Craig Armstrong/Liz Fraser, Scarborough Fair, A Whiter Shade of Pale and Kate Bush's La Luna.

This woman should be shot. Interestingly enough, when I checked out the origins of Gloomy Sunday it appears that it's associated (no pun intended) with suicides. Read a couple of articles about that here and here. Bizarre then that Billy MacKenzie should eventually take his own life. Shame it didn't have more effect on Ms Brightman. Listen to the old bat warbling on and on from here (you may have to save the link to your PC and play it from there as it didn't work straight away for me...)

I've decided that there are certain things you should go through life unaware of!

Well. Whaddya know. It looks like everyone's finger crossing paid off. I'm heading downtown later this afternoon to put down the deposit on the flat Garry and I really wanted. Yippee! It's on Oxford Street itself, which is a little weird. Think living on Old Compton Street. Is that a good or a bad thing? Good things are lovely open plan living area, lots of windows, polished floorboards and good sized bedrooms. Oh, that and the roof terrace :o) It's shared between the 5 apartments in the block and has the most wonderful views of Oxford Street (handy for Mardi Gras) and also views of the Sydney city skyline and the Bridge and the Opera House. If you've been watching it on Channel 4 (or Channel 10 for those few readers in Australia) it's very Secret Life of Us.

You were going to get a map, but this map facility is playing up. Grrr.

I feel like I can get on and plan some stuff now. What with all the visitors and then the househunting, my time's not been my own. I can work out which gym is nearest (actually there are 3 within 10 minutes), I'm only a 15 minute walk to work through Hyde Park and a 30 second stagger from most of the places we tend to go out to. Oops. We'll probably move early next week as it's a long weekend this weekend (Australia Day) but be sure I'll update one and all with the details.

You may also notice Minkered... looking a little yellowy. Ochre. Minkered mustard. I just thought it was time for a change and I don't think I'm going to get the big relaunch done for my one year anniversary so a little cosmetic tinkering is the order of the day.

My cough and cold seem better too, so hopefully things are on the up for Little Davie. And let's hope that's in every area of my life!!!

It's Sunday. It's glorious weather. I've done nothing, other than call in sick and have a lazy day. I think I'll take myself off to the doc's tomorrow and see if he can fix me. Meantime, here's something that does exactly what it says on the tin. Except it comes in a bag. Marvellous.

How come I only get here at the moment when I'm either too tired to type up what's been going on, or I've got too much to do? Tonight it's the former. Worked until 7pm, grabbed a bite then met Martin before heading to the movies to see The Man Who Wasn't There. Quite enjoyed it, and it's always nice to catch up with Martin. And he dropped me home, bless him. Can't wait to move back downtown. Taking Garry to see a couple of places tomorrow and we can maybe put in an application. Fingers crossed everyone please...

Tuesday morning. Time for some househunting. Trying to update stuff on minkered too...

I've got cold or flu. Don't want to play this game :o(

I have fixed the comments facility though, so please feel free. And look forward to a hopeful minkered relaunch very soon!

Really?

Yeah, really.

Ah. Not much blogging then. I don't really know what I'm not, other than I don't actually seem to be in very much at all at the moment. Wish I could say I've been swept off my feet and having a whirlwind romance but that's not it. I'm just at the end of my run of visitors and desperately need some Davie time. Watch this space. It will be updated properly. Honest. Guv.

No change on the tiredness front. Another few days on, which have been lovely, but I'm in a foul mood tonight and so think that I'm best off in bed.

Tired. Very tired. I'm way overdue a long update, but it's not going to happen now! It's almost midnight Sunday and I'm buggered. Missus. Had only an hour's sleep last night and then worked today. Been to the Shift and the had the nicest experience I think one can have with a woman bus driver. More tomorrow as I'm off the next two days. Yippee!

I'm melting!! Not with the fires so much as the weather... It's been very hot recently - around 30C late this evening. It's hard sleeping. Missus. Steve leaves tomorrow (sob!), Karen and Melissa are here until Sat pm and Sarah F from Chrysalis work arrived here on New Year's Eve and we met up today! It's been great seeing everyone. It'll be a bit strange when everyone goes. But quieter at least. Time to get on with all those New Year's resolutions... Of which more soon!

Happy New Year to one and all. It's 8pm New Year's Day and me and Steve are recuperating after the New Year's celebrations. Slowly. Not feeling our best it has to be said... More later.

I have no concept of time right now. What with Xmas, shift work, having Steve here and going out and about and getting ready for New Year I'm kind of at a loss! The next few days are mad. Working until 8m tonight and then straight out for a meal with the lovely Andy Carter and Sue from the UK. Out after that no doubt with Steve, possibly to the Imperial... Sunday probably a bit beachy, with Karen and Melissa arriving at 5pm. Monday is NYE, so no doubt running around before drinks somewhere before heading down to Pride - 10pm until 8am the next day. Frisky starts at 6pm that night... and then working on the 2nd at 7am. Oh lordy. Oh, talking of which, saw Lord of the Rings the other night. Go see it immediately. It beats Harry Potter into a pointy, witches hat!

Merry Christmas to one and all. It's Boxing Day and I've been at work. Christmas Day was fantastic fun - 10 waifs and strays up to Bondi for full turkey lunch with all the trimmings! More on Friday as I'm not working then until 2.30pm. Stevie P's here. Yippee!!

Work was fun yesterday - finished at 7am. Out for date with Martin - coffee, then fab thai food at The Three Thai Turtles. Nice. Over to the Oxford for a drink - already present: Craig, Mat, Mikey, Rod, Richard, David Bassett... etc. Martin very kindly dropped me back here and he's now going to join us on Saturday night. Lovely. Quick internet and to bed. Up reasonably early today and just sorted stuff. Phoned Dad, tidied and organised ready for Steve coming. Oh, and I'm now cooking Christmas lunch for 10. Yippee!! Should be fun...

Running out of time to do things. Not quite sure where all the time's going!! Had a great night out at Darren's on Tuesday night - think me, Garry and Craig were the entertainment for the night! Stayed at Craig's and then dragged myself into early work yesterday. Quiet night in last night - Garry stayed up here and we had pizza with Charlie, watched some trashy telly and a really good documentary about Chuck Jones - the guy behind the Warner Brothers cartoons. Up for work again today, date tonight!

Argh! Blog backlog. Since you've been gone (I'm out of my head, can't take it...) I've done the following:

Worked Wed-Sat inc.
Had a very nice date last Wednesday at the pictures. Saw Hearts in Atlantis. Go see.
Quiet(ish) drink Thursday with Garry.
Went for one drink after finishing work Friday and rolled home steaming at 4.30am.
Straight to a party at David and Jayson's on Sat after work. Minkered. Upstairs at the Shift. Didn't really do it for me. Pheonix. Naughties. Coffee at Adrian and Fred's at 10.30am Sunday...
Walk on the cliffs at Watson's Bay with Garry, Craig and Ant Sunday arvo.
Shift downstairs for Retro Sunday night. So drunk... crashed at Craig's.
Coffee on the roof terrace this morning. Brekky at Una's. Here. Sort out Xmas stuff. Made nice food. Ate it. Chatted Stevie P - he's in Oz. Yippee! Chatted Darren to get details of his drinks do tomorrow. Chatted Martin to arrange date 2 - dinner Thursday.

Now it's time for bed. More updates soon. Some really funny stuff from the weekend, but not sure how well it'll translate!

Bugger. My comments are down, and will be for the near future. Curses. Otis - if you're reading - please come clean. I can't be bothered to play games and find out who you are! You can mail me... look down the left hand side. Anyone else with comments - please mail me too, and I'll post the best ones...

I've not done anything other than diarise for a while, so I thought it was time to put my house in order and do something a bit different. CD review time. This evening: Roger Sanchez - First Contact. I bought this CD about a month ago and I've fallen in love with it, in much the same way as I did Daft Punk earlier in the year. I sometimes get odd feelings that a particular album will become a favourite and most times my instincts are right. I'd loved Another Chance and had been waiting for some cash to buy the album. In the end I just bought it anyway - and a wise move that was! In a lot of ways it's like the Daft Punk album - fantastic French-stylee production with lots of beeps, layers, knob twiddling and lots of noises recorded backwards to help stimulate your little ear drums. First up is Computabank - crossing early Kraftwerk with Stephen Hawking and like a lot of these tracks it builds and fades in a hypnotic, almost tidal way. This runs nicely into the aforementioned Another Chance, a huge single back in the UK not long after I left. This is the long version at some seven minutes... I loved this single for the 'Dumpf Dumpf' bits - where Rog breaks things up with a couple of beats before coming in with synth drums in full effect. A word of warning though - as it's the extended version those 'Dumpf Dumpf' bits come in at different times and you have to unlearn where to join in! Track 3, Contact, could have been lifted straight off Daft Punk's Discovery. It's almost over-produced, with layer upon layer assaulting the listener, and the first time it was on I thought at one point the CD was skipping as there's a clever little effect part way through that I now love. You Can't Change Me is Rog's answer to Armand van Helden's You Don't Even Know Me featuring, er, Armand van Helden! Funky and I think the next single. The Partee (sic) is my least favourite track. The intro is incredibly like, er, Armand van Helden but not featuring him this time! The rest of the track is a latin dance track by numbers with little imagination from Rog. Sounds a bit like Funking for Jamaica by Tom Browne. More like Daft Punking for Jamaica. Ventura brings to mind the funk of Cuba by the Gibson Brothers, but stripped down, re-jigged and unleashed on a new generation. Daft Funk almost, until it turns into an Ibiza chillout track for the last minute or so. I Never Knew starts with a string intro that wouldn't be out of place on a Craig Armstrong track and then steps up the tempo into another piece of commericial 2001 DTPM style funk - this time more Modjo style but none the worse for it. Guest vocalist Sharleen Spiteri (put your hand together ladies and gentlemen, she's all the way from Texas!) adds her velvety tonsils to Nothing2Prove and does a great job - the mix of her voice and Rog's music work well together and good that she's here as the track isn't something I could ever imagine Texas producing by themselves. And finally Esther, track 9 - Leavin'. It starts off slow with a chill out feel but builds into a track that has you dreaming of vodka and tonic on the balcony whilst on holiday in the sun. It would be the track to get your chill out going again!

All in all then, pretty good stuff. Great played loud in your apartment, great played loud on your Discman. Love it. What does anyone else think? Comment away...

If I were a work of art, I would be Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians. I am colourful and provoking, always looking to break out of the mould and to pioneer new ways of doing things. I have a jaunty outlook and although I am a bit weird, most people have some idea what I'm about. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

I'm happy with that. Already most people at work think I'm crazy. Or on something. And I'm not! Unless you count the asthma medication. Thanks to Jonathan for the link (via Sparky)

I started this blog entry yesterday (it's currently 8.30pm Tuesday) but didn't finish it. Here goes nothing:

Well I guess that was the weekend then. I should be outside in the glorious sunshine, but my head hurts and I'm not sure I can face the day - even though it's already 2.30pm. Read on...

Friday worked until 11pm, came home and chatted with Garry (he was staying over) and played on the net. Bed around 1am. The idea was to get up at 5am and go and meet Craig (Garry's best mate from the UK) at the airport but in the end I was too whacked and so Garry went alone. I slept on until gone 9am and then hit work. Finished there at 8pm and went straight to Craig's hotel room to change so we could all hit the town. We had a couple of quickies in the Oxford and then hit Newtown - first the Newtown Hotel and later the Imperial. I know we had a great time. I'd arranged to hook up with Martin, a cute guy I met a while ago in the Shift, and he was there when we arrived. I know we drank way too much. I know a had a very nice time with Martin. I know he put me in a cab because I was so drunk. I don't know much more than that!! Except for the yesterday's hangover. Ouch. Sunday morning didn't amount to too much. Eventually I headed off to Bronte for our 'Welcome Craig' picnic. Shame the weather wasn't better! Lots of people there - Garry, Craig, Mat, Jason, Haydn, Mikey, DJ, Michael, Charlie and little old me! Oh, and Gregg Diddy Daddy arrived later. It was quite a laugh - lots of beer drunk and nibbles nibbled. I came home to change and then met Garry and Craig down at the Shift for our (now) traditional Sunday night singalong to the crazy retro tunes. Oh dear. We drank too much too fast and I don't remember leaving or arriving home or going to bed. Hence feeling so spaced out yesterday!

I did survive Monday by eating my new wonder food - boiled eggs and soldiers. The best thing. Thanks to a brief check up with Delia, I've remastered of getting my eggs just the way I like them - boil for a minute then take the pan off the heat and cover and leave for another 5 - white firm, yolk runny. Magnificent. I finally ventured out of the house at around 5.45pm and headed down to meet Garry and Craig again, and bumped into Ant and Laurie and then Clare on the way. As we were debating where to go for a beer, Darren Shaw rang. I'd met Darren once at Richie's about 3 years ago and he'd been given my number and so on to get in touch as he was going to be here a while. As things turned out, his plans have changed and it was his last night in Sydney (just the long weekend then...!!). So, via a few in the Green Park Hotel, we went to Stonewall and met Darren and Jon and John. It was good fun, but ended with us drinking too much again, having pizza and me getting home around 1am. Not the best plan when you've to be up at 5.40am to get into work at 7am. I did though, and survived the day. Home around 4.30pm and I've done not a lot since. Coffee, toast. That kind of thing. Early night tonight as I'm working early again tomorrow. Though tomorrow night I'm on a date. That's a "date". Proper and all that. The movies no less. Get me!

Last night was fun. Worked until 7pm and then met Garry, who's just got himself a job starting in January which means that we can start and plan our house share. Yippee! Got some cash from the ATM and found $50. Double yippee!! So I paid for the evening - lots of beers and an indian later we came home and fell unconscious after a bottle of wine and a play on the internet. This morning we've done the same but had bacon, eggs, mushrooms, toast and pots of tea. Fantastic!!

Friday morning. Getting into this shift pattern thing (see roster down left hand side). Tuesday was great - finished at 3.30pm and then did all my Christmas shopping in one fell swoop at Borders! Well why not... Met Garry for impromptu beers at the Oxford and a good time was had by all. My dream Tuesday night is a bit vague now, but it involved me playing football for a top flight team, in the return leg of something like a Champion's League match. It was meant to be somewhere hot, but the pitch was waterlogged - but only around the edges. Can't remember much more than that, except for afterwards I was due to get a massage by someone called Beong Bong, which brought to mind tennis and Bjorn Borg! I think there's something in the water...

Those regular Minkered... readers out there might remember me harping on about this some months ago. This has now been well surpassed by my three guys at the Illy coffee shop in the MLC Centre in downtown Sydney. It's a place I used to go sometimes when I lived here before, but now with working at Borders it's the best coffee nearby by a long shot. So in the first week I went a couple of times and got my order and by week two, when I went about 4 times, they knew me, where I worked and what my order was. We like that. Also, one of the guys is very sexy - though he's the least communicative. Until this week, when he was really friendly too. Fantastic. I went the other day and they gave me a Portuguese Tart for nothing. And I do like a good tart... Bless 'em. I know they do it with everybody, but it does make me feel incredibly welcome and local and they'll get my money every day as a consequence!

Tired again - two days of 7am starts, though I have finished at 3.30pm both days. Remind me (in the morning, not in until 10.30am) to tell you about the coffee shop, my dream (football! massage! tennis!) and whatever else pops into my head about the last couple of days...

More blushing. Someone named Otis left a comment on Saturday saying I was cute. He thought. I have no idea who Otis is. Can anyone enlighten me?

And now I'm blushing. Thanks David!

After the walk we hit Food Game for coffee with Pete and Paul, Adrian, Fred and Mat. Nice to catch up with everyone. Then it was time for beers in the Oxford followed by more beers in the Shift. Me and Mat adjourned for a quick Indian before going back for more. Ay ay ay! Finally stumbled home around 3am and crashed until 9.30am. Pottered this morning and then Harry Pottered this afternoon. Caught Karen online and had a chat to her. Met Garry and Adrian for dinner and then back here for a couple of glasses of wine and early bed - got to be at work at 7am tomorrow. Yikes.

Quietish weekend so far... except for the opening of the shop. Mad! Absolutely packed. It's a bookstore! It's madness! It's madness! It's a bookstore! Bookstore madness!! We were fun off our feet from the moment the store opened at 5pm until it closed at 10pm. Good to see everything come together and at 4.55pm the place looked incredible. Never will it do so again...

We finally left the store at 11.35pm and loads of us hit the pub. Drunken and fabulous. DJ was very ill, bless him... I crawled home at about 5.45am (no, really!) and the was up again at 9.30am as I was working 11am-8pm. Work was much more laid back yesterday - I spent a lot of time on information and restocking all the front of store displays. Generally people coming into the store were lovely. Long may that continue! Back here with Garry and we just had a quiet one. Played on the PC, watched The Craft, listened to music and so on and had boiled eggs and soldiers :o)

Crashed until about 10am this morning and haven't done much today. More PC play, more music downloading, a quick minker update. Heading out for a long walk which will culminate in coffee and eventual beers...

Just realised that by the time I get home tonight it'll be December. I am so not ready for Christmas!