Chris' Birthday last night and he had a BBQ :) Good night for it too, not too warm/cold and he has a nice deck under cover and entertaining areas.

  
Birthday boy taking happy snaps of everyone and a nice choice of beverage for me along with all the delicious food in the background :)

  
Playing "around the world" table tennis which of course, the birthday boy won :P and cake! :)

Yet another auction... is there a trend starting to emerge? We have been to three auctions within the last 2 months or so. Just to go and look mainly to gauge the market conditions at the moment. We haven't seen much action though, none at all actually... so we have yet to see an auction really :P Today, there were lots of people looking and there seemed to be interested parties... but as with the other auctions that we've been to, there were no bids... it just seems a bit weird... must be me... :D

Going to Chris' tonight for a BBQ for his birthday. Bought him a present (sharing with Nick) but overspent as buying one *item* would seem a bit cheapo/ridiculous :P Got it wrapped at the store too because I couldn't be bothered buying the wrapping paper then trying to make it look acceptable. Just pay someone $3.40 and its all done, with nice embossed paper and a box containing the gift. Couldn't ask for better value! :)

You work hard in anticipation of something yet it gets pulled from underneath you... thanks but no thanks... geez...

Yay... all done and settled... although I'm had a long day of waiting. Went to court today to try to settle the car accident that I had last year. Ended up with a settlement reached before we actually went before the judge and all that. Here I was looking (for some reason) forward to actually sitting in the witness box. Obviously watching too much TV with court cases... haha :P Got there around 9 and it wasn't till after 12 that I got out of there... and I did... not much, just met with my barrister and told him my story. We were actually sitting in the court ready to go and then they said they would settle... sheesh... kind of a waste of a day for me... I actually had a bit of work that could have been done today... oh well.

Had dinner with Nick and Caroline tonight in Lygon St. One of the restaurants opposite to the Gelati place... or G place as Su Ann and I know it :P It was nice... although the food was just ok... like.. for around $20 I was expecting a bit better. Still.. its not the food, its the company. :) It was great to finally catch up with them, especially Nick who lives on the other side of town at the moment, down in Smellyville :P Of course, we had to go for gelati afterwards and it was an alright night for it. Not too warm so it melts but not quite cold for it to chill you. Although, apparently it is better to eat ice cream/gelati when its cold. Not sure about why... but it just does taste even better! :D

Earlier on the way home, I found out what it was like to be a sardine in a sardine can. The train was late so it was packed in... I was the third last person to get on and was crushed between two guys for a station... it got better and as more people got off... it was almost comfortable. Didn't get a seat at all though, so basically I was standing for 40 minutes. :(

One thing I hate is people talking on trains... actually I do that sometimes, but its only when the train is not crowded and people aren't sitting all around me... this afternoon, whilst trying to not do anything on the train (was standing up at the time) some guy starts talking on his phone. Normally it wouldn't bother me, just that he was talking so everyone in our half of the carriage could hear him. So... this is what I gathered from his conversation (muwhahaha):
He works at Telstra in Corporate Finance
Has a wife who has a career
Has a sister/child (I'm thinking sister) who is a black belt and is very independent
Was talking to a person who was about to get married

All this from about 15 minutes of conversation.. the funny thing was that he works for Telstra but uses a "3" phone. Hmmm... supporting the company and getting the cheapo deals I see... muwahhaha :P That was about as interesting as the day was today... hmm.. I live a boring life don't I? :P

End of another weekend. Met up with Tedy... first time since New Years that I had seen him. He is just too busy now... jetsetting across the country visiting the campuses of different universities around Aust. I discovered that the behemoth that is Melbourne Central is now full of dead ends and paths that take you no where :P During all this reconstruction you think they would put some signs saying that this path whilst it used to lead you to the other building, now is blocked. Pfft... The only place where you can get through is the basement level and even then that is still under heavy construction in places.

Went out to dinner at Airstream Cafe and played pool afterwards last night. Had another good night out. :) Today was a lazy day, did a few things and went to an open house which wasn't open :-/ Another weekend gone, and another week of work ahead... don't know if I should be happy or sad :D I guess its a good thing :) (money mainly!) :P

Yay.. its the weekend... finally... it seems like things move at a quick pace although the days seem to drag on. Preparing for a review day in about two weeks for work. An all day affair with lots to talk about and plan for... even though I'm not going to be there for the whole year, in that job that is... who knows what will/can happen. Things are hopefully going to fall into place soon :)

Computer is fixed... but the pulled a dodgy and gave me my old keyboard back.. which meant that changing the computer didn't mean a thing... well... it was better and faster but not fixed... changed the keyboard for another one we had in the office and now everything is good *fingers crossed* and I can finally type without having to press the spacebar 10 times to get one space character :P Thinking of working on the database that I was meant to set up over the summer break this weekend but will see how I go.

Went to Chris' tonight and saw "Bourne Identity" with Matt Damon.. ok movie... nothing spectacular... :P Meeting Tedy for lunch tomorrow so I should get to bed... stuff to do before I go out too... :)

Hmm.. its been a long day. Lots of little things to do at work but nothing major... apart from my keyboard screwing up... the spacebar is fcuked... completely... like almost every press doesn't work. It got waaay too annoying that I switched computer... and the IT guy came to fix it... but couldn't... apparently it's the connector on the motherboard. He left with it defragging my hard drive... he said "let it run and I'll come back tomorrow with some diagnostics" I looked at him and thought.. he seriously isn't thinking of telling me that defragging a hard drive will fix a connector problem.. hahaha :D Luckily he didn't try to sell me on that... So lets see what stuff the techo will tell me tomorrow :P

Been MIA for a few days... well... not really.. was going to post yesterday but the ADSL crapped out on me :( so yeah...

OK.. first of all... there is something seriously stuffed about summer (or so called summer) this year. Yesterday (Sat) it was friggen 40 degrees... and there was no where to go to hide from the heat. Even the shopping centre wasn't exactly cool... it was kinda stuffy... but at least it was cooler than outside... or at home... I was tempted to go out to KMart to cool off.. :P Obviously I had absolutely nothing to do last night as it was Valentine's day.. pfft... hehe :D Got one e-card... thats about it.. oh well :P Not exactly expecting the world...

Friday was black Friday.. Friday 13th... and well.. stranger things have happened but it was actually an ok day. It affected some others differently though, one person seemed to "lose it" at work and was cutting loose with the emails at work... well... we'll see what happens on Monday :P Hmm.. can't remember anything else interesting or non interesting.. just work.. thats about it.. oh.. and having a lunch break at 4:30pm on Thursday was kinda sad... the sacrifices we make to get the work done :P

Yaaawwwnnn... spent this morning doing some work and in a meeting, then this afternoon went to the contractor (again) on the basis that we would be working and checking their stuff. But.. uhh.. yeah... sat around in their meeting room for a few hours... did at least *some* checking.. but yeah... waste of our time :( Now we get to go out there again tomorrow morning... never overpromise and underdeliver... basic rule of business. This is especially after we are trying to clean up their mistake. Well.. you may end up reading about it in the newspaper in a few days...

Whats with the weather today though... its like... rain and windy... its like winter... getting home just before 7 tonight... it was like it was grey and dark... kinda like winter... but if it was winter.. it would be pitch black by that time :P Its meant to get better for the weekend though... not that I will have anything to do... bah.. Valentine's day... bah humbug.. :P

Edit: forgot to add that I am never eating at the place I had lunch today.. had lasagne and the thing had no taste, prolly cos of the cheapo cheese they had used. Whats worse I found a piece of plastic in it :(

Bah... its monday... and I'm at work, so thats a start I guess. It just a worry when its Monday and I don't feel like that I've had enough sleep to survive a week at work. The aircon seems to have buggered up again sometime either over the weekend or this morning. And geez... it was hot yesterday. 39 degrees... so much like an oven that I'm sure that you could have baked a cake just by placing it outside :P Luckily it cooled down by the evening otherwise sleeping would have been near impossible.

I just had the feeling that I have no idea what I am doing at work this week. Its kinda just another week... damn... I forgot to burn a music CD so I could listen to that at least... kind of makes the time go by faster or something. Already been for coffee over the road and now looking forward to lunch.. is this how my working life is going to be? O_o I guess it would help if I had something more substantial and more responsibility... bleh... oh well... back to surfing the net :P hahaha

Hmm... feeling a bit better now :) Was completely wrecked Friday due to the lack of sleep... couldn't keep my eyes open by the time the afternoon came by. The best thing was that this morning I managed to sleep in till like 9am :D Had yum cha again (seems like every weekend we go to yum cha) this time at a new restaurant... expensive and the food wasn't that good, so not going back there again anytime soon! :P I've been thinking I have a blacklist of restaurants here in Melbourne... and... uhh.. its getting quite restrictive where we can and can't go... haha... I'm usually willing to give them a second chance... but 2 times of bad service/food then... thats it... never again. Maybe I'm being a bit tough and sometimes its for petty reasons.. like one in Glen Wav who sat us at a table where the dim sum cart couldn't get to us and then fobbing me off when I asked the "captain" guy about it with some excuse saying that I could just order it from the waiter... pfft.. thats just plain stupid! :P

Intuition.... how you know something when you don't really know something at all. I believe we all have it.... to differing degrees maybe. I have tended not to trust it recently... The key is not to think about it... it just has to be the true gut feeling you get about something. If you think about it, the logic and cognitive biases (thank you MIMS) creep in and destroy what could be a "prophecy" to something that is twisted and so far from the truth that its wrong. I just wished I trusted it last week... *sigh* Hindsight is 100% accurate...

Death... its funny how it just hits you in the face... you go from being happy cheery and having fun to just nothing, feeling so empty and not knowing what to say.... and thats just when you hear about it... it doesn't directly affect you in a way, but its just the thought of someone you know losing a loved one... it makes your heart just sink. I guess how you deal with death is what counts....

Had the interview this morning. It went ok I think. Will find out "soon" what happens. Got a call today saying my phone was ready to be picked up. So left work on time and headed on down there... and.. here it is :) Its what I expected it to be.. not "earth shatteringly great" but good enough... its a phone... thats what I want... not a "I can do everything" device

Hope that this experience with Ericsson phones is much better than my last one... I guess it can only be better than the T28 experience with crashing menus and sudden hangs in the operating system. The software updates didn't help... just made the menus even slower... oh well... only time will tell! :)

Looong day today... spent most of the morning in front of the computer trying to do some calculations that needed to be put into a briefing for the CEO and probably even higher up. Don't think that it was all correct though :D Its all approximate anyways... or so my boss said. It was off by 2 and he said.. close enough... hahaha.. he's signing the document.. not me! :P

The afternoon was spent in the huge meeting room sorting stuff out. Neglected my PA duties for most of the afternoon, although it was ok, not much happening I think. Stayed till 6ish finishing up most of the stuff that I was meant to do today. Train was delayed because of signal problems this evening, although the driver was nice enough to keep us informed... the automatic announcement said "Please do not leave the train"... like we had a bloody choice in between stations and in the middle of 4 tracks... hahaha.... obviously this was the end of the shift for the driver as he absolutely flew the train in between stations... so made up about 5 minutes... :)

Looking forward to the interview on Wednesday, got one of the two references and have to go get the passport photo taken tomorrow... hope all goes well :)