Conferences and the Common Cold

Well, I got a little package in the mail on Monday. It was a letter from QANTAS apologising for the cluster that happened last Friday with a voucher for $300 for any QANTAS or oneworld airline for a year.

Here was the plan: Perth to Adelaide. Adelaide to Gold Coast. Gold Coast to Sydney. Sydney to Orange. Orange to Sydney. Sydney to Perth. Easy, right?

On Sunday the 18th, I flew to Adelaide with my workmate Brad, to be both told that our tickets to Sydney from the Gold Coast had not been paid and we couldn't get on the plane. Nice. Out come the credit cards. After that small hurdle we bundled into the Coopers Ale House for ein coldie then ran to the gate to board the plane. Hey, there's Andrew Gaze, cool! Jeez he's getting old....

Off to the sunny Gold Coast for the yearly Sales and Marketing Conference for work. Wining, dining and generally sitting around in uncomfortable chairs trying to stay awake. One highlight was the visit to Dracula's and the Beasts of Burlesque show. A total hoot! There was even a ghost train ride.

From Sydney it was off to L'Orange in NSW to visit a customer and talk automation. I don't have any photos on me as my camera is in the car and its cold outside so I'm not leaving my warm bed!

EDIT: Photos!

Gold Coast, Queensland

Orange, New South Wales

I had upgraded my flight from Sydney to Perth to Business class and I was looking forward to a nice relaxing afternoon at home. Until sitting at the QANTAS Club, waiting for boarding, waiting... waiting... Engineering Difficulties. I know what that means. Something fell off and they can't fix it. Noon flight rescheduled to 21:30. BOG! Luckily I managed to get a flight at 19:20 and at least it was still business class. So I spent six hours at the Mercure Hotel in Sydney wasting the time away with a nap, some TV, and the most awesome triple decker club sandwich ever.

From one conference to another, I spent Monday and Tuesday at Mining Automation WA. Luckily it was held in the city so I got to catch up with Hornet for lunch with some good Swedish food at Miss Maud's.

I also managed to catch a cold, more than likely from the evening out on the Mito with Robin on Sunday night. I'm still recovering and just having some trouble sleeping. It's 02:26.

More fencing tomorrow - I will be taking a kids class and showing them sabre. Woo. Hoo. (not) Well, at least it is a long weekend, meaning more sleep, more chilling out. Just what I need after a week of travelling.

Yeah, more sleep. Like, now...

Central Park

Robin and I were in the city tonight and I noticed that Central Park had some more glow than usual. I didn't have a camera on me, but the breaks in geometry on the tower have red and green lighting. Someone has riced up Central Park!

I can't find anything on the website... What's with all the new bling after they participated in Earth Hour last month?

Back in Black... er, make that White

Yes, for the first time in frikken years I participated a fencing competition.

On Sunday I went in the WA Open Epee and Open Sabre #2 at Belmont City College. What a laugh. Epee? Was I insane!?!?!

To say I was thrashed was an understatement. I had a good time, but I definitely don't have the patience to do that weapon. I finished 13th out of 13 - that's 100%!!!

At noon it was time to fire up for the sabre. I won one pool and came very close to winning a direct elimination, but alas lost 14-15 to the girl that eventually came second. I made her shit her pants though... an outsider having a crack and actually doing alright!

No trophy this time around, but the results are here:

http://www.wafafencing.org.au/results-2008

What's in a Blog?

As I sit here nibbling at the dark chocolate Lindt bunny that I got for Easter, I think to myself "what's in a blog?" I mean, I see why people write in them, but what gives them the ideas? Is it just a place to host photos? Is it an avenue to let of steam or be creative? Is it just to tell a good story? Or is it just to re-enact events?

Luckily for me and for my friends, it's all of the above. I read quite a few blogs from friends that are near and far, and I've seen some beautiful photos, read about excellent moments in their lives as well as some truly fucked up shit. And yes, I've even read the occasional boring blog. OK, so I'll never get those seven minutes of my life back, but I've read from someone else's point of view.

I hate reading. No, let me rephrase. I hate reading books. More accurately, I hate fiction books. But I love a good story, especially a life story where things can be learnt.

I want to hear about the time you met someone famous and nearly threw up on them, or when your knee blew out when trying to go for a mark in a game of footy and everyone on your team laughed, or when your favourite cactus fell off the desk and all the soil fell out and it eventually died over a period of weeks.

Those joyous, devastating, embarrassing, stupid, hilarious moments are the ones I like to hear about. I want to see photos of beautiful things, exotic places, new people, different scenarios.

I'm nearly out of bunny so I'm going to move this along.

There's a few blogs that I read regularly, some get updated fairly frequently, some not so, and a couple of which have been canned altogether. Julz!? JB!? I will miss those. I even go back on my own blog and read back on things that have happened and how I wrote about them.

Well, there's no chocolate left, so I cannot go on.

Time for bed, good nite readers!

Useless

Completely and utterly useless. Well, that's an understatement. I haven't seen many of my friends, I haven't been blogging, I haven't made much progress with my debts...

But in all, life has been good to me.

It's my parents 26th Wedding Anniversary today, so earlier this evening we cracked some Champagne and sipped it after dinner. It was my name day last Saturday (which I completely forgot about, but luckily mum didn't), and it's Mother's Day on Sunday which should be really nice.

Last weekend was spent house sitting for one of Robins friends. He has a place down in Rockingham and a cat so Robin and I pretty much moved down there for a long weekend.

More good news is that the R1 has been fixed, the stator replaced with a spankin' new one, and the regulator/rectifier was taken back by the shop I bought it from. I don't think I won any friends with that, but hey, its $300 I can have back in my pocket.

Speaking of bikes, while in Rockingham Robin and I made the very most of the excellent weather by taking the bikes down and heading up and down the coast, and through some new developments and blocked off roads to take some photos. Of me, naturally!





I am looking forward to doing more things with my time.

Get off the internet and play the piano. Eat less crap. Enjoy my bikes and the good Spring weather. Practice (and learn more) Swedish. Hang out with old mates. Go riding with new ones. Stop spending money!