Mum's Lost Her House

Today was the deadline for Mum's eviction from The Hunter.

After pissing her money up a wall on the bridging finance for the house in Newport (and defaulting on that), and turning down the only offer she'd had on the Hunter in two years (only to default on that mortgage the following week), Mum was given two weeks to get out of the Hunter House.

Those two weeks are now up; the locks are being changed as we speak.

It's been a long time coming. There were plenty of escape routes Mum could have taken, but her pride, her poor decision making, her habit of putting everything on credit, and always giving into Talan's demands, meant she never took them.

It's her fault. There's no one to blame but herself. It's undeniable.

But I can't tell her that, and she can't admit it.

So right now, Mum and Talan are loading the last of the stuff amassed throughout the years into a shipping container, ready to be taken off to storage.

They'll fill the car with the vitals and the pets, and will drive somewhere. I don't know where. Talan will leave for his job in Central Queensland later this week, and Mum will be left alone and homeless.

Mum has been offered countless places to stay, from people that really love her, but it seems she is too proud to accept them. She mentioned something about a caravan park this morning; I don't think she can even afford that.

Just don't make another mistake, Mum.

Farewell, Hunter. You were a magic place, and I'll miss you dearly.

My concern now is what's going to happen to my Mother.

Smokin', Swimmin', Spewin' and exSplodin'

As the weather last week was pretty fucking awesome, Simon and I decided to take Mickey and some weed to Nth Avoca beach. Mickey didn't taste very good so we sat in front of a sand dune and smoked the weed instead, and spent the next hour laughing at a variety of incredible things.

We laughed at ourselves:


We laughed at the ocean:


We laughed at a tennis ball:


We laughed at the faces and reclining lady that can be found in this cliff:


And we laughed at this toupee crawling through the sand:


We went for a swim and were bashed about by waves that took no pity on us poor stoned folk. It was awesome: the physical sensation of the water crashing against us, the coolness on our scalps as we dived beneath it, the roughness of the sand at our toes, the sun shining on our faces, the colours exploding in our eyes and dripping off our auras... It was awesome, and even when I threw up from swallowing too much ocean the colours in my spew were so captivating that I happily watched their luminescent parts pool below me and ride an incoming wave directly into Mickey's ankles (as my eyes slid up to his incredulous face).
BEST VOMIT EVER!

We spent more some time sunning on the beach, and then Simon and I went for a second swim before heading to The Green Dolphin in Wamberal for a HUGE lunch/dinner of Caesar Salad Burgers and too many chips. VERY, very tasty but my gods, don't get the $7 chips unless you're eating with a family of 10 starving bears and a wolf cub...

Mickey was desperate to pee at this point, having needed to pee in the car on the way up and at the beach (though it had run away at the first touch of cold water), so we drove to Avoca beach to use the amenities, sit for a while, and eat Cold Rock caramel fudge ice-cream with picnic bars and nerds mixed in - which is by far the best combination I've had.

Also at Avoca beach Simon saw this cute little dog and has fallen in love with it. It was such a happy prancing little dog, and had every cute girl chatting to the guy who was walking it. Well done!

So, with the day coming to an end we starting driving back down the freeway to home... only to take THE BEST DETOUR to the Hunter Valley for the night! YAY! We rocked out to Tenacious D in the car then settled into the house with another joint, some enlightening conversation about a "marinara trench", and then created the following videos:


This firework was MEANT to spin around on the ground then shoot into the sky for a loud explosion. As you can tell, it didn't quite make it. Our ribs were hit with the shockwave and we could feel it for an hour afterwards!


This firework was old and broken and had no fuse, so we stabilised it (ingeniously) by sticking it in a plastic bottle inside a watering can, and lighting it with a sparkler.

FUCKING AWESOME NIGHT!

(followed up by this Peat's Ridge breakfast the next morning)


Simon and I are currently listening to Mint Royale - See You In The Morning
Simon and I are currently co-reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (by Tom Wolfe) and Otherland (by Tad Williams)

Hunter Perfection

Hunter Perfection
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Up at the Hunter, and the weather is absolutely fucking perfect. What a glorious day. I Love this place.
...and unemployment.
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Yet Another Weekend Up At The Hunter

What is it now? 5 weeks in a row? I don't know... but I've been up at The Hunter every weekend for while now. I suppose it's good that I get use out of it before it sells... if it sells.
But it was good weekend.
Mike, Leanne & I went up for a smoke.
We were on clouds, we became planes, we flew through the air and across the hills, waving at the little people...
Indeed. Fun.
We ate too much, though.
Altogether too much.
I need to start eating better. And probably exercising, too.
This shall happen this week.

I am seeing Black Sabbath with Ben this Wednesday. We're seeing it in Newcastle (Bogan HO!), and as such, I've taken the following day off of work. It's funny; I hate work, but I hate taking days off work because we don't get paid for them. I actually entered into a bit of an argument about not being able to work up hours for days off with my manager on Friday. I'm trying to find out if what they are doing is legal. The lady at my recruitment agency isn't very helpful, though.
Sigh.

Hunter Valley Madness

Hunter Valley Madness
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Mike, Leanne & I at Bimbadeen Lookout, in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia.
Havin an awesome weekend.
TO THE WINERIES!
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Coming Weekend

Wednesday night saw the birth of the idea of going up to the Hunter with Leanne, Mickey, and Ross and smoking some green.
Turns out Ross can't make it.
Leanne has now been offered to work tomorrow (Saturday) at double-time. So she is seriously considering that offer.
Mike and I will still head up tonight, though.
So, if Leanne decides not to come up tonight, we will meet her at Morrisett after work. This also means we will have Yummy Thai (that's actually the name of the restaurant) for dinner, which will be nice.
Mum is mega-stressed at the moment, and she will be coming up, too - so that'll be nice. I said I'd shout her dinner.
So. Yet another weekend spent up at The Hunter.
Sorry guys.

Jenny's Birthday Hunter Adventure

Yet another weekend spent up at the Hunter.
Only this time it was with Leanne's family. It was Leanne's Mum's (Jenny) birthday last week, and she decided to head up to the Hunter in celebration.
Jenny and Allan hired a cottage at Millbrook Estate, which was very lovely. Not only was it pretty, but the wine was awesome.
Ross may remember it - we went there in the Kombi with Connie and her friend, a thousand moons ago.
We arrived up in the Hunter on Friday night, but didn't do anything interesting (Leanne and I stayed at the Cedar Creek house - Mum came up, but didn't arrive until midnight or so. In fact, we barely saw Mum on the weekend, and Leanne's parents didn't at all. Bit of a shame.
Jenny & Allan came around on Saturday morning, and we drove down to Wollombi in the hopes of visiting the Horse Heaven Gallery. They were meant to be open, but unfortunately they were closed. Which sucked. So we decided to try again the next day.
So we drove up to Stonehurst (Cedar Creek), and tasted their wines. Jenny and Allan bought a case of wine at the 50% off sale (all storm damaged cases are 50% off).
We then drove to Jenny and Allan's place at Millbrook Estate for some more wine tasting.
It was really nice (possibly better than Cedar Creek... shhh...). He makes them all on-site, which is nice in itself. So I bought some wine, and as a birthday gift to Jenny, paid for the bottles she wanted. This totalled over a case between us.
By now I was feeling a little tipsy, and was very keen for lunch, as we all were.
So we drive over to Country Farm Delights in the Hunter Valley gardens. They are now called something different, but it's the same owner, and the food is actually even bigger now. I used to always get their Savoury Mince; two slices of toast, flavoured mince on top. Craving it, I ordered it this time. Only now it's 4 slices of toast, mince and a ton of bacon. Check it out. Crazy awesome.
So we were all so full afterward, and not looking forward to dinner.
Oh yes, dinner. We planned to go to The Australia Hotel in Cessnock (more specifically, the Swill & Grill within The Australia Hotel), but, as has never happened to me before, they were booked out. I blame the concert. So that was a bit of a shame. Instead we went to Harrigan's Irish Pub. I'm very glad that Leanne and I decided to share dinner, because there was altogether too much food.
In the mean time, Leanne's brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend, Kate, were heading up to meet us.
We met them at my house, and bummed around there for a little bit (I showed them the place), then went to meet Jenny and Allan, and head off to Harrigan's for dinner. You already know that we ate there. It was good. We were full.
Afterward we went back to Jenny and Allan's place and had cheese and dessert wine. Mmmmmm.
Then Aaron, Kate, Leanne and I went back to mine and bummed around again - we were too tired to drink, and I had a headache from drinking that day anyway.
Earlier in the day, Philippa from Cedar Creek told us of the Wollombi Ball that was on that night - and we had all intentions on going - only after Harrigan's we were so full and tired, and it was already 9:30pm, and it was so far away... so we didn't. Shame. It would have been good.
So, Saturday night wasn't the event we thought it would be, but it was fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, Aaron had to be in Sydney by 1pm, so he left around 10am, so we didn't get to do anything with him on Sunday. Another shame.
But Jenny and Allan came over, and we went back down to Wollombi in the hopes that Horse Heaven was open. Wasn't. Bitch.
So we drive back to mine, and were side-tracked by Lavender Gate Farm; a lovely little café on the way home. We popped in there for a light lunch, and ended up getting a lot more than expected.
We ordered a pizza and a mezze platter, and it was plenty. Unfortunately (so many unfortunates...), they burnt it, but bless them, they didn't charge us for it. Plus I get a locals discount of 10% off. Great days.
Jenny and Allan headed back home after that, but Leanne and I stayed up at Cedar Creek and waited for Mum and Pete/Talan. They had to come up to drop Pete/Talan off at College, so we went out to dinner with them, and Pete/Talan's friend Sharon. We went to the Swill & Grill. Good food. So full.
We then had to drive to Maitland to drop them off, and then back to Cedar Creek to pack, and then back to Carlingford, and then Mum had to drive back to Newport. Poor dear.
Me being the big old nerd that I am, decided to map the way from Tocal (Pete/Talan's college) back to Cedar Creek. I really wanted to do it from Cedar Creek to Sydney, but the GPS reception on my phone is so poor, that I have to hold it up to the window the whole time, and couldn't be fucked doing that for a further hour-and-a-half. What's groovy about my phone is that I can export my journeys to Google Earth. So I did as such and had a good ole gander at the journey. I need to look into the ways it can be represented though.
Anyhow.
So. That was my weekend.
I was so fucked Monday morning, that I took the day off, and ended up getting that much needed haircut (those following my Jaiku stream would already know this). There are some photos here, if you want to check them out. It's hot. I also posted to the Haiku channel about it here.
And I think that's it.
Have fun, and keep it real.

Listening to: Cradle of Filth - Thornography (Album - super hot metal. The caffeine injection I just had helps with the awesome)

The Cross and The Hunter

Not a bad weekend.
One of Tristan's mates (Cam) came up from Melbourne for a few days, so the two of them were keen for some time on the town. It also happened to be one of Tristan's acquaintances' birthdays, and she arranged for Tristan + 3 to be on the door of some club in The Cross. So after work I went home, got ready and was dropped off at Tristan & Belinda's by 8:30pm.
We then drove out to Balmain to meet Ross and grab some drinks. The others grabbed some noodles (I'd already eaten) before we went to The London for some Golden Ale. Ross & Cam also lost at pool. Cam seems a good bloke. Awesome tattoos, and good taste in metal. One of his friends knows Devin Townsend from Strapping Young Lad (and many other projects). Fucken awesome.
So, after pool and drinks, we caught the ferry to Darling Harbour, and couldn't help but stop at the Squire's Brewhouse. I had some IPA, but shortly moved onto Scotch & Coke.
If you want, you can follow the night's progress on Jaiku to the left.
Anyway.
After those drinks we decided to head to the cross. Got a cab over. We weren't immediately allowed in because the three others were wearing sneakers. Actually, that wasn't entirely the reason, coz there were plenty of people in there wearing sneakers, we just weren't cool enough. But Tristan called his friend, and she came out and let us in.
The Cross is a funny place. Full of little bars that are full of people who are full of themselves. The place really wasn't that much different from any other place I've been to - no real reason to keep it elite.
Anyway.
The brother of Tristan's friend was mental for Jaegerbombs, and was up for a challenge, so he bought me one. Unfortunately, he'd been drinking for a fair bit longer than me, and was kicked out before I could return the favour. I feel a little bad, but I honestly don't think he'll remember anyway.
So we stayed at that bar for a few hours. I got nicely toasted. A little while after that I got fucking wankered.
We skipped out sometime around 2am maybe.
I wanted pizza, but we ended up going to a titty bar. Was kinda cool - I like tits after all. They had porn on the TV. We sat around there for a bit. Cam bought a round of beers. We drank the beers - some Coopers flavour I'd not seen before. It tasted like shit. About half way in, we noticed that, in fact, it was non-alcoholic beer. What the fuck! Those wankers! Cam was furious. I tipped mine onto the carpet. We left.
I remember seeing Ross about to hop into a cab, so I joined him. We went to George St. 3 Wise Monkeys was closed. So was some other pub... Cheers maybe? Anyhow. We met up with some guys that went to Ku-ring Gai High. They knew a few people we knew. I drank some more. I was very drunk. I lost at pool.
We then went home. We got a cab back to Ross' and Leanne (bless her) picked me up. I got to bed at 6am.
I woke up at about 1:30pm, drunk. Not just tipsy... drunk. It was embarrassing to have to talk to Leanne's parents when they knew I was drunk. I helped Allan move my old wardobe down to the street coz it was council clean-up. Within 10 minutes some scavenger had come along to pick it up. Allan told Leanne and I that the guy thought he could get $120 for it, when we talked to the guy himself, he said about $30... so I don't know what happened there.
Michael Kirk Patrick is back in Sydney, so he wanted to go out. But because I was still drunk, there was no way in hell that I felt like going to a pub that night.
Leanne's friend, Sal, was up at the Hunter with some friends, so Leanne was keen to go herself, and looking forward to some relaxation after the previous night's drinking, we decided to go up.
So, I felt bad once again not seeing Michael Kirk Patrick, and am determined to meet up with him for dinner some time this week. Maybe Hardeeps... I wonder if he likes Indian? Hardeeps would be good.
So Leanne and I headed up to The Hunter; I sat drunk in the passenger seat, moving between energetic and hung over.
Leanne and I had a lovely night in (we cooked lasagne), and visited Sal et al the next day. We met them at Tambourlaine Winery. I like that Winery. We bought Jenny (Leanne's Mum) a bottle of rasberry liqueur, as it was her birthday the day before. We had lunch at Oscars in the Hunter Valley Gardens. It was all very nice.
When Leanne and I got back to my place, we decided it was so lovely there that we would spend another night (as we are tempted to do every Sunday afternoon). So did.
This meant setting the alarm for 4:10am (to beat the traffic).
We ended up loafing in bed until 4:50/5am, but before leaving to go to Sydney, but I still got into work by 8:15am, so no real drama - and because it's Monday morning, I was the second one in.
I feel tired. I think I will need coffee today.
Josh isn't in yet (will he be in later?) which means I will have a lonely lunch... sucks.
So, there you go.
My weekend, including drunken shenanigans...

A Volcano in the Hunter

The weekend that I was at one point so negative about turned out rather well, actually.
In all, a good amount of people came (Leanne, Mum, Denise, Ben, Carly, Leanne's workmate Nick, and his friend Ben), and there was much merriment. Stonehurst (aka Cedar Creek) are still selling damaged stock at a 50% discount per case - so we ended up all buying cases. Fantastic. We ended up paying about $9.50 a bottle, for wine that should be about $25 a bottle in stores. Fucking awesome.
Nick's friend Ben is a bit of a pothead, and owns a Volcano. A fantastic little device that extracts THC from Marijuana without having to actually smoke it. If you follow the link above you can get an idea of how this wonderful machine works.
Not only is it incredibly easy to "smoke," it's also incredibly efficient. I bought a 50, and we used maybe 1/3 of it between the 7 of us. Fucken A. So I guess this means a few more gatherings are in order.
So the night consisted of wine, weed, music and general shenanigans. All was happy. We bought a fuckload of fish n chips, and Denise brought plenty of munchy food, including awesome cookies (I will attach a pic soon). Ah yes. Fantastic.
Sunday had a lazy beginning, so lazy in fact that we missed the awesome Bacon & Egg roll place in Cessnock - they close at midday on Sundays, as is typical for most places in Cessnock. So we went to The Carousel Cafe instead. Tasty, tasty, tasty. I had another puff on the bag before we went, so my memory is a little hazy and I'm not sure if we paid or not. I hope we did, they're nice people. But they don't have hash browns. The nerve - and a distinct plus for the awesome bacon and egg roll place. But still, for breakfasts, nothing beats the place at Peats Ridge. It's just so hard to time it all right for breakfast.
But yes. After breakfast everyone went their respective ways, and Mum, Leanne and I went back to Cedar Creek. We watched Here Comes Mr Jordan, which was not bad, and then we went home.
The end to a lovely weekend.
Yay!

Things aint so bad

Well, Alex will be coming up for my shindig, and bringing with him some supplies, so that's nice.
Also turns out the phone chargers that I ordered off of Ebay a couple of weeks ago have now arrived (I thought that maybe they wouldn't because the guy I bought them off is "no longer a registered user"). So bless him/her for actually sending them.
Despite not being able to take Friday off, it looks to be a nice, cruisy weekend.

Typical

MKP just found out he has been posted for Sunday, so he won't be able to attend on Saturday night. On top of this, my manager just told me that I can't take Friday off because I will need to supervise the Premier Mapping.
Yeah.
What a great weekend.

Best Laid Plans...

It seems that my best laid plans have, indeed, gone awry.
The plan was to arrange a weekend up at the Hunter, with a bonfire and mushrooms.
This plan originally started back when I was at Uni - Denise and I wanted to have a mushroom party in celebration of her finishing Uni.
She finished Uni a few weeks ago, and this weekend seemed the best time for it to happen.
Fortuitously, only a few months ago I found a man that claimed he could get me mushrooms.
I messaged him last week (unsure if calling him would be good if it weren't a good time for him to speak about such matters), and he said he'd see what he could do.
He has not yet responded to any more messages, and every night since Sunday (when he wouldn't be at work) I have forgotten to call him.
So it's probably a no-go.
And the bonfire is also a no-go because of the recent flooding in the Hunter.
On top of this, very few people have responded to my SMS invitation sent out on Monday. So I'm unsure how many people are coming, and many have said that they can't make it.
So, it's probably going to end up being about 5 people, freezing our arses off, huddling around the little fire chimney on my back porch, drinking.
I'll at least see if I can get something to smoke.

Wollombi on Flickr

There is a Flickr user called "Wollombi" where it seems that locals post their photos.
There are some great photos of the recent floods.
Check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wollombi
Wollombi was an island...

Tocal Field Day + 24 Hours of Flickr

Edit:
I've now uploaded the photos for my 24 hours of Flickr to a photo set here.
Hope it brings an interesting dimension to my post!
**
As you know, Leanne and I decided to head up to the Hunter for the TOCAL field day.
This seemed a good place to spend the 24 hours of Flickr that I was so willing to participate in, and I wanted to see Pete's college.
It was cool!
Leanne and I headed to Newport in the afternoon/evening to meet Mum for dinner, and to head up to the Hunter with her.
Dinner took ages, and we didn't end up leaving Newport until about 10:30pm, so didn't end up getting to our place in the Hunter until 1am (coz of going the freeway up to Cessnock, and stopping on the way for tea)... so that sucked... but it meant that we could start the 24hours of Flickr at midnight... as will be evidenced in the photo set I shall prepare tonight (I can't do it at work... the Flickr servers are blocked).
Unfortunately we took a lot of long exposure shots in the car, so the batteries died in my camera before I got one of my mailbox bathed in moonlight (although I don't think there was enough moonlight for it to work anyway). We were unsure that we were going to have power when we got home, but thank the gods (and Energy Australia), we had power. So I charged my batteries overnight, ready for a new and exciting day.
We headed off to Tocal later than we should have, and had to register Mum's Volvo on the way, so we didn't get there until 12:30pm... which meant Pete was only free for that quick half hour until he had to work (he was getting surveys from people). A bit of a bummer., coz I would have liked to have spent better time with him. Although he didn't let having to get surveys from people stop him from seeing us; he followed us around most of the day anyway. I met a few of his friends, and ended up going to dinner in Maitland with one of them (Carla?).
The Field Day was fun. There were markets, animals, rides (for the kids...), shows and farm equipment. You know, good ol' country fun. I bought myself some chilli sauces from the Chilli Factory (I bought the Turbo Supercharge, Fiery Frillneck Hiss, and Funnelweb Bite sauces. Fantastic. Ooh, a picture!

Yum yum yum. Unfortunately, they were out of the dragon's Blood sauce (they only brought one box), so I still can't try it on ice cream yet... next time... next time... I'm keen to cook up some chilli recipes now. Or at least some kind of food that I can use the sauces on. A while ago I downloaded the Byron Bay Chilli Co Recipe book (it's 64 pages!), so I'm keen to have a read of that... I want to print it, but feel bad printing 32 pages (double sided) at work. I'll see what happens.
Anyhow. I had a great day. It was really cool to see Pete's college, and it was great to meet some of his friends. I'm meant to be heading up to Scone B&S in a couple of weeks... I don't know what that'll be like... Don't even know where Leanne and I will sleep.
We went to a pub in East Maitland for dinner, and the food was tasty and filling. I had a chicken schnitzel with avocado, bacon and cheese (fat-tastic) and a Toohey's Old (there were some long-exposure, experimental-type photos taken at the table... I like the one with the ghost beer in it - I will link to it when I'm not typing this at work - *edit* here is the link).
The plan was to go down to Sydney Sunday morning, but we decided against it on Saturday, as the Hunter Valley is such a beautiful place. So Saturday night we stayed up late and watched the first disc of Twin Peaks Season 2 (I love Twin Peaks, but season 2 certainly is a little more... strange than season one), and went to bed late.
Woke up moderately late, went out to Cessnock for bacon and egg rolls, fucked around in the Warehouse (was looking for fish food, and didn't find any)... I bought a really cheap toothbrush that broke upon first use, and went to Woolworths for some cream to have with the Christmas Pudding that Mum bought from the markets (which was really average), and then we watched more Twin Peaks Season 2... yeah... weird... but awesome.
So we didn't get back to Newport until past 10pm, and didn't get back to West Ryde until nearly midnight... needless to say Leanne and I went straight to bed.
Because of the continual lack of work at TC, I took yesterday off because I thought my time would be better spent packing up West Ryde in preparation for Saturday's move. We brought a few boxes over to Leanne's house (all her books - which is actually a fuckload) and had some lunch. We had the great idea of heading over to Mum's place and cooking her curry for dinner too, and as Ross hadn't yet seen the place we invited him over too.
We cooked a delicious Pork Red Curry. Awesome.
And yes. We then went home and slept.
I am at work right now, and there has been no work all day - and there probably won't be any tomorrow either. I was meant to call Ron today to see how his work is going, but he isn't in today, so I will have to call him tomorrow.
Well, to say there is no work I guess isn't strictly true anymore; Lex has found some cleaning up work for me to do, so I'd best pop off and do it now (Sorry to cut the detail down for the last few paragraphs).
There will probably be a fair few "I'm bored" posts to come in the following days... be prepared.

Listening to: Infected Mushroom - Vicious Delicious (So god damn cool... sets an awesome stage for my memory of the concert to perform upon... a cool fucking album)

No work at work- bored.

Yeah.
I'm bored at work now.
We are out of work, and probably will be for a little while. I should probably call Ron from Premier Illawarra, but can't really be bothered.
Probably gonna leave a little early today as I'm bored... I just have to call Mum first and find out what time she will be leaving to go up to the Hunter.
Oh yes, Leanne and I have decided to go to the TOCAL field day that Peter invited us to. We will probably be getting a lift with Mum, depending on what time she will be heading back down to Sydney on Sunday - otherwise we will have to drive. If we are getting a lift with her, then Leanne and I will just meet her at Botany, have dinner and head up... of course this complicates packing (as I haven't yet). Anyway. Minor problems, trivial talk. At least the TOCAL field day will be a more interesting event for 24 Hours of Flickr.
I didn't end up making the Chilli Hummingbird Cake for TC morning tea, and didn't do the Caramel Slice either. I ended up making a very simple Hedgehog slice, which was pretty nice. Lex forgot she had to bake today, so she ducked out and bought a Caramel Cheesecake (which was very sweet, and I feel a little oogy because of it... I so don't want lunch right now).
I'm bored.
I'm going to go to the pub and have a beer with Josh.

PS My manager is being a cock about the format of my timesheets. It is annoying.

Listening to: Faith No More - King For a Day, Fool For a Lifetime (Album) - It's been so long! I didn't realise how much I missed you!

Weekend

Sooo don't know what to do this weekend.
I know the house needs cleaning, or at the least we should move our shit to a storage locker, but Kellie has invited Leanne and I to a picnic at Darling Harbour, followed by seeing 300 at Imax (was considering Spiderman 3 on Friday night, too). Or Pete has invited Leanne and I up to the TOCAL field day (which will be very cool).
So I don't know what to do.
Plus it's 24 hours of Flickr, so I want interesting photos of that (TOCAL will probably provide the best).
I'm considering the Hunter, but it will take up HEAPS of time, and time is what we are short of...
bugger.

You can probably tell that TC has ran out of work for the time being. Bored.

On the (side of the) road.

On the (side of the) road.
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Haha. On the way to Ben's place at Anna Bay, and Lex's 4wd broke down. So here we are on the side of the road. Had a fan-fucking-tastic weekend so far though. More details later.

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Trains suck.

Man. Riding on the train sucks.
I finished my book on the way in today. I'm not tired enough to sleep. My DS is at home.
I'm bored.
I was looking at places to move on the Internet today. I'm thinking Pyrmont. There's a really nice 1 bedroom apartment there, and it's only $320 pw. Now, that's only $10 less than what we're paying now, but it will save me $32 pw on train travel (I can walk to work), plus it has a pool and gym, a dishwasher, security, and a 24 hour concierge. And I won't have to catch a fucking train home! Or be stuck at the station for 22 minutes waiting for a damned train either (as happened today).
So that'll be hot.
Only, we can't look at it this weekend (up at the Hunter with the TC crew), and we have to give 21 days notice before leaving West Ryde. So. Not yet a perfect plan.
We'll see.

Listening to: Ween - Live in Chicago
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Adventures on the Train, pt 3

I brought a book with me on Friday, so you probably noticed that there were few updates. Well, I've just about finished that book, so I figure I'll write something in my blog to help save what is left of my book for the trip home.
But anyway.
There was still little work to do up to Friday, so my boss assigned me with "prep" work. This is more complex than what I was doing before, and there are more decisions that need to be made, as well as more training.
This should be fine. Except the person that input the data that I'm working with was a fucking monkey. There are soooo many errors and inconsistencies that it's going to take me all of this week (and maybe part of next) to find and correct them all. To exemplify how many errors there are, the error report was 24 pages long. Gaybo.
I'm not sure I have a strong enough concept of our data to be making the kind of decisions that need to be made in doing this, so I'll still be hassling my trainers for info on best practice. In a couple of weeks I should be comfortable enough with my own decisions though.
Also, our new manager wants us to start working a minimum 40 hour week (whereas before it was a maximum 40 hour week). I'll be happy for the money, but I'll have to start getting into work earlier. About 8:30am should be early enough.
Went up to the Hunter this weekend for a haircut. I like it. Feels better to have shorter hair again.
I also tried the mentos and diet coke experiment with Peter. Fun. We decided that it would be awesome that next time one of Peter's friends is drinking diet coke, he should tell them to try a "mint swirler" by dropping a mentos into it - also telling them that it is tasty as. Obviously he'd have to stand back. Awesome.
So yeah. Work yesterday was really just error checking and hassling Lex for info on how to fix the errors. Work today will be much the same.
"Next stop Strathfield. Stand clear, doors closing."

Listening to: Faith No More - Angeldust (hey, what's that FNM song that ends with Mike Patton screaming "Help!" "Help!" "Help!" "Help!" [notice the pause between the "Helps"] I'm pretty sure it's off of Album of the Year. Comment me the answer [this is actually just a ploy to get you people to start leaving comments]).
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Still at home

Hey people!
I'm still up at the Hunter. I have been all week, looking after Peter - he's still not really able to move around without pain, so I'm there doing most things for him.
So I'm just as broke as last week, and just as unable to do anything social.
My new H340 did arrive on Monday, and it came with 3x cases (including the silicon one which I thought I was going to have to buy off of ebay) as well as the LCD remote (which I didn't have on my old one... sick). However, all my music is sitting on my computer at Scotland Island, so my H340 has only the last 4 CDs that I bought on it (as well as a lame-o album that the guy that sold it to me had on the machine... it's some Irish folk album that is so boring that it goes beyond putting you to sleep...). So I have to get myself to Scotland Island in order to transfer all my music to the player... gay-bo.
BUT! I now have a home phone line! So you people can actually contact me when I'm up at the Hunter house (which will be for at least another week). How good is that! I gave the number to Jon, so if you want it, just ask him. Sick bricks.
And that is all.
Have fun until I see you next (and then keep having fun while I'm seeing you...)!

Listening to: The fans of the many computers in Cessnock internet cafe.