Sheer laziness

I'm on holidays from work, I have no real reason for not updating my blog any sooner than now. There is no news on my Dad as yet, the lawyers go back to work next Tuesday, they'll be making contact at that time, and then we'll see what happens from there. He's really depressed, it makes me sad to see him like that, and yeah, that's about all I've got to say about that at the moment.

Christmas was quite nice actually. On Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma's house for dinner, and then went back to Mum and Dad's to exchange presents like we do every year, and got home around 12:30am. On Christmas Day we went to Ivan's parent's place and most of his Aunts and Uncles were there and we had a BBQ for lunch. It was a nice couple of days really!

Since then I haven't been doing anything too exciting. I've moved on from the hours upon hours of LOTR:ROTK and am now on hours upon hours of Matrix stuff. Only 4 DVDs to go, yay! Also in between I've been doing a little reading and catching up with some people I didn't get to see before Christmas. And getting a flat tyre, then replacing said flat tyre. That was fun :-/ Luckily it happened close to home and Ivan came to help, and just as well there were two of us because the wheel nuts were on so tight that I had to stand on one end of the thing to get them off while Ivan tried to turn it. Crazy.

That's been about it in a nutshell I guess. Like I said, very little has happened. We're spending New Year's Eve at home again this year with a couple of people coming around so nothing too over the top. Hope you all have a good one!

Merry Christmas? Hardly

Dad lost his job today. After at least 15 years working in the same factory he got sacked because he was off with a sore back for two days last week, had a certificate, but his work don't believe him because he went to his own GP and not the one from work. Unbelievable. An entitlement he has, which they can't prove he misused! Tomorrow he gets the official letter and I doubt very much that that's the reason they'll put in the letter, because they just can't do that. The week before Christmas. What horrible people. We don't really know what's going to happen now, as it only happened a few hours ago, but at 54 Dad's gonna find it tough to get another job. Especially if this gives him a bad name. I still can't quite believe it, just needed to vent, sorry :-/

Meh, I can't think of a title

Yes, things here are still a little crazy and so I haven't been able to do my regular daily updates again. I'm still working here in Adelaide and after the relatively busy days the nights have been busy too, with Christmas BBQs, dinners and general get-togethers to go to. And occasionally, I like to have some time to myself so have been reading or watching hours upon hours of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition stuff. I also bought the 10-disc Matrix thing and haven't had a chance to watch any of that.

But only 2 more days of work and then I have 2 weeks of holidays, yay! Granted, in between those holidays there'll be Christmas and New Years so it won't exactly be a relaxed holiday with all the people I'd like to see during that time, but some time off work is always good :)

Speaking of work, this morning I had a job interview for a Licensing Officer position back here in the big smoke. The interview went okay, there always seems to be one question that stumps me and this was no exception, but the other questions I felt confident about so here's hoping. I think they're planning to tell people before Christmas although that's a tight timeframe as interviews started today and are going until next Wednesday, but yeah, hopefully we hear sooner rather than later. On top of that I've also just applied for another position here in Adelaide, one that's a level higher than what I'm on now but it's only a one-year contract. So, yeah, been busily writing that in my spare time too.

Hmm, lots of stuff has been happening. My sister is engaged to Steve, and we're all wrapped because unlike her ex, this guy is a keeper and treats her like a princess. So she's mega mega happy as you could imagine.

Last Friday the Berri office had its Christmas party so I went back to Berri last weekend and went along to that. It was at the Bonneyview Winery in Barmera and I had a great time. They had karaoke but no one from our group was mad enough to get up there, but the Australia Post crew had their dinner on the same night so they got up and sang Return to Sender which was quite funny :) Also the Barmera Christmas Pageant was on so we got to see some free fireworks.

Last night I went to the Christmas BBQ for the SA Herpetology Group (that's reptiles and amphibians by the way) so that was great because I haven't seen those people for a year. And it confirmed the fact I still want to get a gecko. On Thursday Ivan and I are gonna have dinner at Steve's place with him and Maria which will be good, because we haven't seen his place yet and she's probably moving in there soon. So tonight I have to do my Christmas shopping because I really don't want to leave it until next week! I have 6 or 7 people left to buy for, ugh. Damn expensive holiday, but I must admit, I like giving people gifts at Christmas so it's my own fault :)

Anyway there isn't too much left to the workday and although I'm sure I've forgotten something here, I'd better wrap this up. 2 more days, then holidays, yay!

Things you miss

When you've lived in the city for all your life and you move to a regional town, there are bound to be things you miss. Most would say they miss the night life, and perhaps if I was younger I'd be inclined to agree, because I've outgrown nightclubs these days and I've been to the pub for drinks with friends more in Berri than I did in Adelaide. I miss certain stores though.

Don't get me wrong, the town I live in isn't tiny even if there are no traffic lights (the drive to work is mega mega easy and fast), but it is lacking in certain stores. This becomes very noticeable around special occasions such as Christmas. Here in Adelaide, I work across from Rundle Mall, and can easily walk over there during my lunch break or after work and buy some things. In Berri, there's the Riverland Plaza which has maybe two or three decent stores and so it's really limiting.

One major downside to Berri is not having anywhere decent to go for lunch. Yes, there are sandwich shops but they are, and this is being kind, sub-standard. Here in Adelaide there are Food Courts as far as the eye can see and if you can't find a decent sandwich somewhere then you are, indeed, an idiot.

Books. There are no bookstores in Berri, and for someone who loves reading this can be a problem. The only place to buy books are Newsagents where they are quite expensive. If it weren't for the book club we have at work, where we can buy books for less than half price, I'd be lost. Mind you, I overdose on the cheap books. That's why I have a bedside table about to topple over because of the books waiting to be read.

And finally (for now), Haigh's chocolates. When you pay $6 for a block of chocolate you can bet your ass it's gonna be the best chocolate you've ever tasted, and Haigh's is undoubtadly my favourite chocolate ever. Many years ago when my sister and I would come into the city it would be a treat for us to buy some Haigh's choccies. I would always buy a block of their dark chocolate because dark chocolate is my favourite and Haigh's dark chocolate ROCKS! So, it's almost three weeks since I've been here and I hadn't bought any Haigh's yet... until today. I couldn't resist, walking past the store at lunch time and not going in for The Best Chocolate In The World seemed criminal. I know, I complain about my weight but screw it. It's Haigh's Chocolates, who are you to resist it?

Berri isn't a terrible place, there are for worse places to live, but I really do love Adelaide.

Blog neglect

Wow, things just got majorly crazy here since I last wrote and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and do an update. Sorry, Blog readers!

In fact, my last blog seems so long ago I'm having trouble remembering exactly what I've been doing so I guess I'll just rattle off some things. A couple of days after my last entry I believe, I did something to my back again and took a couple of days off work. Normally days off work are great because I get to catch up on gaming or something but it hurt to sit at the computer so I did little but lie down both of those days.

A couple of weekends have been and gone, and I can't remember what I've been doing except that Saturday just passed Mum took me clothes shopping as my Christmas present which was heaps good. I got 4 tops for work that are summery, 2 skirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts (although I'm now wondering why), 4 pairs of shoes (ok, so I have a shoe problem), a new handbag (it's pink!) and a purse to match. Oh, and I got this necklace, ring and earring set free from Rockman's for spending so much money there, hehehe. I really needed some decent summer clothes for work, I was feeling very blah and it's been pretty damn hot in the last week.

So, apart from that, I guess the thing that springs to mind is that I haven't been in Berri for a week and looks like I'll be in the Adelaide office up until my Christmas holidays. They asked me to come and work down here to help with this new system, to get all the metering data sorted as that's pretty much my role in Berri, so I have been mega busy since I got here, hence the little time to write. I'm heaps happy to have been asked to help them out, and am hoping it's a mini-test to see how I'll go for this job I've applied for back here, but I shouldn't get too excited, I might not even get an interview for that yet.

It's been great to spend all this time with Ivan again but it's a little awkward, not knowing exactly how long I'm down here and all, because half of my stuff is in Berri and half of it is down here. But I won't complain, because this is where I want to be.

The Adelaide staff are all very friendly, although I'm getting mixed vibes from a couple of the girls here, I don't think they like me. Not that they've done anything, it's just that feeling a person gets. But it's ok, because you get people like that everywhere. Although people here are really nice I'm just not sure I fit in back here. All the girls are very beautiful (men must love working here) and I just feel like a fatso. Ah well.

Anyway it's almost time for me to go and catch the train back home, so I'd better go finish up on a couple of things. Sorry for not updating this sooner, I've really just been frazzled.

Hope you all are well.

News flash

I'm about to go down and do a heap of filing (800 individual files) so thought I'd do a morning blog before I head downstairs into the abyss.

Last night was the final ever Sex And The City and I'm really going to miss it! I suppose I'll have to just stick with re-runs and watching old episodes on DVD but it's just not the same. But I have to admit, I felt a little empty watching the ending. So many people wanted Carrie to end up with Big but I didn't, the guy was a jerk, and the only time I felt any emotion in the episode was when she saw her friends again. I guess it always happens when a show's been around so long and you expect too much from the big finale, but yeah.

On the weekend Ivan and I watched a couple of movies - The Incredibles and Team America. Both of them were very funny for very different reasons. The puppet love scene in Team America was one of the funniest things I have ever seen, although it makes you shake your head and go "oh geez..." :)

So, as you can tell, this update was merely to waste time, because I'm really not keen on all this filing but it's inevitable after the big mailout last week :(

End of a dry spell

I can't believe it's been a week since I updated, it's been a while since I've been so slack. Thing is, I have several reasons for not updating:
1) I had a massive mailout to do at work, which takes up a lot of time.
2) I had to get that job application done and sent and geez those things are hard to write.
3) Nothing interesting has been happening and this blog has been mega-boring.
4) Anything that has happened would probably not interest the one or two readers I have left.
5) Like I said above, I have lost a lot of readers so the inspiration to write about stuff is gone.
6) I presume I've lost readership, I can only presume because people aren't commenting (note the use of emotional blackmail).

That's all I have for the list really.

So, yeah, work has been a bit busier and I had to get my job application sent off. Aside from that Mum, Maria and Grandma got back from QLD, I was in Adelaide on the weekend, there were more family dramas, the usual really. The weekend was quiet, I'm preparing myself for the Christmas rush of catching up with people and spending too much money by doing as little as possible on these weekends. The weather has also sucked so I'm not motivated to leave the house.

I saw the video from Linda's wedding on the weekend and it was quite a nice ceremony. They ended up having it inside because it rained but everyone looked really nice and happy. The thing is though, they played my most favourite song ever for when she was walking down the aisle - Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. I'm guessing they only chose this song for the title because if they'd listened to the words they'd see it's not a happy song at all (I've blogged about this before). My interpretation of the song is it is about the death of love, and I don't mean the death of a loved one but the death of love itself, love dying in a relationship, etc. So, them walking down the aisle to it was an insult to me because they picked my favourite song but seemed to have no idea what the song was about! Anyway, apart from that, the ceremony was nice. And I'm allowed to have a rant, even if I'm being silly and selfish, ok? :P

Oops-a-daisy

Well I did absolutely no writing on Friday or over the entire weekend so my novel is pretty much dead and I've discovered I'm a terrible National Novel Writing Month participant. Ah well, there's always next year :)

So the weekend was absolutely freezing and all my plans were thrown into disarray. On Saturday night Dad and I were going to go to Speedway City to watch some Sprintcar Racing but we decided to cancel that because not only was it cold but it was raining and the race most likely would have been cancelled. Plus it's no fun freezing your ass off at a racetrack. During the day on Saturday I was going to go to a BBQ at Belair National Park, where after the BBQ the Friends of Belair were having their monthly meeting. I had planned to go since I haven't gotten to a meeting in about a year, and knew that the BBQ was under cover and the meeting was in this hall. But when I got to Dad's on Friday and he suggested we go out for lunch somewhere, I figured I'd rather be warmer than at some BBQ in wintery conditions.

So, Friday night was the usual quiet, catching up on TV shows I'd missed day. On Saturday we had a sleep-in and then Ivan and I met up with Dad at Best Mix, this Chinese restaurant on Anzac Highway and had a yummy lunch. We got home around 1:30pm and then Ivan basically said the rest of the day was up to me, as a thankyou of sorts for the amount of travelling I do and stuff. It was a lovely thought but it was too cold to do anything, so I preferred a day inside in front of the computer. Hehe, geekiness wins!! We were going to go out for dinner but I wanted Fasta Pasta, and the closest one was too far away in the cold (hahaha I was so lazy on the weekend), so we went to Captain Chicken and got yummy yummy takeaway. Sunday was a lazy day again (although it usually is), I just went and saw Dad on my way back to Berri and that was about it.

Does anyone remember the shows Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High? Well I absolutely loved them and seeing as they've not been released on DVDs, and probably never will, when I saw them online I just HAD to get them. So Ivan put them onto discs for me and I watched a few episodes last night before bed. That was about it!

Work is still boring, but what's new :)

An update for the sake of it

I truly have not a thing to say but I am so bored at the moment so I thought I may as well blog and infect the internet with my boredom. We've been told we can start using the database so have to sort out this backlog of work and see what the best order to do things in is. But even that hasn't gone to plan, because it's 2pm, I'll be going home to pack in an hour and a half, and I still haven't been given the jobs I was supposed to be given because the boss isn't ready yet.

You'd think I'd be happy, because it would give me time to write but I've been putting it off and haven't even written a single word of my novel today. I set myself a goal of 2200 words today. Fat chance!

So yeah, a really boring day. It's so windy, cold and wet outside, it would have been a perfect day to sleep or read in bed. Ah well :)

Bear with me

When things are bothering me I sometimes turn to this blog to let those feelings out, because I think of this sometimes as a personal diary, even though other people read it. So if you're one of those "friends" (and I use the term loosely, you know who you are) who can't handle that sometimes I get upset about things (and it's not always about you) then now is the time to stop reading.

So, basically, my dad is a real asshole sometimes. Today Mum, Maria and Grandma all leave for QLD so I spoke to them last night on the phone to wish them a safe trip, as you do. As soon as Mum got on the phone I could tell there was something wrong, and when I asked what it was she just started crying. She couldn't talk, because Dad was there still swearing at her in the background, but basically he was drunk again and treating her like shit, again. I called her this morning, after he'd left for work, and that was pretty much the gist of it.

You know, as close as I am to my father, I really hate him sometimes. He's had a drinking problem since we were frigging kids (oh yeah, some great childhood memories thanks to Dad) and I wonder when the hell he plans to take any responsibility and act like a grown man for fuck's sake. Excuse the swearing but clearly I'm upset. He goes through these phases where even though he drinks daily, most days he won't drink so much to the point of getting drunk, he'll just have some alcohol with dinner and stuff. But then he gets these bad patches.

This is one of those bad patches. On the last few occasions I've seen him he's been drunk. Sometimes I'll feel guilty for getting angry at him. Like, I'll think to myself 'oh, well he's on holidays from work, he can indulge himself', or 'it's the Footy Grand Final, he's allowed a few beers', and so on, making excuses for his behaviour. Well, I'm tired of making fucking excuses. It's not normal to drink that fucking much. And what's worse is he's a real prick when he's drunk so Mum cops so many arguments.

I know, I'm 25 years old, you'd think I'd have learned to deal with this by now, but why the hell should I learn to deal with this? He's a grown man, he has a steady job, a loving wife, two daughters who do ok for themselves, what gets him so frigging stressed out that he needs to drink every fucking day and night?!? GROW UP! Putting your children through this sort of thing is just not warranted. Kids should not have to yell at their dad, console their mother, or cry their childhood away because of their parent. Enough is fucking enough!

Countless (and I do mean countless) events that are supposed to be happy were ruined by him, and it's still going on! Rather than Mum be excited about a week holiday in QLD with her sister and other family members, she got to cry herself to sleep last night. Good work Dad. Last year my birthday was a fucking write-off. Good work Dad.

And then he'll realise, when something happens, that he needs to change his behaviour. The number of times I've heard him say "I've been drinking too much lately, that's going to change", and I try and take some hope with that, and then a week (and I'm being generous, I was originally gonna say 2 days) later he's back at it again. So many broken promises. Now that Mum and Maria are away and he'll be at home by himself he'll probably be worse, even though I'm going to try and call and see him as much as I can. I shouldn't have to be sitting at home, wondering if he's ok!

***

Anyway now that I've vented a little bit, I do have some more normal news today. The jobs in Adelaide have finally been advertised. There are three of them and they close in two weeks, so I have to get my Resume in order and send off an application and cross my fingers.

My book is stuck. I'm supposed to somehow write 1850 words today if I want to stay on target but my mind is a mess and I can't focus, so methinks this will be another failed project. Oh well, I'll try but I just don't think I can get into it today.

That's about it, time for lunch now. Oh, and blah at half the American voters, but enough people are writing about that.

Hmph, hurry up

Remember that show, Mr Squiggle? Well, imagine the above title spoken in the voice of Blackboard.

Anyway, so this day is dragging. I was trying to hold off blogging until the results of the US election were in but my goodness, that could take ages. I was hoping to do a celebratory dance around my blog, but it's not yet been confirmed who the winner is, and if it's Bush, then I sure as hell won't be dancing around my blog, or anywhere for that matter. I went home for lunch so I could watch the broadcast and get an idea, but after the debarcle in 2000 no station wants to make any early predictions so almost all the states at that stage were at the "we don't have enough data" stage.

Apart from what's been going on overseas, my mind is all mush at the moment! I've been sitting here at work, working on my novel because there is nothing else to do. I was hoping to get to 5000 words today but I'm strapped for ideas again, and with my mind now being mush I won't be achieving much. And I still have two hours of sitting here to do, joy!

So, anyone that's been watching Survivor will know that last night they voted the last decent looking guy off the island, dammit. No eye candy for us girls now!

Hmm, what else can I prattle on about to kill some time?

Oh, I despise the show but I've been playing this Law and Order game on the computer in the last couple of days and it's really good! It's pretty cool to look for clues and interview witnesses. I have a long way to go before I have a case to take before the courtroom though, so that will probably keep me busy in the next few evenings.

I really need to try and get to sleep a little earlier though. Moving the clocks forwards an hour on the weekend has stuffed my body clock up a bit, and it's only an hour! How pathetic, hehehe.

Oh! What the heck is up with spam? It's bad enough we get emails selling us stuff we don't need, now my comments are starting to be infiltrated! I was going through some blog entries from a couple of months ago earlier becaise I am SO BORED and was reading comments people had left, and then all of a sudden there's these random spam comments by some random internet bot thing!!! They were all from different IPs so there was no point IP blocking, so I just deleted the comments and thought "Piss off, spam bots!!!". Sheesh, is nowhere safe?!?

Dammit, this only took up 5 minutes. Oh well, I suppose I should try and reach this 5000 word target. Or browse the internet. Or fall asleep at my desk. I have a lot of options at the moment.

We're all a bit stuffed!

Well I ended up going to touch football last night and I'm glad I did, because it was so much fun! Everyone seemed to be at the same skill and fitness level so there were heaps of laughs at people dropping the ball (not just me) and lots of rest breaks (sometimes unscheduled when someone would just lie down on the field). Today we've all pulled up a bit sore though. Both my knees are a little tender (not just my busted one) and I have a bruise on my arm, but I think others got off worse. Greg, the boss, accidentally got scratched by me and smashed into me twice but faired worse off, because he copped my elbow right in the ribs, hehehe. We all had a great time though :)

Here is a link to my novel for anyone that might be interested. Please note the paragraph up the top. I have heaps of work left to do on this and there'll be stacks of editing to do once it's all done, so what you're seeing on that site is my rough work, spilling out words as they come into my head. It will take a lot of rearranging and bulking up to be any good, which is something I'll work on once the month is over and I've rushed the words out of me. Comments and criticisms are welcome, as well as other ideas, but no comments on the editing side of things please (not yet) :)

Today is the Melbourne Cup, not something I really get in to personally. Only reason I've ever watched a race is to see how I fare in the workplace sweeps (last year I got the winner, this year I doubt I'll be that lucky again). Generally I think horse racing is cruel but yeah, it's the race that stops the nation and all that. Work is having a luncheon for us at 1pm which should be good. There's some best hat competition but I'll be damned if I'm wearing a silly hat :)

In other news, why don't people comment anymore? Well, I know why a couple of people aren't, but what of the rest of you? Is anyone still reading this? It's a mystery ;)

Can't touch this

Excuse the random title, but this afternoon we're supposed to be starting our work Touch Football social game, and I am sooooo not keen at the moment. When Ken first came up with the idea I was all for a bit of a laugh and something fun to do after a day at work, and now I'm dreading having signed up for it. I've never played Touch Football in my life, have the rules printed out but can't quite remember them, and I have always been uncoordinated when it comes to sport. The last time I caught a ball was a few years ago, and that was a nice round netball, so I probably won't even be able to catch the damn thing. I can laugh at myself quite well, but there's a certain level where you cross the point and reach total humiliation. That's where I think I'll end up if I go along. So, as you can tell, I'd like to get out of it on the one hand, whereas on the other I still think it could be fun. I think if I don't show up though I might get a damn good thrashing from Bron and Ken. Decisions, decisions!

In other news, National Novel Writing Month starts today! I have started my novel but have already hit a block I'm hoping to get through soon, because I'd still like to write another 1000 words today. I will eventually post a link to the blog where my novel will be put up, but truth is I'm scared of letting other people read my work, which is a pretty stupid thing to feel, because what's the point? I'll have to put a Disclaimer up the top of the page I reckon.

So, how was everyone's weekend? Mine was quite nice indeed :) On Friday when I went to Mum and Dad's, Steve was over so that was pretty cool. On Saturday morning I had a facial (at 9am, way too early I think) and then the rest of the day was really lazy and quiet, which was perfect because I was really tired, felt like reading, and I wanted a day without having to go anywhere (the facial doesn't count since I lie down for over an hour, hehe).

This Thursday Mum, Maria and Grandma are flying to QLD for Linda's wedding, so I wanted to see them all before they left (they're only going for one week but I still like to say goodbye before anyone flies anywhere). So I decided to try and see everyone on Sunday before coming back to Berri. Mum was working so I popped into her work and had a coffee with her for half an hour or so, then drove to Grandma's and had a coffee with her for just over an hour. After the caffeine overdose (hehe, I hardly ever drink coffee) I went to see Dad and Maria who were at home. We had a late lunch together and then, before I knew it, it was time to drive back to Berri.

I got in to work at 8:30 this morning, which is the earliest I've been in for quite a few months, so the day seems out of whack a bit. The rest of the afternoon will probably be spent trying to write with a little work thrown in now and then. Exciting stuff!

A time to rest

As usual, when it gets to Friday, I'm in a fantastic mood! That's about all I have to report, really, that my mood is fantastic :)

This weekend looks to be a quiet one which I am really looking forward to, because I have been on minimal sleep all week and with the last couple of weekends being busy it will be nice to just spend some time with Ivan. Sure, it will mean that I won't have anything gripping to write about on Monday, but hey, that happens. It seems to be happening a lot lately, I've been uncreative and the content in this blog has suffered. Maybe with the onset of National Novel Writing Month starting Monday I'll be able to be more entertaining. Although, most of my creative thought will go into my Novel and so I might make this blog even more boring (I'm pretty sure that's possible).

So, I finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets yesterday after I got home from work so walked across the road to return it to Bron and pick up the next book. I'm getting into all this Harry Potter (better late than never, hehe).

Last night when chatting someone actually called me a writer. No one has ever called me that before! I don't even call myself that, because yes, it's what I want to be, but I've never finished anything I've started before, so for someone to call me a writer was a pleasant feeling. Melinda Kovac, Writer. Has a nice ring to it :)

I only have a few more hours of work left and then I'll be off to Adelaide. Looking forward to the drive actually because it's a gorgeous day outside.

In other news, someone has sent me a gift, it's supposed to be a surprise so I'm dying to know what it is, and it was posted on Monday from QLD, and I'm hoping it arrives today before I leave, because although surprises are great, the suspense is killing me!

Anyway it's almost lunchtime so I had better hit Publish on this thing before I prattle on for another half a page. I'm hoping I get some time to get things ready for my novel writing, otherwise Monday will come and I'll sit here staring blankly at the screen. I have set up a separate blog for my novel, but will only post the link when things get started and when I have an inkling of what the story will be, so stay tuned :)

Wow, cool!

I don't often link to other things in my actual blog but I think that this is really interesting.

Better late than never!

Long time readers may remember that back in February I ordered something for Ivan's birthday (which is in April) from the US. I had congratulated myself on being so organised, only to discover the item was out of stock and was on backorder. Apparently backorders usually came in within a fortnight.

It is late October, and the item is finally in stock! So, now I'm going to be organised for Christmas! Ofcourse, now that I've said that, something will jinx the delivery and it won't actually arrive to my residence here in Australia until next April maybe, if I'm lucky.

Hooray for fast international shipping, hey? I tell you what, if this gift turns out to be a dud I'll be so pissed off!

Wacky Wednesday

Considering I had one tiny task to do today, the day has really flown! Ofcourse, now I've jinxed it which means the last three hours will go slower than... something slow... but ah well :)

I'm in a really cheerful mood today! There's no real reason for it, nothing exciting has happened. In fact, today has been quite dull. But for some reason, I'm feeling really happy and cheery.

It could be because it's a gorgeous day, not too hot and not too cold, but one of those perfect Spring days. It could be because I went to the pub for lunch and had some fish and so the Omega 3 has made my body and therefore me happy. It could be because I've had little sleep and have hit that crazy phase. Or maybe it's because that for the last two days I've restarted my exercise routine, going for walks and cycling, and so I'm feeling better about a proper routine again. Perhaps it's this Mixed Tape I'm listening to. I'm not sure, but this natural high is a good place to be :)

Tomorrow I have a routine rental property inspection so last night in between TV shows I cleaned the house. That gives you quite a workout, especially when you haven't done it in a while, hehehe. My pedometer got the most steps on it since I got it 3 weeks ago! Anyway, that's about it from me :)

Playing on the Mixed Tape now: Dark Of The Matinee by Franz Ferdinand
Eating: A scone, delivered to my desk by Cheryl (this place rocks)
Thinking: I hope no one saw me bopping just then...

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, and as you can see by the little image on the right hand panel there (->) I'm gonna give it a red hot go. If you haven't been curious and clicked on the link yet, it's basically something to get people like me, who've always wanted to write a novel and never have, to get off their butts in November and get it done. There are no prizes, and you don't have to submit your novel at the end to the organisers (although if you do, you get a certificate apparently), the only thing you really need to do is get to 50 000 words before the end of November.

So, I've decided to give it a try. I have absolutely no idea what to write about, and I will probably give up after Day 2, but hey, it's worth a try, right? So if writing a novel is something you've always wanted to do, why not give it a try in November? Blogger has even chipped in and have set it up so people can use a blog to keep their novel writing in check. Or, you could just stick to a pen and paper if that's your fancy. And hey, whatever gets written, it's got to be better than something written by Pamela Anderson, surely.

Mixed Tape

Well it's Monday already and already I've had enough of work for the week. Luckily I made myself a music CD to listen to which Bron has termed my "mixed tape" so I'm listening to it now, occasionally mouthing lyrics to myself and generally just counting down the minutes until I leave work for the day.

The afternoon has completely dragged on! I still have this work to do for my boss but it's all numbers and I'm tired of looking at numbers so what the heck, some blog updating and web browsing is all good, right? Right? Right.

Saturday night after Ivan left was really quiet. We were all a bit tired for some reason and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was on TV so Mum, Dad and I settled in to watch that. When they started dozing off I went to my room, logged on for a little while, kicked Ivan's butt in Tiger Woods Golf over the internet (as you do), then went and watched the end of Chocolat and fell asleep.

On Sunday morning Mum and Dad left quite early, at about 9:30am, so for the rest of the day I sorted through mountains of mail I've had piling up since I moved from all the environmental clubs I'm in. That took quite a while, then I watched the Indy 300 from the Gold Coast inbetween reading chapters of Harry Potter. When the reading made me tired I thought I'd better clear up some more hard drive space on my computer so watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (wasn't as bad as I expected) and Catch Me If You Can (not too shabby but long). By this stage it was past midnight and I realised I should have been in bed hours beforehand.

And today, here I am! Gripping and rivetting, hey? The most exciting thing to happen today, apart from my Mixed Tape ofcourse, was checking out the new Noodle Bar that's opened recently for lunch. One serve is enough for two I reckon, so from now on Bron and I are gonna split an order we reckon.

Hope y'all had a good weekend :)

Full House

I decided to stay in Berri this weekend and so Ivan and my parents have come up to visit me, instead. I was originally planning on going to Morgan for a bit of a camping trip since it's been almost a year since I've been on one but a weekend home is long overdue, so here I am!

Ivan just left to go back to Adelaide and I miss him already :(

Yesterday morning, before I'd even left for work, Mum and Dad arrived and the driving me crazy began. Yeah yeah, I love them, I do, but they can be so "in my face" that it just gets too much with their constant fussing. I came home from work to have lunch with them and then just after I got home at 5pm Friday Ivan arrived too, so I was happy.

We didn't do much last night except watch The Amazing Race which Ivan had taped for me and then watched this movie called The Terminal which would have been good if they didn't make it so "Hollywood" by throwing in a love interest, then Mum and Dad went to bed and Ivan and I went for a bit of a walk. We then checked out some stuff on the computer and went to bed too.

Today has been quiet and really lazy. Mum and Dad went fishing this morning and Ivan and I got up at around 9am. Didn't do much except read the paper, played a game of golf on the PC and then went for a walk to the shops to get some things. For a late lunch Mum and Dad fired up the BBQ for the first time (I got it when I moved here but a BBQ for 1 person is no fun) so we stuffed ourselves full of food royally, had a nap and Ivan just left. That's been pretty much it, a very quiet and relaxing weekend.

I'm not sure what we'll do tonight, apart from me colouring Mum's hair, or when Mum and Dad will leave tomorrow but I have a feeling I'll be a little grateful to have the place to myself again. I know, I'm horrible!

Work?

It's been so long since I had some work to do that would take longer than an hour that I've forgotten what it feels like! So, I have enough work to take up the next couple of days now, and I tell you what, I'm so happy! It gets so boring just sitting around and doing odd jobs like filing, it's a relief to have some proper work to do again. Our system is still not up and running but the boss has given me a semi-big task and I'm glad. I think he sensed I was going slightly loopy!

There's not been much going on in the last 24 hours worth writing about. Our work social touch football team is up and running and we're having our first get together in a couple of weeks. I'm happy because it will be lots of laughs but I know I'll embarress myself, especially considering I've never played before! Plus I'm so unfit right now I will probably pass out after 10 minutes, hehehe!

I'm feeling a bit better but am still hardly sleeping, still waking up with a blocked nose, so I feel a bit blegh but during the day my hayfever has improved, it's just the not sleeping at nights that sucks.

Last night I watched a couple of movies to clear up some space on my hard drive. I watched Resident Evil and then started the second one, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and then realised I only had half the movie, so I've only half watched that. Oh well, it wasn't as good as the first one anyway. That's pretty much been it actually! Hooray that tomorrow is Friday! :)

Less than exciting

I really don't have anything cool to write about today (actually, I never do) but thought I had better update this to... well... keep it updated! So, I had yesterday off work. I'm not sure whether what I have is hayfever or something more but, even after buying stronger drugs, I can't get a decent night's sleep. It takes me ages to fall asleep, and then when I finally do I keep waking up at around 4am and then don't really fall back to sleep, I just drift in that sorta dozing off phase. So when the alarm went off yesterday morning I just thought to myself, "I can't do this" and called up work then went back to bed. I feel bad because I think I have had far too many days off sick since being employed here, but there was no way I could function yesterday.

I went back to bed, drifted in and out of sleep for a couple more hours then dragged myself out of bed around 11:30am. I thought to myself, with a day at home, there could be so much housework I could do, but I did absolutely none of it, so instead have left it to do when I get home from work tonight. Good plan.

Watching daytime TV was pretty rivetting though, I must say. I got to watch Dr Phil uninterrupted, followed by Days of Our Lives (omg, Marlena's going around killing everyone!), watched some Oprah and then decided to move myself over to the computer. That is where I sat for a few hours until TV time kicked in during the night. After that, I read for a little bit then went to sleep, and so here I am, at work today, feeling not at all refreshed and thinking about all the things I have yet to do around the house! Excitement plus! This weekend I'm staying here in Berri and my parents, and hopefully Ivan, will be coming to visit. Although I know they don't care about what the house looks like I'd like it to look relatively clean so I need to vacuum and mop tonight, having already done the bathroom. Like I said, this is gripping stuff!

Ah well, at least I finally finished reading Tomorrow, When The War Began yesterday (I want to buy the rest of the series now, like I don't already have enough books) and I've read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I seem to be going through this phase of books for young readers lately, hehehe.

Anyway, that's it from me for now. I was hoping this would kill a lot more time, seeing as how I have nothing to do and lunch is still half an hour away, but oh well! If nothing more exciting happens, I might just have to make up a story or something.

*sneezing fit*

So, this hayfever's a bitch. Even though I've been regularly using my nasal spray, yesterday was the worst hayfever day I've had yet this season, so today I had to go and buy something stronger. I really, really need sleep! Stupid sinuses wouldn't let me fall asleep until around 1am, then I woke up at 4am totally unable to breath and with a drippy nose. Sexy. Finally fell asleep about an hour later but was having some weird-ass dreams so woke up many times, until the alarm went off and I crawled out of bed. Ugh. So I'm feeling really seedy today.

Anyway, enough whinging, time to fill you in on what I've been up to. For the last couple of days last week we ended up going to Banrock Station Wetlands and also around Lake Bonney at Barmera and it was great, but there seems to be a fly plague or something in the Riverland at the moment. Friday was pretty much a write-off. It was Rory's farewell lunch and so the time around that was spent doing as little as possible by everyone it seemed. On Friday afternoon I headed home to Adelaide, getting home just before 8pm. Ivan had recorded a bunch of TV shows for me during the week (we don't have Channel 7 in Berri and The Amazing Race is back on), so we just watched those and attempted to get some sleep.

I'm in the slow process of a computer upgrade (getting about one part a month) and my most recent purchase was a computer case. I probably didn't need a new one but I wanted a cool one I could personalise. Purple is my favourite colour so I want a purple computer. So, I got the case, and Saturday morning I went to the local paintshop to get some paint mixed because I'm getting it airbrushed. After 3 attempts I finally picked a purple they could actually mix right then so that's all sorted. After that I met up with Tash for a coffee and late breakfast at a Cafe in Unley. It was her birthday on the 12th, and she'd recently had a trip to Europe, so we had a lot of photographs to go through and catching up to do. I can't believe how lucky she is to have seen some of the things she saw, like they went to Italy and she got to see Michaelangelo's David, and the Vatican (even though I'm not Catholic it'd be cool to see) and the ruins of Pompeii. Lucky thing!

Anyway before we knew it, it was around 1:30pm so I headed home to spend some time with Ivan before I headed out again. He sufficiently kicked my ass playing golf on the computer and then I was off to have dinner with Michelle and Craig. The kids have grown so much! And Jacob is all scared around me now, gone are the days when he would sit and show me all his toys, hehehe! I need to try and see them more often I think. After a delicious chicken pie baked by Michelle (by the way, it didn't make me sick Shelly, hehehe) we headed off to go and see her parent's new place. Heidi and Mark were visiting as well and it was so lovely to see them all. After a while we headed back to Michelle's and Craig taught us a couple of versions of poker, and it was such a laugh, I honestly haven't laughed like that in a while. Eventually, a much more real and serious game of poker was starting on Foxtel, and it was time for me to head home.

Even though I wanted to, I just didn't manage to sleep in on Sunday. I did the usual, wasting away of the morning, before packing my things and heading back to Berri. Again, as usual, I stopped into Mum and Dad's, then dashed home, unpacked and walked across the road to Bron's and we headed out to the Drive-In. I have never been to the Drive-In in my life and it's about the only place we have here in Berri for movies (the picture theatre only plays movies every so often). Both movies were ones I had seen before (Mean Girls and The Bourne Supremacy) but I didn't want to pike on Bron after promising her I'd go. She has a cold and me with my hayfever, so we were sitting there with a box of tissues sniffling and sneezing, quite a sight to behold!

Anyway so that's what I've been doing. Work is still very boring because our system is still not working, It's about 3 hours until I get to go home, and I just want to fall asleep at my desk. Tonight is TV night (as is tomorrow) so I think I'll go home and lie in bed and hope for a decent night's sleep :)

Busy x3

How can it be Thursday already? I thought I had better write this in the morning before I go to work, otherwise it will never get done, so here I am! As I said, I can't believe it's Thursday already and that the next weekend is almost here already!

So, what's been keeping me busy? Well, truth is, this week in the evenings I'm not so much busy as just damn tired. But, I'm jumping ahead, I'll update you with what I've been doing from the weekend.

Friday afternoon, as usual, was the drive to Adelaide, seeing my parents on the way and then moving on to see Ivan. Mum and Maria wanted me to colour their hair so I did, but they bought a colour that was way too light so none of their grey hairs got coloured at all. Weird that my sister has grey hair already, I think she takes after my aunty like that. I hope I don't start getting grey hair by the time I'm 30!

Anyway, so Friday night was quiet once I finally got home and unpacked and fell onto the couch in a tired stupor. Saturday morning Ivan and I were both awake at 8am (a shock I still have not recovered from, that we should both be awake so early) so we decided to get the voting out of the way. I then had a waxing appointment and then we decided to go look around Marion for a few hours. After spending some money we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, which was nice. Since there was nothing on the TV except election crap that night, we watched a few DVDs and had a relatively early night. Sunday, as usual, we did nothing and then before I knew it, it was time for me to head back to Berri again.

So, since I've been back, this week I've been out of the office, finally having the opportunity to check out some more of the Riverland. Sure, I've been out on the road with Andy, the meter reader, before, but that was only for one day so having the opportunity to see some more of the Riverland, I wasn't going to pass it up. Unfortunately, Monday and Tuesday were so freaking hot that I didn't enjoy things much (Tuesday got up to 41C). Being in the car was ok but man, it takes a lot out of you and so I've been exhausted. Yesterday and the rest of the week look great weatherwise though, so thank goodness the heatwave didn't ruin my entire week. Yesterday I got to see a bit more of Loxton and we also went to Monash briefly. Tomorrow is only going to be a half-day out though, because it's Rory's last day and we want to get to his farewell lunch, so I'll probably hang around in the office after the lunch, before I head back to Adelaide again.

So, that's pretty much where I've been! It's either been watching TV at nights or collapsing and sleeping deeply, because this driving around, especially the two days in the heat, has taken a lot out of me. I hate the heat at the best of times, going out in it moreso. Anyway, better wrap this up and get going, don't want to be late! Hope you guys are well and have a great weekend :)

Friday frolics

I thought I had better do a quick update today because I will be out of the office all next week (although, technically, still working) so those of you who email me at work will get my Out of Office Autoreply, and let's face it, I very rarely find the time to update my blog from home. Although, next Friday is Rory's last day at work so I might get a chance to load up my office computer then and check emails, since he's having a bit of a farewell thing in the afternoon I'd like to be here for. I'm looking forward to getting out of the office actually, even if it is for just a week. I will still, ofcourse, be contactable at home in the evenings, and will check my home email every day as always.

Anyway, now that the housekeeping is done, onto our regular programming. This office cracks me up every day, I love the people I work with. Well, not all of them, every place has a bad egg or two, but the people that sit in the cubicles around mine just make me laugh so much! I'm hoping, that if these positions in Adelaide pop up, that I'll be surrounded by similar people, because I'm gonna miss these guys so much.

Ken is my immediate supervisor, used to be a policeman in NT, but makes us all laugh so incredibly much. We look at him and think he'd make a cool Dad, because he has really great morals but can also have a good laugh. Bron is my closest friend here, we have a lot in common in terms of books, music and movies, and I'm glad to have found a friend like her so far from home. Andy is hardly ever in the office, he is ALWAYS out in the field (lucky bastard) but we always give him crap because at work he pretends he's all that but his wife truly wears the pants in that relationship. Jo is a beautiful person who has had a tough life but seems finally happy, but she tells so many dirty jokes it makes me roll my eyes after a while. All incredible individuals that I'll miss when I leave this office.

Anyway, thought I'd give a little background into the people I work with. Ken wants to start a touch football social team at work. Great idea but we probably need someone to play against. I've never played touch football in my life so he started by giving me a 2-page rundown of rules. Then yesterday he gave me a 10-page more in-depth version. He's already printed out the 35-page version ready to give to me. Riiiight...

So, not much else has been happening really! I did realise something last night though after a conversation with Michelle, my oldest and dearest friend. I'm guilty of just taking her for granted. I guess, after being friends for 20 years, I found myself just assuming she would always be there and not putting effort into the friendship, and for that I am mega sorry. I'd hate for my stupidity to cost me this amazing friendship, and we're probably all guilty of taking others for granted sometimes, particularly when you've known them most of your life. Something profound to wrap this blog entry up anyways :)

PS Stupid election adverts, I'll be glad when this Saturday's vote is over!

Testamathon

I'm trying out this new Blog feature I found where you can upload photos. This is Ivan and I at my 25th birthday dinner in June. Hope this thing works ok, it will make sharing photos a lot easier :) 

Points to mention

Well, they're probably not all worthy of mentioning but it'll all clear my headspace somewhat anyway so may as well.

- Work has given us pedometers for this 4-week program to encourage fitness by walking. The first week is supposed to measure your normal routine and then you have to build on it. It should help to encourage me to get up and do something about my weight, but truth is I'm not that motivated.
- Mum and Dad always say I should use their AMEX and I never have, because I don't want to sponge off them, but with it being so damn hot here lately and me really needing some more summery things (because my fat ass won't fit into things I already have) I went and bought a few things yesterday at lunch.
- The book club at work seems to be the only way to buy books in this town since there is NO bookstore (disgraceful) and my recent purchase arrived yesterday. It's called God's Callgirl and it has now been added to my ever expanding pile of books on my bedside table. I suspect one day I'll return home to find my bedside table has caved in on one side.
- I haven't loaded up The Sims 2 in about a week. It's an addictive game and yet I've managed to get time to myself in there.
- Most of the time now, when I log on, I don't bother loading up trillian. Last night was a great reason why I probably won't for another week (well, after tonight, because the clan has a DC scrim on tonight and I kinda need some contact with my clanmates).
- Saying I'm being "artificial" (i.e. fake) with my feelings, and then resenting me and telling me I "drive people mad" when I actually want to talk to you about something that bothers me, only proves to me that my observation on how certain people treat me when things get tough was sound.
- How the hell did the connection between what was bothering me last night and what happened months ago get made? I certainly didn't get that connection, you did. It seems you're the one dwelling on the past, not me, seeing as what I needed to talk to someone (a friend, I thought) about last night had absolutely. nothing. to. do. with. months. ago. Maybe if you had actually bothered to listen to what I was saying and not jump on the defensive immediately, you might have seen that.
- In other news, this weather is messing with my sleeping patterns, although I've started taking the trusty hayfever medicine now. Let's hope I sleep better tonight.
- Bron and I have decided to go to the Big Day Out next year. The lineup looks great and I've only ever been to one Big Day Out before (in 1997, when it was supposed to be the last one) so I'm already looking forward to it. Only 4 months to go!!
- I'm currently listening to the latest Eskimo Joe CD thanks to Bron's awesome CD collection. Incidentally, they'll be playing at the BDO :)
- I miss Glen heaps, he'd always keep me sane in cases like last night. Sure, we SMS every now and then but it's definitely not the same, and the phone calls got too expensive.
- Ivan's emails cheer me up without him even knowing he's doing it :) Bless him :)
- It has taken me a long time to write very little.
- I hope I don't forget to vote on Saturday.
- I'm mad at myself for so many reasons today.

Karma

Well the net died here just as I was posting my blog. I actually wrote a heart-felt blog too, and it's probably a good thing the net ate it. Karma and all that.

Short weeks rock!

After a long weekend I'm here, back at work, with time to update my blog. I thought it was a long weekend all around Australia but apparently not, SA, NSW and ACT were the lucky few, yay!

So the weekend was pretty damn good! On Friday morning I left for Adelaide, had lunch with Dad then went to a meeting in the city. The meeting only lasted about half an hour so I got to Ivan's at around 2pm and had the rest of the afternoon off. It was great but my weekend felt all out of whack because I didn't really work on Friday at all. Friday night was quiet, as was most of Saturday, with Ivan and I spending time practising our computer games for the LAN we were going to on Sunday.

All that I had to do on Saturday was go for my last facial peel. The place I go to had just moved to new premises and now I can see myself spending even more money to go there more often! They're in this old house, so each room is set up for different things, and when you get there they get you to even change into this really cool bathrobe and stuff. It all makes you feel so special, like it feels like an actual beauty spa now. Dull to you guys but to me it was exciting :) That night was another quiet one, so Ivan chucked on some TV shows. We watched the pilot episode of Knight Rider which was HILARIOUS to look back on, then watched CSI: New York and Joey, both which were quite good.

So, for some reason Darren started his LAN on Sunday at 9am. This is an ungodly time! So Ivan and I managed to get there at 10am (still a personal best I believe) and the day began. We started of with the Call of Duty expansion which was quite a bit of fun, with all the new tanks and things they'd added. We stopped for lunch (which seemed to take forever) and then tried to get Battlefront working but when more then 2 people got into a game it lagged out which was a pity. On abandoning that we got into some Golf, where each person had set up their golfer to look like them so that was pretty funny. Incidentally, my golfer looked nothing like me. After a great effort on my first 8 holes I choked and Ivan ended up winning the prize which was this golf bag thing that sings, hehehe! We had a few quick games of some Motocross game and then it was time for dinner. The pizza took forever to get there so I sat down with Christine and watched the ending of Final Destination with her, then after we finally got our dinner it was time for some C&C Generals. Our team got our asses kicked. Finally, we played some Raven Shield, then got home at about 1:30am, so it was a full-on day.

On Monday I had a bit of a sleep-in, packed my things up and started the trek back to Berri. On the way I went and had lunch with Mum because she had to work, then stopped in and spent about an hour with Dad, and finally got home at around 6pm. The weekend was great, and although there were some days where I didn't do anything I came home completely stuffed. And then, last night I couldn't sleep, I don't know why, but I kept waking up and had a really restless night. Anyway, that's what I got up to on the long weekend. So, this week is a short week, and then next week I won't be in the office at all, yay!!! I get to drive around and sightsee a bit, so I can't wait until this week is over :)

*yawn*

I am so incredibly bored. Today is just dragging on because I know it's my last day in the office for the week. I have a meeting in Adelaide tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be driving there tomorrow morning, and it's a long weekend, so yay!!! So, in anticipation, today is dragging its fat ass.

Aside from work I have been keeping to myself a bit this week, not logging on to chat as much, partly because of the fact I have almost used my monthly download limit and I have a Desert Combat scrim on tonight so I had to save a bit for that. But also because my hard drive is filling up with movies, my bedside table is overflowing with unread books, and the house has needed cleaning, so I've been doing a bit of everything in the evenings in the last few days.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Bronwyn promptly gave me the next book in the series, the Chamber of Secrets. I think she is still in shock that I had never read a Harry Potter book before and so she's going to make me read them all. Not that I mind, they were quite good. I did just start a John Marsden book though, called Tomorrow, When The War Began, which I'm really enjoying so I think I'll finish that off first.

As for movies, I've had both of the Bourne movies taking up space so I've watched those which were really good too. On top of that, The Sims 2 has been filling in any other spare time I happened to have had, and my little family is going well so far although I am expecting some disaster. And, finally, because the weather was so beautiful yesterday, I was inspired to get the vacuum out and do some housework. I didn't end up mopping though, so it's only a half-done job, and I can't see myself going home and doing it tonight.

Anyway, so that's how I've been filling in my time at home. Here at work I've spent far too much time browsing the internet and I want to go home now please :D

Am so sick of this

I've always had a problem with my weight. For as long as I can remember I've been chubbier than the rest, having to watch what I eat and trying to stay in some sort of routine. Some years ago I went to Jenny Craig and that worked great, I got down to the lowest weight I've ever been in my adult life. But then came Christmas, and after that I found it difficult to stop snacking on bad things. Then I moved out of home and it was easier to get fast food or to cook things that came from "instant" packages and slowly the weight crept back on.

About a year ago I realised just how big I had become. I went back to Jenny Craig, but I couldn't afford to do eat their food every day of the week so I only lost a few kilos and it took ages and was costing me a lot. Then I had to move to Berri, and I could no longer afford any days on the program. I got into a great routine after a couple of months here. I'd get up in the morning, do half an hour of aerobics, go to work, come home and do 30 mintes of yoga, then later in the night get on the exercise bike for 30 minutes. After about 6 weeks I had lost inches but hadn't technically lost any weight and that made it hard for me to stay motivated.

A trip to Townsville was coming and I wanted to be thinner, so I took those "legalised speed" tablets. They helped me drop almost 10 kilos quite fast, but they kept me awake, and I had no energy to exercise anymore. After getting off the tablets back in June, I would hop on my bike every now and then but there was no routine, and I found myself taking comfort in bad foods since the tablets weren't in my system to tell my body I didn't need any more food.

And so, as a result of all this shit, I'm really unhappy with myself again. This seems to be a neverending fucking battle, I hate that some people find this so easy. Food rules my damn life! Yesterday morning I put on these pants I'd bought back in June and only wore maybe 3 weeks ago and they were so damn tight I had to find something else to wear. I've only had them for 3 months!! Ok, I am a little bloated because of PMS but that's no excuse. It's times like this I hate myself, I hate this weakness I've had my entire life and wonder when I'll ever have the damn strength to stick to my plans.

I don't need advice, I don't need someone to ask if I really need to eat that, I don't need offerings of help, because there is nothing anyone else can do or say to actually help me. This struggle is internal, I need personal strength to deal with this, so please, this is one of those moments where I just need someone to listen, not to offer advice.

The number one thing I must try and do to change things is believe in myself. There is no reason why I can't get up earlier to try and get into some routine again, to go to the supermarket and buy real food instead of spending almost all my money on skincare and then relying on my parents to feed me, because I rarely get good food from them. There is no reason why I can't go to Adelaide and have a bit of takeaway on occasion with Ivan, but I need to stop when my stomach is satisfied, not overeat to the point I do. There is no reason why I can't say No when my parents offer me bad food. There is no reason why I can't take control of this aspect of my life and feel happy with myself. Somehow I will get the strength.

Monday already?

Where did the weekend go?! I can't believe I'm already back here at work, the weekend absolutely flew! So, a brief rundown of what I got up to, seeing as nothing exciting has happened today to write about.

I got there on Friday, same as always. Ivan had gotten a new game, I can't remember the exact name of it now but I think it was Star Wars Battlefront, but anyway it was awesome!! It's sorta like Battlefield 1942 but on Star Wars maps and they look amazing. It appealed to my geeky Star Wars receptors :)

On Saturday morning I had some running around to do and then the state pretty much stopped for the Port Adelaide Vs Brisbane Lions AFL Grand Final!! Alex came over for the game and it was a pretty good afternoon. I must admit though, I was barracking for Brisbane so I was a bit disappointed that Port won but ah well. That evening I went to a BBQ to meet a few online people, so I picked up Solaris and went to Velox and Porthos' place (not their real names obviously haha). It was a really good night actually, and oh man, Velox made the best BBQ I have ever had in my entire life. I must try his cooking ways one day (although it does mean firing up the BBQ which is silly unless I have someone over). I got home about 11:30pm and Alex was still over. We're going to a LAN this coming weekend where Tiger Woods Golf will be played and seeing as we didn't want to be retarded on the day we loaded it up and had a few games. It was quite funny until we all learned how to play, we were all equally bad at first I think :)

On Sunday I didn't do much except watch a bit of motorsport on the tv, visit my parents and then drive home. It was so freaking hot here in Berri yesterday, apparently it got up to 36, so when I got home it was still 30 and the house was yucky and hot. So I didn't get much sleep last night, but today is only 16 degrees so things will hopefully be a bit more restful now.

Anyway I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Friday is a little on the nose

The office is extremely smelly today! It started to smell yesterday and we thought maybe something had died in the airconditioning vents so we turned it off and opened up all the windows, but because we had to have them closed overnight the place stinks again today!!! You go out for lunch, come back in and the smell hits you like... well, a bad smell. The boss has been up to look at the vents and nothing has died. Apparently the inlet is near some sewerage thing and on still days the smell gets into the building. Oh lovely!

Believe it or not, that's about the most exciting thing that's happened up to this point today. I'm so happy it's Friday and I get to go home this weekend and these last couple of hours before I leave will probably drag on because there's not much to do! Ah well, better get back to the filing I suppose.

A letter I once wrote

I'm not sure if it's just something girls do. Back in school, even though I would see my friends every day, sometimes we would write each other letters, handing them over the morning we got to school or something. Like I said, we saw each other every day, but the letters allowed us to share deeper thoughts, or sometimes they'd just be more about the boys we liked or something.

I'm a sentimental person and so I still have these shoeboxes of letters (each shoebox assigned to a different person) but when I moved out of home they stayed at my parent's place, and to my knowledge, that's where they still are, so it's been a long time since I pulled out a box and decided to have a read through for a bit of a laugh.

Yesterday I got an email from my oldest friend (oldest as in length of time, not age) Michelle and it made me so happy because it reminded me of those days I wish we were reliving. Back then, the biggest problem we'd face was who was going to be whose best friend and if that boy liked us back. I've been re-reading it because it makes me so happy, so I thought I'd share what she wrote...

I've been meaning to tell you that I know your budget is tight and all, but I have evidence of a letter that you wrote to me about 10 years ago - BUT IT'S SIGNED!! that you will pay for me to fly to America!!! SO, the next question is, when's a good time for you to go!!

Well, we can always dream :)

The season hits!

Well as it actually starts to get warm for Spring I'm reminded why this is my favourite season but in many ways why I also don't like it so much. The hayfever has begun! Thankfully it hasn't been too bad yet, just sneezing and sniffling, no itchy eyes or scratchy throat yet, but geez I hate hayfever. If it weren't for that Spring would be amazing. I love that after the Winter rains everything is beautiful and green, plants are beautiful in bloom, and yes, even the odd pot plant I have that hasn't died is looking good.

But the heat sorta came from nowhere and I think it's made a few people around here feel a bit run down. Yesterday was 33C and today they're expecting 32 before a late change, and it's all a bit sudden when a week ago I'd be shivering. It must have stirred up the beasties too, because last night there was the first spider of the season in my spare room. Joy. Naturally I freaked out and sprayed the crap out of it, and then spent the rest of the night glancing at the walls, looking for more. Man I hate spiders.

But Spring is great! (Really).

Nobody likes a sad panda

During a conversation last night, I came to a realisation. No matter how depressed you might be feeling, it's best to keep it to yourself and pretend to be the happy person people want you to be. This became apparent a few months ago, when that medication effected my moods. Normally I'm a happy person but from time to time, as probably happens with most people, I get really depressed about general things. It's not usually anything in particular, I just get those days or weeks even where I reflect on all the things wrong in my life and get depressed. Almost everyone I know goes through these patches every now and then, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just something you need to get through and not dwell on. But take my advice - during those times, keep the information to yourself. That way, people won't abandon you, think you're a lesser person, take it personally, talk about you behind your back, avoid talking to you, etc etc etc... Just pretend everything is fine. This all happened to me back around April/May, and it took me all this time to realise it. Better to pretend than be left alone. When you overcome the mood, and you're back to being your happy self, it becomes apparent that people are much more eager to actually talk to you rather than about you.

Oh, now I'd better lighten up this entry in true pretender fashion! So the weather is beautiful and work is flying, and Survivor is back on tonight. Can life get any better?

Ok so I ran out of time!

So much for me updating this while I was in Adelaide last week, no matter, just that now this will be another long and boring blog! Sorry to make you guys suffer. Actually come to think of it, it may not be too long at all, although lots of days have passed, the amount I did was nothing that spectacular.

Working in Adelaide for the two days last week was really good, probably because of the fact that we didn't do a lot. In total, four of us from the Berri office went down there to help them get things done on the system and on they didn't really have a lot ready for us to do. So we finished early on both days, had yummy lunches and spent some time looking around the shops. The weeknights were generally quiet. Being that the Battlefield 1942 clan Ivan and I were both in split, we're now in different clans and it just so happened that our two clans met in one of the Finals on Thursday night. The clan I'm in won, but I didn't play so it was kinda bittersweet.

Before we knew it the weekend had arrived! During the week I'd received my credit card statement and saw that there was an extra charge on there from my beauty therapist which I couldn't recall, so I called them and they refunded my money. But methinks I annoyed them a bit, because on Saturday I went in for a skin peel which I've been getting done for ages now and they must've upped the strength. It was really painful and my face got all red and sore which had never happened before. Then last night when I went to wash my face before bed I saw my skin was all flakey and gross. It was still like it this morning but seems to have calmed down a bit now, thank goodness. Weird!

Anyway Saturday night we got together for Mum's 50th Birthday. She didn't want a part and only wanted to spend time with the family so we went to this Chinese restaurant and had the banquet and stuffed ourselves silly. In fact, almost all my time in Adelaide I was stuffing myself silly. Hmm, being that it's getting warmer now I really should stop doing that so I can lose this stubborn weight, but easier said than done really.

Sunday was the usual quiet, get as much sleep as I can before I drive home, sort of day. I had all these plans to get lots of reading and housework done when I got home but Ivan got this CSI game for the computer and I finished it last night, hehehe. When I find a good thing I stick to it (like chocolate, for example).

Anyway, better get back to what little work I have!

Soooo, what's been happening?

Well I'll be off to Adelaide again this afternoon so I figured I should fill in whatever reader(s) I have as to what's been going on. Well, apart from the loss of Travel Duck, things have been a bit all over the place since the weekend.

On Friday I went to Adelaide as usual and must have twisted something as I was packing up my car as I got some major backpain down one side all weekend and took Monday off to spend the day in bed and recover. In fact, on Monday I didn't even get out of my pyjamas, it was a great day, but I digress. I don't remember doing any weird twisting as I was packing up my car to go, but I must have, because not only did my back hurt for days afterwards but also my crapola knee (you know, the one that always seems to want to dislocate) is all puffed up and a wee bit tender. It's either I did something, or I'm getting old, and I just refuse to believe that!

So anyway, Friday night Alex was over and kindly shouted us some Hungry Jacks (bless him) then we had a night of Monopoly Tycoon. I discovered that Ivan plays differently when he has a friend there and was a downright PRICK (he he) so methinks we won't be playing that again for a while, for the sake of our relationship :D

Oh, while I'm at it, here's an example of what a legend Alex (a.k.a pacer) is. Despite being really really bad at Monopoly Tycoon, I can't believe his generosity (which, incidentally, might be why he's bad at Monopoly - you can't be a generous person and win that game). As everyone knows my budget is tight and so for the last couple of years I've been playing bf1942 using one of Alex's friend's CD key, who said I could because he never played online. But now the guy got ADSL, wants to play online, and I guess Alex felt bad for me so he went and BOUGHT ME THE GAME!!! And it came with BOTH EXPANSIONS!!! What an awesome guy!!!

Anywhoozles, so then on Saturday we had a LAN at Phil's place which wasn't too bad, it's been over 4 months since our last LAN and I like catching up with Phil, Paul, Jason, etc. In hindsight we didn't play that many games from memory, we just seemed to play the same ones for a few hours but it was still quite good. It was a late one so Sunday was quiet until I drove home, and then yeah, had Monday off and spent the day alternating between sleeping, reading and logging on.

So I'll be leaving here in a few hours to have some extra time in Adelaide this week. When they tried to convert data from the old database to the new one there were lots of problems so a few of us are going down to help them enter all the data manually. Gonna be a crappy couple of days work-wise but at least I'll be in Adelaide! Will try and write more over the next couple of days...

An ode to Travel Duck

A couple of weekends ago, when Ivan picked up Dad and I from the Royal Show, we were taking forever to get out of the car, piling out with our hands full of showbags and all the wine, cheese and smallgoods we had bought, and Ivan rushed to open the front door for us and forgot about locking his car.

So, as is always the case, the one time the car doesn't get locked is the one time some bored kids come by and decide to steal some things. We figure they were kids because there were other things in the car which would have been of more value to an adult, such as a toolbox, radio and street directory, but all that was taken was a bunch of CDs (most of them burnt, a couple of originals) and Travel Duck.

Travel Duck was the name we'd given to this little toy duck Ivan has had for years (even before I knew him) which stayed in his car. Travel Duck loved staring out of the car window and visiting all sorts of places around the state and we're more upset at him being stolen than at anything else.

Why would someone steal one of those fluffy toys on the dashboard of a car? What irritates us is that whoever took it might like it for a couple of weeks and then will just throw him away, and that sucks because we loved travel duck!

We will always remember :(

Chocolate overdose!

Usually when I'm in Adelaide I eat quite well, and then I come back to Berri and there are far too many unhealthy options with chips and chocolates in the lunch room. This has been the main contributing factor in me putting on 4 kilos since I stopped taking those tablets in June. So, with the scales confirming my blimpiness I thought "My God, woman, do something before you can no longer walk up those stairs!!".

So this week I've been the epitomy of healthy, a true example to all those people struggling. I've been cooking good food for myself, taking lunch to work with me as well as healthy snacks like fruits, actually putting lettuce in my sandwiches and even *gasp* ruling out my daily Chocolate Quik. And, thinking back to the days not so long ago that I did an hour and a half of exercise 5 days a week, I thought I could at least hop on my exercise bike for half an hour during my TV time, so I did.

But this weekend looks to be the opposite to my normal weekends in Adelaide - Hungry Jacks tonight, pizzas, chips and Coke tomorrow, and lots of sitting on my butt at a LAN. I know, I know, it sounds like a dream weekend, and it is, but my health receptors were thinking I'd have to work twice as hard next week to work it all off. So, in preparation, half a block of chocolate was had for lunch. Ah yes, my sweet nectar, how I have missed you. Let's never fight again!

Oh to be a US citizen!

I wish I lived in the States, I know who I'd vote for over there if I did, whereas I have no idea who to vote for here in my own country. I saw this a few days ago and thought it was one of the best things I've ever read, enjoy :)

Is it humanly possible...

...to actually forgive and forget? I'm 25 years old and I still haven't figured out how to properly do this. You always hear guys complaining about how, when arguing with their girlfriends, the girl will always bring up something the guy said or did ages ago, something he thought was long gone and forgotten. I'm guilty of doing this, although I am trying not to. I saw my Dad do it to my Mum a couple of weeks back when they had that argument - bringing something up that she had done years ago. At the time I told him that was just wrong - if you say you've forgiven someone for doing something then you don't bring it up again and again. But I'm guilty of doing just that, how hypocritical!

And the thing is, I have no idea how to stop this. I can take a fair bit and will forgive the person. Or at least, I want to. But then you get days like yesterday. I was bored here at work (a common theme) and had way too much time on my hands, so I decided to clean out my emails. I didn't realise that I had kept some from a bad time I went through a few months ago, and instead of just deleting them I read them. Why did I subject myself to the hurt I knew they'd bring?? I don't understand why I would do that, or what goes through my head sometimes. So then, ofcourse, I got upset and went home feeling really down and depressed. But for what? Everyone involved has worked hard to move past that, so why bring up all that pain again?

So, have I really forgiven these people, or is it just that I wanted to? I would like to think that I have forgiven them, but it's hard to know. Do I just need to separate the forgiveness from the forgetting? I would love to forget, I want that more than anything, but it just isn't going to happen, which I presume is normal. Maybe that's the key, not even putting forgive and forget into the same sentence, because it's just not humanly possible...

PS Don't worry, I'm fine, these are just random thoughts I needed to get out.

Happy (Belated) Father's Day!

Whoops, I should have updated this a few days ago to wish any dads out there a Happy Father's Day but better late than never! Hope lots of socks and jocks were given as gifts in true Father's Day tradition!

The last few days have flown and I'm going to try and not log on from home tonight so I can just have some "me time" to recover. Friday was the usual - come to work, leave early, drive to Adelaide and try and do as little as possible.

The Royal Adelaide Show is on at the moment so I went with Dad to that on Saturday. It was supposed to be a sort of present for him but he ended up spending money on me so that didn't exactly go to plan (but I'm not complaining). We got there at about 11:30am and did the whole pavilion thing which is actually pretty good with my dad because we love looking at the same things and get bored by the same things. In true Mel tradition I had to go to the dairy pavilion and try out lots of cheeses (and buy some) and then dad had to go elsewhere and try out assorted smallgoods. Then we both went on this Wine Tasting thing and both had to try and buy some wine, ofcourse. We went and checked out the Wool Fashion Parade which was more like a burlesque show (they're getting a bit risque with those parades), the Holden Precision Driving Team (which even though they do the same tricks every year, it was still pretty cool) and a bit of the woodchopping. We finished off the day by going to the Showbag Hall where I was reminded why I hate crowds and, well, masses of people in general, although it was kinda funny to hear the mums going crazy at their kids and wanting to get out of there! I don't know when we made it home but I was stuffed!

That night Ivan (bravely) had a game against me in Monopoly Tycoon for old time's sake, and I say bravely because it normally ends in me getting pissed off at him, but we actually had a good game, hehehe. Unfortunately he ended up winning on the last day which was annoying but it was my own fault, was fun anyway :)

With Father's Day actually falling on Sunday Ivan left before me to go and see his dad and I left a couple of hours later. We didn't do too much except have lunch together and then I came back to Berri.

Work is still slow because we are still offline after all this time, and at home nothing exciting has been happening besides reading and logging on. It's once again time for me to use one of my favourite lines from Bridget Jones' Diary, say it with me people... "What a gripping life you do lead"

Random thoughts for the day

• I really should go to bed earlier
• My floor desperately needs vacuuming
• Why are my poor pot plants dying?
• I really need to clean my car, inside and out
• That dent I put on the passenger side door irritates me every time I see it
• It's Spring and yet still freezing at night, have to get the gas bottle refilled to prevent from freezing again tonight
• My parents gave me car seat covers for Christmas I still haven't put on
• I cleared my closet when I moved but I think it's time to get rid of a few more clothes that haven't seen the light of day for a long time
• Ok, enough's enough. I have to clean out all the drawers in my house. I still haven't found the remote control to the TV in my bedroom which has been AWOL since I moved, and now the guide to the DVD player is missing...
• I need to find a Calendar program for my computer, lots of things to try and remember
• I want my computer upgrade to have been done yesterday
• Oh, it's pay day, yay!!!
• Blegh, why didn't I sniff the milk before I poured it onto my Chocolate Quik?
• Shocking headache, I hope Bron has some tablets...

Back to Berri

Well about 10 minutes after I posted that last entry an email came through from Adelaide about the course going ahead, so I only just got back to Berri this afternoon.

The weekend wasn't too bad, but even with the extra couple of days there the time flew. The upside to me being back at work is that now I have time to update my blog, hehehe. Here's a warning, this might be a bit of a long one and somewhat more personal, so if you're not in the mood for that don't read on.

I can't believe someone is actually still reading on! Anyway got into town on Friday afternoon as usual, and, as usual, stopped in to see the family on the way, but the visit didn't go so well. It was one of those nights where I am reminded why I'm glad I no longer live at home, and, as was always the case, it's not the way my parents treat us, their children, but rather each other. I'm not sure whether it's that European blood or not but my Dad likes to drink a fair bit and it's been an issue for as long as I can remember, and this was one of those times. I guess being an adult now I can sit back and see what he does, and my God, that man knows how to rile my Mum up. Mum's birthday is in a couple of weeks and we'd picked out where to go for dinner weeks ago, but apparently all week Dad had been complaining about it. And, in true Dad fashion, it then goes beyond that matter to everything he can think of under the sun to pick a fight about, we all get upset and teary, and it's another one of those things Dad will never apologise for or possibly even think about afterwards.

So I was glad to get home to Ivan, and Alex (Pacer) was over so it helped to cheer me up. We just got some pizzas and the guys had a Battlefield 1942 game on and then we loaded up some Need For Speed: Underground so it turned out to be an ok night. On Saturday I had a bit of running around to do as I always seem to on a Saturday and then caught up with my friend Misch who I haven't seen for months so that was pretty good. We met up at a Cafe in Norwood and, being Saturday night, there were a fair few people around and I realised how damn old I am! Damn younguns! Sunday was a clean-up day and we didn't do much else. I got stacks of reading done, I just bought the book Fight Club and took it with me and ended up finishing it by Sunday night. Fantastic book, the movie was ok but didn't really do it justice. I can't believe it was the author's first book, it's written so damn well.

The training on Monday and Tuesday was actually really interesting for a change. It basically went through the legalities of what we do as a Department and why we keep certain records, which can be a pretty dry subject but the speakers were excellent and kept everyone interested. The training was held at the Hilton which, being a 5-star place, I would never get the chance to visit regularly (we had our Year 12 formal there but that doesn't count) so I was loving it. And work paid for our yummy lunches and morning teas so having great food to break up the days made them even better. I have a bit of an arch-nemesis at another office, this girl who I think is a real condescending bitch who's difficult to deal with, and she was there, and I almost fell out of my chair when she sat next to me! Maybe I'm the one with the problem? Nah...

So, um, that's about it. Sorry this entry was all over the place but that's what you get when you don't update for a few days :)

Unscheduled events

I like to plan ahead and know what I'll be up to for at least a week in advance, I'm just one of those people who likes to be prepared I guess. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I like to be surprised and do spur of the moment things, but when it comes to work situations I prefer to know what's going on.

There's a training session next Monday and Tuesday in the Adelaide office so for me this would be like a long weekend, not having to drive back until Wednesday morning. I had my name down to go, my boss thinks I'm going, but it's Friday and the Adelaide office who are supposed to be organising it haven't yet given me any details. In fact, last I'd heard, they weren't even sure of a venue. If I don't hear anything by the time I leave for Adelaide this afternoon then I'll be back here in Berri like normal, but I would have liked to have known by now. Ah well, it's no big drama, just me being fussy with things like this.

I'm so glad it's Friday! I love weekends! We're not up to too much, I have a little running around to do Saturday morning and then I'm catching up with Misch for dinner in Norwood. I'm looking forward to seeing her, the last time I saw her was just before I'd moved to Berri and that's already been over 7 months, so it will be great to catch up. The rest of the weekend will be quiet but that'll be nice too!

Hope you all have a good one!

Something funny

This morning something very small happened but it made me stand in my study and laugh out loud, and it's making me giggle just thinking about it, so may as well blog it.

When I moved to Berri I got some new furniture and one of those was an office chair which had to be put together. I remember on the night I moved, when all the big things were put away, Ivan and my Dad sat down to put things together and Ivan was the one who put my chair together.

A couple of weeks ago I walked into the room and noticed one of the screws and its washer had fallen onto the carpet off the office chair. I have a toolbox and have just been too lazy to put it back together but I think I had better do it soon. This morning there was a second screw and its washer on the carpet. I flipped the chair over and saw the last two were barely there, they had to be tightened too. So I'd better fix it before there is an incident.

But it made me laugh. Ahh, my boyfriend, the handyman...

Reflections of a childish mind

Yesterday I was feeling a little sorry for myself and spent a lot of time thinking, and for some reason thoughts of my childhood popped into my head. I don't know why, maybe it was my subconscious trying to cheer me up, but whatever the reason, it worked a bit, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Apparently, when I hit the Toddler bracket, I became a real little shit. Mum could not take me shopping without putting me on one of those leash things, otherwise she would spend all day chasing me around the shopping centre. Whenever she would try to tell me off, apparently I used to answer back and she had to turn away so that I wouldn't see her laughing. Knowing that I was a terror when younger surprises a lot of people because I grew up so dorky.

I went to what would be considered a rough school but my parents brought me up well enough to not get mixed in with anything too bad. I kept my grades excellent until Year 12 where they suffered a bit but still weren't too bad, and I certainly was never around the popular group so there was probably no real chance for me to get involved in anything too rebellious.

Probably the naughtiest thing I can think of (well, until later in life anyway) was when me and Michelle were kids, I can't remember how old we would have been but if I saw kids doing this today I'd be tempted to go over and give them a stern talking to.

A bit of background first. My parent's live on a main road that leads into the heart of Adelaide, but they live on the little service road that runs alongside it. But the actual main road is right there, just a nature strip and a bit of wire fence separating the service road and the main road. It has 2 lanes of traffic going in both directions and gets really congested.

Anyway, Michelle and I used to play badminton out the front, on the little service road, but sometimes just playing badminton with a shuttlecock wasn't enough. The nature strip separating the main and service roads also had lots of little pebbles on it so when the boredom sunk in we would use the racquets to hit these pebbles over the main road. From memory, we did it when the cars weren't going past so we could see how far we could hit them, but I remember at least on one occasion hitting a pebble into a passing vehicle. I remember we got scared and stopped on that particular day.

But yeah, that's about as rebellious as I got (until later years) and for some reason that memory popped into my head yesterday. Oh, to be young again!

Brick walls

I hate being so short of cash. I hate it even more when you work out your budget for the fortnight, miscalculate, and end up spending money that you didn't have to begin with. When you realise you should have stuck to manual maths instead of a calculator where your fat fingers will most likely get it wrong. It's a week and a half until my next pay and I have no money left except for a little bit of cash I still had but it's all good, because I've started my computer upgrade, woooo! It's my own fault, I should have triple-checked my calculations, or waited another week instead of spending it straight away. Ah well, at least the bills are all paid.

I've also hit a brick wall with my writing. I'd written about a page, realised it was hitting too close to home and that I'd never want anyone to read it, and so erased everything. I haven't yet restarted, and I have no idea what to even do. I guess I should just make a list to start with, I don't know. To try and get some inspiration I've been reading a lot more over the weekend (Wil Wheaton's new book is gold).

In fact, that's pretty much where a lot of my time went over the weekend, to reading his new book. I only have a couple of chapters left after reading a bit more last night, I love when books draw you in like that. The weekend was a quiet one but I loved it. Most of my time on Saturday was made free by a change of plans, so I was only out of the house for about an hour. The rest of the weekend was either spent playing online with Ivan, reading, or watching a couple of movies he'd "obtained".

We watched Alien Versus Predator which I actually thought was awesome. It's hard to tell, with Alien movies since the last couple, which I thought were still good but were lacking in something, but this movie was really enjoyable (surprisingly so). Watching a Predator fighting an Alien made me sit forward in my chair, like whenever Terminators fight each other. Plus the story was pretty decent. The other film we watched was quite different to the first - Garfield. I actually am a fan of movies designed for kids and this wasn't too bad. Nowhere near as funny as something like Shrek but still not too shabby.

Yesterday was a typical Sunday - do nothing all morning, go to visit the folks, drive home, and try and muffle out the sound of my neighbours arguing. Honestly they're home together one night a week, is it so hard to be civil?

Hey, guess what? Another week and our new database is still not up at work. So this is another day where I again have minimal work to do, which sounds great but it's actually just really boring. If only I could think of something to write about...