2008 was certainly a momentous year in the life of Kazza.
The first big news story of the year was that I got married to Stu in April. I spent several months planning the thing, and planned pretty much everything myself. In the end, the day went pretty successfully and everyone seemed to have a nice time. I got the wedding I wanted for the most part, although I did get very stressed out by the reception venue, and they ruined the enjoyment of the reception for me.
Following the wedding we took off on our
honeymoon, spending a night in Japan, then a month touring Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Took six and a half thousand photos between us and generally had a blast. Lots of places we'd like to go back to!
The other really big news story of the year is that we bought a house here in Canberra. And seemingly at just the right time - right in the midst of the world financial crisis which was very scary, but the subsequent drop in interest rates will save us something like $12000 per year!!! We still have a couple of messy rooms, but are very much enjoying the house and we've had several groups of people stay with us.
Work has been a bit variable. The first couple of months of the year I was still feeling very overwhelmed by the place, yet didn't have too much to do so was very lost. After the honeymoon I was put on call, which meant learning a lot of things by being thrown in the deep end. I was also dumped on severely with work, and found it very stressful from time to time. Can't see any sign of letup any time soon :( After a particularly crap day one night in July, I starting drinking with the guys earlier than usual and finished relatively late, which really launched the weekly drinking sessions (which up until that time had been a lot shorter and quieter).
Other travelling included the trip over new years last year to visit Chay and David, a weekend at the coast with Scott and Kerry, a weekend in Sydney in March and another in July to attend my Nana's 80th birthday party, visit James and George, and see Stu's grandmother and aunties. Two days and ten hours of driving was pretty tiring. Chay and David came down just after Christmas to stay, which meant we spent two new years in a row with them which would have been cooler had I not collapsed in a grumpy/depressed heap.
In fish news, we cut the number of tanks from fourteen down to seven. Fourteen was far too much work and fish were getting severly neglected. Seven is a bit more manageable but we may still cull further. Moving all the tanks to our new house was definitely not fun, but we got most fish moved with only a few casualties. One of my original angel fishies is still alive, making her six years old now. She has appreciated the big water change of the move and laid several batches of eggs after the move.
Eating out, we tried a few various restaurants. We discovered Satis in Watson in the middle of winter. Satis is vegetarian and we have been there three or four times, although not since we moved. Then there is the Kingsland vegan restaurant in Dickson which is fantastic. Have only been there twice, but will definitely be going again. And Fortune Box in Gungahlin is still a favourite shopping day lunch spot. Bella Vista in Belconnen and the Dumpling Inn in Jamison are favourites as well. Fanciest restaurant we visited all year was Watersedge on Lake Burley Griffin. This was two weeks before the wedding after I'd had my hair and makeup trial, so we got dressed up and went out for dinner. Was very nice, but of course very expensive!
We tried to see Stu's brother every week for a "sci-fi" night. We watched all of Firefly, Serenity and some Battlestar Galactica. But towards the end of the year this all got too hard. Hopefully we'll do something next year.
Movies seen this year:
- Juno - pretty good, if a little unrealistic
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - fun but too ridiculous and too much on the "yeah right" scale
- Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina - very well done, but hard to keep up with the subtitles and watch all the action
- The Dark Knight - good movie, but dark and very long
- Quantum of Solace - ok, was too tied to the last movie
- Australia - very enjoyable, but very long (really it's two stories back to back), so don't know how would stand up to repeated viewings
And finally, a few other snippets:
- This blog had its 5th blogiversary and was celebrated with a new design
- Visited the Planetarium before it closed and met Andrew
- Little Squishy was born
- Went to the balloon fiesta
- Bought an Eee PC
- Set off fireworks on cracker night
- Went to a six-day SANS course
- Got excited by snow falling in Canberra!
- Went to an astronomy night at Mt Stromlo
- Went to two trivia nights - one with Nat and Andrew, and one at work
- Had the house wired with cat 6 by my brother and Shane and Chris
- Took the booze train to Tarago
- Played Zone 3 for the first time and actually won a game
- Big family Christmas with all of Stu's family and Kerry's family
So that's about it for another year. Hoping to be a little more organised next year and more relaxed about life...