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Year View| Summary| Highlights| June 2007 (Month View)

Feb ‘07 | Mar ‘07 | Apr ‘07 | May ‘07 | Jun ‘07 Jul ‘07 | Aug ‘07 | Sep ‘07 | Oct ‘07 |

01.06.2007 – Friday 1 June – The Bike Parking Mushroom

• I’m not sure what the opposite of inspiration is, but a choking fog of it is engulfing me. Some sentences do come to mind, but most of them start with “Once upon a time, in a land on the other side of the river”, and end with “where it was the same as yesterday”. Though, there was a bike parked at the new bike-parking-mushroom, which there wasn’t yesterday. I managed to get a lift to the valley, and a train from there—I am becoming lazier and lazier—making it easy to get home, though still midnight.

02.06.2007 – Saturday 2 June – Shootout at Lokhandwala

Morning

• I have a quiet morning, mostly involving not getting out of bed.

Night

• Bronwen and I tried to get curry, but it was extremely busy and we ran out of time, heading to the city and getting nachos from one of the little places in the centre of the mall, before watching “Shootout at Lokhandwala”, one of the most powerfully violent movies I’ve seen in a while, and certainly not what I was expecting from a Bollywood movie, but very good. How could anything with the tagline “It lasted six hours, 1755 rounds were fired, six deaths were reported. Based on true rumours” not be good?
  On the way home, I came across a man who had had all his money stolen by the KGB, to do UFO research, and was looking for more, and a school of police bikes, hunting.

03.06.2007 – Sunday 3 June – Curry & Cold Rock

Afternoon

• A bus to Bronwen’s, then a bus back here. Must remember to buy a car.

Night

• I finally got to have my curry. Curry has been growing on me all week, and after last night’s abortive attempt to secure some, it had assumed great importance. I followed it up with Cold Rock, just to make sure I was full. There’s six girls sleeping here at the moment, which is a bit worrying. Three are currently talking at the same time.

04.06.2007 – Monday 4 June – Rain & Gardening

Morning

• Brinda redressed the little men, and I polished my résumé. It’s been raining, and I’ve finally got around to pulling out most of the weeds from the front-most part of the front garden, and put pine bark down, which is causing thousands of nasturtiums to rise. I planted a row of flowers today, to try and fight off the nasturtiums.

Afternoon

• I’m working three to eleven in the fishbowl.

05.06.2007 – Tuesday 5 June - Nachos

Morning

• I had nachos at Toowong with Maz for lunch, and managed to catch the worst bus home. It spent what felt like—and probably was—half an hour an hour driving through suburbs, only to end up back where it started, before heading to my place.

Night

• It is raining quite heavily. The internet has died somewhere in Sydney, causing a lot of chaos. I caught a taxi home.

06.06.2007 – Wednesday 6 June – Whatnot

• Work and whatnot.

07.06.2007 – Thursday 7 June – Nachos, Rain & Résumés

Afternoon

• I had Nachos at Toowong with Maz.

Night

• It was sprinkling lightly, so I caught a taxi home—the same driver as last night, funnily, so I didn’t even need to tell him where to go.

Comment by io – Saturday 16 June 2007, 7:07 AM

  That's pretty cool. I wonder if that'll happen to me soon as well, I'm starting to catch cabs more often as well.

08.06.2007 – Friday 8 June – Shopping

• Woke up reasonably early, when the people spending the night here got up. Did some washing. Ate muesli. Met Bronwen in the city, where they’re planting new fully grown trees. Shopped. I’ve the day off because I’m working Sunday.

Night

• Yay! Curry!

09.06.2007 – Saturday 9 June – Pasta

Morning

• I went shopping at Indooroopilly, after a relaxing morning.

Night

• I was introduced to fresh pasta packs and pasta sauce available from the refrigerated section in your local supermarket. These are surprisingly good.

10.06.2007 – Sunday 10 June – Spiderman, Spiderman, Spiderman

Morning

• Who knows what I did this morning. After tonight, I’m lucky if I can cross the road without getting run over, let alone remember the past. No, wait... it’s coming back. I worked this morning. I got up horribly early and went to work. I got very little sleep last night and worked all morning. That’s why I can’t remember anything after staying up all night tonight, and working again tomorrow morning.

Night

• Bronwen and I enjoyed a fantastic curry from the always-fantastic curry place, which seems to be getting busier and busier.

11:30pm

• Bronwen and I rush to the local supermarket, where we buy a bag of bananas—synthetic, naturally—a bag of liquorice allsorts, and a bag of “orange rollers”—which are identical to jaffas in all but name, and two litres of Pepsi. We then catch a bus to Indooroopilly Megaplex, which is full of young women, all made-up to go out, but wearing pyjamas. There’s two huge queues waiting for the two other movie marathons, and a couple of what appear to be hardcore cartoon fanatics waiting for our marathon—Spiderman one, two and three. We sit in the very middle of the front row, surrounded by our junk food.

6:30am

• I’m not sure why people sit down the back. Even in the busiest sold-out movie sessions, the last place to fill is the middle of the front row—yet it’s clearly the best seat in the cinema. People complain that it would hurt their eyes, or their neck—but I’ve just sat through eight hours of action movie, in the front row, and apart being fully immersed in a near-wraparound cinematic experience while the folk up the back had to peer at a small screen down the front, having unlimited leg room, and being able to lay on the floor when I got sick of the seats, it was fine—my neck and eyes are as attractive, deep and soulful, as ever. What isn’t too good though, is that I need to be at work in an hour.

11.06.2007 – Monday 11 June – Sleepy

6:30am

• A bus home from Indooroopilly, eight and a half minutes getting ready, and a taxi to work. I’m alone in the fishbowl, on a public holiday. I haven’t slept. It’s just like being back at uni.

Evening

• I caught the worst bus to Bronwen’s, travelling via every side street and avoiding the direct road the entire time. It would have been quicker waiting for tectonic shift.

12.06.2007 – Tuesday 12 June – Java, Dogs & Amanda

Morning

• I took the day off work, and helped Brinda with her Java learning. We appear to have a new washing machine.

Afternoon

• I spent the night at Amanda’s, along with Danny and Dana.

13.06.2007 – Wednesday 13 June – Masonic Vapours, Pizza, Cake & Cold Rock

• Got a lift back with Amanda, and a short bus trip later was at work—working on level five today, working through to six due to starting late.

Night

• I came across some vapours escaping from under the Masonic hall, before catching a bus home and finding that Brinda is cooking pizza, because Krish and Priya are panic-studying for exams. I remember when I had to do that. As fun as uni was, I think it’s more fun not studying, and actually having some money. There’s nothing stopping me staying up all night doing insane things now, if I want to—but only if I want to.

Night

• Cold rock with Maz, then Brinda’s cake. Thought of solving a few global conflicts, but it was too cold.

14.06.2007 – Thursday 14 June – Windmills Pizza

Morning

• Working from 7 to 3 in the fishbowl.

Night

• Bronwen came over, and didn’t want pasta or curry. Women truly are strange. So we had pizza from Windmills.

15.06.2007 – Friday 15 June – Adieu Mark

Morning

• Bus to work. Not as cold this morning as previous mornings.

Night

• Drinks at Birdee’s, as today is Mark’s last day. Some of us managed to get kicked out. The rest had a good time. Wandered past Shelley’s after, then home via Brunswick Street, and girls that wear long shirts and not much else.

16.06.2007 – Saturday 16 June – Ocean’s 13

Morning

• Ned put down more pine bark in his garden. This should stifle weeds better than glaring at them while walking past, prevent plant dehydration better than most moisturisers, and thwart communists.

Day

• He went to Indooroopilly with Maz, and Maz’s aunt. Once there, he got keys cut (one of which turns out to be ornamental and does not work), had expensive nachos with Kieran, and walked up and down at least three hundred escalators. He then noticed that tickets to Ocean’s 11 were selling at the rate of around thirty per minute, so he bought his online.

Night

• He feasted his belly on a fantastic curry, which he then took to South Bank, where he feasted his eyes on Ocean’s 13. It’s not as good as his 12 or 11, but fun nonetheless.

17.06.2007 – Sunday 17 June – Chocolate Mud Cake

Afternoon

• Ned and Bronwen walked up the hill, to fetch a pail of water—and a chocolate mud cake. This was intended for the dinner they were having at Bronwen’s parent’s place, but they arrived early in the evening to find that it was a lunch, and everyone was just finishing up. Despite of this, an enjoyable evening was had by those concerned, and they got to keep their cake and eat it.

18.06.2007 – Monday 18 June – ANZAC Flour

Morning

• I dropped in some new keys to the real estate, and got the forms needed to transfer my lease, before heading to Toowong for nachos with Maz. I also managed to catch a very scary bus down Milton road, surrounded by men with large balls, hugging. It’s a bit of a mystery actually, because I can’t see how I can have caught a bus down Milton road today, but as they say, a photo never lies.

Evening

• I discovered that ANZAC biscuits, unattended in a gentleman’s bag, will, with time, become ANZAC flour, and that the liquorice allsorts from Coles are vastly inferior to the Black and Gold ones from the IGA. In fact, I’ve had a bit of an eating day. It began with chocolate mud cake for breakfast, followed by nachos for lunch, then an entire bag of substandard liquorice allsorts, ANZAC flour, synthetic bananas, and orange rollers (“jaffas” presumably being a trademarked name). I believe a mixed diet is important for health and vitality, hence the mixture.

Night

• It appears to have rained. This is a good enough excuse for me—a taxi home, with my regular taxi driver.

19.06.2007 – Tuesday 19 June – Cold, Windy & Washing Machine Hoses

Morning

• Got up half past ten. Felt crappy for sleeping in so much. Found that my rent is being increased. Decided a nice hot shower would make me feel better. Found that there was no hot water. Found that the power had tripped out, turning off my computer, which was halfway through doing things, while I was in the shower. It’s going to be one of those days. Looking on the bright side just makes my eyes sore.

Afternoon

• Fixed the washing machine hoses. One hot water hose, one cold water hose—not that complex, but surprisingly difficult. Items used included one cable tie, two hose clamps, vice grips, half a brick, a Leatherman, a screwdriver, a solenoid actuated valve, a bucket of hot water, three washing machine hoses, one heat-expanding hose, the rubber from a hose tap adaptor, and a partridge in a pear tree. Actually, I made the last one up.

Evening

• Here I am at work, feeling a bit sick. Apparently chocolate cake and a multivitamin for breakfast, followed by a chocolate milkshake and the last remaining cup of day-old chips for lunch isn’t the ideal recipe for health, vitality, and brighter, whiter teeth.

Night

• I sit in the fishbowl, surrounded by cold dehumidified glass, fighting metaphorical fires, for hours and hours, and then when it’s time to go home, I find that it’s blowing an icy gale outside. It’s almost scary, and a good enough excuse to get a taxi. I then sit at home, listening to some of the crazy music last.fm has been giving me, find that my mail server is blacklisted by Yahoo, request that it isn’t and switch to another one, and hide in my bed, listening to the wind slicing through air, battering against the window, in a vain attempt to get inside.

20.06.2007 – Wednesday 20 June – Freezing

Day

• It’s remarkably cold and windy. I froze to the bus, which was nice and warm, had breakfast cum lunch at Govinda’s, and froze back to the bus, which was again nice and warm. I then froze back home, before freezing back to the bus, which was still nice and warm, and spent the afternoon chilling politely in the fishbowl at work, which for operational reasons, I’ve now renamed “Ned’s Disaster Response and Emergency Reaction Centre”.

Night

• As it’s still extremely cold and fierce outside, I caught a taxi home and have been sitting here, moving my fingers slowly, sorting music, and listening to a few new songs I’ve recently got, and it occurred to me—between cursing the current lack of global warming—how fast technology does move. It wasn’t very long ago that I had a single 9 GB hard drive, and now I have (if I have counted correctly) one 500, three 200, and two 80 GB hard drives, along with some 40, 20 and 9 GB hard drives, which are now too small to even bother using—and all this in my small home system.

3am

• It’s late. It’s cold. My internet connection just dropped out. Probably frozen. Might head to bed before this liquorice kills me, via the cold room with the toothbrush and scary women’s tools.

21.06.2007 – Thursday 21 June – Cool & Dry

Morning

• I slept in, not getting up until nearly midday, which isn’t that surprising I suppose, given the time I went to bed last night, and how cold it is. I wish I had a heavy quilt—not that my current one isn’t warm enough (I’ve slept in a pile of rocks at the foot of a glacier in the Himalayas in it, waking up to find everything had frozen over but me), it’d just be nice to have something heavy so I feel like I should be warm—and they’re far cheaper than women. Though they don’t have breasts.

Night

• I couldn’t think of any good excuses to get a cab, so I walked home. It’s definitely on the nippy side out there. The frozen tips of my ears may not recover.

1:30am

• My sleeping bag has made me think of the things I’ve done that I consider to be “cool”, and I’m sure they say something about me. I didn’t think graduating with a great GPA was particularly cool—but I thought getting there without studying, or having attended high school, was. I found the hidden anti-Chinese helicopter bases in the Himalayas, the tanks hiding in the desert on the Pakistani/Indian border, and the fighter jets flying low over old castles in Rajasthan far “cooler” than experiencing the aeons old society surrounding them.
  I value having been charged by police with bamboo canes, attending illegal raves in Goa, and being apprehended riding an unregistered bike, unlicensed, and without a helmet, more than swimming in the Arabian sea with the setting sun.
  While it wasn’t fun at the time, having my hotel room searched by police with machine guns, multiple times a day, seems far more impressive to me now, than sleeping in bamboo huts in a tropical paradise, and unexpectedly bumping into drug growers with automatic weapons while wandering around in the jungle seems much cooler than climbing scenic mountains (particularly as they’re always up).
  Deciding it wasn’t too windy, and taking all our clothes and computer gear in a small tinny, navigating in almost total dark through part of the Great Barrier Reef with only a dim dolphin torch and the almost indiscernible border between land and sky to guide us, while discussing UFO’s, and nearly capsizing in the surf, would be a better idea than simply driving the few hour drive, makes sense to me. Doing everything at the last minute, staying up all night because something has a deadline the next day and I haven’t begun yet, seems to be the best way to do it—the achievement of getting it done wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t a challenge.
  Having my internet connection die right now, doesn’t seem cool. I suppose it’s a sign to go to bed.

Comment by io – Friday 22 June 2007, 10:03 PM

  Most cool of all, is this post. You should highlight it.

Comment by Mum – Monday 2 July 2007, 9:37 PM

  It is true. Tinny, computer, sea rollicking,dolphin torch, which was actually dropped overboard at some stage, the home base of saidfriend only accessi ble by sea. You think the bloke exaggerates? Well, only a little.

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 3 July 2007, 12:55 AM

  Value cops harrassing your motorbike without necessary paperwork more than the sunset which was the result of the run of motorbike, legal or illegally made? Bah!! Anti Chinese helicopter bases,tanks hiding in the desert on the Pakistani/Indian border and the fighter jets flying over old castles in Rajasthan far "cooler" than WHAT? The aeons society surrounding them. Surrounding them, as in surround. Get real.

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 3 July 2007, 1:03 AM

  You sashay in as a tourist. You know nothing. You are not invited to know anything. You do what is cool or not cool. What is cool or not cool is dictated and alloted by the indigineous locals. Whether or not you choose to like or not like the local sunset is of no consequence to them. You got rupee, goodfella.!! Em tasol

22.06.2007 – Friday 22 June – Relaxing Insanity

Morning

• I’ve taken the day off work, gone to Toowong for lunch with Maz (nachos, naturally), and dropped the bond change form at the real estate. Not bad considering how late I got up.

2:30pm

• I am buggered. It’s lucky I didn’t go to work. So far today, I’ve nearly been run over, deleted all my SMS’s by accident, and now I’ve just opened a browser window... but can’t remember why. I have a feeling it was important too. It’s sitting there saying “Input URL or Search String”, and I’m sitting here, full from nachos I had at Toowong with Maz, but worried because I know there was something I had to do. Nup, drawing a mental blank here—no idea what it was I sat down here to do, so I might take out my old motherboard and return that to Umart.

3pm

• My floor is covered in computer parts.

4pm

• Returning my $69 motherboard to Umart under warranty cost me $25. I’m not sure if that’s particularly good value, or even legal. Returning my graphics card didn’t cost me anything, but the “tech” there kept referring to the d-sub VGA plug as an AGP plug, so I’m not overly confident about that one. I can feel an “it’s not broken, you owe us money for testing it”, “yes it is, and you owe me money for the inconvenience” fighting match coming up.

Night

• Bronwen and I drive to the airport to drop her parents off, and then off to indoor soccer.

Comment by io – Friday 22 June 2007, 10:00 PM

  I'm the creepiest Asian I know - if you need extra firepower, you know who to /query! I think the other Asians get a little scared. It must be my haircut.

23.06.2007 – Saturday 23 June – Working & Curry

Morning

• I went to work. What a crappy idea. On the bright side, I had a fresh cream filled sponge cake.

Evening

• It’s been raining a little, and is quite bleak weather. I’ve been updating the Jianshe site, and discovered that, even with 4 GB of RAM, I can still quite easily run out using Photoshop—which is a bit worrying as I’m already exceeding the technical limitations of a 32-bit operating system, so there’s really nothing else that can be done. Fortunately, Bronwen has come around so I can go share two hot Indian curries for dinner, from everyone’s favourite Halim’s Indian Taj Restaurant.

24.06.2007 – Sunday 24 June – Harry Potter & a Change of Girls

Morning

• Woke up late, Maz came around, went and got pizza for breakfast cum lunch, followed by a Cold Rock milkshake.

Evening

• Krish is moving out tomorrow, and Brinda is moving in today (despite having already been staying here for some time now). Signing lease and things soon.

Night

• Got, and am watching, Harry Potter 1. Also got fresh pasta and yummy pasta sauce.

25.06.2007 – Monday 25 June – Car!

10am

• Caught Train. Met David at Northgate. Test drive car. Drive back home. Get money. Drive back to Northgate. Mess around for hours. Get to work late. Drive home from work in lots of rain. Find demister. Though, looking on the bright side, I now own a ’99 AU Falcon, which cost me a very reasonable $3400.

26.06.2007 – Tuesday 26 June – Insurance & Fireproof Toilets

• Got insurance, renewed licence the extremely slow way (never, ever, renew your licence by losing your renewal letter with the magical number that lets you do it online and going into a Queensland Transport office), went to super cheap auto, bought things. Went to work. Came across lots of fireproof toilets.

27.06.2007 – Wednesday 27 June – Harry Potter & The Sickness

Morning

• Taking the day off. Have felt bad yesterday and Monday. Hopefully have a relaxing day and get better today.

Afternoon

• Bronwen arrived.
  Drove to Indro for lunch.
  Watched Harry Potter 2.
  Curry for dinner with Maz.
  Watched Harry Potter 3.

28.06.2007 – Thursday 28 June – Car Fixing

• Slept in. Drove up north, met David, had oil and transmission oil and filter changed. Drove to work.

29.06.2007 – Friday 29 June – Wreckers

Day

• Drive to auto wreckers. Buy jack, seatbelt. Bus to work, in the fishbowl today. Train and bus home. Very cold and windy.

Night

• Stay up late, adding things to Jianshe site, and adding a corner-fold to Fullboar site, which, I’m pleased to say, works in IE 5, 6, 7, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

30.06.2007 – Saturday 30 June – Transformers

• Sleep in. Woken by B. Drive to IKEA, then Bunning’s, then B’s, then home, then pasta pre-dinner, then curry dinner, then Transformers. Now bed.

Feb ‘07 | Mar ‘07 | Apr ‘07 | May ‘07 | Jun ‘07 Jul ‘07 | Aug ‘07 | Sep ‘07 | Oct ‘07 |

Year View| Summary| Highlights| June 2007 (Month View)