It's Wednesday night. It's late. I need sleep. Suffices to say there's nothing really new to report. Though I will. Tomorrow. Garry's leaving do for one thing. Going to bed with Harry Potter... :o)

Friday afternoon. Woohoo. Another week over. Wednesday night was a stay in and veg out night. Marvellous. Had snacky bacon and cheese muffins - very much comfort food. Yesterday was a good day at work - had an informal review ahead of my formal review in July, just to make sure that there were no surprises and in lieu of a meeting missed due to my boss changing jobs. Basically all is good. In fact it's almost too good. If only they knew... My boss wants to put me forward for promotion to senior analyst at the end of next month, only 14 months in. Normally it takes between 18 months and 2 years to hit senior after you finish training. If I get given the nod it'll be just over a year. I guess I have done the job before, but it's still rewarding to see how much faith other people have in what I do. Fingers crossed it all goes through...

So I met Gary for a beer. And Pete. And Pete. And Dave. Colombian/Oxford. Vile. Company was good though. Staggered home at around midnight, no dinner. No wonder I felt vile this morning. Treading water day. Heading off in a minute to mee the new flatmate. Hope we get on OK - she moves in properly next week!! Quiet night after that. Home cooking, cleaning, vegging. All is well...

Wednesday morning. Just still. By two minutes. Feeling better than yesterday... I finally think that I've broken the back of this cold. Nice night last night - pizza and beers with Pete, discussions of the house variety (purchasing, not music). Ready for a simple weekend - the focus being on spending time with mates. A bit of house hunting, probably - but otherwise social gatherings in the winter sunshine.

Breaking News :

At Melbourne Airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a school teacher, was arrested trying to board a Qantas flight whilst in possession of a compass, a protractor, and a graphical calculator. 

Authorities believe he is a member of the notorious Al Gebra movement. 

He has been charged with carrying weapons of maths instruction.

I'm going to try and do one post a day from work - short and to the point. Rather like my good self.

Still full of cold, though feeling slightly more chipper than yesterday. Had a nice evening doing the Buffy thing - Genevieve cooked a lovely curry and we sat and put the world to rights drinking beer before watching a very good episode of the Slayer. Only about 5 till the very end - what will we do?? Took some cold and flu tablets and didn't wake until 8.30am. Fantastic. The rest of the week is shaping up very nicely - and quietly. Have binned the personal training until I feel better. Pete and I are getting together tonight to talk houses; am cooking a cheap and cheerful dinner for Dave on Thursday and then Kerry (new flatmate) is coming to see the place Friday arvo. Flying visit. Saturday is drinks at Dave's and Sunday is Garry's leaving do. Hmmm - maybe it's not as quiet as I thought!

OK, OK. I know. Today however is not the day for a catch up. Not with a stinking cold like the one that I have. Basically though, all is well. Apart from feeling like death warmed up. A very quiet weekend with no alcohol. Maybe that's why I feel bad...
The house-hunting continues, no luck as yet. Work goes on. I had a week off. Marvellous. Gave myself a week off the gym post half-marathon though that's now extended due cold. Normal service etc.
Today in Sydney is a glorious winter's day. Although it's 18C, there's a chill in the air midst the glorious sunshine. Wonderful. I need another weekend immediately.

OK. It's a week past June already. Let's admit that I've been slack. Ooh matron. Back on track hopefully. I'll flesh out some of the stuff that I've alluded to very shortly. Meantime let's post this and get an entry up for June at least!

No, I've not disappeared. There's just rather a lot going on. There will be a full update. No, really. However in the meantime...

Healthy walking. A really trashy night out. Buffy. A half marathon. Work. Coffee. Suddenly house-hunting. Gym. Appearances on national telly...

That's in no particular order and doesn't even begin to describe the half of it. More later...

Bugger. Make that 6 reasons. There was the most incredible sunset tonight. Apocalyptical. A full day of rain and heavy grey clouds. Suddenly, around 5.30pm a small rift opens in the clouds, the rest of the sky being incredibly dark. The sun shines through the gap. Gobsmacking. Alright Mr deMille, I'm ready for my epiphany.

5 reasons you should take your digital camera everywhere with you:

1. Walking to the dentist you stumble upon a spill of oil or brake fluid or something on the wet road. The ultraviolet, gold and turquoise swirls have formed themselves into a perfect heart shape.
2. You arrive at the dentist to find that overnight the ATM in the bank next door has caught on fire and burned down its surrounding 6'x6' enclosure. (Spontaneous ATM combustion? Someone arson about?) The remaining box appears tacked on the end of a tube, looking like some sort of space station docking mechanism or alien maw (depending on whether you're an Apollo 13 fan or if Sigourney's more up your alley), now defunct in the charred remains.
3. You walk out of the dentist into one of the most powerful deluges you can remember. Those with stronger religious beliefs around you are looking round for pieces of 6'x4' and animals in pairs are nervously packing their suitcases.
4. A blown inside out umbrella lays forlornly at the side of the road near Hyde Park, pleading with its broken outstretched metal tendrils for some TLC.
5. So much water has descended from the heavens that the walkway out of the park down from the Anzac War Memorial is like a small stream. The steps to the pavement are acting as a beautiful impromptu waterfall.

Sydney is beautiful in the sunshine and awe-inspiring in the rain. It makes me remember why I live here now. Spectacular, spectacular.

Wednesday evening. Almost bedtime for Davie. Monday night was Buffy night as usual. It's getting a bit fraught! Only a few more episodes until the end of Series 7 - and I'm catching up by almost being at Series 4 having started again from the very beginning (it's a very good place to start). Just Dave, Mark, Geno and me this week - no Megan. Pizza and wine and we all felt fine :o) Yesterday was just work and slob. Was meant to gym and/or do life admin but couldn't be arsed. Today was a bit better. Up at 6.30am for the gym with Liz at 7am. We did legs. Ouch. Home and Pete came over and we had $5 at the Strawberry Hills hotel. Then we came back here and talked about buying a place together. Basically if we pool our resources we can get somewhere way nicer than if we buy individually. We've agreed that we'd like to in principle. We'll do it all legally and above board and so on. Now we just have to work out how much we've got to spend, and where we want to live. We've got a good basic idea and seem to like similar things so... fingers crossed that it all goes ahead sometime in the not too distant future. Woo-hoo! Tea and chocolate and bed. I've eaten lots (of trash) today. I must stick at the gym and eat better - only 2 and a half weeks to the half marathon!

Overdue. But here.

24th: Finished work, gym (another 6K run and a workout). Did indeed end up having beers at Barnacle but nothing too outrageous.
25th: Yet another public holiday as previously mentioned. Mucked around in the morning after sleeping in a bit I think (long overdue). Actually I know I watched a total of 12 episodes of Buffy over the 3 days of the long weekend so probably a couple to ease me into the day. Meant to be going to a picnic as also previously mentioned, but I got as far as Dave’s with the intention of us going to Coles and heading on down. We didn’t. Dave wasn’t in the best of humours so instead we had a good old natter and then headed to Spring for coffee and sustenance. Dave was knackered and so I left him to sleep and returned home. I got ready and headed to Rich and Russ’s as they’d picked the boys up from the airport. We did drinks and then dinner at Café Comity before more drinks at the Colombian. And then Barnacle. The boys went off for more drinks and dancing naughtiness. I went home!
26th: I know there was Buffy. I know there was probably coffee. I think there might have been grocery shopping. I reckon Carlo was in the mix somewhere there too probably. There was also dinner, and drinks with the boys again. I know we ended up down the Phoenix and that I left them all to it around 2.45am and went home as they went to Arq. Good Davie!
27th: Oh dear. All this drinking is taking it’s toll as I can’t remember what I did on this day at all. I know at around 4pm I made my way to Gary’s new place in Moore Park Gardens with 2 bottles of wine, but before that it’s a bit blank. I know it was really rainy, and I know I’d been somewhere… but where? Oh well. After Gary’s got a bit bleary too, as we hit the Colombian to meet the boys again and Pete and Paul. And thence to the Shift where various people came and went. I got talking to a nice guy called John (Scottish, landscape gardener) and arranged to try and catch up again… home drunkenly. Alone.
28th: Work as normal though a little jaded. Today was the day I start looking after Melbourne-Brisbane flights so all my market knowledge gained over the last near year on Sydney-Cairns-Sydney counts for nought. Well not nought, but not much! It’s good though as I get some business traffic on the new route and so the systems I use are different and in different ways, and the demand patterns are different again. Something more to learn and keep the old bonce ticking. Wasn’t sure if we were doing the Buffy thing, but we did again so headed to Mark’s. Takeaway pizza and catch up with the gang. Noice. Home with Megan.
29th: Work again. I’ve actually been working reasonably hard of late which has inhibited both this and the personal emails. What’s that all about? The plan for tonight was to go and see Björn Again with Gary and Andrew C. So we hooked up downtown for a swift beer at which point Andrew wasn’t feeling great and left me and Gary to it. So off we went to the Balmain Tigers Club (for that was the lugubrious venue said concert was at). Well that in itself was an experience. The Tigers are a rugby league club and the venue is their clubhouse. As Gary pointed out – it’s a place where the men are men and the women are, also. The whole thing was some surreal suburban nightmare. We had the $20 steak and seafood Tuesday night special as we took in the ‘ambience’ of the place. I’d forgotten that places like this exist. The crowd for Björn Again were mostly groups of women (I’m guessing quite a lot of office outings) looking for a few good men. Aren’t we all! The show itself was fun – Björn Again themselves didn’t seem too enthralled to start with but warmed up by the second half. By then several beers had kicked in and so Gary and I contented ourselves with singing slightly alternative lyrics to the ABBA songs. I’d never realised how easily you can substitute the words ‘skanky ho’ into that many songs! We couldn’t let it lie and so ended up back at the Shift for one last beer… vile!
30th: Worked. Did nowt else as was too tired. Sleeeeeeeeeep.
1st: Worked. Was meant to do the gym, but was too tired. Intended to veg out solo, but Pete rang at a loose end and so he came over and we did the pots of tea/natter/look for flats on the net thing again. Noice. More sleeeeeeeeeep.
2nd: Up with the lark and to the gym for Liz at 7am. Good workout. Into work and I’m sure it was lovely. Back, shower and change and then off to Rich and Russ’s after Ross came and dropped off Tim’s jeep to the garage. Lots of wine, nice food and good chats to the gang and David and Brett as it was their last night before they headed back to the UK. We ended up down at Barnacle, but I piked after one beer as I was a) very drunk and b) had every intention of running and gymming on Saturday. In bed around 12.45am.
3rd: Bleugh. Bleary eyed it became apparent I wouldn’t be gymming early on in the day. Actually it was a glorious day and so it became apparent that I wouldn’t be gymming at all. Instead I did some Buffy having slept in until around 11am for the first time in ages. Met Tony for brekky – really nice to see him again and long overdue. Thence a little shopping with Mr Westmore before he had to leg it for a haircut. I met up with Canadian John and Ian for coffee at Grumpy’s and then as Ian had the car we ended up for a fantastic walk at Watson’s Bay around the South Head and the lighthouse. Marvellous. Home and ablutions ready for the date with John, the guy from the Shift last Sunday. Arrived on time to the Newtown and before long John arrived too. He’s a nice guy, but not as cute as I’d remembered from Sunday (beer goggles anyone?). He’d shaved for the date, but is actually someone that suits a bit of beardy growth. Well in my opinion anyway. Strati and Dale arrived and that took the pressure off a bit and Andrew Carfrae was there too, as was David (Crusty) Bassett and Robert. I decided to leave around 11.30pm if there was ever going to be any chance of running at all this weekend.
4th: Up at 8am, a little hung over but not too bad. Two episodes of Buffy; a bowl of weetbix (yes, there’s no ‘a’ between weet and bix here), yoghurt, banana and milk; a pot of tea. Then I decided it was time for me to run round the park. I did so, for an hour. 12 times in all. Very achy knees at the end. Home, shower, lunch, another Buffy. All this by 1.30pm! Carlo phoned to see if I wanted to catch up (I did), then I headed to have coffee with Russ, Rich, Adrian and Shane. Back to R’n’R’s then chilled until Pete called and we hit the Shift. Various people arrived through the night and I got progressively more drunken. Spotted there were: Rich, Russ, Canadian John, Ian, George, his cute friend Simon, John the unsuccessful date from Saturday night, Dez… home after midnight, possibly with burger.
5th: Into work. Worked. Going home right now. Then to Mark’s for Buffy again. The pizza was a hit last week so we’re doing it again this week. Yay!

Er it's Saturday night and it's alright for blogging. Well it would be, if I weren't going to go and shower and get myself ready for a date ;o) Canadian John was chiding me this afternoon for not updating my blog for a while, but I promise I'll do it tomorrow. Honest guv.

Short and sweet - as nothing much has happened since last blog. Watched Buffy on Monday night and then hit the sack. Tuesday was work and then the gym. 6K run and a workout. Home and food and then Pete came over for numerous cups of tea, chocolate and chats. We ended up looking at flats to buy for him on the net - but at the back of my mind I was thinking about when I should do the same - sell Peckham and buy here. No firm plans for right now, but some encouraging prices on some nice loft style things I could buy with only a teeny mortgage left over...
Wednesday I did the other way round - gym before work with Liz. After work I'd intended to go for a run, but ended up eating, crashing out in front of the telly and a few internet chats with UK friends. In bed for 10.10pm. Work today before another long weekend - ANZAC Day tomorrow. Maybe a couple of drinks with Rich and Russ tonight. David and Brett arrive from Perth tomorrow night, and in theory there's a picnic in the park tomorrow for Dez and a different Brett's birthdays. Yay. OK - back to work for the afternoon and then another reasonably quiet, healthy-ish weekend planned. Go new balanced Davie!

Happy Easter to one and all. It's now Easter Monday evening and I've got some time before Buffy to finally update what's been going on for the last two weeks. Bad Davie - I promise to blog more regularly from now on. Yeah right. OK, cast your mind back to April 4th - coz that's when I left you last. Well properly anyway. I'd been baking scones - read on.
Fri 4 - Up for an early session with Liz at the gym. Work. The scones were a huge success. We even got a spontaneous chorus of Happy Birthday, which to my knowledge has never happened before! A very quiet dinner with Rich and Russ and Adrian and Shane at the Courthouse. To Jason's. Nice evening with a nice bloke.
Sat 5 - Brekky with Jason somewhere on Victoria Street. The rest of the day's a bit fuzzy. Think I hooked up with Carlo at some point. Not sure what I did in the evening time. Beers but no club? That would sound about right. Or I may have even stayed in and watched the remaining episodes of Buffy Series 1.
Sun 6 - spent the day finishing my very own mix CD. It's fantastic!! Even if I do say so myself. Now all I need to do is work out how to put it on here in downloadable form. Beers in Colombian & Shift I think, probably with Pete. The only other thing I can remember is chatting to Dave for 30 mins on the mobile in an alley behind the Colombian. He'd had a crap weekend. Think I cheered him up!
Mon 7 - work. Run in the park. Buffy at Mark's. Mark made his famous soup. Soup-er! Home in a cab with Megan.
Tue 8 - work. Gym. Maybe other stuff too. Who knows? Actually I think I ran in the park again, rather than gym.
Wed 9 - popped in to see R'n'R. Beers with Pete at the Colombian, where we also caught up with Tim and Jason. I also met Baby Tom who was in all the way from London and we had beers and pizza with him. Lovely to see him!! Bless.
Thu 10 - work. Gym. Food. Bed.
Fri 11 - gym. Work. Impromptu leaving beers for Craig at the Civic, with Pete, Gary and Mark. To Howard's out at Caringbah on the train. I used to work with Howard at Border's and so we caught up. A trip to the country no less!
Sat 12 - came back from Caringbah. Won't be rushing back!! Here and finally decided to do a proper run - 11½K and a good workout. Joined Pete, Gary and Steve for pesto burger at Foodgame. Got the Saturday phone call from Carlo. To Tony's 40th birthday party later that night, where it seemed almost everyone I know in Sydney had shown up. Got very drunk with Gary and Pete and later, Pete. And Garry. On to the Phoenix, stumbling probably. Jason took me home... bless him. How to make a good impression Davie...
Sun 13 - slowly wended my way home from Jason's after a nice brekky in Bistro and furniture shopping (for him, not me) and beers at Colombian. Coffee with Adrian and Michael, followed by a bit of a wander round. Beers with Michael at the Colombian and then the Shift. To the Green Park to meet Dave, but he was late so hooked up with Tim,Ross and Jason. Dave arrived, as did Sean. Almost as drunk as the previous evening I headed back to the Shift for one last hurrah. Singing with Canadian John. Surreptitous songs with Ian. Hungry Jacks on the way home. (Oh, that's Burger King for those Brits reading!)
Mon 14 - work. Dave rang and we decided not to do Buffy en masse as we were all too shagged from our respective weekends. Food here then night in front of both computer and telly. Buffy then bed.
Tue 15 - work. Home and shopped. Cooked dinner here for Gary and Pete. Dips first, then Zuccini, Prosciutto and Petit Pois soup (that's posh pea and ham to you!). Sorbet. Music. Noice. We were all a bit knackered and so as soon as they'd gone I crashed!
Wed 16 - work. Gym. Dinner on the run. Beer with Rich and Russ at the newly reopened Barracks, now called Manacle. Pretty much the same really with one less pool table and a bit more light. We'll see if it takes off! Home.
Thu 17 - gym with Liz. Work. 4 days off - woo-hoo! Dinner at Pete's. Wine. Manacle (or Barnacle as we've now termed it, as the crowd look as though they've got crusty bottoms). Empty. Down to Colombian - Allan x2, and Ian. To the Shift - chats with James. Home in the rain.
Fri 18 - woke and vegged. Finally got my act together and did lunch in Chinatown with Canadian John. To the Green Park to meet Jason. Beers then here for me to grab an overnight bag. Back to his. Stayed in :o)
Sat 19 - up and coffee. Brekky at Morgans. Jason's now gone off to the States for three weeks. Looking forward to catching up with him on his return. Felt coldy. Didn't run. Home and 4 episodes of Buffy. Something to eat and then 3 more Buffy's. Bed around midnight.
Sun 20 - up around 10am. 3 more episodes of Buffy. Walk in the arvo up to town and around and back. Dinner - chicken, zucchini, pesto pasta thing. To the Shift. Caught up with John, Ian, Garry, Pete and David and Kerry and Steve. Home. Toast. Too tired for the last episode of Buffy Series 2 Part 1.
Mon 21 - up, cut hair, brekky, Buffy, laundry, Carlo, dinner, chill, walk, coffee and chocolate.

That's all folks. Buffy's on in half an hour. Time for another cup of coffee. There are several things there I've gone over only sketchily - hopefully I'll get chance to expand on a few things through this week at work (where it should be quieter). More very soon.

Er soon, my pretties. Distraught at not winning David's quiz I'm sulking. Have a read of this instead. The best bit is in the description at the end...

Just in case you were wondering, I'm alive and well but just haven't updated in a little while. It's 2 minutes past Tuesday and I should be asleep. More later today!

Thursday night and I've just baked two batches of scones. Not the usual opening to a Davie post I know, but it happens to be true. Move over Jamie. It's time for the Minkered Chef. I'll tell you about the scones in a sec, but first, an update of what's been going down.

The BBQ at Rich and Russ's was great. Nice to see them and Adrian and Ken and Tim and Ross, what with me having spent a bit less time with them of late. Thursday was more work and then out for a date with Jason from Friday night. Beers; nice healthy food (duck wraps, steamed ginger fish, greens and rice and then back to his place. For cocoa. Obviously. Actually I'm surprised he let me stay as I had to be up at 5.45am for a gym appointment at 6am (bugger, that reminds me - I've got another one in the morning!). Fun, and hopefully doing it all again tomorrow. Friday night was a quiet one. I met Dave straight from work and we went and shopped for dinner and DVDs. Back here and I cooked and we had a laugh and watched Dirty Deeds and something else with Stockard Channing in it. Nice night. Dave finally left around 12.30am and I fell into a coma.

Le weekend: Saturday I'm sure was fabulous. Fabulous yes, memorable? Er... not really. Oh I know. Met Rich and Pete for brunchy stuff at Go-Go's, and then we were all in a bit of a strange mood so after a bit more walking around we all went our respective ways. I came back here and luckily for me Carlo was online so he popped over for tea and buns. Ahem.We skipped the tea. Out later although I wasn't really in the mood. We had drinks in the Colombian for Pank's birthday and then down to the Phoenix. The gang all there. Dave was with Sean, though they didn't stay long. It kind of got to me a bit, seeing as I really still quite like Dave - 6 months on. I ran out of steam around 2.45am and came home in a fairly foul mood. It continued into Sunday, so I did what I often do in those situations and went for a long, long walk, stumbling on Tim and Ross outside the Green Park. A few beers later and I was meeting Dave at the Colombian. I decided to let him know how I felt as I wanted to get it out in the open so we could laugh about it and have it lose some of its potency. We had a great time, and I know I've got myself yet another lovely man as a friend, bless him.

Monday saw me in work and hungover. Mel sent me home thinking I was really ill. I didn't complain too much! Had a good day of rest and shopping and cooked for the Buffy lot. It was Geno's birthday that day so we had a double celebration as everyone just left as it was turning my birthday. Yay. Drinks at the Colombian Tuesday night - Mat, Adrian, Gary, Russ, Rich, Ian, Jason, Pete, Pete... then some food with Gary and Pete which was great. Home not too late. Wednesday night was shopping and scone making and tonight more scone making. It's traditional at work to take cakes in on your birthday and I'm having a joint one with a girl whose birthday it is on Sunday, so tomorrow's gone scone-tastic. It's midnight. I should retire. Oh, and some changes at work of which I'll wax more tomorrow. Er today now. It's 8 minutes past bedtime. Snore.

At last, an interesting Big Brother story.

Remind me to post a bit more about Bad Dog. They really are the most incredibly parties. Hard to describe unless you've been to one, but I'll give it a go!