that was SO much fun!!

I hadn't forgotten how much fun it is to go fast... but it sure did come as a welcome shock to the senses!

First ride to work today on the real bike - I worked out that me and it have been wounded or recuperating for 6 months now, but now we've just got a couple of scars and aches.

It's SO much fun to floor it on a bike and feel it surge underneath you. My MTB is like an old holiday park trail ride horse: "You can kick and kick all you like buddy - I've already made up my mind about how fast we're going". My real bike is like a thoroughbred: "You said fast, right? Ok, let's go really fast! Left? Right? Go! Go! Go!"

I go pick up my bike tomorrow.

And I think I'm ready for climbing again - although in the 10 hours since I arranged it my hand has suddenly started to hurt...

1st off the assembly line...

Speaking of good newz...

snúa og snua, og bremsa og bremsa, ...

HAH! I've been taking Swing/Rock'n'Roll dance classes at the Háskóli, and cos I'm sick of Icelandic guys not dancing, I've been learning to lead. And tonight we were learning to dance with 2 girls!! Aaaughhh!! Actually, it's not THAT hard, if they're dancing in time/together. But THEN the teacher said, oh, now let's see what happens when you turn one girl twice and one girl once, and continue on with other moves we've learnt to dance one-on-one ... Chaos! Mayhem! But *I* mananged to do it in the end, even doing the 'turn the other girl twice' to get them back in step!! Woo-hoo! OMG!!

sunburn fairy floss horses tractors petting animals show bags jumping castles merrigoround alpacas live music driving grandad cows wood chopping scottish sword dancing

yep. that was a day at the whittlesea show.

honey... have you seen my horrible red and yellow beach shirt?

angel angel sea YEAH angel angel sea YEAH angel angel sea YEAH angel angel sea YEAH






(That's my "We're going to Angelsea on the weekend because Anna is awesome" dance).

I am awesome

I picked it. From the opening scene I picked it.

All I had to work with was an assassin's gun sights trained on a blonde swimming in a roof top pool and I picked it as being Dirty Harry.

I rule.

Officially a cycle commuter once more

Barring unforeseeable screwy stuff happening in the next 5 hours which might render me incapable of going home on the bike I rode here I can safely call myself a bike commuter now because I...

...have ridden to work each day this week!! I got a perfect 10!

You know how it is - there's always some reason each week why you don't ride on at least one day. But this week I managed a perfect no-driver. This marks my transition from injured sap forced to succumb to Steel Cage Travel back to fully self-reliant normal person.

In corresponding news I think that the bill to fix my real bike is going to be under $150 - I had bought a $75 rear derailleur, but it turns out that I only really need the $20 hanger so I returned it. That's like getting $55 of free stuff!! I'm thinking about cadence measuring computers or uncracked helmets.

I've got a fancy new bright blue rear tyre. Now all I need to do is take her to a LBS and say "Put her back together. I need to ride her this weekend like she's never been ridden."

Late night drunken IM pocket knife goodness!

me: i played guitar in dan's shoe

set list

Tania: what set list

just impro?

me: set list

???

don't you know?

Tania: i didn't get a messag about that

me: very big deal

Tania: is it a tv show?

me: dan had a show

3 weeks

Tania: ok...,

3 shows

me: 100% impro music

Tania: on channel 31?

11:45 PM me: each night in one genre

live

Tania: fun :(

me: folk

Tania: :)

me: then jazz

Tania: where abouts?

me: then rock last night

trades hall

Tania: ooh

lots of people?

you there each night>

me: wendy came to last night but beth was sick

yes

i rocked out

Tania: cool, poor beth

nice one!

me: I was, like, integral to the success

Tania: bloody oath

you been playing some more then?

me: (yes, beth's ears still bursting. v.bad)

Tania: at home i mean

ow

me: more? at ALL

11:46 PM 1 month ago I couldn't even play for an hour at t time

Tania: well, you said a few months ago that you'd picked up the guitar

me: last night: rocking the house

zackly

Tania: so, if you've picked it up again since, that's 'more'

me: which is why is was so cool that I could string together a solo

me: oh oh oh oh oh

so!!!!

OMFG OMFG OMFG

11:48 PM I had the pcket-knifer's WET DREAM!!!

like... wow

song #2

broken string

Tania: what's a pcket-knifer?

me: (I'd gotten money from beth's mum for a pocket knife)

(and I've found a 'mechanic' brand)

11:49 PM (You have to scour the globe for these things. not available in australia)

Tania: your new pocket knife has guitar gizmos on it

me: (they come with pliers and wire cuttters)

I broke a string in song #2

Tania: i need pliers

me: and then they played apiano song while I dashed outside, repaired string with my PLIERS and WIRE CUTTERS and show didn't skip a beat.

I

rule

11:50 PM Tania: :D nice one!

me: nice??

nice?!?!?

Tania: tha's the good thing about impro, huh

me: fucking AWESOME one

Tania: hey, there's a smiley and an ! there too

me: I'm going to tell EVERYONE

I'm so psyched

Tania: on the blog?

:)

me: yes

when I get a moment

Sundays are great.

Lying out under the patio on the hammock reading the paper until I fall asleep with a thin rug over my knees to stop my legs from getting cold in the refreshing breeze while the kids watch some daft Seinfeld bee animated movie and when they've watched it twice through they come out and my son climbs into the hammock bringing icy poles for himself, me and his sister as she climbs up on the BBQ to shout "I'm a PIRATE!! Ahoy there!!" wearing just socks and a singlet and the bright morning sun highlights her ragamuffin unruly shock of blond hair.

Sundays are great.

TLE

So I was in a mosh pit last night!!

I saw The Living End with Beth. Well I say with Beth, but she was perched up the front against the barrier so she could watch the whole show, and so that she could score a used drumstick (yay Beth!), while I was up the back trying to explain to the person (who was very sweet about it) that I have to stand in front of SOMEONE (I'm tall).

But then I chased some kids up to the front to join the mosh pit and I did some slam dancing and some moshing and the Living End just rock.

Light!! Aziz! Light!

Light, I've got light in my office!

I come in this morning and my desk light is turned on and pointed on a funny angle. So I changed it. It was still giving off an extraordinary amount of light. So I turned it off. It was STILL light. Then I looked up. LIGHT!!

Aha!!

My boss had been good to his word, he'd moved the flouro fitting from the hall to above my desk - there's light in this office now (ok, hall is dark now but that's an SEP). All this time I've been working in a little dungeon, peering through the darkness into my huge pair of flat LCD screens... talk about eye-strain... but now... LIGHT! I have LIGHT!

Quiet night

Last weekend was heaps of fun; I had the day off for my birthday on Friday, I went shopping in the city, fancy dinner at a French restaurant, birthday lunch yum-cha on Saturday, laughing at all the Hawks supporters going nuts at the pub in the afternoon, birthday cocktails in the evening, then a big housecooling party at Matt's uncle's place on Sunday. Who said that birthday weekends were supposed to be relaxing?

Last night I made dinner, watched TV and sat around on the couch. Now I'm looking forward to a week of not doing much more than this :-D

Frequent flyer

I'm off to Japan again next week. Some people don't like business travel, but I think it's fun! This time I go to Utsunomiya, famous for dumplings and "its abundance and quality of cocktail bars" according to the ever reliable wikipedia. Woo.

Phew!

I got an assignment back today that the majority of students fail. I passed! 

Retroactive good newz

1. Last week after I left the physio they didn't want me to make another appointment. Woot!
2. Had my 30th birthday party and had a great time. I got both kinds of presents - beer and scotch. Woot!
3. Found birthday money from my mother-in-law safe in my bag under the bed after looking absolutely everywhere all week (including going through the garbage piece by piece). Can now go buy that pocket-knife. Woot!
   

Lost ... and Found

Well, some of you might have read about this on my iced-tee blog, but I managed to lose several personal items last week, and then they ALL returned/were found, ALL in DIFFERENT places! And the good run has continued, since other items which I thought had been lost for even longer, have also turned up - my second (actually first) pair of water-proof over-pants and BOTH reflective anklet things, which I can now wear when I ride to work! Right on!

Rode to work today

Ok then. I rode my bike to work today.

It's a bit scary, honestly, being back in the saddle, but I think it's scary in a good way.

I'm here. I'm in one piece. And I'm doing it tomorrow, and that's what counts!

Oooh sunny

Ok, the weather hasn't been too crash-hot these last few days, but while warming my face in the sun at the train station this morning I was reminded of just how warm and sunny it was on Saturday. Welcome, Spring!

Ok, at the start of this week I'm going to claim that my good news is that I've had the flu shot.

While I left family all sick in our bed (they all rolled over and I fell out) this morning I come in to work to fill out my flu tracking survey and I read in the latest results that "In this past week of the survey, cough and fever was reported by 4.3% of vaccinated respondents and 6.9% of unvaccinated respondents. The combination of fever, cough and absence from work or normal duties was reported by 2.7% of vaccinated respondents and 4.6% of unvaccinated respondents."

If you buy now, I'll throw in some steak knives!

Today is the last day of my course with IMC (the Internet Marketing Company), learning how to write the online equivalent of infomercials.

I've learned an enormous amount, much to my chagrin.

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Huzzah!

I'm able to ride again! I get a trainer for my 30th (write it down, Sept 21st, I like Scotch, music and Cabernet), and Beth didn't exactly manage to keep it a secret :-)

I got it hooked up tonight and IT WORKS!! While my wrist is building strength I'm going to be able to EXERCISE... like a NORMAL PERSON!! My 'real' bike is still in bits from the accident (you can see it on the table) but this crusty old thing has got pedals that go around and around and around and around just fine.

Huzzah!

I have 3 things, this week alone...

My "secret project" has gone alpha! My shaman, Moltenboron, (nobody doesn't like him) reached 70! I used colours in my blog post for this week!

And hooray! I'm cross-promoting!

Ultima 7

I played Ultima 7 using Exult most of yesterday, and it was way cool. I remember well the beautiful swirling red colours of the load screen. I used to watch for ages as my old 486 chugged through loading as much as it could into its puny memory. Can barely catch them now, but at least I can play the game. Think I'll play some more tonight.

Went skiing last week. It was my first time ever - turns out...

Skiing is awesome!

Spring

Hey hey - first day of Spring today!

New shoes!

Yesterday I went shopping and I actually bought new shoes!

Joy!

Spent this afternoon at a winery near Woodend watching my beloved perform in the chorus of Pirates of Penzance, eating cheese and drinking wine. Joy!

I has an iPhone!

First post sent from my iPhone. Yea!

What apps would you recommend?

Progress on my wrist...

I had a good moment this afternoon on the way back from the physio - I'm up to Exercises, not just stretches.

Basically it's now stopped healing and I'm up to rehabilitating my wrist. I've got a piece of silly putty that I'm supposed to squish between my thumb and hand.

It was neat walking out of the hospital as a healthy, recovering person. Somehow the wind was less cold, the sunlight just a bit more summery and I was walking just that little bit lighter.

I'll be strong like He-Man any minute now - Mt Arapiles here we come!

How cool is my mum!?

Last night our cute (but short) bartender host, Ben, made an original cocktail from brandy and peanut butter and ice cream and vanilla, but didn't have a name for it. He came over to our table to have a chat, and Mum suggested "Devil's Advocate". Two minutes later we overheard him telling the table next to ours that his new cocktail was called just that. My mum named a new cocktail. How cool is that!?

Next time you're at Madam Brussels, skim through the cocktail list. You might even see it there.

Prom prom prom prom

A couple of days ago the news came through that we've won the booking raffle for the Prom this summer - got the sites booked that we wanted!!


View Larger Map

We've got 2 sites next to each other for the 2009 Australia Day weekend - right near 4th ramp and the Beach Block toilets. (Hot running water baby!)

The List so far:

• Sam Marion and Euan
• Anna
• Stephanie and Gustav
• Tania and Lucien
• Brent Tali and Ella
• Cliff and Karin (my mum and dad)
• Dan and Mia

It's going to be great!

An Open Invitation

We were discussing today about how easy it is just to talk about things that annoy us, but we don't often talk about the good news in our day... the small things...the kittens. We thought: "wouldn't it be nice if we had a place where we could talk about the good stuff that's happening", so we've started a blog about just those things.

This isn't only about us, though; we'd really love you to read this blog and contribute to it yourself. If you'd like to join in, let us know!

-- Brent and Zuzanna.

Ladies' Night In The Parlour

Tonight I'm meeting up with a few friends for Ladies' Night In The Parlour at Madam Brussels:

The next forum will be hosted by the handsome and award winning cocktail expert, Mr Benjamin.

He will walk you lovely ladies through some cocktail basics. What to order, how to order it and how to get the bartender's number! There will be plenty of sexy cocktails to drink and a few hints on how to make cocktails at home with all those half empty jars in your cupboards.

I'm excited! So... cocktails at my place this weekend, anyone?

I can play guitar again! Woot!

Last night I played guitar for the first time in about 12 weeks. My wrist is now healed enough that I can start playing without too much difficulty.

I played a couple of Weezer songs, a Ben Folds number and what I remember of "Run to paradise".

I love the feeling of the strings under my fingers - a guitar can go from inanimate object to breathing living beast just by banging it with your hands. It's just a simple pleasure - but that means it's the best type, right?