I haven’t been very focused lately - indeed, I’ve taken every opportunity to avoid becoming so. But, as usually happens, eventually you get into a situation where the urgency of your situation presses in around you, and you’ve got no choice but to get focused. Either that or learn to coverup your mistakes like nobody’s business.

Great day yesterday - Australia Day BBQ in the park with the gang. I got up (after staying at M&D’s) and got organized to get my stuff, and couldn’t find my keys ANYWHERE. I looked and looked, and in the end, my cousin Berny and his wife were also brought into the fray. Eventually, Karen (Berny’s wife) found them in an embarrassing spot - under my bed. Unghghg. I’m SUCH an idiot.

So, anyway, I found the keys and go started. I was responsible for the bringing of the bbq and the cricket gear, and both of those missions were accomplished. The barbeque when carried by yourself is hella heavy. I stopped in at my place to shower, and picked up Blacky, and a little later, Lisa. We played some cricket, and it was good. I brought along the Italian Fenel sausages from the Chriberg man, and, like all of his snags, they were delicious. As has become a minor custom to the BBQ in the park, at about #20, we headed off to my place, where we listened to the final 10 or so. Brett & Bek, and Leyton joined us for some PoF, and then I had a shower while they played SoC. I was spectacularly dirty from falling over in the mud at cricket, so … it was past due. Brett and Bek left shortly after Brett was announced the winner, and Leyton stayed until his namesake had secured a place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

And now it’s Thursday. Hurrah!

Major HBs to Blacky for his birthday yesterday. It was a pretty good day from where I was sitting, so I hope he enjoyed it.

My weekend was awesome - Blacky was going to BDO on Sunday, so Lates had organized an apartment on the Gold Coast for us to hang out at all weekend. SWEET! Oh, wait. I missed a bit.

Saturday was a market day - Nadia had to work on Saturday :thefinger: so it was just Rob and myself again. I bought loads of yummy gourmet sausages from the Chriberg man, and then Rob and I went for breakfast at the Roundabout.

It’s not as fancy-schmancy as Harvey’s, but good in a greasy spoon kinda way. We were sitting there discussing computer things, predictably, when Bek sat down next to us. Her, Brett and Bek’s folks were having breakfast at the Gunshop Cafe next door, and Brett recognized my back (I am very identifiable from the rear aparently) and they came on over to say “hi”. That was nice.

We kicked around my apartment, packing up and what not, and then headed down the coast. We were staying at Seascape, between 13th and 14th Ave, Palm Beach. Glara and mini-Glara were coming down for the day, and so was Brek. It was really nice to spend the day with friends, chilling. We had lunch at this place called “X” or something, and then went off to buy cake and booze for the birthday boy. Brett won the world poker championship, Bek second, me third, and noone else counts. :thefinger: People took little walks down to the beach, tennis was watched, and we had Fish and Chips for tea. I won PoF for the first time ever. Oh, I’ve got mini-Glara’s bib in case Glara was wondering where it got to. Played 500 till the wee hours.

Sunday we had the buffet brunch at the casino, and I ate more than was humanly possible. Indeed, I was on the verge of the :puke: for sometime afterwards. Blacky caught the bus from the casino, and we went home for a snooze. Later, we picked up Blacky and played more 500.

Monday, we skipped breakfast and took a swim in the ocean. It was great, but the flags were a hundred miles from the apartment. :rolleyes: We also skipped lunch and played Puerto Rico, then went home. FINALLY got something to eat at HJ’s underwood, and got home at about 5pm. My car stinks of leaky airconditioning/wet carpet. I really should get that fixed.

Oh, last night I watched The Incredibles. That’s a great movie, yeah?

My goony-goo-goo!

It has been a long time since I have been on a computer long enough to write up something for y’all to read. I’ve been pretty busy, which will probably come as a shock to many of you, but, a lot has happened.

Let’s go back to December. Late one Thursday night, Jake and I decided to go to town to grab a kebab. When that was done and dusted, we decided to go to the gold coast, just for gags, and on the way, saw a sign to Sydney, and we kept going. We drove all night and got to Sydney at about 2pm, parked the car under the opera house, and did touristy things. Home time came, and we drove, and drove and drove - Sydney is a shocking place to drive. We got 5 minutes from our destination, and the timing belt snapped on the car. Dam.

Our overnight trip qiuckly escalated to a weekend at that point. We were staying at our cousins’ house, who graciously put us up. Monday came, and the car required more work, as the timing belt is a serious injury to a car. Long story short, a week passed by and Jake had to go home, because he had to work, and they effectively threatened him with his job if he didn’t go back to work. I stayed on, expecting to drive the car back as soon as it was ready. Another week went by, and Christmas was 3 day away, car wasn’t reliabley ready, so I organised a flight home.

Had a lovely Christmas eve and day at home with all the family. On boxing day,I left for a 3 week CEBS camp at Victoria. The camp was as good as can be expected. The Queenslanders took a tour in a bus on the way down, stopping at a lot of places. We went a good way inland, which was the first time I’d been that way - indeed, this was the first time I’d been to Victoria. The camp itself started on New Year’s Day. People from all over Australia were there.

We did some pretty crazy activities. One of my favs was what they call “The Leap of Faith”. There’s a 30 metre high Abseiling tower, and on the side, about half way up, there’s a platform, about 20cm wide, and 2 feet long. About 2 metres away, at head height, there’s a trapeze handle, and you leap out and grab that, then try and swing your legs up so you’re hanging upside down by your knees. You face down, and point one arm at the ground, they count you down and you straighten your knees, sending you plummeting to the ground, and they stop you about a metre before the ground. Pretty good rush.

So that was the cebs camp. I got back on the 14th, and went to Kingaroy for the weekend with Jake. I threw my boomerang a few times, and then lost it in the top of a bush with huge spikes; spewin’. But don’t worry - we got it back. We had some big canasta games that night, and our team won - go team.

Since then, Berny and Karen (the cousins who I stayed with in Sydney) and their kids have sold their house in Sydney, and have moved to Brisbane. They’ve signed the contract on a place and are presently living here while everything sorts out.

Oh, I got accepted back into my course at uni too, so raise the roof for me.

Jake is moving to Rocky to pursue study and we’ve been helping him pack his gear up. It’ll be so sad to see him go, cos I’ll have to find someone else to do stupid things and waste money with. If you read this Jake, that’s a compliment mate.

Announcing … the 24 season 4 premiere at my place! I was thinking Saturday 5th February, at about 7:30pm. Eat dinner beforehand, and I’ll provide icecream and snacks. BYO drinks. So exciting! Oh, yeah … Leyton, I ignored your advice. I’m going to be away for the month of March anyway, so … :squint:

This weekend, we’re heading down to the coast pretty early, although I’ve got time for the markets beforehand. If people (ie Glara, Brek) were keen for a late-ish lunch on Saturday, or perhaps even Sunday if they want to avoid Blacky, then either option sounds good to us.

Leyton came around last night and we got Lefkas for diner. Couldn’t dine in, no tables were available, so we got takeaway yiros. Deliciosa. I’m tempted to go back for lunch today.
So, what else? I need a new calendar, but I think I can hang on until they get ridiculously cheap, wheras they are only moderately cheap at the moment. Actually, I need two - one for home, and one for the office.

Godfrey and I have discovered the hassle of car hire in the USA. So get this: firstly, if you total a car, and you don’t have any optional insurance, you’re liable for the whole value of the car. So you pay the Loss/Damage Waiver. The next option is to get Personal Effects Coverage, which covers your stuff being stolen from the car. Big deal, next. Then there’s Liability Insurance Supplement, which covers you in the event of injury or damage to other people or property, much like CTP insurance here. When you get a fully-inclusive quote from a travel agent, it doesn’t seem to include the LIS, so you could think you’re covered and still get the balls sued off you. How crap is that? We’re going to have to bend over and let Hertz hurt us in the pants region.

So, holla to all. Got this message from the guy for whom I was an internet secret santa:
Ok I’ve finnished the Tim Tams … now I have no more … so how do I go about sending you money for more of them? Would you be up to sending them … I’ll pay for what ever, I just need more.

please let me know

Hilarious! I’ve graciously decided to help him out.
Rob and Nadia came around last night for dinner at the local Turkish place Ahmet’s. It was very good, really - we had the Turkish bread and dips (there was an olive one, a spinach and yoghurt one, a hommus, a tzatsiki (sp?), a sundried tomato one and a chilli one), and a lamb guvec which is like a casserole, a spinach and fetta pida, and Turkish moussaka, which is different to greek moussaka. Oh, and a bottle of shiraz that got better as you drank more of it. It was a great meal, and Rob and I got an icecream from New Zealanad Natural to top it off nicely - macadamia nut and rum’n'raisin for me, I don’t know what Rob got. I think white chocolate was one of his flavours :puke:

Yeah, was a good night. This weekend we’re off to the Gold Coast, and I hope y’all will visit, perhaps Saturday? If it helps, we could say that it’s the official launch party of our website? :fingersx:

A word to the wise - if you get Chuckler by email, you’ll want to view this page in all its HTML glory at http://www.chuckler.org …