WASM BBQ

Ah, its refreshing to have beers during work time!

"Stormin'" Norm Stockton, head of WASM at Curtin University had invited me (and the Atlas Copco troops) to sponsor a BBQ for the WASM students. Lucky that it was a beautiful sunny day. We put a couple of cartons on, got out the stubby holders and keyrings, grabbed the company flag and used it as a tablecloth so everyone could see it as they reached for the sauce.

Travis, Brad, me, Norm and Martina

The BBQ being fired up

Norm with his keyring

It was all my evil plan to get another bunch of students (about 50 or so) familiar with Atlas Copco and hope that one day when they're all grown up and graduated, they can make all the big decisions on capital equipment and buy yellow! ^_^

It was great to talk to the students and have a hotdog and a beer or three in the warm sun, all on company time. Work isn't always hard work! Thank god for that.

Good Times with Old Mates

My beloved possum, Ben is going to Tanzania with Barrick Gold for three years starting next month. His official going away party was on Saturday. Being such a nice boy that he is, he put a tab on at the Balmoral and booked the top floor out for all of his old uni and school mates, plus his work mates from Plutonic.

I picked up Andrew along the way, who also spent a couple of years in Adelaide with Santos who is finally back in town long term, and we headed out. We got Ben a little "something" to keep him informed and entertained in Africa: Can't go anywhere without a Lonely Planet Africa book, and The Gods Must Be Crazy I and II on DVD!

Me and Ben (possum)

The old uni days crew, Andrew, Kathryn, Ben and me

With any luck I'll be able to catch up with Ben one more time before he bogs off to Africa in two weeks with a meal at Uber, something I've been talking about forever and a day...

Anyway, good luck with it all Ben and hope you stay safe and most of all, learn heaps and have a most awesome time!

AFF #3 Photos

Back into the Daily Grind

I started off today sleeping way past my expected wake up time. Dad was knocking on my door. I was meant to give him a lift to Glendalough. Woops! So I rushed out of bed, was dressed in seven minutes flat and hurried to the car. I dropped him off and got home not long after. I had a nice hot shower and got dressed (again). It was off to work on the bike this morning as it was a quite pleasant 8°C.

In the office, there was nobody there except Brad. The boss rolled in well after 0900, so I wasn't in much of a rush to get anything started. My diary filled up pretty quickly with all the things that needed doing from the last two weeks.

By lunch time, Brad and I were going crackers. We needed food, and we needed to vent. Luckily the sun was also out so I enjoyed some more solar power!

After the Hot and Spicy Box from the Wok place in Belmont, it was back to it, with crisis after crisis of people not doing what they are hired to do... no surprises really!

Even though I was busy, I didn't get much done at all today. And I had absolutely no motivation to take my laptop home either.

Tonight is maya time. I've reset my router and I'm going to try to fix that damn SATA problem with my DVD burner. Otherwise the older one is going back in.

EDIT: Aaaaand, the ADSL just cut out again. For the love of money! Ah well, might just send an angry email to Netgear and do a warranty job.

EDIT 2: Heeeuuuuuge thanks to Glen for helping me remain calm and going through BIOS settings with me. Who would have thought that the thing with the thing changes that other thing and SATA and RAID and CMOS and IDE and stuff! :S
Anyway, the drives all work! I managed to change the fascia on the burner while I was at it and it looks heaps better. YEY!

In other news, got some more fencing gear in today. Can't wait to try it out on Wednesday!

A Week Has Passed

Without my Robin.

Miss you babe!

Queensland.... Again!

Yeah, so I went back to Queensland on Monday morning for another few days. This time to Townsville and Charters Towers. It was warm, it was sunny, it was actually pretty damn good. It makes me think twice everytime I go to Queensland "what the hell am I still doing in Perth?"

So I was back in the Sunshine State again on another work trip. My task was to head to Charters Towers and present some training material to a mine and familiarise them with some new software that they had purchased. It was nice to spend almost two weeks in full sunshine, something that I hadn't experienced a lot of back home in a few weeks. It was most pleasant to sit in the sun by the pool at the motel...

2008 Western Australian International Fencing Tournament

The Australian Fencing Nationals were in town this week and I had the opportunity to participate in the Women's Team Sabre, representing Cavaliers School of Fencing with Sarah Macfarlane and Vlasta Barac. We were seeded third and went up against the second seed team from Exalibur. *The* sabre club.

We lost to Excalibur 45 to 38 but we were very happy to have made it a very close match right up until the end when they were sneaking up points here and there. Highlights of the match were excellent ripostes from Cavs, giving great chase, and JR Ho breaking her sabre into my neck to get the 40th point. Her blade snapped as she made a point attack to my chest as I lunged causing the blade to get stuck between my chin and chest, snapping on the bib of my mask. It didn't hurt as such, but it took my breath away for certain! And of course, that is *why* we wear what we wear!

So it was between Cavaliers and UWA to battle out for bronze. Both teams started well and kept even right until the end. The final score was 45 to 43 to UWA. A well fought battle, but no medal this year.

Photos to come...!

EDIT: The sexy Cavs Sabre Team:

Frustration and a Tanty

I got a few calls on Friday from Mum and Dad, they had two flights diverted for emergency landings in Dubai and Budapest. What a nightmare for them. To add to the frustration, the mobile phone coverage and networks in Dubai are shit. Three times, mum tried to ring to tell me they were ok and two of those times all I heard was static. I let out an overwhelming "FUCK!" and stomped my foot in the lounge room. It was so stunning it even scared Robin. I don't think I have ever been so frustrated in my life. And annoyed, and scared. After checking the Emirates website for hours and hours, I finally concluded that they would be landing in the morning. I set the alarm early for Saturday morning and checked the website again. 0825. I bloody well hoped so!

Mum and dad landed on (re)schedule and were so glad to be home. They told us all of the drama and the stories, the sights, the food (and booze) and all the rest. I was happy to see them again and still in good spirits.

And of course, I got gifts. Two gorgeous tops and a set of union jack socks.