Got a giggle over this, as seen on Boing Boing or ZGeek or something...

What would internet forums look like if people could travel in time...

2007. Interesting year. A year of upheaval.

The biggest thing to happen this year was quitting my job of ten years, moving to Canberra and starting a new job. Quitting my old job was tough, and I'd been putting it off for two years since I met Stu as I knew it was going to be difficult. I'd had it in my head that I'd stay for the full ten years and then move. Well last year they announced that there were likely to be mass redundancies, so I thought it would be a good time to leave, as I could also score a large payout. Except the redundancies never came, and in fact a couple of weeks ago they announced the plan to outsource had been scrapped. But I'd decided to leave anyway as I'd been offered a job in Canberra. Anyway, after six weeks at my new job I'm still not entirely sure what I'm meant to be doing. The whole place is very overwhelming and their server infrastructure is huge. In my first week I told someone to ask me again in a month how I was liking it. I should probably extend that for another couple of months.

On a lighter note, living in Canberra is nice. The traffic is infinitely better. Although I'm actually catching the bus to work so that I can read - something I've not done in over ten years. Is letting me actually get some books read, as I don't read at any other time. The main annoying thing with Canberra is major services and shops are only in a few select locations, which are quite spread out. And petrol stations are few and far between.

As far as wedding plans are going.. after being engaged for a full year now, all we've managed to organise is a wedding dress for me (found on eBay in February) and set a date and book a church. Reception, honeymoon and other important details have yet to be organised. Four months is plenty of time.. right..? ;)

I'm writing this in Queensland at our friends Chay and David's place. It's actually the third time we've been to visit them this year, driving up over Easter and then flying up in July. Traditionally we drink a lot, eat a lot and generally be merry, usually in the form of a lot of singing of Sing Star songs. This trip has been no exception, although we did bring a couple of board games to play this time. It'll be nice to spend New Years Eve with them, so long as I can watch fireworks at midnight :)

During our Easter trip we also got to stay with my fifth cousin twice removed Diana, and see lots of places close to Stu's heart.

The other major travel we did this year (other than the every other weekend trips between Canberra and Sydney) was five days on Lord Howe Island. It was as good as I remembered it twenty years ago, but with a lot more cars :) Stu loved it too, and we're sure to be returning to it one day.

In preparation for the move, I culled boxes and boxes of high school and university notes. I gave away and sold lots of toys and other bits and pieces from my childhood. I also freecycled a lounge chair, a table and a desk. My little brother replaced all the taps in my house, a Sydney Water plumber installed a water saving shower head and washers, and a tiler regrouted my shower. I was kicking myself that I didn't get the shower fixed a long time ago, it would have made it sooo much nicer. As it was, my shower was pretty disgusting for most of the six years I was there, until the very last week. Oh well. I still had a tonne of stuff to move though. What I couldn't tetris into Stu's place got put into storage. We have a twenty cubic metre storage unit that is very full. We hope to start looking for our own place after the wedding/honeymoon. Then we'll reevaluate everything we have.

All my fish survived the move. It did take a good half a dozen trips to get them all down though :) My major addition before moving was another white angel fish, this one a boy, to go with my girl angel. She laid eggs a couple of times after he arrived, but while he had successfully bred before and knew what to do, she had been single for so long, that she kept telling him to piss off away from her eggs, and then ate them all herself. Silly fish :) We currently have fourteen tanks with fish in them, and four that don't. Stu sold some of his juvenile Julidochromis transcriptus fish for $7 each. We're going to have to take good care of the other fry we have, as they seem to be little money-spinners :)

At the beginning of the year, I saw comet McNaught, after not thinking that I'd get to. We also saw the total lunar eclipse. And we had two astronomy nights in Spence in Canberra at someone who has a telescope mounted permanently in his backyard.

Our Christmas involved lunch at my parent's place the Sunday before Christmas (actually we were up for Jake's wedding reception on the Saturday and bundled the two). Then it was back to Canberra for Christmas day at Stu's.

Other things I did this year:
* decided to cut down the amount of orange juice I drank per day and lost two kilos
* went on lovely cruise on Lake Burley Griffin as an engagement present from Damien
* went to Cancon
* more poker nights at cia and work, with mixed success (success at work ones, failure at cia ones)
* saw the Queen Mary 2 and QE 2 in Sydney
* went up Sydney Tower with Mum and Stu
* discovered Google Sketchup
* walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge on the main deck, on the weekend of its 75th birthday
* dragged Stu up Black Mountain Tower to take photos
* participated in Earth Hour to save turning the timers on my fish tanks back an hour ;)
* saw the Amazing Human Body exhibition at the show ground
* saw the very last flight of Qantas' very first 707 jet
* saw the Kitty Hawk in Sydney
* read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the day (and day after) it came out
* dragged Stu to the Blue Mountains, down the Giant Staircase and up the Scenic Railway
* did a day trip to the snow to go skiing
* babysat Josh and Rachel at Questacon all day
* got the hiccoughs for the first time in a *very* long time
* shut down my eleven year old photo server conspiracy, after moving all the photos to a virtual host
* had a farewell at work that not too many people came to (probably about a quarter of the people that were invited)
* got a new computer
* decided very quickly that Vista sux
* met another blogger (Lil Lioness)
* got the latest Hogwarts Castle Lego set
* got the Millenium Falcon in Lego
* had about five different work end of year parties, but felt left out because I couldn't go to my old work one
* got my own Blackberry, switched to Optus only to find they are just as crap as Vodafone

Things I miss about Sydney (in no particular order):
* my job
* walking with George on Thursday nights
* lunches with Luc/cards in the office
* dinners at Alan and Marylon's
* living right next to a big airport
* my flat
* easy access to petrol stations (especially my regular one and the dude there)
* family and other friends

Things I don't miss about Sydney:
* the traffic
* my bumhead neighbours (we just have bogan neighbours here)
* Freecycle Sydney Central moderators

Have a safe 2008 :) Happy new year!!

Canberra buses aren't the greatest things in the world. They're ok if you're travelling at peak hour, but prepare to wait up to an hour out of peak. At least they generally run on time.

So here's the bad news. As reported in RiotAct, new bus routes have been posted. In a word: suckage! Our suburb will have one less bus (which admittedly didn't run during peak anyway). The bus I normally catch will have a longer route and run less often, and there's no frigging direct city service!!! What a bunch of bumholes. Might end up having to drive to work after all *sigh*

Funny how that whenever corys swim into open water it looks as if they're flying. Don't know what it is about them. Maybe I'm just always used to seeing them at ground level...

My mission for today was to sort out fish stuff. All of it. There were piles. And more piles.

So dragged everything out of the various rooms they'd been scattered in and sorted everything into categories. At which point I ran out of steam :)

Stu was up to travelling, so we went to the Hub for lunch and then to Magnetmart to find some storage containers. We got four smallish containers that held a decent chunk of the stuff, just not the bulkier stuff. Will have to deal with that another day.

Tonight Stu cooked a chicken curry which was a tad warm but not too bad, and we watched Funny Videos and some more Veronica Mars.

Last year around this time, when I last dragged my Canada jumper out for the first time of the season, I wondered if I'd been in Canada that day two years previous, and I was. I did the same thing this morning. Two days earlier. This time three years ago we were staying in Canmore, and drove up and down the Icefields Parkway, seeing Banff National Park, Sulphur Mountain Gondola, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Travelblog entry here, and more photos here.

It was also three years ago I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on opening night.

Maybe I should have made this entry Boring Blogger Part IV ..? :)

Should try and visit some of these places...

So I thought I'd go down and see the Queen Mary 2. As it seems, did the rest of Sydney. Couldn't get down Oxford St. Then found out they'd closed Art Gallery Road. Went back round to Crown St and down, but then couldn't get across William St. Ended up going round more blocks and stopping in the first park I found on William St and just walked down.

So yes, it was big. They say the biggest ship to ever visit Australia. But I'm sure the Constellation was bigger (or longer rather). I'll have to go check the stats. I think the Independance is even bigger than the Constellation but I didn't get any good pics. But I digress. EDIT: According to the SMH the largest ship ever to have been here before was the "Iron Pacific" - which I've been on!!!

Fought my way through thousands of people. Took some piccies of a big boat. Watched the news being broadcast live. Took pics of reporters I don't actually know the names of. Waited impatiently for the QE 2 to arrive, as I was in a parking spot half an hours walk away that was rapidly running out of time. Got a glimpse of the QE2 coming down the harbour, then attempted to race back down Mrs Macquaries Road. Against thousands of people walking up the road. Argh! Managed to be far enough back to the car when the QE2 came by, and managed to get a photo of the two ships together! Sweet! And got a cool movie of them singing to each other. And then nearly died trying to get back up to the car before my time ran out.

So here's some pics.. :)

First up, the lovely Queen Mary 2. Gotta love a wide angle lens!

Some channel 7 reporter I think EDIT: Samantha Armytage I think

And another channel 7 reporter

A channel 9 reporter I think EDIT: Damien Ryan, Channel 9

The whole spectacle

Queen Mary 2 through the trees

Life boat trials

Big red funnel

Bridge closer up

I bet you guys weren't expecting to be on the internet in your bath robes hey? hehe

These things were buzzing up and down the harbour all evening

Cameraman hanging out the door of this helicopter

Crowds gathered on the back of the Queen Mary 2 to see the Queen Elizabeth 2 come in

QE2 down the harbour

QE2 a bit closer, behind cloud unfortunately

QE2 nearing Circular Quay

Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2 in Sydney Harbour

From Woosang:

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Walked outside at the top of Sydney Tower, went to Floriade, played poker for money
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make much in the way of new years resolutions. But I did keep the one I made three years ago to completely read the Bible in three years
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No
5. What countries did you visit?
Australia only
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A husband :)
7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
14th Feb - little brother got married (family tradition, soon to be a broken tradition tho heh)
14th April - went live with new file server (it was Good Friday and James' birthday)
24th/25th December - got engaged (a week early from family tradition)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
er.. getting engaged? is that an achievement? :)
9. What was your biggest failure?
er.. some of my fish keeping?
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just the usual colds and flu, and an episode with flat feet hurting
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably Stu's Christmas present (a camera)
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Stu's ..? :)
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My neighbours
14. Where did most of your money go?
Probably on the mortgage. After that, travelling to see Stu
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting engaged :)
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Dunno..
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier - yeah I think so
Fitter - possibly
Thinner - about the same
Smilier - yeah
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spend time with Stu
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressing
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Lunch with the parents, dinner with the in-laws
21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Was already in love
22. How many one-night stands?
None
23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Amazing Race
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nah
25. What was the best book you read?
Well the *only* book that I completed was The Half Blood Prince
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
er..
27. What did you want and get?
A proposal :)
28. What did you want and not get?
New taps
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Cars (of the ones I saw at the cinema).
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went to work. Turned 33.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Living with Stu
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Jeans and a t-shirt
33. What kept you sane?
um.. it's not possible for me to be sane :)
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
n/a
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Political issues don't stir me..
36. Who did you miss?
Stu most of the time
37. Who was the best new person you met?
Diana!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
Know when to hold em .. know when to fold em .. know when to walk away .. know when to run ..
*shrug* hehe
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
hrm, see above?? :) I dunno ...

Don't have a whole lot of energy for this tonight. But I left it so long last year that MT couldn't figure out how to place the entry, and it only ended up being viewable in the day-to-day links, and not in the monthly archives. So I'm just going to do it a bit quickly.

Did quite a lot of travelling this year, although only locally. Several trips to Queensland, including spending a nice first week of the year there. Much time spent with Chay and David, singing badly but eating well :) Got to visit them for a couple of days at the end of the year too which was nice. Also many visits to Canberra (more on that later), including taking hundreds of photos at Floriade. Another nice little trip was down to Batemans Bay and Mogo Zoo.

At work we moved offices again. I got *squished* in the seating arrangements, but several fish tanks and many guppies helped keep my sanity. Got a new Blackberry 8700 to play with, which I'm very attached to - although more for Poker and Solitaire than anything else I think heh. The main file server threw a disk in March which corrupted the file system *again* and once too often, so we decided then and there to replace the machine. Also spent time playing with windows firewall on all my servers, and locking down the vlan to block most incoming stuff. Towards the end of the year they (oh sorry, there is no "us" and "them" anymore - we've all been assimilated) centralised us in order to cut costs. My boss got seconded into the whole change process, Luc became my boss, and we all ended up with extra crap to deal with. There will be a round of redundancies next year, although noone knows when yet, and I'm hoping to get one and jump ship and go be with my boy. But the whole process and change has left me completely *dreading* going to work at the moment. Which is a shame, because it really is (was?) a wonderful job/place to work. We had a "wake" the Friday after we found out - to celebrate what once was, and the end of an era.

On the fish front, tried twice to breed blue guppies, but both lots died as soon as I got them. One lot in an established tank, the other lot in a fresh tank setup. So no idea what was going on with them there. My big girl angel is my only remaining original survivor, after the death of the other black angel and the three glass catfish. She keeps laying eggs which is kinda sad. Setup a way cool Macquarium at work. Yes, an aquarium in an old macintosh case. It's way way cool. Put three guppies and a betta in there and they've been doing splendidly. Guppies at work (and at home) continue to go nuts. A "fun" morning at work a few weeks ago when the girl in the Macquarium had her babies and the betta at them all heh. At home, got a bunch of glowlight and black neon tetras. The black neons have been doing well, but the glowlights not so well. The plants in that tank are going nuts though. Stu gave me some of his baby multies, which have gotten big enough in the last couple of weeks to start excavating the gravel around their shells. And finally, one of my favourite fish was found murdered on the floor after I accidently left the lids off one night. I was really sad cause he was such a wonderful little fish.

Didn't do much with Lego this year. Just got a lot of it put away that was dusting up my surfaces. And then built all my Harry Potter Lego, photographed it, and put it all away again. After the holidays will try and sell a bunch of it on ebay, so as less to move to Canberra.

Been mostly healthy this year. The usual colds/flus and a few days off work. Flat feet and crap quality shoes caused me some problems, which went away after wearing better shoes. Also dug out my old scales, and (assuming they're accurate), seem to have lost a couple of kilos in the past couple of months. Will be weighing myself a bit more regularly and try and get it down a bit.

Other bits and pieces:

* me little brother got married and I got a neato SIL. Very happy for them
* finished reading the Bible again (in three years read the whole Old Testament once, and the New Testament three times). Longest and most consistently that I've done that *ever*
* several poker nights at work and at cia. Lost all the cia ones, but came first, second and third in work ones.
* been slowly getting FLYwashed and slowly starting to get the hang of things, and having things like a clean bathroom all the time, which is completely foreign to me!
* bought a Netphone for Stu and me, but Stu's has been sitting uselessly in a box because he hasn't been able to get broadband where he is, so that was a complete waste of money. We'll likely be living together before he gets adsl.
* read The Half-Blood Prince again over Easter. Other than that, continued reading Cordelia's Honour which I'm *still* struggling to get through.
* saw a couple of free movies courtesy of IBM and Dell - The Da Vinci Code and Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
* rearranged the furniture/tv in my flat
* finished indexing my USA photos, after 2 1/2 years.
* watched all bar one episode of the first three seasons of TNG
* walked on a piece of glass 300m directly above Sydney traffic on the Sydney Tower Skywalk

And finally.. Stu got a job in Canberra and moved down there at the end of April. Made seeing each other a heck of a lot easier, but the drive is starting to get tiring. Hopefully we won't have to do it for too much longer. Although the prospect of changing jobs is a scary one for me.. Things with Stu have been going wonderfully, and on Christmas Eve (well technically Christmas Day), we got engaged. No wedding date set yet. We'll deal with that next year.. oh wait... it *is* next year... hehe :)

Gosh, well that was a lot longer than expected. Ooops. :)

It snowed in Canberra yesterday. It snowed in Armidale today. Flipping heck the weather is nuts :) And I want snow dammit!! heheh

Liking tonight's episode of the Amazing Race. Plenty of been-theres in DC. This series is proving to be a lot of fun. I already have a favourite family I want to win heh. Very American road-trippy, just the way I like it :) I wonder how much international travel they'll end up doing....