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!!

Saturday

Wandered into town and met up with Damien. Went for brunch at the cafe above the Tin Soldier. It was quite good. Then went downstairs so the boys could spend money on toys :) Spent quite a while there, then after that wandered over to HobbyCo. Found out they're moving soon - useful information! Was very tempted by a 1/350 scale Yamato for $89. And some A380 models. In the end just bought a small cheapie die cast model A380. Then just came home and relaxed while I popped on a lamb roast. Watched Sideways after dinner, but got extremelly annoyed because the movie ran a lot longer than the guide said it would, and missed a whole chunk of the ending :(

Sunday

Slow start to the day. Managed to avoid having to do any mother's day type things. Was gonna call but somehow never got round to it.. oops .. Went to Flemington Paddy's just for fun. Most of what's there is crap, but did spend $5 on some nice spices. Then Stu went home and I caught up on videos and scanned more of my crap...

OK so this meme has been haunting my feedreader since *July* .. urggh ..
Time to actually do it and clear it out :)
As seen at various locations..

GRUB-OLOGY

The flower photos are in an extended entry .. others are here..

A pretty sky on the M5

Toy Story clouds seen while driving

This is about 4km from Stu's house - he lives in the country! heh

And if you'd like to see a bunch of flower photos I took, I put them in an extended entry ....

I have too much stuff. Just clutter. Stuff that means nothing to nobody except me. I have boxes and boxes full of old uni and school notes. Books, although a small collection, but many from my childhood that I'm never likely to read again. Collections of train tickets, tickets to shows, show programs, toys I've had since I was a kid, and stacks of stuff that I simply never use, but can't bear to throw away. I've had a couple of goes since I've moved here to clean out stuff, and have achieved some success. But I still think I have a long way to go. And the other issue now is that I'm almost certainly going to be moving within the next couple of years, and it'd be nice to be free of all the clutter before I go. Stu did this a while back, and it's inspired me somewhat to do the same. Although I'm not sure I'm ready to let go yet.

I had a thought a while back that I could start scrapbooking a lot of bits and pieces, and write why a particular item was important to me. And use the funky collection of coloured pens I have for some noble purpose. I still haven't decided if I'll do this.

The other thing I'll probably do is take photos of some of the things I have that serve no purpose at all other than memories. I figure if I have a photo of the object, then that'll do me for the memory, and I can get rid of the actual object.

Of course I also can't bear to throw anything out that could be of some use to people, so will probably try and sell what I can on ebay, and donate the rest to charity or whoever else wants it.

So this will be my major project for the next couple of years I think. Just need to be able to break it down into weekend-sized chunks....

For no other reason than because I can!

The server arrived yesterday so I set it up, although had some really strange issues with the network card. But ok this morning go figure. Luc installed the server software without too many problems, so we set ourselves up with handsets and away we went.

Way cool little toys. Even journalled a book *at* the bookcrossing meetup that I picked it up at. Fun stuff. It's going to be hard for me to give back :(

Going to set a record for the quickest ever FridayQ response.. :)

FQ1: On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? Do you think that's a good number?
Averages about 7 I guess. I'd rather get 8 :)

FQ2: Have you any sleep essentials? A nightlight or teddy bear perhaps? Must the door and closet be either closed or open?
I used to have a bed full of stuffed toys when I was a kid. Now nothing but my pillow. When I was 11 years old, some irresponsible mother let us watch Friday the 13th at a slumber party. From that point on I couldn't sleep without the door closed, the theory being that I would at least be able to hear someone coming if they had to open the door (it squeaked). But that was only at my parents place. Once I moved out of home and into places that felt more secure (my parents place was relatively big, and had lots of space in the garage/workshop downstairs for scary people to hide waiting for me to go to sleep), I have never felt that way.

FQ3: What do you wear to bed? What color are your sheets? How many pillows under your head?
I wear pjs to bed. Sheets range in various colours. They're mostly inherited from my parents place or my nana's. In fact I don't think I've ever bought my own set of sheets. I just have one relatively thin pillow (I sleep in my tummy quite a bit).

FQ BIG SLEEP: Share some helpful advice you use when having trouble falling asleep.
The only thing that vaguely works for me is totally clearing my mind. Visualising nothing except that blackness I can see and the slight ringing in my ears that I can hear. Clearing your mind is actually a very hard thing to do, and requires much practise (ask anyone that's been on a vipassana)

Postscript. After reading My So-Called Strife .. I used to be afraid (and vaguely still am), that if I hung a limb over the edge of the bed while in it, a guilotine like device would slice whatever was protuding clean off. I think I also used to be vaguely afraid that things would reach out from under the bed and grab my ankles if I stood there too long, so I'd have to get into bed quickly :)

My plants are growing! (in my fish tank) Some of the new grass shoots have been growing at a rate of a couple of centimetres a day! Very cool. Will have a look at getting a yeast CO2 reactor going, just as soon as I get a pH test kit so I can check the pH levels before and after running it.

Movies I've seen recently:
Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - BIG is the word I'd use to describe this movie. An epic of, well, epic proportions.
Catch Me if You Can - highly entertaining. Even better cause it was "inspired" by a true story. Apparently the dude payed back all the money he stole, by making a fortune developing anti-fraud systems :)

Movies I want to see:
Star Trek Nemesis - next (final?) nextgen Star Trek movie. Comes out Feb 6 here, must see!
Bowling for Columbine - supposed to be very good, and very funny, although not in mainstream theatres here.